0:03

Have you ever looked at your life and thought. I cannot keep doing this. I cannot keep living tired, stuck, and waiting for someday. This episode is a gut check and a reset because Drewbie Wilson is here to help you crush the day before it crushes you. This is the Your Next Success podcast, and I'm your host, Dr. Caroline Sangal I'm a life first career coach and strategist on a mission to normalize questioning your career because I believe each of us is made on purpose for a purpose only we can fulfill. The longer we live out of alignment with who we are, what we do best, and why we are here, the more we miss out. And the more the world misses out on what only we can give. The Your Next Success Podcast is where we explore how to build a career that truly fuels your life. We talk about self-discovery, smart job, search strategies, professional growth, and you'll hear stories from people who have navigated big career transitions themselves, so you can create a life, first career and become your own version of authentic success. Today's guest is Drewbie Wilson. Drewbie is a loving husband and father, a straight shooter, and the founder of Call The Damn Leads. He's gone from tech support in a software startup to vice president of a multimillion dollar consulting company, and he's built seven figures in revenue across industries by staying focused on service, action, and integrity. He's also walked a real health journey, losing more than a hundred pounds, gaining it, losing it again, and getting honest about what consistency and identity change actually look like. This conversation is for the person who knows something has to change because Drew's story starts with where a lot of people begin survival, a rough childhood, a lot of moving, a lot of learning early that hard work matters. And then he takes us through what happens when school feels too slow, when you're bored, when you want control, and when you start chasing freedom in ways that come with consequences. In this episode, you'll hear what changes when you stop waiting for the standard path to work, why inputs change outputs is more than a quote, the givers gain moment that changed his career. Let's get into it.

Caroline 2:32

Drewbie Wilson, welcome to your next success. I am so excited for the conversation that we are about to have.

Drewbie Wilson 2:40

Appreciate you having me. I'm excited to be here. I hope the listener is ready 'cause I'm gonna drop some stuff on him that's going to gonna get him in the stomach and in the fields, but I know it'll help him. So I'm, I'm excited for 'em to hear it.

Caroline 2:53

I'm loving it. I'm loving it. Okay. As you know, I love talking about careers, career transitions, all of those things. We're gonna get into that. We're gonna get into the all the awesome, amazing work that you do now to really help move people out of their comfort zone. Call the damn leads or whatever it is that they need to do to move forward and and reach for their next success. But let's take it back 'cause everybody's story is interesting and unique and yours is also interesting, unique, and in many different ways than some other guests that I've had on the show. Can you walk us back to your childhood, like early childhood? Tell me about it. Where were you, where'd you grow up? How was all that?

Drewbie Wilson 3:42

Yeah, absolutely. So if we go way, way back, I was born in Florida in Daytona Beach. Mom and dad had grown up in the area, they got together. I was born then my younger brother was born, then some things went on. They separated, they went to Arkansas. So I grew up on like on a farm in Arkansas for like a year and then from there we moved. You know, my mom and dad had kind of a rough relationship growing up, so we ended up leaving Arkansas, coming to Ohio when I was about six. And so that was when we moved in with my mom's mom and we kind of lived with for a number of years, and that kind of was a lot of travel and back and forth. I went to a number of different schools, had a number of different like crazy things going on and then ultimately as I was growing up, I wouldn't say I grew up like impoverished. My mom and, and grandma always worked really hard to take care of us, but we definitely that, you know, single mom, grandmother kind of vibe and, and basically just had to figure it out as we grew, which was kind of an interesting journey for a young kid, you know. We always gotta find our way in life that, to me was one of those things where I watch my mom really work hard, I watch my grandma really work hard, so that was instilled in me early on, was like, Hey, whatever you do, you can figure it out as long as you work hard.

Caroline 5:07

Mm mm Okay. And so what did your, your dad was in the picture for a while, and then that was no longer a good relationship for your mom. What was his career choice per se?

Drewbie Wilson 5:22

Um, so when I was younger he always was into like motorcycle, so he was into motorcycle repair, engine repair, stuff like that, which was pretty much what he did the majority of my, my life and, and I'm pretty sure he still does to this day. I haven't talked to him in a long time, but, you know, and, and he was in and out of our lives until... he was there until I was probably four or five, then he was out until, I don't know, maybe 10, 11. And he was back in and out, off and on for a couple of years and then I think he and my mom finally like made the ultimate split. I wanna say I was maybe 16 or maybe 15 or 16, somewhere around there where they finally kinda like they were done trying at that point and went their separate ways. My dad got remarried, I have three sisters actually never met in person, one of them reached out to me on social media not too long ago, which was kind of an interesting conversation, but, uh, he was always like a repair guy. And my dad, he's really good at fixing things and he could get himself ahead, but he always had this terrible habit of anytime he got ahead, he would then like, go and spend all of the money or do something crazy with it and make like a very rush, terrible decision and then leave himself always behind the eight ball for whatever reason. So it was like, you know, my mom and grandma worked hard and my dad worked hard, but ultimately they all kind of made a bunch of really strange choices about how they lived and, and looking back at it now, you know, we're young, we're done, we don't know what the hell we're doing. There's no book that teaches you how to be successful on raising kids or in life in general. And so, there are several that exist that will help, but there is no one answer, and I think that to me is what I've kind of learned from looking back on the experience, while it all wasn't sunshine and rainbows, I got to learn a lot of lessons from it, which has helped me create the life that I get to live now.

Caroline 7:19

Absolutely. Yeah. Our parents, our early influences, they shape a lot of our, you know, some of our mindsets, some of the things that are like, yeah, this, this is who we are, this is what we do. We work hard. And sometimes it's a, yeah, I'm gonna do it a little bit differently because I see how they worked really hard. They were able to have some, you know, resources because of that hard work. And I think I wanna keep it a little bit different than they did. So, um, yeah, for good or bad, all of our experiences ultimately now I can say, do work for us, but at the time it sure as heck doesn't, doesn't feel like it doesn't, doesn't seem like it.

Drewbie Wilson 8:03

And, and if you guys read my books, I have four on Amazon. I actually have another one out soon. Um, you'll get to read some of the, the wild stuff that I had to go through as far as you know, just, and, and, and this is the thing that I've always found interesting, Caroline is, you said, everyone has stories and everyone's is, is very personal and I think touches on some really core traumas that all of us go through, and I think that's the interesting thing about shows like this and and why I love to be a part of them because we all have our own unique trauma and yet when you start looking at the big picture, all have gone through some shit and a lot of times it's kind of similar, so we can share on that and, and help others see the perspective of, as you said, it happened for us, and so now we get to learn from it and grow, which is the goal in all of this.

Caroline 8:54

Yeah, and that's also, you know, part of why I call this, uh, my company is Next Success, right? Because I believe somebody is already successful because they got to that day period. And what do you wanna do next? Right? And, and things kind of shape us and it kind of different, but I wanna get a little bit deeper into that. And I know that the books do a phenomenal job. I mean, I was like highlighting like crazy. I was that nerd. I was that nerd. I was, I highlight, I got some quotes, I got some stuff. So like later we might plan to pull some out. Um, but two things, so when you were really little, did you even think about success or what did you think it meant to be successful? Or were you just caught up in other things?

Drewbie Wilson 9:39

If I had to put an answer on it right from the gut, I success to me when I was little was survival. It was like, just get another day, get to the next meal, get to the next thing. It was just surviving was being successful. So I think, to me was really the definition of it. Now it's a little bit different, but back then that was, that was it.

Caroline 10:03

Yeah. So, teenage years, uh, were were pretty interesting for you as well. Tell me a little bit about that. Well, I guess also before we get to that, when you were in school, were there any particular things that you enjoyed? More than others, like were there any subjects or any activities or any things that.

Drewbie Wilson 10:29

That's a great question. let's talk like, you know, elementary school, young, I was really. a i'm person. Like I was a smart kid. I always excelled. I was in, you know, the more advanced classes and a big fan of I. History and science 'cause I to understand how things work. And also when you start digging into it, it's like why do certain things happen the way that they happen? And history place to look for that because it is very cyclical and you can kind of look at, well, this happened and then this happened, and then this happened and then this happened. So there's a lot of the if then breakdown of the why behind things. So that to me has always been an interest of mine. And then as I got into, you know, middle school and high school, I think what happened is that it didn't advance fast enough for me. So I got bored that boredom led me into art and more creative aspects because in that time of boredom I was just like creating things and coming up with new ideas and strategies and so, it was always difficult for me as I got older in school because I hate, and still to this day is a pet peeve of mine, just being very frank, I don't like waiting on others. If I'm here to learn and I want to grow, I don't wanna wait for someone else to catch up so that I can keep progressing. Now, there's some fallout to that as owner, we could go down that path, but it's interesting how that happened to me in, in school. And now when I look back and I recognize, like the reason I started drugs and goofing off and, and going down in that path was because I, I was regressing while I waited for everyone else to catch up to the stuff that I already knew, and because I wanted that knowledge, I was seeking it and I wasn't getting it. I looked for other avenues to explore that desire and creativity. Hopefully that answers the question, kind long-winded.

Caroline 12:32

It does. It does. It does. I love long-winded. Um, But, so you are also kind of like trying to exert some control over, like you are the one gonna be in charge of what you're doing with your time, with your life, you want interesting things, you want fascinating things. The regular supposed structures that are in place weren't actually supporting your own personal development. And so you, took things into your own hands and just was like, all right, I guess I'm gonna, you know, I guess I'm gonna try these things. And so school then wasn't fast enough for you, you did explore drugs, other things and started making some money to extracurriculars, if you will, and, and somewhere along the way, you, you started making money. Tell a little bit about that path.

Drewbie Wilson 13:29

Well, being a degenerate high schooler, as some of us were, and, and interesting when you study entrepreneurs, then you ask who comes from that background, the number of hands that will go up, even the, the shy ones will kind of be like, yeah, I don't, I don't talk about it publicly, but, um, yeah. So in, in high school, well, junior high, high school. I had this ability to get ahold of the things that we weren't supposed to have as kids, whether it was, you know, cigarettes or weed or whatever. And so I would do those and, and I, being kind of an entrepreneurial young man, realized you know, we lived in Michigan at the time and I had some friends that were over 18 that could get to Ohio where cigarettes were significantly cheaper and so they'd go down there and buy a carton of 20 and I would give them whatever it was, 20, 30 bucks at the time, and they'd bring them to me and I'd go to school and I'd sell 'em at five bucks a pack. So I'm making a 40%, 50% markup on 'em. I'd just go to school and I'd have a couple of packs of smokes in there and I'd have a couple of dime bags. And that was like every day I'd just rolled in and had whatever the kids needed and by lunchtime I would be sold out most of the time and I would do that a couple days a week and that's how I paid for all the other fun stuff that I like to do in my free time, going to the skate park and buying McDonald's breakfast every day 'cause that's what I'd love to eat. And so that was kind of how I provided for myself in the way of, you know, my family didn't have a ton of extra money, so did what we had to do to survive and while we were playing video games and getting stoned, we were finding different stuff in the video games that we could sell on eBay. And so we started selling video game coins and items and stuff. And it, I always make the joke on stage that we were in the crypto and NFT business before we knew what it really was, that was how we, we had fun.

Caroline 15:23

Yeah. And, and so again, you're taking charge, you're in control of your own life, you're building your own things to, to fall back on. And then how did that kind of shift change or evolve through high school, let's say.

Drewbie Wilson 15:39

I mean that that junior high and high school that was kind of my life, was exploring how to create freedom for myself in a way that still let me have fun, paid for the things that I wanted to have in my life, and then created the opportunity to feel like I was in control in a way that gave me the ability to do the things that I wanted to do, in terms of a lot of times we're told what to do as a perspective of what our elders see as a version of success. And to me, what I was realizing in those years, those really formative years, is that the people who were following the structure do this, go to college, graduate, get the job, yada, yada, yada. I'm at those people and I'm, I'm talking to them and I'm going, well, they followed the path and they're being told, hey, you're not gonna be able to get this job or, now you're saddled with all of this college debt and the career that you thought was gonna be there, doesn't actually exist anymore or they need you to have five years of on the job experience before you are qualified and the fact is like you can't get job experience with the degree that you just deserve, like you earned. So it just, none of it made sense to me. I, I'm like, I don't, I don't wanna follow this path and end up where these people are, even though they're saying this is the path to follow, so like, what am I gonna do to create my own path? And how am I going to be confident that it's going to provide for me the things that I need in my life? And that's, we can go down the path of, of success and the perspective of it but at that time, that was all that mattered to me was, can you provide for you to live the life that you wanna live, no matter what happens.

Caroline 17:34

There was that one quote In your book, one of the books in my, well, you'll tell me which book it was, but uh, one quote was, "As I watch the people below driving off toward a job they most likely don't care for, to make money for things they don't really want, but feel that they need to be what most people would consider successful, it makes me think about the many decisions that were necessary to change my thinking about what success in my own life would look like."

Drewbie Wilson 18:02

That's a good one.

Caroline 18:03

Yeah, that was a great one.

Drewbie Wilson 18:06

It comes back to the realization that at every level we are faced with the decision of, and, and I'll take this from a mentor of mine, when is enough, enough, because kind of us sees the people with the fancy cars and the jewelry and the lifestyle, and we go, Hey, I, I want that, like clearly that's what success is, right? And for young men it's seeing the guys with the beautiful women and all the things that make us think that's what success looks like and for women it might be the other, you know, having a beautiful man or having access and freedom or what, like everyone sees it differently, but we're all fed this version on Instagram, on social media, in movies, in the media of what successful means. Ultimately, what's crazy is if you know those individuals and as you grow up and meet some of the superstars and the famous people, you realize they're just people, and they're people with problems that sometimes get way, way worse with more money or, you know, depending upon how famous you are, you can and cannot do certain things anymore, and so you start to realize, it's not all it's cracked up to be and, and that is something for me that I've really taken to heart in terms of when I'm working with others or talking to someone and they're looking at my life and going, man, you know, you've lost all this weight, or you, you've done all of these things, you've hit all of these accolades. I'm like, yeah, but, you've done things that I've never done I want to encourage you to remember that because like what you are capable of is so awesome. Don't compare yourself. Don't, don't downgrade or degrade what you are capable of just because of something I've done or what someone else has done, like you can go and do amazing things too, and have done amazing things. So let's embrace that and figure out how to get you to the next version that you are looking for in yourself.

Caroline 19:59

Absolutely. Absolutely. I think it, it, every single thing comes down to consistent effort towards a goal you're trying to meet. And by golly, if you do that effort and you work hard, you're sure enough gonna get to a different place. Uh, so, but you mentioned about the, the weight, so somewhere along the line, weight kind of creeped up. Tell a little bit about what, what that was like, what was happening? What were you doing? How were you, how, how, like.

Drewbie Wilson 20:29

Oh man. I was always fed as a, as a young man that we're a bigger family. 'cause like everyone in my family was a little bigger. I wouldn't say like obesely overweight, but just bigger people in general and was just the way it was and we ate and we had fun and exercise wasn't something that was a priority for our family. And so it wasn't something that my young mind was accustomed to, and you know, going through junior high, having kind of freedom to just eat whatever I want. Let me promise you that, eating a multiple McDonald's breakfast sandwiches every day, a bagel and a couple of hash browns and a sausage McGriddle, like you don't that many calories, even as a growing boy, then to go and get pizza for lunch and whatever for dinner. I mean, I, I wasn't being monitored. I had no supervision, I did what I wanted. So, hey, freedom comes with consequences, everybody. And I got fat. I was overweight in high school. I remember always having to shop in the adult section for wide pants that I had to hem because my legs were short, but my waist was wide and it was always an embarrassment internally that I had to fight through and graduated high school overweight, got a third shift job did that, overweight. Even worse 'cause I was just chugging energy drinks and sugar and nonsense and sleeping terribly and not taking care of myself and I remember getting on the scale at one point and being 315 pounds and just being like, what the hell are you doing with your life? Dude, six one, so I'm a tall guy as as in general, but 315 is a big boy and I was a big boy and, and I remember just kind of asking, you know, what do you want outta life? Because I wasn't getting the attention from the people that I wanted the attention of as far as the ladies, I wasn't able to do all the athletic things that I wanted to do in terms of skateboarding, BMX, riding, whatever. I wasn't financially where I wanted to be, I didn't have the motivation to do things that I wanted to do, and I'm just going, what? I gotta make a change and that was the start of a very long journey that continues to this day, 10, 12 years later, of understanding what does healthy mean to me? because can go down the rabbit hole of the actual body weight for people about of the America is obese by the standards of the medical boards from the 1960s when they set whatever it is. Ultimately, the number on the scale doesn't determine how healthy you actually are because you can have muscle and be strong and be healthy, and still be 40 pounds over what the board says you should weigh, so that's something that I've learned and what I went on that journey, I went from 315 to 215. Stopped drinking soda, started moving more, really made an effort to pay more attention to like what I was doing. Calories in, calories out. Very basic weight loss. Got to 215, met a pretty lady, started dating. I got comfortable as we do when we start dating someone and, and stopped putting in as much effort and started eating extra sandwiches and late night Taco Bell runs after the bar and you know, all the things that we do when we're having fun and looked up and was 285 pounds again and, and so, I tell all of this because 315 to 215, I lost a hundred pounds, gained it all back to 285, then when I started my health journey again after my son was born, I went from 285 to 185, guess what? At 185, I looked at myself in the mirror and I hated it, I look like a string bean. I'm like, this is gross, like, what am I doing here? I look like Christian Bale in that movie where he loses all that weight and he is like, blah, and, and so this whole long, convoluted story of like losing a hundred pounds, gaining it, losing it again, I tell you this because body dysmorphia is something I still deal with to this day. It's important to understand that wherever you are the listener right now in your fitness journey, long as you show up and you consistently do something every day to better yourself, whether it's a, a light movement, or just focusing on making better choices in your nutrition. You are on the right track, but you have to stay consistent and you have to keep showing up day after day because no one else can do this for you but you. And so that's my soapbox

Caroline 25:07

That's right.

Drewbie Wilson 25:07

rant about health. I'm not a a nutritionist. I don't endure anybody to do the crazy shit that I do, but like, get yourself healthy because there's someone out there that needs you to be here for a long time.

Caroline 25:21

Yeah, you mentioned your son. Um, I think your son has been, well, the, the pretty lady and your son.

Drewbie Wilson 25:28

Yes, ma'am. Absolutely.

Caroline 25:30

Have both been um. Really great. I think inspiration motivation points for you, right? You ha so you were, you were on this track, on your own and then you meet them and now all of a sudden you've got other people, other things that you wanna provide for that you wanna do. Tell a, tell a little bit about that part for you.

Drewbie Wilson 25:52

yeah, absolutely. Um, in my early twenties, I had started working as a bouncer at the bar selling retail tobacco during the day, selling drugs on the side, just kind of living my young degenerate life and, and one of my clients. Friend of a friend decides that, she's like, Hey, you know, we should go and hang out and go to this party together. And I'm like, nah, I'm busy. I got work to do, you know, blah, blah, blah. She's like, well, no, don't be a pussy. Come hang out with me. I'm like, right, little challenge from this lady out. I'm into it. So we, we go to this party. We hang out, we end up spending the entire night together. And that was January 1st, 2010. So her and I literally just celebrated 16 years together as a couple because we have been together every day since that party. you know, where there's a whole long story of, of things that we can go down that at at some point. But you know, we started dating. Moved in together, I think three months after we started dating. And then our son was born in 2016. So we had a good range of dating and having fun and traveling and doing all that as a young couple. And then our son was born six months after we got married. Uh, he was born in January of 16 and we had made that decision together since then that we will fight for our relationship. Tooth and nail to set the example of what it means to have strong parents because she comes from a family of divorcees. I come from a family of divorcees and death, like we've seen some pretty nasty stuff of what it looks like to grow up in that situation, and so we've just kind of made the decision that relationships aren't easy. If anyone's in one right now, you know, it's, it's a daily choice to be in that relationship, and that's something that her and I have really worked through over the years because at one point I made a lot of selfish decisions building a business and chasing after my dreams and being like, Hey, I'm doing this for us. Big picture, I was living in this like future fantasy world, like of things that I'm building, but they're in the present dealing with the fact that I'm traveling and I'm not there, and that even when I am there, I'm staring at my phone and doing all the things. And so yes, they are a very important part of my journey because ultimately I, i've decided what I want to be outta life is a good husband, father example that I never had when I was a kid. And so that is a commitment and sometimes it requires certain decisions and understanding that that's the life that I've chosen for my version of success. And that's again, where I think everybody's is a little bit different, but for me, I wanna be there. I wanna raise my son. I want him to have those memories because at some point he's gonna wanna travel and be on his own. And we only have so long. So any of you who have kids that are at that point, like, you know, it happens in the blink of an eye, and I wanna make advantage of what time we had.

Caroline 28:57

Yeah, tell a, tell a little bit about that. So the, the part about you, you know, obviously aren't, aren't, aren't selling drugs anymore, doing any of that.

Drewbie Wilson 29:08

We're

Caroline 29:09

Build a business. So, so catch us up from like where, where that ended and then what happened, and then what you were building. So like, let's catch up on that part. Like what was the shift for, and then I wanna get to, um. Where you're building, building, building and, and living in this future fantasy. And then, then that realization of you weren't being who you wanted to be ultimately. Yeah. So,

Drewbie Wilson 29:35

Of jumping all over in this,

Caroline 29:37

I love it. No, I'm, I'm, I'm, our listeners are down for it. It's, it's good. It's good. It's good. If ever has a longer conversation with me, I don't know if it's neurodivergence or just me or whatever, but like jumping around is just part of how it goes. And it's, I'm there for it. Yeah.

Drewbie Wilson 29:51

And, and the nice thing is all of it does tie together because, you know, as, as I was saying, I was young. I worked this third shift job, hated my life. Ended up having a family friend that introduced me to a guy who owned these clubs. So I started bouncing at night and then I'm like, Hey man, I need to make more than, you know, a couple hundred bucks a week. And he says, oh, I own these cigar shops if you wanna work there a couple hours. So I got into retail sales and this is, you know, for call the damn leads being the business. This is really where I started cutting my teeth in actual sales. 'Cause let's be honest, drug dealing is just order taking and not getting caught. Like it's, it's not rocket science to be successful in that business. And, and so when I got into retail though, I really started understanding supply demand, the nuance of why people buy certain products and how to reorder. And, and I, you know, worked in this business for, I don't know, six months to a year, and the guy who owned it says, Hey, I want you to manage it. I want you to run this thing. And so I, I got the opportunity to step into running a business that was doing about a half a million dollars a year. And all of the clientele are small business owners and sales professionals and like working men. So I'm sitting in the lobby smoking cigars at 20 years old with these guys. Some of them live in paycheck to paycheck and others that are making more money than they know what to do with, and I'm just getting to listen and absorb all of this wisdom. And so I started realizing that my path in life was somewhere. Entrepreneurially related. I didn't really know what it was for a long time. Um, but, but sales is ultimately where I've kind of landed. So I worked at cigar shops for many years, had a lot of success, and then life, be life in, and, and two weeks before Christmas, I gotta knock on my door and the guy says, Hey man, listen, I appreciate you. You're awesome. You've done great for me, but you're fired. Uh, okay. And, and so I, I leave there. It's Christmas time. If you've ever tried to find a job around December, it's the worst. Nobody's hiring 'cause they literally have no jobs available. And so I spent two and a half weeks, three weeks wallowing in my pity and being like, what am I gonna do with my life? And blah? Before I got a call from somebody that says, Hey, I own this furniture store. If you want to come by, I got an opportunity for you. So show up, commission only sales, let's get after it. That led me to selling for insurance. Spent five and a half years selling insurance and got to a point where I'm making 40 grand a year. Living what I would consider a pretty good life, right? I've got this beautiful wife now. I'm married. We just bought a house. We didn't have the white picket fence, but it was chain link, so it was pretty dope just being honest.

Caroline 32:38

Yeah.

Drewbie Wilson 32:38

The American dream, but it was pretty dang close. And yet I was like unfulfilled. weight was starting to creep back up. Son's just born. So I'm kind of like, yeah, I don't, you know, 40 grand a year is not a lot of money. I definitely can't afford to have more kids. And if I want to travel and do all the stuff that we want to do as a family, like it's pretty damn expensive. And even if my wife's working, so I'm, I'm having these real conversations with myself about like, what do I want from life? And I remember I went to the owner of the insurance agency. And I said, Hey man, listen, I really am grateful for you. You've given me all of this opportunity. You know, we're making money and, and I just need to know what do I gotta do to make six figures? He's like, I'm making 40, but I wanna make a hundred grand a year. 'Cause that's what every, but like every good sales guy makes at least a hundred grand. And God love him. He is like, Hey man, just be patient. it a couple years, it'll be your name on the door. You'll be cruising. Don't worry about it. Well, I'm 25 years old with a kid and a mortgage, and I'm like, man, I don't wanna wait 10 years. What the hell does that mean? And so I so back to my desk and I'm like, all right, I gotta figure this out. I'm a sales guy. What is it that I have to do to generate more sales for myself? And I'm like breaking this down. And I'm going through, you know, working at the cigar shop and the marketing, and I'm thinking about the leads that we're buying. And I'm going, all right, If I can generate my own leads. I can make more sales without having to spend a ton of money. Or if I am like investing in marketing and the math maths, then I'll, I'll be good. So I go online and I'm like, alright, the successful people are using these Facebook ads and Wufoo forms on websites. Alright, cool. So I build myself a Wufoo form and I put it on a landing page and I run Facebook ads and I generate 500 leads for myself, or maybe it was like 250 leads on, $500 in spend, something like that. And I'm like, holy shit, this works. I start calling these leads and I start making sales and I'm like, holy shit, this works. This is crazy. at the end of the month, I've almost doubled my production. And you think, alright, doubling your production, that's great. Right? Well, it added like a thousand dollars in commission to my check. I, I made, I doubled my production and made an extra thousand dollars and I was like. I don't think this is gonna work. What am I doing? Well, I get a call from a couple other agents in the area and they're like, Hey man, we're looking at the reports for everybody. You already one of the top guys, but you doubled your production. What are you doing? And is it legal? We need to know. I'm like. Of it's legal. You guys know me, I don't play that game. Uh, but I learned how to do these ads and I'm getting these leads and I'll, you know, teach you guys how to do it. And they're like, no, no, no, no. How about I just pay you to set it up for me? Yeah. They're like, how much? 2,500 bucks. They're like, cool. Here's the money. Like, shit, I made 10 grand in six hours on the weekend. I never made 10 grand in a month. I made six hours, 10 grand. I'm like, I'm in the wrong business. And so this is kind of where like my real journey starts and I'm like, all right, I'm gonna start this marketing company and I, all these things and, and I say all that because listen, you guys, it's. You always think you're ready to go out and start your own business, but you don't know all the things that go along with running a business. It is incredibly difficult. And I encourage you while you have the opportunities that you have right now to maximize them in every way. Because you never know what the future could be. You never know what your next success might look like. And if you have the opportunity to maximize right now, you'd be a fool not to be doing so. If you're collecting a check and you still got time to personally develop, listen to podcasts like this, or read books, or take programs like by God, please take advantage of it because when you're in the mix of running your own business. Finding the time to develop the skillset you need at that time infinitely harder. So, once again, let me step off my soapbox for a second. 'cause like I, I can't help myself but get passionate because I, it, I've lived it. I know what this looks like.

Caroline 37:46

Absolutely. It's, it's hard and, and yeah, even in my own, uh, case, right? So, all right, I had all this, uh, success as a scientist and then success as a recruiter, and then now I have my own company. And, and you're right, it's different skills and different. Things I didn't even know. And so much of trying to build a business is really first trying to build yourself and that whole professional development, all of those things, because you can't just think my way through it. Or, you know, be smarter than everyone. I've, I've had to be on a, a, a huge personal development journey, and as I make my own foundation stronger than some of the things of the business can be, become stronger as well. Personal development, I know has been, uh, a huge journey that, that you've been on. You, you, you mentioned in, in one of your books how you kind of shifted the music you were listening to and how you were spending your time. I would love to, to hear a little bit more about that, help the listeners understand that that part too.

Drewbie Wilson 38:57

It's interesting how the inputs that we take in make such a difference in the outputs that we put out. what I mean by that is in, in this example. I mean, I grew up listening to drug dealing gang banging the worst of the worst kind of music that exists out there. Right? And, and that's the life that I was living. I was that rebellious, fight the system, push back against regular, you know, life type of person. I've realized that listening to that kind of stuff doesn't actually genuinely give you real success because like listening to someone else talk about murdering people and making millions of dollars by selling drugs and doing whatever, like, that's not the life that you wanna live. It's not really actually glamorous. You know, if you've ever watched the movies, those guys all die and they usually get shot or some horrendous, like, it, it, it looks glamorous, but I promise you. It's not. So I started shifting and instead of listening to music, when I would go and walk or ride my bike and work out, listen to Jim Rohn, Ed Mylet, Motiversity, where they would just take all those clips of the different, you know, like motivating podcast clips and like speeches and Matthew McConaughey and, and there's, you know, um. There's another guy that I really, really like out there. I'll, I'll remember his name. Um,

Caroline 40:28

Dean Graziosi, Russell Brunson, all of, yeah.

Drewbie Wilson 40:31

But like, and, and so I just started listening to that and, and what I was doing was taking away the key pieces that I needed in my formula for building success because again, I, I had really no idea what I was looking at. I'm just seeing this big. Wide ocean of opportunity and going, okay, well might be 46,000 islands out there. Which 1:00 AM I even shooting at? And why? And, and really starting to go down that process. And as I'm listening to these guys. I start shifting the things that I'm recognizing in life. So instead of looking at the, the, the negative side of stuff, I start seeing the more positive aspects and the opportunity and I start asking more questions of people and start researching more into, well, how does that work? And why does that work that way? And what does the next steps look like? And, you know, what would happen if someone wanted to do that? And, and I really start going through that process of real development. And funny, my paycheck started going up. I started making more sales, and when I was on the phone and talking to people, I was relaying some of the stuff that I had learned via listening to this material over and over and over again. And, and funny enough, sales is as much being a therapist it is being salesperson like you genuinely, to be successful in sales, have to understand people. You have to ask great questions. You have to have empathy. You have to listen. You have to care. When you're looking for the positives and people are telling you all the negative stuff, 'cause people love to talk about all the negative stuff in their life. Like we love to complain, but you can hear the little positive stuff and even in the complaints, you can look for ways to reframe that in a perspective that says, well maybe it's not all bad, because even though this is happening now, it's leading us to solving this problem, which is actually gonna be a huge benefit for you because going forward you don't have the stress, you don't have to worry about it, and you get to know that the safety and peace of mind exists for you. So like, I know it sucks right now, but maybe this is a blessing in disguise ability to confidently say that to somebody and help them see it. That to me is I think what some of the best closers do. And it, it just comes back to going through it and living it. open to the idea that changing the things that you take in will change the things that you put out. And if you ain't getting the life that you want right now, you probably gotta stop doing the things that you keep doing over and over 'cause they're not getting you any different results. I'm pretty sure that's a, there's a definition of insanity, is doing the same,

Caroline 43:17

Yeah,

Drewbie Wilson 43:18

And over, expecting a different result.

Caroline 43:21

Absolutely. And, and somewhere along the way you kind of, you kind of hinted on this a few different times, but you shifted from not just what you were gonna get, but what you were going to give that then allowed you to be even more successful. You had a another quote. Success comes from the success you bring to those around you. I mean, you got some great quotes, Drewbie, which is.

Drewbie Wilson 43:48

Will be the first to tell you that they're all my own version of what someone else way, way smarter than me said, and me just being like, how can I say this? That sounds smart. Even without like plagiarizing them. So listen, if you guys hear something out there in this world and you say, you said it first, take credit. I, I'm just a man who's saying things that I've heard along the way and trying to say 'em in my own way, uh, because that's what I've learned, right? Everybody. Here's something different. Perspective matters. You can be told the same thing a hundred times from the people you love. You hear it from a total stranger, and suddenly it's the most genius thing you've ever heard in the world. But what I, when it goes back to helping others. When I started trying to figure out marketing, right, I was saying, Hey, these guys are online. They're doing building these pages and doing this stuff with ads. I went into a Facebook group and I'm, Hey, how do I do this? I'm trying to figure this out and I'm doing my research and, and for those of you that old school. It's like going into a forum and asking in a forum and being like, Hey, I'm trying to fix this, and waiting days or weeks for someone like really obscure to respond to your comment in there. And funny enough, the, the developer of the program that I was using to build these landing pages, he saw my post and he reached out and he's like, Hey man, I don't normally do this, but I see you've been really active in the community and, and you're asking good questions. So I'm gonna give you some insight, if you're open to it, I'll be a direct resource for you. What I'd ask in return is that when you learn something, will you create a quick training on it for the community so that they can learn it too. Because you are asking a lot of good questions and other people are gonna start asking these questions soon. And we don't have a database of training for it, so I'll train you if you'll train them. I went, yeah, but if I teach them, they'll know the secrets and wouldn't that screw up my opportunity? And he is like, I don't think you're understanding this man. let me help you. Because like everything you're asking, you could go and learn on YouTube or on the internet, but how long is it gonna take you versus I'll give it to you directly within 24 hours of you asking the question. in return, you've gotta take that knowledge to these other people. And I was just like. Well, I don't have a choice, so yeah, I'm in what am I gonna do? I don't wanna figure this shit out on my own. Like, teach me and I'll, I'll figure it out. And so I started these little training videos for this landing page platform and. I had no idea what I was doing. I'm like sitting at a kitchen table late at night, you know, with a headset just like this. Like, okay, here's how you embed a calendar to this landing page so that when someone goes through your funnel, they can schedule to your calendar for a call and you skip the whole, I'll call you to schedule an appointment thing. And,

Caroline 46:51

Right.

Drewbie Wilson 46:51

These videos. People start watching 'em and they're like starting to share them with other people in the group. Now it's like, oh, hey, Drewbie already did a video on this. Check it out. And so I've got these videos and all of a sudden, one day I'm working and. Facebook messenger lights up, and this was way early on before like Facebook Messenger calling was a real popular thing. It was like really obscure to get a Facebook messenger call and I'm like, who the hell is Facebook Messenger calling me? I've never done that. And I like look at it and it was the owner of the software whose developer that I had been chatting with who said, listen, you've been creating all of these trainings in my community and helping these hundreds of users that I have. I haven't been able to find someone to offer tech support. And you are basically doing the job already. How about you keep doing what you're doing? I'll have a couple other little things I need help with and I'll give you two grand a month. know you got a marketing company and you can keep doing that, but like, just please don't steal from any of my clients. Like that's the only thing that I ask of you, but I'll give you two grand a month to keep helping them with this. And I was just like, say what? Yeah. Hell yeah, man. Like, that's of course. And, and so I sign up, I joined the company. They had me go through a bunch of old emails and I back like cleaned out three months of backlog support tickets and emails and questions that people had been asking in like two weeks. So I just like, alright, cool opportunity. I'm gonna jump in, take advantage of it. They called me back a couple weeks later and they're like, um, you're doing a great job, man. Keep it up. I'm like, thanks. I actually just got off a call with a guy who is really enjoying the program and he knows that you have this other. Coaching thing that you offer. Um, and he said that he wants to do the $5,000 lifetime offer. How do I get him connected with whoever would help him with that? And he's like, wait, you got a guy that wants to give you five grand? I'm like, yes. What do I need to do? This is a new thing for me. How do I take money from these people? Like, what does this look like? And he's like. Christine, who was a lady that was his assistant. So I call her, she said, gimme 10 minutes. And she created an affiliate link in Infusionsoft and she's like, send him this link. I'm like, okay. So I called the guy and I'm like, Hey, I'm about to send you this link, fill it out, make your payment, uh, and then we're gonna get you set up into the program. And he's like, okay, cool. And he $5,000. Boom, boom, boom. Like an hour or two later, I got a call from the boss man again. He is like, dude, no one in the company's history has ever made a $5,000 sale that fast. And I was like, yeah, I dunno. He was asking for help. I just told him what it looked like. He's like, do that, keep doing that. then within two weeks he had called me back. He's like, Hey. Fly down here, spend a day, you're in the wrong business, man. Like, let me change your life and come help me change lives. And it was that moment that everything really made the big shift for me in terms of understanding the giver's gain mentality, I didn't wanna do it, but he is like, you're an idiot. go help these people. And in doing so, it led to an absolutely life-changing opportunity for me. Crazy.

Caroline 50:15

And so is that what you're doing now or you left that and have your own thing?

Drewbie Wilson 50:18

That was what I did. So I joined their consulting company for five years. I was employee number three after they had cleaned house. Um, I came in as tech support, essentially bottom of the barrel. Sold a lot within my first couple of months. Ended up being promoted to VP of sales within six months of joining the company. Went on to do over a million dollars in sales my first year, multiple millions every year after that, up until the end of 2023. They started making some changes internally. Some things were shifting, and me and the boss kind of had to to a decision of a, a mutual separation of that at that point where we were both kind of just on different paths of what we wanted to build. And so I left there, created call the damn leads, wrote the books, started the podcast, went all in on it, and we officially became a company. Like a full blown company in January of 2024, and we've been changing lives ever since. We've had several thousand customers on the store and come through our coaching programs. We have over 150 podcast episodes. Got a couple more books on the way. It's been a been a fun journey.

Caroline 51:36

Every single thing here, it seems like there's this, and an opportunity comes. You just seize it. Even though you don't necessarily know what the heck you're doing, you're just willing to do it. You go all in. You work really hard and one thing leads to another, and you then enjoy and just keep like leveling up with what it's even possible for you.

Drewbie Wilson 52:02

It it, you said it. I opportunity shows up. I just work hard and pray everything else is gonna work out the way it's supposed to. I think the biggest issue is most people forget the work hard part.

Caroline 52:14

Hmm. Or they do the work hard part and they forget the people that they love part.

Drewbie Wilson 52:21

There is that too. This is the balance of life, right? It is never perfect. I met a lot of people that worked really hard and made a lot of money, but family life wasn't good and I don't want that. And I've also met a lot of people that had a great family life that struggled financially. Don't want that either. So we're finding our way.

Caroline 52:38

That's right, that's right. I, I like to say it's not balance that we're going for because balance kind of assumes like there's two different mes that I could just balance my time and it's not. There's just one. So it's more like integration. So like how do you want your life to look like, and then how can your career fuel that life? And like what are you willing to, you know, to give on either side to try to make it keep, keep working towards that. So, uh,

Drewbie Wilson 53:04

Scale reads zero. And do you want to be a zero? No.

Caroline 53:09

Nice, nice, nice. Nice.

Drewbie Wilson 53:12

We go. That was a simple and sweet.

Caroline 53:15

What advice do you have for somebody who's, uh, who's starting to think, yeah, this isn't it. I, I don't, I don't, I can't keep doing this. I don't wanna keep making 40 grand, or I can't keep working third shift, or I can't keep eating the multiple breakfast sandwiches. Something's gotta go. This isn't it. What's your go-to game plan?

Drewbie Wilson 53:40

Number one. It is gonna have to be multiple pieces to this. Like number one, you have to become aware of the problem, like problem awareness is key. And, and a lot of people will ignore problems. They'll deny problems, but they know it exists. So if you are aware of the problem, you have to understand what the solution or solutions. potentially be, because there's more than one way to skin a cat, as they say, right? There's more than one way to lose weight. There's more than one way to build a business. There's more than one way to create success in your life, right? I know people that are employees that make silly money and live great lives, and they don't have the responsibility of owning a business. Being a business owner does not have to be your version of success. That said, if you know there is a problem that exists. And you've developed whatever the solution needs to be, you have to take action and you have to trust the process. many people give up before they get to the destination because they don't see it happening fast enough. if you want to go back to what I was talking about from, you know, a health standpoint in my own life, 315, 215, 285, 185, 230, 205, 220. Uh, I have bounced everywhere in between and I'm still not happy because at the end of the day, the number on the scale doesn't matter. But I know the solution is changing the way that I see myself and that I look at my version of what success and my health journey looks like, and that is, can I move? Can I pick things up that are heavy? And can I do it without dying and falling over? Puts me on a pretty good path. When I put on clothes, do I feel good or do I feel like a Pillsbury Doughboy? That's a pretty good indicator of where I'm at from a health perspective. But here's the thing, maybe the fact is I just need to buy some different clothes because I'm living in an outdated shell that doesn't fit my current lifestyle. And that's something I think people forget in the terms of they may be living in an old version of themself that. It's just simply shedding that old skin and seeing the new person that they're capable of becoming, and then trusting the process that if they just keep doing those things that get them there, they will keep getting everything that they've been asking for.

Caroline 56:02

That's beautiful. I How do you define authentic success for you in this moment?

Drewbie Wilson 56:10

So authentic success for me when I lay down at night and go to bed I ask myself, did I crush the day or did it crush me? If I can honestly, in my heart of heart say, yes, I crushed it today, then I had a successful day, and if by God I didn't wake up the next day and I just blinked, and all of a sudden I'm in heaven looking down, I'll feel like I was successful in my life. But if I go to bed and I know that I keep letting the day crush me, and I, I'm not doing the things that I know I'm supposed to be doing, and I'm not spending the time in the areas that I know are important to me, then that's not successful. That's it's, it is very yes or no. Did you do it? Yes or no? And that's the beautiful part of keeping it simple and, and how you know you're successful or not, because it's a yes or no question.

Caroline 57:04

Beautiful, beautiful. How do people find you? How do they find your books? How can they work with you? All of the things.

Drewbie Wilson 57:13

Best thing you can do to find me, and this is a huge favor to both me and Caroline is share this episode on social media and tag at Call the Damn Leads. Why? A 'cause you spent some time, energy, and effort listening to me ramble on on these crazy tangents today. And you got some value out of it, at least enough to say that you learned something. So if you'll share this with someone else, remember we talked about givers game, send it to someone that you know who needs to hear it, put it out on social media. Tag at Call the Damn Leads. That's going to let me know that you listen to it. And being a sales guy, I'm gonna follow up with you 'cause I really care about the people that spend a little bit of time and energy to promote what I'm doing and my crazy life that I'm living. Um, and then if you want to go check out the. Books, they're all on Callthedamnleads.com. I hand sign every single one of them that we send out from the store, so they're all personalized. Um, and, and it really just, it means a lot to me to have the opportunity to know my story, my message, some of the wonky stuff that I've figured out over the years is out there making a difference in someone's life. And so if this episode has helped you in any way, make sure you leave a review, send us a message, let us know, uh, because it will prove once again for us that we're spending our time, energy, and effort in the places that make the most impact, even if not financially, uh, in the big picture. We're here to help people and, and it would mean the world to us to know that it helped you today.

Caroline 58:43

Love it. Thank you Drewbie, for sharing part of your story, for your inspiration, for all this wisdom, all this nuggets. I wish you absolutely continuing to crush the day, continuing to, you know, celebrate your success, and I look forward to kind of catching up as we, as we both grow from here.

Drewbie Wilson 59:01

Thank you.

Caroline 59:03

Appreciate it.

59:05

Drewbie, thank you for bringing truth and encouragement In the same breath, I love the reminder that the work hard part matters and that the people you love part matters too. If this episode helped you, Drewbie gave a very clear ask. Share it with someone who needs it. Post it, tag him. And if you're listening and you know something has to shift, let today be that decision point. You are allowed to build a life that fits who you're becoming. You are allowed to define success for yourself, and you are allowed to take the next step towards your next success, even if you don't feel ready yet. Thanks for listening to your next success with Dr. Caroline Sangal. Remember, authentic success is yours to define and includes aligning your career to support the life you want.