← Action Academy | Millionaire Mentorship For Your Life & Business
Action Academy | Millionaire Mentorship For Your Life & Business
From $50k / Year Employee to $10M Entrepreneur (Full Playbook) w/ Steve Rozenberg
00:49:33
Loading summary
Transcript126 lines
- [00:00]
A
It takes a second to make a decision to change your life. The entrepreneurial highway is littered with the souls of people who had million dollar ideas, but they never cashed the check because they were too busy being busy and they didn't know where they were going.
- [00:14]
B
The goal is to figure out how do you stop doing the work that you're forced to do and only focus on the work that you choose to do.
- [00:21]
A
If you don't change, you're going to have another five years of pain, headache, frustration, drama. Because your input equals your output. I believe it's vital for people to survive. What I'm going to explain to you, number one.
- [00:34]
B
So, Steve, we have this audience of people that follow and listen to this podcast and they have this identity of this employee mindset and they want to go from, for the first time in their life, being told where to be, what to do, when to do it, to shifting to this new identity of entrepreneur. But I feel like a lot of people make this shift, take this leap without the proper frameworks, beliefs, identities, and then all of a sudden they trade this 40 hour work week for a hundred hour a week. Hellhol. So you have these ideas about belief, identity and results. Walk me through kind of how you've changed and shifted beliefs and then how you could help others do that as well.
- [01:13]
A
Yeah, I think just, just to start off what you were saying, I think that the challenge that a lot of people run into is, you know, you're either running away from pain or you're running towards pleasure. And the majority of people that do exactly what you said, they're running away from a life they don't want. So they're running away from pain, but they really don't know what they're running towards. They don't know what is that pleasure? They don't even know. They can't even tell me. What does success look like? Like, define it for me, what is it? It's not money in the bank, it's what is it? And they're like, I don't know. And I'm like, well then you're just going to run right back into what you're running away from. Because we have what's called a reticular activating system, which is our filter. And whatever you focus on expands. So if you're focused on what you don't want, guess what happens? You go right back into it. And you built a moat around your quote unquote business, which is really a job, because I always say if you can't leave it for three Hours, three days, or God forbid, three weeks without your phone. You don't own a business, you own a job, and it's probably choking you to death. And we think we want freedom. But I'm like, I'll ask people like, so how's that working for you? And they're like, it's not. I'm like, because you didn't have a destination you were going to. I mean, something as simple as Google Maps. What does Google Maps need to work? It needs a starting point, and it has to have an address, destination to get you to somewhere. If you tell Google, hey, just drive me, it's going to go, I don't know where you're going. You have to give it a destination. And then based on that, between the two is what's called the strategy. And if you are supposed to go right, but you go left, what does Google do? Does it re anchor you back to where you started? No, it re anchors you back to your destination. Everything is predicated on your destination. Flying an airplane, as an airline pilot, we have a flight plan. Everything is predicated on where we are landing, how much fuel, the routing, the weather, the emergencies, the alternates. Everything is predicated on that destination. Well, if that is so imperative to how we travel and it's so imperative to flying an airplane, wouldn't that be kind of imperative to your life of starting a business? And I ask people, what is your destination? And they're like, what do you mean? I'm like, stop. Just stop. Let's slow down so we could speed up and let's figure out, where are we going before we get in the car and start driving? Because the entrepreneurial highway is littered with the souls of people who had, you know, million dollar ideas, but they never cashed the check because they were too busy being busy and they didn't know where they were going.
- [03:42]
B
Yeah. There's this quote that I really love, which is, don't be busy all the time. You're going to have no time to make money.
- [03:49]
A
Yeah, absolutely.
- [03:50]
B
You're busy all the time. The man who is busy all the time has no time to make money. And I love that. And so to your entrepreneurial highway analogy, I talk a lot about this car dealership analogy to where entrepreneurship is like this giant car dealership, and all we're focused on is picking which vehicle from the lot. You know, don't want to invest in Airbnbs, don't want to buy a company. Do I want to buy land or want to buy hotels Multifamily. And they Pick out their vehicle and. And you start driving, and you drive down this infinite highway, and then all of a sudden, the car starts smoking because you haven't stopped for gas, you haven't stopped for fuel, you haven't stopped for snacks. You look to your right, your wife or your husband is gone. You look behind you, your kids are gone. They've been gone for years now.
- [04:27]
A
You never picked up.
- [04:28]
B
You never, never.
- [04:29]
A
Yeah.
- [04:29]
B
Either you never picked them up or you never stopped over. And now everyone's gone because you were just driving endlessly with no destination.
- [04:35]
A
Yeah.
- [04:36]
B
And the difference is you need to know where the hell you're going. So that's why I love that you said that in another quote that a coach recently told me. Now I'm three years of corporate, and I've kind of been there, done that now, and I've realized that your business will take every hour that you give it.
- [04:51]
A
Yeah.
- [04:51]
B
And so when you leave that job, this is for the advice for people that are trying to leave corporate and they want to be a business owner for the first time. What's some advice that you can give to prevent what happened to me, which was, now that I'm doing my own thing, I have to work on this 24 7. And now all of a sudden, the reward for excellent work is always more work. So how do you set bumpers and guidelines and rails and create that vision for what your dream business actually is?
- [05:19]
A
Yeah, that's a great question. And it is a huge, huge challenge for people. And let me just say what I'm about to tell you. I think there's a lot of people out there, whether they're coaches or motivational speakers or whatever they are, they don't share what I'm about to share with you either, because, number one, they don't know it, or number two, they don't want you to know it. But I believe it's vital for people to survive. What I'm going to explain to you, and I'll share this with you. Number one, if you look at principles, principles are laws, and laws don't change. Okay? No matter what I think, if we were to take the law of gravity, and if I felt in my heart of hearts that I could jump off of a building and fly, and I'm in Facebook groups and I read books on it, and everyone is chanting in a circle telling me, steve, you can do this. And if I go out to the edge of the building and I jump off the building, am I going to go up based on my belief or am I going to go down based.
- [06:16]
B
On aim for the bushes.
- [06:17]
A
Yeah. Softest landing. And so the law of gravity doesn't. It doesn't matter what I think.
- [06:22]
B
Yeah.
- [06:23]
A
And so the reason this is important is we have what's called a tactic. And a tactic is something that changes with time. Okay. So, for example, if we wanted to go skiing in Minnesota in the wintertime, the tactic would be snow skis. But if we wanted to go skiing in the summertime, that tactic wouldn't work. So we would have to use water skis. Okay. With that being said, when it comes to building a business, people focus on the tactic of moments in time and not the principle, because principles don't change. So talking about real estate, some people come to me and they're like, steve, I'm doing a burr. I'm doing a. Whatever acronym is hot this month. Right. I'm doing this, I'm doing that. I'm like, wait a second. Those are tactics, and those change with time. Is it possible that there's people out there that are getting involved in real estate or getting involved in entrepreneurship and they're using a tactic from 2024, a tactic from COVID a tactic from another era, thinking it's going to work, and it's like you're in the snow using water skis. It's not going to work.
- [07:27]
B
That's how I feel about multifamily right now.
- [07:28]
A
Yeah, Everything. Because that is just a tool. So when it comes to building a business, there's what's called the of advancement. And the law of advancement says before anything goes up, it first has to go down. Case in point, in real estate, if you want to build a house, you have to build a foundation first. And based on the foundation and the footprint, you will build the house structure based on that. You don't build a house and you're like, oh, man, we forgot the foundation. Like, dude, like, what were we thinking? You build the foundation first, and then you go vertical. If you were going to build an apartment building, the foundation would be much deeper than the house, right? It's going to be deeper because you're going higher. Skyscraper, it's going to be even bigger. Like the skyscrapers here, they're building downtown Austin. They are much, much bigger than a house. Foundation. Common sense, right? When you build your business, many people are trying to build a skyscraper of a business, and they've never even dug down in the foundation. And the foundation is the hardest to build. It's the dirtiest. It is the hardest everything. And once it's done. It's covered up and you never see it, but it is essential. So to your question, you have to build a foundation. So you may say, well, Steve, what's a foundation for business? Well, any business. I don't care if you're in real estate, roofers, contractors, property man, it doesn't matter. They're all the same. United Airlines, it doesn't matter. Marketing makes the phone ring, sales answers the phone, converts them to clients, operations, processes the order. Accounting pays everyone. And leadership sits over the top. That is the foundation, the five point foundation for every business, real estate. Otherwise, this is what's called an organization chart. And the organization chart is what you use to start your business. So my point is, people don't talk about this. I'm going to go do this, I'm going to do that. I'm like, wait a second. You wouldn't get on a flight without a pilot having a flight plan, risking your life. Why would you risk your most valuable asset, which is your time to start a business without a business plan, without an organization chart, without a destination, we tend to waste the thing that we value the least. So we are either going to waste time or we are going to waste money. Which one do you think people waste more of?
- [09:51]
B
Oh, yeah, in the beginning, time, until you realize how valuable your time is worth. And then now it's like, that's why I pay for everything.
- [09:58]
A
Absolutely.
- [09:58]
B
I love Jake and Gino's quote. I got this from them, which is there's two ways to seek mentorship and advice, and that's pay to play or seek to serve.
- [10:05]
A
Yeah.
- [10:06]
B
And so for the person that's time is more valuable, they need to pay to play. So now that's why I pay six figures sometimes for coaches, mentors, masterminds. But in the beginning it's like you don't have that. So you have to seek to serve because your, your is less valuable. So you have to pay through sweat equity.
- [10:20]
A
Yeah.
- [10:21]
B
And that's how you learn. So here, here's a, here's a juicy question for you that I've been sitting on for a long time. And it's, it's a hard one, man. It's a hard one. And that is that when you finally pivot, whether you buy some rentals, you buy some short term rentals, you buy a storage facility or you buy a company, we talk a lot about buying companies, which is, I think, significantly easier than starting a company from scratch because you and I have both done it a few times now. And when you have ownership for the first time, you feel a tremendous guilt if you're not spending every waking hour building that thing, focusing on that thing. But then eventually you come to the realization that, what was I doing this for in the beginning, to your point, that foundation? So I'm almost thinking it was like, would it have been more beneficial for me to, from the beginning of my business, say, I work four days a week. I don't work Friday, Saturday, Sundays. This is the. This is the playbox. This is the sandbox that I'm playing in. Would it have been more beneficial for me to do that or somebody to do that in the beginning of the business? Or do you think that that's just a switch that must be flipped later, after doing what's required?
- [11:30]
A
I may give you an answer that you may not agree with or like, but I'm going to say something a little different. Sure. The reality is, is the identity of who you are as a business owner is different than the identity of are as an employee. Okay. To be a business owner, you have to walk different, talk different, act different. You have to be a different person. Right. You cannot be an employee and act like you own a business. That is where the term imposter syndrome comes from, because your identity is not that person. So if you want to build a $10 million revenue business, you have to become that person first. You have to think like it. You've got to act like it. Building a business and is hinged on one word, and that word is leverage. And you're leveraging people. You're leveraging money. You're leveraging systems, knowledge, and time of other people, other assets, not you. So when it comes to a business, a business should run 24 7. If you look at a true business model, they run 24 7. As a business owner. We don't get weekends and holidays off. 104 days a year are wasted on weekends and holidays. That is 29% productivity that is lost in your business. So I tell people, no, no, you don't get the. Those weekends and holidays were invented for who, for employees. You are not in that box anymore. You are in the employer box. You are the business owner. Now, does that mean you have to work those days? No. That's why you leverage systems and people. But your business needs to be built on systemization. Just. I use airlines. If you are flying someone, they're like, sorry, man, it's Saturday. We don't fly on Saturdays. You're like, dude, you're an airline. That's what you do. Yeah, we need weekends Off. We want everyone to have weekends off. You're going to go that. No, your business should be the same. It's. And I'm not saying you have to do it. That is how you leverage it in the beginning. Yes, you will. And you were talking about coaching. What you're getting with coaching is you are buying the thousands of mistakes that entrepreneurs before you have made. You're speeding up time. I tell people you're going to pay either way. You realize like as an entrepreneur, the bill is coming. You're either going to pay in time or money. It's going to take you 12 years. A lot of headache, frustration, doing it on your own. Or it could take 12 months with me and you can learn the mistakes that others have made. So you don't make them, but the bill will be paid. You just can decide how you want to pay it. And what do we do? We tend to waste the thing we value the least. So when it comes to building the business, my first question, if, let's, let's say if you are an employee mentality and you're a $50,000 employee and I gave you all the tools to build a seven figure business, you would never be able to. It's like I'm taking an Android app and I'm shoving it into an Apple phone. It's two different operating systems. You will never build that business and you will have imposter syndrome and eventually you will do the self sabotage where you will go, you know what, what should I do? I think I'm gonna go back into the business and I'm gonna start working in the business.
- [14:36]
B
I'll revert back to, I'll revert back.
- [14:38]
A
To what's comfortable, right? Because you know, I tell the owners, like, listen, when you build a business, you now have the biggest responsibility. It's kind of like, you know, you're on a ship and you're the one that's looking out for rocks and you're like, man, everyone's down there rowing. I should go down there and row with them. I feel guilty. And you're down there rowing with them and next thing you know, the ship runs up on rocks and they're like, bro, your job was to be up front. Your job was to shake hands, kiss babies, get big business deals, not be down here in the engine room. That's their job. So we have an identity challenge as to who are we when we're building a business. You have to become. There's a great term that one of my mentors taught me. He probably Heard it from someone else. It's called B times do equals have. I don't know if you've ever heard of that. And it's so a lot of people will say, like, Steve, what do I have to do to have that life? To have your life, to have a seven figure business, I will do whatever it takes. I'll work 26 hours, if that's possible. They're missing the first part of that equation. I have to become a seven figure CEO to do seven figure things, to have a seven figure outcome. You and I probably have friends that we grew up with that do stupid shit that are always like, this always happens to me and they're always in trouble. And they're like, man, I always have this bad luck. And if you look at who they are, they are that person. So they do stupid things so they have a stupid result. Change the who you have to become first before you worry about what you have to do.
- [16:15]
B
I love, I love this advice because I call it the MBT like framework. So what must be true for me to accomplish or for me to become the person?
- [16:23]
A
Yeah.
- [16:24]
B
And so when I started the company, it's like we went from zero to a million. And then I was just like, okay, well what does eight figure version of me look like? And I assume you do the same thing with nine figure, ten figure version of Steve.
- [16:33]
A
Yeah.
- [16:34]
B
I'm like, okay, how does that person move? How does that person think? How does that person lead? How does that, what team does that person have?
- [16:39]
A
Yeah.
- [16:40]
B
And then so what I started doing is I started getting in the rooms with other people that were like me in that capacity. Like eight figure version of me. I was like, I'm going to take all the actions that you guys do and I'm going to do them myself. So that way the only discrepancy between where I am today and where I want to go is time.
- [16:54]
A
Yeah.
- [16:55]
B
And so it's exactly what you're saying. And I want to hit on another acronym that I've heard you talk about before, which is E L F, like an elf business. Like what? What is an elf business? Because I've heard this through creative genius or I think somewhere else as well.
- [17:08]
A
I mean, everyone is everyone. And I am the first to say that everybody steals from other people. Right. Ideas. Because that nothing we do has been invented on our own. Oh, absolutely right. Nothing. Nothing you do nothing, I do nothing anyone does. And let me just say something real quick, like I have very good friends that are very successful entrepreneurs will say one of my Very, very good friends. His name is Lee Labrada. He's a famous bodybuilder.
- [17:35]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [17:36]
A
And we're very good friends. And his business does 100 million in revenue and started it from scratch. And I always like to talk to these guys and I like to kind of like you said, I like to be a fly on the wall and pick them up.
- [17:49]
B
I got a signed Lee Labrada poster.
- [17:51]
A
Oh, dude.
- [17:52]
B
When I was a kid.
- [17:52]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He and I, we work out together a lot. We're good friends. And I asked my Lee, like, what would you say is the success formula for you? And he goes, steve, it comes down to discipline and focus. He goes, that's it. He goes, discipline and focus is the key to success. He goes, and I'll tell you a story. And I had another mentor. And one day I was building my business. Probably like people here watching this, and, you know, you're just asses and elbows and phones blowing up and problem. And you're a firefighter, you're just putting out fires all day. And we're in Vegas and he. He's sitting there and he's just kind of laughing, just smirking, drinking his beer. And I'm like, dude, how do you do it? He's like, do what? I go, how do you own these businesses? And he goes, what do you mean? I said, well, how many businesses do you own? He goes. He goes, I think about 11. Like, about 11. I'm like, okay. And I go, well, how many days a week do you work? He goes, ah. He goes, Monday, Wednesday. And I'm not drinking Friday, but I normally drink on Friday. So Monday, Wednesday. I'm like, how is that possible? I'm like, you're joking, right? Meanwhile, we're sitting in his 30,000 square foot house, right? So, I mean, I know what he does. And he goes, steve, it's simple. I'm like, well, please enlighten me. He's like, it's one word. I'm like, what is the word? He's like, the word is no. I'm like, I feel like you're speaking bear and I'm speaking English. I don't even know what you're saying. What do you mean no? He goes, I say no to everything until it's a hell yes. He goes, what? You don't understand? He goes, if we were to go to an entrepreneurial buffet, he goes, you think you take all these good ideas and you're going to pile them on your plate because of ego and pride. Hey, Steve, do you want to Be involved in this. Hey, Steve, do you want this project? Hey, Steve, do you want to invest here? And you're like, yes, yes, yes. And you're going to put them on the plate, and then you're going to dissect them at the table. He goes, that's not how we think successful people. He goes, we walk up and down until we look at the one idea, and that's the only idea we put on our plate, and that's the only thing we focus on. He goes, your success is going to come from saying no, not saying yes. And I go, well, that's easy for you to say. You know, you got all these businesses and, you know, multi, multi million dollars. And he goes, he laughed. He goes, I never had this until I started saying no. He goes, and I thought, oh, this is. This isn't going to work. People are going to not use me. He goes, it became more powerful. And so what I realized from both these conversations, the key to being successful is not saying yes. It's a matter of being the best at the one thing that you do. And I think as entrepreneurs, we have to do a lot of things. We wear a lot of hats. But the reality is, is we're really good. You. You're good at one thing. I'm good at one thing. And we probably suck at everything else. We probably just. We're. We're mediocre at best. Yeah. And that's cool.
- [20:59]
B
Awful, actually.
- [20:59]
A
Yeah, exactly. Like, I'm no good. Do not put me in accounting. I would. I. I'm not that guy.
- [21:04]
B
You know, I can't book a fight. Yeah, I picked the wrong day.
- [21:07]
A
Yeah, exactly. So to me, it's like, I go on stages. I speak that. That's what I do. I coach people. I do that. That's my strength. So I think what we have to learn as businesses is what are we good at? And be okay by saying, hey, this is my superpower. This is what I rock at. And these are the things I suck at. And those are the things that you automate, you systematize, or you outsource. And, you know, a pilot is good at one thing, flying a plane. They're not good at serving drinks. They're not good at loading bags. They're not good. They're good at one thing. If you look at businesses, the key to building a successful business is you systematize 80% of it and you humanize 20. Most people do it the other way. They build it on people. Well, what happens when that person gets sick? They leave. They Start their own shop, they do other things. And now you're like, well, fuck that. That didn't work so well. I'm gonna build it on the back of another person. And it's not a repeatable process. So for people that are trying to build a business, you've gotta learn that the key is build it on systemizing. Systematize as much as you can and automate. The less human hands it has to touch, the more successful it'll be.
- [22:16]
B
80 systematized, 20 humanized.
- [22:18]
A
Yep.
- [22:19]
B
I love that. And I love that if it's not a hell yes, it's a no.
- [22:22]
A
Yeah.
- [22:22]
B
You know that that was something that I had to learn. And if it's one thing that I like, just hammer home it's that point. Because I just didn't get it. And because in the beginning, like, yes tasted to the first bit of success, say yes to everything, and say yes to everyone and every opportunity. But then eventually I really did have to say, start saying no. Because what was happening was I was getting busy as hell. And I don't want busy to be a word that describes me. I want it effective to be a word that describes me. And impactful. Impactful. And all of my friends are the richest friends. You're like, oh, my God, how are you taking time out of your busy schedule? And they're like, I'm not busy. Yeah, yeah, I'm not busy. I got bankroll, man. And so. And so it's like. Like saying yes takes you to the first million. Saying no takes you to 10 million and beyond.
- [23:07]
A
Yeah, well, well said. I didn't think about that. I like that. That's a good way to say it.
- [23:10]
B
Yeah. And it's just. So how do you set your. Your no parameters? Is it just like a gut feeling? Is it. Is it something that you're thinking a lot about? Like, for somebody that's brand new to all of this and they don't quite know what they should say yes to, what they should say no to, and they kind of feel like they're drowning in the beginning stages of this leap. Well, you know, some advice you can get.
- [23:28]
A
I go back to what I say, and the reason. The reason I keep saying this is because I didn't do it and it cost me time. Right. That's how we learn. Right. We learn from our mistakes. So these podcasts are great because people are learning how not to make these mistakes. And I keep going back to this. Everything should be reverse engineered from the end backwards. So I tell people when I. And I Coach, you know, a lot of entrepreneurs, and one of the first things I have them do is we create a sale date for their company. And the sale date is, it's a day, a month and a year that the business is running as a self contained asset with processes, procedures, and structure. So I ask people, what is the sale date? And they're like, steve, I'm not going to sell it. And I say, that's not my question. My question is, is what date does your business become a saleable asset? And it's got to be so you say, so, for example, we'll use the 10 million. And I, and I do this with my clients. Okay, January 1st, 2030. I have a $10 million company with 35% profit margins, and I am around three hours a month. That is a sale date. Doesn't mean you have to sell it, but it's not revolving around you. Everything you do from that is predicated and reverse engineered.
- [24:43]
B
I love that.
- [24:43]
A
And so it's, it's the date that. And then now we go a little further. This has to be the thing that is ingrained in your soul when in your business, every employee should know when you hire someone, hey, just so you know, we are going to be a $10 million company January 1, 2030. We are going to be running 35% profit margins, and you will see me three hours a month. If you have a problem with that, then you should probably not come work here because that's where we're going and we're not going to sell it. But that is where that is our sale date. It needs to be on the wall. It needs to be as part of your core values. It needs to be in the vision. Everybody needs to know that. And the challenge that we have as entrepreneurs as we grow in scale and we get employees, whether they're a virtual assistant or whatever. And you know, 60% of my company was with virtual assistants in Mexico before I sold it to venture capital with another conversation. But what I explained to people is if they don't know what they're working for and they don't know the vision, then they're there for a paycheck. And guess what? They'll leave for another paycheck.
- [25:50]
B
You're a commodity, your commodity.
- [25:51]
A
And so I tell people like, you know, they're like, oh, my God, I can't believe that these, these employees leave. They have no idea what I'm building. I'm like, have you ever told them?
- [25:58]
B
Do you have an idea?
- [25:59]
A
Yeah. First, do you even know they're like, well, I got an idea. I'm like, no, well, like, would you get in the car with someone who doesn't really know where they're going? Or a pilot going, well, we're not really sure. It could be Rio, it could be Alaska, it could be L. A. We're just going to give it a shot today. At some point someone's going to go, dude, I'm not getting on this plane. And so you're going to get the ones that are desperate. They're going, I just got to get the fuck out of where I'm at. So my point is, is you have to know where you're going and you've. That has to be your marching, your mantra. And it's gonna be like in, in every company meeting, hey, John, what's the, where are we going? What are we doing? So whenever anyone's making a decision, and so I always, in my mind that's the destination. And everything is reverse engineered back the three year goal, the one year goal, the 90 day goal, everything is predicated towards that destination. Just like Google Maps, you know. And so you've got to start with the end in mind. The other part of that is I told you about the foundation and the org chart. I believe two businesses should have two organization charts. Okay. One of where you're at and one of the sale date.
- [27:01]
B
Yeah, that's.
- [27:01]
A
What does this business look like when it is a $10 million company? What are the roles? And most importantly, 85% of how we learn is through visualization. So if you have, if you come to work for me and I'm like, Brian, look, this is where we are right now and this is where the company's going. And this is where I see your ascension ladder and how you're going to grow with the company. Now Brian's going, okay, I see how I fit in here. I like this. As opposed to going, I don't know what this clown's doing. He's just yelling at me every day saying we're not making enough money. But I don't know what enough money is. I don't even think he knows what enough money is.
- [27:36]
B
Yeah, there's two reasons that people quit and it's number one, it's not enough money. And number two, it's not enough vision for advancement.
- [27:43]
A
People, people quit leaders, they don't quit jobs.
- [27:45]
B
They want to get better. Yeah, everyone wants to be better. Like 95%. The thing that I had to come to terms with because like our business is helping people quit jobs. So it's catch 22. Like, who the hell. In the beginning, the story I told myself was, who the hell would come work for a company that helps people quit jobs? And then I changed the vision. Yeah. I changed the question to, well, how would I build a company that nobody would want to quit? So, like, how do I build something that's the opposite of everything that I hated and a hell of a lot of the stuff that I really, really enjoy. Right. And then I'm like, okay, well then why do people leave? I was like, I left because I looked at my boss's boss and I was like, oh, that's me in five years. Ooh. I don't want to be that guy. I hate his job, I hate his title, I hate his calendar. I hate everything that he does.
- [28:27]
A
Right.
- [28:28]
B
So, like, what would I work harder to do to climb this ladder? When I realized I was like, this is propped up against the wrong wall.
- [28:34]
A
Yeah.
- [28:35]
B
And so it's like, you have to build that vision for like, what's next? And what's next? And what like, I want to tell to the people that are watching this and listening to this, even if you're like a real estate investor that's buying your first frickin house hack or your first Burr, you're buying your first Airbnb or you're buying your first 10 unit, like, this is everything spread out, like this is the game that we're talking about. And if people could change their mindset and their identity to your point in the very beginning, from investor to business owner while they're buying their first property, it'd be night and day different.
- [29:05]
A
Well, here, here's the thing with. And this is the challenge. And again, I coach a lot of real estate invest, and the problem is, is they identify as a real estate investor. If I go to that conference that I'm speaking at and I ask everybody what you do, everybody will tell me I'm an investor. I'm like, no, no, you're a business owner. The subsection of that business is real estate, and the subsection of that could be long term. Short term. Real estate is four walls in a roof. It's the business model running inside of that four walls on the roofs. That whether that business model being a short term, long term, a flip, whatever, it's the model you're running. So are you running it as a business? Because if you're running it as a house that you live in, that's probably where you're failing and you didn't set it up as a business. So I mean, I, I've coached a lot of people, people that you know and people that are well known in the industry. And I had to change their mindset because they identified as real estate. So if all of a sudden, if, if another business model opportunity walks in front of them, they don't know what to do with it because they go, well, my identity as a real estate investor is I can't get involved in this contracting business. And what, what we understand is in. What I find interesting is I coach hundreds and hundreds of entrepreneurs, whether they're roofers, contractors, property managers, real estate all over the world that I coach. And what I think is interesting is at the end of the day, everybody is using whatever vehicle they're using to just have a better life, period. That's it. We just, we, you, me, we just want to have a better life to create memories with our family and loved ones. That's it. We're just using real estate as that vehicle. We don't identify. That's like saying, I'm using, you know, I'm using the 290 here to get to Fredericksburg. I'm not the 290 freeway. I'm not the car. I'm doing it for the destination of the memories. And we identify as the product. And I'm like, that's just the vessel that you're using. Swap out that for a pizza business or hair salon or whatever you want, but don't identify as the actual product that you're doing. That's because you're not going to see any million dollar opportunities walk in front of them every day. They don't see them because it's not in their filter because they're not business people. They go, oh, I can't invest in this. I'm, I'm a, I don't do multifamily. I do single family. I'm like, you're in the business to make money to have a better life. You're forgetting that second part of having the better life.
- [31:29]
B
Here's another, here's another million dollar question off of that is 100. There's a billion dollar question. My. So I started as a real estate investor. Like, that's what I started as. And I'm still buying real estate. Yeah, well, no, I mean, no, to your point specifically, I started as a real estate investor. That was. My identity is. I was like, okay, I'm gonna buy these houses, I'm gonna buy two houses. Then next year I earned the right to buy four houses. Next year I earned the right to buy Eight houses because I thought it was linear like that. And then I was like, oh no, because I started hanging out with eight figure guys and girls. I was like, no, you guys all own businesses that are adjacent to the real estate. So then that way you're able to make all this profit and from the business inside real estate and then use real estate as the tax write off vehicles. That's the game. But here's, here's the big thing I have with the investor crowd, right? And a lot of them listen to this and I'm trying to help them help themselves because they'll invest and invest and invest and invest. But like you said, they don't think about like a business owner. So they don't build systems, they don't build processes. But all of a sudden you've got 2,000 doors, right? You're crushing it. And you've got all your passive income that you're attempting to get and attempting to build from the very beginning. And everyone says, I want this more freedom, I want to do this for my family. But then they have one week where they're actually with the freedom with their family and all they can think about is work. So how do you balance turning that switch on and off? Because we all say we're doing this for a better life. And then one day I just picked my head up, I was like, I'm there, dude. Like, why am I not enjoying the better life that I originally said that I wanted? Why am I still focusing on what's the next business, what's the next thing, what's the next acquisition? How do you balance that? Like that's like the ultimate.
- [33:02]
A
Yeah. I will tell you and I'll give you. I'm going to answer it, but first I'll tell you my, my story, especially.
- [33:07]
B
Going through an exit.
- [33:08]
A
Yeah, so I've heard.
- [33:09]
B
That's the worst one.
- [33:10]
A
It is. Well, it is and it isn't. I'll tell you two stories. One story was of the same exit. Me and my business partner.
- [33:17]
B
Yeah.
- [33:17]
A
And so we sold to a VC firm and the whole time, you know, we never planned on it. We were looking to franchise it in the us, Australia and Malaysia.
- [33:26]
B
This is the property management. Which one was this?
- [33:28]
A
Yeah, property management. And we ended up, you know, 60% of our company was operating through Mexico. We, we got so good that we actually went to Mexico and built a virtual assistant placement company just to feed our machine. And so then we started placing them for other people, etc. However, this venture capital, you know, they're funded 200 mil. They come along and they say, hey, you know, we want to buy you. And we start going, doing the dance, and we end up selling to them. And, you know, you get the pats on the back and all this stuff, and everyone, congratulations. And, you know, and the next day, you know, or that that's a Friday. And on a Monday, my wife's like, hey, you gotta take the trash has to go out. I'm like, we're multi millionaires. And she's like, I don't give a shit. Trash has to go out. So I'm walking the trash can out, you know, with all the other dads up, hey, what are you doing today? Like, dude, I gotta go to work. Oh, what are you doing? I gotta go to work. Huh? And it was that moment that I realized nobody cares. Nobody cares. After that, bubble pops. And we think that we break through this euphoric glass ceiling, and you realize it's just Monday, Nothing changed. Yeah, you got money in the bank and you feel secure. I mean, it's not like they came and dropped a pallet full of hundreds on my driveway, and I'm like, oh, rolling around. I never even saw the money. I saw more digits in my bank account, more zeros, but that was it. So it was very anticlimactic. And then you're kind of sitting around and you're like, okay. This whole time, I've been training to become someone kind of like an Olympic athlete or an astronaut. And all of a sudden, you had the big day, and now you're like, what do I do? Because I've been trained to be this person. To answer your question. I realized that we are on a journey, not a destination. Like a shark swimming. Sharks don't swim to a destination. They continue swimming. That is, you and I are on journeys. Everyone in life is on a journey. Now. I was doing this, and I wanted to start coaching entrepreneurs and speaking on stages and stuff. And I toured Australia as a speaker and everything. And that's what I want to do. So I was going towards what I wanted. Now. My business partner, he had an identity issue. After he sold, we both became VPs for this. For this venture capital company. And he basically had to watch them dismantle his company, his baby. Yeah.
- [35:50]
B
And riddle it with debt, probably.
- [35:52]
A
He's just like, we got paid. It's no longer our company. But now he's dealing with all the headaches and the people, and he's paid well for it. And after he told me, he said, man, he goes, steve, he goes, I was Depressed. He goes, I got depressed after. He goes, you were off fricking like a rocket ship doing what you wanted.
- [36:06]
B
I hear that all the time. Like, I had a guy that, you know, sold, pocketed 40 million, pocketed 50 million, pocketed 20 million, and they're like, all right, now what?
- [36:15]
A
Now What?
- [36:16]
B
I spent 20 years building this. Now what?
- [36:18]
A
It's tough. And I think a lot of that is. And I'm going to do another analogy. Airline pilots. A lot of airline pilots die after they retire because their identity was being a pilot. And there's a mandatory retirement age of 65 as a pilot. You have to. It used to be 60, now it's 65. And a lot of these guys, they. They retire and they're just like. And they literally, like, within a year or two, a lot of them die, because that is who they are. So my. My point is, if your identity wraps around the vessel of what you're doing, that is the wrong thing. Wrap it around the memories that you want to create with your family and loved ones. Build it with that. Don't build it as to who you are and identify as that. And I've. You know, there's. There's many cases my. Myself with my business partner. His identity was the business. He loved it. He loved being the. The integrator of the business. I just looked at it. I didn't. I didn't really care about the business. I was like, it's. It doesn't matter to me. I want to go do bigger and better things. Now, in hindsight, he probably just should have bought me out or made me a silent partner, and I would have been fine. And he was like. And I'll tell you, we're hanging. We're still best friends to this day. And he said, steve, do you know why I sold? Do you know why I agreed to sell? I was like, well, because of the check. He goes, no. He goes, because I knew that you were destined for bigger things, and if I didn't, we would no longer be friends. And I couldn't have that on my conscience. So I agreed to sell the company. So I felt horrible. I'm like, you know, type thing. But he's like, I. I took a hit. He's like, I took a hit for you because I wanted you to have something better, and I knew you were destined. And you were like, you were like a racehorse ready to run with speaking and stuff. And he goes, I can always build another business. He goes, that. That's not. But he goes, I just. It was. It was my identity was wrapped around that. And so he's learned to disassociate. Lesson learned, right? And like you said, building a business is a lot freaking harder than just buying one because you're not a. You know, it's like building a house and then living in it, birthing your children on the floor and then turning it into a rental. That is the worst decision after decision to be made.
- [38:28]
B
It's rough.
- [38:29]
A
It's rough because you identify with that property as opposed to buying a pizza business going, don't really care. It's either producing revenue or it's not. So my. To answer your question there, I don't believe there's balance. I believe that you have to accept that you and I operate on and people that are building a business and doing this, we operate on a different frequency. And that frequency is the journey. There is no destination for us. Our. Our life is doing this. And you have to. You have to. It's like surfing. It's. You're surfing that never ending wave. You're just constantly finding more waves to surface.
- [39:04]
B
I've been working a lot on frameworks because, you know, I interview a lot of guys like you, and now it's like I'm able to like run my companies and everything off of like the shoulders of giants. Like, seriously. Because that's why the benefit of this podcast.
- [39:17]
A
Sure.
- [39:17]
B
And in the, in the beginning, you know, I interviewed a lot of investors and then now a lot of business owners and now like I've had billionaires on the, on the show. And as I've been working through this a frame, I'm trying to think about how to like package it. But a framework that I'm working on is, you know, the, the goal is to figure out how do you stop doing the work that you're forced to do and only focus on the work that you choose to do. And so it's like the ultimate game that you're playing is like, what work do I enjoy working on the most? And then figuring out how to use the profit to outsource and delegate, automate all the rest of the work. So it's just like everyone says, so Dan Martell and Dan's like, running a business doesn't have to suck necessarily. There are parts of it that do suck, but you don't have to be the one that's handling those all the time. It's like you can be able to hire that person or you do the work that you enjoy doing the most. I'm curious about your perspective on that. Because from what you're saying is like, you were able to have that vision for. I really love the work of speaking, of coaching, of consulting, and therefore I will feel more energy in pursuit of that work rather than drained. So it's like what's the, what's the work that lights you up versus the work that, you know, it's like heavy versus light work?
- [40:29]
A
I guess so.
- [40:31]
B
Or is it just inevitable suffering all the time? Because I think it's like the answer is kind of deal. The D is. The answer is D kind of all of the above.
- [40:39]
A
Because here's, here's the, here's, here's my no shit answer. Many times people sit here and they ponder and they think and they're not wanting to make a mistake and they're, they're just contemplating their problems. It takes a second to make a decision to change your life. You are one decision away from changing your life, and it takes a second to make that decision. It doesn't take years to make a million dollars. It takes a second to decide that you're going to make a million dollars. And then it's probably six months of focused action and then you can make your million dollars. The problem I have found or the challenge is most entrepreneurs, they don't make the decision to say enough is enough. And it could be because the pain they have is not worse than the pain they're going to endure.
- [41:31]
B
They're in the comfort zone.
- [41:32]
A
They're in their comfort zone, so they don't want it. That's the real. Listen, you go through the holidays and you eat like shit and January 1st, you're like, that is the moment that you decide, I'm going to the gym. Right, people? So I'm, I'm obviously, I work out and, and I get up every day at 3:45 in the morning and I work out and people like, man, how do you do that? I'm like, it's simple. I decide that I'm getting up. I don't have negotiations, I don't ponder, I don't think about it. I make a decision and I get up and I go. That is what I do. As entrepreneurs, the speed at which you can make a decision is the speed of your success. And, and again, when you talk to people, I listen to cues and tells and what they do and what they don't do. And what they don't do is they don't make a decision. And it's not, you know, it's not that people don't have the processing power. They just don't know how to make an actual decision because they, you know, is the, is the pain of staying the same greater than the pain of change? And that's what causes people to stay in, like you said, the comfort zone. And I tell people like, if you've had five years of pain, of headache, of frustration, of drama, most people have. I'm like, if you don't change, you're going to have another five years of pain, headache, frustration, drama. Because your input equals your output. If you eat shitty food, you're going to be in bad shape. If you do stupid things, you're going to have a stupid result. Your actions of the last five years are going to equal the results of your next five years until you make a decision to change. And that is the key thousand percent.
- [43:13]
B
I like what Jeff Bezos says, which is like the two way door decision versus a one way door decision. So one way door decision is you, you enter that door and it's irreversible or something. That's really like, so divorce sometimes like marriage. He's like, it is technically a two way door decision, but he's like, there's a lot of consequence to reverse that decision.
- [43:31]
A
Sure.
- [43:32]
B
You know who you have children with. Yeah, one way door decision. But most decisions that people are stressing about is a two way door decision where it's like you can go in the door and say, oh no, that's not the right room. And then you, you go back, you reverse the decision. So making decisions to your point is better than no decision.
- [43:47]
A
Yeah.
- [43:48]
B
And so, yeah, so that's kind of how I view it too, where I'm just like, man, it's like, go try out all the different types of work to kind of like talk about doing the work that's worth doing that you enjoy doing the most. The only way you can figure that out is by doing a shit ton of work.
- [44:00]
A
Yeah.
- [44:00]
B
And no one.
- [44:01]
A
You know. And I'll say we talked earlier about, you know, the identity of me having to switch from Arrow Airline pilot to entrepreneur.
- [44:06]
B
Sure.
- [44:07]
A
And, you know, I got to the point that, you know, I got furloughed during 911 and I had to change my identity because as I got furloughed and I'm, you know, standing at the building and thinking, what am I going to do? My identity was that I was a pilot. And I remember thinking like, I could build a business, I could buy real estate. And I thought to myself, that's not me. Like, that's not who I am. I'm a pilot. I fly my routes. I have a paycheck. That's. That's who I am. Then I realize, well, if I'm not that guy anymore, then who am I? And I will tell you. That's when fear starts creeping in. And fear tells you you're nobody. You're gonna fail. You're not gonna make it. Don't even try. You don't deserve that life, Steve. You don't deserve the life that you see.
- [44:59]
B
That's for other people.
- [44:59]
A
That's for other people. And I finally, I had to make a decision. And this is for people. I had to make a decision to kill off my past identity. And I had to say, enough is enough. And I made a decision. I am an entrepreneur. I am a business owner. Even when I didn't believe it, I still said it. I showed up as that person, and I kept showing up as that person. And the more I showed up as that person, the. The more fear and hesitation released its grip. And we seem to believe that fear is here to stop us. And I disagree. I believe that fear is a sign that we're on the right path. It is here to guide you. Many people, we give fear and doubt all the power in the world, and we can't even see it. We can't touch it, we can't feel it. But we give it all of our power. And what's to say that fear is actually here to slow us down? How many people do we know are six inches from gold? And I tell people, you know, I'm speaking at this big event. I tell people, when you leave here, you are going to kill off one of your identities. Either the identity of who you were in the past, of fear, remorse, being scared, or you're going to kill off your identity of having abundance, living the life that you want, and being the person that you know you're truly being. But you're not going to. Again, you're not going to leave with both identities. You're going to leave with one. And you decide. And the reality is, is the identity of the person that you want to become, he's not in your rearview mirror of 2024. He's not in Covid. He is out there in those deep, dark corners, sitting behind fear. So you have to go through fear to find that person, to have that identity, to build the life in the business that you want. And it takes a decision. And all it takes is one freaking decision. And you can change your decision in a second. But I can't decide it for you. I can't Tell you, I can give you the tools, I can lay everything in front of you, but you've got to be the one that jumps in the pool. I can't do it.
- [47:08]
B
Gotta make the leap. Yeah. Can't have courage in the absence of fear.
- [47:13]
A
Absolutely.
- [47:14]
B
Can't have courage. So, like, if you want to optimize for courage, and I like the Hormozi quote where he goes, all of these characteristics that you want are on the other side of pain and discomfort.
- [47:21]
A
Yeah.
- [47:22]
B
You know, if you want patience, you're not going to just become patient. You're going to have opportunities that are going to piss you off and force you to become patient. You're not going to have, you know, courage unless you have a lot of opportunities that make you fearful and you have to push them anyways.
- [47:35]
A
Yeah.
- [47:36]
B
I fucking love that, man. So if people want to find out more about you, they want to coach with you, they want to consult with you, they want to learn, read your book, where can they go?
- [47:44]
A
The easiest place, obviously, is my website. It's steverg.com so it's r o Z E N b e r g dot com, obviously, social media. I'm all over social media. YouTube as a pilot. I'm always traveling all over the world. So if you want to see some cool destinations I go to, if you want to learn from me, I've got a couple Facebook groups and other groups to help people listen. I'm a big believer. I believe there's two types of people in the world. There's givers and takers. And there's many people that are taking withdrawals from people and not giving deposits. And I just, I'm a big, big believer in giving back and giving deposits. So people reach out to me. I do answer them. It is me. I just believe it's respectful. I was taught. And I, you know, you reach out people, I don't know them, and I'm like, absolutely, like. And I just believe that there needs to be more of that. I think as entrepreneurs, we're very lonely. You know, it's quiet when we lay our head down at the pillow at night, when it's just us and there's all the lights are off, everything's off. And so sometimes you need to have someone to go, hey, am I crazy? Like, is this. Am I the right path? Wrong? Am I even going down the right way? Or am I completely off? And so I'm just a big believer in helping. And so I help as much as I can in my capacity that I can. And I can't do it for you. I can't make your phone pick up to call me or text me or message me. You have to make the decision to do it. And if you do, I will be on the other side.
- [49:07]
B
I love it, man. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make a drink. Absolutely, man. Thank you so much for coming on. It's been freaking awesome. You dropped, like 30 different truth bombs on here that I'm gonna use as well.
- [49:16]
A
I'm glad. I hope people get the use out of it and it goes from there, brother.
- [49:19]
B
Appreciate it. Guys, if you are enjoying this episode, if you enjoyed everything that we talked about today, go follow Steve, subscribe to his channels as well, and then give us a like and share this with somebody that you think could get value from this episode. Thanks so much. Talk soon.