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The art and Science of grit, ambition, & betting on yourself
0 Playsin 12 hours
The voices telling you it won't work usually belong to people who never tried. Nobody gives you permission to take a chance. You just do it.
Chris built a 50K MRR business without a formal education, a tech background, or a plan. As an actor, a car dealership paid him $400 to be in a commercial and he thought, "If I can pretend to do this, what happens if I just actually do it?"
From there it was taking on teaching himself APIs, webhooks integrations, and enough failures to make most people quit. He's now responsible for 40% of some dealerships' bottom lines, working remotely from Ottawa, heading to Costa Rica.
We talked about why people don't take that first step. Chris's take is it's mostly the room you're in. When you move somewhere nobody knows you, the risk calculus changes. The voices telling you you're going to look stupid usually belong to people who never left.
We also got into social media, the throttled notification drip sequences designed to keep you coming back, the rage bait economy, the positive reinforcement loop that rewards the most outrageous behavior. His advice was simple: put your phone down and tackle your life goals head on.
Chris also hosts Bad Hombres TV on YouTube.
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Transcript
Introduction and Background
00:00:08
Speaker
Hey listeners, this week we're going to skip the intro. I was recording from an airport lounge. George was recording from a hotel room. Our guest is the only one who had a decent setup. But this week we're talking to Chris Menenzas, host of the Bad Hombres TV show and taking a step back from tech specifically to talk a little bit more about human ambition, entrepreneurship, and what keeps people going. So let's get into it.
00:00:37
Speaker
All right, Chris, the bad hombre, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me, guys. My name is Chris. I'm i'm an entrepreneur. I'm a content creator. And I am somebody who loves the American dream and the Canadian dream.
00:00:52
Speaker
And because it became very real for me. But aside from that, I'm passionate about technology, AI, and hopefully we can have a conversation about that today.
00:01:04
Speaker
Yeah, let's do it. yeah George, kick us off. Yeah,
Journey to Success
00:01:08
Speaker
thanks, George. um So funny enough, George and I are both on the road right now in different cities doing different things.
00:01:16
Speaker
And Chris is the only one who's actually in his home studio. So thanks for joining us, Chris. ah Just for context, Chris and I have known each other for about five years. Yeah, five years. A little bit more than that. yeah a little bit more than that. So we, um, don't know, we were, we're, we're teammates of the same fight club that Taylor, who our past guest, uh, she's, she's a member of. And, um it's kind of one of those cool things about fighting where you attract really interesting people who have very diverse lives and you throw them in one place and put them in a pretty intense situation together and some pretty cool friendships for them. this is one of them.
00:01:48
Speaker
ah but I think I've always, I've always had a lot of respect for you and I've always had a deep appreciation for you because, um, Like me, you were one of the few people at the club that was always in business.
00:01:59
Speaker
And you understood a lot of the challenges that I was going through outside of of the club and at work and and just dealing with life and everything that comes with that. um Same kind of thing as you. I experienced a ah what I call a dramatic failing upward or upward spiral of just everything you touch just seems to turn to gold.
00:02:20
Speaker
And ah you don't really understand it, but you just keep working hard you keep doing the thing. Um, but I think what I find inspiring about you is that like I'm, I'm in the tech world and I'm neck deep in that tech world and I exist in that. Uh, I got,
00:02:34
Speaker
spat out of the military and into it. So the pipeline makes sense. But you, um, I would consider you to be more of a traditional business person because, you know, you go everything from cars, you do advertising, you do brand dealing, you do all sorts of different things that, you know, I think a lot of people, they look at someone who's successful in tech and they see like, Oh, well they have skills I don't have, which by the way is completely not true. But they look at that, like there's a skill barrier, but I see everything you've done as like, um,
00:03:03
Speaker
Not to say that like you aren't special or you aren't particularly ambitious or you don't have certain creativity that other people don't have, but you like me came from nothing and built this thing that is continuing to grow and is getting more and more impressive every year.
Embracing Failure
00:03:19
Speaker
And I look at you as like the art of the possible. Like anyone should look at you and be inspired. that I could achieve something like this. So how did you how did you start that? Was this always the vision like five, six, ten years ago, whenever you went on this path?
00:03:34
Speaker
And um you know what direction are you trying to take this in? Because you're like everywhere. yeah i really appreciate it. It's an honor to hear all this nice work from you, man. And I have a lot of respect for you too.
00:03:46
Speaker
because you're you're always very humble. And one of the things I like about you is that you never gatekeep anything, especially in martial arts. That's a whole different story, but I like people, a lot of people, like they get good at something and they start gatekeeping.
00:03:58
Speaker
I never find that with you. You're very humble and very selfless. As far as like, it it is true. I didn't have ah formal education or formal training for for any of the things that I'm doing now. But one of things about me that I think ah is different is my willingness to fail more than most people. Like I think I fail more than most people even try. And I think that's what really helps me.
00:04:25
Speaker
With my success, which is not ah a crazy success. I haven't had a crazy exit or anything like that. but ah think I think having a business, especially in this economy that is doing 50K MRR, you know, it's it's not it's not crazy, but it's it's something, i mean there's lessons, there's people that can learn from that.
00:04:45
Speaker
And... And I think the biggest thing is being willing willing to to fail more, having your own back, and embrace the cringe. Because you're going to be very cringe when you start doing things. You're going to ask really dumb questions. You're going to look really dumb sometimes.
00:05:03
Speaker
But the faster you fail, the faster you succeed. And that's sort of what brought me brought me into this world. And and it was just by by accident, to be honest with you. My dream was to be an actor. I'm a very creative guy.
Career Path and Growth
00:05:16
Speaker
And 10 years ago, sorry, 11 years ago now, when I was chasing that dream and I was a starving artist living in a basement apartment doing auditions, but I was like, I can't live like this. i need to do something with flexible hours that can support my dream.
00:05:35
Speaker
And I thought that was gonna take a year or two, it took 11 years. So, but, um you know, obviously like after 11 years, you're you're your dreams change and now you have different priorities.
00:05:50
Speaker
I still wanna do something related to arts and filmmaking. But this business, I came to embrace it. I neglected it at first. A lot of times you're good at something and you're like, ah, I neglected it. i I neglected being a salesman, a car salesman.
00:06:05
Speaker
Of all things, a car salesman, the worst reputation you can have. you know every every Every time somebody's describing some some sneaky person or something, they use the car salesman. Use car salesman.
00:06:18
Speaker
But that's what landed on my lap. And the reason why that landed on me is because I was doing a commercial for ah for a car dealership and I got paid, you know, $400 to be in that commercial. And i was like, if I was to do this for real, how much money can I make? And they told me if
Gatekeeping in Industries
00:06:36
Speaker
you're really good at it, anywhere from 150 to 200K.
00:06:39
Speaker
And I thought, if you guys are paying me to pretend to be a car salesman, I can probably just do it in real life. And that was 10 years ago. Logical. That first year, i went from making under 40K a year to 80.
00:06:54
Speaker
First time ever. The second year after that, it was my first six-figure year. And the first thing I realized is like, holy the shit, I thought six figures was a lot of money until you make it. You're like, yeah, no.
00:07:06
Speaker
But it's it's good. And then it goes up 50% every year. so now it's been... five years since I started my business and yeah, I've ive ah ah built it to 50K a month.
00:07:19
Speaker
Nice. There's a lot we're going to cover here in a little bit of time, maybe, i hope. um two Two things that I took notes on. I really like that you noted the gatekeeping thing.
00:07:30
Speaker
I don't think that George and I have talked about that in terms of anything other than ascending a corporate ladder, but you do bring up a good point in terms of like just skills. Like it feels like so much of...
00:07:46
Speaker
the culture these days is like this zero sum game where it's like, if I have it, I can't relinquish any of it because if I give some of it to you, Chris, then it's like less for me, which is just like bullshit thinking.
00:07:59
Speaker
um So just that's more of a comment. But I want to I really want to touch on failure because you and I were talking before we started recording And this pervasive sense of isolation, sometimes it's called the loneliness epidemic. Sometimes it's called the, like people are choosing solitude.
00:08:19
Speaker
But I think a lot of it is also people just afraid
00:08:25
Speaker
Can we touch a little bit more on your willingness to fail?
Overcoming Fear and Risks
00:08:28
Speaker
Because I think there is this pervasive fear of failure. Either people are afraid to do things in public because somebody's going to be recording them on their phone, or they're just afraid to appear like an idiot.
00:08:42
Speaker
So can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah. Yeah, it's all limiting beliefs. And I think one of the things that helped me out a lot is the change of environment. Because how likely are you willing to take a risk around all the people that you grew up with?
00:09:02
Speaker
all ah everybody that you know, everybody that you see on the day to day since you were a child. If I took you and I put you to in the middle of Oklahoma, where you don't know anybody, how likely are you to to take a chance there?
00:09:14
Speaker
Where nobody knows you. So you're you're willing more willing to take chances. And me being an immigrant, i've I've gone through that. And the more you move, the more you realize, ah, the things you guys were fighting, I'm from Costa Rica. So the things you guys criticize in Costa Rica is minuscule once you move to North America. And then I'm in Toronto and then I moved to Ottawa.
00:09:38
Speaker
And I'm like, ah, this is, this is all like, it it makes no sense to not take a chance. Like, ah like people forget very quickly. and And so to allow all these voices to hold you back, because one of the things that I develop a fear by moving so much and having to like adapt to new environments. I live in in British Columbia for a year.
00:10:03
Speaker
And so one of the things I, ah ah the the fear I got is like, huh, when I go back to Costa Rica, The people that didn't take those chances, they're having the same conversations they had when I left and they're in the same shoes. They haven't experienced life the way I have.
Influences and Social Media
00:10:20
Speaker
They haven't been in an Amex lounge in an airport or anything like that. But they there was a lot of crazies and when I was doing the things that I wanted to do, I mean, I wanted to be an actor, that was a big ambition.
00:10:32
Speaker
And so I i think, look, if if you're in a situation that you feel that there's something in you that wants more out of life, but you're there's these voices that are holding you back, ask yourself if these voices are from the environment you're in and ask yourself, what if I live in the middle of and of a city where nobody knew who I was?
00:10:54
Speaker
Would I still be afraid to to do this thing, to open this business? What if I made a new Instagram and started doing things and I didn't tell anybody here? Because I'll tell you one thing, the first instinct somebody has when they they see something that is not familiar, is to ridicule it.
00:11:14
Speaker
So they will ridicule it and at first it's gonna hurt, but again, for me, it's like I just keep doing it and doing it and doing it until it becomes irrational for them to ridicule it.
00:11:28
Speaker
And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, but now it's working. Oh, now he's driving a nicer car. Oh, now he's losing the weight. Oh, you know, and it it it has this like snowball effect.
00:11:41
Speaker
Yeah, i can I can appreciate where you're coming from with that because, you know, in our world especially, i've I've found when I started really picking up my life and it was like, cool, I'm going to put my life in a certain level and live a certain way. I want to achieve a certain standard of living. think you and I are kind of on the same page as that. We've always been.
00:11:59
Speaker
um I found I had to stop talking to and hanging out with a lot of people. I found i had to close like I had to become a little bit more recluse and to be very, very selective of the people that I allow like close to me and allow contact me. You know, and like i see it and I see it at at the gym, even at the club all the time, man, like where we and both train. And like part of the gatekeeping thing was just like, when you're a big guy, you're a strong guy. um You know, if anyone's ever met me, um I walk around at like 210, 220, and I'm like six feet tall, and not a small person. It's hard to find people that you can work with at our size. Like Chris, you're not a small guy either.
00:12:37
Speaker
So to me, in my mind, I'm like, I want to get the most out of this training. So I need you to be good so that I can be good. And it's, ah hiding like i don't I don't see that as as a thing that's smart. It's not a smart investment for yourself if you are not trying to elevate people around you, like like like Coach Jeff always talks about, like rising tides, raise all ships.
00:12:58
Speaker
That's a really good mentality, um especially because when guys like us, like we we damage people. i can't i can't I can't train with anyone else almost, except for like Mirza and maybe Alex and stuff and Mateo, the way I train with you, because they just people can't handle an impact. so that There's a lot of value in that.
00:13:16
Speaker
And so that's why the gatekeeping thing is dumb in that context and it's dumb in business too because you kind of feel someone out and maybe you've seen this lot. There's a lot of phonies, there's lot of sharks. I mean, everyone has to go through that fake it till you make it a little bit when you're trying to come up in business.
00:13:32
Speaker
But you find that there's always people that are trying to use you, try to stab you in the back, try to step on you to to get to where they want to go. And I think that that can be the tough part where it's like,
00:13:43
Speaker
if you're smart, you're only going to get burnt like once, once, maybe twice. And then just like, it kind of makes you a little bit harder. And unfortunately it makes you a little less friendly on the outside.
00:13:55
Speaker
um But do you not find that, you know, because you've got this journey and you're successful and you've now changed something, achieved something. And I'm going say about as you, I'm in the, I'm in a boat where outside of the tech world where, you know, I talk to George almost every day and the people that we, we work with, we hang out with, that we do business with.
00:14:11
Speaker
Like people don't understand the thing. All they see is, oh, this guy's in another, another Miami trip, another Europe trip, another time in Mediterranean. They see all this stuff, but they don't see the backend of like not sleeping because you're coding, you're developing, you're, you're trying to build a business. You're working on a strategy. You're getting ready for presentation.
00:14:31
Speaker
There's a massive thing you have to nail, like a pitch or whatever. I guess, how do you how do you find balance to not become resentful? Because I find sometimes i i almost feel resentful when I walk in and I look at what I call the normies, just people who aren't on the same kind of path that we are.
00:14:49
Speaker
and I'm like, I pity them and I'm almost angry at them. and they' like i don't i don't It's a very toxic thing. like I don't want to talk to you. And that's not a good way to live either. But you're always such a happy, friendly, kind person, man. like How do you find that balance?
00:15:05
Speaker
I had a friend of mine who i used to work with before. He became pretty successful. I think he had like a $3 million dollars exit when he was like 23. He did something for us for Scotiabank or something like that.
00:15:21
Speaker
And he's always been a ah good mentor of mine, but he explained to me that nobody, not everybody's built like you. Cause I used to have this mentality, like if I could do it, why can't you? Don't come at me with your problems.
00:15:34
Speaker
But then I realized, hey man, some people just wanna work their nine to five and watch the game on Sunday and maybe do a little workout. you know They're fine with the Honda Civic. And that's just what it is.
00:15:46
Speaker
and And so
00:15:49
Speaker
i just I understand that not everybody's built like that. Not everybody has that drive and not everybody has to have that drive that you have. i I have a ship on my shoulder. I have so many things that drive me. i have a lot of, but like, if there's a lot of fear that I have. um And I think that a lot of that stuff comes from childhood and from having a very humble beginning.
00:16:10
Speaker
But also, too, I ended up, I'm like, listen, the problem that you're talking about, i would have fixed that long time ago. But I understand we're not the same.
00:16:22
Speaker
As long as you're not hating on success, that's the other thing, too, is it's, um It's a lot of hate. It's a lot of hate. But, you know, i um i don't let that I don't let that bother
Handling Criticism
00:16:36
Speaker
me. i don't I don't really get a lot of hate as much.
00:16:39
Speaker
Also, too, like a lot of people have, especially in social media, a lot of people, that's another thing I realized as well, is people think they have haters because maybe maybe and you're seeing a lot of people watching your stories and they're not liking your stories.
00:16:54
Speaker
Or you you start... imagining these movies in your head that people are talking shit, ah you know, maybe they're just not interested. I came up with something called like the 20, 40, 60 rule.
00:17:05
Speaker
And I don't know if I heard it somewhere, but it's, it's in my mind. and so what it is, is like when you're 20 years old, you care a lot about what people think. When you're 40 years old, you care what but but what people think. But so, you know, people talk shit, but you don't care as much. And when you're 60, you realize that everybody is just worried about themselves.
00:17:26
Speaker
So just think that everybody's just living in their own. There is hate. Also, I don't i don't blame blame them for their hate if they're always, lived for example, if somebody's always lived in Ottawa and here comes a Toronto guy with a whole different approach, they're going to criticize it. It's going to be so weird for them. The way I do things, the posts I make, the the the way I carry myself is so unnatural for them.
00:17:49
Speaker
and the way And it's like, you'll be very unnatural if I put you in Africa because you like or or like in some different country. Because your mindset is so different. And so I don't i don't blame them. like if if they If they want to hate, they can. if that but like like I'm like you. like If somebody asking for advice, I'll give it. The problem with giving advice, 99%, they don't do anything you tell them.
00:18:15
Speaker
so but i think I think a bigger point too, and then it's how I deal with it. And before we go to George, i don't I don't take criticism from people I wouldn't ask advice from.
00:18:26
Speaker
And the people I would ask advice from are like less than five. So I think that's something people keep in mind. George, over to you. Yeah, want to ask two things. So, George, can you touch a little bit more on this idea of deciding who to pull away from? Can you just talk a little bit more about why that is? Was it just like they're bringing you down actively or like you just needed to?
00:18:52
Speaker
I don't know. What what is that there? Because I think it's going to touch on my next question for Chris. I have ah of a saying that if you ask me in person, it comes out a lot more crass, but I'm going be ah polite for the sake of the show.
00:19:05
Speaker
I really try to focus the people love close to me, um people that make me laugh, people that bring me love, people that make me money. And if you don't fall into one of those categories or multiple of them,
00:19:19
Speaker
I find it hard to justify intentionally keeping myself. That's not to say like you go to community event, you to concert or there's like a group of friends, like whatever. Like if you're part of a group, you're part of a group. But I'm not going to actively engage with someone that's not contributing some form of value. And that value isn't just financial. It could be energy. It could be inspiration. It could be just someone I can share gripe with.
00:19:43
Speaker
But i think trying to identify the people who are taking away, like George, we talk about energy vampires all the time. We started talking about that two, three years ago. I was like, man, I need to filter. I need to identify and filter these people out of my life immediately.
00:19:59
Speaker
And that was like an instant mission. As soon as we started talking about it, on my personal life, I was like, if you're an energy vampire, I want nothing to do with you. So that's kind of where comes from. Yeah, OK, I understand that. OK, so Chris, going back to your your point about hate, I think a lot of that comes from this social media isolation, right? Like before social media, when you're like working ah in a town and you knew people, maybe somebody might rag on you, but the rest of the town would just be like, no, just that's this Chris's thing. Like there's like this self-regulation right inside the tribe.
00:20:32
Speaker
But now some rando from nowhere can just like slag you in the comments section because You know, I don't know if they hate some part of their life or they feel lonely, but they it enlivens them to bring you down.
00:20:46
Speaker
You know, I just think we're sort of like so isolated and atomized that it it amplifies. One, social media has taught us like our opinion matters on everything. No, it doesn't. You really don't have to comment on everything, but there's this impulse to comment on everything. And then when they see your stuff, they're seeing it with no context. They have no idea who you are. They don't know what you built. They're just like, you know, look at this guy doing this thing. I'm going to hate on it. don't know. What are your thoughts there?
Social Media's Societal Impact
00:21:11
Speaker
Well, I think that if you put your phone down and take life for what it is and what it gives you and at face value and in the real world, you're going to be a lot happier.
00:21:24
Speaker
You have to understand that like this social media programmers are working with behavioral psychologists and they know the roller coaster of emotions you have to go through in order for them to expose an ad in front of you. They know that that you can go from from negative negative to a positive resolution video.
00:21:45
Speaker
And right after that, if if an ad is presented to you, you're very likely to buy something. And so, Understand the how this social media works. Also, too, there's so many tricks that they do to get you, right? For example, if you make a post right now on social media and you get 100 likes, you don't see 100 likes on your notifications.
00:22:10
Speaker
They throttle them and they they do a drip sequence on those likes. so that you don't get them at the time, you get them slowly so you can keep coming back and checking. And then when you check the like, you go back to the scrolling, zoom scrolling, and it's gonna be positive, negative, positive, negative. They know exactly how to get you.
00:22:28
Speaker
And and i started realizing that, putting my phone down and comparison is theft. I've dealt with so many people, so many levels that I understand when somebody's faking it, I understand.
00:22:44
Speaker
in i And I realized that the only the only thing I hate, to be honest with you, is rage baiters. It's those live streamers that are harassing people and trying to get them to react.
00:22:57
Speaker
That's probably the only thing I hate on. I really don't like them. But hitting somebody's success, i mean, for me, it's kind of ridiculous, to be honest with you, whether whether they're faking it or not. For me, it's irrelevant.
00:23:10
Speaker
Yeah, I agree with that, man. Like, I like, it you know, I look at people like, ah it's not one side or another, but they make a lot of money off like that Ben Shapiro's, ah the Nick Fuentes of the world, where you're just like, they say the most ridiculous things. And you're like, man, like, you you go to like a normal place, and not in your safety little studio or with your security around you. And you say that around normal people, you're gonna get clocked out.
00:23:34
Speaker
the like Like real fast. and that's That's what kills me, man. I always i look at it like, there are people that behave, whether do they have social media or not, in person, it's the same thing.
00:23:45
Speaker
There are people in this life that just never gotten their shit checked, you know? And that's, that's the difference. Like, someone's like, that's why I like people that fight or I like people that do like intense contact sports. Like, I played football, did wrestling, I rugby.
00:23:57
Speaker
And like, there's a certain accountability you have in that world or in those worlds. And then with the friends you make in those worlds where like, if you act like an asshole, like one, it gets called out. And then two, if it's bad enough, it's probably going to be painful one way or the other. yeah um And I think like once people go through that, they learn real fast. Right.
00:24:20
Speaker
Correct. Yeah. Yeah. and And to your point, yeah. I mean, social media made it way too comfortable for people to, you to say the most outrageous shit, but at the same time, it it incentivizes it because you wouldn't have, Nick Fuentes wouldn't have half the views. What happens is there's this positive reinforcement loop that happens when you say something really outrageous and that gets a lot of, of um it's like the whole, but I mean, rage baiting has become a theme. it It's become a niche now.
00:24:53
Speaker
Logan Paul, they have a book called ah ah F the Pauls or something. And it's all about monetizing hate. And now you have case studies of people making millions of dollars of rage baiting and creating that sort of stuff.
00:25:08
Speaker
And the the thing that pisses me off is that they'll go out, provoke people. And the moment you push them, on the moment something is, they call the cops, they press charges. And, and so like,
00:25:21
Speaker
And that and that really gets that really bothers me a lot, you know, to have somebody outside in the real world with a camera harassing you, getting in your face, and then you push them. Oh, I'm going to press charges on you. It's like, come on, dude.
Technology in Business
00:25:37
Speaker
Yeah. So, Chris, let's turn to the entrepreneur side of you. As George mentioned, we're stuck in lounges and hotel rooms, and you've got this... sick pro studio setup that just makes us look bad on our own show, but good on you. and talk talk to us about, you know, how you're using technology in your life as a solopreneur or an entrepreneur, you know, because I think tech gets this rap, like it's this big business thing, but I think there's a lot of democratization happening with the way people are able to use, you know, stuff on their phones so that they can buy,
00:26:14
Speaker
um Yeah, let's let's get your take on how you're using tech to support your own businesses.
00:26:22
Speaker
So I work with, I'm in the automotive space. I work with dealerships and deal with the dealership owners. So they don't have time to get on Zoom calls. They barely, i do personal visits.
00:26:36
Speaker
because like to meet with their staff and I show up with donuts and coffee and whatever and I go all around Ontario and sometimes I go to the States, Texas, Oklahoma. But ah like that's just to nurture my clients, to show face, to put up some human touch. But I can get away with doing everything from home, which is, is I think I made a post yesterday, or I was yesterday, that I was saying that I'm in Ottawa.
00:27:03
Speaker
I don't have to live in Ottawa. work remotely, and my nearest family member is five hours away. But I've i've been able to leverage technology, And the things that I do is, um well, i between outsourcing and automation, I'm able to, to what i what I do is actually is lead reactivation for dealerships.
00:27:26
Speaker
And i do that remotely remotely. And I help them with their leads and conversions. and a ah But by the time i lead a dealership works with me, after six months, I'm usually responsible for 40% of their bottom line, of their revenue.
Relocation and Opportunities
00:27:43
Speaker
And... And I'm able to do that remotely by leveraging that, which which is is a great thing, but it's also a problem for society and the economy. Because right now, between outsourcing and automation, we have an oversupply of work, which is about 180%, which means that there's no jobs for the regular people. Regular people have to be extraordinary to be able to work because we have so many ways to get jobs done these days.
00:28:10
Speaker
And I'm part of the problem. The problem is the way things are um I mean, you got to do what you got to do to survive, you know. But ah I'm probably, I'm actually relocating in in September. I'm going to move down to Costa Rica, which is kind of bittersweet because I love Ottawa and I love the people here, friends like George and and all that. So when I'm training this this last few months and I'm looking at the people and all of that, I'm like, oh man, this is going to be gone in like a few months.
00:28:40
Speaker
But it's it is what it is. Yeah, but brother, you and me both. Like, I'm looking at Houston. Houston? Nice. Yeah, I got my biz out there. i got a lot of things going, too. We'll talk about that later, but, like, it's the same deal as you. I look at, I walk in the gym, I look at our club, and,
00:28:57
Speaker
I'm halfway at the door now anyway, because I got a I got to do some things. I'm building some stuff. And, uh, George here, he's, he's, he's helping out with that too, but it's like life has to change. And unfortunately we, we gotta leave Ottawa because for us to live the way that we know we're capable of living, we can't stay. It's just not there for us. The opportunity is not there and we have to go where the opportunity is.
00:29:20
Speaker
I will, I will say though that, um, i think I think you've touched on some really important points. And I think that the authenticity that you've always carried yourself with, I think that's always been your difference maker. like don't like There's a difference between trolling. like i'll i'll I'll joke around people. I'll troll people all the time. I'll say ridiculous things sometimes. like Sometimes we will'll we'll hang out. when We've gone drinking a little bit before and like we said some ridiculous stuff. and It's all jokes. It's all jokes and it's safe for But i think I think people need to understand there's a difference between kidding around with friends that know you're kidding around versus like when you act a fool.
00:29:59
Speaker
And i always will appreciate the way you carry yourself. And I think we're, even when we move on different places, we'll still be a touch. We're still hanging or whatever. But I think like I would want to kind of close off the show and and ask for like let's say someone's listening, whether they're in Ottawa, whether they're wherever, because we got lot people listening all over the place and they're staring down the weight of this economy and thinking that they have no opportunities, thinking that they they have no skills.
00:30:27
Speaker
Take yourself back to when you started and you were staring down that that hunger. Because I felt it too. I remember that, you know, 2013, I stared down like choosing between food and rent for like 10 months and that hunger has never left me. That that fear of rock bottom has never left
Advice for Entrepreneurs
00:30:41
Speaker
me.
00:30:41
Speaker
Yeah. how What would be your advice to close off um to people who are staring down that situation now to dig themselves out of that well and to try to find some kind of liberty?
00:30:55
Speaker
I think a problem I see a lot with a lot of the young people or people that are in the workspace is they see somebody making a million dollars a month and they think that that's that's what's in there for them. So if they make $5,000 a month, is they feel so underpaid and they're like, no, but...
00:31:09
Speaker
So first of all, set realistic expectations. And if you have that ambition and you don't have the capital or the know-how to go on your own, find somebody who's crushing it that you have immediate access to.
00:31:27
Speaker
Now, if you want to if you want to climb the corporate ladder, that's an option for so for steady and a good life. But if you look at somebody who lives lives in their own terms, and you want to get to that, the best vehicle to do that is by finding somebody who's doing it, some ah business owner, entrepreneur,
00:31:46
Speaker
There's tons of them in your city. And find a way to add value. Hopefully you can work for them full time. And a lot of time, these people, they have capital, but they don't, they have a limited time.
00:31:59
Speaker
And so you have to be able to find some of their pain points that they have so that they can delegate to you. And when they delegate to you, you get to access their resources for you to figure things out that they need. And so you develop the skills.
00:32:13
Speaker
I work for a a very successful person. That got me into the car business. And he had a dealership, but he didn't have time. And so there was so many times I would go in and he needed things to get done.
00:32:26
Speaker
he would just give me the Amex and it was on me to figure things out. Figuring things out is how I learn APIs, is how I learn webhooks, is how I learn all the things that are connected in the technology of automotive, ADF, XML format, all those things.
00:32:43
Speaker
very specific niche specific um ways that the software in automotive works, DMS services and all that. And i learned that on his dime while I was getting paid,
00:32:57
Speaker
And i was second or third in the chain of command. So I had really good access. So you know for you to have access to a multimillionaire or somebody very successful, you either have to pay them for mentorship or you have to be a part of a car club or something. But if you come in hungry and you want to work for them and you add value to them, and a lot of times, and you'll find this, if you achieve success, when you find somebody who's hungry and listening, there's nothing better than to help.
00:33:25
Speaker
push the next, the next people. like And like George said, there's enough, there's enough food for everybody. And don't worry about your ideas. Like I, I think, um don't worry about anybody stealing your ideas. If your idea is any good, you have to shove it down people's throats, man. It's so hard to like, even if you had an idea for something, for people to execute it.
00:33:46
Speaker
And the other the other thing, um the model that I work with is you give away the secret sauce and you sell the implementation. I can tell everybody, you can do, when I pitch a dealership, I tell them, look, you can do what I do, but do you have 30 hours a week to do it?
00:33:58
Speaker
Because this is what I'm doing for you. I'm putting time back on your day. I add value. But for anybody who's like looking at this podcast and says like, man, I want to do like you guys. I want to have, you know, access to the airport lounges and travel and getting paid and have multiple six figures income and stuff.
00:34:15
Speaker
Well, you can go to college or just find a killer that you can add value to. And there's tons of them. You just have to you just have to ask and look around.
Conclusion and Future Plans
00:34:24
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. Thank you, Chris, for taking the time to join us and to just give a very real world perspective.
00:34:32
Speaker
And, you know, maybe sometime in the future, I'm going to put it out there. We should just record a remote show from Costa Rica. Yeah, um you guys will love it. You guys, if you guys, you'll see. You'll see. Once I move down, you' you'll see. You come down.
00:34:49
Speaker
we'll do We'll do some Muay Thai by the beach. we'll We'll call it the Pura Vida edition of the podcast. Pura Vida. All right. Well, thanks, man. Thank you for taking the time.
00:35:01
Speaker
Thank you, guys. i really appreciate you.
00:35:05
Speaker
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00:35:19
Speaker
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