Hello, my fellow extraordinary Americans, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest. We have Travis Johnson. Travis is a really successful podcaster. He has a show called the nonprofit Architect Podcast. It’s one of the most successful podcasts not only in this nation but across the world and is actually in the top ten in seven countries. He actually came from humble beginnings. He had a rough childhood and from there onwards he somehow succeeded against the odds. And he’s the perfect person for this show. Travis, how are you doing today?

Hey, I’m doing fantastic Cosmos. Thanks for having me show. How are you doing?

I’m doing great. Yeah, I’m. I’m really glad to have you here. I know Travis, so I know that you are a retired Navy officer and entrepreneur and one of the greatest podcasters out there in the nation. Can you tell me a little bit more about yourself? Your background and how you got to where you are.

Yeah, absolutely, man it was rough beginnings like you mentioned, it was 36 moves, 12 schools, 6 states, and 5 foster homes that survived 2 murder attempts. Have a mother with bipolar disorder. And all of that occurred before I graduated high school at 17. It was not easy to get through.

Man, that’s intense and Man, that’s crazy. Like, well, what made you get through all of that? Like, what was it that? What was it that motivated you? Or drove you to basically, get out of that, and then let’s start succeeding at what it was like in your military, or whether it’s in podcasting.

Well, you know, there was always someone that was willing to help us out along the way. it was family members. They were foster parents. It was a nonprofit organization that helped keep us sheltered, clothed, and fed. And if it wasn’t for their goodwill, I don’t know where I would be, but every one of those people gave me a little bit of hope, a little bit of encouragement. Sometimes it was negative encouragement, right get that fuel to my fire. Oh, you can’t do this. Oh, really? Watch me see what happens.

But for some of the major things I did up front I had to make sure I was in the right environment to succeed. I didn’t have a good GPA, but I was in a small town. Everyone knew our family name. All of our problems, you know, everyone in the. The court system and the Police Department. They all knew who I was and who my mom was and who my family was. And I needed to find a place where I could succeed on my own. For me, that place was the Navy. 

I was able to get in. They didn’t care about my background. They didn’t care about my family name. They didn’t care about what had happened to me. Long as I was willing to do what was needed, I could build my own life. I could build my own foundation, so between finding Jesus joining the Navy, and marrying my wife. Those three things really help propel me and allow me to build what I wanted to build without any interference from all the stuff in my past. Now there was a lot of stuff. I had to deal with it and there was a lot of counseling. I had to go through it. A lot of people I had to talk to, and I had to figure life out. I didn’t have a lot of good examples. And a lot of negative examples told me a lot about what not to do, and through asking questions and being curious and exploring, I was able to learn a few things and do a few things eventually creating the lifestyle that I wanted to live.

That’s really amazing. I’m actually curious about what was the overall arching goal and vision regarding your career after you’ve gone through all these things like how did, how did, how did your vision become frow over the years.

Well, it changes over time, right? I really wanted to get into an industry that allowed me to have some vertical momentum, right, and had some room for me to grow. I could have gotten any job I could have, you know, go to school. 

I could have done a bunch of different things, but I didn’t feel like I had the resources of the foundation. I needed to get myself right. 1st and join the military, they set your goals for you. You have to do this by tomorrow. You have to do this by the end of the week, and you start doing it. Those things and it builds your confidence reinforce your self-image. It gets you to that place where you’re able to. Then make your own choices. Gets you out of that survival mode out of that scarcity mindset. 

It shows you that there’s a way that you can succeed beyond what you’ve known, and the military has been great for that. It’s been doing that for young men and women for a long time. The time now really helps build a culture. Of what you need. When you know that there’s someone. Is going to be there for you. Hold you accountable, accountable. Accountability is the number one thing people need in their life. If you can’t do self-accountability, you’ve got to have other people help hold you accountable to your stuff. Make sure you’re behaving right, making sure that you are where you need to be. Make sure you’re Doing the right things. 

And then it really allowed me to. Learn how to function within a system. It has all these qualifications. You have to get to work on airplanes and you get them over time. You have to do these things you hear in the squad and other people getting yelled at for not having qualifications you’re like, well, I don’t want to get yelled at. 

So, then you do the stuff you’ve got to do to get qualified and you’re like, wow, man, this guy is this guy on him and he’s getting all this stuff done. Because in my mind I didn’t want to be on, you know, the shit list or in trouble or any of. That stuff and. I didn’t do it because I was really excited to do it. I did it to avoid it. I did it to avoid getting yelled at, and once I started getting those things and getting those things done, you know, you get more and more qualified and then you’re qualified. They want you to do the things you got qualified to do well. If you’re the only one qualified, you’re the guy staying like you’re the guy getting called in to do things. I’m like, well, this sucks.

So, like all. You all need to get qualified too. You hold their feet to the fire, get them, move, and get them motivated. Get them signed off so you can share the load, right? If you’re eating a big **** sandwich by yourself, every bite sucks, right? But if you’ve got these other six people doing it with you, then you’ve got to eat a lot less, and it makes it a lot easier to get things done. And the more qualified everyone is, the more everyone’s on the same page, the more everything gets done, and the more things move along. And as that starts happening and builds the confidence within you, every small step that you take lets you know that you’re capable of so much more. 

And then that leads to getting promotions and getting qualified. I got married fairly young. I got married at 19. Not a lot of people do that anymore, and a lot of people are like, why would you get married so young? Your in a small town. As you don’t know, there are options. You don’t know that you can wait. You don’t know what’s available to you, and fortunately for me, I picked the right one at the right time. And anytime something comes up for my career, I always ask. I was like, what do you want? She’s like, well, whatever’s best for your career.

So, I had that support system at home. I had the support and work with people that were willing to lead and mentor and develop me. And as that builds. You’re where you’re shooting at, Your target gets higher and higher and higher, and every time I got promoted, I was like. I was happy for like 2 days. Finally, I’m at this new level and you get there. Like a week later. Like man, this sucks. I want the next one. How do I get to the next one? You figure out what the next one tells you, and you start doing this stuff. You get there. You’re like, man, this is great for about two days. And you’re like, and this one sucks too. How about the next one and you keep working your way up more and more and more and more. And eventually, you get going somewhere, then the momentum that you build, the habits that you build, the things that you’re doing. 

Then start generating their own path forward on your behalf and before you know it, you’re along for the ride, just enjoying the heck out of it. It took me from. Trailer parks and foster homes led to college and flight school. Let me get my wings so I could fly for the Navy, and that led to the next thing. And that led to the master’s degree, and that led to something else every little step and every little thing you do and accomplish every person you meet along the way leads to that next bigger thing.

So how long were you in the Navy? And then from there on this, how long were you in the podcasting industry?

So, I’m still in the podcasting industry. I just retired from the Navy after 22 years of service. I actually started my show while I was still on active duty, deployed in the Middle East. I needed something positive for myself to do because they were paying me lots of money. My family wasn’t there, and I know myself. If I’m not working on something positive. Now working on learning. If I’m not learning and delivering something, then I’m going to find myself in trouble. So, I’ve been doing the podcast for a couple of years, but I’ve only retired for about 5 months.

So when it comes to podcasting, what is the biggest lesson you’ve learned while you have been doing podcasting?

The biggest lesson? Oh my God, there are so many lessons.

The biggest one?

I don’t know. I don’t know about the biggest one, but …

Well, the most important one.

The most important one is whatever you decide to talk about, whatever your show is about, you’re going to put that in your description. Your description is up to 4000 characters. Fill that thing up. That’s how people are going to find you that don’t know you. Some people put like two or three sentences. That’s not enough. That’s great for people to read. But when they’re searching. And the search bots go out to find the answer to their question. They’re not searching for three sentences. They want to search that whole thing. That thing is searchable. If you’re not filling that out of. The way you’re preventing other people from finding you. But whatever you say in that description, that’s your promise. That’s the covenant that you’re making with your audience. Of what? You’re going to deliver. 

Like your show is extraordinary, America. Right. If you start talking to people that are ordinary and live in Guatemala, you’re not delivering, right? You’re not delivering on the promise of what your title is. I assume that you wouldn’t be delivering on it. Your description, if you say I’m Going to talk about extraordinary Americans, people that have come here, figured out what their dream was, started living their Dream and now they’ve hit it big. And they’re in America, and I’m going to deliver. This shows every Week, that’s what. You deliver if you don’t deliver that, you’re not delivering on the promise that you’ve made to the audio. And what happens is well, oh, he missed a week. Oh, he missed two weeks. Well, he must not believe in what he’s preaching, or he must not do what he’s saying he does or something must have happened. Right when you deliver on what it is that you promised your show is naturally built, you naturally attract the people they are supposed to be listening to. You naturally attract the guests you’re supposed to be having, so the first real lesson that any podcaster learns is they have to deliver on what they said they were going to do.

No, totally. So, like when you went on your way to becoming the most successful podcast out there with this nonprofit architect podcast. What’s the biggest challenge you had to face In your field.

Really it was. It was me. That guy in the mirror, right? I knew some stuff about nonprofit work, but I knew I didn’t know everything, so I went out and I looked through all the top nonprofit podcasts. And I was like, what are they missing? What are, what are these about? What are these shows about? What are they? What are they doing? I found that they were real Kind of just showcasing some nonprofits. Hey, this thing is out there, blah, blah, blah. 

It got some airtime for that nonprofit. But it didn’t really have a lot of value to the casual listener, and I listened to some other shows, and they were just talking about kind of industry trends, which is great. No one was teaching the nonprofit world How to do it. So my goal was to bring on guests that were making their living doing something well. They will have to be willing to share what it is they’re doing in order to get on the show, right?

So, I’d have nonprofit leaders, business leaders, consultants, and people with the special skills to help nonprofits do it better. And some things that I learned along the way are you have to account for weeks that you’re not available. I didn’t do that right away. I didn’t know that that was a thing, right? So I had a bunch of shows built up. My family was coming to visit me in Bahrain for Christmas, and I ran out of pre-recorded episodes and so they call it having episodes in the can.

So, I had built up a nice little following and hit #4 in the US within three months of starting. And then three weeks later. I didn’t have anything prerecorded so the show was not. I didn’t have anything new coming out, right? So right up front within the first five months, I broke the company with my audience saying I had a weekly show, and I wasn’t prepared for a weekly show.

So, I learned quickly that, hey, you have got to have many weeks in advance. Saved up in case you want to take a vacation, you get sick, you get tired, or something happens. You go into a coma. So now I keep myself two or three months ahead of schedule. So, I know that if a last-minute business trip comes up, whatever happens, someone in the family dies, we have to go home for a funeral. My show is going to keep producing and being released each and every week, that was one of the first big lessons I learned. 

The second big lesson I learned is you have got to have yourself a checklist. I remember getting I was in the Middle East, and I was recording mostly with people in America at the time, so it was either very early in the morning for me or very late at night for me to get times when people could actually schedule with me. And I had a couple of weeks go by. I wasn’t able to find a guest, and eventually, I found one. I was so excited. I got them on. We did our interview and I hit to close down zoom for those of you that know how zoom works when you’re recording something you hit and a little pop-up comes up and it says it’s processing. What you’re doing and processing the video. Processing and recording well I…

Hit End

Hit end. Yeah, I hit the end and There was no pop-up. I had forgotten to hit the record button and anytime you make a mistake.

Oh, man.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it happens. Right. Anytime you make a mistake like that, you’ve earned yourself the right to generate a checklist. For yourself, so you don’t forget that.

The interview was complete lost?

completely lost. I went back out to the guest. I said I don’t know what happened. I don’t think I hit the record button. Would you be willing to record again? And she was like, oh, of course, I would love to let me grab another time and we’ll reschedule and we’ll do it again. We eventually did the show again, but you’re going to. Make mistakes, right? You’ve got a new show here. Chances are I haven’t listened to your show. I don’t know this, but just based on general knowledge, you’re probably not very good, right? And I know that because I wasn’t very good when I started. And everyone I’ve ever talked to wasn’t that good when they started. It takes like 20 to 25 shows to really figure out who you are, the message you’re trying to deliver is kind of what your voice is as a podcaster, and so is the next big mistake that people make. If they stop. Before they ever hit any kind of stride before they ever get any kind of good at what they’re doing because they don’t like it, they’re not sure of the feedback, they’re not getting downloads or whatever. Here’s the deal. If you don’t already have a major following you’re probably not going to get Lots of downloads. Especially early, that’s just how it works. No one knows. Who the heck are you? You know this, and I know this. You’re stuck in obscurity. No one knows who you are. Then why should they listen to you?

So make sure that you get out, you do what you need to do, and you deliver on your promise. You hit a record, build yourself a little checklist. I have command hooks on the back of my laptop screen where I put a little card that says Smile, hit record, and draw a big arrow to the camera. It says look here, right? Instead of looking all over. Right. The first couple of lessons that everyone learned.

And then don’t give up if you are doing this for a reason, you have to keep doing it day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. Because this is a long-term gain, this is a long-term gain.

Definitely doing it for a reason. Yeah, yeah. So, Travis, they say that success is a state of mind, and it is a process and not an event, right? However, a lot of successful people can pinpoint a certain day or time when a mental shift happened and then from that point on, they started succeeding in their life. What is that moment for you?

There are a few moments for me. You know, early on, early on in life. There weren’t a whole lot of people that I could depend on. There were some. But there wasn’t a lot. And I was able to really keep my mindset and stay relatively objective through most of my childhood, which is not, which is not normal. I’ve come to understand, usually in childhood, whatever is coming at you, that’s just it, you know, you’re not sure how to dissociated or how to look objectively at a situation because you just don’t know how that works somehow. Was able to remain objective through a lot of my childhood and even though it was horrendous, I knew that a lot of it had nothing to do with me, which was great. 

The next big shift I already mentioned was finding Jesus, finding my wife. And joining the Navy. But it wasn’t till about seven years later that the next major shift happened. I had had a little bit of. Success in the Navy. And I was still a young man in my mid-20s. I don’t know if anyone listening to this knows young men in their mid-20s or earlier mid-20s or is that person, but a lot of times, especially in my case. I ran my mouth. I had. I knew a couple of things. I did some good. But I was cocky. It was arrogant. I was a smart ass. I would run my mouth pretty much whenever I got it. But I had to get to a place where I found out that really, I thought I was being funny. And that’s not how it was being received. It was just being received that I was a *******. My finances were a mess. And quite frankly, the people I was hanging out with. With weren’t doing you any favors, right? They weren’t real friends. They weren’t holding me accountable. They weren’t pushing me to be better than this stuff. 

So my next big shift is when I found Dave Ramsey and found out how to figure out my financial mess. Like if you’re in the mess, he’s a great place to start. If you’re not in a mess, he’s probably not the right person for you, but. In a mess, he’s a great place and a great way to. Build a foundation for. Your finances.

So, we started getting our finances under control. I stopped running my mouth. I didn’t know the right things to say, so really, I just stopped talking. Unless I could add real value and then I changed the people whom I was hanging around. Which was the biggest. The biggest shift I remember exactly when I and it happened, I said I want to be a better Christian. I want to be a better husband and a better father. I want to be a better sailor. I want to pursue career goals and education, so I found people that were taking care of families focused on their careers, gaining that education that they needed, and as soon as I decided to do that. I really, truly decided not. Oh, that’s a good idea. I should do that. Should be a bad word. Once I actually decided this is what I’m doing. And this is for me. Everything changed. People thought they stopped thinking I was a *******.

Right.

They started to be like, you know what, he’s really doing some good stuff. I was always doing the good stuff, but I let my mouth get in the way. Right. I let my mouth get in the way as soon as I stopped running my mouth, I started getting awards because I wasn’t blocking them. I wasn’t giving them a reason to not do it. I was always given a reason to do it, but I gave them plenty of reasons to not do it as well.

So, I took away the reasons to not do it and I got promoted and I won some awards, and I got selected as an officer program where they sent me to the University of Oklahoma full-time and then to flight school, which was fabulous. 

The next biggest shift I got one more for you. The next biggest shift really. I was in Bahrain, and I really learned about community and business and podcasting. That was my last major shift. I started changing not just my inner circle, but my outer circle people. I was willing to spend not only my quality time with but roughly any time with. 

I really started building and cultivating and mentoring the people within my circle. I started focusing on business. I read 60 books a year and really listened to audiobooks, 60 books a year. Anytime I was commuting, working out, shopping, or doing chores around the house, there was always someone teaching me all the things that I didn’t know. And then when I got into podcasting and applied to the community and the business. Lessons to the podcasting world. Everything took off.

That is, that is awesome. So, Travis, what is the one thing you wish you had a bill for before you start podcasting? And what would you give? Advice to someone who’s starting off in your field and like they’re just starting this. They’re just starting the podcasting business altogether.

You have got to keep track of the people that you’re in contact with. I didn’t do this right away and it hurt me. Some people call it a CRM. I think it’s like a customer relationship management tool. Some of those might be an e-mail service like MailChimp, A Weber, a few different ones, or there’s a more formalized CRM. Like Trello or some other things. I realized quite quickly that it got hard to contact people and put them in categories for different reasons, right?

So, I’ve been in contact with tons of people that are trying to book guests. I’ve been in contact with tons of people that are hosts of other shows I’ve been in contact with tons of people that are actually guests. Right. And then a ton of people are contacting me for different reasons. Oh, I didn’t keep track of those people early.

So, there’s a whole big slew of people in the nonprofit world. That I’ve lost contact with. I can’t if I would have had him in a CRM, I could have looked him up by industry. I could look him up by city or state when I go and I travel and I go meet people, I could say, hey, I’m going to go to Vegas. Whom do I know in Vegas? And I could say, and the CRM like who’s in Vegas and would have had five results, but I can’t remember three of them.So, I only have two results. You know, I can’t go see these people in person if they’re on my e-mail list or CRM for a certain reason and an opportunity comes up and I can’t find them. I can’t deliver the opportunity to them. If I want to sell something or someone reaches out to help me promote it and I say who am who, do I know that would really do this if I don’t have that tract. I can’t use that to help people. So really not getting my email list slash CRM up and running early and not directing people to my website. I’ve learned it’s taking a while to learn some of these things, but the only place you should be sending people is to your podcast listed as a blog post On your website.

OK.

Because if you send them to iTunes, iTunes, or Apple Podcasts, they have tons of viewers. But if you’re sending them there, then Apple is benefitting from that traffic, not you. You’re sending to Spotify, then Spotify is benefiting from the traffic and not you. If you’re sending them to me, I don’t know. I’m on like 70 channels, right? I can just listen to YouTube, Pandora, blah blah, blah. If you’re sending them there, you don’t benefit from the listener or the traffic. 

The only way for the podcaster to really benefit is if they’re going to your website, getting on your email list, and checking back up with you for follow-up learning from you directly because you’re the guru. Yeah, they can listen to you in other places, but you don’t benefit from them going to other places. You only benefit from them coming to your place.

I see. OK. So, Travis, you know they say that America is the latter free and the place where dreams are made. Do you agree or disagree with that statement? And if so, why?

I agree, but I don’t think America is alone in this. I definitely think there are places the biggest problem I think people have been that person they see in the mirror every day when we’re developing as people from birth to age 7, we are creating, our operating system. We’re creating our own. Essentially every experience that happens to us during that time period is onboarded into our being without a filter. Depending on the person you get a filter system like oh, that doesn’t seem quite right. Somewhere in the five to 9 range average at the seven-year range right from that before that happens. You’re just taking things on.

So think about this, right? If you’re in an in a, in a house and there’s abuse in the house and you get hit or screamed at or whatever else, and that’s followed up with I love you. Or I love you, your family, your operating system now says that abuse is standard in love or family?

Really. Yeah.

Right. I don’t understand why I’m in all these abusive relationships. What was your childhood like the operating system that you were built on as a person? Until it’s changed through some dramatic or traumatic incident in the future, roughly operates the same. You and I know from all the business training and learnings that we’ve done just how many times you have to go through those different laws, those different principles. They get them to stick because it’s fighting whatever operating system we were built with.

Love, but if you’re.

And yeah, but if you were in a household that says you’re beautiful, you’re talented, you’re powerful, you’re intelligent. Do you have anyone believe or imagine you can create this world? Then when you hear something like a red flag or abuse happen in a relationship, you’re like, that doesn’t make sense. It violates your operating system, so if that happens in your world, it’s easy to swat away those red flags or terrible people or shady business decisions because it’s outside of How you were built.

Yeah, yeah, totally.

So, when I talk to people in America that talk to me about problems or obstacles or they blame the economy or politics or brown people, black people, white people, red people, and yellow people for their problems. All that’s telling me, regardless of what nation there is, although I do, I love America for a lot of different reasons. They’re basically saying that it’s not my fault this happened and because it’s not their fault that they’re then the victim and there’s some entity out there preventing them from achieving. Which is not true. Only the person you see in the mirror every day is responsible for most of yours. 

I could have easily said, oh, I was a foster kid. And so, my life will never be good, and I could have believed that. And I could have lived my life, and no one would expect much from me. I could say, oh, I had family members try to kill me, and because of that, what are you waiting for? Some big apologies, someone to say? Yeah, it’s my fault. That’s not going to fix any of your problems. The economy, Wall Street, you know, they could ring the bell and say, hey, Cosmos, we’re sorry that your stock’s going down. It’s our fault that doesn’t fix anything. It might make you feel better for 10 seconds. No one’s coming to save you. No one is coming to save you. 

You have to say I’ve had enough. This is no longer for me. I am responsible for my life moving forward. I’m going to go get the healing I need. I’m going to surround myself with the right people that are encouraging me and sending me in the right direction, giving me advice, giving me mentorship, and once I’ve got a certain level. I might have outgrown these people. I’m going to say no longer. What am I going to stand for? Nonsense in my life, no amount of shared DNA allows anyone in my family to treat me poorly. I Believe in myself. I’m going to enforce my boundaries. And I am going to move forward, and I am responsible for whatever happens in my life. 

Are there going to be problems? Yes. Is it going to be hard. Yes, it’s hard to be poor. It’s hard to stay poor. It’s hard to be in the middle class. It’s hard to stay in the middle class. It’s hard to be rich. It’s hard to stay rich. Yeah, choose your hard. It’s going to be. Hard no matter what you pick. Oh, I can’t really afford to get an. Oil changes well. Now that your engine blew up or seats, now you have to figure out how to afford another car. You paid the poor tax by not paying the maintenance fee. Now you have to pay more to get another vehicle that you’re not going to pay the maintenance fees on and you’re going to find yourself get another vehicle later. How expensive is that? Oh, I just got it. All this money and I can’t wait to buy all this stuff I wanted. I’m going to get this big fancy car that has a $600.00 car payment. You’re my I’m about a big, fancy TV. I’m going to take my family on vacation. Well, guess what. You might as well not get promoted because of all the money you thought was going to. Help you is now just another liability. It’s now just hurting you like it was before. Doesn’t matter that you got a promotion or raise more money, more money because you didn’t learn how to spend it properly. You didn’t learn how to invest. You didn’t learn how to build that asset. Doesn’t matter if I give you more money. If you don’t know what to do with it. 

No, I totally agree. I mean, yeah, I think on the national level, if most Americans had this mindset, they would just, like, change the entire landscape altogether.

This is what wouldn’t be amazing.

It would be amazing, yeah. Like that, it’s all the actions you know and like. This is the thought that.

Nothing like it. There would be nothing like it. If we went to an abundant mindset that said everything is possible, there’s nothing holding me back and people actually believed it. There would be no more locks on doors. There would be no more honking in traffic because everyone understands that everyone’s just making a concerted effort to get to where they have to go and everyone’s making the best choice and they’re not making choices to hurt you. There’s no more honking and traffic you get there when you get there. 

Like, hey, I’ve got a little extra commute time today. I’m going to do a new audiobook or a great podcast like Extraordinary America. Oh, hey, I’m going to call my friend Cosmos because I haven’t talked in a while. You’re going to use that time that you now have in the car for something positive. Instead of saying I can’t believe there’s traffic, there’s traffic, you know, every situation that happens, you can look at it from a different point of view, right? 

I moved all over the place. I’ve moved 50 times in total in my life. Moving is one of the top five most traumatic things a person will ever do and I’ve done it. 50 times but it gave me skills that I never would have developed any other way. I know now how to walk into any room and feel like I belong. I know how to make conversation with anybody at any level. Admiral, janitor. Secretary, whatever variety of person is in that room. Oh, you made $65 million last year. Cool. I’ve never made $1,000,000 in my life. Let’s chat and I can find a way to gain cramming ground and empathy and get them energized. You’re out. What is that we can talk about it. I’ve learned how to memorize people’s names. Just after meeting them. Because I always have a changing environment, so I. Always have to. Meet new people. Because when I changed locations, I didn’t just change locations, especially in the 80s and 90s, I lost all of my friends unless I had their phone numbers and address written down somewhere.

That must have been really tough.

It’s not saved on your phone. You didn’t have phones. If you did, it was mounted on the wall. You had a big, long cord. That’s as far as you could get away from your family, is it? However long the cord was, you know what I mean?

So, every time I move, I have to make a whole new slew of friends. It’s the same in the military, you walk into a command with 50 to 1000 people that you don’t know. And you have to figure out where you fit in, and who you are as a person. How do you refresh? How do you learn everybody’s name? How do you rebuild that life? But it gave me a lot of other things, right? I now know how to Ask a lot of questions about how to be engaging, and how to build those relationships. 

I wouldn’t have had that skill if I had been at the same high school my whole life. My same school, my whole life. I wouldn’t have developed that particular skill. So how are you looking at the problem that you’re facing? Is it the problem coming? Is it the next brick in the wall you’re building around to build a monument to your life and your legacy? Or is it the brick that’s in your way and preventing you from doing something else? Is it an obstacle, or is it a challenge to overcome? Learn how to get better. Expand your comfort zone and do something new. 

OH, how the economy is up. Life is great. There are still people losing their companies, losing their jobs, losing their livelihoods. Right. OH. The economy’s down. Stock Market was huge. There are people making millions and billions. While the stock market’s going down. It’s not what’s happening that’s the problem. It’s how you’re viewing it as the problem.

Totally agree with that.

Oh man, you were in foster care than it must have been terrible. It was way more stable than the life I was living. The foster care families were great. They had it. They were organized, and they had food on the table every day. They had a set of rules, and they followed those rules. It was fabulous. Foster care was wonderful for me. They believed in me, and I believed in them. 

OH, how much time have you spent in court as A child?  Hours upon hours upon hours listening to people talk about my family and how good or bad or terrible they were. Right. I’ve talked to tons of judges. I knew more about the legal system at 10 than most people learn in their entire life. That must have been terrible. It was an experience. But how I view the experience is up to me. 

Hey, you got cut off from traffic, man. I’m sure glad we didn’t collide. That guy must be in a hurry. I hope his emergency is handled safely and everyone’s well. Someone cut me off. Oh, I can’t believe it. That guy’s a jerk. Is he? I don’t know when or when I happened to cut someone off that I’m hoping for a little bit of grace because I might not know where I’m going or I’m going somewhere really important or there’s an emergency. I’m asking for grace when someone else does to me, I can’t. Extend them the same grace.

No. Yeah. You enjoy those, if you. Want to happen to yourself, you know? So, Travis, what do you think is the biggest hurdle Americans face when? Realizing the American Dream and what can they do to overcome these hurdles.

The American Dream is not the same for everyone. And realizing that will help so many more people than ever else. Some people say the American dream is owning your own home and having a college degree. Neither one of those is required for success. 

So why do we assume that the American dream is the only way to do it? Buying a home hurts way more people than they think it does. Oh, it’s the number one way to build wealth maybe. It’s potential earnings, but it doesn’t put money in your pocket until you sell.

So, while you’re sitting there for 40 years, although it may be built for building value, it doesn’t help you really at any time during those 40 years, right? Unless you’re cash-flowing on that thing, it’s not an asset. It’s only a potential asset. Figure out what life looks like it is for you. What do you want your life to look like? And if you say a good job. That might be true, but did you even consider what it might be like to build your own business, or to do something online that creates the freedom you want? 

You don’t have to be a millionaire to be successful, you only need the right amount of cash flow coming in to create the dream that you want to live. What does it take to live the life you Want to live? Probably far less than you think it is. If you can figure it out, a Way to collect $70,000 a year and you don’t have any bills. You can pretty much do whatever the heck you want to as 70 grand a year. As long as it’s coming in that doesn’t require active hours. If it requires active hours, 70 grand might not be enough. But if you also have two car payments and a college loan payment. And you have got a credit card. Bill 70 grand is not going to get you anything. It has nothing to do with the dollar amount but has to do with the behavior. 

The problem that most Americans are facing is their mindset, the operating system that they were built with, and what they think is possible. And just because they think it’s possible doesn’t necessarily mean they think it applies to them. And if it doesn’t apply to. Then it doesn’t matter what it is, you can’t do it if you don’t believe in yourself and your ability to do whatever it takes to get something done, then it doesn’t matter what’s available. It doesn’t matter what’s possible because you don’t believe in yourself, and if you don’t believe in yourself, neither will anybody else. 

It’s impossible to perform beyond your self-image, so if you have a poor self-image. That’s what you’re projecting to everyone else. The opportunity is there. The opportunity doesn’t want you. Currently doesn’t mean it can’t want you tomorrow based on you believing in yourself. If you believe everyone else is out to get you, or everyone else is responsible for your problems, good luck getting everyone else to go to counseling for your problems.

Good luck. It’s never going to happen.

To happen. I think what we’re realizing is that it ultimately all comes down to mindset and how you view the world. And if yes. It’s on a national level. The world has served away. It’ll be the nation. Be off the charts, you know.

Absolutely everyone wants to change. No One’s Willing to change? Change really begins with us. You don’t like what’s on the news? Turn it off. They’re only showing you the extremes anyway, they show you the extreme, and then they tell you about the next. 50 minutes of how you should feel about it. Go talk to your neighbor. 

Talk to people that don’t look like me and you and we’re from different backgrounds. We have different college experiences. We have different life experiences. There are things that you know that are really cool that I don’t know yet. There are things that I know that are really cool that you don’t know yet. Let’s talk and do them together. Military was a fabulous place for this because you’ll have the Puerto Rican guy making some kind of Puerto Rican? From the brother, from the hood. He’s like a man, I never knew food existed. Like this? How cool is this? Celebrate our differences. Figure out what it is that drives someone. Figure out what their goals and dreams are and figure out how you can help them achieve them. Celebrate together. Oh my God. Celebrating together just because they win doesn’t mean you can’t also win.

No. Yeah, totally. So, it’s all good. The Win/Win right.

Yeah, the win, win, win.

Travis, what are your thoughts on the inflation that’s happening in the country right now? And also, what are Your thoughts on debt?

I don’t know anything about inflation. I don’t know how it affects people’s budgets. I know I currently have enough money to do whatever it is that I want to do. And I know some people don’t. I can’t give you an opinion on that. I don’t know about it. Debt, personal, consumer debt. Don’t get any of it. Business debt gets as much as you can. The more debt you have for a business, the more income you’re generating to live whatever kind of lifestyle you want to live.

So yeah, I agree with that because you know, like a lot of people have consumer debt and then they just become enslaved over a period of time. But with business, you can actually be free.

Yeah, the thing is with consumer debt is they’ve been told they have to spend money on a credit card to build their credit and that’s credit is good. Credit score just shows your relationship with other people’s money. You can get a credit card, right? Activate it. Never put a dime on it. Put it in the shredder. Never use it. Build credit every month because of your credit. Report just says if the account is good. For the month or not? And if you don’t owe any money, you can’t possibly be late, which means that month is good, right? 

You have to make all your other payments, whatever you’ve got. But if that’s true and you get a credit card and activate it, never put a dime on it. It’s going to show you get good credit every month if your credit score. If you excuse me, the amount of credit you owe on a credit card is less than 50%. Your credit score goes up every month. If it’s 50% or more, your credit score goes down every month. Get a credit card, activate it, and put it in the shredder. Never use it. Your credit score goes up every month.

Oh yeah. So, Travis in America over the last few years, there’s been. Like a deterioration. Of the financial sector, but also when it comes to the family unit and just the government as well. Or do you think we should be optimistic about America’s Future?

The only thing that matters is optimism. The stock market does not do anything other than reflect how we feel, right? It’s just a reflection of our confidence. If our confidence is in the gutter stock markets, go down.

Right. It’s all about perception.

Yeah, if we believe in it, the right stock market is. Going up, we’d be like, oh, you know, bad, the bad press makes the stock go down, does it? What it really means is, it either helps the confidence in the company or it lowers the confidence in the company. If it lowers the confidence in the company, people sell, and the stock goes down. If something happens and it raises the confidence in the company people. Are going to buy it has nothing to do with what they’re actually doing. It just has the public’s perception and confidence in what they are or are not doing. It’s nothing more than a confidence indicator, right? 

The problem is people watch the news and every little story that comes out and makes them. Scared. Do you know why? Because the only reason people will click is that they get a feeling and if whatever the feeling is they’re addicted to it. If it’s fear they’re going to keep clicking because they want to be scared, Travis people don’t want to be scared? They do. That’s why they keep clicking every day because it gives them that feeling, and they’re addicted to the dopamine that’s released attached to the emotion.

And I think the news media knows that that’s why they profit off and it’s just deeply psychological.

There’s a reason every headline is sensational that’s the only way to get people to click?

But I hope the masses can at some point realize that their fears are being used against them in many cases. But no, I totally agree.

I’m under the impression that if there is news I need to know something someone in my circle is going to come to tell me about it. Hey, Travis, did you hear about this? No, I want to know. Tell me all about it. Oh, this, that, and the other. Wouldn’t you know it? That’s just the piece of information I needed in my life to make a decision about something else. But at no point is me throwing scrolling through Facebook or USA TODAY or any other news source really going to help me. Unless I am in a trend-based business. Oh, hey, Baltimore is being burned down because of this that, and the other. Well, I guess I’m. Just not going to go to Baltimore. Like that’s it.

No. Yeah.

Hey, this is happening and they’re coming for us. They are. Are they coming for us? Are there people in my town coming for me? How are the race relations in my town? I don’t know. I talked to my Vietnamese neighbor every day. We don’t have any problem. You know, I mean like. It’s a fear-based thing that’s taught. It’s brought into someone’s operating system in a household where they say, what was it when I was growing up in northern Minnesota, there were problems with the tribes in the area, a lot of tribes in Minnesota. And a lot of jokes and things about people of Native American heritage. When I actually met the person, there was this cognitive dissidence because they were nothing like described. And then you hear something about how the Mexicans come in again, and then you meet them and you’re like, well, there’s nothing like they were described. Oh, what about? Black people and you meet black people. You’re like, there was nothing like described.

It’s all fearmongering, yeah.

It turns out that within every group of people pick a group… podcaster, Podcast, Cast, podcast hosts, black people, white people pick, pick any group of people, pick any labeled group of people. There is a bell curve. Because of the kind of standard, these people are amazing, and these people are ****. Right people, that work at Walmart, right? There’s a big curve. There’s an average and there are people that are amazing and people that are ****. 

Oh, people that run for political office, there’s a big bell curve of people. There’s the average and there are people. Doesn’t matter what group you’re describing, but you only ever hear news on noteworthy events, weather, and sports, whether sports are pretty innocuous. Weather is happening today, like it or not. Sports happened. Your team won. Your team lost. Right. Noteworthy events are things that don’t normally happen. 

Not reporting that Travis helped an old lady across the street or with her groceries into her car. That’s not worth it because it happens all the time. People help each other. All the time. It’s not noteworthy. Oh, hey, there was a shooting in an airport in Florida. I don’t know if I should travel. Why not? Because there was a shooting. OK, how many airports are there in America? How many flights go without a hitch every day? OH, something like 30,000 flights today. I don’t know what the number is. So, a 30,000 when’s the? Last time you heard about a shooting. At an airport ohm 25 years ago. So out of 40 million flights. Between incidents, you’re not going to fly because there was one recently. What does It has to do with anything. It doesn’t. It isn’t.

We also have some negatives you know.

So, it was a noteworthy event because it doesn’t normally happen. Is it tragic? yes.  Is it horrible? Yes. Should you be? Scared, no? Oh my God, no. Don’t be scared of it. You want to be scared of something happening All the time. Be scared of car wrecks.

Travis, I love your mindset, man. It’s so inspirational. I think this is the mindset, like all of us have to adopt, you know, in order to, like, have a better world. Yeah, this is exactly what we need. Like, not just in our individual lives, but on a national level because right now, people keep freaking out and keep fighting each other. But if we just have this mindset, then things just start to change you know?

They do, right how you perceive the events that happened, right? There’s what he thinks had happened. What she said happened, then what? Right. It’s not so much what happened, but how they feel about what happened, that they’re really talking about, right? People ask me all the time. Oh, you do podcast production services. I’m not for everybody. My prices are high. I’m providing a premium process. Oh, you’re Kind of high. Well, cool. I understand I’m not in your budget, no big deal. Let me recommend a couple of friends of mine that also have Podcast Production Services and are like, that’s strange, why would you recommend a competitor like we’re not? You are either into what I’m offering or you’re not. And if you’re not, that’s fine.

We can still be friends, but I would much rather suggest that you go to one of my other friends doing this with different pricing, and different packages for different reasons, because I would rather, they get the business something in my circle, win, then send it to some random another person. They’re not my competitors. You’re into what I’m doing or you’re not in this fine. You’re not going to be. Not everyone’s going to be into the things that I’m doing. I’m perfectly OK with that. I don’t have to have agreement-based relationships. 

If we went through all the different political topics right now, all the different social issues, chances are 100% that we’re going to disagree on something. There is, but here’s the deal. I’m happy to know how you got to arrive at your conclusion. What happened in your world that didn’t happen to me? What experience did you have that brought you in that direction that I didn’t have? I want to know what am I missing? I’m still going to love you for who you are. 

I’m a white middle-class Christian. There are going to be ways, I believe. And look at things based. On certain stuff. But a lot of Christians missed the Boat because it’s about love and forgiveness. It’s done by beating people with the Bible. Says in Acts, but nothing I have made is unclean. That means people are going to have different lifestyles and it’s going to be whatever, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you just because I disagree with how you’re doing something. Fun fact, I disagree with a lot of things doesn’t mean I hate you. That doesn’t mean I can’t get along with you. That doesn’t mean I don’t love you. Do we have a different opinion have to do with life happens when people get an opinion about something? And they believe it so wholeheartedly that they take it and they bring it on as their identity.

So, when you say something against it, you’re not disagreeing with them. You’re violating whom they think they are as a person. That’s the problem. Would you agree? No, totally. Yeah, we had Roe V Wade come out. It got overturned by the Supreme Court. A lot of people have a problem with it. It changed it from being federally OK to being pro-choice and choosing what you want to do with the life living inside of you. It would take a ticket from a federal mandated yes, it’s allowed to back to a state level for the states. To decide. I’m not saying it’s a good thing. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. I am saying it’s a thing, how do I feel? About it and how you feel about it are different and perfectly OK. It’s perfectly OK.

Totally. Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. So, Travis, I wanted to talk a little bit more about your nonprofit architect podcast and like, get the audience to have a glimpse of how you got started and like, what made you start this podcast In the first place.

So going back to my shop and having all the people that helped me, I wanted to find a way to. Give back when I finally Got to a stable part of my life. I wasn’t in scarcity mode. I wasn’t in survival mode. When I finally calmed down. I was like how I feel like I’m pretty stable. I feel like this is home now. I’ve been here for a while. Is this what home feels like? OK, if I’m home and I’m here and I’m like how can I be part of the community? What does the community do? What do people in the community even do? I didn’t know because I had been just trying to survive for so many years. I didn’t know what it meant to be part of a community.

I asked around and they say hey, people in communities, they show up to public events. They support candidates, they Pick up trash and litter. They donate to nonprofits. They donate to buildings that can get built, and you get your name on a plaque and they help the community accomplish collective goals. And I got directed to a networking group where I didn’t know anybody I just showed up with a great attitude, and willingness to help, I got brought into some projects they were working on. I ended up donating and volunteering, found myself on a nonprofit board, found myself on another nonprofit board on a foundation board, and was doing good things in the community. And I got stationed overseas, and I asked myself, how am I supposed to keep providing value tTo the nonprofit world, and one of the ways you can do that remotely is by starting your own podcast.

So, I’ve got to derive. I’ve got the people I want to help. The Mitch, I want to be in. Found the gap right. No one was teaching anyone how to do it. Started the show that I felt people needed and they responded by putting me at the top of chart #4 within three months of starting.

So, is there any other work that you’re doing right now that you would like to give our audience? Eclipse sent to or that you’re currently working on.

Yes, thank you so much for asking. We actually weren’t sure exactly how. We were going to make an impact as a business with the nonprofit architect podcast. I thought initially that I would be doing nonprofit coaching or consulting, and I found out by asking my audience what they wanted, but they didn’t want that. 

They wanted to know how I had done so well podcasting, so I wrote the Ultimate Podcast guide. Made it for sale. You know my website made a few $1000 and then people asked me hey man, this is great. Where’s the course? We created the course. We got it approved and accredited. It’s at the Forbes School of Business and Technology at Belhaven University. You can actually click my course. As far as I know, I’m the only professional podcaster that has a college-level course. I guess that means it’s really good, right? We’re now taking the guide that we’ve got created and we’re creating and rebranding it under the podcast Titan. Because it doesn’t have anything to do with nonprofits, it has to do with podcasting. People have taken.

I bought it. I bought that guide so I know. I’m just saying right.

Now that’s how you guys started, right? You didn’t know? Found an expert, bought the stuff, implemented the stuff and now you have.

No. Yeah.

And then you call me when you’ve got questions you ask the experts that you know in that question in the industry you have questions, then you ask them the questions. You don’t ask random people; you ask the experts. 

They cut through and they shortcut everything for you so you can do it better without having to be so painful in the lessons that you learned. But we’re taking that guide. We’re dividing it up into different segments. We’re rebranding under the podcast Titan. And we’re selling them as different individuals and as a package. The stuff in this guide, it turns out, was so valuable. I didn’t understand that I was doing things so differently than everyone else in the industry because I jumped up so high in the rankings. I jumped up so high and downloaded it right away. 

I had someone I was a guest on their show before I ever started my own show. They had been doing it for a couple of years. And he reached out to me. He’s like Travis, man, what are You doing? You get all these downloads. That’s what we talk about, man. You’ve been doing this for years already. He had already been doing his show for two or three years. When at this point, I had haven’t been doing mine for one year, he was like you were crushing me and downloading. I don’t know how you’re doing it. 

I was like, well, I put it together. In this guide, in fact, if you buy it, I’ll help walk you through it. We did that. We rebranded last spring. He had 6000 downloads. After three years of podcasting, we rebranded last spring. 2021. He created the Vertical Momentum podcast. He’s been podcasting now under that brand for about 16 months. He’s over 380,000 downloads. Wow.

Yes, that is crazy from 6,300.

Absolutely 6,000 to 380,000. In just over a year. Because he actually read the guide, he actually implemented the stuff and then he showed up day after day, week after week, month after month, and did what he said he was going to do. He got a few tips from I guess I was the guru that he knew, right? He got a few tips for me. He implemented them and now he’s had amazing guests on. 

Guests that have millions of their own downloads, guests that make millions of their own dollars, sharing and showcasing what they do on his show a couple of times a week. I think he’s doing it three times a week.

That is amazing. That is wow. Yeah, I personally would definitely recommend anybody that’s watching this to basically download that guide of yours.

Yes, please do. Please do.

So, Travis, where can our audience get connected to you and get to know more of your work and basically find out more?

Great question. Thank you for asking. All of my stuff is available right now at nonprofitarchitect.org. There you can listen to my show. You can listen to other shows on our network. You can actually find the guide in the resource section and if you click on the show, you can find my social media connection with me. 

So nonprofitarchitect.org is the place to go for all of that stuff. Or if you Google nonprofit architect podcasts, you will find all my social media. You’ll find whatever channel I’m on. I’m the 1st 4 1/2 pages of Google. If you search for a nonprofit architect podcast, you will find me and in fact, if you can’t find me on a platform, let me know. Send me a message. Say hey, we didn’t find you on this platform. Where are you? And I’ll respond and tell you where I’m at, nonprofitarchitect.org.

Thank you. Well, Travis, I really enjoyed having you on this show and you’re really inspirational and motivational.  I would love for you to like to come back at a future point. To the show and everything.

Hey, I would love to be a guest back on your show again. Thank you for having me on today. We have a lot of exciting things coming. We are launching a Co-hosted show with myself and Carol Carpenter. We’re launching the Titan Evolution podcast. We’re bringing on Titans of whatever and every industry they’re in. Tell them the down and dirty of how they actually are. That is where they were all the terrible stories and things that they had to overcome. And then they share their advice on how you can become a Titan in your own right. That’s coming soon.

That is amazing. Well, all right, I would like to conclude this episode by saying, well, my extraordinary Americans. Remember that there is an extraordinary within each and every one of us and it’s our Job to unleash it and empower them. I would like to see it bye for now. Until next time.