194 – The Fastest Navy Guy on the Ground: Tom interviews Jesse Iwuji

Episode 194 – Jesse Iwuji
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey, everybody, it's Tom here with episode 194 of Screw the Commute podcast. Boy, do we have a great guest on today and a unique guest. His name is Jesse Iwuji. And what a guy. I mean, it's guys in the Navy and in NASCAR. Bet you never heard that before. And I'm going to introduce him to you in a minute. All right. Quick announcement here. Our podcast app's in the app store. And you can do lots of cool stuff conveniently right from your mobile device and download your favorite episodes and do all kinds of cool stuff. You can check that out at screwthecommute.com/app and you can take us with you on the road. All right. Thank you for listening to our podcast. Make sure you grab a copy of our e-book, How to Automate Your Business. In just one of the tips in this e-book has saved me over seven and a half million keystrokes and allowed me to handle up to one hundred and fifty thousand subscribers and forty thousand customers without pulling my hair out. So we sell this book for 27 bucks, but it's yours free as my thanks for listening. And once you get to the download page over there, this is gonna be at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. There'll be another special white paper with some information that other people are charging you for five or six thousand bucks to tell you. So grab it too, while you're there. Our sponsor's the Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia. It's a distance learning school which teaches legitimate techniques to make a great living, either working for someone else or starting your own online business or both. Why not? You can check that out at IMTCVA.org. And everything we talk about today, including all Jesse's great stuff is gonna be in the show notes. This is episode 194. So you go to screwthecommute.com/194. And one other thing about the score was we just got approved by the Department of Defense for their military spouse program. So not only do we give any military first responder or law enforcement a ninety five hundred dollar scholarship just from me and the school, the Department of Defense will give eligible military spouses an additional $4000 towards their education. So check it all out at IMTCVA.org and that'll be in the show notes for this episode.

[00:02:57] All right. Let's get to the main event. In 2015, U.S. Naval Officer Jesse Iwuji began a journey toward professional racing in NASCAR while still actively serving in the U.S. armed forces. He simultaneously started his own business and pursued entrepreneurial ventures. Today, he's risen in the ranks in NASCAR to the national series of NASCAR and has two successful and profitable businesses under his belt. And this is all while serving in the U.S. Navy. Jesse, are you ready to screw. The commute. Oh, it's so great to meet you at the Military Influencers Conference. Everybody loved you there. And I'm just so thrilled and honored that you took the time out to talk to us. We got some great entrepreneurs out there and they're inspired by stories like yours and yours is very unique. So tell us everything you're doing now and then we'll take you back and see how you came up through the ranks.

[00:03:59] Yeah, for sure. So, yeah. You got a lot of great stuff going on. It's been a really cool journey so far. You know, being an officer in the Navy and also pursuing my dreams as a racing driver at NASCAR. And, you know, I definitely learned a lot. You know, throughout this whole journey for getting through now. And he's still got a ways to go. You know, I haven't gotten to the ultimate goal, which is racing in the Cup series, but you're still working on getting there. You know, this year we've been running in the NASCAR truck series. So last year, I ran a couple races. This year ran a few more than that now. And looking forward to running a few more to cap off the year. But, you know, running the NASCAR truck series has definitely been an eye opener, really learning how to drive these race cars, race trucks at these speeds, at these big tracks. You know, this is my first year really doing that. So, you know, getting the experience, what it feels like to drive against, you know, 31 other people, you know, on a track. And we're all going 170, 180 miles per hour into a corner together. It's pretty crazy and wild. But I definitely learned a lot and, you know, enjoying it and. You just do what I can to learn what I can and get better and better. Eventually put myself in a position where I'm good enough and in the right equipment needed to win the race.

[00:05:16] Now, is this an entrepreneurial venture racing? I mean, is that do you drive as an employee or contractor for somebody else or how does that business part of that work?

[00:05:27] The business side of NASCAR is it's all over the place in all different ways to do it. There's not really one set way. You know, some teams hire a driver to drive for them. Typically, teams that do that have some sort of big funding coming their way, which helps them do that because at the end of day, it's expensive to race. And, you know, in order to race, you've got to have some type of funding coming in to pay for equipment pay for the people pay for the travel, pay for all of the stuff that's associated with racing. Money is necessary if for some reason the team does not have some type of sponsorship. You know, coming from some company that is helping fund all this stuff, then, you know, some of the costs will come out of the owner's pocket and that costs coming out of their pocket. Well, you know, they can only fund the venture for so long before they go bankrupt. So in order for them to continue to go the track, they need to bring in a driver who might have funding themselves. Well, a lot of drivers will have funding from their family. Maybe their mom and dad are, you know, owners of, you know, some some company that's making a lot of money or they are, you know, higher up in some company and are making tons of money. And maybe they can write the checks for their kid to go race some other families. You know, they're not in that same situation. So maybe the kid has to go out and find sponsorship from some companies and bring that sponsorship to the team. And that's what helps the team gets to the track. So I'm on that side of the fence where I don't come from a lot of money. My parents are just basically, you know, your average working citizens my mom's a nurse. My dad was a media specialist, you know, so they're not millionaires or anything like that. And for me for me to get on track and go racing, I had to go find funding through finding sponsorships and stuff like that. And I also started my own business where I could make some extra money on the side to help my racing ventures also.

[00:07:13] Well, so so that brings up the point. If somebody was really good at getting sponsors, but what if they were dangerous and sucked as a driver? Who watches over that stuff?

[00:07:27] So NASCAR definitely looks over that stuff, I mean, NASCAR has an approval process to move up the ranks of NASCAR, so you can't just you can't just walk out and say, hey, I'm going to race trucks there's a committee and NASCAR that every week they look at, you know, who wants to move up to a certain series. Who wants to race in certain series. They look over the driver, what they've done. And then then they can approve along like, OK, this person is gonna be fine in the race. And it's not really based off of, you know, winning any races. It's not really based off of all that stuff. It's really got based off of can this person go out and drive at these speeds and, you know, will they be a weapon, you know, out there. And if they think that they're not going to be, then they'll approve you.

[00:08:08] And there's they're testing and things that go on. Or as you're coming up through the ranks, they can see what you've done in the past.

[00:08:15] NASCAR has barred a lot of testing. So rookies are allowed to do a certain amount of tests each year depending on what series they're in. But you can only do so many tests and those tests aren't free there. So it's a go test. I mean that it's not like really the NASCAR sanctioned thing. So to go test you go rent the track and do this. Goodyear does do some tire test days. I'm not I'm not sure how that works on the money side. If the team has to pay some certain fee or if it's, you know, that gives the team the option to go out there for free or if only a certain team even allowed to do it, I don't know how that works for that. But I know if you're gonna go to your own private test, I mean, you know, going and running a track, you're going to be spending the demo track anywhere from fifteen thousand fifty thousand dollars to rent it. And then and then, you know, the amount of money it costs to go, I think I get the tires and then bring bringing your team there and depending on where you're going to give really a lot of travel and so on. So going at testing is not cheap. You know, you might as well just test during practice at the race. So, yeah, it's tough. I mean, it's not easy at all. You know, that's why everyone can't do it. But, you know, you just kind of learn along the way and, you know, drivers kind of gotta learn on the fly. And most a lot of these drivers that come in, especially on the smaller teams. You just cut their first time in the truck sometimes as the is on race day for practice. So that's how it was for me when I was running my first race, my first truck race last year. And I most first part, the first time I drove a truck ever was in a second practice of that race weekend.

[00:09:54] Can you give us a big picture of I mean, when it when we hear NASCAR, we just think of Charlotte Motor Speedway. And those kinds of places in a certain kind of car. But you're talking about trucks. Explain the big picture of the different parts of NASCAR.

[00:10:13] Yeah. So there's different levels of NASCAR. You know, I would say the lowest level of NASCAR is in the late model series. But NASCAR has NASCAR late models, which are basically the NASCAR wheel in all American series, that series are late models that race, you know, kind of on a weekly, you know, every couple week thing. Like every, you know, each year. And they they race all around the country. And typically those those those guys and girls race at the same track every weekend. Some of them travel maybe to a few different tracks. But for the most part, they race at one track, you know, every weekend, you know, all throughout the year.

[00:10:48] And these are all over the place.

[00:10:49] Short track stuff. So anywhere from a quarter mile oval to, you know, 5/8 mile oval, I don't think they really do anything bigger than that for a weekly basis. So, you know that that's kind of lowest I went in from there. Typically, people move up to the NASCAR J&N series, which is now moving up to our regional series. So now the regional series. Now you stop from just doing just one track each weekend. Now you start traveling to multiple tracks, but you travel to those multiple tracks within your region. So now you go from late morals to jumping into a car that is probably a good sometimes, you know, 200, 300 pounds heavier and shaped differently, bigger chassis and different kind of steering, different kind of dynamics with it. It's just a bigger car with more horsepower. A lot of times sometimes they're not faster than the super late models, though. But they're bigger cars and a little bit more horsepower for the most part. And they jump into those they run regionally. So now you go from running one track to running a bunch of those same type of tracks. But now you run a bunch of them. So you're running like 14 or so a year. And some of those tracks will end up being like a one mile track where you get to go run on a cup level type tracks, mini series level tracks. Actually, you do that in the K&N series. Now you can move up to the little ARCA series. Some people say it's moving us and will say it's moving laterally. Is pretty much really similar to the Kane and car step is just different motor. And they have different rules when it comes to a suspension and all that stuff. So. ARCA series is just like the and series in a way, except they they do run on some of those little local tracks, but they also run on the bigger tracks too. So you can see them running at one and a half mile, two mile and superspeed ways. Now you can get that experience in a can inside car so that you're kind of already used to the car, but now you're getting used to the track and the speeds of all that stuff. That's the Arcus series. You can move up to the NASCAR truck series, which is a step above that, which is the first level, the national series of NASCAR truck series. No, driving a truck is not like a full sized truck. Not like a big old Chevy Silverado. Fifteen hundred twenty five hundred is about the same size as those old Datsun.

[00:13:09] Oh, really? Okay.

[00:13:10] Yeah, same that same size as those pretty much.

[00:13:12] They're lighter than the back. What do they do with the weight. You know there's no weight in the back of it.

[00:13:19] It's a full chassis type truck where tubular frame chassis type truck where the weight is actually distributed fairly even around the whole thing. So it's not like a regular truck where there is really light in the back. All the way to the front, they distribute the weight as much as a chance to it. And through the suspension and geometry of all that stuff, the weight gets transferred pretty good compared to a regular truck. So it doesn't drive like a regular truck at all. This thing is like it's like a race car that looks like a truck.

[00:13:49] People try to cheat on these things and do stuff with the cars. That's not allowed.

[00:13:56] Yeah, so at the end of the day, you know, racing, racing, sports are sports, you the people who regulate sports set out a certain amount of rules. And it's your job as a team, driver, athlete, whatever to do your best to to be on it as much edge as possible. On the line of wherever the rule is run and try not to go over. And some people so tow that line and some people try to go over a few times and try not to get caught. So at the end of the day it's just that's how competition is that's competitive. And if you're if you're going to take two steps back, you know, before the line and do that, well, you're just going to have a hard time.

[00:14:35] You're never gonna win.

[00:14:36] Yeah. Nobody else is on that line.

[00:14:38] I was on your YouTube channel and I'm pretty sure it was you, but I'm not sure I was driving a go kart. And then the engine blew. You remember that video? Was that you? Yeah, yeah.

[00:14:49] That was back in a few years ago, actually. Yeah. So I was driving on a dirt race on these things for outlaw carts and basically a one hundred horsepower cart. The car actually had it was not a hundred horsepower. That was the stock motor car. So it might have made it might've been 40, 50 horsepower maybe max, but it's basically a dirt bike motor. You know, in a in a in a cart. So is pretty crazy powerful. So anyways, yeah, I was driving the race and I was in the lead and it's going to be an easy win right there. And then we had a little motor failure and it spun me out right there. And then I got hit by somebody. I didn't really cause too much damage, but it's still sucked. That was going to be easy win.

[00:15:33] All right. So what's the future? What's the next level up past the trucks?

[00:15:38] Yeah. So pass a truck is the NASCAR community series. NASCAR Cup series. That's you know, those are the goals. Move up to and get those levels up. That's what I'm working on. And, you know, I'm just trying to get as much experience as a can in the trucks and learn what I can and, you know, sharpen my ability more and more and more.

[00:15:56] What's the amount of time it takes to go from start to get to the big races and all that?

[00:16:03] It all depends on the person. I mean, people that he will do fast track it. Those people who slow track it. All depends on the person.

[00:16:10] And what's the fastest it could be?

[00:16:14] I mean, I've I've seen people go for how I saw one guy race two years, a NASCAR can and series or so, maybe three. And then from there go straight to the series.

[00:16:25] So it's not overnight, you know. Yeah, it's going to take time.

[00:16:30] Yeah. Yeah. You got a race. I mean you got a race, races and certain levels to show your capabilities. And then from there, that's what I see. That's what they had that committee that NASCAR sits there and they vote on who can move up or not. They'll look at your credentials and they say, OK, this guy. He was running really, really well here and this and that. And he ran all these races. So he looks like he should have the skills needed to move up here or sometimes like had this, that maybe he ran a lot here. But we still think he needs a little bit more time. Maybe we're only gonna let him move up here. He can only run these tracks right now in this series. Yeah. So there's a there's a process.

[00:17:05] Well, you must be perfect, though, because I think you let it slip a little bit. When I was talking to you in D.C., about on the straightaways at one hundred and eighty miles an hour. Is that a secret that we shouldn't talk about.

[00:17:19] I had been a day of that of them were racing at Michigan. You know, it's a pretty big track. I mean, it's a little bit smaller than Daytona and Talladega, but it's still a very big track. So on the straights. You kind of have a lot of time, a lot more time than on a one and a half mile tracks and the shorter track. So, you know, down the straights, you know, it was a pretty hot day during the day. So, you know. Yeah. You know, take one hand off the steering wheel and, you know, try to get some air flowing into my helmet a little bit more because it hot. You know, then I get back to the corner. I get two hands back on steering wheel, ready to go. So there wasn't a lot of side by side race in that we were really doing so. It wasn't like I was having to, you know, do that while being tangled up with a lot of people. And that's kind of spot myself running. And I had a lot of time to think.

[00:18:04] Is the one hundred and 180 miles an hour, right?

[00:18:09] Yeah. We're yeah. We're cooking over there. I mean that's a pretty fast track.

[00:18:14] So let's take you back. So I know you played you were really good at football in high school. And I admitted to you I had an appointment to the Naval Academy and didn't take it. And you didn't punch me. So I guess. OK. So tell us how you came up and how did you decide to go the Naval Academy and then how did the racing come out of that?

[00:18:36] Yeah. So going to Naval Academy, basically. You know, that was a decision I made because I was getting recruited there to play football. And for me at that time, playing football was a big thing for me. And I wanted to go play college football. Naval Academy had a great college football team. Had a great education system going on there. And also, you know, I had a career started for me as a naval officer. You know, growing up in Dallas, Texas, and being a high school football player there and doing anything I did there, I took that opportunity. And once in Naval Academy and as one of the best decisions I ever made. And then from there, when I graduated in 2010 from the academy, went on to be an officer in the Navy first four years. And I was on two different ships going on, two different deployments. Spent a lot of time in the Arabian Gulf. And after those deployments, you know, I was always a big car guy, loved cars and stuff. I used to go to drag strips and all that stuff. And after coming from that second deployment, I just made a crazy decision that I want to also pursue racing. I want to do it while still being in the Navy. And that's what I start going after.

[00:19:42] You're the only one, right?

[00:19:43] Yeah. Well, the only the only the only actively serving service member that is racing in NASCAR. There's plenty of people in the sport like, you know, pit crews, the crew industry side, people who have been in the military. But as far as like being in the Navy, whether it was active duty or in the reserves. There's no others that are doing that while also racing.

[00:20:06] You're the guy. You're the guy. So. So you started some other businesses. Did you say you started something with trucking or something?

[00:20:13] Yeah, I did start a trucking company back just about a year ago, and it's been doing well. And then, you know, we have a lot of business going on. So it's been growing slowly. And I started that to just create more, you know, a little bit create more revenue streams coming in.

[00:20:31] You know what? I think I was on the interstate and saw one of your trucks. It was doing about one hundred and eighty. And the guy and the guy didn't have either hand on the wheel. He had a behind his head, just feet up. So there's a lot of regulation in that business too, right?

[00:20:50] Yeah, there's a lot of regulation. I feel like the government needs to let off a little bit. You know, you can't you can't drive the truckers out of, you know, working because, you know, semi trucks are needed to move equipment. Move, move goods, products, all that stuff. And if the government keeps on having these all the you'll put new regulations that aren't, you know, in the trucking industry, they like outside of it, they don't understand. And the moment they're Amazon stops coming in, they're going to start wondering why is not coming in. It's. All those regulations you put on these drivers, you know, the FDA, I know they're trying to make things safe, but somebody out there is just trying to make some extra money. And that's why they're putting all these regulations.

[00:21:29] So it's more on the drivers than the than the machines.

[00:21:35] I mean, the machines have some, but a lot of business owner drivers and all that stuff. And trucking companies and how they work and all that stuff. And I think it needs to be a review. And it's look at it like what are we doing? Like, let's make it easy for these drivers to drive. Let's let them work. And, you know, let's let them make money and let's stop being a hindrance in the trucking business. I mean, if in a day you make it too hard for the companies to be a company, then they're not going to be around. And guess what? There's no one but no one's going to be driving goods around. There is a shortage of drivers right now, but it was like it's like sticking to one hundred thousand shortage as of right now. And you're only going to make more of a shortage if you keep making it hard for these companies to be around.

[00:22:19] Yeah, I hear 'em on their satellite radio all the time. Advertising. Walmart says, you know, started eighty thousand a year. And lots of different trucking companies all advertising like crazy on there. But yeah, the regulations screwed me over too because I had the stock in NoDoz. You know that keeps you awake. Yeah.

[00:22:45] So you own these trucks. Do you lease them. How does that business model work?

[00:22:50] Yeah. So I own a truck. Yes. And then I have some other owner operators who have signed on with me. Run load. So, you know, when you have owner operators sign on with you, basically, you know, that what they're doing is they're basically saying, eh, I'll run under your trucking authority and typically you'll see you'll find them loads and all that stuff and you'll have loads available because they all want to do that because, you know, sometimes maybe they're too new or they're whatever. Some there's some reason why they're not able to do stuff on their own so they can run kind of under your company umbrella to get more business.

[00:23:25] And who pays the gas and stuff and tolls?

[00:23:28] It it's all different. It's all different. Every every every business is different. Some people have different things where maybe the company is you gotta figure it out with whoever you're running with. You know, some people are like, oh, no, you could use up all your old stuff. Maybe they'll pay him a little bit more. So in a day, it's it's all about how much you're getting paid and how much you're getting paid. Yeah. Figure out what makes sense. You know, does one person cover this or does the other person cover this?

[00:23:50] Now, are these companies characterized as like long haul and regional? And do you have any of that?

[00:23:59] There are. There are. So we typically do stuff just regionally. But we're capable of going, you know what you know, over the road, really long, long distance stuff. I don't yet. There's no need right now. There's I mean, being in California. I mean, this is like trucking capital of the world. Here and Kentucky, both like, you know, just trucking capitals of the world. So a lot of stuff that comes in here. And you see the ports and all that stuff stops and there's more there. I've never been anywhere else in the states where there was this many trucks on the road.

[00:24:39] What do you say about Kentucky?

[00:24:41] Kentucky is a big trucking place, too, especially like with like Amazon and all that. There's a lot of business out there out of. If you look in that whole Midwesterners and like kind of Heber Kentucky is kind of the center of it. And then within like a hundred miles of it, there's so much going on over there.

[00:24:59] Yeah. I was just talking to a I have an Internet marketing school and I was talking to a guy in California, has a school, and it teaches truck driving and, you know, plumbing and heating and air conditioner, all these different things, vocations. And there was the brain surgeon came to him and said, you want to learn how to drive a truck. He said, What? You're a brain surgeon. He said, Yeah, I'm just burnt out. There's so much insurance and you've got people's lives in your hands. I just want to chill. He drove truck for about six years and then went back to brain surgery.

[00:25:38] Yeah. I don't know if I'd give up brain surgery for truck driving. Now, if he made plenty enough money, it would not be a bad idea to have if he bought some trucks and had people driving for him. He doesn't need to actually do the driving.

[00:25:52] He wanted to be the driver he drove.

[00:25:54] Yeah, he really wanted to chill. He should by the trucks and have someone drive for him. Now, obviously, you know, he would make more if he did it himself, but not really, because now you're busy, your hands are tied.

[00:26:07] I just think he would he just wanted to get out of that environment. High stress environment. I guess driving trucks, high stress. But some people like to drive and they like to see the country. Yeah, it was pretty crazy. So what what's your Web site and everything that you've got things coming up in the. I know you got some secret stuff that we can't hear about yet, but hopefully you'll get back to us and put him in the show notes later. But where can people check you out?

[00:26:37] Yeah, they can check me out by going to my Web site. It's JesseIwuji.com.

[00:26:48] Yeah. We're gonna put that in the show notes so. Yeah, click on it.

[00:26:52] Also my same name right there. Just search for me on any social media platform. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, you name it among all of them very assessable. If anyone has any questions or anything, if anyone ever wants to reach out to me to talk about anything I can. You can hit me up on those that pretty much see all my messages and answer all my messages for the most part, as long as it's not something crazy.

[00:27:15] Where it Your is your race scheduler that can people see you in person places that how far in advance or your book for those kind of thing.

[00:27:25] Yeah. I don't typically publish my race schedule because it's all over the place. You know, I race all you know. Yeah. I said it's all over the place. I don't really typically post more. I've just put it I put out I'm gonna race. I'll let people know the week of that race a week in a week. I let people know. But as far as like putting out the whole schedule, I don't really typically do that.

[00:27:47] But you're based where. In California,.

[00:27:52] So I'm now in Southern California right now.

[00:27:54] So we are racing all be and that's the southwest region.

[00:28:00] It's all over the country. I mean, this year I've raced to Vegas, Texas, Michigan. I've raced we're also I raced somewhere else and I can't remember right now.

[00:28:12] All right. So some of the inside you like you're on a tour bus or you just fly out there. How does your equipment get there? All that stuff? What's that?

[00:28:20] I just fly. I fly to based out of Charlotte, North Carolina. They bring their equipment out there. I fly out. I race and then I fly home.

[00:28:27] Oh, man. You go easy now.

[00:28:33] No, it's a it's it sounds easy, but it's not because I have to. I still got to figure out a way to bring the funding in. So, yeah, they do like all the physical labor hardware. But I got to do all the other stuff off track stuff so that we can find the money to get on track. So, you know, I'm doing my part. They do their part.

[00:28:52] Prize money involved and stuff, too.

[00:28:57] There is a prize winning, but I don't get that.

[00:29:02] Right. Yeah. Well, it's really cool thing, man. You're protecting our country and then burning up the tracks at the same time. I mean, you just don't see that every day.

[00:29:13] Yeah, definitely.

[00:29:16] Well, thanks so much for coming on. And give us a little insight into the racing world, because I know like I think I told you D.C., like I accidentally flew into Charlotte on on race day one day. Oh, my God. There's like there is like motorhomes literally as far as the eye could see. You look faded into the sunset. There was, I don't know, 100. How well would they hold in Charlotte? One hundred and seventy thousand people or something.

[00:29:42] I mean, I can't remember the exact number, but a lot. Yeah. Now if you come in on a race, you go you definitely get to be pretty packed.

[00:29:51] All right. So good luck. Hope you don't crash ever. And hope you can't wait to see on TV at the super biggies there pretty soon.

[00:30:00] Well, thank you so much.

[00:30:02] I bet you get to the next episode, everybody. Check out Jesse's site. We'll have it. The show notes keep keep following this guy. He's he's the real plus for our nation, taking care of us as the officer in the Navy and also doing some cool stuff on the side. So catch y'all on the next episode. See ya later.

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