February 4, 2025 • 51 mins
Welcome to the latest episode of Hustle and Flowchart! Today, I had the pleasure of sitting down with the incredible Sammy Taggett, also known as Shoebox Moses. Sammy is not just a brilliant DJ and musician but also a successful entrepreneur and podcasting mastermind. This episode was all about connection, finding gratitude, and thinking big!
In this episode, we dug into Sammy's amazing life story, from his humble beginnings to becoming a well-known DJ and entrepreneur. We talked about building connections with people, the power of storytelling, and the ways to create amazing experiences for others.
Meeting Sammy Taggett
Sammy Taggett, also known as Shoebox Moses, has a unique story. He explains how his path crossed with mine, and how similar interests and shared connections brought us together. Sammy's known for his infectious energy, and he’s always ready to light up the room. When we catch up, it’s like no time has passed at all.
The Origin of Shoebox Moses
Sammy shared his touching origin story. As a newborn in the Philippines, he was found abandoned in a shoebox outside. With the help of kind police officers, he ended up in an orphanage and later got adopted by a family in the United States. This early experience shaped him into the grateful and motivated person he is today. He explained how this background always helps him remain thankful for what he has, stating, “My worst day is somebody else's dream, a thousand times better than their situation.”
The Importance of Connection and Gratitude
Connection is the key to Sammy’s success. He is all about sharing experiences and creating magical moments for people. Through music, podcasting, and entrepreneurship, he stays deeply connected to others. Even in tough times, he finds strength in his past and remembers to be grateful. As Sammy puts it, “Your mess is your message."
Sammy didn't only focus on connections but also understood the profound power of gratitude. He revisits his beginnings whenever he feels down, reflecting, “If ever a day turns to total crap, I look back at where I could literally be and instantly snapped out of it.” Just knowing where he started fuels his positive outlook and patience every day.
Thinking Big and Going Beyond Limits
Sammy believes in shooting for the stars. He encourages thinking bigger than ever before and even shared examples of this approach from DJing to podcasting. By aiming for major achievements, he unlocked opportunities others wouldn’t dare to even imagine. He highlighted a book called "10x Is Better Than 2x," which emphasizes the benefits of thinking ten times bigger instead of just doubling your goals. During our chat, he compared DJ gigs at weddings to performing at major venues. Playing large stages with a full setup allows him to focus on his music without distractions like setting up gear. Sammy’s insight was, “There is no competition on the main stage.”
DJing and Its Impact
Becoming a DJ wasn’t the smoothest ride for Sammy. He narrated how he fell into an unexpected opportunity and transformed it into a thriving part of his career. From humble beginnings managing a nightclub bathroom, he networked his way up to the DJ booth, proving how determination and creativity open doors. Music isn’t the only thing that drives him; it’s his way to connect deeply with others, making them feel something lasting!
In another fascinating segment, Sammy shared how his DJing exposed him to different influential networks, further empowering his entrepreneurial endeavors.
Resources from Sammy
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
From a shoe box in thePhilippines to deejaying for
(00:03):
Richard Branson on Necker island.
Our guest today probablyhas one of the best.
Origin stories that I've ever heardand also frightening at times.
Funny it's wild.
So I brought in Sammy ShoeboxMoses Taggett onto the show
today to talk about how.
His, he started lifeabandon and it's wild.
(00:25):
I'm not going to give it awaynow, but he's turned it into this
globe, trotting, DJ philanthropist.
He's helping celebrities and,and big movers and shakers,
basically launch brandswith podcasts and beyond.
And he breaks down his wholestory in his path of unlocking
these things along the way.
And a lot of it's rooted inthinking much bigger than
(00:47):
you've ever thought before.
And he breaks down how he doesthat and how he grounds himself
in the whole process, but alsohow the connection with people
around him and the way he does it.
Unlocks these opportunities thathe can never have dreamed of.
And it's all things that allof us can do in our own flavor.
So Sammy breaks it alldown and I think you're
(01:08):
going to have a fun time.
So.
let's go hang outwith Sammy Shoebox.
Moses Taggett.
All right, we're rolling.
You're here.
Finally.
How are you today?
My friend, Sammy.
So it's been way, way, way,way, way, way, way too long.
Wait, wait.
Yeah, it is.
It has, but we're making it happen.
We hung out the other week.
(01:29):
It's been too far andfew between there too.
Yeah.
We have so manyfriends in common and
And I would say we also have a lotof common interests, and common
skill sets, and common parenthood.
There is a lot of, a lot ofparallels that we run my friend.
absolutely.
It's true.
And, um, yeah, like we were justtalking about, like, okay, the
(01:52):
bond, I think both of us couldlight up about our people, right?
It's like connecting specificallywith people and, and making magic
happen, whatever that looks like,you know, and we, we probably, we
approach it a little differently,but we both have the music side,
but got the podcast going, justcreating cool stuff, being an
entrepreneur creator in general.
(02:14):
And, uh, so much more.
So, um, I mean, everything,every time I see you,
I look at your website.
I talk to people, you got abig old smile on your face,
your drives all the way around.
That's everything you project.
Thanks, man.
Yeah.
that way though?
Oh yeah.
24 seven.
I'm never, I'm never off ever.
(02:35):
I'd never am off.
I think.
Um, and the reason why is becauseI have a two year old and you're
always patient and you're alwayshappy when you have a toddler,
always right
right?
I think, um, I would sayit's about 70 30 though.
I am usually pretty upbeat andpretty happy about things, you know,
(02:57):
and I don't know if your listeners.
experience of really knowingwhere their true beginnings
are and what happens when youkind of find your origin story.
And for me with this whole ShoeboxMoses origin story and, and, How
that started for me, it's definitelygiven me a lot of leverage to be
(03:20):
forever grateful and to be in thespace of deep gratitude every day.
And that is something that Ithink is most profound for me,
because if ever a day turns tototal crap, I look back at where
I could literally be and I'm.
Instantly snapped out of it.
My worst day is somebody'sdream like a thousand times
(03:44):
Better than their situation.
Yeah.
Do you really actually goback to that, like when you're
stuck in a rut that's like,that's the thing that gets you,
yeah I I visit that when I needto when I need to really access a
deep reservoir of Just motivationor gratitude or patience I
(04:07):
will for sure do that and itdoes, I mean, I'll be honest.
I mean, I don't do it every timebecause it's a, it's a deep, it's
a deep well to go into if I needto do it, but it's pretty easy to
just look back and be like, yo, youcould be there or I could be in LA.
We could be in LA in the fires or wecould, you know, there's, there's a,
there's thousands of things that youcan always look to be thankful for.
(04:29):
But for me, just that humblebeginning And to where I'm at having
a beautiful wife and a kid and
Living in San Diego.
Yeah.
Traveling.
There's It is weird to think thatwe have anything to be pissed off
or bummed or upset or angry aboutbut it definitely happens and It's
nice to have that leverage, you know
(04:52):
absolutely, man.
We, we, it's easy to just get usedto whatever environment we're in.
You know, it doesn't matter ifit's, if it's quote unquote, not
great or whatever, or awesome,whatever it is, it's humbling
yourselves along the way.
I think it's cool to, you know,go back to the beginnings.
Cause I mean, I'll just, I'll just,you know, for a while I'll just,
Talk about like the cool shit you'vedone, at least what I've known.
(05:14):
I mean, like you've partiedwith so many awesome people,
meaning like you are the party.
You brought the party, being theDJ of some of the biggest events
around, uh, what people likeRichard Branson even, and tons
of tons of different celebritiesand just doing cool stuff and
also working with them throughpodcasting, evolved podcasting that
you have the whole agency around.
(05:35):
So it's like, You're super deeplyconnected, but obviously, um, if
you're open to it, that originstory that you hinted to, like,
Oh, yeah I
tell me about it, man.
Cause most peopleprobably don't know.
They're like, what is
guess I didn't even Yeah, sothat story is this beautiful,
humble beginning story, uh,for listeners that, that don't
(05:57):
know me, which is probably mostpeople actually, uh, I was, uh,
so blessed to have been a newbornin the Philippines and thrown
away in a shoebox in a dumpster.
And I say so blessed as the originof that is absolutely awful.
(06:17):
Let's be honest.
That's a terrible thing anda terrible way to start.
But I was found by two policeofficers who then brought me
to a hospital and I made my wayfrom there into an orphanage
where I was then adopted by afamily in the United States.
So, as terrible asthat beginning is.
(06:39):
Initial beginning was, itwas the best thing that
could have happened to me.
So that, that's wherethe shoe box comes from.
Fast forward through this myriadof pot, like the companies
and the, the performances.
I, I got to a spot in my life whereI was like, I want to give back.
I really.
(06:59):
I feel like I've reached a coupledifferent pinnacles in my life.
I got to do the, my biggest,my first biggest goal was
to play Red Rocks, and
Oh
Red Rocks a couple times.
Got to open for Kid Cudi in Empireof the Sun, um, at Red Rocks, the
most iconic venue for me, right?
I saw Pearl Jam playthere, and I was like, I'm
gonna play there one day!
And, you know, fast forward tenyears, I ended up doing that.
(07:22):
Then my next, Big vision andmission was like, okay, I'm going
to play for the most purposedriven entrepreneurs on the planet.
So I ended up playing formind Valley and vision becomes
one of my closest friends.
And then I meet Yannick Silver.
Yannick then takes me toNecker Island multiple times
to play for Richard Bransonand his entrepreneurial group.
(07:45):
And that is where thisMoses thing came in.
So, right.
I know this whole shoe box thing.
And.
I had the vision to go back andjust kind of help my, my people.
And what was interesting is Iwent back on this mission trip
and I find the story out rightbefore I'm about to leave.
And so I'm kind ofshaken to the core
(08:08):
Like your story you're
yeah, my origin story,I find this out.
So here's what happened.
My, my parents had a whole notebook.
You're like, you know,you have parents keep your
pictures and all these things.
My mom was like, Hey, here'sPhilippines, I know you're going
to go because I was going onthis mission trip to deliver
water filters to, uh, to TaclobanCity, which had been ravaged
(08:31):
by a hurricane or a typhoon.
So I'm on my way.
I'm leaving in like two hours.
And my mom goes, you need to lookthrough your paperwork to make sure
that you have as much informationbefore you go to the Philippines,
look for your orphanage, maybe seeyour biological mom, this and that.
So she tells me, she tells meto look through my paperwork and
Joe, I opened up my notebook andI looked through this stuff and
(08:54):
I'm reading this paperwork andit says abandoned in shoebox.
Left, you know, left, motherleft for infancy and it just
hit me at that time that Iwas thrown away in a shoebox.
Mm hmm.
I had had that knowledge, I'd beensitting on it for my entire life,
but never looked at it until theday I was about to leave for the
(09:18):
Philippines for the very first time.
So was that something thatyou had the choice to look
at beforehand or, Oh, okay.
And I never did, right?
Like God never had it onme to be like, look at this
until I was about to go.
And so I get that news.
I go to the Philippines.
We have this insane.
(09:38):
this insane journey.
We deliver over a hundredwater filters on the
mission side of that trip.
And then we go to the orphanageand they're like, yeah, you're
one of our shoebox babies.
It's so good to see you.
Oh my gosh, you made it.
And I'm like, Oh myGod, fast forward.
I'm like shaken to the core.
I see hundreds of kids that arein the orphanage that could have
been me, you know, like thatwould have been my, my start.
(10:01):
So my whole world isshaken right as I get back.
Right.
After I've seen this part of whatmy life could have been the week
later I'm sitting on Necker Islandwith Yannick and they're like,
what is wrong with you right now?
You're usually crazy and partyinglike what what's going on?
And so I'm just kind of processingeverything and I tell them
(10:23):
that I had found out that Iwas left in a shoebox and this
is what was going on with me.
I don't know what to do with this.
I want to go back andhelp those kids though.
I just saw hundreds ofkids in the orphanage.
I need to go back.
And they go, well, you'vealways been our little shoebox
Moses, so go help them out.
So don't, don'tthink anything of it.
(10:44):
We're going to supportyou, whatever you need.
Right.
And so shoebox Moses kind ofCame from that whole journey
It was given to you.
given to me, right?
And then now it's a, it's justpart of, it's part of what keeps
me centered on my mission, keepsme centered on what I'm doing.
And it's, it's really interestingtoo, as young kids or.
(11:05):
You know, students that I'llbring in for performance.
They love that name because itkeeps them like connected to me,
but it also, it's a fun storyfor them to share and, and,
and for them helps them staygrateful for what they've got to
Well, back to the connection, right?
Like you're connectingyour humble roots.
It's like, yeah, I've done all thiscool stuff, but like there's still
(11:27):
a human in this crazy story that.
You didn't know until just ahandful of years ago or whatever
it was, you know, man, that'sthat's crazy I mean, it's not crazy
because it's it's life, right?
Like everybody and I guess that'sthe thing that you start talking
with people and you're likeeverybody's got a story Something
that probably they haven't uncoveredor don't talk about or maybe don't
use as a nice Like pull yourselfout of the rut if you ever get there
(11:51):
like it's almost cool in a way, you
Yeah.
No, totally.
And I think it's, it's goodfor you to revisit that.
You know, they always say,Your mess is your message.
I think GabrielleBernstein used to say that.
But, it's really true.
The way that, I mean,you know, you've got the
hustle and flow chart.
This is just a heroic journey ofpeople making monumental F ups.
(12:15):
And coming out the otherside and figuring out what
they did to make it work.
And I love that about yourshow because you're sharing
iconic stories and you havesome legendary people on there.
So I was like, youreally want me on there?
I'm like, yes, I'lltotally be on there.
And
you are a legend.
oh, thanks man.
Yeah.
So yeah, it's, it's stories, man.
Stories and connection are thedeepest thing that if you are not
(12:39):
figuring out consistently how youtell a better story or how you
connect with people better, thenyou shouldn't start a business.
You shouldn't try branding.
You should, if you're not intolearning how to tell stories
and becoming the most prolificconnector, In my opinion, then it's
going to be a hard journey for youto be a successful entrepreneur.
(13:00):
I would agree with that, man.
And, and, you know, knowingyour own story, I'd say
is a big piece of that.
Cause I've done deep dives intomyself and, you know, did this
whole like tens of thousands ofword right up and all that almost.
Basically a novel autobiography.
It's good for everybody.
It's painful, youknow, but yeah, dude.
but not public, but for my own eyesfor now, at least, but like you've
(13:21):
chosen to, you know, there's somany ways to connect, but like,
so you have obviously tellingthe story and entertaining people
through DJing, you know, music.
I mean, you're anincredible musician.
I've, I've seen you, um,like traffic and conversion.
You did that, I think atleast a handful of times,
That was like seven times.
Yeah.
Yeah.
A bunch of times.
I, but I just rememberone very clearly.
(13:42):
You were just like everyone'ssurrounded and you're in like the
middle of the room, guitar rock.
I mean, you're not justDJ and you're like guitar.
You're all of them.
Like, who the hell is this maniac?
It was hilarious.
It was
That was one of my very firsttrafficking conversions when
they had me on the guitar
Nice.
Okay.
and then Ryan was like, Uh, wejust saw you DJ in, I think we
(14:04):
were in Mexico or something orDominican Republic and he goes,
I did not know you did that.
We need energy at the event.
We think you should be on stage.
It was, it was Ryanand Richard Lindler.
Then Richard's like, we shouldput that dude on stage, man.
This is going to keep our,this will keep our people
coming back for more.
Yeah.
Not hanging in the hallways.
(14:24):
Come on back here.
yeah, exactly.
right, man.
So, I mean, what took you, uh, youknow, I guess ways of connection.
Cause I know you're, we're, we'reboth about connection and, and,
you know, sharing what's real.
Obviously being curious, I think isa big one, but like, I dunno, like,
I guess you and people, like what,what made that thing feel like,
like the connection thing becausethat opened up so many doors,
(14:46):
like DJing and podcasting, like, Idon't know, like how did that all
Oh man.
Okay.
So this is crazy.
You're into the big AI space, right?
You understand this andthis is going to answer your
question in a very weird way.
But I asked chat GPT the other day,and if you've never asked chat GPT
this one question, you are crazy.
This is like the most importantquestion you could ask chat GPT.
(15:08):
And I asked chat, I go, Hey,I've been asking you questions
about how to improve my life, mybusiness, and my wealth, health, and
happiness for the last two years.
Knowing this much about me,what are my biggest blind
spots and what's going to stopme or slow me down from being
the best version of myself?
And I said, do not hold back.
(15:30):
And it literally pumpedout three sentences.
It says your fear of abandonmentfrom that first childhood wound
is going to rear its ugly head inevery step you take, especially the
more successful you get, which is.
Inverse to the wayyou think it would be.
But if you do not address thatmain wound about being abandoned,
(15:51):
left in a shoebox for dead, youwill not get to where you need to
be because you will always worryabout what other people think.
And I was like, are you
That's bang.
what, what are you talking about?
And it was so on the money.
So when you ask, why am Iso adamant about connecting?
(16:13):
The first thing that it is,it was my fear of abandonment
and how to stay relevantand never be alone and left.
So it came from that.
That tip of the spear was do notlet these people leave thinking
that you are useless to them.
And it's so interesting becausethat is what made me want to stay
(16:36):
so deeply connected with peopleand so deeply entrenched in, in
having fun and bringing excitementand bringing music and having
people transform their experiences.
I was like, Oh, if I can do allthat and I can make it the best for
them, then they will never leave me.
And then that transcendedout of that because I
(16:56):
did address that wound.
I got past all that.
And then I realized, to make aliving and to make a substantial
impact and help transformpeople's lives that you have to
understand deep connection andWhat I, what I learned a couple
different times was people willnever remember what you say.
(17:17):
They'll rarely remember whatyou do But they will always
remember how you made them feel.
So I was like, oh my god Yes,I love that and I love leaving
people feeling better than theydid before they met me So I love
that part of it And then the otherthing I learned on the heels of
that was you will make so muchmore money Be able to provide for
(17:38):
your family and leave a legacy.
If you can help them get from wherethey are and where they want to be
and help them with that transition.
And if you can mirror or notmirror, but if you can merge all
those things together, if you canicky guy, your life, so to speak.
you will become so valuable.
(17:58):
You'll be the most valuableperson in the room.
And that was always, thatwas always this, this tenant.
And I'm like, Oh, that's why youconnect and that's why you learn.
that's it.
And that's, it's theway you make people feel
that, that lasting effect.
That's the thing that it'slike years later, people
will still be talking aboutyou and they have about you.
And I've experienced similar, butit's like, yeah, you talk about
(18:21):
the stroke, go back to marketing.
It's like, what's thebest form of marketing?
It's it's referrals.
It's word of mouth.
It's people saying that you're,you're the shit like doors opens.
Amy can come right in.
There's no question.
You
It's a, it's, it's, and it'sso true because we have a
multimillion dollar company acrossall the things that we're doing.
And, We have never once in ourentire lives marketed anything other
(18:45):
than these last little mastermindsthat we're marketing a little bit.
We just like put a little small ad.
We're not even paying for the ads.
We just post it as real.
Uh, and That's the onlymarketing I've ever done.
Everyone's always beenlike, Hey, I got your name.
I saw you play.
You're insane.
Can you please, pleasebe part of our event?
And I'm like, that is crazy.
(19:05):
Like to me, that is nuts.
And yes, I'll be part of your event.
So yeah.
Yeah, well, I'm looking at,I mean, like it's working
because, Oh no, I just saw this.
You got to update yourtour schedule, brother.
Oh,
yeah.
I would see.
I'm like, you're going toAntarctica pretty soon and all this.
So, but you've done Antarctica.
I already did that one, yeah, ohyeah, that, that tour schedule
(19:28):
is a year and a half old so
That's funny.
that.
Well I think what happened toois like our, our VA, she's like,
you have so many dates on thebooks for next year, I was like,
I'll just take the calendarthing down, cause, and then she
It's already caught youout like that, but I was
more impressed than it.
I was like, Oh, but
I know it says I'm going toAntarctica but there's like a
(19:48):
picture of me in Antarctica, I'm
That's why I was like, it kindof looks like that could be it.
Well, if you go to shoebox, moses.
com, you'll, you'll knowwhat we're talking about,
And now because we hadthat conversation, there'll
be an updated schedule
You are welcome brother.
here.
Thank you.
But yeah, like, well, and there'ssomething else I saw from you.
I think it was on yourwebsite poking around, but
(20:09):
like a little, something'sstuck out to me, which is.
Go big.
Like there's no reason to thinksmall or, or play small or be
small, whatever it is, but like themore you shoot for, you know, just
whatever big is, or the biggeststage, like you said, Red Rocks,
like it does something different.
It changes you.
It changes just everything.
Talk about that.
(20:30):
I'm super curious about that.
Like going
Yeah.
There's a book out there too,that I love, uh, that I just
read 10 X is better than two X.
Oh, I've heard of it.
I
So good.
So it really summarizesexactly the thinking, right?
10 X is better thantwo X and the, like.
The way that I look atthat is, is as a DJ, right?
There's one thing that I usedto do all the time when, when
(20:52):
I was getting my chops inbecause my DJ career started
in a really interesting way.
We can talk aboutthat in a little bit.
But what happened is I endedup in the middle of playing
for these huge events.
I had to get better at my craftbecause I, I, Luckily fell into
this position where I was justplaying on big stages very quickly.
And that's also happenedto my podcast company too.
(21:13):
Actually now that I'm thinkingabout it, that is a pattern.
I end up getting on bigstages, playing for big people,
doing big things really fast.
And then I have to kind ofwork backwards and build the
skill sets up a little bit tobe like, okay, I can do this.
But what happened for me is Iwas, playing these huge shows
(21:34):
and I would stumble through them.
But then I was like, I got toget better at this right away.
So I started doing a lot ofweddings and I'd play weddings.
Then I play bar mitzvahs andI play these other things.
And to DJ one of those events,you have to carry your own gear.
You have to plug everything in.
You have to be there super early.
You have to get allyour music ready.
You have to make sure thatthe bride, the groom, all,
(21:57):
all the people in the familyhave the music that they want.
Then you have to be so ontime and they have to have.
All these microphones set up, youhave to have wireless mics, you
have to have lights, you have tohave so much shit put together
for a 1, 000 or 2, 000 gig.
Wow.
I'm like, oh my god,inverse of that!
(22:18):
When I played on the main stageat Red Rocks, or when I go to
Traffic and Conversion, or when Igo to Necker Island, or if I play
for J. J. Virgin or Mindvalley,I walk up with a USB stick and or
a computer, and there is a stage.
There is lights.
There is a baked in audience.
(22:39):
There is people that areso excited to see me.
And, at that space that Iplay, there is no competition.
Like, I am the personthat they are coming to.
I haven't lifted a cord.
I haven't packed anything.
I haven't done anything.
any of the stuff that I hadto do when I wanted to grow.
(22:59):
And what I noticed, even in theperformance space, prior to having
another company, all of the peoplethat I used to perform with all the
DJs that majority, maybe 90 percentof them are all in the same space.
And they're like, Oh yeah, I wantto have like a, I want to have
like a 10, 000 a month or I wantto have like a, A gig where I'm
playing for like 500 or a thousandpeople and they have just thought
(23:22):
incrementally bigger And I wasalways like yo think as big as
you can Like I was thinking aboutdoing a sphere gig like they have
in vegas I was thinking about thatfive years ago It's like how do
I make an immersive experience?
Where i'm playing underwater andthen they have lasers and they have
air and then they made the sphereand I was like Oh my god, thank god.
(23:43):
I've been thinking like that
I will play there.
I will play there.
Right?
And so I think with, with thinkingbig, the magic of thinking
big like that is it changeseverything that you conceptualize
to get to the next level.
Cause you thinkcompletely different.
You don't think about, Hey, howdo I get 50 more people here?
You think about like, Oh, if I'mgoing to do that, How do I get,
(24:06):
how do I get security for, for, for5, 000 people or 10, 000 people?
Okay.
If we're going to have 10,000 people, Oh, this is
what we can do for them.
This is how big the stage is.
You think completely different.
And the same thing withlike podcasting and archive
types of companies, right?
With, with the evolvedpodcasting company.
We work with the biggestpeople in the, in the space
and personal development.
(24:28):
So we're not like,
something shows, right?
yeah, we've launchedover a hundred shows
Okay.
Yeah.
I got outdated news,
yeah, well we were just counting.
We thought we had 50, but nowwe were like, and it's so funny
cause some of the shows we startedfive years ago and we forgot and
then they just have gone on andstarted doing their own thing.
Cause we, we believe that we teachyou as much as you need to grow.
(24:50):
And then if we're not inpartnership with you, then.
We want to give you enough to doit on your own because our whole
model is a little bit different.
But what I noticed is that even inthat space, if you're thinking so
much bigger than you're thinkingabout how many products that you
can sell, how to reverse engineeryour, what you're thinking out
of the show, you're not thinkingabout growing the audience.
(25:12):
You're thinking How do youmonetize the right people?
What's the Ascension modelthat you're taking people on?
And then when we bring in 10,000 people for this, are they
all going to the right place?
Is it all, does it all make sense?
Are we using Delphi tocommunicate with them?
Is this like, do we have the rightAscension model for thousands
of people rather than a hundred?
That's what we think about,
(25:33):
It Yeah.
Forces you to solve problemsthat you never knew were
even like existed beforehand.
Yeah.
You're, you're just kindof in your little box and.
I'm sure, um, I mean,we've all done it.
Yeah.
There's 10 X in the book.
I have it pulled up here.
I will be buying this redafterwards, but that's,
it applies to everything.
You know, it's, it, it, it appliesjust to your personal life.
(25:54):
It's like, Hey, you know,you can be living in that.
Yeah.
I have a lot of family fromEast coast, South Carolina.
They haven't really leftSouth Carolina in their city.
It's like, but when you start tothink bigger and think of just like
locations and the world is big.
And small, but it'salso huge and awesome.
And, uh, you gotta, it'sjust like, do something that,
that changes perspective.
(26:15):
I think that's the big thing.
The
Well, and I think you even helpedMike curate some of this too.
Like we're talking about MikeKoenig, but you helped curate the
idea of thinking like the billiondollar moonshot question, right?
You are.
If there's any time in life rightnow to think bigger than you've
ever thought and then if youdon't know how to think big to
(26:36):
ask a chat agent or GPT, how wouldI think 10 X bigger than this?
How would I make thissystem 10 X more efficient?
How would I make 50X more efficient?
with what I've got.
And this is the, this is the time.
If you're listening to this andyou are not asking yourself,
how do I make my life 100times more efficient with
(27:00):
grace and ease and happiness?
How do you help me do that?
Knowing what you know about me,how will I make my life better?
And most of the time it willspin that chess board that you're
doing life on around and say,you're focusing on the wrong shit.
You're not focusing on yourfamily and your health.
If you focus on your health,like I had to do that.
(27:21):
I had to pivot the health, likethe health thing kicked my ass
in the beginning of this yearbecause I did a, I did some
cleansing and the cleanse broughtup all sorts of crazy stuff.
And I noticed like I was notfocusing on family time and health.
I was like, I'm in astudio working nonstop.
And now we just did like thismastermind up at the Ritz
Carlton up in, in Dana point,
(27:44):
Uh huh.
But we were talking to people,having a good time with our family.
I go, this is whatwe need to be doing.
We don't need to be like, I lovedoing this, but just the next
podcast you see me on will be my,my mobile studio that just deploys.
You pick it up.
And then I'm, then you'reinterviewing me over a cliffside.
That's what we're building.
(28:05):
Much better.
And so.
Yeah, totally.
So yeah, it's calledthe go box studio.
It's amazing.
Nice plug right there, right?
The go box studiofor mobile studios.
You're only you're, you'reone in your one stop
solution for mobile studios.
Go box
Go box studios.
I like it, man.
Where is it?
I want to, I want to, all right.
When, when it's ready, you're
Oh, it's ready.
(28:25):
It's going, it's on.
It's, it's a product.
Oh, you know what?
I got it.
Yes.
I just pulled it up.
I'm like, wait a minute.
That actually sounds more, uh,Oh yeah, that looks beautiful.
Okay.
Need to get myself a go box.
They're so sick.
Yeah.
If you want to put, if you'reinterested in a go box studio,
just go to go box studio.
com and tell them that Sammy andJoe sent you and they will hook you
(28:46):
up with a fat 10 percent discount.
This thing is sick.
Yeah.
Okay.
It's so sick.
I got to close thatbrowser, that window.
Um, dude.
Yeah.
Like, so going big, I'm curious,like, and I want to get to that DJ
story, how you fell into that whole
Oh God.
That story is so funny.
Yes, totally.
ah, okay, maybe Ishould just start there.
(29:07):
Cause like, obviously you didn'talways think this way, right?
That the thinking big, I mean,was there like, obviously the
switch, maybe that was allthe, well, you, you tell me.
okay.
So the switch, the switch,I'll tell you about the switch.
Then we can revisit.
How I got started because the switchstarted when I went to my very first
(29:28):
event that was hosted by Mindvalleyand, and vision that switch.
It was a paradigmshift because I got to.
I got invited to go to A Fest as asinger and I got to the place where
the event was at, but even to getthere, I had had to pawn a guitar.
(29:49):
Uh, my car was wrecked.
It was a blizzard in Denver.
I had to get a ride to the airport.
There were no Ubersreally at this time.
So I had to like pay myfriend to take me out there.
And I got dropped off.
I had maybe 90 to my name.
I got to the place in Maui.
That's where this wasand Maui's not cheap.
(30:10):
So just to get to the hotel Iwent through another 30 and I'm
like, oh my god, I'm not gonnahave any money when I get there
And I had a couple credit cardswith like a very small balance
on them I get to the front of theGrand Wailea if you've been there,
I've been, yeah.
A beautiful hotel and it was evenmore miraculous and beautiful.
(30:31):
This is like 12, 13years ago, right?
I was like, Oh my God, what is this?
And I'm like, how much isit to stay here a night?
And they go, it's 600.
And I go, I do not have that.
I didn't know if I was payingfor my room or whatever.
I knew that even if I gave themmy credit card, like that 500
credit card limit, I'm like,dude, I'm not going to be able
to have the incidentals on there.
(30:52):
You know, I was at nothing.
So anyway.
The event planner justhappened to be there.
Her name's Alex Katoni.
She goes, Oh, Hey, you're Sammy.
Oh my God.
I thought you weregoing to be a girl.
I didn't know who's coming.
This is great.
And, uh, like funny story.
We ended up dating for a year anda half after that anyways, but
that's funny.
Alex is
side note, she's amazing.
Um, but side note, the funnything that happened with that is
(31:16):
I got introduced, I get into thehotel, I get to this event, but
I just start meeting these peoplethat had just started dating.
started in internet marketing.
They hear just at the forefrontof this and they, we had monthly
reoccurring revenue of 500, 000,like 600, 000, 200, 000, 50,
even five grand a month, youknow, just happening for them.
(31:38):
And it set me on thattrajectory of holy shit.
If I do this, like they've doneit, I can have these results.
And so that's what was crazy.
That was the shift.
So I started thinking differentlyand bigger at that point.
I was like, Oh, okay.
So you have a house here.
You have a house there.
You have a house here.
What's the mechanism?
What do you do?
(31:58):
And then how can Ido that for myself?
So I came home immediatelyafter that built my first
internet product at zero dot.
I didn't sell anything, but I builtprobably four or five of those.
I had a swimming one.
Um, I had a DJ course, we'vehad a guitar teaching course,
I've had a few different onesthat we've done, you know?
And so I just saw that, and thatwas the magic of thinking big,
(32:18):
and that's when that happened.
But, that all came about inthat one experience, but what
happened then is, I had all thisamazing stuff going on and I
just, I hadn't quite mastered it.
I hadn't become a DJ at thatpoint or anything like that.
And so how I becamea DJ, this is crazy.
(32:41):
Hold on to your ass on this
I'm ready.
So I, um, there was a timejust prior to all of this,
uh, I had, Just move back.
Like I had this, this whole thing,I was still in the process of
figuring out my life at that point.
But believe it or not,it was even worse.
(33:02):
five years prior to that.
I was like, dude, I have adisaster waiting to happen.
So I had gone, um, to Texas.
I moved in with this girl,that relationship imploded.
I moved back to Denver and theonly place I could find to live in
Denver was my friend's basement.
He was a little entrepreneur.
He wanted to do all these things.
(33:22):
So he's like, you can just live inthe basement and help me with my
t shirt company, blah, blah, blah.
So, We sit there and one ofour favorite things to do at
night was to smoke bong ripsand think of t shirt ideas.
Well, when you
that'll get the
yeah, dude, the greatest wayto think of things, right?
Think of them and forget them.
Yeah.
So we're, we're doing this.
(33:42):
This is our, this isour nightly routine.
So we're smoking,we get super stoned.
This is in Denver, by the way.
Again, we're like, let'sgo get some dinner.
Now we're hungry.
So we leave and I had left acandle in his basement burning
and we leave to go get food afterour t shirt inception ideas.
(34:05):
And of course what happens,the candle burns all the way
down and burns his house down.
shit.
And it was in my room.
So now I've burned mybuddy's house down.
I come back to this smolderinghouse and there's the
windows are blasted out.
There's a couch through the frontof the house that the cops or
(34:25):
the fire fire department had tobreak in and put the fire out.
And I have nothing.
And I start calling all my friends.
I have my cell phone, that's it.
And I'm like, I'm like, I need tofind a different job immediately.
Does anyone have anything for me?
And my buddy Patrick at the timegoes, Hey, I'm going on tour.
(34:45):
He was a guitar player.
You can have my gig at DiamondCabaret, which is a strip
club in downtown Denver.
I work upstairs andyou can take my gig.
And I was like, sweet, thought itwas a Bart ending gig or something.
I get there the first night, Joe.
Um, and this is all happening.
This happens in like 48 hours.
I get there and theyhand me a duffel bag.
(35:06):
The duffel bag is full.
I go, what is this?
Am I in the bar?
And they're like, no, no, no.
Here's your duffel bag.
Has napkins, cigarettes, and gum.
I'm like, oh my God.
Am I in the bathroom?
They're like, yeah,you're the bathroom guy.
So I. Two days later,I'm in the bathroom at a
nightclub above a strip club.
And I'm like, this is the worstplace I could possibly be.
(35:28):
What have I done with my life?
Right.
Just burn my buddy's house down.
I had a failed relationship.
I have no idea what I'm doing.
I'm back in Denver.
Now I don't even have a place tosay, I literally burned it all down.
And I remember looking in themirror and I was like, this
is not going to define you.
It can't get much worse than this.
And as I say that there is literallya guy, a security guy in the back,
(35:49):
just taking a dump behind me.
And I'm like, Oh my God,this is going to get a
little bit worse than this.
Nevermind.
that's all happening.
see everything
it?
Yeah.
He's just like, yeah, he'slike, who are you talking to?
I'm like, shut up.
Yeah.
Not now.
I'm having a moment.
And, uh, as this is going onall of a sudden, I hear this,
like, pounding dope music.
(36:11):
It's like, I'm like,what in the fuck?
And I come out of the door andthe DJs are like 25 feet from
the door and the booth is there.
And I was like, Oh myGod, what are they doing?
That's so sick.
I haven't really seen DJs up close.
I know some from Fort Collins,but I was like, Oh, I love this.
This is sick.
(36:31):
And I go back in the bathroom.
I'm like, dude, I amgoing to get out of here.
I'm going to get fromhere to that DJ booth.
I don't know how, butI'm going to do it.
So as the night progresses,this is like still within this
72, 48 hour window, right?
It's a, it's a, I'm making hugemoney as the bathroom attendant.
Like I was making like 50bucks every 20 minutes.
(36:52):
People are like, dude,thank you for the tips.
Like I was helpingguys with their hair.
I was like, yo, this,you look terrible.
Just doing my thing.
Just being exuberant.
Yeah.
And I start noticing thepattern that these DJs have,
which is hot chicks and shots.
And so I'm looking atmy bowl of tip money.
I'm like, Oh, I got this.
(37:13):
So I start going up and buyingshots for these guys and
introducing them to the chicks.
Cause I'm in the bathroom.
So I'm always meeting people.
So I'm like, Hey, hereis, this is Jenny.
Here's your Washington apple.
What does that button do?
This is that.
I'm like, cool.
How do you pick your music?
Oh, why would you pick it that way?
Oh, cool.
(37:33):
Here's a shot.
This is a girl.
Here's the shot.
So I start trading.
I started trading shots andwomen for knowledge on the decks.
And so I do this and I'm like, ah,I figured out my way out of here.
So fast forward, it was probably amonth or so that I did this trade.
Right.
I would just give them shots.
(37:53):
Yeah.
That's it.
Yeah.
And this is at thetime when Napster.
And you could do bit torrents andkind of find really cool music.
I figured out, and I wasalways a techie, you know.
I figured out, I had like um,Pirate Bay, I think it was.
Oh, I remember.
I had so much sickmusic that I had found.
All these remixes of dope music thatI downloaded and always had with me.
(38:17):
So, it was a Friday night.
Our guy that was in, in the booth,I'll leave his name out of this.
Just cause he gets hammered.
I'm like, Oh my God.
And I hear it from the bathroom.
He's just train wrecking.
He's a mess.
And so I'm like, Oh myGod, this was my moment.
I jump out of there.
And I put my music on and Ijust, I do full send and just do
(38:41):
a 20 minute set and just bringthe roof down on this house,
on this, on this strip club.
Well, there's anightclub above the strip
Above it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
is a great combo by the way for,for anyone that wants to start
a really terrible business.
But uh, this place isgoing, place is going nuts.
And the promoters are like,Sammy, he's a bathroom guy.
What is happening?
(39:02):
I'm like, Oh yeah, dude,I've been working on this.
And they're like, you shouldnot be in the bathroom.
You gotta play more
You're better.
there.
They're like, you're insane.
You're such, and I'malso an entertainer.
Like my whole life hasbeen entertainment.
So, um, I end up blowingthe lid off this.
Those promoters are like, andeven the last promoter, one of the
promoters actually just had me openfor Snoop Dogg like two weeks ago.
(39:26):
Dude.
I totally, yeah.
I'm happy you brought that up.
Yeah.
And you're doing itagain, I think soon
Yeah.
Doing it again.
And so it's just,it's just so funny.
That's what happened.
That's how I became a DJ.
But again, I just jumpedstraight into party DJing at a
nightclub, one of the biggestones in Denver at the time.
And That's how I started.
(39:46):
I just got my break there andthen they introduced me to
another guy named Kevin Larsonand Kevin Larson had a huge New
Year's party and he's like, he'slike, you want to play for me?
You can totally play for me and,and the rest is history, but there's
some funny stories about that too.
But so many stories, Joe, so manystories, but that's how I became a
DJ and that trans transferred intoplaying for Mindvalley and then
(40:11):
playing in stadiums and doing that
Snoop and all, and whoknows what else, man.
And do you see your DJingas like, is that the glue
with like who you are?
People and all that, becauseyou obviously you've got the
podcast production agency.
You're helping people scalesome really cool stuff that way.
I don't see that as theglue, to be totally honest.
Connecting is my glue.
(40:32):
Like, however that is, whether it'sdinner or things like that, I would
say performance though in thatspace has definitely pushed me front
and center in a lot of circles.
But yeah, I don't know.
I would, I would be reluctant tosay that's the main piece of it.
It has been in the, in the yearspast, but as this company's
(40:54):
scaled and grown, I don't It'sreally cool because we have
such good mentors in this space.
I think of like Ryan Dicespecifically and Richard
Lindler and even, yeah.
And even like Perry Belcher anda lot of these other folks, you
know, they, they've all knownme as a DJ, but then they, you
know, When I see him now, they'relike, Hey, how's podcasting going?
(41:16):
What else what's new in that space?
And I'm like, Holy smokes.
I'm moving.
I'm moving laterally in these placesso that, and I've been speaking on
stage now about AI and AI consultingand, and those things, because.
As I was a DJ, man I guessyou're right, the DJing thing
is a pretty big piece of it.
Because as I was DJing, I wassitting next to these guys as
(41:40):
they're doing their keynotes,as they're doing their stuff.
So, I had to like, soundtrack,Those guys perfectly, right?
Like I play veryspecific music for Ryan.
I play very specificmusic for Dave Asprey.
I play very specific music forJJ so that when they make their
keynotes on what's new in theindustry, what's changing the world
(42:00):
in their space, that they havethe perfect soundtrack for it.
So it made me sit sideline to thebiggest things that were happening
in AI in, Podcasting and marketingand traffic and conversion.
And now with go high level, Iplayed go high levels event and
the same thing happened there.
I was like, Oh God, thisis what you're rolling out.
230 updates on go high level.
(42:22):
That's amazing.
So yeah.
Yeah.
I think, uh, yeah, it's connectionplus that entertainment or
whatever that thing is thatkeeps the connection going,
you know, like, so that's themechanism, but the heart seems
like the connection and, you know,that's something we both share.
And I think it's.
It's cool, man.
I love your stories becauselike everybody has a lesson
(42:43):
they can extract from thereand relate it to themselves
if you want to, of course.
Um, I just thought it wasa blast going down the
history lane with you, man.
And I, I think there's somethingto is like you've opened doors.
It's, uh, there's thatbook called the third door.
I
Oh, I haven't heard of that.
Yeah, and I've only heard it fromour buddy Brad Costanzo, but it's
like, you know, there's the obviousways in you can, um, you know, earn
(43:06):
your way in or pay your way in.
Hopefully I'm nottotally butchering this.
Or there's that third door.
It's like, oh, I know someone or I'min the bathroom and I just like I
figured out this Tricky way to givesome value to someone, hook them up.
But now I'm like, I'm in, youknow, and that's how you got in.
So it's cool, man.
Yeah.
And that's kind of, youjust found your own way.
And I think that happens in lifewhen you're open to opportunities
(43:28):
and things around you.
So thanks for sharing, brother.
That's
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
let's, uh, wrap it up and tellus like, because you got, you
got a lot of stuff going on.
Obviously the podcast side ofthings evolved podcasting, right.
Dot com.
That'll get you to all the goodstuff of what you're doing.
Yeah.
Evolve podcasting is where you canfind us for all things podcasting,
(43:50):
how to monetize and scale your show.
Um, and then how to start a showand make sure that it comes out
of the gates, ready to monetize.
That's where you can findall that information.
And then shoeboxmoses.
com is where all my, my immediateperformance things are and
who I'm aligned with there.
Those are the bestplaces to find me.
And then obviously I'm on allthe social media platforms like
(44:11):
Twitter, Literally all of them.
So, Shoebox Moses.
Yeah, if you go to ShoeboxMoses, and just type that in, it
populates all the good stuff, bro.
All the good stuff.
Yeah, go, go find, find somecool music Sammy's doing and
just get some good vibes.
Appreciate you, brother.
This is gonna be fun.
Let's do the next oneon the beach, all right?
Or on the cliffs, either way.
Totally.
we'll be doing thenext one that way.
(44:31):
So appreciate you brother.
Joe, thanks for having me, bro.
Love you, man.
Talk to you soon.
Alright, bye.
From a shoe box in thePhilippines to deejaying for
(00:03):
Richard Branson on Necker island.
Our guest today probablyhas one of the best.
Origin stories that I've ever heardand also frightening at times.
Funny it's wild.
So I brought in Sammy ShoeboxMoses Taggett onto the show
today to talk about how.
His, he started lifeabandon and it's wild.
(00:25):
I'm not going to give it awaynow, but he's turned it into this
globe, trotting, DJ philanthropist.
He's helping celebrities and,and big movers and shakers,
basically launch brandswith podcasts and beyond.
And he breaks down his wholestory in his path of unlocking
these things along the way.
And a lot of it's rooted inthinking much bigger than
(00:47):
you've ever thought before.
And he breaks down how he doesthat and how he grounds himself
in the whole process, but alsohow the connection with people
around him and the way he does it.
Unlocks these opportunities thathe can never have dreamed of.
And it's all things that allof us can do in our own flavor.
So Sammy breaks it alldown and I think you're
(01:08):
going to have a fun time.
So.
let's go hang outwith Sammy Shoebox.
Moses Taggett.
All right, we're rolling.
You're here.
Finally.
How are you today?
My friend, Sammy.
So it's been way, way, way,way, way, way, way too long.
Wait, wait.
Yeah, it is.
It has, but we're making it happen.
We hung out the other week.
(01:29):
It's been too far andfew between there too.
Yeah.
We have so manyfriends in common and
And I would say we also have a lotof common interests, and common
skill sets, and common parenthood.
There is a lot of, a lot ofparallels that we run my friend.
absolutely.
It's true.
And, um, yeah, like we were justtalking about, like, okay, the
(01:52):
bond, I think both of us couldlight up about our people, right?
It's like connecting specificallywith people and, and making magic
happen, whatever that looks like,you know, and we, we probably, we
approach it a little differently,but we both have the music side,
but got the podcast going, justcreating cool stuff, being an
entrepreneur creator in general.
(02:14):
And, uh, so much more.
So, um, I mean, everything,every time I see you,
I look at your website.
I talk to people, you got abig old smile on your face,
your drives all the way around.
That's everything you project.
Thanks, man.
Yeah.
that way though?
Oh yeah.
24 seven.
I'm never, I'm never off ever.
(02:35):
I'd never am off.
I think.
Um, and the reason why is becauseI have a two year old and you're
always patient and you're alwayshappy when you have a toddler,
always right
right?
I think, um, I would sayit's about 70 30 though.
I am usually pretty upbeat andpretty happy about things, you know,
(02:57):
and I don't know if your listeners.
experience of really knowingwhere their true beginnings
are and what happens when youkind of find your origin story.
And for me with this whole ShoeboxMoses origin story and, and, How
that started for me, it's definitelygiven me a lot of leverage to be
(03:20):
forever grateful and to be in thespace of deep gratitude every day.
And that is something that Ithink is most profound for me,
because if ever a day turns tototal crap, I look back at where
I could literally be and I'm.
Instantly snapped out of it.
My worst day is somebody'sdream like a thousand times
(03:44):
Better than their situation.
Yeah.
Do you really actually goback to that, like when you're
stuck in a rut that's like,that's the thing that gets you,
yeah I I visit that when I needto when I need to really access a
deep reservoir of Just motivationor gratitude or patience I
(04:07):
will for sure do that and itdoes, I mean, I'll be honest.
I mean, I don't do it every timebecause it's a, it's a deep, it's
a deep well to go into if I needto do it, but it's pretty easy to
just look back and be like, yo, youcould be there or I could be in LA.
We could be in LA in the fires or wecould, you know, there's, there's a,
there's thousands of things that youcan always look to be thankful for.
(04:29):
But for me, just that humblebeginning And to where I'm at having
a beautiful wife and a kid and
Living in San Diego.
Yeah.
Traveling.
There's It is weird to think thatwe have anything to be pissed off
or bummed or upset or angry aboutbut it definitely happens and It's
nice to have that leverage, you know
(04:52):
absolutely, man.
We, we, it's easy to just get usedto whatever environment we're in.
You know, it doesn't matter ifit's, if it's quote unquote, not
great or whatever, or awesome,whatever it is, it's humbling
yourselves along the way.
I think it's cool to, you know,go back to the beginnings.
Cause I mean, I'll just, I'll just,you know, for a while I'll just,
Talk about like the cool shit you'vedone, at least what I've known.
(05:14):
I mean, like you've partiedwith so many awesome people,
meaning like you are the party.
You brought the party, being theDJ of some of the biggest events
around, uh, what people likeRichard Branson even, and tons
of tons of different celebritiesand just doing cool stuff and
also working with them throughpodcasting, evolved podcasting that
you have the whole agency around.
(05:35):
So it's like, You're super deeplyconnected, but obviously, um, if
you're open to it, that originstory that you hinted to, like,
Oh, yeah I
tell me about it, man.
Cause most peopleprobably don't know.
They're like, what is
guess I didn't even Yeah, sothat story is this beautiful,
humble beginning story, uh,for listeners that, that don't
(05:57):
know me, which is probably mostpeople actually, uh, I was, uh,
so blessed to have been a newbornin the Philippines and thrown
away in a shoebox in a dumpster.
And I say so blessed as the originof that is absolutely awful.
(06:17):
Let's be honest.
That's a terrible thing anda terrible way to start.
But I was found by two policeofficers who then brought me
to a hospital and I made my wayfrom there into an orphanage
where I was then adopted by afamily in the United States.
So, as terrible asthat beginning is.
(06:39):
Initial beginning was, itwas the best thing that
could have happened to me.
So that, that's wherethe shoe box comes from.
Fast forward through this myriadof pot, like the companies
and the, the performances.
I, I got to a spot in my life whereI was like, I want to give back.
I really.
(06:59):
I feel like I've reached a coupledifferent pinnacles in my life.
I got to do the, my biggest,my first biggest goal was
to play Red Rocks, and
Oh
Red Rocks a couple times.
Got to open for Kid Cudi in Empireof the Sun, um, at Red Rocks, the
most iconic venue for me, right?
I saw Pearl Jam playthere, and I was like, I'm
gonna play there one day!
And, you know, fast forward tenyears, I ended up doing that.
(07:22):
Then my next, Big vision andmission was like, okay, I'm going
to play for the most purposedriven entrepreneurs on the planet.
So I ended up playing formind Valley and vision becomes
one of my closest friends.
And then I meet Yannick Silver.
Yannick then takes me toNecker Island multiple times
to play for Richard Bransonand his entrepreneurial group.
(07:45):
And that is where thisMoses thing came in.
So, right.
I know this whole shoe box thing.
And.
I had the vision to go back andjust kind of help my, my people.
And what was interesting is Iwent back on this mission trip
and I find the story out rightbefore I'm about to leave.
And so I'm kind ofshaken to the core
(08:08):
Like your story you're
yeah, my origin story,I find this out.
So here's what happened.
My, my parents had a whole notebook.
You're like, you know,you have parents keep your
pictures and all these things.
My mom was like, Hey, here'sPhilippines, I know you're going
to go because I was going onthis mission trip to deliver
water filters to, uh, to TaclobanCity, which had been ravaged
(08:31):
by a hurricane or a typhoon.
So I'm on my way.
I'm leaving in like two hours.
And my mom goes, you need to lookthrough your paperwork to make sure
that you have as much informationbefore you go to the Philippines,
look for your orphanage, maybe seeyour biological mom, this and that.
So she tells me, she tells meto look through my paperwork and
Joe, I opened up my notebook andI looked through this stuff and
(08:54):
I'm reading this paperwork andit says abandoned in shoebox.
Left, you know, left, motherleft for infancy and it just
hit me at that time that Iwas thrown away in a shoebox.
Mm hmm.
I had had that knowledge, I'd beensitting on it for my entire life,
but never looked at it until theday I was about to leave for the
(09:18):
Philippines for the very first time.
So was that something thatyou had the choice to look
at beforehand or, Oh, okay.
And I never did, right?
Like God never had it onme to be like, look at this
until I was about to go.
And so I get that news.
I go to the Philippines.
We have this insane.
(09:38):
this insane journey.
We deliver over a hundredwater filters on the
mission side of that trip.
And then we go to the orphanageand they're like, yeah, you're
one of our shoebox babies.
It's so good to see you.
Oh my gosh, you made it.
And I'm like, Oh myGod, fast forward.
I'm like shaken to the core.
I see hundreds of kids that arein the orphanage that could have
been me, you know, like thatwould have been my, my start.
(10:01):
So my whole world isshaken right as I get back.
Right.
After I've seen this part of whatmy life could have been the week
later I'm sitting on Necker Islandwith Yannick and they're like,
what is wrong with you right now?
You're usually crazy and partyinglike what what's going on?
And so I'm just kind of processingeverything and I tell them
(10:23):
that I had found out that Iwas left in a shoebox and this
is what was going on with me.
I don't know what to do with this.
I want to go back andhelp those kids though.
I just saw hundreds ofkids in the orphanage.
I need to go back.
And they go, well, you'vealways been our little shoebox
Moses, so go help them out.
So don't, don'tthink anything of it.
(10:44):
We're going to supportyou, whatever you need.
Right.
And so shoebox Moses kind ofCame from that whole journey
It was given to you.
given to me, right?
And then now it's a, it's justpart of, it's part of what keeps
me centered on my mission, keepsme centered on what I'm doing.
And it's, it's really interestingtoo, as young kids or.
(11:05):
You know, students that I'llbring in for performance.
They love that name because itkeeps them like connected to me,
but it also, it's a fun storyfor them to share and, and,
and for them helps them staygrateful for what they've got to
Well, back to the connection, right?
Like you're connectingyour humble roots.
It's like, yeah, I've done all thiscool stuff, but like there's still
(11:27):
a human in this crazy story that.
You didn't know until just ahandful of years ago or whatever
it was, you know, man, that'sthat's crazy I mean, it's not crazy
because it's it's life, right?
Like everybody and I guess that'sthe thing that you start talking
with people and you're likeeverybody's got a story Something
that probably they haven't uncoveredor don't talk about or maybe don't
use as a nice Like pull yourselfout of the rut if you ever get there
(11:51):
like it's almost cool in a way, you
Yeah.
No, totally.
And I think it's, it's goodfor you to revisit that.
You know, they always say,Your mess is your message.
I think GabrielleBernstein used to say that.
But, it's really true.
The way that, I mean,you know, you've got the
hustle and flow chart.
This is just a heroic journey ofpeople making monumental F ups.
(12:15):
And coming out the otherside and figuring out what
they did to make it work.
And I love that about yourshow because you're sharing
iconic stories and you havesome legendary people on there.
So I was like, youreally want me on there?
I'm like, yes, I'lltotally be on there.
And
you are a legend.
oh, thanks man.
Yeah.
So yeah, it's, it's stories, man.
Stories and connection are thedeepest thing that if you are not
(12:39):
figuring out consistently how youtell a better story or how you
connect with people better, thenyou shouldn't start a business.
You shouldn't try branding.
You should, if you're not intolearning how to tell stories
and becoming the most prolificconnector, In my opinion, then it's
going to be a hard journey for youto be a successful entrepreneur.
(13:00):
I would agree with that, man.
And, and, you know, knowingyour own story, I'd say
is a big piece of that.
Cause I've done deep dives intomyself and, you know, did this
whole like tens of thousands ofword right up and all that almost.
Basically a novel autobiography.
It's good for everybody.
It's painful, youknow, but yeah, dude.
but not public, but for my own eyesfor now, at least, but like you've
(13:21):
chosen to, you know, there's somany ways to connect, but like,
so you have obviously tellingthe story and entertaining people
through DJing, you know, music.
I mean, you're anincredible musician.
I've, I've seen you, um,like traffic and conversion.
You did that, I think atleast a handful of times,
That was like seven times.
Yeah.
Yeah.
A bunch of times.
I, but I just rememberone very clearly.
(13:42):
You were just like everyone'ssurrounded and you're in like the
middle of the room, guitar rock.
I mean, you're not justDJ and you're like guitar.
You're all of them.
Like, who the hell is this maniac?
It was hilarious.
It was
That was one of my very firsttrafficking conversions when
they had me on the guitar
Nice.
Okay.
and then Ryan was like, Uh, wejust saw you DJ in, I think we
(14:04):
were in Mexico or something orDominican Republic and he goes,
I did not know you did that.
We need energy at the event.
We think you should be on stage.
It was, it was Ryanand Richard Lindler.
Then Richard's like, we shouldput that dude on stage, man.
This is going to keep our,this will keep our people
coming back for more.
Yeah.
Not hanging in the hallways.
(14:24):
Come on back here.
yeah, exactly.
right, man.
So, I mean, what took you, uh, youknow, I guess ways of connection.
Cause I know you're, we're, we'reboth about connection and, and,
you know, sharing what's real.
Obviously being curious, I think isa big one, but like, I dunno, like,
I guess you and people, like what,what made that thing feel like,
like the connection thing becausethat opened up so many doors,
(14:46):
like DJing and podcasting, like, Idon't know, like how did that all
Oh man.
Okay.
So this is crazy.
You're into the big AI space, right?
You understand this andthis is going to answer your
question in a very weird way.
But I asked chat GPT the other day,and if you've never asked chat GPT
this one question, you are crazy.
This is like the most importantquestion you could ask chat GPT.
(15:08):
And I asked chat, I go, Hey,I've been asking you questions
about how to improve my life, mybusiness, and my wealth, health, and
happiness for the last two years.
Knowing this much about me,what are my biggest blind
spots and what's going to stopme or slow me down from being
the best version of myself?
And I said, do not hold back.
(15:30):
And it literally pumpedout three sentences.
It says your fear of abandonmentfrom that first childhood wound
is going to rear its ugly head inevery step you take, especially the
more successful you get, which is.
Inverse to the wayyou think it would be.
But if you do not address thatmain wound about being abandoned,
(15:51):
left in a shoebox for dead, youwill not get to where you need to
be because you will always worryabout what other people think.
And I was like, are you
That's bang.
what, what are you talking about?
And it was so on the money.
So when you ask, why am Iso adamant about connecting?
(16:13):
The first thing that it is,it was my fear of abandonment
and how to stay relevantand never be alone and left.
So it came from that.
That tip of the spear was do notlet these people leave thinking
that you are useless to them.
And it's so interesting becausethat is what made me want to stay
(16:36):
so deeply connected with peopleand so deeply entrenched in, in
having fun and bringing excitementand bringing music and having
people transform their experiences.
I was like, Oh, if I can do allthat and I can make it the best for
them, then they will never leave me.
And then that transcendedout of that because I
(16:56):
did address that wound.
I got past all that.
And then I realized, to make aliving and to make a substantial
impact and help transformpeople's lives that you have to
understand deep connection andWhat I, what I learned a couple
different times was people willnever remember what you say.
(17:17):
They'll rarely remember whatyou do But they will always
remember how you made them feel.
So I was like, oh my god Yes,I love that and I love leaving
people feeling better than theydid before they met me So I love
that part of it And then the otherthing I learned on the heels of
that was you will make so muchmore money Be able to provide for
(17:38):
your family and leave a legacy.
If you can help them get from wherethey are and where they want to be
and help them with that transition.
And if you can mirror or notmirror, but if you can merge all
those things together, if you canicky guy, your life, so to speak.
you will become so valuable.
(17:58):
You'll be the most valuableperson in the room.
And that was always, thatwas always this, this tenant.
And I'm like, Oh, that's why youconnect and that's why you learn.
that's it.
And that's, it's theway you make people feel
that, that lasting effect.
That's the thing that it'slike years later, people
will still be talking aboutyou and they have about you.
And I've experienced similar, butit's like, yeah, you talk about
(18:21):
the stroke, go back to marketing.
It's like, what's thebest form of marketing?
It's it's referrals.
It's word of mouth.
It's people saying that you're,you're the shit like doors opens.
Amy can come right in.
There's no question.
You
It's a, it's, it's, and it'sso true because we have a
multimillion dollar company acrossall the things that we're doing.
And, We have never once in ourentire lives marketed anything other
(18:45):
than these last little mastermindsthat we're marketing a little bit.
We just like put a little small ad.
We're not even paying for the ads.
We just post it as real.
Uh, and That's the onlymarketing I've ever done.
Everyone's always beenlike, Hey, I got your name.
I saw you play.
You're insane.
Can you please, pleasebe part of our event?
And I'm like, that is crazy.
(19:05):
Like to me, that is nuts.
And yes, I'll be part of your event.
So yeah.
Yeah, well, I'm looking at,I mean, like it's working
because, Oh no, I just saw this.
You got to update yourtour schedule, brother.
Oh,
yeah.
I would see.
I'm like, you're going toAntarctica pretty soon and all this.
So, but you've done Antarctica.
I already did that one, yeah, ohyeah, that, that tour schedule
(19:28):
is a year and a half old so
That's funny.
that.
Well I think what happened toois like our, our VA, she's like,
you have so many dates on thebooks for next year, I was like,
I'll just take the calendarthing down, cause, and then she
It's already caught youout like that, but I was
more impressed than it.
I was like, Oh, but
I know it says I'm going toAntarctica but there's like a
(19:48):
picture of me in Antarctica, I'm
That's why I was like, it kindof looks like that could be it.
Well, if you go to shoebox, moses.
com, you'll, you'll knowwhat we're talking about,
And now because we hadthat conversation, there'll
be an updated schedule
You are welcome brother.
here.
Thank you.
But yeah, like, well, and there'ssomething else I saw from you.
I think it was on yourwebsite poking around, but
(20:09):
like a little, something'sstuck out to me, which is.
Go big.
Like there's no reason to thinksmall or, or play small or be
small, whatever it is, but like themore you shoot for, you know, just
whatever big is, or the biggeststage, like you said, Red Rocks,
like it does something different.
It changes you.
It changes just everything.
Talk about that.
(20:30):
I'm super curious about that.
Like going
Yeah.
There's a book out there too,that I love, uh, that I just
read 10 X is better than two X.
Oh, I've heard of it.
I
So good.
So it really summarizesexactly the thinking, right?
10 X is better thantwo X and the, like.
The way that I look atthat is, is as a DJ, right?
There's one thing that I usedto do all the time when, when
(20:52):
I was getting my chops inbecause my DJ career started
in a really interesting way.
We can talk aboutthat in a little bit.
But what happened is I endedup in the middle of playing
for these huge events.
I had to get better at my craftbecause I, I, Luckily fell into
this position where I was justplaying on big stages very quickly.
And that's also happenedto my podcast company too.
(21:13):
Actually now that I'm thinkingabout it, that is a pattern.
I end up getting on bigstages, playing for big people,
doing big things really fast.
And then I have to kind ofwork backwards and build the
skill sets up a little bit tobe like, okay, I can do this.
But what happened for me is Iwas, playing these huge shows
(21:34):
and I would stumble through them.
But then I was like, I got toget better at this right away.
So I started doing a lot ofweddings and I'd play weddings.
Then I play bar mitzvahs andI play these other things.
And to DJ one of those events,you have to carry your own gear.
You have to plug everything in.
You have to be there super early.
You have to get allyour music ready.
You have to make sure thatthe bride, the groom, all,
(21:57):
all the people in the familyhave the music that they want.
Then you have to be so ontime and they have to have.
All these microphones set up, youhave to have wireless mics, you
have to have lights, you have tohave so much shit put together
for a 1, 000 or 2, 000 gig.
Wow.
I'm like, oh my god,inverse of that!
(22:18):
When I played on the main stageat Red Rocks, or when I go to
Traffic and Conversion, or when Igo to Necker Island, or if I play
for J. J. Virgin or Mindvalley,I walk up with a USB stick and or
a computer, and there is a stage.
There is lights.
There is a baked in audience.
(22:39):
There is people that areso excited to see me.
And, at that space that Iplay, there is no competition.
Like, I am the personthat they are coming to.
I haven't lifted a cord.
I haven't packed anything.
I haven't done anything.
any of the stuff that I hadto do when I wanted to grow.
(22:59):
And what I noticed, even in theperformance space, prior to having
another company, all of the peoplethat I used to perform with all the
DJs that majority, maybe 90 percentof them are all in the same space.
And they're like, Oh yeah, I wantto have like a, I want to have
like a 10, 000 a month or I wantto have like a, A gig where I'm
playing for like 500 or a thousandpeople and they have just thought
(23:22):
incrementally bigger And I wasalways like yo think as big as
you can Like I was thinking aboutdoing a sphere gig like they have
in vegas I was thinking about thatfive years ago It's like how do
I make an immersive experience?
Where i'm playing underwater andthen they have lasers and they have
air and then they made the sphereand I was like Oh my god, thank god.
(23:43):
I've been thinking like that
I will play there.
I will play there.
Right?
And so I think with, with thinkingbig, the magic of thinking
big like that is it changeseverything that you conceptualize
to get to the next level.
Cause you thinkcompletely different.
You don't think about, Hey, howdo I get 50 more people here?
You think about like, Oh, if I'mgoing to do that, How do I get,
(24:06):
how do I get security for, for, for5, 000 people or 10, 000 people?
Okay.
If we're going to have 10,000 people, Oh, this is
what we can do for them.
This is how big the stage is.
You think completely different.
And the same thing withlike podcasting and archive
types of companies, right?
With, with the evolvedpodcasting company.
We work with the biggestpeople in the, in the space
and personal development.
(24:28):
So we're not like,
something shows, right?
yeah, we've launchedover a hundred shows
Okay.
Yeah.
I got outdated news,
yeah, well we were just counting.
We thought we had 50, but nowwe were like, and it's so funny
cause some of the shows we startedfive years ago and we forgot and
then they just have gone on andstarted doing their own thing.
Cause we, we believe that we teachyou as much as you need to grow.
(24:50):
And then if we're not inpartnership with you, then.
We want to give you enough to doit on your own because our whole
model is a little bit different.
But what I noticed is that even inthat space, if you're thinking so
much bigger than you're thinkingabout how many products that you
can sell, how to reverse engineeryour, what you're thinking out
of the show, you're not thinkingabout growing the audience.
(25:12):
You're thinking How do youmonetize the right people?
What's the Ascension modelthat you're taking people on?
And then when we bring in 10,000 people for this, are they
all going to the right place?
Is it all, does it all make sense?
Are we using Delphi tocommunicate with them?
Is this like, do we have the rightAscension model for thousands
of people rather than a hundred?
That's what we think about,
(25:33):
It Yeah.
Forces you to solve problemsthat you never knew were
even like existed beforehand.
Yeah.
You're, you're just kindof in your little box and.
I'm sure, um, I mean,we've all done it.
Yeah.
There's 10 X in the book.
I have it pulled up here.
I will be buying this redafterwards, but that's,
it applies to everything.
You know, it's, it, it, it appliesjust to your personal life.
(25:54):
It's like, Hey, you know,you can be living in that.
Yeah.
I have a lot of family fromEast coast, South Carolina.
They haven't really leftSouth Carolina in their city.
It's like, but when you start tothink bigger and think of just like
locations and the world is big.
And small, but it'salso huge and awesome.
And, uh, you gotta, it'sjust like, do something that,
that changes perspective.
(26:15):
I think that's the big thing.
The
Well, and I think you even helpedMike curate some of this too.
Like we're talking about MikeKoenig, but you helped curate the
idea of thinking like the billiondollar moonshot question, right?
You are.
If there's any time in life rightnow to think bigger than you've
ever thought and then if youdon't know how to think big to
(26:36):
ask a chat agent or GPT, how wouldI think 10 X bigger than this?
How would I make thissystem 10 X more efficient?
How would I make 50X more efficient?
with what I've got.
And this is the, this is the time.
If you're listening to this andyou are not asking yourself,
how do I make my life 100times more efficient with
(27:00):
grace and ease and happiness?
How do you help me do that?
Knowing what you know about me,how will I make my life better?
And most of the time it willspin that chess board that you're
doing life on around and say,you're focusing on the wrong shit.
You're not focusing on yourfamily and your health.
If you focus on your health,like I had to do that.
(27:21):
I had to pivot the health, likethe health thing kicked my ass
in the beginning of this yearbecause I did a, I did some
cleansing and the cleanse broughtup all sorts of crazy stuff.
And I noticed like I was notfocusing on family time and health.
I was like, I'm in astudio working nonstop.
And now we just did like thismastermind up at the Ritz
Carlton up in, in Dana point,
(27:44):
Uh huh.
But we were talking to people,having a good time with our family.
I go, this is whatwe need to be doing.
We don't need to be like, I lovedoing this, but just the next
podcast you see me on will be my,my mobile studio that just deploys.
You pick it up.
And then I'm, then you'reinterviewing me over a cliffside.
That's what we're building.
(28:05):
Much better.
And so.
Yeah, totally.
So yeah, it's calledthe go box studio.
It's amazing.
Nice plug right there, right?
The go box studiofor mobile studios.
You're only you're, you'reone in your one stop
solution for mobile studios.
Go box
Go box studios.
I like it, man.
Where is it?
I want to, I want to, all right.
When, when it's ready, you're
Oh, it's ready.
(28:25):
It's going, it's on.
It's, it's a product.
Oh, you know what?
I got it.
Yes.
I just pulled it up.
I'm like, wait a minute.
That actually sounds more, uh,Oh yeah, that looks beautiful.
Okay.
Need to get myself a go box.
They're so sick.
Yeah.
If you want to put, if you'reinterested in a go box studio,
just go to go box studio.
com and tell them that Sammy andJoe sent you and they will hook you
(28:46):
up with a fat 10 percent discount.
This thing is sick.
Yeah.
Okay.
It's so sick.
I got to close thatbrowser, that window.
Um, dude.
Yeah.
Like, so going big, I'm curious,like, and I want to get to that DJ
story, how you fell into that whole
Oh God.
That story is so funny.
Yes, totally.
ah, okay, maybe Ishould just start there.
(29:07):
Cause like, obviously you didn'talways think this way, right?
That the thinking big, I mean,was there like, obviously the
switch, maybe that was allthe, well, you, you tell me.
okay.
So the switch, the switch,I'll tell you about the switch.
Then we can revisit.
How I got started because the switchstarted when I went to my very first
(29:28):
event that was hosted by Mindvalleyand, and vision that switch.
It was a paradigmshift because I got to.
I got invited to go to A Fest as asinger and I got to the place where
the event was at, but even to getthere, I had had to pawn a guitar.
(29:49):
Uh, my car was wrecked.
It was a blizzard in Denver.
I had to get a ride to the airport.
There were no Ubersreally at this time.
So I had to like pay myfriend to take me out there.
And I got dropped off.
I had maybe 90 to my name.
I got to the place in Maui.
That's where this wasand Maui's not cheap.
(30:10):
So just to get to the hotel Iwent through another 30 and I'm
like, oh my god, I'm not gonnahave any money when I get there
And I had a couple credit cardswith like a very small balance
on them I get to the front of theGrand Wailea if you've been there,
I've been, yeah.
A beautiful hotel and it was evenmore miraculous and beautiful.
(30:31):
This is like 12, 13years ago, right?
I was like, Oh my God, what is this?
And I'm like, how much isit to stay here a night?
And they go, it's 600.
And I go, I do not have that.
I didn't know if I was payingfor my room or whatever.
I knew that even if I gave themmy credit card, like that 500
credit card limit, I'm like,dude, I'm not going to be able
to have the incidentals on there.
(30:52):
You know, I was at nothing.
So anyway.
The event planner justhappened to be there.
Her name's Alex Katoni.
She goes, Oh, Hey, you're Sammy.
Oh my God.
I thought you weregoing to be a girl.
I didn't know who's coming.
This is great.
And, uh, like funny story.
We ended up dating for a year anda half after that anyways, but
that's funny.
Alex is
side note, she's amazing.
Um, but side note, the funnything that happened with that is
(31:16):
I got introduced, I get into thehotel, I get to this event, but
I just start meeting these peoplethat had just started dating.
started in internet marketing.
They hear just at the forefrontof this and they, we had monthly
reoccurring revenue of 500, 000,like 600, 000, 200, 000, 50,
even five grand a month, youknow, just happening for them.
(31:38):
And it set me on thattrajectory of holy shit.
If I do this, like they've doneit, I can have these results.
And so that's what was crazy.
That was the shift.
So I started thinking differentlyand bigger at that point.
I was like, Oh, okay.
So you have a house here.
You have a house there.
You have a house here.
What's the mechanism?
What do you do?
(31:58):
And then how can Ido that for myself?
So I came home immediatelyafter that built my first
internet product at zero dot.
I didn't sell anything, but I builtprobably four or five of those.
I had a swimming one.
Um, I had a DJ course, we'vehad a guitar teaching course,
I've had a few different onesthat we've done, you know?
And so I just saw that, and thatwas the magic of thinking big,
(32:18):
and that's when that happened.
But, that all came about inthat one experience, but what
happened then is, I had all thisamazing stuff going on and I
just, I hadn't quite mastered it.
I hadn't become a DJ at thatpoint or anything like that.
And so how I becamea DJ, this is crazy.
(32:41):
Hold on to your ass on this
I'm ready.
So I, um, there was a timejust prior to all of this,
uh, I had, Just move back.
Like I had this, this whole thing,I was still in the process of
figuring out my life at that point.
But believe it or not,it was even worse.
(33:02):
five years prior to that.
I was like, dude, I have adisaster waiting to happen.
So I had gone, um, to Texas.
I moved in with this girl,that relationship imploded.
I moved back to Denver and theonly place I could find to live in
Denver was my friend's basement.
He was a little entrepreneur.
He wanted to do all these things.
(33:22):
So he's like, you can just live inthe basement and help me with my
t shirt company, blah, blah, blah.
So, We sit there and one ofour favorite things to do at
night was to smoke bong ripsand think of t shirt ideas.
Well, when you
that'll get the
yeah, dude, the greatest wayto think of things, right?
Think of them and forget them.
Yeah.
So we're, we're doing this.
(33:42):
This is our, this isour nightly routine.
So we're smoking,we get super stoned.
This is in Denver, by the way.
Again, we're like, let'sgo get some dinner.
Now we're hungry.
So we leave and I had left acandle in his basement burning
and we leave to go get food afterour t shirt inception ideas.
(34:05):
And of course what happens,the candle burns all the way
down and burns his house down.
shit.
And it was in my room.
So now I've burned mybuddy's house down.
I come back to this smolderinghouse and there's the
windows are blasted out.
There's a couch through the frontof the house that the cops or
(34:25):
the fire fire department had tobreak in and put the fire out.
And I have nothing.
And I start calling all my friends.
I have my cell phone, that's it.
And I'm like, I'm like, I need tofind a different job immediately.
Does anyone have anything for me?
And my buddy Patrick at the timegoes, Hey, I'm going on tour.
(34:45):
He was a guitar player.
You can have my gig at DiamondCabaret, which is a strip
club in downtown Denver.
I work upstairs andyou can take my gig.
And I was like, sweet, thought itwas a Bart ending gig or something.
I get there the first night, Joe.
Um, and this is all happening.
This happens in like 48 hours.
I get there and theyhand me a duffel bag.
(35:06):
The duffel bag is full.
I go, what is this?
Am I in the bar?
And they're like, no, no, no.
Here's your duffel bag.
Has napkins, cigarettes, and gum.
I'm like, oh my God.
Am I in the bathroom?
They're like, yeah,you're the bathroom guy.
So I. Two days later,I'm in the bathroom at a
nightclub above a strip club.
And I'm like, this is the worstplace I could possibly be.
(35:28):
What have I done with my life?
Right.
Just burn my buddy's house down.
I had a failed relationship.
I have no idea what I'm doing.
I'm back in Denver.
Now I don't even have a place tosay, I literally burned it all down.
And I remember looking in themirror and I was like, this
is not going to define you.
It can't get much worse than this.
And as I say that there is literallya guy, a security guy in the back,
(35:49):
just taking a dump behind me.
And I'm like, Oh my God,this is going to get a
little bit worse than this.
Nevermind.
that's all happening.
see everything
it?
Yeah.
He's just like, yeah, he'slike, who are you talking to?
I'm like, shut up.
Yeah.
Not now.
I'm having a moment.
And, uh, as this is going onall of a sudden, I hear this,
like, pounding dope music.
(36:11):
It's like, I'm like,what in the fuck?
And I come out of the door andthe DJs are like 25 feet from
the door and the booth is there.
And I was like, Oh myGod, what are they doing?
That's so sick.
I haven't really seen DJs up close.
I know some from Fort Collins,but I was like, Oh, I love this.
This is sick.
(36:31):
And I go back in the bathroom.
I'm like, dude, I amgoing to get out of here.
I'm going to get fromhere to that DJ booth.
I don't know how, butI'm going to do it.
So as the night progresses,this is like still within this
72, 48 hour window, right?
It's a, it's a, I'm making hugemoney as the bathroom attendant.
Like I was making like 50bucks every 20 minutes.
(36:52):
People are like, dude,thank you for the tips.
Like I was helpingguys with their hair.
I was like, yo, this,you look terrible.
Just doing my thing.
Just being exuberant.
Yeah.
And I start noticing thepattern that these DJs have,
which is hot chicks and shots.
And so I'm looking atmy bowl of tip money.
I'm like, Oh, I got this.
(37:13):
So I start going up and buyingshots for these guys and
introducing them to the chicks.
Cause I'm in the bathroom.
So I'm always meeting people.
So I'm like, Hey, hereis, this is Jenny.
Here's your Washington apple.
What does that button do?
This is that.
I'm like, cool.
How do you pick your music?
Oh, why would you pick it that way?
Oh, cool.
(37:33):
Here's a shot.
This is a girl.
Here's the shot.
So I start trading.
I started trading shots andwomen for knowledge on the decks.
And so I do this and I'm like, ah,I figured out my way out of here.
So fast forward, it was probably amonth or so that I did this trade.
Right.
I would just give them shots.
(37:53):
Yeah.
That's it.
Yeah.
And this is at thetime when Napster.
And you could do bit torrents andkind of find really cool music.
I figured out, and I wasalways a techie, you know.
I figured out, I had like um,Pirate Bay, I think it was.
Oh, I remember.
I had so much sickmusic that I had found.
All these remixes of dope music thatI downloaded and always had with me.
(38:17):
So, it was a Friday night.
Our guy that was in, in the booth,I'll leave his name out of this.
Just cause he gets hammered.
I'm like, Oh my God.
And I hear it from the bathroom.
He's just train wrecking.
He's a mess.
And so I'm like, Oh myGod, this was my moment.
I jump out of there.
And I put my music on and Ijust, I do full send and just do
(38:41):
a 20 minute set and just bringthe roof down on this house,
on this, on this strip club.
Well, there's anightclub above the strip
Above it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
is a great combo by the way for,for anyone that wants to start
a really terrible business.
But uh, this place isgoing, place is going nuts.
And the promoters are like,Sammy, he's a bathroom guy.
What is happening?
(39:02):
I'm like, Oh yeah, dude,I've been working on this.
And they're like, you shouldnot be in the bathroom.
You gotta play more
You're better.
there.
They're like, you're insane.
You're such, and I'malso an entertainer.
Like my whole life hasbeen entertainment.
So, um, I end up blowingthe lid off this.
Those promoters are like, andeven the last promoter, one of the
promoters actually just had me openfor Snoop Dogg like two weeks ago.
(39:26):
Dude.
I totally, yeah.
I'm happy you brought that up.
Yeah.
And you're doing itagain, I think soon
Yeah.
Doing it again.
And so it's just,it's just so funny.
That's what happened.
That's how I became a DJ.
But again, I just jumpedstraight into party DJing at a
nightclub, one of the biggestones in Denver at the time.
And That's how I started.
(39:46):
I just got my break there andthen they introduced me to
another guy named Kevin Larsonand Kevin Larson had a huge New
Year's party and he's like, he'slike, you want to play for me?
You can totally play for me and,and the rest is history, but there's
some funny stories about that too.
But so many stories, Joe, so manystories, but that's how I became a
DJ and that trans transferred intoplaying for Mindvalley and then
(40:11):
playing in stadiums and doing that
Snoop and all, and whoknows what else, man.
And do you see your DJingas like, is that the glue
with like who you are?
People and all that, becauseyou obviously you've got the
podcast production agency.
You're helping people scalesome really cool stuff that way.
I don't see that as theglue, to be totally honest.
Connecting is my glue.
(40:32):
Like, however that is, whether it'sdinner or things like that, I would
say performance though in thatspace has definitely pushed me front
and center in a lot of circles.
But yeah, I don't know.
I would, I would be reluctant tosay that's the main piece of it.
It has been in the, in the yearspast, but as this company's
(40:54):
scaled and grown, I don't It'sreally cool because we have
such good mentors in this space.
I think of like Ryan Dicespecifically and Richard
Lindler and even, yeah.
And even like Perry Belcher anda lot of these other folks, you
know, they, they've all knownme as a DJ, but then they, you
know, When I see him now, they'relike, Hey, how's podcasting going?
(41:16):
What else what's new in that space?
And I'm like, Holy smokes.
I'm moving.
I'm moving laterally in these placesso that, and I've been speaking on
stage now about AI and AI consultingand, and those things, because.
As I was a DJ, man I guessyou're right, the DJing thing
is a pretty big piece of it.
Because as I was DJing, I wassitting next to these guys as
(41:40):
they're doing their keynotes,as they're doing their stuff.
So, I had to like, soundtrack,Those guys perfectly, right?
Like I play veryspecific music for Ryan.
I play very specificmusic for Dave Asprey.
I play very specific music forJJ so that when they make their
keynotes on what's new in theindustry, what's changing the world
(42:00):
in their space, that they havethe perfect soundtrack for it.
So it made me sit sideline to thebiggest things that were happening
in AI in, Podcasting and marketingand traffic and conversion.
And now with go high level, Iplayed go high levels event and
the same thing happened there.
I was like, Oh God, thisis what you're rolling out.
230 updates on go high level.
(42:22):
That's amazing.
So yeah.
Yeah.
I think, uh, yeah, it's connectionplus that entertainment or
whatever that thing is thatkeeps the connection going,
you know, like, so that's themechanism, but the heart seems
like the connection and, you know,that's something we both share.
And I think it's.
It's cool, man.
I love your stories becauselike everybody has a lesson
(42:43):
they can extract from thereand relate it to themselves
if you want to, of course.
Um, I just thought it wasa blast going down the
history lane with you, man.
And I, I think there's somethingto is like you've opened doors.
It's, uh, there's thatbook called the third door.
I
Oh, I haven't heard of that.
Yeah, and I've only heard it fromour buddy Brad Costanzo, but it's
like, you know, there's the obviousways in you can, um, you know, earn
(43:06):
your way in or pay your way in.
Hopefully I'm nottotally butchering this.
Or there's that third door.
It's like, oh, I know someone or I'min the bathroom and I just like I
figured out this Tricky way to givesome value to someone, hook them up.
But now I'm like, I'm in, youknow, and that's how you got in.
So it's cool, man.
Yeah.
And that's kind of, youjust found your own way.
And I think that happens in lifewhen you're open to opportunities
(43:28):
and things around you.
So thanks for sharing, brother.
That's
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
let's, uh, wrap it up and tellus like, because you got, you
got a lot of stuff going on.
Obviously the podcast side ofthings evolved podcasting, right.
Dot com.
That'll get you to all the goodstuff of what you're doing.
Yeah.
Evolve podcasting is where you canfind us for all things podcasting,
(43:50):
how to monetize and scale your show.
Um, and then how to start a showand make sure that it comes out
of the gates, ready to monetize.
That's where you can findall that information.
And then shoeboxmoses.
com is where all my, my immediateperformance things are and
who I'm aligned with there.
Those are the bestplaces to find me.
And then obviously I'm on allthe social media platforms like
(44:11):
Twitter, Literally all of them.
So, Shoebox Moses.
Yeah, if you go to ShoeboxMoses, and just type that in, it
populates all the good stuff, bro.
All the good stuff.
Yeah, go, go find, find somecool music Sammy's doing and
just get some good vibes.
Appreciate you, brother.
This is gonna be fun.
Let's do the next oneon the beach, all right?
Or on the cliffs, either way.
Totally.
we'll be doing thenext one that way.
(44:31):
So appreciate you brother.
Joe, thanks for having me, bro.
Love you, man.
Talk to you soon.
Alright, bye.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com