From Homeless to $40M Roofing Company and Angel Investor | Dustin Gutkowski

From living on the streets to owning a $40M roofing company and becoming an angel investor in major brands, Dustin Gutkowski’s journey is truly inspiring. Join us in this podcast episode as we dive deep into his remarkable story and the lessons he learned along the way. We cover everything from overcoming challenges to building successful businesses through meaningful connections. There’s a strong emphasis on mindset, taking risks, and the importance of investing in people for leadership and business success. Social media’s role in business, productivity, and wealth creation is also explored, alongside personal anecdotes illustrating the power of intentionality and perseverance in achieving goals. Overall, it’s a motivating and insightful discussion on navigating the entrepreneurial landscape with authenticity and purpose.

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Justin: What is up? Entrepreneur, DNA family, welcome back to another podcast, guys and gals. I have a guest right now that I am thoroughly, thoroughly impressed with this. Man went from homeless to now angel investor in some of the biggest brands and names that you all are using, drinking, eating right now. Dustin Gutkowski, what is up Dude?

Dustin: How’s it going? Man, I appreciate the intro.

Justin: Man, this is fun for me. We were just talking about how everything leads to people, and within an hour of us talking, we’re exchanging people’s contacts and opportunities each others have. I mean, we’re, this is, this is the epitome about what this is all about.

Dustin: All people is crazy. We literally got on FaceTime for you. And the guy’s like, Oh, I got seven houses for you. Yeah? Like that (Done) yeah.

Justin: So, let’s talk all about you right now. If you don’t know this man, make sure you go follow him right now. What’s your Instagram handle? (dustingutkowskirr) come out. You got to follow him, because if you want to make some real money and become an angel investor, which is where the real money plays though, you’re going to want to listen and pay attention to this podcast, this is everything for you. First and foremost, how old are you right now? (41). Come on, you’re old.

Dustin: I’m old. I know Dude it’s old Bro I was getting up there.

Justin: It is. It’s weird how the difference in time, right? Like, I don’t actually feel for I’m 42 I don’t really feel old. I’m running and gunning. But this is weird dichotomy of life now where you’re like, taking care of your parents and older family, but you’re also raising children. You’re like, what is going on right now? It’s a weird time.

Dustin: I don’t know it’s good or bad. I don’t know my real dad, like I don’t know his name and then my mom was a drug addict. And like, I don’t spoken to her years. And so it’s, it’s, it doesn’t bother me, sure, but it’s, I’m just, kind of, it’s just focused on the family man, wife and kids and so, you know? Is it I guess, sad to a degree, yeah, kind of, right. You probably want that relationship with your parents, but I haven’t had to deal with some of those, you know, I have friends now that pass away. It’s like, (Of course) and I’m like, Man, I kind of don’t have to deal with that.

Justin: But you got to deal with the whole life of kind of not really having that same kind of connection, right? So it’s a give or take, right? And that alone is inspirational. I mean, we’re starting out this podcast hot already, because I think everyone out there has some level of a story. I don’t think I know, right? Whether it’s your dad, your mom, my childhood right out of alcoholic parents, I woke up in the back of a car in the middle of the night in an alleyway because they were busy drinking, you know what? I mean stuff, yeah, but everyone has that crap like, it may not be that extreme, but there’s different levels of the stuff that we all carry around day to day, (A 100%) and it’s our choice, right? I mean, at the end of the day, I got to create my life. You got to create yours and I think you did pretty damn well for yourself.

Dustin: I appreciate it, man. Yeah, you have to. It is your choice, but we spend most of our life like blaming everybody else, right? And I did that for a long time, like, victim mentality, yeah, and when I started taking control of it it’s when everything changes.

Justin: We just talked you’re not drinking. (I Don’t drink). I mean, you’re really taking life serious. You want to go for the big boy play. And I respect the hell out of that, because I’ve told everyone I’m going to be a billionaire in real estate, and it’s not a flex or anything like that. It’s because I want to create the life that like the most I got out of it (Yeah), right? And if I land halfway to my goal, I’m all right, right. I land a quarter to my goal, I’m okay. But my point is, I want to play all out and so things like that, like making those minor commitments, you’re not drinking anymore, you’re focusing on business, you’re traveling a lot, making the hustle, which leads to where I want to go with this is the people, right? I mean, your team reached out to me. You said, hey, I think this is gonna be a great opportunity for them to connect, get on this podcast. But that intention is a largely why you’ve been able to build the businesses you’ve built, how you’ve gotten to become an angel investor. We were just talking about how you’re in with Mark Wahlberg, Jerry Rice. I mean, you have names on your Rolodex that are just ridiculous.

Dustin: Yeah, it’s a but it came from people. The craziest story, actually, our production crews here too. (Yeah). He dropped it off. And it kind of came full circle the other day. So the guy that I just introduced you to his number one guy, but Rogers Healy, big time Realtor in Dallas, right? Like the realtor wanted to connect with them when I first got into roofing, and I was a nobody, right? Nothing burger. (Sure. You’re nothing burger?) Nothing burger. I was a nobody man like, and (That’s great) you get these messages like, let’s connect for coffee, and I don’t even drink coffee. You know? It’s like, let’s go to lunch. I don’t want to go to lunch with you. I don’t even know you. I don’t want to go to lunch with you, yeah, but you want to connect with people, though, because people is the most important thing, right? Like, really, who you align yourself with. And I believe, like, who you align yourself with says everything about you. (Right) If you think that your circles bunch of idiots, then you’re an idiot, because it’s who you are. There they represent you really, (A 100%) and I had met him years ago at a party but you know obviously there’s nothing there and but he made a statement a long time ago at that party, he said, I was the first realtor on social media. This was back in the day like well this is probably 12-15 years ago. (Yeah). So, he was going heavy on social media. We talked about it on the podcast that day. But he had a he had billboards around the city. He says, Rogers healing is my homeboy billboards. Dude, it’s wild and but when i. Was in the fitness industry, I went heavy on social media. Like, not just posting workouts, but posting like, hey, come in. This is how you lose 20 pounds. Like trying to target the average workout person (Sure) to come into the gym to sign up, not like bodybuilders or fitness anything like that. And I had a ton of success with it (Yeah). And so, when I got in the roofing, I was like, Man, I’m gonna do the same thing. And what better way to connect with people that are in real estate, because if you sell a home, (Yeah) it has a bad roof, call me. So, I’m like, I can’t just reach out. Hey, you want to go for coffee? So for about a year, man, I just studied everything this dude did. Like, what do you like to eat? What he like, what he was into. And the thing that I found was he had literally the world’s largest music collection. This guy has, like, (This is the realtor?) Yeah, he’s got Hotel California. He’s got a pool house in the back of his house, 2000 square feet of nothing but autographed memorabilia  on every inch of the wall, like the craziest stuff from the craziest people. So I was like, music’s a connection. Yeah, I love music. But whenever we got to find a way to connect. So I found out he was born and raised in Corpus Texas. And so corpus Texas, there’s a Tohono band, our Tohono singer, Freddie fender. I was, like, huge. So I found an autograph record, bought it, Elton John, because you can’t really miss it. Elton John, you know? (Sure). And we took it to the office, and I wrote in the note, just said, Hey, man, I just appreciate all you do, like I watch your stuff on social media. Years ago, you said this, it’s really cool what you’re doing. Man just keep crushing it. Like, love it man and just said, thank you for all you do. Like, didn’t say I wanted anything, because I really was like, Man, this guy’s doing a lot and how many people tell him thank you. And so, one of them actually dropped it off at his office. Like, I didn’t even go and I think it was, like, two days later, man, I get a voicemail, and he’s just like, Hey, how’d you know this? Like, how’d you know these artists? Like, you got to call me back like, this is the most thoughtful gift I ever got. So we afterwards, we, you know, we talked, and he was like, Hey, man, the Freddy fender concert was the first concert my grandma ever took me to. It was how I fell in love with music. So we’ve been connected, and we became best friends. And he’s got me introduced into all these different, different investment opportunities, and it’ll obviously help with the roofing and not but overall, the business, man, the business is actually secondary. He’s literally one of my best friends. Like, it’s we, you know, talk to every day, yeah. And so it just goes back to, man, it’s not what you do is who you do it with. That’s it. It’s all about people. And there’s those little connections, man, of being able to align yourself with the right people. Can just you can speed up your time from where you’re at to where you want to go by aligning with the right people, but instead of trying to take value from people, man just give the value first. And if you do, people are going to want to be around you because you’re giving with no expectation.

Justin: 100% and so you said something that hits so hard to hit so close to home for me is it’s not always about the immediate gratification, right? We meeting today for the very first time. We’re gonna rip this podcast. Immediately we’re already connecting each other with different things, and I just bought a home and, you know, Austin, all these different things that can go down. But it’s about the long term vision of this relationship. What can Dustin and Justin new? New album, by the way, yeah, drop what? What can we go do together in the long term? And that’s what it’s always going to be about. Unfortunately, people want immediate gratification. What can you do for me now? How can I get paid now? What’s in it for me right now? But they don’t have the long game in sight, right? They just have this quick win and then turn and burn. (Yep). It is a detriment to most entrepreneurs to live their life that way because they’re not willing to go through uncomfortableness now so they can live like no one else later. (Yeah). They don’t have the same thought that you and I do, right?

Dustin: Yeah, they don’t. I was laughing about this earlier with somebody and he made a comment. He said, “I’m a creature of habit”. I said, Man, that’s a bullshit excuse me, because what do you mean? I said, saying you’re a creature of habit is just a way of selling yourself that you want to be comfortable. So, when somebody pushes you to do something uncomfortable, you go, I don’t want to do that because I’m a creature of habit. (Right) Well, that’s literally the definition of being comfortable, is you keep doing the same thing over and over and over. I was like, you have to push yourself to be uncomfortable all the time. And if you’re not, you’re not going to grow you’re not going to do anything.

Justin: You wrote a massive, massive roofing business right now. How much are you guys doing in a given year?

Dustin: Last year, we did 40 (40 million that’s not half bad). It’s not bad. Yeah, yes. In four years.

Justin: In four years you started this thing four years ago? (Yeah) You’re up to 40 million.

Dustin: So, we started November. 23 of 2019 and then COVID hit in February, March, (Yeah). It was terrible, and you said something like life, it made yourself uncomfortable. I was actually doing something else. We weren’t supposed to open until February. We were like, putting everything together. And you know, you get those spidey senses. I think entrepreneurs, their intuition is what makes them great. (Yeah). I had this intuition that we need to go now, like, it’s all fucked up. Yeah, none of it’s gonna be right. Yeah, make a ton of mistakes, but let’s go now. And I said, let’s just do it. So I called up my business partner said, man, let’s just start tomorrow. And he’s like, why? I said, Look, I’m getting deals. I’m just ready to go. Man, let’s just do this. I’ll take it on. We had no website, we had no office, we had no. We had no business. We had nothing, yeah, and we did. And it was crazy, because you think back at that, let’s say COVID had hit in February. We’re supposed to start. We probably wouldn’t start it, because you be like, let’s see how this goes. The world shut down, yep. And so it’s, it’s those decisions made of being able to be uncomfortable, put yourself out there. Could change your life.

Justin: Dude, it Done is better and perfect. So, you just calling your partner say we’re going, I don’t need a website. I don’t need, you door knocking. You get in that account, you get in that first check and creates confidence, certainty. This works. I don’t need it now. You’ll get it, but I don’t need all that other crap. Just go do and it is something most entrepreneurs want to be perfect. All set up. I need the office. I need the computers. I need no fucking generate revenue. Just go. Just go, (Just go) right? And you’re gonna fuck it up along the way while you’re doing that (A lot), like you said, but just go, man, right? So, you have this massive roofing company. But where does that stem from? Why get into roofing four years ago?

Dustin: I was in the fitness industry managing health clubs, which like has no lakes at all whatsoever, and I saw people having success in roofing and like it was a huge industry especially in Texas. And I was actually in Michigan at the time, I was up in Detroit, which I love Detroit, by the way, like, Detroit gets aired on it’s beautiful. It’s too cold for me, but it’s great (For sure). And I told my wife one day, I was like, Man, these dudes are killing it in roofing. And so for me, I like to look at what’s the problem and cannot provide a solution. And if I can’t provide a solution, I don’t want any part of it. Well, I saw in Texas, Wild Wild West, there was contractors had a bad name. So, it’s like, man, let’s take the same type of like service and fitness, where you know? Somebody comes in 40 pounds overweight, man. And like, I used to love when those people came in because they were insecure, intimidated, and he wants to make them feel like they’re at home, like, don’t worry about that dude over there that lifted heavy. He’s probably more insecure than you. (Yeah) Let me show you how you can get there. And so I loved being able for people to see that. And in fitness, when you go, let’s just say, like, we love shoes. If you go to the store right now and buy shoes, we buy and we walk out, we’re happy, right? Fitness, you walk out with a receipt and a promise and I’m gonna get in shape, but there’s nothing you get. (Yeah) So with roofing, it’s kind of that same thing, because you don’t need a roof until you need it. And I was like, man, we could come in and provide like, like, a better name for people. Let’s treat them, right? Let’s make sure they don’t have the horror stories. Let’s not rip people off. Let’s make sure they get good service. Let’s, let’s protect them and their families, and let’s treat them like you know we would. So I told my wife, I was like, I want to do roofing. She’s like, What the fuck is wrong with you? Like a lot, right? And she knows, like, the thing that she always says, she goes, Man. The craziest thing about my husband is he believes the crazy shit coming out of his mouth, like he thinks he can do something. He’s delusional.

Justin: Hey what is Steve Jobs delusional? They have a say about Steve Jobs like it was the delusional mentality, or whatever they say about him. That’s why he was who he was, and why Apple got there, and Pixar and all these things, is the delusion that he kept telling himself it can happen. (Yeah) Right. If you read the Steve Jobs book, his autobiography, about the glass that they needed for all the Apple Stores, yeah, it was gonna take months, or whatever. He was like, No, we’ll have it in 60 days. They’re like, No, no way. This is gonna take six to nine months. Not at all. We’re gonna get it done and it happened. (Yeah) And it’s just like in that is part of a small part of when you start to win on a big level, you have to have some delusional desires, beliefs that are just bigger than everyone else. (Yeah) And you got to believe it. You got to believe without seeing it. And you just got to go and say, hey, I’m gonna go win.

Dustin: Yeah, it was, I saw something psychic. Simon Sinek said the other day, like, leaders have the ability their vision so clearly it feels like it already happened. (Yeah) It is. And I’ll see, like, memories pop up on Facebook when I was like, you know, three, four years ago, and just running my mouth like we’re gonna do this. And then, now it’s true. It’s like, because I really did believe it, like I remember sitting in a owners meeting in my our partner for year two, we did 3 million for year one and our goals that you know? They’re like five, seven, let’s go up 20%. I was like, we’ll do 10. They’re like Dude, you’re crazy. I was like, Yeah, but we’ll do 10 in our second year. They’re like there’s no way. Here’s this and we did tent in our second year like what? And just because I believe that we would do it.

Justin: And you know, obviously I was not alone for that journey, but my guess is he put a lot of work to get there.

Dustin: Every man I said. So when I did, when I got into roofing, I actually worked for another company for about 10 months. So, I moved back to Dallas, knew nothing about roofing, started working for another company, and what I realized was I was the problem not everybody else. I had all these big goals and dreams, but I was trying to push them on other people, like, this is your company. Let me tell you how to run it, type crap and that’s just not good for any entrepreneur. And now I see it, I have a great ability to work with people. I just can’t work for people. (Got it) It’s just what it is. So, a few months in. I was like, man, another company, another problem. It’s not them and it’s me. Yeah, I need to do my own so that’s where it stemmed. But when I opened the company I told myself, for two years, I’m gonna work seven days a week. I’m not gonna take any days off. Uh. And I’m not like let’s say, (How’d your wife feel about that?) I had to be honest with her, right? Because I was working this corporate job making really good money, and roofing was a disaster at first, and I told her, I need to do my own and she hates it. She hates when I’m gone, yeah, but it was like, Look, I will never be able to be a good father or a good husband to you, if I don’t chase my goals and dreams.

Justin: And part of that business is you’re chasing storms to some extent.

Dustin: So, we don’t. So, I actually made a conscious decision, like all these, I call them Roofer Bros. So, all Roofer Bros see a storm and they just run out and chase it (yeah). And for me, I don’t want to be away from my family. Sure. I have about two three days, good days in me, and I start like I’m done (Yeah). And I couldn’t imagine going, spending two or three months away from my family to chase money. Money’s not a motivator for me, so you can’t entice me with money. So when you’re like, you go make 500 grand chase in the storm. I’m like, I can make 500 grand here. I don’t want to go. And so, we made the decision to build a true brand in roofing, not to storm Chase. And so, we wanted to. You said billion dollars is funny. I keep all billion-dollar brand. Billion-dollar brand. The RR will be a billion-dollar brand. I don’t need a storm chase. I’m that good (Yeah). That’s how I be cocky. But I don’t need a storm chase to be successful. Like, yeah, we’re gonna do in our backyard, and we’re gonna now, if there’s a storm within an hour or two of DFW, absolutely, man. Like, we’ll go down there and chase it. But, well, I’m not going from Texas to Nebraska to chase a storm. (That’s right). I’m out. I’m not doing it, and I don’t want to put our team in that position. Because I’d be a hypocrite to say, well I don’t want to be away from my family, but you go ahead, it’ll, you know, Nah, man. I don’t want to do that.

Justin: Hey, by the way, if you’re an entrepreneur, if you do hard things, big things, a friend of mine, Taylor Welch, has one of the best podcasts out, called Daily mind medicine, if you want to supercharge your thinking, your resilience, your problem solving, everything from how you do more and get more done to how you handle failure. You know this but your number one asset is your mind bar none. Nothing else compares. The reason I love this podcast is because it’s only three to four minutes long. So I grab my cup of coffee and I get my mind right every morning. You should absolutely check this out. Go to dailymindmedicine.tv or just look on Spotify or Apple podcasts. It’s like a nootropic for your brain. Enjoy.

Justin: How do you go from being an employee to someone else’s roofing company to running a $40 million a year roof? I mean, there is so much between day one in four years. How do you bridge that? Like, what have been the hurdles for you to grow? Find the right people? Have the right pay structure? Like what does that look like?

No one. I think you touched on it earlier. You said, everybody wants a short term results, right? You’ve got to have a long term goal, otherwise you’re going to be enticed by the short term results. So yeah, you have to have an end game in mind. And maybe it’s not retirement. But for me, I want to be a billion dollar brand, right? So, what do I need to do to get there? And everything else that comes up now, it’s just part of it, and I believe I posted about today, we don’t have problems, we just have opportunities. So when something comes up, it’s not a problem, (opportunity to solve the issue). That’s it man.

Justin: You said something that. I don’t know if you’ve been watching me, but you have to decide what you want, which is a billion dollar brand and then you have to decide who you need to be to get what you want. That is one. I know it’s two parts, but it’s actually the first pillar of success that I preach on this podcast “Hard”. Because, in my true opinion, you’re echoing it. If you can’t decide what you want, then you can’t decide or figure out who you need to be to get anything. And you’re just going about trying to just make money and make as much as you can, of course. But there’s no direction to that.

Dustin: There’s not they. What if I always talk, I actually, I reverse it. I say, which is the same. It’s, I go, you can’t figure out what you really want, so you know who you really are. (Sure). Right? And that I think it’s crazy, is like, if you watch a lot of successful people, that’s what they talk about, knowing what they really want, and it is, how could you know what you want if you don’t know who you are? You get this pre notion of, I want to be a millionaire, but why? Money doesn’t solve your problem (Right). It solves a few, paying your bills, but it’s not going to make you happy (Right). You have to know who you are. In my whole life I ran for not, probably the exaggerated version I ran from who I really was. Because I was, I was scared to unlock those doors and those demons that are there, (Sure) they were scary. So, I ran from them. What I didn’t realize every time I ran from they just got bigger. So I could never really face them (Yeah) and but I didn’t know who I was. And when I found out who I was, I started to understand who I wanted to be and who I was. And then it was an evolving door. And so it was, it was setting that long term of man, here’s who I want to be and here’s what I want to do (Yeah) and everything that comes up from now and then I just got to solve the problems for it. (And it’s got to be congruent to what you want and who you need to be to do it) yeah. And then I go in there. So many times, we go like, we. Want to be a billion-dollar brand, right? We had to go. We go, what can I do to become a billion dollar brand? And I go, No, no, it’s not what. It’s who can I align with become a billion dollar brand? Who can I network with to be a billion-dollar brand? Who can I help to go along with me? Like there’s going to be people who are going to take me up, but who am I taking with me? And the reason that I think that’s super important is, I think the life that I’m living, my mentors, my business partner, and he was my boss in the fitness industry. And I laugh, I’m like, he was my Phil Jackson (Yeah). This dude, I was always, like, a top revenue rider. Everywhere I went, top producer, but I was a train wreck, man, like, absolute hard to deal with. You know?

Justin: Sure, best sales people are hardest to deal with the worst, yeah, the worst. Shout out to my sales guys. If you guys know exactly, bro.

Dustin: They’re all. I think I could give you my top 10, and they’re all train wrecks, but they’re my train wrecks. I love them, right? And I want to help them be better. And hey, man, he talked to me like nobody else had talked to me (Yeah). But he generally cared. And this was 12 years ago. So the last 12 years has been in my life, and I remember getting so frustrated with them that it was kind of like the Phil and Kobe story. I quit the company that I worked for where he was there. And then I went and worked for these three, four or five other leaders. And it was like, wow, man. I took I missed when I had and I told him, one day I’m going, we’re gonna work together again. (Yeah). He’s like, I don’t know, man, because the and so I knew in my mind I was had to create a company that he could come work with me. So, when we started the company, you look at his journey. He was so light years ahead of me at the time, like when I met him, he was a RVP, literally top five in the company. He was running 100 plus locations. I was a sales guy. We were 100 levels away from each other, and now I’m his boss, (Yeah) right and he’s my business partner, but I’ve made that guy a multi-millionaire. So that’s why it’s so important that you bring people up, because you could have a protege on your team right now who has more talent than you that could be better than you is going to do amazing things. And if you treat him like crap when he goes on and makes it does amazing things, he’s not going to take you with them. And so, you always want to, obviously, network up, but you want to make sure you’re bringing people up with you. And I don’t open the company. I was like, Look, man, I don’t care what we do, but we’re going to take care of people.

Justin: It’s always open first. We just talked about that before we started recording, like the key so I told you that I’m going to do a keynote speech about Good to Great in the linchpin, to me is people and you’re just like, yeah, man, because it really is, and I don’t mean just, and I say this a lot, pay to play, right? (Yeah) Pay to get to the table that’s above your table or at the table that you want. I firmly believe that. But what I’m talking about is all encompassing, taking care of the kids that are trying to grow with you. Taking care of the guys that don’t know that are total messes. They’re totally out of whack. Like, really invest in people, and the good will always come (Absolutely) right? And so, there’s no way you can run a $40 million your business while having massive energy effort, resources, time pouring into people. Talk about that. Talk about how people made the impact for you.

Dustin: Yeah. So, you know. First couple years, like I said, I was seven days a week, and I made a schedule for myself eight to eight. Like I would never be in the house at 8am and never be home at 8pm like ever. And that was six days or seven days a week. And you know, you said the wife. It was tough, but it was the commitment that I’m gonna sacrifice. You know what I want now for what I want most (That’s it). And I knew that how to invest in people. And I knew that they the whole saying lonely at the top. It’s only lonely at the top of your crap, and you don’t take anyone with you, because it’s not lonely for me. I’m always around great people. So, I don’t understand that notion, and you can’t help everybody, you know that, but you got to see something in people, because it does use a crazy it takes one person in your life to believe in you that could change your life (Totally). And when I meet someone, and you know they got it or got the great attitude, you want to take them to the top. And so what I would do is install, you know, 80:20 rules that you know, 80% of your revenue comes from 20% and so when you find those people that maybe don’t have a skill set, but they have the right attitude, if you put them in different buckets, and it’s not being naive, it’s like Michael Jordan got treated differently than Steve Kerr he got treated differently than Scottie Pippen. And people were like, well, you treat people differently? Well, yeah, because he’s a superstar, it is what it is. And if you want, if I have, if I’m to give you attention, I do want you to. I don’t want an ROI on it, but I don’t want to waste my time talking to someone that doesn’t care, that doesn’t even want to put something with it. So I made the decision day one, I’m gonna invest in people. And so when I found someone that had that right attitude, I would literally be with them 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And I think the leadership component comes down to caring. It was like, I would text if it’s like, if it’s like, if you work for me, like, Hey, man, how are you doing today? Yeah, I’m gonna get my sales up. Just, I’m not talking about sales, man, how are you doing? And I would, I would, I think we always look for what’s wrong as leaders, you know, like, oh, he messed up. He did this. I try to look for what’s right. (Yeah). So, when I saw opportunities for you doing a good work, I wanted to, like, reward you for that. I mean, great job to do things to over like all it’s like with your kids, if you want them to do more good things, just overreact to the good things they do. And that reaction they’re like, oh, I want to do more of this. So I did the same thing with our employees. And when people started doing the right work, I overcompensated them. Because why didn’t I was going to treat them well, you know, do events for them, give them gifts, whatever it meant, give them my time, because they felt accolades, but then over compensate them. So good luck trying to recruit them. They ain’t going anywhere. They’re the highest paid. They’re the best treated. And then we painted that vision over and over, of like, Hey, man, don’t focus on where we’re at. Let’s focus on where we’re going. And I told them, if we do X, Y, Z, I’ll give you this. And when we did, we carved off 10% of the company, and I gave stock options to people. So now we have people tied in like they’re an owner. So, we ever sell this thing or take on a big private equity company, they’re going to get paid (Yeah). And so, we have guys on the team right now that’d be multi-millionaires that we sold today, and it’s crazy, but they don’t. Why would they go anywhere? They wouldn’t. Yeah, exactly. So they will focus on it well.

Justin:  You’re even talking just about the employees, right? I mean, so I did something similar, in the sense of, I’ve had a guy with me now, my general manager. We were just talking about it. Yeah, I give him 30% of everything I buy. (That’s awesome). It’s a big number. (Yeah) It’s one person and that’s not the whole team. He gets a whole thing. But you think he’s ever going anywhere when I’m buying two to five homes every single week, and I’m buying three apartments already this year, and I ain’t going nowhere. Right? But it’s because I want what’s best for him at the end of the day that I can only have so much. So if I go create a massive number, then he gets his piece. He did the right thing. It allows me to do cool thing and hang out with cool people and that kind of stuff, right? It affords me life. But attaching the people to your bigger vision is really important. Spending time with people is really important. But the most important thing that you said, without saying it, is your intention behind it. What you do with your time in putting intention with other people, taking them to lunch, paying to play, and then when you in the room, what are you doing? What are you talking to? What is your focus on? If you’re doing this and you just paid 30 grand to be in a room with somebody like Dustin or Justin, and you’re there, why did you (Why did you go) you want to get the cloud on social media. What are you doing? (Yeah) Right? Is intention with the time that you were given is everything, and pouring into people will help you get further faster than ever before. If you had to do it all again, it got stripped away from you. What would be the one thing that you’d focus on out of the gate? And it doesn’t have to be people, so I don’t want that to be I literally want to say, if this all gets stripped away, everything you’ve built. What’s gonna be your focus.

Dustin: Yeah. Besides the people, right? Because that’s it. It isn’t say cliche, but it is just focus on sales man, just doing things like. I would just, I remember when we started, first of all, scared to death, like people like, yeah, bro, like (Of course) I had a pregnant wife. I (always the best timing). It’s so my have a so I have a one and a half year-old maybe two son (Yeah). I have a pregnant wife, that we had no money, right? I was driving Uber Eats to pay our bills at night, so when I got off at eight, I had to go drive Uber Eats with my family. We had no office, and I started a roofing company. And we’re sitting at Chick fil A for breakfast, me and my son, he’s barely speaking, and I go, Connor, what do you want to do today? And he goes, let’s just go work that. It was the craziest thing. And the light bulb went off, and I was like, Yeah, let’s just go work. And so if it all got stripped away, people, like, if you worry about losing it on like, Nah, man, because I just go to work again (Yeah) And you go out there and you just do because, you know, people want, like you said, they want it to be perfect. They want the fancy office. And what would I do? I just go back to work. Like, I go back to work and hustle, because the speed kills an entrepreneur. If you get out there and you’re first, you’re gonna win (Like, if you’re Uber, you’re bigger than Lyft) Exactly. Lyft has a marketplace (But Uber was first) yeah, exactly. So there is ground that. So when, when you want to know what to do, instead of sitting around thinking about it, just speed up your reaction time from thinking to do it (That’s it). And when that’s what I do, I would literally just go back and go, Okay, let’s go to work. Let’s just go knock doors in or let’s go whatever our industry is, maybe we’re knocking digital doors, whatever it is, and just go back to work.

Justin: And you just said digital doors. What I was gonna say? You said this without saying it with your answer, you’d focus on social media. And so would I (100% Yeah). And why people? So it all keeps coming back to people because it gives you eyeballs to know what you were doing again. If you lost it all, maybe wouldn’t go back and roofing. Let’s just say you go to a different vertical. (Yeah) You would use social media as a platform to show everyone what you are now doing new let’s just call it. The music industry. Set up the studio. I’m doing this thing. I’m having this new band come in. They’re recording a thing. You’d record yourself, you talk about it. You would leverage social media so you get more eyeballs. Because if you get more eyeballs, you meet more people, more people want to be a part of your world. And this big ecosystem starts to evolve again. People don’t use social media the way, like you just talked about how you were doing it as a fitness in the fitness industry four or five years ago. Think about what that helped you like the what’s the word I’m looking at projection? (Trajectory) Trajectory. Trajectory that you went on. I’m gonna make the argument. A lot of that had to do with the people that caught eye. Of you, caught wind of you understood what you were doing? How you’re doing it? And here you are, however many years later.

Dustin: Yeah. So we have three. I hate saying core values, because I think it’s crap. Like people put up on the wall. They’re like, is our core values, and they don’t follow them, right? But I’ll say our maybe three principles that we stand on is, first of all, deal space, the bills without sales there’s no company like you have to sell (Of course). Don’t get a twist. I don’t care what you’re in. People like, why I’m not in a sales industry? I’m like, What do you win? Like, you out. So if you’re working a hotel, if you don’t sell rooms, you’re out like every industry you’re in to sell so deals pays the bills. The second thing is social media. You have to organically be on social media. And just the 33% 30% like who you are, your family, like what you’re into, 33% work and like your hobbies, whatever, right? And you have to post because you could be the best realtor, best musician, best content creator, best roofer. Doesn’t matter if nobody knows you, nobody can use you. And so, posting it. And I saw that man like, when I first got into roofing, you know, you knock doors, they’re gonna knock doors and you can only knock so many doors a day. And I fell into the trap of posting just to post, because people tell you post on social media, (Yeah) and by the way, like I hated social media. I think I’m on like, my third or fourth Instagram. I just started one, like last year again. New one I have is last year I I’m on multiple Facebooks because I would delete them because I just didn’t care. And but I saw I’m like, wait a minute, if I go knock doors, I can knock like, 75 a day. If I make one post, it gets 100 views. That’s more than I door knock. And we get it so twisted we want to always say and or so I would say, hey, just if you’re in roofing, if you go ask the roofer bro, right now, what’s your what do you do? And they’d say, Well, you got a door knock. And you’d say, okay, door knock, social media, realtor partnerships. Which one they’d go, Well, I’m gonna door knock. Well, why not do all three? Yeah, why not door knock and social media and and so I started changing on my content. And I started trying to be specific. Like, target a realtor, target somebody with a leak, target an investor, target. Like, I got specific. Like, nobody just wants to see me on a roof. (Yeah). Hey, it’s Dustin on my roof. Like, get out. Nerd. Like, who cares? (Right) It was like, why am I on this roof? And what value would a homeowner see by me on this roof and taking care of somebody, and then showing my kids, showing what I’m into? And I remember I posted one video I was posting for like, six months. I ain’t nobody liking it. It was the wildest things, because I look back four years ago and it’d be like, my wife liked it, probably because she had to (Yeah), because I tagged her, because that nobody else to tag. We didn’t have a company yet, and, like, one of my family members or something, like, there’s no likes. And I did it for like, man, five, six months. And I was like, this is a waste of time. And one day I posted, like, a video, actually, like, authentic. And sure, I got three leads from that video in one day. And I was like, in tears, like, this is the greatest thing ever changed in life, you know? (Yeah). And I was like, Wow, man, social media is the key. Because while I was knocking doors, I was creating content, yeah. I was like, why not do both, yeah? Like, and it did it, it. We became $40 million last year because of social media.

Justin: I can put it on it.

Dustin: I’ll put, I’ll put half of our business minimum, (Yeah) is because of the content and social media. Because even if you don’t get deals from it, imagine if you and I were sitting here and you had to go look at a roofer and there’s a bad name or a contractor, and you go Google them, and they have four reviews. You go to social media, they have one post this year, and the last ones from like November of 2023, you’re like, Who are these guys? You go look at a company that has we have 900 plus reviews, five star on Google in four years. We have 20,000 plus followers on on Facebook. Not that the followers mean anything, but we have two to three pieces of content every day. You can see our faces. You can see who we are. You can see the brand so you can find us. So, if I’m a customer and I’m fearful something going wrong? Do I trust a guy that’s got 900 reviews and all this social media content, so if something goes wrong, I’m gonna be able to find him (Yep) or the guy that’s chucking a truck that has nothing, they’re gonna go with the people that has the brand and the social media.

Justin: I mean, this is everything people again. You know, it’s interesting. I always bring up my dad in these stories because he’s a sales guy. He sells insurance. (Yeah) Does not with social media. But frankly, I have to lend him money because he can’t make enough money. Then I said, Daddy just got to get on social media. You will find clients there, all of your competitors on there. I don’t care about people, what people eat. I don’t care about little kittens, and I don’t care you don’t, you know, like Dad, you’re, not using it, right? It goes back to intention. Yeah, you could scroll through social media, look at all tits and asks you want? I get it. I mean, it’s everywhere, right? But if you actually have intention with what you post and what you’re doing, I only follow people who are like minded, people that I believe could be leveling me up like, I don’t follow like, if you look funny enough. If you look at my Instagram search bar, it is Jays and it is Rolexes and or auto Mars. (Yeah, it’s all I care about). Like, I don’t care about the girls I don’t care about because when I post, it is about business (Exactly). So, the only thing personally I’m looking at are things that I care about. But really it’s about, you know, Dustin or all the other people that I want to follow. On to be a part of my world and have intention behind it. And then, because of that, when I post about real estate, flipping homes, buying rentals, buying with none of my own money, whatever it may be, it draws the attention of like, how do I do that? Yeah. So then I have a coaching program and teach people.

Dustin: I love when people are like, we have our employees all the time. I’m not a social media guy. I’m not on there. And I go pull out your phone, you know, iPhones, you can see people’s usage (Yeah). so, when you go to their general and you see how long they’re on there, and these guys are on there, three, four hours a day on social media, right? And I’m like, you’re a consumer, you’re not a creator, and that’s why you’re broke. That’s it, because you’re just looking at other people’s stuff. Imagine if you and you, when you go in the room and there’s people, the average is two, three hours a day, like, it’s, it’s, so think about that. Like, Day a day. Like, go to your iPhone and look how much you’re on social media. Like people are on there, insane.

Justin: I feel like I’m gonna do a test. I feel like I’m really good. I do not. I’m not, like, very voyeur. So where do you go? You go to General.

Dustin: General, and it’s like settings, like, useless time, it’ll have, like, your screen there.

Justin: Maybe it’s not in general. Maybe it’s not in general, oh, it’s just when you go under settings, it’s the display or screen time right there. Under general, screen time, under there, you’ll see it right above General. Oh, above general. Yeah, it’s right above in time. So my whole phone that, like the entire I’m on for five hours a day. Well, that’s everything.

Dustin: Was that just today? Because you could click on Week and it’ll tell you your daily average (Great).

Justin: So, I spend most of my time on text messaging. So, two hours a day.

Dustin: Yeah, two hours a day. And you thought you said there’s only two hours. Think about that, and you’re below average, but you’re what you’re doing is, but now, what I would challenge is, you go to your content, you’re creating a you’re posting and probably replying to people.

Justin: So no, I’m sorry, daily average 34 minutes, 34 so I guess a week is two hours. Yeah, yeah. No fucking two. I’m like, two hours a day, but you’re probably, (But you’re probably creating?) I am creating and I am posting, but still 30 so daily average, 34 minutes.

Dustin: It’s crazy that people are on there non stop, but yet they’re not. They’re just consuming content. They’re not creating it. (What is national average on daily?) We felt like when I every time that I see you are, it’s always two hours plus.

Justin: So I’m 34 minutes. I knew I was less because I don’t do a whole lot of voyeur stuff. But I’ll post right like, I’ll post when you and I are here, and I’ll do that so they count all that. But so again, I think anyone needs to rewind this last 10 minutes or so, because I think this conversation about social media really needs to be understood here. I don’t have the biggest I don’t have 10 million followers. I don’t think you have that many, you know, but what you’re trying to do is gain eyeballs. You said something that really hit home here, and I want everyone really, really to listen to this. I think this is really, really important. Is you spent the better part of six months posting every single day and getting two people to like it, (Yeah, nothing). And on the you know, start of the seven month, you made a post and you got three clients. And that is usually a part where people don’t understand, again, immediate gratification. They think they should post. They can she get a client? (Yep) You might post for six months. You might even post for a year. (Get nothing). But it’s when you start to get that momentum, people start to see you that that bowl ball starts to roll (Yeah, but just like Gary V. I mean, I just have adopted that like you just post consistently, no matter what doesn’t have to be perfect with intention. And your end result of why you’re doing it will hit one day or another, right? And you’re gonna whether it goes viral or whatever it may be. But if you don’t post, you don’t go out there and get it, and it goes back to a little bit of what I preach, which is like people don’t ask for what they want anymore. They just expect it to show up like they’re entitled, like, I just want a million dollars. I want to live in Dustin’s neighborhood. Well, how many hours are you working? Are you working eight at eight for seven days a week for the two years straight. Sure, you’re not listening. You’re not living in Dustin neighborhood.

Dustin: Yeah, they want it all. Now, I had a conversation with a sales rep couple months ago. He’s like, I gotta get a part time job. It makes like 80 grand a year. And I’m like, for what again, because now, like 80 grand, if you’re not making six fit like it is, you have to make 100,000 to make it. And I said, let’s look. What do I need to I said, let’s walk through your day. Because usually, Look, man, if you don’t have the prizes, because your process is broken (Yeah). So let’s walk through what you’re doing. This guy was working four days a week, right? He was actually working about three to five hours a day. So we looked at he was only working 24 hours, I go. So I said, I want you to Google the national average, because we always think average. What’s the average home size? We always, we accept average. That’s why everybody searches what averages. So I said, search would like average household income is households. That’s two people, and it was like 64 grand, or 66 or something like that, right? And I said, Now I want you to Google what the average work week is. He’s like, 40 hours. What’s your point? I said, so you don’t even work the average, but you’re expecting to make more. I said you got sound delusional. You sound and you’re going to go get a part time job. When you’re you have a part time job, right? And he goes, Well, you know, I think I need a side hustle. I go, you just fucking need a main hustle. You’re working 24 hours a week. You need to change which what you’re doing, man, because you’re asking to have a side hustle. The side hustle is only going to distract you. You need to have a main hustle, right? And so what we found was he wasn’t putting in the hours you want. I said, Now let’s go to your social media. What’s your social media? You’re posting like, once every two or three days? Yeah? Who was going to find you? Because when I’m sitting around, never in my life have me and my wife sat here and go, Hey, you know what let’s call up Justin his wife, let’s go roof shopping this Saturday. That’s a terrible idea. I don’t want to do roofing, and I’m a roofer. You only need a roof. You need a roof. And so if you’re not posting and bringing value, I’m not going to remember you when it happens. And so you’re not bringing value, you’re working part time, and you’re complaining about where you’re at. You think it’s just going to show up. How were you going to make 250,000 a year? Because I have this, I feel like my life changed when I made over 250 (Sure). I felt like when it started, allowed me to invest and we talked about, and I’m like, how are you going to make 250? What does it take? Do you know how many roosting you sell? Do you know how many days? I can promise you, it’s not four days a week for 25 hours? (Yeah) You’re not going to get to where I want to be in. I don’t think people realize once you start working like 60, 70, 80 plus hours a week. Man, I was working like 100 my life. I felt like I got five times better, even though I was working double because the compound effect. I was learning things so fast, so much experience that when you were working 40 hours a week, even though, if I was only working 80, I feel like I got five times better than you. Because I was able to do so many things and learn at a fast pace and skill level that it just compounded what I was doing. Yeah, and as I was able to get better faster, on the flip side, if you’re only working 25 you’re going to get worse if you’re not really growing, right? It’s like sports. Is the greatest analogy. You think Kobe became one of the best because he practiced one time a day. No, he was doing three four as a mamba mentality, and he got that much better than everybody, then nobody could catch him. Because even if they worked out four times a day, he was still working out four times a day, man. So I think it’s a huge thing of people just feel entitled that it’s going to happen.

Justin: So, let’s talk about your angel investing again, you go from homeless to now being angel investor. And many of the brands that we’re all aware of, we talked about go for fuel. (Goat Fuel). Are you allowed to talk about some?

Dustin: Yeah. So Goat Fuel, some of the people, I can’t. But Goat Fuel free rain coffee (yeah). Cole Hauser and that Yellowstone, if you watch that? (Yeah) Goat Fuels. Jerry Rice, Liquid Death. Which is killing it. It was because of relationships set I built (Yeah). And I realized that money wasn’t a motivator to me. I’m not enticed my money. I’m probably enticed by two things, shoes and Disney trips. I love taking my kids to Disney. (There you go) Our thing. (I Love that). But, uh, I wanted to create generational wealth, yeah? And to me, like, you know, I like some nice things, but buying, I don’t need five cars. (Yeah) Like, I, literally, I have a personal car. It’s a 67 Lincoln, continental side doors, air ride. I rarely drive it. I have a work truck (Yeah). I don’t have a real personal vehicle (Yeah). I don’t drive, like, where I don’t have any of that stuff. I don’t have a Rolex. I don’t have any of that stuff, man, because I want to use that money to invest because what I found. You’re making 250 let’s just say you’re making 250 I’m making 250. Well, you’re not going to, you can live a good life, but you’re not going to be rich. (Yeah) And think about your lifestyle that, let’s just say you’re gonna save 50,000 a year, right? 10 years you save 500,000 Well, how long you’re able to live for that? If you’re spending 100,000 a year, 75 Yeah, if you retire, you can live 10 years comfortably, if you’re lucky, right? I’m like, that’s not gonna do it for me. So, I have to create other income. So what I, by my mind was how can I make money without it taking my focus off what I’m doing? (Yeah) So it was investing. And what happened was, I was investing. Just say five grand man, you know, 15, 20, 50. Well, if I invest, let’s say 50,000 a year real estate, and then in two years, it returns 150,000. Well, I just got paid an extra 150,000 that year. So now let’s say I’m doing that 5, 10 times in a year. For two or three, four years, I’m gonna eat crap. I’m not gonna make the same amount of money I was making, but in three to five years now, I went from making 250 to 500, 750 without doing anything extra. Then I can use half of that money to save half of it to reinvest. And now I’m just repeating this cycle. And that’s how you start creating generational wealth and making your money, make money, and then you double, triple your income. So instead of going out and buying that car that you don’t need, but invest in an up and coming company, right? That’s going to give you a decent return in a few years, and now your money’s truly making you money. And now you’re making generational wealth, not just living paycheck to paycheck or thinking you’re saving money. And I have this fear. This is my fear. It sounds weird, but I don’t want to be a Walmart greeter, dude, when I’m 65,70 years old. Every time I walk in there, I see those people, yeah? And I’m like, Dude, that’s someone’s grandma grandfather having a Walmart greet because we didn’t plan our life accordingly. And then you look at people and they’re like, I got 10 grand saved up. (Yeah) And I’m like, what happens if you’re retired today, you’re going to live off 10 grand. (Yeah) We’re like naive that we’re going to like, just all this is going to appear. And I start thinking about that man. I think about that end game all the time. What does that look like?

Justin: How do you get those opportunities? How do you get?

Dustin: The people. So, yeah, so Roger Healy, my guy, he owns Morrison Seager, their investment company. And just, I was always giving, right? And he says, like, Dude, you’re my biggest you’re my friend that gives the most. And one day he called me up. He’s like, would you ever be interested in investing? And I’m like, yeah, absolutely, I was. This was the first real, real one I had done it, you know, by reaching out to people previously, like, Where can I put my money? (Yeah) Just close mouths. Don’t get fed. And one day he reached out to me. He’s like, Hey, man, I have these opportunities? Would you be interested? And I was like, yeah. And the first time I ever did it, when I wrote, I felt, at the time real money was a $25,000 check. I was sweating. I was scared to when it left my account. I was like, Can I cancel this? Like, I don’t want to do it. I was like, This is the worst and now it’s been life changing, right? And it puts you in different rooms too (Yeah). But, uh, yeah, man, it’s just the people, right? It was literally all boils down to people. And we want to over complicate it and make it like, what’s the three steps to getting ahead in life? There’s not man. The same stuff everyone talks about, you know, the work hard self, all that crap. But it’s people bro. If you know the right people, they’re going to help you get to where you want to go. (That’s it) If you don’t. And it’s the same thing if you’re connected with the wrong people, they’re gonna bring you down.

Justin: But listen, you did a couple things with Sealy, and I don’t know him. I know of him. You were a giver. You got your way into the door because you bought him a gift that was more thoughtful than anyone else. You didn’t ask him anything for it. You just gave. Said, thank you for doing what you’re doing. Then when you did get your shot, you were intentional with your shot. Yeah, you stuck around. You offered more value. You had intention to stay in his world. That world led to an investing opportunity, which probably led to the other three or four or five that you’ve done. I mean, you’re a part of some like, I love liquid death I drink as much as I love soda water. So, they just have a great product, right? Goat Fuel, my man Jerry Rice. Like, it’s just, I can’t get enough caffeine and energy throughout the day. So, dude, this is so impressive to hear when someone goes from the homeless to an angel investor. I was not just saying you made money like you’re in a place where you’re a big investor, right? You’re not just owning a roofing company like your your business card says investor, (Yeah) that is a game changer. That is how the big boys are the big boys, right? You name a name like The Rock or Mark Wahlberg or any of these names, please believe they’re a part of some companies that are really big. And this is how this whole world starts to turn.

Dustin: Yeah, I think I’m wearing. I’m not an investor of this but Mark Wahlberg municipal, (Municipal are you?) I’m wearing a Municipal Shirt. I love the shirt. Yeah, I’m wearing a shirt. It is. Man, it’s a  you know, the brand, and it’s, it is different. Man like, we were, me, my wife, were talking about this today. We’re we were on the phone, and she was like, I’m just so proud of you, and I love you. Like, appreciate that. And she’s like, it’s just crazy. Like, we didn’t have enough money to pay rent, our credit cards are maxed out. Like you know, six, seven years ago. And she’s like, hey you were living on a park bench when you were 14. Like, I don’t know what that’s like, it was just homeless, right? (Yeah) What do you do? And how’d you get here? And I think it’s, don’t lose sight of where you came from. So many people are like, I don’t want to go back to the past. I do every day, man, every single day I think about where I came from. Because I never want to go back there, and I think about all the struggles I’ve been through, and I’m like, I don’t want to make that same mistake and even when you get in those rooms with people, because we all know, man, you know, you have two or three friends that they only hit you up when they want something (Yep) right? And they’re users, and they only ask for crap. And we don’t like those people, but yet we still do the same things. (Yeah) It’s like, you want people to give to you, and you hate when people take, but yet you only take from people, and you think people don’t notice it. And so when I create these relationships man. I do, my intentions are always to try to give, and you know, people will take advantage of you, but I’m like, they didn’t because they lost, because now they’ve burned the relationship with me and where I’m going, you’re going to want to be a part of that. So if you think that short term win on me, you lost in such the bigger picture, I actually feel bad for you. I don’t take it personally, like, Oh, I’m I’m not you hear it. I’m done giving to people because I got burned, not me. Man, I’m going to keep giving. Just, guess what? I’m not going to give to you anymore. (That’s right). I’m going to give to somebody else. Man, just. Like, look, opportunity is not lost. It’s just giving someone else. So I’m just gonna keep giving, but to other people,

Justin: That’s a great way to wrap up this episode, bro. If you guys like everything you heard and saw, make sure you are following Dustin Where do Where do you want to go find you?

Dustin: Dustin Gutkowski, it’s easy to find. I think I’m the only Dustin Gutkowski in the United States.

Justin: Spell your last name, bro.

Dustin: G, U, T, K, O, W, S, K, I. On Instagram it’s dustingutkowskirr, Facebook, YouTube, you can find it. So, I appreciate it, man.

Justin: He’s a real one. He’s a real cool dude. Happy to have you on this episode, dude, this is going to be fire. I know for sure. (Appreciate it man. Thank you). I appreciate you guys. See you on the next episode. Entrepreneur DNA peace.