Escaping the Drift - The Weekly Drop: Aligning Career Goals with Personal Values Ft. Jason Griggs

Summary

Escaping the Drift with John Gafford: Episode Summary

Episode Title: Escaping the Drift - The Weekly Drop: Aligning Career Goals with Personal Values
Guest: Jason Griggs
Release Date: January 17, 2025

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1. Introduction to the Episode

In this special edition of "Escaping the Drift," host John Gafford welcomes guest Jason Griggs for a concise yet impactful discussion. Unlike the typical 40-minute episodes, this 15-minute session dives deep into how aligning career goals with personal values can lead to remarkable success and personal fulfillment.

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2. Guest Background: Jason Griggs

Jason Griggs is introduced as a dedicated real estate professional who seamlessly transitioned from coaching youth sports to building a thriving real estate portfolio. His journey exemplifies the podcast's theme of escaping mediocrity by making strategic life and career choices.

Notable Quote:

"I wanted to be what you were doing. I wanted to be what you were doing with your business."
— Jason Griggs [05:06]

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3. Transition from Coaching to Real Estate

Jason shares his challenging decision to leave his passion for coaching lacrosse to focus on real estate. Influenced by mentors who emphasized the importance of asset ownership, Jason recognized that to excel in real estate, he needed to dedicate himself fully.

Notable Quote:

"When you start your own family, I was like, how could I go and be on a field all day and not be with my own kids?"
— Jason Griggs [11:16]

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4. Strategies for Real Estate Success

Jason outlines his approach to building a substantial real estate portfolio. Starting with 12 rentals, he rapidly expanded to 39, leveraging consistent effort and strategic investments. He emphasizes the importance of owning assets rather than solely chasing commissions.

Notable Quotes:

"We're going to go buy real estate smartly. And in my opinion, there's no better place to buy real estate than Las Vegas."
— Jason Griggs [09:35]

"The numbers staggering. It's like an extra half a million dollars a year."
— Jason Griggs [08:35]

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5. Aligning Career Goals with Personal Values

Central to the discussion is the alignment of career aspirations with personal life values. Jason explains how prioritizing family over coaching allowed him to achieve greater success and satisfaction in real estate. This alignment ensures that professional endeavors support personal well-being.

Notable Quote:

"If it ain't hell yeah, it's got to be hell no."
— John Gafford [15:05]

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6. Maintaining Relationships and Networks

John and Jason discuss the importance of nurturing professional relationships even when shifting career focus. Jason successfully maintained his network by adopting strategic communication methods, ensuring his real estate connections remained strong despite moving away from coaching.

Notable Quote:

"The only way it dies is if you let it die."
— John Gafford [14:11]

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7. Personal Reflections and Lessons Learned

Both hosts reflect on the necessity of focusing on what truly matters. John shares his own challenges with balancing multiple commitments and the importance of evaluating whether each activity serves his overall goals and personal life. Jason echoes this sentiment, highlighting the benefits of a streamlined focus.

Notable Quotes:

"How does this serve me? Not just financially, but with your family."
— John Gafford [13:14]

"I didn't lose anybody. They still come to me. I'm still the real estate guy in Henderson that everybody trusts."
— Jason Griggs [14:12]

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8. Conclusion

As the episode wraps up, John and Jason reinforce the episode's core message: the significance of aligning career pursuits with personal values to achieve sustained success and fulfillment. They encourage listeners to evaluate their commitments and make intentional choices that serve their long-term goals.

Notable Quote:

"Don’t be scared to say no to stuff. If you just look at things like it's gotta be all the way red line and hell yes for me to say yes, how much better would your life be?"
— John Gafford [16:01]

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Key Takeaways:

• Prioritize Assets Over Commissions: Building and owning real estate assets provides long-term financial stability beyond the fluctuating nature of commissions.

• Align Career with Personal Values: Ensuring that professional activities support personal life goals leads to greater satisfaction and success.

• Strategic Networking: Maintaining and evolving your professional network is crucial, even when transitioning between careers.

• Intentional Commitment: Being selective about commitments ("hell yes or hell no") can significantly improve focus and productivity.

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Conclusion

This episode of "Escaping the Drift" offers invaluable insights into how aligning career goals with personal values can transform one's professional trajectory and personal life. Jason Griggs' journey serves as a powerful example of intentional decision-making leading to extraordinary success.

For more insights and to join the community, visit www.EscapingtheDrift.com.

Transcript

[Unknown Speaker]

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[John Gafford]

So many agents get caught on the, they get caught on the commission hamster wheel, right? Where it's like they make a bunch of money and they don't do any work and then, yay, I'm rich. I'm rich. Oh no, I'm broke. I'm broke, I'm broke, I'm broke. It's, it's the roller coaster up and down. And if you can just work consistently in the business and put forth the right effort in the same, the right amount of effort compared to what the market is doing in your KPI's balance, well, now you have a steady stream of income and, and then you can turn those commissions instead of the end goal into the fuel that really fires the rocket ship. From the podcast that gets you from where you are to where you want to be Escaping the Drift, this is the Weekly Drop with John Gafford. No matter what platform you're watching or listening to us on, make sure you, like, subscribe and comment. And now the Drop. Welcome back to the program, everybody. This is the Weekly Drop. This is normally my little solo pod that I do on Thursdays, and this week, man, I'm doing it with somebody. I got a guest on the Weekly Drop, so I'm not doing a full Escaping the Drift. We're not going to go for 40 minutes. This is still going to be like 15 minutes. But there's something that I want to talk about that this dude is kind of the walking, talking example of this, and I wanted to bring him in. And if you're somebody that finds yourself burning the candle at both ends, you've got all kinds of things that you do, all kinds of stuff. There's an exercise that I do once a year and I just went through this and I didn't really sleep last night. Not because I was still doing the exercise, just because when I get done doing this, it's such an introspect at your life and it's such a way that you, you have, you're forced to go deep on looking at the things that you choose to do and whether or not they continue to serve you in the best possible way. And sometimes that requires some very tough choices and some choices that are still, still out there. For me you know, I ran numbers like crazy all day yesterday looking at the expenses I have and things, looking at return on time, how much time I spend on things, and whether or not those things serve me or continue to serve me. And this goes from, I mean, you know, angles in my business. It goes from overall businesses that we spun up, auxiliaries that we spin up, spun up around the company. It's this podcast. It's relationships with groups I go to. It's all types of different things. And if you are somebody that just kind of says yes to everything, which I like to say, yes, I get. I'm easily excitable. Man, that sounds a good idea. Let's do that. I definitely feel like I'm smarter than everybody else, unfortunately. So when I hear somebody being highly successful something, I'm like, if that dude can do it, I know I can do it. I know I can. And. And like I said, we're going to get a little more to my personal journey on it. But. But welcome to the program, ladies and gentlemen. This. This is one of the guys that works at our company, and he is one of. This is Jason Griggs.

[Jason Griggs]

Jason, round two. Round two, buddy.

[John Gafford]

Here before. And again, I grabbed you with this. I'm going to. I'm going to get to your story a little bit before I get to mine, but when we met, right, we met and you were essentially. I sent out an email, actually, no, I got on Facebook because I walked in my son's room one night and he was watching lacrosse, like college lacrosse. And I'm like, what are you watching? He goes, I'm watching lacrosse. And I go, he, like, just randomly found it on a channel. And he goes, I think I want to play this. And I said, okay, cool. I never played lacrosse. You know, I'm from Florida, dude. We just play football, baseball, and, you know, basketball. Like America, we don't play these fern or sport, whatever it is. So they do now, obviously. But back then I never played lacrosse. So I was, you know, get on. I get on the interwebs and hey, who do I know that could tell me anything about lacrosse? And. And Jason hit me right up. He was a realtor at another company, and he hit me right up and said, yeah, man, I can help you, dude. I actually coach the. The middle school team here and used to be the high school coach, and I can help you with that. And literally helped teach my kid lacrosse and got him into it and helped us, and I'll be forever grateful for that. You know, medically DQ'd Hayden is. His career got cut a little short with the bad angle. Okay, that's okay. That's all right.

[Jason Griggs]

He had fun.

[John Gafford]

He did have fun. He had a great time. And when. When we met, you were. You were doing. You were running your lacrosse business as a business, and it's your passion. Dude, you've been doing this forever. Like, you play lacrosse forever.

[Jason Griggs]

Yep.

[John Gafford]

Live, eat, breathe, die. Lacrosse. And still do. Because I see your sons, who are, like, little. Still running around with lacrosse sticks. Right. Still. But, you know, you were doing this. Chasing this passion, doing this thing you loved, and real estate was kind of something you did a little bit of. Yeah. And you made a very difficult decision.

[Jason Griggs]

I did.

[John Gafford]

To let go of the lacrosse stuff. To let go of it. And. And, dude, we were just laughing before we got on here because if we'd have had a reality show with how some of these parents treated him, it was. It was amazing. I saw some of the worst behavior I've ever seen in my life out of adults at some of those meetings, and I don't miss them. No, I don't. I don't miss. I mean, very rarely do I sit in a room and just kind of speechless. There were times that I was just absolutely speechless in those rooms. But. But you took a lot of abuse from those folks. I did. And you let go of something you loved, and you got headfirst into real estate, and you just had. I mean, I'm talking about nuclear results.

[Jason Griggs]

Yeah.

[John Gafford]

So I want to talk about that. What was that like giving up something you loved?

[Jason Griggs]

Hard. It was very hard. I think you saw how you were there. You saw the emotion of it. But I had a conversation with some of the parents on the team who are mentors of mine, business owners, and they were like, you gotta let this go. This is not gonna get you to where you wanna be at the top of your game of real estate. And when you coach sports, youth sports, it's like, you don't do it for money. You do it for the passion of the game. And I love mentoring kids. That was the real reason why I did it. But when I met you and I saw you, I wanted to essentially be you. I wanted to be what you were doing.

[John Gafford]

Oh, look at that.

[Jason Griggs]

Because what. Because what you do here is what I do with the lacrosse team.

[John Gafford]

Yeah, it is.

[Jason Griggs]

You mentor 600, 700 agents a year, every single year.

[John Gafford]

They don't have to deal with their.

[Jason Griggs]

Parents without the parents.

[John Gafford]

Oh, thank God.

[Jason Griggs]

That's the best part.

[John Gafford]

Oh, thank God.

[Jason Griggs]

So we had a conversation, and you were like, you could do basically the. You, you will get the same fulfillment out of the coaching, just with business.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Jason Griggs]

Once you said that, I was like, you are so right.

[John Gafford]

So let's talk. I, I want to talk about when, when you made that decision. I'm not going to talk about income because that's just annoying. Okay. Trust me. I, I see his checks, I see what he's doing. But, but just, I'll put it in, in, in framework of this. When you made that decision, how many rentals did you own at that moment?

[Jason Griggs]

I think 12.

[John Gafford]

How many do you own now?

[Jason Griggs]

30. 39.

[John Gafford]

39.

[Jason Griggs]

Buy my 39th next week.

[John Gafford]

Closing your 39th next week. So in a very short amount of time you did that and you took that passion for coaching and what I love about your team, in particular your group, and this is not an infomercial for Jason's group. It just shows how he took his passion to something makes more money. When you took that passion for what you're doing and put it towards real estate, your agents on your team like how to sell real estate. Cause you're basically using the same systems and process I use, which is great, but you're taking it for your people and putting your own spin on it, which is teaching them how to actually invest in real estate.

[Jason Griggs]

Yeah. And that's the most important thing because we see so many agents, they could do this business for 50 years and if they don't own assets, doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. That's the real win in the real estate business by owning the homes. I learned that very quickly. Right away. I learned that.

[John Gafford]

Well, so many agents get caught on the, they get caught on the commission hamster wheel. Right. Where it's like they make a bunch of money and they don't do any work. And then, yay, I'm rich. I'm rich. No, I'm broke. I'm broke. I'm broke. I'm broke. It's the roller coaster up and down. And if you can just work consistently in the business and put forth the right effort in the same, the right amount of effort compared to what the market is doing in your KPI's balance, well, now you have a steady stream of income and then you can turn those commissions instead of the end goal into the fuel that really fires the.

[Jason Griggs]

Rocket ship, you nailed it. And I, you, you've taught me so much about just business of organization, numbers, KPIs, all the. So what I did, I went back and I looked at how much my real Estate portfolio has made me each year since I started. The numbers staggering. It's like an extra half a million dollars a year.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Jason Griggs]

That you don't even think about that you are just earning every single year as that real estate goes up. What I'm teaching my agents is, look, we're going to be the best serving real real estate agents on the planet.

[Unknown Speaker]

Have you ever had to put your plans on hold due to symptoms of generalized myasthenia gravis or gmg, like taking that weekend trip, talking with friends, or enjoying a meal? Learn about a treatment option that may help. Visit treatgmg.com to learn more. That's treatgmg.com.

[Jason Griggs]

What we're going to do with that compensation. We're going to go buy real estate smartly. And in my opinion, there's no better place to buy real estate than Las Vegas.

[John Gafford]

Yep. Got it. I love it. So, I mean, again, you look at all those things and with my process of stuff, a lot of it is in the numbers as well. Because I think, you know, you look at things and unfortunately with me, like the decisions that I make, a lot of it is very intertwined. Like, I do this because it needs to lead to this, and I do this because it goes with this and I do this. And so it's these connected interwebs. And so, you know, for example, this podcast. This podcast is really designed and it's a lot of work to do this, man. It's not easy. It's a lot of work. It's monetized, but it doesn't make me a ton of money. But the effort we put into it. But this is totally designed and totally put out there as an avenue to promote my book. Right. So we're having the final bids come back on the book, which are coming back next week actually. Yeah, they'll be back by 21st, all the people that want to publish it. And if none of those bids are to my liking, I'll probably just go the self publishing route because why would I pay a vig? I'll just go to self publishing. Right. Unless any of them are ridiculous or what I want. And then I don't know that I need this. Right. So it's like all of this stuff kind of goes together and I love doing it because I love to give back. But if it's. It's based on driving sales through a publisher, then. And if I don't need the publisher, then what? I don't need this. Right. And I think sometimes as much as you love doing things you have to ask yourself, is that serving you still?

[Jason Griggs]

I think the main decision was I started my own family.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Jason Griggs]

So it's like, you know, my poor wife Sammy, God bless her, she never saw me during the week. It was like, that was the full time job. And we were kidding around the other day. Like, I never went to dinner during the week ever.

[John Gafford]

Because you're with the kids.

[Jason Griggs]

I was coaching from five to nine every single day and going to the Golden Knights game. So it's like another part of my life has, like, now opened. But the real thing that hit me was how could I go and be on a field all day and not be with my own kids? And that was like the real turning point where I was like, you know what? This is the right move. Money aside, real estate aside, when you start your own family, I'm like, because there's coaches out there that don't.

[John Gafford]

That aren't with their family, Buddy, you get 18 summers.

[Jason Griggs]

That's it.

[John Gafford]

18 summers. That's what you get.

[Jason Griggs]

And with the lacrosse team, I had amazing mentors. Amazing. Over the years. Awesome. Not everybody.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Jason Griggs]

But some really good ones. You're included. And that decision was made partially on business, but family. I want to build my own family.

[John Gafford]

I think. I think that's such a. That's such. That's part of that. Is this serving me? Is this particular thing serving me. And you look at, like right now, I've got some things in front of me and some things that are out there where it's like, you know, what you focus on grows always. And when your focus is too scattered, nothing grows. Right. And there were some things I looked at last night that I've been maybe a little lazy at looking at numbers on that. I was like, whoa, that ain't good. Like, whoa, okay, we got to get this in line fast. And we got, you know, and steer the ship. And it's stuff that for years would have just been fine. Like, I just assumed it was fine. All of a sudden you're like, whoa, I got to give that some attention. And, you know, dialing back on the amount of things you're doing and going less wide and more deep sometimes. And this comes from, like, I'm the king of vertical integration. I get that. But. But really going deep on certain things you're doing, focusing on and asking yourself, how does this serve me? Not just financially, but like you said, with your family.

[Jason Griggs]

Yeah. It needs to be how much.

[John Gafford]

Like, for example, all of the mastermind groups that I'm in takes me out of Town, four days at a click. All the time, gone all the time. Like, am I getting a return? Like, I love all the guys there. I love everything happens there. I love the information I get. But am I really getting enough out of it to justify not just the financial investment, but the time away from my now ticking down to one more summer on Hayden and two more summers with Roma?

[Jason Griggs]

Yeah, I think my. The scariest part for me was the lacrosse team was my network. That was my real estate network.

[John Gafford]

I remember you saying that.

[Jason Griggs]

I was like, I'm going to lose everybody. I didn't lose anybody.

[John Gafford]

Not one person.

[Jason Griggs]

I didn't. No. They still come to me. I'm still the real estate guy in Henderson that everybody trusts.

[John Gafford]

Yeah, but here's the thing. But. But here's. Here's what people don't realize also, if you. If you're scared to move out of one situation, because a lot of people in real estate, too, that work a job and they're like, well, that's where I get my contacts with my clients. That's my. That's my network. Well, dude, the only way it dies is if you let it die.

[Jason Griggs]

Correct.

[John Gafford]

Just because you're not there doesn't mean you can't keep in the loop with people. Doesn't mean you can't have a checklist to interact with them mathematically through social media. A checklist to call in, a checklist to send them a handwritten note, a checklist to remind them you still exist. Checklist to drop in on people. There's. That's on you.

[Jason Griggs]

And then the second part of it was I elevated my. The people I was working with, too.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Jason Griggs]

So now you're working with. Now that I don't have to. You know, they're normal people right now. I like working with athletes. That's like my. One of my niches. So I like going and going to the UFC fights. I represent a lot of the UFC fighters now. That's like my. That's my new network.

[John Gafford]

Yeah.

[Jason Griggs]

I'm in those rooms every time. Going to LA this weekend to watch Merab, and he's gonna.

[John Gafford]

Still gonna be in la.

[Jason Griggs]

Still gonna be in la.

[John Gafford]

Wow.

[Jason Griggs]

And so he's gonna bring me in all these different rooms with Aljo.

[John Gafford]

Love it.

[Jason Griggs]

And that's my new network now. And I realized that. So I met every single UFC event, and it's. It's been a game changer.

[John Gafford]

And you have time to do that.

[Jason Griggs]

Yeah, time. I've never gone to a UFC fight at. At a state with coaching. It's hard.

[John Gafford]

I'm. I'm telling you, dude, this week. Listen, if you are again, I'm going to sum this up because, you know, I think we just reached a point where we've made our point, which is, hey, don't be scared to say no to stuff. I mean, for me, like, I think of it this way. One of my. One of my New Year's resolutions, if you will, was, if it ain't hell yeah, it's got to be hell no. Like, if you think of, like, think of, like, the yes on a meter, right? Where, like, you have, like, the. The green, like, like a meter in a car that you would see, like a. On a dashboard of a car. And over here you have the green, where you have the. Yes, right? And then over here you have the red, which is no. And like, the very bottom is like, hell no. And the very far right is like, hell, yes. And right in the middle is like. I mean, I don't know, maybe. Yeah, okay. Yeah, right? How much shit do you say yes to that's in that middle? Yeah.

[Jason Griggs]

Okay.

[John Gafford]

Yeah. Okay. Why not? Like, dude, if you just. If you just look at things like it's gotta be all the way red line and hell yes for me to say yes, how much better would your life be? Because we get inundated with all this crap that we just kind of agree to that doesn't really do it for us, and then it doesn't spark any type of energy that we put into it. And there's. It's. I know there's way too much of that stuff in my life. I know there is. And I guarantee there's too much of it in yours.

[Jason Griggs]

Every time I think about I'm busy, I think about how busy you are, and I'm like, I reel myself back in.

[John Gafford]

Well, dude, yeah, but it's stupid. It's. Sometimes it's just stupid.

[Jason Griggs]

It's too much.

[John Gafford]

I. When you do. When you look at some of the numbers from last night, you're like, you start asking, why. Why am I this busy, right, on some of this stuff? Like, I could just clip this off and who cares, right? I mean, there's nobody listening to us anyway. If I stopped doing the podcast tomorrow, nobody would care. I'm just kidding. You better care. I better. If I ever stop doing this podcast, there better be public outcry. That's what I want. I want public outcry. Well, anyway, dude, Jason, thanks for joining us.

[Jason Griggs]

Of course, man.

[John Gafford]

You're the walking epitome of that story, and I hope he inspired you to look at the things that your life and maybe cut out some stuff to have the balls, if you will, the wherewithal to cut out some stuff that isn't serving you. See you next week. What's up everybody? Thanks for joining us for another episode of Escaping the Drift. Hope you got a bunch out of it, or at least as much as I did out of it. Anyway, if you want to learn more about the show, you you can always go over to escaping the drift.com you can join our mailing list. But do me a favor, if you wouldn't mind, throw up that five star review. Give us a share. Do something man. We're here for you. Hopefully you'll be here for us. But anyway, in the meantime, we will see you at the next episode.

[Unknown Speaker]

Have you ever had to put your plans on hold due to symptoms of generalized myasthenia gravis or gmg, like taking that weekend trip, talking with friends, or enjoying a meal? Learn about a treatment option that may help. Visit treatgmg.com to learn more. That's treatgmg.com.