Proof You Can Create Your Dream Life No Matter Where you’re Starting From

The level of risk that you're willing to tolerate, the level of embarrassment that you can handle, the level of learning in front of the whole world is why you will be compensated. You will not be compensated to look good. You will not be compensated if you're not willing to fail in front of people and the ones who do it and really build that brand, all of a sudden everybody wishes that they would have done it earlier. Foreign. She said, all right, we had the.

Best lunch date yesterday. We went down like memory lane. And that's what we're going to share with you guys is some of the memories of the jobs and what we've been through to get where we are right now, just to like, inspire you in case you're like, hey, I, I need someone to kick me back in the game or I'm in that trudging along part and I need to know the light at the end of the tunnel. So we're going to share some really good stories because that's what we did yesterday at lunch. I guess a couple murder ye, a couple margaritas kind of help, you know, skinny margaritas. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, before we do that, warning, warning, warning, warning. This is your last week to apply for our elite level entrepreneur mastermind. This is the mastermind where you have to be making $500,000 a year or more in your business to even apply. Most businesses in there are seven and eight figure businesses. And listen, no other mastermind at this level has the availability that I've ever found of the founders. Like, you get to text me any questions that you have or any problems that pop up Monday through Friday, 10 to 5, you get to text me whether it's a question for Lori or a question for me. It's not like some BS marketing text line. So it's my real phone that it comes to. And then if we can solve the problem, we solve the problem. If we can connect you, so on, we connect you to someone. But you get real time help. On top of that, you get the whole group. I know Lori is going to talk about that in a minute. And on top of that, you get a strategy session, one on one to kick the whole thing off. You don't have to just get into the group and hope you find some. We've spent eight years dialing this in. There's two spots. And this is your last week to apply and we don't fill it the rest of the year. So this is literally for 2025. You want to lock arms and get this level of guidance at this level this is your last chance.

This is for people who, if you have been stagnant in your business, maybe it's been the last couple years, three years, whatever it is, that you have not been able to break through a plateau. This is for people who feel really al on the journey and like, you don't have other entrepreneur friends who you can bounce things off of or who support you or who understand your problems. There's nothing like getting together with people and sitting and having incredible dinners and talking about things that you struggle with, too, or also having people celebrate with you and hold you accountable to your goals. I literally can't imagine doing business without all of these people. If you look at the last few years, if you even went back and looked at my Instagram, you can go and see that I go and create Masterminds for myself and go to Masterminds and get together with people for this very specific reason. We talk about business, we, you know, lock arms and really help each other move through the really tough stuff. I've had no less than a hundred conversations about challenges that I've had in the last year with other entrepreneurs who have gotten me through to a place where I feel really good now. And I couldn't have done that without other people. I would have been struggling, and I don't actually know where my business would be.

Listen, listen, worst case scenario, you're going to meet a lot of other really cool entrepreneurs at your level that you get to share ideas with and they become your ride or dies. Not just here, but I watch these relationships stick around for life. We're literally going to a grand opening this week coming up for one of our Mastermind members in Tampa, who has been in there for a few years. And literally one quarter of the past couple years, Mastermind groups are going to this. They're all flying Tampa to support her. They're literally your ride or dies that you're finding the people that you wish always existed. Do this. If you want one of these last couple spots, I'm not kidding. It's your last week. To apply, go to Chrisharder Me Mastermind right now. Literally hit pause and then come back and listen to the rest of this. Go to Chrisharder Me Mastermind and then go click the apply button. That's Chrisharder Me Mastermind. Okay, so here's what we wanted to talk about today. We had the best lunch. Like I said, you know, a couple margaritas, you start reflecting on the past. Where it really came from is you're. We're making an offer. So we had sold this home in California, we're making an offer on another home. And we were like, wow, I can't buy believe like we have a shot of getting into this home. Look how far we've come. And we went down memory lane. And it turned into like remembering that Lori used to get up at 4am every day to go work as a barista at a drive through coffee shop. And that I used to get up at 4 or 5am every day and do landscape construction to pay the bills. And my biggest dreams at the time. I remember sitting there and we're going to start right here actually. I tell Lori Real after, I was like, I remember sitting there figuring out my future life numbers and saying if I bought this many rental properties, these four units and I lived in one of them, I'd be able to clear about $2,400 a month after paying for the mortgage and living there and that $2,400 a month. And I was like, this is so talk about bad money management. I was like, my car payment is like 550. So I guess I've always liked these cars. This is 20 some years ago, right? And who's going to pay 550amonth? Car payment making, you know, an extra 2400 bucks a month or whatever you're going to clear. But nonetheless that's where my mind was at. It's like I could pay for this car that I love and still have, you know, 1800 bucks a month left over. I'm good, I'm set. And that's like where my level of dreaming was at this time while I was doing landscape construction. And even that was good because I was like, well, I'm buying the rental properties and one day they're going to be paid off and then I'll have all this equity. So your level of dreams change, but the jobs that you had, the work that you had to do while you were getting your dreams in order usually isn't fun. I was getting up at 4 or 5 in the morning to plow. So I did landscape construction every year in the summer. And then for that same company, I would plow because this was Wisconsin, whenever it would snow. And so I'd wake up at four or five in the morning or heck, sometimes it's midnight or one or two in the morning and I'd get into the plow truck, I'd start it up, it'd be freezing and be covered in snow. Or if I was lucky, I got one of the ones that was in the garage, put all the equipment on and you'd be out there in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning plowing in the freezing cold and then getting out and having to shovel the parts you couldn't plow. And that was life. And I actually loved it while I was doing it. But that's how far we've come. Laurie, your story about the being a barista and all that stuff was great.

So I worked at a drive through coffee shop. Like picture those little huts that you see sometimes. Some parts of the country don't have them, but it's a very Midwest thing. So you can just stay in your car, pull up and get a coffee. And I worked in one of those little huts for my God, a couple years. I think it was a couple years.

Was it a bikini drive through cost place? No, but I probably would have made the movie Landman.

I absolutely would have made more tips. I should have reinvented that. So I would wake up at 4am to have to get to the coffee shop I think we opened. I couldn't remember if we opened at 5 or 5:30. And clearly if you're waking up that early, you pretty much just roll out of bed. I remember slapping on makeup for like maybe one minute and having like a little routine of what I wore and how I look to this coffee shop. And I would go there and open and you'd be the only opener. It'd still be super dark, middle of winter, you guys. I remember the winters because they were the most brutal. And it so freezing, so pitch black. And you have to stand in this drive through window and it's freezing. And I just remember I would get done or I would start at, you know, we'd open the place at like 5:30 and I would be done around 1 sometimes 2 depending on the shift. And I would be so exhausted that I would nap from like 1 until 5 or I'd come home. I was telling Chris because I've always been into fitness, I've always been into health. And I didn't want to be eating like a whole other meal because I would have already had like breakfast and lunch. And I used to want to wait for him to have dinner, but there's this big window where my body's telling me it's like dinner time. And so I'd come home and I'd be like, okay, what could I eat that's light, that's not too crazy. And I remember I would make a whole bag of light popcorn and I'd have a Coke Zero. And then I would go and take a nap, probably wondering why I couldn't sleep very well. I would have a Coke Zero, literally, and I would go and take a nap until he would come home at like 5 or 6. And then we would go to the gym. And then I would try to sleep around 10, but I normally wouldn't fall asleep till like 1 or 2 because my circadian rhythm was so off. And then I get up and do it all over again. And I just remember feeling exhausted. I remember feeling like I couldn't do it anymore. I actually loved the job more than I can tell you because I love talking to people. I did that job so well. I was like the person that they never wanted to lose because I was this impeccable cleaner. I was an impeccable closer. Like, I did. I've always done everything the best it could possibly be done. But this also caused a lot of like, pain for me because I always knew I was better than the positions that I was in, except I hadn't graduated high school. And I remember it was the biggest fear of mine that I couldn't go to another job. Like I would have to always have these low level jobs that I have to work my way up because I was so afraid that people would find out I didn't graduate from high school. And so there was another job. I remember looking online or not online. We were just in the paper at the time. They were just married. And I got.

It was in the paper. It was even on online. Wasn't really a thing.

Wasn't a thing. No, it wasn't a thing. And there was an opportunity to make commission on office furniture sales. And I was like, I think I could do this. Like, it was an opportunity to make more money, to get my hours back in order, maybe get my sleep back. Like get on a schedule with my husband.

Felt like possibly a lot of money, right?

And it, it felt like possibly a lot of money, but it probably wasn't. And I just remember being like so freaked out that I couldn't apply for this job or that I was going to. And you were like, just lie about it. Just say that you graduated. Lori, you're the, like the best employee of any spot that you go to. And I, like, could not get over it, but I think I applied to it. And I don't remember what ended up happening. I ended up getting a different job.

Yeah, you went and interviewed. I remember that much. You interviewed. I don't remember what happened. Yeah, I got a different job.

I know I didn't take it.

Maybe they sniffed out your lie. She didn't really graduate. Maybe I've got one more that I forgot to tell you yesterday. And again, all this is just like frame. No matter where you are right now, you're still going to end up on top of the mountain. I know it.

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So when I was doing landscape construction, you know, driving tractors and graders and then laying down sod and hardscapes, and then plowing in winter in the middle of the night and doing all those things, I went and I got a job at a car dealership after that when I got booted out of college. And the car dealership isn't the job I want to talk about. The car dealership was good money, and it taught me sales and it taught me leadership and a lot of things I use today. But I had this desire to make even more money than I was at the time. And I've always had this entrepreneurial spirit, right? So if you've always had the entrepreneurial spirit, listen to it. Remember back when I started this story, I was like, if I just got these four rental units and lived in one and rented the other three, like, that's part of the entrepreneurial spirit. Well, I started a cleaning company because I went to the bars a lot, and my friends owned some of the bars, and I would talk to them about what they would pay for cleaning, or I should say, they would complain, but what they paid to have their bar clean and that no one did a good job. And I was like, well, I'll do it. Like, what do you mean you'll do it? And I was like, the guy that was always in the bars with them, and they're like, you want to. I'm like, no, I really will. I've got a cleaning company. And they're like, you do? I'm like, I do. Now it's merely invented out of necessity. Is at a bar called Anduzis is where this started, if you guys know Green Bay at all.

Oh, my God.

And so they're like, well, I mean, we'll give you a shot if. If you want to do it. I'm like, yeah, totally. When do I start? So my mom, I had needed someone to help clean. So I'm like, mom, I did this thing. I said, I have a cleaning company. It pays a Lot of money because you could get paid. I'm gonna forget what the numbers are, but by cleaning a couple of bars. And I remember we cleaned the restaurant bar of a golf course in the middle of the night too. And remember, you got to go after bar time. So bars close at like 2am in Wisconsin. You can't show up till 3.

Oh, my God.

So, Lori. I would work during the day.

Craziest.

Then I would go out to the bars, the very bars I was going to be cleaning later. Then I'd go home for a minute, and then I'd come back, open up that bar at 3am and I'd clean it, and I'd have to do two or three of them in a night by the time that.

These bars are massive, you guys. These are like. These are like, what. What would you even call it? Like, they're big sports.

Big sports. Yep. So mom was first employee and eventually partner in this thing. And we went. We got some other employees right away, but my mom and I, in the middle of the night several nights a week, I think every night, maybe if I remember correctly, were cleaning bars in the middle of the freaking night. Like literally while everybody else is asleep. And this went on for a couple of years because it's really good money. Bars and offices in the middle of the night. And eventually mom took that thing over when I didn't want to do it anymore, and she actually did it for a handful of years and went through a handful of employees and all that fun stuff. Stuff. Here's why I share that. I never thought that I'd be cleaning urinals. The very urinals I pissed in at 3am in the morning every single day for some money. But I was. Because the money was there and I was hungry for it. And I had that I'll do anything entrepreneurial spirit. And so now to bring this full circle, when we're at lunch yesterday, like, oh, my God, make an offer on this house. I can't believe that we're getting this dream home. Blah, blah, all this stuff. Stuff to calm that full circle. You guys can go anywhere you want no matter where you are right now, whether you are just starting and you're young, like in those stories, whether you're starting over, like when Lori and I had to start over from below 0 in 2008, 2009. These are both moments of being at the absolute bottom of the economic food chain and being able to rise at the top of the mountain if you want to get there and back then here's probably the most important point, I didn't see the how. I didn't see the path. I had no idea we'd be doing what we do right now. Zero help Podcasts weren't a thing. Fintech wasn't a thing. Supplements wasn't a thing.

Successful with were not things.

They were not things. So you don't know how you're going to get there. But if you have the entrepreneurial spirit and if you're willing to clean urinals at 3am As a metaphor, then you're going to be just fine and you're going to get to the top of the mountain.

We've been talking so much with people about the level of risk that you're willing to tolerate, the level of embarrassment that you can handle, the level of learning in front of the whole world is why you will be compensated. You will not be compensated to look good. You will not be compensated. Safe to go and join what everyone else is doing and doing the same exact thing. Like you will not, not be compensated if you're not willing to fail in front of people. And you know, we were just talking to our friend Matt Hanford Hannaford and he's an incredible baseball agent and he's kind of doing some new things. Like he's, he's kind of shaking up the agency world. The agency world. And he's starting, you know, he has this epic podcast and doing all of these different things that aren't necessarily looked at as, you know, the great thing that people should be doing as an agent. It's kind of like if you're a medical doctor in that industry, when people have podcasts or how have social media followings, they're kind of like, they're a little bit like laughed at or not taken serious at first. But the ones who do it and really build that brand, all of a sudden everybody wishes that they would have done it earlier. They wish they would have like built their brand in that way. Because so many things are changing that those are the people who have those personal brands and those other options in their life. Their other, their eggs are in other baskets. That's how you be successful. Because let me tell you, Chris and I know a thing or two about success being cyclical and watching full on income streams go away overnight, industries go.

Away, you name it. My baking industry went away overnight.

Oh my God. You've been a part of it so often, so frequently.

Listen, there's no great paycheck in protecting your ego. That's the bottom line. But if you're willing to sacrifice your ego, stoke that entrepreneurial fire, swing for the fences, not care how many times you fall down and be willing to get back up, then you absolutely have to believe me and have faith that no matter what you see in front of you right now, you will end up on top of the mountain. Or I guess in our case, on top of the hill overlooking Newport, Bay, harbor and the ocean, which I'm so freaking excited and grateful about. All right, guys, hopefully this inspired you. Those of you that already have a business kicking ass right now, hit stop and go to chrisharter Me Mastermind. Grab one of those last two spots to apply for it. And we appreciate you listening and love you always.

We will talk to you next week.