Fireside Chat with Kent Clothier

And what you need to psychologically understand what you're doing is by virtue of you watching and engaging, you're giving them authority. That's exactly what you're doing. The moment you decide to follow, moment you decide to engage, the moment you're literally giving them authority, you're projecting. We all do this at some level. This is somebody that I want to learn more from or watch or whatever that is. Well, that authority, guys, is extremely powerful. I want you to realize how fast you gave it to somebody. How much more successful would you be.

If you had lunch once a week with insanely successful entrepreneurs who share their biggest secrets on how they think and achieve success?

Grab your seat at the table because this is Business Lunch with Roland Frazier and Ryan Deiss.

Welcome to another episode of Business Lunch and today's a snackable episode with Roland where he's going to get into some more details, tactical strategies that you can start using to live a rich and happy life. If this is the first snackable episode you're hearing, I'd encourage you to go back and listen to some of the other episodes that Roland has put out. And if you want to get notified every time we release a new episode, go to the new businesslunchpodcast.com website and we'll send you detailed notes along with every episode. That's businesslunchpodcast.com www.businesslunchpodcast.com and you can sign up for the free email newsletter where you'll be able to get all the highlights and resources from the episodes.

That being said, guys, round applause for Roland Fraz.

Thank you very much. So I am excited to have somebody here that I think can really help with the challenges that you might have. If you have a little bit of a fear of talking to people, a fear of moving forward, any, really any of the fears that might be stopping you from getting what you want. He's accomplished an amazing amount of things. He, he had built a billion dollar company by the time he was 27 years old. He went out of that into something completely new and now has built a pretty amazing business that does deals pretty constantly. I'm very proud to call him a business partner. He's also one of the most focused, clear individuals that I've ever met and I think that you will as well. So I'd like to welcome to the stage my good friend and business partner, Kent Clothier. We get like a four beat walk on music.

Yeah, great music. Thanks for that little seven steps.

So is it okay with you? Cause we talked about interviewing but is it okay if we kind of let the audience interview you? And I'm here and so I can.

Bring out the chairs.

But I know you like to walk around, and I do, too. Let's do this, man. So that's what I'd like to do is. And I'm going to. But I want you guys to. As questions come into your mind, I would like for you to be able to feel free to ask them. So just raise your hand. Maybe just a quick start, Kent, about kind of where you started better than I said it and where you've gone and the things that you're doing right now, all the deals, the fact that you've built kind of a deal flow machine through the boardroom, I think if you'd share that, that could be very helpful. And as you guys are listening, think about how he has built a deal flow mach that feeds us constant deals that we can do, including one roll up that we're working on right now that should be worth nine figures to us, to he and me. So let's talk about that a little bit.

Yeah. So first off, thanks for having me, guys. I can tell you without a doubt, first and foremost, that you are in very, very good hands with Mr. Frazier here. There is. I've been in business for a very long time, and I can tell you I've never met anybody. And I. And I run around with some pretty. Some guys that are pretty big deals. I've never met anybody that is quite like Roland. I mean, and I mean that in every amazing way you could possibly mean it.

He is.

He is the real deal at all levels, with that being said, you know.

Yeah.

I started in business. I was raised by an entrepreneur.

I'm going to drag the chairs over here so that the audience here.

Yeah, you know what? I'll talk. I'll talk. I was raised by an entrepreneur. So my father owned grocery stores when I was a. When I was a kid. Right. And so how many of you come from an entrepreneurial family? You see your hands, hold them high. Yeah. So, you know, that can either be a blessing or a curse. Right. My father was extremely hard on me and my brother growing up and raised us with a common mantra my entire life, which. God, he heard me say this today. How. How much I cherish that. He's. That he was like this with us because I absolutely hated it when I was a kid. But he tells us that good isn't good when great is expected. Imagine growing up in that household. Right, Dad, I just made the varsity football team. Good, now let's see the stats. Get out there, bitch.

Let's go.

I'm like, come on, man, I mean, I'm a sophomore, can we get some stuff? Just. It was never like that. And so looking back, it was, I was really beneficial to me because like I said, growing up in the grocery industry, we started an arbitrage company when I was 17 where we were buying and selling truckloads of groceries kind of out the back door, if you will. And what I mean by that is every single item, there's 50,000 items in a grocery store. Every single one of those, we've all seen the little barcode that they scan, right? There's a 10 digit code associated with every single item in the world. That barcode, what is unique is that code is unique to that item. You know that's a Fiji 16 ounce bottle of water, right? It is the exact same code everywhere. What is different is that the manufacturer of Fiji Water sells that for completely different prices everywhere in the world. So imagine having the exact same item, but in New York they sell this for $100 a case, but in Omaha, Nebraska they sell it for 12. A guy like me looking at it in these deal books back in the day catalogs, I'm like, well, why don't we just pay them 14 and go sell it to them for 85 and put it on a truck. We have to make anything and happen to be a good idea. By the time I was 23, we were doing $50 million a year. By the time I was 28, I was running an $800 million a year business. By the time I was 30, it was 1.8 billion.

See, I thought you'd gotten to a billion before 30, so I'm sorry guys, I'm, this is a little embarrassing.

And so we had, we had built the seventh largest privately held company in the state of Florida. My dad had since sold out. When I was 23, he sold out of that company and then I continued to run it with, through an acquisition mode and kept levering up until when I was 30 years old, March 14th of 2000. So getting ready to be 23 years, got into a run in with my partners one morning, walked out of there, told him to piss off and thought that, you know, because keep mine from 17 to 30, all I did was print money. And so I actually believe that's the way the real world worked.

Plus you pretty much were the whole business. Yeah.

And by the way, all you had to do was ask me.

Right?

Right. Thank God social media wasn't around back then because I would have 100% been the douchebag. We all make fun of. The Lamborghinis, the car. I mean, every bit of it. That was me. Just social media wasn't around for me to prove it to anybody. And, yeah, I walked out of there, you know, and said, you know, get me out of the business. I'm going to go build a competing business. I'm going to put you guys out of business. It only took them 2 years or 22 months to completely destroy me. And I lost every single dollar I'd ever made in my entire life, down to four grand. And to think that that was. You know, a lot of people think they can imagine what that's like. I promise you, you can't even begin to imagine what that's like. Going from making tens of millions to literally having $4,000 in the bank in 22 months and not trusting yourself, you know, making all the bad, by the way. It wasn't because I was drinking. It wasn't because I was doing drugs. It wasn't because I was hiring hookers. It was because I was making bad business decisions. I was the guy or girl we see at the table, you know, that believes at the. At the casino that believes they can bet their way out and keep borrowing their way out, man, if I just go take another 10 grand, that was me, but in real money and couldn't get out of it. And ultimately should have filed for bankruptcy. Did not file for bankruptcy, because, again, I had too much pride. So I just wiped myself out personally. Paid every single creditor, paid every business debt off personally to make sure that I would protect my name and only to walk away and never do business in the industry ever again. So a lot of good that did me. Um, but it put me in a place that I think is really important, that it is amazing what you can accomplish when you have no options. Probably one of the most powerful things I can share with you today is that when your back is against the wall, I would argue that is when you are. Have your most powerful. Like, yeah, it's when you are your most powerful. Because, you know, as we've all probably heard, burn the boats. How many of you ever heard the burn the boats? Okay, so Hernando Cortez sailed to the new world, and when he got on the shores of Central America, told his crew that we will go and we will get the gold. Every single conquistador before him for over 100 years had failed. They'd all died. And when he got There he told his crew to burn the boats. The only way we're going home is with the gold. We will either die here or we're not going home. So therefore, they were extremely motivated and they got the gold and they built new boats and they sailed home. And it's a really good metaphor for what happens to us. And certainly for me, my experience that when I'm back was against the wall, I had nowhere to go. And it led me to real estate. And so I started wholesaling real estate. I walked into a room exactly like this. I invested $1,000 in a course to learn how to flip contracts in real estate. Didn't even know that was you could even do that where you can literally buy a house or put a property under contract. And when you are in control of that contract, what most people don't realize is you're literally in control of the property. I haven't actually bought it yet. I'm just in control of the. Think of it like this. If I had the winning lottery ticket for Powerball right now, and I'm holding a ticket that is worth $100 million, what is the actual asset? Because I don't have the 100 million, the ticket that entitles me to the 100 million is the real asset. Well, the same thing is true in real estate. When I put something under contract, I haven't actually bought the thing. But if I have the right to buy the thing at a really cheap price, it's valuable. And I didn't realize that I could go take that contract and start flipping that contract to real buyers, investors, and I could mark it up 10, 20, 30, 40, $50,000. And before I knew it, I was off to the races. Fast forward a couple years later, made a few million dollars doing it. Turned it into a real business before, inside of five years, I was taking everything I'd learned in a previous business. And a new business was flipping 300 deals a year like that, making several million dollars right through the Great Recession. Right. Ironically, I can tell you that Kent Clothier, who I am in the real estate space, would not even exist if it wasn't for times just like this. Because in that recession, I was one of the last guys standing. Everybody needed money. I didn't need any money because all I was doing was flipping deals to people who had cash. I didn't need to go get bank loans. I needed to do it. I was just serving somebody. And so it kind of put me on the map. A lot of people were trying to figure out what this Guy down in South Florida was doing one thing leads to another. Next thing you know, I'm teaching people to do what I do. Next thing you know, I'm giving them the services, the education and the software to do what I was doing. Fast forward, I guess that was two. Here we are 15 years later. So I've probably taught the better part of 60,000 people how to do that. Got a massive community software company that, you know, has about 15,000 paying customers. Have a education company. That investment company that we run still flips, wholesales the paper on about 500 deals a year, but actually takes down, buys houses, rehabs the houses, rents the houses and flips those to other real investors. We do that about a thousand times a year in 1100 or 11 markets, manage about 8000 single family houses for our customers, have raised about $200 million and invest in multifamily industrial self storage. I mean, you name it. And then on sitting right on top of that is a really powerful group just like this called the Boardroom Mastermind, which is where we CURATE, you know, 200 plus of the best real estate investors in the world for the last 12 years, put them all in a room, share ideas, strategies, do deals together, et cetera. But as Laurel and just alluded to, what that has done is it started to actually bring us opportunity.

So you kind of peaked at 30 then?

Yeah, yeah. Okay.

Hadn't really done much since then.

I haven't done much since then. It's been a downhill, all downhill.

I like sharing all that because there's an interesting contrast to where we've, where we are moving together right now from what he's built. And so I'm hoping that this will help you guys see the opportunity because a few years ago, when was the first boardroom?

2012.

So in 2012, Kent decided that he wanted to build business connections. And he had strong real estate connections at the time, but he wanted to build something that would be helpful to businesses to grow and initially in the real estate space. But interestingly enough, when I went to that first meeting where there were like 14 people, I mean, it wasn't many. No, it wasn't. At the Hyatt La Jolla. Yeah, very first one and there wasn't really anybody there. And he was stepping out on a limb because he hadn't done that before and there wasn't a huge take rate from letting people know that. But he had the intention of building connections with businesses that could lead to deals. And ultimately that's what's happened over the last 10 or 11 years. So that now there's a steady flow of deals that we are getting involved in on an equity basis together without having to invest in them. So I'd like to talk a little bit because that's something that I think is a big challenge for people. And today we're kind of focused on how do I create deals, but also how do I move through fear. You've gone through a lot of that, so I'd love if you would share because you have a really great saying that you say you know about your competition with. With respect to fear. I'd like for you to share that and then talk about if you were going to.

Cause you did this.

I mean, I did too, but it's rel. I think, relevant to talk about what you did with boardroom. For everybody here who's looking for how can I create deal flow? I don't have credibility because you didn't really have credibility or knowledge or renown in the business running side when you did that, when you started that. And so that's really good information for everybody here.

I think that I'll touch on both. So.

So.

We live in a. In a really dynamic time. I think we can all admit. I mean, we're all consuming an enormous amount of information very, very quickly on social media. Right. Can we all agree with that?

Yes.

Yeah. And so. And you're watching these people, these characters online, and what you need to psychologically understand what you're doing is by virtue of you and engaging, you're giving them authority. That's exactly what you're doing. The moment you decide to follow, moment you decide to engage, the moment you're literally giving them authority. You're projecting. We all do this at some level. This is somebody that I want to learn more from or watch or whatever that is. Well, that authority, guys, is extremely powerful. I want you to realize how fast you gave it to somebody. Right. I've been in this room 11 minutes and by virtue of proximity, real quickly and me telling a little bit. I mean, there's a lot of authority that has now been projected on me. Does that make sense? Every one of you are experiencing this the same way. I've been in these rooms many times. I know, sitting on that side. And when you understand the way people's. The way we do this, you then begin to understand how easy it is to make that happen inside of your own life. Right. And it just takes intention that going and starting a meetup and whatever sector you're in, a local meetup and even if it's seven people in the back of a red Lobster, who cares? The reality of it is it's six of them that think you're a big deal. And that's where it starts. And when you people are highly. Here's what I can tell you, right? And I want everybody to hear me, really, because I can definitely tell you I've learned this over the years. We all have a really, really basic, common need as human beings. We are all looking for our tribe. We are all looking for a place that we belong. And it's the reason why we come into rooms like this. It's the reason why we go to church, it's the reason why we join masterminds. It's the reason why we. There's all kinds of stuff. We all have this sense of community. Imagine if you're the one that takes the moment that pauses because nobody else will pauses and say, put your flag in the ground and say, this is my community. I'm going to surround myself with like minded people that are trying to accomplish the same things I'm trying to accomplish. It's not that hard. It's, you know, a Facebook group, it's a meetup, it's, you know, there's so many, it's putting on a zoom call and with complete irreverence on how many people show up for the first one, the second one or the 12th or 30th, it doesn't matter. It's about, I know I can do this thing. And ultimately I will tell you, if you kind of fall in love with the outcome versus falling in love with the strategy, you'll find that it is much more fulfilling. Meaning I'm trying to do this because it brings fulfillment to me. I'm trying to do this because I'm trying to change my legacy. It doesn't. Bless you. It doesn't matter how far, how long it takes me to get there. This actually matters to me. And I'm just going to go do this thing for the sake of doing it. Because in the absence, this vacuum of opportunity, nobody else is stepping up. So I'm going to. Right. Last time I checked, what was it? I think the last stat I saw there was 71 million Facebook groups. Think about that for a second. I mean, there's 8 billion people on the planet. There's 71 million Facebook groups. Right. Everybody's looking for this connectivity. Everybody's trying to connect at some level on different topics. Why shouldn't that be you? And what I can tell you is the moment you do that and you understand the power of it. That that authority that is immediately projected on you is. Is, you know, it's. It's a gift. It is an opportunity for not only you to help people, but for ultimately to create opportunity to flow your way. And because people naturally want to do business with people that they, like, know and trust. And, you know, I have. I'll give you an example. I have. I have a group that I personally jump into this group once a week, which I don't do. With me, trying to find an hour in a week is really hard. But this is something that matters to me. And, you know, there's thousands of people that get on this call to hear from, and that authority that they project on me and that I take it really seriously. I'm trying to help them. But inevitably, I'm not a fool. I do know that there's opportunity in there as well. And whether that is lending them money or, you know, borrowing money for them or being there's. I just know by creating and nurturing this relationship that organically, I'll find the way that makes sense for them. And for me, I'm not going into it trying to, you know, jam it down their throats. I'm just knowing that by virtue of me doing this, there's an opportunity. Does that make everybody understand what I'm saying there? And it's not hard. So go into the. Going to the. The fear thing before, before we get.

To the fear thing, I just want to say, so there are people in here like Neo and other people that have groups of people and have big networks. If you want to turn that network into deals, you've got to tell them that you're looking for deals. And so that's a. That's a thing that I didn't even think about because Kent and I were having a conversation about. He does $100,000 day consults for people to come in and bring their team in to his real estate operation and see how it works. And he said. He and I were having a conversation. I was like, how are the deals going? And he said, man, not. Not that great. Not a lot of these things turn into deals. I don't understand. How do you get that to turn into deals? And. And what did I say?

Yeah. He's like, well, tell them. I mean, his whole point was, when you're. When you. When they're signing up to come in and spend the day with you, you should also tell them, hey, part of what I'm trying to accomplish, my evil little scheme if you will, is that through this process, the right people, I may look for an opportunity to potentially partner with you, become an equity investor in what you're doing. I don't know what that looks like, but I want you to understand that that's on the table. And just by virtue of saying that, it kind of. I mean, I can tell you. And again, back to the authority thing that I think is really powerful, that authority, when you are in those deals and you are in those conversations, you'd be shocked at how many people. The intrinsic value of what you bring versus the practical value of what you bring. In other words, where it's not transactional, hey, Kent's going to do this and produce this where it is. I'm in business with Kent Clothier, and they can't put a price tag on that, but they sure as hell want to say it, and that is massively important. So when I, by virtue of me saying that to them, they're like, oh, my God, man, I didn't even know that was a possibility. I had no idea I could be in business with you.

And that's the key. So, especially if you are already an authority figure and have people who are following you or looking up to you, they don't imagine the possibility of doing business with you. They think that you're so far past them when you may be like, holy crap, I got to put some stuff together, or things are going to fall apart. Like, that might be what's actually going on in your life at some minute, but the people that see you, see you, like through Instagram eyes. You know, they see you with your perfect life and everything that they want to be that they're not currently. They don't even have any idea all the challenges you're dealing with, because those don't ever go away. Right. But they don't think that it's possible to deal with you. So it's very important, whatever you do, to say, always, hey, we're looking for deals. We are looking to acquire companies. We have our acquisition criteria. Make that known and seed that throughout, just like I'm doing right now. Right? We're looking for deals. Let them know that's. That's a big deal. So I wanted to just point that out because that's an important thing now on top. On to the fear.

Yeah, I mean, look, you know, I've been in business now for 35 years. I can tell you that I've gone through two or three things in my life that, that have really helped me to get super Clear on just how precious the time that we have here really is. I think that I've never spoken in front of a room where people in the room, at some level, we're not being reckless and irresponsible with time. It's just the way we are. We're human beings. But I can tell you it ain't promised to you, baby, right? You go lose a $2 billion a year business virtually overnight, it'll change your perspective real damn quick. I had the humble, humbling honor of a few years ago when I had. My mentor at the time was my uncle, who was the CEO of one of the largest cruise companies in the world. Spent his entire life away from his family building this empire. And then when he retired, the board gave him a $30 million check out the door. 60 years old. I'm 52 now, about to be 53, and I can tell you 60 is not old. When I was 22, 60 seemed ancient. But at 53, that's not old. And he retired. And sure enough, six months later, he got diagnosed with cancer. And unfortunately he heard that word and he started pretty much dying in that moment. And so a few months later, I got a phone call from my mother. October 12th. I remember very clearly that you need to drive. I lived in Delray Beach, Florida at the time. I live in La Jolla now. But you need to drive to Daytona beach as fast as you can. Your uncle is dying and he's only asking for you. And so, five hour drive up the Florida Turnpike, worst drive of my life because I couldn't imagine not being there. And so I drove up, got to him, literally. Came running into the hospital, get in there. And he is completely hooked up to all this stuff. Cannot talk, but he has a whiteboard in his hands. And you know, he was a shell of himself. This. He was a 225 pound, big 6 foot 4 guy. I bet he didn't weigh a buck 40 when I saw him. And on his board, celebrate my life, right? He's lighting up. I just wish I had more time. Then he held my hand, he died. And I remember being such a profound moment for me because in my, in my life, I had really, really idolized this man, right? And I've been very successful for a lot of the stuff he had told me. Business, business, business, business, business, business, business. But in his world, it was business at the expense of family. Do whatever you got to do, right? You'll, at some point you're going to get to it, you're going to have this Great life. What? Yeah. At 60 years old. He planned. He pushed everything off and then ultimately had $30 million or more in the bank. And it literally could not buy him one more minute. Not one more minute. He would have given it all for one minute, and it didn't matter. That hit me hard. And then. But just in case, about six months later, I happened to be flying home, leaving an event just like this. I had been speaking in Memphis, Tennessee. I had had my wife and my young daughter, who is now 17. At the time, she was 5. They had flown in to meet me in Memphis, and we were on two different itineraries that we were coming from different places. But as we're flying home, we're connecting through Atlanta. We leave out of Atlanta to fly home to West Palm Beach. Now, how many of you flew here? Let me see your hands. All right, well, this isn't going to be fun. Sorry. But we're in the air and we are somewhere over North Florida. And I'm sitting in 19A and they are in 26E and F right behind me and looking down at my computer, typing away. And all of a sudden, I get that weird burning smell like when you turn on the heat in your house for the first time. You know what I'm talking about? And I look up, and it is like somebody is standing in first class with a fire extinguisher just pouring white smoke right down the middle of the plane. Entire plane is filling as fast as. I mean, it's. It's wild, right? Needs to say, that's. That's not a great feeling at that point. Well, then the buzzers start going off. Now shit's getting real. Well, then make it even worse. The flight attendant gets on there and freaks out. Oh, my God. Ladies and gentlemen, we're on fire. We're on fire. Crew returns our stations. Oh, my God. Now everybody's losing it, right? And then they immediately put the plane into a nosedive. Now, everything I just described to you, it took me longer to describe it than it actually happened. It was like five seconds. I mean, it's like boom, boom, boom, boom. Like all this is happening. So now we're in nose dive. Go from 30,000ft to 13,000ft in a little over two minutes. This is scary. This is real scary, right? This is sheer panic. Now, that whole little thing where they say, oh, we're going to do this and this and none of that shit happened.

Right?

That little thing where, you know, you look in the back of the card and you open it up, like, where hey, if we're on fire, we're going to go to a nosedive. I've looked. It is not on that card, right? Well, what it is is if they believe you're on fire, they're trying to put it out. That's what they're trying to do. They're trying to get you down and. But it's still scary. And everybody's screaming, crying, losing it. But I get to hear one scream. I got a five year old back here screaming for daddy and I can't do one thing to get to her. I get to look at my wife and say I love you and goodbye. This is. Again, you can't see my hand. I'm holding like this because if I. You'll see my hand start shaking because this is extremely real for me. It's like it happened yesterday. Luckily, we had a cool captain. He came on as cool as he could be. What was that guy's name in the plane in Sully. Sully. I mean, he was. He was Sully. This is the guy you want. Ladies and gentlemen, we appear to have a problem. Well, no shit. Are you sure? Right. And we have been notified that we are on fire. We are. We have called to Tampa International Airport. They are clearing the runways. We are going to make an emergency landing there. I need you to listen to your crew. The fire trucks are ready for us. When we are coming in, you're going to hear three commands and I want you to pay attention. The crew will tell you exactly what to do. Brace for impact. Brace for impact. Brace for impact. Nothing. You want to hear, guys? Nothing. Mask have dropped. I mean, we're, we're all. This is real now. Like this is happening. This is so real for me that to this day I walk around with a video in my phone that I recorded to my son, a selfie from the plane just in case they happened to find my phone so that he would know that I was thinking of him in my last moments right now. Clearly, I'm here. So it all worked out. We landed, firemen came on there, cleared us to pull up to the jetway. We're all getting off. Everybody's hugging and, you know, high fiving and crying and everything else. And I'm holding my little girls and everything. And of course we've got the God bless her, but the stereotypical gate agent clueless that is always there. Hey, ladies and gentlemen, I hear we had a little problem on the plane. Maintenance is taking a look and as soon as they give us the all clear, we're going to get you right back on there and get you down to West Palm. Bullshit. I got news for you. My ass is driving, right? And so I rented a car and we drove home. And some random lady that was sitting next to my wife jumped in the van with us and talked the entire time for two and a half hours. And I could have cared less. Greatest drive of my life. But I will tell you, the clarity of that time in my life has had a profound impact on me.

Right?

There's a saying. It is all over my office. It is all over everything that you see. I'm a big, big believer that what you feed your mind, what you focus on, is what you. What you get more of. The time is now is all around me. I do not wear a fancy watch. I wear a bracelet that says, the time is now. And I will tell you, it is the greatest watch I've ever had. Because every time I look at my wrist, that bitch is always right, right? I have a tattoo on my arm. It says, the time is now. Mediocrity is the enemy. I'm a big believer in what's going on up here, right? And that this is your moment. This is it. We manufacture fear. We act like we have something to lose. And the reality of it is, is when you figure that out is when you're 30,000ft in the air with your little 5 year old screaming for you and you're about to crash land, that all the stuff we think matters, you'll figure out real quick. It doesn't. It just doesn't. What matters is this moment. What are you gonna do now? And so when you find yourself in that moment, which we all do, by the way, I still find myself in these moments every day. You have a. You have to boil it down and I'll give you a couple things to say. Number one, I would tell you, just say one thing. Thank God these are my problems. Because there are people in this world that have real problems, and we're not one of them, right? We get to do this. We get to go acquire businesses. We get to solve problems. We get to make money. We get to live in this country. We get to live at this, at this time. This is a gift, right? These aren't real problems. These are our problems. This is a cool place to be. Can we all agree, right? That's a hell of a time to live right now. This is it. We get to do this. It's not a problem. Now the question is, when you're facing that fear and you're bumping up against it, then you just need to repeat one thing to yourself real quick. This. This is that moment where my competition quits. This is the moment when the mediocrity sets in. Like, we live in a world that is an ocean of mediocrity, especially in business. I mean, it is a race to zero. Spirit Airlines is literally one of the most profitable airlines in the world for screwing over their customers. I'm going to give you a lawn chair. I'm gonna put it on here, and I'm gonna charge you for even trying to breathe right. And I'm gonna become wildly profitable at it. And my shareholders are gonna think it's amazing. I mean, wells far. I mean, you do not have to look very hard anywhere where it is a race to zero. Who can screw over the. So it's not hard to be mediocre, but it's even easier to be great. Just take one extra step. You can count on your competition's mediocrity. Most of the people are not sitting in a room like this right now. Most people are not surrounding themselves with people like Roland Frazier. And taking this to be fearful in those moments is ridiculous. You're acting like you have time on your hands and like you have something to lose. And we all do this, and the reality is, we don't. Everybody, real quick, I'm just gonna do this one last thing, and I'll let you. I'll get back to everybody. Take your phone out real quick. Put it on the calculator. And if you're a woman, I want you to put that number 82 in there. And if you're a man, I want you to put the number 78. And I want you to subtract your current age. Now, I want you to take that number. By the way, if you needed the calculator for that, you got big problems, right? Take that number and multiply. Times 365. Okay? Average American male lives to 78. Females, 82. You just calculated.

Yeah.

Take the difference, Multiply it times 365. Average American male lives to 78. Female lives to 82. What you have just calculated, statistically speaking, is how many days you have left on this planet. Take that number, multiply that times 0.67. It's reasonable to assume you'll be asleep eight hours a day. Who's got a number for me? 10,500. Who else? I don't care who you are. Right? That number is too small. Everybody's number is way too small. Now, if you want to be a savage, in business and get over any fear you might have of doing exactly what these guys are telling you to do. When you leave here today, take an extra 20 minutes and go to CVS or go to Staples, wherever, and go buy a dry erase marker and you go take that number and right here in this hotel, you go write it on the mirror in front of you. And you do the same thing when you get home or where you brush your teeth and where you comb your hair or you put your makeup on tonight. And when you wake up in the next morning, guess what you get to do? Count that bitch down. Erase that last digit. You want to get motivated. You want to get over fear. You want to realize you have nothing to lose. Watch your life tick away one day at a time and realize you are in control of every one of those days. This is not about more knowledge. This is not about. This is about, dude, this is your moment. This is it. Don't tell yourself, well, I'll get to it next week, next month, next year. No. If you had to go and accomplish everything you wanted to accomplish in the next 90 days, you know, some of you are sitting there, oh yeah, well, you know, my five year plan is this. What would you do if you had to do it in 90 days? Which is, this is, by the way, this is exactly what he does to me all the time when he and I have our little private conversations, like, oh, yeah, well we're going to do this now. What would you do if you had to get it done in 90 days? Because whatever that is, get to work because it's doable. There's nothing keeping you from doing it except you. You may have to go and get resourceful, you may have to go surround yourself with some more, you know, smarter people, but there's nothing. If you knew you only had a year left on your life, I promise you, you would act differently than you're acting in this room right now. Can we all agree with that? So act like it. That's the way you get over fear.

And you don't know. You don't know what might happen. My wife got diagnosed with cancer. She was told she had 90 days to live. That was 15 years ago now, right? But she was told, get your shit together because you're gone 90 days from now.

That's tough, man.

That's powerful. My aunt was going for a walk. She was 63 years old. Went for the same walk that she'd taken for about 20 years. Drunk driver in the morning at 7am, ran her over dead. You never Know what's going to happen.

One thing I do know is nobody gets out alive.

Yeah, that's. That's what my wife always says.

Right.

My wife tells me that way too.

Much, that's for sure. And so acting like, you know, anything is promised to you is probably one of the most arrogant things I can even possibly imagine doing. So I just don't. Because I got these, you know, little reminders all around me. No, I just don't. Like, if my kids want to do something, let's do it now, right? If we want to go buy a business, go do something, go do, let's do it now. I don't collect cars. I don't collect watches. I don't collect shit. I collect moments. Right. Life is meant to be lived. But how are you going to get there? Well, clearly, one of the easiest ways to get there is when you go acquire businesses, scale businesses, create income. Money buys you time. Money creates and collapses time. It's really hard to go and live an amazing life in today's world if the way we're raised, if you are constantly struggling, trying to figure out how to solve the income challenge.

So one thing that I want to kind of bring this back to deals. So a deal that Kent and I are working on right now, it's a company that Kent met in his. In his boardroom mastermind. And I'm not going to say what the company does because I don't want it to be identifiable, but it's a company that's a service company. They're doing tens of millions of dollars a year right now. And he was talking. Actually, I think we talked on stage about exiting businesses, and they hadn't ever thought about exiting a business. They came to Kent and said, hey, I wonder what we could sell this business for? And Kent said, well, you should probably talk to Roland about that, because that's something he does. So we talked back and forth, and it turns out that their business right now should be worth about $150 million on the sale. And so they did a consult with Kent, they did a consult with me, and wanted to have some help figuring out how to sell the business. Now, I told you guys all, lead with value. So that value lead initially with those people was they were in an audience. Kent didn't know who they were. We're talking about, how can you exit your company? That's the value that we led for that audience with. And then they come in, they do the consults, and they're like, we're ready to exit. We'd like to have 150 million. We do the consult and we lead with more value and say, well, here's the deal. If you do that right now, you're probably leaving at least $100 million on the table. So we can help you do this right now. Or we could partner and we could go together to make a whole bunch more money. They said, well, that sounds really interesting. We'd love to talk about it, but we've got to go to a convention where there are going to be probably. How many people were at that?

2,000, I think.

2,000 people who do all kinds of different businesses that are similar to ours. And we will by far not be the biggest people there, but definitely not be the smallest. There will be people there that are looking up to us. We don't have any deal with these guys to do anything yet. Feel pretty confident that we will, but we don't yet. So I said, I tell you what, there's probably businesses there that you'll be able to pick up at a significantly lower multiple than what you'll be able to sell at.

You'll probably.

And we looked it up. You'll probably be able to pick up businesses there between a two and three times EBITDA, your company is going to sell for about 15 because you're big. We pick up companies at two or three, sell at 15. I'm pretty sure there's some profit to be made there for the people and for us. But I'm not starting by saying, so let's do a deal, sign the contract right now. Because I'm coming from a scarcity, afraid that you're going to screw me out of being able to participate. And that was a great idea. I don't care. Right? I would be disappointed if that happened, but if it happens, it's fine. I gave value, we gave value. So on top of that, they said, well, we don't really know what to do because we're going to go and it's tomorrow, so how are we going to capture leads and how are we going to know if these people are even interested in what we do? And I said, no problem. I just bought the domain while we were on the phone. Do I. Well, don't go here and fill it out because it'll mess it up. But doi qualify.com like, kind of cool that that was available for, you know, a dollar. So I bought doi qualify.com and I said, okay, I'm going to create for you a light due diligence form to qualify everybody. All you have to do is give doi qualify.com to every single person that you talk to at the show. What we'll do is that'll take them to a 10 question questionnaire. They'll go through that, they'll answer those questions and then it'll be sucked automatically into a Google sheet, a Google Doc basically well sheet because it's the spreadsheet. Those 10 questions will be filled out in columns and all of the leads will populate under there. All you have to do is give them that. They were like, holy shit, that's amazing. I said, that's kind of what happens when you do deals with us. They said, we don't have a deal with you. I said, and that's kind of a problem for you. So we built that. I basically sat with my son Ryan, who's doing video here today and said, here's the 10 questions that I need. And they were able to go that night. And so for those two days, it was just over this past weekend, they were able to go and give that information out to everybody. And we built a huge lead list.

And they came back and said, well, they had, you know, 25 to 50 companies that were interested in being acquired that were doing multiple millions of dollars and I mean, that would fit perfectly like their ideal client. Like that would fit perfectly what we're talking about.

So when you talk about leading with value now, I mean, it is true that we control the sheet, but they have access to it and they could copy all that information down and they can go and do these deals themselves. But they've already said by voting to hire both Kent and me independently as advisors that they want help with this. And they've already said that they're open to doing an equity deal and we will do an equity deal with them. I'm absolutely confident. But think about the value that we were able to lead with in almost no time at all. And then if you also want to think about a great way to generate a big lead list of companies to acquire, go to an event like that, create your light due diligence form, tell everybody that you do what you do and let them get excited about it and go and qualify themselves. And then you've got a huge list of people, I mean 25 or 30 companies who qualify because they're telling them their acquisition criteria as they're having those conversations. That's pretty amazing.

Well, can I just add one thing to. So one thing, let me just. Is that these people, you know, in my. I do a lot of coaching, not just in real Estate, but do a lot of coaching and helping people scale their businesses. Right. And so these people literally paid, if you remember that came to me on the scaling this. I'm going to tell you why this is important. They came to me from this, from an aspect of helping them scale their business. And we almost immediately I connected them with one of my wealth strategists that immediately saved them $2 million in taxes, right. Then another guy and getting them on their CEO, getting a CEO hired that they needed and all this was really fast. And then equally, hey, so you're interested in selling. Let me get you on the phone with Roland. Mind you, they had paid me. But, but the reality of this is, is what I want you to consider is that a lot of times the value you bring isn't necessarily in you, it's in who you know. And you know, I certainly have a working knowledge of how to go help them deploy capital into real estate to save money on taxes. But literally hooking them up with my business partner and with this guy and helping them get a COO hired and doing this very quickly wasn't really about me, although, you know, I was bringing something to the table. The reality of this is in this particular situation, it was about who I knew and how to make how to solve a problem really quickly for them. And if you think about it that way, I think you'll find that you have much more wisdom than you think you do. Because if somebody were to come to you today and say I'm thinking about exiting my business, you know, with the right connections, you know, you got to got us one phone call away, right? I mean there. It isn't always about what you deliver. It's about making, bringing value to them. And this is a really good example how this easily could turn into a significant, you know, amount of money just by, you know, playing the game in a different way.

No, no question. I think that it will. But so as a tactical strategy, if you want to take just one tactical strategy away, you can create a type form. It's super easy. You don't have to know any programming. You just have to think of the 10 questions which are, by the way, name, address, phone number, gross income, net income, industry, maybe product mix or something like that. And then you're building that list. So like that's a really. And I bought that domain. And then you know how hard it is to forward a domain. You say, you click on the thing that says forward this domain to another domain and you paste your Typeform domain in there and, and now you look awesome because you've got a real domain. Instead of go to Typeform.com XY12579. That's not going to work.

Right.

You've got a good vanity URL that you can send people to. So that's something that I really wanted to kind of share with you guys because that's a deal that will turn into something pretty significant. Now, I want to talk about a live deal that Kent and I are in the middle of negotiating right now. And he cleverly avoided talking about when we recorded a podcast episode yesterday or day before yesterday or whenever it was that we did it. And again, I want to give you leading with value and not being afraid that somebody's going to take your ideas or something like that, because they will sometimes, and that's okay. Right? But so Kent got himself into a really, really awesome deal about advancing real estate commissions. And will you briefly, briefly explain that business to him?

Sure. So I had one of my Mastermind members and doing a presentation, very successful guy, as he's making a presentation, asking for help in his business, by the way. He's kind of going through here's all the litany of companies that I own, and here's what each one does. And one of the companies he mentions, he's like, ah, yeah, you know, I make a. I don't know, a couple million dollars a year doing this. And, you know, I advance commissions to real real estate agents. And I'm like, oh, stop, let's go back. Like, anybody that can have a business that he's making 2 million and literally not care at all enough to even talk about it, I want to know more. Right. And so we started getting down the weeds and this guy had no idea that this was as big a idea as it really was. But I saw it really quick. So Fast Forward put a deal together with him where we're taking that national, took 60 collectively, 66% of the company. Because operationally, you know, he's. It's his idea. It's. We're following his blueprint, but he doesn't have, I have all the know how the leverage that can raise the money to get it all done. And what the company actually does is that in the real estate space, real estate agents, inevitably, they get caught in these ebbs and flows of commission. Right. I got a closing this month. I have nothing for 60 days. Right. But they're still trying to pay their bills. I had no idea this industry even existed. But come to find out, I was talking to Sam and Others that this is, this industry is actually a really big deal. And that what, what the company does is it comes in and looks at a transaction and says, this agent is owed $20,000 on this deal. We can see it in the MLS. We can confirm with the title company that indeed it is going to happen. It is set on February 10th. If we can see that, and we can see that they have a couple more transactions behind it, we will advance them $15,000 of that 20 grand. And that's beautiful to them, especially if a deal just got pushed or went around. I mean, they're like, this is amazing right now. In exchange for that, we make, you know, a rip on that money. We're making about, call it 10% on the money in a 30 day period. So you can start to do that math real quick and realize this is a very profitable business. Not only is it solving a need, but isn't actually a very profitable business. When I heard that this was a big, big, big, big business for Barbara Corcoran on Shark Tank, it perked my ears up really quick that, you know, this is a lot. And so it's a business that, that I got real excited about. But ultimately, because of that authority that I just talked to you guys about, was able to, this guy was all too happy to come in and be in business with Kent Clothier. And for us to bring the resources, we, we're bringing the money, we're bringing the operational knowledge, we're bringing the relationships. It's his idea conceptually, right? We're following kind of his blueprint on how to get it done. But we have the ability to take something national where he was only doing it in one state. And that's exciting for everybody. Everybody's winning when you do that kind of thing.

And so many of the deals that I do is simply painting the picture of the additional opportunity that they're not seeing right now. So is it we can go national, is it, we can franchise, is it you're going to leave? Very often I find myself saying, you're going to leave. You could do that, but you're going to leave 50 million on the table. You could do that, but you're going to leave $100 million.

Let me just say, because I'm glad you said that. So Roland and I had breakfast last Monday, right? And we've had conversations over the phone about this business a couple of times.

And keep in mind, I really want to weasel my way into this business.

I know what he's doing, right? I know exactly what he's doing. And, and not that I don't want him involved. I'm just like, dude, let me just get it going, then we can talk.

And.

But of course, in one breakfast, he sits there and we're just talking and he's like, just wanna let you know you're thinking too small. Which is like freaking catnip to me. Like, this bastard, by the way, did.

You see the game this week? Week?

And he's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Yeah, he.

I mean, he knows me so well. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. What do you mean? He's like, well, by the way, dude, you know, you're thinking about real estate agents, by the way, do you know that it's the exact same thing is true in commercial? The exact same thing is true in land. Do you know the same thing is true in yacht brokers? Do you know the exact same thing true is true in airplane sales? I'm like, you motherfucker.

All right.

Like, all right. I'm going to get to all the partners on a call.

You're going to be there.

We're going to do this. We're thinking too small. You're right. I'm thinking hundreds of millions and you're thinking billions. Let's just go right And. But his point, you know, the point that I would share with you guys, is that we're all guilty of it. Like, having somebody in your corner that is a coach and a mentor that has looked at things and sees things from a completely different vantage point. Even when in my world, I'm a big thinker, but when I step into somebody else's world, like Roland or like Ed Mylett or Jesse or these other guys, like, they just think, you know, if you want to get humbled real quick, get in a room full of billionaires and you realize you're nowhere near as big a deal as you think you are. And there's a lot of value in that. And so bringing that to him, I'm like, yeah, you're right. It makes perfect sense. I'm going to put us on the call. We're going to make you a part of this deal. We're absolutely thinking too small. You know, we're just. And I just think that that's extremely valuable point to share, that you don't know what you don't know. And even at every level, there's always somebody who can play it bigger. Always somebody that can make you think a little bigger. And it's extremely valuable.

And I'm not shy about that. And you shouldn't be either. I said, that's why you should have me in that deal.

Yeah, that's exactly what he said, by the way. Yeah, I was joking.

I was like, you're right. He said, I'll get the. We'll do it when we're doing our podcast. It was Friday. We'll do it on the podcast. And then I dropped the ball because I forgot to hound him about that.

Started talking about wine, and we were done.

We started talking about wine, and then we got excited, and we talked about that for an hour, and then I left. And I was like, damn it. But that's, to me, just a good thing for you guys to be thinking about is if somebody has a deal, all you have to do is figure out a way to add more value to it. And most of the time, if you just share it. Like, I could have said, you know, Ken, I got a really good idea that's going to 10x what you're thinking about. You're thinking way too small. And if you'll cut me in the deal and sign this NDA, I'll tell you a little bit about it, but not enough for you to go do it yourself. And he'd have been like, why don't you go? And we probably wouldn't have had it, because I'll do that, too. I'm like, no. You know, and I.

Like.

I said, he could take that and run with it. And, I mean, I would be mildly resentful. I'd find a way to get back at him somehow, but that's not important right now. But more importantly, I can say, look at the value that I can bring. And I ask because I want to be part of that. I think that is a giant, giant opportunity. And so don't be shy. Okay, you know what?

That's. Actually, let me just say. I know we said it a couple different ways, but to be very clear, this is a guy that has deals being brought to him by the truckload every month, Right? But I will tell you, even in that scenario, he pointed out to me, it wasn't like, oh, Kent will get it. You know, Ken will get it. No, it was like, dude, I want to be a part of this deal. Put me in this deal. This. I know I can bring value here. And I mean, never be too arrogant to ask to be a part of something that you're excited about. Even at his level, one of the biggest deal makers in the world is literally like, I want to be a part of that deal. And he had to kind of point Me at it to make sure I understood loud and clear, this is how I can help you. And this is why this is a big deal to me. And I think it's really, really valuable.

So the last thing that I want to chat about with you, if it's okay, is the. The creation of Deal Flow. Because you created that mastermind and had a different focus, and now you've actually kind of changed your focus to say, we had a conversation a month or two ago and you said, man, I actually, am I crazy? But I've got all of this opportunity here, and I think that we can do this and this to really take it to the next level. So for a couple things I'd like to accomplish for everybody here thinking about starting something like that, what would you recommend? Assuming that they have no credibility in the space they're going to, no big name to use or anything like that, and then how you would pivot that into or from the start, use that to generate Deal Flow. Does that make sense?

Yeah, I'm just trying to think of. So if I was going to start a mastermind or a group, would you do it that way?

If so, yeah, I would literally do.

Exactly what I did.

Okay, great.

I would literally do exactly what I did. And, you know, I guess as the saying goes, you do it wrong enough, long enough, you figure some stuff out. Well, this is just one of those things where I happen to be right coming out of the gate, I went and I found a video mailer. Do you remember this? When I did this, I do the.

Drone shot of your house and everything.

And so where is she? I hired Elisa. My video girl was there. And so we filmed a quick little video. And I had. And we can easily introduce you to the company, but for about 20 bucks, you can go out and create a video card, a video mailer. I don't know, you guys may have seen these. It basically looks like a big postcard. And you open it up, and inside a video starts playing. Have you guys seen these? If you haven't, go go research them. Right. Well, so this was 12 or 10 years ago when I did this, right? So everybody was like, what in the hell is that thing? Now for 20 bucks, you can do this. And so inside of that card, when they opened it, you know, there was cool video, the normal video they would see online, except in there. I basically said, hey, Roland, this is Kent Clothier. You know, you may not know me, who I am, but in a few weeks I'm doing an event in San Diego. It is completely Free to you to attend. What I'm trying to do is get a bunch of business leaders in a room. And I think it is extremely important, especially in times like these that are a little challenging, that guys and girls like us are all get together and share our collective wisdom, share our collective knowledge and figure out how to navigate around corners together. I would love for you to be there. Carve out the time again. I've hand selected you, therefore, that's why you're getting this video. Do me a favor. Click on the link below that is right here on this card and just get registered so I know that you're coming. Simple, right? I think I sent 100, and I think I had 42 people show up, right? But out of that 42, I had 15 that bought my $20,000 mastermind right then. And that's how it began.

Yeah. Which is. Which is awesome.

And.

And you personalized that. I personalize it.

So basically. And that's funny. Elisa just did the exact same thing this weekend. I recorded that little meet, right? And then right on the front of it, I just recorded. I mean, it was. So if you had. If we had a camera this weekend, you had my hands on a couch. I'm like, hey, Steve, it's Ken Clothier. And then she was like, all right, now it's Brian. Hey, Brian, it's Kent Coldier. Next one. Hey, it's rolling. Hey, Roland can't clothe.

You just edits that in.

She just edits and puts it right on the front, right? And then that video card goes out and they are blown away. They're like, this is wild. The perceived value of that piece, by the way, is off the charts. It literally cost you $20, right? Now here's where it gets even more interesting, because I took that and I FedExed it because do you know what has a 100% open rate? A FedEx. I knew every one of them got it. I knew every one of them opened it, period. And so when you take. Just think about it. I'm all in. 3,500 bucks on 100 of them. All I had to do was go sell, by the way, at a $20,000 mastermind. All I had to do was sell one, and I'm getting a 5x6x return on my money, right? So it's like, I know the math, which makes me get over any of the fear I had.

How did you decide who to mail them to?

I basically, I had a core of about 40 or 50 people. And then I went and I asked those 40 or 50 people, I told them what I was trying to do. And if you wanted somebody to sit next to you that you thought that would be who would you also tell me I need to invite about half the room. I didn't even know.

So what if you didn't, had not had the 40 people?

I don't, you know, if I didn't have the 40 people, it's hard for me to answer because it's just never been my reality. Out of integrity.

I don't know I can. But that's the hypothetical. You have to.

But I would say that, that I think you'd be hard pressed if you're in a room like this or if you are literally going to events or you are literally, you know, reaching out. Every single. Keep this in my guys. Everybody's accessible now. If you want to send me a message today, right. I don't know you guys. You understand you could go directly on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn and talk to me directly. Anybody is attainable now, anybody is reachable today. Doesn't mean you're gonna have success. But there's nobody.

I mean, were these people local?

No, they flew in from all over the country.

Okay, so what I would, what I would say, if you don't have anybody to talk to, number one, get out.

More, get some friends.

Number two, if you don't have anybody right now, then it should be your prospect list. So you should be prospecting for companies to acquire. So one of the best things that you could do to ingratiate yourself to them and deepen the level of wanting with them is to do something for them. Hey, I know that I reached out to you about the possibility of working together. One of the things that I do for all the companies that I work with periodically is get together a group of really smart people just like you in a room to share all the things that they're doing right and that are working right now. And so I'm issuing this personal invitation to you and just a few other people to do that. We're going to meet and then all the details. That's something that they're going to pay attention to. You have a connection to them and you're leading with value. How much did you charge for that initial mastermind?

Nothing.

Zero. Zero dollars. Now you could do that virtually. It's not going to be the same. We have about 100 and some people virtually. Thank you guys all for being there and watching and being patient because I can't see your contact, your stuff here without my Glasses. But we will get to questions, and you can do that virtually. But doing it in person is important. Almost all the hands here were raised saying you flew to be here. Almost all the people there flew to be at Kent's thing and at that thing, you're going to give value. Now we have a mastermind sprint that any of you that are in any of our programs, and I think that's all of you who are here, have access to that gives you all of our SOPs on how we've run masterminds for a thousand years now, how to do it, how to market it, how to sell it, how to conduct the event, everything. Okay, you have the ability to do this, and it will absolutely result in cash for you. I've never seen it, not never. It will also create deal flow for you because you will now be the authority at the front of the room. No doubt you'll be the person that is getting credit for providing all of the value, even if it's just because you brought smart people in, like I do here.

Right?

And then you'll probably be able to turn several of those into deals. So that's. That's how I would go about doing that. Follow what Kent talked about. Elisa back there can help you create the video. Hey, Elisa, can you just plug your ears for one minute? She charges way too little. Super cheap. We would pay so much more. Okay, that's good. But, but seriously. So somebody like that, that, that can create a quality thing and then do exactly what he did, right? You know, hey, Mary, this is Roland. Hey, John, this is Roland, et cetera. And you know, maybe you decide that you invite everybody named Mary and John, and you only have to do two of those.

Right?

But. But I. That's what I would do. I think that would. That, that would really be a big.

Benefit if you want to cut your teeth, I mean, go on to meetup.com and, you know, drive everybody to a meetup. I mean, again, this sense of community is a very real thing.

It is. And you get traffic on meetup, but you might not get the traffic you want. I would rather see you identify your acquisition criteria 100%, send out to those people, and then make a room full of 40 or 50 acquisition criteria qualified prospects that you'll be talking to. That's going to be very powerful.

You know, one thing that you shared with me, and I've had several people over the years that I tell you is really important when it comes to. This is the easiest way I could say it to you guys is you get what you tolerate. And so the more specific you are, the better the outcome will be. If you, oh, I'm just running this general business thing and we're going to, you know, like, you're never going to. That's never going to be what you want it to be. So be specific. Like, hey, I'm trying to go. And this is a group about, you know, women run businesses that are trying to achieve, you know, whatever your niche is. Go hard down in there and you'll be shocked at that. Now what the outcome, the output will be actually what you want. But I've, I've definitely seen people that kind of go down this path and it's way too broad and it become. And even the guys we were working with, remember, we told them we got to be specific here so that the leads come in are real good leads.

Exactly. So I want to open it up for questions. For any of you that have questions for Ken, I want you to think about a few takeaways that I, I think are good from here. One is the time is now. You never know when you're on the airplane that's going to go down. Your uncle or most people who find themselves on their deathbed, they only want more time because they didn't do enough with the time they had. They squandered it in some way. I love the exercise that Kent said about calculating the number of days that you have left. Write it down every single day, cross one off. We talked about the tactics of how you can get an event to turn into lead generation very, very quickly or add tremendous value. If you're talking to a prospect or a business partner portfolio company that you want to grow, that you can say, hey, why don't you guys go to an event? Notice I didn't go to the event. Kent didn't go to the event. They went to the event. Right. Go to an event. Let me build you a page to collect leads for you. Go to type form. Write down the questions that you want. Go to GoDaddy. Buy a domain that's easy to remember, forward the domain to the type form, and then have the type form, go to a Google sheet and all of the questions that you want will be in one sheet so that you can do outreach. You can even upload it into a predictive dialer or a CRM if you want to get super fancy. Right? And that will generate leads for you. If you have value to add and you want to get in a deal that somebody's talking about, lead with the value. Ask to be in the deal. Don't ever have an ego that's so big that something that you want you're not going to ask for. Also, don't assume that somebody, even as your business partner, is going to say, hey, why don't you come into this deal? There's no reason to do that if there's no value. And he might not even be thinking about asking me to come in the deal, which is very, very selfish. And then what was the very last thing we did? I did pretty good in remembering most. Oh, the mastermind. And then the mastermind. If we were going to start from scratch, and even if we weren't and just wanted to go into a new industry, I would identify the prospects. I'd put together the video letter. I'd get somebody who was a professional to create that for me. I'd send it out. We'd have about three to five thousand dollars invested in that whole thing. It will cost you about 5,000 bucks to conduct the event. So let's say the whole thing, you're in ten grand, you sell one person at 20,000, then you've doubled your money. But you'll probably get. If you had 50 people, it would be reasonable to expect that you would have 10 to 15 of those people that join. That's 200 to $300,000 that you should make from doing that. Let's say that you only made 10% of that. That's still pretty good. Okay. But more importantly, you've ingratiated yourself and given value to a whole bunch of people that are your ideal prospect. And you've started a new business that's a mastermind, which isn't a bad business to have either, because you can then start inviting more and more prospects. Okay, so those are the takeaways that I would get. Did I miss anything, do you think?

No, I just want to say one thing on it as it relates to the mastermind and the event stuff, because I know inevitably somebody's out here, like, who the hell would give me 20 grand? Or why would they? You know, I think a lot of people are right and you might be surprised. Right. The power of exclusivity, the power of access to you, the power of your wisdom, the power of your knowledge, the power of the other people that you can put in the room, etc. There's a lot of different ways to provide value to somebody, and it isn't always just about you. It isn't always this one to one. It's a lot of times, especially in a mastermind it's about this collection that I'm able to put in this room. And, you know, the beauty of a mastermind in particular, if you can sit down with somebody. And again, If I put 10 people in a room and one person is speaking and the other nine are focused on trying to help that one person, what are the chances that across those nine people, whatever's a big deal to that one person, that the nine can actually help them? So that's probably pretty good, right? You get the right people in the room. And so now it's not just on me.

Where's the pitch box right now? Who got it? Can I. Jerome, will you take that? Give it to that gentleman right there. So to go to what Kent said at lunch, Jerome and Ray came with us to lunch. It was me, Sam Karamian from Big Block, who you're about to hear from, and Jonathan Kronstadt and Deanna and my son. And I think that was everybody that was there, and we were just giving value to Jerome and Ray. I'm going to put myself on the line here. Tell me about that experience. How was that? Did you get value? Is it going to be worth something to you? What do you think? Would you stand up and share?

Yeah, for sure.

So I spent a lot of money in masterminds over the past, I don't know, five years or so. I've always been disappointed, right. Because I end up being. And this may sound egotistical, and I apologize up front, but I always feel like I'm the one that's always given.

Right.

And it's hard to spend 20, 30, 50, 100 grand and not feel like you're getting. But I literally sat at the table, said, these are the three things I'm trying to figure out. What do you think? And everybody went around the table and gave me some ideas. Now, so on me to implement, which is the part that's kind of overwhelming right now, and this is the first time I've actually been with people where at times it's hard for me to keep up. Like, I'm used to people saying, like, whoa, whoa, slow down. There's too many ideas. You connected too many dots for me. So, yeah, I mean, without a shadow of a doubt, and I totally didn't expect it. Which is the other thing.

Was that part of what we promised you as being in the group? No. I mean, did we promise you we'll take you to lunch and focus?

No.

A group of people around you?

No, we didn't have to do those.

Yeah, we didn't have to do that. We didn't have to do that. No, we didn't have to do that.

Right.

But because Jerome had asked me a couple of questions, he had texted me, and we talked a little bit, and I was like, let me get some really smart people together to help you with that. That cost me nothing to do, but it allows me to bring really smart people who all, by the way, charge quite a bit of money for their time at no cost to Jerome and Ray to help them with their business, because we want to help. And when you guys have that same attitude, and Kent is the same way, when you guys have that same attitude, then that shows through. And then my guess is that he'll tell other people that, or he'll just take it and use it, because I know he's an implementer, right. And he'll get great value, and that will be reward. That's what you do. You just give that value. And so what you were saying.

Yeah, that's the point.

Thank you, Jerome.

If you go put them, like, anybody can do that. Anybody can do that.

By the way, I didn't even have to have any smart ideas. If you take all the things that I said that were helpful out of that, all of the things that the other people who, again, cost me no money. This is the really. This is the hack of masterminds that people don't get. All you have to do is be a decent facilitator. That's it. To deliver great value. If you put smart people in the room.

That's exactly right.

All you have to do is one.

Of my clients who runs a roofing mastermind, right. With. And like smaller roofing companies, you know, he's a guy doing $5 million a year, maybe $6 million a year, but when he's in there, all he's done is put a bunch of other roofers in the room. But think about the collective wisdom. When you put 100 roofing companies in a room, do you think they know a few things about roofing? And some probably more know than others or more than others. And some know more about chasing storms, and others do insurance. I mean, there's so many different variables. But the idea here is the guy that put the room together, it isn't all on him, like, get the room together and let them solve the problem. And that's. And he, by the way, gets all the benefit because he's the one that gets to say, I'm the king of the roofing masterminds. And they all go to him to do Deals. But all he was doing was smart enough to put the right people in.

The room, and you can accidentally build a pretty valuable business here. One of our friends just recently sold half of his business, which is only a mastermind, for 11 million bucks. For 11 million bucks?

Half.

Right.

He still runs it. He still gets all the deals, and he's got an extra 11 million bucks in addition to all the money that the mastermind makes. So you can accidentally create a great business. Okay, who's got questions for Kentucky? Right there, Brian. That'll be easy. Ken, thank you for everything you've shared today, particularly the family. The story about your family on the flight. That was amazing. My question is, when you did your first one, what did it roughly look like? I get there was a mastermind. You get the people in the room and all that you just said. But, like, when you got the first $25,000 for X number of people for that mastermind, what was the structure? Was it once a month that you met once a quarter? Like, how did that work?

Smart enough to do payment plan. My first deal was paying full. Like, that's the way it was. Unfortunately, that's how. That's how I. I just didn't know any better. Right.

No.

But what was your deliverable?

My deliverable was I was going to do one meeting every quarter. Right. So every 90 days, we would do a meeting and there would be. We would bounce it. My commitment was, I'll bounce it from. I'll do one in each time zone. East Central Mountain. I'll make it easy. Right. Somewhat easier. And that I would actually run it like a true mastermind. That it would not be an event where people are speaking to you. We're going to get in a room and we're going to break stuff down, and we're going to. And that. And then I was very specific with them. You know, full transparency. There was a little bit of posturing going up, but I'll tell you straight up. I mean, sometimes you get what you. Again, you get what you tolerate. And I knew what I wanted.

What do you mean by posturing?

The posturing was I basically stood in front of the whole group and said, I got three rules for being in this group. Number one, you can't be a douchebag. That's literally what I said. And everybody cracked up. And they're like, no, no, no. I've been around a lot of people who have a lot of money they can't get out of their own way. Right. Can't be that guy. Your money doesn't matter to me.

And that may have offended eight people. Well, what he just did, was he self qualified? He self selected out those people. That's important. Don't feel like you have to appeal to everyone. I love how bold he is with the way he speaks.

I, I just have when I said that look, when I'm speaking, by the way, I know, I know exactly what I'm doing when I'm talking up here. I'm literally trying to do the way I picture it mentally. Again, back to the mental game is I'm going for 100% close rate. It's the way I say it to myself. 50% of the room is going to love me and 50% are going to hate me. Never going to do business. I love that guy. Or that guy's an asshole. Either way I'm winning because I know exactly who my 50 are and the other 50 will self qualify. And the same thing I did in front of them, I was like, no, douchebag. Number two, you have to bring value. You have to actually come in. You cannot have a scarcity mentality. I need a bulletproof strategy technique that you're using right now. You're not testing it, you're doing it right now in your business and it's worth sharing with this group. You must bring it to every meeting. And number three, you must bring your single biggest challenge. If you can't get vulnerable, if you're going to get up here and posture in front of everybody you want to pound on your chest, that's not going to happen. If you can't get vulnerable and break it down where we can actually help you, don't even bother. And all that posturing, really, everybody's like, oh my God, this is what I want to be a part of. And we still use all of it exactly the same way. Today when we get on the phone, they know it's for real and we run it exactly the way we tell them we're going to run it. And it's, it matters to them to be a part of it. And I, this, this is just, by the way, this is 100% true. Because I say this, we get, I say this on video, right? Which FTC claims everything else, but this is true. We get about 200 applications to my mastermind a month. On a great month, a great month, we would accept 10. So when I say we have a 95% denial, we only have between a 2 and 5% acceptance rate. It's real and people love that. By the way, I'm Using that as a way, like, don't even waste my time if you're not coming to be a part of the best. And that is very powerful. Now, I've earned the right to say that this is 10 years down the line. But again, back to my point, you get what you tolerate, and I just. I'm too old to tolerate anybody else's crap. I don't care. I just don't.

Clarifying point. You had the first meeting for free and now you have a bunch of people that are paid. Do you have a preview or an invite plan?

We just started this six months ago for the very first time. So typically, the way I would fill my mastermind, because there's naturally attrition, right? We have about a 78% renew rate, so we lose about 22% every year. And so the way I would fill that is that we drive straight to an application online, goes through a process, we pick up some people, a lot of people. But then I would have a couple big live events a year. And the only thing I'm now what I just started, which is working really well, is I will let 10 people come to my event. The actual mastermind, like, these are all my members, right? You will go through the exact same vetting process we were. We will talk to you. We're going to see if you're a good member, if we think you're a good member. But you're a little shy, right? You're a little bit. I'm not really ready to go stroke the check yet. You can put a $5,000 completely refundable seat deposit down. We approve you. You approve me, you know, and you're coming with the intention of joining if you see what you need to see there. And we agree that five grand will go towards that membership if you get there. And exactly what I said. If you think I've wasted your time and you got no value out of the event, you tell me, I'll give you five grand right there. And I've never had anybody so far ask for their money back. We have had people. We're closing about 70%. So we have had. We have had 30%. They're like, I just can't really do this. And we'll solve that problem. I don't know what that's about just quite yet. But that 30 times.

It's just they're not ready. And that you'll find a year from now they'll come in and join.

But. But none of them were everyone like, keep my five grand. Like this was Certainly worth more than five grand, but I'm just not ready right now. And so we've had that. But 70% of them, like, let's go. I'm ready to rock. And so I'm really hopeful and confident that that'll be a great way for us to. Because we're at a place now, we've earned our stripes. Right. We can now say, I know what's going to happen in that room. And if they get there, we can make it easy for them. Awesome.

Okay, back here, we had one, I think. Alex, did you have a question? Did you. Did I see your hand up? Nice.

Yeah. One for Kent and one for you, Roland. That's okay. So, Ken, if you don't mind, you had a certain, like, I think phrasing for, like, the very first free event that you did. Like, hey, in this. In certain times, it's important for us to get together. You mind repeating that a little bit?

Because I caught. I don't know, I just did that off the top of my head.

Okay.

All right, I'll watch a recording later.

Challenging times, Uncharted territory, right? I mean, when I'm talking to the market now, what have I just said is the way I feel about it, that I think that in times like these, that are challenging, that are. That are a little choppy, a little difficult, I think it is never more important in times like these to surround yourself with people that matter, that have been there, that understand exactly how to navigate this, how to see around corners. I think most people now, when it gets like this, if you haven't ever been here before, they have a tendency to retreat rather than reach. That's the irony, right? In times like these, what you should be doing is reaching. You should be reaching for the people like Roland, like, man, you've been here. Show me. But what most people do, they're like, oh, my God, I gotta. I gotta cut all my marketing. I gotta get all this down. I gotta cut all my expenses. I gotta go into my hole. I'm moving the office. I'm moving back home. This is what people do. And the difference between great and mediocre is literally that decision is don't retreat, reach. And that's the way I would phrase this right now if I were you. Because, by the way, it's exactly the way I feel, is that this is that moment. I mean, Roland and I were just talking about this, that if I could. If I could explain to people.

How.

Important this moment really is, this time that we're in. I mean, this is Literally where legacies will be made. Right now, this is it.

Not the 12 or 13 years between the Great Recession and the pandemic like that. That's the hardest time. That's the time that all the incumbents get to continue to make money. This is the time that the disruptors get to come in when they're retreating and start reaching. And I love, and I mean we.

Were just talking about it and I mean we talked about it from stage a few weeks ago and in between that time where I said, well on stage, I said, mark my word, right? Your competitors, rather than you go to try to go and grow a business right now, I can assure you that what you should be doing is looking at your competitors to acquire them right now. Because they're all coming. It's going to happen. I've had four separate companies, the largest doing $25 million a year, the smallest doing about eight. But four separate companies, I'm about to take 50% or more of their company because of exactly that point. Like they just don't want to go through this. Like big, you know, Whether recruiting companies, VA service companies, software companies, commission. I mean there's these businesses where they're like, I just don't want to do this alone. I could do, I would love to help the resources. You know, it's. This is a time where a lot of people start retreating and if you are smart, it's a time for you to exponentially grow your business without having to go in. What we all naturally do is let me just grow it from the ground up. You can go out right now and go buy a competitor for nothing on sale and grow your business a little.

Bit more for you. Roland. So I've seen two types of mastermind, right? This is my classification. I'm not necessarily saying that the market does it this way, but one mastermind seems to be more about.

There'S not.

What's the word? It's like not not based on a framework. And there's another one where it seems like it's when the member first comes on, there's a conversation that says this is kind of like a three year, maybe five year journey, kind of like the scalable. It's going to take you year one to implement the foundation. Do you see where I'm going? Do you see any difference in retention if you is based on a framework versus not based on a framework?

I haven't noticed it. We've done it both ways. I haven't seen that there's greater retention because if you deliver.

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