How To Beat The Force Of Average and Win In Business - Tomas Keenan

SPEAKER_01 0:04

This is the Beyond the Story Podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now, Sebastian Frost. Thomas Keenan, what's up, dude? What's the deal, my man? Grateful to be here as always. Hey, dude, I'm great to grateful to have you here. It's great to connect with you. I know we we uh had a very short conversation. I think it was about uh I think they're towing cars in the parking lot, Thomas, when I saw you at the live. That was the extent of our of our conversation, and we chatted for for a couple minutes there. But um, I knew uh eventually I'm gonna get you on the show here, and we're gonna have a chance to to get to know each other uh a little bit more. And uh you you made some great uh great introduction a few weeks back with a fellow Apex member. Uh Justin had him on the show, told the story of what he's doing in the world of trucks. That was new for me. This world of trucks and this whole, you know, I'm not a truck guy, but I totally, you know, embrace whatever it takes to get everyone to the day. So um but great to finally connect with you here. Perfect timing, too. Your second book just dropped, and you've got quite the story. And and on this show, I like to tell people's story. I like to like to back up to the beginning of the story and add some context to what when did you set out on this journey of life and wherever it would take you, whether it was a job or entrepreneurship or a little bit of both on here. Um, then of course get into what's brought you into present day and being on the team uh with Apex and the COO of Breakfree or Apex. I always get confused with the two on there. They're the same in my mind. Everybody does. Yeah, absolutely. So let's back up a little bit to the beginning of the story and talk about where this all began.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Yeah, um, so uh once upon a time in a land far, far away in New York. Yeah, pretty much started in New York, uh born and raised in Long Island, New York. Um, my family was in the automotive business. It's why Justin and I, you know, get along so well. Um fell in love with car audio, became a car stereo installer, and kept elevating myself and getting better and learning more. Uh and got to the point where I just I knew more than my boss, or so I thought.

unknown 2:14

Right.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

And at 19 or 20 years old, whatever it was, time I basically said, you know, hey, F off. See you later. I I'm gonna go do it better than you can. And uh in the car, technically speaking, I could do the work better than he could, but I had no idea what was required to run a business. So technical skills, awesome. Uh, business skills, people skills, not so awesome. And for the first five, well, it took me five years in that business, and and I learned a lot. It was almost as if, you know, I went through and got my master's degree um in life by going through that. But after five years, I just threw the towel in and closed that business. Um, went back, worked for someone for a couple of years, got back on my feet, uh, opened up business number two in 2009, right after I got married. And um, we we transitioned from the the car audio installation into GPS fleet tracking installs, dash cameras, commercial vehicles. And that business started to take off pretty heavily. About five years into that business, my wife comes and tells me, hey, guess what? I'm pregnant. My first daughter is going to come into the world. And it's all your fault. 100% it was. So um I'm a big firm believer in life-altering events, right? And that was the life-altering event that I needed because yes, I had one business prior. Yes, I was a business owner here for five years up to that point, but I didn't take anything serious. I was kind of just coasting through life. Right. It took that life-altering event to really light the fire underneath my tail end, um, to get me fired up and literally to like say, hey, we have this company here. We're doing good, but we can start to do great, but I need to become that person in order to do so. So I decided to go out and start looking for my first business coach and mentor kind of thing. Um, found one guy, uh, worked with him for a couple months. The guy wound up retiring and basically said, sorry, I'm out of here. Um, he we probably pissed him off. Uh, but that gentleman led me to another gentleman, um, which is funny because just the way that life works, I worked with this, the second coach for about two and a half, almost three years. And this is the guy where I learned a lot about core values from. This is a guy that really um uh showed me a lot about CRMs and and systems and process implementation from a business standpoint. Um, and he was also a certified InfusionSoft guy, which is keep now, uh, which yeah again, this is kind of like foreshadowing here because I got really good inside of that software and you know, fast forward into the breakfree academy realm, and that's what we run the company software on. Wow. So here I am learning all this stuff for years and implementing it into my own business. And you know, fast forward a couple of years later, I come out here to BFA. And oh wow, I'm very familiar with this stuff because I've run businesses with this already. Um, but that second business lasted uh 11 years. Um COVID hit and a service-based business owner from the outside world looking in, I was your typical successful um uh American story. You know, I had a I had a nice corner house, white picket vinyl fence, because we don't do wood these days. Uh I had I got three kids, uh a beautiful wife, two cars in a driveway, and a nice dog. So, you know, and I'm making six plus figures salary a year. So I am like the American dream. But it just honestly, dude, it just wasn't fulfilling for me anymore. I lost my passion for the automotive industry. I didn't want to do the installation work anymore. Uh, I had built a company to pretty much operate without me for the most part. And yet I knew that I was leaving a lot on the table. I knew that there was more out there. And over the course of time, I came into the Apex ecosystem like you did. I came in, I joined Apex Entourage. And let's just clarify here Breakfree Academy is the entity, and our product that we own is Apex, which is the Apex Masterminds. Got it. Yeah. So uh I came over to uh uh Apex as a client, uh, wound up elevating myself through the system. I wound up working directly with the founder, Ryan Stuman, for over a year. And it's funny, going through all of that coursework and starting to build my machine, establish myself as the authority within the GPS tracking space. I had a lot of guys in an industry reach out to me. Hey, you took off like a rocket ship, and I have questions like, how do I do this? How do I do this? And I started helping and answering these questions for these guys. And what I stumbled upon was my purpose. Like, hey, I'm I really like helping people in business. So clear, clear as day now, my purpose is to help others succeed in business. So taking that that adage, I went and I said to uh to Ryan, um, I said, and this is going back to uh August of 2019. I said, you know, I would love to coach your people if an opportunity ever presents itself. Because I see you've got this small, tight group here of people who are your top clients to paying big money a year to work with you. I see this thing growing, and I like to be part of it if if the opportunity ever arises. Fast forward two months, a guy calls me up and he's like, Hey, um, you're still interested in helping my people? I said, Absolutely. He goes, Great, here's two clients. That was it, right? So I got my first two coaching clients through Ryan Stuman. So, like, if Ryan's bringing these people in, you got to say, okay, this is a guy who's a man of integrity, hard work, people respect him. So I've got to show up with my best foot forward each and every day because this guy doesn't play around.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

And he doesn't smile much. So you can know you know that he you know you know that he doesn't. I was just my first Apex experience was I was like, is he gonna just call us all motherfuckers for two days? Is that what's gonna happen? I wasn't sure. I I wasn't sure. I had I had I had no idea. Insert my I've been doing a lot of that's common denominator with Stuans that I've been doing a lot of stand-up comedy lately, uh, along with him too. So I was like, if there's ever an opportunity at one of these Apex of Apex events, I better start writing Apex material. So I got a little side notepad going of Apex stand-up material in the event uh I get called upon.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Yeah, hey, I've got some great stuff I can throw at you, you know, you know, kind of like behind the scenes. Don't say it came from me, but we can definitely call some people out. So if you have any material, I got you.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

I had another, what was the one I was thinking about yesterday? I was like, so I thought that I needed to have big muscles and tattoos and drive a truck to be part of Apex, and then I met Droby and Sasser. Yeah. So so your you joining Apex was the catalyst for creating what would be next for you and the opportunities in the relationship with Stuman.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

Yeah, because I you know it's funny when when life presents you something, you're just like, oh, cool, this is an opportunity. I'm doing some stuff over here. You don't realize a lot of the times that you're building the foundation for the next version of you. Yeah, I feel that already. Yeah, that's that's what I was doing. I'm like, I'm doing all this work on the back end. I'm I'm building my machine over here. I'm becoming the authority within the 12-volt automotive space, which I'm still heavily involved in, by the way. I do a lot of consulting over there and I speak at all their events and whatnot. Um, but here I am doing all this work, and all of a sudden this these other opportunities start presenting themselves.

unknown 9:27

Right.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

And it's like, cool, now I've got a choice. Do I keep my business open that I'm not so in love with anymore? And what I wind up doing, uh, COVID hits in 2020, right? Spent a couple months on the couch, then I got my ass moving because I I got I got tired of just being average and and not moving and being severely overweight. And so I commit to doing 75 hard and for sellers program and uh go through that for a couple of days. Like life altering event happens again. I'm like, oh my God, like I'm I'm settling for average, right? If you know anything about me, I'm big on core values. One of my personal core values is that I refuse to be average. So here's here's like boom, lightning bolt goes off. It's like Tom is is average. Yeah, can't do it because if if I'm gonna live average, I'm not I'm literally going against the values that I've set forth for myself. Yeah, so I had to make a change, right? And that change for me was get myself my physical fitness in place, right? Which is something that we talk about heavily in Apex, if you haven't noticed, uh, because everything else stacks upon that. Uh, it was um actually sell my business in New York, sold my my half to my partner, uh, wound up selling my house in New York, and I moved to Dallas, Texas. And I didn't move here with the intent to start working at BFA with Ryan. Like for, you know, I had been working as a subcontractor as a coach for over a year at that point, right? Coaching the executive people, but I came down here and I started another company. So I'm down here a month and a half or so, and I get a phone call on a Wednesday afternoon in October. Uh, and he's like, Hey, I know you're down here. You want to come build some epic shit with me? And now again, here I'm I'm at this crossroad in life, and I'm like, well, I can go and continue. And mind you, I'm building my own apex, a little like mini apex for myself. Right. I know I can do it, I've already got some paying clients, I've already got the numbers mapped out for how many clients I need that year to make the the the financial goal, like my income goal for the year. And I'm I'm moving and grooving, man. I got money invested in this thing. We got websites built, we got automation in place, like things are moving here. Sure. And now I'm at that crossroad. I'm like, okay, cool. I invested like 30 G's of my own money to get this thing kicked off because I'm I'm I'm going for it here. I'm not playing small. Right. Or I could basically throw that shit out the window and partner up with Ryan in some capacity here and possibly, not possibly, guaranteed, impact more people. So it all goes back to being clear on that purpose. So once again, my purpose is to help others succeed in business. So am I gonna help more people by being selfish and doing this on my own? Or do I get together with Ryan and I can literally impact people in the thousands rather than let's call it two dozen a year?

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Yeah. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

And so it was a clear choice for me.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

And that makes perfect sense. I'm really aligned with your thought process on that too. And I've been um, you know, I've been at this podcast game uh for about six years now, and um I've reached a plateau. And the plateau is that I've become this solopreneur with a remote team um that has a lifestyle business. This is not um, and that and I have a very, very great life, and I'm extremely blessed, but there's more because I know there's more because my deepest desire is uh impact. And when I came in contact with, I kept hearing apex, apex, apex, and I'm like, where do you do you get in? Do you sign up? Is there like a secret knock? Is there a code? Like, how do you and I saw his post back in July, my team's gonna kill me. And 32 nanoseconds later, I had Sasser in my inbox um telling me this is the place for you because we teach to start a podcast to all of our 1300 members at the time, and about 40 of them have a podcast. And I said, here's my card and uh you know, let's get started. But I also knew that wow, this is just like you said, we we never really we we just know we give that we got that God-given desire uh inside of us that says there's more, this is the next step. Whoa, I didn't even see that coming at all. I had no idea. And to me, as a seasoned entrepreneur, the the the more the reps you get in, the more you can you can experience this the season being a seasoned entrepreneur where everything's not a crisis as much, and you embrace every single opportunity here. And when this all started to come together, I thought podcasting has become my life's work, and I know it's my life's work because my feet hit the floor every morning and I would do this for free if money didn't exist. Uh, but thank God that that that it does. So now that I've been able to find that zone of genius on where it's at, and then I heard Stuman say one thing and then I would seal the deal forever. And he said, My one mission in life is to do one thing. To do many things, but the main priority is one thing, and that is to represent what winning looks like at all times. And I said, Wow, what a fucking incredibly hard task to do, but a great thing to strive for on every on a daily basis. So I told myself, okay, what does that look like to take that on every day, fail most days, but whatever the result is, by playing all out, it's gonna be better than where you know where you're currently at or where you know where you want to be. So it's just so incredible. When we think business masterminds, this is not a networking group on steroids, as far as like more involved with it. This is uh this is I I look at this as going through life together because because business, we spend more time in our business than we do with our family and our the other things that we've got going on here. So having that family of choice words, phrase that's used frequently uh within our community here uh is so so important to know that we've got that support system on all fronts. I believe that if life really showed up, I could call a brother or sister within the apex fam and and and work some shit out that has nothing to do with with business. And I and I truly believe that is the core focus. And I saw that. I saw Stuman saying this Stuman's not doing this for the cash. Stuman's done real well for himself, and you know, he's not trying to get rich, if you will. He achieved his level of money. What's that? He doesn't need the money. Correct. Correct. He doesn't need the money. And that's why. And that's why I want those are the type of people I want to be around because I know that his mission is listen, God bless me with all of this. Now it's my turn. Much is given, much is much is expected. Now it's my turn to get out there and make as much impact as possible and duplicate the process that I've been experiencing. So um just an absolute privilege to to be within this company of of like-minded individuals that are that are going places that want to win, you know? Yeah, speaking my language, sir.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Listen, this is this is why, you know, I've gotten heavily involved and more and more involved over the years. And when the opportunity presented itself to come on board and actually sit alongside Suman and run this company from the top, yeah, I was like, well, shit, I guess so, sir. Yeah, you know, yeah, this is an honor. I'm grateful for it. This is gonna be a lot of work. Cool. Uh, I'm a little weird. I actually like work, right? But let's go in here and make this thing happen. And that's exactly what we did, you know, over the course. So, so November 1st, 2020 was my start date. So this past November was a full year. So I'm what, uh 14 months into this right now? And the the growth that we've seen in the company, I'm not taking um, I'm not saying I'm the one who's responsible for it. Okay, I was part of the team that made this happen, right? My guys went out there and did the work. All I did was come in and point out a couple of weaknesses that I saw and made a couple of quick changes, and those guys took off like a rocket ship. You know, look what happened to Droby and Zach over the the past of the course 12 months. Animals. Animals, yeah. I mean, Zach just turned 22 years old.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Mind blowing. I question my life's I I question my life's accomplishments when I have conversations with Sasser. But I also see a lot of myself. I had a kid when I was 21. So I see a lot of myself, not that Sasser has a kid, but I'm saying the hustle and the grit that he has, the determination and the focus and the discipline. Who has that at 21? Like nobody. So that again, another reason. And he said to me, we were in Fort Lauderdale right when I joined the it was like an unofficial meetup with a bunch of apexers. And he said, you know, I believe the next six months um are gonna be life-changing for you. And I think everything you've been working towards uh is gonna happen. I thought, dude, I really appreciate that wisdom, Zach. I mean, I I really do. That kid is uh he's uh he's beyond his age, that's for sure. Yeah, 100%. So your so your most recent book just came out. Let's talk about the first book real quick, and then we'll talk about the second book. Um, what was the first book all about?

SPEAKER_00 17:51

Uh, first book is um is telling my story about my first business failing, my second business, and basically how I took it from almost failing again because we did the same dumb mistakes in in the second business that I made in the first one. The only reason it didn't fail is because I had a business partner and we could both pick up some of the weight and put it on our shoulders. Um, but what we did to kind of infuse that real structure that companies need. Uh, there's a foundational level of structure that most small businesses skip right over and don't even think about. Uh, they just get in there, start marketing, start selling stuff, and all of a sudden, before long, you've got this monster in front of you that you and you have all these problems that that pop up from it employee problems, you know, what happens when the boss goes away. If the boss goes on vacation, the place makes no money, all that kind of stuff. And the real fix to that was me actually implementing what I call a vision, right? The vision's three equal components it's core values, it's a mission statement, and it's you getting clarity upon your purpose. Right? Each business needs to put that in place. And if you don't put that in place, you're asking yourself for trouble in the future. May not may not be right now, but you want to grow that team, you want to scale, you're gonna face issues if you don't have that stuff in place. So I in that book, I dive in heavy, I tell my story about my first business, my second business, and what the second business was like before and after implementing the vision. Um, and that's pretty much where it left off because that's where my career had been at that point in time. I I actually launched that book in June of 2019. Uh, it's called Unfuck Your Business. Amazon hates the title. They won't let me run ads to it at all, which is fine, cool. Um, and uh recently we just came up with a second book, uh, which is called Startup Legends Handbook. Um, I'm one of seven co-authors of that book. It's funny, I met everyone who are co-author of that book with in Apex. Right? So we got together and everyone basically said, Okay, cool, I'm gonna take two chapters and write two chapters for this book. But everyone who came in and helped write that book is an expert in a in a very specific area in business. We got attorneys in there, we've got a CPA firm in there represented by both of their owners. We've got credit card processing, we've got business and personal finance pros in there, right? These are all things that if you're gonna kick off and start a new business, you need to implement this stuff. And then on my stuff, I cover mindset and core values. This is all stuff that you need in order to succeed in business. So we took these seven individuals, myself included, we each took two chapters and we poured into what people are really gonna need to know if they're gonna start up a business. Okay, this is cut and dry. Man, I wish, I wish I had that when I started my first business. You know, think of how many, how many you know, hours and in and problems I would have overcome or hours saved if I had read or had that information that came out from that book. So that was kind of the whole intent. Um, we don't write the book for money by no means. You don't make money on the book. Again, I'm here to help other people succeed in business. So if I can spend a couple of hours or a couple of weeks putting together a couple of chapters for a book and kick it out and put it into the universe, that just means more good things are gonna come back to me when at least expect it.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

Absolutely. Yeah. Again, another it goes back to responsibility. You know, you know more than most, it's your responsibility. Not everybody can hide and not everybody can afford to work with us in different scenarios, but anybody can watch your YouTube channel, anybody can read your book. And I I get emails and texts and messages and DMs constantly of people that consume my kind. I have no idea who they are. Uh, and they thank me profusely for helping them make that shift they needed to make. And that's when you know you're really making that impact on there. Of course, it feels good to hear those things too, but to know, wait a second, somebody actually read my book and then did something with it. I always say that. Don't just read the book, do what the book actually says, and you're gonna be able to start a podcast. You're gonna be able to do, you know, fill in the blank. So um, yeah, I somebody told me a long time ago, but books are the new business card. 100%. And I couldn't agree with that more. Nobody really throws books away. They're always on a shelf, and when they're ready to make a decision about what you do and they see your book, they remember that. You know, it sets you, it sets you aside from the crowd, too. It really, really does.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

It really does. I've got a uh um a lot of experience there, to be honest with you. Uh, I've I've gained some very large clients. Clients because I've had a book. And one of the secrets that Ryan taught me was my book first came out and is like never go anywhere, like travel-wise, without a signed copy of your book in your bag. Cool. So I fly a lot. I have been for years at this point. So I don't ever get on a plane without a signed copy of my book in my backpack. You never know who you're going to sit next to. Whether it's in first class coach, it doesn't make a difference. You never know who you're going to sit next to on that plane. I've given out more copies of my book to someone I sat next to on a plane than I can even count. And it's it's yes, is it a power move? Sure it is. But at the same point in time, it's you handing out a business card, like you said, that it's no one's gonna throw out a book. They might throw your business card in the garbage, the first garbage can they get to. Oh, right. Later, right? There's no value to it. But no sane human is going to take a book, whether the book's $2 or $200, no sane human is going to take that book and throw it in the garbage can.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

Right.

unknown 23:01

Right.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

I say that constantly. No one throws a book away. I mean, maybe I guess you do, but they give them away or they go on a bookshelf. Right. You know, so some long time ago, a great hack is uh I like going, I like even when my book's not in the uh in the stores in the airport, I like to go ahead and put them. Not don't leave them there, but I take a picture with them because perception's reality. But also a great hack is to carry a backpack full of them signed books, just like you had mentioned before. And uh, you know, if you're stuck in the you know, coach with the rest of you know, general, general population, then what like most are you pass through first class and leaving a couple books there with your card with a little note that says, hey, uh, I don't know if you read or not or into podcasting, but we got a four-hour flight and I'm in 26C. If you want to chat, is always a great hack too. So yeah, you're exactly right. Always uh, you know, always being ready to provide opportunities to people to be able to connect further or make some lasting impact. Yeah, right on the same page. It's funny how when you're aligned with other people of this in the the similar thought process, you end up in the same, you know, circle of of communication and environment like we are here with Apex, because I uh completely echo all of your sentiments on what a book uh truly does on here. But in addition to the credibility and the authority, for some reason, I always joke, I don't even read books, and I've written two of them. But for some reason, when you write a book, people look at you different. It's kind of like a doctor. Like you're talking to somebody, you're like, hey, how's it going? What's your name? Okay, Jeffy goes going, yeah. I'm a physician. I'm like, oh, whoa, what up, doc? Like you just, our perception of value changes with that. I think the same thing operates with uh with authors. So I'm waiting on uh I'm waiting on my copy. It should be here any day now. So congrats on the launch and the rest of the uh team on there. I know Jessica was in the mix with you with that and a few other incredible Apex members too. So I'm excited to dig in and read it. I'm in the middle of Whitehead's book right now, becoming iconic, and uh there's always something we can learn. And that's my biggest, my my biggest thing that I've been taking into 2022 with joining Apex and going you know deeper and deeper and trying to make as much impact as possible to the community. And that is Sebastian, you don't know shit. You just know what you know, but you don't know because you're not flying private, you're not, you're not paying 40 grand a year for uh for a mastermind group, you're not in an investors club that costs five figures a year running with mover. That's you're not there yet, but you have all of the makeup and opportunity to be there. But now it's time to be able to just soak it in and go, I don't know shit. What's next for what I've been building for however long it is, there's no time frame. Um, but realizing that we don't know anything and we go in there just open, just stay open because it just takes one thing. I'm headed to Dallas tomorrow. We were chatting for the interview, and we're gonna be spending a couple days. My first time at a fly in on here. We're gonna be in class for two days and networking and and and and meeting new faces as well. But being able to enter that space with a blank canvas and just say, I'm just here as a sponge to soak as much as I can in and squeeze as much out of that and reciprocate it back to the community. And that's really where the magic happens, I believe. For sure, man. I agree 100%. Well, dude, man, I appreciate your time. It's so been so great to get to know you better and know a little bit more about your story. I'm really looking forward to hanging out here uh the next couple days in in Dallas for the fly-in uh on here. And just uh it's just an absolute privilege to be part of uh Apex. And I just want to commend you on uh on the moves you've made, the bold moves that you made. It's not easy to move across the country, even before you knew that you were jumping on board uh with breakfree. You know, you you uprooted your family and moved across the country and said, I don't know how it's gonna work out. I just know it's gonna work out. Now look at you.

SPEAKER_00 26:27

Yeah, it's it's just the way it happens, you know. Uh it's almost like you got to put yourself, put your back against that corner sometimes intentionally, back against the wall. Because when you do that, you only have one direction that you can go. That's right. All right. It's either you're going to fail completely, which is not even acceptable in my mind, or take some massive action to make things happen. Absolutely. I choose the latter.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

I don't know about you. I think I know I do know about you. Yeah, you choose the latter too. So, well, man, you have to come back to the show sometime soon. I just wanted to encourage you to keep on rocking and rolling. I look forward to continuing to build a relationship with you and with the other Apex family of choice, uh, as we often like to say on here. And uh wishing you best here, the best here in the 2022. And I'll see you tomorrow. Thanks, brother. Look forward to it. Absolutely, man. Until next time, friends. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story Podcast. We're sure to appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. We're sure to appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast, launchlab.com studios. We'll talk to you next time.