How I Turned $300 Into a 9-Figure Roofing Empire in 4 Years I Dustin Gutkowski DSH #515

100%.

All personal.

Because some people separate the two.

I don't believe in that.

I think you like don't mix business with pleasure.

And I'm like, man, if you're my homie and you're a friend and I can't do business with you, then we shouldn't be friends.

I have an issue where I get too involved.

So I've had five personal assistants now because

they're all guys.

Maybe I should hire a girl.

But I just get so close with them.

I invite them to lift.

I invite them to eat food.

And it just gets too close.

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All right, guys from Texas.

We got Dustin Gudkowski here today.

We're going to talk roofing, right?

Yeah.

Building a roofing empire.

Yeah.

It's a cool business, man.

My uncle owned one in PA.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

And he had no business acumen and he built it to a seven-figure company.

So I was like, all right, there's something, something with roofing.

Yeah.

It's awesome.

Yeah, me.

I mean, no, I didn't have anything in roofing.

I'd I'd never done roofing before.

Yeah.

So

he literally went from postal office delivery man to owning a roofing company within a couple of years, seven-figure company.

That's awesome.

So there's, there's a gap in the market there, right?

Oh, there's a huge, there still is.

Yeah, because this was 10 years ago.

So there still is.

Huge gap.

Yeah.

It's,

I mean,

I want to say that it's bridged a little bit, but not really.

I feel like it's not at all.

I feel like there's still so far to go.

Like, just even in Texas, there's unlicensed, unregulated.

The only roofing license in Texas is

like a fraternity of basically roofer bros that regulate it and you pay to be in it.

There's no, Texas does not require you to have a license.

Wow, you don't need any skills to prove you have.

You just get a license.

Yeah.

You don't even like, yeah, you don't, you don't have to get a license.

Like literally, you could move to Texas tomorrow and start a roofing company.

There's zero license.

Wow.

They don't regulate it at all.

You need a license to cut hair, give massage, but not to be a roofer.

That doesn't make sense.

Exactly.

Because a roof is so vital.

I mean, you need a good roof to live.

It's crazy.

That is nuts.

So you basically saw it and were like, let me start one or did you work for someone else first?

I was in the fitness industry for like 16 years, managed health clubs.

It was like running like 30 health clubs and doing sales, you know, managing people.

And roofing kept coming up.

I saw a bunch of people getting into the industry.

I was like, what's going on?

And we had gotten rip.

We had like two bad experiences with contractors, me and my wife.

So it was like, man, this is just terrible.

Shady contractors.

And I've always like lived my life.

If I could find, if there's a problem, I'm going to find a solution.

And so like, you know, people have problems with contractors.

Why not maybe be a good contractor?

Like seems common sense.

And

just saw so many people get into the industry.

And I saw guys that like I knew that were having a lot of success.

I was like, dude, this guy's a bum.

I can be better than him, you know?

And it was no offense to them, but I was like, and then the kind of final straw was I was in Michigan managing health clubs.

And the guy that I worked for, I was running all of his stuff, only answered to him.

I was like, he was worth probably $100 million.

I was like, man, where'd you get your money from?

He's like, oh, roofing.

I'm like, come on.

So

I did move back to Texas, started roofing, but I did work for somebody else for about 10 months before I started my own.

Okay.

And then started my own.

And

here we are, man.

It's crazy.

Immediate success or it took a bit?

Yeah.

I mean, we did, right?

But it depends on what you're like.

People will tell us, like, yo, you guys have had a ton of success.

You're one of the fastest roofing companies we've ever seen.

I still don't think we're where we should be.

So I don't think we've had success,

which is weird.

I'm pretty hard on myself, but

we've had some success, right?

I guess you can't argue that, but I just, I feel like we could be better.

We could do more.

I don't really gauge the success on the money side of it.

I gauge it on the people we build and how we, how our team feels.

Like, how are we growing?

How are they doing?

Like, are we making future leaders?

Are we growing people?

Like, are we helping people be better?

Are we helping our customers?

What are they saying about us?

I don't really gauge it on the money aspect of it.

I gauge it more on that.

Like when this person started with me to today, are they better now?

Yeah.

Right.

Are they better people?

Are they better professionals?

Are they better fathers?

Like whatever it is.

Like, are they better now than when they got here?

That's really what I kind of base success on.

And I feel like there's so many more people we could impact.

So interesting.

So you take a personal approach to your employees.

Yeah.

100%.

All personal.

Because some people separate the two.

I don't believe in that.

I think you like, don't mix business with pleasure.

And I'm like, man, if you're my homie and you're a friend and I can't do business with you, then we shouldn't be friends.

I have an issue where I get too involved.

So I've had five personal assistants now because I, they're all guys.

Maybe I should hire a girl, but like I just get so close with them.

I invite them to lift.

I invite them to eat food and it just gets too close.

Well, that's the, so I, I, I understand that aspect of it too, because we do the same stuff.

So I have over 100 employees, right?

Yeah.

And there's about 12 of us every morning.

We work out literally in my house.

My two-car garage is a gym.

There's, we, you know, cold plunge, workout, dry sauna.

We do it every day.

And you become brothers, man.

And I'm really close with a lot of people.

Like my kids call probably 10 of our employees, uncle,

the wives hang out together.

But I think it's okay as long as you have to, you have to set expectations.

Like I'm not afraid to have business conversations.

Like, look, man, we're friends, but we also, this is business.

And so don't get it twisted.

Like this, at the end of the day, like we have to provide for our families, all of us.

And I think there's that understanding of, look, we're still friends if we have a tough conversation.

I think don't be a jerk about it.

You don't have to be personal about the conversation.

I think that's where most people go wrong is when, when, like, let's just say we were working together and we're friends and we're, we're having a business conversation and I make it personal where I say something like, well, because you know how people take shots about someone's family or something they're going through.

And I'm like, come on, man.

Like there's no need for that.

Keep it the professional side of it and you can be friends.

But I believe most of our success is from the personal side because.

Do we do UFC events?

We've done Disney trips together.

We've done so many things together.

And it's helped us grow and create a culture that's like no other because we are so close.

And I think we're all pushing towards a common goal.

So all of us want to head in that direction.

So yeah, hey, man.

That's cool to see you make it work.

So maybe I can just keep doing what I'm doing.

Yeah.

I think you just got to find the right people, right?

It's not everybody.

It's not for everybody because there are people out there that'll try to take advantage of it, right?

And there are those people.

We've had to let people go.

And there's people that have, you know, come on and taken advantage of it.

And I get close to people, man.

I've had people, I've had people quit my company that their car got repoed and I I let them use a personal vehicle for months.

They've gotten evicted out of their house, and I paid their rent or I paid for the new place, like a significant amount of money.

Damn.

And those people quit on you.

That's crazy.

It's tough.

So, yeah, because I almost see it like an investment, right?

Because you're paying their salaries and you're kind of investing in the person a little bit too, and you want to see them succeed.

100%.

So then when they quit, it kind of hurts.

It does, man.

It's tough.

But you do it for the ones that stay, not the ones that quit.

Yeah.

And you got 100 people now?

About 125?

Wow.

Across Dallas and Houston.

And how long ago did you start those?

November of 19.

So November 23rd of 2019 was our first day.

So we're four years and what is that, four months?

Five months?

That's very, pretty new.

And it's already almost a nine-figure company, right?

Yeah.

That is insane, man.

Did you see that growth that quick coming?

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It's weird.

So yes and no.

So my business partner, every prediction, I've predicted where we'll finish.

And at times they're like, Dustin, there's no way.

And I'm like, yes, we will.

And I've kind of predicted it that where we would be.

And I think it's because I did see it.

It's like, we can do this.

There's the ability.

We have the people.

We have the skills to do this.

And if we put in the work, it'll happen.

So I've kind of seen it and I believed it.

And I think my wife tells me, she's like, hey, the thing about my my husband is he believes the that comes out of his mouth which is almost like i i'm like we're gonna do this so

yeah i've in the one hand i never thought we'd be here and on the other hand i thought we would arrive right so i'm the ultimate yin yang of it one day i think i'm we're the worst company on earth and we should do more and the next day i'm like we're the best it's just that balance for us so you're the visionary and you can manifest that's cool some people usually have one or the other but you can do both yeah i think this was the uh just being able to picture things so crystal clear like it's already happened and then i feel like it has happened.

So then there's no pressure.

I just have to do the necessary things to get there.

I like to see, and then I get so focused on where I'm going that it doesn't allow distractions to enter because I think if you know who you really are, right, first and foremost, you have to know who you are.

And once you know who you are, you can figure out what you want.

And then once you figure out what you want,

there's no distraction that could come in because to me, it's like, okay, I'm still going here, man.

So this happened.

It doesn't matter.

I'm going here.

This happened.

Doesn't matter.

I'm going here.

Man, this person quit.

That sucks.

I didn't want him to leave, but I'm going here.

So I'm focused on where I'm going, that these distractions aren't distractions.

And so, cause I've already seen myself getting there.

Now I know, hey, if I just do these necessary steps to get there, I'm going to arrive as long as I don't quit.

Right.

Any year in particular that was the hardest or most stressful out of the four years?

Two to two to three was the hardest, hands down.

Was that during?

No, so we started a few months before.

So, but it was, we actually, it was,

I don't want to say it wasn't easy.

We were were starting out, but I think we were just so focused on you're a new company.

We had opened November of the night 23rd of 19.

So within 90 days, it hit.

So we really didn't know any different.

And it was kind of, you're just hustling so hard that you don't have time to focus on what's going on.

You're just trying to make it and feed your family.

Cause I had a, I had a pregnant wife.

I had a two-year-old son.

I didn't have enough money to feed my family.

So I'm just out there hustling, trying to make it happen.

Wow.

Year two to three was

we had our greatest growth in sales, but we lost the most people.

And it was because of me not being a leader.

I was focused more on like sales and, you know, that type of role instead of being like a CEO and leader.

And I wasn't managing people like I should.

I wasn't focusing on people.

So it was really hard for me because I look back and go, I made some mistakes.

with people that I shouldn't have made had I been focusing on them.

So I kind of like re-engineer what I was doing.

And like, look, when I started this, it was about people and we got to always keep it about people.

So it was just a growth that it was hard for me to step back from like, I would use it playing sports, like we talked about basketball.

Imagine being the all-star player.

And then you have to step back and be the all-star coach to manage all.

It was really a tough transition for me to step out of that.

And it was just a, it was a learning experience.

Yeah.

A lot of people don't have that leadership skill just naturally.

It's tough to just have that.

Yeah, it is, man.

It's missing, I think, in most organizations.

If you see successful organizations, it usually starts at the top and with leadership that are able to manage people.

And especially the way you grew up, right?

Because I know you were homeless at 14 years old.

So you probably didn't have a leader early on in your life.

Zero.

Yeah, none.

I was sleeping on a park bench at 14.

No leadership, no father figure.

So it doesn't, you don't realize how much of an impact it has on your life.

I think it really until you have kids and then you see how much impact it has on

your children.

It's like, wow, man, like if I would have had that, how do things.

went.

But then I also now realize it was almost a blessing because there were so many things in life I was able to figure out by trial and error that I don't think I would have got here had I not going gone through those things 100%.

It was a double-edged sword, right?

It is, man.

It's like, which one do you want?

Right.

Yeah.

Cause I look back at my childhood and I definitely had some trauma that I just thought was normal.

And I didn't address it till this year.

I was like, damn, that was actually pretty bad.

When you talk about, isn't it weird sometimes when you say it?

I think the surreal thing is when you see like a story and some people are like, oh my God, I can't believe that.

You're like, that's my story.

Like, I've been through stuff like that.

And And you're like,

holy shit.

Like, it's kind of crazy.

No, for real.

I mean, damn, homeless at 14.

How long were you homeless?

So I was like on and off, man, for a year and a half, two years, like stay at friends' house here and there until I was about 16.

One of my really good friends, his dad figured it out rather quickly.

He was like, you don't have anywhere to go, do you?

And I was like, no, no, sir.

You know, I don't.

He said, you're not leaving here.

And he really took me in.

And that's what got me through high school.

It was, you know, no telling where I'd be without them.

So he took me in, figured it out, and

let me live there with him.

And it was good because it kind of, I think that's when I started to blossom and really understand my personality.

And I still made a ton of mistakes and it was a hard road from there.

But I felt comfortable for the first time because I was living in a home.

I had somebody around.

I didn't have to bounce around because it was stressful, man, not knowing where you're going to sleep, trying to like sell someone to sleep at their house.

And can I crash on my friend's couch?

And you're in high school.

It's different, right?

You don't have a vehicle.

You don't have money.

There's not really a whole lot you can do.

For real.

My best friend right now was homeless in college.

So I took him in, hid him in my mom's basement for like a year.

Yeah.

And I can relate, dude.

I mean, he was, he had gray hairs at like 18 years old.

Yeah.

Stressful.

Super stressful.

I mean, it sucks, though.

And now he's a millionaire.

Yeah.

There you go.

So similar story, man.

I'm glad to see you beat that.

And shout out to that dad for taking you on, man.

Appreciate it.

Yeah.

He was a great man.

So he pretty much adopted you?

Pretty much, man.

And for three years, I lived there until I, you know, graduated and then moved on.

But yeah, it was it was phenomenal I'm blessed to have that I'm still friends with the son oh yeah yeah unfortunately he passed away years ago but his son I was literally texting him on the way here it's crazy like we're still friends to this day so

25 26 years wow yeah still friends today crazy that's a deep bond man there's not many of those left in my life 100 yeah

only got like maybe one one or two yeah that you still talk to yeah

it's weird because you're it's your whole life at one point right yeah and that's all you know but then you go out in the real world and you think about all and you think about back in the day like how much you thought those people are gonna for the rest of your life and then now you're like man I don't even know what that we were talking about this kid I used to mess with in high school yesterday and I was like they're like what is his name and I was like I don't know I don't even remember his name right and I thought that was gonna be such a huge point of my life forever yeah and he bullied you yeah I bullied him oh you bullied him we had like a beef man we we had a beef no no not like bully we just you know how you had those kids that you just you just beefed with yeah I had I had one but I never fought back honestly yeah you just bullied the no I wouldn't I wouldn't tolerate yeah I feel like I don't know without a father figure for me i just took the opposite approach so i was super shy and like reserved and i never defended myself really yeah i was the i was uh

probably an extrovert hidden in an introvert's body and it was lashing out was to keep people away so i was like i was the opposite i was like

i didn't want people around so i would fight and attack back so people would leave me alone because i learned if you bullied me and i punched you in the face you're gonna leave me alone which is you know it was just i was that guy like almost loud and obnoxious to stay away to keep people at a distance because I felt like they wouldn't mess with me.

Yeah, interesting.

We couldn't throw hands in my school.

I was from like an upper white-class neighborhood, so that wasn't really a thing.

That wasn't the thing, my dad grew up with that.

He said, fights all the time in Pennsylvania.

Yeah, there was fights all the time at our school.

Yeah, you think they should bring those back?

I think so.

I think it's, yeah, I think with the cyberbullying, it's kind of weak.

It is because you're never going to have a chance to face your

person.

Yeah.

You're saying these stuff online, right?

I laugh at the UFC and we're just talking about jamal hill but it's like some of the people in his comments you know talking trash to him and i'm like bro this dude would literally murder you with his hands with one punch and you're online talking trash like if you saw him you'd probably ask for an autograph easily but you wouldn't say that to him to his face so why say it online there's no accountability zero yeah it's i think they should bring it back man yeah let them let them let them duke it out especially too it's like if you're gonna say some stupid stuff like be able to back it up because what what's the purpose of it like why are you doing i i can't stand that i can't stand people bullying or saying hateful things it's like well i don't understand the purpose of it do you get a lot of hate on social media um probably

but i don't i laugh about it so like for instance i i'm i'm a father first like i love my kids yeah and people have tried to and i don't i don't really entertain it people have even tried to go at my kids man it's like it's wild because I don't think you really get me offside with what you say because I couldn't care.

I'm always like, look at the resource.

So like, for instance if somebody's a good dude and they say something bad about me i'm probably going to call them up and find out why yeah because that's a good valid resource like somebody's super successful or somebody that's achieved a lot of things in life and they said something about me then there's probably some validation to it and i want to call them up and find out why because if i made a mistake i want to own it and i want to try to make it right right what's the resource the guy that's not doing anything with his life i'm like hey man look at the resource why would i even care about that dude but i had some people recently i posted a video of my kid and my six-year-old, and I try to coach him up when we go to school.

And I posted this video, and there was like some hate comments.

And one guy was like, your kid looks like he's a, you know, re

and this kid's ugly.

And I was just like, hey, man, Apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

You know, I try to make a joke because I'm like, what are you doing?

That's crazy that you would go attack someone's kid.

So when it happens to me, I'm like, man, make a joke about it because that dude's probably sitting there.

unhappy, doing nothing in his life, miserable.

So he's got to project his insecurities on me.

And if I react to it in a negative way, then I'm only playing into it, making him feel better.

So I'm just like, you know what, man, you need a hug.

Like, what's going on?

I just don't, I don't play into it.

Agreed.

Agreed.

If it's a credible source, I'll look into it.

But if not, it's not even worth the time.

Move on.

There's so many of them online.

I saw you just interviewed PBD.

Yes.

What did you take away from that one?

First and foremost, I think he's a great father.

I think he grounds himself in that.

I think that's huge because he's more.

I believe, dude he's the real deal man um he is hungry you would think someone that sold their company for 250 million plus he'd kind of be you know i can do whatever i want yeah take a step back yeah he truly wants to help people and make them better you can see the focus like just talking to him the intensity and the focus like it was just great he's really out there trying to help people and he's going on a bigger run than what he did he talked he keeps talking about this 40-year run and i believe he's going to do it he really wants to do it so i interview him it was just fun man

it was great just he drops so much knowledge and he drops so many great nuggets on you that he i think he could really help people that want to go to the next level just even listening to his podcast listening to his videos you can learn so much of just the things that he's had to overcome and challenges that he had to do you know he didn't come from money came from another country had a lot of struggles and he's fought through them so it was fun man he's just a he's a good dude i think he's genuinely a good dude i love that i've been watching him for probably six six or seven years man yeah and he's taking a shift it used to be all business and money now it's like politics but yeah he still has some really good content for sure yeah yeah he's so it's it is a lot more politics uh but i think it's from a standpoint of trying to protect his kids and the people he cares about because if you look at a lot of the stuff he does he doesn't like what's going on out there and he's trying to protect his loved ones whether you agree with him or not right i don't agree with what everybody says and yeah i try not to dabble in too much politics because i believe i want to vote on issues that i believe are right not for a party right?

And, but I think he's taking a stand on what he believes is right because he doesn't want his kids to grow up in a world where they're going to be forced to do things that he doesn't agree with.

And I respect that a lot.

Yeah, he's brought a lot of light to raising kids.

And I like how he rewards them with books and that whole system.

Did you see that video?

Yeah.

Yeah.

You got a lot of hate for it, but I'm going to do that for my kids, honestly.

You have to.

You got to teach them.

We did so.

We did a vision board party for our close friends and kids, man.

It was really cool to see what some of the kids came came up with nice and you it's so impactful like I use my even my son the other day we take him to school he's like dad this is a couple months ago he started kindergarten we had just moved into this neighborhood so he didn't really know anybody he's like dad I don't really know any kids at school I'm like well who do you hang out with well I know this kid and I said Connor just go up to him every day and just bump nubs and go up to him and just like hey Sean have a great day today good morning

go to Joe have a great day.

Good morning.

And the first day is like, how did it go, Connor?

He's like, well, dad, they didn't really say anything.

Second day, third day.

I said, how did it go?

Third day.

He goes, Dad, a couple of them said, you know, good morning back.

And thank you.

He goes, some didn't say anything, but I could tell what they were thinking.

And now, 30 days later, he does it every morning.

He goes, Dad, now they come up to me and say, Good morning.

And they're all my friend.

Right.

And so it's just the impact that you can have as a father of doing those things is huge.

Yeah.

Social skills are needed in kids these days because they're all on technology.

So it's almost like a lost art now.

Yeah, absolutely.

I used to play outside when I was a kid.

Yeah, remember those days?

Yeah, So much fun.

I used to leave on the bike at 3 p.m., come home at like 10.

Yeah, the street lights.

That was it.

I don't see kids playing outside anymore, man.

It's a shame.

All the playgrounds are empty.

Yeah.

There's not even really any playgrounds, really.

I mean, there's some, but yeah, you don't see the kids out.

Oh, they're scarce, man.

It's a shame.

Yeah, you don't see kids riding bikes anymore.

Anything.

Technology is taking over.

Do you have, how old is your kid right now?

I have six, three, and one.

Are you giving them phones and stuff and iPads?

So yeah, my six-year-old has a phone.

Wow, that young man?

Yeah, it's dude.

I didn't have a phone till high school.

Yeah, he does.

But you know what's crazy about it?

If you monitor what he watches, he's so far.

Here, I've actually caught a lot of hate for this about giving your kids iPads and phones.

Right.

And I'm like, but it's the way of the future.

You're not stopping it.

And so wouldn't you want your kid to have an advantage?

Like, wouldn't you want your kid to be able to text and read things and understand things?

My six-year-old's so smart.

It's almost scary.

Wow.

Because he learned so many things.

Now we monitor what he watches and we have the time that he can be on there.

And we don't just free-for-all, right?

But he understands so many things, has a great vocabulary, and he's learned it from YouTube online.

And, you know, I remember, but back in the day when my grandparents, what did they get up and do?

Read the whole paper front to back.

So reading on an iPad or reading the paper, you're still attached to something, or they watch their favorite Wheel of Fortune show every night.

What's the difference between watching on a TV or your iPad?

Right.

It's like we've all done it in a certain way.

But I think if the future is nothing but phones, AI,

laptops, or iPads, whatever, wouldn't you want your kids to have that advantage?

So when they get older, they're not, what is this?

That is a good perspective of.

I never looked at it that way, but that makes sense.

Because you're not going to deny them having technology.

No, they're going to have to.

And so when your kid gets older, now I do agree.

Look, six is probably a little young, but

it's, it's, it's, you know, what's fun?

It's fun to be able, like, right now, I'm traveling.

I'm away from my family.

That's the hardest part of this.

I love being able to text my six-year-old or send him a video and say, I love you.

And then I'll get when I'm traveling, I get a text.

I love you, Dad.

Right.

It's powerful to me.

Absolutely.

I love that.

Overcoming adversity.

Now, I know we talked about how you grew up.

Is that the main adversity you struggled with?

Yeah, that was probably the, that was the hardest.

I think you talked about it earlier, too, about the trauma, reliving it and facing it.

I think facing all the trauma.

was the hardest thing because the

you said,

well, I just thought it was normal then and so did I and I don't think you realize the role it plays in your life and then when you get older and you know I got married I wasn't a good person and I ran from my trauma I ran from those called demons and I feel like when you run from them they just get bigger and they get bigger and they get bigger and then eventually you can't face them because they're so big right uh facing those demons facing those was tough uh bringing a child in this world and not understanding who you were and not being in a situation to provide for them was tough.

And having to overcome all that stuff, not knowing my real dad at all, not having my stepfather was terrible.

How am I going to be a good dad?

Like, what things can I do?

Those were the hardest things.

Like, how can I be a good husband?

I have a, you know, 35-year track record of acting a certain way because of my upbringing.

But I think facing that trauma and having to deal with it, it was the hardest thing to really overcome, to change behaviors, to look yourself in the mirror and go, man, I'm a loser.

I've been a loser my whole life.

Damn.

I've been, I've done this.

I got to change.

I got to, I got to do something different.

That was hard, man.

You don't want to have that conversation with yourself.

Yeah, admitting that at 35, I mean, that's very tough.

And a lot of guys, we have that pride.

Some call it ego, right?

So to be able to admit that is a big step.

Yeah, that was probably the hardest thing, man.

And just trying to say, look, man, I screwed up a lot.

And I'm not going to fix this overnight, but I'm going to just work my off to try to become, you know, a better person and just focusing on being a better person every day, like trying to grow.

And once you do that, it was hard though, because that trauma never, I don't think what people realize about trauma is you're supposed to go talk about it and go to a therapist, take medication to think it's going to go away.

It never goes away.

It's always there.

But it's how do you deal with it?

How do you face it?

is I think how you start to overcome it.

And when you just run from it, you never deal with it.

And you try to outrun it, but it runs faster.

And I think the hardest thing about trauma is you want to get to a place where it goes away, but it doesn't ever go away.

It's always there.

It's always in the back of your mind, right?

You, you said you went through some traumatic stuff.

You probably think about it from time to time, right?

All the time.

Yeah.

Exactly.

And so how do you move on from it?

How do you, you don't, but you learn to deal with it and you learn to, okay, this is a feeling right now.

Just let's let this storm's going to pass.

Let's not do anything stupid and let's get through this because I'm going to feel this regardless.

I might as well do something positive with it instead of a negative.

And so I think like telling the story of I used to be embarrassed about being homeless.

I was embarrassed about being white trash.

I was embarrassed about being a loser, right?

I don't like telling the story of I had less than $300 in my checking account and I couldn't feed my wife and my son.

That's that's not a fun story.

But running from that doesn't change the story.

The story is still the story.

But what if I could tell the story in an aspect of it helps that person that's in the same situation I was and thinks there's not an end in sight, thinks there's no light at the end of the tunnel, he's in a dark place and letting him know, hey, man, the brightest lights always shine after the darkest moments.

Just keep going.

And if I can impact that one person to help get through that, that makes it worth it telling the story.

So I use that negative story and try to just turn it into a positive.

Absolutely.

You broke the generational cycle because who knows what trauma your biological dad had to deal with and that was passed down, right?

Absolutely.

You know, my dad got physically abused.

So my trauma was he got so f ⁇ ed up, like physically abused by his dad that he was absent emotionally with me.

And if I said the the wrong thing, he was also bipolar.

I would get yelled at.

So that's why I was so shy, I think.

Yeah.

Because I would just get yelled at if I said the wrong thing.

Yeah, you're afraid that anything you did, there's going to be yeah, so I never spoke up in class.

Even when the teacher called on me, I wouldn't answer.

Really?

Yeah.

I was so scared of just speaking up, man.

And now you have one of the biggest podcasts.

I know, man.

How crazy is that?

How does it go, right?

I know.

I mean, you got to face it, though.

Yeah.

Because I could have kept running.

One of my brothers, unfortunately, is a huge PC gamer nerd, and he just doesn't talk.

Like he's socially awkward, and he lives lives in his mom's basement and plays video games all day.

Really?

Yeah.

So I could have ended up like that easily.

Well, it's funny.

So my brother, just he's probably going to prison for a long time.

Yeah.

We just found out like a month ago, two months ago for a laundry list of felonies.

We're six years apart to the day, five, six years apart, like within, and he's going for a long time.

So you, that's the path you could go on.

So it, it, there's, it's, there's a thin line, right?

That's literally blood brother.

And look where he's headed.

And we grew up in, you know, we have the same mom.

We have same upbringing, same trauma.

and he went down that path unfortunately so i understand it i had a guest yesterday his brother is homeless and this guy's a multi-millionaire yeah it's crazy it's crazy it must be like a mindset thing too it is it's 100 i was destined for that i mean you are you're destined for that if you don't change your mindset it's all about the mindset and what you're capable of because he would tell oh you're just lucky i'm like what you have no idea man it's not has anything to do with luck yeah was having kids that moment for you to start reflecting it what seeing my wife hold our son was the moment it was like man this woman went through so because moms are the mvps right it's crazy and seeing the what she went through to give birth to our son and i was like man

i owe the i owe these to the world and i'm gonna give it to them and i'm gonna make them proud that they're like i'm their dad i'm their husband i'm gonna make these two proud of me and it was that moment of like I just we were we were talking to Marab earlier and he was like, we were talking about drinking.

I was like, yeah, I don't drink anymore.

What happened?

Nothing.

I just don't drink anymore.

It was the last time I drank was actually with him in San Antonio for a UFC fight almost two years ago.

And I was just like, man, I don't anymore.

There's no reason.

There was no, nothing bad happened.

I just said, I just don't want my kids to wake up one day and I'm not their hero.

And

I just don't want to drink.

There's nothing wrong with it.

I just don't want to.

And I want to be the best version of myself.

And if I'm drinking and partying,

I don't want to be that.

I want to make them proud of me.

Like, they could pick anyone in the the world to be their hero.

I want it to be me.

And I want to be the best dad, best father I can be, try to be the best husband I can be.

And it was, though, seeing, seeing my wife hold my son, just felt like all the bad stuff I went through in life,

it was worth it in that moment.

And I was like, who cares what I've been through?

Just let me make it right from today going forward.

Yeah.

And just try to be my best.

And it was still a struggle.

It wasn't just, oh, okay, I'm ready to be.

But it was, man, it was definitely a point of I'm going to make a better effort to be the best version of myself.

Love it.

When I was in college, my mom dated this guy who's never been drunk before.

I used to give him so much.

I used to make fun of him.

I was asking my mom, why are you dating this loser?

But looking back at it, man, like that was a blessing.

Yeah.

Like, I don't drink anymore.

And I used to drink all the time in college daily.

Yeah.

Twice a day.

Yeah.

You know?

And no, the guy was super accomplished.

And it was probably because he didn't drink.

It's a big sacrifice to drink.

Yeah.

It does a lot to you, man.

Just I, I just was like, man, I'd wake up.

And I think I started stopping after our son was born.

I didn't really drink.

It was probably once every couple months, but then I would go drink like, you know, every two, three, four months.

And when I'd wake up, this is terrible.

And I think I went a long period.

I went like over a year without drinking.

And then I had like two drinks one night.

And I just remember I didn't feel the same.

And I'm like, I don't like this.

And it just, I, after that.

night, I was like, you know what?

I'm just not going to drink anymore.

And how long?

I don't know.

And

two years later.

I just still just don't want to.

And now, again, if we do something super special, let's go celebrate.

I'm not against it, right?

Go to dinner, people drink, and I've bought drinks for people at dinner.

I just don't want to right now.

Yeah, feel that.

Any other interviews that stand out to you that you've had on your show that you took a big lesson from?

So funny story.

I interviewed the CEO of UFC Gym.

His name is Adam Sedlak.

So he runs their 200-plus locations, and we got to do it in the Octagon, like at their headquarters in California.

It was so much fun.

He was my first boss.

So he was the first guy that promoted me when we were at 24 Hour Fitness Day.

Wow.

So it kind of came full circle, right?

Yeah, that is awesome.

And just talking to him about reinventing himself as a leader as he got older, he said, you know, when he was younger in his leadership role, he was a driver and everybody had to work like the same hours as him and care.

And now he's focused more on people.

It's really helped him in his leadership role.

And I went through that same struggle.

So it was, it was really, you know, cool to see somebody that I looked up to and admired admired for a long time go through those same type of you know adversity on leadership because he was an incredible leader he was a vp running 100 plus stores then so 15 years ago he was already super successful but he went through that leadership change to go to the next level and now he's running ufc you know gyms which obviously connected to the fatita brothers and dana yeah and he's see that's that's a huge role so he wasn't able to get to a situation like that until he was growing as a lead leader And so it was just a huge role that it was a reminder that we all,

what got you here won't get you there.

And even when you get to a high level, you still got to reinvent yourself all the time.

There's always a new problem, no matter what level of wealth.

Yep.

And what are you going to do to solve it?

Absolutely.

And how are you going to grow?

Dustin, it's been super fun, man.

Anything you want to promote or end off with?

No, that's it, man.

If anybody is struggling with anything out there, just, you know, reach out to me if I can help.

If you've gone through something in your life that's a struggle, reach out.

I'd love to help you.

Maybe give some advice on anything.

You know, that's really it.

As I continue on this journey, I want to impact as many people as possible.

Amazing, man.

Thanks so much for coming on.

It's really powerful, man.

Appreciate it.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thanks for watching, guys.

I'll see you next time.