Transcript: Thanks, Allan. This is David Brower with your 20 minute podcast. Our special guest today from Galveston, Texas is Antonio T. Smith Jr. A self-made millionaire who started off as a six-year-old homeless kid living in a dumpster. And is now, a celebrity business advisor, who is running several multi-million dollar businesses and has been featured on other podcasts, such as The Best Business podcast, with Steve Olsher and The Recipe podcast with Chef Charles Carroll. He’s got clients such as Les Brown, Kenny Thomas, several others. And he’s been featured on The Daily Goalcast. If you have three minutes, and I encourage you to take three minutes to watch his story on The Daily Goalcast. It’s a wonderful snapshot of your life.
David Brower How are you, Mr. Smith? It’s good to hear you this morning.
ANTONIO T SMITH: Hi, I sure appreciate you. Man, I was looking around for other people behind me. [crosstalk 00:01:06]
David Brower And I only read half of it man!
ANTONIO T SMITH: I sure appreciate you, definitely –
David Brower Well you are –
ANTONIO T SMITH: I’m just glad to be here.
Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
David Brower Let’s go back to the beginning. One of the things I absolutely, thoroughly loved about the three minute conversation or presentation at your church and The Daily Goalcast was talking about the importance of listening and mentors. So, give us a little bit of your … little bit of that story.
ANTONIO T SMITH: Absolutely, absolutely.
First off, listening is one of the most fundamental powers that you can ever access in the universe. It just is. That story came in. I was a hot-headed kid, because I grew up six to fourteen homeless. Got adopted at fourteen, but you couldn’t tell me anything. For one, I was a teenager. For two, I was a bad teenager.
David Brower Sure.
ANTONIO T SMITH: And from that, I wouldn’t listen. Albert Einstein, he’s the best. A man can’t solve a problem with the same consciousness that creates it.
David Brower Oh, wow.
ANTONIO T SMITH: So, when you listen to people outside of your consciousness, it’s when you start tapping into prosperity. And that Goalcast video, with me talking to a bunch of college students at their commencement graduation. I was telling them that, you’re getting ready to go out. Listen! Because I’m not a millionaire, because I’m great or I was born on the right side of the tracks.
ALLAN BLACKWELL: Yeah.
ANTONIO T SMITH: I got here because I listened.
ALLAN BLACKWELL: Wonder … That is such … I got goosebumps watching that. And I got goosebumps again just having you share that story, because listening is just … You know better than most, but listening it’s just invaluable. You know, it’s just –
ANTONIO T SMITH: Yeah, it is.
ALLAN BLACKWELL: Invaluable. And when you listen and surround yourself with the right people. And you had a wonderful mentor in one of your teachers. Let’s talk about him.
ANTONIO T SMITH: He’s still my hero to this day.
ALLAN BLACKWELL: Nice.
ANTONIO T SMITH: Actually I was just with him a few months ago. We were eating at some mom and pop restaurant. Michael Meredith’s his name. He was my speech and debate coach. He’s just a really good guy, he’s been teaching at Galveston Ball High. He’s getting ready to retire pretty soon. Like fifty years, he’s been teaching.
ALLAN BLACKWELL: Wow.
ANTONIO T SMITH: And he put me under his wing, because he was an athlete. He busted his knee and then went to speech. I busted my shoulder and I went to speech, but I didn’t go there … I didn’t go there without reluctance. He was like, hey, you got a really great gift for speaking. I was like, no, no, no, bro. Go out of here with that, right? And then he was like, come on do it! And I was like, come on, there’s nerds over there, man. I can’t go from football to nerd.
ALLAN BLACKWELL: No, I’m too cool for that.
ANTONIO T SMITH: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
ANTONIO T SMITH: He, to this day, is responsible for my degrees. When I qualified for speech debate, and I went to state in Texas, I got accepted to every college in the land. But I went to the Army instead. Then after the Army, he said, hey, you should really go back and go to school. You got all this good stuff. So, I did. I went and got my Bachelor’s. I went and got my Master’s. So, even today, I’m still listening to him. He’s still making me more profitable.
David Brower That’s awesome. Well, thanks. Thanks for your service too. That’s –
ANTONIO T SMITH: I sure appreciate you, thank you.
David Brower Yeah, absolutely right. If you’re not listening in the service, that’s a whole other conversation, right?
ANTONIO T SMITH: It sure is. [inaudible 00:04:20] They’ll make you listen, one way or the other.
David Brower That’s exactly right.
So, now you have a company called the ATS Jr. Companies. Your initials, obviously. And your slogan is, “We make profitable clients more profitable.” Tell us how you opened up this level of your life, when you started with the ATS Companies. Where did that come from?
ANTONIO T SMITH: Absolutely.
It’s the most weird set of weird events possible. Weird event number one, I went to the Army became intelligence analyst, military intelligence, and then counterintelligence training. And I got out of the Army and all I know how to do is play spades, kill people, and drink beer.
David Brower There you go.
ANTONIO T SMITH: So, I had to figure out what do I do with this stuff? And I go figure it out. Then it dawned on me, hey, here I am, this eighteen year-old kid doing presentations to the colonel. You know? I’m this young, black kid. I’m doing these presentations to this white crown. Like, hey, I can do that in the real world.
David Brower Right?
ANTONIO T SMITH: Weird event number two, I started saying, well, maybe I can do that in the real world. Then I hooked up with Joel Osteen, of Lakewood Church, in 2012. And I did presentations for him, fixing some ministries, fixing some problems. Then it dawned on me, I can do exactly what I did for the Army, exactly what I did for Joel Osteen, for everyone else.
David Brower Yeah.
ANTONIO T SMITH: Weird event number three, I met Les Brown. And he has this issue and I fixed it. And that’s what I do today. I’m the secret agent guy that sees damaging about to happen or something, and I fix it. And I give the credit to whoever the CEO is. It makes me a lot of money, because –
David Brower I would say so.
ANTONIO T SMITH: Do you help people then don’t take credit?
David Brower Right?
ANTONIO T SMITH: Yeah, definitely. Definitely. [crosstalk 00:06:02] That’s how I got there.
David Brower Dude, I just looked up blessed in the dictionary and there was your picture.
ANTONIO T SMITH: I know, right?
David Brower You know what I’m saying?
ANTONIO T SMITH: Exactly.
David Brower I mean those aren’t coincidences, bro. Those are, wow! You’ve been –
ANTONIO T SMITH: Yeah, absolutely.
David Brower After a tough, young life, you’ve been blessed with an amazing adult life. Starting with your mentor. And what a concept, giving credit to the CEO. That’s just brilliant. You don’t hear people doing that.
ANTONIO T SMITH: Yeah, it’s actually my lifeline into what I do. Because my longevity last longer.
David Brower Sure.
ANTONIO T SMITH: It’s you never want to outshine the master, Robert Green. You know? Probably states that as one of the loss of power number one. And I just simply make sure other people get credit, the credit they deserve. Sometimes it’s credit they don’t deserve, but they still get it.
David Brower Right.
ANTONIO T SMITH: What they do behind the scenes, they say, hey, [inaudible 00:06:54] got to meet Antonio. They go, really? And yeah, that recommendation there makes me more money, keeps me more profitable, and it’s just the secret society of helping people.
David Brower Well, yeah. I mean referrals, I don’t care if you’re selling newspapers. Referrals are the name of the game. And if you have authenticity, integrity, and referrals. I mean, what else do you need, brother? I mean, you know?
ANTONIO T SMITH: Yeah [crosstalk 00:07:20]
David Brower I mean you’ve got God sitting on your shoulder that’s the big piece. But –
ANTONIO T SMITH: That’s true.
David Brower You know what I’m saying? But that’s just fabulous, just fabulous.
And you know how to bless these people and don’t take credit for it. Brilliant!
ANTONIO T SMITH: Of course not! Now, yeah, the universe is set up that way, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
ANTONIO T SMITH: Abundance is meant to be shared.
That’s right.
ANTONIO T SMITH: If you think about it, you get a banana tree. And you’re like, you know, I don’t want Dave to have any of these bananas at all. Alright, then I try to eat them all. Then I die of banana toxicity.
Right.
ANTONIO T SMITH: I die of it, right? Because I tried to eat all the bananas. Or I can’t eat them all, so I hoard them and I save them. Well, you know what, they rot on me. Because abundance doesn’t need to be saved.
Yep.
ANTONIO T SMITH: Nor is abundance meant to be totally consumed. The only way to keep that banana tree going is I got to give those bananas away.
Love it. [crosstalk 00:08:04] What a great analogy.
ANTONIO T SMITH: When people … Man, yeah. When people realize that, constantly get more things back.
David Brower Absolutely right. Absolutely right.
I was looking on that, Amazon, because you have so many books out there and one is “So Happy and Grateful: The Universal Laws of Happiness and You.” It sounds incredible. Tell me about that.
ANTONIO T SMITH: That’s the one that just came out February 6. Les Brown, the great Les Brown, wrote the foreword and it’s tearing up the charts. And I’m so shocked. Let me tell you why I’m so shocked. Because I became bestseller four other times, but I was in some rinky dinky category. [crosstalk 00:08:38]
David Brower Okay, sure.
ANTONIO T SMITH: It was like self-help refrigerator. Then self-help microwave, right?
David Brower Right.
ANTONIO T SMITH: And as long as you sell twenty books real quick –
David Brower You’re a bestseller!
ANTONIO T SMITH: Exactly! You’re not the main category, but a subcategory.
ANTONIO T SMITH: This one, the publisher only put me in the same category with [inaudible 00:08:58]. So –
David Brower Wow [crosstalk 00:09:00]
ANTONIO T SMITH: Yeah, yeah. Self-help, motivations. I’m just sitting here with the giant that came before me. And right now, I just checked before I got on here, it’s ranked 3000 in all of self-help and motivation.
David Brower Oh my God.
ANTONIO T SMITH: And something like 120,000 in all of Amazon’s prints book. But yesterday, it was up to 26,000 total of … It’s just amazing –
David Brower Oh my gosh.
ANTONIO T SMITH: That this little guy from Galveston, Texas, is competing, selling hundreds of thousands of books. It just, it makes no sense man. Maybe that’s that God sitting on my shoulder, right?
David Brower True story.
On Amazon, part of the story here, let me read this. It says, “Antonio T. Smith Jr., has been passionate about personal development for over 30 years. Now, for the first time, he shares everything he has learned about happiness so that you have the best chance of becoming the highest expression of yourself. In a way only he can communicate.” And that’s you teach the laws of integrity, the laws of emotion, the laws of happiness, the laws of substitution, expression, reversibility, visualization, on and on and on. Deliberate creation. And it says, this is your first book in the so happy series. So, that’s wow. That’s not just a laundry list that’s an amazing list. [crosstalk 00:10:19] How to help people grow, you know? My goodness.
ANTONIO T SMITH: Yeah, absolutely.
ANTONIO T SMITH: Here’s the crazy part. It says I been over thirty years. Well, I’m just 37. It’s true though.
David Brower Well, yeah, yeah. [crosstalk 00:10:29] I knew that.
ANTONIO T SMITH: Because when I was homeless, in that trashcan, I was trying to figure out how the heck can I get out of this trashcan.
David Brower That’s right.
ANTONIO T SMITH: How can I get out of this dumpster? And I just been … And you can hear it in me. I’m genuinely this happy all the time.
David Brower: Awesome.
ANTONIO T SMITH: If you hate Monday morning, you hate walking up on me on Monday morning.
David Brower You’re not the guy [crosstalk 00:10:52] at the coffee shop that says, oh my God, it’s my third Monday in a row.
ANTONIO T SMITH: No.
David Brower You’re the guy that goes, oh man, it’s my third Monday in a row!
ANTONIO T SMITH: Absolutely.
David Brower That is so cool.
David Brower If you go to theatsjr.com, you’ve got a lot of blogs. You’ve got access to podcasts, Plant Better University, courses, all kinds of wonderful resources there for people to just get a sense of all the things you’re about. There’s somewhere along the line, folks, you’re gonna hit something there and you’re going to, oh, well I need to reach out to him. You know? [crosstalk 00:11:34]
ANTONIO T SMITH: And 90% of its free.
David Brower Right?!
ANTONIO T SMITH: 90% of its free. Yeah, it’s that banana tree analogy.
David Brower Exactly, exactly.
ANTONIO T SMITH: I became a millionaire and I give it back for free.
David Brower Absolutely.
ANTONIO T SMITH: All you got to do is follow me.
David Brower That is so cool. That is so cool.
ALLAN BLACKWELL: Let me look here, there was a couple … Oh, you were worthy. I think a lot of people don’t believe that. You know? You are worthy.
ANTONIO T SMITH: Yeah.
David Brower You deserve to have what you want. And people just don’t … I mean some people do, no doubt about it. But there’s so many people that go, oh man, I don’t want talk to him. He’s a millionaire dude and I’m just over here pumping gas. You have to … I’m sure you help people build their confidence in a way to be able to explore areas in their life that they never even imagined.
ANTONIO T SMITH: Absolutely, I have to. Because you can’t make money with a bad confidence.
David Brower Right.
ANTONIO T SMITH: You just can’t do it. And unfortunately, and I say it with the greatest respect possible, it’s mostly our parents jacked us the most. They didn’t mean to.
David Brower Right.
ANTONIO T SMITH: In my experience, they didn’t mean to. But they accidentally told us, money doesn’t grow on trees. You know? And then our grandparents grew up in the Great Depression, where you had to save everything. Well, now, when inflation and interest rates so low, you can’t save your way to being wealthy.
David Brower Exactly.
ANTONIO T SMITH: It’s a whole different economy.
David Brower Exactly.
ANTONIO T SMITH: You can’t do that either. You have to put it in investment vehicles. If you understand that your confidence or your low self-esteem is a vibration. And if you truly believe that like attracts like or the law of operation, whatever you want to call it, or the law of attraction, most commonly called. Your low self-esteem is vibrating at a frequency. You are big frequency and you’re saying, world, do me a favor and reinforce the negative way I feel about myself.
David Brower Yeah.
ANTONIO T SMITH: I deal with that; I would say about 96% of the people in this world are suffering with some form of a bad frequency.
David Brower Yeah, that makes all the sense in the world to me. Because you can have good days, you can have bad days, and you want to have great days. That’s where you help people understand that it’s possible to have great days. Don’t sell yourself short, you know?
ANTONIO T SMITH: That’s right. That’s right. You should wake up every day like it’s your birthday.
David Brower Yeah!
ANTONIO T SMITH: You know, when it’s our birthday, we don’t say, someone’s going to make me mad today. No, no, no, we wake up we expect money, we expect gifts and this is going to be a great day. If you’re someone like the women in my family, your birthday last the whole month.
David Brower Oh, mine does. Yeah, my wife’s only last three days. Mine lasts the whole month.
ANTONIO T SMITH: There it is.
David Brower I’m all in. I’m all in on that deal. You know what I’m saying?
ANTONIO T SMITH: That’s it. That’s it. And you have a great month! Imagine if we can do that every month.
David Brower Right?
ANTONIO T SMITH: It would be incredible.
David Brower One of the things I learned a long time ago, accidentally I think, was … Once upon a time, I surrounded myself with five people who I loved, respected, trusted, honored, cherished, all those things. And all of a sudden, after a while, I felt like I started to become pieces of those people, right? And I started discovering myself, liking myself, loving myself, which I never knew how to do that. And then, when I met my … my to-be wife, I told her this. I said, you know, you’ve met my five closest friends. Yeah. Well, if you take the best thing out of every one of those five people, that’s what I see in you. And it was like, oh my God! You know? It was –
ANTONIO T SMITH: Wow, yeah.
David Brower So I’m a big believer of surrounding yourself with people that can make you better. Be it financially, spiritual, emotionally, conversationally, confidence, whatever it is.
ANTONIO T SMITH: Oh, yeah, man. Absolutely! In fact, you can look at that practically. If you’re a smoker and you smoke cigarettes, when you get in a nonsmokers car, you immediately change that nonsmoker. Just in proximity, association with this nonsmoker, you stop smoking. Even if it’s just for a moment.
David Brower Yeah.
ANTONIO T SMITH: Because you don’t want to be rude. That’s the same thing you’re talking about. You were around these people. You became the best parts of these people. And then, of course, like attracts like. You met … literally, in your case, your better half.
David Brower Right.
ANTONIO T SMITH: Right?
David Brower Literally, yeah. [crosstalk 00:15:59]
ANTONIO T SMITH: Yeah, exactly. And just association really does make a big difference.
David Brower Couldn’t agree more. Wow.
ALLAN BLACKWELL: So, you’ve got a lot of books on Amazon and of course, like you said, this is your most recent one, “So Happy and Grateful,” a legitimate bestseller as opposed to some of your others, right?
ANTONIO T SMITH: Yeah. That’s going to be the only one that’s going to be legitimized, let me tell you. That’s the only one that’s going to be legitimate.
David Brower Just by having the words happy and grateful in the title, the universal laws of happiness, I mean I have a grateful tattoo on my shoulder, man. It’s just gratitude is so so important in life. And folks, go to Amazon.com, plug in Antonio T. Smith Jr. and you’ll see all the books that we’re talking about. If you go to the Daily Goalcast, on Facebook, plug in his name there. And you’ll see his story in three minutes. It’ll just blow you away. And you’ve got websites, you’ve got blogs, you’ve got a podcast. What’s the best way for people to reach out and learn more about you? Is it the … Your initials website?
ANTONIO T SMITH: It can be the Facebook or LinkedIn. Just put in Antonio T. Smith Jr. Or the website, yeah. Either one of those will get you to me. Of course, and I apologize in advance, once you find me, I’m going to make sure you never not find me again.
David Brower Good!
ANTONIO T SMITH: So, I … Exactly!
David Brower Yeah, be careful for what you wish for folks.
ANTONIO T SMITH: That’s right. That’s right.
ANTONIO T SMITH: And I have a confession to make, I’d love to make a confession that I’ve never told anyone. The book, “So Happy and Grateful,” I want to sell a million copies.
David Brower Yeah.
ANTONIO T SMITH: Here’s what I did.
David Brower Okay.
ANTONIO T SMITH: I’m not taking any of the profit from the book. I have six people who work for me. They’re my inner core and they made me famous. They made me who I am today. And they’re splitting this book evenly.
David Brower Oh my God.
ANTONIO T SMITH: Every time you buy a copy of this book, you’re helping Deaunna, you’re helping Bryant, Michelle, Shannon, Grace, and Tempest. You’re not helping me. If you’re literally a blessing, because I said I want to sell a million copies, I [crosstalk 00:18:09] give away a million copies first.
David Brower Right, right. Absolutely, oh that’s awesome. And again, the whole … I don’t want to simplify it, but it really is, I think, as simple as sharing the wealth. I mean, that was a title of a book by Alex Spanos. And it really is. You work hard, you trust, you have authenticity, you have gratitude, you build happiness, you surround yourself with great people, and you share the wealth. Because that’s the right thing to do. And then it comes back to you, who knows how many fold. Right?
ANTONIO T SMITH: Every time. Oh, multiplicate. Oh, yeah, who knows? No one knows.
David Brower No one knows. But your six of the inner circle, they’re getting an idea.
ANTONIO T SMITH: That’s right. That’s right. Ask them in six months and see.
David Brower That’s right.
ANTONIO T SMITH: [crosstalk 00:18:57]
David Brower Hey folks, our special guest today, Antonio T. Smith Jr. Again, go on Facebook, LinkedIn, plug in his name. Go to the Daily Goalcast, plug in his name there. And you’ll learn a lot, you’ll pick up some free … Like he said, ninety-something percent or free information that he puts out there and just know that he won’t let you go.
ANTONIO T SMITH: That’s right. That’s right. I give a lot away, but I’m also a great business man. I’m not letting you go.
David Brower Good call, good call.
David Brower Hey, it’s been a real pleasure, man. Continued blessings to you and much success to everybody you touch.
ANTONIO T SMITH: Thank you very much. I appreciate you.
ALLAN BLACKWELL: Listen to your twenty-minute podcast with David Brower on-the-go. Downloads are available on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, iTunes, IHeartRadio, Spotify, any podcast app, and on our website, davidbrowervo.com/your20minutepodcast. Until next time, thank you for listening!