Episode 224: Carey Rouse: Driven to Compete In the Driver's Seat

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. This is your host, Stacy Lauren. Well, I am excited because I have a repeat do the Thing guest coming on today. And it's funny because we had him on, gosh, it's been a few months now, and he got me all motivated with his fitness story and how he helps people achieve fitness and all the great things that he's doing with that. And at the same time, he was in the middle of starting a podcast called Driven to Compete, which was focused on the racing market. And we got to see each other at the entrepreneur event that I went to a few weeks ago called Capcon, part of the capitalism.com community. And he is on fire. It is so cool to just hear him talk about this new thing he's working on and how it's evolving. Every day that I see him talking about it and posting about it and sharing about it. And I figured this was the perfect time to bring him on and hear what he's doing because he's in massive momentum and so many new things are happening and doors are opening and things are just unfolding as he continues to move. And so I'm so excited to just kind of talk to him a little bit more about this process and what it's been like for him and then also what his plans are with this new thing that he's doing. So welcoming back Carrie to the show. Hey, Carrie.

Hey, Stacy. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here with you. I love being on your podcast. Yay.

I know the last time you were on, I felt like I was wanting to run a marathon after we talked. So I don't know what's going to happen today. I'm going to get a race car, I guess.

Well, that is my hope. I hope that when people listen to this, they understand a little bit more about the racing community and what it means to race and what it doesn't mean. But, you know, yeah, essentially I have race cars. I was getting close to 50, and I was like, why have I not pulled the trigger on this? I've been wanting to race my whole life. And When I was 49, I did a track day with my own car, and then I was like, oh, I'm going to do this. So I did a bunch of research and found some resources and where to start and how not to start. You don't want to just jump in and buy a car without really knowing that's the car for you. So I found a way in. I raced for a couple years and this year I've decided to focus on a new business called Driven to Compete. There's multiple meanings in that word and that title, but it's really focused on the racing community. And the first steps for me is really building the audience, building trust, building recognition. And I've decided to do that with the combination of podcast and YouTube. So I am doing YouTube videos with folks and then of course I'll just change the audio and disperse that through all the podcast platforms. And I know that in our entrepreneurial group they suggest it's really best to have face to face conversations with your audience if you can. And I like going to races. So I had been my personal car is a Mustang and I drove that thing to Atlanta for a race so I can interview some racers there. And the first ones were easier because these are people that I've raced with, so they're going to let me interview them. But I have found that it's actually really easy to find people who want to share their story as it relates to racing. And going through this process, I've also learned that my impression of what I thought I would hear is different than what I'm hearing. A lot of the stories I get from the folks that I'm interviewing are really camaraderie and family oriented. Not family like in their phys, like their real family. It's their racing family. And many of the reasons why people stay in it and get hooked on it. Obviously the racing during the race is fantastic and exhilarating, but it's the people that keep them there. It's the community that's formed around those folks. So I am trying to appeal to folks in the racing community and also fans of the racing community who like following it or maybe they're interested in trying to do it and putting their foot in. So I have been just trying very hard to every time, not every single race weekend because there's. There's multiple races at several tracks around the nation every single weekend. So I could just wear myself out, be at a track every weekend. But editing these things takes time. So I will typically do a weekend trip to race and then spend the next week catching up on editing and then getting them queued up or published. And then every couple weeks I'll go on a trip and it's really hard to sleep in a Mustang when you're going to these places. I go to the, go to the track, it's in the middle of nowhere. I, I could get a hotel, but I don't want to spend the money And I want to be at the track all the time. And so I am super committing to this right now. Not only am I going to be going to these races and interviewing, putting all this time in, I am given notice on my condo that I'm leasing, and I'm leaving by the end of the month. I'm trading in this car that I love so much for a truck and a RV trailer. And so I'm going to be living out of the truck and the RV trailer, which will be wonderful. When I'm at the track, I actually have a place to shower and sleep, but then I have to find, and I've already arranged for my home base, where I'm going to be when I'm back here in Austin when I have it parked. And I'm just working, so things are just kind of falling in place. And I'm learning more about the people I'm serving that I didn't expect. And I'm getting more referrals than I thought I would ever get. Even had a couple of people that were interested in sponsoring a couple podcasts because I speak directly to the racing community and the fans, and that's who they wanted to speak to. And so they paid to advertise on a couple of my episodes. And.

Interesting connections are happening. I have a race team that wants to pay for all my transportation, room and board to go with them and their race team to Daytona, for example. And I would ride with them in their, you know, gigantic RV and spend the weekend covering the race for their drivers, getting that all on a podcast. I'll divide it up into certain episodes and then obviously using that to help promote their business. So that was something that was unexpected, but I already have an open invite for that.

And there's also. I've met. I've met a bunch of really cool people. There's an organization called Skip Barber Racing School, but it's an entire racing organization. It's maybe the only one left in the US it's massive. It's growing. And I met some of the folks in there and I got to interview some of the crew, some of the racers. And now I've been invited to come back because there's now a pro race that's going to happen, Circuit of America's here in Austin. So I don't have to travel, but I'm going to be able to get in. And they want me to interview as many of their crew and drivers as possible during that weekend. And so I want to put a bunch of extra care on that. To make sure it's a solid package, that maybe they would want that for all their weekends or maybe another team would want that for their weekend. So there's. This is growing in unexpected ways, but right now I'm. Because of the pace that I'm interview doing, folks, when I go to a race weekend, I usually get.

Four to 12 interviews done in a weekend. And then as I'm getting connections with different folks, I'm asking them to book with me for virtual video interviews. And sometimes I get maybe four or five a week of those. And I don't know if I'm going to be able to sustain all this, but at the moment.

I am publishing three podcasts a week and the backlog is growing like crazy, so I don't want people waiting months to see their episode. And so I may have to start publishing five days a week because I'm. I'm doing probably over five interviews a week at the moment. So it's, it's exciting. It's a little scary because I'm like, I don't know what's going to happen with me moving out of my condo and. But I'm making plans for it. I'm scheming to get all my ducks in a row. I love the racing community, and ultimately I hope this evolves in a way that allows me to spend some time in a race car. I don't see that happening this year because I really want to focus on building an audience. But I hope next year there'll be a combination of surveying as folks and getting an opportunity to get in the car more often.

There's just so much about this that I love because do the thing is doing the thing right, but it's also doing it out of the deepest alignment for what you want. And I feel like, I mean, just for the listeners, can you tell them how long you've been at this now with the podcast and the YouTube and all that?

Probably six or seven weeks in terms of. From my first, my first episode, I've. I've published.

Yeah.

To now has been six or seven weeks. I have. I feel like it's pretty good. I probably have about 15 published episodes and I have maybe 45 banked up right now that I need to release pretty soon. Yeah.

And I asked that be. And I want to make sure the listeners know that because I remember even we did the pre pod start a podcast challenge and you did it on the fitness brand, which you're hugely successful in that space. And then because you're moving, you're Almost getting more aligned with what you want. Right. And then once you start in, the thing that you want to do now, not the thing that you wanted to do five years from now, five years ago, but the thing you wanted to do now, it's like your path is lit now and you almost need to just walk. And then all of a sudden, that's how you start to see everything open up. And there's just something really magical about that. And I think you're showing it by all these things that are opening up for you, just by you being in this path that is the one that feels the most alive for you.

Yeah. I did an exercise on my 51st birthday in February of this year, and where I talked to a bunch of friends, a bunch of family, a lot of thought about the past and what really makes me happy. And it's embarrassing to say it took me 51 years to figure that out, but I know it now. I felt like I was just guessing in the past, but now I know it. And then those things that make me happy, I had to think through what activities I do or that I can do that really satisfy those things for me. And, man, racing is definitely that thing. And the people that I get to meet and hang out with are the people that I really enjoy spending time with. And I trust them and they trust me, and I like that. So that was just. It was just clear to me that I just need to go for it and pick something. And I did. I picked podcast and YouTube's videos and just made sense to interview people as kind of the format. And it has turned into something much easier than I thought it was going to be. A lot more momentum than I thought I was going to have.

And to see where this goes, what was the exercise?

How did you get in line with what was the thing that made you happy?

So it really was having some deep conversations, some real deep conversations with my closest friends and my family members. One exercise was to ask friends of mine.

It was like, what do you think your best qualities are? Or what do you think you're doing to yourself that's holding you back? I actually didn't get. Or, no, what is it? How do I provide value to other people in my life? That was the main question. And I'll be honest with you, it was really hard for people to come up with something. Most of the time.

It was what good qualities that you have, but it wasn't what is the value that you provide, which is different. Most people have a hard time.

They had a hard time in my case, I didn't get really concrete answers, and it left me a little bit more confused. And so I really had to think back to times in my life where I was so happy that I cried. There aren't that many, but the few that there are, they were all honestly related to. The things that I say make me happiest is competing, being competitive and winning. And it has to have some physical. Some sort of physical aspect to it. And too bad I wasn't a pro at something because that. That would have been something I shouldn't have been doing a long time ago. But there's one thing about that is I don't want people to focus on. Oh, the winning, it always wins. How can you be happy? But you can always be better than you were yesterday, at least in some way. And so I'm always competing against myself in some way to be better than I was yesterday. And that just fuels me, and that's what makes me happy. There's other things that make other people happy, and that's great, but you got to kind of figure out what it is for you. And once I realized that, I started thinking back to other points in my life and different memories, and it was just like, oh, it just reinforces. It reinforces it. So that was the exercise I went through. It was really just what makes me happy. And then the next step was, well, what activities can I do that where I can feel that joy?

I think it's so important to take that moment and be able to reflect. And I love that you did it with friends, too, and you were able to get in tune with what you didn't want, which then helped you get in tune with what you did want.

Yeah, I mean, I don't think anybody else in my life.

Could have told me those things are the things that make me happiest. It would have been some other answer, but I really had to figure it out on my own. But it helped. Ask the question first to get a little insight. It's not to say that friends and family cannot and do not know what makes you happiest. It just wasn't true in my case.

And it's funny because I didn't realize. I'm changing the subject now, but I didn't realize that you had started racing just even a few years ago. What got you to make the decision to even start racing?

It was an interesting time when I chose to do that. It was the fall two and a half years ago, whatever that is. And I was unemployed at the time, and I was Just like I am so sick of excuses for not doing what I have always wanted to do. And I just decided I'm going to do it. And so I just started doing research to figure out how I can start. And I knew what my budget was. I had some kind of budget and I had plans to be employed and I didn't have a concern that that wouldn't happen. And so I just. I took the leap. And just like you say I did the thing, I. There's a hundred different excuses that I can look back on over the years that I didn't pull the trigger. I'll be honest, a lot of it was at least. I don't know if this is true or not, but I would say that a lot of it has to do with the relationships I have been in in the past. And maybe it wouldn't be fiscally smart to do racing, but I also didn't really know the cost. I really didn't look into it. I just assumed it was going to be ultra expensive.

And at that point in time, two and a half years ago, it's just me. And so there was nothing stopping me. No, no outside excuses. I just moved forward with it and, man, I just had so much fun with it. And I met some really great people.

Yeah, speaking of the people. So part of the do the thing formula, it's I'm game, and the m in game is my people, which is surrounding yourself with people that are doing the same thing as you and that want the same thing and that gives you the community and the connectedness that you need to grow. And it sounds like the racing community has a really strong my people component. I was just kind of curious, what's your perception of it in that way?

Yeah, I think that I agree with you. If I was in a situation where I loved racing but hated everybody that I was around, I don't. I don't think I could stick with it. It would be really. It would be very hard. And then it changes it. It changes it into more of a backstabbing kind of thing. And what I really like about what I've seen in racing is even the tightest competitors are the first ones that will lend a tire or lend a hand. I mean, this past weekend, somebody blew a motor. Multiple people jumped in to try to help rebuild the thing, and he was ready to go the next day. So that's just really, really typical. And having the people, there is a huge difference.

How are you getting through that uncertainty? And I don't know if you're there yet. But just kind of curious what's been coming up for you as you were like getting rid of the condo and then you're making this plan to be more mobile. How are you getting through that uncertainty?

I'm not sure if I mentioned it to the other show, but I'm a spreadsheet dork and I love spreadsheets and I have a, a three year cash flow plan for income and expenses and everything that I, I have been using the same spreadsheet but it's expanded and grown for like, I don't know, 10 or 15 years. And about every two months I have to redo it plan again. See, what's changed is nothing ever works out the way you thought it was. But so I'm, I'm a big planner in those kind of aspects and that just gives me confidence that it's going to work and it also gives me visibility on things that I, what can I spend my money on or what? I can't, I mean, at all. Honestly. Racing isn't cheap and I'm not even racing right now. But it's important that whether you're, whatever your hobby is or whatever your thing is, you can still do it, but you're just going to have a budget that you need to stick with, with whatever you do. But for me, just having that little bit of momentum right now where I'm getting the interviews in and it feels like a lot of them, that's given me some confidence. But yeah, I just really want to.

Give everything to this because I know, I know it's the thing that is going to make me the happiest personally, it's going to make me the happiest if I'm serving the racing community and I just need to give it enough time. And so really it was, it was just okay. How do I give myself a year, how do I give myself at least one year of doing this full time.

And maybe they don't make a penny. Can I still do this? Can I somehow make that work? Because I've heard that same kind of thing from multiple people in the entrepreneurial world who've been very successful. Look, do something, do it well for a year. Amazing things are going to happen that you would never imagine would happen, but you got to give it enough time. And so that's kind of what I've, I'm set to do.

A lot of times people, they won't start something because they think they have to do it forever or they don't give something enough time. And just the idea of the year is plenty of time for you to identify if this is the thing that you want to be doing.

Yeah. And I mean, I know that I don't want to be involved in the race skin community, but it's. This is going to evolve in some way that I do not expect, but it'll be. I mean, it's going to evolve the way that I want it to, and it'll just be interesting to see where it goes. It'd be great to be in a. In a car all over the nation. But until then, I get to interview all these cool people and they get to share their stories and we'll see. I mean, even how I'm producing it will probably change over time because there's only so many times I can ask one person, hey, tell me your story. Yeah. And so I had to find other ways of delivering content to my audience from the folks that I'm talking to.

Yeah. And by you doing the thing is how you're. It's going to evolve pretty much.

Now, one thing that, I mean, I think that the. I don't know if you were alluding to this earlier, but I do think that there is a path for this that I could happen. Right. I don't know exactly what's going to happen, but as you know, as we've been in the same entrepreneurial circles, a lot of it is building your audience, building trust, building recognition. And then when you have that and you know what your audience needs, then you could launch a product that serves that need. And if you have an audience already who knows you and trust you, it's just a lot easier to do that. It's easier to launch a product. And so I believe that that is going to be at least part of the future. I don't know what products now. I'm actually trying not even to worry about that. I'm not even thinking about it right now. I mean, I think about it, but I'm. I'm focused on the people I'm talking to. And then the. The other pie in the sky idea I have, and I think there's some. There's hurdles I've got to figure out. But the number one complaint of anybody in the racing community is it's a lot of money, or it can be right. There's a budget for everybody. But even at the lower levels, there's still quite a bit of money involved. So if they could solve that, I mean, anybody who's in racing wants to do more of it, but they can't because it costs Too much money. So is there a way that the costs can be more distributed such that everyone gets some opportunity to race, but it's that the cost is just control. So I'm talking to at least one person right now on trying to put something together that's a way to distribute those costs across, like a racing team and provide a lot of people the opportunity to get involved in some way. So that is my pie in the sky thing, because I feel like that's something that I would do if it was set up just right. So.

Yeah. And because you would do it, then other people would do it, too. I would love to hear. Could you give the listeners advice on following your passion and what makes you happy? Because you were doing one thing and then you did that exercise, and then you realized that you wanted to do this new thing. How did you work through that? What would you advise people to do to be able to kind of do what you did in that way?

Well, part of it has to do with. It's a combination of what do you love and who do you like to hang out with? Who do you want to spend your time with? I'm into fitness. Right. I like fitness, but when I really think about it, I don't really have a lot of friends that are, like me, related to fitness. Those aren't the kind of people it's. My friends are different than that. And so I found that out a little bit too late with my company, Rouse Fit. I thought I was going to be serving all these people just like me, but then I was like, wait a minute. I don't hang out with anybody like me. This is harder than I thought it was going to be. But then I had to really think about what makes me happy and then what groups of people do I want to be around. And maybe that's an exercise for somebody, is for starting with what makes you happy. And then think about the people you hang out with. Okay. And then that. That may lead you to some ideas of what you would like to be doing. And make sure that you're spending your time with those people you like and you're getting what you require to have that ultimate joy in your life that you figured out.

That's really good advice. What do you hope the people listening to your podcast or watching your YouTube channel will get from being able to see the interviews that you're doing?

Well, I think they'll get a glimpse and to see there's always some cool, entertaining stories that are just like, wow, I can't believe that you will Find people on there that are in their 70s that have been racing for 50, 60 years and you're going to find somebody there who's 16 years old and he is already a pro race car driver. It is the full gamut. It's amazing. And so I think what happens is people, I hope that they can relate to somebody. They can relate to somebody and it really makes them feel, think and get curious about exploring the, the racing world, the racing community and help them realize what it's really like. So I want people to get a taste for the community and the different ways that you can navigate getting into racing, enjoying it or even following along with it based upon a lot of ace personalities and stories behind all this stuff.

Yeah. And I'm even thinking for people, even travel vloggers, where they do the thing and they're going to Tahiti and Bali, people might never go to those places. Right. But it's just so interesting and entertaining to be able to hear and see all the things that they're doing. I mean, ideally it'd be cool if someone jumped in and did it, but it's also kind of a cool thing for them to see it as well.

Yeah. It's funny you say that because you mentioned it with the travel, the RV life or the van life. So that adds an extra facet to this that I didn't think about a month ago, but now it's like, wow, I could document all the crap I'm having to deal with living in of an rv or there is some good things that I didn't expect. And hey, this, this is a tour of my rv. It's just there's so many things that are be kind of just fun to share that because I'm sure there's a lot of folks who are like, man, I just want to pack everything up, live in an rv. Well, maybe you should watch somebody go through it first.

Exactly.

Yeah. Hopefully I can be that source for people as well.

Yeah, that's a good point. Well, what would be your number one piece of advice for people on doing the thing?

I think you asked me this last.

Time too, did I always like to get what's coming alive because it can be different each time.

Yeah, it'll be different. I liked my answer last time, but I don't know how I came up with it. So the number one best advice for people to do the thing is, I'm going to go back to what we talked about earlier in this conversation is you should really be finding what makes you happiest if you can figure out what really makes you happiest and really put the time into figuring that out, don't do a surface exercise. Dig deep. Spend a little time on it. I don't know, a week or two or something like that. And if nothing's really clear, just do more of it because it needs to be clear. Once you have that, don't let anything stop you because you're pushing yourself into what makes you happiest and that. And you should definitely do the thing.

I'd love to hear what's coming alive for you right now after our conversation.

Well, I think that the big thing out of this conversation I'm getting is I'm excited. I'm more excited about me sharing stuff with people. The things that I'm doing and the people I'm meeting. It's more than just me doing those things. It's how are people reacting to it, how are people relating to it? How are people who might do something or not do something based upon what I'm sharing. So it's exciting for me to know that that's going to be happening.

Please share with everyone where they can find you on YouTube and your podcast, too.

I think if you googled Driven to Compete, you can find the web page driventocompete.com and the links are all on there. But it's also Driven to compete on YouTube and any of your podcast outlets. I'm on all of them. So yeah, you can find me on there. And please subscribe. I would love to have you on there. I would love to have you on my email list even more, which you can sign up on my website. And I sent out free swag to people who sign up. So yeah, sign up.

That's a good benefit.

Thanks so much for coming on again, Carrie. This was so much fun getting a chance to talk to you and I love a lot about this interview, but I really love your number one piece of advice because I think that a lot of people overlook that. They get so focused on doing the things sometimes, but not it being in alignment with what makes you really happy. And I think that's so important for all of us to know and to realize that that thing is out there that we all want to do and it's different for everyone and it's also different for you in different times of your life depending on where you're at.

Yep, yep, I agree with you and thank you. I mean, it's an awesome opportunity for me to share with you and it's good to see you again. Too.

And for the listeners, do the thing. Don't wait for opportunity, create it.