Neil Dudley: The Cowboy Perspective, well, it might be hard to define, but I guarantee if you think about it, you’ve got one in mind. Whether you’re building a legacy, an empire, or a fan base, I bet when your friends look at you, they see some cowboy in your face. Y’all come along, let’s talk about this or that. Maybe when we’re done, you’ll go away with another perspective to put under your hat.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Cowboy Perspective or if this is your first time, I want you to know, I appreciate you giving this platform a shot or at least my show a shot. I think you’re taking the right kind of chance because this episode’s guest is really awesome. I mean, not just because he does a lot of the things that I wish I would have done, at least in the rodeo arena, but because he has just a genuine nature about him, a genuine desire to add value or help or be better. So, I look forward to sharing this conversation with you and also would ask you guys and gals that listen, go check out my website thecowboyperspective.com. We just put a new one together. I’d be so interested in your thoughts. So, if you have any, shoot me a little contact us form, join our mailing list because we’ll be sending out some cool stuff, newsletters and opportunities to, well, I don’t know, maybe meet people that have been on the show, maybe ask me questions. That kind of stuff is fun for me. I hope it’s fun for you. Now, let’s get to meeting and talking to Tyson Durfey.
Well, here we are on another episode of the Cowboy Perspective, and I’m super pumped up about getting to talk to this guy. And I don’t know why we’d wait any longer. Tyson, welcome to the show. Ladies and gentlemen, the guy’s name is Tyson Durfey. If you don’t follow him on social media or in all the things that he does, I highly suggest you do. I’ve gained a lot of value. He does a podcast. We’ll talk about all these things and more as we explore what Tyson’s done, his career, who he is, what he stands for. And Tyson, real quick if you don’t mind, just a quick insight into where you come from, who you are, what’s growing up was like for those listeners that may not be familiar with you.
Tyson Durfey: Yeah, well, first of all, thanks for having me on the podcast. I’m super excited. I’ve known Neil a long time, going way back into the early 2000s. Neil’s a calf roper. And so, us cowboys, we’ve got to stick together. But I come from really humble beginnings. I come from a small working ranch in the Midwest. We always had roping calves and feeder cattle. We supplied cattle to a lot of the amateur rodeos in the Midwest. My dad was most known as a horse trainer and a clinician. So, growing up, pretty much worked from sun up till midnight, every single day. And we’d ride 25, maybe 30 horses a day roping calves. We would doctor cattle. We would build fence. Just pretty much, it’s kind of like everything that somebody would do on a ranch plus training horses. And for me, like rodeo and roping wasn’t just like something you did as a hobby, it was like a way of life. It was all and everything that you thought about. So, I come from that environment and I’m just so thankful.
Neil Dudley: That’s kind of why I do the podcast. There’s so much valuable teaching in growing up that way. I think it has for me for sure been my reason for success – those things I learned building fence, gathering cattle, working cattle with my dad and his brothers and the cowboys that were just out there with us. Yeah, well, it was kind of a cool thing, we kind of reconnected recently out at a branding and we’re talking about things and your dad was there. I met him. I was like, hey, I’m Neil, and he’s Roy, right?
Tyson Durfey: Yes, sir.
Neil Dudley: He said are you related to Tom Dudley? I’m like, yeah, that’s my uncle. Tell him hi for me. So, it’s such a small world, this rodeo family, you just know people and stay in touch with them, have memories from days spent cowboying and rodeoing. It’s pretty cool. All right, cool. So, there’s some insight into Tyson. And so now let’s explore some of those things you’ve done in life. You just have such a great perspective on building a brand, a business, being consistently leaning forward is the way I like to say it. That’s how I see you in all things. So maybe first thing, let’s just pick out, you’ve mentioned digitally, being digital, doing courses and that kind of thing. Let’s tell everybody a little bit about that and what you do there.
Tyson Durfey: Well, here’s the thing, it’s such an ironic thing that I like digital media, and I didn’t learn how to send an email until I was 26. I grew up on a ranch. I rode horses. I doctored cattle. I fixed fence. That’s what I did. Always loved rodeo, obviously naturally liked marketing and branding, I think. But the learning about podcasts, learning about social media, learning about building online courses, teaching people how to rope online of all places, like completely different. And I was actually kind of in a spot in my life where I was just like a little bit stuck or a little bit stale, and I was reading these books by a guy named Russell Brunson, who started a digital business called ClickFunnels. And Russell had kind of led me a little bit to YouTube and I’m searching all these things out. And I run across this guy named Gary V online. And he’s like if you want to get up – he’s very motivating. Like he’s going to cuss a lot, he’s going to get in your face. It’s really awesome. Because I’ve always responded well to harsh criticism. Like it’s just the, it’s the guy inside me that says, you know what, screw you, I’m going to kick your ass. You know what I mean? And I’m not saying in a physical sense, but like if you tell me I can’t do something, that’s probably the biggest motivator that I’m ever going to need. And there’s been times where that’s kept me down. There’s been times where I thought, well, maybe that guy’s right. But anyway, I was watching this guy named Gary V online and he looked straight at the computer and he’s cussing like a sailor. And he’s like it’s the internet, and some profanity. I’m not going to say it. But he’s like it’s the internet. And I’m like, oh, the internet. Wow, okay. Well, how do I use the internet? So, I had this idea. I’m like, you know what, I’m going to have to change everything about who I am to get done what I want to do. And I think, well, how am I going to do that? How am I going to do it? So, like every day for like six months in a row, I get up at like 4:30 in the morning. And I come down to my office because I had no time, excess time with kids and wife and family and roping and rodeoing and sponsors and businesses and all that stuff. I’m like, all right, how am I going to learn how to do this? How am I going to learn how to send emails? How am I going to learn how to do this stuff? I’m like, all right, well, let’s just get up earlier and go to the office and study digital media for a couple hours before I need to start my day. And that’s really how I got started. Now it’s kind of turned into everything that I do and it’s most of what I do throughout the day, but it was my side hustle at the beginning. I’m actually so thankful that, going back to my childhood, that I didn’t go to prom. Like I did not go to prom. We worked, we roped, we rodeoed. I didn’t go to school dances. I never went to a high school football game. I didn’t go to basketball games. Like all I did is work my ass off at the thing that I thought was going to set me free. And by free, I meant financial freedom because we were broke, we had nothing, the wolf was always knocking at the door. And my dad’s favorite saying was like do you know how much that costs? Like he would say that, not that anything wrong with him, but he worked like 18 hours a day just to like make ends meet. There was not like extra. And so-
Neil Dudley: You have that little thought, like there has to be a better way.
Tyson Durfey: There has to be a better way, but those years, those early years of teaching me how to work that way is what set up the lifestyle I have now. And I’m so thankful for that. Much like Gary V talks about working in his dad’s liquor store from 14 on basically for free.
Neil Dudley: Yeah, sure. Building a huge business for his dad that he had no ownership in and ended up walking away from and going to do-
Tyson Durfey: That is so right. I’m thankful for that. And much like Gary V, who built the business and gave it to his dad, I went on to win a world championship. And when I went on onstage, I won the world championship, I held the belt buckle up, I thanked my Lord and savior Jesus, and I said this is two lifetime goals achieved, mine and my dad’s. And that was like my moment to say thank you, Dad.
Neil Dudley: That’s so cool. And it’s so similar to I think a lot of successful people. A lot of people are motivated in that way because their parents were striving, didn’t have the tools to take it to that level, but they stayed hooked. Like they didn’t quit. They kept grinding. That’s impressive about your dad. He just, 18-hour days to make ends meet, never quit. Because some people just say forget it. I mean, if I’m doing this for nothing, why am I doing it?
Tyson Durfey: Well you’re doing it because you love it. It’s like being a cowboy. Why do you want to go out in the freezing cold and pull calves? Why do you want to doctor one that you know is going to die? You know what I mean? You do it because it’s the right thing to do. And you do it because at the end of the day, you love the freedom of hopping on a horse and putting on a cowboy hat.
Neil Dudley: Totally. I want to touch on Gary V because that’s part of why this podcast is even alive. I’m driving down the road listening to Gary V and he’s like if you’re not doing a podcast and you think you want to be somebody, start one. So, I just immediately went on Amazon and started buying mics and recorders, and it was all the wrong stuff.
Tyson Durfey: I know, that’s the crazy thing about buying all this. I bought like the same thing five times because I didn’t know the good stuff to buy. And I went on YouTube and listened to somebody who didn’t know what they were talking about and bought- like spent a ton of money on crap. But that’s part of the process. It’s like, you just learn as you go.
Neil Dudley: That’s why you just go. Go, do it. Don’t wait because you have a lot to learn that you won’t learn unless you get involved and try.
Tyson Durfey: And here’s the thing, what if you die? Like one of my things about my social media and like starting my podcast is like what if I freaking died tomorrow? I know that sounds crazy. But like what if I freaking died? It happens all the time to people who don’t deserve it. How are my kids going to remember me? Like my legacy is not the roper that I am but the words that I write on social media, because when they look back at my Instagram after I’m gone or whatever that is or listen to a podcast or hopefully someday the books that I’m going to write, they’re going to be like, oh man, my dad really loved people. Like he liked people. He cared about people. He wasn’t selfish. He was always trying to give. And that’s why I do podcasts. That’s why I do social media is because I’m actually like leaving a playbook for my children when I’m dead and gone.
Neil Dudley: Sure. I do if for- I mean, you’re giving me chill bumps actually because that’s a lot of the same reason I do it. And I wish people could be in this room and feel your energy. Like that’s a piece that it’s hard to convey on the podcast is just the energy of this person is so loving. You’re intense now, yeah. And I bet if you’re being coached by Tyson, you’re not real sure if he likes you or not, but the truth is he does. He loves you actually. And part of that intenseness is from that. I was going to talk about death and how that could happen. And I love your willingness to entertain that idea. And what does it mean if you did, have you lived the life you want to live up until this point because you’re not guaranteed another day? I think about that a lot too. What do you think gives you that ability to, I don’t know, address or think about that reality?
Tyson Durfey: Well, here’s the thing, most people just want to sweep crap under the rug. They don’t want to talk about it. They don’t want to talk about their addiction to alcohol, their addiction to pornography, their addiction to the things that make them think that they’re less. But in all actuality, they’re just a normal person by having those addictions. We’re all flawed. Every one of us.
Neil Dudley: I’m addicted to sugar. Like it may not be heroin, but it’s something.
Tyson Durfey: I love- Oh my gosh, I love sugar. I mean, I’ve struggled with about every addiction you can think of. I mean, a hundred percent, a hundred percent truth, because I don’t want to like come off as this- and this is one of the things that I hate is like people that are like leaders or whatever, they come off as perfect. I think people are tired of that. I think that’s, I’m not perfect.
Neil Dudley: It’s not authentic.
Tyson Durfey: I’ve been addicted to about every single thing that you can do. But the thing about it is I’m not scared to expose it because when I expose it, I take its power away. And I think people just want to sweep things under the rug. They don’t want to open it up. They don’t want to expose it, they don’t want to talk about it because if they talk about it, it brings out feelings that they haven’t had in a long time, and it’s difficult. It’s like counterintuitive, right? It’s like turning a jet ski, you have to push the throttle. Like that is so- like the first time I ran into something with a jet ski, I turned the damn wheel and I’m like stop, stop, stop, you SOB, stop! Bam, I hit something. It’s counterintuitive. You have to push the throttle and turn. So that’s a lot about exposing these things. And I just am not as scared to talk about it. Like because I know- like it all boils down to one valuable principle. I know that once I talk about it, it loses its power over me. Now there are things right now that I’m still learning to talk about. But there’s a lot of things like mindset, I’m not scared to talk about being negative or having a mindset. I’m not scared to talk about a lot of things, my addiction to Copenhagen which held me captive for a long time, and it was the most difficult thing I had to do to give that thing up. Alcohol, like it wasn’t hard for me to say, hey, I got to quit drinking alcohol because I know that it could be a problem for me. So just expose that stuff because once you expose it, it doesn’t hold you captive anymore.
Neil Dudley: Yep. Totally. Now, I just looked down at your buckle, and so what buckle- What we won’t talk about a lot here is Tyson’s roping career actually because I’m more interested in all the other things he does, which it is intertwined in everything, but I don’t, I’m probably not going to intentionally ask you, we may get off on it, but I’m probably not going to intentionally ask you about like, okay, so what are your steps to saddling your horse? How many steps do you take from the- what’s your routine pre- so I think you have that to offer on everything you do. For the Cowboy Perspective, I think the things that are so valuable to my group, TCP nation, would be your business savvy. So, back to the buckle, why do you wear that buckle?
Tyson Durfey: Honestly, this is a buckle I won in 2000 at the national- or 2011 at the National Finals Rodeo. And I had been really struggling with the horse that I won almost a million bucks on. I’d already met the NFR many times at this point. And I’d come like within 10,000 of winning a world championship a couple of times, like literally having a good shot to win the World in the tenth go round. And I didn’t. And this particular year, I had rode a different horse the first couple of go rounds, thinking like he was the right one. and I got off of him and I got back on the old campaigner, and everybody told me I was doing wrong, and I won the go round on him. He wasn’t like a horse that fit the Thomas and Mack very well. But the run I made was on a really big, strong calf, and I just dominated all the way around and it’s kind of like my breakthrough moment or one of my breakthrough moments. And so, I wear it every day when I’m out here working.
Neil Dudley: That’s cool. For those of you that don’t know, what I’m talking about is a belt buckle, and in the cowboy world, that is your trophy. That is a thing that you can recognize some of cowboys’ or people’s successes by the buckles. I love the Cheyenne buckles, like anybody wearing a Cheyenne buckle gains a certain amount of respect with me. So, just so you know, I have a story about the buckle I wear daily and that’s just the first one I ever won. So, it’s kind of cool to me in that way. I’ve got to give some of my buckles to my girls and they wear them. So that’s the story on belt buckles. Okay, spin around. Let’s talk about Tony Robbins a little. You’re talking about being into digital. Most anybody that pays- does any kind of self-improvement or thinks about selling things has heard of Tony Robbins. How did you first get introduced to Tony Robbins? And then later in life, you kind of got to connect with him, too.
Tyson Durfey: Yeah. It’s kind of funny because I never thought of myself as like a self-help motivational guy because like motivation is part of it – I actually just released a podcast on motivation – but motivation needs to meet action consistently every single day to get that goal that you want. But I never thought of myself as like this motivational guy until a few years ago. But I realized that this foundation of being this motivational guy was actually laid 20 years ago. And how it all started was my brother and I used to go break into abandoned houses. So, where we grew up, there was a lot of like abandoned houses in like the lower income type urban area. And our goal was, we thought, man, if we can break into these abandoned houses, like look at them and see how things are on the inside, and then maybe we could like try to buy them and fix them up and then rent them out. We’re going to be rich.
Neil Dudley: About how old were you?
Tyson Durfey: I’m like 17, like 17. It always ends with we’re going to be rich. That’s what- that’s the hook, right? It’s like eat crap, eat crap, eat crap, make 10 million mistakes, lose your ass, we’re going to be rich. And then it’s all okay, you know what I mean?
Neil Dudley: Being rich is such a false thing that never really happens.
Tyson Durfey: It is so fake. But when you don’t have any money and you’re starving, it’s hard to not think about that. So anyway, we’re breaking into these houses. It was like a weekly thing. My brother and I would slip away, we’d go break into a couple of houses. It’s literally easy. All you have to do is like knock an old, abandoned board down and go in. Like there was no thought that we were ever doing anything wrong. Like it just didn’t- these houses are in such bad shape.
Neil Dudley: Well, there’s probably nobody that really cared what you were doing either.
Tyson Durfey: Nobody really cared. And a lot of times there’s crack needles on the inside, or crack pipes and needles and all kinds of stuff on the inside. So, we’re in this one particular house and I’m wading through this like mountain of trash. Like it’s like waist high, pretty much the whole room of this house. And I’m like, my brother’s like be careful, you don’t want to step on a needle. You don’t want to- something like that. I’m like, okay, got this. So I’m like wading over this trash, and I’m stepping around and stepping around. Well, I step over this one bag of trash and there’s like something like a corner of a box like pushed against my leg as I stepped over. And I’m like, man, that felt like new. Like why would there be something new in this house? There’s never anything of value in any of these houses. I’ve been in hundreds of them. And so, I’m like, well, I’m just kind of curious, I’m going to open it up and see what it is. So I open up this bag of trash, and this has been 20 years ago, 21 years ago, I opened up this bag of trash and there’s like a cassette book of Tony Robbins Developing the Giant Within or something. I forget the exact title of what it was. And all I remember is this young, like big guy with this massive smile and these massive teeth. And I’m like this guy’s got a huge smile. And at the time, I had knocked out my front teeth a few times and my grill was pretty bad. I got all fake ones now, but back then, I was like, man, those are some pretty nice teeth. I’m going to take this with me. And so, I take it, and I’m like- it didn’t even occur to me that I was stealing, like did not occur. My mind was like, hey, somebody is going to buy this eventually. And they’re just going to throw these bags of trash and it’s going to go to the dump. So, I might as well just take this cassette book, and listen to them. Well, I take this cassette book. I listen to everything about it. And this guy, this Tony Robbins guy, this is- the cassette book that I got was like old at this point, but it still had the clear film wrapper on it. And the clear film rapper was like starting to like get yellowy and stuff. So, it had been- like somebody actually bought this thinking they were going to change their life, but they just never did anything with it and put it in the trash.
Neil Dudley: That’s poignant in itself.
Tyson Durfey: And so I got that. I stole that. I listened to every single thing. I dissected it. I went through all this stuff, all the trainings that he had. And 20 years later, I go to a ClickFunnels digital media event. I heard that Tony was going to be the guest speaker there and I’d watch enough YouTube videos to notice how Tony walks up and down the aisles. And so, I thought if I get to this event, like way early, like before anybody else, when they open the doors, I can sprint to a corner seat on a row of two, on a corner of two rows where he will notice me. So, I get there way early and the door cracks open, and I’m running with my cowboy boots and my cowboy hat. I’m like, this is like a Def Leppard concert in the 80s. Like people are just like sprinting, acting stupid. And I get to this corner, and I’ll be danged if Tony’s not walking up and down the aisles. And he’s like tell me about your business. Like not to me, but- and so I immediately throw my hand up as he’s walking by, he’s like stand up, cowboy, I want to hear about what you’re doing. And so, I stand up, I talked to him for like 20 minutes about my mentorship program for ropers that I have, and we shake hands. We do a big hug and stuff like that. So, it was just an unbelievable moment because it was like 20 some years in the making of me seeing this cassette book, buying all his books all these years, like 20 something years. And then finally, culminating in this moment where I get to meet the guy, shake his hand, and he dissects my business. It was like, wow, this is unbelievable. Like how does this even happen?
Neil Dudley: Oh my gosh, that is such a beautiful story in a million different ways. What I want to highlight, if you’re listening, think about this: Tyson is a successful person. He does well, he’s already built huge things and he’s running to get on a corner in an auditorium so he might get to talk to Tony. That’s so humble. It’s so valuable. I don’t care if you’re Donald Trump, you have things- I don’t know why I picked Donald Trump. He’s just the one that came up. I guess because he represents like he knows everything. Like it seems to me that he acts like he knows everything. You don’t. I’m successful, but I need to talk to Tyson because he has perspectives that I can use. Tyson is successful, but he needs to talk to Tony Robbins. That network, just be the kind of person that can allow that truth into your life. Like, hey, I don’t know everything. And I’m going to run to the front row, I don’t care what anybody thinks.
Tyson Durfey: I don’t give a damn what anybody thinks. Like I don’t give- when I started wearing a pink shirt, you know how many people called me gay or worse?
Neil Dudley: I don’t know, but I could imagine.
Tyson Durfey: Yeah. Like off the bat. But I really, to be honest with you, I just don’t give a damn what anybody thinks, says, or does. Because at the end of the day, it’s my bottom line. It’s not theirs, it’s my bottom line. And I just don’t care what they say, what they think, if they laugh at me behind my back, which happens all the time, if they don’t like me because I put myself out on social media, if I run like a fan girl through a massive auditorium that holds 10,000 people to be the first one to get that corner seat to maybe get a chance, like I don’t give a damn.
Neil Dudley: I love how you thought it out too. People, you got to listen to what he said. He watched YouTube videos. He put work into getting this opportunity in his life. Just it’s so awesome.
Tyson Durfey: Strategic.
Neil Dudley: Yeah. Strategic thinking. This is how he does his things. I would love a chance to put my hand up and get to talk to this guy. How can I most optimize that?
Tyson Durfey: And here’s the thing, Tony is not just the mindset guy. He runs 52 businesses. They do billions of dollars a year in revenue. The guy is worth almost a billion dollars as an individual. So, for me, it’s like, okay, yeah, I love the motivation of him, but what kind of business knowledge can he give me? And what’s 20 minutes of this guy’s time worth? And oh, by the way, it was in front of, 7- or 8- or 10,000 other people that they all got to learn from my experience. And that’s why I started my mentorship program, because I want, if I coach one kid about getting his elbow up and stepping across, I want 5-, 6-, 700 people watching that same experience so that they can learn from it while I’m teaching him. Because if I just did it one on one, this is why Tony did it with me in front of all these people, because he’s teaching me, but he’s also teaching 10,000 other folks at the same time. That’s why I love digital.
Neil Dudley: Sure. That’s scaling, people, if you don’t know what scaling means, he just nailed it. It’s how do you do one thing and scale it where millions of people can learn from it and interact with it. Okay, cool. That was so much fun. I really, I mean, Johnny put a yeehaw in here because that was like some of the most valuable insight that I think maybe has ever been shared on the podcast. Speaking of podcasts, Tyson, tell us a little bit about yours. Like what’s it called? If somebody wants to listen to it, where do they go?
Tyson Durfey: Yeah, it’s real simple, it’s just called the Tyson Durfey Show. I named it that because I couldn’t think of a better name and-
Neil Dudley: Well, it’s a great branding for you. I mean, actually, every single do is Tyson Durfey, so it only makes sense.
Tyson Durfey: I actually did that because I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, and I didn’t know where I wanted to go. And I just felt like when I got in front of that microphone the hundred other times before I started my show and couldn’t talk and got like brain fart and couldn’t think, I was like I don’t know what I want to talk about. Maybe I want to talk about mindset today, maybe I want to talk about Western lifestyle, maybe I want to talk about finding your drive, maybe I want talk about making money because I love business and marketing. So, I decided to name it the Tyson Durfey Show because if I was like Rodeo Motivation podcast, I could only be the Rodeo Motivation podcast . I could only do that and if I wanted to do something different, I would have to change the name. And so that’s what I did with it. It’s pretty much everywhere. There’s 10 episodes. We just completed season one. So, you can go there and watch that on Google Play or Spotify or Apple Podcasts, but it’s there for you. There’s tons of motivations. Season one is pretty much dedicated to motivation.
Neil Dudley: Cool. And I’ve enjoyed several of the episodes. I haven’t listened to all of them, but I listened to the Billion-Dollar Cowboy episode. I listened to that Hunter Herrin episode. People, if you’ve not- you should go listen to that Hunter Herrin episode. It’s so awesome. And they recorded it in a rental car at a rodeo. I mean, it was just, that’s the great thing about podcasts is you can lay down content anywhere. You just have to want to. Hey, what about Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn? What other place if somebody just wants to learn about you, maybe is interested in getting in on what’s your website in case they’re like, ooh, I kind of like this guy, I want to learn from him?
Tyson Durfey: You can find me pretty much anywhere. Instagram, Facebook is where I do most of my content creation. Over the next year, I’ll be doing a lot of stuff on YouTube. Obviously have the podcast. But I’m at those places, I post a lot of personal motivation, personal growth. And I think that the unique thing about me is that I do it with a cowboy hat on.
Neil Dudley: Oh, I love- I got to tell everybody about the most recent post I saw of Tyson’s – he sat down in a pile of cow poop.
Tyson Durfey: I did sit down in a pile of cow crap.
Neil Dudley: And he just stood up and said, yeah, see this happens. Just wipe it off and go on. But some dirt on it.
Tyson Durfey: Just rub some dirt on it, it makes it better, man.
Neil Dudley: It’s a great analogy for life though. And business. You’re going to fall in the poop, rub some dirt on it and go on.
Tyson Durfey: Yeah. I mean, that’s, like if you could look at my everything that I do, it’s like I want to motivate you and inspire you, and I also want to give you like the actual how to get it done. Like I don’t want to be just the motivational speaker guy that pumps you up and leaves. And then you’re like a day later oh, man. Yeah. So, I want to be that guy, but I also want to leave you with like the actual things that you need to do to get the job done.
Neil Dudley: Yeah, like you’re going to have to get up at 4:30. Like if you want to do this thing, you have to get up at 4:30 and put two extra hours in, in front of everything else you’re doing.
Tyson Durfey: And here’s the deal. If you’re fricking in your twenties and you don’t have kids, like what do you do with all your time?
Neil Dudley: I didn’t do near enough.
Tyson Durfey: If I could go back do it over. I went to the movies so much. I went to the movies like twice a week, three times a week. Because I didn’t like to drink and I didn’t go to bars a lot. I did a little bit, but I didn’t like to do it a lot. And so, I just read books and went to movies and roped calves. Like that was it. Like 20, if you’re in your twenties right now with everything that’s available, like all the tools that are out there, like you could be financially free at 30. You could do whatever you want to do with your life. Raise your kids, have fun, go rodeo, buy a damn ranch because you sold your business for 5 million. Like you could do anything.
Neil Dudley: Oh man, I’m listening to this podcast called Let’s Buy a Business by a guy named Ryan Conde. He lives in Colorado. He’s constantly just talking about what internet business he could go buy, and there’s sites like – I can’t think of them right now. Johnny will put them in the show notes, micro something. Anyways, there’s a couple of places you can just go shop businesses for sale that are already generating income. It’s really cool. And see, kids can do that. They’re building little businesses, selling them.
Tyson Durfey: And here’s the thing with cowboys. We are so like buy a cow, breed a cow, calve out, sell the calf. That’s my money to go rodeo. That’s good, but the land is getting more expensive. Like I can’t afford to buy 500,000 acres where we live now. 20 years ago, it was different. But you can learn how to do email sequences. You can learn how to build an opt-in page. You can learn how to post on social media. And trust me guys, there are millions of dollars in this. Millions of dollars.
Neil Dudley: I had a guy on the podcast, his name is Kasey Mock, he said there’s so much abundant opportunity in the world today, nobody has to fail in order for me to succeed. And that’s so true. Like just go grab your success if you want it and be willing to sacrifice a little for it. Tyson’s so right. You may not get to- It depends on how quick you want it. When do you want it? Yes, in hindsight, I’d love to go back and act a little differently,
Tyson Durfey: Ah, me too.
Neil Dudley: But at the end of the day, I’m here today and I’m really happy with where I’m going. And I’m going to look back 10 years from now and say, man, I wish I could go back at 40 and act a little differently, because there’s free time that I don’t, I’m not just jamming it in, but I also value my family. I value a relationship with God. So, I need, I spend some time on those things.
Tyson Durfey: Yeah. And so, here’s the thing, the 20-year-old you is going to be different than the 25-year-old. The 30-year-old different than the 25-year-old. You’re going to continuously change. You’re going to continuously get better. When I got saved and I quit drinking and I quit going to the bar and doing that stuff, you know how many friends I had all of a sudden, not that damn many. Because my boys, the guys that we would get drunk and go chase tail with, all of a sudden thought Tyson changed. And you know what, I did change, I actually grew up. And for anybody out there listening to this, number one, you’re on the right path because you’re listening to this, you’re getting around like-minded individuals or the people that you want to be like. But your 20-year-old self should be different, far different then your 30-year-old. Your 30-year-old self should be different then your 40. So on and so forth, all the way through to the day you take your last breath you should be growing and maturing.
Neil Dudley: Quick pause just to say I hope you know who Pederson Natural Farms is. If you don’t, go check them out, www.pedersonsfarms.com. If you have any questions, hit me up. I’ve been working with Pederson’s and my best friend since kindergarten and his wife and my wife and a whole bunch of other really great people for about 20 years now, building a brand and a bunch of products that we think really add value to people’s healthy lifestyles. And I like to say the Cowboy Perspective podcast is a labor of love that I kind of do in my spare time. And I hope to just bring value, tell stories about people that affect me and give me the perspective I have. And I don’t want to steal that labor of love line from Mr. Douglas Burdett, the host of the Marketing Book podcast, without giving him some credit. There’s another something I’d tell you – if you are into building a brand or an entrepreneur of any sort, salesperson of any sort, go listen to the Marketing Book podcast. He reviews great authors’ books about sales and marketing. So, Pederson Natural Farms, go check them out. Thank you for listening to the Cowboy Perspective.
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You just gave me a great idea because I just interviewed Rocker Steiner. So he’s a 17 year old kid living a fun life, doing things he wants to do, being successful at wakeboarding and then bareback riding and living in a family of successful people. I so hope I can go back and interview him ten years from now or even five years from now and just see, and then let people compare those two conversations and what those just the differences.
Tyson Durfey: Well, and it’s funny because you look at Rocker now, he kind of puts out this wild and you can’t stop me. But when you’re working cows with him, he’s yes, sir, no, sir, extremely polite, very hardworking. And I don’t want people to miss that he has that foundation to start with because you look at his dad Sid, Sid won the world the year before I bought my card. And obviously when you’re that successful, people talk about you the next season.
Neil Dudley: Well, he was- you couldn’t talk not talk about Sid. I mean, he changed the sport and just his attitude, the way he dressed, everything.
Tyson Durfey: Yeah, I mean, just completely different. He’s, I would consider him an outlier to say. And you know what, when he won the world, he was like done. I think he went to a couple of rodeos after that just for fun. But that was it. Like he’s just like got a championship, I’m done. But his dad did the same thing. And so, I think that when you interview Rocker 10, 15, 20 years from now, it’s going to be a completely different kid, just like Sid is so much different now than he is when he won the world. Such a good guy, such a- he takes care of his family. Not that he didn’t then, but was winning the world back then, he was the tough guy, the bad-ass bulldogger, and now he’s the bad-ass dad.
Neil Dudley: I mean, it’s so interesting. And there’s just, I hope you’re hearing that, people, Johnny give another yeehaw. I mean, you’re going to change. Rocker was even saying this, and I think his dad was helping him with this stuff. Like having that mentor, if it’s your dad, great, if it’s your mom, great, it’s- it could be anybody that’s helping you with that. Because Rocker said something like, yeah, Dad told me you don’t even know what you’re going to be like in 10 years. Live right now. And Rocker was insightful in like I don’t have to be a world champion tomorrow. It’s going to take me a little while to get where I want to go and get good. When I was his age, I thought I had to be the best at everything the first time I tried it. It’s why I hated golf. It’s why I hated almost everything. It’s one reason I wasn’t as good at calf roping as I think I could have been. I certainly had the talent, the physical ability, all those things. It was just mental, mental, and the inability to realize it takes time. I mean, that’s Gary V – patience, work.
Tyson Durfey: And I don’t want to like mis-characterize work. And I know you guys hear me say like all the time like put in work, get your ass in gear, let’s go, come on. I do it because I love it. So, it’s not like, oh, I got to go to work today. Like you know what I’m saying? It’s completely different.
Neil Dudley: It’s like if you’re feeling like that, you’re doing the wrong thing.
Tyson Durfey: And here’s what I always tell people, if you’re not day- if you haven’t been daydreaming within your life about what you’re doing now, you’re in the wrong profession at some point or another. I used to daydream, daydream about making the finals, getting my back number, daydream about getting my gold buckle. Now I daydream about reaching millions of people and influencing them what the Western lifestyle looks like. Because believe it or not, the world needs good old cowboy ethics. I don’t care if you live in the inner city or the suburbs or the country, the world needs good, old cowboy ethics.
Neil Dudley: And those ethics live everywhere. They really do. If you’re looking for them, you can- like I could picture talking to the most inner-city person and we’re going to, in the right scenario with the right kind of conversation, we’ll have a lot in common. Oh yeah, I believe in that; man, we don’t look anything alike. And I thought cowboys were like this, and I’m like, no, not really. We’re not homophobic, all these things that cowboys kind of get labeled with. Of course, yeah, we’ve earned that a little bit over time, and certain people have gave cowboys that kind of reputation, but it’s not true about all of us.
Tyson Durfey: You can never, I don’t care if it’s race, creed, color, does not matter, you can never generalize anyone. Whether it be color or lifestyle status, cowboy, inner city, like you cannot generalize people. That’s not the way it works. God created us all to be who we are.
Neil Dudley: Totally. Purple hair, tattooed all up and down.
Tyson Durfey: Yeah, you can’t generalize people.
Neil Dudley: They are still good humans.
Tyson Durfey: Yeah, exactly. I used to generalize long hair. I used to think, when I was kid coming up, I’m like, oh, that’s a hippie. Like because it was what somebody taught me to believe at the time. And I get that. But as I got older, I’m like, well, long hair is just six months without like cutting your hair. Like it’s not- And then what really hit me hard was like Jesus probably had long hair. And I’m like, ooh, Tyson. Yeah, you got to wake up, bro, that’s terrible.
Neil Dudley: What I love about cowboys or I think is a cowboy thing, at least that I’ve learned from, I see a lot of willingness to say, oh crap, I was wrong; I’m changing the way I stand on that or my perspective because in my life I’ve realized I don’t agree with that original way I thought about it. Now, everybody, they’re always passionate about how they feel at the moment.
Tyson Durfey: Well, yeah, I think that’s just human nature. We get to talking about or get riled up about certain things. But I personally self-reflect every day. I’m like where am I at today? Where do I want to be tomorrow? And what am I doing today to get me where my goal is? And if it’s not in line, then I don’t do it. Like I just don’t do it. Like I watch 15 minutes of the news. I watch 15 minutes of the news. That’s it. Everyday, 15 minutes. That’s it. I don’t give myself an hour. I don’t watch a whole show and I can catch most of what I need at other places. Because I don’t need to get into that narrative because it doesn’t drive the needle forward. I’m a pretty conservative guy in nature, but I do believe in giving somebody a hand up. I don’t believe in handouts; I believe in hand ups. And so, I just constantly am self-reflecting and say, all right, how can I be better? How can I help people get better? And how can I move forward today? And if what I’m doing doesn’t reflect on that, I just change.
Neil Dudley: Yeah, totally. That kind of parlays to the way you thought about your rodeo career early on. We were different in that way because all I ever thought was I have to be a world champion for my rodeo career to be anything. If I was never a world champion, I was a failure. That was such a poor mindset. Don’t let that happen to you, people. Like Tyson, tell them about how you thought about rodeo early on in your career.
Tyson Durfey: Well, to be honest with you, early on in my career, I set my goals too low. I wanted to make the finals. Like I wanted to make the finals, I wanted to be successful. I made the final several times before I realistically changed my goals to being a world champion. Now that being said, I didn’t say if I don’t win the world, I’m going to be miserable. If I don’t make the finals, I’m going to be miserable. Okay. I just thought, okay, where I’m at now, what do I need to work on? Okay, my flanking is weak because I’m 140 pounds. How do I get my flanking better? Okay, I’m more definite with the way I lift the calf. I squat more, by the way, I can start working out. I can do flexibility, yoga, even though people think that’s weird. So, I was just constantly trying to chip away at the stone. I wouldn’t call myself like amazingly talented. I would say I’m, of the top 15 guys, probably very average. I did have a great background of horsemanship. But I always kind of had a chip on my shoulder a little bit when I was rodeoing. Like I wanted to show those SOBs. I never let it verbalize, like I completely internalized it. I used it as fire in my mind, but it never came out my mouth. I wanted to show those guys who think that I’m just some dumb kid from the Midwest. You know what I mean? And I would, I used that as fire in my mind, but I just kept chipping away. And I was like, if I- and here’s the cool thing about it, if I made a mistake, if I screwed a calf up, if I did this or did that, I said next time I’m going to fricking, I’m going to kick their butt, but I’m going to focus on the thing that I messed up and I’m going to work on it this week. I just didn’t carry it with me from one rodeo to the next rodeo for an entire summer. Because before you know it, one bad run can lead to 25. You got to get it out of your head.
Neil Dudley: Absolutely. That works in business. It’s worked for me. It didn’t work for me so well in rodeo, but it’s worked really good for me in business. And you’re talking about the billion-dollar cowboy. I’ve got to adding up the amount of sales I’ve been a part of in my career and it’s like half a billion. I mean, that’s kind of, I got to thinking about that. I’ve never thought about it before. Wow, that’s really a lot of economy I’ve been a part of.
Tyson Durfey: Yeah, not to talk about jobs, people you’ve helped.
Neil Dudley: I’m in the CPG business, food. So, you’ve fed people through all that. Anyways, and I wasn’t the only one doing it, but I was in a leadership role within a group of people that were doing it.
Tyson Durfey: You’re a step on the ladder, like without you, they don’t get there.
Neil Dudley: Anyways, so I was kind of, that made me feel good and one thing that I could look at and say, oh yeah, that’s kind of, that’s pretty cool. I have a little bit of imposter syndrome with this podcast and with things that I do, I’m like, well, I mean, I’m not Gary V. What do I really have to offer that they can’t get? Well, a lot. Unfortunately, I deal with that. I struggle with that.
Tyson Durfey: But that’s human nature. Like I’m not sure a guy like Gary V struggles with that, but 99.9% of folks do. Like what do I have to offer? There’s somebody better. Well, guess what, there’s always going to be somebody better. Don’t compare yourself to somebody else because comparison is the thief of joy. And it just adds to procrastination which leads to depression and gets you pissed off and miserable. You know what I mean? Like it’s just the amount of- it just fascinates me, the amount of time that people waste comparing to somebody else in high school. Think about it, the well, I wasn’t as cool as him in high school so I’m going to hold onto that for the rest of my life. Well, wake up, dude, pull your head out of your ass, like let go.
Neil Dudley: And even if you don’t hold onto it for the rest of your life, if you hold onto it for five minutes, it’s more than it deserved.
Tyson Durfey: Yeah. I mean, every single person has greatness inside of them. The only difference is certain individuals are willing to put in the work, effort, stress, and pressure to mine the gold. The other ones have it under the surface. But whether it’s somebody said something about them, something is holding them back from digging for it, getting to it, refining it. You could be a great actor, a great writer, a great cowboy, a great horseman, a great trainer, great at calving out heifers. Everybody has greatness. It’s just most people aren’t trained to look for it.
Neil Dudley: Sure. And don’t let me define your greatness because, Tyson, you do a great job of this – your greatness is what you want it to be. It doesn’t- I have no effect on it. Or, you said it so well a minute ago, like you just don’t care what other people think. I bet you don’t even care if they think you’re awesome.
Tyson Durfey: I honestly don’t. Like to me, I wrote a post today, it’ll go up at some point, but I was talking about the greatest thing about winning the World for me was the fact that everybody else who had a hand in creating me got to feel a part of that championship, my dad, my brothers, the people that let me stay at their house, the ladies that fed me dinner.
Neil Dudley: I felt it because I rodeoed on the same- maybe we’re at the same rodeos several times together over one summer. I was like, man, that damn Tyson Durfey just won the World, hell.
Tyson Durfey: Who was a damn nobody.
Neil Dudley: Right, pretty much. Everybody starts as a nobody.
Tyson Durfey: And so, yeah, man, just like, to me, it’s never about me. We always put our pants on the same way. My dad said that to me from the time I was a kid – son, we all put our pants on the same way. One leg at a time. I know friends, I have friends who are literally multibillionaires who are the most humble, the most kind. Unfortunately, it’s media and TV and propaganda that make people who are ultra-successful look a certain way. And guys like Gary V or Russell Brunson or Tony Robbins that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, these guys, they’re setting the record straight and they’re not even using TV to do it. Now that the shift is going from TV to your phone, these guys control the narrative. And yes, they’re busy, yes, they may not give you an hour of their time because they can’t, but they’re putting out content that’s just giving to people.
Neil Dudley: I have a little automatic thing that pops up on my phone every day and it just says serve others. That’s what they do. They’ve served me. I mean, I wish so bad Gary V could hear this episode because this is a couple of guys now both doing podcasts, both doing things in their lives and their businesses based on his advice.
Tyson Durfey: Yeah, and guess what? He’s not a cowboy.
Neil Dudley: That’s right. But he’s got a cowboy perspective on a lot of things. Oh man, that’s so much fun. All right. So, we’ll end up talking all day and I know you got other things to do. So, I want to touch a little bit on how you make your marriage, family, faith work in everything you do. Like give us all a picture of what success is in that part of your life and maybe how you pursue it.
Tyson Durfey: There’s a scripture out there, and don’t quote me on exactly word for word verbatim, but what good is it to gain the world and to lose your soul? I don’t know which one it is. I could look it up real quick, but the truth of the matter is my faith is first. Everything that I do, God is first. I don’t believe like it’s my mission on earth right now at this point to be an evangelist and go say folks. So, I’m not going to breathe that down anybody else’s throat, but that is the foundation of everything I do. Whether you believe in Jesus or don’t believe Jesus, there’s a lot of great things in the Bible about how to treat others, about how to be kind, how to be a servant leader, how to find motivation, make wise life choices. And so, for me, my faith is the very first thing that I do. It’s always the first thing that I do. I don’t go and look to money for security. I look to my savior for security. Okay so that’s the foundation of every single thing that I do. After that then comes my family. I make sure that I spend time with my family. I’m a busy man. My wife’s a very busy lady. She runs one of our businesses or a couple of our businesses full-time. We’re very busy. We have a great team of people around us. But we both work on the place. So yes, there’s a lady that helps us with our two kids. But my wife is like literally five steps away in her office working while the lady’s there helping us with our kids. We have a secretary that works full-time. I have a ranch manager that works full-time. So, there was like this point where I’m like, okay, I need to be working on my business. I need to be getting the word out there about this cowboy stuff, but oh, by the way, the fence needs to be fixed, and, oh, I got a sick calf and a waterline that just broke because it froze last night. And so, I would end up spending the majority of my day like fixing waterline, fixing fence, doctoring calves, when I knew, I knew, I knew, I knew I should have done the podcast that could influence 300-, 400-, 500,000 folks. And so, I set things in structure and a place to where I keep my faith first, my family second, after that comes my business. When my businesses involved, I manage, manage, manage, manage, manage. All right. So, if the ranch manager needs to go get feed, okay, here’s the credit card, you have it on file. Just go get it done. You don’t have to come to me and ask. It gets done every week. I try to set up routines as much as possible. So, every day at this time, it is time to rope. Right now, I’m roping three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It’s pretty much the same time every single week. I set up my podcast within a certain timeframe. So then, I’ll do my podcast. I’ll do email in a certain timeframe. So, I schedule everything in my business. Anything that’s repetitive gets scheduled in my calendar so it’s never a surprise. Most folks, it’s a surprise when they need to go get feed. Oh, I got to go get feed today. Well, I guess I’ll go do that. Oh, I forgot to make my payment at the bank, so I’ll go do that. And they end up spending so much time running around that they don’t focus on making money.
Neil Dudley: Yeah. They’re just chasing the tasks instead of being in front of them, like working in the business not on the business, that’s one way of putting it.
Tyson Durfey: And so that’s really how I do it. And to be honest with you guys, maybe to a certain individual I might look like I know a lot, but I think I’m still a dumb SOB and I don’t- I got a lot to learn.
Neil Dudley: That’s a common theme in a lot of successful people. They’re always thinking, man, I don’t know nothing yet.
Tyson Durfey: But then you see a person that’s just getting started, okay, well, the last three or four years, I have come a long way, so give yourself a little credit. But I’ll be honest, I don’t think I’m more special than anybody. I don’t think I’m better than anybody in any way, shape or form. I grew up dyslexic. I was in every learning disability class my whole life. I was ashamed of it. I couldn’t read until I was 14. Now I speak three languages. I read books pretty much every single day. And now I’m influencing and motivating other folks to be the best that they can be. And here’s the thing, you can do it too. You don’t have to be special. You don’t have to be the valedictorian of the class. Like success is not reserved for that special person. It’s reserved for the guy that’s willing to go out there and get to work and make it happen and not care what anybody thinks when you make a mistake.
Neil Dudley: Johnny yeehaw again. I mean, this stuff is so awesome. I hope people just grab it up and take it and use it. If not, it’s just going to be sitting there in the back of your mind so it’ll come to the front when you do need it, when you’re ready for it. One thing I wanted to touch on and I heard, I keep bringing up Jesse Itzler, Gary V, some of these guys. Jesse put something in a podcast I was listening to, he said I schedule my family and the things we want to do in my calendar first before- it’s totally blank, I put all that in there. Then everything else has to come in around that. I need to do that in my life. I don’t do that nearly good enough because I almost just hope I can find a hole in the schedule to put some family stuff in. So, we’re going to definitely target that as an improvement in the Dudley household.
Tyson Durfey: And here’s the thing, like for me, once every two weeks I go out on a daddy-daughter date with my four-year-old. It’s pretty much every two weeks it happens. My wife and I try to take a date once a month. It really should be every two weeks, but with both our schedules, kids, we’re about to have our third child, like it just sometimes doesn’t get there. But it’s so right. That’s why in my list of priorities, it’s faith, it’s family, and then it’s business. And you really get to see what a man or a woman truly, they’re truly chasing if you look at their schedule. If it’s work, work, work, work, work, work, work-
Neil Dudley: Church on Sunday, work, work.
Tyson Durfey: Work, work, work. Well, what about your family? Don’t you know your wife’s going to leave you at some point because she’s going to get sick and tired of it. She’s going to find passion somewhere else. The two things that women absolutely have to have; women have to have security. They got to know that they can be secure within their relationship and financially, and they got to feel a little bit of affection and passion. It’s not always going to be there when you have kids screaming all over you and changing diapers, but they got to know that you care about them, you love them, did you write them a note? And guys I’m saying this to you because I have to work on this. A man has to feel like the man. He needs his wife to come up to him sometimes and say, you know what? That was a- you’re awesome. You did a great job today. Thank you so much for that. Thank you for taking control of this situation that I was in. Like the man has to feel like the man. If the man doesn’t feel like the man and the woman doesn’t find security and affection, there’s going to be problems sometimes, at a point. I know this because of all I’ve read, and my parents were divorced when I was little and I watched a lot of rocky relationships, and they never saw it. They didn’t see that pattern that just kept coming back around. And listen, guys, my wife and I have been dating- we’ve been dating for 10 years, even though we’re still married, but we’ve been dating for 10 years, and I still got a lot to learn. I know there’s people out there saying, well, I’ve been married for 20 or 30 and that’s awesome because I want to learn from you. I want to figure out how you made it, did you thrive or did you survive? Like I want to learn how to like thrive through it, and it’s not easy. And every marriage has difficulties at some point. And it’s a lot of work, but for me, it’s always faith, family, then business. I set time aside for my family. I listen to at least one to two sermons every single day. My faith time is prayer and listening to sermons. I should read scriptures more, but it’s so much easier for me to put my headphones in and really like focusing on a sermon.
Neil Dudley: Great insights there. I was just listening on the drive up to talk to you to a podcast called the Church of Eleven and they were studying the song of Solomon and it started about what a man’s job is in a relationship, then it’s going to talk about the women. Anyways, I’m excited about one of the guys I am in the men’s group at our church with passed it along to me. Thank you, Josh [Deal]. Anyways, man, Tyson, that’s so awesome. Last thing here, I want to just see what you think the value of a dollar or a Bitcoin is.
Tyson Durfey: So a lot of people are going to shoot me for this, but the dollar is worthless. The dollar is absolutely worthless. Do you know that when they need more money, they just print more? It’s literally printed like I print on a printer there. They just print more money. Its value is nothing. The Bitcoin is going to the roof. I am currently investing in Bitcoin and Ethereum and other places like that because they are a finite limited amount. They don’t make more ever day.
Neil Dudley: Well, okay. But it’s still valued off the dollar. So how do you reconcile that?
Tyson Durfey: Well, you put it in something that the world market is going to. If you look at what the world market is going to, it is moving away from the dollar. I would be here to say that if you don’t own like some physical like silver and gold, that’s never going to go away. In my opinion, the dollar is going to be long gone, real quick. Blockchain technology and Bitcoin, Ethereum, these digital currencies will be the way of the future. And I know some of the people listening to this probably don’t know anything about that, and I don’t either, even though I’ve been studying it for a couple of years.
Neil Dudley: Why do you think I put that on the questions in every podcast, I want to know what you think about the dollar, what you think about the Bitcoin? Because I need to get educated.
Tyson Durfey: Yeah, Bitcoin is a very volatile thing. If you buy into it, it should be dollar cost averaging. Buffet talks about it a ton. It means you just buy a little bit over a long period of time, and then you average your way into it to where you don’t- Cowboys are always all or nothing. I’m all in. That’s why we love Blackjack. You know what I’m saying? It’s we are all in. And so, for me, like when I buy into Tesla, I started buying Tesla at $200 a share. It went to 2000 a share and then it split, and then it went- and it’s back up to 690 or whatever today. I’ve been buying Tesla for a year and a half, two years. And so, I just keep buying a little bit of Tesla. Because I know the battery technology is the way of the future. There will be a time very soon, probably in the next 15 years, that rodeo cowboys will be rodeoing in battery operated vehicles, not even driving themselves; somebody else will be driving them, and that someone else is probably artificial intelligence.
Neil Dudley: There’s so much value in what Tyson just said, and he’s right. Nobody really understands it all. But if you pay attention or if you’ve been living on this planet over the last few years, you’re going to know what he is talking about has a lot of value.
Tyson Durfey: If you’ve got green money buried in your backyard, you better go change that to silver.
Neil Dudley: Yeah. Dig it up.
Tyson Durfey: It’s going to be worthless.
Neil Dudley: What I think- Sure. I want all my money in a business. I mean the stock markets scare me. I’m interested in Bitcoin. I’m buying Bitcoin just because I think-
Tyson Durfey: What are you buying it on? Are you buying it on Coinbase?
Neil Dudley: Yeah, Coinbase. There’s another one that’s bigger. Anyways, Coinbase just happened to be the one that hit me with the ad. You’re talking about digital, Coinbase put the ad on Facebook at the right time, so bam Coinbase. So that’s where I’m at. I don’t own a lot, just enough to say I’m involved in it. It’s kind of why I started the podcast. I wanted to be able to say oh, this is how you do it, I know how.
Tyson Durfey: Well, cowboys need to pay attention to the technology and where things are going. It’s very, very, very important. I don’t think anybody’s putting an emphasis on it or even thinking about it. But cowboys have to put an emphasis on learning how to use technology. And I think our younger kids, they’re maybe 20 years old and younger, are going to adapt this, adopt this, and go really, really fast with this. Like every single rodeo athlete that’s well-known should have a fan club that they give special and unique advice to and that they charge a monthly fee for. Every single cowboy with a name should do that. Every single one. Can you imagine what Ty Murray would have right now if like, if he was born right now and he had a fan club. You know what I’m saying? Like every single- and then those people that are in that special club get in a live question and answers with you. They get signed autographs, they get just a whole new customer experience. Like they get closer to the actual athlete. And so, yeah, there’s a lot of ways to drum up stuff. I personally like to keep enough cash to pay the bills for six months if we went to zero and then above and beyond that, I invest.
Neil Dudley: Cool. Thanks for the insight. Tyson, man, you’re killing it out there. Keep wearing the pink shirt. Let’s talk about the pink shirt a little bit. Why did- you mentioned it earlier. Why do you wear that?
Tyson Durfey: So, I’ve been wearing a pink shirt for 12 years- 13, going on 13. I’m showing my age.
Neil Dudley: You aren’t old, you don’t even have gray hairs yet.
Tyson Durfey: I do. I don’t color, but I got them. I pluck them. Well, I’ve been wearing the pink shirt a long time. I did it for my stepmother. She had two tumors on her ovaries, and they had just come out with the tough enough to wear pink campaign. It was like a brand-new thing. And I said, you know what, Mary Beth, before you have your surgery- we found out about the tumors just before the Canadian finals in NFR. I had no sponsors that year, like hardly any. So I’m like, all right, I’m going to wear this pink shirt. I’m going to do it for you to lift your spirits up. And so, I did it and I donated 10% of the money to Susan G Komen for the Cure that year. And that was it. I was going to do it once. I was only going to do it for her. I did it 10 times or 10 rounds in a row at the national finals. People thought it was silly. People thought it was all these things. Guys made fun of me, and that’s okay, it didn’t really bother me. And the reason that it stuck was because I went to Fort Worth the next year, I had like a lot of folks come up to me and be like, hey, my mom was going through that, thank you for that, you lifted her spirits, or I lost my sister. And so, I kept hearing this over and over and over again. And then I got to Denver, and I kept hearing it from more folks at Denver. And then after that I was like, golly, maybe I should just make this an all the time thing. So, I did, I did make it an all the time thing. I had no idea that the man in pink would brand me. I did not do it for marketing ever. I did it for my mother, my stepmother, and the thing about it was I did it out of the goodness of my heart to help an individual, and it ended up branding me as the guy in pink that everybody knows. So, when I walk into-
Neil Dudley: Serve others. See, you served others and guess what happened? It turned into something I think probably great for you.
Tyson Durfey: Yeah. It’s been- It’s given more to me than I can ever give to it. I can truly honestly tell you that.
Neil Dudley: So, if you see a guy in pink at the rodeo, that’s- well, there’s a lot of guys doing it now. What I love about that is now they’re copying you, right? I mean, you just happened to luckily- well, that might be the wrong way to put it, but you’re not the copycat. You’re the original. Like we were the first people to ever put out nationally no sugar bacon. Now everybody’s doing it. Like almost every brand in the country is doing a no sugar bacon, but we’re the original, I mean, we put that on out label. I like, to me, I’m proud of- I don’t know if you’re proud of being the original, but I think it just shows everybody you were kind of doing a thing that the world wanted before the world knew they wanted it.
Tyson Durfey: Yeah. And I was doing it to be good to somebody. I was trying to help. I wanted to help. I didn’t know how to help, but I did it just to try to help somebody. And like I say, it gave more to me than I could ever give to it. And I didn’t do it to like make some money or something like that. To me, like I don’t look at money the way most people look at money. Like money doesn’t define my happiness. It’s just a means to get the influence and the things that I need and want. And if I lose some, I’ll just make more. Like it’s not this limited finite resource that is the end all be all. And with the pink shirt, like it just happened. I didn’t try to force it or try to make it. And I think that’s what happens to people when they just do good things. Like if they’re a good person, do good things, good things come back to you.
Neil Dudley: Absolutely. Yeehaw on that one too, Johnny. I mean, that’s a great thing. Serve others, do good things, and those rewards will come back to you. Hey everybody, I mean, that’s all we’ve got time for. I’m going to have to see if I can tie Tyson down another time to talk about more things sometime later down the years. I expect to be doing this for a long time for the exact reason Tyson was saying earlier, I just want to have it as a thing, if I get run over by a bus, my daughters will have, their daughters or sons would have a chance to hear what I think. Not that I’m brilliant. Just it makes me feel good, there’s a few videos of my granddad and I can just hear his voice and it brings back just a good feeling to me. So that’s why I’m doing this and I’m going to keep doing it. And I go rambling on about this kind of thing. So, everybody thank you so much for listening. We done.
Well, there we go, folks. We got another episode of the Cowboy Perspective in the books. I hope you enjoyed the conversation. Tyson, all the Durfey family, thank you so much for what you do, what you stand for, and for being a guest and giving the listeners of the Cowboy Perspective a chance to hear how you think about things and maybe put some of those thoughts into action. So, everybody, listen to it, do your thing. Tyson has a lot of good perspectives on stuff. I think it’d be valuable to use those. Go follow Tyson, keep up with him, see what he’s up to. He’s going to continually be adding things and wrinkles into your perspective.
Now, moving on to some other business, I published – published isn’t the right word – minted my first NFT a couple of weeks ago. So, if anybody’s been out there paying attention to what NFTs are, go check out my NFT. It’s going to be an experience like no other, very first version, the Cowboy Perspective logo. And along with that, you’re going to get to have a real cowboy experience with me and those cowboys that I’ve had on the podcast, quite likely several of them, doing cowboy stuff. So, if you own that NFT, you’re going to have a chance to redeem this experience. I sure hope somebody does it because it’ll be a lot of fun. If you have any questions about that, get on my website thecowboyperspective.com. Shoot me a question or a contact us form. I’ll be glad to tell you more details. Basically, you get to come out on the ranch, ride a horse, work your tail off, sweat, be sore, be tired, and do something that just not everybody gets the chance to do. I look forward to that, giving somebody that experience. And hey, thank you so much. I hope you enjoyed this little conversation between Tyson and I in his office in his barn where he makes a living being a cowboy every day. Come back next time, folks, we’ll have some more good info.
The Cowboy Perspective is produced by Neil Dudley and Straight Up Podcasts. Graphics are done by Root & Roam Creative Studio. And the music is by Byron Hill Music.