Extraordinary Person #11 Life Beyond Hollywood: Tyler Foley on Acting, Writing, and Podcasting

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Sometimes choosing your career path can be hard, even if you feel you are in a successful one. But what happens when you decide to do what it is that you truly love? You thrive. Join me as I talk to actor, author, speaker, and extraordinary person, Tyler Foley, on this episode of True Crime in all thirds.

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Welcome to True Crime and Authors Podcast, where we bring two passions together. The show that gives new meaning to the old adage, truth is stranger than fiction. Here's your host, David McClam. What's going on everybody? Welcome to another episode of True Crime and Authors. Of course, I'm your man, David McClam. Hey, if you guys haven't already, make sure you follow us on all of our social media.

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One link to a link tree would get you to every link that you need to have to the show. All right, so if you're keeping up, which I'm sure you are, you know, it is time for yet another extraordinary person. This guy actually fits two of my bills because he's also an author. So let me introduce to you who our guest is. Sean Tyler Foley is a remarkable and versatile performer with a broad range of experiences in film, television, and stage.

01:27
With an acting career that began at the tender age of six, Tyler has since made unforgettable appearances on productions including Freddy vs. Jason, Door to Door, Carrie, and the unforgettable musical Ragtime. Not only is he a veteran podcast guest with more than 300 episodes under his belt, but he is also the number one bestselling author of The Power to Speak Naked and managing director of Total Buy-In.

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where he works closely with executives and CEOs to help them better engage their audience when presenting by connecting their personal stories to their leadership style. He is the author of the number one bestselling book, the power to speak naked, how to speak with confidence, communicate effectively and win your audience. Please welcome Tyler Foley. Tyler, welcome to the show, my friend. Oh, thank you for having me on David. I feel like I should have. Like.

02:22
uh, some kind of like jock jams, anthem going in the back the way that you read that, like I want to, I want to bust through like onto the court, you know what I mean? Like I need cheerleaders, I need smoke, I need fog, uh, and I need a lot of base pumping in the background for that. That was good. Thank you. Kind of like the Chicago bulls used to come out back in the day. Yeah. No, man, it's a pleasure and honor to have you here when I read about you.

02:50
When you came across pot match, I'm like, I have to interview this guy because there's so many facets to you of 300 podcast episodes. I'm roughly just that of my whole entire career, about two 15. So I guess I'll ask you, man, that's a long time. How did you stick with that and get 300 episodes? No pod fade happens around episode seven. So I guess we're both out of that, but Well, I did. I did the lazy man's way of getting on. I just, all I do is guest.

03:19
Right. I don't struggle on the with the problems of the host. Like, you know, I know, man, I know the struggle is real when you are a host of a show, particularly one as well done as true crime and authors. You know, like there's a lot that goes into production. There's a lot that does it. So like that eats up your time. For me, all I do is guest. So it's easy. Right. You send me a link. We set an appointment.

03:47
I come on the show, I chatty chatty, I look pretty for, you know, 45 minutes to an hour, and then I punk off. And then you are stuck being like, okay, well, now I have to edit that down and make it presentable to my audience. And I need to, you know, release this and edit it and put up all the promo for it. So, honestly, this is the easy gig. So it's easy to get 389.

04:16
You're my 389th podcast recording in 18 months. So you do a couple a week and you just make it happen. Well, I'm honored to be that man. Thank you for the kind words on the show. I'm glad you said that because I am in the process of writing a book on my journey through podcasting. And that's one of my whole chapters is everybody thinks is just sitting behind a microphone and interviewing people, but the production of it is massive. So

04:43
I thank you for saying that being, you know, you've been on so many episodes, but yeah, you know exactly what goes into it. Oh yeah. No, I didn't. Hey, if you're writing a book, my friend, I've already, I've, I've updated the power to speak naked to include a chapter on a podcast of the updated edition, the revised edition, power to speak naked, bigger, longer, uncut is what it is titled. We will be releasing that in the fall. And I did a thing pod match.

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Right. Alex Sanfilippo. I, uh, was one of the contributing authors to his number one bestselling book, pod match guest mastery. So if you want a bonus content, you feel free to ask. I'll write a chapter for you. I'll put it in and tell people how to make a good guest experience. I'm happy to do that for you. Absolutely, man. Have you got a chance to meet Alex Sanfilippo? I have Alex and I chat probably once a week. I I've never actually met him in person in person.

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But we're going to change that because we'll be speaking together on, uh, one of the big podcast forums coming up in the fall. So I'm looking forward to that. Well, he is a hell of a guy. I met him. Uh, there was just a podcast convention here that he invited me to in LA. So I just met him like a month ago, him and his wife. Yeah. And everything that you see about him is exactly him. He's legit, right? Him and Alicia are like absolutely legit. Like they, I,

06:10
Those are the kind of humans I surround myself with, where what you see as a public persona is what the private persona is. I've met a lot of really interesting and famous people in my life, and the ones that I have been most enamored by are not the big Hollywood stars. They're the people who are who they are publicly and privately at the same time. And Alex is definitely one of those people.

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So if you guys haven't checked out pod match yet, make sure you do that. Alex Sanfilippo and his wife, Alicia is the real deal. They're not out here money gouging you. So he really does want to help podcasters and he's helped me tremendously just by finding him. So you guys make sure to check that out. So man, you have had quite the life from everything I read about you. You were from a stunt man, safety professional, actor, engineer. You was just never satisfied. Are we satisfied now? We do what we want to do? How's that working out?

07:08
So yes and no. I am. I feel very at peace in my life right now. I feel that I am doing what I was put on the planet to do, where I, as you had said, I am not ever at rest, but I am peaceful. And so one of the things that I'm really excited about is that I do have a lot of things on the go. I have a lot of.

07:37
projects and collaborations that I'm working on. But it's it's in a place of calm. So it's real easy to focus on the things and give them my attention and be part of it. Because I'm at a really good happy place. Not that I ever wasn't. It's just that there was that under you know, the itch underneath you're like, Oh, but that could be doing more. Maybe I want to do this thing. Or, Oh, I wonder about that squirrel.

08:04
And, uh, I am so guilty of that, but now it's, it's nice because, uh, all of my passions seem to have fused into one clear path, multiple ventures, but one clear path where I'm not having to jump back and forth, I just get to travel forward. As I said at the top, you know, as a stunt man, you've done, you know, Jason versus or Freddie versus Jason door to door, but we noticed that's you. I mean, who did you play as a stunt double in some of these movies? So a lot of that.

08:33
I was actually acting in most of my stunt work. You wouldn't see me. And a lot of it was before IMDB really got going. And I never I don't add stuff to my IMDB. If a production doesn't put me on. Then I didn't do it. And, you know, sometimes I'm in the credits and sometimes I'm not, which is it's a meh thing, especially the stunt work, because a lot of it I was uncredited or or.

09:02
you know, was was there doing a favor for the stunt coordinators. So a lot of times I'd get paid for the day, but not really end up making it on the call sheet. I was like, you know, stunt person acts or driver acts and stuff like that. So it was yeah, there's stuff that you would would you a lot of the stunt work you wouldn't see me in. I did my own stunts and stuff. So like Carrie.

09:27
I got a stunt adjustment, but it's hilarious because the quote unquote stunt that I did was taking a foam book to the nose. Because it was the library scene and I'm making fun of Carrie and one of the guys throws a book at me to kind of like defender and I had to do the whole oh no that hurt. Oh, oh. With this foam book and they actually the friend of mine Richard they brought to double me

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but it made absolutely no sense to stick somebody else in because they were never gonna do reverse coverage. So you saw my face the whole time. So I just ended up doing quote, the stunt myself. So that's like one of the few stunts that you see. Another one that I did, the late and great Anton Yelchin did a movie called Jack. And I did a stunt for him where...

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his character is having a fight with his dad, his dad and his mom have divorced and he doesn't, they go fishing and he doesn't want to be in the boat with them. Like his dad tries to like have a one-on-one talk with them and take some fishing. So he's like a captive audience in this boat. And instead of talking to his daddy jumps into a lake and swims to shore. And so I did the lake swim. So I did stunt stuff like that. And then I also specialized in high falls. So a lot of the stuff that you do, that's the thing about being, when you're doing stunts,

10:44
they don't see you. And I was an actor who did stunts. I wasn't a stunt man who acted. So I dabbled in stunts because I knew a lot of the coordinators and I knew a lot of the stunt professionals. I worked with some really cool guys. My buddy, Nick Barak, I just about bricked because again, you never see stunt guys, but in the opening sequence of the first Deadpool movie, my buddy Nick is the guy who Ryan Reynolds

11:11
butt smushes into in the back seat of the SUV when it flips over and they do the whole opening title sequence and it's like slow mo Nick's face getting smushed by Ryan Reynolds butt and I remember I watched that movie in the theater and I unapologetically yelled at the top of my lungs, oh my god that's Nick!

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snap whip right away. Shh. So it's just excited. That's my buddy. Well, maybe it is the Carrie scene because when I, when I saw your photo and my wife saw him, he says he looks familiar and I'm like, well, here's the movies he's been in. So now you brought Carrie up. That's probably it. I know it's been years ago, but there's features you can't change. One of them is your eyes, which my daughter says that your eyes are like looking into a lake because they are super blue.

12:09
You take a photo, dude. They like just pop out. So they pop. I know. But when my head shot, my sister to this day is like, that was Photoshopped and she's really good friends with the photographer who took it. And Monique Esposito will forever tell the truth that they did not Photoshop. That is just that is my eyes. That is the background. One of the greatest compliments I ever got was I had posted it up kind of like.

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One of my influencer friends had posted up and was like, this guy helps a lot doing some of my stage work and he's a great guy and he posted my headshot. And some random guy was like, he must eat a lot of spice. And it's a direct reference to Dune, right? Because when they eat the spice melange, their eyes, the fremen, their eyes glow blue, and I got it.

13:01
I got it. I was like, yes. It made me smile because I'm such a geek. So. So I live in a suburb of LA. I'm in LA every day down near Beverly Hills and all those good things. As you know, Hollywood writers are now on a strike. Yeah. I pass all the major studios every day. Being that you've been a part of Hollywood, how do you feel about the strike? Are you supportive of it? Do you wish that it would be over? Cause our TV is starting to suck right now.

13:29
Yeah, so I learned about this. I knew the strike was pending, but I didn't realize that it had actually happened until my until the first episode of John Oliver last week tonight didn't air. I was like, what? Because I live in Canada. So a lot of times like the service that we use to do it will like forget to upload the thing. So I just figured they were just behind. And then I was like, two days later, I'm like, why is that? Oh, yeah, the strike. So.

13:58
As a unionized performer, I am definitely on the side of the writers. I think they are one of the most underappreciated crafts in all of Hollywood. I think the only two more, I don't want to say disrespected, but underappreciated groups within Hollywood are stuntmen. Stuntmen get no credit. Do you know, they don't even have an Oscar. That is disgusting.

14:27
Stuntmen deserve an Oscar. Stuntmen deserve an Oscar. Academy, if you hear me now, stuntmen deserve an Oscar. Stunt people. And then the writers. The writers, I mean, I do not sound eloquent if I am supposed to just riff on my own. I do not improv well. I need a script.

14:51
And that script comes from somewhere and that is a writer. So no, I'm definitely on board with the writers. I wish that they could come to a resolution quick because you're right. TV sucks right now. And it's getting worse. Ryan Reynolds cannot improv on Deadpool three because he is listed as a writer credit, so he has to stick with the script that was done. That is good. That is if anything writers, you have to come to producers, you have to come to the table now. So Ryan Reynolds can riff. Do not take.

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that man's voice away from him. Yeah, unfortunately I've been keeping up with it and, um, it's ruining a lot of my shows. Uh, I'm not a union, uh, for Hollywood, but I am in a union. I've been in the air force union for a long time. He's worked for the airline and I feel unions are unions. Uh, and the things that they're asking for not far fetched, you know, the one they want protections against AI, you know, I've seen what AI can do, but it's just like,

15:45
I looked at my daughter, I'm like, well, they're on strike. In the corner of what I read, the strike's going to be going for a long time. So we're not seeing anything from Cobra Kai anytime soon. And she's like, are you serious? And I agree with you when it comes to stunt men. I don't know how far you know about this, but Fumio Demora, who was the guy that Mr. Miyagi was patting after, I actually studied up under June Reed, which is one of his best friends, he died in April and they have a documentary called The Real Mr. Miyagi.

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because the stunt where you see where Mia where Danielson is running through after the Halloween party and he gets to the gate and then Miyagi comes jumping over. Well, that's actually Fumio Demora because Pat Morita couldn't do martial arts and save his soul. No. And they wanted him to lie and say, Hey, just tell everybody use your own stunts. He goes, I can't do that. I agree for all the stuff that I've seen for all of these act and you guys deserve an Oscar category of your own something. So we, we need to fight for that.

16:43
Yeah, no. And like I said, as an actor who has performed stunts and has worked with some of the greatest stunt professionals in the business, those guys are vicious. And what's worse too, you know, they're there to get hurt. And a lot of them do. And a lot of them really suck it up because if they say that they've been hurt, then they don't get WCB claims. You can't get external insurance through as a stuntman because your job is danger.

17:13
So they're, they're uninsurable. Like for so many reasons, those men and women are literally putting their lives on the line for our entertainment. They deserve an Oscar and then some, but at least, at least an Oscar category. Right. I totally agree. Totally agree. So we all know the myth that visualizing your audience naked is supposed to be the best thing for a performer, but I read that you want to debunk that myth. So tell me why you don't think that's true.

17:43
It's the worst advice ever on the planet. Oh my goodness. Okay, so let's break this down. First of all, if you are, so this is for live performance, right? Because as an actor on film, you're never gonna see your audience. So it doesn't matter, you can do whatever you want. You wanna visualize the crew naked, go for it. Well, I don't know that it'll help you, but do whatever you're gonna do. But if you're doing like a live performance, so if you're doing any kind of public speaking, or if you're doing a theater gig, or maybe you're a musician,

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and you know any kind of live performance, you have a live audience. The mental waste, just that alone, the mental waste that it is to try and picture your audience naked is completely distracting from you needing to concentrate on the thing that you need to do, which is serve that audience. I think originally the idea was that we would take comfort out of somebody else's discomfort, which I think is incredibly masochistic.

18:42
And like, again, why? And maybe, or you're trying to do this mental exercise for the absurdity of it, no matter how you cut it, you are not of service of your audience when you do it. And if you really, really truly want to get over stage fright, stage fright comes from the ego. So anytime you talk to somebody and they're like, yeah, I was nervous because...

19:06
I was afraid I didn't know what I would say, or I thought they would think that I was an idiot or I, I, I, I, I, and it becomes this projection of all the things that you think your audience is going to project onto you. And if you instead flip it and you're like, how can I leave this audience better than I found them? What can I do to connect with them? How do I teach them, make them feel, make them learn? Like all of those things. If you focus on the audience, you can't focus on you.

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As much as people like to pretend like they can multitask, I assure you, we cannot. Our brain is like, it is a one-way street. You can do one thing at a time. And if you detour, you're detouring onto another street, you do not get to ride in two vehicles at the same time. So if you're concentrating on your audience, then you're not focused on you. If you're not focused on you, you can't be nervous because you can't feel your nerves. You only feel the nerves when you're focused.

20:04
internally and so you want to make your focus external and then your audience is like wow he really connected with me or she really connected with me I love the story I love the what they did and and that really creates a powerful performance within that space regardless of what you're doing whether you're acting speaking playing music dancing doing some kind of expression whatever it is if you are focused on your audience and they will walk away moved

20:31
I'm glad you said that because well, as you know, podcasting is the same. I don't see my audience, so to speak, but I know what I say resonates with them. And I'm one of those people who listen to my show, you know, I tell people, I'll say, Hey, some people wouldn't even touch this topic because they're afraid to be in council. That's not me. Do you want to listen to somebody that wants to change their stance because it makes you happy or somebody that's going to tell you their stance and stick with that, we can still be friends, but who do you want to listen to?

21:01
Oh, isn't that the worst that you and I can't be friends because what you said made me feel butthurt? Right. Why? Why? Why can't you be honest with me and me be like, well, that is David's opinion. Like, why do why does it have to be so polarized? I don't understand how we've become so binary in this day and age.

21:24
That's proof that that AI is taking over and we're in the matrix because everything it's a one or a zero right now. There is no nuance anymore. Well, it's like, you know, I'm a seventies and eighties kid and I watch especially old comedy shows. Like the other night I was watching Eddie Murphy, Delirious. You can't say that on TV. Right. He can't say half of the stuff he's saying back then he would get completely just lambasted.

21:49
You know, back then all the people he's talking about would have been laughing with him and shaking his hand, a great show. Now you want to put out the pitchforks and kill him. Nevermind that David. It's old. We're only a few months out to somebody going back to something Eddie Murphy said back in 1982 or 83 or 84 and being like, and he is an evil person because 40 years ago, Mr. Murphy said these things. What? Why? Why does that even count?

22:19
Man, yeah, the world is becoming very fickle. I mean, they've even tried to cancel M and M and I'm like, really? Just like what's up. He said years ago, if you couldn't do that in 2001, you're not going to cancel them now you had your shot. I agree. So you took a big step that I know a lot of people would like to take. I know fear becomes a big part of this, but you actually walked away from your job to do what you're doing now. Full-time. He tells us how you came to that decision. Were you nervous about it? How did that work out?

22:49
No, because it wasn't the first time that I've done it. I have never been afraid to walk away from something if it wasn't bringing me joy or pleasure. And I remember, you know, when I was 25, I retired from acting because I'd become really complacent with it. And I wanted to challenge myself. So I actually went back to school to get my engineering discipline in my late 20s because I was tired of acting.

23:15
And again, it wasn't bringing me joy. And then I developed this really interesting career and that was really fun for a while, but then it stopped being fun. What was interesting was around that time my daughter was born, she is objectively and subjectively cute. And I know that because I am a partial owner in a talent agency that specializes in child actors.

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And so I went to my business partner and main owner of the agency and I was like, really, I know that all parents think their children are cute. So I understand my bias, unbiasedly, child, cute, yes or no, you know, and she was like, Oh, no, she's gorgeous. I was like, I thought so. So it isn't just me. And then instantly the first time my daughter was on, did a gig when she was 11 months old. And when she was just

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just before her second birthday, she got hired to do a commercial and they needed somebody to play her dad. And my agent was like, well, why don't you play her dad? You are her dad. And I was like, yeah, but I don't really act anymore. And she's like, yeah, but don't you? I was like, okay, well, I'll go audition. I said, I will audition. And if they choose me, we'll do it. If not, that's just how it is. And sure enough, we got to do it together. And being on set with my daughter reminded me how much I actually do love being on set.

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And what I was complacent with in my late 20s, well, mid 20s, was the grind of it being a job. But now I'm freed of that because it's back to being a hobby. And so now I can do it whenever I want. And the business side has become so successful that I have the ability to dictate my own schedule so I can audition when I choose if I want to. And if I do book a gig

25:10
I just shuffle stuff around so that I can go do that. Like I just finished filming a movie that will come out in a year that I can't tell you the name of or who stars in it, but I can tell you that it is based on a real life event in Oregon that then had a book made after it. And when it comes out, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. And it was one of the best experiences of my life. And I was able to do it because I could change my schedule around. So there...

25:39
there's always a little bit of fear in the unknown of, am I making the right decision? But if you can like, I don't sound so frou-frou, but if you can get just in tune with what the universe is telling you, you know, I actually do a keynote presentation called The River. And I talk about how I, you know, because I remember speaking on stage and being around Tony Robbins a couple of times and hearing him talk about flow state. And I understood the concept of,

26:08
what he says and how he describes it. But for me, I know that I'm in a flow state because to me, it's like being in a river. And if you're trying to swim upstream, you're expelling all of this energy and not going anywhere or drifting down river. But when you just let yourself go, you can feel that water and that current surround you and push you and guide you. And even when there's obstacles in the way of the river, the river moves around the obstacles. So if you allow your body

26:38
just be, it will naturally work its way around the obstacles. And that's really what I've done for the last decade is quit trying to force my own hand and my own agenda and really try to become in tune with what I'm being guided towards. And there is divinity in everything that happens, and I am living proof of it.

27:07
day in day out of my ever living proof of it. So here's an interesting question. I don't know if anybody's ever asked you this, but I've never had a dad that was a child actor who has a daughter or a child that's going to be one. Now with all of the things that's happening with child actors, we got them all kind of the word where they weren't happy. You know, we know about the whole McCauley Culkin thing. Now there's been laws as a father of a child who's going to act. What do you stand on that? And what will you do differently being that you've been in the business before?

27:37
I'm not going to do anything differently because I'm going to do exactly what my mom did. My mom didn't care if I was on stage or off stage. It was up to me. And I determined when I was and wasn't going to work. And same with my daughter. She loved performing for the first three or four years of her life. And you know, loved going to auditions and just really enjoyed it. And then, in and around March 2020, some stuff happened.

28:06
And suddenly the way we auditioned changed and we no longer were going into large rooms with thousands or hundreds of people all smushed together, turning through like cattle to go and talk to a casting director. Now we were, you know, doing self tapes and filming down in our studio. So you know, I've got my nice little gray void here that I can come and hang out in and do all of my presentations. And you know, I do.

28:35
a lot of live seminars that I broadcast from my studio. But my studio is also my basement slash my daughter's playroom because the little thing goes up, right? I've got this nice little backdrop, photo backdrop, it rolls up and there is a playhouse directly behind it. And so, you know, daddy's studio is also her play area.

29:04
And we would have to come down to her play area to self tape. And within about nine months of it, uh, you know, and probably the, I don't know, 18th or 20th audition that she did from the basement, not getting to see other kids, not getting to go into the room on her own with the casting director, not getting to slate and dress up and do whatever. Daddy's the casting director. Daddy's the cameraman. Daddy's the reader.

29:34
And she was like, I don't want to do it anymore. I was like, all right. So I wrote our agent and I'm like, listen, as long as we're still doing self tapes, she doesn't want to do it. When we open up and we can start going back to auditioning in person, let me know and she'll be totally in for it. Sure enough, two years later, they're finally doing a live casting call. Kenzie goes in, books the role.

30:01
first commercial audition that she had in like two years, and boom, she was so excited to be back in the room. So I will forever and always let her do her thing. And I'm gonna take the advice of my mom too. My mom was super smart because there wasn't the McCauley Culkin rule yet. There wasn't the need to put proceeds from child acting into a trust fund. But my mom did. She locked away basically

30:31
every cent that I made. I usually got like 50 or 100 bucks from a gig, not even like the paychecks because some of my stuff would go for like weeks, right? Like particularly when I was doing theater, we do a four or six week run and plus auditions. I'd be getting paychecks for three or four months. Mom would give me 100 bucks and then everything else went into trust. So when I was 25 and I

31:00
I was able to pay for my school in cash. Oh wow. Exactly what we're doing with Kenzie. And so things like that, like I wouldn't change how I did it, but I've also been in it and I've seen it. And I had a wonderful experience, an absolutely wonderful experience. And I'm not the only one. So you look at some of the Nepo babies in Hollywood and for everyone who is, you know, crying and smoking crack and doing had jobs on the side.

31:29
you've got, you know, somebody like, like Ron Howard. I think people forget Ron Howard's second generation, right? And now you look, his daughter is directing and acting. So there's success stories all over. Liv Tyler is another amazing, Goldie Hawn's daughter.

31:54
Right? Like you look through all of these things and you look at Kate Hudson and she's incredible. Right? Oh, Wyatt Russell. I got to meet him when we were filming the Miracle in Vancouver. And, you know, Kurt was on set and all everybody, the whole family was there. It was amazing how they all supported everybody. But that was incredible to see. So for all the horror stories,

32:23
I think a lot of that has to do with, you know, uh, circumstance and personality and, and, and things, but there's always, there's always a success story. So I'm not going to change a thing for Kenzie as long as she wants to do it. She'll keep doing it. And when she gets tired of it, she can walk away. I, I'm not, my identity is not tied to my child's vocation. I certainly convene you for that because I'm the same way. I have six children out of those six. Uh, my.

32:51
Now my youngest daughter who's going to college in a couple of months, she wanted to play the drums. I've been a professional drummer for now 47 years. My middle son, he wanted to make video games and then he wanted to get into martial arts. And I set him down. I said, I want to make sure that you want to do this because you want to, not because I did it or you feel like that somehow you're making me happy and you're prolonging that. None of that. If you're doing it for any other reason

33:20
Get out of it. I've done my time. I'm not living through you. Whatever you want to do, you do it. And my daughter did drumming for a couple of years. And then we found out that actually she was a fabulous singer. We get a call saying, I don't know why your daughter's wasting her time doing flags and drums. She needs to be in my choir. And now she's going to be going to California Baptist University on a $45,000 scholarship for singing. So good luck to you and your daughter, man. I know she's in great hands and...

33:49
I commend you for doing it that way. Yeah, my kid has better technique on the skins than I do. I had to buy her a set of TDK9s just so that she could get a little go. And I'm so glad that you know what I'm referencing too. Because there are people who are listening to this and they're like, first of all, where's my true crime?

34:08
This author guy has spoken very little about his book and what the hell are TDK9s? They're a set of Roland TDK9 electronic drum kits. And at the time they were the flagship, they're like the entry level that is still good enough that you can play them pro. So, and she's got great technique. Like she has way better control, way better meter than I do. I've been drumming for 35 years now. I suck.

34:37
We're all good in our own way. Yeah. So that's a good transition. That's what I was going next. Let's talk about the number one best selling book. You have the power to speak naked, how to speak with confidence, communicate effectively and win your audience. I can already tell just from talking to you for the last now 40 minutes. You are a pro at this. So tell us how you came to write this book. Well, so first thing I didn't write my book.

35:05
I spoke my book. That's what I'm doing too. Hey, you know, another thing in common. Yeah. Like why, why waste your time typing? I have tiny soft hands. So the keyboard hurts. I don't want, I don't want to waste my, and I can speak way faster than I can, than I can type. So I actually, uh, the book came about because I was starting to speak on stage. I was starting to do keynote addresses and, and, and

35:33
really make public speaking a vocation in a career. My agent had said, you know, I kept asking, I'm like, I wanna get on some of these bigger stages. And she was like, whoa, cowboy, I know what you want. This is what I can do for you. And if you want the big stages, you have to have a book that we can promote for you to be able to be on it. Nobody's gonna book you.

35:59
on in the 5,000, 6,000, 9,000 seats. You're not doing any stadium arena tours until you have a book and a course and people know you and you need to have number one bestseller tacked on the end of your name. And until then, you are going to keep doing keynotes in corporate America to 200 to 300 people. And that's just how it is. And so because I wanted to get

36:28
uh better at this and because I wanted to have some of those larger stages because the more people you speak to the more impact you can make. I decided well I've already developed the course so let's just take the course it's recorded let's transcribe it jazz it up a bit call it a book and that's exactly what we did. I took all of the training material that I had developed over the course of about three and a half years we poured through hundreds of hours.

36:57
video transcribed the best bits of it and compressed it into the I think it's like 136 pages or something like that. What do we got here? all I know is that my publisher says that it's an hour and 14 minute read and it's 134 hundred thirty four pages of basically a brain dump of 35 years of public speaking experience onto the page So in case somebody the audience is wondering the same thing I am

37:28
Why is it so important to have a book? If you're already a pro at doing what you're doing in corporate America, why do we have to have a book to get somebody to say, okay, come on the stage? Because it's credibility. It's the same reason why, uh, as this will be so horrible because there's going to be, uh, people around New York who are just screaming at me now. It's the same reason for the longest time why you

37:57
wouldn't see a Broadway actor in Hollywood.

38:02
That experience doesn't count in our world. Go back to theater, you overacting schmuck. And that's just, that was the perception. And large stages are no different. It's easy to, especially with an agent, to be able to push some of those corporate gigs because there are hundreds of

38:30
thousands of companies who are looking for speakers in the, you know, $1,500, $2,000, $5,000 range to come and give addresses to their people and either teach them something or motivate them or do, you know, do something. There's hundreds of thousands of corporate gigs. This is actually not hard to do. But if you want to be on the big stages with the big promoters,

39:00
and you want to be earning some higher level dollars by providing higher level value, they won't even look at you without a book and a course and a track record. And so that's one of the reasons why I actually developed the training program that I did with Drop the Mic and with Endless Stages. And our 100 Podcasts in 100 Days challenge was to start showing

39:30
regular people who have great ideas, but just are struggling getting the exposure and getting the credibility, how to rapidly get credibility through podcasting, doing the same thing that I did. If I can get on 388, 389 podcasts now in 18 months, I can show people how in a hundred days they can get on a hundred podcasts. It sounds, I remember the first time we did a Facebook ad for that, the trolls that I got, that's a, I remember one guy breaking down the math. We'll assume that you can do two a month.

40:00
We'll assume you can do two a month. The maximum that you could do in a hundred days is six. And I remember being like, why can you only do two podcasts in a month? You obviously don't know the industry. I just did five today while I'm reading your thing. So no, it is entirely possible. It's actually really, really easy. If you call it, if you get a hundred days and we'll assume that you're gonna take weekends, right? So you're not gonna record on weekends.

40:30
If you do two podcasts a day, which is anywhere from an hour to two and a half hours worth of time that you have to slot off. But if this is your goal and this is what you want to do, you do two podcasts a day, five days a week. And you do that for 10 weeks, which is not even 100 days. That's 70 days. You do two podcasts a day, five days a week for 10 weeks.

40:59
You've done a hundred podcasts. Not hard. I don't care who you are. Anybody can do that. And I can tell you that to be true because a true crime and authors is my newest show. I've done podcasts now for five years. Uh, we've only been going now roughly 10 months. Uh, and I'm already at almost 50 episodes. So it's very easy to do, especially when you have the way of booking people like yourself who wants to come on and you're right. Guesting is a lot easier. I've done guest spots too. I just got to show up.

41:30
Show up and look pretty. And at least you and I can both deliver on those ends. Right? You got to show up, look pretty and talk. It says three things, three things to it, David. Let's not pretend. Let's not lead the audience down a Primrose path that isn't there. There are three things you have to do. Show up, look pretty, talk. The three easiest things in podcasting. You talk a lot about audience. Let's talk a little bit about that.

42:00
I do know that I have some listeners that in their jobs, that's part of their job. They do presentations, engaging audiences from your knowledge. Can you tell us how to better engage or re-engage our audience? Well, yeah. So as they always say, prevention is always better than a cure. So it's better to keep your audience engaged than to have to re-engage them. But the secrets to keeping your audience engaged and re-engaging them are basically the same and that is.

42:28
Again, to a point that I'd made much earlier on. So go to the listener, go and rewind to about the 20 minute mark when Tyler talked about focusing on your audience and making sure that you treat them like the golden gift that they are. To reiterate that if you focus on your audience, if you understand that they are a treasure, they are a gift to you, anytime you have somebody's focus, our most valuable asset is our time. If I'm giving my time and attention to you, you better.

42:57
give me something in return for that. And that is either, and you have to leave me better than you found me. So that is either with some knowledge or with a different point of view, or you provide me with an experience that I hadn't yet had. If you can combine all those things, it's excellent. So one of the first secrets that I give people is if you are given 45 minutes to talk, which is a typical keynote time slot, your...

43:27
Fucking should only be about 25 30 minutes max of you actually speaking The rest of that time should be coming from your audience interacting with your audience even if you've got like this great presentation and you've got the pattern down and you know the journey that you want to take them on and You've got this, you know perfect story and presentation

43:57
It only goes so far, but the second you turn around and you make it about your audience, so what did you think about that? Tell me a time where you may have experienced that. Who has a different point of view from this? Why do you have that point of view? If you can dialogue with your audience, everybody is more entertained, more involved, more engaged through that, including you, because it forces you to

44:25
actively participate with your audience. It forces your audience to actively participate with you. There's a reason why Tony Robbins walks through an auditorium and does his interventions.

44:42
Because if he were to actually, like a Tony Robbins event, they go for like 12, 14, 16 hours a day. Tony does not talk for 16 hours. He might talk for four, maybe even three. If you actually time what he's doing, a lot of what he's doing is asking very pointed questions, listening, and then imparting his knowledge and his wisdom.

45:09
back to that person so that they see the world differently than how they were viewing it previously. Best way to engage your audience, you wanna keep them engaged by actively engaging them. And then if you lose your audience, quick trick, the one that I use all the time, cause I even as a pro, I think I'm pretty engaging. I'd like to think I'm entertaining. I bring a lot of energy to what I do, but I lose audiences. I promise you David, I've done it. It's happened.

45:38
I've been there. I know because I've looked at the glossy eyes that are like this and they're ready to lose. So one of the quick ways, if you find that you are losing your audience, turn to your partner and tell them something that you, the takeaway that you've had over the last five, 10, 15 minutes. And then they turn around and they say, oh yeah, no, this is the thing that stuck with me. And then their friend says, this is the thing that stuck with me. And it's either the same thing and they both agree and they go, yeah, that was a really good takeaway.

46:06
Or they go, oh yeah, I forgot about that. Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Either way, you're reinforcing your message through somebody else's lens. It gives you a chance to listen to what these people are saying so that you can do a pulse check to find out if what they think they heard is what you wanted them to hear. So you can either reinforce that or do a course correction. And if you do the bubble up thing, like, okay, now who's brave and who wants to share one of your takeaways? Who wants to share with everybody what was one of your takeaways?

46:34
that gives you a third opportunity to reinforce your message. So it gets reinforced by each person saying it to each other. And then if you bubble up, it's a third time. And then you can either reinforce it by agreeing with it or course correct and say, okay, well, when I said that what I actually meant was this. And just so that we are clear on the takeaway. If that turned to a friend and share what you've done, I use that trick always, always, always, always. It's my favorite one to use to reengage an audience. I know you talk about

47:03
a story, power of the story, why is there power in a story? And why should we convey that? Well, we as human beings have been communicating through story for millennia. I think particularly in this day and age, particularly in a digital world where we are reading media constantly, I think we forget

47:32
just how privileged we are to have the literacy levels that we have in the world. Because that was not the case 150, 200, 300 years ago. I think people forget that being able to read the written word used to be a very privileged, very select group of people who could do that. But we have

47:59
for millennia been able to verbally communicate with each other. Regardless of the dialect or language that we've spoken, we have communicated orally for millennia. And usually the way that we communicated was through allegory. We would tell stories. You know, you look at the great Greek myths and legends or some of the early Mesopotamian ones or even the Bible.

48:29
You know, regardless of your stance on religion, the Bible is still a story. And whether you want to believe it as historical or allegory, it is still a story that is illustrating a point. And that is why story is so powerful, because when you tell stories, it allows somebody else to view your viewpoint and gives you the opportunity to...

48:57
either reinforce their viewpoint or change their viewpoint. Because they say never judge a person until they've walked a mile in your shoes. But you are in LA and I am up in Calgary, which is north of the border. So you're south of me, I'm north of you. There is an entire mountain range in between us, not to mention a border and a couple of states and a province. For me to come down and physically walk a mile in your shoes right now, David, I can't do it. But.

49:26
you tell me a story. You tell me a story about your daughter who was learning to drum and is now singing. And I go, oh yes, I can relate to that. I too am a drummer. My daughter likewise has picked up a set of sticks and has hit the skins far better than me. And she has started to do musical theater just like her dad makes me proud. I relate to what you're saying.

49:54
and I can understand it. You also say, I have six children and I go, dear God, man, you are the bravest soul I've ever met because I can't handle one. But you tell me that story and now I have a different viewpoint. I have a different lens to look at. Story is powerful. It's how we as human beings can connect. The power of story gives us empathy. It gives us sympathy. It gives us understanding. It gives me the ability to see your world your way.

50:23
and start to understand it. And I think we've moved away from story, especially in an era of tweets where we're trying to compress our thoughts into 144 characters or less. We need to get back to the long format. In fact, we need to get back from the reading, the written word to hearing the spoken word because there's so much subtext and context that goes into our delivery.

50:55
One of the things that I love and hate about my book is the fact that it was transcribed. So you are getting my voice. You are getting my words spoken the way that I would deliver them. But you don't hear the subcontext of it. You don't hear the emotion. You don't hear the rationale behind it. And that is always conveyed by the way that I actually deliver the words. On paper, it reads, okay, you hear me live. I change. I move your heart.

51:24
And I think that's the power of story. I think people should realize that we really live our lives in story. If you really look everything we do in my job, I trained, but part of my job is sales and I use personal stories because somebody says, should I buy this? Well, yeah, here is why. Let me tell you what happened to me. Not as a salesperson, but it's something I can prove. And you see it click. It's the same thing in my old.

51:53
I used to be one of the number one video game reviewers for rock band rhythm gaming and When I started doing reviews, I said I can't do this in writing I said because there's a couple of reasons if you can see me Then you can tell by the way I look at what I'm doing if I'm BSing you or I'm telling you the truth and I looked at I says What do I hate about reviews I read them and I know in the video game world that there are companies that pay these reviewers

52:21
to give us a bunch of BS because they're getting all this money. So if you can see me, then you know, I'm telling you the truth. You know, the product is right. And you'll take that at its face value. So I totally agree with the story podcasting. That's all I do. It's a true crime podcast, but I'm telling you a story, maybe somebody else's story, but I'm also making you what my thoughts are. And maybe I can tie in some personality or something personal for me with that story. So I agree. The story is very important without it.

52:52
We don't have anything. And I think that's really what connects us as individuals. Stats tell, stories sell. It's been the longest, you know, that's a sales adage for forever. And frankly, it's there because it's true. And we, I think a lot of times we forget that we are always selling something, whether that's our point of view or ourselves or a product or a belief, we are always selling.

53:20
something with our words. We're always trying to convince somebody that that our viewpoint or our point of view or our belief or our structure is is the right one. And I think as you pointed out, story illustrates it. You can tell me all the stats in the world. I'm not going to care. I can read all the reviews in a magazine and I can I'm of the media. I have a PR agent. I know what is complete and total BS.

53:49
I got to be a number one bestseller by selling 13 copies of my book. 13. Now I've since gone on to sell thousands more, but I hit the number one in my category at 13 copies. I was able to get a little bit more legitimacy in that later on and doing campaigns and actually reach some real lists and get there. But you know.

54:18
number one in my category, still number one in my category. As soon as, as soon as it hit number one in the category, my PR agent was all over it. There was the screenshot and it went out on every flyer. She did a press release, number one best selling author, Tyler Foley, go and check him out. You know, like, and it's all PR spin. But the story sold, because suddenly I was doing TV and I was doing radio and I was booking some other stuff and it just turned out great.

54:44
So being that your book is around 139 pages, now for people like me, I like that because the fact that I don't have a lot of time, and if I could read something short and take something out of it, you packed a lot of years into this. Do you feel like that you've captured everything in that book in 139 pages that you wanted people to take away from that? Not even a little bit. No, that's why the second edition's coming out because there was so much more that I wanted to add.

55:13
When we were, again, when I was originally pushing the book out, it was by demand of, you know, people in my promotion circle. So my agent wanted it, my PR rep needed it, my manager wanted it, like other booking entities, like promoters who were interested in having me on their stage but said, you know, we need you to have this in place before we can. All of those things were kind of pushing.

55:42
a deadline to get it out. Just get it out. Right. And I've never been one to obsess over perfection. I have no problem putting something out and being like, people will like it or they'll hate it. We'll find out what the feedback is and we'll fix it later. Because I've always had the ability as an actor to fix it in post. I know how many takes go into an Oscar winning performance. It is never the first take. So I have never been.

56:09
worried about going back and redoing and refixing. So there is more that I want to put into it. And there's stuff that I'm taking out of it too, because I like that it's under a two hour read. I like that it's under 140 pages. I don't want to make it like this massive tome where people have to like have this leather bound thing that is strapped together and weighs 90 pounds. Like that's no fun. I want you to be able to read it on the airplane.

56:37
I love my cover because people have to be embarrassed by reading it on the airplane. Do you know what I mean? Like, it's got a naked dude on it. Like, I love I've actually seen people reading my book at at beaches and pools. And that I just I die inside every time I'm just beaming when I see people reading my book as like poolside literature. And the people and the other people who are looking at the people who are reading my book is.

57:04
poolside literature. And I'm like, it's a book about public speaking, not porn. So forget the reasons why you wrote the book. When you got that call from your agent, and they said, Tyler, congratulations, you've done it number one bestselling book, which means you're the bestselling author. What did that do? What was that moment like for you? It was remarkably surreal. Because again, when it initially happened,

57:31
I knew what the sales, because I could see, I was tracking, I could see what the sales were. I'm like, what? How's that? And we're at number one, 13 copies. Are you kidding? And then it started to gain. And that's the thing, as soon as you can post that out, and I'm not even kidding, the moment it happened, my PR agent took a screen capture, sent out a press release, and then started booking me on all kinds of national media. And then from there,

58:00
it just it became a beast. And to be able to be inside of it, right, like to, to be behind the wizard's curtain, and be like, that's all just, it was weirdly manufactured. But the other thing that was that may what made it so surreal was in my head, I'm going this is all fake. But it was real people that were purchasing the book.

58:29
And then we started to get real feedback on it. And it was overwhelmingly positive. And again, I was not I was not tied to the book, I was not tied to the manuscript. I wasn't worried about what the words were. I just needed it to get out there. And so to have people read it and be like, this is really good. Was. Humbling. And.

58:58
honestly just awe-inspiring. Pride is not the right word for it. I was humbled. I was amazed that I had put something out in the world that resonated with people in the way that it did. And that we had this sustained... The first edition of the book came out in 2019. The second edition of the book came out in 2021. It sustained momentum.

59:28
I'm three years in, four years into this being out in the world. It'll be four years in September for the original edition. Or no, it was May. I think it was May actually. September was the second release. So it was four years in May. So we're into the, you know, it's been out there and to still get sales. Like, you know, it's not great. They're not huge, but you know, we get eight, 10, 15, 20 sales a day of the book.

59:57
four years later. Amazing, absolutely amazing. And I'm humbled by it. I'm just so grateful that people enjoy it. What do you want everyone who's reading the book and who will read the book to take away from it? That they have a story to tell. And I want to arm them with the tools to tell it effectively so that they can change hearts and minds. And because you can't change a mind without changing a heart. You need to touch the heart first.

01:00:26
And I'm hoping particularly with the revised edition that we really arm them with the tools to be able to do that. That they recognize that they are an authority. They're an authority of their story because nobody has lived their life and so nobody knows their life better than them. Their story matters. And you never know who could be impacted by your story until you tell it. And so frankly, not telling your story is a disservice to the world. So I want people to know.

01:00:55
that their story matters, they matter, their experience is important, and arm them with the tools to be able to tell that story in an impactful way that moves their audience. In closing, what would you like to say to all of the readers and your fans out there that may be listening to this today? Don't forget to buy the book in bulk.

01:01:19
Hahaha

01:01:22
Oh my gosh. You can't tell your friends. It makes the best birthday president makes the best Christmas present. And Hey, it's even good at bar mitzvahs. But Tyler, I appreciate you being on here, man. It has been enlightening. You definitely did not disappoint. Thank you for coming on the show. I would love to have you come back at the show at any time that you wish. And I definitely will be following you and congratulations on all of your success.

01:01:51
Oh, thank you, David. It was a joy and a pleasure. And maybe next time we can talk some true crime. Looking forward to it.

01:02:02
All right, guys, that was the incredibly funny Tyler Foley. You can pick up your copy of the power to speak naked, how to speak with confidence, communicate effectively and win your audience right now at Amazon for $2 and 99 cents. I don't know any bestselling book you can buy for that little money. So let's go over there. Let's pick that book up. You heard him here. He has a lot of great insight. You can learn everything you need to know about Tyler right off of my website.

01:02:32
His profile will be linked to this episode. All of his social media handles will be there. So let's go support him. And I know that he will be grateful for it. All right, guys, thank you for tuning in today. I know you have many options in true crime and interview podcasts. I am grateful that I am just one of those. Hope you guys are being safe, being good to yourselves and each other. And always remember, always stay humble. An act of kindness can make someone's day.

01:03:00
A little love and compassion go a long way. And this is the podcast where two passions becomes one. And I'll catch you guys on the next one. Thank you for listening to true crime and authors. Don't forget to rate, comment, and subscribe. Join us on social media, on Facebook at true crime and authors, on Twitter at authors true on YouTube and tick tock.

01:03:25
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