The Blue Cup Podcast

"I Quit": Taking My Life Back

• The Blue Cup Podcast • Episode 7

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In this episode of the Blue Cup podcast, host Russ Scheider engages in a deep conversation with Cole Beaver from Consistent Capital. They explore Cole's journey from a challenging upbringing in Goose Creek, South Carolina, to becoming a successful salesperson and entrepreneur. Cole shares insights on the importance of trust in business relationships, the impact of hard work and humility, and how he navigated the challenges of selling cars during the COVID-19 pandemic. The discussion also touches on family influences, the role of coaching in personal growth, and the significance of taking ownership of one's career. Cole's story culminates in his recent wedding in Italy, highlighting the balance between work and personal life. In this engaging conversation, Cole Beaver shares his experiences from a dream wedding in Italy to the challenges and triumphs of running a startup. He discusses the importance of consistency in achieving success, the freedom of remote work, and the lessons learned from his soccer journey. The conversation also touches on the significance of being in the right environments, the thrill of driving a Porsche, and the mental toughness developed through fitness routines. Cole's love story and humorous anecdotes from the car business add a personal touch to the discussion, making it a well-rounded exploration of life, work, and relationships.

Takeaways

Create connections based on trust and authenticity.
Hard work and humility are essential for success.
Taking action can prepare you for opportunities.
COVID-19 can be a springboard for innovation.
Competition should drive personal improvement, not comparison.
Family values shape work ethic and ambition.
Recognizing when a career path isn't fulfilling is crucial.
Coaching can provide clarity and direction in life.
Ownership of one's career leads to greater satisfaction.
Risk-taking is necessary for significant rewards. Cole's wedding in Italy was a dream come true for his family.
Destination weddings can be financially savvy compared to local venues.
Remote work offers freedom but can blur work-life boundaries.
Consistency in practice is key to success in sports and business.
Being in the right rooms with the right people can change your life.
Driving a Porsche was a symbolic moment for Cole's aspirations.
Building a startup is the hardest yet most fulfilling experience.
Fitness routines help develop mental toughness and discipline.
Cole's love story began in lower school and blossomed later in life.
Funny stories from the car business highlight the unpredictability of life.

Link to Clear Vision Coaching:

https://clearvisionmastermind.com/


Link to Tom Merrifield's episode:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XzqbR_flD5k&pp=ygUZVGhlIGJsdWUgY3VwIHBvZGNhc3QgdG9tIA%3D%3D




SPEAKER_01

I tell you, there's no way that my life is going to transition that fast in such a short period of time. And it was just like that surreal moment. Sometimes they overestimate talent and underestimate consistency. Consistency is truly what has changed my life. She took a pound of sugar and she poured it in his gas tank.

unknown

In an old palm of show.

SPEAKER_00

His name was Russ. And now he's got our podcast show.

SPEAKER_03

Welcome to the Blue Cup Podcast. Be sure to like and subscribe and click the bell below. I'm really excited about the guest today. We have Cole Beaver from Consistent Capital. And he loaned me or perhaps gave me a cap.

SPEAKER_02

Gave it to you.

SPEAKER_03

And these guys, they're not in our office building, but they're in the building next door, and they do a great job. And we'll talk more about that and the opportunities that it creates for investors. So we really want to dig in. I first met Cole and there's this instant connection. Like this is somebody I want to have conversations with, want to hang out with, want to do business with. We do business with people we know, like, and trust. And I instantly like to talk to Cole within about 30 seconds I trusted him. And now I know him. So we can do business. And that's really important, I think, for everybody to hear is create that aura for yourself. And I don't I don't think Cole's faking it or you know generating I think that's just who he is. And I that's awesome. So we'll share some some common experiences and some individual experiences as we go. So tell me about your upbringing. Who are you? Where where'd you come from?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, well, first and foremost, want to say thank you for the for the opportunity, Russ. You know, really, really look up to you. And I think it was similar, right? When I met you, I was like, man, this is this is a guy I like, this is a guy I trust immediately, and now we know each other, and it's a pleasure to to be here with you today. Yeah, so I mean, a little bit about me and my background. I mean, I I grew up right here in Charleston, South Carolina. So I tell everybody because nobody knows where Goose Creek is unless you are around here in this area. Um, went to a a private school, uh Northwood Academy. By no means did we have the money for me to be in that school, but uh my mother worked for the church associated, and so we were able to get a discount on the tuition. And I was the guy with the 97 Z71 beat up truck in the parking lot with all the Benzes and the BMWs. Played soccer all through high school, went off to Wingate University, was able to get my business degree up there, you know. So a pretty normal, normal upbringing, normal path. You know, during my my senior year at Wingate University, I was working full time as a as a lot porter for Hendrik Lexus of North Lake.

SPEAKER_03

So okay.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it was it was a lot to manage, you know, doing school full time. I mean, I'm an hour and a half away from where I work, so I'm going to school, I'm going to work, coming home, getting all my schoolwork done done, and then, you know, rinse, wash, repeat every single day, which during that phase of my life, you will, or season, as I know you like to call it, really taught me about hard work. I mean, because I was putting in a lot of hours, a lot of road miles, you know, just trying to get my feet underneath me. And honestly, at that job, it taught me a lot a lot about humility and work ethic in a way that really a classroom's not going to teach you. You know, and then after being a lob porter after graduating from Wingate University, I was able to work my way up into the sales department at Lexis. It was kind of an organic way of getting into sales in that we got slammed on a Saturday. I'm pretty sure it was like Memorial Day weekend, you know, one of those crazy sale events at the dealership. And we didn't have enough salespeople. There was too many people in the showroom. And my GM's like, hey, Cole, I need you to take the next client that walks in this door. No training. I mean, I know how to park the cars, I know what the buttons do, but I really don't have any sales background to this point in my life. And said, okay, let's do it. You know, and I think that we'll see that kind of theme throughout as we talk is just taking that action, right? I might not be ready, but the action I'm gonna take is gonna get me ready. And so took that customer and actually sold two cars in about three and a half hours right there off the rip. Whoa.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah. That's impressive.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, GM uh his light bulb went off pretty quick and said, Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna stop having you park cars and we're gonna have you start selling them. So let's get you some training. So it was awesome. You know, got to really organically kind of grow into that and was able to start selling cars up there for for a short period of time. And then Mr. Hendrick ended up coming to our general manager at the time and asking him to build a team to come back down to Charleston, take over that Lexus store. It was just underperforming for the market that it's in. I mean, Lexus should be one of the top-tier stores in this in this market area. And so I was selected to come down and be a part of that team. Total transparency here. I was scared out of my mind because there's a lot of should be. Yeah. I mean, that's a that's a lot of pressure. You know, you're coming into a dealership where most of these client advisors have been there for 10, 15 plus years. You got a young gunslinger like me coming in who's been selling for three months, right? And I'm supposed to show them how to do it. I still don't even know how to do it, right? And so we came down and we were able to turn that store around relatively quickly in about a two to four year time span. We were able to make that store one of the top producing stores out of all of Hendrick's 118 dealerships in his auto group. And it was awesome. I mean, it was really the first time that someone had bet on me before I fully bet on myself. You know, I was really scared, but my GM was like, I see the potential in you. I think you're gonna do great. I'm betting on you. Even though you think you can't get there, I'm gonna bet on you. And so that was really something that took me by surprise. That's where everything really started to shift for me during that transition. And I realized that, you know, just because I'm not ready doesn't mean I can't go take the action and try to execute at a very high level. So after probably about two to three years in sales, you know, not to not to toot my own horn, but first year down here, I was the number one salesperson in that dealership. I mean, made six figures for the first time in my life, first person in my family to do that. I mean, it was it was very life-changing in in that season.

SPEAKER_03

And making six figures at one age?

SPEAKER_01

Two, twenty-one, twenty-two.

SPEAKER_03

You suck so bad.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it was terrible, right? Horrible. Um, but being transparent, looking back on that now. If I had all the knowledge that I had today back then, we would both be on a beach sipping my ties somewhere, Russ.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, well But that's that's not possible. We have to we have to learn and grow. We can learn from the mistakes of others, but you have to feel it too. I mean, there has to be a little knife to the heart sometimes. Yeah. You gotta learn how to get your butt kicked sometimes and go home and cry about it and then come back to work the next day.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's that's exactly what happened. I mean, it was a lot of hours, a lot of effort, a lot of energy. I mean, COVID hit us in the middle of all that, trying to rebuild that store. And I like to really focus in on the COVID piece because car dealerships were deemed necessary, right? So we're open, but we still have to sell cars, people still have to buy cars, but how do we do it? How do we do it? They can't, they're not gonna come into the store, right? So what's the solution?

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_01

March, when COVID hit, I had my record month in sales. I sold 32 cars that month, and I delivered every single one of them to the client's driveway.

SPEAKER_03

So how how did you how'd you pull that off?

SPEAKER_01

So I would just take our internet leads, our phone leads, you know, it was all inbound kind of leads at that point because people weren't walking in. So they're calling in on the phone and I would just say, hey, is this the vehicle that you want to buy? Right? Did you make sure that this is the right car for them? Features, everything. I would go above and beyond sending videos, we're doing FaceTimes, really making sure that that vehicle fits their needs. And after that, I would just go to my finance managers and have them print out the whole deal packet, and I would drive that car straight to their driveway. I mean, I went to Atlanta, Greenville, Myrtle Beach.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_01

And it snowballed to the point where I actually got in trouble because I couldn't keep up with all of my clients while also driving and delivering all these cars. And once my GM realized that, he actually hired some more support staff, some other lot porters, which I had been in that position. And so I stayed in the dealership. I made the phone calls, I teed the deals up, and then we were sending the lot porters out just to go drop them off and come back, drop them off and come back. And so, you know, that was another little bit of a shift for me in life where I have all these sales reps around me utilizing COVID as an excuse as to why they're not hitting their numbers. And it's like, yeah, you can use it. It's a great excuse. Yeah, people can't come in the dealership and buy cars, but I'm having a record month because I utilized that excuse as my springboard to success. I was I didn't see it as a hurdle. I saw it as, well, if everyone in my dealership thinks that's a problem, then there's guys out there that also think that's a problem and they don't think they can sell. So that just opened up the market. Like I said, I mean, we were delivering cars down into other markets, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, because other dealerships were just kind of sitting on their butts and using that as an excuse to not sell cars, where I saw that as an opportunity.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Yeah. Well, we're a lot alike in that way. In that I I find a way to excel wherever I am. And the Grant Cardone has some great quotes. I can't think of it's um Sell or Be Sold, I think is a book that this is in.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Where he talks about going to work in an auto dealership, which I've never done, you have. And he said when I got there, there were salespeople who were furniture. And he said, you know, I blew up the top off everything, advanced to something else, and the the human furniture was still there. Absolutely. You have no idea how true that statement is in the car world. Yeah, yeah. And I d I saw it, so the business that that I came up in was the home remodeling and um really b based around kitchen remodeling business. So it's uh it's a little different sales process, but it's a very intense and what I heard from you is you were selling more than you could deliver.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_03

Or than the operation could deliver. And that was a constant problem for me too, because remodeling somebody's kitchen is not like here are the keys. See you later. Yeah. Everything looked look good, what's next? It's a it's a long process. And that was my family life growing up, though, is that's what we did. So every company that I worked in throughout my career, which I um I quit at about 45 years old, but I started at 15. Yeah. So it's a pretty long path. So it's very similar where I was like and when I stopped working in my family business and started working for a big professional company in St. Louis, it was competitive. I mean, we're salespeople, we were designers because we did design and package and and then we'd have our um our scheduling meeting about when when when can we execute the project. And there was a young woman named Jenny, and she to be honest, she outsold me every year, but she had been there for a long time. Yeah. But I remember sitting in a meeting and I was saying, I need a spot on the calendar for this installation. And Jenny was like, Well, I need a spot for the installation that same week. And we're overbooked, and Gary, the owner, said, Who has a check? I said, I have a check. And Jenny said, I'm getting a check tomorrow. And Gary said, You can get on the schedule tomorrow. Russ is going on the schedule today. And I was a new kid, I was not popular that week. Oh, I'm sure. You know, the new kid at 37 or whatever I was coming in saying, I I mean it's deliverable. I'm ready to order the materials and put them in stock and you know, put it on the schedule, and I have the check. And Jenny got the check the next day, but she got the slot behind me. So that um I love the ambition. It sounds very familiar. Oh yeah. Um, and I I'm not competitive. I'm not out to beat somebody else, but I'm also not gonna take a beating.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. Yeah. I would are I would argue that my my biggest competitor is myself. Like, yeah, I want to be better than I was yesterday. I want to be better than I was six months ago. I'm not, you know, comparison is the thief of joy, so I'm not looking at Russ and going, oh, look how successful Russ is, like, oh man, dang, I'll never get there. Like, I'm looking at myself and very introspective. And it it took a while to get there. I mean, when I first got to Lexus, it was all about everybody else. I'm like, okay, how many cars is he selling? What's he doing? How can I beat him? How can I beat them?

SPEAKER_03

So, did that introspection and what you just mentioned, I want to focus on that for a minute. Did that come from your family, from your upbringing, or was it after that?

SPEAKER_01

I would say that it prop probably a little bit of both. Okay. My my mom is as nose to the grindstone as you've ever met. I mean, she she grew up on a farm. She was one girl with six brothers. So that gives you any kind of inclination about the work ethic and drive that she was forced to have.

SPEAKER_03

It sounds like she might be tough.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, maybe just a little bit. You know, she's she's four foot ten, and I can say without a shadow of a doubt, I am more scared of her than any seven foot three, three hundred-pound man ever in my life. Um, and she was she was rough on us, you know, as a kid. Like it wasn't this easy, gentle parenting thing. I mean, she'd smack you with anything she could get her hands on if she felt like you were out of line. Could be a kitchen spoon, a spatul, a wooden spoon, man. That was the worst. All day, every day, you know, and so kind of seeing her. I mean, and she she worked what 30 years almost for for uh the church that, like I said, Northwood Assembly. And really her backstory is interesting too. I mean, she was a very successful graphic design artist, working at a third-party firm, making a ton of money working with high net worth clients, and she ended up making a switch. She just felt a calling to to go and work for a church, take less money. And I just watched her have that realization that really money is not the goal, right? It's life and balance and being able to enjoy and be happy when you're So what is the goal?

SPEAKER_03

If money's not the goal, what's the goal?

SPEAKER_01

For me personally, it's No, you for your mom.

SPEAKER_03

You're talking about your mom.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, for her, the goal was to spend more time with her family. That was the goal.

SPEAKER_03

She she wanted to be able to her goal was more money doesn't solve her problem.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03

Right? Or doesn't solve it, doesn't satisfy I shouldn't say full solve her problem. More money doesn't satisfy her. So what did satisfy her?

SPEAKER_01

Satisfying her was really what she was able to do for the for the church and pour back into that that community. I mean, she was the graphic design artist, their communications director. I mean, she was essentially like the number two at that church, making sure that everything behind the scenes went well and smoothly and that our head pastor had great services, you know, great lyrics up on the wall, lightings all perfect. I mean, she she was the kind of orchestrator behind the scenes, and that's really what she found passion in. You know, putting on the big Christmas programs and the Easter programs, she was able to pour herself and her creativity into that. And I think that's really what what she valued most is just giving back to to a community that they gave back to her.

SPEAKER_03

So graphic design background, she had good jobs with that, but that didn't satisfy her the way running the organizational part of the church did.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. Yes.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, okay, cool. So that's I think that's tagged out, Brian. That's kind of a golden nugget that I I studied advertising in college. My daughter is at USC right now studying advertising. I got a m I wanted a a full-on business degree, so I majored in marketing, but I minored in advertising because I love the graphic design side side of it. And I ended up being a residential designer designing houses and not houses, but additions and kitchens and augmentations to houses. And I found that very satisfying. But it sounds like your mom managing a church to me sounds like an absolute nightmare. Yes. But I can see I I know people and I can see the joy and satisfaction that could come from that. It's just interesting how we're we're driven in different ways. So that's cool. So she was able to follow her passion and have the freedom to, you know, manage the church functions and the church operations. Yeah, she What was your dad doing?

SPEAKER_01

Dad was uh he was full-time in the Air Force before I was born. But then when I was born, he he made a shift. Because I have an older brother, we're 18 years apart. I was I was an accident. I was uh my mom calls me her miracle baby because she actually she wasn't supposed to have any more kids. I mean, she had a thyroid disease, and the doctor was like, listen, if you have another kid, we're gonna die, the kid's gonna die. Sidebar, I was actually born deader than a doornail. I had umbilical cord wrapped around my neck, whole nine yards, was blue when I came out. Like my dad has shared the story with me now as an adult, and he's like, son, I didn't think there was any way. And so they they re it took them 10, 15 minutes and they brought me back in and I was breathing and screaming and crying. But again, my dad didn't get to spend a lot of time with my brother, you know, because he's on planes, he's flying all across different countries. And so he he missed that piece with my brother and really wanted to capitalize on that when I was born. So he retired from the Air Force, still decided to work out on the Air Force base in Charleston as a retired civilian, doing crew taskings, you know, putting crews together, sending them on their missions without him actually having to be on the plane and out of the country. So was able to spend a lot more time with my dad uh as a young child than my brother was, which was awesome. He also ran his own business. He had uh he had a driving school that partnered with our high school. And so I got to kind of watch a little bit of that entrepreneurial journey when I was younger on him running his own business.

SPEAKER_03

And was he active in the Air Force on active duty and have the driving school at the same time?

SPEAKER_01

Uh no, he once he retired from the Air Force and he was still working out there, like I said, as a retired civilian. Um, he he also started the driving school to kind of supplement some income.

SPEAKER_03

It was funny because he so he was a civilian contractor for the and then he had the driving school business.

SPEAKER_01

Had the driving school business as well. And uh it was called Magnum Driving School because he looks just like Magnum PI. I mean, if I had a picture of him and Tom Selleck, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. I'm serious. Yeah, there's a core memory of my life as a young child. We were downtown on the battery at a wedding reception, you know, one of the big battery houses, just beautiful, right? And he's standing on the balcony, and people are, you know, tourists are walking by and they're pointing and screaming and yelling. He's eating it up, dude. He's up there waving, oh hey everybody, how are y'all doing? Yeah, yeah, it's me, it's Tom Sally. Awesome. But yeah, so he named it Magnum Driving School, and he ran that bull for probably 15, 20 years. Uh and ended up ultimately just selling out of that and uh just staying in the in the Air Force as a retired contractor there.

SPEAKER_03

So you you have had the entrepreneurial bug, and I feel like you're kind of and I did this for a long time. I was an entrepreneur, meaning I was in an organization that I didn't own, but just like you're selling 32 cars in a month. It's ridiculous to sell 32 cars in a month. And my mentor would say, let's be ridiculous. Yeah let's do ridiculous things, like sell thirty-two cars in a month. Well, you're an entrepreneur, you have the support system of the inventory and the finance and everything else, but they're also not putting the reins to you to slow you down. I mean, it's like go, dude, sell thirty-two cars. Exactly. Yeah. So that for people listening or watching, that can be a really important lesson if you can function as an entrepreneur within a powerful organization like Consistent Capital, what you're doing now, to me is a similar form of because um we're gonna have Wit on soon, who you know, we'll talk about how the whole thing runs, but you're able to just run. Absolutely. I mean, Wit's not gonna slow you down. No. Go as hard as you can go and uh then we'll worry about how we're gonna deliver you know, you were delivering cars, now you're Delivering loan products.

SPEAKER_01

So I think it's important too to, you know, for people listening, to be around a leadership team that that doesn't slow you down. Because like when you when you get around people who expect greatness from you, like mediocrity is no longer an option. Like the pressure makes you have to get to an elite level. And also it improves everyone around you. You know, I can't I can't remember the exact statistics, but I think it's if I'm sitting next to a high-level operator who is doing things at an elite level, I'm like 30% more likely to increase my production versus or 15% more likely to increase production versus if I'm around a low level somebody who just doesn't care, mediocrity is the standard, I'm 30% more likely to lower my production.

SPEAKER_03

So don't hang out with the furniture.

SPEAKER_01

No, do not hang out with the furniture. Like, like I said, when you get around people that expect greatness from you, mediocrity is no longer an option. And it levels the company up. It brings everybody up with you. And I think I've had those opportunities all throughout my life, you know, even being a lot porter. Like I was making $10 an hour, but something my mom and dad instilled in me was, you know, the old Matthew McConaughey, if you're gonna do it, don't half asset. Do it. It doesn't matter what your title is, it doesn't matter what you're getting paid. And in the car world, for those that don't know, lot porters are kind of like the guy that goes and gets the head sales guy lunch, right? Like you're just doing mediocre jobs, and that wasn't good enough for me.

SPEAKER_03

Like I wanted to- I like Nick Offerman. You know, Nick Offerman from the Nick Offerman's one of my favorite comedians, and he'll say, Don't ever half-ass anything. Put your whole ass into everything. And his delivery is so much better than mine, but it just that just kills me. It was like, yes. I mean, don't half-ass anything, put your whole ass into it. You have to. It makes such a difference.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you take ownership. You know, I took ownership as a lot porter and was able to garnish the trust of my management team where they knew that when Cole showed up, the lot was gonna be tight, everything's in its place, everything has a place, I know where everything's at, you know, and then transition that to sales. Same thing. I'm gonna own it. It's COVID, I'm gonna own this issue that everybody's using as an excuse, and we're gonna overcome it and move forward and be successful. You know, and then really got the opportunity to jump into the finance manager role. And that was that was really where my life kind of shifted a lot.

SPEAKER_03

Really? Explain that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, it was all I ever wanted, Russ, to be transparent with you. I mean, there was not a week that went by after my first two to three years of being high-level successful in that business, that I was not knocking on my GM's door and saying, hey, when's the next opportunity? When's the next opportunity? I want it, I want it. That was all I wanted. I wanted to be a finance manager. That's where I had really set my bar at. But it was interesting because when I got there, sometimes like the wrong life can look right on paper, and that's kind of what makes it dangerous. I got there and I was like, man, this sucks. I'm at this dealership for 80 hours a week. I'm at the mercy of these people walking in at eight o'clock wanting to buy a car. Like the money was great, but the life that I was not living was worse. Like I could not function in that role, and it's crazy that that was what I wanted so bad. And then when I got it, I realized that I don't want this. Yeah. It's like a golden handcuff scenario. You're making a ton of money, but at what cost? And then I started to kind of zoom out. And really, my my girlfriend at the time, who was now my wife, was pivotal in that transition because she was harping on me. She's like, hey, if we're gonna, if I'm gonna continue dating you and we're gonna make a life together, I don't want to be raising kids by myself, have a terrible marriage and a terrible life while you're giving up. She drew a line and said, Absolutely. No. And that's the only trajectory. You know, I'm sitting there looking at my general manager and he's at the top of the pyramid there, and he's in that dealership every single day. Every single day, Monday through Saturday. And I just had this epiphany one day. I'm like, is this really the life I want? And so I started kind of tossing that around and chewing on that. Well, if this isn't the life I want, then what is the life that I want? And I started to kind of back into that and figure out my goals. What did I want to accomplish? How long did I want to spend time with my family? How much money did I want to make? Was money the the important thing or was time more important? And so throughout that experience with the girlfriend beating on me, you know, car deals beating on me, not being happy. I I started to explore other avenues and other routes. And that's where I really gotta give a shout out. This is not a sponsor or anything for clear vision coaching, but clear vision coaching mastermind changed my whole life. I mean, cool. Yeah, tag that one, Ryan. Yeah, it did. I mean, it it it it's it's total honesty and transparency, but not paid, I'm not a paid actor for clear vision coaching. But no, it was um it's crazy how this whole story is full circle because you know Kelly Garrett, who owns Rehab Blah, is a very good friend of yours and mine. Um, she actually got her start in the lending industry with my wife's parents. So my in-laws. When she left UPS, they gave her a shot, brought her into the mortgage business, taught her, showed her the ropes. And so they actually had gotten an invite from Kelly to come to this mastermind. And so my in-law's like, hey, Kelly, is it okay if I bring my daughter's boyfriend at the time? He's kind of struggling with some life stuff, doesn't really know what he wants to do, not happy. Just want to kind of open, open his brain up a little bit, right? Break through that glass ceiling, show him what's possible. And so I went to that mastermind, and I will never forget it. Dan Rivers is sitting in there with a green Hawaiian shirt on, flip-flops, just as lousy after as he could be. And I'm like, and I love Dan, he knows this, so he won't get upset at me for saying this. But I'm like, if that guy can do it, I can do it.

SPEAKER_03

I know the little fucker's in Portugal right now. Yeah, he is. He's flying, he's all over the world. As we're speaking, he and his wife and his beautiful children are hanging out in Portugal for like three weeks.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and that's exactly the life that I wanted to be able to live when I went with this mastermind. And I'll never forget it. Danny Rendazo, a fantastic individual. I mean, he's out there going through goals, right? What are what are your goals for this year? And I'm writing them down, you know, I'm doing everything, I'm taking all the notes like uh every good little beginner does, right? And then he flips the final page and he's like, How can you do all of this in 30 days? And I'm like, it just that blew my mind that you could take a 12-year timeline or a one-year timeline and condense it into 30 days, and the light bulb clicked for me right there. I'm like, Well, if I'm gonna flip this house, I'm gonna quit my job. And literally quit my job two days later. Walked in.

SPEAKER_03

Yep. I didn't I did not know that.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, sir. Walked in two days later because I knew I was currently house hacking a house in Goose Creek, had two of my buddies living with me. They're paying the rent. I'm kind of renovating it as I go along, but didn't really know what I was doing until I got I remember a conversation about that. Yeah, and so I knew that I had that opportunity and I could I could taste it and it was palpable, but I knew I couldn't manage through that contractor experience while also being at a dealership for 80 hours because there was going to be a lot of issues. So, like I said, yeah, you gotta sleep sometime. Yeah, yeah. So, like I said, it was 48 hours later. I walked in, I got into the dealership early, packed all my stuff up, walked to my GM's office and said, Hey, here's my letter of resignation. It's effective today. Sorry to put you in a tough spot, but I've got to take ownership of my life and put my hands on the wheel and and go get what I'm wanting to get, and was able to flip that house and clear a six-figure net profit, which doesn't happen all the time, doesn't happen in this market anymore. Those deals are far few and in between. But that really that clear vision mastermind really shifted my mindset on what I want my life to look like.

SPEAKER_03

Do you remember the month and year of that?

SPEAKER_01

The month and year of the mastermind?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I want to say it was 2023 in the spring sometime. Okay. So it was at the um it was at the tides.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Okay. Okay. Very cool. So that was a that was a springboard, and I'm grateful that clear vision coaching could be part of your journey. I mean, that's our whole goal, is to be a springboard.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and it just shows you what's possible. You know, you're around the right people in the right rooms, and I know that's so cliche, and everybody always says to get in the right rooms with the right people, but it's palpable. Like it allows you to view life in a different light. You have different lenses, you have different people that are operating in different capacities and being successful in within real estate investing. And like the six-figure flip didn't it didn't change my life because of the money, it changed it because it started to prove like who I was becoming. It's like, oh wow, like this is possible. I can make money outside of a car dealership.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_01

And it was just going through those motions. You know, I I shared something with you earlier. Like, there's nothing special about us. Like the only secret is we just don't quit. Like, I ran into a lot of issues, right? I didn't have contractors, I didn't have a dispo team, I didn't have agents to help me, I didn't have any of that. I was kind of just feeling my way through the dark, hitting the walls, and figuring out and swinging hammers myself. And it really just proved to me who I was becoming and and that I was starting to transition into a different season of my life.

SPEAKER_03

And what I'm dying to say as you're describing that is that's okay. Yeah. It's not okay forever, but it's okay for a period of time to to do that. And, you know, I don't I don't mind we had a mastermind probably before the one you came to, and there was a kind of a celebrity person who was in the room, and uh I had we had multiple coaching students in the room, and we were talking about going to look at properties, and this superstar was like, You don't need to look at properties, you just can do it over the phone. I said, Well I said, I I agree with you, I can do that, you can do that, because we've done 400 flops. I said, But these people who are doing their first, second, and third flip, I I don't want them to do it from photographs and over the phone. I want them to smell the mold and the cat urine and the, you know, and see that the fact that you know you can see daylight through the soffit from the inside of the. I mean, yeah, and I love walking houses because I have a construction background. I love walking houses with people who really don't what know what they're looking at. Um so yeah, I want I want to see the beer cans and the dirty needles and the you know the whole thing. And then there comes a time when you can can say, just send me some photos, and but even then I'm really particular saying, uh, okay, here's how we take photos, and I'm gonna go off track and Ryan's probably gonna kill me and edit this out. We're gonna do I'm doing it anyway. So when I take photos of a house, the last boss I ever had when we were doing very high-end remodeling and additions and you know, my last four projects, the average cost was two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. One was a two hundred and four thousand dollar bathroom renovation. So we're doing high-end work. So Bob was very particular. And I operated after my first year there, the next few years that I worked, I operated completely independently but within his system. So we take a picture of the front of the house, and then we go clockwise and we take a picture of the corner, the side, the corner, the back, and we would save the photos. This was before, you know, a bunch of apps that we could but we would save those, and then we go in each room and we take a picture of the floor and the ceiling and the corners. And so when now buying a house to flip or to keep as a rental or even a listing, I can have people go through and I'm saying just just bear with me for three minutes and I'm let me explain to you I'm gonna need 75 to 100 photos. Yeah, and they're going to be from these angles. And let me walk you through how I want it done so that it's as if I'm in the house. I said, Well, I'll shoot a video. I don't want a video. You you can do it a video in addition to this if that makes you happy. Yeah. But I want what I want so that I can systemize. And I know working in a car dealership, I've never worked in a car dealership, but I bought cars and kind of a funny story. My wife went to buy a Toyota hybrid. We have a Prius, a Tundra, and a Highlander hybrid. We're kind of Toyota people. And so she my my youngest daughter went with her just by coincidence. And she said they you know they did all the things, she negotiated pretty hard. They go to the finance manager and the salesman come back, and Bianca, my daughter, was laughing. She said the guy was literally tap dancing when he came out of the finance office because she has over an 800 credit score. Well over 800. And the guy's tap dancing, like, we'll give you whatever terms you want, it's yours. But then my point of this ramble that ties back to the clear vision coaching thing is whatever business you're in, if you're selling cars or you're flipping houses or you're acquiring properties, have a system and understand what that means and how it works, so you can repeat, repeat, repeat and sell 32 cars in a month. Exactly. Or or flip a hundred houses a year. But the only way I know to do that is to have very specific definitions of all the parameter and all the variables. Yeah. And even even the conversations we have with people with my acquisitions team, it's fun for me.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

It doesn't even feel like business. It's fun for me coaching like this is how we have that conversation.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

These are the questions we ask.

SPEAKER_01

I'm pulling kind of picking up what you're putting down there. You know, it sounds like processes and people are the most important. You know, I was at the legacy family pop-up mastermind this past Friday down here at the home. And Tim Bratz dropped a fantastic nugget. It was a business owner struggling with just time in the day, right? To spend time with the kids, to work on the business and do this and do that and do this and do that. And Tim hit me with a light bulb and he said, Well, Jeff Bezos has the same 24 hours that we do. What separates him from the rest of us? And Jeff's got people and processes.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, and Tim Tim's the one who said you don't have to look at houses. And I said, No, Tim, you don't have to look at houses. Yeah, or I don't, you don't, you probably don't need to look at a an apartment building. Yeah. You just need a few photos. I said, but when you're brand new, I want you to taste it, smell it, hear it, feel it. Got to. And know what that's like. And then I can smell it in the photograph years later. So let's talk about your wedding and destination and get off business for a minute and talk about because you you just um gosh, it's only been weeks, right?

SPEAKER_01

It it has. I mean, it's well, it's been about three weeks since I've been back. We were we were over there from October 1st to October 25th. And over where? Over in Italy. Yeah, we we went to Italy to get married, to have our honeymoon. And this is something we've done for the last three years. I mean, since I left the car business, every October we take a vacation, we go to Italy. We love it over there. And I'd never be able to do that if I was at a dealership. There's no way that you get to leave for four weeks and come back. But yeah, we we flew over there on October 1st, did the smart thing, did not want to get in there three days before the wedding. I wanted my wife to be nice and calm and relaxed. So we went down to Sicily, apart us at a at an all-inclusive for 11 days. She got all the spa treatments, all the stuff that she could to relax and ease into it. Um, and then yeah, we we flew up into Florence, got married 45 minutes outside of Florence, and it was a fantastic whole three-day escapade. I mean, we had about 50 to 55 people there, big welcome dinner on Thursday night, rehearsal dinner on Friday. We were able to coordinate a bunch of tours for people to go and enjoy. Like it was it was awesome to see like the joy on my mom's face for her to be in Italy. Like, she never in her wildest dreams would have imagined that her son would be getting married in Italy and she'd have the opportunity to go over there. Um then Saturday, as fortune would have it, we got the last day of good weather, was our wedding day. 70 degrees outside, beautiful, bright, and sunny. And then every day after that was rainy and 35, 40 degrees. So we were very, very blessed on that front. And um, you know, really speaks volumes to the team that we have at Consistent Capital as well. I was able to step out for four weeks, and our team did not miss a beat. I mean, Brandon Barley is an absolutely amazing individual that works for me here as a business development manager in South Carolina. I left, no loans going on, hands off, and he has a record month. I mean, the guy did 2 million plus in origination in October, and really being able to have that team in place that you can just trust and that you know is gonna carry the torch when you're out. It was awesome. I mean, you can't you can't replace that feeling. But yeah, we were able to spend time over there, and then actually on Saturday, we're flying down to the Keys, gonna be there for two weeks for Christmas and working remote, which is what this job has allowed me to do. Is I mean, I can do anything from a laptop, right? I don't have to be in a brick and mortar in a dealership for 80 hours a week. You know, I do come into the office because I enjoy working here at the helm, seeing you every day, seeing Ryan, seeing everybody in here. It's nice and it's fun. I enjoy it, but I have the ability and the freedom to work from wherever we want to.

SPEAKER_03

Very cool. Why did you choose Italy for the wedding?

SPEAKER_01

We chose Italy because that is where my wife's dad is from. So yeah, he was he was actually born down in Sicily, and then they came over and immigrated through New York City. Um, he grew up in New York, but they actually also, my in-laws have a house uh probably 30, 45 minutes outside of Florence. So they're back and forth. Yeah, so they'll do three months over there, three months back here, three months over there. And frankly, to be totally transparent to you and everybody, it was the money. I mean, heck, we we toured Holy City down here. And for those that don't know, that's a brewery down here in Charleston. They've got an event space literally in the backyard, and it was like $35,000 just to breathe the air in the room. That didn't include catering, food, drinks, nothing. And I'm like, if we're gonna spend that much, might as well do it in Italy and spend the same amount of money and get a lot more bang for your buck. And that was ultimately the driving decision behind that was get married in Italy because her family is from there, and then also really be able to maximize how how far a dollar could go.

SPEAKER_03

Well, and I was over 50 years old before I understood that. And a good friend of mine, Tom Merrifield, will probably have him on the podcast. Brandon Bartley's episode's already recorded, and you're mentioning people, you know, the people we know. But Tom, so Tom and his family, he lived in Germany a long time, is American, his wife is German. They went skiing in Colorado a few years ago, and they came back and said, I said, How was it? He said, It would it was fine. He said, but it's ridiculous how expensive it is. And he said every year before that and after that, they go to Austria. He said, We can fly to Austria, ski, eat, do all the things, and he said, It's cheaper than Colorado by far. And my mother, my sister, and I did a cruise to uh Spain, France, and Italy last year. And it I won't even say it was ridiculously cheap. And when when we were in the cities in Rome and Florence, we rode a train from Florence to Rome, I think that was is the right path. But the meals are it's ridiculously inexpensive compared to the US. So when we talk about all these exotic trips like Dan Rivers is in Portugal with uh Lisa and the kids, I won't say the kids' name, so I could say his wife's name. It seems ridiculous, but the air track the air travel's not that expensive. The lodging is very inexpensive.

SPEAKER_02

Very inexpensive.

SPEAKER_03

And then things like meals are just incredibly inexpensive. So yeah. It's great to to understand that and as you say, to have the freedom. Something that I say about the 21st century, because I'm from the night as my kids like to remind me, I say so and so and so yeah, back in the night hurts my feelings just a little bit. But the great thing is you can work from anywhere.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And the terrible thing is you can work from anywhere. Exactly. Yes. It's like, no, don't hide. From me, dude. I know you could be working.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And I think that's important too. Is like, you know, the the trips, the the international trips, like they're not like a it's not like a flex of look who I am, look what I've done, but it's it's like proof that you know if you have the discipline, you can create the freedom. You can have the freedom to go do that, but you don't just wake up one day and get to go do that, right?

SPEAKER_03

Well, it's it's about enjoying it. And I know you, and it's not like look at my watch and look at my car or look at my truck. It's about enjoying life.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03

Which is absolutely awesome. Feel like I've gotten off track. Oh man, we've got lots to talk about. So talk to me about soccer. How long did you play soccer?

SPEAKER_01

That is a very funny question. I actually learned how to walk by kicking a soccer ball. My mom still has the, for those of you that are old enough to remember VHS tapes, my mom still has the VHS tape recording it from when they put a soccer ball in the front yard, and that is where I just decided to stand up, kick it, fall, get up, run after it, kick it again, fall. So soccer's always in my blood, man. I mean, it was always in my blood. I played from the time I could literally walk to getting into college. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to play in college due to some injury-related stuff, but I was always the youngest on the team. I mean, if it if I was if I was 10 years old, I was playing on a 14 team. You know, if I was in eighth grade, I was playing on our varsity high school soccer team, and I was a speaking captain. Ultimately was able to lead that high school team to two state championships back to back before we graduated, which is which was awesome. Um haven't I don't think they've been back yet, but we were able to put some on the board before before I graduated.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, very cool. So I'm gonna geek out for a minute, and the book is actually on our bookshelf in the home today. There's a book by Malcolm Gladwell called Outliers. And I know you're a reader. I have The War That Killed Achilles at home on my coffee table, which is your book. Because we have a shared library here in the office. So this book, Outliers, there's a really interesting study that scientists did, and they looked at hockey players and baseball players. And the most consistent predictor of professional level success was the month of their birth. Because you just made the comment that you were the youngest on the team. And the month of the birth, I've forgotten what the cutoffs were, but whatever determined the oldest child on the team were the most likely to become professional athletes. And the reason is because they had more confidence. The coaches pay more attention to them because they tend to be a little more capable. And so that that affect compounds over time to where, you know, the the six or eight-year-old who goes into hockey or soccer or baseball and is the oldest in their group, they get more playing time, they get more coaching, they get more experience. And I just think it's cool to be conscious of things like that. It's not an excuse for me to do well or do poorly based on the month I was born in. But it's really interesting to say, okay, because I don't have that advantage. As you said, you were kind of the youngest. Like, I'm gonna have to work a little bit harder than than the kid who has that advantage, or the human who has that advantage. So I geek out on stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01

It's the psychology behind all of it and the statistics, and it's it's it's awesome to see. I I never heard that. That's that's interesting. That's an interesting viewpoint, but it makes sense to your point. You know, I definitely I mean, I had to grind to get there. You know, I mean, I'm on a team where guys are four and five years older than me, and you know, being 10 versus being 15, that's a big difference there, you know.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah for me to even be a huge difference.

SPEAKER_01

For me to even be a starter, for me to be a speaking captain, like that was always something that I had to work on, you know, and it was it was in practice, it wasn't really in the games, you know, it was in practice, it was getting out there before everybody else, leaving the field after everybody else, doing the reps outside of practice because I had I had to do that. There was no option where I just floated through it. Like I was competing against people older than me, more skilled than me, been doing it longer than me. So I had to make up for that skill gap outside of practice. It was just the consistency in the reps. You know, I think people sometimes they overestimate talent and underestimate consistency. Consistency is truly what has changed my life and what I believe will continue to change my life is just being consistent, doing what it takes to get where you want to go.

SPEAKER_03

When that allows you to create your own advantages as opposed to saying, well, this, you know, you're nine years and ten months old, and this kid's 11 years and nine months old. I mean, they've got 10 pounds on you, probably a little more speed, you know, a little more coordination. It's like, all right, I'm just gonna show up early and stay late and work harder.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and do the reps and focus.

SPEAKER_03

Do the reps, right?

SPEAKER_01

My focus the most part, because to your point, they're all bigger than me, they're all faster than me, they're all stronger than me. So I knew I wouldn't be able to outphysical outphysical them, if that's even a way of saying that. So for me, the focus was the small things. If I can do the small things better than anybody else, I can be like Messi, right? Because Messi's a tiny little guy. He's not this big monstrosity, but his ball handling skills and his finesse and his repetition of the small things allows him to be great. And so that's really where I focused on all of my time, effort, and energy was ball handling and shooting. I wanted to be able to out-dribble anybody and I wanted to be able to score from any half of the field. Like if I'm on the scoring half, I want to be able to shoot and make that because I don't want to have to go dribble around these six foot five center defenders that are just gonna push me over like a child, you know? I want to be able to make that shot before. So it's really smoke focusing on those small little things and and really, really honing in on the finesse and the reps there.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, you've already made the shot before my lanky ass can get there.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, before you can bully me into the corner over there.

SPEAKER_03

I'm I'm I'm like two steps behind you. So you go. Uh I love it. Napa Valley. Let's talk about Napa Valley and the Legacy Summit. Because that was that was fun watching you. You were nervous as a cat, man. You're like Yes. Virginia folks I grew up with said nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I think that's definitely accurate. You were. I was. But you nailed it on stage. It was fun to see you make that presentation in California.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it was an awesome awesome opportunity. You know, I mean, to be in the room with that level of success was, to your point, it was very frightening. Like I I usually I'm not wearing it today, but I usually have my my Garmin watch on. And as I stepped up onto that stage, my Garmin watch started Abnormal heart rate detected. Yeah, it was freaking out. Abnormal heart rate detected, watch out. You're gonna stroke out on stage, and I'm over here trying to scrap that thing up so I can do what I need to do. But really, like that that group, you know, Legacy Family is an amazing group to be in. And it just further solidified for me, you know, that that whole idea of being in the right rooms with the right people. I mean, your your environment is essentially either building your future or it's burying it, right? Who you're surrounding yourself with, who you're doing business with is either going to grow that future or it's gonna kill it and bury it. So for for me, that was the opportunity of a lifetime to be able to be entrusted by by Tim and Legacy Family to jump up on that stage and and give a solid market update that people could learn from and take back home and execute in their business with. And then just getting to learn from you know people like you, it was it was an awesome time. I mean, everybody in that room is collaborating and bringing real problems in their business. And nine times out of ten, if you've had that problem, ten other people in that room have had that problem and they've got your solution. So, like just the idea of a mastermind, because you see those courses being sold online and people are trying to sell you this mastermind idea and all that. I think Legacy Family is uh is a true representation of what it means to be in a mastermind.

SPEAKER_03

Yes. Yeah, so we'll clarify a little bit. Um we're talking about the Legacy Family, um, is run by Tim Bratz. I have been a member off and on for three or four years. Um and then we've also talked about ClearVision Coaching. And ClearVision Coaching is a coaching company that Dusty, Keith, and I run. And we hold usually quarterly masterminds, which is one of the events that you attended. But then we do full-time coaching with individual students as well. And I had an hour-long conversation with a student two days ago about just helping him identify the should. He was like, I I feel like I should do this, but I don't want to. And I've got this other way of solving it, which was essentially having somebody else do it. I said, Look, you're I'm gonna hit you with a bunch of cliches right now, but they all make sense. So first of all, Tony Robbins says, everybody knows who Tony Robbins is, he has bigger hands than mine. He says, Don't shoot all over yourself.

SPEAKER_01

I like that.

SPEAKER_03

It's a dirty word. Yeah. He considers should a dirty word. He said, Are you gonna do it or not do it? I should is just shame. And he said, just abandon that word. And then the second thing was there's a great book, and it's on our bookshelf here in the office called Who Not How. Who not how. And for this coaching student, he was saying, Yeah, I know I should. And I said, But I'm really not the right person to do that function in the business. And I've got this guy who does it, and it cost me this much, and he said, I'm comfortable with it. And I said, Why are we even having this conversation? You've already you just need me to tell you focus on what you're great at because there's some stuff he's really great at. And I said, And this other guy, I know him and I have actually bought properties from him, and I know he's good at that part of the business. I said, So maintain your partnership with him. And that's what clear vision coaching can can be all about. Um, it's one of the things that we can do, and I need somebody to do that with me. And sometimes Ryan does it to me all the time, like put your head on straight. Yeah, you know, what are you saying? What are you thinking? Just straighten your head out. And uh we're at Clearvision Mastermind.com. It's an easy way to find Clear Vision Coaching. Legacy Family, I think it's just legacyfamily.com. But you you talk about getting in the right rooms with the right people. I feel so incredibly fortunate to be able to be in those rooms.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03

With those people, and it was fun watching you um seven nervous breakdown and then kill it on stage. And then then there was the Porsche. So let's talk about the rental and talk about cars for a minute.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, I I did have to have to rent a 9-11. Um You had to, yes. I had to. I couldn't, I couldn't help myself. Uh, I hadn't I used to drive a bunch of fast cars back in the day growing up and was all big on, you know, mods and racing and doing all that crazy stuff. Um, but I hadn't had a fast car in a long time because, you know, season of life. Let's let's stop getting traffic tickets and let's get a truck. It's tough to get pulled over in a tacoma. It takes about 30 minutes for that thing to get up to 80 miles an hour. So hadn't had a fun car in a long time and decided to uh to rent the 9-11 and drive into Napa convertible. I mean, it was it was as California as I could think, and it was amazing. It was good to just drive that and really I had a kind of an epiphany moment. Um, actually, Dan Rivers and I, we we traveled together and drove in and I looked at him and I was like, Dan, if you would have told me when I first met you at that clear vision coaching mastermind and I was at that job, if you'd have told me that fast forward two, three years, I'd be sitting next to you in a 9-11 driving into Napa Valley to go speak at a legacy family mastermind, I'd have told you it was crazy. I'd have told you there's no way that my life is going to transition that fast in such a short period of time. And it was just like that surreal moment. Like it was just uh, I can remember it in my brain. I mean, it looks like a picture portrait with, you know, the the mountains up in the off in the distance, me and Dan, you know, Dan's hair blowing in the wind, even though he doesn't have any hair.

SPEAKER_03

Dan has no hair.

SPEAKER_01

Um, but no, it was that it was a surreal moment.

SPEAKER_03

Sun glinting off Dan's uh D.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, yeah. I didn't even have to put my current signal on. He just leaned out and it would just shine back and they'd know I was getting over it. Um but yeah, the Porsche was a good time. And it was just really about because that's for me, a Porsche GT3RS, that is on my goal sheet. I want one, I will have one within the next 10 years of my life, I will do it. It won't be because I want to be flashy or a flex, it's just my personal goal. I want to have one. Sure. So I wanted to kind of put myself in that situation and put myself in a car where I have that feeling of, man, this is possible. Like if I can rent it, I'm gonna be able to buy it in 10 years, eventually, right? So it was just nice to to enjoy that and kind of fake it till you make it for a little bit.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I love it, absolutely love it. So what's next for you?

SPEAKER_01

That's a good question. Um, you know, consistent capital, we are we are on a rocket ship. Um, and I really foresee myself staying here, continuing to build out the team here in in South Carolina, and then ultimately continuing to be that entrepreneur, you know, within this company that, you know, leads our sales team on the path of success and scaling and growing. I mean, we're up, I don't know, some stupid number. It's like 218% year over year in originations. So this is this right here is is what's next for me. It's gonna continue to be on the radar for as long as as long as Mr. McCarthy will still have me here. I'll I'll um but yeah, just building the team, growing, scaling with structure and intention and and supporting supporting our clients and supporting investors here in the southeast.

SPEAKER_03

Very cool. Yeah, I don't I don't blame you. You don't if someone says get on the rocket ship, you just say yes. Exactly. Whether the rocket ship's built all the way or not, we're gonna build it on the way. And then see what happens. I've forgotten where I read that. Like if um it was somebody like uh Richard Branson or one of the great entrepreneurs is like if somebody invites you to jump on the rocket ship, just say yes. Don't ask a bunch of questions, just get on and adapt to to what's happening. So I love you describing it as a rocket ship. And I know that uh it's a relatively new startup, and I had a mentor talking about business and the frustration of getting a business started. He said, Imagine you build a rocket, you put fuel in it, and you ignite it, and then it just rumbles on the platform. But then once it starts to go, it goes faster and faster and faster. But at that initial stage is painful. Oh, yeah. Because this thing gonna blow up on the pad, or is it you know, or is it gonna he said, and once you're in orbit, then you just adjust. So that was a that was a really cool rocket analogy for me.

SPEAKER_01

I think it hits the nail on the head, you know, because when you're starting, I mean, we're two, we're two years and two months into this thing. Yeah, and there was plenty of times, you know, where that rocket ship was sitting on the pad shaking pretty hard, you know. But you're just you put a lot of trust in in your team, number one, in your leadership team, number two, in the people that are around you. You know, you made sure that you've hired people that are gonna get in the boat and row in the same direction that you're rowing in. And at the end of the day, that personally, I believe that that's what's gotten us to where we are is the team that we have and the individuals, the absolute rock stars that we've hired to continue helping build this rocket ship. And now we're we're lifting off. We're off the ground now. It's not gonna blow up on the pad on us. We're not in orbit, we're not in orbit yet, but we're getting there. So it it's been the most fulfilling thing of my life. By far the hardest thing I've ever done. Like, doesn't hold a candlestick to park in cars, selling cars, none of that. Being on the ground floor of a startup and putting every time, every bit of effort, time, energy, blood, sweat, tears into it is the most fulfilling thing that I have ever done in my life.

SPEAKER_03

Super cool checking my notes. Let's talk about fitness. I know you run a lot. I used to run, but until my back broke. And so um I know you you run, you other do other work.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah. Uh actually a group of group of the guys I grew up with down here in in Charleston. We actually we have a little group text thread, it's called the uh the slow poke run club. So we we all try to challenge each other, whether whether we're getting together and running and do a workout. We all every day we've got accountability check-ins, so required to send a picture of you in the gym, send a picture of the run that you did. Really been falling into falling in love with running. Definitely sucks. As a soccer player, that was the one thing I hated the most about that that sport of choice was it's just running for 90 minutes. That's all you do. But I don't know, there's um there's a peace to be had out there when you're running. It allows me to really clear my head. And I get up early before everybody else is awake, and I just view it as like a one of those small wins to to check the box in the morning where you know I've got anywhere from three to six miles under the belt before most people are waking up and start their day. And there's just something gratifying about that. And I can get out, pound the pavement, it's nice and peaceful and quiet, clear my head, really think about what's happening in the business, how can we be strategic, not just at consistent capital, but any other ventures that I'm looking at, you know, deals that I'm looking at, and just kind of get my game plan together for the day, for the week, for the month. It's peaceful. It sucks. Don't get me wrong. I mean, there's some days where I do not want to do it, but we get up and we do it anyway.

SPEAKER_03

I happen to grow up in the mountains in Virginia.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And then I lived in St. Louis for five years. And my boss and the general manager or the manager of one division of our company were both big runners. And Gary, my boss, came the owner of the company, came in. We were talking about running. It's when I used to run a lot. And he said, What's your favorite temperature to to go for a run? Like if you could just design a day to go for a run. I was like, Oh, 70. And he was like, 70. And I said, Yeah, I mean, that's kind of perfect. I mean, I'm I'm gonna sweat whether it's 40 or 70. And if I sweat at 40, I'm cold. But if I sweat at 70, I feel fine. I don't want to run a 90, but I will.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And I said, Well, Gary, what's your favorite temperature? He was like 30 or below. And I said, You're insane. And I ran with him a couple of times. And I'm 200 and I'm you know, I'm 6'3, 250. And Gary was about five, six and you know, a hundred and forty. And so I was like, I I'm gonna sweat regardless of how cold it is. And then I get colder, and I ran with him on a nice day, and he had a little dampness right here, and I'm look like I had dressed jumped in the lake. It's like, this is why you like running in the cold, and I don't. I'm I'm made to perspire and cool. That's how I am. Freezing at 30.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, it in our house it's gotta be at night when I'm sleeping, it's gotta be 65 degrees in the house. There's there's no if, ands, or buts about it. And I'm a I I would say I'm a little bit of a a little bit of a sicko when it comes to like running and cold plunges and I don't know, forcing myself to do things that my body is like, do not do this to me. Do not do this to me. And I I don't know why, but I find joy in that. And I feel like that really translates to business too, you know, because if I can make myself go out on a 20 25 degree day when my body is like, no, do not do this. And I go, I was gonna run three miles. Now I'm gonna run six. And just forcing my brain, I'm a big proponent of cold plunges. I love that. Again, it might be a sick, twisted part of my brain that likes to put myself through those situations, but I think that it really translated into business because if I can force myself to do things that I don't want to do, the hardest part of my day is over by 7:30. Right? The stuff that happens throughout the day, I've already made my day hard in the morning. So these things that come out of left field and other people would be shocked or frozen or don't know how to get around, it's like, oh, it's just another day that ends in why. Like it's a tough, difficult situation. We're gonna get over it and get through it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it's the old eat the frog analogy.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03

I I I'm not sure if it was Mark Twain or who came up. With that, but if get up in the morning and eat a frog, first thing, yeah, nothing worse is gonna happen to you all day.

SPEAKER_01

No, nothing worse.

SPEAKER_03

So eat the frog, run six miles and do a cold plunge. You know, it's kind of the same thing. Yeah. I love it. Absolutely love it. Um, so tell us how how did you meet your wife?

SPEAKER_01

Uh actually met my wife back in lower school. We went to school together, lower school, middle school. She ended up going to a different high school. Funny sidebar, I am in her diary from seventh grade. She had a massive crush on me. I didn't even know she existed. So she likes to say that she's been manifesting this since since seventh grade and she finally got one. But yeah, I mean, we were we know knew about each other. She was a very smart girl in college because obviously social media, I kind of kept up with her. And I was always trying to get her to come see me. I'm like, hey, come, come have we having this fraternity party, come on up to Charlotte, come see me. And she would not give me the light of day. And I am so grateful for that because I was a very different individual as we we all are in that stage of life. Didn't give me the time of day, and then ended up coming back to Charleston, like I said, for Hendrick and taking over that store. And one of my buddies one day was like, hey, go over to this girl's house to meet her and hang out with her, but she's got a friend. Like, will you come with me? You know, just so it's not awkward, it's not two girls, one dude. Like, we're just gonna go over there together. I had no idea that it was gonna be McKenzie. Walked in the house and there she's sitting there, and I'm like, I know you. She's like, Oh, I know you too. And so after that it was over, man. I mean, it was, I was like, I love this girl. She is amazing. This is who I want to do my life with. And the rest was history. I mean, went on our first day, and we spent probably, I don't know, we got to Saltwater Cowboys at like 11:30 for lunch and didn't leave until like 8:30. I mean, it was just an instant connection, you know, just one of those moments that is very, very special. And the rest was history, man. It was like this is my life partner right here.

SPEAKER_03

I love it. That's awesome. Any funny stories from the car business?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah. Um, one that comes top of mind is I had sold this gentleman a Lexus LS, which they're no longer making for Lexus, but for those that don't know are listening, that's like their flagship sedan. I mean, it's a hundred thousand plus. I mean, they could do like special handcrafted Japanese glass in the doors. I mean, this thing was blown out to the nines. He got this car, and probably I want to say two weeks later, I see that I see the car coming in on a tow truck. I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm like, what happened? Like, because usually a client's gonna call me if a new car breaks down, like we're on top of that. We're gonna remedy that situation and get it rolling. So I go over into the service drive and I'm asking the service manager, hey, what's going on? I'm like, I just sold this car like two weeks ago. Like, what's the problem? This gentleman had been caught cheating on his wife. And so what did his wife do? She took a pound of sugar and she poured it in his gas tank. Destroyed the whole car. There is no getting that car back. Engine gone, done. He hopped in the car in the driveway, started it, tried to back it out. Boom, done. So that was an interesting experience. Um, witnessing his frustration along with his wife's frustration in the service drive felt like more of a relationship therapist than uh than a car dealership at that moment. Wow. Um, but yeah, totally just imploded a $120,000 sedan. And obviously, warranty's not covering that, insurance is not covering that. Oh uh yeah, so it was uh handalous that was a pretty sticky situation there. Very, very sticky situation.

SPEAKER_03

We've seen all kind of stuff. Yeah, I I can't compete with that story, but working in um a big kitchen and bath showroom, busy Saturday, it's kind of like a car dealership where we're selling toilets and cabinets and and the first floor, and it's on a hill because it's in Missouri, the first floor is the showroom, second floor or the underground floor is our offices, and then the appliance showroom. Busy Saturday comes over the loudspeaker. We have a code brown in the you know, in the back of the in the plumbing department. And I was new with the company and I was like, never heard us do any kind of code anything, whatever. And Jim sat on one side of me and Kevin on the other, and then all the women were at the other end. Jim starts laughing and they both stand up and Kevin says, I'll go take care of it. Well, what it was is we had all these display toilets that were just sitting on the floor, and a little kid was potty training, and he just whipped his pants down and did his number two in the toilet, which is not hooked to plum, it's just on display. So poor Kevin, I said, All right, I'll come help. So we get a trash bag and carry the thing out in the parking lot and hose it out and put it back on display. And um Kevin was Kevin was a really nice guy saying to the to the little toddler, like, good job, bud. Yeah that's where you're supposed to do it. We have one that's hooked. If you go through that door, there's one that's actually hooked up to plumbing that's good. We'll just code brown, code brown. We've got a code brown because apparently it was not the first time it had happened.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it sounds like they were ready for that. Sounds like that had occurred multiple times.

unknown

Right.

SPEAKER_03

You got to. So yeah. We had systems in place for all sorts of emergencies. Yeah. Well, I really appreciate your time. It's been a great conversation, as I knew it would be. Nicole is one of those people that I just naturally connected to. Like as soon as we met, I was like, this is gonna be good. And uh I love that. And I get to see you almost every day. So that's good.

SPEAKER_01

The feelings mutual, my friend.

SPEAKER_03

Thanks. Yeah, we are not sponsored by Consistent Capital, but we admire them, and I wear the hat in solidarity, but we're not being paid for this. And this has been the Blue Cut Podcast. Appreciate everyone who stuck with us and watched or listened. You can find us online. There's a whole list of uh sites below, things like Instagram, Twitter, YouTube. So click and like, and most importantly, give us your comments. What can we do better? What topics would you like to hear? Are there guests that we should know about? Anything that we can do to improve the Blue Cut Podcast is appreciated. Thank you again, Cole, and I'll see you very soon.

SPEAKER_01

All right, thanks, Ross.