From Torture To Triumph: The Dramatic and Extraordinary Story Of Wesley Chapman And His Quest To Heal His Past By Empowering At-Risk Youth For Brighter Futures

Hey, welcome back to Bacon Wrap Business. This is Brad, and I'm really excited to have you guys on the show today, especially normally I'll talk for a little while and, you know, just tell you kind of what's been going on with me. But today I don't want to do that because I don't want to waste any time with my guest today named Wesley Chapman. And I think you're going to be really impressed by what you hear today. I know I was when I met Wesley about a week or maybe two weeks ago, and I invited him immediately on the show because I wanted to dive into his story in much more detail. It's very profound on many levels, and it inspired me. And if it doesn't inspire you, frankly, you're dead inside. That being said, before I get going any further, I do want to tell you about a new thing that I have been doing on the past few episodes, and it's been amazing. I've had tremendous results. And it's because I want to get to know you as a listener a little bit better. And I invite you to go over to baconratbusiness.com whoare you. And on there you'll see a very simple little form with a little bit of information on you, maybe your website, if you take clients, tell me about you, your business, what you are doing. I am always looking to expand my network, my Rolodex, my resources, because I never know when I'm going to need to call on somebody who has got a special skill set that I might not have. And I love being able to really quickly say, I know somebody. I got somebody on my podcast listenership who listens to or who does this, who does web design, who does video work or whatever. And in the past few weeks that I've been giving this website out, I've had a lot of people emailing me and filling this out. I get tremendous satisfaction out of reading what you guys are up to. So head on over to baconratbusiness.com whoare you tell me a little bit about yourself and join my golden little Rolodex there. So, that being said, today I want to welcome Wes to Lee Chapman and Wesley. Do you go by Wes Typically or Wesley either?

Either. Or, you know, usually when I'm getting yelled at by Jody, it's Wesley. Whatever.

So I want to skip over a lot of the really formal red introduction and I want to tell my listeners, when I, when I met you at a little Mastermind roundtable the other night, you know what you as a listener need to understand is that Wes started talking about his history and we were all sharing a little bit of background on us. And one of the very first things he said was, well, you know, when he was talking about what is he doing in life, he's like, well, I was abandoned at age one by my father and at six and a half by my mother. He tried to commit suicide 12 times before his 16th birthday. And he was abused in every way possible. And he not only survived. We're going to get back to this word in a second. He thrived in an amazing way. And he's now on a mission to help 25 million at risk youths embrace entrepreneurship and pull themselves up out of. Out of the lifestyle that kind of kept them down and will keep them down if they aren't given those resources. He's an expert on human behavior and development. His teachings have been used by hundreds of individuals, schools, government entities, blogs, podcasts. In fact, correct me, what was the number of podcast or broadcast interviews you did in the past year?

Well, 2014, I did 368 videos.

Okay, all right. Well, look at that. And this is halfway through 2015. So I'm happy to be one of them. And I want to take this, if we can, in different directions and, you know, than what people are normally used to hearing about. Oftentimes I tell my guests, you know, you can skip your backstory because it oftentimes doesn't have the. The what I want to say, the pertinence to what they're doing now. I may be asking them about their business, and then if they tell me their entire backstory, it really doesn't pertain. However, I do want you to go a little bit deeper into the experiences you had earlier in life because they so dramatically impact the thrive event that you're putting on. And you have to. You guys have to listen to this when we talk about the thrive event. This is crazy impactful. But, Wes, give me a little bit more of a taste of, you know, where you're coming from.

Yeah, so, I mean, you. You kind of outlined it in the first little paragraph, and it's such a complex story. And I guess to put it into perspective. Is that right now? Well, about a. See, so in 2006, 2007, I started writing a blog, which was mostly just for healing, and it was my story. I was just writing these little mini blogs and just kind of like taking a story from my childhood and putting it out there. And it started off crickets, like every blog does, and then 2,000 people and then 5,000 people and then 10,000 people. And then this is in like 0708, 20, 25,000 people every week were coming and reading one of these little mini chapters. And so, of course, quickly it's like, you got to write a book. These mini chapters are being so successful. You got to write a book. Well, those 13 mini chapters, when you put it into book form, comes out to be like, I think it was 310 pages or something like that. And I had just, you know, told 13 experiences, I guess you could say, in my life. And I was only to the age of about 8. And so the book publisher said, we have a small problem, is that you're not going to be able to tell your story and everything that's happened to you in one book. We're gonna have to figure out a way to two or three part this. And so just to give kind of a perspective, I'm gonna simplify everything. But just, just so it's clear, is that my first book will be from the age of 0 to 13, and then my second book will be from the age of 13 to 32. So when I simplify some of these stories, there's. There's a ton of stories inside of the stories, I guess, is my point. And it all is in relevance to what I do.

By the way, it amazes me that you could fill up an entire book from 0 to 13, lots of stories.

It's almost some big fish moments of people being like, really? Did that happen? And it did. And the simplistic way of just kind of like, why do I do what I do? Where have I been? All that fun stuff is in this is that at one, like you said, I was abandoned by my biological father. At six and a half, I was abandoned by my biological mother. I was abused in every way, shape and form that you can imagine. And abuse isn't really the right word. It was more torture. Like, for example, in the sexual abuse that I endured, it was more sexual torture. And I say that I was a play doll for another man's pleasure. And what that means is that he would have parties with his brothers or his friends in your stereotypical suburban driveway between two houses kind of thing. And in that driveway, they'd get drunk. And then they would either come in the house or pull us kids out to the driveway and sexually use us as puppets to see what would happen. And so there was. There was your. And I don't know if you can say this, but there was your traditional abuse that I went through. And Then there was the torturing level of abuse, of sexual and physical. I was tied up to fences, I was beaten. I was tied up to dog houses and forced to sleep in them and eat out of dog foods and be on all fours. I mean, all kinds of craziness. And my abuse continued in different forms until I was about 17 years old when my last stepfather got out of my life. And so. And at six and a half, being abandoned, I was abandoned in a hospital and my mom never came back.

At that time. She tried to come and get me a few years later, but that's another story. As I said, there's tons of stories. But at six and a half, I was abandoned at a hospital and basically spent the next year, year and a half being being poked and prodded and trying to figure out what was wrong with me. My first suicide attempt that was documented was at four and a half years old. And it was a legitimate suicide attempt. And so I was already kind of a medical study at this particular hospital. They knew me, but they didn't know the. They didn't know about the abuse. They didn't know what was going on. They didn't have. They had certain pieces, but didn't have the full story. And so after a year of poking and prodding at me and putting all these little electrodes on my head, the final report came out, which I have. I used to have it on my wall. And it was kind of like this constant reminder of, you know, f the world. Because what this report said was that at seven and a half years old, I would be nothing in life. I'm simplifying it. The exact words are a little more technical. But basically, I would not be an asset to society in any shape or form. I would not have a job. I would not have any type of steady relationships. I was going to be a burden on society and also would probably be, you know, a very troubled member of society in the sense of crime and all that kind of stuff. That was my diagnosis at seven and a half.

Dear Lord.

So I used to have that on my wall being like, you know, f the world. And now, you know, it's somewhere buried in a file that I gave to the publisher to legitimize everything. But the point of that who thing was is that. And the story, you know, that's in relevance to probably your audience is that at eight and a half years old, I. Well, at eight, I was finally taken in by a woman who didn't believe any of that stuff and believed in me as a human being. She's very successful. This is in the 80s, and she was an executive at a government hospital, at the VA hospital. So she was up there, you know, she was top of the pecking order. And she developed fibromyalgia. She was the first female employee of the government in the United States to be diagnosed with fibromyalgia. And in the 80s, fibromyalgia was a joke. It was a, you know, just a fancy word that somebody was trying to come up with for basically your arms or your legs hurt, as we now know. It's. It's a nerve, you know, a nerve disease, and it can kill and paralyze people.

Right?

And so, but she was the first. So it was a very different road. We went from, literally, in six months, I went from living in a mansion to having everything, quote, unquote, being awesome, to. She was about to lose everything. Her home, her cars, everything. There was no money coming in, there was no disability, there was nothing. It was just plain and simple. She sat on a bed and had her arms in slings and could barely walk. And so at eight and a half years old, I told every adult that I knew, including her, that you guys all suck at taking care of kids and, and adults in general are just ridiculous and have absolutely no place on the planet. And I was going to take matters in my own hands. And so I started my first business and was very successful. Made a significant amount of money on my very first day. And I got addicted. Not addicted to the money, but psychologically, I got addicted to the concept that here from zero to eight and a half, I had been this troubled, you know, problem child. And everyone looked at me as if I was this weird alien creature from, you know, from Pluto. And that's, that's how I felt. And all of a sudden, with this entrepreneurialism and this financial success, everyone saw me as a prodigy. They saw me as this like crazy, incredible thing. I mean, how could an 8 year old think of creating this and the branding and everything that we did and this. I didn't start a lemonade stand. And if we want, we can tell the story, but there's a lot of podcasts out there that tell it, but I can synopsis it, but.

Well, I love it because they probably don't listen to other podcasts because they. By now they've likely unsubscribed all of them because they all suck. Right?

Well, that, that and yours is the only one you know? Well, I don't know the only one that I know that's Wrapped in bacon.

That's a fact.

So. No, but.

So. So tell me that. Because you told it the other night at dinner and it was so touching. And I think it's really poignant because, I mean, you didn't go out and start an app company at eight and a half. What'd you do?

So the reality is, and that's why I love the show in the bacon, because I'm a big breakfast guy. Like, huge. And still into this day, like, if I go to a fancy restaurant, I'm like, do you guys have bacon and waffles? Because that's cool for me, you know, it's like. And in fact, the dinner that we were at was pretty fancy, and I would have been happier with, like a plate of bacon and, like pancakes.

They had that nice big old chunk.

Of pork belly, but they did. And that was. That was pretty decent. But. But anyway, so I'm a big breakfast guy and I remember very clearly. And as soon as I got, you know, into this home.

I call her Mom. So from now on, audience, if I say bio mom or bio dad, I'm talking about the ones that made me. But if I said mom, I'm talking about this woman. Her name is Karen. And so, you know, here I am in this home. She's an amazing cook, still is to this day. And she figured out I loved breakfast. So every morning for six months, I would come down and have waffles and pancakes and eggs and toast and bacon, whatever. I mean, it was just amazing. Hash browns, the whole nine yards. And one morning I came down and. And there was nothing there. Now, I was a very obviously troubled youth, but I also liked certain things always, all the time. And if those things didn't happen, I wasn't like your terror. I was more like a terrible two, not an eight year old. And I was pretty pissed off. I still remember, like, coming down those stairs and having those feelings of, like, how dare her not make me breakfast? Like, what the. I mean, is the world over? Like, it was just. It was traumatic experience for me. So I remember marching down the hall and just being so, so upset at her. Like, I was ready just to lay into her and be like, how dare you not make me make breakfast? And as I was approaching her room, I could hear her crying, just sobbing. And I kind of did what every kid did or does, you know, I put my ear up to the door and tried to figure out why she was crying, what was going on. And quickly my problems of, you know, not having bacon were gone. And now I Was more curious as to why was she crying. And I just remember hearing her saying things like, I don't know how we're going to make it. I don't know how, you know, we're going to pay for the house, I'm going to lose the car, we may have to move. You know, just. Just different things. Between the muddled tears. And I went out and started swinging on my tire swing. And we lived, as I said, in a legitimate. It was a 100-year-old mansion that dated all the way back to. Indians actually built half of it. And then they just kept building onto it and it became this historical site. Absolutely amazing home wallpaper. The wallpaper was made out of velvet. It was just. It was insane. And so I'm sitting in this. We had this beautiful yard, about a quarter of an acre, maybe half acre yard, that was all landscaped in rose gardens and peonies and lilacs and tulips. And again, my mom was an amazing green thumb and just loved gardening. And so we had every flower that you could possibly grow in our climate in this yard. And something hit me, this concept of bacon, to make it relevant to your show, and I do tell this story, it's legitimate, is that I remember sitting there thinking, I didn't get my bacon. And then my mind started drifting off to grocery shopping. And every time we'd go grocery shopping, my mom would buy flowers and I remember always sitting there and we'd get like one pack of bacon or two packs of bacon. And, you know, I wanted more. So I remember sitting there kind of thinking like, why don't we get more bacon? And there would always be the stereotypical adult answer of, well, we don't need more. And you know, it's expensive or we've got enough or whatever. And so my mind before sitting on this tire swing would be like, well, why are we buying flowers? Because we have so many freaking flowers in our yard. Why are we buying flowers from a grocery store? That's the stupidest thing. Buy more bacon. And so I'm sitting on this tire swing and all these things come together and I start looking around at this yard and I just had this epiphany. I thought, if we have all these flowers, and yet we don't, we still go and buy flowers at the grocery store. What would the neighbors pay for these flowers? Because they don't have this kind of a yard. You know, we have a very unique yard in our community. So what would they pay? Or what would I. What would I be able to get and in that moment, I ran inside of the house and I grabbed the scissors. And you can imagine an eight and a half year old boy running with scissors through this house. And she kind of had gotten off the phone, she was coming out, and both of her arms were in slings. It was very difficult for her to walk. But I won't forget her standing on that, on our patio, on our. On our deck, just screaming at me like, don't run with scissors. What are you doing? And I'm hacking away at her flowers. And, you know, mentally she's in a position where she's losing everything. And then here's this troubled kid that she just brought into her home who's destroying her flowers. And I can only imagine in what she was thinking. And so I went to the other side of the house and I kept cutting flowers and I grabbed my BMX and I just took off. And all day long, I sold flowers. So this was in the morning, and from, you know, till it was dark, I was going door to door selling flowers. And I came home, by the way, real quick.

What were you saying? I mean, were you just like, hey, would you like to buy these flowers? I'm just curious.

Yeah, it started off with that, but then I quickly figured out, like, you could. You could upsell. Like, I could. Instead of selling one handful of flowers, I could sell two handfuls of flowers. If I got emotional with them and. And it wasn't like pity on me. I would be like, woman would answer the door and I'd be like, hey, when's the last time your husband bought you flowers? And, you know, they'd be like, oh, I don't know. And I'm like, well, hey, there's nothing wrong with you buying yourself some flowers. I mean, that, that really, you know, blah, blah, blah. Or you're doing this at eight and a half. The story gets even crazier if we get into it even more. But why not? But so, yeah, so I'm doing this, and I had employees, dude, it was. It was crazy. Like, we had Memorial Day sales. It was. It was insane. And it's fun to hear my mom tell the story because she's got a different perspective of, like, watching this happen. And so it's been. I have my perspective of doing it, and then she has her perspective of watching it, which is pretty cool. And we're going to be adding some of that into the book and stuff. But so as I'm doing this for the very first time, and I come home that night and just so it's clear. In the 80s, it was a different world. It was very usual, it was very normal for me to get on my bmx, go to the track and just hang out and do things. Now, I did do a lot of stupid things. I tried to burn down a convenience store once. I tried to burn down one of my school teachers homes. I mean, I've done some stupid things because of being in pain. And so when I was gone, there was some anxiety that existed with my mother. And so when I got home and I sat down on her bed and I'll never forget this, she had both of her arms in a sling. And I sat down next to her and I started pulling out money from every crevice that a child could stuff money into my socks, my pants, my shirt, you know, everywhere that I could. And I just started putting this money on her lap and she just started, you know, crying. And now that we've talked about this, her first reaction was, oh, shit. Like, what did you do? Like, who am I gonna have to go apologize to? Because this is asininely ridiculous that you're now throwing money at me. Like, where did you steal this money? And so that's her perspective now. But in the moment, she's just crying and going back to my perspective of adults. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. Like I'm solving a problem here and you are still crying. Like, what is wrong with you adults? And I said something in that regard to her, like, hey, look, why are you crying? Like, I'm trying to help. And she asked me to count it and we counted it together and it was over $500. And in that moment, her whole attitude shifted and she said, what did you do? And I said, well, remember how I went and was cutting all your flowers? Like I wouldn't sold them door to door? And her response to me was very sweet, very simple and very comedic. She just said, well, then go out and sell more flowers. And I spent the entire summer selling flowers. And like I said, we had a Memorial Day sale. We packaged them all up. She started coming up with ideas and helping me wrap them in a little bit of plastic and we started sectioning them off. But then we quickly learned that the flowers were going to run out. We wiped our yard clean of every single flower. And then probably a few other yards in the neighborhood may have lost some flowers too. And I'm sorry about that, but it was for a good cause. And then I quickly realized, like, wait a minute, we're running out of inventory. And so I Had employees. I think it was very difficult for me to sell to men. Obviously, I had a very different relationship with male figures in my life. And also, I just. I was just uncomfortable around them. But I found a cute little blonde girl, a little bit older than me. I think she was 9 or 10 years old from what my mother is telling me when we were going back in this. But I do remember coaching her and being like, okay, when you go up to the door, you just need to say, I think your wife would like this if it's a man. And if it's a woman, then you need to talk to her like, hey, aren't these flowers pretty? I remember we had these training sessions in my living room with my employees on how to sell and how to speak to these people we were selling them to. And. But what I quickly realized is, like, wait a minute, we don't have enough product, and I like money and I like the success. So what? What are we going to do? But then I found out that we had built a trust relationship with neighbors and with people in the community. And it wasn't just flowers that we could sell to them, but we could actually start finding out other things that we could sell or other things that we could do. And so the lowest hanging fruit was the fact that most of the people in my neighborhood, dad would go to work and mom would be at home, and there'd be a minivan or a Winnebago or something in the driveway. And it was dirty and it didn't look good. And so I started asking some of the moms, like, why don't you wash your car? Oh, well, it's difficult. I've got a little baby, and it's just hard to get to the car wash. And my husband works all the time, and when he comes home, it's the last thing he wants to do. So I quickly figured out, wait a minute, we can solve this problem. We'll start washing cars door to door. And so we started washing cars, which ended up turning into a ridiculously profitable business. And also because I didn't have to pay my employees, we paid them in candy. So. Which I learned labor laws. On my second summer of that, parents started getting a little irritated that their kids were coming home with bag fulls of candy and working all day in the summer. So anyway, so we had to start paying them, you know, but anyway, so it just. It just evolved from that. And there's just tons of stories in that world. And at the same time as I'm doing all of this I am the most. I don't want to use the word broken because I hate that, but it just gives you the perspective, I guess. I was a very, very, very sad child. I remember many times, and as my career advanced and I started doing things with doctors and software and technology and Microsoft and Costco and Janet King and I mean, had really great honor of doing some great things for some awesome companies. And as my career advanced, I didn't. As far as psychologically, I still was this little six and a half year old boy who didn't know who I was, who would endure this stuff. And my mother got married later on after the story, and she married a very, very physically and emotionally abusive man. I ended that because I dropped a bathtub on his head. He didn't die.

Whoa.

But he didn't die. Yeah.

But still, like once more, like you said, the stories, I love it.

Yeah, it, it was just. I had had enough. He, he, he'd said the wrong thing at the wrong time. When I was. He was a plumber, very big guy, like 6 foot 6, 280 pounds, like, could literally put a water heater on his back and go up like six stairs of flights. I mean, just. Just an amazingly awesome creature as far as humanity. But when I'm, you know, 5 foot 10 and 103, 20 pounds, you can just. I mean, he could do anything he wanted to me physically, and he did. And also emotionally, which is actually more damaging. But that's another story. But anyway, so I just remember going through all of this, and I had no real relationships. None. Because I would go into these boardrooms, I would go into these situations, and I was the whiz kid that could figure out how to sell, you know, that. That was my gift. I could, I could create the language, create the sales, create the image, create the brand. That's what I eventually morphed into is I didn't love labor. I didn't love selling flowers, I didn't love washing cars. What I loved was convincing people that they needed what I had. And quickly learned that that's a pretty good skill set to have in the world. And so I started consulting everything. I remember selling Kirby vacuums to start a business. And I was so amazing at selling the Kirby vacuums that the Kirby vacuum company asked me to come and train their salesman. So, you know, and this is the age of. I think I was 16 or 17. So, I mean, it was just. That was my gift. That was my gift. And thus I could sell myself as to anything. I mean, it just depended on what day you caught me at as who I was. And some people that had, like, you know, high school friends, which were very few. I think I have maybe three to six high school friends that really even knew a glimpse of me. I tell my story now and people are in high school will reach out to me and like, holy shit. I had no idea that that was your life. And so I was very good at. I'd lied about where my parents had gone. There was one school that I was at for two years that my parents were always on vacation. Like, I never admitted that this old lady who had taken me in was, was my parent. It was like, oh, I'm just staying with her. I mean, it was like, really, I was doing everything I could. My dad died in a motorcycle accident. He died being a hero, saving somebody's life. My mom, you know, was. Was shipped off to save the kids. I mean, I was coming up with whatever I could to not be this seven and a half year old who was going to be worthless and never amount to anything. And I remember that, I remember that, why I decided to do that. And it was a really simplistic concept that gets people in a lot of trouble. But mine was, is that I was going to prove everybody wrong. Which when we study psychology, what that says is that by saying that you think, yeah, that's a smart thing, of course you're going to prove everybody wrong because they were wrong. But really what you're saying to yourself is, I have to prove everybody wrong because something that they're saying is right. There's legitimacy into what they're saying. The shift that I had happened later in my life with that same energy was I'm just going to prove myself right. Which doesn't. Has nothing to do with anyone else, has everything to do with me. But up until this shift happened, I was trying to prove everybody wrong. So thus I couldn't be who I was. I couldn't admit my childhood. I couldn't admit the abuse. I couldn't admit who my biological father is. My biological father is a famous individual. I mean, like, everything about my life could not be my life. So entrepreneurialism allowed me to hide there and be whatever it was. I remember having meetings with Microsoft and being this work whiz kid, you know, programmer, yet I can't really program, but I sure as hell, like, faked it. And so, you know, I mean, it was just like whatever I had to do to not be the real Wes Chapman. And I also had six different last names, you know, which doesn't help with your identity in any way, shape or form, both legally and then also, you know, just, just in an effort to hide. But you know, there's, there's just all this stuff that happens and entrepreneurialism is an amazing place where. And as you start to really explore entrepreneurs and you start to, you know, take the layers off, you start realizing how many entrepreneurs really did come from these crazy situations. And what I've, like I said what I personally believe and the reason that that happens is because they. It's a different breed. You know, I mean, I think we talked about this at the table is it's like it's a fine line between and people who are in prison and people who are entrepreneurs. As far as personality types, like, you know, there's something there and a lot of it has to do with escaping reality and control. Like, I had zero control in my childhood, but I had all kinds of control. I think my largest, you know, employee size company that I've had in my career was 40 plus. You know, when I had control over 40 plus individuals who looked up to me. That fuels, you know, that fuels something inside of a human being. And I didn't ever get that, you know, when I was a child, so, and so I had a child's perspective in an adult's world, which is not a fun way to live, right?

Yeah, you didn't really, you never really experienced the childhood. You never got to have that. So you became an entrepreneur, you became a problem solver and you realized you. And this, I think is what is the similarity between a lot of people who end up in prison or entrepreneurs, they go one or the other is because a lot of us, and I say us because I live like this too. It's like we look at the world as we live by our own rules. We are going to set our own rules. We're not necessarily going to follow everybody else's rules because we're going to carve our own path and go the path that's less followed. And sometimes that path is a very constructive way and sometimes it's very destructive. And it sounds like you had a destructive path forced on you. And then through the, you know, entrepreneurship, like really positive entrepreneurship, you. You found that, that constructive path.

I did. And, and, and it was amazing. Like, it was awesome. And I remember, you know, I got to the, I never got like to the top, top, top. Like, I mean, obviously there's all kinds of different levels, but for me, I got to a top, you know, I got to a place where I Had a house that I had rooms in it that I never went into. It was on top of a hill. I had nine cars. Like, I mean, I got to this place where I could go to a restaurant in my city and like, I didn't need a reservation. There's, you know, there's Wes's table. Like, how many people tonight, Mr. Chapman? You know, I mean, it was like I had that kind of a life, but yet I had no life at all. And so about, let's see, six years ago, that's when my wake up moment was.

Yeah, and I remember you talking about that.

So.

And just out of curiosity, what were you doing at the time? Like, at that point when you, I mean, you said you weren't at the top, top, top. But, you know, brother had nine cars, he's doing pretty well. What were you doing at the time?

How were you a marketing consulting firm. So we were, we were building marketing plans and ideas for companies like Verizon franchises, and we were doing app development. I. This was, I mean, we were one of the first 1000.

Companies to register for an app, an app developer account, you know, just, just all kinds of stuff like that one App of the year. I have a few patents in medical technology that was more about medical technology advancement for patient care and experience than, you know, like, it wasn't like a probe or something that goes in your body. It was more about processes and ideas. And, and that's really, like, that's my passion is like you said, here's a problem, let's solve it. But how do you experience the solution? Like, how does the user go through the experience of the solution? How does the whole thing just manifest itself rather than just like, aha, put a band aid on it, that's what works, or wrap it up or whatever. And I'm using that as a metaphor. So in business, I was always concerned more about the experience of the user and less about this. Just kind of like, let's fix it and move on. So it was really fun and we were very, very good at it. I had an amazing team. My team was better than I was, you know, at implement, you know, at implementing the technology aspect of it. But it was fun to play and dabble in it. So that's what I was doing at the time.

And you said, and we mentioned this the other night at dinner as well, which was. But you were.

It'S not like that was the end. Like, hey, this is a rags to riches story. Hey, I was abused. And Now I've got nine cars and I'm Mr. Big Baller, living it up. Because you said you had a wake up call. Because how were you inside at that moment when you've worked so hard to achieve and you've proved everybody wrong, You've proved yourself right.

It was miserable.

Why was it miserable?

Well, I was married first of all, to a person that was not a good.

Companion for me. Nothing against her, nothing even against me, just a. The time in our lives and be who she was and who I was. Like, it was just not good. So.

Right.

I. But yet again, I was very good at making it look as if it was. So even people who follow me on social media and know her would, would call us, you know, the best couple on the planet. I mean, it was just. I was very, very good. Catch me if you can is a really good concept if you want to just like wrap your mind around my life.

So what's crazy is when you, you were talking about some stuff earlier and that's exactly, exactly what I thought of.

Yeah. And if you. My favorite show right now on television is White Collar.

Isn't that so good? Yeah.

Yeah. If I could redo my life, like I would be him.

Right.

Except I wouldn't have got caught. But you know, not White collar crime like that. That just. That's my core. I like it. I like kind of, you know, just figuring shit out and moving forward and having fun with it. So. But for this chapter of my life, I was miserable. I was completely miserable. I wasn't authentic to myself. I wasn't. I wasn't the real Wes Chapman, you know, the Eminem, like, will the real Wes Chapman please stand up? Like I had lost any even connection and reality to who that person was. I had two children at the time and I felt as if I was a failure to them. I felt as if I was a failure to myself. I was a failure to my legacy of what I was going to leave on this planet. There were so many different emotions, but the most crucial was, is that I was not allowing my core, my core identity of who I was to be in the marketplace, to be in the world, to be in my bedroom, to be in the mirror like it was nowhere. And so that's a very empty feeling.

Yeah, I can't imagine. But you talked about the wake up call, what happened there. And let's lead it to where, because I mean you right now just prefacing for people. I know they're just completely gripped by this, but this becomes so much bigger. Like your vision is one of the best visions I've seen, and I want to really, really get there and dive into this. So what was this wake up call?

So the wake up call was, you know, kind of going into my personal life completely fell apart.

I found out some information, some things happened, and enough was enough, and we decided to get a divorce. And this was my second divorce. So I have, you know, again, lots of stories. I was kind of just sitting here being like, what, what's wrong? Like, I'm blaming everyone, but really look in the mirror, like, what's happening here? And so I took a very expensive vacation to a beach. Private, private, you know, little vacation, spent a lot of money, all those fun things. Again, supposed to be like, oh, this is a highlight. And actually that's why I went is because everyone was like, you just need to get away. You just need to clear your mind, you know, going through a divorce, doing all this stuff. And so I went to some beach location. I remember sitting on the beach and I'm looking out at the ocean and I'm like, this is it. This, this can't be it. This, this, this cannot be it. And so I made a conscious decision in that moment at that time that I was going to start communicating to myself. I was going to start figuring this out and I was going to leave every single thing that I knew behind. And I was not going to try to recreate, I was going to simply try to explore. And in that moment, I left our seven figure business. I started, you know, doing a lot of different things. There's obviously fallout in that. There's all kinds of things that happen when you make this kind of like, rip the band aid off decision. There were many nights where I was sitting there being like, what the hell did you just do? What were you thinking? I can't believe this. It ended up costing me millions of dollars to do this. It was not a small thing. And for about three, four years, I thought it was the stupidest decision I'd made in my life. I started meeting different types of people, I started going to different types of events. I got asked to speak, people would hear my story and then be like, hey, why don't you speak and motivate the crowd? And I'm like, that sounds kind of fun, like being a motivational speaker. Sweet. So I started hanging out with Les Brown and Brendan Burchard and Frank Kearns and, you know, those kinds of people, and Bob Proctor and like, maybe I'm gonna be a motivational speaker. And, you know, my father had a little bit of motivational speaker. Stuff with him. He was a. I don't know if you call it a partner, stage partner. I don't know what it is, how Tony runs his business. But my dad spoke on stage with Tony Robbins and one of Tony Robbins really big players. So I was like, maybe this is in my blood. Maybe I'm supposed to be like this, you know, motivational speaker. And I did that for, like, two years. And it was just. It wasn't for me. It wasn't. I didn't want that lifestyle. It wasn't anything. I didn't. It didn't feel impactful enough, and it felt very, like, wrong for me. And so I just was going on this journey of just exploring who I was. And in this process, I met an amazing woman who absolutely gets me on every level, who is. She's my. I love the new song cheerleader. That's who she is. Like, she. She's my cheerleader. I'm going to tear up over it because it's so amazing. Like, she has. She's held me in a closet while I just completely break down and cry and sob about, have I made this mistake? Am I just this broken, worthless human being who all I'm good for is putting money in the bank account for myself and clients? Like, yet at the same time, that's not what I want to be. Like, I want to be something so much more and more. And she's supported me and she's been a mother to my children. She's just amazing. And so that was a very empowering experience. And then I just started exploring myself and realizing that my story and who I was and who I always have been, there's nothing wrong with that. And all these different things started happening in my life, and doors started opening, and I started getting asked to speak in different types of venues and speaking at boys homes and prisons and foster care facilities. And I spoke on beaches to kids and, you know, that were doing, like, a vacation or like a. Like they were abused children and some charity was taking them to the beach or doing something. And I just started, like, gaming and leveling it up a little bit in that world and speaking, you know, to 10 youth and then to 100 and then 200 and then to whatever. And then finally I was asked to speak at a public school by one of the largest nonprofits in San Diego, which is actually one of the largest nonprofits that work with children. It's called Natural High and amazing nonprofit that teaches kids about do something natural to get a high rather than drugs. It's kind of like the reincarnation of the Reagan administration, of Just say no, except with a modern spin on it for kids. I was finally asked to speak with them at a school. And that is the moment. And that day changed my life forever and finally gave me the clarity that I knew exactly what I was going to do with my life. I knew exactly what I was called to do. I knew exactly why I had gone through what I had gone through. I knew. I mean, even the journey of the 40 years of thinking I was the biggest idiot in the world for doing what I did, all of it made complete and total sense in one moment on one stage in Hemet, California. And since that, I've never looked back and now do what I do full time.

And I get goosebumps thinking about that. That's amazing. And I get goosebumps because it's not only inspirational, but it's envious. Like, I want myself, I want everybody listening to have that moment where they know, you know, that's really powerful. I think so few human beings actually ever get that clarity.

It's because it's scary, you know, I mean, it's, it's, it's. We're comfortable being comfortable.

Yeah.

And we're terrified to be uncomfortable. I am not. I love money. I think money is the root of all awesomeness. I don't think the money is, is a problem. It's. We are the problem. Like, you know, if you have a billion dollars and have the right mindset, holy crap, what can you do on this planet, right? If you have the, if you have a billion dollars and you have the wrong mindset, holy crap, what can you do on this planet? It's not the money. Money is just a currency. It's just an exchange. It's what we use now. You know, maybe in 10 years from now we're going to use something else. Who knows? But. And you know, you studied 200 years ago, we didn't have it. So, I mean, it's like this is just a moment in history, a moment in time, which we're using this type of exchange, this type of currency to get what we, quote, unquote, need or want. And so I, you know, you don't go from making the kind of money that I was making a month and living the lifestyle I was to, to terrified if you're going to be able to afford your house payment or whatever else. I mean, that's a terrifying experience to go through. And I had enough that I had some savings and I had some money and things like that. That I could kind of play this lifestyle for a couple of years. But what was supposed to be like a year journey ended up being four years. And I wasn't prepared for that on any level. Psychologically, emotionally, monetarily, physically, nothing. And so it was very, very uncomfortable. And there were so many times, Brad, that I was like, that's it. I'm done. This guy over here just offered me a quarter of a million dollars to come work for him or work for his business or sign this contract or, you know, I've had some very lucrative job offers. And it was like, you know what? I'm. That's it. I'm going to go do that and forget this whole, like, finding myself bullshit, like, I'm out of here. And. But I never did. And I just kept pushing forward, and it was miserable. I mean, it was. I'm not going to lie to people and be like, oh, it was the best experience of my life. And I felt clarity. And it was like being on the beach. No, it was hell. And it was. I've told people that what I went through in those. Those years was worse than what my entire childhood was, collectively. And I mean that.

Now, that's a. That's a hell of a statement right there.

And it's. It's. It's because of how painful it was and how painful it is to have to talk to yourself and be honest to yourself and be real to yourself. That's a very painful thing to have to go through. And so I went through that pain. I went through that, and now here we are.

So let's talk about where we're at, because you had that moment of clarity and you said, I knew exactly why I was put on this earth, why exactly. I've dealt with all of this. So I want to get. You've survived. I want to get to where you thrive. And I use that as a, you know, a pun based upon what you're doing right now. So I want to talk about what is your. What is your life's mission right now, and what are you doing to bring it to fruition?

So as I stood on that stage and There was about 700 kids in front of me, and I was telling my story, I just was alive. Like, I was on fire. I was a different person. I mean, even Jody, who'd been with me now for three and a half years afterwards, said, I've never seen you like that. Like, I've never seen that come out of you. And people who hang out with me and then hang out with me When I'm in front of kids are like, who is this guy? Like, it's just, it's who I am. And who I am is being in front of youth who feel as if their surroundings, their life, their. The street they grew up on, the abuse that they went through, the. The neglect that they're enduring, whatever it is that they already have a preconceived destiny. Like they're going to be just like their mom, or they're going to be just like their grandparents, or they're going to not have the success, you know, and being able to stand in front of them and share my story briefly and share with them in a very politically incorrect and real way, I guess is the best way. Like, I mean, I tell my story and there are a lot of school administrators and people who cringe because I don't, you know, I don't swear. I don't swear or anything. But I'm not censoring my relationship with God. I'm not censoring my relationship with myself, with love, with life. The abuse that happened. And it makes people a little uncomfortable. But the children relate so amazingly to it that we see change happen instantly and then we create and then we give them the tools to create the habits which. I'm getting a little ahead of myself. So anyway, here I am on the stage speaking to these kids. After getting done doing my 18 minute little, you know, spiel, I was ready to leave. I was exhilarated. It was exciting. I was like, wow, this is what I want to do. You know, of course there's no business speaking to kids in public schools, but hell, like, let's figure something out and let's, you know, I'll go and sell something and we'll figure it out. I don't know. And I remember like that was my mentality getting off stage. And then as I was getting ready to leave, the principal came up to me and said, wes, can you stick around for a minute? There are some kids that want to talk to you. And some kids was like the, like the, the lowest form of word he could have used. It was basically like 100 to 200 kids that for four and a half hours I sat one on one with and listened to four and a half hours of stories of abuse, of neglect, of pain. And in that moment I was just like, I don't know, I mean, I guess distill one of the lines from our good podcasting buddy, I was on fire. Like, I was just frickin sitting there with these kids that were telling me Their stories. And I was just popping out like, okay, here's what you do, and here's how you handle that. And if you do this, then here's what I'll do for you is some kids would be like, I just want to play my guitar. And I'm not able to because every time I play my guitar, my dad beats me because he doesn't, like, he thinks that I suck at guitar. And, you know, and it's like, okay, so here's what you're gonna do. And, you know, do you have a friend? Do you have somewhere you can go? Do you have a safe house to play your guitar? Yeah, I do. I can go over here. All right. So does she like to do stuff? Yeah, she loves to sing. All right, well, is she here? Yeah, she's over here. Okay, bring her over here. All right, so you like to sing, and you like to play the guitar. You write me a song about how your life is and how you want to, you know, change the world, whatever, and where you've come from. And then you two record it on your phone and send it to me. And. And if you do this, I'll talk to my buddy who owns a recording studio in, you know, XYZ place. And I still had a lot of really good connections, and so I was like, I'm just going to start leveraging my connections and start, like, granting these kids as wishes and, like, getting them hope and seeing that life can be different. And I'm doing this, and Jodi's tapping my shoulder, and she's like, what the hell are you doing, Wes? Like, you can't give. You can't make these promises to all these kids. Like, and I'm. And then I go into my analytical mind, and I'm like, honey, look. And Jodi comes from a totally different background. White picket fence, amazing family. Mom and dad love each other. I don't think she's ever been spanked in her life, you know, so it just. Totally different background. I'm like, honey, look, these kids are in a tough spot. 90% of them, 100% of them aren't going to do anything other than just, like, right now in this moment. They get to be excited, but they're going to go back into their lives, and there's nothing that we can do. But at least right now, I can give them something that was kind of my mentality.

Kind of discounting them, right?

Yeah, kind of discounting their environment, you know, discounting that, not them. But their environment was just. It was hopeless. And I Mean that in being vulnerable or not vulnerable, but in all honesty, like, that's where I was. It was like, I'm at least doing something. Let me do that. So she did. She was amazing. And she's like, all right, do what you want, you know, we'll see who's right, you know, whatever. And I get done and four and a half hours later and I, I mean everything from take, you know, had one girl who never been to the beach and I was like, you do this and this and we'll take you to the beach and all these things. And so we get done and we start driving home, which with no traffic is about a two and a half hour drive with traffic like 11 Southern California, right? So I'm in traffic at this point and rush like crazy traffic. And my phone starts blowing up. I'd given most of the kids my email and a few of them my cell phone, but my email starts blowing up and I start getting these emails from these kids that just were insane, like 10 page emails telling me about how for the first time in their life they could, they felt alive, they felt like they could connect with somebody, that they felt that they were normal. I mean, just all kinds of different things. And then those two, those two girls specifically that I told the story about them, you know, one plays the guitar and one sings. They had already written like six or seven.

Lines of their song and sent me a sample. And I was like, oh, shit. Like these kids are doing it. Like it's, it's happening. Like I'm gonna have to go through this whole process and actually, you know, make good on my word. And then something amazing happened. We got home, it's about nine, nine o' clock at night. And one of the youth that we had been speaking to, her name was Alexandra. And she was, when she met me at the school, she had just gotten off of her 72 hour watch, which means she just tried to commit suicide about 80 hours before her being at the school. And I had an amazing conversation with her.

Wow.

And she texted me, she was one that I gave my cell phone to and she texted me a story fairly, I mean, I think it was one of 17. And because she didn't have a smartphone. And so she texted me this story and the entire story was how she was going and how she had planned to commit suicide that day. She was going to go home from school and she was going to commit suicide and she had a detailed plan. And normally when a child tries once and then immediately tries after, that's successful because they learn from what they didn't do, right? And she had learned, and she knew exactly how she was going to make it happen. And at the very end, the very last text message said, you saved my life. Thank you.

Wow. This was the day that you spoke at that school?

Same day, 9:30 at night. By the time I got done reading all the text messages, I hit the floor and I lost it.

Oh, I can't imagine.

And I got up 10, 15 minutes later, and Jody was cooking in the kitchen. We'd been gone since 10 o' clock in the morning, so. And at a school, there's nothing to eat, you know, so we were hungry and she was cooking in the kitchen. And I looked at her and I just said, if not now, then when? In the sense of, if I'm not going to do something now with my story, my gifts, my perspective, all these things that had happened to me, then when am I going to. And that night I went into my garage and this is where the entrepreneurial stuff comes out. I whipped out my three whiteboards and I didn't sleep or eat. I think Jody finally got me to eat on the second day, like a sandwich or something. But I didn't sleep or barely eat. I had my phone plugged into an extension cord and into, you know, like its adapter. Because I was on the phone calling every single person I could get on the phone, from the founder of Make a Wish foundation to Gary Vaynerchuk. I was calling every person that was in my circle of influence, saying, this is what I'm gonna do. This is it. I've built this. And I mapped out an entire program. I had a team of psychiatrists and psychologists look at it. They told me that it was a 12 year PhD program. There was no way I could have created this in my garage in three days. And I believe that. I believe them saying that. And I said, you're right. I didn't create this. This is an energy that I can't explain. This is coming from a place that doesn't exist inside of me. This isn't about me. This is just all. Everything's coming together. And in three days, I mapped out an entire business plan. A brand, a logo, a website. We launched. So this was April 11, we launched on May 1. And we went to work and started going into schools and going and finding youth who were depressed, who were sad, who were living in dysfunctional states. And now that's morphed into, we're in seven different countries. It's a whole online program that we've created and think of every entrepreneur thing you've ever thought about, like funnels and membership sites and education, four part video series, all that stuff. We've made it youth oriented and not so, you know, not so cookie cutter as a lot of online marketer and Internet marketers make it. But it's an online resource center for these kids to go through and it's gamified and it's fun and it's all these things. And now in seven countries and last year, calendar year 2014, we reached 50,000 youth. This year I don't even even know yet because we're still putting it all together this year. I do know that we've had over 300 kids come into the program who were all suicidal, meaning they had attempted a suicide or you know, they had planned a suicide, a known suicide, and they had come into the program and knock on wood, none of them have committed suicide. I've put 67,000 miles on my, our personal car driving to places that planes don't get to. I've flown, I don't know, 10 times distance wise, wise across the United States. I've lived in homes of youth who are in dysfunctional situations. We've rescued youth. We've had to sit down and have conversations with parents or especially moms and tell them about their boyfriend is abusing their daughter or just story after story after story after story of youth who have come to us and even parents who have come to us and saying, I'm at a loss with my child and lived with them and educated them and empowered them to realize that their environments do not dictate who they have to be. And then we give them the tools and the skills that they need, like the resources they need to actually implement that. It's one thing to go and speak at a school and rah, rah and say I'm emotional and I'm a great speaker and change your life. That's great. And that can make an impact. Trust me, it does make an impact. It's another thing to do that and then give them the tools. Not just for a weekend or not just for a three day conference conference or a four hour school assembly thing, but for the rest of their lives. And then to continually have that. Our program is 52 weeks and we're expanding that. We're going to be 365 courses by the end of 2017. We're building a summer camp program that will launch in 2016. That'll be like, I thought, I'm like, oh, this has got to exist somewhere doesn't exist anywhere in the world. It'll be a 90 day summer camp program, no cost to the youth.

Really?

Yeah. And we're, we're bringing guys like Gary Vaynerchuk and Dan Martel, and we're even in contact with Richard Branson. And they'll come and teach these kids knee to knee entrepreneurial experiences. And like I said, these entrepreneurs all have amazing stories of their own lives. And this is a way for them to rejuvenate their story and share their success. You know, you and I both know Dan Martell. He has an incredible story, incredible journey. So he gets to come in and teach and then empower. That's the key is like, we're empowering these kids. The system's not broken. It's not that there's not enough people in the world that don't care. It's that, where are you going to put 20? There's 25 million kids in the United States that fit this mold of needing this type of an educational program, and that number is growing every year. Where are you going to put 25 million kids? You know, where are you going to put them? It's just, it's not that the government needs to take care of it. It's not that the government isn't trying. It's that the numbers, it's a numbers game. There's not enough physical places to put these kids. And it's only getting worse because we're not having real conversations about what's causing this. Divorce affects kids, plain and effing serious. I mean, it's just stop trying to make it like, oh, I went through a divorce and nothing happened to me. Well, good for you. I'm. Let's applaud you. But that's not the, that's not the solution. You know, the, the media affects children. You know, we have youth that come in every single month who come to us and tell us that they're confused about their sexuality or they're a transgender or they're gay. And then we start exploring, you know, start talking to them about it, allow them to have those feelings, and then find out that the reason that they said that was because they weren't getting attention. And they figured if they could, if they could scream that from the loudest rooftops, then people would give them attention, which they do. And the gay right community never had that as an intention that kids were going to use that to just get attention because they weren't getting the attention that they needed in their homes. I mean, these are the conversations that people don't want to have because it's uncomfortable. And on a business level, like, I plan to blow this thing out of the water. I mean, we're going to be an $800 million business. Like, yes, we're a non profit. Yes, we're 513 and you can donate to us and please do, but in five years, I don't want to ask for a penny. We're gonna create revenue. We're gonna create our own. And I don't like even calling us a for profit or, excuse me, a non profit.

For purpose.

For purpose, exactly. And so, because this, that's what this is. This is not an epidemic. It's the wrong word. But this is. This is bigger than just one little. Like, I never was interested in starting, you know, a little state of California or a San Diego charity. Like, if I was gonna do this, I wanted to create a movement that would be worldwide. And everyone thought I was crazy. I mean, everyone thought I was crazy except for a few key people, like Gary Vaynerchuk, like Frank from, who's the founder of Make a Wish Foundation. Like Aaron Young, who's helped start over 100,000 businesses in his career. Like, a few people didn't think I was crazy. And now those people are obviously seeing the journey. And I still have people all the time. You're never going to reach 25 million people. How are you going to do that? You know, and as far as, like, literally, I'm not just talking about in podcast numbers. I know we've already done that, I'm sure in interviews and different things I've been on, but I'm talking about changing 25 million lives that have come into contact and connection with our programs. So it's, it's, you know, oh, that's a huge goal. Like, awesome. You know, I'll be, I'll be the crazy one that says we're going to do it, because I believe we can. I believe we will.

Dude, you're making me just really want to step up my damn game as a human being. I was gonna be really comfortable just being all bacon wrapped, like, no, but I mean, and I mean extremely honest. I actually work with a, you know, business and a life coach. She was actually just on one of the most recent episodes where I was. She flipped the switch on me and was saying, you know what, what do you want? Well, you know, let's dive into Brad. Who is Brad? And it was like an hour of me just being really open. And I know that this is one of the things she and I have been working on is just crystallizing that vision and something that she talks about with me. And this is Dr. Laurie Emery. So if anybody wants to look her up on the show. But.

Great, great woman.

Do you know her?

Yeah. So great.

That's awesome. That's so cool. So.

And one of the things we're talking about, you know, with the vision is like, listen, it's got to be so. So big that it not only excites you, but it scares you. You may have no idea whatsoever about how to. How to accomplish it, and that's okay. But it should be that so big that you may have doubters, you may have naysayers or whatever, but it's what, you know, you're doing, and it's exactly what you are doing right now. It's that path you're on. And as I said, it's one of those things that I'm trying to step into in my life. And I. First of all, I want to appreciate you and thank you for being that inspiration to even just me. And I know a lot of the listeners out there.

So, yeah. Hey, yeah. Thanks for making me have to step up my game, Wes.

You know, it's. That's awesome. I'll put a little mark that you're one of the 25 million. And here's the thing, is that what are you going to do? Right? And I don't mean that like, what are you going to do? I mean, what are you gonna do for the. What is your impact gonna be? We have one girl in our program who's brought in 87 kids into the program by herself. Just her. In her little community, in her school. And why is. Because she changes her perspective. She changes her mindset, she changes her energy. And children, especially, because they haven't gotten so numbified by life. They. They're like dogs. They can sense energy. They can sense, you know, change. They feel. Feel it. That's why children get scared very easily in, like, certain situations. Like, they. They just. They have a more. They're more connected with that. That energy, whatever you want to call it, whether it's God, whatever, I don't care, but it's energy.

Yeah.

And her classmates and her people in her school noticed she had a different energy. So her impact is massive. And she's not done. You know, she's not done. And so what are you going to do? I mean, we can now look back in history and say, wow, look at Martin Luther King. Look at what. Look at what he has done. For the entire world, you know, and it's like. And he had. But when he was up there speaking on stage, everyone was like, you know, a. Not everyone, but a mass. Majority of people were trying to kill him. You know, so it's just. It's all having perspective of knowing, but it's more about believing and having that clarity. And as you look at your business and you look at life, that's what it comes down to, is that it's about building relationships, it's about dominating in your space, whatever that is. And I don't mean that in a negative term. The word dominate, it can be negative, but it's really about dominating at such a level that your confidence is like through the roof. I mean, there's many times, many, many times that in this journey of starting a nonprofit where I don't know anything about it, my skill set is not in asking people for money, quote, unquote. My skill set is selling them something that they need, and then they give me the money as the exchange, right? So it's not like, hey, Brad, you know, I'm a really cool guy. Give me a hundred bucks a month. Like, that is not my thing. And so that's very difficult as a new skill that I'm still trying to learn. Like, getting donations right now is critical because if we don't, we can't keep the lights on, we can't keep moving forward, we can't keep doing things. So we have to have this, like, insane confidence in what we're doing and this passion and we're dominating the space. And then you have to figure out how to create happiness in your life. You know, happiness can be bought. I think that so many people want to say that, you know, happiness must be found through meditation and spiritual development. And I, you know, yeah, that's true, but you are in control of creating your happiness. And it's about understanding your relationship with money, with people, with yourself, all of those things, to create that the environment where happiness can exist. And that is what creates a life that actually matters. You know, that's where you actually now understand, like, relationships and dominating and. And creating happiness, buying happiness, whatever, and then creating that life that matters. And if you look at anybody, I don't care. Richard Branson, you know, Mark Cuban, I don't care who you look at. They have found some way of doing that. And so to bring in your whole circle and your point that you hinted to your audience. A couple of my buddies and I came up with this idea. One of them in particular, this is his word. And as a human, as a company that I now work, you know, run and work on every single day of my life is called a human project. And Cole came to me, one of my buddies and a great supporter of a human project. And he says, I want to do an event, I want to create an event. And by the way, any of the money that we raise from selling tickets to this event, any of the profits I want to give to a human project. And I said, cool, let's do something in a little hotel or a restaurant or whatever. Because he plays big. He said, no, no, no, I'm renting out like the Mandolin Bay in Las Vegas, the freaking resort. And we're gonna put on an event there and we're gonna bring, you know, a couple thousand people together and frickin make this thing rock. And I'm doing the math and I'm like ticket sales, couple thousand people, profits. Like you're talking about a substantial amount of money that you're gonna be giving us. And he said, yeah, because to thrive means understanding that money is something that you can use for good things. And I want to teach people that even this event is going to be that way. So long story short, we sat down and we created something that every single person in the event world was like, not going to happen, guys. Like, nobody can do that on that. You're talking about doing an event that you do like after you've done four or five or maybe even six events, you're never going to pull this off as your first time event. It's just never going to happen.

Yeah, the lineup is insane.

Yeah, and lineup, education, space, everything. We have 52,000 square feet. Like we're doing a networking lounge that is going to be teaching you how to actually network with people and build relationships. We're bringing people that you want to talk about dominating. They're the number one in their field. So yeah, we're doing this and then we're showing you that you can create all of this and make a difference and make your life matter. And right off the get go, when you buy a ticket, you know the profits are coming straight to our work and what we're doing, which enables us to do even more amazing things and expand and blah, blah. Yeah, the lineup we have this. This event is called Thrive and it's in Las Vegas. It's called. So the URL is thrivelosvegas.com we were told it was really funny. Is that when we started just putting it out there to a few people, they were like, wes Cole and jj, who's the other gentleman? You guys, there's no way you have these speakers. And I guess somebody two or three years ago started using Tim Ferriss face and said that Tim was coming to their event and Tim had to like do this whole thing and Tim was never coming and it was this nightmare, you know, and the event was a sham and blah blah, blah. And so they were telling us, they're like, there is no way you can say you have this lineup coming. You know, everybody from Robert Herjavec to Gary Vaynerchuk to Adam Braun, Tucker, Max, you know, Dan Martell, the list goes on and on. There's like, there's no way you can say you have that as a lineup for your first official event. And you know, people are not going to believe you. So we've actually had to go get every one of our speakers to go on camera and be like I'm coming to thrive. Like I'll be there. Because they didn't believe it because people weren't believing it. And so, and it's just going to be amazing. And it's, it's, it's going to be teaching, you know, you're talking about like how do I up my game? Well, we'll show you like these. One of the speakers, one of the speakers is going to be teaching you the four principles of creating a billion dollar business. He's Taken I think three businesses and made them in the Inc 500, Inc 100. Something crazy. One of his massive successes is taking a company from 10 million to 3.5 billion. Another success. Same guy, he hired Steve Wozniak after Steve left Apple. This guy is just freaking on fire. Is not even the right thing but. And he is an amazing human being and I've known him for a couple of years now and he is just an amazing human being. But he's going to come in and just lay out the principles of doing this. And so I mean, that's just one speaker. I mean Gary on camera said that he was going to bring his best keynote he's ever brought, ever. And there's something that he's going to be telling the audience that is very personal to him and is going to change his life. And this may or may not be one of his last keynotes for a very long time. He talks about that in the video. There's just so many amazing things that are happening around this event and a lot of it has to do with the energy and the purpose of a human project and what we're trying to accomplish. And these guys coming together and saying, hell yeah, I'm in. Let's make this thing the most profitable event ever. So we can do, you know, this amazing work over here. And oh, by the way, how can I play? You know, how can I be? That's how I met Dan Martell, is he's like, well, Wes, I'll do a four part video series on how to create your first business and, you know, investing and technology and all this stuff. And I'm like, awesome. You know, we got Tucker Max, who wants to help these kids figure out how to do books. You know, I mean, there's just so many amazing things that are happening. And it's all because one day standing on a stage, realizing what my purpose was supposed to be and then pushing forward even when, you know, Jody's in tears and we don't know how we're gonna, you know, pay the next bill. I mean, literally, like totally honest and crazy and I can't wait to write these stories is there have been times that it's, let's just say, you know, May 30 or whatever, last day of the month, we have enough funds to pay our people that are helping us and do the things we do and keep the website going and just pay the foundational things of keeping the business alive and the mission alive. But we have zero money for our mortgage, for our rent, for our stuff. Like, nothing. It's just like we have a decision. We can keep this going or we can put food on the table that's the last day of the month and we'll make the decision to keep the lights on and keep things moving. And kid you not. 11:57pm you know, before the calendar switches over to the next day and people start knocking on your door to pay the bills, somebody will walk up to me like, I've had stuff happen on Facebook where some guy will be like, I don't even know you, but I just feel inspired. Like I need to drop $2,500 at your. @ your cause or I don't even know you, but I heard that you know how to do this, this and this. Would you mind consulting me for that? And is it worth $5,000 to you? I'm not even.

Kidding. It's amazing how it works. And people can poo poo, the law of attraction or whatever, and all the woo woo stuff all they want, but that stuff absolutely has a way of happening. That's actually a perfect segue to a. This is a perfect segue to.

A Facebook post you made last night. And I commented. I was like, oh, you're going to tell that story on the interview.

Tomorrow? Yeah, yeah.

So. So go ahead and tell the story. This is.

Awesome. All right. So a couple of. Well, a year ago, I. Jody's cousins are Imagine Dragons. Now, when I say cousins, it's like the one. Daniel, his name is actually Wayne, but Dan, if you follow the band, he's the. He's the guitarist. Amazing guitarist. And that's Jody's cousin. Now, not like, ooh, best friend, cousins, you know, kind of a thing, but they're cousins and they're friends, but nothing like super, super close. And if you know anything about celebrities, once you become a celebrity, like, all your family comes out of the woodwork, even family you didn't even know you had. And so we have been very careful about not exposing that relationship at all. We've never asked for tickets. We've never done anything. We've just kind of let it happen. And so other members of the family have not done that. So we. Out of nowhere, we were at a little family function, and Daniel's mom. So weird. Wayne's mom came up to us and said, hey, would you guys like to go to Imagine Dragons concert? It's on this date, and it's in San Diego, and I live in Lake Arrowhead, California, which is about two, two and a half hours away from San Diego, depending on where you're going. And on that particular day, I had some interviews. I had some big things that we had scheduled, and my first gut reaction was, no, no, we're not gonna be able to go, but thanks for the invite. And then I also was thinking, like, that's a playtime thing. I've got work to do. We've got things going on. It's a busy time of year for us. No. And then instead of saying no, I said, yes. And then we canceled everything and got ready to do the whole thing, went down to the concert. And again, if you know anything about networking and celebrity families, you don't use family to get to celebrities. It doesn't ever work because they're so guarded. It's not like we can just walk up to her and be like, hey, you know, you're. You know, you're. You're Wayne's mom. Can we, like, talk to him about what we're doing? Like, you just can't do that. Not in this circumstance. And not as big as Imagine Dragons is. So we get these amazing floor side, like, literally where I can reach out and touch the band. You know, we had these awesome seats. Not even seats because it's on the floor, but we had this awesome thing and, and we're at the event and everything's cool and we're having this great experience and, and we brought a friend along with us and I just said, I said a year ago, I said we were going to work with these guys and we were going to do it the right way. You know, we were going to network in and work with their manager so we could do something big because his family, maybe we'd get a tweet or something, but we're going to do something big with these guys. And right as I'm telling him this, the lead singer starts sharing his story of depression and how he has fought depression his entire life and how music has been his medicine and that him being able to express himself through music is healing for him, keeps him connected to the world and basically depression does not rule him, it's a part of him, but it's not a dictation on his life, which is a lot of the message that we give in a different way, but similar concept. So he's giving this thing and I happened, I whipped out my phone, I'm recording it and we get done and the concert's over and Wayne is sick. They have been doing like back to back concerts and their bodies had just given up. Both Wayne and Dan, the lead singer, got sick and so they had to leave. There was this weird thing happening. Like we were up front and doing this whole thing and I noticed this elderly couple who were just kind of like awkward, like not awkward like in any, you know, social way, but just like, they just, they didn't fit into like being at an Imagine Dragons concert. But every time the band played or spoke or did anything, they were just so, like glued and intentive on one of the members of the band. I didn't think anything of it. I was like, oh, just, you know, some fans maybe, I don't know, whatever. And we leave the concert and I'm talking to my, my buddy and Jody and we're just kind of talking about how amazing that story was that he shared about depression and oh my gosh. And so we start looking in our Rolodex between the three of us and lo and behold, look, we have a connection with their manager, with the band manager, like the guy that actually like manages them and does everything. So we send some emails and we start the process of getting some meetings set up where we can start having a conversation about what we could be doing. And I just had this overwhelming feeling, like a. It was crazy because 12,000 people leaving a concert all at once, like, it's crazy. But I just had this feel like we need to just wait by our car and just let the traffic pass. That was the excuse that I gave my friend and Jody. And then I said, screw that. Like, you know, and inside of myself I'm like, that's not why we need to wait. But that's what I'm going to tell these guys so they don't think I'm crazy. And I, you know, they kept kind of like, all right, the traffic's died down, you know, should we go? And I'm like, no, let's not. And you know, 20, 30, 35 minutes, I don't know, went by and we ended up being the only car in the entire parking lot, minus the car next to us, which was a black little like, Honda Accord. And finally they're like, alright, well, I think it's time to leave. And Jody starts getting in the car and friend gets in his car and we start leaving. And as I'm walking around, I just open the door for Jody and put her in. And as I'm walking around to get into the car, I see that little elderly couple coming across the parking lot and they're headed right towards our car, AKA this little black car. And I'm like, I have a feeling that they are not just some couple. Like, they're not just coming to the concert. And so I had my door open and I closed my door and I started approaching them very calmly, you know, trying to be kind of pleasant. We're in a parking lot, it's dark, it's night, you know, here I'm this weird guy walking up to an elderly couple. I can only imagine what they're thinking. And I asked them and I said, do you by chance, are you related to anyone in the band? And at first they, like, didn't. They were kind of like nervous and like, the husband kind of got his wife a little closer to him. And I smiled and I was like, I'll just say it. Are you Dan's parents? And they looked at me and the wife kind of, you know, she looked right at me with this big smile and she said, yeah, I'm his mother and this is his father. And they introduced their names and all this stuff and. And I was like, you know, I just had a feeling. And we ended up, like, had a very quick conversation trying to, you know, hook them, right? I'm selling. And so I just thank Them for being this. The amazing parents. That wasn't. That was honest. I wasn't. I guess I came.

Across. You didn't say, hey, we.

Cousins? Yeah, we cousins. No, I was like, you know.

Your sons. Amazing. Like, his conversation that he had with. With the audience and his talent, like, I just want to thank you for raising such an amazing child. And. And so we just started having a normal human conversation. And then I explained to them in about 30 seconds what a human project does and what we're all about. And then I. They started opening up and I shared the vision that I had that we were going to work with Imagine Dragons and this was going to happen. And it's because of not just the relationship. I mean, again, like, I knew Imagine Dragons before I even started dating Jody. It was. It was their music, their words, what they say, you know, radioactive. All these different songs that they have. I'm on top of the World. Like, I knew because I'm, you know, live this life. There was something more to their music than just, you know, some. Some words on paper. Like, this was stories that they were sharing about it. So I love their. Their lyrics, their words, who, what they are, what they represent. They're married, you know, they're living this life. They. They have families. Like, I just loved the band itself, long before knowing anything. So I'm having this conversation with the lead singers, mom and dad, and ended up giving the. Giving them a T shirt, which is our kind of branded T shirt, and some of our material. And I carry all that stuff in my car, so it's not weird. I have it all the time with me. But I gave them all this information and we exchanged information and started having a real conversation about what the band could do. And they started opening up a few little stories about Dan and his childhood and what he had kind of gone through. And it was just amazing. It was absolutely amazing. And the car parked next to us at a 12,100 out of 12,012 cars that were at the concert. I did ask the main person at the gate, you know, how many cars out of 12,012 cars, how the heck did we park right next to Daniel or Dan's mom and dad? Now again, there's so many Dan's, and you knew.

It. There was something in your gut that just told you. And this was yesterday, right? Last.

Night. Two days.

Ago. Two days ago.

Right. So this is. It was. It was Tuesday and. And even a crazier. And the story continues. So this happens, right? And. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. We connect with them on on different levels and all this fun stuff. And then. And we leave and we got stuck in traffic and the. Daniel, just for their safety, I know where they live and all that stuff. They were heading home, and it was in the similar direction that we were going. And we get stuck in traffic, and guess who's next to us in traffic. So it's just very interesting, the. The experience that happened. And completely, you know, again, Wayne, who's the guitarist, is related to Jody, but this is. This is Dan, the lead singer. That's their parents. So we, you know, this wasn't a family thing that we eventually told him, like, hey, Jody's, you know, Wayne's cousin. And they were like, oh, yeah. And so we could talk on that level. But that wasn't the intro. That was just the thing. But the powerfulness of that story was, is that so many times we do things and I've done things that nothing happens. Like, I've had experiences where I'm like, I need to go over here. And then I'm an hour later, I'm like, why am I here? This doesn't make any sense. And maybe I needed to wait an hour and five minutes. I don't know. But there's been times where my gut has not been right, but it's been, you know, it's been right more than it's been wrong. And when you're on purpose and you're doing something and I don't care what it is, starting a web development company, sharing your story, writing a book, whatever, there's an energy. There's universal laws that exist that you will have these kinds of things happen to you, but you've got to be tested and tried. And, you know, my personal opinion is the universe has to make sure that you want to accept it. Not that you're deserving or anything, that's not what it means. It's that you want to accept it. The universe has. You know, the universe can create what it wants to create so that it can have change and things can happen. But if you don't want to accept it, then why is it going to do that? Why is it going to waste its energy, its time? And however you want to believe that is up to you, but it's a universal law. And you see it happen over and over again. And we say, oh, it's Wes is lucky. Or, you know, Richard Branson just got lucky. And it's like, no, it's not about luck. You know, it's about saying yes. It's about putting yourself in uncomfortable Circumstances. And it's about listening and spending a little extra time and being patient and having the vision that's grander than just, you know, a momentary blimp. You know, this is, I have a 20 year vision for a human project and it's something that I know we're going to achieve and I, I would love to snap my fingers and just be like, boom, it's there. Because when we get there, it's going to be so magical. But I also know that there's a journey to getting there. I know that we will be doing something with Imagine Dragons. Do I know when? No, I don't, but I know we will. And I've got my. I mean, Gary Vaynerchuk was a small version of that. I told Jody after I saw him speak and different things. And I resonated with some of his messaging way back in the, you know, in the day when he was first kind of getting started being a consultant. I said, in six months I'm going to know that guy. And she's like, oh, yeah, whatever. And I'm like, no, in six months I'm going to know that guy. And almost six months to the day I'm sitting in his office talking about a human project and what we want to do, and he's volunteering his name and some of his resources and things to make that, you know, happen. So just believe, just believe in what you believe in and push forward with everything you've got. Realizing that it's not going to be easy and it's never. The easy journey that you take is never worth it. It's never worth it because you have no concept, you have no perspective of what it takes. It's when you, you have blood, sweat and tears, then you understand and you respect it. And in that respect is a mutual respect between you and the universe that creates this amazing explosion of greatness that you just can't explain. You just have to kind of accept it and live with it and realize that it's not by chance, it's not by luck, it's by good old fashioned hard.

Work. Dude, that's awesome. I love the way you phrase that and I love the.

I mean, I.

Just love that message. And it's, I think it's so important. It's important for me to hear. It's important for everybody out there to hear. And I think it's so.

I think it's so. God, I don't want to use the word inspirational. It's just, it's one of those words that, I mean it's one of those things that it allows people to see. Look, it's not just about the day to day crap they're going through and to, to have a bigger reason why. And you know, I also noticed that people will be more attracted to you because in business, in life, I'm not talking about just like physical traction. People will be more attracted to who you are because of the reasons you're doing things that you know, you have. You're not just helping, you know, you're not just creating a human project or whatever because like, okay, this is great. I mean, you have a real deep seated reason behind this that drives you even to those nights where you don't or those days where you don't know if you can pay your rent. And I think that's why people like Gary Vee, Dan Martel and all of these other great, great people stand up and want to support you and want to.

Lend whatever they can towards you. I mean, I know I do. One of the things that I always felt strongly about and I didn't ever really know exactly why, because I didn't have this, this rationale for it growing up or whatever. Like, you know, I probably more in common with your wife, with my, with my background and being raised up and I don't have children yet, working on it, but don't have them yet. But the, one of the big things that I've always felt very strongly about is the educational system and how it's right, so ripe for disruption because it's so broken in so many ways, because it doesn't, it doesn't teach critical thinking. And I don't want to go off on a, you know, complete tangent here, but it doesn't teach critical thinking, it doesn't teach problem solving, it doesn't teach entrepreneurship. It doesn't teach the things that people these days need to survive and thrive more than ever. I mean, I think right now it's never been more important to be an entrepreneur or to have those skill sets. And one of those concepts came up in one of James Altucher's books. I don't know if you've read Choose.

Yourself. No, but I've heard about it.

Yeah. So great book. I know he's speaking at Thrive and I recommend it to everybody, Go buy Choose Yourself yesterday. But one of the things in there he says because of the way that the economy is going, because there's a much bigger reliance on freelance outsourced workers, both internally outsourced in the United States and elsewhere, and companies are hiring less Long term employees more than ever before. It's never been more important for you to be an entrepreneur no matter what you're doing, which is somebody who solves problems, organizes resources, creates opportunity for themselves. So it's never been more important to do that for your own safety if nothing else. But it's also never been easier. The tools are there, the mentors are there, the customers connections are there. So at no other time.

I'm 41 years old, when I was 13 years old, 14, 15, 16, whatever, we didn't have the Internet. And now if I was. The opportunities out there just to create connection, to create value in the world are so insanely high that it not only can help somebody.

Be on top of the world. Dragon Song but. But.

I love doing little callbacks to previous lines. But it can also help.

Like you're doing, pull people out of situations that nothing adults in their life won't do it their environments, their school systems and nothing else will. So I've always had a very.

Profound interest in alternative education and doing it yourself and gathering those resources to make that happen. And I mean I'm here to say I want to support a human project and what you're doing and your mission in any way that I can. So whether it's intellectual property that I can help create, donate to like Dan's doing, if there's anything I can teach, if there's time I can give and including getting the message out like I'm doing right now and telling the words, I feel strongly about it. I think you're an amazing inspiration and I just. And I think you will create the change in 25 million people's.

Lives. I appreciate that. And that's humbling. And I mean that in all honesty is that this is a greater, this is greater than me. And when you look at everything, you know, you talk about education and these be disrupted and all that.

These types of controlling vices are closet dwellings for children. You know, they don't want to be the freak, right? I didn't want to be the freak. I was the freak. I was the kid that tried to commit suicide and was running businesses. I was the kid that was trying to hurt myself to feel alive. I was the kid that, you know, was trying to hurt other people so that I didn't have to think about my own pain or more. Reality is I wanted to bring them where I was like, it's not fair that you get a perfect life. So I'm going to hurt you so that you don't have a perfect life. Like these children are suffering with this. And in 1980, 85, this was something that we didn't talk about and we could only reach those that we had some kind of intimate connection with. So, AKA parents or grandparents, whatever. Now with the Internet and the concept of creating this like minded community and all this stuff, we're able to reach hundreds of thousands of children who would otherwise never hear a message of hope because of the Internet. So was I born in the exact right time? Yes, because if I had the same vision in 1974, it would be so much more. And I've talked to people who have wanted to do something like this, you know, back in the 70s, and it was like, oh my gosh, it was just so difficult to get, you know, to get the message out there. And we counted on traditional media, which was expensive, and all these different things. Now we can throw up a website. In our first night of launching a little simple marketing campaign on Facebook and working some things on Twitter and YouTube. Very simple, like 80, 90 bucks on each of these platforms and then just creating some content and utilizing a couple of people that we knew in our first night, we were able to have a thousand youth register for our online program. If I were to tell you that as like an entrepreneur and a business guy, hey, create this thing, that's $49, and I promise you in your first night, 1,000 people will buy it. And oh, by the way, you got to invest like 180 bucks in advertising. You would be like, sign me effing up, right? Like, it would, it would just be so. So for me, when that happened, a, it crashed our website and it was a little plugin that we've done. It was horrible. But you know, for me, I'm sitting there thinking, holy shit, if we can do this with this small of an impact, with this small of a video concept, this ad, what could we do with $10,000? What could we do with a thousand dollars? Like, you know, let's just take it down. What could, what could happen? Well, because of the power of the Internet, amazing things could happen. And that same campaign with no money gets, you know, anywhere from five to ten kids a day that come in. And that just gives you also a grasp. I mean, people will always say to me, like, well, how do you find the kids? And I'm like, look, my inventory is not the problem. That's not our problem. The inventory is not the problem. Just like it's not a problem for you to find ways to create money in this world because of this world. And the connectivity and what we have and the opportunities. But anyway, we go off. But I'm just saying, if you're an entrepreneur sitting there and you're thinking about this and you're trying to figure out your life and you're trying to figure out how to make money, my recommendation for you is before you waste thousands of dollars in the wrong direction, look at yourself in the mirror and make sure you're being true to your unique core. And I have a free program for adults. It's called superhuman life. It's not.com, it's superhuman life. And it's a free course on how to break through that whole cycle of honesty and healing and power and figuring out very quickly, what have you been lying to yourself about for all these years? I lied to myself for all these years that it was somebody else's problem and responsibility or really somebody else's fault as to why I was who I was. In reality, it was my fault. It was my fault. And I had to take that ownership. And if, And I guess I'm going to be blunt, if I can do that with my past, then anyone can do that and really take ownership of it. Because the guy that molested me for 15 years, I allowed him to rule my life. And when I finally said, dude, you know, enough isn't. He hadn't touched me at this time for 10 or 11 years, but he was still controlling my. Longer than that. But anyway, he was still controlling my life, and he was still basically touching me every day. And as soon as I said no, my whole life changed. And as soon as I took ownership and responsibility for that and realized that my actions were my fault, not his fault, my whole life changed. Whole life changed. And so that would be my recommendation, entrepreneurs, if you want the house on the hill with nine cars the right way and to make it last and make it be awesome, is look at yourself and make sure you're being true to who you are and create that. And then from that, I promise you, I put my reputation on it. I put my name on it. I put anything I need to that makes you understand. I get this, is that I promise you that when you do that, money will fall from, you know, fall from every opportunity that you can imagine. Things you weren't even thinking of, because you're on point, you're on purpose, you understand what you're doing, and you are being true to your core identity. And people will feel that. They will gravitate to it, as you said, they will become your allies, your partners, and they will do things for you that don't make sense because they know that, you know, you're on the right path. So that would be.

My. Yeah, dude, that's. That is powerful as hell. So, man, we've been rapping for an hour and a half and I had so much fun. This is maybe my longest episode ever. And probably my favorite. No, dude, no, I like. And probably my favorite because it's, it's, you know, it's rare that you meet somebody who's got such a clear purpose, doing so good in the world and really just starting off with it. Right. It's not like you've been doing this for years and years. People who pay attention to you now are watching the journey unfold.

Fast. But it's still early. And you are. I invite everybody I know I'll be watching you closely and hopefully continue our friendship, you know, into.

The. For.

Sure. Into the future. Because I think you're doing amazing things. I cannot wait to see how much bigger it gets. So now let's talk about the ways that people can support the stuff you're doing. Because you've mentioned multiple resources throughout the show, this is a great time to just say, listen, if you want more information. Information on. So the first thing you talked about, the big, big. Your big baby there is a Human project dot com.

Right? Yeah, Human project dot com. And we have a really fun.

Way. And that's a human. Like not just Human Project. A Human Project, exactly. Not the Human.

Project. Right. We're. We're looking to buy in all those. So they've all, They've all stopped doing what they do. So now we can, you know, wait for the domain registration thing. And we already have all the bids in, so nobody can, can try to beat me to it. That would be some sick perverted.

Guy. Somebody would be kind of an ass to do.

That. Yeah, right. So anyway, but it's ahumanproject.com and we have a fun way. Like I said. I don't like just asking for money. If you want to just do that, then we recommend. Or we love that. Like $25 a month pledges or we love that. And if you can just do a one time, that's great. Thank you. But we have a fun way of doing the donation. We've. We've come up with a T shirt concept and there's a lot.

Of. Oh, I love this, by the.

Way. I love this. There's a lot of psychology to it, is that you're, you know, with it. But we print a custom Like Nordstrom style T shirt, one a month with a message on it that's empowering. You know, next month's is going to be about self worth. This month's was a more empowering statement. And you get this t shirt and 84% it's a $30 a month subscription. And 84% of that $30 goes right into a human project. The other, you know, 12% or whatever goes into.

16%, whatever. It goes into the T shirt and making it and shipping and all that fun stuff. But we've got our margins pretty freaking good on that. And.

So. And that's how.

Much? $30 a.

Month? Yeah. And you know what, I just want to bring this up because I actually had this thought today because I was going through some of my, my credit card statements and whatnot, and I found like $300 of subscription plans to software or other things that I just absolutely don't even use anymore. And I'm not that much of a stickler for my stuff, so I'll just forget about it for like a year or two years. I go, oh, I should probably cancel that because I haven't used it in forever. I wonder what else I could use that $300, you know, $30 at a time for. Like, there's probably like, you know, six things. But I encourage, if anybody's out there listening, like, I don't know if I can afford 30, I mean, $30. That's a lot of money a month. I mean, to some people it is. Go in and if you really like what Wes has been saying, I encourage you to go in and just look at the little areas that you could not spend new money on a human project unless you want to, but just redeploy money that you're wasting somewhere.

Else. Yeah, and that's. That is a lot of the message, you know, I mean, it's a couple lattes. There's so many different ways to look at it. And I don't want to be like that guy, but I'm just saying. Yeah, that's even more.

Powerful. Don't spend your bacon money on.

It. I mean, hey, no, no, no, no.

No. Gotta have your.

Bacon. Gotta have your bacon. Just had some yesterday. But anyway, so the, it's just a fun way because now you have a T shirt that has a message. And we've had some incredible stories of people like going to lunch or talking to their neighbor. And then someone will be like, what's your T shirt all about? And they're like, oh, it's this and this. And then guess what, that person. We actually have an amazing story of a lady who's found out that her neighbor's daughter was dealing with self harm and depression. That daughter, they'd been kind of trying to keep it quiet because it's shameful. It's not. Especially in the Christian community. It's really shameful. That T shirt opened up a conversation where that parent was able to reach out to us. And that child is now three months clean from cutting, is going through an entire thing. So just wearing a T shirt, not only are you saving a life by, you know, the money side, but you're saving a life by the conversation side. So it's really.

Cool. Yeah, that's awesome. So a human. So a human project is one place people can.

Go. Yep. And then the big thing, if you're an entrepreneur and you're looking to up your game on every level, how to dominate in your business, how to create more money, how to protect your money, how to literally transform your existence. Thrive is happening in October. October, you can get tickets anywhere From I think 600 bucks all the way up to like VIP tickets where you get to hang out with Gary Vaynerchuk and do all that kind of stuff and other speakers that are going to be there, the Robert Herjvex, those kind of guys. And nobody's selling anything from stage. So it's literally an education. Every single speaker is like how you're talking about. You're on fire. You got this purpose. You want to make something bigger. You're an up your game. You're the longest interview you've ever done. All of these speakers are saying the exact same thing because of the energy, not just of a human project, but of the event. I mean, guys are like calling and emailing and texting me personally and being like I am bringing something I've never brought before. I'm gonna rock the stage. I'm gonna change. I mean, this is gonna be the best education material ever. So it's gonna be. It's just gonna be insane. It's just gonna be an insane event. That's.

Awesome. I'm gonna do everything I can to be there for sure. I know. I got a. I've got an event in Cleveland I'll be speaking at literally up until the day your starts, like the 18th. And then I'll be probably flying straight from Cleveland to Vegas to go to this. I really don't want to miss this one. And I'm friends with a lot of people who are speaking and I think I just Think that everything is. Is absolutely amazing. So a human project, superhuman life. And I want to encourage everybody to go to WesleyDchapman.com and check out the website. I was telling you this before we got on the air, especially click on the little about button. I think you've got the coolest just personal about me, like, personal branding website that I've seen, like, period. And I was just. I was going through the whole thing going, oh, this is awesome. This is awesome. I love this. Like, I might have to rip this entire thing off and do it.

For myself, but that's totally.

Fine. Yeah, no, I think I probably.

Ripped it off from somebody else. That's what we do.

Now. That's awesome. Wes, man, thank you so very much for being on the show.

I think that my bacon wrapped listeners have gotten such a cool treat. A lot of the times we just talk about business stuff on the show. We try to take it to a lot of different levels here. And, you know, I mean, one of the reasons I call this bacon wrap business, besides anything else, bacon brings a lot of flavor, right? You can put bacon on anything, and it no longer. I've heard Jim Gaffigan say one of his jokes is, like, you put bacon on a salad, it's no longer a salad. It's a game of find the.

Bacon. Yeah, exactly. I love.

That. Yeah, isn't that great? But in essence, I try to sprinkle in a little bit of new flavor to all the episodes. And recently, I've really been trying to bring this much more to an inspirational level and find out what makes people tick and why they're doing what they're doing. And, man, you've just really delivered the goods on here. I cannot stress enough. I want every single person to go check out the resources here, check out the cause. If you believe in it. If you don't believe in it, you're a heartless bastard. But I can say that it's.

My show, it's your show, it's your.

Microphone. But I mean, I didn't say if you don't donate or if you don't get involved, if you don't believe in it, if you don't think that it's a good thing, well, they pretty much a fact. You heart this bastard. So one last question.

Is there anybody out there that you want to meet that you think could help further your cause that you haven't met yet, and it's kind of on your radar, but you would love to, because either myself or somebody I know might just be like, oh, dude, I got a.

Connection. Well, obviously.

Ellen. Ellen.

DeGeneres. Ellen DeGeneres. I'm that, that's my big media goal is that on the business side there's a ton of them. I mean, Elon Musk, I mean, I don't know like any. I've met a lot of great business professionals, but I like there's a lot of them out there that people just don't know. I mean I just met like Mike Dillard and a lot of people knew him, but I didn't know him. And he's an amazing guy. Like, you know. So do you know Joe Polish? I, I know of Joe Polish and I met him once at a Brendan Bashard event and it was years ago, so I was a little different human being then. But I'd love to reconnect with Joe. I think he's.

Amazing. So I'll try to reconnect. I'll try to connect you with Joe there. Joe is insanely connected, knows a lot of people and I think he would absolutely love your story and what you're doing. Elon Musk. I don't know if this is a good connection for you. I know that Tyler Lopez who is speaking at Thrive, I saw him on there. He, I just saw him cool him post a picture with Elon the movie theater and I don't know if he just jumped in and did a little hey, Elon, little bomb, look, we're sharing a popcorn together or if they actually know. But I would call Ty and say, hey dude, do you know Elon? But Ty's amazing who you'd be. You know who I'd love to hear you on. So one of my favorite podcasts is Joe Rogan. Tell me you've been on it.

Already. But dude, I have.

Not. That would be.

Amazing. Today I was. Somebody sent me a link to his podcast and I'm like, have you.

Not been listening to it.

Before? No, I have, but just like out of the blue and they said the same thing, like, why haven't you been on this podcast? And I'm kind of like, I don't know. Yeah, that would be an.

Amazing. So I don't know Joe either. Although I would love to hang out with Joe. I think his podcast is amazing even though it's three hours of my life.

Double speed. But I love that man. As I said, you've got a supporter in me and a friend and I look forward to doing a lot more with you. Alright guys, if you have any other questions, reach out to Wes here. Reach out to me. You can always email me at askbradaconratbusiness.com and I want to know about you. I want you to join my rolodex. Go to baconratbusiness.com whoare. It's not a real pretty page. It's a little survey. I'm going to ask you more than an email, but if you want to be top of mind whenever I need a resource in something, feel free to let me know what it is. And Wes, thank you so much for being on the show today, buddy. It's been an epic.

One. Oh, man, I appreciate it. Thank you. It's an.

Honor. Thank you.