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The Heart & Hustle Podcast
410: Self Discipline: Small Steps that Generate BIG Results with Jason Yarusi
01:00:30
Today we are sitting down and chatting with Jason Yarusi. Jason is a private fund manager of over $300 million dollars in commercial real estate and since 2017 his company Yarusi Holdings has amassed over 3000 apartment and commercial real estate...
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- [00:00]
A
You're listening to the Heart and Hustle podcast. We are your hosts, Evie McLeod and Lindsay Roman. Welcome back to another show, my friend. We are so honored and excited to have you here today. Today's episode is fire. So do not go anywhere if you are struggling with self discipline or just getting things done. Feeling like you cannot grow habits and build habits. Ooh, this one's for you. So today we had the honor of welcoming Jason Yaroussi onto the show. Now, if you don't know who he is, let me break it down for you. He is amazing. Jason Yaroussi is a private fund manager of over 300 million DOL in commercial real estate. Yes. Amazing. Since 2017, his company Yurusi holdings has amassed over 3,000 apartment and commercial real estate units. Jason has built and exited multiple companies, construction restaurants, a brewery and multiple large apartment communities. He's an avid ultra runner and workout enthusiast. And Jason is also the host of Live 100 and the multifamily live podcast runs seven figure multifamily mastermind and coaches clients on the Live 100 principles. And most importantly, a husband and a father to three amazing kids, a bulldog named Jill and 15 chickens. He's the best.
- [01:06]
B
Sounds like our kind of person, right? So today we chatted with Jason all about his live 100 principles. We dove into kind of the three framework pieces that he talks about, which I don't want to give too much away, so I'm just kind of going to let you guys listen to this. But what you're going to get out of it is understanding how to recognize the areas that need change in your life, how to then go about creating this change with little small tangible abst to accomplish steps and then to watch what that's going to do over your life and your business and everything that it will impact. We went really deep with Jason about self discipline versus motivation, the concept, especially as multi passionate entrepreneurs, of always having many things on our to do list and what his thoughts are on that. We talked about just practical steps of what do you start with? Where do you start? What are some of the biggest pitfalls he sees for entrepreneurs in this area of trying to grow better, but maybe struggling? There was so much in this episode. He is a wealth of knowledge. So if you are an entrepreneur or a human being seeking to just create better rhythms and disciplines and ultimately grow as a human and see those results amplified and magnified across your life, you gotta keep listening. So grab a pen and paper and let's start talking with Jason.
- [02:27]
A
This is Lindsay. I want to share a vulnerable moment with you. Years ago, before I launched my first preset pack, something that genuinely held me back from doing it for way too long was the technical backend of how to do it. Like, I know we all know that E commerce is a brilliant way to grow and diversify our business. But you know, whether you're a photographer wanting to sell presets like me, or a hormone health coach wanting to sell cookbooks, or honestly, literally anybody wanting to sell a physical or digital product online, knowing what what platform to sell on is huge, right? So that's why when I started first selling my presets, I went with the obvious choice. Shopify. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. And so whether you're selling shipping supplies or promoting productivity programs, Shopify helps you sell everywhere from their all in one e commerce platform to their in person POS system. Wherever and whatever you're selling, Shopify's got you covered. Shopify even helps you turn browsers into buyers with the Internet's best converting checkout up to 36% better compared to other leading commerce platforms. And quick story, last fall I had been wanting to incorporate a membership subscription into my business for women to sign up and be a part of my insiders membership group. And I almost didn't do it purely because I didn't want to buy another program to process the subscription payments. And that's when I realized, wait, wait, wait. I use Shopify for my presets. Can they do subscriptions too? And what do you know? With Shopify's endless list of integrations and third party apps, anything you can think of from chatbots to subscriptions. Yes, they have everything you need to revolutionize your business. My subscription problems were solved with the brilliant set of Shopify. So sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify. All lowercase go to shopify.com heart now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com heart hey hey. I'm Lindsay Roman.
- [04:15]
B
And I'm Evie McLeod and we are family and legacy focused serial entrepreneurs and the founders of the Hart University, a business education company with a mission to help you thrive in your business and life.
- [04:26]
A
Welcome to our Entrepreneur Cocktail hour where business and marketing strategies meet faith, real talk and raw in life changing conversations.
- [04:32]
B
At the end of the day, we are all in this together figuring out how to navigate the ups and downs, the messy and the beautiful and everything in between. This is a community where you can come as you are get inspired and walk away equipped to build a legacy filled life.
- [04:47]
A
You're listening to the Heart and Hustle podcast.
- [04:55]
B
Jason, welcome to the show. We are so excited to have you and excited for this conversation.
- [05:00]
C
Yeah, I'm excited to be here. If it's as good as our pre talk, I'm really thinking we've got a lot going here.
- [05:05]
A
Oh, we've had such a good pre talk. I am ready to go. We are talkers, as we just said before we started recording. So we're excited to chat with you. But before we start, could you introduce yourself to our listeners, Tell us about yourself, what you do, all the good juicy things.
- [05:19]
C
Sure. So my name is Jason Urousi. I'm down here in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. My main core business is investment in real estate. I buy apartment communities. I've done that for over a decade. We buy large apartment communities down here in the southeast, own a little over 3,000 of them in seven different states. And we built that model based on a lot of past failures that gave us future lessons that we're still learning from today. So we have the apartment investing firm, we have two H vac businesses, a property management business. And then I myself work on mindset and leadership coaching with individuals and also businesses as well. So. But again, like a lot of that came from just, you know, failing in a lot of different worlds, right? So I went to high school. During my high school years, I had a lot of formative loss. I lost three friends to random tragic accidents. I'd lost a girlfriend who I was with for four years that I thought was going to be someone that was going to spend a lot of life with. And then one day a car accident takes that away. So I went to college with, with pretty good grades, but I just had no motivation. I. I had someone come recruit sports and I ended up picking a college. I don't even think I knew what state it was in. I was just in this state of like shock and disbelief at just all these events happening. So I went to college, not really motivated, just got through college, got through college with a business degree and then left college just with no real intention to go into business world. I just was like lost. Right? I'm sure, you know, people here listen, like sometimes you just feel lost in life. And I was in this like stage or the season where I was just very lost. I moved to New York City. I started working a lot of odd jobs, right? As a bartender, as a waiter. I was like writing papers at some point. I was just Doing all these weird things. And with that, I was just getting constant chaotic results, right? And you do chaos and yet your life is in chaos and you at many times are surprised that you're getting chaotic results. And I was too, right? So, you know, one night I was working at the bar real late, got off like 2:30 or 3 in the morning, and, you know, I was just mad at the world, right? I was mad at the job I was in. I was mad at the results I was getting. I was mad at like just everything. Mad at my friends, mad at my circumstances, and was riding my bike back across Manhattan and got hit by a car and got taken to the hospital, got some stitches, got a pin in my wrist and just all these things that had happened that night. And I get out the next day, go home, and all I could think about is going back to this job because I need to make money for rent. And I had this pause. I was like, man, that is the craziest thought. All I constantly have on my mind is how unhappy I am with my circumstances or my setting and now have this thing happen where luckily I'm not hurt worse. And all I can think about is getting back to this job that I've been trying to avoid all this time. And I just said to myself, I have to start doing something different. And I just didn't know what. So I just started the next day. It wasn't like just like miracle overnight, like success change, but I just started doing, like, small things like get up earlier, stop drinking at night, start working out consistently, start actively going back. I like, shut off learning, like, I'm out of school, I'm never going to read again. Like, these things that were just like crazy thoughts. I started giving some focus to doing little things and lo and behold, little things turned into progression, right? I went from working behind a bar to owning a bar in New York City. I opened and sold a brewery, opened a restaurant in New York City before moving and running the family construction business in New Jersey and helped Ruth scale that to get my dad to retirement before moving into real estate. And that was the evolution for us, you know, finding our time. Back at the, you know, the real estate age and the construction age, I met my now wife. You know, I had known her. Well, let's say this, I, I, I had known my wife since 2003, but it took her about a decade to look at me. You know, we'll call, we'll call it in focus, right? You know, so my wife hired me at one of the bars just to give context. Right. And at the bar, she didn't think I was quiet enough to be a bartender, so I was a painter, right? So that was the start of our relationship. That's where we go way back into the day, right? So. But that's the evolution of life. So we just. We're having our first child, right? She was pregnant, and we, you know, we're doing all these active businesses. It was working bars, you know, of course, I was running. I had the bar, I had the construction world. And, you know, you just. Many times you're like, I just have to do more. And, like, if there's 25 hours in a day. Right. You will go and use the 25 hours. Right. And there's just never enough until you decide that there has to be a focus somewhere else. So we started looking at what could we do to get back control of our day in our life. And that's where we came upon a buying apartment communities, because it gave me all the elements to go out there and put forward and put the focus on hiring a team, building a team, putting together a process so that team can go out there and run the project and I can work in the evolution of the business. And that's carried us forward to buying, you know, over, you know, 3,000 units as to today.
- [09:56]
B
Wow, wow, wow.
- [09:58]
A
Okay. I want you back on the show to talk about real estate at a future date, because that's. Or maybe we'll just pick your brain, like, all holistically today. Wow. Thank you so much for sharing. Just that backstory, like, that gives so.
- [10:10]
B
Much context and, like, yeah, foundation. As we're about to dive into a lot of, you know, what you're passionate about sharing with entrepreneurs now, knowing the backstory, and that's, like, deep and. And powerful and hard and wild to see, you know, where you were in that season you're describing in, like, New York to where you are now is really cool and gets me so excited to learn and ask questions.
- [10:32]
A
Same, same.
- [10:34]
B
I love it. Okay, well, what would you say then, Jason, in. In that context? You said the little. It was little steps is kind of where you began. Is that, I guess, kind of the beginning of your journey into, like, what you're passionate about now of, like, success and what that looks like and how to achieve it and the little steps? Like, is that where you kind of started getting the passion for it, or was there another backstory to your Live 100 program?
- [11:03]
C
So when I started to really gain traction in real estate and just started doing a lot of things I, you know, I had run some hundred mile race. I had done a bunch of just, you know, fitness oriented goals and people coming up to me and said, you know, how are you accomplish this thing? So I just started looking back at my evolution because I really didn't think of it when I was going through it, right. Like most of us don't. Like, I just wasn't like putting together like, okay, here's where the things came upon as I was starting to grow and I started looking back at the things I had to do, right? And most of it. And when you start making change, we want big change, right? That's the thing. Like, like that's why we have New Year, New Year's resolutions. But then 92% of them fail. And yet you ask the question, like, why do so many of these things that we want to have happen in our life fail? It's because we have no foundation, right? I, maybe I haven't worked out in six months and then on New Year's Day I start working out for four hours and I'm so sore I can't work out for another eight days and I, and I maybe go again and then it's just on to the next, you know, next year that I have this next resolution that I want to do. It's because we don't build up the steps to get there. Because most of the time, you know, it's like social media gives us all these glimpses of like the perfect day or like the perfect scenario or just the perfect world, all these people's success, but it doesn't show the framework or the track to actually get there. And when we think about our goals, we think of goals as this moment in our, in our life that everything is like perfect and that's the end. Like if I go make a million dollars, like life will be perfect. As if like the next day doesn't come after that, right? And you don't learn how to live as that person or I want to lose 30 pounds and then you see someone lose 30 pounds, but then they regress and they gain the weight back is because they haven't learned to live as that person. Because we're not building the foundation to get there. And for my, my part of my Life and where Live 100 came up is that I, it's really on three foundational blocks to break the habits that no longer serve you so you can build the future momentum that's going to give you the traction to magnify your results. And within the build block, there's three core principles to stand upon. And the first one is being self aware. When I was out there, just being really negative. Of course, when you're negative, when you're putting in bad energy, it comes back to you in this way that you don't truly realize. If you're constantly in doubt, you're constantly in fear. It's a session and not being able to manage your thoughts. And the more you can look at it is like, why am I being this way? Then you can start owning it. You say, okay, I'm showing up. I'm really angry, I'm really fearful, I'm just hateful. I'm not happy. And okay, that's how it is. I don't want to be that person. I want to be this person over here. And you start looking at that person like, okay, if I want to start being a person, Etsy, I'm, you know, great with my family, that's a great husband, that's, you know, great in my business that keeps fit. How is that person showing up? Is that person being negative at every point? Is that person saying, I can't, I won't? Is that person showing up that every time something comes upon them, they think of it as the, as the worlding problem? Or is that person showing up with positivity and saying, okay, that problem is a way for me to look at solutions, right? To look at something as an opportunity, look at a way that I can go and be helpful, that I don't know how to do it today, but I'll figure it out, right? Well, that person, there's steps to get to that person, but you have to start owning how you're showing up today so you can start positioning yourself for greatness. And when you do that, the world starts to align with you. Not perfectly at first because you have to start building the blocks, but it starts to open your eyes to what's possible within your world.
- [14:22]
A
That's so good. I almost want to follow up and maybe kind of talk about the difference between motivation and discipline, because I think those are two different things that you would be the perfect person to ask right now based on just everything that you just said.
- [14:36]
C
Yeah, motivation. You just. It's one of those things that it comes and goes. And so if you're going to build progress in your life, you have to be disciplined to do it when you don't want. I make a point to work out every day and it's like 90% of the time I don't want to go do it, but I just Go do it. Right. Just what I do. When you build the momentum, like it's like if you're going in and your business is built on sales, well, you don't want to make the call, right? But you make the calls. It's not when you're ready to do it and you feel good because nothing will ever get done. Yeah, motivation is good when it comes, but it's short lived and it just, it burns out. So it's better to work on the habits that you can accomplish and to build it. And so you know, for instance, like if you want to change, well, start doing small things that can show that you can complete the task. Many times we want to take on this lion's list of just having 100 to do's, right?
- [15:22]
A
Yeah.
- [15:22]
C
But you get defeated because Tomorrow you have 105 because you didn't get through all. So if you have 50 things in your list, look at the three that are actually going to be hard and push you forward. Right? And not hard for the sake of hard, but like hard because you haven't done them because you're afraid to do them, or there's something that's just different, but it's going to make a difference because 47 of the other things can wait to tomorrow and they really don't matter. And if you look at that part, you say, okay, each day I'm going to do three things that are going to push my business forward or I'm going to push forward with, you know, my family, my fitness, anything. If you look at those three and each day you build on them that you say, okay, I either did them or I didn't. And just be, be, be really brutally honest with yourself. If you get through the month and say you even just do 20 of 30, right. You will still have grown so much more because now you're giving yourself a task and you're actually completing it. We let ourselves off the hook so easily these days. It's like, you know, like when you go to school, like you like say you're in like elementary school, like they teach you how to learn but they also teach you how to like be in this function. Like show up at 7:30, at 8:00 you're being in this class, at 11:00 you're going to have lunch at this part. But today there's no one there to like serve as looking over our shoulder. Right? Everybody's so busy with their own life. So if I wake up late and don't do what I'm gonna say like, it's just me that's gonna get punished. Right. It's that part that I have to be on myself to be disciplined to the results, to understand that no one's coming to save me. And the sooner you can look at that and put it that really, I'm the cap. I'm the cap of my potential, both in a positive and negative way. I can allow myself to just go forward and find more of my life where I can sit here and hope that it's gon. And usually the hope is, you know, it's something that never really shows up.
- [17:03]
A
Yeah.
- [17:04]
B
Oh, that's so good. I think it's also important I like, talk to a lot of my coaching students about this. There's this subconscious belief as entrepreneurs that we are supposed to have an empty to do list, that we're failing because there's something on our to do list, and that we're always behind because there's always, like you said, you wake up the next day, and there's 105 items on your to do list. But I constantly tell my students this. I'm like, you will never, ever look me in the eyes. You will never, ever complete everything on your to do list, because once you accomplish 50 of those items, like you.
- [17:37]
A
Said, you'll find something else.
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C
Yeah.
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B
And usually because you have accomplished a few of those items, there's an opportunity for more items on your to do list, because that's called growth, and that's a good thing as long as you are chipping away at it. But there's, like, you have to let go of this belief that your to do list should ever be emptied and that if you finish a day with a still, you know, existing to do list, that you have failed. Because I think that's the constant, like, we have this belief, whether a lot of us realize it or not. And then that leads us day after day to feeling like we've failed because there's still something on my list. And it's like, well, did. Like you said, did you accomplish, you know, maybe the top three or the, you know, the key items that you recognize are gonna drive your business forward or drive you forward and improve you. And recognizing that, like, hey, it's never gonna be over is just part of life. And I think really important to recogn is as entrepreneurs, I would assume, to.
- [18:26]
C
Say that, you know, most people you're talking to are driven. Right. And so when you're driven, you typically fill your space with something productive to do. Right. And so that's why the to do list never disappears because you're driven, right? You're an entrepreneur for a reason that you saw some problem or something that you want to have impact in or have, have some purpose within to go focus on. And so when you look at that, it's never finished, right? So you're constantly looking for more ways to, to evolve and to solve. And so to get to that empty to do list, it wouldn't serve the mentality of who you are because then it would it against everything you think, right? There's always something else to be done. There's always something else that can be fined and perfected. The key piece to look at from entrepreneurship is to make sure that you're dealing with the biggest block. So like for my real estate business, right, I have people that are working with people on leasing units. I have marketing, right. I have people that are working on construction of all these things. But all that stuff can't happen if I don't focus on leads, right? So potential for us to buy apartment communities and then also just investors, right? Or capital, right? So if I don't focus on those two buckets, then there is no business. I can be perfected in all of those other spots, but none of them exist without the two main focuses of my business. So when I look at that and I say, okay, I have to know what's the core parts of my business that need my energy, then I can put my energy there and then the other piece is I fill in the gaps with either when my time allows, right. Or adding non productive members to my team.
- [19:48]
B
So good.
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A
That's so good. Jason, how would you measure success kind of given the like, okay, let's break this down into bite sized pieces because I think most people, they're like, oh well, when I accomplish like when I start, like when I lose £30, that's a success. Or they don't necessarily, maybe, I mean maybe they do. But I often think I measure success by like a, like a big gold bucket versus the small step that maybe got me there. So I'd love to know, like how do you define success in your life and business?
- [20:18]
C
So I'll talk to my life, right? So like, you know, I'm not going to think that like when I get done there's going to be a statue of me, but I'm going to have my kids that are going to remain right and the lessons and the values that I've taught them, hopefully I'm going to position them in a good way that when something tough comes up and they face some of the life trials that they're prepared to make a good decision, right? That's what I think of with family is that I'm trying to give them the framework that they're prepared. And that's very hard because many times, you know, like you think of in your teens, your twenties, or even when I was talking about earlier, like, I was just lost, right? So to think about being there, like I was in no way prepared, like my parents were facing struggles, I was just completely outside of the ability to make good rational decisions. So I'm trying to impart without stepping on them and forcing them to make the decision, but give them the learning process to make those decisions. In business, you know, you look at goals, right? So like we've acquired, you know, 3,000 units. We're on focus to get to 5,000. So that would be a goal. But I can't force that goal, right? Because then I would buy a lot of bad opportunities. I would just. Things would not work in the business. And so when you look at goals, they become the mile markers to show that the effort has paid off. And so we put our focus on the actions, right? The actions are what I can control because I can't say that the goal is 5,000. Like we get there, I have the confidence we'll get there. But I can't astutely measure that today because it hasn't happened. Which means that I failed, right? If I just look at it as the 5000, I failed today. But if I look at it, have we made the calls to brokers this week? Have we gotten the number of leads in that we want to underwrite? Have we made offers? If I look at things that are tangible, that are tractually things that I can look at and say, today I did those things, then I can look at it that I'm building and progressing towards the goal. So if you look at your fitness, okay, my goal is 10,000 steps a day. Okay, well today did I do that? Okay, well why not? Yes or no, right? And then whatever. Or did I eat three balanced meals or did I do intermittent fasting? Right? You can look at these things that you actually either do or don't, and then that gives you traction to progress, to feel fulfilled and breaching a goal.
- [22:22]
B
Yeah, that's so good. Wait, Jason, can we go back and back up just a bit because you talked about, weren't there three areas within your Live 100 program that you were talking about and you talked about some self awareness. Is that the first one? Is that what it was.
- [22:36]
C
Yeah. So that's the break block. So the first piece is breaking the habits that don't serve you.
- [22:42]
B
Okay.
- [22:42]
C
And for me, I just had to be. Many times, as I have a friend, he says this great thing, he says, you know, so many times we can't see the label because we're stuck in the jar, right? And the label is like how we're presenting ourselves, right? And just so well said because so many times we just can't see how we're showing up because we're within ourselves, right? And so we can't. Like when we're like, you know, enraged because someone cut us off or, you know, like. Or someone got our meal wrong or just these things happen and like, we just lose it over these things. It's because we're living in so much chaos. So we have to be self aware of just, you know, it's like I like to think of like the knights of the round table. Like there was all these people that were brought together to, you know, it was. It was knights, it was. It was common folk that were brought together to like, keep off war, right? But that's like your head every day, you see, you have all these things that are being put together, right? It could be gluttony, it could be love, it could be kindness, it could be fear that are all put together in this bucket. And many times we're pulling from the wrong ones, right? Instead of this point of just, you know, being kind, in a moment, we react angry, right? Maybe that person who cut us off, maybe they're rushing to the hospital because someone was hurt or maybe anything they didn't see you, but we lose it because of that moment. Instead of just going back and just focusing on how we're showing up. The stoics say that you can control what you give and you control what's given to you. And many times we lose control on what's giving to us. We just react in just very harsh ways. But we can understand how we're showing up. We ask ourselves, truthfully, if you want to change the person you want to become, are they reacting like that in a moment? And 99% of the time they're not. And so you look at that and you have to own it. You have to say, okay, this is my starting line. And usually where the conversation starts is that, you know, I'm sure when you're talking to some of your coaches is that they think the evolution starts when, like, oh, when I, you know, meet this person, right? Where I make, you know, A certain amount of money and have so many money in the bank account or when I lose this weight, that's when it starts. But it doesn't, it starts here. Like, this is your starting line. No matter where you are, you have everything you need to do to start right now. And when you say that and you say, okay, I'm self aware how I'm showing up, I'm owning it, so I understand it's my starting line, then you can start positioning yourself, right, for the greatness that's within you. Because you can start setting the stage for who you want to become and the steps that it takes to get there.
- [24:48]
B
That's so good.
- [24:49]
A
Wait, so there's three pillars. That's the first one correct.
- [24:53]
C
Before we move on, that's the break block. And then you move into, of course, the build, right? So building is where we look at it. Okay, So I say there. I have to say now I have to master meaningful habits and rituals, right? Because my life is going to be built on my habits and rituals. You hear so many times we talked about discipline earlier. You can be disciplined in many ways, but it's just doing the small things each and every day. I know that if I'm disciplined to my morning, if I get up and I control my morning, then I'll be prepared when the day just goes on fire for the rest of the day. But if I wake up and the day is just an absolute disaster from the start, then any little thing that goes off, off becomes chaotic and becomes a disaster, right? Because I'm not prepared, right? I haven't taken a moment back. So when I do that and I take my morning and it just, you know, a short hour, right? Short 45 minutes, 15 minutes, anything could be that part. Get up and you just have some consistency, some foundation, then I can be ready to go out there and look at things in a true way instead of just saying everything's a fire. And when you do that, you can start mastering habits, mastering rituals that are going to speak to you of where you want to to go. And then next you can go and you can have intentional execution, right? Because then you can be intentional about what you want to do. It's hard today in the world because every 30 seconds are some awesome ideas, right? There's something cool you should do, like some diet, some this, start this business, do this, do that. They're all probably cool in their own ways, but you can't do them all. And when we're trying to do them all, ultimately you're just not Getting fine results in real estate. When we started out, we were doing a couple different forms of real estate. So I was flipping houses, wholesaling Airbnbs. We were doing all different kinds of things, small apartments. And it wasn't until we just put the blinders on and say no to everything except apartment buildings that our business started to take off.
- [26:38]
A
Yeah.
- [26:38]
C
And when you do that, because all of energy goes there. And when you look at people that are successful, you're like, oh, they have all these revenue streams but they typically don't start there. They have all their energy doing one thing right, Doing one thing, one thing, one thing, one thing. And then that thing, as it's grown, it becomes massively successful. Or just build it allows them to go and pull other opportunities in there that have been benefit from it. But they don't start with 10 things. And in our life we try to do all these ten things at once. And then it's hard to face that when we can't just like our to do list, then we feel like a failure.
- [27:08]
A
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- [27:45]
B
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- [28:25]
A
Cool.
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B
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- [28:50]
A
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- [29:18]
B
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- [29:33]
A
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- [29:47]
B
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- [30:03]
A
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- [30:17]
B
Yeah, it's so easy. I feel like, especially as like multi passionate or driven entrepreneurs and people, it's so easy to be like, well I want to have this incredible real estate portfolio and this, you know, this incredible whatever investment portfolio like you can do it all.
- [30:34]
A
But not, not at first and even, and even then I would argue you sometimes still can't even do it all.
- [30:40]
B
Well because doing it all is, there's, there's way too much. Especially in the entrepreneur world. There's so many business opportunities. It's like sure, you may be able to do a handful one at a time, but there's always going to be Something else.
- [30:51]
A
Okay, and then what is the third pillar?
- [30:54]
C
Yeah. You know, I'll say one thing to that because it's, it's so true, is that the hardest thing to say is no. But it's sometimes the best thing to do is say no, right? Because it's not that you're going to hurt someone feeling important, but you can't give it your all. And if you can't go in there and truly be your best self within that, then really you should leave it for another time or maybe just say no. But the maybe doesn't work. It's either a yes or a no. But really, if we say no to 90% of the time, then the yes is truly going to have meaning when we actually say yes. Because we know that there's something really there that really stands out, right? And then now we know we can put all of our energy in there, right? Yeah. And then, and then the last one comes down to magnify, right? Because once we break all the habits, we position ourself for greatness, right? We start to build the future you, right? We start to put in the tactic, the tools, we start to intentionally execute. We start to really push forward, right? Now we can magnify the results. What we try to do is we try to go from this part of nothing to magnify, right? We want to have nothing and then now we want to have, you know, a billion dollars, right? But we have no basis, we have no foundation, we have no tools, we have no tricks, we have no tactics, right? We have nothing buil. So we can't magnify what's not there, right? So when you start having really the building blocks, right, that are put together, right? And you have the tools, you have the team, you have the growth, right? You have the execution. Now you can go out there and use the magnify block to accelerate. So, you know, when I first brought a large apartment building, it was a 94 unit apartment building in Louisville, Kentucky. And that was so great. We prepare ourselves. It was. But there's still a lot to learn, right? It was like now the investment started. Now we had to run the investment, right? We had to spend a number of years just having a position so we didn't just jump in the second one because I didn't know what I didn't know at that point. So we spent a year, a true year before we didn't buy anything else. And then the next year we brought about a thousand units, right? It's because we had learned all of the steps, the Process the procedures to go out there and use what we've learned in the process to say, okay, now this happens. So I have a team around me. Okay. So maybe I have to ask them, like, what should we do in this part? Or what do you suggest here? Or, oh, this marketing strategy worked, but this one didn't. So what do we do to evolve in this stage? Okay, so the investment, you know, doing this type of renovation garnered this type of return. But if we did something different, right. What could we do that could better? So now when you do that and you start to do the next investments, well, now you have a process that's put down so I don't have to learn to fly, doing 10 different things in each one, I say, okay, well, this has worked before. It's a very similar property we're buying again. Now we rinse and repeat. So you start to magnify your results, right? It's like when you start to build yourself with like your workout routine, right. You don't go out there and run a marathon today, but you start to learn the process. That's like the marathon training part. You start to learn your body, learn your shoes, learn your parts, right? You start to do three or four miles a couple times a week in the beginning, all the way, building up to a couple weeks before the race start, doing 20 mile races. Because you start to magnify, because you start to understand how your body shows up, what you need. What are the tools that you need within your perspective? Certain type of running gear do I need? Certain type of nutrition or fluids that work best with me. So now you've built there, you can really push yourself for the race day.
- [34:03]
B
Yeah, it's the, it's the simple. It's like the building blocks. Ultimately you can't build. You can't build a skyscraper if you don't have, understand, like, and are accumulating these tools that you need.
- [34:15]
A
These, like the bite size.
- [34:16]
B
Yeah.
- [34:16]
A
Steps.
- [34:17]
B
Yeah. Like the. I don't know, I'm just picturing like cinder blocks.
- [34:20]
A
Yeah.
- [34:20]
B
Bricks, maybe. It's like if you don't have those, you ultimately can't build what you're wanting to build. Mm, I would love. On that topic, I guess for you, Jason, what have you either in your own, like, entrepreneurial journey or as you know, a mentor or coach, what would you say are some of the, like, I don't know, top two or three, like, essential building blocks, either things that need, maybe things that need to be broken or like the self awareness areas that you've noticed or the things that you need to, like, build or learn skills. Skills, the thought processes, whatever it is that you're like. I think this would probably apply to most entrepreneurs who may or may not be struggling with this. Does that make sense?
- [35:02]
C
It does, yeah. I'll give you two that come to mind. The first one would be, honestly, it's not the answers that you're missing, it's the questions. So many times we're like, well, I don't know the answer, but you're not asking the right question. So of course you're not getting the answer. When I learned to get better at my questioning and understand how to really get out what I'm trying to get back, well, then the answers show up. But most of the time, we just want these answers, right? I just want this solution, right? I just want the solution. But you're not asking the right question. And so then the answer is fleeting, right? You can't get to the right answer. So that would be number one. And number two would be thinking about problems, right? We, as entrepreneurs, sometimes we treat all problems as, like, the same weight. Like, everything's a fire, right? Everything's the end of the world, right? And so I look at things as basically five years, right? So if I'm not going to remember this in five years, then it's really not a big problem. Just get it done and just get through it, right? And when you think of things like that, it starts to set weights to the problems. Because if you, you know, when. When we work, everything seems like Mount Everest, right? But what happens here is that, okay, you start to face it and face the reality of what it is, and then you find a way to get through it, right? Because you are here today, listening to this podcast. You've gone through your problem. Now, five years down the road, you can't even remember it. Or it's like a speed bump, because now you're at a new height, you're at a new level in your life. So now you're facing your new Mount Everest, right? That it seemed like you're never going to get by, but you do, right? But you keep evolving. You keep growing, you keep growing forward. And when you think about that, it takes out the urgency of every single moment problem for you to understand that this is just part of what you do as an entrepreneurship. You come here to solve. You come here, and that's where you really gain traction. And when you can look at that and you can say, okay, this problem is just something that's going to be here today. I'm not going to remember this in years. It's literally just something I'm facing with. So I just need to figure out the solution and move on.
- [36:46]
B
That's so good.
- [36:47]
A
That's amazing.
- [36:47]
B
Can I ask a follow up question?
- [36:49]
C
Sure.
- [36:50]
B
When you, the first, the first point that you made on, like, the two things that you think about with entrepreneurship, one of them was not asking the right questions. Do you have any, like, initial tidbits or suggestions of the listener who's listening to this podcast who's like, wait, that might be me. I, I don't know how to ask the right questions. I, you know, I'm sitting here thinking, I don't have the answers, I don't have the answers. Where do they start? Or where would you suggest that they start? With learning how to ask the right questions or how to view something different, differently?
- [37:21]
C
So what's worked for me in the past, if I know who I need to be talking through, the answer is to put it back on them. We want to do all the talking and we want to ask all the questions. And that person might not give me the answer because they just haven't actually heard the question. Right. So if you go to them like, is there anything I should be asking you right now? Right. And you put that back on them, they usually will come up with something. Oh, yeah, you should ask this or you should talk to this or have you thought of this? Because it gets their mind working where in a lot of worlds, people are just very closed, you know, answer questions. So if I ask you something and you may be like, just give me the result, because that's what I asked for. But you may have in your mind that there's always other things we can talk about, but I guess they don't need it, right? Maybe they know it already. So when you put it back on that person, it helps you really get from their mind all the things that potentially haven't thought of. And usually when you think of the questions is because we're just not at that stage in our life, right? Maybe we haven't come upon that challenge before. We haven't come upon something like this before. So we don't even know to ask that question.
- [38:16]
B
And so when you go on that.
- [38:17]
C
And just look at, okay, other people, what are they asking and what are they looking for in a person? Person. Well, then you can start looking outside of yourself and start looking at what other people are giving back to you because that gets you more questions.
- [38:29]
B
That's so good.
- [38:30]
C
I also like this, and I Just not. Not to cut you off, but like a podcast. Imagine right now, like, I was saying something, and all of a sudden you. You didn't hear me at all, and you just asked your question again. And it's like the same thing. You just. You had, like, 10 questions. Like, I remember, like, early days of the podcast, like, I'm gonna have these 10 questions. And I learned very quickly, like, someone's talking about this. I'm just gonna be like, oh, let's go talk about this. Where do we go? You know, it's like, we're just over here, right? And. And that's why the evolution of conversation is, like, if you're not hearing what's coming back, then you're not really able to add value.
- [38:57]
B
That's so good.
- [38:58]
A
Well, you, as we're talking about this, I'm like, you, in pitching to be on the show, literally did what we're. What you're talking about, which is you gave us sample questions to ask you, which is almost the invert. Obviously, you're doing it for us technically, but it's like, who. How do we know what best questions to ask you? You know, the best questions for us to ask you.
- [39:17]
B
That's gonna help, like, you give the best value to our listeners, too. Here's some, you know, some concepts or some ideas of what I can deliver and what I can give. And ultimately, that's what actually, too.
- [39:27]
C
When we started this, it was about, like, just learning the audience, too, right? Because it's the same, like, I'm coming here talking about, you know, like, red and blue, and we should be talking about, like, green and purple or whatever, right. It's like, it's two different phases, and I'm not really here helping.
- [39:39]
B
Yeah, in a fashion.
- [39:40]
A
Yeah, totally.
- [39:40]
B
So good. I think, with questions. Just a thought. As you were talking, Jason, I was like. I feel. Feel like you could boil it down to two. Two, I guess, like, pitfalls that us as humans can fall into. And I. One you were talking about was, I think, ignorance, which is we just don't know what questions to ask. We haven't experienced what this other person has experienced or, you know, their business journey or whatever. We don't even know to ask a certain question. But I also think in some entrepreneurs myself, I have fallen into this pitfall. It can also be arrogance of. I don't want to ask a question that would make me seem like I don't know or that I'm. That I'm ignorant to that topic. Dumb or ignorant. Like, there's. There I feel like it's like ignorance or arrogance or I guess like just like a pride. And I feel like you kind of have to ultimately get humble in both areas and be like, either I don't know or I may know a couple things, but I want to learn more. Like, I, I want to ask, act as if, you know, I am the dumbest person in the room because that's ultimately what's going to, I don't know, help you learn and grow. But those are just two thoughts is like ignorance. But also I feel like some entrepreneurs can struggle with. And I've been there.
- [40:49]
C
Like, you ever, you ever been in a room and you're like, you're like, I don't want to ask the question. Someone finally asked the question. Like, oh, thanks for like them to ask the question. Because no one wants to ask the question, right? But yeah, as you get through and you're just like, I don't care, I'm never gonna see these people again. I might as well ask the question because at least like, I need that answer, right? That's the thing. Like, that's most helpful for everybody. And it's hard, right? Like, you think of all the things, like as you get older, like, you don't want to look foolish doing something, right? You don't want to look foolish. Like, I don't want to start a business because what if I fail, right? All these like, worst case scenarios. But if you look at all the things you do as a kid, right, from walking to like riding a bike to like, you know, like, I don't know, having your first kiss, all these things that are just like out there, like learning in the world, like you did it at some point, but then in some world, like our mind and society told us we can't go out there and try anymore because we might, right? And like, if someone's listening today and like they get that feedback from their family, like many times it's like your family doesn't like they're not trying to hurt your feelings, right? What they're trying to do is that they may have not gone through those struggles. So they don't want to see you because they care about you, like face struggles and face hardships or they're trying to tell you not to do something, right? Because they don't know any better, but they're just hoping that you don't get hurt, right? When in fact they're not the right people to give you the judgment. They're the right people to give you the care, but they haven't done it. So you can't take that feedback from someone who honestly hasn't done it before. If my uncle, who's worked at a company for 40 years, tries to tell me about why I shouldn't start a business, it's like, okay, I appreciate it, but the care. I feel you, but honestly, you've never done that. So I can't really use you as someone who. To give me the right guidance.
- [42:22]
A
Yeah, that's so relatable. It's like, thank you, Uncle Bob. Thank you so much for your opinion. Okay.
- [42:29]
B
Okay.
- [42:29]
A
I would love, I've been sitting here and I'm like, I would love to take an example that I think everyone could relate to and almost like workshop it a little bit on this second half of the interview, if you're cool with that.
- [42:38]
B
Jason?
- [42:39]
C
Sure.
- [42:39]
A
My thought is like working out or even just like being active or maybe getting up in the morning or something. Something in that. Because I think no matter if there's an entrepreneur listening or a stay at home mom listening or even like a student listening, whoever is listening to this, I think anybody could, could kind of go and follow that train of thought and so kind of working through the three pillars that you mentioned. I know the first was self awareness, so. Well, I don't want to like dictate you, I want you to run with this. But like, if somebody out there that is listening is sitting, they're like, okay, I would really love to establish the habit because right now I'm not maybe waking up early. I feel like I'm just like letting nature naturally wake me up. And I want to be more of a disciplined person to wake up or work out in the morning. Or maybe it's a mom that I've been there, honestly, where I'm letting my kids be my alarm clock and I'm not, you know, letting, you know, getting a start on the day, whoever it is that's listening to it. How would you start? Maybe with the first step of self awareness. Maybe that's the first part is just understanding that that's a problem. I don't know. I guess how would you kind of walk them this process to establish a habit and then maximize that habit of just getting active or working out in the morning.
- [43:48]
C
Yes. So, you know, it's wonderful to have your kids wake you up. Right. But in a certain point here is that at a certain time to give them your all and to be your best self, you have to be your best self first. Right. So it's like the oxygen mask on the Plane, right? They don't say, go put your kids oxygen mask on first because if you pass out, you're not going to help your kids, right? They say do this and then do that, right? It's the same thing with us. Like we have to be fulfilled within ourselves. Like we have to fill up our cup before we can fill up all. And most of the time our cup's not full, but we're trying to fill up someone else's cup because we're just like, that's what we do. I'm here, I'm a mother, you know, I'm here. I'm trying to do this for someone else. But you're burned out, right? You have to take it back and understand that I have to put forth the time to prepare myself because if I can't take care of myself, I can't take care of my health, I can't take, then I'm going to be no good when my kids, 10, you know, a decade from now that I, I can't get upstairs or have to be apart and now I'm becoming a life liability on them. And so when you look at that, you say okay, most of the time we want to have this block in our mind. Well, when I have two hours or when I have three hours or an hour and a half, then I will do X. When in fact, if you just say okay, I'm never going to have that. Right? Because that's the truth, right? Like you're just like, those three hour windows don't come. That's why you haven't done the thing for a decade. But if you say okay, tomorrow I'm going to walk around the block or tomorrow I'm going to take 15 minutes and I'm going to exercise, you can get a lot done. So you've gone from a point where right now in months you haven't worked out at all. Now the next 30 days, five night does not even include weekends. Just Monday through Friday for 15 minutes you do some form of exercise. Look how much forward you will be in your life just by taking 15 minutes a day that you kept telling yourself you need three hours for, or an hour and a half that you will never do. But you start taking 15 minutes, right? That's 75 minutes per week, right? Now we're on to basically 300 minutes that you've worked out for the course of the month, right? If you think that and you take that over the course of a year, then of course of two years, three years, think about how much improvement you Will made in your life because, you know, energy it puts through you, through, you know, perseverance, right? You have to go through parts because you can get a massive workout in 15 minutes. You can do anything and you can grow upon it and it's something that can be completed. Usually we set up these stages to like. It's like we set hurdles that we can't get over as part of what we're doing and then it's no surprise that we fail. So today I'm going to go and I'm going to run a 5K. Like, when's the last time you ran? It was like high school. It's like, okay, no, just go and walk around the block because when you do that, you start to set stages in your mind where you've done something and now tomorrow you can do it because you did it the day before, but you haven't failed the first day. And so it starts building momentum and that momentum is just, it's a giant killer because you start to grow and grow and grow. So I had to be so extreme in the beginning because, you know, I've just through all the struggles, the failure, like I just, my mindset and like my, my habits, they were just so off, right? They were just wrong. And so I had to be extreme with it. And so what I found is that if you're having trouble making up in the morning, it's because you're not giving context, right? So you'll say, oh, I'll set my alarm for six. And then six comes around, you hit the snooze button. Maybe it's 6:10, not a big deal. Maybe you hit up at 6:12. Like, okay, I'm up at 6:12. But you didn't get up when you said you were going to do it. So now your mind from the first decision was like, ah, it's okay. Like, it's okay if I don't do this. It's okay. Okay if I don't do that. So I got very particular. I started waking up at 4:32am and very weird time. But I started saying, 4, 3, 2, 1, go, just get out of bed. Because when you are out of bed, you're up, right? Most of the time it's like the second you get up, you're fine, you're never getting up and be like, oh, you know what, I'm a lie back down. You just get up and now you get up. So I would get up, I would have a glass of water, I would go. I spend literally five to 10 minutes meditating. Just a moment, just have pause. I go, go work out. Anywhere between 30 to 45 minutes. Then at that point, I've now set the stage for how my morning began. I'll come and make a coffee. My wife would be getting up, she would go do her thing, and I would now have time to be with the kids. So now I've now prepared myself. I've set the stage. When my kids are there, then I'm present with my kids. The hardest thing with entrepreneurship is that it never shuts off. You never get to this point where my mind's not just doing things, but you're not really adding benefit. That when you're with your kids, you're thinking about something you need to do with your business. And then when with your business, you're regretting that you weren't focused with your kids. So when you are there, you have to be there. And it's something like, it doesn't get easier. Well, let's say this. The more you do it, the easier it gets. But it's always gonna be something you have to face each and every day.
- [48:16]
B
Yeah.
- [48:17]
C
You have to give your focus to where you are.
- [48:20]
B
That's so good.
- [48:21]
A
That's incredible. This is making me think. This is kind of funny. I feel like you might get a kick out of this. My husband, at the beginning of this year, him and a bunch of guys did 70, 75 hard. You've probably heard of it. And when they were done, he realized that his like the link that made him. Not the link. That's not the right word. Like the. The incentive that made him do the workouts. You know, I'm gonna say, I just.
- [48:43]
B
Realized what you're gonna say.
- [48:44]
A
The incentive that made him do the workouts was like, camaraderie. And he was not gonna be the one to back out on the guy's commitment once that was done. And he was like, oh, I still need to work out or I still want to work out. He found that he didn't have the incentive. And I was like, Andrew is like, you know, your mental health being great for your children and family, like, that's not an incentive. He's like, no. And he was like, I'm addicted to coffee. I have to have coffee every morning. Like, that is a non negotiable. So this is so unhinged.
- [49:13]
B
I feel like.
- [49:13]
A
Have I shared this on the podcast before?
- [49:15]
B
I think you may have, but I don't remember what I said.
- [49:17]
A
Well, if anybody's okay. So what he did was he. He put like A like almost like a bulletproof or maybe it wasn't bulletproof. It was might have just waterproof like canister.
- [49:25]
B
I think it was an ammo case like casing like a waterproof of like.
- [49:29]
A
The pre portioned beans that he would use then to ground every morning he put them four miles away into the woods. Like so that in order to sound so unhinged, but in order, but in order to then have his morning coffee, he had to physically go run to go get it as if we were back in the day and he was a hunter and he would get his.
- [49:52]
B
Single day's mornings portion of coffee beans and run back home.
- [49:55]
A
And one then for one of our businesses we do a farmer's market. And so he, he was like, well on those days when I'm at the farmer's market and you want coffee, you need to hide your own stash of coffee in the house where I don't know where it is so that when I'm gone and I can't physically run for our coffee each morning, you can have yours. It just reminded me of like so much commitment.
- [50:14]
C
Like you gotta say, like that is like commitment, right? Because it's the same part like, okay, I still gotta do it. So I'm set it up like that's fantastic, right? Like there's its own extreme to it, but the same part, the results carry on. One, you're gonna get something in two, you get a result from it, right? Time after time he's doing it because at this point he'd be like, ah, whatever, I'll just go drive, right? I'll just go take my ride my bike. There's 50 different ways that you get there without the result. But he's still doing a result, right? And that goes into part is that like it just carries weight, right? When we know we have to do it, but then we do it. That's the big difference. So many times like we know we have to do it and we say we're going to do it, but then we don't do it, right? And now your mind knows that and then everybody else knows that, right? And that's why people like I entrepreneurs like we get upset when someone doesn't believe in us, but we've never done it, so why should they believe in us? We've never done it. Why are you upset? So when we do it, of course they might be surprised in part. And now they say, I always knew you could do it, but we just have to be within ourselves to say, okay, I need to do it. It doesn't matter what anybody else thinks or says, because really, they're not coming to work each day. They're not the one doing the work with me. I'm the one doing the work. And when I just say I'm going to do this and then I do it, well, results happen, right? Just like that. It gets us running.
- [51:23]
B
I love it.
- [51:24]
A
So good.
- [51:25]
B
Maybe you need to go extreme listener. Or maybe you just need to. To set an alarm.
- [51:30]
A
Baby steps.
- [51:31]
C
Yeah.
- [51:31]
A
And at 4:32am I love that, though.
- [51:35]
B
4:32, 1.
- [51:35]
C
Not always perfect. But you know what? Like, I win more than that. And you know, like, that's, that's the biggest part is like, it's not always gonna be perfect. Like, you know, you get sick, kids are up like 3am like, they're just like, there's like, things that just happen in life, but, like, those are going to be the, the. The anomalies not. And usually we make the chaos the constant. And that's what I was. I was literally just in the constant chaos. And the only way to stop the constant chaos is just stop. And it could be like, as simple as, like, you're just so overwhelmed, you're so busy, but we're juggling all these things. And like, wouldn't you just stop right now and say, well, what if I just do none of them today? And then you ask yourself, like, okay, man, I had to do 38 things today, but now I didn't do any of them. And I realized the three that actually need to get done, right? It's like, oh, I need to pick my kids up for school. Like, that's something I need to do. That's a definite right? You have to that. But there's like 30 things that usually you're like, oh, today I need to run skid stamps. Like, no, you don't. Why are you running? Get stamps? Like, like there's things that you put on there that make you feel just in. In like a crazy mode when if you just eliminate them and you say, okay, I just have to do the things that actually matter. Well, then you get progress.
- [52:43]
A
Yeah.
- [52:43]
B
So good. I think the thing with discipline too, like you've mentioned this, Jason, is, is starting small. And ultimately it. It leads towards the magnification both of your business and ultimately your goals, but also even of your discipline. Because when you, when you show up small, like you're saying, and, and you start waking up at a certain time or, you know, you're running for your coffee, whatever it is, there's like the the little things you start to build the self confidence of, I can do what I've promised to myself and I can actually show up for myself, for my family. And I'm chipping away, like knocking off three things off your to do list. It's like, I just tackled my to do list. I got some things done and it starts to like build on itself, which is just so good, I think, for the listener to be like, start small if. If that's where you're at, like, start small.
- [53:32]
C
Have you blocks, right? Like, you need like, if you like, okay from a decade from now, like you want to still be able to run out and do stuff for your kids, right? So like, that's not like you doing these like mega things today. It's just like, I have to do something each and every day to get.
- [53:47]
B
Yep, that's good.
- [53:48]
A
Have you read Psycho Cybernetics by. Oh man, what's his name, Maxwell something?
- [53:52]
C
No, I haven't.
- [53:53]
A
No, no, it. He talks about in the book just the principle that we're talking about of like normally in life. And it's more of like, I feel like it's called like the ultimate self help book, but it's like it was written back in the 80s, I think by a plastic surgeon. And he talks about how we. What usually impacts our self, like, or our view of ourself is always the negative things that we've done in the past or that we haven't done in the the past.
- [54:15]
B
Like, that's typically our failures.
- [54:16]
A
Yeah, we've zoned in on our failures or things that we haven't done. And instead to actually move forward in something with success, you almost have to look back and say, well, no, no, I'm going to retrain my brain to think about this. The times that I did do something, even if it was something small, which goes exactly what you were saying of like, look back at the times that you start building these small habits of like, hey, I did. I walked around the block yesterday and that's what I did so I can do it again today. It goes exactly to what you said. But I love that book and that makes me think about everything that you're saying.
- [54:44]
C
Yeah, it sounds awesome. Because it's so easy for us to be in fear. Every day we're like, oh, today I'm not gonna be able to eat and then there's gonna be a saber tooth tiger. We go through all these extremes right in your life where in fact, even that. Oh, when we were buying our first apartment, community, I could buy this Apartment community. And then the thing could burn down, and then I could get sued, and then they would come take my dog. It was the most extreme. That's where our mind goes, is the worst, worst, worst, worst. But if that's possible. So let's say that's 1/10 of 1% reality of what could happen. Right. Well, then we never give the onus to the 1/10 of 1% of positive. The best thing could happen. I could go there and make this a massive success. The people who live there could have a great place to live. I could really make a great investment for my investors. You never give the weight to the best. Just like what you said, because it's so easy to see. Because usually our background is just looking at what we haven't done because we're not where we want to be. So it's so much easier to look at that when you think, like meditate or you go and just look into your mind and even do visualization or even like a vision board. Like, those are things that can start, set the stage to put your eyes on things that are perspectively better than what you have, but also give you focus to what's possible. And it just, it just helps you grow. But you can't always look at a negative because you're just going to constantly be in the negative.
- [56:02]
B
Yeah.
- [56:03]
C
And we, we like simple things. We talk about, like, the actual steps, like that I'm alive today. Right. It doesn't sound like a lot, but I'm alive today. Like, I can breathe. Like all these other things, like, gives us, it gives us positive energy and it just shows us of what good we have in our life.
- [56:17]
A
Yeah.
- [56:18]
B
And there's always something good to focus on and that, like, you're, you know, talking about the energy aspect. It's like when you're constantly looking at the negative or sitting in the negative, it's. That's all you're going to be really attracting. But if you're looking at, you know, hey, I woke up today. Hey, I have a roof over my head. It may be the dumpiest studio apartment you could ever imagine, but I have a roof over my head and there's a front door that locks. And that's what matters, you know, so.
- [56:44]
C
Agreed.
- [56:45]
B
I love it.
- [56:46]
A
All right, Jason, we. To wrap up, we have three questions that we love. Rapid fire. This is like rapid fire hour. Although we joke about that. And then they're not really that rapid fire of question. Well, you'll, you'll find out. But we have three questions to end the first one, because we are readers and we selfishly just love asking all of our guests any book that they've read recently.
- [57:05]
B
This is one of those questions that we want to ask for people to be like, what has impacted you?
- [57:10]
A
So the first one is, what is a favorite book that you've read recently?
- [57:14]
C
So the one I'm reading right now is richer, wiser, happier, and not going to remember who that's by, but I have, like, a selection of them. With that one, it's just talking about different investment mentality, methodology, but also just how they look at life. Because sometimes it's so caught in, just like, the growth of the investment, I have to make more money. If you forget about it, like, what's the purpose of all this, like, Warren Buffett thing where we're giving them away, like, 50% of their income? Like, all these things that they're just saying, okay, I did this. But now, like, at a certain point, enough's enough. And that could be that you just, you know, have enough money to cover your expenses every month. It could be a lot of things that we constantly look past because we think we have to have more.
- [57:50]
A
Yeah.
- [57:51]
B
So good. Adding that to my list. The next one is what is one of the biggest lessons that you've learned in business?
- [57:59]
C
It's your team, right? It's like, we always want to be 100% in everything, but if I have 10 things to do and I only do two of them, but I'm at 100% and then the other eight, I'm at zero, well, then it's not good, right? It's not like, oh, but if I have those other eight done by people, and maybe they only do them at like, 90 or 85, well, that's better than zero. And so many times, like, there's a lot of things in our business that don't have to be 100. They just have to be done. And so you being the bottleneck and you in the way, honestly, is hurting your business and not letting your business carry forward.
- [58:30]
B
So good.
- [58:31]
A
That's a whole entire. We've learned that one Deep dive. Yes. Oh, my gosh.
- [58:34]
B
The hard. The hard way.
- [58:36]
C
Sometimes learn it, but then you have to realize to stop, too.
- [58:38]
A
Yeah, that's so good. Amen. All right, sorry. Oh, here we go.
- [58:43]
B
Last question is simply, where can everyone find you? For those who have loved learning with you and just hearing this conversation today, who are wanting to learn more, grow more, follow along, where can they connect with you?
- [58:55]
C
Yeah. So jasonrussi.com and you can go to live 100 podcast that's on all the podcast platforms. Virginia. Short form, six to eight minute podcast right there. It'll be best places.
- [59:06]
A
I love that even your podcast is following the, like, small bite size, like just one step at a time formula. That's amazing.
- [59:13]
B
That's so good. I love it that way.
- [59:15]
C
And I was thinking about changing, but, like, it's. It's easier to go and just hit something home that can be take away from me and just say, okay, here's what I've learned, or here's a lesson or here's what I've used in the past and hit it.
- [59:26]
A
See that? I feel like we just talk too much. That's for us. If we, if we were to try to do that, that would not go over well.
- [59:31]
B
Well, also our solo shows that we're like, we're going to keep this one really short.
- [59:34]
A
It's going to be a 15 minute.
- [59:35]
B
It's going to be 15 minutes. It's like 45.
- [59:38]
A
Yeah.
- [59:38]
C
So you would fit. Well, my wife, because we're a combo, I say a couple words and she fills in a gap. So anytime we're out with people, no one feels like we haven't had a conversation with them. Because she say 1,000 words, I will say six, but together we've said 1,006.
- [59:53]
A
I feel like that's generally not. This is not across the board, but I feel like men are usually like, more to the point and women just like, love flowery going all over the place.
- [60:02]
B
Yeah, I love it.
- [60:03]
A
Awesome. Jason, thank you so much for being here, for being on our show. We are so honored that our listeners got some of your wisdom today. And so thank you for your time.
- [60:10]
C
Thank you.