Unstoppable Journeys: From Rags to Riches with Stephen Scoggins

Welcome back to the Justin Prince show. Man. Super, super honored to have a guest on today. This is a. This is a really amazing guy. You hear those stories of like, basically like a rags to riches story, right? And, you know, sometimes it wasn't. The rags weren't that bad. You know, there was a challenging time and over, you know, they had to overcome a lot. This is a guy that literally was like, homeless. It went from, you know, from destitute to building, you know, a multi. Multimillion dollar businesses business here. Recently exited that business. One of the things I love about Stephen is his passion for people. Like, this guy was in his entrepreneurial journey and was, you know, crushing life in that. But then he said, you know what? I want to, like, share these principles and I want to share the struggles and I want to share the vulnerabilities and the things that I've been through. And so he started a podcast just over three years ago called the Unstoppable Podcast. He and I have been on his podcast as well and just crushed it with his podcast. Adds so much value, shows up on social at such a high level. So, my friends, I'm super excited for you to dive into this conversation with us. And so, Stephen, man, what an honor to have you here. Appreciate you doing this. You know, you are one on my top of my list of getting on the show. And, you know, I'm excited for us to be able to share your story and have people meet you today. So appreciate you. Appreciate you being on.

Dude, I'm so excited. Like, it's like you meet a brother from another mother and then, yeah, we. We actually become neighbors. I actually moved all the way across the country just to hang out with you.

So, guys, just for a little. Just for a little context. So I live in a place called Southern Utah, St. George, Utah. So it's about four hours from salt Lake City. I used to live in a place called Lehigh. You know, three years ago, we moved down here and Lehigh, Utah. I live specifically in a neighborhood called Traverse Mountain. Right. So when we're on the phone after our podcast, we were kind of jamming. Hey, yo, how can I add value to you? We're kind of building a relationship. And he's like, I'm moving to Utah. I go, no kidding? I go where he goes, Lehigh. I go, no kidding. Where he goes? Traverse Mountain. I was like, you got to be kidding me.

So we're like, I probably raised one.

Of the old kids, you know. Yeah, but what, by the way, what took you. What took you to Utah? Let's just start there. Where'd you, where'd you come from? What, what was the, what was the precipice for moving over there?

Yeah, you know, it's really funny, you know, I knew I was going to exit a business. I was in the process of doing it. I came out to Utah for probably the sixth time, July of last year, and I do a two week sabbatical to kind of clear, just to kind of like make sure I'm centered, make sure I'm good. I've learned that if you take two weeks for yourself, no agenda, go to some place that speaks to your heart and your mind and your soul, lo and behold, you'll actually hear more things for your heart, your mind and your soul. So that started it. One of our mutual friends, Randy Garn, just happened to kind of ping me right at the moment because I was about to go to Scotland. I was literally about to click the button to go to Scotland. That was me, my two week sabbatical. And he said, well, why don't you, why don't you just come to Utah? I'm like, well, you know what? I love it out there. He's like, I'll put you at Sundance. You know, we'll just, you know, you know, do what you want to do or whatever. And I was probably a week just kind of chilling and enjoying myself. And then, you know, Randy well enough to know that that guy was all over the place. I get, next thing I know, I'm at private movie premieres and meeting this person and that person and that person and this person. And. And then the more I began structuring it, the more I realized I could help a lot of folks that he was introducing me to in a big way. So next thing I know, now we're talking about, okay, well, you know, what's going to happen, what you do. And I was like, you know what? I'm exiting the business. I have nothing really tying me to North Carolina anymore. You know, my kids at the time were basically adult kids, so they're kind of on their own, kind of doing their own thing, you know, And I said, you know what, Randy? What if I moved into Utah? And he's like, what? You do that really? Huh? You know, kind of got all excited and stuff like that. And, you know, so we started doing that. So, you know, I have a live events business in North Carolina. We did Ed Miles book launch and a host of other launches for other folks. And I'm actually bringing that to Utah. We haven't launched it yet we're probably a year out from it because it's, because it's a lot of technology. I got a lot of really new technology I put in the facility. But, you know, I don't know, it just. Utah feels great. It's an entrepreneurial mecca. Like, there's entrepreneurs everywhere. In North Carolina, where I'm from, there's entrepreneurs, but they're very isolated here. It's a network. There's. There's entrepreneurs pouring into. Entrepreneurs pouring in. Entrepreneurs. There are no shortages of unicorns, Technology, unicorns. Like, I don't know, there's just the family vibe is great. Right. You know, every. My. I landed here, bought the house, my neighbors come over and all handed me dishes, like a food and stuff. Hey, welcome to the neighborhood. So glad you're here. You know, I haven't seen that stuff since like the 70s, you know, so I was like, I was like, I don't know, I just. The whole environment spoke to me. And now that we're here, it's just gotten better and better and better.

That is so cool. Let's dive in just for a minute. I want to dive into this two week sabbatical concept.

Sure.

How long have you been doing that? Where did you, where did you, you know, kind of pick up the idea and then just walk us through why you do it, what you do during the two weeks, like what, what you're looking to gain from it. And I think that is an interesting idea that all of us that are kind of high achievers trying to make things happen. It's almost like you slow down and you rest and recharge and some of your best ideas come. So walk us through. You know, just the first time I.

Did it was actually when I was going from homelessness to getting back on my feet. And that was more of a necessity. That was more of a necessity. But what I realized was, is I'm a person of faith as a, as a, as a big rule of thumb. And so in those moments when you're in an environment that you're used to being into, so you're, you know, call it, let's say a North Carolina. I was in North Carolina, the Raleigh area, forever. You know, I could, I could on autopilot, drive to the local gym, drive to the local movie theater, you know, all over this place. And you get used to the same relationships, the same input, the same influences coming in from different, different categories. You get used to the same.

Like, opportunities or threats to your business kind of scenario. And what I discovered was, is when you pluck yourself out of the environment that you're used to being in. You put yourself in a foreign environment that speaks to your mind, your body, and your soul. So I always tell people there's a roadmap, if you will, to replenishment. And I always call it a replenishment plan. So once a year, I try to plan a replenishment plan. My replenishment plan answers three questions. Where do I go? What do I do? And who do I do it with? Okay. The reason I do that is because where do I go is important because I know I need to pluck myself out of my environment and I need to set myself to the side. I want to get something that's going to speak to me. You know, everybody has something that's beautiful. Some people are mountain people. Like, I love the mountain, which is perfect for me in Utah. Some people love the beach. So they might head to Maui or they might head to the local beach if they're in North Carolina or something like that. But you want to pluck yourself out of the environment you're detaching from what, you know, what you do. It could be a variety different things. When I do a sabbatical, what I do is absolutely nothing. I have zero plans. I go with zero expectations. But a notepad and a pen, and I'm like, lord, speak to me like, what do you want me to do? That's exactly. Ironically, when I did the sabbatical, I was at the tail end of the. Of the finalizations of exiting my prior business. And there were still some things to kind of move forward. And up until that point, it had been kind of like a slog. Like we were. We'd make some headway, and then we'd have setbacks. We make some headway and have some setbacks. And I was like, I don't know if this thing's ever going to happen.

Right.

Well, I came to Utah, and one of the first things that I felt like I heard my spirit was, the business will sell fast now. And the reason is I put myself in an environment with no expectation. I put myself in an environment with no anticipation. So I wasn't anticipating the sell of the business. I was like, lord, just talk to me. And that was one of the first things he shared. By the end of the two weeks, he was like, I'm going to uproot you and plant you in Utah. And only he knows why. Right? So I just got here around the Thanksgiving timeframe. We're already doing some really cool stuff, and I'm excited to see what God does with this new piece. But you know, by understanding, taking yourself out of where you want to, kind of where you are, putting yourself in an environment that's really good, understanding, kind of like what you need to be doing. For me, I chose, I chose to be. Look, I'm going to rent a car with a top down. I'm going to drive to Moab. I'm going to drive to Zion. I'm going to, I'm going to hit the salt flats. Like, I'm going to go, I'm just going to go travel and just do. And just have a good time. Right. And as a result, one of the things that happened was, is I had a lot of alone time to reflect on a variety of different things that had changed in my life. And then furthermore, okay, so now we know, where do I go, what do I do, who do I do it with? A sabbatical is by destination or by definition a place of solitude, but not isolation.

Solitude has a reflective component. Isolation has a self condemnation component. So when you look at the, when you look at that segment through the lens or that lens specifically, you end up with a holistic approach and getting better understanding about where you're going, why you're going there and how to do it. And that's the reason I do the sabbatical is that you know, about every, about every two years specifically.

That is so interesting. And I love how kind of intentional it is. You know, one of the things I teach from, from a coaching perspective, imagine you have like a line down the middle of a page and on the top you do a line across the left hand side you write the word empire. On the right hand side you write the word rest and recharge. And so if things aren't building your empire, that's the left hand side. Like things that are high impact actions, super intentional. Like, here's what I'm doing. So whether it's your fitness, your faith, your family, you're obviously your business. Like, in other words, here's what I'm doing to build the empire, right?

Yep.

On the flip on the other side is what am I proactively or intentionally doing to rest and recharge.

Yeah.

And Tim Grover wrote the book Relentless and wrote a book called the Winning. Tim Grover was Kobe Bryant's trainer. He's actually Michael Jordan's trainer.

Yeah.

And he said that.

He had to as a trainer, not push those guys to work. He had to push those guys to rest and recharge.

Yeah.

And I think for a Lot of us, we just kind of go so hard and go so hard and go so hard. But it's like, it's like a muscle. It's like the muscle's not built when you lift, the muscles built when you, when you repair, right when you rest. And so this really intentional idea that you have of resting, recharging, and my friends think of it this way, what does that look like for you? Is that reading for you? Is that watching, you know, maybe a movie movie or, you know, a series for you? Is that exercise for you? Is that going for a walk? Is that the beach in waves? Is that the mountains? Like, what is it that helps you to just shut the engines down, lower the frenetic energy? And so that's a great, great idea. This two week sabbatical concept, specific questions.

Where do I go, what do I do? And who would I do it with? You may just choose to do it with your spouse or your kids or whatever, but you need it, you need that, that place. I want to pivot on one of the things you just mentioned. I think it's really important. A lot of entrepreneurs, business owners, people that are trying to grow a better life, right? They're trying to do things for their family, they're trying to grow a big business, if you will.

We always think we have to force it, we have to get up at 5, we have to grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind. Somewhere along the way, when you get out of scarcity mindset and you start getting in more of an abundance mindset or an expectation mindset, one of the things that happens is you start really looking at the principle of compounding. Okay, the principle of compounding says, how can I get a 5x return on a one time investment? So if I'm looking at finances, if I invest a dollar, how do I get five back? Or if I invest an hour, how do I get five hours back of time? So it's a principle compounding. So when I look at the sabbatical, I'm looking at a principle of compounding via the principle of leverage. I'm creating a leverage point to lift greater, lift higher, lift further simply by slowing down long enough to get clarity and direction. And I think that's the key attribute of why the sabbatical concept is so stinking important and why I believe that every, anybody that's performing at a high level should at least do it at least once a year, maybe twice, at least once every two years. And you know, for me, what we'll do now is we'll do one with the family and we'll do one by myself and then one with the partner, spouse, girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever. And as a result, you're getting relationship compounding, you're getting performance compounding, and you're also getting self esteem, emotional state. All of that compounding in your own. In your own right. And that's why I think the principle works so well.

And if it sounds like you've been doing this even back when you didn't have a ton of cash, because you were saying that you kind of started the concept even back, you know, as you were kind of coming out of that homeless season of your life, is that, is that a fair statement? Yeah.

I mean, you don't.

At least the principle of it, you.

Really don't need money to do a sabbatical. You can do a sabbatical in your house or where you're staying with. At my point in time, I was renting a room from my brother. Right. In a home that I technically owned, a mobile home of all. Of all things. Okay.

I was in a transition phase. And part of that transition phase was just getting re established. Okay. But what I did do is I went in that room for two solid weeks and I prayed, I meditated, I read, I discovered, I learned, and I burned up a notepad. And when I came out of that two weeks, I had a level of focus and intensity that literally carried me through the last 25 years. I'm a big believer that you change your life from the inside, not from the outside. So go inside first and, and then watch the outside take shape.

So let me hit you with this. Let me hit you with this.

And I'm saying this, Steve, and I want to hear your take on this, but I really am saying this for the audience. Right. You can't give what you don't have. And so empty plates don't feed starving children. So if you're, if you can't drink water out of a cup when there's no water in the cup. And so one of the things you want to do is you want to start to like, pour into your mind, Right. So the books and the writing and the notes and the ideas, you poured in to a point where the cup overflows. You also have so many ideas and so much your emotional state changes. And then this is a concept. I have built my whole career on it. As I, as I watched my last business, our last business, we did two and a half billion in revenue. Took over an existing company that was literally falling apart.

Yeah.

And the principle was that ideas lead to ideas. So in other words, maybe that book or that idea is not the right idea, that's okay, because that idea can lead to another idea, which may not be the right idea. But men, you go, huh, that's interesting. What if we change this, this and this? Still not the right idea. But what if we added that? That's pretty interesting. But that still wouldn't work for these reasons. But what if we did this? And, yeah, who would we need to help us execute? We need that person, man, if we could get them. Next thing you know, you're like, yo, that's a big. I remember, I remember our business like, this is a billion dollar idea. It was a two and a half billion dollar idea, but the ideas led to the ideas. Right. If you go into an environment, if you're feeling like you're on empty right now, and a lot of times as a business owner, as a. As a leader, sometimes we're the ones pouring so much into everyone else.

Yep.

We sometimes feel like we're like running on empty. You know, this idea of taking time to pour into you, get around people, get around books, get around podcasts, get around environments, situations. And again, nature can do it, the ocean can do it. You get around environments that start pouring into you, start filling your cup and giving you new ideas, because those new ideas could lead to the ideas that ultimately change your life. So give me your take on that. As you're hearing that. What's. What's your thoughts on that from an idea lead to ideas concept?

You know, I think I would just kind of like, continue to build on what you're already saying. For the most part. The reality is if you don't put yourself in a state of reflection, you're never going to be able to see with absolute clarity. You're going to end up building a life out of reaction rather than choice. And my first mentor, the guy that actually taught me everything that would later become what got me out of homelessness and building, Building larger businesses, was a guy by the name of Steve Myrick. And one afternoon, he pulled me down with my dad's framing crew, threw me in this Jeep Grand Cherokee, and he said, I got a couple of questions for you. Of course he's, you know, he's. He's like the God. He was like the Godfather right to us in this. In this environment. You know, super wealthy, super generous, super hardworking, super, like, really astute businessman, you know, so when you got to hang out with him, it was like hanging out with your favorite thought leader. Right. And we sit, we're sitting there in the Jeep Grand Cherokee, and he looks over, he said, he goes, I got questions for you. So, okay, sure. He said, what? The first question, number one is, what is the difference between a rich man and a poor man? And I was like, well, money, of course it's money. And he got really aggravated and he said, absolutely not. It's the way they think. And then he hit me square between the eyes when he said, do you want to learn to think like me or do you want to continue thinking like your father?

Okay, my father, great guy. He's a great granddad. Now, he's come a long way, like a lot of really good things. But at the time, he was very poor with money, very hard worker, known for borrowing, never repaying. Struggled with alcoholism for a while, and as a result, I had that mental Rolodex. Meanwhile, on the counter, converse side, I had Steve Myrick on the other side, okay? And Steve Meyer on the other side was very generous, very astute businessman. I watched him put a thousand dollars in a basket of hush puppies and completely wreck a single waitress, you know, that like, had two kids of her own. Like, obviously, I just watched him do some really wild, cool stuff. And I'm like, I didn't realize I had a choice.

You know, because I was so in depth in my lifestyle that I had, that was my normal. And when you're living out your normal, you don't understand that you have a choice to build a new normal. And that one conversation was the pivotal point that gave me that new idea, that new perspective, that new shift, that new opportunity, that new chance at life. Had it not been for that conversation, I would probably have followed in my father's footsteps. You know, and being, being a blue collar worker is awesome. Like, I mean, I mean, it's, it's nothing wrong with it. He was, he was hard. He was working hard and all, but he was very poor with money. I've watched some very. I've watched some blue collar workers build some very large businesses, right? So it's not about blue collar work. It's about what you're doing with the resources that are coming in. But if you don't have that new concept, that new idea, you're not going to be taught the principle of compounding, you're not going to be taught the principle of replenishment, you're not going to be taught the principle of relationship. You're not going to be taught the principle of self awareness, authenticity, congruency. You know, you're not going to be taught these things. And the only people that get taught these things are the people that search for them. The Bible says that those who search find. So you have to have a principle of searching. And for me the reflection piece is the searching.

Right.

I like to get with a pen and a pad. I like to get around great people. I like to get around books, you know. You know the average book will have 50 to 60 major concepts in it. Okay. Most likely people will typically gravitate towards three or four. But those three or four change the game. Completely change the game. So I mean you know this as well as I do. Like we are, we are largely self built men of faith that built good businesses, that love our families desperately and all this kind of good stuff, you know. But if we had not had ideas, concepts and reflection time. Yes to really I believe, I personally believe that God has a God sized idea for every single person on this planet. That is their destiny for them to shape up. Sometimes that destiny is in congruency with a, with a business or an alignment with an organization. Sometimes it's going out on your own like you get like you did originally and like starting your own thing from scratch. Sometimes it's building a large community, sometimes it's serving in the faith world like it's. But there's a God sized idea. But how can you hear a God size idea if you're not listening?

If this John Maxwell. I wrote a whole chapter in my book four words that changed my life with John Maxwell. He said live an intentional life. And you talk about this. Most people live in the world of reaction to the distractions versus the world of intentional creation. And a question I have for you is this. You hit, you're around the mentor, you hear the ideas. You come from, you know, a blue collar background. Which again to your point, this isn't a sound like a right or wrong. It's just what do you want in your life? Right. If you're being intentional, what is the God sized goal or God sized dream for you? My question is how did you overcome the fear? Did you feel the fear of like well dude, what if I fail? Or what if I don't even know what I'm doing? Or what if I don't have what it takes? Or yeah, you know, what if I don't know what to do next? How did you, how did you navigate that? I think a lot of us, we hear this like man, it fires me up. Yes. And then we also feel this big like gulp of fear of like I don't know what I'm gonna do. Like, how did. How did you hit. Have that goal and then move past it? What did you do to move past the fear?

So I'm a big believer that you can't have true transformation without true transparency. Okay. To me, what that means is if I can't be honest with myself, then I'll never be humble enough to understand the things that I need to advance myself. Okay? So when I was going from. Literally, I had this moment.

They used to have a gym called World's Gym. I don't know how many, if they exist anymore or not. They're not in North Carolina anymore, and they're not. I haven't seen them in Utah. They have a great Vasa. I like Vasa. But I went to this gym. It was one of the few things that I had, like, still. Still technically to my name. I don't know how I maintain a gym membership because I don't remember paying the gym bill. But for some reason, they let me in the door. Maybe it was relationship or friendship. Didn't have to scan the card or whatever, you know? But I remember going into the men's restroom to take a quick shower and kind of get myself together because I was very ashamed. I was very guilty. Because a year earlier, I was 19 years old, almost 20 years old, making bank. I'd been given a business opportunity. I was killing it. I was making a bunch of money. And then pride, arrogance, ignorance took their legs out from under me, okay. Because my character wasn't ready for the blessing that was in front of me.

Wow.

Which taught me a lesson that it's better to focus on character, integrity, and then developing a sincere, congruent lifestyle. Because when the blessings do come, you don't want the blessings to leave as quickly as they come. But in this moment, I remember raising up, looking at my eyes like something in the movie, and I'm like, dude, what the hell are you doing? Like, in everything that Steve Meyrick. You have to be willing to do today what others won't so you can have tomorrow what others don't like. Stephen. It's more important to build a legacy that outlives you, Stephen. Principles govern promises, like, all of these different things, like, in my head, and I'm like, dude, what the hell am I doing? You know? And then I found my faith, literally, a couple days later. Or my faith found me, I guess you could say, transformed my life. Three days later, I'm back on a framing crew with Steve Myrick. Three days after that, he Gives me a second shot to just an opportunity. I had to come up with my own tools and stuff out of the trash piles of the local construction site beside us to get going. And that was the building that was the business became the big one. Okay. I say all that to say.

That you have to understand there's greater forces at play than what you see in front of you on a day in and day out basis. If you're not willing to be honest with yourself, I knew I didn't understand how I finally got to the place where I hear this all the time. All right? So you and I coach a lot of very profound, very successful people, okay? And it's funny, when you first start working with somebody, a lot of times they're like, well, I know me better than anybody else. I'm like, no, that is not true. If you knew you better than anybody else because you had done some reflection work, then what you would see is you have this blind spot. You have this blind spot. Yes. You have this gift, this strength, this all. You have all of this in a bag of chips. That's phenomenal. But you're not a great communicator. You don't take people seriously. You don't keep your word. Like you. I had to get to that place where I was like, I was willing to look at myself transparently and often, often authentically.

Authentically, yeah.

With a lens of awareness, understanding, and the ability to gain perspective. In fact, I use a little four part framework for everything that I do. Business, relationships, all of it. Anytime I'm trying to make a major decision, use an acronym called grow. Okay? Step number one is the G. Gain perspective. Gain as much perspective as you possibly can without condemnation, without judgment, without resentment, without bias. If you can. And look at all the different avenues. Different people, different relationships, different opportunities, different threats, different strengths. It's the definition of a swot. A SWOT analysis. Gain perspective. Okay, the next one is R. Recognize and remove roadblocks. Once you have enough information, you're able to see, well, this is in my way. This is in my way. And some of that stuff is you being in your own way. Like, if you're. If you go into a meeting and all you want to do when you go into that meeting is like, dude, I'm going to go in this meeting. I'm gonna have this relationship, this guy's gonna give me a deal, it's gonna be great. Then you're going in with the wrong intent. You know, when I go into a meeting, when I'm going to a relationship. I'm like, how can I serve? I was very fortunate to be with the Huntsman family last night, and we were trying to look at their different charities that they have with cancer, mental illness. And because I suffered from mental illness for a while, I'm, like, very passionate about it. But I went in with the intent to serve. Okay. I used to go in with the intent to gain. It's a very different perspective. And you end up building stronger relationships when you go into serve. So that was a roadblock for me. The O is the organize a plan. All right? Now, you know, you have all as much perspective as you can. You know exactly what's standing in your way. You already know what gifts, talents, and strengths are in theory with you. How do you organize that in such a way that you can have a dedicated, deliberate, workable, intentional plan? And then the W just stands for work the plan, work the plan till it works, you know? And I use that as a framework on a regular basis to keep myself out of my own way, but also hold myself accountable to a radical set of honesty. I can tell you today that I'm really good with people. A lot of times I'm not so great with details. I have to have staff and other people handle major details for me because my brain thinks in vision. I see things 5, 10, 15 years before they actually happen.

Right.

Which is scary for a lot of the administrative people because they're like, I see what's in front of me. I'm like, great. I need you to focus on what's in front of you and just trust that I'm doing the right thing over here. Right. But it took time to understand that I had strengths and blind spots. Most leaders don't go inside to really be honest with themselves and say, I struggle here, I'm great here. I struggle here. I'm great here. You look at the strengths and the struggles and the blind spots as a holistic approach. Blind spots you backfill for, struggles you work on, and strengths you amplify. That simple. You do those three things, and you will build a very successful life because you will be congruent, you'll be honest, you'll be faith driven, and you won't be in a situation where you're trying to take from the marketplace. You'll be in the position of, I'm trying to serve the marketplace. And it just so happens when you serve well, you get rewarded with income. It's weird. So I don't know. There was a long winded answer, but.

I couldn't no, that's, that's like a, that's like a five minute masterclass and a four step masterclass on how do you get going? Like, let's go like move forward.

Yeah.

There's so many points. Let's talk character for a second because I want to, I want to dive into this idea about team building. In other words, if you're a visionary and maybe detail oriented, isn't yours, you know, building the right team? So let's come back to that. Let's talk character, though. So John Wooden said, be more concerned with your character than your reputation. He says your reputation is what people think you are. Your character is what you really are. And that character work that you did and maybe walk us through kind of the before and after, you know, and the before and after picture of, of kind of like how would you describe your character and some of the flaws that you were, you needed to work through, you know, that were holding you back. And, and, and how did you work, how did you identify him and then how did you work through those to build more of a rock solid character?

Yeah. So the, the easiest way to do it is to take Steve, Mark and my dad. Okay.

So much of your development early on is caught. Okay. The people you're around, people you're with, that's why that was it. Show me your five friends, I'll show your future. Like it's. And that's a, that's a life principle that covers your entire life. Right. Get around great people and stay around great people should be like number one. But Steve Myrick, if he shook your hand and gave you his word that he was going to do X, Y or Z, it happened. It did not matter if it cost him money, if it cost him time, if it cost him sleep, aggravation.

I never once saw him not keep his word. Okay.

I love that.

My father, on the other hand, at that time, before his personal transformation was very much, yeah, yeah, I'll take care of it for you. And it may or may not happen. Okay. So if you're outsider looking in on the dynamic of that person operating at that level, who are you going to do business with? The guy that keeps his word or the guy that doesn't keep his word? What I discovered is, is that the root of all character traits is this thing called choice. Choice. You get to choose who you want to be when you grow up, when you stop using excuses like, well, if I hadn't been for my family, if it hadn't been for my mom, my dad, my Girlfriend, my boyfriend, my former spouse, this person that stole money from me if I hadn't been for them. It was an experience. What'd you learn from it? Okay, great. Move on. You still get to choose if you're going to be honest, if you're going to be loyal, if you're going to keep your word, if you're going to actually put your needs before your wants. You know this as well as I do. So many people struggle financially because they won't put their needs before their wants. They're constantly putting their wants before their needs, which means they never set the dominoes up in their favor, which means they never actually build compounding, which means they never actually become wealthy. You become wealthy through the power of compounding. Okay? So when you look at all of that holistically, for me, I just chose one afternoon, literally, when Steve Meyer gave me my second shot that I did not deserve, that later became a big business. I chose that afternoon that I was going to choose to model him versus modeling my father. So when I chose to do that, then I was able to see, okay, well, if I'm modeling Steve, I see the deficiencies that I need to work on, and I also see the things in me that he sees in me that caused him to believe in me before I believed in myself.

I love that.

Okay? And then my father. Right. I chose to say, okay. That is not a trait that I want to live by. Okay. And as a result, here's the crazy part. When you give yourself permission to live a life of character and integrity and honesty, and you actually, ironically, give the people around you the permission to do the same thing, it's the wildest thing. My father became a better person, a man, a grandfather, all of that, because his children stepped up to the plate and decided to become something greater than what they had been taught or had caught. I should say.

Whoa, that is really powerful stuff. You know, being impeccable with your word, your example changing not only, like, the example of, in essence, those. I'm gonna call it below you, meaning make your own children, folks that look up to you, but even those that are above you, your parents, you know, their lives changed. Everyone around you, you know, starts to change. When you start to change. You know, that was. That was. That was so well said. And let me. Let me ask you this question. The business that you ultimately built was in the same kind of career genre that you were heading down anyway. Like, in other words, you didn't change and go start a tech company. Like, you were kind of doing what you're doing, but you became. You built your character, became excellent at it, and that's where your business success came from. Is that. Is that right?

Yeah. So the easiest way to understand it is, and I say this all the time, I.

With unstoppable Startup, I meet a lot of great entrepreneurs, people that the idea stage maybe a million dollars in revenue or whatever. And they all have the same question. And the question, ironically, is, how do I know if I'm in the right business? I'm like, well, what do you know? What do you have experience in and expertise in? Okay. And if you have experience and expertise in it, how do you also know that you're not competing with one of your mentors? Because I believe that's dishonesty. Okay? Now, your mentor can set you up in a different market and roll on. But that's a side point. I'll go on off a tangent. But when you understand those concepts, you're able to build businesses that can lead you to other businesses. I'll give you an example. So I started with a construction siding company. Okay.

Okay.

Literally driving nails in the rain in the snow. And I should say ice in North Carolina when it happened, okay. Because I had to make payroll. So I grinded, okay? I went from using my hands to using my head to now using my heart, Okay. I believe that's the natural progression of every single entrepreneur on the planet. You, you start with the tactical, you develop the strategical, and then you create the impact, right? So when you do those three things in sequential order, it's. It's irrelevant on where you are now as long as you know that you have to keep going, right? And then opening yourself up to development continually. So I went from construction to real estate, which is technically joined together, okay. Because, you know, there's construction phase, okay. Now I can own some real estate. Then I got into commercial real estate. And then from there, people started coming to me asking me about my story because I started becoming a little more public about being homeless. And actually, that was me facing one of my fears. The last thing I wanted to do was tell the world where I sucked. Right? Here's what I learned about that. When you're honest about where you struggle, other people come gravitate towards you because they struggle in the same way. And then you give them hope to go into the better day. It's like, it's a really wild kind of trajectory that led me to, ironically, almost speaking for the Ramsey Organization, for Dave Ramsey and those guys as one of their personalities a long time ago while I still own the construction company because they thought I was dynamic and they saw me speak at one of their little conferences in a little breakout rooms or whatever. While that didn't pan out.

I didn't know how to skill for speaking. I didn't know how to skill for writing or communicating or telling stories. I didn't know I had these skills. I stumbled my way to the skills by doing the thing that I knew how to do and to developing those things sharper and sharper and sharper. So now you know. Now it's a live events business. Now I help thought leaders build brands. Now I help entrepreneurs build businesses through experience. You have to get the experience before you have the wisdom to turn it into wealth. If you do those three things in that order, you will be crazy successful.

One of the principles I wanted to. I wanted to make sure that our audience heard that you. That you're teaching here. It's what I call there's two steps. It's bloom where you're planted.

Mm.

Meaning? Meaning if you're flipping pizzas, man, you.

Flip pizza and be awesome.

You're the best flip pizza flipper there. If you are working construction, you always do more. You're paid for as investment. Your future, your show up early, stay late. Good attitude.

You.

You.

That's got me paid, by the way. That same. That same attitude.

Yeah, that. That philosophy changed my whole life. Always do more than you're paid for as investment. Your future, my friends think of it this way. Guess how often. Always is. Always is. Always. It's not. Sometimes it's not when you feel like it. It's not on the shiny days. It's not when it's convenient. You always. And you don't. You do what. You don't do what you're paid for. Most people don't even do what they're paid for. They, you know, they're supposed to work in eight hours and they kind of worked six. You know, they don't even show up with a good attitude. They don't even show up and give it all they've got. So they don't even do what they're paid for. Your job is not to do what you're paid for. Your job is to do more than you're paid for. Why? Because you're investing in the person you were born to be. You're investing in your future so you can bloom where you're planted right now, become the very best that you can be right now. And then you step two is you start stringing wins Together. And Steven, to me, this is kind of like what your story was. It's like, instead of like, I think sometimes people think to themselves, I. I just got to think of a big idea. Just got to think of a big idea. Just got to think of a big idea. And then, you know, like, big, huge concept. It's like, listen, get great right now with the little things that are going on in your life, and then the big things start to come. So you bloom where you're planted. You start stringing the winds together. And as you think of your story, all of these satellite, in essence, satellite businesses that revolved around the construction world started. You started becoming an expert in all those. Why? Because you bloomed in the construction world. You weren't too good for it. You didn't. Most of us, a lot of times people will say kind of like, this is stupid. But when I have a big business, then I'm really going to put the effort in. No, you got to put the effort in here. Grind here, earn it here. And then the other stuff starts coming second.

Yeah, no, it's 100%. Again, it gives. When you talk about this always concept.

Let'S look at it from what we just got to talk about, from the character concept. If you, if you choose, because it goes back to the word choice, if you choose to always show up and do more than you're paid for, people are going to see it. You're going to get eyeballs because you're doing something outside of the norm, and you'll get recognized for it. Sometimes it'll take some time. Sometimes you don't know people are watching, but it takes. Okay, so it takes time. Okay, that's beside the point.

The concept always is character. It is character. I am choosing to. To always deliver more value than I'm expected to be returned for with money. Okay? I'm choosing to. Here's a good one. A lot of entrepreneurs, and this is, me included, a number of years ago, struggle with their marital relationships. Okay? A lot of entrepreneurs do. What if you treated your families like customers? Sending the cards, picking up the phone, making sure the lunch is perfect. Right? The power of always builds the character. So the commitment I made to myself is I'm going to invest time, energy, talent, resources in all directions in proportionate moments. Okay? There's one principle I want to share before we hop off, if it's all right, because I think it's important. A lot of entrepreneurs celebrate the success, okay? So as a fellow entrepreneur, we get a lot of recognition and attention for the Things that we have achieved. What I would rather do is I would rather celebrate the sacrifices that created the success to begin with. And the reason I want to do that. And I want to applaud any entrepreneur who's out there grinding, who's out there trying to figure it out, who's out there trying to build a business, who's out there trying to build a relationship, who's out there trying to figure out how to sell this product good or service, or they're trying to figure out how to build a team or have this moment like I did like 15 years ago, where you're like, I have a big business, but I suck as a leader. I. I suck.

Right.

And they're having that awareness moment, and I want to give them the courage to, like, keep going like you. Okay, now you've identified it, go after it. The sacrifice is by definition what makes an entrepreneur an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs create stuff out of thin air, and they sacrifice like the dickens to get there. And then later on, somewhere down the road, then they get to have the attention of the success. I would rather celebrate every single entrepreneur on the planet right now for the sacrifices they're paying to make their dream a reality. Because that sacrifice is the wisdom, is the experience, is the very thing that you'll be able to teach later on to be able to make other movements, to create a legacy that outlives you.

Yeah, I teach it in three, like, three sections, three phases. The dream, the struggle, the victory, and they're all equal. So in other words, if you have a big dream, you've signed up for a big struggle. In this case, a big sacrifice. Yeah, but then the victory is equal, the size of struggle. But here's the thing is oftentimes when you get to a victory, you think to yourself, everyone wants to hear about the victory. My friends, take good notes. Those of you that are in the struggle section or the sacrifice section, take good notes. And here's why. People are going to relate more to your struggles than they will your victories. They're going to say, stephen, you went through that. Like, you thought that. Like, when. When they hear. It's the connection points. By the way, I want you to talk about this. I was on a call today with a guy that. It was a coaching call, and he. Really good guy, sharp guy, good guy, the whole thing. But he had an affair a number of years ago, almost lost his marriage. They ultimately worked it out, but they. He had an affair. And he said, he goes, my life just hasn't been the same. It's Almost like he, like lost his spark, you know, he's just like, he's like, I don't. I feel embarrassed to put myself out there. Like kind of like a hypocrite. Like, you know, I. And his wife has been saying to him, she's like, honey, you need to like, get your spark back, babe. Like, you got this. Like, let's go.

Yeah.

And he said to me, goes. But I just. My biggest fear is like, getting on, in essence, on a stage, in essence. And I don't want anyone to know this. And I said, brother, that. That vulnerability is your superpower. This, these challenges that you've overcome, this weakness that you're feeling, this is the message that's going to touch people's lives, is how you overcame this. You talked about that like some of these, these struggles and these pains.

I do it, I do it.

Faults that you had, those you sharing, that was your biggest fear. How did you overcome that?

I took a chance. I never forget this. I went to a seminar, and the first three days of the seminar, I got my teeth kicked in because I realized in that moment I was a very terrible leader. And here's. I had a good heart, I had the right intention, but I didn't have the right actions because the actions and the intentions rarely matched.

Because I had a GED and I didn't graduate high school. I was hiring people that had for, in some cases, eight year degrees, so I felt inferior to them. So I let out of insecurity. Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

This event helped me kind of like pivot that a little bit. And one of the things that I heard at this seminar was the importance of the founder sharing their story. Okay? Every founder should share their story. Period. Okay? And on a routine basis, how did we get to where we are? Especially if you've been in business 10, 15, 20 years, your team needs to hear that story. They need. There's a. There's this old saying that the quirky brilliance of the founder can only take you so far. Okay? So brilliance gets it started. Executive teams and solid teams keep it going and build upon it. Okay? I came back from that seminar and I did a three hour production meeting with my entire team and I was crying, I was. I was acting, I was weird. Like, I was just, like I was just me vulnerable. And I said, this is why I did this stupid thing. And I. And I own. I owned it. Right? So in the, in this example, with this, with this potential client of yours that has gone through this season of where you made a mistake and you're and you're, you've managed to kind of rebuild it. You should. First of all, that's, that's a beautiful thing, especially have a spouse after that come back to you be like, no, babe, get your, get your.

Let's go. Right, that's right, that's right.

That's, that's amazing in of itself. But here's, here's, here's what, here's what's actually going on inside of the psyche and the heart.

What's going on in psyche of the heart is I have a label on myself and I'm living by that label, okay?

Jesus picked a woman up off the ground and told her not to live by that label. If you were living by labels, you will never actually achieve other levels, period. It just won't happen. So in this particular case, I would say couple different things. First of all, get your butt on a stage, small or large, and own your story. Step one. Step two, byproduct. Don't be surprised if men, in this case women in a different story would come to you after the fact and say that they were on the verge of making that mistake or they had made the same mistake and now you've given them another level of hope. Because rather than live by a label, you owned your story.

We shortchange the world economy because we want to live with a mask. And because we live with a mask, we live with disconnected if we want to be, remain if we want to come back together and be connected. You have to be honest with the story. The story, by definition, is what creates the level, the next level for the other people. You and I talk from stage all the time, okay? We understand the importance of sharing a story because different people are going to hear different parts of the story and take different things away. At the end of the day, if you're not sharing your story and God put that in you to make their life better, then who are you really holding out on? You're actually hold yourself out for making the impact you're supposed to have. And I got news for you. People make mistakes all the time and they have to come back from those. And there are consequences to certain, there are consequences to every mistake, but there's consequences to large mistakes and et cetera. I'm trying to say this with grace. Own your story. When you own your story, a lot of good will come from it. Just be honest, be transparent, be vulnerable. I mean, I would go as far as maybe doing like a teaching, like a men's breakout session. Like, this is how I Fell into that. This was the slow fade. Because it doesn't start. It's not like you walk into the gym. Like, man, like, it's a slow fade. You know, you had this thing and this thing and this thing, like, work backwards. Build it, Build a framework around it to help other men get out of it, prevent it.

So good, my friends, I'm hoping you are going back and replaying some of these points, because my guess is you're listening to this and you say, yeah, it makes a lot of sense, but I'm not going to share this section of the story. And maybe that section is the next lift for you. Maybe that section is the thing that's really going to connect you to people at a deeper level. And you can do it in an appropriate way. You can do it in a way without all the maybe all the gory details. But just look, people are making mistakes just like you did. One way to think about it is to go serve the person today that you used to be. You know, maybe you go add that value to the person that used to be. Maybe you could help them. Either those that have already been where you are, you could help them through it, or those that are about like, Stephen, you said they're about on the verge, you could maybe help them say, yo, I've jumped off that cliff. That's not a fun one. Let me. Let me. Let me walk you back off that thing. So, brother, this has been so fun. When we first met, I was like. It was just like, back and forth, back and forth. We are like, brother from another mother, and I feel the same way. Today we. We got to get more time, you know, but any. Any closing thoughts, any closing messages as people are leaving, you make sure my friends go, go. If you want more of this, make sure you go get the unstoppable podcast. His podcast is off the charts. His guests are off the charts. His insights are off the charts. He just does a really, really great job. But thank you. You know, any. Any parting thoughts or parting, you know, you know, things that are on your heart as we. As we end this up.

Yeah, I think I would encourage every audience member right now. They get done with this podcast.

They grab a pen and a paper, they find a quiet place of solitude, spend 30 to 60 minutes and write down whatever flows out of you, and then look for commonalities in what flows out of you. Then use that commonality to take a next step. Because all the motivation, all the inspiration, all the great concepts and the mic drop moments and all those things are Fantastic. And they have their place and they can feed you. But if you don't use any of it, you are not going to advance. You have to take a step day after day after day. I always say there's 365 days in a year, at least in the Gregorian calendar. And if you take one step, just one step a day for 365 days, you're already 365 steps further than you would have been had you just stayed still. In this world, this thought leadership world, this performance kind of world, kind of, you know, I see a lot of people who do nothing but consume content. Consume, consume, consume, consume, consume, consume, consume, consume. Never take action.

Consume, take action. Rinse, lather, repeat, period. That's all my heart. And hopefully I was able to add some value to your audience today.

Yeah. So well said. I. You never leave the side of inspiration without taking actions. So you say to yourself right now, what's the next action that you need to take? What's the next physical action? Physical meaning send the email, say, I'm sorry, make the call, do the presentation, you know, go do the video. Like, what's that thing that you're, you know, is the next thing that moves your, you closer to your dream, closer to your goal? Go, go sit down for an hour and write. Maybe that's the next physical action. You know, eliminate some distraction and just pour. So what's the next physical action? Next physical step. So, Stephen, brother, honored to have you on, man.

Love you, dude.

It's just so good. And just appreciate who you are. I really appreciate how you've taken these challenges, taken these obstacles that you faced, and you've turned the whole thing into this incredible testimony, you know, of what God can do in someone's life, what, what imperfect people can go build in the world. And then using all that to inspire others. It's just super. It's a super cool story. So thank you again. Honored to be on with you, man.

Super honored, man. Thank you so much.