How to Skip Decades of Struggle - Garnett Morris

Everything in life when we want to make a change is just a decision.

Just show up and do it, do it. Don't give up.

Get the specialists, be humble and be coachable. Just keep going because business is that way. We're going to make mistakes, but just get up, try not to make them again. You don't worry about your growth. You worry about how big a problem it is that you can solve for people.

Welcome back to the Hannah Hammond Show. I am so excited to be sitting here today with Garnett Morris, who is actually one of my mentors. And he. When I first saw him speak in Genius Network, when Joe Polish was interviewing him, I was just like that is it like Garnett has everything that I could ever dream of having and not just in amazing entrepreneur success in the companies that he's built, in the massive financial success that he's had on that journey, but in his life. Like the relationships that you have, the health that you have and the resilience that you've carried your entire life because you've gone through absolute insanity and very, you know, traumatic childhood, you're overweight, you're a chronic smoker, you built a business in real estate and then you lost it all and went bankrupt and then you rebuilt and then you went on to build the largest life insurance company in the entire country of Canada, which is absolutely insane, and then had an exit and now you're building more companies and investing in others. So I'm just really, really, really, really, truly so honored to know you and to have you on your show, on my show today. And you're about to release here in about a week, your new book called 17 runs about unlocking your highest potential in life, which is my whole mission for my life and, and others. So I'm just grateful to have you here and I'm super excited to dig into your journey and share some of your wisdom with the world.

Thank you. I mean, I don't think it's wisdom. I think it's just persistent trying.

Yeah, yeah. And we talk about that like failing is such a key attribute or requirement to success ultimately. Right. So, so let's go back. I mean, what I want to go back to the beginning because I know you have an amazing story and filled with a lot of pain and a lot of triumph. And so what do we need to understand about your earliest years to understand how you were able to build the largest life insurance company in Canada, lose tons of weight, end up running 100 mile relay race and just completely transform your life? You know, in the middle of your life when you already had these. These habits. So I'd love to hear that story.

Well, I think to me, the way I look at it, right from the time I was young, lots of people have trauma when they're young, but it turned out to be good for me were other people that defeats them. And it's because all along the way, I kept meeting people and I kept listening to what they would say. So when I was young and I was sick a lot, I was in the hospital. He had nurses and, you know, I'd read books and they were kind. And so I saw that part when the other part of my life wasn't so good. And, you know, all the way through, when I went through, you know, business bankruptcy, well, I found mentors after that that kind of helped me understand where I'd gone wrong. So rather than just looking at it and saying, woe is me, I just looked at it and said, well, I got to do better the next time. And I still do that. So, I mean, we, you know, I've got great partners, great. Lots of great businesses we're involved in, but we're always learning. Today I learned about the television show. The television shows that do sales all day long, like the company we're looking at investing in is going to do that. So I had to kind of jazz up my learning. So you're just learning, learning, and you make mistakes and you get up and don't make them again and keep on going.

What was your childhood like?

So the best thing I can say is that I don't remember most of was a little bit challenging. So I think that when I look at, like, my mother maybe had me too young and wasn't quite ready, and then I was pretty sick as a baby, so I don't think she was ready for that either. And so it was sick a lot. She wasn't the kindest, most gentlest person. So it knocked around a little. Just, you know, like things that other people experience. But, you know, when you look back, it was not a reason to fail. It was a reason to succeed. And my siblings didn't have the same luck. So I had a brother and a sister commit suicide six weeks apart. I have another sister that really struggles with life, and then I have one more sister that's my sister. So I'm her big brother, and I have a big brother role in her life. And she's quite a neat person.

Yeah. And what age were you when your. Your siblings took their lives?

In my late 30s. Yeah. Okay, so six weeks apart.

Oh, my God.

Yeah.

And what was that like for you.

To go through the first. When my brother committed suicide, I kind of expected it because he'd been living life, like, real hard, not paying his child support, abandoned his wife, abandoned his kids, just partying. And, you know, the world was closing in, and my sister was the opposite of that. So she was very straight, very worked for, you know, the government, just good person. And then she just couldn't handle my brother having taken his life. So that was a shocker. And that was like a gut punch, like, just to get that phone call and find out, because it was just not something, you know, you just never expected that of her. So she was the next one in line to be.

I'm so sorry that you had to.

Go through those things, but people do, and that's. I think that what made me a little bit different is that all of those things are things that drive me a little bit as opposed to make me feel bad for myself.

Yeah. It's like, what can you do different? What can you do better? How can you grow from it?

Well. And how can you help other people? So that's part of the whole kind of my makeup is I've always been, you know, there to help other people because people help me along the ways. Like, I could name mentor after mentor after mentor. So, I mean, even in our own family, we're getting mentors for all, each family member, so that they all have the same opportunities that I had.

Yeah. And, you know, mentorship is something I believe that you share throughout your book and about your chosen family, the people in your life that influence your life, that are as important as blood, but they're not blood. Right. And I didn't experience really having true mentors until later in life because I was. I had my own issues and I was very isolated and depressed and had struggled with eating disorders and anxiety and all these things. And I feel like I was able to get out of my deepest, darkest days once I found mentors that I could really grab onto, to give me hope and to, like, let me know that there is an other side. Because when you're in that deepest, dark, darkest days, it's hard to understand that there is any way out or any light on the other side. And that's one of my biggest passions, too, to share with the world is to help them get out of those days. So I want to dive into your. Your book 17 runs, and you discuss how you had a wake up call, midlife, wake up call in an airport, and you decided to overhaul your life and turn everything around and end up running a hundred mile training and running 100 mile relay race. So can you share, like, what that wake up call was for you and how that was a catalyst for you to change your life?

So I was walking the length of Pearson Airport with a big briefcase and a suitcase, and I was late, so I was trying to hustle and I was sweating gross. And I just, I just can't, just can't live with this. And so when I got back into Saskatchewan after that trip, I went to a doctor and I met the right doctor. By pure chance, it was a female doctor that was a temporary doctor in Saskatchewan. And she says, well, I can tell you what to do, but don't expect me to be your mother. And so I was like, like, it's kind of a wake up call. And then she sent me to a sports psychologist. And then from there I started off, went into strategic coach. I got found an amazing mentor from Quebec whose whole thing was around values. So the values, my values have been a core part of my life and getting to be a bigger and bigger part of my life. And so those are what drive the mentorships. That's what drives, you know, how we work as a family and what we're ascribing to as a family, like what we really want to have happen so that all the businesses we have, the whole family shares the same values when it comes to being part of them or taking part of them.

Yeah. And what was the journey like for you? Cause obviously quitting smoking and food addiction or, you know, overeating, compulsive eating is, is not easy. And I know firsthand because I've had those issues personally my whole life. So, like, how did you get through that and, and transform to being a, an ultra serious athlete?

So the, the first thing that, that you, you do is you just have to realize that everything in life, when we want to make a change, is just a decision, simple as that. So you don't focus on before, you focus on now and tomorrow. So when I chose to quit smoking, I quit smoking wasn't easy. I had cravings. I used Nicorettes, I used all the little aids, and I wanted cigarettes a lot. But I had decided that I was going to quit and that it was making me really unhealthy. So I just quit. And with food and the other thing I did with cigarettes, I changed the order of my routines. So because when you smoke, you usually do them at the same time. So you get up in the morning you have a cigarette. So I got up in the morning, I would do something different. So I mean, and my kids helped with that because I went outside to have a cigarette first thing in the morning. They locked me out of the house. So, like it was like they're helping too. And then with food, we hired a dietitian and she basically came to our house and took everything out of our cupboards that we shouldn't eat and then showed us what we should eat. So again, we took out one bad habit and put in one good habit. So rather than having, you know, something fried, we had something grilled. Rather than having prepared food, we ate things really clean. So then you just got those new habits and it just was just simple. One step, then another step, then another step.

And when did you decide to train for a hundred mile race?

So at 40 is when I made my transformation. So that's a long time ago to some people, but so I started changing my eating and then I started, I got a personal trainer after that and started exercising. And so I think for three or four years I just went to the gym. Not much happened. I think I got from £320 down to 285. And then I found a book called Fitter Fat and I read that and then I asked the trainer maybe I should learn to run. So she said, okay, so then I can run from one lamppost to another. And then I had to walk for three. So I just gradually did a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more. And so then, you know, the Canon Askus relay was kind of a big one because you're running in the mountains, so it's challenging. So I didn't, I mean, it was a relay. I didn't run 100 miles. I ran, I think 16 miles. So but it was done. I did a few other running and then just through running I met my wife. And so there we have the same. So because you're in that it's going. When you look at chosen family, you. Because everything kind of fits together. You're with someone who does what you do, interested in health, has good habits, knows how to do things and so it just naturally kind of comes along.

Yeah. And so let's, let's talk about the book 17 runs and how to unlock your highest potential in life. So can you kind of walk us through maybe some of the key lessons that you and Olivia teach in that book and some of these key takeaways that you learned while you were training for this 100 mile relay race.

So I mean, it. It's. To me, it's. It kind of all blends together. So we just did something on our book website. We did a visualization. So I visualized a project I'm going to work on. And when I'm doing that, I recognize that everything in that book feeds back into one thing. So values. So values are the biggest thing for me. So what? When I say I'm going to do something, I absolutely try to do it. When I talk to you, I always want to tell the truth and be honest and be open and operate with high integrity. And when you look at family, how you want to work as a family, so those values are the core of my life. And then from there, when you go to do something, so when I say to you I will be your mentor, then that means you should just count on that. It shouldn't even be a thing that you would even think about. And if I tell you that, I'll tell you, if I'm too busy one day, then you know that it's just because I'm too busy and nothing else. You don't have to read anything into it. So then when you start to do all those things like that in your life, your life becomes simple. The other thing, and I did the visualization for the website is that the. The visualizations I have or how I look at doing things are always starting off what I can do for somebody else. So it's what. And so wherever opportunity happens for me is a byproduct. It's not something that's really preordained.

Yeah. And I mean, let's dive a little bit deeper into the book. So what. I mean, I know that I haven't read the book yet, and I'm excited to read it, but what are some other key lessons throughout the book?

So chosen family. So the way to think of that is that you are who you hang out with is a function of who you are and no other way to put it. So when I look at who my friends are and how we've evolved and who we hang out with, I mean, they're always people who are bringing you up because they're all people that are moving ahead. They're not caught up in a party lifestyle. They're all learning. And they can be 80, they can be 50, but they're still just learning, learning, learning, trying, experience. So chosen family is. That's one aspect. But then internally, like, what we did is we evolved our family to say anybody that would take a bullet for us will be in our family. So we have three people in our family that are not our natural children, but they. I mean, we'll give you an example. So one of them was my ea and is my EA again, because she really wanted to Lisa. And so I'd ask her at a Harley Davis, and I said, can you fire up the bike and drive it out of the parkade so they can pick it up and service it? So she couldn't get it to start, so she's about your size. So she pushed it up two flights of parkade. That's insane, because she said she would in a dress and heels all by herself. So I don't know how she did it, but she just did it because she said she would. And so when you think about having someone like that in your family that you just depend on, that you like, when they say they're there, they're there. So it just makes your life so simple and so easy.

Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. And that's really hard to find those ride or die people that'll truly take a bullet for you and do whatever it takes.

But then we have to live our life the same way, which goes back to, you know, always being there when we say we're going to be there. And so, you know, we've had frank conversations, both Shirley and I, with her, you know, what would happen if. And so she. She knows that. So I mean, that. That was like the values, the. The. The chosen family, gratitude. So I think I'm just born grateful and I'm born always willing to help. And so when I look at gratitude and generosity, they're reciprocal. So I've always looked at finding a way to be kind to other people or to find a way to say something to them that's meaningful that maybe they haven't heard today. And I tell one story in the book. I think it's in the book, but I used to go Vancouver. I was going to Vancouver every other week. And so I was going to the same Starbucks every morning. And there was a girl working in there, and she learned my name, and I'd step in the door in this great big voice and, hi, Garnet, you know, how are you? Quad espresso. And so one day I said to, you know, if you ever occurred to, you might have attention deficit disorder, because she's always saying she wished she could do this job or that job, but she's never been able to do it. So next time I went in and she yells out, garnet, you were right. Okay? And she says, I went to the doctor and I have attention death threat, just like you said. And I have messed. And now I feel. And I got a great job. And so she was just so, you know, I put myself out a little tiny bit. But it made a big impact in her life because she was noticed and someone cared enough about her to actually take a chance to say something in a kind way. And there's little things like that throughout life.

Little hinges swing, big doors.

Yeah, basically. And so my life was amazingly simple. I try to be kind wherever I go. I try not to be miserable and, you know, care about people and just do what I say I'll do. And I'm extremely grateful for every gift that I've ever got because, you know, lots of people haven't had the same good fortune is me.

Were you always that way, like as a young child too, or did you evolve into that?

So in some ways, I was like that from the time I was young. I was always fairly compassionate so that, you know, I can think back to maybe wasn't very well organized. But, you know, I always wanted to take something for the teacher right back to grade one. And I remember if I forgot to take an apple for the teacher, I'd go home crying and have to take. I could not go to school until I did that. And I was always kind of the teacher's pet most of the time. And so from that perspective, yes. But when it comes to values, values are something that your family imparts a certain set of values. They may be good values, they may be not so good values. And so you can continually improve and improve your values and make your values a stronger and stronger part of your core. So then when you do that, then first of all, you make far less mistakes in life because you're driving straight down the middle of the road. But then people like you start to meet people just out of the blue. There's like. It just gets to be crazy. And I'm really inadvertently. I'm a very, very shy person. And I'm meeting people at a clip that I cannot even imagine, like from all over and just by pure luck and pure chance. And they just fit in with some project that I'm trying to help someone with or because they'd like to help someone with a project. And you just have a meeting of the minds.

Yeah, yeah. And, you know, something I've experienced too, in my life is we have to step into who is deserving of the kind of people that we want to attract. Right. We have to become that person in Order for us to attract them. I know for me personally, when I wasn't a healthy, strong, compassionate, loving, kind, abundant person, I attracted negativity and scarcity type people, toxic relationships or people that weren't, weren't really ideal for me. And so I think it really shines light on when we can be the best version of ourselves and show up as a connected individual and living this abundant life with gratitude and compassion and service and giving. Then we start to become a magnet and the universe will bring to us the exact kind of people that need us and that we need them and have a really healthy relationship and an amazing bond. And I don't think anything can be done alone. You know, everybody that says they're self made, which I've said, you know, on paper, yourself made because you didn't come for money. But none of us are self made. We're all in this together. And it takes an army to really reach your highest potential and to like build something beautiful in life and in business.

So no, I 100% agree. And it's not so easy. So I think you have to be prepared to work at it all the time.

Yeah.

Because some days you just wake up and you're just not in that frame of mind and you feel bad for yourself and you just have to look in the mirror and say, well, that part's over and I'm going to be back to being the me that I want to be. You never have a perfect life, like, because you get fixated on things, but you have to say, well, my core principles are this, and I promised people I would do this and so I'm just going to get it done.

Yeah, it's just like the victim versus the victor. Right. There's that story of the two brothers and one of them is amazingly successful and has an incredible life and the other one's an alcoholic and has a miserable life. And both of them are asked what led them to those outcomes and they both say, my father, you know, because my father was an alcoholic or whatever. And so we get to choose our destiny. We get to choose what we want to create in our life. And if we choose to be the victor and we take every single. Like I didn't realize how victim and victim I was being. I thought I was like the victor. And everything happens for me and all these things. But until I was able to forgive my, my father and my mother and my brothers and like the people that had hurt me as a young, as a child, which we all have, those people, we all carry on to These resentment. And there's things that happen in our lives that hurt and are hard to get through. But when I was able to truly forgive is when I realized that I was being a victim, you know, deep down, like, oh, you know, my. My dad was cheap, or my parents didn't have a healthy marriage, or my brother was really mean to me and all these things. So I think that attitude that you have towards it is everything, because you've personally seen what happens if you have the opposite attitude.

Well, I had exactly the story you just told. So my brother and I had the same parents. I succeeded. He took his own life. My sister and I had the same parents. So it really is something that clicks inside you or some money, someone that you meet along the way. So I could actually go through and say that these are the people who influenced my life from this time to this time to this time to this time. So from my English teacher in high school to early mentors, to different programs I joined, I can tell you the turning points. But the difference between me and a lot of people is when there was a turning point, I turned. And I didn't make an excuse. I just said, this looks better than what I'm doing. And I think we just have to be open and not so locked in to a doctrine that we get when we're young.

Yeah. Yeah. And it's so true. And I realize that, too, is everything that happens in our life is not only the only way it can be, it is the best way it could be. And every single lesson that every. Every past experience, every current event that's happening, every. I always try to think like I'm the common denominator here. And everything that's happening is exactly what I'm creating in my life, and it's exactly the best way it could possibly be. And if it feels challenging or it feels hard or it feels hopeless or it feels dark, what are the lessons that I can learn from this? And how can I come out stronger, better, and reach my higher purpose and my higher potential from these lessons? And that. That mindset shift is so challenging sometimes because things can be so difficult, but it's everything. And I think if you have that mindset, you can truly cut like, you're a perfect example. You can come out of it absolutely anything and create whatever you want.

Well, I think. And I completely agree in the way. I think the easiest way to do it is to have simple goals so that you. You have a point of focus. So if you have a goal that's pulling you forward, you have a point of focus, so then you can't feel bad for yourself for very long because your mind saying, well, come on, like we have this goal and we all agreed to it, so like, what's the big deal? Let's get up off the floor and get at it. And so I have series of goals in all kinds of areas around how I want things to work, so how much my net worth should be. We have a goal around our family, so we want to have our family working so they work as one so that you know, when they start taking over the different businesses that they can work as a team. School of fish. And so, you know, what do we have to do to be able to make that happen? Well, that's a lot of work. But what is the first step, what is the second step and so forth. Yeah.

What is your strategy for goal setting? Because you started a life insurance company, you worked in commercial real estate for a little bit, you were in commercial finance, then you started, you were in the hospitality business and owned hotels and, and we'll get into that story on how you built a hotel business and portfolio and then lost it. And then you, you went on to build the largest life insurance company in Canada that was doing $10 billion a year. And then you put in a succession plan and you sold the company to your executive team and then you went and founded more companies. So when I think of for me, you work with me so you know where I'm at. So I'm starting HP Capital, just founded the company, just got it off the ground and I want to build a multi billion dollar organization. The gap from where I'm at now and where I want to go seems so great and I'm just like, gosh, just to get, you know, 15 team members rowing the boat in the same direction seems like such a difficult feat. I can't imagine having 125 like you had or I believe that's how many you had. Right, 25. Yeah, yeah. So how do you if, if for entrepreneurs and real estate investors who are, who are listening here today, how they know where they want to go? It's a maybe simple goal on paper, like okay, this is what I want to build, this is the revenue I want to generate, or this is the dollar I want to sell for, whatever, and then they're somewhere so far. How do you keep your eye on the long term goal, but put those incremental goals in place and be able to implement them and execute them without feeling overwhelmed by the long term goal?

So I make Movies in my head. And I make a movie of where I'm going to end up, and I picture everything. Everything. What I look like, how I feel. I make that movie. So then that movie is always there. So then all I'm doing after that is starting to write the script from where I am. And then it just becomes easy because then you're just flowing along and all the pieces start to miraculously appear. So, I mean, you're doing that. I mean, you made a joint venture partner. You meet this, you meet that. And because you can picture, you know, here I am sitting with, you know, $20 billion of assets under management, and this is how I look like, and this is what my office looks like, and this is how I feel about myself. And I. These are the people I'm attracting. And then you just make that movie and you shared.

I love that the mind movies. And I. I've. Part of that is. Have you read the book Law of Attraction?

Yep.

Yeah. She talks a lot about that in the mind movies and, and sitting silently with yourself and. And creating these images. And when you go about your day, you make note of the things that, that you're drawn to. Like, oh, I really like the way that that couple has a relationship. I really like the way this. This leader runs his business. I really like the way this mother treats her child. And like, you pick these pieces and then you visualize those in your mind. Like you said and you shared with me, or at Genius Network, I think it was, you said you start every single day by meditating for an hour. For an hour. You meditate to get your brain to nothing. Can you share about that process? Is that where you sh.

And I have a process? So we get up an hour before we have to do anything and we each have coffee together, but we don't spend the time talking. We just sit there and get to spend the time with ourselves together. And that kind of starts your day because you clear out the stuff that maybe bothered you in the night. You can get ready for your day. You're relaxed and you do it. So to me, it's a form of meditation. So I might really try to calm myself because I've got maybe zoom calls all day. And I think through how. So it's going to sound a little weird, but I actually rehearse every call I'm going to make before I go on it. So I actually visualize how the call will go. So I have a very, very strong picture in my mind how this call is going to go.

Yeah.

And it so Then. And it's a feeling. It's kind of weird sound, but. But it. But then they usually go that way. So I'm spending the first part of.

My day because you're very intentional about every single thing that you do.

Well, because when you're busy and to be successful, you have to be intentional. You don't have a lot of time to just not be. So you've got to stay focused. And then, you know, we don't generally work on the weekends, so we take, you know, we'll go and sit and just. We have one place on the water. We just look at the ocean and watch the birds and, you know, visit or read a book or, you know, something just to let the brain recharge.

Do you find difficulty in letting your brain calm down when you're running such massive organizations and go, go, go all the time?

Well, I mean, my self perception is that I handle it pretty well. I'm sure Shirley's perception is probably not so well. So, I mean, I think that.

That'S.

Always going to be a challenge to be calming. But I also understand the nature of my brain. So the worst thing my brain does to me is sometimes it keeps me all night to solve a problem. So it keeps me awake all night until I solve a problem.

Okay.

It doesn't happen often, but the odd time it does.

Yeah, yeah. Because I really struggle with that. To calm the mind, like to sit in silence is sometimes like the worst punishment for. For myself. But that's where a lot of the clarity and the answers come from.

Why? When I used to take meditation classes, the meditation told me I was the wiggliest person she'd ever seen. So, like, I can't do that, but I can sit and have a coffee and just no social media, no phone, Just slowly work through and relax the things that I need to relax. And I find if I do that at the end of the day, it helps too. And so not being looking at the news before go to bed or not doing the emails one more time, blah, blah, blah, makes a big difference.

And when did you realize that you were going to be an entrepreneur? Was that something that was instilled in you early on that you were born with or.

Nobody in our family ever did that, but I've been an entrepreneur every year of my adult life, except for five.

And what did you go to college? How were you? Were you.

I got all the way through grade 12. First. First and only one in my family.

Wow. And then you. What did you do after that?

Went to work for the bank of Commerce. Because at 1972, every there was jobs for everybody. It was insane because this was the kind of the early part of the baby boom. So everybody was growing, so went to work for the bank, and I did well. And then I bought a bar at 20.

Wow.

And then I sold it and made some money. And then I went into real estate and then back into banking. And then I decided to buy another bar, and that one went okay. And then I decided to buy some more, and interest rates went up, and my management skills were completely not there. So I hired people based on their stories, not based on their skills. And so I thought I could solve every problem that a hotel losing money by adding another one. So I got really good at buying them and terrible at running them because I learned how when I was selling them, selling hotels, figured how to do second mortgages, how to do vendor takebacks. So I was just using every little tool I had to buy these things. And just a disaster.

Yeah. And so how many. What was that course of time when you started buying hotels and how many did you acquire? And then what was the story of you losing them?

So I think I lost them almost as fast as I bought them. So I basically exchanged, traded property, I bought a big motel, traded my hotel to the vendor of the motel, and the motel was in trouble. So we made a deal with the bank to try to resolve it, and then he defaulted. So then I ended up with both of them. I had to take the other one back, and so I had two. So then I turned the motel back over to the bank and prearranged. That was all fine. And so things went good for a couple years, but then interest rates were sneaking up and things weren't so good. So I started buying more. And then I couldn't make the payments. Things started to fall apart. So then I was busy. Quit claiming one hotel to a bank and trying to buy another one to fill it up. And then finally I just stopped. And ended up, over the course of seven months, giving most of them back, and then turned the last one in, ended up with one. And then a couple years later, because I still had a big mortgage on one property that I couldn't pay, I had to go bankrupt. It's kind of embarrassing to stand in front of another man and tell him you're really screwed up and can't pay your bills, but, you know, you learn.

Yeah. And I'm assuming you didn't have any. I don't know. But no plan B, like nobody to bail you out. Or help you get through it?

Nope. So that's when I went into sales and I found out that's where I always should have been. Started selling life insurance, and I was pretty good at it. And so we built the biggest brokerage over time. I mean, we did more insurance than all the Canadian banks combined, just with one little group, because we don't know any better. Right. And so I never. I never hung out with all the other guys, so I didn't know what was possible. And I kept. I think the thing I always did is I always tried to figure out what is it that my clients really needed? So, like, what is it that. What problems have they got that I can solve, not I need to sell them this thing? So I kept innovating and innovating and innovating. So we kept coming up with all kinds of neat tools for our clients, and we got to be pretty popular. And so it. It was only because we're driving at customer problems. And that's, to me, the secret to any business. You don't worry about your growth. You worry about how big a problem it is that you can solve for people.

Yeah. Your prior CEO, Susan, said that you were such an innovator in life insurance and that you probably understood life insurance better than the life insurance companies themselves. What were some of the innovations that you did and the problems that you solved that you're proud of for your clients that helped you grow so rapidly and compete in such a shark industry?

Well, there's a couple things. So one thing I recognized that an entrepreneur always needs all the money they can get. So I needed to find a way to make insurance not cost anything. So I did, and that was what caused to set up a finance company.

Is that Grasslands?

Grasslands. Well, the predecessor. So we had SCDC1, SCDC2, SCDC3, SCDC4. We had a whole series of finance companies. And then we made a joint venture with one of the Canadian banks and set up a commercial paper conduit so we could finance them on terms where it wouldn't affect their credit on their operating lines and things like that. So we just kept innovating on the financial side to make it easy for people to buy insurance. And then we mastered everything there is about insurance accounting that there is. So then we could actually separate policies into different accounting pieces so that it created an effective shifting value before death. And so people really liked that. The accountants liked it, the lawyers liked it, because it gave people an immediate benefit, not just when they died. And so you just got to be busy like we just got referral after referral after referral after referral.

So what? Because I don't, I never understand life insurance. I don't want to go down a super big rabbit hole in life insurance, but I do want to understand life insurance. So, like, what exactly does that mean? Let's say I'm a client that is a high net worth or middle net worth entrepreneur and I don't know much about life insurance and I find your company like what. What would your team say that's a value, a problem that you're solving for me?

Well, the first thing I would try to explain is what problems we ought not to be trying to solve. So to just buy insurance in case you die, then you better have a really good reason for that because the odds of you dying is what makes the insurance company so profitable. So then we would try to say, so in your case, I'd say, well, you know, do you have a problem keeping your executives? Because if you are, there's a little thing that we master with insurance. We could probably organize it so your executives didn't pay any more tax than the corporate tax rate in America than the C Corp tax rate. So now we've developed a whole program for hospitals. So we're just launching that in the US It's a whole new thing. So basically something cool and we'll be really successful because it's really going to make a huge impact to the financial statements of the hospital. So at a time when they're struggling to get cash, we can.

So like instead of 38%, it would be 21% tax rate for your leadership team? Well, yeah, I think to everybody. Right.

And it's not hard.

Wow.

But it's just, you know, just got to think it through. So we have a process. We always developed a process where we wouldn't do anything without getting an independent legal opinion for our client. So we wanted our client to have assurance from a law firm that what we're telling our client was right. So we didn't want to be the one convincing our client that we're right. We're saying we believe we're right. These law firms understand the structure. Here's a check. You go hire them and you get them to give you a commentary. So now when we're doing this stuff for the hospitals, we have a legal opinion or legal brief to give to the hospital saying, well, we believe this is right. And if you do this, this is the outcome on your balance sheet, this is the outcome on your income statement. This is the impact this is how everything would work. This is how we would explain it. This is how we'll deal with objections from the physicians. Da da da.

Yeah. And I've heard, I know in Genius Network there's a couple life insurance entrepreneurs in there and they've talked about getting policies on their employees. Is that something that you guys, I.

Would have to say to you, so what problem are we solving? So key man. Yeah, you, you might he man, but do you even understand the risk of someone dying? So the biggest impact in a company is not death. It's almost death when you think about it. So I mean, I would structure something for an executive to increase their take home pay because that's good for you and it's good for them. If you were worried about them dying short, well, pretty inexpensive problem to fix. You can get a term policy that would cost you pennies. But if you're fixing that or you're really fixing the biggest risk, which is them not quite dying because if they're sick, sick, that's way worse for your company because you have a moral dilemma.

And what you do help solve that.

Then we would say that's not the best thing that we do. But I think these people would be really good at solving that problem. So we try not to go and do things that we're not the best at. There are some people that just do disability stuff. That's all they do. And they're just unbelievable at it. They understand the contracts, the language. We're more structuring and more innovating and financing as opposed to that. So I recognize what's a skill.

So how did you, I mean, take us through like the journey of going from starting this small specialty life insurance firm. I believe you were the first company in Canada to offer permanent life insurance.

Oh no. I mean that's been around forever. But we were the first. We figured out a lot of things people weren't doing right.

So you just innovated what already existed.

Because we were solving client problems. So the first thing we did, I had a John Deere client that I got by accident. And so I got to know him and I got to understand the problems John Deere dealers were having. So I designed some solutions to help John Deere dealers do succession plans. Just kind of innovative. It was a way they could get the small business limits and this little bit, I mean, it's pretty Canadian ish kind of thing. But by the time I was done, I had all the John Deere dealerships in western Canada because I knew more about it. Than anybody. So that's not out of my brain. That's out of Dr. Stanley's book, you know, selling to the affluent and target marketing. Simple. So I just did it. And then I got the case dealers, then I got the New Holland dealers.

Wow. And so then that was your niche and that's. That was your client base.

And then we moved into real estate companies that figured out what to do there. And so now we run like an offshore captives, and we've got a really complex infrastructure that we've built to deal with the problems that companies have today. So we can deal with American companies, Canadian companies, and we can help them manage risk and all kinds of stuff, because that's the problem they're having today.

Yeah.

So we really focus on people's problems. So when you look at your business, you say, well, when I say to you, to what problem are you a solution? You better know the answer. Because if you don't know the answer, I think you're sunk. And then, and then you have to be able to do that better than anybody. And so that's, that's what drives you.

Yeah. I worked my first job and my only corporate job was at a cat dealer.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay. So you understand.

Oh, yeah, yeah. That's amazing. I know. It just makes my wheels start.

But you just say, so what problem are you a solution? Now in the business you've got, what problem are you a solution? And how are you going to be better than anybody? Because like I can tell you, you did not start off your life planning on being 17th best.

Nope.

But a lot of people live their life that way, but that was never their intention.

Yeah. Did you always want to be number one?

Well, through school I always wanted to be number one, but one girl always beat me, so I was always number two. But I tried harder. Well, not really, but I wished I would try harder. But yeah, so she was just smarter than me. And I'm not the smartest person, but I try hard and I have an ability to problem solve that gives me a competitive advantage because I'm always very, very focused on the client and what problems they've got. And I hear the problems. Here are the problems. Here are the problems.

How did you attract and retain the right talent at your company as you grew and know who to hire at what time and how to know if they were the right seat, the right person in the right seat.

So first I hired a CA firm to go and interview and screen and pick because as an entrepreneur and I'm fairly empathetic, I. I just would hire based on how well they listened to my story. So I always got the wrong people.

That's how I hire.

Once I hired, like a CA firm to screen, the first general manager I got was amazing. And we never really did get along great because she was very professional in how she ran things, and so I had to get used to that. And then Susan was up, you know, another level of above that, a PhD in business, all kinds of stuff. Like, she had a way she wanted to run things, and my job was to let her do her job and so she could appreciate the innovation, but I had to appreciate the fact that I stayed out of her lane and let her hire who she needed to hire and do the things she needed to do to make the company successful. So that was where. That was the first transformation I went through, is not thinking I could do all the things myself.

Have you and you found success even, like, with your salespeople and recruiting firms? Because I struggle. I mean, I don't really know. I haven't been able to find people that recruit, like commercial loan brokers.

So is the reason you exist in life to be a salesperson, recruiter, or is it to be. Well, then don't do it. It's very simple. So go hire someone who is a specialist at recruiting sales and they exist.

Yeah.

There are some people who just live to recruit and hire and train salespeople because there's a screening tool, there's a way you want to make them so they always stay with you, not try to go off on their own. There's just different ways of measuring. Like, I've been. I've been tested. I got about probably eight or nine personality tests that I have of myself. I understand what I'm good at. But we test everybody, and we do in our companies now, we use a lot of tests that they use in the armed forces because those measure for loyalty and for intelligence and for problem solving. And then you can train the other parts.

Yeah. What are some of the tests that you guys use? I know you've shared some of these with me, but for the audience, I.

Mean, I like Myers Briggs, and I think in a relationship, it's also a great one to do when you're with somebody or dating someone.

The Myers Briggs.

Oh, yeah. Because if you both do them, you're going to find out if you're compatible, pure and simple and. And the places where you're not compatible. Be loud and clear.

Yeah.

And it'll work every time. And we do Plum Colby Strength Finder's another big one a lot of them are part of. So one of the things I learned to do when I was going through my transformation was to learn to know who I was, like, to have a clear picture. So I learned from all those things who I was and who I wasn't and what my shortcomings were and what my strengths were.

Yeah. Something you taught me that I share probably once a day with somebody that I'm talking to. I was actually. Have you heard of the school of hard knocks guy? Yeah, I was on his. He interviewed me a couple weeks ago. It hasn't been released yet, but I shared it on the interview. But you said, what part of the arrow kills the animal? Yeah, the point and to the. What I got from that is we want to operate in our zone of genius. Right. And we want to get out of the whole arrow. We want to get closer and closer and closer to the point of the arrow, to our zone of genius, to our highest and best use our gift to the world and delegate out the other things that aren't our best ability. And so what. How did you identify, like, what your zone of genius was? And what was that process for you to let go of? Because as entrepreneurs and founders, we wear all the hats in the beginning. But as you grow and scale, how do you figure out, like, this is my one thing that I do, and how well did you stick to just doing that one thing and delegating out and hiring out the rest?

So it's three or three or four things. So when you hire a really good general manager, they're quick to tell you which. What you should do. That was good. But, you know, when I started in strategic Coach, that was 30 years ago, we had to do unique abilities. So you had to write letters to people. What are your unique abilities? And so I found out that really, I can put any idea on one page. I'm a simplifier. Great simplifier. And that I'm highly creative, so I can relate things to things. So then I did strength finder. And so then I looked at my top strengths. Ideation, empathy, drive. All those things fit together. So I know that really I should just go and talk to people and find out what problems they are and frame a solution and then go find people to make. To manufacture all the pieces. Yeah, tax lawyers, accountants, just, you know, all the different people, because those things are not my things I'm best at. But I can tell you that if they did this, it would create this outcome and they would be happy.

And how did you Manage? I mean, were you. Because you hire, you ended up hiring a CEO.

Yep.

And you were in the visionary owner's box. Yeah. But like, what system did you implement to manage your team and your employees as you grew? Because right now I'm learning EOS and operating on eos. I don't know. Do you know what that is? Entrepreneur operating system. And then some people say, that's horrible. It'll crush your company. And other people like, oh, you need it or you're going to die. And it's like, how did you structure, you know, meetings and direct reports and departments? Like, how. What did you operate off of?

My first big transformation. I. I hired an EA and I let her manage all of my stuff. Totally. Totally. I didn't overrun her. I didn't go around her. I just said, you job is to make sure I show up when I'm supposed to and phone people and organize things and look after my schedule. And then we hired people to do the modeling and then hired a general manager. And so the general manager's job was to make sure everybody did their job. So all I had to do was just show up at meetings. So I never tried to be something that I wasn't. So when you say this operating or that operating system, I would say to you, so who did you hire to pick the system that's going to work the best for your company?

Yeah.

Because if you haven't, I mean, if you haven't got a really good CEO or general manager, how. Or managing partner or whatever, then you're at a huge disadvantage because the time you spend doing that is time you're not spending on sales and building relationships, which is what you specialize at, right? Yeah, that's all I do. I mean, if you look at my day, Lisa is on most of my calls. She makes notes from each call, she makes sure the to do's happen. And I will be on eight hours of calls in a day. And that's what I do. So I'm organizing ideas. So I was on a call with a company that makes a supplement that would cure cancer in dogs. And they're looking for investors. So I was on a call with him just before I came here. And so I listened, I asked questions. Now think about it and we'll go back and we'll start to figure out, is this something that I'd want to get involved in? Because the only time I'd get involved in it is if they need my expertise at marketing, because any other thing is not my best thing.

And so you Would say marketing is one of your unique.

Well, it's because I'm really good at finding out what problems people have that.

Maybe I can help with crafting a message to solve that problem.

Well, I'm pretty direct. Yeah. So I'm going to say yeah. I mean like I use visualization in my website and I'm happy to share it, but so I bought part of a company that has a healthy eating app as opposed to a diet app. And so then I happened to meet a hospital executive in Mississippi. So I crafted a whole plan to help Mississippi move up the health tables because they're last. So I wrote it all out. So that's the part my brain would do. Now when it comes to doing all the in between stuff, not so good. But since I thought of that, I've been meeting people that this person just retired. They used to be, they had a PhD in nutrition. They used to run a not for profit that marketed in this area to help people drink milk or to do this. So all these people are just showing up. People I never met, no connection. They're just showing up. So it's just to me how it works. And I can't explain it, but it happens in every place where we're doing stuff where you start focusing on this problem and all of a sudden the help shows up. But we just have to be humble enough to say, well, they got a way better brain for this than me, so I'll just let them do that part.

Yeah. How have you been able to make decisions on opportunities? Like what opportunities are the best opportunities to go for? Because you, you obviously your founder of multiple companies, you, you invest in in multiple companies in different development projects and things like that. So like how do you really analyze if an opportunity is one that you want to and should go for?

So again, I'm not an analyst, so I'll hear the pitch and if the pitch makes sense. So if I understand it from the perspective of if I had this company, this is how I would generate sales. Okay, so then that's as far as I go. So then I have a family office, CPAs and stuff. So they do the analysis to make sure it's not hokey pokey. Because I wouldn't do. Because I love the story. So I let them do it. So that's being comfortable delegating and being comfortable letting the people you're delegating make those decisions. So entrepreneurs by their nature want to think they need to do everything. And I've seen it over and over. I am, you know, but we're not, we're really just really good at one thing. And as soon as we learn that and just stay in that lane, we'll excel at it beyond any anybody else.

Yeah. And that's something I feel really grateful for is I have now I used to, I have no problems letting go. Like I know what I'm good at. I know I love working with the team. I want to have an amazing team. It's just building that amazing team is where I have challenges, is really putting those puzzle pieces together. Now the right people are starting to kind of be a magnet to me, which is pretty cool. It's actually funny. I had Pace Moreby, I interviewed Pace Moreby, who's another just awesome entrepreneur and he's like, you need an operator and you know, COO and you know, maybe someone watching this show is going to reach out to you and, and be like, you're exactly what I've been looking for. And someone actually reached out to me from the show. So it's cool to start to see that happen. But yeah, I don't know, I think right now just thinking of where I'm at, my business and where a lot of the people that watch the show are when you have that small mid level company and sometimes for me where I'm at with a brand new company with HP Capital, I'm like, when is the right decision to invest in that kind of, you know, team member, employee, operator, that's going to be expensive before there's a ton of revenue to support. Like when it do you do that right out of the gate and just take the risk and be like, I need this person or do you wait until the business can justify the expense?

So the beauty of sales is you can go get all the money you want anytime you want. So if you closed your eyes and visualized HB Capital and you say this team is very successful, it looks like this, you'll have your answer. So then you know how many sales you have to make on the real estate side to get the people there tomorrow to get you there.

Yeah.

Cause that's how I like this theory. I can sell my way at anything.

Perfect. Yeah. That's what I, Yeah, sell your way. I think it's something Joe has in his office is like a good sales letter can solve.

Yeah. Every problem.

Every problem.

And so I don't ever look at, I always look at money as being something that there's an abundance of. But you have to go and do something for somebody to help them and you'll be Rewarded. So you have a system for getting paid for helping people solve a real estate problem. So then turn on the jets to get the capital you need to have the right people to make the next thing work exactly the same.

Okay, yeah, that's what I'm.

If you can't see it, if you can't see what it looks like when it's finished, you won't get there.

Yeah, no, I, that's what I, I could see it, I could see it, I could taste it. You know, I see it all perfectly. It's just a matter of getting there, getting, putting those pieces in place.

And I still have really clear visions of everything, anything I'm involved in as to what it looks like when it's finished.

You talk in your book about a lot, about personal struggles and challenges and being resilient and overcoming these battles that we face in life. And this resonates so deeply with me because this has been my journey of transformation as well. And just getting through some of these really difficult times for entrepreneurs out there, because I think so many of us, it's the easy thing to do is just work harder, work more, stay disconnected, set bigger goals financially and kind of burn the candle at both ends and ignore health, ignore relationships, ignore healing or, you know, meditation and forgiveness and, and the inner work, not the, the, the entrepreneur work that we do. What do you think the impact is of entrepreneurs not taking the time to really do the inner work, to focus on their health? Like, what was that transformation for you on being a leader and a CEO from pre transformation and post transformation?

Well, I think that if you look at every little transformation, they're a habit of success. And if you can't stop and think things through, if you just racing, racing, racing, you never develop habits of success. You never get a chance to stop and say, I did this and it worked. I did this and it didn't work. Therefore, I'm not going to do this anymore. So you need to be able to slow down and say, so it's not more bead, it's more thought saying, but things aren't working very good, Obviously I'm not solving a problem for my clients. And if you take everything back to a problem and like the saying that I got early on, and I'll credit it to Willie Fournier and he had a extraordinarian here. What I'm not going to add, but is to what problem am I a solution? And that is my mantra in everything, in family, in business, in mentoring. If I'm not a solution to a problem, then I need to move on. And too many people I meet believe that their ideas are amazing without being able to tell me what problem they can solve with this idea.

And do you, did you notice in your leadership skills, like when your health transformed, that they improved? Like what, what really changed other than you, you lost weight and you stopped smoking these things? Like, what were the internal changes in yourself as this transformation happened and how did that reflect to your company?

So first of all, I don't credit myself with having phenomenal leadership skills because, because I'm an inventor. So I can create enthusiasm, but not necessarily the sustainability of an idea. That's what a good executive team does.

Right?

So I think of myself as. And I think if you talk to the people around me, they say, well, you always had a lot of ideas. But I'm not the person. I tell people I'm not the executioner, because I'm not. I really suck at that. So the thing I learned is what I can do that's within my control that I must do and what I need to delegate. So if you think about my transformation, I didn't do any of it. I just showed up. So I had a personal trainer, had a dietitian, I had a psychologist. Then I had someone who really, his whole mission was around values based businesses, then joint strategic coach, then this. So I never actually did any of this stuff myself. I just showed up and followed instructions. So the difference was that I would do it, I would trust enough to actually do it. And to me that's the.

It's everything.

It's everything simple.

Just show up and do it.

Do it.

Don't give up.

Get the specialists. I mean, if you got to be £320, obviously you don't know that much about fitness, so why do I think I can be the fitness expert to get me all the way back down? So I hired one. Right, so become coachable.

Who, not how.

Yep, yep. Become coachable. Be humble and be coachable. And then always focus on best, best solution to a problem, best coaches, best staff. Because nobody wants to be 17th best or 14th or third or.

I had a question that popped in my head while you're talking and then I forgot. No, no, you're good. Other than going bankrupt and losing what you had built at that point in your life, what was the rock bottom moment in your life like? When were you just the absolute rock, rock bottom where you didn't know how you were gonna get out of it?

Well, I never really thought of it that way. I just thought of the mess I had made that I had to clean up and that it wasn't going to be a lot of fun. But I think the rock bottom point in my life was when my sister took her own life because it just totally.

And how did it change you when.

That happens in a family? It's messy for quite a while because there was quite a few messes that I went and helped sort out with my parents and things. But I made the thing that I think matters most to me. So I have a visualization of family. So in my visualization I've had this visualization now it's playing over and over and over, is that all of us are walking down the beach holding hands and each person is looking back to the person beside them to make sure they're keeping up. So that's what I learned from all of the stuff that went on in my family, is that to have a really good family, that caring has to be there at that level so that you're not focused on yourself, you're focused on the one next to you being able to keep up. And what do you have to do for them to keep up.

Yeah, that hits home for me for sure, because I have, you know, I have. I have a couple, few stragglers in my family that I struggle with that internally of when you try to help someone so much, or at least you think you do, and maybe I don't as much as I think I do, honestly, if I get real honest with myself. But it's like, when's that point of how much do you pour into somebody and give them your energy if they're not taking action to change their life versus when you just let them be, accept them for as they are and let them be behind?

Well, there's a concept in Buddhist and it's one of Thich Nhat Hanh's books and it's called the Sword of Discernment. So if you help someone and they respond by helping others, if they come back to you for help again, you should be willing to help because they're trying to help others. But if they keep coming back to you for help because they're not prepared for help themselves, use the sword of discernment, lop off their head and move on. They're not worthy of your help. There's so many people that respond a different way. So our construct for family is not necessarily by blood. So it can be. And this is something that Jordan Peterson had on I just caught a little glimpse saying the family you're with at any Point in time is more important than your biological family. So maybe they're business peers. Maybe they're, you know, however that works, that's the part that influences you the most and where you're going to spend a lot of effort.

That makes sense. Yeah. What do you think was the number one thing that attributed to your success in everything that you did?

I think it's resilience, not not letting myself be down. So, I mean, I can tell I was bullied in school. We moved around a lot. You know, you're a new kid in a school. I was kind of a gangly, weak, asthmatic kid, so get knocked around lots. So you just kept getting up. So you just learn that, you know, life has its challenges, but you just get back up off the floor and get at it. And try not to do stupid things a second time.

Learn from your mistakes and be relentless.

Just keep. Keep going, because business is that way. We're going to make mistakes.

Have you seen Finding Nemo?

Yes.

They're Little Dory. She's like, just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. And whenever all hell's breaking loose, I just sing that song. Just keep swimming. What do we do? We swim.

Yeah. Well, mine. Mine. My big movie is Forest Gump Run. Forest Run. That's kind of my model. But it just. But I mean, it just. We just have to be not so full of ourselves and say, well, you know, we're going to make mistakes.

Yeah.

And we make less tragic mistakes as we move along if we pay attention.

What keeps you going? I mean, you didn't. You didn't retire and sell your company and go sit on a beach. You just.

You're going, well, I still have things I want to do, so. So if I think about. So I have. My life mission right now is to transform functional medicine. So it's to transform health. So when you look at functional medicine, the root of that is nutrition. And so I had this goal, this vision, and then from nowhere, somebody in Mississippi introduced me to the founder of Med Chefs, and I realized that's a tool that would help on my mission. So then I get involved with them, I buy into the company, and I help them kind of figure out a way forward.

Yeah.

And I just go and do it and get it going, and then we'll find the right people to execute.

You know, you're in tech, you're in medicine, you're in insurance. Do you see synergies between building and being a part of these different types of companies? Like building a business is building a business, or have you had to go back and completely relearn everything, reinvent yourself. Or is it just back to you do your thing of I think of amazing ideas and solving big problems and then I have the right people in place to execute.

Let me give you an example. For 68 years I avoided doing podcasts and now because we do a book and because the book is important to me, because it basically is a book that people can use to understand what you need to do to get to the next level. And it's simple because it's something that I actually did. And so it's not complicated. People have had worse life, people had better lives, but it's sort of how. So now I have to go and do this part because it's necessary.

But you want to.

Most fun thing. But it's still what I'm going to do and I'll get used to it. So you're always learning new things. And the other thing is that when you do your strength finder, one of my strengths is ideation. So I link really weird things together. So for example, insurance, executive comp. Solving healthcare funding crisis and a nutrition program to make people healthier. And putting that all together in one big pot of soup. People wouldn't normally think of those things because they don't exactly fit. And so then how do you articulate that?

How do you.

Well, you just figure it out. So if we can on one hand help hospital system mount a campaign to make people eat better, over time their healthcare costs will drop. And if we can solve the immediate crisis with a structure, then it'll create immediate relief so they can start to hire the people like dietitians to help the people eat healthier. So it's circle. It's brilliant and it's just. And the idea we stole is what universities use to pay football coaches. But we figured, well, a football coach isn't that much different than a doctor. They have two legs and, and just kind of pirate it. And then I figured out some other things because of the financing we've done genius solving a problem no different than what you do. You're selling commercial real estate, but you realize, well, some people can't buy it because this is a problem. So I'll solve that problem over there. So then how do you integrate them to make them work synergistically?

Right. That's how I got into commercial finance because I couldn't get financing.

Which is exactly why I started in financing insurance because banks would only give them 90% and they needed 130. So I had to figure it out.

That's insane.

So it's the same thing you did. So really isn't that sane? It's just necessary. So when you think about it, other people just didn't have the energy.

Well, we don't have 130% LTV.

Yeah, but it's because you haven't tried. So if you could actually figure out how to give people 10% more than the purchase price. Price, you'd sell all the real estate that there was available in Arizona.

Yeah, finance it. But I'd go bankrupt with the market turned right. And that's where I have to get creative and find these other solutions. I guess I just don't see how that that computes. How do you.

Well, you have to be able to roll them into a unit based thing. So they're just units, like a reit. So that's how you defeat over, over, over borrowing on mortgages.

Well, I could talk to you forever and ever and ever and ever. And I'm just super grateful and I'm proud of you for pushing yourself outside your comfort zone and doing this podcast. I used to be. I would. I was. This was my biggest fear in my life was being on camera, speaking on stage, having photos taken of me, like the most critical. I mean, I would. When I was younger, I would ball my eyes out if somebody took a photo of me and I would scream at them because I was so broken and so insecure and just so nervous. But I had just signed up to do my 10 minute talk at Genius Network in the September meeting. It'll be my first time actually doing a solo speech on stage. And as much as I wanna run away from it, I committed to it and I'm excited. And I already have my talk outlined.

So you're gonna talk about why women are better with money than men?

No.

Rats.

Yeah, no, it's called freedom beyond the legacy of letting go. Oh, we can end with that. But. But the talk is really about there's more to freedom and life than just financial wealth and just my transformation story of forgiveness and letting go of all the things, all the bricks on my head. You taught me that we're all walking around with bricks on our head of limiting beliefs that are preventing us from reaching our highest potential. And that's actually one of my questions in the talk is what beliefs are you holding onto that are preventing you from being free? And we. And what bricks on your head do you need to get off your head?

So one is social media, because to be able to be successful with the project we want to do in Mississippi. I have to be. I'm going to have to master it. It's a big thing because I don't like being out there. If you look on social media, until you start to see some of these interviews, I'm almost invisible. So now I have to be part of that. That's a big fear. And you always have that fear of failing. So this is a big project. I could fall on my face. So you know, you. But I don't let it stop me. I'm just aware that I better have all of my wits about me.

It's funny. I have another dear friend. You would love him. His name is Scott, but he's almost a billionaire, really successful developer. And I interviewed him. It was his first interview of his whole life. And he. I was like, you have to create an Instagram account. You gotta be on social media. You gotta do these things. And he created social media. And I just noticed I'm the only follower he follows. He has zero followers and he has no face, no profile, and no bio or anything. But it was like a step in the right direction. And it's just. It's cool to see. And it's so cool to see. Because we're different generations. In your generation, social media didn't exist. Now it's like, to be successful, you got to be on social media. It's your resume. People are like, what's your Instagram handle? That's the first thing they ask. They don't ask for a resume anymore. And. But back in the day, that wasn't a thing. And there's tons of people like you that are, you know, billionaires and sentimillionaires and super successful in many areas that have no social media at all. But it's. Once you get used to it, you may like it, because I used to be. You probably don't believe this, but I used to be extremely introverted. I was living in a cave, not seeing or talking to anyone for years, and I had to get through a lot of stuff for real me to come out. And now, you know, people's my thing. I love. I would do this all day long for free and 10 times over for the rest of my life. But anyway, so, yeah, I'm. I'm excited to see where your journey leads in this new venture.

I do have an Instagram account.

You do?

It's with my cars.

Oh, your cars. Okay.

Garnet's Garage.

Yeah. You're a big car collector.

Yeah.

Garnet's Garage. I'm going to follow it. And what. What cars do you have?

Porsches.

All Porsches?

Yeah.

Amazing. Yeah, Yeah.

I know all different kinds.

Oh, yeah, I remember you. We talked about showed you the pink one. You showed me the pink one? Y. Yeah. That's so cool. I'm gonna have to fly out to Canada and see your guys garage.

Yeah. Yeah.

Is on your property?

Yep. Well, we have more than one property, but they're all kind of consolidated in one spot, so.

Cool.

Yeah.

Awesome. Well, thank you so much. I always like to end with this question. If you could go back and give one piece of advice to young Garnett, what would it be?

Smarten up sooner. If I'd have been ready to meet the people I met at 40 when I was 30, I'd been a lot further ahead. But having said that, the people I met when I was 40, the people I met when I was 50, being married now, all of those things maybe wouldn't have happened if I'd have started sooner. And I'm actually really happy with how life is treating me because everything is in a really big balance.

Good.

And I think if you don't feel that way in life, then you have to look at what it is that's not in sync.

Well, thank you so much. I'm so excited.

My pleasure. And I really am grateful that you would have me on here and promote our book. And.

Yes, 17 runs. 17 runs.com.

Yep.

Is that right? Yeah. 17 runs.com. 17 runs.com. garnett Morris. The book will be released June 3rd. And where else can they find you? How can they get ahold of you? If they want to reach out or get the book or where you can.

Go through the website, they can buy the books on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, all the different bookstores. And then we're going to have a thing where we do visualizations from time to time so people can actually watch how I do a visualization. Because that's been a really big part of my life since I was like five.

That's awesome.

And I talk about that in the book. I used to visualize when I was just a little kid that I would be rich. And that would be when I was 4 and 5 and 6. And I'd have $100,000 in a swimming pool and all my friends would be there. And I had that visualization for years.

That's amazing.

And so I still use that over and over and over and over in my own way.

And now you have a swimming pool filled with cash.

I have a hot tub.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Amazing.

But I still still use them. Use that method.

Do you do these visualizations in your morning coffees or do you.

Sometimes most of the night or sometimes during the day or sometimes I just have to stop and start to think through, you know, how I do it. Because a visualization, it's not enough to have the idea, but then you have to be prepared to understand the pain you have to have. And most people just stop at the idea.

Yeah, that's it right there.

Yeah. Because you can't progress without. Mm.

Yeah. What, what price are you willing to pay to get the things that you want to get?

Well, it's. It's not. Are you willing to pay is that you understand that whatever the price is, you have to pay it if that's your visualization. Otherwise you give your brain an opt out.

So good. Thank you, Garnett.

My pleasure.

And thank you very much. And you're just such an inspiration. So thank you.

Thank you. I enjoyed this a lot and I enjoy talking to you and watching you come your own bank and how you've done your life and way ahead of most.

So thank you.