Unfiltered Founders
Unfiltered Founders is a raw, real, and refreshing podcast for anyone ready to break free from the corporate grind and embrace the unpredictable world of entrepreneurship. Hosted by Darren Penquite and Andy Baker—two former corporate professionals turned business owners—this show dives deep into the highs, lows, and everything in between of starting and scaling a business.
Each episode features candid conversations about the unfiltered realities of entrepreneurship: the wins, the losses, the sleepless nights, and the lessons learned along the way. Whether you're just considering taking the leap or you're a seasoned business owner looking for perspective, encouragement, or the next big idea, Unfiltered Founders delivers honest insights and practical advice—with a dash of humor and a whole lot of heart.
Tune in for stories that inspire, advice you can actually use, and the kind of support every founder needs but rarely finds.
Unfiltered Founders
A Salary is a Drug They Give You to Make You Forget Your Dreams
"A salary is a drug they give you to forget your dreams." These powerful words from our guest, Eli, CEO of the Medford Chamber of Commerce, capture the essence of our eye-opening conversation about entrepreneurship, wealth-building, and breaking free from the employee mindset.
Eli's journey from Hollister retail employee to successful business owner and Chamber CEO reveals the transformative power of entrepreneurship. He shares the pivotal moment when, at age 25, he discovered a peer making $55,000 monthly while he had been content aspiring to earn $60,000 annually. This revelation changed his perspective forever and set him on the path to financial independence.
We dive deep into practical strategies for starting a business with minimal capital—as little as $200-400—and how to build a successful side hustle before quitting your day job. Eli challenges common misconceptions about entrepreneurship, explaining that the average multimillionaire has at least five different income streams and that working 40 hours per week simply isn't enough to achieve extraordinary success.
The conversation explores the critical importance of personal development, with Eli revealing how he transformed from someone who mocked vision boards to setting 60 annual goals and achieving them systematically. His insights on surrounding yourself with successful entrepreneurs, learning to identify market demands, and developing an abundance mindset offer a blueprint for aspiring business owners.
For listeners in Southern Oregon, we also discuss Medford's promising economic future, including the exciting Creekside Quarter development project that could bring $1.7 billion in economic impact to the region.
Whether you're contemplating your first business venture, looking to expand your existing operation, or simply tired of the limitations of traditional employment, this episode provides the motivation and practical wisdom to take that next step toward financial freedom. Connect with your local chamber of commerce today to find the network and support you need to turn your entrepreneurial dreams into reality.
What's your drinking man? Old fashioned, all right. Welcome to the Unfiltered Founders. I'm Darren, I'm Andy. Episode seven, I believe. Is it seven? All right, it is, we're getting there.
Speaker 2:Feels like we just started yesterday. It's getting more and more fun the longer we go.
Speaker 1:It's nuts man. What's new in your world? What you been doing last week? Let's see.
Speaker 2:Just getting things rolling, man, we've got. You know it's the busy season right now, so you know I'm talking to a lot of people wanting to start their own business and getting that rolling, so trying to help them out with that. And just came back from a conference in Denver where I spoke to some international franchise brands that want to expand the United States and what that means, what that takes and how to do it. So, um, just good.
Speaker 1:That sounds like attorney language to me.
Speaker 2:Well, it's funny because it was put on by a franchise attorney. So, yeah, that, that, that makes sense. Yeah, talk about being paranoid when you're talking Nothing like right here. But no, it was good, it was a good week. Good week, yeah, man, I mean, that's a that's. You know, I can't complain. I'm going to enjoy being an entrepreneur a little bit. Tomorrow I'm taking the day off and taking my son salmon fishing down the Rogue River.
Speaker 2:So, no complaints on that. A little stressed because it's a really bad time to take off, but I'm going to do it anyway. But how about you?
Speaker 1:I'm doing the same thing, man. This week has been weird. Last week I was looking at this week, knowing that I'm going to be taking vacation next week how dare you? And last week I'm looking at this week going. Man, it's going to be a slow week. This is weird, I know I normally get one week in the middle. You know, in July that slows down a bit.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I normally perfectly tie my vacation for that week and then all of a sudden Monday rolled around and my phone blew up and I'm full Brutal. So more of the packing responsibilities are going on my wife and kids.
Speaker 2:That's all right, you just got to drive.
Speaker 1:And I'm going to be working my tail off until I wake up in the morning on Saturday and drive 10 hours to Santa Barbara.
Speaker 3:Brutal, brutal.
Speaker 2:Well, hey, I'm excited to introduce our speaker today, that we've got our guest. I should say you know you're not getting on a stage necessarily here.
Speaker 1:He is the CEO of the Medford Chamber of Commerce.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:Welcome, eli.
Speaker 2:He's got a few other things going on, so he is an experienced entrepreneur and he interacts with entrepreneurs, so got a great perspective, eli, thanks for being here, man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you bet man Happy to be here.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, tell us, tell us your story of entrepreneurship, like if you could sum up entrepreneurship in in maybe a phrase. What would it be?
Speaker 3:I think it's a special breed.
Speaker 3:It's a special breed of people, you know, and growing up it was interesting for me and my story because I didn't really know I was an entrepreneur until I was dang near 30 years old.
Speaker 3:It was something I repressed for a lot of years, you know, and I felt the calling, I felt the urge, but I didn't really have an ecosystem around me and people that really told me that I was an entrepreneur, right. And then I started getting around the right people and I discovered, man, these are my people, I want to grow, I want to do more, I want to be an investor, I want to take risk. And then, all of a sudden, I realized, man, I am an entrepreneur and I took the dive and I started my own business about 10 years ago now and I've been growing ever since. What did you take the dive from? About 10 years ago now, and been growing ever since? What did you take the dive from? You know, being an employee and I technically still am an employee, of course, being the CEO of the chamber, which I love, and it's more of a calling and fulfilling that mission of helping other businesses be successful, but definitely a leadership and entrepreneurial.
Speaker 3:Right, I get to be around the greatest minds and the best people every single day in the Rogue Valley, which is so incredible for me, and then being around entrepreneurs that's obviously the best way to learn and grow and also help contribute to society and the community at large. So being around entrepreneurs is the best I mean, it's one of the perks, of course, being a CEO and then, obviously, being around those that have, you know, been entrepreneurs for 30, 40 years, and then those also that are just starting or those that haven't even started yet. I mean, I had lunch with somebody this week that is about to start a business and just needed guidance and help, and I love encouraging that next generation to take the leap. It's something you'll never regret. I mean, I think one of my only regrets that I do have in life is that I didn't start my business sooner.
Speaker 3:What was your first job ever? Oh, man, working at Hollister in the mall, southern California. You know, put the shirt on, stand outside, get people to come in looking all good Minimum wage at that point Exactly.
Speaker 3:Exactly, and that it was one of those companies too. You had to, you had to wear their clothes right, and they made you buy them.
Speaker 1:So it was one of those things Hot dog and a stick I didn't actually make any money right, I just spent money on clothes.
Speaker 3:But I learned a lot and the biggest thing, I learned was I don't want to be in retail.
Speaker 1:You know, I hear that story and I've got plenty of those stories too. What did you learn from that?
Speaker 2:Learn what not to do.
Speaker 1:Exactly, there are things to learn.
Speaker 3:That's the best, and that's why internships are so important for younger people right. Because you got to experience it. It's one thing to see on TV or read in books, but when you actually live, it, it's a whole different story.
Speaker 1:When you were working as an employee for other businesses, jobs you didn't like. Whatever the case may be, what was kind of your breaking point of like I got to get out of this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I hear it all the time, I hear it every single day from people. I heard from somebody yesterday. Actually, I think the biggest things for entrepreneurs and those that are entrepreneurs know this I think the biggest thing is you as an entrepreneur. You want to grow, you want to scale, you want to do more and your position or your job or your employer doesn't let you do it. You start hitting the ceiling right and these people get very antsy and they have more energy, and here's what happens is where their output and their results don't get rewarded to the degree of their output.
Speaker 3:They logically say hmm, I could be doing something else and get rewarded for it, right? Or if I do a lot of extra work, I'm not benefited financially. So over time they say well, you know why am I doing this? The neat thing is the neat thing about business ownership and entrepreneurship in this country there's literally there's no cap. You get what you put in right, so you can. You can cap it at whatever you want a hundred thousand dollars a year, or you can, you can go for a hundred million. There's nobody holding you back except yourself.
Speaker 1:So a buddy comes to you and says Eli, I I'm, I want to get out of the corporate world, I want to become an entrepreneur. What's your first word of advice?
Speaker 3:Well, well, first, I always like to ask people a lot of different questions, making sure that that they are an entrepreneur, right, it's?
Speaker 1:a mindset.
Speaker 3:It absolutely is and it's who they are as a person. So a lot of it is, you know, is a lot of people get caught in employment and a job because of security. You know, and it's understandable, right Benefits having a job. We all have our living wage that we need to pay out and our expenses, so that's totally understandable. But the big thing is, are you prone to taking some kind of uh, some kind of risk?
Speaker 3:you know cause you have to take that step, no matter, what even if, even if it's a safe industry or a safe step, and a lot of times you're starting at zero or you're taking debt out, or you're quitting your job and literally starting a startup, I recommend and this is what I, what I did and lot of entrepreneurs do is don't quit your day job Heck, I'm still employed and I love it but start a side hustle. I mean, there's a lot of hours in the week and the whole idea of a 40-hour work week that we've been conditioned. If you went to public school, I've never met anybody that's successful, that works 40-hour weeks.
Speaker 3:Absolutely not, so the real champion is what you know. The real champion is what are you doing in the early mornings and what are you doing from 5 PM to to to 11 PM. That'll tell you everything about your time. You know what are you doing and and I recommend, start the business as a side hustle. You know, we that's. That's evenings, mornings, weekends, lunch periods, whatever it is. Start it and build it and then, when the income gets to a certain point where you're close enough to what you make on your earned income as an employee, you can kiss your job goodbye if you don't like it. And then you got oops, I got an extra 40 hours a week to put towards my business and your business will just take off and that's how I started.
Speaker 2:I took off. You know, I was like you know, shoot, I can do this, I can make this money on my own. Just. And I actually started.
Speaker 1:I started a marketing and consulting firm uh years ago and I started taking on clients on the side and then I got to the point where I was replacing my income and I'm like I'm gonna take this risk, I'm gonna just jump out see, I've always been in the mindset you get out of your business what you put into it and if you are timid to jump in both feet and go balls to the wall with it, then you're not going to get that out, that performance out of it. So it's interesting to hear you say that I like it. I know with my business it was a literally here's 30 days notice at my job, at my corporate job that paid well, supported my family, paid my mortgage. I'm going all in and my goal was to replace my income after replace my corporate job income after two years. I replaced it after six months. Yeah, that's huge. I doubled my corporate income after just over a year and I attribute that to jumping in both feet. Yeah, there's no backup plan.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, there's no plan B. Man, I've always said plan B is for losers.
Speaker 1:There's no plan B.
Speaker 3:You can't play that in your mind. And a big part of people in employment and there's research on this in America, the vast amount of employees in this country are not happy at work, which is crazy to think about. They're literally at work exchanging their life, their time, for a paycheck. Why is that? I think there's a lot of reasons why. And we teach a class at the chamber. It's called a millionaire maker and I believe, and I went through the public education system and I'm grateful that I, that I'm educated, and I went off to college at a private, private college, so the juxtaposition was radical and I got rocked in college. But I believe that the, the, the public education system in part, produces in the whole point of it. Why aren't they teaching financial literacy? Why don't they teach the simple things like what is a loan, what's an interest bearing account, what's entrepreneurship?
Speaker 1:What's good debt versus bad debt? They don't teach it.
Speaker 3:They don't teach any of that, at least when I went through went through high school, and I and I think that the purpose of public education, at least in high school, is to produce employees Correct. Produce employees Correct. That's the whole point and and for me the light came on later in life no, it's a great system for those that the five, the top 5% that benefit from it. Right, and that's why being around entrepreneurs in your network is so important, and that's what happened to me as I started being around the chamber of commerce and people that were 15, 20, 30 years ahead of me that you know, none of us have, you know, einstein, iqs, just average people, but they're, they're doing something different. How, how do they have this freedom, how, this ability? How are they going on family vacations and driving new trucks and have a prosperous business? Okay, I'm going to get around them and I'm going to ask questions and I'm going to listen, and it's incredible that the stuff that I learned, the most basic stuff, but the most profound stuff, and a lot of it, had to do with the idea of man. It's all about ownership, owning things, income producing assets, businesses. Those that don't do well financially are the ones that don't own anything. They're the ones that rent. They're the ones that are working 40, 50 hours a week. Over 60% of Americans that work are living paycheck to paycheck. I mean, it's hard. It's hard out there. So think about it.
Speaker 3:My grandpa came back from the war. He lived in LA, bought a house for $6,600. His mortgage was $4,800, but he never was educated. But he worked in a glass factory. His wife never worked, he raised three kids, owned a home. His wife never worked, he raised three kids, owned a home, retired at 67 and had a pension for 30 years. Those days are gone. So when women enter the workforce, here we are today. For the most part, two people are working in a household and people are not making it. So that begs the question what I mean? What are you going to do about it? Because environmentally, I don't think it's going to get any better. I actually think it's going to get more difficult.
Speaker 3:So what we teach in teach in the millionaire maker at the chamber is you got to think multifaceted approach. The idea that you're going to become wealthy being an employee or having one stream of income is not true. The average multimillionaire in this country has no less as a family has no less than five different income streams. So that's what we teach. I mean you got your job, you got two people, you got two jobs. So that's what we teach. I mean you got your jobs, you got two people. You got two jobs, so that's two.
Speaker 3:You need other incomes, whether it's debt, dividends, stocks, owning a business, real estate, cashflow, whatever it is but until you do that, you are going to be on that treadmill and you're never going to have any wealth in your life. And not putting all the eggs in one basket in one business where that's your only income stream. Oh, if that's your only, I mean, like Warren Buffett said, if a salary is your only income stream and that goes away, you are one paycheck away from poverty. And that's what happened right In 08, when people lost their jobs. Literally the next month, millions of people lost their homes. Why? Because they didn't have the ability to pay their mortgage, because they lost their income stream. And then, of course, the average American doesn't have any substantial savings.
Speaker 1:So they lost their homes.
Speaker 1:I had a friend who was a obviously I won't mention names, but I had a friend who was a surgeon Yep, he did not lose his job, obviously, but he had bought a house in 06 and paid, you know, I think, $1.4 million at the time and all of a sudden his house is worth $650,000 after 08. Yeah, and he said I'm going to walk away. Yeah, he said I'm going to walk away from it. Not that I can't afford my mortgage, but why am I going to be throwing money into a house?
Speaker 3:Yeah, but conversely, man you should have, how do you never sell?
Speaker 1:that for four or five years it would have turned, but he chose to walk away from it. And I talked to him six months ago or so and I said do you ever regret that decision after what the housing market did? And he said, well, hindsight's, 20-20. But at the time he said, no, I have no regrets for the decision I had. And he said, well, hindsight's, 20-20. But at the time he said, no, I have no regrets for the decision I had. He said it ruined my credit for seven years. He said had I not done that? He said it could have ruined my life for years, you know, financially speaking, been in the hole close to a million dollars forever.
Speaker 3:So yeah, I don't know about that, though, cause I mean, the house is at least around here that went down, so the bottom was 2011, and then everything started going up and those properties that bottomed out in 11, if he paid 1.4,. I bet that thing's worth 1.8 right now or two or 2 million.
Speaker 3:So again the long game in real estate. You know if you're speculating by it, yeah, that's one thing. But buy and hold, he would have won and he would have had 10 years of his mortgage paid off too, if you do the math on that. So I don't know if he would have been.
Speaker 1:I bought in 2018 and I have 180,000 equity.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's been awesome. It's real estate, the stock market, I mean, there's so much prosperity right now. It's pretty unreal and I tell people all the time and again, not in a judgmental way but if you didn't make money in the last 10 years, you got some stuff to figure out in your life, because when equity and real estate and the stock market's going crazy crypto, all these asset classes and if, again, this is the problem with people they don't understand that they need to own things in order to be successful in the wealth and because, again, they don't teach you that.
Speaker 3:So that's a big part of the game is just taking that risk and owning.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that's part of entrepreneurship too, is is having the patience to chip away at it. Right, You're not going to buy a stock. It's not going to go up immediately. I mean, sometimes it does, We've had that.
Speaker 2:But you gotta, you gotta take, you gotta start your business and you gotta start somewhere and it's going to grow as long as you're staying on it. Right, you know, I think of, uh, you know John. I think it was John Gruden, um, at the time. I don't remember what team he was coaching, but he had this stone right in the middle of the locker room. Every day, he took a chisel and chiseled a piece out of it. At the end of the day, they got to the. At the end of the season, they got to the Super Bowl. There was hardly anything left. It was just you got to chip away every single day. And it's not about that one chip, it's not about the block that you got to look at or what you're chipping away. It's about making that progress every day and, like one of our previous over outcome, it's all about day to day and what's that? Building on? And I think that's an important piece, not just in investing and making money, but a business.
Speaker 3:Yep and then being consistent. I mean that's the other thing. Especially younger people struggle is they want the delayed gratification isn't always there, you know. They want the outcomes and the results yesterday and it just doesn't work like that.
Speaker 2:So being an influencer, darren, I mean too much for you. Man, I mean sorry, you're not going to be an influencer on Instagram again. You know it takes time, I tell people in entrepreneurship.
Speaker 3:I said it yesterday to somebody that in my experience of what I see, usually it's like at the five year mark and over really successful businesses that I've seen it's like eight to 10 years and it's consistent and grinding those first five years Sometimes you, you don't only not make money sometimes, but your influence is really low and then all of a sudden it's. It's incredible, if you're consistent and you keep at it and you keep learning, you get these opportunities. Bam, you're going to be successful.
Speaker 1:What is the biggest catastrophic mistake you've seen people make?
Speaker 3:I in entrepreneurship, yeah, yeah, I think, uh, it's not. It's two things One, not having a plan of how they're going to do it. You know they just jump, they just jump in, which is good you got to, you got to jump in, but they don't have a have a plan. And what I mean by a plan is your whole, your whole life as it relates to your income, what the wife's going to do, what you're planning with vacation. You got to know, like I tell my wife all the time, when we, when we went on this venture man, we got to do some serious sacrifice and it's going to be tough. Like I'm working 50, 60, sometimes 70 hour weeks and it's I'm not out playing solitaire or hanging out with the boys. Necessarily I'm, I'm serving the community, I'm working my job and I'm building and I'm scaling in business. And you got to have the spouse on board, you got to have yourself on board and I just think that's a huge, huge thing is people don't, people do not plan. And then, secondly, is is they? They start an open businesses in the marketplace where there's not a demand for for the business right there.
Speaker 3:There's so much demand out there in great industries to be involved with to make, with to make money, and sometimes people just choose the weirdest thing sometimes to start or to open or to mimic a business that isn't even that successful. They just like the industry. For instance, restaurants. Restaurants are great, we all like restaurants. It's such a hard industry. The margins are teeny. If you talk to anybody that owns and operates a restaurant, I mean they're in 50, 60, 70-hour weeks. You've got to bleed it, sweat it and it's tough. Why in the world would you want to get into that world? I mean, and again, a lot of them not only fail but very few are successful and the margins are so small and you have to put an enormous amount of energy, money and effort. I mean there's a lot of businesses, things you can start tomorrow and you can start making money right away, and it's not 70 hours a week.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that goes to a good point because I work with a lot of people that want to buy a franchise, right. So the restaurant's the thing it's like. I was talking to somebody today it was like, oh, I know, mcdonald's is like a sure bet. It's like, yeah, but right, it takes effort, it takes a lot to get into something like what you're saying.
Speaker 2:But there are ways, especially if you're starting out as an entrepreneur. There are ways and and not necessarily lower hanging fruit, but there's better ways to get into the market of entrepreneurship, of business is. You know, you start with maybe a service business, far less expensive, higher margins. You start to build yourself up that way and then eventually you can get to the point to where you know the conference I was at, multi-unit franchise owners with funded by PE and family funds, and they've got hundreds of restaurants right. That's where it changes that game. But it's all about wealth building and doing the right things at the right time and having discipline. Really, at the end of the day, the way I would say it is having a vision for what you're trying to accomplish.
Speaker 1:And identifying something that you're really good at, that most people aren't.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's a huge part of it. I tell people all the time that are wanting to do something, but they're not sure. I'm like what do you, what do you like doing that? That you're not watching the clock and time goes fast and you'd be like man, I get a paycheck for this, and that's how it is.
Speaker 3:To be frank with me, on, on, on on weekends, for instance, saturday I don't know what most people do on on Saturdays or time off watch football or whatever. But like, I'm at my home office and I'm I'm building, I'm building, I'm building companies. Right, I like to do that. I'm wired that way. That's what I want to do. Oh, I have free time. Oh well, I'm going to, I'm going to answer emails. I'm going to, I'm going to build. I'm going to build a business, I'm going to do marketing, whatever it is. So you have to enjoy the industry that that you do so a lot of it is is what would you do? Leave money out of the equation? What do you want to do with your time? Money will follow when you're successful. People make money doing the craziest things. I mean serious money doing the craziest thing, because they're following their passion and they're taking risk, and you have to be willing to adapt change your model, yep.
Speaker 1:I know when I started it was jumping in both feet. I'm like I have a skill set from the LA market and stuff in media production. I'm going to start doing media production because this is beginning of COVID, Everything's locked down, Everybody needs to advertise online, Everybody needs media right now because nobody's meeting in person Nobody. And so I'm like I'm going to help businesses out in advertising online, creating some high quality, great content for them to do it online, creating some high quality, great content for them to do it.
Speaker 1:What I made a drastic error in is assuming that the businesses, at this point in time, when they're having no business, have the money or are willing to invest the money into doing that. And they weren't. And just out of the blue, I got a call from a real estate agent hey, can you photograph a house for me? And I did that. She's all hey, these are great. And next day I get a call from another real estate agent that she had referred to and all of a sudden I had.
Speaker 1:I had no idea real estate photography was even a thing. Yep, Yep. I didn't even know that industry existed and all of a sudden, over the course of a couple of months, I found myself going from a business model to produce web and TV commercials for business and doing advertising and product photography into now exclusively photographing commercial and residential real estate. And little did I know that this could turn into a you know $400,000 a year generating business, Yep, but it was that it was. It was that, you know, necessity, because I jumped in both feet. I had no plan B, Yep, and that forced me into the, you know being able to roll with that shift and that change that needed to take place.
Speaker 3:And I got to say with entrepreneurs I mean you look at a lot, even the big boys like Disney and these things, a lot of these businesses, if you look at their story, look at their history, most of them were, were, were, were not created at a time of the mountaintop, it was the valleys, right, it was the hard times. It was hey, I lost my job or hey, there's a recession or there's a world war and it's out of necessity in the marketplace. So I mean it's a good. I tell, I tell people, especially if they're broken and they're struggling, hey, that's a good spot to be, like let's go, cause I mean that's, that's entrepreneurs. It's like it's. It's hard, you got to get comfortable being uncomfortable, and it's those types that want to grow. They don't want to be in environments where they're not able to scale and grow and it's just a certain type of people that want to do more.
Speaker 1:As the CEO of the Chamber and I'm a Chamber member as well and I've met a lot of phenomenal people at Chamber events. I've gained a lot of clients at chamber events, you included Yep, yep. What is the most unique, obscure, like mind blowing business you've ever seen come through the door of the chamber?
Speaker 3:Oh man.
Speaker 1:Let's promote them, let's give them some props.
Speaker 3:Let's. Yeah, you know, there man, there's there, there's so many. There's such an eclectic group. You know we have about 1100 members. We've been around 107 years and our mission is just helping businesses be successful.
Speaker 3:So, as you know, that looks different every day around the chamber and we get all kinds of businesses, from literally self-employed one person to the largest company in the Rogue Valley, right. So it's very diverse. And what's interesting about the chamber and businesses and business people they all have different needs, different demands. They're all on a different path. So it really depends Every day is that's what's so fun about working in the chambers Every day is a new day and a big part of what we do is we uh, we help solve problems and fix things for business, right, and a lot of it is quiet. The behind the scenes stuff is that we're trying to push businesses to to move forward, you know. So any given day, I mean, we've had all kinds of all kinds of interesting people that have been a part of the chamber, from, uh, from marijuana shops to uh coach people and client on their spouse with romance, you know counselors for advising in the bedroom.
Speaker 3:I mean it is a very, very diverse group of people, so I mean anything you can pretty much think of we've had at the chamber.
Speaker 2:I think that's a good thing for our audience to know. Right Is sometimes you just got to start where you want to start and just start.
Speaker 1:That's what I wanted to hear right there.
Speaker 2:Was that?
Speaker 1:kind of diversity in business from people who give sex advice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, if you're going to throw it down, you give some advice.
Speaker 3:Hey, that's it and you know again, because I think a lot of people aren't taught about entrepreneurship. You know, and I encourage people if you're that person, you know, listen to this and you've always thought about starting a business, and you have that, that calling man. Do it. Do it ASAP. Get involved in an ecosystem and that's what chambers generally are in any community. Get involved with your chamber because you're around like-minded people. I mean, that's one of the greatest things that happened to me, but also in terms of people's challenges, is that you cannot be successful alone. You know, business is about relationships and it's about people. You take people out of it. There is no businesses.
Speaker 3:So I tell people yeah, get, get to know people, get to know the craft of networking and building real relationships with people. The business will follow, money will follow, and that's what a lot of people have trouble with is they don't know necessarily where to go. There is groups of hundreds of business people and they're not trying to be exclusive, they're just busy and they're focused on building their companies and they're going. But it's very much. We want people to know that we're here for them as a resource and we want to connect them. Connect them, um, it's too many people going going uh, alone at it, and there's that famous saying if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together. Right, and that's just it Like you've got.
Speaker 3:I can't tell you how much I lean on on on on people and networking groups, for for my business and being around like-minded people is in business, and there's a lot of people out there that all they need is that nudge or that person to say, hey, I can help you with this or you do this. To start a business in America today is so easy. I mean, it literally costs a very little amount of money and you can do it within a few hours.
Speaker 1:How much does it cost to file for an LLC?
Speaker 3:You basically can register with the state you know, and then you get your local, you know business license. You're talking basically a couple hundred bucks, yeah, A couple hundred, $200. So when me and my business partner started Cornerstone Property Management, we both put in $200 into the operation account. And then we got a credit card a company credit card that at the time had a 0% for 12 months, and we started in my garage with no doors.
Speaker 1:And I got, I got one we got one door, but it was.
Speaker 3:It was. You know people, I hear it all the time I don't have money. It's like dude. I started a very successful company with $200 each, so we had $400 and that's what basically got it going. And then we got one client. That turned into two, that turned into three. So there's, the money is not not, not the excuse. To this day, we've never taken out debt. You don't have to go into debt to to operate a business. I think there's that perception out there that you have to either have a lot of money.
Speaker 2:Some you do some some you do, um, but the perception is you got to take out a loan or have a bunch of money to be a business person and it's just not true. There's an endless amount of successful companies that started at zero. Is you're giving up a lot by doing that? I understand and I can appreciate the whole. You've got to be fast in the market, you've got to beat the competition, and I get that. But if it's taken you this much time to put together an idea, put together a business, do you think somebody else is going to rush to market right away? If you spend all that time and effort selling yourself to businesses and pitching money, trying to fundraise, just go put it out there and then go raise the funds. Once you actually have funds to talk about, say, hey, you're buying something that's actually going up, and I think that's where you know. I've seen a lot of entrepreneurs, you know, maybe make some missteps of saying I've got an idea, I'm going to go get money to go do the idea.
Speaker 2:It's like just go do it.
Speaker 1:Well, and once you're doing it. I know in my industry there's I'm involved in a lot of networking groups nationwide, worldwide, within my industry I see a lot of people going oh man, I, you know, I'm just starting out, I'm pounding the pavement, I'm gaining traction, I'm doing well, but I'm paying my bills. I don't have $10,000 to go and invest in this piece of equipment and I don't want to put myself in debt where I'm paying 25 percent interest. I'm putting my. You know I'm buying this ten thousand dollar piece of equipment, but what they don't realize is that ten thousand dollar piece of equipment is going to add three thousand dollars a month in revenue to their business. That's not bad debt.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, Business, business debt is absolutely not bad debt. And the truth is you got to. You got to. Sometimes you got to pay to play right. I mean, people don't understand, just like in marketing. You got to spend some time sometimes to get right. And again it's that hesitation in that I know a lot of people in my life that that I call it being frozen. You know they're, they're brilliant, they have ideas, they know, they've read the books, they can quote, they're smart, and months go by and then years go by and they don't execute. And that's the big difference between the winners and the people that aren't winning is those that act, those that do and those that execute, even if you fail. There's endless stories about successful entrepreneurs that yep started, that business went down, yep started again. And that's a big part of entrepreneurship. Is that tenacity where you won't fail, even if you do fail. It's not failing. It's either I win or I learn, but I never lose.
Speaker 1:Amen, and you know your friends and family will look at you and call you crazy.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Until you hit it big, and then they're knocking on your door, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 3:We teach in the millionaire maker there's a Dr Vince Norman Peel, the power of positive thinking, which was one of the classics, right, he talks about and we always say in the book hey, one of and he says this one of the greatest mistakes we make in life is that we listen to our family and our friends for advice. And this is what people do because they don't have a network, you know, and they're asking their dad for business advice. Hey, has your dad ever ran a business? And I'm not saying you can't get good advice from family and friends, you know, take it for what it's worth and take the wisdom. But that's the power. If you want to be a business person, go hang out with successful business people that are five, 10, 15 years ahead of you. Take advice from them, not your friends that have never done anything. And this is what people do, especially with investments.
Speaker 1:And they wonder why that? When I was in my twenties and working in in television broadcasting, I got to meet a lot of rich and famous people and I go out to coffee with them and I'd ask them questions like what, what advice do you have, what? What does it take to be successful? And they're like well, you know, the only advice I can really give you and I mean this with all of my heart is you're never going to get rich working for somebody else, right Amen?
Speaker 3:Well, they say you know, a salary is a drug that they give you to make you forget about your dreams. Think about that and if you're that person and you're in that situation, you've got to adjust and figure it out. And again, there are people that'll help you through that process. But that's the problem. You got the vast majority of Americans that are on that salary drug.
Speaker 1:That is going to be the title of this episode. The salary is a drug to make you forget about your dreams.
Speaker 3:That's just it.
Speaker 1:And either you're building.
Speaker 3:That's the most impactful statement I've heard in a month and the truth is, you're either building somebody's vision or dream or you're building your own. And again, it isn't to say like, for my instance, when you're working for a nonprofit and you enjoy the call. There's so many great nonprofits out there and those types that work at nonprofits. None of them are getting paid much, but they're having great influence and they're enjoying what they do. That's why I'm still at the chamber. I love it. I mean, I believe in the mission. I'm helping businesses be successful, Like, like. I can't believe I actually get paid to do it. So I, you know, I love it.
Speaker 3:But if you're at your job and you don't like it, and the only reason why you're there it's a hobby you get paid for it's, it's an, it's an addiction for a small, a small paycheck too, and that's the other thing about you know, salaries generally speaking, um, is that for the most part, people don't understand. I remember being uh in college and my big I'll be honest with you my big goal, uh, salary wise, was man, if I can make five grand a month, like when I'm out, when I'm out of college, bro, we're talking about $60,000 a year and no joke, this will happen.
Speaker 3:Cause I. That was a big goal. That was a big goal for me. You know what happened. I was 25. I'll never forget I was in a room with somebody and I was around this other guy who was my age at the time. He was 25 years old, never went to college. He came back, he's a military guy and started in the Rogue Valley doing some of these VA loans for the first time. And I'm talking with him and he's like, yeah, I did pretty well last month. You know, I did. I did fifty five and I was just like. I was like what do you?
Speaker 1:mean Fifty five hundred.
Speaker 3:And no, no, no.
Speaker 1:Fifty five thousand.
Speaker 3:And my mind just went. I was like no way, and I pulled that guy aside.
Speaker 3:And I say wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What do you mean? Like $55,000 in one month? He's like, yeah, yeah, I averaged between 30 and 60 a month and I didn't even know that was a, that was a possibility, right. And then, right then, and there I was, like you know what I got to figure it out, I'm in the wrong rooms and I gotta, I gotta be around these people and start asking the right questions. And ever since then, when I was 25, is when I started exploring, you know, money and entrepreneurship, and the books and conferences and being around the right people, and it's, it's, it's incredible. When you do it, I mean you literally add a zero to your monthly income being around the right people that's that's golden.
Speaker 1:I have nothing to say.
Speaker 2:It's about not just being in the company, it's it's engaging with the company too, right? I mean, you got to actually have, have the right people, that you want to be around and actually engage with those people, cause I think a lot of people want to be successful by osmosis you know, and it's you can't just pick it up by just being in the right area at the right time.
Speaker 3:Well, and that's the other part of it is that's why we preach at the chamber constantly, whether it's a leadership class or chamber networking events is that, at the end of the day, professional personal development is everything. You know, you getting better as a person. Like Jim Rohn said, if you want more, you have to become more as a person and man. That's how you make money is working on yourself and investing in yourself. They say. You know you can make a formal education will make you a living, but self-education will make you wealthy. And you get serious and I mean serious where you're listening, I mean there. I do that every day. I listen to, to to online books every single day. You know Brian Tracy, tony Robbins, jim Rohn I do that every day. I listen to online books every single day. You know Brian Tracy, tony Robbins, jim Rohn these guys that are my idols Tony Robbins and Grant Cardone and all these guys and I just listen to them and I take notes right, and they help me to understand how to become an actual stronger person.
Speaker 3:So part of it is you don't go chasing success. You have success by becoming an attractive person and it attracts you, but you got to work on yourself and that's the hardest part, right as entrepreneurs, and it's a lifelong journey and that's why you got to like their journey. There's no final destination. I mean that's why Warren Buffett still is reading books every day. Right, the guy's worth crazy amount. It's not about that every day, right, the guy's worth crazy amount. It's not about that. It's who he is. He's constantly learning, constantly, and that's one characteristic about entrepreneurs that I love is that they're always trying to learn, always try to grow. Hey, what are you learning? What book are you reading?
Speaker 3:I had a real estate mentor who recently passed away. He was 75 years old. I'd meet him for lunch and the guy would always have a book with him. And one time this last time I met with him he came back from a conference in Florida, a real estate conference. The guy owned over 320 doors in Medford and he's 75, still reading books and still learning. Like it's just who you are right, and a byproduct is the money. But people got to understand. You got to work on yourself and your mindset, and having that abundant growth mindset is everything and you get around people in the business ecosystem. I call it the abundant voice. And then, conversely, you get around people, you can hear it. It's a poverty mindset where people are I know within one minute of meeting you by what you say and how you treat yourself and your self-chatter. If you're beating yourself up, you're living in the poverty mindset or those that are living in abundance. And a lot of entrepreneurs have the abundant mindset and the growth mindset and they're trying to get better and they're growing every month.
Speaker 1:What are your personal goals over the next 10 years?
Speaker 3:I have a bunch man, so I'm a big. I used to make fun of this stuff, this personal development stuff, back when I before I was 25. And then I started getting around the right people and you know what I heard a lot was goals and things like vision boards, and I used to make fun of that stuff and the truth is you become what you behold. So I remember starting the vision board goal journey a long time ago Now. My first vision board, you know, 12 years ago. I literally had six goals on it for the year.
Speaker 3:And at the end of the year, guess what? I all the goals were done, I was like whoa, okay. And then the next year I did 12, you know. So last year I had 60, I had 60 goals and some of them were, you know, physical, emotional, mental, you know, kind of the Zig Ziglar personal life stuff, but also business goals. I was looking at it this morning. I literally have a board and the way that I do it in my office at home is I have the visuals of manifesting what they are, but I actually have the written goals down. And the truth is I used to make fun of this stuff, but it's real. You become what you behold and if you keep looking at these things especially for entrepreneurs, because you get pulled in a million different directions. But once you know where you're going, you say no, 98% of the time, because I already have my goals, I already have my mission, and every day you chip away, you chip away at it and after 12 months.
Speaker 3:You chip away at the stone and all of a sudden you're accomplishing.
Speaker 2:I like how you rolled that back in there, man. Of course I was going back to sports again because I just talked to my son about this kind of stuff because you know he hit a little bump in the in his whole. You know sports, uh, career, if you want to call it that. And I said how does this affect your long-term goals? Is this worth your long-term goals right now? And he says no.
Speaker 2:I said then it doesn't matter when you move forward, you go forward and I think that's you know. Back to the original point, right vision. You got to know where you're trying to go. You might not end up exactly where you thought you were going to go, and that's fine, but you've got to have an idea of where you want to go in order to start somewhere, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, true. So as a business owner here in Medford, oregon, our podcast is definitely targeted to the national audience. Targeted to the national audience, but here in the Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon specifically, I see there's a lot of wealth here. Yep, there is a massive amount of growth up here. Undoubtedly, it's a great place to be an entrepreneur. It's a great place. It's a very service-hungry market. Back that up with some statistics and what you know. Where's the city of Medford going? Where's Jackson County going in the future.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we have an extreme high quality of life here and people are moving here. We're projected to be growing substantially, even population-wise, hitting over 130,000 just for Medford alone. We were talking before the podcast just about all the great development projects that are slated for Medford literally billions of dollars of development slated for growth within commercial and the housing market. So it's pretty exciting. We have a lot of growth. And part two, california. There's over 40 million people in that state. The state's making a lot of poor decisions and a lot of people are bringing their wealth here and moving here. We have obviously great retirement, great medical, over 220 days of sunshine, and the quality of life and the outdoor venture is just drawing people here and it's helping with our local economy.
Speaker 1:Rogue X was a big investment the city made. How's that going?
Speaker 3:It's going. It's going really good. I mean, it's a $76 million mixed-use facility Aquatic center, sports center, convention center.
Speaker 3:Yep, and youth sports especially, is a multibillion-dollar industry. Medford and the Rogue Valley has a great sliver within lithium driveway fields or 132-acre sports park Coupled with Rogue X. We have a lot of outside visiting teams that stay in our hotels. We almost have 3,000 hotel rooms now in Medford. They stay in our hotels. They experience all that we have to offer with the wineries and the outdoor adventure, and then a lot of them too. We hear it a lot within Travel Medford in the chamber that the first timers here they say I have, I had no idea, you know. A lot of people, unfortunately, think about Medford and the Rogue Valley and Oregon. If you've never been here, uh, they think often about, uh, portland and kind of the some of the, some of the rain trees, and they just don't. They don't understand that. No, we're climate wise, more like California and, uh, our, our business culture here is very pro-business. Our elected officials, you know we want growth. We're open for business in Southern.
Speaker 1:Oregon Clean cities, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we're going to continue to promote that and we want entrepreneur growth to happen here.
Speaker 1:So what's the next steps? What's this big project we were talking about before the podcast?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so Creekside Quarter, it's a new Creekside Quarter, yeah, yeah, so Creekside Quarter, it's a new Creekside Quarter. Yeah, it's a potential conference center and minor league baseball facility, all in downtown Medford, coupled with a four-star hotel and some office space and office tower, possible mixed use for restaurants. We're very excited. In fact, we're going to be going on November 4th election coming up. We're very excited. In fact, we're going to be going on November 4th election coming up. There's going to be on the ballot a potential TLT, a transit lodging tax increase on the hotels that will help fund the public portion of that.
Speaker 3:If we can get that passed and I recommend that the voters vote yes on that we can literally have this project done in Medford and talk about a game changer. Just the conference center alone. They're expecting $1.7 billion of economic impact on the conference center. So you know, trade shows, conferences, being the largest city in Southern Oregon, being the eighth largest city in the state, we have nowhere to meet and we're missing out on these trade shows and conferences, which, again, is a huge industry. We all travel all over the country just for conferences and if we were able to host that and Medford be amazing industrially speaking.
Speaker 1:We're the biggest city between Sacramento and Portland.
Speaker 2:I mean Eugene's got the college.
Speaker 1:Yeah, eugene is proud, but yeah, you know, as far as industry goes, certainly a lot more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were there we got a lot yeah medical especially. Yeah, so yeah, but so, hey, eli, this has been awesome. Man, yeah, we obviously uh have a lot more to talk to you about, and so we'll, we'll be inviting you back soon I'm sure, uh wishing you all the best yeah, thank you, thanks for having me, thanks for joining us.
Speaker 1:Until next time. We are the unfiltered. Founders and eli, real quick. What was that saying? We're titling this podcast? Founders and Eli, real quick. What was that saying? We're titling this podcast again.
Speaker 3:Uh, salary is a drug they may. They give you to make you forget about your dreams. Boom.