What If It Did Work?
What If It Did Work?
From Bourbon Beginnings to Wall Street: Jeremy Delk's Journey of Resilience and Success
Raised in the bourbon capital of Bardstown, Kentucky, our guest Jeremy Delk, a serial entrepreneur, takes you on a journey from his humble beginnings to transforming industries and making millions. Imagine a world where bourbon is not just a drink but a legacy linked to The Beatles and a legendary racehorse. Jeremy shares not only how his upbringing shaped his business ventures but also how he sees potential in Kentucky’s bourbon distilleries, uncovering the nuanced world of bourbon, whiskey, and scotch. His passion for calculated risks highlights a unique approach to both personal and professional growth.
The episode takes a poignant turn as Jeremy opens up about the emotional and financial turmoil following his father's death. Struggling to maintain stability, he was driven to not just survive but thrive, eventually becoming a multimillionaire while realizing the importance of emotional fulfillment beyond financial success. We explore how adversity shaped his journey from Kentucky to Wall Street, where he defied odds and transformed a modest investment into a fortune. His story is a testament to resilience, as he recounts overcoming setbacks to become the youngest trader in Fidelity's history.
As our conversation unfolds, we celebrate the transformative power of community and coaching. Jeremy shares how mastermind groups like War Room and Traffic and Conversion Summit helped him evolve from skepticism to belief in collective wisdom. His love for turning struggling businesses into thriving ventures shines through, as he thrives on the challenge of turning "dumpster fires" into success stories. Jeremy’s journey is about embracing adversity, valuing genuine connections, and staying true to oneself. We wrap up with heartfelt gratitude, urging listeners to prioritize family, self-care, and personal growth, while remembering that challenges are mere stepping stones on the path to success.
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I never told no one that my whole life I've been holding back. Every time I load my gun up so I can shoot for the star, I hear a voice like who?
Speaker 2:do you think? All right, everybody. Another day, another dollar, another one of my favorite episodes, my favorite podcast yes, I'm biased, it's my own podcast. What if it did work? Honored to have a distinguished guest, jeremy Delk. No relation to Tony Delk, even though they're both from Lexington, kentucky. Serial entrepreneur with a passion for disrupting industries since 2001. His businesses have earned hundreds of millions in revenue, created hundreds of high-paying American jobs, as well as other notable distinctions. Born and raised in a small town and from a blue-collar household, his parents worked for the post office. However, jeremy always held much bigger dreams. He longed to experience the world outside his small hometown of Bardson, kentucky, now Bardson. Is that on the bourbon trail?
Speaker 3:or Bardshown is like the bourbon trail, like where Bardshown is known as the bourbon capital of the world. So like um, which is funny cause. Like growing up in Bardshown. Like like I grew up with you know, um, you know Jim Beam family, drew Colesbean, who owns Willett Distillery, and like it wasn't glamorous back then, like, oh, you're in the bourbon industry. Like it was like a farmer, you were a blue collar. Now it's like this nuevo rich, like kind of component. Like wow, it's hipster though, dude.
Speaker 2:Because you know, I went to school, dude I'm, so working class Went to because, uh, you know I I went to um, dude I'm. I'm, so working class went to lsu. We all drank wild turkey while drinking, and we even drank albertson's brand because, you know, you know, times are tough it all, it all worked it all worked it all worked yeah, now it's funny because you know back then you know a hipster or somebody with cash.
Speaker 2:You know bourbon. Are you insane? And the best part about it is a lot of people. I mean the only the one major difference between a scotch, a whiskey and a bourbon is just really uh, where it's made.
Speaker 3:I mean kentucky bourbon, well, yeah, well, bourbon and whiskey for sure, and scotch obviously. You can't make scotch without good bourbon whiskey, right? Because basically we use them as a single use, so they flash them in a charred oak barrel age bourbon and then, once we're done with them, we do one dump and then we sell those barrels over to our friends in Scotland and they make the scotch.
Speaker 2:Now I know you're a serial investor, entrepreneur. Any bourbon, any whiskey, any Tennessee whiskey companies out there, or Kentucky.
Speaker 3:So serial investor is like a very polite way of just saying a guy who's got lucky, made some money, and just fucking throws everything on bet. So like I definitely take a lot of bets. So on bourbon, we've got, I I haven't, I'm not in it yet. We made a run at one distillery. It's a great brand and a great operator. It's in Paris, kentucky, just outside of Lexington, which is Bourbon County, and it is the oldest distillery in Bourbon County, which is kind of the namesake. So I haven't closed the deal and haven't pulled the trigger, but I don't suspect that it will be too long before we get into one.
Speaker 3:I've got some friends that started Castle Key. One of my best friends, we went to Philly game this past weekend. He's from Philadelphia, lives here in Lexington now. Castle Key is a great product. And another one of my best friends we went to Philly game this past weekend. He's from Philadelphia, lives here in Lexington now. Castle Key is a great product. And another one of my buddies started Never Say Die Bourbon, which I'll actually grab. I'm in my bar right now. Shameless pug, but super cool story. Forbes ranked this one the best bourbons in the world. Um, really cool stories. To check it out, um, with the Beatles and McCartney and a race, for it's like all it's it's. It tastes great, but it's actually a really epic story as well, so yeah.
Speaker 2:So never say die, that sounds like James Bond man yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was named after a racehorse that was born on my buddy's farm. It was Pat Madden, who developed a lot of land in Lexington. It was born on his farm. That horse went on to win the Epson Derby and a little startup band. The story is unbelievable. Lady made her last bet. Basically it was going to bankrupt the bar. The bar that was playing had this startup band that I don't remember what they were called, but they turned into this little group called the beatles. Um so like. Like the synergies of how it kind of comes through, it's just a really cool story. So it's similar to jefferson ocean where they ship it back. They actually make this in kentucky age, it in barrels and ship it to further age in England. So the idea is that it's England's bourbon.
Speaker 2:Well, some of those young people. When you say the Beatles, are you talking about Paul McCartney? Because I think he gave them his big shot a couple of years ago, Exactly, Exactly, Dude. Reading your bio man, I've got to. It's almost improbable. It's like a Disney movie, dude.
Speaker 3:A Disney movie if it was rated R.
Speaker 2:But yeah, dude, they make R-rated movies they own. Fox. Even in the 90s, in the 80s, touchstone man They've always been making R-rated movies. You come from a blue collar working class neighborhood. Your parents are blue collar, but who taught you to want to become an entrepreneur? Because you had the entrepreneurial spirit at such an early age. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:No, it's, it's a, it's a great question. So my um, my, my, my real dad, my biological dad, he died when I was seven, like a really crazy kind of tragic accident, like on a motorcycle, um, which I talk about in the book, and um, it's hard to, it's hard to articulate, especially to a child or even an adult. Really, it's hard to articulate stability in absence of stability. The best way to articulate stability is to introduce instability. So I grew up, you know, I was my, I was seven when my dad died, my brother was two and my mom was a stay at home.
Speaker 3:Mom Dad was, you know, you know, semi -entrepreneur, he had his own business, he did some other things, um, but I went from this stereotypical perfect life and the perfect life was like I had dinner with my parents every night and like I saw my mom and saw my dad, like we had, you know, we had a nice house in a middle-class neighborhoods, like it wasn't like fancy but like that was like so comfortable. And what I saw when my dad died obviously probably not old enough to really process it and I'll talk about that like a lot of therapy that went through that loss, but it went from like the house with my parents, to a smaller house, to an apartment, to a shittier apartment, my mom having to work third shift. So like I saw all these things that you know, losing my dad was tough enough but it was very much resource oriented. That, like man, like you don't have the money and like this is kind of like what's trajectory putting in this trajectory. So I I selfishly think that a lot of my drive in the early days was to not fucking repeat that. Let's just, like you know, my, my mom was resource limited, so the the equation is for resources, right. So I think that that was that, in that that kept me on a pretty good trajectory through ups and downs into my early twenties, where I was a multimillionaire at in my twenties early, very, very early age and still had a lot of, you know, trials and tribulations and ups and downs after that. But that that got me through my first 20 years.
Speaker 3:And I think now what I do to help kind of hopefully spare a lot of people from going through all the fucking shit I went through is what I learned on that next 20 years is, you know, money and resources. Life is hard regardless. It's impossible without money and resources Right. So like just getting money, resources is good, but the idea that I had was like, okay, cool, I've got all this shit, world is great.
Speaker 3:I was still fucked, I was still miserable, I didn't wasn't emotionally connected, I wasn't, you know, loving myself, I wasn't a good father, a good husband, like all these things. But I had all the shit and I think it's growth. Everyone, there's seasons in life, right and I think that's what I hopefully can you know share with a book and these podcasts and like mentoring and coaching. That I do is we're all flawed and we're all fucked to a degree, but accepting that's okay and then just taking it within and like using that as tools and fuel to make your life better, to make your, you know, your family, your network, your, your circle better is is what I'm about today now, lack of resources can be very motivational for some, but a lot of people, though you would think they would use that as rocket fuel, but a lot of people just love to play victim, yeah, and use it as your story.
Speaker 2:Hey, my life sucked because of of my circumstances, my, my lack of resources. I mean you could have done that yourself. I mean you earned your dude Kentucky and then you went off to Rhode Island, for which I mean how did that come about, man? Because usually I would have thought maybe University of Kentucky or Louisville or something like that would have been your dream, tony took up all the delt juice at UK. Well, you guys are about the same age.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we are, yeah, he's better, he's better looking, we're both bald, but um, so so yeah, look it's, it's, it's so, it's so true because so I, I, my dad, left me $30,000 when I and that was like my mom put it in Disney Funny fucking story that you mentioned Disney, disney and 20th Century Ultra Mutual Fund Like that's what she did, which is like the right thing to do as a single mom, and like that was it. So I went away to college and, living in Bardstown, I had very narrow scope because there's zero diversity in Nelson County, barge on Kentucky, like you're white or black and it's 90% white or better, zero diversity. So, like I went to, I got thrown into and I had a scholarship in New England, to in Providence, and you know I I always had this idea Like I was this big fish in a small pond, even if it was in my head and I visualize that. You know, as Sinatra said, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. So I always had New York on my radar and the only thing I knew about New York was Wall Street or the mafia my last name is Delk, not Delcamado or something like this Like I was probably not going to be a good mob guy. So Wall Street was the other thing.
Speaker 3:So I started really self-taught. I was reading investor business days daily, raging Bull like investor forums. Back in the day I was doing the journal and my mom, who's always been just so supportive of me, even to a fault when I probably shouldn't have been let me have access and signed a custodial agreement to allow me to start trading my account and through a lot of naivete, a bullish market and a little bit of guts, I took 30 grand and turned, turned into two million dollars, um, in two years, which is pretty cool well, dude, william o'neill would have been proud of you man using his canceling method there yeah.
Speaker 3:But even better, though. What's even more monumental than that is I lost two million bucks in four fucking days with this little thing called margin, margin call leverage. No stop loss, no hedges, like shit I didn't know about, but it's just fucking. And there's a.
Speaker 2:And then you know the dot-com bubble but ibd talks about all that dude you, you skip those are fucking for pessimists.
Speaker 3:I skipped those pages, bro.
Speaker 2:I said you skipped the eight percent losses exactly, but but, dude.
Speaker 3:So I was there, I, I, literally I was. You know, I was going to bed with um Jagermeister like just drinking myself to death, waking up to Maria Bartiromo on Squawk Box and like what's going on the market, and I tried to trade myself out of it. For a week and a half I didn't and I stared at the abyss of failure and it was, it was. It was so deep I I thought it was going to be something I never would come back from. Like not only did I lose all this money, but I lost like the legacy that my dad left me, like you know, like the 30, like it was, like there was more than just the money, like that money had a symbolic meaning to me. That fucked me. I was a failure and like I was at this crossroads I I'd.
Speaker 3:Now, after my this is my freshman summer, like every college freshman, I bought a fucking massive, fucking sick 20, 20 foot ceiling um money townhouse like brand new jeep grand chair. So I had all these expenses like of a 40 year old as a 19 year old kid. So I had assets, no cash, no income, and my you know where my came from. So there was no get out of jail, free car for me, like my parents, like fuck, like you are at this piece. So I was at that crossroads of you have the choice to define your story and it wouldn't have been a bad story. It could have been like kid grew up lost, his dad, went away to school, became a millionaire, lost it, learned a lot, came home and made a decent living like that that is a story that someone could be happy about. I just didn't choose that to be my story and I just said fuck it and like going through it, and I think it was probably just being some young cocky 20 year old that had the naivete to do it and I did odd job to odd job to odd job that ended up leading to making me the youngest trader in Fidelity history, right, which is pretty cool, and that's why I just I talk about so much on stage and on podcasts and on coaching is like life and you hear this all the time like life does not happen to you, it happens for you, man, and like the title of my book is without a plan and it's just. It's not like a theory. This is truly, if you just can keep forward momentum, keep moving forward like it will work out.
Speaker 3:And I think the lesson that I hopefully people take away from it is that I'm not unique dude. We've all had fucking laws, we've all had someone pass away, we've all had that big l. But as humans we're very self-protective, right like you go to a funeral, you're sad, you weep the next, you're sad, you weep the next day. You're kind of over it, right Cause like we just kind of block that out and I'm not one that really looks at living in the past and looking in the rear view. I mean, there's some lessons there. There really is. And if you could, if you could, if you could go back and look at that almost like a triage or an autopsy on a deal or or an event.
Speaker 3:There's a lot to it because if I, if I, if I didn't lose that money, the 21 year old jeremy delk would have never left the job where I was making more money than both of my parents combined, like as a 21 year old on wall street driving a BMW X five, 4.4 flare fenders. I was fucking killing it, but I wasn't fulfilled, I wasn't happy, I wasn't making or creating anything other than money, and there's not a chance in fucking hell that I would have resigned from that job. When my mom thought I was crazy. She's like, dude, you just lost everything. You got your shit together and you're going to fuck it up again Like you're just a masochist. You want to fucking go through. But what? What got me the courage to do it? Was simple what's the worst that could happen? Like it's anything I'm about to do going to make me lose $2 million in four days. No Good, that's one. I fucking rebuilt from that shit, so I'm strong. I got confidence in myself. My first year in business I made $6,000. Rent on my Chelsea apartment was $5,500. So it didn't really cash flow. But that was a mentality of like what's the worst that could happen, which I love. Your fucking podcast, what if it did work? And like the definition of hell is dying and meeting who you could have been right. And like who gives a fuck.
Speaker 3:So many times the fears that we have in these limiting beliefs 99.9% of them are in our head and it's and it's like oh well, oh, what if I do this? Fucking dude, no one cares about you other than your mom and your maybe your wife. No one else cares about you. And it's this fear of like, oh, if I fail, what if someone else and like that's the piece where I'm so adamant about you have to look at failure as pure gold because, dude, it's a gift, it's the greatest gift, man, you are blessed. I've been very successful, taking companies public millions of dollars. I haven't learned a fucking thing from my successes. Those are easy, bro, easy You're in the right place, timing, luck. Whatever you want to say, dude, what I've learned when I've learned and when I've been who I am is my back's against the fucking wall. There's no options like show me that person and how they respond.
Speaker 2:That shows character, resolve and vision oh, dude, it's, it's a gift rock bottle. But also, bringing back one of your points to me, one of the variations of of hell is when you die, you meet the person that you could have been. Yeah, and you're. You don't recognize that person because that person's, you know, a fucking rock star, not musically, but you know like right, yeah, like a renaissance man, and you're a fucking joe palooka and you're like who's that and it'll be. And then you know, the devil remembers like bitch. That could have been you, man, if you would have had the courage, the courage to believe in yourself, the courage to serve. But you sat on the sidelines and you amounted to just regret.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. No, it's deep and if you look at it that way, it changes your perspective, man, I mean, like that's why I loved your podcast Like what if it did work? Like what if you fucking did ask the girl to marry you? What if you did buy the company? What if you did make the hire? What if you fucking did start the girl to marry you? What if you did buy the company? What if you did make the hire? What if you fucking did start the business and like not changing it to, oh if I fail, what if you fucking succeeded? Right, there's a great saying, of course how big would you dream if you knew you couldn't fail?
Speaker 2:well, dude, it's all, it's all in our head.
Speaker 3:I'm telling you, it's all in our head, it's all, it's all in our head, this limiting belief, and I think the moment you can kind of step out of it and it does, you know, it's. You know, I talk about this in my book we were in I don't know. I don't know where you are like, with, like, energy and manifestation and all this stuff oh, dude, I've done every personal development business as well, I'm wide.
Speaker 3:I I believe in all of it dude, I, I was, I was in the philippines, we got a place down there and I was with a business partner of mine. I was in the book and we started talking, um, like it was about like when the secret was really big with oprah and all that stuff. And my dude, I just don't believe in that. Like to that degree, like let's put up a vision board of a fucking rb, you're gonna get that like, like it's like manifestation light and I get how it's just watered down. But I'm like I like, oh, fucking, that's bullshit.
Speaker 3:But when you really dive into it and you're around folks that can get it and manifest like my team, I've got hundreds of employees and they see me do it over and over again it fucking infuriates them because, like I'm I'm flat, like, oh, big lawsuit, yeah, cool, man, it's just, it's just an event like interesting, let's see how it goes. And they're like, oh, my god, like what? Like, dude, it's just like that's just noise. Man, like it's just a, that's just noise. Man, like it's just a thing, like I firmly believe that you know actions, you know or you know, a good thing or a bad thing doesn't exist. It's the, they're just events, it's the actions and emotion that you would tie to those events.
Speaker 2:Dude, it's emotion, the way you handle adversity, the way you handle, dude, what happens to a lot of people is they go hollywood, in the sense they hit a little success and you know they, they take their. They don't realize everything is temporary. That's why you have to keep emotions out of it because, dude, if you're, if you're hitting losses, you have to keep. You have to. It's temporary. Yes, sooner or later you're gonna get out of this. Just, dude, you're high up there. You know you're, you're making two million dollars, this and that. That was temporary. Now, most people don't realize that. And put a hundred percent emotions, dude, there's people that'll kill themselves, giving up their life. Ultimate fucking failure, pissing away the gift or you could have been a victim. Oh my gosh, you know telling you would have moved back home to Kentucky and everybody would have known.
Speaker 3:Everyone who met me heard that story. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you would have been like you know. It would have been like on repeat, like watching Sanford Sons or Honeymooners. Everybody would be like, oh fuck, jeremy's at the bar again we're going to have to hear this. Yeah, exactly, yeah, dude, but now you only talk about it when I talk about the adversity in my life. I don't want a fucking cyber hug. I don't want. It's not, it's not anything. It's just to say, hey, it just happened. Who gives a fuck? Let's no.
Speaker 3:It's like and take it as armor and as a gift, because hopefully you don't have to go through all this shit. But again, every there's not one person on this planet that hasn't been through something, albeit different. We've all had struggle, failure, hurt, crushing. We've all had it. It's how you like it defines you or you define it Exactly.
Speaker 2:Exactly and like dude your story. Like I said, man, and making $6,000 in your first year in business, that you kept on going. A lot of people would have had a plan B. A lot of people, their exit strategy would have been to give up. You would have never been the VC fund guy. You definitely wouldn't be investing in shit. What you would be doing is you'd be DCAing like $100 a month into some no-load mutual fund and thinking, 50 years from now, you're going to be a rock star, I'll be okay. Exactly, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:For sure. Yeah, dude, You're stubborn though, dude, because that's what success takes, man. Everybody wants it immediately. You know, everybody wants success, Everybody. Yeah, if they hear, they're like oh my gosh, Jeremy was fucking a rock star at the age of 20, 21, but they didn't realize the hell that you had to go through to get to $6,000 a year, I get it. One of my stores was doing $200 days in retail and the QSR Trust me, that shit, I feel it. I had that same attitude, man. I'm not going to fucking give up One day. If you work at what you want and you don't pay attention to the noise, you don't pay attention to the naysayers, you keep on going. And then one day we're going to need Jeremy Delk to invest in our baby, in our startup.
Speaker 3:No, for sure. Yeah, and I think it just again, if you can understand that, like, as you said, life is such a gift and we are so blessed, and if you can just treat it as such, you know, and there's so many things that you can do to hack your system, like, hey, if I gave you, do you want $10 million? Like, yeah, I'll take $10 million. Cool, all right, but if I give you $10 million and you don't wake up next week, would you still take it? What are you gonna do, fuck.
Speaker 3:No, I don't want the money, yeah, nobody which means waking up is worth more than 10, like like that's what we fucking we take for granted. So so much, and I think that's that's the other biggest piece. Right is that you know you have to be passionate and love what you're doing and success. But getting down to like you're talking about your why, like understanding your true why is so important. Because for a long time and like you know, I went through a really bad divorce. I'm very happily married and kids and all that stuff. But, dude, I was going through all the typical traps. I had more money than I could fucking deal with, but you know, all the cars and watches and fourth houses didn't do it for me.
Speaker 3:Right, it was like I was trying to buy these material things to replace happiness and looking, it took really looking within and in dealing with some deep shit that we've all went through Right Past trauma, these stigmas, these things, some deep shit that we've all went through right past trauma, these stigmas, these things that we have, that we again. It all goes down to self-protection road right, like, hey, someone left me, or my dad died, or my mom died, or whatever your, whatever your circumstances. Those are ingrained like a, like a fingerprint in in you and it's hard to shake those, but it's necessary to do it to really get because, like, what are we doing this for? Both of us have better things to do than a podcast at nine o'clock at night, but we're doing this because A we're called to serve, we're called to help others and we believe in what we're doing, and neither of us are getting paid for this, but it's, you know, that greater good that I think we owe it to each other, that I would have loved this information 20 years ago.
Speaker 2:Well, dude, think about it you said it right because we are in service. We're not doing it because you know we're going be on oprah's couch or we're doing it for that. But there's somebody out there that might listen to this exact episode that you hit, that you inspire, that, you motivate, that changes their life. Just one person and it's fucking gold and that's worth everything that and that's worth everything.
Speaker 3:Exactly, that's literally worth everything. Because you forget about it, man, you forget, you don't know who you're going to touch, who you're going to talk to. That day, that message, that word resonates with them. That makes all the difference, and I think that's the duty.
Speaker 2:Well, before we change gears to the nitty gritty that you're looking for businesses to invest in, you're looking for entrepreneurs that need the coaching. Yeah, where were you, man? 20 years it took me. You know, it was my coach experience, man. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I did hire a coach, but then I realized it was just a coach that never owned a business, and I had to fire him because after they told me that, but without this, here's one plug we're going to plug away man. This is going to be more plugging than the timeshare presentation Without a Plan by Jeremy Delk, a memoir of unbound action and failing my way to success on Amazon, kindle, barnes, noble, apple Books. And if you're fucking lazy, download it on Audible and you can listen to it on Audible and you won't have any excuse. Quit the serious, quit listening to Howard Stern, quit listening to bullshit there's. You're either growing or you're dying through every action Listening to a book like this. You're growing, you're moving forward.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I appreciate that and it's so true. I mean I think the book reviews have been, you know, wolf of street meets um hangover, right, I mean it's, it's a fucking good story. The first time I wrote the book, um, I ripped it up. It was great, but it was bullshit factual but still bullshit, because it was all just like tips and tricks and how I took a company public and how I took it private, how I made 100 million on this, like all this bullshit which is cool, but, dude, business is so personal and I was a little bitch, like I was like I didn't fucking, I didn't share through all the other stuff that was going on when I when I did that and it took me another year and I just poured my guts out and like, said like you, my biggest enemies may still hate me, but you can't call me a fucking liar because I just threw it all out there, like like me or love me. This is ultimate vulnerability, ultimate authenticity, and there's so much solace in that, if you can just get comfortable with loving yourself, come with who you are, fuck everyone else and fuck everything else. Right, you are going to find your tribe. Your family's going to love you. You're going to be a better father, a better husband. You're going to know why you get up every morning because it's not. Maybe it's for money, but it's also because I want to serve, I want to help, I want to impact that. You're going to have your tribe, you're going to have your friends and there's guaranteed a ton of people that aren't going to like you. Who cares Like? You're going to have your people that you serve, that you love, they love you. And the quicker people that you serve, that you love, they love you, and the quicker you can come to that.
Speaker 3:I. I had this world of like I because I can. I've got billionaire buddies, multiple. I've got you know people that you know work janitorial services for me. I take so much pride in either one of those people feel comfortable texting me and asking me for help. My housekeeper. She's a Mexican immigrant, law-abiding, phenomenal, naturalized citizen. She's got a great family, church-going, and she doesn't speak English that well and her son has a baby. The custody issue like reaches out to me for help and I can help them out with legal stuff, whatever to billionaire. Hey, how do I do this? How do I master my health and understand biological age? All these different things, I get that text. It warms my heart that I may curse a lot, be bald and fucking ugly, that I'm still approachable to people that know me and that that trust me and love me well, it's because you have no, you don't have that ulterior motive that a lot of people pretend they want to help.
Speaker 3:But yeah, they'll only help if they feel like if it serves them or if it serves them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, like you know the power of rest, but that fucking word, I, that's one of those only words.
Speaker 1:I can't, but that's the frosty yeah, yeah, yeah to reciprocate.
Speaker 2:You know, and that's not. Everybody says you're a christian, but it wasn't. It means to act more christ-like. It wasn't like jesus was like. If I bring this motherfucker lazarus back, how many people are gonna dig?
Speaker 3:this. What's the deal?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, what's the deal yeah, it does, lazarus have cash what?
Speaker 3:what's the roi? Exactly, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:But there's no, yeah, there's so much quid pro quo for sure yeah, dude, and it's like no man you know, or they'll go on social media and fucking brag that they, they donated to a gofundme or they did whatever, and it's like no motherfucker, you do it and don't post right yeah, because if you're, fucking yeah, you want somebody to beat you off, or you know yeah, the anonymous gifts are where it's at.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that. That. How many people do that, though? No, because you want to see your name through the little oh wow, you donated. Look at me, right. No, exactly exactly. You see, I need you'd like that one, so you're. When it comes to your coaching now, are you doing it on a one-on-one level? Are you doing it group coaching? Are you doing all the above a blend?
Speaker 3:but, but both. So we have a um like a 12-week accelerator deal, um, that will take. So it's like one to many. So it's, uh, a course um weekly courses, weekly modules with workshops, and then that's like a biweekly group call. And then I do take on like 10 or 12 one-on-one um clients. Um, that's a one-on-one dedicated call. Those are, you know, select and like it's gotta make sense. Like you know, time is my biggest commodity and I just want to help people. But those oftentimes are, hey, people I can help. I love helping on the why and like are you fulfilled and all those pieces, cause like I can help scaling businesses and shit. It's easy, it's like more like the total package of like yeah, business is good, family's good's good, those things. So a lot of those will will either I'll meet in the, in the lower tiered programs, um, but yeah, we do like, I'll do like 10 to 12 one-on-one clients, oh yeah, dude, you can't just do one-on-ones, for, like jeremy, I have a great side hustle.
Speaker 2:Um, I heard gary v saying he could sell baseball cards.
Speaker 3:Yeah we have Z-Friend instead of B-Friend. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:I wasn't thinking. You know, talk about a waste of your resources yes, I get that. But also, what I love is the simple fact is that you have history, that you have skin in the game, because, dude, 90 percent of business coaches have zero fucking experience. They've never owned a business. Dude, I'm catholic, that's like me. Hey, father, should I, should I marry this chick, or? You know, dude, you don't go to advice, but we do it because, oh my gosh, this person went to the Cardone Grant Cardone school of of being a business coach, which means I paid him and he gave me a blank certificate, or you know, all, all the gurus have them, and it's like none of these people own a business. So it's like going to a pilot and saying, are you going to fly me to Dale? And you're like no, but I have tons of experience on a flight simulator, we'll get there.
Speaker 3:No, a hundred percent. I my my marketing guys just had me do this. I'll do it really quickly for you.
Speaker 3:I won't show you the whole thing, this is fucking hilarious, though, because I think you're 100 right, like fucking this. This is. You'll recognize this. Hold on, hey, just here in my garage with my ferrari. Look like I'm joking, I'm not ty lopez, but this actually is my garage. Um, this is actually the first supercar I ever bought, but I I I skipped through it and I talked more about like the, the I go, I go very quickly to the. I bought that car, which is so true. I bought that ferrari when I was miserable. I was in a loveless marriage, cheating on my wife, just not a fucking good dude man like a lot of self-destructive behaviors. And then the, the next thing. I won't, uh, I won't show you the next, that, the next piece, but the next car is my 67 fastback, like from um, gone in 60 seconds at pepper gray, like beautiful eleanor or whatever eleanor, eleanor exactly, nick was proud of me, bro, nick cage exactly carol shelby signed the car for me.
Speaker 3:But like that car, like um my son and I found when he was four. He's 11 now. I did a complete rotisserie um restoration on it and it's probably worth 300 grand or whatever. But I talk about that car and I got 10 cars. But like that car is way more consistent with my why Both of those individual cars are worth some money and in in fun their own right. But like it's I talk about that in that ad. Like that Mustang with is about the windows down going down a country road in the summer with my son grabbing ice cream.
Speaker 3:Like you couldn't write a fucking check big enough must couldn't write a check big enough to take that away from me. And like that is indicative into your why not. Like standing in front of it to sell some fucking bullshit, right and like like I didn't even want to do this coaching thing. But exactly what you said, it's just infuriating. Like I got these fucking kids. Like bro, you're still going through puberty. The fuck you're gonna teach me or teach anyone right. Like fucking. Like I do what I like, what my books about my teaching. Like I I can teach you. Like what I've been through. Like I've gotten fucking. You know everyone like ties to me. Everybody's got plans to get punched in the face Like dude. I've punt, fucking knocked out.
Speaker 3:Hopefully, just do everything. I didn't do anything, I did. Don't do everything I did and you'll fucking. It'd be so much better. But that's a piece, that's a principle that you can kind of go through and capture that and use that information as not dwelling and not like, oh, what was me? But okay, cool, that's a great lesson. Not dwelling and not like, oh, woe is me, but okay, cool, that's a great lesson. Let's apply that. Let's use the strength of adversity, let's use the strength of overcoming fear and doubt. Remember those and harness that to take that next step, whatever it is business relationships, friendships, et cetera.
Speaker 2:Dude, that's funny that you mentioned Ty. You know friendships, et cetera. Dude, that's funny that you mentioned Ty. I actually was one of the suckers that I paid for mentorship a year for his mentorship, which is complete bullshit and I got the super he upsold me on having dinner with him at his house.
Speaker 3:No way Four times a year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dude, what the fuck are you in a mastermind?
Speaker 2:Oh, dude, yeah, all of it, dude. I even have his cell phone number, which which he blocked. He blocked me cause I texted him. Um, what was it? Oh, I didn't want to do year two Cause, you know you, I didn't want to do year two because you know you have to be a fucking moron to, you know, spend that. And then I didn't want to invest in all his get rich quick schemes that he gets all his people to invest in. So, yeah, he was he's like so what do you? So what do you invest in all your money? I'm like stocks. He's like oh, ok, and then afterwards it just went to fucking green, yeah, but a complete dick dude, as useless as his fucking tits on a bowl. But people, people love that dude, his masterminds. He would show up late as fuck, hungover or whatever, and he'd be like, oh, I have other people do it, that's you know, that's the key, that. And it's like, dude, people pay for you, man, yeah exactly, and they pay for what they think.
Speaker 3:you are right, yes exactly, dude.
Speaker 2:Exactly. That's the piece. No, man. That's why I said you have skin in the game. Your whole story, dude. Being an entrepreneur, I would well, it would make sense, because you've struggled. You know what it's like man. You know what it's like Dude. Cash flow 6,000, enough man.
Speaker 3:No, I get criticism probably a lot because I love Shark Tank, but it's the worst thing that happened to America other than fucking fast food. Because, like, it's created this, this world of entrepreneurs. Dude, this is not a glamorous life, bro, zero about it. Like, ok, now I'm an overnight success. It only took me 26 years, bro, that's it. Fucking. You know what I mean. Like it doesn't happen. Like that, and they don't want to fucking.
Speaker 3:Look at the dude, the stress, the sleepless nights, the fucking wow, I got 30 million in debt. Oh, I wouldn't do this, all I did. Like they don't want to picture that shit. It's only the fruits and man. Like it, it takes so much more to get there that if you have, if, if you are truly an entrepreneur and you're wired this way, I think it's, I would. I'm so glad and grateful and blessed that I am this way because, like, I would not have chose a different path. But if you're not ingrained in this way, don't try to fake it, because it's hard and it's not for everybody and that's okay. I think that's what people forget. Like, oh, I want to do this, I want to do my business. Like, do you Be careful, what you wish for, you know.
Speaker 2:Jeremy, you both get this a lot, especially the age of Shark Tank and them knowing that you're a VC guy, a venture capitalist. You get a lot of neighbors and kids, parents, going hey, jeremy, I've got this great idea. Would you like to invest in blank? Whatever business, whatever harebrained idea? They're thinking only three to four times a day only, yeah dude I, I figured like you know the mailman would be like. Hey, let me tell you about this, yeah now, what do I have?
Speaker 2:your mail, but I've got this great idea yeah, but, dude, but I love it.
Speaker 3:I'm a junkie, I listen, like I, I love, I love creating what. So what? Why I left? This is super important. Like I left Wall Street at a very young age making a ton of money, right, so like it wasn't like the money thing, wasn't it? For me, it was. I was just so fucking lucky that I had the foresight to realize that I wasn't fulfilled and I don't know how that happened, it just God's intervention, whatever. But like I was, I was, I had a nice car making. I was, I was chilling and I just got lucky to have vision, to understand, like I didn't fill it in my heart that I couldn't see, and it was mainly that I couldn't see myself doing that for 20 years I saw guys 20 years, my senior doing the same shit. They were making more, I had a bmw, they had a bentley like, and that that was enough for me. But now, dude, I fucking, I listen to the pitches, I did and I do and like I'll give free advice and sometimes I'll invest in them, who knows? But I love, I love the deal. I love the deal. I love the creativity, like that.
Speaker 3:Peter Tiller wrote a great book, zero to One, like that's my sweet spot. I love taking, you know, this bottle cap idea and now it's got employees and revenue. It's like that's a piece for me. After that, like I exit, or like you know, we've got a big company now that I think will be one of the most valuable health companies in the world. We'll see nine figures already, but I know that I will break that thing. So I get it to that zero to one piece to, like you know, 20, 30, $40 million valuation. And then I hired management to go and do it, because I'm the creator. I'm that zero to one guy. Someone to take it from a hundred million to a billion, that's easy. That's just like that's metrics and discipline. I'm not that guy. The big part, the heart, that's easier. Harder part is getting it from zero to 10 million.
Speaker 2:Now Jeremy is being a B-seek. Now do you specialize in like I don't know athletic companies that deal with athletics technology, or you're just?
Speaker 3:I'm. If it looks good, you'll invest. I'm industry agnostic. I mean I do a lot of real estate development. Most of my big licks have been in healthcare, so health, health tech, that kind of thing okay, now what?
Speaker 2:I'm sure there's plenty of people out there. I'm not talking about the entrepreneurs, because shit that there's plenty. What entrepreneur, what? What type of company? What are you looking for? 10 million gross minimum, or what? Oh well, to invest in or to code? No, no, to invest in, to code no, I do think.
Speaker 3:Now $10 million is like I'm looking. If you need to scale your business, I'm not your guy. I can do that, that's easy. I want the dumpster fire. We just fucking lost our fucking funding. We have to go to code fire. We just fucking lost our fucking funding, we okay. So you're like I fucking because I I that's where I'm fucking a ninja like you're, you're.
Speaker 2:You have the power to raise the titanic you're, you're and and that shit's fucking fun.
Speaker 3:You're the cleaner.
Speaker 3:You're the guy to call when, like the wolf, exactly exactly exactly for paul fiction like I, because that's where I can present maximum value, because I can remove emotion and say fucking, and see the trees of war, like that. That's a everyone wins on that deal because no one else is going to invest in it. It's fun. But dude, like I'm, I'm not an LP, like I've got t-shirts actually said I'm not an LP. I've got t-shirts actually that say I'm not an LP, I'm a general partner. I fucking can come through and I know how to make it work and after that you want me to move out. Or I can then be an LP and be a passive investor Again, like our true and our epigenetic business. Right now. I mean we're raising $20 million checks, nine-figure deals. That business has already been sorted and it just needs to scale. I mean we're raising $20 million checks, nine-figure deals. That business has already been sorted and it just needs to scale. And it's going to scale fast or slow, but it's just going to kind of go.
Speaker 3:If I'm in that business I will wreck it because I like to kind of tinker and kind of create. So I like dumpster fires. That's where I'm maximum value. You know I'm not an operations guy but I can zig when people zag, and I think that's where my skill set is. But it's industry agnostic because and not just because that's my feeling, because I've demonstrated that I've been through so many different industries and successful in all it's people do business with people. So if it's B2B, b2c, none of that matters right? If you can understand value chain, opportunity, experience and package that into a great offer, it's, it's, it's all.
Speaker 2:It's all, it's all easier dude, you do help people scale through your coaching oh, I do, but I just don't like that I know, I know, I just don't like that as much.
Speaker 3:Like the investment piece is like, hey, here, this is a great deal. Like I like to fucking when you get turned down from everybody, it's a fucking, it's a disaster. Like watch me do my thing, because, like, I love being being told like, and then I think this is entrepreneurial right, tell me it can't fucking happen. Like do it. Tell me we can't. Like, just tell, do that, of course. Yeah, fucking, let's go, that's the best thing you could ever do. Tell me I won't, I won't do it. Tell me it's impossible, like it's the best thing you could ever do. Tell me I won't, I won't do it. Tell me it's impossible, like it's the best fuel dude, but it's.
Speaker 2:It's still when you, if it's a dumpster, fire and try to get the, the founder, the entrepreneur, to get, how do you? You, you must be like the world's greatest psychologist dude, because when I tell them, I cut off the emotions. They're like fucking, like their kids dying but yeah, and it's hard.
Speaker 3:But like you gotta be an adult, like you gotta go through these things. Like I lost all this money and I fucking drank jagermeister for four days. Cool, cry, fucking, feel bad, fucking, go through whatever emotions you have, but I can guarantee you like it ain't solving your fucking problem. So the quicker you get through your bullshit, the quicker you can get to fixing it. That's all I do. Cool, you're gonna be sad. Oh, fucking, what was me? Oh, fuck, yeah, I know this guy fucked you. You got your ip stolen. Fucking, your partner left you. Whatever, you're cool, cool, cool, useless fucking noise. None of your all white noise to you.
Speaker 3:Oh, bullshit I'm here I'm ready to get to work. Tell me when you stop being a bitch and then we can fucking move on, because being a bitch isn't gonna fucking solve it. If you need two weeks, cool fucking, take two weeks, get over and then to fucking solve it. If you need two weeks, cool Fucking, take two weeks, get over it and then and then let me know. But you need those big boy, big girl conversations because it's a truth Feeling bad for yourself Isn't going to fucking change a goddamn thing. Get pissed off and go to fucking work.
Speaker 2:I hear you, dude. So how do people find you? For multiple ways I won your coaching. That, yeah, well, we, we know your your time's limited. The one-on-one, the group coaching, dude, because every entrepreneur completely needs that man. I know it because I was there it's, it's.
Speaker 3:It's a community dude like um I not because it's funny, because the mastermind. I'll give you one quick story so answer your question. Jeremy s delk on all socials, um, and jeremydelkcom is the website you can find me.
Speaker 3:Find me there, so you know russell brunson, right of course like click so, dude, a partner of mine, wayne godwin uh, we're still partners in a in a topical pain relief product on amazon does really really well. But he told me like, yeah, going to fucking idaho, okay, what the fuck are you in there for? And he's like, dude, I'm oh, I pay like 50 grand a year and I go, this mastermind, it's like fun. I was like what I'm like you are a fucking idiot, bro. Like like, do you need a friend? Like I'm your friend, like tell you what, give me 10 grand, buy me dinner and we'll fucking hang out. Like I thought it was the dumbest fucking thing. Categorically, you're just getting ripped off. I get that you're rich, but like I don't understand it. So we went um, so like whatever, like dude, I'm telling you there's something to it.
Speaker 3:So I went to my very first track track, uh, traffic and conversion summit and met a kentucky guy. Perry belcher is a good friend of mine, r Ryan Dice, you may know these guys Roland Frazier, all these guys and they had a war room which I think was the greatest mastermind of all time. I was in war room for five years, cost me 30 grand a year, plus, you know, going to the montage in Beverly Hills and like four seasons of Punta Mita, so it was probably 100 grand a year exercise and I drank the Kool-Aid. I'm like, dude, this is so fucking stupid. But dude, it's the community, it's the shit that you take away that, like your, your cost to entry, like the 25 grand I'd pay, or 30 grand a year I'd pay, I'd make that in one meeting like 10x. It was crazy. On the things that you take away.
Speaker 3:So I was the most anti-community, anti-coach thing because I, I, my mentors, historically have been. I love tony robbins, but like it's been, like it's been a lot of books, it's been a lot of that type of thing and I hadn't had that one-on-one thing, maybe because I just didn't like work that way. But, dude, it's just like the stuff that you hear from the peripheral and that's why I love business, because it's agnostic. Business to business, business and you go through war room was great because everyone signed on disclosures and there was no theory talk. It was like this is what I did, it was a massive success, you should do it. Or this is what I did, it fucking sucked. Don't do this type of thing.
Speaker 3:So long, long narrative to tell you that it took me with high level of skepticisms, to join a community or join a coaching program until you actually can see, like, fuck those little, like those things because again, all the answers are here. Like, like I, it's within you, man, everyone I coach. I like to think I've got some good ideas, I like to think I'm smart, but, dude, 90% of it, bro, is just helping them get the fuck out of their own way. It really is, I'm like dude. So so you're telling me that you should hire this company, you should fucking, you should scale this, you should this. So that's what you're telling me. So remind me why the fuck we aren't doing that again. Oh, yeah, I don't know, we're not. Let's fucking do it and like that's and that's and, but you need that and that's value. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But you provide value. Think about it. You're giving them the number one resource, the most essential resource time. You're condensing time, yeah, and that's a beautiful thing, because you can't buy it, you can't borrow it, so you're saving people the most valuable resource, man. Yeah, congratulations on that, man, because you are being in service or you're helping people. You're helping people get out of their own way, because a lot of times they need to be prodded. A lot of times they don't understand they have the answer. So you're helping them unlock what they have inside, man, because a lot of time it's fear that holds people back.
Speaker 2:Dude, I can talk to you for about whiskey, about bourbon, kentucky, you name it, man, but you know we live in a TikTok society. Before we go, I gotta ask you we're gonna promote everything one last time. But I have to ask you this what words of wisdom do you have to tell that person? That's just really fucking down in it. They have like zero hope. They went from hero to zero with the quickness. They're in debt. Their portfolio is shit beyond, beyond margin calls. They, they, they bought NVIDIA at the height and they're watching it come down 20%. Yeah.
Speaker 3:After a deep seek launched. Yeah, yeah, I would tell you, like, take a breath, this is only going to make you stronger. It's not personal, it's a cycle. It does not and will not define you. The quicker that you can go through whatever emotional process that you need to fuck this, curse someone out, punch a wall, whatever you need to do to feel like you, okay, got that out, go through and do it. My only recommendation is get through that shit really quick, because it's not positive. And then when you get through it, you're like, okay, fuck it. Here we go, I'm here, that's a chapter. Let's turn the fucking page and go to the next chapter and you are the author in that next chapter.
Speaker 3:I think that's the biggest piece. Life is seasons, man, right, you know, there's, there's that old um, it was a prophecy or a legend. Like uh, uh, it was a um, maybe it was like an Indian or something, and it was like, oh, my gosh, like this thing happened. Uh, that's so great. Like, oh, we'll see. Uh, I don't know, oh, we'll see, we'll see. And they just kind of pushing that out Like, well, let's see whether it's good or bad, stay calm, relax and just keep moving forward. And good or bad. Stay calm, relax and just keep moving forward. And then, on the same thing, if you've got this idea to start the company, marry the girl, ask her to date. You do the deal, whatever it is. Take a step forward.
Speaker 3:Like this analysis by paralysis doesn't work. Like you're never going to have a perfect plan. The timeline books without a plan. For that reason, show me anyone that can fucking go on a live chat or text me right now that has, you know, in 2019, had a model for a fucking global pandemic? Didn't happen. You can't solve for everything. So just get started and change your mindset and the emotion that you lend towards what failure looks like, because, I would argue, failure is where success is born, failure is where the learning happens, and that's what makes you so much stronger.
Speaker 2:Jeremy Delk without a plan. He mentioned the book the good, the bad. The plan. He mentioned the book the good, the bad. The ugly he gives you. Everything Should be made into a movie. We're going to talk to Fox Disney see if they can do an R-rated version. Sounds entertaining, I'm going to download it. I listen to two books a month on Audible, so after we're done here I'll personally email you.
Speaker 3:If it sucks, dude, I'm going to be like Jeremy if it's not like, do your fucking poser, you fucking tell me yeah, I'm just fucking you with you, I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 2:And then also, if you want coaching, if you want resources, he's got an amazing website. It's teal black. And he's got an amazing website. It's teal black and white. I love the colors. I love the presentation. I'm being honest, I was like cyber-stalking you. I was on it for a while. It's an amazing JeremyDelkcom. You can find him. Book him. Hey, have your company. Book him to speak, because, let me tell you, a lot of these conferences have fucking shitty speakers. Dude, I would hire you If I was still an entrepreneur. I would hire you for sure for coaching, because, man, to get to A to B, to C, you have to have a different coach. To have a different coach, yeah you, if, if you're already at the level I was when I retired, I couldn't hire some asshole that went to the john fucking maxwell school to coach, because you can't, man, you need somebody like you.
Speaker 3:It's rock and jule and dude, and I think the biggest thing for me is like, no matter how fucking cocky you think you are and oh, you made it, bro, fucking from a guy there's always another level, there's, there's always another dude and like it would laugh at your ass, dude oh everyone dude, I do charlie munger right now is in heaven laughing at your ass.
Speaker 3:Yes, dude, and I'm telling you there's always another level. So we were in monaco this past year for formula one and, like I just landed, I took the helicopter in. I fucking hear this voice like wow, it's fucking very distinct voice. Like who is that? And I'm not a big celebrity guy and it was fucking michael douglas. Now wall street's probably one of my favorite movies. So I ended up grabbing michael. We got a picture and we talked for like 10 minutes.
Speaker 3:But like we're in here, we went to my buddy's boat, we're watching the races. I'm like this is fucking just a level, like this and unbeknownst, like you're on a 30 million dollar yacht watching races, all that stuff, and it's like crazy. And then we go take a helicopter somewhere else but then fast forward a month and I take, I take my kids, I got three. I take my kids. I got three. I take my hopefully one more coming we're working on, but I take. There's one of them there.
Speaker 3:I take my kids on a solo trip for every fifth birthday, so five, 10, 15, and 20. So I took my 10-year-old to Dubai and I've been fortunate to be going over there the last 10 or 11 years and I've had tea with Sheikh Mohammed, this guy we've we've sat down for like four or five times, just a different level. I was on a billionaire's boat. Now I'm with. I don't know what Sheikh Mohammed's worth, but a lot, and what's he looking at? Like he built Dubai in 30 years. So it just shows you like there's just so many different levels. I'm just some bald-headed ugly guy from fucking Barchon, kentucky, but to your point, there's levels and there's knowledge to learn from the most high levels, but also again from the housekeeper, from the guy that's doing construction. All these different levels. Dude, just be a fucking human, don't be a fucking scumbag, and I think that's that's. That's the case. I'm gonna show you like the sneak, peek, hold on, make it, make it baby. Hey, remy, what are you doing, buddy?
Speaker 2:that's my, uh, that's my, that's my youngest, but anyway, congratulations, man. Dude, thank you for the time, thank you for the hour and yeah, dude, I'm gonna download the book. So sometime next next week I'll email you. I'll be like hey, thank you, and you know what I love you. I'm going to make sure this hits sooner than later. Man, now you're a family guy. Now you gave your time to the business world to be in service. Now be in service to yourself and your family. Take care, brother, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, man. This prison to escape is our own mind. I was trapped inside that prison all for a long time. To make it happen, you gotta take action. Just imagine what if it did work.