Ep. 213: How Mechanic Den López Escaped the 9-to-5 and Turned His Passion into Profit

Den López was sick of missing time with his family and craved the freedom to pursue his passion.  So he left his 16-year career as a mechanic and built his dream business teaching guitar.

“I needed something I could get control of,” he said 

Tune in to discover how Den turned his passion for teaching into a thriving online business and how you can apply his insights to your own journey.

Den Lopez is an innovative guitar teacher and the creator of the “Guitar in One Hour” method. With over 25 years of experience playing guitar and a 100% success rate for his students, Den has built a thriving business that transforms beginners and frustrated guitarists into confident players. His passion for making music accessible has inspired countless students worldwide.

We Also Talked About:

• The emotional trigger that pushed Den to leave his 16-year career as a mechanic to pursue his passion for teaching guitar.
• How a family musical tradition shaped Den’s approach to teaching and his belief that anyone can make music.
• Why 95% of people quit learning the guitar and how Den’s innovative system simplifies the process.
• The role of breaking false beliefs and the importance of finding a mentor to succeed in both music and business.
• Insights into how Den built his business from scratch while balancing work and family life.
• A fascinating story of resilience and passion: Batman, rope, and the leap of faith needed to break free from job security.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Den’s “Beginner Guitarist Playbook” – Get your free copy at learningguitarsecrets.com/free 
• Russell Brunson’s One Funnel Away Challenge – https://www.onefunnelaway.com/ 
• Django Reinhardt – Iconic gypsy jazz guitarist – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ308aOOX04 
• Shane Sams – Entrepreneur and founder of Flipped Lifestyle – https://www.flippedlifestyle.com/ 

Pat Flynn – Entrepreneur and founder of the SPI community – https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/SPI-Community (affiliate link)

_____________

Trudy Rankin is the host of the Online Business Launchpad Podcast, Director of West Island Digital and the founder of the Online Business Lift-Off program.

Affiliate Disclaimer: If you click on links on this page and then make a purchase, I may earn a commission (at no extra cost to you).  I am a proud affiliate of these resources because I use them in my own life and business.

Resources

• Den’s “Beginner Guitarist Playbook” – Get your free copy at learningguitarsecrets.com/free 
• Russell Brunson’s One Funnel Away Challenge – https://www.onefunnelaway.com/ 
• Django Reinhardt – Iconic gypsy jazz guitarist – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ308aOOX04 
• Shane Sams – Entrepreneur and founder of Flipped Lifestyle – https://www.flippedlifestyle.com/ 

Pat Flynn – Entrepreneur and founder of the SPI community – https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/SPI-Community (affiliate link)

Den López was sick of missing time with his family and craved the freedom to pursue his passion.  So he left his 16-year career as a mechanic and built his dream business teaching guitar.

“I needed something I could get control of,” he said 

Tune in to discover how Den turned his passion for teaching into a thriving online business and how you can apply his insights to your own journey.

Den Lopez is an innovative guitar teacher and the creator of the “Guitar in One Hour” method. With over 25 years of experience playing guitar and a 100% success rate for his students, Den has built a thriving business that transforms beginners and frustrated guitarists into confident players. His passion for making music accessible has inspired countless students worldwide.

We Also Talked About:

• The emotional trigger that pushed Den to leave his 16-year career as a mechanic to pursue his passion for teaching guitar.
• How a family musical tradition shaped Den’s approach to teaching and his belief that anyone can make music.
• Why 95% of people quit learning the guitar and how Den’s innovative system simplifies the process.
• The role of breaking false beliefs and the importance of finding a mentor to succeed in both music and business.
• Insights into how Den built his business from scratch while balancing work and family life.
• A fascinating story of resilience and passion: Batman, rope, and the leap of faith needed to break free from job security.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Den’s “Beginner Guitarist Playbook” – Get your free copy at learningguitarsecrets.com/free 
• Russell Brunson’s One Funnel Away Challenge – https://www.onefunnelaway.com/ 
• Django Reinhardt – Iconic gypsy jazz guitarist – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ308aOOX04 
• Shane Sams – Entrepreneur and founder of Flipped Lifestyle – https://www.flippedlifestyle.com/ 

Pat Flynn – Entrepreneur and founder of the SPI community – https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/SPI-Community (affiliate link)

_____________

Trudy Rankin is the host of the Online Business Launchpad Podcast, Director of West Island Digital and the founder of the Online Business Lift-Off program.

Affiliate Disclaimer: If you click on links on this page and then make a purchase, I may earn a commission (at no extra cost to you).  I am a proud affiliate of these resources because I use them in my own life and business.

Resources

• Den’s “Beginner Guitarist Playbook” – Get your free copy at learningguitarsecrets.com/free 
• Russell Brunson’s One Funnel Away Challenge – https://www.onefunnelaway.com/ 
• Django Reinhardt – Iconic gypsy jazz guitarist – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ308aOOX04 
• Shane Sams – Entrepreneur and founder of Flipped Lifestyle – https://www.flippedlifestyle.com/ 

Pat Flynn – Entrepreneur and founder of the SPI community – https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/SPI-Community (affiliate link)

TRANSCRIPT

Episode 213:  How Mechanic Den López Escaped the 9-to-5 and Turned His Passion into Profit

Trudy Rankin: [00:00:00] If you’ve ever wished you could do something else besides the job you’ve trained for, then this episode is for you. In today’s episode, I’m joined by Den Lopez, an innovative guitar teacher and creator of the Guitar in One Hour Method. Now, Den ‘s approach focuses on making guitar accessible for anyone, even if you’ve struggled before.

And I’m fascinated by that because I’ve been learning to play the guitar for years and I’m still not very good at it. So I’m interested in listening to somebody who’s managed to make it easy. But he’s here to talk about more than that. He’s here to share his journey from mechanic to successful online guitar teacher, as well as providing you with some practical tips for finding your own path to business success.

Now, Den ‘s story is inspiring, not only for music lovers, but for anyone who’s thinking about starting a business that’s based on their passion. His method for learning guitar quickly and his journey from employee to entrepreneur is going to inspire and encourage you to take that next step.

Welcome to the Online Business Launchpad [00:01:00] podcast. I’m Trudy Rankin, and I bring you stories, tips, and advice from online entrepreneurs who have overcome problems and challenges to get to success, because if they’ve done it, so can you. My mission is simple. I want to help you solve the challenges you face as an online business owner, so that you can have more time and money for yourself and your family, and more choices in how you live your life.

Trudy Rankin: Welcome to the Online Business Launchpad podcast. I’m your host, Trudy Rankin. And for those of you who listen to the podcast, you may or may not know that I am attempting to learn how to play the guitar. And it’s a long history, a long history.

It starts with a very sad story. I was trying to learn to play guitar at university. And one day I put my guitar on top of the [00:02:00] car. I was busy, occupied. Jumped in the car and drove off, and I never saw the guitar again because I left it on the roof of the car. And so fast forward a few months later my fiance bought me a guitar so that I could continue to learning.

And of course, life got in the way. Work children, everything, and only about probably a year ago, I met somebody who had started teaching guitar online, and I actually started following them, and I’ve actually picked up the guitar again, and I’m learning how to play guitar. I’m not that good at it, but I love doing it because I love music, and it’s just something that really resonates with me.

So when I heard about the person who’s the podcast guest today, I thought, Oh yeah, let’s have him on. Let’s hear what he has to say because the guest today is Den Lopez and he has come up with a framework, if you want to call it that, or a way of teaching guitar in a way that you can learn really fast.

In fact, it’s the guitar in one hour [00:03:00] method is the way it’s built. And so I just wanted to say, thank you so much, Den , for being on the podcast. 

Den López: Thank you, Trudy. I’m very excited to be here. I didn’t know that about you. So this is awesome. This is fantastic. 

Trudy Rankin: So just for the listeners, can you just talk a little bit about who you are, where you are, and a little bit about your background?

Den López: For sure, of course. So I’m located in Barcelona, Spain. Half of my family is from the States. Half of my family is from Barcelona and I teach beginners and frustrated guitarists, people who are struggling, how to break free from that struggle and become amazing guitar players. Yeah, that’s what I do for a living.

Trudy Rankin: That’s a pretty cool thing to be able to do, to teach people what you love doing. So how did you get into guitar playing yourself? 

Den López: Okay, so you probably resonate with this story, Trudy, because you’re trying to figure it out, probably, right? The, how did I get into guitar, myself? Oh, okay [00:04:00] my, my family has always been very musical.

Music has always been in our household forever, in the car, playing in the stereo constantly, right? And I learned from a very young age, That anyone had the ability to play music. My grandfather used to throw these parties for Christmas or every birthday, and my father and uncle played the guitar.

But everyone around the table played music. Like everyone. My grandfather wanted all of us to play music. One person got a glass bottle and a knife and just banged on it. The other one banged on the table. The other one sang. Everyone has the ability to be able to play music. I learned that at a very young age.

Guitar, in your case, Is just the tool to be able to play that music. Does that make sense? 

Trudy Rankin: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. In fact it’s a fallacy to think that people can’t pick up music or learn how to not just enjoy music, but to [00:05:00] make music. Because a lot of people are get told at a young age that you are not musical.

You’re tone deaf, you’re this, you’re that, and so they, they can give up and that’s a shame. 

Den López: It’s a tragedy. So there’s two things I would love to talk about. One is breaking that false belief where if you love music and you listen to music is inside you. It’s a language that you already know.

So thinking that you’re not musical, that you’re not talented, that you’ll never be able to play music, it’s completely false because you already have it inside of you. If I play you a wrong chord, you’ll instantly pick up that’s that’s not good. Or if I play you a wrong rhythm where it’s off beats, you’ll also instantly pick that up, which means you are a musical, right?

If that makes sense. 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah. So let’s, and I agree with you. Some people have a little bit of a harder time to pick those things up, [00:06:00] but it’s still possible to do, especially with so you started out with a family that was very musical. How did you get to the part where you started to learn how to play guitar?

Den López: It was at recess. I was like probably 13 or 14 years old and a friend of mine brought a guitar over. and like he had a little gathering around him. He knew how to play a couple songs. So I decided to just take a peek at it and be like, huh? And he’s do you want to give it a try? And the first time you pick up a guitar, it just feels so weird on your lap, right?

It feels like this is going to fall. What is this? It feels weird. But he showed me a couple notes. I played them and I instantly, like it was, wow, I can play music with this. So I went running back home. Got the guitar out from under the bed. My father had his guitar there and tried to play it. It was outta tune, but then my father came back home, started showing me some chords and stuff like that, and that was the start of the journey.

[00:07:00] Yep. 

Trudy Rankin: That’s pretty cool. And so let’s just fast forward a little bit. At what point did you get to the place where you went, Hey, I know that there’s people out there that would like to learn how to play guitar. I’ve got a way that can help them do that. And I’m going to start teaching people. Tell us just a little bit about that story.

Den López: Yeah, so that’s a great question. All of my friends are guitarists. That’s what guitarists do, right? They have guitarist friends, and most of them teach personal lessons, like one on one. And I’ve been through those lessons, and I always thought to myself, I’m never going to teach guitar, just because the original the framework in which it’s taught is so slow in the beginning, right?

Fast forward. I was here in the studio playing my guitar and practicing some chops for my album and a friend of ours somebody came to visit and I was playing guitar and she listened to me for five minutes. And she said, that’s so cool. I’m actually [00:08:00] planning on signing up my daughter for a guitar lessons.

And you got to understand, like I’ve been playing guitar for, I don’t know, 25 years. So music is very important to me and guitar is like a part and an extension of me. If you take it out, if you take it away from me, something’s going to die inside of me. But the first thing, Trudy, that I thought, the first thing that came to mind was do not sign up your daughter for guitar lessons, which is crazy, right?

Because, I love a guitar, but I could imagine that kid, five years old or six years old, holding a huge guitar for her. Learning Twinkle Little Star. Now we’re going to practice the major scale. Now this is theory. Learn to read music, right? That is not what a child wants to do. A child wants to be a rock star and be able to play the songs she loves, right?

But how long is it going to take her? Two years? That’s the common path. Like two years to be able to play a song. Did you know that [00:09:00] 95%, 95%, of the people who start playing the guitar quit. 95%! That to me is a tragedy. It can’t be the people’s fault with those statistics. There has to be a fault in the system.

And right there, when my friend told me about her daughter signing up for guitar lessons, I thought, what is the most difficult part of playing a guitar? Can you tell me that, Trudy? 

Trudy Rankin: I can tell you what’s the most difficult part for me, is making my hands fit, 

Do the cord, the stretches that require the cord shapes.

Den López: It’s the chords, right? So I instantly thought, what if I could take chords out of the equation? That would be very easy to do, right? It’s just playing, strumming one, two, three, four to your guitar if you don’t even have to strum through a chord. Now luckily for us guitarists, there’s two chords already made [00:10:00] for you on the guitar.

And you can play any minor and major chord with one finger. 

Trudy Rankin: Okay. 

I’m going to learn something.. 

Den López: Now you’re interested. Yeah. So that’s where the spark came and I developed the system through several months and coaching several people. And now it works, and I have a 100 percent success rate on that program. Yeah, everyone that goes through that program plays a good song, a full song, from beginning to end, in under an hour.

Strumming through it, changing through chords. 

Trudy Rankin: That’s pretty impressive, I have to say, having been a person who’s been through many agonizing painful hours of practice trying to learn chords and get the sound right, so it sounds good, and then remembering the cords and trying to make it sound like it does on the radio or you know when you’re listening to music, yes.

Okay. That’s cool. Alright, so then what did you do after that once you basically nailed your method and you got a method that works? [00:11:00] How did you go about taking that from just teaching a few people as an experiment, basically, to trying to get into a business? 

Den López: So what happened is that I became completely obsessed.

Like my alarm sets off at five o’clock in the morning, just so I can write an email every day to my list. So I can post something on Facebook, record some videos and stuff. But at four, I’m already with my eyes wide open, just obsessing about finding the little tricks, tips, like the way guitar is taught is so confusing.

Like the first thing they taught you was probably chords, right? 

Trudy Rankin: Actually, no, I made the mistake of trying to learn classical guitar. And that, that for me, that just didn’t work, even though I am, just didn’t work for me, didn’t fit my brain. 

Den López: Yeah, it’s hard. So maybe you, it was theory what they try to tell you, right?

Theory, [00:12:00] chords. But that’s not how the guitar works. The guitar is just the shape based instrument. And it’s completely opposite. For example, get one chord that you know, Trudy, and that you’re comfortable with, and play rhythm to it. If you do that, I can grab my guitar and jam for an hour with you.

Now, suddenly, with one chord and some basic rhythm, you’ve got a band. Me and you together. We can play for an hour on that one chord, right? So it’s completely opposite of what they tell us. They tell us learn all these chords, and then you spend six months to a year trying to make them sound clean and then apply rhythm to it and strumming patterns.

Everything comes from the same place and everything can be simplified to like really basic techniques. For example, with three chords you can play thousands and thousands of songs. You don’t need to learn all chords. You just need three and you can [00:13:00] play thousands of songs. Did that make sense?

Trudy Rankin: Yeah. No, definitely does. Definitely does. Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Den López: Sorry. I think I, I didn’t answer your question properly. 

Yeah, that’s okay. I was going to, I’m just going to basically ask you so now you definitely confirmed that your method works and now you’ve got the beginnings of a business.

How did you turn it into a business? 

Yes I worked as a mechanic for 16 years and was trying to build this business while working as a mechanic, being a father of two, being a husband, right? It was completely nuts. It was so stressful that I went to my boss and said, listen, I need to build this business.

I’m completely obsessed with helping beginner guitarists, right? And I would love some more income. So I’m going to take a month off and build the business, build the structures, the sales pages the, [00:14:00] record a couple more courses I wanted to record and stuff like that. And then come back to work. And then that will be more or less automized and I can work for you while I run my business.

And he said, no. And I’m like, what do you mean no? I need to do this, right? This is a passion. I need to fulfill this passion. He’s you can’t do that. And right there, it clicked that I needed something that I could get control of. And that I could build, that I was in charge and that I could decide where I was and at what time I was.

So after many struggles, I decided to quit my job, go full in and do this for a 

living. And it’s been amazing. 

Trudy Rankin: So out of sheer curiosity, because what you have to say is something a lot of people would love to do, and they don’t, either they just can’t see how they could afford to do that, or they just [00:15:00] can’t see the path.

Did you end up getting coaching to help you do that? How did you end up figuring out all of the funnel side of things? Setting up the tools and the sales pages and all that? 

Den López: Yes. I followed Russell Brunson. He’s the man. If you want to build funnels and want to be successful, follow Russell Brunson.

You know about Russell, right? 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah. Did you buy his books or did you 

Den López: I bought his book, went through the One Funnel Away Challenge bought his coaching. I bought a lot of other coaching. Coaching is very essential. Coming looking at it from a higher perspective, because I think your question is, for anyone wanting to jump into building a business or achieving anything in life, I heard your last episode, Trudy, and it was exceptional, because you’re breaking so many false beliefs and, How to succeed.

And it [00:16:00] resonated so much. So I would love to tell you about a framework I’m developing for my students in guitar, but it applies to business too. So I’ll try to move it back and forth. You’re okay with that? 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah, please go ahead. 

Den López: So in order to succeed, you need an outcome. That’s the first thing, right?

You don’t need a goal. Like a goal in guitar would be, I would love to play guitar. But that’s too big and too far away. But if you have an outcome, which is, I want to play a song by next month that’s very definite. Now you can really work on what it takes to exclusively play a song by the end of the month.

If that makes sense. So the first thing you got to do for that is break in false beliefs. We all have false beliefs inside. In my case, the people I teach, my fingers are too short, you just said, my fingers don’t stretch I’m not musical, I will never be able to [00:17:00] play a bar chord, things like that in my case.

In business, it might be, I’m not techie, I don’t know how to set up a website I don’t have a product to sell. Whatever it is, you got to break those false beliefs and we do that by looking at other people that have come before us and been in similar situations or in worst situations and have overcome that obstacle.

For example, I tell my students the story about Django Reinhardt, which is the best gypsy jazz guitar player. But got severely injured in his fretting hand and only had two available fingers, and he’s the best jazz gypsy jazz guitar player to ever live, only two fingers, Django Reinhardt.

Trudy Rankin: Okay, I’ll have to check him out.

Den López: Yes, I also show a guy on Facebook who’s doing amazing. He only has one [00:18:00] hand and he plays guitar. So that’s a pretty big obstacle and he plays amazing music with one hand. Go and find people who have overcome the obstacle you think you have. Is essential. The second part of the framework is finding a mentor or a path.

So somebody has already done the path that you want and has the recipe. They have climbed the mountain, put the flag on the top of the mountain, and can give you the steps to climb that mountain. That could be a book, an online course, a mentor, whatever it is, you need to trust that mentor or that book or that process and follow it to a T, step by step.

Now here’s the problem. And where step number three comes in. And I would love your opinion on this. Most mentors, or books or videos, online courses, [00:19:00] whatever it is, show you the know, but not the do. So what do I mean with that? In order to acquire skill, you need to actually do the thing. So you’re written through a book, which is a framework.

It’s a step process to success, right? And then you read the first chapter and you’re like, Wow, that was amazing. Now the author says, Go and do the thing. What happens next? Do you go and do the thing? No, you’re like super motivated because now you know all this stuff. What do you want to do? Know more stuff, right?

So you go to chapter 2 and then to chapter 3 and then to chapter 10. Are you going to go back to chapter 1 and do the thing that the author told you to acquire the skill you need for chapter 2, and 10? No, you’re never going to go back. That’s the problem with YouTube videos, right? [00:20:00] You’re like, I know all this stuff, but you don’t actually do it and acquire that skill.

That’s why in my lessons, through my courses, every video is let’s know something very small. And the second part of the video is now we’re going to do it together. So for example, if I’m teaching you rhythm, I’m like, this is basic rhythm. One, two, three, four, that’s easy to understand. Now let’s do it.

And we do it for five minutes where I grab my guitar. I’m doing it with you. I mute myself. There’s maybe a backing track or a click track or a metronome behind me that you can hear and actually do what I’m teaching you. in the same lesson. That builds a foundation for lesson two. Lesson two is the same thing, builds a foundation for lesson three.

And then you can, you just got to go through every single lesson, the path that we talked about, step number two, to [00:21:00] climb the mountain, put your flag on it and be like, yes, I did this. It’s very easy. Just follow every lesson. Does that make sense? 

Trudy Rankin: It definitely makes sense. And I have to smile because so many of, if we bring this to thinking about it in business terms, so many of the gurus say hurrah, here’s my path to success.

Here’s how I did it. And, If you don’t, if you don’t have, there’s two problems with that. One is if you don’t do the doing, like you just said, you’re never going to get there. You’re never going to learn the skills. And secondly, a lot of those people already have innate skills that you don’t have. And so that doesn’t always work when it says, Hey, do it my way.

So by being able to show somebody what to do and then doing it with them so that they then pick up those skills. I think that’s really important both for musical instruments and for business. I think that’s really critical. 

Den López: Yeah, like what you just said is really important because meeting people [00:22:00] where they actually are that’s a problem I see with many people, what you just said.

They have so many skills that they’re not able to fall back into. Where is the person I’m trying to teach or trying to coach at? Given nothing for granted, every single detail, even if it feels boring, even if it feels slow, is essential because that person may not know that. For example, let me give you this example.

The first expensive course I bought online, I was trying to market my album, and the instructor said you’ve got to buy a domain and hook it up to your website, and that’s so easy I’m not even going to go through it. Guess who doesn’t know how to buy a domain and hook it to their website yet?

Trudy Rankin: Yep, you and a whole bunch of other people. 

Den López: If it’s so easy, tell me. It’s essential that you don’t get that for granted, because I might not know that, and I can’t move to the next step, [00:23:00] so guide me, share your screen, I’m going to go to GoDaddy. Now I’m going to click here. Now I’m going to type my domain.

Oh, this didn’t work. And it might feel boring to who knows that and they can skip that lesson, but who doesn’t know it is cool. Now I can go to the next module in the course and move forward. If not, I will never be able to move forward. 

Trudy Rankin: Actually, that’s a really important point because most entrepreneurs, whether they believe it themselves or not, are pretty smart people.

And it’s always, it always seems at least in my experience, it’s always the little things that stop your momentum in your tracks, stops you in your tracks because you’re going, I’m supposed to do this thing. Somebody said, I have to do this thing. I can’t figure it out. My screen doesn’t look like your screen, or you’ve skipped a couple of steps in your explanation and I don’t understand how to follow through with it.

And it can be a real momentum killer if you can’t get those little things [00:24:00] that somebody else just blows off or breezes through. And I think, sometimes I think that the most valuable, important skill that you can have as an entrepreneur is learning how to go and find the answers to those little things that everybody else thinks is so easy and you can’t figure out.

Den López: That’s exactly what I focus on Trudy. That is exactly what I’m here to solve. And guitar has so many of those little gaps. So many of that, those unanswered questions, and that’s where I attack, and that’s where I obsess, because then everything makes sense. You solve that little gap. That’s binding everything together, and now everything you have learned makes sense.

Trudy Rankin: Yeah exactly. I think it’s interesting, let’s fast forward a little bit, and now you’ve managed to, some actually let’s not fast forward, I actually want to know, What the trigger was that let you go, I’m quitting [00:25:00] anyway, boss man, even though you say I can’t do this thing, you won’t let me take four weeks off so that I can, go and build my business.

What was the trigger thing that gave you the internal permission to stop working as a mechanic? 

Den López: Very good question. So the first thing that happened that really made me realize, I come from an. Employee mindset, mentality, family we were all hard workers, your job is the most important thing, when your boss tells you to go to work, you go and the first thing that happened was COVID, and COVID here in Spain was devastating.

was terrible because of the restrictions. So we live in a very little apartment. At the moment we had a six year old and a one year old and I was, we all got locked down for 58 days straight. No one could go out of the house. No one. And I was one of the only people allowed to go out of the house, but I needed to go to work because my [00:26:00] work was considered essential.

Transportation and stuff like that. So being from an employee mentality mindset, My job was the most important thing, but now I’m a father and a husband and my family is the most important thing. So I had two most important things and every day when I left the house, literally my wife sobbed, Please don’t go to work.

Please stay with us. I can’t handle this. Imagine being locked down in an apartment with two little boys for 58 days straight. And my heart felt so divided between I got to go to work and I got to stay with my family and I will never forgive myself. I went to work every single day for eight to nine hours.

Every single day I left my family alone. And that was the first thing before, before going to my boss and asking for a for a month off. That [00:27:00] triggered my work is controlling my time. And I need to do something to help my family. When, because when I came home, when I came home and we played music or I played guitar for my children and my wife.

And we had fun doing it. Instantly, the mood changed. Music has that ability. You’re a music lover, Trudy, and you know how you put a happy song on and instantly you’re like, yes, I’m happier. You put a sad song on and instantly you feel worse. Music has that ability to change your state of mind. And as a guitar player, you can do that for people, which is amazing.

So I understood that I needed to be with my family and I needed to figure out a way to change my situation. 

That was the first trigger for me to start building a business. 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah. And then so that was the first trigger. And then once, once you’d been told, [00:28:00] no, did you set yourself like a revenue goal or what was it that said, yeah, I can do this thing full time now.

Den López: Yes, at first my, my, my goal was to be able to bring in the money that my job was bringing in and be able to sustain my family. And let me tell you this story about what triggered, the story that triggered me saying, okay, I’m quitting was I heard, have you seen the movie Batman? The one.

Trudy Rankin: I’ve only seen various versions of it, . 

Den López: Okay. So there’s a movie of Batman that they throw Batman into a jail, but it’s an open jail. So it’s like a tower. He’s inside and he can see the light. which is very desperated, right?. And the only way to get out of the jail if you climb the wall, there’s like stones and you jump from one stone to another stone, that’s very far away.

And only one [00:29:00] person has managed to do it. So everyone tries this jump, but they don’t want to die. So what do they do? They tie a very thick rope around themselves to try to make the jump. And if they fall, they’re not going to die. Okay. But what does that rope look like? It adds a lot of weight because it’s very heavy and they’ll never be able to do the jump if they don’t get rid of the rope.

They’ve got all this baggage. This could be false beliefs. This could be your job. This could be a family member, right? There’s always some luggage, some baggage, a backpack you’re wearing on top of you that’s preventing you to make that jump, which is very scary. Coming from a employee mentality family to, Hey, I’m going to start a business.

I’m going to run my own business and bring my own income. It’s very scary. That [00:30:00] job security is very ingrained in ourselves. But you gotta let go. If you want to build a business I’ve heard of very few people that can have a job and still build a business. It takes a lot of work. 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah but having been somebody who made the leap very early on in building a business, I can also tell you there’s some cons, some pros and cons for basically trying to build a business.

Build the business from scratch. When you’ve just finished working at a job. So there, there’s some interesting things though. So there had to have been something in your path that got you to the place where the whole, I want this business to support me that let you let go of the rope and make the jump.

Den López: Belief. Belief. Me being not able to be with my family when I want it. For example, just as silly as it may sound, vacations. I was told every year when vacations were going to come, [00:31:00] like two days before they actually came. It’s just how that shop worked. It was a really small shop, family owned.

And they just worked like, and I was the only employee. So it was like, ah, now we’ve got to figure out vacations for this guy, okay, let’s do them now. But not being able to be with my family, having to go to work, having someone tell me this is when you have to work. And when you don’t have to work really got me really angry.

Like I need to take control of my life. And seeing people like Russell Brunson, like Shane Sams, he was a teacher and built an online business. Shane Sams. 

Trudy Rankin: I do, yes, I’m definitely a fan of Shane and Jocelyn Sams, yes. 

Den López: Hey, 

yep I’m super fan too. Did you read the book? 

Trudy Rankin: Oh, I haven’t I have not.

I’ve heard about it though. And I’m also part of Pat Flynn’s community as well. 

Den López: Exactly. Pat Flynn has a great story. [00:32:00] Believing that I could be one of them. was the trigger that being like, and it was hard, especially on my wife. I remember the day that, that she told me because business was not working very well.

In the beginning, it was very hard and profit, especially because in business, you can make all the money you want, but you need the profit. So profit was, revenue was okay, but profit was not that okay. And she told me, okay, if this doesn’t work, what are you going to do? And I’m like, it is going to work. And she’s yeah.

But what if it doesn’t? And I’m like, no. It has to work because I’m never going to be an employee again. Like I knew that. And I remember the panic in her eyes being like, Oh, he’s crossed the line. Like we’re gonna, we’re gonna live under a bridge, but yeah, it’s having belief in yourself. Same as with guitar, same as anything.

If you believe you can do it. That’s one of the main things I focus on at the early [00:33:00] stage is given techniques and given little nuggets that give you wins. So you believe you can do it. Once you believe you can do it, you’ll do anything to make it happen. 

Trudy Rankin: I think that, that is so powerful, that, that is definitely powerful.

And sometimes that do anything to make it happen is actually us reshaping who we are and how we look at the world. I think that’s pretty, pretty critical. Just the fact that you had to reshape your employee mindset to be one where, okay, I’m never going to be an employee again.

It takes time and it’s scary and really scary for the people that depend on you for their bread on the table. But that’s been really fascinating. It’s a, it’s an interesting story and an interesting journey. And I just think I love talking with people about their journey because it’s, If you’ve managed to take your life as an employee, turn it around and build a business that supports your [00:34:00] family, other people can do it as well.

And so if somebody is listening and going, Oh, I’d love to be able to have my own business. I’m so sick of being an employee. These are the kinds of stories that it’s worth listening to because it shows that it is absolutely possible. So Den , we’re out of time, but I just wanted to say, Thank you so much.

And if somebody was interested in reaching out to you, either just to get in touch or they’re interested in taking guitar lessons, where would they go? 

Den López: Yeah. If you want to contact me, the best way is to download this little book. It’s for free. 

Trudy Rankin: Oh, sorry. I’m just going to, it’s called the beginner guitarist playbook, but where will they go to find it?

Den López: Yeah, you can go to learningguitarsecrets. com forward slash free because it’s free. It’s a book with 30 to 35 pages full of diagrams and this book, what it does is those little gaps you talked about, Trudy, it builds them in so that everything you’ve learned makes sense. [00:35:00] Right there, you’ll be included in my email list and you can reply to any of my emails to get in touch.

Trudy Rankin: Fantastic. I’ll make sure that I put that into the show notes. And just say, once again, thank you so much for being on the podcast and I look forward to when it comes out and making sure that people can hear what you have to say. 

Den López: I appreciate you Trudy. It’s been a pleasure. It’s been great.

Trudy Rankin: Thank you so much for listening today. I hope you enjoyed hearing Den’s insights into making guitar accessible As well as his inspiring story about taking control of his career and building a life around his passion. So if you found value in this episode, please make sure to subscribe and leave a review.

It really does help more listeners find the podcast and learn from guests like Den. And remember, if you’ve ever thought about turning your passion into a business, stories like Den’s show that it’s actually really possible. So until next time, keep reaching for your goals And don’t be afraid to take that first step.

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