Detroit Kid Told He'd Never Amount to Anything Built a Speaking Empire

Transcript

And she goes, “We need more of that in the world.” When you have 14 year old girls or 16 year old little girls coming up to you, waiting to talk to you and saying, “You saved my life. Thank you for being here, Johnny D.” It took somebody, my mom and dad tell me these things all the time, but, but you told me, you told me that I could do it. Welcome to the automotive advantage. Grow your business and get smarter in just one hour.

Welcome back everybody to the Automotive Advantage. Justin, today we’re going to explore the art of motivation. How’s your motivation level today, buddy? Pretty high, honestly. Really? Yeah, I’m feeling pretty good today. Yeah, I knew we had. But here’s what I like about this the most. Our guest today is a podcaster. He’s a professional speaker. And I haven’t seen someone more nervous to be on someone else’s podcast than our guest. So this is fun. We’re mixing it up today.

This is going to be a good time. Do you want to introduce our esteemed motivational speaker today? This, ladies and gentlemen, is Johnny D. He’s known as the motivational cowboy, and he’s got a super diverse empire that he’s built. So we’re going to talk about a bunch of stuff with Johnny D. Thank you for being on the Automotive Advantage, my guy. Justin, you are so right. I just got to say that it is so weird being on this side of the microphone, not on that side.

I asked Jamie, I’m like, “Hey, can you let me know what you’re going to ask me?” He’s like, “Absolutely not.” So I have no idea. Yeah, but I’m going to get through it. You guys, I can’t even believe I’m on your show. The kind of people you guys have on your show, and you’re going to ask me, you must have had like six people, and they said no. It’s like, “All right, who do we have around town?”

We don’t have like a deep bench yet. So it is, if you get a slot on the show, it’s because someone else canceled, or it’s just like, “I’m not coming on.” They found out we have no budget. But you were around, so that’s good. Oh, you don’t have a budget? All right, see you guys. We do not have a budget. His hand gestures are even better. They’re better. They’re better when he’s on camera. Yeah, it’s good.

All right, Johnny, let’s talk a little bit about the branding, what you built. You speak professionally for a living. How did you develop this? How’d that happen, huh? We’re going to explore all of this. So start in, where do we begin with you? Let me start with the negative stuff. And what I mean by that is, in second grade, I got held back. They told me I couldn’t read very well, couldn’t spell very well, couldn’t communicate very well. In fourth grade, I heard somebody in the school tell my mother, “Don’t expect much from your kid.

Your son will never amount to anything.” And I overheard that. And I went a long time thinking that, should I listen to them, or should I do my own thing? And I’m glad I did, because I’m doing everything that they told me I wasn’t, and I’m doing it today. It’s my 25th, 26th year doing it professionally, so making a living. So let me start by saying that. When I see the listeners out there and the people watching your podcast, when people tell you no, don’t listen to them. I take that as fuel to fuel your fire, to keep it going in your belly. And people ask all the time, right? I mean, I’ve spoken in front of a arena of 40,000, 50,000 people, right? And they’re like, “Do you ever get nervous?” I go, “I get nervous when it’s 12 people.” I still do. And when I say get nervous, it’s because I want to do a good job. It’s because I just want that one person to come after the show and say, “Thank you. You made a difference in my life.” And I believe that over the years, 25 years of doing this, it happens all the time, and that’s the coolest feeling in the world. So if you’re listening and you’re watching this podcast, when people tell you no, take that as fuel, and just keep doing what you want to do in this world. I hope I answered your question.

You know, we’re really good. I mean, there’s a bunch to go on. You ask the next question. You get to go on. I feel like everyone who listens to the automotive advantage is used to people telling them no, right? And I feel like if you’re in this industry, all of your choices probably sounded ridiculous to normal people. It’s like, “I’m going to open a speed shop. I just need to get a million dollars from the bank.” And the bank’s like, “No.” And then it’s like, “Mom and Dad, can I get a million dollars?” “No.” “Okay, well then I’m just going to start it with 50 cents that I have, and I’m going to make it work.” And then they make it to where they are. So I don’t think no is something people haven’t heard a lot, but it is hard when people tell you no.

Justin, before you ask the question, when you were saying that, it reminded me of when I first became a motivational speaker. Guys, we’re talking, I was 28 years old back then. I gave myself two years to make it in the business, okay? Now, we’re old enough to know that, you know, they had a thing back in the day, and they were a business card machines. You can go plug in your name and a little logo or whatever, and I went to the truck stop, and I made, I got 25 business cards for like $5. And it said, “Motivational speaker.” And man, I looked at that card with my name on it, and I’m like, “I’m a motivational speaker now.”

Never spoke yet, but I was a motivational speaker, and sometimes you have to see your name on something to know that it’s real inside you. And I’ll never forget that day when you were talking, it just made me think about that day. Kind of like you, when you first started your company, and you just put the word office on a door, you knew that you had to walk through that door every day and look at that little plaque that said office, and that was your office. And look what you’ve built.

See, he keeps trying to podcast on our podcast, but we’re in charge of the questions around here, Johnny. All right? This is now a competitive sport. This is a competitive podcast now. Brian Lones tried to go competitive with us. It didn’t work out for him either. How did you even decide to be a motivational speaker? Like, that seems like such an insane career choice, probably still today, to be like, “That’s the thing I picked.” Do you remember being like, “That’s what I want to do”? Yeah.

Yeah. I’ll never forget the day that it happened. I didn’t even know what a motivational speaker was, guys. I was a marketing director for a Fortune 500 company, and this was back in the day of Amway, okay? Remember when they had the tapes and the Walkmans, and my buddy was out for a run, and I said, “Man, what are you doing?” He was like, “Oh, breaking in a new pair of tennis shoes.” And he started laughing. I’m like, “Okay, you’re a funny guy.” I go, “What are you listening to?” And he goes, “Oh, my God.” He goes, “This guy is a motivational speaker.” I said, “Well, what’s that?” He goes, “He kind of reminds me of you.” I’m like, he goes, “When I’m done listening to these tapes, I’ll let you borrow them and you can listen to them.” And I got done listening to them, and I was fired up, and just telling stories, and I’m like, “This guy’s doing everything that I’m doing to my sales team every single day.” So I started listening to more tapes, and then one day I said, “You know what? I think I can do this.”

So I got kind of cocky, and I picked up that tape, and I had a guy’s number on it. Larry D’Angie, Pennsylvania, called him, and I said, “Hey, listen, I want to do what you do.” And he’s like, “Yeah, you and everybody else in the world.” And now people are doing that to me. They’re like, “I can do what you do.” He goes, “You go and do this, this, and this. Don’t call me back until that happens.” I did this, this, and this, and that, that, and that. I called him back, and he’s like, “Oh, my God. Like, you’re serious.”

Like I said, I gave myself two years, and that was the day that when I quit my job, I was like, “Oh, boy, you just went from making a good living, marketing director, Fortune 500 company, everything’s right, driving a new car, have a nice place to live, and then going home saying, “Dad, I quit my job.” And him saying, “How stupid are you?” I mean, how many times have you guys heard that in your life? You know what I mean? You want to do something cool, and someone says, “What? You?”

And my dad looked at me and says, “Well, who’s going to listen to you? I don’t even listen to you.” Right? And I thought to myself, “No, I’m going to do this.” And I’ll never forget, man, I gave, I think, 46 or 47 free presentations until I got that first one. And it’s kind of like sales, man. I’ve heard enough people on your show that, you know, you’re after that next gig, that next sale. And I’ll never forget, I got $250 for a 20-minute talk. I still have the check in my man room to this day when I walk out of my garage. There it is. I have it, you know, in an old plaque from back in the day, and it has, you know, a dollar, and it says $250 speaking fee. Let me tell you guys something. That day that I booked myself, I was so nervous, I was puking across the street. Why? Because now I’m a professional. The free ones were free.

Who cares if nobody was motivated? I was working on my craft. But all of a sudden, you were going to pay me to come in and motivate your employees. And that day, I learned that it’s okay to puke before a gig, and I just did it. I went there and I blew their socks off, and I never looked back. Thank God it didn’t work out. My backup plan, I knew you were going to ask. My backup plan was either a police officer or a firefighter. Why? Because my parents knew people. I had a backup plan. But that brings me to another thing. People always say, “Don’t burn a bridge.” Are you kidding me? Guys, I’m telling you right now, I burned every single bridge. And those of you watching and listening to me right now, I say burn all the bridges. Why? Because you can’t go back. When you have something in your belly and in your mind, and you have a dream, and you have goals, you don’t want to go back to what you did do. You know what I’m talking about? I’m getting fired up, so thanks, guys, for asking. It’s making me think about my past. And I just think that it’s cool to be able to think that, you know what?

People think differently. I wake up every day, and I might not be motivated all the time, but I know how to motivate myself. the grind like for a motivational speaker? Like, all that sounds good. It was hard to get going. You get your first gig. It must just be easy after that, right, John? Yeah, right. Dr. Jamie, money, you’re funny. Listen, at the end of the day, it’s like, even today, right? You know, before I came here to be on your guys’ show, I get three emails and saying, “Hey, we want pricing. We want this and we want that.” I just had three weeks off.

And, man, I was kicked back, and some days I’d be in my nice patio having a couple of adult beverages, and I’m like, “Man, life is great. You worked hard for this, and now you just get to hang out and be a part of this.” And then all of a sudden, it’s like, you’re working. Listen, these people that say, “Oh, it’s easy for you. You’re a motivational speaker.” Last night, I was up to 1 o’clock in the morning sending emails, getting ready for podcasts, selling books. I mean, I feel like a clown, right, with no makeup. You’re juggling all this stuff all the time. I always say that I literally feel like a modern-day clown because I’m going from gig to gig. Listen, some days there are times I get off an airplane,

repack, and leave the next morning for another gig. You don’t care where I was the night before or where I’m going tomorrow. You’re paying me to motivate your people today. And that’s where people don’t understand the grind. And now I just joke with people. I’m like, “You don’t pay me to be on stage to motivate your people. You’re paying me to travel.” And especially these last couple of months. But you know what I mean? So, yeah, I mean, the grind is tough, but the grind is fun.

I found, finally, after 25 years, I found some balance in my life. And that is being able to say, “Hey, you know what? This can be put right over there. No one’s going to call me because I’m not going to pick up. Justin, you know all about that. I’m joking.” And listen, getting on my bike, and I took up biking, and I’ll ride for 20 miles, or I’ll go and walk for 5 miles. And having that peace is so cool. Listen, you can make all the money in the world.

But if you’re not enjoying life, then what is it really for? So I’ve learned to— I love the hustle, but I found balance, and I like being able to go for a walk or get on my bike and go for a ride. That’s a good lesson for lots of entrepreneurs, I think. Oh, yeah, I know people that are just burnt out from trying to— But I mean, it took you 25 years to figure that out, so it’s kind of typical. But where does the energy come from? Were you always energetic?

Because in this industry, in my life, it’s easy to be a negative Nancy, it’s easy to be a downer, it’s easy to work yourself to death, and then just drive home with the radio off and just be sad about things. But every time I’m around you, the energy level’s high. It’s not an act for people that are listening to this, like, “Oh, Johnny’s doing that thing. This is how you are all the time.” So where does that come from? Are you internal? Are you doing things to make yourself that way? Or has it always just been there?

First of all, great question, and I appreciate and love negative people. And you’re probably going, “Well, why would you say that?” Well, because if it wasn’t for negative people, I wouldn’t have a job. So I love negative people. But what was the question again? I forgot. See, this is why he’s a good podcast, because he just has to ask and then he just blacks out. Where do you find the energy? Are you naturally energized? So I get that question a lot.

Do you guys remember Richard Simmons? Those of us that are a little bit older, people say, “Who were the people that motivated you and inspired you?” He was one of them. Not because of him so much, but what he did to people. “I’m sweating to the oldies?” I mean, come on. He had people eating out of his hands. Like, literally, he was a great storyteller. So when I look at that and I walk out of the house and I’m not motivated and I go to the gas station or something and someone says, “Hey, how are you?” I’m like, “Oh, man, I’m glad he asked.” And they’re like, “Oh, my God. What’s wrong with that guy?” And I’m like, all of a sudden I see that smile on their face. I’m like, “That’s cool. That’s what life is about.” And you ask if I was always like that. The coolest question, which that is, is, and I should say the coolest answer to this is, I love looking at what people wrote in my junior high and high school yearbook. And that’s still the fan mail that I get today and they’re saying the same thing. That’s when I knew that I’ve always been that guy. Maybe I wasn’t on stage. Like I said, I didn’t even know what a motivational speaker was. So I know that it’s authentic. I know that it’s real when people wrote it back then. I hope I answered your question. Give

me some tips for the jaded among us who are driving around listening to this right now or watching this on YouTube. What can they do? Where can they find a little bit of extra spark in their day? What advice do you have for them? Go to my social media. No, but I’m joking. Go to motivationalcoboid.com. There’s all my social media there. But here’s the thing. Here’s the thing. Start your day off with something productive. Get up in the morning and just do something easy. You’re saying like what? Have a cup of coffee? No. I make my bed.

I make my bed every single day. Why? Because it makes me feel good about myself. I accomplished something. If nothing else gets done that day, I still made my bed. And yes, I’m single. That’s why I have to make it. You guys are married. You guys don’t have to make your own beds. But even when I’m at a hotel and I’m on the road, I do that. And people look at me like, what? You make your bed at the hotel? And I’m like, listen, I’m getting ready for a gig or I’m going to do this or I’m going to do that. I need to feel good about myself.

There’s something important for me to reflect to in things that you’ve done. Listen, I go through bad days just like everybody else. And sometimes I reflect back to I go out to my man cave and I look at pictures from 25 years ago when I had no gray. And there I am. And it’s like, man, I’ve been doing it. They told me that I wasn’t going to do this and I’m still doing it. How many people listening right now are watching your podcast? And they’re like, yeah, I remember when I used to get fired up all the time to go to into work. I’m like, man, go into work. And if you have to blare some music and you’ve got to dance, you’ve got to do these things, then do it. The only person that you have to answer to is really you. You have to be able to look in the mirror and tell yourself that you’re outstanding. I tell people all the time, I’m like, listen, you have to say, I’m outstanding. Go ahead and say it with me right now. If you’re driving, don’t do it. But if you’re at home, just say, I’m outstanding. And listen, do it in the mirror. Tell yourself that you’re outstanding. That might be the only positive person you talk to all day long. And listen, every once in a while, we all like a kiss now and then blow yourself a kiss if you want to. You know, I mean, you have to have fun with it. Motivation isn’t just how you do it. These are the tips because everybody’s different. I’m going to give you six tips right now. And you’re like, that’s stupid. I’m never going to do that. But then somebody else is going to be like, hey, I did this today. But cool. It starts with one thing.

You’re not going to all of a sudden be me walking around going, all right, yeah. You know what I mean? You’re not going to do that. So tips for the first one is just doing something productive in the morning. Get your day started out on the right foot. And listen, it has to be something small, especially if you are— if you know you’re a negative Nancy, just walk in and blow the socks off somebody. Walk into your shop tomorrow and just say, hey, how are you?

And they’re like, fine. And you’re like, hey, you’re not going to ask me how I’m doing? And they’re like, how are you doing? Outstanding. Thank you so much for taking the time to ask. And watch the smile on their face. Watch their face light up after they say, who the heck are you right now? So there’s a tip. Tell somebody else that they’re going to have a great day. The only answer is to himself. I know he’s not married when he says something

like that. Also, I wrote down no tips because I’m not going to do any of those things. So I’m going to have to find my own way to do this. I have recently— because I’ve been complaining recently— that everything’s moving too fast. With AI and everything, it’s just like anything that you had a week to do before, you have five days, four days, three days, one day, an hour now. So I have recently been like, I’m going to go to a coffee place and I’m going to drink my coffee there, which is a crazy move. I’m not going to get it to go and drink it while driving, while texting, while answering emails. Like, I’m going to find 30 minutes for me in the morning to try to do this.

Amen. That’s exactly how I feel when I go for a walk or I ride my bike. That’s it. All I need is that little bit of time for me, me time. There’s nothing wrong with that. Actually, you need that. People need that. They need to get away from the shop. They need to get away from the grind. Because let me tell you something, after they do something like that, they’re going to come back more fired up for the rest of the day. All of a sudden, an eight-hour day, they’re going to be like, oh man, I got four more hours in me. This is great. So you literally gave up 30 minutes to get four more hours, and the people around you are going to love you.

Johnny, describe the people or the organizations that hire you, and then give me your rate. I’d love to know what’s the most anybody’s paid to hear you get them fired up. Is it okay to talk money? Of course it’s okay to talk money. I feel like Dr. Jamie Meyers would be asking me for a loan after this. You know what I mean? So my rate is $15,000 plus expenses, and that’s for me to come in and give a keynote talk. Now listen, that sounds like a lot of money and stuff like that, but what I don’t want is people to think, oh, that’s his rate. I can’t afford him. I’m not going to call him. Guys, let me tell you something. When I gave up everything over 25 years ago, I said I will never do it for the money.

And you talked about me being me right now, and what motivates me, and what inspires me. Guys, it’s because I love walking into a place that only has $1,500. And Justin, me and you talked about this. What do you have in your budget for a speaker? As long as money’s now not coming out of my pocket, I’m all in. I mean, I just had a school leadership call me. They want me to do a big conference, and they said, “This is all we have.” I said, “Perfect. I’ll fly myself out there with that.” I am not going to tell 400 students, “No, you can’t afford me.” Now, guys, I can do that because I have better paying gigs, and corporations do have that kind of money for speakers. Does that make sense? So I would love to say that this is just this,

but as long as I know that somebody is not manipulating me and saying, “Oh, I’m sorry that we only have this,” when I know they have more because they’ve had other speakers come in. No, I think it makes total sense, and I think a lot of us can learn from that. I often help folks on the marketing and business development knowing that it ain’t going to pay off for me, but it feels like the right thing, and it comes back around, doesn’t it,

Johnny? 100%. And listen, guys, especially these days, listen, if I go to a school and I do something for $2,000 or $3,000, and that’s with expenses, that’s a whole deal. And people think, “Oh, no, that’s still a lot of money. Well, it’s really not. You’ve got to pay taxes on it. That’s what happened. It’s gone.” And then you’ve got expenses, so I’m walking out of there making $700 or $800. Guys, I went to Alaska a year and a half ago, Alaska, to speak in their villages, and I thought, “That’s the last state that I can take off my bucket list.” I’ve spoken in every single state. I’ve motivated and inspired people all over the country.

And when I went to Alaska, I thought I was just checking it off my bucket list. Until you get into a place that is not like Michigan, and these kids go to school, and they spend 16 hours at school because that’s all they have, they’re doing activities afterwards. They’re doing sports. And I’m like, “Well, hey, if I’m going to be there, if I’m going to be in these villages, then I want to speak to everybody.” I was on the radio. I was on the TV. I was speaking at different places, and I didn’t get paid for it. Why? Because the school paid me to be there. And I’m not going to just sit around for six days and just speak once. And I had people, I would do community events, and I got out there that I was doing these community events, and they started bringing their prisoners to these. Now, I didn’t know. They weren’t in jump suits or anything like that. And I had this lady afterwards, and I’m not bragging when I say these things. I’m saying these things out of a place where this is why you don’t do it just for the money.

And this lady, she gave me one of these, and I thought, “Oh, man, did I say something wrong? Did I, was I not politically correct?” Because, I mean, things in Alaska are a lot different than they are here. And you’re in these small villages, and I thought, “Oh, man, I said something wrong. Something slipped. I, whatever.” And she starts crying. And she’s like, “Let me tell you something. I’ve never seen men sit here like this for an hour and ten minutes to listen to a man, motivate them, and inspire them.” She goes, “Can I take you over there, and can they hug you and meet you?”

And she goes, “We need more of that in the world.” When you have 14-year-old girls or 16-year-old little girls coming up to you, waiting to talk to you and saying, “You saved my life. Thank you for being here, Johnny B.” It took somebody, my mom and dad, telling me these things all the time, but… But you told me. You told me that I could do it. That’s where the inspiration comes. That’s where, you know, I will never, ever tell somebody that you can’t afford me. That happened one time, guys.

One time. And I had a good friend, and I got a little cocky, right? When things are good, things are great, right? You’re traveling, you’re doing things, you’re buying things, you’re making money, there’s money in the account, you don’t have to eat potatoes every day. And I’ll never forget, I’m like, “Yeah, this person called, they don’t have enough money.” And he literally just kind of snagged me, and he’s like, “Oh, what happened to the Johnny D that said he will never, ever do it, or won’t do it?” He’ll always do it because he wants to make a difference. And now you’re telling me you’re doing it because someone doesn’t have enough money?

Guess what, guys? I left there, I picked up the phone, I called that person, and I said, “What do you have?” And I went and smoked there. I mean, that’s what life is about, right? You know, it’s great to have these things in life, and these physical things. Nice cars, big engines, all these things that you guys are around all the time. But if it’s not really worth it, if you’re not seeing the smile on somebody’s face, and then is it really worth it? Because money, let me tell you something, money does not bring happiness. Money brings freedom.

When I can pay my bill, it’s a whole lot nicer these days, right? I’m not getting cars repossessed. I know where I can go and eat. It’s different. But I think sometimes people forget about the passion that they used to have. And it shouldn’t be about the money. Yeah, I agree with that. I mean, there are so many shops that I’m in every day. They’re just filled with cars. You wouldn’t even imagine being around. And they’re owned by the person who’s miserable. And I’m the same way. And it’s just like, “What are we doing?” We’ve forgotten that this was the dream the whole time. We finally have it. You got everything in place, how you want it. And we’re going to be complaining because we don’t have the other thing that we want. So, yeah, it’s a good lesson. I mean, I love the… I think also everyone that does what we all do for a living, at a certain point, stops doing the freebies or the little cheap things because they’re like, “Well, I’m growing this business. My rate is X now.” And then they forget that those little things they did along the way sometimes turned into big opportunities too, right? One hundred percent. And it’s like, “Oh, I don’t want to do those anymore because I always lose money on them.” It’s like, “Yeah, but the one time, remember that worked out. And then he became this guy and then that turned into this. And that’s how you met this other guy.” And it’s like, “Yeah, but still.” It’s like, “Well, you should be doing those things, man, as much as you can.”

Yeah, I don’t have an ego when it comes to business. Matter of fact, that’s part of my downfall is people say all the time, they’re like, “You’re the easiest person to work with. You’re the most fun to work with. Like you’re not asking for green M&Ms and a special kind of water and this and that.” And it’s like, “Well, first of all, who would ever do that?” Like, I’m lucky. Guys, I mean, besides the motivation, going there and inspiring people, man,

I don’t have an ego at all. I get to do something that people dream of. Well, I should say the motivation side of it, people are scared. And that’s why I get to do what I get to do, right? Because I mean, public speaking is one of the biggest fears in the world. But when I go to a Chevy event or a NASCAR event and I’m interviewing NASCAR drivers, listen, I know darn well there’s 500 fans out there that are watching me. And they’re like, “I would love to do that.” And I always say, “Here, here’s the microphone.”

Well, I mean, not now. You know, because they don’t realize the work that goes into it. Yeah, when I go and do a NASCAR gig and stuff like that, everything’s 15 minutes, 15 minutes, 15 minutes with a driver. Well, it’s like a 15-minute show. You have to be prepared. You have to be, you know, you have to do your homework. And that’s what people don’t understand is they be behind the scenes that comes into doing something. And now I still take those opportunities. If someone says to me, “Hey, we have $8,000. We’ll pay your expenses. Cool. How many people? Oh, we’re going to have 5,000 people. We’re going to have four people.” It doesn’t matter. And I’m like, “Oh, cool. Can I videotape it? Can I do this?” Well, I mean, guys, with social media and stuff, I’m like, “I eat that stuff up all day long.” I’m like, “These guys are going to help me market myself.” And then Dr. Jamie Meyer, if I help you or one of your clients, guess what? You guys are going to go tell three other people how easy it was to work with this guy. Or Justin, if you say, “Hey, come do this for me,” and I’m like, “Okay, cool, man.” Well, guess what? You’re going to go tell three people. “This guy was great, and he worked with me.” The coolest thing is when you get those testimonials back and they say, “You are the easiest person that I’ve ever worked with.”

That’s cool. Take us through the empire just so we can frame it up, right? You’re a motivational speaker. I know you from the Chevrolet, speaking, you do. You have a podcast, a radio show. You’re a published author. Two-time Grammy-considered-spoken artist. Yeah. Two-time Grammy-considered artist. You forgot that. I didn’t— He wasn’t going to let you forget that thing. Do you want to start it again? Do you want to maybe start with that? There’s no redo, so I’m the automotive advantage. We’re

just going to let it roll, but maybe just start there and then go into the other things he does. He’s a two-time Grammy-considered artist. Tell me, how do you build this? Did it come naturally, or did you have a strategic plan? Where does this come together? There’s no plan. No plan at all. If you would have told me when I was in fourth grade and fifth grade that I’d be an author, and not only a one-time author, a four-time author, if you would have said that, “Hey, you’re going to be on the radio one day, I would have been like, “You’re crazy.” But all of these things, yes, I’m a motivational speaker, and I am the motivational cowboy. So that’s why I’m up here, right? And then you have all these things that drift down, and people say, “Are you just this, or are you just this?” I go, “I’m a motivational speaker. I get paid to be a personality to go and do the Chevy stuff, or if somebody needs a good MC.” You know what I mean? Or something like that. I’m still a speaker. And they’re like, “Okay, well, I just need an MC. I don’t need all that other stuff.” I go, “You get it all.” I can’t divide this up, guys. I mean, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. I’ll never forget doing my first commercial, my reel. And back then, it wasn’t Verizon Wireless. It was before that, and it was…

It doesn’t matter. But I’ll never forget, they had the boom mic, and the guy’s there, and I’m like, “I go into it.” And I’m like, “Air-touch cellular.” That’s what it was back then. And this dude flies all the way. He’s like, “Oh, my God, quiet down. Calm down. Calm down.” And I’m like, “How do you calm down?” He goes, “Just go for a walk around the street or something.” So I came back, and I’m like, “Blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah.” I felt like I was whispering. He goes, “That’s perfect.” And I got it back going, “Oh, that was good.” Like, I actually was talking, but it’s not me. I had to figure out who I was as well. When I first started, I was a trainer. I was a speaker. I was all of these things. And then I realized, “Okay, well, I don’t want to go and train because that’s not really who I am. I want to be the guy on stage for an hour and give a really heartfelt keynote talk. That’s what I want to do.” And so you learn, but I had to do it all. I didn’t give up one gig for two years because I had to learn my craft. I had to learn what I didn’t want. And that’s the thing in life. It’s like, “Yeah, in the beginning, you have to do it all.” And that’s what I did. I found who I was. Guys, I wasn’t always a motivational cowboy. And I knew you were going to ask that. So let me tell you, the empire is now a motivational cowboy. But back then, let me tell you a quick little story, if you don’t mind. Back then, I was the suit and tie. I saw pictures of me in a suit and tie giving keynote talks.

And I’ll never forget, I was at Kid Rock’s house one day. I had a photo shoot the next day, and I came back. I had my buddy drive me out there, and he drove me home because I wouldn’t have been able to. Okay? And I woke up the next day, and I just had a throbbing headache. And my publicist at the time, she’s like, “Oh, you know, people are saying they’re seeing you in cowboy boots and cowboy hat and da-da-da, and that’s not your persona.”

And I’m like, “Well, but that’s who I am. I’ve been wearing cowboy boots since I was in second grade.” Like, that’s who I am. And she goes, “Do you have your cowboy hat?” I go, “I happen to have it in my truck.” I went and we’re by railroad tracks. And I put it on, and she looked at me, and she goes, “Go home and rip up every single tie you have. Get rid of your nice pants. Get—” That’s—you’re right. That night, this was back in the day of MySpace.

I bought—or got a Detroit cowboy. Then one day, I was sending an email, and I said, “Hey, from your buddy, the motivational cowboy.” And my buddy’s like, “I just bought dot-com, dot-net, dot this, dot that,” and I became the motivational cowboy. One, nobody can say my last name. You know, they look at my last name, and they’re like, “What the heck’s this?” They have me pizza—pizza place to still hang up on me when I order a pizza. And they’re like, “What’s your name?” “John Demetritian.” And they’re like, “What?” “Yeah, click.” And so motivational cowboy has become who I am. And it’s funny, when people go on the road with me, or I have people that meet me at a gig that are newbies, and they just want to see what it’s all about, and they’re like, “Man, you’re just like a real guy.” Until you put that cowboy hat on, and you become a superhero. They’re like—and it’s not just one person saying that. It’s multiple people. It’s who I’ve become, because I know that people— I’m relatable, and I’m different.

So the empire started with me without a hat or a cowboy hat. And then the speaking, you know, obviously, is first. And then I was—member Fred Simmons, back in the day, you know, Mr. Pontiac. You know, he gave me my chance to be, you know, a spokesperson for Pontiac. And that turned into Pontiac going away, and then Chevy—Jeff Chews, like, “Hey, we’re picking you up, Terry Dolan.” And, you know, it’s been over 20 years with GM doing all of their interviews and stuff. And so, I mean, that’s cool. And then it was like, somebody says, “Well, you got to write a book. You’re a motivational speaker.” And guys, like, when I say that my first book sucked so bad—

like, it’s not even out there anymore. It just says, “Sold out.” Like, you know what I mean? But you got to start somewhere. I always say, we all have a story inside of us. Everybody watching your show right now has a story inside them, and that’s why I love having just regular people on my show, because we all have a story to share. My story may not resonate with somebody, but Dr. Jamie Meyer, your story could. Justin, your story could. It’s not always about me. So the book came out. Then, I’ll never forget, I was— you know, podcasting was cool back then. And, I mean, it’s still cool now, but people were like, “I was on all these shows.” And someone says, “Hey, how come you don’t have your own show?” I’m like, “Dude, I am so busy right now. I can’t do a show.” And then it was like, I went and bought my stuff. Then I went and bought nicer gear. And now, you know, now I have a producer, and he’s amazing. So it didn’t just all happen at once. You start creating these things, and it’s all the same person. My podcast, Outstanding Life Podcasts, well, my whole theme to my talks is living the outstanding life. If you look at the word “outstanding,” you look at it backwards, it means to stand out, to rise above the rest and be a little bit different. Guys, you can’t be any more different than a cowboy from Detroit. You know, it’s all of these things. So, you know, now it’s turned into, you know, hats and t-shirts. I’m not in the hats and t-shirt business. People are like, “Well, what do you do with them?” I say, “Give them away.”

They’re like, “Why? Why?” “I don’t want to deal with the sales of hats and t-shirts.” So I hope that answered your question. I mean, I get excited about what I get to do, but I’m also excited to be on the show because I forget how cool of a job I really have until somebody really asks you, spends time with you and says, “What was it like back then?” Listen, guys, do you remember sending out promo tapes and stuff like that? Do you remember? There was no emails back then. We didn’t even have cell phones. I mean, when I first got my first big bag phone, I thought I was the coolest guy in the world, man. And to get a gig, you guys talked about getting gigs. Back then, it was 16 pages that you had to go to Kinko’s to get printed off because you couldn’t afford printing paper because I was broke. And then you had to go get VHS tapes for promo tapes. You couldn’t just send somebody a link. Like, dude, I was hustling back then, and I still have that stuff to this day. Why? Because it reminds me of the good old days, of why I’m here. I’m here because I didn’t say no, and I’m here because I wouldn’t let myself not do it. And now I believe that I’ve been on this earth to do it.

What advice would you have for someone who’s listening to this and is like, “I’m going to do it. I’m going to do whatever the thing is that I think I want to do that I haven’t done. I’m going to go do it.” What’s your advice? I heard you guys talking before the show about you guys used to do a thing called “Something Something Wednesday.” What was it called? Side Hustle Wednesday. Side Hustle Wednesday. I’m not telling people to go and do what I did and go and just walk in and quit your job. I’m not saying that at all. Start small.

I mean, you have to, especially if it’s going to be different, and you’re getting out of the field that you’re in, are you kidding me? You can’t just go. I mean, unless you have that kind of money, well, then that’s cool. You can buy your way to the top. But whatever you’re doing, I tell people all the time to go into it slow. Make sure that’s what you want before you go and quit. Because listen, how many people say, “I have an idea for this. I have an idea.” But they don’t want to put the work in. First of all, being an entrepreneur is work. If you would see my desk at home and stuff like that, yes, I’m very organized and stuff. But I mean, I have this. I got to call this person back in a month, and I got to do this. And you can’t forget it because this is money coming in. I don’t have any money coming in every week. I don’t have a real job.

So you guys might know what that’s like. You know what I mean? So yeah, it’s like you have to start small and make sure that’s really the dream. Because people say all the time, “Man, I’m glad that I didn’t do that.” Because I kind of lost track. And I’ve also heard people say, “Yep, I gave it all up.” I go, “What are you doing now?” “Oh, the same thing.” And they had to go back. And so I just go into it knowing that you’re going to take little bites out of it. You know what I mean? Start in your garage. Start in your back room. And have a support team. Because listen, your family is going to tell you all the time how crazy you are. One, my dad, I’ll never forget when I quit everything, he told me how stupid I was.

I’m going to be honest with you guys. My dad told me how dumb I was, how stupid I was. But when my dad heard me speak for the very first time, “Let me paint the picture for you.” My dad was a skilled tradesman for Ford Motor Company. Big gray beard, long hair. And he heard me speak and he went behind the stage and he hugged me. He started crying. He says, “Now I know why you gave up everything.” He said, “Don’t ever stop.”

Now let’s revert to my daughter being a clinical psychologist now. Has her own business. And I’ll never forget a couple years ago, she’s like, “I’m going to, Dad, I’m getting a salary.” And it was a good salary. She goes, “But I’m not happy. I’m worth more.” She goes, “I’m going to go on my own.” I said, “No, no, no, no, no.” And all of a sudden I revert. She looked at me and she’s like, “You told me the story about grandpa all the time.” And why would you tell me though? And all of a sudden, oh my God, now I’m the dad. Telling my daughter, like, “Are you sure you want to do that?” And when she did, full support of me and here she is now making double of what she was. And that’s like me. There were so many things that I stopped doing. Like guys, when I first started speaking, I spoke for, I did the auto show for a year to get on stages in front of cars and talk about the grand dam. You know what I mean? It’s like I was that guy. And I realized, okay, well, I did it. I learned. I don’t want to be this guy.

Like, you know what I mean? I don’t want to be that guy that gave up this. When I gave up that, the next year I made triple of what that was paying. It’s like, if you, you have to have that burning desire inside you all the time. I have two notes here. First, shout out to my mom and dad. Every time I call them with some ridiculous plan that I have, they’re always been supportive. Even though sometimes I wish they would have said that. That sounds like a stupid plan. I was like, yeah, that sounds, sounds really good. You should do that. The other thing is, I feel like a lot of people don’t want to do the interim steps because they’re embarrassed. You know, it’s like, okay, I want to be a motivational speaker, but one of the steps along the way is I have to talk about this Pontiac Aztec on stage in Detroit in the middle of winter. That’s embarrassing to me because I think I should be here now, but to get to where you want to be, you have to take those steps. How do you like protect your ego, so to speak, or do you not have one? Or what advice would you give to someone who’s like, I want to be there, but this middle part’s cringy and I don’t want to do that. But what do you tell those people?

Well, I didn’t have a choice. I told you guys multiple times already. I didn’t even know what a motivational speaker was. Listen, there was no game plan. I didn’t have a mentor for a long time. And then here you are going, okay, well, what do you do? Well, you work hard. Guys, we’re from Detroit. That’s the only thing I do know how to do, and that’s work hard. And I knew that I had to learn a craft. I knew that I had to work a crowd. I had to make people smile. I had to make people laugh. I’m getting paid from a client. I got to make sure that I’m saying all the right things for them.

So knowing those things, it’s like you have to do it and move on. Listen, when it comes to ego, I have no ego. They ask all the time, do you get nervous? And it’s like, yeah, like I said, I get nervous, but I get nervous for a good reason. And there are still things that I’m like, the good thing is when you get to where we are, I tell people, listen, what are you looking for in a speaker?

And they’re like, well, we’re looking for this. We’re looking for this. I’m looking for this. I said, cool, I’m that guy. We’re looking for this. I’m not that guy. I’ll help you find that guy because I’m not going to go and get on stage in front of a thousand people or 2,000 people and look dumb. So I know who I am now. I speak on image, attitude, focus, consistency, and bringing those together with living the outstanding life. It’s like, that’s who I am. That’s what I live every day. If that’s what you’re looking for, then I’m your guy. If it’s something technical and this and that, I’m not your guy. Now, I’ve spoken to so many companies. They’re like, we don’t want you to talk about anything that we do. We have enough of that in the conference, right? And we just want our people to be motivated, have fun. I’m like, the one thing I can guarantee is when they leave after my talk, you’re going to see people high five in each other up and down the hallways and you’re going to get sick of the word outstanding because you’re so motivated. So you better be ready for your employees to come back and be living the outstanding life. And there has been times in my career.

Guys, you won’t believe this when I tell you this. I did too good of a job. And I said, I’m not your guy. You’re like, you need to—we can’t handle our employees coming back. I go, well, then you should have started with the management. Again, now I know, but it’s like, hey, guys, you can motivate your students, but if the teachers are not motivated, well, then the teacher is going to be like, shut up. If you’re a factory, you want me to go in and fire them up, well, then you better make sure that the owners are there, the managers are there, and they know that together, this is what we’re going to do. But when I had that company reach out, I’ll never forget this. It was a big executive.

And I walked in, he’s like, do you want to work with me again? I’m like, yeah, that was cool, right? Most money I ever made in my life, I was like, I got that check out, holy crap. And he goes, you’re going to do it my way. He goes, we will never have what I just put up with. I said, what did you put up with? I did this, I did your training, I did this, I did that. I ended it with a motivational talk. That’s what I’m talking about.

He goes, our people came back and the other people didn’t know how to handle it all. I’m like, I’m not your guy. I can’t dumb it down for you just so you can sign off on a paycheck to say we spent money on having a speaker come in, but we really don’t want to do anything about it. Because there’s people out there that will do that. They will spend the company’s money to say, look what we did.

It’s a check mark. We educated our people, we motivated them, but they really didn’t want their people motivated. And so it’s easy now for me to say I’m not your guy. Because I know what I’m worth inside. And I don’t want to be somebody else’s puppet. thinking about the parallels of your craft and the sales side and where you started and where I think this kind of broke off and you became the motivational cowboy. But maybe talk to the sales people that are listening and like how do you take your energy and your focus and how do you make a salesperson more motivated and understand that a no is just one more no on your way to a yes, you know, that cliche. But is there like a salesy pitch that you have that might keep people going today when they listen to this?

Absolutely. Be yourself. Don’t be Johnny D. Don’t be Dr. Jamie Meyer. Don’t be Justin. Be yourself. Sales is all about relationships these days. It’s not about walking in and going, hey, all right, you know, you guys outstanding today? Because so many people, especially in the automotive world, they’ll look at you and go, what the what did you eat today? Or they’ll look at you and say, that’s not who you are. Be yourself, first of all, and have fun with it. If someone tells you no, it’s not personal.

Man, it’s just a no. And I know this is so cliche, but you know, a no is just, you know, you’re one more. You’re a step closer to a yes. Listen, I love. Listen, I say all the time just like no. I love no. I love bad days. Why? Because it makes me appreciate the good ones. It’s that simple. Get into your car every single day. Get on that airplane every single day and be blessed that you’re there. If you don’t want to be there, nobody is forcing you to be at that job. Nobody is forcing you to be that executive. Nobody’s forcing you to have that shop. Nobody is. If you don’t like it, then don’t do it. But if you don’t like it and you are mad at the world, don’t make other people the same way. I mean, who wants to be around a bunch of negative people? I mean, seriously, guys, I mean, at the end of the day, I get that I’m not the same person all the time. I mean, people say to my daughter all the time,

I’m a motivational cowboy. And I’ll never forget my daughter one day. She was young back then, but she was like 10 years old. And she’s like, he’s not always a motivational cowboy. You should see what he says. Pull my finger. I’m not that guy all the time. But what I am is genuine to who I am. To answer your question again is be yourself. There’s no sales pitchy thing. You can read as many books as you want. You can be as smart as you want.

But if you’re not sincere, you’re never going to make it. And if you are not having fun, then move on. have been exposed to my wonderful wife, Tina, knows you. You’ve talked to my 88-year-old mom. And then three of the nephews adore you. How are you so loved by people so quickly? And the answer is not because I’m Johnny Dean. There’s something about you. You’ve created this. You can relate to people from all sorts of backgrounds, all sorts of ages.

How do you do that? I want to pick. I’m asking for myself. I want to know how you do this. And people love you so quickly. First of all, thank you. I appreciate you saying that. And I just, I’m genuine. I can’t fake this. I can’t fake being excited to be here. I can’t fake saying how much I love what I do. So I want to, again, I appreciate that. But two, the biggest compliment that I get is when people say, “Do you have a niche?”

I go, “Yeah, my niche is not having a niche.” And they’re like, “What the hell’s that mean?” Back in the day when I was making my first tapes and CDs, and now the podcast, when I can have a mother or a father reach out and say, “My kid loved your show.” My mom was like, “Who’s that guy?” It means a lot to me to know that I’m still speaking at high schools, man. I’m a guy in my mid-50s.

I just had three leadership conferences call me and say, “Hey, can you come speak at my high school?” And I’m like, “I thought I was past that. And here I am still doing it.” I don’t know. Dr. Jamie Meyer, I wish I had the right answer. But I think it goes back to what I said earlier. When I look at who I was in grade school and high school, on the hockey team, I was always that guy. I was always the guy that liked the janitor cleaning up at the ice rink,

to the concession ladies, to my coach, to the people playing on the ice with me. It’s just who I am. People say, “Well, were you popular in school?” I go, “Yeah, I guess I was because I got along with the geeks, the jocks, I got along with everybody.” I didn’t set out to be this guy. I didn’t change over time. It’s not like, “I become a motivational speaker.” And all of a sudden, who Johnny D. has changed, it’s who I’ve always been. That’s the one thing my buddy said to me years ago.

He goes, “I hope you never change.” I said, “What do you mean by that?” I was like, “That’s kind of a jerk thing to say.” He goes, “No, no, no, no.” He goes, “See, I’m the guy listening to what people say about you.” He goes, “I hope you never know how good you really are. If you did, you’ll change.” I said, “Man, thank you.” I had a friend just pass away. He said to me, he says,

“I hope that everybody gets a little Johnny D. in them.” I said, “What do you mean by that?” He goes, “Dude, you’re the same guy that I’m having a beer with as I get this go-to-gigs-with-you and take pictures and video, and you’re the same guy. I hope people see that. I think that that’s where people can look at me and say, “This guy’s just for real. There’s nothing phony about me.” Like I said, three or four times with you guys already, I don’t know how to be phony. That’s why it’s just easy for me to get up every single day and just put a smile on somebody’s face. My challenge to myself every single day, and I challenge people all the time. I’m challenging you right now.

My goal is to just put a smile on 10 people’s face. Listen, I know that seven of them are going to be like, “Shut the heck up.” One of those people could have been a school teacher that day, and that school teacher is going to school, and they’re 30 students. Those kids are going home being nicer to mom and dad and brothers and sisters. You see, by the end of the week, you didn’t just impact 21 people. You’ve impacted thousands and thousands and thousands of people because you’re just kind. Listen, it’s easier to smile than frown, man. It doesn’t take any money. You don’t have to be a motivational speaker to say, “Hey, how are you today?”

Why? Because I care. When’s the last time somebody says, “Man, I’m proud of you.” Proud of you, man. I guarantee that people are listening going, “That’s me, man. I don’t say that.” How about shop owners? Listen, we talk about money all the time, but people in this industry, in every industry, they’re not just chasing a paycheck, man. They want to go into somewhere that’s fun to work. They want to be respected. They want to be heard. They want to pat on the back to say, “How are you doing today?” “Oh, I’m doing great.” “No, no, no, no. How are you?

How’s your wife, man? How’s the kids?” And I get it. Some guys are like, “I’m not doing that. I’m big and tough and da, da, da.” But, no, if you’re going to be successful in life, you need to have that kind of respect for other people. And listen, if you’re listening to this show right now and you’re not a shop owner and you just have a job, when’s the last time you walked up to your boss and said, “Hey, man, how are you today?”

“No, no, no. Dr. Jamie Meijer, how are you really doing today, man? How’s your wife doing? How’s the dogs?” I guarantee you, there’s people going, “You’re right. I never have.” When’s the last time you saw the owner of the company walking on the floor with that big executive and you said, “Hey, Justin, how are you, man?” I guarantee you, people don’t do that. And I get it. They get scared. But I guarantee you, that executive, that owner, would cherish that forever because nobody, nobody ever goes to them and says, “How are you?” All they want is their paychecks, they want their breaks, and that’s it. They don’t realize what they’re going through every single day because we’re human beings. Life is 10% of what happens to us and 90% of how you react to it.

I was hoping for more actionable tips on how to make people like me, but we’ll have to do another podcast on that. I heard there was some advice in there. So far, I’ve written down, “Remove peanut M&M requirement from Ryder.” Evidently, that might make me hard to work with. “Do homework. Prepare in advance.” Oh, you’re not good. Yeah. “Know who you are inside.” I have that one. When we’re on the road, it can be really tough, as you know. So we have a version of your saying, “It doesn’t have to suck.” That’s how I say it. When you’re just, the thing’s going late and everything went wrong, and it’s just like, “We can make it suck right now, guys.” Or, “It doesn’t have to suck. It doesn’t have to suck.” What’s happening is not how we’re going to feel about this situation. And then I wrote down, “How to make people like you?” So that’s still going to work on that. I’m going to work on that.

He didn’t answer me. I don’t buy another “I’m just a great guy” picture. He’s going to keep it for himself. He’s going to keep it for himself. It’s going to take people 20 years before they start to like me. Johnny gets them instantaneously. He has a better answer than this. My brothers would always say, “Who wants to wake up next to this all the time?” And I’m like, “Somebody’s out there that would love to have somebody positive in their life.” You talk about the opportunities, right? When you don’t want things to suck, as you would say. The last month has been crazy traveling. Lines have been outdoors. I’ve never… I don’t care. I had TSA check-in. I had this, that, and the other thing. I got on my way back from a gig from Texas. Quick little story.

I got there four and a half hours early. I got there at 2.15 in the morning. I was at the Delta counter two hours early before the employees came in. I was the fourth one in line. I was proud of myself. The three people went. I was next. I gave them my stuff, checked my bag, and all of a sudden I came out and I looked. The security line had to be two miles. I was like, “That look on your face, Dr. Jamie Meyer?” I was like, “What the heck is going on?” I’m like, “Wait a second. Who are you? You lead by example. How are you going to fix this now?” As I’m walking, I’m just getting pissed off at the world. I’m like, “Okay. This dude was in front of me and he’s on the phone and he was not happy. I’m going to miss my flight plane. I’m going to do this.” Are people behind me who are complaining? I’m like, “Hmm.

I have at least an hour with these people in line. All right. Let’s… Okay.” This dude gets off the phone and I kind of tap him. He turns around. I say, “Hey, man. How are you today?” He goes, “How do you think I am, Michael?” He goes, “How are you?” I said, “Outstanding.” He looked at me and he goes, “What are you talking about?” I’m like, “Yeah, man.” I go, “I get to have some time with you right now.” I go, “What’s your name?”

Dude, by the end, he looked at me and he goes, “What do you do for a living?” I said, “I’m a motivational speaker.” He goes, “Thank you. This dude was ready to go crazy. Who knew? I don’t know what. This guy was so mad. I thought, “Wait a second. I’m going to make a difference in the world. I’m going to practice what I preach.” That’s the one thing my dad always taught me, was even getting married years and years ago.

I had a very successful marriage. I was married at 22, got divorced at 23, but had a beautiful daughter. I tell this story all the time. They’re like, “What was that like?” I go, “It was miserable in the beginning, right?” But then my dad says to me, he goes, “Hey, no matter how much you love your kid, that man is going to spend more time with your daughter than you. So suck it up, buttercup, and start being a father and get along with those two.” I said, “My ex-wife and her husband?” He goes, “Yeah.”

That day, I went to their house. He was outside working and he was just like, “Why?” I shake his hand. I said, “Thank you for being such a great dad to my daughter.” Not stepdad, dad. Why? Because you lead by example. Who am I? My dad said, “Who are you to go out there and help other people with their life if you can’t help yourself with yours?” To this day, I tell this story about me being, to this day, I’ll have beers with the guy and everything else. I was the guest speaker for my daughter’s graduation for high school. She was a slutatorian of the class. She had to introduce me. That was the only time, guys, I never wore a cowboy hat speaking. My daughter said, “Don’t embarrass me, dad.” They booked me to be the motivational cowboy. She’s like, “Please.” She’s crying. She’s like, “Please do not wear a cowboy hat.” The first thing I did when I took the stage in front of those 1,500 parents out there and guests,

I said, “Thank you to that man right there and that woman right there. That’s my ex-wife and my daughter’s second dad.” You lead by example. You can’t expect to be a complete jerk and tell everybody to live an outstanding life. So these are, you know, these are takeaways. My dad always said, you know, keep your car clean, your shoes shine to be a man of your word, and you’ll go far in life. And that was from a man that wasn’t educated,

but he was educated here. And he taught me so many life lessons, and you’ll never see me without my boot shined, my car clean, and I always try to be a man of my word. I’ll give you a shout out. I was also traveling at that same time. We were going through Atlanta, which was the worst of the worst. And Johnny was on his trip, I think the day prior to us going to Atlanta. And I remember seeing your story, you posted on Instagram or Facebook, and you were like the big line, and you were like, it’s gonna be an outstanding day. I’m just excited to be here. And I was like, I’m gonna use this. I’m gonna use this tomorrow. I’m not gonna be miserable going through the airport. We had a great time. I was like, I’m just gonna have a little bit of Johnny D. I’m just gonna go through this thing. It’s gonna be an experience one way or another. I’m not in control of how big the line is, whatever. And it really did. It was the same thing. I watched that reel. We went to airport at like three in the morning. Our line was short, it was 15 minutes. So we got to spend extra time at Sky Club. It was a nice experience. And I was like, this was made better by Johnny’s little reel that I watched. Because he was in an actually long line, and he was fine with it. I had nothing, it was great for me, but it was just like, okay, just be a little more positive about it. There’s nothing you can do about it. You just gotta deal with it. Why make it suck? Just do it.

Johnny’s reel got to me, and it got me through the Atlanta TSA, ICE airport. I saw it too. It was good. It was a really good example of perspective. It’s okay to be positive. And it’s not a big deal. You’re inside, you’re not starving. Yeah, you were complaining about it though. You also were traveling around the time. I was there earlier. You were very complaining. I was. I got the text. Yeah, I have some texts. You were a little— No, I was giving you intel. Oh, that was intel? This line is long. Okay. You’re gonna hate it. (Laughing) Got it.

Guys, let me ask you a question. This is our podcast. You don’t ask us the questions. Stop trying to flip the podcast around. Don’t let him, Justin. All right, you got one question, one. Well, Justin, I’ll start with you. What does living the outstanding life mean to you? You personally. I know I can probably ask you that question every day of the week, and you’ll have a different answer. But as we sit here today filming this podcast, what does living the outstanding life mean to you?

It’s funny, because people ask me about what I do for a living all the time, and I feel like I’m kind of the outsider in a lot of regular conversations, where it’s like, people have normal jobs, and normal things, and normal cars, and then I show up and they’re like, what’s this dude up to? What kind of car is that? What are you doing? And to me, that’s the life I always envisioned having, was being able to do what I want, air quotes, having all the cool things that I’m into. I tell people my hobby is collecting new hobbies, so having all these weird hobbies. And that’s outstanding.

You’re standing out, as you say. And it’s like, I didn’t do that to stand out. It was just, those are my interests. And it’s like, I wanna do this, I wanna do this, I wanna spend time with these people, I wanna go here. And being able to do that is hard, because you have to do a lot. You have to work really hard. You have to do all the things you don’t wanna do in a day to make room for those things. So I’d say, for me, that’s what it means. It’s just picking the thing that you wanna do, whatever that dream is, whatever 10-year-old Justin would have wanted,

which would have included more cars, but whatever, here we are. And then trying to go do that every day. I think that would be my answer. Dr. Jamie Meijer, before I ask you that question, Justin, I think of you guys that are car collectors, right? And I don’t— I’m an amateur car collector. Well, there are a lot of people out there that collect car, or just have one, one nice, really, really nice car that they take out once in a great while. And I’ve had the opportunity now that I’m making money to buy cars. And I got one nice car, and that’s my 2026 Chevy Silverado 4x4. And for me, personally, I’ve been so broke back in the day of following a dream that now that I have money in the bank, I am so scared to take money out of the bank to go and buy something. And that’s not fair either. Like I said something to my daughter one day, we’re having some wine out back, and I’m like, “I’m saving for when I die.” And she looked at me and she’s like, “Dad, I got enough money. “I’m good. “Spend it.”

But I’m still that guy sometimes. I’m still that young boy that they told me I couldn’t do it, or I’m never gonna have money, or I’m never gonna have this. And not that again, not that money is everything, but I’m so scared to just hand it over for a vehicle. Does that make sense? Like maybe people out there do. The words you’re saying make sense. Like they are sentences, but it doesn’t make sense to me. So for me, the motivation was always the cars. So the money is just a way to get cars, basically. So I don’t look at it. First of all, I don’t have enough money anyway. But I’m not like, “Oh no, I need to keep this money around “for something in the future.” All of it, all the work, everything is just for the car addiction. So yeah, to me it’s just like, I want this thing. This is how hard I have to work to get to that thing. As soon as I get enough money to trick the bank into giving me the rest of the money, I’m getting the thing. That’s the whole thing. So yeah, I don’t have a fear of spending money. I have a fear of not buying all the cars I want before I die.

Justin, are you happy? And do those cars still make you happy? And what I mean by that is when we buy something new, I just bought a brand new truck. I took it off the line. I’m like, “Man, this is so great.” You know what I mean? Like I could do this. And now it’s a few months old and I’m like, “Eh, just a vehicle.” But for you, since you were that little boy wanting all these cars, do they really make you happy? Or do you just like having it all?

All right, first of all, we told him he was not in charge of this. We gave him one question. He spun it into now five minutes of questions. So— He’s podcasting the shit out of you right now. I know, but that’s fine. That’s fine, Johnny, we’ll give you a little bit. People out there that want to hear both sides of this. Like you have one guy that, you know, I’m scared to never not have it again.

You know what I mean? When I say I was broke, I was broke. I was broke in and I was broke. I had vehicles repossessed. And they weren’t even brand new vehicles. I know what it’s like to follow a dream and be broke. So like I said, I’m just curious for you, you know? I’ll give you two answers. One is you cannot be sad while shooting flames out of a thousand horsepower single turbo trans amp. You cannot be sad and do that thing at the same time. So there is joy there.

Two, every car you own eventually, within about two months of owning it, becomes a giant piece of shit that you hate. So what I actually have found is that I love car people. And the car part, you just have the cars. The cars are cool, you want them, you check them off. We joke a lot that like the acquiring of the car, that is actually the fun part. Buying a car is fun, owning a car sucks. Kind of where I’m at now. So like, I love the whole ramp up. You gotta learn about it. You gotta talk to people. You gotta find the right one. You meet the owner, you do the whole thing. You buy the car, 10 seconds into driving the car, I’m like, fuck, I don’t want this thing.

Why do I have this thing? So for sure. That’s what I’m talking about because I just got offered, within the last six months, a couple of people was like, hey, why don’t you buy my Corvette? And I thought, oh, cool, right? I got money, I can buy it, I can pay cash for it. Like no big deal. And I thought, wait a second, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I was out for a walk one day and I was walking past this guy’s garage by my house and he had like a 68 Mustang GT and he had, you know, whatever, one other fancy car. And I’m like, so it’s gonna, that Corvette is gonna go from my buddy’s garage to my garage and it’s gonna look just like that right there. This guy never takes his cars out. And I thought, nope, I’m gonna keep the money.

(Laughing) Yeah. I don’t know what the problem is. You just keep it in the garage. I also don’t understand what the problem is. The problem is he doesn’t have a Corvette. So he wouldn’t know the joy of having a Corvette. So go get a Corvette, Tommy. Okay, you’re telling me. So Dr. Jamie Meyer, live in the outstanding life. What does it actually mean to you and has it changed over the years? But as you sit here today on your podcast,

what does live in the outstanding life mean to you? Yeah, it’s tough. I mean, it’s a tough question. I think so, Johnny, but there’s still massive goals in my life, so I am the type of person until I reach that next goal. I’m not satisfied. So this podcast needs to be a monster someday. We’re gonna talk about the high performance expo and your role there. That has a chance to be extremely significant in the automotive aftermarket.

And I just started consulting full-time, big change for me two years ago in my mid-50s. So I’ve gotta make that consulting business work. So for me, it’s the hunt, it’s the goal, and to always achieve more. I appreciate you saying that you haven’t hit that yet, or you’re always looking for that next thing. Can I just give you some advice from a man who’s a whole lot smarter than me? You are so, so incredible and you are motivational to me, but dude, stop and smell the roses and look at what you really accomplished already. It shouldn’t be the next thing, it shouldn’t be the next thing. I appreciate that, but sometimes you have to step back and look and say, “Man, look what I’ve done.” Because I think about all these years, 20 years of knowing you, and you’ve accomplished so much in your life. And if tomorrow never comes, you should be able to look in the mirror and say, “God dang it, man, I’m proud of myself.” Don’t be ashamed of that.

I appreciate that. No, I know, and I’m not, and know that I do take those moments, and I appreciate that. And there’s moments you met the nephews when I see them excelling at something that I know I’ve had a part in that, like that gives me a great feeling. So yeah, I appreciate that. He’s podcasting again, you see what he did? He’s podcasting again, and also I wanna point out for the second time today that when I answered, Johnny was like, “Are you sure that being poor and having a bunch of bullshit cars is really what’s good for you?” And when you answered, he’s like, “I’m so proud of you. You’re doing a great job. You’re crushing it out there. Justin, we don’t know what you’re up to, but yeah, that’s fine,

that’s fine.” That’s what happens when we put up motivational news on our show. He’s gonna keep podcasting. I’m gonna cut to him one more time, and then we’re gonna wrap this thing up. Well, I was just gonna say that Justin, I kind of brought it up earlier, but I mean, you are inspiring to me, watching you grow your business and being around people like you guys. It’s not an ego thing, but it’s like, man, they’re still doing it, I gotta do it. And it’s not a competition. We’re doing different things, but you motivated me. You motivate me, you’ve motivated me, and I just have to tell the listeners and watchers right now that years ago, when you gave it all up, working for the big companies and stuff, I’ll never forget looking in your eye, and I’m like, “What are you gonna do?” You’re like, “I’m gonna start my own company.” And I’m like, “Man, okay, cool.” Because I know the grind, I knew the grind back then.

But the story was just having that plaque office on your door in your house. And you said, “I put it there because I wanted to know “that I was going from my home to my business, “and it’s my business.” And I just have to ask you, do you still have the plaque that says office? And I just wanna thank you, and everybody watching and listening to you both, you guys, you inspire me, you motivate me, and your story is really all about grassroots and making it happen, because you did. And you still continue to do it. I know that there are times that I comment on your stuff, and I’m just laying in a hotel room, right? And I see your story, and I’m like, “Dude, so cool.” When I watch your work, I almost get emotional, because you were the guy that just had a dream, and now you’re doing it, put out all this cool content. And I’m like, “Man, how can I make my content that cool?” And I’m like, “Well, I can’t afford them, “so it’s never gonna look that cool.” But you’re doing it, man. And I know it’s not easy, but you still do it, and you do it with so much pride and energy. And I just wanna thank you for the things that you do. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart. And I know that you gave me a hard time, but I’m being serious when I say that I really am proud of you. And I’m proud that you guys even want me on your show. I’ve seen the people you’ve had on the show, and I mean, these guys are mover and shakers, and I’m just happy to be a part of it, so.

That’s the pod.

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