Episode 2
Captain of his own destiny... Josh Koerpel
Talk about a story that sounds like something from a Hollywood movie... Josh has sailed Pirate Ships (real ones), motorcycled through India, developed software (Firebuilders.io) to help his mom that turned out to be this super-hot secret weapon for entrepreneurs/business owners and if that wasn't enough he created one of the coolest business talkshows (Firebuilders LIVE) and hosts it from his porch with his pet rooster named Elvis. Yep, you read that right... Elvis!
So, grab some popcorn, because this episode of Expert Talk with TGo is about to take you on a journey!
#ExpertTalkWithTGo #ExpertTalkXtra #TalkShow #FirebuildersIO #FirebuildersLIVE #TheresaGoss #ExpertTalkFM #Roku #PodNationTV #talkshowtv #talkshowonline #talkshowhost #talkshowexpert #talkshowguest #podcast #motivation #broadcast #listennow
Transcript
Welcome to the show.
Speaker:You know who I am Tigo and you're watching Expert Talk
Speaker:with TGo.
Speaker:Yeah. You know,
Speaker:that's what I'm talking about.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:I love bringing experts,
Speaker:but not just any Expert.
Speaker:I like bringing unique experts that are making unbelievable trailblazing actions
Speaker:all over the world.
Speaker:And today we've got a guy who he loves motorcycles.
Speaker:He knows everything about sailing.
Speaker:We're going to get into that.
Speaker:And he's sassy.
Speaker:What does that mean?
Speaker:Sit right there.
Speaker:We'll be right back.
Speaker:Hey everybody.
Speaker:Welcome back.
Speaker:And let's welcome to the show.
Speaker:Hey Josh,
Speaker:what's happening.
Speaker:What's going on till you go.
Speaker:So good to be here.
Speaker:So good to have you here,
Speaker:man. I mean,
Speaker:you and I had the privilege of being on your show
Speaker:and I want to thank you again for having me on
Speaker:fire builders.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:it was a lot of fun.
Speaker:You are the man,
Speaker:but I want to go back.
Speaker:We're going to get the fire Bill and everybody hold on,
Speaker:hold on.
Speaker:We got to get there,
Speaker:but I want to go back because you've had a very
Speaker:interesting life.
Speaker:You not the super geek like me that sits in the
Speaker:dark room and just create stuff.
Speaker:You're that guy.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:you were like a captain of a ship or something,
Speaker:right? That's right.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:Yeah, it was,
Speaker:I, I did not take a traditional coding software development background,
Speaker:not at all.
Speaker:And in fact,
Speaker:my, my,
Speaker:I have a Spanish major.
Speaker:I have a bachelor's in Spanish,
Speaker:a master's in mechanical engineering.
Speaker:I had a,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I had maybe a year and a half captaining,
Speaker:tall ships and worked my way all the way up the
Speaker:chain to get there for years and years,
Speaker:that was an amazing experience.
Speaker:Sail on these ships all over the world,
Speaker:learned a lot about myself,
Speaker:learned a lot about how to deal with other people,
Speaker:how To get along.
Speaker:And then I,
Speaker:I went,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I, I developed a whole bunch of machinery and things for
Speaker:the entertainment industry.
Speaker:So a lot of stuff that like Cirque de Solei uses
Speaker:and everything.
Speaker:So it's just been a whole bunch of different,
Speaker:crazy things that have led up to all of this software
Speaker:stuff. Okay.
Speaker:So you,
Speaker:we, you kind of skipped past it.
Speaker:You said something about tall ships.
Speaker:Now I'm from Chicago.
Speaker:A tall ship is something in a tub that a little
Speaker:kid plays with.
Speaker:What is a tall ship versus like a regular sailboat?
Speaker:Like how many people can get on it?
Speaker:What does that mean?
Speaker:So the like,
Speaker:it's not necessarily size so much as it is the style.
Speaker:So these tall ships are like the pirate ships that you
Speaker:would see in the movies kind of thing,
Speaker:right? They're traditionally rigged sailing vessels.
Speaker:They operate the same way they operated back in,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:the 18 hundreds,
Speaker:so to speak.
Speaker:So that's,
Speaker:that's essentially these tall ships are absolutely incredible that all over
Speaker:the world,
Speaker:they have crews everywhere from like three people to 50 people.
Speaker:And I sailed on a number of these things all in
Speaker:my twenties.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I, as soon as I got my Spanish degree,
Speaker:I packed up my bag.
Speaker:I told my parents that I was just going to be
Speaker:joining this ship.
Speaker:And at the time they didn't charge you for it at
Speaker:all. You could just volunteer.
Speaker:They said,
Speaker:give us three weeks.
Speaker:And we will teach you everything that you need to know
Speaker:about sailing.
Speaker:And so I did,
Speaker:and I spent three weeks with him and then another three
Speaker:weeks. And then another three weeks,
Speaker:by the time it was all said and done.
Speaker:I had spent like maybe three and a half months with
Speaker:this ship.
Speaker:I helped them downrange everything.
Speaker:And then I just jumped off that one onto another one
Speaker:that was headed out the Saint Lawrence Seaway.
Speaker:We sailed to Halifax,
Speaker:Bermuda, Bahamas.
Speaker:And that just kicked off my entire career.
Speaker:Wait a minute though,
Speaker:you don't look like you're a hundred years old.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I thought those kinds of shifts were around in like 1909.
Speaker:You try to tell me those kinds of shifts are around
Speaker:today. Yeah.
Speaker:But they they're built,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:they're built as complete.
Speaker:They're not like,
Speaker:like some people call them reproduction.
Speaker:Some people call it the replicas.
Speaker:Like essentially it's the same exact tooling.
Speaker:It's the same style of build,
Speaker:right? How you manipulate the wood,
Speaker:join it all together.
Speaker:They build these things the same way.
Speaker:They built them way back in the day.
Speaker:And they're complete working vessels and they have all kinds of
Speaker:all kinds of different purposes.
Speaker:Some of them just represent the Goodwill of say Maryland or
Speaker:Baltimore. Some of them are all involved in freshwater research.
Speaker:Like the Dennis Sullivan up and the great lakes.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:some of them are attached to the state,
Speaker:like the brig,
Speaker:Niagra and Erie,
Speaker:Pennsylvania. Some of them are just like sail training vessels.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:we would just take kids around The Bahamas and stuff and
Speaker:teach them how to sail for six weeks.
Speaker:So they're just all kinds of different reasons for their existence,
Speaker:but they're all around.
Speaker:And this is something that's still around.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:we're going through COVID everybody knows that we're going through COVID
Speaker:right now.
Speaker:But if you know,
Speaker:with COVID is over,
Speaker:this is something that if somebody wanted to be able to
Speaker:take a tour or they wanted to maybe work on those
Speaker:ships, you can still do that in 2021.
Speaker:So what made you leave there?
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:what made you go,
Speaker:okay. I got my sea legs.
Speaker:I'm out because I'm prior Navy.
Speaker:So I'm just sitting here going,
Speaker:Oh my God,
Speaker:this is cool.
Speaker:What made you go it's time for me to hit the
Speaker:shore and started doing something else.
Speaker:And I had you hit a plateau after a while.
Speaker:So you kind of get to a point where the only
Speaker:way up is tug boats and container ships and cruise ships
Speaker:and stuff,
Speaker:and really big vessels.
Speaker:You either do that or you go the private route.
Speaker:So you go find a ship that's sailing around the BVIs
Speaker:and hopefully you get a cool owner and you just crew
Speaker:on one of those.
Speaker:Neither of those really,
Speaker:I don't know,
Speaker:was attractive to me.
Speaker:I had didn't have the greatest experience with privatized sail,
Speaker:and I definitely didn't want to do like containerships and tug
Speaker:boats just wasn't for me.
Speaker:So I quit it all.
Speaker:And I actually sold a whole bunch of stuff.
Speaker:I moved off the boat that we were living in on
Speaker:key West,
Speaker:and I just flew to India.
Speaker:And from there bought a motorcycle in new Delhi and spent
Speaker:like the next two months realigning my life.
Speaker:As I rode to Tibet on this,
Speaker:on this bike,
Speaker:through the Himalayas.
Speaker:So that,
Speaker:that like capped off the tall ship experience.
Speaker:You are like modern day Indiana Jones or something.
Speaker:It's like,
Speaker:Ooh, who gets on a plane and goes to India,
Speaker:says, okay,
Speaker:I'll get a motorcycle and just go for it.
Speaker:What made you decide to pick and the other?
Speaker:And you could have went anywhere in the world for one
Speaker:why'd you pick that and why motorcycle touring other than of
Speaker:course motorcycles are cool.
Speaker:I love them.
Speaker:Well, I'll tell ya,
Speaker:India, India was really attractive because the cost of living was
Speaker:low. And,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:we didn't have a lot of money at the time.
Speaker:So, so that was attractive.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:the two most expensive things about that entire trip,
Speaker:getting there and all of the shots that you need to
Speaker:get there before you actually arrive.
Speaker:Those are the two most expensive things.
Speaker:Everything else,
Speaker:absolutely. 100% affordable and amazing.
Speaker:I just loved India.
Speaker:I really loved it.
Speaker:I, I liked what the lawlessness of it.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:you technically are not,
Speaker:you can't as a foreigner,
Speaker:like buy a,
Speaker:a motorcycle there,
Speaker:but there are ways around it.
Speaker:And so you just kind of figure it out.
Speaker:Everything like happens in India,
Speaker:it just all works out.
Speaker:And, and the reason that I chose the motorcycle was because
Speaker:way back in the day,
Speaker:readings that in the art of motorcycle maintenance and,
Speaker:and talking about how these,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:when you're on a bike,
Speaker:your, a part of the environment,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you're not separated from it so much.
Speaker:And yeah.
Speaker:And as you are,
Speaker:it is a feeling that I can't explain.
Speaker:I've had my motorcycle license longer than you've been on this
Speaker:planet since 1983.
Speaker:I think it was when I got my Motorcycle longer And
Speaker:longer. You bought an 80.
Speaker:Okay. Okay.
Speaker:So it's still your baby 1983.
Speaker:And it's an experience that you just,
Speaker:once you get off of them and you're not on them
Speaker:for, while you still have that burning desire to get back
Speaker:out there and,
Speaker:and really enjoy the environment,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:cause you gotta be so conscious of everything when you're out
Speaker:there and you can't just drift off that you can in
Speaker:a car,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:and you've gotta be completely conscious of everything.
Speaker:Cause the rabbit crossing the road,
Speaker:good could take you out.
Speaker:So I'm sitting here thinking there's gotta be people that are
Speaker:watching that are either,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:they're boomers and they've,
Speaker:they've finished their first career and now they're,
Speaker:refiring on their second and they're going,
Speaker:man, I've always wanted to sail.
Speaker:I've always wanted to get on a motorcycle and just let
Speaker:my hair down and go,
Speaker:you know?
Speaker:And then there's gotta be young people that are going,
Speaker:I've been trapped in a building or a house for a
Speaker:year with this COVID stuff,
Speaker:man, when this is over,
Speaker:I'm going to get me a motorcycle.
Speaker:I'm going to go to India or The Bahamas,
Speaker:or I might go get on the sailboat.
Speaker:What would you tell them?
Speaker:What tips would you tell them for traveling internationally?
Speaker:And what tips would you tell them about?
Speaker:Is this still a good thing to do?
Speaker:Get on a motorcycle and go,
Speaker:It's always a good thing to do in my opinion.
Speaker:So, so I think honestly I think people that want to
Speaker:do that now have a harder time.
Speaker:Not because their circumstances are harder,
Speaker:it doesn't matter how much you prepare for these trips.
Speaker:Things are still gonna go wrong,
Speaker:but that's the fun of it.
Speaker:That's the challenge,
Speaker:right? The fact that it's challenging you in all of these
Speaker:different ways,
Speaker:those are the kinds of experiences that one will just stretch
Speaker:in and make you grow.
Speaker:But two,
Speaker:those are the things that you are 100%.
Speaker:Remember when you come back years and years from now,
Speaker:when you reflect on the trip,
Speaker:you're going to be like,
Speaker:man, you know,
Speaker:I can't believe that happened to me.
Speaker:And I know we survived and you know,
Speaker:that kind of thing.
Speaker:So, so the reason that I think that it's harder for
Speaker:people is because when I did it now,
Speaker:the sailing thing was 2002,
Speaker:2002 was the very first time that I was on the
Speaker:boat. And the motorcycle thing was 2008.
Speaker:And coming from a tall ship world,
Speaker:I did not embrace technology at all.
Speaker:I barely had a cell phone.
Speaker:I wasn't really using email at all.
Speaker:So the reason I say that is because now that it's
Speaker:so easy to get information,
Speaker:if you wanted to look up,
Speaker:Oh, what do I need to do to,
Speaker:to ride a motorcycle to the bet you can Google it
Speaker:and you'll get all of these opinions about it.
Speaker:Most likely from people that have never done it that have
Speaker:never done it.
Speaker:Right? Some people will have listened to them,
Speaker:but the people and it's just harder because you're,
Speaker:you're going to get a whole lot of reasons why you
Speaker:should do it.
Speaker:And I just wish that you would push that all aside,
Speaker:just make up your mind and go do it and find
Speaker:out for yourself because most of those people are dead wrong.
Speaker:So Yeah.
Speaker:Go ahead.
Speaker:Go ahead.
Speaker:No, go ahead.
Speaker:So yeah.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:that's what I would say.
Speaker:That that would be my advice is that like prepare of
Speaker:course, like look up what you're going to need.
Speaker:You're going to have to,
Speaker:if you go to India,
Speaker:you're gonna have to get a whole bunch of shots and
Speaker:you're going to have to probably get some anti-malarial pills and
Speaker:you're going to,
Speaker:there's a way that things are done,
Speaker:but don't expect to know it all right.
Speaker:Just go there and experience and live in the moment.
Speaker:And I promise you,
Speaker:things will work out.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:you have had a wide variety of life.
Speaker:And I love that.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I'm one of those people where my parents,
Speaker:when I was a child,
Speaker:I listened to him and say,
Speaker:if I woulda coulda shoulda,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:and I said,
Speaker:I never want to say that.
Speaker:And I've lived all over the world and stuff because I
Speaker:wanted to just go do it and figure it out.
Speaker:But what is the one thing that you haven't done?
Speaker:What is something that you said I'm going to do it
Speaker:when I get 50 or maybe when I'm finished with this
Speaker:humongous project?
Speaker:I to take six months and just go,
Speaker:is there something in your wheelhouse that you haven't done yet?
Speaker:There's a couple of things.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:honestly, one,
Speaker:one big thing,
Speaker:at least for me,
Speaker:like one big thing.
Speaker:I've always wanted to learn how to play blues,
Speaker:piano. Okay.
Speaker:Always, I've just thought that it was the coolest thing ever.
Speaker:And I've never really been able to do it because I've
Speaker:never had a place of my own,
Speaker:like an apartment I've always been moving around or I've been
Speaker:living in the boat and stuff.
Speaker:You can get a keyboard,
Speaker:but it's just not quite the same.
Speaker:Like I want the,
Speaker:I want the weight and feel,
Speaker:I want to like to jam on this thing,
Speaker:you know?
Speaker:And that's something that I have yet to be able to
Speaker:actually materialize it'll happen though.
Speaker:I promise That is so cool.
Speaker:Now I have this visual view with the perfect hat on,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:not a cigarette with something hanging from your lip right here.
Speaker:And you're in new Orleans of the club and just,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:killing it.
Speaker:And we bring in cameras cause like he did it and
Speaker:he did it.
Speaker:You know what I'm going to do?
Speaker:And I'm going to you and you have,
Speaker:when you do it,
Speaker:I'm going to follow you.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:you're a very successful entrepreneur.
Speaker:You're a business partner.
Speaker:I'm going to call him that Elvis.
Speaker:We've been hearing a little background back there.
Speaker:Elvis is so cool.
Speaker:I can't wait.
Speaker:Cause you promised you were going to work on getting autograph
Speaker:cards. I'm going to hold you to it.
Speaker:I cannot wait to get my autograph card from Elvis,
Speaker:the rooster,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I'm going to put it right behind me,
Speaker:everybody. What the heck is that?
Speaker:But you have shifted off to yet another adventure and now
Speaker:you're sassy.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:you're doing,
Speaker:and if people don't know what that means,
Speaker:you're doing software as a service.
Speaker:You're actually building software platforms and information type things.
Speaker:And you're your own show host.
Speaker:You have a thing called fire builder.
Speaker:What is that all about?
Speaker:What are you doing now?
Speaker:Well, so both the show and the software share the same
Speaker:name and actually the software came first and fire builders live.
Speaker:The show that you were on.
Speaker:Amazing. We had an amazing time.
Speaker:It was fun.
Speaker:That show was in essentially in response to me not being
Speaker:able to travel and,
Speaker:and not being able to promote the software itself.
Speaker:And so I was like,
Speaker:ah, screw it.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I'll just bring people to me.
Speaker:And that's how the whole thing started.
Speaker:And then it just grew with amazing,
Speaker:just amazing people,
Speaker:amazing guests and referrals and stuff.
Speaker:So, so the software I've always loved software.
Speaker:I've, you know,
Speaker:I learned a lot of coding and programming theory and,
Speaker:and wrote a lot of programs and doing the master's in
Speaker:mechanical engineering.
Speaker:It was a Boston.
Speaker:I actually taught a programming language called MATLAB for like four
Speaker:years. So,
Speaker:so I understood the concepts,
Speaker:but I also knew that that software was gonna be the
Speaker:way that I wanted to add value to the world and
Speaker:do it on my own terms.
Speaker:I can be like as creative and as like technically proficient
Speaker:as possible.
Speaker:So I,
Speaker:when I was working as an engineer,
Speaker:I decided to teach myself how to create mobile apps.
Speaker:I created three of them.
Speaker:I worked with a developer over in India,
Speaker:some of the developers in the Ukraine,
Speaker:I worked with a graphic designers and stuff and pulled it
Speaker:all together for like absolutely nothing.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I really did.
Speaker:I really watched how much I spent and did it the
Speaker:right way from the ground up.
Speaker:And I put them out there and there's just,
Speaker:no one cared.
Speaker:Like nobody cared at all.
Speaker:And that was really my first like punch in the face
Speaker:to really going all in creating something and having,
Speaker:having the realities of the market setting.
Speaker:So for me,
Speaker:I was like,
Speaker:well, you know,
Speaker:something's got to change.
Speaker:And that thing has to be me learning about sales and
Speaker:marketing. And I went real deep into that.
Speaker:I studied,
Speaker:I applied,
Speaker:I experimented,
Speaker:I moved away from the software for a little bit and
Speaker:started helping people with their marketing,
Speaker:like implementing it because I had this engineering background and it
Speaker:was easier for me to do that.
Speaker:And that I was doing copywriting and graphics and all of
Speaker:the technical,
Speaker:like implementation of it all for end-to-end users,
Speaker:huge marketing campaigns,
Speaker:big e-commerce stuff.
Speaker:And through all of that,
Speaker:I learned a thing or two about the problems in the
Speaker:marketing industry,
Speaker:the online coaching industry,
Speaker:like all of that.
Speaker:And I just started creating software for my own use and
Speaker:it worked well enough that other people started using it as
Speaker:well. And now they're subscription products that everybody can use.
Speaker:Wow. We're going to take a little break and we come
Speaker:back, we're going to find out from Josh,
Speaker:how he went from being a captain of a ship to
Speaker:being a captain of his digital industries.
Speaker:So sit right there.
Speaker:We'll be right back.
Speaker:Hey everybody.
Speaker:Welcome back.
Speaker:You know where you are Expert talk and guess who I
Speaker:am. Yeah,
Speaker:that's right.
Speaker:I'm TGo.
Speaker:We're talking to Josh today and he's talking about sailing motorcycling
Speaker:through India and becoming a sassy software developer.
Speaker:So Hey Josh,
Speaker:let's talk about what exactly is fire builder?
Speaker:Where do they find it?
Speaker:What do they find your show?
Speaker:Let's get into that stuff.
Speaker:Dig in.
Speaker:Okay. Let's do it well.
Speaker:So here's so fire builders,
Speaker:the software,
Speaker:right? This thing I created,
Speaker:I here's the here's the context.
Speaker:I built this as an MVP for my mom.
Speaker:Like she was the very first customer.
Speaker:She was the person that I actually built this software for
Speaker:before I w I was thinking that it was going to
Speaker:be like this big thing,
Speaker:and people are going to use it and stuff.
Speaker:I built this for her because I,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:she needed help.
Speaker:She was an author.
Speaker:She is an author,
Speaker:but she was writing a book and she needed help writing
Speaker:every day.
Speaker:And she leaned on me a little bit to help her
Speaker:break it down and have her like write just a little
Speaker:bit. She was in this just slump.
Speaker:So instead of talking to her on the phone every day,
Speaker:cause I needed to work to,
Speaker:I was like,
Speaker:man, maybe there's something that I can create that will give
Speaker:her this intimate feeling of me being there every day and
Speaker:supporting her and motivating her.
Speaker:But at the same time,
Speaker:right, helping her break down her own goals,
Speaker:into little simple steps that,
Speaker:that she can follow and,
Speaker:and do it for 30 days consistently.
Speaker:Right. So then I would create this thing,
Speaker:press play 30 days later emerge and see what happened.
Speaker:Right. And how she did well.
Speaker:She used it for 30 days and 30 days later,
Speaker:she's like,
Speaker:this was the coolest and most amazing thing I've ever experienced.
Speaker:I got so much done.
Speaker:And not only did I get it done,
Speaker:like it helped me kind of break this stuff down into
Speaker:simplistic steps.
Speaker:But the fact that it was from you really made the
Speaker:difference, right.
Speaker:It was from somebody that I wanted their approval almost.
Speaker:Right. And,
Speaker:and that pinged off this,
Speaker:this idea for me,
Speaker:that that is a huge portion of accountability that most apps
Speaker:out there just completely ignore.
Speaker:Right? There's one,
Speaker:it's one thing to have a,
Speaker:to do app,
Speaker:right. And it'll get some reminders and stuff.
Speaker:It's another,
Speaker:to get those reminders as,
Speaker:as a narrative,
Speaker:as a story from somebody that you respect and that you
Speaker:want to get closer to.
Speaker:So that's how fire builders started.
Speaker:And now coaches and consultants use it to,
Speaker:to scale their personal attention and develop relationships with 1,000
Speaker:thousand people all at the same time and all with the
Speaker:touch of a button.
Speaker:So you built the virtual Josh.
Speaker:I built a whole bunch of virtual.
Speaker:I built like a cloning machine for Josh.
Speaker:And, and so then other people started using it,
Speaker:right. They started asking if they could break down their goals,
Speaker:even though they didn't know me,
Speaker:like Josh Had,
Speaker:I was like,
Speaker:I was like,
Speaker:is, are they still gonna use it?
Speaker:Like they don't know who I am and stuff,
Speaker:but they did.
Speaker:And then it got to a point where coaches saw what
Speaker:was going on and said,
Speaker:Hey, this is a really cool idea,
Speaker:but I don't want the stories to be from Josh.
Speaker:I want them to be from me.
Speaker:I have a hundred people in a mastermind.
Speaker:I want to hold them accountable.
Speaker:And the same way that you hold your Mom accountable.
Speaker:Right. So it caused me to totally revamp the entire thing.
Speaker:I re-imagined it,
Speaker:I created a second MVP,
Speaker:a white label bubble this time where it's totally customizable branding
Speaker:wise. And I had paying customers for that.
Speaker:And once you do that,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you're on the right track.
Speaker:And then we just built a software from the ground up.
Speaker:So what's it been like?
Speaker:Cause that's an amazing accomplishment.
Speaker:You have flipped the coin and,
Speaker:and getting people to understand that,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:as a person who has coached people for years and years
Speaker:and production and media,
Speaker:try and get them past these little red lights,
Speaker:a little green light fears that they have,
Speaker:but they're used to being out like you were on ships,
Speaker:you're in other countries you're,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:in the free air,
Speaker:riding your motorcycle and get them to go in and do
Speaker:something like this.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:your office literally is outside,
Speaker:but what's that been like to make that shift from being
Speaker:this free spirit outside to being this creative field spirit indoors,
Speaker:We'll tell you it's,
Speaker:it's been,
Speaker:I don't think it's been that big of a change for
Speaker:me. I've always been a really balanced person when it came
Speaker:to like the technical stuff and,
Speaker:and, and figuring that out and then mixing that,
Speaker:balancing that with just,
Speaker:just like passion to go out and just tackle things and
Speaker:go explore and be more creative.
Speaker:But as far as like bringing in and,
Speaker:and focusing,
Speaker:it has been the most challenging part for me because,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I'm the kind of person that just wants.
Speaker:Like I want to experience the most potent life I possibly
Speaker:can. And,
Speaker:and, and I'm doing that.
Speaker:I just had to find a product,
Speaker:something that I could deliver to the world that was valuable.
Speaker:That also fulfilled me,
Speaker:that also fulfilled my need for validation,
Speaker:that what I was doing was helping.
Speaker:And that gave me this sense of purpose that,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:that, that helped me.
Speaker:They ended up being like my why so to speak.
Speaker:So this fire builders,
Speaker:software, fire builders.io,
Speaker:I can see now,
Speaker:right? All of these people being held accountable and breaking down
Speaker:their goals and,
Speaker:and, and accomplishing things,
Speaker:small things on a daily basis from all of these coaches
Speaker:that are using it.
Speaker:And when I opened up the laptop in the morning and
Speaker:I see the readout of,
Speaker:Hey, Wanda did this today.
Speaker:And Terry did this,
Speaker:and John did this as they're shooting for this goal and
Speaker:this goal,
Speaker:and this goal,
Speaker:I say to myself,
Speaker:like, here's,
Speaker:here's a bunch of people that are actually pushing towards their
Speaker:dreams with something that I've built.
Speaker:And that's incredibly fulfilling for me,
Speaker:Be just wild to be able to see that.
Speaker:Now, before we talk about your show,
Speaker:cause we have to,
Speaker:I don't want hate mail.
Speaker:I'm going to ask Summit and give me a minute,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:before we do that,
Speaker:I got to ask you,
Speaker:where do they find it?
Speaker:Is it something that somebody,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you have to be in a certain like level and their
Speaker:business, they need to have X amount of clients or been
Speaker:a coach for 10 years or something like that.
Speaker:How does that Work?
Speaker:No, the,
Speaker:the there's no prerequisites or anything.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:you can use this for a variety of different applications.
Speaker:Most people use it to hold their clients accountable throughout the
Speaker:week in between zoom sessions.
Speaker:So they can keep them warm,
Speaker:keep them engaged,
Speaker:right. Keep them purchasing.
Speaker:Right. Another really amazing after effect and artifact of this that
Speaker:didn't really notice until people started using it are these little
Speaker:daily insights that you get from everybody end up being the
Speaker:best copywriting and marketing material that you could ever ever ask
Speaker:for. It is like straight up a playbook for how to
Speaker:sell things and what to sell them.
Speaker:So, so anyway,
Speaker:fire builders.io,
Speaker:that is the website,
Speaker:Fire builders.io.
Speaker:Okay. We're going to make sure.
Speaker:So at the bottom third,
Speaker:so people don't call me and say,
Speaker:well, how do we give you a minute?
Speaker:We're going to put it down there.
Speaker:Okay. Give me a minute.
Speaker:So let's talk about fire builders live and then,
Speaker:cause that is an awesome show.
Speaker:I was on it and it was awesome before I got
Speaker:there. Hopefully I didn't break it and now it's even bigger.
Speaker:But tell me all about it.
Speaker:How did you get started?
Speaker:What's that about?
Speaker:I'll tell ya so,
Speaker:well, how do you feel when you host these things?
Speaker:What, what,
Speaker:how many shows do you think you've done?
Speaker:Oh, we're over 120 episodes,
Speaker:right. About now at this particular moment.
Speaker:Yeah. Do you,
Speaker:do you feel like you would just,
Speaker:you would,
Speaker:you could do this for the rest of your life.
Speaker:Like this is something that you just get really excited about.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:it's like,
Speaker:I can't wait to see where it goes and we can
Speaker:open our studios again and bring people in again and see
Speaker:how we do in front of the live audience.
Speaker:I'm always looking for new platforms,
Speaker:blah, blah,
Speaker:blah, blah,
Speaker:blah. So yeah,
Speaker:I totally do.
Speaker:And I mean,
Speaker:and I mean the,
Speaker:a like the interview process too,
Speaker:like the way that you're able to sit down with people
Speaker:and just like dig into some cool,
Speaker:right. It's a cool feeling.
Speaker:It really is.
Speaker:It's turns out that's what I've been doing my entire life.
Speaker:I just didn't realize that it was the S the exact
Speaker:same skills that I was learning.
Speaker:And all of these,
Speaker:all of these traumatic events that would happen getting shipwrecked over
Speaker:and France.
Speaker:Right. We got that trip in India.
Speaker:We got avalanched in to this little Buddhist monastery town called
Speaker:Causa for two and a half weeks.
Speaker:Like all of these things.
Speaker:Yeah. All of these things that happen to you,
Speaker:you end up,
Speaker:you end up developing a conversational skill.
Speaker:And that has helped me big time on the show.
Speaker:I feel like if I didn't have any of that,
Speaker:and I tried to create a podcast,
Speaker:I'd struggle hardcore.
Speaker:And I did struggle at the very beginning,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:like, yeah,
Speaker:I do the show or I did it six days a
Speaker:week live at the same time every day with six different
Speaker:guests to do that.
Speaker:And I did that consistently since April of last year.
Speaker:And so it's like,
Speaker:it's, I tell you,
Speaker:it's helped me immerse myself in this world and get good
Speaker:at being a good host and controlling the conversation and letting
Speaker:guests kind of wander off and say something that they think
Speaker:is important,
Speaker:but then looping them back to the nucleus of our conversation
Speaker:and actively listening.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Like there's a,
Speaker:there's an art to it.
Speaker:And, and it's helped me get a little bit better at
Speaker:that. And,
Speaker:and great,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I'm very grateful that I've just been able to meet so
Speaker:many really interesting people,
Speaker:yourself included.
Speaker:It's just been fantastic.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:You and Elvis are stuck with me now.
Speaker:You guys are family and then you guys are family,
Speaker:that's it?
Speaker:So what's your show about who's your guests?
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:let's talk about that.
Speaker:So fire builders live,
Speaker:I take big ideas,
Speaker:break them down into small steps.
Speaker:So every guest that comes on,
Speaker:we take their,
Speaker:the whole,
Speaker:the whole learning process,
Speaker:whatever it is they teach,
Speaker:or they do,
Speaker:or they live by example,
Speaker:whatever that is.
Speaker:And we distill it into first principles,
Speaker:which is a,
Speaker:just a fancy old engineering term for distilling it down into
Speaker:its essence.
Speaker:And then focusing on one particular thing.
Speaker:So every guest comes on and we talk about,
Speaker:Hey, what's the one thing that you need to know to
Speaker:do X or another way that I frame it with some
Speaker:people is if you wanted to teach an eight year old
Speaker:kid, that,
Speaker:where would you start?
Speaker:And that just gives people a singular concept to focus on.
Speaker:So they can take that away from the show and actually
Speaker:apply it to their own life.
Speaker:And so,
Speaker:yeah, so I,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I tell you I've had guests,
Speaker:I've had guests like VH1 hosts,
Speaker:MIT professors,
Speaker:national geographic documentarians.
Speaker:I had the mayor of key West on a few months
Speaker:ago, famous singers songwriters.
Speaker:I had to bring Bruce Springsteen's and Aretha Franklin's basis.
Speaker:Frank Centeno on.
Speaker:Well, I just,
Speaker:just like all kinds of really interesting people from all around
Speaker:the world that have something to,
Speaker:to teach people and are,
Speaker:are excited about life.
Speaker:And when you,
Speaker:when you hear them,
Speaker:when you see them,
Speaker:you can't help but be infected with their enthusiasm.
Speaker:So that's,
Speaker:that's what I like about it.
Speaker:So you said you were doing six days a week,
Speaker:are you no longer doing six days a week?
Speaker:Well, I backed off to human levels now,
Speaker:so I'm doing that stuff.
Speaker:So, yeah,
Speaker:so almost 200 episodes,
Speaker:a six days a week.
Speaker:And, and instead,
Speaker:it's going to be two days a week and that's going
Speaker:to give me a little bit more time to do some
Speaker:marketing and focus more on the software instead of the show
Speaker:all the time And hang out with Elvis.
Speaker:Let me,
Speaker:let's just be honest.
Speaker:You're going to hang out with Elvis.
Speaker:We're going to hang out anyway.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:and he's rough man.
Speaker:Like he,
Speaker:he, he's a crazy guy.
Speaker:Sometimes I don't even feel like I can keep up with
Speaker:that rooster.
Speaker:So now that you've had your experience with building your software
Speaker:and, and getting all into that,
Speaker:are you planning on doing other type softwares?
Speaker:Are you,
Speaker:are you looking at other projects down the road?
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:have you got the bug now?
Speaker:I'm a programmer.
Speaker:So I know what that's like.
Speaker:So have you got the bug now?
Speaker:You're going,
Speaker:okay. Yeah,
Speaker:we can automate this.
Speaker:We can do that.
Speaker:Are you going through that right now?
Speaker:Well, I,
Speaker:I am.
Speaker:I feel like I'm always going through that and like,
Speaker:I have a very super secret,
Speaker:but incredibly promising thing going on.
Speaker:And the West and these days,
Speaker:something new,
Speaker:never seen it before done.
Speaker:I know people say that all the time,
Speaker:but it's the truth and this case,
Speaker:and I've been doing small-scale tests for the last like month
Speaker:or so to try and understand better the user behavior.
Speaker:And once I really get a handle on that,
Speaker:then, then the step,
Speaker:then the how to monetize it.
Speaker:Like, I know how to monetize it,
Speaker:but like the best way to monetize it.
Speaker:So that's,
Speaker:that's an exciting thing.
Speaker:And that has to do with a bunch of automations and
Speaker:stuff. That's pretty hands-off as well.
Speaker:So I got some cool things in the works.
Speaker:He got some cool things and it works.
Speaker:And then the people that are out there they're going well,
Speaker:I'm not techie.
Speaker:And I don't know what he's talking about.
Speaker:Yeah, but you use Facebook,
Speaker:man. You go on Instagram and guess who did,
Speaker:who did all that?
Speaker:All this techie people y'all get to enjoy the other side
Speaker:of it.
Speaker:But somebody like Josh has to build it first.
Speaker:Can you imagine if we didn't have Facebook where we'd be
Speaker:right now,
Speaker:especially during something like COVID I got a couple of questions.
Speaker:I know I got to get you out of the hot
Speaker:seat because you're a busy,
Speaker:busy guy.
Speaker:But one question I've got is I know you're down in
Speaker:Florida. Are you still getting out in the water?
Speaker:Are you still having that time?
Speaker:Yup. Yup.
Speaker:And open invite,
Speaker:by the way,
Speaker:whenever you want to come down,
Speaker:we got,
Speaker:we got boats down here and we'll get you out on
Speaker:the water.
Speaker:There's an,
Speaker:a beautiful sandbar,
Speaker:right? We just beached the boat right there on the sandbar,
Speaker:hang out,
Speaker:drink a couple beers,
Speaker:whatever, you know,
Speaker:whatever we,
Speaker:whatever we want to do out there.
Speaker:Okay. So the show is over by.
Speaker:No, I'm kidding.
Speaker:And then this is going to sound kind of strange,
Speaker:but I'm going to throw you into the deep end as
Speaker:they like to say,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:let's go back way back and talk to Joshua when he
Speaker:was 10,
Speaker:when you were a 10,
Speaker:what did you want to be when you grew up?
Speaker:All I did was draw Garfield.
Speaker:The cat.
Speaker:That's all I did when I was 10.
Speaker:Yeah. I got so good at drawing Garfield in any way,
Speaker:shape or form like anything.
Speaker:So I was convinced that I was going to be an
Speaker:illustrator, some kind of cartoonist or something like that,
Speaker:which honestly is really kind of is.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:some of the best guys,
Speaker:they tell a story in three frames,
Speaker:right? It takes skill to be able to do that.
Speaker:And that's kinda what I'm trying to do,
Speaker:but just in a software sense.
Speaker:Well, man,
Speaker:you are awesome.
Speaker:You're amazing.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I'm a super and I got to have you come back
Speaker:on the show.
Speaker:I want to know what's coming up next.
Speaker:I'm coming to Florida and hitting that sand beach.
Speaker:I'm telling you,
Speaker:I just want to do some fishing men and women fishing
Speaker:person. I want to thank you for coming on.
Speaker:I want to thank you for hanging out and being a
Speaker:part of our virtual family.
Speaker:Cause you stuck with me now.
Speaker:You and I will.
Speaker:Oh man.
Speaker:Well Elvis' and I are seriously honored digo.
Speaker:This has been great.
Speaker:I really appreciate it.
Speaker:And I love the show.
Speaker:You're doing a fantastic job with it.
Speaker:Seriously. It's impressive.
Speaker:I feel like I learned something from you every time that
Speaker:we, that we see Elvis agrees.
Speaker:Like that's my biggest fan.
Speaker:Seriously. So thank you again for having me.
Speaker:This has been great.
Speaker:Thank you for being on,
Speaker:okay. You guys know how we do this.
Speaker:This is how we do it.
Speaker:We bring experts on,
Speaker:they sit down and share a bit of their story.
Speaker:A little bit of their journey,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:just enough to wet your beak is my mother used to
Speaker:say, well,
Speaker:this is where you can see how you can grow.
Speaker:So if you're sitting at home going,
Speaker:I want to own my own business,
Speaker:but I don't think it's the right time.
Speaker:Or if you're sitting home because of everything that's going on
Speaker:in the world.
Speaker:And it,
Speaker:wasn't your choice to sit at home.
Speaker:You got the time.
Speaker:Now's the time to get out there and virtually get out
Speaker:or get out in your neighborhood and start doing something new,
Speaker:starting being an adventure you need help.
Speaker:Josh just told you about fire builders.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:Expert Talk is here.
Speaker:We're going to do this thing for now.
Speaker:I'm going to thank you for coming and watching the show.
Speaker:I'm going to hope you come back next time and watch
Speaker:it again.
Speaker:And as always I'm Tega and I'll talk to you next
