In this motivational Monday video, Chris Prefontaine urges viewers to set aside past stories and "yeah, but" mental blocks to make 2026 their best year. He shares a series of personal hardships—being fired at 25 with two young children, severe financial strain during the economic crash, his son’s near‑death coma in 2003, and the challenges of the COVID‑19 pandemic—to illustrate how adversity can be used as a refining force rather than a defining one. Prefontaine explains his philosophy that life events should refine character and skill, not limit potential, and he encourages listeners to reframe their own setbacks. He then offers concrete next‑step resources: free copies of his two best‑selling books ("The Real Estate on Your Terms" and "The Deal Structure Overtime") via wickedsmartbooks.com/youtube, free coaching through smartrealestatecoach.com/coach, and an invitation to the upcoming QLS Live event in Boston (Oct 6‑7) where he will share a decade of lessons. The video blends personal narrative, a call to shift mindset, and promotional calls‑to‑action aimed at helping the audience thrive in the coming year.
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I believe, I truly believe if we can put your past stories aside, we can make next year your best year ever. Hey, welcome to another Motivational Monday. It's Chris Prefontaine. You know, if we're not careful, we all have a bunch of yeah, buts and you don't, you don't understands in our conversation. I get it all the time. There's actually a chapter in my book, and if you don't have it, I'll give it to you free by the end of this. Called Yeah, But because people have yeah, buts and people have you don't understand my situations, right? They always, always, always in conversation. So it's interesting, someone can show us a clear path like we— I'll do it a lot of time with community members. Here's what I see going on in your life. Here's what I see going on in your biz. Here's exactly what you should do. And then the yeah, buts and you don't understands come out. So that's what sparked this motivation money this week. So again, if we can put that— some of your past stories aside now, and people say to me, well, you don't understand mine's worse, right? It goes deeper. Well, guys, let me just put some things in context for you, okay? I was fired at age 25. I had 2 small kids at the time. I had— they gave me a month's severance. This was a company that bought my father's company, and I was an employee, and they said, bye-bye now. All right. I had, during the crash, IRS chasing, calling. I had creditors. I had tow trucks showing up to repo a vehicle, all kinds of things going on. And then, of course, the COVID hit during that crisis and the company thrived because we didn't say you don't understand or yabba or use kind of things to lean on. My son's accident in 2003, near-death experience, was in a coma. Things have to still go on, right? So that's what I mean. I don't want to put your stories— I don't want to water down your stories. And I did. I did want to interject some of mine, just so you know. That's life, right? We all have the stories, but let's put them aside so we can make 2026 literally the best year ever. And let me just say this as a big explanation point. These events that we all have, right, that life throws at us, let's not let them define us. Instead, let's let them refine us. Right? Because during the crash, you could not have convinced me that anything I was going through was good. You could not have convinced me that anything I was going through would refine me or help me in any shape, form, or fashion because it was miserable. And I thought, this is ridiculous. Now, it did refine me. In hindsight, I look back and go, wow, this is pretty cool. A lot of the things I'm doing were because of what happened and/or lessons learned during that process, during that, during that crisis. So we all know these, these things are going to keep happening, right? People right this second have the issues that I had and right this second have the issues that you're having when you, when you go to your yeah, buts or you don't understand your stories. People have those exact same things right now and they're thriving. So I just want to help you just reposition these stories and these events to be Refining versus defining who you are. And trust me when I say I understand the rut you can get in with these. For 4 years I was in my head, oh, it must be me. I can't do this. I failed. My ego was beat up. So I get it. I was there. But let these refine you so you can thrive in 2026. And it doesn't matter when you're seeing this. If you're seeing this in '26, right, it's old. Use it to thrive your next quarter or your next year. I told you I'd give you some free books if you don't already have them. Go to wickedsmartbooks.com/youtube. wickedsmartbooks.com/youtube. That way you don't have to pay for them. You get my bestseller, 2 bestsellers actually. We'll send you some goodies. We'll send you The Real Estate on Your Terms as well as The Deal Structure Overtime. Pretty cool. Don't go to Amazon and buy them. They'll come to you. When I say free, they're free. No shipping, no nothing. Not sure where to get started? Go to smartrealestatecoach.com/coach. Get Going for free books, strategy calls, and a whole bunch more. We're going to help you get going the wicked smart way. We've been after this for over a decade doing exactly that. Also, I'd be remiss not to mention our annual QLS Live event coming up in Boston, Mass., on October 6th and 7th. Now, guys, this is where the yeah, but or you don't understand come in. I just invited you to come to the QLS Live event where we're going to peel back a decade of lessons. It's as if someone tapped me on the shoulder. I wish it happened during the crash and said, hey, tap, tap, tap. Hey, Chris, come over here. What I want to do is I want to sit down with you and I want to kind of share with you my 10 years of lessons so you can avoid some of the pitfalls I avoided. If someone did that with me, it would have been such a shorter learning curve, right? Well, I'm doing that to you. Tap, tap on the shoulder. Come to the QLS live event in Boston, October 6th and 7th. I will promise you it'll be a game changer for you. It'll help you set up 2026. Can't wait to meet you. Come up and say hello.
