0408 | Scott Joseph [PART 1]

Hello, this is Scott Joseph, the CEO and founder of J and L Marketing and podcast host of Move Crush Count. You're listening to EA interviews.

EA interviews, episode 408, inspiration, transformation, success stories and the imperfect action round. Seven days a week. Join Mario Ficcini for today's Expert Authority effect interview. Expert Authority World. I am super excited to bring to you one of the most nicest guys I know, one of the most successful guys I know, and one of the most down to earth guys I know. Scott Joseph. He's the CEO and founder of J and L Marketing. He's the podcast host. He has a great family. His daughter is adorable. She's going to be. She's already an entrepreneur herself and he wants to help people in a bigger way. And what's ironic to me is he's already doing it at a much higher level than most are. So I'm privileged to know him and I can't wait to jump into our story. But you're in for a real treat, so I'm going to bring him up right after we thank our sponsor. Every business needs a book, including yours. And that's why I'm launching my new book to help you, regardless of where you think your current writing abilities are. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction, lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Once again, that's eapublishing method book.com.

Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Scott Joseph. Scott, how are you feeling today?

I'm feeling great, Mario, thank you.

Glad to hear that. I'd imagine with all the cool stuff you're up to.

What are you most excited about?

What am I most excited about? Well, you know, I've, I've.

I'm kind of going into a little bit of a new area for me. So, you know, I've got the auto dealerships, I've got the agency. The podcast is moving full steam ahead and some different Mastermind events. Full steam ahead. But the agency and the dealerships, I've got great people and great teams doing most of the heavy lifting there which has allowed me to free up some time. And I think what I'm most excited about is, I can't say it on air, but I have got a project that I'm going to be working on that literally just came. I was in Monterey and Pebble beach area this week, met some fascinating, incredible people out there.

And an opportunity has come up and I am going to pursue it full steam ahead. So it's obviously auto related, and that's exciting. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it very much.

All right, everyone. Well, I have no patience. I'm going to end the show now so he can tell me. So we're not on air. But that sounds fascinating. And congrats, because I know it's not a small feat over the time. I think it's every entrepreneur's dream to go. You know, my business is at a point where I can free up some time. I think a lot of people, you start the business so you don't have to work a job and have the 9 to 5 or whatever, and then it ends up taking up so much of your time. You have less time than before, but you're pursuing your dream. I get it. Like, I'm 100% that way. But the dream is to free it up. But I don't think any too many people ask the question, what do you do when you hit success? You have all the free time now. What? Well, I want to.

Actually, I was. I was going to say, yeah, I think that's something that probably hits a few people.

You get there and it's not easy freeing it up mentally. Being willing to walk away from that and not walk away, but.

Relinquish the control. Yeah. That you once had.

So I was it to put people in place and trust them.

Well, I had the right guy. Okay.

That'S a blessing.

It's. It's. We're completely two different personalities. I'm very visionary, and he is an outstanding integrator. And he is more literal where I will speak more in generalities. And so a lot of times we're on the same page, but sometimes it takes us several hours to finally understand that, oh, we're saying the same thing. So initially, because I was so worried about.

His intention, about a specific maybe project or direction or something, I wanted to make sure that we were in alignment. I think at first I wasn't very good at it, but I. I've become good because the more I've stepped away, the better it has. The better. The more I've gotten out of his way and uncuffed him a little bit, the better everything has had, you know, performed. So it's becoming easier and easier.

I can relate to that, too. I've told many people, the less I touch, the better it goes.

That's exactly right.

Because it's like, you see where you want to go, and it's like, okay, we got to do it. Well, why? I remember the first person I hired years ago for Web design.

He was like, he's great at logos and designing the sites. And all of a sudden, I was sitting in the office, and I'm like, you want to take this meeting?

Yeah.

I didn't know even know his sales abilities. Like, okay. I just didn't want to have to be there. I'm like, the whole point of this business is I don't need to do everything. So I was like, all right, what's the worst that happens? It doesn't go through. He closed the deal, did the website, did every. And this is like 14, 15 years ago, but it was just like, huh. I think I was. I don't know what I was doing, but it wasn't there. And I was like, oh, my gosh, I can get, like, 50 more people to do this. This is awesome. Yeah. So I know it's a huge milestone, and we were talking about it at dinner and everything, and you were just like, you know, I'm happy for you. Because you were thinking about what. What do you want to do now? Because you're still a young guy, you have all this going for you, and I know you don't want to sit.

Around and watch grass grow now, and I didn't want to. I didn't want to jump into something.

Just for the sake of doing something.

Yeah.

So, you know, I'm.

You can always tell when there's more to do because you're uncomfortable.

Doing things that are enjoyable and fun because you feel there's a. Almost like a. Guilt might be the wrong word, but there's an internal, for me, like, guilt feeling. Like, no, I'm. This is. There's more to do here. There's. There's either more to give, there's more to offer, there's something else hard to relax. Correct. And. And so. But I didn't want to jump into something to where all of a sudden I was doing work for something I wasn't passionate about and wasn't enjoying because I'm. I'm past that stage. You know, I. I should be able. I felt like I should be able to pick and choose what I really want to do. And so I let it come to me.

And. And I am making it a mission to get it done.

Good for you.

Yeah.

Yeah. And maybe not. It's hard to relax. I think we all can relax, but it's hard to just fluff around and do whatever when you know there's something more that could be done that's productive, that adds value, that helps other people.

Yeah.

I have no problem relaxing at all.

I, I don't either.

When I know it's like there's people that you can help and there's all this stuff you can do. I think when you really do have that passion you genuinely want to give, it's hard to sit there and watch, oh, I don't know, like an entire movie marathon and do nothing, like completely nothing and just be like, okay, I did nothing for a day or two. I mean, or a week or two. It's like, how did we ever do this in high school and middle school? Like, I was great at doing nothing then, but, you know, I mean, not striving for that now. So glad something did come to you. So I want to ask you a few things about your dealerships because I know a lot of people with brick and mortar businesses. Some of my first clients very successful in their field also. And they started with the brick and mortar and we were helping them transition online. You actually started with the marketing and got the dealerships afterwards. How. Tell us more about that.

Well, how far you want me to go back? Yes, yes. All right. You know.

For all this story to make any type of sense, I really go back to when I was in college. And I'll try to make this somewhat quick without skipping over too many important points.

I'm not rushing you. You share what you want.

My dad was a very good salesperson and started off selling vacuums at Sears and left that in this in the late 70s during the gas, you know, embargo stuff where it was, you know, gas back then was. There were lines to get gas if you could save a couple pennies. And he got a job selling a poor, a poor career choice at the time. Those Lincolns, which were about two rooms long, those big, long Continentals and gas guzzlers. But he quick side. Yeah, but he was quickly, he quickly rose. I think he got up to in the top 10 in the country selling Lincoln's and eventually went on to become a general or a sales manager at a Chevy store and within that same group then on to become general manager. So as a kid.

Our lifestyle changed, you know, within one to three years, drastically. And so I fell in love with the auto business because I watched my dad, who did not graduate college.

Was extremely successful. I've always been competitive with my dad.

Always tried to outdo him or, or one up him if I could in a fun way, not in a, you know, not in a toxic way, but very loving way. And.

So I wanted to sell cars. I mean that was what I wanted to do. Right. And I eventually wanted to be a general manager and follow in his footsteps and do that. And so, you know, I used to beg him. I was working at the dealership as a lot attendant. I used to beg him to let me just sell cars. And I'm in college at the time, and. And he would never let me. So, you know, he goes off on a 20 group, which was 20 dealers get together from around the country, share best practices to try and improve. And when he did that, I called up to one of the other dealerships within the group. I'm living in Louisville and this. This group's up in Cincinnati. And I called up there and I said, hey, I'd like to sell cars. And they said, well, when can you come interview? And I chose this group because of my dad's reputation. I knew I'd get an easy interview. And it was Jeff Wyler, dealer group. And they said, when can you come up? I said, I can be up there in an hour and a half. So went up there, got the job. My dad and mom were in California. I dropped out of school. Out of school, moved out of the house, up to Cincinnati, started selling cars.

Quickly realized, wow, this is a lot more difficult than. Than I had thought. You know, I'm getting my nose bloodied left and right, but I did all right. I weathered that storm. I did not achieve. I was. There were moments that I did extremely well, and my ranking within the group was very high, but it was a like a yo, yo. It was up and down. I didn't have. I wasn't mature enough.

Consistency.

Yeah. I wasn't mature enough to understand what it to. How to be a pro and. And do what it really takes to succeed at a high level. I was 19 years old. I remember because my dad had such good success within that group, both in sales and management and on his running a store as a general manager.

The owner would always give us tickets to Cincinnati Reds games, Bengals games, pro wrestling, whatever it might be. And so I had a friendship with him since I was a little kid. And I remember the owner, Mr. Wyler, came into the. The store one day, pulled me into the office, and I thought, all right, here we go. Things are going to start happening now, you know, and he pulls me all the secrets, right? Oh, yeah. Well, I thought, here is we're going to start talking about career development, and.

First question right out of his mouth, why'd you drop out of school?

And so, you know, I'm explaining to him what I want to do and this and that, and.

He goes on to tell me what he would expect out of a GM and he says, you know, in 10 years when I'm looking at you for to be a potential GM of a store. And from when he said 10 years.

I don't think I heard a word after, after that because I'm thinking to myself, well, how I didn't drop out of, I didn't drop out of school to wait 10 years. If I was going to wait 10 years I'd have just stayed in school and had my fun and, and then I, I didn't know where it was a time thing or an age thing or you know, I don't think he meant it to be an age thing. Probably more of an experience thing.

But that to me.

Turned me off from that. And like I said, I was up and down in terms of my success. I was eventually went on to sell with my dad because I wanted to be taught from him. And after a year I had a friend that was starting or doing extremely well selling direct marketing to the auto industry. And he wanted to start a company with me doing that and selling that product and those services. And that's where we started JL marketing. And so then I started selling to the dealers and that was very enjoyable for me because I knew.

How important it was to get quality traffic into to a dealership. And when they had a great weekend and many times record setting weekends, you could just see the excitement because they're competitive people. And that really fueled me. It was exciting to help people win.

And let me just pause you real quick. When you say traffic you're talking about the leads and conversions. I know what you're saying, but no pun intended with the auto industry. But I just didn't want anyone thinking you meant like literally, maybe you meant literally driving in, but you mean leads.

Conversions and yeah, the marketing flow that is 100% correct. Yeah. So correct me anytime I, I start using Carlingo.

No, I like it. Detroit Motor City. I'm cool with it. So you know, helping everyone listening.

The agency grew.

I always wanted it to be successful and I went into it for the right reasons. I did not go into it to chase money. I went into it to be the best that we could in this specific niche.

And within about five years it really started taking off. And I mean it was, it achieved levels of success that looking back there's, I did not envision that. And so in a roundabout way.

It led me to opportunities to buy dealerships. And so I went a very non traditional way to get my my stores, all three are Honda stores. One's in Johnson City, Tennessee, one's in St. Louis, West County, Honda and then Cape Girardeau. Honda in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. So it was the agency that allowed me the opportunity to not only make the connections and build the relationships within the industry, that's where the opportunity came. But it also gave me the financial ability to get the stores as well. So, yeah, so now it's, it's the agency and the three dealerships and, and I've moved on to. For the agency, my role is, is more.

Relationship building, vision and you know, I do the podcast and I, and I do events off of it as well. So, you know, mastermind type stuff, the fun stuff as I call it, that's things I enjoy. Yes, yes.

And you're good at. It's your area of strength. Joking aside, it's not just the fun stuff, but that is what I call it because I'm very much, I like doing the same thing.

Yeah.

But it's what our strengths are. It's, you know, we'd be miserable sitting in a room looking at a corner or something all week.

Correct.

I like connecting. I love connecting people. I love.

Being in a room with really successful entrepreneurs and being presented with a big challenge and trying to come up with solutions to those challenges. That really fuels me.

So the creative side and the ingenuity that's required is.

I think everyone has it. Most people are afraid of it or don't live into it, you know. And it leads me to one of my questions for you as we unpack this. For someone that's going, I want to do more marketing, I want to do whatever the case is. But how you're saying.

You started with the marketing and then you went into the brick and mortar.

Yeah.

Why do you. For someone that's going, I don't feel like I'm in the right lane right now, but I'm afraid to switch. What would you say to them?

Well, for me.

I knew I was in the, I knew it was time for me to do other things because things that used to excite me became very mundane to me. I dreaded doing them. And so when that happens, you start to do things that are important and need to happen. You start doing them less and less or procrastinate them and try to put them off as long as you can. And then that just makes everything suffer. So I knew that I, you know, I had a great right hand person who is a partner in the agency now. Just, gosh, he just owned It. And it reminded me of myself, you know, a while ago. And he just owned it and really just took it on to. To. I knew it was better off in someone that, that in someone's hands.

That approached every day that way. Right. And.

And they had the passion and cared about it.

Correct. And so you have to have that person. You can't necessarily. You have to. You have to elevate and delegate or delegate and elevate. Either way. You know, I don't know which one comes first, but you have to be able to. You have to be able to.

I guess, identify your, Your, Your blind spots or weaknesses and put the right people in place.

Oh, 100%. And integration is not my strength. It bores me. I, I'm not one that can go through and sit. Now, I don't mind sitting it back and identifying what's wrong with the processes and that, but I'm not going to sit there and monitor it and make sure it's all, you know, the routine, the, the detail stuff of all that. That. That's not excite me at all. It's just. I dread that with a passion. And so, you know, to answer your question.

You know, it's just like anything else, you have to. You just have to go. You have to do it. So if the first step is you don't have anybody that you can trust to turn something over that would allow you to step away and do some other things or pursue other passions, then the first thing you have to do is you have to identify someone and start elevating their abilities and elevating their responsibilities and get them where they need to be. So you can do that, but you have to take action and, and start on it right away. It's not about planning and, oh, I'm going to do this and that and all that delay crap that. That's. You just got to start doing. It's just like any thing else. Right. You say it in your book. All right, you got to start writing at some point. You have to do. And. And I. That's the advice I would give on that.

That's good advice. You know, I think it's that so many people get caught up with that perfectionism. What about this? What about that? And you spend six months thinking about it. When it's like you. The six months are going to go by either way. You can take that time and go, all right, this week we're going to focus on a. Next week we're going to focus on being. You know, I can appreciate split testing because you can take those 30 days, get two, three, four variations, maybe five, I don't know, maybe 100, who knows? The point is, it's like you get the results and you have at least data to go off of. And maybe once you get the ball moving, you can create a better plan or something. But you got to get that ball rolling.

Yeah.

And too often it's like, well, is it the right color? Is it shiny? Is it parked in the right spot? Is it park somewhere? Yeah, shiny. Park somewhere.

But for someone that's in that, it can be a scary proposition. It takes a little bit of courage to step away and do something. You know, there's different levels of comfort zone. Right. I think.

Very successful entrepreneurs, if they look back at the beginning, they'll tell you that they didn't have, they didn't limit themselves or try to stay in a comfort zone and they took risks that allowed them to get out. And so they, they sometimes, and I speak firsthand knowledge because I can tell you looking back at myself, I went through this. I never thought of myself as having someone that limited myself to comfort zones. But when I got successful.

And say plateaued, all I did was just reach a very successful comfort zone. And at some point I realized you're not, you don't have the same drive you have at this because this is, like I said, mundane to you. Now you have to do something else and you have to, you have to have enough awareness.

To recognize it is time. You just, you're afraid to lose what you have and don't want to give it up because it's cushy and it's easy now. But you got to continue to grow because sooner or later, if you don't, that's going to start going backwards. You're going to get out of that, that whatever that comfort zone is, you're, you're breaking out of it one way or the other. You're breaking through of through it and expanding it or you're going to shrink it. So one way or the other, it's changing. So I choose growth.

Yeah, same here. And I'll say the beginning, I tell people all the time, don't get stuck in startup mode because I think so many people, they're priming the pump for so long, they never realize they have to shift roles that relax and go, hey, I'm going to put some people in place. They, they're basically self employed forever. And there's nothing wrong with that if that's what your goal is. But I don't think it's most people's, most entrepreneurs actual goal. But I gotta get this off the ground. I get it. I totally get it. However, once it is off the ground, that comfort zone is very dangerous because it's like you've been working so hard going like this, or whether you launch a show, a book, a podcast business, whatever, it's like, now what this thing's actually running. I hit my goal, I hit my dream, but I don't need to be doing that every day. So speaking to the point of success, how would you define success and when did you realize you hit it?

Well, I think there's just different levels and it just depends on who you are. I can tell you, the first year I started J and L Marketing, I felt extremely successful.

Looking back.

It was successful in the sense I was 22 years old and didn't know what the hell I was doing and it was working.

But. So you're telling me you didn't start off perfect?

Oh, hell no. No, the. It. You have to really.

Not be afraid to fail. And you know, going back to why people always plan and plan and plan and never start, it's because deep down.

They don't want to start. For whatever reason, that comfort zone keeps them from moving forward. If, if. And so they have to break through that. Right. But I look back.

You know, I think there's.

I, I've.

I felt successful after the first year. I mean, I, I did because I was, I was winning, we were making money. Um, it was growing. I felt a sense of freedom because I was doing my own thing.

I'm a horrible employee. And that doesn't mean everybody should be an entrepreneur. I'm not, I'm not.

Me both.

Yeah, I'm not saying that. I had a discussion on. We were on Clubhouse with a group the other day and the debate was, should you be an entrepreneur and do your own thing? Where's the real wealth come from? But the reality is, you know, not everybody.

Is meant to be an employee. Not everybody's meant to be an entrepreneur. And so, you know, there was a group of people saying, there's an intrapreneur. That's the new phrase. What? Entrepreneur. But why not just, just a fancy word for being a high paid employee in sales. Right. And letting the employer take on all the risk of inventory and this and that. And I will say, I think that's. That worked well for me. And you know why that worked well for me? Because it told me that's not what I want.

I.

It's. It let me know with certainty. That was not the direction for me. So did I learn sales? A hundred percent. But I learned more about selling once I started working for myself. Because when you work for yourself, all the training, the education you do, it's all on you. You're not relying on an employer to send you through a program and require you to do training. It's all self motivated because you have to do it for survival and you have to do it for growth and you want to get better and improve yourself. So.

But if I had not worked, if I had not taken on the jobs I explained earlier, I would have never gotten to a place that, that one. I wanted the risk so bad because I just didn't want to work for anybody. I couldn't work for me. It has nothing to do with anybody. I, I would be a horrible employee for myself.

You wouldn't hire you?

On paper I would, but I'd, I, after a month or two, I'd probably regret it. So.

Yeah, it's honest. I mean I totally, I told, I get it. I, I, I feel the same way. I know what my strengths are, I know what my weaknesses are and I play to the strengths.

I, I think I could go through any interview and get hired for any position. I'm saying they would regret it after a month or two though, so. And I would fool me too if I was the, you know, if I was interviewing myself.

That's not because I'm lying or anything like that. My intentions would be good.

No, what I'm hearing is you're self aware and a lot of people aren't. They might be the best employee, but maybe they should give entrepreneurship a shot or they might be an entrepreneur and they're kidding themselves because every time. What do I need to do?

Correct.

You know, these are my favorite people ask holes. What should I do? Oh, this, this and this year later. What do you think I should do? The same thing you've asked me 17 times the last 17 years.

Yeah.

And it's never that I got. Well, that's quite a risk. You know, that takes money. That takes time. Hello.

Listen, I, I used to have. That reminds me, it's so funny you said that because it's, it's no different than, you know, I can remember back in some of my earlier days with the agency and we had a really strong sales team. In the beginning we were a sales team disguised as a marketing team.

All right. Now we're a true marketing team.

Who hopefully can sell well. And so but we are do, we are a, a great Marketing agency. And, but that was not the case in the beginning. And I can remember, I, I feel like one of my strengths is selling and I feel like I can teach it. I can teach the psychology behind it. And, and I used to have people come up to me and would ask me, all right, how do I handle this situation? And I'd say, all right, you're going to do this, and here's why, then you're going to do this. And this is how they're going to respond. And here's why, Then you're going to do this. And I want you to say it exactly like, like this. And I would play it out with them. I'd role play them and I'd explain the reasoning behind everything because I want them to understand that. Right.

And then I'd walk down the hall and I'd see him asking other sales reps, what do you think I should do? And I was, I, I had to stop him. I say, I just told you what I said. The reason.

That you don't want to do it is because the, what I'm telling you is hard. It's not easy, right? It's, it's not. There is no easy way to get to where you're trying to go right now. You have to go through this to get there. There is no little magic pill, that one word thing you can say that is going to get the client to say, yep, all right, let's do it. And.

So just like you said, right. People are always asking, asking, what should I do, what should I do, what should I do? And at some point.

Do it.

There's a, there's a brilliance to the Nike commercial.

So, yeah, you know, and there's also, I'd say there's some success left in the clues there that they haven't changed it or really redid much in the last. Yeah, umpteen dozen of years. And I would say I see that in a lot of entrepreneurs, you know, over time, because now I have time under my belt. I started when I was young, still am. But I'm like, I can't believe how many years have passed, but it's like, oh, it's been two, three years. This thing we built is actually working. Guess what we should do?

You.

Instead of more of the same, let's go do something completely different. I'm like, what company? Like Nike, they didn't get out of sports and athletics. They may have changed the shoes that changed the shirts, they changed a few things, but they didn't go, oh, we need a Whole new logo. We need a whole new slogan. We need a whole new audience. Yeah, they tweaked and refined. It was another say to someone who feels compelled to get out of their lane when it's not going perfect or, you know, they're not seeing the success they.

Assumed.

Well, you have to figure out, you have to figure out why now. Is it because of you? Is it because you're just not good at it? You know, I, I, Is it the product? Is it the service? You know, I, There's a lot of things that go into why some there are, there's a lot of good companies out there with very bad products and bad customer service that do very well.

And they have, why do you think that is?

Because they have great marketing and sales to back it up. And then there are companies with outstanding products and outstanding client services and customer support who struggle who, you know, they have a hard time finding payroll. And it's usually because their marketing and sales are not that good. And so at some point.

You know, in an ideal world, a perfect situation, you've got a great product, great service and you can market and sell. Right? The, that's, that's the magic. That's where you, you have the, the ultra success. And.

I could never be involved in a, in a, in a company or a business that was.

Didn'T strive to have good products or good service. I, that's. And just to get over on, on people with Mark, I couldn't do that. That's not, I wouldn't feel good about that. To me, the better your product, the better product you build, the better service you provide. To me, it's easier to sell that because you have more conviction about what you're offering someone. Right. It's true to use to the point where you almost feel like that you're doing a disservice to a client or a prospect or they're just be foolish to not buy. It's like you can't even understand how they would not do that. Those are the type of companies or businesses I'd always want to be a part of.

But.

You know, I get back to your original question. I think that's a very complicated answer because I think there's multiple things that could make someone.

Not very good at what they do. I think a lot of people drastically underestimate what it takes to be successful as an entrepreneur.

If you had to sum it up in three to five points, what would you say it takes?

I think, you know, it takes.

Probably 50%, maybe double the hours you think it takes, especially in the beginning. And you are going to be hands on in the beginning. Now I just told you I'm going to go into a new venture, right.

I'm not going to sit there and fool myself and say, I'm going into this new venture and I'm diving in back to a hundred, 100 hour work week.

Because for one, I don't have the knowledge or the experience to do what I have to do. So I'm gonna have to rely on people. So my first train of my first thought has already been I've got, all right, to make this successful. I know what it takes to be successful in what this is gonna, in what I'm gonna do. And I know two people that I need in, in order to get that done. And I'm going to make sure I find those two people.

And, and, and take it from there. So I, I, I think underestimating what it takes, I think it takes a lot more effort and a lot more activity and action. So that would be the first one.

The second one I think takes a lot more preparation than you think. And all of this I guess could be folded into under activity and action. Right. But.

But it's specific actions. And I'll say for anyone listening, because everyone in the world goes, well, here's what you need to be successful. You need to have a dream, follow your passion, go for it. But until you break it down into the micro steps, it's like, okay, cool, I need to have a passion, I need to have a dream. And Grant, he's like, you don't need a passion. That's crap. You need to do the steps. I've heard him say many times, like, I don't think you should follow your passion because most people are starving that follow their passion.

Yeah.

And if you listen to enough people, I've heard arguments that make sense on both sides of the aisle of everything. So. Well, I think, why don't people look into it for themselves?

I, I think it depends on your passion. Right. And I think if you take someone like Grant literally. Yeah, but I, I, he speaks in generalities a lot. Right. And that, and so when I hear that from him, I sit there and I think, all right, you know, I'd like to run a major league baseball team. All right? But I could pursue that passion. But no one's hiring me because I have no background and no experience. And by the way, I'm not willing to go through the 10 to 20 years at my age to make that happen. So.

Now I've become a, you know.

So that's self awareness and realization. I think a lot of people just fake themselves out like everything's going to work if I give it a shot. Like, are you kidding me?

No, it doesn't. And, and you have. But he is right in the sense that no matter what you do, whether it's passion or not, you still have to follow the steps. I would just argue and say if it's not something you love doing.

Then.

It'S going to be hard.

Then the steps that you do, you will still achieve success as long as you have the activity. You're following the right process, you know, but how sustainable is it? How long are you going to enjoy doing it before you burn out of that and want to find something else? So what is it like if my passion was to be a GM and run a store, what was it about that or run a baseball team, what was it about that, that, that made that a passion for me? Well, I love baseball. I love sports. Right. So what's involved in sports? Well, competition. So can I take that competitiveness to other business ventures.

And I apply things like that. And so, you know.

Now to my fault. I will tell you my biggest regret in my professional career is being too competitive.

When you're too competitive, you sometimes think you can do everything on your own. And gosh, I would have gotten so many places faster and much higher if I just collaborated and worked with potential competitors or invited other people in and didn't think I had to do it all on my own. And what I mean by my own, I mean my, the company itself, not me personally. So I.

So the third tip I'm gonna just say, there you go. That leads right into step number three is I, I think.

Never underestimate your network and your relationships and the importance of that. First off, this new idea I alluded to that is all come about. I did not force it. It just came and I think and it all came from just the network I have, the relationships and the, the relationships I was able to strengthen while I was out on this, this trip. And.

I, I think when your heart's in the right place and you're helping and you're working with people and you're, you're giving and giving and giving. Sometimes it just. For me it just, it seems like that's when things happen for me most, when I chase things, they never seem to happen as much as when I'm just.

Giving in the flow.

Correct.

Yeah. When you're in gratitude and in the flow, it's like you're thinking about and to the point of like you're saying, I like to hyper define stuff because you just said your network. If I hear one more person say your network is your net worth, like, okay, cool, but what does that mean? How many people. So everyone's sitting here parroting that off, but how many people are going, here's what I did, here's how I did it. That person I met, that business card, I actually followed up with them. I actually built the relationship. You know, here's three ideas that you can do if you have no budget. Here's three ideas. If you have a decent budget and if you have an unlimited one. You know what I mean? Like actual facilitate. What are the next steps? Not just, oh, okay, I need to follow up with people. Like, really, you couldn't figure that one out on your own? For sales, you need to follow up with people.

Mario, I literally, the last day, this is after the pebble beach concourse. After that show, everybody goes back and these are high net worth people. And at this, we're all go back to the, the, we're at Spanish Bay, the Inn at Spanish Bay. So they got those fire pits in the back overlooking the ocean. It's just beautiful setting. Everybody's doing their, their bourbon and their cigars and whatever they're drinking.

Just talking about the week and. But everybody starts talking and, you know, this idea comes up and what's beautiful about it is it's in an area that I don't have a lot of experience.

But the people there were more than willing to help me in saying, you can do this, you could do this. Here's what you'd have to do. And I'm just sitting here thinking, this isn't hard at all. I'm, I'm, I am going to do this.

I am 100% certain it'll be successful. And it also, by the way, I think that's a mindset that has to happen now. You can't be a fool. You, you have to, you have to have.

And that's, that's another thing Grant says, following your passion. Sometimes we follow our passion and we're fooled by that instead of following the money. And what I mean by that is this.

How many times have you seen a business owner start a business, have an idea of a direction it needs to go and a vision the client and prospects are telling him or her, it really would be better if it would did this too, or if it only did this. This over here that you keep talking about. We don't really care about that. We care about this. But they're so rigid on, on getting everybody to buy into that vision in that direction.

Sometimes you have to be willing to be very flexible and more importantly, listen to what your clients and your prospects are telling you because they're the only, you know, J. I like to quote Jay Abraham a lot. Right. They're the only vote that matters in this marketplace because they vote with their time and they vote with their money. And so you have to pay attention and be willing to be very flexible and adjust.

Whatever vision or direction yet you have.

So we've talked about vision. We've talked. Or being. Being flexible and listening right. To clients. We've talked about your, Your network and your relationship building and relying on them. Not, not for just. It's not just about the opportunities when it comes to your network and relationship.

It's about serving them.

It's about. But it's about when you serve them and you've got real relationships, they will provide you with the experience or knowledge needed to accomplish things that you weren't.

On your own able to accomplish.

You can go through years. You can have years of experience. I mean, for people that have already. If you just pay attention to people that have already achieved whatever goal you're setting out to do achieve.

Right. And, and so, but you got to have the network and the relationships built to where that can be an honest communication back and forth. And they, they genuinely and sincerely want to help you. And so that's why that's important. I think the activity is important. So I've given you like four of them, so I'm not going to get to five.

Well, four is good. And I, I appreciate it because I like I said I like breaking it down because so many people just say the general generalities and platitudes, but it's like, well, what does that mean? And what I was hearing a lot in there is even though. And I think you could come up with five if you really want.

I can. It'll probably come up before the end of the show.

But I think. But what I was hearing in that experience of you being at this event was it wasn't just, oh, I'm having fun. Even though you were. It wasn't just, I'm here to get opportunity, but you were open to it. And when the people. You also humbled yourself to realize, even though I am awesome and accomplished all this, I don't know this area, but these people can help me. So I'm going to listen to them. I think that's a lost art in and of itself. And combined that's how you came up with the solution. It wasn't any one thing. It was a combination of all of it in the right order at the right time.

Yeah, I think that's an accurate way to say it. Let me ask you.

What would be. I know you don't want to list all five. What would be, you know, two or three of the things you would say in terms of someone that's going out to be an entrepreneur and they should pay a lot of attention to or focus on.

You'Re successful.

I'm back on your show now.

No, I would have to say.

I would agree with. You have to be willing to do whatever it takes, legal, moral and ethical, but not fool yourself early on thinking, oh.

I've even done this after I got to certain points of success going, well, now I am successful, so this next thing will be easier. All these people will want to help me. No.

Not always true. But you have to realize, first and foremost, I actually really, really want to be doing this because it's not going to go perfect. It's going to be a mess at times. And if you can't stand through that, it's not going to work regardless of what format you're following. So I do believe you have to have some passion. You can't be bored out of your mind just going through the motions.

To a degree. But at the same token, just because you have a passion doesn't ensure you need to have the going to receive the success.

Let me ask you this, and I asked this only because I'm going to ask it and also kind of explain how I feel about it, go for it. You know, when you're an entrepreneur and you're responsible for the lives of livelihood of a lot of people and sometimes, you know, because it's our thing, right, We. It can become a very emotional thing in the sense that we're driven, we want to see our clients succeed and we want to see the business succeed. And we know what that'll mean in terms of creating opportunities for everyone. But it doesn't. There's. No matter how good of a culture you have.

Or whatever you have in your head of what you think your culture is, the reality is.

With the exception of maybe an outlier here and there, there's very few employees.

No matter how great they are, how good their attitude is, or. Or how good they do their. How good they are at their job.

They'Re never going to have the same level of.

I don't want to say commitment, but emotional attachment to the business the way you have it. And I think sometimes, and especially for me at least especially early on, I always felt.

It always confused me when someone else didn't want to put in as much time or effort or understand why it was so important to to really do specific project or something we might be working on and get it done in a certain amount of time.

And I think it's important to understand that.

That'S why you're going to have to especially early on. If you have not achieved high levels of success yet where you can just afford to get teams in and and do things, you're going to have to do a lot of the heavy lifting yourself. And you cannot expect people that don't aren't going to have the exact same payout in the end that you do. And that goes financially and just something I think.

When you're an entrepreneur and you start something and you succeed at a high level, it goes beyond the financial right. There's a sense of achievement that comes 100% and no matter how well an employee does or contributed to that achievement, they probably aren't going to feel the same.

The same level of high as you might feel.

I don't mean to interrupt, but this is going so well. We're going to turn it into a two parter. So join us in part two.