Finding Discipline Through Adversity with Tommy Richardson (Part 1)

This week we bring on Tommy Richardson, founder or Nubs Media and Marketing Coach. In part one we lay the groundwork and dive into how Tommy got to where he is today and why his first company was named Nubs Media. 

Tommy brought on .38 cal bourbon for us to try! We even strayed from our normal, drinking it neat to drinking it Tommy's way by adding a little ginger beer it. Highly suggested. 

How to reach Tommy:
Instagram @trichnubs
TikTok @tommynubs
Email: tommy@nubsmedia.com

Transcript

Chris: 0:31

Welcome back everybody. This is your boy Chris, and the amazing co-host that is Tyler y'all. And this week we bring on the husband of one of our former guests. What is your name?

Tommy: 0:44

Oh, Tommy Richardson. I figured you were gonna roll with that one. My bad. we like to let you

Chris: 0:50

introduce yourself in case I totally butcher your last name. Well, I got a pretty

Tommy: 0:53

stereotypical white boy name. kind. Kind of hard to mess it up.

Chris: 0:58

I'm just saying. I found out yesterday that Raven Simone's name was actually Raven Simone. And I was like, I mean, it makes sense, but I don't assume anything anymore.

Tyler: 1:09

Fair enough. I guess you can't But yeah, I also want to shout out the hat, which is the Phillies and his shoes. Have the

Tommy: 1:15

Eagles. Yeah, I got the, the Eagles colors down there. So being right outside, I got the, I got the Jordan one Eagles on. Yeah. So being right

Tyler: 1:23

outside of Philly myself, I had, I had to shout that

Chris: 1:25

out. So, I mean, on the day of recording, the Eagles did. Put a spank

Tommy: 1:30

in. So in New York, I'm gonna be honest with you, man, I didn't watch the game last night. I didn't either. So yesterday my sister turned 24, so we went to Riley to go celebrate with her. Oh. And my wife and I were on the road while the game was on, and State and Carolina played last night. So that was much more important to me. Fair. Than the Eagles in the Giants. I've seen that game twice this year already. Exactly. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't wanna see it a third time. No. Yeah.

Tyler: 1:53

That, that game was gonna end out the same way the, the last two, if not worse, which is what happened. And then yeah, the, the state Carolina game was good as well. So I,

Tommy: 2:02

I didn't enjoy that. It was good until the flagrant foul. Mm. Fair. Yeah. That put toque and Smith in the hospital for a couple hours. Mm-hmm. Sheesh. Yeah. Not fun, you know? We'll, whatever. Yeah. It happens. typical, typical Carolina Yep.

Chris: 2:18

But technically Carolina would be like, no. That's what Duke

Tommy: 2:20

people do. We, we, so I, I've been an ACC fan my entire life. I grew up in Raleigh and I've been a state fan my whole life. Okay. Okay. So it's like we all talk crap about each other's schools. Yeah. I mean, the way I look at it, state, state, beat Carolina in Chapel Hill and football this year and beat'em last year, which was probably the biggest comeback I've ever seen in my life happen last year at Carter Finley, when State came back and won that game, I think they were down like 11 or 12 with a minute and a half left. Yeah. And won the game. Sheesh. And I was there to. which made it even better. Oh, of course. So that's amazing. You know, they can have basketball. We'll, we'll take football. That's fine. they can. Right, that's fine. I love it. The only reason why

Tyler: 3:01

my godparents are gonna hate me for saying this, why I sure hope the hell they don't listen. But the reason why I like NC State basketball right now is only because of the coach. Because dude, Keith is great. Keith is amazing. I mean, you can't, can't deny that he

Tommy: 3:13

is, man, I, I love Coach Keets. He's I wish he would be more aggressive with the ref sometimes. Yeah. And like fuss at him the way that you see Hubert Davis and how Coach K used to do it and some of the other guys, but that's not his style. Mm-hmm. And he's gotta be true to who he is. And it took him a little while, but, you know, came off of the worst season in program history last year. Yeah. And I mean, I think we're 15 and five right now. Mm-hmm. which is a massive improvement. Last year. Last year we won 10 games. Yeah. So it was like, all right, we can only go up from here. And I think he's done a good job. I haven't watched as many of those games as I have Liberty Games because I graduated from ou mm-hmm. So I'm a little more attached when it comes to that. But I mean, they're, they're doing good, man. I mean, I, I got no complaints. Yeah. Definitely. I got no complaints at all. Let's jump

Tyler: 3:58

into the whiskey here from Chris, and then we will get into your past, which is gonna be a little bit more liberty.

Chris: 4:04

Yes. Yeah. So Tommy brought us Ranger Creek Point, what is this? 36? It's point 36. Point 30? Well, no, it's based off of like a caliber. A caliber, yeah. Yeah. But point 36.

Tommy: 4:17

We'll just call it 36 caliber Texas bourbon. Okay, that makes more sense. Probably even bacon. Yeah, let's just call it that. What

Tyler: 4:23

it's actually called Let's call what it's actually called.

Chris: 4:25

It's supposed to be a traditional like vanilla maple syrup on the nose, and then it has like a caramel new wooden cinnamon taste with kind of like a spicy finish.

Tommy: 4:34

Oh, you're, oh, you're gonna feel the spicy finish. Ooh, Oh, you're gonna feel the spicy finish.

Chris: 4:39

So me and Tyler are gonna taste it from the Glen Karen just to like, kind of taste it. And then because Tommy doesn't drink the whiskey straight, which I'm totally okay with I was say after today, this is all about it. We're, we're doing a whiskey ginger today. This, it's probably better. Just gimme you guys a little heads up so you don't just assume we're just going ham on this one.

Tyler: 5:00

And, and let's be honest, I mean, when it comes to down to how I actually drink my whiskey on a daily basis mm-hmm. it's, it's mixed with ginger. So,

Tommy: 5:08

so when, when I'm at home, it's always a whiskey ginger when I'm HOK is super simple to make. Yeah. Some freaking ginger a in there shot of whiskey. You're good to go. Yep. When I go to a restaurant, I always do whiskey sours every time I go to a restaurant. And I've learned over the course of the past couple months that there's a right way and a wrong way to make her whiskey sour. I was about to ask and if you see your bartender bust out some eggs Yeah. And he's making a whiskey sour that is going to be a phenomenal drink. Yes. You get that right. Is going to be very

Chris: 5:37

good. Mm-hmm. which is why I get a m. Fair enough. I'm just kidding. I do an old fashioned, I don't even do a Manhattan, so

Tommy: 5:43

I got a buddy that's all he'll drink old fashioned. He, he makes'em at the house for himself. That's all. That's all he'll drink when he goes out to eat or if he just goes to a dive bar or whatever. Mm-hmm. That's it. That's all they'll do. Thank you. So I've

Tyler: 5:54

actually learned when I go out now, if I'm, if I go out somewhere, I'll ask for Whiskey Sour if they have eggs, because it makes complete difference. It does. If they don't, then I go Whiskey ginger. Because it

Chris: 6:08

big difference also a big difference asking for a bourbon ginger versus a whiskey ginger. That's fair. Mm-hmm. I found that out on my birthday, I haven't not finished a drink in years. And that was the day I was like,

Tommy: 6:22

Nope, I did that. I'm not gonna say the restaurant here in town that I did that with the other day, But I, I got one the other day and I got like four sips in and I was like, I cannot drink this. This is so bad. Yeah. Yeah. And it was a whiskey sour. Mm-hmm. And I, I couldn't finish it. Mm-hmm. That's the first time I've never not finished a drink. When I went out, it was just, ugh. It's, I feel you there said that. Well give it a tell. See what you think. All right. Yeah. Cheers. Cheers. 36 cow. Yep. Cheers to you

Chris: 6:49

guys. Thank you. 36. Thanks cow. That makes so much more sense.

Tyler: 6:53

Oh, it's smell good. Smells good.

Tommy: 6:55

That is good. I told you dude, it's good. Oh, thank you for bring that out. That is good. Is delicious, isn't it? And then the spice will kick in here in just a second. Yeah. See, there it is. Yep. There it is.

Tyler: 7:06

You get it on the back. But I, that's what I love because I'm, I'm a ride drinker. So when you get that spice on the, on the back end, that's what I love. Chris isn't like huge on that,

Tommy: 7:15

but I'll do this. That's all me. All my long is, that is a good whiskey right there. Oh, this is good. Oddly

Chris: 7:20

enough, I taste like pineapple for some reason. Very, very odd.

Tommy: 7:25

So the maple syrup is pretty obvious. Yeah. Yeah. The maple syrup, it's, it's obvious that's in there because you can smell that. Oh, for sure. Yeah. And then my surprise was the vanilla that comes on the back end. Yeah. It hits a little bit later. But like I said, dude, it's very, very smooth. And I was like, you know what man, I'm, I'm rarely gonna drink this. I was like, let's, let's bring it up here, man. Let's see what these guys think about it. Cuz y'all know more than I do. Do you know

Tyler: 7:50

where, do you know where a Ranger Creek is out of? Nope.

Tommy: 7:53

Don't think so. I think, I think it's out of New Braunfels, Texas. I think that's what it's out of. We'll see

Tyler: 8:01

you Chris. The king of all Google will let us

Chris: 8:04

know. I don't New Brownsville

Tommy: 8:06

Braunfels.

Tyler: 8:06

If it's in New Braunfels Braunfels, I'm 100% going. Cuz that's where that bar is. That also is a gym.

Chris: 8:12

It's outside of San Antonio. Yeah.

Tyler: 8:14

So, which is probably close to New Braunfels because

Tommy: 8:17

that's where that is. So new Braunfels is like perfectly in between San Antonio and Austin. Yep. It's like 40 minutes from. It's like a Chris is Googling.

Chris: 8:25

No, it's actually in the San Antonio. New Broun is like here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's in the San Antonio, like Gotcha, gotcha. Circle. Gotcha, gotcha. I'm gonna be in San Antonio April, like win crest.

Tommy: 8:37

Okay. I'll take your word for it. I have no idea. I'm just, I'm going to San Antonio for the first time at the end of February. Why? Because we got an event down there with the company that I'm with now called top Rep and it's basically they train sales guys how to be better Yeah. In the home services industry. And I've partnered up with Chuck and Jim and I'll actually be speaking at that event to the sales guys. And I'll also be speaking individually to the owners of the companies as well. Nice.

Chris: 9:05

Mm-hmm. So if you're in San Antonio, are you gonna go by Fort Sam Houston?

Tommy: 9:08

So I've never been to the Alamo and that is right there in San Antonio. Mm-hmm. Yes. So, and I've heard the river walk is amazing. It is. Yes. So me and my wife, cuz my wife's never been to San Antonio. Antonio either. So we're gonna go to the Alamo that day. Cause she's a Spanish teacher, you guys, you know. Yeah. If you don't know that, go back and listen to that episode. Thank you. But I'll give you a plug, Sure. I'll give you a plug, but Yeah. And so she's always wanted to go see it. I've always wanted to go. So we're gonna get there early the day before. Yeah. We're just gonna go see San Antonio for a day. Yeah. So looking forward to it. It's gonna be fun. It will be. And I'll be in DFW next. Nice.

Tyler: 9:44

If you're gonna beat out in April, early April, let us know. I will

Tommy: 9:47

not Damn. I'll not

Chris: 9:50

I'll not. So going back way back, you said, well, I say way back. It's really not that far. It's probably like 10 years ago. You went to Liberty. Mm, yeah. And that's where you met your wife. It is. We heard a very

Tommy: 10:03

interesting story. I, I already know what you're gonna ask me, but go ahead, I know it's coming. Elephant brain here.

Chris: 10:10

That's what I'm here for. So did you break up with the girl because of your wife,

Tommy: 10:15

No. Okay. I did not. I didn't. I said I was gonna ask you too. No, no, no, no, no. We did not break up because of my wife That's not what happened. No. What happened was is me and me and her, we had a long distance relationship. She was in Durham, North Carolina. I was in, I think it was Durham. Oh. That was a long time ago. And I was in Lynchburg and we were trying to make something work and we just couldn't make it work. That makes sense. You know, it is what it is. She didn't want to leave there. I didn't necessarily wanna leave Lynchburg. So it's like our lives took us just in different areas and I mean, we dated for like six months and I'd rather break it off then than six years. Yes. Or try to make something work that was never gonna work. And Alex and I met at the gym that we both went to. She could tell you what year it was. I think it was 2014. I don't know man. I have no idea. But she lived in the same apartment complex as me. And I was just like, Hey, you just wanna go grab something to eat? She was like, yeah, let's go. So I was like, all right. See how this goes. Yeah. Yeah, it obviously turned out it worked out. We've been married for seven years together. Eight. We got two kids. I, I would say it's turned out pretty well. Yeah. Pretty success. Successful

Chris: 11:19

So did you join the military before you went to Liberty or after? Before.

Tommy: 11:24

Okay. So I joined, so I graduated in 2006. Okay. So, and I joined in military December, 2007. Ooh. Oh

Chris: 11:30

wow. Okay. Mm-hmm. I joined in February of oh nine. Okay. So it was a weird, so oddly enough, if anybody knows anything, there was a transition from, you know, 2001. They did a bunch of stuff in Iraq and then after Iraq they kind of transitioned mainly into Afghanistan. And it was weird cuz like that two year window, I had some of my guys come back from deployment in Iraq and then join up with us cuz I was in the National Guard and they went straight into Afghanistan with us. Yep. But you joined it in, you said oh seven?

Tommy: 12:04

Yeah, so I joined in December oh seven. I went to Basic in January oh eight. Mm-hmm. funny story about me leaving for basic, so my mom's birthday is January 10th. Mm-hmm. I know they said I was supposed to leave January 10th to go to Basic. And my mom told the recruiter he's not leaving on January 10th, So I ended up leaving January 11th to go to Mason, Jayden. My mom's like, oh, my birthday, I'm not letting my baby go. It's not gonna. So funny story about that, but yeah, I did basic down in Fort Benning, Georgia. Okay. Okay. Cuz I was infantry. That's what I did. I was 11 Charlie, so not only did I raid houses mm-hmm. I also launched mortars. I was about

Chris: 12:40

to say, I'm like, at least you weren't 11 Bravo

Tommy: 12:44

I mean, yeah. These guys are, those guys are a different level of dumb Well not dumb, but they're just a different level of crazy. Yeah. Like they just, they have a different look about'em, they have a different mentality just about life in general. But it was funny how it became 11 Charlie. So when I showed up the basic and Benning, there was like 400 of us. Yeah. That all showed up at the same time. And they were like, all right, everybody on this side, you're gonna be 11 Charlie, everybody on this side, you're gonna be 11 Bravo. And I just so happened to be on the side that was 11 Charlie Oh wow. Because I signed up, it's cuz I signed up as 11 x-Ray. Okay. That was what I signed up for. Cuz the intention was I was gonna go to Ranger school or rip, which is Ranger indoctrination program, I think is what it's called. So that was the plan when I originally left. And so all of us were 11 X-rays. Yes. So you could have been either. Oh wow. It didn't really, like, there was no, typically when you sign up, you know what you're signing up for with us. I didn't know any better. I, I was like, I'm infantry. Yeah. But

Chris: 13:40

I've heard that too. Like, I had a guy when I went through basic, he was like, Everyone was looking around and he was like, I'm an X-ray. I don't, they just sent me here. Yeah. And he, he oddly enough had like basic training at Fort Leonard Wood and then if he finished that he would go, I think he did engineering school there and like he, if he finished that school, then he would jump over and I was like, yeah, that was an

Tommy: 14:03

option. Yeah. Well so you, my buddy signed, oh God, what was it? I think he was, he was an X-ray. He was something different because he wanted to go special forces. Mm-hmm. So he, I can't remember which one it was, but it wasn't X-ray. It was eight 18 something or Yeah, 1818 something. Yeah. But but it was still infantry. Yeah. So cuz that's what he wanted to do. So his track was a little different than my, he left like a week and a half after I did mm-hmm. to go to basic in the same place. And it, when I graduated from like basic, not the a i t and all that good stuff when I graduated from Basic, cuz in infantry you do it all in one, one fail swoop. Right. So I think it's typically 14 weeks for 11 Bravo, 15 weeks for 11 Charlie. Cuz we have to do everything the Bravos do plus that one week of mortar training. Yeah. Right. So that's why ours was a little bit longer. Well when I graduated from there, he was also at Fort Benning and he was only a week and a half behind me. Well he was Bravo. So he graduated the same time I did. And my grandfather who came down the Benning was riding around, found him walking down the road. Yeah. Picked him up in the truck. No way, and drove him to come see me, and then took him back to where he was supposed to be I was like, do you know the trouble? You could have just got this man in just from picking him up, riding down the road. Oh. But so yeah, that was my, that's my graduation story from basic training. Oh, that's funny. See,

Chris: 15:26

at least you had like some sort of, I graduated and we woke up and were like, Hey, you're graduated now to MP school. And I was like, wait, what're like? Yep. That's all you get. Yeah. Now you get to walk an extra like three miles to the next

Tommy: 15:39

tour school. Thank you very much. On Sunday. Well, I'll tell you what, man. Our it was the r to Infantry hill at Fort Benning sucked such. It was so bad. It's like, it's just such a long walk. Yeah. And you're in full battle rattle, which is helmet, knee pads, vest, whole nine square yards. Right. And you have an 80 pound ruck on your back and you're carrying your weapon. Yeah. Shit like all of it. And I want to say it was 20, seems like too far.

Chris: 16:09

Ours

Tommy: 16:09

was 15, God, I think it was 17, I think it was a 17 mile ruck march that we started at sundown. Geez. And the goal was to be where we were supposed to be before sunup and God would. Oh, it was awful. It's the worst walk in the world because we were in the field for an entire week leading up to that. So we're low on sleep. I ain't had coffee in seven days. And everyone's just exhausted and they're like, all right guys, pack it up. We're going, you're just like, oh, oh, this is gonna suck so bad. But I mean, it was, it was worth it though. Yeah. I mean, it, it, it gives you a, a different perspective of how tough you can be when you actually have to be tough. Yeah. So it, it was good. And then Airborne school was so much fun. You're just learning how to fall. Right. that's all it is. You just learn to

Chris: 16:58

fall. Why don't I want to fall out of a perfectly good airplane? You've

Tommy: 17:00

never been in a C one 30, have you? Oh, I have. It's not perfect. It's not perfectly good. That's the roughest ride I've ever had, man. It was awful. I fall

Chris: 17:09

asleep so easily. Like I got in it and

Tommy: 17:11

was like, nah, dude. I couldn't wait to get out. Yeah.

Chris: 17:15

Everyone laughs. I'm like, no, I could fall asleep

Tommy: 17:17

anywhere. Please don't.

Tyler: 17:20

That's what I've heard from other people in the military too. Like as soon as you get in a C one 30, you want to jump out? Yeah.

Tommy: 17:25

I wanted you, I was ready to go. So my second jump in Airborne School and then we can get off the military if you want to, but my second jump in Airborne. have you ever jumped before? You have any clue how this works? I know how it works. Okay. I didn't go through the school because, okay. So it's it's a static line jump, so you're not like pulling a shoot. Right. And I think it's 1200 feet is what you jumped from in Airborn or maybe 1600 feet. It's either 12 or 1600 feet is what you jumped from in Airborne School. But when I got to the 82nd it was 800 feet. Hmm. So you're supposed to jump out and talk and count and count to four. Yep. And if that, if it hadn't deployed by four, you pull your reserve. That's, that's the rule that they teach you. Well, my second jump I was going out and your static line's supposed to run on the outside of your arm. Yeah. And it goes to the back. You hand it to the jump master U-turn, take one step and go. Right. Right. And you're supposed to kick really, really hard. Yeah. So you don't like barrel roll down the side of the plane. Yeah. So I jumped out, we were good and I brought my arm in. Well what I didn't realize was, is when I handed it, the static line got loose and it was wrapped around my arm. Ah. And I noticed it like at the very last second. So I threw my arm in the air, but it actually tore my bicep all the way around to my tricep. Oh shit. Damn. And in my mind, I'm like, if I tell them I'm hurt, I'm not gonna graduate from airborne school. Right. So I'll just always make sure I jump out of the left side of the plane so I can hand my, hand it, my left arm so I can hand it with my left arm and then jump and just, and pray to God. It's not, it is not a fall going, you know, that direction where I have to, you know, pull really, really, and yeah. So, but I graduated, went to the 82nd Airborne deployed into Iraq. Wow. All that good stuff, man.

Chris: 19:02

See, it's always like, that's how small the army is. Mm-hmm. because so many people like, oh, I was here. And I'm like, you would expect it. There's to so many people who've been in the military mm-hmm. but they're all connected some way. Like, that's where my granddad retired out of was 82nd. Which is how I, part of the reason why we ended up here. That's pretty cool though. That's pretty. So I, I drove up to Fayetteville all the dang time. I'm sorry, It's such a boring

Tommy: 19:29

drive. Old Fay. Yeah. Place is awful. That's so what's I refer to as, I mean, I call it the eighth gate of hell. Because plus just sucks. It sucks, man. There's, there's nothing in, now. I haven't been there in a long time, so if I'm crapping on Fayetteville and they've upgraded everything, I'm sorry. but I haven't been there in years and years and years, but I just, I never, when I was on post at Bragg, I didn't leave. Mm-hmm. that was my safe place. Nothing outside. Well, if you go, what is it? If you go out Airborne Drive to the other side. Yeah. Not the Bragg Boulevard. So don't go to Bragg Boulevard. Yeah. You're, it's, it's all strip clubs and drugs. Yeah. That's literally all it is on Bragg Boulevard again, at least when I was there. If it's changed, it's probably still okay. I'm gonna take, I'm gonna take your

Tyler: 20:18

word for me. I think it's

Tommy: 20:18

similar Okay. So if you go out on the other side, it's much nicer on the opposite side of Bragg than the Bragg Boulevard side. So that's where you, a couple of nicer restaurants. It's a little bit safer to be over there. Mm-hmm. And obviously 30, 45 minutes down the road you got Pinehurst. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So it's not, I mean, it's not, it's not the worst place I've ever been in my life, but certainly not a place I would wanna live. No, I'm good. So, yeah.

Chris: 21:09

So you did a tour in Iraq? Mm-hmm. It's always weird thinking, like going back and forth cuz Iraq was like a totally different ecosystem. Like it was a different sandbox than when I was in Afghanistan. Were you in there in oh

Tommy: 21:20

nine? No. I was there in oh eight. Oh. Yeah. So I, I got into my unit in May of 2000. May, may or June of 2008, and we deployed in December, 2008. Hmm. Mm-hmm.

Chris: 21:32

Oh, so you were there in oh nine?

Tommy: 21:34

No, I wasn't. You said you deployed in oh eight? I did. I How long was it though? Also got injured while I was deployed as well. Oh, okay. I didn't make in 2000. Well, tell, tell us about that then. I didn't, I didn't make it in 2009. No, I never made it there. So when we had been in Iraq for, we got there December 8th. Mm-hmm. and Christmas Eve. We were, I don't even know what we were doing, but we were in our, in our little bunk area mm-hmm. or whatever you wanna call it. So we were seeing at an s u. Which isn't a fab. So we got supported by Fab Loyalty. So they would bring us all of our stuff. So we were like literally a pin.in the middle of Baghdad is where we were. And we were right across the river from the Mai militia. So 10th Mountain Division was there before we were, and there was a ceasefire until a week before we got there. The week before we got there, they lifted the cease fire. And what sucked more than anything else is the guard tower was right on the other side of where our building was. So when they would shoot at the guard tower, we would hear the bullets hit the side of our building. Oh shit. And it just sucked. Like you'd wake up and you'd be like, and just go back to sleep. Like you could, you just get used to it. Like, I mean, you gotta sleep. You ain't gonna go outside you're getting shot at. Right. You know, and I don't know who I'm shooting at, so I'm not going out there. I'm, I'm chilling here. Mm-hmm. I'll just keep watching my Charlie Brown Christmas movie and, and keep the night going, you know but no, we were in there, it was right after we had eaten dinner and I was messing around, like making my bed or doing something. I don't even remember what I was doing. And I just heard something hit the floor and it sounded like metal hit the. I was like, what? And God's name is that. And I turned around and there was something that I'd never seen before. Come to find out later, was a blasting cap, and I did not know that. Mm-hmm. and my fir and, and I was a young, dumb private, and I was 10 feet tall and bulletproof, like nothing could hurt me. Mm-hmm. And I was like, oh, just hit rb, like in Call of Duty and throw it back. Right? Like, that was my first sentence. Just throw it out. Well, as soon as I touched it, it blew up. And when it blew up, as you can see, obviously, you know, lost partial loss of three fingers on my right hand. And I mean, that was, that was kind of that I mean, you know, I went from there to the Green Zone in Baghdad. I had my first surgery there. I woke up on Christmas Day and I called my mom and I was like, Hey mom, what's up? She goes, oh, I wasn't expecting to hear from you today. I was like, well, you're gonna see me in about four days, She was like, what happened? I was like, I really don't know. But I woke up and all I could see was that, oh, like, that's it, that's it. I was like, all I can see is my ring finger and my pinky finger on my right hand. And I got a huge bandage and I really don't know what happened. Next voice I heard was my dad and dad's like, what happened, dude? I was like, again, I don't know what happened, I just know the condition I'm in. And so I went from there to Teree, from Teree to Launchable, Germany, and they thought I was gonna be in Launch Tool for a really long time, right. Because I had like a hundred stitches in my hand. So,

Chris: 24:37

Oh, here,

Tommy: 24:39

It's all good, man. I just don't like stitches. No, no, no. It's all good. So if you can see that right there. So the only thing holding my thumb to my index finger was this small piece of skin right here. There was a hole that went through there that I could actually see through. Oh, wow. And they actually healed it all back up. Like you can see the scars and everything Yeah. That are right there to where it all kind of healed back through. And so they thought I was gonna be there for a long time to try to prevent infection and all that good stuff. Sure. So they were like working like, I gotta give the 82nd all the credit in the world, man. And my ceo, like they were going to get my parents to Germany to come be with me in Germany. Oh shit. Wow. Like that's, that's what they were trying to do. And then they're like, nah, he's gonna be home. New Year's eve night. So I went from there to Andrews Air Force base in DC Yep. I was supposed to fly back that night. I didn't because we were flying on a puddle jumper and apparently the wind was terrible. And then I ended up on New Year's day of 2009 is actually when I got back to Fort Bragg. Okay. Yep. So when I, when I say I never made it in 2009, that's why that's more, so that's what happened. So I was actually only deployed for a couple weeks before I got injured. Gotcha. Yep. Which is all

Chris: 25:41

like, it's very rarely it's, it feels weird. Like I very rarely meet guys who were like, oh, hey, you know, I made it to the end of the deployment and then something happened. Yeah. Like when our people, we lost some people and they, it happened like we got there. They were, they were like, Ette and they showed up two weeks in. Mm-hmm. I'm like,

Tommy: 26:04

yeah. How? Well one of the things that I learned is you, fortunately for me, I didn't die. Yeah. And I very easily could have mm-hmm. like when that, when it went off to kind of go back to the, when the event actually happened a little bit, it was just a really loud bang. My ears were ringing and everything went white. And my first instinct is I'm blind. Yeah. Like, that was the first thing that popped into me. I was like, well this is it. This is where we are for the rest of my life. I better start learning braille. Yeah. You know, and then everything kind of started coming back a little bit. I was like, okay, you have your eyesight, you're okay. And the first person I see is my buddy Dobbs, who's just laid over on his bed and he's not moving. And I'm like, oh shit. Like this is not good. Yeah. Well I was turning in a circle though when I came back to, I don't know if that's like a thing your body just does, but I, I just spun in a circle and I look Just nailed your mic. That's okay. And craziest thing is there was blood everywhere and I was like, man, someone got messed up. I still didn't know I was injured, cuz I still hadn't seen my hand yet. Right. And and then I went to go get him. And when I did that with my hand, that's the first time I like, saw that I was injured. And I just like, kind of froze. And then my platoon sergeant came in, saw what was going on, and And then we, you know, SOPs take over after that. Yeah. Mm-hmm. But they put the tourniquet like way up here. That's really high. It is, it was way too high. Honestly. It should have been, it should have been down here like below the elbow. And I tell you what, I would rather have a medic in the army do surgery on me than somebody in a hospital. Oh. I believe it. Because them jokers are awesome. Yeah. Like, they're phenomenal. So as soon as I walked in there, they were like, all right, we know what to do. And they just started working on me and I was getting IVs and I just had all sorts of stuff going on and I said to the, to the girl that was working on me, I was like, I can't really feel my right arm. Like I'm, I'm just numb. I, I got nothing. And she looked cuz they put the IV in over here. Yeah. Which was the painkiller to get the pain to go away, but didn't realize how long the tourniquet had been on my arm. And she was like, we might want to loosen your tourniquet up cuz your arm's blue So if they wouldn't have loosen that up, it as a firm possibility, I could have completely lost my entire right arm. So I look at it as I'm actually pretty blessed that this is it. Yeah. Yeah. So, wow. For

Chris: 28:23

those who don't know if you're ever using a tourniquet, you try and go to like the nearest joint mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. and like knock it off. So like if it happened to his hand, you would go to his elbow. Just

Tommy: 28:36

below the elbow Yeah. Is where it was supposed to go.

Chris: 28:39

I only know this because we had so ran on. Yeah. Way like when we first started, she was my, she was my doc when I went on deploy. Love her to death. And she's still in, she's in National Guard, she's still a medic. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, she actually educated us to the point where I'm like, oh, this makes sense. If something happens, I know what to do. Yeah. Do I want to have to do it? No.

Tommy: 29:01

And if

Tyler: 29:02

you're listening to this podcast, listen to that episode because she gives you some like real shit. Like if you come across an accident on the road, like she gives you some good information that

Tommy: 29:12

you could use tomorrow and you're protected by the Good Samaritan law too. Right? Like you're not gonna get sued. Yes. Right. So, well, you could but they won't win. They won't win. Yeah. Could but you, they probably won't win because the Good Samaritan law. Yes. Yeah. So

Tyler: 29:23

I mean, for, for an instance, my, my dad was driving on the highway the other day. A guy came across then hit an 18 wheeler, Jesus. And he had to go and try to help this guy like try to not move cuz he, who knows if he broke a vertebrae or whatever the case may be in that instance. And just the things that you should know. Yep. Fran gave a lot of those pieces of information during that episode and. Just the things you should do or not do. Yeah. Really in the, in that case of how to help in an emergency.

Tommy: 29:56

Guys, I'm gonna be honest with you, I made this drink way too strong. I've gotta, right now

Chris: 30:04

what I'm gonna point out is almost every time we have some person of the military on they're a, it is a strong drink.

Tommy: 30:14

That is, oh dude, that is, whew. So can we

Tyler: 30:17

also say that's the last episode of our day? No.

Tommy: 30:20

So

Chris: 30:20

we had, well, we had Catherine on, she was number two. And then we had hp, no, HP was two. And then Catherine was number three that day. That was

Tommy: 30:28

a whole day

Tyler: 30:28

of military. Yeah. So we were, we were fco.

Tommy: 30:31

So we, yeah. Dude, this is This is serious right now. Like, I don't drink that much, so I didn't drink for seven straight years. Oh, wow. Yeah. Mean you didn't have to drink. Come on, dude. I, well, no, no, I know. I didn't have to. I've listened to enough of your podcast. No, I didn't have to do it. Yeah. Right. But for me, I was like, I, I enjoy having, having a whiskey drink every once in a while. Yeah. Like, it's just nice. Like, I just recently got into it probably like three months ago, like it Oh, that's great. Yeah. It hasn't been a long time. Like before that I would drink like a Mick Ultra mm-hmm. or something, but I was like, I don't even like the taste of it. So I would get like halfway through it and be like, ah, this tastes terrible. Yeah. Yeah. but, I was like, you're going on whiskey and wisdom. You know what I mean? Like you be, you better have something that has to do with whiskey unless you're Reggie, than you can bring Tequila right.

Chris: 31:15

Oh, well and it's, we've had, we had vodka. Okay. For Connor, cuz he's a part of Blue Shark. Okay, fair enough. And then Reggie obviously tequila, but he's also part Mexican, like his friend is actually from Mexican. Fair

Tommy: 31:30

enough. I'm like, you got a little Latino in him. Yeah, yeah. Makes plenty of sense. No

Chris: 31:34

doubt. Like everyone else is has we've gone for the whiskey and I'm like, but you are the second person to do a mixed drink with us. Very good. And what I've learned, because Fran was the first person do, which doc? When you add bubbles or carbonation to a drink, it's going to kick your

Tommy: 31:54

ass. Get your fast. Oh dude. I'm really hoping this podcast goes at least another 45 minutes so I can finish this cuz I'm taking a small breather. Right. I'm gonna start hitting this water over here to

Tyler: 32:04

I'll, I'll be honest though, because, because it does have that nice spiciness to it. Yeah. The ginger does make it taste very good. Mm-hmm. I'm, I'm enjoying sip

Tommy: 32:13

dude. Alex fus me. She goes, you're not supposed to mix that. I was like, I don't care what I'm supposed to do this, this is how I'm gonna drink it. Yes. You're doing it right. Whether you want me to or not, like this is so I'm gonna do. Yeah. That's what I'm gonna do. I'm not drinking whiskey straight. Dude.

Tyler: 32:26

The only way you're supposed to drink alcohol is the way that it tastes.

Tommy: 32:30

Yes. And this tastes very good in my agree opinion. Agree. Yeah, it's very good. It's fantastic.

Chris: 32:35

So cuz we're going on this tangent, if you like something that is good, nice little blend. Try a plantation rum. Okay. It's just rum, but they do a nice dark finished, it's finished in like white oak barrels. Okay. So it has a taste of rum or like, of whiskey, but it's sweeter. Okay. And that I put in and I was sipping on it and I'm like, this is something that could transition you into like a base level whiskey. Mm-hmm. without being that heavy spice. And you're like, I can't drink this straight. So if you wanna transition to something that you can try and move towards a whiskey straight, I would try the plantation ru I just

Tommy: 33:13

drank too fast. So we'll do it. I mean, I mean, dude, like I was, I was up to here when we got started, bro. I'm, I'm already, dude, I'm, I'm sending this thing like, I gotta, I gotta pump the brakes a little bit.

Chris: 33:25

I love it. So came back. Yep. And there, just so everyone, there's a process to getting out or No,

Tommy: 33:32

it's, and it's not a short process. So when I came home, I got stationed, not stationed, but I got put in the Wounded Warriors Battalion at Fort Bragg and they're like, your job is to heal. It's like, all right, cool, whatever. Like I'll just go to my appointments, I'll do what I'm supposed to do. And they put me on what's called a dead man profile. which means you're allowed to do everything a dead man does, which is basically laid down nothing. Which is nothing. So like, I didn't, I didn't have to go to formation, I didn't have to do pt. All I had to do was show up to my appointments. Like, oh, that was it. That's all I had to do. And it sent me down like a, a bad, bad road. Like, which leads to why I didn't drink for seven years. So basically all I did is they put me in the Airborne Inn at Fort Bragg and once a month they would come by and check on you, you know? Mm-hmm. And it's like, it, it is not enough. And I mean, I gotta give, give credit where credit stu to the staff sergeants and the leadership that was there. Like, they were so busy keeping up with like three, 400 guys, making sure they're showing up to appointments and all that good stuff. Mm-hmm. it's like doing room checks, you know, it's like you guys are adults, you know what I mean? But they had rules. You can either have a fifth of any liquor or you can have up to a 12 pack of beer in your fridge. That was the match you were allowed to have. You couldn't have both. You couldn't have a combination of both. It was one or the other. Well, for me, I always just kept a 12 pack of beer. That's just what I did. Yeah. Yeah. And eventually it turned into Jack Daniels And it got to the point where I was putting Jack Daniels in coffee in the morning, like to get me going. So I had a problem, you know, and I woke up one morning, I was like, I gotta quit this mess. And that day I set it down and I didn't pick up alcohol for seven years. Wow. Didn't touch it until the night I got married in 2015. I didn't have a single sip of alcohol. That's amazing. Mm. So, but that was just me being like, I'm not, I'm not doing this to myself. I've never seen anybody in my family go through it. I've never seen a friend go through it and I don't want to be the guy that's like, yeah. You know, that guy. He could have been something, you know, like I was just like, I'm not gonna be him. Yeah. So, and it was convenient cuz the PX was right across the street from the hotel, so I didn't really have to go very far. I could go over there drunk and make it back in one piece and be fine. But I was drinking beer and eating pizza every night. That's all I did for like six months. Domino's Pizza, Papa John's. That's what we had on post. Yeah. We got Papa J's. Papa Jace is better. Which is where my addiction, the Papa John's came from. Like, now I won't order Domino's. Like there's a Papa John's like a mile and a half from where we live here, and I'll choose that over anything because that's all I ate when I was See yeah, it's don't get

Tyler: 36:07

Chris on the, on the pizza train because we

Tommy: 36:09

No, look, do wouldn't No, look, Domino's is good. I'm not, I'm not gonna argue that Dominoes is good. I'm not gonna argue that the local places that we have at like Slice of life, dude, I would prefer Slice of life over anything. Yeah. Ever. Period. End into discussion. Okay. Now you, to me, slice of life is, is the best pizza out here. Yeah. But if we're just looking for something quick and we're just ordering in, there's two reasons why I picked Papa John's one. It's a mile and a half from the house. The delivery's always fast. Yeah. And number two, I just. That's just what I ate. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like there's a recent episode that I

Tyler: 36:40

had to edit out, 20 minutes of Chris talking about life

Tommy: 36:42

of

Tyler: 36:43

life. So it's just so you know it was like 20 minutes

Chris: 36:47

No, my argument is I like dominoes when you do the Thin and crust chicken. Bacon with like the white sauce. Fair enough. And then I do Papa John's. Like that's just our basic Yeah. But we also haven't ordered like delivery pizza in since we moved to our house. I literally will get in the car and drive to Slice of life. Yeah. And just pick it up.

Tommy: 37:07

Well you can get it quicker. Yes. It's either wait 45 minutes further delivery or have them cook it in 10. Drive up there and get it. At least you can smell it for 15 minutes on the way home. You know, like it gets you a little more excited to get crystal off the pizza

Tyler: 37:19

train

Tommy: 37:19

cuz we'll stay on. No, no, no. We're good. We're good. Sorry about that. No,

Chris: 37:23

when I'm,

Tommy: 37:25

I forget what it was but I had to edit out 10 minutes of you talking about pizza.

Chris: 37:29

We do batches. So sometimes I just run

Tommy: 37:31

on a ring. No, you're good man. So how did it go

Tyler: 37:35

from being in the military? Yeah. To. Getting into the marketing background, God, that you have, because I know you talked about about that. That's a huge Trump, and I know you talked about me. Talk to me about it a little bit before you're on the podcast, but go, go ahead through that

Tommy: 37:51

little, so a little bit of a story that kind of goes along with that. So there was many steps that happened before we got to that point. Yeah, definitely go through. So I got outta the military and I needed a job and there was a new gym that had opened up in town. So I was a personal trainer there. Yeah. For a little bit. Cause I just had to make money. Mm-hmm. And while I was there I was like, well I need to do something other than this cuz this ain't gonna pay the bills for the rest of my life. So I was like, well what's the closest thing to the military that I could have outside of the military? Well be a police officer. Right. Yeah. So that's what I decided to do. Or a contractor or, or a contract killer. And I just, you know, that guy gets a little sketchy though. That gets a little sketchy though. You know, like in my mind I'm like, you know what, I probably can't have a wife and kids if that's what I'm doing. No. I could get paid very well, but I don't wanna do that cause it's so Right. But I don't wanna do it. So I decided to be a police officer. I got hired by Raleigh Police Department after going through basic law enforcement training at Wake Tuck. So I was a cop there. I made it through like a week of their like basic training, I guess you would call it. And all it did was piss me off because they were trying to make it so militaristic that I was like, this is a freaking joke. And the people that were in there with me just pissed me off. Like they just did. Not, not the instructors. The instructors were great, they were good people, but it made me mad. They were like, we can't cuss at you. I'm like, why? That's dumb. Yeah, right. Like, do you, do you think that a perp on the street is gonna follow that rule? They're not Like, you got, you gotta make us mentally tough like that. That's part of the training that we have to go through. So like, you know, if you, if you pull somebody over and you gotta arrest them, do you think they're like, oh, rule is, I can't, can't call you any names You know, it doesn't work that way. So I was like, this is so stupid. Mm-hmm. Well, I got accepted to Liberty University about a week after that. Good Mostly becau not because I was a good student in high school, cuz I was a hellan in high school and I, I graduated. Thank you Lord. That was the, that's how I graduated. Right. And so what, it's cuz they knew they were gonna get paid because I had the GI Bill. That's probably, that's probably why I got accepted. But I actually started as a ministry major cuz I wanted to be a youth minister. Oh no. That's what I wanted to do. And I did a internship as a youth pastor in Cincinnati, Ohio. Okay. One summer. And I found it good for me. And the c. Belief. Mm-hmm. if I was not a youth pastor, because I realized how much I hated it because church became a job and I never wanted church and my faith in my walk with Christ to become a job. Absolutely. That's not what I wanted for myself. Cuz I would start resenting it kinda like I did with the gym when I was a personal trainer. So I didn't want that to be something that caused me to be like, screw this, I'm never going again. Right. Came back, changed my major over to sport management. So my goal is I was gonna go work for an athletic department somewhere in the country. That was my goal. And then I met my wife Yeah. And realized she doesn't wanna move just anywhere in the country. So I was like, all right, well you, you better figure something out. So I started selling cell phones at Verizon. Yep. And did really, really good there. I was doing like two grand every two weeks in commissions. Mm-hmm. So I was, I was doing pretty good. Yeah. Well, a buddy of mine that was working there used to be in car sales. He goes, dude, you should really go sell cars. You'd make a lot more money. Mm-hmm. people always say that. Well, and I did well from, so now, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah. Now in Virginia, I was at Pinkerton Chevrolet in Virginia. Okay. And I was making like eight to 10 grand a month selling like maybe six cars a month. Easy. Yeah. Well, like I was, I, I was making bank dude. I was doing really, really good. And then, When we moved here because there was 24 inches of snow that fell in February of 2016 or January, 2016. Still have the video of my, I think I have the video on my phone of my wife shoveling snow. Like just pissed Yep. And she came back in and I was like, all right, I'm ready to move when you are. I, I'm, I'm ready. And it was either Raleigh or Wilmington. Those were our two choices. Cuz I grew up in Raleigh. She grew up here. So our agreement in that was she has to apply for jobs in Raleigh. I have to apply for jobs in Wilmington. Oh yeah. Whoever gets a job first, that's where we move smart. And that's how we decided it. Because if not, we were just gonna do this. Yeah. So that's how we decided it. That's really smart, to be honest with you. It it, well that's the best way I could come up with to decide it. I mean, if there's a better way, maybe somebody else can Yeah. Let us know. Think That's fantastic. But, but that's how we did it and it worked out really well for us. Yeah. Well, being a sales guy you can get a job anywhere like that. So I was like well we're moving to Wilmington. Yeah. I just kind of came to grip with it pretty quick. So I got a job at a local car dealership here. I'm not gonna call'em out cuz I'm about to tell some bad stories. But I got a job working there and it was just different. Mm-hmm. like, there's like 20 sales guys on the floor. I came from like six mm-hmm. you know, it's, it's new car sales. There's not a whole bunch of markup where we were and when, when we were in Virginia, we had Mark, I knew how much we had in the car, I knew how much we were selling it for. I knew how much I could negoti. And your negotiation tactics were just different. Yep. And when I got here, dude, I was barely making a thousand dollars every two weeks shit. I was like, God, I can't do this, dude. I, I just can't. So Alex, my wife, she was like, well, why don't you just get into real estate? I was like, all right, screw it. Let's go. Yeah. So I got into real estate, did$8 million my first year in real estate. Damn. In a town that I know nobody. And my boy Yan rok, God, dude, I love this guy. We were on a team together and we absolutely just murdered it. Yeah. Like we just had two of us together on a team and man, we just hustled and I got an opportunity to be the sales manager at another, at a real estate company on tops Island. Mm-hmm. it's our city area. Mm-hmm. So I took that job, I did it for about six to eight months, and then Hurricane Florence hit real estate went. Yep. I was like, I got a kid on the way, man. Like, cuz at the time Alex was I think four or five months pregnant at the time. Mm-hmm. and I was like, man, I got a, I'm not gonna make any money for like the next year probably. And I got a little girl on the way, I need to figure this out. So my buddy Justin Woodruff, who owned at the time, owned a roofing company based outta Clayton, North Carolina, gave me a call and was like, Hey man, we're opening up a, a branch in Wilmington. And this was like three weeks before Florence actually hit, he started hitting me up about this stuff. Okay. And cuz so none of us knew Florence was coming at the time. Right. After Florence hit, I gave him a shout. I was like, yo, dude, I. I'm in. Let's go. Well, started selling Roos, realized I hated that as well and wanna do it. But I loved the company. I loved who I was working for. Everybody was awesome. The culture was great. The people were all, I mean, just, just amazing group of guys and girls that, that he had assembled together. Yeah, I was like, look man, I got a girl, a little girl that's gonna be born in about two months, man. Is there anything other than sales that I can do? And he was like, well yeah man. You know how to fly a drone? We need to get pictures taken of all these houses we're completing. And this was on the front end of roofing companies doing heavy, heavy marketing. Like this was on the massive front, especially from an organic standpoint. Yeah, certainly. I was like, sure I can do that. Completely lied to him. That's how I got my first job in marketing, by the way, was through a boldfaced lie. It's not that hard though. It's not. I looked at it, it was like, it's like playing a video game for, you know what I mean? But you can go take the photo, but then you gotta edit it. Then you gotta, you gotta do all the, the sizing and social media was never something that I was like invested in, but he wanted me to do all the social media stuff for him too. So started doing that and he goes, Hey man, do you know how to like film and edit videos? Hell yeah, let's go dude. I'm in. And, and, and I was telling Tyler when we were out there, I was like, the good thing was is we were both ignorant to what quality video was cuz neither one of us had ever done it. So the first video we cut it was like, this is the greatest thing ever. This is so good. And then we started like, and in all credit to Justin for this, he's the one who pushed the label on everything. Like he made me get better. Mm. Because he was like, do this, do this. How can we do better transitions? How can we make the color look better? How can we, you know, spice things up a little bit? Yeah. And I just got really, really good at it over the course of that year of 2019. And so I was with them all throughout 2019. All throughout? No. Yeah. All throughout 2019 I was with them. And then in 2020, in January they won the best Mar, what is it? Best marketing in a roofing company in the country. Wow. In 2020. So all of that kind of led to me having my own company, cuz I got when Covid hit, I'm not gonna get into this story cuz I'm not trying to call anybody out, but I eventually left the company. Mm-hmm. I was, I was asked to leave. Yeah. I didn't do anything wrong. I just got a text message that basically said you're gone. That's how I got let go. Wow. Was through a text message and I was like, well that sucks cuz we just bought a new house like three weeks ago. No. And it's the house that we're currently in now. And everybody told me, they're like, man, just, just go pull unemployment. It's easy to get right now cuz it's in the middle of Covid. Mm-hmm. just, just go get it. And I was like, f that dude. Like I got a freaking skill sitting here in front of me. and I know how to do it. I've been in sales pretty much my entire life. I finally have something that I believe in that I can go sell that is mine. I'm gonna go start my own freaking company. And everybody except my wife told me I was an idiot. Alex is like, I trust you. Whatever you wanna do. Yeah. This is what you wanna do. That's fine. And I think it was Billy the, the one that you guys released last week with Billy, he was like, give yourself a timeframe on everything that you do. Yeah. And that's exactly what we did. So this was September of 2020. I was like, all right, if we're not making our old salary by the end of the year, I'll go find something else. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I'll go do. And, and that gave us enough, cuz we had enough in reserves to where we could at least make it to them. I'm sorry. It gave me time to try to do something that I've always wanted to do on our first date. I told my wife, I said, I will own my own company. One day it's gonna happen. And if you're not in for that, then we shouldn't be going on a second date. Mm-hmm. because this is what I'm gonna do. This is where I want to go. These are my goals. Are you in or are you out? Yeah. On the first date, by the way. Oh, That's the way you can do it. Yeah. But at the time, I was at an age where I was like, I'm not playing games anymore. Like I'm not just dating for the sake Yeah. Of Dayton. Yeah. And fortunately Alex was in the very similar position of her life. So she was like, I'm in, let's go. So now fast forward five years from our very first date, or six years from our first date, we're finally there. Yeah. And she was like, all right, let's go do it. And ended up owned the company for two years before we sold it. That's amazing. So we did$150,000 in sales our first year. I did$400,000 in my second year. Wow. Sheesh. But my goal at the beginning, I said, I'm gonna run it for two years and then I'm selling it. I'm done no matter what. No matter what in two years I'm selling it. But you had an exit plan. I did. Like it was always scale to sale. Mm-hmm. that, that was always the goal. So every decision I made was based off of profit margins more than anything else. Thank you for fixing that. Cause I've been struggling, bro. We always do Yeah. Everything was based around that and I ran about 70% profit margins the entire time. Own the company. Geez. Wow. So, but that's just how I set it up. That's every decision was made through that lens. Cuz I knew what my goal was and I knew what success looked like for me before I ever got there. Right.

Tyler: 49:18

Yeah. That's perfect. Mm-hmm.

Chris: 49:20

So sold it after two years. Mm-hmm. What are you doing now?

Tommy: 49:25

Oh man. I play golf every, no, I'm just kidding. I do play a lot of golf now though. I mean, Tyler plays a ton of golf and I don't, I don't

Tyler: 49:32

play a ton at all. You need to teach me how to play

Tommy: 49:34

golf. I've played five times this year already. I need to figure out how to play golf. So I played, I played yesterday and shot 12. So I'm not the greatest in the world by any stretch of the imagination. No, but I mean, I'm shooting what, mid eighties? Yeah. Okay. I mean, and for somebody who's just going out there having fun, that's not too bad. It's

Chris: 49:52

better than me. I'm shooting the

Tyler: 49:53

nerds and in the next, at the very least month, but hopefully next two weeks, let's go out together and let's go try to teach me

Tommy: 50:01

So I'll be honest with you, I've had one lesson my entire life, and that was about three weeks ago at loggerheads, but but dude, my iron play was off the fricking charts yesterday, like off the charts. I was like two 60 out on a par five, and I took my driver off the deck and put it, well, my, my fairway driver, so a three wood, right. I took it off the deck and I landed it three feet in front of the green. So I took it two 60. Damn. With this three wood. I was, I was, dude, I was, I wasn't gonna say dude, I was so happy I hit that shot and I was like, yes, I'm pretty happy with that. Yeah. But at any rate what I'm doing now, to answer your question, yes. So golf, I no, not all the time. So about May last year, I reached out to a really good friend of mine. His name's Jim Johnson, and he coaches businesses for a living in the home service contractor space specifically. Mm-hmm. like, that's his niche. That's who he talks about. So if any, if you do work on a house, he coaches you, so painters, electricians, roofers, general contractors, whatever you wanna call it, right? Mm-hmm. So I hit him up and I was like, look man, I know this is a little out of the ordinary, but I need help because I knew what my plan was moving forward. Yeah. I was like, I'm struggling with a couple areas, but I'm trying to get to a point where this is what I want to do. Told him that. And he goes, well, what do you want to do afterwards? Like, that was his first question. It was his, his, his initial goal was not to get me to sell the company. His initial goal was to find out what is it that you want to do? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Because if this ain't it, that's fine, but what is it that you want? And we probably had two, three hours worth of conversation over the course of three or four weeks and come to find out that I love developing meaningful relationships with people. Like that's actually what I care about doing. Like, I want to know you, what makes you tick? Like what do you care about? You know? And then how can I help you? If it's in marketing freaking great, let's do that. If it's just giving you a shout every once in a while and just checking in, no need to see how the wife and kids are doing, that's fine too. You know? But that, that's what I care about is having deep relationships with people. And he was like, well, you have a skill in marketing. You like the relationships and you like helping people. Have you ever thought about coaching? I was like, not really He's like, well, fortunately for you, we're in a position here at Contractor Coach Pro. We're ready to bring on a marketing coach. Would you be interested? I was like, yeah, let's do it. So I actually started doing that before I ever sold the company. Mm-hmm. So I already had the next phase of my life started, cuz I didn't sell the company till October of last year. And I started working with them in August. Oh, that's great. Or July. Yeah, July. Yeah. Yep. So now I'm coaching coaching contractors or really any business owner really, cuz marketing's marketing across the board. As long as we can, as long as I have a clear understanding of what it is that you do. That's, I, I can help you out. You

Chris: 52:44

know, it's been a day of connections.

Tyler: 52:47

So some, something we've talked about previously, Chris and I is, we've talked to on this podcast, we talked to a lot of entrepreneurs. Mm-hmm. And it's talking about like having the freedom and everything like that. So something that I noticed after I talked to your wife Alex, is I started looking at your Instagram more and finding out who you are more. And one of the posts that you put was when you started the business, it was talking about freedom. Mm-hmm. and how entrepreneurship instead of creating more freedom, created more, I don't wanna say chaos, but created more restrictions I guess you could say, and how the opportunities you created now Yep. Has created more freedom than what the entrepreneurship created. Mm-hmm. So this is kind of a loaded question, but kind of lean into that a little bit more. Yeah. About how that opened up more opportunity for you and the goals that you have been able to accomplish from joining another company mm-hmm. and helping them out as opposed

Tommy: 53:47

to being an entrepreneur yourself. One of the questions I was asked by Jim again, I. We all stand on the shoulders of giants, first off. Mm-hmm. every single one of us does. There's nothing new on the planet that's never been said. You got that right. There's no new concept, there's no new anything. So everything that I know has been learned from other people in my own experiences. First off, let's just make that very clear. Yeah. So when you, there's gonna be a couple things I'm gonna say here. I'm be like, damn, that's pretty good. Now I'm not that smart. I learned it from other people. Okay. Let's just be clear about that. But one of the things that Jim asked me, he said, is your growth dependent upon your presence as a business owner? And I was like, yes. Yep. The name of the company. Yep. One was Nubs Media. If I'm not there, it's not Nubs Media, first off. Mm-hmm. right. Second off, I'd never set myself up to empower my people to make the decisions that were necessary. That's my mistake. And I've told them that I, that's a mistake I made. So everything that happened within the company was dependent upon me being there. Sure. Yeah. So I never, and, and every entrepreneur wants the freedom, but they're not willing to give away the decision making responsibility to people they trust when they are not there. Mm-hmm. So everything in that company is dependent upon them being present while they're on the phone, on a Zoom call, actually physically present. And so that's, that's where I made a mistake. So I would say if you're a business owner, try to start transitioning to. The, your company growing doesn't depend on you being there. Mm-hmm. And it's a very hard thing to do. It's not easy. Yeah. It's, it's really, really not, it is a very hard transition to make because you're giving up control over something that is your baby. Mm-hmm. that's like leaving your child with a brand new babysitter, You know what I mean? It's like you get that right? Yeah. I've done all the vetting I could possibly do, but what if mm-hmm. you know, and we get caught up in the what ifs and we overanalyze and you end up, I think it was Billy last week that said it paralysis through analysis. Yeah. You know, you overanalyze everything, then nothing happens. Nothing happens. And, and that's a problem. So I, I never did that. And other companies do the exact same thing. So I, I hope that answers your question. Absolutely. I hope it does. But that's kind of the first thing that popped into my mind when you say, and I, I, I made notes for myself. Hey, that's good. Before we got here. So I wanted to be a little prepared, but that was one of the things that I wrote down. Yeah. Was

Tyler: 56:21

there anything else that you wanted to make sure you, you touched on? Oh dude,

Tommy: 56:24

it just, well, well it's just a bunch of things that people have said to me over the years that have just, cuz you know, it's whiskey, we got that part down, but then we got the wisdom part of it. Like what wisdom? That's important part. Yeah. Like what wisdom have I actually gotten from the people that I respect in Revere?

Tyler (2): 56:38

That was part 1 of Tommy Richardson's Interview. I hope you have enjoyed hearing Tommy's story. In Part 2 we dive more into his work in Marketing and life philosophies. Part 2 will air tomorrow at 6 A.M. Thank you all so much for listening. If you enjoy the Whiskey Wisdom Podcast, please consider subscribing and rating the podcast. We will see you in the next one! Cheers!