Billy Gene: Why Authenticity Beats Hustle in Modern Marketing

Speaker 1 People have the most dynamic personalities online, but when the camera's on, they think they have to be a certain way for people to accept them.

Speaker 1 It looks like this: like, I'm, you know, I'm being myself in this interview, but then they'll turn on the camera shooting down, they'll be like,

Speaker 1 Real estate agents do it the best. Hi,

Speaker 1 my name's Bill Gene,

Speaker 1 and here in Southern California,

Speaker 2 welcome to Mick Unplugged, the number one podcast for self-improvement, leadership, and relentless growth.

Speaker 2 No fluff, no filters, just hard-hitting truths, unstoppable strategies, and the mindset shifts that separate the best from the rest. Ready to break limits? Let's go.

Speaker 1 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of McUnplugged. And today, buckle up because we're about to get real.

Speaker 1 We are talking to a marketing genius who turns clicks into cash, a disruptor who rewrites the rules of advertising, and a powerhouse entrepreneur who teaches businesses how to dominate online.

Speaker 1 If you don't know his name, you're one of the few. You've definitely seen his ads.
He's innovative, he's unapologetic. He is the trailblazing friend of mine, Mr.
Billy Gene. What's up?

Speaker 1 BG, how you doing today, bro? First and foremost, thank you very much for having me. For real, man, thank you for taking time out of your extraordinary busy schedule to break bread with me.

Speaker 1 Hey, Nick, I'm not going to lie i ain't that busy lately

Speaker 1 like i feel i feel like you know like i've just i have i haven't done it i haven't done a podcast in a while honestly for the last like probably six months to a year i've just said no to everything and um

Speaker 1 just really automating using ai and so to be real with you i spend four hours a day playing tennis every day

Speaker 1 another another another four with my daughter and then uh you know just it's it's just it's process and managing but i'm gonna come in here here and make some shit up. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 I think, you know, because people always want to say, like, busy. Like, look, I got into business to not be busy all the time.
You know, it's been 15, 17 years, however long it's been.

Speaker 1 Like, I don't want to still be busy in the same capacity. Don't let that be twisted with not being productive, not creating impact, not growing things, but busy.

Speaker 1 Today, I'm busy. Today's a busy day, but like most of the time, nah, nah, it ain't really like that.
Hey, we're gonna get into all that, man, because you're exactly right.

Speaker 1 For everybody that's an entrepreneur,

Speaker 1 business leader that's listening and watching, that should be the ultimate goal, right?

Speaker 1 Like, if you've heard me speak before, you've heard me say side hustle is great, but strategy is important, right?

Speaker 1 Like, the hustle culture at some point has to evolve to I can do what the heck I want to do. Yeah, and I don't, I don't even like

Speaker 1 you know, I don't mean to cut you off, I apologize, but like

Speaker 1 I don't like the

Speaker 1 I'm not, I'm not very aligned with the word hustle because,

Speaker 1 yeah, right, because I feel like typically it implies like there's a move to make.

Speaker 1 This is why so many people lose money in like crypto, not saying you can't make money in crypto, but like, or they lose on a bad investment because people want to make a smart move.

Speaker 1 In other words, they don't want to work a lot. Because when you make a move, you just, there's a burst of energy and then I'm done.
Right.

Speaker 1 Now, how you know this, but like, how to really make money is to develop a skill. But why don't people want to do that? Because it takes forever and it costs money.

Speaker 1 So, for example, if somebody goes, Look, I want a guaranteed way to make $300,000 a year. It's like, just go be a doctor.
Go be a doctor, but why aren't you doing it?

Speaker 1 Because you don't want to spend a decade. You don't want to invest $350,000 because you're looking for a move.
You're not looking to really acquire a skill that's in demand or unusual.

Speaker 1 And so, like, a hustle for me when I think of it, I think somebody's like, what's the move? What's the play? And that is short-term, unlikely, improbable, and doesn't pay that well most of the time.

Speaker 1 Bro, totally agree. If you look at any person that is successful in whatever success means to them, I've yet to meet someone that said, Mick, I'm a hustler.

Speaker 1 Right. I hustled my way through this.
It was. It was learning.
It was evolving.

Speaker 1 It was investing, investing financially, investing in themselves, learning a skill or two, and just becoming the best at that one or two thing.

Speaker 1 Every successful person I've ever talked to, I've talked to a lot.

Speaker 1 They all have that same thing of, hey, it took time. There was a grind.
I learned lessons. I got better.
I evolved. The surroundings around me evolved.
And that's the key to success.

Speaker 1 That's the recipe, brother. 100%.
Yeah. The L's are part of the equation.
All day. All day.
So, Billy, man, I've been waiting for like six months to ask you this question.

Speaker 1 But I'm asking it for the viewers and listeners. Okay.

Speaker 1 So for those that, one, I'm going to make sure everyone has all of Billy's assets that you can go find him, follow him, because he drops amazing dimes every day. But you said this.

Speaker 1 If I need to make 10,000 to 30,000 a day with nothing, with no brand, with no anything,

Speaker 1 I would do this.

Speaker 1 And for the viewers and listeners, what is that this?

Speaker 1 Good question. Well, it was a month, not a day, right?

Speaker 1 To make 10 to 30 a day, that's going to take more time, right?

Speaker 1 But the truth is, it can be done if someone's willing. It's going to be hard.
The odds are against you. But I would start off with one,

Speaker 1 selling something people actually need. And so, for example, what's the best analogy I can give you this?

Speaker 1 Let me actually take a step back. I would say first step is...
timing.

Speaker 1 So many times people are trying to make money, but they're just in at the wrong time. So, give you an idea, like I got into Facebook advertising 15 years ago.

Speaker 1 And the reason why people miss timing a lot is because timing isn't sexy. So, for example, when I got into Facebook ads, nobody wanted to learn Facebook.

Speaker 1 Most of the time, when I went to pitch somebody on Facebook ads, they go, what is that? That social media thing? That doesn't work. Are people even on that? Da-da-da-da.
Is it a rip-off or scam?

Speaker 1 How do I know where my clicks are going? So to most people, they go, this is bad timing to get in the industry. because nobody wants it.
It's not there yet, right?

Speaker 1 But that's the early, like, that's why people, it's like the same with bitcoin is all the people i know that had bitcoin hella early it was like it was it sounded crazy it sounded like you were a lunatic so one recognize that timing comes in

Speaker 1 weird times

Speaker 1 like so there's start so when i think about this big picture i think about what's happening with artificial intelligence and to me i think the simplest way i can give it it's like everybody moving from a a fax machine to email in in in the sense of like

Speaker 1 like no one's using fax machines anymore obviously everybody uses email but that transition didn't happen overnight right like there was at first most people hung on to the fax machine like i already got to set it up i have my landline that's taken decades for people to cancel their home phone like you ain't calling nobody on the phone anymore like the process has taken forever right however I'm sure there's somebody out there who made a shitload of money helping people set up their email.

Speaker 1 Now, it sounds crazy, set up an email. I do that myself.
That's because where we're at now.

Speaker 1 But before it was like how do i do an email what does that mean how do i get a vacation so there was somebody who was the middle person that said yo you're on a fax machine let me build a service-based business helping people convert because i see the future going like this now

Speaker 1 fast forward to ai

Speaker 1 When I see online marketing and I see this word funnels, when basically, you know, I think of advertisements, I think of landing pages, I think of follow-up emails, I think of follow-up text messages.

Speaker 1 When I got into this game, you used to have to do all of these things manually.

Speaker 1 I had to learn graphic design. I had to learn how to code.
I had to learn how to persuasively write.

Speaker 1 Now, all these things that I spent decade plus learning and mastering can be done for you like this.

Speaker 1 It would be like me just telling you I was really good at long division when everybody's got that fucking TI-83 calculator or whatever it is. Like it's, that's where we're at.
So anyways.

Speaker 1 There's this transition that all businesses online are going to make right now. And that is to to using automation and AI in their business, right? So that's not like groundbreaking.

Speaker 1 Everyone's probably watching like, yeah, okay, it makes sense.

Speaker 1 However, most business owners are either too busy or too lazy or just simply unwilling to learn something new because of everything else that's going on.

Speaker 1 So for example, it used to be like, let me go write, you know, 30 emails and then you go on a fucking retreat to go figure out what to say. Now you can put in the proper prompt and ChatGPT.

Speaker 1 We'll do that in five seconds. It used to be, let me go build this website and hire a designer.
I need a code. Now people are using my partners.

Speaker 1 My brother is over at high level and they build a funnel in two seconds. We know that no business today exists without content.
Like literally, that's why we're creating this, right?

Speaker 1 Like, you know, if you and I go to a random city tomorrow and we're deciding what to eat and we Google something, we're not choosing the restaurant with no pictures, with no videos, with no reviews.

Speaker 1 Like you cannot win in business. So here we are more than ever.
Businesses need content. The manual labor to get content is a pain in the ass that most are unwilling to deal with.

Speaker 1 So if you can use artificial intelligence to make that content with them, to follow up for them, because, you know, how many businesses lose money because they just ain't calling people back.

Speaker 1 They're not emailing people back. They're not responding.
These are very simple things, but they're in high demand. So.

Speaker 1 My job as an AI marketer is to go to a small business owner and say, hey, you're way too busy to follow up.

Speaker 1 You haven't posted on your page in quite some time and you know you need to create the content. Would you like to pay me to do it for you? Simple.
And they're like, okay, cool.

Speaker 1 Now, what's nice about that transaction is people are paying for the result, not for my clock in, clock out. That is where you make the money and the time because I'm not just trying to go check in.

Speaker 1 If I can deliver you content, if I can follow up with everybody who reaches out to you and I do that for you, what's that worth to you? Thousands of dollars a month? Of course it is. Of course it is.

Speaker 1 Easy, right? But it doesn't mean it's going to take me all day. Because when you know how to use all these tools, these things can be done hour set up for the whole month.
And that's it.

Speaker 1 So it's not, and this thing is AI makes it so you don't have to be techie. So I want everybody to think about that.
Is most people hear me and they're like, yeah, but I'm not a techie person.

Speaker 1 Most of my students aren't. Most like most are busy parents that don't even know how to touch a damn computer.
But that's the revolution with AI is you do not have to be techie anymore.

Speaker 1 That's the kicker. That's the catch.

Speaker 1 It's set up and designed for moments who don't aren't techie. And so that's how I would do it is I would go help small businesses automate their processes and create content using AI.

Speaker 1 And so, yeah, in that in that mini course that we have, our 10-day challenge, that's exactly what we do. I give people scripts.
I give them a presentation. I give them the childhood, the software.

Speaker 1 And I'm like, yo, this is it. This is how it all works.
This is what you do. You know, but just like when I got into Facebook ads, you know, years ago, people are like, that sounds crazy.

Speaker 1 Same shit now.

Speaker 1 Okay. And those that are willing, they win.
And those that are not, they spectate and spectate greatness of other people.

Speaker 3 Hi, Morgan Freeman here. I want to talk to you about a serious rare heart condition called ATTR cardiac amyloidosis or ATTR CM.

Speaker 3 Now, I don't have the condition myself, but if you're living with ATTR-CM, it's important to know about treatment options options like Atruvi, also known as Acoramidis, because you have the power of choice when it comes to treatment.

Speaker 3 Atruvi is an old medicine used to treat adults with ATT-R-CM to reduce death and hospitalization due to heart issues.

Speaker 3 Tell your doctor if you're pregnant, plan to become pregnant, or are breastfeeding, and about the medications you take. The most common side effects were mild and included diarrhea and abdominal pain.

Speaker 3 If you have ATT-R-CM, CM, talk to your cardiologist about Natruvia or visit Atruby.com. That's A-T-T-R-U-B-Y.com to learn more.
It's time to get busy living.

Speaker 1 Yep. Dude, I connect on that on so many levels, which is why I wanted you to bring that up because I can go back personally to me, COVID happening.

Speaker 1 And I had just started a consulting business that was helping businesses with growth strategy, sales strategies, right? Like that was one. Hold on, run that.

Speaker 1 Run that back a second. I had a a little, I had a little cut out.
You said a consulting business and you cut out for a sec. Yep.

Speaker 1 So I had a consulting business that was helping businesses with growth strategies, sales strategies, scaling strategies, right? That was the premise of my business.

Speaker 1 COVID happened.

Speaker 1 Zoom was introduced to the world. I had been using Zoom for six months.

Speaker 1 Lily, do you know that for the first 12 months of my business, I was not teaching growth and sales strategies. I was teaching companies how to use Zoom.
And I made over $2 million

Speaker 1 teaching companies that you would think, like government entities, large financial institutions that you would think would know how to do that stuff, right?

Speaker 1 Had no idea how to learn it. And so at that point, my mind started shifting to

Speaker 1 one day there's going to be an elimination of SaaS. So for those that don't know SaaS,

Speaker 1 software is a service, right?

Speaker 1 At some point, it's going to be implementation as a service. And I think that's where we are now with what you're talking about.
It's, I don't need to have the software solution.

Speaker 1 I just need to know how to utilize it and then help other people use it better or learn how to use it or to implement it.

Speaker 1 I think that that's where we are today, where SaaS companies aren't the power anymore. It's the implementation as a service.

Speaker 1 Those companies and the people that are doing what Billy is talking about are going to be the wave of the future now and beyond. Yeah, I mean, I don't think you're wrong.

Speaker 1 I think it's as simple as people are just like, yo, just kind of just pay you to do this shit for me.

Speaker 1 Like, that's it, you know? And so be it. But what, you know, people lack is that they don't know how to do the thing that they need.

Speaker 1 And the reason why is it's almost like there's this mentality of when we graduate high school or college, whatever our last degree was, we're never going to learn anything again.

Speaker 1 And as adults, we think that experience and time gives us, you know, experience and wisdom, but it

Speaker 1 doesn't at all. Like it doesn't, just because you've been around in the workforce for a long time doesn't mean you've actually gained any unique skills or knowledge.

Speaker 1 And I think that's what the obsession needs to be.

Speaker 1 Like, you know, if somebody, if somebody can, if I sit down with somebody and I said, hey, I want you to write out everything that you can do that most people can't, I can tell you how much money they make just from looking at that list.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So, Billy, man, you've worked with big brands, Kia, Massage Envy, Dave and Busters, Procter ⁇ Gamble.

Speaker 1 I could go on and on and on and give out all your credentials, but we'd be here for five days and we don't have time for that, right?

Speaker 1 But those big companies have a lot of similarities to the small companies as well, too, right?

Speaker 1 So when you're going in and you're working with a Kia or Procter ⁇ Gamble, what are some of the similarities that they have that the local restaurant down the street or the local insurance agent down the street is also struggling with?

Speaker 1 I like this question because I think the answer is important.

Speaker 1 and it's this is they like to laugh too

Speaker 1 and i i say that because for some reason when people come into corporate sales uh they even give it a different title they call it b2b i'm in b2b sales i said what does that oh i'm in business to business sales uh are you are you not selling to humans oh you're in business to business are you not selling to humans or something oh okay i was confused it's they're just selling to humans that that is that is the whole process and so what i and by the way, I deal with this too.

Speaker 1 Like when I was this is last year, when I was doing these consulting calls, uh, for uh, Procter and Gamble, and it's you know, you see their office in all these different countries, Singapore, da da da.

Speaker 1 And I'm getting nervous, and mind you, I do this every day forever, but I'm getting nervous and I'm getting in my head.

Speaker 1 And I'm thinking, like, you know, like, well, corporate, like, can I say this, or will they laugh at this, or will this land in this?

Speaker 1 And so, I just like took a deep breath and I gave my same style presentation that I would teach to anybody, and they loved it. And they hired me back immediately, right after, to come again.

Speaker 1 And it was just a reminder of like,

Speaker 1 people are people.

Speaker 1 People are people. So, to your answer, your question is like literally everything,

Speaker 1 everything is

Speaker 1 the same.

Speaker 1 You know,

Speaker 1 there's probably some,

Speaker 1 I don't know, some minor nuances, but overall, it's the same thing. You're just talking to people, you know, you're just talking to people.

Speaker 1 So, for the viewer or listener right now, let's say that they're 10 million in revenue and under, right? So they're not big business, but they're also not mom and pop.

Speaker 1 What are some strategies that you'd give them as it relates to marketing and AI to really start to scale their business? Yeah, just one. One of my old coaches and good friends today,

Speaker 1 my brother Frank Kern, shout out to him.

Speaker 1 Years ago, he asked me a very, very simple question.

Speaker 1 And it stuck with me. And I've used it on my consulting since then.
And he just said, hey,

Speaker 1 how many people did you ask to buy today?

Speaker 1 I said, what? He's like, well, you want to make more money, right? Well, all it is is just asking more people to buy. And it was so simple.
And then I let that sink in.

Speaker 1 So I started asking like students classes when I'm on stages. I say, hey, everybody, how many people do you ask to buy today?

Speaker 1 The answer is usually like one, two,

Speaker 1 five, mostly zero, right? Well, you know, today was just logistics and I was doing my logo or, you know, whatever. Like I didn't ask anybody today.

Speaker 1 So then when you kind of answer that to yourself out loud and then you go, wait, I'm trying to increase sales, but I didn't ask anybody

Speaker 1 buy today. It's kind of like you immediately figure out how to make more money.

Speaker 1 Like, even people listening right now, they're like, God, damn, it is simple, but how many people did I ask to buy today?

Speaker 1 Now, the challenge is when people think of that, they're so used to the fax machine. You know, they think that means I got to call people.
They think that means I have to go bang on doors.

Speaker 1 They think I have to go.

Speaker 1 They start thinking all of these things. When the truth is, is just run an ad.
So even as I'm sitting with you, I will still ask a million people to buy my shit today.

Speaker 1 And I'll just be hanging out with you, right? And that's the power of advertising.

Speaker 1 And I think that is the number one opportunity for most small businesses is to amplify your asking by using advertising. Like, that is it.
Just run a freaking ad. And they don't have to be crazy.

Speaker 1 Like, I think sometimes people see my ads and they think they have to do all this fancy stuff. Like, I was just talking with my barber the other day.

Speaker 1 It's like, dude, just run a video showing up before and after of what you do. And at the end, say, hey, first, first cuts half off to earn your business.
I'm trying to get lifetime clients.

Speaker 1 And that's all. Like, that is the simplicity.

Speaker 1 The challenge is, is you put out an ad, and not all of them, bang. Some of them, you know, lose money, people don't respond, they don't get content.

Speaker 1 But my thing is, is if this is an asset you can create one time and then use for years and years and years to make sales, kind of in the same way as you think of an asset like a home, right?

Speaker 1 You purchase it, but you're looking to get, you know, pay. I'm just like, if the ad doesn't work, which you can shoot on your cell phone in 30 minutes, just make another one.

Speaker 1 And if that doesn't work, make another one.

Speaker 1 The reason why most people don't do it is because their unwillingness to fail and look stupid. It hurts our ego, right?

Speaker 1 You put out something and then you see that one comment that says, oh, you look fat, or, you know,

Speaker 1 you said this wrong, you spelt this incorrectly. What makes you an expert? And we let it get in our head.

Speaker 1 And it's like the one loud troll versus like the thousand quiet people that were watching that got value. You know what I'm saying? Like, not everybody comments on everything.

Speaker 1 And so I think that's the thing that everyone needs to do.

Speaker 1 The simplest strategy is to ask more people to buy by using video because video can scale infinitely and anywhere around the world. That is the answer.

Speaker 1 A singular video ad can change someone's life like that. Look at the example of, you know, Dollar Shave Club, for example, right?

Speaker 1 Dollar Shave Club makes a funny ad and then all of a sudden they sell for a billion bucks. Think about, I'll give you the best example of a video ad completely changing the world.

Speaker 1 And it's this little company that I actually am not a fan of, but I respect them as the best marketing company ever. And that is Apple.

Speaker 1 Now, right now, everybody listening, if I said, hey, who here has an iPhone? Everybody going to raise their hand. I got an iPhone.
Do you have an iPhone?

Speaker 1 Through marriage. I was Samsung all day and then I got got married.

Speaker 1 Okay, okay, there you go, right? So through marriage, got you, right? So,

Speaker 1 but I remember when these first dropped and, you know, iMac had the big bulky computers, et cetera, and there was PC.

Speaker 1 And Apple was, dude, if anybody remembers, Apple was so inconvenient because you always needed extra hardware and extra software to make it compatible with anything. Like it didn't work with anything.

Speaker 1 I'm like, this is so annoying. And then they were expensive, too.
So I was like, it's not compatible. It's more expensive.
Why the fuck would anybody buy this thing?

Speaker 1 And so, you know, all of a sudden, you start seeing Apple everything, Apple, everything, Apple Everything. And obviously, there's the iPad and iPod

Speaker 1 and all this, but there was something else that happened. And if you could add it in the clips to show the commercials, because people will remember.

Speaker 1 But there was this little commercial that came out. And it had two guys standing on a white backdrop.
And one was dressed in an old, crusty suit, looked like a very corporate, uncool type of cat.

Speaker 1 And then the other guy was just like a t-shirt and a hoodie. And he goes, they start off the ad.
He looks at the camera and he goes, I'm a Mac. And he goes, I'm a PC.

Speaker 1 And then the whole 30-second bit was just a compare and contrast. Like, I think one of them was like, you know, I'm a PC.
And, you know, sometimes I have viruses.

Speaker 1 And Apple's like, no, we don't have viruses. We don't actually get like it.
That was it.

Speaker 1 That was literally it. And they made about a hundred of these ads, maybe even more.
And they put them out, put them out.

Speaker 1 And then all of a sudden, it became cool to have an iPhone, to have a Mac, to have those things. And once they started gaining momentum, boy, did they not stop.

Speaker 1 And obviously they had great products and things of that nature. But, you know, for that switch to happen, I do not believe that can happen without.
a message like that.

Speaker 1 And then also they carry on this war. Like this wasn't a small thing.
Even right now, if I text you or you text me, you guys know what happens. Since I'm an Android, if I'm in your your guys' group,

Speaker 1 they give me a blue bubble or a green bubble, whatever I am. So it's like, who's this person in my chat? Like, they villainized the whole thing so brilliantly.
And that was it.

Speaker 1 You know, so that's why I said it's the best marketing company ever.

Speaker 1 Like, I mean, that was maybe the hardest business challenge to ever overcome, considering at the time PC had such a hold on the game. Their market share was on, like, it was crazy.

Speaker 1 So for them to break in. Of course it took great marketing.
Of course it did. So yeah.

Speaker 1 I want to know, this is my rant of the day. Who Who was the person at Apple that decided to like think it was cool to have backward keyboards and mouse? And like,

Speaker 1 I didn't use a Mac for that reason. I couldn't use a keyboard and mouse.
It's like, dude, come on, man. For 500 years, we've been typing and maneuvering this way.

Speaker 1 And now you want to untrain my 30-plus-year-old brain to do something different. So I was anti-Apple for everything until I got married.

Speaker 1 And my wife was like, but we can FaceTime up with other family members. Oh, God.

Speaker 1 I lost the argument. It was in my bowels, but I had to switch over to

Speaker 3 hi, Morgan Freeman here. I want to talk to you about a serious rare heart condition called ATTR cardiac amyloidosis or ATTR CM.

Speaker 3 Now, I don't have the condition myself, but if you're living with ATTR CM, it's important to know about treatment options like Atruvia, also known as Acoramidis, because you have the power of choice when it comes to treatment.

Speaker 3 Atruvia is an old medicine used to treat adults with ATTR-CM to reduce death and hospitalization due to heart issues.

Speaker 3 Tell your doctor if you're pregnant, plan to become pregnant, or are breastfeeding and about the medications you take. The most common side effects were mild and included diarrhea and abdominal pain.

Speaker 3 If you have ATTR-CM, talk to your cardiologist about Atrubia or visit Atruby.com. That's A-T-T-R-U-B-Y.com to learn more.
It's time to get busy living.

Speaker 1 So, Billy, another question I've always wanted to ask you in particular, because you are,

Speaker 1 I don't use the word genius a lot.

Speaker 1 For sure, yeah. But dog on it, brother, you are that person.
Thank you.

Speaker 1 What do people do wrong when it comes to ads?

Speaker 1 Right? Like, again, the everyday business owner. Yeah, yeah.
I think the most common is

Speaker 1 thinking that people want something

Speaker 1 that you made up in your head.

Speaker 1 So, for example, you know, it's like I see it all the time, you know, people have the most dynamic personalities online, but when the camera's on, they think they have to be a certain way for people to accept them.

Speaker 1 It looks like this: like, I'm, you know, I'm being myself in this interview, but then they'll turn on the camera shooting at them and they'll be like,

Speaker 1 real estate agents do it the best. Hi,

Speaker 1 my my name is Bill Gene,

Speaker 1 and here in Southern California, we care about hope, trust, plug-in word, plug-in word, plug-in word, and that's just our mission. Give us a call for data data.
Shut the fuck up.

Speaker 1 Like, you know, it's like, it's that.

Speaker 1 That is the number one mistake is losing the communication. And that's why I think I was able to have such momentum and impact on this game is because I came in and I was just me.

Speaker 1 I was just me. And by the way, not everybody likes me, but a lot of people do.
And

Speaker 1 also people believed just, it was a breath of fresh air, you know? It was like, so, but I just remember, I mean, I had those limiting beliefs too.

Speaker 1 I was at the University of San Diego, and I remember like coming into business. I thought people wanted, my name is Bill and come on over.

Speaker 1 I can be your marketing guy. And then, you know, the greatest lesson, one of the greatest lessons in business I've ever learned is that, and sorry, I don't know if this is cursing or not, but like um

Speaker 1 it's it's that

Speaker 1 rich people tell dick jokes too

Speaker 1 that like that that is probably i i you not that that is great one of the greatest lessons i've ever learned because as i become more successful and we're behind closed doors and the cameras are off they're just as immature as me the same ridiculous jokes the same like and i just like In my head, I was like, oh, wait, you talk like that too?

Speaker 1 You do that too? Like, and it was so refreshing.

Speaker 1 What's not refreshing refreshing is how they appear to be different online, but like behind the scenes, like, everybody's just cool, and people make their decisions the same way, and they relate on the same things.

Speaker 1 And so, man, I just, I hope this gives people permission strategically and monetarily to be yourself because it pays.

Speaker 1 Like, once I started being myself, and I saw it's working, and I'm making money from it, it became really easy to continue to be myself, right? Like, the green validated the theory. So, yeah, all day.

Speaker 1 So, Billy, another thing, man, you know, on Make Unplugged, we talk about your because, that purpose, that thing that's deeper than your why, that keeps you going, that's your accountability.

Speaker 1 For Billie Gene, man, what's your because?

Speaker 1 What's that purpose for you?

Speaker 1 I think

Speaker 1 my

Speaker 1 why is broken up into phases because,

Speaker 1 and I think this is an important one, too.

Speaker 1 My original why

Speaker 1 was

Speaker 1 all about

Speaker 1 not being embarrassed for living at my parents' house. So, I've been born and raised in San Diego, and we partied a lot.
We got the club, pop a bottle, even when I didn't have any money, right?

Speaker 1 Like, I was the home, like, it didn't matter. We were just out, we were out all the time.

Speaker 1 And I remember the feeling, even telling the story, I just remember the gut feeling and being out and hoping and trying to control the conversation. So, nobody asked me one simple question.

Speaker 1 And that question is this:

Speaker 1 Where do you live? Because I was so embarrassed. I was a grown-ass man living at my parents' house.
And let me tell you, my why

Speaker 1 was to not be living at my parents' house. So when girls asked me where I live, I could be like, my place.
That was my why. And like, look, and it was powerful.
Like, it moved the hell out of me.

Speaker 1 I share that because I think what happens is, is people study people who are already there. and don't realize how much that person has changed.
So sometimes they take things out of context, right?

Speaker 1 Like, so for example, most people on the outside looking in, they see someone really successful and they hear a why and be like, well, I want to change the world and I want to make a difference.

Speaker 1 Look, in the beginning, fuck all that. I didn't care.
Like I, I had to build my own foundation. I wasn't worried about that.
It doesn't mean I was a bad person. I was just very selfish.

Speaker 1 I was like, look, I don't want to be embarrassed. I want to live in my parents' house.
Then it was like, it was immature. I was in my low 20s, right?

Speaker 1 That was like, at the club, I want to buy the bottle. I want to get the table.

Speaker 1 I want to pull up in the Yari. You know what I mean? I remember me and my boy Brandon, we're watching these videos of Soldier Boy and Bow Wow go to McDonald's and order McDonald's in their Lambos.

Speaker 1 And I thought it was the coolest thing ever. That was legit my why is Bow Wow and Soldier Boy buying McDonald's.
That was it, right? And so that was my why that got me out of that.

Speaker 1 And then, you know, once I had my own place,

Speaker 1 it was like, I just want to. travel and like do cool shit with my friends.
So as I started doing employees, I was just like, you know, let's just like all go to Arizona.

Speaker 1 So I needed more money for that. And then I was was living in Portland, San Diego.
I was like, it was just, it always changed. So now,

Speaker 1 now at this chapter in my life, my now, why is one word duty?

Speaker 1 I am wildly aware of how fortunate and lucky I am. Now, don't, people don't get this twisted.

Speaker 1 I am not by any means downplaying my skills, my worth ethic, or what I'm capable of.

Speaker 1 But make no mistake about it. I am grossly aware of how lucky I am.

Speaker 1 My parents, right? Like I could have easily had a

Speaker 1 different parent and my parents could have been addicted to drugs. Like, you know, that's how close it was in our family, right? I could have easily,

Speaker 1 like, luckily my dad had a lot of success in automotive sales. And so he was able to take us out of bad areas of San Diego, southeast San Diego, and put us in a nice area.

Speaker 1 That had nothing to do with me. I'm lucky.
And as a result of my dad's sales skills, I was able to go to the private Catholic school, high school, all boys little private Catholic school.

Speaker 1 Then I went to the University of San Diego, private Catholic. I got in on the equal opportunity program, by the way, which I didn't make.
I did not make that. I was lucky.

Speaker 1 I was pure luck to have that. Now I had to have the skill to meet there.
But so having said that, I carry that with me every day. And even though, you know, like I, I,

Speaker 1 I could just technically stop and really just minimize the business and just kind of have fun and do some things, I put in the work because I think of one thing, how fucking selfish would I have to be?

Speaker 1 How arrogant, how,

Speaker 1 how selfish would I have to be to get the things that I have, the resources that I have, and to just stop and only care about me?

Speaker 1 After all the luck and all the backs that I was built off of, to not pay it forward, would I think is the damning? I think I should go to hell for that. I know that sounds extreme.

Speaker 1 I think that is ridiculous. And so for me at this point, it's duty, it's paying it forward, giving other people opportunities, giving people game, right?

Speaker 1 200,000 students, 75 countries, as have been seen over one or two billion times, something like that. Like we'd be educating, right? So many stages, et cetera.

Speaker 1 Like paying it forward created a lot of millionaires, you know? And so changing that generation and giving people a path,

Speaker 1 that's it. That's it now.
It's duty. It's like, it's beyond a why.
It's like, no, no, no, no, that's my job. That's my responsibility.
I don't get a pat on the back for it. I don't.

Speaker 1 That's what I'm supposed to do now.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And that's why I love you, bro. Because that scene, your

Speaker 1 energy, your confidence, the heart and passion that you have, I think are next level because when you're in a room with Billy, you feel it. Right?

Speaker 1 Whether you want to feel it or see it or not, you're going to feel it and it's going to embrace you. Last question for you, and I'll let you ride on this one.

Speaker 1 How can other people tap into that type of conviction?

Speaker 1 Hmm.

Speaker 1 What a good question.

Speaker 1 I would say

Speaker 1 nothing else feels as good.

Speaker 1 I think

Speaker 1 as people go through their journey, and you get the toys, et cetera,

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 1 like you, you feel it for a second, and then it just doesn't mean a lot.

Speaker 1 I, you know, to give you an idea, I remember the first time years ago, I had like a $10,000 day, which could have been a million buck day today. Like, you know, I mean, like, it was, I was thrilled.

Speaker 1 And I remember the exact emotions I went through. It was like 10 grand, rest in peace.
One of my former employees, Brittany,

Speaker 1 you know, 10 grand. And we're excited.
She's like, oh my God, boss, like, look what we did. Da da da da da.
I was like, holy shit, what do we do?

Speaker 1 And I sat there and she left and I was sitting at my parents' house upstairs. And I was really excited.
And then all of a sudden, the excitement starts to dissipate.

Speaker 1 And then I'm trying to figure out, like,

Speaker 1 what now?

Speaker 1 And the only thought you have in that moment is who you want to celebrate with.

Speaker 1 It like literally almost like the win. doesn't even happen unless you have somebody to high five with it.
Like, I just can't explain that to people.

Speaker 1 Just like, how, like, winning by yourself is not fun. Like, it's just like, it's very limited.
And so, I called up my boys. I said, hey, meet me at this bar, bootlegger.
It doesn't exist anymore.

Speaker 1 And we ordered food. We just ordered whatever we want.
And I said, hey, guys, I went to the server. I said, can we actually get two of those?

Speaker 1 And then I said, can you just put it in a foil into go bag? I said, everybody, just bring one home. And, you know, I was, that was kind of it.
But my point is, is like,

Speaker 1 I think once you go through the things, right? You know, it's the

Speaker 1 hierarchy there. You get success and then you get get fulfillment.
And so

Speaker 1 I think it's just nothing feels as good. And also, too,

Speaker 1 what I'm really proud of is that I've created a business where I don't have to separate the two.

Speaker 1 I think sometimes people think they have their business and then they're like, now I'll go start a nonprofit. To me, when I pour into my current business,

Speaker 1 it's that it gets, it checks all those boxes. Like, we're changing lives, we're helping people, it's fun, it tells me to creative.
You know, so

Speaker 1 yeah, that's a good question. Good question.

Speaker 1 Man,

Speaker 1 that is dope.

Speaker 1 Again,

Speaker 1 I know you're busy, not busy, but I just appreciated you taking some time with us here today, man. Like, you are someone who I looked up to forever.
I consider you like my mentor from afar.

Speaker 1 with me getting into the ad game and all the things that I'm doing. So I just wanted to say with you face to face, BG, man, appreciate you and love you, brother.
I really do. I really, really do.

Speaker 1 And for all the viewers and listeners, remember, your because

Speaker 1 is your superpower.

Speaker 3 Go unleash it.

Speaker 2 Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Mick Unplugged. If today hits you hard, then imagine what's next.
Be sure to subscribe, rate, and share this with someone who needs it.

Speaker 2 And most of all, make a plan and take action because the next level is already waiting for you. Have a question or insight to share? Send us an email to hello at mickunplugged.com.

Speaker 2 Until next time, ask yourself how you can step up.