← Travis Makes Money
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- [00:00]
A
You're listening to the Travis Makes Money podcast presented by GoHighLevel.com for a free 30 day trial of the best all in one digital marketing software tool on the planet, just go to gohighlevel.com travis. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to the Travis Makes Money podcast where it's our mission to help you make more money. Today on the show, I'm talking to an old friend of mine, Vinnie Brusco. He's an insight and perspective coach, community builder, podcast host, helping men cultivate clarity, connection and purpose. He's also the founder of Agora Social Club, a modern men's social club rooted in health, wellness and real community, and host of the Council of Dudes podcast with over 500 episodes, which is crazy. Exploring mental health, fatherhood, masculinity, spiritual spirituality and intentional living. Vinny challenges performative self help, guiding men to live in alignment rather than autopilot. Through honest conversation, grounded action and one core principle defining your circle. Vinnie. What's up, dude? Welcome to the show.
- [00:56]
B
Thank you for having me, man. It's been a long time. Hope everything's going well on your end. Good to see you.
- [01:00]
A
Yeah, man, can't complain. Can't complain. And this episode's been a long time coming. I feel like we've been connected for years now. You were a coaching client of a few years back. Yeah. Cool seeing like, how you've, you know, shaped your business into something that really works for you. So let's, let's go back in time here, bro. Tell me the first time you ever got excited about making a dollar, Man.
- [01:19]
B
I was probably like 13 years old when I first started working. I was 12 or 13 years old and that was when I realized, wow, you really got to like, money doesn't grow on Tre. You really have to go out there and hustle and grind. So from 13 till 42, I've always been working my entire life. And yeah, just kind of that return on time, effort and energy in a 3D way that's like, oh, I can go buy stuff and kind of go out in the world and consume. Buy whatever I want. This is, this is exciting.
- [01:46]
A
What was the career path for you like immediately after high school?
- [01:50]
B
I went to college and I always wanted to be in the radio, in the radio world. That was always kind of my path and that's where I wanted to be and that's where I found most joy. Did that for a little while and then ended up in the car business for 16 years. Did that for a long Time management had every role under the sun, but there's a missing piece there which I think is alignment, which is now what's led me to building and growing Agora Social Club.
- [02:12]
A
Tell me about the. Your experience in the car. In the car world, is it like you start off in sales? Like, what, What. What initially got you, you know, foot in the door?
- [02:20]
B
Yeah, I started in sales at that time. I was 25 and kind of just needed a job. Right. Like everybody. You get to that point where, like, what am I doing? Where do I go? And started the car business, worked my way into finance for. For a while, did that, and then got into a managerial role, managered for 10 of the 16 years, probably somewhere in that world, and, you know, leadership and guiding guys and sales associates. But, yeah, it was a. It was a journey. It served me in so many ways, learning. I think everyone should do sales or some type of. Some type of transactional job at some point in their life, because it really gives you this. This sense of grit, resiliency. You learn not to take things personal. You learned how to navigate. Navigate through rejection. So it definitely served its purpose for a long. Like I said, that alignment piece was. Was missing for a while. And once I started to step into that, it felt like, all right, I need to restart shifting in a different direction.
- [03:12]
A
Well, I appreciate the perspective there, because how long would you say you worked in the car industry while feeling this sort of lack of alignment strongly the lat.
- [03:23]
B
The last there, I say nine or 10 years of the 16, so a good amount of it, but I wasn't able to put my finger on what that was. It was just kind of like, this just doesn't feel like I'm in my own body at points. So stepping into that more was. Was really important.
- [03:38]
A
But I think it's also a really important aspect to say that you can't ignore the idea that you have to make some money doing something like you could feel. You could feel in alignment all day, you know, doing something that makes $0. And it's like, well, like, okay, that's cool. Do that thing. But also, who's gonna put food on the table?
- [04:01]
B
Yeah, there's a real demand for money in this world, and you can't pretend like it doesn't exist.
- [04:07]
A
Yeah, exactly. So tell me, like, this transition process. Yeah, I think there's a lot of people struggle with this, where they maybe feel something like what you felt, where, like, I'm doing the thing and I'm making some decent cash. Because I assume as a manager at A car company, you know, you're not making. You're not making petty cash. You're making some, like, some decent money. You're.
- [04:26]
B
Yeah, you're making good income for sure. You get.
- [04:28]
A
Yeah, you can, you can take care of yourself, your family.
- [04:31]
B
Absolutely.
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A
Some people around. You can put away some money for retirement. There's, you know, a lot of. A lot of pros to having that type of a career. But then at some point, obviously, you just reached a point where you got fed up. Right. So tell me, walk me through the transition process of even from a numbers perspective, like, what were you thinking? I got to have, you know, X amount of dollars in the bank. I got. I got to have this many months of bills taken care of before I quit this thing or I got to get this up to making some money first. Like, what was there any of this thought process that you went through, this exercise that you went through before you finally decided, like, you know what, I'm walking away from this lucrative job?
- [05:10]
B
Yeah, it was a little bit of both. I think it was, you know, having the idea that I'd find something else that would give me this, this compensation, you know, equality in this, in this journey and then just kind of crossing the bridge over. And obviously we, you know, did a decent amount of saving over that course of time. My wife works, so we were able to kind of put aside a little nest egg for some sort of cushion room. But then it kind of came to a point where it was, you know, how much longer am I going to kind of delay things? How much longer I'm going to wait and wait and wait. So it really was more of a leap of faith and really just more of a, we're going to burn the boats. At this point. We did put aside a little bit of cash flow just to. Just to protect ourselves. But, you know, it came to a point where, like, we have to go all in on this. You know, this is. This isn't like me building a website or building a platform or painting on the weekends. Like, this is a heart and soul project that needs a life force. And, you know, you have to inject that energy into it in order for it to become what I know it will be. But obviously it takes a lot of time, effort and energy in that. As long as I'm dipping in these two worlds, it's never going to get everything. So we made a decision that, you know, as a family, that we're going to be leaning into this space and leading into this next path. And it wasn't an Easy one. It's still a grind for sure. But you know, a lot of that, those, those struggles get pushed aside by, by, by the alignment piece, fortunately enough.
- [06:28]
A
How often have you thought about giving it all up and going back to cars?
- [06:33]
B
Not cars specifically. You know, it's funny, I think, I think not cars. You know, I think of that scene in Field of Dreams a lot when, you know, when his brother in law comes to him, he's like, you have no money, you're bankrupt, you have to sell the property. And James Earl Jones stands up and gives that prolific speech of people will come. And you know, you get to these, these, these multitude and multiple crossroads of that moment and it could come in different ways, right? Energetically, financially, you get to these points, you're like, it's just time to throw it in. But I often think of that, that little mean that we see so often of the guy striking. You know, he's digging, one guy's digging and he's still going and there's the diamonds and the other guy's turning around going the other way and, and you just never know what's on the other side of the next conversation or the unknown. And I've gotten very comfortable living in that space, probably to a fault at times, but very often it comes up and that feeling of discomfort starts to speak almost and you have to learn how to navigate that conversation.
- [07:29]
A
What's the nice thing though, especially when it comes to having sales as like the fallback is and why I would echo your advice at the beginning of this, which is to learn that skillset sooner rather than later. Even if you don't have the intention of being the number one sales guy of this thing and turning your whole life into pursuit of like perfection and being the best salesperson imaginable. But having like a level of competence in sales to me has always been helpful to have as it's like the concept of burning the boats is an awesome concept. But then it's also like sometimes the thing that makes me willing to burn the boats is the fact that I know that if everything went south and I ended up with nothing and I had debt up to my eyeballs, at the end of the day, I know that tomorrow I can go out and sell something for somebody else or for myself to be able to like dig myself out of that hole and like give myself another chance to swing the bat again.
- [08:27]
B
100%. 100%. It's a trade, it really is. It's a form of a trade that I think a lot of people don't realize because selling is selling is selling is selling. And whatever. Whatever widget you're selling, it becomes applicable to the next widget. So, you know, my wife and I kind of had the conversation of we're going to put it in the break in case of emergency bin, and I will have the ax next to that case. And when the time comes, if the time comes, then we'll explore that option. But, yeah, having a sales background teaches you a lot, but also does give you this, you know, third parachute, if you will.
- [08:59]
A
Yeah.
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B
Maybe not a plan B, but certainly a plan D. You know, somewhere inside of you, you can fall back on it. You don't want to rely on it, but you can fall back on it.
- [09:07]
A
Yeah, right, right, right. It's the. The confidence to take the risk that's necessary to pursue the path that you want to pursue. And ultimately, you know, I would assume you did the same thing. Like, when I got out of sales to do this stuff, I took a pretty big pay cut at first to do that. But also, I am so convinced that you will find more fulfillment in the pursuit of what you want than in the attainment of what you don't want. And that was sort of the embodiment of why I ended up making the switch was like, I know that even if I don't get this up to, you know, fill in the blank with however much money you're trying to make. Even if I don't get this up to Dream Income here, if there's a path where I can do this thing with the majority of my time and somebody's going to pay me money to do that, I will take whatever that path looks like. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, yeah, but that's a clear advantage. You know what I mean? Like, you have an advantage on everybody else that's doing that thing because you're willing to do it for free or for way less than most people are willing to do it for, because you know that there's some. To go back and use your word, there's some form at least of alignment in who I feel like I am, my purpose in this world, and what I'm actually doing on a daily basis. Which, you know, money isn't everything, which is what we talk about here on the show all the time. Obviously, there's a show about money and how important it is to go make more money than you probably think that you need, because life always demands more from you than you think that it will. However, it's sort of loosely tied to this idea that, like, it is not the end all, be all. It's a tool, it's a vehicle.
- [10:36]
B
And.
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A
And having more of it's better than having less of it. But also, I would argue having more fulfillment is better than having less fulfillment. And at the end of your life, you're prob. Going to be more happy if you have the fulfillment piece than if you are swimming in riches beyond your wildest dreams because you dedicated your life to doing something that you didn't really want to do.
- [10:54]
B
Yeah, the word, the key thing is tool there, right? It's. It's probably the second most valuable tool in time, right? And, yeah, that alignment piece, that fulfillment piece is so important. I mean, and everything that I've read, everything that I've looked at, every. You know, obviously you. You. You go down this path of entrepreneurship and you become ingrained in it, right? Your algorithm, your life algorithm becomes part of it. It's that. That difficult, that struggle, that. That. That discomfort is a true part of it. Like, it's really just as much as, like, painting the walls and framing the pictures, right? That really becomes such a part of the experience. And if you allow that to veer you off course. But to your point, if you would do it for free, I had this moment in the shower. I was like, listen, you never become Joe Rogan, you never become Tony Robbins. You never become a black belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu. Do you still do the podcast, the coaching? Do you still do jiu jitsu? And the answer was like, yeah, of course I would. It's like, all right, then you're good, right? If the end result is not mastery, but it's the pursuit of the actual endeavor itself, and that's still in alignment with who you want to be and what you want to be doing, then the finances, as much as it sucks to say they're a byproduct of the actual journey itself. And again, from everything I've read, listened to, seen, you know, they will come in abundance, but you just have to be able to let go of them in a sense.
- [12:14]
A
Yeah. Tell me about this. The Agora Social Club, and when. When that popped up, because I know you were running sort of like a similar playbook to. To the one that we've ran for a while, which is like, build content, create community, build products and services that serve that community, and then sell back to them. I'm really thinking a lot about this lately, man, especially in terms of my other show, Travis Makes Friends, and the loneliness epidemic. And it's like, there's loneliness. There's a loneliness epidemic at large. But you go into these other groups and it's actually more prominent. And so it's like loneliness is a problem in general, in culture, yes. But male loneliness is a little bit more of a problem in general. And then entrepreneurial male loneliness is even more of a problem in general. You sort of like you, you sort of get down to this, this, the nitty gritty on this group of people that just tends to sacrifice all relationships and friendship for the pursuit of success. And then it's not even necessarily that you're sacrificing, it's just that, it's just that there's such a small volume of people that are doing the same thing that you're doing that it becomes more difficult to adequately relate to people and, and have this, this sort of relationships. It's not built on anything except for the value of the relationship rather than expectations that you're going to gain something from this relationship type of a thing, which is how most entrepreneurs look at it. So I've been obsessing more with the idea of like creating for the masses, building like global community in terms of like around a topic that you care about, in your case masculinity and, and being a good man and things like that. But then localizing that and building that sort of like local community out of it I think is a really cool concept. So, so tell me a little bit more about the Agora Social Club and what you guys been working on there.
- [13:51]
B
Yeah, so we started, we opened up April 7th of 2024 which is a men's membership based social club. So you know, often people think like, oh, whiskey and, and sports and wings and like no, we do breath work, dad's groups, men's groups, rock walks, 5Ks and we serve as a community workspace as well. Can come in, scan their fob, have coffee and, and do a hang. It started seven years ago when I started a men's group. It, it was, it was a realization that guys don't have a space to actually have these conversations. We would do it anywhere and everywhere that we could. And in one of the meetings I just felt this talk about alignment, this actual golden thing go through the room and I was like, wow, this is something. I went home, told my wife. I was like, I feel so fulfilled right now. This is like whatever that was, that's what I'm chasing in life. That feeling that's everything and, and yeah, and kind of going backwards. Right. So thinking kind of big with it. But then Kind of how do we bring this down and make it scalable now?
- [14:44]
A
Right.
- [14:45]
B
How do we bring it to the community? And we're seeing the growth in the groups, we're seeing the, the interpersonal relationships. I think that's what we're building. Community is such a commonly used word now. But I think what guys are missing are real authentic relationships. You know, you start having kids, you start hanging out with your kids, Parent, friends, you know, their friends, parents, you know, you lose that tightening group of friends. And then as you go on the entrepreneurial thing, like the people that are closest to you, that knew you in high school or whenever they're, they're, that connection starts to fade just through, through time and, and different interests.
- [15:17]
A
So it's like commonality.
- [15:18]
B
Yeah, exactly. So where do we, where do we find a commonality? Right. Amongst community. Right. And, and keep it tight knit and then go from the in out. Right. So rather than reaching a global level, let's scale it down to the immediate area and the amount of people that have reached out throughout the country for what we're doing here and saying, oh, we need an agora here, we need an agora there. It proves that that is something that has the potential and will have the potential to grow into a massive, a massive reach. But right now it's like, let's keep it focused on what's here and what the community can actually serve and who's around and help out the guys that are actually around us.
- [15:53]
A
Where in the country is this?
- [15:55]
B
So we're, we're in Westchester, New York right now. We're, we're in Larchmont. We're looking at a second location, a much bigger undertaking. Right now we're 200 square feet, but we're looking at 6,100 square feet. Podcast studio, community space, workspace, mats, jiu jitsu mats, gym, cold plunge, sensory deprivation, barbershop. So a real one stop shop for guys to go to and have a full day experience. Along with all the community stuff that we're doing with men's groups and working with first responders, veterans, just a bunch of stuff that's really looking to build a healthier male.
- [16:28]
A
Yeah. And what, what is like when you're looking at this from a business perspective, what is the thing that gets you most excited about the impact?
- [16:36]
B
I mean, it's, you know, it's, it's so easy to say like, oh, the, like yeah, the money would be great. Like we've, we've crunched the numbers where it can be. We've sat with people that, you know, this is a global idea and they're like, amazing. Cool. Let's start with, you know, let's get the second one open. But the impact, you know, knowing that as a guy you have a place that you can go to, that you can connect with like minded individuals, you know, and throughout the country, which is where it will go. And you know that you're going to go somewhere, you're going to connect with someone, you can jump into a meeting, have some good food, have a good workout and know that, you know, that community is just going to grow and grow and these relationships are going to get deeper and more impactful.
- [17:15]
A
Is there sort of like a North Star for you in all of this? Like what, what sort of, what keeps you going down this path versus, you know, throwing in the towel? Let's go do something else.
- [17:25]
B
The next step, you know, I, you know, the North Star is really just the next immediate thing that I need to do. And I think sometimes I, I think as all entrepreneurs we start to think like, so grand. Right? So it's like when people say, oh, there's a global idea. Okay, great. You have to keep yourself very grounded into like, what's the, yeah. What's the very next thing that we have to do as a team to get this? Whether it be the next meeting, the next, you know, the next, we start a book club to get that started. Like, what is the next immediate thing that we need to do to scale this? Yes. But to just handle the next thing. And yeah, the North Star is really just that feeling that, that, that I get every time I get to walk in this door or facilitate a meeting or do something like this and say, oh, this is, this is where I'm supposed to be. So whatever the byproduct ends up being is great. But this is where I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to be doing.
- [18:14]
A
Tell me about the podcast. Why, why keep doing 500 episodes is not an easy lift, man. Why, why keep doing the podcast?
- [18:19]
B
What are you giving me, you know, you know, you know the answer to that one. I absolutely love it, man. I love podcasting. It is, it is my favorite thing to do on the planet. It is really is. I think what I've, what I've come to the conclusion is it is the ultimate unknown. The unfolding of conversation is something that's so enticing to me. And I've been in radio, I've worked in radio, I've, I've done that and I enjoyed that. But podcasting obviously where it is now versus where it was in 2007 is a complete different world. So it's just something that, again, I love it. It's just so near and dear to me, almost to a fault.
- [18:56]
A
Yeah. What have been the tangible impacts of podcasting in your business, your life?
- [19:03]
B
Oh, man. Yeah, the connections, man. Like the real connections that you, I mean, even you and I, right. The fact that we're here now, having this conversation is just another one of those relationships, although not tangible in a sense. You know, just the opportunity to sit with someone, have a conversation, learn about their journey, and then all of a sudden it branches out into business relationships or, hey, I know this person that would be great to connect you with. And those are all transactional. But, you know, energetically, that alignment piece steps right back into that when you have an authentic conversation with someone and it's not this, like, water cooler filler stuff, like, yeah, it's real deep conversation and it's just, it just becomes the transaction is just again, an energetic byproduct of something bigger.
- [19:47]
A
Yeah, well, it only comes from the relationship 100 because, like, you're not gonna, you're not gonna get along really well with every single person that you talk to on the show. But how do we, how do we decipher if that's ever going to happen? To begin with, it's through an initial con. It's through an initial connection. And then typically some sort of a conversation, like, conversation is what allows you to explore the, of potentially connecting further with this other person. And that was like, I think it was you who had me on your show first. I don't know, probably years ago now, four or five years ago. And we've stayed connected since then because of that initial conversation where it was like, oh, we, we, we had this long form conversation about a bunch of stuff that's important to both of us, like fatherhood and what it means to be a man and things like that. And, and then I felt when we had that conversation, like you were one of the people that was doing it correctly. And then it's like, okay, well, now we stay connected and then we, we continue to talk. And we've had multiple conversations throughout the years. Now we're having another conversation on my podcast. It's like we've never met in person, but I feel like, you know, we've gotten to know each other so well through these, like, long form mediums to be able to have these conversations and they would not have any place in our day otherwise. Yeah, like, like this week. I have, I think 25 or 26 podcast interviews this week. Like, I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have a week that looked like that if they were not for the podcast where I just go connect with 25 random entrepreneurs and talk to them for 30 minutes at a time. Like, that wouldn't just happen in the normal, you know, milieu of my, of my week. But since I have a podcast, it's a perfect excuse to go have long form, in depth conversations with a bunch of really cool people who we could potentially do nothing together afterwards, or we could potentially do a lot of stuff together afterwards, or we could potentially have this sort of like, you know, social media type relationship where we kind of support each other from a distance. But like, my thing, bro, is like, it's never a bad scenario to have a bunch of good people voting for your good. You know what I mean? Like, where you.
- [21:48]
B
That's a good, that's a good way to put it. Yeah.
- [21:49]
A
Which is to say that like, like I said, not every single person I'm going to talk to, I'm not even going to, frankly, this might be a bad thing to admit on the podcast, but I'm not even going to remember every single person that I talk to this week. It's almost impossible now with the volume of people that I talk to, let alone have like a close personal relationship with, with any of them. But the prospect that one of them could turn into something that could turn into this other thing that introduces me to this other thing, like, that stuff is, is so cool to me. And then at the end of the day, it's like, I, I might see that name in a year and a half from now and go like, oh, I know that name. Why do I know that name? Oh, I had on my show a year and a half ago. Now they're doing this cool thing, like, good for them. And, and we, we want to cast light on those things and support everybody else. And it's like, there's no, again, there's no disadvantage to having a high volume of high quality people who are conspiring for your good in this, in this, you know, planet. So, Vinny, I appreciate you coming on and sharing a little bit more with us. Where can people go to get more from you and what you're working on?
- [22:45]
B
Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Again, I, I echo that exact sentiment in the sheer fact that we connected X amount years ago and just that constant support of each other, it just energetically pays dividends. So thank you again for the time. I really appreciate it. Instagram at Vinnie Brusco, everything over@agorasocialclub.com and then on Instagram, it's agorawestchester. That's the main page. And yeah, we're just an exciting time of expansion and growth. And the Council of Dudes Podcast is on all platforms. YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, all that good stuff.
- [23:15]
A
So go check out the Council of Dudes podcast. Go check out some of the stuff that Vinnie's putting out over on social. Vinnie, I appreciate you taking the time to share with us today. Everybody else listening. Remember, money only solves your money problems, but it's easier to solve the rest of your problems when you got money in the bank. So let's solve that one one first here on the Travis Makes Money podcast. Thanks for tuning in. Catch you guys next time. Peace out.