November 3, 2025 • 48 mins
The moment that changes everything doesn’t always look heroic. For Casey, it was a dusty backyard bandsaw, reclaimed beams full of nails, and a teenager’s first glimpse of meaningful work. From there he built a life in remodeling, took detours through global aid, and learned the hard way how purpose, family, and craft can fit together when the plans on paper fall apart.
We dig into what travel really teaches—how to tell the difference between aid that lasts and projects that only look good in photos—and why the 2008 crash forced a reckoning with sustainability. Casey shares the rise and sudden collapse of a fast-growing construction company, the phone call no owner wants to make, and the decision to sell his truck to cover payroll. Instead of neat quotes, he offers something rarer: the calm clarity that comes from owning your choices and doing the next right thing until momentum returns.
If you’re weighing college against a trade, wondering how to network without feeling fake, or rebuilding after a setback, this conversation gives you practical handles. We talk about extracting one actionable idea from books like eMyth and Who Not How, finding mentors who’ve closed dozens of deals, and using your real interests—watches, golf, comics—as the doorway to genuine relationships. The market will swing, paths will diverge, and plans will change; steadiness comes from showing up with value, borrowing expertise when you need it, and keeping your why in view.
Ready to build a path that fits your life? Listen now, then share your biggest takeaway and subscribe so you don’t miss what’s next.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Welcome to Timeless Movement.
I'm your host, Alexander Laszlo,and I'm here joined by Casey.
Tell us a little bit aboutyourself.
What's up, Alexander?
Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_00 (00:08):
Yeah, thank you for coming on.
Yeah.
I'm a remodeling contractor.
Dad grew up in Virginia.
My dad grew up here in Coloradoand kept we kept visiting out
here and fell in love with theplace.
So moved my family out here afew years ago and love it.
So I've been uh remodeling, I'vebeen in construction since I was
14 and uh kind of found my waythrough it and have had all
(00:34):
kinds of experiences in that inthat industry.
And you know, so now I I reallyenjoy working with clients and
my kids get to help me.
That's one of the things I loveabout it.
And then I can have a lot offreedom in my schedule, so we
can go camping and do fun thingslike that.
SPEAKER_02 (00:51):
So yeah, nice.
SPEAKER_00 (00:52):
Yeah.
So what made you get into theconstruction at 14?
Well, I was actually at afriend's, we're at like some
party, and the he had thisbandsaw in his backyard, and he
took custom, he took these bigbeams.
At the time in Richmond, theywere renovating a bunch of
warehouses, and they had thesehuge, big old beams that were
(01:16):
full of nails and and stuff.
And he would mill them in hisbackyard.
And so my job for the he so at aparty, he was just demonstrating
it, and I dug it and I was like,this is awesome.
And it just helped right thereat the party, and he offered me
a job.
And so, like I said, for thenext three years I got to do
(01:38):
that.
Spent most of my time straddlingbig beams, pulling nails out of
the boards and getting splintersin my inner thighs.
SPEAKER_01 (01:47):
So how old are you now, if you don't mind me
asking?
I just turned 40.
Yes.
So you've technically been doingthis for 26 years?
SPEAKER_02 (01:55):
Yeah.
unknown (01:56):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (01:57):
So in what point in time did you switch into home
renovation?
So my best friend's dad growingup, he was a remodeling
contractor and builder.
And so I started working for himsome, I think I was 16 or 17,
the first time I really workedfor him, actually.
I grew up, I grew up on a farmand they had a farm.
(02:18):
And so I grew up helping out onthe farm and doing all kinds of
fun things like that, likekilling chickens and chasing
cows.
And but I started working fromin my first day, I remember it
was super hot.
I mean, it was like 100 degrees.
And my first job was move thatstack of two by fours from this
side of the house to that sideof the house because the
(02:39):
delivery was there and theyneeded them over there.
So I spent all day just totinglumber.
And I loved it.
So that's that that's where thestart was working for him
throughout high school.
I was homeschooled, so I got towork a lot at different hours.
And so I worked pretty steadilyand obviously worked very
(03:01):
full-time in the summers.
Just had a lot of fun buildinghouses, and we built, he built
custom homes around a lake nearwhere we grew up.
And so we would work real hard,eat our lunch in five minutes,
swim for 25 minutes, and then goback to work.
And then, you know, it was itwas kind of cool as a teenager
to have that job.
(03:21):
Yeah.
I went to college and had bigplans and dreams and
aspirations.
I I uh with a buddy of minestarted a nonprofit.
We were starting to support likeorphanages in other countries
and work with local likeindigenous leaders in different
countries and then graduated in08 when the market crashed.
(03:44):
And whatever I planned to do,those doors just kept slamming
shut.
The money was gone.
And actually got a really kindletter from USAID saying, hey,
this is why you're not eveneligible for this grant.
And it it was a big wake-up callto real to the realization of,
hey, what we think we want andwhat we're trying to achieve,
(04:08):
the way we're trying to achieveit didn't make sense at the
time.
And so I was doing constructionanyway, and that's what was
paying my bills.
Uh you know, the way it's kindof like I kept looking for jobs
and trying to build this thingand trying to do this, and the
whole way I'm like, well, weknow how to make money with
(04:29):
these, let's go do that.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:31):
Uh why did you want to start the nonprofit?
SPEAKER_00 (04:37):
Why?
That's a good question.
I traveled, I I I went to Chinafor like a month and a half, my
I think my second year incollege, the summer of my second
year in college.
And it was a big eye-openingexperience for me.
And I knew I knew I had friendswho were like choosing
missionary, choosing different,you know, choosing the mission
(04:57):
field and choosing differentthings like that.
I was considering joining theMarine Corps actually at the
time, and decided that thatwasn't the right fit for me.
And so like some of those changesome of those decisions had been
made just before I left forChina.
And what I saw while I wasoverseas was I I just I just saw
(05:22):
the impact that some of thesemissionaries and and some of
these other organizations.
That trip was amazing.
I got the opportunity to meetbusiness owners.
I got both indigenous and andAmerican.
I got to see some really coolmissions that seem to be
effective, and I saw some stuffthat was super ineffective.
And so that stirred in me theidea that, hey, I want to, I
(05:45):
want to do this in a way that'ssustainable and actually
supports the people where thewhere the aid actually gets to
where it needs to go.
It's not just for some you knowhigh school kids to take a cool
photo or some you know missionboard at a church to be like,
oh, look what we're doing.
Take photos of something they'rebuilding, but realizing that the
(06:07):
the long tail effect of whatthey're doing actually is
detrimental to the community.
And that that started in thattrip.
The next summer I went to uhNiger and and joined a Peace
Corps trip.
If you're familiar with PeaceCorps, it's it's a it's a you
(06:28):
know it's an NGO where theywhere young people go for a
couple years and they getembedded in a community and they
they work on you know programs.
The way you get aid or the wayyou get funding if you're a
Peace Corps volunteer, is yousubmit for it and generally get
denied, or you beg your friendsand family to bring it.
So I was the friends and family,the the Peace Corps volunteer,
(06:51):
she was somebody I went toschool with.
She graduated and joined thePeace Corps, and so we showed up
in the middle of Sub-SaharanAfrica with suitcases full of
school supplies.
And it was so cool to see thelong tail effect of what we were
part of was more sustainable,but it was highly bureaucratic.
(07:12):
And, you know, that's it wasjust really interesting to see
that, but be able to talk to thethe education minister of
Holopnesia, be able to have allthese kind of uh insight.
And while we were on that trip,somebody, one of our team got
really sick and watching justhow it got really close.
I mean, like minutes away fromhim not making it.
(07:34):
And it just it just happened tobe some of some connections that
we had which got him to theresources he needed, which got
him through the night, whichthen got him safely home.
And just kind of watching,watching all this to say, okay,
here's a there's there's gottabe a way to create a more
sustainable link between peoplein the US who want to support
organizations and communitieswhere it's more about what are
(07:58):
we doing in the community.
And so anyway, finishingrealizing that and then I I
traveled to Nicaragua severaltimes and built some houses
there.
And over the course of threedifferent trips, I saw what we
were trying to do, and over thecourse of a year, what actually
(08:20):
was happening.
And again, it was it was kind oflike this vanity project to a
degree that wasn't reallycreating the result that we were
expecting.
And so coming back, you know,going going on all these trips
really opened my eyes.
And when we realized that thisthe way we were trying to pursue
(08:41):
things wasn't sustainable.
I I remember a conversation Philand I had where he said, you
know, well, we we really don'thave a lot of experience.
We don't we don't know whatwe're doing, and we're both kind
of trying to figure out ourlives.
We were both getting seriousabout our lives and families.
(09:01):
And so he chose to go thegovernment route and and worked
in nonprofits in the government,found found an avenue there that
he he loved.
And then I and I was building myconstruction company or you
know, skills at the time.
It wasn't a specific company atthe time.
And being able to kind of ourour paths kind of diverged at
(09:23):
that point, and we decided tolet them diverge.
You know, and that was 15 yearsago.
So it's like, well, what thatthat kind of uh goal got me to
that point to where then, youknow, the last 15 years of
that's always kind of in theback of my mind, like what is my
(09:44):
purpose?
I don't want to just put two byfours together and paint stuff
and make it look pretty.
I want to do something thatmatters.
I want to be present in my ownkids' lives and and looking back
subconsciously, I like Tony, mymy best friend's dad, was always
there, was always around on thesoccer field, was you know, at
at church, at the communityevents.
(10:05):
Sometimes he was covered insawdust or or dirt, but you
know, he was there.
And so wanting to be able tohave that same connection with
my kids, that's a big part ofwhat brought me back to being in
construction.
SPEAKER_01 (10:16):
Yeah.
That that's a really good why.
SPEAKER_00 (10:20):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (10:21):
My thing's, you know, even just I've traveled to
Europe, I've traveled to likethe second, third world
countries.
But like even going to Europe,it's completely different than
here.
Yes.
And you know, it's funny becausemy brother's like, yeah, you
know, even traveling in Europe,you can see why America is the
best country in the world.
(10:42):
And and I, you know, justtraveling there, it's like we
are more advanced than they are.
SPEAKER_00 (10:47):
And it's in some ways.
In some ways, yes.
I have cousins who live inFrance and an uncle who lives in
South France.
France is the only Europeancountry I've been to.
And there are, you know, thereare things here in the U.S.
that we obviously have that, youknow, the I work construction.
I work with a lot of guys whohave risked their entire lives
(11:09):
and families to be here in theU.S.
to give a to give a future totheir kids that they want, you
know, opportunities for kidsthat they wouldn't have in their
in their home countries.
One of the things I love abouttravel is that you always gain
perspective if you payattention.
Yeah.
And yeah, there is some thingswhere it's like, okay, there's a
(11:31):
better here or better there,whatever.
But everywhere I've traveled,one of my favorite experiences
was in Morocco.
And I saw communities thatthrived.
And they were super differentthan anything I'd ever had
experience.
It's, you know, it was very allthe communities revolved around
(11:52):
the local mosque and being ableto, you know, we weren't
allowed, we were we went intoone of the mosques as a to tour,
but we weren't allowed to go in,you know, during the the time of
prayer.
But we were in that area andthey all came out and just
watching the communities thriveand watching the interactions
and watching like I was just I II was uh it was kind of one of
(12:17):
those experiences where I knewthat this was going to be
something that was gonna stickwith me forever.
And just watching that, and it'sand I I go back to that a lot
and think, okay, this issomething that instead of
thinking that, well, we'rebetter or they're better,
whatever, it's looking at tosay, hey, this is this works for
them and this works really well,and it's really beautiful.
And kind of finding the beautyin that about what works and or
(12:40):
what what what gives them life.
I think especially in you're anentrepreneur, I'm an
entrepreneur, like inentrepreneur conversations, a
lot of times we're alwayslooking for what's the best.
What's the best?
What's the the, you know, whatbook you're reading, what what
method are you applying, whatwhat's your morning routine,
whatever.
(13:00):
And recognizing that justbecause that works for me
doesn't mean it works for you,or vice versa.
You know, what else is going onin your life that is informing
your decisions to get to whereyou want to be?
Yeah.
When I was 18, right?
You're 18?
Yeah, when I was 18, lookingback at my decisions, I chose
because I I was making decisionsfor what I thought was best at
(13:22):
the time, you know?
And instead of thinking it as isbest, I've learned been learning
to think about, okay, whatwhat's the why behind this and
is it serving?
Is this productive, is itvaluable or not?
Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01 (13:37):
Yeah, I don't know if you golf at all, but poorly.
There's there's a saying in thegolf world, swing your swing.
SPEAKER_02 (13:43):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (13:43):
Yeah, it doesn't matter how ugly your swing is,
it doesn't matter if it'sterribly out of line.
But if it works for you, then itworks for you.
And you just gotta keep swingingand keep enjoying.
SPEAKER_00 (13:52):
I love that.
Uh and I so I I've never reallyhad time to to invest in golf.
When I was in college, we had aa free three-part course,
nine-hole course.
So it was right by the school,and we love going there with you
know just a pitching wedge andhaving fun.
And you know, I realized earlyon I wasn't it wasn't something
(14:15):
that I wanted to invest a lot oftime.
I admire people who do.
It's just not something I'vebeen able to spend time.
And so for years, you know, I'min construction.
It's kind of common forconstruction, you know, builders
to to go golfing.
Uh and so someone taught methis, man, 10 years ago, they
said, you know, instead ofworrying about pushing so hard
(14:37):
to try and be good at golf, hesaid, like if you're just having
a day where you you don't feellike you're, you know, the point
of golf is to enjoy being onthere and to play your game.
If you feel like you'redragging, just pick up the ball.
Go to the next hole.
You know, and so there's there'swhole courses where I'll go the
whole course and I'll just pickup at six.
If I'm if I'm at six and I'mstill not on the green, well,
(15:00):
you know, I might drop and put acouple for fun, but we're gonna
go to the next one and just kindof have fun with it.
And so instead of having thatpressure, but kind of like what
you just said about swingingyour swing, is as I've found
that there's plenty of timeswhere but I set that expectation
in advance.
I say, hey, uh, I'd love to comeplay golf.
Just fair warning, like this isnot something I have a lot of
time to practice and be greatat.
(15:21):
This is how I've learned toenjoy my game.
And it works.
So yeah, so instead instead oflike trying to find like what's
better, I find what works, youknow, and what I enjoy.
And that way I can just in infocus on the interaction.
SPEAKER_01 (15:40):
Yeah, because everything, everyone works
differently in in real estate,you know, people will be like,
oh, go door knocking, go coldcalling, right?
Whatever.
I mean, for me, those I haven'tfound that those work.
I mean they work for somepeople, but they don't work for
me.
Right.
So I've done them, but I waslike, you know, these aren't
working.
So I'm gonna move past those andgo to something that I actually
(16:02):
will enjoy doing and willactually work for me.
SPEAKER_00 (16:04):
What has worked for you?
Just curious, like what what doyou enjoy doing right now?
SPEAKER_01 (16:09):
Finding people like you, it's Instagram, you know,
just doing the videos andreaching out to people.
Finding potential clients, it'sgoing to events, going to open
houses.
And then I've started going toor experimenting with like just
going to coffee shops or goingto be a comic book guy, so I'll
go to like the comic book store.
(16:29):
That's cool.
And just kind of chat withpeople around there and almost
considering the world my openhouse.
SPEAKER_00 (16:35):
Right.
That's cool.
I think it's I've seen otherpeople say that, but Homose is
the one that sticks out as hesays, you are your niche.
And so don't don't worry abouttrying to figure out what your
niche is.
You are your niche.
And so being yourself.
And so, like you said, you're abig comic book guy.
You know, there are every nichehas you know a community of
(16:58):
people who when they're buyingor selling a home, they need a
realtor.
And so, you know, it's buildingthose relationships with what
makes sense for you and showingup in that way as yourself
authentically, as opposed totrying to force something that
doesn't work, right?
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (17:14):
That's cool.
Yeah, um I I don't know ifyou're on threads at all.
Or like the Instagram, Twitternow.
Yeah, yeah.
I like what they do.
They have this, they do likecommunities.
So they'll have like comic bookcommunities, they'll have like
golf communities, they'll havecar communities.
Cool.
And so I'll just go on there andI'll try and post in one of
those a day, just stay top ofmind, stay in the conversation
(17:35):
and just kind of uh respond topeople in there.
That's cool.
SPEAKER_02 (17:40):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (17:40):
So what and so going to comic books stores, you know,
coffee shops, open houses, thesekind of events, how are you,
what do you what are youthinking of before you go in?
Like I I think you're you seemto be like a mindset guy.
Like you seem to think about alot of your mindset.
So like as you're walking intothe event, what are you thinking
of mindset-wise?
SPEAKER_01 (18:02):
I mean, it really depends on the event.
Like I went to a watch fair acouple weeks ago.
SPEAKER_02 (18:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (18:07):
And just going in there, I was like, you know, I'm
I don't have really any bigexpectations for this.
I'm just gonna go in, yeah, lookat cool watches, and if there's
a conversation, then there'll bea conversation.
And in that fair, I had aconversation with a guy from
Raymont Watches.
Okay.
Um we talked for an hour.
(18:29):
Just us talking.
That's cool.
Yeah.
And I was like, I think like youcan expect the best and you can
hope for the best.
But if you're going there sayingI need to have an hour-long
conversation, yeah, ultimately Ithink the pressure won't make
that happen.
Right.
So if you're going in there,you're just like, I want to have
fun.
And then if a naturalconversation sparks up, then the
(18:49):
natural conversation will sparkup.
SPEAKER_00 (18:51):
That's really cool.
Yeah.
Well, because and I know you'veshared about your watches in the
past and how that's reallyimportant to you.
You know, it building theserelationships outside of what
you need out of therelationship, right?
Being able to show up just asyourself.
That's where I found that'swhere I'm able to provide the
(19:12):
most value and connect withpeople well.
Does that make sense?
unknown (19:16):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (19:17):
That's cool.
SPEAKER_01 (19:18):
Okay.
Um, going back to a previousepisode with Jackson Granger, we
were talking about how if youbring up right away that you're
a real estate agent, most peoplewill be like they'll kind of
hesitate and pull back a littlebit.
But if you just get theconversation going and naturally
comes up that your real estateagent would just what do you do
(19:38):
for work?
People are more comfortabletalking with it and going
forward with you.
SPEAKER_00 (19:46):
I know.
I love asking questions, youknow, that are like not what do
you do?
You know, finding better ways ofasking those questions of, you
know.
So one of one of my favoritequestions I love asking, I'm
gonna ask you, is you know, whatwhat's going on right now that
you really enjoy that you'rereally excited about?
SPEAKER_01 (20:03):
I know I already told you this, but yeah, nervous
and excited about moving out andexperiencing being by myself and
seeing how kind of works.
SPEAKER_00 (20:13):
Yeah.
And like planning for thatjourney, I I know a lot of I
have I have four kids, and twoare in high school, one in
middle school, and one her lastyear in elementary school.
And so, you know, kind of thisidea of moving out and what's
next and college, not college,trade school, uh whatever.
(20:33):
There's so many paths.
You know, what does that looklike for you as you've been
preparing for this?
And even it doesn't sound likeyou've been like kind of running
down the track to it's it soundslike it's been working for you
and the opportunities you'vebeen looking at the
opportunities in front of you.
Is that right?
SPEAKER_01 (20:50):
Almost my dad was like, you know, you if you're
not going to college, you'regonna need to move out this
year.
SPEAKER_02 (20:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (20:58):
And you just get away from the family so you can
grow, is what he says.
That's cool.
And so he, you know, my parentsare helping me out a little bit,
and the apartment I found they'drun like a six-week special.
So ultimately for four months,it's like a thousand a month.
SPEAKER_02 (21:12):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (21:12):
Which is pretty good.
Yeah.
And preparing for it, I I meanthat just packing up really.
Yeah.
I like just to jump into thingsand just see what they take me.
SPEAKER_00 (21:26):
That can serve you very well.
It can also make life veryinteresting.
I do that often as well.
So I get it.
SPEAKER_03 (21:33):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (21:34):
Yeah.
So and that's so your dad gaveyou that kind of that boundary
of saying, okay, this is ifyou're not choosing college,
because you said I listened toin a previous episode that you
said that you know you you knewyou wanted to try real estate.
You know, real estate wassomething that you felt like was
really interesting to you andyou wanted to go for.
And so then taking that choosechoice to pursue that as opposed
(21:58):
to more of a quote-unquotetraditional route of college.
I was reading this past weekthat the some government agency
audited all the jobs that werelisted, that in finding out what
jobs actually required a collegedegree.
Did you see that report?
I haven't no.
If you could guess, how manygovernment jobs actually require
(22:21):
a college degree?
Percentage-wise.
SPEAKER_01 (22:25):
10%.
SPEAKER_00 (22:27):
Close.
It's like seven and a half.
Yeah.
So 93.5% of jobs don't actuallyrequire a college degree.
And so edit, you know, they'rethey've been auditing that and
editing all the postings toremove college requirement.
Yet college actually wasn'trequired.
Yeah, it's a big conversation inour home.
unknown (22:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (22:46):
With our boys, is what they kind of what are their
avenues available to them.
SPEAKER_01 (22:52):
Yeah, I think it's I think college can be a good
place to like if you don't knowwhat you want to do, I think
it's a good place to figure outwhere your next path might be.
But I think if you know fullywhat you want to do and it
doesn't require a collegedegree, then I don't think that
college should be on the table.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (23:12):
Well, and I even want to take that further back.
If you're not sure, I thinkgoing and working for a couple
years may be a great place to gofind out what you want to do.
You know, college is superexpensive.
SPEAKER_01 (23:22):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (23:23):
And I so I graduated college in 2008.
Almost almost all of my and Iwent to a liberal arts, small
liberal arts school.
That was like the way you shoulddo school, is what I was taught
and the expectation, and therewas no question I was going to
college.
So college was very expensive.
(23:46):
You know, and and I walked outwith debt and it took me years
to pay off my debt.
And it wasn't until I started itwasn't until I was it took me
until I was 30.
I think I was 30 when I finallysent that big check to pay off
the last bit.
unknown (24:05):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (24:06):
But I've been paying it off for eight years and had
barely made a dent.
So I, you know, I sent a bigcheck to c to close that out.
But everybody I know went backto school.
Or did a job that could make themoney that had nothing to do
with the degree that they youknow that they paid all their
(24:27):
money for.
And so I think I think that wasthe beginning of a shift away
from you have to go to college.
Because the like the theworkforce up until that point it
it was consistent, it madesense.
You could go get a job thatcould take care of your family.
Whereas now, you know, we're allhustling, you know, we're all
(24:49):
figuring stuff out.
And a lot of us, our jobs areour our our income is from
coming from either relationshipsor really hard work, you know,
or multiple streams of income,or you know, yeah, it's it's not
just like you could go go toschool, get a job, and you're
fine.
SPEAKER_01 (25:05):
Yeah.
Yeah, I think one of the kind ofthe one of the biggest scams is
just a business degree.
unknown (25:13):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (25:13):
Because, you know, why if you want to build a
business, why are you requiringyourself to have a degree?
SPEAKER_00 (25:18):
Oh yeah.
Well, and and I always talkabout like all the all the
mistakes I've made, those wereway more expensive than college
ever was, but I learned waymore.
You know, I mean I've paid I'vepaid a college tuition four or
five times over uh in the last15 years with making dumb
mistakes and learning from themand making different mistakes
(25:41):
and learning from those.
SPEAKER_01 (25:42):
So Yeah, I don't know.
I've already mentioned this bookmany times on this podcast, but
uh Million Dollar Weekend, it'sit has a passage in there and it
says like essentially to thepoint stop reading books, stop
overthinking, and just jump inand do it because you're gonna
learn so much more than if youjust keep researching and keep
(26:04):
reading because you're alwaysgonna fail.
Right.
But it matters when you start.
SPEAKER_00 (26:09):
Yes.
I I I agree with that a lot.
And I also I listen to bookswhile I'm working.
I still am hands-on toolssomedays.
And so I just I just finisheMyth again.
You know, there's so many booksthat I've found kind of in the
(26:30):
past I was using those thosebooks was okay.
Once I have that information,then I will.
Whereas now I'm already running100 miles an hour.
SPEAKER_02 (26:39):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (26:40):
If I can and instead of like saying, oh, okay, now
I'm gonna adopt everything inthat book, instead I've said,
okay, what's the one thing I cantake out of that book to adjust
where I'm at and to improvewhere I'm at?
Because you can make the you canjump, you can, you can you know,
go after what you want andrealize you've got to make a
(27:01):
180-degree turn, you missed anexit, you've got to go back
here, you know, and and that'sfine.
And those are the ways to do it.
If you can, if you can learnsomething from somebody else
that that helps you miss some ofthose expensive U-turns, then
it's ideal.
Yeah.
But sometimes you can't plan forthat.
Sometimes you've just got to gothrough it.
And there's you know, the theaverage millionaire has nine I
(27:26):
think nine failed businesses.
I think right now is the and I'mI I counted recently at where
right right at about nine frompast businesses that I've
started and failed or closed andI had a partnership that went
really sour after a year, andyou know life each each one of
(27:46):
those failures was a hugeopportunity to learn.
Expensive opportunity to learn.
But like, did did I learn?
Did you learn?
You know, looking back at those,did you learn?
I I have uh I had a constructioncompany fail a couple years ago,
and that was really challenging.
I had to go through a lot to toget back up on my feet.
(28:07):
But I know multiple guys whowent through similar experiences
who never got back up on theirfeet, who never chose to pick
themselves back up and go tryagain, you know?
So I'm sure you've seen that aswell.
You've seen guys who just kindof languish, uh who are like,
well, I guess I'll just do this,and what you know, what are they
(28:29):
actually doing with their lives?
unknown (28:31):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (28:32):
I think it's kind of a misconception that failing is
failing.
Right.
Because you only truly fail whenyou take the failure and you say
no more.
SPEAKER_00 (28:41):
You don't want to do that.
You choose to take that on as anidentity.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (28:48):
And what kind of led you to building all those nine
businesses?
SPEAKER_00 (28:58):
Um each time was different.
I mean, ultimately the last thelast one that got pretty big
before it failed, I was workingfor ironically, I was working
for Tony, who my dream was towork for him.
Like always I wanted to be ableto come back and work for him.
And I'd been working for him forabout a year.
(29:18):
I wasn't happy, wasn't, youknow, and it's like, you know,
happiness, there's a lot ofthings I do now that I'm not I'm
not happy, but it's just, youknow, I I I have some kind of
sense of like, okay, this iswhat I'm doing to get where I'm
going.
I didn't have that.
And I wanted to.
(29:41):
It's funny because there was aguy who worked for me last year
who he kept making mistakes.
And I told him, Man, you know,some of these mistakes, the only
way you're gonna learn, like Ifeel like the only way you're
gonna learn is if you start yourown company and like you start
paying for these mistakesyourself where I'm not paying
for them.
And a couple months later, hedid start his own company,
(30:05):
started a um house cleaningbusiness.
And he called me like threeweeks later.
He's like, How do you do this,this, and this?
I was like, I just hustled,dude.
Like that's that's what I wasdoing.
I had that that the partnershipthat partnership that went sour,
this was 2012 or 13, I think.
I was the sales side of thebusiness, he was the production
(30:27):
side of the business.
And I would come in themornings, work with him for a
couple hours, go meet withclients.
Like I was really erratic on thejob site.
Sometimes I'd meet the clientsin the morning, come work two,
three hours, and then go meetwith clients again.
And he just saw me coming andgoing.
He was like, You're justoverhead.
Like I can do this betterwithout you.
Like I, you know, like I was Iwas being really disruptive to
(30:50):
his schedule.
He wanted things consistent.
And he called me three monthslater.
He's like, Where'd you find allthese jobs?
I was like, What do you think Iwas doing?
I was meeting with clientsconstantly.
I was constantly going out andfinding those jobs and and
working.
And and he would be doingworking on QuickBooks and
project management until 10o'clock midnight.
(31:11):
I was writing proposals until 10o'clock at midnight every night,
you know, and it's just youknow, so kind of finding that
each each of those failures islike, okay, what why did I start
that business?
Why did I do that?
Part of it's like, I need to paybills.
I have kids, I had family.
And part of that was when I madethat jump from from working for
(31:33):
Tony to starting my ownbusiness, literally had$100 in
my pocket.
Like actually a hundred bucks.
That was it.
And that first job, I when Isold it, I I knew I didn't have
enough money to get gas for thenext day.
Like that was it.
I had to sell a job and I did.
And then I sold another job, andthen I sold another job, and I
(31:55):
sold another job, and Ileveraged the teams that I had
around me.
I worked with a painter.
You know, I kind of just focusedon what I knew was the highest
impact thing.
But I wanted to ultimately I Icouldn't drive to a job anymore.
I couldn't go to a work anymore.
(32:17):
You know, I had to, I had toshow up where I felt like I was
doing, I was doing somethingvaluable, making a difference
that I had some control over.
Entrepreneur, you know, otherentrepreneurs and business
owners, I know we kind of jokethat there's something wrong
with us, that we can't just likego to work.
You know, we have to trade a40-hour job for a 120-hour job
(32:38):
that gives us more freedom whereI don't have to ask anybody if
I'm spend, you know, take breakeat breakfast with my wife and
you know, have a slow morningwith the kids because they need
some extra support, or if I'mgonna be home early to go to an
event or coach soccer, or youknow.
Um it's probably easier ways todo life, but yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (33:00):
Makes it more fun.
SPEAKER_00 (33:04):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (33:05):
I enjoy it.
So what has been the biggestlesson you've learned from your
failed businesses?
SPEAKER_00 (33:13):
There's a couple.
And they're less about thetactical side of the business
side.
One thing that's come up a lotrecently is that nothing anybody
says helps you get through thatjust the worst part.
You know, there's a lot ofsayings out there, you know, it
gets worse before it getsbetter.
It's only failure if you quit.
(33:35):
All what's another one?
All failure is psychologicaluntil death.
You know, you've you've probablyheard some of these.
SPEAKER_01 (33:40):
Yep.
SPEAKER_00 (33:41):
None of that helps at all.
A lot of it you just have to godo.
You just have to get through itand just focus on what's right
in front of you.
And for me, I had to choose whatI wanted for myself, for my
family, for my life.
And and I needed to hold backonto some of those dreams that I
(34:04):
had and say, okay, that's thatstill exists, that's still alive
for me.
I need to get back through it.
I also learned that I I have totake 100% responsibility for all
of them.
You know, like I brought up thatone about the partnership.
He came to me one day.
He just said, I don't want to dothis with you anymore.
(34:26):
You're overhead.
I can do it better without you.
And uh we'd been, we've been,it'd been challenging for a
while.
So I was like, well, if you havethe balls to say that to my
face, it's all yours.
You know, I'm out.
And I looked at that like, oh,he did this, he's such an
asshole, whatever.
No, I have a lot ofresponsibility with how I showed
(34:47):
up in that partnership.
I was not somebody that hewanted to partner with.
And so I've I've had to ownthat.
Uh this most recent, the youknow, which was the biggest, we
we had the company was growing.
We'd gotten really big.
And when it collapsed, itcollapsed really quickly.
And it all came back on me.
(35:09):
I I had to call my crew in andsay, You're I we're out of
money.
We I gotta close the businessdown.
And I turned around and sold mytruck to pay payroll.
Like we were on, we were out,we're done.
We had nothing.
And I had to take thatresponsibility.
And as much as I know it hurtpeople and sucked and was very
(35:36):
painful for a lot of people,like the one person who had to
pay for as much as possible wasme.
The one person who like I'dspent almost a decade building
that business.
But like my lack of being ableto manage or run that company
affected a lot of people.
Employees, suppliers, clients,subs.
(35:57):
You know, it like I was buildingsomething that served a part of
the community, and when itcollapsed, it left a void.
And there were other companiesto come in and pick them up, but
you know, it's not that I wasjust building something building
something.
It was I was showing up to to beto bring something valuable to
my community as well.
And I don't think I fullyaccepted that responsibility.
(36:20):
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (36:26):
What uh what would be your biggest advice to like
the younger generation, youknow, my age or younger?
SPEAKER_00 (36:34):
Yeah.
I like what you're doing, whichis just getting out there.
I had a conversation with my14-year-old the other day where
he's like, Well, I can't go geta job.
You know, we were talking abouthe he has some things that he
wants.
He has kind of expensive taste.
And he's like, Well, I I don't Ican't go get a job.
And I said, You can goknockdoors, you can pull weeds,
you can he he has a drone.
You he he for a little while wasselling drone photos for his
(36:57):
clients where he would take adrone photo of their home.
I was like, go do.
Go try something.
There's this kid I'm followingon Instagram that McLean Power
Washing, you know, where it'slike, this is my 100th day of
getting to$25,000 profit.
And he's on day 111.
(37:21):
And he's at I think he's at 15or 16,000 right now, something
like that.
Mid mid mid-teens.
He's just doing it.
He's doing it while he's atschool.
He's he's hustling, he's justtrying things.
There's so many people like yousaid who sit there and read the
books or sit there and do, youknow, go to you know, open
(37:45):
houses or or or networkingevents, you know, get the
business cards, but they neveractually show up.
They never actually do anything.
And it's really hard to bringvalue to somebody else.
Like the first thing you youprobably know this, the first
thing you should do for someoneis bring value to them.
Don't ask for anything.
Just show up and bring value.
It's really hard to bring valueif you don't do anything.
(38:06):
If you're like, well, I'm here.
Well, that's not valuable.
Like there's a lot of peoplehere.
It's millions of people in thecity.
You know, how are you showing upthat's bringing value?
And I have to do that every timeI walk into someone's home.
I can't come in and say, well,it's gonna be this much money.
No, I have to be really clear.
What value am I providing?
What value am I providing to mythe guys who work for me?
(38:26):
What value am I providing to myvendors?
What, you know, where am Ishowing up?
So for you, you know, the bestadvice I can give to you is to
go out and do and show out whereyou can bring value.
Because if you know, you can youcan practice all day long.
You can do the mental, but untilyou go out and do some courses,
you don't play golf.
You know, you may own a greatset of call clubs, shoes, the
(38:49):
whole kit, whatever, but untilyou go out in all kinds of
weather, you're not a golfer.
You know?
And so like going out and tryingthings and find out, okay, this
is where I'm great.
This is where I could bringvalue and to be able to have
that confidence that whensomeone says, Hey, can you help
me do this?
(39:10):
Because like I think you saidthis on a previous podcast
episode, like the thecertification for being a real
estate agent, like none of thatreally helps you be a realtor.
Yeah.
Right?
Yeah.
So you've got to go find outwhat makes you special that you
can actually show up and bringvalue to people.
And it's not just a transaction.
(39:30):
You know.
So what are some things thatlike so me saying that, what are
some things from yourperspective?
I'm really curious, like, howdoes that land for you or or
what are some things that you'redoing already to show up and
bring value?
SPEAKER_01 (39:45):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (39:46):
Besides a podcast.
SPEAKER_01 (39:48):
I mean, that that is the reason I created the
podcast, is just for businessowners and me.
Yeah.
For a little bit of value.
I mean, the I mean, I don't havemuch experience to like the
biggest thing I can bring isknowledge or make it an easy
process or a fun process, or youknow, connecting on some
personal level would just belike the biggest thing I can
(40:12):
bring.
And I think that a lot of peopledon't really appreciate how big
knowledge could be.
I don't know if you followAustin uh Wickham with Red Rock
Roofing.
He posted a story the other daythat I really liked.
(40:33):
It was like an email with like asigned contract or something for
a roof.
And in it he was like, it wasn'tthe lowest price.
They chose me because I had thebest knowledge and the best
hustle out of everyone else.
And you know that you don'talways have to have 10 years of
(40:57):
experience to bring value.
You can bring value with whatyou know and how you can help
people.
SPEAKER_00 (41:02):
I yeah, and I I would take that one step
further.
Because you're starting out inyour career.
How much how many deals have youdone?
None.
unknown (41:11):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (41:12):
So how many what what experience do you have
doing deals?
Not much.
Okay.
And what how close do you haveany mentors who have done a lot
of deals?
SPEAKER_01 (41:25):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (41:26):
Like how many deals have they done done this year?
Someone who's close to you thisyear?
SPEAKER_01 (41:31):
I don't know the number off the top of my head,
but at least 20, I would say.
SPEAKER_00 (41:37):
Okay.
So you have an opportunity towork with people who have done
20, 40, 80 deals this year.
Building those relationships,you then become the one person
point of contact because peoplewho are doing 80 deals a year,
what do they not have?
Time.
They don't have any time.
What do you have a ton of?
(41:57):
Time.
Yeah.
So you can provide, like if Iwere you, you, I would look at
you know, co-listing or orthings like that to where you're
bringing people in and you'renot.
All you're doing is bringing inthe client.
Because then what you're in thecomic book store and somebody's
talking about, yeah, I'm tryingto buy a home.
(42:17):
My aunt's been trying to helpme, you know, or my aunt's best
friend's a realtor, and she'sbeen kind of trying to help me,
blah, blah, blah, whatever.
And it's like, well, how many,you know, one of the things when
people tell me that I always askthem, well, how many deals have
they done this year?
Well, one or two.
Well, I can understand whyyou're having a challenge.
Like, you want to work withprofessionals who have done, who
are doing deals.
You don't want to work withsomebody who has their license.
(42:37):
There's 250,000 licensedrealtors who are quitting this
year because they're not doingdeals.
That's that's a huge number, youknow?
And then there's a bunch of guyslike you who are coming in
because you're like, I want todo real estate.
And so it's a it's a calling.
It's, you know, it's a it's abunch of people who aren't
renewing their license becausethey're not doing deals anyway.
(43:00):
And so then you have access topeople where you can build
relationships in the watchcommunity, the golf community,
in the comic book storecommunity, in whatever community
that you have where you canpresent deals.
But it's not just that you havethe knowledge, you have access
to knowledge of people who'vedone hundreds of deals in this
kind of market.
You know, this is an odd market.
(43:21):
It's it's a very lopsidedmarket.
I do feel like it's gonna swing.
And I think it's gonna be aseller's market in I don't know,
24 months or so.
And that's that's gonna causesome whiplash for some people.
They're gonna be really shocked.
But it's you know, so navigatingthese changes and like earlier,
(43:42):
the you know, the market dropped20%.
Well, it was back up two weekslater.
And like volatility like thatcauses some stress.
And so what people need morethan the knowledge is is that
trust.
Is are you gonna help menavigate this?
And so if you have that accessto someone behind you, uh
there's a great book called WhoNot How.
(44:02):
Have you heard of that?
Dr.
Benjamin Hardy.
Uh, it's a really simple book.
He's got a series of books.
Gap of the gain, who not how,and 10x is easier than 2x.
They're quick books, highlyrecommend them.
But the idea of who not how isyou need to know who can do the
solution, not how to do thesolution.
And that's what makes you anentrepreneur as opposed to a
technician.
(44:25):
Kind of goes back into the justgoing out and trying things.
As you go out and try things,you're going to get connected
with people.
So okay.
So you're I asked you what kindof what you know your reflection
of that is.
So you're going out and you'reyou're trying to connect with
people and sharing whether it'sknowledge or like how does it
(44:45):
make sense where that value,that value proposition is
actually higher that you'reconnected to those people that
do have done a lot of deals.
SPEAKER_03 (44:52):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (44:55):
And then turning around to them and saying, hey,
how can I help you?
You know, what are some thingsthat I can do to help y'all?
Because if you're indispensable,you probably don't have access
to multimillion dollar deals,but maybe you have access to
someone who does.
And they just need someone tostop by the house every day and
make sure that it's clean and itlooks like a$2 million house
(45:18):
every time there's a showing,you know?
Yeah.
Being able to offer to do stufflike that, even if you're not
part of the deal, even if youhave the time, that's that may
be something that gives you infront of.
And then you can see, oh, what'sa two million dollar deal look
like?
You know, what what is what areand maybe maybe you don't want
to do two million dollar deals.
Whatever, I'm just making it up.
(45:39):
Like if that's what you want, ifyou want to be on the luxury
watch golf, you know, comic bookmillionaires list, well then
that may be the type of dealthat you're looking for, is is
kind of higher-end deals, right?
Uh what watch are you wearingtoday, by the way?
Got this black Bolova.
Sweet.
Yeah.
What do you got?
Got my tag.
(45:59):
My wife got it for me a fewyears ago.
SPEAKER_02 (46:01):
Nice.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (46:02):
Big fan of the Monaco.
Yeah, that's a cool watch.
I saw I is that the automaticor?
Yeah, automatic.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (46:13):
Manual mail are the or no, this is a quartz.
Yeah.
Automatic kind of get on mynerves sometimes because it's
just winding them.
You can feel them.
Do you feel them too when you'reon your wrist?
I don't mind the rotor moving oranything, but it like when you
have to wind it up and orsometimes you forget to and then
it you have to reset the timeand everything.
SPEAKER_00 (46:33):
I got I got one of those watch boxes that was auto
like that that kept it going andit would spin it, you know, once
every hour or something likethat.
Um I have a a Carrera, a tagCarrera that isn't automatic.
But it's I've got to it's notworking, so I've got to figure
out what the heck's going on.
But yeah, so this one's aquartz.
(46:54):
But I I do love that watch.
Yeah.
And it's it's like never one ofthose things that are like, oh
yeah, let me grab the watch andtake it to go get it fixed.
It's never on my list of to-dos.
But it's funny the first time Ifelt the rotor move, it it I was
like, what is that?
SPEAKER_01 (47:13):
Yeah, I uh now it's more comforting, you know.
Yeah.
I've golfed with it a couple oftimes.
Yes.
And sometimes in the swing I'lljust hear it in my ear going.
It's very distracting whengolfing.
SPEAKER_00 (47:22):
I do not worry when golfing.
SPEAKER_01 (47:24):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Uh not to cut you off, but uh aswe're running out of time here,
any final thoughts?
SPEAKER_00 (47:31):
No, I appreciate it.
Um first off, I I just admireyour hustle of showing up and
you know, starting this podcast.
And there's like I said a coupletimes, I have, you know, I'm a
dad to some teenagers.
And one of the biggestchallenges that I have is how do
(47:52):
I help them show up?
Like how do I help set up them,that them up for success and
what you know what they need inlife.
Because it's fuzzy now.
It doesn't feel like it's reallyclear anymore.
And so it's encouraging to seeyou show up and show up in your
way and your, you know, beauthentic in the best way you
can and say, this is this iswhat I love and this is where
(48:14):
I'm showing up and pursuing youryour dreams and your ideas.
So thank you for that.
SPEAKER_01 (48:18):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (48:19):
Um, thank you for reaching out.
SPEAKER_01 (48:20):
Yeah, thank you for coming on.
I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_00 (48:22):
I'm glad I saw the message.
So yeah, I just I admire you forfor showing up the way you are.
So yeah.
Yeah, I've listened to a few ofyour podcasts, and I said this
just before we got on the show.
I didn't want to come in with abig preconceived notion of who
you were.
Yeah, it's this has beenenlightening.
So yeah, thank you.
SPEAKER_01 (48:40):
Thank you.
Yeah.
And thank you everyone else forjoining us here on Timeless
Movement Podcast.
And we'll catch you next week.
Welcome to Timeless Movement.
I'm your host, Alexander Laszlo,and I'm here joined by Casey.
Tell us a little bit aboutyourself.
What's up, Alexander?
Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_00 (00:08):
Yeah, thank you for coming on.
Yeah.
I'm a remodeling contractor.
Dad grew up in Virginia.
My dad grew up here in Coloradoand kept we kept visiting out
here and fell in love with theplace.
So moved my family out here afew years ago and love it.
So I've been uh remodeling, I'vebeen in construction since I was
14 and uh kind of found my waythrough it and have had all
(00:34):
kinds of experiences in that inthat industry.
And you know, so now I I reallyenjoy working with clients and
my kids get to help me.
That's one of the things I loveabout it.
And then I can have a lot offreedom in my schedule, so we
can go camping and do fun thingslike that.
SPEAKER_02 (00:51):
So yeah, nice.
SPEAKER_00 (00:52):
Yeah.
So what made you get into theconstruction at 14?
Well, I was actually at afriend's, we're at like some
party, and the he had thisbandsaw in his backyard, and he
took custom, he took these bigbeams.
At the time in Richmond, theywere renovating a bunch of
warehouses, and they had thesehuge, big old beams that were
(01:16):
full of nails and and stuff.
And he would mill them in hisbackyard.
And so my job for the he so at aparty, he was just demonstrating
it, and I dug it and I was like,this is awesome.
And it just helped right thereat the party, and he offered me
a job.
And so, like I said, for thenext three years I got to do
(01:38):
that.
Spent most of my time straddlingbig beams, pulling nails out of
the boards and getting splintersin my inner thighs.
SPEAKER_01 (01:47):
So how old are you now, if you don't mind me
asking?
I just turned 40.
Yes.
So you've technically been doingthis for 26 years?
SPEAKER_02 (01:55):
Yeah.
unknown (01:56):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (01:57):
So in what point in time did you switch into home
renovation?
So my best friend's dad growingup, he was a remodeling
contractor and builder.
And so I started working for himsome, I think I was 16 or 17,
the first time I really workedfor him, actually.
I grew up, I grew up on a farmand they had a farm.
(02:18):
And so I grew up helping out onthe farm and doing all kinds of
fun things like that, likekilling chickens and chasing
cows.
And but I started working fromin my first day, I remember it
was super hot.
I mean, it was like 100 degrees.
And my first job was move thatstack of two by fours from this
side of the house to that sideof the house because the
(02:39):
delivery was there and theyneeded them over there.
So I spent all day just totinglumber.
And I loved it.
So that's that that's where thestart was working for him
throughout high school.
I was homeschooled, so I got towork a lot at different hours.
And so I worked pretty steadilyand obviously worked very
(03:01):
full-time in the summers.
Just had a lot of fun buildinghouses, and we built, he built
custom homes around a lake nearwhere we grew up.
And so we would work real hard,eat our lunch in five minutes,
swim for 25 minutes, and then goback to work.
And then, you know, it was itwas kind of cool as a teenager
to have that job.
(03:21):
Yeah.
I went to college and had bigplans and dreams and
aspirations.
I I uh with a buddy of minestarted a nonprofit.
We were starting to support likeorphanages in other countries
and work with local likeindigenous leaders in different
countries and then graduated in08 when the market crashed.
(03:44):
And whatever I planned to do,those doors just kept slamming
shut.
The money was gone.
And actually got a really kindletter from USAID saying, hey,
this is why you're not eveneligible for this grant.
And it it was a big wake-up callto real to the realization of,
hey, what we think we want andwhat we're trying to achieve,
(04:08):
the way we're trying to achieveit didn't make sense at the
time.
And so I was doing constructionanyway, and that's what was
paying my bills.
Uh you know, the way it's kindof like I kept looking for jobs
and trying to build this thingand trying to do this, and the
whole way I'm like, well, weknow how to make money with
(04:29):
these, let's go do that.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:31):
Uh why did you want to start the nonprofit?
SPEAKER_00 (04:37):
Why?
That's a good question.
I traveled, I I I went to Chinafor like a month and a half, my
I think my second year incollege, the summer of my second
year in college.
And it was a big eye-openingexperience for me.
And I knew I knew I had friendswho were like choosing
missionary, choosing different,you know, choosing the mission
(04:57):
field and choosing differentthings like that.
I was considering joining theMarine Corps actually at the
time, and decided that thatwasn't the right fit for me.
And so like some of those changesome of those decisions had been
made just before I left forChina.
And what I saw while I wasoverseas was I I just I just saw
(05:22):
the impact that some of thesemissionaries and and some of
these other organizations.
That trip was amazing.
I got the opportunity to meetbusiness owners.
I got both indigenous and andAmerican.
I got to see some really coolmissions that seem to be
effective, and I saw some stuffthat was super ineffective.
And so that stirred in me theidea that, hey, I want to, I
(05:45):
want to do this in a way that'ssustainable and actually
supports the people where thewhere the aid actually gets to
where it needs to go.
It's not just for some you knowhigh school kids to take a cool
photo or some you know missionboard at a church to be like,
oh, look what we're doing.
Take photos of something they'rebuilding, but realizing that the
(06:07):
the long tail effect of whatthey're doing actually is
detrimental to the community.
And that that started in thattrip.
The next summer I went to uhNiger and and joined a Peace
Corps trip.
If you're familiar with PeaceCorps, it's it's a it's a you
(06:28):
know it's an NGO where theywhere young people go for a
couple years and they getembedded in a community and they
they work on you know programs.
The way you get aid or the wayyou get funding if you're a
Peace Corps volunteer, is yousubmit for it and generally get
denied, or you beg your friendsand family to bring it.
So I was the friends and family,the the Peace Corps volunteer,
(06:51):
she was somebody I went toschool with.
She graduated and joined thePeace Corps, and so we showed up
in the middle of Sub-SaharanAfrica with suitcases full of
school supplies.
And it was so cool to see thelong tail effect of what we were
part of was more sustainable,but it was highly bureaucratic.
(07:12):
And, you know, that's it wasjust really interesting to see
that, but be able to talk to thethe education minister of
Holopnesia, be able to have allthese kind of uh insight.
And while we were on that trip,somebody, one of our team got
really sick and watching justhow it got really close.
I mean, like minutes away fromhim not making it.
(07:34):
And it just it just happened tobe some of some connections that
we had which got him to theresources he needed, which got
him through the night, whichthen got him safely home.
And just kind of watching,watching all this to say, okay,
here's a there's there's gottabe a way to create a more
sustainable link between peoplein the US who want to support
organizations and communitieswhere it's more about what are
(07:58):
we doing in the community.
And so anyway, finishingrealizing that and then I I
traveled to Nicaragua severaltimes and built some houses
there.
And over the course of threedifferent trips, I saw what we
were trying to do, and over thecourse of a year, what actually
(08:20):
was happening.
And again, it was it was kind oflike this vanity project to a
degree that wasn't reallycreating the result that we were
expecting.
And so coming back, you know,going going on all these trips
really opened my eyes.
And when we realized that thisthe way we were trying to pursue
(08:41):
things wasn't sustainable.
I I remember a conversation Philand I had where he said, you
know, well, we we really don'thave a lot of experience.
We don't we don't know whatwe're doing, and we're both kind
of trying to figure out ourlives.
We were both getting seriousabout our lives and families.
(09:01):
And so he chose to go thegovernment route and and worked
in nonprofits in the government,found found an avenue there that
he he loved.
And then I and I was building myconstruction company or you
know, skills at the time.
It wasn't a specific company atthe time.
And being able to kind of ourour paths kind of diverged at
(09:23):
that point, and we decided tolet them diverge.
You know, and that was 15 yearsago.
So it's like, well, what thatthat kind of uh goal got me to
that point to where then, youknow, the last 15 years of
that's always kind of in theback of my mind, like what is my
(09:44):
purpose?
I don't want to just put two byfours together and paint stuff
and make it look pretty.
I want to do something thatmatters.
I want to be present in my ownkids' lives and and looking back
subconsciously, I like Tony, mymy best friend's dad, was always
there, was always around on thesoccer field, was you know, at
at church, at the communityevents.
(10:05):
Sometimes he was covered insawdust or or dirt, but you
know, he was there.
And so wanting to be able tohave that same connection with
my kids, that's a big part ofwhat brought me back to being in
construction.
SPEAKER_01 (10:16):
Yeah.
That that's a really good why.
SPEAKER_00 (10:20):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (10:21):
My thing's, you know, even just I've traveled to
Europe, I've traveled to likethe second, third world
countries.
But like even going to Europe,it's completely different than
here.
Yes.
And you know, it's funny becausemy brother's like, yeah, you
know, even traveling in Europe,you can see why America is the
best country in the world.
(10:42):
And and I, you know, justtraveling there, it's like we
are more advanced than they are.
SPEAKER_00 (10:47):
And it's in some ways.
In some ways, yes.
I have cousins who live inFrance and an uncle who lives in
South France.
France is the only Europeancountry I've been to.
And there are, you know, thereare things here in the U.S.
that we obviously have that, youknow, the I work construction.
I work with a lot of guys whohave risked their entire lives
(11:09):
and families to be here in theU.S.
to give a to give a future totheir kids that they want, you
know, opportunities for kidsthat they wouldn't have in their
in their home countries.
One of the things I love abouttravel is that you always gain
perspective if you payattention.
Yeah.
And yeah, there is some thingswhere it's like, okay, there's a
(11:31):
better here or better there,whatever.
But everywhere I've traveled,one of my favorite experiences
was in Morocco.
And I saw communities thatthrived.
And they were super differentthan anything I'd ever had
experience.
It's, you know, it was very allthe communities revolved around
(11:52):
the local mosque and being ableto, you know, we weren't
allowed, we were we went intoone of the mosques as a to tour,
but we weren't allowed to go in,you know, during the the time of
prayer.
But we were in that area andthey all came out and just
watching the communities thriveand watching the interactions
and watching like I was just I II was uh it was kind of one of
(12:17):
those experiences where I knewthat this was going to be
something that was gonna stickwith me forever.
And just watching that, and it'sand I I go back to that a lot
and think, okay, this issomething that instead of
thinking that, well, we'rebetter or they're better,
whatever, it's looking at tosay, hey, this is this works for
them and this works really well,and it's really beautiful.
And kind of finding the beautyin that about what works and or
(12:40):
what what what gives them life.
I think especially in you're anentrepreneur, I'm an
entrepreneur, like inentrepreneur conversations, a
lot of times we're alwayslooking for what's the best.
What's the best?
What's the the, you know, whatbook you're reading, what what
method are you applying, whatwhat's your morning routine,
whatever.
(13:00):
And recognizing that justbecause that works for me
doesn't mean it works for you,or vice versa.
You know, what else is going onin your life that is informing
your decisions to get to whereyou want to be?
Yeah.
When I was 18, right?
You're 18?
Yeah, when I was 18, lookingback at my decisions, I chose
because I I was making decisionsfor what I thought was best at
(13:22):
the time, you know?
And instead of thinking it as isbest, I've learned been learning
to think about, okay, whatwhat's the why behind this and
is it serving?
Is this productive, is itvaluable or not?
Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01 (13:37):
Yeah, I don't know if you golf at all, but poorly.
There's there's a saying in thegolf world, swing your swing.
SPEAKER_02 (13:43):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (13:43):
Yeah, it doesn't matter how ugly your swing is,
it doesn't matter if it'sterribly out of line.
But if it works for you, then itworks for you.
And you just gotta keep swingingand keep enjoying.
SPEAKER_00 (13:52):
I love that.
Uh and I so I I've never reallyhad time to to invest in golf.
When I was in college, we had aa free three-part course,
nine-hole course.
So it was right by the school,and we love going there with you
know just a pitching wedge andhaving fun.
And you know, I realized earlyon I wasn't it wasn't something
(14:15):
that I wanted to invest a lot oftime.
I admire people who do.
It's just not something I'vebeen able to spend time.
And so for years, you know, I'min construction.
It's kind of common forconstruction, you know, builders
to to go golfing.
Uh and so someone taught methis, man, 10 years ago, they
said, you know, instead ofworrying about pushing so hard
(14:37):
to try and be good at golf, hesaid, like if you're just having
a day where you you don't feellike you're, you know, the point
of golf is to enjoy being onthere and to play your game.
If you feel like you'redragging, just pick up the ball.
Go to the next hole.
You know, and so there's there'swhole courses where I'll go the
whole course and I'll just pickup at six.
If I'm if I'm at six and I'mstill not on the green, well,
(15:00):
you know, I might drop and put acouple for fun, but we're gonna
go to the next one and just kindof have fun with it.
And so instead of having thatpressure, but kind of like what
you just said about swingingyour swing, is as I've found
that there's plenty of timeswhere but I set that expectation
in advance.
I say, hey, uh, I'd love to comeplay golf.
Just fair warning, like this isnot something I have a lot of
time to practice and be greatat.
(15:21):
This is how I've learned toenjoy my game.
And it works.
So yeah, so instead instead oflike trying to find like what's
better, I find what works, youknow, and what I enjoy.
And that way I can just in infocus on the interaction.
SPEAKER_01 (15:40):
Yeah, because everything, everyone works
differently in in real estate,you know, people will be like,
oh, go door knocking, go coldcalling, right?
Whatever.
I mean, for me, those I haven'tfound that those work.
I mean they work for somepeople, but they don't work for
me.
Right.
So I've done them, but I waslike, you know, these aren't
working.
So I'm gonna move past those andgo to something that I actually
(16:02):
will enjoy doing and willactually work for me.
SPEAKER_00 (16:04):
What has worked for you?
Just curious, like what what doyou enjoy doing right now?
SPEAKER_01 (16:09):
Finding people like you, it's Instagram, you know,
just doing the videos andreaching out to people.
Finding potential clients, it'sgoing to events, going to open
houses.
And then I've started going toor experimenting with like just
going to coffee shops or goingto be a comic book guy, so I'll
go to like the comic book store.
(16:29):
That's cool.
And just kind of chat withpeople around there and almost
considering the world my openhouse.
SPEAKER_00 (16:35):
Right.
That's cool.
I think it's I've seen otherpeople say that, but Homose is
the one that sticks out as hesays, you are your niche.
And so don't don't worry abouttrying to figure out what your
niche is.
You are your niche.
And so being yourself.
And so, like you said, you're abig comic book guy.
You know, there are every nichehas you know a community of
(16:58):
people who when they're buyingor selling a home, they need a
realtor.
And so, you know, it's buildingthose relationships with what
makes sense for you and showingup in that way as yourself
authentically, as opposed totrying to force something that
doesn't work, right?
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (17:14):
That's cool.
Yeah, um I I don't know ifyou're on threads at all.
Or like the Instagram, Twitternow.
Yeah, yeah.
I like what they do.
They have this, they do likecommunities.
So they'll have like comic bookcommunities, they'll have like
golf communities, they'll havecar communities.
Cool.
And so I'll just go on there andI'll try and post in one of
those a day, just stay top ofmind, stay in the conversation
(17:35):
and just kind of uh respond topeople in there.
That's cool.
SPEAKER_02 (17:40):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (17:40):
So what and so going to comic books stores, you know,
coffee shops, open houses, thesekind of events, how are you,
what do you what are youthinking of before you go in?
Like I I think you're you seemto be like a mindset guy.
Like you seem to think about alot of your mindset.
So like as you're walking intothe event, what are you thinking
of mindset-wise?
SPEAKER_01 (18:02):
I mean, it really depends on the event.
Like I went to a watch fair acouple weeks ago.
SPEAKER_02 (18:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (18:07):
And just going in there, I was like, you know, I'm
I don't have really any bigexpectations for this.
I'm just gonna go in, yeah, lookat cool watches, and if there's
a conversation, then there'll bea conversation.
And in that fair, I had aconversation with a guy from
Raymont Watches.
Okay.
Um we talked for an hour.
(18:29):
Just us talking.
That's cool.
Yeah.
And I was like, I think like youcan expect the best and you can
hope for the best.
But if you're going there sayingI need to have an hour-long
conversation, yeah, ultimately Ithink the pressure won't make
that happen.
Right.
So if you're going in there,you're just like, I want to have
fun.
And then if a naturalconversation sparks up, then the
(18:49):
natural conversation will sparkup.
SPEAKER_00 (18:51):
That's really cool.
Yeah.
Well, because and I know you'veshared about your watches in the
past and how that's reallyimportant to you.
You know, it building theserelationships outside of what
you need out of therelationship, right?
Being able to show up just asyourself.
That's where I found that'swhere I'm able to provide the
(19:12):
most value and connect withpeople well.
Does that make sense?
unknown (19:16):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (19:17):
That's cool.
SPEAKER_01 (19:18):
Okay.
Um, going back to a previousepisode with Jackson Granger, we
were talking about how if youbring up right away that you're
a real estate agent, most peoplewill be like they'll kind of
hesitate and pull back a littlebit.
But if you just get theconversation going and naturally
comes up that your real estateagent would just what do you do
(19:38):
for work?
People are more comfortabletalking with it and going
forward with you.
SPEAKER_00 (19:46):
I know.
I love asking questions, youknow, that are like not what do
you do?
You know, finding better ways ofasking those questions of, you
know.
So one of one of my favoritequestions I love asking, I'm
gonna ask you, is you know, whatwhat's going on right now that
you really enjoy that you'rereally excited about?
SPEAKER_01 (20:03):
I know I already told you this, but yeah, nervous
and excited about moving out andexperiencing being by myself and
seeing how kind of works.
SPEAKER_00 (20:13):
Yeah.
And like planning for thatjourney, I I know a lot of I
have I have four kids, and twoare in high school, one in
middle school, and one her lastyear in elementary school.
And so, you know, kind of thisidea of moving out and what's
next and college, not college,trade school, uh whatever.
(20:33):
There's so many paths.
You know, what does that looklike for you as you've been
preparing for this?
And even it doesn't sound likeyou've been like kind of running
down the track to it's it soundslike it's been working for you
and the opportunities you'vebeen looking at the
opportunities in front of you.
Is that right?
SPEAKER_01 (20:50):
Almost my dad was like, you know, you if you're
not going to college, you'regonna need to move out this
year.
SPEAKER_02 (20:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (20:58):
And you just get away from the family so you can
grow, is what he says.
That's cool.
And so he, you know, my parentsare helping me out a little bit,
and the apartment I found they'drun like a six-week special.
So ultimately for four months,it's like a thousand a month.
SPEAKER_02 (21:12):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (21:12):
Which is pretty good.
Yeah.
And preparing for it, I I meanthat just packing up really.
Yeah.
I like just to jump into thingsand just see what they take me.
SPEAKER_00 (21:26):
That can serve you very well.
It can also make life veryinteresting.
I do that often as well.
So I get it.
SPEAKER_03 (21:33):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (21:34):
Yeah.
So and that's so your dad gaveyou that kind of that boundary
of saying, okay, this is ifyou're not choosing college,
because you said I listened toin a previous episode that you
said that you know you you knewyou wanted to try real estate.
You know, real estate wassomething that you felt like was
really interesting to you andyou wanted to go for.
And so then taking that choosechoice to pursue that as opposed
(21:58):
to more of a quote-unquotetraditional route of college.
I was reading this past weekthat the some government agency
audited all the jobs that werelisted, that in finding out what
jobs actually required a collegedegree.
Did you see that report?
I haven't no.
If you could guess, how manygovernment jobs actually require
(22:21):
a college degree?
Percentage-wise.
SPEAKER_01 (22:25):
10%.
SPEAKER_00 (22:27):
Close.
It's like seven and a half.
Yeah.
So 93.5% of jobs don't actuallyrequire a college degree.
And so edit, you know, they'rethey've been auditing that and
editing all the postings toremove college requirement.
Yet college actually wasn'trequired.
Yeah, it's a big conversation inour home.
unknown (22:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (22:46):
With our boys, is what they kind of what are their
avenues available to them.
SPEAKER_01 (22:52):
Yeah, I think it's I think college can be a good
place to like if you don't knowwhat you want to do, I think
it's a good place to figure outwhere your next path might be.
But I think if you know fullywhat you want to do and it
doesn't require a collegedegree, then I don't think that
college should be on the table.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (23:12):
Well, and I even want to take that further back.
If you're not sure, I thinkgoing and working for a couple
years may be a great place to gofind out what you want to do.
You know, college is superexpensive.
SPEAKER_01 (23:22):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (23:23):
And I so I graduated college in 2008.
Almost almost all of my and Iwent to a liberal arts, small
liberal arts school.
That was like the way you shoulddo school, is what I was taught
and the expectation, and therewas no question I was going to
college.
So college was very expensive.
(23:46):
You know, and and I walked outwith debt and it took me years
to pay off my debt.
And it wasn't until I started itwasn't until I was it took me
until I was 30.
I think I was 30 when I finallysent that big check to pay off
the last bit.
unknown (24:05):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (24:06):
But I've been paying it off for eight years and had
barely made a dent.
So I, you know, I sent a bigcheck to c to close that out.
But everybody I know went backto school.
Or did a job that could make themoney that had nothing to do
with the degree that they youknow that they paid all their
(24:27):
money for.
And so I think I think that wasthe beginning of a shift away
from you have to go to college.
Because the like the theworkforce up until that point it
it was consistent, it madesense.
You could go get a job thatcould take care of your family.
Whereas now, you know, we're allhustling, you know, we're all
(24:49):
figuring stuff out.
And a lot of us, our jobs areour our our income is from
coming from either relationshipsor really hard work, you know,
or multiple streams of income,or you know, yeah, it's it's not
just like you could go go toschool, get a job, and you're
fine.
SPEAKER_01 (25:05):
Yeah.
Yeah, I think one of the kind ofthe one of the biggest scams is
just a business degree.
unknown (25:13):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (25:13):
Because, you know, why if you want to build a
business, why are you requiringyourself to have a degree?
SPEAKER_00 (25:18):
Oh yeah.
Well, and and I always talkabout like all the all the
mistakes I've made, those wereway more expensive than college
ever was, but I learned waymore.
You know, I mean I've paid I'vepaid a college tuition four or
five times over uh in the last15 years with making dumb
mistakes and learning from themand making different mistakes
(25:41):
and learning from those.
SPEAKER_01 (25:42):
So Yeah, I don't know.
I've already mentioned this bookmany times on this podcast, but
uh Million Dollar Weekend, it'sit has a passage in there and it
says like essentially to thepoint stop reading books, stop
overthinking, and just jump inand do it because you're gonna
learn so much more than if youjust keep researching and keep
(26:04):
reading because you're alwaysgonna fail.
Right.
But it matters when you start.
SPEAKER_00 (26:09):
Yes.
I I I agree with that a lot.
And I also I listen to bookswhile I'm working.
I still am hands-on toolssomedays.
And so I just I just finisheMyth again.
You know, there's so many booksthat I've found kind of in the
(26:30):
past I was using those thosebooks was okay.
Once I have that information,then I will.
Whereas now I'm already running100 miles an hour.
SPEAKER_02 (26:39):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (26:40):
If I can and instead of like saying, oh, okay, now
I'm gonna adopt everything inthat book, instead I've said,
okay, what's the one thing I cantake out of that book to adjust
where I'm at and to improvewhere I'm at?
Because you can make the you canjump, you can, you can you know,
go after what you want andrealize you've got to make a
(27:01):
180-degree turn, you missed anexit, you've got to go back
here, you know, and and that'sfine.
And those are the ways to do it.
If you can, if you can learnsomething from somebody else
that that helps you miss some ofthose expensive U-turns, then
it's ideal.
Yeah.
But sometimes you can't plan forthat.
Sometimes you've just got to gothrough it.
And there's you know, the theaverage millionaire has nine I
(27:26):
think nine failed businesses.
I think right now is the and I'mI I counted recently at where
right right at about nine frompast businesses that I've
started and failed or closed andI had a partnership that went
really sour after a year, andyou know life each each one of
(27:46):
those failures was a hugeopportunity to learn.
Expensive opportunity to learn.
But like, did did I learn?
Did you learn?
You know, looking back at those,did you learn?
I I have uh I had a constructioncompany fail a couple years ago,
and that was really challenging.
I had to go through a lot to toget back up on my feet.
(28:07):
But I know multiple guys whowent through similar experiences
who never got back up on theirfeet, who never chose to pick
themselves back up and go tryagain, you know?
So I'm sure you've seen that aswell.
You've seen guys who just kindof languish, uh who are like,
well, I guess I'll just do this,and what you know, what are they
(28:29):
actually doing with their lives?
unknown (28:31):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (28:32):
I think it's kind of a misconception that failing is
failing.
Right.
Because you only truly fail whenyou take the failure and you say
no more.
SPEAKER_00 (28:41):
You don't want to do that.
You choose to take that on as anidentity.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (28:48):
And what kind of led you to building all those nine
businesses?
SPEAKER_00 (28:58):
Um each time was different.
I mean, ultimately the last thelast one that got pretty big
before it failed, I was workingfor ironically, I was working
for Tony, who my dream was towork for him.
Like always I wanted to be ableto come back and work for him.
And I'd been working for him forabout a year.
(29:18):
I wasn't happy, wasn't, youknow, and it's like, you know,
happiness, there's a lot ofthings I do now that I'm not I'm
not happy, but it's just, youknow, I I I have some kind of
sense of like, okay, this iswhat I'm doing to get where I'm
going.
I didn't have that.
And I wanted to.
(29:41):
It's funny because there was aguy who worked for me last year
who he kept making mistakes.
And I told him, Man, you know,some of these mistakes, the only
way you're gonna learn, like Ifeel like the only way you're
gonna learn is if you start yourown company and like you start
paying for these mistakesyourself where I'm not paying
for them.
And a couple months later, hedid start his own company,
(30:05):
started a um house cleaningbusiness.
And he called me like threeweeks later.
He's like, How do you do this,this, and this?
I was like, I just hustled,dude.
Like that's that's what I wasdoing.
I had that that the partnershipthat partnership that went sour,
this was 2012 or 13, I think.
I was the sales side of thebusiness, he was the production
(30:27):
side of the business.
And I would come in themornings, work with him for a
couple hours, go meet withclients.
Like I was really erratic on thejob site.
Sometimes I'd meet the clientsin the morning, come work two,
three hours, and then go meetwith clients again.
And he just saw me coming andgoing.
He was like, You're justoverhead.
Like I can do this betterwithout you.
Like I, you know, like I was Iwas being really disruptive to
(30:50):
his schedule.
He wanted things consistent.
And he called me three monthslater.
He's like, Where'd you find allthese jobs?
I was like, What do you think Iwas doing?
I was meeting with clientsconstantly.
I was constantly going out andfinding those jobs and and
working.
And and he would be doingworking on QuickBooks and
project management until 10o'clock midnight.
(31:11):
I was writing proposals until 10o'clock at midnight every night,
you know, and it's just youknow, so kind of finding that
each each of those failures islike, okay, what why did I start
that business?
Why did I do that?
Part of it's like, I need to paybills.
I have kids, I had family.
And part of that was when I madethat jump from from working for
(31:33):
Tony to starting my ownbusiness, literally had$100 in
my pocket.
Like actually a hundred bucks.
That was it.
And that first job, I when Isold it, I I knew I didn't have
enough money to get gas for thenext day.
Like that was it.
I had to sell a job and I did.
And then I sold another job, andthen I sold another job, and I
(31:55):
sold another job, and Ileveraged the teams that I had
around me.
I worked with a painter.
You know, I kind of just focusedon what I knew was the highest
impact thing.
But I wanted to ultimately I Icouldn't drive to a job anymore.
I couldn't go to a work anymore.
(32:17):
You know, I had to, I had toshow up where I felt like I was
doing, I was doing somethingvaluable, making a difference
that I had some control over.
Entrepreneur, you know, otherentrepreneurs and business
owners, I know we kind of jokethat there's something wrong
with us, that we can't just likego to work.
You know, we have to trade a40-hour job for a 120-hour job
(32:38):
that gives us more freedom whereI don't have to ask anybody if
I'm spend, you know, take breakeat breakfast with my wife and
you know, have a slow morningwith the kids because they need
some extra support, or if I'mgonna be home early to go to an
event or coach soccer, or youknow.
Um it's probably easier ways todo life, but yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (33:00):
Makes it more fun.
SPEAKER_00 (33:04):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (33:05):
I enjoy it.
So what has been the biggestlesson you've learned from your
failed businesses?
SPEAKER_00 (33:13):
There's a couple.
And they're less about thetactical side of the business
side.
One thing that's come up a lotrecently is that nothing anybody
says helps you get through thatjust the worst part.
You know, there's a lot ofsayings out there, you know, it
gets worse before it getsbetter.
It's only failure if you quit.
(33:35):
All what's another one?
All failure is psychologicaluntil death.
You know, you've you've probablyheard some of these.
SPEAKER_01 (33:40):
Yep.
SPEAKER_00 (33:41):
None of that helps at all.
A lot of it you just have to godo.
You just have to get through itand just focus on what's right
in front of you.
And for me, I had to choose whatI wanted for myself, for my
family, for my life.
And and I needed to hold backonto some of those dreams that I
(34:04):
had and say, okay, that's thatstill exists, that's still alive
for me.
I need to get back through it.
I also learned that I I have totake 100% responsibility for all
of them.
You know, like I brought up thatone about the partnership.
He came to me one day.
He just said, I don't want to dothis with you anymore.
(34:26):
You're overhead.
I can do it better without you.
And uh we'd been, we've been,it'd been challenging for a
while.
So I was like, well, if you havethe balls to say that to my
face, it's all yours.
You know, I'm out.
And I looked at that like, oh,he did this, he's such an
asshole, whatever.
No, I have a lot ofresponsibility with how I showed
(34:47):
up in that partnership.
I was not somebody that hewanted to partner with.
And so I've I've had to ownthat.
Uh this most recent, the youknow, which was the biggest, we
we had the company was growing.
We'd gotten really big.
And when it collapsed, itcollapsed really quickly.
And it all came back on me.
(35:09):
I I had to call my crew in andsay, You're I we're out of
money.
We I gotta close the businessdown.
And I turned around and sold mytruck to pay payroll.
Like we were on, we were out,we're done.
We had nothing.
And I had to take thatresponsibility.
And as much as I know it hurtpeople and sucked and was very
(35:36):
painful for a lot of people,like the one person who had to
pay for as much as possible wasme.
The one person who like I'dspent almost a decade building
that business.
But like my lack of being ableto manage or run that company
affected a lot of people.
Employees, suppliers, clients,subs.
(35:57):
You know, it like I was buildingsomething that served a part of
the community, and when itcollapsed, it left a void.
And there were other companiesto come in and pick them up, but
you know, it's not that I wasjust building something building
something.
It was I was showing up to to beto bring something valuable to
my community as well.
And I don't think I fullyaccepted that responsibility.
(36:20):
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (36:26):
What uh what would be your biggest advice to like
the younger generation, youknow, my age or younger?
SPEAKER_00 (36:34):
Yeah.
I like what you're doing, whichis just getting out there.
I had a conversation with my14-year-old the other day where
he's like, Well, I can't go geta job.
You know, we were talking abouthe he has some things that he
wants.
He has kind of expensive taste.
And he's like, Well, I I don't Ican't go get a job.
And I said, You can goknockdoors, you can pull weeds,
you can he he has a drone.
You he he for a little while wasselling drone photos for his
(36:57):
clients where he would take adrone photo of their home.
I was like, go do.
Go try something.
There's this kid I'm followingon Instagram that McLean Power
Washing, you know, where it'slike, this is my 100th day of
getting to$25,000 profit.
And he's on day 111.
(37:21):
And he's at I think he's at 15or 16,000 right now, something
like that.
Mid mid mid-teens.
He's just doing it.
He's doing it while he's atschool.
He's he's hustling, he's justtrying things.
There's so many people like yousaid who sit there and read the
books or sit there and do, youknow, go to you know, open
(37:45):
houses or or or networkingevents, you know, get the
business cards, but they neveractually show up.
They never actually do anything.
And it's really hard to bringvalue to somebody else.
Like the first thing you youprobably know this, the first
thing you should do for someoneis bring value to them.
Don't ask for anything.
Just show up and bring value.
It's really hard to bring valueif you don't do anything.
(38:06):
If you're like, well, I'm here.
Well, that's not valuable.
Like there's a lot of peoplehere.
It's millions of people in thecity.
You know, how are you showing upthat's bringing value?
And I have to do that every timeI walk into someone's home.
I can't come in and say, well,it's gonna be this much money.
No, I have to be really clear.
What value am I providing?
What value am I providing to mythe guys who work for me?
(38:26):
What value am I providing to myvendors?
What, you know, where am Ishowing up?
So for you, you know, the bestadvice I can give to you is to
go out and do and show out whereyou can bring value.
Because if you know, you can youcan practice all day long.
You can do the mental, but untilyou go out and do some courses,
you don't play golf.
You know, you may own a greatset of call clubs, shoes, the
(38:49):
whole kit, whatever, but untilyou go out in all kinds of
weather, you're not a golfer.
You know?
And so like going out and tryingthings and find out, okay, this
is where I'm great.
This is where I could bringvalue and to be able to have
that confidence that whensomeone says, Hey, can you help
me do this?
(39:10):
Because like I think you saidthis on a previous podcast
episode, like the thecertification for being a real
estate agent, like none of thatreally helps you be a realtor.
Yeah.
Right?
Yeah.
So you've got to go find outwhat makes you special that you
can actually show up and bringvalue to people.
And it's not just a transaction.
(39:30):
You know.
So what are some things thatlike so me saying that, what are
some things from yourperspective?
I'm really curious, like, howdoes that land for you or or
what are some things that you'redoing already to show up and
bring value?
SPEAKER_01 (39:45):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (39:46):
Besides a podcast.
SPEAKER_01 (39:48):
I mean, that that is the reason I created the
podcast, is just for businessowners and me.
Yeah.
For a little bit of value.
I mean, the I mean, I don't havemuch experience to like the
biggest thing I can bring isknowledge or make it an easy
process or a fun process, or youknow, connecting on some
personal level would just belike the biggest thing I can
(40:12):
bring.
And I think that a lot of peopledon't really appreciate how big
knowledge could be.
I don't know if you followAustin uh Wickham with Red Rock
Roofing.
He posted a story the other daythat I really liked.
(40:33):
It was like an email with like asigned contract or something for
a roof.
And in it he was like, it wasn'tthe lowest price.
They chose me because I had thebest knowledge and the best
hustle out of everyone else.
And you know that you don'talways have to have 10 years of
(40:57):
experience to bring value.
You can bring value with whatyou know and how you can help
people.
SPEAKER_00 (41:02):
I yeah, and I I would take that one step
further.
Because you're starting out inyour career.
How much how many deals have youdone?
None.
unknown (41:11):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (41:12):
So how many what what experience do you have
doing deals?
Not much.
Okay.
And what how close do you haveany mentors who have done a lot
of deals?
SPEAKER_01 (41:25):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (41:26):
Like how many deals have they done done this year?
Someone who's close to you thisyear?
SPEAKER_01 (41:31):
I don't know the number off the top of my head,
but at least 20, I would say.
SPEAKER_00 (41:37):
Okay.
So you have an opportunity towork with people who have done
20, 40, 80 deals this year.
Building those relationships,you then become the one person
point of contact because peoplewho are doing 80 deals a year,
what do they not have?
Time.
They don't have any time.
What do you have a ton of?
(41:57):
Time.
Yeah.
So you can provide, like if Iwere you, you, I would look at
you know, co-listing or orthings like that to where you're
bringing people in and you'renot.
All you're doing is bringing inthe client.
Because then what you're in thecomic book store and somebody's
talking about, yeah, I'm tryingto buy a home.
(42:17):
My aunt's been trying to helpme, you know, or my aunt's best
friend's a realtor, and she'sbeen kind of trying to help me,
blah, blah, blah, whatever.
And it's like, well, how many,you know, one of the things when
people tell me that I always askthem, well, how many deals have
they done this year?
Well, one or two.
Well, I can understand whyyou're having a challenge.
Like, you want to work withprofessionals who have done, who
are doing deals.
You don't want to work withsomebody who has their license.
(42:37):
There's 250,000 licensedrealtors who are quitting this
year because they're not doingdeals.
That's that's a huge number, youknow?
And then there's a bunch of guyslike you who are coming in
because you're like, I want todo real estate.
And so it's a it's a calling.
It's, you know, it's a it's abunch of people who aren't
renewing their license becausethey're not doing deals anyway.
(43:00):
And so then you have access topeople where you can build
relationships in the watchcommunity, the golf community,
in the comic book storecommunity, in whatever community
that you have where you canpresent deals.
But it's not just that you havethe knowledge, you have access
to knowledge of people who'vedone hundreds of deals in this
kind of market.
You know, this is an odd market.
(43:21):
It's it's a very lopsidedmarket.
I do feel like it's gonna swing.
And I think it's gonna be aseller's market in I don't know,
24 months or so.
And that's that's gonna causesome whiplash for some people.
They're gonna be really shocked.
But it's you know, so navigatingthese changes and like earlier,
(43:42):
the you know, the market dropped20%.
Well, it was back up two weekslater.
And like volatility like thatcauses some stress.
And so what people need morethan the knowledge is is that
trust.
Is are you gonna help menavigate this?
And so if you have that accessto someone behind you, uh
there's a great book called WhoNot How.
(44:02):
Have you heard of that?
Dr.
Benjamin Hardy.
Uh, it's a really simple book.
He's got a series of books.
Gap of the gain, who not how,and 10x is easier than 2x.
They're quick books, highlyrecommend them.
But the idea of who not how isyou need to know who can do the
solution, not how to do thesolution.
And that's what makes you anentrepreneur as opposed to a
technician.
(44:25):
Kind of goes back into the justgoing out and trying things.
As you go out and try things,you're going to get connected
with people.
So okay.
So you're I asked you what kindof what you know your reflection
of that is.
So you're going out and you'reyou're trying to connect with
people and sharing whether it'sknowledge or like how does it
(44:45):
make sense where that value,that value proposition is
actually higher that you'reconnected to those people that
do have done a lot of deals.
SPEAKER_03 (44:52):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (44:55):
And then turning around to them and saying, hey,
how can I help you?
You know, what are some thingsthat I can do to help y'all?
Because if you're indispensable,you probably don't have access
to multimillion dollar deals,but maybe you have access to
someone who does.
And they just need someone tostop by the house every day and
make sure that it's clean and itlooks like a$2 million house
(45:18):
every time there's a showing,you know?
Yeah.
Being able to offer to do stufflike that, even if you're not
part of the deal, even if youhave the time, that's that may
be something that gives you infront of.
And then you can see, oh, what'sa two million dollar deal look
like?
You know, what what is what areand maybe maybe you don't want
to do two million dollar deals.
Whatever, I'm just making it up.
(45:39):
Like if that's what you want, ifyou want to be on the luxury
watch golf, you know, comic bookmillionaires list, well then
that may be the type of dealthat you're looking for, is is
kind of higher-end deals, right?
Uh what watch are you wearingtoday, by the way?
Got this black Bolova.
Sweet.
Yeah.
What do you got?
Got my tag.
(45:59):
My wife got it for me a fewyears ago.
SPEAKER_02 (46:01):
Nice.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (46:02):
Big fan of the Monaco.
Yeah, that's a cool watch.
I saw I is that the automaticor?
Yeah, automatic.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (46:13):
Manual mail are the or no, this is a quartz.
Yeah.
Automatic kind of get on mynerves sometimes because it's
just winding them.
You can feel them.
Do you feel them too when you'reon your wrist?
I don't mind the rotor moving oranything, but it like when you
have to wind it up and orsometimes you forget to and then
it you have to reset the timeand everything.
SPEAKER_00 (46:33):
I got I got one of those watch boxes that was auto
like that that kept it going andit would spin it, you know, once
every hour or something likethat.
Um I have a a Carrera, a tagCarrera that isn't automatic.
But it's I've got to it's notworking, so I've got to figure
out what the heck's going on.
But yeah, so this one's aquartz.
(46:54):
But I I do love that watch.
Yeah.
And it's it's like never one ofthose things that are like, oh
yeah, let me grab the watch andtake it to go get it fixed.
It's never on my list of to-dos.
But it's funny the first time Ifelt the rotor move, it it I was
like, what is that?
SPEAKER_01 (47:13):
Yeah, I uh now it's more comforting, you know.
Yeah.
I've golfed with it a couple oftimes.
Yes.
And sometimes in the swing I'lljust hear it in my ear going.
It's very distracting whengolfing.
SPEAKER_00 (47:22):
I do not worry when golfing.
SPEAKER_01 (47:24):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Uh not to cut you off, but uh aswe're running out of time here,
any final thoughts?
SPEAKER_00 (47:31):
No, I appreciate it.
Um first off, I I just admireyour hustle of showing up and
you know, starting this podcast.
And there's like I said a coupletimes, I have, you know, I'm a
dad to some teenagers.
And one of the biggestchallenges that I have is how do
(47:52):
I help them show up?
Like how do I help set up them,that them up for success and
what you know what they need inlife.
Because it's fuzzy now.
It doesn't feel like it's reallyclear anymore.
And so it's encouraging to seeyou show up and show up in your
way and your, you know, beauthentic in the best way you
can and say, this is this iswhat I love and this is where
(48:14):
I'm showing up and pursuing youryour dreams and your ideas.
So thank you for that.
SPEAKER_01 (48:18):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (48:19):
Um, thank you for reaching out.
SPEAKER_01 (48:20):
Yeah, thank you for coming on.
I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_00 (48:22):
I'm glad I saw the message.
So yeah, I just I admire you forfor showing up the way you are.
So yeah.
Yeah, I've listened to a few ofyour podcasts, and I said this
just before we got on the show.
I didn't want to come in with abig preconceived notion of who
you were.
Yeah, it's this has beenenlightening.
So yeah, thank you.
SPEAKER_01 (48:40):
Thank you.
Yeah.
And thank you everyone else forjoining us here on Timeless
Movement Podcast.
And we'll catch you next week.
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