Discipline to Triumph: Navigating Business and Family with Trevor Cowley

Ever wondered how adversity can fuel success? Join Trevor Cowley, podcast founder and business virtuoso, in our latest episode, where he unravels a life marked by unwavering intention and meticulous prioritization. Trevor shares insights on managing multiple ventures, from businesses to fitness challenges, all while anchoring his role as a family man. As a fellow running enthusiast, I connect with Trevor on balancing personal aspirations and family duties, exploring the power of commitment, and saying 'no' to non-essentials. The episode delves into disciplined living, emphasizing its impact on individual growth, family bonds, and setting a path for future generations.

Trevor's reflections on success and community resonate profoundly. He highlights the importance of message and unity in groups like Real Business Owners, fostering support for entrepreneurs on their fulfillment journey. Success goes beyond finances, aligning actions with core values for a soul-enriching life. If you're curious about intentional living, family balance, and the benefits of a driven entrepreneur community, this episode invites you to redefine success and step into a more purposeful life.

NOTABLE QUOTES
"I purposely curate and create environments that are of growth because I know that if I don't do that, I can succumb to something negative and make bad decisions." – Trevor
"I'm done watching other people live an amazing life. I'm done feeling inspired by watching somebody else do something awesome." – Trevor
"God has given us infinite potential. I want to see what I'm capable of." – Trevor
"My health is a priority, my family is a priority, my faith is a priority, my fitness is a priority. Anything that doesn't fall within the side of those boxes I don't give it time, I don't give it energy." – Trevor
“We have to start designing our days to accomplish the goals that we want to accomplish, [and] become the individual that we want to [be].” – Trevor
“If you decide to do something great with your life, you're going to have to go through a period of being alone.” – Trevor
“Everybody wants the result. I love the process. That's the difference.” – Trevor
“There's so much uncertainty on earth. Don't you want to be the most certain thing in your environment, no matter the environment that you're in?” – Trevor
“If there's not a seat at the table, make one.” – Philip
“I'm not going to spend time, energy, or effort sitting on the couch digesting something that doesn't make me grow.” – Trevor
“I'm purposely designing an environment for [my kids] where they're watching me do what I'm doing.”– Trevor
“Any time that you try to do something great, you will have pushback. People will test you.” – Trevor
“Keeping the commitments is such a crucial thing.” – Philip
“Show me your last thousand days and I'll show you why you are where you are.” – Trevor
“Look at our [bodies], we're built to move based upon the design. When you move, you feel great.” – Trevor
“Hard times make strong men.” – Philip
“You just take that action and create the environment that you want to create.” – Philip
“Don’t lose yourself in the process.” – Trevor
“Money can fill up your bank account, but it can't fill up your soul.” – Trevor

RESOURCES
Trevor
Website: https://www.realbusinessowners.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realbusinessowners/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/realbusinessowners/ 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RealBusinessOwners

Philip
Digital Course: https://www.speakingsessions.com/digital-course
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamphilipsessions/?hl=en
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@philipsessions
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-sessions-b2986563/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/therealphilipsessions

Transcript

Philip Sessions: 0:15

What's up, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the speaking sessions podcast. I'm Philip Sessions, your public speaking and communication coach, and we've got a special guest in for you today, Trevor Cowley. He is the owner of he's a, he's a good guy.

Trevor Cowley: 0:33

First of all, I gotta throw you off a little bit, dude. I can't let. I can't let my intro be so smooth like everybody else's, you know, hey, that's right, that's right.

Philip Sessions: 0:42

Well, this guy here. He's nothing special anymore. He interrupts introductions, but he's one of the owners of easier accounting. He's also a founder of the real business owners, which is a podcast. It is a mastermind group of like-minded business individuals that are coming together to help each other out and just an all-around great guy doing some kind of crazy two a day, 1,000 days in a row challenge where he's just running all the time, eats ice cream and still has the body of some guy that's getting ready to get on stage or something like that. But we're done. Talking about all this, I see that head getting a little bit bigger over time.

Trevor Cowley: 1:22

Yeah, I gotta take my hat off. There's the hats. Yeah, I gotta get that hat off, man, but no.

Philip Sessions: 1:27

Trevor man, it's awesome to have you on here. I can't wait for us to talk about your journey and really we're going to start with the podcast and go through that and how you became an effective communicator, building out your company and everything. So tell us a little bit more about yourself. On a personal side, though.

Trevor Cowley: 1:43

Well, I'm 39 years old, married three kids, own several businesses, as you said, easier accounting, 60-day credit repair, the real business owners mastermind, have some investments and other businesses outside of that. I'll tell you what man. The last 13 or 14 years has been rough, but it's been worth it. I will tell you that. So just a little bit about me.

Trevor Cowley: 2:06

I grew up very, very poor. My mom raised seven kids. The lights were constantly getting shut off. We'd light candles to be able to see around the house when the sun went down, and I remember her crying to the utility department begging for them to turn the utilities back on, saying I've got seven kids, can I please pay you 50 bucks on Friday? And so I think that my background in growing up with a little bit less than made me hungry.

Trevor Cowley: 2:35

I was very aware as a young kid that I was poor and that this type of environment isn't okay, and so I'm a big believer on putting yourself in the right environments, because that environment wasn't conducive to me. Usually, when you grow up with less than or poor or in a bad neighborhood, what's the statistics say about you graduating high school or becoming addicted to drugs or going to jail? I didn't graduate high school on time. I had to do packets. After high school, I ended up becoming a drug addict for four years. There's so many different statistics that go along with an environment that is less than or poor or bad neighborhood, and I went through and checked off all of those statistics and basically became the environment that I was raised in.

Trevor Cowley: 3:25

Nowadays, I purposely curate and create environments that are of growth because I know that if I don't do that, I can succumb to something negative and make bad decisions. And so you talked about this thousand two days, every single day, for a thousand days, and September 27th 2024. And so I'm on day like 679 or 680 somewhere right around there, and that's me curating and creating an environment for me every single day that keeps me intentional and keeps me disciplined so that I don't fall off, so I don't utilize free time in a negative way. If you stack your schedule and you create these things, these non-negotiables that you have to do every single day, your likelihood of doing something bad or not living with intention minimizes right. And so I'm all about surrounding myself with the right people, the right information, creating environments that are of growth, and that all stems from being in an environment that really wasn't the healthiest environment growing up.

Philip Sessions: 4:30

Yeah, man, and that's an incredible background and thank you for sharing that. And one of the things that really just kind of pops out to me, especially here at the end you're talking about these two days. You've talked about the multiple businesses that you run, you've got the podcast, you've got a family, all of these things. And one thing that sticks out right away, and you mentioned about having these non-negotiables how in the world do you set these up and then be able to still perform at a high level in all of these different areas? Because as a business owner, as an individual, sometimes it fails. We fail at one area, but yet we can exceed really well in one, but not all of them, and you seem to do pretty well at all across the board. So how are you able to succeed in all of those?

Trevor Cowley: 5:18

I would say again, intention right. Like I'll tell you this man, I decided that I'm done watching other people live an amazing life. I'm done feeling inspired by watching somebody else do something awesome. Like we all go to social media, we see the David Goggins type people and we just like we get motivated for that micro moment, that second, and we feel badass. It's almost like watching a Rocky movie. Like after you're done, like you feel like that you're a boxer right, like you feel inspired to do something.

Trevor Cowley: 5:52

And then you go to sleep and wake up the next day and you're still the same old individual with the same bad habits, with the same crappy situation finances, body, whatever it is right. And I decided, like God has given us infinite potential, like I want to take this thing for a ride. I want to see really what I'm capable of, because these people that inspire us, that we look to, they're just human beings. So how could you do all of the extracurricular stuff? How can I know every stat about football, baseball, basketball and, at the same time, be a good husband, you know, be a good father, be in great shape, own successful businesses? It got to a point where I was like, okay, I have to prioritize my life and I have to design my day. And I sat down and I said, okay, what are my priorities? My health is a priority, my family is a priority, my faith is a priority, my fitness is a priority Anything that doesn't fall within side of those boxes I don't give it time, I don't give it energy. Like I'm a type of an individual that you won't see me hanging out or kicking it. I don't got time for that, right. Like I'm designing and building a life. And when you're building a life, you don't have just like a bunch of free downtime just to hang out, just to kick it, to go drink or to go party or to sit around on Saturdays or Sundays and watch eight hours of football. And then on Monday at the office, we're at the job site, know every single stat and we start talking oh my gosh, did you see that play that that coach called? Or did you see so-and-so? I can't believe he threw that at. Like we're so vested into these other people's lives and the decisions that they're making, but yet we're not analyzing the decisions that we're making, right? And so to me it just got to a point and I'm guilty of it. Like I'm guilty of sitting around and watching football. I'm guilty of going out and partying Like I had that life, but I couldn't live the life that I'm living now and live the life that I was living, right.

Trevor Cowley: 7:57

Eventually, we got to take the old version of us around the barn and put it down and recreate ourselves, and most people will get to a point where they hit what's called a midlife crisis. And what I believe a midlife crisis really is is that is the old version of you that no longer serves you with where you're currently out in life right. But yet we're not willing to make the necessary changes in order to get a better outcome. So the misery that you're experiencing during this midlife crisis is you just hanging onto the old version of you that no longer serves you anymore, and you see people get stuck in their ways. They have the same habits, the same routines that are all negative, that don't serve them, from the time that they're 25, 35, 45, 50. If they smoke, they smoke for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, right. If they drink, they drink for the rest of their life, right.

Trevor Cowley: 8:50

And so I think that we utilize these external things, these stimulants, to forget about our real reality, the situations that we're currently facing, like if I'm out of shape and I'm broke, of course I would want to escape that reality versus face it head on right. And so I just got to a point where it was like, okay, I have to be if I'm going to do what I believe I am capable of doing on this earth. If I look at these people may inspire me and I feel this certain feeling. Watching them run twenty miles or thirty miles or fifty miles or a hundred miles, like what would it feel like if I was disciplined enough to actually live it, versus just watch it? Like we got to stop watching other people be great and live their life in an awesome way and we have to start designing our days in order to accomplish the goals that we want to accomplish, in order to become the individual that we want to become.

Trevor Cowley: 9:47

If you don't do that, again, you're just going to be probably a product of your environment. You know, if you drink, you probably hang out with other people drink. If you smoke, you hang out with other people who smoke. If you you're broke, you probably hang out with other people that are broke. Like and that was one of the first steps that I had to make is I had to stop hanging out in all of the old environments, around the old friends that just no longer serve me.

Trevor Cowley: 10:12

Right, and I think that we want to be around the crowd and around the people because we feel so low. We want to be a part of something and around people and feel accepted. Right versus going at something alone, and if you decide to do something great with your life and leave the life that you're currently living and get rid of the version of you that you are today, you're going to have to go through a period of being alone. Right, and we would rather be surrounded by people but feel lonely than actually just be alone. And I'm okay being alone, but being happy with who I am, because I know I'm putting in the work on a day to day basis to become the best version of myself. That brings me peace, like it's undeniable evidence.

Trevor Cowley: 10:57

What is my mind? When is my mind going to turn on me, bro? Like we all have this mind that turns on us, that doubts us, that says we're not good enough, imposter syndrome, whatever it is right, but what is your brain going to utilize against you, dude? You've done two days every day for a thousand days, dude, you've done that. You know like what. How can it be little me? How can it make me feel less than I'm putting in undeniable proof every single day to my brain that I am who I say I am and that I'm willing to do whatever it takes in order to get the result I want?

Trevor Cowley: 11:31

And once you start doing those things, your confidence increases. And as your confidence increases, what happens is your goals get bigger and bigger and bigger, because you're closer and closer and closer to right now, like people with who they are and what they've accomplished, can even fathom what their capabilities are Until they start on the journey of exercising discipline and consistency. And along that path you're going to start seeing what you're truly capable of. And I just I love the process. That's the difference. Everybody wants the result.

Trevor Cowley: 12:07

I'm okay with something taking two years, three years, five years, because I know I'm doing the work and I'm a student of inevitability the decisions that I'm making on a day to day basis, inevitable, where I'm going to be. As long as I keep making these decisions and that's what brings me peace I can go through the difficulty in peace because I know where I'm headed and I know the product that will be at the end right, and it's going to be an individual that's confident, that strong, that strong, that's certain in uncertainty, right like the environment that the market that we're in, all we're going to be in a recession. There was covid, there's. There's so much uncertainty On earth. Don't you want to be the most certain thing in your environment, no matter the environment that you're in? And that's the individual that I'm creating and that's the individual that I want to continue to become, because the more certain I become, the more certain the people around me become, because they're a part of my environment.

Philip Sessions: 13:02

Yeah, and I've seen this transformation with you and I love the passion that you have behind this. And I think about when I had that kind of same realization was million dollar mastermind, twenty twenty one adjoined apex, believe in twenty nineteen, or sorry, arte in twenty nineteen adjoined apex, in twenty twenty one after that mdm event. But that's where I realized is, I've known some of these people from arte. They are on the higher levels. Of course they were making more than me in business and all the stuff, and so I understood why I couldn't get to those tables. But I'd always heard the saying that, hey, if there's not a seat at the table, make one. But I just didn't feel right to me. I didn't want to go to the table that I wasn't invited to. Like, yeah, I want to be there, of course, I want to be around those people, but I don't want to like force my way into that table. So I started actually think about I'm gonna make my own table, I'm gonna make my table so great that those people want to try and make a seat at my table and guess what, I can invite them in when I'm ready and they're gonna want to come and everything.

Philip Sessions: 14:03

Second, I had the same realization as you Is. I got one question before. I want to take it back to this. I've got something from your art today's and kind of talk about the podcast, but how have you went about communicating this with, especially with your family? I could see that being Topic of contention, where it's like hey, I've got, I'm spending all this time on the business. I'm spending all this time doing two days, I spent all this time on me. How are you making sure that your wife and your kids understand and I know that you are going in and doing things with them but how are you helping them understand that these are things that you need to do and, while maybe taking time away at some points, you're still gonna give them that time at other points?

Trevor Cowley: 14:45

well, it's made me a better individual, bro, and if I'm a better individual that means I'm a better husband, that means I'm a better father, right? And so if I feel more certain, more confident, then I'm bringing a more certain and confident individual into my family environment. You know, and so, like it was not yesterday's, you know sunday, but it was last sunday, I ran eight miles with my son Because he turned eight years old. He saw me run thirty seven miles when I turn thirty seven, thirty eight when I turn thirty eight and then when I turn thirty nine. Just a few months ago I ran forty miles and so he's seen me do this and when he turns seven said dad, I want to run seven miles when I turn seven years old. I said, let's do it. And then this year he turned eight and he ran eight miles.

Trevor Cowley: 15:32

And so it's like when you say, well, how do you make time? How do you again, there's plenty of time, but there's not plenty of time to do all the bullshit and to do the things that should be a priority in your life. You can't have both right. And so I got rid of the crap, right. I don't watch tv, I don't again. I don't hang out. Like when I hang out, it's with my family. Like you'll, I am very routine oriented, like I'm not hard to find, like you know. I mean, at this time I'm out running. At this time I'm eating breakfast. At this time I'm lifting weights. At this time, you're gonna see me at the office. At this time, you're gonna see me at home. At this time, you're gonna see me at my son's football game or my daughter soccer game. Right, like I don't have time, I do, like so many people. I hear man, this netflix series that's such a great series I don't know. Like I don't care, that doesn't impact or affect my life whatsoever, so I'm not going to spend time, energy or effort sitting on the couch digesting something that doesn't make me grow Right. And so you, how do you have time? By getting rid of all the things that drain your time, whether it's the social media stuff, whether it's going out drinking or hanging out with your friend. I don't.

Trevor Cowley: 16:50

I used to golf a lot. I don't golf anymore, like the all of these things that used to take up four hours on a saturday. Like, look, dude, when I, when I wake up and run a minimum of eight miles every single morning I do that. My daughter is getting ready for school. She watches me go out the door and then I purposely take a certain route where my son's bus stop is when I'm coming back, because he's at the bus stop and he's gonna watch me run right past him, I give him a hug in the morning and then that my house is, like you know, literally less than a quarter mile away from that right, and so, like I'm purposely designing an environment for them where they're watching me do what I'm doing and that's completely normal to them, right, my daughter ran thirteen miles when she turned thirteen. So when you say, like how do you have? Like I am impacting my kids in a positive way because their level of hard is different than other kids level of hard, because they're in an environment where what I do is completely normal.

Trevor Cowley: 17:52

Now there was one time that I had to have a conversation with my wife because I ran whatever thirty, eight miles, and I was like, hey, I gotta get my second workout. She's like you, just, you just ran for eight and a half hours, you're gonna, you're gonna go get another workout in, like Isn't that a little much, right? And so she was kind of pushing back and I will tell you this like any time that you try to do something great, you will have pushback. People will test you. There's nothing more unattractive than a man that says he's going to do something will sacrifice himself and not do that thing that he says he's going to do. There's no way your wife's going to have respect for you. And but they will still challenge some of the things. Like if you tell your wife that you're not going to drink anymore and you've been drinking a lot and maybe she drinks with you, guess what? She might ask you one time to go out for a drink and even if she wants to do it, subconsciously, she won't respect you. If you say yes, she knows that you'll deviate from the things that you say that are valuable, the things that you say that are of a priority, from the commitments that you say that you have. And so I flat out told her. I said look, I'm a better husband ever since I started doing this. I'm a better father ever since I started doing this. Would you disagree with that statement? And she said no. And I said I'm telling you right now. I could listen to you right now, not go out and do that thing, but I'll ultimately resent you for it.

Trevor Cowley: 19:24

I have a calling with inside my soul, and I don't know what it is. I feel like what I'm doing is the right thing to do. I can't fully explain it because it's not a feeling or an emotion that anybody else has but myself. I can either honor this feeling and this emotion and this commitment that I believe that I should honor, or I can honor a commitment that somebody else believes that I shouldn't honor, and I told her I'm telling you this right now, and this is the only time I'm ever going to say this I will not accept mediocre average, not in my finances, not in my health and not in our relationship, and I would hope that you would want the same. I strapped up, went out and got my second, and ever since then we haven't had a problem. She's very, very, very supportive of it right, because she sees the impact that it's having on the kids.

Trevor Cowley: 20:13

I am walking discipline. I am walking commitment. They understand what sacrifice looks like and if you say you're going to do something great, there will be an exchange. You will have to say no to many things in order to get what it is that you say that you want. The problem is people aren't willing to pay the price, they're not willing to make that exchange. Whatever you say yes to, that means you have to say no to something. When I say yes to getting up early, that means I say no to staying up late and binging TV or staying up late and drinking right Like. There's just certain things that I've got rid of that made me a better person and I've replaced those with things that ultimately serve me, that serve my family and serve the community and the mastermind that I'm trying to build.

Philip Sessions: 20:58

Yeah, man, it might drop right there for sure, but keeping to those commitments is such a crucial thing, and I'll agree with you there. I know that's some of what's happened in my own relationship, where there's been things like I'm going to do this and then I haven't committed to that, and afterwards I see how detrimental that is and of course in my mind I'm like oh well, this and this and this, and at the end of the day.

Philip Sessions: 21:21

It's really just an excuse, but I know why. Perhaps something didn't happen and of course I didn't explain all that, but then I could see that the disappointment in my wife when that did happen. So definitely, especially for the guys that are listening right now, keep those commitments. It's so important to do that and then really just going and actually explaining if, for some reason, whatever reason, you couldn't keep that commitment, because there are times you get hospitalized, something extreme like that that you can't keep. Let's say, a fitness commitment, understandable, but still you get hit by a bus. Yeah, yeah, I still gotta get my second workout in.

Trevor Cowley: 22:00

Yeah, I mean, that's a little bit different.

Philip Sessions: 22:03

You know not to have thought about that.

Trevor Cowley: 22:04

I'm like man, what if something? That, like bro, I will probably. If something did happen where I couldn't do it, I would like I don't cry much, but that would do. I've given everything I have to this. Yeah, everything. I mean.

Trevor Cowley: 22:17

I wanted to create a commitment so big and so large that, if I accomplish it, that it would be undeniable to my own mind that I am a much greater version of myself than the individual that started it. And I said man, what if I did a thousand days? What type of individual would I become over that journey of a thousand days? Andy Furcella says show me your last thousand days and I'll show you why you are where you are. And I did 75 hard and I was like, hmm, maybe I'm just going to keep doing this two a day thing and reading every single day for all year and then at the end of the year, I'm like man, I'm 365 days in, I'm going to do it for a thousand days. Because that, saying that, he said let's see, show me your last thousand days. I'm like I'm going to do it. I want to do something that the individual that talks about doing something doesn't even do. Yeah, I want to take it to the next level. And if I do that again, that's undeniable evidence, to my mind, that I'm one of one, if not one of very few people on the planet and that's who I feel like I'm destined to be.

Trevor Cowley: 23:29

And I think a lot of us feel that we were meant to do something great or we're destined for something great. Like we feel it Like if we're sitting around on Sunday and watching football all day, like we kind of feel lazy, you know, we feel like that we should have at least got up and did a workout or moved our body or whatever. And I'm not saying don't watch football or don't do that. I'm not saying for everybody to live a life that Trevor lives. I'm not saying that. But what I'm saying is, if you hadn't made deposits in the areas that are what you say, or a priority, and you're doing something like that, shame on you. Like, have you moved your body? Like I believe that we've been? Look at our body, look at the human design, bro, like we're built to move, like it's completely obvious, based upon the design and what happens when you move, bro, you feel great.

Philip Sessions: 24:16

Yeah, so I get more energy.

Trevor Cowley: 24:18

So if we're built to move and when you move you feel great, wouldn't you want to move your body Right, like sitting down, being lethargic, like the fact that we have the ability to do that and we choose to do that is sad. A hundred years ago or 200 years ago, the pioneers going from the East to the West like dude, they didn't have an easy day, they didn't have a day where they could sit back and chill and watch football or this, that like people were dying all over the place. They're trekking across the most treacherous lands in the entire world, right, peaks and valleys, and like every day was difficult, any day that I don't want to get out of bed. I'm like dude, it's, it's. I'm only running for an hour and a half and then it's over. The pain is over, the misery is over and I'm going to be glad that I did it. But imagine going through pain and misery that you couldn't control, unforeseen circumstances that get placed upon you. Who are you when those situations arise? If you want to be a good basketball player, a good baseball player, a good football player, you got to do what you got to get your reps. If I want to be prepared for something that's unforeseen. That I know will be difficult, because this thing called life will dish us all something very difficult. We just don't know when and we don't know how it'll show up. I want to get my mental discipline reps every single day, so when something unforeseen happens, I've seen my mind turn on me so many different times that I'm prepared for whatever the situation is, because I'll do whatever's needed to be done when I don't feel like doing it, because I've got a thousand days worth of reps in my system.

Trevor Cowley: 26:03

The problem is, when issues arise in the average person's life, they become weak, they quit, they give up, they fold. Why? Because they don't have any mental discipline reps. Every Sunday, anytime that they got free time, they're watching Netflix series, they're on social media, they're digesting football all day long. They know the stats about this guy or that guy and what his contract looks like, but they don't even know what their body percent fat is. They don't know the stats on themselves. They haven't got up off the couch and ran a mile for probably a decade and they're literally just tarnishing the human design, which I believe is a slap in the face to God that created you and that designed you.

Trevor Cowley: 26:53

Like. That's like a slap in the face to a Ferrari or Lamborghini if you have one and you just don't ever take it out. What's the point? Like we have this Ferrari and this Lamborghini that we just sit there with it. Like there's levers that we can pull to create certain emotions in our body, right, and if we don't pull those levers, then we're just gonna ride this emotional roller coaster based upon whatever inputs come in. Right, whatever we see on social media, cool, we feel a little high and then we're low, high, low.

Trevor Cowley: 27:25

Like I don't make decisions based upon emotions anymore. I make decisions based upon the things that I said I was going to do and just run the play, honor what it is that needs to be done so that I could become the man that I told everybody that I'd become and the reason why I announce hey, a thousand days. I want people to know so the moment that I don't wanna get out of bed that there's hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, of people. I've announced it on our podcast. 10,000 listeners know that I'm doing it. How big of a bitch would I be to say I'm going to do something and have 10,000 people know that I've folded? Yeah, like I think we need to speak what it is that we want into existence a little bit more.

Philip Sessions: 28:06

Yeah, that's right, man, think and grow rich, right. Right there, I'm actually rereading that book right now, which is really exciting. So but in you mentioning all this, I couldn't help and I can't think of the whole quote. But hard times make strong men and that's really what we're trying to become as a strong man or a strong woman, and so we need to create those hard times, essentially because in the United States it's really not hard times, at least at the moment, it's really not that tough. We don't have it bad. We have to really make an environment to make it hard.

Philip Sessions: 28:39

But now I want to take us back. So we're going to change gears a little bit here and take us back to a few years ago. And I know I've heard the story on your podcast and everything which, by the way, is real business owners. Definitely check it out. If you're a real business owner nobody wants to get some great information on business. Definitely go check that out. But you mentioned this before that you joined this group called Arte, and you and Kel did, and you all decided one day that it'd be kind of cool to start this thing called a podcast, and you all didn't know what to call it. So you all just decided well, real business owners. So talk us through this story, because clearly you started with zero listeners and you just mentioned like 10,000 in episodes, so it's clearly grown into something pretty big, pretty substantial. But what was that journey like? Going from zero listeners to now you've got several thousands of people listening in every single episode.

Trevor Cowley: 29:32

Well, dude, I mean everybody's back in the day. I mean, what was that 2000? It was probably 2019. We were spending six grand a month to be a part of the high level Arte syndicate, and that was each me and my business partner, Kel. So, total, we were spending 12 grand a month to do these meetups and be around Ed and Andy and information. But in reality, there was something that happened prior to that and we went to a Gary V conference in 2018. It was called Agent 2021.

Trevor Cowley: 30:05

Kel had a feeling that we should be there, so he bought tickets and it was in Florida and we're in Utah, right, so it's kind of a big, big trip and it was for, like real estate agents, insurance agents and like mortgage bro, Like it had nothing to do with us. But he had a feeling that we should be there, right, and so we go there. Gary V talks about social media, like he always does, right, and he says, if you guys are here, you could afford this ticket, you could afford to be here, you could afford a videographer. I highly suggest that you pill off three grand a month and you hire a videographer. And so me and Kel kind of chatted about that. Yeah, we probably should, we probably should, right. And we're like that's what we're gonna do, Like we're gonna go all in on social media, right, and it was. We got home the motivation kind of wore off of the event, right, Like I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, yes, yeah, yeah. And then you get home and it's like, okay, business is usual, right. And so, even though we were still talking about it, we're like, hey, yeah, we need to do it, we need to do it. We never put an ad out or anything to say, hey, we want a videographer.

Trevor Cowley: 31:10

So this was like his conference was in January of 2018. And then it was like March of 2018. So it was like two months later, I have a kid sitting in my office. He's interviewing for a sales job. I said, cool, when could you start? And he says, well, in a few months, when I get out of college. And I said, what the hell are you going to college for, bro? But you're in my office interviewing for a sales job. That doesn't even make sense. You don't need a college degree to be a sales person, right? He's like well, I promised my mom that I would go to school and I would graduate and I would finish college, and that means a lot to her and I want to honor that. And I'm like, cool. I'm like, what are you going to school for? And he goes like video work, videography, like film. And I'm like, really, and I said, how would you like to be hired to just be our videographer? And he's like, oh, I'd be open to that.

Trevor Cowley: 32:00

So I call Cal, I'm like yo, dude, I've got a videographer sitting in my office that was interviewing for a sales job. And he's like, well, we should hire him. I'm like I know we should. And so I get off the phone with Cal and the kid said he couldn't start till after school. And I'm like, well, could you start part-time, Like 20 hours a week, if you're going to school right now, start coming in and filming content or whatever. And he did, and we did the camera thing or whatever. And then we joined RTA and they started talking about podcasts and all this stuff or whatever. And we did it like when we first hired a videographer. We're like just sitting there like trying to create content off the top of our heads and we're like, damn, like this is a lot harder than it seems.

Trevor Cowley: 32:45

And so it was like well, maybe we should start a podcast and utilize the podcast kind of as a way to create content, right. And so that's what we did. And all that was underneath easier accounting. At one point, easier accounting Instagram got shut down when I grew it to about 10,000 followers and that was devastated, right. And then I sat back and I'm like, okay, if I stay devastated in a state of frustration, then that's not going to give my mind the creative ability to free think our way out of this situation and to figure out what our next move is. So I was like, okay, I'm not going to rush into recreating an easier accounting account. Like, first off, accounting's not fun, cool or sexy. So who wants to follow an accounting firm on social media? Right, like. I'm like.

Philip Sessions: 33:32

I don't know people apparently.

Trevor Cowley: 33:34

Well, I'm like well, I own one and I don't I wouldn't want to follow an accounting firm. So I started sitting there thinking I'm like well, how can we Camouflage this? A little bit, right, because if you see an ad for State Farm, even if it's a good ad, it's less shareable because you feel like they have an agenda behind the ad. They're like yeah, well, yeah, of course, they're tugging at my heartstrings. They just want my business, they want me to sign up for State Farm insurance or all state or whatever it is right. And so I was like we can't do it under our company account. We've got a camouflage it. I'm like who are we right like and we're? I'm like well, we're real business owners, we're owners and operators. So I start writing down owners and operators, real business owners and start writing down like a list of different things. And then I start searching the name on Instagram to see if they were available real business owners was available and I was like, okay, cool. So I pull Kel in my office and my other partner. I'm like okay, I got an idea. We're gonna camouflage the account like if we own an accounting firm and we want real business owners to listen to us and to work with us. We're real business owners. They're real business owners like this is a way for them to identify with the name and the brand and for us to identify With the name in the brand, and it brings us together, right. And so that's how real business owners Instagram account was formed.

Trevor Cowley: 34:52

And then, right after that, it was like it started kind of popping and people started asking, like, do you have podcasts, do you have YouTube, do you have this? We're like no, like we're just recording whatever. And then all this stuff at our a day and Everybody's talking about starting a podcast. We're like, okay, That'll be easier to create content. And then we, we started the real business owners podcast within a few months of starting the real business owners Instagram account. And then, from there, just kind of, you know, we got a, you know 50 listens and then like 75 and then a hundred, and that you know the main. And then it's just kind of climbed and climbed and climbed, and so it's been quite the quite the fun little journey, this real business owners ride that we've been on, and now it's turned into its own mastermind, right.

Trevor Cowley: 35:34

So, yeah, we're big believers of, you know, surrounding yourself in the with the right people in the right environments, just as I said at the very beginning of the podcast. So why don't we curate an environment of growth, an environment that we were in at one point that Helped create the individuals that we are in the results that we're currently experiencing? So let's give. Let's have this thing be full circle. We now have people operating our businesses on a day-to-day basis our credit repair. We have a CEO at easier accounting. It's like, okay, now it's time to do something different and give back like we've made money. Now. That's now. It's an impact play.

Philip Sessions: 36:11

How can we impact the community in these, the industry that served us, which is the industry of business that changed our life, the industry of self-improvement, and that's really kind of the story of RBL yeah, man, and I just see, like everything we've talked about here is really just, you have an idea, you take action on it and Really, at the end of the day, you're just kind of figuring it out as you go, but you just take that action and create the environment that you want to create, rather Than waiting around to see what other people are doing or just hoping that it kind of happens. No, you just started creating action based on a vision that you had, which is super awesome. But I know we're kind of running out of time here and I want to get to our last question, and I think I already kind of know a little bit about it. We talked about it a little bit, but if you could only share one message for the rest of your life, what would that message be? Don't?

Trevor Cowley: 37:08

lose yourself in the process, right like we talked about it earlier in the in the conversation. Like, well, how do you have time for this or time for that? Like business, do you know how many people that I know that are very, very rich, but they're mentally broke? They're spiritually broke, they're financially rich? Right like there's plenty of overweight, successful entrepreneurs. But let me ask you this if you work 10 million or 20 million dollars but you're miserable in your own body and mind, is that really success? So don't forget yourself Throughout the process. Like I would rather be worth five million dollars and fill whole, feel happy, feel fulfilled spiritually, mentally, financially, than being worth 50 million dollars and Not have good relationships with my family, be overweight, be mentally unfit, like there were periods of time. It's not like. The individual that you're talking to right now is the individual that started the journey.

Trevor Cowley: 38:11

I'm guilty, just as anybody else, of Neglecting my family, neglecting my health, neglecting my faith, neglecting everything, because I was so focused was on money, because that was going to provide me a Certain feeling and emotion. It's gonna justify me, it's going to give me credit. It's gonna give me everything that I lacked when I was little, because all the arguments, all the fights, the environment that I was in is all because it was lack of money. So if I go all in on money and I make a bunch of money, all my problems are solved. When, in reality, the most money that I made was, which was close to two million dollars in a year, personally I was at the lowest that I had ever been, because at least on the journey to making money, there was hope that money would solve all my problems. But what happens when you have money and you still have problems? Now you don't even have the hope, and that's when I had to really Dive deep and say what are my priorities in life? Who do I want to become as a man? How do I want to make an impact? What's the ripple effect not just a financial ripple effect that I'm gonna have on myself and my kids and my wife, the real ripple effect that I'm gonna have on this earth? The impact that I can make by Designing a day that creates a certain human that other people could look at. And just me doing what I do every day is A big enough example to make other people believe that they could do something special with their life too.

Trevor Cowley: 39:42

And I'm telling you right now, money can fill up your bank account, but it can't fill up your soul. You'll have to find something that fills up your soul and if that's, if that's the business that you do, cool. Some people find a business that fills up their bank account and their soul Right like accounting. You know that's I'm gonna, it's gonna fill up my soul. Not really right Like it's a business that fills up the bank account and it does serve entrepreneurs and it does do positive things out there in the business industry.

Trevor Cowley: 40:14

But I still felt like that I wasn't living up to my potential and if you forget yourself in the process, no matter all the riches that you get, it's it's gonna be meaningless Because you can get all the accolades like a million people could tell you how great you are. If you don't feel that great, it doesn't matter. You have to go to bed at night knowing that you are who you say that you are and that you're exhausting the tank every single day and you're becoming the individual that you were destined to become through your daily actions and your habits. So don't forget about yourself While you're trying to build something special that will fill the bank account.

Philip Sessions: 40:53

Hmm, don't forget yourself in the process. That's, that's a powerful message. So make sure that if you're looking for a speaker, don't go to Trevor. He's yeah, he's okay now, just kidding. No, it's Trevor man. I really appreciate the time for you coming on, bringing this value, bring it inside of your journey, sharing with us what the process should look like and some of things that we need to be thinking about and really changing our Environment to what we want it to be like and taking action on that is how we're gonna get the environment and get to where we want in life. And so if people want to follow you, follow real business owners where's the best place for them to Find y'all?

Trevor Cowley: 41:32

Yeah, I mean you could go to Google Google real business owners or you can find our podcast there, our Instagram page there. You can. You know, you can just go to at real business owners on Instagram. You can go to Facebook type in real business owners Anything. Real business owners, any platform. Real business owners, calm, whatever it is. That's us, and so if you have any questions, if there's something that I could do to bring value to your life, send us a message.

Philip Sessions: 41:56

I'd be happy to help awesome and I don't think open enrollments gonna be open. Wants this airs, but if you do want more information on real business owners, feel free to reach out to me. Guys be happy to tell you more about the mastermind. It's an incredible group, incredible guys with Trevor and kill leading that group, but everybody's in there to help provide value with Trevor. Again, appreciate you coming on here and for everybody listening. Go back and re listen to the episode and get your message out there, because your message matters.