Bart Merrell: The Side Hustle Strategist

Bart Merrell is an international entrepreneur, author, and presenter of Monetize Your Mindset. As a serial entrepreneur, he has been turning opportunities into successful ventures since childhood—long before he was even old enough to drive. His entrepreneurial journey is marked by creativity, resilience, and a willingness to take bold risks (including an early, memorable crash behind the wheel at just eight years old).

He is also the creator of two YouTube channels, Beyond Limbs: Amputee Answers & Options and Side Hustle Samurai, where he shares insights, resources, and inspiration for individuals seeking growth and independence.

Among his many unique experiences, Bart played a role in bringing the first commercial bungee jump to Japan—an adventure he recalls with humor, especially considering he once jumped while holding the cord with his hands.

Driven by a clear mission, Bart is dedicated to helping others create financial security by monetizing what they already know. He believes that while life’s challenges are inevitable, building a strong financial foundation empowers individuals to navigate them with confidence.

In his book, Monetize Your Mindset, Bart teaches that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary success by learning to recognize and act on the opportunities around them. Whether launching a first side hustle or scaling an existing business, he emphasizes that sustainable financial freedom begins with the right mindset.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I always get asked what tools my guests use to build their businesses. What CRM is that? What camera are they using? How do they track their sales? So I did the work for you. I compiled a list of the top 20 tools and resources mentioned by my guest into a free PDF guide. It's the exact tech stack building seven figure businesses use right now. You can grab it for free. Download the guest black book at go.tronpodcast.com. Stop guesting and start building. Link in the show notes. Tron Podcast Listeners, the randomist of nothing, always tries to get people from fascinating walks of life about what they do, what they created, what they made. And this man is the epitome of it because he's the side hustle samurai. And obviously side hustles are very prominent in the language, but this is a guy who pioneered the method who's never had a real job. So for people who really want to get some anecdotes, some life lessons, and some learning from a guy who's willing to share it with us, Bart Morel. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. I very much appreciate it. So, like your background, you know, I had to laugh kind of a little bit because it's like acres of big poop, right? You're the first, you know, we'll get to that in with that statement, you know, but it's really monetize your mindset. And now you're also a coach and you have courses about how people can basically, if they find themselves at a crossroads, how they can survive and thrive on their own.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

Yes. And, you know, people often ask me, well, how did you get here? And I said, it wasn't on purpose. It wasn't on purpose at all. I was my dream job was to get in the FBI and chase serial killers. And my I I didn't make it. Make a long story short, I had RK surgery done on my eyes back when it first came out. And I found out that that automatically disqualified because the FBI didn't want to put tens of thousands of dollars into an agent and then have him go blind because it was still considered experimental. And I was devastated. I was just like, what am I gonna do? And I kind of fell back on on what my dad taught me, and that he never set me down and taught me the birds and the bees of business. He just showed me by example by having his hands in many things. And so anything that crossed my path, good, bad, or ugly, I always ask, can I monetize it or how can I monetize it? That's um wow. And that comes natural to me. And if you didn't grow up with my dad or someone like my dad, you don't think like I do. And so I'm here to help people think like I do and not leave money on the table that is just right there for the grabbing.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

I think that there's something to be said, you know. You said if it's your biography, you grew up in a town of 200 people, right? So you had well that was that was my high school. Okay, I apologize.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

And that was seventh grade through twelfth grade was around 200 people. That's crazy. And you had people driving, you know, 60 miles to get to school. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

That's you know, and and so, you know, and and I read where you said, like, it's great to be there because everybody wants to succeed, but everybody kind of knows your business. And so the idea that you see things that other people don't is a it's a characteristic and a trait that I think that, and I don't want to get too far deep into education, people have convinced themselves that there's only one way to be successful or to actually make money because that's what's been permeated through your thought process of a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

Yeah, it's been ingrained from from grade school on. We go to school, we go to school, we get a job, go to college, get more education, and it's gonna get us a better job. Not true, not true. And in in this day and time, especially with the invent of AI and AI coming out, and knowledge is right there at your fingertips. Absolutely it is. It's there's no deficit of knowledge because you didn't go to school.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Right, right. It's funny you say anything you want, right? And it's funny you say that because like it's almost like if you're like, let's say you're a musician and you know, you have an opportunity to get like a record contract. There's really no excuse to sign a bad record contract because you can YouTube of all the platfalls to avoid getting a bad record contract. Whereas, you know, 30, 40, 50 years ago, maybe even 15 years ago, you know, it was like you just signed whatever was in front of you because you didn't have the the resources that were in front of you to make a good sound decision.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Everything's just right there. It really is. So you you know, you started off, you were a mobile DJ at 15. Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

So I bought my first stereo at age 11. I love music, I love listening to music, and I worked all summer on the pig farm to get the$285 to buy this Sanyo all-in-one system. And most people don't even can't even imagine what this is, but it had a cassette deck over here, tuner in the middle, an eight-track player on this side, yeah, and a record player on top. I mean, it was a dream for me. I mean, I would go to my bedroom, I'd crank that up. Mom and dad was like, oh, why'd we let him get that? But little did I know, little did I know that this was a liability. Because every time we went to town, I had to buy the new tunes. And back then, you couldn't just buy the one song you liked or the two songs you liked. You had to buy the crap with the good with the good two songs that are on the cassette or the CD or whatever it was at the time. And and so as I was just like, oh, this is a lot of money for a little kid, but I was doing it. Then when I got my driver's license at 15, I was just like, okay, I'm playing the music, I love it, I need to make money at it.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Right.

SPEAKER_02 5:31

And so I I I had my car, I had a I bought a little enclosed trailer to pull my stuff around, yeah, and I started doing dances, but there was nobody in my small town in New Mexico hiring 15-year-old DJs. And so I had to create my own opportunity. I rented the community center, hired an off-duty cop for security, mom and dad took money at the door, and I spun records, everybody had a great time. I I made six, seven hundred dollars a night doing something I loved.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Isn't that that is amazing? As a 15-year-old kid back in the 80s. Listen, you know, I was on a college campus in 2001, and you know, 150 bucks was like, you know, liquid gold, right? Like it was like you might as well have broke open the treasury of Fort Knox. 600, 700 bucks as a 16-year-old kid, you know, catch by themselves living at home. Man, that's that's insane. And I did that through college.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

It it gave me the extra money to do stuff, to do fun things. My dad always said I had a uh champagne taste and a beer budget, so it helped me with my champagne taste.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

You know, I I gotta ask you, and I hate to interrupt, I ask this because oftentimes when people do things that are out of the unconventional means, you have the naysayers, or you have the people that are like, Well, I don't do that, or it's all did you have naysayers that, you know, at your peer level that were like, Well, why would you do that? Or that's not the traditional path to success.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

Not at the peer level, but let's just imagine what can happen at one of these dances. You have people that maybe get in a fight, you have people that maybe go, you know, kids go out and and maybe consume alcohol, you know, not inside the the venue because I had a cop there, but then things happen, and some parents would look down on me a little bit because my events had stuff happen at them sometimes. And and it was it was very minimal, and it was not very often, but you still had parents looking down on this kid who was putting on dances. Yeah, it's a but it was a it was a place for people to go and do something in small town America. I mean, it was amazing. It was footloose. Yeah, and it was after the football games, what else are they gonna do? Exactly after the basketball games, they're gonna go party somewhere. We may as well come to my dance.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Absolutely. So so what did that mindset lead to you while you're going through college and you're doing that and to elevate you later on in life, say, oh man, you know, I can suddenly bounce into this, I can navigate into this avenue. You know, where did that lead you to other things to monetize and start realizing that there's I I I can do this, you know, all the time.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

So it nothing really happened until my dream job got blown up. Oh wow. When my dream job got blown up, right after I mean, I'm I'm gradu. So to get into the into the FBI, I was encouraged to take accounting classes because it was the easiest way in the FBI. And so I'm going to college, studying accounting. I found out very quickly that I do not like accounting, and I was not very good at it. So I graduated in something that I like, don't like, and I'm not good at, and my whole purpose in life just blow up. It's blown up. And so I'm seriously, I'm devastated. I can only imagine. And I'm doing my part-time job that I was doing at college, which was landscaping, and for five bucks an hour, I mean, it wasn't very much at all. And a buddy of mine jokingly asked me, Do you would you like to go back to Japan? Because I'd spent some time in Japan, and he worked for a bungee jump company.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

And they had just sold a tower in Japan. And I'm like, I thought about it one second, and I non-jokingly responded, Yeah, I think I would. And the deal, and so I I contracted with the company in Japan to come and help them with the installation and with the training. And I was all expenses paid plus$15 an hour, so triple what I was making. Easy decision. Yeah, it was an easy decision. And then the company liked me, and so I just went back and forth from Japan to America. I'd spent three or four months in Japan doing things. We did other other amusement park rides together, the Sky Coaster. It's a big swing thing in all the parks here in the USA. And and they they actually called me, said, Hey, do you have one of those close to you that you can go try? And they paid me like three thousand dollars to go try it. Are you serious? That's crazy. Yes, and I went, I went and tried it. It was like an hour and a half from where I lived. Me and my girlfriend, we went on a date to the park. We did it, and I reported back. And so we took that first one of those to Japan. And then they called me. It was, I remember it was right around Christmas time, and they said, This was probably 1997, 1998, and they they called me and they said, We saw this thing on TV, it's in Germany. It's a complete unattached free fall into a net from about 150 feet in the air. We want you, we want you to go try it. Oh my god. And I just kind of go unattached free fall into a net, that's gotta hurt. Yeah, of course. Yeah, I know. That's why we want you to go try it.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Yeah, but yeah, let's let's call this guy, right? He's already, you know, we need we need a low risk and you know, you know, no chansurability whatsoever.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

Let's call the test dummy, emphasis on dummy.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Yeah, that's what I didn't want to say that you said it, but it's like, yeah, let's get this guy and everybody else. Our citizens' lives aren't worth it. Let's get this guy from overseas.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

Yeah. And and I called Germany, and it turned out that it was only for stunt men right at the time, stunt people at the time. Yeah. And I never thought I would get a call back. They said, We'll call you back when it's ready for the public. Two months later, I got a call and I was on a plane to Germany to try this thing. Tried it three or four times, continued on to Japan. We sold three in Japan, and then I helped I contracted with the German company to help build two of those in the United States.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

And see, these are the things they don't teach you. You can't be educated, hustle, right? It either has to be in your DNA, it has to be inherently, you know, belonging to you. But then now one thing leads to another, and you're meeting people overseas, and then the contract leads to the next contract, so to speak.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Yeah, and and even so I'm in Japan with all doing all these things. I'm going to a gym in Japan, and I'm this big gaijin, you know, this big American that nobody wants to talk to because he's big, one, and number two, they don't know if he speaks Japanese. So I'm in this gym for like two or three weeks, nobody talking to me except the staff. And this one guy comes up to me and he goes, hero, and I said, Hello. And then I start speaking Japanese to him. He's like, I'm glad you speak Japanese because I was done at hero. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We became friends. He was a big rig driver in Japan, drove big trucks in Japan. He said, about a year and a half after we met, he's like, I want to quit driving big rigs and start importing uh camping trailers and Ford and Dodge diesel pickups from America. Will you help me? I thought he knew how to do it. I said yes. He didn't know how to do it. Oh smokes. So we learned we learned together, and we've been doing that since 1997. We still do it to this day.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

Are you serious? Yes. It's amazing. But he's a guy who had drive and you know connected with the person that could ultimately, if he if he had a need and he saw a void in the market, and then he saw a person that was already involved with doing things, and that's how he linked up.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

Yeah, we were just we became friends, and he's like, You're you you gotta help me, you can help me. And I'm like, Okay, let's do it. And we figured it out together. You have a oh um, I'm drawing a blink right now, Branson, yeah, the the Virgin Records guy, Virgin Branson. Yeah, yes, yes, yes. He has he has a quote. Richard Branson. Richard Branson. Richard Branson, yeah. I was saying Russell, but it's Richard. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he has a quotation that goes, If someone comes to you with an amazing opportunity and you don't know how to do it, say yes and learn as you go.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

Yeah. And that's what that's what we did, but but what it is is the opportunity came. So let's let's call it luck. Okay, I was in the gym, this guy we made friends, luck. But luck is when opportunity and preparedness meet, and I add one more thing. You take action. Without question.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Without question.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

Without the action, nothing happens.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

Without question.

SPEAKER_02 13:55

And so that's what me and this guy did. And like I said, it's been a really great side hustle for what? How long is that now? Twenty twenty-eight, twenty-nine years.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

The most amazing part about this is that you know, you're not gonna find those things posted on the internet. You're not gonna like no, it's one of those things that if you don't talk, if you don't navigate, if you don't network, if you don't move, make connections, there's nothing advertised about an opportunity like that that you're gonna see. You either know people, make the the transactions take place and happen, or you don't, and you will never have that access of information like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

And and you have to have the mindset that you have to make things happen. Like as a DJ, nobody was hiring me. I went out and I created my own thing. So I want to take that a step further to now in my life. What do I talk about? I talk about teaching people side hustles. That's what I speak on. Apple or ATT or whatever business is not gonna pay me to come into their corporation and speak on side hustles and getting people to side hustles because they don't want their employees to go do side hustles. They want them to focus on work. So what do I have to do? So what do I do? I create my own events based on teaching people how to identify their ideal side hustle and make money that way. Another side business based around so I love speaking about this stuff. I love talking about it and helping people with it. I love seeing people you can you can see them when you're talking to them and you're talking about the different ideas that they might have. You can see the one that they should probably try first because their their countenance changes, their excitement changes. They can explain it to you in a way that you can understand it and you think, oh yeah, I probably need that.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

Well, it's funny, you know, when you Yeah. I'm so sorry. I was just gonna say, you know.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

I was just gonna say that that um that when something comes across your path, you may have to take action to make it happen. It's not just gonna come go, hey, you're right, let's do this, let's do this, dude.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

And yeah, sitting on, I promise you that nobody's gonna call you off your couch and present you with an opportunity. Like that there's you know, if you're sitting at home, you know, and you know, man, I hope somebody gives me a shot, man. I hope this actually happens. That's really, you know, that's it, it it's just a wish, right? And so when when people start asking, you know, what your business is, if you talk to enough people, you'll have that one person that will say, okay, what is tell me details about it. And it better not be vague, it better not be a bunch of umms and and and unfinished sentences, because you'll get that one person that will start asking you details and you're gonna look foolish, right? Because they're really gonna want to know, you know, your friends will pat you on the back, the serious person that's sitting out there be like, Oh, what's your butt? What's your you know, what's your LLC, what's your you know, MVP, um, all the details that go along with it. And if you can't fill in those gaps, they'll quickly find out that you just talk. Yeah, yeah. And and so your courses, you know, I I first of all, I always think of the movie The Maltese Falcon, the character's name was Casper Gutman. Um, and he says, uh, by Sidney Green Street, I'm a movie guy, and he says, you know, I just trust a closed-mouthed man. Uh no, I I I enjoy a man who likes to talk. He's like, no, sir, talking is something you don't learn to use judiciously, it's something you have to practice at. Now, sir, we'll talk, but I'm telling you right now, I'm a man that likes to talk into a man that likes to talk. Right. So you're like, and the way that line rolled off in that movie, I've always loved that quote, right? Because you love talking to a man who loves to talk, and that's why you're so successful in your field. So let's talk about like your side hustle samurai courses as you navigate not having the conventional path to success.

SPEAKER_02 17:37

So finding somebody's ideal side hustle is what my goal is. I don't come into this with when I'm working with someone, I don't come into it with an agenda, hey, come join my network marketing company, come sell my stuff and make money selling my stuff. We go through their life and their experiences and find the unique things about them that they could turn into a a stream of income. Maybe it's something they're already doing, which that's a bonus, or something they like to do, because they're gonna be doing it anyway. You might as well get paid to do it. There's several things in my life, and then what do you things you need to do? Let's take a quick detour. I don't know if you did your research, you probably know that I I have my lower left leg amputated.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 18:23

But this is just recently, it was 2024, March 25th, 2024. I found out it was gonna happen in 2023. And when I found out it was gonna happen after the shock and awe was over, my twisted mind goes, Okay, I don't like this, but it's gonna happen. There's nothing I can do about it, so how can I monetize it? Six months post-op, I am sitting with my prosthetist, and I said, Hey Scott, you know I interviewed three other prosthetists before I decided on you. One of them had a guy, a guy that I could ask questions like, How bad is this gonna hurt? How long till it till I can get back to work? How long what about phantom pain? Am I gonna have phantom pain? I could ask questions to Scott, you don't have a guy. I'm your guy.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Right.

SPEAKER_02 19:13

And that started a negotiation. Once again, I don't want a job. I told him that. I said, Scott, I don't want a job. I don't want to come into the office every day. I want to be on retainer. You send me the numbers, I will talk to people. Right. And so I am still on retainer. It's been what, we're almost two years now. Right. And I'm on retainer where I help him just help the people that are gonna go through what it is I went through because it's not easy.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

Oh my gosh, no.

SPEAKER_02 19:38

I can only answer. Yeah, one once again, I didn't want to have my leg chopped off, and I'm not saying your audience should go chop off body parts to get a side hustle. Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

Right.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

I'm just saying whatever crosses your path, always ask that question. And I help people to start thinking like this by asking them questions. What do you like to do? What do you need to do? What are you already doing? And they I'm and I have them make lists, and I say, don't think about whether you can monetize it. Don't qualify anything now, just make your list. Even if you have an idea that you've, you know, I've had I have people come to me, hey but I want to start this. I say, okay, I know you have an idea already in mind, but trust the process. Let's go through the process. And and they always come up with something in addition to or something different than what they initially came to me with.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

Right. And I would love to you to give the full quote of what we talked about earlier that has kind of been misused in in history when it comes to what you're referring to in that regard.

SPEAKER_02 20:43

Yeah, people come to me and they'll they'll say, Well, I need to focus on my work, because you know what they say, Jack of all trades, and I'm like, Jack of all trades, what? Jack of all trades, master of none. And they say, Do you know what you're saying? Do you know the full quotation? Yeah, I I need to focus. I says, No, the full quotation is Jack of all trades, master of none, though oftentimes better than the master of one. We use that quotation totally opposite than what it's meant for. Yes. For some reason, someone decided I need to just focus, and we chopped off the into that quotation.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

Right, right. And you know, and you know the thing is about it is that the conventional ways to success has in many ways trapped people to not tap into their full potential, has trapped people into segments of or lifestyles that they're unhappy with because it becomes mundane and routine for them. Or, you know, market conditions dictate that they have to pivot when they're not prepared to do so, right?

SPEAKER_02 21:47

Can we talk about another quotation that's out there? Absolutely. Henry David Throw said um what does he say that that the majority of people out there, and I'm just preparing. Paraphrasing his quote, are living in quiet desperation. And when and I heard this from a speech coach of mine, he was talking to me about, we were talking about what I do, and he says, You know, you you you give hope to people, and I'm just like, really, people are living in quiet desperation? No, not that many people are living in quiet desperation. I think that way because I've never done the real job thing. But I can imagine that a lot of people are unhappy with what they're doing, the mundane, whatever it is that they have to do to survive, rather than, like you said, get their full potential and do the things that may or be a little bit different that people let's go back to you ask me if people said stuff about me as a DJ as a kid. Nowadays, with social media and everything that's out there, we're worried about what everybody thinks. And that gets in our head and stops us from jumping out of the norm and reaching our full potential.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

Right. And and and you know, the the sad reality about it is too is that we often pass it down to our kids and to the next generation, right? And so, you know, I always think of the quote, you know, um, you laugh at me because I'm different, I laugh because you're all the same, right? And so it it it really is, and then this show is focused on the rule breakers, you know, the non-conventional paths to success, the people who are willing to get chuckled at, so to speak, but ultimately found out that this made them more lucrative, it made them more happy. It it the most recession-proof profession is it is is being is is a mortar, is a mortician, right? Like, you know, like let's just keep it totally honest with ourselves, right? You know, you're always get people are always sadly gonna leave this earth, and and that's all she wrote. Um, so it I love what you're offering. I know you have multiple websites, you have multiple streams of income, and I think this show and episode is very important because you've mastered that. What are your courses when onboarding somebody and what you have to offer to people? So I do um a workshop.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

I call it a workshop on purpose. It's not an event, and it is a no-fluff workshop. We're not if you're not in touch with your feelings, you're not gonna get in touch with your feelings at my workshop. But it's called the I didn't it's called the Identify Your Ideal Side Hustle Workshop. I do them live in Utah and then I do them virtually online, and you can the registration link will always for the next event will always be at side hustle dojo.com.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

And that's a free workshop. And and obviously there's going to be an offer, you're gonna get lots of value, and you're gonna find your idea, you're gonna you're gonna walk out with a handful of ideas, but you're also gonna get an offer of ways to work with me. If you need a mentor, you need someone to hold your hand and take get that to a stream of income. But you know the course is it's free. It's and it's an all it's an all-day course whenever it's in person. Online, I split that into two days so that it's a little bit less monotonous sitting in front of your computer. But but it's it's if you want to learn how to think like I do and identify the opportunities that are all around you, it's a it's a perfect place to start.

SPEAKER_00 25:19

I would love to somehow partner the show with your with your uh services. So if there's some sort of if you do have a a different course or higher level and if there's a paid option, maybe we can have like some sort of uh affiliate link, you know, with my with the podcast. If people want to identify a side hustle, they can say, hey, I heard this on the Tron podcast. I would love to find more about Bart Morel and his services they have to offer. I think that this could be a very high-level beneficial benefit to the audience and the people who listen. Absolutely. We can do that. I appreciate it. Yeah, I think that would be great. You know, and I've always I've always found it fascinating because whenever I try to encompass somebody's success and career in 25, 30 minutes, it's still not enough, right? Because we could talk about your your time in Japan, we could talk about pig farming. Is there anything we haven't discussed that you would like to talk about?

SPEAKER_02 26:05

So, what I want people to understand is there's opportunities all around us, and you're overlooking them. Have you heard the story Acres of Diamonds?

SPEAKER_00 26:13

I have not, but I would love to hear it.

SPEAKER_02 26:15

So, Acres of Diamonds is about a Persian farmer, his name was Alia Fed. He sold his farm and he went in search of diamonds. He died broke alone in a foreign land, he never found his riches. The farmer that bought his farm was watering his camel in a brook that ran through the property. He looked down in the water and he saw a strange rock, and it was a diamond. Are you serious? He found acres of diamonds in what was Alia Fed's backyard.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 26:41

In your own backyard. My family, we have a similar story. Instead of acres of diamonds, I have to sit up for this. It's called Acres of Pig Poop. Like mentioned, I grew up in a small town. There were more pigs than people in my town because of us. We were we were pig farmers. At any one time on our farm, we had roughly 18,000, 19,000 pigs on the farm. We had about 2,000 sows. Do you know what a sow is?

SPEAKER_00 27:06

I've heard it, you know, but I've never been on a farm. You know, I've probably I consider myself a pretty smart guy, but off the top of my head, I don't know what that is. So this is it's a mama pig. Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 27:15

We had about 2,000 sows, and a mama pig can give birth 2.5 times a year.

SPEAKER_00 27:20

Holy cow.

SPEAKER_02 27:21

And on our farm, we average 9.97 pigs per litter. So if you do the math, that equals a lot of pig poop.

SPEAKER_00 27:29

Sure does. Sure does.

SPEAKER_02 27:30

So we had these man-made we had these man-made ponds called the lagoons that we would send the sewage to. You know, one year it cohere, next year here, next year here. We just rotate the settling pond. Now, Dad, when he got in his mid-sixties, he decided it was time to shut down the pig operation and go in search of his next acres of diamonds. He died at age 81. He never found his next big opportunity. About two years after he passed, we sold the farm for$235,000, which was a fair price for the property at the time. Six months later, the new owners of our farm were leveling those man-made ponds, the lagoons. Now they had been dry on top for years. Right, right. They've been nothing going into them since like 1993 or 4. You know, they've been dry forever.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:20

But the heavy grater was going across the pond and broke through the crust and sunk up to its belly in this black muck. Liquid, soft, mushy black muck. Yeah. They called in experts. Right there on the spot, they offered the new owners of our farm two thousand dollars a ton for the sh stuff. That's a dollar a pound for old pig poop. The farm that we sold for$235,000 was now worth over a million dollars. Yikes. Acres of diamonds right under my dad's nose.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

I mean, literally, you're dealing with it every single day. You know what I'm saying? And and obviously, I I mean that that's got a sting, but it's also you've obviously found success outside of that situation, you know, and but those are the things that you know people don't see because they're seeking and they don't actually see what's in front of them. And I was looking, looking, looking, and it was right there. Isn't it? You know, I I went to college, right? And so I come, I have a family of barbers, right? And so what's funny is it's like I never learned to cut hair. You know, I can I can do a beard and decent and line myself up. I go to college, right? And one of my best friends in college is a barber, and you see the line of people, like I could think about it, a college campus with thousands of customers that need to have their hair cut, right? And you're just and all of a sudden I'm getting my hair cut by this dude, and I'm like, you never have to get a job in college. You never, you will always have people needing to cut hair in between class, on weekends. Yep, you you know, you don't have to pay for a haircut, you know, it and it's organic because it's a it's somebody's doing hair. So you're like, dude, you cut hair, then they bring their friend, right? And then, you know, you can tell you can schedule your own time. You know, here and I'm literally at this guy's apartment and I'm like, damn, I didn't. Are you serious? You all just learning how to cut hair, you know, and those are the things that were staring at me in my face the entire time. And it never occurred to me when I was 18, man, I really should have learned that skill.

SPEAKER_02 30:31

Yeah, and so people who are listening to this podcast, think about the things that are right there in front of you that you may be overlooking. Right. Don't be like Alia Fed or my dad and miss your opportunity because it's right there, right there. Oh my gosh, within your grasp, right there in your own backyard, in my dad's case, right under his nose, and it may look like a pile of pig poop.

SPEAKER_00 30:55

Well, you know what? I would I think that this is one of the most, you know, this is up there for me because like when you hear about non-conventional past success, you know, you were to say you never had, you know, a real job, and you know, to be able to cross-travel and see the world, make deals and and share that information with people, you know, this is what this show was created for was to find those those people that you know have cultivated those type of mindsets, thoughts, and processes, and more importantly, willing to share it with other people. You know, and there's something that's very, very that I cherish about that, and I'm very grateful for your time for the purpose of this show.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

Let's let's give your audience one more free gift. I have the 1k blind spot assessment. What's holding your back from making your one your first$1,000 on the side? And you can get that at your idealside hustle.com. It's just a short 10-minute quiz, multiple choice questions, and it is gonna tell you the things that you're good at, but it's also gonna identify the blind spots that you might need to focus on. And then if you take it's just a free assessment that will it'll also connect you with me, so it'll it'll it'll connect you with me so you can hear when I put stuff out and all that good stuff.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

You know, and that's and I I went to the website, and you know, that's gonna be a self-assessment I'm doing myself too, to be quite honest with you, right? And so it I think that there's beauty in in being self-assessment and self-aware, and sometimes you just need somebody to bring it out to uh for you, right? And so I want to thank Bart Morel for your time. And where obviously, where can people find you? And I'm very gracious that you were willing to share this information.

SPEAKER_02 32:30

I'm on Facebook, that's where I'm the most active. But just hook get that assessment, that'll hook me up, and I will anytime something new comes out, you'll get a uh e quick email from me saying, Hey, if you're this is something you're interested in, have a look. It's there.

SPEAKER_00 32:44

I really appreciate you. And that and for people who enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show. Bart Morel is sharing the the life and insights of what the side hustle is all about. And with all due respect, it may be a big pile of poo that's staring you in your face. Thank you very much for your time.

SPEAKER_02 33:00

All right, thank you, man.

SPEAKER_00 33:01

Yep, that was fun. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you.