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 another inspiring episode of Elevate with Elsner. I'm your host, Blake Elsner, and today we have a very special guest joining us. You're in for a real treat. He's a serial entrepreneur based in St. Louis, Missouri, who turned his passion for personal branding and digital marketing into a thriving business landscape. He began his career as a medical device sales representative, but in July of 2020, he took the leap into full-time entrepreneurship right in the middle of the pandemic. Since then, he has founded Builders of Authority, a company dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and businesses elevate their personal brands through group coaching and one-on-one consulting. He is also the co-owner of Auto Glass Repair of STL and former VP of Growth at Hite Digital, where he played a crucial role in propelling the agency to become a two-time Inc. 5000 Award winner. His exceptional leadership earned him the title of Height Digital Franchise of the Year in both 21 and 22. Through his Builders of Authority live events, Adam brings together world-class speakers to share insights on becoming the go-to authority in various industries. He's also the host of Builders of Authority podcast and has appeared on over 200 podcasts himself. When he is not building brands and hosting events, he's enjoying life with his wife Delaney, their son Murphy, and their beloved dog Georgie. So whether you're looking to enhance your personal brand or simply want to glean insights from a seasoned entrepreneur, you're going to love today's conversation. So without further ado, let's elevate your expectations and welcome Adam McChesney to the show. Welcome, Adam.

Blake Elsner

Thanks for having me, Blake. I pride myself when I'm hosting podcasts, as you know, uh, on the introduction and you knock that one out of the park. So I know I sent you over some nuts and bolts, but you really took it to the next level, man. So thanks for having me.

Yeah, absolutely. I actually learned it from you when you had me on the podcast. I was I was like, man, that introduction was solid. So, yeah, I had to I had to step it up. But but anyway, I wanted to really unravel these these events. So you've thrown two really impactful events along with numerous other things that we probably won't dive into today, but we'll get to that as this podcast continues along. But I want to get into today these events. So you threw Builders of Authority. It's a live event. Tell people kind of what it is and what it's all about.

Yeah, so I'll kind of take you back all the way to November of 2021. So I threw a free event back then that wasn't under the builders of authority name. And that was when I was running my digital marketing agency full time. So I had my own agency for basically about three years, I became a franchisee of an agency for two years, and I became a partner of that agency, which was height, which is what you referenced earlier. And so we kind of threw this business mastermind in November of 2021, completely free, kind of the VIP experience that that you experienced, but I fronted the bill, like eight or nine grand. And I invited like 30 or 40 business owners. And it was a good event back in November of 2021. But we had a couple speakers back out like they literally got COVID. Like the lead getting up to the event. So it was literally my business partner at the time, and then one other speaker that came in. And so I felt it was super unorganized. I was like, I just spent all this money. And I was just like, why did I even do this? Well, at the time, I threw that event to basically be a funnel into our agency. And so I ended up selling almost $60,000 to $70,000 worth of revenue at that event that I did put $8,000 or $9,000 up front. So overall, the return on investment was there, but it helped me build my brand. The problem was is I got so inundated in growing that business. We were at like $100,000. We had just hit our first $100,000 a month in November 2021. We reached $200,000 in December of 2022. So we were just in full business mode that I said, hey, I'm going to put this thing to the side, because I don't necessarily love what I did. Right. And over the next couple of months, and over the next couple of years, people that were at that event, many of which have came to one or both of the events that we threw this year, were like, Adam, why did you stop doing that? Throw another one? When is your next event? And I'm like, you guys, you don't understand how much time, energy and resources and money I was putting into it. And then people started to be like, Adam, we would pay, you know, a decent amount of money to come to that event. Like, you don't have to throw it again for free. And so the wheels really kind of started to spin in turn. So I launched Builders of Authority back in November of 2023. So we're coming up shortly here, it'll be an entire year since I launched that. And I was still at the agency at the time in a different role, but a partner of the agency, and I just saw like, what the future was going to hold for me in that space. And I said, you know, I'm really passionate about personal branding, I'm really passionate about masterminding and going to these types of events, like, why can't I do it here? And so I said, hey, I'm going to throw this event. And I ended up partnering up with Sebastian, who obviously you know and met and have done business with. And so we just came up with this idea, let's take the concepts of everybody really needing personal branding and business growth and business branding, if you will, and let's just get a bunch of people in a room, awesome speakers, great people, sponsors, and things like that. And let's teach them tangible things that they can go and take away and implement. Whereas before I threw the event like, hey, I'm going to put the money up, but I want to make the money back on the back end, which is fine. Like we had people join builders of authority mastermind after we threw those events. But like my whole concept of why I throw that first event versus why I did these other two events this year were completely different. A lot of which I had like two years to kind of reflect on. Why didn't I throw another event and what went well and what could I do differently?

That, yeah, that's pretty cool. I didn't realize. So there was a prior, there was a first event prior to builders of authority, one event and builders of authority to event. So you had, you basically throw them three events. Okay. So that, and now thinking about that, obviously the, the mistakes and lessons you were able to learn on that first one, when you, you know, fronted that nine K, even though your ROI was tremendous, you had to realize like, Hey, it's going to take money to throw these events to make money right in the back end. And so, going forward, obviously, between that first event you threw and then your first Builders of Authority live event, what would you say you changed, was the biggest impact and change that you implemented?

Yeah. So I think like thinking I had to do literally everything. And so like, I've even struggled with that throwing the first event this year. And the second event is like, I tried to do everything in a variety of different ways to throw the events. And I realized, like, I just don't have to do that. I have a couple of team members that can help out. But I think even just like the day of the event, right? So like, I thought that originally, when I threw that first event that, hey, I'll get a a couple of speakers, but I'll just go on stage three or four times. And this is going to be incredible. But it's not just about me, right? Builders of Authority is a community. So being able to bring our mastermind members on stage and have them share their story at the second event, having two of our mastermind members speak at our event, and then bring other people that have helped me build my authority, right? Like I didn't build my authority on my own. So that was the difference when we did it under the Abilities of Authority brand. It was much bigger than just myself. So I think the biggest learning lesson that I had was a lot of us overcomplicate business and success. We think it's going to take a lot more work than it actually usually does because we overthink every step of the process and we want it to be perfect. And so I just took a step back and said, hey, how could I do this more effectively without me having to get up on stage and speak for hours and feeling as if in order for it to be worth it for me, I got to sell a bunch of stuff on the back end.

Yeah, that makes sense. So what instead of like the perfection part of saying, hey, instead of being 100% certain, it's like, hey, as long as I got 60% of the necessary information, it's like you can go ahead and go with it, knowing that the rest of the percentage is going to be picked up by your team.

Well, yeah, absolutely. And I think like I, I did it very unique to where like we had our speakers sponsor and pay to go speak. But the unique thing was at both events. I had either done business with every single speaker, like they had helped me at some point in my journey, whether they were my business coach, they helped me start two podcasts, they're my YouTube coach, like all of these different things, or a bunch of my clients have actually worked with them. And so I wasn't literally like, I wasn't saying, hey, I'm gonna pay you to come on stage, or hey, here's a free spot on stage. Like, it was wild to me that people were willing to pay me to go on stage, which I at that point knew I had something. Now, I think the difference was because this was a very interesting year for events. And so I've been going to events in the entrepreneurial space for like four plus years. And all the events that I used to go to, like people were struggling. to sell tickets. They were struggling to even get close to breaking even. Now, luckily on the first event, we broke even second event. We made like a little bit of money, but like not anything worth writing home about, but we didn't lose our ass on it. And the difference was, I think is like the energy that came out of that room. At both events, it was a one day event. There was a second tier, like the first event where you come back for a couple hours. We kind of scrapped that for the second one because we learned, hey, it's just not a conducive environment. People aren't interested in coming back after a full day of eight speakers plus a VIP game. Right. But the difference was, is that I wasn't so. And I could have probably been more salesy, like sign up for builders of authority, sign up with our sponsors. That stuff ended up happening regardless. But people got so much value out of that event that they were like, I don't need more all the time right in this moment. Now we had four or five people join the mastermind, you being one of them, which has been awesome. But like so many people have gone to events this year and been wildly disappointed, whether it was the speakers or the sponsors. And I've been to speakers and sponsors at other events this year where they're like, Hey, we're going to have 300 people there. And then you get there and you're speaking to a room of like 20 people, right. That don't want to be there. And so like, I think the authenticity and just being real raw and authentic to be like, Hey, like, In that space, we couldn't really have more people in there. But like I wasn't trying to tell people, hey, there's going to be 200 people here. I said there's going to be anywhere from 50 to 75 people at both events, which there was. And this is what it's going to cost. It's super, super affordable. It's an opportunity for a bunch of people to get in the room and learn. And it was affordable for the sponsors, too. And the sponsors, again, at both events were just like, hey, this was well worth it, regardless of what I get out of it, because we got what we asked for. We got what we paid for. And so I think just in this entrepreneurial space, the more and more you get inundated, you just realize how convoluted and fake so much of the messaging is that we see on social media where I was like, hey, I don't know if this is good or bad, but we have 50 to 75 people and here's what you're going to get when you show up.

Yeah. And you know what, that it seems a lot more, I don't want to use the word intimate, but it kind of does like, because I've looked at events going back when we were at Keller Williams and they would always throw things called like family reunion. And I remember my father going to those in like 2010, 11, 12, and they would pay. as the brokerage, you're holding your license, you would pay to go to these events called the family reunion. And you're paying a ticket to listen to speakers at high up in Keller Williams and all such things. And you get to go to different booths and such and whatnot. But That's what, so these events like kind of like that have seemed to be around, but they never really took off, I guess, or they never really pivoted into like the intimate zone. And I think that's when you broke it down into like a niche to where you brought it into like a circle. And I think that became more impactful. And I noticed after the first event, I'm like, man, what, you know, when you started to throw that second event, I'm like, why did I not? you know, think about the first event. And it's part of it was my personal growth was just lacking. And so after I realized that when I saw that second event, I'm like, OK, I had no idea what I was signing up for, to be honest. Yeah. You know, I mean, I know you. Right. But I didn't know the caliber of speakers. And looking back on that event, I'm like, Christ, you know, Adam could have charged double if he wanted to for that event. I mean, but but the value that you brought brings trust and then people like other stuff like just falls in place. So like when it seems like when you don't lead by that money and you lead by value, everything else just falls into place, right?

Yeah, well, I think like what you said there as well as like a lot of people either know me from from Saint Louis, right? So there was probably half the room was from Saint Louis. So like most of those people didn't know. the spheres of the world of like Mike Claudio and Sebastian and Owen and Madeline and then like those worlds combined. And so then all of a sudden like those people didn't realize like the authority that I have here in St. Louis as well. And so it was a kind of an opportunity for all of my different worlds to like coincide and meet. Not that people were like, Oh my gosh, I didn't realize Adam knew these people or like these people brought so much value was more of like, I think another validation that like, I am who I am. And I who I say I am on social media is who I am. And, and I look back at, you know, all these different events and these different groups and these different things. And the reason why people paid to come on my stage when they are getting paid to go speak on other stages. They could have tried to negotiate it down for free or whatever or had me pay them. I wasn't going to do that. They knew that. But there wasn't even the conversation is because they know what I curate. They know what they can expect. And again, like talking with my friends that throw events and some of them were even at that event, speaking and sponsoring and they're like, they're like, dude, like, I don't know how you're doing this. There's a variety of different lessons I've learned over the last four years. And being in this online space is it's everybody's connected. Right. And so that's a good thing. And it's a bad thing. And so many people have screwed so many people over time and time again, and eventually it catches up. And so you can get by doing it once or twice and go under the radar and pop in a new circle and a new mastermind and a new community and do whatever, right? You can pay your way out of it. But at some point, it's gonna, the buck's gonna stop. And you're gonna have to admit and you're gonna have to, you know, have egg on your face. And so like, in business, and in throwing events, speaking events, like I have lost a lot of money. I've left a lot of money on the table. I've been screwed out of a lot of money in business from clients and partnerships just to be the bigger person and move on. And I'm not saying that's right in every situation. And I've had to put my foot down this year as you and I have talked back and forth about like, drawing a line in the sand and protecting ourselves and setting boundaries and doing all that stuff. But at the end of the day, the one thing I can hang my hat on is I can go to sleep with a clean conscience. I haven't screwed people over. In fact, business partners of mine have, and I've paid out of my own pocket after the fact to make up for things that I didn't have anything to do with. All because my name is on there and you can't put a price on authority. You can't put a price on integrity and you can't put a price on your core value. So in this season, in 2024, I've taken more losses, more lumps than I've ever had. Some of which I can share, some of which I can't at this moment. But in all reality, I know it's going to come back at some point. And it's going to be overwhelming of like, OK, Adam, you did the right thing in 2024. And even though it sucked. The future has a very bright outlook for you.

Yeah, I think so in terms of I don't know, you know, your situation is different, but in terms of my 24, it's kind of sucked to in terms of like everything just doesn't go as far, right? Everything's a little harder. You got to push people a little farther. People are holding things. It's an election year. People are holding chips close to their chest. Nobody wants to make a move in any aspect in just about anything. I mean, they go buy toilet paper and that's about it. Yeah. That's what I'm joking. Like people are not buying anything extra right now. It's just, it's just that season of life. Even like the people that have the extra money are like seeing other people not do it. And they're just simply not doing it. So it's kind of interesting how it's kind of a snowball effect.

Yeah. Well, I mean, I market economies, election, all that stuff. is something that I learned back in like 2020, right? So like I got into the entrepreneurial space full-time at a really interesting time where all these businesses, so in the digital marketing agency is primarily selling website design, lead generation, all those types of services to businesses that just got inundated and flooded with EIDL and COVID money. So like I got into the market after the fact full time where people are like, yes, let's go, let's go, let's go. But there was still a handful of people that didn't take advantage of those things or didn't want to invest that money into marketing or advertising. And I look at the clients that I had and that I've worked with that took advantage and put their foot on the gas in 2020. And they're now light years ahead of their competition. looking back at it now because they went full steam ahead. And so I've just kind of taken that same instance. I haven't had the greatest year from a revenue standpoint because we started it and went full time in a brand new business that we had no anticipation of doing. But I've invested probably more in myself and in coaches and in consultants and other services, probably this year more than I have in most years. knowing that this is what I need now to get ahead next year. And then that's the difference.

Yeah, I noticed it and you're kind of a person that I've, I kind of look up to now because I've watched since 2020. I didn't, I had no idea what you were doing. I didn't understand it. It's just one of those things that it's just like having a kid until you, you know, actually put forth your effort and put your extra, put your foot in, put two feet in. You don't really understand what the process of, you know, self, you know, fulfillment and building you know, your self-confidence and not worrying about what other people think. It's a it's a tough thing to do. Right.

Yeah.

Yep. So, I mean, I I struggled tremendously with that. And, you know, having having people like, you know, yourself and builders of authority has helped me tremendously, like kind of pull myself out of of those like tough holes that I kind of put myself in.

Yeah, well, I think that's when like, so I when I went full time in 2020, it's kind of where I started to learn personal branding, because I was like, hey, like, I just left a $200,000 a year medical device sales job. I just bought my my my house, right. And so I have my back kind of against the wall if I'm going to make this thing work. And so I invested in my first mastermind. a month into entrepreneurship, whereas most people wait 10 plus years, if they're lucky, right? And then I started investing in personal branding, and then I hired a business coach, then I hired a life in my, like, I started to really invest in myself. And it was obviously a different time where we didn't have a child. So it wasn't like, if I failed, I was letting everyone down. It was, of course, letting myself down and my wife down and what we were building. But at the end of the day, right? I realized very quickly that I was so fortunate to make that first investment, which was $1,000 a month at the time. And I didn't really have that money. I wasn't even paying myself yet. But I knew that if I wanted to condense the amount of time, because I already felt like I was behind the eight ball or behind the times, because all these other people were younger or older and so much further ahead. So that comparison factor was kicking in. But I said, hey, I want to go pay them. So learn so I can condense time in order to get the results that I'm looking for, which I ended up doing over the last couple of years. But and I was just interviewing someone on my podcast earlier today is like entrepreneurship is very lonely if you make it. And so when you try to have conversations about the problems, the issues, the things that you're going through and dealing with in your business or investing in yourself around your friends and around your family, it's not always that they don't want you to succeed or that they don't love you or they don't support you as they just don't get it. And even sometimes like my wife, love her to death. but me explaining how we lost a client or a client's upset, or I have a team member that's quitting, or I have a team member that needs a raise, like all of these different things, they see it in a different light. And again, it's not wrong, it's not right, it's more than that indifferent, but until you get in the rooms or the communities like Builders of Authority, where we're having those like real raw and authentic conversations and you can come in with like your bruises and your scars and say, hey, I have to or I'm struggling with this. How do I get out of it? And then you have four or five people that are coming with experience, not theory. It makes you feel not as lonely. And so that's what I've tried to curate both of those events and online. And what I do with my one-to-one, you know, consulting clients is let me help you get where you're trying to go faster, either one-to-one or in group or a combination of all that. So you don't have to take all the bumps and the bruises along the way as much as if you were to do it without us.

A lot of it, you're buying back your time. You're able to, like you said, do things that you might not have been able to do prior. Going back to the event part, when you created that lineup of individuals that knew the value that they were gonna bring on stage, and you knew that, it's hard for me to say or go like, hey, they trusted you to a point where you created, I joked, I go, the DeWitts need to take note of this lineup because We're coming to the Cardinal game after with this lineup as well. And I'm like, man, these speakers that after I sat there and and got to listen to them, I'm like, I mean, you don't see this type of stuff, you know, anywhere like at that price point to where all these people will. bringing in so much value. And it was kind of cool because I got to see your whole world. It was like I was on your earth. And I got to see in the back of the room, like each little part of your world that created your brand.

Well, and that's what it was intended to do, right? Because like when I, so when I went full time, obviously it was in the midst of the pandemic. So there's not a lot of events happening in St. Louis. I was going to all like the BNI and the local networking, the stuff that we've all tried and that like is good to a certain degree, but it wasn't what I was looking for. So people saw me starting to literally travel all over the country and I would go to Dallas once a quarter because Dallas was like the Wild Wild West during COVID. You could do it. I mean, we were at I'll never forget my first entrepreneurial event. I went with like five other people and it was when the Dodgers and the Braves were playing like the first sporting event at the Texas Rangers Stadium in Dallas. I was like five rows behind home plate and it was a playoff game and I didn't have to wear a mask. It was absolutely incredible. So I like go and do that. And then I realized like, oh my gosh, the world is so small, yet it's so big. I'm getting this incredible information there. And it's not that these things don't happen in St. Louis. It's just that it's tough to always find. And so that was what I was trying to do as well as bring it here to St. Louis, not travel, not say, hey, we're going to do one event here, one event here, one event here, because As you and I both grew up here, I absolutely love St. Louis. I would love to see more of it. But it's kind of interesting. I've reached out to so many people in St. Louis that, quote, unquote, have more authority than me in all reality, truthfully here in St. Louis, but aren't known on a bigger scale that I'm like, hey, why don't you come to our event? Or let's figure out. And it's almost as if It's not looked at as what I'm trying to actually do, which is bring it here to St. Louis. So it's almost like people see me go out and do all those things. And then when I come back and try to do it in my own backyard, there's not a ton of support here. I don't take that personally. I just find it fascinating because people always look at individuals that go outside of St. Louis. in probably any city, right? But St. Louis obviously has the weird vibe with it to say, hey, why are you going out there? We have this stuff here. Well, when I throw the events here, why aren't there more St. Louis people trying to come to these events? Like, I mean, it's a lose, lose situation or it's, you know, you know, one of those things where it's like, screw you. If you leave and you go and you invest your money elsewhere, but like when you throw your own event, we're also not going to support you too. So it's kind of just one of those things that I've had to like get over, but I always find that part fascinating too.

That is fascinating because just myself, I really take myself to my first event. I went down to New Orleans and I signed up for your event right after that. And so my first two events, one was in New Orleans and one was in St. Louis. So it's interesting. to hear that perspective of people that, you know, in St. Louis. Now, I don't know if it has something to do with maybe like the high school or the there's a lot of external validation in St. Louis. I don't know if that has to do with that whole high school question or the amount of money in St. Louis or what. But there is like there's a lot of like stuck up individuals where it's hard to really break out their true self. And people don't want to really give it to you. And when you go outside to different areas like Dallas, you get true, authentic people.

Yeah, well, I think it's here as well, but it's like, you know, you invite the people that are like, hey, I've gone to net like you can't really go to your BNI people that you used to go and say, hey, come to my event. It's, you know, two hundred ninety seven dollars. We have another plan that's even higher. You know what I mean? And they're paying 40 bucks a month to be a BNI. So it's like almost as if it's hard to find those people here. But when I go to those other places, like somebody else is already curate that environment. So it's like, I want to go do that so I can bring it back here. But it is kind of that unique. I mean, I'm not saying it's St. Louis in general. I think a lot of people go because like I work with win rate consulting who every single events in Greenville, South Carolina, people travel to Greenville, South Carolina once a quarter in waves. which is not the easiest place to get to. It's a phenomenal city. I absolutely love Greenville. And WinRate has done an incredible job at building that ecosystem. But every person there, from the smallest cities in America to the biggest cities, like I can't find this, what WinRate has built in my hometown. And so I think like part of it is just that we did have people even come in from all over the country to St. Louis for Builders With Authority Live because they can't find it where they were going either. So there is that part of it is where it's like some people don't appreciate and enjoy what you're actually building. And you don't need every person out there to do that. You need to find the right people. And which is why you want to curate that intimate environment to be able to do what we did.

Yeah, I guess that kind of makes sense if you look at it as like a, as a country perspective, sometimes it's like we look beyond our own country to help others before we're looking in our own country.

Right.

And I guess that's kind of similar to like this event. Like we, we like to look outside of our own zones when really it's like right here at home. Like you don't have to go anywhere. It's right here. Yeah, right in your backyard, right in your backyard. See, that's that's the thing. Like it's to me, like I never realized I was naive. I you know, it took me a while. I'm like, I watched your stuff for a couple of years and I'm like, what's he doing? Like, how does this guy even make money? Like, But the whole time you were building a brand and now here you are, you know, light years ahead of everybody. And you're onto, I joke, you're onto YouTube now. And I'm like, I'm like the kid that's still on the level behind you. Two levels, three levels behind just starting the podcast and here you're. you're moving on to your 251st episode of podcasting and now you're on YouTube and running some nomad YouTube channel. I'm like, man, so like trying to keep up, it's a tough industry, but you're keeping up with it.

Yeah, I mean, like that's one of the things I was telling you before is like the way in which you've taken this new like project right with the podcast, like your light years ahead of where I was at. So that's really all it is, right? When you when you when you learn from the right people and you put the ego aside, like I'm having to learn at a very, very rapid rate based on the demand of my brand, right? So like we have these partnerships, we were doing stuff with go high level, we are an endorser of their stuff, like these things that I used to like dream about happening. are now reality and so I've even been behind the eight ball on YouTube right like so we're always behind in our own mind in our own way of where someone else is and so there's people now that are are I guarantee reaching out to you or quiet fans are looking up to you and being like Blake I just want to do what Blake does and so we always have I five to 10 people that I'm like, man, I'm, I'm looking at them, I'm going and doing it. So at every level we get to, there's always going to be people ahead of us. So for anyone listening and especially like, as I mentioned to Blake earlier, it's like you are further along than you probably think that you are. And you're further along just getting started with your podcast than I was for sure.

That's pretty cool. I appreciate those words, but yeah, that does make sense because I look at like going back to your, the authority event, um, and listening to Owen and how long he's been doing YouTube. And I'm like, wow, like that guy's been in YouTube since I've been in, you know, diapers. Like, so like, You look and then you're learning about YouTube through him. And it's pretty impressive. Like you say, someone's always a step ahead. And it's just if you put yourself in the right rooms with those people that are a step ahead, you're going to level yourself up. And Brad Starnes said it best on a podcast earlier. He was like, Every demon you face, once you beat that demon, it's like another level. And then you get to face the next demon. You beat that demon, you go to the next level. And it's fun to kind of continue to level up. And I finally figured that out. And people like yourself have helped me pull that out of me.

Yeah. Well, and so like Owen is a great example of like, I met Owen through that mastermind that I was talking about in Dallas that he and I are both still a part of. He and Sebastian knew each other for the last 20 plus years. Owen was a sponsor at our event, paid to speak, all of those different things. That dude gets paid a lot of money. to go speak at events. He's emceeing VidSummit at the recording of this right now in Dallas for Derral Eves. Derral Eves is the producer and director of Chosen, which is that massive show. And I think it's on Netflix and a couple other platforms. But he's also the one that like has helped at times Mr. Beast and a lot of those influencers. There's 7000 people there. And Owen is the emcee. And Owen gave away an insane amount of value. We're hiring him to start working with him on Monday next week or Tuesday next week. And he will, you know, I don't know the numbers of every sponsor that's there, but I know a couple of people have already signed up with him. And I know a couple more that are actually signing up with him in the coming weeks too. Like he will do more business from being there in that investment. I'll literally just being like, Hey, here's free value because he hopped on a ton of people on calls with a ton of people after that event and literally gave like tens of thousands of dollars worth of advice to every person. This is what you need to change your channel to. This is how you need to, you know, script your stuff, hook all the different things, but it's all paying off now, 90 days later. And that's the whole evolution of what we teach and how this stuff actually pays off.

That's pretty neat how he does that and how you take it on. Same with Sebastian, it was the same thing. These people, they really get so talented at their craft, at their niche, and they take you on their ride and you can become just a professional in that space too. But there's one thing I do want to talk about you that before I forget is, One thing about you, on your authority, is you don't have to actually be an expert at a certain thing to be an expert in the industry, if you get what I'm saying. don't put on windshields, but you own the number one windshield company on Google in St. Louis. So like that's that's like impressive because that's just showing like, hey, you don't have to know everything to be successful in every industry.

Well, I think that's one of those things where and I was talking with this on the guest of my podcast earlier today as well as all these different industries for so long have done things a certain way. real estate, marketing, auto glass, landscape design, Christmas light installation, any industry that you're a part of, right? And so what I have come to realize is, again, business is not nearly as hard as people make it out to be. So we had that website that was generating a significant amount of phone calls and auto glass and we own the asset. We built the digital real estate like a commercial building and we were renting it out to a guy in Fenton. ended up not working out, we just started the company and became everyone's competitors. Well, like I made business so complicated and difficult starting that up, I lost close to 70 grand that first year. Now we'll do a million dollars and actually be profitable and have five employees that we've gotten over from Safe Flight that have 10 plus years of experience. And like we are the number one rated auto glass company in St. Louis. But I tried for six months to just say, Hey, I don't want to deal with all of these phone calls coming in because they were coming to my phone amongst the other 200 websites that I had. So I went to every auto glass company in town. Hey, well, you just take these calls, literally pennies on the dollar, or do you just want to buy the phone number by the website? This is a digital asset. And they all laughed. Like one guy was like, Oh, uh, you know, old school, like, I don't believe you, but like, if you give it to me, you know, he wanted a bunch of free stuff first. And I was like, yeah, I'm not going to do that. Right. And then I try to work my way up to safe light, like through their corporate office. Cause they spend. between TV rate, like all of their different ads. I mean, in St. Louis, I would venture to say probably between 50 and 75 grand a month. This would have been a steal for them. No. Well, now we're all over town. All of the manufacturers that we go to every single day, our trucks are there more than anybody else. And everybody always asks, like, hey, you know, they're trying to get from the manufacturers and the distributors, like, hey, who's picking up the most glass? Who's picking up the most glass? And everybody says auto glass or pair of STL. And so like, it's just a perfect example of when you take a step back and you like put your ego aside. If you can innovate in a marketplace with marketing, advertising and branding, That's really the difference maker. Like it's not about who is the greatest auto glass repair or replacement. Who's the best real estate agent. Who's the best marketing agent. No, it's like, who is the most well-known and best branded most referred has built the most. No, I can trust. And is really, really good at taking care of people, both employees of the company and customers. That's the difference.

And you would call that like creative business, right? You know, in a way, that's kind of what instead of like how it was creative financing with cheap money. Now it's, I think, going to that creative business, like you had said.

It's thinking outside the box, right? So how can I come in to a market that has been so old school for so long that is unwilling to adapt and change with the times? I mean, There's every industry can use what we did for auto glass. Every industry can do it.

I know I was just waiting for your, uh, the leave pickup, uh, website to come next, uh, pick up, leave STL.

We got a lot of them that that's one we don't have in the works.

I know. I was like, wait a minute. He doesn't have a leaf one, but, you know, I know there's a lot of trees, but that could be a potential one. Right. There you go.

Yeah.

Because I, Hey, I had the, it's just like, you gotta have the, you gotta have the systems in place though. Right. You can do all this stuff, but if you don't have the person to do the work, it does, it's, it's useless. Right.

Well, but like I thought, so not to go down a rabbit hole, but like, I thought when we started that company, like I needed to have a person that new auto glass repair and replacement. And like, I found a guy basically off the street that started to do that, but we had to send him out to California to go get trained and do all the stuff. And we bought a bunch of repair equipment because we were idiots and we didn't know anything about our plate. Like we effed up so much stuff and we spent a bunch of money on vehicles and wraps and branding and all the stuff that we didn't need to do. Right. And then I realized like, dude, go to YouTube, go to Facebook. Now, a lot of these groups, like auto glass groups are very interesting and weird. Like people don't necessarily like give a lot of help in those groups. But I finally realized like, Oh, I could just go 10 90. Like I could sell the job in 10 99 a contractor to go do it. So we started doing that. Right. And then we like learned the actual business of it, but it took us nine months. So like most companies start out with, skill, right? I know how to repair a windshield. I know how to pick up leaves. I know how to do marketing. They don't have the, the advertising and leads. We opened up on day one in month one, we had like 450 phone calls. So like we didn't have the foundation. We were trial by fire and effed up a lot along the way. And by the grace of God and much other stuff, we're still in business today.

Yeah. I love that now. I mean, you've built a ginormous website with that auto glass. And I I joke because like I. did that egg thing, egg your yard. And I just kind of jokingly did it last Easter. Like, Hey, I'll put eggs in our client, your client, our client's yards, like front yards. And you can pay for these eggs prefilled. And all of a sudden it took off and I'm like, holy crap. I do not have, I don't have anything in place to like deliver these eggs, much less get the stuff for the eggs. I'm like, people are filling out this Google form and I'm going, oh my God, what am I supposed to do? Like, should I just turn this business off? Like, and so I didn't have the, the systems in place. Next thing you know, I'm on Timu, Cassidy's filling eggs, my mother-in-law's filling eggs and we're driving around dropping these eggs off. But it just shows you like, you can do stuff. Like if you put it out there, if you have everything in place, like that could have been, I could have made a fortune if I had the right systems in place. A hundred percent. And on top of that, I'm touching each client. And there's people that I'm like, hey, guess what? You don't have to pay. You're a VIP client. We egg your yard for free. So, you know what I mean? There's stuff on that. People love that. And I got that from you. Seeing your ideas and how you maneuver different little business ideas and whatnot, the passive guru of income back there, Adam McChesney right there. That should be your next podcast is the passive income guru. I appreciate you coming on here and telling me about these events. I'm glad I was able to attend the second event because like I said, I would not be right where I am if I was not at that event. Everything you see right here would not be here if I was not at Builders of Authority live event. That's pretty cool to me that I get to say, hey, you created all this right here. I connected to Sebastian. I've read books. I've lost over 50 pounds. You can even go back into my messenger and see, I messaged you and said, when I signed up for Bill's over 30, that I would lose X amount of weight. And I did. I know you've driven me to, to really improve my life. And it's been awesome. And I'm glad I got into your world.

Man, well, it's it's been a pleasure having you. We're just getting started, man. So thank you for having me on. Love what you're doing and appreciate the opportunity, man. Keep going.

Yeah. Hell yeah, brother. And always let's remember to elevate together.

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