The book that changed my life | Real estate revolution podcast Episode 15
13 Nov 2025 · 15 min
Steve D. Valentine credits Lewis Howes' The School of Greatness and live events like the Summit of Greatness with transforming his real estate career. He gained clients, collaborators, and speaking opportunities through the connections he made at these masterminds and summits.
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Coming up on this episode of the Real Estate Revolution. Being all excited about listening to this book. And mind you, my background is in real estate, and so I've been to tons of real estate conferences. And this was also the time that I was struggling a little bit. My dad had just passed. We were kind of going through some transitions and a lot of stuff going on. And I read this book, and at the time, I didn't know what a podcast was, what an influencer was. I had no idea Live events actually changed my life. So there's a couple events I want to talk to you about that are coming up that are friends of mine, people that I know, but I also want to share with you kind of the story and the trajectory of my life. And probably I might not even be behind this camera had I not stepped out of my comfort zone. Hey, I'm Steve D. Valentine. Welcome back to the Real Estate Revolution. This episode is brought to you by Kelly Zitlow at Cornerstone Lending. She is one of our power partners and lenders. So. So if you're looking to refinance or purchase, please reach out to Kelly. Her information is down here in the show notes, and she's also a great follow on YouTube as well, if you're just looking for different information about loans and anything that has to do with home loans. So it was seven years ago this Labor Day that's coming up that I read a book that changed my life. And so there's two points. This podcast, some of you may be thinking like, is it a dumb idea to write a book? And I want to share with you the trajectory of what one man's book wrote and how it's transformed my life and I'm sure hundreds of thousands of other people's lives. So who I'm talking about is Lewis Howes, and I read his book the School of Greatness on Labor Day weekend. I actually listened to it, and it was a great listen to, and it's just about his journey and his path. And at the end of it, he's talking about the summit of greatness, which I think when I went was year two, and that was seven years ago. And I remember being all excited about listening to this book. And mind you, my background is in real estate, and so I've been to tons of real estate conferences. And this was also the time that I was struggling a little bit. My dad had just passed. We were kind of going through some transitions and a lot of stuff going on. And I read this book, and at the time, I didn't Know what a podcast was, what an influencer was? I had no idea. I went out and told my wife, I'm like, I'm going to go to Columbus, Ohio. I didn't say we're going to Columbus, Ohio. I wanted to do it by myself because I think that sometimes we go to these events and we go with a spouse or a friend. We truly don't immerse ourselves into meeting new people and getting out of our comfort zones. So I'm going to give you a couple of events that are coming up that I'd highly encourage you. Make the investment, but go by yourself. Are you looking for a lender that is going to help you structure your strategies just the way I do in my business? Well, I want to introduce you to Andrew Caram, the sponsor of this podcast. He is with Edge Home Finance. He is a broker and he is a lender strategist, just like I'm a real estate strategist. And he's going to help you get through all the what ifs and how to's by breaking it down and really showing you a great way in the home loan process or in the investment side of the process. So reach out to Andrew. His contact information is in the show notes. And thank you for our sponsors this week. And back to the show. The reason is because had I not gone by myself and we would have done, you know, typically what we are creatures of habit of like sticking close to each other and having dinner together, but not necessarily being loners and meeting new people and getting out of our comfort zone. And that was important for me and I wanted to really find something that was just going to be like, let's go check it out and do something completely outside the box and see what happens. And here's what I will tell you happened. Lewis wrote that book. He probably had his doubts about writing the book and all the things. And it was such a great book. What Lewis didn't know is how many people was going to impact down the road. So had he not written that book, I'm not sure where my life would have trajectory, where it would have been. You know, I'm sure there could have been something else, but this is really what the path it took and ended up in Columbus, Ohio. So that weekend I went with the intention of knowing nobody either, you know, sitting at the bar, buying somebody a drink or buying lunch or whatnot, sitting next to different people every time I possibly could so that I could meet what this new breed of people was. The influencer, the entrepreneur. Right. And it was not as well spoken about seven, eight years ago as it is now. Right. It's not a common knowledge or it wasn't back then. And so I remember the first night that I met a good friend of mine. Her name is Jigme Love, and she's a very boisterous young lady. But we had a lot of fun, just kind of talking and sharing stories and. And I told her a little bit about what I was doing in real estate. And then, you know, she was actually the one that introduced me to Chris Harder that weekend. Now, what's funny about that is that Chris was introduced to me and Chris was just on his journey, like, just started. He was just coming out of Lewis's Mastermind. Louis encouraged him to create a mastermind. So this was year one for Chris's Mastermind. And Kris at the time was doing a podcast for the love of money. And so we chatted and I told him a little bit about, you know, some of my generosity and some of the different things we do. And so he's like, oh, we should be. You should be on my podcast. I'm like, I don't know what a podcast is. And it was my first guest appearance. It's down in the show notes if you want to hear how wet behind the ears I was. It was episode 72 on his podcast. I think he's like, episode 600 now. But it was. It was interesting. So I was on his podcast, we had this great conversation, and then he invited me. He's like, you'd be a really good fit for my Mastermind. Little did I know at the time, Kris was fishing, right? And it was like, you'd be a great fit for this. And so I filled out the application, went through the stuff, and again, I really didn't know what the Mastermind was going to be. This is somebody I just met. He does this podcast. It's about money and influence. You're like, okay. So we went through the process, and this is where I was introduced to masterminds. And I remember that year stroking a check for $24,000 to be in that room with 17 other entrepreneurs, which, by the way, scariest thing of my life when I showed up. For Chris Mastermind was because there's 17 of us in a U shaped table. We all kind of know what the price tag was. None of us know what walks of life we came from. And so it was a very interesting, very uncomfortable setting. And I remember Christine Hassler coming in and really breaking us down and doing what Chris calls hot seats. Which is kind of like bragging on yourself and what you've accomplished and what you're doing there and what you expect out of it. And so that one live event, not only did I meet Kris, but I also met several other people that I still talk to today. One of them, Carter, you know, young kid, he was selling semi parts when we were talking, and now he runs a real estate brokerage. And we've had so many conversations about investing in real estate over the years. And then I met a few other people that became clients along the way because they lived here in Phoenix. And so there was just a lot of different moving parts and people that I met that made an impact on my life. From going to that one event, it changed everything because I went with an open mind and I wanted to do something outside the industry. We all tend to stick close inside our own industries when we're doing events and things. And it's like, oh, well, this is going to help. But here's what I can encourage you when I went to that is because I wanted to see what other people were doing that I could bring back to the real estate business. So you might go, you might have a cosmetic business. You can see what people in the real estate business are doing that might impact your business and kind of learning from those different people. So highly, highly encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and find some live events that will empower you and also get you out of your comfort zone, meeting new people, because these people will change your life, being outside your industry. So I highly recommend it. If you're enjoying this podcast, you will enjoy Limitless Real Estate Strategies, a book that I just recently authored and published. Grab that book if you want to see how some of these amazing strategies are coming to life and how they will change the way you view real estate. On Amazon today. Limitless real estate strategies. Back to the show. So here's the crazy thing is when I really look at that $2,500 investment for the first live event, which was my travel and hotel and the ticket price, because ticket prices are, you know, I think that one was $1,000 at the time. Here's the insane part of it is that because I went with that experience, I want to explain to you what it did going forward in life and all the people that it impacted that I had no idea that event would take a toll on my life going forward. So I met Chris Harder, which In turn, the 17 entrepreneurs that I met in that room are all still friends and acquaintances. Some have become clients in the real estate business, some have become coaches. So for instance, I met Jordan Sanchez in year one, and she's kind of a spiritual coach. You know, I always tease her like she's kind of a woo coach, but she was extremely powerful. And then six years later, she's now my wife's private coach, and my wife is going to her events, and my wife is now speaking at those events. I don't know that that connection would have been made had I not been in that mastermind. And then you keep going down the Every year I've stayed in it. So this is my seventh year in Kris mastermind. Tracy o', Malley, who I met in year one, is also an original member, and we have stayed in there every year because I'm always fear of missing out the next year. And it's an investment every year. And I always tell people, like, I basically pay to be in that room and get 20 to 30 new friends and acquaintances every year from that room. Plus all the knowledge that I get from. From Kris. And the growth, you know, watching Kris grow over these years has been insane as well. And it has expanded my business, expanded my horizon. And so on the real estate side, it was never intended for me to go into that room to try to do business because I learned the hard way from watching my dad of paying, being in rooms and then just trying to utilize it to drum up business. And it was actually different as just gradually started to learn and grow and become friends and eventually, you know, have created a ton of clients out of the business and a ton of people that we've helped with their real estate strategies. And so, you know, Louis's book and his idea to do the book and then doing the event and the mastermind that I did with Kris are all things that people stepped out and feared. And a lot of the fear that I've experienced over the years with doing different things or writing a book like I just released Limitless Real Estate Strategies, you fear the negative rather than looking forward to the positive. So some of you might be struggling with, I have this great idea, but I'm afraid to do this. And I'm encouraging you to go out and seek this network of people or friends and pay to be in those rooms because those are the people that will eventually impact you and push you and grow you to the next level. And so I can't say enough, you know, thank yous to Louis, you know, for the event that he put on, for writing that book and the amount of life that it's changed for me. Going forward, I want to thank our sponsor, Lawyers Title. Yes, title and escrow is probably the most boring part of our industry, but the absolute most important. So if you're looking for a great title partner, reach out to David Bellinger at Lawyers Title here in Phoenix. And they are great partners will take care of you and put you together with the right escrow officer to move your business forward. Thank you Lawyers Title. And let's get back to the show. Lewis event is actually coming up in September and if you get the chance, I highly encourage you to go Summit of greatness. I'm pulling it up right now. It is September 7th and the 9th in Ohio in Columbus, Ohio. You can go to some of the greatness.com to get tickets, but I highly recommend you go to that go by yourself. If you go with somebody, tell them to shoo away and go make their own new friends. Really, really great event. And then also my good friend Melissa Hanault is doing her Burnout to All Out Live event in Nashville October 6th and 7th and that one is going to be awesome. I'm actually going to be there speaking to the VIP day. I'll be there all weekend with a lot of our friends from Mastermind that are speaking that weekend, including my publisher. And Melissa does an amazing LinkedIn Academy. So if you guys haven't looked into LinkedIn as a place to generate business, Melissa is the expert in all of that. And then there is also the Empower her event coming up which is Keisha, that is in Denver in October, I think October 22nd, maybe it's September 22nd. That's another great event. If you want to be around a network of women that are empowering each other, that is another amazing event coming up. So I highly encourage you look at some of these one day events. It doesn't matter what industry you're in, get out of your comfort zone, go to some of these events, increase your network, increase your knowledge of knowing other people and be open minded because the things that you see, the ideas that you see might be the breakthrough you've been looking for for a really long time. And that's what I would encourage you about live events coming up. Step out of your industry, step out of your comfort zone and go let life be transformed or changed by somebody that you meet by going to one of these live events. Guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode. And if you're not following Melissa or Louis or some of these other people that I mentioned, make sure you're doing that on Instagram. Their stuff should be down in the show notes. And I appreciate you listening today. And we will see you on the next episode of the Real Estate Revolution. So many of you are asking for more. And I've got something for you. If you want a little bit more of Wendy and I and how we're operating our business. And you're interested in building your real estate wealth, your life, your legacy, through all the things that we have done. Well, welcome to the limitless circle@thelimitlesscircle.com you're getting several calls a month, plus a lot of added value in our community. And what we're doing and breaking down properties and Wendy, breaking down the construction side and how to build that real estate portfolio for the life that you want. So join thelimitlesscircle.com today, make that investment, and let's get you moving in your real estate portfolio.
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