60: Damian Mason: Working Class Farmer to Bill Clinton to Corporate Influencer - How Respect...

Welcome to the Mutually Amazing Podcast. I'm your host, Mike Domitrz, with the Center for Respect. The episode you're about to listen to was recorded when this show used to be called the Respect Podcast. So, you might hear that mentioned during this episode. Well, let's get to the show. And welcome to this week's episode. We're going to get right into it here with our guest, Damian Mason. He is what happens when an entrepreneurial business person from an agricultural background collides with a comedian. He's funny, he excels at business, he works like a farmer, and he possesses a keen sense of the marketplace. And he speaks at events throughout North America while managing his farm properties. So, Damien, thank you so much for joining us.

Well, thanks for having me on, Mike. Appreciate it.

Oh, absolutely. So, to give everyone a little understanding of where you're coming from, because you come from a farm background, And you make the point that you went into entrepreneurism. So, tell us about that.

Yeah, I was raised on a dairy farm. You're from Wisconsin, so you can appreciate this, your basic Midwestern dairy farm through the '60s, '70s, and '80s. I came of age during the bad '80s. The economy for agricultural America was terrible during that time. I went to Purdue and got a degree in agricultural economics. But again, it was a bad time in the early '90s. So, I started selling lighting products in 1993. I won a Halloween costume contest dressed up as Bill Clinton. I was working in Southern California for my company as a lighting fixture sales rep. My company started using me at trade shows and sales meetings where I would have to dress up as Bill Clinton and be the entertainment for the employees, the customers, whoever it was. And then, I decided in 1994, perhaps I could quit my job and make this my job, my business. I took the leap of entrepreneurialism in 1994. I had 3 gigs lined up for the rest of my career totaling $1,200 of gross revenue and invented a business as a political comedian. And so, that's how the whole thing started. And as everybody that goes through show business, it's not that whole thing about, oh, you got discovered. No, you just work your ass off and you save and script and you try to make this whole thing happen. And then, after about a year and a half, 2 years, things really started to click and I started doing more corporate events. And so, that's how the whole thing happened. Passing my my my my knowledge and my business twenty-five years ago. It was skinny starting out in the early nineties with my thing. You know, you're doing three hundred dollar gigs, and then if you make three hundred dollars, you spend two hundred of it on marketing materials, you know, headshots, business cards. This is before the internet, so you had to mail stuff out. So that's what we went through for a long time. So being a political comedian taught me quite a bit. It taught me about observing the marketplace. Taught me. about running the business. And I was always a business-minded guy. I point out in my book that one of my friends gave me a great compliment back in my early days. He said, you know, I've seen your act a bunch. He said, you're about a B, you're about a B act, but you're like an A at your desk of running this business and making this thing happen. And, you know, I'll take that. I think you can be, you can be a B+ product if you have an A at your business acumen and you treat the customer right, you sell, you market, you invest in your business, and you keep making yourself better. I think that's really important.

Well, and that goes right into what we talk about here, which is respect. How do you think growing up on the farm, how did it impact you as far as treating your work with respect? You know, that work ethic, everything you were just bringing up.

Yeah. Well, by the way, I've got a ton of stuff on your topic. I actually, I'm so glad you reached out to me because I've got a ton to talk about in terms of respect. First off, the one thing that, you know, everybody talks about your farm boy work ethic and all that. There's plenty of lazy farm kids, I'm sure, out there, but maybe less percentage-wise than there are in, Then, you know, from non-agricultural background, I think that the one thing that's always been a big influence for me is I say that honor roll is way not important, whereas perfect attendance is. You got to show up and you got to put in the work. You know, being a livestock farmer, this is back in the old days when me and my brother and my mom and dad did the work. We didn't have a lot of hired laborers and all that sort of thing. It's a daily thing. You just understand that every single day this thing has to happen or the cows will die. And then when the weather is fit, you put up hay and you put hay in the barn. And, you know, I talk about that now. I still talk about when you have a fat month, you put a bunch of money aside and that's called putting hay in the barn. And there's a reason that you get ahead. And that's because you save, you invest, you live below your means, and you put the work in every day. So yeah, when you said giving work the respect that it deserves, you know, you don't have to be the brightest bulb in the ceiling. If you're responsible, take a little bit of risk and put some hay in the barn, you're gonna be successful.

And you went right outta the farm. At first, you went to a factory job, and maybe that's the place you were referring to earlier. What did that teach you about respect specifically?

Yeah, I put myself through college. I paid my own way, and that was through being a landscaper, being a bartender, and also being a factory worker. And that's back in the industrial Midwest when we still had a lot of factories around here. One thing that you learn when you work the night shift at the ceiling tile factory, you work with people that maybe didn't get out of 8th grade, and there's some ex-convicts, and there's some people that have been through, you know, Been through the wringer. The wrongest thing you can do is be an arrogant little prick and talk down to those people, but because you're a 19-year-old college kid and you think you're smart. I never had that because I was a blue-collar kid, you know, farm boy. My dad worked nights on the railroad, so I was always around a blue-collar element. You know, all my friends growing up on the wrestling team with me were blue-collar kids, so I've always had a respect for that. I find it really interesting, the sort of country club set that's fourth and fifth generation away from where the money was actually earned, and how little regard they have for. What it takes to be a blue-collar person and what you do to, you know, to get ahead. So I think the respect that I had for those people was really, really a helpful thing for me to get along. You know, you're a 19-year-old kid working alongside some pretty hardened people, but you don't talk to those people in a disrespectful manner. So that's an important thing about being a blue-collar kid. I've always respected anybody that shows up and does the job deserves a dose of dignity. You know, whether it's the night clerk at the grocery or the You know, the person at the ceiling tile factory or the janitor, I always am always really friendly to those people. I still today, when I'm in the airport and I see these business travelers, you know, hustling through and on their cell phone and bumping into the guy that's in the restroom picking up the trash, and I always say, excuse me, you know, I acknowledge them in a respectful way because I've been the janitor.

Absolutely. And you probably got to see in those moments, you know, you said there were people that were criminals and all. That a lot of times how we perceive people, like, oh, that's a criminal, that, that could be an incredibly wonderful person who made a bad choice. And treating them with respect and dignity, you get to see, wow, I'm not that far away from the possibility of me being in that situation in life. Like, we— anybody could get there depending on the circumstances, potentially. What did you find that to be true? Or, or was it like, you know, people have these stereotypes, oh, that's a criminal, and you just stayed away?

Oh, I don't know. I mean, you're in there, you're working 12-hour nights with these people in a dusty, dirty, loud place. It's 110 degrees. So, I noticed that they always had a certain amount of respect for me. They didn't think that the kid that got coddled and favored that was the boss's kid had a harder time than the kid like me that was over there busting his tail. And so, I guess that's the important part is there was some mutual respect in that.

Yeah, absolutely. And so, now you're in the factory, age 25, You've now— you've started doing the comedy.

I graduated with my degree in agricultural economics, and I did not really use it in that regard back then. I started selling lighting products, and I quit my job when I was 25. So I'm in my 25th— I'm about to start my 26th year of this. Created the business as a political comedian way back when, and I don't do that at all anymore.

Okay, so you don't do which part anymore?

Political comedy. That's, that's a, that's a distant past.

All right. So, let's go there, though. But you did break out on your own. You mentioned that earlier. And ironically, your own company discovered you, which is hilarious, which provided you the opportunity to break out on your own. What were the lessons you learned in that? You know, you talked about you make $300,000 and you have to spend $200,000 to get the next event to make $300,000. So, what were lessons that you learned along the way that also brought a respect level for you about certain aspects of life or business? Yeah.

Well, that's an interesting part because when I was preparing for this interview with you, I was thinking through this. And, you know, with a background in comedy, one thing that is really apparent is that it's a profession that doesn't get the respect it deserves from anybody. If I went to a party and let's say I was at a mixed company event or whatever, you know, there's 50 people there. Oh, okay, Joe over here is a plumber and Bob over here is a carpet layer, and then Cindy over here, she owns a fast food restaurant. If they come around to me and then if I were to say I'm a comedian, and again, I'm not anymore. I want to make sure the distinction is I'm not anymore, but I have been. And it's interesting, the level of respect, and these people don't think they're being disrespectful. They say, oh my God, you're a comedian? Say something funny. Do something funny. Say something funny. Say something funny. And you don't do that to somebody that says, I own 3 Arby's franchises, or, hey, you know, I have a carpet laying business. It is tremendously disrespectful that this profession, and you know, if you are good and you are making a living and creating a business out of it, you are doing something right. There are, you know, the old thing about there are hundreds of people that, you know, show up every night across America and do open mic nights to try and be in comedy. If you create this business, you create this livelihood, you create this product and you're doing it, and then you show up and then these people in mixed company act like you should just be giving that away. It's a tremendously disrespected business and profession.

Well, and that's always interesting. And some people hear that and go, well, how? And I know because of fortunately being around enough people that similar line of work as yours, but a lot of people don't understand. They're like, what do you mean it's disrespectful? Like, I— you're an entertainer, so I actually love what you do, so I want to see you do it. So can you explain to people why that feels disrespectful?

Okay, let's just say there's the professional football player. You say, hey, you know what, go out for a pass, go out for a pass, go out for a pass. Hey, I've got— like, what the hell? I'm a professional football player at a cocktail party. No, I'm not going to go out for a pass. That's what you're asking them to do. Oh, you have an asphalt business? Hey, run over here and start fixing the parking lot. No, I'm not here to fix the parking lot. I came to this— your kid's graduation party. So they're asking you to do what you do, and you can say, oh well, they're just having fun. Like, all right, great. It's also disrespectful, but there's a bigger part of it. That nobody thinks that it's an actual job or business. And again, I was making hundreds of thousands of dollars when this thing took off per year doing these really big gigs all over the place. And people might respect that you had this thing, but they still didn't really treat it right. I was just telling my friend last night about this. You would walk off stage after I'm at some conference and I've rocked this room. You know, let's say it's a bunch of Midas Muffler managers or whatever. You know, you're at this gig somewhere in Kansas City or Las Vegas or Orlando or wherever it is. And you've just rocked the room. And then, Mike, while you're standing there after your program, because you got— I always did a thing where I did some photo ops and whatnot afterwards. There'd be no less than a half dozen people walk up and say, hey, you were really funny. That's a really good show. You know what? You're actually smart. So you answer me, does that sound like a respectful thing to say? Hey, I really appreciate you coming and fixing my furnace. You know what strikes me? You're actually smart. Nobody would say that to their accountant, Or to the person that fixes their furnace or brings them their dinner, but they fully thought that it was something you could just do just to say, hey, yeah, that was a good act, but you're actually smart. Like, somehow it surprised them.

Yeah, I think what happens is they think that you— where they lack the understanding is what you said earlier, this is a business, is that it takes work to be funny on stage. And they think comedians are naturally funny. So to say be funny to them is like, that's just you speaking, right? Just say it. It's natural. They don't realize how many hours and hours and hours and days and months, years sometimes can go into a single bit of comedy that somebody does on stage.

Of course, you probably are naturally funny. I make points to this all the time. You know, I've got friends that are still in comedy. I got friends that teach comedy. And I always say, if you're going to teach comedy, maybe you should also give them a class on how to be tall. Because being funny is like being tall. You either are or you are not, and it's going to be evident by the time you're an adult. That being said, I could teach a funny person to be funnier. I can't teach a librarian to be funny to begin with. But yeah, the idea that it somehow is not work, that's still not even the point. You know, again, what about the naturally big, gifted athlete, fast kid that then you, you know, you act like he should just be like, Running around doing sporting events for you, for your entertainment. So it's a disrespect to the industry, it's a disrespect to the person, and somehow it's it's it's always so accepted. And like you said, along the lines of respect, Mike, if it happens that you're at some event and you just happen to be saying some funny stuff, then people think that you're always on. And that's another issue of respect about the business. They'd say things like, "Oh God, he's just over there doing his act." And then my wife, like, doing his act? This isn't his act. He just was actually reacting to you and saying some funny stuff because he's a funny guy. So that's another issue of respect. Like, when you then are actually engaging and being humorous, because if you said something at a dinner table, I could probably make fun of the topic, the subject, whatever, and make it humorous. It's not doing your act. So again, there's a level of respect there that somehow if you are then being funny, that you're trying to get everybody's attention. There's a reason comedians become jaded, by the way.

Right. Right. And you mentioned there a few times that, you know, you don't do political comedy anymore. So for all of our listeners, what are you doing now?

Yeah, I completely got out of that quite a while back. The thing changed. Obviously, my act was based and predicated on Bill Clinton. I was dressed up as Bill Clinton. So by, you know, the early 2000s, it started to change. I went through some real setbacks and some of my business and my investments tanked. So then I was still doing some political comedy, but really then turned into being an agricultural speaker because I've got the agricultural background. My degree is in agricultural economics. I'm a farm owner. So I started doing agricultural meetings. So, you know, maybe instead of Orlando, you're working in Omaha and people say, oh, you do farmer meetings. Well, remember, agriculture is a lot bigger than that. You got the food processors, the canners, the meat people, the markets. Marketing people, the machinery, finance, insurance, you know, I can go on and on, seed, chemical. There's so much of an industry there. So I just started doing a lot in the way of ag and then started putting more and more business message in there. So with a comedy background, it's not difficult for me to put a presentation out that's 25% funny. And that means that I'm delivering the message, talking about business or issues in food and agriculture in a funny way, but also delivering content, you know, whether it's the market issue, consumer preferences. So I do a lot. The one thing about my background as a comedian taught me to be a very astute observer. So now I take observations on food businesses about trends and then put that together as a package now. And I get up on stage and I talk about issues in business. So I have a couple programs. I have one that's more agricultural and then I have another one that's not agricultural at all. It's just for business people about business and reinvention. And that's, in fact, I've got a book out now that just came out last week month called Do Business Better to support that.

And you've now had decades of experience on stage. What has it taught you about respect, just being on stage and sharing from the stage?

Yeah, 25 years and probably a couple thousand audiences. And it's still like, it's still something I enjoy. I can't say I particularly enjoy the travel. But there's, there's this thing that I like, and it's the energy part of it. It's the interaction part of it. It's the, that it challenges you. You know, I see people that are professional speakers, Mike, and they're still doing the exact same program with the comma in the exact place and the exclamation point at the exact place and the exact same delivery that they were doing 30 years ago. I would shoot myself. I mean, I have changed my program every single time I've gotten up there. I do something a little differently because I want to keep things fresh. I challenge myself to put in new material, new content. I also challenge myself to be a little bit of a contrarian. You know, forever you can hear the people that are the slimy, fraudulent kind of rah-rah church tent preacher type, and I refuse to be that. I keep things very authentic and real and like, hey, you may not like hearing this, but boom, and it's a straightforward approach. So, you said something about respect. I respect the audience. In comedy, they teach you this, and then obviously in speaking, which I've been doing this for a couple thousand audiences. You must always appreciate the fact that you are unnecessary. They do not need me. They do not need you. You don't need most of what we sell. We don't need most of what we have in the United States of America. You don't need Amazon. You don't need a Cadillac. You don't need air conditioning. So in a world that really has very few necessities that are now businesses, it's important to understand that you give that audience a product, you give that audience a feeling, you give that audience some knowledge and some emotional takeaway. And every single time I get ready to walk on stage, I think to myself, remember that without them, there's no need for you. And that is the deepest level of respect, I think, when you always realize That there's no need for me if there's not them.

Yeah, it's a beautiful perspective, putting things all in the right frame, the right foundation. It's great. And earlier, you talked about the fact, you know, you got to show up, you got to be there. It's more important than the honor roll is being there. If the honor roll kid's skipping all the time but gets A's, that's different than the kid who maybe is getting C's but shows up every day doing their best. We love our listeners to be able to get a little takeaway, some skill sets they can use in their lives every episode they listen to. What do you think it takes to be successful that people can listen and go, hey, I want to add that to my life, or I want that to be more consistent in my life?

Yeah, it's about habits. It's really just about habits. Habits, when you think about it, Mike, you talked about respect. That's the whole theme of your podcast, and I think that's fantastic. Well, you said respect the work. You got to give respect to the work. You've got to respect people who do the work, and you've got to have a level of respect for what it takes to be successful. There's people I would say that were born on third base and they mistakenly think they hit a triple. I didn't come from that. I'm pretty self-made and I didn't come from much. And, I'm sure a lot of your listeners are the same way. And, give yourself the respect of what you've built. My wife says this all the time. She says, God, you still get so wound up sometimes. Just stop sometimes and smell the roses and realize how far you've come and how good things are. And, we have a winter home in Arizona and there's a reason we've done all that. And, I said, yeah. So, the challenge now is content without complacent, to be happy with where we are, which I am, but not still having that angst. So, that's an important thing. What about takeaways for your people? I'd say it mostly comes down to habits. Bad habits don't generally kill you all at once unless maybe it's like some kind of a drug habit. Bad habits kill you over time. Good habits make you rich over time. It's kind of like compound interest on investing. If you put aside $1 a day or $5 a day, it has a big cumulative effect after 10 years. Well, it's the same way with your work and your business. I'm not much of a vacationer, but I also don't work 40-hour days. I mean, I've worked my whole life, but I just think you should put a little dose of vacation into your everyday. The one thing I do is every day I think about my business and I think about betterment. And so that's a good habit. Every day I try to do something creative. Every day I exercise. So those are the kind of things that your listeners— and, you know, that comes down to respecting what it takes to be successful, respecting what it takes to be prosperous and to have a life and business by choice. Because if you respect what it takes, you'll do what it takes.

Yeah, it's so, so important. And you have a belief on the importance of simplicity. And the simplicity of success, what is that?

Yeah, most people complicate it. I've gotten some really good accolades, Mike, on my book Do Business Better, and some folks that gave me the accolades didn't realize that I took it as positively as I did. I had a couple people say, you know, it's pretty simple, you know, your book is— it's a good read, it's a— it's an easy read, but you know, there's not a lot of complexity to what you're talking about. I said, yep, fine. Most of what it takes to be successful is simple stuff. Show up, do the work, create good habits, you know, learn, constantly keep learning, sell your services every day, try to find new customers because your old customers are going to die, keep reading, manage your money because we live in a country where 66% of the people in this United States of America don't have $500 if an emergency came up. And you're like, come on, man, the average household makes $62,000 a year and you don't have $500? So, there's a big money component to it. Again, habits, respecting what it takes to actually be successful. Simplicity of success is what I guess you asked me there is there's no magic potion. There's no tips and secrets. It's really pretty simple stuff. It's habits executed on a daily basis with discipline.

I love it. I love a simple formula everybody can follow and implement. And I want everybody to be able to find you. Before we share where to find you, let's talk about that book. You just had that book come out, Do Business Better. What were some lessons you learned by the process of writing the book and getting it out there?

Sure. I'm an okay writer and it made you— it makes you stronger to do the work of writing. My wife said, Damian, write the book that you wish someone had given you 25 years ago that would've saved you time and frustration. And that was really some good advice because then it dawned Then, my buddy Larry Winget is the foreword writer and he said, you talk to business groups all the time. You've yourself made success. He said, for God's sakes, you know about business. Just write what you know and remember who it's for. And, I thought that was pretty good advice. What I learned was it's not a problem with all the ideas and it is more work than people realize. It's not like digging holes or building fence or that kind of thing, but it still is work.

Yeah.

The structure part of it, making sure to bring it together as a cohesive structured book was the part that took me a little while to get it right in my head. I knew all the things that I wanted to say, all the lessons or illustrations from the real world I wanted to plug in there for the reader. I was a little bit conflicted, or shall we say, disorganized in the beginning of what's the structure, what's it gonna sound like? And that's kind of like you and I speak at Corporate events, I always think, what's it sound like? I don't mean what the words are. I don't mean that. I mean, what's it sound like? What's it feel like? And that was the part that once I got it, it gelled and it was like a snap.

I love that. And what I love about that is everybody can, whether you're writing a book or not, when you stop and say, when I'm sharing with someone, what does it sound like versus what is, am I choosing the right words? Yeah, but how is it being heard? Right? How— what is the vibe and the energy it's putting off?

Yeah, you talked about, again, and putting— giving some respect to all the things that you've done. That's the other part of it. And one of the things in here I talk about harnessing your talent stack, which is actually a concept from Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert. You harness your talent stack. What we're really talking about, Mike, is every single thing that you've done— your background, your experience, your upbringing, your education, all the jobs you've ever had, every you know, little course you ever took, every book that ever had an impact on you. When you start stringing those all together, how do you get synergies from those? So, that was a big thing that I've actually capitalized on, I think, for my businesses. I don't have a lot of A pluses, but I've got a lot of B pluses and A minuses that I can string together. And that's one of the takeaways from the book that I like a lot is that how can you take all your B pluses and A minuses and string them together to help your business? The other thing that you had mentioned was the respect for the craft. When you write a book, I always kept thinking was, you know, I actually don't want to waste someone's time. I respect their time. You know, a lot of books don't get read. Books get bought. A lot of people don't read books after high school. I said to myself, if the person is going to do this, I want to be respectful to them and actually give them takeaway. Some of my fantastic reviews are, this guy gives you a straight, no-bullshit approach on being successful, and I love the way it reads. That was like 2 of my different reviews. I thought, I will live with that. That sounds like exactly what I want people to say. That's just straight. That's just straight. There it is. Yep, I can live with that. And of course, it's got some funny in it because I'm a kind of guy that likes to go to humor when I can.

Yeah. Well, and I want everybody to be able to find you so they can find that book. So, damianmason.com. Of course, it's going to be in our show notes also. The book is Do Business Better. We'll have that Link to Amazon also, you can find it there in our show notes. Thank you, Damian, so much for joining us.

Mike, I appreciate you having me here. I really appreciate you having me on. And, you know, I think that respect is actually really— it made me think a lot about it. Made me think about my career, made me think about looking at others and what they do and how everybody that's putting in the effort deserves a dose of respect.

Absolutely. And on that note, our listeners, you know what's next. It is Question of the Week. This week's question is, Mike, what was it like growing up in your home and in your family? It's a personal question, obviously, and it's one I'm very comfortable answering. And I'm grateful for the parents and the sisters that I grew up with. I'm very grateful. And I know not everybody has a situation where they feel gratitude about that. And so I, I very much appreciate and understand that. I grew up in a home with 2 parents who were role models For really believing in what you're trying to achieve and going for it and really working to make that happen. My mom growing up was a very successful coach and she coached me. So, I got to see her on a daily experience in club coaching, literally daily, and how she upheld what she believed in her values and her core beliefs and how she upheld that to her swimmers. And she was a swim coach. And to us and how true that was at home. The alignment was consistent. I got to watch my dad continually be a leader in his industry and to see how he worked hard in what he believed in. And at the same time, he was also there cheering us on at cross-country or wrestling or whatever sports I was doing. My sisters each were very successful. And whatever they chose to focus on, they were all very successful athletes. I mean, incredibly successful athletes. And so to watch that set a standard of excellence, right? And so it put down a foundation of working hard for what you believe in and creating that work ethic. And here's, if you do work hard, here's what can happen. And by the way, it doesn't mean that I worked that hard at the same age as they did at the same things. I wasn't I wasn't the committed athlete they were. No way. Later in life, when I found my passion and my commitment though, there it aligned and it showed. And I had a foundation from growing up that naturally just kicked in at that moment. I'm so grateful for that. And I'm so grateful that I was allowed to be me in my home. I was allowed to be goofy and silly and hyper and energetic and supported along that process. If I want to do theater, I did theater. If I want to do whatever interest I had, I once auditioned for a TV show called— it was a lip sync TV show back in the '80s to a song, Punk Polka, that a lot of parents have probably been looking at their kids like, what are you doing? And my parents like, okay, you know, so incredibly supportive, of which I'm very grateful for. We'd love to hear your questions, your thoughts, and your ideas. And the best place to leave those with us is on our Facebook page at facebook.com/MutuallyAmazingPodcast. Of course, you can always contact us on our website at mutuallyamazingpodcast.com. Remember to subscribe to this show so you automatically get it every week. And if you could take one moment to leave a review, that really helps other people find the show, which we are greatly appreciative of. So thank you so much for joining us. May you make today an every day a life full of mutually amazing relationships.