After Impact: Gary "Litefoot" Davis

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of After Impact. I am your host Tom Bilyeu and I am here with the legendary Agent Smith, Mr. Bilyeu. What is up, my man? How's it going? It's going very well, thank you. I'm speaking again, which is exciting. Yeah. You had that vow of silence going. I did, 3 days. Were there any interesting revelations that came about like how Vanessa Van Edwards talked about that when she does her vow of silence? Yes, definitely. Not the same ones that she had. It It is surprising to me how much I absolutely loved not needing to talk. Like loved It was amazing. Nice. Yeah. Did you find that people acted differently? Yes, they forget that they can talk, which is pretty funny. Like they will literally start texting me. I'm like, you I can still hear okay. Also, my wife treats me like I'm sick routinely. Like she'll go to kiss me on the cheek. She's like, "Oh yeah, I keep forgetting that you're not talking cuz you're or you're not not talking because your throat's sore. You're just not talking. So, that's pretty funny. I feel like I kind of took advantage of the opportunity. Rightly so. Yeah. In what way though? Um just like I knew you couldn't talk so I could like crack jokes. It was fun. But anyway, that's good. Uh all right. Welcome everyone After Impact. This is the show where we unpack the impact of this week's episode with Gary Davis, pre-recorded today because of scheduling conflicts. So, we're not doing it live, but thank you for joining us nonetheless and for watching the episode of Impact Theory with this man Gary Davis, who is very very impressive, very interesting person. Um I want to dive into that in a little bit, but if you don't know who he is, he has a very exciting career, diverse. He's um was the first Native American rapper. He created his own record label. Um when he's he's done hundreds and hundreds of shows. He's also a um he's an activist. He uh speaks at at Congress a lot. Um act um he's an activist for Native American rights. Uh works a lot in his community. What else does he do? He's an entrepreneur. He did that whole res tour. Where uh yeah, entrepreneur that's a great point. Um but he did the res tour which was the total of driving around the earth twice and he did it in a single year without leaving the United States. That's madness. That's crazy. Madness. What's the application? That it's very impressive and I not not miles traveled but so the whole reason that I addressed my voice is because I do the endless Q&A's. Right? So we did the 20 This all started with the 24-hour live. When I told the throat doctor that I was on camera for 24 hours he was like, "I'm sorry, what?" He was like, "Who does that?" So we did the 24-hour live then 3 days later I did a 9-hour Q&A and then it just like I kept being in these loops of um doing either like a whole bunch of podcasts in a single day and then I would have another Q&A, a meet and greet Q&A. And so and the most recent Q&A, the one that I just did in Vegas was 11 hours actually 11 hours in change of just and that was after my 45-minute talk. So it was like just it's unrelenting madness. But when I think about him and what he did like that is how you get ahead, right? So I'm in the phase now where I I need to make a name for myself. I need to build this community and the only way it's going to happen is by putting in Gary Vaynerchuk levels of work. Like you you just have to be prepared to tour around, grind it out, do more than other people and if that means following it by, you know, days and days of silence you do it. In his case like being in the car non-stop like tour tour tour tour to add value. It's it's pretty impressive. Get out there and pound the pavement. Um I see a lot of parallels between the way that the two of you think. So I wanted to ask you just off the bat um would you agree with that and what are some of what are a couple of the biggest intersections that you see? So, I would agree with that, and I think that putting in the work, like, and always be moving forward. Those were two things that just really, really resonated with me. Um, and man, if if I can throw in a third, like, when he couldn't get anyone to sign him to a record deal, and they said, "Dude, that's just ridiculous." He didn't go, "Yeah, gosh, I guess that is ridiculous." He created his own record label, man. Like, but but really think about that for a second. This is before the internet. So, he's not creating a record label, and it's like, "I know exactly how I'm going to get this distributed." He's like, "I'm creating a record label. I've no idea how to do that. I don't know how the record industry works. I don't know how I'm going to get um the music actually out there." But, he does it anyway, and he starts learning step by step, realizing that, "Okay, I have to figure all this out, and what are the incremental steps that I need to do in order to execute against that? Um, how do I get the funds that I need to make this album? How do I convince people to be on the album with me? How do I support it by touring?" But, just like figures every step of the way out, and he's like the the Roger Bannister, right? You can't run a 4-minute mile, and then he does, and then everybody starts doing it after. It it's just really, really impressive when somebody's the person that woke themselves up out of the Matrix, and that's that's him. Like, there was no model for him to to take out of his community, anyway. Yeah. Yeah. no Native American had ever done it before him, and so not only do people not take him seriously, but he has to like invent everything from the ground up. Very, very impressive. That's very cool. Um, I want to talk about how he did have to build all that up from from nothing, and really he cites in the interview uh the familial and financial instability that he experienced when he was younger as really being the impetus for his decision to sort of take it upon himself, build things um for both himself of what he wanted, and to support his family and his community. Uh what would you say this is a bit of a curveball question. What would you say to people who um are in good circumstances where they have support, they have a great family, they have um financial stability, they have love in their life, money isn't a problem. What then? Oh man, here's the honest answer. I I don't think you can pull it off unless you have a chip on your shoulder of some kind. I You've got to have something to prove. And here's the thing, it like when I talk about the 80/20 rule, make no mistake. If you've got 80% of what you need to be successful, you're light-years from actually being successful. And so all the beauty in the world gets you to 80%. That's it. Like all the gratitude, all the wealth, all it it's 80% because why? And remember, I there's no moral imperative to be {quote} {unquote} successful, to play um on a uh global stage, right? You don't need to want that. And what inevitably happens when people have it that good is they go, "Why am I working this hard?" Mhm. And and I will ask you the same question. Why are you working that hard? Like if you already have the things that you want, you have a deep sense of fulfillment, like rock that out. But it's when that you're a sucking wound of a human being that you like you you have so much in the reserve tank to keep pushing, to go farther, to do more, to prove to yourself, to prove to others. Like And here's the thing, I love that more than I can tell you. Mhm. Jared, I [ __ ] love that. I was having breakfast this weekend. So literally imagine I um go to Vegas, I do the epic unbelievable 11-hour Q&A. I it was just madness. There was a woman in tears. She was like, "No, once Once out of college, nobody gives you this kind of time and attention. She was like, "This is crazy." She's crying. I do that, I get 4 hours sleep, which you know for me is like even for me that's [ __ ] ridiculous. Yeah. I get up to an alarm, which I try never to do. I fly back. I have a meeting that morning. I go to the meeting and I'm talking to that person about what's pushing me at this very second. The reason I'm not at home playing video games with my beautiful, beautiful wife is I have a chip on my shoulder. Like, that's what shows up for me when I'm [ __ ] exhausted. That's what shows up for me when like I come home and I'm in the beautiful Beverly Hills mansion and it it is it is the chip on my shoulder that drives me to prove something to people, to prove something to myself, absolutely. And I love it. There's a [ __ ] intoxication. It's that same thing I tell people like rage has a use and it is the certainty, the clarity, the intoxication, the drive, the energy that that [ __ ] gives you. And if you can learn to harness it, you can do incredible things. So, to all of those people out there where it is all perfect, just go enjoy it. Just go enjoy it because nothing is going to show up for you in that moment where you're exhausted and you've got to keep pushing if you want to get on people's radar. Like, you've got to go, go, go. And so, another one. When I was doing the Q&A, there's always in my Q&A's, this drives me [ __ ] crazy. There's always the false end. Every time. Yeah. There's, all right, no more questions, no more questions. Awesome. Guys, thank you so much. All right, let's final sub. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then by the time we finish doing the final selfies, someone's like, "Just one more question." And then that turns into cuz we thought we were done at 9 hours. And then that turns into 11 hours, the false goodbye. And so, I was like, [ __ ] exhausted. And in that like, they can't know that. They can't know that like, okay, I'm ready to be done now. Like, they need to know I'll be here as long as you need me. And in those moments, dude, if there isn't something that you are beyond hungry for, you will never make it through. Yeah, I actually wanted to ask you about that. So, it seems like based on the interview and hearing Gary talk about his work and what he does, it that he real he feels a real sense of responsibility for um everything that he's doing um both, you know, with his business and within the community. And it's almost like a duty. So, I wanted to ask, do you feel that way about your mission with Impact Theory? I don't feel a sense of duty or obligation. For me, like pulling people out of the Matrix is it falls into my beauty. Like that's that is the amazing thing. That is techni, right? That is feeling like, "Oh my god, this skill set that I have worked my ass off to obtain is useful to other people." Like that's really that is a gift to me. That I'm so grateful, like beyond measure, that that I can touch somebody's life and bring beauty into their life where there may not have been any. So, the woman who was crying and just like nobody nobody gives this kind of time. Or the um former employee of mine who's like, "You care more about my success than my own mother." Like those are those are beautiful things, man, and I love those and I spend 80% of my time there and they make me feel so so good. Um and I don't like if tomorrow I was like, "You know what, I've done enough." Like I wouldn't be conflicted about that. I don't feel like I need to save the world. This is not a savior complex. This is just like, "Wow, man, I am so [ __ ] stoked that I've learned something, it was hard to learn it, and it's valuable to other people." That is a great [ __ ] feeling. Nice. All right. Um I want to talk about concept of baby steps, um which he lays out um he talks about it pretty in-depth in the episode, but he says, you know, you need to look at what your larger dream or your your big goal is and then break it down into baby steps and then assign those steps time frames uh and then those phases so that you can kind of really tackle them individually, right? Um and it's so logical and so seemingly straightforward, but my question to you is why do you think it's so hard to do? I actually don't think it's hard to do. I Here's where I think um people either can't identify the steps. Okay. That is probably crushingly difficult. Um or they're just not they're not excited enough about it to like do those things. So, people get themselves into trouble in a few ways. Um they are looking at the whole picture and so that is the real danger. Um thinking like without doing the baby steps. And why don't people do the baby steps? Yeah, I'm they're they're not excited enough about it. It's not a compelling vision of the future where they really buckle down and sit down and go, "Okay, this is where I need to get to. This is where I'm at. What's that chasm of skills?" And he and I talked about this in the episode, like how do you And in fact, the baby steps was his answer to this question, but but my question lies even a layer deeper, which is how do you know what the baby steps are? Mhm. And he rattled them off in in terms of his specific baby steps and I really music, right? Yeah, and I really hope people listen because hiding in the details is a thought process and it's the thought process that I don't know how yet how to articulate to people, which is, okay, how do you begin to identify all those things that you actually have to do? And so he's talking about, okay, how many songs are going to have like a singer on it? How do I go get the singer? How do I raise the capital for the different parts of this and and, you know, know that I'm going to have to pay them out and and he gives like I mean he probably rattles off like eight to 10 like really fast things and I was like, that that is the magic, right? Is the thought process that leads you to be able to do that. And I've tried to and I can do a similar thing where I can walk you through the actual thought process that I went through with Impact Theory where how we end up as a studio that thinks of ourselves as a merchandising company and like why and self-signaling and all I mean like I can walk people through this the stream. What I haven't been able to do is is codify what that stream is. So that then anybody can apply it to whatever they're doing, right? So it you do the same thing we did the same thing at Quest. You do the same thing at Impact Theory. He did the same thing with his life. But like what is that codification? I don't know how to give people that. Um so I would just be repeating myself to answer your baby steps question. It isn't hard. Mhm. You just have to do it. But the the the tricky part that I don't know how to teach is what are the baby steps? Like how do you make sure that you identify the right ones? And the the best thing I've ever heard is what he says, but this is way messy. You go, you trial, you fail, you learn, you try again, you fail, you refine, you learn, right? So that that's it. But like that's a really messy way to tell somebody to do this. And that speaks to the the reality that a lot of the baby steps are hypotheses. It's not like you're on the road to entrepreneurship, you're inevitably going to have to pivot. And so you put this together. This is my hypothesis of how we're going to get there. And if we fail at one of these steps, then we have to pivot. We have to change our approach, our strategy. Would you agree with that? Jared, that's so brilliant. I love that so much. They're hypotheses. That I really like that. I'm going to steal the [ __ ] out of that. Um a silent trademark to you every time that I say it. Um, but wow, you're absolutely right. The baby steps are your hypotheses. You've got to get good at coming up with a hypotheses. That remains the tricky part. But at least when you conceptualize them as like, okay, this is what I think, so I'm just going to try it. And if I fail, I'm going to refine. I'm going to pivot as um, Gary so eloquently said, then I think, you know, it's it's messy and I don't want it to be the answer, but that's really, really true. Yeah. That kind of leads into the next question. Something that I thought was really brilliant that Gary said in this, um, when he was talking about, um, breaking down each phase. He He said it was kind of like a a throwaway comment, but he said you have to figure out how much capital you need to raise for each of those phases. And I was like, whoa, this guy's thinking very, very detailed, very strategically. Um, that's something that I took away. What do you think entrepreneurs can take away from his story? Whoa. Um, so that's a really big question because One thing that jumped out at you from the interview or from his from your research. I I'm going to give you the answer, but I'm not sure this is actually what you're asking, so please help me if if I'm not getting there. He He is He removes not succeeding as an option. Mhm. And one thing that is like an absolute must entrepreneurs have to do. And I remember, um, so I'm living through that right now at Impact Theory. When I tell people what we're doing, it's so big, they can't like They've never allowed themselves or trained themselves is the true answer. They've never trained themselves to think that big and to have the discipline to figure out what all those thousand little steps are that are going to get you there. So, he does that. We went through the same thing at Quest. And when you remove failure as an option, then you're only thinking, this is a hypothesis. what did I learn, how do I tweak, how do I refine. So I remember one night we were we had just gotten the equipment at Quest and it was it just wasn't working and we'd moved backwards. So it it took us like I forget like eight or nine hours for seven eight of us to make 1200 bars by hand and then it was taking us longer with the same number of people to do it on industrial equipment and we had just sunk um essentially all of our investment capital into it. So it was like uh like did we just make a catastrophic error? And so you're you do that one night, okay, two nights, okay, three nights starting to be scary, right? And and I remember at that point going I'm I'm not scared. Like I know that we will figure this out because I have totally removed the notion of failing as an option. Now maybe we end up doing something different and that different thing was that we re-engineered the equipment, but it never crossed it and and I mean this sincerely, it never crossed my mind that I would quit. It didn't even cross my mind. And I remember it didn't even cross my mind that it hadn't crossed my mind until somebody said, "Do you ever think about quitting?" Like when it was really really hard and I was like no. Like that was the one thing going into all of this like I considered not starting but once I started I never considered quitting and that's how I feel about my marriage. I considered not proposing, but once I proposed I never considered breaking up. So it was like people always talk about how their wedding day is like this day of like it's tumultuous emotions and like cold feet and all that. I thought, "Wow, that that was the furthest thing from my mind." Now that crossed my mind before buying the ring. Before buying the ring I was like do I really do this? Like this is it's a big compromise and that was a weighty moment for me. But once I crossed that bridge, and so that's something that I think Gary personifies so magically is he just like it it's not something that weighs on his mind, right? And Jocko Willink talks about that. Discipline equals freedom. Like once you remove that you might not show up, once you remove that you might not go to the gym, once you remove that you might not do the next leg of the Rez tour in Gary's case, um then there's no debate. Like you just [ __ ] do it. And I can't tell people it is it is a weight off of your shoulders to know that you'll you'd never consider that. Love that. Um all right, got a couple more questions here. Let's see. Uh by the code. Um here's something this also relates to entrepreneurship. So he says, "If you want to be if you want people to be 100% excited about you and your project, then you need to be 150% excited about it." And I thought that was awesome. So I wanted to ask you, can you talk about the importance of enthusiasm when leading people and sharing your vision? I'm so I was really really hoping you'd bring this one up. It it is it is absolutely critical. And what does he say in the episode? He's like, "If you're going to ask other people to be about it, you've got to be about it." Mhm. That is so true, and that is one of the and I'm sad I didn't bring this up when you asked the original question, that is one of the secrets of of leadership for sure. Definitely one of the secrets of entrepreneurship is you you literally have to light up every room when you're talking about something. If you're not the one driving a Ford, it is never going to happen. You've got to be the creator of momentum. You've got to be the generator of excitement. And I don't think like if you're if you want to be an entrepreneur and you're not an excitable person, immediately get a partner who's excitable. Like you you must [ __ ] have that. And it is it is amazing. It is one of the coolest things about being the human animal. When you're on fire for something, the way that people gravitate towards that, man, it is really [ __ ] cool. It is one of the greatest experiences of my life to like find myself in private of the chills, to find myself in private getting really amped up about something, really excited about something, and then to like start sharing that with people, and then see the way that people come and gravitate towards that, the way that they want to be around it. Like when I was doing that Q&A, dude, I wish you could have seen it in in Vegas. In fact, you'll see the footage. So, it's literally I had no We ended up being in a hallway the whole time. I had no intention. I'd made this big announcement on stage, "Hey, everybody, I'm going to be in this like back room thing. Um it was like where like the lunch happened stuff. I'll be in the back of that room, like come and find me." And I am walking to that room. And somebody stops me. "Hey, Tom, is it really true that you'll answer any question?" I was like, "Yeah, man, of course. Like what's what's the question?" And he asked. And then I'm getting into the answer. I'm, you know, passionate, excited about it, and then another person comes. And another, and another, and and then by, you know, I don't remember how long it took, an hour, two hours, whatever. There's 70, 100 people just mobbing around me because of the enthusiasm. Like that's how it starts. Like people are just drawn to that. And if you can And by the way, we did the whole 11 hours just standing in the [ __ ] hallway. Because people just as soon as they see that, right? It's like the excitement of the crowd. Like when you get one person and then another and then another, eventually like people are far enough out on the ring, they just want to see like what's all the excitement about, right? So, that you've got to be able to generate that. You have to. That's awesome. Um let's go back to the concept of uh keep moving forward. I know you're big on momentum matters. See a lot of similarities there. Um another curveball question, what does it look like to not have momentum or to be stagnant? How do you identify that? Cuz you can get caught up doing the busy work, right? Yeah. Doing the day-to-day. Okay, so here's what I I look for. God, it's interesting. This is one of those words I wanted to define with the word itself. Uh momentum is when there's momentum. Uh so I'm really looking for I'm looking for things that are taking concrete measurable steps forward and then I'm looking for the inevit- ineffable how I feel. So, invariably there are metrics. So, if you look at what we're doing with Impact Theory, there's numbers, right? So, followership numbers, engagement numbers, we look at that. Then there's um my speaker fee, like how much can I charge for that? Then there's how many people are applying for internships, um how many people stop in uh if I'm giving a talk, like how many people roll up to that? So, those are all things that like you can measure and then there's the ineffable sense of like we're going somewhere. People are reacting to me differently and that gets it's impossible to measure, but it's little things and I won't reveal, I'll tell you off camera, but I'm not yet ready to to talk about this on camera, but somebody sent me a text yesterday and I just sent uh a screenshot of that text to my wife and I said, "You're not going to really understand why I'm so excited about this, but I can feel that this person is now taking me way more seriously than they did 6 months ago." Mhm. And because they're watching. They're just looking at what's happening in our community um and they've been around this world long enough to go, "No, this is different. This is This isn't like the other people I've seen do this. Like there's something happening here." They never said that, but I can tell by the way that they treat me. Mhm. Excuse me. The way that they treat me, the the meetings that they're lining up for us, the way they're trying to draw me deeper deeper into their world, um you can just feel it. And I'd I'd never be able to measure that and most importantly, when that's not there, I know it's missing. So, if the numbers are happening, but like, hmm, ineffably, like I can feel like I'm moving backwards or and I've felt this way about the show, and this is one of the reasons that I think the show has continued to be um fresh and good is that when we're like holding steady, I I am filled with terror and unease because that's how get to the top and then fall. Yeah. Because they they can't feel that they're they're flatlined cuz they're not declining, right? So, there's like there's nothing to be paranoid about, but in those moments, if you can train yourself, and I and I have trained myself with my obsession over momentum to notice moments where it's just not progressing at the rate that it could or should be. Yeah. Um one last question. Gary, he in the episode describes that within his community he feels like people don't really know or understand their value and purpose. Um and he talks about this in relation to self-worth and having having that in your life and why it's so important. So, I wanted to ask you, if you're someone who has low self-worth and you're around people who share that sentiment, um what do you do? Meaning they share that sentiment about me or about themselves? Themselves. Immediately get away from them. So, that's step one. Um step two is meaning you need to find the you're at the the average of the five people you spend the most time with, so find people that are optimistic, upbeat, whatever, um that are going to be positive and value add. But then to yourself, you need to immediately identify what would make me feel good about myself. Um and if those are things that you can change, then immediately begin taking the steps to change them. If they're are that you cannot change, I wish I were taller, um, then immediately discard those as measurements. They will not serve you. And there's, um, um, a really cool thing. It's kind of like the prayer, grant me the serenity to change the things I can, to, like, feel fine about things I can't, to know the difference. I I'm [ __ ] butchering that. And it's so famous. Um, but there's another version of that which now I'm totally blanking on. But, oh, uh, I think it's like Plato. Like, never worry about the things that you can change and never worry There's two things you should never worry about, things you can change and things you can't. There we go. Um, and 100% true, right? If you can change it, then go change it. Don't sit there and fret about it. And if you can't change it, why are you worrying about it? There's nothing you can do. So, immediately you move your attention onto the things that you can change. So, if you're holding yourself to a metric that just doesn't make any sense cuz there's nothing you can do about it, then that's stupid. Pick a new metric. And then if you're obsessing over something that you can change and you're beating yourself up over it, it's like, the only thing you should be annoyed with is that you're too [ __ ] lazy to, like, attack it. Now, figure out why are you lazy? And the answer is universally because you don't care enough about that thing. You're not on fire enough about it. Because, man, if you're super on fire for it, even if you're afraid you're going to fail, chances are you're going to give it a shot, right? So, that to me, like, really, um, developing that level of interest, developing that level of excitement about something, that's the key. Awesome. All right. Well, I think we got to wrap it up there. It's short one today. Boys and girls, sorry that we couldn't do this one live. Um, I'm off to New York. I'm very excited. Hopefully, I think this airs after I get there, so it'll be too late. But, for those of you in New York, I'm excited to see you guys. Going to be amazing. For everybody that joined me in Vegas for the talk and the live Q&A, uh, that was absolutely incredible. Mad shout out to Thrive for having me. You guys put on an amazing, amazing event. Your community is unbelievable. Cole, thank you so much. Uh, that was really, really great. And to Jordan Harbinger who hooked me up with those guys, The Art of Charm. You You are going to hear me going hard on Jordan and The Art of Charm because I that dude has done more to help us grow than any other human being outside of this organization. Literally, he is so over the top about helping like even I'm like god damn like this guy is not playing around. We have paid him exactly $0.00. Like he's just [ __ ] gone way way way out of his way to help us. So man, if you want to do me a solid, go subscribe to The Art of Charm. That dude has just done so much to help. And look, I know secretly in the back of his mind it was to create moments like this, but he's done an amazing job. So Jordan, thank you dude. You've become a fast friend of mine. I am super stoked every time I get to see you. And for the intro at Thrive, I will forever be grateful both on stage and off. So thank you brother. Amazing amazing amazing. Guys, if you haven't already be sure to subscribe. If this added value, please do share it. And until next time my friends, be legendary. Take care.