Dustin "Battleaxe" Jones

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, on this episode of Bucket Talk, we're here with Dustin Battleaxe Jones, Dustin, welcome.

Dustin Jones  0:34  

Thank you very much, man. I appreciate you guys inviting me on, dude, it's cool to get on here, and I always like being a voice and being heard. So I appreciate the opportunity.

Jeremy Perkins  0:45  

Hell yeah. Hell yeah. So you do a lot in the motor sports field, off roading in particular, but you know, that's where you are now, I always like to get the background. As far back as you want to go, how you got into the sport, what you do on a daily as far back as you can go, let it rip.

Dustin Jones  1:04  

Yeah, so that's the cool part for me, man, is a lot of people see the social media following and the professional off road racing I do, and going out to, you know, Vegas one time a month. But what not many people know, just the way things are today is what the back story is, or like, how do you get there? They just see your success. They see you spraying champagne, and they don't know the process to get there. And so what most people know is that, you know, I'm just a blue collar kid that grew up on a on a farm with a poor family and a lower middle class working family that, uh, that worked hard and got taught work ethic. And so it created opportunities for me in the future that I never foresaw at the time, you know. So I'm, I'm from Louisiana, so kind of the swamps, kind of some alligators, a lot of poisonous snakes, everything bites, stings. There was venomous. And so grew up just on a farm, a couple of horses, a couple of cows, a couple of goats, a couple of chickens. You know, I was homeschooled, and so I literally grew up on the farm every day, all day, with an older brother and a younger sister. And so we didn't, we didn't leave that farm much. We worked a lot. Did our school work, got that done as fast as we could so we could go outside and play, but where the work ethic came in, man, and, you know, I've told, I've told the story a couple of times on several of the podcasts. And I remember as a kid, at the age of of, you know, 678, years old, working with my dad, and we were putting up fences before we got horses. And so I remember being, like I said, six or seven years old, and my job was to take a T post, a green T post with the white tops on it. And I had to walk 10 steps, set one down, go get another T post. Start at that one, walk 10 steps and set one down. And so that was my job. And I remember doing that on multiple occasions for 14 hours straight as a little boy, and the only break we got was when mom brought some sweet tea or some sandwiches out for us to stop and eat for a minute, you know. But I remember, you know, towards the end of the day, I remember crying while I was walking with these tea posts and sitting them down, because I just wanted to go home and play for a little while and just wanted to have some time to do kid things. And I at that time, I didn't realize why my dad was making me work that way. And it's when I look back now at the success of our businesses and racing and off road and the sacrifices that I'm willing to make, I realize now my dad was setting me up with that work ethic to accomplish whatever I wanted to later in life, you know. And just talking about it gives me chills now, because at that time, when you're a little kid, and you know, our Saturdays were Bush hogging, so we would get up at that morning, I would Bush Hog half the day, and then my older brother would get on and Bush Hog half the day. I didn't understand why we had to work so much. But now I realize to have a farm to have animals, to try to get nice things, you have to work for them. So you know, that was kind of what my upbringing looked like, if I wouldn't feed animals, if I wasn't doing my schoolwork at home, if I wouldn't bush hog in fields, like we were outside playing. We were in the mud. We were hanging out. We were building forts. We were working on something, you know,

Jeremy Perkins  4:23  

yeah, I mean, people don't realize that that is the, the basic foundation to a lot of tradesmen and women out there is, is just that hard work and, and, I mean, you're probably up early in the morning doing stuff and, and, you know, helping dad around the farm, it's not an easy job, but you're building the calluses, and you're building that foundation for what you can you can lay the rest of the building on, which is your career to this day. But so how did you transition from farm life to first off high school was were you homeschooled? High school too.

Dustin Jones  5:00  

I ended up going to school when I started high school. So kindergarten through eighth grade, I home, and then high school is when I got integrated into society. Well,

Jeremy Perkins  5:11  

let me ask you a personal question. How was the shot? Was there a shock there when jumping into high school? Or was it just like you already knew people in the community? And it was, it wasn't a big deal,

Dustin Jones  5:21  

man. What worked really good for me was I was very athletic and very good at sports. So I played little league baseball, and I was super good at it. We always made the All Stars and, like, the Select teams. Same thing with football. I played footballs a little as a like peewee football, yeah. So I went in high school, like I had all the guys I played ball with, and it worked for me, because those were the jocks. They were the cool kids. So Well, I was super dorky, like, very poor social skill farm kid, like, I was able to integrate well, because I got to hang out with the kids that were really cool and athletic, you know. So that worked well for my parents were very smart in terms of my brother and my sister and myself, putting us in sports, having us involved with the church, like going and doing things. And we're in a small town, so we knew the people we were going to go to school with, you know,

Jeremy Perkins  6:10  

oh yeah. So high school, you're, you're going to a regular high school with all the kids and everything like that. And then Louisiana Tech for engineering. How'd that all come about? Oh, man, yeah. So,

Dustin Jones  6:28  

so yeah, that's one thing that not many people know about, because they see the mullet they hear. They see the jorts that I wear, the the southern accent. They think Manny must be just a dumb old country boy. Look, believe it or not, I got academic scholars to go out of high school to go to, I guess, what they consider the best engineering school in Louisiana. So I got a mechanical engineering degrees from from Louisiana Tech University. I graduated top 20% of my class and and again, like, people are like, Man, I wish I could go back to college. Like, those were the greatest times. It wasn't for me. I was there, investing in my future. So I spent countless hours studying, doing homework, trying to graduate, well, in engineering, and I am not very smart, you know, I had to work hard because I'm not very smart. So I ended up with a mechanical engineering degree and and a little bit of the backstory to that of why I wanted to get a mechanical engineering degree is, as silly as it sounds, it had the word mechanic in it and mechanical. And my entire life, I've worked with my hands. You know, I can recall my dad coming home at night and working on his truck to make sure he made it to work on time the next day. Yeah, if something was wrong with it, if it was like swapping a transmission, changing rear end, changing wheel bearings or ball my dad, there was never iPads or video games at our house. If my dad was working on something, I was standing there working on something, and it was the Yeah, the proverbial holding the flashlight. You know, my dad in back of those times, there was no patience. You couldn't grab the wrong size wrench, you could not pay attention to hold the flashlight. And so from an early age, my dad taught me mechanic skills, and like we wanted, we wanted to have four wheelers. We because we would go to Walmart and look at dirt wheels magazine. We would sit on the floor while mom was shopping, looking at dirt wheels. Yeah, so we knew what four wheelers were in. Dirt bikes. We always want them. And Dad said, if you want one, you're going to get a broken one, and you're going to fix it, and that's what you're going to ride, because we couldn't afford to go buy new ones, and so, PW, Yamaha. PW, 52 stroke, I remember sitting in the garage, not having any idea what I'm looking at, but I can recall it. My dad was cleaning the carburetor on this thing, and he would show me, and then he would make me do it. And so it wasn't just staying here and watch me do this and give he would physically make me do it. And so my entire life, at the age of 12 years old, I was cleaning carburetors on lawn mowers, and my friends four wheelers, like, if they weren't running, and my friends were like, I don't, I don't know. I'll get this thing going. I can figure it out, because my dad had taught me those skills. When you fast forward, you fast forward. 20 years later, that's how another another story, but it's how I got into what I do now, you know, it's my dad told me that hard work and that mechanical, that mechanical knowledge, you

Jeremy Perkins  9:21  

know, that was funny. So when I actually, I worked on diesels when I got out of Coast Guard boot camp and and that was my real introduction into engines. And then I left, when I left the Coast Guard, I went to a automotive Technical Institute. Oh, yeah. And wanted to pursue automotive and diesel repair. And what was interesting is we were going through class. It was like a week class on carburetors, and the teacher was like, I don't know why I teach this anymore. It's antiquated. You guys will never learn this. You guys will learn it, but you'll never use it. It. And I think that was true for about 95% of the class. They went on to dealerships and what have you. But I ended up landing at a mom and pop shop, and we fixed anything from snow blowers to dirt bikes to, you know, old 30s cars to Corvettes. It was, it was wild. And I actually took his advice and didn't pay attention in class. And then I had this huge learning curve when I got out. I was like, which isn't a huge learning curve, but then I started rebuilding carburetors and all this stuff. I was like, Man, I wish I paid a little bit more attention to that. But it was just kind of interesting that he would he would shy away. I know that the technology is moving away from it, but boy, there's still, there's still plenty, plenty of machines out there that use them to this day. I agree, man,

Dustin Jones  10:44  

and I've always kind of thought like those skills, be it from an old man, be it from a young kid nowadays on social media, like you can always learn something that you never know when you may have to apply it, you know, yeah, learning from an old man how to work on a car printer, like when you moved into that job, like you never knew you would have needed those skills, and it would have been worth listening to and totally you know, nowadays the social media and content creation market moves so fast, so like these little my little nephew, that's like, 15 years old, 16 years old, when he talks about, like, Oh, this is cool and this is trendy. It may not be cool and trendy to me, but it's at least worth listening to to see if you can learn something from it, you know.

Jeremy Perkins  11:28  

So let's talk. Let's touch on this. Because I, actually, I might be a little controversial here, but I'm, I'm willing to deal with it in the trades where, you know, and I was one of the people we we sat back and we said, you know, fuck college. I ain't going to college. You know, college is useless. And one of the things that I've realized over over the years is, you know, I got, I ended up getting my bachelor's degree and ended up moving on to a master's degree in my late 30s, when I when I had an area to focus it on, so I knew what I wanted to go to school, and then when I went to school, I did as you did. I graduated top my class and worked real hard to get there. Now, young Jeremy at coming out of high school, you know, thank God I didn't go to college, because it would have been four years of hell, and probably would have nothing to show for it, but that. But it's interesting because I, to some degree, you know, our our trades, the blue collar community we talk about, you know, college, desk jobs, all that. But it's funny because I I see a world where, you know, there is a change of mindset, that there is good education out there, and for you, I mean, your mechanical engineering degree, I think that that's a that's a cool example of, hey, I had a basic background in a field that I wanted to go in. Then not only that, I had the work ethic to know that, hey, I might not be the smartest or or most driven person, but I had the basic foundation that my parents set forth for me to now, I'm not going to give up. I'm going to work my ass off. So you graduated, you got a you got a basic foundation, and you have a degree and a degree that used to this day,

Dustin Jones  13:15  

yeah, yeah. That's, you know, mine was kind of a unique situation that I grew up with a lot of sacrifice and a lot of hard work and understanding what blue collar life was really about, right? And I knew, because my dad taught me that stuff, the only way to get nicer things in life is hard work. So whenever that opportunity came up for college, and you know, the way I understood it is, if you get this engineering degree and you do the sacrifice now, you won't have to necessarily live that laboring blue collar lifestyle. You can. You can build yourself up and your your your legacy, up to to bigger things, you know, yeah, not necessarily better things, just different and bigger things, so different. Excuse me for interrupting you. When I went into college, that was my mindset of like, this is my opportunity to not have to work on my cars at night to make it to work the next morning. And that's how I perceive that, and that's why I was willing to sacrifice everything to get that engineering degree. Fun going out, being a part of a fraternity, going to parties. I sacrificed everything while I was in college with the mindset of, I don't want to have to work on my car just to make it to work the next morning, you know? And so I under, I understand, after going through college and getting an engineering degree, that when people say college is not for everybody, I just thought that meant people are lazy. They don't want to do the work. And I realize now college is not for everybody. That is not what I suggest everybody go do. Like if you have a clear objective, you know what you want to do, you know what direction you want to do, medical field, becoming. CPA, right? You know that's what you want to do. You have to go to college to do that. But if you're like just kind of wandering through and you like working with your hands, there is no replacement for learning a quality trade, be it plumbing, be it electrician, be it construction, be it working on vehicles, trade school and learning a trade, becoming an apprentice is has to be the greatest, underrated profession that anybody can have, and it's not fancy. I think that's what the problem is. It's not pretty, it's not fancy, but, man, it's so underrated and so valuable, especially nowadays,

Jeremy Perkins  15:38  

totally, totally. So then out of college, what was the job? What job did you land? Dude,

Dustin Jones  15:45  

the freaking worst job that you can imagine, working in a mechanical engineering firm, HVAC, doing like commercial build outs on new construction and so, okay, not, not what I had in my mind of what I spent with mechanical engineering degree, but I knew I wanted to provide for a family one day, and I knew I had to build a career, and that's how that works. So when I got a good job opportunity, and it was a good job, it was a company that been around for since 1914 so I knew it was a reliable job, good 401, K, good, retirement, all of those things. And so, you know, I'd accepted, like, this is a good engineering job. It may not be what I love, but I tell people, even a porn star gets tired of their job at some point. It may sound cool to do that for a living, but sometimes you're gonna be like, bro, I don't want to do this. No more, like, I want to break from this. Yeah, that's what work is. That is what work is.

Jeremy Perkins  16:41  

So then, how'd you get it? How'd you pivot from there to where you are today? I mean, that's, that's a, that's a pretty big jump. I mean, you're doing some pretty incredible shit. I mean, you guys were just down in Daytona, yeah, tearing it up and and having a good time. But that's the battle ax we see now. Yes, how did, how did mechanical engineering firm, Dustin become battle ax

Dustin Jones  17:04  

dude, let me tell you, you know, you never know what God's plan for you is, and you never know what your investment now will turn into in the future. So the way it worked is, after I got out of college, I went to work with some mechanical engineering firm. I had a buddy that worked at an oil field company, yup, well, the older gentleman that owned this oil field company, he liked to have fun and have cool toys. So he had, like a, like a Hennessy Ford Raptor that they installed the supercharger and Hennessy kit on at the at their shop. He had a Dodge Challenger that he put a blower on, and they started kind of getting into four wheeler riding ATVs and side by sides. And so he was buying like Polaris razors, and because he owned an oil field company, he had plenty of money to fix them up. So I knew how to work on these things, because I had been brought up my entire life, cleaning carburetors, fixing wheel bearings, like working on my ATVs so that I had something to ride on the weekends. And so my entire life, I've been doing that. Well, I was going to this older guy's shop because he had so much money and could do such cool stuff, and I was just helping him build his cars because I thought it was fun, because that's what I like to do. And so working my normal job, going over there at his shop at night and working on side by sides and cars and trucks, like, just lift kids doing fun stuff. And after about six or eight months of that, he asked me one night, he's like, Man, why don't you come out to my office and talk to me? And I was like, Alright, cool, let's go up there. And so we sat down, and he was like, You know what? I think I want to open a business doing this, working on ATPs, working on side by sides, installing lift kits and things like that. And he's like, but you already know how to do all this. You've been coming and doing it for me for free for this long, like, what if I just hire you doing this? And, you know, in situations like that, oil field company owner, he has spare, spare money to to write off, you know? But I was smart enough to recognize that if I didn't take this opportunity and make something out of it, eventually him needing write offs was going to go away and I would be jobless. So it was either to take the same approach that I had in college, the same approach that I learned from putting out T Post building fences, is hyper focused 100% in on this and do what I want to do with the opportunity. So all he wanted to do was hire me to work on his personal stuff, yeah, keeping the cool stuff and go riding with him on the weekends. But I knew if I wanted to do this for my life as a career, I had to build it into something. So that's that's kind of where the process started. And it was me every day calling my friends. Can you want to bring your your Yamaha grizzly up here and let me clean the carburetor before hunting season? We put some wheel bearings in this and that, and I was working from 7am till 9pm every single night until I could have. Or to hire one mechanic, and when I put him working on the vehicles, I could call more customers and self promoting he and I could he and I could fix them. And then, you know, hired a little person, a little salesman, that could call people and get on. So now I had three people in that spiral. I think I've got like, 27 employees. I've got two, three companies, three companies. Now I've got 315, 1000, 18,000 square foot shops. It's turned in that, and that was that was just from me, by myself, taking an opportunity and being willing to work harder than anybody to get what

Jeremy Perkins  20:42  

I wanted. So the takeaway there is actually, you know, you had the know, how you had the opportunity, but it was also, I would assume, to some degree, there was a level level of being comfortable at the mechanical engineering firm, right? You're probably, you know, financially stable, you had some things that that you had to give up, whether it was healthcare or who knows what, what, what it would be. But being able to the key takeaway is being able to recognize an opportunity and jump at it and make that your plan A and there is no other plan, right? There's no plan, BC, whatever it's like all in or nothing. And once you're all in, you gotta continue to grind until it becomes something. So that's that's amazing, because, you know, you did, you got thrown a bone, right? But you got to be able to recognize when you're given an opportunity, and then you gotta be able to capitalize and execute on it. So that's, I mean, that's huge. And just everything that you've done in your life, hard work, sacrifice, you know, giving up the parties, giving up the fraternity, all that stuff, just like heads down. Let's go. There's a bigger picture. And now you are where you are, yeah,

Dustin Jones  22:03  

man, the way you describe that is such a good way. Man, that that that was my plan A, and there was no plan B, you know, I because you're spot on. That support that people don't recognize is I had 401, K, I had health insurance. This company had been in business for 100 years, so I had nothing to worry about at my job. I was a project manager. I had employees under me, like I had made it, but I had to give it up all to be a mechanic, basically by myself, and build a business from from nothing, with the help of of the guy that I own the place with that had the oil field company. He gave me the opportunity. He invested in me, but it was mine to do what I wanted to with him. And so a lot of people recognize that there was only a Plan A for me. When I quit my job and I went to start a four wheeler shop, an ATV, there was, there was only one plan A, and now that was just mechanical. Now we've got two full time designers that design our race cars and suspensions and roll cages and bumpers and Winch mounts. Then I've got four guys back there fabricating full time. I've got four guys shipping parts all over the world all day, every day. I've got three salesman say. I've got two web designers, two receptionist, a CPA, five guys in my custom shop. Man, I've just, we've been so blessed, man, and it was just a one bay shop with me, by myself, working in it.

Jeremy Perkins  23:30  

I mean, that's a true testament to, I mean, blessed, obviously, but it's a true testament to to hard work and and just rolling up your sleeves. And, you know, I You said it yourself, so I'm not speaking for you, but you know, another, another big takeaway was you don't consider yourself smart, and I think a lot of people out there in which you probably are very intelligent and just not in the ways that society views them, right? And what I found out is a lot of guys like us, guys and gals like us, need that kind of somebody else to tell them, Hey, you are that smart. You may not be book smart, or you may, you may mess up words and read them backwards every now and again, but like you're smart because you wake up every day, you lace up your boots, you get out there and you grind and you work towards something, and you have, you know, I don't know, it's just like go getters will overcome any obstacle, whether that's learning, education, you name it. You're a true testament to that. And I think that's that's amazing. And you're my first home schooled person on the on the podcast, and I think that that's another plus for us. I mean, that's huge. It's like, you know, everybody looks at different educational backgrounds or upbringings, as you know, well, I want to home school my kid, but how are they going to get a college degree? Well, fucking battle ax. Did it. So why can't you right? It was,

Dustin Jones  24:58  

it wasn't without. Work. It was tough. Dude, integrating into like, school was tough, you know, figuring out how to do the whole college school thing. Like none. No one in my family had ever, had ever graduated from college and like, being, like, to a community college. But nobody. I was the first, you know, in in all of my generations, and I come from a line of outlaws. Man, I come from felons. I don't even know what my mother's side of the family, that's a crazy story, but I don't even know where our family name come from. It's, it's not what it is. It was changed. And it's like, I come from a line of outlaws. So, yeah, you know I'm, I'm that one that that was able to go to college and start, kind of start, kind of that trend, you know, but it all goes back to those days. Man, working on the farm. Of like I knew my dad freaking taught me, and I didn't know at that time, but I know now he taught me to be relentless, to fight freaking tooth and nail, because nobody's going to give anything to me, and if anybody ever blesses you with an opportunity like what I was blessed with, and I'm thankful, and I thank Mal and Linda that my partners every day for this opportunity, and I thank them with my work and with my words Every opportunity I get, but they gave me an opportunity, and I knew that maybe the only one in my life, and I didn't foresee it turning into this. But look at where we are now, you know, yeah,

Jeremy Perkins  26:30  

look at where you are now. Now you're sponsored by Monster Energy. You got a whole bunch of you know, people that are backing you, from sponsors to, you know, local, local affiliates. And I think that that's, I think that's huge. How'd you get picked up by Monster? How'd that work out for you? Oh, so

Dustin Jones  26:49  

the whole racing thing is really a direct translation of how I, how I've ran these businesses and started them, is, yeah, I'm from Louisiana. I live and I've always lived in Louisiana. All of my races are out west, in the desert, in the sand, in like, Baja. So people are like, how do you how do you practice for that? How do you it's 20 hour drive out there, like, how do you practice? I don't practice. I have to work harder, study harder, train harder than anybody, because I don't have the opportunity to just go outside and go practice in my race car I don't have. So the only way to be as successful as I've been in racing and get picked up by these fixed sponsors is I had to work harder than everybody else was willing to work. I had to lose sleep, I had to give up time. I had to take my weekends to practice, you know. And so, you know, that's, that's what's created these opportunities, like the monster thing. And dude, as you can imagine, like, it's a little kid that like dirt wheels. And watched Jeremy McGrath, which is a good friend of mine. Now, I watched him growing up. Everybody freaking watched him. And now he's a good buddy of mine, totally. So,

Jeremy Perkins  27:59  

you know, when you grew that we were the crusty kids days. I mean,

Dustin Jones  28:05  

when you when you grow up that way, and racing is cool to you. My dad used to take me to dirt track races. I always thought that stuff was cool, yeah, well, when you get up of age, and Supercross became popular, and Monster Energy was sponsoring that, and NASCAR and like all this stuff, never enters your mind that one day your phone will ring and say Monster Energy Code. And so I'm literally, I'd won the mint 400 which was huge for me, which is the for off road racers. It's the most prestigious off road race in the United States. Is the biggest off road race in the US that you can win. And so, you know, just last year was my third time to win it. So I won it three times. I've won it back to back, and that was all kind of off road racing records for us. So the only people that won it three times and or back to back was Justin Lofton, the Trophy Truck racer, and Ivan Stewart. And so I was the third one to ever do it. And for the mid 400 like, if anybody doesn't know, it's that, it's movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas with Johnny Depp, that's the mid 400 which started in like, the 1960s or 70s. So it's like the oldest running off road race in the US. No,

Jeremy Perkins  29:17  

I don't want to go back and re watch that movie, but was

Dustin Jones  29:21  

so that that movie is about the mint 400 No shit, yeah, and so, so that's tremendous history that that's where I've had my opportunities, because I've won that race so many times. Like, people really know me for winning that race. But after winning that race, and, you know, come back to the shop and we tear the car down, and we'll work on your phone rings and it says, Monster Energy CO and you're like, What could this possibly be? Who could this be calling? And the answer and get that call like that. And like I said, a kid growing up looking at dirt wheels magazine in the country, in Louisiana, you never think that you would have an opportunity like that. They called and said, man, you're gonna win. Ian, no matter what you're racing, and so we want an M on your hat. We want to M on your jersey while you're racing. And so, hard work, hard work. And those opportunities come up. People always see that. They see my monster sponsorship, my mechanic and my fox, my KMC, my max is there? Like, dude, how do I get sponsored by Monster? Can I say you spend five years of your own life and your money racing every single weekend, trying to win anything you can. And maybe, maybe monster will call one

Jeremy Perkins  30:32  

thing, yeah, that's wild. That's wild. I mean, I think there's some stats out there about how to be become a professional athlete. It's like you're better off winning the lottery than you are being sponsored as a professional athlete, and I mean at scale, at large level, right? So essentially, not only have you come from a farm and all the way up through but you've also hit the lottery when it comes to working with one of the top companies in the motor sports space and actually extreme sports in general, that's amazing. And now you're part of the Monster Energy Team and crew, and I mean, just so many more opportunities and cool shit to be a part of. I think that's awesome,

Dustin Jones  31:17  

yeah. And I think recognizing how blessed that I am and how fortunate I am to have that opportunity is what keeps that, that snowball rolling. So it's, you know, when monster calls it wasn't like, oh yeah, man, I made it now I can take it easy and racing. No, I want to race in Las Vegas Saturday, two days ago. Yeah. Then I got in my truck as soon as I got out of the race car and loaded it up and put all of our pit boxes away, and drove 21 hours back to Louisiana, and got back to Louisiana last night at 1:30am my wrist is still broken from the from the race, from getting my hand tangled up in the wheel. Got up this morning and came into work to get some work done, dude, it's, uh, it's not like you get a monster sponsorship or you get a can Ian sponsorship, and they're like, you're there, you've done it. You don't have to work anymore. That's not how that works, man. It's no different than than the business opportunity. If you get thrown that bone, you have to take it and do something with it, or it goes away. You know,

Jeremy Perkins  32:22  

damn this is, this has been one of the most enlightening podcasts for me, because, I mean true story of, I guess, rags to riches. But on the flip side, again, just the sheer testament to hard work and rolling up your sleeves and making it work, and even to to this day, pushing and pushing the boundaries, because I'm sure there's, there's more that you want to do and more that you want to accomplish, and for most they'd be content with where you're sitting at now, but the way you work, the way you operate, I'm sure this isn't the end of it, right?

Dustin Jones  32:58  

No, definitely not. And one of the, one of the best sayings I've heard in respect to that is, you know, losers work a little bit and think they deserve to be winning, but winners work as hard as they can, and they still feel like they're not doing enough. And so every time I get out of the car, it doesn't matter, like this weekend, I won out there and in the pro class, and the biggest class I won, and I got out of the car thinking, man, there's a couple of turns that I didn't hit just right. I could have won by more than what I won by. And it just it's that you got that mentality, even though I'm winning, even though I won that, that big, Monster Energy Belt last weekend in Daytona Beach. Like I thought, Man, if I train a little bit harder, I could have won by a larger margin than what I won by. And it's probably unhealthy, to be honest with you, but it's what motivates me. It's what keeps me going. And it's, it's, it's a good example of you guys, you guys company, like to me, I grew up on what boots everybody wore, you know, some red wings or some some Wolverines or whatever. And then you guys come out of nowhere. What it seems like to me, you come out of nowhere. I understand the work and the sacrifice it took, but people see like, Dude freaking brunt. It's cool. They're out there killing it on marketing, like athletes bull riders are wearing. So Roni, the UFC, Hall of Famer is a good buddy of mine. He he also was wearing broad boots, like every time we're together. And so you see that. And I know there was sacrifice to get there, but it's incredible to to see you guys do so well, um, just coming out of what you would consider nowhere and and it's, it's

Jeremy Perkins  34:42  

that same mentality. I mean, we got that underdog. We fight like underdogs. We We love being underdogs. That's, that's the best part of the job is, you know, when people tell you you can't do it, or you're doing. It wrong or whatever. I love being in that position. That was, I mean, prior to brunt, this is exactly what I've been told my entire life. You won't, you won't graduate from college. You I just did, you know what I mean, just like so much of of that has fueled me into becoming what I am today and and I'm glad that I brought that fight, you know, along with the team, and brought to to continue the continue the fight. I love it.

Dustin Jones  35:29  

Ian, y'all, y'all, personify what would have got to this position by doing as you personify as like, Hey, we're not doing it. We gotta do more if we want to win this thing, you know, right? And that's what you guys are from contacting me to, you know, to getting those bull riders in the booth, there's a reason, not only do you have a good product, because that's a super important part of success, is you have to believe in what you have, and you have to have a good quality product, but it's also continually feeling like you're not doing enough, or totally say if you're building houses, and you're like, Man, I you know, I kind of want to leave at three today, and I can get home and I can freaking chill for the rest of the day. Three o'clock is the hottest part of the day. Well, if every other construction crew is leaving at three o'clock, your boy is not leaving at three o'clock, I'm going to be working till six or seven, because I can get four more hours of work than all those other guys. I can build a quarter more houses than all those other guys and create more opportunities for myself, you

Jeremy Perkins  36:29  

know, dude, and for the listeners, like they don't even know this, but I think it's fucking hysterical, the fact that our podcast was scheduled for tomorrow, you lost power Dustin's like, I gotta move some around. I'm without power. What can I do right now to to to get more things going? And he's like, you want to do the podcast today so that I could do what I was supposed to do today tomorrow. I mean, that was just like, That was wild. I mean, I think it's great.

Dustin Jones  36:58  

No, I didn't even think about that. But that was instinct to me whenever I totally, whenever I text you this morning, I was like, Hey, dude powers off at our building. So I can't get on QuickBooks and start invoicing some stuff. So let's put something else in here. Let's get some work done in this. Yeah, good opportunity for us to move it. That's

Jeremy Perkins  37:14  

it. That's it. Well, hey, this is the end of the show. I you know we'll have more conversations like this in the future. But just wanted to get a brief deep dive on on Dustin and and show what it takes, you know, obviously, pull the curtain back a little bit for others to understand how you got to where you are. And, you know, I know when kids are growing up, or even adults are looking at looking at people out in the motor sports field and what have you, there's always that question of, you know, how they get there, did they earn it? And you got my stamp of approval on where you are today, not that that matters, but this is the end of the podcast, and I wanted to give you a opportunity to shout anything out you wanted. And, you know, again, thanks for being on, yeah,

Dustin Jones  38:04  

first of all, man, I gotta tell you guys, thank you for the opportunity. Because, you know, I've always felt like these, these opportunities that I have to be successful at racing and win on the highest level, is an opportunity for me to be a voice for people. And so I've always said, you know, I want to be the good guy there's there's bad guys out there, those the villains that people love and hate. I want to be the guy that your son can look at and be like, Dad. I want to be like that one day. I want to be successful, and I want to be like Dustin one day, because he's nice to people, because he treats people with respect, because he's thankful for his opportunities. So since the very beginning, I've always had that mentality, and you are giving me a voice to do that, and I'm so thankful that you would take time to let me come on the podcast and let me explain to people what hard work can get for them. So first of all, thank you for letting me come

Jeremy Perkins  38:58  

on here, you know, yeah, brother.

Dustin Jones  39:01  

And then my little sales pitch of we are a little shop out of Shreveport, Louisiana. If you need anything, for your four wheeler, for your ATV, for your side by side, to go mud riding to go racing for your Jeep, call us. Man, call us at s3 power sports. We'll get you taken care of. And then, as you know, man, not to, not to go too far, but the people that helped me do what I love to do, the monster energies, the Can Am, the Fox shocks, the KMC wheels, the the maxis tires, those companies, if I didn't get help from them, I wouldn't be able to have the voice that I do. So I'm thankful to all of them also, and so my mom and daddy for raising me like they did, for taking teaching me work ethic as an adult now I understand why I had to work 14 hour days as a six year old little boy dropping T boasts, and it'll almost make me emotional every time I think about it. And I've had to my day to this day, my dad is has a apologized to me a few times for work, for work. Me the way that he did work me. And I'd tell him, dad, like I wouldn't be where I am if you had to work to me the way that you work me and taught me the work that you taught me. So

Jeremy Perkins  40:12  

I had not to take away from you, because that is spot on. I had that same conversation with my father a lot about this time. He's like, You think I was too hard on you, and I said, Dad, I wouldn't be here where I am. I wouldn't change a thing. Yeah, we may have gotten into some scuffles, and I might not have been wanting to do the that you wanted, that you put in front of me, but if we didn't follow all of that to a T, I wouldn't be here. I'm happy. I got a family. I got, you know, I got a great career. I have all the experience. Yeah, it wasn't fucking great. But you know what that made us who we are? And, dude, that's wild. I mean, I guess when you get older, you go from being like father son to being like, absolutely tight. And I love it, yeah?

Dustin Jones  40:58  

And it's all those whoopings and all that hard work. Ian, there ain't enough of that today. There ain't enough hard work today. Man,

Jeremy Perkins  41:06  

awesome. Well, it's great to have you on and as a special thanks to our loyal listeners, we're giving $10 off your next purchase of $60 or more at bruntworkwear.com Use Discount Code bucket talk 10. That's bucket talk 10. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai