Anthony Trucks 0:00
Action ends suffering. You’re going to be pissed because you don’t have clients, or you lose clients, or there’s not enough money, or it’s all it’s just you weren’t willing to go past that line that those who love it are. They call me February 1 and go, Hey, you’re going to be an American Ninja Warrior. And the taping dates like March 3 or fourth. And I’m like, What’s American Ninja Warrior?
Brad Weimert 0:19
Junior year in college. You think, I can play in the NFL. You get there team one, then you get cut, you move to Team Two, then you get cut, you go to Team Three, and you’re crushing it, you’re moving. And you get injured. Smooth
Anthony Trucks 0:31
seas never made skilled sailors. I am a person identifies with the effort more than the outcome. I may go, oh yeah. Like, you know, I’m the guy that has this thing and this thing, I’m the guy that will outwork you. We do about $600,000 from stage, just getting paid to go on a stage. Everything beyond that that gets us in the millions is all coaching, consulting.
Brad Weimert 0:52
Congrats on getting beyond a million. What got you here won’t always get you there. This is a podcast for entrepreneurs who want to reach beyond their seven figure business and scale to eight, nine and even 10 figures. I’m Brad weimert, and as the founder of easy pay direct, I have had the privilege to work with more than 30,000 businesses, allowing me to see the data behind what some of the most successful companies on the planet are doing differently. Join me each week as I dig in with experts in sales, marketing, operations, technology and wealth building, and you’ll learn some of the specific tools, tactics and strategies that are working today in those multi million eight, nine and 10 figure businesses, life can get exciting beyond a million. Anthony trucks, I appreciate you carving out time. It’s good to see
Anthony Trucks 1:37
you. You too. Man, appreciate having me
Brad Weimert 1:38
on absolutely so I want to talk about all sorts of stuff with you. One is kind of the unique work that you do with entrepreneurs and humans in general. But I want to talk about your path to it. And I want to start with your football chapter, because you played with three different NFL teams, and I find the story super inspiring, and you might find it super frustrating, but I really like that as a starting point here. So can you tell me, like, when the vision for playing for the NFL started in your life? Oh, that’s
Anthony Trucks 2:13
great question. It didn’t start what most people think. I think most individuals assume when you’re a kid like you have this big, massive dream to play in the NFL. Was not my dream. It wasn’t actually until my junior year of college, when I was playing well enough to where I had, like, my coach, and a couple of people go, like, Hey, we got an agent yet, like, for what like for the NFL, I’m like, what? Like, I could do that, like, I had the skill sets, obviously, to get it done. So that wasn’t until, yeah, later in the playing career was always for me, like, what’s up next? You know, like, when you’re not starting the next job is to start, you know, when you’re starting playing well, then the next job set some records. Some records, you know, from records, and it gets next level of NFL, and it all progresses. But that was my first entrance to it. And honestly, you have to like Gage is that something you’re capable of doing, because talking about the best of the best of the best 1% in the world, you have to go do that thing. All right, even 1% in the world, 1% of the game itself, or less. And so to take that on, you have to realize there’s a whole different level of emotional expenditure, aggressively, discipline wise, it goes into it, because if not that, someone else is going to give more and get more, right? And so when you actually make that choice of like, I’m going to play beyond college, like, you really got to commit to that, because if not, you’re wasting
Brad Weimert 3:18
time though, getting into college ball alone, especially, playing for a major team in college is an accomplishment in and of itself. What was the point of playing in college for you, when you were in high school and you got to college, play college ball for Oregon, right?
Anthony Trucks 3:31
The Oregon Ducks, yep.
Brad Weimert 3:33
Yeah. Why did you do that? I mean, if it wasn’t for the end goal of the NFL, what was the point of playing college ball? It was
Anthony Trucks 3:40
the next thing to do, man, you know, so when I was in high school, I’m not even jump I’m telling you, this is always my mind works in a weird way, which is, I’m very happy with what I have, just not content. I appreciate my life, everything I have. But I’ve never been to a point of, like, all right, I’m good. I’m done here. I feel like, when you stop trying to give to the world in some way, which is creation process, in my opinion, the world goes, Oh, we’re done with you, and they send you on home, right? So I’m like, I want to continue to see what I’m supposed to do. So when I was in high school, the next thing was college, and truthfully, I realized that I had this skill set that was better than most around my area, and I enjoyed the game like I loved every piece of it. I love the long, hard, hot days. I love the tackle. I love the injuries, the process of getting back, I just, weirdly, the whole game. It’s not what you see on the game day. You know, the game is comprised of so much more. And I love that stuff. I was fine with it. I embraced it all like I didn’t see myself as a d1 athlete, to be quite honest. And when I was coming out, I kind of, I got found by Washington state, and then the, you know, the process of them recruiting you, other people find out you exist. And so now my film starts getting out there, and more and more coaches, more and more schools, start pouring in with letters and envelopes and, you know, all the whole scholarship offers. And so I wasn’t, I wasn’t really fighting to get a scholarship. To be quite honest, it was more of like I was just fighting to be great at the game that I loved. And it just panned out in an amazing way that people were like, Hey, want you to come play college ball. And so. It turned into me going there, and then just you’re met with even more, because it’s like, all right, I’m here. And this interesting thing with the game of football and all things, in my opinion, which is, there’s a there’s a love line. What I mean by this love line is, if you’re a player who I’ll say, You don’t love the game, right? There’s certain energy. You’ll give. You’ll give, like 80% you might even give 90% but you’re not getting planes. Getting playing time. You’re not You’re not getting any praise, you’re not you’re getting called out and coaching meetings and film like you just you’re giving effort, but you’re not getting any return. It sucks, and you don’t love the game, and the game is unlovable to you, because it’s just you’re always getting this negative feedback. But then what happens is, some guys, they go to this line of love, and they go beyond. They give all they give 110% every single day, every play, all of a sudden, hey, sure enough. Coach likes this kid, and he’s getting some praise. And you know, the world loves you, and it’s like, it’s all great. But the problem is, if you aren’t willing to give the effort beyond that Loveline, then every day sucks. And so for me, what I found when I was in college is I enjoyed the energy, the hard, right? I enjoyed giving that so I gave it all. And because of that, things panned out positively. And the game was enjoyable. It’s ups and downs, but it’s enjoyable. But guys who weren’t willing to do that, they want to, you know, cut it short in the distance. They want to, you know, run right up to the line, but not touch the line. They they complain all day because the grades got to be in early. Like the practices are too hard, it’s just too hot. Like the consistent complainers, they don’t give the effort to get beyond that line. So you never get to pray. So it always is a cycle of suck for them. And while it’s a sports thing, it’s the same thing for all, especially for business, like, if you don’t love the thing you’re trying to put into the world, you’re going to be pissed because you don’t have clients, or you lose clients, or there’s not enough money, or it’s all it’s just you aren’t willing to go past that line that those who love it are, which is the the step that goes into the space of like, it’s just, it’s, why are you doing this? You got to be masochistic to subject yourself to this kind of crazy. But when it’s all done like you love it, and so the world provides based on what you you give as effort.
Brad Weimert 6:53
How do you how do you reconcile this idea of do the next thing and then do the next thing, versus planning with a long term vision for a bigger goal?
Anthony Trucks 7:04
Oh yeah. Well, don’t get it mixed up. There is a long term plan, right? I just give this mentality of and this is more of my faith basis. I don’t want to mess up the plan with my plan. And so there’s a standard that I function with as a human being, of when I work, how I work, what I do, the level of things have got to be when I put them out into the world, how I’ll hire teams, Delegate like all these certain things, and they’re always in a direction towards a long term play. But I let the plan unfold properly. I take feedback, I take insights, i I’ll be the one that goes, Hey, you guys got this perspective, but I see this. Let’s go in this direction. But the plan was this, and I know it was a plan, but when we made that plan, we didn’t have this information in front of us. For me, I’ve always looked at it as the next thing is always in a direction where you have some kind of a vision, but I’m letting that thing clarify itself as we move. And so I do have, like, football had plans. My business has plans, but I do realize that the plans, it’s a life, is what happens between your plans, is the statement that I love. And so I let things unfold and see what they turn into. But I’m not moving just arbitrarily, because then what happens is you start getting to the point of like, well, why am I doing this? I’m not getting this end goal, and it’s just you may spin your wheels for too long, but I also, as a separate note, I am a person identifies with the effort more than the outcome. So while I I may go, oh yeah. Like, yeah, I’m the guy that has this thing and this thing. I’m the guy that will outwork you. And I’m not saying I’m gonna, it’s always gonna be this rigorous violet like in the weight room kind of outwork. It might just be, you know what? I’m gonna make sure I fill more videos and more content than you. I’m gonna go ahead and I’ve done today was 992 straight weekday podcasts I send out to the world, just for consistent practice out of my skill set, but also for marketing and just I could but for me, it’s like, I’m going to outwork you slowly every day, because they get to 992 is every day. I couldn’t make the days come faster. I didn’t film in advance, right? Every dad’s rep, and just kept doing it. And so over time, I get booked to do more speeches, I get more coaching clients, I get more consulting contracts. But it comes from me falling in love with the process of the daily work, more than only being happy if the work has brought me something. Yeah,
Brad Weimert 9:07
there are a lot of things from a business perspective that resonate with me on that front, but relative to the shift in plans and being flexible, you had to be with the NFL. Tell me about the experience with the three different teams that you played with, because the crescendo of that, I think, is an interesting thing to double click on. Yeah,
Anthony Trucks 9:31
well, I get in the NFL. I get my first team I’m brought into is the the Bucharest coach Jon Gruden. They were, like, three years out from the Super Bowl. You still had some guys like Simeon rice and Ronde Barber, Derek Brooks, Sheldon Quarles, like some, some old school ballers. Fast cattle was Cadillac Williams out there. So yet, these guys were ballers, man, and there’s a team that’s just made up of these, these monsters. And so I get all the way through to final cuts, like, I’m one of the last eight, cut down to 53 and it sucked, you know, because then you’re like, all right, what? I do, and you just go home. You know, you can sit on private school I but like them, I just, you just go home. So I’m sitting there going, like, this sucks. And so all the time is spent. Think about it. I left school. I was training around, you know, December, January. Draft happens around April. You’re doing all these OTAs and prep and flying out there and doing workouts and mini camps, all these little things. And it gets to the last, you know, week before the actual season starts, they go, I go home, months of life gone, you know. And it’s, it’s like, Damn, what do I what I do now? And you go home, you go, Well, I gotta lean in and lean out. I can lean out and go find a job, or I can lean back in and start doing workouts, preparing my body. And so that was what I did. And it’s weeks and weeks and weeks of workouts. So I think I didn’t get picked up till week 13 of the next season, like, or that same season, sorry, week 13 with the Redskins. So I sat her, I sat at home doing workouts and stuff for three months before I got picked up again. Like, three whole months. And you got to figure out, like, Do you love this? Because if you don’t love this, man, I’m telling you, it’s easier to go in to get a real like, job in a real world. Business is hard, but the statistics of being successful in that are a little beneficial in your favor compared to NFL, right? Just generically. Then I came home, and then I’m trying to work out. So finally, get picked up by the Washington Redskins at the time week 13, I go there. I’m in there, in the off season, doing my prep, move my family out there. We get to the next, you know, season, and I’m doing well. Preseason games. I’m killing it, leading special teams tackles, like, I’m ready to rock. And then we get to the final cuts, and they put me on practice squad. I’m like, damn. Like, I haven’t had like, two or three interviews, aren’t you? Man, they didn’t put you on active roster. Like you led the, you know, the team and tackled stuff. Like, I don’t trust the coaches process the very first game happens. We’re playing as a New York Giants, and five guys get hurt, and for some reason, they cut me and keep my backup, send me home. So I’m like, Well, this is week one, so I’m alright. What do I do? You know? And just you’re at home now, my whole family would just sign a lease a week and a half earlier. And so I remember getting the call too, because we were sitting at dinner at this like, wing spot, like a little booth, and we’re all like, my buddy Nick Stites played me at Oregon, was also with the Redskins, and he got cut, like, earlier in the day, and we are sitting here, this is Tuesday night, and Tuesday’s like, the cut day, and it’s coming to, like, six o’clock or five o’clock, and that’s like the end of the day, right? And so we’re talking about, like, man, you know, crazy. They called me last minute and just, you know, cut me out of the blue. And so this is, again, we’re sitting in a booth, and we’re eating. I go to the bathroom. On the way back to the bathroom, my phone rings. I look down. It’s an area code of this Redskins area. I pick it up. They go, Hey, trucks, need you to come in tomorrow, bring your playbook. We’re letting you go. And so I get back to the table, and I tell everybody this, and they’re like, Haha. I’m like, No for real. Like, it took me a couple minutes to convince them I wasn’t just joking, because we’ve been talking about it. And sure enough, you know, you go home, and now you know, we’re trying to find out life without football. Do I keep playing or not playing? And I was like, I got to keep going. So I kept lifting. Eight more weeks go by and I don’t get any calls, nothing, you know. And then I finally get, on the ninth week a day that I’m not supposed to get a call, which is Tuesday, I get a call from the Pittsburgh Steelers. They fly me out, we do the workout, and I ended up beating this other guy out for a job who was drafted higher than me, bigger, faster, stronger, but I beat him out, got the job, and I’m there, and I’m finally doing, like, my thing, man, I’m on special teams. I’m like, you know, for Paula malo’s Back up, because it’s like, kickoff. He’s not going on kickoff, but they got to put him on the roster there, right? So to get to the first preseason game playing as a Philadelphia Eagles. Dude jumps on my shoulder, tears. It ends. The season ends a career. I gotta come home and figure out life without the game. And so the game ends abruptly before I expected it to, before I knew it would. You know, in your head as a player, like, I’m gonna play forever, it’s all I’ve been doing. So I was a kid, you know, and then it’s gone, gone, and the life comes at you fast.
Brad Weimert 13:46
So what was your mindset when you got injured there? Because you had, I mean, up to this point, you’ve got this grind, right? And even if you’re going from one thing to the next junior year in college. You think, I can play in the NFL. You get there team one, then you get cut, you move to Team Two, then you get cut, you go to Team Three, and you’re crushing it, you’re moving and you get injured. What’s in your head at that moment? Oh,
Anthony Trucks 14:16
man, it sucks, because there’s two reasons. One is your injury takes place. You know it’s gonna be time to get back. And every year there’s new, younger guys coming in. So your opportunities get thinner and thinner. It just happens. And you’re realizing that if you’re gonna continue chasing this, you’re gonna have to, like, sell out, sell out. And you go, is it worth it? Can I do that? Do I even want to give that much energy? And so I’m in the middle of this injury, trying to figure that out. And another part of it is, part of it is after you’re hurt, and you’re looking at guys in a team that you’re on, you know, it’s like, there’s guys that are playing that they’re not that great. So you’re going, I could do this, and I’m sitting here watching this, it sucks. Like, why? Just, you know, that team that I was on, I ended up, you know, I turned my shoulder into my season, into my career. I go home. Them, and the whole season I’m watching them, they win a Super Bowl that year, so if I don’t get hurt, man, I got a ring, you know. And it’s one of these. It’s one of these things. It’s just, it’s the way that life unfolds. And there is no definitive way to process it. There’s no like, Easy Steps through it. I will tell you this. The reason a lot of my work is in identity is purely because of these type of moments, these these moments that shift in life without you realizing it happens in one of two ways. It’s either on demand, which means you choose that you’re gonna take the next step on with a different intensity, or when crap hits the fan, something goes sideways, and all of a sudden, your back’s against the wall. You gotta figure out how to show up. And that is kind of the two ways that most people make adjustments, grow themselves. And so for me, it was like, back against the wall what I do, and I had to, like, grow out of that window of life differently, because the game ended before I expected it to. I had a kind of a plan, but that plan wasn’t ready to be executed yet. And now I’m sitting here a dad, you know, I got my wife, I got we got two more kids. So I’m, like, three kids, and I’m trying to figure out, who am I? How does this thing work? Like life hit me pretty quick. But yeah, the NFL, they say stands for not for long.
Brad Weimert 16:10
That’s brutal. I would imagine that some of your youth in childhood, consciously or subconsciously, helped you in this moment. You had a tremendous amount of turbulence growing up. Can you tell me about kind of your upbringing and where you came from? And I guess start with, do you think that this moment was easier because of your childhood, or harder?
Anthony Trucks 16:41
You know, I would lean to the direction of saying it was easier. There’s this quote that I have done a painting I’m looking at on the left side of my studio, and it says, smooth seas never made skilled sailors. And I’ve, I’ve always embraced that mentality, because I realized that life is just a bunch of rocky seas. Man, if you never go out into the ocean and battle the storms. You have no idea how to sail through storms. And so for me, as a child, like I was given away to foster care at three years old, had a lot of crazy things happen. And for me, what I found was I had one of two options, which most of us all do, especially in the world of foster care. And most prisons in America, people don’t realize, 75% of the inmates have spent time in foster care like we’re statistically bad situation when it comes to it, half the homeless population have spent time in foster care. Less than 1% of foster kids ever graduate from college. So statistically, I’m not supposed to do much. And so for me, going through the parts of childhood and like the hardship I could have went down the pathway, which is usually the world did me wrong, so I want retribution. That’s why you see those numbers as they are, in my personal opinion. But I had this realm where a woman loved me, but my adoptive mom loved me like crazy. And on top of this, I had this thought of, like, well, if it could be a reason to do poor, like, what I’m doing, make it a reason to do great, you know, like, beat the odds. And so I I started going through stuff, and life has always been, you know, riddled with ups and downs. And downs. But if you’re asking, in comparison, that moment when NFL is over, I think it gives me genuinely, it gives me a feeling of what foster care was like, which is, you could be one house today and someone shows up, they say you don’t live here anymore. Here’s your bag of clothes. Go somewhere else. So that was a very similar emotional feeling when I’m getting cut from teams. But the other side of it was, I’ve survived this already. My first memories of life, I’ve survived this, and so I’m able to look at these things where, yes, they suck. I realized that there’s a path out of it, and I don’t know what the path looks like. Most of us don’t know what that path genuinely looks like, but as a guy interviewed one time, and I love his statement. He says, action ends suffering. So at some point we’re going to be in some you know, level of suffering, big, small, doesn’t matter. But when you have the emotion around that, what you don’t want to do is anything ever you want to sit there, you want to eat your food, you want to drink your drinks. You know you want to just distract yourself with drugs and so yourself with drugs. And so what happens is you prolong that situation because you don’t feel like taking any actions. And for me, I learned through life that the action I have to take is the one I don’t feel like taking, but that’s the one that ends the suffering I’m experiencing. And so I’m able to flip it and operate separate from the emotion and the direction of what my logical brain tells me should be getting done.
Brad Weimert 19:24
That’s That’s awesome. I have two, two sort of mantras that I live by. One is, weather doesn’t dictate training. So people are like, Oh, it’s, you know, shitty weather. I’m not going for a run or a ride or whatever. The other is. And I sparingly say this to other people. It’s more of an internal dialog, but it’s fuck your feelings. It doesn’t matter how you feel in a moment, right? And when, when I hear myself say, I don’t feel like doing this, my response is, fuck your feelings. Brad, yeah,
Anthony Trucks 19:55
yeah. It doesn’t matter in the work of what I do that, that’s essentially saying. The weaker identity is about to win. So when I know I’m supposed to do something and I want to become somebody new, if I let that part of me go, it’s gonna be hard, and I submit to that, I let the weaker identity win, and I stay with that place. Is that that I probably don’t want to be in the first place?
Brad Weimert 20:12
Yeah, one of the things that I believe to be true is, and this place, I think your childhood is that if you have no reference points for a situation, it’s very difficult to establish a brand new pattern. But if you have one reference point, two reference points three, and as they start to stack, you internally, have more to go back to and say, Yes, I’m capable of handling this. Yeah. Get proof, yeah. Well, so let’s, let’s jump off there, because you went from that had to be sort of emotionally horrific experience to diving into business and tell me about
Anthony Trucks 20:51
emotionally horrifying
Brad Weimert 20:54
well, so the business side of it’s interesting, but you also were on American Ninja Warrior. I did see some clips on Ninja Warrior and I have also done like, little stints of training in Ninja Warrior gyms, which is, yeah, really difficult. It’s super fun. It’s, you know, the little kid inside you is thrilled. And you’re like, How can I not do this right now? This is horrifically difficult.
Unknown Speaker 21:16
Yeah, this crazy.
Brad Weimert 21:18
How did that fit into the picture? Like, why did you go down that path? Was that seeking for the physical engagement? Were you trying to do something there?
Anthony Trucks 21:26
I had no intention. I had nothing. So I get back to the NFL. My life falls apart. I’m divorced. I’m living in a 500 square foot studio apartment with a gym business. I’m trying to, you know, get running, and just wasn’t doing well. I almost went bankrupt a couple times. I’d hire a coach for the first time, which is the wisest thing I’d ever done, was hire someone who knows they’re doing in a space that I don’t, you know. So got some insights. But then, like, I was growing this business, but I was separate some, you know, just running and gunner, trying to figure life out. And I get to this point where I find out that, like, I’m the common denominator in all of my problems, and I start to shake myself up. I do what’s I call it a dark work experience. The first intentional window of time where I go, let me go into the dark space of who I am, find out what worked on. Let me go do that work in the dark for me to become somebody who is proud of who I am again. So I do all that. Then I come back, and there’s a lot of business going on the background, ups and downs there. It’s crazy. But then I find myself where I remarry my ex wife. We’re back now, putting like, eight years remarried now, but right in the first like four or five months of it, she had saw this thing come across somewhere, which is like, fill this form out to go on American Ninja Warrior. I don’t know about the show at all. Where at the gym, she goes, Hey, can I film you doing some like thing? You know, I post some family workout stuff. I’m like, All right, I think she’s filming her stuff. Filming herself, filming me. She just filming me. And I’m at 240 something pounds at the time, and but I can still, I could do pull ups with, like, you know, 353 45 plates around my waist. Like I’m still a strong dude. And she submits this video in the whole form, my story and everything. And they call me. Was February. I think February, like, 28th No, no. Sorry, February 1. They call me February 1 and go, Hey, you’re going to be on American Ninja Warrior. And the taping dates like March, 3 or fourth. And I’m like, What’s American Ninja Warrior? Like, what exactly are you? What? Who are you? And so they’re like, Oh, you didn’t send back up. I didn’t submit anything. And my wife’s in the next room. She’s like, What are you doing? Come talk to these people about this. About this American injury. Goes, Oh, yeah, I signed you up for that. So went that whole thing. And anyways, I get the call when I get in the show, I just shed thing, unless lost like 27 pounds or something in like a month. I just didn’t eat. I went, I went hard train for like seven hours because I had no idea what I was doing at a place nearby. End up becoming the first former NFL athlete. They had a buzzword in the show, like, I actually went out there through the first six obstacles, hit a buzzer at the end. Was pretty cool, but, but that’s just one of those things where I’ve, I’ve had to navigate who I am and try something new. So that ninja where wasn’t really me trying as an accident, but I will tell you this, it sure as hell fired those, those parts be back up. You know, like there’s something to the competitive nature of humans, that there’s an emotion you can’t experience unless you’re in that moment. I think if you don’t create that in some way, even if it’s not a physical competition, like I don’t go do darts something, but that the competitive juices makes you a better human, in my opinion. So for me, I don’t do ninja wine to three years, but I’ve done, you know, much of Spartan Races. Actually, my wife does Master’s track. I’m gonna start with her here this next season. But like, we just got back from worlds in Sweden, where she was competing against people from Germany and Chile and Zimbabwe and Kenya, everywhere all over the world, they all come at the age group, and they get down and like, it’s fun to watch. Like, Oh, I like the idea of competing at that level. The rest of the world doesn’t know about it, but if I can compete at a high level in my age group, in my age group, let’s do that. Because while I enjoy the business stuff I do, there’s something to be able to just to get to that carnal, competitive place again that makes me feel like more of the I’ve always known myself to be.
Brad Weimert 24:55
I love that. One of the things that I think I lack sometimes is specific. That competition. How do you think about competing with others versus competing with yourself?
Anthony Trucks 25:07
I don’t like to be driven by others in a sense of, Well, they didn’t think I could do it, so I’m gonna do it despite them. I’ve never liked that, mostly because when I’ve proved you wrong, which I will, then what’s my drive? Like, if I go ahead and say, like, Yeah, I’m gonna do it, because the only I can I’m gonna do it and I’m gonna do gonna do it, and I’m gonna do it quicker than you ever thought possible, and then what am I? I’m all right. I made that person realize that they’re wrong and I’m right. So I’ve always been built on my own, like what I want to do, and most of the time it’s different than people would assume, like I’m in whatnot. Right now in my life, my kids are going to high school. Actually just got into high school. My oldest is in college, Junior and in college, and so I’m in what I call season of dad, the seed of my life, where dad’s a priority, which means I don’t want to be a road warrior, so I’m not taking every stage. You know, the big ones I hop on. I want to be able to take them to school, pick them up. I want to coach their teams, if I can. And so that means that in the world of what I do, which is get on stages and coach and consult, be a brand, right, that I purposely stay home as much as I can. I do not take every stage. I do not go every place I can. I everybody invites you places. I just don’t go. I I love you, but I love my family more than I want to be here. And so I said that to go for me, it was carving out this idea of like, Yes, I can be driven off someone else’s what they see, a vision of success to be. But I go, what’s my own, what’s my own personal scale, and then I have a personal standard that I live by, so I can be in integrity with my clients that I coach, but also the family that I lead. And so I have a standard of what I want to get done and how to get done, and I function without anybody having to tell me to do it. I have one accountability partner that I meet with twice a week, twice a month. We just kind of wrap and see what’s going on. But it’s always built in this understanding of like I don’t need to like, I don’t need to put money on the line. I’m gonna be a man that shows up and gets a thing done. I promised I would. So for two years, we’ve always done this. I haven’t missed a time. And for me, that’s the thing where you say was driven by more other people, or me, it’s like, I’m not driven by other people’s negative perspectives, but I am heavily driven by my own internal and and I also realize if I if I’m going off somebody else, that I’m not going off what I know to be the thing that’s made me different, because, like yourself, myself, when you have so little success statistically, you are so far outside the norm of most people that the only compass I can, I can gage is the one that’s telling me I’m being too soft, or I’m being too easy, or it’s just too chill. And so I trust that guy. I now know how to use it healthily, like I don’t freak out and like, you know, on my laptop for eight straight hours, and I’ll talk to the family right now to be able to balance things harmoniously now. But I do understand that if a little part of my my internal like, it’s a voice poking up, going, Hey, bro, you’re you’re not pushing the level you should, like you’re falling short, or that’s not what Anthony would do. Like, I respond to that guy properly, as if it was a coach. We’ll call it, and I can level myself up. Therefore I don’t need as many outside voices. I will in goal settings sometimes go in, like, if I have some, like, we talked about visions in the future, I have some things I want to do that. I’ll talk to some colleagues and some buddies, and I’ll let them stretch me a little bit and go, Hey, this sounds good. I love your idea. But what about this? And I like when they push it, because what it should make me do, and all of us, it should make my butt pucker a little bit like, oh, you know, it’s a little bit like, oh, I don’t want to do that, right? But that, man, it makes you call more out of yourself than you would previously have done on your own. It’s why I don’t write my own workouts. I have a degree in kinesiology. I train Pro Bowlers. I have a coach that writes my workouts currently, because I know that I could push myself, but someone else, I’m able to stay consistent at a plan they place. I’ll follow that thing like even if I don’t want them, I see it to the end. So I trust people enough to be able to give them the idea, give me ideas of what I could stretch to at times. And I just lock in and go
Brad Weimert 28:34
when I listen to that. And I think when a lot of people hear that, they hear drive and motivation and ambition and commitment and dedication and all these things that are wrapped up and being successful. I think in general, do you think that motivation is innate, or is motivation something that you can cultivate?
Anthony Trucks 28:54
I think alignment is a humongous piece of all of this, and I don’t think it plays in the manner that most assume. So my work is in identity. And what I mean by that is, if I was asking who you are, you would state off a few things, right? And there’s ways you can frame it, but let’s just say, like, who are you? I’m a business owner. I’m a father, husband. What it may be, right? Just rattle these things off. And so our human drive to stay in alignment is powerful. In fact, there were studies that were done that showed that if I was on a side stance of this is what it is. Even the face of up to five points of clear, tangible proof I’m wrong. Most people still battle their position and hold it because they got to be in alignment. And so I say that to say I don’t drive off of motivation. I don’t have this morning, like, where I get up and go, Yeah, I get to do this. I’m gonna push myself. In fact, a lot of stuff I don’t want to do, I just be a transparent but there is a level at which I want to be in align with who I see myself to be. I’m the guy that’s on time. I’m the guy that if it goes on my calendar, I will do that. I’m the guy that he’d give it to me. It’s going to come back better than you said. Anybody else do it as a standard of how I function. I’m not motivated to get the job. And I’m motivated to continue to be who I see myself, to be with the things I put on my plate. And so for me, when I look at like discipline, it’s an actual identity trait, like I look at as a trait of a person who is successful, they’re going to be disciplined. They’re going to be driven. It’s from our outside. We’re going to look and see that. But for them, they go, I I’m the kind of person doesn’t go to bed until that gets done. I’m the kind of person that will get the work on him, because it’s on my calendar like that. When you become the person that has a certain set, like standard for how you do things, and you identify as that, you will fight to stay in alignment with your actions. And so I don’t think that motivations innate. I don’t think it’s innate, but I do believe in eight is that I will, I will be who I tell you I am. And so if I know that about myself, and I tell you I’m a great guy, I’m gonna tell you I’m a great person my time of integrity, so I’m gonna function a way that gets that done. And if it means that I’m not gonna miss that thing today, or, you know, or not read that thing, or not create that train, or whatever it is, that’s who I’m gonna be today. And then it’s, it’s way outside the realm of, like this motivation that really, at certain point, turns into willpower, kind of mustered up to get it done. I don’t stress off. The thing, this is where that language comes of they say the person that enjoys walking will walk farther than the person who doesn’t. It’s the same thing. If a two I am to walk and I love it, I’m gonna keep walking. I’m not gonna consider the time spent. I just like doing this, whereas you, you’re counting every single step, you’re eventually gonna run out of willpower, and I’m gonna keep walking, and I’m not going to notice you fell off. It’s just what I do. That’s the level I think most people are misunderstanding when it comes to what will drive to a level of success long term.
Brad Weimert 31:31
So let’s dig in a little bit to kind of the methodology behind that. So after the NFL, you leaned into coaching, consulting, speaking before, actually, before we talk about the identity shift method, can you give me kind of the overarching structure of your current business? How much is coaching? How much is speaking? Is it group coaching? Is it one on one? What does that look like?
Anthony Trucks 31:51
So there’s, there’s three businesses that all work together. So let’s put this way, there’s the thing that I do, and then there’s a business where I teach what I do, and that one’s comprised of two. So one’s called Dark work. It’s from the original with Shift method. Now it’s just dark work experience. It’s a one on one coaching model. And so primarily what I do is that runs its own, its own silo. There’s ads and assessments and coaching that drives people to that paid traffic, organic stuff. The other side is I speak, and I love to speak, and the speaking helps solidify the concept. It helps leave with, you know, obviously a sense of reliability in the message, but also gives that strong sense of, like, a worldly base of a human being out on stage that lived it, walked it, so you’re seeing it from a stance of someone who’s not just some dude in his room that made it up. Like, here’s this guy’s story. He’s lived this I get where this message comes from. So I get on stage, get paid to be on stage, that then turns the audience members into clients in time. But it also allows me to then go to the company that I spoke for and become a consultant for them. Could be in a single day, could be multiple months. So the model works in that manner where it’s like speak coach, consult. There’s a speaking silo, there’s a coaching silo and a consulting silo, meaning that each of those, while they do benefit off each other synergistically, they are their own individual companies, their own lead gen their own conversion teams, their own coaching. Everything’s done differently, more so because I don’t want to be in a space where one goes under, everything goes tanking. So they’re all they’re all working together, but they’re all individual as well. So the other side of it is, I go, I’ve built this, and it runs smooth. I now have another side of the company, which is called speak to freedom, which is I teach people how that business runs. From a systematic standpoint, it’s not like, Hey, I’m gonna teach you to be great on stage. Skill set wise, I think majority of speakers don’t get enough reps to get great on stage. And if they do get good on stage, they have no way to grow it or scale it or see how to be able to make that a real, viable, consistent business. And so we’re more on it’s not about being great on stage, it’s about being great at getting onto stage. And so that whole company teaches people on the business side, and we build it from the ground up. They get on stages, and they both grow the business and then develop their skill set. The other side of that is we found that when you’re looking to get booked, there’s a lot of different ways to do it. One good one is called a speaking bureau. Obviously, like a stable of speakers, a client goes looking for some they go to the bureau say, hey, we have an event coming up. Can you send us five potential options for this type of speech or this topic area, and then we’ll put that together. So the bureau that puts people’s obviously information out in front of clients. Those three work together. The last two years, I turned off the entire like, we’ll call it personal homicide, the shift method, while I developed the dark work brand. And when I say, develop like, we’re probably about $250,000 in development, from PhDs, making assessments, web design to curriculum to videos for that, being shot, apps being built like it’s all we’re like, right? The last probably four to six weeks of getting it all done and launched, and in the interim, I really heavily dove deep into the speak to freedom brand to build that thing out. I’m still speaking on the shift method and dark work, obviously. So I would say right now, probably a good 60 to 70% of it is in the realm of covid. Coaching probably good, like 40% said Roma, speaking the dark work side of it is about to pick back up. When that picks back up, that’ll probably, obviously, in my opinion, should be the best thing I’ve done ever, like, I just got done building the course out, and it’s the best course I’ve ever built the last, you know, decade doing this stuff. And so just, I’m excited to see it, but I think that’ll, in my opinion, hopefully grow to be able to consume the majority of what it is I do, because there’s so many ways to build without it being on Anthony. So the keynote is one, you can have another coach, another speaker, come deliver the consulting is something where I don’t have to do it all myself, but I can. And the coaching, which is the bigger part of it, that’s none of it’s me. In fact, I have 12 coaches that all deliver the one on one coaching service using my curriculum and the app and all that kind of stuff so they can set a thing. So my big thing is step out of the way and let it scale, separate from Anthony being the one behind the reins. Awesome.
Brad Weimert 35:47
That’s super, super helpful and kind of exactly what I wanted to know. The speaker Bureau element is an interesting one, because I think historically, at least from my perspective, so easy pay to rack to my company works with a tremendous number of people that are doing, coaching, consulting, education, you know, everything from Tony Robbins to somebody just starting out. Generally speaking, those people that are monetizing the information that way are not a part of speakers bureaus. And usually the people in speakers bureaus are not monetizing their information in any other way than the speaker’s bureau fees. Yeah. How much of a role do those bureaus play for you, and from a monetary perspective, and like, the whole engine, could you do it without? Like, how does that plan?
Anthony Trucks 36:36
I would probably say this year about 70% of our speeches. I do 24 speeches a year. They’re always at 25,000 or 30,000 I think the most this year was like 135 it was like a multiple thing. But what happens is, I’ll probably do 70% of the business with bureaus. 30% comes directly to me. The reason I like that is because I charge enough to where between my agent the bureau, I still get a good chunk. But we have these big companies we work with that they, Oh, it Dollar General. So I did Dollar General, big event. One of the board members also works with a board for Best Buy that’s called speech spin. So what I do is I go out, do my thing, get on stage, kill it, and then that then turns into them expanding and branching out from the speeches and things I’ve done. The speakers bureau for me is a large chunk of it. And even though I have a bureau, I don’t want to cannibalize other ones, and the Bureau is really not for me. It’s for my clients that are coming out of our coaching program, to have a place be able to get the assets in place for a bureau that then makes them more appealing to others in time, most of the time, bureaus won’t bring you on because just not put together well. So for me, that’s the piece you can do without bureaus. It’s not impossible to do, but I will say is the things that bureaus are doing is developing relationships with clients, pitching potential speakers, and then closing deals. And there are people that like husband, wife, teams. I know that use no bureaus, but they’re doing what bureaus would do their marketing. They’re compiling a list contact and you can also go to meeting planners. So it’s people that are out there they plan weddings, that there’s also some that plan events. And so whenever you have like these big companies that are planning events, they go out to a company and go, Hey, we have an event coming up. We need you to run this thing, figure it out. Like this wasn’t take place. Here’s our team that’s gonna lead it, take care of it. And so what they do is they’re they’re supposed to go find the AV team, speakers, obviously, food vendors, everything that goes on. So you want relationships with all of those. And the idea is, yes, you can definitely do it on your own. I We, for me, the first five years of speaking, it was just me out there trying to, you know, get on stages and talk to people and create relationships, after a while ago, with bureaus are doing this. Let me develop some good relationships with good bureaus and find a fee that allows me to be happy with what the, you know, the net coming to me is. But I also do this. I keep in mind that speakers, when you go on a stage and you speak, the bureau will take a percent of your on stage fee. They don’t take a part of your travel, but they also don’t touch coaching consulting. So this is where I go. Well, I’m up on stage, and I can try to run an ad and get in front of you and maybe get, I don’t know, five minutes of your time if you watch a video or something, maybe come to a training, if you’re one of the people that you know, might show at a good 30% show rate after, you know, a 50% opt in, right like, you know the numbers don’t know. Or I have you for an hour in front of me right now, and you know me. You’re gonna know my process, know my system, you know who I’m about. You’re gonna get to know my personal life. You’re going to go through the story we call, you know, Joseph Campbell’s story structure, where by the end of it, you’re like, rooting for me, then I go, this could be you. And so my keynote is designed in a way that actually produces a desire for more work with me. And so I’ve crafted it very specifically to do that. So I know that I’m essentially up on the stage getting paid to get paid. So I’m getting paid to do this phenomenal service. But beyond that, I’m turning that into more stages, more speaking, obviously, more consulting and coaching as well. And it’s intentionally done in that way. And so the business can, for sure, run without bureaus. You just have to have systems in place that are running to do it. Yeah, I
Brad Weimert 39:54
love that. What’s the typical rev share with a bureau and with a booking agent?
Anthony Trucks 39:59
Yeah, yeah. So usually it’s 25% some go higher than that. I don’t think they need to, but 25% is usually what it is. And you can choose to do a couple ways. You can say, I’m going to do a net or gross. Net means I have a set fee that no matter what I’m going to I want to make this much. So some people go like, Hey, you could charge whatever you want for me, but I need to make $20,000 when I go home. You could charge 40, you could charge 50, whatever you get them to pay. Cool. I want to go home with this. Some bureaus like that, because they go, we’ll just kind of rock and roll and put the person out and shoot. If we can get more, then we’ll get more. Then you have the people that are percentage based, which is, here’s my fee, let’s have the percentage that gives them more negotiation room, but then everybody gets less at the end. Now we’ll say, like, there’s a different person. I have an agent who’s a speaking agent, not so much a booking agent. Their job is not to market me. Not even the Bureau’s job really is to market me. My job to market myself. And when somebody goes to find me, they find a bureau, they find my agent that can then field the calls. And so the goal for us as speakers is kind of like when you launch a book, like I got the book and I might have a publisher, but the publisher but the publisher ain’t really selling that book like as you boss. So in the world of what I’m doing, I go, I’m kind of the same thing. I got this, this speech I can do. There’s a certain framing around how it’s an asset to your business. It’s not just me talking, and I have to market social media wise, asset wise. I gotta, I gotta become what they want on their stage. That’ll be a great value to their audience. And then when they go to reach out to reach out to me, they don’t talk to me. They talk to the people that are the right positions to be able to get the most for the speech. You know, negotiate what needs to be negotiated. But then the good thing is, is I’m wise about how I turn each of those opportunities into more income. So for me, like we do, about $600,000 from stage, right? That’s for me, just getting paid to go on a stage, just that. That’s that everything beyond that that gets us in the millions is all coaching consulting. I mean, we could do a single day with like Amazon for 110,000 right? It’s, it’s a matter of, what do you have that’s getting booked beyond the stage you were just on? So it obviously has more speaking, but a lot of it’s, you should be able to develop something and have a, what I call a high fee framework that allows the company to go, man, I love what you talk to. Can you get our people to do that? I most definitely can, right? And then, if it’s something where the individuals at the audience that they just want that help, beautiful, I’m going to give you something to let you on your own rabbit hole, to take our dark work assessment, to go into an experience with a coach, and the whole business runs on that
Brad Weimert 42:19
side. Also, that’s awesome. Yeah. I mean, I love, you know, I think that one of the ambitions in business, obviously, is to have a self liquidating offer, right? How do you get your advertising to pay for itself? And the Step Up there is if you can get paid to advertise, and that’s functionally what speaking on stage, is, if it’s a paid gig, yeah, I think that’s a great, great takeaway for anybody selling information is to look for that stuff. Do you have any tips for putting together a package for a speaker’s bureau?
Anthony Trucks 42:48
Yes. So there’s a couple things that most don’t grasp that you have to realize. Is speakers bureaus are a bunch of people who don’t know you. That’s okay, but they’ve got to be able to see the value in your message and relay that to sell you when you’re not present. And so what you have to have is what’s called a million dollar message. Like Mine is dark work, meaning it’s a message clear, concise. It can be a follow up line that clarifies it more, but it needs to be something where people hear it and they go that’s unique and different. There’s also value in it. And it’s so helpful. It’ll be, for me, it’ll be a helpful tool. I think about Tim Ferriss Four Hour Workweek, or Good to Great, or Darren Hardy’s compound effect. There are unique messages that when you hear the next line or the unpacking of you go, Oh, I see the value now. And so what you have to do for a bureau is have that message clean. When it’s clean, it’s way easier for them to be able to have somebody reach out and then go, let me take a look at the top area of, I don’t know, change management. They click, they go, Oh, here’s a person message. Makes sense. They can go and then present you. And if someone asks questions, they can then sell you. It’s the first piece of it. You need to also have what’s called a story reel. Most people have sizzle reels, which is nothing wrong with a sizzle reel, except for this. The way that you get booked at higher levels is not, let’s say higher levels. We’re talking about accessing 10 to, you know, $15,000 plus keynotes. It’s usually committee of people that are looking for the speaker they’re gonna book. I mean, there’s a bunch of people that, all, you know, they’ll ask for a bunch of names. Like, okay, you take these three. You take these three. We’re gonna come back and let me know who your number one pick is. We’ll kind of dwindle down from there. Well, if I get you, and I watch your video, and it’s a bunch of clips of you saying cool statements, and, you know, you on stage and a bunch of B roll and all the accolades you have when I go back into that room and they go, hey, who should we book? Oh, Brad. Why? You got a cool video? What’s his story? I don’t know. What’s, what’s his message? How, what’s, what’s, are people gonna take away from his message? I don’t know. I love that, right? So the real has to be something. When I get done, I shall return to my friend and go, here’s this person’s message. Their story is crazy. Here’s the story is right? Because people get booked for the message, not the story I love. That makes it clear
Brad Weimert 44:51
what’s, what’s the USP, right? Yeah, what is this person actually delivering to us exactly? You know, that’s a, I mean, on. Some level you hear that and you’re like, Well, yeah, fuck. Of course. Like this marketing 101, like, have a clear USP, don’t do it. No. And the other thing that I think is super relevant is today, in the world where there’s a fight between quality of content versus quantity of content, there’s so much out there. So if somebody goes and looks you up and you’re a public figure who knows what they’re going to see when they’re sifting around. So you can curate, you know, your sizzle for something nice, but if you don’t curate the dedicated USP for them, they might find something totally different altogether. Yeah,
Anthony Trucks 45:33
and it works. They go find somebody’s a better fit, because it makes sense they’re doing. You get those things in place, those would be the two bigger helps for you, because it allows it to be sold, and people know what your value is of the audience. That’s
Brad Weimert 45:45
dope. I love that. Okay, let’s dig into the identity shift and dark work, because this thing, I think that it’s helpful on so many different levels. But when I was thinking about this ahead of time, I was thinking about your story in the NFL, and that obviously led me to physical stuff in my life, and I’ve done some endurance work, and I have got a pretty significant injury with my left hip, and it has knocked me out of running altogether. And I came to realize that I have this I’ve developed this identity around being able to go long distances in I’ve never self identified as a runner, at least verbally, but I’m stuck in that identity. I’m stuck in this place of, if I don’t do it, I have a certainly a mental issue. I have an emotional issue with it, and I have a physical issue with it, or I think I do. How do you approach making a shift in your identity?
Anthony Trucks 46:46
Yeah, well, I think you’re already noticing it. One is, you have to be aware of, like, what you’re capable of doing that’s in your control, right? Some things are in our control. Some things aren’t. So if you get injured, there’s certain things you can and can’t do it. Just you got to realize that’s a part of it. Doesn’t mean you you slow down and chill. You just you’re wiser about how you approach the the healing of it. And then you also realize that you’re not the thing that is the outcome of that. You’re the person that creates those things. So it’s kind of like saying you’re not the fruit of the tree or the tree, right? We’re not the fruit of our labor, of the thing we’ve done. We’re the person. So I also go, if I was able to accomplish this in this area me, there’s some part of me I can create something probably even more cool in some other area, if I choose to give myself the ability to disconnect from this identity and go back to the one that works to work right, the one likes to try new things, and then you’ll develop something new that gives it a sense of feeling. Because all you’re talking about it’s what’s called an investment bias. You’ve invested so deeply into something, that there’s a bias of, I have to get a return in this area. I I’ve given to this. I got to feel confident, I got to feel self esteem. I got to feel like this, who I am, because I’ve done so much to give the energy and effort towards it. And so all you’re doing is getting that concept in place and going all right, I did that. So I feel this way here. What if I did that again in a different area, or a small, you know, kind of shifted directional area where I’m doing this exact same thing, but I’m doing something but I’m doing something different. And the more you’ll give yourself the energy to try these things, the more you can disconnect from that sense of I’m missing out because I’m not this thing, and reconnect with something that goes man, but I feel proud and confident because I am this thing, or I’m becoming more of this thing.
Brad Weimert 48:16
I think there are kind of two different camps of people that I think about in business in general. Obviously, this is a spectrum, but I think about people that are just starting in business, and then I think about people that are way further down the path, and both of them are confronted with identity shifts in very different ways and maybe in the same ways. What do you think the difference is between making a change when you’re 20 or 25 versus 40.
Anthony Trucks 48:47
Ah, to be quite honest, it’s the how big the tree is. Man. So here’s think about it. This way we have, we’re all standing in front of this beautiful, you know, big oak tree of our lives, the relationships we developed, you know, the stuff. And we know how hard it was to keep this tree standing at times when the storms kept blowing, like to be able to roost, to stay in place, and you know, everything, to be there, my health, to be intact, relationship, to be in place, business, to be running. All we know, all these things. And so what happens is the thought of something new makes us feel like we’re going into a brand new open orchard, and there’s we got a handful of seeds, and there’s no tree, and I gotta go and build another tree, like, man. So at 20, it’s like, the tree’s not that built. It’s, you know, it’s there. But at four, it’s like, yeah, I got this, this thing’s already got fruit and everything, right? Doing them, doing this stuff, man. And the idea is, you go over here and, like, you throw the seeds and you go, where’s my tree every day, where’s my tree every freaking out, where’s my tree, because I’m missing the big oak that was that was previously there, and having to do it all again. And the thing that I look at, as most people see, trying something new, is like that. And I go, it’s not though, because every time that something with the other tree was going on was the first time it happened. And if you honestly think about the way that you took your life to build up to that thing, knowing what you know now, if you did it again. You do it double, double speed, if not faster. And so for me, when I look at, you know, trying things new, I I’ve done them 3035, for I’m doing something new now with a whole new brand. The idea is, I go, Yeah, but I’m approaching this not as a 20 year old mind. I’m doing this with years of understanding how to build trees, because I’ve been doing this damn thing. And so I’m cool, like, let’s do it. Let me pop this down, put the seed there. I know that tree exists. I can walk back to it if I ever wanted to, but I want to see how fast I can build a different tree. And maybe this tree’s going to be better than the first one that I didn’t want to leave, right? And so I just dive in the new stuff. I find that life for me is more fun that way. It’s supposed to be an exploration of crazy and new and different things, because if not, then after a while, it’s like, why are you doing it? Just to do the same thing every day? Like there’s peace and that I get it, but I like to see what what I’m meant to do. And I find that everybody loves when they get praise for doing something they love to do. And so if I love trying new things and being okay with that, eventually I’ll get great at something new, and I’ll get praise in that area. So it’s wide than the TV shows and lived in the speaking. It’s why both the company’s teaching people, because it’s a blast to see what this person is about. Always weird tools is capable of doing in the
Brad Weimert 51:09
long run. Yeah, it’s beautiful. And I think it’s a choice to decide that growth or the process is the objective, not the outcome. Yeah. So what’s the benefit to a 20 or 25 year old? How is that? What’s the benefit to them making
Anthony Trucks 51:25
it you get to do that stuff without as much responsibility that could go wrong when I’m this age. I got kids, I got a wife, I got people that rely upon me for their families. At 20, I could, I could try different things without all the extra weight, usually. But as you get older, there’s more that going to force you to kind of sometimes stay in that box where you gotta get more creative with stuff. But at 20, the ideas imagine when you get to 30, if you’ve taken 10 years of just sampling and testing and trialing, as opposed to trying to be 40 at 20 and just doing the same thing and not really branching out and trying new stuff. I think that the 20s window of time is that one where you like you’re legit, could just do anything, and you can still go live with mom and dad like you’re probably still in your parents, you know, healthcare 25 most times. So you could do that. And then what happens is, when you get to the age of 30, you have wisdom of those beyond 30, because you did the things that that most people were doing over those periods of time just earlier. So the benefit is trying new stuff to figure out what you like to do, what you’re good at doing, what people like that you do. And at some point go, Okay, I want to anchor down to this. And then you get into the flow of, can I just be phenomenal at this thing? And let that turn to something cool? Yeah,
Brad Weimert 52:31
it’s funny, though, because when you’re in your 20s, or at least when I was, I felt like there was a lot of weight, and I felt like I had to make the right choices, and I felt like if I fucked it up, it was going to be a problem.
Anthony Trucks 52:42
Yeah, we do, because apparently the wrong things, yeah, what did?
Brad Weimert 52:46
What advice do you have for a 25 year old entrepreneur? Oh, man,
Anthony Trucks 52:50
try everything and find people that will, like, egg you on in a good way. Like, I like, people that will help fan the flame, not blow it out. Find the weirdos that are like, Yeah, do it? Do it? See what happens, right? Not to see you fail, but because they see more in you. And do that like, because you’re not going to die. I mean, statistically, you’re doing something new. You may get embarrassed, you might fail, you’re not going to die. And so if you could figure that thing out, man, that at a certain point in time, later on, you get to spend more time in your life, having more intelligence, more experience that’ll make you honestly have greater experiences of maybe money, time, friends, freedom, all of it, but not if you don’t go bounce around at 25 and try stuff that may make you feel uncomfortable, embarrassed for a little bit. What
Brad Weimert 53:33
do you think the biggest mistake is that you’ve made in your journey
Anthony Trucks 53:37
me, I didn’t pay attention to what my family needed. For me earlier, when my marriage fell apart, I didn’t pay attention to in a sense of I thought, if I just build this thing, then eventually, all of a sudden, it’ll click, and then I’ll have all this free time, and it’s like, no, you have to find a way to have harmony in life, harmony with how you hustle and get down, but also how you completely shut it all off and just come home. And so for me, my biggest mistake early on was that, but gosh, if without that, I don’t learn the lessons I have that allow me to be a great husband and father now. So I don’t know if I would. It’s in the moments. It’s a mistake because it all falls apart, and there might have been easier ways to learn the lesson, but I wouldn’t change it.
Brad Weimert 54:13
Yeah, I I generally live by the idea that regret is a waste of time. Yeah,
Anthony Trucks 54:22
I agree. Just something’s good. I mean, something good comes out of it. Lauren, even if it’s knowing not to ever do that again, exactly,
Brad Weimert 54:27
it doesn’t mean that I’m gonna do the same shit again, but exactly. But I try to learn the lesson once I’ve hit my face in the ground. Man, once or twice, or three times, exactly, as a wise man. Anthony, it’s awesome. Man, if people want to find out more about you, where do you want to point them? Go to
Anthony Trucks 54:44
darkwork.com, or Anthony trucks on Instagram.
Brad Weimert 54:49
It’s awesome. Man, thank you so much for carving out time. Hey, welcome. Thank
Anthony Trucks 54:52
you for having me.
Brad Weimert 54:53
I hope you enjoyed the episode as much as I enjoyed doing it. I need your help. There are three places you can find beyond a million the podcast. Itself beyond a million.com which has some cool free resources, including a free course, and we finally launched the beyond a million YouTube channel. I would love it if you would go there and subscribe, and if you don’t want to, you still will probably enjoy seeing the visual content. Check it out, youtube.com, forward slash at beyond a million.
