From Vision To Victory: Kent Clothier’s Path To Real Estate Success

I'm going out of my way to be as real as I can, not polished at all, because I know 50% of that audience are going to be attracted to me and they're going to come and they're going to come running. They're going to be like, that's my guy. And 50% are going to be like, dude, that guy is so full of shit. And they're going to run away. Either way, I win.

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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 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.

Wanted to bring up a good friend of mine, business partner and I've learned so much from him. I have convinced him to say every so often that he's learned something for me too, which makes me feel better. But but brilliant guy. He's started when he was in his twenties, a billion dollar business. A business that grew to a billion dollars and then moved from that into real estate and a whole bunch of other cool things. I am not going to talk and steal his thunder, but I want to introduce my good friend Kent Clothier. And what's cool is Kent is so kind to come and volunteer. He just got done with a giant event in Florida where for the real estate space and isn't really even recovered from that yet and has come in to share today.

I'm trying but one of the things.

That we talked about was masterminds just a minute ago how they can be a great source of deal flow and I love all the cool stuff. I would love for you just to tell the story of kind of boardroom how it started, maybe where it faltered a Little bit how you got clear and focused and what you're doing now with.

Yeah, yeah. So thanks, guys, for having me here. Listen, man, this Roland means the world to me. As he mentioned, we are business partners, but first and foremost, we are very, very close friends. He is a mentor to me. I can tell you historically, time and time again, this is the guy that I call right? And I'm sure you guys. So if you haven't already had that experience, you will certainly have that experience in the future where I kid him all the time. I ask him, you know, how's it feel to walk in the room and always be the smartest guy in the room? Like, I just want to know what it's like. But, you know, we met in a mastermind.

Yeah, we.

Absolutely. We met in a mastermind. We were, I guess, part of the original War Room crew, right? And that's a funny story because when we met in the mastermind, little trip down memory lane here for a second War room back then was a handful of people. I mean, at best, it was like 25 people. And at the end of each War room, they always had the wicked smart. And every single time, Roland would win it. And it got to be like the running joke. It's like, how many laptops, how many iPads can you can get? Okay, we get it. Like you got just a stack of boxes in here because you just keep winning. But for me personally, it allowed us to connect to a point. I was living in Florida, he was living out here, that I realized very quickly that that connection and being close to Roland was a really big deal to me. Maybe some of you guys have had that experience. So much so that I literally called him and said, hey, man, I just want to go to lunch. And we met at the Grand Del Mar right here. And I literally flew all the way across the country from Miami to San Diego to go to lunch with him and then turned around and flew home. That's how important it was to me. And from that, we quickly became fast friends, became business partners, kind of went on our own journey together. And then Roland being Roland, before you knew it, he owned War Room. I mean, imagine that. He was just. Look, as it relates to masterminds, I'll just kind of tell you guys just how powerful that concept really is. As Roland said, I got in the real estate space about 20 years ago. I had built a very large organization before and a grocery arbitrage business and been very, very successful. Got in a run in with my partners and we parted ways. They continue to run that business. Today, it's still a multibillion dollar company, but I went on my way and after I exited, I started falling into real estate investing and got really, really good at it. Took what I had learned in, you know, in my 20s in business and started applying it to an industry that was traditionally very splintered and fractionalized. Nobody really understood how to run it like a big business. And as fate would had it, we turned it into a really big business. Right now we flip about 800 houses a year in 11 different markets. We manage about 8,000 single family homes today. All of it kind of came out of that. And equally what came out of it was the opportunity for me to start teaching people. You know, guys, I'm a redneck from Memphis, Tennessee, right? I mean, I'm nothing special, but so if I could do it, anybody could do it. Started teaching people how to do what I was doing. And that led me into the education space.

Two negotiating things to think about is if anybody ever tells you they're a redneck or nothing special, they're full of shit.

Fair enough. But I will tell you that what happened was, you know, one led to two, two led to three, and it just kept going, right? So investing turned into being able to train people and coach people, and then software applications and then owning title companies and mortgage companies and all these things that started spinning out of it. And along the way, I had experienced war room. I realized how powerful that concept was. I had never been around anything where effectively you get into a room and everybody becomes super vulnerable and says, I need help, right? And show me how to connect some dots. To me, that was completely foreign, but I'd seen the impact of it. And so about 10 years ago, I decided I was going to bring that to real estate. And, and the way I viewed it at the time was, if nobody else is going to do this, I'll do it. And it became an amazing little group. Hundred or so very, very successful real estate investors.

Do you mind talking a little bit about? Cause I remember I was at that first boardroom, the mastermind's called the boardroom meeting. And you had two other partners and there weren't a lot of people there. And I think that's a kind of a, like seeing where that started and what it's grown into. A cool thing to share just because. Yeah, because it's like, I think it's intimidating. People think, you know, well, how. How do I start and get 200 people in?

Yeah, no, no, it wasn't like that. I Think we probably had 40 maybe in that room. Wasn't a room much larger than this. And I, I can tell you exactly what I did to fill that room. I basically went to a guy that was doing all of my direct mail. And that at the time, it was a new concept was I bought these video mailers. You guys may have seen these, but basically it looks like a postcard, but when you open it, a video starts playing. And that entire thing cost me $22, right? So I basically, for $1,000, I mailed out about 50 of these and I had 40 some odd people show up because they were so blown away, like, holy. This guy sent a video to me that says, I am hand selecting you to be a part of my network. I want you in this room. I promise you there's going to be other people in this room that that will be bring value to your life. It wasn't hard, right? I wasn't selling me, I was selling the room. I was selling who I knew I was putting in the room. And for $1,000, I put, you know, a bunch of really powerful people in the room. And it was free, right? And that was free. The first one was free. And then we just. At the event, my entire intention was, I'm going to convince these people. At that time, I think it was $15,000 that I will do four of these events just like this for $15,000. And I think we signed up, I think we closed 90% of the room. Something in that range. It was. We were in business, put it to that way, plenty of. Plenty of revenue for us to go and do what we need, what we promised to do. And that was 10 years ago. And then it's grown now since then. I mean, it's the better part of, I think it's 229 members now that all pay 30 to 60 grand a year to be in there. But, you know, taking a couple steps back along that journey, you know, as entrepreneurs, we're all guilty of this. Everything looks like an opportunity, right? It's really hard to be a good, disciplined CEO and say no to a lot of stuff, right? Especially when you get to a certain level. And I was guilty of that. I was running a lot of things and probably running most of them poorly. And the boardroom was certainly one of them. And about, I don't know, two and a half years ago, maybe, I remember you and I were meeting at your house. We sat down and I was like, this is all I want to do. I'm literally going to cut away everything. I'm going to go sell the software company, I'm going to go get rid of the education company.

Multimillion dollar business that you just decided to let go.

Correct, correct.

Which, like if you're ever thinking people that you can't acquire multi million dollar businesses could have acquired that one.

I did it, I literally sold it to somebody on terms, right? I mean, and it was multimillion dollar business that at that point, you know, people are motivated for a lot of different reasons. It wasn't that I didn't believe in the business, I just believed in my other businesses more. Right. That's all it was.

And this was taking, I think about 80% of your time.

80% of my time, 20% of my revenue, 20% of my income, right. And so for me it was just tipping the scales way too much. And so I was like, you know, it's a great business, but it's not the business for me anymore.

I remember we had a whiteboard and we put the whole thing on the board and it was just like, why are we doing this?

What the hell are we doing? Right? It was, it was a real eye opening moment. And so I cut a deal with somebody and they're running it as a successful software company now on terms, right. I gave them the deal they wanted and great deal for them, better deal for me.

And that was a SaaS company.

That was a SaaS company.

So as a SaaS company doing multi millions of dollars a year that was able to be sold on terms and it was profitable. So that's pretty cool. As far as, because just to what Dustin was talking about, it's like you can't get people who have SaaS companies because they're expecting these huge valuations. Not all of them.

Yeah, I can take particularly not the.

Ones that, that don't come from Silicon Valley.

Well, here's what you have to, here's what I think you have to appreciate is that, you know, somebody, you guys were talking before here, if you're not asking the right questions, if you're not having the right conversations, how the hell would you possibly know what's going on in somebody's life, right? None of us are anywhere near as important as we think we are, right? Everybody's got their own thing going on all over the world. And in my particular case, I was running a lot of successful businesses. But this particular business, just in the portfolio of companies, was not attractive to me anymore. It was just that simple.

Which is also why private equity, family offices, investment banks, those are all good places for you guys to look because they're non performers for them. And their desire to have a return of say 6x or 10x on those businesses might be perfect for you because you can pick up something that can 2x3x4x.

I would equate to anybody that's in real estate, I would equate it to like a frustrated landlord. Yeah, that's what it is. Like a landlord that's owned income producing property, you know, they own a 60 unit apartment building, they've owned it forever. It makes money, but it's just the juice isn't worth the squeeze. I'm not, I'm not excited about it because I'm over here working on this 500 unit thing over here.

Right.

I mean it isn't that this is a bad thing, it's just not the thing for me. And so in cleaning up some of that stuff, what it allowed me to do was really focus on something I'm extremely passionate about. Right. Which was working with high level people, being in this mastermind, understanding the real power. The real power. When you get a lot of very, very highly qualified business owners in a room, it's, it's magic. I mean, when you get people in a room and you create an opportunity for them to be vulnerable, create an opportunity for them to have real conversations, create an opportunity for them to really connect, there is so much opportunity that spins out of that that, I mean, I was just telling Roland, I mean, we will have 250 members this year that in addition to paying us, you know, for it to be a part, my average member has been with me for four and a half years. So you just do the math real quick, right? You know, the cost of acquisition of that customer, that's worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to us in revenue. But even more so than that, when you create a community, they want to invest together, they want to do deals together, they want to. If everybody, you know, when you find your tribe, it's really, it's really valuable. I can tell you one thing I've really come to appreciate is that we all have a basic human need. And when you get right down to it, that we're, we all just want to belong. We're all looking for our tribe, we're all looking for that connectivity. And it's the reason we go to events, it's the reason you're in this room right now, by the way. It's the reason why we join Facebook groups or it's the reason we go to church or do there's, we're looking for connections and so when you provide that connectivity in a structured way, it is extremely powerful because all of that opportunity starts to spin out of it. Right. The deal flow, the funding we'll raise out of that group this year, $25 million. $25 million for us to go as a group, acquire $100 million in real estate. How are you structuring that as a red D?

Okay, and what's your like a 2.

And 20 or we, we give them a 4% pref and then it is 80. 20. So they get. The group gets 80, I take 20 on the profit on the split. And so clearly it's a great deal for me, but it's a great deal for them as well. What that means is that before, before I ever make a dollar, they're getting 4% on their money, period.

Right.

But then everything that the, that the fund creates and cash flow and profit, equity, etc. As we dispose of those properties, they will take that group, those members will get 80% of those profits.

And are you buying those properties for cash or are you buying them leverage?

No, we lever up.

So what's the leverage typically?

75%. So we will take. So again, if I have $25 million, that allows its beauty of real estate, that allows me to go buy $100 million in real estate. Right.

And same thing with businesses.

Right.

So you, so each year you can acquire $100 million worth of businesses, $100 million real estate. The money is there, you've got the 25 million down, got 75 million from relatively inexpensive available debt and you get 20% of the profits. And the average return on the 100.

Million is what, in a five year and a five year term? Typically we are an equity multiplier of about two and a half. So we're basically doubling their money and then 50% as well. Right.

So, so you make 150 in profits effectively off of that over a five year period, you pick up roughly 30 million. Let's knock off 5 million for interest. Just which is way much. So for every year you're effectively adding $25 million in free money. That's coming as a result of the mastermind on the side, in addition to the money that comes from the mastermind.

Yeah. And then not to mention. Yeah, literally getting paid to be cool to people, to. And a lot of the deals we're going into are the deals that are being generated inside the actual group. So now we're not going outside to look for real estate deals. Just like you wouldn't be going outside to be going looking. You know, somebody was talking about it earlier, guys, there's. There's deals here that they're not good for you, but they might be good for the person to your left or to your right. And there's so much to happen when you get inside of rooms like this. It's extremely powerful. You just got to, you know, you got to put yourself in the room.

So would you share? I put you on the spot if I can, for two things, because I really love your 4% video that you did, which I've watched a thousand times and still think it's just the best thing ever. And we happen to have a whiteboard here, so I don't know if you can do it that way or not, but would you do a version of that so you can show people how you call out who your ideal person is?

Sure.

And then after that, I'm going to ask if you would help them because you did such a great job last time. For somebody just starting, what would the message look like roughly, on that video letter to get them?

Yeah, I think that. I think the very first, before I get to it, I think the very somebody said earlier, I believe it was you said imposter syndrome.

Right.

Let me be as clear as I can here. Everybody does that. You're not alone. I go through it every day. Every day. And I know Roland has those moments. Everybody has those moments. It's completely natural. But I think it's important that you realize that you have a lot of value. And we live in a day and age right now where commanding authority has never been easier. Right? It's. If you can create content, you have these platforms that are all free to you, right? Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok. Commanding authority. Being authority in your marketplace on what you know, to be a pain point with your. The people you're trying to work with is very, very simple. You're going to have to make yourself uncomfortable. You have to get over the imposter stuff for sure. Do you have a way of doing that? You know, I have a couple things that I just remind myself of. I had somebody at my event last week that said something to the effect of, you know, can't I hear you? And I know I want to produce content, but I just don't like the way that I look on video. And I'm like, let me help you understand something. That's the way you fucking look.

Okay?

It ain't about the video. That's where you look, okay, who cares? They want to give you. They want you to tell them what to do. That's why you go on these platforms. In many cases, you're going on there, you're engaging with content where somebody is bringing value to your life. You have that within you right now. And when you're nervous about it, I would tell you very simply, this is the one thing I repeat to myself over and over and over again in those moments that this is where my competition will quit. This is where they'll quit. They'll get in their own head. They'll have an internal conversation, internal dialogue that will keep them from doing something as simple as turning a camera around and recording. If your competition will quit there, which they will, by the way, then how hard is it for you to be great? It's not hard.

Also, on the video thing, like, if you don't like the way you look on video, don't watch it.

Seriously.

I don't watch any of my videos.

Right.

I hate the way we all go through it. I can't even tell you how many times I've had conversations with, you know, my video team, like, you guys are making me look like an asshole. What are you doing here? Stop.

Right?

And it's. I. We all go through this. That's part of that imposter center. It doesn't matter.

That freeze frame is always going to.

Be, oh, I have never. I literally have never had one thumbnail that was. That was, you know, the kind of thumbnail I want. It's always like, I'm like, why does it stop there?

A professionally done photograph of yourself that you like and make that your thumbnail.

And never watch your damn videos. Right? But the point of it is, is you can become. Here's what's going to happen. If you go out and let's just say you wanted to start a mastermind or wanted to start a, you know, a group there, spend a few weeks and get some content out there. Because what's going to happen is as people are. As you're inviting people or you're trying to bring people into your world, they are for sure going to do the same thing you do. And they are going to go look at your online Resume, which is LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram. What do you do when. When you're trying to find out somebody about some. I mean, when you're trying to find out something about somebody, you go and look them up on social media. It's what you do. So it's naturally they're going to do the same. So have that content out there that, hey, this is what I specialize in. So back to what, what you were talking about, the ad is that when I got real serious, I figured out that my superpower, the people I serve the best, are not brand new real estate investors, right? My day for doing that real estate, you know, those days are over. I have an entire organization, but that doesn't excite me and it doesn't light me up. But I also realized that there is a huge part of the market that is largely ignored. There's a tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars is spent every year trying to convince somebody off the street. You know, they've watched Chip and Joanna Gaines or they've watched Flip this House and let me convince that person they can come into real estate. I mean, it's a massive business, right? But nobody ever shows people how to turn this hustle, this hobby into a real business, right? Most people, when they come into real estate, I'm sure this. And again, this is my. I'm walking you down. The thought process I had to go down is that what's the pain point that I can solve? And the pain point I could solve was I know I'm really good at taking somebody that's hustling, running up and down the street. They don't own a business, they're flipping houses, they're making a million dollars a year. But the business, it isn't a business. They don't have staff, they don't have leverage, they don't have process, they don't have systems. You know, it's them that taking that person and turning them into an actual business owner, right? With systems, processes, staff, C suite type people. That's what I'm good at. And so I called it out on a video and I had no problem being polarizing. And it is without a doubt the best performing ad we have ever produced.

Such a good ad.

And I literally look right at the camera and I basically say, hey, for 95% of you, this video is not for you. If you're brand new to real estate, this video is not for you. Go ahead, just move on. Don't even watch the rest of this video. And I literally hit the camera and move it, right? And then it comes back. I'm like, all right, if you're still here, then you're in that 5%. 1% of you of that 5 have got this all figured out. You're crushing the game. That remaining four, you're trying to figure out how to get to the next level, right? I'm talking to you. You're the hustlers, you're the big. You're the earners, but you're. You don't know how to run a business. And let me tell you how. If you know whether or not, you know, you own a business or not is real simple. Just leave, right? And if you leave and the money stops, you don't own a business, baby. You own a job. And if that's you, I can help you. I can show you exactly what it looks like to take that hustle and turn it into a real business. Here's exactly what you need to do to get on a phone call with me and my team, and we'll walk you through the process of how to become a part of our world, and we'll turn you into a business owner. And that is effectively what it said. And it crushes to this day. It crushes to this day because I'm speaking, I'm calling out. I'm doing two things. I'm being divisive and I'm being polarizing. I'm literally calling out the people that I know. This is their pain. I know exactly who you are. And equally, they hear me calling out, this is not for beginners. This is not for the just getting started. I can't even talk to you right now. This is who I want in my world. And so they identify with, that's me, and that's who I want to be around. Somebody that talks like that, speaks like that. You know, one thing I can tell you, probably some of the best advice I can tell you when it comes to commanding authority is be you. Be authentic. One of the most highest resonating emotions, frequencies that we have as human beings is we gravitate to authentic authenticity. When you're authentic, you know, for years, I'll tell you, I used to go and speak on stages, et cetera. And I would go up there in a coat and tie, and I would be all prim and proper and all that kind of stuff. And what I ended up doing was attracting people into my business that weren't attracted to the real me. And then they get behind the curtain and they see me in flip flops and a T shirt and using colorful language, and they're like, what the hell just happened?

Right?

And so when I actually went out there and said, look, this is who I am. This is what it's all about for me, and this is who I want to surround myself with. This is the pain points. I can solve these Are the people I want to be in my world I want to work with. I mean that naturally it does. The way I say it all the time is it has a hundred percent close rate. Here's what I mean by that. I'm going out of my way to be as real as I can. Not polished at all. Because I know 50% of that audience are going to be attracted to me, and they're going to come right, and they're going to come running. They're going to be like, that's my guy. And 50% are going to be like, dude, that guy is so full of shit. And they're going to run away. Either way, I win. Either way, I win. I'm closing 100% that way because I've run people away from me that I are not going to bring value to my life, and I can't bring value to their life. They're the disbelievers. They're all, I don't care. But I have 100% attracted the people that get it. And when you put a, you know, get in a room with a bunch of people around you that get it and understand what you're trying to do and how you're trying to push them ahead. And again, I mean, everybody's kind of singing from the same hymnal. It's a very, very powerful concept when it comes to creating opportunity, creating deal flow. The conversations are very natural in that environment. It is not. It's not transactional, right? Which is part of why somebody. Some of you guys have reservations, right, Is because it feels transactional, and it should. It should be conversational. It should just be, hey, it's relationships now. I'm talking to people, you're talking to people. We're figuring out how to help each other get to another place. I got a deal, you've got a deal. Let's figure out a way to do a deal together. And when you get in that environment, man, it's. It's powerful.

And if you're thinking, well, 4%, that's. That's not enough people. I think there's about 2 million real estate investors that are out there. So if Kent gets 1/2 of 1% of those people, right, he still ends up with 400 people in his mastermind, which is 150 more than he's got right now. So there's, like, there's plenty of opportunity to capture that tiny little bit. And speaking to them so directly makes a huge difference in how eager they are to come and be a part of your.

Your Group.

I mean, don't kid yourself. There are other real estate masterminds and we hear it over and over and over and over again. This is so different, right? This is like nothing I've ever been around. Like it's the caliber of people. And by the way, we carefully curate the people that come in the room, which I think is a big deal. Also, you'll get to a certain level to where especially running a mastermind, you cannot, you know, learning some early lessons, you cannot chase the money. You cannot chase the money because what happens is you will go after the dollar. Oh, I got to get this $25,000 member or this. And you will invite people into the group that are not a good fit. And that is the death of a mastermind.

Right?

You get people in there, they will, they will, they will just infect the entire thing. It's like a cancer. And so you got to curate it. You know, you have to make sure that the people that you're bringing in there are, we're all on the same page, everybody understands what they're trying to accomplish, etc. But if you take the time, you know, and you're in your patient, you can build an extremely powerful organization where you will never have to go look for money or funding or opportunity ever again.

Now, will you share a little bit about the model? So you have people now and the mastermind or the mastermind attracts people that are interested into your orbit and you've got a consulting model where they come, which I'd like for you to talk about and what you charge and then how does that lead to equity? And also the challenge that you and I talked about when you said I don't understand why a lot of these aren't converting to equity. And we had a conversation about kind of how to pre frame people for that. Would you share that?

Sure, sure. So, so my, our core business model at this point is the mastermind. We have two levels in it, which I think is important. The reason why that is important is because just like any group, people will naturally feel like they are outgrowing the group. So people come into masterminds for a couple different reasons or a few different reasons, I should say. A lot of people come into masterminds because they want the tactics, they want something very tangible. You're going to tell me to do this and I go home and I do that. There are people that come in there, you know, for the opportunity to partner and work together, right? And then you got people that come in there, they just want the Connections, they want to fill their Rolodex, and then they want to walk out the door. And so we learned a long time ago that we have to give them an opportunity to move up with us, right? And so as their business grows, as they begin to become bigger and better business owners, they have to have a place to go. So we have what's called our boardroom, which is $30,000 a year, and then we have what's called our billionaire boardroom, which is $60,000 a year. And the difference between the two is that in order for them to get into the billionaire boardroom, they have to be able to document to us that they are, at a minimum, making a net profit every year, $5 million. And then they get full access to the four quarterly meetings, normal meetings, but they also get two other exclusive meetings for those 59 people that are in the billionaire boardroom group. And typically both of those types of meetings, because that level of entrepreneur, it's much more experiential, right? Less tactical. There's some tactical, but it's much more about breaking bread together, being in cool places. Next month, we're taking that group to Belize. We did Vail earlier this year. Next year we'll take them to the Bahamas. You know, we try to get them and their spouses somewhere where it's just more about, hey, this is our little, tight little circle. And so naturally, what happens is the board remembers are like, I got to get my business where I can get in a billionaire group, right? Because that's where all the cool kids hang out, and that's really important. And so as they're moving, they don't want to disconnect from us. They want to stay with us because this is their family. And so I think it's important to share that what has not kind of naturally spent spend out of that. And Roland and I spent a lot of time talking about this over the last few years. Again, I have. I'm a little bit like Roland, but just more real estate focused. I have. I have a unique skill set and that I can help people unlock what's going on and, you know, help them to really become good CEOs. Good business owners, good business leaders really kind of change the way they look at the business, unlock opportunities. I was meeting with somebody this week. She came to me, and she. She literally flew here from Qatar, and she had tons of opportunity inside of her business, and she just didn't have a good, logical plan on how to go and do it. She walked out of my office after a Single day and was like, this is exactly how I'm going to go make $20 million before the end of the year. That's a, you know, unique. Sometimes we just need some perspective. He does it to me all the time. If I go meet with him, I'll sit there and, you know, he'll see something in my business and it's just like, I'm so close to it, I can't see it. We're all guilty of it. And so I started working with people privately and the way I structured that. And a lot of them are boardroom members, not all of them. A lot of different businesses, they can come and effectively, for six months, they can pay me 50 grand or 60 grand. 50 grand they pay in full. Or for a year, they can pay me 120 grand or 100 grand if they pay it all up front. For that, they get one day. I get to come into my office for one day and we game plan. And then every 10 to 14 days, I get on the phone with them and make sure they're executing on exactly what they're supposed to do. It's not a great deal of time. Basically, at any given time, have 10 to 12 people that I'm working with. It's a revenue source for me. More importantly for me, what it's allowed me to do is to get behind the scenes of these businesses and understand what's going on in at least, I guess, five or six cases right here. Ultimately, we took an equity position in their company. We have a roofing company that we were in about 8 months. We 6x their business through private coaching, added in the last few months, added a real estate arm, and then became a 35% owner for no money out, by the way, 35% owner of the entire organization and have private equity now sniffing around, trying to roll them up into another. Another set of companies. The way what Roland is referring to, I'm now much more upfront when I tell them that, listen, this is a way to get on the inside with me so that I can really understand your business. And my evil scheme is that hopefully we uncover a way that I can ultimately become a partner with you. Right.

That to me was a really important thing for me to understand because I've been doing that. But Kent called me and said. Or we were just talking, and he said, how do so many of them turn into equity deals? Because I don't see that happening as much. And we talked about. And I said, I said, do you tell them that in advance? Right? And he said, No, I just tell them we're going to work on their business. I said, just add that one little thing, one line. Literally.

That's literally the line.

It's amazing how simple some of those things are.

And by the way, it's a benefit. That was really interesting to me because, you know, when you get to a certain place, there are people that want to be in business with you and to call you a partner is a big deal. And so I just wasn't using it as a benefit. Right. I was just kind of playing behind the scenes. And all of a sudden I pushed it out front and said, here's what I'm really trying to do. I'm going to help you regardless. Right? We're going to get. I'm going to show you how to, you know, blow up your business. We're going to turn this into a big monster. But what I hope happens is that through this journey that we figure out a way that we become equity partners together and that this becomes mutually beneficial all the way down the line. And time and time again, now we have people, you know, when are we going to have that discussion?

It is funny. Like, they chase you for it more often than that.

When are we going to have that? I mean, that roofing company I just talked about, that's literally how it came about. He's like, hey, I want to have this discussion now. This is what I'm willing to give you guys. And done the same thing inside of an alarm company, national alarm company, done the same thing inside of several real estate businesses, a direct mail business, which you, you know about getting ready to do the same thing inside of a national title company business. There's a lot of, there's a lot of opportunity that. And I would argue something as simple as that. It's nuance.

Yeah.

It's not, you know, it's. It's not blocking and tackling, it's a.

Sentence and just kind of putting a. A value on that. Because I think it's important for you guys when you're doing consulting to realize that if you're consulting with people that already have stuff going on, it doesn't take much to dramatically move the needle. And so if you're charging 5,000, 10,000, 25, 50, 100, whatever you're charging to get a 10x return on that, which is always my goal. Right. Minimum for somebody that invests the money to do a consult is not that hard. It's hard if they're not doing anything but, like just that nuance for you in the last 12 months.

Well, I'll give you a really good example of this because I believe I heard it in the room. You know, one of the most powerful things that you've shared with me over the years, and we've had the conversation many, many times, and I, you know, by proxy, go and share it with my people when I'm coaching them, is who owns your customer, right? So when you're consulting with somebody, I'll tell you, this is a right in the weeds. You know, just take the roofing company, for instance. This guy's a big roofing company in Phoenix. And this guy, they're literally going out direct to consumer. That's their business, right? And they make a ton of money when it comes to storms that blow through there and all that kind of stuff. Now, the way we 6x their business was that simple question. Who owns your customer? Who's actually doing all the heavy lifting for you right now that you just aren't asking the right questions? And suddenly we get them in alignment with Open Door and Offer Pad and some of the hedge funds. People that are taking down hundreds and hundreds of houses a month and that are looking for a roofing company that they can count on over and over and over. And so his cost of acquisition of a customer goes to zero. But instead of going out and, you know, doing 10 roofs a month, he's doing 60 roofs a month, 100 roofs a month, right? And is having to go and buy new trucks and a new facility and a new yard and all this other stuff because of one simple question. And a lot of times, you know, you're. You know, when you get in rooms like this and you hear things from all the guys that are up here, you know, including, most importantly, Roland. You know, it isn't like you have to go boil the ocean for these guys. Like, you don't have to solve every problem. You just got to look at it through a different lens and, you know, really help them to get a little distance from it and ask a different question. And that one question is extremely powerful when you're trying to consult with somebody. I did the exact same thing with the alarm company, by the way. Went in there and they were going door to door. Who's doing all this heavy lifting for you already? Let's go do a deal with a national home builder. Put a deal together. Explodes their business, right? I mean, tens of millions of dollars in new profit. Not like I did anything revolutionary. I just. They needed somebody to sit in front of them and ask the right question and open them up to the opportunity and push them to go connect that dot.

So, and those questions, by the way, so for in cfe, in the program, in the portal, you have consults that have all those questions already built in. So when you go, like, you don't even have to know what those questions are, because we do. And we already built the consult for you. And you've got six different ones that are in there that are very, very systematic about walking people through to get the answers to questions like that.

Well, and I guess the point I'm trying to make is I think a lot of times when it comes to consulting, people think they have to have the answer right. It's not that you have to ask the right question. You have to make them find the answer.

The answer is there already.

You got it.

You just have to uncover it.

Yeah, that's your job. Like, you literally sit in front of, ask the questions and their answers will reveal themselves. They're not coming, at least in my experience, they're not coming to me for the answer. They're coming for me to ask the right questions so that they can get the answer. And that is extremely valuable to them because they are. They're real business owners. Right. They know, like, if they get the right, you know, the, the right tactic, they will go and execute and they will go. And then your job as a consultant is to hold them accountable to do that. So this is a very straightforward thing you're doing with these people, but it's extremely valuable because they just don't have somebody in their corner that's making them answer different questions. They're too close to it.

So I'm going to ask you for one more marketing bit and then I want to open up questions because you did such an amazing job last time for our lady that wanted to do the pest control mastermind. Just if you were starting from scratch, what does that video message look like? You held your phone up to yourself and just kind of rattled off on pest control. Really good. No, on anything.

Just to do a mastermind.

Pick. Pick one. Who wants to do a mastermind in here?

Go ahead, Ashley.

What is your mastermind?

Plant medicine in business.

There you go.

What is it? Plant medicine. Plant medicine. You're selling weed?

Plant based medicine.

Okay, so hold on, let me think.

So this would be a mastermind for people who have businesses that are in.

That industry that would like to use.

Plant medicine to launch, you know, facilitate the split explosion of their business? Yeah, I mean, I would know.

Frank's would be. Y' all want to get high.

You know what?

There's two things I love. Getting high and getting together. That's exactly what you would say. That's exactly.

We. We were working to buy a company called. Called Hickory Farms that was a. Like makes summer sausage. And Frank's like, man, I got the perfect thing for you. He's like, y' all want some sausage?

Exactly. I would call out that. If you're like me and you are excited about all the new developments that are coming up that are all in the headlines today about the opportunities associated with CBD and THC and all the new remedies and all the new use cases. But you are having trouble finding your tribe, finding the people where you can have common conversations about how to get over very serious obstacles that are out there, not only in the business side, but in the political side and in the legislation side. I've got the perfect place for you. Here's where we get in a room, we discuss and band together on exactly how to go and solve all those challenges, how to solve common problems, how to get the industry or get the common person on the street excited about all the new developments that. That are just around the corner in this amazing industry that we're in. Something along those lines, right? I mean, you basically got to call out that you know what's exciting for them. Hey, I'm like you. That's what you're basically saying. And then point out that you know what their pain is like when you're coming into this industry, you're trying to convince. I mean, it's a much easier out here in California. But, you know, my family still lives back in. Or a lot of my family lives back in Tennessee. I mean, it could not be on any more polar opposites, right? Out here, you're smoking weed or. I mean, it's like, it's no big deal. You will go to jail out there, right? Yeah, it's wild. Like, it is no joke. Like, if you. And so I would call out, you know, that, listen, if you're as passionate about this as I am and you believe in what this actually does for people and, you know, this helps people, then we need to come together as a group to get over these obstacles, whatever they are. Boom, boom, boom, right? Making it more commonplace, educating the public about it, fighting legislation, I don't know. Whatever they are, but whatever their pain is, that that's keeping them up at night, point it out and then say, this is the place where we take those obstacles on, where we come together as a group and we make Real things happen and push this industry forward. That makes sense. Awesome. Thank you. That's great.

Okay, so. So who's got questions for Kent now? Kent's done tons of consulting for equity deals, acquisitions, business deals, fundraising, all those things. So any of those topics, masterminds, obviously, that you have, anything you guys have questions on, feel free to ask. Is a great opportunity.

All right, I'm going to start it.

Off working on thinking bigger, right?

Well, you just. So he knows to be able to address you by name. Just say your name.

Yeah.

Lamarck, Mark.

Anything close works. Nobody's going to hold you accountable to thinking bigger, right? So you, you. You know, I've got two companies now. One we bought using the EPIC system. We 4x the revenue. We're going to do way, way past that this year looking to buy another company that is essentially going to take a, you know, turn a cost center that we currently have into a profit center. So I'm trying to break it even sooner. I'm trying really hard, like trying to frame up in my head it's like 3 to 5 million because the big companies, right, are doing 8 million. So that's a reasonable like thing. But then I watched Richard Branson's masterclass, right? And he talks about the Boeing deal where he couldn't borrow 10 million. He tried. So then he bought $1 billion worth of planes and rolled the 10 million into it. And that's how he got his capital. And I was like, shit, this is a rolling moment. This is what Roland does all the time. How do I get past that third, fourth wall?

Can you help me?

Give me some examples where you've been looking at a problem like that and you're like, can I go big? Can I go bigger? How do I get there? How do I stretch my brain? Slash the math in my head.

I tell you what, the. I appreciate the question.

The.

Best way that I know how to expand your thinking thinking is expand the people and up level the people that you're getting around, right? If your circle is. This happens to people all the time, whether it's pride, whether it's what it. There are people in this room right now that when they go back home, they're a big deal. Like they're the most successful person in their friend group. They're the most. Whatever the case may be, right? And those people, it's not that they're trying to do it, inevitably they're holding you back, right? If you want to think bigger, go hang out with billionaires. Go get around people. You know, I Spend a lot of time with a lot of really successful people. You know, Roland's at the top of the list. But, you know, I've got friends. I'm very. Ed. My lead is one of my closest friends, right? Jesse Itzler is one of my closest friends. A lot of guys like that. Dan Fleischman, Joel Marion, Bobby Castro. There's some. I mean, these guys are worth hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars in many cases. And you'll quickly figure out that there is no nobility in thinking small, right? It's a zero. It is literally a zero. That's all it is. It is a. It is a matter of, you know, I say this self to my. I say this to myself all the time. Is that when. Risk is always better than regret. Risk is always better than regret. I do not want to be on my deathbed regretting in any way, shape or form what I could have done or should have done. Let me risk. Let me go for it. What's the worst thing that can happen, Right? I'm going to go. I'm going to go as big as I can go. And if I get told no, if I get slapped down, it's not going to kill me. I survived 100% of all my bad days and all my biggest mistakes. I. I'm still here. There's no. No building and going low, right? This is. You got one shot. I mean, I got a tattoo right here where it says, the time is now, and one that says, mediocrity is the enemy. You know, I. The time is now. This is whether you like it or not, this is the moment. You know, I would tell everybody one of the best exercises that I do to myself to this day, and I encourage other people to do it. That makes me go big, really big, is, you know, if you're. If you're a man, write down the number 78. If you're a female, write down 82 and subtract your current age. This is a formula. Everybody do this real quick, right? If you're a man, write down the number 78. If you're a woman, write down 82 and subtract your current age, okay? Now take that number and Multiply it times365. What you will have just calculated is, statistically speaking, how many days you have left on this planet, okay? And I don't care who you are, that number is way too small. Now, if you want to be a gangster, you want to get out of your own head and stop, you know, playing small, get a dry erase Marker and go write that number on your mirror in your master bathroom where you brush your teeth and comb your hair. And every morning when you wake up, you get to count that bitch down right now. And when you do that, you will quickly evaluate, what's the point? This is all I got left. Why would I ever play small? Why would I. What would be the point of that? Why would I ever say, I'm going to get to it next year, next month, or we'll reach Those goals in five years, 10 years, dude, get it now.

Now.

The only way to get it now is to go big. And when you get real serious about every one of those days being the best of your days, all that kind of inner dialogue to me personally, just kind of goes away. I don't, I just don't give a right. I'm going to go as big as I got to go and as hard as I got to go, and I'm going to wring everything out of life that I possibly can. That's just the way I play. You got it, bro.

Hey, Kent. Arthur Alexander.

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you too.

Thank you.

I took a lot of notes. Top three books.

Oh, great question. Top three books. The very top of that is the Alchemist by Paulo Coel. Okay. Not a business book, but a life changing book for sure. Next one. I mean, it's, you know, I, I tell you a book that has had a profound impact on me in the last couple of years is Principles by Ray Dalio. And then, you know, I always love, when I go, I refer to a lot is Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harve Eker. It really, it really helped me to understand that successful people think differently. You know, most people are trapped by what's going on in their head. And I would also, you know, Michael Gerber, the E Myth. These are. If you've never read Traction or Rocket Fuel, those are great books.

Finish it yesterday.

Yeah, Though I think that, I think that what you have to appreciate, and again, I appreciate the question is just that, you know, you are a product of the environment that you put yourself in, the books you read, the people you hang out with, the conversations you have. And it's real easy to get lazy about that.

Right.

And you got to realize that every, every dialogue, if you're sitting around vegging out and watching Netflix or if you are just having a casual conversation with a high school buddy, that's a deadbeat. I mean, that's impacting you. And if you want to change your outcome, get around Better people get in bigger rooms, get in better rooms, have elevated conversations. It's hard to have small minded conversations about high level people. I mean, I was, I was talking to Ed yesterday and you know, he just came out with a new book, you know. Yeah. Oh yeah, it's great. And, and it was so funny because yesterday morning with my trainer, I pushed a weighted sled. 45, 45 pounds on top of the 45 pounds, so 90 pounds, right. And I pushed this bitch a mile, a mile, right, 1600 meters, four times around the track. I'm 52 years old. I'm way too old to be doing that shit, right? But what was repeating in my head over and over and over because I've heard him say it at dinner, I've heard him say it on stage, I've heard it, I've read it in the book is just one more, just one more step, one more meter, one more lap, one more minute. And when you just, you know, that's the, that's the point of hanging around. I mean, Roland has told me so many things over the year that just play on repeat in my head. Like, hey, you know, how do you turn your expenses into income? How do you mean? There's little things that just, you pick up around very, very high caliber people and the books you read that you never know what kind of impact it's going to play, but it's for sure making an impact. The version of that, that, that Ed.

Told you too, Arnold Schwarzenegger told me is it's one more rep, gets me closer. Like every rep that I do, everything that I do, I figure I'm one rep closer, one step more, one step closer, one rep closer. That's, that's how you achieve anything, right?

So it translates so well to business. Translates so well to business, right? You talk about the imposter syndrome, you know, you get over it. One more, yeah, make one more phone call, have one more conversation, make one more big decision, make. If it scares the shit out of you, you need to do it like that's, that's how you grow. And if you're not pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone and doing things that scare you, then you are, by virtue of that, you are coasting. You're comfortable, you're going in the wrong direction. There's only one way to coast that's downhill. You have to pedal to go uphill, period. And so if you find yourself in those situations where I'm just going to do what's comfortable going to the wrong direction, baby.

Do you Find yourself annoyed frequently at not thinking big enough, even though a lot of people might think that you think very big.

I find myself. That's a. That's a really good question. I find myself very annoyed after I meet with you.

That's just my personality.

After I meet. After I meet with Ed and, you know, that whole little group up there, time and time and time again, it happens to me where in my world, I'm the big thinker, right? And then I go put myself in another room, and you're like, I've literally had Bobby Castro and Ed Mylett at dinner with me. Sit there and say, kent, we don't understand why you're not a billionaire yet. And I'm like, I mean. And that's that. But I love it, right? But I'm getting challenged.

Yeah.

Like, we don't understand why this hasn't happened. What are you doing that, you know, why are you not pushing harder? And you know where all I did was hang around all the people that do nothing but blow sunshine up my ass and tell me how great I am. I would never have that conversation, right? But these are guys looking at me like, you know, you can do so much more. Why are you not doing more? And that's what you have to do.

I think that's a good barometer, is if you don't find that you're annoyed at yourself for not thinking bigger, really often you're around the wrong people and you got to not.

Not that it's bad, because it is.

Good to share, right? It's not that you only should spend time with people smarter than you, because then you're just selfish, right? You have to be giving back, too. But you should be, I think, regularly saying, I'm not playing big enough and how can I play bigger? I mean, and even Bezos just got passed up, right? So it's like, even he should be doing that as well. If you want to keep growing, you know, maybe you. You know, you're happy with a couple hundred billion loser, right?

And.

And you're like, I don't need to make more money. You know, But. But seriously, I. I think in your personal life, in every aspect of life, you know, financial relationships, et cetera, et cetera. If that's not what if you're not learning and having breakthroughs constantly, then you're playing too small. If you're not annoyed because you see people or the people that you're surrounded, that you've surrounded yourself with, are telling you things that you're like, why didn't I see that.

I can't believe it. And, well, somebody said it earlier. I can't remember who said it, but get comfortable being uncomfortable. And I think that's. You have to be. I have an intimate relationship with discomfort.

Yeah. You should seek it out.

Yeah. I have a very good relationship with pain, discomfort, where I understand, you know, what it looks like to feel that, to embrace it, and to use it as the wind at my back. But if you're not. If you don't feel it, it's really hard to know that it really is.

Okay, one more question, if anybody has one. Right there. Thank you. Okay, Somebody else that can catch. Next question.

I know you mentioned it's only you who is limiting yourself to, you know, outgrow, but some of us are in family situations.

You have your other half.

You're ready to take that leap, but your other half is not. Have you ever been in those situations like that? You know what's funny is I get asked this a lot because my wife works inside of my company, Right. And I had at my event last week. I did not ask Grant. Grant Cardone. I did not ask Grant to come speak on my stage. I asked Elena to come speak on my stage because I know how powerful of a force she really is behind the scenes, and I know she's the one that drove him to become the best version of himself. That. That is a team. I can tell you, you know, in my humble opinion, that it is. It is very challenging. I don't. I don't envy you at all. It's very challenging to have somebody that is. Even in a loving way, that is potentially pulling you backwards.

Right.

But as the saying goes, the selling starts when somebody says no. And from your standpoint, you know, as the husband and as an equal partner in this relationship, the selling starts when she or anybody else is digging in their heels. You have to become better at selling your ideas. You have to become more influential. You know, another great book is the Psychology of Influence. Robert Cialdini. Right. You should go read that book. There's a way to present your ideas, and there's a way to have conversations with people where they buy in to what you're trying to do. They believe deeply in what you're trying to accomplish. And that's not only in a marriage, but that's in a partnership, and that's in bringing on equity partners, and that's in bringing on lenders. I mean, one of the best skill sets you can have as a CEO and as a business leader is understand understanding how to influence and persuade people and win their confidence in your ideas. That's a skill that when you refine that, it will just make you wildly rich. And I would tell you that I'm giving you the best answer I know because I don't know your exact situation, but I would tell you that I would start there. I would, I would challenge myself if I were in your shoes, that I have to learn how to become better at selling, selling my ideas to my spouse and to my family and really help them understand what my, what I believe our future is together. What I'm trying to accomplish in my life, what fills up my cup, what gives me, you know, gives me so much satisfaction and why I'm going down this journey. A lot of times those concerns, they come, they're, they're born in financial risk. Hey, we work so hard to get here, we don't want to lose it. It's more of a fear based thing. The reality of it is, brother, you didn't come this far to come this far, right? You got a lot of life ahead of you. You got a big journey ahead of you. You're at the beginning of the book, not the end of the book. And for anybody to stifle your growth and to deny you the opportunity to keep filling up your cup, you have to take that as a, as a personal opportunity for you to improve on how to sell your ideas. It's the best answer I can give you.

It's pretty great answer.

Awesome.

Let's give Kent a big hand. Thank you so much.

Really appreciate it.

Hey, Roland Fraser here.

If you're looking for a way to.

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