#135 - Dr. Karim R. Ellis - How to Lead, Speak, and Succeed with Purpose

0:00 But since we're always a work in progress, there'll never be a point in time where you have perfected who you are because there's always room for more growth. Like the version of you here today, five years from now, you're gonna be a beast on something else. Keep going. All right, y'all. Welcome to the Necessary Entrepreneur. Hey, today we have a doctor. We're going to get into what this doctor means, so we were joined by a man who lives and breathes personal mastery, purposeful leadership and high performance impact.

0:49 Dr. Kareem Ellis is a dynamic motivational speaker, corporate trainer and author of GPS, My Success Route, which he has with us today. We're going to talk about with over 20 years of experience guiding people in organizations towards greatness. He's worked with Fortune 500 companies. trained alongside the legendary Les Brown, which we'll hear a little bit about. um Shoot for the moon, if you miss your fault, be among the stars. There you go. An inspired audiences across the country with a signature blend of clarity, energy, and strategy. um He's a master at helping people unlock their potential, not just businesses, but to build lives with direction, depth, and legacy. Whether you're in a season of breakthrough, rebuilding this, or rebuilding this conversation is gonna shift something in you. So let's dive in.

1:30 and we're going to talk about GPS today and we're going to talk about what that means. But I'm pumped to have you in studio. Welcome, man. Well, it's an honor, it's a privilege, and it's a pleasure to be here today. It's the necessary entrepreneur. And folks don't get this. said I've been an entrepreneur for a little over 20 years at this point in time. And so what I do for a living has me in a lot of corporate places and spaces. You know, can't go into corporate America talking about, you can talk about chasing your goals and dreams, but not the way that we're going to talk about it today. I would have corporate event planners say, can come out here and talk about this and talk about that, but all that stuff about chasing your goals and dreams and figuring out the quickest way to leverage money and wealth, leave that out your talk, because they don't want to be inspiring people to quit. Isn't that funny?

2:11 Do they intentionally talk to you about that? Like, or do you just feel the... So it's twofold. There are some that will go on social media. Take a look at some of the clips and footage that I have and they'll say, listen, we want to book you. We know that. But this particular topic right here, we will really appreciate it if you would kind of stray away from this topic because we don't want you giving the wrong idea. We want to inspire them to work harder. We don't want to inspire them to put stuff down and start picking stuff up and going out there and chasing what I call purpose, purpose living, which is the reason why you're actually here. And believe it or not, some people may have added me. you're not here just to collect the paycheck. The paycheck is part of the fund and the benefit package of walking in your purpose and your calling, but God didn't put you here just for a paycheck.

2:54 You're here for much more than that. What are you feeling in 2025? We could, I think me and you could have a conversation probably for 45 minutes about corporate culture and why they would ask you to do that. Because we're looking for, you said something, if we go there, everything's on the table, we can have a conversation here. But what you said was people want to be a part of something. And you actually referenced it to when you were born back in the 70s. I'm a 70s baby too at the end of it. But what I didn't respond is I let it just be your moment. And I said, man, That's all anybody wants. They all want to be a part of something. But we also want that something. What I'm seeing in 2025 is we want authenticity. Yes. We just want to know that there's not anything.

3:34 There's no shade here. You're not pulling the wool. This is a transparent representation of who I am, what I'm doing. So that then when you come into this environment and come with me, this is what it's going to be. Sure. So what are you seeing in 2025? You go on stage, you speak to a lot of people, you have the GPS. What is your mind? If you're off, Mike, you were driving here today in your average day, where's your mind at in 2025? Yeah, so what I'm seeing in 2025 is I'm seeing a little bit more of a shift as the economy gets a little bit tougher for people to navigate and people are having to pull up their bootstraps a little bit higher and tighten their belts a little bit more and be more selective about where they spend money at because of all the sweeping changes that we see not just in 2025.

4:15 These economic changes have been going on for a couple of years. Like we have been just battling for to just kind of stay ahead of ourselves. Folks are getting dissatisfied. We saw that during 2020 when COVID shut everything down. and then people were requested to go home and work from home. Those people didn't want to come back. Because they had a good taste of staying home seven days a week and realizing what their life was missing out on because they're spending 40 hours a week away from home, away from the kids, away from the family, right? A lot of people said, no, I don't want to go back. So I think it opened up a wave of entrepreneurship right after COVID-2020 because folks were trying to figure out how to get focused back on their goal and dream. And I'll be honest, I've worked in corporate America for many, many years before jumping entrepreneurship.

5:00 And when I look at the goals and dreams I have set for myself, at least nine of those 10 jobs I was at, there was no way in the world that job was gonna help me get over to where I was at. It was gonna give me enough money to maintain my lifestyle, but my goals and dreams exceed my lifestyle. And the definition of insanity is doing the same thing day in and day out and thinking somehow, someway, something different is gonna happen. And so I think that's the lore of entrepreneurship. It's jumping into the driver's seat of your destiny and understanding yet it all resolves on you. But at least I'm calling the shots. Right. And so that's what I'm saying. I'm a lot of people that are trying to figure out how do I supplement my income because we don't know exactly what this 2025 economy is going to bring to the table. Like right now people are on the fence. Whether you are a Trump supporter or not a Trump supporter.

5:42 I'm not here to argue about that. We're not about to have a bunch of people upset on this podcast based on viewpoints. But what I will say is. there's a lot of people that's going to be financially affected one way or the other. So your idea in this season is do I want to thrive instead of just try to survive in 2025? So is that the right mindset you should have regardless of the environment? Absolutely, you are your plan a everything else is plan B the problem with a lot of people and I got this from less Less taught me less Brown taught me that people are guilty of what I call mismanaged misplaced loyalty And what I mean is people spend so much of their time the effort their gift their talent their education Putting all their stuff behind someone else's vision The problem is you don't know where that vision is going and in a season or two if you're gonna be a part of that vision, right?

6:26 where we're seeing a lot of people that voted a certain way and then didn't realize that when the job cuts were coming, you're part of the job cut, right? Got a lot of people saying like, I thought my government job was safe. Cause we grew up in an era where we're taught if you work for the government, that's about the secure safest job you can have. That just got blown out the water. Look how many people was unemployed, whether the courts are saying bring them back or not. So I always will say entrepreneurship will be your safest bet, always. So how do you juxtapose this for you to go out here and you to live your best life? Your life for you two. You actually need people working jobs. So what do do with Yeah, so it's a double-edged sword, and this is why I say it's a double-edged sword.

7:07 I'm about to go into this sooner than I thought I was. I brought this treasure chest with me, and inside the treasure chest is not money. It is a mixture of acorn seeds. And the reason why I keep this in my study is it's a reminder that when God puts us here, we all come in seed format, meaning whatever we're designed to do is locked inside of our seed, but the seed has to be properly planted, has to be watered. has to be maintained and eventually in time it grows and produces fruit. But I also notice that a seed reproduces after its own kind. What that means is once I plant this acorn seed in the ground, it's not gonna give me a corn seed, it's not gonna give me a tomato seed, it's not gonna give me a watermelon seed or a strawberry seed, it's only gonna produce another acorn seed. Which means that some of the people that work with me, they're entrepreneurs, right?

7:49 Which means that if they're working with me or working for me, I'm still giving them entrepreneur game so that way when it is their time to go do their thing, I want you to reproduce. I want part of my legacy be part of your legacy because I'm showing you how to plant your inner seed and you have to be okay with that, right? But then you got some people where they don't want to do that. You got some people where I'd rather have the stability and security of a paycheck. So I think you have to kind of know which type of person you have working for you. I've had people work for me where they had no desire to go out there and take that type of risk. I want strategic. I want to know what I got coming in every week or every two weeks and I can plot my lifestyle off of that. But there's the bevy of us out there that still say like I want more, right? But then we just touched on it. issue is, that what we know is it feels like it's the safe bet.

8:32 Yeah. But it's not. Only until you realize like, I'm not in control. Sure. I just know if I ever take the safe route, it's short term safety. Yeah. And I could agree with that, right? But even when I jumped out there, my goal was to make sure I had what I would call cashflow machines built in, so that way it wasn't the same level as risk. Like I see a lot of people give these great stories, but I just quit my job and jumped out there and made it. And I'm like, that is not how it happens. Unless you got a trust fund or family you can depend on, that's normally not how it happens. So even with me, I just didn't leave the nine to five and jump out there. I saved up a nest egg. So I had a hustle on the side. So I kept my nine to five job. I specifically used that money to cover bills, so was trying to reduce debt as quickly as possible.

9:12 And then I had, at that point in time, I started this vintage toy business. I'm an 80s baby. And I keep saying that the 80s and the 90s gave us some of the greatest cartoon and toy properties in the world. But I had started a vintage toy business online using eBay. I offer auctions.com, yahoo.com back then when hit their auction site. And I was making more selling vintage toys from my childhood to kids from my genre. than I was at that nine to five job. Sounds like Gary Vee, man. Go to the art sale, flip the toys, flip the thing. that's what it was. I was finding parents whose kids had moved out to college, left all their toys behind. We want to clean the room up and do something with it. And so they didn't know the value that they had. So I was buying box of Transformers, G.I.

9:53 He-Man figures, you name them. Some in great shape, some beat up. Basically. That was basically it, man. I was was I was hustling the toys and the thing with hustle, hustles aren't permanent. They're temporary. So when you have a hustle. Your job is not trying to make that hustle into an actual business. It's just stacking money really quickly. Once the money comes in, I got to figure out where do I place this money at that's going to give me the best rate of return. And so that's what pushed me over into the world of real estate. I never look back. resource allocation. Absolutely. That's what Warren Buffett told us all the years. My whole job is just resource allocation. it. Right. um So why were you willing as you were accumulating cash, trying to build your dream and find your life of purpose, hanging out with Les Brown.

10:34 um What caused you to not spend that money on the short-term material things that everybody tries to satisfy life? Because that's what happens. So I'm gonna be honest with you, I did do that. The very first year I did do that, but it wasn't with the, actually happened twice. And so this is why it's so crucial for you to number one, know the vision for your life, know what you're trying to do. Because, and we're gonna talk about the concepts, because that's the book, GPS, My Success, it's all about vision. Everybody here is familiar with GPS technology, so you know a GPS is only useful or useful to you when you put an address in it, which means you first have to have an idea of where you're trying to get to. to get from Cincinnati to here and I wasn't familiar with the lanes of the land.

11:17 I to put the address to the studio inside my GPS. GPS says it's gonna be about a 21 minute drive to get here. Cool, right? I say that because what happens with a lot of people is they don't put an address inside their life's GPS. So they have no idea where they're going. They have no idea what they actually want. They have no idea what they need for the journey. More importantly, they have no idea what they don't need for the journey. And so what me was I was dating a person at that time. And as the money came in from the toy business, it was going right back out the window because she was too busy trying to live like the Joneses, right? Trying to show off and buy materialistic things to make us as a couple seem more successful than really are. And I was against it, but I knew that relationship wasn't going to work because of that reason right there.

12:02 There's a season where you will not look as successful as I believe you already are. that's the hardest season for a lot of people because we get wins when we go out there and brag on those wins. That's your quiet season where you're stacking and you're hustling. You're stacking and you're hustling. You're building, you're building, you're building, and you're looking for other opportunities that's going to bring more wealth in. But I have been there before. And so this is why it's so important for you to be clear about your vision, what I'm trying to do. Because when I know where I'm going to, it lets me know what resources I need for the journey. But more importantly, lets me know what resources I do not need for the journey. And for a multitude of people out there, and I don't want to sound sexist when I say this, but I'm gonna say it because it's guys in the room right now. The woman that we choose to deal with or the significant other that we choose to do with is detrimental to our success, our rate of failure, how fast we move into it or how quick we fall.

12:51 There is a message I gave online the other day where I asked, you doing the math? And I said that in basic math, they tell you that when you add two numbers together, the value increases. So one plus one is two, two plus two is four, four plus four is eight. The only time that doesn't happen is when you add a zero, because zero carries no value. And what happens with a lot of us is we get into relationships or friendships or even partnerships with people that are actually zeros. I'm not talking about how bad they are, but they don't bring the value and weight that you think. So you can be engaged with them or in partnership with them for two, three, four years, look over the business and see minimum growth or stagnant growth. And the reason being because you're adding your value to a zero, right? It's not going to take off as quick and fast as it's supposed to be.

13:33 The only detriment to that is if you multiply your value by zero. because anytime you multiply by zero, you wipe it all the way out. Yeah, I was going to say that. just, I heard that and I thought, okay, in the seasons of life when you are in an interpersonal relationship with the wrong person, friendships with the wrong people, in business with the wrong people, it's not just that they're your one and they're zero. A lot of your energy and your time of trying to be one is taken away and given to them as well. So you're having yourself, if not going to zero, you're just trying to maintain and keep up. That's right. Right. You're falling behind. Yeah. They're pulling away from dream. think uh you hear so many people have Sometimes it's really good to listen to successful and wealthy people and sometimes it's not. Sure. But what I hear you hear so often is the ones who have had long-term relationships with one person, say the person that you choose to marry and be with is the most important decision.

14:25 I agree. But then I'm like, well, okay, what about the people who that wasn't the story and they still became successful? Yeah, so this is my thing, man. think that there are rules and guidelines to success. Some of those rules can be bent, some of those rules can be broken. I'm thinking about The Matrix right now, where Neo is looking at the spoon and the young kids is, try to bend the spoon. Don't try to bend the spoon, too hard. He's telling them, don't bend the spoon, but bend the reality around the spoon, right? The spoon is stationary no matter what. So this is a factor that I can't change no matter what. but can I bend the rules and regulations around success that revolve around the place and space where the spoon is actually held at? So I do agree with the person you put on your arm, the person that's in your think tank, the person you were laying down with tonight, they are crucial to your success.

15:09 They can be detrimental, but I don't think that's an end all where you can't be successful unless you had that right person. you choose the wrong people in life, it's just going to make it harder. Yeah. Right. You can overcome it, but it's going to make it harder. You can, but what I also learned is this, people that typically choose like the wrong mate, they choose the wrong employees, they choose the wrong business partners, they choose the wrong... Like they had this thing... Because Tony Robbins talks about patterns. We all have patterns. A lot of people wonder, almost everything's predictable. It really is. You can look at what we've already done, what we're currently doing, and a lot of people don't make short-term change. They make change over a long, extended period of time, right? So you can usually look at somebody. That's a strong indicator about what they're going to do. You can push back on it, but it is because the only way something different is going to happen is if they really change.

15:55 Sure. Yeah, but see, at the same time, I think this. I agree totally with what you're saying, but for me, I'm looking a little bit deeper. If I'm looking at somebody's pattern or habit of how they do things, I'm sure we're gonna jump into the idea of habit in a second. I look at it almost like a doctor. When I go to a doctor's office, the first thing the doctor's gonna ask me is, are you here? And of course I'll say, okay, well I'm here because the back of my jaw is killing me. I mean, my gums are bleeding, they're tender, they're soft. When I chew, it's painful, I get a headache, my lymph nodes are swollen up. So I'm giving the doctor symptoms of what's going on, because I don't know the problem. And the doctor doesn't know it either. So based on the symptoms, the doctor's saying, OK, I believe it's either this or this. So what we're going to do is we're going to do x-ray.

16:35 We'll see whether or you got wisdom teeth coming in or maybe you have a cavity where a tooth needs to come out. We'll get some clarity in about 20 minutes. Doc comes back and says, got a wisdom tooth growing in. So I'm going to outsource you to an orthopedic surgeon or orthodontic surgeon to cut that tooth out, right? But in the meanwhile, I'm going give you some aspirin. The aspirin only treats the symptoms. The problem with treating symptoms is symptoms will repeat over time, which is why we always want to treat the core problem to make the symptoms disappear. What happens with a lot of people that make those continuous bad decisions, I want to go back into your past and figure out what was the incident that started you down that pathway? Because a lot of what we do and how we operate is based on things that happened in our past. We're not in tune with ourselves to know.

17:15 That's the problem with addiction. Yeah, right. It's like, hey, it's not the alcoholic or the drug addicts. Like, what's causing it? And unless you go and fix the cause, right, you're probably going to repeat. That's why you're going back to, you you're going to go to detox and come back out and you're wondering. And what happens is, I have some personal experience with this in life. The next tough moment in life, you fall back to it um because that's a coping mechanism. So, um all right, it's good. So this GPS for my success. Are you sure that the young folks these days know what that is? So the beautiful thing about GPS technology is it's so inundated throughout the world, the globe, right? uh As a speaker, one of the biggest challenges you have is trying to create what we call a universal message.

18:00 A message where I can give it on any planet and folks will understand it because it's so simplistic in thought process but yet powerful in message that it resonates with everybody. So actually, so this thing, Less Than Teach Me That. because the master communicators understand that. Master communicators understand that, but I also train speakers myself. So I keep telling people that if you get into a room full of people, you have to be able to give a clear set thought that everybody can understand and agree with. So even when I did the Great American Speak Off, because the contest was two minutes, the contest that I gave that got me second place, that was not my original speech. My original speech was something called how fast you designed to go. And in that two minute speech, I talk about my favorite animal, which is a cheetah.

18:41 Cheetahs are born with the gift of 70 mile per hour speed. I've never seen a cheetah confused about his gift of speed. It knows exactly what to do with that gift of speed to both catch his prey to survive and to use his gift of speed to avoid other predators that can cause it harm. And so that got me on the train of thought if all these other creatures have gifts and talents that God has blessed them with, whether the eagle can spot his prey from two to three miles in the air, the bat can use echolocation to spot amounts in the darkest night of a dank cave. If all these creatures have gifts and talents that they use to make their life easier, why are we walking around thinking we're sitting on absolutely nothing? We put so much focus on education, but a gift and talent is something you're born with. So me growing up as a kid, I got in trouble for talking too much.

19:21 That was my gift. But a gift and talent that lacks discipline creates destruction. So that's the reason why I got in trouble. I didn't know it was a gift and I didn't know how to add discipline to it. Why'd you not give that speech? That might have gotten you the number one. So this was the thing when I ran through the trial run grant and loved it Elena Cardone hated it She felt like it was just too quick was too fast She didn't understand the concept cuz I'm gonna now I'm an analogy guy like I love using analogies that people can relate to and actually She didn't get it because it's not wrong with her But the way I delivered it half the room got it half didn't so in my mind even though I got pushed to to the final round I kept saying number one. They've already heard the talk. So why don't you get the same thing? They've heard their judges So you know, wanna give shock value.

20:04 You don't wanna give something. It's like if I go to see the Superman movie that comes out in about 30 days, right? Huge Superman fan. Once I see it the first time, I know the plot line, I know the twist, I know all the little hidden gems. So I can go back and watch it a second or third time. It's not gonna have the same effect as how I saw it the first time. So typically when you wanna wow somebody, you got that one first chance to impress them. So I threw the speech out. We came up with what is the wealthiest place in the world. based on both Miles Monroe and Les Brown. Because what people don't understand is that that's actually a Les Brown quote, but Les and Miles were like this, so gave it to Miles and Miles ran with it. And people don't get that. So, you know, it's my way of paying homage to two very, very influential people that helped shape me growing up at the same time.

20:52 We know there's naysayers all around us. course. Your heart and your soul has learned to not listen to the people in the stands. Yeah. Right. Theodore Roosevelt back in the 20s said that about the man in the arena. Yes. uh Yeah, so what's helped me out is this. um I have learned to build my team of people around me that I know I can lean and depend on. They say if you wanna go fast, travel long. If you wanna go far, you absolutely have to build a team. There's a point in your journey where you will not hit certain benchmarks unless you start lining things up because when you build the team, you're actually looking at longevity and what I call legacy, right? but you want people on your team that understand your mission.

21:35 They understand where you're going to and they solely believe in it. And I got that from watching Les. Les has always done a great job of surrounding himself with the right people and done a really good job at identifying when someone is no longer a good fit for that and releasing. See, I know two versions of Les. I know the motivational version of Les that everybody loves, but I also know that sharp-minded business owner where he's just like, okay, so motivation. put that away, now it's business mode and. You hear that more now. Over the past 10, 15 years, when you hear him, you hear he's just more straight to the point. He's just talking real, right? That stuff in the 80s on stage, was on VSTapes. That's inspirational stuff, right? It makes you want to go out and conquer the day.

22:17 But what he probably found is all these amazing communicators, they have control of this information. They know it. But what happens is you leave and tomorrow you got to wake up. it. That is absolutely true. I just did this on a different show. I said that inspiration and motivation by itself doesn't create transformation. What does? uh Action creates transformation. Discipline. And discipline. And I can motivate and inspire a person all day long, all week long, but until you actually take action and going after what you want and be and maintain discipline behind doing the repetitive process again and again and again. you'll have to rely on being motivated and inspired. The goal is not for me to motivate and inspire you all to see your finish line. The motivation, the inspiration is the jumpstart. It's lighting the pilot light in your furnace so that way it's on.

22:59 Now you can control the thermostat so if you want to turn the heat up a little bit and go for broke, go do what you want to do. But you should not be in a world where you have to hear motivation every day to start the transformation. It's okay every once in a while. Everybody's got their moments, right? So if it's that basic, why does everyone not take the level of action that they need to? And I don't want to compare individuals, but if you have a dream, if you have real goals in your life, like not some big stuff, I just walked away from listening to Kareem and he made me want to go, no, when you're in your quiet moments, watching your Netflix at 7.30, which you shouldn't be doing, but when you're doing that and you know you want something more for your life. Why aren't, I'm asking the big why question, but, and this isn't to evoke this, but Tony Robbins, he's coming to a new season in his life.

23:46 I've never been a Tony guy. I've never gone to events, haven't paid money. But he actually says, it's the tyranny of how the moment you ask how you're screwed pretty much. And you can go deep into that, right? Because he just knows you got to take action, figure out how. But why are so few people taking the actions necessary to live their dream? Cause see, I know it's possible. uh So why, what is, what's this? Cause everybody throws it out here. Simon Sinek's like, you know, what's your why? And there's, but what have you found? Yeah, I was I don't like using other people as a guess everybody's different. So I always try to use me to best of my ability. So what happened with me was I was so focused on the how to and because I didn't know all the damn steps needed to go from here from point A to point Z.

24:32 That would be the hiccup. I guess I can't move forward because I can't do this. Like let's take real estate. For example, we talked about how I started in real estate. However, when I jumped into the world of real estate, I could not get approved for a loan to save my life. My credit was shot back then. I was not a good manager of bills and debts back then. I'm sure most banks didn't want to give me a debit card with the Visa logo because we don't want to trick you into thinking you got a credit card. We don't want you to get happy and think you can go out there and spend on stuff. So my credit was shot. I had not been at the job I was at for more than a year because I had just started. So can't use bank stubs in the job to help me get the loan. and I had limited information on real estate because I didn't know exactly what was a good deal, what was a bread and butter neighbor town, what's a war zone, what's a fresh line.

25:15 Yeah, I just hear this how get rich. And so because I started looking at all the how-to things I didn't know how to do, everything stood still. So I kept telling myself, I guess I'll try this again in two, three years. Let me start working on the credit, let me start working on this, let me start working on that. I'll tell you what the Difference Maker was, and this is for everybody, it was the right mentor. keep telling people this, the secret sauce to success will always be the right mentor. It is the only shortcut I believe life gives you, right? But you gotta listen to him. how do you end up knowing who to listen to though? Because there's so many people that want to mentor and coach. I'm totally ahead of you because especially in this day and age with social media and with apps and filters people are becoming successful overnight without actually doing the things that make them successful. mean you'll find somebody, man, you got like 22,000 followers on Instagram.

25:57 Yeah. Okay, there's people with a half a million that there's, I'm not nice, there's half a you dig into it and it's like they haven't done anything. Yeah, they haven't done anything. we're in a society where we make people famous for absolutely nothing. Like we'll follow people for absolutely no reason whatsoever. They're not contributing anything per se that has made a big shift in anybody's achievements, but because we like the fact that they go on vacations around the world all the time. That too, right? And all suddenly boom, we'll consider them to be the expertise on everything success related. uh So with me, think there's three things I focus on. Number one, I'm always gonna go back to vision. Because I think until you're clear about what it is you want, who it is you are, and where it is you wanna go. Yeah, because you can't find the right mentor until you know what your vision is.

26:39 See, what happens is people will try to get a mentor because they're successful. But what they're successful in has nothing to do with what you wanna crush it in over here. So you're attached to somebody who has a lot of wealth, but they don't know anything about the junking business. They can't tell you how to make. take your junking business from six figures or seven figures. So they're successful, that still doesn't make them a good mentor for you. So everything starts with vision. I want to know exactly what I'm trying to do. Once I know vision, then I got to know the strategy, right? In a game of football on the offensive line in between downs, they're not going into the huddle to talk about what they're to do after the game and how they're going to party. They're in the huddle figuring out what strategy we're going to implore that's going to move this ball 10 yards down the field. Why 10 yards? Because all we need is 10 yards to keep the ball in play, right?

27:22 So once we understand the strategy that we're gonna run, then is there a mentor who knows, understands the vision and has already mastered the strategy, right? And can they show me shortcuts and how to tweak the strategy to give me positive, powerful results quicker and faster? Because the most valuable resource we got is our time, right? We're always in a race against time. There's somebody right now who believed that they were gonna wake up and unfortunately, through the course of life, they didn't make it today, right? So we're always trying to race against time to get things done while we have time to do it. So for me, it was vision, was strategy, it was mentorship. But that's what let me know Lester Brown will be the right mentor and this other person over here, no matter how many stages they've been on, they're not going to be right mentors.

28:03 He was the only thing I wanted to do. So I thought you were going to go here. let me, let me try to bake the cake and let you put icing on it again. Right. So a lot of people believe, and you might push back on this because you said these strategy, know, but what I've found consistently, you know, the thing I know a little bit about is helping build these real estate careers for people that want to be realtors. I know the investment piece and all that too, but I know how to tell someone within three to six months, how they could be a six figure earner. And they go do and listen. If everything that I've learned, here's what they may do. They may take my thing and go do it and then learn how to do it better. But my thing is going to get them six figures.

28:44 So, but they actually think that going to dance class is the place to learn the dance moves. They have to get on the floor. They do. There's just the, what I've found is so many people. aren't disciplined learners, that they just don't slow down and study enough to learn enough from class, if they're truly gonna become better there to take it out in the real world. And what happens is when they go out in the real world is, Hank Les said this, right? Your body stands up, your mind sits down. Is that, am I correct about that? That's correct, that's correct. yeah. And so, cause what happens is the first time you do something, you just lock up. The first time I did a community play and I had the lead part and I go out there and the lights come up, the curtain opens up.

29:29 I forgot the first line. Right? Forgot it. And so what's your feeling about this? We don't have to be in agreement, but I want to push them out because I'm like, just go fail. Go, go realize you don't know how to do it. Sure. And learn through that process. Yeah, so I think that kind of taps back into what we said earlier about a little bit of learned behavior, right? So we go back to that concept of how versus why. The reason why I'm successful versus a lot of my peers who started out wanting to do the same thing and didn't, I had a strong enough why, even though I didn't know the how. When I said earlier, most people focus on how. They look at the damn steps. And if I don't know how to do X, Y, Z, I guess it's going to keep me still.

30:09 Then I'm not going take action. I'm going to f- procrastinate and figure out how to get this done, this done, three, four years from now you don't know where your mind is at, you're thinking about chasing some other goal, dream just goes out the window. When you have a strong enough reason why, it doesn't make a difference if you don't know the how to, right? One of my favorite books, Thinking Girl Rich by Napoleon Hill, there's a partner about the young lady, the young girl whose mother sends her to go pick up that 50 cent piece, right? And it's my mama's gotta have that 50 cent and the employer. Made it clear. I'm not going to give you this money. I'll take a switch to you. I'll beat you. Right. And she had a strong enough reason why she wasn't afraid of this guy. Right. I believe that everybody has to figure out your why and your why.

30:49 Technically, if you want the why to last, it should be bigger than you. If your why is selfish and self oriented, it will not last. It will not stand the test of time. My why revolves around not just me, but the family that I feel that God has put me here to produce and protect. I look at the tribe members that I believe that I'm here to produce and protect. That's my why. So those are the things that drive me to get up, get out the bed, get things done. Even when I rather be laying out chilling, going on vacation, I have a strong enough why attached to my goal. And that's what's been powering me all this time. The how to is not important because if you have a strong enough why, and let's talk a little bit about the subconscious mind, because whatever thoughts you give the subconscious mind over time, if you can resonate and stay with it, that thought turns into an obsession.

31:32 Anything you obsess over is not if you're to get it's just when the opportunity manifests you'll move on it, right? So the goal is to be clear about what I want hold on to that thought like I already have it like my desire should be so intense that I already in my mind have it so now I'm actively pursuing it on a regular basis and if I can keep that why the how does make a difference like most of the jumps I've had in my business is I had no idea about the how to I have to lock on the why and I can figure out the how-to's around me, which oftentimes is where employees or partnership comes into play. You don't have to know everything, you just have to know how to manage resources, information, and education properly, which involves wisdom. But that's always been my thing, is focus on the why.

32:15 How's come and go? We're in a day and age now where the way we do things is rapidly changing almost every 30 to 60 days. So that's gonna change no matter what. So I don't ever wanna get caught up on how-to, but it's the why that's always your... So are you willing to share your vision with us? Yeah. Because some people believe you shouldn't put it in the world. I believe you should. It's a part of accountability for me. Yeah, I don't have a problem with it. actually go to where my vision came into place at because, and this is important because we have a lot of successful people out there. You have a lot of successful entrepreneurs, but a lot of times we shine the light on their successes, but we don't shine the light on the fallbacks and the setbacks of where they started it to get there. And that's the problem. A lot of people want to be overnight. No, I said, no, I've always gotten more value from understanding your stumbling points because you don't know if I'm in that same season of my life where I'm stumbling and I'm on the verge of giving up.

33:02 So with me, things start to shift into place around the age of 23, 24, right? Went through this nasty breakup with childhood sweetheart. I was too embarrassed to tell my parents that we were no longer shacked up living together because they were against us doing it from day one. My parents were like, you skipped a grade, you're a smart kid, go off to college, go off to school. And I just wasn't ready to leave the house yet. Like I'm dude, I'm 16. I'm not ready to go off to college. And so I settled down, I fell in love against my parents wishes. They're like, you're messing everything up. And then the relationship went south. And the last thing you want to hear is go back to your parents and hear that I told you so. So I literally slept out my car for 30 days. Like for 30 days, I was sleeping out the car. If I had a buddy who would let me sleep on their couch, I would sleep on the couch trying to figure out some way to fix this thing.

33:46 And then unfortunately, eventually had to go back home. My older brother said, you got to go back home. It's not safe to sleep in your car. You don't know if anybody's going to run up on you or whatever have you. And so at that age, I find myself with my small amount of belongings packed up in my parents basement. And then I went through what I call the perfect storm. That's where everything that can go wrong in one season goes wrong at that one inopportune time. So the job let me go for performance. At that point in time I was an emotional eater. So I gained about a good 200 something pounds. So at that point I think I was the winner at close to 300 something pounds. Out of shape, overweight, with no income coming in. Of course the debt and bills didn't change, right? And so I'm watching credit cards get shut down. I'm watching the bank account get shut down for not sufficient funds. And then the tip of the iceberg was I had an interview lined up.

34:29 Got up that next morning, got the suit on, got copies of the resume to go out to my car and they had repossessed my car in middle of the night. And that was my breaking point. That was the moment, that was the defining moment. Because in that moment, I got so depressed over my situation, I kept thinking that committing suicide would be easier than trying to navigate this pathway. And I say that because there are a lot of what I call good people out here that are going through bad storms and it's easy for you to internalize it and think that the world will be a whole lot easier or your situation be a lot easier if you decide to take yourself out. And that's the precipice that I was actually dangling on. Being a man of faith, I remember laying down on the couch that night, tears streaming down my face. And I remember just being desperate crying out to God saying, me one reason, any reason why I should stick around.

35:13 Cause if you can't give me that reason, I want out. and that night I had a dream of my funeral. And of course when you go to a funeral, two things you wanna do. Number one, I wanna check to see what you got me wearing. It wasn't as good as this, but it was okay. They tell you whatever you dyeing is your ghost outfit. Don't have me going there looking like a bum. So I have to check the casket first. And then I want to check to see who's at the funeral site because there's some people that better be there on the front. You better be boo-hooing too, right? And so the usual suspects are there, the family members, the cousins that I'm cool with. But as I get past row number two and getting to three, four, five, I'm seeing faces I've never seen before.

35:56 Like I have no clue. Is these folks I owe money to or like why are these people here? And then I end up going outside the church in this dream and I'm seeing the parking lot is just packed full of cars. People are fighting to get inside of it. And so I remember asking in that dream, who are all these people? Can I go ahead and jump ahead? You sure can. These are people in your future that you're going to impact. Absolutely, absolutely and in that moment when I came out of that dream he gave me vision, right? What happens with most of us we spend the best years of our life living but we don't have a vision of what we're supposed to be living for like I do not believe anybody in this room was put here accidentally I think you're intentional right the goal is for you to figure out what is my purpose or my calling while I'm here and Typically we can find that out real quick and fast by discovering what gifts and talents you're sitting on because I don't believe guys gonna give you an assignment without giving you the tools pull that assignment off.

36:44 Or they trade their gift and check for less than what it's actually worth. to give me this is your podcast. I'm not going to go deep into this. I'm going to keep it on the straight and narrow here. I grew up. I grew up in church. Don't go anymore. Okay. But this is your podcast. And so um That's an amazing moment to have that dream. Yeah. Yeah. And for you to come out of it and realize, it, I'm valuable. Yes. There is something inside of me. Yes. There is more to do. I'm worth something. Is that the context of still the feeling like. It is and and what I believe happens with most of us most of us don't know our real value I Drove here in a Porsche if I went to a buy here pay her lot like I got a name But I want to plug them If I went there and they had a 2025 Porsche on the lot Well, that would be my question why is this 2025 Porsche on a buy here pay here lot, right?

37:48 Like what I'm not saying that you guys don't sell quality vehicles, but this is a brand new Porsche and that the newest cars you got start around like 2020, 2021, right? So what's wrong with the car is my question. Like for it to be here, what's wrong with it? It may not be not wrong with a deal of the day. You've never seen a deal like this, That's my point. This is the last time it's ever going to come this way. You're just the right guy to it. I promise it's going to drive for 200,000 miles. All right, so you're Porsche. So here's my thing. My thing is most of us don't know our own value. We don't know our own value when it comes to places we work. We don't know our value when it comes to relationships, when it comes to friendships. And when you take time to really study and understand who you are and whose you are, you'll start setting your price accordingly.

38:32 Like right now there's someone understanding my voice. You're hanging with people that you know you're greater than that. And I'm saying that I'm not saying from a level of arrogance or ignorance. That's your comfort zone. And you are only hanging around certain people because they're a part of your comfort zone. Can I go somewhere with this? Absolutely. When you said how valuable we are. Maybe not in our current form, it's how valuable we could be if we fulfill who we should be. Yes. Right? Here go, here we go. Yeah. So again, for the listeners, I'm holding acorn seed, right? You guys will say acorn seed. I will say oak tree. It's oak tree, right? It just hasn't gone through its transformation process.

39:13 So if I'm a farmer and I'm planting seed, I'm going to plant seed based on what's valuable. If I'm in wheat country and everyone is selling wheat, then I'm not going to be out there growing corn. So I'm going to be particular about what type of seed I plant intentionally because I want a result that I'm going to be happy with at the end of it all. Most of us have no idea what's locked inside our seat. just saw an article. I'm very careful on the place I go for the updates of the world, but I just went to Yahoo news and I said we're somewhere in the Midwest that a ton of farmers were tilling under their tomato plants because the value of tomatoes bottomed out and they knew that they were better to till them under and replant some other seed of a thing that's gonna be more valuable.

39:54 And I'm glad you said that because that's the stopping point for a lot of people to keep some personal greatness I've met people that's gone to school gotten a degree in a certain line of work not because it was their passion not because it was their Collins because Individuals in that school guidance counselors may have said you should go into this line of work or parents will say I want you to be this growing up you gonna be the first doctor in the family or the first lawyer in the family or the first physician the family and so people go down pathways that's not really meant for them they're living vicariously for other people and then they get out in the world and they're upset. They're saddled with debt, they're paying on for something. The worst thing in the world is to be saddled with debt on something you don't want. I got a degree, I don't even like it. Like I got a degree in culinary arts and I don't like cooking, right? So we see things like that happen all the time, but when I don't know my value, I'll always find myself being planted in places and spaces that I was never supposed to be planted in first place.

40:44 Well, that's tough for a lot of people to see that. Yeah. Yeah. But this is also why it's important to have the right people around you. Jim Rohn says your life be mirrored by the five people you hang with the most. Right? Yes. the question why do we need more than him and lessen Zig? Like, why do we? Because I think that we live in a day and age of well I use a lessism less says we live in a day and age with weapons of mass distraction Mass distraction not destruction distraction from the time you wake up to the time you lay down There's always something trying to captivate your attention Right where our energy goes our focus flows So what happens we start getting focused on all these different distractions and we don't focus on the betterment or the self-development of who we're supposed to be So it's quite possible that again, I could be this mighty oak tree but because no one has sat me down and told me to stop focusing on all this other stuff and just produce results, then I'm still stuck in seed form.

41:34 Alright, so what happens if we don't currently exist with the right soil? Yeah, so happens is you'll stay in this format that you're in and you'll never have any growth, right? um There's a message I gave this parallel to what I gave at the speak-off contest about the wealthiest place in the world, but I talk about the confines of the comfort zone. And when I say that, I tell people that I've gone to a lot of funerals over the years. Luckily, it's not been anybody close to me. haven't had that one in my dream. was real close to the guy in my dream. But as far as physical funerals, no one close to me has passed away yet. Thank God. I haven't been hit with that dish yet. I know it's coming. Cause we've got some people this age wise we're getting there. So I'm being honest with myself. um But every funeral I've gone to, I've gone to view the body that last time to kind of say your words of a condolence.

42:19 When you look at the person laying in the casket, they look comfortable. Totally comfortable. Nice, cool, it's soft. In fact, the more cool and comfortable it looks, the more expensive the casket. And I tell people that a comfort zone and a casket run parallel to each other. And the reason why is caskets only hold one thing. They only hold dead things. Comfort zones work the same exact way. The problem with a lot of us, get stuck inside that comfort zone and we're not growing out of it. There's no life coming out of it. We're just trying to maintain and defend what we already have. Right? But it's a matter of time before someone decides to close the door on that casket or that comfort zone and everything that's supposed to be sharing with the world or getting achieved and done, that gets trapped and goes down forever. So one of the things we gotta be careful of is to make sure that the people that we surround ourselves with on a regular basis, that's not our current comfort zone or our current casket.

43:06 When I left the nine to five to jump into real estate and I start to achieve massive success, like I remember the first time I did a wholesale deal for like $40,000. because wholesale deals usually, in Cincinnati, know, wholesale deals usually hits you around that 10, eight to 10, maybe 15 mark. Pony McWill. I was doing all sorts of deals, I was knocking out 40 to 50, right? Because I was going after, strategically, I'm going after the right neighborhood, right? Right, right, equity spread in there. And I would get a lot of people celebrating, because I would put the check up on social media minus certain information. So it'd get like, you know, 500 something likes and shares. But not one of them would come to me and ask me how I did it. They would celebrate. I'm so proud. I remember you said you're going to jump in the real estate and make money. You did it. But not one of them would say, how did you do it?

43:47 Teach me, show me, right? that will let me know so many people are still creatures of their own comfort zone. And as long as everything looks good inside that world, they're fine until something shakes that comfort zone up. Not at all. Because if you look at a tree, the way you know a tree is no longer alive, it stops growing. I got two trees in my yard right now. One is in full bloom and one is absolutely dead. Branch is dead. I think it has a termite infestation, so I need to have it cut down and hauled off. Yeah, have it cut it off because that's been busy ripping and running, right? But during the wintertime, When the leaves fall off both sets of trees, they look identical. They both look like they're both dead until spring hits. The way you know a tree is dead, it stops growing. My job is to never stop growing to information, knowledge, success, wisdom, financial accomplishments, because when that happens, that means I'm no longer growing.

44:34 What happens to a lot of us, we hit a benchmark of success, and that success is detrimental, because we can think we've already arrived, and God is like, no, I got so much more planned for you. Right? I got so many more levels of things for you to achieve and accomplish. But that's the reason why having like a mentor like a Les Brown is great because there's a wide scope of accomplishments for me to look at and say, okay, so these are all things you should be focused on. The right mentor helps shape your journey. So you're not out there wandering aimlessly just going after anything and everything and putting all this effort and energy, but achieving lackluster results. Right? Yeah. So that's my thought on The, so do you think success, someone comes to you, let's go back to this GPS, my success. You throw it out there, throw something recently, a type of, let's talk about business.

45:17 You could apply this to wife and probably relationships, let's talk about business. Because everybody wants to make some money. I want to make a million dollars. Come on, Kareem, you say you're the man, I to make a million dollars. Throw a type of business recently that someone has come to you and they said, this is my passion, this is what I want to do. Do you believe that that's what they should do or should they redirect to try to find a better opportunity or do you think they should? So let's first go there. Okay, so the first thing I would tell somebody to do is you need to make an inventory of all your assets and resources that you're sitting on and When I say that I feel that money is an idea Most of us have been taught to go to work and work hard for money But Napoleon Hills the book is called thinking grow rich not work hard and grow rich for scenes that I'm supposed to use this to create my wealth This is the greatest asset that I have I can use this asset to make me wealthy or I can use this asset to make somebody else wealthy at the end of the day My brain doesn't discriminate on how was used Right?

46:10 That's up to me to discriminate how I want to use it in what capacity. So the first thing is I want to know what you're gifted and talented at, and I want to know what your expertise is. What do you do better than anybody else out there? Because there's folks that are experts in arenas that they think there's no monetary value behind. Like I ran into somebody and they used to work at a retail store and their whole job was folding clothes and putting clothes out. And know, you go to these retail stores, they get, it's like, how do they fold that shirt that way? Like, it's just perfectly neat. Like I, don't. machine like he was a machine It's perfect and so She had been there for two years doing that folding stock and all this like that and she took that skill set home and learned how to Condense and combine and make tons of room inside her house that was normally cluttered To the point that people were asking her can you come over to death from a house?

46:56 Right money is the reward for solving a problem. I'm gonna say that again money is the reward for solving a problem I'm gonna run that back one more time in case somebody got some wax in the ear money is the reward for solving a problem So with your gift, with your talent, with your expertise and with your level of education, what problem are you qualified to solve 40 hours a week versus what are you settling to solve? 40 hours a And I'm gonna be honest with you, depending on how well you do, it may not be 40 hours a week. I know some people that work like 10 hours a week and they're, in the beginning, no. In the beginning, they were putting in more than 40 hours a week. In beginning, you're looking at 50, 60 hours a week. it takes. well, they talk about work-life balance and I'm like, don't book me for work-life balance.

47:37 I'm not gonna tell you that because it doesn't exist. If you want to dominate in something, there's no way you can have work-life balance. You have to put all your weight and gravity on perfecting the very thing that you want to perfect. And then when it takes off, you can start to try to level things out. have you realized personally in life? Because here's what's wild. People need, they need to hear this. So you ran it back. You know, when you said ran it back, I'm like, man, this is so funny. There is a YouTube piece of content, it's a short. And it's a couple ladies, playing spades. It is so funny. And she slaps down a card and she's like, run it back again. Run I'm like, damn, he just said, keep it going. Run it back again. I showed that to somebody. I was like, when we gonna play spades? like, you don't want spades? He yes, I do want spades.

48:18 Let's go. So they said, we're going to talk trash, but run it back again. means let me show you again. Exactly. Let me tell you again. so many people, um, have you had this personal experience where there's a massive imbalance in the beginning? That's what we're talking about. Yes. And in the beginning, there's no dedicated timeframe that it takes any of us. takes us all different time. So, but there's an imbalance in the beginning and that imbalances it's an imbalance of doing things I don't want to do. Yes. Right. And sacrificing the things I want to. So there's that massive imbalance in the beginning. See what happens is at some point you pass the balance to a place of there's an imbalance of a place that you didn't even know.

49:03 You thought you were going for balance. You get to a place where it's like, this is passive income. Now I have all this revenue, I get to live this life, and there's an imbalance, then a free time. People are looking for a balance like they're missing the concept here. Because what they're really talking about is, when do I get to live the life I want? It's on the other side of balance. It is. Right? So have you experienced this yet? Because I'm still in midst of grinding, but have So this is what I say. I'll say yes, I have experienced it But what happens is you're always going to be in a perpetual state where you're dealing with that Because once you achieve it at this level and you start to desire more you got to go back into that funnel all over again Right. So say for instance when I started out with the speaking business, I'm speaking all over the world, um I was trying to figure out work-life balance.

49:49 I keep telling it doesn't work like work-life balance I believe that that is something that the corporations came up with to try to get their employees to be able to plug in and make sure that you're not put too much at too much energy over, make sure you're giving us the right amount of energy. I you pick back up here. Here's what's nice. They should go out and got him. Reed Hoffman started LinkedIn. People should go online and YouTube at Google it on what he talks about. Cause he says it way more mean than me and you could go out there and say, Reed Hoffman work life balance. He talks about it. Yes. And normally you would think a guy that would be liberal minded that would come from that place of like trying to say, no, live a better life and that kind of He tell have you heard him talk about?

50:30 oh Yeah, yeah, he's he's directing to the point I'll say this way when he talks he go hurt he'll hurt somebody's feelings Even people who think they're giving a lot. anyway, so me and you don't have to be mean. Go listen to what he has to say. Yeah, that's it. So pick back up on this about that this perpetual. Yeah. and this is important because if you really want to crush an arena the people that are closest to you they have to understand your mindset like I would have so many fallouts with people because I had so much weight on real estate because my job was to master it because I saw if I can plant this seed and water it long enough for it to grow strong enough roots to point and roots and so it's anchored right and then they start to produce fruit I'm good not only my good but I can help other people be good as well The problem is you get a lot of people where they're not anchored for that distance journey or they get upset because you are now spending 60, 70 hours a week mastering your craft and your skill set, but they're plugged into the 40 hour week deal, right?

51:30 Many people want to pick that tomato while it's still too green. Too many people don't want to do it. But one of the secrets, for someone who's struggling with this right now, I promise you, the easiest way to go about doing this is to surround yourself with people that's already doing what you want to do. Like it made the biggest difference. I was trying to get real estate to take off and I was surrounding myself with my nine to five buddies and we worked in medical claims insurance. We were doing third party medical benefits for companies. We were processing your medical claims. So that's all they focused on was getting 100 claims processed today, checks out the door, doctors paid, reimbursed. prescription coverage and stuff like that. While they were focused on that, I was focused on Thinking or Rich, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and a couple other books as a man thinking. Like I was focused on the content I was consuming from that.

52:11 I didn't know I was gonna do real estate yet, right? And so this is crucial because for a lot of people, when I say create your vision, your vision is not the business, the vision is the ideal lifestyle you wanna have, right? It's the ideal lifestyle. What does my life look like when I wake up in the morning? What does life look like for my kids? What does vacation look like? You know, what's the value that I bring to the table? Am I in high demand? I want the vision created first. And I want to be clear about the vision because once I know the vision, I'll understand there's four or five different ways I can get there. So you think you picked a vehicle that lines up with what your strengths are, what you think. I did. That's your. Yes, that's key. The most successful people I know, they know their skill set. They know what they're exceptionally good at. So it's almost like watching a basketball game. Everybody wants to play at home because I got home court advantage.

52:53 I know we're on the court to shoot that three point. It's gonna go in every single time. So you have to play this game just like any other thing out there where I want the home court advantage. I want everything to be moving in the flow and air, but what's gonna make it easier for me to win. If a cheetah is gonna chase a gazelle, It's got its choice of chasing a grown adult gazelle or chasing a baby gazelle. We already know what that cheetah's gonna do, especially if it ain't got kids to take care of. That baby is gone. It's easy pickings, right? So you have to know your strengths and you have to know your weaknesses and put yourself into alignment with your strengths, because your wins will come quicker and faster. I hear all the arguments in my head. It's good advice. You know how we hear things through the filter of our own experience?

53:34 Sure. And that's the challenge of speaking to a crowd. That's true. Right? um There's a however to every moment, but that however is where 5 % of the folks exist. Those are the ones, they fall into the however pocket and they get stuck there. Analysis, paralysis, and then they don't move forward and achieve great things because they're thinking about all the things that can go wrong instead of thinking about all the things that can go right. So a of people, here's where I'm at. I'm thinking about all the people. What I share so often is, you all, the reason why I'm still continuing and why I've achieved some semblance of success, I don't feel I'm successful, other people do, is because I haven't reached my pain threshold yet.

54:15 And so, and it is deep because I still have to do hard things. And so I haven't been someone that goes after the baby gazelle. But because I'm willing to sacrifice all the pain in the time of not eating to fail and fail and fail to then learn how to take down the big one. So many people tackle that baby and they just continue tackling the baby all the time. Yeah. So you can go here with it. Yeah. Yeah, so here's the thing. In the speaking industry, I did that. Like I remember when I was only getting paid like $500 to speak, right? And I kept going at the speaking engagements. And what I didn't realize is as I was increasing my value as a speaker, as I was increasing my brand and my image and stuff was going out there, there was the perception that his fee is more because look at all the things he's achieving to compensate.

55:05 But I was still stuck at that $500 amount. It was one day I spoke at this group in Indiana. And they were like, oh my God, it's one of the best speeches I've ever heard in my life. Like everybody's just talking about you and some people are so excited we brought you in here. I'm just confused on how we got you for so cheap. And I'm sitting there, I had that Scooby Doo raggy, bro. Cheap, what do mean? Like we had a budget like $4,000. Like, because you said you're worth $500. This is why I go back saying you got to know yourself, right? I'm okay with the small victories because I think with some people, the small victories are what brings up the level of encouragement. not fighting back. But there's a moment in time where you have to put down what's old, go out there with what's new. And that's where the beauty of a mentor comes in.

55:45 Because a lot of times a good mentor will say, all right, you work more than that. Stop telling them that's your fee. Like raise your fee up higher, right? So if I have the right mentor or if I'm surrounded with the right circle, a lot of times that accountability comes from them. Even the right spouse, the accountability can come from them by saying, it's time to level up, right? Do you have anybody that could be perceived as a peer to you, but they're actually a mentor? I remember a friend of mine, he's now at a place where he's getting 25 grand to speak. You know that's a good place to be. That's a good place to be. And he's gone from 3,500 to five grand to this 25 in about 18 months. But for five years... That's the uh timeframe.

56:27 So, but he called me and every time he would level up, he knew to call me because I'm the cheerleader. And so he would call me, but, but I would also say he's like, Hey man, I can't believe it. And before he, I said, yes, I can. Yeah, you already saw it. Yes, I can. because it's the path you're on the trajectory. I said, how much more is this next week? He's like 7,500 bucks. Come on now. And I'd say, that's what he says too. Yeah. He says that. He says, come on now. Okay. So he's in Dallas. don't know if there's so, but, what happens is, but the moment he says 7,500, I say, congratulations. I'm glad you're here. But I said, dude, I know I'm going to get a call in three to six months. Sure. And it's going to be 10 higher.

57:08 Right. Yeah. And so That was important for him to be around me because m his mind wasn't there. Yeah, well iron sharpens iron, right? Yeah. So what ends up happening is I think that yes, you need a mentor, but I also think you need peers around you where if my blade is a little dull and it's not cutting as easily as it be, I can have a conversation with you, walk away from that conversation and feel like I can slice through steel. But you gotta make sure you're calling the right people, because there's a of people who fraudulently are cheering for you. If you got someone in your corner right now that can give you ten reasons why you can't pull it off and can't give you one reason why you can you you need to fire them immediately like I tell people I'm the CEO of my life that I reserve the right to hire and fire as needed that I'll give you a pink slip before you even get a chance to ask me what's wrong like if I sense that we're going down that pathway I've learned to fire people quickly like be done with them very very quickly don't let it mull out don't Learn that I learned that because I kept giving people chances at the chances and I believe people show you who they are right you just have to pay attention like And the world is speaking because we're, we're a lot of us as speakers, we're very, very, uh, elegant with our words.

58:12 So we know exactly what to say to dazzle the crowd. Like we've mastered, you know, communication. There are certain people where they can master communication, but their actions don't match up with the communication. They don't match up what they say. So I'm a strong believer. And when someone shows you who they are, believe it, like a pair of words, a pair of lips can say anything, but go by the actions, right? Yeah. Yeah. When your funeral does show up, hopefully that's, so the average lifespan now for somebody in the US, 78 years old. So if you're fortunate to get there, that's only 29 more years. Some people are trying to live forever. Some of these billionaires are now trying to live.

58:53 Figure it out, guys. Tell me how to do it. got you. So let's say you make it $278, and the true free roll happens. um And they dress you in something this nice. Something that you'd be impressed by. Say thank you. um The question is, what do you want to leave behind? You're not allowed to say the cliche things. You can't say the people I impacted, the kids, how they felt. From a business standpoint, because I think we're talking about the cliche things. People want to be successful out here in this world. They want you to show them how to make money and live the life they want to live.

59:33 Sure. Money is a part of this thing. Well. OK, so what do you hope? that at that moment you will have achieved professionally that isn't the woo woo stuff. Sure. So the first thing that came to mind that I did a great job of reproducing the seed inside of other people. And what that means is this, and I can say this comfortably because one of the beautiful things about being so close with Les is to watch him at this stage of his journey. Les is 80. most of the greats, I can say most, all the greats that started when he started, they're not here, so he's the last. When I say living legend, if you get a chance to go see him, go see him, he's a living legend.

1:00:17 He's literally the last of the old guard. But there were moments when I would be out there, because the hardest thing with Les is to take yourself out of fan mode. Like you could be there with him and I'm here as mentee, but the fan boy's like, yeah, gotta be hungry, yeah. Like you get to scream and stuff like that, because I grew up with. sounds like the Wayans Brothers right there. But the question I would always ask myself is how does the world perceive him once he's no longer with us? Did he do a good job of reproducing himself in other people? how many seeds get planted that produce fruit that carry his messages, ideas, his values that are gonna bless other people. Because once I plant this seed over there and produce this fruit, know, locked inside every piece of fruit is additional seeds.

1:01:00 So means that fruit gets replanted again. So that's how you go from planting one tree to growing an orchard. So for me, when I think about immortality, the closest you're gonna get to immortality besides hologram technology, which is really real now. Like people are trying to download their information and then create a hologram where they can just pop up and, you know. um and you're speaking. Speaking as if you're still there um Immortality is basically the gift of what you leave behind for the world There's a reason why so many billionaires say when I die I'm gifting all my stuff to charity I'm not gonna take it with me and if I was one of the kids I would argue against that I might give my kids anything you got billions of dollars. You leave me something I mean, you can't afford 25 million. You can't give me a couple pennies. I say, listen, this is how you get cremated and get your ashes sprinkled in the sewer.

1:01:44 Don't play that game with me. You got way too much money to say you're going to give everybody and leave me. You got to give me something, right? I decide what happens to those ashes when it's all over with. But yeah, so I think that when I say live full and die empty, I want to make sure I don't take anything with me, but I'll make sure that I leave everything here, my systems, my roadmap, my blueprint, my thought process, so someone can take a look at that seed planted in their personal life. and get the same result. do you need to do it better or do you just need to be the fruit of the seed of a less brown? It just needs to be that. so here's the thing I was speaking for 20 years before less came into the picture, right? So I had a speaking career that was already successful prior to less the reason why less came into the picture because I kept telling myself there's more This is me looking at the mortality of my own comfort zone.

1:02:29 Look at you achieve You got this you got this got this got this got this but there's another level to the success thing It's another low to speak and thing and so since you don't know how to get there The easy thing to do is find a mentor who's already been there. And so that's where less came in a picture my ability to go travel less in the country and out of the country and see how he commands the room in front of folks from all walks of life, literally all walks of life, different countries, different religions, different backgrounds, having a translator on the stage, translating words in real time to a room full of people who's there to see you, but they don't even speak your native tongue, right? To me watching that, I'm saying that's legacy. He's left moments inside these people's minds and hearts that when he passes away, they'll never be able to forget that.

1:03:10 One of my other mentors by name of Delatorre McNeil, said this a long time ago, he said, um people may forget what you say, but they'll never forget how you made them feel. And I think that we're in a pivotal point where people need hope, people need to be a uh feeling of uplifting. Like people wanna feel like it's okay to dream again at this point in time. People wanna feel like it's safe to go after their hopes and dreams and not worry about am I gonna lose my house or the kid's gonna be okay, whatever have you. So part of my legacy is to make sure that I have left. active body of work here for anybody who comes down my pathway and says I want to duplicate his success or even I want to crush his success, go farther than him, I want to leave it here. Right? So with my speaking academy, I can see having that already future forecast.

1:03:53 I can see that built up where we're kicking out between 50 to 100 speakers a year, right? Where I'm teaching them everything that I know. In essence, they're kind of like disciples. So it's no difference unless even though I don't necessarily have the same messages as less. I'm up under him for so long, I got his speaking DNA. So people can hear me talk and say, that sounded like a Les Brown-ism or the way he said that or the way he curved that or carried that or the way he rolled that top again, it sounds like a Les. Yeah, because that's the speaking DNA of where I've been, right? But that's my answer right there. answer is I'm less is Jesus in your TDJs. That would be it. Or you could say, less as Jesus, I would be Peter. I say Peter because Peter was a disciple. had a little bit of a temper on like, he was holy, but he would, Peter cut that dude's ear off.

1:04:34 uh He got mad enough and sliced that dude's ear off. disciple would less say you are? I think he would say I was Peter too. Really? Yeah. Because here's the thing, and this is what authenticity is about. In the world of motivation, people believe that if you talk about motivation and inspiration, you're not entitled to be human. Like everything you do has to stay, has to be fluffy and a fluffier smile. I'll cuss you out on social media. I ain't, I'm Peter. You catch me on the wrong day, I will motivate you, but I still pop you to let you know don't do that, right? So I'm still a work in progress. mean, but in all honesty, like. being able to embrace who I am totally, which is not to be this perfect person on stage where you pronouncing everything properly, and processing the T's and the I's, it's being you, right?

1:05:24 Because you connect with someone when you feel like you actually know them, right? And what happens with most people, we walk around catfishing our own existence. We got this idea of what we think makes us likeable or successful, and we wear this mask around until we get caught with the mask off. And then the world is shot in the nose. Like President Obama's like that. no one knew president obama Listen, he was sneaking out the West Wing. He's sneaking over to Bush's, man. Yeah, they got some of those shots of him. But what's funny is the media didn't put those out for didn't put them out Yeah. Towards year 6, 7, 8, they started coming out a little bit. Yeah. Right? So I'm sitting there thinking like, he smokes cigarettes. like, do you? Pissed at him like, put those Marlboro's down.

1:06:06 What's that say about life? That guy m was so refined. He was modeled, he was controlled, he was built, he built this thing to take out the world. Because behind the scenes, I bet he was Peter at times. Oh, I know he had to be okay. He's cool with Obama got his moments, right? oh So what does that say about us? That he had achieved this level of success. Because I don't think he was that much, he rose quick. He did. I don't think that he was that too much different than people that achieve at these elite levels, elites. And so, but he still had flaws that if he exposed them, the world say, a minute, that doesn't match up with this.

1:06:54 So here's my thought man, I'm a user on if I should say this and I know on this podcast a man of God. You better calm down. Maybe you write it down and make me say it because I say some bad stuff sometimes. This is what I'm say. Years ago, I remember when I had several CMHA properties, And know, CMHA, for those of who don't know, Section 8, the purpose of Section 8 obviously is to be the subsidy, the rent subsidy. So they may have to pay 20 % of the bill, Section 8 steps in and pays the rent. That's it. It's a guaranteed check is going to come no matter what, as solid as locked in. But that government entity would come out at least once a year to check the home, to make sure it's up to standards.

1:07:35 And the trick in the real estate world back then is if you had a good house and you didn't want anything to ruin it, you would intentionally go take off a light switch cover or something like, you know it's going to ding it to keep it, to make it fail, right? Go take a light switch cover, right, like 30 minutes before they get there and crack the light switch on purpose. When they come in, they'll go, everything looks good except for this light switch. You know what? I think I got one in the trunk of the car. I'll go get it right now. And so you pass on the spot without them having to come back out seven days later, whatever have you. I say that because I think in the world of speaking, speakers kind of work the same exact way, right? Which means we have a good idea about the topic that we want to talk about, but we also know how to direct and misdirect.

1:08:15 And I'm not saying this in a negative way, but the goal of a speaker is not to force you to do anything. It's to give you an idea, a thought, and hopefully give you the thought in such a way and manner that you take the thought and you plan it and you run with it and you get positive results. There are people I tell when I get on stage, I say, I'm going to give you some stuff today that's going to be questionable. If you don't agree with it, don't toss it out the window. I want you to hold on to it for at least 72 hours. After 72 hours, if it don't make sense, toss it over your shoulder. We can still connect on social media, be best friends. I don't have a problem with that, right? But what we're doing is we're giving people what I call dream seats. And then they choose what to do with that dream seat. There's some dream seats they'll never receive because the programming of how they think life works is so indelibly locked in at an early age.

1:08:57 No matter what I say to you, you're not going to believe, you're not going to go for it. And that's also the reason why I can be successful as entrepreneur. I can show the trappings of success, right? No smoke and mirrors. But I still have people in my camp that won't ask me to show them how to do it because they're still going by their programming, which is to be successful, I got to go this way. Thanks for tuning in. If you like these types of conversations, be sure to follow the necessary entrepreneur on your favorite platform so you never miss out on future content. don't bring up a lot of other names that people have been on here, there's, I've been talking about this one recently. Um, there's a guy on here about, it was virtual. Um, Todd Herm, I've talked about him seven or eight times. Most people don't know his name.

1:09:37 He's behind the scenes guy, but he is elite. And so I'm going to tell this story and I'm going to that connects with what you were saying that what so many people don't do. So he was the guy that when Kobe was going through the bad moment in his life that everybody just knows that it kills most people. And I don't think anybody ever knows the truth around the reality of a lot of these big things that happened, but he owned up some stuff and said, should perform better, should act a little better, whatever it was. Todd Herman is the guy. that helped him come up with the alter ego, the black mamba. He's, was that guy. They were on the phone when they came up with it together.

1:10:18 If the new, the new, the Kobe documentary that just came out, not nearly as good as the last dances Jordans, right? But maybe there wasn't enough time, but Todd Herman's in there talking about it. So he was there. So he was on the podcast. And the reason why I invoked that to give somebody the semblance of, okay, if that guy was in that moment, he had some receipts that got him there. where somebody at that elite level that Kobe Bryant was, he lead in anything, was utilizing this guy to help him figure out how, and the reason why the alter ego was important, because everything who he believed himself was destroyed. And he couldn't get up and feel good. How am going to go out in the world? So, but this Todd Herman guy, the way he became that, he's 18 years old. um He grew up on a farm in Canada and he realized he didn't want to be on the farm and didn't want to live that life.

1:11:03 He said, I had cleaned enough chicken coops. I don't blame him. So his brother stayed. didn't. So he left and he was going off to college. And he said, the one piece of advice that his dad gave him is what stuck with him. His dad said, whatever you choose to do, find the most elite and the best people in that category post up next to them, learn and do everything they say to do. He did that with someone else who was that person for these elite baseball players. And he found himself in the room of someone who mentally coached those people. And so it's exactly what you're talking about doing. And so this piece of advice that you're saying, but the reason why I know Todd took it because the person in his life, his dad had the most credibility.

1:11:49 So it's how do we find that person? Because when they first listened to Kareem Ellis, they meet you, you haven't established credibility yet. You've got receipts, but you don't. Mark Perkins doesn't. So I'll tell you what I did. I believe in serving your way to the top. And a lot of people fail to understand this. First thing is me understanding who am I trying to get close to? Who's the mentor? This is strategy, right? Vision, strategy, mentorship. Vision of what I want. Strategy is how I'm gonna get there. Mentor is a person that can tie it together because they already know it. So what I did when I got to the less level, I start trying to find ways to serve him, right?

1:12:33 The problem with most people is we come to the cookout. We don't bring anything with us. We don't even bring plates. Like the cheapest thing you can bring is sporks. If you ain't bringing the dish, bring some sporks from the dollar general. Like they show up, they make two, three plates, and then they make this big pile of plate to take home with them. And haven't brought anything of value to the table. That means you showed up to get rather than to give. You don't become valuable by trying to get, you become valuable by trying to give. My tribe and following follows me because I'm giving them something of value every day, not trying to get something from them, right? And so with Les and any other mentor I've had, whether it was big name speakers or just on my individual group, even with my mentor in real estate, I showed up trying to serve.

1:13:16 Because when you serve, you create value, you make yourself necessary to that person. Especially if they look around and go, okay, I need something done and okay, he's still here, right? What you're trying to do is figure out how do I level the playing field where now I have more personal one-on-one time with this person, right? And when you're valued to them, they're going to give you that time. And then the other thing I learned was to be the shadow, right? I'm gonna use a different story for this. I know this will resonate with people. There was a point in time where all the rage was around, dare I say this, Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. Like we remember that era of the, like. There's an 2000. they're kind of famous for nothing. They're famous because they are heirs to successful people and then Fox gave them their own reality show where they're on the farm to get the farms right and then there was the fallout where the two of them fell out and Nicole Richie got plate got replaced by a very very young Kim Kardashian who was the assistant and Kim's game plan was to be by Paris's side everywhere she went knowing the cameras is on her the cameras on me right And she also knew she had a window of time to make her move.

1:14:21 Why? Because if you anchor to someone and their star power is starting to fade, you're going to fade with them. So she made her jump. Of course, we now know about the infamous sex tape that was already created and playing. And I'm not telling you to make a sex tape to go be famous. Don't do that. Right? But she used that opportunity of limelight, being around the right person at the right time and strategically making the right move to make sure that her star power stood out. And so she was no longer reliant on having to be around Paris Hills. Didn't she just listen to Mom Manager? She listened to mom manager. She did listen to mom manager, you know, and I don't agree with everything that mom manager told her to do, especially as more and more truths come out about how that tape really came about. You know, that's kind of, kind of creepy a little bit that, you know, mom had a part in it. Um, but I say that to say that what you want is not going to come to you easy.

1:15:05 Like you really have to be strategic about what you want, which means I have to sit down there and focus. And this is why the vision piece is important. Again, the more I focus on something, the more obsess over it, the more obsessed over it. then it's a matter time before I act on it and go after it. Most people don't create the obsession part. So the old becomes new again. Back in the day, Oprah would be talking about vision boards. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah, because you'll go after what you see on a regular basis. The world's job is to put their desired things in front of you so you focus on chasing their stuff, not your own. So the beautiful thing about me disconnecting from the corporate world and plugging into more of my entrepreneurial buddies, what I was seeing every day changed. So my desires changed, my hunger changed, and most importantly, my why started to change.

1:15:47 way to get around people who are doing the things you want to do, you got to show up and you got to bring something of value. you got this is like hunting for a bingo tiger. Like I know we're in Kentucky. Ain't no bingo tigers out here. Right. And they ain't even act like tigers. But if I want to hunt a bingo tiger, I first got to figure out where the bingo tigers habitat at. Yes. Go to India. Right. And then I got to figure out what type of bait do I use for a bingo tiger? Very, very easily. But if you want to survive, you better find out a better form of bait to use. Like some of the stuff is so simplistic. It's just common sense. But We make success so difficult by adding all these other layers and levels of steps. go, no, if you were a child, because kids have simplistic thinking, what's the quickest way to get from here to the cookie jar?

1:16:29 If I don't know where people hang out that are doing what I want to do, is there a Facebook group I can go to? Because that might be the beginning of it. Is there a local investment club, like the RIA group? Is there a local real estate investment club? Because putting myself around folks that are doing it every day helps solidify my mindset that I'm in the right place. way ever to pay. I've never done it, but you can pay to be all these guys, the gurus, you can pay 10 grand, you can pay 20 grand, right? But you're going to look like everybody else if you aren't bringing something of value as well, right? Yeah, so this is my thing. I think that you have to figure out what makes you unique, what makes you different. On my hands, I got a bunch of different fingerprints. Unless God gave me a twin or a triplet, these only belong to me. My job as a speaker, wherever I go, is to make sure that if they were to dust down the crime scene at the end of the hour, my fingerprints are all over everything so you know who was the assassin in the room, who assassinated the room with the message or whatever have you.

1:17:24 Your job is to make sure that uniquely stand out. And so that was a little bit of a challenge originally when I got around someone like Les Brown, because Les is so well known and popular, my job is not to ride in the shadow. I'm a whole separate person over here, right? But you will only ride in the shadow if you don't figure, if you don't know yourself well enough to know who you are and what is your unique brand property. What do you bring to the table that has value that people want and desire to get from you, right? So you have to know what's my expertise because people are dealing with you based on your expertise, right? And these, think the struggle was the other night, I'm not going to, certain names out here invoke names, but the other night I'm on a phone call real late. And one of the people on the phone call has a million plus people. Big name. Big, big influencer.

1:18:05 And just because they've achieved success in a certain business and that doesn't mean they know what I know. And that's to your point. There was so much value I brought on that call about the thing that I know and they knew nothing about. And those people, the thing that they are smart about is. They will listen to who the experts are in the room. There's no more ego anymore. They want to win. Yeah. Because part of that is those folks are ones that have already cast their vision. They already know what they're going after for the next year, two years, five years, 10 years. And so once I program myself for what I want, now my subconscious mind is looking for the gate bridge, the land bridge to get me from here to there. It's opportunity. So you don't walk into a conversation just shooting the breeze, shooting the ish, shaking hands and go a separate way.

1:18:48 I'm having conversation, but I'm also thinking about my goals and listening to what you're saying. You know what? I didn't know he was already in that arena. Let me segue this conversation over here because he might be the connect that can get me into this particular side of the fence or whatever have you, right? But that's the beauty of making sure you have this thing locked in up here. So you're always focused on your goals, always focusing. It's okay to spend some money, just make sure you put your fingerprints everywhere. Yeah, you could spend money. don't have, this is my thing. I don't have a problem spending money on anything, whether it's coaching, training, or anything like that, as long as I'm going to get a great rate of return. The number one rule in real estate, besides location, location, location, is I want to get a great rate of return. The very first real estate deal I bought, I ended up doing a short sale on it. It wasn't the first short sale I ever done, because I'd already mastered short sales, but I ended up doing a short sale on it, because we overpaid for it.

1:19:34 We got snickered by what I'll say corrupt... uh Rulter and broker that were engaged we married so they gave us this this loan rate We never should have hit like our credit was way better than that at that point time my credit partner And it was before we hit all the functionality where the government was saying these things you get they got to take a look at the statements You know this this far in advance you can't spring that no nobody last minute Because there was getting a lot of people like a lot of people who don't buy houses every day don't understand the ramifications of I don't understand this paperwork is stop everything across the board We got stuck with this property. We overpaid for it by about $20,000. That was the fee that they made. We were renting it out and then we ran into a dilemma.

1:20:14 We were trying to rent it out. We're all suddenly, it was not renting out for a month because that variable rate decided to say hello. And that mortgage payment jumped up by about $500 more a month. And of course the tenant is not paying that. And so it was short time by that. And so what ended up happens, I ended up having to do a short sale on that deal to get rid of it. I ended up doing it creatively. So I ended up putting 10 grand in my pocket, but I lost 20 grand on the deal altogether, just getting everything together. And that was my lesson about learning what you need to learn. Right. And so just jumping out there and think you just going to wish your way to the finish line. better spend time getting educated, studying, learning. Like it's not enough to have a gift and talent, but you have to have the education of how to use that gift and talent properly in certain arenas. So that was my first wake up call.

1:20:55 I got burned one time like that and I have never got burned again. Right? But when you invest in something, you invest because you want to get a rate of return. Non-performing assets get dropped every single day. And that goes for the company you keep. If you're hanging around people and you're not getting value out of them, if you're not walking away feeling like you've learned something new or you've been challenged going a new direction, that's not growth, that's death. return on your time, baby. Time is the most valuable thing. I saw an actor last week say something. know, once your algorithm does something, it just feeds you certain things. I try to stay out it, but it's there. And he said, hey, I want to be the best. What do the best do? And I think this was a director, might've been a screenwriter or something, or playwright.

1:21:35 And he said, well, there was two or three of the best, and these names they invoke names of elite actors. And they said, well, they read it. 250 times. And what he said was, because once you read, you read your role and read your part, you read the script 250 times, you become that. That's true. You don't have to act anymore. Yeah. And then he showed up and he ran to that same person five or six years later and said, Hey, somebody told me something about you. Said the way that you're successful is you read it 250 times. Is that true? And they said, yes, I read it 250 times. Okay, so.

1:22:16 You do, you do. um One of my favorite Bruce Lee quotes, he says, I don't fear the man that knows 10,000 different kicks. He says, I fear the man that has practiced one kick 10,000 different times because in the street fight, if he ever connects with that kick that he has worked on and perfected and mastered 10,000, some getting broken, some are going to the hospital, right? And. So that lets me know that whatever I'm sitting on, my job is to put enough time, effort, energy that I can be considered a master. In other words, whenever I do something, I want to do it so well that I can actually teach it to somebody else. And in my mind, now I've mastered it because I know it well enough I can teach someone how to do it just like that. No notes, no notes like that off the top of my head, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I know it well enough that I can convey it to someone else.

1:22:58 What do think you still have to learn? Hmm. So I think that there's always gonna be stuff that you have to learn because we're always growing. So every time you hit a new benchmark of success, what I was taught a long time ago is new levels, new devils. And what that means is, and we're roughly about the same age, right? You're a little older. I'm a little older. I'll take that one on the chin. I'll take that on the chin. You're in though. So here's the thing. We grew up in the Nintendo generation, the OG Nintendo generation. Yeah, I had one. I fought for that. I should have followed I fought for that one right yeah, but if you think about those old-school video games whether there was a Nintendo or the Sega Genesis When you would fight different video games there was it was a pattern that the bag I had a pattern right the bad guy may do punch punch jump block punch punch like him and you would get beat four or five times on the game right and to find you figure there's a pattern and If I understand the pattern I beat the game in life.

1:23:52 There's patterns And once you understand the pattern well enough, you know exactly how to play the game. You know what weapon to use in this game, who to connect with, who should be part of your tribe for this game, or whatever have you. But as you beat the boss at this level, that boss may pop up three levels later, but he's much tougher, right? Same looking dude, but his attack pattern has switched up now, and I gotta figure out the attack pattern. And so I think that's the dilemma of success in entrepreneurship. That I have defeated every devil on this level, right? But now that I'm going to the next level and that level could be access to a whole nother ring. It could be more money coming in from business decisions. Um, it could be more employees coming in. It could be a new addition to my family. It could be anything that's that new level. But when I hit that new level, there's always going to be a different version of that same devil.

1:24:32 I to learn how to fight. And my job is to defeat that love, defeat that devil and that level. So I can go up to the next level above that. But since we're always a work in progress, there'll never be a point in time where you have perfected who you are because there's always room for more growth. Like the version of you here today, five years from now, you're gonna be a beast on something else. Yeah, if you keep going. Now here's the catch, and I'll throw this out there again. Les taught me a long time ago. He said, never let your success take you to a height that your character can't sustain you. Right? And what that means is there's a lot of people out there that's gifted and talented at what they do and they can rise very, very quickly. But the thing that will always slow you down will be your character or the lack thereof. Right? got a lot of people.

1:25:12 Yeah, because what happens is we celebrate you for what you do exceptionally well. We may not celebrate you for your character choices and decisions and everybody is flawed. Like there's nobody here. It's just a matter of whatever you got going on, no matter how dramatic it is or how small it is, it's in the closet. It's just a matter of somebody opens that clause and lets it out because we live in a very, very judgmental society also. Right. So I think that part of good character is also focused on who I decide to surround myself with on a regular basis because they kind of keep the character balance in check, right? So yeah, that's what my thought is. My thought is that I'm always a work in progress. So I don't want to get too happy with whatever benchmarks I'm going to knock out this year because what happens with lot of us, we can celebrate that and get stuck there.

1:25:56 We can think that this is the glory season, like, my God, I accomplished the big, like the 10X, the 10X stage, right? That I should have won. you got second place. How did it feel? How did it feel though to get second? Yeah, so here's the thing, and I'm gonna be candid, because I'm gonna hit this conversation by four people. um There was a lot of prayer that went into it, because I knew I had nailed a stellar speech. I'm not egotistical, but damn it, I knew I crushed that speech. goes confident? I knew it. There's moments where you look at, if you ever been in the kitchen cooking, and you put that little... That's it. Like you just say, it's perfect. It don't need nothing else. They don't need no more salt. No, know, paprika don't need no, no more parmesan.

1:26:37 She is as perfect as it is. And so going out there and nailing that, cause I ad-libbed that speech when I was in the middle of speech, I ad-libbed it. So I was supposed to end that speech with eight seconds on the clock. I ended that speech with two seconds on the clock and I didn't know where is it time wise. So I knew that's what got happy in the six. I knew like I nailed, I nailed, I nailed it. And so what ended up happening is when he came through and he, and he won based on the criteria I'm talking about, which is, know, um, The creator of the contest came to me and said, I'm telling you right now, you're person that won, right? They're just not seeing it right, and I don't have any say over it, but I'm telling you, he did not have the best speech, you had the best speech. Again, I believe that everything happens for a reason. My brand was not gonna be hurt by not coming in first place.

1:27:20 The benefit of being on that stage in front of 9,000 people and then 150,000 people viewed it online, because there's people who couldn't make it out, so 150,000 viewed it. And right now there's a website oh on Instagram, somebody has that clip up. It's done 2.2 million in views and it's been less than 45 days. um What I believe is this is when you just put your best effort and energy into something, God will amaze you what he'll do with the results. On my way back home in prayer, the conversation was you thought I sent you there to get first place. I didn't see you there for that reason. I sent you there to put you on a platform so the world can know just how dope you are at what you do. If you got that many people's attention in two minutes, think what they get if they book you for an hour, right?

1:28:06 So there's always a different way of looking at it. But at first it did hurt because so many people were coming to me in a foyer saying, oh my God, you should have won that. You should have won that. I think you were robbed. This isn't the third. And so it's, it's, it's receiving a compliment, but I said it was like a death by thousand paper cuts because it's a mixed compliment because people come out saying you should have won, but you know, you didn't. Right, so one in thank you, but out of hurt. Is there anything you could have done better to win? Um, for that particular platform, knowing it was a two minute speech, absolutely not. Absolutely not. That speech had a mixture of everything that I would have put into a one hour keynote condensed down into two minutes.

1:28:47 So absolutely not from me engaging the audience, spending time with the judges, using the soft prop because I pulled the bullet out and showed the bullet on stage, to walking the room. Like if you look at my speech versus everybody else's, there's a difference between my speaking standard. Everyone else got to steal. I was owning the room. Right? Because I'm used to doing this. So, but that's what happens when you master your message. There's, there's folks that I know that didn't master their message because when you don't master the message, you can only focus on the message. You can't walk and talk and have those, like we see the best singers in the world where they go out there and lean over and start singing to the crowd and all that. they walk and because they know the song. You understood the content. You understood the assignment. We uh all depends on the vision you have for your life.

1:29:55 depends on the vision of your life. So with me going out there into that contest, I went out there with the belief I was going to win it. You always speak positively over yourself. But if it does not go the way you want it go, what's the consolation prize? The consolation prize is the footage, the imagery, the videos, the connections you've made, the opportunities you made. Plus, of course, my speaking fee is definitely going up after that. We know there's no hesitation on that, which is part of the reason for doing it also. What's the best? the best speech you ever gave? Whether the audience thought it was the best. What's the best one? So although people think that the best speech was that one there, for me it wasn't. The best speech I gave was the one where I got Les Brown's attention for the first time.

1:30:36 I was trying to get Les Brown for a mentor for several years. And every time I tried to line things up, because I kept saying, OK, so I just need to be in a room with him. But I can be in a room when I have a conversation with him. I can give him my story, my plight. And every time I would try to line it up, something would go south, and it would just fall apart. There was one time he was going to be right here in Kentucky. And I thought it was going to be on Thursday. I had a real estate deal closing on Wednesday. I got the days messed up. So I went out and got my $30,000 wholesale fee. And then I showed up the next day in the suit for photo ops. And it was like, that was yesterday. Like ain't nobody here. Right? So there's moments where I kept missing out on him, but that's that dedication, which is that man is going to be my mentor. don't know he ain't going to be my mentor. And so what I ended up doing was I joined one of his coaching programs.

1:31:17 I use that as a way to get closer to him, but they had a speech contest at the venue. and that speech contest was supposed to be three minutes. You're supposed to get out there and talk about whatever you wanted to. And I decided to talk about my Porsche convertibles. I said got two of them and I like to hand wash my cars myself. So I'll go to the car wash and... Before I wash it, I want to get it all vacuumed up. So I get all in the cracks and stuff like that. And then I roll the car around to the service bay, but I don't wash it immediately. I like to soap up the wheels, right? And try to break down the grime and gristle. And so while I got the soap cleaner on the wheels, I'll walk around to the front of the car wash to make change. And I put in the first dollar bill, four quarters come out. Second dollar bill, four quarters come out.

1:31:59 Third dollar bill, I put it in and the dollar bill is so beat up, wrinkled and crinkly that the bill comes back out. Frustrated I try to force it back in it comes back out I flip the bill upside down like you don't have a reader put it in comes back out I start to walk back to my car hoping I got some change because I already got the sets on the car at this point in time and I can't get the machine to work without enough quarters and Right as I get to the handle the car I hear this voice in my head say go back to that machine and straighten that bill back out So I straighten the bill out I put it inside and what you know four quarters came out and when I told the audience I said if you think this message about me owning these two select sleek, sexy sports cars in Cincinnati, Ohio, that you missed the message. If you think this message about how I like to go wash my car as a vacuum, you missed the message.

1:32:39 The message is simply this, there's some arenas of your life you won't get access to until you first decide to straighten yourself up so God can make the right change and introduce you to the right environments and opportunities to take you to the next level. But the way I ended that speech is I ended that speech by doing a mic drop. Now, I didn't want to use Les's mic because I didn't know him like that and I didn't want to just drop his mic and break it. So the mic drop, I pulled out four quarters. count them on stage, and at the mic drop of the quarters and walked off and the room exploded because they weren't seeing that coming. But when I gave the speech, I gave the speech intentionally to get his attention. I believe that part of the reason why you're supposed to find your gift and talent, because scripturally based, it says your gifts and talents will make room for you and put you before powerful people.

1:33:23 There are some doors you won't get access to until that person can see you in your giftedness and your talent. If we look at some of the most successful people in the world, from Michael Jordan to Tiger Woods, there was always a moment where their gift and talent got noticed by that one right person that can open up the doorway and get them into a whole nother arena that they only dreamed about. But it's knowing and mastering that gift. There's business deals you are doing now in part because people know what you're good at. And that's why they trust doing that deal with you, because they know what you're good at. They know your gift and talent. So that would be the most important speech. And that speech was like three minutes, but... to get a standing ovation from who I consider to one of the world's greatest motivational speakers, to get him, and we didn't have that relationship back then, that sticks in my mind because it was a level of creativity.

1:34:06 And I tell people that there's three gifts that I use on regular basis. I use my communication, right? ah I'm very, very creative, and the creativity is what took place there, not communication. How can I creatively tie the story about my porches to the symbolism of necessary change? Otherwise, you'll be stuck where you're at for another season. And then, I learned stuff very fast as a kid growing up. skipped the grade. I went from kindergarten to second grade, skipped over first grade after they gave me a few tests. That means I learned stuff very, very quickly. Right. And so my job is to look at whatever arena that I'm being introduced into. And first and foremost, figure out how does my gift give me the home court advantage? I felt sorry for a lot of the folks that was in the contest because I already knew that our hit already things lined up, not, not being arrogant, but already knew I had everything lined up and my favor based on.

1:34:50 the nature of the event, the topic I'm talking about, who's gonna cover that? Who's gonna catch that? This dude in a mic drop with quarters. They got everybody out they chair. How do you beat that? how do you compete? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. For that one there, I think we hit close to like 70 people. That's Yeah, so decent size. your Porsches, which is your favorite. ah Right now, I picked up a Boxster the other day, man. I picked up a Boxster last year and I like it. But I like it only because of the color. It's like a metallic gray and it's limited edition. So there's only so many cars that have it. So when a sun hits it, depending on the angle, either it looks blue or looks gray or it looks black. Right? got the roll bars behind the seats and all that stuff.

1:35:32 uh Not not behind the seats. Yeah, not not not yet. We're working on it What do you love about them? Why this Porsche thing? Is it what the brand means to you? so it kind of goes back to that thing we talked about earlier with symptoms and in the problem So as a kid growing up one of my favorite cartoons back in 1984 was a cartoon that most of us grew up with called Transformers and Though I love the Decepticons on the widest love the bad guys for me though. I love the Decepticons There was one car that caught my attention. That was jazz. He was the Porsche. It was a Porsche, right? And so I told myself back when I was eight. I'm gonna get that car. I'm gonna get that car And so thoughts over time held intensely, turned into obsession. now every time you see the car going in a row, oh my God, my God, look, look, So you obsess over it to the point that you finally make the decision to go after it, and I'll be up front with you.

1:36:18 I went after my first one when I came out of a relationship, because what I noticed, I was in a relationship, they go, you don't want to get that car. Like she was trying to down talk me, because you know that car, like you can be ugliest sin on a Friday night with the right version of that car, you're to get a phone number. You take this on to advantage because your man, your man, Brown says, have enough money become enough valuable. And I think I'll find something attractive on you. What he says, he's like, honey, one day I walk in a room or something. say, how you got ear lobes like Denzel. That's definitely less. What he's saying is every other part of me might be ugly and it might be good enough, if you've got money and you're valuable enough, they will want to be around. Yeah, I agree with that.

1:37:00 um Man, so this goes back to something I was going throw out there earlier. For my biblical-based folks, I know we got folks from our walks of life on here. I'm not trying to convert nobody. But the one thing I noticed in the Adam and Eve story is before Adam got Eve, Adam had a purpose. He had an assignment. He had a calling. It something he was supposed to focus on. And what happens with most of us, we start trying to put our focus on our Eve instead of our focus on our purpose. And remember, Eve was the helpmate for the assignment, right? which means we're both moving in the same direction, which means we can pick up speed and go much, much faster. The problem I see with a lot of us is we're out of alignment. And know what happens when you drive a car that's out of alignment, right? It's hard to pick up speed. It's hard to keep it maintained and balanced. You are very close to creating an accident because you can't turn as sharp or you slam the brakes on and it starts to shake.

1:37:44 So if you are stagnant in this season, one of the things I got to ask you is are you in or out of alignment? What you're supposed to be doing, right? And if you're out of alignment, you got to get the car fixed. So who's the mentor that you should be pulling into their personal garage and let's break down what knocked you out of alignment in the first place Because what knocked me out of alignment was the people I was hanging with some of the question people I was dating Some of the friends and family I didn't cut off. They're all potholes You know if you had a pothole too hard it knocks you out of alignment. Yeah Hmm. yeah. Yeah, this this that season and and you understand the longer you drive a car out of alignment It's gonna mess everything else up. Now the tires got to go because the tread is off on the tires. You were starting to wear thin the the tie rods now have been knocked out of proportion because It's driving at angle you keep hitting more potholes like you get some more expensive the longer you decide to stay out of alignment I don't know who needs to hear that today, but it is costing you something Your whole life he's going to argue.

1:38:41 All so I think one of the best things that um leaders can do, think a leader's job is just to influence folks, right? That's how I break it down the simple, simple way. there's a Maxwell principle that I love that I hate to expand on. John Maxwell says, leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. And I love that definition. However, I would expand on it. I say leadership is influence, influence is opportunity. And the reason why I say that, it is your job at whatever it is you do. If you just count pennies for a living, your job is to be seen as a leader. The best theory is what you do. You got techniques of how to count pennies quick and faster. Like you just, you know the ins and outs of this on such a level that folks see you as one of the best at it, your leader. the more folks see you as a leader at whatever it is you do, right?

1:39:22 The more influence you create, because people start paying attention to you. People start taking to heart the things you talk about, the things you say, the things you do, the brands you decide to back. And that's a good place to be at because influence opens up the gateway for opportunity. As a speaker, even as a real estate investor, there was a moment where I was getting up trying to find deals every day. That's the bane of the existence. want people to bring the deals to you. people bring yeah but they don't do that they don't know that you're one of the best there is at doing it so I are you going to get this deal closed? Are you going to pay me the number? Is it going to close quick? Can I rely on you? Are you going to make it simple? Yeah, so what ended up happening when I was in the heyday of my real estate journey, I got so good at mastering the niche with short sales, right? um Then I would have other realtors bring deals to me.

1:40:05 would have homeowners bring deals. I have other investors. Like, I can't get the deal done. know, I would leadership influence opportunity. They're coming for you. God, who knows? Pretty much. Pretty much. Pretty much. Yeah, but here's the thing. The beautiful thing about pain, pain creates change. Unless you're just a glutton for pain, right? So there are certain moments where I think that you have to introduce pain into your journey intentionally because no one knows you better than you. Like I know all my strengths, but I know all my weaknesses. No one knows me better than me. So my job is occasionally in the journey to introduce things into my environment that's going to force a result. Right? Yeah. So to the influence thing of the space that we're in, um it seems like it's our job to take what most people feel is the complicated and complex thing and make it simple.

1:40:53 That should be what the argument that you're making about find a mentor, find someone who has already succeeded in the area that you want to succeed in, right? And go post up next to them. Is that what they're doing? They making the thing that's unknown and complex. They're simplifying it for you. Again, I can't speak for everybody else. I can only speak for what's worked for me. If you look at every super successful person, nine times out of 10, they have a mentor somewhere in that picture and they got that mentor's attention by serving them in some capacity. Serving some capacity. Like I think about the late great Bob Proctor and this guy named Paul Martinelli who used to be in the Don Maxwell leadership team who broke out and was doing his own thing. He's crushing it, obviously. uh But the way he got John Maxwell's ear is, I'll serve you.

1:41:37 He said, I'll make you a millionaire in a year if you work with me. If you let me take your leadership concepts, the stuff you have converted into books, I'll create a whole organization that revolves around the aspects of leadership. That's what John Maxwell Leadership Team is all about. I've been a JMT'er since 2014. But he said, let me serve you. Let me put everything in motion. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. We'll get everything going. We'll charge a fee to join the program. We'll get certifications and all that. And I'll make you a millionaire in one year. He served his way to the top, right? And in making him a millionaire, he made himself a millionaire. I look at Les Brown. Les Brown, too, has a mentor at the age of 80. Right? So. That's still Norman Vincent Peel. Yeah, so with him, his best friend that he grew up with has always been his mentor, right?

1:42:19 The reason why I say that is most people, again, they go into a relationship trying to get, trying to get, trying to get. That's not how you get somebody's ear. You get somebody's ear by trying to give, by providing a service, by offering something of value. That'll make you stand out in a room of 50 people. You're right. I love that we can have mentors that aren't with us anymore because of the documented way that we record things now. It's tremendous. Now it's different sitting in a room with a guy and having access and the questions and being close to it and the energy and everything about him rubs off, but he's going to live way past. absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I have no doubt. I keep telling myself, I said one of the reasons why Les has still been with us in my personal life, besides not being his time, because he's still walking in his purpose.

1:43:05 I feel like that if you can figure out what you're designed to do and dedicate your life to it, I think you give yourself, I think you give your own life longevity. The other thing that Les does that rubbed off on me, he will tell people his age, but he will bounce it up a year earlier than it is. So instead of telling people when he was turning 79, he would say, I'm turning 80. His belief is I'm speaking to existence what I want to happen. Thoughts, results, speaking to existence, power, life and death in the tongue. So he's speaking, I'm going be around for a whole nother year, even though that year hasn't happened yet. Like there's so many things, there's so many things you just catch by being around the right person. As he would say, some things are taught, some things are caught. It's just by being in the room, by being the ear, the fly on the wall, the ear in the room where you just watching and observing and paying attention, it starts to shift your level of perception, your depth of perception and your thinking.

1:43:54 You you start seeing stuff totally different. That's when you start walking and talking a little bit differently because now it makes more sense to you. Yeah. What, um, without him being in the room since, since we've invoked him, but, we want to hear before we wrap up, we're going, we're going here, man. Um, what, what makes him special that most people don't see from afar. I'll say the thing that drew me to him, because I believe that the best mentors that we can find already kind of represent us in some way, form. In other words, if I'm looking at this mentor, I should honestly be able to see myself in the future through that mentor.

1:44:40 think a lot of people don't realize how big this man's heart is. When you've achieved that level of success, there's a lot of stuff you don't have to do anymore. Like you don't have, let you hit that level of longevity where you are known on a first name basis. Someone sees your image, they know you are. There's a lot of things you can turn down and not do because you don't have to. It doesn't benefit you at all to do it, right? It's his character. because I'll see him do stuff that most people that had that level of success will say, that's beneath me. I'm not doing that. You don't have a big enough tribe. Your podcast got 20 people. I'm not getting out the bed for that. Like I've seen him go to places and spaces that anyone that has this level of success will ease, but that's beneath me.

1:45:22 I'm not speaking to a room of 20 people. know, let's get paid like $90,000 to speak for 90 minutes. And that's in the country. Out the country gets paid 120 grand. And they pay it. I've been to speaking events with him where they paid him that money, right? But to see someone with that level of success humble themselves and say, you know what, I'm gonna do the four word and so on so forth book. They ain't got a tribe, they ain't got a following, but I believe in the plight of their story and their journey and I wanna pay it forward. I wanna help them out. That has always been Les's character from the day I met him up until this moment. He's always hit a super, super huge heart. It's a type and a shadow of what I aspire to be. I don't want to achieve success to such a level that I forget the humility and the humbleness of where that journey first started out.

1:46:08 Les never forgot being born on the basement floor, uh the fact that he didn't know his parents growing up, didn't know his mother growing up, the fact of being educated mentally retarded. People keep forgetting the learning disability. And that's what makes his story so powerful. He has a learning disability. People don't pay a attention to any of that stuff, right? But to see him go from being a politician to being this worldwide embraced figure from having his own talk show on out, like there's so many things he achieved. And if you look at his journey and story and say he had, there was nothing that was given to him that should got him there besides his gift, besides his gift. He took the gift of communication. He used it to be an awesome radio host.

1:46:49 that gifted communication took him in the TV, that gifted communication put him on stage for the 80, 90,000 people, 100,000 people. Like that gifted communication has taken him everywhere, but he never let that gift make his ego so large that he won't hold a conversation with the smallest person in the room. Yeah. um How do you approach goals and business planning? Yeah, so I try to keep them aligned as closely as possible. However, I do leave room for what I call oops or shift because things do change. beautiful thing in the curse about success is the more successful you are, the more opportunities come your way.

1:47:29 So you could be focused on this right here and then the opportunity of lifetime comes over here, but that opportunity lifetime may take your focus off of getting this done. And so that's where discipline comes into place, which is I may need to put this down for a second. Let me knock this all the way out. Because the entrepreneurs, like focusing on fun stuff. The stuff that like, this is easy. This is fun to do. And a lot of times the difficult stuff is the stuff that actually makes the most money in business, which is stuff we don't like doing or put off or procrastinate with or whatever have you. But my job is to align the two as closely as possible, but with checks and balances. So I got people on my team that look at those goals and make sure that the goal is still in alignment with the vision. Because I can even. Like I'll be upfront with you. We argued over the Great American Speak-Off because it has nothing to do with making money.

1:48:10 Like it has nothing to with me getting on corporate stages. There was no monetary prize for the Great American Speak-Off. Like I'm telling y'all that. there was no like $10,000, $20,000 prize. It was Exposure and Opportunity was the payoff on it, right? And we can always use that in business, but there was no monetary prize for doing it. So it's the discipline of saying, I go do this, for this to make sense, how does this benefit and tie into the vision and the goals for my business in this year? Because if it doesn't tie in, I have no business dealing with it. No matter how fun it may seem, I can't waste time on that, right? So the goal was exposure. The goal was knowing the clip was going to go viral. The goal was also knowing that it was going open up the pathway to make more strategic connections with people that's at the top, right?

1:48:51 Yeah. That's happening. that's 100%. It was already happening, but it's happening quicker and faster now because it is. And so I say that because I want people to hear that your success will happen quicker and faster when you figure out what is the tool of my leverage. Like I gotta figure out, there's a whole story I gave on a deal that I short-sale, a condo that we did like maybe like eight, seven or eight years ago. Older lady, she's moving into assisted living facilities, so she didn't need the washer and dryer. Said, I'm gift them to you because you got me out of foreclosure. I don't owe the bank any money. They're gonna write off the amount that I owe. I get to walk away from it. And they gave me relocation money. So we're like, oh, this is the deal. Brand new washer and dryer. And I tried to hire someone to get it out in time for the closing.

1:49:33 find anybody. And so I decided I'm gonna do it myself. So go to Home Depot and I rent this truck for $25. And the lady says, you know, can get the truck, but there's no dolly in there. Why would you give me a truck without a dolly? Yeah, if you want to dollar you we don't we don't lease them out, you can buy one Well, how much is the dollar 75 dollars? Why would I buy a dolly for 75? I'ma use for one. I buy I'ma bring it back I'm returning like only dolly and stuff around house. And so I didn't get the dolly. I got a strong best friend big dude, know, like together we can lift it by the time We got this dag on heavy appliance out. I had dropped it on my foot. I had damn near broke my my big toe Side line from going for the gym for about three three to four days hobbling around My busted open, blood everywhere, right?

1:50:13 Because I ended up putting it down on my foot because I was losing grip on it. And I kept thinking the whole time, why in the world did I get the dolly? The dolly, we could have got it to the car and got in back of that trunk in literally three minutes instead of spending 35 minutes trying to move it. And a busted toe. You have to figure out, based on what it is you want, what is my dolly? What is my leverage? What's going to get me to my finish line quicker and faster? And so things like the Great American Speak Off for me, based on my goals, because it's all about perception and being seen, that was a leverage tool. I didn't have to do it, but doing it will put me in front of so many places and faces. And the biggest thing for me, which is so weird, is the clip is pulling me in an even larger international brand. Like I have so many people from out of the country that is following me or subscribing and saying, hey, can you teach me how to speak like you did?

1:50:58 And that the two minutes you like, just commanded the room so eloquently. So you're looking for leverage. Did you, when did you figure that this rule, this leverage rule? So I figured the leverage ruled out when I was in elementary school. This was the thing. I remember, because remember I skipped a grade. So when I got put in the second grade, I wasn't liked by all the kids because all those kids from second grade grew up together in kindergarten and first grade. So I was a new kid coming in there and I didn't quite gel with them. So had to figure out what is my leverage to get these kids like me? Well, what do all these kids like that you can bring to the table? So I convinced my parents to let me bring in a bunch of cupcakes. And instead of putting the cupcakes where the teachers, I put the cupcakes on my desk, which forced everybody to come to me.

1:51:40 Right? And so now we're interaction, we're engaged and we have a conversation. And now also they like me because I serve them first. Right? I learned that back in second grade. You got to learn how to serve. People love you when you serve them properly. Right? So what do you feel when people say, you were meant to do this? Yeah, so this is what I believe. I believe that there are certain people out there that can see you in your completed form, even though you can't see yourself. In other words, most of us are caterpillars, but there are a few people out there that can see you already through the transformation already in butterfly stage, right? Doesn't make a difference if they can see it. I still gotta be able to see it for myself. Two caterpillars have everything in common until one decides to go into the cocoon.

1:52:23 Two butterflies have everything in common when one decides to come out. Which means that I believe everybody has a level of transformation or transformations that's designed to take you to where you're supposed to be at. The most beautiful people amongst us can see us in that pre-transformation phase. You already know from looking at that caterpillar what's gonna happen to it if it goes to course. It's just a matter of timing and when the caterpillar knows it's time to go into that cocoon, right? So when someone says that all that's doing to me that's giving me reaffirmation that I'm moving in the right direction. Like if somebody came to me and said, my guy, you're the worst speaker I ever heard of. That's not going in the right direction. No, no, no. We're going backwards. So when I get the compliments, we don't charge it to the ego. It just lets me know I've made the right decisions because I don't want you to see me as, again, the acorn seed.

1:53:07 I want you to see me as the fully produced tree. Right. And I want you at the branches asking, how do I get fruit off that tree? Whether the fruit is topics, the things we talk about, the podcast, whether they buy a copy of the book, whatever have you, whether they sign up for coaching or mentoring those or the fruit that's on my tree that they can come select and eat from and get value and nourishment out of it. So when they give me that, I'm like, I'm good with it. So you want them to see the tree. But what about the story about what has to happen between the acorn and that big tree? Yeah, so I'm a firm believer that I have no problem telling that story and I want to tell them that story because I think that when you open up and bury yourself, that's the most authentic you can possibly be. And we do business with people we know we like and we trust.

1:53:49 Yeah, that's what we heard. But let's be real. No like trust means people going to look to verify like people. We're not in that generation. We just take stuff on face value. We get the Googling and doing some homework now because we know people like to. Which is which is good. in anything you do, a speaking referral. Yeah, I got 200 of those on my YouTube channel. Like every time I'll speak somewhere, my goal is to get at least a minimum of three referrals. So my YouTube channel now, I got like 200 video testimonials from event planners and attendees. say, hey, come out and You rock the room. I highly recommend them. So I agree totally with everything you're saying, right? Yeah, but I think that when people keep telling you something, repetitiveness, repetition, they're giving you a sign of what you're not seeing.

1:54:35 That's a sign for you to slow down and pay more attention to what people can be telling you again and again and All my life, people could telling me then you're either a great leader or you're a great communicator. That's all I'll keep hearing again and again. You're a great storyteller. You tell some fabulous, wonderful, funny stories. I'll be the kid giving the book report. I want to do it first. Nobody wants to go after you now. I don't want to get after that. Like you see what he, had a whole story, but he had sound effects. He had taped audience applause and laughter for party. Like I won't go behind that. So. What you're designed to do, you'll know it because people keep telling you. already see you in it. Um, so my job is to give a amazing guy like you a platform, ask the right questions, have a great conversation, but, to find some nuance too.

1:55:21 Sure. I'm never the gotcha guy. I sit here and say, okay, this guy really knows what he's doing. He's very skilled. He has a lot of receipts, but what happens to the nuance where every time I know something in my life that I found like this is a truth. For someone else, it's not, and I'm not in this world of what knows my truth and all that, but I go to this place of if we have to find the thing that we're good at, find our attributes. But what about these stories in life about a, the Williams sisters and Tiger Woods dad and Dale Earnhardt, was the race car driver. Their kids, didn't they become that and had that extreme focus on those because their parents had the passion?

1:56:08 Yeah, so again that goes back to environment. all we will always be a product of our environment So if I'm not producing right now, I may need to look at the environment that I'm planning in But what I will say is this because when I talk about gifts and talents I say the problem with gifts and talents the media has done a bang-up job of trying to teach and train you what a talent looks like a gift and talents life So we look at a Venus or serenity out in that tennis court smashing those balls back and forth We look at a LeBron James And those are tangible talents. We look at the Beyonce's of the world and all the other actors and actresses out there. We look at them getting paid all this money to star in this movie. And we think that's what a gift and talent looks like. since I can't do that, I think I don't have a gift and talent.

1:56:48 When I look at Venus and Serena, I don't look at the fact they were good at tennis. I look at the little small micro things that they do to make them good at tennis. Like attention to detail, being able to read the room. If I serve that ball over that net, I have to anticipate where I think you're gonna serve it back to. If I think you're gonna serve on that side, I need to be ready to run it that side. Right? So I'm not looking at the gift the way a lot of people are looking at it. I'm looking at that gift from the wide receiver that's able to read the room and can tell, okay, he got his knuckles, his knuckles is turning white. That means he's about to lean to the right. So I need to curve and juke to the right or juke to the left or whatever. Like there's a little bit of science in my mind behind it. And that's... argument is they could do a lot of other things really well. is my point. I said this about, are you familiar with the gospel singer Yolanda Adams?

1:57:33 Okay. So I got a clip out there where I talk about, heard an interview from her. One of the deepest interviews I've ever heard. She said the biggest challenge in her career was do I take my gift of singing and go into the secular arena with it or do I stay in the gospel arena? Because so many people blow up leverage wise in the secular world because there's such a large fan base. I can blow up in gospel world, but it'd be much easier if I go over here, right? She decided to stay gospel. She got all her accolades and awards and even got a couple of secular awards from the show because her music crossed over to both genre. But I say that because notice the gift and talent doesn't discriminate against how it's being used. Whether she decides to sing gospel, whether she decides to sing secular music, the gift and talent says, I'll go however you try to dress me up to go, I'll use it.

1:58:19 In other words, The car I drove here today, I drove here today have a great powerful podcast, but I could use that same vehicle to go rob a bank. The Porsche is not going to argue over how it's being used. It's whole job is to drive fast as a getaway, right? Which means that I have to dictate and decide what I want to do with my gift, my talent, my expertise. I could take my gift and talent and turn it over to someone else for a paycheck and I could be doing all the leg work and the ground work and making them rich. Or I could say, how do I use this gift and talent and put it in the employment of myself since money is an idea and see how I can make myself rich. Even with my mindset, like the last couple of jobs I had before jumping solely in entrepreneurship, I tell people this, I wasn't taking the job for a paycheck. I was taking the job for a skillset. Now, of course, I wasn't telling the employer that because the skillset means there's a moment in time where I'm going to leave and apply what I've learned, right?

1:59:05 But this is, again, about me knowing what's my vision. What do I want? And what resources do I need to build this? If the world were Legos, Legos lets you build whatever you want. You don't have to build what's on the box. You can build whatever you want. What do I want to build with the amount of time that I have on this planet based on the resources and the leverage I'm able to amass and how quickly can I get there? And then who do I want to pull up to the top with me so we can all enjoy this thing together? ah What is the, of all these funnel things you're doing, speaking at, having a book, coming on podcast, what's all that really want, what do you want to do? What's the thing? it be paid big money to be on stage? Like what is all that the funnel to?

1:59:46 What do you really want to do all the time? What's all this for? Yeah, so there was a point in time where money was a driving factor for this. As entrepreneurs, money drives us a lot. Like lot of us jump into entrepreneurship because we're not getting paid what we necessarily want or need at the jobs we have. I've been there working two jobs. Like I've been there working harder versus working smarter until I read Think and Grow Rich. Like, okay, you're supposed to think and grow rich, not wear yourself out by putting in 70 hours between two places and not being able to operate the next day, right? So money used to be a driving factor. And then when money start coming in, It's the hierarchy of needs, the little pyramid where it shows what a person needs.

2:00:27 if you, as you knock things off the rung, you no longer focus about it. As long as I got money coming in, I'm thinking about it. So once I knocked that off and I knew I had dependable income coming in every month, that wasn't necessarily the driving factor for it. So then it became about impact. The beautiful thing about my line of work is a lot of times I'm able to get feedback in real time based on the conversation I get from the crowd or from the audience for saying, you just don't understand the place I was at. It hits differently when you talk into a room full of people and you talk about being so close to taking your own life. And then once you get off that platform, seven people in a room of 500 people come and say, I'm there. The same place you was at thinking about taking your life, I'm there at that spot. And hearing you gave me the idea to go to different direction.

2:01:09 Like I have so much more to live for. have so many things to focus on. And so I think with me, I'm more focused at that. I want the impact. I want people to feel like if you gave me two minutes of your time, two hours of your time, two weeks of your time, two years of your time, that it wasn't a wasted return on it. Like I want there to be value on that. And like I said earlier, money's the byproduct of solving the right problem. So as long as you're walking in your arena of giftedness and it's attached to a problem, money will always be there. The best folks I know at real estate, they know... they solve a problem in real estate. Money's always gonna be there. Like the biggest eye opener for me in real estate, cause I remember the first real estate deal, the first wholesale deal I did, it netted me $8,500.

2:01:51 But I was comparing that $8,500 versus the job that just let me go and how many checks it would take to get $8,500. Like it took a couple of checks to get the $8,500, right? So in my mind, I just made this in like a matter of 30 days for the closing, right? And everything shifted at that point in time when I understood the difference between making money as entrepreneur versus just collecting the paycheck and letting somebody dictate my value. Like everything shifted. I couldn't go back to that same level of thinking. Like everything transformed and the desire was more and more more more and more. But I also had a desire to help other people know what I learned. Like I didn't want to get to the top of my own. I wanted other people. It's just fighting through the paradigm of people's comfort zones. So all this will happen from you being on stage. That's what you want. You want to become this speaker, influence this people.

2:02:33 So all that is to make sure you have this brand and this experience and this reputation to go do that more and bigger. Yeah, I want people to experience their own breakthrough. I don't want anyone to go through this life and feel like they didn't have the opportunity to go after what they actually could have went after because they didn't have the tools to do it. And like I said before, motivation is great to get you started, but action is the real thing that keeps you in complacency with actually pulling big things off that and discipline. uh So we're an hour and a half in. What can everybody listening do to help you? Yeah, so the project of the day right now is I want the speak-off clip to be seen by 5 million people.

2:03:19 two, so actually, so if it's 2.2 and I got a different site where it's already at 500,000 on a different site. So 2.2 of 1. 2.2 of Of just one video. it's been shared everywhere, but just of one video. Forty-five days been out there, it's 2.2 million on it. So my goal is to get five million people to view it. So what's going happen is I'm going to offer a few things. We're going land a plane. I'm going to offer folks access to a free digital copy of this best-selling book, GPS My Success. ah But I'm going make you do some things for it. No strange things for change. I ain't trying to get nobody hemmed up or locked up this weekend, right? But what I like is this, if you can go to my Instagram page and Instagram is Kareem Ellis 2.0 K-A-R-I-M-E-L-L-I-S 2.0 Let me know in my DM that you heard me on the necessary entrepreneur podcast Let me know you you tapped in you heard it You got some gems and some wisdom and if you can do that and follow me on Instagram My team will send you a free digital copy of my best-selling book called GPS my success Of course, the world's greatest motivational speaker, Mr.

2:04:24 Brown, did the foreword for the book. In fact, the only reason there is a book is Les Brown, because I didn't have a book for this. Like, was talking about this topic for a couple seasons, and Les heard it for the first time, and he said, if you don't put a book together, I promise you, I'm to slap you with this. He lifted his hands up like an old school pimp. He said, I'm going slap you this, because there's people that may never get a chance to get in the room with you to hear you speak, and this is the way they can take you home, right? So what I'm going do is to gift to the folks that have tuned in to the necessary entrepreneur, I'm going to gift a free digital copy, but I'm only going to do this for 72 hours after the air date. Don't come to me two weeks from now. Say, I just heard it. I'm sorry. Timing is everything.

2:05:05 So 72 hours afterwards, my team would be prepared to hook you up with that. The catch is I want you to stop by the page, listen to the two minute clip. I think it's very revolutionary. I think it'll change your life. Is this all about making sure you live full and die empty and I don't care what industry you're in I don't care what arena you in that applies to everybody and that was the reason why I switched my speech from how fast you designed to go to the wealthiest place in the world because whether you do Bitcoin whether you have your own business Whether you're in real estate stocks bonds, whatever have you everybody's got a time or test a life So what's the wealthiest place in the world? Wealthiest place in world is locked inside of you. Miles Morose said the wealthiest place in world is a cemetery because when people die, they pack this suitcase full of their goals, dreams, hopes, ambitions, things they're supposed to give birth to when they hit time.

2:05:52 But eventually, time's going run out. And what I told people on that stage, I didn't care about that when I was 19. I did in 2017 because that was the year I got into an altercation where a young man pulled out a 9-millimeter handgun and shot me in my right kneecap. Now he had the ability to shoot me a second time and my life would have been forfeit. I had no doubt in my mind my life would have been forfeit, right? But when I got to the hospital and the doctors made it clear that he's gonna do surgery and my life was going to be fine, I was gonna have go through physical therapy for nine months, learn how to walk all over again. As I'm sitting in this hospital room, I'm divided by a curtain. I can't see the patient on the other side of the curtain, but I can hear everything. And I hear the nurses frantically going from my side of the room, disappearing behind that curtain.

2:06:35 And I'm eavesdropping, listening, trying to figure what's going on. And they say, 60-year-old man was working on his roof, fell off his ladder the wrong way, landed on his neck. He's not going to make it. They're doing everything they can to get his last akin there to say final goodbyes. And so I'm watching family members go over to that side of the room and talk to them. And they're crying. They're emotional. Whether you was wrong in the argument or I was right or vice versa, ain't going to make a difference because in a minute you're not going be here. And then that's where I have one of those God moments where God says, what if that guy pulled that trigger a second time? Right? What are the things you've been commissioned and designed to do that's not going to get done? Because you keep telling yourself you got all the time in the world. Your tomorrow's never been promised. And so the goal of that message works out the same exact way. There are many forms of bullets out there in the world.

2:07:16 They don't have to be physical. They can shut somebody all the way down. Your goal is to be aware of what it is you're supposed to do and get it all done while you got time to do it, which is literally robbing the graveyard of his greatness, or what I told on actual clip. I said, let's bankrupt the national GDP of the cemetery. I gotta copyright that because too many people trying to steal it from me. Well, 2.2 million people watch something they're going to. Yeah, yeah, so yeah, the goal is to live full, empty, don't take it with you. But part of your legacy is what you leave behind. Part of it? Part of Yeah, part of it is what you leave behind other people and part of it is you enjoying the life that you lived along the way. The regret of the dying is they didn't do everything that they wanted to do when they had time to do it.

2:07:57 Right? There's a lot of people out there that say my only regret is I didn't live life to the fullest. I played in the shadows of fear. I didn't go after the things that I knew I could have gone after and that kind of bounces back to what we said earlier. A lot of people don't move based on fear. So how do people find the courage to take action in the face of fear? Yeah, I think you can get courage very easily based on who you decide to surround yourself with. Like people make courageous actions more difficult than it has to be. There's always strength in numbers. So if I can surround myself with five or six people that's going in the same direction, I get strong alone just by the idea that we are packed at this point in time. We're all going in the same direction. When I started real estate, I surrounded myself with four to five real estate peers, and we were dedicated to getting that first deal done.

2:08:38 And so what would end up happening is we would celebrate anyone who won. We'd even celebrate the loss based on what you learned off of it. But if I'm sitting there and Tom just got his deal done and Jason's got his deal done and Sarah's got her deal done and I'm in the same room with these folks, it's a matter time before mine is coming. Like my excitement for this is building because I already know like, okay, I'm next in line. This is going to happen. It's going to happen. It's going to happen. So I think that you can get courage very, very easy by who you decide to put around you based on what you're going after. I'm always surrounding myself with strong minded people that's going in the same direction as me. Great conversation. Go to your Instagram.

2:09:19 Kareem Ellis 2.0 72 hours from the time this comes out. Let him know you heard it here. You get an electronic version and who knows, maybe it'll unlock something for their life. Come on now. That's the hope. That's the hope. We're gonna help you program your life's personal GPS. We want you to put an address in it. We want you to move with clarity over confusion. I want you to be properly connected while dodging your dead zones. I want you to recalculate when things go wrong because there's more than one way to get there. A lot of people go through situations and circumstances and they give up. No, GPS recalculates very, very easily if you make a wrong turn. And then last but not least, I want you to check your history log. Because if I want to figure out how we got to your present, all I need to do is take a deep look into your past. Because almost everything we do is based on habit and pattern.

2:10:00 Right? Yeah. Yeah, if I got an idea about your habits and your patterns, that's what got you here. And if you don't alter and change that, that's what's going to take you to your future or the life thereof. And if you see him driving one of those nice, beautiful Porsches. Just give him a little wave. a little wave. Yeah, don't freak me out. Don't freak me out. Yeah Absolutely. It's an honor. It's a privilege and like I said before it's a pleasure to be here the uh... plants may corn job Mmm, get him out there. Alright.