Welcome to Elevate with Elsner. Join us for inspiring conversations with individuals who have transformed their lives and are making a difference through the work that they do. And now here's your host, Blake Elsner.

Welcome back. To The Elevate with Ellsner Podcast, I'm your host, Blake Ellsner, and today we have an incredible guest joining us, someone who has spent over eight years coaching entrepreneurs and small business owners, helping them build, grow and elevate their ventures. He's the owner of Emerging Executive. now Properties, LLC, and co-host of the Gateway to Freedom Investing Conference. With more than 100 real estate deals under his belt, generating over a million dollars in revenue, he's a master at navigating complex negotiations and finding creative solutions. Please welcome Josh Weisler to the show. Josh, we're thrilled to have you here today, and we can't wait to dive into your journey.

Blake Elsner

Oh, well, thank you very much. I appreciate you having me on and look forward to getting in touch with the community and helping anybody I can.

Josh Wiesler

Yeah, that's the big thing is what I went out to start this was. at least provide value to one person. And that's all that matters if it's not myself, because I know I'll take value. So there'll at least be one. If not, there'll be multiple. I can see people listening and it's I've gotten a lot of good feedback and the information people I think are gathering through like people like yourself is helping them kind of take the leap and kind of put themselves out there. And that's kind of the goal, you know, get uncomfortable.

Oh, yeah. Oh, for sure. Without a doubt.

So how did, so like in your early beginnings, how did you like get started in personal development? And I know you've, like you said, you've had a, had a, you know, a ride of, I know Wade, I've seen you on Facebook. So just kind of tell us about like, you know, the, the old Josh, I guess you would say.

Oh, man. Uh, well, old Josh, that's a first time I've heard it kind of put like that. Um, so old Josh back in the day, I remembered I was actually over the weekend. I was watching some videos that I started like seven, eight years ago. Um, and it's like, if you don't watch your old stuff and kind of cringe, it means you're not really growing. Right. Um, and just, I was, Shooting videos and I was doing personal development coaching. I was working in a company for a company selling small engine airplane parts. It was a nine to five. It was a sales position. I was making, you know, not a great amount of money, but it was a steady like Monday through Friday. I had the weekends off with having, you know, three growing kids between me and my wife. It was stable. But there was just a lack of happiness. There was a lack of fulfillment. There was like that feeling of there's got to be more in life than what I'm currently experiencing. And that kind of led me into the personal development world where like, and that's what I think a lot of people end up getting into the personal development world where they're looking for something greater than what they're currently experiencing in their life. And As you get further down the line, you realize, you know, the stuff that you're searching for, it doesn't come from outside, it doesn't come from all these exterior things. And so that's been the journey over these last seven, eight, nine years. It was transitioning, I started, I was selling airplane parts. And then I started, I was buying the house we currently live in. I had put money away and I was dealing with a mortgage lender. It was a referral because I had started real estate, tried to get into real estate about a decade before that and had no luck. I was driving for dollars, collecting addresses, but never made anything happen. I had gone through a training and I ended up putting my four months notice in at my job that's selling airplane parts. And I was about a month and a half out while buying this new home. So I didn't know what was going to happen and the universe normally provides. And so I'm dealing with this mortgage broker that was a referral from a decade ago with a guy I had met. And the guy reached out and said, hey man i know we worked before in the past and i know you're talking to my mortgage lender guy um you know i heard you're shopping rates and i heard you're shopping other people he's like you're gonna use me you're gonna use our guy you know you are um and just that kind of confidence and kind of how we position that i uh something in my gut was like i probably need to work with this guy i don't know how i don't know how it's gonna look so i sent him an email back saying that exact stuff of like hey i don't know how it's gonna look but something's telling me we're gonna work together he said talk to his acquisition person um i talked to her tracked her down for a couple weeks you know follow up trying to get in there and then ended up ultimately um convincing her and she uh The guy said, hey, I'll bring you on and I'll teach you acquisitions in real estate. I'll also coach you, but it's going to cost you a thousand dollars and you're going to have to close three deals before you get that money back. So it was a you're going to pay to play, but you have an opportunity to get it back. So definitely don't recommend this. But I put my notice in at my job, like for sure, through that line in the sand about four weeks out and quit my job with about Two grand in the bank account, no prospects. Oh, hang on one second. Sorry.

You do recommend that as we'll say here, because we better back up and say, no, no, you do recommend it because look at you now. No, continue on.

Yeah. I'm someone that like will bet on themselves, not really. Now I've learned understanding more of how that will impact you and the people around you. So it's been a heck of a learning lesson over these last, you know, eight, nine years, for sure. So took the leap. It took me about four months. Don't know how to how I made it. We made it through that skin of the teeth. But ended up getting my first deal got a couple after that ended up working with them for about three and a half years and he was a trainer like he was, he was a national speaker. And so he also trained me on like cold calling and train me on coaching and train me on a couple different things. And so really kind of over those three and a half years, learned a lot about the real estate off market, getting direct contact with sellers, learning wholesaling, and really just like coaching. I love the coaching, everything about that. Every time like I was learning more in coaching, I kept falling in love with it greater and greater. And so we got to a point where I also wanted to start learning more of like the project management. We were just doing wholesales at that time, which is navigating transactions off market between buyers and sellers. And I wanted to learn more project management and have long-term rentals. And so I went and worked with another company at that point. We parted ways. Very amicably and I went and worked with another company and they actually I came in as a project manager for them. But very quickly found out you know they also brought me in because they knew my acquisition background as well as my training background and so I trained their acquisition team that they brought on for the first four months. And then the last four months, that's when Corona really started happening and there was a transition. And so we finalized all the projects that we had. And then they decided to shift more towards a virtual model. Well, someone that's a project manager and not really looking to be in the acquisition side like that anymore. We had a conversation where it ended up being like, hey, I'm being brought back in. The acquisition people also got let go for something they had done. And then it was like, hey, we're going to have you cold calling. And at that point, it just didn't really mesh. It wasn't in alignment with kind of where I wanted to go. And so I had a conversation with them about like, hey, if we're not really going to get into like the projects again, and all that, let's have that conversation. Because otherwise, like, what's the plan on getting me back out there? Um, and you know, if you guys are just afraid to have that conversation, let's have that conversation. And they said, yeah, we, we didn't know how to have that conversation with you. You know, we were just kind of, um, in the limbo. And so they said, yeah, we're going to end up, we're going to part ways here and we're going to let you go. Um, that was thinking now that was, uh, that was like a week before my daughter's, I think 12th birthday, she's getting ready to be 16 in about a week and a half. So that was about four years ago. And then I got, I had to ask myself that question again, I'm back in that position where it's like, I don't have, I don't have revenue, I don't have, you know, really prospects, like, what do I want to do? And the answer came up, it's like, you want to be a coach, you want to consult. And so I started a consulting company, got a handful of clients right out of the gate. And then I met my current partner, Grant Hickman. Actually, I'd met him a couple years before, but I reached out to him because he was one of the savviest business guys I had met up until that time. And we had a couple conversations. He actually was starting a coaching company. And the people that he was going to coach with, actually, they left, started their own brokerage and took a couple agents with them. So he was kind of in that same boat. And so over the span of a couple months, he actually tried to persuade me numerous times to not work together, which I'm finding now is a great sales technique because it makes you want things even more. Right. And so it's one of those like you're you're you're definitely like, no, no, you don't want this. Right. So. We ended up working together, we started what we at the time had determined was an investment brokerage, meaning we were wholesaling again. But I was doing it with mentoring other investors. And like they would generate the leads, I would help them close as well as navigate infrastructure and put those things into play. And it worked great on me leading other investors as far as a mentorship. We had a mentorship program, which was great. We made close to 200 grand that year. And then we also wanted to start growing and coaching and leading other investors as well. And so we brought other higher performing investors in that weren't needing mentorship, but business development. And we found out real quick that, and Blake, I'm sure you understand this dealing with other investors, they don't like to run other people's systems normally. They also don't like, it's kind of like herding cats and running infrastructure in other people's systems. And so we found out real quick, probably in the span of less than a year, We had some little success but we found that just the business model if we were gonna leverage and make grow it wasn't working so we created a subscription a coaching model at that point. We brought on couple investor couple investor clients we also found that like our principles and what we call now our executive flow. actually works for most service businesses. So now we coach small business owners that are service providers, anywhere from 500 or anywhere from like 200 grand to, you know, a million plus on the back end with our like higher end service packages. And then we've got a couple other services where like, regardless of where you're at in your business, whether you're just starting out, you need some clarity, you need a like a year plan, we have that as well as services for that. So that's the coaching side. Then the story around how I got into the multifamily. I'd always wanted to hold rentals. I'd done some lease backs and I'd done some short-term, some just short holds in order to flip and do other things, but I never had a long-term rental. Someone reached out to ask me to help them sell a multifamily off market. They, it was overpriced at the time. So I negotiated like a $15,000 fee upfront, like, Hey, if we're going to sell this and you're at what you're asking for, you know, asking for 50, I want 15 K of that. And, uh, and he was like, yeah, no problem. Totally on board with it. We started moving it and we didn't really have a lot of movement up front because of the price, which I had anticipated. And we ended up getting a offer on it at three 80, um, right before I was going out of town. And so the buyer wanted to walk through and the seller accepted it at 380. And I was very surprised. And I was out of town. So I had one of our investor, our investor brokerage people at the time, come through and walk it for me while I was out of town. Her name's Laura Lennington. And she walked it and then I got back into town and the buyer ended up seeing it and walked because it had a lot of roaches in it. A couple of different tenants were in a bad shape. It was very low income, very rundown, like roach infested, right? And so I got back and the sellers like, hey, like, does he need help? Like, I'll do down payment assistance, I'll just take a note on the back end. So he was like, very motivated, right. And I talked at our meeting, I said, man, if I could just find a partner for this, that like balances my my opportunity points, I said, man, I would do this. And Laura looked at me and she goes, well, I'd be interested, because she walked it. And I said, oh, okay, that's interesting. So we went back to the seller and we negotiated. I mean, he's already taken 380. I had a $15,000 fee in it, and he just needed to sell it, even taking like additional wanting to sell our finance. I went back to him and I said, hey, Barry, what if we just took over your payments for what you owe on it with the bank? And then we paid you the difference in a down payment, but we buy it at like 370 since you already got 15 and you were willing to take 380. And he said, deal. And so we unknowingly made this offer, not expecting it to go through, but it actually did because I hadn't done a Subject 2 deal before and neither had she. And so at that point, we brought in a couple of different mentors, one that's known in the creative space, Jeff Kaufman. And then another one who ended up being our private lender, we knew he had a lot of multifamilies and a $40 million portfolio at that time. We wanted his view on it. He assessed the deal. He looked at it. He said, yeah, this looks great for you guys. We were asking for 65 from our private lenders. On that we were gonna go recruit and he said full honesty I probably be interested in learning on this and he said you guys could probably actually get away with borrowing seventy five. Which makes more money on it so and it provided a little space for us and we said your money is a little more costly than what we were able to acquire but. we'll pay that extra fee if you also meet with us once a month and make sure that we're on track with this and it's not going to end up biting us in the butt and we're just doing stuff that is on track." And he goes, yeah, I probably would have done that anyway. So yeah, let's do this. So yeah, we closed on that two years ago in July. We have since raised all the rents from, I think they were at 425 when we took it over and now we're getting 675. We've completely We've turned eight of the 11 units multiple, like at least once or twice to upscale the tenants. And it's very stable now. Like when we first started, it was every week, like multiple hours. And now I think I've been in there three hours, four hours. I actually have a bug, a pest spray there today for maintenance and we had a new tenant in. So, but it's, like five hours a month now maybe and It's stable and we have a great community in there and everybody knows that like the building the health of the building is what matters So that's my multifamily. And then we've also got we bought a mixed-use building that we bought Anticipating doing the same thing with we bought it solar finance and we were planning on renting it out That one took a turn based on politics from the Planning and Zoning Commission. So we sold that made some money on it and Um, and now we're negotiating like a six pack, um, a six unit deal with a seller in South city. We're going to look at those tomorrow. Um, but yeah, it's, it like multifamilies is where my zone is. Single families like Laura loves seeing like single families. And my partner grant has a bunch of single families for me. I like the multifamily, just more, more doors under one roof. Um, and it's just a different animal, like this, especially if you've got multi-layers, if the tenant on top has a leak, it's going to affect the bottom and vice versa. It's been a quite fun journey on that. Then the investor conference is the last one. I co-host that. We did that last year. We had 17 speakers. My partner, Rich, one of the things in my coaching company I'm very focused on is helping people accomplish the things they thought were impossible or were like a dream, help them catalyze their dreams. And Rich, who runs ARIA in South City, he had me speak previously during the year. He had a panel in December, the year prior to last year, and it was the biggest attendance he had. And then in passing in the back of the room after our panel was done, he just said, man, I'd really like to do this on a bigger scale and do like a conference. And I kind of waved it off. It was right before the holidays. After the holidays, I reached out to him, and I said, hey, man, that thought kind of kept sticking with me. If you're interested in doing something like that, I'd be interested in kind of helping you make that happen. I don't know what that looks like, but we can talk. And so that ended up being an 11-month process. We ended up doing that in November. We met, by happenstance, somebody through networking that did Rich Dad Poor Dad events, Robert Kiyosaki. Um, and so like she managed them. So that's Mary Kane, Mary freaking Kane. She's our event manager. Um, she was kind of the glue that made the event pop. And so then this year we're doing 35, uh, Mary became from a. from a service provider. Now she's a partner in the in the event. Um, and so like now the three of us are holding this event and we've got 30 plus speakers, like I said, October 17th, 18th and 19th. But again, it's just one of those things where, you know, that, that kind of idea is sparked in somebody's head and helping it come to fruition and happen out in the world and then learning through that process. So it's been a heck of a journey on those two, uh, those two events as well.

So, yeah. And kind of wrapping into all that, it's putting yourself in the right rooms. And that's what you basically have just kind of gone through right there in your journey is, is not only are you, you're either serving to get in the room or you got to pay. Like, I mean, like you say, you gotta, you gotta pay to play sometimes. And that's where some of the biggest growth happens and you get to put yourself That's why I didn't realize myself is like, hey, you get to put yourself next to some of the smartest individuals, some of the best investors, some of the best business owners in these rooms, but you're going to have to pay to get in there. And that's kind of a hard thing, I think, people to realize, like, hey, you're paying to get into these rooms.

Yeah, no, that's a great point, too, because I can say for sure, like I paid to get into the room that ended up being the connection for the mentor for our 11 unit. And not only that, one of the things what I also say. that I wasn't aware of at the time, and that's a great point, is I paid to get into that room, and I felt so much a fish out of water in that room, like definitely the least successful and least capable person in that room. And over time, as you're in those rooms, especially with higher caliber people that are all about collaboration and growth and building people, you find real quick that you can provide them value by just being yourself, but you may not even understand the value that you actually have. One of the things that I've seen and our private lender, he actually brought to my attention, he invited me out one day and he's just like, you know what man, honestly, you seem like somebody that would just be a really good friend. i was like oh okay like and you don't even realize that is a value to somebody because you don't value it in yourself a lot of times. And so you show up with these talents and these skills into these areas and into these rooms thinking you don't belong, but it's only because you don't actually see your blind spots. And that's one of the things we really deal with in our in our coaching company is like helping people notice or see their blind spots, discover where their blind spots are, and either clean them up or like validate yourself where you're not validating yourself in those blind spots. So, yeah, it's huge.

And I can tell you from a firsthand standpoint that myself, it unlocked incredible things, just getting myself in the right room. And what you don't realize is how fast that investment returns, whether it's through, like you're saying, you got a multifamily deal. I've already gotten a deal through rooms I've been in. So it doesn't take long to recoup these investments. And they're not even necessarily investments, they're personal growth initiatives. You're doing stuff that other people aren't going to do because it's so uncomfortable. And like you said, for uniting seasoned investors and newcomers, those newcomers are going to have to put themselves in that uncomfortable spot. But that's where the growth and the magic happens.

Yeah. And to touch on that point, a lot of people, and I used to look at it this way too, is I used to look at it as a cost, as opposed to it's an investment. And it's not an investment in the room. It is actually an investment, because that's where a lot of people get stuck is, I won't i won't pay that money because i don't see how i can get the return on the investment not that there isn't a return on the investment and switch it's actually, how i how i see it and help people understand it is it is an investment in yourself and the belief in yourself and, If that return doesn't come, that pain that you're going to be seeing and experiencing, that is also going to be a return on your investment because that pain is going to get you to a point where you will take action in a different way or you're going to see the results out the door. Like you said, you're either going to start seeing it immediately and it all is going to depend on how you come into it, what you're searching for, you will find.

Totally. They do interconnect and it's like, If you just kind of work on one, usually the other one falls in place, um, mostly working on yourself and the rest of the stuff falls in place. So I, I seem like when you say like. When your back's against the wall, the answer always seems to come up and you kind of told about three or four different stories where your back was right up against the wall and you said, well, here we go. And then sure enough, the answer.

Yeah. Well, and that's the thing too. It's what's the, uh, What, what came up for me? There was something that came up for me over the weekend, too, that I was, I was, because we are, right now, even I'll share, like, we are rebuilding our coaching company. Like, we had a first year, we had a pretty good success, we had people out of the gate, and then we had different results varying depending on the type of clientele. And as you evolve, as in any industry, you're going to evaluate like who's your best client? Who's the clients that were a little difficult? How were the ones like that paid without an issue? Who are the ones that, and you're in the same way in the real estate field, I'm sure you've got clients where it's like, man, these guys were so easy. They didn't have any issues. It was like, man, like cutting hot knife through butter. It was phenomenal, like a great experience. And then you've got the other ones where it's like, Okay why does this seem like it's not working how i wanted to work right so it's an evaluation process and then you rebuild and so the thing that came up and you know kind of touching on the point you said earlier. There is a thing where. You know there's a phrase is like as long as you don't quit you're gonna make it right and that's really true because the only version that makes it is the one that doesn't quit if you quit that version of you will never make it unless you get to another painful point where you gotta restart. And that was one of the things like in my journey that like I took a five, six, seven year hiatus from real estate. And then I was selling airplane parts and my life was like, I ended up going and getting into adult children of alcoholics, which is a 12 step program. And that phrase, like the first step keeps coming up. especially like nowadays is you know my life is become unmanageable and i need support and that's really like when you get to that point of pain like. Okay this is unmanageable for me i have to do something else you are acknowledging like your ego has been in your way the entire time and the version of you that makes it work. Get the ego out of the way in order to find the answer that makes it work and a lot of times you only build that character in my experience and with a lot of people that prevent themselves from moving forward and powerful ways it's not that they don't know what to do or they don't know like. I don't want the success. it's that they don't believe their character will support them when they get there. Enough to where they won't self-sabotage it, they won't like cheat on their spouse, they won't go and make a bad investment, they won't end up drinking their life away, whatever their vices are. So a lot of times the only place that character is built is when you are suffering and when you are in struggle until you realize you don't have to do that anymore. And that's where a lot of times that pivot starts happening in a more powerful way. because then you get to start designing things with intention versus I'm just reacting because I know I don't want the pain anymore. Also, to tag on lastly, when you're using pain as a motivator, it's great until that pain's no longer there, which creates that inconsistency because you're really just using it to get relief as opposed to designing a life that you want.

Yeah, that work-life integration, do that properly. Um, no, it, it, it's, it's pretty impressive. Like I was looking at your, the picture of like your office and you make it feel very like, I don't want to say office or, or your, your coaching office, I should say. Yeah. Workspace. Yeah. Uh, you, you make it feel like when I look at it, it's kind of like, wow, it's kind of comfortable, welcoming at home. Kind of like, Oh yeah. you know, where you do feel comfortable. And that's a big part too, because then it's going to help people feel comfortable in the room. And then it helps kind of flush out that stuff. And, you know, I had to put myself in the right room and get, I know what it was like, man, it's tough. You got to get in there and you just got to let it out. And once you let it out, it feels incredible. And like the world like decides to turn for you. You don't have to do a lot. People start to come to you like life becomes truly incredible when you start to understand this stuff. But it is very difficult to understand it. I joke it took me 31 years and I'm 32 and I wish I would have learned in my 20s because you see some of these people in their 20s, but then you also see people in their 50s, 60s just figuring it out. And that's OK because there's never a bad day to start, right?

Right, no it's always working for you and that yeah that and so in regards to our space without a doubt like it is one of the it is one of the places where like I love being because it really is a space where for us how I kind of how we kind of look at it. Our businesses are personal development tools, right? And so we've got these blind spots where we've either created belief systems, where we've condensed two beliefs that are conflicting into working with each other, and then they're in competition. So that keeps us from moving forward. Or we've created a blind spot where we've got two things that actually should be working together, and we've separated them saying they won't work together. And so the only way to really let that go and process that is to be able to honestly and authentically share it and be transparent about how that story is showing up for you so that you can acknowledge it, you can be with it, and then you get to make a new choice from it. We do that by creating things like vision statements that are transformation statements with skill sets you want to work on. It's really a matter of how you want to show up and who you want to be, and then practice that over and over again. And the only way to do that is to really feel supported and have people in your, in your corner that, you know, you can rely on when the world is showing up, but they will help you understand. It's like, yeah, it's showing up because it is your, you're the source of it. You're creating it and it's not how you want to show up. So we need to get honest about that evaluation. And like, there's been tears, there's been anger, there's been frustration, like all those things are valid. What are they serving us anymore and so that's really like that's why it's super important to have a space where you can get into the root of those things because as entrepreneurs and especially as men like. I know I wasn't raised to grow up honoring those things in my own experience and my journey. You don't do that because boys don't cry and boys need to be tough and they need to be this. Women are in entrepreneurship as well. They're taught they have to be tough and strong and don't take any shit. Apologies for the cursing, if that's not how it works.

Much less even be in it. It's a whole powerhouse of that. I completely understand from those standpoints of, you know, Getting yourself as you know some of these people that are top experts like these what melanie claiborne and lawrence hopkins that you're gonna have it these that this this conference and to get them into like your room and the coach you obviously have to like you know. welcome these people and provide value to them. And that's the difference I think of a, of a friend and an ally. When you, when you talk about friends, it's like, these are your friends, but when you mean that you're talking, Hey, these are allies. These are people that are going to pick you up when you're down. They're going to hold you accountable for certain things. They're going to, you know, actually care about putting food on your table for your family, rather than just hanging out with you. That's a big difference in my opinion.

Yeah, yeah, and a huge piece of that like in your own journey is. When you start surrounding yourself with those kind of people, that's when you're going to start making the movements. Because just in our own journey in coaching, like my experience over the last year, year and a half, is the people that, and including myself, the people that will make the biggest moves, the quickest, are the ones that are ready to let go of the old stuff that's not serving them. They're not tolerating it anymore. And tolerating is that phrase that I'm just getting really understanding how that looks. But it's when we're defending the reasons why the story is the way it is versus like pondering and really evaluating and interrogating it in a way that's like, okay, why am I doing this? Why are you doing this like creating? And here's the thing, like one of the processes we use like creating action items and like tactics to go out into the world and go and execute is great. But if it's not, if it's not committed to, like, I loved it. It happened about a year ago with one of our guys, Corey Boyles. I'll never forget it. We worked on one of his things for like a half hour. And the group was great, supported him. We had a great experience, got all this information. Like, he had some movements. And then we got all these action items. And we had like five or six action items to help him move. And I was like, OK, great, Corey. Now you've got these five action items. how much can you get done by next week? And he looked at him and he goes, yeah, I'm not going to do any of those by next week. And it was like, oh, OK. So there's a piece missing. And it's really that commitment piece. So you've got to let go of the old story. And then what are you committed to being and executing moving forward? And then really, it's not easy to be that committed. And my dog actually taught me this. I'll tell a short story around commitment. My dog, Toby, our first dog, we just got a second one, but our first dog, Toby, I had dogs when I was young and when I was growing up and I loved them. And then I had dogs a couple of times as I was growing and being an adult, and it just wasn't a joyful experience. And I was like, what changed? Because my wife wanted a dog she was very adamant she's like it's going to be good for our family our kids need one like I think it's going to help us grow do all this. And really my wife got fired I think a month after she got our dog we got our dog and really like the dog helped her go through that process. probably greater than anything else. But what I understood in that process of going from, you know, that old phrasing, you know, my wife wanted a dog, I didn't want a dog. So we ended up getting a dog had to get to the had to get to the point where I wasn't going to fight having a dog if we were going to get a dog. So I needed I knew not wanting a dog was a me thing and so I had to get, and this is how it works in our business too, I had to get honest about really why didn't I want a dog? And I found out through that investigation that I loved the fun of a dog, which is what I experienced when I was a kid. I did not enjoy the responsibility of a dog when I was an adult. And so that is really what the commitment ends up being like. We are business owners, and so the responsibility and like the one that I'm going through in our business right now. So that commitment piece is enjoying the excitement and the perceived outcome and the joy and the fun. And it's also learning how to enjoy the responsibility of it and being able to do the responsibility of it regardless of the situation, right? Some people call it discipline. That's great. But yeah, like for now, the one in our business is like committing and being the responsibility of being the sales generator and being the lead generator and closing sales and doing and building the business and structuring it and growing it and leveraging it and like being the new version that goes out and grows it the way we want it to grow versus like, understanding like, oh, we haven't had this result, we haven't had this, like, it's the same thing in business, you've got to figure out what is the commit, where, where is the commitment lacking, and then figure out yourself enough to understand how to get yourself to that commitment and get yourself to move one way, shape or form, whether that's a blind spot that's holding you back, whether it's a commitment that you've had, that's false, whether whatever it ends up being like, that's what it really is going to require. So

Totally. And, and I know the dog thing because it's been down that route. I got two of those. And then, uh, one kid comes and, uh, yeah, my wife decides that she's not going to really like the dogs anymore. Then the second kid comes and she's really not going to like the dogs anymore. And I'm like, wait, you drove six hours to pick up one of these dogs and I, you're not going to like them. Wait, what's going on here? No, they, they, they, they do come in certain ways where like you say, I joke, I go, Hey, you're you're you're petting red right now. What are you doing? Oh, I'm just I'm just loving on red. And that's the little thing that like dogs provide. And like you said, it's pretty cool to hear that story about your wife and and getting through tough times with the dog, because like they say, it's a man's best friend or a woman's best friend, however you want to state that. But another thing I see is, like you say, people sometimes will jump from room to room. And those are the people that I think are somewhat lost Um, where they think, Hey, the next greatest thing is in the next room. Like they kind of put themselves, they'll put themselves in your coaching room and say, Hey, okay. I didn't get anything in a week or a month or even, even six months sometimes. And then they jump from the next place and the next place. And I got to say, like, one thing that I've done is I put myself in the rooms and I knew what rooms I was putting myself in. And I knew that I was going to be committed and I was going to stay in those rooms for the. duration of quite a while until this, until this basically body and mind and everything was functioning, um, properly. So I'm sure you see people jumping from room to room. So when somebody comes over to you, you know, do you say, Hey, well, you know, where have you been prior to this and kind of what's your accountability looked like prior to coming here?

Yeah, I, we have had a couple, couple people like that, that have come through. And, you know, we run in the same circles with like Kitco, I've had a couple of his, you know, clients that have come over to us, and like vice versa, we coached back and forth. And so, um, No, one of those things, and I didn't think it, and again, this is the evolution as a business owner. You have those blinders on where it's like, hey, this is a startup business, it's going to be different with us and them. I've got a great example. For me as well, I take examples from my personal life into how business operates because how we do anything is how we do everything. And so I equate it now, like I'm very present to the fact of, yeah, like if you think coming into our experience is going to be different, um, or, or it's going to solve something you were missing at the other experience yet. You really weren't getting the results. It's, it's not a matter of like, we're going to show you something that's going to like, I call it the destination addiction. Right. Whether it's, whether it's that new coaching room, whether it's the new CRM software, whether it's the new dialer, whether it's the new hire, anytime that you're like, Oh, this will solve the problem I have. No, it's a, it's a disconnect in that belief system is really the situation. So yeah, we, we haven't, but now I'm very present to, and have had it recently, where, yeah, it's, it's, It is something that does happen and i'm very present to the fact of like yeah how do you think it's going to be different here than it was there so yeah it's a it is it is something to be present to and there's a saying that i'm very present to now. That really sticks out having this conversation is. sorry, is rose-colored glasses. I didn't realize what that was. I thought it was like, oh, everything's rose-colored, and it's great, and it's all this. No, rose-colored glasses is what keeps you from seeing red flags, because everything is the same color. It's all rosy. You're not going to see red. And so that now it's even greater of like okay so i need to take the rose color glasses off here i'm not a sale is just a sale to have a sale it's really how do i want those sales to look how does the experience need to be in the experience with our coaching clients. How do we want that interaction to work? How do we want their experience to be in this? If it's really just I'm coming and signing up with you guys thinking it's going to be a magic pill, it's probably not going to be a long-term servicing solution. It's probably going to be one of our one-off services of either our consult or our half day to get you understanding your landscape, and then letting you deal with that landscape for a while before you really show up into one of our rooms. They, those, those experiences are normally one where it's more of like pulling people to try and get them to move versus it's helping support them on their way up. If that makes sense.

Yeah. Yeah. That does make sense. And I like the red roses part, you know, when you, you do, Hey, you're not going to see the red flags. That makes a lot of sense. And it's not like I'm saying like, Hey, don't put yourself in multiple rooms because people provide different value. I'm in multiple rooms. You're in multiple rooms. And that's the thing, like, and you can overlap stuff. It's just like, don't jump from the next one to the next one, because like you say, you have to actually put in the work. There is no magic. It's like, it's like Zep Bound. I'm taking Zep Bound. It doesn't just magically take off the weight. Like you actually got to, you got to eat right. You got to, you know, move your body. and then it'll come off. So yeah, you got to have accountability too. And like I said, there are multiple places where you should be like a room like yourself and with Grant Hickman. I mean, Grant's one of the top, I would say, financial guys in real estate in the St. Louis, St. Charles area. So I know in myself, I know him and what you guys provide. So that would be a totally different room that I'm not in per se, like I'm in Kitco's room, I'm in building my brain with McChesney. And so like I'm in different spots where I'm with Sebastian building my podcast and doing all these different things, different bubbles. But yeah, what I say is there's there's reasons to join different rooms and be in different rooms. It's just not to, hey, go from one to the next.

No, and hey, we'd love to have you in our room. We can talk about that later. But no, like I said, I take a lot of lessons from life. And the thing that, for me, really sticks out in regards to that, and I used to be a serial monogamist until I met my current wife. And we've been together for going on, I think it's 11 years, right? And I say current wife because I was divorced once. But I found myself and really I credit her and I don't credit her. I credit her triggering the realization for me that really kind of started my personal development journey is I was having an argument with her. I remember it like it was yesterday. Having an argument with her in our kitchen in Granite City, in our old duplex. And I was there and we were having the same argument that I had with my previous two long-term relationships, including my ex-wife. And at that point, it really hit me. I was like, oh, I'm the common denominator. And that's what's going to happen if you're jumping room to room. I watched a video, and they had a great analogy to it. It's like, no, you're going location to location. But guess what? You're just picking your baggage up in one location, taking it to the next one, and setting it down, thinking that the location is going to handle your baggage. You still have to unpack that crap and you still have to make your baggage lighter so that you don't carry it on this journey with the location you're at. And it's exactly what you're saying. Jumping room to room is not going to help, but knowing the intention of why you're signing up in a room makes all the difference. So yeah, it's a great point.

Totally. And yeah, the intention behind it, if the intention is there and you're there to grow and help provide value to the other individuals, there's going to be value to yourself. And that's what I, like I said, I never understood that. And it took me so long to finally realize like, hey, not only are you going to be happier, you're going to be fulfilled, but you're also going to reap benefits. Everybody wins. And what's interesting is when you put yourself in a community, I always joke like you guys are all and we're kind of all interconnected, is everybody wins from each other. And that's one thing is people are there to pull you up. And it's not like, hey, I'm just going to give you a ticket to put you in this room so I can take your money. No, it's so that you can actually grow and provide value and elevate yourself to that next level.

Yeah. So I had, yeah. Speaking on that, I had a conversation with Bryson DeVall last week, you know, Bryson, right? Great guy. Smart guy. Yeah. Oh yeah. So he's one of our, he's one of our clients, uh, just renewed with us like for another year. Um, and the conversation was about like growing our room and having more people in our room. And one of the things that he shared with me that I wasn't aware of that he really got out of the room. I'm with having all the people in and i'm like i'm experiencing this now looking back seeing like these are the type it's how i joined rooms and what i love getting out of those rooms is. that we as entrepreneurs, especially ones that have that giving and servant mindset, we actually get things from helping other people go through their trials and tribulations and the things they get stuck in in their business. He's like, really, I enjoyed the group because even the days I don't want to show up to deal with my stuff, if I'm there to help other people, I know I get something out of it and I move myself forward regardless. And that's something that, like, for me, I wasn't really present to, but now I'm seeing it's permeated through these rooms. And I'm sure you get the same experience. Like, even if I'm not, like, in a frame of mind to, like, really dig into my heavy stuff, if I can be there just to support somebody through theirs, it lightens my load a little bit as well. We get to keep what we give away.

Yeah. And it makes you show up like you're showing up still. I don't even realize you go, wow, I don't feel great. Um, most of the time you don't have a support system and you don't show up, but then you do when you do have a support system and you have a room and you have a Bryson or a grant or, you know, Josh or rich gross. I mean, all these people that you can rely on to. if they need help, be like, yeah, this is awesome. I get to provide value to this guy. Wow. That's that's incredible. Now I got life back in me. And you go out and you end up creating content yourself or do a deal yourself. So, yeah, that that's a big part. Like you don't realize when other people rely on you, that actually brings your brings you life and it pulls everybody up. And that's truly impactful. And and whatnot. But I want to wrap this up with talking about the Gateway to Freedom Conference. And I know you got 30 plus expert speakers from, you got some of the top women in real estate investing. Obviously, some of these people in that room clearly know what they're doing. And I know you have some great options in terms of ticketing. And so where can everybody go for that?

Yeah, so best place to go would be our website, www.g2free.com, gateway to freedom. So yeah, g2free.com. And then we've got, like you said, there's multiple options in regards to tickets. We have sponsorships as well. We're looking for any sponsors that are interested. Still could use a lawyer. Still could use a couple, like an investor friendly agent. We've got tons of sponsorship opportunities for that. And then also, regardless of whether or not you want to sign up, and this is for anybody from the new investor all the way up to the seasoned investor, we've got different ticket levels. And even this year, we added a half day. If you go with the Platinum, you get a half day business training session, which includes five different speakers talking on anything from sales, to growth, to scaling, to systems processes. they're more on building your business and then the Friday and Saturday are more investor education with individual speakers and then we've got a couple panels. Then also, you go on, pick your ticket and then we also have a three-pay option this year, which is different than last year, we added that. Put tons of different levels, tons of different ways to pay, And then we've also got a couple different promotions right now. I don't know if this is going to come out by the end of September. But we do have where you can do group packaging, where you get a discount on silver tickets, which are our mid ones. And then you've got buy one, get one half off as well. So we're running a couple different promotions in September to help move tickets.

Oh yeah. That's awesome. Because I know how hard it is for people to spend money on themselves right now because it's a very uncertain time. And so I see some of these offers right now, it's kind of like interest rates. They're not going to stay low forever. And some of these offers to get in these rooms, they're not going to stay like this forever. It's just people are trying to show people that there's value out there to get them in these rooms. And then once people understand that, they understand the value that's provided and the change in their lives.

Yeah, yeah. And last year we had right at about 100 attendees and the feedback we got more than anything else was that the event was phenomenal. People got tons of value from it. They also, a lot of the feedback we got is like, we can't believe it was your first event. Like it was so well done. Thanks to Mary, as well as, you know, the other people we had supporting us. And yeah, it really is a group effort and that's really for us, like, we want to show that in St. Louis, especially but in the investing communities like it is about collaboration to create something that is greater than you could do by yourself. Whether you need education, whether you need resources, whether you need vendors, whether you need connections, whatever you're needing in your business and your real estate world, we will have it a gateway to freedom and make the investment. Like I said last year with people, if you don't get 10 times your investment back, which you can get tickets right now for 300 bucks, if you don't get 10 times your investment back, 300 bucks is like half a wholesale deal nowadays. If you don't get 10 times your investment back, you came into that room with the wrong expectation and you really weren't there to grow your business. You were there to find a way to say you lost your investment with your money. That's really the only way you won't get the ability to come back or to get your money back.

Yeah. And I like to say it's creative financing, not wholesaling. I'm not a big W guy. I'm not a big W guy. No, no. I go, that's a, that's a kind of like a official that's not really licensed. No. You need to call a realtor.

Yeah. Creative, creative deals, creative deals.

Yeah, no. Well, no, I know. Yeah, you're definitely gonna get your value back in that room. And to just be in, like I'm saying, it's hard to understand to be in the room with seasoned investors, if you're a newcomer, but that is where people start to like you, and they see your true self. And then all of a sudden, they want to do business with you. And then guess what happens, you get more food on your table, and everything gets better.

Yeah, and that's the thing too, like in these rooms, like there's a great story, Lee Fjord, he runs Coors and Poors, I don't know if you're familiar with him, multifamily networking event, but he just talked last month at his event where he was given a deal structure, and he met He met the investor that was the equity partner and provided $600,000 in financing for his deal. He was the sole investor. He met him at one of these conferences a year beforehand and built that connection, and then reached out to him when he had a deal a year later, and the guy was like, yeah, let's do it. And so, and then like last year I know we connected with one of the speakers, who was the multifamily guy and then Laura and I we, we worked with him for a little bit and got some education, we tried to do a deal it felt it didn't work. But from that we ended up working and like we're working multi million dollar deals now because of that experience and from that help that that we got from him like. These these rooms have the ability to elevate not just your business but yourself if you're open to it and willing to make those investments.

Wow. Yeah. That, that, I mean, he couldn't have said it, couldn't have wrapped it up better, um, myself, but, and the one thing is there's enough to go around. Like there's enough. That's I think another fear that people have is they go, well, there's so many people in this room. How am I going to get business? There's enough to go around. I can promise that. So, so that's one thing, just put yourself in this room, go to G2free.com. Go on there, learn about it and get yourself in this room because I'm going to have to probably be there October 17th, 18th and 19th. I appreciate you coming on here, Josh.

Yeah, I appreciate you having me, sir.

Yeah, well, I appreciate it. And as always, let's remember to elevate together. All right. See you next time.

Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. And if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review and tell your friends about the show. Until next time.