Overnight Success. Don’t Kid Yourself with Todd Sawyer

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. Brought to you by the HubSpot. podcast network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Business Made Simple. Today, we'll be breaking down overnight success. Don't kid yourself, Fire Nation. To draw these value bonds, I brought Todd Sawyer into EO Fire Studios. After building Eastern Insulation into one of the most profitable and successful insulation companies in the nation, Todd sold the business to IBP, a publicly traded company, and he continues to invest and work in several other business ventures, including Park Union Lumber, Merritt Homes, The Built Companies, and Sawyer Lions Buick GMC.

0:40And today, our nation, we'll talk about what it takes to succeed in the world today. We'll talk about entitled individuals, achieving astronomical success, striving to be better every single day, the endpoint versus the journey, and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring our podcast goes to Todd and our sponsors. The Next Wave, your chief AI officer, hosted by Matt Wolfe and Nathan Lanz, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Matt and Nathan are leading AI creators in your guiding light in the AI and technology frontier. AI technology is transforming the way we do business and the media landscape is fragmented.

1:16The Next Wave strives to be the leading podcast on AI technology and how you can apply it to growing your business. Listen to The Next Wave wherever you get your podcasts. Todd, say what's up to Fire Nation and share what most people think it means to become a successful entrepreneur. Good afternoon, Fire Nation. It is an absolute pleasure to be here with John today. I feel very honored. I'm going to add a different perspective on that question and talk a little bit about what most people think a successful entrepreneur is, what that means. You know, many people imagine being an entrepreneur is glamorous.

2:03They're watching these videos on social media. They think it's easier than working for somebody else. They believe they can set their own rules, their own hours, come and go as they please. You know, have others do the work while they make all the money. And in reality, it's the opposite of that. entrepreneurship involves long hours, constant challenges, significant risks, and it's far from a carefree lifestyle that many people envision. The truth has been spoken, Fire Nation. I love when Gary Vaynerchuk would often say, hey, I used to really hate when my employees wouldn't work as hard as me or didn't care as much as me until I realized I've got all the upside.

2:50They're just coming in. They're doing what they need to do and they're going home. They have no upside. They get a paycheck. I get all the upside. Of course, I get all the downside too. But Fire Nation, that's what successful entrepreneurs do. They go all in. They take 100 % responsibility. They are el numero uno. Now we're talking about overnight success. I mean, don't kid yourself, Fire Nation. Let's be real. And I want to talk about right now, Todd, what it means to succeed in the world today. Everybody wants it to be easy. We live in a world of instant gratification. We live in this phony universe of what we see on social media and everyone wants it to be quick.

3:35And frankly, when people see somebody that's very successful, you know, a lot of times I'll hear, oh, it must be nice. It must be nice to drive that car or wear that watch. They don't realize what it took to get to this level. You know, people that want to succeed need to be willing to do the things that others are not willing to do. They got to get up earlier. They got to be the first one in and the last one out every day. They got to skip Thursday night drinks with the boys. They got to put in the extra hours on the Saturdays and Sundays when necessary. And this doesn't, you know, this doesn't mean do that for six months and then expect the big paycheck or the big success.

4:21This is a lifetime. It's a lifestyle. You know, being successful is not a destination. It's a lifestyle. And you really have to understand that. And entrepreneurship and owning a business isn't for everybody, and that's okay. Some people are better suited for that nine to five job. The whistle blows, you slide down the brontosaurus tail like Fred Flintstone, you go home, you have your hobbies, you do your thing, and you pick it back up the next morning. True entrepreneurs, they're 24-7. If the phone rings, you pick it up. If there's a problem, you deal with it. Seven days a week, 24 hours a day, you're on.

5:04Fire Nation, again, you're getting the truth straight from Todd. And man, do I love that visual of sliding down the brontosaurus tail. I haven't even thought of that commercial, of that cartoon for probably 30 years, probably 35 years actually at this point. And you just brought back this image of sliding down that brontosaurus tail, jumping in that car, you know, Using the feet to speed on home and get home to Wilma and just enjoy that evening, whatever that might be. I mean, Fire Nation, that is so true. It's so real. And if you're on this journey with us, keep on listening because I will say, Todd, we do have a large, young demographic that listens to this podcast.

5:47These are individuals that are maybe even still in high school at this point, a lot of people in college, a lot of people who are maybe their first couple of years after college and they've been disillusioned by the fact that, hey, I am just being slammed by college debt and this job that I get after taxes, after rent, there's nothing left over. I mean, I'm in this rat race that I can't win. And they're listening to a podcast like this because they're looking for tactics, strategies, ideas, inspiration, motivation, advice, et cetera. But here's the problem. A lot of young individuals, they feel entitled.

6:21And a lot of that reason is because of social media. So talk to the young people today. Let's really be real. You couldn't be more right. There's this belief that it's easy. The instant gratification, you're watching videos of a young man or young woman with their Ferrari or in their mansion walking around flashing the diamonds in the Rolex. Many times, they don't own that Ferrari. They've rented it for their video. They don't own that house. They're using someone else's house to create a video to portray a lifestyle that they don't actually have. A lot of times they're doing it to earn money, to get views and earn money.

7:09And I've always said, you can't learn something from somebody that hasn't done it themselves. I'm not going to take advice from a 22-year-old about business who's never been in business. It's like, you know, me teaching somebody to fly a plane. I've never done it. I can read a book. I can fake it. But at the end of the day, I don't think you want me teaching you how to fly. So, you know, listen, the big takeaway is you got to do the work. You got to be patient. And you've got to understand that there is no such thing as an overnight success. There is no such thing as your big break. You got to create your own big break.

7:52Listen, sometimes things fall into place, the stars align, but you better damn well be prepared to take advantage when something like that happens. And that is the honest reality, is that when there is not this overnight success, you could take away that word and the example I'm about to give. But when this overnight virality happens that people will point to in this scenario like, oh, but look at that guy that posted the double rainbow video. Then he got 50 million views over the next couple of months. And guess what? That turned into nothing for him because it was nothing to begin with. He had no foundation.

8:28He had no process in place. He had no lead generation. There's no funnel. There was no product. There's no service. There's no way he was capturing anything, but it's the people that have put in five years, 10 years, 20 years, and then they hit that inflection point, they're ready. Like I'm reading this great book by John D. Rockefeller right now. It's his biography. It's unbelievable. Guess what? He had put in all the time leading up to when that inflection point happened, and it was prime time for oil refineries to happen. Because of that, guess what? He had the systems and the foundations in place, and he went on to become the richest person in the world at that time.

9:06But guess what? Everybody who was telling him, hey, wow, this guy, he's 29 years old. He's an overnight success. He had been working for 20 years at that point. I mean, he started at nine years old on a tugboat. It's fascinating when you look at these things. I mean, Fire Nation, you need to understand these things. And we'll be talking more details around this when we get back from thanking our sponsors. We all know that starting a business is hard, but there are tools out there that help make it easier. HubSpot is one of those tools. And just one way HubSpot makes starting a business easier with their all new entrepreneurship kits.

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10:19Todd, we're back and let's call a spade a spade. So many people have blinders on right now. They are looking only at the end point, also known as accomplishing their ultimate goal. You believe there's no end to the journey though. So tell us more about that. It's not about an end goal because many, many times, and I've spoken to many very successful people, when you hit your goal, what then? You feel great, you celebrate for a couple of weeks, but now what? You've got nothing left to do. So you create a new goal. And you work towards that goal. So you really have to look at it not as when I get this or when I create that.

11:11It's this is in my DNA. I create stuff. I create opportunities for other people. I'm making the world a better place, hopefully. And it's a never-ending journey. And you take every experience, whether good or bad. You have to expect that in some cases you're going to fail and you got to get up, do it again, learn something from it and be better every single day. No matter how good you are at something or how successful you are, you can always be better. You had mentioned in one of your other podcasts, the book, The Slight Edge, and it's one of my favorite books because the whole premise of the book is over time, little changes make a huge difference.

12:00And that is not just for when you start out in life. That's forever. So I'm constantly trying to learn and, you know, whether it's personal development, whether it's things in business, whether it's, you know, something personal, like a hobby. Listen, I'm 52 years old. I always wanted to learn how to play the guitar. I never had the time to do it. I'm doing it now. You know, it's something that I want to do. But just like anything else, you can't pick up that guitar and play. You know, it's not as easy as people may think it is. So you're on this constant journey of learning and becoming better.

12:42And again, hopefully contributing something to the world as you do that. Fire Nation, I love that mentality. I was actually just at an event probably two weeks ago. And there was this guy, he was singing. He was about my age. And he was so good. He was doing cover songs. He was playing the guitar. he had a banjo he was doing all these cool things and after he was done the set like I was chatting with him off to the side and I'm like man I just wish I had this like natural talent like you I've never been a good singer I'm just not good with instruments and he's like um neither was I until literally three years ago then I started getting singing lessons I started taking musician music lessons and then now I am where I am today he's like and guess what I teach people like you who who I was three years ago.

13:33He was talking about himself three years ago that I was in his situation right now where I was just like really admiring of these individuals. And he's like, I can get you there. And I was like, wow, it's really, you can really sit down and learn skills no matter when the time is, no matter what age you are. That is a season in your life you can decide to step forward into at any point. And you share a message of striving to be better every single day. And this is one thing that I actually talk about a lot of, which is, you know, compare and despair. You should never compare yourself to anybody else because that will just cause despair.

14:12No matter who you are, you can compare yourself to somebody else. And maybe it's health, maybe it's finance, maybe it's relationship. And you can always find somebody who you're not going to live up to. And of course, that's who you're going to compare yourself to. and you will despair. The only person you should be comparing yourself to is you yesterday. If you're winning that comparison, you're winning at life. And your message taught of striving to be better every day, that's it. Be better today than you were yesterday. And if you can do that four days a week, five days a week, wow, you're winning at life.

14:45So tell us more about that. You're absolutely right. Listen, some days my best is at a very high level and some days the best I can do is at a lower level, but I do the best that I can every single day. And if I can be just a little bit better, if I can learn one thing that I didn't know yesterday, and my philosophy is you can learn something from everybody, whether they are someone that you look up to and they're a mentor of some kind. Maybe it's the cashier at Wawa that you can learn something from. You got to pay attention though, because those nuggets of wisdom and those life lessons are out there everywhere.

15:30But most people are on autopilot and they just kind of float through life without paying attention. And a lot of times the end result is it's not fair. It's not fair that he has this or it's not that comparing themselves to somebody else, you know, he got all the breaks. I never get a chance. Well, he also put the work in and he also did what it took to get where he is and strove to be better and better every single day. And again, if I could tell a quick story, you and I discussed it a little bit. When I got started in business, I can't count the times that I cried myself to sleep when I first got into business with the stress and the anxiety.

16:21I remember vividly sitting in my crappy little office about 10 o 'clock at night. Everybody was gone and just having this feeling of being overwhelmed, sliding down the wall in the bathroom and crying. and I wanted to give up. I really did. It was just, I felt that it was just too much and it was a decision that I had to make, give up or get up. And time after time, I decided to get up. And for years, it was a struggle, but it was worth the struggle. And that's really the big message that I want to put out there to, especially all the young people that are listening, hopefully to all of your guests and all of your words of wisdom is you got to keep getting up.

17:19And if you think it's going to be easy or if you don't want to put the work in, there's nothing wrong with just getting a job and going to work for somebody. Fire Nation, there are so many value bombs that I hope you're taking from this today. And this is one of those episodes that, you know, whenever you're struggling, whenever you're feeling a little bit down, you play this and you understand the mindset needed to succeed. So of everything that we talked about, what Todd, would you say is the number one biggest takeaway that you really want to make sure Fire Nation gets from our conversation?

17:53The biggest takeaway is that it's possible, but you got to do the work. You know, a lot of people say it's not what you know, it's who you know. So listen, who you know doesn't hurt to give you maybe that first opportunity. And what you know is extremely important. But what you do is the most important thing. You can get all the breaks in the world. But if you don't put the work in, if you don't put the effort in, you're never going to make it. And honestly, you're always going to find someone or something to blame if you don't take responsibility for your own success. And that to me is, you know, the most important thing for people to understand.

18:42There is no such thing as entitlement. Nobody's entitled to anything. You're entitled to the air we breathe, and that's about it. So those who go into a situation with that mentality are going to be let down very, very quickly. Take responsibility for yourselves and honestly take responsibility for those around you as well. My kids are grown and they've all come to me at one time or another saying, Dad, I got to do everything myself. My roommates don't do this or somebody at work doesn't do that. And my response is good. It's teaching you to take charge. It's teaching you to be independent and teaching you how to be successful.

19:34If the majority of the people around you are lazy or expecting you to do the work, that's good. You're going to succeed. And frankly, they're probably not going to. There's so many amazing takeaways from this Fire Nation. And it really harkens me back to 2012 when I went to my mentor, went to the leader of my mastermind, these two great individuals in podcasting. And I said, I want to do a daily podcast interviewing entrepreneurs. And they said, no, you're not because you're not going to be able to find enough guests. You're not going to be able to have enough time in the day to produce a show like that.

20:07You're going to get burned out. Your listeners will get burned out. and I said to myself, wow, like what kind of person do they think that I am that I can't do one interview a day? They think it's impossible. And if these are the top people in the industry and I figure out how to make it happen, that's an unbelievable opportunity because the higher the barrier, the lower the competition. So of course it's great because it's hard, because it's challenging. That's what makes it an amazing opportunity. And, you know, I just came in and I said, man, I spent 13 months in Iraq working seven days a week, 18 hours a day, trying to survive literally every single day.

20:44And I can't do a daily podcast, which is a 25 minute conversation with a cool person seven days a week. Like, what am I talking about here? So I knew it was possible. That was my mindset. That was just a given. And now I've been doing it for 12 years, 4 ,384 episodes. And guess what? It's led to massive success because people thought it was challenging and difficult and they didn't want to jump into the competition with me of being that person. So think about that when you're going into whatever it is that you're doing. When I hear people say, oh, but John, that sounds so hard. If it didn't sound hard, it'd be easy.

21:21And if it was easy, everybody'd be doing it and you'd be losing like everybody else, period, end of story. So Todd, if Fire Nation's loving what they're hearing today from you, where do they connect with you? Where do they learn more? Give us a call to action. I'm obviously on social media. I'm on LinkedIn. I'm on Facebook. I try to put as much content out as I have time for. Hopefully at some point I'm going to find the time to put a book out. I think that I have a lot that I can offer and hopefully I can book some more appearances on some additional podcasts, something that I really, really enjoy doing.

22:03And I really hope that somebody, you know, at least one person takes one thing that we talked about today and it helps them and changes their life. Real quick, you know, I just want to add something to the last thing that you had said. The harder it is, the more it means. You know, if you've got to work hard at something, the reward means so much more to you. There are so many people that, you know, if something comes easy, it doesn't mean anything and they lose it. You know, the people who lose the lottery or who win the lottery generally lose every penny within the first five years. You know, it's something that I'm sure a lot of people have heard.

22:48Those that get that big break, maybe it's one in a million that get it. They end up losing all that money because it didn't mean anything. Guys like you, guys like me, guys like a lot of people out there that do the work, that put in the years, that put in the effort, the blood, the sweat, the tears, their success means something and it means they're going to hang on to it. They're not going to be so quick to blow it. They're going to be very, very careful after they've reached that point of success. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And you've been hanging out with TS and JLD today.

23:32So keep up that heat. For links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Just type Todd in the search bar. The show notes page will pop right up. And Todd, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you, John. What an absolute pleasure. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Todd for sponsoring today's episode and Fire Nation. Are you ready to rock your very own podcast? Check out our free podcasting course where I will teach you how to create and launch your podcast for free.

24:06freepodcastcourse.com. I will catch you there or on the flip side. The Next Wave, your chief AI officer hosted by Matt Wolf and Nathan Lance is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Matt and Nathan are leading AI creators in your guiding light in the AI and technology frontier. AI technology is transforming the way we do business and the media landscape is fragmented. The Next Wave strives to be the leading podcast on AI technology and how you can apply it to growing your business. Listen to The Next Wave wherever you get your podcasts.

24:47Thank you.