Jason Tonioli:
... do more than just go to a conference somewhere that's just sitting in a hotel room.Because, yes, you'll learn but when you can take yourself to this next state or put yourself in peak state when you're trying to survive on a river or some something similar to that, go and do an activity with people to bond, and the learning is going to stick and you're going to remember that thing forever.

Michael Walker:
It's easy to get lost in today's music industry with constantly changing technology and where anyone with a computer can release their own music. I'm going to share with you why this is the best time to be an independent musician, and it's only getting better.

Michael Walker:
If you have high quality music but you just don't know the best way to promote yourself so that you can reach the right people and generate a sustainable income with your music, we're going to show you the best strategies that we're using right now to reach millions of new listeners every month, without spending 10 hours a day on social media. We're creating a revolution of today's music industry, and this is your invitation to join me. I'm your host, Michael Walker.

Michael Walker:
All right. I'm excited to be here today with Jason Tonioli. So, Jason is a spectacular human being who I just had the honor of getting to connect with in Costa Rica. We went on our first Modern Musician Platinum Retreat for 15 of our artists, and we went out to Costa Rica for a week. It was amazing. We went rafting down Class IV rapids, and we went on a Tarzan swing that oversaw the entire rainforest. And in between that, we mixed in some masterminding and training, and we brought in some of our top partners to be able to do presentations. So it was a ton of fun and it all happened because of Jason.

Michael Walker:
Jason, he has a travel agency in Costa Rica where they can put on events like this, but I connected with Jason through ... He actually joined our Gold Arts Academy Program, and when he came in, he was already very successful. Then he was just ... It was very clear very quickly that he was a super-intelligent entrepreneur coming in, but then seeing his growth over the past year, in those three months in the past year has just been amazing. So I definitely wanted to bring him on here so we could talk a little bit about his story and some of the lessons that he's learned to share with you. And also, so we could just kind of geek out and talk about the Costa Rica trip and the masterminding and, all that stuff. That was a pretty long intro but, Jason, thanks so much for taking the time to be here today.

Jason Tonioli:
Well, thanks for joining. One of these days, we'll get you on a raft again and hopefully not drown yourself.

Michael Walker:
Yeah. Yeah, I was ... I mean, who was it?, he had never swam before and he went down these like Class IV rapids or maybe it was Class III at the time-

Jason Tonioli:
It was Class II swimming pool rapids, but same thing.

Michael Walker:
Okay. Okay. Still, for him, I mean, that one deserves a big pat on the back.

Jason Tonioli:
Oh, it was awesome. I think one of my biggest takeaways from there is you had all these just diverse group of people of all interests, and it was so cool to get everybody together. We all got along but we challenged people to do things that were hard. And I think a lot of it, like that week that we had, I mean, I think the goal, the end was to believe in yourself. And when you can push somebody to do something really hard, that's totally out of their comfort zone, in some cases, I mean, Rishi didn't even know how to swim and the guys just getting on a raft and, "All right, I'm going to do this." That was amazing. And I think we all learned so much about ourselves by doing that, and seeing people push through that when stuff gets tough.

Michael Walker:
Absolutely. Yeah, there's so many tie-ins there too. Even the tie-in with, "If you flipped out of your boat," basically the instructions are, "don't try to flail or to panic." Or like try to swim because then your legs might hit the rocks on the bottom of the river. You could get caught and bad things could happen. But if you actually kind of counterintuitively sort of let go and got into this position where it's almost like you're going down a water slide then, it's a lot of fun. Like there's lot less risk and you're not really fighting the current of the water and then, you had your experts coming down the raft to save you, basically. So, that was just a great lesson as well. I think in terms of not necessarily flailing and fighting, and panicking, but learning how to align with the currents and to move in the right direction based on that, and having some trust and faith in the process.

Jason Tonioli:
And then, I think the other thing that totally applies to musicians is you've got the whole idea of a guide or a coach, and we're out on the river and the guides are there showing us the way. And it's not that hard to follow the guide if you just do what they do but then some of us would decide, "Hey, I'm going to do my own thing. I'm not going to pay attention." And you get off. Sometimes it's fine and other times, you get dumped out of your boat. And I think it totally applies for musicians. You've got these people that have gone before, they're showing you the way. And if you can just be humble enough to pay attention and do what they do, you can be successful and you're not going to have to go over some waterfall looking thing that's going to hurt. Some of us like the waterfalls in our life, but yeah, why do that if you don't have to?

Michael Walker:
I don't even want to think about going down those rapids without the guides, especially the ones where we're going down like Class IV, oh, my gosh, that would've been really dangerous to go down without a guide.

Jason Tonioli:
For sure.

Michael Walker:
That's definitely a valuable lesson. Cool, man.

Michael Walker:
Yeah, I would love to start out, for anyone who maybe this is their first time hearing about you or learning about what you're doing with your music, and also with Costa Rica, I'd love to just hear, briefly, a little bit about your story starting to make music.

Jason Tonioli:
Well, with the music ... I'm a piano player. I had a mean mom growing up that won the piano war with her son and made me practice despite my efforts to not. Thank goodness for mean moms that don't let their kids quit taking lessons and practicing. But, man, I've playing since kindergarten so almost, I guess, 35, 40 years almost now. And I was told all the way growing up that you couldn't make money as a musician and fit to support a family as a musician, and I totally bought into that. I think back in the day, probably it was a little bit true. Or if you went into, let's say, the education side, I mean, you can make it really difficult to make a living as a musician. And so, when I went to college, I finally decided, "Hey, I want to do orchestration and maybe it'd be cool to make movie sound tracks." And I lasted all of three days in the music program at college, university I was at. And when I found out that for the next 12 months, I was going to have to learn about half notes and quarter notes with all the other people that didn't know what that was, I just thought, "You know what? I can't deal with this."

Jason Tonioli:
Look, I'm so grateful that happened because I walked across to the other side of the school and I signed up for the marketing program and the business program. And, frankly, that's served me better as a musician than, probably, learning all the rules and learning how to actually do music. I don't really recall the right way or not. But I think that marketing roles in your ... If you think like a marketer, you're going to be so much more successful as a musician.

Jason Tonioli:
And so, yeah, after that, I spent 12 years in the banking industry as a marketing director, left there. I was very successful in that world, chose to leave and start a consulting firm. We were building websites and doing CRM technology, consulting for banks and credit unions all around the country. And then, in the process, also built a software that fixed a lot of the problems we saw in the banking world. And then about, gosh, it's been about five years now, I was able to sell my shares in that company and kind of retire, I guess. And at that point, it was kind of like, "Well, what should I do? Maybe I'll spend some time on music. Maybe I'll ..." It was kind of like this life event where you're like, "Now what?" And I did choose to do so. I focused on music even more. I've done a lot through the banking time so it had been more of my hobby.

Jason Tonioli:
I started writing a lot of songs, going to the recording studio with just some amazing people. If you're familiar with The Piano Guys, my producer that I've worked with forever has worked for them forever. And so, we'd cross paths all the time there. He's done stuff for Disney and all these other really high level things, like Star Wars and stuff that nobody's ever heard about, right? It's incredible when you get to work with people who help you become even better than you could have ever dreamed of. And so, I've been really blessed that way, but If I look back on where I'm at now, with the streaming and ... I play piano. I'm really good at putting people to sleep with relaxing piano music. And I hate to tell people that I can put you to sleep, but if I can get you to listen to my music when you go to sleep, I get 30 or 40 song plays on Spotify for the night, and I make more money than most pop artists then because of it.

Jason Tonioli:
I guess there's the quick story of where I'm at and now we're selling, I've got spiral-bound piano books. And I thought we'll never do $100,000, six figures was just this idea a couple years ago, there's no way you could hit that. And we've done that about 10 times over just this year alone now, which just blows my mind as a marketing and banker guy that does spreadsheets. So, it's totally possible.

Michael Walker:
That's so incredible, man. And I mean, you're an example of someone who has grown so much, like in the past year alone, it's something that ... You continue to learn and grow and that's something that I feel like I see from the most successful people and like my mentors, is that they're lifelong learners. And the fact that you with your experience and, really, having accomplished what you did, joined our program and invested into what we're doing, I think shows this lifelong willingness to learn, which is probably responsible for so much of your success, is around that entrepreneurship, the marketing mindset.

Michael Walker:
That's one of the thing that you spoke to as well, that I think it's just so important is the marketing mindset. And, really, like those skills, entrepreneurship, being able to figure out where are their needs or where can I provide more value, and be figuring out how to communicate and position that, it's what changes the world, right? So, that's awesome that you're such like a living example of that.

Michael Walker:
And I'm super excited to give you our first seven-figure musician award at Modern Musician Live. We're doing our events. It got inspired by Russell Brunson, his Two Comma Club awards so we're doing different awards now. Jason's going to first person in our community that's earned a seven-figure musician award, which is really, really remarkable. Super awesome.

Michael Walker:
I'd love to talk a little bit more about lessons or advice for anyone who's listening to this or watching this right now to learn from. One of my favorite things that I've heard you say before is, "I'm a 10-year overnight success story." Right?

Jason Tonioli:
I think it was 20 years. It's been at least 20 years now.

Michael Walker:
20-year overnight success story. All right. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what are some of the key components that really have allowed you to be successful, and in talking through things like the entrepreneurship and finding mentorship. And just in general, what are the most common themes or the things you think are really important for musicians to really kind of click things into place?

Jason Tonioli:
Yeah. I think back almost to one of my first year working in the corporate world and banking, so this was well over 20 years ago, and I was hired to be a mortgage marketing intern. They'd never had a marketing person at the bank I went to, and I had no idea what I was doing. And so, I came in being very humble, not knowing a thing other than I'd been through one marketing class. And somehow I convinced them that I knew enough that they could hire me, and I could help them. But my boss was over all of these like 40 or 50 mortgage officers. And so, I got to watch him and he'd also been a bank president so like very, very successful guy, and I remember him telling me the story from when he started out. And basically what happened, he'd been the starting quarterback at university and just been this ultra successful guy all through his life. He was on a high, finished his master's degree and he got hired at the bank downtown, which was a big deal, and shows up in his fancy suit. And he goes up and for his first day of work, and the bank president at that time, handed him a broom and told him to go sweep the gutter outside the bank.

Jason Tonioli:
And it was just one of those you're thinking like, "Okay, this is like this guy that's been doing this for 40 years. And he's now showing up to his job, he's ready to make lots of money and the bank president sends him out to sweep the gutter. And he tells you, he is like, "I was so mad." He goes, "I was angry. Like, for real?" And he said, "I had this moment to decide. Do I just quit and go do something else, because this guy's a total jerk or do I try to learn something from this?" And he went out and he swept the gutter, and cleaned things up, and came in. And, obviously, he was super successful because he became a bank president down the road. But what he taught from that is he's like, "Don't ever think that you're more important than the person that's sweeping the gutter. And don't ever think that you can't learn something doing even the most simple tasks. And the more you can be humble and stay humble even when you're on the top of your game, you think you know everything, you probably can even learn something from sweeping the gutter."

Jason Tonioli:
And I think ... You talked about learning and just trying to get better and better. I think all of us, what you talked about, Russell Brunson, I mean, you can go learn all these courses but, gosh, there's so much more stuff or things that we can learn from Russell, or things we learn from Michael as a coach, or these amazing people, don't ever think you're too good. I mean, I think Russell's a great example of that, because if you listen to his podcast, he's always talking about other people and learning. And I think people look to him as a mentor but he's going to other people to learn. And  you keep that in mind, you're never too important or know too much to be able to learn something.

Michael Walker:
That's so good. Yeah. One analogy I use a lot is that you're learning or like when you're looking to master a skill, you don't just go read one book and be like, "All right, I got it." You want to read a bunch of books from different perspectives and kind of get the landscape and see what do they have in common. What are the patterns that they're all pointing to? That's what kind of helps you get a better cohesive picture of it.

Michael Walker:
And also, it's not like you just take a shower once and you're like, "Okay, good. I'm good for the rest of my life." It's like a continual thing. You got to shower regularly in order to stay clean. And I think that what you're sharing is like a prime example of keeping things fresh and being humble enough to come in with a quote-unquote, "beginner's mind" and see like, "What can I learn from this?" And that's such a rare trait to develop, but so worth it, to be able to come into a situation and be able to kind of let go of your own ego, and just sort of bring a beginner's mind to it, and think, "What can I learn from this? How can I contribute to this?" So, that's an awesome story. Great example of that.

Jason Tonioli:
Right. And really, if we go back a little over a year ago, when I came into the Gold Artist Academy, I mean, I'd been successful but I was looking for, "Okay, this guy must be doing something different or unique that's maybe can be added onto what we're doing." And I came into the program not even really knowing what I'd learn and was able to apply many things to that. Even if it was just a mindset change to help me learn something down the road or just to meet somebody. And I think that was super powerful.

Jason Tonioli:
And we were talking about Costa Rica. It was so interesting to have all these people come together and they were all varying levels. I mean, we had Gabe from Legion Beats and we had people that were just new and starting out, and people who were doing gigs to make their money, and we all came together. Everybody was there to learn and get better.

Jason Tonioli:
I think one of the things that's in any industry, whether you're musician or not, if you don't invest in yourself and be willing to invest in learning, you're just going to ... If you're not growing your diet, I think, is one of the big things. You just always need to set aside money. It makes me laugh that we spend all this money for like three or four years in college to pay this big tuition and then all of a sudden, we graduate. And then, a lot of people, that's like the end of what they'll invest in themselves in their education, it's just absolutely crazy. It's like you're just barely getting to the point where you maybe know a little bit to do something and now you're going to quit? Whether it's $100 course or a $1,000 course, or a $10,000 course, gosh, how much do you really believe in yourself? And if you do, invest in yourself.

Michael Walker:
That is so important. Yeah, the value of investing both financially but also in terms of just like your energy and your time, and commitment. Just like the word "investment" itself is so, so important, I think, to grasp and understand. I'm sure you, as a banker, you understand the value of long-term investments. But you don't get something from nothing, right? Like there's this value of investing, planting a seed, nurturing that seed, continuing to invest it. And then, 20 years later, your little seed that you planted is sprouting fruit and other things are starting to fall. So there's like, there's a certain amount of faith that kind of comes in that initial stage, right? Like where you did plant the seed, and you're starting to grow it, and you kind of have to have faith that you're moving in the right direction. That if you keep nurturing it in the right way, that it's going to turn into a tree with fruits to bear. So it is really important that you surround yourself in the right environments where you're able to nurture that seed with the right nutrients or else it's very hard to actually allow it the space to grow.

Michael Walker:
That being said, one thing I would love to talk with you about, specifically, when it comes to having the right environments and growing, is just clear around this idea of mastermind groups. And just in general, who you surround yourself with, and the kind of impact that makes on your ability to learn and grow. Granted that we just did this mastermind trip in Costa Rica, and it was absolutely incredible. And we got to mastermind with Gabe from Legion Beats and Christine Morale  and Freeda Man and-

Jason Tonioli:
Tobias was there.

Michael Walker:
Tobias.

Jason Tonioli:
I mean, that guy was insane on the guitar.

Michael Walker:
Yeah, dude. He was jamming, and him and Rishi did that. It was like a Indian chant mixed with the finger ... Sorry. That was so cool. But I would love to hear you talk a little bit about, for anyone listening to this right now who maybe hasn't heard of a mastermind group before, if they heard the word but they don't fully understand what it means, what is a mastermind group and why is it important?

Jason Tonioli:
Well, mastermind group is, you're going to bring a group of people together that have similar interests, is typically what happens. It happens all the time in the entrepreneur world where they'll come together and you'll share ideas of what's working. And what was unique about what we did with this musician group is, in a lot of ways, we're all business people as well, but everybody loves music. So, in the evening, gosh, we had the piano and the guitar there, and we had some pretty sweet jam sessions that I don't think they're normal at a normal mastermind. But typically, you come together, there'll be some presentations, you're going to learn. And then you're going to hopefully bond together and really get to be friends with people.

Jason Tonioli:
I think what was unique about our experience is when you and I were setting that up, we kind of intentionally set up the first day to do the normal classroom-style learning. That happens at lots of resorts or conferences people would go to and the problem if you only do that, typically, what happens is people go back to their room at night and then they go back to their own world. They go have dinner by themselves. And they get something out of it, but a lot of times at conferences, the deep networking and the friendship building doesn't happen. And so, after that first day of learning, I mean, we were, I think that first night, in the hot springs together on the side of the volcano. And then, we went down the scariest, fastest water slide we've ever been on in our life.

Michael Walker:
Epic water slide.

Jason Tonioli:
It was so fun. But everybody had that thing now that we bonded, and you've got a bunch of adults screaming like little kids landing in this water, going down a water slide. Totally unexpected but I feel like that was that first bonding moment. And then after that, the next day we were on the bus together for a couple hours hearing these inspiring stories from Daniel who was an MMA fighter that was on the top of his game, going to be amazing, and then all of a sudden, this bike hits him and splits his leg in half, type of thing. And he was our head guide and that story kind of set it up for us to be like, "Wow."

Jason Tonioli:
And then, we were on the river together, paddling with your buddy. Everybody's had two people on their little raft on this simple rafting day, and it was enough excitement to make people really have to work together as a team but you weren't going to probably die, type of thing.

Michael Walker:
Probably.

Jason Tonioli:
Yeah. Right. Anyway, we created this bonding experience where now it's not only that you're here to learn, but you actually care about these people you're around. And I think a really well-done mastermind is going to create these experiences that leave you with ... You care about the people now and you're invested in their success, and you care about helping them. And then, typically at a mastermind, kind of that last component that happens is, each person takes some time to get to share their story and share their problems. And as a group, we kind of talked together to help solve those problems and help troubleshoot. You got 15 people with different experiences that can look at problems in a different way that will help you solve them.

Jason Tonioli:
And so, we finished the week, you talked about the Tarzan swing and the rafting into jungle camp and waking up with the fog snaking up the canyon. I mean, there's some amazing things we did, and then what was so cool about what we ... I felt like what we did is we practiced all week in telling our stories in musician and the hardships, and the trials, and the struggles. And we're all listening to each other's stories and giving feedback on that, which made our stories get better throughout the week. And then, we finished the last day up on the side of this mountain that was just incredible. And we recorded our stories, the 15-minute story that we can now share with our people.

Jason Tonioli:
And I think there's lots of things that can happen to these masterminds. But I think if people are looking for that type of experience, do more than just go to a conference somewhere that's just sitting in a hotel room. Because, yes, you'll learn but when you can take yourself to this next state or put yourself in peak state when you're trying to survive on a river or some something similar to that, go and do an activity with people to bond, and the learning is going to stick and you're going to remember that thing forever. Just go sitting in a classroom, that's great but it's not going to stick as well.

Michael Walker:
All right, let's take a quick break from the podcast. I can tell you about a free special offer that we're doing right now, exclusively for our podcast listeners.

Michael Walker:
If you get a ton of value from the show, but you want to take your music career to the next level, connect with the community of driven musicians and connect with the music mentors directly that we have on this podcast, or if you just want to know the best way to market your music and grow an audience right now, then this is going to be perfect for you.

Michael Walker:
Right now, we're offering a free two-week trial to our Music Mentor Coaching Program. And if you sign up in the show notes below, you're gaining access to our entire Music Mentor content vault for free. The vault's organized into four different content pillars. The first being the music, then the artist, the fans, and the last but not least, the business.

Michael Walker:
When you sign up, you unlock our best in-depth masterclass from a network of world-class musicians and industry experts on the most cutting-edge strategies right now for growing your music business.

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Michael Walker:
On top of all of that, you'll get access to our private Music Mentor community. And this is definitely one of my favorite parts of Music Mentor, and maybe the most valuable, is that you're going to have this community where you can network with other artists and link up, collaborate, ask questions, get support, and discuss everything related to your music career. So if you're curious and you want to take advantage of the free trial, then go click on the link in the show notes right now, and you can sign up for free. From there, you can check out all of the amazing contents, connect with the community, and sign up for the live masterclasses that happen every week. This is a gift for listening to our podcast, supporting the show so don't miss it out. Go sign up for free now, and let's get back to our interview.

Michael Walker:
That's such a good point. Yeah. I know that Russell talked about at Funnel Hacking Live, he talked about this idea of why the longer we're alive, the quicker time seems to pass. And part of the reason is, well, one, because relatively time gets shorter, but even in addition to that, our brains, when we get into routine, so we're getting into habits, we're doing the same thing over and over, and over again, that our brain actually kind of lets up and it says, "Okay, I don't necessarily need to remember this as much." You don't actually have to recall those events so it's easy to lose sight of those, because it just kind of blends in with everything else.

Michael Walker:
So I think that part of the value of this mastermind specifically, and going out to Costa Rica and having these incredible ... Mixing that in with the learnings, because I know every single person left that was like, "I'm going to remember this for the rest of my life. That was absolutely incredible." So I think it's a great way to really make the learning sticky so that you don't just forget it. But it's something that, really, you retain for rest of your life.

Michael Walker:
Give me a quick update on ... Amazing Vacations is the name of Jason's business that really put this together for us so that we could have this amazing experience. I know that we talked a little bit about how you might be doing like Amazing Masterminds or Amazing ... Tell me a little bit about your thoughts on that. Or what's the current status?

Jason Tonioli:
Well, really, with our team down there, the whole thing started, I'd sold my software company. I ended up on a whitewater kayaking trip with my doctor buddy down there, and I had zero interest in going into the travel business. It's just in my mind I'm like, "Oh, I can just go on Expedia. Who needs a travel agent? That's stupid." And then, I'm on this trip with these guys in Costa Rica doing these crazy rivers in my kayak. And I'm just having the time of my life and I speak Spanish, and I overhear them talking and they're like, "Hey, this is the last kayaking trip. They're not doing anymore of them." And two of the guides were like on the Olympic kayak team, they were like top-level people.

Jason Tonioli:
And what ended up happening is as I'm listening to this, the main guy, he's named Walter, who you met, came over and we're just trying to be nice. Everybody gone to bed for the night and I'm sitting out there in my little rocking chair on the side of jungle camp and he came over and I said, "So, this is the last kayaking trip?" And he's like, "Oh, you weren't supposed to hear that but yeah, this is it." I found out from him that he'd been going to business school for the last seven years, and as he was talking to his buddies, he was like, "I'm going to go do my own thing." Because he used to, literally, raft people into jungle camp and then he'd run four and a half miles up the dirt road to catch the bus after they'd dropped him off for the night so he could go to school from like 7:00 to 10:00 PM and he'd get his business degree. And then, he would wake up at like 3:00, 3:30 in the morning to catch the bus and get brought all the way back to the main road. Then he'd run all the way into jungle camp to be there when people woke up again. He'd been doing that for years and I'm like, "Oh, my gosh, this guy deserves a shot."

Jason Tonioli:
And so, I just went into consulting mode with him saying, "Don't do this when you're doing a website and be careful about this." And I still had no interest in starting a travel company. I just wanted to see Walter do well. And the next thing I know is we'd gone home from the trip, and I was still staying in touch with him and he'd literally do everything that I'd coach him on, and then he'd do more. And over about three months, I committed myself that I'd have to build a website for him to help him, because it was just a nice thing to do. And I didn't even tell my wife about it because I thought starting a business in Costa Rica, 3,000 miles away, that's horrible like, punch me in the face, "Really?" I figured she'd totally think I'd lost my mind and then I finally had committed myself so much that I'm like, "I guess we're doing this." And decided to tell her. Don't ever do that to your wife, by the way, that's not going to go well.

Jason Tonioli:
But next thing I know, we're Costa Rica signing papers. And the goal, what was so interesting with this is the goal was one, to give Walter's little two-year-old son a yard that he could play in versus the little cinder block place they were living. That was literally our goal starting the company. And then two, was to make sure that the guides were paid a living wage so that they could take care of their families, because that wasn't happening for all these amazing guides in the entire country. I'm like, "We're going to set the standard. I don't care if it's three or four times what a normal guide would make." And then number three, was I want to set up these group trips similar to like what we did with kayaking, but there's a limited amount of whitewater kayakers in the world so I want to do these group trips that can totally leave people, like you said, life-changing experience and go home a better person.

Jason Tonioli:
And so, those were kind of our three foundational things and we launched it over three and a half years ago. We've done really well, but we've been careful about growing and, really, the end goal is to have multiple mastermind-style trips of groups of people. At the same time we were down there, there was a group of moms and daughters, and they did similar stuff. They did massages on the beach, though so we might need to work that in on the next mastermind trip.

Michael Walker:
I would not mind throwing in some massages on the beach. That's kind of fantastic.

Jason Tonioli:
But anyway, the whole idea of these masterminds were invested into that. That's what our team is just amazing at. And it's such a unique offering where I think it's different than the normal go to a hotel, conference center, and that we can package together. It's something I feel like we need to bring that to the world because it will change your perspective on life and make you better at whatever you're doing.

Michael Walker:
Amazing Vacations. Amazing.

Jason Tonioli:
Costa Rica, amazingvacationscostarica.com. If you want to go check it out, I need to maybe take the Michael Walker picture and we'll stick it there on the homepage with you jumping off the Tarzan swing or I've got you jumping out of your boat.

Michael Walker:
Okay.

Jason Tonioli:
I've got some good pictures of that too when we were rafting.

Michael Walker:
Nice. Nice, dude. I mean, yeah, like hands down, the value that we got, we were there for almost a week and the price for what we paid, we got probably at least 5 to 10 times worth the value of what we paid to be there so pretty dang awesome. And I think that there's a lot of potential for, yeah, obviously, you have Amazing Vacations, you can do trips for families or for different small groups, but also like what you're talking about the masterminds, I think, for businesses, just a huge opportunity to be able to bring together group of people.

Michael Walker:
The only thing I would add to, kind of going back a little bit with like the mastermind groups, is when we're defining a mastermind group, I think everything that Jason said was spot on. And I think, really, the value of a mastermind group, place the idea actually came from, was it like Napoleon Hill in the book Think and Grow Rich? And he's talking about mastermind groups. And if you guys haven't read the book yet, you should definitely read the book. It's a classic. He'd interviewed the most successful people in the world at the time and basically just documented and figured out what do they have in common. And one of the ideas that came out of it was this idea of a mastermind group.

Michael Walker:
And the idea of the mastermind group is that you bring together this group of people that have alignments, and they are all moving towards the same goals. But then when you put people together in a group like that, it's almost like a third entity sort of comes out, and they call it the mastermind. So it's kind of like this bigger mind that's bigger than any of the individual members, but it sort of serves everyone. So when you have these hot seat sessions and basically one person asks the group or asks the mastermind for help with specific challenge or they can also just share what's working well for them with the group, and there really is sort of this like higher mind that kind of comes out. It's more than the sum of its parts.

Michael Walker:
So I think that that was certainly something that I experienced at the mastermind trip that we did and with our Platinum Mastermind Group that we launched, at the end of it. And that's really the idea, is that we can bring together artists like Jason, who really at the top of their game, to be able to learn from each other, inspire each other. So we're actually planning on doing one of these trips per year, either in Costa Rica or anywhere that Jason and I can kind of ... And the Platinum Mastermind can basically network and decide where do we want to go this year for a week-long trip to sort of stretch our comfort zones and to create one of these experiences.

Michael Walker:
So, dude, I'm so excited to make that happen moving forward, but this is a lot of fun. I really appreciate you coming on here and sharing, and talking a little bit about what you're working on. I think that although everything you just shared about even starting the company is really a testament to who you are and your character that really at this point where you can really afford to give back, and not everyone does that. The world would be such a better place if everyone had that same sort of mindset so thank you for bringing that blessing. You've been blessed but then you're also paying it forward, which is pretty rare.

Jason Tonioli:
I think one of the things that's been interesting, I've been listening to a lot of Tony Robbins as of late. He talks about successful people, and I think a lot of us have followed a little bit of what Tony does but ... Talks about successful people. If you really want to find true success, you need to have both contribution and fulfillment also added on to the end of just finding your success. "Oh, I made my millions of dollars," or whatever it might be.

Jason Tonioli:
And I think what's been interesting for me is I've had a successful software company and been on top of my game in banking and music. That's great but I think with musicians, especially, is I look at my career path and the success I've had and it's been because people have mentored and they've given up their time and found that fulfillment in helping me or lots of other artists to get there. And it has been interesting with this vacation thing that we've done with amazingvacationscostarica.com is I went into that instead of saying, "Oh, I want to make millions of dollars." I went in and I was like, "I want to help these people. We want to change their lives. We want to impact." And amazingly, for the last three and a half years we've been doing this, I've yet to take a paycheck. I've put a lot of money in but it hasn't been about that. And what's been so cool is the fulfillment that I've gotten from helping other people, and helping make these types of things happen. It's so much bigger reward than just the money.

Jason Tonioli:
And so, if you're a musician out there, I would just totally recommend, find a way to give back and contribute, and you'll find so much more fulfillment and success in your life doing that than you will ever with achieving a seven-figure type of musician award. I mean, those are really cool and that's great, but the happiness and joy you'll feel from serving and helping others, you can't even describe that joy you'll feel, if you can figure that out. Anyway, last word of advice, I guess.

Michael Walker:
Yeah, no, that's so good. And, I mean, that's a reoccurring theme because we're interviewing a lot of successful, awesome people on the podcast. Reoccurring theme for pretty much everyone is, focusing on providing value and contribution, and how that's really kind of the key to success or the key to being able to network and connect with people. It's just always focusing on like, "How can I provide value? What can I bring to the situation?" So I think that you're a living, breathing example of that.

Michael Walker:
And one of the things that you mentioned too, is maybe one limiting belief or one mindset would be thinking that you don't have anything to contribute or that you don't have that value, and that you need to achieve some sort of future state before you can start contributing or start giving back. When the truth is, in order for you to reach your goals and have true fulfillment, it starts right now. Like you start by focusing in this way of life. It's not necessarily something in the future that you're going to get to. It's like you start right now in just changing the way that you think around the question, "How can I serve more? How can I provide more value?" And that's such a great compass to move in the right direction.

Jason Tonioli:
Yep. For sure.

Michael Walker:
Cool. Well, hey, Jason, always great connecting with you. Thanks again for coming on here to share some of the insights and lessons that you've learned.

Michael Walker:
So, for anyone who's watching, our listeners right now, who would love to connect more or check out what you're doing with Amazing Vacations, where's the best place for them to go to learn more?

Jason Tonioli:
If you want to hear music, you want me to put you to sleep with my piano music, tell your Alexa or Spotify, "Go look up Jason Tonioli Music." Would love to share there. tonioli.com is my website. If you're thinking, "Man, I want go do crazy rafting like Michael did or Tarzan swing," my team at amazingvacationscostarica.com can put the whole logistical thing together, and it's, literally, you just show up at the airport and we take care of everything else. They're an amazing group of people, love helping them and love changing lives with that too. So, there's your spots.

Michael Walker:
Awesome. Yep. Like always, we'll throw up all the links in the show notes. And again, I would highly recommend if you're interested, if anything that we talked about with the mastermind or going on a vacation like that is exciting to you, then you should absolutely follow up with that. It was an incredible ... I'm never going to forget that experience. And also just in terms of the level of guides that you have there with Daniel and with Walter, and like really everyone that's there, I don't think it really exists, most places so definitely go check that out.

Michael Walker:
And a quick note too, we talked a little bit about our Platinum Mastermind that we just launched, actually, on this Costa Rica trip, we're planning on doing a trip like this once per year, and we're probably going to cap the mastermind at 50 artists total. We're doing Modern Musician Live in January. At the time, we're recording this. And we're probably going to try to do this like once a year or so, where we have a live event for Modern Musician and we give out awards, like Jason's seven-figure musician award and the Gold Artist of the Year award, and basically do a mixture of training along with giving out awards.

Michael Walker:
And we're going to be opening up the Platinum Mastermind for application, because especially with that, has to be a super selective process to make sure it's the right people in the group. Basically, the point is, definitely keep your eyes and ears tuned for the Platinum Mastermind. More details about that when we do our Modern Musician live event. And until then, hope you guys have a fantastic rest of your day and week, and definitely go check out Jason and Amazing Vacations in the show notes. And, Jason, you're awesome. Thanks again for taking the time to be here.

Jason Tonioli:
Thanks for all you do.

Michael Walker:
Hey, it's Michael here. I hope that you got a ton of value out of this episode. Make sure to check out the show notes to learn more about the guest today, and if you want to support the podcast, then there's a few ways to help us grow. First, if you hit subscribe, then I'll make sure you don't miss a new episode. Secondly, if you share it with your friends on your social media, tag us, that really helps us out. And third, best of all, if you leave us an honest review, it's going to help us reach more musicians like you who want to take their music careers to the next level. It's time to be a Modern Musician now, and I look forward to seeing you on our next episode.