Troy Hoffman inspires and encourages listeners to seek fulfillment
Today, it’s our great pleasure to be sitting down with entrepreneur, executive coach, and good friend, Troy Hoffman. We trace his career trajectory from his humble beginnings, hog hunting and flounder gigging in Cocoa Beach, Florida, to where he is today, founding and running Simpluris, a successful class action settlement administration company.
Troy’s enjoyed a wide range of success, including building five multi-million dollar businesses from scratch, earning degrees in multinational financing and performance management psychology, and coaching fellow entrepreneurs to develop similar habits and values to grow their businesses and capacities.
In this powerful and emotional episode that’s jam packed with words of wisdom, we get specific about how to rewire your mind for happiness, magnetize what you want by shifting your mindset, and how to build and scale something from nothing.
Listen in as we go over the importance of identifying and removing your triggers, taking a methodical approach to daily living and finding your very own meaning of success.
Please follow along below and thank you for listening to today’s encouraging episode.
In this Episode
[01:26] Jason welcomes Troy to Hennessey Studios. Troy recommends everyone check out the Television Academy campus and tells us that he’s coming from Cancún, Mexico while touring the country for over a year.
[02:17] Jason notices that Troy uses “we” when referring to exploring Mexico. Troy updates Jason that he married his wife after 6 months of dating about 3 years ago.
[03:57] Troy talks to us about how he’s been lucky to live an epic life as he alludes to Shawshank Redemption and being set free after crawling through sewage. He also lists three people who’ve greatly influenced his entrepreneurial spirit.
[06:59] Troy remembers growing up in a Huckleberry Finn lifestyle in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Jason asks about how his family’s businesses fared as well.
[09:07] Troy goes in-depth about his first merchandising business and losing it while trying to expand and being inexperienced. He looks back on his decision to go to college at 24 to earn a few degrees and take another shot at entrepreneurship.
[12:28] Jason outlines the route he took out of high school which led him to return to school. He admires Troy’s ability to take action and Troy informs us about his company Simpluris.
[16:31] Troy and Jason detail some of the drawbacks of directing constant energy to a business. Troy suggests finding support in groups like the Entrepreneurs’ Organization and pursuing what fulfills you.
[19:43] Jason praises Troy’s recognition of delegation when running a business. Troy acknowledges the importance of having a great team, and how it can help a business flourish.
[25:09] Troy explains the importance of expressing gratitude and having a willingness to change and focus on the positives in our daily lives.
[30:17] Jason wonders when enough is enough for an entrepreneur. Troy gives us two tools to help reinforce what we want and how we can better define success.
[35:31] Troy tells us of the two coaches he has to help him improve his physical and mental wellbeing. Also, how he’s been coaching and helping people improve their companies and selves.
[38:18] Jason and Troy discuss how the personalities of people like Elon Musk, Walt Disney, Sam Walton, and Steve Jobs allowed them to be visionaries and what set them apart from other leaders.
[44:35] In today’s game of “Never Have I Ever,” we learn if Troy has ever gotten a speeding ticket, spent over $10,000 in one night, watched an entire season over a weekend, plus much more.
[51:03] Troy opens up about the particular foods he eats to keep him healthy, how managing Simpluris made him hit rock bottom, his thoughts on blockchain and the metaverse, his new book, what his dad would be most proud of, and more during our signature “Hennessey Heart-to-Heart” segment.
[01:11:40] Jason invites Troy to share how we can keep in touch with him. Troy gets emotional as he urges anyone who’s struggling or having suicidal thoughts to text him at the number he provides to us.
Transcript
Jason Hennessey: All right, Mr. Troy Hoffman, thank you for coming down to Hennessey Studios, man.
Troy Hoffman: It’s great to be here, honestly. Just walking in the door here- Anyone who’s listening to this, you have to come and check this building out.
First off, the place is amazing and you get to walk by all the busts of all the famous people right outside the door here from the- I don’t even know what this is. Some of the-
The Emmys.
The Emmys are here. It’s amazing. It’s a cool spot.
Thank you, man. I appreciate that. And you came all the way from- Where are you?
So, you’re in Cancún.
Cancún, Mexico right now, living.
Because if I was going to mail you a postcard, I wouldn’t know where to send it, man.
We’re pretty much homeless, because of the pandemic. So, we decided to maximize this opportunity and travel around Mexico for basically over a year now. Just keep going to different cities and traveling all over. It’s been epic.
So, the last time we were talking, there was no “we,” it was “I.” So, let’s talk a little bit about that. What’s going on in your world?
So, I met this amazing girl several years ago and then somehow we dated once. She did not like me. Dated a second time, she did not like me again. True story. I swear to God. Had to keep working on this one.
The third time we went out, we really hit it off and it just went quick. I’ve never was married. I dated great people, but it was that right feeling. And people always say, “You know when you know,” and I thought they were full of it. But I swear, you knew it was it. It was like, “Okay. Yeah, let’s get married.”
Just like that. That simple, and it just happened so fast.
So, from the time you went on that bad first date and bad second date to the time you married, how long?
About a year and a half.
Okay.
Finally, by the third time we hung out, it was like, “Okay, let’s keep dating.” And it just worked. And it’s very easy. You can be 100% truthful. You can be 100% direct and honest, and you don’t have to try to be anything else or do anything else. It’s one of the most surreal things. You almost believe it’s not possible until it is.
That’s the story of my life, man. So, my story, I met my wife on Valentine’s Day or the day before Valentine’s Day, and we got married on April Fools’ Day. So, a month and a half later.
Wow.
Yeah. So, talk about love at first sight and knowing. So, now we are 3 later- 23 years later.
That’s amazing.
Isn’t it great?
Yeah. We were married 6 months later.
Good, man.
It’s crazy.
I love it. Well, congratulations.
Thank you, sir.
I saw some of the photos actually on Instagram too.
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Oh, thanks man.
So, it sounds like family life is good. How’s just life in general? What’s going on in your world, man?
I’ve been pretty blessed to have a pretty epic life. And even now it’s even more epic. You keep working and you do the personal development stuff. You set your goals. You get the dreams. You get the vision and you go after and you keep building it.
And if you can make it through Shawshank Redemption style, that 500 yards of shit you have to crawl through sometimes to break free of different things, it really is this massive freedom on the other side. And I don’t know if we’re allowed to say cuss words. Sorry.
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No, we totally are. Yeah, we’re good here.
It’s like that freedom on the other side, you really can experience. And whatever you want to manifest, you truly can. And that’s where you hear this stuff, and you’re like, “Oh, these people are full of it.” Again, on the seminars, reading the books, right?
Mm-hmm.
Listen to the cassette tapes back in the day.
Sure.
I’m really dating myself now. I was a lifeguard on the beach for many years. I listened, by 16 on, to Zig Ziglar and Tony Robbins and Charlie “Tremendous” Jones and all these old school motivational speakers
As a young kid.
Yeah. Chris Widener and all these other crazy speakers. And so, you keep listening to this stuff and you’re like, “Is it possible?” And after a while you see, “Wow, it really is possible.” There are people that go from nothing to something, and that’s what’s been really fun.
And then, living the life has been really fun too. And you’re still working. You’re still living. And you get to choose what you want to do, which is the coolest thing. “Where do I want to go? What do I want to do? What do I want to work on? What drives me? What am I passionate about? What am I going to make happy with my life every single day that I enjoy?”
And I book my schedule full. I book my weeks full. I book my months and years full of things that are going to bring me joy and fulfillment, if that makes sense.
It makes complete sense. So, as a kid, when did you know that you were an entrepreneur?
I grew up with a dad that had his own electrical contracting business. My grandmother built this clothing company back in I think, ‘40s or something, and she had shops up and down the East Coast. And I call him an uncle, but not technically an uncle, but this guy, Ron DiMenna, he owned Ron Jons, I saw him build up Ron Jon’s Surf Shop.
I saw all these other people, just in a very small town, build up these businesses. And of course, you’re a kid, you are broke, your parents won’t give you money. So, you go work and do all the basics: mow lawns, paint numbers on sidewalks, knock on doors to get jobs, whatever, detail cars.
And then, the first company launched with a real EIN number, like F-E-I-N, when I was 18. So, we built this t-shirt business and then we made hats and stickers and did youth conferences. And then started doing truck stops with the stickers, a Holographic Prismatic.
And then we built a web design company where we basically called it Value Web when we built shopping cart technology back in the day that actually linked to credit card processing. So, that’s what we were helping people do when I was 18, 19, 20 and-
Oh my God. So ahead of your time.
Yeah. It was crazy back then. It was fun.
And so, you grew up where?
I grew up in a place called- You know where Cocoa Beach, Florida is or Kennedy Space Center is?
Sure.
Very much Huckleberry Finn lifestyle. You surfed, you went boating, you went in the swamps, gator hunting, hog hunting, flounder gigging. It’s really got-
That’s not my world.
I tell these people these things. Some people are like, “What did you do?” I’m like, “All my friends were either,” I don’t know. It’s hard to explain. Much more lower key lifestyle place. You weren’t exposed to-
Out here in LA, in Orange County and California, it’s a totally different mentality. Everybody you meet here is doing something amazing, it feels like. It really is.
Yeah. Just, different journey. So, I’ve got two children, 19, 17; and one just wants to be a normal teenager. He’s got a job at Target. And then my other son is a rock-and-roll star and all this and pursuing music, pursuing acting.
Oh, I saw that. I saw that you were up at Whisky a Go Go.
Whisky a Go Go. He performed there.
I saw that you were there and I was like, “Wow, that’s awesome that he was doing that.”
It’s so cool.
It’s a big deal, because that’s world famous.
It was a big deal. Guns N’ Roses. Some big bands got their start on the same stage and it doesn’t look any different.
But you’re right. Everybody’s childhood is different, and it sounds like you didn’t come from wealth. You said your family had a business and-
My grandmother did okay. I don’t think she passed it down to her kids. She sold off and then she traveled the world for the next 10, 15, 20 years, almost traveling all over the world. And then she retired to Florida and probably burnt through her money in retirement.
And my dad never really made a lot of money. He became all these doctors; a chiropractor, neurologist, internal medicinist, clinical nutritionist to try to save the world. Everyone that was broke that was sick with cancer and lupus and issues would come to his clinic.
And he would help them get better and heal through detoxification programs and diet and nutrition and supplements and doing all these crazy infrared therapy, red light therapies.
And it really worked. And these people would get better and they’d get rid of whatever the major challenge was at the time. So-
I see.
Pretty fascinating.
So, looking back right when you were 18 and you started that first business, first of all, was the business successful? Did you sell it?
So, the practical business was- the moving of merchandise was successful. Then we got into web development and the smaller gigs were successful. So, when we took on these larger clients and we were young and we didn’t know what we were doing with contracts- There weren’t mentors back then. There weren’t really guides or anything. We had no idea what we were doing with these friends I had.
We were all pulling together and we got taken advantage of by a larger company. So, we built out a large project, borrowed a lot of money to build out this large project. Somebody just didn’t want to pay. The internet was crashing. It was run by good, old boys at the time, you can imagine. Thought the internet was just going to go away. “Why do I need this? We got phone centers. We got magazine advertising.”
And so, we tried. And I didn’t know about really, litigation. I didn’t know about the right attorneys. I didn’t have no business mentors. The largest company that I’d ever worked for, ever, was maybe 25 employees. And so, I never- Even the SC-
They had back then, something called SCORE, Senior Corps of Retired Executives. And it was retired NASA engineers coaching entrepreneurs.
And they were coming to consult you. I remember that.
And it was just, the advice they gave was from a giant corporation standpoint, not from an entrepreneur standpoint. Building something from nothing is a very different world than working in a corporate job. Even your general manager, we were just talking about his corporate experience.
Sure.
He ran giant companies. He’s great for running next level companies, but starting from 0 people to 25 is a whole other space of work. Right?
Yeah, yeah. So, it’s interesting that you say that, because it sounds like you didn’t go to college. If you just started your first business at 18, did you just skip over that?
I didn’t go to college until I was 24 and after I went bankrupt. So, I decided to bankrupt everything. Well, that was the coaching. Just bankrupt everything, get rid of the debt, go to college. I was like, “Ah, sure. Sounds like a great idea to find the right college.” But that’s when I went to college finally and got a few degrees.
You did.
Yeah.
So, you ended up doing that later.
After I went back, I was like, “Okay, I need to learn all this.” So, I went and got one degree in multinational finance, another degree in performance management psychology, which learning the number side of the business was very useful. And looking at businesses, writing P&Ls, balance sheets, finance, just overall how things are and what’s actually available to us was educational.
And then the other side of it was the performance management psychology. It’s using behavioral modification techniques in a work environment to motivate and elicit the positive behaviors you want from somebody, basically. And you build out token economies or all kinds of other things.
And we’ve actually been able to build a lot of the performance management systems in the company that help motivate and different models over the years. So even now, there’s a new model with new management. They create their own systems. How do you motivate the entire group to hit different levels? And what does that look like? The carrot and the stick type things. Right?
Got it. Like an EOS or something like that.
Yeah. Like EOS traction. Those are all the core components of managing. And then you have to figure out what the reward is. You can do a balanced scorecard system, they hit something, what do they get? And you can tie in simple things like pizza parties to more complex bonus structure plans, depending on what state you’re in…
I see.
…without getting sued, right?
Yeah. So, when I was in college- First of all, I joined the Air Force out of high school. Served my country. Started to do community college and I graduated and then I went to UNLV.
I was living in Las Vegas contemplating going to law school. But as I’m sitting in college, I’m taking some of these classes, like accounting and this and that. And I just knew that my brain wasn’t wired to be an accountant.
But I was just, “I just got to get past this class.” I knew back then that I was going to hire an accountant. Right?
Yeah.
Just, I saw my future. And that’s such a powerful thing. And I know, of all people that I know, you’re one of the people that actually not only see your future vividly, but then you just go and act it out, right?
Yeah.
Tell me a little bit more about that. Does that just come naturally to you or what?
I don’t know, because you go through these stages where there’s very clear visions given to you and then there’s times that there are not. So, starting Simpluris, it was the moment in between the company previously I helped start-
And tell everybody what that company is and what you do with that company.
So, Simpluris is something- This term now is a class action settlement administration company. That’s the industry we started, and now we’re doing corporate remediation. Now we’re doing a lot of just corporate work for people, a lot of mass action, mass arbitration stuff in Simpluris Inc. currently.
And we ended up building this giant, massive ERP system for this claims administration industry where we basically send out a lot of information to a lot of people. And a lot of people respond back and we send out a lot of money in one way or another. And we built this huge tech platform.
And so, that’s really what we do at Simpluris. And now we’re actually administering more and more and larger and larger and larger cases with an amazing executive team now running it full time that are 10 times better than I.
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And how old is this company?
Simpluris is now 15 years old.
Okay, got it.
Fifteen years. So it was 15 years January 7th, technically, truly. We opened the doors January 7th of that one, in 2007.
Okay. Got it. Now we understand what the company is. So, tell me a little bit more.
No, I wanted to be an entrepreneur. You see these stories- When I was in high school, this one teacher is like, “To get out of school early, you had to take this one class.” So, you have a job and go wash dishes or lifeguard or something.
So, you got to take this one class, but the guy had stacks of Entrepreneur magazine back in the day and some other different business magazines. And he talked about starting your own business and owning your own company. And the guy was really fantastic about that. And so, in my head I was like, “Oh, this would be- I want to be an entrepreneur.”
And then you see all these other people build businesses from scratch. So, if you look up, watching this little tiny surf shop called Ron Jon Surf Shop go bigger and bigger and bigger and get bigger and bigger and bigger. And I was like, “Oh wow, this is one person behind all of this.” And they have the Ron Jon car and the resorts.
And you just see how a small idea can scale so much in that these are normal people doing this. I think those kind of things inspired me. And then you just start reading Inc. magazine. You start reading Inc., you’re reading about all these success stories.
Like, “I want to be on the ‘Inc. 500.’” You read the list. You look at the people be- They had just started the internet back- That’s how old I am now, Jason. And I think they had- I can’t even remember. It was senior year, we were doing a report. There was one place to go pull all your information, like a Wikipedia back then.
Sure.
And that was it. There was nothing else. Barely was blackboard system or BBS systems back in the day. But just reading those magazines, like, “I want to be on that list.” And you just get this thing that just plants inside of you. And then when you make the list, you’re like, “Wow, this is amazing.”
And all your energy, all your focus, and if you’re not careful, without the coaching. I think this is one of the challenges that I really want to work with people and doing a lot of coaching around and helping a lot of entrepreneurs working deeply with is, you give so much to building these businesses, you lose yourself in the process.
There’s the waking, and there’s the adrenal blowout, because you’re drinking so much coffee. Your diet, your nutrition goes to crap. You’re out drinking all the time with clients. You’re sacrificing your health for this quote-unquote, “wealth,” which is not really true. And so, because of building these things, because of all the success in one area of life-
Some people are very successful in family, but not in business. They’re very successful in business, but not in family.
Sure.
And they have this “have-it-all lifestyle,” where it’s really got to be a very focused and intent game plan every single day of our lives. “What supplements are we taking? What water are we drinking? What veggie drinks are we making?” And this methodical approach to this daily living.
And when you don’t do that, and when all it is “wake up, email, and build a business,” you can build anything you want. Whatever is in your mind. You just get around these people- I’m in a group called EO, Entrepreneurs’ Organization, and you watch all these amazing success stories launch out of there.
Get around CEO Coaching International or YPO, and you see this- Man, it’s amazing that these people that, very, very, very simple, humble beginnings, build these amazing things. It truly is the American dream.
Sure. Yeah. Actually, I belong to Vistage. I’m also a YPO guy. So-
That’s awesome.
I’m going to Panama next week…
That’s awesome.
…with my YPO group. You’re right. You hit it on the head, because there’s so many people that are million and billionaires, but they’re not happy.
No.
But society defines them as successful. But I think “successful” comes from internal. What makes you successful? What do you define your success as?
What’s going to fulfill you?
What’s going to fulfill you?
What’s going to make you happy? What makes you feel happy and feel like, “Ah, I’m in peace in my life. I feel calm. I feel love?” Man, it could be the money. It could be the relationship. It could be the car. It could be just going for walks or hikes or working on projects, working on specific things that you love doing. You love building things.
I was literally taking a call from these two guys that are up all night in crypto working on a book. And I’m literally putting on a sweater, brushing my teeth, talking to these guys, laying in bed, trying to finish the conversation. And they were ready to go all night.
These guys were on fire, building this business they’re building around crypto and they’re loving it and they’re just passionately doing it. And it’s like, whatever that is for you, you got to find that and that fulfillment.
I had a dinner last night with a gentleman who’s extremely, extremely successful. Has killed it in the tens of millions, but still trying to figure out what that love component is, that balance component, the family component.
Sure.
And it’s interesting, when things are off, it’s a challenge. There’s always these unique challenges that we all experience that we have to figure out, how do we solve these in our lives? And then once we solve it, then we get to go to the next level of our lives. Opens another door.
It’s like a video game. You leveled up, right?
A hundred percent. Always, right?
Uh-huh. Totally agree. And you just don’t have the answers, especially for an entrepreneur that either went to college or didn’t. Because there’s a lot of entrepreneurs that didn’t go to college. But you don’t have the answers. You’re just going to make a whole lot of mistakes. You learn from your mistakes.
And it sounds like you figured out early in life that, “Hey, listen, as an entrepreneur, I want to do everything my way.” Most entrepreneurs are control freaks. “I got to get this done perfect.” But it seems like you learn the value of bringing on a team and delegating very quickly, because that’s the only way that I see it as being an entrepreneur probably, for just as long as you, to live that balanced life that you’re living right now.
Yes.
Right?
A hundred percent. You have to figure out where you’re getting very, very clear on, “What am I not good at in life? What does not fulfill me? What does not charge me up? What does not give me passion? What does not open me up and make me wake up every day with this intense motivation?”
And it’s like, when we step into that and we say, “Okay, these are the negatives that drag me down, and I’m going to focus on the things that actually give me energy, and I put my time, my money, my energy there,” massive things happen. And when we’re trying to be someone other than who we are, things don’t move fast.
Things become a drain. They become energy sucks. They become these negatives in our lives and they become a more and more larger problem. Then we put more and more of our energy there, and it’s almost like this whole death loop we just go through. We’re just going in this death circle, spiraling down, down, down into this pit until we solve for it, right?
Yeah.
And so, one of those things for me was, I’m not the best manager in the world. I’m probably horrible at it. I’m not a methodical process person to work every day in a process. Some people have that more of that management skill set. And I was trying to spend so much time in that.
And when I realized there’s other people that love it, they want to do this, this is who they are- I like building out processes. I like building out procedures. I like architecting businesses and architecting systems and architecting these, “Where can we take this thing? How do we make this thing to go from here to here, from a lower level to a higher level of something?”
Whatever that business is, that’s what I love playing in. And when I do that and I make that happen, even when I’m coaching people or be on advisory boards or boards or investing in companies, when I play that role, I do well. When I’m trying to actually manage things like, “Oh, did you get that project done?” No, it’s a failure.
That’s the best use of your time. It’s not what you’re good at or you’re passionate about.
No, and it cost me a lot of money to fail in this area in years, because I didn’t get the right coaching. I didn’t listen to people when people said things. You let ego or arrogance or whatever it is that blocks you from hearing what people are saying, going, “Oh, this is just so easy. I’ll find this other person that wants to do this and allow them to do it. And it’s that easy.”
Yes, it’s that easy. When you give them the responsibility, the grace and the backing, you support them and you work together, it’s amazing. The management team we have now, at just Simpluris alone, they’re the dream team in this industry, honestly. They’re all super high level, super dynamic, 10 times better than I in everything. It’s amazing.
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No, that was one of the keys to- You mentioned Inc. We did the “Inc. 500.” We made the “Inc. 5,000.” We’ve been doing it consecutively, every year, but there was one year where we were growing.
And when I say “we,” it was me and a small team, but I was working 15 hour days. At the end of the year, we had all this profit. But guess what? That just means I’ve got to pay the government a large amount of money. I’m thinking to myself, “Why did I kill myself? Why did I work these 15-hour days, sacrificing time for my family to be in the office, work more, more, more, more?” You’re never done. Work is never done, especially as an entrepreneur that has all these other ideas too.
But I’m like, “Man, I just wrote a big check to the government.” I’m like, “Screw this.” I’m like, “Next year, I’m starting to bring in senior leadership, and I’m going to start replacing everything that I’m not good at or not passionate about.” And those, like you said, if you want the dream team, you got to pay for the dream team.
It’s expensive,
Right? It is expensive. But now here I am on a Friday sitting with you, doing something that I’m passionate about. Has nothing to do with business. I’m not here selling you anything. It’s just me being curious and interviewing people that I enjoy talking to.
And now that fulfills me and makes me successful or happy or positive. Whereas I’ve got people in place that is doing things to support the business and growing the business, even without me. Right?
And this will bring in even more business for you. By doing this podcast, by impacting other people’s lives, they’re going to be like, “Oh, Jason does X. His company does Y,” and you’re adding probably even more value now by doing this and living in-
I know people always say this, but living in your genius or whatever they say. Some of it sounds corny, but it’s so true at the same time. It’s like, “Ah, God.” Yeah, Jason, and you’re killing it. You guys are doing amazing here. It’s so cool watching the story.
Thank you, man.
Yeah. I love this stuff.
We are truly having fun. Truly having fun. What about gratitude? How do you show gratitude? I’m curious for yourself, for your people and life.
Well, one thing is I know a simple, practical thing I learned from this men’s group I was a part of is- They have the thing you have to do every day, your “core four.” One of those is setting your love tax, your gratitude tax or whatever every morning.
And you just find two people that you literally just- It’s easy. You find your wife, or your kids, or your mom, or your dad or your friends or somebody, and you’re just saying, “Hey, I’m grateful and thankful that you’re in my life,” or “Hey, I’m so proud of you for this,” and something where you’re constantly, “I’m proud of you with this. I’m so glad that you’re my stepson,” or something. “You’re kicking butt in this,” or something.
To an 8-year-old’s going to be different than to your wife or whatever. “Hey, I’m grateful that I married you. It’s the best choice I ever made.” Or to your mom, “Hey mom, thank you for taking us to go ride on that train in Texas one time.”
And you try to think of things all the time to what you’re grateful.” And I don’t know. I know some friends that are very hardcore about this, but that’s the way I show gratitude.
And then also in the morning journaling session, it’s just real simple, like, “What am I grateful for? What am I-” Instead of looking at this situation negatively, I’m like, “What am I happy about this situation?”
Exactly.
And like, “Okay, I’m happy about this one scenario. Even though this other part of it’s not good, this other part is good.” I’m like, “Well, God, this is amazing.” I could be unhappy being in Cancún, because it doesn’t have a Erewhon store right next door to me with every possible organic thing I ever possibly could want, with every grass-fed thing, with every-” You know what I mean? Possible gluten-free thing you possibly want, and it’s not in one place.
So, I could be happy. “Well, Hey, the weather’s amazing. It’s never freezing in Cancún. It’s awesome.”
That’s right.
The water’s great. We go surfing. We’re learning kite-surfing. I’m able to sit in quiet and stillness and work on projects and read these books and prepare for the next stage, whatever that next stage is. You know what I mean?
As I keep reading and studying and learning and giving time with the family, and it becomes epic. Or you look at the negative, there’s Erewhon, right?
Yeah. Well, what you’re basically saying is you have the power to control your mindset, right?
Yeah.
Paralysis analysis. There’s that whole saying. If you focus your time and energy on everything that’s going bad, guess what? Your life is going to start to react to that. But what you just said is so powerful.
And for those that are listening to this podcast, I just want to recap that. You can always find the positive in things. That’s where you need to focus your time and energy and give people in the situation the benefit of the doubt. And that’s how I try to live my life too.
I think if you’re an entrepreneur, listening to this, and you focus on the negative, you’re just going to get more of that. And people always say that, but it’s true. Whatever you focus on, you can just get more of. And I don’t know why it works that way. It just does.
It does.
I think once we start understanding and accepting these things, it becomes easier to change. For things to change, I must change. For things to get better, I must get better, until I give my better, until my better is best and my best is better than the rest. And it’s that constant, “I’ve got to change.”
So, what are we feeding ourselves with? Are you feeding yourself with this podcast? Are you feeding yourself with- what books you’re reading? Who are you getting around that’s energizing and not negative, right?
Because sometimes even people you’re around, even entrepreneurs can be negative. There’s different people at different times. And you need to energize you or things you need to listen to or read or groups you need to be around.
Like you were talking about YPO. Finding that energy for you that’s going to help change you, because that’s what’s going to change your business, your marriage, your happiness factor inside of you, your body, the way you show up in the world. That’s the thing we have to change.
And the more I change myself, the more everything else around me changes, and the environment changes. And it all starts with that, “Let’s focus on what is good that I can focus on, that I am happy about, that I can give gratitude about.” Whatever it is. Gratitude that I’m alive. Simple as that, like, “Great.”
Sure.
Another day above ground. Good day. High five.
The energy is contagious, man. Positive and negative. And you start to attract that. That’s what it is, like a magnet. As you’re walking around, people feel-
Like when you walked in, your energy is, just so like, “Oh my God. Look at this place. It’s amazing. Look at you. You’re doing so well.” But you’re authentic. You know what I mean? I’m not saying that, but that’s just because that’s your mind. That’s how you think. You’re seeing the positive in people and what they’re doing.
You could have walked in and be like, “Ah, it’s hot in here.” Seriously, right? And then that changes the whole dynamic. It’s like, “Well, let’s get the guy some water.” And then it’s like, “This water’s warm.” You know what I mean?
This water is amazing, by the way. Thank you for my Evian water. You are so nice. I love you. Much gratitude.
But do you see how easy it is?
Uh-huh.
Just with the slightest things that you say and do, how it changes the energy of everyone around you-
Yes.
Right? It’s so powerful. Here’s my question for you. So, when is enough though? Because you’re successful. You’ve got businesses. You’ve got people working for you. You’ve got an amazing life. You’ve got a family. You’ve got a wife.
There’s that old saying. It’s like, “Hey, I don’t want to just go to the basketball game. I want to own the team. I don’t want to just own the team. Now I want to own the plane that I fly on. Now I don’t want to own the plane. I want to own the company that owns the plane. Nope. I want to own the island that the plane lands on.”
There’s never enough, especially for an entrepreneur. You’re always thinking bigger and bigger and bigger. And so, at the end, when it’s all about to- Like when you’re in the nursing home, did you accomplish everything that you set out to accomplish or do you consider yourself a failure, because you never owned that island?
If you read Winston Churchill‘s writing, he considered himself a failure in the end of his life in a lot of ways, even though he accomplished so much, because certain things didn’t happen that he wanted. He looked at his life. In some ways, he was judging himself in a massive way as almost a failure, and everyone looks at Winston Churchill.
So, I think there’s just having people that you can talk to and maybe help give you the other perspective is what changes that. And two, it goes back to: What do you want? It’s like that old quote from,I forget. Oh my God. Who was it?
But they’re like, “I can-” But it was a famous writer. I’m going to go blank on who it was specifically. I don’t want to misquote, but he said, “I can help any man or woman get what they want, but I can’t seem to find a man or woman who can tell me what they want.” Like, really want.
And so, if you can really choose what you want- Because you may think you want this big business and a lot of money and the plane and everything, but also, what are you giving up in that process? And there’s really just, what do you want? What is that choice? What’s going to give you happiness? And that’s the hard part of this self-discovering.
For some reason, this brain, this body, this soul, this spirit, whatever it is that makes us, whatever name or languaging you want to put around, it’s unique to each of us. And what fulfills somebody is totally different from something else.
And that’s the hardest thing in our lives is really to keep journaling and keep discovering ourselves and figuring out, “Man, what do I want? What do I want to do? What is it? Is it truly to that impact? Is it truly just to get money? Is it truly just to travel? Is it truly just to raise kids? What is it?” And it’s so unique to everybody.
And people do go down these paths where they end up working so long and they sit there depressed at the end and they’re like, “Was it worth it?”
And they have everything that they wanted.
“Was it worth it?”
They got the big company. They live in the $10 million home in Newport Beach. It’s like, “I’ve got everything that I want, but I woke up and I’m just not happy today,” because I didn’t achieve this bigger vision that I had. Right?
No. I see a lot of people like that. And the farther you go, it’s like, “Okay, well, what more?” It’s easier to define what you want when you have little. It’s like, “Oh, I just need a car to get to work.” Pretty easy goal.
“I’m tired of riding a bicycle.” Then the car you get, like, “I just want a car that doesn’t break down and I’m having to pour oil in it every 50 miles,” or something. Then you want a car that, well, the wheels are not falling off the car and the metal’s showing. Then you want a car that is new, because you don’t want it to break anymore. Then you want a car with new and a warranty.
And then it’s always this next thing. And usually it’s pretty simple, but when you start having- I know people say it’s $60,000, but I think it’s probably more for Californians, the cost of, after so much money, you don’t need anymore money. And it doesn’t really change the happiness factor for you.
There’s all these studies, but they’re right. It’s like there’s always so much that you really need, and then after that, it’s like, “What do I want?” And it becomes much more difficult to really choose when there’s a huge field of options.
Like, “Jason, you now can go build this business or invest in this or go here, go travel here, take the family to Disney World or Disneyland. Even forget that. We can go to Disney in Europe. We go to Disney in-” There’s all these Disney options, you’re like, “Man, which Disney do I choose?”
And that’s as you have more success, there’s more options. You have to even get more strategic about your choices and even be more narrowed, which that’s the difficult thing for entrepreneurs and people running things and leaders to accept and actually refine and define.
And that’s where that personal work- That’s why you listen to these podcasts. You get someone to challenge you in different areas. You join the YPOs. You join the EOs. You get other people’s perspective to help keep you on track, because it’s very easy just to start going all over the place.
So, what you just mentioned is key, because as an entrepreneur, you’re always the boss, per se, right? Not necessarily. You’ve got clients who are really the boss, but you’re in full control. And sometimes because you’re in so much control, you become a danger to yourself.
And so, when you join groups like Vistage, EO, YPO, now you’re hanging out with like-minded people who are holding you accountable to living a more fulfilled and balanced life, because you’re hearing what is fulfilling them. But coaches, you had mentioned coaches earlier. Do you have a coach?
Got a few.
You do.
I got a few, because you constantly need people holding the mirror to you and then pointing at spots in the mirror saying, “You might want to consider this.” And then painting a picture of what else might be possible for you in some way, shape, or form.
So, if it’s in body or nutrition or I’ve got the yoga- I call her the yoga girl that comes every morning to the place we’re living. And there’s a palapa. And now we got the community, more and more people joining us to do yoga. But I was just doing yoga by myself and then the wife joined, and then more people from the community joined, and it’s fun.
Cool.
And she’s helping me- I got hit by a car when I was a kid, so my body just gets super tight all the time. So, I have to constantly do this. So, she comes to help show me ways to change my body.
I’m part of this men’s group where there’s actually several coaches, there’s actually four coaches with seven guys in our little pod, and we meet twice a week. And they’re constantly, “Where are you at with this? What’s going on?” Calling you out in your stuff. “Have you thought about this?” Like, “Hey, this trigger’s showing up. How are you resolving it?”
I’ve got another guy that has been fantastic called Dr. Doug Lair. He helps clear I want to say emotional triggers in your body. You think a thought and it sets something off and you get mad, glad, sad or something, and he gets rid of those things.
So now you’re more clear on- You’re not making choices from ego or from sadness or from anger or from, I don’t know. “You didn’t respond to me,” or whatever we get mad about. And you have these people constantly work on you, the results are better. And then even now, I’m trying to figure out, “Okay, what’s next?”
And I’m actually looking for a coach specifically for this idea of next, like, “Do I help build companies next or get with groups of people and buy and sell companies or help entrepreneurs go to that next level and try to figure out, ‘Okay, is this a thing that I can do?'”
And I’m almost looking at finding, “Okay, who’s this next person that’s going to show up in my life to help coach me on helping other entrepreneurs grow their businesses, maybe exit, maybe,” whatever that is. Because I feel like that would- An area I can do more of and it’s like my golf game. I just love it so much. And I’m just doing it for free.
I’m now coaching people. I’m getting paid to coach and getting invited on more and more areas, more and more people to be involved in their companies. And it’s been fun. I just love it. And it’s like this natural, back to the other thing, where do we go with our lives? How do we make our choices?
Well, part of it’s like, “Okay. What’s showing up and what feels good to me? What do I love doing?” Because I don’t love playing golf. I’ll tell you that. I know a lot of friends that love golf. I do not love golf. I love surfing, but do not love golf. It’s that simple. So, keep going. Sorry.
I don’t want to sidetrack things, Jason.
It’s all good, man. Your mind doesn’t stop. Right?
No.
That’s what makes you who you are. Sometimes it’s just- It’s funny. I was watching Joe Rogan with Elon Musk.
That’s amazing.
Great. Right?
Both of them are amazing.
But the key to that interview, for me, was when he says, “Man, how does it feel to be Elon? You’re changing the world.” And then his response was, “Yeah, but what you don’t see is I can’t turn it off.”
Yes-
You remember that part of that?
I saw that post. It’s all over the place, that one clip. It’s amazing.
So true though, right?
Yes.
Because here’s a guy that I don’t think will ever be content. His mind is not- He is literally changing the world, right?
Seven days a week. He’s grinding. He’s going. He’s on fire.
But he will never truly be satisfied ever. I don’t think, right?
No, he’ll be on Mars, waving in the sunset goodbye as he passes away, I think.
What sets a guy like Elon Musk or Steve Jobs or Walt Disney? What really has taken them to what, again, society defines as the top?
I don’t know, because I’ve read so many biographies. And what makes the great great is there’s something inside ‘em that trips or clicks or something. I don’t know. Honestly-
Is there some luck maybe?
I don’t know, because you even go to Disney- We went to Disney with some friends in town that are speakers, and you walk by, and you look at Walt’s apartment- You know when you first walk into the-
Yeah, yeah, with the light-
And you’re like, “Wow, that was Walt’s place. He slept there. He worked. And I’m walking through Walt’s world.” And I grew up around Disney and I read about Disney. It just- Some people have this amazing thing that just happens. But I don’t know. I don’t have the answers on that, because I didn’t do it. I didn’t experience it.
And you can read all these biographies, but they’re all so different that I can only tell you about this world that I know about. And it’s only like- I can pontificate about Steve Jobs and all these other people, but, man, they’re in a whole ‘nother space, the Disneys, the Jobs.
These are these one in a billion or something. Literally people that create these lasting huge legacies that other people look up to, but who knows what they went through to achieve that? Who knows what they gave up or why them?
I have no idea on that one. Because I can tell you about the guys that make it to the $10, $15, $20, $25, $100 million, $500 million zone and what they’re like and what they did, but I don’t know these other guys-
And those are the guys that dream of being the Jobs-
The Walts.
…and the Walts. They want to achieve that legacy that they leave behind.
They’re all huge visions. They all started out with something small and blew it up.
That’s key right there is having a vision first.
Yes.
And so, sometimes, maybe people just don’t have the tools upstairs to have the vision. That could be part of it. People just don’t think big. The other thing is people are too chicken shit to execute on the vision. And people are afraid to fail too. I think those are things that play into it.
But I think those guys and women, they don’t come to a party with a problem. They come with solutions. They’re constantly thinking about solutions. And I think that’s the key there.
Yeah. They all started with- If you look back and read the story, they also started with pretty small visions in some way. It wasn’t like Disney was thinking about Disney parks at one point. The vision will progress. The vision will grow. Be faithful to little and you’ll be made faithful over much.
“I just want to draw this cartoon character. I want to make this little movie. I want to build a little team making these little movies. I want to build- Okay. I lose this team. I’m going to go build another team now,” after Disney lost his first team. And you look at how things progress and the year and the timelines, you’re like, “Oh.” And then all of a sudden, you see the timeline start stacking.
Even the Walmart story, Sam worked in a five-and-dime for 7 years. Shut that one down. Moved to another city. I think it was another 7 years or something until he was able to open the second store. And then it just kept compiling after that. So, he had a really long ramp.
And it’s funny. It’s almost like, “Be faithful and good at the little, and you’ll be made faithful over much one day.” I think that’s the secret. They didn’t give up. Steve Jobs showed up every week to the marketing meeting. He didn’t disappear. He didn’t quit. He just kept going.
Disney, he pretty much died working. He was still working constantly. These guys never really took time off. They just kept going, all of them. Sam Walton took a month off every year for the summer to take his family around, but the 11 months, he was in a plane traveling all over. He was grinding day and night, day and night. They have this intense grind to them.
And so, would you say that most or all of them were perfectionists?
Oh, I’m sure in some ways, yes. You read the other stories about them from people, they’re all very intense. Disney was intense. Sam Walton, Steve Jobs.
Jobs, about just fonts and stuff.
Very intense.
Design.
Yelling, screaming in the office. All this stuff, you couldn’t do that today in California with the current laws and the current- Jobs would’ve had too many lawsuits to even make the company successful.
It’s different environments too. Some of this stuff Disney got away with doing, the laws, he couldn’t get away with now. And what he did with Florida, building what he did. Some of the things, you may have to go to other countries now to…
To pull that off.
…be successful, I think almost, on some of the larger scale. But then you look at Facebook. So, you have the Facebook stories, the Google stories. And who’s going to be the next story? ClickUp.
You start hearing these amazing stories, like the guys that built the competitor, Invisalign. So, there’s still huge opportunities, but they’re different now. It can be very much more either tech opportunity versus something else.
Well, that was always a problem that I had, was I always wanted to be a perfectionist about everything. But when you’re a perfectionist, in most cases, you don’t get things done.
And as somebody said, good is better than perfect. And from designing a website to building a company, anything you do, sometimes just good is enough for now. We’ll worry about the perfect…
A hundred percent.
…later, right?
Yes.
All right. We’re going to play a little game here to get to know you more from a personal perspective.
Did you write these questions? She wrote these questions, guys, I think, those listening. My new friend.
Simple. It’s a game that’s called “Never Have I Ever.” And so-
Oh no.
It won’t even be a game. Let’s just ask the questions.
This is why I can’t run for office, guys. This is why I will not be president
So simple. I’ll ask you a question, you answer it, then I’ll answer it. And if there’s more of a story to it, we’ll get into it. So, first question, have you ever gotten a tattoo?
No.
Me either.
No tattoos.
No tattoos.
I don’t want any identifying marks if the government takes over.
All right. Gotten a speeding ticket?
Enough to paint walls with.
Pedal to the metal. Nice. I, of course, have gotten speeding. Is there anybody that has not? I guess people that don’t drive, but I think- I don’t know. It seems like that’s something everybody will die with.
I drive fast.
Do you?
Consistently. I have places to go.
Have you ever shoplifted?
No.
No. I don’t think I did either.
I had friends.
I think when I was a kid, I might have thought candy was free and might have ran out of the supermarket.
My mom was like, “What are you doing?” And she would always correct me. “No, we’re bringing it back inside,” just because you have to teach lessons as you go through life.
I had friends that would try to steal beer from stores and stuff in junior high. I was like, “What are you doing?”
Have you ever given somebody a fake name?
A fake name?
Yeah. Like they say, “What’s your name?” And you gave them a fake name.
Oh, I’m sure.
Somewhere. Sure. Somewhere. There’s some weird people you meet in this world, you’re like, “Get away quick. How do I get out of here?”
I learned on this show that people have Starbucks names. And so, that’s their go-to Starbucks name.
That’s funny.
Yeah. I never had a Starbucks name.
I’m not that random.
Have you ever gone to jail?
No, thank God. Knock on wood.
Okay. Good. Have you ever gone on a blind date?
Oh, many horrible times. I was single a lot of my life, on and off.
Good. Have you ever spent more than $10,000 on a night out?
Probably not, unless we sponsored an event. We’ve sponsored some larger events of the company that were very large. So, in that frame, yes. And personal frame, no.
I’m not the crazy spender. I’m not the big party guy, “Let’s get bottles-” Poppin’ bottles. I was never that cool, Jason. No.
No.
Not that cool.
So, when I was- I had a buddy, and he was into sports betting. And so, we turned $5,000 into $300,000.
Oh wow.
And so, here I am, 22 years old with $300,000. So, I remember flying back home and we got this big party bus. We went out and we- I’ve probably spent more than $10,000 that night.
That’s awesome.
It was an epic night though.
She wants to do this. Yes.
It was an epic night. Have you ever cheated in minigolf? Who doesn’t?
I’m sure. And then blatantly cheat too. I’m just kicking this thing. “I’m done trying to make the hole. I’m kicking it in. I’m done.”
Yeah. Of course, right? Have you ever edited your selfies?
No. I tried. I tried to learn how to do all that one time. I gave up quick.
I can see you taking too many selfies.
I’m just not pretty. I’m just not pretty. I just know it’s not changing, whatever I do. I just look the way I am. I’m stuck with it. So I’m like, “Okay, forget it.”
Have you ever watched an entire season of something just over a weekend or something like Netflix?
Oh, this is one of my sedations. When the pressure’s so high and the intensity and the problems, people sedate in different ways. They find sedations. It could be the gym. It could be cigarettes, alcohol, porn, drugs, whatever it is, Netflix. Anything where you’re just checking out in some ways, that was my checkout behavior.
So, when the pressure would get high, I would just be like, “Okay, I’m going to watch Alias,” or whatever it was. Whatever the season was of something, and just shut out the world out of my mind because the problems do get high.
And it gets too much sometimes for entrepreneurs. If you don’t have the coaches, the right voices speaking into your life, you don’t have the groups that’s supporting you, you can start checking into this lonely place. And you don’t even realize it, because you think you have friends and family.
But if you’re not really able to address the challenges in your life, whatever it is, if it’s personal, professional, you’ve got to find people you can be truthfully and brutally honest with, one. And number two, that can actually have a voice and speak something into your life that’s going to help change your life. Because I kept dealing with the same problems, the same issues, until I found the right solutions and the right people.
I see.
And I think a lot of people don’t find the right solutions and the right people in business, and they spend living in hell for 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years and never change.
Sure.
Or they put up with it, like the old dog on the porch. Keeps barking and howling, but he keeps laying on the nail. And there’s a lot of areas of our life, even personally, that a lot of us do that too.
So, that’s why I always keep going back right now to finding the resources that are going to help change Your life.
No, I love it. Personally, I can’t sit through TV shows or even movies. I don’t know. My mind is just- When my wife or I are watching a TV show, whatever, I got to go up. I got to go get some water. I come back, then I’m like, “I got to go get some popcorn, look for-”
I’m still paying attention, but I’m doing so many different things at once that I can’t even concentrate. I don’t know. I’ve always been like that. So, it is what it is.
All right. Last one. Have you ever dropped your phone in the toilet?
I don’t think I ever have. That’s not me.
Maybe come close? No?
No. I always- Never mind. I think that’s more of an ex-girlfriend’s thing. Girls seem to do it more than guys for some reason. I’m not sure why. I don’t even know, honestly. Pretty funny. Keep going, Jason.
And I don’t think that has ever happened to me either. Nope. Well, thank you for playing along. That is awesome.
And we’re going to do this thing now called “Hennessey Heart-to-Heart” where I just basically ask you some questions like this, and you just continue with the answers here. So, what is one food that you can’t live without?
Nowadays, I’m just trying to eat clean.
Oh yeah?
Yeah. I’m just trying to eat gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, meat and veggies, fish and veggies, chicken and veggies, and hopefully that’s free-rage, grass-fed or whatever. It’s healthy. So, when I getting all these hormones in my system, I don’t-
And how long have you been doing this for?
I’ve been working really hard. When we travel, it becomes very difficult. So, traveling a lot, it’s very difficult to eat clean. But when I do eat clean, my mind works better. My body works better. I’m more energized. I don’t need caffeine and all these other stimulants to go. I can go 18 hours a day, and everything just is fantastic. If I go off it a little bit, weight gain just blows me up.
Of course.
I get congested. This week, driving back from the office late at night one night, there’s a place called Raising Cane–
Oh yeah.
It’s so good. It’s chicken fingers.
It is dangerously good. The sauce is so good.
The sauces. I did it twice. And I had to admit in this men’s group. I was like, “Hey, guys, I backslid this week. I really- I didn’t drink alcohol. I didn’t smoke anything. No. I just went and got Raising Cane two nights this week.” Because we all sedate in some way with candy bars or something.
Of course, we do.
So we find something that when it’s so much going on and work’s getting high again, and you’re like, “Okay.” It’s a very condensed two weeks of work right now. I was like, “Okay, this looks really good right now.”
Got it. What is your signature dance move?
Oh geez. I don’t even know. I’m terrible. I’m good at embarrassing myself and everyone around me. That’s how bad it is.
Go out there and move your arms around a little bit. [laughs]
I’m having fun, but it’s horrible. Back to the not-cool factor in the clubs, spending $10,000, wasn’t me, no.
What is your most adventurous thing you have ever done?
Skydiving for years, tow-in surfing before I ever knew anyone else did it with boats back in a place called Munson in Florida. Random, crazy stuff. I don’t know. Even just recently, we spent 3 months, the wife and I, driving through Central Mexico and just living city to city, seeing it all.
Spending time in Monterrey, San Miguel de Allende, San Luis Potosí, Guadalajara, Tequila, Sayulita, and surfing the entire West Coast. All the spots. We hit as many spots as we could, surfing all these epic spots; Troncones, which is some of the best left waves in the world down there, Puerto Escondido. Didn’t surf the Mexican pipeline. That’s pretty intense. But we surfed a place south of there called Salina Cruz, which is these amazing rides and all these point breaks.
And a lot of times, you’d be out there by yourself in the middle of nowhere with maybe one other car and they’d go out, surf for a couple hours and disappear. And it was pretty epic just driving around Mexico for a few months. So, that was the most recent thing. And there’s internet everywhere, which is surprising.
Sure. Sure.
There literally is internet everywhere now. And you can log and work from anywhere. So, it’s pretty amazing. So, that was the latest one, Jason.
Much more adventurous than my lifestyle. So, while I’m at the clubs and stuff, you’re doing all that fun stuff.
Jason’s popping bottles in Miami, isn’t he? Right?
What skill do you wish you had?
Oh, I definitely wish I had more organizational skills
Organizational. Okay.
I wish I was a better manager of people and follow through. I’m great in the moment. I’m great at talking and working with people and visioning, but there’s this practical application skill, which is focusing and getting things done, horrible at. I try very hard and it’s just not my thing.
Not your thing. Okay.
It’s so crazy
For me, I would say I wish I could play acoustic guitar and sing. Right?
Oh, that’d be great if I could sing.
How cool would that be?
I could play acoustic, but I can’t sing.
Anywhere you go, you just bring your guitar on the plane with you. You go camping. You break it out. Right?
That’d be awesome to sing.
That got to be like the coolest thing ever, right?
Yes.
God didn’t bless me with that…
No.
…unfortunately. How do you deal with stress or stressful situations?
So, this is a good one. This took me a long time to learn. So, a lot of people- Go back to the concept of sedation, and I think everyone needs to really think about this, if you’re listening still, right now, think about: Where are we sedating in our lives? Is it with ice cream? Is it with- Whatever it is, there’s going to be a sedation, because there’s a problem showing up that we haven’t dealt with.
And the negative emotion is popping in our lives, one of the tools- And there’s a bunch of tools. One is just learning literally meditation and really learning how to box-breathe or learning how to breathe or learning how to just take three breaths or something. Immediately trying to disassociate from whatever it is that’s creating this quote-unquote “stress” in your life.
Two is you’re educating yourself, so you know how to intelligently deal with whatever stress factor. Three is clearing the emotional triggers in your life.
You might want to consider studying Byron Katie. She has The Work, it’s called. There’s other people that have taken her stuff and gone amazingly. There’s a guy named Garrett J. White, created something called Wake Up Warrior and created something called The Stack. It’s a great way to intelligently consciously address the issue.
And then there’s subconscious work to get rid of the stressors. Hiring people that are very high-end in NLP or hypnotherapy declared triggers. There’s also other people that are doing all kinds of other modalities where the trigger doesn’t occur anymore. And then the “stress” doesn’t occur, because the trigger didn’t fire.
And we’re not in these stress dates, because, “Oh my God, I got to get to something.” We’ve calmed our mind. We’ve calmed our bodies, and we’re able to make better choices, and we’re able to quicker get out of the stress if we learned how to apply these things.
So, if anyone’s listening and they really want help with anything on stress or anything, please hit me up on Instagram, text my cell. If you’re sedating. You’re an entrepreneur. You’re stressed out. There’s real problems in your life. Hit me up. I’ll share any of these solutions with anybody.
I love that. It’s being open and giving. That’s great. Good advice. I’m going to take you up on some of that. What would you say was the low point of your life?
Oh, definitely during Simpluris. Building Simpluris, after the “Inc. 500,” we grew so fast. We went from 0 to 85 people, or something ridiculous in 5 years. It was a mess.
And back to the management issues, I was a horrible manager, back to the not-knowing the mentorship issues, back to not reading the books, not knowing how to run companies, how to deal with it better. I had to dive into EO and start getting the support.
I gained a ton of weight. I was up to 300 pounds. I was wiped out. My adrenals were shot. My life was a mess. And then Simpluris became a mess right after that.
And so, your company’s going to be a reflection of you. An orderly mind creates an orderly company. An orderly life creates an orderly mind, creates an orderly company. An orderly company creates a better life for you. It’s this full circle thing.
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So, the more F’ed up I got, the more challenges we have in the company. And I think that’s where the personal growth came in. There’s times where, because of the industry we are, we put out a lot of money until we get paid. It’s 6, 12, 18 months sometimes until we get paid in these cases and these jobs we do. So, there’s a lot of cash you need to have.
And there is one point where we are $1.8 million in the red in 30 days. I was like, “I have no idea what to do.” And that’s where you find the resources, find the people that think differently. You find the people that want to sit and whiteboard the problem.
And you start reaching out. You do not isolate yourself ever. If you’re the problem in your relationship, there’s a problem in your life, you feel depressed about something, you don’t want to go and isolate yourself. That’s the worst thing we can do, because we’re never going to get a solution to get rid of the pain in our lives.
And that’s why you join the EOs, the YPOs, the whatever. Get counseling, whatever that is, so you never get trapped. And the depression’s going to kick in. The suicidal thoughts will kick in. That’s why we lose so many people. They don’t think there’s a way out of their situation.
And if there’s more people that were able to be honest and open, have these skill sets and be able to help more people, we’d have less negativity, less problems, less people being brought down by the world. And there’s so many people that need to be lifted up right now, if that makes sense.
That’s so powerful. You might want to rewind that if you’re listening and listen to that one again, for sure. So much power in that. What makes you feel accomplished?
Well now is, I think, different things, like just making my wife happy, surviving a soccer game with an 8-year-old. I don’t feel- The email thing used to be the email to zero was an accomplishment. Now it’s like, “Ah, whatever.” It changes.
Feeling accomplished is getting through yoga. Feeling accomplished is- Well, right now I’m trying to feel accomplished by finishing this book…
A book.
…which would be freaking awesome. It’s been one of those things, like, “Oh, how hard can it be?” Probably one of the worst mistakes I’ve made in my life, Jason, was trying to write a book.
I’ve been there.
And then the amount of discipline and process. And it’s a complicated book. It’s not an easy like, “Hey, let’s talk about motivation, success and goal setting.” There’s more like the history of group litigation over the last thousand years. And like, from 1000 AD with medieval times and cooking bacon and the battles they had and how group litigation was formed, even how corporate law was even formed in England to America and how the 1966 rule changes in class action occurred.
So, it’s complex. And I would feel really accomplished if I can get this thing done. If anyone reads it or buys it, I don’t even care. I just want to finish it.
You want to finish it.
Yeah. That would be great.
So, what’s the name of this book? Have you named it yet?
It’s going to be A Few For The Many.
A Few For The Many.
A Few For The Many. So, it’s a history of group litigation. How did it come about? How these laws come about. What do some of these things mean? What is one-way intervention? What are these class action rules? What are these cases? What’s the true historical story behind it?
We’ve got minors that stole a train and filled it up with dynamite to go blow up corporations and a governor getting killed by somebody, because of his- All these things mixed in this book. And so, you see how law in our personal lives actually becomes one. And it’s fascinating.
It’s really neat, because you see how- People always think law is so different from our personal life. Well, really, our entire life is governed and dictated by law.
Law and order.
And then these people that we know are writing the laws. Like right now, our government’s being run by a certain group of people that are creating laws and rules for us to operate in, even now as we speak. May benefit us. May not. May benefit just them. Whatever that is, we still have to comply with that.
And those stories’ lives and their lives and why they did those laws is interesting. What is their background? Why did this occur? So, that’s what this book is, and it’s just a fun read. Trying to make it for.
And how far along are you
We are done with all up to 1966. Now we’re trying to finish the last chapter and figuring out, “How do we close out this book?” So, it actually will be a good closing chapter around, what’s happened in the last 50 years? Where’s it going? And what’s happening with blockchain technology and how it’s going to change. Identification, speed, security, it’s all rapidly changing.
So, settlements are going to happen instantly. And the way the world’s moving with just- The technology is fascinating. You are going to have identification on the blockchain that everyone’s going to be able to find us instantly as an identity.
There’s- What’s it like? One and a half billion people aren’t even banked right now. And so, you’re going to see the whole world rapidly change in good and bad ways. Right now, even driving, you see the- I was blown away just this morning, driving here, the amount of homeless tent cities all over the place.
And I was in a conference where one guy that was talking about AI and machine learning, he’s like, “You’re going to see almost half the workforce out of work in their current jobs in the next 5 years.” And I was thinking about that. Technology is so complex that if we’re not-
Here’s one thing, interesting. Our success of the past years is our baggage today. What made us good back then is our baggage today. If we’re not reinventing ourselves, if we’re not rebuilding our lives learning new things, learning how to use new technology, learning all these things, we’re not going to have jobs or careers.
And it’s happening so fast that old school project management techniques do not work. Old school ways of even SEO does not work. Stuff that worked 5 years ago is not going to work today.
And I think that’s the thing that should be on most people’s mind too is, “How am I growing myself to this next level? What am I reading? What am I studying? What am I learning today, so I’m still going to be useful to the world in five years?” If not, we’re going to see a mass problem of more homelessness, more people out of work, more-
Even Elon Musk, as you brought about earlier, you start watching a lot of his videos; he’s really scared of AI and what it’s going to do to this world from the perspective of AI killing everybody to the perspective of no jobs for people.
That’s right.
Our claims administration technology, we used to have 15 people 10 years ago to process claims. I think we do 8 times the volume with 4 people…
Oh my God.
…with all the AI. The computer basically is smarter than the humans, unless it can’t figure out something, then we need to process outside of it.
Of course.
But if it’s in our system, it’s going to have a greater accuracy, 100%, than a human at 99.7%, after audit. You know what I mean? Of mistakes. And the speed in which things are shifting, everything’s getting automated, everything, everything, everything.
So, we either are on that bandwagon and we profit from it or we are going to be left out in the cold and better just hope the government takes care of us.
I feel you. Like I said, I’ve got two boys in high school, and they don’t talk about blockchain. They don’t talk about- You know what I mean? Even our schooling and our systems are antiquated. And so, there has to be change everywhere.
What Hyperledger‘s built, if people would just study that one area of blockchain technology, they would really be blown away, I think, of understanding what’s being built right now, how vast it is.
What does it mean? It’s as big as the internet originally coming out right now. It’s that big. Right now, I don’t think people even understand- I don’t know how to say.
Even going from the next stage up is metaverse. What people are doing there. Why should I start buying land there? Who’s going to own what? What is it?
It’s almost like trying to talk to somebody in New York about buying land in Nevada, a desert. Like, “Who’s ever going to go to this damn desert? What? Las Vegas. No, no one’s going to go to that place.”
That’s a good analogy.
There’s a whole article that you read from 1970 about some New York investor going, “Ah, that Las Vegas thing is going to be nothing,” right after they opened the Flamingo or something. And all that property was on sale for a dollar and everything. It’s an interesting article to read what a New York investor said about that.
And you think about, that’s the metaverse right now. It’s like, are you developing? How are you going to have Jason Hennessey’s podcast in there? I think a lot of it, people aren’t going to have a lot of money.
I think the more they get rid of entrepreneurship business people in America and they start socializing it as they are, I think you’re going to get more and more poor people and people not making money is going to be the challenge. And it’s just going to be the effect of it with the rules that are happening more and more. And you’re going to have more and more people not making enough to go live normal lives. So, they will spend more of their lives in the screen.
Like me sedating with Netflix and watching when the pressure’s high. I don’t want to deal with anything. I just want to zone out, shut my mind off and watch. That was my old habit. You’re going to have people that are going to do that, because their normal life is not that great.
So, you’re going to have not just a million or a few. You’re going to have billions of people living in this, because the ruling class or whoever, the rich-rich are controlling all this crazy stuff and making rules. There’s people definitely creating, doing something. They’re going to live epic lives.
Most of us will not be able to even live a normal life besides our little apartment or condo or something, and around there. So, I think the metaverse is going to really be something to look at as well. It’s going to blow up.
Yeah. It’s very confusing for everybody.
I’m not trying to be political, guys, by the way. [laughs]
No, we’re not getting political.
It got really silent for a moment. It was like, “Oh no.” I don’t care about politics. People can do whatever they want.
I feel the same way. No, it is. It’s just very confusing and sometimes when you get confused, you just freeze.
Well, thank you. I’ve got one more “Heart-to-Heart” question, and then we’ll wrap up here. Is your mom, dad alive or what?
So, dad passed away 5 years ago.
I’m sorry.
Thank you. He was very motivational. He was very sick. He got- I know this is a very touchy subject now, but I don’t want to relate it to current circumstances in any way. But he was born semi-healthy. He had a lot of vaccines all at once and it really compromised his immune system where he lost his immune system.
On top of that, his mom didn’t breastfeed. Top of that, he was fed this milk thing. And then on top of that, when she was starting her business, they lived above a baker and they ate nothing but baked goods and sugary stuff. They didn’t have a good, healthy diet.
So, by the time he was 18, he lost all his hair, had zits all over his body. Ends up surfing in Hawaii. Met some chiropractors. Talked about nutrition, changed his life.
When I was a kid, he was 30-something. And the doctors said he’d be dead in a year. He doubled down on stem cell therapy, doubled down on nutrition, doubled down on more supplements, more infrared therapy, all these other random things that are now- They’re everywhere.
Infrared beds. I could walk out of this door, probably, and find some…
And find one.
…type of health therapy center here in LA. But back 40 years ago, this stuff was woo-woo.
Non-existent.
And it changed his life. And he was able to keep himself long enough. That’s why he built the hippie clinic, I call it.
I see.
He became a chiropractor, then neurologist, internal medicine, clinical nutritionist. People that were broke, they couldn’t afford it, kids with autism, ADHD, he was transforming people’s lives to such a radical level with just health and nutrition.
And that was what he was doing back in the day. So, it was good. It was his time to go. Yeah. Now the funny thing is, my mom started dating.
Oh.
Well, not really even dating. She was extremely depressed, and the next door neighbor started trying to hit on her. And she’s like, “No, no, no, no.” True story, really. And she’s like, “I’m not dating anybody. I’m not into that.”
But then all of a sudden, we’re at a family event, she goes, “I’m going steady with this guy.” That’s what she said…
I’m going steady.
…1950 style. It was pretty funny. And she’s now living her best life. It’s like a second teenager life, her and her boyfriend.
Good.
He’s 74. She’s 69. And they’re just living an epic life right now.
That’s awesome. One of my only grandfathers still alive is dating again right now. And it’s fun to watch. It is…
It’s awesome.
…fun to watch. But back to the question, so, let’s just use your dad. Sounds like an amazing man. What a great and positive influence on you and your life.
He’s the one that got me motivational tapes. He was listening to them.
If dad was looking down on you now, what would you say he is the most proud of you about?
Well, surfing.
Is that right?
Probably. Probably getting a family, learning to balance life, staying healthy, and living the dream that he wanted to live. Which is sad.
He would always talk about, “Hey, I’m going to get out of here, go move to Costa Rica and just go surf and go disappear after this. Just hang out on the beach, live in a shack.” And I always like, “Why do you want to do that? Sounds horrible.” And now I get it. Happiness. What is your happiness?
Well, I appreciate that, man. For those that want to buy your book or want to follow you, how do they keep in touch with you, man?
You know what? Right now, I feel like I’ve been doing, even a few times a year right now is Instagram. I’m staying on top of Instagram. You can follow me at @HoffmanTroy. And then the other thing is just text me. We’ll do a marketing thing on the book one day and everything and roll that out, but you can send me a text.
If you’re listening today and you need help, you’re struggling in business, you’re struggling in your life, you don’t have anyone to talk to, you feel like you’re stuck somewhere and you’re not sure how to grow, you’re not sure how to get out of the problems where the pain is so high, no one else can help you, your wife can’t help you, the people around you, your business partners. You’re thinking suicidal thoughts. You can text or call me anytime. I love these conversations. I’m there for you. I’m willing to help. My cell phone number is 850-322-8261.
That’s awesome, man. You’re going to change some lives, man. You’re doing it. Thank you so much, Troy, for being on the show, man.
Thanks, Jason.
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