Cut The Tie | Success on Your Terms

“My Daughter Believed in Me—That Was Enough”—How T Shane Johnson Found His Purpose Again

• Thomas Helfrich • Episode 275

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Cut The Tie Podcast with Thomas Helfrich
Episode 275

What if your six-year-old launched a business, and you backed her all the way to Walmart? In this unforgettable episode of Cut the Tie, Thomas Helfrich sits down with T Shane Johnson, a world-record athlete, Marine Corps veteran, motivational speaker, and co-founder of Big Guns Coffee, to explore how cutting ties with imposter syndrome opened up a legacy of purpose, resilience, and fatherhood.

After surviving an attempted murder, flatlining three times, and spending a year learning to walk again, T Shane didn’t just get back up—he built a life centered around service, entrepreneurship, and grit. Today, he shares how his daughter inspired him to embrace worthiness, launch a hydroponic coffee empire, and redefine what “success” truly means.


About T Shane Johnson:
T Shane Johnson is a decorated Marine, world-record holder for the most push-ups in one hour (a whopping 3,050!), and inspirational speaker who has walked, run, and spoken his way across America to raise awareness for veterans and underserved communities. He’s the co-founder of Big Guns Coffee, launched by his daughter at age six. Their brand has grown into a national sensation with retail launches in Walmart and Sprouts, alongside the world’s first indoor hydroponic coffee farm.


In this episode, Thomas and T Shane discuss:

  • How surviving near-death changed everything
    T Shane shares how an attempted gang initiation nearly took his life—and why he sees every day as a second chance.
  • The real battle: impostor syndrome
    Despite success, service, and accolades, T Shane struggled to believe he was worthy of it all—until one person changed that.
  • Why his daughter is the CEO of the family legacy
    From naming the company to pitching Walmart execs, T Shane’s daughter is not just watching greatness—she’s building her own.
  • The truth about entrepreneurship most don’t say out loud
    Forget glamor—T Shane pulls no punches on the isolation, stress, and sacrifice that come with running a business.
  • From push-ups to product: Building Big Guns Coffee
    The world’s first hydroponic coffee company didn’t start with investors—it started with a sketch from a six-year-old and a whole lot of heart.


Key Takeaways:

  • Service doesn’t mean self-sacrifice
    You can serve others and still claim your own worth.
  • Your story can be your superpower
    Trauma can fuel transformation—if you let it.
  • Entrepreneurship isn’t sexy—it’s savage
    If you’re not ready to sell, sweat, and suffer a little, you’re not ready to build.
  • Your kids are watching—build with them
    Your legacy starts at home. Let them grow with the mission.
  • Don’t just build a business—build a life you’d be proud to pass on
    Profit matters. But purpose? That’s what lasts.

Connect with T Shane Johnson:
☕ Website: www.biggunscoffee.com
📱 Social: @biggunscoffee
💼 LinkedIn: T Shane Johnson

Connect with Thomas Helfrich:
🐦 Twitter: @thelfrich
📘 Facebook: Cut The Tie Community
💼 LinkedIn: Thomas Helfrich
🌐 Website: www.cutthetie.com
📧 Email: t@insta

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Cut the Tie podcast. I am your host, thomas Helfrich, and I'm on a mission to help you cut the tie to whatever it is holding you back from success. Today, we're joined by T Shane Johnson.

Speaker 2:

T Shane how are you? Yeah, I'm doing great, sir. How about yourself? I'm?

Speaker 1:

very good. You said, sir, and we were talking off camera you are a Marine once and forever.

Speaker 2:

Yes sir, and you got it Once a Marine, always a Marine.

Speaker 1:

That's right. Anybody out there listening if you meet someone in the armed forces and they say they're a Marine, do not say their ex are retired. They may kill you. Just so you know they will. They know how to do it. They will kill you, they will die or they'll put you in a headlock for 12 to 15 seconds and it's not pleasant. T Shane, do you want to take a moment to introduce yourself and your business?

Speaker 2:

Yes, 10. So we do it together. She's the founder, I'm the co-founder. Most people kind of know me from the brand of T Shane Johnson as motivational speaker, bestselling author and world record athlete. I'm known for running across America or doing crazy world records to raise awareness or money for veteran causes or causes in need, and that's pretty much who I am?

Speaker 1:

I usually ask the question why are you unique? I think you've answered that one. Which, which world record are you most proud of?

Speaker 2:

Well, so the one people bring up is the the most pushups in one hour, but I'm most proud of the most pushups in 12 hours. So most pushups in one hour. I did 3,050, and in 12 hours I did 19,825. Okay, let, and in 12 hours I did 19,825.

Speaker 1:

Okay, let's just put that in perspective. That's more than most people do in a lifetime just to get out of bed. If you just add the date though, yeah, do it, it's a lot. 365 times 100 is still like 30,000. You blew that in an afternoon. Yeah, did you do. You do you have like super short arms, or yeah, how does one's that? How does it work, you know, is that supposed?

Speaker 2:

to be a big gut. There's the gut, the gut. Yeah, he's bouncing. Yeah, it was. It was I listen. I don't recommend doing it. It was basically a. The one hour is about 56, 57 pushups every 60 seconds and the 12 hour was about 27 pushups every 60 seconds for, obviously, 12 hours. So it it's. You know now, now, mind you, a guinness world record push-up is different than a full military push-up. As long as you break 90, then you're attempting the push-up versus a complete all the way up, all the way down structure. But nonetheless, to do anything for 12 hours straight, that physically is pretty tough.

Speaker 1:

So it was hard to walk. Yeah, it's hard to walk, or even sleep for 12 hours in a row. Think about it, right? I usually wake up and do something else. Did you do the one, two, three, four? I love Marine Corps for like 12 straight hours, is that it? That's right. I just didn't stop. Yeah, full metal jacket. This is my rifle.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, it sucked Again. I do not recommend it, but it raised a lot of money and it helped causes and, and that's more importantly, that's what it's all about?

Speaker 1:

did a couple people sign up go. I'll give you a dollar per push-up and you're like cool yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So it goes. It actually goes back to a really funny joke. My father was a professional bull rider growing up and so as kids we used to always do card push-ups. We'd go through a deck of cards, flip the cards and then basically what ended up happening is I started doing them all through.

Speaker 2:

So when I got in the Marine Corps I was part of a first reconnaissance battalion. We were going through some scuba training in the pool doing pool work, and one of the cadres at the time was like listen, we got in trouble, we got out of the pool and they were going to pretty much haze us and make us work. He says we're gonna do push-ups until johnson gets tired of doing push-ups. And I was like roger that this is a good time for me to shine. So we went through and I never got tired. And he says well, apparently johnson never gets tired of doing push-ups, so we're gonna get back in the pool of drowns. You guys so kind of a running joke in the marine corps. So it's funny later on doing world record push-ups you'd be like a good bar trick.

Speaker 1:

I will bet anyone here I can do more pushups than you can in the next 10 minutes.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, probably is. You got to keep doing them. You can't just stop so you break a world record. You got to stay in shape, because then everybody wants to challenge you.

Speaker 1:

We'll push on to a new topic. In your journey in life like since, you got a crazy life right and we only have a few minutes here to go through some of it, but what's been the biggest tie that you've had to cut- I probably probably imposter syndrome feeling worthy enough of success.

Speaker 2:

You know, considering all the challenges and the things I've been through, was and again, success is all relative, but be worthy of greatness. That's the hardest part, focusing on me. When you're a serving based personality, which I think a lot of military is, it makes it challenging to be able to take care of yourself because you've always want to help others. That's where you get your energy, where you're the strongest as a leader. So I think the biggest thing for me is just feeling worthy enough of the success and the second chance at life that I was given.

Speaker 1:

We see second chance at life. How do you mean that?

Speaker 2:

So when I was in the Marine Corps, during my time in, I was attempted a murder by MS-13 and they chased me down with a car on a motorcycle and they hit me and I caught the corner of a brick house at 45 miles an hour. I broke all the bones in my upper body, all of my organs were lacerated and cut through my ribs. I basically flat lined out three times. I spent about a year in the hospital. I had to learn how to walk, talk and breathe again.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I had a second chance of coming back and not dying.

Speaker 1:

MS-13,. How were they involved with?

Speaker 2:

you. So they were doing a. I think it was gang initiation. So if you were a new member and you killed a member of the military, then you get into the gang. Man, that's just stupid. That guy should have not gotten in. He lost.

Speaker 1:

He lost. Listen, dude. We gave you temporary. We're going to kill you now, Sorry.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well you're done. Yeah sorry, you did not kill that guy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean, it's not cool to kill people, but in this case, how did you overcome the imposter syndrome?

Speaker 2:

My daughter. So my daughter is so, ironically, being a motivational speaker for many, many years. You know they always say who's the speaker to the speaker, so she's like my emotional sport animal. She's amazing. She makes me feel valued and has always inspired me to do great things and believes in me and I and I accept that I may not accept it from other people, but from her I do accept that because I obviously want to be able to reciprocate that knowledge to her, to allow her that she's worthy of it too. They want to be a hypocrite of it. So once she believed in me I knew I could accomplish anything and that just kind of went to the races with it.

Speaker 1:

You said she founded the company. Was her idea? What was the? I'm sure you've discussed other places, but just for my own what was the? What was the moment when she founded it?

Speaker 2:

So I just completed the world record for the pushups and now my daughter's been involved with me on stage as a speaker. She runs across America, all of the parts she's been there. That was actually my whole model was to involve her and be a part of that. So I never was away from her and got to build a relationship with her. So she was relatively conditioned in that sense of knowing she wants to do something like dad was doing, and she saw the impact of me. People come up and shake your hand and wow, it's great and you're thanking for saving my life or thanking for doing this, and I think it just really resonated with her.

Speaker 2:

So I'd written a book called Done by 230, which was teaching us to be better CEOs of our home life than our business life and kind of that work-life balance topic, based on all the experiences, challenges I went through. I came down one stairs, one downstairs one day and she says dad, I want to start a business. All right, well, you know, just like a kid says I want to do dance or gymnastics, and we jump all over that, you know. So I just kind of take that same tenacity to her. I said, well, look, here's the deal. We'll start a business, but you got to come up with the name, the logo and you got to do the work. You're not going to be a novelty item, so you put the work in, you learn, you utilize these skills, understand that you also. We have to have an exit. I don't want you looking at this as this is for everything. I want you to learn from it, build from it, sell it, move on, go on to something different. I'm going to take all those skills.

Speaker 2:

And 30 minutes later I came downstairs. She had a six-year-old drew it at the time, so I had a little muscle on it, a little cup, and she called it Big Guns Coffee. And I said why do you want to call it Big Guns Coffee? And she says you know what, dad, all the stuff that you've done. She goes not everybody can do what you do, but maybe they can feel like it and I was like well, let's do it.

Speaker 1:

Is it a shop or is it like?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so we're an omni-channel. We have a cafe, which I'm in right now, a small cafe that we have, but we also we launch actually in Walmart and Sprouts and over 900 stores next month. We do wholesale roasting as well. And then our claim to fame really that we're kind of like viable for right now is we are the first and only indoor hydroponic coffee farmers in the United States Well, actually in the world, as far as we know right now, based on some of the feedback we've gotten. So we actually grow coffee indoors as American grown, american meat coffee.

Speaker 1:

That's it. But I always ask what your unique proposition is? Is that it's also you can control the quality incredibly well when you have the water and you don't need GMOs. You can just. No bugs are in here, right. So I love this idea that you can just natural light would be better, but I don't think it actually plant cares.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean you're mitigating factors, you're eliminating a large part of risk. I mean, at the end of the day, it's. Transparency is the subway of coffee. A consumer can walk in, look at the farm and see exactly what's going into it and we can find ways to perfect it. We don't have to look at the outside. I mean, a lot of coffee is grown in third world countries, so it makes it a lot challenging to utilize technology and resources to make it better Again. We'll never compete with the coffee market, but we are a substitute and a foundation for what? The future of coffee farming is.

Speaker 1:

I'll keep you in mind when we do a corporate sponsor. There's a lot of entrepreneurs that drink coffee, that love to support other entrepreneurs, so we'll talk off on that one. That probably won't make the cut for it and take this however you'd like to from the impact standpoint. But the question being what's been the impact since getting over imposter syndrome, launching this business and doing this, all these things in your life?

Speaker 2:

Well, I think it's uh, teaching my daughter all of the skills that unfortunately have to learn by a lot of mistakes later, you know and allowing to trust her in her decisions.

Speaker 2:

You know, I mean Sprouts and Walmart those two my daughter did the full presentations to the buyer executives. You know she we actually leave in about two weeks to go to the open cast call for Shark Tank. She does all the pitches I've taught her, you know, as a speaker, communication, shaking hands, looking people in the eye, working the floor. You know, if you ask her, her favorite thing is sales. She loves to be able to work the floor and go and connect, communicate with people and close the deal and, I think, to set aside coffee and it is a great. You know, there's a lot of story that you can intertwine in with coffee. But more importantly, it's just knowing that, as a father, through my PTSD and my fear of not being able to live as long as I'd like to, that she'll have the resources that create true value, not necessarily money. She'll have the value that she can go and do whatever she wants to and apply each one of those skills to that, and that makes me feel like I'm doing the right thing, which is good.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I mean the impact you're having on the millions you've already touched. But just even her. It's like no, with your own like lineage, like you have this other line coming that she's at least be well-trained and she got some ideas from daddy, so that's great.

Speaker 2:

Send it up for me. Give me some lesson for the listener. So I think the you know, from an entrepreneurial standpoint, the one thing that my daughter and always talk about is always sell right, and it's cliche. I mean it's super cliche because it sounds like something that's so redundant from everyone that talks about it. But take your adversities, they're part of it. Entrepreneurship sucks, it's not fun, it's not sexy. You get your butt handed to you 99.9 percent of the time and you have few successes and you've got to continue to push forward.

Speaker 2:

I will say that's the foundation of being a marine is to never quit. You know, in 200 plus, you know 270 plus years in the marine corps, we've never lost a battle and we continue to push, no matter what. We've done a lot with a little. And I think those same principles apply to our business and I think for everyone. Everyone else like make sure that you're an entrepreneur, not a wantrepreneur. Make sure it's something you want to do and commit to it, because it's not as fun as you think it is, and have a plan. Have a plan.

Speaker 2:

Most people don't have a plan. They don't have an exit strategy. They want to be married to it forever. You don't want to do that. We all want to sit in here and work that has a family. You want to be able to spend that time, so develop your business around that. Don't get married to it. Don't get emotional with it. Put the structure in place and close it out and get the win. You live in the greatest country in the world, right? Take advantage of what you have here and don't feel guilty for your success. Love that.

Speaker 1:

That's a packed loaded lesson I would hate to train with you. It would suck in the way entrepreneurship sucks. You get done. You're like I hate that guy. I better get some flex. Look at how strong I've gotten. God. I hate him though. All right, a couple of rapid fires here.

Speaker 2:

Who gives?

Speaker 1:

you inspiration. My daughter hands down. That was a clear answer. I don't know if maybe you're going to throw one on top for like God or Jesus or something, Because I was like that's a good one, it's a go-to, but the daughter's better. I like that. What's the best?

Speaker 2:

business advice you've ever received Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell sell, sell, sell Anything else.

Speaker 2:

I mean that's sales. Gear is all. I mean look, you got enough sales, you can find people to fix all the operational problems and all the systems in there. If you're not selling, you're dead in the water. You can put all that. I mean we know that right. Everybody that's listening knows that. I mean it's not anything new. The reality of it is is, for some reason I meet a lot of entrepreneurs. They just don't. They don't sell and that's frustrating. You got to sell it and that's why I love coffee. Everybody's a client, everybody's a customer. Everybody knows somebody drinks coffee or they drink coffee. It's a really fun product to sell.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and listen, I'm guilty of that myself. I looked at our company today as we transitioned and going from a marketing services agency to what we originally intended to be, what we originally intended to be, and I'm like we don't sell anything. Right now I actually don't have a product I'm actively selling and I'm like, oh, like that that keeps you up at night. When you realize that, like, oh, my God, like even even I don't know if that is a top of funnel for us yeah, and I'm like, what is it we sell? So work with people because I love it. And I'm like, holy shit, like I love it, but we got to get paid for some things. But like I love doing this, I'm like, but we don't actually sell any.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and man, it's not. I don't think it's your fault or anybody else's fault. I think what's happened is is that sales got such a bad rap that all these companies came up with ways to alleviate pain. And there's like a saying I say on stage is we purchase pleasure for our inability to endure pain? And corporate companies market on that and marketing companies. They basically thrive on the fact that you want to avoid that connection. And it gets back to the basics. Like you know, if you believe in something which is easy for me coffee and my daughter super simple then you're not really selling. You're telling right, so it's, it's really an opportunity to get back into it. But all these agencies are calling on entrepreneur 25 times a day. Well, you don't want to sell, you want to market online. You want to build a podcast. You want to do like look, I just talk to people like coffee, yes, great, give me money, I give you the coffee Easy.

Speaker 1:

So so cut the tie of the podcast. I just want to make sure it's exactly that. Where I meet guys like you, we have an agency that runs social media. We just do all. We're the outsource doer, so you don't have to hire staff to do it. That's how we sell. But I don't sell. I'd say this is what we do and you'd say something like I actually need that. I'm like cool, I'll put a proposal in front of you and you'll go yes, let's do that and we start working together. Yeah, not look at my profile and be able to tell that and that's. That is a problem. But at the same time I'm like but it's not how I sell. Like I don't like we do really good. We work for billion dollar companies. We run all their social down to guys like you and me. You know, my team runs all my social and all all the everything right, youtube, all that. They produce all this stuff. I show up the meeting guy. That's my sell anything. So I'm like, fuck, that might be a problem I want to address. Anyway.

Speaker 2:

Well, you got to have that call to action right, like just in marketing. When you market, you still got to have that CTA and you're just a different version of that CTA. I mean again, it's just diversified.

Speaker 1:

Well, the other step is I'll meet a guy like you. You probably don't what we have because you've got a lot of it figured out, but what I do tell people is, if you know people who are struggling to get it off the ground, that's where we kind of we help people get to that first 10k a month that's actually my, that's my sweet spot is get out of your corporate job and, while you're there, have them pay for you to fund your own startup.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely great action companies don't it's hireable I'm in hireable well, that's how we did our hike across america was really a CSR platform for combining marketing agencies with corporations, because they didn't have a storyline and I would do 22 miles a day for 65 days straight and I would tie that to a cause so that that way I can make sure the underserved community got taken care of as well, as the corporation had the ability to be able to tell a two month story, because very rarely do you have a marketing platform where you can tell two month story.

Speaker 2:

But if you're driving constant every day, running to different cities, running and talking to different people and you're pushing that on your marketing platform, it allows a story to kind of really build. And it worked great for me because I was able to provide that for a company right in conjunction with the marketing platform, and then what it ended up doing is packaging that up and then we were able to kind of, like you mentioned, get corporate sponsors and do things that could help the underserved community. So it was really cool because you could bring two communities together, build a story platform. Obviously it helped develop our brand and our story, but in conjunction with that, you know, it allowed the underserved community to get a benefit from it and allow everybody to just almost kind of like watch episodes, right, just like a like a binge watch Netflix for 65 days of a story that they're a part of Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

It's funny, I was on the blocks. So it's an entrepreneurial reality show by Wes Bergman. You should, you should go on there. You would crush it, by the way, because it's just more marketing, if you will, and it's actually a good week of meeting a bunch of crazy entrepreneurs. But the idea I came out of that was like why don't we do our own reality show for cut the tie, like like you never know what, like the things you've done get you to where you're going to go do next. And so it's like, hmm, might be actually good at that. Anyway, back to the rapid fire questions. What's the recommended must read book?

Speaker 2:

Recently, I just did Buy Back your Time by Dan Martell.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's a good one. What was the one thing he took from it?

Speaker 2:

Delegation. I think when you're running a business you get a little too married to it and I love his obviously buying the time to focus on the resources that are bigger. I took more from it, kind of combining my effort of maximizing opportunity with my daughter. So his higher level thought process of going out and getting bigger clients was more about the value at the time that she and I can go do things like pop on Shark Tank or go sit with corporate executives but make it a trip out where we can sit down and have the retail boxes take us in. But I really like that. Sometimes it's just a. You know you've got the Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hills and the passion, but I've got all that already when I was just a matter of okay, you know, maximizing that time as much as possible and finding ways to delegate that out, but really relinquish that control a little bit Awesome If you had to start over today.

Speaker 1:

What?

Speaker 2:

would you do differently? Uh well, that podcast now went to two hours. Um, yeah, I you know what I will say. I will be cliche, I would say nothing. I will say I'm exactly where I am right now because of all the steps that I make, and if I change that, I would not be able to have this amazing business with my daughter.

Speaker 2:

So I will probably stay on that side and say I wouldn't change a single thing, because I like the path I'm on right now. I like exactly where I am. I'm grateful for my second chance at life. I don't take it for granted and I'm happy right where I am.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, and if there's one question I should have asked you today, but I didn't, what was that question and how?

Speaker 2:

would you answer it? Oh, that's a good question. I would probably say a little bit more of the adversities that we've went through. I think what is the most challenging thing that we're currently seeing in business right now? That's one thing about reading books and talking to people.

Speaker 2:

Is we talked about this just's just a little bit offline is that it's always the positives, right? Well, I'm doing this and I'm crushing it at this and doing this and not reality. That, like you're just. You're just the borderline from jumping off the top of a bridge because of the challenges, and I think everybody feels that and I think people need to know that more. I think these speakers need to tell more about that so that way you don't feel alone, cause it starts to isolate you, thinking you're the only one that you're failing, you're making stupid decisions, you're doing stuff, and I think we need a stronger community with that, because when I hear someone else be like, hey, I'm successful, but oh my god, I made this mistake and it cost me this, I'd be like all right, I'm not a complete idiot. Like I make mistakes like other people, and there is an upside to it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well that. I mean, that's exactly what we're doing. Cut the tie right, is it? You know? And, and specifically, probably the next level group will be a men's group. I can't have a women's perspective, but I'm favoring heavily a men's group that meets up quarterly or maybe a half a year. It's some fun, like fishing in Costa Rica, is what I always say. It's like let's all go fishing in Costa Rica for a weekend and get to know each other and have fun. And you know, for those of you who drink, still, I'll drive you around right, Like it's fine. But anyway, because of that reason, you do get in there. And you know, yeah, you have wives and people are around you, but they don't unless you're in it. The loneliness is a self-reflective piece, not so much that people aren't supportive of you and it's impossible to explain unless you're in it.

Speaker 2:

Well, it's just a bunch of psychopaths and you need to be around more psychopaths because the reality of it is people just don't think like you do and to have a negative reaction to everything you're doing. So when you've got a good community of people, a bunch of psychopaths, then it makes it makes it a little easier to get through it and accomplish things you need to. I mean, that's what, as a Marine Corps, I mean when you talk about transition veterans, it's not about transitioning, it's just that you lose this amazing amount of camaraderie and support because you do nothing but go through pain. But you've got your guys to your left and to your right. You get through it. You're still complaining, you're still whining, but you all continue to push forward. That's the part that makes it hard in transition, not all the other stuff.

Speaker 1:

Byron, thank you so much for coming on today. Who should get a hold of you? How should they do that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so biggunscoffeecom, tshaneyroscom. Our social media handles are at Big Guns Coffee and at T-Shane.

Speaker 1:

Johnson Awesome. Thank you. I appreciate you coming on T-Shane. You rock my pleasure. Thank you, sir. Anybody still watching listening? I really appreciate you listening to the podcast of Cut the Tie. Get out there, go cut a tie to something holding you back and unleash that best version of yourself.

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