November 4, 2025 • 31 mins
What happens when a bartender from New York gets hit by a car, and ends up building a $350 million real estate empire?
Jason Yarusi joins The Aspiring Solopreneur to share how that wake-up call sparked his Live 100 mindset, a simple yet powerful framework for breaking patterns, building momentum, and magnifying results.
From redefining success to fighting perfectionism, Jason gets real about how self-awareness, consistent action, and gratitude can completely reshape your life and business.
FAQs From The Show
What exactly is the “Live 100” framework?
Live 100 is Jason Yarusi’s three-part system, Break, Build, and Magnify, for creating lasting change. You start by breaking habits that no longer serve you, then build meaningful rituals through consistent, intentional action, and finally magnify your growth by inspiring others and compounding small wins over time.
Jason talks a lot about self-awareness. How can solopreneurs strengthen it?
He recommends honest reflection without judgment (notice how you’re showing up in moments of stress and identify which “version” of yourself is leading the way). Then ask: How would the version of me who’s already achieved my goals respond right now? Over time, that awareness shifts both mindset and behavior.
What does Jason mean by taking action over perfection?
Perfection is just a fancy form of procrastination. Jason urges solopreneurs to take one small step, because movement creates momentum. Every step reveals new information, while inaction keeps you stuck. As he puts it, “Most people think they’re jumping off a building when really, they’re just stepping off a curb.”
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carly Ries (00:00):
In this inspiring episode of the Aspiring
(00:02):
Solopreneur, we sit down withJason Yarusi to unpack how we
went from burned out bartenderto a multimillion dollar
investor and creator of the Live100 framework. You'll hear how
to break patterns that no longerserve you, take action over
perfection, uncover hiddenlimiting beliefs, and actually
live the life you say you want.If you've ever felt stuck,
(00:23):
overwhelmed, or unsure how tolevel up without losing
yourself, this conversation willhelp you find clarity, momentum,
and gratitude one intentionalstep at a time. You're listening
to the Aspiring Solopreneur, thepodcast for anyone on the solo
business journey, whether you'rejust toying with the idea,
taking your first bold step, orhave been running your own show
(00:45):
for years and want to keepgrowing, refining, and thriving.
I'm Carly Ries, and along withmy cohost, Joe Rando, we're your
guides through the crazy butawesome world of being a company
of one.
As part of LifeStarr, a digitalhub dedicated to all things
solopreneurship, we help peopledesign businesses that align
with their life's ambitions sothey can work to live, not live
(01:06):
to work. If you're looking for aget rich quick scheme, this is
not the place for you. But ifyou want real world insights
from industry experts, lessonsfrom the successes and stumbles
of fellow solopreneurs, andpractical strategies for
building and sustaining abusiness you love, you're in the
right spot. Because flying soloon business doesn't mean you're
alone. No matter where you arein your journey, we've got your
(01:27):
back.
Jason, it's so funny becausewhen I was doing the background
research on you, just readingabout your background got me all
pumped up. getting ready forthis interview, I was like, it's
go time. Let's do this. I wasjust trying to imagine what you
were like because of what you dofor a living. So I'm so excited
(01:47):
to dive into it.
But first, we have an icebreakerquestion, and you chose the one
that we get so excited about. Sowe have to know what's the
wildest thing that's happened toyou as a solopreneur?
Jason Yarusi (01:58):
I think it's hard to just pin on one. So the first
thing that came to mind is thesecond apartment building I
bought in Louisville, Kentucky.I was living in New Jersey. So
second building I bought was 48units.
We did everything right in termsof all the due diligence, all
the inspections, everythingwhich usually leads you for all
different things that can gowrong that you don't know at the
time. Right? So two days in, thewater goes out in the entire
building. And on that part, whathad happened is that over time,
(02:21):
they had built a lift systembecause the sewer line for that
building was below the road andthey had built up the road. So
over time, the sewer line in theroad, was now higher than the
building. So the water goes outfor the entire building. And so
all of a sudden, we have abuilding that's working. We're
like, well, did we not pay whatdid we do?
Like, what what happened? Whatmessed up? Well, the lift
station went down. And all of asudden, the feedback was this
(02:42):
system was built in China, andit was gonna take four months to
get something back. So thetenants would just magically not
have water for four months.
And I was like, well, that'sprobably not gonna work. So over
the course of the next eighteenhours, luckily, we had a good
enough team that was able tofind this company in town that
could go fabricate something toactually meet this to get the
water back up. But for thematter of fact of what we
(03:03):
thought was a great investmentfor you know, the day we brought
it, two days later, we'reworried that we're gonna have to
just vacate the entire building,find a way to put these tenants
up in hotels, and on this point,just deal with the building that
had no income, no revenue, andthen have a loan where the bank
wasn't gonna be happy with us.Lo and behold, another eighteen
hours later, we have the problemfixed with, some happy tenants
because we just helped them allalong the way to just get porta
(03:25):
potties out there, get bottledwater. But that would be the
first one.
The second one was, my buildingsare just in, you know, workforce
neighborhoods. In a matter ofone week, we had three different
tenants die. And it was all ofnatural causes. All the tenants
were in their like, seventies oreighties, completely
unassociated, but just randomly,it was like the third one, we're
(03:48):
like, wait. So the first one,like, no.
There was a second one. We'relike, what do mean it was a
second one? Well, yeah, thisother person passed away, and
over the course of just oneweek, we just randomly, never
had this happen again, justthree tenants just passed away
all at the same apartmentbuilding. It was 94 units. So
that's a pretty good percentageof the building. Right? Just
randomly passed away. But okay,and I think that was the third
(04:08):
building where it just randomlyhappened. And then you were
looking at that just making surethat it wasn't anything
nefarious, anything outside ofthe box. But it just was all
natural causes.
Joe Rando (04:16):
But that was one building. They all lived in the
same place.
Jason Yarusi (04:19):
All in the same place.
Joe Rando (04:20):
I would have been like, what's going on?
Jason Yarusi (04:22):
It wasn't like something where there was
anything like weather. They werejust random, like, in the
spring.
Carly Ries (04:27):
Did you have a moment where you're like, is
something wrong with thebuilding?
Joe Rando (04:31):
Legionnaire's disease or something?
Jason Yarusi (04:32):
Yeah. Like natural, it just just happens.
Right? You have this many unitsat it, but then the second one,
you think they're talking aboutthe first one, you get to the
third one and you're like, whatis going on? But then, you know,
within it was all cured.
It was all caused. nothingoutside of the box. It just was
random, completely outside thebox thing that happened.
Joe Rando (04:50):
It happens.
Carly Ries (04:51):
That is wild.
Joe Rando (04:52):
Freaky. It's freaky.
Carly Ries (04:54):
I don't like hearing stories about people passing
away, but we do like hearingstories of solopreneurs in the
trenches just because we've allbeen there. We've all had those
moments of what is happening andtrying to kinda organize the
chaos around you. But Jason, themain reason you're here today is
you are so big on mindset. And Ithink for solopreneurs, that is
(05:15):
so key for running a successfulbusiness. If it's okay with you,
I do wanna pick your brain alittle bit.
And let's start with your Live100. Can you explain kind of the
pillars of that and how it canapply to solopreneurs? Because I
think kicking off the episodewith that can kinda lay the
foundation with everything elseI wanna talk about with you.
Jason Yarusi (05:34):
Yeah. So it really had me looking in reverse. I was
getting a lot of questions abouthow we had gotten to a certain
level of success. Today, we owna little over 3,000 units, about
350,000,000 in real estate we'veacquired across seven states.
But if you look back, twentyyears, I was a bartender living
in New York City. I had leftschool with a finance degree,
had no desire to go into thatroute, and moved into New York
(05:56):
City just picking up odd jobsand just wasn't happy with the
direction of my life. So didthat for a number of years.
Just didn't like where I was,but I wasn't making any change.
Because mentally, you're justthinking, it's everybody else's
fault. Right? You point outwards, it was, my upbringing, my
school, my friends. it was theweather. You could pick anybody.
But ultimately, I started justlooking at one day, I was
leaving work at 02:30 to threein the morning, got on my bike,
(06:17):
rode across Manhattan, and outof nowhere got hit by a car. Two
days later, I have like a brokenwrist, a crack in my shoulder, I
got some stitches in a coupleplaces, I'm out of the hospital,
I'm thinking all I need to doright now, have to get back to
work because I have to makemoney for rent.
And on that front, I was like,wait, that is the craziest
thing. All I'm doing iscomplaining about what I'm
doing, and now I get hit by acar and all I wanna do is get
(06:37):
back to where I don't wanna be.So I made this agreement with
myself that I didn't know how tochange things. Right? Sometimes
when you're so in the thick ofit.
Right? You just don't know howto change things. And you're
just stuck, I don't know how todo anything different. You just
keep doing the thing over andover and again that you don't
like. Well, I said, I'm justgonna try the opposite.
Stop staying out late at night.Don't go and have a drink after
work. Start getting up at a settime. Start getting a workout
regimen in. Start doing thesethings that would consistently
(06:59):
changed the pattern.
But I didn't know what thepattern would change to, but it
started to give me some momentumwhere over time I started to
have less negative, and fill upwith more positive. And that
little positivity started togrow, which started to compound,
and I went from, you know,working behind the bar. I got
the prowess to go. I opened abar, opened a restaurant, opened
and sold a brewery before movinginto the world of construction,
(07:22):
where my dad had had a companyfor a long time. So we helped
him really expand that business.
Where a lot targeted to whenHurricane Sandy happened. His
business really grew because hisbusiness was really targeted at
razing homes. He had done thatfor almost forty five years
before we were helping him getto retirement. So we did that,
and then we started moving intoa world of real estate because,
(07:42):
my wife was pregnant with herfirst child. We had no time
because we're working. if therewere twenty five hours a day, we
worked twenty five hours day.
And I started saying, man, okay,I have to make some change so I
can control my day back. Becauseas you know, a solo
entrepreneur, there's alwaysmore stuff to do. There's always
one more thing. There are always10 more things. There's always
another call to make.
There's always one more thing toget done. You're always running
from thing to thing to thing.And I said, well, what can I do?
(08:04):
And that's where we found theworld of buying apartment
buildings. And that started toallow me to get the time where I
could put together the plan, puttogether the process, and put
together the team that runs theprocess while I manage the
process.
So I had to look back at whatdid I do. Like, what did I
change across that? And Live 100was bred upon that and just
three foundational blocks. I hadto break the habits that no
(08:24):
longer serve me. So I couldstart building the foundation,
building the life that I trulywant. And once I start to get
the momentum, I can magnifythose results. And the first
piece of that is just be selfaware of how I was showing up. I
wasn't showing up in a goodstate. I wasn't showing up as a
person that really truly, youknow a lot of times we have
goals. Right?
But the person who would achievethose goals is not the person
you're showing up as today. Youhave negative thoughts. You're
(08:47):
not talking in a good way.You're not taking care of
yourself. You're not being goodin your relationships.
You're not really serving thenarrative of the person that
would achieve that goals. Andwhen you can do that, you can
start to own it. You'll say,okay. I'm not being that person.
But if I want to be that person,how is that person that achieves
the goals?
If I am going to be the soleentrepreneur that goes out there
to accomplish my mission to getwhere I want, how does that
person show up? And then you canstart positioning yourself to be
(09:10):
that person. And that's thatcore part of just breaking your
patterns, so you can startreally building a path forward
that gets you the results thatyou deserve.
Joe Rando (09:18):
That's really interesting because, you know,
we always talk about, startingwith your goals. Think about
what you want before you startbuilding, because you might
build something that doesn'tserve you, but you've taken us
back yet another step. And thefunny thing is we talk about the
goals as being step zero.
Jason Yarusi (09:34):
Mhmm.
Joe Rando (09:34):
And now you've given us, like, step negative one. So
this is really interesting, butI don't know. I maybe should
not have called it step zerobecause people hate negative
numbers.
Jason Yarusi (09:45):
You know, but sometimes you have to go back
into that part. And like, we allwant the goals. Right? But
there's a part of the goals thatyou have to make sure you're
living your goals.
And like social media isfantastic. You can accomplish
all kinds of things, makerelationships, all these things.
But what happens many times isthat we see somebody else's
goals and we transcend that to,like, maybe that should be our
(10:06):
goal. But it's not truly yourgoal. Right?
Because you haven't truly doveinto the really deep dive, into
what you really want becauseyou're looking at this thing.
But then because it's not reallyyour goal, you don't really put
the work in and go after thatgoal. You say, ah, if you hit
it, cool. If you don't hit it,it's fine too. Because you
really didn't determine thatthat was your goal, just saw it
somewhere else.
Carly Ries (10:26):
Yeah. That's fair. I wanna go back to the self
awareness really quick becauseit's funny. My husband and I, we
just got back from a week longvacation. I told you we went to
Backstreet Boys at the Sphere.
And we really had a lot of timeto think. And it was funny
because prior to that, we werein the mountains and we love
hiking and everything. And wethink we are avid outdoors
(10:47):
people, hikers, trail runnersand everything. And then we take
a step back and we're like, wedo that like once a month. Like
the people we think we are arenot the people we are.
And we're like, gosh, how do wehave such a skewed view of who
we are, but it's really who wewant to be. So do you have any
specific strategies or exercisesto kinda enhance that self
(11:07):
awareness?
Jason Yarusi (11:08):
Yeah. and you could talk about that as
perception versus perspective.Our perception of what is versus
the perspective of what somebodyelse may see it as. And many
times, you can look at that in away, and you just, have to be
kind to yourself in a way thatyou want to label how you're
showing up, but you don't wantto punish yourself.
Just because you're showing upin that way, so right now, I
like to think of it as, youknow, like King Arthur's,
(11:30):
knights at a round table. Right?There are all these different
people that came together to tryand, stop war, and that's,
what's happening in your mind.Like, each and every day, go
through this part where you haveall these different things
competing for your attention.
You might have love, kindness,ambition, but you might have,
gluttony, greed, hatred. Right?And you're all competing for a
seat at that table. And so youhave to look at yourself and
(11:50):
just be honest with yourself.Right?
In this moment. If someone cutsme off, my first thing I wanna
go out there, I mean, I wannagive them the finger, start
screaming out the window. Right?What am I saying?
Shoot. Okay. That just happened.Luckily, no one was hurt. Okay.
Just move on my day. Right? Areyou letting these things ruin
your day that are like onesecond things? And if it is, we
have to go back and say, okay.In that moment, I'm showing up
aggressive, I'm showing upangry.
So the person that is in a calmmode, that when something comes
(12:15):
down in my business, it's gonnabe tough. Will that person show
up? When something comes uptough, it's gonna be monumental
to my growth and my business.Can I show up as an aggressive
person? Can I show up as anangry person?
Or do I have to show up as areasonable, rational person
who's clear no matter how crazyor how busy it is to be able to
make a clear decision? And onething you can do to do that is
if you're looking at everythingas a problem or an issue, you
(12:36):
have to say, okay. Is that theway to look at it? Or is it for
me saying, am a problem solver?As a sole entrepreneur, you are
a problem solver.
That's all you do every day nomatter how you like it. You are
out there to solve problems, andyou're the person who's solving
everything from, the CEO leveldown to literally the janitor.
Like, you fill all the roles. Soyou have to look at it and say,
okay, is this a five secondproblem or a five year problem?
(12:57):
And the difference being is thatif it's a five second problem,
it's something that just come upin a moment, and you just have
to deal with it. in a week, in amonth, you're not even gonna
remember it happened.
And then a five year problem issomething that's happening right
now that's detrimental or verybig monumental to your business
that you have to put all yourintention in. But what happens
is someone who's on a level ofdealing with everything
themselves, we get so busy thatwe treat everything at its own
(13:20):
level. Right? We treat the fivesecond and the five year
problems exactly the same. Andwhat that does is it basically
wipes out our energy becausewe're operating always on like
8,000 RPM. We're constantly atthis high level. Instead of just
saying, it's a five secondproblem, just get it done, move
on. Okay. So now I have all theenergy.
So when that big thing comes upin my business that could be
really core, really instrumentalto my success, or also could be
(13:41):
very painful for me in thefuture, I can put all my energy
into that and make sure I getthe decision right.
Carly Ries (13:45):
Yeah. even just talking right now, it's like,
oh, there's just so much goingon. But you talk about taking
action over perfection. So howif a solopreneur is experiencing
analysis paralysis, whatrecommendations do you have?
Jason Yarusi (14:02):
So Tony Robbins says progress. Right? That's the
biggest thing to have. And whenyou look at things, perfection
is just a fancy way of sayingnot doing anything. Because
we're always just getting tothat part where we're just
constantly waiting on somethingelse to feel like it's perfect,
but it's always gonna be for me.Right? Every time you get your
goal, we think the goal is gonnabe to solve. Right?
If I get to a million dollars,or I get this number of clients,
(14:23):
or I get this average, monthlyrevenue, or I meet this
fantastic person, then I will bethis. But what happens is that's
just another day in your life.And so when you're looking at
perfection, what you have to getback to is the actions. Your
goal, you don't know what formyour goal comes in. You might
get very close to your goal, youmight not get close to your
goal, you might just massivelyexceed your goal.
But the first thing you have todo is just identify that first
(14:44):
step. That's the most importantthing. Like, if you just take a
step, it's gonna give youusually three different
directions. You take a step,you're like, that was absolutely
the wrong direction.
Okay. Now I learned something.Okay? Don't do that. Go the
opposite direction.
Or I take a step, it's kinda inthe right direction. But it's
not right. Well, okay. So howcan I look at this and pivot
into the right direction?
(15:04):
Because now you've learnedsomething there. Or the third
step is you take a step, andit's right on point. Okay. You
take another step, and then youdo that same process again and
again and again. And then itslowly gets you to that goal,
but it also helps you getintention, get action going,
which gives you momentum andstart to breathe.
But the fourth that you don'ttalk about is that you can also
just take no action. Right? Andthat's where sometimes
(15:25):
perfection comes in, you'reworried about perfection. And we
don't think of that, but that'salso a very big choice. If you
take no action, that's it.
That is a choice in itself. Youhave to take action at some part
to get a result. Because the noaction, you already know you're
in that position now. The noaction is where you want. So if
you want to change, you want tofind some different course, you
(15:45):
have to take action.
But we treat it like it'sstepping off a 10 story
building. Right? We think if wedo something, it's like, oh, I'm
taking this big grand grandjump. But if you just look at
it, you break it down intopoints. so, if you wanna go
climb Mount Kilimanjaro, you'rejust not gonna go and just jump
on mountain. And you'd be like,okay. You know, first step. What
country is it in?
Like, that might be the firststep. Or, what gear do I need?
(16:08):
Or, what are some of theprocesses? How long it takes?
You start doing things thatstart leading you on a path, but
you slowly build the momentum.But what happens is most people,
they think they're jumping offthat building when in fact,
they're just taking a step offthe curb. And then that starts
making it real because they canthey can do something that they
can accomplish. Usually, whathappens, ninety two percent of
New Year's resolutions fail.
(16:28):
Why? It's because there's nofoundation to them. Today,
you're out all the time. You'redrinking. You haven't worked out
in six months.
And then tomorrow, you're gonnaget up at 6AM every day, and
somehow you're gonna make amillion dollars, and you made
63,000 last year. Right? How areyou gonna make this change?
There's no plan or purposebehind it because you haven't
built this foundation.
But if you just start settingthe stage of looking, what would
the steps be? What would thatfirst step be? That gives you
(16:51):
confidence to go out there andlearn something. And when we're
learning, we're proactive.
It gives us the ability to startbuilding some confidence that
starts building some energyalong our path.
Carly Ries (17:00):
So a lot of times if people aren't achieving their
goals, it's because they havelimiting beliefs. But sometimes
they don't know what thoselimiting beliefs are. so,
apparently I'm turning this intomy own little personal coaching
session. So sorry, Joe.obviously there are some
limiting beliefs holding myhusband and I back from being
the people that we think that weare. But I don't know what those
(17:21):
are because I'm just like, well,I will figure it out. How can
people uncover those limitingbeliefs and not only uncover
them, but get rid of them?
Jason Yarusi (17:32):
It's really identifying what that person
would be. Like you say, you liketo be an outdoor person, why
can't someone who goes out onetime a month be an outdoor
person? Right? Most people nevergo outside, never go hiking,
never go anywhere. it's justidentifying what that actually
means. Like, if you wanna go outthere and be someone who loves
to be outside, and you do itonce a month, that's probably I
don't know the math, but youwould think it's probably like
(17:54):
95% more than everybody else.there are probably 5% of people
that are doing it more than you.Maybe and probably less.
Joe Rando (18:00):
I gotta jump in too. I'm sorry, Carly, but, you know,
you've got two little kids, likelittle kids. You are working as
a fractional CMO for LifeStarr.You're writing a book, a large
book, or at least half of a verylarge book with me. And, I mean,
only a certain number of hoursare in a day.
(18:21):
So I'm not sure you're beingfair to yourself to say that
you've got I think you've gotlimiting factors, not limiting
beliefs as much. You know?
Carly Ries (18:31):
In my mind, I wrote the book in the woods. And wrote
the kids in the woods.
Jason Yarusi (18:36):
But you can also do it with gratitude. Right? you
know, lots of times we always gofrom the point of lack,
but like so you're doing allthose things, which I was
unaware of.
But then they have given you theability to be able to go out
there and go out do things inthe woods one time a month.
Right?
Where the majority of people arelike, you know, waking up late,
(18:58):
just don't like what they'redoing, they're rushing to work,
they're eating poorly becausethey go to a job, there's like
fires all day because they don'tlike where they are, they get in
the car that at the end of theday, they drive home, you know,
they watch Netflix, have a beer,and say never again. Right? And
they repeat that for you know,how many years. And that's
because they haven't takenoutside the box to just take
some control. And a lot of whatI had to do was take back
(19:19):
control because I was in thatpattern where it's just the day
was running me. But you'veturned it around where you do
all these things that inspireyou like doing, and that gives
you the opportunity to go outthere and do this. Could you do
it two days a month? Probably.
But you choose one, that'sfantastic too. And so usually,
we forget to give ourselves thegratitude for what we have
because it's very easy to pointout what we don't have.
Joe Rando (19:37):
I love that answer. Love that answer.
Carly Ries (19:40):
Yeah. That is so true. And I will be more
grateful moving forward.
Jason Yarusi (19:45):
Hardest thing. Right? It's hard to look at
because we all and that's where,I point back at social media,
but it's tough. you know, everytime you if you go on social
media, there is always someonewho is magically doing some
fantastic thing that you feellike you should have. You know,
it'd be like, oh, and like,you're like, it's just destiny
that we should have.
But really, if we truly look atit, probably wouldn't even be
(20:07):
happy if we had that. Right? Butwe envision other people's lives
to mean that we should havethat.
Joe Rando (20:11):
What have you ever gotten, or achieved, especially
materially, that a year laterstill had any impact on your
positive happiness? I mean, me,I've never had that happen. I've
never had something, it's aweek, two, three, maybe a month.
But a year? No way. I'm rightback to the same level I was
(20:32):
before. Because no thing can dothat.
Jason Yarusi (20:35):
Yeah. I would say, what I've learned is experiences
matter more than thepossessions. Right? If you can
go and, like, the last, monthwe, had the fortune where we
were in Paris, we were inLondon. My wife's from Hawaii,
so we're in Hawaii, for thatpart. I have 3 kids, ages 6, 8 and 10.
(21:08):
you look at that and you say,well, that's where you can
build. Right? And that's whyyou're doing all these things.
And so you can go out there andhave the experience, like
because the possession soundscool in the moment, but you're
right. you know, a year fromnow, you're not like, well, I
got that car.
Joe Rando (21:22):
I got to bike across from Amsterdam to Bruges,
Belgium with my wife and two ofmy kids. You never forget it.
Jason Yarusi (21:30):
Yeah.
Joe Rando (21:30):
I mean, they were adult at the time, but it was
just you know, that stuff nevergoes away.
Jason Yarusi (21:36):
Yeah. My friend's family routinely, like, every
five years would do that inFrance and Italy. They would do
a bunch of like, a two week tourof just bicycling throughout,
and they'd have, 10 people go.It always looked like the most
fantastic trip.
Joe Rando (21:50):
Yeah. It's a blast.
Carly Ries (21:51):
Yeah. Anyways, speaking of being active and
motivated, Jason, you, sir, arequite the ultra runner. Is that
what you would call yourself?Yeah. I wouldn't say I'm the
massive stage of ultra running,but I do them. And I've done
them. that's part of my life isrunning. And doing them. And so
what I found is that, again, Ihad to find my own path.
Jason Yarusi (22:15):
So I get up and I work out daily, and I have a mix
of things I do, but itaccomplishes something with
kettlebells, something activewith running, or I'll go to
jujitsu, or two days a week,I'll go to CrossFit. Right? And
so I usually break it up in thatpattern, and that's like my I
get up early, I have that time,I get that workout in, then I
can go be present with myfamily, and then get on and get
(22:37):
to my day. And the one piecefrom that is that you look at
work and there's many manythings you have to get done.
Right?
But as a solopreneur that neverends. Like you could just you
work all day, work all night,work all day, work all night,
just repeat, repeat, repeat. Butsetting the present where I had
to get up, I'm getting myworkout in. Right? Whether I
want to or not, do it.
I want to be present and take mykids to school, and then after I
(22:59):
coach their teams, or I go theirsports. I make that as a
commitment as a non negotiable.So in the middle, and even after
whenever, there's the importantthings at work that have to be
done. And it sets me prioritywhere I can't come in here and
just waste time just likefilling it with nonsense.
I have to make sure that I'mintentional with what I'm doing
here, because I have these otherthings that I've committed to.
(23:19):
And so it's created a hierarchyin my life. I have my family, I
have my fitness, I have my work,and it's very important. I have
hundreds of investors thatinvest with us. So we take this
as a highest purpose, but wealso have to make sure that
we're using that timeefficiently. So when that time
comes, you know, today's 05:00,this practice, you know,
(23:40):
whatever time that is, I'm therebecause I've done the things
that need to get done, I haven'twasted time just filling gaps.
Carly Ries (23:45):
So you kinda just described what a day in the life
of Live 100 looks like for you.How often do you kind of press
pause, reevaluate, and reimagineit, I guess.
Jason Yarusi (23:58):
You know, you can look backwards, and see how it
forms. And I think as I getolder, it's allowed me to just
really set those principles. SoI constantly build into there.
Right? And it changes in theseasons too. You get in the
summer, there might be sometravel. So how am I gonna change
it when I'm traveling? And then,you know, different time zones
or whatever.
Then if they're not in school,how does that change? I might
(24:21):
spend some more time with themin the morning, then I might
work later. Right? So I'mconstantly in the seasons.
Instead of just looking at,how's the day reflecting or how
I'm looking at the season oftime. Right? We have projects
that will be closing over thenext thirty days. So there's
gonna be more commitment onoutside, because I have to make
sure everything's buttoned up,everything's dialed in, our
takeover plans in a completeright direction to be ready for
(24:41):
that.
So you're looking at the seasonbetween where the family is,
where my business is, to wheremy energy has to go. If I'm
preparing for a race, there'sgonna be that season where I
need to be putting in more milesthan I am on just the average
week, because I'm preparingthat. So, yeah, someone said to
me a long time ago, it was moreabout the season than this
trying to find the balance,because the balance is never
(25:02):
perfect, because at all times,it constantly adapts. So you can
look at the season you're in andthen reflect on that season and
look at that season, then youcan find the right approach for
what you need, what buckets needthe most attention.
Carly Ries (25:12):
Yes. Such a great point. And before we go on or
before we wrap things up, canyou just quickly recap the the
pillars of Live One Hundredagain just simply that people
have them
Jason Yarusi (25:21):
Sure. So Live 100, it's built on the three blocks,
which is break, build, andmagnify. And the three that are
most pivotal, right, is that wealways wanna go to the build, we
wanna go to the magnify. but wedon't wanna work on ourselves.
Right? And that's the hardestthing is that you have to be
that person to show up in theright mind. Sixty, seventy
(25:42):
thousand thoughts a day, 80%which are repeated. Right? If
you have a big inkling of justnegativity in your day, right,
that's gonna carry through toeverything you want. And if you
don't work on yourself first, tobe able to get yourself into the
status of building. It's likeyou just build the house,
there's no foundation. Or youbuild a big box store.
You haven't done theinfrastructure work. And then on
that part, you're just like,okay, it should be good. But
there's no basis for it. Well,many times, we just wanna jump
(26:04):
to that without working on it.
So the biggest part for thebreak block is being self aware
about how you're showing up.Owning it. Right? And that's the
next piece. You can say, yeah,I'm showing up as a jerk, but
it's justified.
Right? Or own it. Like, notputting yourself down. Just
saying, okay, that's how I am.And then position yourself for
greatness. And so then thatwould be the part, of
positioning yourself forgreatness. The person I want to
(26:25):
be, how does that person showup? Then you get to the build
block, you have masteringmeaningful habits and rituals.
Because what are those habits,what are those rituals that
really serve me for positioningmyself in the right way? Then
you have intentional execution.You can have all these habits
and rituals, but then you haveto do it day in and day out. You
have to be disciplined to it.
You have to make sure thatyou're really putting in the
work. And then just facing thefear that comes with it. Because
(26:49):
changing, it could be a manyparts. You're changing, so
you're becoming that new personwithin yourself.
Alright? And so you might facedifferent feedback from, you
know, your family, your friends,your network. So just just being
brave in the circumstance thatthings are gonna change because
when you change, it takes otherpeople outside of the comfort
they've had with you. Not thatit's any anything wrong.
(27:11):
It might be from people that youlove, they think you're giving
your best advice, but you justhave to face that fear. And then
the next piece, which is themagnify, that's a lot of just
having accelerated growth.Because once you do these
things, you start growing, andyou find that the growth goes in
levels.
At first, it feels slow, then itfeels like you're starting to
pick up a little pace, and thenit starts just exploding. Right?
(27:31):
Because you have everythingrunning at the same time,
everything running in the sameway, and then things can move in
a very quick fashion from there.And then the last and final
piece that comes in is allinspiring rise. And that's where
you're able to really not onlydo it for yourself, but just to
help others, just unblockthemselves, get out of their own
way.
And that's one of the biggestpieces is that you're doing this
for yourself, but you're alsodoing this for other all the
(27:52):
other people around you. There'sno fun if you're the one at the
top of the mountain and lookingdown and just saying, I guess
everybody else, good luck, youknow. It's fun to have everybody
else just succeed with you andalong for the ride.
Carly Ries (28:02):
I love all of this so much. Jason, we ask all of
our guests what their favoritequote is about success. But
before we do that, I want toknow how you measure success
personally.
Jason Yarusi (28:13):
So I guess in each little bucket is just the
easiest thing, would to be saysomething from the business
side. But I'd say, if I look formy kids, if I get them prepared
enough, they're gonna facechallenge in the future. And if
they can go properly preparethemselves to have good answers
and be kind in the moment, thenI've done a pretty good job as a
(28:34):
dad, and I would say that wouldbe successful. The business, I
look at the actions. again, thegoals are hard. Like, our next
mile marker is 5,000 units. Idon't focus on that. We have
like 3,500 right now, but wefocus on doing the work each and
every week from just gettingenough properties to build
underwrite, making theappropriate offers, you know,
underwriting the right deal,making sure we're doing due
(28:54):
diligence, closing about aproject a quarter.
Now is it perfect? No. It mighthappen not every for three
quarters. We might do two in onequarter and none for the next
two quarters. It's a mix. Wefind if we focus on those
actions that the goal shouldhappen to show up whether we
like them or not.
Carly Ries (29:09):
Great answer. Well, then I'm gonna ask it. What's
your favorite quote aboutsuccess? Oh, man. In some
context, and I forget if it'sRockefeller or not. or was it
Ford? It's that, whether you door you don't, right, you're
gonna be right in your mind. andthe through line there is that
(29:32):
you can stay exactly where youwant.
Jason Yarusi (29:35):
And just think it's like the safer approach.
But then somewhere down theroad, have to face your future
self, and then, are you gonna beokay with that? You know, thirty
years from now, saying, like, Ihad that chance to stop that job
and just go take that chance onon writing a book, and then just
exploring a little bit, or beingat home with my kids, and like
starting a business.
But I never did because, youknow, there was a paycheck every
(29:56):
Friday. Are you gonna be okaywith that thirty years from now?
And maybe you could. Noteverybody has to be a solo
entrepreneur. But this podcast,there are people here that are
taking action, crushing it.
Right? And know that every dayfeels like it's hard with the
decision you made. Right? But ifyou just succeeded and
everything was easy, youprobably wouldn't be very
(30:17):
grateful for what you got.
Carly Ries (30:18):
Love it. Well, Jason, you are awesome. If
people wanna learn more aboutyou, where can they find you?
Jason Yarusi (30:23):
Yeah. So thank you so much for having me on. You
can go over tojasonuniversity.com. There's a
free ebook there on breakinghabits. The Live 100 podcast,
very short form, five, sixminute podcast that go out. And
from a real estate side, if youwanna learn more about what we
do, yarusiholdings.com.
Carly Ries (30:38):
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on the
show today. And listeners, thankyou so much for tuning in. As
always, please leave that fivestar review. Share this episode
with a friend.
Subscribe on your favoritepodcast platform, including
YouTube. And we'll see you nexttime on The Aspiring
Solopreneur. You may be goingsolo in business, but that
doesn't mean you're alone. Infact, millions of people are in
(31:01):
your shoes, running a one personbusiness and figuring it out as
they go. So why not connect withthem and learn from each other's
successes and failures?
At Lifestarr, we're creating aone person business community
where you can go to meet and getadvice from other solopreneurs.
Be sure to join in on theconversations at
community.lifestarr.com.
In this inspiring episode of the Aspiring
(00:02):
Solopreneur, we sit down withJason Yarusi to unpack how we
went from burned out bartenderto a multimillion dollar
investor and creator of the Live100 framework. You'll hear how
to break patterns that no longerserve you, take action over
perfection, uncover hiddenlimiting beliefs, and actually
live the life you say you want.If you've ever felt stuck,
(00:23):
overwhelmed, or unsure how tolevel up without losing
yourself, this conversation willhelp you find clarity, momentum,
and gratitude one intentionalstep at a time. You're listening
to the Aspiring Solopreneur, thepodcast for anyone on the solo
business journey, whether you'rejust toying with the idea,
taking your first bold step, orhave been running your own show
(00:45):
for years and want to keepgrowing, refining, and thriving.
I'm Carly Ries, and along withmy cohost, Joe Rando, we're your
guides through the crazy butawesome world of being a company
of one.
As part of LifeStarr, a digitalhub dedicated to all things
solopreneurship, we help peopledesign businesses that align
with their life's ambitions sothey can work to live, not live
(01:06):
to work. If you're looking for aget rich quick scheme, this is
not the place for you. But ifyou want real world insights
from industry experts, lessonsfrom the successes and stumbles
of fellow solopreneurs, andpractical strategies for
building and sustaining abusiness you love, you're in the
right spot. Because flying soloon business doesn't mean you're
alone. No matter where you arein your journey, we've got your
(01:27):
back.
Jason, it's so funny becausewhen I was doing the background
research on you, just readingabout your background got me all
pumped up. getting ready forthis interview, I was like, it's
go time. Let's do this. I wasjust trying to imagine what you
were like because of what you dofor a living. So I'm so excited
(01:47):
to dive into it.
But first, we have an icebreakerquestion, and you chose the one
that we get so excited about. Sowe have to know what's the
wildest thing that's happened toyou as a solopreneur?
Jason Yarusi (01:58):
I think it's hard to just pin on one. So the first
thing that came to mind is thesecond apartment building I
bought in Louisville, Kentucky.I was living in New Jersey. So
second building I bought was 48units.
We did everything right in termsof all the due diligence, all
the inspections, everythingwhich usually leads you for all
different things that can gowrong that you don't know at the
time. Right? So two days in, thewater goes out in the entire
building. And on that part, whathad happened is that over time,
(02:21):
they had built a lift systembecause the sewer line for that
building was below the road andthey had built up the road. So
over time, the sewer line in theroad, was now higher than the
building. So the water goes outfor the entire building. And so
all of a sudden, we have abuilding that's working. We're
like, well, did we not pay whatdid we do?
Like, what what happened? Whatmessed up? Well, the lift
station went down. And all of asudden, the feedback was this
(02:42):
system was built in China, andit was gonna take four months to
get something back. So thetenants would just magically not
have water for four months.
And I was like, well, that'sprobably not gonna work. So over
the course of the next eighteenhours, luckily, we had a good
enough team that was able tofind this company in town that
could go fabricate something toactually meet this to get the
water back up. But for thematter of fact of what we
(03:03):
thought was a great investmentfor you know, the day we brought
it, two days later, we'reworried that we're gonna have to
just vacate the entire building,find a way to put these tenants
up in hotels, and on this point,just deal with the building that
had no income, no revenue, andthen have a loan where the bank
wasn't gonna be happy with us.Lo and behold, another eighteen
hours later, we have the problemfixed with, some happy tenants
because we just helped them allalong the way to just get porta
(03:25):
potties out there, get bottledwater. But that would be the
first one.
The second one was, my buildingsare just in, you know, workforce
neighborhoods. In a matter ofone week, we had three different
tenants die. And it was all ofnatural causes. All the tenants
were in their like, seventies oreighties, completely
unassociated, but just randomly,it was like the third one, we're
(03:48):
like, wait. So the first one,like, no.
There was a second one. We'relike, what do mean it was a
second one? Well, yeah, thisother person passed away, and
over the course of just oneweek, we just randomly, never
had this happen again, justthree tenants just passed away
all at the same apartmentbuilding. It was 94 units. So
that's a pretty good percentageof the building. Right? Just
randomly passed away. But okay,and I think that was the third
(04:08):
building where it just randomlyhappened. And then you were
looking at that just making surethat it wasn't anything
nefarious, anything outside ofthe box. But it just was all
natural causes.
Joe Rando (04:16):
But that was one building. They all lived in the
same place.
Jason Yarusi (04:19):
All in the same place.
Joe Rando (04:20):
I would have been like, what's going on?
Jason Yarusi (04:22):
It wasn't like something where there was
anything like weather. They werejust random, like, in the
spring.
Carly Ries (04:27):
Did you have a moment where you're like, is
something wrong with thebuilding?
Joe Rando (04:31):
Legionnaire's disease or something?
Jason Yarusi (04:32):
Yeah. Like natural, it just just happens.
Right? You have this many unitsat it, but then the second one,
you think they're talking aboutthe first one, you get to the
third one and you're like, whatis going on? But then, you know,
within it was all cured.
It was all caused. nothingoutside of the box. It just was
random, completely outside thebox thing that happened.
Joe Rando (04:50):
It happens.
Carly Ries (04:51):
That is wild.
Joe Rando (04:52):
Freaky. It's freaky.
Carly Ries (04:54):
I don't like hearing stories about people passing
away, but we do like hearingstories of solopreneurs in the
trenches just because we've allbeen there. We've all had those
moments of what is happening andtrying to kinda organize the
chaos around you. But Jason, themain reason you're here today is
you are so big on mindset. And Ithink for solopreneurs, that is
(05:15):
so key for running a successfulbusiness. If it's okay with you,
I do wanna pick your brain alittle bit.
And let's start with your Live100. Can you explain kind of the
pillars of that and how it canapply to solopreneurs? Because I
think kicking off the episodewith that can kinda lay the
foundation with everything elseI wanna talk about with you.
Jason Yarusi (05:34):
Yeah. So it really had me looking in reverse. I was
getting a lot of questions abouthow we had gotten to a certain
level of success. Today, we owna little over 3,000 units, about
350,000,000 in real estate we'veacquired across seven states.
But if you look back, twentyyears, I was a bartender living
in New York City. I had leftschool with a finance degree,
had no desire to go into thatroute, and moved into New York
(05:56):
City just picking up odd jobsand just wasn't happy with the
direction of my life. So didthat for a number of years.
Just didn't like where I was,but I wasn't making any change.
Because mentally, you're justthinking, it's everybody else's
fault. Right? You point outwards, it was, my upbringing, my
school, my friends. it was theweather. You could pick anybody.
But ultimately, I started justlooking at one day, I was
leaving work at 02:30 to threein the morning, got on my bike,
(06:17):
rode across Manhattan, and outof nowhere got hit by a car. Two
days later, I have like a brokenwrist, a crack in my shoulder, I
got some stitches in a coupleplaces, I'm out of the hospital,
I'm thinking all I need to doright now, have to get back to
work because I have to makemoney for rent.
And on that front, I was like,wait, that is the craziest
thing. All I'm doing iscomplaining about what I'm
doing, and now I get hit by acar and all I wanna do is get
(06:37):
back to where I don't wanna be.So I made this agreement with
myself that I didn't know how tochange things. Right? Sometimes
when you're so in the thick ofit.
Right? You just don't know howto change things. And you're
just stuck, I don't know how todo anything different. You just
keep doing the thing over andover and again that you don't
like. Well, I said, I'm justgonna try the opposite.
Stop staying out late at night.Don't go and have a drink after
work. Start getting up at a settime. Start getting a workout
regimen in. Start doing thesethings that would consistently
(06:59):
changed the pattern.
But I didn't know what thepattern would change to, but it
started to give me some momentumwhere over time I started to
have less negative, and fill upwith more positive. And that
little positivity started togrow, which started to compound,
and I went from, you know,working behind the bar. I got
the prowess to go. I opened abar, opened a restaurant, opened
and sold a brewery before movinginto the world of construction,
(07:22):
where my dad had had a companyfor a long time. So we helped
him really expand that business.
Where a lot targeted to whenHurricane Sandy happened. His
business really grew because hisbusiness was really targeted at
razing homes. He had done thatfor almost forty five years
before we were helping him getto retirement. So we did that,
and then we started moving intoa world of real estate because,
(07:42):
my wife was pregnant with herfirst child. We had no time
because we're working. if therewere twenty five hours a day, we
worked twenty five hours day.
And I started saying, man, okay,I have to make some change so I
can control my day back. Becauseas you know, a solo
entrepreneur, there's alwaysmore stuff to do. There's always
one more thing. There are always10 more things. There's always
another call to make.
There's always one more thing toget done. You're always running
from thing to thing to thing.And I said, well, what can I do?
(08:04):
And that's where we found theworld of buying apartment
buildings. And that started toallow me to get the time where I
could put together the plan, puttogether the process, and put
together the team that runs theprocess while I manage the
process.
So I had to look back at whatdid I do. Like, what did I
change across that? And Live 100was bred upon that and just
three foundational blocks. I hadto break the habits that no
(08:24):
longer serve me. So I couldstart building the foundation,
building the life that I trulywant. And once I start to get
the momentum, I can magnifythose results. And the first
piece of that is just be selfaware of how I was showing up. I
wasn't showing up in a goodstate. I wasn't showing up as a
person that really truly, youknow a lot of times we have
goals. Right?
But the person who would achievethose goals is not the person
you're showing up as today. Youhave negative thoughts. You're
(08:47):
not talking in a good way.You're not taking care of
yourself. You're not being goodin your relationships.
You're not really serving thenarrative of the person that
would achieve that goals. Andwhen you can do that, you can
start to own it. You'll say,okay. I'm not being that person.
But if I want to be that person,how is that person that achieves
the goals?
If I am going to be the soleentrepreneur that goes out there
to accomplish my mission to getwhere I want, how does that
person show up? And then you canstart positioning yourself to be
(09:10):
that person. And that's thatcore part of just breaking your
patterns, so you can startreally building a path forward
that gets you the results thatyou deserve.
Joe Rando (09:18):
That's really interesting because, you know,
we always talk about, startingwith your goals. Think about
what you want before you startbuilding, because you might
build something that doesn'tserve you, but you've taken us
back yet another step. And thefunny thing is we talk about the
goals as being step zero.
Jason Yarusi (09:34):
Mhmm.
Joe Rando (09:34):
And now you've given us, like, step negative one. So
this is really interesting, butI don't know. I maybe should
not have called it step zerobecause people hate negative
numbers.
Jason Yarusi (09:45):
You know, but sometimes you have to go back
into that part. And like, we allwant the goals. Right? But
there's a part of the goals thatyou have to make sure you're
living your goals.
And like social media isfantastic. You can accomplish
all kinds of things, makerelationships, all these things.
But what happens many times isthat we see somebody else's
goals and we transcend that to,like, maybe that should be our
(10:06):
goal. But it's not truly yourgoal. Right?
Because you haven't truly doveinto the really deep dive, into
what you really want becauseyou're looking at this thing.
But then because it's not reallyyour goal, you don't really put
the work in and go after thatgoal. You say, ah, if you hit
it, cool. If you don't hit it,it's fine too. Because you
really didn't determine thatthat was your goal, just saw it
somewhere else.
Carly Ries (10:26):
Yeah. That's fair. I wanna go back to the self
awareness really quick becauseit's funny. My husband and I, we
just got back from a week longvacation. I told you we went to
Backstreet Boys at the Sphere.
And we really had a lot of timeto think. And it was funny
because prior to that, we werein the mountains and we love
hiking and everything. And wethink we are avid outdoors
(10:47):
people, hikers, trail runnersand everything. And then we take
a step back and we're like, wedo that like once a month. Like
the people we think we are arenot the people we are.
And we're like, gosh, how do wehave such a skewed view of who
we are, but it's really who wewant to be. So do you have any
specific strategies or exercisesto kinda enhance that self
(11:07):
awareness?
Jason Yarusi (11:08):
Yeah. and you could talk about that as
perception versus perspective.Our perception of what is versus
the perspective of what somebodyelse may see it as. And many
times, you can look at that in away, and you just, have to be
kind to yourself in a way thatyou want to label how you're
showing up, but you don't wantto punish yourself.
Just because you're showing upin that way, so right now, I
like to think of it as, youknow, like King Arthur's,
(11:30):
knights at a round table. Right?There are all these different
people that came together to tryand, stop war, and that's,
what's happening in your mind.Like, each and every day, go
through this part where you haveall these different things
competing for your attention.
You might have love, kindness,ambition, but you might have,
gluttony, greed, hatred. Right?And you're all competing for a
seat at that table. And so youhave to look at yourself and
(11:50):
just be honest with yourself.Right?
In this moment. If someone cutsme off, my first thing I wanna
go out there, I mean, I wannagive them the finger, start
screaming out the window. Right?What am I saying?
Shoot. Okay. That just happened.Luckily, no one was hurt. Okay.
Just move on my day. Right? Areyou letting these things ruin
your day that are like onesecond things? And if it is, we
have to go back and say, okay.In that moment, I'm showing up
aggressive, I'm showing upangry.
So the person that is in a calmmode, that when something comes
(12:15):
down in my business, it's gonnabe tough. Will that person show
up? When something comes uptough, it's gonna be monumental
to my growth and my business.Can I show up as an aggressive
person? Can I show up as anangry person?
Or do I have to show up as areasonable, rational person
who's clear no matter how crazyor how busy it is to be able to
make a clear decision? And onething you can do to do that is
if you're looking at everythingas a problem or an issue, you
(12:36):
have to say, okay. Is that theway to look at it? Or is it for
me saying, am a problem solver?As a sole entrepreneur, you are
a problem solver.
That's all you do every day nomatter how you like it. You are
out there to solve problems, andyou're the person who's solving
everything from, the CEO leveldown to literally the janitor.
Like, you fill all the roles. Soyou have to look at it and say,
okay, is this a five secondproblem or a five year problem?
(12:57):
And the difference being is thatif it's a five second problem,
it's something that just come upin a moment, and you just have
to deal with it. in a week, in amonth, you're not even gonna
remember it happened.
And then a five year problem issomething that's happening right
now that's detrimental or verybig monumental to your business
that you have to put all yourintention in. But what happens
is someone who's on a level ofdealing with everything
themselves, we get so busy thatwe treat everything at its own
(13:20):
level. Right? We treat the fivesecond and the five year
problems exactly the same. Andwhat that does is it basically
wipes out our energy becausewe're operating always on like
8,000 RPM. We're constantly atthis high level. Instead of just
saying, it's a five secondproblem, just get it done, move
on. Okay. So now I have all theenergy.
So when that big thing comes upin my business that could be
really core, really instrumentalto my success, or also could be
(13:41):
very painful for me in thefuture, I can put all my energy
into that and make sure I getthe decision right.
Carly Ries (13:45):
Yeah. even just talking right now, it's like,
oh, there's just so much goingon. But you talk about taking
action over perfection. So howif a solopreneur is experiencing
analysis paralysis, whatrecommendations do you have?
Jason Yarusi (14:02):
So Tony Robbins says progress. Right? That's the
biggest thing to have. And whenyou look at things, perfection
is just a fancy way of sayingnot doing anything. Because
we're always just getting tothat part where we're just
constantly waiting on somethingelse to feel like it's perfect,
but it's always gonna be for me.Right? Every time you get your
goal, we think the goal is gonnabe to solve. Right?
If I get to a million dollars,or I get this number of clients,
(14:23):
or I get this average, monthlyrevenue, or I meet this
fantastic person, then I will bethis. But what happens is that's
just another day in your life.And so when you're looking at
perfection, what you have to getback to is the actions. Your
goal, you don't know what formyour goal comes in. You might
get very close to your goal, youmight not get close to your
goal, you might just massivelyexceed your goal.
But the first thing you have todo is just identify that first
(14:44):
step. That's the most importantthing. Like, if you just take a
step, it's gonna give youusually three different
directions. You take a step,you're like, that was absolutely
the wrong direction.
Okay. Now I learned something.Okay? Don't do that. Go the
opposite direction.
Or I take a step, it's kinda inthe right direction. But it's
not right. Well, okay. So howcan I look at this and pivot
into the right direction?
(15:04):
Because now you've learnedsomething there. Or the third
step is you take a step, andit's right on point. Okay. You
take another step, and then youdo that same process again and
again and again. And then itslowly gets you to that goal,
but it also helps you getintention, get action going,
which gives you momentum andstart to breathe.
But the fourth that you don'ttalk about is that you can also
just take no action. Right? Andthat's where sometimes
(15:25):
perfection comes in, you'reworried about perfection. And we
don't think of that, but that'salso a very big choice. If you
take no action, that's it.
That is a choice in itself. Youhave to take action at some part
to get a result. Because the noaction, you already know you're
in that position now. The noaction is where you want. So if
you want to change, you want tofind some different course, you
(15:45):
have to take action.
But we treat it like it'sstepping off a 10 story
building. Right? We think if wedo something, it's like, oh, I'm
taking this big grand grandjump. But if you just look at
it, you break it down intopoints. so, if you wanna go
climb Mount Kilimanjaro, you'rejust not gonna go and just jump
on mountain. And you'd be like,okay. You know, first step. What
country is it in?
Like, that might be the firststep. Or, what gear do I need?
(16:08):
Or, what are some of theprocesses? How long it takes?
You start doing things thatstart leading you on a path, but
you slowly build the momentum.But what happens is most people,
they think they're jumping offthat building when in fact,
they're just taking a step offthe curb. And then that starts
making it real because they canthey can do something that they
can accomplish. Usually, whathappens, ninety two percent of
New Year's resolutions fail.
(16:28):
Why? It's because there's nofoundation to them. Today,
you're out all the time. You'redrinking. You haven't worked out
in six months.
And then tomorrow, you're gonnaget up at 6AM every day, and
somehow you're gonna make amillion dollars, and you made
63,000 last year. Right? How areyou gonna make this change?
There's no plan or purposebehind it because you haven't
built this foundation.
But if you just start settingthe stage of looking, what would
the steps be? What would thatfirst step be? That gives you
(16:51):
confidence to go out there andlearn something. And when we're
learning, we're proactive.
It gives us the ability to startbuilding some confidence that
starts building some energyalong our path.
Carly Ries (17:00):
So a lot of times if people aren't achieving their
goals, it's because they havelimiting beliefs. But sometimes
they don't know what thoselimiting beliefs are. so,
apparently I'm turning this intomy own little personal coaching
session. So sorry, Joe.obviously there are some
limiting beliefs holding myhusband and I back from being
the people that we think that weare. But I don't know what those
(17:21):
are because I'm just like, well,I will figure it out. How can
people uncover those limitingbeliefs and not only uncover
them, but get rid of them?
Jason Yarusi (17:32):
It's really identifying what that person
would be. Like you say, you liketo be an outdoor person, why
can't someone who goes out onetime a month be an outdoor
person? Right? Most people nevergo outside, never go hiking,
never go anywhere. it's justidentifying what that actually
means. Like, if you wanna go outthere and be someone who loves
to be outside, and you do itonce a month, that's probably I
don't know the math, but youwould think it's probably like
(17:54):
95% more than everybody else.there are probably 5% of people
that are doing it more than you.Maybe and probably less.
Joe Rando (18:00):
I gotta jump in too. I'm sorry, Carly, but, you know,
you've got two little kids, likelittle kids. You are working as
a fractional CMO for LifeStarr.You're writing a book, a large
book, or at least half of a verylarge book with me. And, I mean,
only a certain number of hoursare in a day.
(18:21):
So I'm not sure you're beingfair to yourself to say that
you've got I think you've gotlimiting factors, not limiting
beliefs as much. You know?
Carly Ries (18:31):
In my mind, I wrote the book in the woods. And wrote
the kids in the woods.
Jason Yarusi (18:36):
But you can also do it with gratitude. Right? you
know, lots of times we always gofrom the point of lack,
but like so you're doing allthose things, which I was
unaware of.
But then they have given you theability to be able to go out
there and go out do things inthe woods one time a month.
Right?
Where the majority of people arelike, you know, waking up late,
(18:58):
just don't like what they'redoing, they're rushing to work,
they're eating poorly becausethey go to a job, there's like
fires all day because they don'tlike where they are, they get in
the car that at the end of theday, they drive home, you know,
they watch Netflix, have a beer,and say never again. Right? And
they repeat that for you know,how many years. And that's
because they haven't takenoutside the box to just take
some control. And a lot of whatI had to do was take back
(19:19):
control because I was in thatpattern where it's just the day
was running me. But you'veturned it around where you do
all these things that inspireyou like doing, and that gives
you the opportunity to go outthere and do this. Could you do
it two days a month? Probably.
But you choose one, that'sfantastic too. And so usually,
we forget to give ourselves thegratitude for what we have
because it's very easy to pointout what we don't have.
Joe Rando (19:37):
I love that answer. Love that answer.
Carly Ries (19:40):
Yeah. That is so true. And I will be more
grateful moving forward.
Jason Yarusi (19:45):
Hardest thing. Right? It's hard to look at
because we all and that's where,I point back at social media,
but it's tough. you know, everytime you if you go on social
media, there is always someonewho is magically doing some
fantastic thing that you feellike you should have. You know,
it'd be like, oh, and like,you're like, it's just destiny
that we should have.
But really, if we truly look atit, probably wouldn't even be
(20:07):
happy if we had that. Right? Butwe envision other people's lives
to mean that we should havethat.
Joe Rando (20:11):
What have you ever gotten, or achieved, especially
materially, that a year laterstill had any impact on your
positive happiness? I mean, me,I've never had that happen. I've
never had something, it's aweek, two, three, maybe a month.
But a year? No way. I'm rightback to the same level I was
(20:32):
before. Because no thing can dothat.
Jason Yarusi (20:35):
Yeah. I would say, what I've learned is experiences
matter more than thepossessions. Right? If you can
go and, like, the last, monthwe, had the fortune where we
were in Paris, we were inLondon. My wife's from Hawaii,
so we're in Hawaii, for thatpart. I have 3 kids, ages 6, 8 and 10.
(21:08):
you look at that and you say,well, that's where you can
build. Right? And that's whyyou're doing all these things.
And so you can go out there andhave the experience, like
because the possession soundscool in the moment, but you're
right. you know, a year fromnow, you're not like, well, I
got that car.
Joe Rando (21:22):
I got to bike across from Amsterdam to Bruges,
Belgium with my wife and two ofmy kids. You never forget it.
Jason Yarusi (21:30):
Yeah.
Joe Rando (21:30):
I mean, they were adult at the time, but it was
just you know, that stuff nevergoes away.
Jason Yarusi (21:36):
Yeah. My friend's family routinely, like, every
five years would do that inFrance and Italy. They would do
a bunch of like, a two week tourof just bicycling throughout,
and they'd have, 10 people go.It always looked like the most
fantastic trip.
Joe Rando (21:50):
Yeah. It's a blast.
Carly Ries (21:51):
Yeah. Anyways, speaking of being active and
motivated, Jason, you, sir, arequite the ultra runner. Is that
what you would call yourself?Yeah. I wouldn't say I'm the
massive stage of ultra running,but I do them. And I've done
them. that's part of my life isrunning. And doing them. And so
what I found is that, again, Ihad to find my own path.
Jason Yarusi (22:15):
So I get up and I work out daily, and I have a mix
of things I do, but itaccomplishes something with
kettlebells, something activewith running, or I'll go to
jujitsu, or two days a week,I'll go to CrossFit. Right? And
so I usually break it up in thatpattern, and that's like my I
get up early, I have that time,I get that workout in, then I
can go be present with myfamily, and then get on and get
(22:37):
to my day. And the one piecefrom that is that you look at
work and there's many manythings you have to get done.
Right?
But as a solopreneur that neverends. Like you could just you
work all day, work all night,work all day, work all night,
just repeat, repeat, repeat. Butsetting the present where I had
to get up, I'm getting myworkout in. Right? Whether I
want to or not, do it.
I want to be present and take mykids to school, and then after I
(22:59):
coach their teams, or I go theirsports. I make that as a
commitment as a non negotiable.So in the middle, and even after
whenever, there's the importantthings at work that have to be
done. And it sets me prioritywhere I can't come in here and
just waste time just likefilling it with nonsense.
I have to make sure that I'mintentional with what I'm doing
here, because I have these otherthings that I've committed to.
(23:19):
And so it's created a hierarchyin my life. I have my family, I
have my fitness, I have my work,and it's very important. I have
hundreds of investors thatinvest with us. So we take this
as a highest purpose, but wealso have to make sure that
we're using that timeefficiently. So when that time
comes, you know, today's 05:00,this practice, you know,
(23:40):
whatever time that is, I'm therebecause I've done the things
that need to get done, I haven'twasted time just filling gaps.
Carly Ries (23:45):
So you kinda just described what a day in the life
of Live 100 looks like for you.How often do you kind of press
pause, reevaluate, and reimagineit, I guess.
Jason Yarusi (23:58):
You know, you can look backwards, and see how it
forms. And I think as I getolder, it's allowed me to just
really set those principles. SoI constantly build into there.
Right? And it changes in theseasons too. You get in the
summer, there might be sometravel. So how am I gonna change
it when I'm traveling? And then,you know, different time zones
or whatever.
Then if they're not in school,how does that change? I might
(24:21):
spend some more time with themin the morning, then I might
work later. Right? So I'mconstantly in the seasons.
Instead of just looking at,how's the day reflecting or how
I'm looking at the season oftime. Right? We have projects
that will be closing over thenext thirty days. So there's
gonna be more commitment onoutside, because I have to make
sure everything's buttoned up,everything's dialed in, our
takeover plans in a completeright direction to be ready for
(24:41):
that.
So you're looking at the seasonbetween where the family is,
where my business is, to wheremy energy has to go. If I'm
preparing for a race, there'sgonna be that season where I
need to be putting in more milesthan I am on just the average
week, because I'm preparingthat. So, yeah, someone said to
me a long time ago, it was moreabout the season than this
trying to find the balance,because the balance is never
(25:02):
perfect, because at all times,it constantly adapts. So you can
look at the season you're in andthen reflect on that season and
look at that season, then youcan find the right approach for
what you need, what buckets needthe most attention.
Carly Ries (25:12):
Yes. Such a great point. And before we go on or
before we wrap things up, canyou just quickly recap the the
pillars of Live One Hundredagain just simply that people
have them
Jason Yarusi (25:21):
Sure. So Live 100, it's built on the three blocks,
which is break, build, andmagnify. And the three that are
most pivotal, right, is that wealways wanna go to the build, we
wanna go to the magnify. but wedon't wanna work on ourselves.
Right? And that's the hardestthing is that you have to be
that person to show up in theright mind. Sixty, seventy
(25:42):
thousand thoughts a day, 80%which are repeated. Right? If
you have a big inkling of justnegativity in your day, right,
that's gonna carry through toeverything you want. And if you
don't work on yourself first, tobe able to get yourself into the
status of building. It's likeyou just build the house,
there's no foundation. Or youbuild a big box store.
You haven't done theinfrastructure work. And then on
that part, you're just like,okay, it should be good. But
there's no basis for it. Well,many times, we just wanna jump
(26:04):
to that without working on it.
So the biggest part for thebreak block is being self aware
about how you're showing up.Owning it. Right? And that's the
next piece. You can say, yeah,I'm showing up as a jerk, but
it's justified.
Right? Or own it. Like, notputting yourself down. Just
saying, okay, that's how I am.And then position yourself for
greatness. And so then thatwould be the part, of
positioning yourself forgreatness. The person I want to
(26:25):
be, how does that person showup? Then you get to the build
block, you have masteringmeaningful habits and rituals.
Because what are those habits,what are those rituals that
really serve me for positioningmyself in the right way? Then
you have intentional execution.You can have all these habits
and rituals, but then you haveto do it day in and day out. You
have to be disciplined to it.
You have to make sure thatyou're really putting in the
work. And then just facing thefear that comes with it. Because
(26:49):
changing, it could be a manyparts. You're changing, so
you're becoming that new personwithin yourself.
Alright? And so you might facedifferent feedback from, you
know, your family, your friends,your network. So just just being
brave in the circumstance thatthings are gonna change because
when you change, it takes otherpeople outside of the comfort
they've had with you. Not thatit's any anything wrong.
(27:11):
It might be from people that youlove, they think you're giving
your best advice, but you justhave to face that fear. And then
the next piece, which is themagnify, that's a lot of just
having accelerated growth.Because once you do these
things, you start growing, andyou find that the growth goes in
levels.
At first, it feels slow, then itfeels like you're starting to
pick up a little pace, and thenit starts just exploding. Right?
(27:31):
Because you have everythingrunning at the same time,
everything running in the sameway, and then things can move in
a very quick fashion from there.And then the last and final
piece that comes in is allinspiring rise. And that's where
you're able to really not onlydo it for yourself, but just to
help others, just unblockthemselves, get out of their own
way.
And that's one of the biggestpieces is that you're doing this
for yourself, but you're alsodoing this for other all the
(27:52):
other people around you. There'sno fun if you're the one at the
top of the mountain and lookingdown and just saying, I guess
everybody else, good luck, youknow. It's fun to have everybody
else just succeed with you andalong for the ride.
Carly Ries (28:02):
I love all of this so much. Jason, we ask all of
our guests what their favoritequote is about success. But
before we do that, I want toknow how you measure success
personally.
Jason Yarusi (28:13):
So I guess in each little bucket is just the
easiest thing, would to be saysomething from the business
side. But I'd say, if I look formy kids, if I get them prepared
enough, they're gonna facechallenge in the future. And if
they can go properly preparethemselves to have good answers
and be kind in the moment, thenI've done a pretty good job as a
(28:34):
dad, and I would say that wouldbe successful. The business, I
look at the actions. again, thegoals are hard. Like, our next
mile marker is 5,000 units. Idon't focus on that. We have
like 3,500 right now, but wefocus on doing the work each and
every week from just gettingenough properties to build
underwrite, making theappropriate offers, you know,
underwriting the right deal,making sure we're doing due
(28:54):
diligence, closing about aproject a quarter.
Now is it perfect? No. It mighthappen not every for three
quarters. We might do two in onequarter and none for the next
two quarters. It's a mix. Wefind if we focus on those
actions that the goal shouldhappen to show up whether we
like them or not.
Carly Ries (29:09):
Great answer. Well, then I'm gonna ask it. What's
your favorite quote aboutsuccess? Oh, man. In some
context, and I forget if it'sRockefeller or not. or was it
Ford? It's that, whether you door you don't, right, you're
gonna be right in your mind. andthe through line there is that
(29:32):
you can stay exactly where youwant.
Jason Yarusi (29:35):
And just think it's like the safer approach.
But then somewhere down theroad, have to face your future
self, and then, are you gonna beokay with that? You know, thirty
years from now, saying, like, Ihad that chance to stop that job
and just go take that chance onon writing a book, and then just
exploring a little bit, or beingat home with my kids, and like
starting a business.
But I never did because, youknow, there was a paycheck every
(29:56):
Friday. Are you gonna be okaywith that thirty years from now?
And maybe you could. Noteverybody has to be a solo
entrepreneur. But this podcast,there are people here that are
taking action, crushing it.
Right? And know that every dayfeels like it's hard with the
decision you made. Right? But ifyou just succeeded and
everything was easy, youprobably wouldn't be very
(30:17):
grateful for what you got.
Carly Ries (30:18):
Love it. Well, Jason, you are awesome. If
people wanna learn more aboutyou, where can they find you?
Jason Yarusi (30:23):
Yeah. So thank you so much for having me on. You
can go over tojasonuniversity.com. There's a
free ebook there on breakinghabits. The Live 100 podcast,
very short form, five, sixminute podcast that go out. And
from a real estate side, if youwanna learn more about what we
do, yarusiholdings.com.
Carly Ries (30:38):
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on the
show today. And listeners, thankyou so much for tuning in. As
always, please leave that fivestar review. Share this episode
with a friend.
Subscribe on your favoritepodcast platform, including
YouTube. And we'll see you nexttime on The Aspiring
Solopreneur. You may be goingsolo in business, but that
doesn't mean you're alone. Infact, millions of people are in
(31:01):
your shoes, running a one personbusiness and figuring it out as
they go. So why not connect withthem and learn from each other's
successes and failures?
At Lifestarr, we're creating aone person business community
where you can go to meet and getadvice from other solopreneurs.
Be sure to join in on theconversations at
community.lifestarr.com.
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