#26 Life lessons from building a business from scratch with Passion & Persistence, with Ty Brown aka Ty The Dog Guy

Gentlemen, welcome to the Be The Man podcast.

I'm your host.

Greg Denning, you know, our whole objective here is to share a solid strategies and systems tools and training to help you be the man in every important aspect for life.

Because our objective ultimately is holistic optimization right to take everything in our lives, that actually matters and optimize it.

Meaning that in order to really Thrive as Then you have to optimize all the important areas of your life.

And my philosophy is, if it's in your life, it needs to be optimized.

And the reason this even matters is because life can be so good.

And being being the man is so important, none of us can afford to be pathetic, right?

And we just have to go all in.

I don't know life.

Laughs awesome is today is just another fantastic day to be alive.

Even if, and especially if you're facing something difficult or challenging.

So just wanted to share that.

Reminder like we're here.

We're here to optimize Our Lives to get better to be the man in every way and every part of your life.

Today our guest is a friend of mine Ty Brown and his story is awesome, he's better known as tie the dog guy and he built And Empire training dogs and his story is so phenomenal.

Starting when he was a young team and was just struggling to get going.

Just had a real passion and reached out to another entrepreneur who gave him a shot which is awesome.

There's a huge principle in that story of it by itself and then how he gets into in the end up training, phenomenal dogs all over the world and these incredible experiences and then coming back and starting his own business and how they were just dead broke.

Just that wrestling with trying to get a business off the ground, trying to get recognition exposure.

And then he does, he gets tons of publicity and it takes off and after this whole journey, working with all kinds of different people and places.

And now they've got training locations, across the country, literally Coast to Coast.

He's got locations on the east coast and the West Coast are doing millions in revenue and has built.

This really successful brand and it's beautiful.

So there's tons of great lessons around business and beautiful rest lessons around life.

And just being being humble and being a good man and focusing on the things that really matter and bringing that into perspective.

So, you're going to enjoy this episode, The so many great stories, so many great principles, so many great lessons, so dive in enjoy this episode, take notes, remember to subscribe to podcast.

If you haven't done that yet and feel free to leave a review up to five stars for us and comments and reach out Reach Out, connect me on social media.

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I think you're going to really enjoy the show.

Time animal.

I'm excited to catch up again.

Grateful to catch up because you and I talk route.

Well, you guys went and lived in Costa Rica.

How long are you in?

Costa Rica.

We were only there about a year.

Okay, so he went down there.

So we connected because we had just had been in Costa Rica's.

We connected the back then, and stayed in touch a little bit here and there over the years.

So I'm excited to have you on the show, man, share.

Sure what you're doing.

So what like, what are you start with?

Giving us some of your background and the business you're in, and what you do and how you got into it?

Sure.

Yeah.

I Run a dog training business.

I mean, I got into it from being a dog trainer.

And so I wanted to do that ever since I was a kid, you know, when I was a kid, I was reading every dog training book that was in the library.

We grew up in a, in San Jose, California, which is a very big place.

My parents wouldn't let us have a dog.

So, when I was 13, we moved an hour away out to the country and they said, okay, we can, we can get a dog down and so got a dog and it just wasn't enough like, you know, I was I was excited.

I started doing everything I read in the training books and there was a sense of it was fun because you know, here I was a 13, 14 year old kid insecure, right insecure.

And now having this because I was, I was uncomfortable.

I was a weird kid, and I don't know, I'm a weird adult.

But anyways, having having this dog and teaching this, dog how to do stuff and the dog loved me.

And I loved the dog and seeing this dog's Behavior change was really empowering and fun and On, I just opened up the but I want to do more of it.

So I opened up the Yellow Pages and there's probably two or three dog trainers in there at the time.

The only one that answered the phone, I you know said hey can I come work for you?

I'll work for free and he said sure and it turns out he had done the same thing when he was 16.

He dropped out of high school and went and begged a dog trainer to work for him and that's how he got his start.

So he was kind of, you know, paying it forward and stuff like that.

So I worked for him while I was And in high school, after high school, I went and I went on an LDS mission.

So I was gone for a couple of years.

When I came back, I didn't know that you can make a living doing with dog training.

So, you know, I really didn't know the guy I had learned from, you didn't have much of a business, you know, he's a great guy and now he's got a great business.

Is now twenty something years later and he's got a great business, but at the time he was young, he didn't have much of a business.

I didn't have a role model to say like, oh, Can actually make money doing this.

And so I just kind of farted around and jobs until I got a job when I was about 23 training protection dogs.

So I went out to Boston with my wife.

We were recently married and stayed in Boston for a couple of years.

Working at this company where we would import dogs from Europe, train them for the Rich and Famous all around the world and I would travel around the world delivering these dogs.

Wow, I did that for a couple years, that was a lot of fun.

Some cool stories from that and then and then my wife got pregnant.

And she wanted to stay home to take care of the kids and we just couldn't do that making the money that we were making in Boston you know Boston's an expensive place.

So we move back to Utah where we had met and I started a business and yeah so that I would have been about 25 26 I'm now 41.

So I've had this business 16 years something like that And now we've got locations in a number of different states.

We have an online course that we sell.

Yeah, we're decent for a dog training company or decent size of do a couple few million dollars, a year.

We've got, you know, thirty-some-odd team members and yeah, it's a lot of fun.

It's a lot of stress but it's a lot of fun.

Yeah, have S.

Oh man, it's such a cool story.

I love how it like as, as a, as a youth, as a young man, man.

This and This is so relevant for, for those of us who are fathers like just letting letting our kids get interested in some kind of passion letting pursue that and I love how you reached out that guy and he paid it Forward, man, and gave you.

I think about how his decision to give you a chance has shaped the course of your life.

Yeah, I don't know if you look back at your life but there's like a handful of things that like oh the cards just kind of were dealt in, just the right way.

That had they gone a different way.

I don't know, maybe things would have worked out in a different way that would be also good.

But yeah, like I look back.

That was one of the most formative like little things to our, he was like sure.

And to this day I'm super grateful.

In fact, we live, you know, 10 minutes away from him.

Now you know, I haven't lived in California for years for decades.

We finally moved back and we live near him and it's been nice to catch up with him and see how his business has grown.

But yeah, life kind of deals, you some cards sometimes and that was it.

That was a good deal.

Yeah, it's incredible.

And it just makes me think, like, I want to be that guy for other people, not to give people a shot and who knows where it might turn out for them, like this guy did for, you know?

And that's, that's a cool.

Cool story, okay?

So you get into it, you start going, you had, you had experienced one which I think is key.

There you got to train those protection, dogs and travel all over.

So you're meeting people getting tons of experience there.

You're getting an expertise.

How did you like, what do you what do you feel like made the difference man that you didn't end up just being In some little little teeny, little trainer shop.

In a small town.

How did you, how did you grow like, well, what made the difference?

What are the elements that has helped you be successful?

Good question.

Yeah, that's a really good question.

And so here's what it actually happened.

While I was living in Boston, working for this company, I found an article of a guy in this guy's now my friend, we're good friends.

Now, but a guy who I read an article in his like this dog trainer is making a million dollars a year selling an e-book online and so this would have been a dozen for or something like that, you know?

So way back in the days when online marketing wasn't, you know, it was like new ish.

Yes, get started.

Yeah.

And so and he was making a killing you know, with with his ebook, you know.

And so I was like, I want to do that.

And so I started studying internet marketing in about 2004.

When I started my business in 2005, you know, by that time we move back to Utah, started my business 2005, I knew it was going to be.

I knew I wanted to do it through the internet.

I actually wasn't intending on.

Starting a dog training business.

I wanted to start a business.

Like what he did, where it was just all online, right?

And I never figured that out, you know, I never figured out how to just sell like an e-book or a video course and make millions of dollars.

I do sell a video course and we make money off of it but like I never figured out what he did and nowadays, it's actually way way harder and there's very few people that can in our industry.

But but anyways, but along the way I was like I need to make money because I was working just some dead-end job like trying to figure out how to do this.

It was a graveyard job and I need to make money.

So I was like, well, Well, I'm trying to figure this out.

Let me do a dog training business and so I would do my I would go do my graveyard Factory job, which was soul-crushing.

Yeah, it's not like, and then during the day, you know, I would work on internet marketing and I'd work on building this building this business and I didn't intend to do that, but that is the business that started taking off very, like, within a month of starting the business.

I got a Spot on a very popular Radio Show in Utah, on 97, one for any folks that have ever lived in Utah.

And I started going on. 97 one every week to talk about dogs and stuff like that.

And so, so that part started taking off the solely online stuff, just always like, did okay and stuff like that.

So I guess they never intended to do it.

But once I did do it, it was, it was the pressure of now, having a kid at home.

Very soon.

After we are first, two kids are 17 months apart.

So very soon after we were pregnant, again, it was the pressure of that.

That pushed me that I gotta, I gotta make money for this family.

You know, I got to push and I got to I got to learn marketing and it turned out.

I love the marketing piece and that's that's where most of my day is spent now the marketing and sales.

It turned out.

I was very good at it and I loved it.

And it was natural to me.

Plus I just just dive do deep into it and But for me, it was, it was that pressure you know that that pushed me and to just work my butt off for years to make it happen, brother.

I love it, man.

There's so much gold right there in your story because you're right there like pressure.

So valuable the right kind of pressure is amazing and it's interesting.

There's so much now.

It's just the the environment and kind of the parenting and what's going on in society.

There's there's, there's a Of emphasis and attempt to avoid pressure and parents wanting to remove pressure from their kids and keeping it away.

But you're right there, such a great spot for that where the right kind of pressure can get us to do what needs to be done and to really chase down success achievement.

So that's a huge insight there, man yet.

But do you, do you find yourself?

I don't know.

I think I've read some of your story.

I think you had a hard upbringing, right?

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I was alone at 16.

Yeah.

Yeah, and then pressure pushed you to do some good things.

I find myself wanting to take pressure off my kids and, and, and doing it sometimes to their detriment, you know.

Exactly.

And you do the same thing.

Yes.

And then I catch myself, like wait a minute, what am I doing?

Why am I trying to Shield them from something that made me who I am, but you're right.

It's like, well, in part of as we it's our lifes are so affluent now, you and I, we great, business is great lives.

We live in a crate.

I'm and I don't know, I don't know what it is but culturally, there's just, this is environment of.

Yeah, we wanted to step in one of them, we want to give them things that we didn't have, but you're right and in giving them things that if they don't really earn it if there's no price tag on it, if we remove some of the pressure we inadvertently removed some of the growth.

Yeah.

I don't know how to walk that line because I want my kids.

Well I know you do this too but like we give our kids tons of experiences and they get cool tutors and Like I don't know yesterday.

My daughter is in the kitchen.

You know, she has this this Chef on Tick Tock that she likes.

And so we hired the chef on Tick-Tock to give her cooking lessons virtually from the I think the, New York or something.

So anyways, we're always doing stuff like that and I think that's wonderful.

But like I say at the same time, I feel sometimes it's shielding them from the growth.

I don't know it's a it's a fine line that I don't know.

I don't know when I'm crossing it the wrong way.

When I'm staying on the right side of it.

It's anyways but yeah that's tough to know like exactly what pressure to Shield them from and what pressure did not Shield them from exactly know.

You're right and I would say it's never really black and white, it's fuzzy sometimes and I'm with you man I think you and I are spot-on light.

We hire tutors from all over the place.

You get the best trained best experience.

We spend tens of thousands dollars, a year of taking our kids all over the world for experiences or for to introduce them and expose them to grow.

Great things.

But then you're also writes like we got to find out what kind of pressure works because you don't want to crush the kid.

They don't put too much pressure or too early but finding out that balance of what works there.

So that they feel they feel.

There's a load in like, hey, I gotta do something about this.

You know what's beautiful about your story and mine is like.

Now you get married.

Then you have a kid.

You like it's on me?

No, I gotta do something here.

When it's almost like you got your back.

Against the wall and you have to own it, man.

That's powerful.

You know, it's transformative.

The other thing I wanted to point out or emphasize that you said was so awesome because you didn't just stick with the identity of being a dog trainer, like you and deliberately became a marketer and a businessman.

So, you took, you took your expertise and you didn't just stay with that.

You like, man, I got a market this and I got to learn how to effectively run a business.

Yeah.

And that's and that's the hard part, right?

Because people get into these passion.

Businesses, whatever it is, you know, they get into a passion business and they want to do the passionate thing, you know, in no one's passionate about doing payroll.

Knowns passionate about answering emails, at two in the morning.

No one's past, you know, you got to do the on passionate stuff to do your passion, you know, which is, which is the thing that kicks, a lot of people write their Square in the crotch.

So so yeah, exactly.

But that's, that's a game changer and I think that's one of the things that's helped you to win.

How did you get on?

Because on your site?

I mean, you you ended up Not just on that radio station.

You've been on the news, a bunch.

You've been all over.

How, how did you get in front of people?

How was it when you started getting attention?

And I guess for a lot of us, those of us who are in business or entrepreneurship or are we want to get our kids in it?

Like our greatest challenge often is just getting out of obscurity like letting people know we exist.

You know you know in the very beginning I don't know what gave me the idea.

I'm sure I read it somewhere.

I'm sure it wasn't my idea but Once one thing I learned real quick because I got a lot of press, my first couple of years because we were broke, like, I didn't have a vehicle, I didn't have a cell phone, one of the first dogs.

I trained, I trained in trade for this old Ford Ranger, that didn't have third gear air, conditioning heating, any of that.

And that was how I got two clients.

I would park down the street so they wouldn't see my vehicle.

When I would go to clients and stuff like that.

This is awesome, man.

Yeah, and So eventually Died.

Thankfully, it got me through like, the first year, it died.

We were able to buy something else, but but anyways, I didn't have any money.

Like I had ten dollars a month that I allocated towards hosting for the website that I built myself and that was it for business expenses.

We didn't have cell phones at the time.

We bought one VoIP line.

That was maybe 10 bucks a month or something like that.

And and that was our business line.

And so when we needed to do personal stuff we would let people know like hey this is this is our business line, so they didn't think it was weird when they called back.

But anyways, we had one phone line, we had one website and that's that's it and so I knew I had to get exposure and I didn't know how to do it, you know, as a 25 year old kid or whatever.

So again I don't remember what gave me the idea.

I'm sure I read it but it was I think.

April is next April.

I want to say it.

I think April is National Prevention of Cruelty to animals month or something.

You know.

There's a month for every bloody thing out.

It's getting to be a holiday for everything now.

Yeah, for everything.

And so I, you know, as a radio station, I really liked.

It was the one that I was already listening to, and I knew they had pets because they talked about it all the time.

And so, I just called him up and I said, you know, I left the messages until I was, you know.

And I basically said, hey, did you know that a Girls.

National Prevention of Cruelty to animals month.

You guys should get a dog trainer on there to talk.

I could do it.

I'm a dog trainer and and they were like sure.

And so it was as simple as that and then it was as simple as that every time, you know?

So you know, I would approach a newspaper if I had a, you know, now I don't want to oversimplify it, you have to have a good idea but basically what I learned pretty quick in that first couple years is like these Outlets.

I mean Have they have multiple people whose entire job is just to find content?

You know, to put on the radio to put in.

I got a newspaper, Bunch got on TV, a bunch like there.

I went on the TV once because there was a pit bull that attacked somebody down in Orem Utah.

And the and the coverage I didn't think was very good.

I think that they were misrepresenting dogs in general.

And and so that was it.

I just reached out and said, look, hey, I think I think the coverage was maybe Skewed the wrong way.

I'm a dog trainer and here's what I believe.

Actually happened, blah blah.

And so they invited me on.

Wow, classic.

Yeah.

So that was another one.

I started getting a lot of, I got a lot of Latino clients because I reached out to a spanish-language magazine and said, hey, can I write an article for you about dog training and they said, sure, So I did, I did an article for them and so basically, the attention was just there for the grabbing because nobody goes Tries to get it, you know.

And so they have these producers that are spending all this time trying to get it.

And so if you can get in front of the producer with a good idea, then the producer is going to be grateful to have you on.

And once you've done a little bit of that and then your website ranks and stuff like that, then people they start coming to you because they're just looking for dog, training, expert in Utah, or whatever.

And then you pop up and they give you a call, so it was kind of a combo of both.

I was seeking it at first and then after that it starts coming to you being honest.

Like, I don't even seek it anymore, it's good to get attention.

But there's my opinion there's so much better ways to get clients and so.

So anyways, working with press is a little bit annoying to me.

It might not be for everybody, maybe some people would really like it's a little bit annoying.

So don't even try to get it anymore.

But it's one of these things that if you want it, it's really easy to go get if you just come up.

Good ideas.

That's such a cool principle and practice are.

So, what are you?

What are you doing now?

I'm because you're Coast-to-Coast.

You're in, you're in California.

You've got you've got training like literally on the East Coast.

What?

Charleston, Savannah, I mean, your coast to coast and you go all over the world.

How do you do marketing now, who are your primary clients?

What are you doing for him?

So this is there's two main parts of my business.

Yeah, what you referenced we've got a location in California.

Utah.

Knoxville Savannah Charleston and just opened one up in Wilmington, North Carolina.

And so I run, I run that when I say I run that I'm mostly doing the marketing and sales for for our own business.

And then I do Consulting for other dog trainers and I help them with their marketing and sales.

So those are the two main parts of my business.

And so, what was your question?

So like yeah, who you marketing to how are you doing your marketing and then and who are your biggest clients?

Oh gotcha.

Yeah, so the marketing we do is primarily just online advertising combined with, you know, just having a website that is SEO optimized that people who come to you for free, but we run a lot of Facebook ads.

We run Tick-Tock ads and we drive people to a funnel, the funnel.

Will gets people to enter their information.

We've got a small team of people in the Philippines that make phone calls, that then call those people and book them into evaluations with our trainers.

And then the trainer's try to sell them.

And so our clients now, primarily are just, you're just normal working-class.

I mean, we've had a lot of cool like famous clients and stuff like that, but most of our clients are just your neighbor, you know?

And just people that have a dog and it got I need some help.

Yep.

Yep.

See if you're fixing, a problem is a little problematic and maybe we can get into a little bit but like because the the lack of training creates a little problem and then you guys come in and solve a problem you know which which is that's, that's business right there.

That's the marketplace.

This is notice a problem and this is a very common problem.

No, but some problems, right?

I think I miss all the problem.

That's super awesome.

So okay let's, let's talk for a second about the higher end stuff.

I know you did protection training.

Do you still do some In training like what and maybe search-and-rescue?

Like, what I do.

I love dogs.

I kind of geek out about this.

Like water.

What have you seen like the capabilities of a canine man?

Yeah so I love that.

In fact, we were trying to get a TV show done with that called Blue Collar dogs.

I even had somebody that was in TV you know do a pilot with me and stuff because I love the working dog aspect and so never got to take off so maybe one day but Yeah, so do we do much protection dogs?

To be honest, not a lot, it's a hard, it's a hard Market because very few people have the money.

It's going to require to put into because it's so much money to do Protection work.

There's so much.

We're talking tens of thousands of dollars.

Yeah, I mean, if you're buying a, like a fully trained dog.

Yeah.

Thirty forty fifty, sixty thousand dollars an hour, you know.

And so, so just enormous amounts of money, which yeah, I mean, anyways, but But if you're going to do it on your own, now we're talking thousands of hours that you know somebody in.

So you can you can save a lot of money if you're going to do it on your own.

But most people don't have the time.

They'll tell us, they do like, oh, I want to do this and we'll like, hey, it's going to be so much work, so much effort.

And so nowadays, to be honest like I I talk so many people out of it like that we don't do a whole lot.

It's really hard to find the right and and the reality is most dogs can't do it.

So most dogs can't do it, most people can't do it.

And so, when you combine that, you know, and on every block there's two dogs that need obedience training and exactly, at least we know that's where we put our attention and so is it, it's fun.

And so when we do do it, it's a lot of fun.

It's a lot of enjoyment, but we just haven't done as much of it.

But yeah, yeah.

Like I said, a these, these high-end dogs that we've worked with, you know, these are dogs that have been raised in Europe, you know, from from the time they were puppies, you know, with With one specific goal in mind.

Let's turn these dogs into dogs that can protect and that can do stuff like that.

And so when we do do it you know will purchase a dog you know from Europe you know it's a year old dog.

Two year old dog, something like that.

That's got some training will bring it over, finish the training and then you know place it with the client and stuff like that.

So it's cool.

It's fun.

It's like, it's sexy, you know, having written on like private jets and helicopters and Yachts and stuff like that.

And I'm not like you It's not my thing, I'm not you know, anyways, yeah, it's not my thing.

Still a cool experience.

Very cool.

Yeah, I had one client.

You know, we did one dog with and they were in Salt Lake, but they had a ranch out in Wyoming and they took me out there on their Gulfstream, you know?

And it was awesome.

And then a few years later, we did another dog before him.

And I was, and I kind of like, hey, we should go out to your Ranch and they're like okay and but this time it was funny.

Because I show up at the hangar there in Salt Lake and the the client she's like I'm really sorry the gulf streams not available.

Today we're going to have to take the Learjet and I was like lady.

I'm a dog trainer leg private yet is like the highlight of my year.

So I don't know if I don't know the difference like yeah.

How do you know you're talking about?

Yeah, this is awesome that were writing on a jet so thank you for like even doing that but yeah, so anyways, that's pretty awesome man.

And just on that.

I'm always curious.

I've reached out to you a couple times be like hey what kind of dog?

What breed of dog was the best dog, but just for people listening, who maybe care, what, what do you think, like the some of the I guess at least your favorites.

Maybe, I don't know if there's a there's a best kind of dog but some favorite dogs even dogs you own because I know you have some protection dogs yourself, but favorite breed of dogs and why what?

For just just out of curiosity you know my favorites always been the Rottweiler, I love them.

Identify with them, you know, like, I feel like I've got a Rottweiler personality.

I'm a big dude like, anyways, like, I really identify with Rottweilers.

I love them.

I had an amazing rottweiler for 11 years, and he was protection trained.

And it's really hard to find a Rottweiler that can do protection training and so you're seeing so.

So just because it's a Rottweiler just because it's from a good pedigree, doesn't mean it can do it, correct?

Yeah.

If I go to say, most could not overall, like most could not, which is why, You know, they're so expensive.

You know, there's just not that many out there that can do it.

And so same thing with like Dobermans, it's very rare to find a doberman that can do it.

Now, you start moving into things like Belgian, Malinois German Shepherds now you can find a lot of dogs capable, but even then out of the pool of Belgian Malinois that exists or German Shepherds, most can't be really phenomenal, protection dogs and family protectors and stuff like that.

So so for me I currently have a dog.

She's from the Azores Islands.

She's called a feeling sound Miguel.

She's from Portugal.

Yeah.

You do a Google search on felis.

How many girl?

They are the most unique looking breed.

They're cool.

She's in the room with me right now but she's sleeping and they are, they are super cool.

Super fun.

You should get one when you're in Portugal.

Yeah, that sounds like okay I'm done.

I'll go get one from the Azores.

Yeah there's breeders on the there's readers on the peninsula but then there's breed Of course, out in the Azores, they're very, he's Orion in that the Azores people are, you know, proud of them.

There's this one town with a statue of this dog and stuff like that.

And so, so the feet that it's the full Bree.

The full name is college, you feel?

A Giselle Mcgill.

And so some, which is dog of the lines of San Miguel in São.

Miguel's, an island out in a, in the Azores.

And so, so anyways, I've got a dog from that, just cause I like rare stuff, you know.

Rare breeds and stuff.

And so she's a very, very rare dog.

And and so, but it's personal preference, like a lot of people wanting protection dogs.

Going to go, German shepherd, German Shepherds are too whiny and needy for me.

I don't like that Belgian Malinois.

They are pretty popular but they're too intense for me.

You know.

I know it's hard to live with a Belgian Malinois.

They're just so insane.

And so what do you guys have like Connie course or something?

So yeah, we have had And the past love kind of course that's the my favorite best amazing dogs.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We, we train a lot of them.

We get a lot of in like they'd be, you got to be careful where you're getting them because we've, we've trained so many of them they've gotten popular enough to where people who don't know how to breed them, or breeding them and Zack with man, some of the most aggressive dogs that we like not good aggression, you know, some of the most aggressive Of dogs.

We've worked with have been the the Connie Corsos there.

Yeah.

That's so it was about Iowa.

Probably about 10 years ago.

They just started getting more and more popular.

Now.

They're all own place.

Yeah.

So don't let this is again curiosity.

I'm kind of geeking out here, like you've been around it so much which, again, there's a huge principle there of expertise, right?

Of the path of Mastery.

When you spend the tens of thousands of hours you, you can look at a puppy or a dog.

And you can see things, I mean immediately that Mozart Are you talking about, right?

Because of that, familiarity that Mastery, what does it take?

What, what's, what's in a dog?

And what can you see, or not?

See that.

That makes it one of those rare individuals that can actually handle that top-level stuff.

I think there's a lesson here for all of us.

But yeah, I think it's a good question because you know, one thing I get a lot.

Like so people will call us up and I want to train my dog for protection and and I'll ask them I'll say you like what do you What is it about your dog?

You know, most dogs can't do it.

Is there something about your dog?

That makes you believe that your dog can.

And the one thing I hear time and time again is like always so smart.

I think you can do it because he's so smart.

And the reality is like most people aren't really a good judge of how smart their dog is.

But intelligence has nothing to do with it at why I shouldn't say nothing, that's not true.

It would be nice to have an intelligent dog.

But intelligence is, if we're talking priorities, intelligence is Number AIDS, or I don't know.

It's down there.

But what I'm looking for, a dog that can do protection.

I want to see a dog that has strong prey drive, meaning he wants to chase things, so there's a natural Drive within him that I can then Channel towards.

Now, you chase this thing.

It's a rag.

And now you chase the tug Choi.

Oh, you know how I used to chase the tug toy.

Now I'm going to put that on my arm.

Now you now you bite this sleeve thing.

Now you might the sleeve thing on the leg, you know?

And so you take the dogs, natural desire for chasing something, you Channel it.

Towards that.

Then I want to see conference because a lot of dogs want to chase things but they're not confident.

So I want to see a prompt and then I want to see a dog that's stable.

You know that.

Yeah he wants to chase things but he's not like on crack along you know, just crazy and you know trying to bite the walls and stuff like that and so which yeah, I mean, if we are comparing it because I have compared this to business quite often.

I've seen a lot of there's been a lot of people in my career.

I've been One thing that's really cool.

Is dogs are a great equalizer people who are experiencing homelessness, Love, Dogs billionaires, love dogs and everywhere in-between loves dogs.

And so in fact, here in California, where I am.

Now, we've got a, we've had several clients that are homeless that, you know, that have hired us, and then I've had several billionaire clients and so, anyways, the great equalizer.

Yeah.

But one of the cool things I've seen is a lot of like, Business Leaders and stuff like that.

That.

And some of them are bright, just genius.

But then I've seen, like, a lot of people that are like successful and I'm like, man, like, you can't even write a sentence, like, you know, you should probably communicate or whatever.

And so, it's like the same thing like being smart isn't going to make you successful.

It's nice, you know, it's a good quality but like there's a lot of people who aren't smart who are broke and there's a lot of people who aren't smart that have done really good things in business.

It's the same.

Dogs like, yeah, do I want a smart dog?

Sure.

But if I'm looking for a protection dog, that's not the first thing I'm looking for, I'm looking for other stuff and if their smartness, great, if there's not smartness, you can still have a really until you can have a really great protection, dog.

That's not the smartest dog in the world because he's got Drive, he's got balance.

He's got Kirk for and she's got all these other wonderful characteristics.

We can Channel all of that.

And then we can be his guide and, you know, make sure that he's not making dumb choices.

But yeah, it's kind of the same in humans, intelligence is phenomenal but like, it's just one is just one element.

Yeah, yeah.

And that's huge.

Thank you for articulating that so well because you get thinking like, wait a minute, how many of us write ourselves off with something?

Before we even attempt it, we bail out because, well, yeah, I'm not near as smart as that person.

It's we don't even try and maybe like you're saying, hey intelligence is actually down the list for Success in that thing.

And you want to pursue this, we write ourselves off will often maybe in this in this role of being a teacher or a mentor or he's heaven forbid.

Some people do it.

Even with their own kids.

Well, you know, this kids always struggle with this old.

They're not going to be successful or happy.

Whatever you like no man.

This is one element is like there's all these other things there's so many great ways and you're right.

I think as a society or as individuals, we misalign things or Or totally misread things where there's all these other elements and all these other pieces to the puzzle.

Mmm, I love that, man.

There's, there's this really great book by Thomas Stanley called The Millionaire Mind.

And he talked about that, he talked about, he interviewed all these and he made, you know, he had all these requirements.

What legitimately successful, right?

And he reached out to him and all, he's just taking surveys, he wasn't asking a specific question.

He wasn't.

He wasn't looking for something specific.

He just wanted to say what are the common denominators and what he found?

Across the board was surprising and went against a common thinking.

You think, all men, if you get really good grades in school, then you'll be successful.

Now, we've been told that so many times and he's like, there's there's no correlation.

No, they had nothing to do with it grades grades.

The only place grade matters was, if you want to stay in Academia, it's like otherwise, but nothing is like, the number one thing was communication skills and people skills.

Right?

So you look all these different pieces in like it plays out in life and whatever you're trying to pursue.

Like what is it actually matters?

What is it that actually makes a difference?

And that's that's beautiful.

That's really great Insight man.

Cool.

That's cool stuff that the guy who did The Millionaire Next Door.

Yes.

Yep.

Thomas Stanley.

Yeah.

I read that one.

That was a really good one.

Yeah.

Interesting stuff.

When you actually get into the data, exactly.

It was, it was super cool.

All right.

So you built up the business.

You're all in place.

You've been.

Then you've worked with the.

I was reading some stuff that you know really famous athletes and even one time a mafia guy and some foreign land somewhere to Mafia people now with Jack, right?

Yeah.

Well it makes sense they would have protection dogs, right?

Yeah.

You know one that I always tell the story because it makes me laugh.

I don't know if you're going.

Anyways.

Sorry to interrupt before I do.

I'll go.

There was this.

This one, I had this client.

They were in Beverly Hills.

It was a doberman.

It wasn't actually protection dog.

They wanted it to be a protection, dog, but when I got there, I was like, there's no way those dogs ever going to be a protection dog.

They, you know, they had spent a ton of money, you know, from a breeder who was just kind of took them.

Anyways.

So I was mostly dealing with Mom the sun and the security.

They had a security team and the security head he was like the home manager and managed over security.

And so, anyways, I'm staying at this hotel.

I'm working with them throughout the day.

I'm there maybe four days or something like that on day.

Two hadn't met the dad, but I'm out by myself and I'm partying, the dog, you know, over on the lawn.

And I see who I believed to be the father, across the way, across the pool.

And I just kind of like look, hello, you know, good morning, you know, whatever and you look, he's on the phone.

He looks at me and he just walks away.

And then later that day, the security guy.

Guy comes up to me and he says, if you see him again, don't look at him, don't acknowledge Him, do not talk to him, put your head down and leave wherever you are.

And I was like, what, what?

Okay, like, we're gonna question at that point, I was just like, okay?

But anyways, like that night, I go back to the hotel and like I didn't even know the guys name going into, because I knew like the security Consulting.

He's the one that hired us And so, I had found out the guys name, I don't even remember it now because this was this was eight or nine years ago and it's a anyways, it was a Russian name and it was hard to, it's hard to remember, but I knew at the time, I'd seen it on a piece of mail.

I don't even remember, but I got his name.

So I go and I Google it and somebody had this like website of like a fan website of Russian mafia, you know, guys and he was like this top Russian mafia guy and you know, very Famous in Russia for his, you know, union-busting and all the all sorts of Mafia stuff that he had done.

I was like, oh okay, yeah, I will leave the room if he'd, I will not be creating that guy anymore.

Yeah, that's awesome.

Actually that's so this is a really good lead in as one of the things I was curious about what have you learned about people and Life by working with dogs and working with people and their dogs.

What does Those things that kind of stand out over the years of like, you know, there's maybe there's patterns or they're just interesting stories.

What you learn about life and people by working with them and their dogs.

Yeah, that's that's a broad question.

But what I, what I have found is that and I lump myself in with this that when people want change their very real, very rarely rarely willing to do what it requires to get change.

We've in fact we've noticed like so I've got a what we call our signature program and I know that if somebody does 75% of what we ask them to do, they will be our biggest Advocates forever.

I know that if they do 50% of what we ask them to do, they're going to be really happy, probably enough to even give us a positive review.

I know that if they do 25% of what we ask them to do, they will see positive change.

Like it won't be as much as they want.

But but anyways it is rare that we find somebody that's willing to, you know, they're hiring us as experts.

It's rare to Somebody just like really, really follow through, I think it's the nature of humans and it's a, it's a it's a conundrum that stuck with me for years and one of the things that I've learned to do that helps me in solving problems is just ask a question and sit with it you know, for weeks months years and that's a question.

I've asked myself over and over and I believe it's one of the ways that it's helped us really improve.

Our business.

Is this question of why would somebody give us thousands of dollars?

They were going to have to do work and then not do the work and so yeah as I've sat with that I've recognized over and over and over the only the only solutions I can come up with are going to be me Centric I can't make solutions that they're going to do so all I can do is make things more straightforward for them and so it's one of the things that's helped us improve our products so much and our service.

So much is recognizing because within our industry It's very in, probably most Industries but within our industry, dog trainers.

Like they get on Facebook groups and like, oh, I've got a client.

That's not putting in the work.

What do I do?

And people like that.

Not your problem.

You know, they paid you.

You did your job, not your problem and ultimately, there's a degree of Truth there, but as I've sat with it, I've realized well, what if we did this, it might make it easier for them to do this.

What if we did that?

It might make it easier.

And so as we've tried to streamline the process, we've taken it upon ourselves.

Ourselves to say we know they're not going to do as much work.

But how can we streamline the process such that we can get the most performance out of them?

Therefore, they're going to be the happiest but like I said, I think just human nature is that we want the result and it's really hard to put in the effort and as a result we will find shortcuts and stuff like that and I do it.

I'm sure everybody does it with stuff.

That's not like they're big passion and stuff like that.

I mean some people get super passionate about Fitness and I'll do everything perfect or dog training, they'll do everything perfect or wakeboarding and they'll do it.

But most people will not and so, I don't know.

I don't know if that's a fake.

Yes, that's huge man.

That's a huge takeaway, and you're right, and I think maybe some of us might do it as a whole kind of just her personality way of being.

We don't really finish her fall through or or like you were saying maybe it's just one area of our life we, you know, physically my Be doing great mentally.

We don't do anything or emotionally or spiritually or socially or financially, whatever it is.

No.

But following through and man, what I hear you saying is like set up systems and strategies that actually work.

As one of the things that I talked about quite often is we set up?

We all have systems, we are operating by systems, right?

And and the system, either supports our success or sabotages it because you make such a valid point there, like if the system's difficult, Hey, your completion rates going to be terrible.

So I love, I love how you take the set you taking ownership instead, of blaming it on the client, or the customer to take an even deeper and deeper ownership of, like, what can I do to make this easier?

I'm gonna set up a system or strategy makes it even more likely, and then, at some point you're like, yeah, it's on you.

It kind of take it, but how cool it is.

And this is so instructive for all of us that the client who finishes more Gets more results and has a better experience.

Me done.

You know what I've found is that work, ethic and and application.

So there's some people that we work with that, they're two left feet, you know, they you know, they have no natural skill when it comes to a dog and there's some people that have natural skill when it comes to a dog.

And so if you take that person with natural skill with poor work ethic and you take the person that has no natural skill but they bust their butt.

I'll tell you because we see it.

We you know, when clients are done with their training, they're welcome to come out to our group classes.

And you'll see this person that had no natural ability, but their dog is outperforming the talented guy because, you know, they were willing to put in the effort and just, and no one ever is perfect.

But they tried, and they really did a good job whereas the guy skating by on Talent so Improvement.

But, you know, he's missing the fundamental pieces that are going to, you know, get the dog where he wants the dog to be.

Do you know at a higher level huge?

That is huge results, man, results, don't lie.

Yeah, results.

The lion and I love that the person without the natural talent.

What's in the work comes in, and guess what?

The dogs better behave, you know, they've got the results.

I love that.

Love that.

This is cool, man.

This has been really disciple, brother, any any last piece of advice for men and it might be.

It could be anything anything that's that's working for you as a, as a Husband as a father is a businessman, as a disciple, anything he finds out, you know this, this is working or lessons, you've learned over the years, you've got here's what's cool about, got your experience in my experience, we get to work with a lot of different people from a lot of different backgrounds, a lot of different places and just just that experience of interaction with so many different human beings.

There's insight there.

If we're, if we're not, blind, deaf and dumb.

I mean, you still so you're gonna see some patterns in some lessons, so any Last piece of advice for thoughts for four men.

Being being a better husband, and father of businessmen, at leader, working with people working with animals, like, what?

What, what's working, what's or, what's not working?

Maybe it's a huge problem and I'm throwing this on you and give him a ton of here, but it's actually just anything that comes to mind.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's a good question.

I struggle to, I struggle to be somebody that that would say, hey, you should listen to my advice and so so anyways, I don't feel much in a position to say, hey, my advice to you, is this, so I'll frame it in a different way that, like, not as advice, but an insight into my own life, is one thing I'm getting better at as I get, older is listening listening and whatever that means, listen to what the dog is telling me listening to what, you know the what the clients telling me, listen to what my kids are telling me, what my wife's telling me, you know, in social situations Listening to what other people are saying.

And so I used to be somebody who is much more.

Hey, let me throw my wisdom out there.

I'm a smart guy and I'm a smart guy, you know.

I think a lot of us are smart people but I am I feel like I'm getting better at listening and I think I think it's turning me into a better human all over the place.

I think, I hope that doesn't sound conceited, but I think I'm becoming a better person because I'm willing to listen instead of just being ready to tell somebody what they should do and just listen to what their experience is telling and how they're experiencing life.

Yeah.

And what's fascinating about that is, is so often there's even greater power and listening than in speaking.

You know, yeah, the chance to influence or impact, or connect, or understand, or learn or gain, something from that, the power of listening.

I love that brother awesome tie.

This has been so, so awesome man.

Such great stories, great group principles or practices, I love it.

How about how can people connect with you or where you at on social on your site, your services?

How can they, how can they find you?

And if they've got a dog problem, all right, doc desire for the queer.

Find your brother.

Yeah.

Head over to tie the dog guy.com simple as that.

Fantastic awesome.

And are you on social media and the social platforms?

Yeah.

Yeah we've got a Facebook page and YouTube page and Instagram, I believe.

Yeah, fantastic awesome brother.

Thanks man, appreciate it.

Thanks for thanks for what you do.

Thanks for coming on and sharing these awesome lessons.

Yeah, no thanks for having me on.

It was a lot of fun.

I appreciate it.