From Racing Horses to $325 Million Real Estate - John Wentworth III
Welcome to The Success Code w/ Ben Silverman, hosted by entrepreneur, founder, Mr. USA, National Taekwondo Champion, and content creator Benjamin Silverman. On this podcast you’ll hear the story of how John has successfully created a tribe around his passion for helping people find homes and careers - while also building a $325m business
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The central theme of this podcast episode revolves around the significant transitions and challenges faced by John as he recounts his journey from the realm of horse racing to the real estate industry.
Lean how his unwavering work ethic and a commitment to personal growth have shaped his achievements, despite lacking formal education.
He emphasizes the importance of intent and purpose in business, highlighting that true fulfillment comes from impacting the lives of others rather than pursuing material gains.
Throughout the discussion, he shares insights on building a strong company culture and the necessity of hiring individuals who complement one's strengths while fostering an environment of mutual growth.
Ultimately, the episode serves as a testament to the trials and tribulations that pave the way to success and the profound impact one can have on the lives of others through dedicated leadership and community engagement.
If you want to learn more about John and his mastermind for crushing it in real estate and growing as an entrepreneur check out his inner circle at getinthewinnercircle.com
Takeaways:
- The podcast elucidates the significance of adopting a mindset focused on delivering value to others, which is paramount for achieving success in any endeavor.
- Listeners are encouraged to embrace the journey of personal and professional growth, recognizing that setbacks are often valuable learning opportunities.
- The discussion highlights the importance of surrounding oneself with high-caliber individuals who can contribute diverse perspectives and skills, enhancing overall team performance.
- A recurring theme is the necessity of maintaining authenticity in one's business culture, which involves aligning personal beliefs with organizational values.
- It is emphasized that true fulfillment in life transcends material possessions, advocating for a purpose-driven approach to both business and personal endeavors.
- The episode underscores the transformative power of coaching and mentorship in navigating the complexities of entrepreneurship, facilitating growth and development.
Links referenced in this episode:
Transcript
Foreign.
Speaker B:Welcome to the Success Code, the podcast where we crack the secrets to achieving greatness in business and life.
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Speaker B:Because true success starts with you.
Speaker B:Hey, John, how's it going, man?
Speaker A:Everything's well, brother.
Speaker A:What's shaking in your world?
Speaker B:Just staying warm and trying to keep out of trouble.
Speaker B:So if you don't mind, like, how, how did you.
Speaker B:Well, first of all, maybe share with everyone, like, what is it that you do and how from there to here.
Speaker A:Yeah, so I own a real estate company.
Speaker A:You know, I started out as a realtor.
Speaker A:I was 35 years old.
Speaker A:I was flipping houses.
Speaker A:I had come from my previous background.
Speaker A:I was racing standard bred racehorses.
Speaker A:And that's what I did from the time I graduated high school.
Speaker B:Okay, I'm gonna, if you don't mind me, interrupt.
Speaker A:How did you.
Speaker B:From racehorses to real estate?
Speaker A:I went from hockey to houses or, excuse me, from hockey to horses to houses.
Speaker A:And, you know, when I was a senior in high school, we went to the racetrack with my hockey, some buddies from my hockey team and I'm like, that's what I want to do.
Speaker A:And I'd never touched a horse in my life.
Speaker A:I just love the idea.
Speaker A:Like, I was so enthralled by it.
Speaker A:And a friend of mine who I went to high school with, his dad happened to know the track announcer.
Speaker A:This guy's name was Lenny Calderon.
Speaker A:And they had both just moved here from the east coast.
Speaker A:And within a week, I was out cleaning stalls for a guy named Giovanni Fineteri, who Lenny the track announcer was buddies with.
Speaker A:And that's Kind of how it all started.
Speaker A:Once I graduated high school, I just went right into that.
Speaker A:You know, I was cleaning stalls, working for Giovanni.
Speaker A:And then I also got a second job where I was working as a.
Speaker A:Like, I'm from Flint, Michigan.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So a lot of, you know, Vehicle City.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Like the GM is what Flint is all about.
Speaker A:And so I always thought I was going to frigging work at GM like my dad and, you know, that, that, that horse racing thing got me off of that path.
Speaker A:And so that's what I did.
Speaker A:And, and you know, dabbled in and out, out of it.
Speaker A:As I said, I had another job at gm, but I just, I, I was, I was in love with this man.
Speaker A:I was so passionate about it.
Speaker A:So I ended up working for somebody in the industry full time.
Speaker A:Not Giovanni, but somebody else that had a lot more horses.
Speaker A:And then I worked for somebody else, and then I worked for somebody else.
Speaker A:And then I got my first horse myself, which I, I took.
Speaker A:My grandmother had bought me a, A certificate of deposit, a CD.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:It was for $2,000.
Speaker A:And all I had to do to get the CD was to go to college.
Speaker A:So I took one class at Baker College, which is a local community college, and I took that class.
Speaker A:I got the two grand and I bought a horse with the money.
Speaker B:I think that might be the best college story I've ever heard.
Speaker B:Save the $100,000 for four years, just do one class, get the CD and then go do more important stuff.
Speaker A:Yeah, and then go buy a horse.
Speaker A:And so that's what I ended up doing.
Speaker A:I mean, that's what I did for a career from basically the time I graduated high school until I was mid-30s.
Speaker A:But the industry in Michigan was slowly starting to die.
Speaker A:And this is what, how I ended up moving around.
Speaker A:So I lived in New Jersey for a little bit and I ended up living in.
Speaker A:Raced a lot in Canada, ended up living in Quebec.
Speaker A:A guy that I knew that played semi pro hockey here in Flint was from Quebec.
Speaker A:And you know, he's like, you should come back and race there and da, da, da.
Speaker A:And I had nothing tying me here.
Speaker A:I did, you know, my son, who's 25, he was here, but he lived with his mother and you know, all that fun, dynamic shit that goes on.
Speaker A:And so I went and I lived there.
Speaker A:I basically did three seasons there.
Speaker A:Like I would go for eight months, I'd come home for four, because they shut down in the winter.
Speaker A:Where in Michigan we don't.
Speaker A:But it got so much snow there, they had to So I go for eight, come for four, go for eight, come for four.
Speaker A:And the last, the third year that I went back, I was just basically homesick.
Speaker A:You know, Christian is getting older, so I'm back home, he's getting older.
Speaker A:It's a different dynamic.
Speaker A:And I started driving home every week.
Speaker A:Well, this is, you know, 10, 11, 12 hour drive, depending on the weather.
Speaker A:And finally one day I was driving home and I'm like, fuck it, I'm done, man.
Speaker A:I called my partner and I said, I said, bro, I'm bailing, I'm done.
Speaker A:And he said, he's like, I figured that was coming.
Speaker A:I think he could kind of see the writing on the wall.
Speaker A:So the transition to houses was.
Speaker A:I had no education, I had no, no, I mean, I work.
Speaker A:That's it.
Speaker A:I'm a hard worker.
Speaker A:And we came home and we started flipping houses.
Speaker A:So the same partner that I had with the horses, he would put up the money, buy the house, I would put together the team because I didn't know how to do the shit.
Speaker A:I don't, I don't have a screwdriver to this day.
Speaker A:And, and we started flipping houses.
Speaker A:And then the industry tanked.
Speaker A:So this is back before the recession.
Speaker A:Once the industry tanked, I got my real estate license and went into selling homes.
Speaker A:But, you know, the worst possible time that I could get into selling homes.
Speaker A:But that was a blessing because nothing was given to you.
Speaker A:You had to go work hard and earn it.
Speaker A:And I was willing to do that.
Speaker A:And that was, you know, the one thing like when I'm passionate about something and I go in on something, you're not going to outwork me.
Speaker A:And so that's what I did.
Speaker A:And I never had this.
Speaker A:At that time, I was just trying to pay my bills.
Speaker A:And now here we are.
Speaker A:Did 340 million in volume last year.
Speaker A:And we've grown every single year since we actually started the business and impacted a lot of people, changed a lot of lives.
Speaker A:And that's really what my mission is with the business.
Speaker A:And really anything that I do now is.
Speaker A:I think that I see in others where I was and I want to help them get out of that, you know?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah, I love it.
Speaker B:And I think, I mean, you kind of answered partially my, my.
Speaker B:What I was going to ask you, which is sort of what do you think is the, the key or the source of your success?
Speaker B:But maybe you can share some other things as well.
Speaker B:But obviously, you know, you, you worked your ass off, you worked hard and you, you focused on, you know, What I like to say is delivering value.
Speaker B:You helped people, you know, you do a job.
Speaker B:But what else would you say kind of was critical to getting to where you are today?
Speaker A:I think that everything is steps, right?
Speaker A:Like, I couldn't sit here today and say, do the things that I'm doing now.
Speaker A:We have to evolve.
Speaker A:We have to go on this journey.
Speaker A:We have to learn.
Speaker A:And sometimes in a lot of times that learning comes with setbacks, right?
Speaker A:But those are important because they're part of the journey.
Speaker A:And it also teaches you how to appreciate when you.
Speaker A:As you get to new levels, right?
Speaker A:So it keeps you humble and it keeps you in gratitude.
Speaker A:And so to try to say, like, this is the thing, I don't know.
Speaker A:I just know this.
Speaker A:Like, I'm not a super smart guy.
Speaker A:I mean, barely graduated high school, never went to college.
Speaker A:I hate reading.
Speaker A:Like, I, I don't spell well.
Speaker A:Like, everyone on, on Facebook, everyone's always coming at me for my spelling.
Speaker A:I'm like, I don't give a shit, man.
Speaker A:I can't spell, but I can sell, right?
Speaker A:And selling is about selling.
Speaker A:And that's why it's so easy.
Speaker A:It's about building relationships and bringing people valued, you know?
Speaker A:And so I think it just a word that hits me is like intent.
Speaker A:What is your intent behind what you're doing?
Speaker A:Do you have a heart for people or are you chasing material things?
Speaker A:Are you chasing money?
Speaker A:Are you, you know, like, because those things are, are fleeting.
Speaker A:They do not bring fulfillment, right?
Speaker A:Like, you can go, you can go get the, you know, get the dopamine, buy a Rolex or whatever, but then what are you going to do three days later?
Speaker A:And I just feel like our society is so tied to those material things.
Speaker A:And by the way, I'm standing in a frigging 15,000 square foot house.
Speaker A:So I'm not trying to be hypocritical.
Speaker A:This house just doesn't mean anything to me.
Speaker A:I grew up in a single wide trailer.
Speaker A:So the only thing it really means to me is, okay, I want to provide a home and experience that I never had for my family, right?
Speaker A:So I'm not saying that those things are bad.
Speaker A:I'm just saying that to try to find fulfillment in it is.
Speaker A:I don't think it's really possible, right?
Speaker A:And so the intent behind why you do what you do, and that's also the thing that keeps me passionate, right?
Speaker A:Like, growing our business is great.
Speaker A:What, what growing our business does is really simple.
Speaker A:To grow our business, we have to keep adding people every time we add people.
Speaker A:It gives me an opportunity to impact their lives, and that's what I want to do.
Speaker A:Like, our mission is develop people and change lives.
Speaker A:Really simple.
Speaker A:And so everything that I do, like, I started this winter circle mastermind and same mission, develop people, change lives.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And so that keeps me juiced up.
Speaker A:Like, that keeps me going.
Speaker A:That keeps me innovative, looking for new ways to help people level up.
Speaker A:You know, we just put a gym in our office.
Speaker A:We have a personal trainer that's there for the crew.
Speaker A:So just doing all of these things outside of the box, you know, and that's the other piece thing.
Speaker A:I think this is the other thing that I would share with the listeners, too, is like, stop trying to appease and please everyone.
Speaker A:You know, if you try to be everything to everyone, you end up no one to nobody.
Speaker A:And what I mean by that is, like, inside of our business, if I want to have a prayer group, that's what we do.
Speaker A:We say prayer before all of our team meetings.
Speaker A:We pray.
Speaker A:We have this guy that leads our gym classes, runs a Bible study on Thursday.
Speaker A:And as we've grown and moved into different areas, there's been times when people on our team's like, well, I don't think we should put Mary Christmas on our billboards anymore.
Speaker A:It might turn people away.
Speaker A:And I go, that's fine.
Speaker A:They're not our people then.
Speaker A:And I just think that people get too stuck in trying to create something or live their life that pleases everyone around them.
Speaker A:And again, that drains you, man.
Speaker A:That's, you know, that's, I think, just the wrong way to look at it.
Speaker A:And I'm not saying be rude to people for their beliefs, but don't.
Speaker A:Don't abandon your own to try to please everyone else.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:In order to have your own company culture, you can't have everyone else's culture.
Speaker B:You got to have your own.
Speaker A:That's the most important, vital thing that we.
Speaker A:We are who we are because of the culture that we have.
Speaker B:How did you go about, like, I mean, it sounds like you have a lot of your own sort of personal beliefs that then became your company culture and kind of your.
Speaker B:Your tribe, and you built it around yourself.
Speaker B:But for someone who's just starting to grow a business and let's say they're trying to figure out what their beliefs are, who they are, not only as a person, but as a business owner as.
Speaker B:As you know, what their mission is.
Speaker B:Do you have any advice?
Speaker B:How can they go about finding their mission or what are the questions they need to ask themselves, maybe they have it and they just haven't identified it.
Speaker A:I think that that's probably it is.
Speaker A:That is.
Speaker A:Don't try to.
Speaker A:Don't try too hard to find them right now.
Speaker A:Because as you.
Speaker A:Part of the journey and part of the evolution is like, I mean, when I started this business, I never had.
Speaker A:I didn't have a relationship with Christ.
Speaker A:That happened 45 years, four or five years into my business.
Speaker A:That was something that I never even thought about.
Speaker A:It didn't cross my mind, by the way.
Speaker A:It's like once that happened, everything changed.
Speaker A:And so that was like the next thing, the next piece that came into my life that allowed us to go to the next level.
Speaker A:And I think maybe sometimes people search so hard for that that they miss it.
Speaker A:It's often right in front of us.
Speaker A:So I like to allow things organically.
Speaker A:Like I always say this, God will open doors, but it's up to us to walk through them.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And I don't know where you're at in your faith, and I'm.
Speaker A:I'm not a perfect human being by any means.
Speaker A:I just know this.
Speaker A:Like, the other day a guy posted.
Speaker A:He kind of came at me on.
Speaker A:On a post that I've made.
Speaker A:He's like, oh, well, easy for you to say.
Speaker A:God saved you.
Speaker A:No, God is out here to save all of us every day.
Speaker A:We just usually don't see it because we have our guard up, because we're trying to be the tough guy and we're trying to carry the weight and we're.
Speaker A:And we can do it all.
Speaker A:And we don't need anybody else.
Speaker A:And we're men, man.
Speaker A:We can do it.
Speaker A:And I just think that's.
Speaker A:The other piece is, like, especially with the people that I coach, I notice this, like, helping them open up to.
Speaker A:To break down that barrier, to get vulnerable.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Once you get vulnerable and you let go of control, so many good things just start happening for you.
Speaker A:And, you know, I think that for me is, like, to answer that question, like, there isn't an answer to that.
Speaker A:Allow those things to be part of the journey as they come along.
Speaker B:There's some deep truth there, you know, and you brought up, like, faith.
Speaker B:And I think, you know, for a lot of people, for some people, it is faith.
Speaker B:For some people, you know, you can express it in a lot of different ways.
Speaker B:But one thing that I went through in my own journey is realizing that being a business owner or an entrepreneur or private practice, you know, going out on your own, a lot of people get into it thinking it's going to be this sexy, fun, easy thing.
Speaker B:Oh, we're just, we're going to make a lot of money, help a lot of people.
Speaker B:It's just going to be great.
Speaker B:And it is great, but it's also probably the most difficult path you can choose.
Speaker A:And what do they say, 1% of entrepreneurs actually earn over a hundred grand?
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker B:And so what?
Speaker B:What?
Speaker B:And, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this as well.
Speaker B:But my realization was that if you can't learn to love the process and the pain and the ups and downs, then you're probably in it for the wrong reason.
Speaker B:Because there is, there is no like the story of the overnight success like, you know, the cryptocurrency billionaire.
Speaker B:It's like, sure, maybe one in a billion people.
Speaker B:Like someone gets lucky.
Speaker B:But for the other 999 entrepreneurs and business owners, you're going to, it's going to be a long path of pain, discovery and growth.
Speaker A:And what, what do we always see that happens to the people that hit the lotto?
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker A:Very often they go broke.
Speaker A:Broker than they.
Speaker A:Well, whether they were broke or not, but.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:They go broke because that journey is what builds you to appreciate where you end up.
Speaker A:And when you're just given something and it lands in your lap very, very often.
Speaker A:Like we see, you know, I mean, they do shows on these people.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:That when the lotto and go broke because it happens all of the time.
Speaker A:So yeah, you're 100% right.
Speaker A:And, and I think that ties back to the piece of like, why are you doing it?
Speaker A:What's the intent behind it?
Speaker A:And, and, and really, what is the mission?
Speaker A:Who do you serve as opposed to just chasing, you know, the next thing, the next, the next car, the next whatever the hell it is.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And again, I'm not saying those things are bad.
Speaker A:Like right now, one of my things.
Speaker A:And, and it has nothing to do with actually getting it.
Speaker A:It's just that it's such a big thing.
Speaker A:I know in order to get there, how much I have to level up.
Speaker A:And that's to get a plane.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Well, that thing isn't going to.
Speaker A:That would be a terrible analogy.
Speaker A:That thing isn't going to fall.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Thing isn't going to grow on a tree.
Speaker A:Like I have to change everything about what I do on a daily basis in order to earn enough to get there.
Speaker A:But it's not about the money.
Speaker A:It's not even about the freaking plane.
Speaker A:It's understanding that to do that, what I must do Personally and how many people I will impact along the way.
Speaker B:Well, let's dive in that for a second.
Speaker B:So you said that the things you have to do day to day, right?
Speaker B:So I'd love to hear.
Speaker B:First of all, let's break into three things.
Speaker B:Has what you do day to day changed from the level you're at now from when you first started?
Speaker B:And what do you think you're going to have to change to get to the level where you can buy yourself a jet?
Speaker A:Yeah, I mean, that's a great question.
Speaker A:And I don't even want a jet, by the way.
Speaker A:Just a King Air.
Speaker B:That's what my uncle asked.
Speaker A:It's a great plane.
Speaker A:Well, I mean, it's very different than a jet.
Speaker A:It costs half as much to use, half as much to store.
Speaker A:But that's a great question.
Speaker A:And again, I want to preface with this because we haven't even gone into this.
Speaker A:This is not like I came.
Speaker A:I am here today because of 20 years of, of hard work, right.
Speaker A:And learning.
Speaker A:I wasn't given anything.
Speaker A:I wasn't given this business.
Speaker A:I built it from the ground up with a lot of great people on our, in our team and in our organization.
Speaker A:Again, not by myself, but like, this is all what I'm sharing is from doing it, right?
Speaker A:From actually doing it.
Speaker A:And so the question that you pose now is what do I have to do next?
Speaker A:I don't really know, you know, like, like I'm trying to take our, our company from a seven figure business to an eight figure business.
Speaker A:Well, I've never been there, so what do I do?
Speaker A:I have coaches, right?
Speaker A:Like, and so it's the same thing.
Speaker A:I had a coach when I was, you know, very early in my career and then a different coach.
Speaker A:It's like you begin, you continue to level up.
Speaker A: coach that I started with in: Speaker A:And I'm going to a seminar in mid February in Scottsdale to learn just this.
Speaker A:But what I believe and what keeps coming back to me, this just feeling that, that I keep getting in my gut, is the people, right?
Speaker A:It's all about the people.
Speaker A:And, and what I know inside of our business.
Speaker A:I need, I think I'm, I think I'm one really good hire, like a high level human being that can take the reins and take us to the next step.
Speaker A:Because you ask, what does my day look like now?
Speaker A:Has it changed?
Speaker A:Of course it does.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Like, I don't sell anymore.
Speaker A:I've transitioned out of sales.
Speaker A:I Had my years where I sold 120 homes, like, just running like mad.
Speaker A:And I enjoyed that a lot.
Speaker A:And then I got to a point, like, I didn't enjoy that as much.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:I started to enjoy the business building side of it.
Speaker A:But there are days, bro, I'm in my office and I'm like, fuck, I don't know what to do right now, you know, and that, that was a tough transition because before I was just running all day, and I love that.
Speaker A:And now I'm like, I'm in my office and I'm like, all right, we did.
Speaker A:We did a team meeting.
Speaker A:We did this with like, I don't know what to do right now.
Speaker A:And so literally, I'll go to the whiteboard and I.
Speaker A:My.
Speaker A:I'm a whiteboard fanatic.
Speaker A:I have a whiteboard right here, right?
Speaker A:I'm always whiteboarding.
Speaker A:And I'll just go to the whiteboard and I'll just start dicking around.
Speaker A:And then I can get.
Speaker A:Imagine, you know, the imagination going.
Speaker A:And then something will come to me.
Speaker A:And then I'm like, oh, okay, here's what we need to do in the marketing department.
Speaker A:I remember the marketing department said they're having trouble getting people in the VIP group.
Speaker A:Well, okay, how are you?
Speaker A:You know, and so you just start going down these.
Speaker A:These roads of exploration of where the little areas that we can fine tune to make them better.
Speaker A:And then at the same time, big thinking, because I want to go to a billion dollars, right?
Speaker A:What do we need to do to get there?
Speaker A:And for.
Speaker A:And really, that's just me learning and surrounding myself with the right people.
Speaker A:And that's what we're in the search of right now, is the next right person, the next hire.
Speaker B:That's really powerful.
Speaker B:So let me ask you then, in going from six to seven figures, what position, what hire was the most critical to make that change?
Speaker A:It's funny, I remember going to real estate conferences, right?
Speaker A:And they'd put up all these words like owner, operations manager.
Speaker A:I'm like, what the hell is that?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And I actually just found this piece of paper in my office the other day and threw it out.
Speaker A:But it was a photo that I had taken.
Speaker A:All these terms.
Speaker A:I'm like, what are these things?
Speaker A:I'm googling the shit, you know?
Speaker A:And so again, that's part of the journey.
Speaker A:Like, you know, you hire here and then you get this person, you add another layer.
Speaker A:But I think one that really freed us up was when I transitioned.
Speaker A:So honestly, coach, number one thing was the coach that I hired and still have.
Speaker A:And then, you know, I'll add in different things as I reach different levels that I need.
Speaker A:But the coach was the main thing, because the coach helped me do things that I knew I needed to do, helped me avoid things that I didn't need to do, but thought maybe I would do.
Speaker A:But one of the big changes for us was in real estate.
Speaker A:There's this phenomenon about leads, like leads and leads, and you got to get more leads and more leads and more leads.
Speaker A:And what you really do by doing that, I mean, obviously you spend a money, a bunch of money to get them, but you overwhelm people when you do that.
Speaker A:And so there was a time, and I remember I was speaking actually in New Orleans, and the guy right before me is like, you gotta have at least 15 lead sources.
Speaker A:And I'm like that, man, we're doing three, but we're going to do three better than anybody's ever done three.
Speaker A:So getting laser focused on that was huge.
Speaker A:And guess what?
Speaker A:Still the same three we have now, you know, And I think that that in any business, so often we think we just go buy more stuff.
Speaker A:And that's the answer.
Speaker A:And it's not so very often.
Speaker A:It's not so.
Speaker A:But from a hiring standpoint, once we kind of got all of that ironed out, I was able to hire somebody that I met at a restaurant.
Speaker A:He was the GM of the restaurant.
Speaker A:He opened the restaurant.
Speaker A:It was a new restaurant in our town.
Speaker A:And I'm very much like this, I'll meet somebody.
Speaker A:And like, after I met him a couple times, I'm like, you're going to work in our company someday.
Speaker A:He's like, let's talk about real estate.
Speaker A:I said, that's fine.
Speaker A:It don't matter.
Speaker A:You're going to work.
Speaker A:Well, he ended up being our general manager, right?
Speaker A:The guy that runs our gym and runs our Bible study.
Speaker A:I met him at the gym that I was working out at.
Speaker A:He was one of the instructors.
Speaker A:The first day I met him, I came home, told my wife, man, I just met this guy.
Speaker A:Great dude.
Speaker A:Da, da, da, da.
Speaker A:We're going to hire him someday.
Speaker A:He's been working our company now three years, and I'm actually just getting ready to make him another.
Speaker A:A different job offer inside of the company.
Speaker A:So I again, this goes back to the people that you bring into your organization, the human beings.
Speaker A:So when I brought Alex in, which is the guy from the gym, everyone's like, what's he going to do?
Speaker A:I go, I don't know yet.
Speaker A:I didn't have to have a position for him.
Speaker A:I needed the person, right?
Speaker A:And we tried a few things, and they didn't work out.
Speaker A:And then I moved him into where he's at now.
Speaker A:And so, again, it's all about the right people, though.
Speaker A:It's kind of like the leads.
Speaker A:If you just go get a bunch of people, that's not going to solve your problems.
Speaker A:It's probably going to create more.
Speaker A:It's the right human beings.
Speaker A:And I think, you know, from my childhood, going through all this crazy shit that I did, it gave me a lot of, like, really good perspective into seeing somebody and being able to identify who they are right away and just being able to go with my gut and bringing these people in and giving.
Speaker A:And again, giving them an opportunity to soar, you know, and so that.
Speaker A:But the gm, I think, was the one big hire because I brought them in.
Speaker A:First three months, I said, I don't give a shit what you do.
Speaker A:Just your desk is there.
Speaker A:Mine's here.
Speaker A:Just be here.
Speaker A:Learn.
Speaker A:Don't try to do anything yet.
Speaker A:Learn the industry because it came from restaurants, right?
Speaker A:And he's been with us now five years, and he moved out of state.
Speaker A:He didn't live in our frigging state anymore.
Speaker A:And he's still.
Speaker A:And he's still the GM now.
Speaker A:That's slowly transitioning a little bit because I need to bring somebody else in as we grow again to get us to the next level.
Speaker A:But that was a big hire for me because that freed me up from a lot of things.
Speaker A:I could say, adam, go do X, Y, Z.
Speaker A:And then I could focus on moving forward in other areas.
Speaker B:So you said that you kind of.
Speaker B:There was like, you would see him, you met him, and you kind of went with your gut.
Speaker B:What was your gut telling you?
Speaker B:Like, how did you know when you.
Speaker A:He was smarter than me?
Speaker A:I mean, he was smarter than me, right?
Speaker A:And I think that's the other thing that a lot of people do in businessly.
Speaker A:They hire people similar to them.
Speaker A:Adam's exactly opposite of me, right?
Speaker A:So the way his brain works is the opposite of the way mine works.
Speaker A:I'm a visionary.
Speaker A:Meaning, like, I.
Speaker A:I mean, I'm thinking about the other day, I'm in the gym working out, and I pop up.
Speaker A:I'm like, alex, I got an idea.
Speaker A:What.
Speaker A:Which is the guy that runs our gym.
Speaker A:You know, that's how I.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:And that's how I function best.
Speaker A:Adam is very much ABC.
Speaker A:1, 2, 3.
Speaker A:You know, Google spreadsheets.
Speaker A:I don't even know how to open a Google spreadsheet, let alone.
Speaker A:That was what.
Speaker A:He brought a lot to the table that I didn't possess.
Speaker A:And that was an important piece.
Speaker A:And I think too often we're like, oh, he and I get along real well, so I'm going to hire him.
Speaker A:And then you bring in somebody that has the exact same skill set as you to try to do a job that you're not doing and, you know, create some problems.
Speaker B:Last difficult question.
Speaker B:Have you ever brought someone in like that, and how did you deal with that situation?
Speaker A:Like, somebody that was too similar to me?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:I really haven't, because the people that I did bring in, like, that came in as agents, and so it was okay for them to be like that.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Like, that personality trait works really good for our agents.
Speaker A:But I've never had that where I hired an employee that way.
Speaker A:And I think the re the way, without even really realizing it, the way I've avoided it is they come in, they give me their resume, I throw the shit in the trash, and I just have a conversation with this person and find out who they are as a human being.
Speaker A:And then I can learn way more about them from that conversation than I can, you know, reading a piece of paper.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And I always say, like, the resume, that's great.
Speaker A:That's where you've been.
Speaker A:I want to talk about where you're going.
Speaker A:And my interview style is very different.
Speaker A:Like, there's tissue in there.
Speaker A:Put it that way, we're gonna cry together.
Speaker B:What are some examples of things you might ask or talk about?
Speaker A:What's the most difficult thing you've ever been through in your life?
Speaker A:No, but, like, really, Ben, what's the most difficult thing you've ever in your life?
Speaker B:It's quite a few.
Speaker B:You know, it's interesting.
Speaker B:There's two, and I think it.
Speaker B:And they're difficult for completely different reasons.
Speaker B:And I probably would have to take some time to actually figure out which one was more difficult.
Speaker B:But the two that stand out are.
Speaker B:One, when I, I, I spent most of my life in Japan, in Tokyo, actually.
Speaker B:I was there doing martial arts professionally.
Speaker B:I was on Team Japan for Taekwondo, and I was dating a girl at the time, and I was 25.
Speaker B:She was a few years younger than me, and probably she was way more beautiful.
Speaker B:Like, she, I, I could never understand why she was with someone like me.
Speaker B:And that was probably the root problem of everything that happened afterwards.
Speaker B:But anyways, she ended up.
Speaker B:This is a, a common issue in Japan.
Speaker B:She actually was raped by her Colleague.
Speaker B:And I had kind of seen it coming, or at least I thought I did.
Speaker B:But because I was a stupid young boy, of course I did a terrible job of communicating the warning signs and all of the red flags, and all I did is just make the situation worse.
Speaker B:Anyways, it obviously screwed her up.
Speaker B:And that year after that, trying to make that relationship work while trying to build a career as a martial artist probably was the most difficult year of my life.
Speaker B:During that year, I ended up being homeless.
Speaker B:Not for very long, just for a week.
Speaker B:I broke 13 bones as a disciple for Taekwondo, but at the end of it, I won the national championship.
Speaker B:And so I don't know which was more difficult, the breaking all the bones in the taekwondo and training 18 hour days or feeling completely helpless and unable to support the person I cared about and actually only making things worse.
Speaker B:That's a hard choice.
Speaker B:One of those two, probably the two hardest parts of my life.
Speaker A:Well, thank you for sharing that.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And then in the spirit of like why we're on this, zoom is like, do you think I need to know your computer skills now?
Speaker A:Probably right.
Speaker A:I know your compassion for people.
Speaker A:I know your self reflection.
Speaker A:I know that you're an overcomer as well, because even in the midst of all that, you still end up winning the championship, like hired.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:And so that's kind of how I connect with people.
Speaker A:And so that was awesome, man.
Speaker A:And by the way, your eyes changed as you started telling that story.
Speaker A:So that's great.
Speaker B:That was, it was an interesting, exciting five years, I would say, probably built around that.
Speaker B:Yeah, Actually it culminated in meeting my current wife.
Speaker A:Well, dude, I was just gonna say, but all of those things that you had to endure as part of your journey to where you are now all play a role in that.
Speaker A:And they all play a role in how you interact with your wife now.
Speaker B:Oh yeah.
Speaker B:It's funny, you know, because when I was a, an apprentice, a disciple, I don't know how, how you say it in America.
Speaker B:I studied on a very traditional masters in Japan.
Speaker B:And so physical punishment, it's martial arts, very common.
Speaker B:I remember we would, we would, we had, we were sponsored by a Korean restaurant in the building that the, the dojo was in.
Speaker B:I were, I was training at the headquarters in Japan and we'd eat lunch there every day for like, we'd get like $2 lunch tickets and get Korean barbecue and all sorts of really amazing food one day.
Speaker A:I'm hungry right now too.
Speaker B:Yeah, right.
Speaker B:It's 140.
Speaker B:140 here I walked in one day with my hat on and my hands in the pot in my pockets, and I was like.
Speaker B:I was like, 25, 26 years.
Speaker B:I was a kid, right?
Speaker B:And it was freezing cold.
Speaker B:I was just like, you know, I said hi, and I was getting ready to sit down, and my master stands up and clocks me, slugs me like, boom.
Speaker B:Right in the face in the middle of the restaurant.
Speaker B:He said, take your hat off and your hands out of your pocket when you say hello to someone.
Speaker B:And then.
Speaker B:And then after that, I ended up transitioning into consulting for a while.
Speaker B:And I remember on my interview, they were like, this is a hard job.
Speaker B:Like, you're going to get told no over and over and over again.
Speaker B:I was like, is anyone going to punch me?
Speaker A:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker B:They're like, no.
Speaker A:Why?
Speaker B:I was like, well, if I do something wrong, are you gonna hit me?
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think I'm gonna be okay.
Speaker A:Awesome.
Speaker B:You know, I think you asking what the most difficult time in someone's life is is a really, really excellent question, because you can judge how someone is going to not necessarily perform, but, like, if you've been through really difficult stuff, work is hard.
Speaker B:It's not nearly as hard as a lot of the things we go through in life, though.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And, you know, and it's the same thing, too.
Speaker A:It's like, I also just.
Speaker A:In you.
Speaker A:Your willingness to answer the question right up front, sometimes I'll get.
Speaker A:Oh.
Speaker A:I mean, one person told me taking my real estate test was probably the hardest thing.
Speaker A:And I'm like, right, let's dive a little bit deeper.
Speaker A:And then where we ended up, I was like, holy.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So that's the other thing, like, staying in the box.
Speaker A:And that's a leadership thing, too.
Speaker A:Like, not avoiding those difficult conversations when they come up.
Speaker A:And I think that's probably, like, when I'm coaching people.
Speaker A:The thing that we end up on the most is generally people want to avoid those difficult conversations, but all the goodness is inside of having those conversations.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Generally passive aggressive.
Speaker B:Or they just avoid it.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And that just ends up creating more drama later on.
Speaker B:100%.
Speaker B:So we're actually.
Speaker B:We're getting up to the time limit of our episodes.
Speaker B:But what I do want to make sure is we might have to do another episode and dive into this a little bit more.
Speaker B:But I want to end with giving you some time to tell a little bit more about what it is you actually do, who you serve.
Speaker B:And if those people are listening, how should they get in touch with you?
Speaker B:And what should they get in touch with you for.
Speaker A:Yeah, I mean, I, you know, as I said before, I own a real estate company, but for listeners across the country, I started a Mastermind.
Speaker A:And, and I'm 14 months sober.
Speaker A:And the reason I share that is because I battled alcohol addiction my entire life.
Speaker A:I'm over that now.
Speaker A:I don't drink anymore.
Speaker A:I just don't drink anymore.
Speaker A:Like, I'm cured of it.
Speaker A:It's really weird.
Speaker A:And by the way, I've been here before, so I know the difference.
Speaker A:But I say that, to say this, like, one of the things that I always wanted to do was to start this Mastermind, but I just never did it because I never had the time.
Speaker A:Well, because I was running this real estate company and then going out and eating dinner, which meant drinking and still trying to be a husband and still trying to be a father and all of those things.
Speaker A:But because of that, I started this Mastermind where, like, I love impacting people.
Speaker A:As I said, that's what, that's what I'm passionate about.
Speaker A:And inside of my business, I get to do that.
Speaker A:And it's a slow growth, right?
Speaker A:Like, it's a slow growth in the Mastermind.
Speaker A:I mean, we got 120 members in a very short amount of time.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So there's a greater scale of my ability to impact people.
Speaker A:So that's what I'm, I, I spend a lot of my not at the bar time on anymore and I'm really enjoying that.
Speaker A:So you could visit get in the winner circle.com and check that out.
Speaker A:We have three different levels.
Speaker A:So I do some personal coaching, I do some group coaching.
Speaker A:And then we have weekly calls and I deliver a message every Monday on, you know, on business, on tools, tactics, marketing, branding and mindset.
Speaker A:Because I think that's the biggest thing is like you can learn everything.
Speaker A:But if you don't have the mindset to endure the journey you're going to go on as an entrepreneur, it's all going to crumble.
Speaker A:And so you know, that, that the ability to, I think continually up, level up in our mindset.
Speaker A:And I always think about this like growing personally and professionally because what I noticed is like the highest achievers that I'm around, which are some eight, nine figure people now, very few of them drink.
Speaker A:They're always learning more, right?
Speaker A:They're always leveling up and they're always putting themselves in proximity of other people at that level.
Speaker A:And so that's the other piece is giving people an opportunity to get into a group like that in the Facebook group interact.
Speaker A:It's just been really awesome and like I have a one day coming up here at my house.
Speaker A:We limit that to 25 people which I think is sold out at this point.
Speaker A:But you know, like that is a really cool opportunity to bring people into our home and have this event, the second one we've done, really enjoying that.
Speaker A:So that's kind of my passion project and getting this business to the next level.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Like that's why I'm going to Arizona here in a couple of weeks for a two day event there.
Speaker A:I'm looking at my board because I'm.
Speaker A:Our trajectory I'm looking at.
Speaker A:But we need to hit half a billion and then we're going after a billion here in the next few years and, and again inside of that, knowing what it's going to take to get there.
Speaker A:I keep leveling up, which means my people have to keep leveling up, which means we keep adding more people, which means it's another opportunity to fellow people and change lives.
Speaker B:Love it.
Speaker B:Love it.
Speaker B:Well, thank you again, John for making time to join us today, everyone.
Speaker B:If you're interested, links to John's Mastermind, we'll drop them in the description of the episode so feel free to check it out.
Speaker B:And thank you again, John.
Speaker A:Yeah, thank you brother.
Speaker A:Thanks for having me on and thank you for sharing your story.
Speaker A:No problem.
Speaker B:And everyone again, thanks for joining this episode of the Success blah blah, success code.
Speaker B:I need to work on that.
Speaker B:Brought to you by Peak Performance Fitness, the ultimate transformation program for busy businessmen, leaders and entrepreneurs.
Speaker B:Because true success starts with you.
Speaker B:Sa.
