T-Shirts. Podcasts. And a Tattoo of a Montero Sport: This is the Story of Billy Thorpe

But it's very true.

And it's like, you know, you might not wake up tomorrow.

So it's like, if you want to go start that business today, go for it.

Like, take the risk.

Because the worst thing you're going to do is to learn something.

SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the Blowdown with Heaven Blow.

The podcast shining light on the inspiring stories of ordinary people choosing to live out anything but ordinary lives.

All in the hope that you will be inspired to live out your best life.

Because this life is meant to be lived.

And this podcast is meant to inspire you to do it.

What's happening?

Welcome back to the slowdown with Kevin Lowe.

This is episode 103.

And well, welcome to the show.

Today I am hanging out in the studio with a friend of mine.

His name is Billy Thorpe.

I met Billy by being a podcaster.

And well, this was actually the first time that I really got to sit down and hear Billy's full story.

Because Billy is a fellow content creator producing his show called Creating Daily, where he's going live on platforms like YouTube and Facebook, bringing content creators stuff they want to hear about, like having people on a show talking about how to improve your studio, or having other awesome guests on, like, well, me, where I just got to share my story with Billy and his audience and how I came to start this very podcast.

But today, this episode is all about hearing Billy's story.

And to be honest, his story is as cool as he is.

But as with all of the guests I have on the show, I don't want to just bring you people who have interesting stories to be like, oh wow, that was pretty cool.

No, I want it to do that, but I also want it to be more meaningful because I want it to be able to reflect back on you and have you left thinking, hmm, maybe that person seems a lot like me.

Or wow, they've been through some stuff that I can totally relate to.

Well, that's the case with Billy Thor and his story.

Matter of fact, there's three parts of Billy's story that I believe are really impactful and make this conversation super amazing, and I believe can be a direct reflection back on you.

The first point is the idea that sometimes in life it's okay to pivot.

Matter of fact, if we don't pivot, which means basically making a change, then we can never discover what lies on the other side of the wall.

If we don't have the courage to turn the corner, well, we won't know what's there.

And so sometimes, even if things are going good, there comes a point when you need to make a pivot.

Billy, he's pivoted multiple times in his life, and well, it has him where he is today.

And so as I talk with Billy, I hope that you reflect on your own life and realize wow, maybe it's time that I make a pivot.

The second part of Billy's story that I think is really impactful is something that I was super excited to learn more about.

And that was him, his wife taking their son to do a year living abroad.

They spent 10 months living in Puerto Rico.

Yeah.

They literally sold what they needed to, packed up what they wanted to keep, and took a plane to Puerto Rico where they lived for 10 months.

You're gonna get to hear all about that.

And maybe you'll be left thinking, hmm, is that for me?

The third point is Billy is really grateful for the things that he has in his life.

He's appreciative for the gifts that he was given.

And I believe he really makes use of those gifts.

Here on the podcast today, he's sharing his story, which I believe can be a gift in the sense that it may help you in some way, shape, or form.

But he's also using stuff that he's really good at, like creating content, being on camera, being on video, doing YouTube videos or live streaming.

He's awesome at that.

He's a pretty humble guy and would tell you that he's not very good, but I disagree.

And this is my show.

So I'm the one who gets to decide if he's good or not.

Now, how that relates to you is that I hope it will be a reminder for you to really look at what you're passionate about, what you're into, and do those things.

No, you don't have to go as far as turning it into a career, but maybe be sure it's something that you're doing even outside of work.

When you get done with work, what you're doing on the weekend, be sure that it's not just something you enjoy, but that really you're passionate about, that pulls on your gifts and ultimately makes an impact.

That's what's amazing about Billy's story.

And that's why I'm so excited to introduce you to my friend, the content creator, to the one, the only Billy Thorpe.

Billy Thorpe, welcome to the podcast, man.

SPEAKER_00: Kevin Lowe, man.

Thanks for having me.

It's uh, man, it's such an honor to be on your show.

I've been a big fan of yours for a while, and um, and congratulations.

I know you've already surpassed a hundred episodes, but just wanted to give you congrats on that, man, because it's a huge feat here in the podcast world.

SPEAKER_02: Oh, man.

Well, I appreciate that so much, so much.

Well, well, Billy, I've been super excited to have you on today because I not only want to dive into some aspects of your story of switching careers at a time that I know a lot of people will be able to relate with back in in 2020, but then also, you know, working our way up to uh a recent, you know, endeavor that you and your family took moving to Puerto Rico for a year.

And so, so, dude, I'm super excited.

I would love, I'm just me travel, I'm all about Puerto Rico right off the bat, but let's slow down.

And I would love to know how did you get started in the whole content creation space?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.

So I I love this question, and and I'm probably gonna tell some stuff here that people haven't heard because I just don't really talk about it.

But when I was when I was much younger, I'm thirty, I'll be 36 in October.

But when I was 18, I actually was really involved in church and and uh worship music and ministry and stuff like that.

And so I'd gotten really curious about that world and I'd produced a very, I won't say a terrible album, like maybe it was good for what it was, but in high school with our high school choir class, and it was kind of the first time I got really curious about like, oh, what is this whole creator, you know, journey and what does this look like?

And I didn't really have a direction when I was 18 of where I was going.

You know, every ever everyone in school had this big plan, like they're going to, you know, law school or doctor or nurse or whatever it was, and I'm over here like, I don't know what I'm doing.

And so I I I really got interested in music, really got interested in the production side, and started looking for schools to do that, and ended up finding a kind of a startup school, which sounds kind of weird, but it was like um a church, a large church out in St.

Louis, and they had this put together this program to bring young people out and show them how to work Photoshop and Final Cut and video cameras and lights and all this fun stuff and music and just a bunch of you know techie stuff that I now do, you know, to this day.

And that's when I really first got introduced into you know content creation.

I didn't really back then we didn't really call it content creation.

We're just like, oh, we're trying to make music or we're trying to make a video or we're trying to make whatever.

There wasn't like YouTube and and all this.

Or we didn't know about it if there was.

Like we weren't trying to be YouTube stars or podcasters or any of that stuff.

You know, this was like 2005 or something, 2006, you know, 2005, I think.

So we weren't really on the cutting edge of that.

We were just kids.

And um, and so anyway, man, I got super interested in that.

And then I, you know, I'll make this story really quick.

I went back from St.

Louis, went there for a couple of years, went back to my hometown in at that time was Bristol, Tennessee, Virginia, and you know, kind of flubbered around starting businesses, started a airsoft business, and I used some of those skills in that airsoft business.

So I had a little airsoft field or whatever, and um, and that was pretty fun.

Like a friend of mine and I did that.

And then, you know, from that, I met someone who had a church, and they're like, Oh yeah, why don't you come check out you know what we're doing?

And and so I ended up going on staff there for like eight years doing a television show, producing a YouTube channel, like really just helping them create all these different aspects of media.

And so I was really in the producer role for almost a decade of doing that.

And then I, you know, after that kind of season came to an end, I was like, oh man, I really love entrepreneurship.

I enjoyed doing the little airsoft store or the airsoft field rather.

So I'm gonna get back into business.

And so I actually used YouTube and became a content consumer like crazy and learned how to how to screen print t-shirts.

So yeah, man, that's what I that's kind of the how I got into the the media world.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah.

Well, dude, that's awesome.

And and I have to say right off the bat, I mean, I love this story because it's totally different than what I expected.

I mean, a guy like you, Billy Thorpe, got a cool name right off the bat, content creator.

I figured, I mean, oh my gosh, where'd he start out?

Rock band, rock and roll.

No, it was in the church.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I think that's super cool.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.

It was cool.

You know, there's a lot of opportunity to um, and I I don't I almost say it like this.

I almost say like I got paid for a decade to learn.

It's not, you know, because sure it wasn't a big budget, sure I wasn't getting paid a lot of money, but I was learning a lot.

And I was the video producer, the graphic designer, the website developer.

And so I learned all these skills that I now use in my business.

And so, yeah, man, it was you know, it was a lot of fun.

It was, it was different, it was a different type of content than I do now.

But uh just the years of like learning and kind of throwing mud against the wall and seeing what sticks was, dude, it was it was brutal at times, but it was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, no, that's awesome.

So now when we talk about being a content creator, you you kind of spoke to a little bit, but define that for me in in terms of because I mean, content, there's a I mean, there's a lot of stuff that can be considered content.

So what do you classify a content creator as?

SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, I would say we're all content creators to some degree, right?

We're all I mean, if we're if we're capturing it or not, we're content creators.

We we're all creating content, we all have thoughts, we all have, you know, like opinions, we all can weigh in on a discussion.

It's like every person on earth, in my opinion, creates content, they create contrast, they create life, essentially.

It's like this is what we do as people, and some of us just capture that and share it with other people for whatever reason.

Like, I don't know if we're all narcissists or if we just feel like we can really help people or what.

Um, but I think everybody is a creative, right?

Like everybody is, and that's kind of what I would would kind of narrow this down and say, you know, I think a lot of people go, well, maybe I'm not the video guy, or maybe I don't draw, or whatever, but I know some of the most creative people who are doctors and lawyers and teachers and janitors, and you know, it's like there's all kinds of construction workers.

One of the most creative people I know is my dad, who's been in construction for years and years and years.

He's one of the most creative people I know.

He's solving problems.

And so I would say we're all creating content.

I'd say we're all, you know, creators, and it's just, you know, like people trying to define everyone and try to give everyone a label.

And I just think it's overrated, honestly, to try to label every single thing that we see.

We want to because it makes us feel safe, but it's okay not to feel safe all the time.

SPEAKER_02: I agree.

Okay, so I love this, and I love I love your your your mindset behind this of content creation.

Definitely takes it more broad spectrum than than even I was thinking.

So I think that's pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, and I think it just depends on, you know, for me, how I define myself as like a content creator.

I do play within the the lines of like live streamer, podcaster, youtuber, you know, audio video creator.

But I think there's, like I said, I think there's a lot of stuff that is is content that people just aren't capturing.

You know, we're you know, some people aren't writing the book, but they're talking about the they're they're sharing their story, they're sharing their life, they're sharing, you know, their experience and their perspective and their expertise.

And just because it's not getting captured doesn't mean it's not content, it's just uncaptured content.

So I I think that's kind of how I would dig a little deeper into it, I guess.

SPEAKER_02: Maybe I'm thinking too much about it.

No, I love it.

I love it.

This is super cool.

So now you you you mentioned that you got into the screen printing industry.

Now that that, I mean, a totally different type of content creation than than you know audio.

So I'm curious how how the jump from screen printing to, you know, the the guy that you know Billy Thorpe is today.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.

So how I got this is kind of a funny story how I got into the screen printing industry because I'm also like very entrepreneurial.

I love small business, I love helping people small business, I love you know helping people make money, I love to help, you know, help myself make money.

Like it's just one of those things I really love to do.

I I I like to look at something and go, okay, there's an answer to that.

Can we solve this problem?

Can we figure out this puzzle to make this generate revenue or whatever?

And so the screen printing thing came because when I was at the church, I was trying to make a little additional revenue.

And so by doing that, I was doing graphic design for people.

I was creating, you know, what I back then defined as a logo.

Now I'm married to a graphic designer who's a branding expert.

So what I was doing was garbage.

But back then I would define it as branding or a logo or whatever.

And person after person after person was like, Can you put this on a t-shirt for me?

Can you put this on a sticker?

Can you put it on a hack, a koozie, a coffee mug or whatever?

And I was like, you know, I and I think this is one of the things I do well in business is I listen to what people want.

And then if I feel like I can find a solution, I go find a solution.

And a lot of times we're trying to provide a solution for stuff that's there's no problem, or people don't recognize there's a problem.

Like we're the only person who recognizes there's a problem, but everybody else is cool with it.

And what I tend to try to do is, you know, be quiet, listen to the people around me and go, okay, this is something that needs to be solved.

Let me try to solve it.

Uh so after people kept asking me about this, I got curious and literally jumped on YouTube for months and just watched screen printing video after screen printing video after screen printing video.

And I already had the graphic design portion of it down.

I just needed to figure out how do I get it from my computer screen to a t-shirt.

And my girlfriend, which is now my wife at the time, her family called her, and we and I was doing all kinds of stuff, man.

I was like doing vinyl, and there's all kinds of substrates and ways to get designs on shirts.

And so I was experimenting with some of the stuff.

My grandfather had this old heat press and a vinyl press or whatever in his garage.

So I bought it off of him, and I was burning shirts in the basement.

And then my wife's, my now wife's family girlfriend then called her and said, Hey, such and such passed away, and the family he owns this screen printing business, and we think you might be interested in it, or your boyfriend might be interested in it, because your dad told us you guys were kind of messing around with that stuff.

And uh, and she's like, Yeah, we'll, you know, we'll come take a look at it.

If you know anything about screen printing stuff, it gets really expensive really fast.

And so we drove about an hour and a half away, and we're we're walking into this basement, and it's got all this stuff, dude.

I'm talking like hundreds of inks, like hundreds, like probably a hundred screens or whatever.

It's got the press, I mean the heater, the dryer, the everything, all the tools that you can possibly imagine that you need for screen printing, that it had it.

And so I'm like, yeah, this is awesome.

Like, this is everything I would need.

What's the price?

And they're like, oh, we'll take nine for it.

And I was like, yeah, that's a really good price.

Like 9,000 is a great price.

Unfortunately, at this moment in my life, I'm not gonna be able to do that.

And they're like, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Not 9,000.

We'll do 900.

And I'm like, excuse me?

And they're like, they're like, what do 900?

I'm like, 900 what?

900?

900, like what?

Like, what are we talking about?

900 tourists like, whatever we're doing.

And so uh, and so anyway, they're like 900 bucks.

And I'm like, cool, all right, that's awesome.

That's more doable, but I'm still poor, so that's not gonna happen.

And my father-in-law now, you know, then obviously not, was like, hey, if you want to borrow the money from me, you can borrow the money and pay me back when you get this thing going.

I'm like, yeah, man, that would be awesome.

And so I did that, and I borrowed the money, and I still have Badium Bank to this day.

It's been almost 10 years ago.

And uh and just we haul all this stuff back, and the church I was working at had like a little warehouse space.

And so they had like a little office in there, a little 10 by 10 room.

And, you know, I worked out a deal with them to use the space, pay the utilities, that kind of thing.

And uh, and man, that's where I got started.

And I I I slept on a warehouse floor multiple times throughout three to four weeks while I learned how to screen print and watch you, you know, I had my laptop there, watching YouTube videos after work and uh trying to get ink to stay on a shirt.

And I did that, I did that for a while until I learned that business, but it really was to solve a problem.

And I did that business from 2013 to to 2020, uh or 2012 to 20.

I can't remember.

It was like seven or eight years, almost a decade of doing that business and really worked with nonprofits and all that kind of stuff to create apparel lines and product tables.

And so man, it was a lot of fun.

It was a lot of fun.

And um, and yeah, so anyway, I'll I'll be quiet for a minute.

If you have any, if you have any follow-up questions or whatever uh about that, and then I can tell you how I got into back into media.

SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay, awesome.

Well, I just have to say, I mean, a couple of points there are first and foremost, what a pure entrepreneurial mindset of stop trying to create problems to solve and instead look at the problems that are already there and figure out how to solve them for people.

You know, and so I had to just right off the bat be like, yeah, I mean, it makes sense because I think so many of us in the entrepreneurial mindset, it's easy to kind of get carried away of especially like you said, when when we're passionate about something, but having to step back and realize, okay, but is it a mainstream problem that people are actively seeking out answers for?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man, 100 100%.

And and I think the thing too is like and there's probably a bit of pride with some entrepreneurs.

I mean, I know I do with this.

If I have like this wonderful, great million dollar idea, I want it to happen, but then at the end of the day, I gotta go like, is this scalable?

Is this like, do people want this?

Like, does the market want it?

You know, there's a lot of variables to launching products, launching services, launching a podcast or whatever.

And so, yeah, man, I'm I'm I'm with you there.

I think that is sometimes it's like there's opportunity with the knowledge that you already possess.

You just gotta listen to the people around you because there's probably people around you who want to do what you do or you know, they want to you you can already solve a problem they have.

You just they just don't know it and you don't know it.

But if you'll listen to them and and like really listen, not just try to say, well, let me try to help you solve this other problem, then they'll have opportunity for you to get compensated for such.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, I love it.

I absolutely love it.

So, so continue with the story because I'm I'm curious how this screen printing business, which sounds pretty darn phenomenal, and and especially doing it for so long, why the change?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.

So this is a you know, kind of a funny story.

So I have this, or I did have, I shouldn't say.

Have I had this love-hate relationship with screen printing?

So one, I was really good and really had a lot of fun customer facing stuff, coming up with a project, getting the t-shirt together, you know, doing all that.

But then on the production side of it, I didn't really enjoy that too much.

Um I actually ended up early on, like after two or three years, outsourcing all the printing.

And I really just focused on the customer service stuff.

Well, fast forward to 2020, actually March 16th of 2020.

Now, I want to make this, you know, pretty I want to be clear here.

Like as an entrepreneur, sometimes it's ebb and flow, right?

So it's uh sometimes stuff is like really working for you, sometimes stuff is not.

So throughout this eight-year journey of owning this screen printing business, there were times that I went and worked for other people and did sales jobs and you know, did whatever to make sure my family was provided for.

It wasn't all just like, oh, Billy's the greatest entrepreneur ever and crushing it and make a million dollars in sales.

You know, it was a small mom and pop business.

It was super niche.

We were helping nonprofits because that's where I came from.

I was a you know youth pastor.

So I realized like, man, there's these nonprofits that just aren't making money, and there's no real creative ways for people to do that.

And so it was my mission with that business to really help these nonprofits create product tables and, you know, increase revenue that way.

Now, sure, I could have and probably should have gone to, you know, high school sports or whatever, and I would have been, you know, well better off, but it just wasn't my mission with that company.

And so keep that in mind.

I'm working with churches, I'm working with nonprofits, I'm working with big crowds of people.

And so March 16th, 2020 rolls around, and COVID is announced in the United States.

And we had just signed the biggest deal that we had ever signed about a week and a half prior to this announcement.

And none of us thought like it was going to affect our businesses.

Nobody in my industry was concerned.

And then all of a sudden, dude, I woke up on March 16th and it was just like, uh, sorry, Billy, we can't do that contract.

Oh, sorry, Billy, you're gonna have to cancel this order.

Uh, sorry, Billy, we're gonna have to do this, da da da da da.

You know, it was like, I think in one day, I calculated up in one day we had$20,000 in canceled orders.

And so it was at that moment, man, that Kevin, I really sat at my desk literally for 30 days.

I still went to work in my in my office.

I still went to my office, I still sat at my desk for 30 days, and I just cried every day.

Like, you know, what can I do?

What can I do?

What can I do?

And so it was during this time of screen printing and creating product that I had developed, I didn't develop this product, but there's a thing out there called like neck gators.

So it's for in the fishing industry or outdoor industry.

It's basically a tubular bandana that you put around your neck, you can wear it like 30 something different ways.

And I had started a business doing these probably sometime during that eight-year period, and ended up selling that business to a friend of mine.

And, you know, because we had like custom designs and all this stuff.

It's another little side business that it was okay, but it just didn't, you know, work out.

And so I sold it and I get a phone call.

And first of all, I'm taking phone calls from all kinds of business people because I'm networked with all kinds of business people, and they're like, What are we doing?

What are we doing?

We're all trying to brainstorm and figure it out and figure out the t-shirt world and all this stuff.

And so I get this phone call and from a kayak shop, and they said, Hey, you printed some of these neck gators for us a couple of years ago.

Is this possible to do that again?

Uh, we have people coming in wanting them for the pandemic, you know, because they're face masks, they're face coverings.

And I was like, Man, I don't really do that.

Let me call the guy I sold the company to.

So I called the guy.

I said, Hey man, I, you know, I got this client, this old client wants these things done.

Do you do them?

He's like, Nope, I'm out of that business, I'm not doing it.

Like, whatever.

I'm like, well, I still have the contact information of the manufacturer.

Do you care if I step in and do some custom orders?

Like, I have nothing else going on.

Everyone's canceled, t-shirts, and I really could use the money.

And he's like, dude, do what do what you got to do.

So, man, I took this business that failed two years before, whatever it was, two or three years before, and revamped it to not even direct.

I went B2B at first to sell, you know, local stores these face masks, but then I took it onto eBay.

And I bet we probably did about 50k in sales in a few months.

Not only myself, but then my a friend of mine who printed t-shirts, you know, my business was dead and he was printing for us.

And so, you know, part of his business was gone as well.

And we both made a killing on eBay during those three months.

And then somebody wrote an article and said net gators don't work, and then our business went away again.

So anyway, yeah, man.

So it was like, oh, we rode that mountain.

But what he did though, like, and then also during that time, another friend of mine who I'm now a partner with on our podcast reached out to me and said, Hey, you know, we're we're feeling this as well.

Is there anything we can do?

Uh and I said, Yeah, man, we can, you know, we can go digital with your product, with your he does fishing reports in a fishing newspaper, so we can go, you know, we can go digital, we can create a podcast.

And I'd already done a long story, man.

I'd already done a podcast and sold it, a fishing podcast.

And so I'd already knew the structure of it.

And he was like, Yeah, man, let's try it.

And so that is kind of how I got back into that was a long story, and I apologize for taking up so much time on it, but that's how I got back into media, like kind of full time, was by starting this saltwater fishing podcast that I've now been co-hosting for nearly two years and sponsored and all kinds of fun stuff.

And then it kind of led into some other things.

So yeah, man, really long story of the COVID pivot, but there it is.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, well, listen, Billy, this this is what's crazy about this.

Is I'm sitting there the whole time you're talking, I'm thinking, this guy's like one of those situations, like not just like the brother from another mother, but I think like the twin brother from another mother, you know, because because when you talk about this whole journey you've been on, it it reminds me so much of my own journey.

And I can only imagine that there's people listening who relate it to their own story.

Because, like me, I started a travel agency, a home-based travel agency in 2013.

I did that up until 2020.

And I loved it, but there were seasons where, you know, I went to work with another agency or or I'd switch around, do some different stuff.

Never, you know, it was it was evident that, you know, travel was was awesome.

Being a travel agent was amazing, but it wasn't, you know, what I was meant to do.

But I was doing it, I was making it happen until 2020 came, which 2020 was gonna be my best year on record as a travel agent.

And as you said, then all of a sudden that one week in March, and literally, as I say it within one week, everything went away.

And, you know, I was left with this realization here we are now in quarantine.

My travel agency, you know, basically ought to be closed.

And and so when I'm listening to your story, I'm thinking, wow, how many people are are just like this?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.

I'm and dude, and it was story after story, you know, because I'm like I said, I'm I'm net well networked with small business owners and entrepreneurs, and and I think everyone felt it.

And the people who, you know, the people who are just crazy, you know, entrepreneurs were a little bit crazy anyway.

Okay.

So it's like, yeah, but then there's like a level of us that are just like super crazy, like, you know what, I'm not gonna, and it's like I don't even have a plan.

I'm just gonna figure it out.

You know, it's like I I could have probably tried to go get a job somewhere I didn't, because I was just like, dude, I want to do this, I want to own my own business, I want to work for myself.

And, you know, it was kind of a cool thing because, you know, I leaned on the screen printing business to be a source of revenue for myself and my family.

And, you know, I took a lot of pride in owning that business.

And when it was kind of forced away, it forced me to say, okay, dude, what do you really, really want?

Like, what are you really, really passionate about?

And like, what is the thing that drives you that you really want to wake up?

And so, you know, throughout this whole journey, like the a couple of years before the pandemic, I was creating content haphazardly.

I was going live on Facebook and, you know, kind of showing up and going, well, I don't really know what I'm talking about, but what's up, guys?

And I'd have my mom watching.

And I, you know, I was like, well, I just can't pick up steam, you know, I can't figure it out.

And then, you know, I just created a fishing show.

I did about 25 episodes, sold it to my co-host, and that was pretty fun.

And I started another uh podcast about entrepreneurship here in here in town locally, just to drive business to my my screen printing, you know, operation.

Because I was like, oh, if I can network more.

And so I used that whole podcast just to meet people, which was really fun.

But then when the pandemic happened, I was like, all right, well, no more use of doing that.

Like networking's not gonna help me.

And but what it did though was, you know, I had to like really define what I wanted to do.

And luckily, during that time, my wife is a graphic designer and website developer, and and she got really busy during this COVID season, during this COVID time, which was really good for us.

And, you know, she came to me, and I think, I think throughout the years, if you know, if we, you know, had a conversation publicly, she'd be like, Yeah, you really supported me while I built my business and really helped me.

And, you know, it's like there's many times I talked her out of going working at a coffee shop or whatever.

I'm like, honey, just keep keep going.

Like just let's go one, like do one more project, like get one more project, like just go get one more, you know, one more, one more, one more.

And so, you know, she was now that person for me during the pandemic.

She's like, okay, screen printing's done.

Now what do you really want to do?

And so that's when I really decided, like, man, I want to create content.

And that's when it, you know, that's when the light bulb started going off.

And I started doing this fishing podcast and got sponsored super early, even in the middle of this pandemic, which luckily it was like a boat dealership, and they were selling a ton of boats for during the pandemic.

So that that worked out for us.

And then I found this app called Clubhouse.

And I'm I got on Clubhouse and I'm like, oh, this is cool.

There's strangers all over the world talking, and you know, stuff is blowing up on there, and hundreds of people are in rooms, and I get into these podcasting rooms, and I don't do, you know, I'm just in there having a conversation.

I'm like, oh yeah, I make money with my show.

And they're like, What?

And then all these people start asking me these questions.

And next thing I know, you know, Kevin, I was coaching people there for a little while on how to go get sponsorship deals because apparently in podcast world, that was a really tough thing, or maybe still is.

And so that's what I that's kind of how I got into the content creation, you know, as a solo person.

And then I've just been doing doing a lot of different stuff in this content creation space, that's for sure.

I do a lot of different things.

SPEAKER_02: Well, that's awesome.

That's awesome.

And that's what I love about uh following you, man, is is the fact that you're you're not hesitant to try something new.

And and I look at that and I think of that like such a valuable lesson and a reminder, I think, to all of us.

Like there's no harm in trying something new, whether it's a variation with with what you're already doing, you know, whether that's gonna work or just something for fun, try it, give it a shot.

And and that's what I I see with with following you, Billy, is I'm like, I love your spirit of, you know what, let's give it a shot.

Let's try it.

And I just think that's really awesome.

SPEAKER_00: You know, and I think the the whole t-shirt business taught me that because I was I was doing the t-shirt business, man.

I was the t-shirt guy.

Like I didn't build social media during that time.

I didn't build my email list.

I didn't, there's a lot of stuff I didn't do as a business owner because the right now business was good enough that I didn't really need to go get future business or and and I learned that lesson.

And then, you know, I really focused just on manufacturing t-shirts, or not manufacturing them, but printing t-shirts and decorating t-shirts.

And I didn't really diversify, I didn't really become the promotional guy, even though I had access to do different promotions, stickers, hats, hoodies, koozies, all that fun stuff.

But I was like the one trick pony.

And then the pony died.

And so I was like, oh, okay, now what do I got to do?

And so when I came into the content creation world, I thought, okay, I'm gonna diversify.

I'm gonna have, I'm gonna have a podcast that's that's super niche, that's sponsored, but that also makes money through memberships, but that also makes money through apparel, that community, you know, it's like it's like I'm gonna diversify each little project.

I'm gonna become an Amazon Live influencer and I'm gonna do that.

Now I didn't do all that at one time.

I did one thing, got it rock and rolling, got it generating you know, revenue, and then I do another thing.

But right now, I probably have five to six streams of revenue coming into my, you know, my business.

And if one of those ponies dies, I got another pony to do, you know, to take its spot.

And so that's what I really learned about the pandemic was don't be so stunned.

I mean, because you can be good at a lot of stuff.

And I feel like in the content creation world, if I'm super transparent, I'm like good at a lot of these things, but I'm not like great at any of them.

I was great at making people money with t-shirts.

I was great at sourcing really good t-shirts and really good printing and creating a phenomenal product that somebody could charge$25 to$35 for a t-shirt.

I was really good at that.

However, that was not scalable.

That didn't make me a lot of money.

And like I said, when it was over, it was like gigs up, you're out.

And I wanted to be out or not.

But then when with content creation, it was like, okay, I want to one, I want to do this because I love creating content.

I've been in the producer role for years, but now I want to be in the host role, you know, hosting a podcast.

And so, so yeah, man, I do creating daily, I do my saltwater fishing show, I do Amazon Live, and you know, I guess some brand deals and sponsorships and things peppered throughout those projects.

And so it's been a lot of fun, man.

It's been, you know, and it's one of those things where you look at it from the outside and you go, I'll never be able to do that.

But then when you're in it and you decide like this is the only option for me is to create content.

And I'm not, and I've been offered jobs, I've been offered, you know, like all that stuff.

And I'm just like, nope, I'm gonna focus on this, I'm gonna focus on this.

And the more I focus on it, the more it grows.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's awesome.

That's awesome, man.

I love it.

So, so shifting gears a little bit.

I'm super excited to dive into here.

You guys are, it seemed like life's going pretty good after a pandemic chaos, and and and you you're in this content creation game, you your wife's doing her thing, life's good.

And then all of a sudden you guys decide, you know what?

Let's pack up and leave the country for a year.

Talk to me about that.

SPEAKER_00: All right, man.

So this this was kind of crazy.

So there is, I think it was November of 2021.

No, 2020.

November of 2020.

I had a small group of guys I was hanging out with quite a bit, and they were always like, let's go on a cruise or let's go on a vacation together, like a guy's trip.

And I've just been historically known as kind of a workaholic.

Like I love to work, and you know, I'm always doing something, and I'm always busy, and I can always have the excuse of sorry, I can't go, I need to work.

And so they invited me to like a cruise and some other stuff, which you know, the cruise got canceled because of the thing.

But it but anyway, I always had an excuse of why I couldn't go do that.

And so, fast forward to November, well, I don't know at what point this was, but I was I was hanging out with these guys, and uh, one of my buddies is a fishing guide or was a fishing guide in North Carolina, and so he was talking about going on a tarpon fishing trip with a friend of his.

And I said, Man, I would love, I've never caught a tarpon.

I would love to be on that trip.

But here in North Carolina, there's tarpon, but it's kind of one of those hush-hush fisheries.

Like you don't talk about it, and if you know, you know, and if you don't, too bad.

And so I know that.

And so I was like, look, man, like if you get me on that boat, I'll do anything.

I'll wear a blindfold to the boat and to the fishing spot.

So I don't know where we're at.

And he's like, okay, that's a deal.

And so, you know, a month later, so he calls me and says, Hey, we're going in November, November like 20th or whatever of 2021.

We're gonna pick you up at 3 a.m.

We're gonna drive a few hours and we're gonna be there.

And I'm like, okay, cool.

And he's like, and and bring a blindfold because we're gonna create some content around it.

It'll be funny.

And I was like, all right, dude, I'm in.

And so so they do, they they pick me up.

It's 3 a.m.

rainy morning.

They pick me up.

I throw my, you know, and he's like, and bring a bag because we might stay the night.

And I'm like, cool, no problem.

So throw the bag in there.

And I was a little irritated to be honest, because I didn't want to stay the night.

I'm like, this is stupid.

Like, that's when we do one trip and go.

So man, we drive for like three hours, and then right toward the end, he's like, okay, we're almost here.

I noticed we start going up this parking garage.

And I'm like, what is this?

Like, this is weird.

And um, but whatever, like I didn't know where we were.

I didn't know, you know, maybe this is where we got to park and meet the guy at the boat ramp or whatever.

And so he goes, Okay, man, I'm gonna get out, I'm gonna get the camera set up, I'm gonna get you out, I'm gonna pull your blindfold off.

I'm like, cool.

So he does, pulls my blindfold off.

Well, dude, right there, standing like eight of my dude friends, my closest friends, with cameras, and they're like, dude, happy birthday.

It was my birthday in October.

They're like, happy birthday, bro.

We're going to Puerto Rico.

And I'm like, what?

Dude, I got the video.

I got the video, man.

I'll have to find it and show it to you.

I should post it and tell this story.

I've never told the story before, I don't think.

Uh, you know, publicly.

And so they're like, let's go to Puerto Rico.

Get your shit.

Let's go.

We got to go, we gotta go.

And so we're I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cuss there, but um, so I'm running, I'm grabbing my bag.

I don't even know what bag I'm grabbing.

My wife had packed a suitcase for me.

People were throwing cash in my pocket, like, here's your money, like, let's go, we're gonna miss our flight.

And we were just like running to the to the airport.

And so I get on this plane, man, unexpectedly, and I fly to Puerto Rico and I'm hanging out for five days and you know, on the water, we tarpon fishing, but you know, we didn't catch any at that time.

But we were kayaking, we're doing all this stuff in Puerto Rico, and and I love Puerto Rico, man.

I was like, dude, this place is dope, like this is awesome.

It's it's you know, it's a U.S.

territory, so it's easy to get to.

There's no passports, just bring your driver's license and go.

And uh, and so anyway, I told my wife, I'm like, when I get home, I'm gonna bring you and our our little son Ollie, and let's go.

And so we did.

So we did that in so we turned around and went back in January with that same, some of the same group of friends.

And then our friend group that was with us on vacation, a couple of them were like, hey, we're gonna move down here, we're gonna move to Puerto Rico.

And that kind of developed, and we're like, no, we're not moving.

Like, yeah, I should consider it.

We're like, no, we're not gonna do that, like out of our budget, doesn't make sense for our lifestyle, like, kind of stupid, like honestly, like we're not doing that.

And and so it kept coming up though in conversation, man.

Every it seemed like everybody I talked to was like, oh, dude, have you ever been to Puerto Rico?

I'm like, why are you asking me this?

I've been twice.

Why are you asking me this?

And so this happened over and over for like a month.

And I just told my wife, I'm like, maybe we should just move the puzzle pieces.

And if they move in the place and everything lines up and we can move to Puerto Rico, let's just, let's just go if we can.

We'll just go for a year.

We'll put it on the calendar for a year, we'll just rent our house out, you know, all inclusive or whatever.

So, Kevin, we started doing that, man.

We started moving the puzzle pieces, we started kind of putting some stuff on Facebook and all this, and and uh one of the funniest stories was there's a lady I sold this rug to, and I met her in a parking lot, and she's like, Hey, why are you you know you're selling this rug?

And it was pretty cheap.

I don't know.

We're not really in the rugs, but I guess it was an ex I guess it was like an expensive rug or whatever.

And she's like, Why are you selling this for so cheap?

I'm like, I don't know what it's worth, but we might be moving to Puerto Rico, so we're just kind of cleaning out, and she's like, Oh, she like it was an older lady in her 60s, she almost starts tearing up, and I'm like, What you know, what's going on?

Like, are you okay?

And she's like, She's like, Well, my husband, let me tell you this story.

And I'm like, Okay, all right, great.

So she starts telling me that when she was in her 30s, her and her husband talked about moving to Ireland for a year.

And I was like, Oh, that's cool.

Like, did you did you go?

Did you enjoy it?

And she's like, Nope, we didn't go.

And I was like, Oh, okay.

And she's like, and we sit on our couch every night for 30 years and talk about it.

And I was like, Okay.

So I went home and I was like, honey, or I get back in the car.

I was like, honey, we're moving to Puerto Rico.

No more questions.

I'm not sitting on the couch for 30 years talking about what if we would have moved to Puerto Rico.

We're moving.

And um, and man, it was a trip that changed my life forever.

So we we left uh three months after that, and and we got there, I think.

Think in late July, almost a year ago, at the end of this month, at the end of July, uh, as we're recording this, it'll be a year.

And, you know, I first of all, dude, I thought I was going down there to maybe do some type of philanthropy or, you know, you know, like help young people with technology.

Like, there was all kinds of stuff kind of swarming around in my brain of what we could do.

Um, you know, we thought we were gonna learn Spanish, we thought we were gonna, you know, do all this stuff.

And we get down there, and we're down there for like three months, and nothing is nothing's really happening.

My wife and I are both like, why are we here?

And then we quickly realized like we were there for us.

Like we were there for our marriage, we were there for our son, we were there for the adventure, for some habits and things to break.

And um, and man, I could go into a lot of detail, but I'll I'll kind of leave it there for now.

And if you, you know, if you want to inquire a little bit more, but I would just say kind of uh a quick recap of Puerto Rico.

I learned a lot about patience, perseverance, and I learned well, I learned a lot about health and lost 60 pounds while I was there.

And then I also the biggest takeaway is paradise is a perspective, not a place.

And those are kind of my key takeaways.

SPEAKER_02: Oh, well, we we will definitely circle back around to that, but but I do have to comment on on the whole story.

So, first and foremost, like how crazy awesome were those group of friends?

Dude.

I mean, dude, like I'm like, dude, I need friends like that.

SPEAKER_00: I Kevin, I'm telling you right now, man, like if you or someone listening to this podcast could figure out the logistics of surprise vacations, it was literally the best vacation of my entire life because it was so unexpected that anytime, even if something was annoying, like we had this one friend who had the rental car in his name, and he was like, No one's driving it because if you wreck it, it's on me.

Uh, you know, all this kind of stuff.

And we're like, okay, man, whatever.

And he would like sleep until noon or one o'clock, and we're all annoyed because it's like, dude, we we have one car basically, and we need you to wake up and take us places.

And but instead of being annoyed, I was just like, oh man, I'm just grateful I'm here.

I'm just gonna sit on the deck and drink another cup of coffee and look at the water.

Like, I'm you know, so it was like little stuff like that, man.

So yeah, Puerto Rico, it was surprised to meet Puerto Rico.

It was great to live there.

And yes, everyone needs a group of friends that will, and I don't know how they did it, dude.

They kept it under wraps for like two months and planned the whole thing, and I had no idea it was happening, not one inklink of an idea.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and even to the degree that I mean, they involved your wife in it too.

I mean, that she kept, I mean, she lives with you, sees you every day, and she kept it from you.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, dude, yeah, it was great.

I mean, I literally, and I'll show, dude, I gotta send you the video, man, because the look on my face was just like I mean, even when I watch it, I'm like, yeah, that's exactly how I felt.

You know, it was so crazy.

SPEAKER_02: That is so awesome.

So, so tell me a little bit, because you know, it's one thing to think about moving, one thing to think about like doing, okay, yeah, we're gonna move some, you know, where, but we're not talking about moving to another town, another estate.

We're we're getting in a plane, we're flying.

What kind of stuff, I mean, did did you guys have to do to prepare?

I mean, did you guys rent out your house?

What do you do with cars?

I mean, how how did the whole preparation for for doing a trip like that come about?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man, great question.

And it was it was a lot, it was a lot.

I'll say that.

It was a lot, but we did rent our house out.

And we what we decided to do because we didn't want to move, we didn't like technically want to move out of our house here in North Carolina, but we just wanted somebody to rent it.

So we rented it fully furnished, the whole thing, you know, the market was insane.

So we got a premium price, luckily.

So that was like a source of income for us, which was pretty cool.

So that kind of turned into like a little business there for uh, you know, actually ended up being 10 months, not a whole year.

But yeah, man, we just rented it out and then we just basically like spring cleaning on crack, dude.

It was insane.

Like we were selling stuff, giving stuff away.

And you know, you hear these people that are real, you know, like self-aware and you know, really cons you know, considerate of themselves, or however you would say it, they're like, oh, pick up something if you hold it and you don't, if it doesn't make you feel a certain way, then get rid of it.

And dude, that was real, man.

That was real.

And you're going through your whole entire house and you're picking up stuff and you're going, okay, this doesn't mean anything to me.

I'm gonna put it by the road, or I'm gonna try to sell it, or I'm gonna throw it away.

Dude, it was like, yeah, it was insane, intense spring cleaning.

And then our house, you know, it was like, oh, there's some repair work that we needed to do on it.

So all that stuff got done.

The house got painted.

Like, it was just a crazy three months, man.

It was yeah, it was nonstop for like three months of just moving preparation.

And and we ended up just moving with four suitcases, a couple carry-ons, and a couple dogs.

So it was we we went in, we went pretty light to Puerto Rico.

SPEAKER_02: Wow, that's incredible.

So now arriving in Puerto Rico, because vacationing somewhere is totally different than living somewhere.

And you first experienced Puerto Rico as a vacationer.

So so dive into that kind of comparison for me a little bit of what your experience in Puerto Rico was like.

I mean, talk about, I mean, just a totally different environment.

And so I'm just super curious and would love for you to kind of you know take over and and and give me an overview of that.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.

So I think upon arrival, you know, uh after travel, you're always like exhausted anyway.

You're like, oh, I just want to get to wherever we're going.

And uh, and so we, you know, we got there, we and it's not bad travel.

It's like three or four-hour flight or something like that.

So, but what we had to do is we had to travel down to Miami because we have two dogs.

So that's a whole nother fiasco.

Like shipping dogs is like insane.

Luckily, we had one big dog that we shipped cargo and one little dog that we carried on the plane.

And so we drive down to my Miami.

We like stayed and I halfway in Georgia, go go go finish a trip to Miami and go to ship our dog.

That was like a disaster.

They assumed I knew how to ship a dog.

I assumed that they would tell me how to ship a dog.

A lot of assumptions, a lot of sweat and tears, and want to turn back.

You know, there's a lot of wanting to like, let's just blow this whole trip up and go home.

Like, why are we doing this?

Um, a lot of emotions, real hot, you know, all that kind of stuff.

So, anyway, you get on the plane, you fly over there, you're excited to get there, you get out, you do all the rental car stuff, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Which is funny.

I mean, we just have funny story after funny story.

Uh I I could go on all day, but like basically we had an air, we had a rental car driver driving all over town because we didn't know where the enterprise car rental was.

Like, went to every address known to man that was ever listed for enterprise and it was not there.

So that was annoying.

End up tipping the lady like a hundred bucks because we drove her everywhere.

It was like insane.

So, anyway, we get the car, we drive two hours across the island, we get to our rental house, and there it is, dude.

And it was a beautiful home.

It was a it was an Airbnb.

And so we we, you know, if you don't ask, the answer is always no.

So my wife was like, I think we can find an Airbnb and just rent it long term.

And that's not really a thing for Airbnb, but uh, someone did.

They let us.

We just happened to find the couple that that was like, yeah, we want to take a break.

So if you guys can move here for a year and give us a break of flipping the house every you know couple days and all this stuff, we'll do it.

And so we ended up doing that.

But we get to the house, and I'm like, dude, this place is beautiful, this is awesome.

And it's in the middle of town, so it's kind of close to everything.

And we'd been to that town on vacation, so it wasn't like a huge difference.

And we walk in, and the first thing I noticed, I'm like, dude, this is hot.

This is really, really hot.

Like, where's the AC at?

Like, what is happening?

And they're like, Oh, the there's no AC in the main room, there's only AC in the bedrooms, and we try not to run the AC, like just open up the windows and you can get a breeze.

It dude, it was like from that moment that I was like, wow, what did I just do?

Like, this is stupid.

Like, no AC.

And uh, but man, you acclimate, you know, you you adjust, and it's surprising when you do hard stuff like that.

And you know, in Puerto Rico, I'll just put this out there, it's not it's not like living, you know, it is a developing country, it doesn't have all the conveniences and amenities that the states does, but it's still not like I'm sleeping on a dirt row, you know, a dirt floor out in the middle of the the jungle somewhere.

Like it's not that.

But for me, being a 35-year American and uh, you know, having AC and I can control the temperature inside of my house to not was a huge adjustment.

But dude, it was everything like that, Kevin.

It was like the I'm a convenience guy, I'm a technology guy.

Technology's like, I love it.

I push a button, stuff does other stuff that I don't know about, it's way above my paint grade, and it's amazing, it makes my life easy.

But I walk into his house, there's the it's hot as can be.

I'm immediately just melting.

There's no dishwasher.

So now I've become a dishwasher for a year.

And so, you know, the key on the door, you know, like on our house here in North Carolina, like we have this little push button that we push the four numbers and the door opens.

There, the key, you just gotta keep turning it.

For whatever reason, the door handle is just like turn, turn, turn, turn, turn.

So everything was like really slow, everything was inconvenient and really, really slow.

And at first, it is absolute hell, and you just hate every minute of it.

Or I did anyway, from my perspective.

But you know, after a few months, after five or six months, you really kind of get into the lifestyle.

But but Puerto Rico is definitely slow, and I think it's you know, I don't want to offend anyone, but it I call it the island that almost works.

Like I feel like everything almost worked, like the water almost worked all the time, the power almost worked.

But yeah, dude, you know, even in our house, and it may have just been the house we lived in, which was beautiful by the way, and I would recommend it to anyone, and the people that own it are amazing.

But yeah, dude, it was it was brutal for me, dude.

I hated it.

I hated it for like three or four months.

Like I just was like, dude, I and then from being a podcaster, you know, there's no carpets, it's all tile, it's all concrete, you know, everything's echoey, and the you know, if it's like if you want, there's no such thing as quiet there, and everybody has a car that's like revved up and you know making noise and music's blaring, and we lived on Main Street, and so dude, it was insanely loud, like insane.

And so if you listen to some of my podcast episodes on you know, some older ones, like you'll hear me eventually like give up.

I gave up.

I'm like, look, I live in Puerto Rico, it's just loud.

I don't, I can't figure it out.

I'm not gonna fix it, I'm not gonna edit the sound.

Like, I give up.

Like, this is what it is for the next 12 months.

Sorry.

So it was brutal, dude.

I can't, you know, I've kind of been a little dramatic, but I mean it wasn't like life or death, but it was definitely super inconvenient.

SPEAKER_02: So well, well, I mean, listen, dude, as soon as soon as we start talking about no like central AC at that moment, dude, it becomes like OMG.

Because I mean, I'm I'm the kind of guy who I need I need it cool.

I I got the the house set on 70, yet I still got the window unit in the bedroom to make it even colder when I sleep.

You know what I mean?

So I feel you.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, that's how I was, dude.

And I'm like, I need this thing to I I need this to be cold.

Like, and you know, so the best part, and there was even nights where we're like, you know, in in in most of the year there, I can't remember what months it is, but the winter months are better, like our winter months, quote unquote, is like the best time because it's breezy and you know, it's nice and 75, you know, not 90 or 89 or whatever.

And so that's kind of the best months.

Now, when we went there, like in August, September, October, it is like dead hot.

I mean, so we went luckily, we went at the hottest time, and when we ended up leaving, was at a really good time as well.

But yeah, I mean, that whole trip, dude, was amazing.

And I learned a lot about patience and perseverance and community, like you know, like Puerto Rico, the culture there is very community-minded and community-driven.

Uh, even though we didn't speak the language, like you could just feel the community aspect of it, and people genuinely wanted you to help you or whatever.

You know, it different resources for for there versus here, you know, food, quality of food, all that stuff was way different.

You know, some of it was awesome and some of it was not awesome.

And and it's pros and cons with everywhere, but yeah, it was super inconvenient for me for a long time.

And then, you know, once you get into it, and and the funny part was, man, we had this truck.

I'll tell you this story and I'll be quiet, I promise.

You asked me about Puerto Rico, so now I'm now I'm like getting into all these memories.

So you bought a vehicle there, and if I if I can say anything, if anyone's thinking about moving to Puerto Rico, take a car with you.

Do not buy an island car because they are pieces of crap.

And so we we find this 1996 Montero Sport or whatever it is, Montero.

Four-wheel drive.

It's got big tires on it, like 33s or whatever.

And my son calls it the monster truck, and it is awesome, dude.

AC blows cold, like it is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

We overpay for it, like 4,500 bucks, 4,400, something like that.

It's got 200,000 miles on it, and this thing is awesome for like a month, and then it just starts falling apart.

The AC stopped working, the uh antifreeze and the oil just leaked.

Like, I never figured it out.

I replaced all kinds of parts, put another thousand dollars in it, never could figure out what was going on with this truck.

I literally every single day, the two things I hated the most is I washed dishes every day because my wife would wash dishes, she's not good at it.

So I'm like, you know what?

I'm just gonna do it.

And same for painting.

I don't know.

You know, I don't I'm not a good painter, or so I so I paint wrong because I hate painting.

So maybe she just didn't wash dishes well because she wanted me to do it.

But every day, dude, I'd go out there to this truck and just put oil in it or put antifreeze or check all the fluids, and it was a pain.

Well, then I get a phone call one day from my wife.

She's at the grocery store, and she's like, Hey, I think I might need you to figure out how to come get me because we just have one car.

And I'm like, I'm well, why?

Like, what's happened?

She's like, Well, the car won't go in reverse.

I'm like, you gotta be kidding me.

And so this car, dude, would like randomly never go in reverse.

And we'd be sitting there sometimes for 15 or 20 minutes, or sometimes we'd have to find somebody that was parked in front of us and say, Hey, can you move?

And we need to drive our car out and it doesn't go in reverse.

And so, dude, what it taught me though, and I, you know, it's like, oh, you learned so many lessons, but I really did because, you know, once we figured out that this is a consistent non-reverse car, we started to realize like we got to position ourselves differently.

Like every time we park, every, you know, we got to be super mindful of, and you don't think about this.

You you you you drive your car, you go park in a group a spot, and cool, you just back up or you go forward or whatever.

But for us, we couldn't do that anymore.

We couldn't do the normal thing.

Like, we had to figure out every single time we went to go park this car, how do we park ourselves to go forward and never in reverse?

And so we end up actually getting my wife drew because she's like I said, she's a graphic designer and an artist or whatever.

And so she actually drew drew the car, and we both got tattoos to commemorate Puerto Rico.

And my whole thing about the tattoo is like this car taught me to always position myself to go forward because reverse may not be an option.

And so that was dude, that car.

I hate I mean, I even look at it on my arm and I hate that car, but dude, it taught me so much, man.

It taught me so much about patience and perseverance, like it's insane.

Of that, you know, that whole season.

SPEAKER_02: Wow.

Well Billy, I dude, that is probably the coolest thing I've ever heard because I absolutely love somebody who can take one little aspect of this whole experience.

We're talking about this car and and realize that you know it caused you all this money, a total headache.

Yet at the same point, realizing this this monumental kind of shift that it taught you about life and and that it left an impact that you guys have it tattooed on you.

I mean, dude, that is that's just absolutely awesome.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, dude, this thing was fun.

I mean, even oh, dude, even down to selling it.

So, so buying it and selling it both were a pain in the neck.

And so, you know, the way we bought it, we like there's you just gotta buy it and then you gotta do all this attorney stuff or whatever, like in different states and different places, different countries, different rules.

And but we, you know, we we paid you know four thousand dollars.

I give this guy cash, and he's like, Cool, we'll meet you at the place tomorrow to sign the papers.

And I'm like, Well, do I get a receipt or do I get like a like do I get something?

He's like, No.

I'm like, I did I just handed you$4,400 in cash.

Like, I'm getting something.

I'm getting a key, I'm getting the car, I'm getting a title, I'm getting, I'm digging, you know, your kid, I'm doing something is coming with me.

Yeah.

And he was like, there's a culture thing.

It was like, or not a culture thing, it was just the way I guess it was a culture thing.

It's just the way they they're like, no.

And I'm like, yes, like I don't know where I this where I come from, like you're handing me something.

Like you're giving me some kind of proof I purchased this.

And they ended up actually like letting me take the car home and you know, for the night or whatever.

But then when I went to go sell it, so dude, this is the silly part about this car, and it's just the curse of my life, you know, or whatever, or is I clean the car up.

You and I have it.

This car's old and rugged and just beat up.

So I really, to be honest, didn't take very good care of, you know, I was too busy in the motor trying to keep it running, so I wasn't really taking care of the outside.

And so I clean this thing up to get ready to sell, and it is looking great.

And so I take some pictures, I put it on Facebook, and I'm listing it, you know, all this stuff.

Well, dude, I wake up the next morning to go in it and I open the door, the glove compartment is open, the radio is gone, all my snorkel gear, like$500 worth of snorkel gear, or fold up$10 fold up chairs, they're all gone.

Like everything in this car is gone.

And I'm over here like, you've got to be kidding me.

And we're a week from moving, we're like a week out.

I'm like, you gotta be freaking kidding me.

And what happened was the back gate on the truck did not like if you'd locked it with the key, you had to like do all kinds of crazy stuff to get it unlocked because it's a piece of crap.

And so I just left it unlocked that night because I'm like, I don't want to deal with this stupid thing.

And I'd done that many, many, many nights before.

And I think what I did was advertise on Facebook that, hey, I got some stuff in here, you should come, you know, you should come steal it all.

I think that's what you know, it's my fault, I'm sure.

But anyway, I call the cops just to report it because my my landlord's like, please just report it that way.

They can, you know, know some some people are stealing stuff out of people's cars or whatever.

So I report it.

Well, the cop shows up and they're like, Yeah, basically, too bad.

Like, we're not even gonna fight, you know, waste our time.

Like, you're leaving the island in a week and we're not gonna do anything.

Like, basically, like you lost.

And I'm like, okay.

And they're like, What are you gonna do with the car?

And I'm like, Well, I'm gonna sell it.

And they're like, hold on.

So about five minutes later, another cop pulls up and buys the car.

So I'm like, okay, this is crazy.

So he says, Hey, I'm gonna buy the car and we're gonna give you X amount of dollars, which was way less than what I paid for it and what I had invested in.

I'm like, okay, whatever, cool.

You you can you can do it.

And he, you know, I was like, but I need the car until I leave.

So I need you to buy it next week.

And he's like, okay, cool, no problem.

So dude, we do all this stuff, we do all the paperwork, we do everything, and then I, you know, I give him a car, I deliver the car to him, and we're like a day from leaving.

I get a phone call from the guy, the the lady who's translating between us, and says, Hey, you got to go to the lawyer right now and file some affidavit because the paperwork is missing.

Like whoever robbed the car took the paperwork that we needed, and the paperwork that was left in the car is the wrong one.

And so, dude, I'm sitting there a day before we're about to fly out of this place over this stupid car, man.

I'm like, I hate this car.

Like, it is and I film the only it's like a holiday.

And in Puerto Rico, dude, holidays are everything like a day off and an excuse to go.

Party is like what Puerto Rico is.

And so there was one lawyer in town that was open, one.

And I just happened to stumble into there because there's like a little street in Isabella, Puerto Rico, where there's like some lawyers' offices.

And I just happened to like stumble in there, and they and they and the guy was basically like telling me he wasn't gonna do it.

And I'm like, nah, dude, you got to.

Like, I don't know what you're like, I have to do this.

And he was like, no.

And then I, you know, I had the cop call him and the cop they knew each other or whatever.

So the good old boy system worked out down there as well.

Uh so anyway, man.

Yeah, I can tell you a story.

I write a whole book about this 1996 Montero.

And if I ever, like our landlord down there will send us pictures like, hey, you miss your truck.

And I'm like, I'm gonna, yeah, whatever.

You're about to get a text full of cuss words.

SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, dude.

So at the end of the day, God bless America.

SPEAKER_00: Dude, I love the United States of America.

Anybody in Puerto Rico is not bad, man.

We're gonna go back.

We're not gonna move there ever again, but we're definitely gonna go back and visit.

But that for those people who've never been out of their hometown, who stand on their front porch with their American flag, shooting fireworks, drinking Bud Light, saying, God bless America, it's the best country ever, you don't know that to be factual.

Like you need to leave the United States, go somewhere hard, and then come back, and then you will really believe that.

You'll really be convinced.

Right now it's just something that people taught you how to say, but I literally love this country and it's all the little things that adds up, man.

You know, when I got back in the States in Miami and I was picking up my dogs, and I went to the gas pump, dude, just to swipe my card and pull the little metal lever down that when you pump your gas that holds the handle, it almost brought tears to my eyes.

Yeah.

Because it was like, wow, that is so nice and so convenient.

And I don't have to go in, guess how much gas it's gonna be, come out, pump it, go back in, get a refund, or pay the difference or whatever.

It's like it was so awesome, dude.

Anyway.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, well, I mean, and and and you know, and and me and you, you know, we're we're laughing about it, having a good time, but when you really think about it, sometimes, like you said, you know, about you know, the you don't realize how good you have it until you experience something different.

And you know, it in whatever it is in life, whether it's you know, you traveling outside the country like you, you know, you've just talked about, or just you know, walking a mile in someone else's shoes, it gives you a new perspective on life.

It helps you to kind of you know sit back and realize, wow, how many blessings we have in our everyday life, you know, that we all take for granted.

At some point or another, we just do because it's just our norm.

But, you know, a trip like that, which I mean, just I'm sure as crazy as it was, as terrible as the Montero was, it will be, you know, a memory, an experience that that you and your wife will remember forever.

SPEAKER_00: Dude, a hundred percent, man.

And I and I think that's what you know when people ask me, like, well, should I do it?

Should I not?

You know, should I go somewhere?

Should I do this?

Should I and really the truth is like you should do whatever you want to do.

Like, honestly, if the last couple years or a few years has taught us anything, it's like, we're not promised tomorrow.

And I know this is so cliche.

I know it is, I I even hate saying it, but it's very true.

And it's like, you know, you might not wake up tomorrow.

So it's like, if you want to go start that business today, go for it.

Like, take the risk.

Because the worst thing you're gonna do is learn something.

You know, it's like my expectations for Puerto Rico were much, much, much, much, much different than what actually happened.

However, the reward was much, much, much, much, much greater than I think I could have achieved with the expectations that I had if they would have came to pass.

And so, you know, and it and it's all down to mindset, it's all down to perspective.

And, you know, like even in Puerto Rico, man, like, I mean, this is my wife was having some health issues and she was having her blood sugar was dropping and doing some weird stuff, and she did some research and started a certain diet and started having some amazing results with her health problem, but then also started having amazing physical results and was like, you know, losing weight.

And she wasn't was it wasn't like overweight, period.

I mean, she was already looking good, but she started like looking really good and like losing all this weight.

And then I was like, man, I need to try that.

And so I did and ended up, you know, so the first, I believe, the first four to five months we were there was like mental preparation, like, man, if I can do this, then I can do, I can conquer this weight loss thing, and I can control my eating and I can do all this this hard stuff.

And so I started it, and I started it, I stopped it after three days and ate a big pizza and drank a big fat margarita, and then didn't do it for a few days and then, or you know, for a week, and then I decided like, man, I got to do this for me.

And this was, and this is a whole nother story, but this weight loss journey I've been on was really a selfish one because I think a lot of times we'll say, well, we want to do something for somebody else, or you know, my kid, my wife, my mom, my dad, my family.

I want to make them proud.

But there's it's okay to be selfish and go, you know what?

I want to lose weight for me.

I want to go on this adventure for me.

And, you know, I think the the first few months we're in Puerto Rico and realizing this journey was about us, was about our family, was about my wife and I, you know, there's some parts of our marriage that we didn't even realize were, you know, kind of pushing us to the edge, but we were getting closer to the edge and and not enjoying each other, not being around each other.

And then all of a sudden, like in Puerto Rico, like we're around each other all the time for 10 months.

And it was, it was such a and it was like no man, like good, bad, ugly, like you think you know your wife?

Go spend 10 months in a concrete prison in Puerto Rico where it's hot as hell, and you'll know what you're really like.

And so, you know, through this whole thing, man, all this kind of like, okay, if I can do that, I can do this weight loss thing.

And so I'm gonna spend the next six months while I'm here in Puerto Rico and I'm gonna do I'm gonna lose weight.

And uh, and that started that journey of doing keto and and really sticking to it.

But it was really selfish.

It was really like, I want to do this for me.

I'm that's the only person I'm doing it for.

And when I made that decision, that's when I started getting discipline, weight started to drop off, mental clarity started to come, business started to grow, like all these things started to happen because I decided I wanted to do it.

And I think that's a lot of the stories I've told, you know, today on your podcast have been stories of decision.

And it's like, okay, I'm gonna decide I'm gonna be a content creator.

I'm gonna decide I'm gonna move to Puerto Rico.

I'm gonna decide, like I made those decisions.

No one else, no other entity.

Sure, I've been inspired by other people, I've been inspired by other entities, I've you know, done whatever.

But at the end of the day, the buck stops with me to say, do I or do I not want to do that?

And that's totally my choice.

And, you know, so far the choices, maybe they've not all been the greatest, but they've gotten me to where I'm at.

And I can say, you know, without a shadow of a doubt, man, like I enjoy life more than ever.

And yeah, you're right.

We have a ton of fun stories that we're gonna tell for years and years and years, and probably forget and remember, and maybe even add to or leave some details out, but we're gonna have a lot of stories forever from that trip to Puerto Rico.

SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.

Well, Billy, dude, I have enjoyed talking to you so much today about just more than just this experience of you guys moving to to Puerto Rico, but just letting you share this just beautiful like look on life.

And I'm I'm really appreciative that you've taken the time to share it with me today and and with my audience.

And and dude, before we we end everything, please tell everybody where they can follow you, dive in more to into your content, you know, all the things.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.

So I really appreciate you, first of all, Kevin, for having me on, man.

Such an honor.

And you know, I've been excited to to be on your show for a long time.

And I know, you know, Puerto Rico is a part of the equation of not being on here sooner, but I really appreciate you having me and letting me talk.

Now I'm gonna go back and listen to this and go, wow, dude, you had a really jacked-up life.

Like you should probably figure that out.

Um but if you guys want to connect with me, it's uh the easiest way is creating daily.live.

That's my my podcast, so you can go check that out and connect with me on that website.

But that's probably the easiest way, and I think all my contact info are you know is over there.

SPEAKER_02: So well, fantastic.

Well, well, dude, again, thank you so much for for being on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00: Dude, it's my pleasure.

Thank you, Kevin.

SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.

And for you listening today, uh, I hope you enjoyed hanging out with this awesome guy as much as I have.

I don't know if if we've encouraged you to consider moving abroad or made you realize, wow, home's pretty darn nice.

But either way, you know, I hope today's episode just really just kind of had you laughing and and even more so, had you really kind of thinking about life, what you're doing.

Are you loving what you're doing?

Because if not, maybe consider making a change.

Because one thing that Billy Thorpe has taught me is that, you know what?

The worst thing we can do is not make a change, to not go for it, to not chase our dreams, to not do something a little wild, a little crazy.

Put your big toe in the water, test it out, and then dive right in.

Until next week, this is the lowdown with Kevin Lowe.

Have an amazing day.

And that's the lowdown with Kevin Lowe.

I hope today's episode inspired you, motivated you, and excited you to get out and enjoy life, no matter what obstacles that may be standing in the way.