July 8, 2024 • 44 mins
If you ever considered chasing a dream…this is your sign to go for it.
In the latest episode of The Possibility Mindset Podcast, Devin is joined by Chad Bourquin, a multi-hyphenate musician, entrepreneur and speaker whose keynote concerts inspire others to rock a life of purpose.
Tune in as they explore defining moments that put them on parallel paths to extraordinary outcomes, Chad’s secret to finding success (whether you’re a sound tech, CEO or somewhere in between), and how he uses the power of music to make positive changes…one show, one song, one possibility at a time.
It’s the ultimate episode for fearless dreamers who believe in living at full volume. Available now, wherever you get your podcasts.
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Guest website: www.chadbourquin.com
Book the Band: www.bigtimegrain.com
Book an Event: www.generationrelevant.com
Thompson Tees: https://thompsontee.com/?ref=154&_utm_campaign=affiliate
For the full experience, check us out on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DevinHendersonSpeaker
Download and listen to The Possibility Mindset Podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.
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Get social with Devin:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/DevinHendersonSpeaker/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/devinhendersonspeaker/
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Book Devin as your Keynote Speaker: https://devinhenderson.com/contact/
Learn more: http://devinhenderson.com
Email: info@DevinHenderson.com
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A special thanks to our sponsor, Eggtc. Shawnee: https://eggtckc.com/eggtc-shawnee/
Sound and Audio Technician: Zack Midyett
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, what's going on everybody?
Welcome to the PossibilityMindset Podcast.
I am Devin Henderson, I'm yourhost and I believe that
something greater is alwayspossible for you.
That is the truth, and I'm herewith my friend, Chad.
How you doing, Chad?
Good how are you?
Good, I'm excited to get intoit with you.
It's been quite a morningalready.
(00:25):
I threw a hat on so I couldlook more like you.
I came in and I was like no,you're not going to out-cool me.
So I put the hat on and he'sstill winning.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
He's still winning the cool contest.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Oh man.
Well, we're going to get intoit with Chad, but first Chad.
I told you this when I came in.
This might be our last dayusing this venue.
I know the listeners are supersad because they love this
background, they love thisatmosphere, they love the random
workers from Minsky's Pizzapassing through every once in a
while.
But this might be our last day.
(00:58):
We do have two guests scheduledfor today, so you get one more
episode, so enjoy it while itlasts.
Just a quick note on our sponsor, et cetera.
They were bought by a newbreakfast franchise or
restaurant I don't know if it'sa franchise Rise and shine is
now the name of the restaurantMinsky's used to own, et cetera
(01:19):
and so they shared this eventspace.
What happened there?
We shared this event space.
You're choked up?
Yeah, I'm getting choked up.
It was so bad, and so nowMinsky's owns it, and so we kind
of don't know for sure wherethat leaves us.
Maybe Minsky's will let us haveit if we schmooze enough with
the boss, but anyway, so getused to possibly a different
(01:40):
background coming up.
None of this is of any.
What's the word consequence toyou?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
But interesting.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
But interesting.
Yeah, you're glad you came nowso you can get the background on
this direction of this podcast.
Anyway, et cetera, we thank youso much for your sponsorship
over the months and yeah, andthank you today for Minsky's,
for allowing us to have at leastone last go at this.
So this is great.
Okay, chad, let's move past thesappy stuff.
(02:07):
That's enough crying from you.
I want to let you know aboutThompson tees.
I am wearing a Thompson tease.
Have you ever heard of thisbefore?
The Thompson t-shirts?
No, basically, think of it likea t-shirt that has super
padding in the armpit area forsweating.
You're a guy who plays music atconcerts.
Do you ever sweat profusely upthere and you're nervous about
(02:29):
what's showing?
Or if the bus is going to start?
Yeah, if the bus is going tostart.
Well, I know for me as anentertainer for so long.
Do you remember thosecommercials when we were a kid,
it was like are you sure thesure deodorant?
And people couldn't lift theirarms because of the sweat stain.
Well, with Thompson tees, youdon't.
You are sure, and you don'teven need the deodorant.
All right, you can still weardeodorant, but anyway, this is
(02:50):
like men's health says, that itis the best undershirts for men
to control armpit sweat.
So the reason I'm bringing itup is because, again, I'm
wearing it today.
I can wear any color now Idon't have to worry about sweat
bleeding through.
This is maybe TMI, but it's alsomaybe very valuable information
if you also deal with the samething.
So go to the show notes, clickon the link, buy a Thompson T.
(03:11):
It will absolutely change yourlife.
All right, chad, here we go.
We're going to get into you now.
Thanks for being here.
Yeah, thank you, I'm going todo your intro, but then I want
to talk about how we met.
Okay, so now, if you've everconsidered a backup plan, what
you really needed was a betterplan.
My guest today is a musicianand entrepreneur whose keynote
(03:32):
concerts raise the frequency forsound techs, ceos and everyone
in between.
So each can rock a life ofgenius.
Let's give it up for ChadBorkwin.
That's it.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
That was it Nice.
I nailed it All right.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
The multi-hyphenate owner of Generation Relevant
Entertainment.
It's an agency on a mission tomake a difference and, using the
power of music, is ignitingpositive change.
One show, one song, onepossibility at a time.
So here he is, chad Borkwin.
Now they're probably wonderingDevin, why don't you do your
homework a little better?
(04:07):
And before you get the filmrolling, why don't you at least
ask him how to pronounce hislast name?
Well, I've actually known Chadfor years now, but we've only
met over Zoom.
So I think in my mind that'show I always said it.
But then I thought well, I'venever actually asked him how do
you say your name.
So I'm glad that I got it.
It's a cool name and it's rarethat people get it right.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Is that right yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
What do they usually say?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Oh, Borkin Birkin, I don't know.
There's been some really weird.
I mean, I actually missed arace in high school because they
were so far off I didn't knowthey were calling my name.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Oh, are you serious?
Yeah, yeah, wow, that's crazy,man.
Like you were in track, yeah,and it was like time to step up
to the line.
It was, and I wasn't there.
Yeah, they're like ChadBaguette, let's go.
And you're like, well, that'sit is.
(05:03):
I don't know about you.
And I was working on a mentalismshow over Zoom, right, because
this is the time where, duringCOVID once that hit all of my
gigs, the calendar justdisappeared.
You probably experienced someof the same thing with your
concerts, and so I thought, hey,I'm just going to grow my hair
out, grow my beard out, and justhibernate for a year or two and
(05:24):
take a break.
Well, then I found out there'sthis thing like you can do over
Zoom like entertainment, and soI decided how can I take my
magic and do it over Zoom?
So I started taking some of thetricks and thinking how can I
do it where there's no one inthe room with me?
They're not hands-on, but wecan do sort of like for lack of
better words mind-reading stuffover the camera.
So I needed an audience, Ineeded a demo video for this, so
(05:46):
I sort of needed like a pseudoaudience to get on Zoom so they
could watch me doing thesetricks.
And it was Preston Bowman, ourmutual friend, that's what it
was who I told him.
Hey, preston, we need like abunch, we need like a dozen
people.
Can you round up some people,some of your people, who like
magic or like entertainment?
Well, you were one of thepeople that he brought on, and
so I met you that day andthought this guy's really cool
(06:08):
and you were a great audienceparticipant.
And then, because of thatconnection, you hired me to do a
show in a bar in Emporia,kansas, just like, a few months
later, the Bourbon Cowboy yeah,what was it called?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Bourbon Cowboy.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Bourbon Cowboy.
Yeah, and that was the firstin-person event I did since
COVID started, so I was sograteful to you for just landing
me something where I could getout in the face of the public
again and do what I love.
So thank you for that.
Never got to thank you inperson.
So when I'm thinking about whatguests do I want, you were
always in the back of my mind.
I'm thinking about what guestsdo I want, you were always in
the back of my mind.
I'm so glad it worked out andglad that we're finally meeting
(06:45):
face to face and I know you'rean interesting guy.
So when we talk about thepossibility mindset, I know
you've had a lot of sort of likechallenges or opportunities in
life to really ask what else ispossible, right, things that
could have gotten you down.
So where do we want to start?
Because I've kind of got a listof things here.
I know that you didn't finishcollege, but I was told that we
(07:06):
should bring that up becausethat's a significant part of
your story.
I went to K-State too, so isthat a good place to start, or
should we even go back furtherwith what exactly you do?
You know what I'm going topause myself.
First of all, are you a keynotespeaker?
I am.
I did not know that.
I thought you were a musicianand just did concerts and so
(07:26):
when I was reading that, I waslike he's a keynote speaker.
You can tell I'm very wellprepared today.
Sometimes this is how podcastsgo.
Tell us what you do right now.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Well, I mean, I've been a musician way longer than
a keynote, so that's probablywhere you got that A keynote is
something that's come on later,but know it's something that's
come on later, later, yeah, uh.
But yeah, I've played musicsince I was a kid, um, and then
I've had this agency, probably13, 14 years now, okay, but we,
the keynote part for me startedwell, really started in some of
(07:57):
my backup plans okay, okay whereI realized those were not good
ideas.
But I didn did learn a lot.
So we had this vitamin companythat we were.
It was a network marketingcompany, yeah, and I was the
local guy to train everybody,okay, and so I just started
doing it.
I really enjoyed that part ofit, yeah, you know, doing the
(08:20):
training people, doing the talks, presentations, that sort of
thing.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Did you have some success with the whole network
marketing, like building yourteam and making some income.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
We had a lot of success over five years, to the
point where we sold our business.
This is just for the part ofthe story because it's funny.
It's funny now.
We sold it for $1.2 millionover an 18-year payout,
contingent on which was $5,000 amonth, contingent on the guy we
(08:53):
sold it to, staying in business.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
It's so funny you're saying this because we had Marty
Fonke on here, who is anacquisition and what's the
buyout or acquisitions?
What's the other word that goeswith that?
Merger?
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Acquisitions and merger like specialist.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
And he talked about that exact thing, that, like
when someone buys you out,there's that whole contingency
aspect of it.
So what's the rest of the story?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Well, it was a great two years and during that time
it gave us the opportunity tostart these keynote concerts
okay um, which is this idea thatit kind of developed over time
from from seeing some things andjust figuring out.
You know, I went to a, a careerday one day.
I got asked to speak on sales.
Okay, and I'm to 300 kids whocared nothing about sales.
(09:42):
I mean, you don't really getinto sales unless you failed a
number of other things a lot oftimes.
You don't really get into salesunless you've failed a number
of other things A lot of times.
You don't just go into sales.
And I could tell these kidswere bored out of their minds
because there was a finance guyand a banker.
And I'm following all this andI'm like who wants to hear about
sales?
And like two hands out of 300.
I had nothing prepared but Isaid, well, who wants to hear
about a rock band?
(10:03):
And they're like everybody wentcrazy.
Well, I just like.
So I told my story, yeah, andit went great and the principal
invited us to come back likethree weeks later and bring the
whole band.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Wow, Was this high school?
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yes, it was.
I think it was yeah, and then.
So we ended up using that or Iused that idea, with some advice
from some other people who haddone it before, to develop a
keynote concert where we wouldgo into these schools and do a
full-scale concert, and thenthere was a character education
keynote that I would do in themiddle of that Nice.
(10:40):
So we did probably 30 schoolsin like one semester almost.
Wow, it was an insane schedule.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
It was fun and that's what kicked off this whole
transition from musician only toalso keynote yeah and how long
ago was that?
Speaker 2 (10:55):
well, that was oh four, no five.
Oh, that was way, yeah.
Um, the group I was playingwith broke up sort shortly after
that, which is a whole story.
It's probably not importantthere, but, uh, I'm sure, I'm
sure we'd love to hear it again.
Well, maybe you don't want toshare it, it's, it's.
It's not just my story, so I'llprobably leave that one alone.
(11:16):
Um the uh.
But you know, at at that time Ididn't have a you know a lot of
other options, so I started anadvertising company.
Um, kind of started when Istarted working for an
advertising company and wasselling these these uh, big,
long, two and a half foot doorhangers to businesses that were
(11:37):
getting delivered to the doors.
Okay, well, they were supposedto get delivered to the doors,
but I, I was selling and I, theywere so easy to sell, it was
going so great.
Then I found out the owner ofthat was not delivering on what
they said.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
So I went back showing up.
They just the product was notgetting.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
She just was not.
She was underfunded and shewasn't getting things done.
So I had to go back around toall those people I sold these
door hangers to say, hey, listen, here's what went down.
Okay, but if you give me, youknow, three or four months,
we're going to start our owncompany and we'll come back and
honor this.
And so we did that and had thatcompany until, I guess it was.
(12:19):
We went through the 08 crashand made it another year or so,
but advertising just nosedivedand our competition was like Val
pack, okay, um, which theycould load as many of those into
an envelope as possible.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
And so they just look keeps getting thicker, but then
it got it started gettingthinner too, I noticed, because,
like, people aren't using thatas much anymore.
Yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
So, anyway, we had a fixed number, we could do our.
So, anyway, we had a fixednumber we could do, so we
couldn't compete price-wise.
But it was at that point, atthe end of that thing, that I
was just like man, I ammiserable, I didn't even want to
be doing it, it was sinking.
And that was the time I andthis is where a lot of my
(13:03):
keynote comes from is, Iremember, thinking you know, I'm
sinking.
If I'm going to sink, I atleast want to do something that
I want to do.
And I just said, I said tomyself I'm just going back after
music, I'm going to go all inon music.
And that was right.
About that time is when we hadstarted big time grain company,
(13:24):
my brother and I, okay, and uh,the agency kind of.
There was an idea of an agencyagain, I'd booked before, but I
had to run my own agency.
Uh-huh, and I won't say it waseasy, but it was the beginning
of what's led us to where we'reat today.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, and it was okay .
It's called the.
What was the grain?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Oh, big Time Grain Company, big Time Grain.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Company.
It's called the grain.
What was the grain?
Oh, big time grain company.
Yeah, that's our country band.
Yeah, where are you from?
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Colby Kansas.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
You're from Colby, kansas.
Okay, way out there.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Like really close to the Colorado border.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
And Nebraska yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Wow, um, and, and so that's the band.
Oh, that's the band.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, okay, the agency is Generation Relevant
Entertainment.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Oh, I see, Okay, okay , so you also booked other bands
.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
That's what the agency does.
Yeah, right, right, okay.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Gotcha, wow, where's that leave you now?
I mean you, is it still?
Speaker 2 (14:28):
you're still with this band and then you give
keynotes on your own or with theband.
Still, uh, but either, or, yeah, we can do we've we've got, uh,
the ability to go in the fullband.
I'm developing something now Ihave not actually done this just
because I haven't put ittogether yet where I'm going to
go in and do a keynote concertwith just me, where I'm doing
all these iconic clips of someof the most iconic guitar solos
(14:52):
out there oh, nice, nice.
And so it would be going fromsongs that you hear.
The solo, you know it is ShookMe All Night Long.
Acdc Everybody knows that solo.
Guns N' Roses you go into thatriff, everybody knows it.
Yeah, kansas, whatever, andjust kind of, I'm working that
into the keynote.
I you know I've done a lot ofkeynotes where it just goes
(15:14):
speak, yeah, but I want toincorporate this in as well okay
, you said kansas.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
I had flashbacks right down the road, like about
a mile shawna mission park.
There's a theater in the park.
I saw a kansas concert there.
They came one time like mysenior year of high school, so
you know, a quarter of a centuryago, and it was like this is
one of the best concerts I'veever been to.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
It was awesome, they were great and that's so cool,
so wow.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
So then, are you still focused on, then, that
whole character development idea?
Is that the crux of yourmessage.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Yeah, I mean, that's evolved.
You know, I started gettingcoaching probably 10, 11 years
ago myself.
Okay, still weekly coaching.
I started reading a ton of justdevelopment books.
Okay, when I say reading,listening, I'm an audio guy
(16:03):
Totally.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
I've been doing that too.
Yeah, I don't know if it'scheating or not, but you still
take in the book.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
I do yeah.
Multitasking and became hugelyfascinated with just what makes
people tick, and then when I didthe podcast interviews in uh
did start doing those duringCOVID as well.
That developed even a moreinterest in what makes people
tick Because you just, I mean,you know how it is If you blank
(16:38):
out at all as a podcast host.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
It's going to get awkward fast, right.
I think I've done it 17 timestoday already.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
I've been counting, but that caused something in me.
Just it's like okay to evenbecome a better listener.
You know, it's a point where Ilike I think everybody should
host a podcast for like a season, even if nobody ever listens to
it because of what it does foryour listening skills.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Yeah, yeah, that's, that's interesting.
So who like?
What would you say, your idealike, if you were to go out and
go after a certain audience,what would that audience be?
Speaker 2 (17:09):
For the keynote.
For the keynote.
Who can resonate most with yourmessage or benefit most from it
apply to everybody into musicand concerts and living a
lifestyle of on the road andwhat that's like and how.
(17:33):
What I learned in all thoseavenues apply to personal growth
, leadership, team developing,all those things.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
So really for anyone.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
It's for anyone.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
The message is so broad that anyone that's like
hey, this guy who niches withthis emphasis of music are
people who resonate with thisthat that's so great.
So a couple fun questions.
What's your most favoriteguitar solo of all time?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
so that evolves a lot .
Every time I learn somethingnew that's challenging to me, it
becomes the most fun, like oneof my most fun solos to play
right now is liza jane by vincegill okay, nice.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Well, I was not expecting.
I was expecting more somethingheavy metal or hard rock, so
that's well, that's vince gillis amazing unbelievable like
like really good also just atthe improv.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yeah, you know, yeah, brilliant I mean, like in
country, a lot of times you youjust get the highlights of the
solo.
You don't have to.
I mean, as long as you're kindof there somewhere, in the
general, nobody's gonna know.
It's not like a yeah you know,vibe it out shook me all night
long.
You know people are gonna know.
Liza jane, though, when I heardthat solo was like I want to
(18:46):
learn this note for note,because I want to learn
everything he's doing in that.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Okay, yeah.
Well, I think some of the bestguitar solos are the simplest
ones that you can like.
Like, if you can sing it, youknow what I mean.
Yeah, like, if you go, oh yeah,and then sing that solo, it's
good.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
But if it's like of like, it's too much for me.
Journey, people are talented.
Yeah, journey, I mean they were.
You know, neil Sean wasbrilliant at that.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Well, and it means they have chops, so it's
impressive.
But as far as listening, that'sjust like.
I like the ones that I can singback later.
I think those are the best.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, you're right yeah yeah, that's incredible man
.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
I've never gotten to like that.
So you're going to have to, wehave to find a way to follow you
and we'll, at the end, we'llget to that Like, how can we
make sure we see you if you'rein, you're in concert, or
anything like that.
So so in terms of your story,you know, let's go back a little
bit, because you're a very Imean, you're a well-rounded guy,
you're.
You've got a lot of, a lot ofparts to you.
I feel like there's all theseand just be surprised.
(19:43):
So tell me about this wholecollege thing and how you didn't
graduate and how you were ableto say, well, I didn't graduate,
what else is possible and whatpossibilities that opened up for
you.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yeah Well, I wanted to go to school for music, okay,
but the advice I got at homewas you can't make any money at
that, and what are you going todo?
Be a music teacher, okay.
So I thought, all right, thisis where my first backup plan.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
I'm understanding what people talk about backup
plans, so I went for business.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Which you know.
I mean I use a lot of businesstoday that I did not get there.
You know a lot of businesstoday that I did not get there,
a lot of business skills.
I went to a JUCO for a coupleof years and went to K-State for
six months before the group wewere in said hey, we're going to
go full-time and go on the road.
(20:39):
It was not a stretch for me tosay enough of this school, I'm
going to go do what I reallywant to do.
We did, we made this leap.
We went and said what I reallywant to do, sure, and we did, we
went.
We, we made this leap.
We went and said we're justgonna do.
We, our agent booked us up, youknow, four to six nights a week
for four or five years.
This was back when you could dothat in in regional groups or
(21:00):
national.
Before you hit the nationalstage we would go from like like
I remember going just up i-29,you know we would start at like
uh, nebraska, and then go tolike sioux city, then sioux
falls, and then uh, fargo, thengrand forks, then winnipeg,
canada, and like I was just, Ididn't have a home, I didn't
(21:22):
have a car, I didn't need any ofthat stuff, I was just just one
place, the next plane.
It was amazing, yeah, and thatwent on for a number of years
until just the the singerdecided one day he was done and
walked out, and that was it.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Wow, so, so yeah.
What would you say to peoplewho you know are thinking about
college, thinking about droppingout or taking a break, because
there's this dream they want topursue?
You know, was it worth it foryou?
Was it the right move?
Looking back, what can youoffer now?
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Well, I think, make sure that you're making the
decision for the right reasons.
You know, my daughter justgraduated K-State and she's got
a about to land a job with a bigpharmaceutical tech company and
she's doing exactly what shewants to do.
She knew she wanted to go toK-State since she was eight
(22:13):
years old.
It was perfect for her.
You know, my son, who's myolder son, did not go to college
.
He is traveling around playingbass guitar in a country band
and helping uh design or uhhelping start a upstart video
game designing company.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Wow, Like father, like son in terms of music,
traveling around going roguewith the country band.
That's great.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Then my youngest son is a junior at the mid American
Nazarene and in business, andhe's probably going to end up,
uh, taking over ourentertainment agency at some
point.
He's working with me right now.
So so I think it's got to beright for the person and they
got to make it for the rightreasons.
I think a lot of times peoplemake it out of a decision, of
(22:58):
what somebody else is trying todecide for them, and, and that's
not the right reason.
You know, I think the idea of agap year for a lot of people is
a good idea too.
You know the ability to just,hey, let's, just let me, let me
just see what happens for a year, take it easy, and I'm not
saying don't do anything for ayear.
(23:18):
You know your parents probablydon't want you to just sit
around playing video games inyour house for a year.
That's not the idea.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Yeah, but I think that's some serious wisdom there
, just knowing your why andhaving the right intention,
doing it for the right reasons.
Because even with me right nowthere's some speaker software
like an operating system thatI'm thinking about buying into.
So I've been asking several ofthe speakers who use this
operating system how is thisworking for you?
And I'm getting kind of a mixof feedback and how it benefits
(23:46):
them and the weak areas of it,and so I have to really not just
be like, well, everybody seemslike they're doing it.
I'll just jump in.
I've got to really assess mycurrent system and if this
investment, this move, learninga whole new system and having my
team learn it is really worththat move.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
So what does it do?
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, without getting too into the
weeds, it really takes a lot ofthe things that you, a lot of
tools or apps that you use inyour business, like your
calendar, your QuickBooks, yourCRM, your newsletters, your
contracts, all that stuff, andkind of puts it all together.
So it's sort of in sync initialinquiry.
It just kind of helps it trackit from initial inquiry to now
(24:26):
there's interest, now they'regoing to book you all the way to
contract and then thank youletters and then putting them
into your long-term CRM, and soit just sounds like a really
nice flow and everything justjives together and it's more
cost-effectly once you get pastthe initial investment because
everything is sort of lumpedtogether.
So, anyway, but that's what itdoes, and so from the outside it
(24:50):
sounds like this could bereally good, like, if it works
the way it sounds like it does,it'd be great.
But I really do have to stop andthink do we have, like what we
have right now?
Is it working really well?
Because we've customized it forus, you know.
So I don't want to do it backto that whole thing, what you
know, doing it for the rightreason.
I don't want to do it justbecause other people seem to be
doing it.
I want to do it because I knowfor sure, I've researched it,
(25:12):
and this is the right move formy business and for me.
Right, that's it.
It's important.
So, man, both of us are gettingthe yeah throat tickles this
morning.
We're both choking up this ismeaningful stuff, uh, so I am
just curious.
Yet how'd you get into music inthe first place?
Like, when did you pick up aguitar for the first time?
Speaker 2 (25:31):
well, uh, it was.
I mean I, I just played aroundan acoustic guitar as a kid, but
so I never got serious about it.
But there was this.
Uh, there was this keynoteconcert that came through my
high school.
It was not called that at thetime okay they had this
patriotic theme.
I was a junior and they wereplaying Rat and Van Halen and
(25:51):
this is the era we were in andmy buddy, who played guitar, was
sitting next to me and I'mthinking this is the most
amazing thing I've ever seen,and he turns to me he goes hey,
why don't you get a guitar andwe'll start a band?
And I like, yes, I mean it wasthat quick that was.
My answer was yes, and thedecision was made because I was.
(26:11):
I was emotionally in the momentof the concert this is, and I
just so I went home, tried tofigure out how to get a guitar
and we started this band andlearned a couple songs wow,
played it.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
How'd you learn?
Speaker 2 (26:22):
just teach yourself, or uh, in the beginning I did
which is I would.
I would call that a mistake.
Okay, because I eventually gotreplaced.
They started a new band withoutme and the drummer, because we
weren't any good.
Okay, so then I had to.
I realized like, okay, I got toget better, but there was
nobody in Colby that could teachme Okay.
(26:44):
So I had to drive to Hays.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
What is that like three, four hours away?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
No, about an hour and a half, yeah, but I mean it was
uphill against the wind and thesnow, right right.
There was no YouTube, you know,to learn, yeah, totally, and
that's where I went andcorrected all the bad habits I
learned on my own.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Okay.
So, you know our story.
I haven't mentioned this yet,but our stories are so similar.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Are they?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
In the sense that I realized that keynote concert
even though you said they didn'tcall it that then was that
thing that planted that seed inyour mind of look what's
possible for you, look what youcould be doing someday, and it
inspired you.
And I was inspired at fifthgrade by a magician who came to
my school and brought me up onstage and got me involved and I
was like, what, if I could dothis, what else is possible?
And then taught myself, youknow, and I wasn't in a band so
(27:36):
I couldn't really be fired, Ijust had you know so I could
grow at my own pace, yeah, atthe time.
And then, um, I went to k stateand while I I did graduate, I
was going to get a master's inmarriage and family therapy, so
that was the plan, but I didn'tcontinue pursuing that because
of entrepreneurship yeah Iwanted to do this other thing.
So it is so weird we just haveand then, and then it was like I
(27:57):
started with entertainment andthen moved to keynote speaker so
it's like we kind of have thesame life in a sense.
Yeah, um, but yours is music,mine's magic, so that's why this
is a fascinating story, uh, sohere it is.
It's like oh, this is my story,just a little bit different
version of it you know, one ofmy favorite shows when it was on
was the Mentalist.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Oh yeah, but I got asked to be your guinea pig on
the Zoom thing.
I was like, yeah, yeah, that'sfunny, man, I still want to know
what's behind the curtain onsome of that.
I don't know if that'savailable information or not.
No, it's not.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
If I tell you any of it, zach has to kill you.
He is the man Right.
Zach has to kill you.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
He is the man Right, zach, all right, well, zach.
Yeah, I would want to meet himat Dark Alley.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah, no doubt.
So there was something about ahotel fire I was told that I
need to ask you about.
So there's so many parts ofyour story I'd love to hear.
But tell me about the hotelfire.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yeah, it's funny.
I tell this story in thekeynote and I learned from
comedians to watch listening tocomedians on how to.
Actually I used to tell thewhole story one time at the end.
Now I split it up and I'll tellyou where I stop it as we go
through it and then save therest until the end.
(29:11):
It's like the cliffhanger.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
So we were playing in Glen Elder Kansas, this
lumberyard thing, and it wasopening pheasant hunting season
weekend, and so we had notgotten hotel rooms ahead of time
because we weren't thinking wego to Beloit.
No hotel rooms available.
It's 2 am, except for this oldPorter Hotel, yeah, and it's
(29:35):
kind of a half hotel, halfresidence in.
So we get rooms there, ourmanager from wichita gets his
own room and the other seven ofus pile into a room because it's
your bed.
You're not there to pheasanthunt no you're just among we
just, we just need to sleep.
Yeah, yeah and uh.
So, so, yeah that's.
We're spread out on the floor,the beds everywhere, and about
(29:58):
4am I think, the uh, the alarmsgo off at a fire alarms and
you're delirious.
The sound guy runs out in thehall says man, we're under
attack.
He comes running back in thedrummer, paul, he, he goes out
in the hall.
He just comes back and he goesman, there's a fire, we got to
(30:18):
go.
And so I, I grabbed my twoguitars, I, I put on my pants
with a Velcro fly and had tohead it out.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Velcro fly.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Wow, I don't even know if they do that anymore.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Well, I hope not.
It's a bad idea.
Whoever thought that was a goodidea?
My ZZ Top is the only one thatreally benefited from that.
Yeah, so, um.
So we're out there and andsmoke's coming out of the
windows and and our manager'swindow flies open and he's, he's
out, he goes there's, there'slike old ladies on my floor that
(30:55):
can't get out.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Oh my gosh.
Okay, sorry, I thought you weregoing to say it was a false
alarm.
It'd be, because I've been inso many hotel, false alarms.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
But this is real fire .
It's real fire.
This just got real.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
So Paul, craig and I Craig was the singer we go back
in and we're going up and we'reon the second floor and it's so
smoky we have to crawl to get tothe rooms.
We get to the first roomUnbelievable dude and Craig was
able to pick up that lady andcarry her out.
And then we get to the nextroom and Paul's a big guy I'm
(31:30):
not, but neither one of us couldhave gotten close to carrying
this lady ourselves.
So we decide we'll do ittogether.
And she doesn't want to leave.
Um, she's, she's, I don't knowif she's got dementia or
something, but she doesn't wantto leave.
And so we're having to lockarms like this underneath her to
carry her out.
And so we head towards thestairs and we get to hold on
(31:54):
that position that you'reholding.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
If you're listening, your arms are just straight in
front of you.
How can you precariouslybalance a human being?
Speaker 2 (32:00):
well, it was not easy and she was heavy.
I felt like my arms were gonnafall off.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
But was she sitting on?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
your arm.
Well, we were just kind ofholding her, I, I think.
So I don't quite remember thatpart.
Okay, yeah, it's a little smoky.
It's a little smoky and fuzzy,yes, yes.
So we get to the uh, we get tothe top of the stairs and we're
getting ready to go down and Ifeel that Velcro, fly, go.
And this, this is.
(32:27):
This is where this is at thebeginning of the keynote.
This is where I stop and changesubjects and so I go on to
other subjects.
But anyway, then I come back atthe end of the keynote.
I'm giving away my keynote.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
This is the reprise.
This is the velcro fly repriseyes and so.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
So I'm sitting at the top of the stairs with my
velcro fly popped in and uh, andwe start going down the stairs
and we get down the first firstflight and my, my pants are now
down, to, you know, around mylegs.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
I'm trying to hold lower Lower thighs, lower thighs
yeah, just above the kneesstill.
So you can kind of do thecowboy walk and kind of keep it
at least a little bit of yourdignity intact.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Yes.
I'm visualizing this, it'sexactly it.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
I'm trying to picture it so vividly, but I am Because
this is hilarious.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Yeah, this will never leave you now.
And so we get to the bottom ofthe of at the stairwell and the
door flies open and there's fourfiremen there and my pants are
now down around my knees holdingthis this elderly lady and I
(33:31):
look up and and they're lookingat me and they're like what are
you doing?
I mean it's just wow and therewas absolutely no good answer.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
A good answer for that.
So I just we set her down, Ipull my pants up and we walked
out and no more questions, nomore questions asked.
And it was years later.
No more questions asked, and itwas years later.
(34:17):
I was just thinking about thatstory, you know, and how that
lady didn't want to leave, andhow much our lives, how much our
lives could get to that pointwhere we've so slowly just not
gone after our dreams, not goneafter what we wanted to do, not
paid attention to the littlethings that can help us get
there to the point where we endup in the Porter hotel on fire
and we would rather stay therethan than leave, have somebody
help us leave, you know, and anduh, it was a really important
lesson for me to figure out formyself at one point and I
thought, well, this would be agood thing to incorporate in and
(34:38):
share with other people.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
It's a powerful.
It's a powerful lesson andbrilliant, brilliant that you
pulled that out of it.
Because, yeah, immediately mymind goes oh, what fire am I
stuck in right now?
And I'm sure all your audiencemembers are thinking the same
thing, and I'm sure that peoplelistening like I'm in that room,
the place that I thought wascomfortable, a place.
I'd worked so hard to get to andpoured my life.
And then, all of a sudden,there's this unexpected moment
(35:01):
of it might be time for a change.
But kicking and screaming they.
Can you know they're going tohave to drag me out of here, but
, uh, it might save your life.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
That's, that's powerful man.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
And it's caused me to just lean into change that as
opposed to.
You know, even if it'suncomfortable or or scary, or
you know, I I'm saying yes tothings quicker that will lead me
to that and no to thingsquicker that will keep me from
(35:34):
it.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
You know, time suckersers, that sort of thing,
yeah, yeah that that's a hardthing to do is to decide which
things have an roi and whichdon't.
You know um, do you have a?
Do you have sort of a gauge forthat?
When something new comes yourway, you're presented with some
opportunity.
Is there sort of a way tomeasure?
How do you say yes or no?
(35:56):
How do you know?
Speaker 2 (35:59):
The tools I use for myself that are most effective
is my first thing in the morning.
I start every day slow, exceptit was a little harder today,
sorry.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Yeah, we're here kind of early.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
It's all good.
No, I still did it, though.
I just set my alarm a littleearlier.
And the?
Are you familiar?
Familiar with the alpha state?
Speaker 1 (36:22):
alpha state?
Speaker 2 (36:23):
yeah no it's that, it's that space between sleep
and awake, where and it'susually first thing in the
morning for most people,sometimes it's before bed, okay,
mine's, mine's in the morning,where your mind has not jumped
to all the things you have to dothat day, all those things, and
(36:44):
you're just kind of coming outof sleep.
And if I will meditate duringthat time, if I will pray during
that time, if I will do I doWim Hof breathing, if you ever
heard of him.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Are you familiar?
Speaker 1 (36:56):
with that I don't, is that the five in, or or is that
the eight in four hold, andthen uh seven out.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
It's the.
I did this when I got COVIDfirst time to get rid of the
cough, and that's where Ilearned it.
Um, you, you breathe in 40times really deep, and then you
hold it for as long as you canOkay, cause I could not get rid
of that cough.
And um, I got rid of the coughin a week with this and within
two and a half weeks I'm sorry Ididn't finish how you do it.
(37:23):
You breathe in that many times,then you hold it for as long as
you can, then you do a recoverybreath for 15 seconds and then
you repeat as many times as youwant, like three to five times.
Wim Hof W W I M H O F.
Yeah, I was able to hold mybreath within two and a half
weeks, up to four minutes and 15seconds.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Wow, it's like David Blaine level stuff.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Yeah and it's.
It wasn't just me.
I've got friends that I've toldus that can do the same thing.
Now it's not Um and it's so.
So that's the physical benefits.
But what I noticed is when Iwould start doing that first
thing in the morning is when youeven remove air from the from
as a factor, you know you're noteven breathing anymore, for for
(38:06):
that you know two to fourminutes.
Then your mind even is morerelaxed and more open for
whatever comes in that day as amessage.
And normally I get one or twothings that during that time
that I should do that day.
It might be just call somebody,might be, you know, some kind
(38:28):
of task, but if I will followand listen to that and apply
those things, then it'seffective.
Now back to your question.
If I've got something that'sbeen presented to me, I don't
want to make those answers whenI'm tired or come up or try to
make.
Come up with my what I'm gonnado when I'm tired.
I wait until the morning andthat's when I ask those
(38:49):
questions, and then that's thefirst step.
Then I'm going to start diggingin and looking at facts and say
, okay, is everything real herethat I'm being presented?
Is this a real opportunity anddoes it line up with my ultimate
vision and goal?
Okay, because where I think Iused to get hung up a lot and a
(39:13):
lot of people get hung up on, isthey get really wrapped up in
the how of things and not thewhy and the end goal and and the
house.
What slows us down if we taketoo much control of that?
If we release the how and justkind of let those messages come
as they come, you know, prayabout it, ask, ask for those
(39:35):
answers and wait, then we canmake the process so much easier
on ourselves and a lot of timesquicker too and with less pain.
The pain I've had most of mylife is because I was trying to
manipulate things.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Sure, yeah, I feel you.
Yeah.
So the big thing it sounds likepause, wait, like don't make
rash decisions, especially whenyou're tired or when you're
hungry, right, or when you'restressed out or like weighed
down with other things.
Make sure you've got somemental clarity and space to
actually think it through andthen really consider does this
align with my goals and the mainthing, or is it just?
Going to be a distraction, andthen it's not going to serve me
(40:12):
or anyone else around me.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Yeah, yeah, and, if any, if there's anything that's
that's saying I shouldn't dothat, if it's connected to fear,
then I want to pay attention tothat, because fear is the enemy
of progress.
So a lot of times I'll listento that and say, okay, if that's
the only thing stopping me,then I need to move forward.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Okay, yeah.
So in other words, fear is likelike I thought you were first.
I thought you were saying ifyou're afraid, maybe it's like
indicated you shouldn't, butyou're saying that like, maybe
that's a good, like that ladywas afraid to leave that hotel
room for some reason, eventhough we all know it was the
right decision.
But that's like if I'm afraidmaybe that's a sign I'm supposed
to do this.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Yeah, and it is, am I afraid, because of old tapes
playing.
You know, I mean, I've got 10years of being coached and I
have way more years of lifebefore that that I want to
sometimes regress back to if I'mnot careful.
So I need to pay attention towhat's causing that Assess, that
fear a little bit right, yeah,for sure, I like that.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Okay, last one important question your tattoos.
I want to get a picture of thisat some point, zach, and show
this on the YouTube video.
Can you just give us a quickrundown of what the Roman
numerals and the uh, the heartsand the clubs are about?
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Yeah, that's, that's well, that's my kid's birthdays.
Oh, okay, Uh, there, Nice, Um.
And then that was my wifelife's idea of the king of
hearts.
Ah, nice.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
That's great.
So basically birthdays in Romannumeral form.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
Yeah.
What's funny is the firsttattoo artist didn't want to do
it.
He's like I don't do thisbecause everybody screws up
Roman numerals, oh yeah, andthen I put it on and then
they're mad because it's not theright date or something.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Yeah, that's funny man, but I guess most people
would never know They'd be likeI yeah, I believe you.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
I'm not like wait a minute.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Yeah, nobody's doing the math.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
Yeah, exactly man, all right, well, wow, well, hey,
man, it's good to finally meetyou in person.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
Yeah, you too.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
And catch some of your stories.
Is there anything significantthat we missed?
That's like, oh, we should, weshould hit this before we run.
That you're feeling like youwanted to really share man, I'm
just, I'm just grateful that youcalled.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
I love these opportunities to to just talk
about this stuff.
Stuff's pretty random, but Imean it's just there's.
There's so much in life that Ithink we can do to to get more
out of it, and what you're doinghere is you're bringing that
out of people and and thenyou're you're you're giving it
freely to anybody that willlisten.
(42:42):
I think that's awesome.
So thank you.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Yeah, for sure.
Well, thank you, and seriously,this is, this is good stuff.
Maybe, maybe in your lifeyou're afraid to move on to the
next thing.
Someone's trying to drag youout of the hotel room that's on
fire and you're just like Idon't want to go.
Um, hopefully this has inspiredyou today.
I'm sure it has.
Share this um message withpeople you know, forward this on
and um, yeah, thank you so much, chad.
(43:05):
And and, by the way, how can,how can, they get ahold of you
if they want to book a keynoteconcert?
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Well, our agency site is just generation relevantcom.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
Yeah, all right.
So that's the best place to goto connect with you in every way
, and then will your like anykind of schedule, like tour
schedule or any appearancesyou're going to make.
Will that be on there?
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Yeah Well, no, that's our band site, which is
bigtimegraincom.
Okay, yeah, so if they go tothere, they can see, do you
travel much outside of Kansas?
I do, yeah, you do.
We do a lot, probably five toten states a year.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
Okay, all right, so he might be coming to you, so
check it out, all right.
Well, hey, once again, thanks,et cetera, just for your help
and your support over the years,and Minsky's for letting us use
this space this morning Give usa five-star review on Apple
that would, on YouTube,subscribe, like, share the links
(44:00):
.
We appreciate it.
Don't forget to check outThompson Tees See Dry as a I
don't know desert.
There it is All right, y'all,we're going to sign off with our
tagline.
We're going to say what else ispossible, which is really what
your life has been so much about.
So I'll say what else you sayis possible.
All right here we go, All right.
Thanks for joining us everyone,and remember to never stop
asking the very importantquestion what else is possible?
(44:21):
We will see you next time.
Hey, what's going on everybody?
Welcome to the PossibilityMindset Podcast.
I am Devin Henderson, I'm yourhost and I believe that
something greater is alwayspossible for you.
That is the truth, and I'm herewith my friend, Chad.
How you doing, Chad?
Good how are you?
Good, I'm excited to get intoit with you.
It's been quite a morningalready.
(00:25):
I threw a hat on so I couldlook more like you.
I came in and I was like no,you're not going to out-cool me.
So I put the hat on and he'sstill winning.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
He's still winning the cool contest.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Oh man.
Well, we're going to get intoit with Chad, but first Chad.
I told you this when I came in.
This might be our last dayusing this venue.
I know the listeners are supersad because they love this
background, they love thisatmosphere, they love the random
workers from Minsky's Pizzapassing through every once in a
while.
But this might be our last day.
(00:58):
We do have two guests scheduledfor today, so you get one more
episode, so enjoy it while itlasts.
Just a quick note on our sponsor, et cetera.
They were bought by a newbreakfast franchise or
restaurant I don't know if it'sa franchise Rise and shine is
now the name of the restaurantMinsky's used to own, et cetera
(01:19):
and so they shared this eventspace.
What happened there?
We shared this event space.
You're choked up?
Yeah, I'm getting choked up.
It was so bad, and so nowMinsky's owns it, and so we kind
of don't know for sure wherethat leaves us.
Maybe Minsky's will let us haveit if we schmooze enough with
the boss, but anyway, so getused to possibly a different
(01:40):
background coming up.
None of this is of any.
What's the word consequence toyou?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
But interesting.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
But interesting.
Yeah, you're glad you came nowso you can get the background on
this direction of this podcast.
Anyway, et cetera, we thank youso much for your sponsorship
over the months and yeah, andthank you today for Minsky's,
for allowing us to have at leastone last go at this.
So this is great.
Okay, chad, let's move past thesappy stuff.
(02:07):
That's enough crying from you.
I want to let you know aboutThompson tees.
I am wearing a Thompson tease.
Have you ever heard of thisbefore?
The Thompson t-shirts?
No, basically, think of it likea t-shirt that has super
padding in the armpit area forsweating.
You're a guy who plays music atconcerts.
Do you ever sweat profusely upthere and you're nervous about
(02:29):
what's showing?
Or if the bus is going to start?
Yeah, if the bus is going tostart.
Well, I know for me as anentertainer for so long.
Do you remember thosecommercials when we were a kid,
it was like are you sure thesure deodorant?
And people couldn't lift theirarms because of the sweat stain.
Well, with Thompson tees, youdon't.
You are sure, and you don'teven need the deodorant.
All right, you can still weardeodorant, but anyway, this is
(02:50):
like men's health says, that itis the best undershirts for men
to control armpit sweat.
So the reason I'm bringing itup is because, again, I'm
wearing it today.
I can wear any color now Idon't have to worry about sweat
bleeding through.
This is maybe TMI, but it's alsomaybe very valuable information
if you also deal with the samething.
So go to the show notes, clickon the link, buy a Thompson T.
(03:11):
It will absolutely change yourlife.
All right, chad, here we go.
We're going to get into you now.
Thanks for being here.
Yeah, thank you, I'm going todo your intro, but then I want
to talk about how we met.
Okay, so now, if you've everconsidered a backup plan, what
you really needed was a betterplan.
My guest today is a musicianand entrepreneur whose keynote
(03:32):
concerts raise the frequency forsound techs, ceos and everyone
in between.
So each can rock a life ofgenius.
Let's give it up for ChadBorkwin.
That's it.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
That was it Nice.
I nailed it All right.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
The multi-hyphenate owner of Generation Relevant
Entertainment.
It's an agency on a mission tomake a difference and, using the
power of music, is ignitingpositive change.
One show, one song, onepossibility at a time.
So here he is, chad Borkwin.
Now they're probably wonderingDevin, why don't you do your
homework a little better?
(04:07):
And before you get the filmrolling, why don't you at least
ask him how to pronounce hislast name?
Well, I've actually known Chadfor years now, but we've only
met over Zoom.
So I think in my mind that'show I always said it.
But then I thought well, I'venever actually asked him how do
you say your name.
So I'm glad that I got it.
It's a cool name and it's rarethat people get it right.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Is that right yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
What do they usually say?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Oh, Borkin Birkin, I don't know.
There's been some really weird.
I mean, I actually missed arace in high school because they
were so far off I didn't knowthey were calling my name.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Oh, are you serious?
Yeah, yeah, wow, that's crazy,man.
Like you were in track, yeah,and it was like time to step up
to the line.
It was, and I wasn't there.
Yeah, they're like ChadBaguette, let's go.
And you're like, well, that'sit is.
(05:03):
I don't know about you.
And I was working on a mentalismshow over Zoom, right, because
this is the time where, duringCOVID once that hit all of my
gigs, the calendar justdisappeared.
You probably experienced someof the same thing with your
concerts, and so I thought, hey,I'm just going to grow my hair
out, grow my beard out, and justhibernate for a year or two and
(05:24):
take a break.
Well, then I found out there'sthis thing like you can do over
Zoom like entertainment, and soI decided how can I take my
magic and do it over Zoom?
So I started taking some of thetricks and thinking how can I
do it where there's no one inthe room with me?
They're not hands-on, but wecan do sort of like for lack of
better words mind-reading stuffover the camera.
So I needed an audience, Ineeded a demo video for this, so
(05:46):
I sort of needed like a pseudoaudience to get on Zoom so they
could watch me doing thesetricks.
And it was Preston Bowman, ourmutual friend, that's what it
was who I told him.
Hey, preston, we need like abunch, we need like a dozen
people.
Can you round up some people,some of your people, who like
magic or like entertainment?
Well, you were one of thepeople that he brought on, and
so I met you that day andthought this guy's really cool
(06:08):
and you were a great audienceparticipant.
And then, because of thatconnection, you hired me to do a
show in a bar in Emporia,kansas, just like, a few months
later, the Bourbon Cowboy yeah,what was it called?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Bourbon Cowboy.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Bourbon Cowboy.
Yeah, and that was the firstin-person event I did since
COVID started, so I was sograteful to you for just landing
me something where I could getout in the face of the public
again and do what I love.
So thank you for that.
Never got to thank you inperson.
So when I'm thinking about whatguests do I want, you were
always in the back of my mind.
I'm thinking about what guestsdo I want, you were always in
the back of my mind.
I'm so glad it worked out andglad that we're finally meeting
(06:45):
face to face and I know you'rean interesting guy.
So when we talk about thepossibility mindset, I know
you've had a lot of sort of likechallenges or opportunities in
life to really ask what else ispossible, right, things that
could have gotten you down.
So where do we want to start?
Because I've kind of got a listof things here.
I know that you didn't finishcollege, but I was told that we
(07:06):
should bring that up becausethat's a significant part of
your story.
I went to K-State too, so isthat a good place to start, or
should we even go back furtherwith what exactly you do?
You know what I'm going topause myself.
First of all, are you a keynotespeaker?
I am.
I did not know that.
I thought you were a musicianand just did concerts and so
(07:26):
when I was reading that, I waslike he's a keynote speaker.
You can tell I'm very wellprepared today.
Sometimes this is how podcastsgo.
Tell us what you do right now.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Well, I mean, I've been a musician way longer than
a keynote, so that's probablywhere you got that A keynote is
something that's come on later,but know it's something that's
come on later, later, yeah, uh.
But yeah, I've played musicsince I was a kid, um, and then
I've had this agency, probably13, 14 years now, okay, but we,
the keynote part for me startedwell, really started in some of
(07:57):
my backup plans okay, okay whereI realized those were not good
ideas.
But I didn did learn a lot.
So we had this vitamin companythat we were.
It was a network marketingcompany, yeah, and I was the
local guy to train everybody,okay, and so I just started
doing it.
I really enjoyed that part ofit, yeah, you know, doing the
(08:20):
training people, doing the talks, presentations, that sort of
thing.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Did you have some success with the whole network
marketing, like building yourteam and making some income.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
We had a lot of success over five years, to the
point where we sold our business.
This is just for the part ofthe story because it's funny.
It's funny now.
We sold it for $1.2 millionover an 18-year payout,
contingent on which was $5,000 amonth, contingent on the guy we
(08:53):
sold it to, staying in business.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
It's so funny you're saying this because we had Marty
Fonke on here, who is anacquisition and what's the
buyout or acquisitions?
What's the other word that goeswith that?
Merger?
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Acquisitions and merger like specialist.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
And he talked about that exact thing, that, like
when someone buys you out,there's that whole contingency
aspect of it.
So what's the rest of the story?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Well, it was a great two years and during that time
it gave us the opportunity tostart these keynote concerts
okay um, which is this idea thatit kind of developed over time
from from seeing some things andjust figuring out.
You know, I went to a, a careerday one day.
I got asked to speak on sales.
Okay, and I'm to 300 kids whocared nothing about sales.
(09:42):
I mean, you don't really getinto sales unless you failed a
number of other things a lot oftimes.
You don't really get into salesunless you've failed a number
of other things A lot of times.
You don't just go into sales.
And I could tell these kidswere bored out of their minds
because there was a finance guyand a banker.
And I'm following all this andI'm like who wants to hear about
sales?
And like two hands out of 300.
I had nothing prepared but Isaid, well, who wants to hear
about a rock band?
(10:03):
And they're like everybody wentcrazy.
Well, I just like.
So I told my story, yeah, andit went great and the principal
invited us to come back likethree weeks later and bring the
whole band.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Wow, Was this high school?
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yes, it was.
I think it was yeah, and then.
So we ended up using that or Iused that idea, with some advice
from some other people who haddone it before, to develop a
keynote concert where we wouldgo into these schools and do a
full-scale concert, and thenthere was a character education
keynote that I would do in themiddle of that Nice.
(10:40):
So we did probably 30 schoolsin like one semester almost.
Wow, it was an insane schedule.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
It was fun and that's what kicked off this whole
transition from musician only toalso keynote yeah and how long
ago was that?
Speaker 2 (10:55):
well, that was oh four, no five.
Oh, that was way, yeah.
Um, the group I was playingwith broke up sort shortly after
that, which is a whole story.
It's probably not importantthere, but, uh, I'm sure, I'm
sure we'd love to hear it again.
Well, maybe you don't want toshare it, it's, it's.
It's not just my story, so I'llprobably leave that one alone.
(11:16):
Um the uh.
But you know, at at that time Ididn't have a you know a lot of
other options, so I started anadvertising company.
Um, kind of started when Istarted working for an
advertising company and wasselling these these uh, big,
long, two and a half foot doorhangers to businesses that were
(11:37):
getting delivered to the doors.
Okay, well, they were supposedto get delivered to the doors,
but I, I was selling and I, theywere so easy to sell, it was
going so great.
Then I found out the owner ofthat was not delivering on what
they said.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
So I went back showing up.
They just the product was notgetting.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
She just was not.
She was underfunded and shewasn't getting things done.
So I had to go back around toall those people I sold these
door hangers to say, hey, listen, here's what went down.
Okay, but if you give me, youknow, three or four months,
we're going to start our owncompany and we'll come back and
honor this.
And so we did that and had thatcompany until, I guess it was.
(12:19):
We went through the 08 crashand made it another year or so,
but advertising just nosedivedand our competition was like Val
pack, okay, um, which theycould load as many of those into
an envelope as possible.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
And so they just look keeps getting thicker, but then
it got it started gettingthinner too, I noticed, because,
like, people aren't using thatas much anymore.
Yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
So, anyway, we had a fixed number, we could do our.
So, anyway, we had a fixednumber we could do, so we
couldn't compete price-wise.
But it was at that point, atthe end of that thing, that I
was just like man, I ammiserable, I didn't even want to
be doing it, it was sinking.
And that was the time I andthis is where a lot of my
(13:03):
keynote comes from is, Iremember, thinking you know, I'm
sinking.
If I'm going to sink, I atleast want to do something that
I want to do.
And I just said, I said tomyself I'm just going back after
music, I'm going to go all inon music.
And that was right.
About that time is when we hadstarted big time grain company,
(13:24):
my brother and I, okay, and uh,the agency kind of.
There was an idea of an agencyagain, I'd booked before, but I
had to run my own agency.
Uh-huh, and I won't say it waseasy, but it was the beginning
of what's led us to where we'reat today.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, and it was okay .
It's called the.
What was the grain?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Oh, big Time Grain Company, big Time Grain.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Company.
It's called the grain.
What was the grain?
Oh, big time grain company.
Yeah, that's our country band.
Yeah, where are you from?
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Colby Kansas.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
You're from Colby, kansas.
Okay, way out there.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Like really close to the Colorado border.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
And Nebraska yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Wow, um, and, and so that's the band.
Oh, that's the band.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, okay, the agency is Generation Relevant
Entertainment.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Oh, I see, Okay, okay , so you also booked other bands
.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
That's what the agency does.
Yeah, right, right, okay.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Gotcha, wow, where's that leave you now?
I mean you, is it still?
Speaker 2 (14:28):
you're still with this band and then you give
keynotes on your own or with theband.
Still, uh, but either, or, yeah, we can do we've we've got, uh,
the ability to go in the fullband.
I'm developing something now Ihave not actually done this just
because I haven't put ittogether yet where I'm going to
go in and do a keynote concertwith just me, where I'm doing
all these iconic clips of someof the most iconic guitar solos
(14:52):
out there oh, nice, nice.
And so it would be going fromsongs that you hear.
The solo, you know it is ShookMe All Night Long.
Acdc Everybody knows that solo.
Guns N' Roses you go into thatriff, everybody knows it.
Yeah, kansas, whatever, andjust kind of, I'm working that
into the keynote.
I you know I've done a lot ofkeynotes where it just goes
(15:14):
speak, yeah, but I want toincorporate this in as well okay
, you said kansas.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
I had flashbacks right down the road, like about
a mile shawna mission park.
There's a theater in the park.
I saw a kansas concert there.
They came one time like mysenior year of high school, so
you know, a quarter of a centuryago, and it was like this is
one of the best concerts I'veever been to.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
It was awesome, they were great and that's so cool,
so wow.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
So then, are you still focused on, then, that
whole character development idea?
Is that the crux of yourmessage.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Yeah, I mean, that's evolved.
You know, I started gettingcoaching probably 10, 11 years
ago myself.
Okay, still weekly coaching.
I started reading a ton of justdevelopment books.
Okay, when I say reading,listening, I'm an audio guy
(16:03):
Totally.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
I've been doing that too.
Yeah, I don't know if it'scheating or not, but you still
take in the book.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
I do yeah.
Multitasking and became hugelyfascinated with just what makes
people tick, and then when I didthe podcast interviews in uh
did start doing those duringCOVID as well.
That developed even a moreinterest in what makes people
tick Because you just, I mean,you know how it is If you blank
(16:38):
out at all as a podcast host.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
It's going to get awkward fast, right.
I think I've done it 17 timestoday already.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
I've been counting, but that caused something in me.
Just it's like okay to evenbecome a better listener.
You know, it's a point where Ilike I think everybody should
host a podcast for like a season, even if nobody ever listens to
it because of what it does foryour listening skills.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Yeah, yeah, that's, that's interesting.
So who like?
What would you say, your idealike, if you were to go out and
go after a certain audience,what would that audience be?
Speaker 2 (17:09):
For the keynote.
For the keynote.
Who can resonate most with yourmessage or benefit most from it
apply to everybody into musicand concerts and living a
lifestyle of on the road andwhat that's like and how.
(17:33):
What I learned in all thoseavenues apply to personal growth
, leadership, team developing,all those things.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
So really for anyone.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
It's for anyone.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
The message is so broad that anyone that's like
hey, this guy who niches withthis emphasis of music are
people who resonate with thisthat that's so great.
So a couple fun questions.
What's your most favoriteguitar solo of all time?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
so that evolves a lot .
Every time I learn somethingnew that's challenging to me, it
becomes the most fun, like oneof my most fun solos to play
right now is liza jane by vincegill okay, nice.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Well, I was not expecting.
I was expecting more somethingheavy metal or hard rock, so
that's well, that's vince gillis amazing unbelievable like
like really good also just atthe improv.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yeah, you know, yeah, brilliant I mean, like in
country, a lot of times you youjust get the highlights of the
solo.
You don't have to.
I mean, as long as you're kindof there somewhere, in the
general, nobody's gonna know.
It's not like a yeah you know,vibe it out shook me all night
long.
You know people are gonna know.
Liza jane, though, when I heardthat solo was like I want to
(18:46):
learn this note for note,because I want to learn
everything he's doing in that.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Okay, yeah.
Well, I think some of the bestguitar solos are the simplest
ones that you can like.
Like, if you can sing it, youknow what I mean.
Yeah, like, if you go, oh yeah,and then sing that solo, it's
good.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
But if it's like of like, it's too much for me.
Journey, people are talented.
Yeah, journey, I mean they were.
You know, neil Sean wasbrilliant at that.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Well, and it means they have chops, so it's
impressive.
But as far as listening, that'sjust like.
I like the ones that I can singback later.
I think those are the best.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, you're right yeah yeah, that's incredible man
.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
I've never gotten to like that.
So you're going to have to, wehave to find a way to follow you
and we'll, at the end, we'llget to that Like, how can we
make sure we see you if you'rein, you're in concert, or
anything like that.
So so in terms of your story,you know, let's go back a little
bit, because you're a very Imean, you're a well-rounded guy,
you're.
You've got a lot of, a lot ofparts to you.
I feel like there's all theseand just be surprised.
(19:43):
So tell me about this wholecollege thing and how you didn't
graduate and how you were ableto say, well, I didn't graduate,
what else is possible and whatpossibilities that opened up for
you.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yeah Well, I wanted to go to school for music, okay,
but the advice I got at homewas you can't make any money at
that, and what are you going todo?
Be a music teacher, okay.
So I thought, all right, thisis where my first backup plan.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
I'm understanding what people talk about backup
plans, so I went for business.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Which you know.
I mean I use a lot of businesstoday that I did not get there.
You know a lot of businesstoday that I did not get there,
a lot of business skills.
I went to a JUCO for a coupleof years and went to K-State for
six months before the group wewere in said hey, we're going to
go full-time and go on the road.
(20:39):
It was not a stretch for me tosay enough of this school, I'm
going to go do what I reallywant to do.
We did, we made this leap.
We went and said what I reallywant to do, sure, and we did, we
went.
We, we made this leap.
We went and said we're justgonna do.
We, our agent booked us up, youknow, four to six nights a week
for four or five years.
This was back when you could dothat in in regional groups or
(21:00):
national.
Before you hit the nationalstage we would go from like like
I remember going just up i-29,you know we would start at like
uh, nebraska, and then go tolike sioux city, then sioux
falls, and then uh, fargo, thengrand forks, then winnipeg,
canada, and like I was just, Ididn't have a home, I didn't
(21:22):
have a car, I didn't need any ofthat stuff, I was just just one
place, the next plane.
It was amazing, yeah, and thatwent on for a number of years
until just the the singerdecided one day he was done and
walked out, and that was it.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Wow, so, so yeah.
What would you say to peoplewho you know are thinking about
college, thinking about droppingout or taking a break, because
there's this dream they want topursue?
You know, was it worth it foryou?
Was it the right move?
Looking back, what can youoffer now?
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Well, I think, make sure that you're making the
decision for the right reasons.
You know, my daughter justgraduated K-State and she's got
a about to land a job with a bigpharmaceutical tech company and
she's doing exactly what shewants to do.
She knew she wanted to go toK-State since she was eight
(22:13):
years old.
It was perfect for her.
You know, my son, who's myolder son, did not go to college
.
He is traveling around playingbass guitar in a country band
and helping uh design or uhhelping start a upstart video
game designing company.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Wow, Like father, like son in terms of music,
traveling around going roguewith the country band.
That's great.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Then my youngest son is a junior at the mid American
Nazarene and in business, andhe's probably going to end up,
uh, taking over ourentertainment agency at some
point.
He's working with me right now.
So so I think it's got to beright for the person and they
got to make it for the rightreasons.
I think a lot of times peoplemake it out of a decision, of
(22:58):
what somebody else is trying todecide for them, and, and that's
not the right reason.
You know, I think the idea of agap year for a lot of people is
a good idea too.
You know the ability to just,hey, let's, just let me, let me
just see what happens for a year, take it easy, and I'm not
saying don't do anything for ayear.
(23:18):
You know your parents probablydon't want you to just sit
around playing video games inyour house for a year.
That's not the idea.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Yeah, but I think that's some serious wisdom there
, just knowing your why andhaving the right intention,
doing it for the right reasons.
Because even with me right nowthere's some speaker software
like an operating system thatI'm thinking about buying into.
So I've been asking several ofthe speakers who use this
operating system how is thisworking for you?
And I'm getting kind of a mixof feedback and how it benefits
(23:46):
them and the weak areas of it,and so I have to really not just
be like, well, everybody seemslike they're doing it.
I'll just jump in.
I've got to really assess mycurrent system and if this
investment, this move, learninga whole new system and having my
team learn it is really worththat move.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
So what does it do?
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, without getting too into the
weeds, it really takes a lot ofthe things that you, a lot of
tools or apps that you use inyour business, like your
calendar, your QuickBooks, yourCRM, your newsletters, your
contracts, all that stuff, andkind of puts it all together.
So it's sort of in sync initialinquiry.
It just kind of helps it trackit from initial inquiry to now
(24:26):
there's interest, now they'regoing to book you all the way to
contract and then thank youletters and then putting them
into your long-term CRM, and soit just sounds like a really
nice flow and everything justjives together and it's more
cost-effectly once you get pastthe initial investment because
everything is sort of lumpedtogether.
So, anyway, but that's what itdoes, and so from the outside it
(24:50):
sounds like this could bereally good, like, if it works
the way it sounds like it does,it'd be great.
But I really do have to stop andthink do we have, like what we
have right now?
Is it working really well?
Because we've customized it forus, you know.
So I don't want to do it backto that whole thing, what you
know, doing it for the rightreason.
I don't want to do it justbecause other people seem to be
doing it.
I want to do it because I knowfor sure, I've researched it,
(25:12):
and this is the right move formy business and for me.
Right, that's it.
It's important.
So, man, both of us are gettingthe yeah throat tickles this
morning.
We're both choking up this ismeaningful stuff, uh, so I am
just curious.
Yet how'd you get into music inthe first place?
Like, when did you pick up aguitar for the first time?
Speaker 2 (25:31):
well, uh, it was.
I mean I, I just played aroundan acoustic guitar as a kid, but
so I never got serious about it.
But there was this.
Uh, there was this keynoteconcert that came through my
high school.
It was not called that at thetime okay they had this
patriotic theme.
I was a junior and they wereplaying Rat and Van Halen and
(25:51):
this is the era we were in andmy buddy, who played guitar, was
sitting next to me and I'mthinking this is the most
amazing thing I've ever seen,and he turns to me he goes hey,
why don't you get a guitar andwe'll start a band?
And I like, yes, I mean it wasthat quick that was.
My answer was yes, and thedecision was made because I was.
(26:11):
I was emotionally in the momentof the concert this is, and I
just so I went home, tried tofigure out how to get a guitar
and we started this band andlearned a couple songs wow,
played it.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
How'd you learn?
Speaker 2 (26:22):
just teach yourself, or uh, in the beginning I did
which is I would.
I would call that a mistake.
Okay, because I eventually gotreplaced.
They started a new band withoutme and the drummer, because we
weren't any good.
Okay, so then I had to.
I realized like, okay, I got toget better, but there was
nobody in Colby that could teachme Okay.
(26:44):
So I had to drive to Hays.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
What is that like three, four hours away?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
No, about an hour and a half, yeah, but I mean it was
uphill against the wind and thesnow, right right.
There was no YouTube, you know,to learn, yeah, totally, and
that's where I went andcorrected all the bad habits I
learned on my own.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Okay.
So, you know our story.
I haven't mentioned this yet,but our stories are so similar.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Are they?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
In the sense that I realized that keynote concert
even though you said they didn'tcall it that then was that
thing that planted that seed inyour mind of look what's
possible for you, look what youcould be doing someday, and it
inspired you.
And I was inspired at fifthgrade by a magician who came to
my school and brought me up onstage and got me involved and I
was like, what, if I could dothis, what else is possible?
And then taught myself, youknow, and I wasn't in a band so
(27:36):
I couldn't really be fired, Ijust had you know so I could
grow at my own pace, yeah, atthe time.
And then, um, I went to k stateand while I I did graduate, I
was going to get a master's inmarriage and family therapy, so
that was the plan, but I didn'tcontinue pursuing that because
of entrepreneurship yeah Iwanted to do this other thing.
So it is so weird we just haveand then, and then it was like I
(27:57):
started with entertainment andthen moved to keynote speaker so
it's like we kind of have thesame life in a sense.
Yeah, um, but yours is music,mine's magic, so that's why this
is a fascinating story, uh, sohere it is.
It's like oh, this is my story,just a little bit different
version of it you know, one ofmy favorite shows when it was on
was the Mentalist.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Oh yeah, but I got asked to be your guinea pig on
the Zoom thing.
I was like, yeah, yeah, that'sfunny, man, I still want to know
what's behind the curtain onsome of that.
I don't know if that'savailable information or not.
No, it's not.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
If I tell you any of it, zach has to kill you.
He is the man Right.
Zach has to kill you.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
He is the man Right, zach, all right, well, zach.
Yeah, I would want to meet himat Dark Alley.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah, no doubt.
So there was something about ahotel fire I was told that I
need to ask you about.
So there's so many parts ofyour story I'd love to hear.
But tell me about the hotelfire.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yeah, it's funny.
I tell this story in thekeynote and I learned from
comedians to watch listening tocomedians on how to.
Actually I used to tell thewhole story one time at the end.
Now I split it up and I'll tellyou where I stop it as we go
through it and then save therest until the end.
(29:11):
It's like the cliffhanger.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
So we were playing in Glen Elder Kansas, this
lumberyard thing, and it wasopening pheasant hunting season
weekend, and so we had notgotten hotel rooms ahead of time
because we weren't thinking wego to Beloit.
No hotel rooms available.
It's 2 am, except for this oldPorter Hotel, yeah, and it's
(29:35):
kind of a half hotel, halfresidence in.
So we get rooms there, ourmanager from wichita gets his
own room and the other seven ofus pile into a room because it's
your bed.
You're not there to pheasanthunt no you're just among we
just, we just need to sleep.
Yeah, yeah and uh.
So, so, yeah that's.
We're spread out on the floor,the beds everywhere, and about
(29:58):
4am I think, the uh, the alarmsgo off at a fire alarms and
you're delirious.
The sound guy runs out in thehall says man, we're under
attack.
He comes running back in thedrummer, paul, he, he goes out
in the hall.
He just comes back and he goesman, there's a fire, we got to
(30:18):
go.
And so I, I grabbed my twoguitars, I, I put on my pants
with a Velcro fly and had tohead it out.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Velcro fly.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Wow, I don't even know if they do that anymore.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Well, I hope not.
It's a bad idea.
Whoever thought that was a goodidea?
My ZZ Top is the only one thatreally benefited from that.
Yeah, so, um.
So we're out there and andsmoke's coming out of the
windows and and our manager'swindow flies open and he's, he's
out, he goes there's, there'slike old ladies on my floor that
(30:55):
can't get out.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Oh my gosh.
Okay, sorry, I thought you weregoing to say it was a false
alarm.
It'd be, because I've been inso many hotel, false alarms.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
But this is real fire .
It's real fire.
This just got real.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
So Paul, craig and I Craig was the singer we go back
in and we're going up and we'reon the second floor and it's so
smoky we have to crawl to get tothe rooms.
We get to the first roomUnbelievable dude and Craig was
able to pick up that lady andcarry her out.
And then we get to the nextroom and Paul's a big guy I'm
(31:30):
not, but neither one of us couldhave gotten close to carrying
this lady ourselves.
So we decide we'll do ittogether.
And she doesn't want to leave.
Um, she's, she's, I don't knowif she's got dementia or
something, but she doesn't wantto leave.
And so we're having to lockarms like this underneath her to
carry her out.
And so we head towards thestairs and we get to hold on
(31:54):
that position that you'reholding.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
If you're listening, your arms are just straight in
front of you.
How can you precariouslybalance a human being?
Speaker 2 (32:00):
well, it was not easy and she was heavy.
I felt like my arms were gonnafall off.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
But was she sitting on?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
your arm.
Well, we were just kind ofholding her, I, I think.
So I don't quite remember thatpart.
Okay, yeah, it's a little smoky.
It's a little smoky and fuzzy,yes, yes.
So we get to the uh, we get tothe top of the stairs and we're
getting ready to go down and Ifeel that Velcro, fly, go.
And this, this is.
(32:27):
This is where this is at thebeginning of the keynote.
This is where I stop and changesubjects and so I go on to
other subjects.
But anyway, then I come back atthe end of the keynote.
I'm giving away my keynote.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
This is the reprise.
This is the velcro fly repriseyes and so.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
So I'm sitting at the top of the stairs with my
velcro fly popped in and uh, andwe start going down the stairs
and we get down the first firstflight and my, my pants are now
down, to, you know, around mylegs.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
I'm trying to hold lower Lower thighs, lower thighs
yeah, just above the kneesstill.
So you can kind of do thecowboy walk and kind of keep it
at least a little bit of yourdignity intact.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Yes.
I'm visualizing this, it'sexactly it.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
I'm trying to picture it so vividly, but I am Because
this is hilarious.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Yeah, this will never leave you now.
And so we get to the bottom ofthe of at the stairwell and the
door flies open and there's fourfiremen there and my pants are
now down around my knees holdingthis this elderly lady and I
(33:31):
look up and and they're lookingat me and they're like what are
you doing?
I mean it's just wow and therewas absolutely no good answer.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
A good answer for that.
So I just we set her down, Ipull my pants up and we walked
out and no more questions, nomore questions asked.
And it was years later.
No more questions asked, and itwas years later.
(34:17):
I was just thinking about thatstory, you know, and how that
lady didn't want to leave, andhow much our lives, how much our
lives could get to that pointwhere we've so slowly just not
gone after our dreams, not goneafter what we wanted to do, not
paid attention to the littlethings that can help us get
there to the point where we endup in the Porter hotel on fire
and we would rather stay therethan than leave, have somebody
help us leave, you know, and anduh, it was a really important
lesson for me to figure out formyself at one point and I
thought, well, this would be agood thing to incorporate in and
(34:38):
share with other people.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
It's a powerful.
It's a powerful lesson andbrilliant, brilliant that you
pulled that out of it.
Because, yeah, immediately mymind goes oh, what fire am I
stuck in right now?
And I'm sure all your audiencemembers are thinking the same
thing, and I'm sure that peoplelistening like I'm in that room,
the place that I thought wascomfortable, a place.
I'd worked so hard to get to andpoured my life.
And then, all of a sudden,there's this unexpected moment
(35:01):
of it might be time for a change.
But kicking and screaming they.
Can you know they're going tohave to drag me out of here, but
, uh, it might save your life.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
That's, that's powerful man.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
And it's caused me to just lean into change that as
opposed to.
You know, even if it'suncomfortable or or scary, or
you know, I I'm saying yes tothings quicker that will lead me
to that and no to thingsquicker that will keep me from
(35:34):
it.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
You know, time suckersers, that sort of thing,
yeah, yeah that that's a hardthing to do is to decide which
things have an roi and whichdon't.
You know um, do you have a?
Do you have sort of a gauge forthat?
When something new comes yourway, you're presented with some
opportunity.
Is there sort of a way tomeasure?
How do you say yes or no?
(35:56):
How do you know?
Speaker 2 (35:59):
The tools I use for myself that are most effective
is my first thing in the morning.
I start every day slow, exceptit was a little harder today,
sorry.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Yeah, we're here kind of early.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
It's all good.
No, I still did it, though.
I just set my alarm a littleearlier.
And the?
Are you familiar?
Familiar with the alpha state?
Speaker 1 (36:22):
alpha state?
Speaker 2 (36:23):
yeah no it's that, it's that space between sleep
and awake, where and it'susually first thing in the
morning for most people,sometimes it's before bed, okay,
mine's, mine's in the morning,where your mind has not jumped
to all the things you have to dothat day, all those things, and
(36:44):
you're just kind of coming outof sleep.
And if I will meditate duringthat time, if I will pray during
that time, if I will do I doWim Hof breathing, if you ever
heard of him.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Are you familiar?
Speaker 1 (36:56):
with that I don't, is that the five in, or or is that
the eight in four hold, andthen uh seven out.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
It's the.
I did this when I got COVIDfirst time to get rid of the
cough, and that's where Ilearned it.
Um, you, you breathe in 40times really deep, and then you
hold it for as long as you canOkay, cause I could not get rid
of that cough.
And um, I got rid of the coughin a week with this and within
two and a half weeks I'm sorry Ididn't finish how you do it.
(37:23):
You breathe in that many times,then you hold it for as long as
you can, then you do a recoverybreath for 15 seconds and then
you repeat as many times as youwant, like three to five times.
Wim Hof W W I M H O F.
Yeah, I was able to hold mybreath within two and a half
weeks, up to four minutes and 15seconds.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Wow, it's like David Blaine level stuff.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Yeah and it's.
It wasn't just me.
I've got friends that I've toldus that can do the same thing.
Now it's not Um and it's so.
So that's the physical benefits.
But what I noticed is when Iwould start doing that first
thing in the morning is when youeven remove air from the from
as a factor, you know you're noteven breathing anymore, for for
(38:06):
that you know two to fourminutes.
Then your mind even is morerelaxed and more open for
whatever comes in that day as amessage.
And normally I get one or twothings that during that time
that I should do that day.
It might be just call somebody,might be, you know, some kind
(38:28):
of task, but if I will followand listen to that and apply
those things, then it'seffective.
Now back to your question.
If I've got something that'sbeen presented to me, I don't
want to make those answers whenI'm tired or come up or try to
make.
Come up with my what I'm gonnado when I'm tired.
I wait until the morning andthat's when I ask those
(38:49):
questions, and then that's thefirst step.
Then I'm going to start diggingin and looking at facts and say
, okay, is everything real herethat I'm being presented?
Is this a real opportunity anddoes it line up with my ultimate
vision and goal?
Okay, because where I think Iused to get hung up a lot and a
(39:13):
lot of people get hung up on, isthey get really wrapped up in
the how of things and not thewhy and the end goal and and the
house.
What slows us down if we taketoo much control of that?
If we release the how and justkind of let those messages come
as they come, you know, prayabout it, ask, ask for those
(39:35):
answers and wait, then we canmake the process so much easier
on ourselves and a lot of timesquicker too and with less pain.
The pain I've had most of mylife is because I was trying to
manipulate things.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Sure, yeah, I feel you.
Yeah.
So the big thing it sounds likepause, wait, like don't make
rash decisions, especially whenyou're tired or when you're
hungry, right, or when you'restressed out or like weighed
down with other things.
Make sure you've got somemental clarity and space to
actually think it through andthen really consider does this
align with my goals and the mainthing, or is it just?
Going to be a distraction, andthen it's not going to serve me
(40:12):
or anyone else around me.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Yeah, yeah, and, if any, if there's anything that's
that's saying I shouldn't dothat, if it's connected to fear,
then I want to pay attention tothat, because fear is the enemy
of progress.
So a lot of times I'll listento that and say, okay, if that's
the only thing stopping me,then I need to move forward.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Okay, yeah.
So in other words, fear is likelike I thought you were first.
I thought you were saying ifyou're afraid, maybe it's like
indicated you shouldn't, butyou're saying that like, maybe
that's a good, like that ladywas afraid to leave that hotel
room for some reason, eventhough we all know it was the
right decision.
But that's like if I'm afraidmaybe that's a sign I'm supposed
to do this.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Yeah, and it is, am I afraid, because of old tapes
playing.
You know, I mean, I've got 10years of being coached and I
have way more years of lifebefore that that I want to
sometimes regress back to if I'mnot careful.
So I need to pay attention towhat's causing that Assess, that
fear a little bit right, yeah,for sure, I like that.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Okay, last one important question your tattoos.
I want to get a picture of thisat some point, zach, and show
this on the YouTube video.
Can you just give us a quickrundown of what the Roman
numerals and the uh, the heartsand the clubs are about?
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Yeah, that's, that's well, that's my kid's birthdays.
Oh, okay, Uh, there, Nice, Um.
And then that was my wifelife's idea of the king of
hearts.
Ah, nice.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
That's great.
So basically birthdays in Romannumeral form.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
Yeah.
What's funny is the firsttattoo artist didn't want to do
it.
He's like I don't do thisbecause everybody screws up
Roman numerals, oh yeah, andthen I put it on and then
they're mad because it's not theright date or something.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Yeah, that's funny man, but I guess most people
would never know They'd be likeI yeah, I believe you.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
I'm not like wait a minute.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Yeah, nobody's doing the math.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
Yeah, exactly man, all right, well, wow, well, hey,
man, it's good to finally meetyou in person.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
Yeah, you too.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
And catch some of your stories.
Is there anything significantthat we missed?
That's like, oh, we should, weshould hit this before we run.
That you're feeling like youwanted to really share man, I'm
just, I'm just grateful that youcalled.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
I love these opportunities to to just talk
about this stuff.
Stuff's pretty random, but Imean it's just there's.
There's so much in life that Ithink we can do to to get more
out of it, and what you're doinghere is you're bringing that
out of people and and thenyou're you're you're giving it
freely to anybody that willlisten.
(42:42):
I think that's awesome.
So thank you.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Yeah, for sure.
Well, thank you, and seriously,this is, this is good stuff.
Maybe, maybe in your lifeyou're afraid to move on to the
next thing.
Someone's trying to drag youout of the hotel room that's on
fire and you're just like Idon't want to go.
Um, hopefully this has inspiredyou today.
I'm sure it has.
Share this um message withpeople you know, forward this on
and um, yeah, thank you so much, chad.
(43:05):
And and, by the way, how can,how can, they get ahold of you
if they want to book a keynoteconcert?
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Well, our agency site is just generation relevantcom.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
Yeah, all right.
So that's the best place to goto connect with you in every way
, and then will your like anykind of schedule, like tour
schedule or any appearancesyou're going to make.
Will that be on there?
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Yeah Well, no, that's our band site, which is
bigtimegraincom.
Okay, yeah, so if they go tothere, they can see, do you
travel much outside of Kansas?
I do, yeah, you do.
We do a lot, probably five toten states a year.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
Okay, all right, so he might be coming to you, so
check it out, all right.
Well, hey, once again, thanks,et cetera, just for your help
and your support over the years,and Minsky's for letting us use
this space this morning Give usa five-star review on Apple
that would, on YouTube,subscribe, like, share the links
(44:00):
.
We appreciate it.
Don't forget to check outThompson Tees See Dry as a I
don't know desert.
There it is All right, y'all,we're going to sign off with our
tagline.
We're going to say what else ispossible, which is really what
your life has been so much about.
So I'll say what else you sayis possible.
All right here we go, All right.
Thanks for joining us everyone,and remember to never stop
asking the very importantquestion what else is possible?
(44:21):
We will see you next time.
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