EP 368 – Good Success In Gary with Tom Olson

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This is the no Closer show where you get the latest developments in distressed note investing and learn the secrets of how you can control millions of dollars worth of property for pennies on the dollar. Get educated and entertained by someone who has closed thousands of deals and lives to support you in achieving the same. Now, here's your host, CEO of We Close notes, Scott Carson.

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, everybody. Welcome to this episode of the Note Closer Show. As always, Scott Clarson. Excited to be here with you this morning, this afternoon, this evening, whenever you're watching or listening to the show. And we are honored to have my friend Tom Olson from Good Success join us this morning from Maryville, Indiana. Good morning, Tom.

Good morning. How you doing, sir?

I'm doing great, man. Good to have you.

Good to be seen. It's a nice day up here in Northwest Indiana. I'm actually right outside Chicago, so Maryville, Indian, Indiana. My office is actually in Gary, Indiana, so just inside the city limits in Cayumet Township. And it's a brisk morning up here. We were at 37 degrees or something like that overnight. So I kind of like this weather, though, so it's good.

So do. I mean, I like it when it gets a little chillier. The bear isn't as hot.

That's true. Absolutely.

So for those that don't know, Tom actually just won an amazing award not too long from Thinking Realty magazine as a Real estate investor of the Year, Correct?

I did. Let me see if I can find that. Oh, here we go. It's actually in my office here. So this looks like right here Single Family Investor of the Year. So I'm very honored and humbled for that. Somebody else would would think that's probably the guys in my mastermind voting for me. So, I mean, you know how that goes. When you know who you are, then you get voted for. So I appreciate that. I really do believe in the Think Realty platform. They do have a lot of stuff going on and I they are going to be the voice for real estate investors. I do appreciate and like them.

A lot of they do Totally, totally agree with that. Great over there. And I just heard that Carol has stepped down as editor in chief to go on with her and Brian because their real estate company's booming out of land in the neck of the woods. So kudos to her and everything over there. But let's talk more about you, the man, the myth, the legend out here. Tom and I've known each other for a while. We were both members. I don't Know if you still are or not. Both members of the collective Genius Mastermind a while back. That's how we. I think we initially met. You run an amazing mastermind as well. You want to talk a little about your mastermind, but actually, before we dive in, talk a little about yourself. Tell everybody a little bit about who Tom Olson the man is.

So. Oh, gosh. I mean, how much time you got? This is like. This is like story time here. So I don't know. I. I'll just go with what I am or what we're doing today. So today I own several different companies. One's called Olson Group, which we buy and sell real estate. So we buy houses, we fix them up, we rent them, we buy, fix them up and sell them retail. We wholesale a little bit. We don't wholesale a lot. And then we also do a program called Active Turnkey. So that's when people want to buy houses, cash from us as a wholesaler. And then I also, after the buy and sell company, I have a construction management company. Construction is kind of my background. I've been doing it since I was 12 years old. Last year, we did about $5 million in renovation in that business for other investors. And now we're doing a lot more for ourself for Olson Group, but we also do a lot of work for other investors in the Chicagoland, northwest Indiana area. And then I have a property management company called Olson Property Services. In addition to those three companies, I also have the Good Success Company, which is a real estate education company that talks about how to have the right kind of success. That's what we preach and teach. It's all about why you do what you do and making sure that you're doing the right thing for the right reason. And at the end of the day, it's just like when everybody asked me, how do you have 115 people on your lenders list? You know, I got people that want to lend me money all the time. I have more people that want to lend me money than I can actually take their money. And they ask me, how do you build that? I'm like, just pay people back. You just do the right thing over and over and over again. And you just get to the point where people start seeking you out instead of you trying to seek out people to loan you money. So that's kind of what we're doing right now. The Good Success Mastermind. Yes, we. It's for elite entrepreneurs, and that's really a blessing to me. We're actually having our next event Coming up here in November, November 7th, 8th and 9th in Miami because nobody wants to be in Chicago in November. So we're going into the warm state of Florida, be in Miami and it's a great time to be able to network with people like yourself and people of status that have been doing this for. I'm like the guy I'm not really good at like getting people off their butts to like start. That's you. I think you're like really good at that, Scott. Like you could just like motivate people to get that first deal done. Like, I'm not that guy. I'm the guy that really takes people once they've gotten off their butt and once they've started something, I can get people from the 5 yard line maybe down to the 50 or 75 yard line much better than I can kind of get people to get started. And that's kind of what that masterminds for people that are already doing it and people that are already have some success, but they're trying to figure out how to scale, how to work in there. Because when you get to this point in your business, it's like you got to become a business. You can't just like be that solar entrepreneur, that person that's doing everything. You got to figure out how to, how to work business, how to have hr, how to have, how to hire properly, how to fire properly. And I think that obviously everybody has their own challenge. Whether it's like trying to find private money. Some people have too much money, they don't know where to put it. So some of those people are in my mastermind, I got people that can offer support and actually help and sit. Like Gary Harper is in our mastermind that can help set up people with eos or with a system for their business. And we have a good time. It's an encouraging week and we can really help encourage each other. We can support each other, but also challenge people that to set those goals high and hit them and then hold each other accountable. So it's a good time.

Very, very good stuff out there, man. And we spent some time visiting a little bit on the FFN cruise. It's hard to believe it's been 10 months since the cruise. Right. Time flies when you're having fun, right?

Yeah, that was the Financial Friends Network and that. Yeah, they're actually doing another cruise to Cuba in May that I'll be on and speaking on. But it's another great network I'd love for people to plug into.

Exactly. I will be in Europe on that. Otherwise I'd be in Viva la Cuba.

Well, it's funny. They're like. Like, I've got guys coming. They're actually going to Portugal in November as well, so I'm not going on that one. But they go all over the place. Walter and Quincy do do a great job with that Financial Friends network.

Yeah, it must be nice that when they get their age, they just take a cruise every quarter.

Yeah, that's true. You know, Walter's. Quincy's not that old. Walter's quite a bit older than Quincy, and I don't think people. People realize that, but Walter's like, I think he's in his mid to late 50s. And Quincy, I mean, I'm sorry, Quincy's in his late mid to late 50s, but I think Walter's in his late 60s, so.

Yeah, definitely.

But anyway, great, guys.

Exactly. So let's talk a little about that, because I love what you're doing with your podcast. I love what you do in the Mastermind. We run our Mastermind as well here. And it's my favorite weeks of the year when I get to hang with the people in our Mastermind. I'm sure it's the same way with you because you get a lot of energy out of everybody. It's great seeing what other people are doing and sharing everybody's journey along the way. And then also just nuggets just pour into it, right?

Oh, absolutely. I mean, to me, I think the biggest thing about the Mastermind is to express to people and articulate that you have to be vulnerable. And the more vulnerable people are in the Mastermind, the more powerful of a mastermind. I've been to Masterminds where it was, like, guts are, like, spilled out in front of everybody, and you end up at the end of that, like, having such a better experience and going so much farther that next quarter because of all the vulnerability. And I've been at Masterminds where it was kind of like, okay, I'm awesome. I was great, I did good, and I'm amazing. Come see me. Like, whatever. And those Masterminds have. You don't get as much out of. You don't get as much encouragement, you don't get as much challenge, and you don't get to connect with the people and support them the way that you could if you're being vulnerable. So to me, that's one of the most important things about a good Mastermind is to have awesome people in there that are going to tell you and be willing to, like, tell you when you're wrong. But in order to be able to have them tell you that, you've got to be willing to be open up and ask for help. And to me, it's like, it's just what I say, be a conduit, not a bucket. You have to be humble enough to ask for help, but then you also have to be giving enough to, like, once you have the knowledge to give that to the next person that is in your shoes that you were five years ago. So your network is your net worth. Absolutely. But in my opinion, it's more importantly than being your net worth, it's also your survival plan. And we talk about 2008, you know, what happens when that happens all over again. And it's going to be your network that keeps you steady and keeps you above flow. And sometimes it's more about staying afloat. It's more about staying alive in those times than it is about anything else. It's just the people that stayed alive during 2008, like, look at where they're at now. Those are the people that are rocking it. The people that went down with 2008 because they didn't have the network are the people that are. I know people are still rebuilding from 2008, 10 years later, and it's because they didn't have that solid network of people to really ride that wave.

I could not agree more with you on that, because it's all about sometimes we all pivot, right? We all pivot. We get used to doing one thing and doing it really well, getting in our groove. But then we have something like what happened 10 years ago, and we've got to adjust. You've got to make a 90 degree or 180 degree turn to figure out where you want to go. I'll be the first one to say I made a big pivot 10 years ago. And 8, 9 and 10 were not the greatest of years, but it built up to where I could capitalize in the last eight, to where I'm at today and where a lot of our students are and people are out there doing because they took advantage of what the market gave. Now, as the market's risen back up, some of those opportunities have dried up. They've got to be a little bit more flexible and be able to change and tweak and dip, dodge, duck and dive. You know, if you're a dodgeball fan. Not there. And I see a lot of things starting to build up to another meltdown, another explosion in the mortgage industry like we saw back a decade ago. May not be nearly as big, but there's still going to be a lot of opportunities changing versus this continued uphill climb we see in the market. I see we're going to take a dip and who knows where to go from there. But you've got to be flexible. When you have or surround yourself with great people, you often are able to find that pivot or be able to work with other individuals, are successful to kind of ride that wave together to avoid failure.

Yeah, I think we're in a very unique period of time right now. I'm very opportunistic. I really am. I believe that there are still markets out there that you should be looking at, that you should be investing in. But I also believe there's markets. If me personally, I would just stay out of this next market correction, I think is going to be different. I think everybody's expecting 2008 to happen all over again. It's not going to happen that way. Have you been tracking the. I'm sure you have. If you're in notes. I mean, have you been tracking the foreclosure rates as they have been starting to rise already? They're already kind of. People that are late on their payments are already back up to 3%. They're already kind of like starting. It was really unnatural to be at like 1% if you look at a long period of time. But now they're kind of creeping back up and we're even seeing them. We're starting to see even inventory back into the sheriff sales. So if you're a notes like that, you should know that that's an opportunity for you to be like looking at. I'm not saying necessarily be salivating, but it's already happening to a degree like that market turn is already happening, but it's going to turn in different ways than it did in 2008. And I think it's going to be a lot more localized. I think you're going to have markets like Dallas that may continue to just kind of do its thing. There's just too much population. When you have 2,000 people a week moving to Dallas, I don't see the prices dropping. You can't have that. But you see other areas of the country that may have the opposite effect because of different factors. So I think you gotta be very local in your mindset of what you're doing. And I think it's gonna be better to be more centrally located and building. The communities, I think is gonna be way more important in the next 10 years than it was in the previous 50 years.

I totally agree to that. So I just got a text from somebody saying, oh, Maryville. You made it sound like it was closer to Chicago versus being directly south of Gary into Indiana. You didn't shy away from your officers. Let's talk a little about Gary here real fast. Let's take a pivot here because I get people like, hey, Scott should be buying Gary. And I'm like, well, you gotta be very careful of Gary on a block by block basis. It's the only city that I've been to where I've been shot at twice.

Really? Yes. How long ago was that?

I'd love to talk about that one was about three years ago, actually, the second time. And then the first time was about five years ago as I was driving around.

So just that alone is something I will tell you that has taken a pivot in the last three years. Last five years. So up until about three or five years ago, if you looked at like the top 10, top hundred, top 50 dangerous places or dangerous communities, Gary was always in one of those lists. However, since 2015, we haven't even made the top 101 time. So as far as that is concerned, I'd be much more scared to walk down some places of Houston or walk down some places of Dallas or South Chicago or Baltimore or Detroit or St. Louis. I mean, there's lots of more. And those are the cities that are coming up consistently in those top, whatever dangerous places. I mean, I was just at Baltimore and I'm downtown, blocks away from downtown. You're like, holy crap. I just go, and. But Chicago is not that way. Chicago, you have to drive down five or six miles before you kind of get to south side, which is really where all 650 murders happen. Out of the 651 or whatever.

Yeah, the Shine Rock area, definitely.

But to me, I'm very, very excited about Gary, Indiana. We have seen the list prices go up $9,000 in the last nine months. And that's not a big deal for most places in the country. But when your average list price was $19,000, that's a big deal. We are buying houses all in at around 35, $40,000 right now that are renting for 750amonth. And the same neighborhoods, I'm seeing actual retail comps in the $60,000 range. And then in other areas like Tolleston and on the west side, we're seeing houses that not a single house has sold for over 40 grand in like 10 years since 2007. And now we're seeing. I mean we have four or five comps in those two areas that I just said that are over 100. It literally just jumped from 40 to 100 and then there's a comp for 115. So when you see that happen, I've known this is going to happen at some point. Everybody has to go somewhere. And I think because of the danger factor that's been taken away and because it's not like it was three or five years ago, they've tore down probably four or five thousand houses since in the last three or four years. And that's helped a lot. And really the help isn't really there for the people. So people are going back to Chicago, they're moving away. That are kind of the crime written type places. I am very big on Gary. Gary expanded their airport. They actually have a longer Runway now in Midway in Chicago.

Wow.

So their longest Runway can now handle like the largest planes in the world. And there's major, major things happening on the airport for logistic companies. You know, like FedEx really should be here. UPS should be. There's like small hubs, but they're not like they're major hubs. We have i65 that goes north and south all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. 8094 that goes east and west coast to coast right on Lake Michigan, which gives us waterways throughout the whole Great Lakes, plus gives us access to Mississippi River. And the one thing that people hate around here but they're great for transportation is trains. There are trains on half of blocks everywhere up and down Gary and everywhere. So Gary also has some big things coming for it. The South Shore train is actually expanding. They're putting an extra. There's already one that goes right through Gary and they're putting an extra track in. And the high speed rail is coming right through Gary which will go all the way to South Bend. To me, those are very big deals. I think it's either Bethlehem at the middle ice iter middle big steel manufacturer putting $750 million into a new part of their plant. 1200 new jobs that the governor just announced probably about two months ago. And in addition to that, Indiana is the only state in the Midwest. You know, people should know this, but Indiana is the only state in the Midwest that people are moving to instead of moving away from. And then we're right next to the reddest state when it comes to people moving. Not the reddest state politically, probably the bluest state in the union politically. Illinois, where people are just Moving away in droves because they can't handle the taxes that are getting placed on them. So with all that stuff happening, like we're getting car manufacturers, we're getting everything we really like, we're benefiting from all these other states having issues. But if you look at the Midwest, like Indiana is the only state that there is positive growth in population. So all those things to me, like, I'm very big on Gary, Indiana. One of my dreams, which you probably know, is to flip the entire city of Gary. I am bringing nonprofits here, I am bringing business here. I'm going to go next week talking about buying a six story building in the downtown portion of fifth Avenue and Broadway. It'll be like a centerpiece of the whole entire city, really, and making that into commercial space on the main level. And then the top levels will be residential. And I'm not sure it's going to happen, but it's just something that we're looking into. But we have flipped probably about 12 houses in Cayum at Township, which is where my office is, and we've raised the values in those 10 houses from about $85,000 to $140,000 in the last 18 months.

Wow.

And yes, I mean, people might look at me and say, you've made a bunch of money in that. But I'm like, to me, it's more important to the community what I'm doing. I actually had a cash offer on a property at 140, and I would have made the same money as a 150 offer that I end up later accepting with a conventional with them asking for all their stuff. And I took the 150 offer just to have the better comp, even though I make probably more money taking the lesser offer with them asking for more concessions. And I did it for the one purpose of helping the community. I mean, if you think about it, if I can raise the value of the whole community $5,000 and there's 100 houses, I just gave that community a $500,000 gift. And that's what I'm focused on. I'm focused on how I can make a positive impact on the community. And how can people understand that we're trying to help them not just make money.

That's such a wonderful thing that I think a lot of people don't realize. And we see that on the debt side of things, we're buying debt. I'm like, listen, a foreclosure is going to be death to that neighborhood for a while. Do whatever you can to Keep it re performing or get it modified. And that was one of the biggest mistakes I made early on a decade ago, getting the note business. Like, I want to take everything back. I want to foreclose on everything because I want to own the real estate from the fix and flip side. And I left a lot of money on the table modifying the paper and keeping people in the property. Well, that's now obviously switched on. Like, man, wait a second. It makes more sense to get them, keep them in the property, to get them reinstated to work, some sort of modification to keep the values up so it helps everybody versus it dropping down. And you see that happening in other areas of the country where foreclosure increasing. Florida's got the hurricane effect taking place. Right. Texas here is second in the country in foreclosure rates as well right now because of all the hurricanes that hit, flooding that goes on there. But we're seeing increases in foreclosures in Mississippi and Alabama and Louisiana on the Gulf coast there. And it's just like, it's so frustrating as an investor to come in, buy something in an area, working to get it up, only to have your values get knocked down because of stuff that's going on around you, right? And we have. I always make the running joke that we as entrepreneurs, real estate entrepreneurs, who are really going to make America great again. It's not gonna be politicians.

You got that right.

It's gonna be like guys like you and me and others out there, folks that are watching out there that are really gonna take and are gonna help keep America where it's at. It's gonna help build it up and just taking the opportunities in areas like Gary or Hammond or Columbus or Fort Wayne or other areas around Indiana. Because I love Indiana. Absolutely love it. I think it's got some great markets, just besides the big city of Indy, a really great state, salt of the earth people, for the most part, are just great stuff there. You got bigger companies there that most people don't realize that are there. And I agree. I'm pretty excited what's going on in the state there, and I'm glad to hear about what's going on in Gary. That's good stuff. Good education this morning.

Thomas, I will tell you, if anybody needs boots on the ground or wants help, I will offer that to your entire audience for anything in Lake or Porter county, really, like, the whole county's up here by Chicago. So, yeah, Hammond and Gary are just kind of like a snapshot. You also have East Chicago, which I think is really on the uptick, you've got amazing mayor in East Chicago right now. That is really helping turn things around. They have Klein Avenue Bridge that is going to benefit the city of East Chicago amazingly. I really honestly wish that the mayor of Gary really screwed the pooch on that whole deal. Like they had an opportunity to be a part of that deal and they stubbed their nose at business. Stupidest thing a politician could ever do. And what happens, East Chicago gets all the benefit from that. From a financial standpoint, they're going to get 10 cents for every single car that passes over that bridge goes to East Chicago. So that's going to be a very big long term positive thing for the city of East Chicago. But then that's just the north side. So the south side of the county we've got Munster, which is best schools in the state. Valparaiso is a great place to live. Crown Point is almost is always in the best five or seven schools in the state. Like we've got really good neighborhoods here. Like you said, salt of the earth people as well. And if anybody of any of your audience gets notes in this area and wants to get ahold of me, I would love to offer that as a resource to you. I've got great property management and great acquisitions if you're looking to sell. I'm an outlet for that as well. So anything I can do to help you guys, I'd love to be able to help.

That's totally a win win, brother. I guarantee. Careful what you ask for, you may just get it.

No, I love it. I really do. I love working with no people. I'm actually creating a lending company as well. So that's kind of like something in my 2019 initiative to actually have a hard money lending company. So I'm definitely trying to make sure I got all my eyes and cross all my T's when it comes to the notes. And I think that, I think, I mean I'm sure that some of your students are in the lending side as well. I think it's a definitely, it's a really good place to be able to park some money. That is to me it's all about the people though that you're dealing with. So if you're going to be a lender, just make sure you vet that person and at the end of the day make sure that if, that if something goes south, like that's a person that you're going to want to be in the saddle with, do some kind of workout or whatever with down the road that you trust that person.

Exactly. You've got some great stuff going. What's been the biggest hurdle that's happened in your business? What's been the biggest. Let's take it back a little bit because I know it's been mine, but what's been the biggest hurdle that's happened to you in your good success? Well.

Yeah, a little bit, but I know what it is. So it's not hard. It's just kind of a little hard to articulate on the spot. But I had a partner about a year and a half ago and we disbanded ways and I, with all of my like experience kind of thought that I could just completely move everything what I was doing with a partner to doing it all myself. And I did. So like I already had this construction company, I already had a small rental portfolio, I already had do it had other stuff going. So I added to that a brand new property management company, which I used to be a property manager. Like 10 years ago. I was managing 40 units on the side with a full time job. To me, I knew the business. I just didn't want to have it until I started realizing if I'm going to sell turnkeys, I want to make sure I'm in control of that relationship with that investor down the road. So I started a property management company, started this buy and sell company and really. So I've got four main companies that I'm running in addition to my portfolio in my other LLC that runs all my rentals and then trying to deploy my ira, which is a whole nother like business almost in itself. Right? I mean you're like, gosh, and I have like a whole business inside my, in my ira. But anyway, so to me the biggest hurdle has been patience and having the belief that it's going to work out. Because when you. It's kind of like you had. We had this huge machine going. I mean me and Wayne had. We sold 300 houses in one year. So we go from that and I'm like, okay, I want to do 100 houses this year. And we're probably on track right now for about 80 to just kind of like go back to zero almost and then have to wait for it to kind of start clicking again is kind of. Then my biggest hurdle. It's always right here, right? I mean it's always in your head. It's always that belief that it's gonna work. And when you kind of see things, you're like, oh crap, I lost 30 grand this month. And then you're like, okay, but the next Month went really well and you know what I mean? It's like, it's kind of that, it's that. Yep. It's a little bit of that roller coaster that you have to kind of just believe that it's going to work and know and just keep pivoting. It's not like it's. These aren't just one pivot type deals. It's like you got to pivot sometimes. Like, it's like, it's like when you're a running back, I got to see a running back in the back of your. In the background there. It's like they got to keep pivoting. They can't just go straight forward and expect to get to the end zone. And that's kind of been probably the hardest thing for me that I've experienced at least lately. For sure.

Well, that's the thing. Wayne's a great guy.

Absolutely.

I mean it was, it was, it was mutual. Going different ways. You know, I heard about that. They were to go talk about something else. But that's great. Love it. But that's the thing is I think a lot of people get into businesses or partnerships initially. And one of the biggest mistakes I made, I brought a partner on earlier on who didn't pull the weight like I was doing or didn't have the same mentality. He was going a little different direction than I was. We had to split. I had another partner. I didn't learn from that first mistake. Brought another partner on a few years later. Total nightmare. You think it's going to match up? Doesn't match up. But that's the thing is you're driven, you've got a goal, you've got a mindset and working out the details from what you see. Cause I think we're all. You're very a forward thinker and trying to work to communicate that back to your team or your new staff to help you kind of go, okay, here's where I see it now I gotta deconstruct that to where we're at today to build it. And I know you're a big, huge fan of Traction. Right. Great book. EOS operating systems. Oh, you probably got a copy right there. If I know you, Tom.

Over in my bookcase. Yes, I do.

Right, Exactly.

For sure.

Yeah. But that's the thing is surrounding your. I think a lot of people rely on partners to fill in a weakness when, hey, a lot of times you can hire staff or high vendors to help out. That where you keep a sole focus or sole direction. Right.

No Absolutely. And actually, like, part of that whole thing has been like, it's more about making me better. So so many times we go through life and we think, you know, like, if you're a Christian, like, I am, like, I pray God, please change my circumstance. God, please make this happen. You know, like, people that went through the Kerr hurricanes are probably thinking, God, why does this have to happen to me? Like, all. It's like, over and over. Sometimes it's just a barrage. It just hits you, like, day after day after day, and you're like, what in the world is going on? Can you please change these circumstances, change these things in my life? And at the end, what it is, is God just trying to change you, and he's trying to make you better so that you can handle those things. Because I think that all that means. My wife always tells me, God just making. He has something way bigger for you down the road that he's putting you, making you go through this. And I'll tell you something I learned through this. And so I'm glad you mentioned traction. I really am a big proponent of EOS system and everything that they kind of talk about in business. However, I think there's a couple of missing factors, and I feel like I've kind of come across by just like. I mean, I'm one of those people. I'm going to read at least a book a week, and I'm going to just dive in and learn as much as I can. I came across a book called Scrum. Scrum. It talks about how to get done twice as much in half the time or something. And to me, I felt like that was a missing piece in our business. So we had the great structure, we had the meetings, we had everything. But we weren't really letting our teams be autonomous, and we weren't making them hold themselves accountable. It was like, when the boss has to hold everybody accountable, it's no fun anymore. But when everybody inside the business holds everybody accountable. And they have a daily quick meeting every single. And they're the ones doing the meeting, not me, not. Not the level. The team, level management, not even their boss. It's the actual team that's actually on the ground doing the construction, on the ground acquiring houses, on the ground selling houses. If they're having their daily meetings and they're asking, hey, what'd you get done yesterday? What are you going to do today? What do you need help with? How can I, like, help you? It's very simple. It's how you start every small business is that is really how Scrum is kind of created. And to me, we've implemented, we're in the process of implementing that company wide, but we've implemented a lot of that. Scrum. Daily meetings, daily, like small huddles. It's not like a huddle with the whole company. And it's not like you're not asking all these extra questions. It's just about the work. It's just, what do you need to get done today? How can I help you? And then it's the whole team sitting, you know, looking on the board and saying, oh, you didn't get that done yesterday? Why didn't you get it done? You know, it's almost like peer pressure, positively peer pressure, you know, so it's a very good thing. And I think that that was something that we were missing in our business. And I can definitely tell you, if you haven't read that book, that's probably my top book of this year that I've been involved with. I've read it like six times. Because I'm just like, to me, that was a missing piece in our business.

Yeah, that's a great book. I read it not too long ago. Totally agree to that. Now I want to bring it back here a little bit. You've got the picture of the tree over your right shoulder there. Talk a little about that. Because I think it was such a great nugget that we were talking about before we hit record, before we went live about that. And I think it's a very valuable piece. It kind of ties in a little, what you're just talking a few minutes ago with you and your wife. I think a lot of people need to hear that, bring up the verse, talk about it.

Absolutely. So in my old office, I actually, and I'm planning on still doing this here, so it used to say, like, underneath it, it says, and he shall be like a tree. And I think that the tree for me represents something very, very powerful. Number one, we talked about the mastermind already and how you have to be vulnerable. Well, the first thing about a tree is that a seed has to go into the earth. So they have to. You have to be humble. You have to go into the earth. And not only does it have to go into the earth, it has to crack open. A seed has to crack open in order to ever sprout, in order to ever do anything. And so that's the first part of the tree story is you have to be humble enough to go deep. And all the stuff that's underground sometimes is way bigger than what's above ground. And then once a tree sprouts, it doesn't really give shade to people right away. It takes years and years and years and years. And a lot of times we want things now. We're so focused on ourself. We've got our ipods, we've got our iPads, we've got our itunes, we have our iPhone. Everything's about I, I, I, I, I. It's all about me, me, me, me, me. And it's not really about our purpose and our purpose driven life that way. I think we all should have. And to me, the tree represent. And if you read that verse, it says that he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he do, it shall prosper. And to me, it's like being in that. The tree is just like my story about being a conduit, not a bucket. You've got to soak up a tree planted by the rivers of water. You're soaking up that water every day. Nobody even sees that you're soaking it up because you're planted. It's your roots that are soaking it all up. But then you're that shade that can be the shade for whoever you can be a shade for. Just like being a conduit. Like, I'm. Every day I'm trying to plug into somebody that can encourage me, that can teach me that I can serve, that I can be a servant to, that I can make money to my investors, for instance. And then I want to go find a community to be able to serve and be able to give that knowledge to. Just like you're doing with your podcast every day you've got people on here that are trying to help people. You're trying to share your knowledge and share your network with everybody. You're not just trying to say, oh, what can I keep? For Scott Carson, it's how can I help everybody with all the network that God's given me? And that's the same thing for the tree. In addition to that, it also kind of teaches that you have to be patient with it. So every day, like, I'm a very impatient person. I already told you that a little bit. But I want to be like, I want to shade everybody right now, and I have to sometimes just know it bringeth forth his fruit in his season. And sometimes, sometimes it's not your season to shade everybody. Sometimes it's just your season to shade some people. And as you get larger, and as you grow your network and as you grow your influence, you'll eventually be able to be like that tree planted by the rivers of water.

Love it, man. Love it. A lot of people like it online, too. Loving it. Likes good shade on social media.

Well, honestly, that is one. The prayer of Jabez is something I pray every single day. God, please bless me indeed, or bless me a lot. Expand my influence or expand my coast. Keep me from evil and keep evil from me and work behind the scenes and be in everything I do, whether it's working with my family, working with my kids, working with my investors, working in the community. I want that to be my life. And really like our core focus in all of our businesses to glorify God number one. But how we do that is by adding value to our communities. Whether it's somebody I'm serving, whether it's you, Scott Carson on this podcast, or whether it's the communities that we're building gardens in or building, I'm a part of Veterans Path up, trying to help veterans and Gary get a hand up instead of a handout. And all the initiatives that we're trying to do to help the community. That's how I'm trying to make sure that I'm glorifying God, man.

You're doing a great job, Tom, I have to tell you that. Always admired you. Always appreciate what you provide and bring to the table. Because, guys, we get a chance to check out everything he's doing on your podcast as well tomorrow. Just phenomenal. Very honored to have you on today. Also very honored to be on your podcast a couple weeks ago too, is there? And I think a lot of people have to realize that tree analogy, the tree verse, it's true. Fruit comes in his time. It doesn't come always in the time that we want. So you have to be patient with that. Realize that you're going to get blown by the wind a little bit and just got to go with it. Soak up as much information as you can. And sometimes you've just got to put down what you're focused on for everybody else to focus on you a little bit, absorb it, grow a little bit, and then be able to help everybody else. I think too many people get in trying to help everybody else out first. They find themselves financially strapped out there versus, hey, just focus a bit on you and then go feed the world with what your cup runneth over, right?

Yep. It's a process. It really is. You know, we talk about processes so much, but the Process is work to have to give. And that's what the whole concept of being a conduit, not a bucket analogy is all about. So and so people have that process broken. The work to have process. Now some people have the work to have all figured out and they got to figure out how to have to give. And like you have this selfishness and this I attitude in this realm but some people have the selfishness and I attitude and they don't have the work to have give or they feel guilty because they're being blessed or they feel guilty because they don't want to have more for some reason. But if you have it for the right purpose, like there will be no guilt.

Good point. Tom, what's the best way for people to find out more about what you're doing?

Absolutely. So you can definitely check us out on the podcast Good success podcast. We're on every single podcast episode. Way you can find us find us on Facebook. We do. I think you're going live right now. I'm not sure. But if you are like we do the exact same thing on ours. Honestly, I don't mind giving out my phone number and I know you have a lot of people that I believe that more times you give out your phone number, the less people call you. Except for telemarketers. If you're a telemarketer, do not call me. I don't know why people think they have the right to call me when they're telemarketer. But if you have a note, if you have something in my area or if you want to come see our office, if you want to come to we have an amazing community go giver event that is almost doesn't cost barely anything. It's like 500 bucks for three days. Awesome. Definitely networking in June, communitygogiver.com for that goodsuccess.com for our website. And if you want to get a hold of me, 219-742-7957 or T olsonolsomoodsuccess.com is my personal email and I would love to hear from you.

Tom, thank you so much for joining us today. I really, really appreciate it. Brother. We got to spend some more time together.

I would love it. Scott, where are you going? You're going to Europe next year?

Yeah, we take at least one cruise a year. So we're taking actually first time we're doing a transatlantic cruise. We're taking a seven day cruise from I think Fort Lauderdale over to Barcelona and then we have a seven day Spanish cruise and Then we don't know where we're going from there. Either going to go to Venice or go back to Paris or London. We spent three weeks over in Europe last year.

Is this personally or is this with your note people?

No, no, no, this is personally.

Okay, gotcha.

Just for fun. So I've got a mastermind training the end or the. Actually the second weekend of December here. Actually down in Cape Coral, Florida. The December 7th, 8th and 9th. I love Cape Coral where it's nice and sunny, not so cold and brisk. Awesome. Awesome.

I'd definitely love to join you for one of those. Those events would be awesome.

Yeah, I'll shoot you some information. We'd love to have you, bud. All right, thanks guys. Have a great day.

Likewise. You two have a good day.

Alright, guys. Hey. That's gonna wrap it up for this episode of the Note Closures. As always, go out, take some action, be a giver. Go out and build your own forest to throw some shade out there to help people accomplish some bigger things out there. But I think it's the biggest joy is I know when I see. I know it's what Tom uses when we can help people overcome obstacles to really grow leaps and bounds in their business and their lives to really help make America great again. One mortgage at a time. So go out, be something and we'll see you all at the top, everybody. Bye.

It.