The Muscle

Eric Girouard  0:00  

This is Bucket Talk, a weekly podcast for people who work in the trades and construction that aren't just trying to survive, but have the ambition and desire to thrive. The opportunity in the trades and construction is absolutely ridiculous right now. So if you're hungry, it's time to eat. We discuss what it takes to rise from the bottom to the top with people who are well on their way and roll up their sleeves every single day.

Jeremy Perkins  0:28  

All right, this episode of bucket talk is going to be a banger. We got Keaton, aka the muscle from diesel brothers, on the show. Welcome Keaton.

Keaton  0:37  

Thank you, my man, I'm, I'm excited to be here. I love, love your stuff, so I'm happy to be on the podcast. Awesome,

Jeremy Perkins  0:46  

awesome. Um, so this podcast, obviously, is about the trades and construction. You have gotten down and dirty with diesel. Brothers, you've done some crazy stuff. Just want to get a little background of you know where you started out as a kid, some of the life, life lessons you've learned along the way, and then, and then rolling right into what you what you're doing today. But, yeah, go far, go far back,

Keaton  1:12  

you know what, dude. So it's kind of simple. I've always, always been just a nut job with anything that had to do with a motor. I love, I love anything with a motor. So, dude, as far back as I can remember, I was a Motorhead. I was a guy that wanted to tear shit apart, break stuff, ride stuff, anything that you could put gasoline in. I was all about So dude, as I got, as I got kind of older, that's kind of what I focus on. In fact, my first like vehicle for me was a rundown Bronco that I had to tear apart and pretty much put back together. And of course, we lifted it did the big wells and tires, but dude, I grew up essentially wanting to modify every single thing I could possibly get my hands on. So when I turned 21 I realized I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I didn't want to do the nine to five thing, so I kind of ran down the road of being an entrepreneur, and I started building businesses kind of the same way that I built and modified cars. Yeah, in the interim of all of that, when I was about 24 I actually grew up with diesel Babe and Heavy D. When I was about 24 we connected, and we decided we wanted to start building trucks and doing a giveaway and building a company. So we actually built what was considered to be diesel sellers at the time. And so dude, I, I put all that together, and we started doing crazy shit and crazy builds. And then the Discovery Channel reached out to us, and they were like, hey, we want to do a TV show with you guys doing crazy shit, building your business and building trucks. So I got put on a TV show with the Discovery Channel, which was kind of crazy, but it worked out perfectly. We We had eight seasons of the diesel brothers, and in the interim of that entire time, what most people don't know is I was building businesses. I actually have built 35 companies since I started around 21 years old. And dude, it's been it's been crazy. It's been crazy. So that's my life now.

Jeremy Perkins  3:10  

That's, that's wild. I mean, that's, that's a lot to chew on too. Because, you know, I know that when I was, you know, first starting out in the automotive industry, I was looking to my mentors, to my boss, like, how do I become a shop owner one day? Um, honestly, I shied away from it. I've watched a lot of your stuff, and I think I had to know how to do it, you know, from the shop perspective. But it was just like the business angle, the you know, how do you set up payroll? How do you do the HR? How do you get the permitting, how do you do all this stuff? And what I gather from you is it's like, honestly, just fucking do it and let everything fall in place. It's the it's the easiest now to start a business than it ever was before. That being said, like, that's easy to say, but like, what are some of the tips and tricks you can give there to a young, a young guy that's out there wanting to start his own automotive shop, landscaping company, something like that.

Keaton  4:08  

You know, dude, it's really, really simple. I tell people a really simple rule, stop fucking analyzing and start doing most people, they analyze their selves into being paralyzed. In fact, we call it analysis paralysis, and that's what 99% of the world does. They tell me about how they're going to do it, what it's going to look like, what it's going to take, how hard it's going to be, all of the obstacles. And then they just keep thinking and thinking and thinking. Let me tell you something. There is only one difference between success and failure, only one, and it's actually just doing shit. And here's the thing, dude, everybody who's ever done anything worth a shit has been because they were willing to continue to do things rather than just sit and talk about it. And analyze it and think about it and prepare for it. So for those of your listeners that are listening, they're like, dude, what do I do? Like, if I really want to get something, whatever it is, dude, the the job you want, the business you want, the life you want, whatever it is. The bottom line is, is you gotta do? If you can't do, you're gonna continue for the rest of your life, thinking about what you should do, and then when you go to your deathbed, which a lot of people do, you go to your deathbed with this thought like, holy shit, dude. I thought myself through life, and I didn't do through life what I should have.

Jeremy Perkins  5:34  

Yeah, yeah, no. And that's, that's awesome piece of advice to take away. I there was one thing that my boss said to me a while back, and when you get into your 30s and 40s, you start to realize that that, like, there's a lot more on the table. There's a lot more risk involved. So when you're, you know, 1920, 2122 and you don't have things like a house, a mortgage, a family, you know, all these responsibilities, um, failure at the time is just like, what are you going to lose? Like, what? What are you going to lose at that point in time? So actually, you should be primed to start a business and fail then and continue the process until something gets going.

Keaton  6:14  

Dude, 100% that's the problem is, what are you so I tell people this all the time. I actually do this exercise. I mentor now, and I do this exercise with people. What are you afraid of? What's keeping you from doing right? And if most people would stop thinking about what they're afraid of and actually go through the process of what worst case scenario is, right? So what if I start a business and it fills What if I get that job and I can't perform? What if I can't do this? Dude, go to the very worst, go to the worst case scenario and find out really quickly it's just not that bad. You know? What would suck is going to your deathbed knowing you had all this potential and you fucked it off by not doing anything

Jeremy Perkins  6:56  

you may I mean, maybe it is that simple. I mean, obviously you're, you're, you're showing it through action, that it is that simple. But like, you started somewhere, you started grinding it out. Like, where you are now is, is a product of hard work and grit and all the determination that you have. But like, Where were you when you first started turning businesses? What were, what was your first business?

Keaton  7:21  

So, dude, I was, Well, my first first business off the record, before I went to taxes. And had, you know, had, like, an actual business, um, I actually started doing athletic training when I was, like, I think 17 or 18, I graduated high school, I went and played college football, and I came home, and I had tons of parents in the community that wanted me to train their kids on how to become better athletes. So I was like, okay, cool, I'll do it. Dude, I didn't have a business license, I didn't have insurance, I didn't have anything. But you know what I did have? I wanted to make a ton of money. That's it. That's all I wanted to do. So I was like, I'm just going to do it. Dude, I didn't even have the right equipment. I would show up at a stadium and make them do shit at a stadium. Because again, dude, the difference between me and most people, even from the age of 17, was I was like, I'm just gonna do this shit and figure it out along the way. Whereas, you know what most people would have done, they would have said, Oh, shit, I have a business idea. Cool. Let's go register the business. Now, let's do the tax stuff. Let's open up a bank account. Let's make sure we have a name and a logo. Oh, we should get a website. We should do this, and then we should have this program, and then I need to go buy all of this equipment. Well, guess what? At 17 I don't have any money. Oh, I guess I'm not gonna do it. The bottom line is, is that you gotta fucking do? You gotta be in a place where you're just willing to do and when you do, you're gonna make mistakes. Be willing to make the mistakes The only mistake you shouldn't make is the one that you don't do anything. And that's, you know, hopefully, and I, you know, I don't know your your demographic, or the people that are listening to this, a lot gonna resonate probably, dude, they probably have killer ideas. Killer ideas, whether it's building a house or chasing a dream or building a business. And I'm telling those who are listening right now that shit will die with you if you do not choose right now to make the change of actually doing rather than talking about it. Go build the house, go buy the plane, go build the business, go take the job, go do and be whatever it is. But do it. Stop talking about it. Stop thinking about it. Stop wishing for it. Go do it, dude. I'm, oh yeah, I'm not special, dude. I'm telling you right now I'm not special. I just, the only thing I'm good at is I'm just like, let's just go do it. If I burn if I burn it down, I burn it down, but let's just go do it

Jeremy Perkins  9:45  

well. And that's and that's what's crazy is, is, is our demographic, our group of people that listen to this, our doers. They're the people that move America. They're the people that build America, and they're out there doing it every day, whether they're sick and tired. Doesn't matter. The problem is, is that we've been held down for so long at like, this is what you're good at, and this is what you'll only aspire to. So again, I think that to some degree, those dreams are crushed, like I was told growing up, you'll never amount to anything, not for my parents. God, I love them. They were my they were my most amazing supporters. But outside of that, it was like, you're not a good student, you know, you you're borderline a criminal. So, and it was always somebody telling me that, like, if you don't straighten up, or if you don't, you're not going to be something. And then what ended up happening is, I'm I started networking with the right group of people, people that were doers and people that were in powers and wouldn't hold you down. And then things started to happen. I started to believe in myself. I started to do and it took one step, then the next step, then the next step. So you're absolutely hitting on all cylinders with the people that listen to this podcast, it'll absolutely resonate.

Keaton  11:04  

I love that, dude. I love that. You know, one of the things I will say is this, and hopefully this is those people. It's not hard work that gets you successful. In fact, the people who listen to this are probably the hardest workers in America, and somehow they're not the richest and they're not the most successful, because hard work is not where it's at. It's hard work mixed with discipline and the ability to see one's potential. The problem is, is that these people don't actually see their full potential of what they are capable of. You know, it's like, I see some of these guys that are building these huge companies, they're, they're, they're working inside as a CFO, or as, as the head shit, what's the word foreman, as the head foreman of the company, all the way down to the peon that's running around getting shit for people. The reality is, is that that network, that whole infrastructure wouldn't work without them, but they're tricked into thinking that they can't do anything without that company. And the reality is is they need to realize their potential and then go work hard, not just sit there and work hard for no apparent reason with zero vision. So so again, dude, a little nugget I'll give for those people who are listening like you need to mix hard work with vision. And if you can, for just a minute, get a vision in your mind that you're capable of much more than you're currently doing, and then mix it with the hard work. Because we both know your listeners work their they just work their hands the bone. Hell yeah, if we could get them to capture the vision of how, like, literally, how capable they are to be successful, and then integrate that hard work. Oh, my dude, I'm telling you right now they crush, they crush all day long.

Jeremy Perkins  12:53  

Yeah, and you know a lot of people now, like, you don't need to go to business school, you don't need to get an MBA. You don't need to do any of this stuff. Information is readily available. Fucking chat, GPT, Google, Reddit, you name it. Like the information is out there. Just go and grab it and you'll be able to, you know, I mean, work with other people. Networking is huge. Go. Go and say, Hey, how'd you build your business? Do you mind if I shadow you or whatever, and and

Keaton  13:25  

so. So this is what I want to say to that just because I and I don't mean to interrupt you, but this is a important point, and because I really want to bring value to your listeners, because a lot of them are like, Well, shit, dude, I work hard and I'm not being as successful as I want to, right? I tell you what, what the key to success is for those that work hard and and again, I want to give this statistic, dude, there's only 10% of the entire world that works as hard as the men and women that are listening to this podcast. I'll just tell you that right now, which means you should be the top 10% of the most successful in the world, but you're not, because you're not willing to invest in yourself. They're not They. They work day in and day out, they pay their bills, they do their thing. They never really invest in themselves. Now, what does that mean? And this is the reason I bring this up, because you actually said it. Investing in yourself means go to people that you see have the life that you seek, and ask them how they did it. And that means, most of the time, that means, hey, man, how do I pay you to get your advice? Because, dude, that's what I did. I literally went to people who had the life I saw. And dude, I was a hard worker, but I wasn't being successful until I had a mentor, quote, unquote. And dude, he wasn't even a mentor, because he literally was like, I've never really coached anybody. Coached anybody, but you're asking me how I got what I got, and I'm going to tell you, dude, I paid that guy. I remember, I paid him 2500 bucks a month for like, four months. It was like, all the money that I had, yeah, but what he did is he opened my eyes to the ability that I had and to the potential that was out there. And then he was like, You. You're working too hard without a vision. Yeah, and then he actually showed me what I needed to integrate. So this is that piece that I really want these people who are listening to kind of focus on. You need to invest in yourself. Everybody, especially tradesmen, are willing to spend money to go to trade school that's investing in yourself. Why wouldn't you continue that path of investing in yourself? Why would you stop at trade school? Why not find someone who makes more money, who's more successful, who has the life you want, and say to them, Hey, man, I want to have what you have. What? What's it going to cost me to get that information so I can have those things. I'm tired of working day in and day out with no vision. I'm tired of busting my ass. I'm a harder worker than everybody, which I'm sure your guys are, and then say, Hey, I'm ready, I'm ready to just invest in myself. And I guarantee you when, when these people do that, Oh, dude, the sky's the limit, because hard work is rare. But those who have it are building, they're building the infrastructure of America when they should be building their own dreams. Yeah,

Jeremy Perkins  16:06  

yeah, no. I mean, I fuck if I could do it all over again, I'd be following your advice. I wish, I wish I had this advice at a younger age. And I guess that's why, that's why we're doing this podcast. But alright, so you've, you've built multiple businesses. You What are you guys in your eighth season of diesel brothers? I mean, that's insane, like

Keaton  16:27  

eight or nine season. We actually are done. Our last season was just aired, oh, just less than a year ago. The we, we all got tired of it. The Hollywood is, is exactly what people think it is. It's a bunch of crazy ass people that want to control everything you do. And so we just said, You know what, man, we don't want to do this anymore. And and Heavy D said, I'm going to do my own and that's why he started his YouTube channel, which has been crushing and dude, and I kind of got tired of cameras on me all the time anyway, so I was like, I don't want to do this anymore. They definitely were not happy with us. I will tell you that much they they definitely were not happy with us. But we just said, Hey, man, we're done. We had our run, and we're grateful for it, but we don't want to do this anymore. So so we're done with the the episode and the show, they've actually since in the last few weeks, actually reached out to us wanting to do a new show, and we told them no, so they're not again. They're not really happy.

Jeremy Perkins  17:24  

That's wild. I mean, just just to honestly, you know, diesel, Dave, Heavy D yourself, you know, you guys were all snot nosed at one point in time, and and you guys have worked up to now, you're turning down a major network to continue what the fuck you want to do. I mean, you're literally sticking it to the man that's amazing, like that. I, like most of us, will have to report to a boss for the rest of our life. And that's, you know, you guys, you guys embody what we what we dream about. And you know, that's That's amazing. What's one of your, what's one of your craziest builds that that that you are a part of and you liked,

Keaton  18:06  

you know, if, if people are familiar with the stuff we did to this day, my favorite build ever is the bro dozer that was by far my favorite. And the reason isn't because it was such a cool build, but rather because it was so reliable, even after we built it, dude, we have beat, we have built and and done so many different vehicles, but we have beat the dog shit out of that, bro dozer, and it just continues to perform over and over and over again. That's

Jeremy Perkins  18:39  

crazy. It's actually, I might be trademark infringing, because anytime my my son does something, I call him bro. Dozer loves it. He absolutely loves it. But, yeah, no, it's what, what are some of the, what are some of the challenges you guys had over at diesel brothers with I mean, you guys always had to push the envelope. It was always the next best thing. Like, it was always a new build. Like, what was one of your biggest challenges that you guys faced, that you guys are like, you know, I don't want to do this anymore. Or, like, how are we going to accomplish this? What was one of the like, you guys had to have had something looking back, going fuck. That was insane that we overcame it.

Keaton  19:23  

You know, this is the and it was kind of, it's kind of a general. But, dude, after you build so many things over eight seasons, you get into that place where it's like, what, what else are we gonna build? Dude, yeah, we've built, we've built busses and motorcycles and boats and cars and trucks and airplanes and, I mean, dude, everything. And at some point you turn around and you're like, what's left for us to build? Like, plain and simple, what's left for us to build? There isn't anything we can't we just can't. And that's really the big issue, is that just. Every channel wanted to keep ringing us out for episodes, and then we were like, well, we're going to build this. We're going to build this. They're like, well, you've already done that. It's like, yeah, we we built everything. So for you to try to string us out, I'm telling you right now, it's not going to work, because we've built everything we could possibly build. I mean, sure we can build it bigger or sleeker or whatever, but dude, at some point you've built everything. That's the big problem with most reality shows is, dude, you run out of content. Because at the end of the day, dude, eight seasons, and I don't know, 80 episodes or whatever, or 100 I don't even know how many episodes we did, you run out of shit that you built. And that was the biggest thing we ran into. And then they wanted to press us to do new, bigger shit. And it's like, what do you want us to build a new world? There's nothing left.

Jeremy Perkins  20:45  

Well, it was, I've caught a couple of episodes, and actually the two that stick out were the one where the kid did the Eagle Scout project, and you guys went out and pulled all those cars out of the ravine. And I thought that was cool, that you guys are going in a new direction. And same with with California, the amount of fucking equipment that you guys track to California to dig everybody out, like, yeah, like, that's that's got to be fulfilling, dude.

Keaton  21:13  

The thing is, when you talk about content, new content, that shit never gets old, like helping people and getting people. That's why Heavy D essentially went to the YouTube channel because it didn't, it wasn't like, well, what's new? What's new? It's like, No, dude, this is what we like to do, and this is what we're going to film. And if you don't like it, that's okay. You don't have to like it. We're going to continue to do this and it, dude, it's been really, really beneficial.

Jeremy Perkins  21:40  

That's crazy. So you know, for for all the I guess there's probably you, you've made it. So there's gotta be some haters out there. One thing that you can say is, you never fucking sold out. No, we definitely did that. You guys are staying true to yourself. That's awesome. Let's talk cars. Okay, what's the fucking best car that you drive currently,

Keaton  22:04  

that I ever driven, or that I have current

Jeremy Perkins  22:06  

that you own in the collection today.

Keaton  22:12  

You know, I only have one car currently. I yeah, I have so I have two trucks. Yeah, I have two SUVs, and then I have one car. And my, I guess I should have said vehicle, yeah, well, the car that I like is the one that I currently have. It's the Mercedes Benz, AMG GTR. And dude, it is such a fun car to drive. It's really small. It is really small, but it's such a fun car to drive. And dude, it, it hits the racetrack like nothing. I mean, that car is just, and I've had a lot of exotics, that car is by far the funnest top speed you hit with it. Um, 170

Jeremy Perkins  22:55  

I've actually never gone that fast. Not no car. It's,

Keaton  22:59  

it's actually, if you're not in an exotic car, it's scary as shit,

Jeremy Perkins  23:02  

really.

Keaton  23:03  

Oh yeah, dude, I've gone one. I've gone 137 and an f4 50.

Jeremy Perkins  23:11  

Well, okay, and that dude that that

Keaton  23:14  

was where you were, like, I'm pretty sure we're gonna meet Jesus. Like that one, I'm pretty sure we're going to meet, because, due to a scary and you're just like, I don't know if this thing's going to hold together. Now, that was way scarier than doing 170 in my GTR. It's,

Jeremy Perkins  23:28  

it's wild, because I think, I think, like, the drive shafts are only rated for certain speed before they shear, like, like, just, well, the vehicle starts failing at that well, yeah,

Keaton  23:39  

and they only let you go to, like, 110 before they govern out. But we obviously took the governor out. Why not? And it was on a truck that was on 40 inch tires. So 137 on 40 inch tires, like you're pretty sure something's gonna give

Jeremy Perkins  23:59  

that's wild, yeah, and it all stayed together. That's amazing. It

Keaton  24:03  

all stayed together, dude, we were good. So yeah, dude,

Jeremy Perkins  24:10  

this is, this is fucking amazing. I do have another question for you and for all you gun enthusiasts out there, why? Pac Man?

Keaton  24:21  

So if you, if you look in my actual safe, yeah, I you, you have the option to do like 15 different screens. Okay, and that's just one of them. But dude who didn't like Pac Man, if you don't like Pac Man, you gotta get out. That's

Jeremy Perkins  24:37  

so fucking frustrated with that game. Dude, I never

Keaton  24:41  

liked pac man. You gotta go.

Jeremy Perkins  24:45  

It was just, it was odd. It like, and I'm not saying like, odd in a bad way. I'm just like, didn't expect it. I mean, here you got this big

Keaton  24:53  

Listen, it takes talent, and a lot of people aren't ready for that kind of talent. I love, I love Pac Man. Growing up, I still dude. Wasn't even really a gamer growing up. I really wasn't. I only played two games my entire life, and Pac Man was one of them. Yeah,

Jeremy Perkins  25:06  

I remember playing the, like, the original GTA which, like that was in like, art class in high school. That was fun. Yeah, I was never really a fucking gamer either. Yeah, yeah. But

Keaton  25:16  

yeah, I put, when I put the safe together, I'm like, we gotta have pac man up there. Have to So,

Jeremy Perkins  25:21  

so the fucking house Dude that is absolutely fucking gorgeous, and I know the answer to it, but you built that, yeah? You built it yourself,

Keaton  25:33  

yeah. So I, I literally drew, I drew on a napkin what I wanted it to look like at lunch one day. And then I had my buddy who had a general contracting license, anchor homes, essentially. And I just said, Listen, man, I would love for your help and guidance, but I'm building this bitch by myself. Like I just am. This is one of those, like, just go and do right? Like I had no idea what I was doing, but I'm like, I'm just going to do it. So I we designed it. I gave my napkin to the engineer, to the architect, and I was like, here you go, man, make this work. They looked at me like I was an idiot. And then, and then I literally, I we got our plans back, and I bought a an RV, a trailer, and I parked it on my lot. And I'm like, I'm going to be here every day. I'm going to be overseeing it all. I'm going to hire and fire, I'm going to pay my subs, like, I'm going to be here every fucking day, and we're going to, I'm just going to build this thing. So we did, dude, it took, it took just under a year, which is kind of crazy, especially during covid, because nothing worked right and and we just kind of, we got to the most frustrating phases, and then we got through it. So it was, it was great. I've been in, I think it's been built for about a year and a half.

Jeremy Perkins  26:50  

Hell yeah, that's, that's fucking amazing, yeah? I mean, it's the way I would want to go metal and concrete. Yeah, nothing better. Hell yeah, awesome. So you know, you're obviously living the life you got limitless. Now I'll let you talk about that, that that seems like that's amazing, what you gotta do on there. I

Keaton  27:14  

so I own a few companies still, but I really only focusing on one, and that's limitless society. I firmly believe that everybody should live the life they want, and the only way to live the life you want is to become the greatest version of yourself, which means you have to invest in growth. You personally have to invest in growth. And if you work as hard on yourself as you do on your job, you 100% will be more successful than you could possibly imagine. In fact, if there's a message that I would give to your guys, are you there? Yeah, okay, the screen kind of cut out. If there's a message that you could give to your guys, it would be this, if you would work as hard on yourself as you do on your job? Because I know you, everybody listening, they're they're hard workers, you will 100% be more successful than you could possibly imagine. It just takes you working on yourself more than you work on your job,

Jeremy Perkins  28:21  

dude, words to live by, thank you. Thank you for all of this absolutely do. So I mean, honestly, it's been a pleasure having you on the podcast. We'll obviously pick your brain more as we go, but this has been a pleasure. Thanks for being on

Keaton  28:39  

absolutely dude, thank you. And again, dude, not because this isn't a paid shout out. Your guys's stuff is by far the best shit out there, and I, literally, I wear it all the time. I love everything you guys do.

Jeremy Perkins  28:51  

And as a special thanks to our loyal listeners, we're giving $10 off your next purchase of $60 or more at Brunt workwear.com Use Discount Code bucket talk 10. That's bucket talk 10. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai