Entrepreneurship With Troy Hipolito

Troy Hipolito: I thank God that I have a really good daughter. I have grown kids as well. I have all. All my kids are really good, you know? And I said, you know what? I may be you know, at the time I said, you know what? I may be blessed ass broke right now. I said, But in a year I could be back up. You know, I said to find the right partners, help people do the right things, you know.

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Zeke:I like to welcome everyone to another episode of The Let’s Gather Podcast. I’m your host Zeke, in this episode I have Troy Hipolito to speak about entrepreneurship in his journey in business. You can find more information about him by clicking the link in the description below. I like to give a content warning for any strong language used in this episode. I hope you have a nice day and enjoy the show.

Zeke: So welcome to the podcast. 

Troy Hipolito: Thanks Ezekiel. 

Zeke: Hey, so before we get started, we like to introduce ourselves quickly so the audience knows who you are. 

Troy Hipolito: Yeah, my name is Troy Hipolito. That last name comes from my father. He’s Filipino. So thanks, Dad. I got teased as a little kid. You know, as a little kid, these say, aren’t you supposed to be fat? You know, because Hipolito so? So I fought a lot as a because I’m a I’m a I was a little kid, so I get a lot of fights. So that’s my name. I grew up in Virginia, but I’ve been all around the world. I’m in Atlanta now. I lived Okinawa, Japan, Philippines, California, Florida, Georgia, Chicago, you name it.

You know, I’ve been there. I was also in the Army, so I have quite a bit experience, married and divorced. So I have some great kids and some probably bad experiences for a lot of guys that went through that. So, you know, it’s like, yeah,

Zeke: Cool. So now we get into the first question, what would your origin story be?

How would you like to represent it? It can either be a real or fake story. 

Troy Hipolito: Well, I think there’s nothing more interesting than than reality. You know you know, people say, what did that happen? You know, and I don’t really want to get too far into it. But I think that if I had an origin story or a story about my life, it would be a book.

And the title of the book would be called On the Edge of Failure, you know, because there’s a lot of things that I went through that I have overcome and still trying to do certain things in my life. So I don’t know if I didn’t mention this before, but of course, I’m like a lot of people, I’m from a divorce family and I was pretty poor, you know, growing up.

And I’m a of a of a mixed race, so my father’s Filipino and my mother’s from Switzerland, so everyone thinks I’m Latin, you know, And so that causes some confusion. And so when I was growing up, most Filipinos are, for the most part, well-off because they’re medical, you know, and I was a mutt and poor, so I was not really accepted all the time from my Filipino brethren and my Asian brethren and why people think I was Mexican and I dated outside my race.

So a lot of a lot of black guys didn’t like that either. So I always felt like, you know what? If you’re going to do something, you know, do it because you want to. Don’t worry about what other people think. And so that’s how it allowed me to get over a lot of different things. So I was in the Army, I was a software engineer, software developer, I was a graphic designer, and that’s a left brain right brain type stuff and which is a little unusual.

And so I started I was a creative director of another company, and I started my own company and we made video games, really, really cool stuff until until it wasn’t so cool because every time we hired someone, we get them in low because making video games or gamification, it’s like the rockstar programing, you know, people will loved it.

I had a nice little office less than 2000 square feet. We had about 8 to 15 people in there at one time. The programmer and the designers were right next to each other. We were creating virtual world stuff that other people couldn’t do, you know, very, very fun thing. The reality was that it’s very difficult to produce money in that market.

And so a lot of these younger guys are really, really talented, want to come on board, but after a year of experience, they could triple their income at IBM because they had all this experience. So it kind of left me high and dry and it was a bit rough. And then Atlanta changed in general. I’m in Atlanta right now.

I’ve been in Atlanta for quite a while and a lot of these larger companies that we did work for, they they are a little more on the corporate side. So they no longer use agencies. They they brought the team inside to cannibalize them. And so the whole agency model went to hell. It was very difficult. So you were coming around making, you know, as small company making 40, $80,000 gross a month.

Have a nice little team there. It’s a fun environment. We built it out. We all had Nerf guns. You know, we’re having just a just the magical moment, you know, in the business and goes in all halts. And so these agencies are fighting each other, you know, you couldn’t get in. Business is much different than New York or L.A. Those they depend on agencies, you know, And so we’re, you know, pretty small fries.

So we had to figure out how are we going to get work. And I had a colleague of mine who had a similar business and his name was Farah. He was in, I think, Argentina at the time. He moved to New York. And I said, Farah, how are you getting all this work, man? My my stuff is much better than yours.

I was just messing with him, you know? He says, LinkedIn, Say what? It’s LinkedIn. So I ran to my other buddy and he was in New Jersey and he was a sales guy. And he said, Yeah, Troy, All my customers come from LinkedIn. So I thought LinkedIn was something for resumes, like, I don’t know what you know. And I realized it was really about building relationships, like old fashioned dating.

I don’t know if anyone knows old fashioned. And that means get to know them before you proceed. Very small steps. Right. And I was I was a terrible dater. You know, I saw some. I just went and got it. That’s My attitude, if there was a problem, a lot of times I know the solution before the question came up.

So I think very quickly and no, I know what I do. I’m an expert on all these different areas and I’m good at what I do. But I was a terrible dater. And so a lot of times, if you know the answer before the question, you move too quickly. It’s too fast for people they don’t know you from Adam Right.

And it scares it’s like walking up to this beautiful woman saying, I find you very attractive. I want to have two babies with you. Right? You probably get smack, you know, and business is the same way. You don’t want to go in there and sell. You just want to get to know that person. And once they get to know you, they start digging in and a little bit.

And then if they have a need for what you’re doing, they’ll raise their hand. And because that personal connection so you have to build that relationship. So what I did was, you know, since I was a software architect, I built the steps in order to date for LinkedIn and to figure out what was appropriate. And that’s what I do with clients.

I have I have the hiring clients where I have this LinkedIn accelerator program, and if you have high value services, I help you convert. If you’re right client, I only take on one or two clients a month. That’s it. Because it’s a lot of work and we have a team of course, but we don’t really want to take more than that.

And then we have our courseware, so we have LinkedIn courses and that we’re currently engaging with people that have high volume of clients and stuff so we can make money on that. And so my idea is you need to have multiple streams of revenue, but you can’t be all things to all people start out with one, then expand to another and that sort of thing.

And so those things are working out really, really well. And I said, Well, if it works out, good for me, you know, I can help other people do it. And then we we created the Troy Agency. The Troy Agency helps a lot of companies on LinkedIn, especially if you have high value services, high ticket items and things like that.

So I have a certain requirement to work with clients because at the end of the day, some of my mistakes were picking up the wrong client because most clients are not that great. They will talk the talk, but they won’t do the things they need to do in order to convert. And so what we’re not we’re not a sales team.

We get everything in front of you, we prep you, we show you how to communicate, we show you how to book that meeting. You know, we give you that day to day process. We have a linked CRM that centralizes data, makes your life a lot easier, and then we even help you get to those point with those meetings.

But we’re not there to sell your stuff, right? So a lot of clients have problem building that relationship. They just want to sell. And I always I always tell them I said, Look, if you have a service that you’re paying, someone’s paying $1,000 or more a month on per client is compound, right? So you get ten clients. It’s $1,000.

You know, it’s it’s ten grand a month. You know, each time you get one, it compounds up. It’s it’s a really great model. But these clients are not going to put that kind of money into you if they don’t know you. I said, you know, so you need to have the attitude of just helping people, you know, don’t go overboard and do all this extra work.

But have certain certain slots of time to help individuals because there’s only three one of three things that can happen. Number one, you put out good energy in the universe. You know, they can never talk bad about you. You help someone out, right? That actually feels good. It actually helps you motivates up. The second thing is they do what you say and you solve their problem.

Just fix the problem. And once they get into it, they said, oh, you know what? I have 23 other problems that only Troy can fix. I’m gonna go back to him and I’m a hire him, you know? And that third thing, that third thing is like, you know what? They like it so much, they send a recommendation, someone recommends you to someone else is a much easier time to convert and sell, much easier than to toot your own horn.

So you have other people talking about you. So I said, just just think about that. Build that relationship and understand what the litmus test is. Do you know what a litmus test is? Where is that little piece of paper you put in there? And it changes color as a test. This this for for for a lot of different things.

And so the litmus test to have someone to be potentially doing business with you that would be equal to does this person want to have a drink with you at a fancy bar? That’s it. The other think thing about that, if we are during these pandemic times, we’re really cautious about who we talk to, right? We’re little tighter on our money on a secret.

We need to make things work. So if I can go out and have a beer with you while I drink liquor, but you get what I’m saying, go out and have a drink with you. I’m going to spill my I’m a spill the beans somehow I’m going to tell you a little bit about me, what I’m doing, what my problems are.

I’m trusting you enough to have that conversation. That’s the litmus test to actually engaging in business. Do they actually like you? So those three things are they get to know you, they get to like you, and then later on they get to trust you in the know like and trust. I’m sure you heard that before, but it’s true.

How long does that take and how do you do that? Well, for different industries, it’s a different process, but it’s not all about connecting on LinkedIn and pitching. That’s like the worst thing you can do. LinkedIn is a true networking place. That’s what they intended to be and to really network is just to understand who they are and potentially how to help them if they need some kind of help for whatever it is and just get to know them, you know?

And so that really works well on LinkedIn. Something as simple as if I want to really get a high percentage of connection rates, right? So say I’m sending this connection request out, but say, Johnny here, I want to talk to Johnny. Really? Because his Johnny has a great network and I want to get to know Johnny, but I don’t want to send him a connection.

Press water right right away. Maybe I want to look at his post two or three times in a week. Maybe I want to engage with his post and engage with his audience, you know? And then if Johnny replies to me here, he knows who I am, whether he knows it or not, he knows who I am is going to be planet in the back of his mind stint in an after two or three conversations in a post, then maybe it’s appropriate to reach out to him in a message or connection message or a direct message or whatever on LinkedIn.

And your percentage goes from like low 15% all the way, 85, 95%. Now not just increase the ability to be connected with that person, you’ve already moved that relationship down the line. And so that thought process really works, especially if you have a real business. You know, if you’re really converting business, LinkedIn is a very hot place to be, you know, because there’s money there and there’s people that that need a lot of times and certain services and so on.

The other end, that person is connecting with, you know, with me, you know, say his name is Johnny. He needs to figure out, is this guy legitimate? He may check out your profile. He may check out your client testimonials. You know, he want to see who you are. He might want to look at your network. You know, there’s all sorts of great reasons to connect with me.

I have a huge network. I have a stellar profile. And so you have to think, what are the things that I need to do to be successful on LinkedIn or have a giving mentality is one of them. But having your ducks in a row is another have a plan. So the first thing and people always forget is your profile.

There’s a 50% chance they’re going to look at your profile before they connect with you. You know, if anyone have any value, anyone has a valuable network. Anyone who has it has money. You know, all these other people may connect with you for for, you know, because just to connect. But I don’t even accept most connections. 70% of people send me connection request I don’t do it, you know, because I don’t want my network to be tainted.

You know, I want to work with people that has they have a positive influence in my network, you know, And I even connect with other LinkedIn people. People said, that’s crazy. You connect to your own connection with your own competition. So now they’re not competition. They can be partners. You know, there is, you know, how big LinkedIn is.

They have over 700 million people. So you can’t really you can’t really, you know, have a competition there. And besides, my profile is probably better better than his anyway. You know, And so when you’re designing your profile, you got to figure out what’s going to make you stand out. So people say, Oh, I just do this profile quickly.

No, it takes a lot of work. You got to have SEO compliance, your your taglines and their your banner, your flow. And then once you get that profile tightened up, you understand your market better and then you go out and you’re targeting your individual market, you’re creating your campaign messages, your initial campaign messages. And then the fourth thing is you can create a day to day process.

So how can you convert on LinkedIn without being on LinkedIn all day? We have businesses to run, so that’s kind of what I do on LinkedIn. So I’m pretty excited about it because I actually get to help other individuals. 

Zeke: Nice. 

Troy Hipolito: I’m sorry, I talk a lot. 

Zeke: Take a second to process all of that. 

Troy Hipolito: Yeah, that’s awesome. 

Zeke: So I guess and so let me say that a lot of times in life you always had to pivot.

Zeke: So what was kind of like that in the moment? So think of pivoting to something else is before we getinto to later things. 

Troy Hipolito: Yeah, So I built it for my, my company that was developing games to my LinkedIn company out of a need. You know, I couldn’t get business. I had a ton of awards. We did Coca-Cola, we did Xbox Mobile movie releases and work on all those different things.

We even did a Harry Potter virtual world and had I think we have a 200,000 kids register on it and it was free. We weren’t charging anything. It was more fan based stuff, but we did a lot of fun stuff that I enjoyed. But at the end of the day, the world’s changed everybody and their mom was a graphic designer and so they can do this.

So it really didn’t matter how good we were and, you know, we were not able to generate business in that current model. We had to convert and then build relationships and it worked so well. We said, you know, let’s do it for other people. And that point was a major shift because life changes, the world changes. You have to change along with it, you know, And it really opened my eyes because again, I’m very direct.

I’m type A, you know, I have some type-A traits and I had to slow down and even realize I can’t do this by myself. I’m very smart. I have a a multi talented. But at the end of the day, people don’t give a F how smart you are. You know, if they don’t like you, you’re not going to work with you.

That’s it, you know, And it’s much harder to do things yourself. So get partners and get partners you can trust. There’s a lot of partners that that talk smack and learn to do this and that. I don’t do passive arrangements, you know, I do arrangements where it benefits them first. You know, I’ll give you the example. I wanted to create this course where it’s a lot of work and I’ve got other stuff going on too, you know, So how can I convert this course into something that people like I said, Well, people like me, you know, I said, let me let me hook on to another LinkedIn guy that trusts and give him some business,

Right? I said, you know, half of this is email, email, deliverability. I said, Let me hook up with this guy that does email deliverability and output on the the email side. So I’m LinkedIn side, his email side. And then let me position this other LinkedIn guy to, to get some business right. So Ed Perto was my my email person and then John Jean-Michel, he is a French guy.

He lives in Texas. So he’s my LinkedIn guy because he’s a professor. I’m not a professor. You know, I’m a doer. I have a degree, but I don’t have a I don’t have a Ph.D.. Right? I say, Well, he was literally a rocket science. I can use that. Right. His stuff doesn’t look as good as my I said, But you know what?

That’s a good blend. So his opinions aren’t always the same thing as mine, but we have crossover and that creates good energy, right? So I says, Jean-Michel, I want to redo my profile, but I need your help, right? I really did need help. I said, I need your help, man, because yeah, sure. I said, okay, great. Can we record this?

Said, Sure. And he was talking for like an hour on all these things. And 90% is like there’s 10% overlap. I know there’s 90% overlap, but there’s 10% new stuff, you know, because we’re just different people. And I saw this great and I took his video and I chopped it up and I create like seven, seven videos. And I created a LinkedIn article and I created series of stuff for him.

Right? He got he got several clients out of it is so happy, right? He goes. You know, with a profile update, I charge 20 $500. He said, Yeah, you should. Is it What do you charge? I said, Well, I charge 35, but I do a lot more. I do day to day process targeting also. Now prep him for my LinkedIn CRM, you know what I mean?

So I get paid upfront and then I do a monthly to help them continually consulting and churn excuse me, charge business churn to turn up their business and stuff. And so we’re talking about that he go goes, well, I got clients. Are you okay with that? I said, sure, go ahead. Yes. You know, this might be a good course. I know I have to show I have like 3000 people already signed up for it, you know, And I have a monthly show.

It’s called The Troy Show. It’s all about LinkedIn stuff. So you want to talk about that is yeah. I said, okay, let’s let’s talk about it. And we’re talking about this things right profile update Once I was them and I said to the core and end of the free, the free show, I said, We have a paid course, a live pay course 100 bucks, you know, And we had an and the idea was, have the audience pay for your time to build the course.

I’m not doing that. So for free because it’s a, you know, it’s a lot of work. So we did it and we did three days and then I did three days of my course. Right. And his his profile minus how to use LinkedIn. Right. So they go together really well and then we’re doing some career coaching type stuff as well.

So we have about 9 hours of video, chop it up, create a course, and then we’re talking to people and people say, Hey, I have I have one person say, I have a 3 million people, a followers, right on my social media. I don’t know what that means. Yeah, they don’t really have emails. Kind of hard to convert, but so a lot of followers, you know, so we’re talking to them.

We have another person saying we have a job site, but the only people on our job site are people are seeking 150K up jobs, high end jobs. I said, Wow, how many people do you have? A million. So that’s my market because they’re going to be using LinkedIn and they can pay for this course, you know?

And so if it wasn’t for these guys in in an Ed sending all the emails to make the show go, well, you know, I said it wasn’t for these partners. I couldn’t have done any of this stuff. And yet the thing about that is, is a partner I can trust, you know, are we going to be working together?

Are we not going to be so greedy? You know, you had to find those relationships that really convert. And at end of the day, I kind of feel that this course is going to bring me, you know, a quarter of $1,000,000 on top of what I’m doing in my business. You know, I’m I’m I’m small for us, a lot of money for me.

You know, I don’t know what it is. I’ll make it up these numbers. But, you know, I think if someone has a million subscribers, what’s the percentage you think it will convert? They got an actual email. What’s it what’s your opinion on what will convert? Right. 

Zeke: This is like 10%. Or 20.

Troy Hipolito: Say 1% just say 1%. And who gets the email?

Who doesn’t? Who has the money? Is it the right audience to say 1%? Right? Hypothetically, if someone had a million emails and we’re sending those out. Right. And and the course is 497, you give discount to 250, right? There’s $2.5 million off 1%. And I wouldn’t even be able to have that discussion unless I had those partners.

And because we create this buzz and there’s, oh yeah, we have this thing and they have the need and they want to make money too. So if someone has a million subscribers that would pay 250 for a LinkedIn course, we give them 25%. So even if we split it four ways, we’re that’s a lot of money. Think about that.

You know, that’s that’s you know that’s that’s a that’s that’s go out stripper money that’s that’s a lot of money. You know so so you have to really think about those partnerships and stuff, you know, and also you have to realize who to cut off. That’s another thing I learned during the pandemic. I cut off a lot of females.

So I’m a single dad and I’ve been a single dad last two years, and I don’t want any creeps near my family. So my goal is just to make my money, you know, have a nice relationship for whoever is going to be when it should be, you know, and cut out all this negativity because your life is like like this.

All Mountain Dew is awful for you, but it’s like his cup, right? And once his full is full, you got bad stuff, good stuff, whatever in there. And somewhere I got dumped some of it out to add some more good stuff in it. And so I cut I had about five or six ex-girlfriends trying to get back and I’m going to say they’re bad people, but they’re bad for me.

You know, they’re not going to help me. They’re lot takers, You know, a lot of younger women, they and not all of them, but they do what they want, let’s say that. And so I don’t need that in my life. You know, even the fellas, you know, we used to go out to the little you know, the little the bar or whatever on a Tuesday night going out.

And I said, you know, some of these people are not good for you. You know, they going going to talk to your girl behind their back and they’re married dudes and stuff, you know, And me personally, I don’t really care if you married you gay, straight, you like two women, whatever. I always want people to be honest and be good to whoever they’re dealing with.

You know what I mean? That’s what I think a good relationship is, right? And so, you know, I don’t like griminess. I don’t like going behind people’s back and all that stuff. And I said, you know what? I’m just going to stop hanging out with these people. I’m just hanging out with good people to people that have my back, you know, And I’m not talking about one lifestyle versus another.

I’m talking about a lifestyle where they can be honest to who they’re with and then how everyone can be successful. And so I think that this whole pandemic has helped me with that portion cut out all the bs because there’s no time there’s no time to to deal with someone that’s going to put negativity in in your in your mind, go behind your back.

You know, even these females, if she’s not there for you, then just just get rid of it, you know, and then and then find find that person that’s going to match up and work with you. Because at the end of the day, we live in a finite, you know, life. We’re not immortal, you know, And I’m old. I’m 49 years old, right?

I’m not I didn’t I didn’t make the money, get some stem cells, you know, enjoy my life. I want to be messing with people, all these takers and stuff. So that would be kind of like my advice. And the book is on the edge of Failure because there’s times where I made a lot of money. There’s times where I was homeless.

I lost everything. I found out real quick where my who my friends were. You know, girlfriend left me. She made fun of me. You know, I was I was depressed. I had no place to live. I lost everything. Everything. So I lived in this like a storage for for a while. And I don’t want anyone to go through that.

And I had to learn the hard way. Like, you know, these people are not good for you. You need to go out there and just give out good energy and deal with good people and find those solutions, you know? So me, I don’t like excuses. Everyone said, Oh, this happened and this happened and whatever, and they’re complaining about whatever, you know, I thank God that I have a really good daughter.

I have grown kids as well. I have all all my kids are really good, you know. And I said, you know what? I may be you know, at the time I said, you know what? I’m going to be blessed ass broke right now. I said, But in a year I could be back up in you know. I said to find the right partners, help people do the right things, you know, help convert, make those things happen.

And so that hustle mentality mixed with a little common sense, it makes sense. So a lot of people that aren’t making the money, sometimes they get very, very depressed and stuff and that’s normal. But you got to get out of it. You got to make things happen and you can’t depend on everyone else. You know, you have to do what you have to do to get to the to the other stage.

One thing that I had a hard time is time with, and I know most humans do, is not compromising your morals. You know, your beliefs and stuff. So if you’re dealing with people that are shady, you’re going to get shady stuff happen on your life. You know, you get out of that mindset, you know, And it’s hard. It’s hard because that might be your whole your whole audience.

It could be your your parents, it could be your brother and sister, you know, that’s holding you back. And all of a sudden, you these people don’t like you anymore because you’re not rolling with them. You know, and everyone’s your enemy. And it’s not that easy because there’s there’s there’s haters everywhere, you know? Can you imagine to imagine this?

I’m five foot seven, right? I’m maybe right now, but 100 and I can scrap. Right. But I’m too old. I cannot be fighting and show up with a black you know I don’t heal that fast. Right? Can you imagine my life where the where my own people don’t even like me? Right? And then I go date whoever I date, and I.

And I’m. I’m driving around or I’m out somewhere and they don’t like me because who I’m with, you know, there is prejudice and there’s hate everywhere. Right? But you know what? Maybe I should not be hanging out at those places where that’s going to happen. You know, maybe I shouldn’t, you know, do certain things. Certain. But at the same time, I’m one day who I want.

I’m just not going to be stupid about it. And I’m going to deal with people that are good people. So finding that that frame of mind where I mean, pretty much I can do anything I want, I don’t care if I’m broke making money or whatever, but you have to have that frame of mind where you can kind of move ahead and make those things happen.

And sometimes it takes years. It’s not instant overnight success, you know, if your grind is small, just grind tighter until you can get out of that, you know, be good at what you’re doing and just convert. When I mean convert, I mean deliver. It’s not just getting a client, it is understanding the process, is executing that process. And the other thing is keeping that client that’s hard.

You can get new clients all day, but if you can’t keep a client, then there’s an issue. Even on this business. Before it was the Troy Agency it was called Turned Client a little too corporate for me. But I was picking up clients left and right, and they were dropping left and right because a lot of them didn’t know how to run a business.

It wasn’t a fact they weren’t getting exposure. It was a fact that they weren’t even replying. They didn’t have a process. They didn’t want closed deals. And most of these businesses are actually like that. So I can’t even work with a lot of these businesses because they’re all over the place and not really they’re not committed, they’re not really hard working.

Many think they are, but they’re not disciplined. So out of that hundred, the hundred percent, I can only deal with that top 10%. They have the right attitude. You know, and the right product in the right situation. Even that top 10%, I only touch on a little a small portion of them. And so and that’s okay. So rather I have a lot of clients are failing going in and out and stuff like that is going to limit my money.

You know, I’d rather just take one client a month, one new client a month and then make money off that steady. So that frame of mind is so important. You know, give when you can, you know, be honest, be good at what you’re doing and then have that ability to convert. And the fifth thing is make sure that whatever you’re converting, you’re keeping because deliverability, delivering on your promises are very short lived by a lot of these services and stuff.

Yeah. So anyway, I’m blabbing. You have any more questions for me?

 Zeke: In all of that. A lot of things that come up is having a proof of concept. When you’ve spoken to the person who is a professor, you know what you can do. And then you went to housing. It’s pretty much made a partnership saying that we both have skills and we both prove that we can use our skills now, we can work together.

And then, 

Troy Hipolito: Although he didn’t know he was getting involved, he just thought he was he was getting clients get him from me. I gave them to him. So I wanted him to because he wanted to he wanted to audit my I was already auditing my profile. But there’s some things that he said that I didn’t even know. Even as a LinkedIn expert, there’s always a you know, there’s always a different angle going on it too.

So when we did that, I use that as a first stepping stone. How can I get him to engage with me? I asked him for a favor. I asked him to audit my profile and then I used that to get him clients right. I didn’t even want his. I don’t want those client I wanted. I wanted to give him clients.

I want to put money in his pocket. That way he knows where that money’s coming from. He knows that I’m serious. He knows that I’m not trying to screw around. I’m not trying to take his money. You know, he knows that. Oh, I made my money back real quick on this thing, you know? And, Troy, maybe you need help with this area for now.

So, yeah, I do need help in that area. He’s more likely to me after I’ve already proven my loyalty, you know, And I don’t like being disloyal. And then maybe he’s not a certain fit for, you know, certain areas, and that’s fine, you know, But it’s not like I’m going to hurt his business. This is just there’s so many clients out there.

So if you can get in a position to help someone else, in a way they understand that this dude is helping me get where I’m going is, you have a higher probability this guy won’t stick with you. You know, I have something he doesn’t and vice versa, you know? So you want to figure out how can you make a dollar out of $0.15?

Literally, You know, like, I got this. I need to do this over here, this big thing how can I get from there. There in, you know, and do it in a way it’s sustainable. And that’s the hard part because you have a lot of people trying to do stuff and they’re working these deals and they get screwed over real quick because they don’t know they’re involved with, you know, and how what are the appropriate steps to get to these things and how can everyone protect themselves doing it?

You know, I think like example, the music industry, real tough. You know, you got these I don’t know, say these beautiful women with were nice voices and they’re trying to make it and all that stuff. And they got these producers, whoever or the money people, whoever they are, or you don’t take advantage of these women, you know, because you know, and then even if you are, you know, a male that’s doing really well, that whole industry is kind of stacked against you.

You know how they cut it out, what money you’re getting. They give you money ahead, how you need to pay it back, conversions and all that stuff, you know, not really living that lifestyle. Most of them, 99.9% of them not living that life. They get a little playing money, you know, and they think it’s a lot. And then they they have to have to produce, you know, where to to to make it almost be broke, you know, same thing with you know, if you’re good at basketball, what’s the chance of you being that NBA star?

You know, just because you’re good at basketball is slim. And so everyone thinks, oh, that’s oh, I’m be like, be a lottery. Well, I wouldn’t think about like a lottery. A lottery is a chance. You know, that’s a different that’s a bad attitude. That’s a bad way of thinking about it. What, you need to think about is how do I get to a successful place, you know, not the fact that certain things are realistic or not realistic, But how can I get here on that first step where I’m making that little that little bit of money?

And how do I move from there to there, Right. How to align myself with the right people. So, yeah, you’re absolutely right. Figure out who these who the right people to work with are and then give them something you know, give them something where they’re going to want to continue to work with you. Because at the end of the day, I think by the end, I think by the end of the year I’ll make some money off these courses.

He’s going make some money on the courses too. I don’t mind. So I said, oh they get greedy. And so the problem with a lot of entrepreneurs just starting out is really get a little something. They want to keep all of it, you know, they said, well, I am, you know, and but so many pies, you know, we can’t split the pie up in so many pieces.

Right? You know, what I tell them, make more pies. That’s it. 

Zeke: Definitely. A lot of times it’s hard to find. Like, when want to work with somebody, but you want them to be genuine and the first thing is to step. How do I make it a genuine relationship? And not just the transactional.

Troy Hipolito: Yeah, Yeah. You have to have lot of stuff that’s understood and a lot of things in the background, you know, in my whole thing was how do I get from point A to point B and how do I help that person doing it?

Because at the end of the day, the very few people that I look out after look after you and I hate to say it, though, like sometimes you have to go outside your comfort zone. You know, sometimes you got to deal with someone that’s not your own people or sometimes you do. You got to just know where to go and why.

To go in and base it on that level of integrity. You know, of something happening. So you don’t want to throw the dice out there for desperation. You know, you need to know what your worth is. And you also don’t need to be bloated. You know, you don’t have a big head go out there. You know, you want to have a level of being confident but humble, you know, that’s just what how I feel.

And then everyone kind of rolls in a little bit differently. But you have to, you know, be a little stronger than the next individual. And sometimes you get a lot of stuff. Just roll off, roll off your shoulder. You know, you can’t be worrying about people mad at you or hate at you and stuff like that. You know, I’ve learned where sometimes not worthy of an argument with certain people and they want to say something.

And I get you know, there’s certain things that little that kind of like poke you, you know, that wants you to kind of respond to that certain thing. Right. And I had to tell myself, do I really need to respond to this? This person is pissing me off because they say something off. Right. But the energy to explain to them and them don’t even you know, there’s some people are such idiots that they’ll clown you for stuff they do.

Is it worth engaging of? You got to disengage. You know, they’ll fall off afterwards. You know, you don’t put too much energy even simple argument I’ve got no time for for B.S. You know, it’ll be simple and simple is like everyday stuff like I’m coming. My daughter’s hair, you know, I’m brushing, brushing their hair from bottom to bottom up and all that to get, you know, get the kinks out, you know, and start from the top because it is kind of hard on their head.

Right. And so there are certain way of doing it. And then someone walks in there and she sees you on that part and you’re looking, oh, she shouldn’t you be comb your hair like that? She telling you how to do? I have four kids. I know what to do. You know what I mean? As you’re telling me, like, you know, you can’t be done.

And and she get in my face telling me how to. How to comb my daughter’s hair, right? I could tell her just to fuck off. Or it could be a And you’re arguing with a female is difficult nowadays, right? Because you never know. And I’m being hypothetical now you get not you, right? Because she’s non of her business and you’re doing she just happened to see you, you know, come in the wrong way each other fuck off and she hits you.

You hit her back because I knock her out, you know? But I don’t want to do that because I’m I to go to jail. So something as little as that is this sometimes. It’s better say, Oh, okay. And move on. Just sweep it off because I don’t need to fight for every little thing. You know, I I’ll fight when I know that I’m going to get into it.

I have to get into it. But that but in reality that is very rare it’s very rare where you have to fight, you know, a long time ago when I was married, my my ex-wife cut someone off on not on purpose. But the guy was driving, you know, where they have there’s not a lane has a lines on it.

And also he was not driving the road She didn’t see him and she she she merged properly but he was too close. He followed us and our complex, you know, on our condo complex. And he’s a big guy. I’m a little guy. And I had slippers on. And so he’s about 240 and and I’m going to be tossed all around and she’s in his face and everything, right?

And so all I can do is like, you know, I was scrap, but I’m a disadvantage. Are you know, I have to have to have to protect my wife because she’s she’s a little hothead or whatever. She’s she’s like, but she don’t know danger. She don’t, she don’t see danger. How I see it. So so I get in between it and I get right in his face.

And I said, Well, we can go right now, but you don’t want to go to jail. So and then he, he has to think, What is he talking about? I said, your the one drinking. So I had to put one foot and it had it like I’m a claw. I had to poke his eyes and rip his ear off or something because that’s the only thing I got, right?

Because I’m gonna lose that fight. He just, he just, is just too big and I’m in slippers. So I got there’s not much, you know, even though I’m a scrapper. I know like you, this is not going to work out well for me. And I said, he says, What do you mean I’m going to jail? I said, You’re drinking and driving.

I seen you get out the passenger side. So we go on or what? And I had to use my mind to get out of it because the last thing I want to do is get them. I’ll fight them if I have to, but I do not want. He backs out, he apologize and leaves because sometimes you just get rid of it, move on, and because you got a finite amount of energy, use that energy to do good.

Use the energy to make some money, you know? And so that’s my advice to everyone. If you got you know, negative people around you, they’re not helping you out there, won’t fix yourself. Figure out, am I being unrealistic? And then when you get good friends, good friends and partners will call you out and you’ll mess up once in a while.

You’re human and you may not realize what you’re doing, so you need to self-correct first. You’re not judge you know these other people, and then you can kind of move forward and work with good people in order to convert whatever business you have going on. You know, we all have the ability to do great stuff, you know? I mean, I’m I’m I’m married, I’m divorced.

I had very beautiful women. I did. I had them just me real bad. As soon as my money went around, you know, I had a male male friends that just did me wrong. And all other stuff. You know what is half my fault? You know, I hung out with those people. I dated this person, it’s at least half my fault, you know?

You know, we need to choose better and do right. So that’s kind of my moral of the thing. So that book on the Edge of Failure, has a lot of those like real stories that happen and stuff, you know, and even we’ll even have things like what I want to do. My next book is going to be called The LinkedIn Red Book.

It’s professional about how to convert on LinkedIn, but the on the edge of failure, if I get a chance to write that it’s going to talk all about all the funny stuff too. I have my friend, a good friend of mine, Tahoe, and she’s a big gay girl. She’s like, and a stud. That’s the word. And I said, You know, it’d be funny if we had a web series.

She said, Yeah, we can do a web series. And it’s intense and it’s Tahoe and Troy trying to find finding love in Atlanta. You got a big, big gay girl and you got Asian dude, and she has a she’s missing a leg. So she comes out like, is this a skit? She comes out says, Troy, I told you not to mess with that girl.

She’s gay. And I said, Not anymore. And then she throws, Those are fake leg at me, right? So that’s the opening scene. But you can have a cool web series where these two people are really trying to make it. So they show the highs and lows of, you know, what happens in Atlanta and how how people are and things like that.

And I think things like that are not just entertainment, they’re edutainment because they show like, look, these people are on the hustle. They have made some mistakes. They’re trying to make things happen. They live this kind of lifestyle. How can they live this kind of lifestyle and all this other stuff, You know, how do they correct themselves? So a lot of these things are just cool business ideas.

So that’s where I when I get to the point where I have money coming in from the courses I get money from for the clients, I’m going to do this web website, excuse me, do these web series do stuff. I actually want to create a dating service for LinkedIn. You know how many divorced white dudes want to date outside?

They get their kids are grown. They’re 45 to 60. They’re lonely. They got money, but they have no swag. Sometimes just need a date? You need to get out. That’s another business idea. Can you imagine? You know that that potential market there. So there’s so many different things you can do. You just can’t do them all at once.

Know. So keep, you know keep your dreams alive and work through these things and just work with good people and be a good person. You know, I had people tell me about myself. Now. I had someone say, You know, Troy, this is a long time ago. She says, I was in. I was I had to get how to get.

Second was what they call it when they go into psychiatric help. I did that to you this. I said, what, So this girl had to go to a hospital and be checked in. And this is many years ago when I was younger, right? Many years ago I was younger. I was ignorant as hell. And then she wanted to get back on this.

And I said no, she says why not? So we’re compatible. We’re physically compatible, right? Oh, yeah. It was great in the bedroom, you know, And she’s a good person, all this other stuff. But I had to think, No, Troy, you can’t do that. We’re better friends than lovers because I sent you to a hospital I didn’t even know. And I don’t.

I don’t want to do that. I want to hurt people. So I would rather be your friend. Then. Then have some fun. You know what I mean? Because that’s morally wrong. If I didn’t know any better. But she told me about it and she corrected me and I got it. You know, I kind of understood. I’m like, You know what?

Yeah, I’m kind of you know, I’m in my own zone sometimes, you know, And and by doing that, I damage her. I said, No, I can’t do that. I help you with your business. I’m a help, you know, be successful in this area, you know, because I know you I know, you’re going to do certain things well.

And I helped her, you know, So you have to have a moral standing and that’s a fact. You’re not going to make any mistakes, but you got to have that. That’s that core that people are going to be attracted by, you know, the real people, you know, the people, if you lose your money or something, go left, They can kind of push you in the right direction.

They said, Troy, you know what you said at the meeting this and yeah, you shouldn’t have said it. You need those people to tell you the sometimes again, you’re ignorant. You know, sometimes you get to get out of your own way to make stuff happen. So that’s my that’s my moral of the story.  

Zeke: So it’s almost 11:30. So we are going to stop it right there.  

Troy Hipolito: Awesome.

Zeke: Yes. So thank you again for joining the podcast. Well let people know where to find you, find  your services. 

Troy Hipolito: Yeah, if you go on LinkedIn and look for Troy Dippolito as Troy, my last name is HIPAA roll itto. I’m the not so boring LinkedIn guy so I’m very easy to find on there. Feel free sending connection requests, but please tell me you were listening to the podcast or same information because if you just send me a connection question, I don’t know who you are.

I will not accept it. So one to connect with good people. All right. And also have a show ask about. It is called The Troy Show. It’s on LinkedIn. It’s a LinkedIn event as a Zoom, kind of like this right here. But we only take on 100 people a month. We have, I think, close to three or 4000 people that are registered but looked at up on LinkedIn as well.

And they’re all, you know, I’ll go ahead and subscribe to it as once a month. 

Zeke: All right. Thank you again. Thank you for joining the podcast. 

Troy Hipolito: Thank you. I really appreciate the time 

Zeke: That brings another episode of Let’s Gather Podcast to a close. Again you can find more information about Troy Hipolito by clicking the link in the section below. For next week, I have my friend Francis on the podcast. I hope you continue to have a nice day and hope to see you there.

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