Serial Killers to Samurai: Bart Merrell

This is the Chris Project, where we discuss mental wellness, self-awareness, and mindset with entrepreneurs and experts. Set your perceived ideas and biases aside and let's go on our journey for yourself, for your family, for the world.

Welcome to another episode of The Chris Project. I am your host, Christian Brim. Joining me today, Bart, not Brett Merrill, the Side Hustle Ninja, right? Samurai.

Which samurai?

It's right there on his shirt. Christian, not a ninja. Samurai. Very distinct. Sorry, Bart. Welcome to the show.

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Uh, if you were going to be a side hustle ninja, how would it be different than a side hustle samurai?

It would be in the darkness, sneaky and undercover.

Right, right. Samurais are more in your face.

Yeah, samurais are the warriors.

Okay, I'm gonna go down this very strange rabbit hole real, real quickly. Uh, you look like you're of, of my age. Did you ever hear a band called Oingo Boingo? I did.

Okay.

They had a song called Reptiles and Samurai. Did you ever hear it?

I probably did, but I would have to hear it to recognize it.

I want you to go listen to it because it describes samurai and we'll see if you connect.

Okay. I will. I will.

So what does a side hustle samurai do?

So I have never had a real job. I've always done my own thing. Not on purpose. My goal was to get in the FBI and chase serial killers. That was my dream. Pause, pause, pause, pause, pause.

Why would you want to do that? That sounds terrifying.

So I watched a movie when I was about 17 or 18. It was called Manhunter. And it was the— I don't know if it was the preface or if, if, um, Silence of the Lambs was a remake of Manhunter. I believe that's what it was.

Okay.

And that Manhunter, the way the, the agent just had to get in people's minds and catch these, these killers just fascinated me. And I was, I was stuck. I mean, I was My, my mom said the same thing. Why would you want to do that?

And, and now, did you watch, did you watch Mindhunters?

Mindhunters?

This is a recent series. It was about the FBI serial killer program, the profilers, that started in the '50s. Um, but it used real-life serial killers like Charles Manson and— Charles Manson?

No, I haven't seen that. Jeffrey Dahmer.

Oh yeah, because— well, the reason why I asked that is because, uh, no spoilers here, but like getting into the mind of these people really screwed up the agents, like, because you had to go dark places.

Yeah, and that, that is kind of what happened in, in Manhunter as well. That is not in Silence of the Lambs, is that guy got in a dark place to catch the guy and you just So maybe it wasn't the best choice and it didn't happen.

You were 17.

And but I, but that was my goal. I, we had a, a FBI agent friend who said the easiest way into the FBI was through accounting. And once you get in, you don't have to stay in the white collar area. When jobs open up, you apply. And if you're good, if you're the one they pick, you get it. And so that was my goal. I went to school, I studied accounting. I wasn't good at it, I didn't like it, but it was a means to an end, and I, I did it. About one— I had one semester, one quarter left, and I took off and I went home to New Mexico to work on the farm with my dad and improve my Spanish, because Spanish is something that the FBI like. And while I was there, this is back in '92, '93, somewhere in that range. Radial keratotomy, RK surgery for your eyes, had just come out. And I had friends in the, in customs and border patrol, cops that were getting it done, and it was really successful. I'm down in Podunk, New Mexico, making money, no place to spend it. I'm like, I'm gonna do it. And I went and got it done, corrected my vision, 20/20 in one eye, 20/25 in the other eye. I got back up to school, started the application process for the FBI, and found out that that automatically disqualified me from the FBI.

Having the surgery?

Yes. Interesting. Because it was still considered experimental. Okay. And they didn't want to spend thousands, tens of thousands, however much they spent to train me, get me up to staff, and then— their loss. Lose my sight.

Their loss.

So I was devastated. I was up at school doing my part-time job of landscaping for $5 an hour, and a buddy of mine asked me jokingly, "Hey, you want to go back to Japan? Because we just sold a bungee tower in Japan." And I said, not jokingly, seriously, I said, "Yes, I'm in. Let's do it." 3 months later, I was in Japan pushing little Japanese people off the top of a bungee tower.

And it kind of feels like bullying, you know? I mean, you're a large white man throwing these small Oriental people off the— I'm sorry, go ahead.

Yeah. And that's kind of where things derailed from the FBI and re-railed into something else that just has— I just do what comes through my life, good, bad, or ugly. I always ask, how can I monetize it? And this is something I got from my dad. My dad was a pig farmer, but he had his hands in many different areas in the agricultural industry. He was part owner of a dairy farm in Idaho, part owner of a mushroom warehouse in Utah, part owner of a produce warehouse that would bring produce from Mexico and then distribute it to the grocery stores. That was in Arizona. It was actually where Diamondbacks Stadium now stands. And when they wanted that piece of property, they made a good chunk of change because— yes, they paid well.

I can imagine.

And that's just— Dad never sat me down and taught me the birds and the bees of business. He just showed me by example, by what he did, right? And so when I was caught in a bind and things— so I'm in Japan And I'm going to the gym and I'm the biggest gringo, the biggest gaijin in the gym, or the only gaijin in the gym, biggest person in the gym. And people, except for the staff, didn't talk to me because they were either scared of me or they didn't think I spoke Japanese, whatever the reason. And one time, about probably 2 or 3 weeks into going to the gym, this guy comes up to me and he goes, "Hello." Now, did you speak Japanese? Do I speak Japanese? Yes. Yes, I did.

Okay. All right.

I had lived 2 years in Japan before that. Okay. And so this guy comes up and he goes, "Hello." And I said, "Hello." And then I started speaking Japanese to him and he's like, "Whew." Because that was all he knew. Yeah. He says, "I was done at hello." Yes. We became friends about 6 months to a year later. So he was a big rig driver. In Japan. Okay. And he decided, he's like, I want to stop driving big rig. I want to import trailers, camping trailers, trucks, you know, diesel pickups to pull the trailers. Will you help me? I had no idea what I was doing. I said, yeah. I just assumed he knew what he was doing. He didn't know either. So we figured it out together. This was back in around '97, and we've been doing that ever since. It is a side hustle time, but it pays me, you know, full-time income. Right. Something I do on the side. And so things like that, just, I look back on my life and I say, hmm, I was lucky. But no, it wasn't luck. Well, it was luck. But what is luck? Seneca says luck is where preparedness meets opportunity.. And then I added take action, because if you don't take action, nothing happens. And so that's why I'm the Side Hustle Samurai. I've been doing things all my life, multiple streams of income. And if, if I had to do it all over again, I would probably do it.

So what do you look for when you're looking for your next gig? Is it something specific, or is there some kind of criteria that you use, or is it, yeah, just interests me?

So anything that comes in front of me, good, bad, or ugly, I say, can I monetize it? I don't monetize everything, but I always ask the question. Give you— I don't know if you've researched into me, but I lost my leg last year, March 25th, 2024. I had to have my lower left leg cut off. When I found—

was that some kind of disease that— or did you injure it?

I was dropped from a ropes course in 2020 or 2012, and I was diagnosed that it was just a bad sprain. I found out in 2021 that it was crushed on the back and the front, and it never healed right. And they said, whenever it gets bad enough, you're probably going to have to have it fused. Being a tough cowboy from New Mexico, when it got bad enough that I thought I needed to get it fused, I went in, got it to— the idea was to book a fusion appointment. And the radiologist took the first picture. And the radiologist, they're not supposed to say anything.

Yeah. When they say something, it's bad.

Yeah. And from behind the panel, it's like, damn, you don't have an ankle bone. And so my ankle bone had just scraped and scraped and scraped and disintegrated. And so I had to have it cut off.

And fascinating. I mean, that's fascinating. I mean, to me, not to you.

It was terrifying, to be honest. But when the shock and awe was over of, hey, this is going to happen. I sat down and I told myself exactly that. There's nothing I can do about it. This is gonna happen. How can I monetize it? Okay, I'm curious. Post-op, I contracted with my prostatist to help people who are going through what it is I went through.

Okay.

And this is kind of— I'm And this wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been thinking about it for almost a year. Yeah. Okay. But I'm sitting there in the office where he's working on my leg and stuff. And I said, Scott, your competition that I met with before I chose you, they have a guy. Mm-hmm. Because I talked to the guy and he, you know, counseled me and helped me with ideas to prepare for this. They have a guy. You don't have a guy. I'm your guy. And I said, Scott, I don't want a job. I want a contract with you, and I will help people that you send me to. We'll set up a price, a monthly salary, whatever you want to call it. And I'm a 1099 contractor with him, and I make XYZ. And anytime someone needs me, I go there and talk to them, whether it's at the hospital And then I help him with some of his marketing. If I don't have anybody to talk to, he says, hey, can you do this for me? I'm like, yeah, sure, let's do it.

A brand ambassador, if you will. Yes. So this wasn't Scott Sabolich, was it?

No. Okay. No.

He's a famous prosthetics guy here in Oklahoma City. I mean, like, he's worldwide.

And so Scott's in Utah and his name's Scott Allen, Fit Well Prosthetics, and it's He's the best guy in Utah, in my opinion. But I'm kind of biased.

Well, yeah. Okay, I want to fill in some blanks. My family's lived in Albuquerque for 30-plus years. I'm not from there. Whereabouts in New Mexico were you living?

So, you know, the little boot hill at the bottom?

Oh, yeah.

Right smack dab in the middle of there.

Okay, so you were nowhere.

Yes. My dad used to say it's where the road ends and the West begins. And that's exactly what it was.

Yeah, I picked up a couple of phrases. New Mexico, it's not really new. It's not really Mexico. And the other one was New Mexico, like Mexico, only cleaner. Well, that's debatable.

It depends on— that is debatable.

They haven't clearly been to Gallup. So sorry, Gallup, if anyone's listening.

Exactly. And anyway, so that's kind of how my mind works. And it's because of watching my dad and then my dad encouraging me as a kid. I loved music and I bought my first stereo at age 11. I worked on the pig farm all summer. It was a Sanyo all-in-one system.

Yes.

$285. It had the cassette deck over here. What was over here? You're old enough to know.

You had a dual cassette so you could dub tapes, no?

It was an 8-track player over here.

Okay.

Yes. Right. And then the tuner in the middle, record on the top. And I was into it, man. I love music. Every time— little did I know this was a liability because every time we went to town, I had to buy the new tunes. And back then it was the full cassette tape.

You had to buy all of it whether you liked it all or not.

Yep. And so when I turned 15, got my driver's license, I turned that into my first business. I was a mobile disco business, but in Podunk, New Mexico, where nobody is, nobody was hiring 15-year-old DJs. So I hired the— I rented the community center, hired an off-duty cop for security. Mom and Dad took money at the door. I spun records. Everybody danced and had a good time after the football game or the basketball game on the weekend.

Now you're a promoter.

Yeah, right. Made $600, $700 a night. And then guess what happened after I did that for, I don't know, a year, year and a half? Now the schools wanted to do their own dances and they hire me.

So have you had any— so I find the phrase monetize, but understanding that you're an accountant by trade or by education, that, that makes more sense, but Layman's terms might be, how can I make money off this?

Right?

So have you run into situations where you thought that you were going to make money and realized that this isn't going to make money?

So for several reasons. So I'm in Japan and there is a restaurant that I love. It's called Kokowichi Bon Curry. I don't know if you've ever had Japanese curry, but man, to me it is actually the best curry.

Which is strange, but yes, I have. We have a great— we have a great ramen bar here in Oklahoma City that is— I think you could plump it down in downtown Tokyo and it would stick.

Well, this restaurant is the first place I go when I land in Japan and it's the last place I go when I leave. And I thought, you know, I want to take this to America. I want to do this. And I actually had a Japanese guy that was going to back it, was going to fund it. He says— and I had to check with my other Japanese friends to make sure I understood what he said— but he said, if you don't make it, don't worry about the money, but if you make it, we split. And I was like, well, what kind of split? Uh, whatever you think is fair. So this guy was just a friend, he wanted to help me out, he was well off, and I, like I said, I had to check with my other friends just to make sure I really understood what he said.

Am I hearing this correctly? Yes.

And so I had it all set up and I came home and I was doing the research and getting things ready to go. And I decided, you know what? I like to eat curry. I don't know that I want to work that hard in a restaurant.

Restaurant business is brutal, dude.

And it's not easy. You're working all the time.

And, and you— and unless you're really good, you don't make money. I mean, like, now the thing about this— where is home? Like, where were you going to do this?

In Utah.

Okay.

And the thing about this restaurant in Japan, all of their, their franchisees were in profit their first year. And if you go to Okinawa or go to Tokyo where the The American base is— you go there on a Friday and Saturday night and you think you're in America because it's all gaijins over there that are in this restaurant. And so I was sure it would fly. Well, and who knows how sure I was, but I just didn't want to work that hard. And so I said, no, I don't want to take your money because I really had nothing in the game. And so if I kind of got into it and just kind of, you know, halfway did it, it wouldn't succeed anyway, right? And so I just, I told the guy, says, you know, I don't want to work that hard. And so that's one that didn't necessarily fail. I stopped it before it did. Okay. Me and a buddy of mine, we did a snowmobile rental company, and we, we both like to snowmobile. Now, I, I don't like to just cruise around on the trails and stuff. I got to be doing something that's going to get me hurt, you know, climbing, jumping. But I liked snowmobiling. And so we were going to take the machines up to the top of the mountain and rent them from the top of the mountain so people wouldn't have to pull their own sleds. They could just come in their car, park, and go. And we did that for probably 3 years. But it just didn't— you're depending on the weather. I think when we were done, we were both in debt somewhere around $20,000. So we didn't lose tons, but we didn't make money and we did spend a lot of time and effort. Yeah. And so that was a learning experience because you're dealing with the public when it comes to— they don't care about your sled and they beat the hell out of it and they bring it back and think it's okay, or they don't know what they're doing and they get stuck. And then I spend all day trying to get people unstuck because I'm there. Right. And so someone comes back and go, we need help getting unstuck. And so what am I doing? I'm doing the stuff that everybody hates to do, getting unstuck.

So did that change the paradigm of what you're looking for from a go-forward standpoint? I mean, did you— like, for me, I would have taken that and said, okay, I'm not going to do anything that's dependent on the weather, or I don't want to do anything that is public-facing, like I have to go out and service customers. Did that change your paradigm or thinking?

At least with the weather.

Yeah.

But you can do it on— you can take that to other situations that I guess I'm in. So my exports to Japan, when COVID hit and inflation hit, a trailer that I was purchasing for $19,000 is all of a sudden costing me $40,000. Yes. And then you had the Japanese yen go from ¥108 to the dollar to ¥150 to the dollar. So they're having to spend 42% more to get my— to get the money to pay me, plus the product just doubled. So that was tough. Then you had the the supply chain hold up. Yes. And so I would order a trailer, they couldn't tell me when it would get done or how much it was going to cost when it does get done. And so that makes it pretty hard to function and sell trailers when I can't tell you when it's going to be done or how much it's going to cost. We did continue to sell and do things, but it was we had to mark it up extremely just because we didn't know how much it was going to cost us in the end. And then you had to have a very patient end user to be willing to wait and just take, just take the updates and be okay with it.

So you have described yourself, and I'm thinking, comparing it to myself, I Perry Marshall had— I was at one of his live events and he described entrepreneurs as two classes. He said there's builders and there's artists. And he said, you know, builders see an opportunity and they— I say exploit it— they take advantage of it, right? The artist is motivated by passion, like, so this is something I love to do and therefore I'm going to build a business around it. I don't really think anybody's one or the other. I think it's more of a continuum. But it does speak to that idea that what are your motivations for being in business? And I sometimes wish I was not as much of an artist because as an entrepreneur, you see all kinds of opportunities around like, you know, man, man, somebody should fix this. Yeah, you know, it's just that it's like you go into any establishment and it's like, I wonder why they do that that way. I wonder if they did it this way. You know, it's just a sickness. Do you think that's a fair paradigm? And do you agree with that assessment of yourself?

So when I look at things and so when I, when I take, when I try and get someone to teach them how to think like me, we go through a process because if you didn't grow up with my dad or someone like my dad, you don't think like I do. And so I'm trying to, to instill that in my clients. And so we go down, what do you like to do? What do you need to do? What are you already doing? And then we ask the question. And so we make lists and I say, don't even think about if you can monetize it or not. I want you to make lists of these 3 things. Now let's take it one step further. What would you like to learn? What do you need to learn? What have you already learned that you can get compensated for if you shared that with someone who wanted to learn it? So I take them down that to get them thinking, to get them to say, hey, what do I know? What can I share? And so I ex— if you want to use the word exploit, take advantage of the things that are all around me. If you're doing a side hustle in this day and age, with time being so valuable, that's your most precious resource.

Yes.

Why not monetize the stuff that you're already doing?

Yeah, that's a brilliant idea, whether you like it or not.

I didn't— and let me rephrase that. I didn't enjoy getting my leg chopped off. I do enjoy talking to people and helping them through the process, right?

Okay.

Another thing I think that what you need to do is overlooked by so many people. So several years ago, my wife, she said to me, you're giving me way more than I bargained for. 'And I would like to see a little less of you.' Meaning I was overweight.

Ah, okay.

She says, 'You've been working on that before picture way too long. It's time to start working on the after picture.' Now she was being funny, but she was right. I mean, I look back on my before and after pictures and I go, 'Dang, I was in bad shape.' But so when she convinced me, or we both said, 'Okay, I need to lose weight,' My first thought was, if I'm going to lose weight, I'm going to get paid for it. Like Marie Osmond, who is the spokesperson for Nutrisystem. Dan Marino was part of it back then as well. And so I went to GoDaddy and I said, okay, I want to give my wife what she bargained for. So I want to get back to my wedding weight, which is a goal that a lot of people have. I typed in backtomymyweddingweight.com. It was available. I bought it. I went in and I didn't even know what was— what I— how am I going to lose weight? I had no idea how this was going to happen, but if it's going to happen, I'm going to make money doing it. I went in search of the holy grail of weight loss programs to help me get healthy and lose weight. Back then, it was the 90-day challenge of people dieting and getting their butt to the gym. And I had enough motivation to get to the gym, pay for my 3-year membership, and then never go back again. And that is exactly what happened. And so I held on to this domain name for 7 and a half years. And then finally, my friend Beth, she called me from California and she says, Bart, I found it. It's amazing. You got to try it. If you try it and you don't like it, you get your money back. You got to try it. I'm like, Beth, Beth, What is it? And she said, it's the 10-day Celebrity Transformation Cleanse. And I said, Dad— I said, Beth, I want to do a 10-day cleanse like I want a colonoscopy, and that's not very bad.

Not very bad? Well, I mean, they'd be similar.

Yeah. And she was— she paused for a second. She's pretty quick on her feet. And she says, well, at your age, you probably need both. Mm, thanks. And long story short, she kept on pressuring me, pressuring me. First cleanse, I lost 18.5 pounds without stepping foot inside a gym. Hmm. I was excited. I bought another one. So I paused for like 4 or 5 days, went back and did another one. Another 11 pounds gone. So in less than 30 days, I'm down almost 30 pounds. In 2 months and 5 days, I lost 48 pounds. And got back to my wedding weight and was giving my wife what she bargained for. And it's been— I mean, this, this was years ago, and I'm probably 10 pounds up from the 48 that I've lost. And so I've kept most of it off. If I get a little too heavy, I do another cleanse. And it's not a juice cleanse, it's not— it's a, it's a vegan cleanse is basically what it is. And it cleans out your system, it Anyway, it was the holy grail of weight loss programs, and that's not what this is about. What it's about is by cleanse 3, people started noticing, right? I was walking my dog in front of my house, and one of my neighbors from down the street was driving by, and he stopped to see who was stealing Bart's dog. And he's like, oh, that's you! Wow, what have you been doing? 'You look 20 years younger,' is exactly what he said. And so when that happened, my, my domain name became a stream of income. And so even to this day, if I do a cleanse and I'm drinking my green drink on social media and I'm showing my before and after pictures, that, that domain name makes me money. It's not a lot, you know, $50 to $1,000 Right. But I'm getting paid for something I was already going to do. Yeah.

And that's a fascinating mindset. I mean, I love it. I can't really find any fault in it. Let's pivot a minute. You know, before we started the show, we were talking about the origin story of the Chris Project. And then you brought up that when you learned that you were going to have to amputate your leg, that, you know, that was a bad place. So how do you handle those downturns?

Those—

I mean, because just listening to you, it sounds like you are a— opportunistic and optimistic person, right? Like, you see, you see opportunity, and therefore optimism comes from that everywhere. But what about when that doesn't work?

So I had 6 months to think about getting my leg cut off for various reasons. It was the end of the year. So first off, it was for insurance reasons, let's wait till the first of the year. Then something happened and I had to postpone it a little more. And then I went to the clinic that was going to do it and they say, oh, we're— we are shutting down and moving to this bigger hospital, so we're only doing one-night stays. So they wanted to chop off my leg and send me home the next day. And I'm like, put you out on the curb, you know? I'm not good with that. Yeah. And so I switched to a different doctor, a different hospital, but people were always asking me, "How are you so positive about this?

How?

I would be devastated." And I don't know that I have a great answer because I think about it, because walking through those hospital doors that morning, I may have been limping, but I was walking into the hospital to get my leg cut off. And that was— the most terrifying thing I've ever done. And I've done some pretty stupid, crazy, adrenaline junkie stuff. But to me, and the best way to explain this to me, I felt like dead man walking, a prisoner walking to the death chamber, because I was walking in. But I wasn't walking out. Because I'm not going to have a leg.

So did they amputate it below the knee, above the knee?

Below the knee. Okay. And I didn't know how bad this was going to hurt. I'd never done it before. So many questions going on in my mind. How much, you know, you hear all about phantom pain. Am I going to have phantom pain? All of these things going through my head. And my focus was, I'm expecting the best. And the best is going to happen. Hmm. If it doesn't happen, then I'll deal with it. But I expected the best. Uh, one of my other side hustles is a dog trainer, you know, so that's one of my big incomes. And, and I kind of fell into this side hustle as well. I adopted an 8-month-old Rottweiler that didn't know the word no, and I didn't know how to fix it. I kept bugging a friend of mine who was a dog trainer, and he said, "Bart, you know, we're doing a train-the-trainer program. You should come to this program and train your own dang dog." And so I did. And if I'm going to train my dog, I'm going to get paid to train other people's dogs. And I get paid very well to play with other people's dogs. But that's going to be hard to do with one Lake. Especially when you don't know how much pain you're going to be in, right? And so obviously I'm a little worried because it's a good chunk of my income that's going to go away for who knows how long. My goal was to get back to training by 4 months, and I was back training by about 3 and a half months. And as soon as I got my leg and I was comfortable comfortable enough, I started bringing in some dogs and started training. And so I do a board and train at my house where the dog comes and lives with me for 24 days, and then I hand it back off to the customer. And the— I think a lot of it is positive attitude. And so we're going back to how, how did I get that? Because I expected the best. The best happened. So what if the best doesn't happen? Then I deal with it, right? So, so back to how, how am I that way? My, my dream job got blown up. What did I do? I, I did something to make it happen, to make it work. Things happen and you got to deal with it. I think that I deal with it because I grew up with the name Bart. Grade school, it was Bart the Fart. Yes. And I was— but the thing is, I was— I'm fairly decent sized. I'm 6'4". I'm 235-ish right now. And growing up, I was on the bigger side. And so I was able to defend myself. If you're big enough to make fun of me, You better be big enough to kick my butt. And so I fought a lot in grade school and high school. You go to high school and they got a little bit more creative, and there was more things that they could say. And some of them I can't say here on the, on the podcast, but the one of them was sterile Merrill. Not something to be. And so the, the Johnny Cash song A Boy Named Sue is real. And so going through those things as a kid built up my character. I mean, right now we have safe spaces and I don't want to get too political, but you have all these things, participation trophies. And then we wonder why someone's girlfriend breaks up with a kid and he goes and shoots places up. Right. It's because they don't learn how to deal with stuff. Growing, growing up. And I'm not saying it's okay to bully people. I'm just saying, you're asking me how come I'm mentally tough and resilient. I think that's it.

Are you aware— I, I think it's Singapore that has like resiliency training that they do for kids, like nationwide. It may not be Singapore.

I don't know. I'm not aware.

I don't know anything about it. I just was reading about it. And I don't know what that entails. But it's kind of antithetical to the American culture, which is protecting and sheltering our kids to nth degree. But no, I think that you're exactly right, that And it sounds cliché, but it's true that what doesn't kill you does make you stronger. And if you're willing to grow from it, as opposed to be a victim of it, I don't know what the answer is for our society in America, per se. But I do know that what you're describing, your life, the way you described it, is— it's not optimal, but what is optimal? Right? So, do you avoid your kids being bullied? Well, I mean, you can, but what are the consequences of that? You don't want anybody to experience bad things, but bad things are the only way that you grow any toughness.

And I had good parents to help me through it. I had good parents that supported me, anything I went to do. So I think back of some of the successes in high school. I was a member of the FFA. I don't know if you You know what that is? Future Farmers.

Future Farmers. I'm from Oklahoma, baby.

Look it right up. And we would have fundraiser drives. And one year it was, we were selling magazine subscriptions and you would get points and you could take those points to a catalog and buy stuff. And I set myself a goal and my dad knew it. My dad knew what I wanted. It was a.243 rifle. Imagine buying a.243 rifle from school. In school nowadays. And I, I had this— I mean, it was a nice little hunting rifle. I just saw, that's what I want. And I had this goal. And so my dad said, okay, if you want to hit that goal— that's it. It wasn't cheap, it was a lot of points. And remember, we're in Podunk, New Mexico, where there's kids that are going to be going to the same people, right? And so me and my dad, we set out a plan. He helped me set out a plan. And I got my— what I wanted, the.243 rifle. Every week they'd have a winning, like, who's the high for the week. I won all 3 weeks in a row, and I got these big Bowie knives. Another thing you probably don't get from a high school nowadays. No. And I bought my thing. I had points left over that I was giving away to people so that they could get what they wanted. It helped give me confidence in myself, even though there were people that would, you know, call me Bart the Fart or Sterile Merrill. And I just say, okay, you think you're that tough? Come on, let's go. And, and so having good mentors, my mom and my dad, having good mentors helped me through it. And it doesn't have to be your mom or dad. It could be It could be, you know, just someone who makes you feel like you're worth something, you're worth what it is. And then experiencing good things. If I'm ever down on my sales, I'm having an event this weekend, a Side Hustle Samurai event. And I don't think there's going to be a whole lot of people there. I think we're having between 10 and 20 when I was hoping to have 50 or 60. Right. If I'm even a little bit down on myself, I think about past successes. Well, this is just the starting point. Next time we're going to have more. Okay, next time we're going to have more. And so I don't dwell in the present, which you hear a lot. I don't dwell in the past. I look to the future. Mm-hmm. And I do what I can now. To just make things as good as they can be. How did you—

how did you come up with Samurai for your moniker?

I mean like it just sounded good! Side Hustle Samurai. I mean you got this s-s-su.

Yeah absolutely.

And then my experience in Japan. I have samurai swords in my house. So the samurai sword When it is made properly in Japan, it is put through so much. I mean, it takes 6 months minimum to make this sword, and they're beating it and they're folding it and they're, they're just putting this sword through the, the thing to make it the best, to make it sharp and, and, and hard, but not too hard. It's got that flexible core so that you're You're not brittle, so you won't break, but you're strong and you're sharp. And so that, that is just— I mean, samurai swords. And then studying Musashi, he is the, the biggest samurai in, in Japan back in the 1600s, won 60-plus battles, you know, hand-to-hand combat. And his, his teaching— and we're talking about about, you know, how to make yourself tougher. And, and what he talks about is exactly what— if you're a Navy SEAL or Green Beret, you have to go through hard things. And as a samurai, to be the way he was, he, he was not— he said you can't become addicted to comfort, you can't become addicted to your passions, you can't become addicted to good food. Eat what your body needs. And I have to admit that I'm very bad at that. But you have to do what's good for your body. If you're too comfortable, if you can only operate when things are optimal for you, that's not good. Right. And so just studying these things, I just think what a samurai does, The Bushido Code makes good business sense if you want to be an entrepreneur. Yeah, because an entrepreneur isn't for the weak. It goes like this, you know, you're— there's times when you're like, oh crap, when's, when's my next check coming in? When's my next big sale? Yeah, yeah. Well, that's how it kind of fits.

I love it. I love it. So how do people learn more? About Bart Merrill, the Side Hustle Samurai?

So I have a free gift for your people. It is the 25— Samurai sword? What's that? Samurai sword?

No, sorry.

Damn it. But it's 25 Successful Side Hustle Ideas for 2025. And this isn't a— your idea, your ideal side hustle may not be on that list, but the list is going to get your brain to start thinking about stuff you may not have even thought about. And you can get that at youridealsidehustle.com.

I love it.

And once you, once you get that, you're connected with me. You'll get all my— you'll get my newsletter and all my information of when my, my virtual events— I'll be doing virtual events that are free for you to come and learn about trying to identify your ideal side hustle. I have Bart Merrill, the Side Hustle Samurai YouTube channel that I just started where I drop nuggets every week of, you know, what you need to think about when you're starting a side hustle. It's kind of funny, one of the questions I get, you'll— I think it's funny, but like, I did graduate in accounting. Do I need to pay taxes on my side hustle? I'm like, you need to pay taxes if you don't want to end up in the clink.

Yes, that—

yes, if you don't want a visit from the popo, you better be paying your taxes. Yes. And so I talk about stuff like that and talk about how, you know, what's the best side hustle out there? It depends, you know. So I just— that's where I, I give all my information, share all my stuff. I'm on Facebook mostly and LinkedIn. So hook up with me if, if you want some help.

Perfect. Listeners will have those links in the show notes. If you like what you've heard, please rate the podcast, share the podcast, subscribe to the podcast. Until next time, remember, you are not alone.