SOLO | Make Money by Turning Your Biggest Obstacles Into Your Greatest Advantage - Lessons from my John Di Domenico

Summary

Travis Makes Money Podcast – Episode Summary

Episode: SOLO | Make Money by Turning Your Biggest Obstacles Into Your Greatest Advantage – Lessons from my John Di Domenico
Host: Travis Chappell
Date: June 25, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this solo episode, Travis Chappell reflects on key life and business lessons gleaned from his friend John Di Domenico, the world-renowned Trump impersonator and seasoned comedian. Travis explores how Di Domenico turned personal struggles and skill mastery into a multi-faceted, lucrative career. The episode encourages listeners to reframe their obstacles, develop unique talents through skill stacking, continually hone their craft, maximize every opportunity, and to stop making excuses – especially in an era with unprecedented access and opportunity.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Obstacles as Instruments for Advantage

(00:31 – 03:15)

• John Di Domenico's Speech Impediment:
  As a child, John spent eight years in speech therapy to overcome a serious impediment. The technical understanding gained was the unlikely foundation of his ability to mimic voices and become a world-class impersonator.
• Travis’ Reflection:
  “The thing that was supposed to hold him back became the thing that made him extraordinary at his craft… Don’t run away from the things you feel are the worst that have happened to you.” (01:33)
• Broader Lesson:
  Obstacles often hide the unique abilities or stories that can differentiate and elevate individuals—what Travis names as “your mess becomes your message.”

2. The Power of Skill Stacking

(03:16 – 07:43)

• John’s Long-Term Preparation:
  John started his Trump impression in 2004, well before Trump became a central figure in world news. He had decades of experience in sketch comedy, improv, acting, voice work, and corporate events, making him supremely qualified when opportunity struck.
• Building Unique Value:
  “You don’t get paid for the amount of hours you work. You get paid for the amount of value that you bring to the marketplace or to the workplace.” (06:21)
  The most successful people aren’t just good at one thing but bring together a unique combination of skills that set them apart.
• Comparison & Examples:
  He references Will Sasso’s Arnold impression and Adam Ray’s Dr. Phil, noting it’s the depth of character, not just mimicry, that makes them stand out.

3. Relentless Commitment to the Source

(08:43 – 09:49)

• Repetition and Refreshing:
  Despite thousands of performances, John always watches a clip of Trump right before every gig—never letting the impression drift or go on autopilot.
• Continuous Improvement:
  “Go back to the source every single time, no matter how many times you’ve done it… The people who stay the best refuse to stop studying the source material.” (08:52)
• Transferable Principle:
  Whatever the field—marketing, sales, leadership—Travis urges listeners to revisit core principles and keep refining, no matter their expertise.

4. Maximizing and Scaling a Core Skill

(09:50 – 11:40)

• Expanding the Asset:
  John found ways to monetize his Trump persona beyond Cameo, including corporate games, roasts, and unique experiences tailored for different audiences.
• Don’t Rely on a Single Lane:
  “He built one asset and then asked every version of the question, how do I expand this? What other things can I do with this skill set?” (10:12)
• Relentless Focus:
  The expansion always related to the core skill, not a random pivot—“relentless focus in one direction.”

5. No Excuses in the Modern Era

(11:41 – 15:57)

• Comparing Eras:
  John saw friends succumb to drugs, his brother passed away, and his father—described as brilliant—never got to capitalize on his potential due to lack of access and opportunity.
• Opportunity vs. Complaints:
  “There’s never been more opportunity than there is today. So stop looking at all the bad things and… whining and complaining… At some point, you gotta move past it.” (13:25)
• Taking Responsibility:
  Eventually, everyone must accept their circumstances and find a way forward using the tools available now: the internet, social platforms, educational content, etc.
• Perspective Shift:
  “Our parents look at it like, ‘man, I wish I had the internet when I was your age’… There’s no excuse in this era not to succeed.” (14:38)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Turning Obstacles into Advantage:
  “Don’t run away from the things you feel are the worst things that have happened to you… that’s where the gold lies.” – Travis (01:40)
• Skill Stacking as Superpower:
  “What I do have is a very particular set of skills.” (06:40) (Referencing Liam Neeson)
• On Daily Commitment to Mastery:
  “He will not go on autopilot. He will not let the character drift in any field.” – Travis on John’s practice routines (08:59)
• On Modern Opportunity:
  “There’s just no excuses anymore… Opportunity has never been greater. You can choose to look at the negative things… but only one of them will have a positive outcome on your life.” – Travis (14:15)

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Timestamps: Important Segments

• 00:31: Introduction to John Di Domenico and his backstory
• 01:03–03:15: Transforming obstacles into advantages (speech therapy to impersonation)
• 03:16–07:43: The long-term benefit and power of skill stacking
• 08:43–09:49: Importance of returning to the source and never coasting
• 09:50–11:40: Scaling a skill and maximizing every possible avenue
• 11:41–15:57: Why there are “no excuses” to not succeed today and the shift in generational perspectives

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Tone & Style

Conversational, motivational, and practical—Travis uses relatable stories, humor, and direct advice to empower listeners to look at challenges as opportunities and to relentlessly pursue growth and value creation in their work.

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For listeners seeking inspiration and tactical strategies to turn setbacks into stepping stones, this episode delivers both, using John Di Domenico’s remarkable journey as a blueprint.

Transcript

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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 show. On this episode, I am going over some of my lessons from my good friend, John D. Domenico. John is widely recognized as the best Trump impersonator of all time. He's been featured on Jimmy Kimmel and Howard Stern and the Tonight show and all these different places doing Trump impersonation. He was also the number one paid person on the app cameo, which is that, you know, celebrity shout out app, doing Trump impersonation videos for people, which is pretty crazy. But he's been able to make a career out of doing impressions, which I think is pretty cool. He's been in comedy for a really long time, and he's somebody that participated in my first episode of a dinner party that I shot two, three years ago. Really, really funny guy, down to earth, easy to talk to, and somebody who I've stayed in touch with since. So here's a few of my lessons and takeaways from the professional comedian and Trump impersonator John D. Domenico. Number one, your obstacles can become your instruments. John had a severe speech impediment as a kid, which is crazy, thinking that he's like a full time communicator for, for a living. Eight years of speech therapy twice a week, starting at age six. Again, crazy age six. Eight years of speech therapy twice a week starting at age 6. Those therapists were teaching him throat placement, nasal placement, vocal production, vocal mask, everything. He learned to fix his speech as a k literally became the technical foundation for his ability to do impressions because he understood how much. He understood that much about voices and his own Voice, which allowed him to be able to identify those things in other people's voices and become really great impressionists, a world renowned impressionist. So the thing that was, you know, supposed to hold him back and that would have held a lot of other people back, became the thing that made him extraordinary at his craft. And this is something that I've found to be true time and time and time and time again with multiple people that I've had on the show. Is that the thing that they looked at as being the negative, the, the obstacle, the speech impediment, whatever that thing is in their life, that thing ended up becoming what turned around their lives. And I've, you know, heard a lot of different ways your, your mess becomes your message, your obstacles become your instruments, you know, whatever. But it's saying that like, don't run away from the things that you feel are the worst things that have happened to you, because a lot of times that's where the gold lies. That's a lot of times that's what makes you unique, that's what makes you valuable to a certain group of people. So don't run away from the obstacles because they can well become the foundation for the majority of your career. Number two, stacking skills over a long time creates an unfair advantage. John started doing Trump impersonations back in 2004, which was 11 years before Trump announced his presidential run. He'd done sketch comedy, improv, stand up, voice work, corporate events. And so when the moment came, he wasn't just a Trump impersonator. He was a fully formed character actor with decades of technical training who happened to have a head start on the most in demand impression in the world at that time, which was Trump. That's not, that's not just luck. It's not, that's not a luck of the draw type of thing. That's 25 years of stacking skills coming together at once. And that's what makes some of the best impersonators. The best impersonators like you, you know, Will Sasso doing Arnold or adam Ray doing Dr. Phil or Johnny Domenico doing Trump, is that it's not just them reading a speech from that person and then doing the voice exactly like them. They come up with their own version of the character. They build character development inside of the impression that enables them to be able. Like what Adam Ray does with the Dr. Phil live shows. Like he is in character for hours at a time. And so you can't rehearse the volume of surprises that happen along the way in a show like that he's not rehearsing those things. He just has done so well at building a character around the impression that he's able to sink into that character and do it live in front of people for multiple hours on end. And you've seen. And Adam Ray's done this with, you know, Joe Biden and Tony Hinchcliffe and then as he invented his own characters. But it's, it's the. That's why I say it's the skill stacking. It wasn't just that John put in the work to be a good Trump impersonators. Like he had a Trump before Trump was even in the news as much as he was when he announced his presidential campaign. And then all the work that he'd done along the way with the sketch comedy and the improv and developing characters and the voice actor work that he did and doing corporate events and all those types of things enabled him to build this character of Trump, which. And I've seen it happen in, in real time, like when I, when I hang with John and we're in certain contexts or we're talking on the podcast, and then he slips into Trump. But it's not just his voice. Like, he gets the tonality and he gets the vocal range, and he. He gets the character of Trump, which means that he can come up with his own material of stuff that Trump has never said, but sounds exactly like something that Trump would say, which is what makes the character that much better. It makes the impression that much better. And like I said, he's turned it into, quite literally, just on cameo, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars just by having one of the best impressions out there. And like I said, appearances on Howard Stern and Jimmy Kimmel doing impressions all over the place. One of the best in the business. So skill stack. And this is obviously talking about it from a comedy actor perspective, but this also goes into the business side. You know, if you're really good at one thing, then you're valuable. If you're really good at one thing and then kind of good at another thing and then really good at another thing, well, now you have those three things, which makes you more value, more unique, valuable, I should say, because you can do something that is a mixture of things that nobody else can do. Right. So think about it from the perspective of, like, what is the unique ability that I've crafted over the course of my career? Because I built this skill first, and then I built this skill, and then I built this skill. And if we combine those three skills, then that positions Me to either demand a really high salary job because I'm more valuable to the workplace in this context, or to build a better business because I'm more valuable to the marketplace in this context. So think about it from that perspective. Like, what are the skills that I can continue acquiring over time that 10, 15, 20 years in my career are ultimately going to appear as this like super uniquely valuable thing? Because that's ultimately what's going to control the amount of money that you get paid. You don't get paid for the amount of hours you work. You get paid for the amount of value that you bring to the marketplace or to the workplace. So the more unique that value is, the fewer options there are for that company or that market to have other people fill that role. Because by definition there's just not, not a lot of people who have the unique combination of skills that you have. So, you know, like, just like Liam Neeson and taken, you know what, what I do have is a very particular set of skills. It's like, that is the truth. And the people who are the best at what they do often have a particular set of skills that's very unique and valuable from what makes it valuable is how unique that combination of skills is. So think about how you can apply that in your life.

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Go back to the source every single time, no matter how many times you've done it. So even after hundreds of corporate shows and thousands of cameo videos, John still puts out his a specific clip of Trump before every single performance, whether it's for 25 people or 2500. He will not go on autopilot. He will not let the character drift in any field. The people who stay the best are the ones who refuse to stop studying the source material. So even though he's done this thousands of Times before he does an impression, he pulls up a video of Trump every time to remind to like, allow him to sink back into that mindset so that he takes full advantage of that opportunity. So don't allow yourself to go on autopilot even if you're good at what you do. Just constantly be looking for improvement and go back to the source code of whatever it is that you're focusing on, whether it's marketing principles or sales technique or a leadership talk tracker pattern or speech that you're giving. Whatever it is, like, go back and try to improve every single time that you get the opportunity. Number four, always look for, always look to maximize what you've built. So once John had the Trump character, he didn't just do the voice, he made it a scalable version of this. So, you know, apprentice style corporate games for 150 people after dinner speeches where he roasted executives in character as Trump boardroom experiences. Cameo. He built one thing, one asset, and then asked every version of the question, how do I expand this? What other things can I do with this skill set? Like apprentice style corporate game. Fantastic idea for, for a small group of people, like, how do I build a experience for these people that, that would allow me to get paid more because I'm crafting an evening that's an experience for them versus just like standing up and doing a performance. So he didn't just like stick in this one thing. He expanded the universe of the impersonation that enabled him to build a really successful career around that time. So most people just build the one thing and then when that works, they just, they stop. They go like, oh, well, I'll just keep doing cameo. The problem is that a cameo eventually ended up not being as much as some of the other things that he was doing. So if he was only fully reliant on that, then as soon as that went away, he wouldn't have been able to have all the other opportunities that he had curated along the way. He kept building the thing that he did in every possible direction that he could find. But what's cool about that is it's still focus in one direction. It's just that it's trying to find where that path is best forged along the way. It's not saying that like, oh, I had this Trump impersonation. Now let me also, you know, start a landscaping business. Like, that's not exactly what I mean by, by multiple sources of revenue in that world. It's like, like relentless focus on this, this character, this impersonation, because it's highly relevant right now because of the news cycles and everything like that. So how do I take full advantage of this opportunity? And then he continued to build around that one core skill set. Number five, there is no excuse in this era not to succeed. There's no excuse not to succeed. John watched people that he grew up with unfortunately die young from, from drugs and alcohol, including his own brother, George. And he talked about, talked about how his father, who he said was a brilliant man in his own right, never had the freedom to develop what was in him. Tools, platform, access, distribution. None of that existed the way that it does now. The barrier to entry has been removed. So at some point the only thing standing between a person where they want to go is the story that they're telling themselves about why it's not possible. So there's just no excuses anymore. And look, I know it's a weird economy right now. I get that. I know wages are not increasing with the cost of inflation or with the, with the, with the rate of inflation. I know housing prices are stupid high. I know, I know there's a lot of bad, broader macroeconomic trends. I understand that. But also, there's never been more opportunity than there is today. So stop looking at all the bad things and focusing on all the bad things and then pointing the finger and blaming and shifting blame and then whining and complaining. It's like, look, maybe do that for a month. Like, get it out of your system. Like just, you know, be upset that your student loans are really high and your job isn't allowing you to be able to pay them off and be able to go afford eating out. Like, don't, you know, accept that for what it is. And then at some point you got to move past it. So my question is always, at what point are you going to move past it? Is it one week? Is it one month? Is it one year? Is it 10 years? Is it your entire life? Like, because just complaining about the situation is never going to do anything to a, affect the situation. So at some point you have to just accept that that's the hand you've been dealt and then look for the opportunities and the advantages within that hand. And it's like, yeah, of course for our parents it was easier for them to buy a house or hold a job for 30 years with just a bachelor's degree or something like that. That world doesn't really exist at this point. But our parents look at it as like, man, I wish I had the Internet when I was, when I was your age. You know, I wish I had the ability to listen to this podcast and learn how to run ad from this YouTube channel or subscribe to this newsletter that teaches me all about stock trading or whatever. You know what I mean? Like, they look at it from the perspective of like, man, I wish I had all the things that you guys have. Cause, wow, look at all the opportunity that's at your fingertips. And then we look at it as like, man, I wish I could buy a house for $62,000 and, and, and not kill myself for it. And I wish my bachelor's degree would get me a job that I feel like I'm qualified to have versus having to go back and get a master's or starting in a field that has nothing to do with the degree that I have. It's like, like, you can always find reasons to be upset. You can always find people to point the blame at. And, and like I said, it doesn't mean that you don't recognize the weird time that you're in. It just means that eventually it does no good to continue just talking about it ad nauseam without building a plan to figure out a path that's going to be figuring out a path that's going to get you the desk to the destination that you want to be at. So eventually you're going to have to stop and you're going to have to take some responsibility for where you are now and then figure out a path forward, whatever that means for you, and recognize again, opportunity has never been greater. So you can choose to look at the negative things that are at our fingertips right now, but. Or you can choose to look at the positive things and only one of them will have a positive outcome on your life. And I assume you know which one that's going to be. So there's no excuse in this era not to succeed. So get out there and do something about it. I guess what I'm trying to say, but this is a fun conversation with John. He does several Trump impressions throughout. I asked him during this conversation to give us like, the breakdown, you know what, what are the steps to doing a great Trump impression? So he indulged that. I think that clip on YouTube has almost a million views. It's like a three or four minute clip on, like, how to do the perfect Trump impersonation. He breaks it down really well. So it's a fun interview, but also a lot of really good life lessons and good educational moments. So go check out my full conversation with John and forgive me in advance because there was a setting on the Rodecaster, our audio interface that was messed up during that interview so the gain is sort of weird. So forgive me in advance. I know the audio is a little bit tricky on that one but you'll be fine, trust me. It's not like static or annoying, it just like goes in and out a little bit. So anyway, go check out the full episode with John. Thanks so much for tuning into this one. We'll catch you guys in the next one. Peace.

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