I don't know. But all of a sudden I'm just like, cleaning company clean, bro. Like, this is the way to go. And within an hour and a half I'd filed for the LLC, I'd started reaching out to potential customers. My network, of course. Welcome back to The Art of Connecting Podcast. This is your host here, Haydynn, back with another episode for you guys. And today I have my friend Dalton Daughtrey here with me a little bit of a Chattanooga legend in the house here with us. So as I, as I usually do, we'll start with a little bit of a story of how I met Dalton back in the day when I was in college at UTC. I was starting to get big into LinkedIn and I was like friending anyone and everyone. And I think Dalton and I ended up getting connected on LinkedIn, but we had never really connected in person. I don't believe if my memory is serving me right. And then one day I was in my senior class at UTC it's like a they make you do this class that's just career preparation, I guess. That's right. Yeah. And Dalton was brought in at the front of the room and talking to people about hiring practices and things like that. So we got to reconnect there. I said, Hey, I'm like, I'm connected to you on LinkedIn and, maybe we had met one time before then. I'm trying to remember if we did or not. I don't think we did. That was the first introduction, but yeah, you remembered me from LinkedIn and and sure enough, like after the class you came up and approached me and most kids are usually like, oh gosh, you know, this outsider, I can't talk to him, but. You were like super ambitious and outgoing and came up and just shook my hand and that was it. Yeah. Yeah. We met a few times after that and just kind of kept up with each other and Dalton just wrote a book. Yeah, I did. I did. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. I'm sure we'll talk about that a little bit. So anyways, welcome to the show. Thank you. I'm so glad you're here. If you don't mind if we go ahead and start and just introduce yourself to the audience. Totally. Yeah. Well, I appreciate that Haydynn. Excited to be here, man. I followed the art of connecting now for some time and. Really appreciate what you're doing. I love your hunger, your ambition. You know, for somebody in their early twenties, like most people are out there just trying to get a good job and build their resume and you know, make ends meet and you're out here, you know, like building a brand and I think that's absolutely necessary in the modern economy in order to succeed as an entrepreneur. And you're an entrepreneur, so. Super grateful to be here and yeah, just a tad bit about me. I grew up about an hour north outta here at Chattanooga. You know, the southern accent is like deeply embedded in me, so if I spent time anywhere else, it's like, I don't know if it would go anywhere at this point. But went to UT Chattanooga, met my wife there. She was a mechanical engineering student. We graduated back in 2018 and about the time we were ready to graduate, we looked at each other and we said, there's no way we're gonna go work in corporate America for 40 years. Like, like there's gotta be a better way. And we had both worked our, you know, came from working class families. Both of our dads were entrepreneurs. So we, we kind of had a, you know, an in an inkling towards, you know, business ownership. And so. Was very fortunate to get guidance early on. Similar to you, Haydynn, I just had a a kind of an I was, I was courageous enough to reach out to successful people in the area and get to know'em and start to learn about some of this stuff. So started my first web-based e-commerce type business back in 2018. Since then we. Over the past six years, we've scaled that up to about there's about 40 of us now working across a handful of states and moving a lot of products across the internet, which is fun. And my wife and I, we own also a residential cleaning business. It's more of kind of a newer thing that we started. It's been a blast too. And outside of that, I run a consulting company. It's just me and, you know, my assistant basically in that. And then outside of that man, you know, I just published the book, excited about it, but really more than anything, I'm like, I'm so forward focused that like I, you know, I'm just ready for the next thing. I'm excited for, you know, what's to come and. I'm honored to be here. I love what you're doing and I hope that, you know, something I share today can, can add value to your network. So thanks for having me. Yeah, it's my pleasure. Glad you could be here. So I want to, I want you to tell me a little bit about your. College career.'cause I got a little bit of insight when you came and spoke to us. Sounds like you had a little bit of a tumultuous college career. So what was that like being in college for four years and. Sticking through it. Yeah. Well the only reason I finished wasn't because the value of the education associated with the degree I got a marketing degree. It was really you know, because when I committed to getting a degree, I just like, there's something in me do that just doesn't wanna quit. And so. Fast forward,$70,000 worth of student loans late later. You know, how did you spend that much at UTC? How is that even possible? Yeah, I think probably like, probably like 20,000 on tuition and like, you know, the rest on like, you know, beer and fraternity parties and stuff that makes, that tracks that tracks. So so, you know, and I, and I got into kind of the party scene, man. I joined a fraternity, great group of guys, in fact, very grateful for my time there. But I started to pick up all these you know, collegiate habits that don't, you know, really necessarily like project somebody into, you know, success. And so my GPA suffered ended up wrapping up my full college tenure with a 2.6 GPA. When, when compared to my wife, mechanical engineering student, she graduated after three and a half years, 4.0. Like, you know, I was like, dude, I, I'm like barely even like, allowed to graduate. But I stuck through it. But I, I I, something that maybe kind of relates back to the podcast, it wasn't the education that I benefited the most from. It was the relationships. Yeah. Yeah, I'd agree. I was talking with someone. I think it was yesterday, or maybe it was a week ago. It all kind of blends together now. But I was talking with them about college and, we were talking a little bit before this about Linley, my director of operations, who's kind of deciding do I go to college, do I not? And I'm like, I personally would not do it again. And Oh, I remember I was talking, yes. Okay. I was talking to Gus. He's a, he owns a dental practice and I was talking about this retreat that I'm going to in the beginning of August, and you have to fill out this long form about basically your whole life. And it said, what was the most difficult time in your life? And I was, I had to think about it for a minute and I, I was like, the most difficult time in my life was college. Hmm. I wasn't living my purpose. I was born to be an entrepreneur. I knew I've been an entrepreneur since I was 12 years old. I knew I was born to be an entrepreneur, but all these outside pressures were saying, go to school. All these outside pressures of saying, keep going. You know, finish it up. Don't quit. Don't be the loser that dropped outta college. And I just kept going and graduated The 3.89 GPA, that's gonna be because I can't. Not, I can't have to do anything, you know, if I'm doing something. But that was the hardest time of my life because I had to go to classes and, and do homework and do things. Of that had zero interest to me. Zero at all of like, and I knew for a fact also that it with where I was going,'cause I had vision for where I was going. It was not applicable, but the connections. Yeah. Somewhat made up for it. Yeah. You know, it's interesting that you finished this, that's probably why we relate so well to each other.'Cause I, same here, man. I, I dreaded going to class and taking tests, but yeah, imagine projecting that out, dude, and going and working for some corporation and having to show up. You know, at times you don't wanna show up and do things you don't wanna do for, you know, people that you don't really know in, in areas that don't interest you. There are people that are like really good in that arena and they're called to it, I believe, and you know, they're, they're, they perform and excel there. But like, if you have the entrepreneurial spirit, like the best thing you can do for yourself is like, take yourself, if you're a, you know, a stallion on the the planes, like, you know, get outta the fence and, and, you know, run free and. It's cool to see you doing that, man and kind of figuring your brand out as you, you go along. That's, that's been fun to watch. Yeah, it's in, in college there was no such thing because I didn't have any time to actually explore what my passion was. It was like, I used to flip, I would flip probably a car a month when I was in high school. I owned like 15 cars while I was in high school, and then I got to college and I wanted to keep doing it, but. I didn't have any time. I flipped like two or three cars the whole time I was in college. Did did you do any work on the car or you just marketed it better than the previous person? Very, very little. I would like, I bought this truck from my Airbnb host when I was in Florida. It was a F two 50 diesel, 94 and a half with a bank's power, power package on it. That probably means nothing to you, but at the time it meant a lot to me. Sounds cool. It was a, a diesel, big diesel truck, you know, and it ran great. And so I borrowed money from my dad'cause I wasn't able to access money from my account, but there was a region to bank there. So he pulled the money out. I paid my Airbnb host, I'd drive it all the way home from Florida. And it was a Florida truck, super clean, but it had a little bit of like surface rust. So I took like a drill and like wore my mask and good, my glasses and, and I under coated it so it looked way better. Sweet. And other than that, pretty much every car that I ever did. It was very, very, very minor, just like cosmetic, like washing it or just like buffing the headlights or something like that, and I'd just go and market it better, take better pictures. Ask higher price. Yeah. And negotiate with people to where, where I could make, make a little money. And I love it. I probably made like two grand each car, let's go. Okay. Yeah. When you average it out. It's funny you mentioned that. I did my fair share of that too. And in fact I'd probably still be doing it but my wife would not you know, approve of that as a kind of a, a pastime sport. So yeah, I'm super appreciative of my parents because at any time I'd have 4, 3, 4 cars. That's man at house. And you know, they were stacked in the backyard. I had a Lexus, a Denali, a Jeep, all of these things. And looking back, most parents would be like, no, you're not buying another car, Uhhuh, you'll have two cars in the driveway. You don't need another car. Why are you doing all this stuff? That's dumb. Don't do it. You know? And would've quashed that out. But my parents always supported me. I bought my first car when I was 14 years old, and I couldn't even drive, you know? And they were like, all right, you wanna buy a car? You got the money to do it. All right, you can buy a car. Okay, do it. It's your money. Let's go, dude. And super grateful for that. Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like you got good folks. Yeah. Yeah. They, they empowered me to, to be who I am. So back to you here with college. So you finished up, it sounds like it was a little bit of a rough ride, a little turbulent at times. Yeah. You got a wife out of it. Amen. I didn't, unfortunately. But you didn't. So that probably alone made it all worth it, right? Every, every bit of it. Yeah. Yeah. No doubt. Yeah. Yeah. Very grateful for it. I'll, I'll share this with you. When I was in high school, I remember I grew up on a farm. And I remember going to my dad one time'cause I started to get catch wind that people's parents actually saved up for college for him. And. I went to my dad and I kind of jokingly,'cause I already knew his response. He was like, dad, so how's it going? Save it up for college for me. And, and he looks at me just with kind of a smirk. He says, son, if you want to go to college, you better figure out how to pay for it. And you know, at, at the time I was a little bit kind of disappointed, but you know, in hindsight, if I ever wanted something. You know,'cause we were pretty far below the, the poverty belt. You know, we grew up, we had food stamps, you know, for, for many years. And same. And so, you know, there was like just times where we were just not actually, you know, well off. And if I wanted something, I figured it out. And sure enough, dude, I did. Mm-hmm. I figured it out. And it wasn't always ethical the way I'd figure it out, you know, to accomplish goals. But like, you know, it became very. Solution minded and kind of a scrapper. And I think that's carried over into my adulthood life and I'm so, so grateful for it. Yeah. Yeah. So as you got outta college and decided corporate is not for me, what were some connections in relationships that led you to that decision? Yeah. So I met a fellow who had developed a, a very, very successful direct sales business, direct marketing business. And, you know, he had worked also like Tangently in the corporate world you know, up to the C-suite of. Very successful companies, several tech companies he had, he'd sat at. And you know, he started to encourage me, you know, to kind of tap back into that entrepreneurial spirit that I had kind of you know, pushed to the side to make it through college. And my wife her too, her dad was a, like a small town builder, kind of home builder. Never had worked a job. My dad, I never saw him work a job ever. And so, you know, we both just came from the backgrounds where it just made sense to go into business for yourself. And then I get outta college and I meet a very successful college dropout, by the way you know, business owner, entrepreneur. And he started to encourage me to kind of pursue that path too. But I worked on a W2 up until December of 20 2023 you know, kinda working nights and weekends, hustling to, to get, you know. The, the business businesses up and running enough so that, you know, I didn't require that kind of corporate you know set up. So yeah, man, it was just kind of the perfect storm, man. There's, there's more behind that, but yeah, that's, that's it. Nice, nice. So how did you end up meeting this person? Yeah, just kinda like, you know, your, you talk about in all your content recently, you know, just shaking hands. You know, I've heard the Old Eastern proverb that when the student's ready, the teacher will appear. And I was about to graduate and I was, I saw kind of the writing on the wall and so I was ready. And so yeah, I think that any other time might not have made sense. But, you know, I was in a position where kind of the window of opportunity for me was like, I need to find a guide. I need to find. You know, in, in the Lion King, there's the old you know, monkey out in the African plane, you know, that kind of points him back to, to home. I needed somebody like that to point me back to my you know, where I'm supposed to be, you know? And stop, stop chasing this kind of facade of like, you know, the, the corporate, you know success and you know what college kind of projects you to go do, you know, make a bunch of money to impress a bunch of people that you don't really care about for the sake of, you know, status or something. Yeah, and the funny part about that status is like no one really cares, dude. Nobody cares at all. It's like you work at an insurance company, like nobody's really looking that hard at your, kia Stinger that you have. Yeah. Whatever it is that you're super proud, you rolled up in the parking garage to the ant farm, bro. I may judge the, if you're driving a Kia Stinger you know, go spend the money on a used actual like German made car or something. But yeah, yeah, nobody cares that you're, you know, you drive a nine 11 if you park it, you know, for eight hours a day, you know, in somebody else's parking lot. Yeah. And even then, I, I was driving around the other day. I got, I got a, a decent car, you know, I got a little newer Tesla and I got that car because my old 1995 as Suzu pickup was like, like, could die at any moment. Right. Leaking a quar of oil every a thousand miles. Like I bought it for 500 bucks if I got an accident. There's no airbags. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, I gotta get something. You deserved it. Yeah. You, you deserved that upgrade. Well, and you know, but. I don't, that, that car is not like a piece of my ego. Like when I pull up, I'm like, yeah, look at my, you know, I made a, I made like a joke video that'll come out about it of like expectation rolling up in your new Tesla and like, oh, I'm strutting over to lunch. And then reality, it's like all of my paper's falling out and like, what do you mean we're$30,000 over budget on the projects Uhhuh and like me looking at my bank account and there's nothing in it. Yeah. I love it. That's the reality, right? And but. So many people put so much stock in the things, and I, I, in a way, I'm kind of a hypocrite. I wear my Rolex and have my nice car, and have my nice things. I have a, you know, but if you strip all of that away, I would be doing the exact same thing that I'm doing today. And the reason why I do what I do is not because of those things. And so I, I think that it's interesting so many people. Work so hard in their jobs because they dream of having these fancy things that they see on, on Instagram or whatever, and then you get it on your wrist or you get behind the wheel or you, you know, fall asleep in your house and then you wake up and it's all the same. A hundred percent dude. Yeah. The difference between the I think it's. I, I'm a big fan of the finer things in life, a hundred percent. As part of my motivation to succeed is I, I don't want to be restricted by you know, income, but so many people, things have them versus them having things. You have things. You have nice things, but they don't have you. And that's the difference. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I think it really goes down to the like, are you okay with losing all of this and still being happy? Oh yeah. And that's where I'm at. You know, I, I honestly, it makes me really happy. I just sold one of my watches that I had, and I paid. A lot more than what I sold it for. But I was just happy'cause my friend bought it and he's like, Hey, I'm gonna keep this watch forever.'cause it came from you and I'm just like super excited to have this. I've been wearing it every single day and I'm like. That is what it's all about. I love that, man. I'm happier that that watch is on his wrist than in my box. And it's funny, we're talking about this. So I heard a podcast about a week ago by, or two weeks ago a guy named Sam Corco. He runs a, a health tech company outta New York. They do about 300 million a year. I'm successful entrepreneur. And he lives a very, like, peaceful life. And he's a minimalist to the extreme in that he, he has one T-shirt that's crazy. He wears I have like 50. Yeah, yeah. He wears it. He wears it a day or two and then he'll wash it. And he has one pair of shorts and one pair of pants and he just, when they get dirty, he swaps. You wear a pair of pants, you know, 4, 5, 6 times sometimes. So I was inspired and I had this like, you know, for so long I've just collected all these nice clothes. You know, all the golf polos and all the stuff, and I've probably got like$3,000 worth of just shoes, you know? And and I was like inspired. So I made a post on my Instagram, I dunno if you saw it, but on my story. And I'm like, Hey, by the way, I'm getting rid of all my clothes. If you want any of it, just hit me up. And dude, I had to, I, I've never had such an effective call to action on my social bro. Everybody hit me up. And I downgraded to three Polos. I'm wearing one of three right now. Three pairs of pants three button downs. And I'm in the process right now of getting rid of the rest of my jackets to where I have three, I'm gonna have three of everything. You know, so that I don't, so that the, the things don't have me, that I just have them and they're a tool for me to accomplish my purpose, not, you know, they're not gonna distract. So yeah, it's, it's funny you say that because I, I have a lot of clothes, but I don't have any nice clothes. Like you come over. I got plenty left. I, I need to, yeah.'cause I think we'd be close to the same size. Yeah. And man, I, I'm, I've been wearing the same pan like jeans for five years. American Eagle. They've, I've had to throw a few pairs away though, so I'm down to like two pairs of jeans, so I'm right there with you. I, I just, I, I don't. Ever concern myself with things like, what brand are my clothes? Or like, I'm wearing my friend. I love repping my friends' companies. Oh, scared. You know, if you give me, give me a t-shirt with your company name on it and I'll wear it. Say no more, dude. I've got you. My friends that own valor, peak Distillery in Longmont, Colorado went to visit them when they open. And it makes them so happy when they see on your story. And I get to. Wear the t-shirts of my friend's brands, and if I'm not doing that, I'm wearing my five Hawaiian shirts that I have that I just re-wear all the time. So it, it is, it's really cool to be able to have that. And it, honestly, to me, it brings more happiness than just having like, super high. I I would, I would always be stressed out if I'm wearing a t-shirt that's like 300 bucks. Oh, a hundred percent dude. Yeah. I, I got into a phase where I bought these expensive t-shirts and I had one that was like. Wasn't 300, it was like, like 150 for this t-shirt. And dude, I'm telling you like my comfort colors, like, you know, from the hobby lobby, like$10 plain t-shirt. Was way nicer than this$150 t-shirt. And so I've, I've got rid of all that. Yeah. I love my Tommy Bahamas shirt though, dude. I like the Hawaiian shirts. I think like that could be your brand, man. It's like the Hermo. Oh it is. So yeah, you, you should keep that up. I like it. I, I met the governor wearing a Hawaiian shirt at his house. Yeah. Yeah. It definitely is. So now I was telling you before, some, some days I, I go a little casual now. I, I, especially when all my Hawaiian shirts are dirty. That's how, that's how you know I haven't done laundry in a while. If I'm wearing t-shirts. Then that means the Hawaiian shirts need to be cleaned. That's so funny. I love that. I love that there's a level of casualness below a Hawaiian shirt. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if you can get much more casual than just a t-shirt, dude, I dig it. I saw a video of you the other day doing a, it might have been at A UTC or, you know, some, you were speaking somewhere Sharon with a classroom and you were in a Hawaiian shirt and I'm like, there's a guy next to you in a suit. I was pretty sure. I'm like, let's go. Oh, yeah, yeah. I was speaking, I spoke to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville for their sales and the real estate club combined. There was probably like 45, 50 students there. And the guys. Both on both sides of me. They're dressed to the nines, you know, look looking great. And I'm there in my Hawaiian shirt. And it was funny'cause Jim the guy that was sitting to the left of me, he is like, this guy's got worse A DHD than me. He hasn't stopped shaking his leg the whole time. I didn't even realize I was doing it. Oh, it means you're excited. That should be a compliment. Yeah, no, I, I, I was not upset about it. I was like, oh yeah, just joking around. But. All three of us, we were all dressed differently and I was the most casual for sure of all of them. But by the end of it, we were all like, we just had massive respect for each other and, and all, you know, the students were like so, so locked. I have never u, t, k Their business school is way, way, way up compared to my experience at OTCs. Yeah. And all the kids, no one was on their phone. Love it. No one was distracted. They were locked for like an hour and a half. Mm. And I couldn't believe it. Mm. It was awesome. Yeah. That's what could Cool man. Yeah, I think there's maybe just to kinda like put a pin in this subject. I think there's a time and a place for like extreme professionalism. If I worked in, you know, the, like ma like, you know, the, one of the major consulting companies, if I worked for one of them or if I was, you know, at a bank or something, it's like, you kind of expect your banker not to be wearing a a t-shirt, you know what I mean? And so I think there's like that, that, you know, there's a definitely pros to that, but I think the majority of entrepreneurs, I talk to entrepreneurs every day and every walk of life from every income bracket you could imagine. And the majority of them don't dress up. Yeah. The majority of them are wearing a t-shirt. Or Hawaiian shirt that's Hawaiian. That's where it all started. I, I, my old boss when I sold cars would say, dress for the job you want, not the job you have. And as I started interviewing entrepreneurs and, and talking to more people and really analyzing what do I want my life to look like? Mm-hmm. The people who always seem to be living life, enjoying it, you know. Checking, you know, and traveling, doing all the things where these guys were just wearing Hawaiian shirts and sandals in the middle of the day. And I was like, all right, well, I guess that's what I'm gonna do. Yeah. I love it. And it's worked. I love it. But yeah. So swapping, swapping topics here I wanna talk a little bit about the cleaning business and learn more about that.'cause I, I. It, I think it is a newer venture. I think I remember seeing like one or two things about it, but yeah. How did you end up in this new business? Yeah, so it's super random cleaning. You know, like nobody wants to go into the business of scrubbing other people's toilets, you know what I mean? So it's like, it's not a hot market. But. And I've been asked several times, like, where'd you get the idea? You know I worked on a cleaning crew in high school for like a local sports camp. And my favorite job, if I look back over the years and I've worked for multi-billion dollar tech companies, I've worked for local tech companies, I've worked in the insurance, I've been an insurance agent. Like, you know, I've done quite a few different things. And my favorite job ever was working on that cleaning staff. And because I could put some headphones in, I could go in and just like, you know, I'm, I'm like maybe a little bit neurotic, maybe a little bit OCD, very A DHD. And so like for me to be able to go without supervision and just do a good job and like, make sure somebody's place is taken care of, like that brought me a lot of a, a, a high or a high degree of a feeling of accomplishment. So. You know, the idea came to me because really I was in a position where I was just looking to do something more localized. I've been, you know, working kind of adjacent in the tech world and in the e-comm space and say that's a very like, you know, distributed world where you can hire anybody in any country and you can do work with anybody anywhere. I like the idea of having more of a communal based business that's, you know, serving people, serving my neighbor, like gimme more integrated into Chattanooga. And it helps that I have some relationships with, you know, cleaning, green cleaning manufacturers. But ultimately I wanted to do, you know, to do a simple business that I enjoyed doing back in the day. And do it like. Right. Do it like a modern, you know, company. She, so have you ever heard of Pink's window cleaners? Yeah, my friend owns the one here. Okay. Wicked cool. Yeah. So I met Cody for the first time last year. I went to her conference the contrarian Thinking Conference down in Austin. And you know, I just I loved. What she was doing with like helping make these blue collar businesses more, you know, kind of modernized and popular. Again, half our GDP is service-based businesses, so for me it was about 90 days ago. I just like, literally, you know, where does an idea or a thought come from? You know, the subconscious, where does it get, how does it get into the subconscious? I don't know. Is it God, you know, is it, you know, programming? I don't know. But all of a sudden I'm just like, cleaning company clean, bro. Like, this is the way to go. And within an hour and a half I'd filed for the LLC, I'd started reaching out to potential customers. My network, of course. You know, I'd, I'd, you know, created a logo. I'd started setting up a website within 24 hours like we were taking orders and we had booked our first clean within 24 hours. And then over the next 90 days or so to today it's been good, man. We've done about 6,500 in revenue so far. You know, we're in a position where a lot of that is overhead and we're, you know, like putting that money right back into operations for the business. But we've got a pretty good staff. I hired a bunch of college dudes from UTC to be my cleaners and we're training them up and and it's been a blast, dude. Yes, it's been challenging for sure. It's not, you know, as simple on behind the scenes as it might seem like, you know, kind of forward facing. But dude, I didn't want something that's not challenging and so it is been a blast. Dude. Clean bro. Clean bro. Chattanooga love it. I see. That's what separates an entrepreneur from a entrepreneur is you get the idea. Yeah. And I mean, maybe I don't advocate for just, you know, starting the LLC 24 hours later, maybe do some like research and underwriting to see if this business is gonna work out. But, you know, take a few days and then if you, if it's still in your head a few days later and you're like, this, this is gonna work, get the LLC and go and start it and then start making phone calls. Oh, hey there. It's me again. I know you expected Morgan Freeman to come on and talk about the biggest company in the world. Well, I'm sorry, but you get the next best thing. This show is sponsored by the company that I co founded, Acadia Capital, and acadia is a hard money lending fund originating loans in Southeast Tennessee and Northern Georgia on residential one to four unit renovation properties. We are regulation D five Oh six C fund and are actively seeking accredited investors. We provide fantastic first position real estate back returns. If you're ready to get your tired and lazy capital to work with a minimum 8 percent return, go to Acadia loans. com backslash invest. Not only do we accept standard investments, but we can also accept self directed IRAs and other self directed retirement accounts to take advantage of tax advantage investing. Thank you so much for listening to Art of Connecting now back to the show. And I think that's just awesome. That's super cool. Amen. That's what separates the people from you know, just having the idea. I was at lunch with, with my friend today, and we were talking about my new idea and my new business time starting, and he was like, well, that's a great idea, but what about this? Let me be the devil's advocate here. And we, we went down the line and the conversation ended it. You know, ideas are worthless, but execution is priceless, right. That's right. Yeah. Everybody has an idea or a million. It's few that execute. And then it's few that execute and continually execute through. What I see based on your laptop here might be, you know, in the tech world, the trough of sore, but in just the general business world is just, you know, the valley of despair is her mosey puts it it's execution through when it feels like it's not executable. It, that's what determines successful entrepreneurs from the majority. Yeah. Yeah. When, when the bank account is empty, when people are calling you and emailing you, you owe them money. You've got staff to take care of. That's right. When you got all those things stacked against you, can you make it through? Mm. And that's what separates a business owner from an employee. You know, it's. S not, and most don't make it, dude. Most don't make it. The statistics are that way because people's are the majority of people don't have the fortitude to not quit. Hmm. And I think also, like going back to the theme of the podcast, having the right connections is everything. It's essential. Yeah. I mean, like, I, I had, I had some rough times recently and I was texting my suppliers and with my relationships with everyone, every single person was like, don't worry about it. You know, like, I know you're gonna take care of me as soon as you can. Don't worry about it. Like, like no late fees, no problem. You know, figure it, you know, go, go do what you you're gonna do.'cause I know you're gonna take care of me. And having those relationships and connections with people, you know, whereas if it was someone who is kind of a butthole to the people that they work with and you know, maybe he is a little bit shifty and doesn't always do what they say they're gonna do and doesn't have that relationship, it's like, Hey, you're, you owe me a hundred dollars late fee now and I'm gonna serve you paper soon if you don't pay this. Right? That's the difference between. Having that relationship and connection and just being a customer. Well, you develop trust too, Haydynn, and that's something you're good at'cause your heart is to serve. And so many people out there that go do business with, and I'm guilty of this. That's how I can speak to it with this very selfish you know, self-serving mentality that ultimately people can feel and they can read. And so. You know, to go out and serve people and to give yourself unto others. And you know, to put it in biblical terms,'cause that's kind of how I, you know, view the world through that lens to lay down your life for your friend to go out and self-sacrifice for the good of others dude. That just builds a, a bank of goodwill and dude, when you need it, like it's, it's there and you deposit that into your network. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I think the, the. For some people the biggest challenges, and it's actually not for me, is actually asking for help. Mm. Like so many people are just terrified of asking for help'cause they, they don't wanna seem like a failure. Right. And they don't, they don't wanna admit that they are hard and that they haven't sold it, they thought they would sell or this didn't close it, they thought would close. And being willing to go to those people that have offered you. Hey, if you ever need anything, gimme a call. So I've had those people, I'm sure you've had those people. Oh yeah. When you need them, do you actually call, because they don't, people don't just say that kind of stuff to hear themselves speak. You know, when someone says, gimme a call if you ever need help, that's them extending the offer. That's right. And you're actually doing the disservice by not calling them. Yeah. It's a function of pride, man. Pride and ego.'Cause to ask for help is to. Admit that you don't know everything, which is to basically self-sacrifice your own ego and somebody's willingness to lay down their ego and self-sacrifice it in proportion to what they're asking for is gonna be directly correlated with the amount of help that they receive. And so it's just a prideful thing, dude. I know because I'm the most prideful guy I've probably ever met. I've got one of the bigger egos of anybody I know. And I have to continually work on like. Exactly what you're talking about. It's like Dalton, yes, I, I wanna figure it out, right. And I'm going to, I'm gonna go that path first. But of so often there are people that would be honored to help me'cause we love helping people. We love to give the giver's always, you know, happy generally than the receiver. So yeah, man, it's something I'm like actively working on constantly. Yeah. So what are some things that you, you do to work on that? What are some exercises that you go through to continually tamp down the ego and work on that pride. Yeah. I have to practice gratitude. You know, the, the the amount of gratitude I have for people and situations and things. I have to just continually cultivate that. A mentor of mine taught me, you know, he's one of the best at this I've ever seen in my life. He's so stinking grateful. Like he'll be telling you a story about a mentor of his. Or his wife and he'll just like start crying as an adult. And I'm like a man and I'm like, I grew up in a household where men don't cry. You know, my mom left when I was four and my dad raised me into a bunch of kids. And you know, I never saw dad cry. I saw him cry one time actually. But see, I have to constantly practice gratitude for every. Every person in, in my life and every opportunity I've been given. And so, and that's, that's tough, dude. You know, I actively like, you know, just in my mind, you know, call it prayer or just, you know, intentional thought, but I just have to think through, man, I'm really appreciative that I get this opportunity. I'm really appreciative that I, I woke up with health today and I could come do this podcast with Haydynn. You know, I'm really appreciative for my wife because, you know, without her dude, I'd probably be. You know addicted to, you know stuff and, you know living a life of promiscuity. And so like, you know, I have all these things in my life that are so good, but dude, it's so easy to become just content and complacent that I have to just. Like force myself into, and it's, it's became pretty natural at this point. But like for, for a long time I had gratitude journals and, you know appreciation posts and stuff like that. And that stuff just, it helps me kind of put things into perspective.'cause the moment I'm prideful is the moment I put myself at this, you know, at the helm of, you know, I'm my own, you know, maker and dude. I'm not. And so, right. Yeah. Hmm. Yeah. And I, I, so, you know, I just got back from Haiti. I saw that two weeks ago. I tell you something, if, and, and I need this reset, like at least annually, I hadn't been in, in four years and I had gotten to that point of complacency, and, you know, apathy again, but I, you go to Haiti and you. So the ation makes$2 and 50 cents per day. Mm-hmm. And there's a lot of Haitian families, like families that live on$50 a month of product consumed. And you go and you see this and it's just such a reset for, it's like a switch flips in your brain and you, you just see things differently when you come back. And, and why you're there. You just see things so much differently and I, I, I think, I can't recommend it enough for anybody who struggles. And, and I think all innately we understand like we should be grateful for what we have. Like if you have air conditioning right now, you're, you're better off than about 60% of the planet, right? Yeah. That's true, right? Like if, if, if you have water that comes outta the tap that you could just drink and not die, right? Or not get sick. You're better than 60, you're better off than 60% of the planet. And when you go and you, you see these things that are reality every day for others, it really will ground you and remind you all of the things that we have to be grateful for. And really going back to the theme of the show, like what this is all about. Like we are given, if you're in the United States of America, you are automatically, you have a 4% chance of that. The whole world to be born in the United States of America where you have freedom to start a business. And my European friends and my friends from all over the world are like the United States is the best place to have business. Hands down, I've been all over. And we have that opportunity. And if you have that inkling to do it. Start making those connections.'cause that's where it all starts, is getting connected to the right people. That's right, yeah. Asking questions about how to do it. And then we live in a system that is designed for you to be able to be successful. A hundred percent. Yeah. It's incredible. The American dream alive. There's a reason why statistically the likelihood of somebody becoming a millionaire is higher for those that have immigrated to the US because they come here. Without this sense of complacency and they still believe in the American dream that you can go create a life for yourself and for your family and live on your own terms. Yeah, I mean, in reality we all like, I mean, if you have a roof over your head, you're living the American dream for sure. Man, it's funny as that sounds for the, and I grew up broke, I mean similar to you. I mean, we have food stamps. And I mean, my, my dad was unemployed for two years in the great recession, and, but my parents made the best of it. But you know what, we always had, we had a roof over our head, even though the thermostat was turned up to like 80 in the summer, and sometimes we were running that fan. So we had money for the ac. We had an air conditioner that worked in our house. Oh, wow. You know, and it must've been nice. I mean, you didn't have AC growing up. We didn't even have a thermostat for heat and then we burned firewood. Oh, man. Yeah. So we, I compared to you, I grew up rich, I guess. But if you're, if you have a roof over your head and, and you've got, you can even burn wood, right? You've got, you can just go walk right outside and you got all this land to go burn wood. We forget that those are blessings. Yeah, they are, man. Yeah, no doubt. Awesome. Well, we have come up on our time here. I love the range of our conversation on the show today. I think it's just. My favorite part about the show is it's just real. It's me having a conversation like we would if we were just sitting having coffee. So if you want to have coffee with me, this is what it's gonna be like. You're gonna talk about a lot. But I want to ask a final question here, and that is, what is a connection to a person or group of people that change the trajectory of your life or career? Yeah, no doubt. So easy answer for me, first and foremost. My wife. So when I met my wife well, I, when I connected, reconnected with her in college I was in a position where I'd reached the lowest point of my life. You know, I had all kinds of substance addictions I had, I was an alcoholic. You know, I was just in a position where, dude, I just hit the bottom. And I meet somebody that for the first time in my, well, for the second time in my life, I meet somebody that loves me, not for. Who I am, but for who they know I'm capable of becoming. And because of that, they saw past all the junk. And so, I say the second time, because it wasn't until I met my wife and I ended up, you know met the mentor I was telling you about who also he'd be number two on my list for sure. Because he was really just kind of that that voice that I needed at that time. But ultimately my wife made me realize that like I was loved. And that, you know, my value wasn't based on, you know, how I appeared socially to others. And so that was super pivotal for me, man. But then, you know, the business connections too, like the man I was telling you about. Just like learning how to network and learning how to like, you know, build the brand and learning how to make friends and, you know, not for the sake of them helping me, but for the sake of me serving them. It's just been a blast, dude. And I, I'm just literally getting started, man. I turned 30 by the way, next month. So like. Lemme join this last little bit in my twenties. And dude, it's I, I'm, I'm, we're about to, it's, it's, I'm turning it on. Yeah. I, I'm ha, I'm, I turned 25 in October, so I'm, I'm only five years behind you, and I feel the same way. Every, every day is a little better. And that's the thing, I, and you do the same thing. I know we have a maturity, Haydynn of a, uh, uh, of a, of somebody a lot older than you. And. I'm super proud to have watched you develop over the past couple years and excited to see what you can accomplish in Chattanooga. I think you're gonna leave a lasting impression, not just locally, but on everybody that you meet and every hand you shake. And so it's been an honor being here with you, ma'am. Thank you. Same here. It's, it's been a blast. So if people want to follow you and keep up with your journey or connect with you, what's the best way for them to do that? Well, just Google me all my socials and all that sort of stuff. Um. Uh, like Haydynn said, LinkedIn, I'm actually responsive to my dms. It's probably my only social platform that actually like, you know care about that that I don't have somebody else handling for me. And you know, just, yeah, you find my, go to my Dalton dockery.com. You could find me, but yeah, we didn't even talk about the book. A little upset about that. It's all good, dude. What's the book about? Just real, real fast. Super fast. It's about how so there was a a, a, a A. A survey that CNBC published last October, about where they interview I think it was 2000 high schoolers every year. And they get the most common career paths you know, for these high schoolers. What they wanna do when they grow up. Firefighter, doctor, lawyer, attorney, you know, or that's a lawyer, but you know, school teacher, whatever. For the first time in history, there was a, a significant majority in the results of the survey. And that number one result was about 60% of the students wanted to be an influencer. Hmm. I saw that. And I said, what does that even mean? Like, what does that mean they wanna do? Do they even know what they wanna do? And I don't think they do. And so in answering that, that question you know, the book manifest from that. And the purpose of the book is that everybody's an influencer. You don't need social, you don't need to be famous on TikTok. You don't have to be good at editing. Like every hand you shake your, you are developing your influence. And influence is first I gotta take care of me so that I can take care of you. And so for me it was a way to kinda get the message to Gen Z that like. If you want to be like me to be an be an influencer like me, you can be, but it's not about how you appear outwardly. It's about the work you do to yourself internally. Hmm. Wow, that's impactful. Well, if you wanna check out Dalton's book, what's the name of it? It's Everyday Influencer. There you go. Everyday Influencer by Dalton Daughtrey. Go look it up. Get it on Amazon. Wherever you find your books, I'm gonna pick myself up a copy as well, so. Guys, thank you so much for listening to the Art of Connecting. It is such a joy to get to do this show consistently every single week. Every Wednesday we drop a new episode, and I'm just honored to get to be here to interview amazing guests and that you listen to it. So if you enjoyed it, share this episode with a friend. That's the best way for a podcast to organically grow. And then you can also can leave a five star review wherever you're listening to the show. That's the best way to support the show. So for listening to connecting, we'll catch you on the next episode.