If We Ain’t Eating, Fucking, or Fighting, then What Are We Doing with Andy Weins

Well, welcome back to our show. I am Carol Carpenter, and that is my co-host, Travis Johnson. And we have a special guest on our podcast today. Andy Wines, as in the wines… Andy Is, hey, you know what if… Do you like to drink? You might as well just open up a bottle, right now, right?

Let’s get to it. Let’s get to it.

So, Andy is a veteran of the US Army and a fourth-generation entrepreneur using his leadership skills in his companies, Green Up Solutions, Camo crew, junk removal, and young guns, Andy consults, teaches, and is a podcaster, helping others develop their skills to become successful entrepreneurs. Welcome, Andy.

It sounds like you did your research and you read the words here. We are. Let’s get to it.

I’m always interested to see what people include in their bios. Some people will give us this. I don’t know this two-page document of a step of every moment of their lives, and then they either expect us to read all of it and we won’t, or they expect us to abbreviate it, and we don’t. And you just said to us exactly what you wanted to have said. So that’s perfect.

Yeah, it’s awesome.

That’s why I took the church stop copy written bio and I cut it in half because. You know what’s important to the audience, right? We want to put a baseline of who we are and why, why we’re here, right? And then it goes from there, right? It’s, hey, the random guy starts saying words. It’s all over the place and being Military, you can appreciate this Travis, you’ll also have an officer that comes to the awards ceremony that you’ve never met before, and they read off his two pages where I mean the introduction is, and then he comes up and he has   4 words for the commencement y’all did a great job. I heard good things from the cadre. Drive on. Let’s get to these awards, right? That’s it. 20 minutes, 20 minutes of a bio.   where he did his undergrad.   No one cares.

Yeah, military officers have the worst BIOS. You not only know their current position and what that means, but you get a year-by-year detail.

Ohh it’s a resume, yes.

Ohh, it’s 100% of my resume 100%.

Who gives a **** about a resume when?

They do, they do.

Ohh OK all right.

So, I ended up being an officer for the second-half of my career. And I asked one of the commanding officers about that exact thing because they do that they have, the full-page bio that they expect to be read line by line. 

And then they also, when they’re changing commands, read the person’s orders. And orders are sometimes   16/25 pages thick, but they read they don’t read all of that, but they read, you know, as per the official doing this if they’re taking over this. And I asked someone was, why on earth do they read all that ****? 

And they were, well, how else would you know that? They’re in charge. Because they outrank me, and they’re sitting in that office. I don’t care if it’s.

Right. No one here cares.

Because you told me there’s. Yeah, because you told me that they’re in charge, right? In the military. It’s one of those. And again, here’s the other thing I learned years ago in the military when this is major. He has to explain that he or she is the Sergeant major. They’re clearly not in charge. They’re supposed to be in charge. Right. They were charged with being in charge. However, they’re clearly not in charge.

Yeah, I’m in charge here… and I’m funny … both untrue statements. If you have to say I’m hilarious, unless you’re being facetious, but you say that you’re obviously not funny and they do this **** movie too.

I’m hilarious.

They said wow, you’re pretty. If they had to. Say it in the movie. You’re obviously trying to convince people that that’s true. That’s not the way to do it. That does not.

Well, that’s the thing about positional power, right? It’s given to you and it’s whether you step into the role or not.

How did you transition them out of the army? Was it easy peasy for you? Was it difficult? What did you find was your experience?

My experience has been simple from day one because I joined the reserves and so I’ve always had this one foot in each world. So, I joined the army in 2004 and deployed to Iraq in six. I was gone almost all of six, and then about 1/2 of seven and so the idea of the transition transformation, whatever it’s always been there.

When I got back from Iraq, I was a mess. I was, all right, you know, I’d spent six weeks partying and then I went back to my job. I quit it within 90 days, got rid of my apartment, and all my possessions and spent the next seven months touring the country with the band. I almost got kicked out of the army reserves because I went to one drill in a 7–8-month period. 

I didn’t really take it seriously. I’m, well, I didn’t die, so I guess I’m going to go out and have a good time. And so, yeah, I look back at my life now and I look back at our employees and our company that are in their mid-20s. man, I was a **** back then. I figured it out eventually. There wasn’t a plan. 

Right, right.

So, was it because a lot of people come back and They have a wife, or they have kids, or they have a husband, or they have a job and then they get to settle into cutting the grass and **** and it wasn’t my thing. I got back, and I was, well I. I don’t… 

I was a black and Decker DeWalt power tool sales Rep and I’m, I’m all right. I was sitting there yesterday. I was sitting there at Chili’s with my new manager, and I’ve only been back to work a few weeks at that point and I’m sitting there, she’s talking about KPI and the importance of this. And the importance of that? And I’m sitting there I was, man, I couldn’t tell you how much I don’t care. 

I was going for 18 months. The job had changed a little bit because of my manager, He’s brand new. My previous manager was an Air Force International Guard guy, and he broke prior to service, international guard, whatever. So at least we got each other, and then most importantly, I changed. I went from… You know 20/21 I was in the top 10% of sales reps in the country for Black and Decker to come back. Being   God, I don’t. I don’t care if someone at Home Depot is by my girl or the next guy’s drill. I just don’t care. 

And then you have someone say, you need to shape up. And I’m, you need to shut the **** **.   I don’t care. And I just sat. There I was.   I remember, at one point, she said something along the lines of, do you need this job or something and I was in over my head. I’m no, I don’t. I got no… I’m good, my apartment lease was coming up and my roommate was going on tour with the band I was… Yeah, that seems interesting. 

So, I quit my job and I did the classic … I got rid of all my possessions. I basically. I had two duffel bags of clothes and a TV; I remember a 32-inch TV. I moved into my buddy’s mom’s basement and that was that. That was that, right? I got rid of everything else and I’m, all right, I spent it. I was. I was homeless for a year after that. And not homeless, sleeping on the side of the road, homeless; homeless, I didn’t have an address. I just crashed into random people. I slept in my Jeep. We were on tour most of the time.

So, I Was sleeping in the van or Random people’s houses or above bars or you know the occasional Motel 6, so. Yeah, I didn’t. I didn’t really go through anything until 2009. So, I was home 18 months, and 19 months before. I was, oh ****.  I have to be an adult and Pay bills. I wasn’t living for beyond 24 hours, right? When overseas, it’s… we were… I was a truck driver in Iraq, and we did 48-hour missions essentially. 

So, breaking down Barney’s style, we get up. You get on your truck by two Showers at 17:00 Convoy brief, you know, 18:00 we’re in the motor in the station area for the motor pool. And then we move over to the staging area right around 19:00… 19:30 every night we roll out right here on a mission from 19:30 till early night   06/07 the next morning, normal days are back, you know, 10-11 in the morning and then you’re. You know, by the time you get back, fuel up, ****, shower, shave, it’s noon and again. 

So, you ran 24 OPS. You sleep for a few hours, get up for dinner, and chow Convoy brief for the next day’s mission. Then from 18:00 till the next day Noon was essentially downtime, so you know you ******* throw cards, go to the gym, and play some basketball. Get some more sleep sometimes between you know 18:00 and noon or the next day and then you do it again. 

So, you’re just living for 48 hours. And so, I got back home, and I didn’t think a week out… I was doing my calendar for the day. And I told my assistant. I say hey, I need these things on my calendar 90 days out because I’m starting to schedule their stuff before I have trips booked six months from now.   Six months into the season! When you’re in the day-to-day mines and. You’re thinking six months. Yeah. So yeah.

You know you can’t.  You get back from all that stuff and it’s got a very specific mission and the vision, and you have to do whatever and it’s very clear cut and it’s very; this is what we got to do when you get back home and you’re … Well, what the hell do I have to do? 

And sometimes the answer is pretty close to nothing, and you find yourself just, I guess I’ll go over here today. I guess I’ll go talk to this dude, and you don’t really have any kind of clear-cut path for the way you want to live your life because it’s… I wouldn’t say it’s devoid of meaning… You were that focused on a mission on a vision…it’s so hard to do anything else and make it have meaning you’re, let me tell you about it. Well, let me tell you how I don’t care. I totally get it.

Some people get into it and within, you know, 90/180 days; what it is, is they have things that ground them. They have a career or a family, a church or community, or a softball team, right? They have something that grounds me. There wasn’t **** My roommate was moving out, that was the thing I had. I had to pay rent. Well, he’s moving out. We’re breaking the lease I got to do. So, it wasn’t until then. I spent a year doing that. 

So basically, from August until the next year, August when I was partying and hanging out and whatever. And then I started working at my father’s company that summer as a Carpenter. It wasn’t, oh, I should go get a job. It was, oh, my dad needs help. I’ll go help him this weekend. And then this weekend turned into Monday and then Tuesday. I got to have it. I guess I have A job now.

And then I’ve been crashing with this chick for the longest time at her parent’s house and I was probably getting my own place. And I was, I don’t want to rent. An apartment. So, I’ll go buy a house. There I literally saw one house. It was the house that was halfway between my parent’s house and the scrap yard. And so, I grew up scrapping and recycling. And so, my father owned a remodeling company. So, I would work on job sites and bring the scrap back to his yard and also pick up scrap on the side of the road. So, I’d start recycling. It and then after work, if I got to one soon enough, or on Saturday mornings. Or run loads on the scrapyard. 

And every time I drove by, I saw this House and I was thinking, well, screw this.   my parent’s house, 3 1/2 miles from the scrap yard. This House was in between. I was in my head. I’m, well, it’s halfway between the scrap yards.  I cut down my mileage. I had my own garage there and I remember it was $150,000. I just went to their house. I knocked on the back door and I was, come by your house it was listed and. I have an appointment. No, I saw the sign because I did some things, I don’t get a home loan, I’ll go to the bank. I’ll figure it out. Right. 

And you just analyze paralysis by analysis has never been a complication I’ve suffered from, you know, it’s. Just left, right, left. Right. Don’t forget to breathe and you just figure some **** out, you know? And so, I bought a house, and then it was, oh, I had a house and was, well, I don’t know how to pay for this show. The girl moved in with me and my old roommate Moved in with me. My brother moved in with me. My roommate’s girlfriend, who then got pregnant, moved in with me. So, I had roommates.

Oh, dear God.

I got a dog, so I had a job, a dog, a bunch of roommates, and a house, and then within six months, the girlfriend was gone. The job was gone. My brother was gone. And then I was, oh, ****. there was no foundation. And then so that was January of 20 or 2009. So that’s where I remember those pamphlets that said you should go To the VA. Probably to the VA.

They send you so much ****.

Yeah, that’s the only good thing to do,

The trickle campaign is right. They send you 25 emails in a shot, or you open up your mailbox and there are 75 things in there from the VA, you know you don’t ever get.

If you’re even mailed, you get 2; everything they send out in the mail is double. They’re both getting lost, but not the other one. I’m here stuck together, right? I got both of them; you get both or none. There’s never a time limit. I got one piece of mail, and I went to the well. I went to the VA because I was having stomach issues. 

And they said basically, is the conversation I talked about in my Ted talk. And it was funny at the time and still is to me to this day. Kind of funny. I was sitting there with stomach issues, and they did the standard, you know what? What is your sleep like? Are you drinking? use tobacco, da, da, da, and I Smoked at the time still and I was—oh, I drink. And how much do you drink? six or seven times per week, how much you normally drink—4 to 6 drinks at night in this part of Wisconsin— It’s winter.   Go play cup games and dice; we have a dice bar here in Wisconsin. And when you get done playing dice, you shoot a shot, and if there are three people, you’ve got to play at least three games. So that’s three shots, and then You’ve got to have a few beers with them.

You know, chase it with something, yeah.

Yeah, this is something and money wasn’t the issue. I had money set aside for my deployment and credit cards, and I was trying to figure out how to make some cheddar, you. You had to decide what you thought and then they came in; it could have been a psychologist, psychiatrist, college student, whatever, a counselor. And then, Mr. Wines, do you think you have a drinking problem? I was — no, I got stomach ulcers; something was going on there. Do you think you drink too much? I don’t have a drinking problem. I have a Boredom problem. I’m unemployed. I don’t have a girlfriend… brother moved out, and then, to your point, Travis, I don’t have a purpose.

That should be right. Or I hate the word “should”, right? We’ll eliminate that. That might have been the rock-bottom moment. Of course, I go to the bar. Then I was, let me tell you what these guys said, you know, and then I continued living that life for a while, but it wasn’t at this point. I talked about this in my book; you don’t get to decide the peaks and valleys of your life, right? It’s only in retrospect. Oh, that’s where that thing happened, you know? 

And it was, I just hustle for the next couple of months scrapping. Doing everything I could to pay my bills, but all of a sudden, I had to pay my bills because I had a mortgage. I had a house, you know, and I was eating cottage cheese sandwiches, which are cottage cheese and white bread. And between cottage cheese sandwiches and cream of wheat, I was living on 5 hours a day.

Tell me you’re in Wisconsin without telling me you’re from Wisconin. 

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell me about Wisconsin. Tell me about Wisconsin. It’s seven degrees outside. I’m eating cottage cheese and white bread sandwiches. Ohh yeah. No one’s ever heard of it. I guess I just made it up. When I was doing Whatever, I had the money for meat and whatever, so whatever. 

And I figured it out, and then all of a sudden it dawned on me, Oh, Andy, you’re in charge of your own life. I had this mindset that I’m 25. I’m a combat veteran. Why doesn’t anyone want to hire you? Well, it’s because you get *** for your skills and poor attitude; that’s why. And then, all of a sudden, in June of 2009, this transformational period began. I’d been home for two years at that point, and well, what do I have to show for it? I got a lot of good bar stories, but not much else. 

So, I got a job bartending because I’m going to be in the bar. I might as well get paid, right? I started; I enrolled in college. I got a job working construction for a guy that my dad knew. And I quit smoking altogether. And I got a 30-day period, and it was just like that; it wasn’t this. I didn’t wake up one day. I’m going to be an adult about it. One thing kind of trickled in when I started going to college. I got accepted into college because it was 12,150 a month. To go to school, and between the GI Bill and the Wisconsin GI Bill, my school is free, so I’m holding on. My mortgage is $1,012 and fifty cents per month, which is essentially a housing allowance. Bah. My bills are paid; I could live on $1,250 a month. That’s, you know, cell phone, insurance, food, and mortgage. I’m golden.

Cottage cheese, yeah. 

It was a job for me. Well, say well, hey! And you’re good enough for college. You’re good enough to get a job good enough to support you Bartending, and then my life really picked up after that. Going back to your original question, what was that transition? 

That transformation happened once I got out of that victim mindset and became the victor of my own story versus the victim of my circumstances in which everything started happening. And even now in my life. Life hits me in the face; you know, when I’m down and out and down on myself, I remind myself that I’m the victor of my story. What am I going to do about it? Got it.   It’s, you know, you’re lying in the back. I think about, you know, lying or not. Sheep let’s ******* go. Right. And even the head of a lion doesn’t bother himself with the squabbles of the world, right? They get up when it matters, right? They get up to eat, to ******* to fight. That’s it if it isn’t one of those 3.

They can’t be bothered.

What are we even doing here? 

you got to live. That is unless it directly relates to you when you Don’t right? And then when? When you see the light, you’ve got. It’s my personal motto or whatever; I go back to Army values, right? Instilled in me when I went to basic training. At the end of basic, you do The Crucible in the Marine Corps. We have the Crucible’s light. Let’s be honest, right? it’s you Go to the field, and you’ll probably walk through some barbed wire. You’re going to rock parts and we have a Tiki Torch Party Right? 

It isn’t the Marine Corps Crucible. It’s close to it anyway. At the end of it, in our company, they pick the privates. Are now soldiers right? That instilled certain army values in our entire company of 200 soldiers is significant. I was selected as a selfless service soldier because I was always looking for other people because it was part of my ADD. “Oh, hey, there’s something tucked up over here. Let me go see if I can. You should be supportive, you know,” and now is the time. That I’ve seen the light. It’s my personal responsibility to be a beacon for others. And so that’s why I do the things, whether it’s the podcast—I have two podcasts. It’s young guns. It’s right. I went through this **** as an entrepreneur, and I can sit here and boo-hoo and ***** about what I didn’t get. I can complain about what high school didn’t provide, or I can go and provide those things for the next person. But that’s a choice, and that’s a very clear-cut choice that I choose to make every day. And I’m vocal about it. And if others want to be on that journey, awesome. I’ll show you the way. And if you don’t, you’re not worth my time.

I love how you say that you put yourself as the victor in your own story. It seems that everyone we’ve had on their show comes up to this moment where they realize it’s up to me if it’s going to be, it’s up to me and I know that’s a quote from someone, don’t know what, who it is right now. So don’t Ding me on the quote Police. But if it’s Going to be, it’s up to me.

If you want A certain style of life you have to be able to go and get it. If you want to be in shape. Maybe you don’t use any kind of cheese. Sandwiches. I don’t know, but whatever the Thing is, whatever the thing is up to You there’s no magical organization that’s going to Swoop in and say hey, we heard that you were a soldier and now you can do this there’s no one to come to your door and say that stuff. You have to go out and get it. 

You have to make that decision for Yourself, and I think if everyone that comes on the show, they have made that decision, I think that’s one of the things that makes everyone a Titan. I want to know what it is. How about you? That makes you a Titan. 

I’m known for this saying and I’m getting T-shirts made because that’s my empowerment statement, right? It’s my battle cry and it does the ******* thing. The difference between those that do and those that don’t are those that do and those that don’t, right, that’s the difference. Did you, or didn’t you? Right, Yoda. Right do or do not there is No, try. 

We can say it. It’s a difference to put, you know, strap up your boots and go and do it. And we’re not talking about success or failure. We’re not talking about the rewards or the punishment. Did you do the thing? Because when you do the thing one of two things happens. Either you accomplish the mission, or you learn more. There’s never a time when either one of those two is. Things happen really quickly, you’re saying, please, don’t knock me. I looked it up. Robert Schuller. If it’s going to be, it’s up to me. The 8 proven principles of positive possible thinking, possibility, possibility. Right.

We do little things like that. It’s, well, I remember the military. It’s, well, its research ability. So, it’s a man who did say some dope ****   that now I’m more on Amazon. I’m about to click buy it now, right? And I’m going to read that, and I’m going to quote this guy. I’ve heard that also. And every other time I heard it, it was really good. Saying and then you left it alone. Well, no. Now I know who wrote it. Now I can buy the book. Now I can read the book. Now I can take the lessons and I can go live life. Look at all that ******* possibility. Right. I just I. Just gave me a couple of hours of entertainment, reading a book, the right knowledge that this guy came up with, right? 

However, many years, 50/60/70 years of his knowledge I can obtain with one click of a button in $18.95 and or probably in my mailbox the next day. That is, what’s that? Separated me from a lot of other people, a lot of other people are talking. They’re thinking they’re trying all they’re ******* doing is the law. They’re not getting out there and pounding the pavement and doing it. When I was down and out back in 2009, I wasn’t sitting well. I was. I was, I will say I was for the longest time, sitting back and saying woe is Me, I’m a combat veteran. No one. Wants to ******* hire me. You’re right, that’s a fact. What are we going to do about it? 

So, I started driving up and down the northwest side to northwest Of Milwaukee and a purple van that I got from my aunt and uncle for doing a job for him with a trailer. And before that was our parents, my parents’ green van that we had growing up as kids. You know and start picking up appliances on the road and all that time, it got me thinking it was 8-10 hours a day. It was cold. I’m driving. I’m making 50 bucks, 75 bucks a day doing it and I couldn’t get a job for $11.00 an hour. I remember I got turned down for a job at a moving Company at $11.00 an hour and I was   ****. 

All right, well, what am I going to do about it? Well, I’m going to go pound the ******* pavement and figure it out. And that’s the difference between those that are Titans and those that aren’t. Right. I look at my heroes… Mark Cuban, sold trash bags, door to door. Right. 

Elon Musk had an opportunity back in the recession at the same time that was ******* low as me. Elon Musk had a choice. He had $50 million, he had 25, and Tesla and 25 in SpaceX. Do I close one or both companies and take the money and run or not? He said **** it. We’re doing both. 

When Elon Musk couldn’t hire a rocket engineer to build the Rockets for SpaceX, he could hire really ****** ones that wanted to work from, but all the legit respectable ones didn’t want to come work for SpaceX because they didn’t believe in him. So, he became the lead engineer and what do you know about rockets? He said, “do you have a degree now?” I just started reading and I built a ******* rocket. And the first three fell out of the ******* sky. 

And then a couple of minutes later, he launches his Tesla car on top of a rocket. You don’t hear Elon Musk talk about woe is me or Tesla himself. Tesla himself had his patent stolen and get his *** handed to him by investors in Edison and all these people he died broke, and he was put up in a hotel because of the white scene house because of Westinghouse, Westinghouse. When they were about to lose their business, Tesla tore up the world to Paperwork that he was owed. 

So, what Westinghouse could continue building, right because he didn’t give a **** about the money? He didn’t. He continued to. ******* invent. Those are the heroes, who continue to persevere. And now we have all these people that have this stake, Manufactured woe is me. **** your 15 minutes are up. Go **** ***. I don’t know what Snooki is up to anymore. that’s not our ******* hero, right?   I got no beef with her.

Thank you. 

What are you doing to make the world a better place?

Yeah, yeah. 

And those the people were given; those are the people that society jammed down our throats and say no. Find the person that. Figured it the **** out and chase them. Don’t let’s, not the lowest common denominator.   I’m all over the damn place. But that’s the difference. 

But, you know, truthfully, we get to design our own life and that’s basically what you’re talking about, you design it. You got to stop talking about it and just ******* do. 

If you were born in the last 40 years, I’m 39. So, I can say this. I remember in high school we had this beautiful thing called not the Internet we had actually researched it and got books from the library. And this is when asking Jeeves and mama.com where all before Google was the thing, right, if you were under 40 since you’ve been an adult. You have had every answer to all the knowledge in the world in your ******* hands. If you have a smartphone, you have access to all the knowledge in the world. 

Yeah, I was born before that. So, trust me, we had to do the encyclopedia. We had to go to the library. We had to do them. 

Yeah, you can. Dewey decimal system. That guy was a crock. Came up with a ******** system. Everyone knows that system. You have to get a master’s degree in library allergy or some ****. They know the Dewey Decimal system, right? For people under 30, it was this. There are cards. We’re not going to talk about it. 

Hard catalog. 

 Oh, yeah, right. We’re all about the same age. So, we get it right. And we’ve lived. In those two, the duality right, we’re that we’re not Gen. X, not the millennial generation or whatever. The beautiful thing is there are all these people in this world that want to ***** about. What do they don’t Have.

Do you have access to the information? That is the limiting thing that up until this point in human history, people didn’t have, they didn’t have access to the information, whether it was stored in the Library of Alexandria or behind the walls of castles, or locked up in the Vatican to this day, right? People that have access to the information… now have access to the information. Do something about it. 

Yeah, do something I say this all the time. It doesn’t matter what you know, it matters what you do because knowledge is only potential power and that nothing ever had. Do you ever do any? If I know how to solve world hunger right now, and I don’t do anything about it, well then. It doesn’t *******. The matter that I know how to solve World hunger whoopsie ******* doesn’t matter. 

This is the time that we’re living in right now. We have access to everything. And most people still do nothing about it. We have the opportunity, a golden opportunity to do whatever it is that we want to do. 

Whom do I need to know? You can find them on Twitter, and you can tweet, and you can send them a message and say, hey, I would love… I have this vision. I don’t know how to do it. I know you know how to do the thing.  Let’s be partners and make this thing happen and we have access to all these things. I look back at the first podcast I started, the nonprofit architect podcast I Reached out to people; like Bob Berg and Steve Simms, and Stephen King and got these people to come on my show and talk about their things; and I’m a Foster care kid. I live in trailer parks and foster homes. You know about all my growing up times and to have me that doesn’t have access to any of these people, I don’t have a family. I don’t have a family moment. I don’t have any of these things. 

Nothing stopped me because I know that if I don’t ask, it was already a no. The only chance I have for a “yes”, the only chance I have for yes is if I ask, and if I don’t ask and I don’t do then. I don’t get it. And that is. 

My and don’t *****. 

And don’t  *****? 

Yeah, it’s true. 

I mean, look, I mean. Look, look at why we’re here today, right? We met at a conference six months ago, and it wasn’t me and I. I’m not going to say I researched this guy and I found out he’s really good at podcasting. And I wanted to learn more about podcasting, so I went on my way to develop my best elevator pitch to ask him how to podcast better. 

No, I landed in Vegas and I hit up a buddy and asked him for a ride. He said, hey, we’re going to pick up another dude and go to lunch. I said Sounds good, right? And we had some really good Venezuelan food and I said oh, man, I’m going to hit you up later. And then I followed up. That was it there wasn’t this big, elaborate plan. The difference was right to show up. Right. 

So, my three steps for living life. I told you the first one is to do the ******* thing. Second step. Tell the ******* world. And the third step is showing the ****. 

And it’s important we do all three because you and I are right. I did the thing I built the business. I put myself in a position where I found out about the military influencers conference right and then I told the world, hey, I’m going to go. I’m going to do the thing. I’m going to create content. I’m going to be. I hate the word influencer, but whatever. I’m going to put out My ideas to the world, and I’m willing. For people to step all over. They are right and then. I’m going to show up, and I’m going to show up. You know, one of the best compliments I’ve gotten often, especially now that the world’s back and open up for people that have seen my content in the past. They said you’re exactly whom I thought you were going to be there’s not… Yeah, William changes and I drop the F-bombs if I’m, you know, the FCC’s. All over me. Or some ****   beyond that, I’m a tall, skinny white kid in camel pants and a black T-shirt, right?  That’s what you get. 

This is who I am. Yeah, authentically.

That’s exactly what he was wearing when we picked him up.

I’m wearing that now. 100% it’s that the only thing different is occasionally Casey, the co-host of the trash Talk Business podcast. He ordered green shirts instead of black ones, so occasionally I spice things up A little bit. 

Think outside of the box, Andy.

And that’s that, right? And even people go to networking events and all this **** and why do you wear work boots? And I’m one phone call away from being on a job pulling a hot tub out of someone’s backyard. Right? Even when I was in Vegas last time I was in Vegas, I was at another conference and there was one of our listeners on the podcast who said, hey, Man, Let’s Catch up with you, all right bet. 

So, he picked me up from the hotel. We went, had lunch, and we’re going to go to an estimate. After that, I said I will teach how to estimate the way I do it. It ended up getting canceled. I would have gone an estimate why not another one of our listeners said, hey, man, I saw, I posted was biggest. 

Because I’d love to buy you a drink. 

I’m cool. I have A really simple I would love for you to buy me a drink. Turns out that if you hit me up. I am. I am. I will get in your vehicle. Right. 

OK, A guy would do that. Wouldn’t it be necessary?

About 100%.

Yeah, that’s my goal. I’m not saying I would not advise that you might get guys like me and Travis picking you up. We don’t, we don’t need that, right? Right. If you pick me up and take me to a bar and buy me a drink, I will talk. I don’t even really drink. I just… Yeah, help. I’ll make new friends, right? And it took me to where we went.

I love it. I love that authenticity.

Carol Carol’s done up and she’s prim and she’s classy all the time. Every time I see her, she’s classy. Every time she’s been with me, I’m in a bono colored V-neck T-shirt and I either do or don’t have a jacket on, depending on how fancy The thing is. People. Wow. You really dressed up. I’m wearing a T-shirt and jeans. My friend, a jacket that goes over it occasionally, but it’s a little T Shirt and jeans. Yeah, yeah, it dresses me up a little bit but. 

Second, it dresses you up. 

It churns it up a little bit, that’s all. 

That’s the beauty of being authentic, of really being who you are. You’re not in the public eye trying to be something else. The rock gets praised all the time. He said I see you everywhere you go. You have a big smile taking pictures with your fans do you think after this long of being so relevant that wouldn’t be? The case he’s that’s why I’m still relevant. 

Because that’s who I am, no matter where I go. And what I do, that’s who I am. And that’s why it resonates with people and that’s why I still have all these raving fans that gave us for them, and it’s also why it’s hard to Google my name because my middle name is Dwayne, I’m Dwayne Johnson, and you can’t find me on the Internet. 

Oh, that is funny. 

Yeah, yeah. 

I didn’t know that. Oh my God. All right. 

Oh yeah, People… this should be your call sign. I said no, this should not be my call sign. I’m not that guy. I’m not 6’5. Built a Samoan dude with a big smile. I’m a 5-foot-8 short white. 

That can bounce grapes off his pecs. Best scene ever.

What movie is that? I’ll watch enough movies. Movies I think are men. 

There was a. 

And women have different views of the rock, then. 

There was. No, there was one movie and he’s an ex-boyfriend. A long time ago. And yeah, he was in a movie where he was bouncing grapes off his packs. And I remember having a conversation with my girlfriend and She said, “That is so hot” and I was just dying because my ex-boyfriend, then, was so jealous of the rock. I couldn’t watch any movies with him. 

If I Ever get a signal and I get a dating profile that’s going to be one of my lines. Can I bounce grapes off my pecs? My pecs, yeah. 

It was one with Ohh …

It is a journey to a mysterious island. 

That’s it. Oh my God, you googled it? I loved it. 

Dude, I again roll our fingertips.

I know we called that out in the past. 

There you go. 

No way. 

I’ve never seen this movie. I’ve never heard about such a great situation and now I’m intrigued. I can’t. Teasing may be off my belly teasing. Come on now. 

But isn’t it that interesting that we have highlighted this in the show, How I Met your mother, they had a scene where they were arguing about whatever the thing was? And I go back and forth, and then whenever one got the cell phone, everyone’s looking at their phone. Remember the thing we argued about, It’s hot dogs. And there’s no, there’s no mystery anymore. 

Yeah, true. 

And I was in a situation where I was talking to somebody, and the question came. Up and I said, I don’t know. And I may or may not find out later and the guy remarked “It’s interesting that someone at your age is OK with leaving a little mystery in their life. You don’t have to have the answers to everything.” 

I don’t. Yeah, I’m. 

Not required. 

For me, it’s the AAD, the AAD Twitch. You know, oh, I got to… I want to know. The answer to that is right there it closes the loop. OK, there we go grapes. If you know, I believe her ship shape and then we move on now. We move. On to the next target, you know. 

The next target is bouncing limes off your booty. That’s the next target. 

Yeah, we aren’t. We aren’t going to line up. 

Yeah. Yeah. And we got.

In this film. 

No booty over here. So sorry, yeah. 

So, you were a truck driver, you were a truck driver in the military. I was a truck driver for a short time in my career. They have all these different licenses for the military. You can drive a vehicle with six wheels, you know, five-ton or Dukes and 1/2. 

You can operate a rope pool which is a reverse osmosis water purification. You can drive In a semi-truck you can do all these different things and none of that means Jac, once you get out the things that you were doing every day and they trusted you to do, you don’t have the civilian equivalent license or experience to make that matter 

So that doesn’t transfer from the military to civilian life.

No, no, that’s what that was. What’s so frustrating in the military is that I have to travel over 40,000 miles long. And most of those miles are in nine 15/9/15. So, we hauled fuel in Iraq. In the army, we hauled fuel for the Marine Corps. And to have those guys drive that many miles into truck drivers hit a million-mile club, or you know whatever 40,000 isn’t ****. 

To them, 40,000 is a lot to someone that has. No miles or they’re really entry-level or first starting or they’re doing in-town delivery kind of Stuff and I got back home. And to your point, I had every certification and because we had a test on all the equipment or we had a test on some of the equipment, I should say when we were at AIT advanced individual training and then before we went to Iraq, we tested out of everything. 

Now I mean a test out is literally a 10-mile loop. Back it up all right, you’re good you’re not dumb, and when I got back home at the time, Wisconsin had a thing where you get you to have to get a job as a truck driver and then your employer can sign off on it, but it has to be within two years, yadda yadda, right?

So, by that time, I was home in 2009 and I was looking as I was talking about becoming a driver for a moving company, I couldn’t even get a job as a driver. Because I didn’t have any relevant experience, I said, I had 40,000 miles that, well, you haven’t driven a 24-foot box truck. I drove a truck with a tanker.

Oh my God. 

And I racked and I got blown up and I didn’t die. And what else?  What’s the final boss here? It was $6000 back then. $1000 to get your CDL and I’m. I don’t want that in my life, you know, and I look at rules, regulations, and stupidity. These are all the things where There are barriers and there are roadblocks, and well, what do you do about it? And I said on the near side of the roadblock, ******** about it. Right. And I said, well, you can go around it or through it or jump over it or remove it, right? You have a lot of options. And I and I let that limiting self-belief really control my life. Because is it ********? Can I do anything about it? No, right, I was. 

No. Yeah. 

I was raised Catholic, and it was this serenity prayer, you know. And I don’t really refer to that often but at. Least it puts things in perspective, right, and in my book, I talk about that, there’s … He’s a Yogi from India and he said, I watch his ****. I’m going to look him up here in a second and he talks about worrying he’s right. There’s the worrying matrix, right? The flow chart. You’re worrying about something, right? Well, why worry? Can you do something about it? Well, then do something about it. Well, then, why worry?   it comes back to… 

It’s so simple, right? 

Simple and you have to. You must stop yourself and say can I do something about it? Yes, or no? Go back to that magical 4 four-word phrases ******* thing. Do something about it, or don’t. And then put that other foot in front of the other foot and move them to the right. And I’ve been stuck, and I got stuck for six months. Eight months. When I got back home for my second deployment, I went through a divorce. I got stuck for, 6-8, nine months in my own ****.

And I was making all the self-destructive choices and I thought I could speed through the transitions I’m or the transformation. I really, it’s the transformation I thought, OK, I did this thing in Iraq. I got back home. I went to the VA. I checked the box, I saw the counselor, I ******** myself, and I made my life. Right, right. 

So, I got back home from GITMO, and I was all right, divorced the wife. Hold a couple of VA appointments. I know I know what the end state is. Let’s just expedite this. Turns out you can’t expedite that ****, but you have to go. You have to feel it. You have to work through it, right?  Ohh, I’ll just go get a new fiancé. that solves all my problems with ship shape, you know? And no, you got to lean into that **** and you have to deal with all that stuff in your past. Otherwise, it’ll habitually boil up, you know.

I realized most people in this world. There are only three places, everything. If you realize everything is in there, right, that’s just how my brain works, right? Anyways, people in this world, I will argue the ones that are struggling are living in one of two places that do not serve them. They are either living. In the past. Or they are living in the future. That’s it. Right. The past is when you’re dwelling on things and you’re beating yourself up and you can’t work or you choose not to work through some ****, right? 

So, you’re putting all this energy into the past. So, we say and whatnot you know, someone living rent-free in your head. They’re kicking them out. But that’s your past. Right. Give him the ******* eviction notice. Do what you have got to do to get them out. Right. So that’s in the past and you have other people that live in the future, it’s… well, you know, my life will be better when I get this or look at what that person has. And now I want that and it’s… Well, that is. That isn’t ******* serving you right now. You’re living with unrealistic expectations because the opportunity to achieve that isn’t today, right? 

So, what is achievable today, and when you start focusing on what is achievable today, tomorrow will be better. You got that much more dirt beneath your boots. You got that much more knowledge in your head. When you choose not to buy the book, read the book, understand the book, and implement the solutions in the book. When you choose not to do that, tomorrow is similar to today and if today was a **** the math says tomorrow will be similar because you’ve obtained no new knowledge, right? We all get the same 140 minutes a day. 168 hours a week. Whatever math you want to do, we all do. Get the same. 

What do you prioritize? Do you prioritize watching and looking at what other people ******* have and being jealous? Do prioritize living in the ******* past about what you could have. Should have done it. Or did you prioritize what you’re going to do today?   I’ve worked through this matrix in my head several times because I’m a shorter guy. I’m an OPS guy. Now we should have done that well, right? And I’ve broken it down, Barney style, because that’s the only way I know how to break **** down. That’s what drill Sergeant taught me. 

And God dammit, it works, right? Do we start with what “should” we have done? That’s the past. Then we focus on what we “could” do and that’s the future. What could we do right now, we say, what “can” we do? Right? What are we capable of? Right, let’s look around left and right. We’re living in the present, and now here’s the magical thing. And it goes back. To do the ******* thing. What “will” we do? 

Implement it into action. 

Yep, there you go. And is that right? Should, can, will. When you live that, not if when you live that, you start getting closer to those things that you think you want. Need, desire. Right. I will talk about my required desire. Do you do it? Do you want it? Do you need it? And when you get closer, it becomes more apparent what you truly need. What do you want and what do you want? 

But most people don’t even have that clarity. 

I don’t have that ******* clarity. I didn’t have it. I continue to not have it, so I put tools in place, right? Things around me, there’s not what people are that must be men, I see people all the time. I said holy, why don’t I have that? That person doesn’t deserve this. I have that same limiting self-belief as everybody else. But what I do is I answer the question: why don’t I have that? Why don’t I have that? Because they have different priorities than me. What are my priorities? Oh, those are my priorities, OK? 

A better question is how if you really want it? How do you get it? 

Want to own? Right. How do I obtain that?  I want financial independence. Well, how do I do that? I have to seek knowledge. Right? I have to determine. I get to choose what financial independence means to me? Pick a number to decide what day I want to stop working. Do some ******* math and figure out what I need to do today to make that ******* happen. 

Reverse engineer that ****. 

Then the book profit first, a great book for business owners. I have to determine your salary. You get to determine your profit. You decide. This is where it’s going to be, and you run your business accordingly. And when you do that, you get the profit, or you don’t. And it’s very clear what you need to do to make that happen. Right now, it’s not what I want, what do I need to do to get this thing that I’ve already established is the thing I’m going for? That’s ******* empowering language versus well, you know how it. We’ll figure it out. It is what it is. All these ******** limiting self-belief thoughts want to. Kick him in the teeth. 

Yours remember first. Yeah, yeah. 

Didn’t like that house anyway. 

Right, Jesus. 

So, I’m with you on this, this transition out of something great, the military, and then choosing your own stuff. I’ve been retired for just a shade over a year, about three weeks more than a year, and there was a lot of stuff that I was doing. And I continued to do a lot of that stuff over the past year and then I got to a point that I’ve never had in my life. I had time to be still. 

And what happened for me is all the stuff that I didn’t work through when I was a kid and didn’t work through when I was a young adult. All that stuff is right there knocking on my head. Remember us time to deal with us. Right. 

And whether you want to or not it’s coming in. And for me, I don’t know how other people feel for me, and this has been overwhelming. You can go back through and listen to all the discussions we have, you know, check out the time that Carol interviewed me and hear about my story and some of the terrible things that I’ve been through. That is all boiling up for me because I’m finally not busy Enough to just kind of deflect it and you know, move through it and just I can always focus on the thing that I’m doing and that focus allows me to ignore all those other things. Well, now I don’t have a lot of things demanding my time and attention, and skills right now. And all that stuff is coming back up. 

So, I get it. I get it over the last couple of weeks, I’ve had a couple of breakdowns. I’m not going to pretend that I didn’t, and I worked through a concert with a friend of mine and the concept is a funnel list FUML list, and FUML is what is going to hook up my life if I don’t do it this way, that’s where I’m currently at. If I don’t do these things, I’m going to **** my life up. I might not show up to an appointment. I’m not going to show up to do this podcast, and I’m not going to do my taxes. I mean, whatever that thing is, if you were in that pit, you need to figure out those things in your fuml list. What’s going to **** ** your life first or next? 

And those are the things you have to get done if nothing else. Do those things work towards getting some healing for me? What’s helping me is breathing. I know we do it all the time, but intentional breathing or breath work, actually journaling and talking to the people that I know that I have in my circle that is just going to be with me and not judge or tell me how to fix it and help me really work through these things. 

Those are things that help me. You know, I call Carol when the cameras are not on, We talk about this stuff when I call my other friends. Wherever you find yourself in. Whatever peak or valley that you find yourself in, don’t do it alone.

There are so many other people out there to help you that care about you, and that want to work with you, whether you’re stuck or not. If to use Andy’s words, we aren’t eating ******* or fighting, I am not doing it, if it’s not on my formal list if it’s not going to **** ** my life, I’m not doing it right now because I really don’t have the capacity to do anything extra. 

And that’s just where I’m at, and there’s nothing wrong with that, so I appreciate you sharing that and sharing how that might look for you, Andy. That’s a big deal. I know you got into UM. I know you got into a franchise trash business not too long ago and realized that it wasn’t working quite right. How did you Get out of that and recognize you need to do something different and actually learn how to make money in the trash business? 

No, I love no. So, two things, I’ll jump into that cause that’s Interesting. So what? What it is, what we’re going through is the wound, the wounded child inside of us. We all have that, and I appreciate you. Opening up there, and being vulnerable is something I’ve recently learned, and it was through a woman I went to grade school with. She reached out to me. She does a lot of mental health coaching. We got talking and she’s known Me since I Was five. Right then there’s a 20-year gap and all of a sudden, we connected, we were talking about things, and she said, hey, you need to look into this. 

So, I looked into it and then I talked to my counselor about it. And I talked to my ex-girlfriend about it. But after we broke up because I can sit back and ***** and complain about all the things that she did or didn’t do, or I can take ownership of the things that I did and the wounded child in me. And I thought everyone had this and turns out no, it’s for what? What I carry with me is the idea that I’m not good enough. 

And I can Talk about where it comes from. It Comes from believing my father was larger than life. Even to this day, yesterday I got a text message from a guy I went to high school with. He owns a remodeling business. We do work for him, and he said, hey, does your dad do door hardware? And I said, yeah, my dad’s doors, door hardware, he goes, we called him into Lazzari’s house. So, Lazare is one of the owners of the Bucks’ And when you work on a big person’s house. The little clout, you know, and I go. Well, how did you know He was my dad? He said I saw a picture of you on social media with your dad. He goes. I saw that guy at the house the other day. He’s the only guy in the city of Milwaukee that knew how to fix this door. Right. he’s the guy, right? 

And so, I grew up with his dad where it’s. He was a remodeler and a Carpenter and he’s, you know, son of a farmer. He’s a kind of can-do guy. So, I grew up with everybody at the church and the school thinking my dad walked on water. And I said man, how am I going to fill this? He has all this random knowledge and he helped everybody take care of everybody. So, I had that at a very early age when I thought my dad could do no wrong, you know? 

And I got bullied In grade school, I was always the smallest kid. I went from 5 feet in my freshman year of high school to 6 feet going into my junior year, right? I had this growth spurt of my sophomore year and it’s… so I was bullied in grade school and in high school and then I joined the military. And I was never top, top, mark anything, right? And whether shooting or PT; I was kind of middle. Of the pack. When I ran my mouth a little bit, I’m also 64. I don’t blend into any ******* crowd, right? 

So, there was this idea that I mean, I wasn’t good enough. I got caught doing a lot of dumb ****. We all did the same dump ****. I happen to get caught more than most Right and to your point, I even got into this franchise and there are other examples, but I got into this franchise organization.  I was the number one franchise in the country and the franchisor would still ******* tell me, put it on social media, that if not for him. I wouldn’t be where I’m today if not for him, I would continue to be a suicidal, homicidal PTSD filled veteran.

Oh my God. 

I would continue to strive. Google, right? And I ******* believed it. For about a minute. Right. And then I thought back no **** you. I know who I am, right? I built what I got because I built it right to that point. I never thought about that. You ship. I’ll put it in my I’ll put it somewhere. I made a Facebook post wrong or something. I’ve never said those words before in my life. It’s just. It came to me, but it’s, you know what, I let people that and other people in my life take out my bandwidth, take out my ******* time, take up that ****** paid for rented space in mine. 

Rented space? Yep.

That’s not an original line by me. People say it all the time. I allowed them to ******* do it. I got to… I have three siblings and I’m close to my one brother. close to ISH and my other brother. I barely talked to them, and I love him and he’s going through some **** and it’s not a healthy relationship. And then I have a sister who lives 10 minutes from me and I ******* haven’t talked to her in years of real conversation because We’re so far apart. 

And it bothers me when I don’t have a relationship with my sister and my brother-in-law, and I know I’ve reached out. I know I’ve put the work in, and I had to realize with my conversations with my girlfriend’s conversations with my counselor that I had to say, hold on, Andy, you’re good enough for a lot of people out there, that audience, you know, **** them.   

If they want to ******* hoot and holler and think they’re high and mighty, that’s fine. I’m going to promote them to the ******* cheap seats. And I’m going to go to this world with no ******* armor. I don’t want to be Billy ******. I’ll walk out on those worlds naked. The beautiful Ted XI heard about this right. You’re walking to the arena life naked because when you get your arm around, you feel you have to defend yourself against anybody and everybody and deflect every ******* arrow. When you walk out naked. Here I am. 

That’s it here the **** I am. I came in my camel pants and my T-shirt. I show up with The Who the **** I am. And for the audiences. Don’t get it. That’s my ******* audience. I treat it.   my ******* business, OK? You’re not my customer. Got to go pound his hand. Even when it comes to my own flesh and blood, I got to come to the realization. You know what? They are not for me. I’m not going to continue to make emotional investments into a bank account where Habitual ******* bounces my ******* checks. 

And so, when my relationship with the franchise, they were ******* me over. They were ******* over the vets. I left 10s of thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table. Because it’s about what’s in my heart and what’s in my ******* soul, not what’s in my bank account. 

And even within business, business is ******* personal. You put in your time, your energy, your sweat, the money, you put everything on the *******. Line and people are going to take shots at you. And you got to take those shots   I was watching Shark Tank last night. And Dave and John were talking. About when he was selling hats on the corner in Harlem, right? He was saying you go work the ******* corner. You go try to sell your hats. People are going to tell you what to think about your hats. There you go. Boom shark. Tank. That’s ******* awesome, right? 

They’re going to tell you what they think about your hats and your mama, right? And for eight. ******* years. He stood in the corner hustling his hats, right, because he was willing to take them. It is eight. ******* years, he figured out who his audience was. 

And then FUBU blew up, and now he’s a multi-millionaire and a billionaire. And he’s   400 million. I think he’s worth it, right? He’s doing OK, right? Because he was willing to stand there and take it on the chin and it was no different. Was Jay’s dog Drunk won’t haul? They ****** over tons of vets.

At first, I said, you know what? I’m **** them. I’ll tell you. I can handle it. I’m ******* grown. I don’t give a ****. I’m going to get mine. Get my money. I’m going to keep my mouth shut. When I saw them starting to **** over other veterans. I can’t stand behind this. I can’t have other veterans coming at me and getting ****** with me… hey, Andy, I saw your face here or there, right? 

because I was a poster child. Now I started representing it in my own words. I started representing something that I hated and despised because I ******* love veterans and it’s up to veterans to figure out their own **** and we will die from within. Because the worst people, the veterans, are fellow veterans. 

So that’s why we go to places like the military influencers conference, so we can influence other veterans and show them this is what right looks like here. The ***** here is where Wright looks, and then we come together and have really no ****, unscripted conversations about our vulnerability and the transformation we go through and where we’re at today and how we got here. So, we could be the beacon for others.

 So, I can sit here and just say oh, ****, this franchise didn’t. No, **** that. I’ve thought about it. I’ve done the work I’ve put in the time I continue to put in the work, and I don’t work on my business. I don’t work on other people. I ******* work on myself. That’s what separates the ******* Titans from the victims. Right. The victors for the has-beens. You got to do the ******* work. The number one relationship you have to have in this role is a relationship. You have to have it with you. You have to step out of your own ******* ********. 

Look at yourself. Treat yourself you would want to treat the best person. What advice would you give to somebody that wasn’t you? And start there. And when you ******* do that, you’re going to start showing up authentic in real life and being the best you can be. Because there’s 8 billion of us and everybody can be the best at them ******* selves. And this isn’t some motivational cat ******** poster be all you can be ******* army. Brought that tagline back. Let’s ******** get kind of excited about that. I saw a commercial there. They got 1/2 chub not going to ******* lie. Right. But it’s all that you can be right now. What are you else want you to ******* be not what you think other people want you to be. Be all that you can ******* be. Go to the ******* world. Do the ******* thing. You’ve been putting this planet to do. Tell the ******* world this. Is who I am, hear me roar. And then show the **** ** where the arrows start coming. ******* take it. 

Or be the rock and bounce it off your pecks. 

so just ******* pecks. We’ve got grapes, grapes. Now, what’s that short? Hold on. What’s that? Shark Tank. What’s that Shark Tank *******?

Ohh the Shark Tank wristband. So, I helped the guy organize an event and he talked Shark Tank into showing up a number of years ago, so I’ve got. The wristband from helping out going into shark tanks to pitch my idea. They’ve got all these little feeder events too. 

Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

To the next level, to the next level. I didn’t make it past the first level, but you know I’ve got a picture with me and the Shark Tank crew that they sent out from a number of years ago and I was just cleaning out my stuff and I said, oh, I happen to have the wristband. Right here. It’s amazing how some of that stuff works out, right? 

You talk about being the best you, and when I get into these conversations, if you know me well enough, you’ll know that I’m. I’m here right here in the microphone, in the camera. I’m hardly anywhere else, and I don’t always remember what it is I say. And I know, kidding. When I need expert advice, I’ll listen to my own episodes; man, that guy sounds smart. **** That was me from 10 weeks ago. Wow, that guy hadn’t been together.  I should do some of it. 

He had a moment that stuff sounds really cool, good job. Who’s that, Travis? Oh ****It’s me and I’m so glad that Carol and Andy are chuckling here because man, this guy’s kind of arrogant when he needs expert advice, he talks to himself. Yes, I get it. It’s a funny thing to Say.

But it’s True, we always have all this advice for other people. Because it’s so hard to apply it to ourselves, you can’t read the warning label when you’re in the package. So sometimes I go and go back to the ship where I would have told other people Andy’s point, which I did tell other people. I said man, I should probably do this for myself, huh? 

I know, I love it when people come up to me. It’s an awkward moment and I love it. Well, I love sucking. I love conflicts. So, I lean into that ****. Well, people. Come up to me and hey. You said this in a video, or you said this on stage, or I overheard you say this to somebody. Oh boy, that sounds pretty ******* dope. They transformed my life and made me see things differently. I’m awesome. There you don’t remember saying it to you. I said, no, that sounds like some **** that I want to ****** subscribe to. 

I want to be that ******* guy. I want to have that. That confidence, that bravado. I want it right and it’s, well, yeah. Keep ******* saying words and you’ll get there. You know you just get to choose our thoughts. We truly get to choose our thoughts. 

But my journey, if you will, if you say OK, where was that valley? Where was the peak? Where was the time OK, this is the new foundation of seeing the world differently. It all came down to being voluntold in the army. I was well, I have a letter of reprimand from the army telling me I’m a toxic leader, so I guess ******* documented, right? No ****. There I was. Hey, there’s a fax Jack, right? I’m not saying I am all right. I’m just. Telling you. Right. Here’s what’s locked up.

I got a letter from the Navy saying I’m not physically qualified to fly airplanes, and I went and flew airplanes for 11 years.

So, no big deal, right? Someone. Someone’s opinion… Les Brown says. “Someone’s opinion of you doesn’t define you”. Anyhow, I got what I got NCER’s no non-commissioned officer evaluation report with A11, which is one for how you’re doing your current job and one for your promotability. I got one and it specifically said Sergeant wines’ aggressive leadership style is exactly what the. A year later, I got a letter from a man saying Sergeant wines’ aggressive leadership style is not the direction the army is going so right, well worked. One day is not working in the future.

Anyhow. During that time, I volunteered to go to master resilience training, and I don’t know what the **** is. I didn’t want to go. We needed it. We needed 2E sixes from our company to go and one guy bowed out. He couldn’t make it because of work commitments and at the time I was leaning into a divorce. I was working on construction. We were about to deploy him. Talking, I’ll go to two weeks of school and get paid. Chills. Stay away from my soon-to-be ex-wife. Let’s ******* go. No clue what the school was. I remember I had to take the A strength Finder test ahead of time. That’s a lot similar to Myers Briggs if you’re familiar with or you know, the PPI index. And I was going to do this pre-work. I’m going to go to school. No ******* clue. 

I get there and 75% of the people are excited to be there. And me, I don’t the **** this is all about. Or they are going to change the way I think. The world. OK, I can sit for 8 hours to ******** and pass a couple of tests. Isn’t nothing, Jack? My whole world got flipped upside down, and that one told me that I was responsible for the world I lived in. 

They told me I had power or control of my thoughts, that they told me that I’m the reason I am the way I am, and I can control that and I’m Mind blown. And I was in such a vulnerable time in my life because I was ****** *** at a Corporate America job that I quit. I was ****** *** at myself because of the choices I had made, and I was ****** *** at my soon-to-be ex-wife because she was ******* taking my daughter. I was passed off at this… I was in this, this ground, this ******* this value. And someone said here’s another way of thinking, right? 

You haven’t been doing the same thing for so long. It isn’t working. Just how about just going a little bit right? It’s 1% different. And it may change your life. And I leaned into it and I. Learned about this. The foundation for my life is the ATC model-activated event. Your thought and then the consequences thereof. You can’t control their consequences. I grew up with a saying in my parent’s household, which was the consequences of repercussions, right? Because I didn’t do a lot of dumb, stupid ****. And when you do a lot of stupid ****, you have lots of consequences and repercussions can you ask smacked and getting yelled at and being hit and you’re OK, right? 

And then I realized, well, hold on. I was acting a fool and it wasn’t that the acting was the issue or the reacting. It was the thought. I can’t change what happens. They activate an event. I can’t change the consequence. However, I have complete control over my thoughts. And then I researched him more and I understood him more and that knowledge got me through my deployment to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which isn’t the greatest place in the world. As I was going through a divorce, and as I got kicked out of my platoon, I got my letter of reprimand and then I eventually got kicked out of my company, right? I thought, man… I kept thinking, oh, this is rock bottom. Nope, I kept digging deeper somehow.

Right. 

But I embraced this understanding. 

You’re an overachiever, right 

Absolutely, Jack.  Ohh. Do you think I’m down? You are not seen down? Let me tell you. Looks like you can still hear me. I’ll keep digging. 

I went to the IG Inspector General. The place you’re supposed to go to report. Inaccuracies and after going to IG I got kicked out of my company. I got a rehabilitative transfer through another company, and I turned into what I was aptly known as borrowed military manpower, which is the civilian equivalent of being someone’s *****.   At this point there, all right, you’re an E6 Don.

This is what you are going to do. Are you going there? You are going to do this, and we don’t give a ****. I want you to be here for six months, I was there for four months, 5-6 months. We’re going to use and abuse you and we don’t give a **** because the activity company is going to go back to Fort Lewis, and you’re going to go back to yours. So **** you. We don’t have to be nice… and. That’s pretty much how it went and looking back at it, the name was our first class, Boyd. The big old dude 6’5/6’6. When I look up to someone I know? It’s for real. 

There’s no way he passed height or weight tape. I mean it. Big old boy, right? And he had the utmost respect and he treated me the way that he needed to treat me. Which was best for the unit, his unit, and also what was best for me. He didn’t play any ******* games. He told me I was going to be. He told me. I don’t ******* give a **** about you because I don’t. And we got through it. I looked back and then I thought he was just a ******* prick. He’s just beating me up. He had a complete mission, and I must respect it. And at the end of it, he said, hey, man, nothing personal, I had to handle my business. I said, no, we’re good, but. And I was a ****, right? According to him, by the Army standards, I was a **** right by those rules, I was no good. Now at the end of the deployment, the first started and the commander got relieved, and I got promoted.

 So, it all worked out right. You had to wade through some **** right to enjoy life on the other side. And I didn’t realize that when I was in it. And when I look back, I think about the activity, the ATC model, the activated event, the thought I had, and the consequences that were developed. I realized that OK, this is where what I did worked, and this is where what I didn’t work. It didn’t matter what I thought about the situation. Right. What mattered was am I achieving what I want out of life; I dug into him more and I dug into him more. I dug in so far. I gotta figure this **** out. And then I realize, right, with our brains, we receive information, it comes in through our eyes. It really comes in the middle of our brain, right? 

The brain is a fascinating thing, and we can make this choice. These two choices, they’re. You’re going to change your ******* life. You allow this new activation event to go down to your lower lizard brain. To your fight-flight or freeze. Whatever lower neural cortex is your lower brain, right? Or you choose to send that activity that you choose to send the thought up to your clear, creative, confident upper brain, it’s a bigger brain. There’s more room for ideas. There’s more room for things to happen. You can lean on Past experience; you know your fight-flight or freeze response. It’s the reaction. It happens instantaneously. There are all these things in this world that are perceived threats that goes back to us being animals and volcanoes and ******* mastodons and things are going to kill us every day. Let me tell you something. Are we doing all right? We got air conditioning. OK. 

There aren’t that many threats, OK? We have all these things that are perceived threats. What are people thinking? What are they saying? They offended me, right? All that ******** that the lion doesn’t get up for. And then and when you realize that. You get to slow down. You could do this thing that Travis hit on intentionally. I don’t care if you do the Pentagon method or a box method. Four up, 4 holds, 4 down, 4 hold up four down four up 8 down 8 whatever it is. And all of sudden slows. And you can process your thoughts within your brain. 

Tesla would Tesla used to build stuff you never made prototypes. He would sit there, and he would think about a machine, and he would build it in his brain before he ever started putting things together because he took the time to breathe and think, and that’s what we’re capable of as humans. 

So, I started to stop, breathe, and think it wasn’t the world’s slowdown. It’s that I had more thoughts. I slowed down my world. You know, they talk about athletes when they’re in the zone because they’re in it. The world slows down because they have so many repetitions. They’re using their upper brain to process everything going around them, and they’re in the zone. 

And we have that opportunity every day to be in the zone within our own life. It’s a choice. Do you react to what’s happening in front of you, or do you respond? And it all comes down to which part of the brain you are using. 

So, we do, I don’t know if Travis told you, but I have a motorcycle track organization. And we ride motorcycles on the racetrack, and you do it so many times and it becomes, you know, muscle memory, obviously. But when you’re riding that fast and doing things so quickly because you know events change in every corner, you have different people in different places. 

So, you have to adjust accordingly. You have to react very quickly, you know, and it does slow down time and it is a very interesting thing. What happens is your breathing is very instrumental to how well of a choice you make during that time frame. And it is literally a second, if not fractions of a second that you’re making those decisions, you know and.

Look at it but look at what you said. Right. “Slow is Smooth, smooth is fast, fast is good.” That’s the model of the truck driver, right?

Right.

That’s the model of the truck driver’s motor. Transportation Corp, right? You’ve done it. 

Hey, it’s also motorcycles. 

Right. I rode motorcycles illegally for years. Right. Right. oh, yeah. I stupid ****. I kept getting my learner’s permit because I never had a motorcycle that was good enough to take the DMV. It’s stupid. And I love motorcycles and I don’t have one now, which is probably why I’m still alive anyhow. The point is… You don’t just hop on a ******* motorcycle and lean into ******* turn 3 at 115mph right? You got to go slow. You have to practice these methods, you have to take the time. And you will **** it up.

Oh yes. 

Or the motorcycle you’ll pull up, or you’ll pull back. Or you put the bike on the brake. You will **** it up.   That’s it. This isn’t you. You learn people come up to me, hey, Andy, you said this, and I saw you do this. Which was different from what you said, yeah. But still, humans are still framing the shutout right. It’s a doctor or lawyer. How is it the two ******* professions in the world that you’re the go-to ohh the ******* are doctors alert? How is it those ************* get away with saying practicing? They’re practicing law. No, you should be an expert.   I’m paying four hundred $500.00 an hour to be an expert. I don’t say I’m practicing junk removal. 

But The thing is, we’re all practicing that life. Yeah, we’re figuring it out as we go. We haven’t perfected ****.   and if you have or you think you have, you’re on a ******* plateau. Oh man, it’s going to be a horrible existence when it comes to changing the way you see the world, you have got to be intentional about it. 

No different than going on the racetrack. Right. And it’s the same racetrack over, over, over, and over. And that’s where Life is most. What we do is the same over and over and over and over. Perfect that… so that… when the ******* turn comes out of nowhere, the ******* the bike lays out in front of you. The weather is incumbent, right? You can respond very efficiently and effectively because you figure out how to do life when the playing field is level. 

And that’s the difference we have in these new generations where we don’t expose them to ****. We don’t let them skin their ******* knees. No, **** that. I have an 8-year-old daughter. Every time she goes on and fails at something. I’m good. Fail now make it 1. 

What’d you learn? Yeah. 

Make $10.00 mistakes, right? $10.00 mistakes are better than one $10,000 mistake. 

Yeah, that one hurts. 

Right, But that’s life. Yeah, right. Don’t protect your children. Don’t protect your ******* employees. Don’t protect your friends. Right. And often people have said, oh, you’re, you know, you call Andy when you’re almost down and out. Right. Cause he’s going to tell you the truth that nobody else Will ******* tell you? 

And why don’t we all do that? Right. And my business coach is that guy named Mervin Bird, USMC 434 years ago I was sitting in my conference and I’m telling him **** this. **** that these people, this, that, and he goes well, hold on… Because I was talking about this networking group in particular, how I wasn’t getting leads and my phone. Wasn’t ringing. He goes. You’ve been showing up, I said. I sent the guy right. I sent it to the sales guy. He’s … No, that you’ve been showing up. Where the **** has your *** been? You’ve been putting the ******* work. 

No. 

He said, OK then. You ******** to me about that? You didn’t ******* show up.

A year later, when he became a business coach, he built a CEO roundtable team. He hit me up. I had convinced myself for years I was uncatchable, I was unmanageable. I was unemployable. Turns out I’m still unmanageable and still unemployable, but I am coachable, right? And I leaned into it. Because I found someone that told me the truth, that I was unwilling to tell myself. 

Yeah, but you also, you have to respect that person to hear that. 

100% and exactly and it was because he put the time in. But he was the very first person I sat down and had an A1 on-one with. I’m saying, what do you mean by getting coffee? I got to ******* cure to get the house. Why do we get to go to *** **** Pinera there and spend $4 in a couple of ******* ********? But I guess that’s what you do when you’re in the business world, right? And he paid for it. So good on him. And then we sat down. I mean, I was 10 minutes into business, and I was, how did what? What’s the networking event? How do I do that? And he’s explaining this **** to me and I go, I just stop. I go. What do I wear? Right. Because I didn’t have anyone to tell me what to do at the time and I’m in the military. Just tell me what uniform to show up in. And I was wearing camo pants, a T-shirt, and a ball cap. He goes. Yeah, yeah. Just show up. He goes because that’ll stand out. Seven years later, I’m none the wiser. It worked. 

But it was you. 

It was me. It was already me. I already was. I’d already bet. I remember. I went to a conference a year Ago in a suit and tie. I’m, oh, this is a big deal at the Potawatomi Bingo casino here in Milwaukee. We have a conference at the casino. It’s a classy operation, you know? And I went in the suit and tie, and I walked around for two days and stood tall and had a nice ******* double Windsor tie, tie a knot and I got that figured out. I took some pictures with people. I remember thinking man for two days I walked around nobody knew who I was. I was there for two days. I looked at everybody else for two days. I was a version of myself that I wasn’t even ******* recognized.

Last year, sitting on stage on a panel where my camel pants and T-shirt were, I want, you know, the veteran-owned business of the year award. Because I had figured out the last seven years were not going to beat you. You’re good, right? You are ******* good enough. 

You’re good enough. Yes, exactly. 

Right, that’s a thought. So, all those activated events, all the people that picked on me, all the people that you know, kicked me down, right? They didn’t tell me I wasn’t good enough. They don’t do what they did cause kids are bullies and ****** leaders in the military are going to be ******* toxic, right? And franchise owners are going to be ***** and capitalistic, right? 

And so, I thought I wasn’t good enough. No, no, no, no. No, wrong ******* audience. Change your damn audience, Andy. You’ve been good enough. You have been good enough. All your whole ******* life. You had to believe it. Once I believed it. My life changed. I stopped chasing women that I should have been chasing. I stopped chasing customers or jobs or opportunities that I should have been chasing. I stopped listening to what other people thought about me. I started realizing every day. No, I am good enough. And if the audience hasn’t responded? Find a new ******* audience. Keep doing the thing that you’ve been doing that’s been leading to your success. Stay on that righteous path. Focus on what’s working, not on what’s not working. Focus on what you want and what you got; not what other people have. That’s how you became a ******* Titan. You paid for your own ******* path. You figured the **** out. 

Be the maverick. 

Be the ******* maverick. But you, you, you, you can you. You see the forest of the trees and you see the trees of the forest. Depending on where you are at that moment in time. Right. And it’s really simple. Drew, some always said it left, right, or left. Right? Don’t forget the ******* breathe. 

I always joke when I say it to my daughter. She ******* I hate it and love it. It is the same time I know Dad left, right, left, right. Don’t forget to breathe right and for the longest. The time I was being facetious. And now it’s not that. We lost one of our employees recently. Four weeks ago. Cardiac arrest middle of the night. 24 years old. 

Oh my God.

They stabilize and they put them on life support. Put them, put them in a coma. 3-4 days later they wake them up. You don’t wake up. We’re going to do an honor walk. Right. They pushed us, Gurney, through the hospital and took him off to surgery. Harvest his organs. 

Afterward, I’m standing there. I’m the owner of the company and there are 5-6 employees in the present company next to me. I didn’t know what to do. I stood there. My father was there with me because he knew Tommy. For six years this kid has been with me. He’s a Kid, he started about 10 minutes after he turned 19. I have known his girlfriend since she was seventeen, they got. 9-month-old baby Blake. I didn’t know what to do. 

And when the Gurney went out through the doors. And the family comes back. We stood there and everyone stood there. No one knew what to do. And I just did what I’ve always done. Started walking. Started breathing. I walked out of that area. I walked out of the kill zone. I walked out of this place that was unhealthy there. There was nothing else I could do, no more. 

We started walking. The employee started following me. I looked at my present, and my company said I don’t know what to say, I don’t know what to do anymore. They did this in the *** **** the business plan is in the SOP. There isn’t a ******* plan. He said neither do I. I don’t know what to do. 

So, I said, let’s go. Let’s walk. And we walked and we walked, and we walked. The lobby and one of my employees were with me for years, he’s. What do we do tomorrow? I said we go to ******* work. That’s what we do. But that’s what we can do. That’s what we’re going to do.

Right.

And then the magic will happen. I said we’re going to go to work. That’s what Tommy would have wanted. And then he goes. Now I want to Tommy’s lazy as ****. He had done anything to take a day off. And we laughed. Right.

Oh yeah. 

And then we went outside right outside the hospital room and the smoker smoked and the joker’s joked. And we stood there just every other ******* military formation, right? What happens when? When it’s all said and done, you stand around smoking. We didn’t disperse. We didn’t break contact. We stayed together. And we joked and we did everything we could to be vulnerable and honest with each other at that moment and the moment we did everything we could do at that moment. 

And we left as we showed up with the team, we left as a team. We went and had dinner together. I never sat down and had dinner with my guys before that. We had dinner before but not like that. And that’s what it’s about in life and in death. And we face this in the military more than most. Right. You keep moving forward. We respect the past, we honor the memories, and we keep moving forward. 

****’s going to happen in life. That happens to us all. It’s how you choose to respond that defines it. What life do you get to live? You don’t have to do ****. You get to do everything. 

You get **** if you don’t do ****. 

There you go. Crap in crap out. But this whole podcast. About being a Titan, right? We think about Titan business leaders, and you know, I think. Of hell, our high school team before we were there was the Titans and then they were the Indians and all the feathers cause ****** PC right, we. Think about kittens. Right. We think about what Titans are. 

Same thing. 

It is all right, I know, but we think about the Titans. As this. At least, I won’t say we write pronoun confusion, right? I think about a Titan. This big, infallible person with a big ******* sword.   I think about actually the Golden Knight in Vegas, that guy. Is he a ******* Titan 0r some guy with a big ******* three-piece suit on Wall Street and ******* 150th story of some ******* buildings that I can’t even pronounce? Right…those are the ******* Titans. It’s, no. The Titans are the ones that walk. In the arena ******* naked. Here I am, hear me roar and they ******* roar. 

Man in the arena. 

Be the man in the arena. 

Theodore Roosevelt, famous quote. 

That’s what ******* Titan is. And for years I thought I had to be Billy ******. I thought I’d be the ******* loudest. I thought I had to ******* knock all the other buildings down to have the biggest one in town, no. I got to build my ******* building from the foundation up. Every once in a while, you. Look around you. Celebrate where you’re at. You get back down to ******* building your building. 

By the way, Titans are not infallible. 

As we’re getting ready to wrap up here, Andy, this has been a phenomenal conversation with you. I’m over here just taking notes for the most part, to be honest with you. What advice would you have for someone that’s getting ready to transition out of the military, and how would you connect with people? 

It’s really simple. You when you’re transitioning into the military. Forget everything they ******* tell you. That’s what I heard, right? And that’s powered advice. That’s borrowed advice from a gentleman we had on our podcast here. Look from CEO to CEO. And the first thing he says. Forget everything they ******* tell you. Right.

 You have got to figure it out. It’s the first time for a lot of people as an adult. Right. You joined the military at 18. You get out at 40. It’s the first time. You got to figure **** out 100% on your own. If you take all the advice from all the people that gave you all this, especially government-issued advice, right, you will fail. Because there are sayings that conflict, you can’t make everything a priority. You right? What you need to do is ask tons of questions. And then figure it out. What do you need? You said about it earlier. What was that? **** you. 

**** ** My life list is the fuml list. 

Lock up my life list. Right? What is? If you don’t do it right, I call. Those issues? Right. If I don’t do this, my life will be significantly restricted. **** up my life list. Figure out what your priorities are and then attack things in a systematic and thorough, repeatable order. If you start attacking things that other people tell you to do, don’t do it right. If you got money saved up and you got terminal leave, don’t jump into the ******* workforce. What do you need to work on? 

You need to work on your mental health. OK, working on that. Your physical health, your relationship with your spouse, or your signature. Other than your kids doing that, it’s the first time maybe in your life when you didn’t have to do anything. You get to do whatever you want. Get as many data points as possible. 

Travis, I got a podcast. I give the information away for free. Read the books. Obtain all this information and then start with a blank canvas and determine with all these years of knowledge you have in the world, what does your future look like? What future do you want and reverse engineer to get yourself there? That’s what you need to do, and then you’ll start lying down. 

Oh yeah, I remember this person said that. OH, I remember the VA has this available. OH, I have to get my obi If I want a VA home loan, start with the end state of mind. Steven Covey, 7 habits of highly effective people, or. The first book. I read and I loved to start with the End state of mind. What is? What does your life look like? And start now. The day your transformation from troops and boots to veterans in the civilian world starts the day you raise your right hand. 

All too often, people think it’s a day that terminal leave starts. It’s the day that you decided to get out. Or do they say that you know? The military decides you’re getting out, no?  It starts the day you join. Yesterday was great. Today I will do. 

So it starts today. If you’re in the military, start putting the work in. Travis, you, and I talked offline a couple of weeks ago before this podcast you said you started your transformation process two years out. I got people that call me when they’re two weeks out and say, oh, I’m just starting to look at what I’m going to do in two weeks when I’m no longer, you know, property of the department of defense. 

And I’m, well, you got a lot of work to do in a short amount of time. Yeah, still starting now as far as reaching out to me, make it simple. Well, 414-793-6253. The reason I love giving people my cell phone number is that they almost never use it. They’ll find me. That’s it. They’ll find me on LinkedIn or Facebook, right? They found one of my business pages. I give people my cell phone number. Because there are times in this world when you might feel you have no one you can call. I guarantee you; I will pick it up. 

I didn’t have or I shouldn’t say. There was a time in my life when I didn’t think I had someone I could ******* call. I always did, but I needed to be told that I didn’t want to ask, especially veterans who wouldn’t ask for help, so he is not going to ask for ****. Don’t ask for my help. I’m telling you; I will support you. I’m already lending you my support. 

So, you can call me. You can find me. You can find me on Instagram and LinkedIn and Instagram…Not so much. I mean, I’m. An Instagram Andy at Andy ******* wines. It’s only funny because I have that handle for no other reason or reason. I mentioned my Instagram. Facebook, LinkedIn, my website, and my e-mail address right reach out. I have two podcasts, the trash Talk Business podcast. We talked about business and junk removal and trash and football, and it’s 2 veterans sitting around talking ****. 52 episodes in, we’re excited about that one. You will learn about business, go there if you want to learn about what it’s the transformation process, another podcast. Welcome home. The transformation from troops and boots to veterans in the civilian world. But when you need that, no **** one. On one piece of advice. Hit me up. I will always answer. 

Thank you so much, Andy. We appreciate you.

No, I appreciate you, man. Appreciate you, Carl. 

Thank you, Andy.