270 – Corona Quarantine Strategies: Tom talks Corona Bologna

Episode 270 – Corona Bologna
[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 two hundred and seventy of Screw the Commute podcast. Is a little bit different today. We usually have an interview on Fridays, but because of the pandemic and all the stuff that's going on, I thought I'd do a little bit of a switcheroo here on you. The title of today's episode is Corona Bologna and I'm in no way making light of the terrible pandemic the world is facing. But I'm here to give you some strategies to make the best of the cards we've been dealt with. So that's we're going to talk about today. I hope you didn't miss episode two sixty nine. It kind of renewed my faith in the young people. We had a 10 year old boy, Bryce Fields, and his grandfather, Bradley Vinson. And talking about grief, little Bryce lost his little sister to a car accident. And he's. Let's put it this way. The young man is well beyond his years in what he's been through. And he wrote a book about it. And he and his grandfather do speaking engagements and talk about grief and recovery and so forth. So I thought that would be a good episode to have on this week. Also, that was episode two sixty nine. So how would you like to hear your own voice here on screw the commute? Well, if the show has helped you out at all in your business or giving you ideas to help you start a business, we want to hear about it. Go to screwthecommute.com and you'll look for a little blue side bar that says send a voicemail. Click on it and talk into your phone, your computer, and tell us how the show has helped you. And and also put your Web site in there so we can give you a nice big shout out that said screwthecommute.com while you're at it. Grab a copy of our automation e-book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. This book has saved me millions of keystrokes, handled forty thousand customers and one hundred and fifty thousand subscribers. All kinds of stuff to make your life easier. So we sell for twenty seven bucks. It's yours free for listening to the show. Check it out at screwthecommute.com/automatefree and grab a copy of our podcast app at screwthecommute.com/app. And all this stuff will be in the show notes. This is episode 270. So you go to screwthecommute.com/270 to find it. Now, lots of people I mean, enormous numbers of people are doing searches on Google, on work from home. Now, this is something I've been preaching since 19, late 96, six early 97. Since I was teaching this, I've been selling on the Internet since 1994. So doesn't surprise me, but I wish people would listen to me back then and they might not be hurting as bad as they are right now. Had they built a nice Internet business so that they are used to working from home anyway, we can help you with that. My School, the Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia is perfect for this. You can not only learn from a distance, you can legitimately work from a distance now. So check it out at IMTCVA.org. And also we are looking we really want somebody to come through and help us find an accountant that's veteran friendly. We're trying to get approved to take the G.I. Bill and we need a full blown audit. So the accounting has to be qualified to do such a thing and they have to be veteran friendly. They don't have to be a veteran, but we need a big discount on it or trade for a scholarship or something. And I don't want any crybaby accountants that want to tell me how much work this is. When these veterans know what work is, it is not pencil pushing. All right. So not to disparage any kind of accounting work, but I don't want to hear any crybaby stuff about how tough it is when we're trying to help veterans that have been shot at. Okay. So check it out and we might even throw in a finder's fee if you tip us off to the right person.

[00:04:39] All right, let's get to the main event. This is another special edition this week. I usually do interviews on Fridays and I have some great ones coming up in the next couple weeks. But this Friday, which is Good Friday for those of you that observe it. So I thought I would put out some strategies that have worked for me when facing tough times. And I'm going to do this with telling us some stories from my life and hopefully some of the lessons learned you'll be able to use in your situation. And I'm sure many out there listening have had tougher things in your life than me. I mean, I'm not trying to preach to you. And and I'd welcome you leaving messages like I told you. If you go to screwthecommute.com, look for the little blue sidebar. Leave me a message of some strategy that worked for you when you face a tough time and we'll give you a shout out and put you on screw the commute on a future episode. I'm just telling you stuff that I have lived through and then what the things have done for me.

[00:05:39] Ok. Let's get into some of the problems you might be facing now and some strategies that may help you overcome them. I think I'll start off with a problem that I don't really have much trouble with, and that's loneliness. I grew up the baby of six boys and we lived in the total sticks. I mean, I mean, still to this day, the population of my hometown is five hundred people and we lived in the suburbs. I mean, literally, I was alone all day, every day for most summers. And after sports practices in the evenings, the bus would drop me off and there wasn't anyone else at my stop. And there were no buddies that came over to study and there were no street parties. I mean, I mean, heck, you'd get run over by an 18 wheeler on National Route 40 in western Pennsylvania if you tried to have a street party. Now, going through this, I suppose, is where I got my imagination. I really didn't have any choice. I was by myself with my next oldest brother, was four years my senior. I mean, I played by myself, tore apart old cars, scrounged for scrap copper to sell at the metal plant for spending money and loneliness. Never really crossed my mind. I lived it, but I didn't watch on TV a lot during this pandemic. And many shows are talking about the emotional toll being taken on people because of the loneliness caused by all the quarantining that's going on now. This would be a perfect time to really jump into technology and learn to use Facetime, Zoom or Skype. What do you think? Now, if you're older and don't think you can do this without help. I mean, you're doing something because you're listening to this podcast. Say you have some kind of skills, maybe a young person in your life or in the neighborhood could show you even through a window. It's not that hard, really, if somebody showing you how to do stuff. Now, if you are a young person, maybe you could take it upon yourself to seek out some older folks in your neighborhood and volunteer to help them. That's partly what we're talking about here. The older folks need volunteers. And if you're bored sitting home and ready bouncing off the walls, maybe you'd want to think about volunteering.

[00:08:01] And maybe some of these people don't have anyone to face time with, even if they knew how. Maybe you could step up and spend some time every day talking to them. Maybe you might learn something. Maybe you come up with a new friend. Maybe you have lots of friends, but maybe they don't have any. You could literally change someone's life with something that's a piece of cake to you. Like zooming with your friends.

[00:08:30] Now, one of the most rewarding times in my entire life was when I had my entertainment company up around Washington, D.C.. You can't believe the crazy outfits and costume deliveries I did for six years now. Every time I would get anywhere near a hospital or old folks home doing a job, I would take time to stop in and ask the nurses and caretakers if anyone there didn't have anyone to visit them. I go in and make him laugh and spend some time with them, and when I could, I would get the phone number to their room and call them a couple times a week. I've got to tell you, though, each call made me nervous in that I didn't know if they would still be around to take the call and It happened more times than I'd like to remember, really. Any rate, for me, loneliness means nothing. I'm used to being by myself, but for you or for others, it could just it could be as bad or worse than the virus. So if you're lonely, do something about it. Learn to use your phone or computer. Heck, I'll talk to you. All right. I'm here, too. I'll face time with you. Whatever it takes so that we come together and help each other. Learn to use your phone or your computer. And I guarantee someone will help you. So you have a lifeline to the world. If you're not lonely or you're just bored with the quarantine. I hope this has stimulated you to rack your brain to see how you could volunteer to help someone with this. You'll feel great. And I'm sure it would be fun to hear stories from people who have lived a lot longer than you. And maybe it'll help you and your loneliness as much as you help them.

[00:10:24] Now, I'm dusting off some things I haven't talked about for many years. And that's keep humor in your life in the face of adversity. Now, you may not feel very funny or feel like having fun. If you're wondering where your rent or mortgage payment is coming from next month. Yes, I know that might just be one of the problems you and many people were facing. See, humor in the workplace was my first topic when I broke into the speaking business many, many years ago, and it it truly got me through some pretty rough times. In 1985, I was on my way to Becoming a Millionaire. I own the second biggest nightclub in the state of West Virginia, as known around all around the state. I was the only independent pageant producer for Hawaiian Tropic in the world and I was working my butt off seven days a week for six straight years with only four days off per year. And one of them didn't even count. New Year's Day was shot trying to recover from New Year's Eve.

[00:11:31] Anyway, guess what happened in 1988? The drinking age went from 18 to 21 and wiped me out. I lost four hundred thousand dollars and had to close the doors. And how I close them is as a part of this story, but I'll get back to that in a minute. What happened next made things even worse. I tore my Achilles tendon, and that's worse than breaking your leg. Someone who is in charge of paying for the health insurance didn't do it. And I was left with no coverage. I was broke living off credit cards, couldn't walk. And I was living on a mattress in a vacant house. I mean, you know, if my dog got run over, they'd make a country song out of it. I had a table that I couldn't even get up to sit at and a black and white TV. I went from being one of the most well known and respected people in the entire state to living off credit cards in a vacant house. I couldn't walk right for three years. The entire time I was at that house, I had Uma books surrounding me to keep my spirits up and I would watch every funny show I could get on that rickety little crap TV I had. Now, one show that changed my life was Candid Camera. I was watching it one day and I thought, you know, everybody loves this show, but they can't really participate in it unless they lived in California and happened to get caught by the Candid Camera. Well, as I was watching, I was doodling and I doodled a little devil with his tongue sticking out, which is now my federally registered trademark for a company I started called Prank Masters. Now, when I could walk, I moved to Washington, D.C. to start this practical joke company, I starved to death for six months. Now, when I was doing one of my bizarre stunts, The Washington Times got wind of it and did a feature article about my company and I started getting more calls. Then The Washington Post picked it up and then I start getting a lot of calls.

[00:13:45] Then guess what happened? The Associated Press picked it up and the story went to fifteen hundred radio and TV stations around the world about what I was doing and by the way. This was long before Punk'd and Jackass and those those shows were in vogue. I started doing radio and TV all over the world. The business took off like crazy and eventually led to my speaking career a few years later, which will be a story for another day.

[00:14:14] But the point was that in the face of the worst time of my life, Mr. Big Shot for the whole state virtually is destitute, living on the floor of a vacant house. By keeping humor in my life, I was able to come up with a solution to my problem. So whether you feel like it or not, please, I'm begging you, get some humor in your life. This unwinds your mind, which probably is wound up like a tight spring, ready to explode, wondering what your future is now. We all are. But doing this lets the good ideas in so you can climb out of this problem.

[00:14:56] All right. Back to the way I closed the doors to the nightclub. And by the way, it was a restaurant, a pizza restaurant also. So when I knew the end was inevitable, I went directly to the bank and all the creditors, beer suppliers, food suppliers, all of that stuff. I went to them and I said, I will not go bankrupt and screw you out of whatever I owe you. All of them knew me to be honest and upstanding. I mean, I'm a guy that does what I say I'm gonna do. And many nightclub's owners are kind of scumbag alcoholics. Anyway, I winterized the building. I turned the keys into the bank. The bankers saying, Tom, boy, this really sucks.

[00:15:43] You know, you had such a nice place go on and through no fault of your own, you're wiped out. He's kind of like, what's going on right now with people. But anyway, I gave the keys back. I made the place clean and everything's taken care of. I made deals with all the creditors to give me time to pay them off. And everyone said yes.

[00:16:06] The point is that in the face of adversity, especially, which was no fault of my own. You go to people you owe long before they feel compelled to chase you for the money. I got virtually no dings on my credit report, which could have been shredded to pieces and I mean, had I just thrown up my hands and let all the creditors get screwed. And actually years ago I was back in that town and I ran into one of the beer distributors and he still remembered me as the guy who didn't screw him over when I could have. So if you're facing trouble right now, I mean, so are millions of other people. You be the one to call and start a conversation before people get around to chasing you. You will be so high above the pack. I'm telling you, because most people don't have the guts to do this.

[00:16:59] All right. Let's get into another topic. Most people that know me know that I'm not much of a woowoo kind of guy. I'm pretty hardcore technique kind of guy. In other words, if you want result D, you do A, B and C to get there. So this next topic may make you think I've been drinking or smoking dope. But but the topic is visualization. I was never a big believer in this until I lived it as around 35 years ago and it was at the nightclub that I was telling you about. So let's go back there. We had a pizza shop there and we were just a mile from a resort lake.

[00:17:42] Hey, we used to feed Mary Lou Retton, the Olympic gold medalist. She ordered pizzas from us. Right. She had a condo at the lake. So. So we could get people coming in from all over the place to spend weekends at the lake and they would come into the lounge and and order pizzas and stuff. And I get to know them. And of course, when you're the big shot nightclub owner, they were always begging me to go out on the boat with them and go waterskiing. And so I can't even swim. I've almost drowned twice. Well, they begged me and they were good customers. So I actually got two life preservers in case one malfunctioned. I mean, it was like a giant marine buoy in the water. I remember this so vividly. So the entire summer they would take me down there. They'd put the skis on me and they'd try to get me up in the water and pull me with the boat. And all I got was free enemas and fish up my shorts. It was terrible.

[00:18:45] Another thing I knew from the days when I was a charter airplane pilot when talking about emergency landings, as pilots would say, when we're talking about where to put a plane down in an emergency, we would say the only difference between water and concrete is water is wet. It's that when you hit it, it hurts. So the entire summer, I'm bruised up and sore. And on the last day before the end of the summer season, I actually got up on the skis and went a mile down the lake. You could have just thought, you know, that West Virginia just won the Super Bowl because people on the shore were screaming. The guy driving the boat was wrecked because he couldn't believe it either, because he watched me. I mean, I swear, I saw Mary Lou Retton holding up a 10 out the window of her condo.

[00:19:40] So, anyway, back at the nightclub clear through the winter, I was thinking about how it felt to finally get up on the skis after hundreds of false starts and wipeouts. I thought about how it felt if I crossed the wake of the boat and how I had to balance. And I thought about how it felt to relax my shoulders and arms instead of death gripping the rope like I had been doing. Basically, I was doing visualization.

[00:20:07] All right. Fast forward to next summer. Same people took me to the lake. They suited me up with my two life jackets again. They had to jump in the water to help me get my skis on because I couldn't lean forward enough with two life jackets on and wait till you hear what happened. I got up the first try and went five miles down the lake. Nobody could believe it. I couldn't believe it, but I do now. So ever since that day, I have used visualization and I attributed greatly to adding to my success. I mean, I don't pretend to be an expert who teaches you how to do it. I mean, to me, it's just thinking about what you want and making pictures in your mind of what success looks like.

[00:20:56] And now I got to tell you, I'm no fan of that thing, the secret that's out there where they told kids just to visualize a bicycle and it appears that's B.S. But when you combine combine visualization with action, you can move mountains and guess what, though, you don't have to do visualization and action all at once. See, because you're stuck in quarantine right now, maybe the action part of the equation is impossible for what you're doing. But the visualization part is always available. Get visualizing the things you want to accomplish in business and in life and lay out your action steps that you'll do as soon as you get turned loose back into the world.

[00:21:42] All right. Let's go to my last strategy instead of looking at this quarantine as a pain in the neck. Try to look at it as an opportunity. I call it my throwaway time. Take the time to improve yourself in some way. I've been looking for an opportunity to get my ham radio license and tomorrow I'm taking the test. Maybe you've always wanted to play an instrument, paint, learn to knit. I don't know. There's hundreds, even thousands of things you could do to improve yourself. You could read more. Of course, I'd rather you create some digital products like I did in my throwaway time many times over the years. My complete click e-book was written at 35000 feet on planes. My shopping cart book was written in a four hour layover at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas, and so far it's brought in three point six million dollars. Thank God the airlines were late. All right. I might be broke. So take advantage of this opportunity to improve yourself, gain a skill, read a book, go to school online. Go to my school online, please. Study something, write a book, volunteer and visualize. And no matter what happens and what bad things you have to endure, you will come out stronger in the long run.

[00:23:08] If your quarantined and want my help for my school or mentor program, I'm sitting here the same as you. Get in touch with me. But hang in there and I'll catch you on the next episode where I'm going to talk about regular income from residual affiliate programs, and that's all the ad I'm going to give you. I want you to really think about these strategies to take advantage and make yourself better, make your family better, do something so that when the time comes, you'll hit the ground running. I'll catch ya later.

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