From Roadies to Rockstar Entrepreneurs: Insights with Craig Duswalt

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the Work Home Rockstar Podcast. I am super excited for this episode. He comes highly recommended, and uh, what he does is he’s a keynote speaker. He puts on rockstar marketing events. Come on. The name is just perfect. And, uh, what he does is he helps entrepreneurs to become rock stars in their industry. So, very similar to my mission really. So I’m really excited to be rocking out here today with Craig Duswalt. Hey Craig, you ready to rock?

Craig Duswalt: I am ready to rock. Tim, I’m, I’m actually excited about this. I, I was just saying, I do a lot of podcasts a a day, but this one I’m really looking forward to. ’cause this is my audience too.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. We’re gonna be talking about music,

music and business together, right?

Craig Duswalt: Exactly.

Tim Melanson: So first things first is we always start off here in a good note. So tell me a story of success that we could be inspired by.

Craig Duswalt: Okay, so I’ll tell you how I got into the music industry. So I graduated college in 1983. Uh, state University of New York at Oswego. [00:01:00] Everyone’s heard of it, I’m sure. Total big school. I’m kidding. No one’s, no one’s heard of it. So I went to, I graduated in 1983 and two weeks outta college I got a job at the Westbury Music Fair in Long Island, New York.

And it was a, or in the round theater, 3000 seats. And I was a runner. I worked backstage. I got the ax that came in, drinks and towels, and I drove him back and forth. I was a runner, the lowest man. On the totem pole and on a Friday and Saturday night, air supply was coming in the pop band air supply. And so Friday night I worked the show.

I. Like I said, I’m getting them drinks, I’m getting them towels. I’m making sure their backstage area is good. I’m making sure they have everything they need to put on a good show. So I work that show and then I go home Saturday the next day they’re scheduled to appear again, but I’m not working. But my mom, I.

Wants me to take her to air supply. And she’s like, you work there, get get me in. And I’m like, oh, great. So, uh, two weeks outta college, I’m now taking my mother to a [00:02:00] concert. So my dating life is now over. But anyway, I go to the concert with my mom and I’m sitting in the audience and she goes, uh, you know what?

I’d really like to meet air supply. You work here, get me backstage. And I’m like, great. My mother’s a groupie. So anyway, so I take her backstage, uh, introduce her to the band of which I never, I don’t know them. I only met them the night before. And this big six foot five, 300 pound guy walks up to me backstage and he goes, you were the guy that was working here last night, right?

And I’m like, yes, I am Mr. Very large man. And he goes, how much do you make a week here? And I thought, it’s none of your business, but you’re huge. I guess I should answer the question. Uh, I said, about $150 a week. And he said, how would you like to quadruple that? And so many things went through my mind of what this man wanted me to do to him for $600 a week.

But I figured last night they loved your positive attitude and your energy, and they want to know if you want to [00:03:00] go on the road. To make a very long story short, they sent a limousine to my house the next day, uh, took it to JFK airport. Seven years, simply because I was always doing my best just in case someone was watching. I teach marketing all the time, but like I teach outside the box marketing, how do you get seen? How do you get noticed? But if you are not that person that has a positive attitude and energy, no one’s gonna want to work with you.

So I could teach you all the marketing stuff, but if you are IOR from Winnie the Pooh, nothing’s gonna happen. So you gotta be, you know, positive. You gotta be a. Uh, you know, life is great person and things, great things will happen.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I agree. A lot of it is attitude, isn’t it?

So now along with the good note, though, I, I always pair these, these things together ’cause there are some bad notes that get, I. We wanna, we wanna normalize this a little bit because people are, [00:04:00] people are afraid to fail.

And, uh, I wonder if, can you share with me something that didn’t go as planned and, you know, maybe how we can recover from it or how you

Craig Duswalt: I, I failed. I failed numerous times, but, uh, I’ll, I’ll give you, uh, let me see. I’ll do this one. So, okay. So I started as a speaker in 2006. I’m 45 years old and I decide I’m gonna be a speaker now, and it was the best decision I ever made in my life. And I just got off the road, you know, 10 years prior with Guns and Roses and I’d been to touring with Air Supply.

So I decide I’m gonna write, uh, a bunch of books just to get me out there, uh, in the speaking world. So I wrote four books in nine weeks, literally four books. They’re 96 page books. And it was my, I. Shoestring budget series. So I touted myself as America’s shoestring budget coach and I was gonna teach [00:05:00] marketing, teach people how to save a ton of money on marketing and advertising.

So I write these four books. One was like, uh, marketing your Small Business on a Shoestring Budget. Creating wealth on a shoestring budget, you get the idea. So I wrote these four books and I do a seminar, my first seminar for 200 people because I was a, a business leader in Santa Clarita, California. So 200 people are in the audience, uh, for a one day seminar, and it’s all about saving money on marketing and advertising.

I get up on stage and I do this great information, it’s great content, and at the end, I, I try to sell a coaching program. I think it was like $5,000 for six months a coaching program and zero people signed up and I’m like, huh? I thought I was doing good. But I realized, ’cause I went to a mastermind meeting, I joined a mastermind group and I went to this meeting after the fact and I’m like.

I wonder why I, uh, why I didn’t sell anything. I did really good. [00:06:00] And they said in the mastermind meeting, tell us your story. Well, I, uh, I tour with guns and roses and air supply, and then I did my first seminar as a speaker, America’s shoestring budget coach. And I was teaching the audience, teaching the audience how to not spend money on marketing and advertising.

That’s what I just did. Now, uh, uh, and now, and then what happened was I tried to sell a coaching program for $5,000 and everyone’s like, uh, you’re a marketing guy. You’re, you’re an idiot. You know? And I’m like, oh my God, I didn’t, they’re like, why didn’t you use, why aren’t you using the word rockstar in your branding?

And I’m like, I don’t, I don’t know. And here’s the greatest point. I could market everybody else. I am so good at that. People to see what you are. So anyway, to make a long story short, I, uh, uh, told my mastermind this day, like, use the word rockstar in your brand. So I go back upstairs, uh, and come [00:07:00] back down the second day of the mastermind and I say, all right, how about this? I. Uh, rockstar system for success, how to achieve rockstar status in your industry.

And I got a standing ovation and then everything changed. And then I started basically teaching the same thing, you know, standing outside, uh, being outside the box, marketing, kind of like how you could save a couple of bucks. But I didn’t make that the focus. And then I sold a $10,000 coaching program for one year, and I sold, I think.

30. My first time speaking after that, and it was basically the same content, but now I called it rockstar instead of shoestring budget.

Tim Melanson: Wow.

It’s such a small but big difference

right? When you, when you use that word. And now let’s talk a little bit about, so, so you just said something that I think is important. When it comes to virtually the musician side, isn’t it easier to sell somebody else than it is to sell yourself?

Craig Duswalt: Yes, 100%. I could do that all day long.

Tim Melanson: why is that?

Craig Duswalt: Because we can’t [00:08:00] see what’s in front of our face. We are blinded. We have an idea in our head what we should be, and we are going to go with it because we know we’re right. We’re not gonna listen to anybody else. I know this is it. This is my passion. And my passion was saving people money on marketing and advertising.

But you can’t just throw that out there and, and do a four hour seminar on it and then sell something you just, that makes no. So you have to, like, when I, when I work with people, uh, marketing, I do a little hours of deep dives of who they are, what their passion is, what they like doing, what they hate doing, and all that.

And then we come up with a brand. But for me, myself, I don’t do the prior work. I know like, I know me, duh. I’m just gonna do this and I know it’s gonna work. Because I used to be an ad, I was a creative director for an ad agency, and I know people were always like, well, you know, that’s a lot of money I want.

I need to save some money. So in my head, I thought I knew because of my experience, what I [00:09:00] was doing, and then I, then I took pictures of me wearing a suit and tie on the front cover of these books. Prior to that, I had never, ever, ever worn a suit and tie. I talked with guns and roses and air supply. But I’m dressed now inauthentic.

And that’s another thing I was told by the photographer, well, if you’re gonna be a business speaker and you’re on a book, you gotta look like a businessman. And I’m like, Nope. After that I said, hell no. So I, I don’t wear suits and ties anymore. I wear rock stuff and you know, I, I think I look cool, but I am 63.

I don’t know if I’m cool anymore. My kids say I’m not cool anymore. But I used to be.

Tim Melanson: Uh, I think, I think I saw this, uh, this image of like, what was it, the guy from Slayer who’s like, you know, doing his thing and his little, his, his daughter is like, you’re la

Craig Duswalt: I

Tim Melanson: the way it works.

Craig Duswalt: It’s so right. I, I, I try to tell my kids like, you know, I was on tour, the biggest world tour in the [00:10:00] history of the world, the user illusion World tour with Guns N Roses, so I know what I’m talking about. They’re like, yeah, right there. Mm-hmm. Go take out the garbage.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, their friends think your cool probably though.

Craig Duswalt: Their friends think I’m very cool. Absolutely.

Tim Melanson: Right on. So now, so you mentioned Mastermind, like, uh, I’m wondering, did you ever participate in a, in a mastermind or do you just run them.

Craig Duswalt: Uh, both. So, uh, that story I told about, uh, switching from shoestring budget to rockstar, I was in someone else’s mastermind. I. And that’s, and when I first started as a speaker, I joined, uh, his name is James Meac. I joined his mastermind and then I joined an internet marketing mastermind. So when I first started, I wanted to fast track.

I just wanted to learn from people that are doing what I want to be doing. So I joined two masterminds and it was amazing. And now I’ve been running a mastermind since 2006. I have [00:11:00] currently about 102 people in my masterminds. And over the years I’ve had over, I don’t know, over. Probably 800, maybe. Um, but I, I know for a fact that masterminds are the most important thing that you need to do.

If you want to fast track your business. Some people can figure it out, but you’re gonna make tons of mistakes. You’re gonna spend extra money than it would’ve been to join the Mastermind. So, like I, I tell everyone, I’ve made all the mistakes for you guys, trust me, starting with the shoestring budget. And, um, I try to prevent them.

For making the same mistakes. And plus I have a network of very successful people, like extremely successful people, and I bring them on as guests all the time. And they, they share their stories and they share what worked and what didn’t work, what didn’t work. And so, um, if, if, if people are not in a mastermind, yeah, you might be able to figure it out, but it’s gonna take you years and years and years and you’re gonna make mistakes.[00:12:00]

So I just, everyone should be in a mastermind. And, and not necessarily in a mastermind that has anything to do with your business, because we could be in masterminds where we’re all the same business, but we’re all sharing the same ideas. We need to hear from consumers that are using our products that aren’t in our business and hear what they have to say.

So I’m a big believer in a mastermind that has various different, uh, you know, genres of people in the mastermind.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Well, I mean, those are a couple good points. First of all, I mean, it just makes sense that you’d be able to learn from other people. It’s like picking up a guitar in your own basement, uh, and actually having a buddy come over and say, Hey, here’s a couple chords. Like, you’re just gonna go so much faster.

Someone’s showing you what to do, right. Than if you’re trying to figure it out on your own. And businesses, I mean, hey, it’s more complicated than than a guitar, I think. Uh.

Craig Duswalt: I don’t play guitar.[00:13:00]

Tim Melanson: And then what you said about, about having different types of people in your mastermind or in your, your coaching circle. That’s, I mean, it’s you, we, you take for granted what you know about your business, right? And you, you sort of won’t explain it to people in the way that they would understand sometimes.

Sometimes you explain it in the

way that you understand and literally you’re, you’re basically trying to explain things to people that would never buy from you because they know just as much as you do about.

Craig Duswalt: absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: So let’s talk a little bit about practicing and I mean, you know, I’ve heard a lot about what you’re doing already. You’re, you’re, you’re meeting with other people, you’re just going at it, you’re, you’re, you’re definitely, uh, but what do you have for sort of practices, you know, to, I don’t know, is it personal practices? Do you, uh, you know, do a lot of practices with your, uh, speaking? Like, what, what, what is that for you?

Craig Duswalt: Do you mean like me as, uh, oh, hold on. Bye honey. Bye. I love you. I just say, see, this is the way I do podcasts. [00:14:00] If my family comes in, I stop the pod. Bye, honey. Have a good time. He’s going to this meeting today. Pretty huge meeting. So anyway, um, so do you mean like practicing like your craft? Is that what you mean?

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

More practicing your craft.

Craig Duswalt: So I have, uh, uh, I have unbelievable mentors for this. I’m gonna give you two amazing examples. So slash you know who slash is the guitarist for Guns N Roses. So every day on tour. Every day on tour for, I toured with them for four years. Every day he’d wake up at six o’clock in the afternoon, early evening, and he’d wake up and do scales on his guitar scales like the basic.

Tim Melanson: I’ve heard that. Yeah.

Craig Duswalt: And then like on the, on our plane we had a private jet. Uh, he would take his guitar out and while he’s just talking to people, he would just do the fundamentals of guitar just to keep in practice the fundamentals. One of the best guitarists in the world. Every [00:15:00] day did at least an hour of fundamental scales, just getting his hands ready for the show or just keeping in practice.

So never, never took a day off. He always had his guitars in his hand, discipline, unbelievable. You can say anything about how they partied and they did, and all this other stuff, but they were very disciplined. And on the other hand, uh, Axel Rose, the lead singer of Guns N Roses. Every show, he would, uh, wake up in the afternoon, you know, workout, do a workout, he’d get chiropractor, you know, every, every time before a show, a chiropractor would work on him.

He’d have a massage getting the body ready, and then he would take a shower and do a one hour voice warmup, one hour. In the shower, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, you know that whole thing for an hour. And then he would do the show. And then after the show, instead of going to party right away, he’d take a shower, you know, ’cause he is all sweaty and everything.

But he would cool down his voice for a [00:16:00] half hour using voice tapes as well. Every show, every single show. And on the days off, he would just do a little scales. So these are two of the most prominent rock stars in the world that focus. Foundation, focus on discipline, and that’s what we have to do in our businesses.

You know, a lot of people that I work with, and it sounds like that you are too, are entrepreneurs. People that their own boss was very easy to be sitting at your desk and watch TV instead of doing work or go do something else instead of work. But we have to be disciplined like Axel Rose and slash. And if they’re disciplined and look what they did, it’s, it’s a lesson for all of us.

Be disciplined. Work on your craft. Get better practice every single day. Something to further your craft.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Yeah. You hear the same thing about high performance athletes as well, that they focus on the fundamentals all the time

and you know, it’s just from the outside view. We, we look at them and we think that, oh, it’s, you know, they’re just a [00:17:00] natural

and. Oftentimes that’s not the case.

Actually all the time.

That’s not the case.

It’s, it’s a matter of the time that they put in, right.

Craig Duswalt: I mean, you could have God given talent. I get that. But still, you gotta do the work. I mean, you know, my son’s in a band, uh, thread is my, my, my son’s a drummer, my middle son, and his band is Thread. So I’ll, I’ll just share this. He used to be a golfer, uh, in high school, like one of the top golfers in, I.

California actually. And, uh, his, uh, team, uh, came, came in third in the state or something like that. So anyway, he was a scratch golfer and he was getting D one scholarship offers for middle D one schools, middle and lower D one schools, but he was getting scholarship offers and I used to have to make him play golf.

I used to say, Ryan, let’s go. It’s time for you to go to play golf and every day he would play, but it was like, are you playing today? Come on, let’s go. Then in high school, uh, he started playing drums and, and he got so into it that he would [00:18:00] practice drums for six hours a day without me asking him to play drums.

And in high school, uh, just before going to college. He’s getting all these offers and he is like, mom and dad, look, I don’t want to play golf anymore. I’m a drummer. And to our credit, we said, good for it. Go for it. You know? Cool. Now we’re like, oh my God, you just gave up all these scholarships, so you sure.

And we’re like, but you know what? That’s his dream because you can tell he practices six hours a day where golf, we had to make him play. So that, that, there’s the difference. You, if you have a passion for something, you are gonna want to do it every single day. And that’s, that’s when you’re gonna be successful.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I think that’s important to, to, to note too because you know, the, the thing that you really, really love to do is probably the thing that you should be doing. Now, let’s talk a little bit about, about the rest of the band though, because, you know, if you’re super focused on this one thing, can you be good at everything all at the same time?

Like, what, what do you do about that?

Craig Duswalt: No is the, well, I mean, you can be, [00:19:00] you can be great at a lot of things, but I teach this in my mastermind. Oh my God. It’s one of the main things that I teach. Focus on one thing, become that one thing, and then if you make it as this one thing, then you could become like a serial entrepreneur if you want.

But for example, like I, I teach how to write a book. I teach like, uh, how to run a podcast, all these things, but I don’t even talk about that when I, when I speak, uh, to like corporate or whatever, I focus on, I am a marketing guy. That’s what I do, and all I wanna do is speak on stages. All I wanna do, I could care less about anything else.

All I wanna, I’m a keynote speaker, I speak on stages. I do a hundred other things, but I never talk about that unless I’m in a situation where I can talk about that. All my message everywhere is hire me as a keynote speaker. I’m a keynote speaker. I, uh, tell great stories about guns n roses, and air supply in my talks, and I’ll tailor it to [00:20:00] your business.

And whatever you do, focus on one thing. It’s so hard because we are. All of us. We are good at so many things in this world now, but if we try to do them all, like I have a client that’s a hypnotist. Uh, a hypnotherapist, uh, does crypto and is a producer and actor. And if you start telling people, say you wanna, um, be known for crypto, uh, you’re teaching people crypto, but now you, you, you lead with, you’re in a room and you say, I am a, an actor.

And I, I do, I’ve done these movies, uh, but you should sign up for my crypto course. I’m gonna teach you how to make money, crypto. Hell no. In my mind, you’re an actor, you know, and, and you’re both, and so you’re not the crypto person. I want the crypto person focus on one thing.

Tim Melanson: yeah. And, and I. As long as the thing that you’re really good at is something that has value in the marketplace,

Craig Duswalt: Absolutely.

Tim Melanson: then, then, I mean, there’s no, people are, when you’re that good, [00:21:00] people are gonna want to work with you and fill in those other gaps, right? I mean, like you say about your son’s, his drumming, you are an excellent drummer. There’s, you’re not gonna have a hard time finding gigs come on.

You don’t have to be the marketing person going out there and finding gigs. You don’t have to be the singer. You don’t have to be the guitar player. You’re just the drummer and you’re an excellent drummer, and the gigs will work out.

Craig Duswalt: Stay in your lane. Stay

Tim Melanson: Stay in your lane.

Craig Duswalt: right? Yes, exactly. That’s right. Yeah, no, you’re right. And if everyone stays in their lane and everyone focuses on what their good, and like you, your thing about a band bass player should focus on bass, guitarists, on the guitar, lead vocals, lead vocals, drummer, drummer. You get the idea.

Keyboard player. Keyboard player. Now they’ll enter interact when they’re writing songs, and that’s great. But stay in your lane, man. Don’t say, Hey, I think you should do this. No, you do your job. I’ll do my job.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Well, and, and then I suppose on the other side of that spectrum, like let’s just say that. You are the, the CEO of the company. You’ve got all these people that are playing their [00:22:00] parts. I think the next part to that would be if you’ve hired an expert, let them do their job.

Craig Duswalt: Yes. Right.

Tim Melanson: up with their stuff.

Right?

Craig Duswalt: Yeah. Don’t, don’t be the smartest person in the room. Right? Let other people, now I am a control freak. I will say that I, I am not good at what you just said. I’m a total control freak, but I come from respect. I really honestly do. I treat people with, with respect. I do have a team that does stuff for me, but man, I am on it.

I’m so on It. Um, and if something is not the way I want it, I do address it very respectfully. But I do let people, uh, like I have a website designer that’s amazing and 99% of the time I just let him go ’cause he’s amazing. But sometimes, you know, I was a creative director for an ad agency. Sometimes I’m going, maybe we should do this.

I like where you’re going that you have to frame it like this. I really like where you’ve gone here, but what if we [00:23:00] did this instead, or as well? Don’t say, oh my God, that sucks. Let’s no stop, dude. You know, never say that.

Tim Melanson: I and definitely don’t do it for them.

Craig Duswalt: And don’t do it for them. Exactly. Oh my God. I have so many people that I work with that think they’re website designers and then they, because of all the templates and everything, and I get it, but you need a professional, you, otherwise you’re not gonna look like a pro and you’re gonna look like, oh, you did that website.

I can tell immediately.

Tim Melanson: Well, and, and I think that that’s like, what, what is it? The, what is it? Where you, you think that you’re better at something that than you actually are? ’cause you just don’t know that you’re

Craig Duswalt: That’s right. You have no idea that you’re not, oh, I, it’s, I, I, I, I could do this. Look, it’s done. It’s, it’s great. Uh, to me this looks good. It’s like my shoestring budget to me. I thought I was doing great. Yeah, this looks good. And then everyone’s like, what are you doing? I. You just got off the road with guns and roses and you’re standing in a suit with your hands like [00:24:00] this.

What are you doing?

Tim Melanson: But then on the other hand, like you said earlier, I mean the CEO, I mean the, it’s your vision. You’re the visionary,

so it makes sense that you would have your hand in everything in your business and sort of giving them direction and vision, but allowing them to do you know what they do. Right?

Craig Duswalt: Yes, 100%. Let them go. This is what they do. Don’t be the smartest person in the room. I.

Tim Melanson: So let’s talk about fans now. Hey, with, with, uh, with the social media the way it is and the world the way it is right now, you don’t have to go and get billboards anymore. You know, the audience is everywhere, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re fans.

Craig Duswalt: Yeah. Wow. Great. Great point. Yes. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: so how do you make that, how do you make that transition?

How do you get someone from being an audience member to now a fan of yours?

Craig Duswalt: Yeah. Um, so many, so many ways. So I believe in giving out like, um, free content, like if you are doing [00:25:00] videos, um, that’s great. You know? Um, I. Oh God, there’s so many things I wanna say right now. Okay. So you can buy fans. Okay. Okay. I’m gonna start over. My son’s band threads, I’ll just use them. An ex as an example.

They want an organic audience. We could easily go to Spotify, um, uh, all these other areas and buy fans. We could buy and get the numbers up, right? You could buy them, but. Um, in the algorithms for like Instagram, Spotify, and all that, and even Facebook, they wanna see interaction, right? So if they get like a hundred thousand fans.

Only 10 comments per video. The fans know that. The algorithms know that, and you’re gonna actually get a ding. So how do we create fans that actually like your stuff instead of these bots or these what one-offs where people will drop off? And that is like getting out there and [00:26:00] giving, uh, like. My son’s band, they do concerts and they, you know, they’re really good in concert live.

We as business people, this is where podcasting comes into play. This is where writing a book comes into the play. Blogging, if you still want to blog, but just putting content out everywhere. So what I’m starting to do now, you know, you put a Facebook, I have like a lot of people following me, but if I put a Facebook post out.

About something that I think is really cool. Maybe outta my 5,000 in my personal, maybe 50 people will see it. That’s the algorithm, right? But as soon as I do a Facebook Live and I could be talking purely about business, but I’m giving them information, goes out to thousands of people, I get thousands of views.

So, and, but I’m giving out free information. I’m not selling anything. I’m just giving out free content. And everyone, uh, you know, amateurs. Will say, well, I’m not gonna give away free content, then they’re not gonna come [00:27:00] and buy my program. And it’s just the opposite because in the mind of the person watching, if I’m getting this for free, imagine if I sign up for the product or what the offer, what I’m gonna get.

That’s like a movie trailer. You know, the movie trailer always gives the best part of the movie. And when they have a trailer and then you watch the movie and the movie’s just okay. But the trailer was amazing, but we still went to see the movie. So basically, to answer your question, fans are people that.

Uh, just love and trust you because you’ve given them so much free stuff that they just can’t help wanting to continue to see you and support you. Now, here’s the other thing about fans. I, I run a nonprofit called Band Together Foundation. Many of my fans have an have, um, an affinity. For music. They just, my mastermind, everyone likes music.

I play a lot of [00:28:00] music. I talk a lot about music ’cause it’s, it’s life. So my nonprofit, we provide. Um, musical instruments and curriculums in middle schools, elementary schools, and like boys and girls clubs. We bring music and arts back into the schools in underserved areas that can’t afford music anymore, so they get rid of music and arts.

So we do that. So now, instead of just teaching and business, business, business. We have a nonprofit that we associate with our brand of people that actually care about music and arts being in schools. And that is how you create a fan as well, tie them to your nonprofit. I’m having this event in September, rockstar Impact 2025 in Los Angeles, and that’s what we’re gonna talk about.

How do you position yourself as an expert in your field so people will wanna do business with you. And tying in a nonprofit, we’re teaching people how to do a nonprofit or volunteer for other nonprofits. It’s a huge part of [00:29:00] creating fans.

Tim Melanson: Wow, so, so how do you keep on coming up with new content? Or does all the content have to be new?

Craig Duswalt: Oh yeah, great question. Uh oh, man, I’m, I am mr repurpose. So I wrote those four books in nine weeks that I talked about the shoestring budget books. I still repurpose the content in there in different formats, but I will say this, um. I do podcasts, like Tim’s podcast right here. I do this all the time.

Um, I interview people on my podcast, so I am always learn and I go to seminars because I am a guest speaker, but I’m not the guy that will just go to a seminar, guest speak, and leave. I stay for the entire event. ’cause I’m, I figure, look, I’m there. Might as well learn something new. And if you go to seminars, you continue to learn, continue to go to webinars like I do, I will pick up, even if it’s a three day [00:30:00] seminar, if I pick up one golden nugget, I’m good.

And then I share that with my group because like, uh, I mean, how many examples do I have? Uh, just the other day I was at, uh, a seminar. And, uh, uh, well, I’m not gonna, it is too long of a story to bore you with. I was at the seminar and, and, uh, I spoke there in Nashville and I was there for three days and there were some things, I took like three, four pages of notes just in the first session.

And I’m like, could, this guy is not on my radar. He does completely different things, but it made me look at how else to put on a seminar like I do with different, like totally different. Um, I. Perspective anyway, so it’s going to things, um, showing up, doing webinars, going to webinars, getting on podcasts, listening to podcasts, and just, you know, listening to them.

And I always give them credit as well. Hey, I, like I just said, James Malechek, [00:31:00] I went to his seminar. Every time I learn something new, I give credit to the person that gave me that information. Because that, what that does also is that person will go, Hey, thank you for the shout out. And uh, they’ll post it on their, you know, on their link as well.

’cause Craig just mentioned my name on this podcast. So it’s all that, but I repurpose a lot of stuff, uh, but I learn a lot of new things. And gosh, the internet, everything, algorithms, everything’s changing every single day. So you gotta keep on it. Otherwise you’re stale.

Tim Melanson: I love that. I love that. And you know what, you know. In the music world, you know, some people don’t really go to other people’s, to other artists shows. They think it’s the competition or something like that. Like what would you say about that?

Craig Duswalt: Oh my God. When I was with Guns N Roses, we went to see everybody. So, uh, like me, Axel, and his bodyguard, Earl. We’d take Lear Jets. We were in, um, Europe touring. So we had a, we had a plane and we shared it with U2 and Bruce Springsteen, [00:32:00] which was like, so cool. So we would like, we would do a show and then the pilot would pick up U2 and then take them to the show and then pick up Bruce and take him and then come get us.

So we always went to each other’s concerts. Like Axel would go, let’s go see UT tonight in Verona, Italy. So we’d take a Lear jet and just go see the show sand on the side of the stage. Axel might do a song with them. Bono would come to our show, bono would do a song, and there’s the key competition is Bs.

Bs. There is no competition in my world, Axel singing. Uh, just one example, Axel singing with you two. You don’t think that? Uh uh, the a YouTube audience, if someone didn’t like Guns N Roses at that time and now Axel singing with Bono at a YouTube concert, he has a whole new audience now that might not have liked Guns N Roses ’cause they like U2.

But now, wait, wait, Axel’s Friends with Bono, oh my God, let’s go check out Guns N Roses. They might have [00:33:00] some cool stuff. And that’s what com no competition is. I speak on other people’s stages. I have very famous speakers come on my stage and. They make an offer and they take my audience to theirs, to their world.

I don’t care. There’s enough people in this world where, and then I’ll speak on their stage and I’ll take some of those people over to my world. It’s if you are authentic and you are doing what you love to do, competition should never, ever, ever enter the fray, ever. It’s so bad. It’s stupid. It is dumb. I have a passion about that ’cause I, I hate the word competition.

I just don’t believe in it.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I agree. Alright, so it’s time for your guest solo. What’s exciting in your business right now, Craig?

Craig Duswalt: So, um, you know, I’ve been keynote speaker and Rockstar Marketing for almost 20 years, and I just started a new business with, uh, the tour manager for Guns N Roses. His name is, is John Reese. Uh, and just [00:34:00] Google John Reese. R-E-E-S-E people. He’s like huge in the industry. He discovered Slipknot, the u Story of the Year, uh, huge bands and he also put on 53 music festivals, all the music festivals that, you know, that was John Reese.

So anyway, so him and I just partnered. We started dam, which is Disrupt Artist Management Network. We, uh, represent bands up and coming bands. My son’s band Thread is one of our bands, so we represent bands. And then we also we’re managing, we manage bands. Then we also put on seminars. We have one coming up, uh, breaking into the music industry, teaching bands, uh, engineers, producers want to be agents, wanna, anyone that wants to work in any aspect of the music industry.

We, uh, we bring in 24 of the top music executives in the world, fly in and act as mentors for the people in our seminar. So we are doing that as well. We put on those seminars. And then we put on [00:35:00] music festivals, and we have a music festival coming up in November in Dana Point, California, which I cannot uh mention yet, but just Dana Point, California in November eighties and nineties.

Rock bands. It’s gonna be huge. So we’re putting on music festivals as well and very passionate about this. John is. An amazing friend of mine for years and he knows everybody and I know everybody. So together we are really gonna do something really, really cool and it ties in with my rockstar marketing ’cause he’s still a rockstar.

So music is a big part of my life. And then the band together Foundation is my non-profit. We’re doing a fundraiser in September, uh, having a bunch of rock stars jam on stage, and it’s just gonna be a great, great night. September 18th, just threw that out there.

Tim Melanson: That does sound exciting.

It’s awesome. So now if somebody wanted to, you know, work with you or join one of your programs or your mastermind or anything like that, how do they get in touch?

Craig Duswalt: So, um, my, I’ll, I’ll [00:36:00] even throw out my email. I don’t care. My email is Craig@craigduswalt.com. So my name is in the Zoom, so it’s craig@craigduswalt.com. So that’s the easiest way, but you could go to, um, rockstar marketing speaker.com. You could go to craigduswalt.com bandtogetherFoundation.org and my event in September is called Rockstar Impact 2 0 2 5 20 25.

Rockstar Impact 2025. I have an event coming up September 19th and 20th in Los Angeles. Uh, how do we impact, uh, how do you, how do we, how does our business, how can our business impact the world? And it’s just gonna be one of my biggest events ever. So, very excited about that.

Tim Melanson: Okay,

Craig Duswalt: should come. You should come.

Tim Melanson: I should come.

Craig Duswalt: It’s only

Tim Melanson: you ready for the, are you ready for the hardest question of the day?

Craig Duswalt: I’m ready.

Tim Melanson: Who was [00:37:00] your favorite rock star?

Craig Duswalt: Freddie Mercury of Queen.

Tim Melanson: Really?

Craig Duswalt: I know he is not alive anymore, but he is my idol. Freddie Mercury of Queen now, uh, in second places Bono from U2.

Tim Melanson: Hmm.

Craig Duswalt: Hmm.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. Yeah. Uh, Freddie? I saw the, the, the, the movie The Freddie

Craig Duswalt: Oh, you mean Rapha? Yep.

Tim Melanson: it was so good. It

was so good

Craig Duswalt: But I’m a friend of, uh, Brian May is a friend of mine, the guitarist, because Brian May opened up for Guns N Roses when I was on tour for like six months or eight months. So I got to be really good friends with Brian May, which is, oh, he’s one of the best guitarists in the world.

Love him,

Tim Melanson: He seems to be like in the videos that I’ve seen, he seems to be really down to earth and really

humble as well.

Craig Duswalt: Very, very, he sent, when my first son was born, he sent a gift basket to my son Tyler, when he was born. He’s just a, uh, we, we’ve been to my family goes to see Queen with Adam Lambert. Now we go backstage and we say hi. [00:38:00] Still to this day, you know, years later, 30 years later.

Tim Melanson: Well, that’s awesome.

Thank you so much for rocking with me today, Craig. This has.

Craig Duswalt: Thank you, Tim.

You’re awesome. Keep doing great stuff.

Tim Melanson: I’ll, I’m gonna try. So to the listeners, make sure you subscribe, rate, and comment. We’ll see you next time on the Work at Home Rockstar Podcast. And as always, you can go to workathomerockstar.com for more information.