Joel Beasley on Starting Over, Stand-Up, and Self-Discovery | EP 670

26:42I call it the wood chipper model. They saw the tree service companies, they would have to pay to dispose of the trees that they cut down. And they instead went and picked up the trees for them. So they didn't have to pay that cost anymore and then mulched it and turn it into chips that you use for your barbecue oh my god that's brilliant i thought you were going to say for your patio no they like children's playground stuff like that no they did it they seasoned it and then sold it and that's if you go buy those big bags at home depot that's how that business got started lump charcoal there you go i've learned something new on the show well i just want to go back to this burning trash thing because here in saint pete We have recyclable cans and we have the regular trash cans.

27:28And I was, for years, always trying to recycle everything, trying to be Mr. Green Energy here. And one of my friends ended up getting elected mayor and we were having a conversation one day. And recycling came up because I was in the process of starting a business in the trash arena. I don't know if I ever told you about this. It was called Reducerator. and we get into talking and he's when you pass on 275 you see all this recyclable stuff off the side of the road well we don't want the general public to know what we're doing with it so we move it at night and we take it over to the trash area where we're burning the trash and it actually benefits us burning the most difficult trash that we have to combust because it burns at a higher level so we just burn all the recyclables i'm like you're kidding me he's no so this whole time i thought the recyclables were going somewhere and being turned into pbc and other things that you buy in home depot and it turns out they were just burning them i found that out last year and i was blown away i was like are you kidding me this i saw some video online there was some small micro like 20 minute documentary where they followed the trash separate it and then it all goes to the same spot this is mind-blowing my neighbor across the street was complaining to me the other day because she's like i put a garbage bag that was filled with plastics into my recycling but she's i'm not going to take that because you put a garbage bag in that and it won't i'm like lady i go i'm going to tell you this garbage is going to go and it's going to get burned she goes no i'm here from california and i've been told that's not what happens i'm Like I have two mayors from St.

29:17Pete and another mayor from Largo. We've all told me that it goes to the same place. Plus my business partner was in the industry for 30 years and he's been there when they're burning it. It goes right down the street from us and it's burned in the atmosphere and God knows how many microplastics we're inhaling, but yeah, that's what happens. Anyway, we're going to turn into robots real fast and inhaling all these microplastics. Yeah. Here's where I'm going to go with this. So I, when I was launching the book, I knew I had to get back on stages. I'm not the most comfortable person starting out to get on stages.

29:53So I decided I'm going to go back into Toastmasters and start reworking my courage muscles and had this radical idea that I'm going to try improv, which scares the Dickens out of me because I'm not someone who naturally thinks very quickly on their feet. I like to process things. And I have to tell you, Joel, those two things were two of the best things I did a few years ago because it makes you learn how to relate to people, even in podcasting, so much better. So not only did you take the leap into improv, you decided to sell off a lot of the businesses that we were talking about and make this bold leap that you want to be one of the top comedians in the world.

30:43What the heck were you thinking? So that was the, so the original plan before we had kids after I'd done that software thing was to go into comedy. So I went into comedy eight years ago for about two months, three months, and I loved it. And when I found out that we were having this baby at the same time. I was looking at my software stuff and I said, I just got scared. I got scared and I went with the safer route. Fast forward all these years, I'd say I started with the podcast doing well and everything. I started to get a little down and my wife could tell. And we looked at our finances and we're pretty good savers and all of that.

31:24And we said, look, let's go take this leap and take the path that we didn't take before, which was comedy and we started down that path and it's been seven months almost eight well eight months and eight days now I've done about 70 shows and I have a show this weekend and so I'm flying out tomorrow to Utah I'll do a small theater there and then I'll fly back Sunday afternoon so that's a lot of what I'm doing right now going back to my improv I do not consider myself a funny person remotely. I just have never found that to be really a gift. But when I was doing improv, suddenly people were like laughing at me and laughing at the things I was saying.

32:07And I was like shocked. How did you know that you were funny? It might be a stupid question, but did you just know that this was in your DNA? Yes. So a couple of ways. The first one is my wife would tell me. She's like, that's why I'm with you. And I was like, all right, she's like, that's the redeeming quality, apparently. And so she had just been saying that over and over, but you're married. As they just say stuff over and over, it just becomes, you need other proof, right? You need other validation. And when I was getting depressed, I happened to have Ken Coleman on my show from the Ramsey people.

32:41And we had some really good conversation where he coached me. And And the byproduct of that coaching was I went and talked to people. I went on Facebook and talked to people who were my friends in elementary school and middle school. And I asked them, hey, why did you spend time with me? Because at that age, it's completely elective of why you're spending time with people, right? And they all said the same thing. They're like, because you're funny. And I said, oh, okay. So that was that third party validation that mixed with my wife telling me for several years that she wants me to do comedy and she thinks I'd be good at it.

33:17And me doing it those couple of times for those few weeks and really liking it, I said, okay, I will, I'll give it a shot. I'll do it. So you're now a regular in the Nashville area, Joker's comedy house, and you also perform on a date night comedy tour as well. But I have to imagine this isn't just something that you flip a switch and all of a sudden you're getting booked in these different places. One of the things we talk a lot about here on the podcast is people have these aspirations that they want to do something different. Maybe they're one of the CTOs that you talk to and they're miserable and want to get out of it, but don't know how to cross that chasm.

34:00Like you were doing something really successfully. You were making good money doing it. And this is a leap. You've got three kids and everything else. How did you convince yourself, besides the support of your wife, to have the courage to make that leap? I think I have to do it because I need very difficult things. Otherwise, I spiral into depression. So if I'm not trying to solve some incredibly difficult problem, then I'm just uninterested in life itself. so early in my career a lot of those were software problems building systems and then it became building businesses and then I said okay well now I've got to figure out how to solve this comedy problem I had to set a goal and I had to be careful Ken taught me that one of the issues with my podcast is I set my goal and I achieved it without having another goal behind it and once you achieve that like massive goal that you never thought was possible it's oh I thought that would take me a lifetime.

34:59And that took me seven years. Right. And so I said, I need the biggest goal I could have in comedy. So I made, I thought a lot about this a lot for a couple of weeks. The biggest goal I could come up with is to sell out a stadium. It's like, all right, I'm going to go until I can sell out a stadium. I'm going to go from open mic to sell out a stadium. And it turns out comedy is challenging enough. It's really difficult to do comedy. It's also difficult because I have to keep the revenue going to pay for the wife and kids and the family and the lifestyle that we have. So I have to keep that going while also getting good as a comedian, while also showing up as a husband and a father.

35:37So it's not just I'm a single 20 something and I'm just laser vision on becoming a popular comedian. It's I have to continue to run the business. I have to continue to show up for my family and I have to get good at comedy. And so I'm definitely using the consistency compound over time versus methodology versus when I started in business early on, I would just burn myself out going 24-7 as hard as I could go. Then I realized when the things I was successful with was the things that I stuck with. I said in my head, okay, this is going to take me 10 or 20 years to do. That's fine. I'm not going to give up.

36:19I'm going to take it. I'm not going to burn out. I'm going to do it slowly. I go out three nights a week to do comedy put the kids in bed go out and do comedy about three nights a week and then I typically have a show that I'm flying to or something like every other weekend and I'm building relationships and I'm growing and I have a whole system and I'm tracking it on Instagram in 60 second weekly updates so I have I'm on week 33 right now something interesting that you might want to think about and maybe you've already thought about it but the show School of Greatness Lewis house. Yeah. Yeah.

36:53So Lewis, I'm not sure how he's doing it because I think he's got a kid on the way and he just got married, but he's decided to, in his early forties, try out again for the Olympic team. And so he's started a new podcast where he's profiling this journey that he's going through to do it. It could be an interesting idea for you to start a podcast about your journey. Yeah. You're reading my mind. That was actually the notes I was making in my Evernote last night, I was like, do I just do the podcast as the 60 second updates or do once a month, do I review all the past four weeks or do I do it quarterly?

37:29So I'm going to go check out how Mr. Howells is doing it to see if I can get some inspiration. So are there skills from podcasting or your tech background that unexpectedly helped you on stage? Oh, for sure. Absolutely. So the first one is that I'm just completely comfortable with the fact that I might mess up. I'm like, I'm just totally okay with that. The second thing is, while I'm okay with messing stuff up, but also, I've spoken so much. and through the podcast, I've gotten so many opportunities to speak on stages about the podcast or about what I'm learning from the people who've come on the podcast that now I've spoken to thousands of people like in the room on stage.

38:20Like I've spoken to more people in a room as a tech speaker than I have as a comedian. So my largest tech speaker thing is 5 ,000 people in a room. My largest comedy has been 400 people in a small theater. So as far as being on stage, like other comedians that have been in there longer, they've come up to like, you've only been doing the seven months. How are you so comfortable on stage? How are you? How do you speak so clearly? And I said, well, this is what I do during the day. When I was 19 or 20, I had this group of friends from high school that we would get together. One of us would get blindfolded.

38:59We'd put a map of the United States on the wall and we would throw a dart at it. And wherever it hit, we would do a trip. And this one year it happened to luckily land on New Orleans. So we take this trip to New Orleans and we're over by Tulane in this just college bar that's there. And we were playing chess and just goofing off. It's two or three o 'clock in the afternoon. and all of a sudden this guy in dregs walks up to the bartender and has a four or five minute conversation with them. Next thing we know that they're setting up on the stage inside this bar and then start playing. Lo and behold, it was UB40 and I guess they had a gig coming up in New Orleans and needed a practice session.

39:46Fast forward a couple years ago, I hear on the radio that the Killers are doing a practice show in front of 100 fans in Tampa, limited seats. They're going on sale in like the next hour. And they played at the Orpheum the next day. They opened up their tour at the amphitheater. But I think we see these big acts and we think that they have it all together. And where I'm going with this is I've seen Steve Martin and Jerry Seinfeld say, and even Chris Rock say that oftentimes they will just pop into small comedy shows because about 90 % of their content never lands. So they go in there just to test the content.

40:29Where I'm going with this is we see these people on stage and we think it's so easy. I saw this thing on Steve Martin where it said it like took him 12 years to become the person that is, how difficult have you found it to come up with material? And I heard Jerry Seinfeld say that he writes a joke daily and just so he can keep up with trying to come up with a new content. How do you go about doing it? So I actually took Steve Martin's class. He has a comedy class on masterclass. And I've also listened to that interview with Seinfeld and those things hold true. So it's just a ratio game, right?

41:07So if you're sitting, if 90 % of the content you write doesn't land, then you just need to write a lot, right? You just, that's what they do. They're professionals. They're writing. It takes a lot of work to come up with one solid minute of stage timed comedy. And so for me, I'm at 20 minutes and I am seven months in. I'm at like 20 acceptable minutes. I'd say 13 of them are like just back to back do well, but all in all, 20 minutes currently. And to do that, I've written 10 times that. And I've just got on stage and said things and people not laughed. And so what I do is I just record every single set that I do.

41:48I learned this from one of Joe Rogan's interviews. I record every set that I do and I watch back and I note the laughs and I just I'm unemotional about it I just say okay this is where people laugh this they liked this they didn't like that and then I just do it and then I just slowly build the set and I track every performance I do I review footage and I make notes and I have it all in a spreadsheet and then I know what jokes work and then I adjust my set accordingly and I move forward and that's all you really can do is just work the system that these brilliant people who are household names like Martin and Seinfeld, they go out there and they tell you, they say, this is the system.

42:25And they're pretty simple systems, right? Every day, go out, record yourself, listen back to it, note where people laugh, repeat. And it's boring. It's just like a business, John. It's like podcasting. It's boring. Look, you want your McDonald's, I hate using McDonald's, I gotta find another analogy. You want your Burger King to be like consistent when you're on your road trip in college, no matter where you are, You want that consistency burger to taste good. You do. And the only way to do that is really stable, solid systems. And so it's the unsexy truth about doing anything great is you need some really solid systems in place that are consistent and stable.

43:05And then you just have to wake up and manufacture the desire to operate the systems consistently over time. Well, it's the same thing with parenting, honestly. Yes. Yeah. You just got to do it. In your acts, you talk a lot about marriage, parenting, relationships. How do you take such deeply personal stories and make them land with the universal audience? I was listening to one of your acts and one of your children has Down syndrome. I heard you talking about that in a routine. How do you bring those things and feel comfortable bringing those things to an audience? so it's in alignment with my goals right my goal is to do all of this while keeping being a strong husband and a father to the kids and one of my ways of dealing with that is by making them a part of the act and so that's what i have found to be really useful for me also they come and watch it and they love it a couple rules i have i don't necessarily run around and blast from the rooftops that I'm a clean comedian, but I am.

44:19But my level of clean, everyone has a different level of clean. My level of clean is very subjective. It's what I subjectively clean. Yeah, it's subjectively clean. It's TV clean for sure. Church clean. I get mixed audience. The church is too saved. They're too holy. It doesn't work. We have some centers in the house. They'll like it. My bar, the reason why I went into this is because I love comedy. One of the reasons and I love comedy and I can't watch like while Joe Rogan's one of my favorite comics because I think he does this really interesting intellectual thing I'm not going to put him on in front of my kids because of the words he uses and my kids are really young and I've always thought it's really trashy when you hear a seven-year-old drop an f-bomb so I've always been like I'm gonna keep him away from that I'm not gonna do that and so my bar is would I be okay with my kids watching this if I I'm making this for me for other me's out there and if those other me's like can flip on netflix and hit play and watch it in front of their kids that's the win so there's not enough people doing that and it's actually the niche i thought similar to the cto niche there wasn't really people doing it and there's a handful of people that are really great at it napriatski is one of them john christ is um and there's some really great clean comics out there but i didn't think there were enough so i that I'm going to add myself to that roster.

45:36I want to go back to learnable takeaways for the audience. What you're going into is a really difficult thing based on a lot of interviews that I've heard with comedians who have struggled and struggled before they broke through it. But what you're going through is not any different from anyone who's trying to pick up a new skill set or try to start something different in their life, which could be sobriety or it could be trying to make a major life change, not just a career change. Like when you are meeting the enormous resistance that you're getting at time and facing failures, what's your advice for people who are listening on how you work through that?

46:19I don't have advice, but I do have my experience and I have taken other people. So I'll give you some advice that I took that I put in an experience and that has worked well for me for over 10 years now. So that advice was decide that you're going to do it whether you're successful or not until you die. So when I make that decision, I did that with the podcast. And I think that's why the pod, like if people ask me why the podcast is successful, not my interview skills, not the guests or anything. It was because when I went into it, I sat down. I did that really lame thing where you look at yourself in the mirror and talk to yourself.

46:54And I made this decision that I'm going to podcast consistently and I'm going to do this. And even if it's not successful financially, even if it takes me 20 years or I'm like the KFC guy and I pop off like in my 70s, I'm going to do this. And the way my justification for it is when I am on my deathbed and I am looking back on my life and I have podcasts consistently my entire life and I still didn't become anybody, I'm okay with that. I will die peacefully. If I am on my deathbed and I look back and I gave up after two or three years, I will essentially feel like I'm in hell because I didn't stick with it.

47:33I didn't continue. I didn't make this. I broke a promise to myself. Unacceptable. So when I went into it with the podcast, I said, I'm going to do this until I die, whether or not I'm successful. And that's just who I am now. It removed all negotiation. When I wake up, I don't think about if I'm going to do it? Am I going to continue to do it? How much money, like how low will my bank account be before I quit doing it? Like I don't, there's no more negotiation. This is just who I am now, full identity assumed. And then I'm very, very careful about ever making another one of those. So I don't have six of those going on at once for business stuff.

48:12I've like, I've got, So I thought literally my wife and I talked about it for a full 12 months before we said, this is the thing. And I had taken some classes. I experimented, talked a little bit about before I decided that this is, I'm going to approach it like this. And so I put a lot of weight into that decision. I wouldn't recommend waiting 12 months to decide, but if you, I don't know, for me, that's just what happened. Because comedy is real stupid. That needed 12 months because that was like a real stupid thing. But anyways, that's just what I did. And when I did the podcast thing, it was almost instantly.

48:52I heard the advice and I said, I'm doing it. And the next day I did it and that's who I was. So with the podcast, it was immediate. Once the finances got stable and everything, and I'm just going to try to leap out to do this second dream. Look, it takes a lot, John, to tell life, universe, God, whatever, that you have said there would be nothing better in life. You had this dream. You achieved it. And now what? I'm daring to ask for a second dream? I don't know. That seems like a bit much, but I'm going to do it. And so I put all this thought into it, decided to do it. And now no matter what happens, if you want to interview me when I'm 70, I'm still going to be a comedian.

49:32And I'm still going to be a podcaster. I remember when I first started out and I realized that the podcast was making money and that this could be a main thing. And it's interesting because a lot of people, their coaching business or their medical practice is the main thing. And they use the podcasting as a marketing arm for it. But I remember my identity used to be, what do you do for work, John, CIO of Dell? Well, for me, the first time I told someone I'm a professional podcaster, it almost seemed like it was almost like a joke. I was telling someone because when you think about how many podcasts there are, the vast majority of them aren't making any money.

50:13And if people know that and you tell them you're a professional podcaster, I just felt like I was an imposter. Oh, yeah. I have to tell you. I'm unemployed twice. I'm a podcaster and a comedian. And I just let them think that whatever they think. I stopped. I don't care as much anymore. I used to, because I was, I had a little trouble in my mind transitioning. Because if you said software engineer before, that like a lot of clout came along with that. They had all these ideas in their head. And then when you say podcaster, they have all these ideas in their head that aren't as positive as software engineer.

50:51But I just, I don't care anymore. I'm just like, ah, it's whatever. So every comedian has a bomb story. I have several from doing improv. Can you share one of yours and what you learned from it? So bombing is essentially when whatever content you're doing is not working with the crowd. People aren't laughing. That's bombing. Just a lot of silence. And I'm comfortable with the silence. When you're getting started, you're trying stuff. And I will tell you, I've got one for you. so about three months ago i had at least solid 10 minutes and i was doing that at a lot of clubs and then for whatever reason i think it was graduation was happening so there were four people at the club and that did not go well because you need a certain number of people like a certain capacity of people to get laughs going and so that was probably the roughest show But I bonded with the other comedians on that set too, because usually there's 50 to 100 people at that club.

51:54But it was graduation weekend for whatever reason that night. There wasn't anybody there. But there was four people and they're like, we're not canceling the show. We're still doing it. And I said, OK, let's do it. I also bombed really hard in one of my jokes last week because I have this joke about my wife and three kids. And I get into the joke. I do some crowd engagement where I'll ask people. I say, I clap it up. new parents if you have kids or parents if you have kids. And this one lady like really wanted to get called on. Right. And I could tell and I was like, all right, how many kids do you have?

52:26And she goes, oh, really hard to answer. And I go, oh, that means there's a lot of kids. And everybody kind of laughed. And she goes, no, she goes, I have one son and he died last week. And I was like, why are you raising your hand at a comedy show? What are you doing? What are you trying to crush? So the energy just sucked out of the room. And then I brought it back because my next joke was like a joke about my son dying. And so I just said, you're really not going to like this next joke. And then I just barreled through it. And then she laughed and it was good. And everybody saw that and it worked, but it was probably the most awkward moment I've had in comedy is, I don't know.

53:01Maybe she just wanted to talk. So I want to talk about the next chapter for you. You've said that you want to eventually sell out a stadium. So I'm thinking Jerry Seinfeld here or someone Adam Sandler, someone like that. What are some of the dream comedy gigs that are on your bucket list? Zany's main stage is definitely a really cool one. I haven't gotten to do their main stage. I've gotten to do their secondary stage called the lab. It's like they're joining buildings. So Zany's main stage would be really cool. And then the stadium, I just am laser focused on getting to the stadium. And then I don't care about the venues that much.

53:41I know a lot of comedians do. They'll have like specific venues that they want to play. And for whatever reason, maybe I'm just immature in my comedy journey because I'm only eight months in, but I don't have like dream venues right now. I have comics that I want to perform with though. If I have dreams, like I want to perform with certain comics. Like I want to perform with John Chris. I want to perform with Nate Bargatsky. I want to perform with Aaron Weber. I want to perform with Derek Stroop. He was on Jimmy Fallon last week. So there's people that I follow that I like. And I'm like, I would love to be, because almost all the time, it's never just one comedian.

54:17It's always like three or four. There's like a host, an opener, a middle, and then the actual main act. So they're always traveling in packs. And so those are some of the dream people. If anyone knows how to get me involved with any of those people, joelcomedy.com. All right. And I want to end today with a little bit of a lightning round with you. What's the first standup set you've ever saw live? The first standup set I ever saw live. I don't remember. It was something at McCurdy's comedy in Sarasota, Florida, but I don't remember who it was. All right. how about your favorite joke you've ever written?

55:03Oh, right now it's a toss. It's probably the life insurance. I got this life insurance joke about my wife and us getting life insurance. So that's probably the best joke. You can find it on Instagram. What's a tech gadget that you just can't live without? fit that baby without a doubt the best most positive impact any technology has ever had on my life that bit most surprising thing about being a dad how you can love the kids so much and simultaneously wish they would just go to bed i love you but i need you to go away right now what's one thing comedy taught you about leadership nervous or not like when it's time to do the thing you just got to do the thing like you just when that stage call and they say come into the stage joel beasley or whatever it is or you got to fire that person you know that you get that energy that pit in your stomach and just you can't ignore it you can't put it don't put it off like it's just take action when you feel it and move on to the next thing.

56:13Yeah. Okay. And the last one, I think a lot of the listeners have seen the Martian. You are Mark Watney, you're stranded on Mars and you're the first person who's going to be there to colonize it. And you need to set up a structure for the planet. What would be the biggest guiding principle that you would want to give new humanity? oh well i'd be selfish i would build a stadium and do a set and then die oh my gosh oh man joel it's been great having you if people want to learn more about the podcast and your comedy work where's the best place for them to go joel comedy j-o-e-l comedy.com awesome well thank you so much for joining us man it's always such a joy to to get to talk to you.

57:06It was my pleasure. Thank you so much, John. And that's a wrap on today's conversation with Joel Beasley. But in many ways, this episode isn't a conclusion. It's the midpoint of a story still unfolding. Here's what struck me most. Joel reminded us that growth just isn't about reaching the top of one mountain. It's about having the courage to climb the next one. Joel could have stayed where he was, successful, respected, comfortable, but he chose to start over, to risk being a beginner again. Second, passion struck is a process, not a destination. It's not just about the arc you've completed, but about the arc you dare to begin.

57:41And lastly, curiosity is the engine of reinvention. Whether you're scaling a company or standing under the lights of a comedy club for the first time, the question is the same. What happens if I try? Joel's story reminded me that the most transformative moments in life rarely happen when we have it all figured out. They happen when we take the leap while the ending is still uncertain. So here's my challenge to you. Where in your life are you playing it safe because you've already proven yourself once? What would it look like to begin again, to step into your own next arc with curiosity and courage?

58:14You can connect with Joel and check out everything that he's doing by going to the show notes at passionstruck.com. If something Joel shared sparked an idea for you, share this episode with someone who needs to hear it. And if you haven't yet, please leave a five-star rating or review on Apple or Spotify. It's the best way to help more people discover this movement. Coming up next, I'm joined by Sandy Yazipovich, entrepreneur, humanitarian, and three-time medical miracle who shares her extraordinary story of surviving Guillain-Barre syndrome, Lyme disease, and stage four cancer, and how she built a life of faith, family, and purpose.

58:47It's one of the most inspiring stories we've ever featured on the show. You won't want to miss it. I learned early on that fear only exists in the absence of faith. I was faith-filled and I'm grateful for that. It really was when I made my alignment, when that life support system came in. I realized that, okay, Lord, whatever you've got for me, I will endure and persevere for however long it takes. And that alignment happens. It doesn't even have to be in the severest case of mine. It could be you have those experiences with something through a divorce or a separation or losing a child at birth.

59:23I've seen so many friends and how they've overcome such complex emotions. such deep heart-stricken emotions that their faith has carried them through. Until then, step into your next arc, lead with intention, and as always, live life passion-struck.