EP812: Terry Donnelly - Always Be Hustling!

That's a pretty awesome story, dude.

You know, when I look at you, you're somebody who has reinvented himself multiple times and, in the world of thought leadership, this means you've taken the basic skills that you've had and brought them to bear in new arenas.

I'd like to ask you, how did you go about doing that? Because not a lot of people know how to do that.

And in this day and age-

Well, I-

... given what's going on with AI, I think it's super important to learn how to do that.

Yeah, absolutely.

And, and I, I think, I think the thing is you have to be clear on what it is that you can bring, what it is that you have, and it's not the things you've done, but it's the way you think and the way your brain works.

You know, if you look at Elon Musk as an example, what's the common thread between payments, you know, social media posting, rockets, and electric cars? Like, one would think those things have nothing to do with each other, right? But this is a guy who, who clearly can see massive markets and an opportunity to disrupt them, and so he set about doing it, and it's his ability to think through the process of disruption and reinvention and just approaching things a different way, leveraging technology in a way that people haven't done before and, and a, the drive for efficiency in his world.

Uh, with me it's kind of m- you know, my core competency is to see how different pieces of something can be brought together to create something new.

So whether it was mobile media and digital signage and tying digital signage into a cloud-based planning and buying platform, or seeing how, you know, we could actually turn a s- smoked product into a consumed product and create an alternative to alcohol, which is a $1.3-$1.5 trillion global business.

Um, and so the, the, you know, the ability to kind of see opportunity inside those, how things can be turned on their head or reinvented, um, you know, that's really the core competency that I have.

Um, and I've applied it across multiple industries and, um, you know, it's been...

Y- and I, and I think it's goes back to my days as a musician, as a creator.

Having a creative mindset is part of my DNA.

Um, and then, you know, the, the thing about being a musician is once you finish your gig, you're unemployed, so you have to be hustling nonstop to get your next gig.

And, and that's sort of a mindset that I developed at that period of time that I've used in my entire career, always filling the funnel with opportunity, always having more on your plate than you can handle.

Um, you know, I think it was Leroy Burnett who said, you know, "Always reach for the stars.

You may never reach them, but you're probably not gonna come up with a handful a month." Right?