604 – Be uncommon and enhance your brand: Tom interviews Christian D Evans

Episode 604 – Christian D Evans
[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 604 of Screw the Commute podcast? I'm here with Christian D Evans and he's going to talk about scaling your business. Everybody wants to increase their business and this guy knows how to do it. And my research on the guy, he's been working since, I think he was a baby for his dad or something for about ten years. So I think from one year old to 11, maybe we'll see what he says about that. So we'll have him on in a minute and make sure you pick up a copy of our automation e-book, this e-book. Just one of the tips in here, folks. One, and we this is not exaggeration. We estimated a couple of years ago saved me seven and one half million keystrokes. You are crazy if you don't use these inexpensive and free tips and tricks. You know, I want you working with customers and developing products and services and and, you know, doing all the prospecting you can and not fighting with your computer. In this book, it's about 60, 70 pages tells you how I've done it for many, many years. So check that out it screwthecommute.com/automatefree and while you're at it pick up a copy of our podcast app at screwthecommute.com/app. Now the app store messed up and lost it for a few days, but it's back up there now so you can put it on your cell phone and tablet and take us with you on the road. Now we're still going strong in our program. That's I'm so proud of you. I've raised money for all kinds of stuff over the years, but I'm really proud of this program we're doing scholarships for in Internet and digital marketing for persons with disabilities.

[00:02:06] And and we have two people in the program that are blind and they shoot better videos than I do. So very, very inspiring. We're going to get them either hired and good paying jobs or start their own business or both. But I'm just thrilled to be involved with. And we'd love to have your help. Go to my school site at IMTCVA.lorg/disabilities and of course that be in the show notes and check out the Go Fund Me campaign. You can actually see videos of them giving you updates on what they're learning and what they're doing. Just just very inspiring. And I'm thrilled to be involved in it.

[00:02:44] All right. Let's get to the main event. Christian Evans is here and he's got the brand Be Uncommon. And also Christian D Evans is his brand and he's a business consultant agency for business owners that are doing 750,000 to as much as you want to take it up to, but they want to scale it and kick it up to maybe 5 million or more. Now, he helps business owners put in place systems and processes and marketing and sales structure to take small businesses and turn them into sustaining companies. Let's see. Oh, boy. So he's helped clients he's only been doing this for, I don't know, not an enormous amount of time. And he's he's helped make 21 million bucks for these people. So, Christian, are you ready to screw? The commute?

[00:03:37] Yes, man. Hey, Tom, I really appreciate this time. Love what you got going on here and excited for our time together, man.

[00:03:44] Yeah, this is. This is great now. Yeah. So. So you've been in the in the business world since you were a baby, right? Starting for your dad.

[00:03:55] Exactly. So he actually had a real estate company about 13, 14 houses. After the divorce between him and my mom, they dropped down to, I think, six houses, though I remember numerous times where he was, you know, a big believer in sweat equity. And I would clean out the dirty diapers. You know, we'd have low caliber tenants in there and, you know, they'd be spoken up a storm and they would be nasty and we would be going in there cleaning Clorox and I'd mow the yards, you know, probably six or seven. You know, I had all 14 houses at one point, and so I had to mow all the lawns and all the stuff. But obviously that helped me with my work ethic.

[00:04:34] It's a.

[00:04:34] Work ethic. Ethic, yeah, sure. But also just like understanding. No, you know, I don't want to do this for the rest of my life.

[00:04:40] Yeah.

[00:04:40] Oh, that's. Yeah, that was the biggest thing.

[00:04:42] Nothing wrong with that. But I mean, I wish everybody would start out working and doing some manual work or service work or something because then they'll appreciate the things that they're that that they have now. And so you got a good start in that. And then again, you know, we have Veterans Month and we're very pro-military here. You spent nine years in the military.

[00:05:04] Yes, I was actually. What was. Logistics coordinator. So I helped a lot of people basically go from point A to point B and the quickest, fastest way possible. And so whenever we get deployed or whatever our people would get deployed, I'll be responsible for that. Now, I was just National Guard, so I was in Ohio National Guard at that time and never got deployed, thankfully. But I did facilitate a lot of deployments and watched a lot of our guys go to different places. So that was really cool and a really cool experience. And again, I really appreciate you emphasizing it. Definitely with today's world, we definitely need our military.

[00:05:40] That's tough notch and quit saying just National Guard. I mean, if I wanted anybody on my team, it'd be National Guard people. So so it's great. Now, now and also in my research about you, I think you should quit what you're doing and then just go do supply chain management for the people that are messing it up currently.

[00:06:04] I know this is it's the whole shenanigans going on, isn't it? I mean, gracious and it's so funny because, you know, you got all these people that have an opinion, they all like, oh, this is what we need to do. And the reality is, I don't care what we need to do. Just do it, you.

[00:06:15] Know, do something.

[00:06:16] Yeah. I don't need you to tell me. Just. Just go out there and pick up a shovel and do something right. You know, drive a truck. Yeah.

[00:06:22] I mean, I'm thinking about trying to, you know, produce some breastmilk to help out myself. You know.

[00:06:30] We all got to do our part, right? Oh, yeah.

[00:06:32] You're allowed to do that nowadays. I understand. So when I was a kid, you couldn't. But apparently you can now. So. So now what do you think? You really help these business with these processes? What do you think are the biggest mistakes small business people make when they're trying to scale?

[00:06:52] Yeah, one of the things that is Tom and I really appreciate you bringing this up, because what I'm seeing consistently over and over, I work with a lot of service providers, but, you know, in many, many different categories and majority of the time there, you know, million to $3 million. And they want to scale that ten, you know, eight, 10 million, eight, figure nine, figure mark. And the reality, though, is, is, you know, when you're at a million, 2 million, you don't really have really developed systems and processes. And so what I realize that's you're averaging about 80 to 120000 a month coming in in revenue. And again, it depends upon your margin, but in order to scale, sometimes you have to take two steps back to get 7 to 8 feet forward. And so what I've noticed is that's kind of what I do is I help a lot of people that are million, 2 million, and I basically pull them back a little bit. The revenue may shrink for two or three months, but what happens during that time is very, very necessary, and that is putting in systems, hiring the right people, the right team members to facilitate those those systems and processes. And so then as the owner and the CEO, you are not sitting there working with that client anymore. You're more of a managerial and kind of vision of where the company is going and how to scale. Right. And that's what your job should be as the CEO and business owner. And so, you know, then what happens is you start really putting on more ad spend on the front end of the business or different acquisition channels. On the front end you go full throttle and now you have systems in place. And what I mean by systems very simply is like we're talking referral systems to really scale and you know, your cost to acquire customers is really, really low. You also talking about systems and making sure that your churn rate on the backend is really low as well, a healthy churn rate. And like I explain you.

[00:08:30] Explain to people what the churn churn.

[00:08:32] Means. Yeah, churn rate basically means is like when you have acquire a client, you don't want them to leave naturally. Right. Because obviously the longer you've you've spent a lot of money to acquire that client. So you want to make sure that that client doesn't leave. And in order to make sure that they don't leave, well, produce results for them. Right. And so the faster you can produce results for that client, the most likely they will stay with you for a very long time. However, though, what I'm realizing is a lot of companies don't. And so you have a lot of churn rate. And so what that means is you have 100 clients coming in and maybe six, nine, 12 months down the road, 50% of those or 40% or 30% of those clients are leaving you. And you do not want to do that, because in order to really scale your business, you have to focus on three things. And Jay Abrams talks a lot about this is acquire a client, increase the revenue, sell them more stuff of that client and then increase your prices. And those are the only really three ways to grow and scale of business. And so that's the way I structure it. But in order to do that, there has to be a lot of systems, right? It's easy to said, but it's so much more difficult actually being done. And that's kind of why I come alongside someone. I say, okay, hey, because I've been there, done that. I actually sold a business scale to business, 10 million sold it, and now I help other individuals do the same thing and build that foundational eight figure nine figure business.

[00:09:48] Well, I think. Boy, the thing that's bugging me here is like if you were helping a psychiatrist. They kept their clients forever. That wouldn't be so good.

[00:10:04] Well, the cool thing is, is Tom, you're exactly right. So just let's let's take that as an example. So a lot of times they think, hey, you know what, my job in that in that situation is to facilitate, hey, getting that problem solved. And that is that's 100% their job. Right. The same thing with the doctor. However, though, what do doctors and dentists do? Oh, checkups. Right. And that's how they have that reoccurring income consistently right now. It may not be every month, but it may be every six month. Check it. Right. And that right there is so powerful because now all of a sudden you have a massive, massive influx of clients. And naturally, out of those clients that you already have that are due checkups, they're not just going to have higher ticket procedures. Right. You know, root canal, you know, whatever it may be or like, you know, it's like psychiatrist, right? They may most likely will have other clients that they're struggling with or they run into. And so that's where you can obviously upsell them other things. Right. Or they can get.

[00:11:00] Expert witnesses for Amber Heard and Johnny.

[00:11:03] Depp. Exactly. Exactly. You know how it goes.

[00:11:08] Hey, you know, when you're looking, look back to that three month period where you you said their revenue may decrease a little bit. Yes, I guess so. I got a I can solve that easily. You just blame it on Putin.

[00:11:28] Exactly. Yeah. Or blame it on inflation or blame.

[00:11:31] Yeah. Anything you want. Yeah, you can blame him. And you were saying about going to a managerial position. I was invited over to this billionaire's house, and he and his wife and we were having dinner and he said, Tom, you should just be sitting at the pool thinking that was his that was his bottom line, rather than I'm kind of a blue collar, hands on kind of guy. I mean, I could have quit a long time ago, but I just I love to have my fingers in the thing, you know? Yeah. He said you just should be thinking. And then I was thinking about the numbers you were talking about two. Those can slide up quite a bit if you're concentrating on digital products because they're 97% profit, you know. So we've gone to almost full digital and service rather than than any kind of physical product where the margins are thinner.

[00:12:22] Yes. Correct. And you're seeing that in the e-comm space as well. You know, obviously, the margins are tighter in that. That's why a lot of individuals are going for more of coaching, consulting. That's why you see a huge, massive explosion in that in that industry and like you said, is, well, information. And it's actually very interesting because once you because the educational system is not really developed to be able to produce results. What I mean by that, as I.

[00:12:47] Say, it sucks because I'm only against the the current system setting in the in the supposed traditional four year college crap. They'd be in jail if they weren't colleges for what they're doing to kids.

[00:13:02] Right. And we see that consistently. And because of that now there are more experts in the industry. Right? You go through life, you obviously facilitate certain skills. And those skills are need to be, you know, distributed to other individuals. And obviously, people are willing to pay a lot of money for those skills to acquire that. And that may be sales, that may be psychiatry, that may be psychology, whatever it may be. But what's so nice is we're seeing some massive, massive influx to where the majority of individuals are making that larger large amount of cash flow, which is, of course, where consultants come from.

[00:13:37] Not really.

[00:13:38] Experts.

[00:13:38] Or a lot of the companies you're dealing with doing more outsourcing. Outsourcing rather than employees having contractors?

[00:13:48] Well, it's one of those things, yes and no. One of the things that I'm seeing consistently is you obviously want to delegate lower, lower tasks and obviously you want to outsource that. And what's so nice about in today's world is because everything has online your your career pool or your skill pool has increased drastically. So now you can hire someone in India, there's actually better and perform better and less expensive than someone here in the United States and vice versa. And that's never been like that within the last five, seven years, which is really cool. And so that's one of the reasons why you also see some massive explosion, because you can basically hire someone that has a really amazing skill and maybe digital marketing or maybe paid acquisition or funnel optimization or something like that. And you can acquire them, have them work on your website, your design, your ecommerce store, whatever, and you start seeing massive influx. And all you have to do is really just be the visionary and the business owner itself and just have the of the vision of bringing everything together. So, yes, I see both of that. Now, if you're talking to higher level like C-suite managerial, you know, head of growth, those individuals, I would highly recommend keeping them in in-house. There are like CMO, fractional CFO.

[00:14:57] Fractional sent the CFO, you know.

[00:15:00] Right, right. Yeah. And I do see the value in that if the if the opportunity presents itself because obviously some individuals though. You got to just be aware of like you normally have to have about 250,000 per head of cash flow coming in for that individual to have them full time. So that's that's kind of the margins on that. So in order to you just got to make sure, hey, if you have three individuals and you only do about $1,000,000 in revenue, you probably shouldn't have three individuals. Right? You need to be doing about two or 3 million because you have to understand, you have to have basically 250,000 cash per head of of of employee. Does that make sense?

[00:15:38] Yeah, absolutely. Now, so I think what some of the things you're alluding to with the the owners and the of the businesses is they should be doing what's called strategic thinking. I think I've seen you come out with some information on that topic.

[00:15:56] Yes. Yes. We actually had a podcast guest on mind. We talked about the difference between tactics and strategic thinking in marketing. Right. And a lot of individuals get this wrong because it kind of comes back to my process. And a lot of business owners, they always think, oh, I need just more lead generation, right? Oh, I need more qualified leads coming in because then if I have more qualified leads coming in on the front end, naturally I'll make more money. That's how I grow in scale. And the reality of that is actually a false belief. It's it's actually preventing you from scaling to to eight or nine figures. And the reason why I say that is because if you do not have the infrastructure to produce results and your churn rate is really high for for your clients, then naturally it doesn't matter how many people you bring in and it doesn't matter if they're qualified, guess what? You're not able to convert them and perform right long term as well as, let's say, for example, your sales conversions. Now let's say for example, they're 5%. Maybe you have a sucky sales team and you don't realize that and you're not converting them. And so again, it's not you can have amazing qualified leads coming in, but if your sales team isn't converting, well, you're screwed.

[00:16:59] And then also one of the strategies I always focus on a lot of times when I'm seeing, you know, businesses that a million, 2 million, they already have clients. And one of the things I always talk about with a lot of individuals to really decrease the churn and increase profitability is really niching down. And what do I mean by this is, you know, I was talking to digital marketing agency the other day and I said, okay, who are your clients? And he said, Well, I've got a retail brand that I work with, website design, whatever. I also have a manufacturing and I have a real estate guy, a real estate business and that also have ecommerce. And what I said, okay, well you've got four different industries that you have to be basically experts at. And what I mean by that is you think about their clients, you have to figure out marketing strategies, tactics, you know, things like that to attract those individuals to make sure that they are profitable and you have a successful campaign. And and that's one of the reasons why we see a lot of average, like average company and business owner has like leveraged like four or five, seven marketing agencies throughout the life of their, their company.

[00:17:58] And that's very common. And the reality is because they jump from one, they don't see the results, so they jump to another, they don't see the results. So they jump to another marketing agency and vice versa, whatever. And so that's one of the reasons why I see this consistently happening. And it doesn't matter if you have this massive flow of leads coming in qualified, guess what? If you don't fix those other things in your business structure, definitely in a million, $2 million, you're never able to scale and build a foundational eight and nine figure business. And then a lot of it has to do with hiring the right people, right? So as you start acquiring more clients, you're going to need to acquire a higher talented individuals, right? The individuals that you have in place right now will not, you know, will not be in the headspace mentally or whatever, to be able to withstand that eight figure nine figure business. So you really have to hire higher quality people. Does that make sense?

[00:18:50] Yeah. Now that that niche you were talking about reminds me when I started my speaking career, I actually went to 87 different industries in my first five years. And and now I'm not complaining about because I got one heck of a business education because I customized for every every one of those industries. But all the elders in the in the speaking industry were telling me, man, you've got a niche. You got a niche. I'm like, Oh, it's too boring.

[00:19:15] I don't, you know.

[00:19:16] And then and then finally, after, you know, 87 industries in five years, I said, You know what, I'm getting exhausted with this. And so I niched and then boom, my fee went four times higher and, and it was easy to customize and oh yeah. So I'm a big believer in that. But again, I got such a massive education from doing the other. So, so I'm not crying about it for sure. Now you do something interesting in December that I think most people do in January with regard to goal setting. Can you tell us about that?

[00:19:52] Yeah, it's actually interesting. I appreciate you bringing this up. So one of the things that I think a lot of individuals do is they always focus on January is like, okay, you know what, this is awesome, so excited, whatever, and what does the future look like? But one of the things that I've learned and definitely from failures and this is something that I think the proper way of looking at failures or whatever. You look at the year and you analyze the year and you basically say, okay, what were some goods? What were some bads? What did I learn? What could I optimize? What could I produce? Right. And this is something I learned from John Maxwell, because now he does a more, more micro and he does it on a weekly basis. I don't do it on a weekly basis. I do kind of holistically. Yeah. And obviously that's the reason why he's able to produce incredible, incredible results. So maybe I should do it at a micro micro level as well on a weekly basis. However, though, for now, that's what I that's one of the things that I started doing. And what I mean by this is not just like, okay, what did I learn? Wonderful. Okay, cool. Next time, right? It's more like really, really dialing in. It's okay. Here's this failure, this really business, amazing business opportunity. Okay. I failed, right? Right. There was a 2 million, $3 Million. How do I simplify in my life? How can I take more things off my plate and focus on top three or four things? And this is something that I think a lot of players really struggle with.

[00:21:06] And I think if you're out there performing in your job or your C-suite or whatever, you like to take on more things and tell them you're probably this way as why you love to just your business, you're motivated. Oh, I can do it. I can do it better. And the thing is, is that is a it's a it's a benefit and a curse. At the same time, the benefit is because you're ambitious. You can get the job done faster, quicker than probably anybody else. However, though, you also have to know your place. Sometimes you you probably perform the best when you are visionary, when you're making connections, when you're making relationships or whatever. That's the same thing that I notice and that I am not the best at. Okay. Hey, I want to manage this campaign. Oh, I'm the best at adjusting those those copyrighting or that email, whatever. I need to delegate those responsibilities. And and I know a lot of people have heard that. However, though, it's like even at a higher level. And what I mean by this is like, you know, you think about Elon Musk and I think Bill Gates has done this tremendously. See, obviously, if you look at the evolution of his is his exit.

[00:22:03] He went out there, he was a CEO for Microsoft for many years. Then what did he do? He pulled himself back, found a CEO, high level. He went on the board. Now, there was a succession plan. He was on the board for like five or seven years, I think. And then he's just recently with the last two years ago to pulled off the board fully. Now he still is a majority owner or a large portion owner in Microsoft. And and however, though he pulled himself out and so you even think about delegating that high level company that he owns. That's that's what I mean in regards to like full delegation. And a lot of times you have to remember, you don't have to have an exit strategy out of your business. You could totally delegate it and have a CEO and have a board of directors and have these individuals running. And you're coming over there in golf and enjoying life or or fixing AIDS or whatever you do. Right. But my point is, sometimes we got to think really large and say, okay, you know what? The only thing that I really need to do is be the best husband to my wife or be the be the best boyfriend to my girlfriend. Right. Whatever it is. Like just when you really start getting down to there's only a very few things that nobody else can do and only you can you can do them.

[00:23:06] Say, I'm going to I'm going to work up to be like Bill Gates so that I can quit whatever I'm doing and push vaccines.

[00:23:15] There you go.

[00:23:18] So tell him about your podcast.

[00:23:21] Yeah. So what's really nice, Tom, is we've had a really cool massive growth. We've had a opportunity journey with Christian. Devon's podcast is my podcast, and the whole goal behind it is just a journey, right? Being able to.

[00:23:34] Document you, like, kind of slurred through that. Tell him what it's called.

[00:23:39] Yeah. Journey with Christian.

[00:23:40] Journey with Christian de Evans. Not just Christian Evans. Christian de Evans.

[00:23:45] Yes, Christian de Evans. And one of the things is we it's just my journey. It's documenting individuals that I talked to. And so I've got theologians, I've got business people, I have eight, nine figure entrepreneurs that I've had on my podcast, and we just talk business concepts, but also just life concepts. We've had incredible physicists, neurologists, individuals that are talking about the brain. And the biggest thing is just a conversation, knowing their story, where they came from and and really giving value to our our audience. And so that's one of the biggest things that I've I've noticed is like, you know, I just love building relationships, adding value to people and seeing how we can just collaborate and and bring everybody with us. And so we've had we just pushed over like 100,000, 120,000 actually listeners, which is really exciting. I guess we're still growing. We obviously really want to explode that. But with this opportunity, we just had a very humbling experience to be able to network with some of these incredible people. And, you know, that's that's kind of our our biggest thing. And that as well as, you know, I do a lot of like I like you mentioned a lot of B2B service provider. I help those individuals. And so you can take a look at a lot of our LinkedIn content because that just gives you a lot of just value and saying, okay, I'm stuck at this spot. I don't know why. I always thought in order to grow and scale an agency or my business, I, I was in the conception that misconception that, oh, I need more qualified leads. And the reality is that's just a lie that you've told yourself, other people have told you or, you know, you've you've told other individuals. And so that's kind of my whole goal is to kind of explain and share with people. You've got to focus on the things that will produce results in your life as well as in your business now.

[00:25:30] Is the LinkedIn content under your name or under the Uncommon Brand?

[00:25:35] Yeah, it's actually Christian de Evans. So yeah, if you type in Christian de Evans anywhere you can find me social media, Instagram mostly on LinkedIn, because that's where most of our audience is at.

[00:25:44] Awesome. We go to take a brief sponsor break and then when we come back, we'll get Christian to tell us if he has a morning routine. How what's a typical day looks like for him and and maybe how he transitioned from the dreaded jobs that he had into this business. So, folks, about 25 years ago, it kind of turned the Internet marketing guru world on its head and that people at my level were charging 50 or 100 grand up front to help small business people. I'm talking really small business people. And and I knew a lot of these people. They'd be hiding out. They'd never give them 50 grand. You'd never see them again. So I said, Yeah, that's too risky for four people. So I decided to piss them all off and charge like 10% as an entry fee to my program. And for me to get my 50,000, you had to net 200,000. Well, people love this. And 1700 plus students later in 25 years still going strong. And I don't know where those guys are, but I'm still here kicking so it's I coin it and I triple dog dare people to put a program up against mine because I'm such a crazy fanatic that I call it the longest running, most unique, most successful Internet and digital marketing program ever.

[00:27:06] And it's been like that almost from the beginning of the Internet, which I started in 1994, which is was the beginning of the commercial Internet. And then we have an immersion weekend at the retreat center here. We actually live in the house, this big estate with me. We have our own TV studio where we shoot videos for you. Everything is one on one. We don't believe in any group coaching because you don't get lumped in with anybody more advanced or less advanced, and you have access to my entire staff. Plus you get a scholarship to my school, which you can either use yourself for extra training or gift to someone and save yourself hundreds of thousands of dollars with a worthless four year degree and, you know, basket weaving or whatever they're selling nowadays. So check it out at greatInternetmarketingtraining.com. No high pressure here. No big upsells, just high value.

[00:28:06] All right. Let's get back to the main event. We've got Christian Evans here. He helps businesses scale. And Christian, what's the typical day look like for you? Do you have a morning routine? What time do you get up? What do you eat? What's what's your story?

[00:28:20] Yeah. I appreciate you asking, Tom. One of the biggest things is I really don't have, like, a strict. Crazy. You know, I'm jumping in 60 degree water and, you know, stay in my affirmations and meditating. I do wake up really early. I've noticed I am more of a morning person. I do wake up just 440 4:45 a.m.. I'm going to be honest, I do snooze sometimes. You know, I wake up at 520 and that's okay, right? Oh, give me some slack.

[00:28:47] I didn't know we're having such a slacker on here.

[00:28:49] Yeah, yeah, I know. That's why I'm like, hey, you know, I'm just going to shoot straight. And so one of the things, though, is I do I do read the Bible. I do focus on meditation. What helps me is I visualize something I learn from, oh, I forget the guy's name. But anyways, a good meditator, Joe does Spinoza actually. He talks about meditation, the power of it. I only do for 20 minutes. I don't do it for like 2 hours like he does, but that does help. I don't do it every day. I do probably like maybe four or five times a week and then just allows me to clear my head. Does I have noticed that it does help me with my focus as well as my energy as well as just where I'm going, and then just visualize kind of what that future looks like. And then also what happens is I do a lot of like heavy work early in the morning and just get on my computer and do what I need to do.

[00:29:38] With the heavy lifting.

[00:29:40] No, no mercy. No. The things that take the most energy. Yeah, yeah. I'm done with the heavy lifting now. Okay. I have someone else do that though. And then later on, you know, five, six, I'm done. And I go out and have some fun. I do some volleyball, I'm very active with soccer and stuff. And then I am looking to get my pilot's license as well because I want to.

[00:30:01] Did you know I was a charter pilot?

[00:30:03] No, I did not.

[00:30:04] Yeah, I was a charter pilot, yeah. For anything up to like eight, ten seat planes. No, no airlines or anything.

[00:30:13] Yeah, yeah. I don't know. Do you have your own? Do you still have the license or.

[00:30:17] No? Oh, we always have the license. Just you have to get current. So. So I'm not current. I haven't flown for a while, but. But you always have the license unless you do something stupid and get it taken away.

[00:30:28] Yeah.

[00:30:29] Commercial multi engine instrument part 135, which is a higher level commercial. But yeah, you'll love it, but we'll give you a tip. Have you started the training yet?

[00:30:40] I have not. I'm looking actually to do it in the beginning of Q3, actually. So. All right. Well.

[00:30:45] Let me give you a tip. Go out and buy a private pilot course for all the written stuff. And study the hell out of it and pass your written test before you start going in the airplane. Because the cockpit is the worst classroom on earth for learning the theories and concepts. And so you will you will get your license so much faster if you get in the plane, say, oh, I recognize that VR and how to work it and everything. So that's that's my advice to you. But, you know, I got a 97 on the written before I ever set foot in a plane and then bam, bam, bam, I got my license. No trouble. Where where? If you're sitting there trying to think of the concepts of och this visual thing, what, what do I do here and what about icing?

[00:31:36] And yeah, yeah, that does make sense. I appreciate you sharing that. Yes. That I would never thought of that actually, because it's just totally different instead of application. It's actually very theory. And you got to do.

[00:31:46] Yeah, I mean, the whole thing is, I mean sitting up there and driving the plane is easy. It is. I mean, it's here's, here's here is a typical scenario. Whenever I had a plane that had at least a curtain between me and the passengers. So you take off. You click the autopilot on and then you put the seat back and you pull out your magazine.

[00:32:11] Now, if don't tell everybody, that's why we're paying in the big bucks.

[00:32:14] Well, I'll tell you, though, if you do take a charter flight from a relatively small deal, the biggest thing a charter pilot has to do, a young charter pilot, is not let the passengers know how scared they are.

[00:32:33] That's the truth.

[00:32:36] You're in the Air Force, right?

[00:32:37] Yeah. You tell all the secrets. Well, yeah.

[00:32:41] I'm out of it. No, I don't have to worry about it too much now, but yeah, it was it was quite a quite a great I mean, but just the freedom that you feel, you know, getting in that plane and hitting the wild blue yonder, it was just. Just awesome. Just got tons of stories about.

[00:32:57] Yeah. One of my goals here at the end of Q4 2022 is to buy a plane. Because I'm realizing, you know, I know we you could do charter and stuff, which is awesome, whatever and I do some of that. But the biggest thing is like it's still like requires like a lot of time and planning and I love to just pop in my plane, move on whenever I want, however I want to do it. Do you own a plane?

[00:33:21] No. Have you.

[00:33:22] Ever never.

[00:33:22] Owned a plane? Because I worked for an FBO and had access to all the planes I wanted, naturally. But yeah, but the thing is, planes, you can finance them for like 20 years, you know, so you can get into a plane very inexpensively. But but you've got to consider hangar fees and fuel. And there's, you know, the everything on a plane is redundant. So you've got to spark plugs for each cylinder and to everything, you know, in case one fails. So there's other things you have to consider when you're when you're doing it. But it's it's just a blast. I'm telling you, it was one of the most fun things. And I was and I was a charter pilot. But the downside of that is like you're basically a high class chauffeur, you know, because you're taking executives here and there and then you're sleeping on a plane for 13 hours waiting for him to come out and eating out of candy machines. But if you're if you're doing it for fun. Oh, it's just. Yeah, it's just a blast. So. Great. Thanks for coming on. Tell them how how they get a hold of you, how they get. Listen to the podcast and all that stuff.

[00:34:31] Yeah. Tom, first of all, I appreciate just, you know, having a good conversation, just chatting and talking about life and and where, you know, where life can take us and allowing me to be on be on this podcast. They can reach out to me, really just anywhere. Christian Evans Journey with Christian Evans Podcast. That's one of the biggest things. And in that, there's this free resources, just more training and education. If you're stuck at a million, 2 million. Even if you're low six figures, that's okay. You can just consume some of the content that I have there and and just, you know, being able to implement that into your business and take your life to the next level when you qualify. You know, I can talk or whatever and what that looks like for those listeners. But yeah, again, Tom, I just appreciate that the time that you, you've given me and, and I really look forward to, you know, adding value to your your audience as much as I can.

[00:35:17] My pleasure, man. And when I come on your show, I'm going to talk about ballet, maybe. No, I better not. Last time I did anything like that, I broke the balance beam, so. But I will leave you with one thing that I was told many, many years ago. And this is going to stick in your mind and you're going to it won't mean a lot right now, but when the time comes, it's going to mean a lot. Here it is. You ready?

[00:35:47] Let's do it.

[00:35:49] Professional pilots land on the center line. Professional pilots land on the center line. So that means you've got such great control of that plane. And no matter how the wind is messing with you and everything, you will land it on the center line. So I didn't say crash it on.

[00:36:09] The.

[00:36:09] Landing. And when you get in that cockpit and you make your first landing, you know it's going to stick in your head. Oh, there's the center line. I got to make sure I land because you don't want to run off the side of the runway. There you go.

[00:36:23] That's awesome. All right. Awesome. I appreciate it.

[00:36:25] And then any questions you have about this? I'm like I said, I'm not current or anything, but I've got a lot of tips on learning and flying and what to do, what not to do. So. So, but go get that pilot, private pilot course. A couple hundred bucks maybe. And it will totally save you thousands of dollars of being in the plane, not knowing what the heck's going on. So there we go.

[00:36:51] That's awesome. I appreciate it, Tom. Thanks for it.

[00:36:53] All right, everybody, we will catch you on the next flying related episode. See you later.