RPF0443-Anthony_Amos_Interview
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00:00:29.800 | Welcome to Radical Personal Finance, the show dedicated to providing you with the knowledge,
00:00:36.800 | skills, insight, and encouragement you need to live a rich and meaningful life now while
00:00:41.880 | building a plan for financial freedom in 10 years or less.
00:00:45.540 | My guest today is Anthony Amos.
00:00:47.680 | Anthony, where in the world are you right now?
00:00:50.200 | Mate, we're actually in Florida as we speak.
00:00:53.000 | Ah, you're near me.
00:00:54.760 | Tampa, Florida, mate.
00:00:55.760 | Yes, I can just see you just down the road from me.
00:00:57.800 | If you come over to the east coast of West Palm Beach, let me know after this so we can
00:01:01.880 | arrange and so I can connect with you while you're here.
00:01:04.120 | But you are in the middle of a giant trip around the United States.
00:01:09.360 | You and your family are from Australia.
00:01:11.440 | You're traveling all around the United States, all 50 states and some twice over.
00:01:16.160 | Tell us what you're doing and tell us about the scope of the trip and then we're going
00:01:19.600 | to get into how you made this thing happen.
00:01:21.680 | Alrighty.
00:01:22.680 | So here's the, what you call the elevator pitch, I guess the Americans say over here.
00:01:27.760 | We are family of five, 13, 12 and 11 of the kids, girl boy, girl, beautiful wife, a little
00:01:34.440 | rescue dog and three rabbits.
00:01:36.840 | We have a 63 foot train, which is a 41 foot RV and a big blue dog on the back.
00:01:43.320 | And the big blue dog is a grooming salon that I brought over from Australia, which I'll
00:01:46.760 | get into in a minute.
00:01:48.060 | We are traveling the country, 50 states, over 150 cities, washing dogs at shelters and events
00:01:55.060 | and raising awareness for animal adoption and animal rescue.
00:01:58.580 | We want to raise a million dollars and we want to save as many dogs as we can.
00:02:02.320 | And we're talking in the thousands.
00:02:04.280 | So for the next 12 months, starting in April, we're doing our last leg of the tour.
00:02:09.400 | We've been going a little bit over the six months, finding our feet in the marketplace.
00:02:14.560 | And now that we're got our strategic partners, our sponsors, we are ready to hit the ground
00:02:19.360 | running on the 30th of April in L.A. with a Larry King red carpet event with all the
00:02:25.640 | celebrities that have got rescue dogs.
00:02:27.360 | So we're getting ready to pound the pavement, my friend.
00:02:30.240 | And so from that date, the 30th of April, at that point, you're going to go and you're
00:02:33.720 | going to do all 50 states over the following 12 months?
00:02:36.680 | Exactly.
00:02:37.680 | And we've nearly done 30 already.
00:02:39.400 | So we're going to be doubling back over more than half to to accomplish our goal.
00:02:43.160 | Really incredible.
00:02:44.160 | So you in your story, you bring together a lot of things that my listeners and I really
00:02:50.680 | love to hear about.
00:02:52.200 | You know, you're a businessman, a very successful businessman.
00:02:55.800 | You're doing this with your family.
00:02:56.980 | Your children are at a beautiful age to build family member family memories together.
00:03:01.520 | They're all involved in the work that you're doing.
00:03:04.240 | And you're not only having a giant adventure, you're doing it in a way that's in a subject
00:03:09.800 | that's very, very meaningful to you.
00:03:11.560 | So this is a perfect fit for Radical Personal Finance.
00:03:15.560 | What's your backstory?
00:03:16.840 | How did how did you come?
00:03:18.720 | You know, what was what was the path through business and how did you come to to hatch
00:03:22.160 | this idea?
00:03:23.160 | Well, let's just sort of go back to too early.
00:03:27.640 | So out of high school, I played football, which is my rugby league back in Australia.
00:03:33.020 | You guys call it rugby.
00:03:34.640 | I started at the age of five, finished the age of 30, retired when I was 30.
00:03:38.920 | But I had two professional years in there.
00:03:41.200 | I straight out of high school.
00:03:43.520 | I played professional football at 19 and 20.
00:03:48.000 | And in the offseason, when they had off seasons back then, I was really interested in wanting
00:03:54.340 | to do something on my own.
00:03:55.640 | I think the biggest thing with entrepreneurs is when you find it difficult to be told what
00:03:59.800 | to do.
00:04:00.800 | Now, there's a big difference been being told what to do and being coachable.
00:04:04.480 | People are coachable that are in turn respected the right way and valued the right way.
00:04:09.360 | But when you've been told what to do, like a dictatorship, entrepreneurs arc up about
00:04:13.200 | that.
00:04:14.200 | Now, some people are vocal about it and others just say, screw you all.
00:04:17.040 | I'll get back in my own way.
00:04:19.000 | So my biggest issue was I love the game so much.
00:04:22.400 | It was in my veins, but I just really struggled being told what to do with these particular
00:04:27.320 | trainers and coaches.
00:04:28.360 | So in the offseason, I had a garden trowel in my backyard and my brother and I went and
00:04:34.360 | bought a hydro bath, which is a dog sort of bath that you put in that you put dogs in.
00:04:39.080 | So when we went and bought one for $1,400 stuck in the back of the garden trailer, put
00:04:43.360 | an ad in the paper, rented a mobile phone and charged $10 to wash people's dogs.
00:04:47.960 | And that's pretty much how the business model for me of hydro dog actually started.
00:04:53.440 | So after a year or so, we hit the market right at the right time.
00:04:58.120 | People getting their dogs washed was unheard of in Australia.
00:05:00.520 | You just hit the old stories.
00:05:01.920 | Ah, she'll be right, mate.
00:05:03.120 | I'll just throw the dog in the dam.
00:05:04.720 | Now he swims in the pool.
00:05:05.720 | He doesn't need a wash.
00:05:07.280 | So we had to sort of break that barrier and we did.
00:05:09.920 | And in a very short period of time, we had five employees plus my round and my brother's
00:05:14.680 | round and we were killing it.
00:05:16.280 | What happened though was over a short period of time, once we got to those seven trailers
00:05:20.980 | on the road, it'd rain and the operators wouldn't get out of bed and go and work.
00:05:27.160 | They'd get drunk on Friday night.
00:05:28.400 | They wouldn't turn up on Saturday because they were hung over.
00:05:30.440 | One of the girls got pregnant.
00:05:31.600 | She literally walked away from a huge round because obviously the bub comes first and
00:05:36.560 | sort of the business.
00:05:38.800 | So we got ourselves into a little bit of trouble with these employees attitude and we realized
00:05:43.160 | that you have to have skin in the game in this particular industry.
00:05:47.200 | So long and short of it, we franchised the business and this is actually a very, very
00:05:52.640 | cool story for your listeners out there of what can really drive you in some circumstances.
00:05:57.920 | We had a goal once we reached a hundred operators.
00:06:00.660 | This is before we franchised, but we got to a hundred franchises in a very, very short
00:06:04.520 | period of time.
00:06:05.960 | And our goal was to fly to Geneva to buy Rolex and to celebrate the fact that we got a hundred
00:06:11.600 | operators on the road.
00:06:12.600 | So my motive, my motivation, this is a true story and a lot of people will relate to this.
00:06:17.800 | My motivation wasn't getting a hundred or making all the money.
00:06:22.160 | My motivation was going to Geneva and buying that Rolex.
00:06:25.440 | So my, you know, why, if you like was a bloody watch, but it was more than the watch.
00:06:31.000 | It was achieving something that was so far out of our reach, you know, coming out of
00:06:35.200 | the football world and, you know, getting in and getting our hands dirty.
00:06:38.200 | You can imagine a big bike like me, 250 pounds playing rugby and then, you know, going out
00:06:45.560 | and watching dogs.
00:06:46.560 | So we just obviously didn't care what people think.
00:06:48.800 | And we built a huge empire and was very, very successful.
00:06:51.760 | So we built, then bought the big blue dog out.
00:06:55.840 | I said to my brother one day, I said, look, I don't want to do this anymore.
00:06:59.000 | It's like I hit my goal, mate.
00:07:00.360 | I hit the hundred, got my watch and I thought, you know, I don't want to do this anymore
00:07:03.840 | because I was the one dealing with all the personalities with the franchisees and God
00:07:07.760 | bless them.
00:07:08.760 | I love them.
00:07:09.760 | It just got a lot, a lot of work.
00:07:11.120 | So my brother said, look, we're living too much money.
00:07:15.000 | We've got to be able to do something.
00:07:16.200 | So we turned it into a master franchise, which meant we sold all the states and territories
00:07:20.200 | in Australia, which is only seven in comparison to your 50.
00:07:24.720 | We did that within 18 months.
00:07:27.440 | And now all these seven were looking after all our franchisees.
00:07:30.560 | It was the perfect model for me.
00:07:32.680 | I'm now talking to sophisticated entrepreneurs that are bought into our idea, that are loving
00:07:38.400 | what they're doing.
00:07:39.400 | And we just grew rapidly.
00:07:40.520 | So again, after two years, my interest again, but that's what entrepreneurs do, mate.
00:07:45.400 | They get to a certain level that you bust the glass ceiling.
00:07:48.920 | There's nowhere else to go.
00:07:49.920 | So what do you do?
00:07:50.920 | We sell the business.
00:07:52.080 | We sold the business, mate, right before the financial crisis, the world financial crisis
00:07:57.840 | took over.
00:07:58.840 | Perfect, perfect timing.
00:08:00.120 | However, we got into property development.
00:08:02.280 | What do you do when you make a ton of money?
00:08:03.280 | Go and lose it by investing in things you have no experience in.
00:08:08.400 | That's what everybody does.
00:08:10.440 | When you get a ton of money, what do you do?
00:08:12.080 | You go and become a property developer.
00:08:14.400 | So the biggest lesson I learned, and I'm talking big.
00:08:21.120 | We're talking Ramada Resort on the North Queensland, the most beautiful water you've ever seen.
00:08:25.840 | It's a $100 million build.
00:08:27.620 | And we're really, really excited.
00:08:29.800 | But when the crisis flipped, we actually had an American company that was funding the build.
00:08:36.060 | So we couldn't pull the money out.
00:08:37.640 | We couldn't roll the money over.
00:08:39.600 | Therefore the development fell over.
00:08:42.120 | So my beautiful wife, God bless her, she said, let's go to America.
00:08:45.960 | You know, Hydroxy, this is the lesson for the listeners.
00:08:48.520 | I knew franchising and the grooming pet mobile industry like the back of my hand.
00:08:54.640 | I could have done a blindfold.
00:08:55.640 | I actually washed dogs myself for six years.
00:08:58.600 | So what that does, mate, it gives you the inside information to your business model,
00:09:05.080 | which is ground level work, hands on the tools, understanding the business principles, working
00:09:12.800 | with the clients.
00:09:13.800 | So when franchisees bought off me, I was doing what they were about to do.
00:09:18.240 | So that's why they really embraced the business model.
00:09:21.440 | Then when we became a master, we still had a master area.
00:09:24.320 | So we would just like the masters.
00:09:26.280 | And then, you know, then we sold it.
00:09:27.780 | So my wife's like, you know, this back to front, we didn't know property development.
00:09:32.680 | We got project managers, but we didn't know it.
00:09:35.160 | It was a little bit arrogant, to be honest with you.
00:09:36.960 | When you think about it, you get a sign of money, you jump into something, you know nothing
00:09:40.000 | about.
00:09:41.000 | And that was a really big lesson.
00:09:42.000 | So came to America, brought over the big blue dog.
00:09:44.600 | I found the manufacturers.
00:09:45.960 | I found my business partners and we got up and running.
00:09:48.760 | Got some really great business partners with some big capital and big things were happening.
00:09:52.340 | So it took us a year to franchise the business.
00:09:54.600 | And America is very, very different to Australia.
00:09:57.240 | Australia's got one franchise agreement that covers the whole country.
00:10:00.920 | You guys have something like, you know, 11 states are the same and the rest of them are
00:10:06.680 | individual franchise documents.
00:10:08.120 | So it's a minefield over here, completely different.
00:10:11.540 | So bring these guys together.
00:10:14.200 | And after about a year of piecing it together, mate, I went back to Australia for a funeral.
00:10:18.640 | And when I got back, the guy said, look, we've gone through this, but leaving too much money
00:10:22.440 | on the table.
00:10:23.560 | We want to corporatize.
00:10:24.560 | I went, no, you can't corporatize.
00:10:26.040 | I've told you if you don't have skin in the game, it's not going to work.
00:10:30.200 | So the long and short of it, a year and a half later, we had a buyout, by the way, and
00:10:34.640 | I started two other companies of my own and invested in a few others.
00:10:37.880 | And, you know, things are really good.
00:10:39.600 | And still to this day, I have those businesses, which are great.
00:10:42.400 | And that's a lot of those have helped with the tour, which I'll talk about in a minute.
00:10:47.640 | Anyway, so a year and a half later, they ring up and said, look, you're right.
00:10:50.360 | We're going to liquidation.
00:10:51.360 | Do you want to buy the company back?
00:10:52.360 | Now, Joshua, I've got to tell you this.
00:10:54.800 | Outside of marrying my beautiful wife and having my three kids, that is number five
00:11:00.880 | on the table.
00:11:01.880 | It's one of the most exciting, exhilarating moments of my life.
00:11:06.080 | And as far as business goes, the number one and best thing that's ever happened to me
00:11:09.360 | in business.
00:11:10.360 | When you get back your company, you know, for pennies on the dollar after starting it
00:11:15.600 | for nothing when you when I was the age of 21, it just there was something magical about
00:11:20.400 | it.
00:11:21.400 | So I get the company back and we start to work out what's the program now of how do
00:11:27.600 | we build this brand across the country?
00:11:29.440 | Now, to the kids credit, they were watching the Humane Society.
00:11:33.280 | I do know those edgy guys have got here, the tea jerkers with the celebrities talking about
00:11:37.760 | how bad it is.
00:11:39.120 | So anyway, the kids were just at the right age to really be impacted by this.
00:11:42.520 | And I went back to my beautiful wife and said, what can we do now?
00:11:45.920 | We've got HydroDog back.
00:11:47.540 | So in the middle of the night, Rachel wakes me up and I've got to be honest with you,
00:11:51.420 | I thought I was getting lucky, but no, she said, let's get a 40 foot RV.
00:11:55.340 | So I sort of lost and I sort of won at the same time.
00:11:58.220 | And we then strategize and thought, OK, well, what does this look like?
00:12:02.220 | So we literally put the big blue dog, which is on a transit van here in America, in Australia,
00:12:07.260 | they're all on trailers.
00:12:08.740 | So we converted it to a transit van so we could tow it.
00:12:11.500 | Now that's the model, which is just fantastic.
00:12:13.660 | No one has to tow anything anymore.
00:12:14.980 | It's just a big transit van, Ford transit van with a big blue dog on the back.
00:12:19.380 | And if the listeners jump on the website, they can they can see what it looks like.
00:12:23.420 | It's just it's incredible, very impacting, mind you.
00:12:26.860 | So anyway, we put the dog on the back and we commit to a year and a half because we
00:12:31.220 | just know that we've got to really sort of find out what the marketplace is like and
00:12:36.740 | we want to raise a million dollars.
00:12:38.200 | So I'll tell you this, this is a really good example.
00:12:41.060 | I've been in the pet industry for 20 years and I haven't been in the rescue industry.
00:12:46.980 | I was very naive thinking that there was a crossover and there wasn't.
00:12:52.160 | The rescue world and adoption world is a completely different beast.
00:12:56.220 | It's political organizations are fighting against each other.
00:13:00.180 | You've really got to get your right medium with the right people.
00:13:03.380 | In the moment that we became partners with the greater good dot org and dot com, that
00:13:08.060 | really changed everything, because now we know who are the right people, the right people's
00:13:12.100 | intentions and, you know, it's a doggy doggy world out there.
00:13:15.260 | I'm telling you, it's it's a really tough environment.
00:13:17.460 | So now we've got that in place.
00:13:18.980 | Then we've got wild pets that come on to support a strategic partners.
00:13:23.160 | And now we've got all these incredible sponsors that have come on board that you can see on
00:13:27.660 | the side of the bus and see in the right up when you jump on the website, which is just
00:13:30.700 | really, really amazing.
00:13:33.300 | So anyway, we get on this journey, 50 states, you know, over 150 cities and we get on the
00:13:38.900 | road and I'm telling you about the trials and tribulations of just trying to find our
00:13:44.260 | feet.
00:13:45.260 | We were chasing the media.
00:13:46.260 | I tell you one thing about social media today.
00:13:48.740 | You remember the old saying, build it and they will come.
00:13:52.700 | That was that was Rome, right?
00:13:55.460 | I know firsthand that that does not exist anymore.
00:13:59.260 | Social media was our nemesis.
00:14:00.900 | Everyone loved what we were doing.
00:14:02.100 | Can you imagine five Australians in a big RV traveling around the country with a big
00:14:05.780 | blue dog?
00:14:06.780 | It's never been done before in the history of America.
00:14:09.940 | Yeah.
00:14:10.940 | How exciting.
00:14:11.940 | So everyone's on board, but no one wants to commit because we've got 300 followers on social
00:14:16.220 | media.
00:14:17.220 | Right.
00:14:18.220 | And what we should have done is we should have built the story before we built the actual
00:14:23.420 | adventure itself.
00:14:24.700 | So people could get behind and do some social media posts and get people interested enough
00:14:28.900 | to see when when's a launch going to happen?
00:14:31.020 | How's it going to work?
00:14:32.260 | But we did it the hard way.
00:14:33.260 | But you know, when I look back and I think about us pounding the pavement like we did,
00:14:37.380 | we chased all the Fox Morning crews.
00:14:39.780 | They'd come out and they do their little interviews with us and it ended up giving us some great
00:14:43.940 | exposure.
00:14:44.940 | But that's when the greater good have gone.
00:14:46.100 | Look at the commitment that these guys are doing.
00:14:48.380 | They're driving all across the country.
00:14:49.740 | I mean, we drove from Vegas to Knoxville within thirty three hours to get to an event and
00:14:54.540 | made it by forty five minutes.
00:14:56.620 | And these people look at these guys.
00:14:58.980 | You know, they're really making a big difference by, you know, getting out there and putting
00:15:02.900 | everything on the line to get to these media.
00:15:04.820 | So now we don't have that people coming to us now about the events and having this what
00:15:10.260 | we're calling our our launch, if you like, in L.A. with Larry King.
00:15:15.640 | We did a great interview with Larry King up in North Carolina.
00:15:18.300 | It was such a wonderful experience.
00:15:20.060 | We had Larry King in our RV interviewing the family.
00:15:23.340 | Right.
00:15:24.340 | Can you can you imagine like growing up as a kid?
00:15:26.620 | We first interviewed Roosevelt like the first president.
00:15:30.500 | He's interviewed every president since Roosevelt.
00:15:32.620 | And Larry King is in our RV interviewing us about our expedition over the next year and
00:15:37.540 | a half.
00:15:38.540 | Now, I've got to tell you, mate, that that was one of those things that I can say to
00:15:42.020 | the kids and my wife is we've done something that's so impacting from a from a guy like
00:15:48.020 | that.
00:15:49.020 | So with that, his business partner, Philip, who's a great guy, working together on a reality
00:15:54.580 | show and doing this red carpet event that's going to unfold on the 30th of April in L.A.
00:15:59.940 | and bringing all the celebrities with their dogs and, you know, adoption and rescue and
00:16:04.460 | all that sort of stuff.
00:16:06.100 | And that's when we're going to do our launch from that day for 12 months.
00:16:09.100 | And then we'll just branch out and do the 50 states and get ourselves around the country.
00:16:13.480 | So we're really now created a wonderful platform to have a bigger impact than than initially
00:16:19.940 | thought.
00:16:20.940 | That is an incredible story.
00:16:22.220 | And what I love about it is especially with regard to my audience, it brings together
00:16:26.900 | your own personal focus, your own personal business and your work there to help build
00:16:32.060 | your business.
00:16:33.060 | Because am I understanding you correctly that you're still running your businesses, all
00:16:37.060 | of them from the road while you do this adventure?
00:16:40.300 | I do.
00:16:41.300 | And what's happened since then is this.
00:16:43.380 | Let me tell you how committed I am to the to the 12 months that's coming up.
00:16:47.900 | I've jumped back into some of the ones that are very time consuming.
00:16:51.700 | I've got my partners to step up and take them to the forefront.
00:16:55.340 | And I said, give me 12 months.
00:16:56.540 | I've got to be totally dedicated to this tour and everything will overflow from the exposure
00:17:02.740 | from that.
00:17:03.740 | I mean, we get this reality show that becomes a reality.
00:17:06.860 | That's a game changer that that turns everything into, you know, our opportunity of raising
00:17:11.400 | the money and getting some great exposure for the businesses will just go through the
00:17:14.540 | roof.
00:17:15.540 | So I've said to the guys, I really want to make this a focus.
00:17:19.340 | This is what I learned in the early days.
00:17:21.380 | If you have one business that you're really, really good at and you give it everything
00:17:26.280 | you've got.
00:17:27.280 | And I remember I remember a statement where someone said, if you had five seedlings and
00:17:33.220 | one bucket of water and you fed them each day, they would grow to a certain height.
00:17:37.700 | But if you had one seedling with one bucket of water, that seedling would end up being
00:17:41.820 | five times the size of the trees in comparison.
00:17:45.280 | So HydroDog was the only thing I had for 10 years.
00:17:48.820 | I just gave it everything I got.
00:17:50.820 | We made a lot of money and again, but then we went into property, which is still on this
00:17:53.980 | same example.
00:17:55.860 | But I didn't divert from what I knew.
00:17:57.860 | Then coming over here into the US and getting the buyout that I did, I went into all these
00:18:00.720 | other businesses because I'd already got to that level.
00:18:03.960 | So now I'm wise enough, if you like, and I'm able to use the partnerships and leverage
00:18:09.300 | and all the all the wonderful lessons I've learned all the way.
00:18:12.220 | I was in a position to be able to do that.
00:18:14.320 | But now fast forward it to the tour.
00:18:16.500 | I have to give it everything that I've got now and everything else just has to take a
00:18:21.140 | little back seat because I know the value in having that one water can with that one
00:18:25.020 | seed.
00:18:26.020 | Now, the commitment that I've actually given, I'm an Australian.
00:18:28.860 | I love to have a drink one day a week after working Monday to Friday, my bum off.
00:18:33.860 | I would then have a drink on Friday or Saturday and really give it some, really have a big
00:18:37.940 | night and, you know, get on the piss as we would say in Australia.
00:18:42.060 | I've given that up for 12 months deliberately so I can have seven days a week focus on on
00:18:47.760 | the tour itself.
00:18:48.760 | A, it takes the drinking day away and B, it takes the hangover away.
00:18:51.320 | So I'm now fully focused 100 percent seven days a week with the family.
00:18:56.400 | And I think that's a really good example that I'm showing not just to the family, but to
00:19:00.780 | also the business people that are involved in what we're doing.
00:19:03.940 | And that is you've got one crack at this.
00:19:05.780 | You've got 12 months from April to really make haywire the sun shines and sacrifice
00:19:10.980 | everything else and put it into perspective and not look at all the other businesses and
00:19:15.140 | just really concentrate on this tour because the overflow from this might will be hydro
00:19:20.820 | dog will come out of the gates.
00:19:22.820 | We'll be selling these franchises across the country where we have developed relationships
00:19:26.340 | with the shelters, the events that we've dovetailed into and also created.
00:19:31.960 | And when we finished the tour, we didn't want it to finish.
00:19:35.260 | And the legacy of the Bay of the Saved Tour is we've created such a noticeable mark on
00:19:41.420 | this planet that people will start thinking about adoption.
00:19:44.980 | It will start thinking about animal rescue.
00:19:47.380 | Now, hydro dog will come into each one of those areas and then back up what we're doing
00:19:52.940 | and had that franchise in that area with the relationships that we've created.
00:19:56.540 | So think about this for a number.
00:19:58.420 | There's 200 of these big blue dogs in Australia.
00:20:00.980 | Let's just say there was 200 of them here in America and each one of those blue dogs
00:20:05.500 | say one dog a life once a month.
00:20:08.940 | That's 200 dogs we'd be saving every month here in the US at an absolute minimum for
00:20:15.060 | ever.
00:20:16.060 | So the Bay of the Saved Tour might finish in 12 months, but the hydro dog will create
00:20:21.180 | the Bay of the Saved legacy forever while that franchise is alive.
00:20:24.820 | How cool is that that we can do that ongoing once this tour finishes?
00:20:28.740 | Absolutely.
00:20:29.740 | And what's awesome about the story is not only with your personal example with the children
00:20:35.460 | of saying, "Okay, I'm giving up alcohol so I can be fully focused," which does set a
00:20:39.380 | great example.
00:20:40.540 | In addition to that, they're fully involved in the work of this.
00:20:44.260 | That was one thing I was so happy to see when I met you.
00:20:47.180 | I was at a podcasting conference and I didn't meet you first.
00:20:50.140 | I met your children.
00:20:51.140 | I met your younger two, which were 12 and 11 year old.
00:20:56.700 | I met your 12 and your 11 year old first, and here they are at a table full of adults
00:21:00.820 | telling the adults what they're doing and telling them about their project.
00:21:04.580 | So you've created an incredible opportunity to really engage with them, teach them business
00:21:09.740 | skills, teach them marketing skills, involve them in every step and to do it in a very
00:21:14.080 | family integrated way, which I love.
00:21:17.700 | Well I'm so glad you brought that up because this is the bottom line.
00:21:21.020 | They're not along for the free ride.
00:21:22.520 | These kids are part of the ecosystem and what they bring to the table are elements, and
00:21:27.540 | I'm not exaggerating when I say this, are elements that my wife and I couldn't do with
00:21:33.260 | everything that we've got going on with creating this tour because there are so many moving
00:21:37.180 | parts, but what they contribute and how hard they work, plus they've got school on top
00:21:42.100 | of that.
00:21:43.340 | This is another great part of the story.
00:21:44.780 | They do what's called School of the Air back to Australia, which is a curriculum for the
00:21:48.940 | kids in the outback that can't actually get to a school.
00:21:51.940 | So they're learning the Australian curriculum and they have a couple of tutors here in the
00:21:56.460 | US to make sure they stay on track with that.
00:21:58.580 | But listen, on top of that, the way that they get to the events, they wash the dogs, they
00:22:03.620 | communicate with the customer, they text them when the dog, it's time for their bath, they
00:22:08.060 | take the money, they have the conversations, and then there's the cleaning up of the RV
00:22:12.500 | and setting up of the RV and the dog.
00:22:14.380 | And then my son Austin, he's only 12 and he'll take the big blue dog off the back and maneuver
00:22:19.100 | it around so I can actually move the bus around and everybody's in this together.
00:22:22.940 | I think what they're learning is work ethic.
00:22:25.820 | They're also learning what it's like to be an entrepreneur because there's so many variables
00:22:30.700 | at the end of the day that goes wrong.
00:22:33.780 | We have some pretty awesome times, but it gets stressful having a small family, the
00:22:39.940 | 200 square foot home.
00:22:41.740 | I'm telling you, there are days where we want to kill each other, but what we're doing overrides
00:22:47.220 | the days because everybody has their challenging days.
00:22:50.180 | And it's how you look at those challenges that makes the difference for us to say, "All
00:22:54.580 | right, what are we going to do to make that little bit better or make it work?"
00:22:57.540 | But for them to understand how to minimize, work out what we really have to have as a
00:23:02.940 | bare minimum to make all this work as far as clothes and the kids aren't playing sports,
00:23:08.620 | they're not around their normal friends.
00:23:10.820 | They're sacrificing a lot as well, but I think one of the biggest things I know that my wife
00:23:15.780 | and I are contributing to this is an example when I was up in North Carolina, there was
00:23:19.820 | a guy actually working in the restaurant and I love telling the story so people can follow
00:23:25.820 | us with what we're doing.
00:23:27.580 | And he said, "Well, where's your favorite place?"
00:23:29.140 | I said, "Oregon."
00:23:30.140 | He said, "Where?"
00:23:31.140 | I said, "Pacific."
00:23:32.140 | And he finished my sentence and he said, "City."
00:23:34.660 | I went, "Yes."
00:23:35.660 | He's a 50 year old bloke that turned into a 10 year old how passionate he was about
00:23:40.180 | growing up in Oregon with his grandparents.
00:23:42.540 | And he explained everything that was there that I had just gone through, running up the
00:23:46.260 | dunes and being on the restaurants on the beach and having a fire on the beach.
00:23:49.740 | It was just incredible.
00:23:50.900 | And then a light globe went off in my head.
00:23:53.180 | These kids are going to go to the minimum of every single state in the country.
00:23:56.580 | They're going to go to hundreds of cities and they're literally going to go through
00:23:59.700 | towns and places that some of the average Americans won't even go to.
00:24:03.940 | Now when they get older and they hear an American accent anywhere in the world, they're going
00:24:08.140 | to be able to go up to them and say, "Where are you from?"
00:24:10.300 | They're instantly going to have rapport and a conversation with somebody.
00:24:13.620 | Now you think of the value of that when you're growing up and you're at a dinner table or
00:24:16.980 | you're at a bar or you're somewhere magical and you hear that accent and you know that
00:24:22.500 | you've got information that can create a conversation.
00:24:24.740 | I think that's a really valuable tool.
00:24:26.740 | - Yeah, it's huge.
00:24:27.740 | Man, I can't wait to, I want to talk to you in a year and hear how they've changed.
00:24:31.060 | But six months in, what changes have you seen in them over the last six months so far?
00:24:38.260 | - I think it's their maturity level.
00:24:40.060 | I mean, they're little adults.
00:24:43.620 | I'm probably the most immature out of all of them, to be honest with you.
00:24:46.500 | They've really got their shit together.
00:24:48.660 | They know how to really talk on a personal level with people.
00:24:53.780 | They're very engaging.
00:24:54.780 | They're very respectful.
00:24:55.780 | They're not afraid to talk in front of the camera.
00:24:58.700 | They know their information that they can deliver.
00:25:01.980 | They've become very compassionate with the circumstances that we've been involved in
00:25:06.140 | because even though we're doing a great thing in saving lives, there are times where little
00:25:10.620 | dogs don't get saved while we're there and the kids get heartbroken about that because
00:25:14.900 | they want to save every single dog that we see.
00:25:17.540 | So there's a lot of that emotional content that they've had to harden as well.
00:25:21.860 | And I think when you see five dogs and three dogs get rescued and there's two that are
00:25:26.620 | left behind, and sometimes we don't know whether they do or whether they don't, they get in
00:25:30.500 | the bus and they have a little bit of a cry to themselves.
00:25:32.420 | And going through that process is, I think, giving them a wonderful tool of understanding
00:25:37.700 | the levels of emotion and how you can't save every dog, but you've still got to remember
00:25:41.580 | you're doing something that's great.
00:25:44.100 | Yeah, absolutely.
00:25:45.740 | With regard to the finances of the trip, I want to hear as much or as little as you want
00:25:51.740 | to share.
00:25:52.740 | Respect your right to privacy.
00:25:53.740 | But you're doing this in a way that I think is so remarkable in that you're seeking to
00:25:59.700 | raise a million dollars and I assume is that going to be donated to charities or I'd love
00:26:04.180 | to hear what you're going to do with that.
00:26:05.580 | You're also using this as a foundation for personal marketing of the business.
00:26:10.460 | There's a huge potential opportunity there, but this is obviously a lot of money to get
00:26:15.380 | this rig set up and a lot of personal investment.
00:26:19.820 | How did you arrange the finances of this?
00:26:22.580 | Well, I think when you look at the million dollars that's getting raised now, that's
00:26:27.500 | money that is all in donations and that people actually put back through the Greater Good.
00:26:34.340 | So the greatergood.org is our 5013C and everything that we make from the raising of the money
00:26:41.140 | at the event, washing the dogs and online adoption programs that they do all goes back
00:26:49.060 | to them and that's the money that's going to tick over the counter for.
00:26:52.660 | And just real quick, I want to clarify, you guys come into a town, you set up a big event
00:26:56.700 | that you publicize locally, you bring people in, they pay to have their dogs washed by
00:27:02.940 | volunteers and by your children and you and then that money is what's being donated to
00:27:07.340 | greatergood.org?
00:27:08.340 | Yep, 100% of that money goes back to them.
00:27:11.340 | But also before we get to that event, the greatergood.org will go out and put out a
00:27:15.580 | program of people to donate when we get to that particular town.
00:27:19.300 | So with the customization of Facebook and other avenues where they can target people
00:27:24.540 | who live in those areas, they then come online and they donate $5, $10, $20 and before you
00:27:28.900 | know it, it's in the thousands.
00:27:30.020 | So that's a combination of that in both.
00:27:32.420 | Now the second component is for the tour.
00:27:35.900 | 100% of the money that's done that goes through our e-commerce and anything related to that
00:27:41.660 | goes towards the tour itself, which is the fuel and the accommodation.
00:27:46.380 | Everything you can imagine, we've built up this e-commerce now with a great platform
00:27:50.740 | that all of those fundings, 100% of that goes towards the tour.
00:27:54.980 | But up until now, we've been completely self-funding the whole process.
00:27:59.420 | I mean, we've got some business partners in as well that have wanted to get a bit of equity
00:28:03.780 | in the game, but we've also pretty much financed through other companies the whole thing right
00:28:09.420 | until now.
00:28:10.420 | But now it's time to turn it into, look, we've tested and measured the marketplace.
00:28:13.900 | Now we've got people that can come in and be confident, especially the sponsors, of
00:28:19.340 | getting a return on investment with national exposure and social media marketing and all
00:28:24.220 | that sort of thing.
00:28:25.220 | We've really ironed out all the bugs for people to come in and to take great advantage, especially
00:28:29.900 | if we get on this reality show and the Larry King event and what have you.
00:28:34.460 | They're going to get some incredible national coverage.
00:28:37.220 | So we've got a handful of sponsors left that I want to tie up before the 30th of April
00:28:41.620 | and that'll just solidify.
00:28:42.620 | And I don't have to worry about it after that.
00:28:44.300 | We can just get on with the business and create some real magic.
00:28:47.980 | As a business person, I'd like you to talk to the process of getting sponsors because
00:28:52.540 | this is something I think many people could use, especially if people maybe don't have
00:28:58.100 | as much money as they'd say, "I'd love to take 18 months and travel around with my children
00:29:02.900 | all around the United States."
00:29:04.460 | People could use it, but it's a business.
00:29:06.260 | You've got to put up first.
00:29:07.380 | You've got to be able to get exposure for a potential sponsor.
00:29:11.240 | And so if you can take a skill set that is a real skill, like marketing, building a platform,
00:29:16.740 | attracting attention, and you can monetize that skill set through sponsors with an epic
00:29:23.220 | adventure like this, but you've got to recognize that you've got to bring huge value to the
00:29:28.220 | sponsors.
00:29:29.220 | As an entrepreneur, talk about that process since you're right in the middle of it and
00:29:32.100 | teach my audience how they can go and do something similar.
00:29:35.740 | Well, the example I use before I'll go into more detail is that when we started with 200
00:29:41.740 | followers, I thought if we get five or six sponsors to completely fund this, we'll be
00:29:47.100 | on our way.
00:29:48.200 | But no one did because no one saw any effort put in.
00:29:51.380 | We just came up with an idea, wrapped a big bus and said, "All right, let's go come on
00:29:54.740 | board and get some national coverage."
00:29:56.700 | It didn't work like that.
00:29:57.700 | We made, I promise you when I say this, it's going to almost look like this is a made up
00:30:03.020 | story.
00:30:04.020 | When I told you we went from Vegas to Knoxville for that one event, we then drove from Knoxville
00:30:09.220 | to New York for one event, we then drove from New York to LA for one event.
00:30:16.580 | That's what, a thousand bucks of fuel?
00:30:18.740 | Mate, I'm telling you, but the thing was I reckon I'm the only person that can drink
00:30:22.740 | a five-hour energy drink and get 10 hours out of it.
00:30:26.020 | I absolutely pounded the pavement because we were following the media.
00:30:30.240 | We were getting on the Fox morning shows where they did live segments with us.
00:30:34.180 | We'd turn up there at 4.30 in the morning.
00:30:37.500 | They'd come out at 5.30.
00:30:38.500 | We'd get all, we'd go there the night before and wake up in the morning, have a quick shower
00:30:42.580 | and come out and do the interview.
00:30:44.300 | Then we went from LA, we were right up into Sacramento and we went all the way back down
00:30:49.900 | to what's the place I'm trying to think of, which is down the bottom, the ones that got
00:30:57.420 | the most beautiful weather in the country.
00:30:59.180 | San Diego.
00:31:00.180 | Went down to San Diego, did an event down there, then drove all the way up to Seattle.
00:31:05.680 | This is all after one event or following the morning shows with the news.
00:31:11.380 | Then we drove all the way up to Seattle.
00:31:13.120 | This was the turning point and this is how we were rewarded, I believe.
00:31:16.760 | The greatergood.com were in Seattle.
00:31:19.060 | They came out, they did a Facebook live with the kids and we went viral.
00:31:23.580 | The very next day we did a morning show and the same thing happened.
00:31:27.840 | At that event, after that morning show, people were asking the kids for autographs.
00:31:32.180 | That was the whole turning point.
00:31:33.740 | The reason I share that is when we started, we wanted people to bring sponsorship dollars
00:31:40.060 | to the table because we had an idea.
00:31:43.500 | No one wanted to jump on board.
00:31:44.500 | Everyone loved the idea, but no one would commit.
00:31:47.020 | Now we get to that story after traveling all of those miles and just going for one event
00:31:52.780 | and chasing the media.
00:31:54.460 | People could see the effort that we were making.
00:31:56.740 | People could see the time that we were taking.
00:31:58.980 | People could see and work out the money that it was costing us to do that.
00:32:03.060 | They were going, "You know what?
00:32:04.260 | If they're prepared to sacrifice all of that as their family, then we should take a chance
00:32:10.660 | on these guys of us getting involved."
00:32:13.180 | That going viral was a reward of all the hard work we put in.
00:32:16.940 | People started to take us seriously.
00:32:18.540 | We then get on the Rachel Ray Show.
00:32:20.300 | We then get on the Larry King Show.
00:32:22.020 | We then get this red carpet event and the reality show.
00:32:26.860 | All of that started a steamroll and all the sponsors started to come out of the woodwork
00:32:31.460 | and coming to us to be a part of it because they saw the effort and the energy and the
00:32:37.260 | commitment that we were putting in.
00:32:39.420 | My advice to anybody out there that wants to do this, you have to prove your worth first.
00:32:44.460 | You can't write on the coattails of your previous success.
00:32:47.860 | That's what I did.
00:32:48.860 | I was very naive and I thought, "Who's not going to want to invest in me?
00:32:51.820 | I've already been there, done that, and created one of the largest franchise systems in the
00:32:55.420 | world.
00:32:56.420 | People are going to ..." They did, but they're like, "You've got 200 followers.
00:32:59.260 | How do we ... Yeah, but it's going to grow as we ... Yeah, we know, but how long is that
00:33:02.580 | going to take?"
00:33:03.580 | Now, we've got 100,000 across the board of Hyderdog and Baidu.
00:33:07.100 | That's what we're starting with this time.
00:33:08.700 | We are starting with 100,000 followers and people that want to be a part of this tour
00:33:13.860 | in April.
00:33:14.860 | Now, it's a different game changer.
00:33:17.020 | Anybody looking at to do this, you really have to show your commitment and your worth
00:33:22.780 | to add the value first.
00:33:24.940 | If you don't add that value, then people aren't going to take you seriously.
00:33:28.300 | Yeah, no question.
00:33:32.420 | What is your work ... Preliminary question.
00:33:35.180 | Do you schedule time for fun on this trip?
00:33:37.700 | Have you been going to any national parks, doing any sightseeing, or has it just been
00:33:41.540 | 100% work the whole time?
00:33:44.780 | Sadly enough, it's been 100% work and we've tried to fit in bits and pieces.
00:33:49.420 | If you have a look at our Facebook stuff, we try to get in some pieces, but this time,
00:33:56.740 | we are scheduling in things so we can turn it into not just the Baidu Save Tour, but
00:34:01.580 | also so people can live vicariously through the kids of going to some landmarks and fitting
00:34:07.820 | in that time and splitting it into two pieces.
00:34:11.020 | We've got the tour where we're going to raise the money and we've also got the educational
00:34:15.120 | component of going to all the landmarks around the country.
00:34:18.420 | The answer is, it's pretty much been 100% work with little pieces in between of trying
00:34:23.420 | to do that, but now it's going to be a balance of both.
00:34:25.940 | It's going to reward the efforts of just making this next one so tight with the events that
00:34:30.940 | we're going to be able to enjoy ourselves as well.
00:34:33.460 | How do you schedule your days in order to, you're with your family, that makes it a real
00:34:37.980 | challenge to do work, but yet you're also, how do you schedule your days to actually
00:34:43.540 | get work done in unique living circumstances like this?
00:34:47.420 | I'll tell you what, it's been so challenging because we don't have a, what's the word I'm
00:34:56.500 | looking for?
00:34:57.500 | A routine.
00:34:58.500 | There's no routine and I know that humans need a routine to be able to get things very,
00:35:04.460 | very productive, but without having a routine, you have to fly off the seat of your pants.
00:35:09.780 | We were so productive, we get so much stuff done, but yet we're late, we can be unreliable
00:35:13.900 | with phone calls.
00:35:15.540 | If you want to schedule a three o'clock appointment phone call with me and everyone's on board,
00:35:19.860 | there's a chance that something has just come up that I've got to attend to now because
00:35:23.540 | it's one of the sponsors or the strategic partners or the event that's come up.
00:35:28.460 | The hardest part is actually putting in a timeframe where I need to be able to call
00:35:31.900 | somebody and get them on board in my schedule.
00:35:36.820 | It's all over the place, but incredibly productive, but so many moving parts that we just can't
00:35:43.060 | nail things down.
00:35:45.820 | It's been very, very challenging that way because just with the gym, I was a guy that
00:35:50.340 | went to the gym every single day, but every time that we are somewhere, it's somewhere
00:35:53.620 | different and we can't get to the gym.
00:35:55.660 | We've got some weights on board, but it's not the same.
00:35:58.380 | I think one thing that we've learned is not having a routine and being in any environments,
00:36:03.860 | the environments totally dictate your habits.
00:36:07.260 | When you can't get into a habitual process of trying to find those results, that really
00:36:12.480 | pushes the boundaries because this is a very uncomfortable environment to be living in.
00:36:17.980 | You say real growth comes out of being uncomfortable.
00:36:22.340 | I'm telling you, me and the whole, not just me, but the whole family, we are comfortable
00:36:28.820 | being uncomfortable.
00:36:30.460 | That's the point that we've got to.
00:36:32.580 | It's a reality.
00:36:34.260 | Nothing can shock us anymore.
00:36:36.080 | We just take the punch and get back up and keep moving forward.
00:36:40.140 | It's very, very much like that.
00:36:41.380 | It's so unpredictable.
00:36:42.380 | Exciting.
00:36:43.380 | Anthony, this has been an amazing story.
00:36:45.480 | Close us out with final words of wisdom.
00:36:48.300 | Tell us about your website.
00:36:49.540 | My audience may be interested in donating and being involved with your Bathe to Save
00:36:54.020 | tour.
00:36:55.020 | My audience also would be interested in hearing more about your franchise information.
00:36:59.940 | Give us your final closing words of wisdom and please share with us any action that you'd
00:37:04.340 | like us to take.
00:37:05.340 | All right.
00:37:06.340 | I'll start with if you go to Bathe to Save.com, which is B-A-T-H-E, Bathe, T-O-S-A-V-E, Bathe
00:37:13.940 | to Save.com, you can do two things.
00:37:16.540 | You can jump on and donate back to the greater good, which is to the rescue site, and you
00:37:21.620 | can go to the shop.
00:37:22.940 | Click on shop and buy some merchandise, some shirts and jewelry and help fund the tour
00:37:27.780 | so we can actually take a bit of pressure off and really make this a reality.
00:37:31.780 | That would help us more than you can imagine.
00:37:35.120 | With HydroDog.com, which is H-Y-D-R-O-D-O-G, HydroDog.com, it's very close affiliation.
00:37:42.620 | It's the number one sponsor of the tour doing all the washes and what have you.
00:37:47.460 | Franchises will be sold very, very soon.
00:37:49.380 | We're talking in a month's time we'll have our first big blue dog out of the mold ready
00:37:53.660 | to start selling franchises.
00:37:55.460 | You can contact me through that.
00:37:56.940 | We've got a master plan involved where you can buy big territory and put franchisees
00:38:01.740 | into compensate for the recognition that we've got.
00:38:06.020 | They're the two big websites that we're working really hard on to be a part of what
00:38:10.900 | we're doing.
00:38:12.020 | The wisdom that I can leave you with is, this is an old one, you hear it all the time, but
00:38:18.140 | to be a real entrepreneur, it's just about never giving up.
00:38:20.820 | Never, ever, ever, ever give up.
00:38:22.860 | Just keep going through.
00:38:24.380 | When a day looks like it's not going to happen, if you just keep your mindset right, it will.
00:38:29.500 | You just don't give up.
00:38:30.700 | If you give up, then that's when you lose.
00:38:33.300 | The second one is learn to live in the moment.
00:38:36.340 | It took me four years consciously to live in the moment.
00:38:38.820 | When you've got a problem that you know that you can't solve and you think you're trying
00:38:42.380 | to come up with a creative answer, you've just got to be able to learn to let it go,
00:38:46.620 | not deal with it until you have to deal with it.
00:38:49.220 | Because when people say, "Oh, I can't sleep because my mind's racing," that's such a load
00:38:52.620 | of bullshit.
00:38:53.620 | It's because you're trying to problem solve something you have no control over.
00:38:57.420 | If you consciously work out how to live in the moment and really enjoy those things along
00:39:03.220 | the way, that's when you're going to experience the whole journey.
00:39:07.060 | As I've said to my wife, women are nesters.
00:39:10.260 | They want to have security.
00:39:11.420 | They want to be in one place.
00:39:13.780 | It's really hard, this trip for the girls especially.
00:39:17.460 | We've got to realize that it's not about the destination.
00:39:20.300 | It's truly about the journey.
00:39:22.020 | Each time that we come across a problem, just get back to living in the moment and appreciate
00:39:26.580 | all of us being together and visiting these 50 states.
00:39:29.540 | So, they're the two big ones for me, living in the moment, never giving up and everything
00:39:33.580 | else revolves around that to make it work.
00:39:36.340 | Anthony, so inspiring.
00:39:37.940 | I've got all kinds of ideas about how I'm going to copy your example in future years.
00:39:44.220 | Thank you for coming on Radical Personal Finance.
00:39:46.580 | No worries, mate.
00:39:47.580 | Happy days.
00:39:48.580 | It was a great interview.
00:39:49.580 | You're a great bloke and I look forward to seeing you again.
00:39:52.060 | This show is part of the Radical Life Media network of podcasts and resources.
00:39:57.680 | Find out more at RadicalLifeMedia.com.