Tony Whatley is 365 Driven and a 24/7 Lover of Comedy

[00:00:00] Tony Whatley: Most people, just, especially today, Hirsch, people want instant gratification. They want the instantaneous result, they want the disposable type thing instead of repairing things. It's everything's just made for like temporary basis nowadays. And it's unfortunate because success, one of the main principles is just being able to execute consistently over time.

[00:00:18] Tony Whatley: And most people are unwilling to do the time part, even though we all know that's the reality. We know it takes you 10 years to master something. We know that. But we somehow think there's this magic potion or elixir or get rich quick thing that's gonna be able to shortcut the time process and it doesn't work.

[00:00:34] Tony Whatley: We can shortcut the knowledge process by having mentors and coaches and people that give us the examples and show us the mistakes they've made. But you're still gonna have to execute and you're still gonna have to demonstrate, you're still have to get punched in the face a few times and learn the hard way, and then you get the result and that's 10 to 20 years down the road and nobody wants to hear that.

[00:00:55] Hersh Rephun: Martians landed. Yes. Wearing Prada suits. Yes. Drinking Henry [00:01:00] Seltzer. Yes. Chewing Juicy Fruit. Yes. And your branding here? Yes. Brand. Your message here? Yes. And a verse about Yes. Your product here? Yes. I'm Rush Redburn. Yes. I'm a message therapist. Yes. And I have a podcast. Yes. Brand. That's right. That's it.

[00:01:19] Hersh Rephun: Yes. We'll help you fix the world. Yes. For your bottom line. All your bottom line. Get it. I get. Welcome to podcast. My guest today is not from England, but he's a lover of. Comedy and a lover of improv and a student of improv. He's a business. Executive coach. He's a high performance coach for executives and high performing executive performers and performances, and, uh, he has an amazing Dexter with the English language, which is where this comes from.

[00:01:59] Hersh Rephun: Now, [00:02:00] as soon as you hear him speak, as soon as you hear the first words out of the mouth of my esteemed guest today, you'll understand why I chose this accent in particular. Uh, to, uh, to welcome him here to the Yes Brand Podcast. Now, listen, listen, people, um, when I recorded this interview, it was quite a bit, well, just a little bit ago, about a few weeks or a month ago, months time, and I hadn't, uh, yet become such an hardened fan of his podcast.

[00:02:32] Hersh Rephun: His podcast, just to give you a hint, is called 365 Driven. Do you know who he is? Do you know? Did you know? You probably know. Many of you probably know, but I'm not gonna give it away just yet. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Um, I love listening to this show. He has so many amazing people on, so many guests with so much valuable information.

[00:02:55] Hersh Rephun: It makes me rather a little bit jealous. I'm a bit envious of this man, [00:03:00] as are many, many, many, many people. Uh, but I'm not a hater. No, no, no. Uh, yes, yes, yes. I am a fan. I am a fan of this man. Um, I'll give you another hint. Uh, what, how does that work? Did you get that? What? Lee Lee, come on in here, Lee. No, I, I see I told you his name.

[00:03:26] Hersh Rephun: Ah, do you like Mike Blouse today? Is it a Tony blouse? Do you think it's a rather stylish kind of Tony blouse? Alright, well if you haven't gotten it by now, I can't spoon feed you. I'm not one of those people who believes that the audience is stupid. Do you understand? Do you get me? I've, I've so often been told, remember you are speaking to three year olds.

[00:03:49] Hersh Rephun: They told me that when I, when I was writing my book, they said, remember, your bass reader has the intelligence in education of a three-year-old. And, uh, so you have to, [00:04:00] we don't like to say dumb it down, let's just say keep it at their level. But my listeners aren't like that. My listeners, for the most part, are well beyond my level, as is this guest.

[00:04:11] Hersh Rephun: So please buckle in. Buckle up, toughen up, cycle up. And get ready to learn about business from a heart centered kind and straightforward and honestly kind of, uh, uh, a really kind of brilliant in a very, uh, laid back and, uh, comfortable way. So get comfortable then. Get comfortable then and in, uh, no more clues for you.

[00:04:40] Hersh Rephun: Here he is. Ladies and gentlemen. Please welcome to the ESP Brand Podcast, Tony Watley. Of 365 driven.

[00:04:54] Hersh Rephun: Welcome Tony to the SBR Brand podcast.

[00:04:58] Tony Whatley: Yes, brand Hurst. Hey, [00:05:00] thank you for the opportunity, man. I'm looking forward to getting to know you better. And I'm. Love to talk about these kind of subjects. Comedy, business life. That's right.

[00:05:08] Hersh Rephun: I was gonna say Tony Watley famous. You know, Tony Watley, standup comedian, improviser.

[00:05:14] Hersh Rephun: You know, I was gonna go through that whole thing, author, and then they would figure you wrote books on comedy. But now do you think that you are, at this point, an authority on comedy? No,

[00:05:25] Tony Whatley: not. Not at all.

[00:05:26] Hersh Rephun: Not at all. You're a student of comedy.

[00:05:29] Tony Whatley: Always. Probably a lifetime student. Let's be real. I mean, we always watched.

[00:05:33] Tony Whatley: Funny movies or standup. And I was actually going back through Netflix the other day. I was looking for something to watch and I went back to the old Dave Chappelle shows and yeah, you know, it was still on the aspect ratio of like the square TV screens. Right. And I was like, Hey, cool, I'll watch it. You know?

[00:05:48] Tony Whatley: It's still funny today. Still funny today.

[00:05:50] Hersh Rephun: Yeah. I mean, you can go way back to funny stuff and it, and it's still crack like, yeah. And, and it can be standup or it can be Sketch, or it can be, I mean, [00:06:00] look at Saturday Night Live. Look at In Living Color. Look at. Look at, you know, I love Lucy, it doesn't matter.

[00:06:05] Hersh Rephun: Like really great comedy. Has Yeah. Longevity. That's, yes. That's the thing that I've always liked about comedy, I think in the back of my mind, even as a little kid mm-hmm. Was I'm looking at stuff like Abbot and Costello or, or Three Stooges and it was, you know, decades before I was born and yet it, it has me laughing my ass off and I'm like, This, how do you make people feel this good?

[00:06:29] Hersh Rephun: Like that's, I think what I came away with. Like how do they make people feel this

[00:06:33] Tony Whatley: good? So, you know, people don't change people. Physiologically we don't. We emotionally, a lot of the things we suffer from today, we suffered from thousands of years ago. I mean, if you need examples of that, go read a classic book like Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.

[00:06:49] Tony Whatley: You know, they got, RO ran the Roman Empire and it's his diary essentially, and it's his thoughts. And as you're reading it, you realize the problems that he had thousands of years ago. The same fucking problems people have today. [00:07:00] So it's good

[00:07:01] Hersh Rephun: stuff. And my son loves that book. And you know, he's a writer.

[00:07:05] Hersh Rephun: He's 30 now, but he was about 12 when he was, and he, he adapted. The Marcus Rellis to, uh, for a TV script to try, try to make a TV script out of it. And it was just a kind of a little project that he did to amuse himself. But the fact is it was so relatable and, you know, how do you relate, and we'll get into your, your background a little bit, but how do you relate comedy to business?

[00:07:33] Hersh Rephun: You're dealing with some big numbers, some serious communities. People who are focused on making money, not wasting money, how does it all line up

for

[00:07:43] Tony Whatley: you? You know, I think comedy is just a another form of communication that could lead to potential influence. So if you're doing things with good intentions and you're trying to influence a result, whether you're a leader in an organization, Or someone that's making videos or podcasts at the same time, we [00:08:00] need to really start thinking about the importance of influence, especially going forward when we're starting to see a more social media requirement type, forward facing type personal branding thing.

[00:08:10] Tony Whatley: And I think that a lot of times people will like to create the podcast. They want to do some videos or they wanna write the book or, but they don't really invest in themselves from a professional level. I'm not just talking about watching and trying to regurgitate, but investing in themselves with coaches or mentors that are really good at influence and entertainment.

[00:08:29] Tony Whatley: Because I think that anytime we get on a microphone, anytime we get on a stage, anytime we're seen on a screen, You should be trying to think about how am I entertaining people? And it's not trying to be funny all the time. Sometimes you're just telling ghost stories or whatever. It's some form of entertainment.

[00:08:45] Tony Whatley: But I think that one key aspect is the make or break from people just really blowing up and growing a big audience and creating massive impact. And if they would just understand, if I could just spend more time focusing on becoming an entertainer of some sorts, becoming a [00:09:00] character of some sorts, they're gonna get far better results in a much quicker time.

[00:09:04] Hersh Rephun: And what makes, in your opinion, a really good. Coach. I say there's so many coaches out there for various things. Even the term coach can be perceived and used different ways. What makes a really great

[00:09:16] Tony Whatley: coach? I think that somebody just has to be able to show or demonstrate that they've got the results and they exemplify what they teach.

[00:09:25] Tony Whatley: Now I think that for me, I'm always a high performer, so I wanna make sure that. Even if I'm learning something that's not based on business, I want to make sure it's from an individual that's got the core values and the alignment that's showing that they're a high performance individual in many aspects of their life, whether it's financial, fitness, family, faith, all these different things that we try to look at.

[00:09:45] Tony Whatley: From hu a human perspective, how am I judging them? Because we do judge, people think like, oh, we shouldn't judge people, but literally the Bible says that we should judge people, but you should also be worried about being judged in the same manner, right? It's a comparison, and I just look for people that are actually doing [00:10:00] things and evidence that they have proof and results of what they're trying to teach you.

[00:10:04] Tony Whatley: Well,

[00:10:04] Hersh Rephun: your company's called 365 Driven. And it's also kind of a 360 thing for you. It seems like you are interested in that whole package. Are all those things important? Is fitness important? Is being in a good head space important? What? What's the the most important thing? As you, as somebody builds a business and thinks to themselves, well, someday I'm gonna, this is gonna be big and I'm gonna sell it, or I'm gonna, I'm gonna step back from it.

[00:10:34] Hersh Rephun: Like mindset wise, what's the best attitude to come into business building with.

[00:10:41] Tony Whatley: I think that you have to pursue things that will lead to your potential fulfillment in life. I think a lot of times people focus too much on the financials. Maybe you say, Hey, I wanna be a multimillionaire, and you start looking at these different business models that could potentially lead you to become a multimillionaire.

[00:10:57] Tony Whatley: Maybe you're influenced by people in your peer group or your [00:11:00] friends or your social media, and they're thinking like, this is the fastest way to easy money, but they're really sacrificing their own core values, alignment, the things that make them happy, the things that light their fire because. If you need examples of that, maybe you've had a job or a career or profession that you got compensated very well for, but you didn't really enjoy going and you kind of maybe, maybe it sucked the life out at you.

[00:11:20] Tony Whatley: Right. But you're willing to just tolerate that because it paid you a certain amount of, you know, money to be able to just accept what it is. That's not really a great way to live. It's not really pursuing fulfillment. You're not really feeling happy, you're not really getting a return on anything except for a financial reason.

[00:11:36] Tony Whatley: There's been careers and things that I've done in my past that. Hurt my health. You know, I just didn't have time to do the exercises, and it led me to eating unhealthy and just doing things that I just didn't want to do. Right? And so when I think about if you want to get a return, you gotta think about the time factor.

[00:11:52] Tony Whatley: Most people just, especially today, Hirsch people want. Instant gratification. They want the instantaneous result. They want the [00:12:00] disposable type thing instead of repairing things. It's everything's just made for like temporary basis nowadays. And it's unfortunate because success, one of the main principles is just being able to execute consistently over time.

[00:12:11] Tony Whatley: And most people are unwilling to do the time part, even though we all know it's the reality. We know it takes you 10 years to master something. We know that. But we somehow think there's this magic potion or elixir or get rich quick thing that's gonna be able to shortcut the time process and it doesn't work.

[00:12:27] Tony Whatley: We can shortcut the knowledge process by having mentors and coaches and people that give us the examples and show us the mistakes they've made. But you're still gonna have to execute and you're still gonna have to demonstrate, you're still have to get punched in the face a few times and learn the hard way, and then you get the result and that's 10 to 20 years down the road and nobody wants to hear that.

[00:12:45] Hersh Rephun: Well, two, I have two things that come to mind. One is the longevity and time part, which as a car guy I think is something you can probably speak on, you know? So I wanna know a little bit about your history with cars and a little [00:13:00] bit about your history in general. We'll get to the other thing in a minute.

[00:13:03] Hersh Rephun: Tell me about your background and how you got to this point A little bit.

[00:13:08] Tony Whatley: I guess background, I grew up lower middle class, two working class parents. My mom's a Japanese immigrant, so I'm half Japanese. I was actually born in Japan in a military base. My dad was a Vietnam combat vet and he's, he basically was US Marine and after the military we moved back to Houston where he worked in the oil refineries his entire career before he retired.

[00:13:29] Tony Whatley: My mom was a school teach school cafeteria worker for her entire career before retiring. And so I got to see the value of hard work and. Every house that I grew up in, which was three of them, was basically a flip house, you would call that today. It was just kind of the worst, the cheapest house and the best school district that they could afford.

[00:13:45] Tony Whatley: So my sister and I could get a good education, and that was the sacrifices that we made. But the thing is, I knew that there was a fluence nearby and I could see evidence of that, and I had friends that were rich and things like that, but I always was, was taught to just appreciate what I had. Right. I may have had [00:14:00] the biggest crap box car at some point, but I always made sure that when I sold that car, it was in a much nicer condition than when I bought it.

[00:14:06] Tony Whatley: So always value to things. The the crap box houses that we moved into usually became some of the nicest houses in the neighborhood because my parents and my sister and my, we would restore these houses and paint 'em and fix the yard, do the roof, like do everything. We were just really handy, so, You know, what do you currently have?

[00:14:23] Tony Whatley: What are you grateful for? Quit trying to think about what other people have. Maybe that could be an inspiration for you, but you know, if you're not grateful for what you have today, regardless of what that is, then what makes you think you're gonna be grateful for the things that you're gonna achieve later on?

[00:14:36] Tony Whatley: Because that's something that's internal that we have to develop. We have to work that like a muscle. We have to become grateful every day for where we're at and what we need. Are we providing for? Right? So, I, I think just growing up like that, seeing the struggle for that, I was thinking about, man, how can I go make a six figure income?

[00:14:53] Tony Whatley: Cause nobody in my family was doing that. Nobody in my e either side of my family had got a college degree before. And so [00:15:00] I said, okay, maybe a doctor, a lawyer, or an engineer. Those are the things they always throw at you. Like if you wanna make a hundred thousand dollars and be, uh, middle class rich, go be a doctor, a lawyer, or engineer.

[00:15:10] Tony Whatley: One second. Okay. I like cars a lot. Maybe there's something in engineering. Cause I definitely didn't want to go be a surgeon and work on people that are injured and blood and gore. Like I'm not, I'm not interested in dealing with people like that. Right, right. And so, I said, okay, mechanical engineering, and, and that's what I did.

[00:15:27] Tony Whatley: I pursued a mechanical engineering degree. It took me seven years. I was a very average student in school because I was working full-time in construction just like my dad. So I was a welder, a pipe fitter, an insulator, an epoxy coder, like all these different roles. I was paying for my own college and going to school at night.

[00:15:44] Tony Whatley: And on the weekends I would wait tables and I would work as a mechanic on Sundays because. The restaurant wasn't open yet. So I was always in that hustle and grind mode for about 10 years of my life, most of my twenties. And that's kind of my background. And that's when I started thinking about how can I start [00:16:00] businesses?

[00:16:00] Tony Whatley: How can I do things that don't require my hours? How can I make money online? This is around 96. You start to see internet started to become a thing and people were using it for more like entertainment. I was like, man, there's gotta be a way to make money on the internet. So I started going down that road and trying to figure that out.

[00:16:17] Hersh Rephun: So, you know, obviously you're not afraid to work your ass off. The question is, you know, when I really like, I feel like I've, like, I've worked my ass off. You know, especially like there's working hard and then there's working hard towards something and spending a lot of time and investing a lot of time and money in something.

[00:16:39] Hersh Rephun: But you always hear work smarter, not harder. And then you start to think and you do hear people say, oh, I have a strict policy. I work 12 hours a week, but I accomplish all this. Or you know, where do you shake out on the harder versus smarter equation?

[00:16:57] Tony Whatley: You know, this is a good question. It's very relevant.

[00:16:59] Tony Whatley: I [00:17:00] actually just finished up another podcast, right as a friend of mine. He's been on my show before. And he's summarized this very well, and I wanna use it. His name is pj. So you guys hear that episode if you listen to my show. But he said, most people want to be a wealthy man. Like most men want to be a wealthy man, but most men are not willing to become a man of wealth.

[00:17:20] Tony Whatley: And that's an intriguing statement when you think about that. Okay. Wealthy man is just really focused on the result. It's like, Hey, I want to be rich. I want to have the X amount of money in my bank account. That's what they want. They want the result, but they don't even become. The man of wealth, which is the man with skills, the man with knowledge, the man with dedication for 20 years to be able to create that result.

[00:17:42] Tony Whatley: And so what you're talking about getting smarter versus working harder, what are the skill sets that's you're lacking is no longer a viable excuse nowadays to think, I don't know how to do this because. Every single thing that you don't know how to do exists out there somewhere on cyberspace or through mentors or [00:18:00] through coaches.

[00:18:00] Tony Whatley: You can literally learn everything. You probably could learn brain surgery on YouTube. I haven't looked, but I bet you could learn it. You may not be able to practice it because no one's gonna let you cut them the experiment. But maybe in some third world country, you may be in some opportunity someday, and somebody needs an emergency brain surgery that's roadside and you're like, dude, I.

[00:18:19] Tony Whatley: I studied YouTube brain surgery for 10 years, and I'm your only option and I have a scalpel. So there might be that opportunity for you to get that. So what is the skillsets? That you're willing to go invest in to become the person that actually creates the wealth. And you know, we evolve. Too many people get stuck where they're at.

[00:18:37] Tony Whatley: They think like, oh, you know, I've got the education already and I'm done reading, like I've finished college. I'm never going to read a book again. Like, I'm good. You know, it's unfortunate in the United States that most people, most adults have not read a book since high school, since high school. Crazy.

[00:18:52] Tony Whatley: You and I, we read all the time. I got shelves and shelves and shelves, you know, at at the House of Books. Got audio books, always playing. I'm always [00:19:00] learning new things every single day. And so what are the skills and a knowledge base that you should learn to be able to create that income, to be able to create that opportunity, that future for you if you're not investing heavily, heavily, like daily in that, in that kind of regard, you're not becoming a man or a woman of wealth.

[00:19:16] Tony Whatley: So

[00:19:16] Hersh Rephun: that's what it is. It's not work. Work smarter, not harder. It's invest. Yeah, invest more. The work shouldn't be just work. That's how you know when you've turned a corner is when you're investing. Cuz work that you do to get paid, which is great, is a pretty transactional experience, even if you are passionate about your job.

[00:19:37] Hersh Rephun: But if you're really learning stuff, then you have a shot at, at seeing a, a bigger return, you know? Um, Speaking of learning, you have started learning comedy. You took an improv, like a serious, A serious improv. Serious improv class. Like, like it was a months long, it was a months [00:20:00] long, uh, course, right?

[00:20:02] Tony Whatley: Yeah.

[00:20:02] Tony Whatley: It was a, a year long, it was five different courses and yeah, about eight weeks a piece. So, yeah, we got this little certificate that says like, you're a badass, improv grad, whatever. It's funny because it's funny, right? It is funny. So this, this wasn't the Y M C A try improv for two hours course. No,

[00:20:19] Hersh Rephun: no, no, no.

[00:20:20] Hersh Rephun: I totally get that. You know, and I did it, I think I did a year long also. Uh, yeah. I did it both with acting and with improv, which for me was they, I did both post. Having done them even professionally. Yeah. Like I had acted professionally and done comedy professionally before I ever did those classes, but those classes were really important for the reason we just talked about.

[00:20:44] Hersh Rephun: Like, I, yes, I, I had a very different feeling being on stage knowing that I had trained somehow for it. Mm-hmm. Even if some of the things I learned I didn't agree with, or some of the things that I learned, I knew instinctively. It [00:21:00] didn't matter. The point was I put in hours, I put in time to learn it. But let's talk about what's fun about comedy for you.

[00:21:06] Hersh Rephun: What was your favorite part of doing improv?

[00:21:10] Tony Whatley: Well, to me, I started out in the public speaking type courses through Toastmasters and public speaking coaches because I was really uncomfortable with that stuff. I had stage fried. I didn't like putting myself out there. And so for about four years ahead of that, I was in Toastmasters and I eventually became a club president and was recruiting people into it and helped many other people kind of get over their fears and learn the tactical strategies, how to become a better entertainer and communicator.

[00:21:37] Tony Whatley: And so for me, going into improv, I didn't have the stage fright like a lot of my troop members did, cuz they were, maybe that was the first time for them to even be on a stage or have to say something in front of people. So, I came in with that ad advantage already, but I had to earn that, right? It was something I had to go through.

[00:21:52] Tony Whatley: But here's the main differences between public speaking or being a speaker versus an improv comedian. From a [00:22:00] speaker perspective, we're always refining the way we speak, the way we communicate our style, the stage present, the way we may use some vocal inflections, like it's always us, that we're investing in our own skills, our own brand, our own presence, right?

[00:22:14] Tony Whatley: When you're in improv, All that stuff goes out the window because you don't know what character you're going to be assigned unless you're the one that's initiating, right. When I walk out there and we're on a stage and you say, Hey, you're something, or 85, or whatever. I have to immediately go into that character and act and think and speak like I best I can in that regard, from that perspective.

[00:22:38] Tony Whatley: And so we're no longer performing ourselves. We're no longer getting to be our voice. We're being forced constantly, sometimes multiple different times per set. That this is not me and I'm having to just act this out as best I can and keep the storyline going. So that's where the real challenge is with improv and it's also the crowd work and learn, learning how to deal [00:23:00] with the people in the audience and react and take input from them and make that into a story and things like that.

[00:23:05] Tony Whatley: So it's, it really presses your creativity on the fly as you

[00:23:09] Hersh Rephun: speak. It becomes even more obvious to me that how different it is from what we do here. You know, you are so thoroughly yourself and mm-hmm. And, you know, plainspoken and comfortable on camera and behind the mic and talking to people and it puts them at ease that way.

[00:23:30] Hersh Rephun: Mm-hmm. But performance, comedy, like, you know, that's so different. Yeah. You know, I let, we talked about, about doing this, let's do a game. But what I haven't done yet on Yes. Brand is really. I haven't done a character thing, I haven't done anything where we really have to be that different from ourselves because the people that I've had on, you know, while totally being game, I don't wanna throw on them, oh, you have to be French, or you have to be this, or you have to be a, [00:24:00] that you have to, you have to have a, you know?

[00:24:02] Hersh Rephun: Yeah. So, but let, but if you're, if you're down. What we can each do is give one another suggestions cuz it doesn't make sense for us to

[00:24:12] Tony Whatley: give ourselves. Well let, let's just do an improv skid, just you initiate it and then we'll, we'll keep it going and we don't have to go very long. It could be a short form, but yeah.

[00:24:21] Tony Whatley: We're just trying to get to a, a grand finale, so to speak. Right,

[00:24:24] Hersh Rephun: right. We'll have to get somewhere. Okay. Yeah. Well do, are, are there particular games that you like? Like is there a game that you like that has some very simple ground rules? That helpful? No,

[00:24:34] Tony Whatley: I think, I think just be, just be creative. Just be cre We don't have any third party here giving us input, so we can't do the recalls on them.

[00:24:41] Hersh Rephun: Right. We don't, there and, and that's it. And we can't tag out. Yeah, we can't really,

[00:24:47] Tony Whatley: we can't tag, can't tag out. Okay. It's just a, it's just a two man show.

[00:24:51] Hersh Rephun: It's a two man show. And here we, and if it goes well, and again, you know, there's no such thing as failure in this, in this case, but if it's art

[00:24:58] Tony Whatley: form, it's artwork, it's an art, [00:25:00]

[00:25:00] Hersh Rephun: it's artwork.

[00:25:00] Hersh Rephun: I'm gonna put some singer spray in here, so, You want some if we have to. Yeah. Thanks. There you go. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Alright, so throw out a location. You throw out the location. Where are we?

[00:25:15] Tony Whatley: We are Riverside. Okay. We're Riverside Riverside's. There's your third party. I'm reading the top of the, I'm literally reading the top of the screen people.

[00:25:24] Tony Whatley: Oh,

[00:25:25] Hersh Rephun: that's right, Riverside. Okay. But we're Riverside. That's the Riverside location. That's the location. Okay. And I would say that you are a chef from Europe. You're a European chef. Okay. And then you tell me what what I am. Hmm.

[00:25:45] Tony Whatley: I'm just gonna say you're my best friend. But you're a 65 year old grandmother.

[00:25:53] Hersh Rephun: Okay. All right. Okay. All right. Sounds good. All right, and, and let's start, end scene. [00:26:00] There you go.

[00:26:02] Tony Whatley: Okay. What are you doing? I am here at this Riverside, and I just want to pick the vegetables. So the soup is very, very, very tasty for my constituents.

[00:26:14] Hersh Rephun: Well, I would love to make sure that this time we do something vegan.

[00:26:20] Hersh Rephun: Can we do a vegan dish? We're always pulling from the ocean, the fish, but we never, uh, pull like the weeds. Something like this.

[00:26:31] Tony Whatley: I see where you're going with this and it's not the first time you try to dissuade me from using the rabbit. And you know, I am very famous for the rabbit soup. Oh

[00:26:41] Hersh Rephun: no, they're rabbit soup.

[00:26:43] Hersh Rephun: The rabbits. Oh, you know, don't you know, remember that when I first, when you first came to my home and you didn't have any family, there was nobody that was, it was a miserable time. Miserable time. You were cold, lonely, and naked, and I took you inside. [00:27:00] And what did I have as my pet? What was my pet? A rabbit

[00:27:06] Tony Whatley: that you're still gonna bring that story

[00:27:08] Hersh Rephun: up.

[00:27:09] Hersh Rephun: I am going to, I, I, I, I, I, I'm supposed to forget just because it's 40 years ago already. I,

[00:27:17] Tony Whatley: from my country, rabbits are not pets. I, I thought you had gone shopping for our dinner that evening and. I should have asked, but I just wanted to surprise you. And it was really good soup though, wasn't it? You

[00:27:31] Hersh Rephun: should have asked.

[00:27:32] Hersh Rephun: You should have asked. That's my point. Yes. It was a delicious. What's delicious? Why else would I send you to the, the soone? Use my savings that my husband, he you to the rest, rest in peace left me. And what did I do with the money to put you through the so bomb. And you know, now you are famous, but, you know, once a year we get to go fishing, you know, and I don't mind fishing, uh, for, you know, for a little goldfish or [00:28:00] something.

[00:28:00] Hersh Rephun: But to murder a bass in cold blood, whoa, whoa, whoa,

[00:28:04] Tony Whatley: whoa, whoa. You are accusing meia fishing as a, being a murderer. That is, that's a little over the line. Like, we are best friends. You cannot call me a murderer.

[00:28:16] Hersh Rephun: If you can't call your murderer your best friend, a murderer, what kind of relationship is it? Oh,

[00:28:22] Tony Whatley: this is a very complicated relationship.

[00:28:26] Tony Whatley: I'm glad I never married you.

[00:28:28] Hersh Rephun: Well, you know, I tell you what, it, it, it would've complicated things even further with our daughter because already she was confused. About why her, her mom's so old and her dad's so young and you know, one night a week we eat a vegan meal and the next night we are eating bread, you know, uh, chicken and deer, what is with the deer meat all the time.

[00:28:54] Hersh Rephun: So she was confused enough. Marriage would only complicate it.

[00:28:58] Tony Whatley: I agree. I [00:29:00] agree. So the, I can explain it dear, though, it's very gamey. And it's very much an acquired taste, and I just think that in order for us to become more elite, we need to acquire that taste. I'm tired of living in poverty and, and just eating this crap.

[00:29:17] Tony Whatley: So I said, Hey, I'm going to introduce deer and making an acquired taste. And then it starts conversation with people with high net worth who will buy more of my rabbit soup.

[00:29:28] Hersh Rephun: Okay, so I don't want to, I don't want to cut you off. I mean, we could have got, we could have gone on quite a long time, but Tony, the thing that I love is that it's circled back to high net worth.

[00:29:37] Hersh Rephun: It's circled back to an acquired taste. Things that are marketable, things that we can sell. Mm-hmm. I was drifting off into, you know, and it's, look, you're a very personable guy. It's understandable if I were an old European woman, that I would, you know, just assume I would want to be married to you, or at least have children with you.

[00:29:54] Hersh Rephun: But I think, you know, my mind goes completely to the fantasy and I forget about money, and you're [00:30:00] like, okay, you know, we gotta at least monetize. You know, if I'm gonna be a chef, I have to monetize. If a vegan, a vegan chef, a vegan chef, well a vegan chef, you know. Do you, have you ever invested or worked with anybody who was in the restaurant business?

[00:30:19] Tony Whatley: Yeah. I actually worked in restaurants for about 10 years of my life, from 15 to about 25. So I actually managed a couple later on while I was in school.

[00:30:29] Hersh Rephun: Oh, see, and then I, and that was my suggestion, to have you be a chef or do you cook?

[00:30:34] Tony Whatley: I do cook. I, I enjoy cooking. I don't do it as often, but it's mostly just healthy stuff nowadays.

[00:30:40] Tony Whatley: Oh, are you vegan? No, that's unhealthy.

[00:30:45] Hersh Rephun: So you're a protein, you're, you're a protein. I like meat. You like meat? Yes. Yeah. There's, there are arguments to be made that, uh, you know, the meat and potatoes kind of approach is probably healthiest for

[00:30:56] Tony Whatley: us. When you think about it, most, most of the vegans I know, [00:31:00] they, they love animals.

[00:31:01] Tony Whatley: They don't wanna see animals get harmed. I get that. That's a nice, you know, it's a nice type thought, but there's a reason that the humans became top of the food chain, right? And if you go out into the wilderness or the ocean and you're not the top of the food chain and that atmosphere, Those animals aren't gonna cut you any slack because you're vegan.

[00:31:20] Tony Whatley: They're gonna let you know who the top of the food chain is. So why waste that if we work so hard over millions of years of evolution to become top of the food chain?

[00:31:29] Hersh Rephun: Yeah. To me, the superior lifeform in our lives are dogs. That's honestly what I, I just think, when I look at, when I look in my dogs, when I look at any dog's eyes, I always feel like.

[00:31:42] Hersh Rephun: That, that's a superior life form. They know something. We don't. They have a level of empathy that we don't have. And happy. They're happy. They're happy to see you. They're happy to see you. They, they don't bitch and moan about a lot of, of, they don't hold grudges. That's right. They don't hold grudges. They might put you through a little hell if you go away for a long [00:32:00] time, but think about how happy they are to see you when you come home versus maybe a child that feels a little bit neglected.

[00:32:07] Hersh Rephun: Look at the mood of the dog. Versus the child and you know, don't take that wrong. Totally. I love my kids too,

[00:32:13] Tony Whatley: you know, but they could've just totally shredded your entire sofa. That's right. Could have, their tail will be wagging when you walk in everything up. But they're, but they're still, they're happy to see you.

[00:32:22] Tony Whatley: They're still happy. Happy to Steve.

[00:32:23] Hersh Rephun: So, so I'm glad we didn't, I'm glad it was a rabbit if I had to choose between a rabbit and a and a dog. I'm glad you chose to cook the rabbit. So. Alright, so with everything you've accomplished and your work ethic, And what, what's on the docket now? What's your, what's the, the project that you're throwing yourself into right now?

[00:32:46] Hersh Rephun: There's probably more than one project, but what's like the thing,

[00:32:50] Tony Whatley: you know, for the last five years with the, the books and the stages and the podcast, it's all great. I love doing this stuff, but also understand that. There is a benefit [00:33:00] to becoming more frequent at these type of messages and getting more content out there to reach a greater audience because I'm a legacy type person where I'm pursuing purpose based in legacy.

[00:33:10] Tony Whatley: And if you ask the legacy, it's, I want to impact the generation, generational legacy of millions of people by teaching them confidence and business principles. And the only way I'm gonna be able to reach millions of people is by amplifying my message. Growing the audience, building content that people will enjoy and share and get out there.

[00:33:27] Tony Whatley: Because ultimately that's where it's gonna be is I've impacted people. And so that just takes work, man. And you can multiply the effort, build a team, production team, things like that. But I think a lot of times people say that they want these goals, but they're just unwilling to put in the actual work to go create that.

[00:33:42] Tony Whatley: And the people that are out there that we recognize that are at the top of any industry, They had to put in a lot of work. Like things just don't come easy to you. You don't inherit influencer success in most regards. So what is is it that you want to achieve in your life? And what is the pathway and the amount of work [00:34:00] that you're gonna have to put in to get there?

[00:34:01] Tony Whatley: Be real realistic with yourself because if you can't achieve that based on your own time constraints or your own self-limiting beliefs, or your insecurities, again, these are all things that you should be investing in to get ahead, and that's just, I'm willing to go do that. So I feel like it's been very comfortable for about the last year.

[00:34:18] Tony Whatley: Then I don't like comfort, so I'm always looking for ways to just kind of push it a little harder. Yeah,

[00:34:22] Hersh Rephun: and that explains a lot because naturally you probably laid this all out and you thought, okay, well if I wanna reach more people, if I want to get this message out, I gotta go on Hershey's podcast. I gotta do the yes brand conversation.

[00:34:35] Hersh Rephun: You know? Now you're ticking off the box and you can move on. Five years, man, it's been

[00:34:40] Tony Whatley: five years I've been plotting

[00:34:42] Hersh Rephun: this. Look, it took me five years. It took me, Tony, First of all, it took me several years just to come up with the first podcast. Truth Tastes funny. And that was the test case for doing an even bigger podcast called Yes [00:35:00] Brand.

[00:35:00] Hersh Rephun: I even did some yes brand interviews like five years ago that were, you know, I would interview my friends. It was in the days where I didn't even know what podcasts could do, and I recorded them and technically they were out there, but it was like, I don't think anybody really heard them. Mm-hmm. But, That is one of the things that I seriously love about the podcasting thing, is that you can, you know, build these things to where they're useful and people hear them.

[00:35:24] Hersh Rephun: Uh, they're entertainment

[00:35:26] Tony Whatley: man. They are, you know, the, they are, we take it for granted because. Think about, I mean, we're older dudes, so think about back even 20 years ago. Yeah. If you wanted to have your voice reach thousands of people, or you wanted your face to be seen by thousands of people, you had to know the gatekeepers of the Titan Industries.

[00:35:45] Tony Whatley: You had to know. Somebody at FM radio, you had to know somebody at the broadcasting networks on television because those gatekeepers were the ones that you had to pass through to be able to get your voice or your face out there to the public. Nowadays we walk around with smartphones that you [00:36:00] can go live.

[00:36:00] Tony Whatley: That's, that blows our mind that you can go live and reach thousands of people instantaneously from some device that you carry in your pocket or your purse and. We have all this technology available yet, so few people are actually utilizing it. They take it for granted. I think it's just they don't realize how hard it was even 10 years ago, and now they just kind of live with it every day.

[00:36:20] Tony Whatley: So it's like, ah, no big deal. But it's a huge opportunity that's going to waste for most people and that's something that we should have it. Some of 'em really a big gift 20 years ago to have this. Yeah,

[00:36:32] Hersh Rephun: we're not that far apart in age. I'm a little ahead of you, but I. But I'm a little behind you in terms of the stages, and so now I'm at that thing where my book will come out this summer.

[00:36:42] Hersh Rephun: I'll want to be like doing stages. I'll, you know, I'll wanna do that. But one thing I want to discuss with you at some point is come back around to comedy and maybe do like a, do something called 365 comedy and do a stage show. Hmm. [00:37:00] That encompasses, cuz I already, I was writing a stage show called Truth Tastes Funny, but it was really just observational comedy, personal comedy, stuff like that.

[00:37:09] Hersh Rephun: Now having done the podcast, having launched the Yes brand consultancy and all this stuff, now I have all this business stuff. That's flowing into my mind. Yeah. And out of my, out of my mouth. And it's like, okay, now if I do a stage show, it can't just be comedy, it has to be like business oriented and life success oriented.

[00:37:28] Hersh Rephun: Yeah. So I would love to, if you're open to it, it's no commitment here we're, you know, but if you're open to it, we should talk about that. Cuz I think that would be fun, funny, and, and impactful to do something on stage that converts comedy into. Acumen

[00:37:44] Tony Whatley: into, yeah, it stays on brand. I think that, you know, it's, if you're gonna go down a comedy path and you're already trying to establish a brand or some kind of authority in a subject for me being business, right?

[00:37:56] Tony Whatley: Why would I go do a bunch of comedy on [00:38:00] movies, for example? Right? Just something that's not even related to what I do. So, Some of the most highly engaged posts I've created or videos I've created is I'm just making fun of guru shit. You know, like you see people out there doing stupid shit like renting the Lambo and.

[00:38:15] Tony Whatley: One of the jokes I always say is like, why do they always stand in front of it with their arms crossed angry looking with a mean mug? And both doors are wide open on their cars. Like what? They're by themselves. Why are there two doors open? Did somebody escape or are they waiting for their dog to jump in?

[00:38:30] Tony Whatley: Or like, what? Where's the check box that says if I own a Lamborghini, I have to have both? Doors open and stand in front of my arms, cross and look angry. Like, why would you be angry if you owned a Lamborghini? Wouldn't you be happier to like, yeah, does it make, does it make me angry or more defensive? Cuz my arms get crossed if I buy a car like that.

[00:38:46] Tony Whatley: And so I was making this video like that, and I said, I walked outside. And at the time I had a Jeep and I just stood in front of my Jeep and I did the same pose and I went, oh, shit. And I had to go open all four doors of the Jeep to make sure all four doors were open. And then I did the thing and everybody's [00:39:00] roared.

[00:39:00] Tony Whatley: They were like, dude, that is hilarious. Like, you know, it's like, it does, I guess it has the same effect, you know? Well,

[00:39:06] Hersh Rephun: that's why my book is, my book is called Hersh Rapon, so-called Thought Leader. Because I have that same perspective. Yeah. Like, like the idea of being, and there's nothing wrong with leading in thought.

[00:39:16] Hersh Rephun: It's just the idea that we would even think of ourselves that way, or that someone, we would seek that kind of, you know, a moniker or whatever.

[00:39:24] Tony Whatley: Anyway. Uh, well, it, it's, it's like when someone tells you they're handsome. That, that's, that's weird. That's like one of those things you don't say out loud, I guess.

[00:39:34] Hersh Rephun: Right. Well, you don't say it. You don't say it because enough people tell you, I, in my case, I'm a little bit, you know, I gotta go out and I gotta drum up, I gotta drum up. Attention. Yeah, you gotta fish for the

[00:39:44] Tony Whatley: compliments.

[00:39:45] Hersh Rephun: You know, I look, it took me, I've been married 18 years now, and it took me 18 years to stop asking my wife if I was good looking.

[00:39:54] Tony Whatley: You know, honey, honey does this, uh, drip? Does your dress make me look fat? She told

[00:39:59] Hersh Rephun: me 20 [00:40:00] years ago, you're not the kind of guy I would typically date. And I took that as like being like,

[00:40:06] Tony Whatley: something, you're supposed to be better. You're, you're a step

[00:40:08] Hersh Rephun: above. I have to work. Well, I have to now work to get up there.

[00:40:12] Hersh Rephun: I don't know what it was, whether it was a championship skier or triathlete or whatever it was that, that she had in mind. But it's, you know, that's the way that I've approached it, is like with a, just a touch of excessive insecurity. Well, this is, this is great. I like to give my guest the last word and let you share in part a message to the CEOs, the founders, the uh, business people and aspiring business people that are out there looking to figure out how to shape their brands.

[00:40:40] Hersh Rephun: What's a little closing thought? You might wanna leave them with

[00:40:43] Tony Whatley: it. It's kind of a morbid one. Cause I'm also great. Yeah. Yeah. I knew you would like that. It, I'm motivated by mortality and more, not, not motivated by death, but knowing that we are all gonna die. Everybody listening to this, everybody watching this, we are all going to [00:41:00] die sooner.

[00:41:00] Tony Whatley: That you face that fact becomes a reality cuz it is. But then you start to realize like the things that you've been putting off, things that you've procrastinated, things that you know you want to achieve in your life. You're always thinking like, someday I'm gonna do that. Or you know, when the time is right.

[00:41:14] Tony Whatley: I'm gonna start this and. Guys, there's no, there's no time. There's no perfect time for anything. There really isn't. And whatever excuses or self-limiting beliefs that you currently have that are holding you back or keeping you in the current position that you're in today, are only gonna have newer versions of those excuses later on.

[00:41:31] Tony Whatley: So those things are not gonna change for you. So I want you to just take that imperfect action. I just want you to take the smallest steps to move forward. If it's starting a business, Hey, you know what? Go online. Create a business checking account. Go create an e I n, register for an llc. You could do all this online.

[00:41:47] Tony Whatley: Literally, you could have a. A, a registered business within a two day period. Like it's pretty easy nowadays. So those are very small steps that may take two hours of your time, but little steps built over a long time, still built a [00:42:00] lot of distance and soon, soon enough, you'll look back over years. You're like, man, I'm so glad I started earlier.

[00:42:05] Tony Whatley: I'm like, this is amazing. Like, why did I put this off? It's because we look at the entire scope of all the things that we want to accomplish, and we become overwhelmed. We go, oh man, I want to become a multi-millionaire and start all these companies and have employees and do this brick and mortar storefront and buy, you know, like, Like when you think of all of that, yeah, that wears me out.

[00:42:26] Tony Whatley: Just thinking about that. But what can you do today? What are the resources that you have today? What are the littlest things that you can do today? And that what this is going to do is build momentum. And momentum is a powerful thing that most people really also don't have. The, the, the gratefulness to have.

[00:42:41] Tony Whatley: It's get it going and don't stop, be, be relentless with this. Start working on a little bit more every single day. 365 driven. Right. And soon enough you will get those results. So whatever is holding you back, or the fear of criticism or the fear of judgment or what your friends are gonna think about you [00:43:00] evolving or improving, or investing in yourself, realize that they're not paying your bills.

[00:43:03] Tony Whatley: You know, you hope that these people that you're holding you back are are gonna be at your funeral, but likely they're not. If they're critics and naysayers and haters, they're not gonna be at your funeral, they're not gonna be at your deathbed later on in life. Then you're gonna look back in those moments when you're elderly and go, man, why didn't I do that?

[00:43:18] Tony Whatley: Why didn't I do that? Why didn't I do that? And always comes back to the fear of judgment and criticism of the other people. And then you're gonna go, well, who in my mind would've been that? Who? Who's that critic that I had? Like, oh, so-and-so, they're not at your funeral, they're not at your deathbed, but you're gonna be really regretting life when you look back and realize that you didn't do the things that you wanted to do in your life because you're so worried about the judgment or the harsh words from those individuals who don't support you.

[00:43:45] Tony Whatley: So, Quit letting these people dictate your daily life. Go do what you need to do to find your fulfillment, your happiness, your success, however you define that. And quit worrying about what other people think or say about you because they're not there to support you. The ones that will support you will [00:44:00] show up and focus more on the people that you serve, the people that you gain the support from, versus the people that are gonna criticize you.

[00:44:07] Tony Whatley: Cause I'll tell you, they're, they're gonna criticize you. Everybody that has changed history and the entire history of mankind has had critics, naysayers, haters, sometimes even murderers. So what makes you think that you're the special one that's gonna make everyone like you? It's literally impossible. So go out there and go do that thing.

[00:44:26] Hersh Rephun: All right. If you liked the show Yes. And it worked for you. Yes. Subscribe and leave us. Yes. Five star review. Yes. Tell all your friends. Yes. Get your branding here. Yes. Get your branding here. Yes. Did I make it clear? Yes. Get your branding on? Yes. Before they're gone.[00:45:00]