From 1.7 GPA to $100M: The Mindset That Changed Everything | Gage Cummings | Ep 48

(upbeat music) - Welcome back to the Life Legacy Podcast. And as always, we bring on well-rounded, inspiring leaders. And today, I get to introduce you guys to one of my youngest mentors that I have. He's 24 years old, and right now, his business is actually valued at right under $100 million. And not only is he an insane business person, but he is also one of the best humans in taking care of other humans that I know, as well as I get an honor to be his brother. And so I get a welcome gauge coming to the podcast. - Thank you very much. I'm very excited. - Yeah, we did an episode right when I started the podcast. And so in the last two years, it'll be fun to kind of bring people up to speed with everything that you're doing. But to do a little depiction of gauge, this was a recent situation that it was like 9/30 a night and gauge tags me like, hey, let's go to Buffalo Wild Wings. He shows up, he's got, he loves cars, he's got a nice car, and he walks out with a white robe on, like he's on vacation or something. And we walk and he's got his sandals, and we're just talking to the waiter, and we get our food, whatever. And then we're going to pay, engage tips in $100, just cause to inspire him or I don't know, what's your reason for always being so abundant and you're tipping and you're giving that way? Well, my tipping was supposed to be a secret, but tipping is fun, and it's funny to see how people react, 'cause if you give some people a really good tip, they'll either look at you like you're Jesus, or they just won't give a shit at all. (laughs) It's kind of interesting to see like who will care? Like you give a good tip to the cleaner at the hotel, like she's just gonna lose her mind. Like if you give her a hundred bucks or whatever, but then somebody in Utah that lives in Salt Lake, you give them a hundred bucks, they probably won't care very much. So it gives you good perspective. You can make a change in somebody's life with the life that we live. - Yeah. - What inspired the giving, like that piece of you? - It's fun. I think maybe I'm selfish and I want a good karma retribution from it, but it's also just fun to see people's reaction and like a hundred bucks or 200 bucks to someone like us compared to somebody like the hotel cleaner is wildly different and that is absolutely worth it every time to see that good of a reaction and you know they're going to tell their family and like you actually made such a big change in their life when that doesn't hurt us. - Yeah. I've seen gauge like sincerely affect a lot of people in inspiration financially and sincerely, I don't know anyone your age that's pushing and achieving what you're achieving. And I think a lot of people will see you know like a 24 year old making the level of money that you're currently making and think you know like that's totally out of reach. And so I want the audience to be able to understand you and dive into you know what, how did this gauge get built? So to start off what drives you? Like what fires you up? That is a great question and there's a plethora of things that make up like my why if you want to call it that but when I was 19 and I got into sales that was life changing and I feel extremely grateful and lucky that I was able to gain my purpose at that young of an age but just the ability to give somebody that deserves a good opportunity a good opportunity really. I think as a kid I got extremely lucky because our family was super chaotic and so I just did whatever I wanted because like you were busy being chaotic. Jackson seems to be the super nice guy, not reckless or anything like that but Jackson, I remember our principal of our high school told me one day he said you know you're the worst student I've ever had. You know who's number two is your brother Jackson. So if you're looking at his podcast thinking he's just some innocent good guy you're completely wrong and I get to say that because I'm his brother but parents were too busy dealing with him and the other brothers just doing stupid shit and so I got to do whatever I wanted. So I didn't really go to school very often. I got a 1.7 GPA but in hindsight like mom would have said that was the worst thing that could have happened but now looking back that is the best thing that could have happened because I think the system just curates a reality for somebody that usually people don't actually want because it just teaches everybody to be fearful of doing what they want in their life and I don't feel like I ever bought into that and it was because I just don't know whatever I want so I didn't go to school very often. And so then I was able to just choose what I wanted to do with my life which I feel extremely grateful for and I don't think a lot of people get to do that but then when I found sales it was like oh, this is something where I can actually go and build whatever reality I want and my income is dependent on how much I want to put into it and there's no other factors controlling that besides myself. And so I think everybody wants the same thing they want freedom and understanding that that was possible at a young age was a big driver for me but then your wide changes over time I think once you start making money, once you start making money, you don't have to chase money or anymore then you kind of have a little crisis where you're like well, what do I actually care about? Because money really only matters when you don't have it but then once you have some money, you don't really value it that much and so then you have to ask yourself, well what do I actually care about? So now I think my wise changed a lot towards instead of freedom since I believe I have that now is towards being able to offer what was offered to me when I was 19 for when I was getting into sales. Yeah, but that's my why. And I've seen Gage create some of his pay plans for his people and it's sincerely you're trying to give that 19 year old or that random person in California that's coming to work with you like a chance to change their life. And we, I don't know, I think of our family and sometimes I've depict it as like Malcolm in the middle. Like we were totally that chaos family and I think you're Dewey the little guy. And then I feel like I'm a mix of Malcolm and the brother that's just barely older than him. Yeah, I don't know who that is. But and yeah, we, I think we have created that that level of chaos creates situations where you have to problem solve on your feet. Like really quick and sometimes when you're getting in trouble you gotta be quick on your feet. You get creative. Yeah. And it's true. We definitely would see the line of what society like accepted and wanted and we didn't really care too much about that line of society would set. And I want to go a little bit to our childhood because there's obviously in your story like the big jump is when you started going into cells and all that. But before that, like what was little gauge like if you had to describe or if your friends were to describe little gauge, you know, growing up, what does that look like? I think growing up all I wanted to do was go see what my friends and I could go and get into like when I did go to school it was literally just to go to lunch to go be with the boys and just like see what we could go and get into. I think like family and unity, whether your blood or not like that is everything to me. There is nothing more fun than just winning with your people and even in high school it's like if you're going and having fun with your boys like that's winning too. And so, So that was always the goal, like since I was very young. But yeah, not really getting caught up in school 'cause mom and dad didn't care. We were like too busy dealing with you, like vandalizing some shit. So I just wanted to go have fun with the friends. You know, I think it's a miracle that I came out of high school and pre-mission with nothing on my record. And I actually remember, there was a time when, I don't know, you were probably like in ninth grade or something. It was one of the first times that you were getting in trouble by the police. And also it sounds like we're some criminal brothers. But I guess high school we were punks. But Gage had been like water-blowning with his friends or something and he calls me. He's like, "Hey, I need you to come pick me up from the police." And I was like, "This is one of Gage's first experiences like this, like I want to make it as crazy as possible." So I tell my friends, I'm like, "Hey, Gage just got in trouble. I have the police like, let's go pick him up." And from your side of what do you remember that experience? - He came, I think there were four of you. Four of you in a car and you just got out and acted extremely upset. I think you took your shirt off in front of the cop and started screaming at me as if you actually cared, but it was just like a meme. But it was pretty funny. And all my friends are like, "What is going on?" - That's true. Yeah, I remember I was like, "Okay, we're just gonna be so insane. Rip our shirts off and I'm gonna scream at Gage like I've never been so mad at him ever." And I don't know. We've had a lot of fun, unique experiences. Not always just getting in trouble with cops or school, but that did play her role. I remember seeing a video when I was on my mission of you in high school and you tackled the Chick-fil-A cow. There was like a cow out of costume or a person in a costume. And I don't think that went too well, but I was like, - I was like, "I'm not gonna spend nothing crazy." - Yeah. That was a crazy thing. I left to go on my mission and Gage is like this tiny little, he looked like he was 12 and he was like a little bit shorter than most of his friends and I come home from my mission and I'm like, "This dude looks like he's 28." He looks older than I do. But so we have a fun chaotic childhood, that's for sure. We go through a divorce with our parents. I'm curious if you remember when they sat us down and told us about the divorce. Like what was your perception of that? - Yeah, I do remember that. It was, I think I was just confused. I was young, I was like, "What then?" I was like, "What did that, what did that even mean?" I don't really know, but I was just confused. But I don't know, stuff like that happens, but I think even from a very young age, that was a great lesson, but also just being alone all the time, taught me you have to look at things logically, and I'm like, "What's that?" I taught me you have to look at things logically, it's like if something bad happens, like what can you do? Like dwelling on anything is not going to do anything for you. So you have to just figure out what the best solution is and act on that. - Do you feel like you remember filling lonely as a child? - No, 'cause I always have friends. That's like maybe I was and I just coped with Gone and hanging out and getting into some shit with the homies. But I will say, like we, our mom and dad, our phenomenal parents like across the board, they have gifts in town that are maybe a little bit different than majority of the parents in situations that our friends were having. But I think, yeah, with you and me, they were going through a little bit of their midlife crisis, and there was a lot of freedom that we got to experience. But I think it made, especially you, extremely resourceful, because it's like, hey, if we want to go to soccer, if we want to go somewhere, it's like, we need to find a ride, we need to find a ride back. We got to save all these random numbers on our phone, 'cause like who can help us live kind of a normal life when we wanted it? But then we'd have friends that would be sneaking out and things like that. We're just walking out the front door. (laughing) But something also really fun is that we had this transparency and we were all super genuine in the family. I feel like Treble makers sometimes keep their secret life really hidden, but it was like, the family knew us to our core. I feel like pretty well. Would you agree or what do you think of that? I think so. I always stayed pretty low-key, but then I'd get in trouble. And mom would be like, what? What's going on? So you'd shatter her heart. And I'd expect a couple times, but then it just became normal. Yeah, it was just like, yeah, he's a chef. Like he's gonna do it every once. Well, let's dive into how you really went from, you're getting less than a 2.0 GPA to your first year in sales. And then I don't wanna go crazy in depth about your sales experience. That might bug some people, but I wanna go to where you kinda start your own company there. But let's start from what changes from high school to Hawaii and then did it. So get out of high school. All my homies went on missions. I never really bought into the whole mission thing. And so then everyone was gone. I was like, well, I don't really know what to do. One of my best friends had moved to Hawaii with his friends from Idaho. And I had like $1,000 I think. And I just told him, I'm like, I'm gonna come out to Hawaii for a week. So I'd spent all my money on my flight there and back to get to Hawaii. And then I got out there and I was like, well, let's just, I'm just gonna stay here. I don't have any money, but it's fine. I'll just crash here. And then I started just, I mean, we didn't do anything. We were just the generates like just out of high school doing whatever we wanted. Kind of just partying. And then I started doing online school. This was like during COVID. So I was able to do UVU online. I signed up late for the semester. And so I was only able to go to like a half semester or something. And I did like absolute lowest barrier of entry to one class. It was nutrition. And it took absolutely zero work to pass the class. But then I was halfway through half of a semester and I'm like, there is no way this school shit is for me. Like there's absolutely no way that this is going to get me anything that I want in my life. So called mom and I'm like, yeah, I word, I'm done. I'm not gonna do this whole school thing. She's like, well, what are you gonna do? Like, I don't know, but not this. And so just hung out in Hawaii for like three or four months parting with my friends. And then I got home. And then that same friend that I went out to Hawaii with and lived with. He's like, hey, we're going to California. Like me and the homies are going to go to California. Do you want to come? I was like, yeah, sure, let's go. Like I didn't really know. I didn't have anything else going on. And so he comes and picks me up and then we get to California. And then we're going to this hotel and like, who's coming to this trip? And they're like, oh, we're like gonna do some sales stuff. I'm like, what? All right, let's go. And then this older dude, this like 35 year old sales manager, typical dude comes into our hotel. He's like, hey, so we're gonna sell some alarms. Like, all right, let's go. But so you had no idea what you're getting into. No, I like accidentally, if you know sales, you do like blitzes and you got on trips and stuff and sell for two weeks or whatever, I accidentally ended up on one. Absolutely. Absolutely. God sent. And that first day, I got extremely lucky. The whole goal was like you go and get into a house and then your manager comes over and closes it. and I got into three immediately, which like if you get into three houses that quick as a rookie, that was really crazy, but I don't know, I was just having fun. I wasn't even doing like the pitch or anything. I'd go knock on the door, we'd just start talking to him. It was kinda like I was still in high school messing with people like what I would do with my friends. And then I'd talk to him about like the alarm, show him a video or whatever, get into the house, call my manager and be like, "Hey, these people "are they want this, these cameras or whatever?" And he'd come over, close it down. After the, so I got three sales in my like first day, which was like crazy. Like everyone's like, "What are you doing?" I'm like, "Dude, I'm just talking to people." - Well, I remember that. Yeah. - I don't know if you told me or someone else did, but I was like, "What?" 'Cause I knew to some level like what that kinda took, "Endorted door?" I didn't really ever do a door to door in my life too much. But it's like, he just hit three sales his first day. Like what is he doing? What is going on here? - Well, and everyone was like asking me, like what are you, what's your pitch? Like what are all these things you're saying? I'm like, I'm just like asking a mother doing and talking to him. Like I was barely even trying to sell. So I really got lucky. Like that was what it came down to. But after the third deal, my manager and I are in the car and he's like, "Bred, you know how much money you've made today?" He was like, I was like, at that point, I didn't even realize that I was even making any money. Like I hadn't fully put that together. I was still just like kinda just there. And he's like, pulls it up on his calculator and it was like $1,500, so I was like, cool, whatever. Like I genuinely really didn't care about the money at all. Like even going to Vivint, like. - Well, you've never been like that. - No. - This is a weird thing. And maybe a miss or a miss- - Miss consumption. - Yeah, I would say. Because you obviously like nice or things. But I remember in high school, sometimes dad would like Venmo you a random thing to say, "I love you." Kind of, I was like one of dad's love languages in a weird way was like, if you wanted to show up a little bit in your life, he would like send you money or something. And I remember multiple times with Gage, where Gage was like, "Hey, dad just sent me like $100." That means we get to go give it away to someone. Like, and that was like the instant response, which I've always admired and had a lot of respect for. And that's why I started with the GivingThink 'cause it's like core to who you are. And this, the money factor, of course, money can also showcase value, but you've never been money hungry in a weird way. And I don't know if I'm saying that properly to express like you're feeling on it, but yeah, let's start there. Where, what's your actual feeling about money? - That's a good question. And it goes back a lot to, you only care about money when you don't have it. When you don't have it, it's the most important thing. When you do have it though, it becomes so negligible to your life, for me at least. And like, my goal for 2026 is really getting back to that mindset of only caring about what my kind of inner child wanted from the beginning when I started my business. Because when I started my business, I went from being 19 and I had like 150 grand from doing sales, which super blessed, but that all went to zero like overnight. And then I didn't realize I was gonna be completely broke for like over two years. And so in those two years, money was extremely important, which ruined me I think because money just will corrupt you. And when you look at this world with the lens of only wanting to make money, like that inner child, what I was talking about just goes away and you lose your purpose I think. So how do you feel like money corrupts people genuinely? I mean, it just leaves you empty. Like money, you get so brainwashed by social media, whatever materialism and then it controls you. So you don't have the ability to create. And don't get me wrong. Like I don't want to be the guy who's like, "Oh, I don't care about money." Like money's important. Like if you don't value money as a man, you're going to just not do your job. You need to have money to provide for your people of course. But if it neglects your ability to create whatever you want in this life, that's where it becomes an issue. But yeah, I went from not caring about money at all as a kid to really caring about money, but it was because we needed money. Like some of the stories you've heard about our business, like it'll tell you like we just actually needed money so that we didn't drown. But then once you start making money, then you realize, oh, this shouldn't matter. Like you have to figure out what the hell you want in this life. - I think, yeah, Gage has actually some of the craziest back against the wall money scenarios that I've heard of. And I've interviewed a lot of successful people that have had their back against the wall. And I'd still put your level of stress and intensity in those financial situations. As like, and probably the top seat of most insane situations. Let's go back to, you just killed it on your first blitz. And then you go to cells and you start, you just start dominating. And I remember, you know, like trying to keep it little less explicit with like some of your notes that you tell yourself and 'cause I saw them and you talk to yourself in a way that's pretty hardcore. Yeah, but go into that. I think that was the first realization of like, oh, this is the real world. Like you gotta make something out of yourself. And so I've had two moments in my life where I felt very devoted towards my purpose. And the first one was going in doing cells. Like there was a day where, why is this devotion so strong? You better, I don't know, probably God. Yeah. I'm not religious really. Gone to church a few times last couple months though. And I don't know, I just randomly one day, it was like, you need to go and do this. Like Mormons talk about the Holy Ghost. And it was like, this feels like the freaking Holy Ghost or whatever they say. It just feels like you gotta go and do X, Y and Z. And I've gotten that twice. I was playing that like how that felt or what that was like, it was just undeniable. I think in moments like that, like both of those times that that's happened to me, I've always tried to deny it because one of my biggest pet peeves in people in church is they're like, oh, I have this strong testimony when like sometimes you can kind of tell people make things up so it sounds like they have a good story. And so I always, that's always been like so annoying to me ever since I was a kid just going to church. You're like, you didn't actually have this big thing happen. You kind of made it up in your head so you had a good story. So whenever anything like that happens to me, I always try and deny it so that I can make it like make sure that it's real. Or also it's like scary. Like if something happens to you where you're like, you need to go and devote your life to something that's scary obviously. So you want to deny it. So when you feel something like that and you're trying to deny it, but then it's too overwhelming to deny it's like, it's obvious that it's real or it's God or the universe or whatever. And so explain that overwhelming. Like is that in your body, is that in your mind? Like try and take its obsession. I mean, you don't care about anything else. You realize nothing else. None of the bullshit that you think about matters, which for most cases, that is the truth with the world that we live in. And you start to like, you don't have to go on Instagram anymore. You don't want to go on Instagram because you see something you're like, why is this? Like why would I look at this when I have this purpose towards this? And I'm just neglecting that by looking at this. Like what is that doing for me or for anyone for what I'm trying to achieve? So I think things become very simple. And you have a very clear path of what you want to do. And again, I'm so blessed to have experienced that because a lot of people just don't get that. Like people will ask me, like, oh, why do you have such a strong drive or purpose? I'm like, I'm lucky. Like I feel very blessed that that has happened. and to me that I've done that purpose, but a lot of people just don't get that. And then they just live in a wife of doing what they're told their whole wife, which sucks. - I think people get bursts of that hype and then they don't act. And like they rev their engine. - Yeah. - But majority of the time, it never leaves from park to drive. And that's where you have stayed in drive mode longer and more effectively than like anyone. I've seen more first hand. - Yeah. And I think it comes back to actually our childhood as we did whatever the hell we wanted all the time. Like we would have consequences, but we didn't care about them. Like if we got into detention, it was like we kinda thought it was funny, you know? And it's also like you look at the life that we live and you see the shit going on in the news and it's like what is worst case scenario? There is no worst case scenario in our lives that could even compare to some kid in Afghanistan. (laughing) Like we're fine. No matter what happens, we're completely fine. So it's like with that in mind, why would you not go and do whatever it is that you wanna go and do? That's obviously, I mean, don't, don't just be. - There's boundaries with like legality stuff and that where you don't wanna end up in prison. But I think on a financial side of things, it's like hey, I'm gonna go all in on this business, worst case scenario. I have brothers I could live with or friends. And then these people in other countries, it's like hey, if I don't show up and go walk two miles, like my family doesn't get water today until I cook or clean exactly. So we're fine and that's, I think you have to keep that in mind so that you act fearlessly and you stay in drive mode, like what you call it. Because that, and that's why I feel blessed that I didn't go to school. Ever is in school, you're just taught to do things based on what you fear. And that's what is going to control people the absolute most. And so I don't feel like we were ever conditioned to be fearful of whatever the outcome could be. Like I feel that we have always had the ability to just create and do whatever we wanted. And I don't know, like you think about Kanye. Kanye is still sort of the hell he wants but then he creates geniusness, whether it's fashion or music. Like Kanye, I think is the best example to anybody in this world. And I think it's from his mom. It's the same thing from his childhood. Like his mom just taught him he could do anything. And I think if everybody was conditioned that way compared to going into school, they'd probably go great, great things. - Well, funny bringing up Kanye because watching Kanye's documentary was my light bulb that I couldn't get out of my head to do dad's documentary. And really bringing it back, it's because dad was the one being like his mom showcasing that we can do anything. And he didn't preach it to us. He never told me Jackson, you can go do anything. It was just he went and did anything he wanted. And it was pretty crazy. And so I think that's the core of our brothers is we didn't get taught by words that we can do anything. But by watching dad's actions, grandpa's actions it's like our grandpa, he had the biggest house in Roy. And I always thought that was like the coolest thing ever. - I didn't know that, is that true? - Yeah. When he bought it, it was the biggest house or something. And it might not be now or something. But either way, like we just have this lineage of we gotta shoot for our dreams. And if we don't, there's so much talent and gifts that we're bearing. And but also people that don't have that lineage, you have all the resources to be resourceful, to be the first one that has the biggest house or whatever. And I wouldn't put that as like a data point to chase after. But I'm more on leaning into faith and certainty of your own power and ability that you can now learn. A lot of people didn't have access to millionaires or billionaires. We can research and learn anything to get to be, you know, in the top 1% of quality of life and living and success. Even if you don't have the people in your family. And so I feel fortunate that we had that. Anyone that's like, "K, well, you guys have that. "That's great. "Screw you guys on." You know, if you have a phone or a library within 30 minutes of you, you can learn from billionaires and people that have literally altered the world. And so don't take that for granted. And you can have that same type of experience. - Sure. I think that's another big part of my wide and really talk about is like, bro, dad went and did all that. And like we have direct lineage to kings and queens to our ancestors. It's like how are you gonna be living this life minimal? - Yeah, play small. - Yes. How are you gonna play small when they did all that? And now you're here, you know? Is just a disservice to them and to God? - 100%. Well, it's like there's the parable of the talents where, you know, there's three people that have these talents that were given to them. One, you know, doesn't really do much with it. And one starts putting his talents into action and he starts multiplying his talents. And then one wants to be careful. He knows he has this talent and he just buries it. And then the person that comes to give them the talents and I'm probably botching this parable. But the one that is giving the talents and he gave them to these people, it's like, hey, well, you know, you didn't do anything with your talents. So I'm not gonna give you more talents. And then you buried it to, you know, make sure that it was safe and taking care of and kind of like the fear scarcity. It's like, well, I'm not, you know, you're not going to get anything from this. And then the person that went out and used their talents and gives to create more, he's like, well, yeah, I'm gonna give this person more talents because they're utilizing it. And I feel like we live in a society where it's very easy to try to bury your talents because there's so much distraction. There's so many eyes on me, you know, like a lot of marketing and stuff, like you have to put yourself out there. But that's when you're showcasing momentum and action that you're willing to try and do things and that is where you'll be surrounded by the right people and those can be your talents too, it's like getting the other people and you know, through the failure and hurdles and the hardships of putting your talents into action. That is where you're gonna, you know, duplicate your talents and continue and grow. And so with Gage, I saw this kid before my mission that I was pretty worried about. And then you put your talents into action 'cause in high school and all it's like everyone loved Gage. And then you put it into drive where you started pushing hard. And I came home to a Gage that has been, you know, succeeding and putting his talents into action. And then they were duplicated. And you know, I think in a personal growth, I've seen you personally grow like on a faster scale than I've seen about anyone else, which is so cool. And so respectable. And so let's go back there to where you're growing those talents and putting it into action. I think the obsession will teach you. And so you really do have to limit distractions to figure out what you want. And then once you obsess with it, like if you actually wanna, you'll just figure it out. Like I'm not the best trainer with anything, like sales, business, anything. Because you've asked me for advice before and I say the same thing every single time. It's like, well, if you had a gun to your head, if you get the answer wrong, you die. Like what would you do? Like the answer is usually simple of what to do. And I think fear will give you the ability to make the decision complicated. When truthfully it's pretty simple. Like, well, I wanna go make more money. It's like, okay, go make more money. So then, well, I've got this and I've got benefits and I've got this and I've got that. And like my girlfriend's like, bro, you just don't, actually want it bad enough because if people want it bad enough, like getting from point eight to point B's really not that difficult or complex, you just didn't want it bad enough because the answer becomes simple. I like that. And it's just the scarcity and it's fear and scarcity. It's hard to get over it. Like I've had times where I've had a lot of fear in what I was doing, but yeah, your purpose can push you and you know, you can rely on faith or fear. Those are kind of your choices. I'm like, I don't know what these actions will bring and I can't see what will come of this, but it's my gut feeling. It's my purpose. And that's why you got to take action or the fear you can do that. And I would say majority of people in life are more comfortable doing that and everyone will be more comfortable in scarcity and in fear because it feels right. Like it feels safe. It feels safe. Not right. You'll always have this urge of like I should give you anxiety. It won't make you feel right. It'll make you feel safe, but you'll have that anxiety of just one if. But that goes back a lot to I think in business, like when I told you we're broke for two years, like I look at our past trajectory, just of revenue even in one year when we were broke, we did four million bucks. The next year still broke, did four million bucks, but that that year we did four million, we realized we actually made a little bit of money and then it was like, oh, we've been caring about money and that's why we're not growing. And then the second it was like, oh, let's tap back in to what we actually care about. From 2024 to 2025, we went from four million to 17 and a half million because we didn't act out of fear. Like we weren't acting as old. We need to make sure we make money. It was like, let's just go do what we set out to do and what we want to go and do. And then we executed because you're just not fearless. Take us to I want to come back to that. Take us to the mentors who kind of helped you along the way. I would say, I've never really, I've never gone and like gotten a mentor and it's probably just my ego because I think about that. Like that's just kind of gay, you know, a little bit stupid. I know, but I would say a big mentor. It was kind of great. It is stupid. Keep going. I think it came out of, it came from a mentor out of a, out of a negative. It wasn't an empowering role model. The person who did this, it was for the company I used to work for and I called him because I was trying to figure something out. I was like, how do you do X, Y and Z? He's like, dude, I just don't think you fit to run a business. And this guy's a billionaire and he was my, he was my only role model actually at the time. And then it was like, oh, this is just, then it turned that kind of negative gogans mentality into like, let's go and absolutely crush the shit. You don't know me son. Yeah, literally. But yeah, I, I haven't had many role models. The role model I think about right now is Kanye because Kanye just does whatever he wants. Like I just went to his concert and he showed up like an hour and a half late, played this, he played three or four songs like three times. Just like, just did whatever the hell he wanted. Like he is, he's just living in his world and he's not going to sway or accommodate for the people. He is just going to create. And I feel like that was, that was my role model before I got into any of this business or money or anything like that. Let's go and create what we want to create for whatever that causes. Take me from day zero to the end of the first year of starting boss and getting it off the ground. Okay. So initially, the first thing we did was let's start running some Facebook ads and see how we can go and get sales. And I just came from being the top rookie at a company with like four or five thousand reps. So I just thought I was the man. Like, I was that guy. And then I could not figure out how to sell these lights. If you don't know, we sell these permanent lights that change colors. Go back to the Christmas lights. And then the pivot there. So, so we got home from doing summer sales. And then we said, Hey, we're bored. Nobody's doing anything because you just work for a summer. And then the real ones are just like, well, I don't want to just stop working. And so we were like, we're bored. Let's go do some things. So we started a little Christmas light business and we sold like 80,000 bucks worth of revenue in a month or a month and a half just knocking on doors and say, Hey, well, we will put up your lights and take them down. And so that was that was dope. We made some good money and like a month. And then randomly one day, I was an Alpine Utah knocking doors for Christmas lights. And me and my business partner, who is a brother to me, we both had the exact same career plan. We were fully devoted. At this time, I'm still entirely obsessed with the growth at the company that I was working for. But randomly one day we're in Alpine and I'm knocking doors for these Christmas lights. And I see this house that has these lights that I've like never seen before or I've seen them, but never really acknowledge them. And randomly I got that feeling again that I got for doing sales, but it was even stronger this time. And I was like, I can, I cannot have this happen right now. Like, I just made 150 grand as a 19 year old kid settling for this company. This next year, I'll go make 350. I was the man. Everybody looked up to me and like I cannot have some new thing come into my head and distract me. Like, I don't want the devil in the red dress to come and distract me from what my path is because it was so clear. It's just like go build a region of this company, become a millionaire, whatever. I was sold the whole dream. But then it was just too undeniable. I knew for a fact that this is what, whether it's God or the universe or whatever wanted me to go and do. And so the first thing I did after just being upset about it because I'm like, why do I need to go and do this? Like my life is way too good. First thing I do is I pull up my business partner now is phone number. And I am about to press call on his contact. And right as I do that, he's calling me. And so I'm like, there's no way. If he says what I think he is about to say, then this is far too obvious. Like this is it. And I promise on everything we've never talked about this before doing anything like this before. What we do now, these lights, but I just answer. I said, hello. I was just like, I was just going to wait to see what he said. And he said exactly like, let's go do these lights. I was like, bro, there's no way. So immediately that night we started, we started running Facebook ads. And I mean, this was it. It was like, we're going to go build a billion dollar company. Like this is, this is everything. We both knew it deep into our core that this is what we were sent out to go and do. And we start running these Facebook ads for these lights. And for like a week and a half or two weeks, I kept going to these appointments. And I was, I was top salesman. I thought I was the man and I just cannot close these like at all. Like I was looking at these lights and like, this will be so easy, easiest sale ever. And I just could not close them whatsoever. At the time, me and my business partner were living at my house and I remember I was in Springville, Utah. And I go to this Facebook lead. Don't close it. I'm like freaking out so upset, so discouraged. And so I called them. I'm like, I was thinking in my head, what's going to make sure that I go and get a sale? Because I have to go and get a sale at this point. It's been way too long and I need to figure this out. So I call them, I said, I said, Matt, I am not coming home until I get a sale with these lights. I don't know how long that is going to be, but I am not coming home. But I just have to tell you so that it's real. And then I had one more appointment in Twilla. So I drove all the way from Springville to Twilla, which what is that? An hour and a half, two hours away. So far to go to this appointment. So I'm like, I'm on the way, I'm so ready to just close this lady. I have to sell it. And then I get there and I'm doing absolutely everything I can. Everything that I thought I knew about sales to try and sell this lady couldn't do it. She's like, I don't think about it. I don't think about it. I'm like, this is just like, it felt like God was just like laughing at me. [BLANK_AUDIO] like, well, it's like eight 30 at night in two willa, which is like just the middle of nowhere kind of. I'm like, what do I do? So I'm like, I'm just going to start knocking on doors even though it was very dark. And like the third or fourth door, I sold the lady within like 10 minutes. Super easy lay down. But it was like, if I didn't go and put my back against the wall that I couldn't go home that I was going to sleep in the car that night, there's no way that would have happened. But like when you do stuff like that and put your back up against the wall, it is impossible to lose like truthfully. So from then, that night we got our first sale, very, very smart financial decision. I said, hey, we got the sale. Let's go drain our bank accounts. That night we spent all of my money on product which like was just a horrible idea like anybody that in business should listen to that and think you were retarded. So spent all our money on that and I had no idea but I was going to be broke for two years straight. So from then we crushed it with sales. We did like a million bucks in our first couple months and we knew how to do one thing. We knew how to sell. But like our business is kind of like a construction company. And like I'm kind of retarded. So trying to figure out how to fulfill all of the sales was like impossible. Like we had no idea what we were doing. And then yeah, we're like six months in. And then within like two or three days, two things happened. So we sold bunch of accounts. We have absolutely no money. All of our installs are terrible. And we were using this like Chinese app. So with the lights, you have an app that controls the lights. And we were just using some Chinese app that was just kind of trash. And it's like end of November. And this is when everyone is starting to use their lights because the main goal is to use them for Christmas lights. And the app just like shuts down. Like we broke the servers. Like everyone's lights shut off. We've got like a thousand customers. And so I call my business partner. I'm like, bro, we got to send a mass email to all of our customers and tell them like we're working on it because people are freaking out. It's like, all right, we had just hired like a secretary that was like, we really didn't want to spend any money because we didn't have any. So we got a super shitty one, which is like 15 bucks an hour. So like, here's the list. Send an email saying that we're working on it. And do you know the difference between C, C and BCC? Yeah. What's the difference? It's just with the emails. Everyone can see. If they're on the email thread or it's like hidden. And so you it's like an email that's directly to one person or it's like a group message essentially. So instead of sending it to all thousand customers separately that we were working on the issue, we basically started a group chat with all of them. Well, they're all so pissed. They're so mad. They all spent, I mean, our average deals five grand. So everybody spent five thousand bucks trusting these kids that they know how to run a business. And it was horrible. I mean, it was like, it was like the girls friend group of the girl got cheated on or like whatever. Like people were so mad. And they were, they're just like threatening lawsuits to us. We're like we have no money or screwed. Everyone's like, yeah, we got to do a class action lawsuit. Like in the thread with that one. Like these people did not care at all because they were so mad. And then like to build off each other. So yeah, it was horrible. It was just an explosion. And then like two days later, Jackson calls me. He's like, Hey, I'm coming to pick you up. He's like crying. I'm like, I'll shit. Something bad happened. Dude, I was not crying on that call. Were you not? No. You were distraught. I knew something was up because it was not good. I only say that because I know that I was trying to do that call where it wasn't, you know, like I didn't spook you too bad. I knew. I knew something bad happened. And I actually had an idea that it was probably what exactly happened. But he picks me up or dad died. And so kind of an explosion a little bit. All that happening. My whole world crumbled, which I hate to say that wasn't just like family issues, but it was like, your business. Everything just went to shit. And then on top like, Oh, dad's dead, by the way. So that sucked. I remember mom was pissed because I'm like, mom, I'm sorry. I got to go back to work. She's like, your father just died. I'm like, well, you got all these people that are trying to sue me. You know, I'm only 19. Just like, what? Yeah, tell me like what's going through your head? You have that bomb go off. And then dad passes like, what is going on in your head? I was just thinking about work mostly. I didn't realize it was even real that he died until like the day of the funeral or whatever. So they're like closing the casket. I'm like, oh shit. So he's dead like. So I didn't really, I definitely didn't fully go into the grieving process. Because I was like, you have now, I mean, maybe maybe a couple times. Maybe a couple times I've actually thought about it deeply, but my world is a little chaotic. Tell me about those couple times. Those couple times have been like when things have been extremely difficult with work. And I like damn, the show is actually kind of hard. And then I just feel like I felt them a couple times or it was like, you're good. You got it. But then I'm like, oh, it's kind of forget to have died. But see this, I think this is such a unique thing. Everyone handles grief so different. And you know, everyone talks about it in a different way and fills it in a complete different way. But it's cool that I think we have both had experiences where we're yearning a really hard moment or a hard spot. And that's where dad like showcases himself in your corner in a way. Yeah. Also, I feel like in that time, I thought about things so logically because we're just always trying to solve problems. Yeah. So one thing that was really weird and that's always still really weird about death is if somebody dies, like, there's no solution. You're always like, I initially was like, well, what do we do like to fix this problem? Just because that's kind of how we operate, totally with work. But then there's nothing you can do. But at the same time, it's like dwelling on it isn't going to do anything either. And so I feel like I didn't let it affect me too much. I just came back to work with a passion to even make it better. Everything that I was trying to do to make him proud. But yeah, it was crazy. And then like a month later, we were so broke, we had payroll the next day. I remember one of my sales managers at the time he asked me, like, dude, we're doing all this revenue. Like how crazy is like our cash flow? Like we got a lot of money at that right? I'm doing pretty good. And like the like 12 hours from that I had to take a loan for 73.24% APR to make payroll the day after, which is like 150 grand. That money was gone immediately. We just had a ton of issues. But then about a month or two after the most insane interest rate. Yeah, I've heard of. Yeah, I remember I sent it to my lawyer because I was trying to like apply with banks and stuff. But I was so young and I had bad credit, just stupid. But we couldn't we couldn't qualify for anything. So I'm like, who do we call? We find some of these like New York loan shark people. Like everything you hear that you shouldn't do. But it's like, these are this or worked, worked on like we're going under completely. And so never forget him. Jason Smith got on the phone with him. I'm like, all right, let's do it. After I sent it to my lawyer, I'm like, hey, am I getting scammed? He's like, It's not a scam, but like this is a this is the worst loan I've ever seen in my entire life Like well, I don't really have any other options. You want to give me some money It's like there's no way I'm giving you money. So I'm like, okay, let's do it run payroll and Like I might have been days by the time all that money was like entirely gone But made some huge changes because we had to start making money so that we could live not personally but like the business could live and Then like a month or two later we had to do another one Fortunately that one was either like 50 or 52% APR instead of 73 which is good. It's amazing. It's a really good deal so Did to anyone that doesn't know that's still like so horrendous? That is such a bad loan but completely unprofitable and then finally I think it was 2024 finally made like our first dollar I think the best story out of that whole experience was one time I Was with my business partner and we were in the parking lot of the bank and I was like Bro check this out and I showed him I can actually Wonder if I can find it, but I show him a picture. I'm like bro look at this and it is a picture of my bank account at the time Which showed Yes And I I showed it to him and I just we both just started laughing. Yeah, it wasn't like a Dude, I don't know what to do. This is so bad. It was like this is hilarious So what he's showing me is his credit card is at zero and his checking is the negative $2,000 and 170 bucks Yeah, so I don't know I think and this is this is a two or three years in two years in right this was This was May 1st of 2023 Yeah, so like a month and a couple month or a year and a couple months. It's really funny because you know Everyone's hearing and seeing that you're you know doing millions of dollars in revenue Thanks that you're just murdering it. Yeah, and so is the funniest part. Yeah, everybody's just things You're falling out making so much money, but you were You're under water. Oh, yeah, absolutely so finally In 2024 a year after that finally made a little bit of money But then it was finally we were able to instead of not focus so much on problems be able to focus on what we wanted to do and So now we were able to grow like crazy from 2024 to 2025 we Over 4x star our previous year and this year will go nuts. I'm really excited our goal is to go from 17 and a half million to 200 million like as a whole including everything and It's really exciting, but it goes back a lot to like money will control you Especially if you don't have it because then you're just starving for it because like you need money to live Yeah, but once you have it you're able to focus on whatever you want Want to do with your life So this is where I think gauge's story is so special Because he went through pure turmoil for you know Over three years, and I know you still go through a ton of like the fires that gauge goes through It's like the equivalent of the fires that a normal person would you know Maybe go through half of them in their lifetime of intensity and hardship and I've seen gauge work 90 hour weeks for three four years. It's like It's it's not an easy thing to get to success and But through that turmoil your your company is worth like right under a hundred million dollars and it's the second largest permanent lighting company in the nation right will be first in like two months. Yeah largest in two months good and I just think there's so many lessons to learn from this and but I'm curious what have been like some of your favorite successes That have brought you the most fulfillment The best successes are like finding the kid that actually doesn't have anything going for him and You actually give him a good opportunity like I hate recruiting kids out of Utah or like hiring a lot of kids out of Utah just because they're like well Can I make I need to make at least 30k a month to To live compared to like if if you go find a kid that works at like the rec center or some shit like I was interviewing this Rep that was working at the rec center before he's got a wife and a kid and He's making really really good money with us. He's like this has changed my life entirely Like finding those kids and giving them a good opportunity is worth More than anything. Yeah, so There's a lot of those though. I don't have any in particular but it's always our the term we use in In our company is little Timmy that it's always about little Timmy because like me and my close gang like my my squad We all make good money and like we're fine and we will be fine like no matter what happens even if everything burned down but it's like We're blessed to be in a position where we can make sure that little Timmy actually has a good opportunity Not to get all corny on you, but no, it's just getting real. It's good What's been a moment that with work? It's brought you to tears That was there's only one real time where I actually thought about that during work Where is like very apparent but it was actually like a month after that screenshot I just showed you of my bank account where I mean shit just was terrible everything was going wrong but It wasn't Tears of Like oh, this is hard is more of like oh I feel passionate and I know I can go and do this. It was just feeling of God and dad I feel like Giving me confidence More so I don't think I've ever cried over things being hard Yeah, necessarily What do you think building bosso has taught you that you wouldn't have learned any other way? Just have to do the work. I think there's so many people that talk about What they would do If they had a lot of money or if they had a business it's like well, there's a reason you don't have either of those things This because you're not willing to do the work Like no matter what you just have to do the work and it's that simple and that is like the simple reality That everybody tries to fight to try and make their way to the top but Anybody that's actually done anything of significance with tell you it's like Takes complete another devotion To create anything and distractions will just kill you so The work is An immovable object you have to do the work or else it's not not gonna work There's no secret sauce You can be skilled and understand business, but The end of the day you have to do the work Yeah, I love that and With With spirituality I feel like I have combos where we go kind of back and forth on this where either you're like God is absolutely freaking everything and sometimes you're like I don't even know if any of this is you know But I'm curious what's your What what has been your journey with God through it all I think regardless of what you believe in The idea of God or even religion is probably ideal just to Just so that you can Be working towards a higher purpose because I do believe 100% in some type of Karma-crutribution whether that's God or the universe and so I believe if you put in good inputs you'll get good outputs like I don't know What religions true or if any of them are true honestly, but I think you're gonna live a better life no matter what believing there's a creator So I don't I don't got all the answers. Yeah, no one does but if you do things in the lens of Like a Christ like lens you're gonna be more successful. I think that's I think that's inevitable Well, this is a question for Beltrun and for your friends and I feel like I'd be rude to not ask. But what have you been learning lately? I have been learning that you can't let distractions and the world we live in take away your inner child because you'll lose yourself entirely. So let's say it is everyone you care about is in a room and it's going to be your last opportunity to share anything with them. What would you want to tell them all? So you got your family, your business, any people that mean the world to you and you're never going to see them again. What would you share with them? So it's all possible. And that I should be a great example of anything and everything and everything being possible to whatever they want to do because I am way less qualified than most of my friends even and most of people in my world like everyone I work with, everyone I'm close to, they're more qualified than me. They all read way more books than me, whatever. But I should be a great example of you can actually go and do anything because I got a 1.7 GPA and I was a piece of shit in high school and I just did whatever I wanted and now I still do whatever I want but I'm able to make a change in the world. So I think it would be do whatever you want that's not like evil and you can achieve whatever you want. Yeah. No engaged, pretty in depth. Your intentions are amazing. You always take care of your people. I think you would completely take care of all your people and starve yourself every single time and I mean you did it for like two, three years essentially and there's just so many things that I look up to you for. And it is fun to have a little brother that I, because I don't, I don't love to take advice from just anyone. And I know sometimes you probably think I do. But I actually respect your advice. I respect who you've grown to be and the level of discipline that you have showcased on a day to day basis. It's, it's incredible. And so I'm honored that we're blood. And yeah, I think your next couple chapters are going to be really fun. And it'll be cool to be a part of it. Absolutely. Yeah. Before we go, is there anything you'd want to say to the audience or any of your people? If you're my people, let's go hit 200 million and change a bunch of people's lives. We're on track. We got this. If you're not my people, you can go do whatever you want. If you want a job, let me know. And where can people find you? My Instagram is CEO gauge. And my LinkedIn's like a complete joke. It's not even, it just says. I think it's a picture of my asthma and I think it says business man. So you can try and connect with me. But I don't, I don't have the app or anything. But just Instagram, I don't use anything else. That's it. Well, cool, man. Thanks for coming on. And yeah, excited to see the future. Oh, yeah. Thank you. Okay. Well, that is an episode of the Life Legacy podcast with Jackson Cummings and the guest gauge Cummings. Let's go. Let's go. [MUSIC]