Maximizing Efficiency, Systems, and Profits

Steve Rozenberg is a former international pilot, transitioned to real estate investing after 9/11, founding Texas’s fastest-growing property management company. With a focus on maximizing cash flow, he achieved a highly profitable exit. Steve is a prominent figure in the real estate community, contributing to platforms like BiggerPockets and participating in panels and conferences. As a published author and speaker, he helps individuals achieve sustainable success while making a positive impact worldwide.

You can donate to his foundation here https://livelikejett.org/

Here’s some of the topics we covered:

• How 9/11 Impacted Steve’s International Pilot Career
• Buying Tons of Real Estate Right Before The 2008 Crash
• The Importance Of Systems In a Business
• The Benefit Of Working With VAs.
• The Different Classes Of Customer
• Having A Clear And Concise Map Of Where You’re Heading
• The Three Archetypes Of Business
• The Most Heartbreaking & Inspiring Story Rod’s Ever Heard

To find out more about partnering or investing in a multifamily deal: Text Partner to 72345 or email Partner@RodKhleif.com

Full Transcript Below

00:00:00:03 – 00:00:28:19
Rod
Welcome back to life Time Cash Flow through Real Estate Investing. I’m Rod Cliff and I am absolutely thrilled you’re here. And I’m really looking forward to this interview with my friend Steve Rosenberg. So Steve is a former international commercial airline pilot, maybe currently. Are you currently currently still a pilot? You know, he’s done a couple thousand doors, single family, multifamily, done all kinds of amazing stuff, owned a very large property management company that he sold to a much larger company.

00:00:28:19 – 00:00:32:06
Rod
And, you know, I met him was that I am in.

00:00:32:12 – 00:00:33:17
Steve
No thinking.

00:00:33:19 – 00:00:36:05
Rod
Venkman. Okay. You know, I.

00:00:36:08 – 00:00:37:08
Steve
Think John and Charlotte.

00:00:37:13 – 00:00:46:21
Rod
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. That’s right. The Charlotte event. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. And, you know, we hit it off, and I’m like, Dude, I got to get you on my show. So here we are, man.

00:00:46:22 – 00:00:47:19
Steve
Here we are. Thanks for having.

00:00:47:19 – 00:01:02:11
Rod
Me. Good to have you here, brother. So. Well, listen, I just completely screwed up that bio, so why don’t you just tell us who you are and your words? You know, give us. Give us a rundown on who Steve is and yeah, you know why? Real estate and all that.

00:01:02:11 – 00:01:20:19
Steve
Well, you know, I never thought I would be in real estate, right? I’m one of those second, second generation type people that this was never my dream. I never thought I’d be here doing something like this because my only dream or passion growing up as a little kid was to be a pilot. I worked hard. I had that hard work ethic for my parents.

00:01:20:22 – 00:01:38:19
Steve
I did everything I could, and at 25 years old, I was the second youngest person hired by this particular airline that I got hired with the best job in the world. I was flying all over the globe, safe, secure job, had a pension, had a retirement. I’m done. Everyone said, Man, you’re done. You’re good until a day in history.

00:01:38:19 – 00:01:57:01
Steve
And that day was 911. Hmm. So 911 hit, which we all know is that was a tragedy, right? For me, it happened two days after 911 because that was the day I got my furlough notice from the airlines and basically said, hey, Steve, you know, that safe and that secure job that you thought you had, it was never safe.

00:01:57:01 – 00:02:17:06
Steve
And it was never secure. And you’re about to be on the street with 50,000 pilots. So good luck. And wow. So obviously, shock and awe was was an understatement. But, you know, I thought to myself, I didn’t do anything to cause this, but now I’m a victim of this. And I realized this wasn’t something like an industry, like, we’ll talk real estate.

00:02:17:06 – 00:02:25:11
Steve
There’s nothing like an industry was changing. And this was six months. This was two days. I went from the best job in the world to saying, I’m going to be on the street.

00:02:25:11 – 00:02:40:00
Rod
They don’t waste any time. No, I have to I have to interrupt for one second because I got to share a story about my dad. So my dad worked for Continental for 36 years. Continental Airlines? Yeah. He used to make us kids, put our hands over our hearts when it went to bird flu by. Because you could tell them because they had the gold tail.

00:02:40:02 – 00:02:41:08
Steve
With the golden tail bird.

00:02:41:08 – 00:02:54:15
Rod
With the brass is really what we said. But but, but he worked for him for 36 years and got laid off. Yeah. Yeah. So. So what is job security, please? Your job security is between your freaking ears. It’s an illusion. That’s it.

00:02:54:15 – 00:03:10:02
Steve
That’s it. And so I decided at that point that I was going to not be a victim and I was going to do something that I could have my own way of having income. All right? I didn’t know anything because the only thing I focused on my whole life was being a pilot, Right? All of a sudden, it’s like a fish out of water.

00:03:10:02 – 00:03:26:15
Steve
I’m looking for any kind of water to swim in. That turned into real estate. I just saw there was a lot of people that were wealthy. It coincided with being a pilot. I knew I was going to get my job back when the furloughs were right, so I knew that that was going to work. So I started reading everything I could.

00:03:26:15 – 00:03:37:29
Steve
I read a book a Week on Real Estate. Wow. Because back then 2001, we didn’t have YouTube and Facebook, right? We had a building with books in it called the Library. Right. Go to the library. I get my library card and I was a student.

00:03:37:29 – 00:03:38:29
Rod
Again, no knocking.

00:03:39:01 – 00:03:52:17
Steve
So I took classes. I went to, you know, the weekend events and I was just consumed in this. And I thought, I’m ready to go. I paid for a mentor to teach me. It was like $10,000. This guy was going to teach me double escrow closes. I’m like, I’m in.

00:03:52:21 – 00:03:53:10
Rod
Wholesaling.

00:03:53:11 – 00:04:02:11
Steve
Wholesaling. I’m like, I don’t know what this means, but I’m in. Well, the guy tells me, he says, Steve, if you do what I say, this will work. I’m like, I just gave you $10,000. Why would I.

00:04:02:11 – 00:04:05:19
Rod
Not? Right? Well, believe it or not, a lot of people pay and they.

00:04:05:19 – 00:04:06:18
Steve
Just do, which.

00:04:06:18 – 00:04:18:21
Rod
Is, you know, my Warrior coaching program. I mean, a proud of something I own upwards of 170 to 180000 units. But there are, of course, even in there, there are people that don’t do it and I’m kicking them in the ass and, you know, and everything else. But yeah.

00:04:18:23 – 00:04:34:17
Steve
Yeah. So I do. 30 days later, no shit. 30 days later, I’m sitting at a closing table with a phone in my hand. I’ve got I’ve got a buyer and a seller and we’re doing a transaction and I’m handing the phone to everyone because this guy, my mentor, is explaining to them what a double escrow closes.

00:04:34:18 – 00:04:35:00
Rod
Got it.

00:04:35:01 – 00:04:49:21
Steve
Next thing we know, I walk out of there with a check for $20,000 and he gets 50% of that. Wow. And I’m like, I don’t know what just happened, but can we do that again? Right. He goes, See if we can do it as much as you want. And I said to him, I go, You must make a lot of people very wealthy.

00:04:49:21 – 00:04:53:18
Steve
And he goes, You know what? Sadly, you’re one of the few that actually takes it across the goal line.

00:04:53:21 – 00:04:54:12
Rod
Hmm.

00:04:54:14 – 00:05:14:19
Steve
I’m like, Well, I don’t understand. He goes, You know what? Because if you figure it out, let me know. He goes, Because that’s the reality. Hmm. So I kept learning more about different types of real estate transactions, options, flip wholesalers, all that stuff. I did very well and I bought my first apartment complex with the money I made from wholesaling it for you that that got me.

00:05:14:26 – 00:05:15:22
Rod
When was this Give me.

00:05:15:22 – 00:05:17:13
Steve
This was 2005.

00:05:17:13 – 00:05:17:24
Rod
Got you.

00:05:17:24 – 00:05:32:04
Steve
So this is 2000 to 2. 2005. Okay. We owned the property a church next door bought the property cash from us because they wanted a parking lot. So this happened in to mid 2007.

00:05:32:04 – 00:05:33:00
Rod
Oh, that’s good timing.

00:05:33:02 – 00:05:49:23
Steve
It just started dropping and banks were starting to go under and the church said, We pay cash, we’re good. So they gave us cash. Next thing you know, we had a lot of money and as you know, real estate has a way that just when you think you’re smart, it will come like a wrecking ball through your front door.

00:05:49:23 – 00:05:51:20
Rod
I’m of course, I’m a poster child for that one.

00:05:51:20 – 00:05:58:09
Steve
Yes. So me and my business partner that we own the property with, we decided we’re going to buy some single family houses because they’re so cheap.

00:05:58:12 – 00:06:00:02
Rod
And now when this is after the.

00:06:00:02 – 00:06:01:11
Steve
Crash, this is 28.

00:06:01:15 – 00:06:02:14
Rod
Oh, before the.

00:06:02:14 – 00:06:18:25
Steve
Crash? Well, it’s crashing. Oh, it is kind of crashing at this time. So we decide, hey, I know how to negotiate and get deals, so why don’t we just start buying a bunch of single family properties? We will just instead of flipping them and Holcim will keep them great.

00:06:18:28 – 00:06:25:25
Rod
I provide if you. Those are you listening. I’m shaking my head because I know where this is going because I lived it. Yeah. So.

00:06:25:25 – 00:06:38:00
Steve
Okay, so next thing you know, we start buying houses and he says, Hey, I found these great deals. I’m like, Really? Because, yeah, he goes, They’re called low income properties. He goes, We can make a lot of money because it’s like a 55 to 60% cash on cash return.

00:06:38:02 – 00:06:38:17
Rod
Sure.

00:06:38:19 – 00:06:45:25
Steve
I’m like, Well, why buy one? Let’s buy as many as we can, because we’re smart. We just sold the apartment complex. We could walk through walls if we wanted to.

00:06:45:26 – 00:06:49:10
Rod
Right? Right. Real estate. God was the word that I asked.

00:06:49:10 – 00:07:06:07
Steve
Yeah, Yeah, Exactly what could go wrong. So we start buying as many properties as we can, and we have about, I don’t know, within about six or seven months we’ve got like 25 properties. We’re the golden children of the Houston market because we’re buying up all the crappy shithole properties that nobody wanted. Wow. And there’s a reason they’re boarded up, right?

00:07:06:07 – 00:07:08:25
Steve
We’re like, Oh, we don’t even need an inspection. We’ll just buy it.

00:07:08:27 – 00:07:09:14
Rod
Wow.

00:07:09:15 – 00:07:34:13
Steve
So now we realize about 6 to 9 months later why people don’t own these properties and they’re called tenants. And these tenants have issues and problems and challenges. And next thing you know, we start having little ripples of problems, start having, you know, nonpayment. We have maintenance issues and it just gets worse. Drugs, you name it, murder. And you would think that after about I don’t know, we had like 25, 30 houses at the time and we’re like, Oh, you know what?

00:07:34:13 – 00:07:38:17
Steve
I know what we should do. We need to buy more because we’re halfway through the.

00:07:38:17 – 00:07:39:19
Rod
Mountain, double down.

00:07:39:19 – 00:08:03:08
Steve
Let’s double down on this thing. And it was like throwing gasoline on a bonfire and it just exploded in our faces. Yeah. So now we’re into the 4050 property range, right? And we cannot understand why this is not working. My wife says to me, Steve, if you buy another one, it better be nice because you will be living in it because you suck at buying houses and you need to stop.

00:08:03:10 – 00:08:10:24
Steve
And I’m like, I can. And the thing was, I kept thinking, I can fix this. Like, I know I can fix this, but I didn’t know how, but I had that tunnel vision.

00:08:10:28 – 00:08:11:24
Rod
Hmm.

00:08:11:26 – 00:08:22:24
Steve
So we end up stepping back and we’re like, Okay, obviously we suck at this. We had an eight month average tenancy. Our maintenance costs were three times the amount because when they left, they would take parting gifts like wiring.

00:08:22:24 – 00:08:23:27
Rod
Only they destroy them too.

00:08:23:29 – 00:08:36:22
Steve
They would destroy. And it was a shell. I mean, the neighbors took our plants. I come back to the property one day and all my plants are in the neighbor’s yard, freshly planted. I’m like, Were those mine? He’s like, Nope. Like they look like they were mine. He goes, If you take them, I’m just going to take them back.

00:08:36:22 – 00:08:49:10
Steve
I’m like, You know what? I’ll gravel They are justified. Mm hmm. So anyways, so when we tried to handle this dumpster fire of a portfolio over to a management company, nobody wanted them. No, they’re like, we don’t want no.

00:08:49:11 – 00:08:51:11
Rod
They don’t want to screw with them either. They were like, They know better.

00:08:51:11 – 00:09:12:21
Steve
Yeah. So we had to sit down and create a management company for self-preservation. That was the only reason we started managing them ourselves. We started putting in systems, in structure. Hey, we started running it like a business, right? Which we were not doing. And all of a sudden things started to click and people started to approach us and ask us, Hey, could you manage our houses?

00:09:12:21 – 00:09:12:29
Rod
Right?

00:09:13:04 – 00:09:18:04
Steve
And at first I thought, No way, I don’t want your shit. I don’t want your problems. I barely figured out mine. But then this.

00:09:18:04 – 00:09:19:08
Rod
Is where exactly this.

00:09:19:08 – 00:09:21:29
Steve
Is in Houston. Houston. And this is about 2011.

00:09:22:00 – 00:09:24:22
Rod
Just so it was one of your license to be able to do other?

00:09:24:22 – 00:09:30:07
Steve
No, we didn’t know anything. We had no. We had no idea. We were just investors that own property. Okay. So.

00:09:30:09 – 00:09:31:28
Rod
So you were managing illegal?

00:09:31:28 – 00:09:36:03
Steve
We were doing everything that you could imagine wrong. I’m sure the statute is out by now.

00:09:36:03 – 00:09:42:20
Rod
Oh, yeah. You’re probably good. But you guys buys. You don’t manage property for other people unless you’re a licensed real estate person. Okay. Okay.

00:09:42:24 – 00:09:51:09
Steve
And so we are just going down this path and all of a sudden people are coming to us and they’re handing us their properties and handing us their problems. Now we have like 100.

00:09:51:13 – 00:09:55:15
Rod
Now we’re talking single families, all your family in the freaking ass to manage.

00:09:55:16 – 00:10:08:14
Steve
Now we had a 52 unit complex that we were managing it out of. Okay, That was in one of the worst parts. Like a Drugs Inc was filmed there twice. Just to give you a point of reference of this complex that we’re writing it out.

00:10:08:14 – 00:10:09:09
Rod
Right?

00:10:09:11 – 00:10:12:09
Steve
But it was free rent and we had no money, so it worked.

00:10:12:09 – 00:10:13:06
Rod
Okay.

00:10:13:09 – 00:10:28:02
Steve
So as we started growing this business, it was just it was more problem after more problem. And what I learned was, as I put in more work, it got worse. It didn’t get better 60, 80 hours a week. People are yelling at me. Everyone’s stressed.

00:10:28:08 – 00:10:39:24
Rod
By the way, in the management business, nobody calls you in. They’re happy. No owners or tenants, okay. And you burn out. I mean, I’ve had I’ve owned a management company for decades and I managers burn out. They can’t take it. You’re like the trash man.

00:10:39:24 – 00:10:56:20
Steve
Nobody wants us, but they need us, Right? And so next thing you know, we’re I’m like, But there is a business here. It’s scalable. I just have to figure this out. And so as we’re going through this, this just a shit show of problems going on. Next thing you know, I’m like, You know what? We need a customer service.

00:10:56:20 – 00:11:17:06
Steve
We need to give better customer service. Like, that’s our problem. Everybody hates us, but we can be nice. So we hire a customer, we bring in a customer service consultant, and we’re like, Hey, we need to learn better customer service. And he goes, Well, tell me something that’s a problem. We go, Well, when we get a new client handing them over to operations, what sales does and what operations delivers is polar opposite.

00:11:17:08 – 00:11:32:27
Steve
So he sits us down. He says, okay, it was me, my business partner, my senior manager, and he says, Okay, you two go out of the room. Steve, you sit here, okay? And he says, Okay, I want you to tell me in detail how this is handed off. So I go through the process. I’m like, We do this, we do this, we do this.

00:11:32:27 – 00:11:45:19
Steve
And he’s writing it down, writing down, writing notes, caricatures, pictures. I know what the fuck he’s doing, but he’s doing all this stuff right? And so next thing you know, he goes, Is this how it’s done? You know? I’m like, Yeah, that’s exactly how we do it. You go, you go out, have your business partner. Yeah, same thing.

00:11:45:22 – 00:11:46:17
Rod
How close were they?

00:11:46:17 – 00:12:06:13
Steve
We were so all three of us, we were so far off. And he looks at us and he goes, he slides all three piece of paper over to us. It was me, my business partner, our senior manager. And he goes, You don’t have a customer service problem because you have a lack of system ization problem. And it was until you can deliver the same product consistently, you will never, ever have a business and you guys will fail.

00:12:06:14 – 00:12:17:26
Steve
Yeah, and that was kind of the light bulb that went off that got me to what I’m doing now. But well, it was it was a it was a very interesting time. I’m glad I did it. And as you know, we learned the most from our failures.

00:12:17:26 – 00:12:19:03
Rod
Sure.

00:12:19:05 – 00:12:21:10
Steve
Those are the most humbling.

00:12:21:12 – 00:12:24:03
Rod
Now, I hope you’re not an advocate for D properties.

00:12:24:05 – 00:12:25:17
Steve
I am not. Okay.

00:12:25:17 – 00:12:41:27
Rod
I just want to make sure I don’t care how good your man ended up being. You know, guys, there’s A, B, C and D Properties A’s brand new D is the freaking hood, which is what he’s talking about. You don’t need that brain damage. Ask us both how we know. Yeah, okay. Killed people. Killed in on drugs, you name it, man.

00:12:41:27 – 00:13:00:11
Rod
I could tell you we should share stories. I’ve got some good ones. Yeah, but now you don’t want that shit. Okay, So. So you’re great at Systems. I mean, you’re a frickin pilot. I mean, you got checklists, you checklist everything, you know? And, guys, there’s a great book about this called E-Myth by a guy named Michael Gerber about basically McDonnell izing your business.

00:13:00:13 – 00:13:03:02
Rod
And I know you do this for a business. You teach people how to systemize.

00:13:03:02 – 00:13:14:21
Steve
But you write, right? You know, there was there was another book that I read at the time. I read E-Myth, and obviously it revolutionized how I thought. But another book that I read that was equally as well was called Checklist Manifesto Checklist.

00:13:14:25 – 00:13:15:24
Rod
Oh, I’m going to check that out.

00:13:15:24 – 00:13:39:29
Steve
As a doctor who is trying to standardize the medical field because of so much malpractice. And so he was looking at how do I standardize this industry? Nice, because they were there was no standards. So guess where he went to learn how to standardize where? Boing. Oh, no kidding. He went to Boeing and they said they said. So they showed him how the checklist and systems run inside of a Boeing 787.

00:13:40:03 – 00:14:05:01
Rod
I saw I saw a documentary on on a well, really, the the the kind of revolution that Boeing went through, how they had delays in their deliveries and so on and so forth. And they and the that hundreds of thousands of parts and miles of wire that goes into a plane and and how they systemize that and turned it around at Boeing believe it or not.

00:14:05:03 – 00:14:19:20
Rod
Yeah I’m sure you’ve heard of this too but that is extraordinary transformation that they made to get, you know, to be able to deliver planes on time because they were getting their ass kicked by the by the French arm of Airbus. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And so, yeah.

00:14:19:20 – 00:14:42:11
Steve
Anyway, so, you know, this the book, The Checklist Manifesto, as I read this, I thought, wait a second, Like I’m a pilot, right? Maybe. Maybe I could figure this out. So one day I’m sitting. Imagine this. You’ve been everyone probably has been to an airport or been on a plane. So one day I’m sitting so I fly a Boeing seven, seven, seven, which is a wide body, very large aircraft.

00:14:42:14 – 00:14:58:08
Steve
So I’m sitting at the gate one day and I’m racking my brain. I’m like, how do I figure out systems? He said. Lack of system system systems. So as I’m sitting there, I watched this and I was taking the plane out to depart and I was waiting for this plane. This plane comes into the gate and I’m sitting there and I’m watching this plane come into the gate.

00:14:58:13 – 00:15:21:21
Steve
And as this plane comes into the gate, all of a sudden I see all the passengers getting off. I see the cargo doors open. I see all the luggage. I see all the ramp agents dispersing all the bags wherever it’s going to go. I see the fuel are choking up these fuel lines. Now, fueling takes about an hour because it holds £230,000 of fuel maintenance is walking around doing all the safety of flight items.

00:15:21:23 – 00:15:42:05
Steve
Cleaners are cleaning the inside, catering, catering. Flight attendants are checking safety items in the pilots upfront. We’re checking all the routing destination, all that stuff. And I’m sitting there watching all this and I’m like, all of a sudden you have this light bulb moment and I’m like, None of this is happening by chance, right? This is a system.

00:15:42:07 – 00:16:01:03
Steve
And in one hour the plane gets boarded again, all the luggage, all the fuel, all the food gets back on the plane. And within one hour that plane pushes back into parts. And not one person has to talk to anyone else to make this happen. And this happens 24 hours a day, seven days a week, everywhere in the world.

00:16:01:04 – 00:16:09:13
Steve
Yeah, because of the system. And I thought if I could do this in my business, this is the answer.

00:16:09:15 – 00:16:11:21
Rod
Every business is nothing but people in systems.

00:16:11:21 – 00:16:13:21
Steve
It’s just it’s just repetitive tasks done.

00:16:13:21 – 00:16:32:22
Rod
Over business is nothing but people in systems. You get the people right, you get the systems right. Success is inevitable. You know, I saw a documentary on Cruise because I just came off a cruise last week and they have one day they got to get all the passengers off by nine. They got to load hundreds of thousands of pounds of food and water and alcohol and everything else.

00:16:32:22 – 00:16:43:18
Rod
And then they got to clean it and turn it over in one day and start boarding within. Like I really it’s more like a three hour period and it’s kind of the same thing. Same thing. It’s it’s a system.

00:16:43:21 – 00:17:00:05
Steve
It’s the same. And what happened was, is and that’s how we were able to scale our company. We we started working with virtual assistants in Mexico. Oh, no kidding. 60% of my company was operated out of Mexico. We got we actually got so good at right person rights. We started our own company in the company. Yes.

00:17:00:10 – 00:17:09:14
Rod
I use Vas in Mexico as well. It’s the best. They’re fantastic. Yeah, I think I like it better than the Philippines because it’s the same time zone. Exact right. And so and.

00:17:09:14 – 00:17:26:04
Steve
50% of them either grew up or lived in the U.S. and they get it. They get the conversation. Sure. But as we grew in scale, all of a sudden I had other people saying like, are you the pilot that’s building the company? I’m like, I’m a pilot. I don’t know if I’m that guy. And then all of a sudden I was asked to speak in Australia.

00:17:26:04 – 00:17:52:19
Steve
I was doing some tours. I was because everybody want to know, okay, Boeing has spent millions of dollars on me to learn how to do this. Does it work in real estate? I’m like, Absolutely. Does it work in fun syndication? I’m like, Absolutely right. It’s just processes and procedures. And one of the things one of my mentors taught me, he said, Steve, if you can’t walk away from your business for three days or three weeks or three months and it be better and bigger than the day you left, you don’t own.

00:17:52:19 – 00:17:55:02
Rod
A business like each other. Robert. Q Robert Kiyosaki.

00:17:55:06 – 00:17:57:10
Steve
Is that okay? Yeah. I got someone.

00:17:57:13 – 00:17:59:02
Rod
Robert Kiyosaki said that, yeah.

00:17:59:03 – 00:17:59:21
Steve
In a sense.

00:17:59:21 – 00:18:01:17
Rod
It’s not a business if you can’t walk away for a.

00:18:01:17 – 00:18:05:07
Steve
Bit. It’s a job, right? It is probably a shitty low paying job that you’re selling.

00:18:05:09 – 00:18:10:14
Rod
You’re self-employed, basically. That’s how you differentiate what a real business is 100%. Floyd Yeah.

00:18:10:16 – 00:18:28:06
Steve
And so one of the things I’ve learned is that sometimes, you know, when we get if I said, Hey, right tomorrow, let’s just go to the airport, let’s go to Sarasota Airport and we’ll just pick a plane, any plane. And once we get up in the air, when we’ll figure out if we want to go to maybe Cancun, Hawaii, London, like we’ll figure it out in the air.

00:18:28:06 – 00:18:41:29
Steve
But I don’t know how much fuel we have. I have no idea of the routing. I don’t even know what the weather is or what the airport looks like. And if we have an emergency, I have no clue what I’m going to do. But I’ve got a good gut feeling that this is going to work out. Yeah, sure.

00:18:42:01 – 00:18:44:26
Steve
The odds of you or should get in that plane is slim to none.

00:18:45:02 – 00:19:02:26
Rod
Well, this is why I don’t know what percentage of new businesses fail. I think it’s 90. It’s 90% within ten years. I know that. I think it’s a big number, even within three years. Yet, you know, it’s because it’s because people do that. I mean, listen, I’m the poster child for that. I built 27 businesses, several worth a lot of money, most spectacular failures.

00:19:02:26 – 00:19:15:27
Rod
You know, I call them seminars, but, you know, and, you know, because I didn’t have any formal business education. So you built this, you built that management company to a thousand properties. Yep. Yep. And then you sold it? Yes. And you stayed in, I think.

00:19:15:28 – 00:19:35:15
Steve
Right. Stayed in the company was a venture capital backed company. And one of the things they said, they were like, we’ve never seen a company grow because we were the fastest growing company in Texas. And they said, We’ve never seen a company grow this fast and be on autopilot and run without your guys involvement and continue to grow.

00:19:35:18 – 00:19:39:04
Steve
And I said, Well, this is what we did, this is what we’re doing. And they were like.

00:19:39:06 – 00:19:44:11
Rod
We and it was, you know, this is when a lot of houses were being bought by these big ventures.

00:19:44:11 – 00:19:45:08
Steve
But hedge fund hedge.

00:19:45:08 – 00:19:48:18
Rod
Funds were buying them. So so that was a piece of that, I take it.

00:19:48:18 – 00:19:50:26
Steve
It was it was a piece they needed. They need that.

00:19:51:03 – 00:19:52:04
Rod
They need the infrastructure.

00:19:52:04 – 00:19:52:27
Steve
Yeah, exactly.

00:19:52:27 – 00:20:03:02
Rod
You know and and I’ll tell you, if I hadn’t been hiding under a rock, I absolutely would have capitalized on that because I had managed thousands of properties myself for years. And. And you did well.

00:20:03:06 – 00:20:22:05
Steve
Yeah. And they, they ended up, they had 10,000 properties, Right. So they were there were across the country. And at the time we were building our model to either franchise it, license it not only in the U.S., but I was in talks in Australia and Malaysia to do some kind of, since I’m not in the franchise.

00:20:22:06 – 00:20:23:10
Rod
Franchise license.

00:20:23:10 – 00:20:35:13
Steve
Got out there. So we had we were already setting the structure up. So when they came along they were like, We want to buy you. And I’m like, Well, we’re not really trying to sell. And they’re like, Everyone’s for sale. Oh yeah, you just we just got to make the.

00:20:35:15 – 00:20:37:01
Rod
Exciting when they make that statement.

00:20:37:02 – 00:20:46:16
Steve
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So it worked out and I’m glad I did. And it was a it was a great experience to be able to exit a company, which I’m very glad I was able to do that and.

00:20:46:16 – 00:20:54:09
Rod
Yeah, well that’s good. That’s good to learn. I had a guy in here yesterday, What’s his name? Eddie Wilson. I don’t know if you know Eddie.

00:20:54:09 – 00:20:54:28
Steve
I know the name.

00:20:54:28 – 00:21:18:24
Rod
Yeah, Yeah. Sharp guys built, bought and sold 150 companies. Really, really sharp. Guy. Really enjoyed having him in here. Right. I know. Now you’re known as an influencer. You’ve been on bigger pockets a lot and, you know, webinars and panels and masterminds. And that’s where we met basically at MFA in. And so you’re I know you help people systemize pretty much any business, right?

00:21:18:27 – 00:21:34:20
Steve
Yeah. You know, it boils down to when you remove the people, right. And this is just my opinion and people can say I’m wrong, but when you remove the people and you get down to that to the core of a business there, I’ve learned there’s three cornerstones to making a business success.

00:21:34:20 – 00:21:35:07
Rod
Let’s talk about.

00:21:35:07 – 00:21:43:16
Steve
That. Yeah. And so the biggest challenge with businesses is the owners. It’s the ego and pride. As we know. They feel that they have to be the.

00:21:43:16 – 00:21:45:15
Rod
Superhero and they’re always the bottleneck as well.

00:21:45:16 – 00:22:02:22
Steve
They’re always the bottleneck. They are the reason that businesses fail, right? So I’ve learned that if you can take the humanization out of it now, the humanization makes it better and it will enhance it. But it does not. It’s not it shouldn’t be the core. And so there’s three things that I’m happy to share them.

00:22:02:22 – 00:22:13:21
Rod
No, no, wait a minute. Wait a minute, Wait a minute. I want to back you up. Okay. So the humanization piece. Okay. What do you mean? When that’s when you’re saying that you’re kind of negating that a little bit. Tell me. Tell me what you mean by that. So. So I understand.

00:22:13:21 – 00:22:31:15
Steve
And this is my perspective is a business should be 80% systematized, 20% humanized. Oh, okay. So meaning you get you get a rock star person in your company and let’s say now everything is dependent upon that person. Okay? And all of a sudden that person says, hey, you know what, Ron? I don’t like you anymore. You’re going to leave.

00:22:31:15 – 00:22:49:03
Steve
Or you give me a 45% paycheck right now, you’re hostage right now. You’re going, Oh, shit, What do I do now? I’m scrambling. And so Or they go, You know what? I’m just stressed. If you don’t get me someone, I’m going to quit right now. You’re not hiring proactively based on the growth of your company. You’re hiring reactively.

00:22:49:06 – 00:23:06:02
Steve
Very good. And now you’re on you’re on your back heels. But if the system was set up that they are interchangeable. Well, I’ll give you an example. As an airline pilot, the company I work with, they have 16,000 pilots. I’ll be heading to Tokyo this weekend to fly a trip. If I’m in Tokyo and all of a sudden I call up and go, Yeah, I’m sick today.

00:23:06:02 – 00:23:27:00
Steve
I’m not going to fly. The whole airline doesn’t shut down. Right? The CEO of my airline doesn’t show up and Tokyo go, Hey, I’m going to take this today. There is a system in place that I am interchangeable. Right? So my point is, is, yes, we need humans to fly the airplane. Barely. But we need us. Right. But we are not the linchpin that makes or breaks our lives.

00:23:27:00 – 00:23:30:26
Steve
And when you put all of your eggs in that basket, which we’ve all done, sure.

00:23:30:26 – 00:23:32:11
Rod
I’ve had it done many, many times.

00:23:32:11 – 00:23:35:10
Steve
And all of a sudden that person decides I’m in control here.

00:23:35:10 – 00:23:35:19
Rod
Right?

00:23:35:19 – 00:23:45:10
Steve
I’m going to start making some decisions and I’m going to stick it to Rod just a little bit more. And look, we all know the reality is when someone leaves, they really left three months ago. We just failed to see it.

00:23:45:10 – 00:23:45:23
Rod
Right?

00:23:45:23 – 00:24:00:00
Steve
Right. That’s the thing. So if you can build a business with these three things that I talk about, you will be able to grow and scale and they will enhance the business, but they will not be the key factors that make your business survive or fail.

00:24:00:00 – 00:24:04:19
Rod
Yeah, and by the way, this applies to any real estate business, any syndication business. So what are the three things?

00:24:04:19 – 00:24:29:06
Steve
Okay, so the first thing is monetization. Okay, so monetization make money. How do you make money? Look, at the end of the day, I don’t care what anyone says. We are here to make money. Duh. Let’s just like, are you for profit or nonprofit? Even nonprofit makes money. So there are two things to making money. There is marketing and there are sales, very rudimentary, and monetization will basically keep your business going for maybe eight or nine months, right?

00:24:29:06 – 00:24:32:16
Steve
You get enough money. Money will solve a lot of problems. You don’t solve all that.

00:24:32:16 – 00:24:32:24
Rod
Right.

00:24:32:24 – 00:24:57:18
Steve
But it will solve a lot of problems. Right. The challenges is, number one. And again, this is just my perspective. Everybody, every business in the world is a sales and marketing company. We just sell in markets something different, whether it’s a product service, concept or idea. But at the heart of what if you’re if you’re continental, if you’re united, if you’re Chevrolet, if you’re broad, if you’re Steve, we are marketing and selling what we do see.

00:24:57:20 – 00:25:01:13
Rod
Peter Drucker said Every business is nothing but marketing and innovation. That’s it.

00:25:01:13 – 00:25:21:16
Steve
Yeah, that’s it. Yeah. So marketing essentially from from the barebones, it makes your phone ring or now your opt in line, whatever you want to call it. Right. And the question is, is okay, who is that person who’s calling? Is it the right target? So many of us, we have no idea who our target client is, right? We don’t know what is their age, what is their demographic?

00:25:21:19 – 00:25:23:05
Steve
What is their geographics call?

00:25:23:05 – 00:25:23:24
Rod
An avatar.

00:25:23:26 – 00:25:40:02
Steve
Yeah, your avatar. And more importantly, what problem am I solving for this? Right? So many times, you know, when I go in and I work with people, I talk to them, I have them grade their clients A through D, So the D clients, which we all know, is that when that phone rings, you’re like, Oh, here we.

00:25:40:02 – 00:25:44:22
Rod
Go. It’s him again. It’s him again, Her again. Yeah. They’re the ones that need hand-holding. They’re a pain in the ass.

00:25:44:26 – 00:25:59:24
Steve
And you know what? You make the least amount of money, right? They’ve invested the least amount of money, and they’re the biggest time’s up. And they’re never happy, right? You have to learn how to get rid of your D clients. But I’ll explain how you do this in a second. Okay? The C clients, they’re either cheap or they take a lot of your time.

00:25:59:24 – 00:26:21:24
Steve
They’re one or the other, but they’re tolerable. They pay the bills, right? The B clients, those are the silent majority. You don’t hear much from them. They pay their bills. They’re happy. Those are actually the majority of the people that work for you or work with you, but you don’t hear from them. And the A’s are just like the BS, but they’re evangelical, the raving fans.

00:26:21:27 – 00:26:37:07
Steve
So there’s two things you have to figure out. If you took your A’s and B’s, you’ve got to figure out how to get your B’s up to A’s to become raving fans, number one and number two, you’ve got to figure out the common thread. What was their average age, what was their average income, what was their average problem that you solved?

00:26:37:13 – 00:26:39:29
Steve
If you don’t know, you simply ask them problems.

00:26:39:29 – 00:26:40:21
Rod
The biggest piece.

00:26:40:21 – 00:26:57:08
Steve
What was it that made you want to work with me now? You do the same with your DS. Hmm. Just curious. Why did you call me? Oh, you were the cheapest, right? All right. Good to know I’m changing that. Right? So once you figure out your A’s and B’s and when you get your A’s, you want two things.

00:26:57:14 – 00:27:08:03
Steve
You want to get them to become repeat customers ringing the cash register, client acquisition cost, and you want to get them to refer people, which we know is the highest.

00:27:08:05 – 00:27:08:19
Rod
And lowest.

00:27:08:19 – 00:27:34:02
Steve
Cost, lowest cost and highest margins of profit. Right? So you’ve got to figure that out. Most people don’t do that, right? They do that shotgun approach. I work for everyone. That’s fucked stupid, right? Anyways, once you get your phone to ring, marketing is done. Their job sales answers the phone and when they answer that phone they are going to convert that person into a client based on their sales steps, based on the disc profiling, based on their scripts, based on all of that.

00:27:34:02 – 00:27:34:08
Steve
Right.

00:27:34:08 – 00:27:36:06
Rod
By the way, guys, this applies to investors.

00:27:36:13 – 00:27:37:10
Steve
Absolutely.

00:27:37:10 – 00:28:02:06
Rod
We did a survey to our investor. Sorry to interrupt for a second, but I kind of want to hammer a point home. So we did a survey to our investors and to our my students and ask them, you know, what kept them up at night, why they invested, why they joined our program, what they wanted. And I want to tell you their answers were marketing gold because we actually use almost word for word in some cases in our marketing.

00:28:02:09 – 00:28:17:06
Rod
And, you know, like I just did a new website for our we’ve got a fund now, an opportunity fund to take advantage of what’s coming. And, and we’ve got a new website. It’s c r e capital dot com. You guys should check it out if you’re listening. And in fact we’ve got a new investor club which is off the hook.

00:28:17:06 – 00:28:38:24
Rod
It’s free and it’s got so many resources and videos and articles and books and stuff, it’s all free. And so it’s again, it’s on three capital. If you’re driving, text the word partner to seven two, three, four, five and and it will send it to you. But but the point is we I did a bunch of videos on there and I spoke to all of these pain points.

00:28:38:27 – 00:29:08:22
Rod
Okay. That’s what I did. That’s it. That’s it. So so we and we identified our avatar as well. Like in my coaching business, it’s it’s a typically we have a lot of women but but primarily men that are 30 years old to 45. Right. 4530 to 45. Typically a technical job, a i.t engineer, analytical of some sort. And so, you know, I guess what I’m saying is, is we do a lot of yeah, we’ve done that.

00:29:08:22 – 00:29:23:29
Steve
So your phone rings with the right people. Correct. So then when it goes into the sales step process and what I’ve learned is there’s average of 22 steps in a sales step process on average. Okay. 80% of all closes happened between the fifth and 12th touch. Interesting. So when I talk to them, go how many steps are in your sales process?

00:29:24:00 – 00:29:31:20
Steve
They’re like three. I’m like, So you’re not even in the game. I’m like, You are lose. If you knew what that client acquisition cost was or that strategy.

00:29:31:23 – 00:29:40:28
Rod
But but that sales process could be done like by adding value on social media. Absolutely. It’s those touches absolutely right.

00:29:40:29 – 00:29:49:05
Steve
There could be a text message, whatever it is. Like people think it’s like I’ve got to call that person. No, it’s just a way to get in front of them, to be in front of them.

00:29:49:05 – 00:29:52:02
Rod
It could be an email sequence texting, right?

00:29:52:05 – 00:30:05:21
Steve
On average, it’s going to be 22. But between the fifth and 12th, 80% of all closes happens is interesting. So if so, if you go to your salespeople say, Hey, what how many times are we touching these people? Where are they dropping off per the KPI?

00:30:05:21 – 00:30:07:13
Rod
That’s critical to see where you lose them?

00:30:07:14 – 00:30:22:08
Steve
Where are we losing them? Hey, we’re losing them on this email. Okay, maybe we need to swap out that email. It’s not resonating with them, right? So once you get them and now again, once marketing makes a phone ring, sales answer the phone and they convert them to being a client, they’re done. So that’s the monetization.

00:30:22:08 – 00:30:22:25
Rod
Okay.

00:30:22:27 – 00:30:28:27
Steve
The net too is the system is gotcha. This is what I talked about, the airlines. This is what we call.

00:30:28:27 – 00:30:32:22
Rod
Checklists and and flow charts and procedures.

00:30:32:22 – 00:30:46:03
Steve
And right now, every business has between eight and 11 systems statistically in their business, people in real estate, there’s about 8 to 11 property management. There’s 19. I believe it. Trust me. I know. So know as you probably know for sure.

00:30:46:03 – 00:30:46:17
Rod
Absolutely.

00:30:46:17 – 00:31:04:11
Steve
So the thing is, is what could I sit down and without knowing what the businesses and pull out a systems manual, pull out a checklist, pull out a flow chart and know how to do that task at hand and have a report card, meaning a KPI.

00:31:04:13 – 00:31:08:03
Rod
Metrics you’re measuring, measuring what you don’t measure. It doesn’t get it right.

00:31:08:04 – 00:31:22:16
Steve
And I talk to businesses all the time. I go, Well, if if you go to a score, if you go to any kind of arena sporting field in the world, I don’t need to know what game is being played. I can look on the field and I can look at the scoreboard. I can tell you who’s winning. I tell you who’s losing.

00:31:22:16 – 00:31:29:02
Steve
I tell you how many more minutes left in the game fouling out all that. So my question is, is can I go into your business and see the same thing?

00:31:29:03 – 00:31:29:14
Rod
Right?

00:31:29:21 – 00:31:31:03
Steve
If I can’t, that’s a problem.

00:31:31:04 – 00:31:32:08
Rod
Yeah, you got to have optics.

00:31:32:08 – 00:31:33:20
Steve
You got to you have to have optics.

00:31:33:20 – 00:31:59:23
Rod
Yeah, we just we just and I may be rolling this out publicly, but I’m involved with this new KPI system for operators, and it is frickin incredible what I’m seeing so far. But, you know, and it, and it and it measures everything you could possibly think of. But, you know, again, if it’s not measured how do you improve it on every and this is not just I mean, obviously we’re a marketing business for sure, so marketing is hugely important.

00:31:59:25 – 00:32:22:29
Rod
But but really every aspect of the business, you know, where you know, and and how do you find this stuff out? By talking to your clients. You’ve got to be client facing, right? Um, this is why, you know, I got to meet the the owner of Zappos. Unfortunately he died. Tony Shea But you know they, they were completely client focused.

00:32:23:01 – 00:32:36:24
Rod
You know, they, they focused on and Amazon does the same thing focus on how do they make the, the client experience better. They they don’t focus on how they make the company better. How do they make the client experience better? And by virtue of that, the company becomes better?

00:32:36:24 – 00:32:53:04
Steve
Absolutely. And, you know, one of the things I when I talk to people, I tell them I’m, you know, one of the first questions I ask people when I sit down is what’s the sale date of your business? And they’re like, I don’t want to sell it. Right? That wasn’t my question. I didn’t my question what is what is the sale date?

00:32:53:06 – 00:33:10:11
Steve
Because if it’s not a business that runs without any of your involvement on systems procedures, it’s not a business. It’s a job. Right? And the more valuable you are in your business, the less valuable it is to anyone else. I don’t want to buy, right? I want to buy Rod’s company, Right? Rod wants to go and hang off and retire.

00:33:10:11 – 00:33:25:26
Steve
Right. I don’t want to have to call you. So if you don’t have a day, a month in a year and a specific amount, it’s never going to happen. It’s like someday I should lose weight. Some day I should stop smoking. That someday never happens. So I need to know what is it? So I’ll give you example.

00:33:25:26 – 00:33:26:29
Rod
Let’s clear and measurable.

00:33:27:03 – 00:33:52:12
Steve
Exactly. I want to have a June 1st, 20, 29. I’m going to have a $50 million business that’s doing 35% profit margins and I’m working 5 hours a week now. We have a goal now in flying. We know where we’re landing. Okay, cool. So now we can reverse engineer your business and your life. Sure. One of the questions I have for people kind of going back to what you’re saying is, are you a $50 million CEO?

00:33:52:15 – 00:34:06:27
Steve
Do you act like it? Do you talk like it? Do you walk like it or are you a $50,000 employee faking it, doing all that stuff? You shouldn’t be doing good. You’re never going to see the 50 million. You’re never going to see the $50 million opportunities of the customer experience.

00:34:06:27 – 00:34:07:17
Rod
Good question.

00:34:07:19 – 00:34:28:18
Steve
Because you’re an employee and you have that employment, there’s nothing wrong with that. But again, if you are not the $50 million CEO, you’ve got to become that. So when people are building these businesses, what I’ve learned is, again, we know they’re the biggest challenge, but they don’t understand. They think, Oh, once I build the company, then I’ll act like the $50 million CEO.

00:34:28:21 – 00:34:29:20
Steve
No, you don’t get it.

00:34:29:21 – 00:34:48:17
Rod
No, you got to ask if you have to act as if and right out of the gate, you know, I want to circle back to something else. You said. You know, you talked about knowing your destination clear and concise, you know, like an airplane, correct me if I’m wrong, is off track probably 95% of the time. But they land in the right spot because they know the frickin destination.

00:34:48:24 – 00:35:06:06
Rod
Same with a boat. And you’re course correcting course correcting that. Success is never a straight line. Never. But if you know your destination, you have to know it to have any chance of achieving it right? Right. Which is why, you know, we do goals. You know, if you haven’t done your goals, get your ass to rods link scheme and do that goal setting workshop that’s at the bottom.

00:35:06:06 – 00:35:07:22
Rod
My guide is there. How do you get.

00:35:07:22 – 00:35:08:21
Steve
Anything if you don’t know what it.

00:35:08:21 – 00:35:12:03
Rod
Is? Right? You got to know what you want. And so.

00:35:12:05 – 00:35:19:29
Steve
Well, that gets me to the third part of the thing. That’s duplication. So you’ve got monetization system, zation duplication.

00:35:20:01 – 00:35:21:06
Rod
So that’s how you scale.

00:35:21:09 – 00:35:39:02
Steve
That’s how you scale. And so the thing is, is if I can’t bring on an employee now, you get people will come and work for you for a paycheck, but they will only stay because of the leadership and the vision. So if everybody’s on the boat and we’re like, I don’t know where the hell Rod’s going, he has no clue.

00:35:39:06 – 00:35:59:19
Steve
He’s running around every day. He’s screaming, he cries, he yells at people. We have no idea. He’s always late for meetings. At some point, if someone is there for the paycheck, they’re just waiting for a better paycheck. Yeah. People stay with you because of you and your vision and that you believe in what you’re doing. Yeah. Now the question is, is how do you duplicate yourself processes?

00:35:59:19 – 00:35:59:28
Steve
Well, not.

00:35:59:28 – 00:36:02:26
Rod
Just your self really, either. It’s not just yourself.

00:36:02:26 – 00:36:03:15
Steve
The whole company.

00:36:03:15 – 00:36:04:07
Rod
Right? Correct.

00:36:04:07 – 00:36:21:15
Steve
It’s everybody. It’s. It’s. How do I take this and go into another city and within two weeks I’m so how do I go and buy this apartment complex in this city and have a team in place and be ready to rock and roll without missing a beat? Yeah, that’s duplication, right? Nothing should be so specific and so special.

00:36:21:15 – 00:36:36:16
Rod
And honestly, when you’re talking about duplication, it could roll. It could really even an example could be staying in the same location, but doubling in size, tripling and multiplying in size. You’re duplicating your processes and systems over and over again. Yes.

00:36:36:16 – 00:36:52:20
Steve
So yeah. So I give you example, let’s say you have someone that has has 2000 units, right? And and my question B is, if I gave you another 5000 units tomorrow, could you handle it right? Could you, could you duplicate? So now instead of three property managers, you now need eight, right.

00:36:52:20 – 00:36:56:04
Rod
And regionals and accounting and could you do beefed up.

00:36:56:04 – 00:37:05:07
Steve
Right. And they’re like no, like, well, you have a problem, right? You know and that’s that’s the challenge because they don’t know how to duplicate Like you said, it doesn’t have to be in other cities but just the staff.

00:37:05:10 – 00:37:25:16
Rod
So let’s go micro a little bit. Okay. I mean, I know the answers, but I want I want you to express them. Sure. So let’s talk about the process a little bit. Okay. I mean, I know what we’ve done to set up our systems. We put up a whiteboard, we flow chart everything, okay, We flow chart and we have lanes for each person that’s involved or each position that’s involved.

00:37:25:22 – 00:37:46:03
Rod
And this flow chart goes up or down to the different people. And then, you know, we have each person document everything, do with video, with with screen video. So literally someone working in McDonald’s could step in and take over that position if they had to. Correct. Is that what you’re talking about?

00:37:46:03 – 00:37:51:19
Steve
Absolutely. And I believe even a step further is the checklist of a.

00:37:51:21 – 00:37:55:12
Rod
Or then the checklist, of course, the follow up and the accountability. Of course, of course, that.

00:37:55:13 – 00:38:12:28
Steve
So I’ll give you an example. Let me give you an example of how checklists work in aviation world. Okay. So for us as a pilot, one of the most dangerous times and I don’t mean to scare anyone, but the most dangerous times when you fly is when we’re going down the runway and we rotate. And if we lose an engine, we have an engine fail right at rotation.

00:38:12:28 – 00:38:15:17
Steve
So it’s called a V1 v1 is when we rotate.

00:38:15:17 – 00:38:16:22
Rod
When you’re about to take when.

00:38:16:22 – 00:38:26:21
Steve
We’re just about to rotate because we’re slow, we’re low to the ground and we’re very heavy, right? So that is the worst time. Okay, So guess what? We constantly train in practice.

00:38:26:21 – 00:38:27:22
Rod
For losing an engine.

00:38:27:23 – 00:38:40:23
Steve
Losing an engine, and we are always training and practicing what? So one of the first challenges, I would say quick sidebar is everyone is going to have an engine failure in their business, in their real estate. They are going to have problems, right?

00:38:40:26 – 00:38:42:07
Rod
A whole bunch of them right now.

00:38:42:07 – 00:38:45:10
Steve
The difference is, is they hope and pray we train for it.

00:38:45:10 – 00:38:45:23
Rod
Right.

00:38:45:27 – 00:39:01:21
Steve
So who’s training for their engine failure at rotation because it’s going to happen, You know, would you if you were going down the runway with me and I’m like, hey, Rod, I got bad news, man. We just lost an engine. I remember doing this about ten years ago. I’m not exactly sure how this works. I’m going to let’s.

00:39:01:21 – 00:39:02:21
Rod
Let’s grab the manual to.

00:39:02:21 – 00:39:21:21
Steve
Work through this. Everybody, if anybody has an idea, give us a shot. Right. So I’ll give you an example. When we were creating these checklists, my business partners, more of the engineer mindset, and I’m the airline pilot and I said, Hey, we’re going to create a checklist for handing over a new client to operations. So we bring out a new client, like let’s say you brought a new student on.

00:39:21:25 – 00:39:37:25
Steve
How are they? Handle it. All right? So he says, okay, I’ll make the checklist. So he comes back. And this checklist is 19 pages long. Wow. Sit in your seat. Check. Turn on your computer. Oh, wow. I mean, very, very detailed. So I’m sitting and I’m reading and reading. I’m on like page four before they even get to anything.

00:39:37:25 – 00:39:38:17
Rod
Wow.

00:39:38:19 – 00:40:00:12
Steve
So I explain to him, look, when we lose an engine, which is the most critical time, we have to go up, secure the engine, dump fuel, get everything tightened up, come back around and land this plane with one engine is three pages. The most critical thing of anything in aviation is three pages. I told my go, Dude, we got to make this one page.

00:40:00:15 – 00:40:24:17
Steve
He’s like, There’s no way. I’m like, There is. Let me explain. When you say load client and somebody checks it off, they’re checking it off that they know exactly what that means. So what we did is we went in in our electronic checklist and you could click load client and that took you to a hyperlink to our expanded version systems manual and it detailed two pages of what it meant to load a client.

00:40:24:19 – 00:40:26:24
Rod
Yeah, you’re, you’re just backing it up a little bit.

00:40:26:27 – 00:40:37:15
Steve
Paragraph headings. Exactly right. So the checklist a lot of people do checklist by rote. Check, check, check, check, check. It’s not how you do it. It’s do it, check it, do it, check it.

00:40:37:15 – 00:40:41:24
Rod
And you and your chunking as well. Is that correct? You’re chunking stuff together.

00:40:41:24 – 00:40:57:22
Steve
Yeah, right. And the other thing that’s a big that’s a big no no in systems and I don’t know how you do it, but if you and I had a system and I took it and I do all my tasks and I hand it to you, it should never come back to me. Correct. Done with it. Correct. Many people flip flop it.

00:40:57:25 – 00:41:02:21
Steve
And anything that has human interaction has a chance to get missed.

00:41:02:23 – 00:41:17:17
Rod
No, actually, we don’t do it that way and that. But that’s smart to do it that way for sure. Yes. No, no question. And that’s the best way to do it. If I’m trying to think I’m trying to think when we couldn’t do it that way. But let’s not get that micro. But the point is. No, that makes absolute sense to me.

00:41:17:17 – 00:41:23:07
Steve
Yeah. And so the key is you’ve got to systemize it. Then you automate as much as you can.

00:41:23:07 – 00:41:29:01
Rod
Yeah, I was going to go there with you, you know, when you said you hand it off to somebody, I was going to say, I hope that’s automatic.

00:41:29:01 – 00:41:45:28
Steve
Automatic digitally through software technology. That is key because look, software is and technologies, they don’t get sick, they don’t make mistakes. Know if all of a sudden John is gone for a week, we’re like, oh, shit, nothing’s not done here. What the hell? Right? So that’s why you’ve got to use the system. And then I’m a big believer in outsourcing.

00:41:45:28 – 00:41:56:12
Steve
I’m a big believer 60% of my company was outsourced to Mexico. And you can imagine with a large company, we had a lot of operations going on down there. Yeah, And it worked seamless. Yeah.

00:41:56:12 – 00:42:15:11
Rod
And, you know, when you outsource to Vas, by the way, it’s not like hiring somebody here domestically, okay? It’s fantastic. The price point is fantastic, but the training is different. The hiring is different. You know, a lot of people think they can just hand something off to a VA and it’s done. No, you’ve got to line it out step by.

00:42:15:13 – 00:42:16:17
Rod
You’ve got to systemize.

00:42:16:17 – 00:42:17:22
Steve
It, you’ve got to advance.

00:42:17:22 – 00:42:25:11
Rod
Because that’s how they work. You know, you got to hand it to them step by step, show them with screen share videos, and then once they’ve done it, then they’ve done it and and you’re good.

00:42:25:11 – 00:42:48:24
Steve
But and one of the one of the big reasons I’ve learned why people fail with virtual assistants, number one is they try to lead to abdication, meaning they just give it to them. Right. And forget it. Or they give them everything. You give them one task at a time. And what what I recommend for people, for people on the show, what I would recommend, people go, I don’t know what I would offload any low level, low enjoyment tasks that is, a low income producing activity is the first.

00:42:49:00 – 00:43:04:11
Steve
So how do you know you measure it? You do a time study and I recommend anyone who not trying to do this, but anyone who comes in. You do a two week time study. If I said, Hey, what’s up doing stupid shit, you’re doing things that are below your pay grade, you’re going, Oh no, Steve, this is important.

00:43:04:16 – 00:43:06:06
Steve
I need to go to a Home Depot and look.

00:43:06:07 – 00:43:07:29
Rod
So let’s talk about what a time study is.

00:43:07:29 – 00:43:27:16
Steve
So time study, This is one of the most eye opening things that I have people do. It’s a simple spreadsheet, and every day, Monday through Friday, they go. They put their stuff five minute increments. But I just I just throw. Okay, I’ll tell you why. Okay. What I want to see is I’m looking for patterns. Now, there’s two columns.

00:43:27:16 – 00:43:35:01
Steve
There’s what they do, and the next column is a dropdown and there’s three options. Okay? Option one is productive, only I can do it.

00:43:35:02 – 00:43:35:24
Rod
Okay.

00:43:35:27 – 00:43:37:29
Steve
Productive. Someone else can do it.

00:43:37:29 – 00:43:38:15
Rod
Okay.

00:43:38:18 – 00:43:40:00
Steve
Not productive at all.

00:43:40:01 – 00:43:41:08
Rod
Okay. Good luck.

00:43:41:09 – 00:43:50:05
Steve
And at the bottom it’ll total is everything. Mm. And after the first week, they will realize, holy shit, yeah, I am not as productive.

00:43:50:05 – 00:43:51:20
Rod
We need to be offloading some stuff.

00:43:51:20 – 00:44:04:21
Steve
Yeah, right. And so we start looking at it going, okay, well, like that. And now we look, it’s very simple. What are all the things you’re doing that are not productive? How do we turn this all over either to automate it through technology or to a virtual a VA?

00:44:04:21 – 00:44:10:24
Rod
Yeah. So talk for a minute about how you hire a VA because I know how we do it. I’m just curious if I can get some insights from you.

00:44:10:25 – 00:44:30:07
Steve
Yeah, sure. So one of the first things and again, I am a big believer in structured systems and one of the things that most people need in structure and systems is an organization chart, right? So in the organization chart, I believe that you should have two organization charts. You should have one as a snapshot of today of how your business looks and you need one for the future.

00:44:30:13 – 00:44:31:04
Rod
For the future.

00:44:31:05 – 00:44:46:28
Steve
What does it look like? So when I have a $50 million company, what does my staffing look like? Yeah, so once you know what that is now, you know the progression of where you’re going to need to hire, to hire, you’re going to need to hire. So once inside of that organization chart, there should be four things you need to have a job description, right?

00:44:47:00 – 00:45:01:20
Steve
Is this person do I need to have the roles and responsibilities? What are they responsible for? So if I hire the marketing guy and I go, Hey, you know what sucks? I’m going to hire. He doesn’t cut the grass, right? So bad. The grass is right. It’s going to go, That’s not my job. That’s not in my responsibility of my job.

00:45:01:20 – 00:45:14:23
Steve
Right. So it’s got to be very clear. What is Rob responsible for? Right. The third thing or the key performance indicators to tell me, how is Rob doing in his job? And the last thing is the risk profile. Now there’s different profiling systems that are out there.

00:45:14:23 – 00:45:23:13
Rod
Yeah, desc, by the way, guys, is Tony Robbins gives a free version of that. If you go Anthony Robbins disk profile, you can check it out. I would say it’s incredibly accurate.

00:45:23:13 – 00:45:40:12
Steve
It’s incredible. Yeah. So what we do is every role in the company has an associated disk with it. So when we’re interviewing virtual assistants, the first thing we do is we want to know, okay, what is the disk for this role? Hmm And we interview. So a lot of people say like, Oh, I’ve got hundreds of people, you’re doing it wrong, right?

00:45:40:12 – 00:45:52:14
Steve
You first of all, you put out the ad or whatever you do and there’s organizations and people. You put the ad out and then based on who calls, you, send them the disk. Right. If they’re not even the right disk profile, it doesn’t go further.

00:45:52:17 – 00:46:03:21
Rod
Yeah, well, that’s really smart, actually, because, you know, sometimes you’re trying to put a round peg in a square hole, you know, depending upon the role, you know, it takes a certain personality to do certain things.

00:46:03:21 – 00:46:06:28
Steve
Well, that’s it. Yeah. I mean, you’re familiar with disk, if I’m.

00:46:06:28 – 00:46:19:25
Rod
Not familiar with it, to the point to identify the different roles. Okay, I know what the disk stands for, but I’m not good enough to identify the disk profile for different roles, like an admin role, like a sales role.

00:46:19:28 – 00:46:20:23
Steve
And so but I.

00:46:20:23 – 00:46:21:25
Rod
Actually actually I probably.

00:46:21:26 – 00:46:30:08
Steve
You, you could figure it out. Yeah. I mean you could look a marketing person is a see they’re compliant, they’re data driven. They like metrics and numbers right. A salesperson is an I d.

00:46:30:10 – 00:46:31:19
Rod
ID influential.

00:46:31:19 – 00:46:50:17
Steve
Influential and they go for the close, right. A operations person is C their data driven, their C and A, D, right? And they make decisions right. Accounting person is a C, right. So if a county person is a C, their metrics, they’re data driven. If somebody runs and sends me a resume and they’re an I, right, I’m going to go, no, there’s no reason going further in this conversation, right?

00:46:50:20 – 00:46:52:09
Steve
So I only want solid seats.

00:46:52:10 – 00:46:52:21
Rod
Gotcha.

00:46:52:22 – 00:47:10:20
Steve
And on top of that, there’s a bigger, bigger mistake people make. They don’t understand how to write the ads for the disk. You should write your ad related to that disk profile. So like, if I’m hiring a salesperson, I want to go, are you a rock star that wants to write your own life, make $300,000 a year, do what you want, call your own charts.

00:47:10:22 – 00:47:25:29
Steve
If I’m a C and I’m an accountant, I’m going to go. I don’t want that right. But If I’m hiring an accounting role, I’m going to go. Do you like working with numbers? Do you like I’m talking in C Do you like data? Do you like spreadsheets? Do you like working alone and presenting your data? The A C is going to go, Yeah, that’s me.

00:47:25:29 – 00:47:28:06
Steve
Yeah. So the ad is actually going to resonate.

00:47:28:06 – 00:47:50:01
Rod
That’s brilliant. I really like that a lot. It’s brilliant. Then the only thing I add to what you just said is I like to, when I have a role, I like to identify the ultimate outcome, like the vision for it. I got this from a book called Who, which is a hiring book and where you where you do is like a like a scorecard on somebody and you determine what the ultimate vision and outcome is for the role as well.

00:47:50:01 – 00:47:52:02
Rod
That’s the only thing I would add to what you said. Yeah.

00:47:52:05 – 00:48:12:17
Steve
Listen, I think it’s good now, the biggest challenge, I would say once you get the people and this comes from a leadership and leadership I think is very very under used it underrate people don’t understand vision right But I think the thing about as a pilot we have to be leaders, right? I think the leader needs to let people know what is the vision of the company, Right.

00:48:12:17 – 00:48:14:20
Steve
Where is this going? Absolutely. What is the sale?

00:48:14:24 – 00:48:19:05
Rod
And get people enrolled in it. Yeah, get people behind it. Get people to believe in it.

00:48:19:08 – 00:48:32:11
Steve
Right. June 1st, 2028, we’re going to be a $50 million company. Do you buy into that? Do you believe it? Listen, they don’t have to believe it, but they have to believe that you believe it. Yeah. And as long as they go, you know what? I don’t know that we’re going to do it, but Steve knows that that’s going to happen.

00:48:32:11 – 00:48:33:13
Steve
So I’m behind that guy.

00:48:33:13 – 00:48:33:29
Rod
Yeah. Yeah.

00:48:34:03 – 00:48:41:01
Steve
So it’s the vision that you have to inspire people as the leader, not the manager. And I think a lot of people make that mistake.

00:48:41:02 – 00:48:56:22
Rod
Yeah, no, I agree with you. And, you know, like here at my company, we change lives, period. That’s that’s, that’s our mantra and that’s what my people get behind. But the thing that is lacking is that future vision. I mean, we did it when I did it. I did the US system for traction, which I know you’re familiar with.

00:48:56:22 – 00:49:19:27
Rod
And you know, we did all that the three year, the five year, the ten year, whatever it was, and the bag, big, hairy, audacious goal. But you know, the other thing I’ll tell you that I learned through Tony Robbins is that there are three archetypes in business. There’s the entrepreneur, the leader. They’re the ones that start the business, but they want to get out as soon as possible.

00:49:19:27 – 00:49:43:10
Rod
That’s the biz business. There’s the man I’m sorry, there’s the entrepreneur, there’s a manager leader, the manager mindset that takes that business and runs it and builds it and scales it. And then there’s the artist, the person that the innovator, the person that comes up with the idea. Yeah, I, I did those out of sequence. And sometimes you were in all three of those hats, but, you know, like, like in Silicon Valley, you’ll have those artists, those coders that come up with a great idea.

00:49:43:10 – 00:49:56:08
Rod
They get it out there, but then they need to bring in venture capital that, you know, which is the entrepreneur in some cases are definitely the manager leader component. They’ll bring in a sea level suite to take it to the next level and so on and so forth. Do you agree with that?

00:49:56:08 – 00:50:00:12
Steve
Absolutely. And, you know, iOS has the visionary and integrator, so. Oh, that’s right. Yeah, that’s.

00:50:00:12 – 00:50:01:13
Rod
Right. That’s right. That’s right.

00:50:01:16 – 00:50:07:15
Steve
I mean, basically the one thing I’ve learned is, however we want to quantify it, right? You’re not going to do it on your own.

00:50:07:18 – 00:50:08:04
Rod
That’s right.

00:50:08:09 – 00:50:15:13
Steve
That’s the one thing I can say. That’s right. You know, there is such a difference and people do not understand. I don’t think good leaders are bored. I think they’re creative.

00:50:15:13 – 00:50:15:26
Rod
I agree.

00:50:15:28 – 00:50:32:00
Steve
And I think that, you know, no. One notions you know, many people focus too much on being a manager and they think they’re being a leader and they’re not. You know, the leader is the one who inspires them. They have the vision. They say we’re 50 million, we’re running. We’re going, well, I’m going to charge the sale. Everybody run behind me.

00:50:32:02 – 00:50:36:23
Steve
The manager stands behind him and says, If you don’t get that fucking hill, you’re fired, Right? So you got to have both.

00:50:36:23 – 00:50:49:18
Rod
And pushes sometimes from behind. Absolutely. Yeah. And the leader in your definition, I is the entrepreneur archetype that I was thinking about, you know, that visionary that makes it are the visionary in the US system, the implementer is the manager leader that that that brings it home.

00:50:49:18 – 00:50:51:05
Steve
Yes. The metrics data. Yeah.

00:50:51:06 – 00:51:24:05
Rod
And then there’s that there’s that artist which is the innovator that originally came up with the idea, which is very often the entrepreneur or, you know, it’s very seldom it’s the manager. Correct. But that there’s so those three components and you know, in my analogy or my example here, Tony’s example really is, you know, if you’re going to get into this business, you know, and you come up with some unique ideas, then you’re acting as an artist or an innovator, you know, And if you’re going to, you know, come actually start the business, then you’re an entrepreneur and you’re you know, you’re taking your W-2 had put it on your entrepreneur hat, but very often

00:51:24:05 – 00:51:33:29
Rod
you need help to take it and really run it like that. That manager leader role that role in the iOS system or somebody like Steve, who helps you systemize Well.

00:51:33:29 – 00:51:50:06
Steve
I think look, I think everybody, when we set our ego and pride aside, right, right. You’ve been down that path many times. Many times, many times. So I look at I look at I think of Michael Jordan. To me, he was the best athlete on the planet right When he was playing for the Bulls at his peak, he had five coaches.

00:51:50:06 – 00:51:51:23
Rod
Yeah, I talk about this when I talk.

00:51:51:23 – 00:51:52:11
Steve
About.

00:51:52:14 – 00:51:52:23
Rod
Him. Right?

00:51:52:24 – 00:52:02:01
Steve
And to me it’s like it doesn’t make sense. Like, why is it that everyone knows that? I mean, if I played for the NFL, if I was a boxer, I would have someone helping me you multiple more than people.

00:52:02:01 – 00:52:15:22
Rod
Yeah, I’ve got I’ve got how many coaches do I have right now? I have I have a life coach. I have a high-performance coach. I had a voice coach. I had as you know, I’ve got I got a system position coach right now.

00:52:15:24 – 00:52:32:08
Steve
Yeah, right. Exactly. As you grow and I mean, Pete Lycett, the guy who coached Michael Jordan in high school, was probably not going to be the coach of the Bulls. Right? Right. But you are the coach for people in the Bulls, right? You are the people that want to get them to that next level. And listen, sometimes people come in and sometimes people go out as we know and that’s great.

00:52:32:08 – 00:52:42:28
Steve
There’s nothing wrong with that. But I think one of the challenges that people have is some people think it’s, Oh, I don’t want to use Rod, because then I feel dumb, but they don’t realize that’s the accelerant that’s going to get.

00:52:43:01 – 00:52:49:01
Rod
They’re paying for speed. That’s the bottom line. Can you do it on your own? Sure. It might take you seven years with us. It might take you two years.

00:52:49:01 – 00:52:50:25
Steve
Seven years, and it may not even work. Right.

00:52:51:00 – 00:53:27:18
Rod
Right. And it’s going to be overwhelming and scary. And that’s the reason my students are so frickin successful, because they’ve got the framework, they’ve got the blueprint, they’ve got me, they’ve got their coaches as well. And and it just it’s it’s it’s is poetry in motion. It’s working beautifully. And but but yeah, no, I and I try to tell people at my bootcamps I used the Michael Jordan example the five coaches and I better come up with another one because but every literally literally every superstar world class athlete, business person, you name it, they all have coaches, all of them.

00:53:27:20 – 00:53:31:23
Rod
I mean, the best people in the world of what they do have coaches. I don’t care who they are.

00:53:31:25 – 00:53:39:01
Steve
I’ve never met one person that’s successful business, sports, whatever, and said I did it all by myself, right? No one helped me. It was all me. I’ve never met that person now.

00:53:39:02 – 00:53:39:17
Rod
Me either.

00:53:39:17 – 00:53:41:19
Steve
And I’ve never met the person that said I’ve never failed.

00:53:41:26 – 00:53:42:14
Rod
Right?

00:53:42:14 – 00:53:47:14
Steve
I’ve never met that person either. So there’s got to be something with failing and having coaches.

00:53:47:16 – 00:54:06:21
Rod
Don’t fear failure, guys. Fear frickin regret, fear being in the same place you are right now a year or two from now, unless you absolutely frickin love where you are right now. That’s what you fear. Now you know, fear, regret. Don’t fear failure. And we failed our way to success. And I tell the story when I’m interviewed. I got to meet Sarah Blakely, the billionaire owner of Spanx.

00:54:06:24 – 00:54:25:12
Rod
And Jesse, you know, I’m sure you know who they are. And, you know, she started with 5000 and she was in Forbes. She’s worth over a billion now. And and her dad used to ask her and her brother, I met her at a mastermind. I got a nice picture with her. She’s a sweetheart. And and and she told me that her dad used to tell her and her brother asked him once a week, What have you failed at this week?

00:54:25:15 – 00:54:27:04
Rod
I thought, what an awesome freaking question.

00:54:27:04 – 00:54:28:09
Steve
That is a good question.

00:54:28:12 – 00:54:32:04
Rod
So they don’t fear failure, right? I love that. Do you have kids?

00:54:32:06 – 00:54:34:19
Steve
Actually, I had a son who passed away.

00:54:34:20 – 00:54:35:18
Rod
Oh, dude, Sorry.

00:54:35:18 – 00:54:39:11
Steve
Yeah. Yesterday was six months that he passed away.

00:54:39:11 – 00:54:39:24
Rod
Oh, my.

00:54:39:24 – 00:54:49:02
Steve
God. Yeah. And I. I will tell you as, as a a way to link this, if it’s okay, if I.

00:54:49:08 – 00:54:51:18
Rod
Please, dude, I mean, yeah.

00:54:51:21 – 00:54:52:19
Steve
No, no, no, no.

00:54:52:19 – 00:54:53:05
Rod
Words matter.

00:54:53:05 – 00:55:10:11
Steve
No, it’s. So. He was on a motorcycle. He passed on a motorcycle, which is what he and I love doing together. He wasn’t doing anything wrong, but. But he, he was struck down, and the kid was 19 years old. He traveled to 19 countries. He had his own rental property at 14.

00:55:10:14 – 00:55:11:03
Rod
Well.

00:55:11:06 – 00:55:35:01
Steve
Dovish sharks in the Pacific Bungee jump to New Zealand, camels in Dubai. The 19 year old I would say this kid lived a life that many adults don’t live. And one thing I tell people is that at his service, there was a lot of pictures, right, of a family of memories and not one picture. And I’m sure you could relate to this.

00:55:35:07 – 00:56:02:14
Steve
There was not one picture of how many businesses are built, of how much money was in my bank account. The only pictures were memories because I’ve had businesses that gave me the time and freedom to build memories with my son. And as I talk now to people, I explain. Sometimes we lie to ourselves as entrepreneurs. We always say, one day, one day I’m going to have time with my kid.

00:56:02:17 – 00:56:20:18
Steve
Yeah, but unfortunately, sometimes you get a knock on that door like my wife and I did, and that one day ends. And so what I explain to people is, don’t wait for one day memories are free. All the memories we had with our son, they were free. And I love and I cherish them because I don’t get anymore.

00:56:20:21 – 00:56:41:05
Steve
Wow. And as an entrepreneur, sometimes we get so wrapped up doing for what we love, for the people that we love. We actually never share it with them. We never take the time to have a free memory. And it’s it’s very it’s one of those things that I’m so glad that I walked that walk and I created memories with my son because I don’t get anymore.

00:56:41:08 – 00:56:57:18
Steve
And he was he was a great kid. He was a welder. He was going to welding school. I mean, he he was a great kid. We actually started a scholarship foundation for kids that want to go to trade school but can’t afford it. Plumbing each HVAC, all the things that we need. And so my wife and I started a nonprofit for that.

00:56:57:24 – 00:57:05:02
Steve
Well, but I just I tell people, you know, it’s tough. It it is tough. So I’ve been six months.

00:57:05:04 – 00:57:28:12
Rod
I can’t Yeah, I can’t even I can’t. It’s unfathomable. I, I and you know but but I have to salute you for already pivoting that into forward thinking your found you know turning it into something to make the world a better place to help other people. You know, that’s that’s incredible that you’ve done it that fast.

00:57:28:12 – 00:57:44:03
Steve
Well, thank you. Yeah. You know, as a as a as a pilot, as a as a as a entrepreneur, as a as a father, as a human, we’re always trying to solve problems. Yeah, this is a problem I can never solve. Yeah. You know, every day it’s the same thing. So I think, okay, how do I redirect that energy?

00:57:44:06 – 00:58:04:19
Steve
How do, how do I help other entrepreneurs not say, wow, Because it could happen? Listen, you and I, unfortunately, we could leave here today and something could happen to done, you know, not done yet. And so I try to tell people like, look, don’t be that person that regrets you have a lot of money in the bank, but you have zero memories with your family or loved ones because at the end of the day, it it’s hard.

00:58:04:24 – 00:58:22:04
Steve
As a father, it’s obviously one of the most horrific things I’ve gone through, of course. But if I can help other people and I can help other people learn from this because it truly I am truly blessed that he gave me 19 years. Well, I’m truly blessed that I had that time with him. But I don’t get 19 and one.

00:58:22:07 – 00:58:29:22
Steve
Yeah. And so again, it’s one of those things we do all the stuff, but what do we do it for? And sometimes we forget what we’re doing it for.

00:58:29:22 – 00:58:56:21
Rod
Guys, I, I have to tell you, that’s the most important thing I’ve probably heard in the last hundred interviews. And I hope you take note and I’m taking note and because. Wow. But again, you know, the fact that you’re redirecting that grief and and and I know that that’ll help you deal with it because you’re you’re changing lives through your efforts and making things better.

00:58:56:23 – 00:59:12:01
Steve
I’m trying. Yeah, I’m trying. You know, it helps me. It’s of helps me with my grieving process. Sure. So by me helping other people, that’s how I can direct it. Yeah. A lot of people say, like, Steve, I don’t know how you do it. I’m like, I don’t. I don’t have a choice. You say, like, I. I choose this to happen, so I can’t choose.

00:59:12:06 – 00:59:16:16
Steve
I can. We can’t choose what happens to us, only how we react. Right?

00:59:16:17 – 00:59:30:11
Rod
And that’s it. Life. And we choose the meaning. We place on something as well. And we can have a meaning that debilitates us or we can have a meaning that at some point inspire us.

00:59:30:11 – 00:59:30:20
Steve
Yeah.

00:59:30:26 – 00:59:47:24
Rod
And and, you know, I saw this a lot of Tony events where he gets people on stage that have had horrific things happen to them you know and and and two people can have the same experience and one person can be destroyed and the other person can come out stronger. Right? Yeah. And so meaning life is about meaning.

00:59:47:29 – 00:59:53:25
Steve
Yeah, it is. It is and it’s you know, again, we just we do what we can and we get by and you know that That’s your.

00:59:53:25 – 00:59:54:25
Rod
Wife, okay?

00:59:54:28 – 01:00:16:22
Steve
She’s okay. It’s, it’s, it’s a struggle. It’s. It’s. It’s not easy. You know, And, and we go to grief counseling. What I’ve learned is that, you know, they’ve told us we both lost a different person. A mother lost a son, a father lost, son, two different relationships. Right. So we both grieve differently. And so we both have different ways that we that we handle it and due out.

01:00:16:25 – 01:00:30:21
Steve
So I have my own personal way. She has her own way. And it’s it’s tough because it’s again, you never think that you’re going to bury your child. You and he was our only child. So it’s you know, it’s it puts a lot of things into perspective.

01:00:30:24 – 01:00:45:16
Rod
Wow. Wow. I, I don’t know where to go from on there. I don’t want to end there, though. Do let’s let’s end on a something positive, please. Let’s. Let’s try to come up with something positive, you know?

01:00:45:19 – 01:00:46:03
Steve
Well.

01:00:46:05 – 01:00:48:28
Rod
We can’t talk about the economy. I was going to go.

01:00:48:28 – 01:01:00:14
Steve
There with you. I’m going to politics. Yes, politics. Yeah. You listen, I think that will just say that, you know, my son, you know, a lot of people, when they heard how he lived, they were like, wow.

01:01:00:19 – 01:01:03:23
Rod
Yeah, that’s pretty incredible. Yeah, he really he really.

01:01:03:25 – 01:01:04:17
Steve
He lived a life.

01:01:04:24 – 01:01:07:17
Rod
I mean, he lived there’s there’s living in There is living.

01:01:07:17 – 01:01:24:13
Steve
Yeah. And he was just that kid. And everyone, you know, some people say they go, wow, more people need to live like that. And so we started JT. JT Oh, I love it. And so we started the Foundation for Kids that want to go to trade school. I love a nonprofit and it’s called Live Like Jet. And so a lot of.

01:01:24:13 – 01:01:27:12
Rod
Hey, make make note of that for me. Matt I want to donate to it.

01:01:27:12 – 01:01:37:03
Steve
Okay. Thank you. Yeah. And so a lot of people so again, we again learning something good. It’s like, you know what this because I owned a business that gave me the ability. Yes.

01:01:37:05 – 01:01:37:16
Rod
There’s the.

01:01:37:16 – 01:01:38:21
Steve
Message otherwise.

01:01:38:21 – 01:01:40:10
Rod
Otherwise maybe you were busy trying.

01:01:40:16 – 01:01:41:03
Steve
Nine trying to.

01:01:41:03 – 01:01:48:10
Rod
Grow your frickin thing, Right? And and, and you didn’t have time. Yeah. And, God, that, that that makes it a hundred times.

01:01:48:11 – 01:01:53:20
Steve
And there’s regret. I wish I would have went on vacation to Disney World with them. I wish I would have done this. I wish I wish I wish.

01:01:53:20 – 01:01:54:06
Rod
All the things you.

01:01:54:07 – 01:01:56:21
Steve
I can say now. I’m glad I did right. I’m glad.

01:01:56:21 – 01:02:07:03
Rod
I’m glad you were able to. Yeah. And you. And you and you created that life to be able to do that that. Freedom to be able to do that through your system zation through, you know, having a life.

01:02:07:03 – 01:02:17:21
Steve
Right? And at the time I didn’t know it, but, but now I’m so fortunate that I could do that right. You know, I went to Australia with all these places. I’m thinking, Wow, how fricking cool is that? Yeah. And you know, so.

01:02:17:21 – 01:02:40:25
Rod
If you’re listening and you’re grinding through a W2 and you have children, I hope you take note of this because I don’t care if you come work with me. I don’t care if you do multifamily, I don’t care what you do, but you better frickin do something. Okay. Can you imagine having this happen to you if you’re in that situation and and you don’t have those memories and you know who you are and I love you, but please take note of this.

01:02:40:28 – 01:02:56:26
Rod
Yeah. Yeah. I think you massively impacted a lot of people today, brother. I really do. And, you know, I’m. I’m really interested to see how Jett lived and and and I know where the name came from, obviously. Yeah.

01:02:56:29 – 01:03:01:02
Steve
Yeah. Let’s see. Like I said, I, I don’t bring this up to me. I don’t.

01:03:01:04 – 01:03:08:18
Rod
I know. I pulled it out of you and I, you know, I’m, I in a way I’m glad I did, but I’m sorry because it’s, you know, if I should.

01:03:08:18 – 01:03:09:07
Steve
Have warned you.

01:03:09:10 – 01:03:24:25
Rod
Yeah, I mean, I got emotional just sitting here listening to you, and and and, you know, anybody that’s got children, it’s it’s. It’s unthinkable. But, you know, the fact, like I said, the fact you’re able to pivot and turn it into something positive.

01:03:24:27 – 01:03:41:27
Steve
Well, listen, my whole thing is if I can get people to think differently and they can go home and spend time with their family and loved ones as a result of what they’ve learned, then it’s working, right then I’m doing it. It’s a very small piece. You know, life. Life is life is rough, right? Nothing’s guaranteed. We’re not guaranteed anything.

01:03:41:29 – 01:04:03:24
Steve
And so if I can get anyone watching this is you know what I do need to spend, I look, I can take my kids to the park right? My kids to the movies. It doesn’t even have to be this long. I don’t. That’s right. African safari, right? It’s free. Memories are free. And, you know, the one thing I will just say real quick is I used to think to myself when he and I would ride motorcycles together, we’d be riding side by side.

01:04:03:24 – 01:04:20:09
Steve
And I think this is the coolest fucking thing in the world. And I’m riding with my son. We’re just doing what we love, right? And it was free the man. It’s like, you know, and I have that to cherish. Now, I also have a little bit of guilt because he passed away on a motorcycle. Sure. But by the same token, I have to think about this.

01:04:20:09 – 01:04:30:23
Steve
He did what he loved doing and I did what I loved doing. And we got to share that bond together. Yeah. And would it have been better to never share it? Yeah. And something happened. I don’t know the answer to that, but I.

01:04:30:27 – 01:04:32:11
Rod
You can second guess that to death.

01:04:32:11 – 01:04:51:07
Steve
Exactly. Yeah, exactly. But I will say I have had a lot of people on social media, a lot of friends, people that we both know reach out to me and say, Man, you know what? I’m changing how I handle my family. Yeah, because of how I saw how your son. Yeah. So, like, I, I really am changing because of the way jet lag.

01:04:51:10 – 01:04:53:22
Rod
So it’s live. Live like jet.

01:04:53:22 – 01:04:55:07
Steve
Yeah. Live like jet, dawg.

01:04:55:07 – 01:05:21:15
Rod
So live like jet dawg. Go send some money there and go check out how this boy lived, okay? Yeah. Oh, you owe it to yourself to do that. I appreciate that. Yeah, absolutely. Well, listen, brother. Wow. I’m. I’m, you know, speechless. But this has been a really enjoyable conversation and very valuable conversation for my peeps. And I’m really grateful for you coming down here to have it with us.

01:05:21:15 – 01:05:23:25
Rod
And how do people get a hold of you?

01:05:23:28 – 01:05:25:04
Steve
They can go to my website.

01:05:25:04 – 01:05:25:17
Rod
What is it?

01:05:25:17 – 01:05:32:00
Steve
Steve Rosenberg, Rosie and BTR Jet.com. Okay. Or they I’m on social media. They get Instagram.

01:05:32:00 – 01:05:33:02
Rod
Pretty big there. Yeah. Yeah.

01:05:33:02 – 01:05:43:02
Steve
I’m very approachable Sometimes people, you know, what would you do here? Whatever. I’m happy. Answer everything. I don’t know if I can help someone. I’m doing my job. So yeah, they I’m going to.

01:05:43:02 – 01:05:49:18
Rod
Have you come to. I’m having you come talk to my warriors for sure. I’d love to see people that already have businesses need to know how to systemize.

01:05:49:20 – 01:06:02:21
Steve
Yeah, so I’d love to be able to help. And again, it’s I think I think that there’s not enough of people like you and I. I think the world needs more abundance. And if I can impart just a little bit more to make people’s lives easier, then then I’m doing my job.

01:06:02:21 – 01:06:18:29
Rod
Yeah. You know, a lot of people and I fall into it myself. I actually did yesterday. I got so much negative news yesterday that got a little had a little scarcity attack, you know, and forgetting that what I teach, which is we live in the most abundant situation there is, I mean, abundance is everywhere. Yeah.

01:06:19:05 – 01:06:33:15
Steve
We don’t have to fight for our food. No, we don’t have tribes trying to kill us, right? I mean, we’re first world problems, right? Exactly. And when you look at things like, you know, what we’re doing pretty good. And if we can share that with other people when we get out of our pity party, Right. You know, we kind of get we you know, we go, you know what?

01:06:33:15 – 01:06:37:25
Steve
I got a pretty good I mean, no shit. You know, I see where you live. It’s not this.

01:06:37:26 – 01:06:39:21
Rod
Is just.

01:06:39:23 – 01:06:51:11
Steve
You know, so it again, I just I think it’s one of those things we all get caught up in being caught up. But I think sometimes it takes someone or something. Right. To pull you back away. Let’s just. Let’s just. Let’s, let’s.

01:06:51:13 – 01:07:10:27
Rod
Let’s look at this and Yeah. With, with real glasses on and. Yeah, the dark glasses. Well, listen, brother, I really appreciate you coming down here. It’s been awesome to spend some time with you. And and like I said, we need to go break bread. I can’t today because I’ve got this frickin bootcamp coming up. But. But we have to circle back and get together for sure, brother.

01:07:10:27 – 01:07:23:20
Steve
Yeah, I’d love to. You’d love to. I think. I think you and I are very like minded people, and I think that that energy is magnetic. Yeah. You know, and I think people can see it and I think we could probably help a lot of people change some minds and change some lives.

01:07:23:20 – 01:07:25:07
Rod
Agreed. It’s great to see you, brother.

01:07:25:08 – 01:07:26:13
Steve
Thank you, Rob. Appreciate it, buddy.