Nerds On Tap

From Projects to the President: Steve Wilmer's Trailblazing Journey in the Realm of Entrepreneurship - Part 2

• Nerds On Tap • Season 1 • Episode 6

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Tune into Part 2 of our enlightening series on Nerds On Tap featuring Steve Wilmer, who journeyed from the projects of Pensacola to becoming a renowned motivational speaker and author. In this captivating continuation, Steve opens up about his path to public speaking, starting with an unexpected break that catapulted him into professional engagements. He also unveils the ins and outs of self-publishing on Amazon, sharing actionable tips on writing, editing, and effective promotion, while highlighting the essence of content over grammar. Plus, delve into Steve's enthralling life story, a testament to resilience and following one's heart, spanning from his Navy days to Hollywood endeavors. Don’t miss this inspiring wrap-up as we dive deep into the realms of public speaking, writing, and the unwavering power of determination, all spiced up with our classic Nerds on Tap flair!

Sponsors:
Digital Boardwalk Managed IT Services
Smarter Web

Special Guest:
Steve Wilmer, President, Risk Advisor Institute and Steve Speaks

Beers in Order of Appearance:
3. Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale
4. Pensacola Original American Lager

Enter to Win one of Steve Wilmer's Books HERE!
Shop Steve's Books HERE!

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Tim Shoop:

Hey, I'm Tim Shoop. I'd like to introduce part two of our two- part podcast with Steve Wilmer. The first episode covered segments one and two, about Steve's rise through the ranks and how he used technology to do that. In this episode, we'll conclude his podcast with segments three, the Power of Public Speaking, and segment four, where we'll listen to sound bites of motivational speeches. Guess who they are and see how Steve's journey relates to either one. If you miss part one, please take the time to go back and listen to that one before listening to this one.

Tim Shoop:

Nerds on Tap is sponsored by Digital Boardwalk, one of the fastest growing managed IT service providers in America, ranked number eight in the country, providing IT, cybersecurity and cloud management to small and medium businesses, and Smarter Web, an AI and data-driven marketing company, the sister company of Digital Boardwalk, providing leading edge marketing services to small, medium sized businesses nationwide. Brief overview of our episode today we'll be talking to Mr. Steve Wilmer, sitting right next to me, and I'll introduce him in just a minute. We're going to be talking about the Power of Public Speaking and Writing, and then we'll wrap it up with a surprise segment regarding motivational speakers, and then we'll get some takeaways. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Nerds on Tap. I'm your host, Tim Shoop, and I couldn't be more excited to embark on this nerdy adventure with all of you. So grab your favorite brew, because things are about to get exciting.

Suds:

All right beer. Number three from the Lexington Brewing and Distilling Company, the Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale, american Strong Ale. It's 8% ABV, a unique-stipping beer with a distinctive nose of well-crafted bourbon aged for up to six weeks in freshly-decanned bourbon barrels with some of Kentucky's finest distilleries. Subtle flavors of vanilla and oak, presently smooth and robust.

Tim Shoop:

All right, let's taste this bad boy. Did you catch up? He just downed number two, so we're going to make him this one's a little bit darker. I don't know about that one, hey.

Steve Wilmer:

I'm okay with a little bit darker.

Suds:

Yeah, whoa, there we go.

Tim Shoop:

Oh he just shot that. That's not a shooter. Well, it is now. You liked it, but I do like it. Yeah, that's definitely my favorite one so far. That's nice. It's got a lot of tones in it, a lot of different, kind of a nutty almost.

Steve Wilmer:

That was nice, it's like a nutty flavor.

Suds:

A little, orange a little nut, I don't know the most more twang, but flavorful yeah. More flavorful. Well, I heard you like bourbon, so like that's why I got that one hey there you go, bourbon and whiskey.

Steve Wilmer:

Love it Love it.

Tim Shoop:

We almost brought bourbon on the show, but we didn't want to get off. Brand Cancel. All right, that was a tasty beer. Let's get into segment three before we finish with our fun surprise segment. So we're going to talk about the power of the power of segment.

Tim Shoop:

Yeah, You'll see. All right. Yeah Well, you already heard part of it. All right, the power of public speaking and writing public speaking insights. We're going to. Oh yeah, I love this. I want to talk about Steve's public speaking journey, crafting Steve's speaks and the key messages that you deliver in your talk. So take it away.

Steve Wilmer:

I started public speaking on accident. I'm telling you, Tim, our journey. I don't believe it.

Steve Wilmer:

Bro, BNI, not B&E, but BNI, BNI Business Network International. They voted me the president. And what does the president do? Every single week Speaks the president, gets up, steve speaks In front of a group of people and welcome people. That's how I started. So every week I'm doing that, I'm doing it, I'm doing it. And then I started doing small B&I presentations. Remember Visitor's Day? Oh yeah, I started doing small presentations. And here's how it started I wasn't even thinking about speaking and Mary Riesburg came up to me and she says to me where did you learn how to do that?

Steve Wilmer:

And I said do what? What are you talking about? She says you're speaking, you're this and that, and I'm John Maxwell certified and all this stuff. And I said I don't know, I just speak, yeah. And she was talking about how she's seen speakers and no one can speak the way I speak, and y'all. And then here's how I started getting paid. I'm speaking one day for free, because I wasn't even thinking about being a speaker. I was going to be a State Farm agent. I wasn't thinking about speaking. And somebody said this to me how much would you charge me to come and speak to?

Tim Shoop:

our group.

Steve Wilmer:

Money talks, Steve speaks Charge and bro, that's how it started, so wait wait, hang on.

Tim Shoop:

Let's go back to B&I. So the one thing I remember about B&I is when Steve speaks. Or Steve spoke, we would be buzzing him constantly because he couldn't stop. That's what I remember.

Steve Wilmer:

So you got to learn that when you're a professional speaker, you got to stay on, mark man, I'm telling you, you learn. You learn so much when you are a speaker and somebody's paying you because I see this happen a lot and you are being paid to speak an hour, you speak 50 minutes. You're being paid to speak for an hour and a half. You better speak for an hour and 15 minutes. You want to leave that extra time? You want to leave?

Tim Shoop:

that Q&A you want to leave that.

Steve Wilmer:

Q&A. You want to make sure, and it's always so. I'm giving away some secrets here. The reason that you want to do that is you always want to be invited back. So if a company hires you to speak for an hour and a half or an hour, you speak for 45 minutes. It's always guys, I don't have a lot of time, got so much information to give you, but today I just don't have a lot of time to give you all this information. Maybe if we see each other, if you give them every single thing yeah, you're just trying to Real men, I'm just telling you, for those of you who want to be a speaker, I want you to remember the two most important rules to be in a speaker. Here's rule number one you never give them all the information. Got it, I mean?

Tim Shoop:

that's like a good movie right.

Suds:

If you can leave a little to mystery right and a little questions after you watch the film, that's going to impact a lot of it.

Tim Shoop:

You could break down one talk into three talks, break it up into three. You're coming back two more times.

Steve Wilmer:

You're coming back two more times, so makes sense I love it.

Tim Shoop:

So I watched your keynote on your trip to Chicago. Did you do that?

Steve Wilmer:

earlier this year, Uh mid-September.

Tim Shoop:

Yeah, I saw that it was listed as earlier this year. It was quite compelling.

Steve Wilmer:

Man, that was a huge one. That was a huge, huge one. I absolutely loved it.

Tim Shoop:

So why do you wear your fatigues? So is that that creates the persona that you're going for, right? The hey, I'm your drill sergeant for the day. You're in boot camp. Is that what you were? I love it, um.

Steve Wilmer:

I don't remember the year, but it was one of my earlier years. I get invited to speak in Las Vegas on 9 11. Okay, wow, Las Vegas, 9, 11. And I wasn't the keynote. The keynote speaker, oh my goodness, I can't think of his name. But we've all seen the movie Uh, loan survivor. The movie loan survivor, oh yeah, it's a good one Okay. Yeah, whatever that guy's name is, I apologize, can't think of his name. He was the keynote speaker. Okay.

Steve Wilmer:

All right, but I go and I said, okay, this guy's going to be there, he's a keynote speaker. I said I got to do something. I got to do something different. Uh, I spoke on my first book, which is, you know, 10 to win, and all of everything I'm talking about is drill instructor. I'm telling stories up to Marine Corps and something said, just show up in Marine Corps, cammie's. Yeah, and I showed up in Marine Corps, cammie's. The crowd went crazy. I made somebody do pushups and they went crazy. I'm like it's just, it's just pushups. What.

Steve Wilmer:

Well, it's an opportunity though, Right, but so. So here's what I found out really quickly is that things that we go through in the military the. Navy, the Marine Corps, whatever the case would be civilians. They've never done that before and for them it's a big deal. To us it's an average day. So I made somebody do pushups. They love it. People been doing pushups every single time I speak.

Tim Shoop:

Right, that's awesome.

Steve Wilmer:

And you're right, I show up in my Marine.

Tim Shoop:

Corps. I haven't done one yet, but I will. I haven't done one yet. I did 50 this morning.

Steve Wilmer:

If you come to my boot camp, you will do. You will do pushups. That's party, but that's what. That's how it started.

Tim Shoop:

So so how do you balance? How do you balance public speaking and entrepreneurship and make it work? That's a tough. I know that's a tough one, but it.

Steve Wilmer:

Well, it's, well, actually it's. It's one in the same. How do I balance public speaking and entrepreneurship?

Tim Shoop:

We're public right now, which is taking me away from my day to day, so I guess it's similar.

Steve Wilmer:

But for me it's not because this is. I mean, I have my schedule, but this is part of what I do because it's it's a exposure right. Your level of success is determined by your level of exposure. It's called a inside reality, outside perception. Watch this, like it. Inside reality, all right, inside reality. If I were to say, tim, tell me about what you believe about digital boardwalk, you can, we're number one in this. We can do this, we can do it.

Tim Shoop:

You go through it? Yeah, I can go on and on for yeah.

Steve Wilmer:

That's the inside reality. Here's the outside perception, depending on who you're talking to. I've never heard of digital boardwalk. What are you talking about? Yeah. This company's better? Oh, digital boardwalk is the best. What is your outside perception? So my inside reality, when it comes to sales training? When it comes to sales training, I'm the best. That's the inside reality. You ask me. Oh, I'm the best.

Tim Shoop:

And what's the outside?

Steve Wilmer:

They don't know about me.

Tim Shoop:

Yeah.

Steve Wilmer:

You see what I mean.

Tim Shoop:

So you need exposure.

Steve Wilmer:

I need exposure because they don't know about me when I went to Chicago Our 34 listeners. You're 34 listeners. I need all 34 of you to share this.

Tim Shoop:

And I need you 34 listeners to share this with 34 more listeners so we can become. So what Next year? There you go 34,000.

Steve Wilmer:

There you go so that's what I mean about. So again, the entrepreneurs that are listening, the business owners that are listening your level of success is going to be determined by your level of exposure. The technology gets me exposure. Yeah Right, the people that I hire semi, which I wanna have them on as a guest, helps me get exposure, because when I went to Chicago think about it, it was 300 and something business. All business owners in there had never heard me before, man, when I tell you that my business, it was already blowing up. I couldn't even take all the on the business that I got that day.

Tim Shoop:

So what I hear is I have job security.

Steve Wilmer:

Who had oh yeah, you got job security Absolutely 100%.

Tim Shoop:

We all have job security 100%. So let's dive into your books. Let's talk about being an author and your influences. I wanna do kind of a deep dive into the themes of your books, how writing has influenced your career and thought leadership in your career and thought leadership and sales and business. How has writing kind of intertwined with your or I don't wanna say intertwined, but pulled those thoughts out of your brain, put them on page and give them to your audience and how has that impacted you as an individual?

Steve Wilmer:

So if you were to ask 100 people, would you like to write a book? Have you ever thought about writing a book? The overwhelming majority then would say yes. But then if you ask how many of you have written a book, I bet you it'll be two to 3%, two to three people.

Steve Wilmer:

I agree, and here's the cause. I was there, and here's the reason why is because you're worried about what you're gonna write. Is it? Are people gonna like it? You're worried about what I have to say. Is it gonna make sense? You're worried about what I have to say. Is it gonna be good? You're too concerned about what other people think you just gotta get it out there. You just gotta get it out there. So when I tell you it is easy, people don't believe this. It's easy to write a book.

Tim Shoop:

You know why is it so easy for people to go out and post whatever they fricking think of in the moment on social media, but afraid to write a book?

Steve Wilmer:

Do you know? That's perfect example, tim, because you could write a book on. Here are my last 100 posts and my thoughts. You can self publish it. So I know there are publishers out there that are gonna be upset at me about saying this. You don't have to get a publisher to publish a book, you can. I did not use a. I used a publisher on one book and only because I co-authored the book with someone else. My first watch this. My first two books. I self published my fourth book. I self published my fourth book makes a killing, a killing, no publisher. Number one and two do you know what book makes the least amount of money? What Book? Number three why.

Steve Wilmer:

The one where I used a publisher.

Tim Shoop:

You used a book because the funds don't go to you.

Steve Wilmer:

The front man and they it costs more to order the book, and I'm not gonna even name the publisher.

Tim Shoop:

So how did you? So is it okay to tell the audience how to print and go to print with a book without a publisher?

Steve Wilmer:

Amazon.

Tim Shoop:

Okay.

Steve Wilmer:

Amazon, I'm just. Guys are just being completely honest with you. Amazon, you write your book, you hire somebody, I hire somebody to do my pictures.

Tim Shoop:

Did you use a ghost writer?

Steve Wilmer:

No, heck, no, Every word I wrote is my word.

Tim Shoop:

Team, listen to me, I'm sorry, it's all right, it's all right, I'm hitting this because I'm hitting this dog on table, because you don't need a ghost writer.

Steve Wilmer:

Write your book. Write your thoughts. You will always be 100% correct. Do you know why they're your thoughts? It's your opinion.

Tim Shoop:

You can't be wrong in your opinion. So, ladies and gentlemen, you're taking your opinion, you're putting it on page.

Steve Wilmer:

Yes.

Tim Shoop:

You're not using a publisher and I'm sure a lot of people are gonna come out of the woodwork and hopefully comment on this out of my 34 listeners.

Steve Wilmer:

It's up to you.

Tim Shoop:

I'm telling you what I did, and so Steve's most profitable book is the one that he published himself, or he took the Amazon.

Steve Wilmer:

The three, three, I'm telling you Number one, number two and number four. Okay, number one, number two and number four my most profitable, most profitable books.

Tim Shoop:

Can you tell me the titles of one through four real quick.

Steve Wilmer:

So number one and two are motivational. So number one is 10 to win Okay. Number two nobody cares, work harder. Now, three and four are sales books. So three is supercharge your multi-line agency. It's a sales book for multi-line insurance agents.

Tim Shoop:

So it's targeted at insurance agents, where the other two were more generalized.

Steve Wilmer:

Other two were more general, but number four is only for insurance agents.

Tim Shoop:

Okay, number four, but three was your most profitable book.

Steve Wilmer:

No three was the least.

Tim Shoop:

Four was your most profitable Four. Okay.

Steve Wilmer:

Yeah, I haven't written five. The fourth one, right now I don't need to write, I don't need to write anymore, and so watch this Number one charge 20 bucks. Number two 20 bucks. Number three 25. Ah, Number four $397. Wow.

Tim Shoop:

How many pages is? I can't keep them on the shelf. Man that's awesome. So so would you mind providing our audience with a and this isn't a scripted question, this is just coming out of my brain but provide them with like a, not necessarily a step by step process, but what would they do first?

Steve Wilmer:

to write the book. Yeah, oh, I got it.

Tim Shoop:

It's the first thing that they need to do.

Steve Wilmer:

First thing you need to do is get out of your own head. That's number one, alright, alright. Number two start writing Every. Listen to me, don't worry about punctuation, that's not your job, that's the editor's job. Don't worry about punctuation, don't worry about sentence structure. Start writing every single day. You should write something. You got to decide what you want your book to be on. Come up with a couple of chapters but just continue to writing. Don't worry about should just go first. That's not your job. Your job is only to write.

Steve Wilmer:

Now, once you got everything. Now you have and I'm sure how to do this for free. You guys gonna love it. Now, once you got everything. Now it has to put to be put in structure, alright. So now I got all these pages of your random thoughts. Now you got to hire an editor. Alright. Now you got to hire somebody, maybe to do a cover or, you know, take a picture of you. You got to have somebody break it down. They can do all that for you. Somebody puts it in the format. You take all of that. You sit at the Amazon. Amazon prints my books number one and number two for three dollars and twenty five cents. That's what it costs me. Land it at my door. One book three twenty five. I sell it for twenty bucks Okay.

Tim Shoop:

And and I don't want to get ahead of you Okay, I want to, I want to let you continue with the process, but I do want to know how you promoted your book. So I'm sure that's towards the end. So let's get into that, after you keep going down this rabbit hole.

Steve Wilmer:

Right now. Let me show you how I. Let me show you how I, how I did it for free. It's gonna blow your mind. I want to say, cat, I'm not mistaken. So here's what I did you. You decide you're gonna write a book, and then you go to your friends, you go to family, you go to people that you know, and I said this I said, all right, cat, I'm a Kathleen. I said, hey, Kat, I'm gonna write a book. The name of the book is called 10 to win. Once the book is published, I'm gonna charge twenty dollars for each book. Would you do me a favor and would you pre-purchase a copy for fifteen dollars? And guess what Kat said?

Tim Shoop:

She probably said yeah. She said yes, and that helps you get on the best sellers list. She gave me?

Steve Wilmer:

no, not even about the best. Okay, no, that what you're talking about is, uh, like, amazon bestseller Right, no.

Tim Shoop:

I'm talking about.

Steve Wilmer:

That's what Quint does, all right, so I'm talking about a printed book, okay. So Kat gave me fifteen bucks, tim gives me fifteen bucks, bob gives me fifteen bucks. The whole time fifteen dollars from everybody keeps going into my account. I keep writing Ah, you got it. Okay, that's takes me. Takes me ninety days to write my first book. All right, you know how many fifteen dollars you get from people.

Steve Wilmer:

So by the time it was time to hire an editor, editor charge me X amount of dollars. Good thing I got all this money in this account, right? You see what I mean? Yeah, no, I got you Right.

Steve Wilmer:

So everything that I had to pay for the book, I already had the money and so at the end of it, amazon, I order books, all the books come, I go to Kat. Thank you so much, kat. Here's your autograph copy. I give it all these books. And then I still had I remember I still had like a hundred books left Because, again, there are only three dollars and twenty five cents. I got paid fifteen dollars for a three dollars and twenty five cent book. So I gave everybody their book. I had the money paid, everything I needed to, and then I had an additional hundred bucks that I charged twenty. You do the math Twenty dollars times a hundred. I made that money on my first book. I love that and I did it for number two and by the time I got to book number four my most profitable book it's a sales manual. I wrote that thing and had it bound in sixty days and it's printed right here in Pensacola by Tommy Armstrong. Guess where I met Tommy. I don't BNI.

Tim Shoop:

BNI. I'm telling you right now I haven't seen Tommy in a while. Oh man.

Steve Wilmer:

Tommy's business is blowing up. He'll be telling you just like your business blew up from BNI, mine his did as well. Yeah, no, I believe it?

Tim Shoop:

Um, you, so where was I going with this? So, um, printing the book? So, you, you, you collect the money. Yep, you collect the money from everybody interested in the book that hasn't been written yet.

Steve Wilmer:

Yes.

Tim Shoop:

You write the book? Yes, you put it out there. When you go to a speaking event, do you give away books?

Steve Wilmer:

I give away books, I sell, do both. So I'll sell books. So you sign them. Oh, I sign them. It's autograph, everybody is it autograph. Of course it's already autograph. So I'll sell books for twenty bucks. I'll give them away because, again, man, I could you want to talk about running a business? When I first started Tim, I thought that I was going to make a lot, a lot of money from, from selling books. Yeah, that's not where the money is, but it promotes you.

Tim Shoop:

It promotes you. It promotes who you are. What's in your brain?

Steve Wilmer:

It's uh, what's the word I'm looking for? Help me out here Um influence, influence. It qualifies you as an expert because, like I said, credibility. Thank you, that's the word I'm looking for.

Steve Wilmer:

It gives you credibility, because a lot of people want to write a book and they go I don't have the way to take the right a book and you go. You written for, oh my god, this guy's written four books. Oh my god, he's so smart. Yeah, he's so great, he's written four. But I'm like, yeah, I'm an author, I'm a four-time so so we're going to feed we're going to feed our our favorite author and speaker today, steve.

Tim Shoop:

One more beer before we go into our surprise segment and then we'll. We'll maybe talk about a couple takeaways and we'll wrap up. So, suds, take it away, let's learn about the final beer of the day. All right?

Suds:

The final beer is from our own Pensacola Bay Brewery the Pensacola original American Lager, made of the 100% American Pills and Malt combined with noble hops, delivering crisp, light and extremely drinkable beer. Perfect for the Florida summer.

Tim Shoop:

Straight forward. Good in the sun, good in the heat. I can lay by the pool and drink that one. So here's what we're going to do. Steve's down in them. We've got these little flight, these little six ounce uh flighters, and he's just shooting them like shots. That's good, and that's why he's been so speaky the last two beers. That's why we do this. We get people to open up a little more. I don't think we had to do it with Steve either way, but it's good.

Tim Shoop:

So we're going to go into our final segment. This is going to go quick, ladies and gentlemen. We are going to play some sound bites for you, steve, okay, now, you heard this first one earlier, so try to act surprised. We're going to play three sound bites of inspirational quotes, and all I need you to do is guess who it is and and maybe add your own insight to that quote. Now, this first quote is very long. There's a pause in the middle, so let the pause happen and let the quote finish before you get excited and jump on the mic. Okay, um. So with that suds, let's hear the first sound bite.

Speaker 3:

You, me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth, now go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be because of him or her or anybody.

Tim Shoop:

Cowards do that and that ain't you. It's easy to find excuses for why you're not making the move, steve, what are your thoughts about that? Who is it, by the way?

Steve Wilmer:

First off, it's Rocky Bell Boy. All right, I love it. Rocky Bell Boy, Sylvester Stallone and life. And here's my take on it real quick. So life happens to everybody. Life is going to happen. It's my second book. Nobody Cares Work Harder. And here's what I said about excuses. Excuses are the tools of the incompetent used to build monuments of nothingness, and those who specialize in the frequent use of them seldom succeed at anything else. Therefore, I have no excuses.

Tim Shoop:

I love that Damn, you're gonna love me here in a minute. But so what I like about Rocky's quote. He's an iconic character right in a movie that was one of the sequels I don't remember if it was five or six. He definitely made an impression on my childhood. He overcame all the odds to become who he was and, of course, to allow multiple sequels in the movie. But you did the same thing you overcame the odds of coming from the projects and how.

Tim Shoop:

That kinda I don't wanna say suppressed, but I think that's a word that we might use is because it kinda suppresses opportunity, I think when you're not given the same odds as maybe. Well, I came from the baby of six in an army family, so I'm not gonna. You know I'm not. My parents struggled, my parents struggled, but you know it's across the spectrum. So you know I love that.

Tim Shoop:

I love that quote, I love how it resonated with your story and I think they're synonymous oh, big time, big time. So the next one I like because it sort of describes you all right, you became a Marine, a State Farm agent, then an owner and a motivational speaker for other agents and you did all the overcoming the odds of someone who grew up in the projects of Pensacola, and the odds were against you, the guy. This guy was adopted by a man who dropped out of high school and a mother who dropped out of college. Then he himself dropped out of college to follow his dream. He's a tech, a pioneer, who allowed fate to connect the dots of his future, just like you did, steve. Listen and see if you know who this is.

Speaker 5:

Okay. You have to trust in something your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.

Steve Wilmer:

Don't know who that is.

Tim Shoop:

You mentioned him earlier in this talk, Steve.

Steve Wilmer:

No way.

Tim Shoop:

That's Steve Jobs.

Steve Wilmer:

No way.

Tim Shoop:

Yeah, steve Jobs. I haven't heard that. Steve Jobs' parents were dropouts from high school and college and they didn't want him to be. He was an adopted child. His mom wanted him to be adopted. She was giving away her child, wanted him to be adopted by a very esteemed professor or someone like that definitely someone who graduated from college. The family didn't want it. The family that he was supposed to go to didn't want him. This family took him and he was a last minute, I guess, choice through the whole adoption process. His mom found out later and was extremely upset that he didn't go to college graduates. I did not know that. And look what they did. They wanted him to go to college. So they were putting him in college because they didn't have that opportunity and he dropped out himself.

Tim Shoop:

But connect the dots. It's not about and we talked about this before history is always gonna be with you, but where you go in the future, that's solely up to you. So, steve, so what I was talking about is Steve Jobs. All the odds weren't really against him. I mean, he had a great childhood. He had great adopted parents. They weren't what his biological mother expected to raise him, but he dropped out of college and he tells other people in a keynote other students connect the dots. So what he's telling them is you're gonna connect the dots, you're gonna have a journey of your own, no matter where it takes you.

Tim Shoop:

Me personally, I always talk about how I had several chapters in my life. I had my early years, the Navy I had this post-Navy part An actor yeah, where I lived in California trying to be an actor. I was poor as dirt. I was scrounging up money on a Friday just to get a six pack of beer yes, I drank beer back then too, folks Just to get some beer. I ate tuna crackers and ramen noodles because I couldn't afford steak and I will not touch ramen noodles and tuna anymore, mainly because I remember that period and it had a psychological effect on me.

Tim Shoop:

But the dots connected. I followed the dots. I went to California to be an actor but I met two technological technology mentors that took me under their wing, kind of showed me some of the ropes, got me back into IT and I followed my dream and I wrote my first business plan while I was out there and the rest is history. But it was a course changer for me and all the dots in my life connected and when I look back every dot, I call it fate. A lot of people, if you're not religious, fate means something, because I think there is a story written for every single one of us sitting here today and we're gonna end up where we're supposed to end up and it's the journey and we're not expecting the journey as it's played out for us. I mean, we've all had our highs and lows, but we end up where we're supposed to be.

Steve Wilmer:

So you are one person away, a one relationship away from blowing up.

Tim Shoop:

Like it. So we have one more quote. I hope you can guess this last person. I really like this guy. He's motivational, his energy's crazy high and I've seen him rise through the ranks over the years. Let's see if you can guess who this is.

Steve Wilmer:

Okay. Excuses are the tools of the incompetent, used to build monuments of nothingness, and those who specialize in the frequent use of them seldom succeed at anything else. Therefore, I have no excuses. You gotta be willing to move forward. Who is that, steve? That guy's a hack. Don't listen. He has no idea what the hell he's talking about.

Tim Shoop:

I pulled that out of your Chicago talk, did you really? Yeah, and I was impressed. I'm like, alright, I see what he's doing here.

Steve Wilmer:

And, of course, those. I don't know if your listeners will believe this or not. Right, but that was not planned. Oh, it wasn't. I mean, I don't believe in excuses. Man, what you just heard me say and what you just played, all of my kids know that, do they? I make them know it, because excuses get you nowhere in life. I'm not saying that you didn't have a bad issue. I'm not saying you didn't have a bad life. I'm not saying you didn't have a bad childhood. I'm not saying that your husband didn't leave you. I'm not saying that your wife didn't cheat, that you didn't get beat. I'm not denying any of that. But the truth of the fact of the matter is this Life happens to everyone, everyone. Yours may have just been a little bit harder or a little bit different, but no one has just had a peachy king life you see what I mean.

Steve Wilmer:

Yeah, I'm not going to make a decision. Am I going to let that beat me down, keep me down, hold me down? Or am I going to pick myself up and continue to move forward? Because I hate to say this, but it's the absolute truth. The second book is nobody really cares. Nobody really cares. Do you know? When I wrote my second book is I was working for the post office. This is where inspiration came from. I was working for the post office. I get a phone call hey, your son is in the hospital. Got to go to the hospital. I go to the post office. Hey, my son's in the hospital. I go to the hospital and within 30 minutes of me being there, he died. Okay, lose the son, you're devastated.

Steve Wilmer:

You're devastated when it was done. You're devastated, you go to the funeral and everything. The job says all right, we're so sorry to hear that. When are you coming back to work? My mortgage company says oh my God, mr Wilma, we're so sorry to hear that. When can you make that payment? The electric company said we're so sorry to hear that. When's the electric bill? When can you make that electric bill payment?

Steve Wilmer:

The life kept going. I'm just being honest, life kept going and that was the trigger for me to go. Man, that was the twist. Nobody really cares. Because here's the point Other people have lost children. Somebody else's son died. Somebody else's mother died. Somebody else's daughter died. Somebody else's father died. Somebody else got raped. Somebody else did this. Somebody else lost it, somebody else. I'm telling you, I had to realize, man, I'm not that special, I'm not that special. So if this stuff is happening to every single person, what's going to be the difference? Am I going to lay down and quit and give up? Yeah, am I going to pick myself up and continue to move forward? Nobody cares, bro. You just got to work harder, you got to pick yourself up.

Tim Shoop:

Not every day is going to be peachy keen. You have got to learn to drill through it. I love that. And that comes back to wearing the thick skin, having patience and knowing that your future story is laid out for you. You just got to follow your own journey to get there. Steve, we're going to wrap up. Why don't you tell our audience? Look up at the camera and tell our audience if you have any upcoming events, how they can connect with you and any parting words you might have for our listeners.

Steve Wilmer:

Yeah, I've got an event coming up in November, but it's in Iowa and I apologize, I don't know the city. I don't probably know until my stuff gets booked. Somebody makes it. I know it's in Iowa. I'm speaking in Iowa, you're going to eat corn. Of course I'm going to be in Iowa, but that's the last event that I'll do for the year, unless somebody really wants me to you know.

Tim Shoop:

How can our audience connect with you?

Steve Wilmer:

Connect, then I'll come in December you can go to. So if you want to connect with me, you can connect with me through Facebook and I'm under Steve Speaks, so you can look that up, steve Speaks, you can also. Let's say, if you want to hear from me constantly, you can join my master class. So you can go to my website, stevespeaksmasterclasscom. Stevespeaksmasterclasscom. And you can become a member, a Patreon member. I do live videos. It's like a class Again. It's class Now, teaching what man I teach on everything From the things you heard today starting a business, writing a book, motivation, inspiration, leadership, life lessons. Just go in there and you'll see.

Tim Shoop:

Don't forget about the book giveaway. Make sure you follow our promos and check out the show. Steve wants to give you a book. Next episode. We have a wonderful person that I've known for many years, just like Steve, coming on. She's from the real estate industry yeah, yeah, the young and will be coming on, and she'll be coming on to talk about the infusion of technology in her, her rapid scale. That she's been, she's accomplished, she is blowing up, just like Steve and the rest of us. We all come from the same place.

Tim Shoop:

We've all started in the in the poise of BNI. Steve, I want to thank you so much for coming on. The show man. It's been a pleasure a new neighbor of mine as well, and we still haven't hung out in the neighborhood, so we may have to continue this beer drinking session back to Star.

Tim Shoop:

Lake so ladies and gentlemen, again Steve Speaks. You know where to find him and I appreciate you for coming. Make sure you subscribe and listen to more shows. Nerds on tap is going to blow up. Become part of the core audience that makes that happen. Thank you so much and have a great day. Third or thousand thanks, guys. Cheers my fellow nerds and beer lovers. Stay tuned for more nerds on tap. Oh, and one more thing help us spread the nerdy love and the love for grape ruse by sharing this podcast with your friends, colleagues and fellow beer enthusiasts. Let's build a community that embraces curiosity, innovation and the enjoyment of a cold one.

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Tim Shoop

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