All Paths Lead to Your Gift with Hunter Hobbs

Welcome to the show. I’m Carol Carpenter, and that is my co-host, Travis Johnson. And we have a special guest today on our podcast. His name is Hunter Hobbs and Hunter is an online content creator and actor who has a passion for fitness and creative video edits. He took a leap of faith four years ago, from his comfortable office job to pursue his passions, and has never looked back.

Thanks so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Oh, I love stuff like this. Getting to meet someone in real life. Build a little connection. I mean, I’ve been doing improv with Hunter for five months already. I can hardly believe it’s been five months.

Long time man, time flies with a lot of improv stuff.

Yeah, we had one last night. These are like 8-week courses. And like, last night was Week 7, and we’re all like, really sad that it’s going to end soon. Even though we have another week, and we have a showcase that we’re going to do in Hunter, the thing that I love about him is that whatever the role is, he’s into it. Whatever the role, whatever the thing is, He’s all in. 

He commits. 

yes, yes, yes, yes, he was. doing like I love it. Oh, what would you call those? The last thing he did was a push-up, and then he jumped. Up, what do you call it? Those burpees, burpees doing, burpees, obviously I don’t do burpees, but he was doing burpees on stage last night. Just getting all into it was hilarious. I love it.

Was there some context to those burpees? I wasn’t just up there doing burpees for fun.

OK, context, got to hear it.

No, I think it was some scene where we started out. Just making a scene. It was called Hollywood Director, and they’ll give you a couple of themes. You start a scene and then they’re like, oh, no, no cut. Here, try it this way. 

So, it started out as some kind of romantic scene. And then they’re like, alright, it’s a kid’s show, but it’s super active. It’s lots of sports lots. Lots of activity and then it kind of turned into doing some push-ups and some burpees on stage. Just got to go on it.

I love it. You’re giving a premise. You start working on it and then they’ll say “cut, cut, cut.” You know, it’s this. Whether it’s now a kids’ show or not, we’ve got sponsors. We’ve got to make sure that we’re talking about Who’s our sponsor? We’ve got to make sure we have product placement for Pillsbury. like, and it just keeps adding. 

So, you end up doing like four or five scenes really quickly. Yeah, the director will come. And he’s like, “Oh, change everything.” We can’t do this. You were great. You are now a tiger. You’ve got to have animals. And it’s just it like it just builds and adds and it’s hilarious.

You know what guys? That reminds me very much of what being an entrepreneur is like, right? It’s a constant revision and refining right to get to the goal and I love it because it’s very reminiscent of becoming an entrepreneur, which is obviously what you became, Hunter.

Still, an ongoing everyday process every daytime is boring and repetitive and the same, and some days it’s just completely different doing stuff like this which I absolutely love. But yeah, you got to stay on my toes. Keep my mind fresh and ready for anything that kind of comes my way.

Keeps it exciting.

It’s a hell of a lot more exciting than yeah, my old office job where I was literally typing numbers in Excel day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day Funny enough, one of my first YouTube videos came from Excel. I was so bored working. I was like, “What is it?” I had a strategy. Like, what is it? The dumbest viral video I could possibly come up with would get attention and, you know, go viral. And I was like, “Man, I wonder how long it would take me if I held my finger down on the down arrow key and went from the first Robic cell to the very bottom”.

And so, I filmed, I think, one Sunday in my room. I turned my camera on, pulled my finger down, and nine hours and 36 minutes later I’d hit the bottom of all 1,048,576 rows. I filmed all that was so stupid, and then that’s how I learned how to edit as well as how to take that 10-hour video. Put it down for two minutes. A video posted on YouTube and wherever else, and then I think that was My first YouTube video went viral and had, you know, millions of views and obviously a lot of hate, but that was the whole point of it. I wanted to do something stupid.

How could you get hate for something like that?

Oh my gosh, people… you could you have a puppy that just solves cures cancer, and that puppy is going to get hate? People are like. Wow, you’re just the biggest waste of time you could have been volunteering in a soup kitchen for 10 hours instead of doing that. You know that. And it’s like, what are you doing? You probably watched Netflix for your entire Sunday and at least I was trying to do something.

Binge watch, Drake.

Oh, don’t judge me. Right, don’t judge me. After the comeback at that. Oh, my goodness. Like, did you hold your finger there the whole time or did you, like, replace it with an object?

Perfect.

People didn’t believe that I did it, and I don’t know why I would just fake something like that. So, I ended up posting the whole 10-hour video. So, if you’re ever bored one Sunday and need 10 hours of something to do, you can watch the full video so.

I will tell you that I have been bored. I even have been that bored, but I don’t think I could possibly watch 10 hours of, cell just scrolling down.

I think one of the first articles that came out from that was there’s a newspaper in Oklahoma called the Lost Ogle, which they are notorious for just ripping on people. And so, I think my headline was like dumb Oklahoma Man does a dumb thing, where dumb people watch or something and it’s just like they dove deep into, like, graduate from OU all this stuff. And now here’s what he’s doing so.

That my first casting is like a little bit of going viral and a lot of bits of hate. And so, it’s been going that way ever since so.

You never really make it bigger.

It’s a positive.

The way I like it. I enjoy it so much.

You never really make it big until you start collecting haters like we’ve got a lot. I have a mutual friend, and he talks about having this one hater that really, really tore him up inside. And I guess he talked to Tony Robbins. He’s like a hater. Oh, that reminds me of my first hater. He’s now got, like, Tony Robbins has, like, millions of haters, right? That’s how you really know that you’re doing something worthwhile. Because someone’s taking the time specifically to hate you, right?

Well, you hit a chord obviously, if you hit a chord, people are going to say **** whether they know whether it’s valid or not. They just feel like they. Have the right to say **** and you don’t.

Just that’s another thing that you know as many mean comments as possible or mean messages. One thing that’s kind of I don’t know, maybe it’s the way I was raised. I just never engage. If I do respond to something, it’s always with something positive.

Because first of all, hey, I’m not that type of person. I would never. Try to start something you’re never going to win it back and forth with the troll. And then also like I would never want, I would never want to type something super hateful, someone screenshots it and then five years later something like that comes to haunt me. Which happens every day. I mean, how? Many how many people you know early on in Twitter wrote, wrote a lot of stuff got a little famous, and then it comes back to haunt them. Get them cancelled or you know, stuff like that. So, I’m never going to engage with that, or I’ll just be really positive.

You want to know somebody once told me not to engage and their comment was everybody loves hot dogs, but nobody wants to know how they’re made.

Right.  Yeah, that’s great advice that I probably should use because I’ve definitely met some of those people. And mostly, if you’re listening to this show and you don’t really know me, one of the things I really love to do is kind of just push the boundaries on Instagram, not necessarily troll, but I’m not satisfied with normal day-to-day interactions like I want, like something on the edge, something that, you know, knocks people off their hamster wheel. We’ll get them engaged for 10 seconds of their day because they haven’t engaged anyone in three months, right? Like, really get them going and say something off the wall. 

And I had one, like some comment. Someone replied to me months after months after I made this comment, they found it, and they were so fired up. They started calling me names and all that terrible stuff, and I said I would write back. I was like Man, please don’t hate me for this.  Like, get to know me as a person and really hate who I am. Don’t just hate me for this comment. Trust me, there are plenty of things to hate, and like, these random comments can really go off the rails right Hunter? I understand you get There are tons of crazy things in your DMs.

Yeah, I you know, I kind of mentioned this before a little bit, but yeah, I used to screenshot all my crazy DMS and hate messages or who knows whatever they were. And I have a whole photo album. Just for, you know, my entertainment just to be able to look back on those. But I mean there, I don’t even know. They’re just anything and everything.

So, what caused this? To start spewing.

I think it’s.

Is it because of something you posted?

Again, I remain super neutral on anything. I’m not going to engage in politics with anything controversial. It’s just, I think, anyone online. Sometimes I like to go do this if you just look at, you know, someone popular on Instagram. They could be posting anything from fitness to funny content to, I don’t know, animal content that appears as you scroll through the comments. 1st 5 seconds you’re going to hate comments no matter what it is.  Either they are trying to pick out something that says, “Wow.” Your feet are weird or look like mine. Yeah, one comment that I really love is that they could make a couple of videos. It was like your nipples are not symmetrical. This guy went off in a paragraph about how.

OK, hold on, hold. On I have to say was somebody seriously looking at the symmetry of your nipples?

You know, funny enough, I did like a video where I had, like, a straight line come down and like, measure it and it might have been. Like, there’s like a degree off. So, I was like, alright, I’ll give you guys, I’ll give you that. You know, you had a point but. I don’t know why someone would. Go out of the way.

Focus. Yeah. Was the username Barnstormer 43?

So focus on that.

Sorry bro, that was actually me. So, I had this friend in another business. He took all his negative review comments on whatever, like one out of five stars in the comment and you turned them into T-shirts and started selling them as a way to make money because you have all these things. Get one of these enormous coffee table books made with, like, all your hate.

You know, I think that’s.

Like as a way to earn money like no ****.

Honestly, that’s all I have so much. It reminds me. I know David Goggins. I think his second book had come out and I I’d listen to that. And I think he took a lot of his hate stuff, either. People that had sent voice audio or comments and he recorded them all. And then when he was, like, jogging in the morning, of course, like 3:00 AM in the rain. He would listen to those hate comments over and over and it would just motivate him so… But I do like it. I like the coffee table book.

There’s a growing up with my background, some of the things that I’ve been through. I’ve used a lot of that fuel that hate fuel to fuel my life, to get something done. Ohh yeah, tell me. I can’t do something ******* lookout. I know Carol’s the same way too. 

And then when I started getting encouraging comments, I would like to fall all over, right? Like someone like you’re doing a great job that I’d walk into a door like, hey, we really appreciate it, and I would mess up the next. Like I didn’t know how to handle positive comments. It was really a strange thing for me because there’s been so much hate in my life, you know, into like my mid-20s and I’m like. I’m doing a good job. I don’t know what to do with that comment. I don’t know what that’s like. How do you guys, you know, work on positive comments, people like one negative comment, I’ll take me down, it’s like that’s what gets me fired up. It’s the positive ones that wreck me.

And it’s going to be really interesting to kind of see, you know, everybody, everybody’s an influencer, you know, everybody posts content, and you know, a lot of these younger content creators that you know, they’re. Raised from just getting all this positivity in their life just day in, day out and it’s going to be kind of a fact check to you know if they deal with something negative in their life if they’ve been just used to getting all this encouragement and positivity at all times, and then it’s going to be interesting to see how they handle some real-life, you know, negativity, hardship.

Makes us stronger. So, you know, if all you’ve encountered in your life is positive comments, you know, positive reinforcement. I mean we all need that, but if that’s all you’ve encountered the first time you deal with hardship, it’ll sink you.

Yeah, yeah, your scale. I talked about this with a few people I know, like my trauma scale is far different from a lot of people’s my wife’s pain scale with our medical stuff. It’s far different than a lot of people would registers at 9 for someone who’s like UH-4…4 at best.

And I imagine it’s the same thing with that kind of comment, like if you’re used to your positivity. Skills here and someone does something negative and just wrecks the whole thing like you’ve not experienced that. That’s what’s really interesting how people can look at that.

It’s a big thing. That’s really what I’m trying to do. I don’t know. There’s a lot of, obviously mental health issues and, you know, social media is a big thing, especially with, you know, people online and having to deal with that and dealing with a lot of positivity or hate. So that’s something that I try to step away with, you know, and live my own life, not just on social media. You know, you get a real you got to deal with. The stuff in real life and. That’s kind of. I try to keep. That is separate because. That’s not it can be all-consuming and that’s just like all you think about all you dwell on and then it’ll just really. You have a big toll on your life. If that’s all you focus on.

On well, I have somebody. That’s said to me, you know, it’s mind over matter, right? If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.

I like that; write all these quotes down.

I’m full of them today. Know what happened?

I really love quotes.

Hunters over here taking notes like this is a really good interview, I learned so much. 

So, tell me about… I remember you telling me that you ended up putting some tape on the ground as to where you were going to stand, and you went and took a photo every day and created a time-lapse thing. What ended up happening with that?

Yeah, well, so. I’m currently doing that right now, but I’ll do it again when I am at my desk job. Basically, I’ve been pretty in shape and athletic all through high school and college. And then once I got a full-time Obviously, real life happens. You’re not working out all the time. You’re eating habits I was going to like Chipotle every single day, and literally just got busy and gained a lot of weight. It wasn’t really working out, so after about a year, something changed. I put on 35/40 pounds. 

And I mean, I’ve got a couple of pictures; I should have provided one of those. There’s a really good picture where I was just sitting in a collared shirt and my stomach was hanging out. My face is so much fuller than it was, so I was like, “All right, I’ve got to come up with something.” And obviously, I like to do videos, so let’s do a challenge. Let’s see what happens if I do. Three months, no excuses, that means. No alcohol and eating clean every single meal. Bringing my lunch to work even though all my friends are going on needing it. And so I Yeah, I duct taped some marks on the floor. I duct-taped the tripod and some lights where I couldn’t touch them.

And for 90 days, I took a photo every single day, and it took me multiple attempts to get the positioning the exact same way. But yeah, I did that, and then I edited that and put that out, and that was like I thought the Excel video was popular, but That went just like anywhere worldwide. I was like, “I remember I did an interview with Good Morning Australia.” It was like over the Daily Mail, People magazine, Men’s Health, and tons of stuff like that. And so that was really what it was. transitioned into getting a lot of, you know, emails and advice, or people asking me for advice for fitness. 

So then, that’s kind of how I transitioned a little bit into doing more fitness stuff from videos stuff, and now I’m That’s what I’m doing right now, and I’m kind of doing a similar project right now as well, just to kind of keep myself accountable.

It’s really interesting. It seems that whenever we challenge ourselves, whatever it is, fitness may be best for you. I remember when I challenged myself in our household on finances. Like the things that really sprung up from that trial, when we decide we want our own challenge to be the thing that we’re going to do and we get through it, all of a sudden it becomes a hotbed for “ hey men… How did you do that? Your finances note, or what the heck? 100 years in great shape again; it only took you like 3 months. How did you do that?”

It’s so interesting how that stuff turns out, and how it helps us grow, then we start using that to help other people grow. I ended up doing personal finance with people for 10 years and helping 400 families pay off $6,000,000 in debt. Like, that’s not something I even do anymore unless someone’s like, “Hey, you still doing the money stuff?” No, but I can definitely walk you through it if you need me to. That stuff really becomes part of who we are. Do you feel the same way?

Yeah, I mean absolutely. And I think I think with something like that. The thing that sets you apart or me apart or stuff that actually, you know, if you stick to it. Because you know, there are millions. Of people, they’re like, OK, I’m. Gonna three months. Let’s do this. But it takes a lot for you to actually follow through this, you know, not just. All right, I’m good for two weeks, and oh man, I just this. Is so hard. I want to wait and that’s why I was like, all right, I know nobody else is going to do this like I am. 

So I’m going to go all out. I don’t care. It’s going to suck for three months. Yeah, I’m not going to go out to the bars with my friends like I normally do, but it’s. Going to be so worth it. And I just told myself that day in and day out, and I had a roommate at the time. Literally every single night I was eating like, you know, chicken all my meals. He was eating Taco Bell pizza in a six-pack of beer every single night in front of me and that made it like 20 times harder, but I did it.

Well, it’s about. Discipline and accountability, and I think very many people you know, lack both. You’re showing them it’s possible, and if you do these are the results.

That’s what I yeah. I do some online coaching and that’s really the biggest thing to offer because there are so many fitness plans and diet plans. People are knowledgeable. It’s not like people that are overweight have no idea what to do. They do, but it’s just about having some accountability, having kind of some structure, slowly getting into some better habits and you know, disciplines there when you’re not motivated. I’m not motivated to go to the gym in the mornings at all people think I’m like how are you so motivated? I’m like, I’m not like, I don’t want to get out of bed and go work out for an hour or go for a walk or a job for, you know, 20 minutes a day or whatever that’s where the habits kick in, and that’s where discipline kicks in.

I remember I was doing that last time I lost a big chunk of weight in about two months I lost 25 to 30 pounds on keto, and I was getting up every morning and going to the gym at 5:30 to get it done before work and someone asked me like how on earth do you like to do this? And I was like, I honestly wake up about halfway through my workout and I’m, you know, doing some kind of workout, we could put some iron. I’m like, oh, man, how did I get here? Like the habit carried me there, right? 

That habit got me to the gym. The gym hasn’t changed, right? The gym is across the street from my house. Right, like that hasn’t changed. But the habit is what got me there. The habit is what did that for me. The habit is all the automatic programs I talked about earlier about knocking people off their hamster wheel like your hamster wheel, whatever that is… That’s all your habits built up. That’s your personal operating system. That’s how it’s always going to go. We don’t have any memory of tying our shoes that day. Because our bodies and our brains just know how to get that done, it takes no thought, no energy, no action. You look younger. 

Like, oh, ****. My shoes are on. Like, how did that happen? Like those habits, those things that you build, just like podcasting showing up week after week after week with Carol, you know, initially it’s like, oh, man, I’m going to make time for this. And now it’s like, oh, yeah, I got to go hang out and chat with my buddy and some random guest. Congrats on being our rando today, Hunter.

I have to go have your stuff out. Do that any day.

You’ve actually got into a little bit of a little bit of acting. I don’t think a lot of people understand that Oklahoma has really become kind of a hotbed for Hollywood, Hollywood films, and even TV shows. I know they filmed Twister here. The sequels are here. Talsa King has been a big hit. Like how did you get involved in that?

So again, I threw it back to working in oil. And the gas thing. Somebody randomly was like working in my office. And they’re like, hey, I know you do YouTube, Brett Hunter. I see some random extra calling for some movie-like. You should do it and I was like. Oh, I should do it. 

So, I took off work one day and I did it. It was called, I think, the Turkey Bowl. It had a guy named Ryan Hansen and Alan Richmond, the guy from Blue Mountain State, and he’s been on Jack Reacher. A lot of stuff.

I’ve actually seen that show Turkey Bowl cause my friend Brian. Ah, ****. What’s Brian’s last name, he was in it. I can’t believe I can’t remember my buddy’s last name. Ohh well.

But yeah, so. That was my kind of first taste. It was it. It was a blast meeting you. I think really one thing that drew me to that was that I was meeting creative people, people that were motivated to do something more than just the repetitive 8-to-5 job. People who were stepping out of their comfort zone. And then I found out there was a place in Oklahoma and a kind of acting studio that did classes, and I was there. The thing was, it was like 5 minutes away from where I lived, and so I took a class. 

I really fell in love. I kind of learned the ins and outs because I had no idea. about anything acting-wise at all. When I started and then took some more classes, I started going to, you know, some more extra roles. then got an agent. I started doing a lot of commercial work then. Like stuff like The Killer, the Flower Moon movie that was filmed here as well, the Martin Scorsese, Leonardo Di Caprio I was a “stand in” for that. I worked on a Matt Damon movie, Stillwater, for a few days and then just tried to get a little bit of everything, and then some bigger stuff started coming in. But yeah, that’s kind of just been it’s a fun, creative passion. You know whether it takes me some time or not. It may open a door to a completely new area, but I just really enjoy it. You enjoy meeting everyone. Cool people that you see.

How is that? That’s the actor factory, right? My buddy is Brian Paul. I want to clear that up. And then I wanted to ask you. I wanted to ask you what is like doing acting classes different from doing improv.

Well, I will say if Accubattery is straight down to business, it’s got a lot of structure, and it’s like you get your money’s worth. I think the first class I ever took was with the owner, Chris Freehoffer, and He’s Down to Business, which I respected. There were a couple of people in my class. I think that we were just screwing around, or I think somebody was doing a scene, and some girl was just messing with her water bottle. And he’s like, “Hey, stop.” We’re here to work. And so, I really respected that. And yeah, it just throws you out of your comfort zone. I think that the First class was like All right, you’ve got a 3-minute monologue to do. It’s your first week. And I was, like, so terrified. 

The repetitiveness of it is just working, practicing getting more comfortable with stepping out of my comfort zone, and then yeah, I just really fell in love with it, and that’s really one thing I like about it. In Patrick’s classes, you’re going to learn a lot. It’s a lot of information and a lot of work, but it’s totally worth it.

Yeah, I’m trying to figure out if that would be something for me. Or am I too much of a clown and love improv too much to want to go do something more structured? I don’t know.

Oh man, the director would murder you.

Give you will give you a. medium option you have. An improv class. Chair and that improv class take the actor factory to kind of stretch straight to business, but it’s still fun. But it’s a lot. More ripped in, so I think. I think that would be a good jumping-off point for you to try there. And that’s I took that improv. Class 1st there. And then found out. About where we go, you know, for our improv.

OK, see your improv.

Know, we’re just naming. All these, that’s fine, yeah.

Yeah. No, I think this is a good segue for Travis to ask the $1,000,000 question.

Ohh yeah. We got to know this. All our viewers want to know. What makes you a Titan? What are those qualities that make you, you and everything that we’re talking about is the fruit of that, what makes you a Titan?

Well, I’m humbled to be even considered for that. And that’s something that I’m, you know, I’m always working on. I’m really hard on myself because I have a lot of expectations for myself and so I always I think about what makes me different. Is, I don’t know. I think my mindset, I just don’t want to be in my 60s, or 70s and look back and be like Man, what would happen if you just if you put in that work? You know, instead of being like crap. I just kind of worked. My normal job was to go to the bars, playing video games, watch TV, and repeat it. Now I’m 67 years old. What if I had applied myself, taking that extra time to learn to grow. 

So I really think. Just how it was raised with my work ethic, my family was super poor while my friends were hanging out, you know, playing games and stuff. I was with my twin brother, and we were mowing the lawn since we were 10 years old. I don’t think my parents really gave me money outside of paying our rent since 6th grade and so we were just taught the value of hard work. Just being an individual and I think that’s really what’s fueled me too. Do not want to work for someone else? For some to be my own boss. To continue to grow and learn and apply myself. So, I don’t know, maybe that would be one reason why I guess potentially be a Titan.

Well, you nailed it, right? You knew that responsibility and discipline were important, and you are in charge of making your life what you want it to be. There’s no magic government program. It’s going to sweep in, and all of a sudden, your life is fantastic. Like that, it doesn’t exist, and we’ve got a lot of people speaking out on this around the world, guys like Jordan Peterson. 

He’s got some harsh opinions on things, but really, it comes down to him and a lot of other people. I know everyone on this call right now is big on personal responsibility. If it’s meant to be, it’s up to me, as I’ve heard it over and over and over again, you may not be responsible for the first couple of chapters in your life; but from this point forward, you can make the choice to be responsible. Not to blame; you know whose fault it is. That has nothing to do with anything. It’s your personal responsibility to live a life worth living and to build a life worth sharing and talking about. And I know everyone on this call right now is doing that at whatever level they’re playing at. 

There’s no one who’s going to ****… I slept till like 10 today… But I’ve designed my life so that that’s a possibility and that’s OK. Where I’m from, you know, some people are morning people. I’m a late-night guy, and I was just talking earlier about all the days I was up until 4:00 AM. That’s where I shine, you know? That’s the time for me. And that’s not for everybody, but…

Yeah, that’s why. You slept a little bit later because you were up on a four or five AM seven days in a row. Sleep till noon every day. If I wanted to, but I made the option to or just the decision to wake up in. Six, you know, six AM 6:20 every morning, go to the gym at 7:00. I know I’m a night person trust me and that’s I’m most productive at night, but I go to the gym in the morning. Get that out of the way. But yeah, I totally agree. It’s again with like obviously with fitness, two people see me like oh man, it’s like all your genetics. It’s you’re so fortunate it’s like.

Ohh isn’t that funny that people will always say that it’s your genetics? It’s like ********. It’s called hard work.

I work my *** off. I mean, I obviously posted on social media. But there’s, you know. 90% of the stuff is the stuff that people don’t see that I’m the little things that I’m doing every single day.

100%.

So just over time, you do that consistently, it might not happen. You’re not going to get super in shape, but if you do that for a year to time, multiple years, it’s going to keep continuing you know.

Yeah, I know people have asked me. They look at like, you know, like the veteran podcast awards and all the things that I’ve done over my lifetime, people like, how on Earth did you do all this? It’s like, well, what are you? What are you talking about? Like pick a thing and have me explain it, like, oh man, you went skydiving. It’s like, well, it didn’t take a lot of prep like my buddy skydives, and he’s been talking… He’s been annoying me about it for seven months. 

And I just said yes on the day, and I got a picture right. It’s like I did a lot of work. He’s like, yeah, but you’re holding, like, a Guinness World Record. How did you do that? Ohh my buddy Dave was in town. He invited me up for this thing. I didn’t even know what it was and before I knew it, we were taking part in the world’s largest pizza party and we won like we set a new world record. Right. 

And because I was there helping out my buddy like I got to take a picture with the certificate. Like, it’s not like I set up this whole thing that I contacted Guinness. I didn’t do all that stuff right, but I happened to be there. I showed up for my people and every time you show up for somebody, good things happen. 

I heard recently that Hunter was a little sad. He was part of a Veteran’s Day kind of parade thing, military, and he was sad because he was Captain America, and man, none of the kids gave us. **** about Captain America. They were like Spiderman, Batman.

For context, yeah. So again. While I’m working on my own business, I do a lot of I’ve had a bajillion random jobs to pay the bills. One thing right now is another connection through someone I met through acting and they own a superhero and Princess birthday party thing, where they do events and parties. 

And so, I’ve been a couple of times or 4 * a month. Do Spiderman, birthday parties, or whatever. And so yeah, this weekend was like an armed forces parade. And I was with three Disney Princesses and Spiderman and Batman, and I was Captain America. And you’d think Captain America had an armed forces parade would be popular. Nobody gave a crap. They were like… Sup, Batman? Spiderman. I’m right here. So you know, I felt a little bit left out. I had a mask on to kind of hide my. Face and my hide.

Your sadness, yeah.

Your tears and. Sadness was you. Were you like Captain America? The TV show on Disney, but not like the Captain America and Marvel movies.

I don’t know, I think the Captain American Marvel movies. I think so. I don’t know. I don’t really know. Captain America and Disney Plus, besides the Marvel one.

This there’s like a TV show. And when the new Captain America, he’s good-looking in shape dude. When he puts the helmet on it just does not work. You know I’m talking about what he does not work. Yeah, yeah, he’s good-looking in.

Like to think about.

Shape guy but putting. That thing on?

Opens in that, so hopefully.

So hey, Hunter, what’s the name of your company?

Well, let’s see. So, I’ve got an I had an S corporation. That was my contract, oil, and gas, which was like Sky Hunt Land Services. I’ve got a twin brother named Skyler Sky Hunt. Now it’s called post. No productions, but I’m still figuring out the whole business thing on me for my coaching because my coaching thing is Hunter helps fit. And I guess my name is more my brand. I guess I’m still trying to figure out a lot of this stuff. 

In terms of you know business and running stuff through my, my company, so probably we’ll. Yeah, probably we’ll do another name change to maybe. Have my production company more of like fitness because I don’t want to send the bill to someone and it’s like what is post-note productions. The reason it was post-note Productions is. I guess you can’t see my wall but I. Literally have notorious for having hundreds and hundreds and. Hundreds of posts. Notes all over when I was learning how to edit in Adobe Premiere Pro. I had like. A bunch of whiteboards with just all these shortcuts on them. All my ideas. And so that’s kind of where the post-note productions.

Came from, but I love Post-it notes. I have them in every color man. I put everything on them, you know.

Do you know those were an accident? They were created on purpose. They were trying to figure out a different adhesive to put on sandpaper and they came up with this thing and they didn’t know what it was. And they were like, we could use this for something else. The idea was almost scrapped until someone saw them taking notes and putting them on the wall. And they were like.

Oh my God, that’s brilliant. 

This is. Yeah. It’s a 3M product. Yeah, Minnesota mining and manufacturing is 3M and I got a few family members that work up in Minnesota doing that. He’s like, yeah, it was a complete fluke. Like we had no like and all the best things are right.

The best things come from flukes.

I mean, it wasn’t people in the aviation industry. People that rent a bicycle shop that learn how to fly, like it’s always something adjacent to… its never the thing.

That’s a great fun fact to just pull out of nowhere. That’s what I was. I’m interested because. Yeah, I’ve got it. A bunch of monitors in front of me and literally. There are probably like 20 post-its. So it looks cleaner here, but if you look at any of it. It’s just all notes.

Yeah, there’s a reason my cameras backed right into this wall right here. You that right now.

Before this I was. Just like shoving all this stuff, just putting it under my desk. Still not the cleanest.

So, if you had a vision for your life vision for your company, what do you want it to look like in the next five years?

t’s a great question. I think I kind of think of it this way. Like, if I won the lottery tomorrow, I’d be doing the exact same thing I’m doing. probably a little bit nicer car that’s reliable, but I think I really just want to have the freedom to do whatever I’m passionate about, whether that’s acting or creating video, I think my passion is video; that’s kind of my creative art form. And I love seeing the vision in my head of an idea. Again, like in the Excel video, most of my ideas are stupid. They pop into my head, and I just kind of execute them. Whether they work out or not.

I love the process of getting it from my head to the screen, and 9 times out of 10, whatever final product I put out looks exactly like the vision in my head. So that’s kind of how I would like it in my life. I just see myself. I don’t know, being first of all, kind of financially secure, that would be very nice not to have to stress about that. And then, just really pursue what I’m interested in with that. It could turn out. Anything could be acting, fitness stuff, or video stuff, but somewhere within all those realms, I feel like that’s kind of the area that I want to go towards. I still haven’t figured it out. out exactly what? That is but one of them. Those avenues may lead to something completely different. Well, I don’t know if I can fulfill my life a little bit more.

Spoil alert. You don’t have to know. I’m in my 40s. First grandkid on the way, I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do. I’m doing something. I think it’s interesting for now and we’ll see how it goes and I know they, you know, Carol reinvented her life when she turned 40, you know, like. What you’ve been doing is not what you have to continue to do. I’ve got people that ask me, like, aren’t you going to, like, get all your certifications, go fly for the airlines you flew? For the Navy. I was like I’m. Not really interested in that, it doesn’t get me like there’s. No, you just don’t.

Get you fired up.

Yeah, yeah, it’s nice. It’s a pretty gorgeous office right overlooking wherever you’re flying to, but like, I really don’t give a ****. I really don’t care about the money that would come from that. I really don’t want to be like these younger new pilots like. They have to put in hours upon hours and they fly two or three hops a day and you never know where you’re going to sleep or end up due to. Another end like I did that time I did my time in the military like I don’t want to do that. 

So, it’s perfectly OK that you don’t have it figured out. Just do something that gives you energy. Right, do something that gives you energy. You were on Excel, and you were like. Excel is not for me. There’s a guy right now who works for Dell. He’s like a senior VP. He’s got a job he sits in the back corner of the boardroom, and when they’re talking about problems, he’s back there on Excel, typing in a way because he can take whatever. They work out an algorithm to use Excel to solve that problem and save the company millions and millions of dollars, and I think he gets a cut of that. Like, hey, what would the estimate on this be like 25 million, and the guy in the corner is like I wrote a code that can do that right now. Cool. Give this guy a $5 million bonus. Let’s save 20 million and build on the next project. 

So, he found his passion. And the same thing for you you’re like. The best I can do is hold down the down button and record this thing.

Listen, we all have a gift, and eventually, we figured it out. Because of all paths. Lead to that gift. It just takes time.

That’s true and yeah, that Excel video. I think it led me to become Ripley’s Believe it or Not book with the illustrated picture of me holding my finger down on the down key. So OK, I thought that was pretty cool. I thought that was pretty so. That’s worth getting a lot of hate, but it was just, yeah, it was just a stupid idea. But I was like, well, I know. In my head, it’s going to be something, and just took action on it, and that kind of jumpstarted. A lot of stuff. So just random stuff like that you may not think it’s that big a deal or serious, but I was kind of passionate about it and I thought that was interesting. So, I did it.

Some of the best things that happen, like discoveries, happen because people just think. Out of the. Box and they just do these things and then guess what? Just like we were talking about. With three uprights, the post-it notes. I mean it. Everything’s by accident. But if you’re walking your path, eventually, those accidents come to fruition. You find out. Oh. Oh, that’s what I’m here for. I think there’s a quote from Mark Twain. Two of the most important things that happen in your life. The day that you’re born and the day you find out the reason why you were.

Yep, I love it. Yeah, you’ve mentioned this a couple of times. You said stupidly. I really want people to know that are listening to it, that if people are willing to go all in on their stupid ideas you can go in on your half-baked ideas and you can go all in on your great ideas. There’s a show in the 90s, a cartoon that was created. Let me know if you guys have heard of this thing, teenage mutant. Ninja Turtles. 

Ohh *** ****. 

It’s a great show. It’s wonderful, right? What a stupid ******* concept, though, right? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who are mentored by a rat and scared of the Shredder. What a what? A bizarre idea, right? I’m not saying it’s not awesome, it is awesome.

Yeah, for that, yeah.

How do you sell it if that guy in the 80s late 80s, really nice, can sell that idea? Certainly, anyone listening to this can sell the idea they’re coming up with that. It’s got to be better than that. As far as ideas go.

They like pizza too. So, it’s going to work out.

But they’ve got to, like, get the delivery guy to go over the grate in Brooklyn and, like, slide the pizza down to the gate while like it is such a terrible idea. That was executed beautifully.

Putting out another movie that I just saw in theaters, like for the trailer or the. The day is still going on.

If you’re listening to this at home and you’re wondering like, what am I going to do in life? Ohh, this idea will never work. You don’t know. The fact is you don’t know until you do it, and you might realize that you’re gaining weight sitting at your desk. And then you said, you know what? I’m going to take a photo of myself for 90 days, hold myself accountable, and it turns into the thing that you were meant to do anyways.

I started a podcast when I was bored. Overseas and it turned out to be the thing that I’m really good at, Carol decided. It’s like, you know. I’m going to ride motorcycles, and now a good deal of her life is dedicated to riding motorcycles and helping other people do it well and empowering women to do the same. And we just never quite know which idea is going to catch on unless we actually do it. I know that GI Joe taught. Me when I was a kid. Knowing is only half the battle. The other half is doing it.

And I think one, one thing that I’ve considered multiple times and again, I’m still figuring out my kind of journey, but I think I’m also passionate, I think. Like taking someone who’s just yeah, stuck in. That nine-to-five loop. And I just really like to help people find something that they’re passionate about or find something that’s going to help them step out of the daily routine to get something more out of life that they enjoy, and something like that. We’ll do that. So that could be something that I do later in life kind of helping people feel like, like realize what they enjoy doing and maybe how they can turn that into something more, whether that’s just a fun hobby or it’s a business idea. Because obviously in my own life, I don’t know what I would be doing if I was still working at my office job. 

I don’t have to think about it anymore.

I want to think. About it, because I’m picturing you, like, 80 pounds heavier. Like maybe you got this really bad comb-over, right? You’ve been like, looking at Excel forever.

You’re like you took it from like now to like all the way.

So now you’ve got these glasses on.

To the extreme. Seriously.

Well, I mean that’s what happens, right like?

I mean, seriously, I saw one big thing that was another deterrent was I saw my supervisors. Who were, you know, 1520 years older than me, and they were just stressed out. Then they were like. Oh my gosh. I got to go back home and do this all again and I’ll just repeat, repeat, repeat. And I was like, I’m not going to.

That’s not going to be me. That’s not your life. Yeah, I don’t want this life. I know I can design a different life. Yep, 100%.

I have that exact moment in my journey that you just mentioned. Hunter, I’m in a briefing. I’m here at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City and people are around there. All these commands are briefing the Commodore and I look around and every single person. Is visibly exhausted. Every single person in the room has bags upon bags. Every single person has no energy in the meeting. No one wants to be there.

And they’re like oh you are looking forward to this in your career, that’s like not a chance. Not a chance. Is this going to be me dreading the morning meeting, dragging myself into work, I mean looking roughly good, but like the face under the eyes, the energy? Ohh no, I can’t do it. Absolutely can’t be me. The first opportunity I got to retire I did and that was one of the main reasons that I did retire I wouldn’t want to be that person.

And I think. This is such a great what you guys do is so awesome because that’s one thing I’ve realized as well it’s whom you listen to. It’s who you surround yourself with. It took me quite a while. Yeah, I had to. It was very hard. That was a big people pleaser and learning how to say no to people just all the time. Hey, dude, let’s. Let’s just go chill all day. Let’s do this. Like, let’s go wasted all day Saturday, all day Sunday. And I was just. I can’t do it. I would rather surround myself with people. Doesn’t have to be the same field as me or fitness or whatever. It’s just the same kind of mindset. Whatever field you’re ever, yeah, driven people just like you’re both of you guys. I think that’s amazing. And that’s why I respect that so much. What you guys are doing?

Was there a moment when you decided when you flipped that switch from going to be a people pleaser to enforcing your own boundaries and standards?

It just might have been honestly, when I finally again decided to step out of my comfort zone and kind of post something on YouTube and then saw that OK, maybe this is something. And then that kind of. Let like lead me to just keep pushing and keep pushing. 

OK, this is something I need to work really hard at it. So now my priorities have kind of shifted a little bit. From hanging out, chilling all day, just doing nothing too, OK, I’m going to take the extra time to learn how to edit more to come up with ideas or to film. Stuff and I think that kind of pushed it, and obviously my life. I’m like I’m 29 now and there’s been a lot of back steps as well, and I think this year really has been a big push. Now we’re like, alright, I got to get serious again. I’ve got to all these bad habits that have had my life struggle with all kinds of stuff. I’m like, all right, now I’m fully going in fully pushing forward. That stuff’s not worth it. And yeah, it’s game on right now.

Well, it comes down to your choices. I mean, you want to be successful and so you have the choice of, oh, do I want to hang out with my buddies this weekend and get wasted all weekend and do nothing? Or do I want to hone my craft and learn it so well I become an expert in my field and from that? Become the success story that you want. Because then you thrive. You’re not just surviving anymore.

I love how you set those boundaries, said no, and worked yourself toward a better group of people. A lot of people need to learn how to say no and yes in the same breath. There are a lot of people out there who need to learn how to say yes to something. 

I mean, come on. Hey, man, like, what’s going on? Do you want to get out? out of the house, go for a hike. Nah, I just want to stay. like you know, in my comfy blanket. Hey, we’re going to go check out this lecture down at OU, do you want to come to check it out? You know, I really have some chores to do around the house. Some people really need to. Learn how to say yes. There is so much magic in the yes, as much magic as there is in the no, to be quite honest with you, if you’re one or the other. You’ve got to try that other thing.

I remember the first time I went snorkeling, we were down in Key West, and we paid for it. This vessel will go out and take us there. It was a whole thing. I was there. with a bunch of buddies and me. Open water is a thing, right? People act differently. We’re miles and miles away from the shore. Any direction that you look, you can’t see anything. I think that means you’re at least 7 miles away. I was out at that point, and I hopped in the water. 

I’d never been snorkeling before, and I didn’t have my life vest inflated properly, so I jumped in the water, and there was this ****** huge Barracuda. I guess they’re all huge, but as I thought, was annoying at that moment, and I hurried back onto the boat, and I was sitting there. My heart was pounding. I was scared to go in there, and I sat there for like 20–30 minutes. I’m like, “What if I never get the chance?” ever in my life again to go scuba diving or snorkeling? if that never happens. What if this is the only time, I’m going to have the opportunity to do so? And then I was like, “What was the real thing?” I was kind of sinking a little bit, so I inflated my vest a little bit more in the water and enjoyed the last 20 minutes of snorkeling. If I hadn’t said yes at that moment to trying something that I was scared of, I might never have had the opportunity again. And whenever I said that story or someone talked about it, I’d only have this negative experience to draw upon. And really, it wasn’t an experience. It was my reaction to the experience. 

People need to say yes; they need to try things. They need to say, “You know what?” I’m really interested in that thing. I really try. I’m going to try. To monetize it, I’m going. To see what It looks like you might not know the answer. It might be an amazing thing. It might be. No one’s going to do this, right? No one is going to say “sell” and hit the down button. 9 hours, but you just never know what that thing is going to be. And if you’re a person listening to this, don’t try. Things start with talking to the people that you interact with, talking to people that you see in everyday life. Make a comment at the grocery store, whatever the thing is: start living. 

And if you’re a people-pleaser, like I know I have been, I know Hunter has been. I’m assuming Carol has been at some point in her life. And you need to start saying no and setting those boundaries is really the thing that’s going to set you free. It doesn’t sound like it, but actually setting those bounties in life is what’s going to unlock a whole new world for you. and you need to hear that.

I like that. I mean, yeah, the same applies to all this. If you have taken that step to do podcasting, we wouldn’t be talking here or, you know, if you wouldn’t do improv. I don’t know if that was stepping into your comfort zone. It didn’t seem like it, but it was something new and we wouldn’t.

Ohh, I mean I’m in my 40s. I got to find… someone told me don’t forget how important it is to have fun in your life. And I was getting out of the Navy. And you look you lose that whole family, right? Because they’re still working. They’re still deploying. They still have all the training and all the things they need to do, even though I’m not far from them in distance. Like they still have this whole thing that they’re doing day in. And day out I’m. Like, well, ****. Who do I hang out with? With how do I have? How do I even meet new people, and someone like me? Find an improv class. Go check it out. You just never know. And no killing. 

I signed up for it at one like one in the morning. Talking to someone I was like. Improv near me. OKC Improv classes bought it at like one 1:30 in the morning and I showed up even though I didn’t know what to expect, even though it seems like I’m the type of person that would do improv and I am, I still had to show up. I still had to make that decision to, you know, shell out a couple of bucks and go hang out. And just see what happened. And really honored to get the chance to, you know, meet and grow with Hunter. Honored to perform with all of our classmates.

And there’s such a wide variety of classes I didn’t even know all these people existed in one place. All of them are very different. And local and local people I can actually, and I have gone on a road trip with I took. I went with Kyle on a road trip to Kansas. I went out and hung out with Amanda. She works at the liquor barn, and she’s like, telling me all the cool new bourbons are going to come in that never would have happened. If I didn’t take a chance and try the thing and actually show up and be present. 

We’re getting ready to wrap this thing up. What advice would you have for someone that’s maybe struggling to try to figure out what their thing is? Maybe they’re not happy with how they look in the mirror. Like what kind of advice would you? Give someone that’s struggling.

Well, that’s a great question and we kind of touched on this earlier. People may look at me on social media and think this guy has it all figured out. I do the same thing with, you know, people that are older or more settled in. I still don’t know what I’m doing. I’m still it’s a daily process. All I know is I want something more out of life than just the typical. Yeah, typical day-to-day things of just the circle of life. I want to step out. 

And so, I think that means again, what we talked about is stepping out of your comfort zone, doing something that you typically won’t do. You just commit to it. You that will bring some new opportunities, some new people in your life that will maybe help you figure out what you want to do, what you’re passionate about. 

Now another thing is like again with video editing. I remember in high school I would always be that guy that does video projects instead of like a written presentation. And I learned Windows movie maker. I didn’t quite know how I loved editing and figuring that out, but I just found something that I liked, and I worked on it every single day. 

I watched countless YouTube videos and trial and error. So again, it could be anything. If you’re interested in painting and writing, just start taking some extra time. I heard a stat. It’s if you want to become a master at something, even in a year. If you do something for 18 minutes a day for a year, you’ll have… I forgot how many hours, but like you’ll be able to be great at something. 

So just take. A little extra time to Step out of the normal routine of life is to find something you’re interested in, work on a skill, meet some new people, and I think another thing is hanging out with a better crowd of people that are going to be motivating that are also trying to figure out what they want to do, whether they know it or not and you guys work on that together and I think again, just being aware that I don’t know what I’m doing. It’s still a daily process, I’ll probably be 50 years old still. Figure out what I’m doing, but I’m having a great time. I’m doing something different and I’m enjoying the whole process.

Oh, that’s fantastic. I know you’re big. You’re biggest following it’s probably on Instagram. What’s your Instagram handle? Can connect with you.

Just at Hunter Hobbs, you know, had to pay. I had to pay a kid like $100 for it because. Because it was. Like super confusing. It was like Hunter Hobbs with Like 3 Z’s. And that just wasn’t working out. That was kind. Of hard to Explain. So, I literally had to track down the original Hunter Hobbs, who hadn’t been active since 2013. But so now it’s a little bit easier, but it’s just Hunter Hobbs on Instagram.

Hey, Hunter, thank you so much for being our guest today and getting us a little bit behind the scenes behind the curtain. I look forward to buying your copy of all the terrible **** people say about me. Coffee table books when that comes available, that’s going to see you at improv next week. And if you listen to it, it connects with you. We’re at Hunter Hobbs on Instagram. Thank you so much.

Thank you, guys. Really appreciate it.