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ISI Brotherhood Podcast
A podcast for growth-minded Christian businessmen who desire momentum and accountability in their business, family, finances, faith, and personal wellness. Each week, Aaron Walker, also known as Big A, shares authentically from decades of business ownership, marriage, and raising a family. He takes on listener questions and deep-dive into FORGE episodes with tried and tested co-hosts. Subscribe and visit our website https://www.isibrotherhood.com/podcast
ISI Brotherhood Podcast
133. A Journey from Success to Significance
Derek Champagne's extraordinary journey from a teepee-dwelling childhood to serial entrepreneurship offers profound insights into the elusive balance between achievement and fulfillment. In this deeply personal conversation, Derek reveals how his unconventional upbringing shaped his entrepreneurial spirit and work ethic. Raised by former hippies who found Christianity and opened their home to dozens of foster children, Derek learned early lessons about generosity and purpose that would guide his later life.
Music became Derek's first passion and business venture, managing bands by age 11 and eventually finding success in the competitive Hollywood scene. As the digital revolution disrupted the music industry, Derek pivoted through multiple businesses—from window washing to cookie distribution to marketing—demonstrating remarkable adaptability. Yet despite his professional achievements, he found himself in a corporate cubicle, struggling with depression and a profound sense of isolation.
The turning point came when Derek founded The Artist Evolution marketing agency and later discovered Iron Sharpens Iron, a brotherhood that helped him address the misalignment between his success and deeper purpose. With raw honesty, Derek shares his fear that spiritual growth might diminish his entrepreneurial drive—only to discover that authentic community and purpose actually enhanced his business acumen while bringing the peace he desperately sought.
For listeners questioning their own definitions of success, Derek offers a compelling alternative vision: building businesses with intention, creating systems that prioritize family, and finding fulfillment through significance rather than achievement alone. His partnership with Aaron Walker in Iron Sharpens Iron now allows him to guide other men through similar journeys of integration and wholeness.
Whether you're just starting your entrepreneurial path or reassessing priorities mid-career, His journey demonstrates that success and significance can coexist when approached with intention, faith, and community support.
Ready to stop doing life and business alone? Join the brotherhood that will challenge, encourage, and sharpen you at isibrotherhood.com/community.
Connect:
- Connect with ISI Brothers: https://www.isibrotherhood.com/
- Join the ISI Community: https://www.isibrotherhood.com/isi-community
- Big A's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronwalkerviewfromthetop/
- Derek's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theartistevolution/
Discover the brotherhood that sharpens you. The ISI community is free for 30 days. Join now at isibrotherhoodcom. Forward slash community.
Speaker 1:Well, welcome back to another episode of Iron Sharpens Iron Brotherhood, where we live a life of success and significance. Well, I want to tell you guys, buckle up today, because I couldn't in any way be more excited to have my good buddy, derek Champagne, with us. Derek is a serial entrepreneur, and when I say that I mean it in its truest form. He's got like 15 years of experience now in developing really effective marketing campaigns. He's the founder and the CEO of the Artist Evolution. This is a full-service agency that builds really high-level brands for some of the brands that you would be very familiar with, but he also helps with marketing tools and campaigns for startups and many household brands. Derek also has been involved in about a dozen, I believe, other companies, but he's also the author of the bestselling book Don't Buy a Duck and he's the host of Business Leadership Series podcast. But really, out of all those things, what's more important to me is Derek's my friend and he's also now my business partner. Derek, welcome to ISI Brotherhood Podcast.
Speaker 2:Big A Thanks for inviting me on the podcast. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1:Come on, man. Come on, I am so excited. I've been waiting so long to get you on the show and we're going to kind of break it down a little bit, fill in the gaps, like where I missed, and I want you to dive right in. I don't want to waste a minute. I want you to dive right in to your story, but give us a little feedback, talk about your family, a little bit business, and let's get into hearing your story.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I'll start by talking about my family. So I've been married for 19 years to my wonderful wife, valerie, and I've got a 16-year-old daughter, emily, and a 14-year-old son, eli, and they are the center of my universe and thanks to Iron Sharpens Iron I learned and was given guidance early on, as they were younger, about how important these years are and how not to just trade business and success on one side of things at the risk of your family.
Speaker 1:So, big A, I've got to thank you and ISI for that, uh, almost nine years ago you know what's cool I was just. I was just thinking about those kids a little bit. Uh, eli was like, uh, three or four years old, uh, when you joined ISI, and Emily was like seven, I think seven or eight years old.
Speaker 1:I've been around like they can adopt me as their surrogate grandfather if they want to because I've been around, I've watched these kids grow up from living through you and watching them and all the things that they've accomplished.
Speaker 2:Hey, you sent them a Bible. Big A You've been a part of their life. You sent them a Bible that we were using at our father-son camp retreat this past weekend. So appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, and you got a great wife. Valerie is absolutely your biggest supporter, biggest advocate, biggest fan I know, and she works with you some in the business and she's just a real staple in your life. So we're all very grateful for your family. So thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my pleasure Well jump in, jump in.
Speaker 1:Why don't you tell how you got involved in ISI first, and then I want to go back and dive into your personal story.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I love hearing personal stories Big A so I'm always happy to share mine. I think that's the most unique thing about us, right? It's just the thread of going. Okay, that makes sense. Some of it doesn't make sense when you hear somebody's wild background and find out where they are. But you know, I was at a point in my life about nine years ago where I had been involved in several companies. Aaron, it scares me to think of how old I am that I can say I've been an entrepreneur for over 30 years. Now I'm 49. So 32 years I've been an entrepreneur, maybe longer than that.
Speaker 2:But I was at a point in my life where I achieved a certain amount of air quote success. It might have seemed like less to others, more to others, and I was looking for that significant side. And I remember we were opening a new office about three hours away. So we were expanding our company and I was just driving through the mountains each morning and I go back and forth and we're just praying God, bring some people into my life. Like, show me what's next. I didn't even know what the options were, but I just knew I felt isolation. That was a word that was really strong for me and I didn't know why I felt isolation. I almost felt guilty for feeling isolation, because I had all these blessings and a great family, and so I had this tug in my heart that was like why am I not feeling completely fulfilled? Why do I feel alone and on an island, with all of these blessings around me?
Speaker 1:And I try to talk to someone Hold on before we go forward. Why did you feel that way? You did have a level of success. You got a beautiful wife, you got beautiful kids, successful company, and a lot of people that are listening to this episode right now are maybe feeling something similar, but what do you think was there that caused you to fill that void?
Speaker 2:Part of it was I know that I'm created to do more, and how do I use what I have to do more? That was one of the things I just wasn't even sure outside of the church, and giving the missions and the offering plate, it's like okay, great, what else do you do, like?
Speaker 1:when you say more, you mean more businesses or buying more companies.
Speaker 2:No, I mean more purpose in life, like more significance around things outside of work itself, because when you hit a certain point I was talking to guys this morning, big A and our masterminds and sometimes we have these benchmarks like if I can just get to this, if I can just get to this, if I can just get to this point.
Speaker 1:Then I'll be happy, then I'll be fulfilled.
Speaker 2:Well, then I'll relax, then I'll spend more time, then I'll go on vacation, then I'll do those things, and so I was kind of at that point.
Speaker 2:And when you do hit that mark, it doesn't fulfill you like you thought it would, and so you try to make. Maybe it wasn't big enough, maybe I need to make a bigger goal, and those things are good for growing companies. It's great for having those benchmarks and having that grit and hustle, but not when you're trying to figure out as a whole man. Who am I? And so Big A? That's what I was thinking through whenever I met you almost nine years ago, praying through, and you were a guest on my podcast, which, uh, I don't know eight, nine, nine, something, nine plus years ago and uh, and your message really resonated with me. And I say you, and now I'm a part of ISI and have been for almost a decade, but back then I was just a man searching and, and that that really resonated with me, that success and significance and and not doing things alone, not doing things in isolation, and and I hadn't really been honest with myself, the things that ISI teaches I had not. I'd had several. I've had.
Speaker 2:I had multiple exits by that point in different companies. I'd had a whole career in music We'll talk about that in a few minutes but and then I had some failures, but I never was vulnerable or open and authentic and transparent. I was a regular guy but I wasn't. I wasn't at that level that I needed to be and I could start looking back and even on my business side could look oh man. The failures I had were a direct result of my pride and my unwillingness to share with others the challenges or opportunities I had, because I didn't want to look stupid or I didn't trust someone else enough to give me the right kind of wisdom.
Speaker 1:Like you didn't have anybody. You didn't have anybody at your church, none of your family members. You didn't have anybody that you just let the veil down. You're just authentic. You're vulnerable, you know, you're able to cry, you're able to say I don't want it to be this way, but it is. These are the struggles I'm dealing with. Like up until ISI, you hadn't really experienced that level.
Speaker 2:Well, I had mentors. I had some incredible mentors who were great in business, good Christian men.
Speaker 2:But on a regular basis, but not to the point where I could say here's what my whole life looks like and what do I do about it. And you know what does it look like going forward. And that's why, like, isi covers the five parts of a whole man. And that just makes so much sense, because if you balance one area and not in the other, then you're off again. And so, yeah, I had men in my life, but not at that level and I didn't have it demonstrated to me, that level of authenticity and vulnerability.
Speaker 1:So, it wasn't demonstrated to me. You didn't know that was available, or you didn't pursue it, or other people didn't pursue you to that level.
Speaker 2:I didn't know that was available. You didn't know that, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, because you're a pillar in the community. I mean, you know, you've been around the block, it's just not like somebody that's not out there in front. So God tugged on your heart and he said, hey, there's more purpose in your life, there's more meaning here for you.
Speaker 2:You're called to do more, you're called to be more and, aaron, it's always been a drive for me is not to do things halfway, including in my faith and purpose. Like we're going all in on this right, which is scary. But yeah, do it in business, and I wanted to do the same thing on the other side of my life.
Speaker 1:That is so good and you know, at the ISI event we were there and you were sharing and you and I got to interact and bond and build our relationship and you've really taken this very serious over the past nine years and now you facilitate two other groups. You're my business partner here in Iron, sharpens, iron and God's done just awesome work in your life in this past decade as it relates to every area of your life.
Speaker 2:Aaron, you know it's interesting about that and you know this. But we're told that God gives us, god prepares us for what's next. And so if we're saying, hey, god, why aren't you giving me more? The answer is, well, what are you doing with what you have right now? How are you stewarding what's in your life right now? And as we continue to steward that better and explore more and give our heart more and say, yeah, it's all yours, god starts to give us more opportunities, and it looks different. So God starts to give us more opportunities and it looks different. So I warn people, it looks different than you think it does, but it's better than you think it's going to be.
Speaker 1:It gives you that peace that surpasses our understanding, when you fully submit and you say, okay, god, I don't understand. We're even dealing with some things currently in our business that we don't really understand, but you're like, okay, I trust you anyway and I'm going to follow you. And you've been a real example to me through that, even in our team meetings, your disposition, your attitude, your heart towards I'm going to really give it all to God and I'm going to work like it depends on me and trust like it depends on Him, because it does right. And so that's what you've been able to demonstrate through you know the kind of character of the man that you are, so thank you.
Speaker 2:Well, when we see challenges, it shows us how important that thing is to us, right? And so if we ask for a better marriage, we're probably going to have opportunities to be tested in that. If we ask for a better relationship with our son, our daughter, we're probably going to be given opportunities to have that tested. And a lot of times, men or anybody see that test and they get discouraged and go well, that doesn't work. No, no, that is the lesson. The lesson is to lean in when you start to have that test and that challenge. That's the opportunity for you to deepen your faith or your growth in those specific areas. So it's no different in business, especially when you're doing it with a purpose. You're going to be challenged, but you have to expect that you're going to be challenged on it, and if it's worth doing, you keep doing it. What we're doing is worth doing, so that's not even a question.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you never learn through the success. You only learn in the valleys, right, and so we have to go through this. So those that are listening to this interview right now, just reflect on the areas that you're going through. The valley. There is a mountaintop and God's going to walk you all the way through this to that point. So just continue to be obedient and relinquish that to God and trusting in all that you do. So let's go back. I want you to take us way back these early childhood years and share with us a little bit more about your journey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, happy to do that. Was born in Rhode Island. See, I'm going to start. You said start at the beginning.
Speaker 1:I'll make this part go a lot faster, I promise.
Speaker 2:Born in Rhode Island. When I was just a little baby, little kid, I had an older brother a year older, have an older brother and my parents decided to leave where they were and they found a place on the map called Arkansas. They'd never heard of it before. They actually hadn't heard of it. Maybe they had, I don't think they were teaching Arkansas on East Coast books for some reason. Nashville probably made it in the books and so they moved there. They were part of the hippie movement of the 70s and so they bought a Winnebago. They bought some Ovation guitars and threw their little long-haired babies inside the vehicle and off they went. And we were living off the land, we lived in a teepee, we would bathe in the river.
Speaker 1:I think they would heat a bucket up. You mean a real teepee.
Speaker 2:You're not talking about. You saw me a picture of that teepee. We lived in a teepee. It was not a fashion trend, it was where we lived. We upgraded later to a shed and then eventually, I think, we had a trailer. But the teepee was where we lived for a while.
Speaker 2:My dad had they'd made some money in some gray areas that allowed them to buy that land and those things, and so we were out there living off the land and my dad was just this kind of Honestly, drugs were involved and they were just hippies and my parents split up during that time. So my dad stayed out in the woods. He was just this long-haired mountain man living in the woods on 40 acres and I mean just like Bigfoot. And my mom took my brother and I and they split up and we were separated. And that's when my mom met a preacher who told her about Jesus for the first time and she had never heard about the Jesus that she heard and it immediately changed her life and she had to bring this preacher out. So she brought the preacher out to the woods to meet her, her husband and uh, if you see my dad now, it's pretty crazy because he's such a meek and calm and you know, funny guy, they're two different men. And uh, and she brought him out there, my dad right then, right then, became a Christian, accepted Jesus and got rid of everything he had all the bad habits, all the land, all the stuff they had there, and put it in the offering plate at this little Baptist church.
Speaker 2:And I grew up my whole life with my dad. My dad was making, like minimum wage, $3.14 an hour, something like that, so he gave up what he had and there was no gray areas in our house. My dad, led by example with that. It was we're going to help other people, we're going to do what Jesus called us to do and that's the way we're going to live. And so that's the way we were raised, strictly that way too. And so when I was pretty young so I think I was six years old my parents adopted three girls and that whole story in itself I won't tell today, but it's a miraculous story in how they came to be with us.
Speaker 2:And then after that they built a house. And they built a house that I don't think there was a carpet finished on the house till the day I left, or wallpapers. They're very clean, very, very nice house, but they built it themselves with their own hands and they weren't carpenters. And then we started bringing in foster kids into our home, and so I don't remember how many kids and people that live in our house, but 50, 60, 70, I don't know a lot. The Salvation Army would call us when somebody needed a place to stay and my parents would go and pick them up. They were literally the example of take your shirt off your back, and my dad worked 70, 80 hours a week to provide for us, to give us a Christian education, to raise us up in that way.
Speaker 2:And as part of that, aaron, that the music part of my life is, my parents as new Christians. They started a Christian band and so in the 70s and early 80s they were touring around. I mean, they were touring churches and playing all over the country. My mom wrote a play that was called His Name is Jesus. That was played all over the country. People were playing that and then we would go and play, and so I would. Just I'd be on the road at three years old, you know, opening for them with the guitar or singing with them and then doing sound for them, and then it worked to play on the bass and the violin, and so I just I grew up around all of that and seeing that all the time, and so that just music was just a natural expression for me. That's what you're supposed to do Music and ministry too. And so I think I was 10 when my brother and I started our first band, and it was my brother and I and then the son of the musicians that my parents played with, so it was like second generation musicians and that became a real love for me.
Speaker 2:That and business. I started liking entrepreneurship type stuff at a very young age and so I was managing and playing in a band. I think at 11, I think I was managing the band by 11, maybe 12. And we would book shows all over. So my dad was driving us to Nashville to play showcases. And when I was old enough, we had a bus and we had a light sound. The youth group could rent a light show or a smoke show or all these things. We had our own sound systems that we were pulling. I mean we. It was a business, it was a ministry and a business, and so we did that for a lot over a decade and for me.
Speaker 1:I went to school, I played basketball.
Speaker 2:This was nights and weekends. It was like we're on the road at 10 and 11.
Speaker 2:I'm like we weren't full time, it was nights and weekends, and but it was all. It was all I thought about, like when I wasn't. It was like this in a couple of things happened for me and the really great side is for from my upbringing is I really learned to have a heart for others, because I saw it by example and actually that's a whole. We may get into that later to the point where it almost hurt to have a heart because you bring people in and you'd love on them and you try to adopt them and then the kid would go back to their family. While that was beautiful, you felt that. You felt that tear of your heart because you didn't see him ever again. That happened multiple times. I can tell you their names right now I won't, but people that are still children they're adults now that are still real close to my heart.
Speaker 2:Do you keep up with any of them? I don't now, no, no, there was one time when I saw one of them and hadn't seen this young man and I hadn't seen him in I think three years, wow, and he was really little. I think he was two when he had to go back to his family and he saw me and he knew. He said my name, bubba, and he recognized me as soon as he saw me. And that was my parents did, and my viewpoint on it, and my brother's for a little while, was that we were the first two born children. And then the family gets bigger.
Speaker 2:You don't get the same amount of attention and then there's a lot of people and the money spread, and so we lived on a dirt road government cheese. My dad worked hard but there was a lot of people in the house and people come over and say turn on the air conditioning. I'd be like we don't have air conditioning. They're like you gotta be kidding me. It's 105 degrees outside and 80% humidity. You must. I'm like we don't have one. Well, can we at least watch TV? I'm like, well, we don't have cable, but we don't have video games.
Speaker 1:Nope, we don't have that to do.
Speaker 2:So I'd play in my room 10 hours a day in a summer just trying to practice you know bass stuff and learn some of that, and so music business was always exciting for me too, aaron. So while I'm doing music, I started liking business, and the music is a business right. So the day I turned 18, I went and bought my bulk mailing permit so that I could start sending out hundreds of media kits out, like I was, like I couldn't wait till I could do it myself. Did someone introduce you to business, or did you just figure it out on your own, or what got you? You know, I watched different people and this, this was a defining moment for me. There was two actually. Uh, when I was 13, I think 14, I went and worked at this, this fast food restaurant, and, by the way, my family would tell you this day, nobody knows how to wrap a burrito. Like me, like I, you wrap a burrito in front of me.
Speaker 2:You better do it right, because I know I was slinging a hundred tacos at a time by myself at a drive-thru, yeah Like, and I took a lot of pride in it. And so I think I was 14, maybe 15 when I became a manager of that restaurant and that that owner of that franchise, just he saw a work ethic in me and so he really invested in me. He taught me P&Ls, he taught me how to clean the right way, how to manage your staff. At 14 years old he didn't look at me like an age, he just said that man wants to do more, he's hungry and that's a shout out to Gene from Taco Mile from many, many years ago. And so, yeah, that was my first step and the next step I had, but there wasn't a lot of money in fast food, right?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:And my next lesson was a guy that was washing windows and so he invited me to go work for him and he was paying me really well. I remember I'd he didn't make much money back then and I think he was paying me like 20, 25 bucks an hour in the 80s Wow man, that was huge.
Speaker 2:And so he would just go knock on doors there and he did not care what people thought, he didn't have an appointment. He would show up, he'd walk through your flower bed and knock a flower over. He was, he was interesting. He had that part missing right, Some of that customer service part, and he would just bang on a door and go can I wash your windows A hundred bucks. He'd go on the next door, $200, and sign up and he'd go through and he'd have thousands of dollars at the end of the day.
Speaker 2:And I'd never seen anyone do that. I didn't know you could make money like that. And so those two guys probably the first two that showed me hard work do it right. Here's how to understand what it takes to run a business. And the other guy was like yeah, but let me show what you can do if you're not afraid to go hustle and not afraid to be not be too proud to work. And so I ended up buying that company from him, that window company from him, early on, because it was making a lot of money. And then we just went and kept growing accounts and building corporate accounts and things like that. And so those are my two probably first two that showed me that what was possible. And, Aaron, the biggest thing that showed me is there's no limit. There's no limit to what you can do If you'll go out there and figure it out. And I think people need to know that. Some people don't realize that they feel that's what's instilled that mindset.
Speaker 1:That's the reason you have that mindset today.
Speaker 2:It's the same today. Yeah, nothing's impossible, right? You might be thinking too small on something, right? I think we can get our business to this. Maybe it can do more than that, right.
Speaker 1:Hey, I'm Aaron Walker, founder of Iron Sharpens Iron. Every successful man needs a band of brothers to push him to grow spiritually, personally and professionally. Each week I meet with like-minded Christian business owners in our mastermind groups. We share wisdom, tackle challenges and we hold each other accountable to grow not just in business, but in life. Don't do life or business alone. Join the brotherhood. That will challenge, encourage and sharpen you. Visit isibrotherhoodcom and take the first step today.
Speaker 2:And so I'll fast forward and move a little faster here. But I sold a couple of little companies. I had a cookie distributorship so I owned Famous Amos and Jackson Vanilla Wafers and Marietta and Murray Cookies all these different brands and I brought that franchise from California to Northwest Arkansas, missouri and Oklahoma and my customers were Walmart, walmart Supercenters, all the major grocery chains, all the convenience stores, and so if you were buying any of those products, I was getting a percentage, and that taught me a lot about business too. I learned about rotating your warehouse and your inventory and how to pair products together so they sell better. I share this story sometimes, but when we would put our cookies on the shelf next to Nabisco or the other brands, we'd sell a certain amount. When we would get the manager to put a display up right next to the milk aisle, people would buy it. We could not keep it stocked. You had to have somebody full-time in every single store just stocking those cookies up, and each time you're making two bucks a box or $1.50 a box just think about that. And so it's worth it to figure out how do you pair something with something else. That's complimentary and that's why when we do partnerships it's like, yeah, I learned about partnerships at 19. Because we realized you partner with the Walmart manager and the milk aisle, you're going to sell more. And so there were just great lessons along the way about how to move product and how to have people do impulse buys. And that's a win for them, right, you're not tricking them, they're buying something that's even better for their experience. And so I sold those.
Speaker 2:And you know, I'd been doing music all this time as well, and playing in different projects and and, uh, not just Christian music, just all kinds of music. And so, uh, I was ready to go try something else. And so I moved to California and I I went to music school out there at a musician's Institute. Uh, uh, it's, it's, it's MIT, but it's not the MIT that people go. You went to MIT. I'm like, yeah, I did. Yeah, Don't tell me Different one than you're thinking of. Yeah, and that was an incredible experience here, and, like every single room in the class, I mean, you played music 12 hours a day. It was so intense that I would have to soak my wrists in bowls of ice several times a day to get the tension out because you were playing so much. I would do that during the day, and then I would be in the studio at night or recording, or they were in the studio recording or playing shows, and we started the band that I played with there.
Speaker 2:We started to just do more and more stuff in the music business and, of course, my entrepreneurial side I started managing projects and booking bands on the on the sunset strip in Hollywood and and, uh, you know, after about a year and a half we were the, we were considered the local band in Hollywood. So we went from being, you know, I went from dirt road guy to to, you know, playing the bass player Johnny Depp's Viper Room in a year and a half. And so it was just, it was a different life, as you can imagine from what I came from. I mean Hollywood life and Arkansas life big difference, uh, but I but I really got to see that world and do quite a bit in that world and I'm really proud of the projects that we did while we were out there, did a few companies in LA at the time too, but it was a tough industry. I mean, I remember, I mean you know my story, but we were there at the turn of the century when Napster started and LimeWire and anyone who knows those words I'm talking about probably could be a part of a lawsuit right For downloading music and videos. And it was just. It was the Wild West, and so labels started buying up bands and then shelving them. I remember going to restaurants and seeing servers or bartenders who were musicians that I knew from Top 40 Radio and they were unable to play their songs and they were locked in. So they're basically so. That was the industry just turned upside down. I mean, what an institution the music industry was prior to 2000 and we were there just on the cutting edge of it and then just changed a lot and so a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:In los angeles I got to do some really cool stuff. We got to do stuff where we you know mtv. That was one of our highlights. I don't like MTV. They picked our project, our band, as their favorite band from the staff. So we were an MTV staff favorite band and so just had a lot of momentum from those kinds of things and touring and playing and putting music on silly TV shows. We didn't choose the placement, but they just got bought up and so to this day it's pretty funny when I get my licensing checks in. They're for a few bucks each and it's like I don't know real world keeping up with the Kardashians, that kind of stuff in Uruguay, or you know Peru.
Speaker 1:So you're still getting royalty checks. Even now they're tiny.
Speaker 2:One year my accountant said this is costing you more than you're paying me more.
Speaker 1:But yeah, every quarter, every quarter, we get checks, still to this day. You're going to have to send me some soundtracks. I've never listened to any.
Speaker 2:So that's cool. I want you to send me some.
Speaker 1:I'm happy to do that.
Speaker 2:And so, aaron, I hit a point in that business, in that industry, that I was just exhausted and I was 29 years old and I'd met my wife and she was my girlfriend. I'd met her and we went to visit Northwest Arkansas, and she's from New York, and so we'd spent a lot of time in New York, california went back to Arkansas and I said, man, I said I really love that place, but as we're flying away, I'm back to an all big city, even though I grew up on a dirt road. Right, I'm like I don't think I'd ever live there again. It's New York or LA for me. Eight weeks later we're planning our move to Arkansas, and so we did.
Speaker 2:And so we came here and I was working for a. I was working with an oral surgeon who owned I mean just an entrepreneur that owns so many different companies. He owned part of NBC Swedes and I mean, you name it, we know guys like that in ISI, right? In fact, I've aspired to do that, sometimes Got myself in trouble, getting my hands in too many things, and he just had a whole portfolio of companies, so I started a product for him.
Speaker 2:He'd asked me to start a sales product when I was in California and I said, hey, I'll do that, but I want to manage it. And it was in of left field. But it was when the music industry was changing and so we built that up and put it to all five disciplines a dental, some oral surgeons, prosthodontists, et cetera and I got to know the dental world from that and so that gave me an opportunity. He was in Northwest Arkansas and so we decided to make a pivot and move here. So I left the music industry. What I thought was going to happen, aaron, was that the band I was with they couldn't possibly survive without me. Not because I was a good singer or a good bass player I was proficient, I thought I was pretty good but because I was the one that was doing the business side of things. I'm the one that would book us on tours and make sure that we got no other bands were doing this. I'd get us 50% of our money up front three months in advance for a big music call for two nights. So we were able to fund things differently and run it more as a business than a lot of people that were out there, our competition that was trying to tour. So I left that business and I found myself I was supposed to have ownership in an agency.
Speaker 2:Some things changed but I was really trying to go hey, I'm leaving this industry. It's exhausting, I can't be doing midnight events. I mean that's just not sustainable. Midnight events, I mean that's just not sustainable. And everything started at 10 or 11 or 12 at night. And so, you know, move back to Northwest Arkansas. And I found myself in a cubicle in Bentonville, arkansas, where I didn't think I'd be, and the ownership thing didn't work out. And here I am now on salary, working inside a cubicle in Bentonville Arkansas. And if you've grown up in Bentonville Arkansas, which I love, walmart's a partner of ours and one of our companies, but if you've grown up here, you're not. Your first thought is not, I want to stay in Northwest Arkansas and work in a cubicle. You want to figure out how to get out back then. And so here I was, back, and anyway, should I keep going? Aaron, do you have any other questions for me?
Speaker 1:No, I'm loving this.
Speaker 2:I'm working with this, I promise yeah, and so I was working there and the band that I had been a part of, good Friends of Mine. By the way, on my podcast they're the intro, outro music. Now that's my old band, and not only did they not break up, they thrived. John Mayer, who's a big artist, he heard a song, a song that I had helped write but didn't get credit for, and uh, and, and it wasn't mine, but I was part of writing it and uh, he, he made it his new favorite song. In fact, there was such a mix-up that the world thought that that song was john mayer's, and so it really blew up. Uh, australian idol picked it up, they recorded it as for the australian idol winner, and then that they just, it was just from there. There was like rappers in europe taking them on tour to do, you know, ensembles with them, and so it got bigger your checks would be bigger if you'd gotten way bigger than that now, right yeah, it got way bigger and they went on for a bigger ride.
Speaker 2:And here I am again, by choice left six months after I leave, uh, and I'm sitting in a cubicle at Melarkasaw and I heard my drummer buddy, who's my friend to this day. Our parents weren't a band together. We played for 19 years in bands together, and so you become like family. So, aaron, I'd already been mourning the loss of my band of brothers during that time. I left because I wanted to do something else. But you don't realize that the people in the trenches, with people that are in pro sports go through this, people that are in the military go through this. You have your people that just go through stuff with you and go on a journey with you. That is hard to explain unless you've been a part of it, and so I lost that. So I was really struggling with my identity, in fact, to the point where people would say what do you do? In fact, to the point where people would say what do you do? And, man, I didn't know how to. I could barely open my mouth because everything that I was, that I'd created this image of, was gone. I built an image of Derek being a musician, a businessman in LA, just all the things I thought were cool to Derek. As a child who didn't have those opportunities, I built an adult version of what I thought was cool and it was all gone by choice and I heard an explosion in my head while I was at work. I heard a boom, I heard a bang in my head and my mouth tasted copper and I had to go to the emergency room because I thought I was having a brain injury. They did all these tests on me and they said you're fine, and so I went back again. A few days later, same thing in my head went back again third time in a week and the doctor pulled me aside and said hey, derek, I got to talk to you. He said you're not sick, you're unhappy, you're going through extreme depression. He said you've either got to learn to like the life that you have or you have to create a different life.
Speaker 2:I just created a different life and was miserable, and so I had been working at this agency that was you name a client that's the biggest in the world. That's who we worked with on a high level, and I went in and I pitched an opportunity for ownership with them, like I've got this idea for direction. Looking back on it now, I wasn't ready for that opportunity. So, man, kudos to me for thinking I was right. I have some unfound confidence. But I had. I had experience as a business owner and I and I had ideas. And they said, no, we don't want to do that, but we're about to let some clients go. They don't fit our, our MO anymore, and if you want them, you can have them.
Speaker 2:And so I went out in the parking lot it was a lot like a Jerry Maguire moment and I sat in my car and I started dialing a few numbers and the first guy I called who's still a client to this day, 18 years later Dr Randy Lais. And I called him and I said hey, I got bad news, we're letting you go. I said the good news is I can take you on. And it was real quiet. And the way the Artist Evolution started is after that pause. He said what time can you get over here? And he's with me to this day. So that's how the Artist Evolution started. We'd started the. I had been a passion LLC I'd set up to help artists around the turn of the century. We hadn't done a lot with it, and so I had an LLC ready to go, and so we took the Artist Evolution plug that in right then. And here we are 18 years later helping all kinds of brands all over the world. So that's my story to get to here.
Speaker 1:So is the name the Artist Evolution. You're the artist in the way you've evolved. Is that fundamentally where you came up with that?
Speaker 2:name. That's how it is. Yeah, helping through the evolution. It was specifically originally made Aaron to help people figure out how to turn through disruption and how to grow, like happened to artists when I was in Los Angeles Wow, so, specifically for that, and it really resonated with our clients. They liked it because they considered themselves artists and creatives as well, and so they leaned in and adopted the name. Well, we would have changed it, but we're called TAE more than the Artist Evolution at this point in time. But, yeah, the name has stuck for us.
Speaker 1:Hey, thank God for Randy, because if it wasn't for him, the artist evolution wouldn't be. You better never go up on his rates, is all I can tell you.
Speaker 2:Nope, he's been grandfathered in. He's locked in. He's grandfathered in.
Speaker 1:That's right. That is so cool. Well, thank you for giving us that background. So, what's exciting and that's going on now in TAE and the life of ISI, what are the things that give you a lot of energy today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot of things. We'll probably talk about some pivots, but there's a lot happening and changing in the world right now which, if you don't have the stomach for that, there's not an industry that's not going to be disrupted. We've been telling people that for a couple of years. Right, if you haven't been disrupted, it's coming. People say, well, I don't think me. Well, now it's coming for everybody, and so you know, to have the stomach for that as an entrepreneur is important. But you know we've been going through that as well, and so, as we've seen pivots happen at the artist evolution side, we've made adjustments really in the CPG, like the consumer packaged good space, and so we work with a sister company that I'm a partner in as well, and we're doing brand sourcing and brand activation campaigns for some of the biggest brands in the world. Now, in fact, we're in London next week. Our partners are, and we basically are helping brands that want to be great in the United States to have relevancy. We're doing that in-store and out-of-store too. So, from influencer campaigns to great content, to driving traffic to walmartcom or homedepotcom or in-store traffic or exciting promotions and campaigns that are happening, we're managing those. So you pop on social media and you're doing a hundred gift card giveaway for your favorite soft drink, there's a chance we might be the ones doing that and we're behind the scenes orchestrating that and optimizing and getting results. So we get to write the campaigns too. So it's a lot of fun. That's on that side of the business.
Speaker 2:My biggest passion, aaron, as you know, is and focuses on Iron Sharpens Iron and I've had the.
Speaker 2:Because of how we built our company and because of the great team that we have in the Arts Evolution, I've been able to come over with what is probably the thing I consider the most important and was overly protective of for a long time. And that's time because we have a limited resource of time. So I have the privilege of getting to put the majority of my time focused on Iron Sharpens Iron and talking with men who are different stages of their journey in life. I don't know everything, you don't know everything, but, man, we know somebody who does, and there's probably not a story that we haven't heard who does. And there's probably not a story that we haven't heard. There's probably not a business scenario, a marriage scenario, a father-child scenario, et cetera, that we haven't seen firsthand, with hundreds and hundreds of examples that we've personally been able to work with over the past you longer than me, but me for almost a decade. That really is exciting for me to see men who get unstuck.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Derek, don't you think that God has really prepared you for this time? Because of your background, the way you grew up, the opportunities that you've had, the work ethic that you've got, God's really instilled in you a heart for men? What is it about that process that most excites you? Like you're able to talk to these high level business people every day, and then just people that have you know, small business owners that have startups you know or some of them are household names, obviously what is it that gives you that desire to help them be well-rounded rather than just being successful?
Speaker 2:You know a couple of things. I think one of the biggest ones for me that resonates, aaron. So there's several reasons why, and I wouldn't get into them, but one of the biggest rewarding ones for me is to see peace. And I just see so many men that don't have peace and they're in their lives because they're dealing with things a certain way, and peace in their marriage, peace in their business and I personally went through that for many years and I man, I'd give you imagine how my wife felt when I said to her for about two or three years I would pay any amount of money in the world to just have peace and my friends would say you need to go to church and you talk to God. I'm like I'm praying, I just feel a dissonance. I don't know what that dissonance is and I would pay any amount of money in the world Like you couldn't charge enough, aaron.
Speaker 2:We know men like that who have found peace. I'm one of them, and it wasn't that they weren't a Christian, it's that they had a misalignment and they just couldn't figure out how to get unstuck from whatever that friction or multiple friction points were, and it's just this vicious cycle. And so seeing men get clarity in that way is probably my favorite part of doing what we get to do Seeing them have peace, and then, obviously, to have purpose and be well-rounded at home. The family part is really important to me too, because I understand the business side. I make a lot of mistakes in business, but I know how to figure it out. The family part is one that's harder to redo. You know that. You preach that all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you've only got one shot at it, right, you don't get a do-over. So what would you say to the listener that's listening out there right now, that's chasing a level of success? What would you tell him are the first steps that he should consider? What kind of evaluation should he take? Or deep dive within himself? What are some of the telltale signs that they're not well-rounded?
Speaker 2:You know, if they have trouble being present at home, it's easier for us to work than not to work. If you could say I would rather work and I could do that all day long and I'm a provider, that's one flag. It's not a flag, but it means oh, you're the type like me, like Aaron, right, I could work 20 hours in a day and it's not work. Work's not even work for me. That's awesome If you got a family and then if you're also having the friction point going, I'm having trouble being present at home, or on the same energy level at home, or don't have the same energy level at home. We got a problem here, like that's a red flashing light on your vehicle. You need to take note. And this is the cautionary part for me, aaron, that actually makes me sad is that a lot of men say and I was one of them at a point say no, no, I want to put God first and I don't want to sacrifice my family. But there's such an allure for them of hitting that success side to see what it's like to get the money or the things, that they'll give a lip service on the family faith side. But they won't go all in and they're going to have to hit a brick wall before they do it. And so my caution is don't. It'll happen, I'm telling you. I could tell you so many stories Aaron can too.
Speaker 2:Don't let it happen to you where your casualty is your family at the expense so that you can make a certain amount of money or get a certain car or certain vacation homes. We all want that. We all like good stuff. Aaron says it all the time. We like nice stuff. It's good to have it as a resource. But don't do that and make that your like. Don't give lip service to God and family and not actually put it behind there. And I would challenge you guys as a way to test that and be careful. I mean be careful because you will get an answer Is really ask God what is most important to me and are you willing to give God everything? And if you do, things are going to look different. It'll look different for you. You might make more money than you thought you were after that, but it's going to look different because you're going to see your money different. You're going to see your things differently. And, man, what comes at the top as precious is your relationship with Jesus and your family and that just rises to the top when you really lean in. It just glaringly becomes shinier and more important and you still can have it. Won't take away your motivation, aaron.
Speaker 2:That was one of the things with ISI if I can just throw that in that I was scared of when I was really going deep into ISI and unpacking things, those unresolved things from my childhood, the storming years and without so many people in the house and all that, and I was scared to unpack it and I was scared to give everything over because I was afraid I was gonna lose that Midas touch, midas touch, the Derek mojo that people said I had. And I was like, if I unpack everything, where's my motivation going to come from? If I really do give everything over here to this side of what I'm saying, significance is will I have any motivation to do this? Do I have to? Yes, the answer is yes. More motivation, pure motivation, more support around what you're doing, a God calling around what you're doing. So, yeah, you can do both. Don't be scared of that part. But that was my honestly, if I'm being honest, that was my fear was I would lose my secret sauce if I went that direction.
Speaker 1:You know, derek, there's not an applicant ever that has joined us. We've had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds over the years. A dozen years now we've been doing this. No one says my family's not important. Everyone says my family's the most important. And then we go through the interview process and really discover the amount of time, effort and energy that they're spending growing their business versus the time that they spend with their family.
Speaker 1:But don't misunderstand me those that are listening. There's times that we have to hustle, there's times we've got to be away, but we don't want it to be the average of our life all the time, because the relationship capital that you're spending with your spouse and with your children you don't get back and they're going to find someone that gives them attention. You may not like the attention that they're getting and you're like that's our responsibility to be the husband, to be the father First and foremost. The occupation is by means to make money is a tool to live our best life. But what we do is we get that misaligned and we start having these great aspirations for bigger, better, shinier, faster, grander. Just 100,000 more, then I'll be okay. Just one more business, then I'll be okay.
Speaker 1:And in the rear view mirror. You look and the years are ticking by. Little Billy wants to pitch baseball, but you got to send one more report. Or Susie wants you to be at her piano recital, but daddy's just got to go on this sales job, this appointment. And then we look back and we go man, we can't recover that and I wasn't at every single thing and most people are not. But listen, if it's a one-time event, you got to be there. If it's something that's really, really important, don't miss those things. People call me when our live event is going on. They said my son's 16th birthday is this weekend. I said don't come to the live event. Like, go be with your son 16 years old. You can't get that back. And so all we want you to do is to evaluate this and go hey, what is it that I'm missing? That I can't get back. I tell everybody.
Speaker 2:I came home. We want you to grow your business, right, we want you to grow your business.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:In fact, ISI just says let's not do it like a knucklehead, right, right, let's go in and let's help you get better systems and processes and give you your time back and bring in the right assistance and do the right automation. So like, yeah, let's scale, but not at the cost. And so you know it's not. It doesn't have to be an either or. There are sacrifices in life. But if you do it smart, with the right people around you, you can do both.
Speaker 1:And we've had so many people accomplish that in us. Today they're running their businesses very effectively, as you are a testament to that yourself. You've got the artist evolution, right people in place, right SOPs, the right processes and systems. They know the mission, they got the vision, they know exactly what it is to do and you're thriving as a result of it.
Speaker 2:Because you've worked smarter not necessarily Well, we're able to actually get out of the way right, and that's one of the things, Aaron, too. That was the hard lesson of getting out of the way, and there's all new lessons you learn once you're not needed the same way too right, but to be able to focus instead on removing friction points and building bridges. Instead, I can focus on my family and keep that balance and have better people in place than me doing it. There's people that are in their positions that are better at what they do than I do. You want me doing a social media strategy, or do you want the 24, 25, 26-year-olds that are excited about it and are secondhand nature with content and those things? Right? You don't want 49-year-old, 50-year-old man doing it. You want me all the way.
Speaker 1:Derek, how can our audience follow you, connect with you? What is the best?
Speaker 2:place they can reach out and maybe just make an introduction and connect with you. Derekchampagnecom is a great spot. I think all my stuff should be on there.
Speaker 1:Derek, thank you so much for sharing your story in this time with us today. Guys, I hope you take what Derek has unpacked for us today and do an evaluation of your own life. Think through am I being the whole man that God intended me to be Personally, professionally, relationally, financially, physically? Am I living a life of success and significance, or am I just on a pathway to have a level of success? Hey, we'd love to talk to you. We'd love to help you in the future. Until next time, we'll see you again on the ISI Brotherhood Podcast. Thanks for joining us today.