In this episode of the Business Blast podcast, host Tyler Wagner interviews entrepreneur and author Christian Chasmer. Chasmer shares a pivotal personal story from when his real‑estate development company was on the brink of collapse, describing how accepting full responsibility sparked a mindset shift that led him to rebuild the business into a 7‑figure operation. He emphasizes the critical role of systems and processes for scaling, citing a Visionsoft survey that identifies the lack of such infrastructure as the main barrier for companies trying to grow beyond $1 million in revenue. Chasmer offers core entrepreneurial advice, including the mantra that “you can’t fail unless you quit,” a lesson from his mentor Chris Catino, and stresses the importance of relentless reading—about three books a month—as a keystone habit that fuels personal and professional growth. He highlights Don Miguel Ruiz’s The Four Agreements as the most impactful book in his development, and explains how meaning and purpose, rather than money, are the foundations of lasting happiness. He also shares his favorite reflective question—“What would you do if you knew you would fail?”—as a tool for uncovering true priorities. The conversation concludes with a call to action for listeners to visit his website, losethelimits.com, and contact him via email.
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Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
¡Hola! All right, everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Have a special guest, good friend Christian Chasmor with us. He is the founder and CEO of Elevate Advisors and the best-selling author of Lose Your Limits, Grow Your Business. So welcome to the show, man.
Hey, thanks for having me, Tyler.
Of course, grateful to have you here. We'll jump into the first one, Christian. The first question I have for you is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Yeah, best story from my life. Oh man. Probably one of the best, most defining stories of my life came when I was running my real estate development company, CC Solutions. I was in the mountains in Utah actually on a trip with my mom for her birthday and the business was struggling really hard. We were really a couple weeks away from going under. I had a whole team that was relying on me to move the business forward and we were struggling and I was struggling a lot. I was pretty depressed at that time and I remember looking out into the mountains and realizing that it's all my fault, that it was my fault, which sounds really sad. But at the moment, it was very empowering because I realized that if I can change certain things about the business and about myself, then I can get the business going. From that moment, I really started to dive deep into who I was as a person and become the person capable of running a 7-figure business. At the same time, I dove deep into how to make the business a 7-figure business, how to build the systems and processes to make it work and not just use hustle to try to bulldoze your way to success. And right from that moment, I started going into both of those sections and the business really blew up since then. And we got a lot of traction really quickly after that.
Yeah.
Really one of the more defining moments in my life.
Dude, that's awesome. And I think that's actually One of the biggest things I think for anyone, not just in entrepreneurship, but when— because it's weird, it's like when you start off, you want to put the blame on others for maybe your failures. So, you're like, "It's not me, it can't be me." But then, because it's hard to accept that, but then once you get through the acceptance period, like you just said, it's actually the most empowering thing because you're like, "No, you know what? Everything in my life is my fault." When you accept it, then it's actually very— I don't want to say easy, but it's a heck of a lot easier when you accept it to change and grow than it is when you're in denial in a sense. 100%. Yeah, it's hard to accept it, but once you do, good things come. Yeah, exactly. The next one I have for you is, what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Most valuable piece of information that we should know. Gosh, probably the most valuable piece of information is diving deep into, if you are a business owner, diving deep into what processes and systems can do for your business. Tyler Wagner Wagner spoke really briefly right before this podcast about systems and processes and how it helped one, you scale your businesses and two, obviously me scale my businesses, just diving deeper into how systems and processes can work for your business. And every single business can use systems and processes. It doesn't matter how small or large or unique the business is.
Yeah, definitely. And regardless, at some point, if you don't create them at first, which I'd recommend you do, you're going to have to create them at some point if you want to scale. It's impossible without them. I know that. Yeah, 100%.
Actually, excuse Visionsoft did a survey and research all of their clients, and they found that most of their clients, the biggest barrier from going from 7 figures to, from $1 million to $2 million and up and actually scaling to the point of, you know, the $10 billion companies was systems and people. So right at that $1 million mark, the train started to fall off the tracks because people were going from that solopreneur hustler into a growing business and they didn't have the systems to do it. So, there are thousands and thousands of clients and Fusionsoft found that point there at $1 million, you really do need systems to continue to grow.
And what's your best piece of overall business advice? So, not necessarily industry-specific and I think what you said does apply to all businesses but maybe you have another piece of advice like maybe for somebody just starting out in entrepreneurship or whatever you'd like to share with us.
Yeah, biggest piece of business advice. You know, for anybody really, whether you're starting out or been doing it a long time, some, some pieces of advice that I, I found really helpful at a time in my life was that you can't fail unless you quit. And a mentor of mine, Chris Catino, and you know, Chris Catino, Tyler, actually told me that one day when I was on his boat really depressed because I just lost all of my employees. And I had a ton of production and ton of customers still waiting for me when I ran a franchise in college. And he laughed at me because I was telling him the sob story. He's like, you don't even know that you can't fail. And I was like, okay, Chris, you know, I love the positive attitude. Yeah, that's great. He was like, no, no, no, it's not a positive attitude. You can't fail unless you quit and you're not a quitter. And it just, it kind of one of those moments that just blows your mind. You're like, oh my gosh, okay, I'm seeing this. And I always remember that in really tough times. I think that's a big piece of advice that I always give to starting entrepreneurs is you really can't fail unless you quit. You can pivot, you can learn, you can grow, but unless you quit, you can't fail.
And it goes completely in line with just accepting that everything's your fault. So, yeah, I agree. And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
If I could give my younger self one piece of advice, that would be to read more, which is funny because you run Authors Unite. I'm not just plugging that for you. Really, since I started reading 3 books a month and got into a habit of reading, voraciously, you know, my growth has been exponential. I would really, really tell my 15-year-old self to start reading books, start reading consistently, and get in the habit of reading. I actually tell any young entrepreneur the exact same thing.
Yeah, I think it's interesting. As you know, I dropped out of school and what prompted it was I read The 4-Hour Workweek. And then, I kind of went on this like binge. I think I read like, I don't know, 50 to 100 books over a pretty short period of time, like all business and personal development related. And then after that, like, I almost felt like I was like, I got it figured out. I was like, I got it. It's game over. And then I actually stopped, like, I just wasn't reading as much for a while. And I was more just like doing, which was also good. But there's a balance. And I think that reading should be a never, never-ending cycle just throughout life. So, I try to— I audiobook as much as possible. Whenever I have just even 10 minutes free in between a call, I'll just throw on the book that I'm listening to. Yeah, man, because it just never ends. Learning never ends.
100%. It's one of my keystone habits. It's just a non-negotiable for me.
Mm-hmm. So, kind of going down a little bit of a different path, but in your opinion, What is the key to happiness?
The key to happiness for me, the key to happiness is meaning. So, creating some sort of meaning in your life, whether that be for a mother, her kids being the meaning of her life, for people that are running their businesses, maybe it's their employees or the people that they're impacting. But for me, happiness comes when you can derive meaning from what you're doing. And the way that I fell into unhappiness for quite a while was doing something and running and building a business that I didn't necessarily see that there was a meaning to. It was a fun business and we're doing really well, but I didn't see the meaning behind it. And when I transitioned out of that business and sold it and started what I'm actually doing now and found meaning in what I was doing, I became a lot happier. So, I would say it's finding meaning in what you're doing and then being present, which you can go into mindfulness, meditation, et cetera for that. But that's something that I've worked on a lot the past year, year and a half to cultivate that happiness.
And so, going back to books now, what is— and I know this might be really hard if you're doing 3 or maybe even more a month, but what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from it?
The best book I've ever read, number one thing I learned from it. Great question. I would say the best book, and maybe it's not the best book, but it had probably the most profound impact in my life because it was early on my book reading and personal development journey, was The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. And I go back to that book every year actually and reread it. It came at a point in my life where I was ready to step into this new person. It was senior year of college. I was now on this train of I need to become a better person so I can become a better leader. And The Four Agreements are just four principles for how you can live your life. And they were simple but not easy to follow principles. And once I started implementing them in my life, things change pretty rapidly. And I really did feel like I became a better person. I became closer with people in my life. And I definitely became a better leader. So I would say The Four Agreements, and it's a short book. It's like 130 pages.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
Favorite quote and why? My favorite quote is actually a question. And I ask it a lot. And I ask a lot of entrepreneurs that a lot is, what would you do if you know you would fail? So it throws the whole, what would you do if you know you couldn't fail on its head? Because when you ask, what would you do if you know you wouldn't fail? I do everything, I get the helicopter, I, you know, I do everything. But what is so important that you would do it anyway, even though you know you would fail? That question came at a really important time in my life where I was searching for that meaning like I spoke about earlier and what to do and what impact do I want to make. When I started asking myself that question, things got very clear because it put in perspective the important things, the impact that I want to make. That's something I ask myself pretty frequently. I think that's a great place to start for people who want to start a business or who are just starting a business or who are maybe stuck. In a business that they don't derive meaning from.
Yeah, man.
Dude, I never heard that. I really like that because it completely takes your focus off of the money, which I think a lot of people, that's what actually gets them stuck is if you start a business just for the money, then you hit a point of not being able to work those 16-hour days because you got to be fulfilled, in my opinion, at least for me, I'm speaking for myself here. You got to really love what you do to be able, for instance, like this podcast, for me to do as many as I do. I'd have to really like it or it just wouldn't work. So, yeah, that's a really interesting question because I think if you ask that question first, then it starts off your map way better than if not asking that. So, I like that. That's good.
Totally.
So, yeah, man, dude, thank you for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?
Yeah, best place to find me online is at my website, losethelimits.com. You can head over there, check out, check out some free stuff that I, that I always give away on my website. Or you can always just email me as well, christianchasmer, my first and last name, @gmail.com. I'm always talking to people, answering people. I love, love just communicating and talking with people.
So Perfect, man. Thanks again for hopping on.
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks a lot, Tyler. It was a pleasure.
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