Unleashing the Hustle Within – Tullie Bailey’s Path to Success

Brad Minus: [00:00:00] And welcome back to another episode of Life Changing Challengers. I'm really excited, guys. I have Tullie Bailey with me today. He's an author, he's a musician, he is a and actually he calls himself a hustler and we're going to be talking about that since he's now has, released his book, "Unleashing the Hustle Within: Advice for Positive and Productive Life."

So Tullie, how you doing? 

Tullie Bailey: I do well. 

Brad Minus: I'm doing great, and I appreciate you being here with us. So, can you tell us a little bit about your childhood, maybe where you grew up, what was the complement of your family, and what was it like to be Tullie as a kid? 

Tullie Bailey: Yeah, so, you know, my childhood, I'm originally from Grand Junction, Colorado.

I am the youngest of five Children. My, my childhood got a little crazy pretty young. My father had, ran an oil and gas business. Then, you know, that kind of fizzled [00:01:00] out in the eighties and he kind of lost his way and got addicted to drugs and, and gotten some trouble, ended up taking my mom hostage.

Through that situation, He was apprehended, shot while apprehended, went to jail, and ended up passing away, leaving my mom as a single parent with five kids at 23. 

Brad Minus: Oh my god. 

Tullie Bailey: Where the saga begins, right? So, you know, we were very, very poor and had to become resourceful very quickly. Me being the youngest of everybody, I just kind of learned as I went, I guess.

Brad Minus: Youngest of five kids. Did you have like regular dinners with the whole family? Did you sit around a table? 

Tullie Bailey: You know, in those early years?

Yeah. And I look back on that really fondly, right? Because we were, we had to move as a tight unit because there was one so many of us. And then it was just my mom, like her, her family really didn't help out. 

So [00:02:00] like when we would go grocery shopping, I remember we would, we would walk a couple miles to the nearest grocery store. We would do the month's worth of shopping. And then as we walked home to, you know, from the grocery store, we would usually take a canal bank, which was kind of off the road. And each kid had to carry a couple bags.

to get all of the groceries home, it was sort of what we had to do at the time, right? Like, we didn't have a vehicle, my mom was doing her best and she made it work. And through that, it created like a resourceful dynamic in each one of us, right? Like, we all came to succeed in unique ways and we've been able to succeed because of that.

Brad Minus: Oh, that's amazing. You know, a lot of people, they don't have that ability, you know, today, everything's so easy, you know, you want food, they'll deliver it to you. You want your month's worth of groceries, they'll deliver it to you, you [00:03:00] know, back then, and I'm a child of the eighties as well. Seventies and eighties.

Yeah, I mean, that was the way it was, is that you figured out a way to get there and you had to get there. Whether you had a car, you had to walk, I had to ride a bike. And that was the only way that you could get places back then. So it's interesting that we can go out of that dynamic and what would these, you know, with the children of today, you know, when they don't even want to drive anymore, you know, I've got friends that have 18 year olds that still don't have their license because they just don't want to.

Tullie Bailey: Which is bizarre, 

Brad Minus: oh! At 16! Are you kidding? I made my parents get me my driver's test on my 16th birthday. It was the first day. I made it happen, alright, so, So you got, you were in third, fourth grade, you finally got a family car that your mom was driving you guys around.

Did you, did you do, were you involved in anything else? Were you allowed to be involved in anything else? Like, you know, any kind of sports or martial arts or 

Tullie Bailey: we kind of lived in a rougher area to sort [00:04:00] of all that we can afford. Went to school, kind of tried to get involved with sports, but it never really hit.

Plus, the neighborhood kids weren't really doing that either, and then eventually my mom took a job at a factory, and so she kind of started working, you know, 12 to 16 hour days, and the siblings were looking after me, but they were kind of rambunctious and on their own thing, and, you know, we were just Sort of left our own devices.

Right. Still all just trying to survive. You know, it was around that time, like fourth, fifth grade, I started realizing that we were really poor. Right. And that, you know, shopping for your school clothes, the goodwill wasn't the routine. And, the kind of food that we were eating was probably more healthy than now.

It was very limited and sparse. You know, I started figuring out ways to get to hustle and generate revenue for myself. I wanted to go play video games [00:05:00] at the convenience store, or I wanted to, have different shoes or whatever. And so, you know, early on, like every kid back then I would go find glass bottles and turn them in for the little bit of money we would, rebuild bicycles and sell them to other kids in the neighborhood. You know, and then eventually I kind of fell into some mischievous circles and I started doing things that were probably, you know, I know for sure weren't the right thing. I started stealing car stereos and actually hustling, you know, through means, in the neighborhood, selling weed, different stuff.

And through that, I learned how to run a business, right? I know we frown on it these days. Everybody's like, you know, don't do that in any circumstance. And I don't encourage that kind of behavior, but I at least acknowledge what I took from it. And so during that time, I had a team , I organized them to go do certain things.

We would take that revenue reinvest in the company. And I, I did that for a number of [00:06:00] years, until I got up and, eventually got locked up when I was 16. And I, I went to like a juvenile boot camp and then was placed some other facilities until I was roughly 18 years old. And during that time, I had some siblings getting some serious trouble and they ended up catching the real prison time.

And I kind of told myself I would never go back to that life, right? But that was all I had known at that point, right? Like, there wasn't any other opportunity. And so I came out. And I was sort of lost, kind of searching for the next thing and I ended up, you know, through my older brother, stumbling into an oil and gas job.

Brad Minus: Nice 

Tullie Bailey: oil film and it was interesting to me because after you've, done things illegally to acquire money, it's really hard to go work at McDonald's. Right. Cause it doesn't pay very much. And so discovering the oil and gas industry and understanding the freedom that that offered someone like [00:07:00] me was great for the time.

Right? Like I, you know, this is 2001 ish. I was exposed to the ability to make at that time, 70, 80, 000 a year. And I was working two weeks and I was having two weeks off. So I would have two weeks to do whatever I wanted and in two weeks that I had to be on the rig. Through that process, I didn't really have a dad and so a lot of my discipline and my work ethic sort of came from the oil and gas industry.

It was its own kind of thing. Like, it's not the military, but you're exposed to extremely difficult circumstances and you're forced to make it, you know, make it work, figure it out. 

Brad Minus: I could definitely see that. You said the discipline came from oil and gas, which I know it probably did.

I was in the military and we were doing 16, 17 hour days of work. And so I get it. But I think you actually, just by listening to your story, I think you actually started gaining [00:08:00] some discipline first by walking back and forth to the grocery store and picking up bags and having to pick up these bags and bring them back I think that started it.

Then knowing that you found ways, that you were searching and finding ways to make income when you were young. Whether it was moral, lawful, or not, I think you got some discipline there, too, which just made your lessons on the rig just that much faster. But, I need to step back just for a minute, because I just want to know, when you were, stealing car stereos, how fast did it take you to freaking Slim Jim that sucker?

What was your fastest time? I know they all timed them. 

Tullie Bailey: More often than not, man, you would check for the cards that were unlocked. At least, you know, if you check a hundred cards, you would find at least five that were unlocked and that was the one you would hit.

Brad Minus: Okay. All right. No problem. I was just curious. You know, it's kind of a fun question, right? You know, you're way back in your past. It's got nothing to do with today. And, I was like, ah, he probably got it. 

Tullie Bailey: I try to work with people and help people that [00:09:00] are coming from that landscape.

But, you know, I like, I like when I have the opportunity to work with kids that come from, A background like that because I have, I have answers to help, you know, I know what that looks like. 

Brad Minus: 100%. 100%. And way to, way to flip the question to a positive, buddy.

That's huge. That was great. So you're working on the rigs. How long did, how long did you end up doing stint in oil and gas? 

Tullie Bailey: I mean, I was in the oil and gas industry for about 15 years and worked pretty high in the ranks. But parallel to that, you know, there was that constant question that I wanted to do something more.

And so I started toiling with the idea of first DJing. Like I ended up buying a bunch of some turntables, some records. Through the process of DJing, I got really interested in rapping, emceeing. I practiced, got good at rapping started making my own beats found a guy that could be my DJ, kind of did it all myself I approached the venue [00:10:00] and I was like, look, I could probably get a hundred people in this room if you give me a chance and they did, sure enough, I got a hundred people into that place and I did a little show I did some opening shows for bands like Digital Underground and The Loonies and different groups back then.

And I just kind of, my two weeks, I would be on the rig doing oil rig stuff. And then for two weeks, I would be couch surfing, either working on booking tours or physically on the road touring 

Brad Minus: and 

Tullie Bailey: started locally. You know, I'm from Colorado. And so fortunately. You know, you have the major markets, Denver, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Grand Junction, but then there's like 30 mountain towns, right?

And during the summer or the winter, those mountain towns are usually hopping. So I was able to book tours in places like Durango, Gunnison, Crested Butte, Telluride, Aspen, Glenwood Springs, Rifle, Colorado, like all these places. And so I got really good [00:11:00] at routing tours in my market. And, you know, I started looking at the artists that were where I wanted to be and who were opening up for those artists in that market.

Right. And I started reaching out to those artists, the openers, and I'll be like, Hey guys, I could book a tour for you in the Colorado market. If you could get me up in the middle, the Minnesota market, or you can get me in the Southern California market, or you can get me in the Arizona market. And so I started building this network with people because I had.

figured out how to book and route tours in my market. And I was able to tap into some other markets and play some other shows. And that turned into me first jumping on little micro tours with people. And then eventually I was booking and routing my own tour throughout the Southwest and then the West coast and then throughout the U S and eventually over the span of like, you know, Five to 10 years.

I was playing shows in Europe. I was playing shows all over the [00:12:00] U S and, and more or less on my own thing. Right. You know, the venues that I would play every now and then I might open up for a bigger artist, but for the most part, I was playing dive bars. I was playing you know, 

50 to like 300 person venues and, and we just did it.

I did it for a lot of years and had a lot of fun. 

Brad Minus: That's amazing. So you basically made yourself a promoter for big. So, so you started with big names and actually then brought in the headliners. Now, when you say that you actually booked your own tours, are you talking about being a DJ? Or? I was an MC in a group.

Oh, you was an MC. Okay. 

Tullie Bailey: During that time, my rap name creatively, like I, originally I formed a group and the group kind of dissolved after a year. Because they didn't want to do the work. And so I just, I called myself Tullie the Rapper. And I used that name and I toured all over the place, man.

Playing shows in Phoenix and L. A. and Chicago. All these places. And, you know, [00:13:00] again, parallel to that, every two weeks I will be back on the rig, right? Like, I will go and I will earn my money. You know, I got to the point where the rap stuff was making me some money, the rig was making money. But, the thing that I had never, I haven't really talked about yet, and I hadn't conquered at that point, as a young man, was drugs and alcohol, right?

Brad Minus: Oh, okay. 

Tullie Bailey: I used to sell drugs, and I was around a lot of drugs, and I personally never really partook in it. But as I was learning, as I'm on the rig and the rig tends to be a pretty wild place where there's a lot of drinking and there's some recreational drugs. And so I started indulging in some of those things and then I'm on the road and I hadn't figured out, I felt like I had to be the life of the party.

And I felt like in order to be the life of the party, I had to partake in what they were using to party. And so my life turned into this, this thing where. I'm on the road getting wasted because I'm playing, you know, 10 venues and then I go back to the [00:14:00] rig and these guys are going out to the bar every night I felt like to uphold that camaraderie with my oil field buddies, I had to drink with them and then when I'm, touring and rapping, I felt like I had to be the life of the party.

So my life turned into a really long party that never seemed to end. And, you know, then I started like dabbling with, reading books and trying to figure it out right towards the, if we're in a timeline, I would say like maybe 2009 ish, I was like starting to look to settle down and get out of being on the road as much and drinking and drugging as much.

And, and so I was looking at either moving to LA to really pursue the music. And I, you know, I ended up, I ended up moving to meet meeting somebody in Denver. And we built a friendship and then a relationship, but really what was happening is I was planting roots, right? And those roots gave me the foundation I needed to like really take a look at my life and what I had going on.

[00:15:00] And I understand that I needed more balance. 

Brad Minus: That's a great story and I commend you for being able to dish that life off. It doesn't sound like you were the victim of the environment that maybe you weren't. Would you have considered yourself addicted to drugs and alcohol or was it just the fact that it was always around that you ended up partaking?

Tullie Bailey: There came a time where I did get addicted to drugs and alcohol. It became a real problem that I actually had to traverse, but we'll get into that a little bit later. 

Brad Minus: Alright. No, no, that's great. Hey, just by the way, it was released on November 12th, but you might need to listen to an episode with this guy. His name was Jeremy Haselwood and he went. He started a rap group too and ended up in ATL, and rapping out there. So listen to him. His stories are pretty close to what you're talking about, but he didn't promote himself.

You know, he was really just trying to make it as a rapper and he was at the Apollo. You know, he said he was one of the only white rappers to actually stand up and [00:16:00] get a solo spot at the Apollo. So, at the time, one of the first, he's a little bit older too.

So, anyway, check out that and for anybody listening, go ahead and check out the episode with, Jeremy Hasselwood and I'll put it here. 

Tullie Bailey: Yeah, 

Brad Minus: But, so the relationship that you ended up getting to, is this your current wife? It is, yeah. Well, fantastic. So that's been a while now.

Look at you. You've been married like 15 years. 

Tullie Bailey: Got married, but you know, first I, I met her, I still was doing some shows, but I was slowing down and I was coming to realize that I was actually a promoter 

Brad Minus: and I 

Tullie Bailey: mean, through parties as well. And so then I'm like, I continued on the rig for a while and I started more or less routing tours and just throwing pop up shows.

with everybody from my underground artists to, you know, back then it was Baby Bash that was big, I did tours for him. And we did that for a number of years and then eventually every time I was at the rig, I had this [00:17:00] beautiful wife and I had this sort of booming promotional thing I'm pursuing and the rig just, I felt like I was on a different planet, right?

Like it just didn't need my purpose anymore. And I just, I came to a point where I just couldn't be there any longer, even though at the time I was probably making 150,000 a year probably. And that was back in like 2012 or 13 or something. Yeah. 2014. I left the Rigg in 2014 and I, I took a leap of faith and took a job at a bar that I had thrown events at before, but I, I stepped in, I think the first night I was there, I did coach at, right?

Like I was, I went from running a drilling crew and having all this, you know, authority and making lots of money to like tipped minimum wage and surviving on tips essentially, but very quickly my work ethic that, probably started from carrying grocery bags back and forth back when I was really young to like my entrepreneurial hustling [00:18:00] ambition all the way to the bar.

I had this work ethic that was unseen, right? Like I was doing four jobs. I would do all the extra work. I would take the trash, whatever needed done, I would do it. And so I moved up the ranks really quickly. I got to the point where I was a bar back, I never really had interest in bartending, even though I could, I prefer the bar back because you could kind of be everywhere while I was bar backing or started throwing parties and I would get a percentage of the bar piece of the door, plus I'm making tips and I'm getting my thing 

and it became a really lucrative thing for me, but I had never really, you know, I come from, my dad had addiction, my siblings struggled through addiction, drugs and alcohol, and here I was in the belly of it, right? Like, I had access to all the liquor, every drug dealer that came to the bar, and when I say bar, like, it's a club, it held, a couple thousand people.

Brad Minus: Oh, wow. 

Tullie Bailey: I'm throwing these big parties, everybody knows who I am, I can [00:19:00] drink as much as I want, I can do whatever drugs for free, and so like, that same reoccurring problem popped up in my life, and I had never really slayed that demon, and I went a fair amount of time, like, entrenched in it, you know, I started that in probably 2014, and it wasn't until 2020 that I decided, like, I made the decision to get sober, so there was a lot of years in there where, really trying to drink everything at the bar and do all of the drugs and, it, it started wearing on me and I started, you know, at a point, probably 2018, I started looking for answers and getting back into some spiritual stuff and some growth stuff.

And I decided to take on therapy and I would, you know, I would come, I would come to therapy, hung over, whatever. And she was a great therapist and she helped work through the problems. And then eventually I had a really rough night, New Year's Eve 2020 and, 

Brad Minus: before COVID. 

Tullie Bailey: I let a lot of people down, my [00:20:00] team down, I let my wife down.

And so I just, quit doing drugs, I quit drinking alcohol and got sober and, you know, fast forward three months, we landed COVID and For a lot of people, they struggle with it because they had all this time to themselves and so they could drink. But for me, one thing I always did is I kept my house separate, right?

So I never drank at home. I never did drugs at home. I always tried to be as much of a family man as I could be, being that I was doing this dual life thing. When COVID hit, it really gave me an opportunity to reinforce the kind of values I wanted to have for my family. I had already made this pledge of sobriety to myself, and that time for me complimented my intentions, and I was able to really double down on gaining information about what it means to be sober and helping myself so that I could help others.

Brad Minus: So before [00:21:00] when you were, you were on the rig and then you were booking parties, and doing your own music, it seemed like, yeah, you know, it was this thing of. You were, you would go to the rig and after work you go to the bar.

So couple hours here at the bar, but most of the time you were working. And then at the party you had to stay, you kind of said, stay sober to get things going. And then you had three, four hours of being around the drugs and the alcohol, but then you go home. Whereas, now you're working at the bar, and you're holding parties, and you're drinking, so now you're totally entrenched, it's all around you for eight, nine hours a day.

I can see how that might be a problem, how that might end up being a problem. But, the fact that, then that discipline stuck with you, one, to that you're like, no, I gotta make a change. Got therapy. That was great. Then you realize that. All right, now, now it's time you had that one situation. Now, you said you went, you went cold turkey.

Did you do any kind of like, did you go to any meetings? Did you do any kind of step program? You just said, Nope, I'm just done. [00:22:00] 

Tullie Bailey: I didn't, man. I got sober and then I spent a lot of time with my family like I was rebuilding. It's COVID. Yeah. So, I'm rebuilding bicycles, I built a deck in my backyard, I'm making my own deck.

Brad Minus: Yeah. 

Tullie Bailey: It's crazy. And, and keep in mind, I, I had actually had to quit therapy because COVID hit and my, my financial situation had changed. I couldn't afford therapy and you couldn't really go see someone. I, I, you know, for me, the video therapy thing didn't make sense. Right. And so, I'm driving them crazy and, and I get this idea like, you know, I should, I should, I just, I just, I'd always wanted to drive for Lyft, right?

And so, I go get the car that's gonna work for the Lyft thing, and I start driving for Lyft, and almost instantaneously, I found purpose in that, right? Hmm. It could be a thing where, I'm just, you know, I'm a guy about the town, I kinda know everybody, and so, oh, you're trying to find the best restaurant?

Easy, right? You're trying to, [00:23:00] you don't want to know where to go hiking. Got you. Done. No problem. But then there was these instances where I would pick people up. I wrote about this in my first book, about this girl that I picked up. It was a blizzard. And she, we had her son with us.

And he was like maybe 18 months, something like that, you know, smaller. And we had to take him to the aunt, so it ended up being like an hour and a half ride. So I got to know this young lady. I spent some time with her. And in that time, I came to recognize that, I came to learn that the child's father had never, the child had never met the father.

The mom's working three jobs, 18 hours a day, barely surviving. And she's kind of at her wits end. And then she gets in my car and we start talking. And she starts explaining to me that she's, you know, she's working at this cell phone store at the mall and she's working at this pipe store somewhere and she's doing the Amazon thing and I started explaining to her about little entrepreneur things I know about whether it's Lyft and Grubhub or online, remote work, [00:24:00] by the end of the conversation, she's emotional, I'm emotional, and I was able to get her some information to get her in a direction.

Yeah. I felt that gift of helping somebody. That's what Lyft became for me. It became this tool where I could interact with people. I could help them find whatever restaurants or bars they're looking for. All the way down to, if they're trying to become an entrepreneur, I could help them, start their t shirt company or whatever.

And so, back then was and still to this day is a tool that I use weekly as means to kind of clear my head, get out and so on. 

Brad Minus: Well, I coach cross country and track for high school down the street and my assistant coach. Drives for Uber and Lyft, and he says the same thing, he says the people that he gets to meet and, he's always talking to me about something that he's picked up and that they asked the same questions and that he feels the same way that you do literally.

It's like, it's the same thing. He's got a lot of [00:25:00] experience growing up and he helps people out and stuff too. So I think it's a great way to get to know people and to share some of your wisdom. You mentioned that you wrote a first book.

Is that, Quiet Lessons? 

Tullie Bailey: Yeah, the Quiet Lessons of an Incredibly Loud Adventure. 

Brad Minus: So, you've got volume one, so I imagine that you're probably looking at volume two. 

Tullie Bailey: Once we get a little more life in there, we'll keep the volume two out. But, you know, ultimately, a lot of people, they were like, you know, you should put this information out, you should write a book and tell the story.

And so that's what that book was. It was a place for me to really tell my story. It honestly was very therapeutic because I was able to revisit, aspects of my life that I had kind of closed off as like a observer instead of a participant and it was healing. And, I've came to learn that other people have found, the book useful for them as well.

Brad Minus: It seems like, I just, this is exactly where Life Changing Challengers come in. This is basically, you know, these conversations that [00:26:00] you wrote it in the book. These quiet lessons. And this is exactly what this is all about is that you giving up little nuggets of information and everybody that I've interviewed and that has been on the show, they've got something right.

There is one lesson in there for you. It's this hustle and drive that you've always had to keep finding the next thing too, and you were doing. You being on, on the rig, promoting and doing music, what do we call that? Several streams of income, right? Separate streams of income.

Which is fantastic, same thing when you were a kid. So, I think that, that's definitely something, I want to read it. So, and I'm planning on it. But that's exactly what this podcast is all about. All these people giving these little nuggets of information, just like you were giving your writers these, this is a little bit here and there.

Here, this is how you get a t shirt company going up at this. You can help out getting on online business, blah, blah, blah. You're giving out little nuggets. And that's exactly what I want everybody to take away from this, from the podcast is that people like you that have [00:27:00] had the experience and if you just give one little piece of advice, one little piece of information and someone's able to take something away from it.

That would further their life, get them to their potential. Then we've done our job. We're successful, right? Just one, it just needs to be one. So, what you've said so far is more than enough, but what I'd like to a couple of the couple of questions that come to mind is one stepping back into the times when you were promoting.

What did you like better? Did you like being on the promoting side, or did you like actually being on stage better, or does it matter? 

Tullie Bailey: I loved performing, but I loved the mechanical aspect of building something. Yeah. I was able to create a universe, performing was one component, but I also loved creating the flyer. I loved booking the show. I love going out in the streets and promoting it physically. I've came to understand that I like to bird's eye view, come up with an idea.

And then I like to mechanically put the pieces [00:28:00] together and then watch it. And that's, you know, what I, that was the beginning stages of me doing that. I enjoy creating, being involved in the creation of the whole thing and then putting the pieces together.

Brad Minus: I love that too. I'm the same way. So because I build plans for people. So I'm an endurance coach, as you can see, and I help people get through, you know, marathons and I coach them through triathlon and ultra marathons and the whole bit, and it's a building of a plan. It's like sitting there and going, okay, hey, Well, what's your goal?

What do you want to do? And now we've got break points. We got to find the right avenue for you to get you there and not, and everybody's different. So when I build the plan out, I've got no strengths and weaknesses and lifestyle circumstances. So that I can make sure that every workout that they do is they're getting everything that they need to get out of it in order to get to a certain break point.

And then when we hit that break point, we, we look for another milestone and then another milestone till we finally get to the race and they can hit their [00:29:00] goal at the race. Same thing, points, creating this plan and then getting them to the, getting them to the finish line. So I get it. I love it. And I'm, I'm with you on that.

So you're driving for Lyft and for, you're driving for Lyft. It's 2020 and you're obviously, were you doing, were you doing just Lyft? Were you doing like Uber Eats too? 

Tullie Bailey: It was never really about the money. So I wasn't trying to do as many things as possible.

It became about the experience and the process more. So, it's like, I kind of stuck with it. I thought about doing Uber at one point, and I just didn't like the app in terms of like, the actual, like, piece of technology. I didn't like it. It was a new lift, and so I just did that.

And yeah, we, I did live for a long, I still do live now, but I did live for a while, then the bars ended up opening back up, and I came back. I kind of left as like the bar back even though I, before I left, I got sober, but [00:30:00] even the years building up, I kind of was the general manager because the general manager was like a major drug addict and was drunk all the time.

It was a huge problem. He had been in the industry for a long time. He hadn't found his way to straighten out. So when I came back to the, nightclub space, after COVID the owner of the company, he owns, at the time He owned five nightclubs, two of them being the biggest in the state, and at a point he just, he kind of, offered, the general manager for the whole company to me, and so I went from being essentially a barback that was basically running the show behind the scenes, to the general manager of a multi unit nightclub company, conglomerate, and, you know, that, that, that, Pose new challenges and new opportunity.

I still drove for Lyft the whole time, but I, I, you know, started learning about being not just a manager of one building or one team, but [00:31:00] managing multiple teams. I use like a movie metaphor to kind of quickly describe my careers at large. Like when I was trying to be a rapper, I kind of wanted to be in the movies, you know, I want to be like in it.

And then. As time went on, I wanted to be the star of the movie, right? And then after a while, I kind of wanted to just like, to like, to throw movies, make my own movie. And that's what the promoting shows and in that part of it. And then eventually I, I, I wanted to like executive produce multiple things at one time.

And so when I took that role at the club, I became the guy that was in charge of the kind of linen that we were getting all the way down to the type of marketing strategies that we were using to the, you know, a good portion of the programming felt to me as well. Like a lot of the program, because it was a big company that, you know, we worked with live nation and other companies.

But I still probably programmed at a couple of the bars, like 80, [00:32:00] 90 percent of the programming was me, and then a couple of them I didn't touch, and then a couple I probably did like 10 or 15%. But, I mean, I'm in control of the whole thing, the way the venue smelled, all of it, and at that juncture of my life, I was kind of trying to be an executive producer essentially, right?

If we're still using the movie medical. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. 

Tullie Bailey: That now? I worked with that company all the way until October of this year. And at that time, the owner sold two of the venues, 

Brad Minus: right? 

Tullie Bailey: To this company called Insomniac, which is like one of the biggest, club companies, whatever.

Insomniac had kind of offered to bring me on, you know, same salary, quite a different role. They kind of, they kind of sat me down and said, look, whatever you want to do, like, we'll get behind you if we're doing it. Like, we understand your value and we want you back.

But, you know, I was kind of, I was looking for a way out of the bar industry, I still understand how important it is to create a space [00:33:00] for people to celebrate the highs and lows of their lives. But, I just couldn't sit in another meeting where the idea was how do we get the kids to drink more liquor, right?

I had came to recognize for me that, you know, that's not the best thing. Like, there's other things. And I understand at certain points in your life you're going to pursue those things, and I get it. But, for me, my goal for the day, it could no longer be We need this bar to sell this much liquor.

So I needed to find something else. I got, I had the authority to kind of do whatever I wanted, right? And so I started playing with it a little bit. I was playing with life. One of the first things I did was I, I, I, one of the bars I ran was this goth bar.

Very, it's a very popular goth club called Milk Bar in Denver. And I had this idea of getting a claw machine. and putting it in the lobby of Milk Bar, right? But instead of stocking the claw machine with, you know, the usual suspects of like, [00:34:00] either stuffed animals or cool 

Brad Minus: stuff or 

Tullie Bailey: whatever, I started going to either vintage toy stores and getting like a Blondie toy or an NC Hammer toy and throwing it in there.

Yes! To this goth, um, staple which is called Fashion Nation. It's been here since the beginning. For a very long time and I would get like like purses that were shaped like coffins and I would get like Crazy goth masks and in bags and different things and I start this bomb machine with it was just really fun I would watch people play it and it was you know, they spent I made money It may make a lot of money for me but more than that it was it was fun having the ability to play with that idea and And have it be successful.

Brad Minus: Well, it was your target market. That is the case study for target marketing. You know, it was a goth bar. You got a coffin shaped this and you got like dark eye shadow probably in there somewhere and you, you [00:35:00] know, had maybe a t shirt rolled up that was a goth thing or whatever. Now, because now you're not looking at kids and You know, what it's usually used for is to get the kid busy while mom and dad pay the bill.

Um, this was because you're, you're catering to adults and this was their thing. I, that is the case study for target market. At that 

Tullie Bailey: same time, kind of literally at the same time, I, you know, uh, it was funny. Hot dogs were kind of having a year, right? They were getting popular. And, uh, and so I went and bought a, I went and bought a box truck, like a vintage box truck.

I had like a dope patina and I made it into a hot dog food truck, right? But the the the essence of it wasn't just a hot dog food truck I I named the hot dog food truck hot dog. Hank and The character because at the time the word blizzy was getting popular Talking about eating glizzies and that whole thing.

It's like right when that was really starting to pop So I got this, I created a hot dog Hank [00:36:00] and I made him, I put a Gucci hat on him and some gold chains and then this whole character. A food truck and I parked it literally at the door of the club. So in the back of the club, in the lobby, I got a claw machine with all this cool God stuff and vintage stuff.

And then in the front, I got this hip hop themed hot dog truck that I'm just and it was killing. It was having a blast and it's making money and I started having fun. And that was like right out of COVID. And so, we did that for a while and I got bored and I sold the claw machine. It did what I needed.

It gave me the information I needed and I wanted to move on. Same thing with the food truck. I, uh, I got the information I needed. Someone else had some interest and so I ended up selling the food truck. And started working on some other concepts. And so, another piece I didn't say was during COVID when I first started driving for Lyft.

Ended up managing my local neighborhood ice cream shop. And again, it's just because I need to stay busy. Like, I gotta keep [00:37:00] moving. I hate standing still. And so I managed this ice cream shop for, for this person. And, and I enjoyed it. It was like bartending kind of, but You know, they come in, they pick their ice cream.

You tell a couple jokes and then you give them the thing. And, and it's fun. It's innocent and, and cool. That stayed of my mind. I enjoyed it. And so, you know, I'm, I'm managing all these clubs. I'm uh, I just, I had just sold my hot dog truck and my plow machine and now people are seeing the success that I'm having and, and, and they're starting like food truck guys and restaurant people and, and other bars are hitting me up and asking me to help with them.

And so I started doing consultative work. I start going into, you know, there's one consulting gig I did, it was, it was a high end lounge and it only held like 120 people with the capacity. But they only had 45 seats for customers and they were [00:38:00] struggling to make the revenue. They felt like they could make it.

So I went in there and I assess what, you know, this is what's going on with your music programming. Let me take that over for you guys. And then I literally told them, I was like, get rid of every stool in here. And the capacity is, you guys are only, you guys are only, you're treating it like a restaurant.

You're only letting the 45 people that can be seated in. And then you're saying that you're packed, but you're not, right? The law says that you can have 110, 120 people in here. So let's put 130 people in here and call it capacity, right? And, you know, within, within a week, they, they started seeing triple the revenue, right?

Their money started really, it started working for them. So I ended up doing another restaurant for them. I did, uh, I did some consultant work for this, this, uh, pizza food truck. Things that. So I'm, I'm pursuing other entrepreneurial endeavors. And then, and then, you know, fast forward to maybe a year ago.

A [00:39:00] local ice cream in a, in a, like an iconic neighborhood comes available. So he wants to move back to Philly and I end up getting his shop for essentially the cost of the equipment. And so I start, I start developing an ice cream business with my wife on the side. 

Brad Minus: Dang, that's, you know what, when you say hustler, that is a hustler.

That is 100 percent Hustler. And you know what I love about it is that you also have a perfect case study for something that, I was a I was a Series 7, Series 63 securities broker when I was 19. And, um, we always had the saying, the trend is your friend. Right. Everybody talks about, Oh, well, you know, it's going to fall or it's going to drop or, or it's coming down.

So it's going to go up and that's like going against the trend. You go with the trend and you've got a perfect case study for that. You're like, Oh, wait, hot dogs started, started to get bigger again. Great. Let's get a hot dog stand. And [00:40:00] you were like, you know, beat it in the goth and then like food truck started to do it.

So you just got a food truck and you put the hot dogs in it. And then, you know what I mean? I think it just. You've got so many great freaking case studies right there that I'm sure that you just went ahead and used in your consulting business and that, and it helped. Um, but you could see the lessons that you were learning as you're telling the story.

It is, it's pretty remarkable, my friend, and the idea of these are hustles. Your consulting business, you found the, you, you found that the ability to run an ice cream, to run an ice cream shop. Now you're owning the ice cream shops. I mean, it's, It is, it's a, it's an awesome story, especially from where you came from.

Um, the whole story is amazing. So, tell me about when did you decide to write, Unleashing the Hustle Within? 

Tullie Bailey: Well, so driving for Lyft, I had started to get passionate about helping people. [00:41:00] And, you know, all these little hustles were like, it was never really about like, I've always been able to make money, that part was never hard for me.

exploring ideas so that I could then take that piece of information to other people became what was important to me. And so using the hot dog truck or the consulting gig or whatever as a vessel to learn, then I can speak from a place of authority with understanding of how to make that business go. And, that's why I'm always dabbling and trying to a hundred different things because I want to understand it all.

Because when someone, when someone's in front of me and they're legitimately at a, at a, at a non start, they can't figure it out. Like, I love to have a piece of that could spark that, that, uh, curiosity back in them get them back in the game of finding the success they're looking for.

Brad Minus: That's incredible. Yeah. So you ended up, so you just decided to write the book and that was it? Did you do it in a, did you have a certain way? 

Tullie Bailey: I wrote the first book [00:42:00] and, and people really enjoyed it. And even, even the way I write books, like one of the executives that worked for the company that I was with for the, for the, for the 12 years, the nightclub company, something that she told me early on, which stuck with me was, she's like, you, this ability of taking something complicated and making it really fucking simple.

Sorry, I didn't mean to curse. No, no, no, it's fine. Making it really simple. I have the ability of taking complex things and making it simple, dumbing it down. And that stuck with me and that's kind of what I've done at every juncture, right? Like finding solutions. And so I wrote the first book and it was, it seemed to be helpful for people.

And I hadn't quite scratched that itch of, of, of, of getting the information out that I wanted to. Right. And so I jumped into the next book within maybe a month of the second, the first book coming out, I started working on it. And. Um, this book is a little bit more spiritually oriented and hustle oriented, right?

It's not even so much [00:43:00] about making money. It's just about, it's about finding the kind of life success that you're looking for. And that doesn't, it's not always related to money. It's just about like, when you go to bed, did you, did you, did you live as full as you could? Did you give it all, all you got?

And when you woke up, were you ready to go? Did you figure it out? And that's, that's what the book's about. And yeah, so I, I started writing the book almost, almost immediately after the first book, um, you know, went, went, went on a trip and kind of, kind of got the bulk of it done started the process of putting it together and, and try, I tried, I tried to orient the book in a way that it could hold its own up against some of these other books that are kind of in the same realm.

Brad Minus: Right. 

Tullie Bailey: Difference being, I come from a hard background, I've experienced a, a bunch of life, and I Have a passion to work with people to help them find the prosperity life that they're looking for. 

Brad Minus: And I, and I agree and I [00:44:00] can see it, you know, it's very evident by the way that you speak that that's, that's your, that's your goal there.

And then, you know, and, and, and I know it because like knows like, right. I mean, that's all I wanted to do my whole life is, is get away to find a way to help people. Um, And to be passionate about it. So, and you are definitely one of those people. So, hey, listen, um, for all you guys listening out there, this is Tullie Bailey.

And you, you know, you guy that from oil and gas to frickin music and promoting to, to, uh, you know, to entrepreneur, to Lyft, and now he's got ice cream shops. Who knows what's going to be next? You're gonna have to, you're gonna have to go on to TullieBailey. com and find out. So, he's got two books out. One is called The Quiet Lessons.

Uh, uh, The Quiet Lessons of an Incredibly Loud Adventure, Volume 1. And then unleashing the hustle within advice for positive and productive life. [00:45:00] And I think that's the emphasis right there was what Tullie just said right there is what he said is that it's not necessarily about making money. It's about having a positive and productive life.

And on on this podcast, I always talked about that you want every day. 1 percent better. You want to make yourself 1 percent better. You read 10 pages of a self help book, you put something into practice, there's your 1%. You got up, you know, you know, you got up and you worked out, that's 1 percent better.

You know, physical, emotional, spiritual, you know, hit that in relationships. You just 1 percent better every day, and you'll just to leave, leave that positive and productive life. But I would definitely listen, watch, uh, read this book, Unleashing the Hustle uh, and take some of the lessons from Tullie here.

Because what he's dropped on us today is a boatload of information. But Tullie, thank you. Thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate it. Everything's gonna be in the show notes, guys. The, his, his, his website. The two books, we're going [00:46:00] to have direct links right to the book so you can grab those.

And, um, and yeah, and if you're, if you're watching on YouTube, yeah, you know what, hit that like and subscribe and hit that notification bell. So you always know when we're going to, we're going to drop another episode. Um, and if you're listening on Apple or Spotify or some other. Podcast driven, uh, website or app.

Hey, leave a, uh, leave a review you know what? It doesn't even have be a good review. You know, it could be any review, whether it could be mediocrity or it could be a bad review, but it gives me feedback. For me to go ahead and make Life Changing Challenges podcast is that much better, but for Tullie Bailey and myself, thank 

thank you so much for we will see you in the next one.