As The Leader Grows with Ken Joslin

Coaching with Ken | Proximity is a Cheat Code Pt.1

• Ken Joslin

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Ever wondered how relationships can truly shape your destiny? Journey with me, Ken Joslin, as I peel back the layers of my life in this compelling episode. From my invigorating morning routine to the passionate excitement surrounding my forthcoming book, "The Power of Your Circle," you'll hear firsthand how influential figures like Erwin McManus and Gary Brecka have steered my path. I'll also take you back to my childhood, sharing poignant memories of my parents' divorce and a severe injury in fifth grade, and how my beloved teacher, Ms. Lambert, became a beacon of hope and encouragement during those trying times.

Join me as I recount the transformative role of mentorship in my early officiating career. It all started with an invitation to a high school camp where I met Sally Bell, a trailblazer in women's basketball officiating. Sally's guidance was pivotal, launching me into varsity games earlier than I could have imagined. Throughout this episode, you'll learn about the profound lessons I gained from seasoned referees like Sally Bell, Nan Sisk, and Patty Broderick, and how these relationships fostered my professional growth. Their influence underscored the importance of community and camaraderie in achieving success.

This episode crescendos with a powerful Zoom call experience featuring Grant Cardone and a thousand participants, illustrating the true essence of seizing opportunities and nurturing relationships. Despite initial doubts and financial setbacks, including a real estate deal gone awry, I took a leap of faith and joined the 10X Bootcamp in Miami. Here, I discovered a community that resonated with my aspirations, proving that the key to achieving fulfillment lies within our circles and connections. Tune in and feel inspired to recognize and cultivate the valuable relationships that can transform your life.

Welcome to the ATLG podcast I am your host Ken Joslin, former pastor turned coach & host of CREATE, the #1 Faith-based Entrepreneur conference in America. My mission is to help faith-based entrepreneurs become the best version of themselves by growing in our Core 5: Faith, Health, Relationships, Business & Finances. You can get more information as well as join our FREE Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/676347099851525

If you enjoyed the podcast, come join our FREE GSD Community of hundreds of entrepreneurs & a ton of FREE Content including CREATE Conference recordings with Ken, John Maxwell, Gary Brecka, Ed Mylett & more. growstackdrive.com/free

Speaker 1:

Welcome to. As the Leader Grows, I am your host, ken Jostin, if you hear that in the background, that's just my pre-workout because it is early Monday morning. I was up this morning at about 2.26 and I have not been to bed. I woke up every night. I wake up in the morning. I usually am so fired up to get going the next day. I'm like Jesus, please let it be 4 am or 3.30 am, 2.26 this morning, guys. So we're rolling.

Speaker 1:

This morning I want to talk to you about the Power of your Circle. It's a brand new book that I've got coming out in the next couple months and it's all about relationships and this literally has been a lifelong journey. In fact, the majority of my life and I'm sure the majority of you guys listening today. Your lives have been impacted by relationships and I want to focus on the positive side of those relationships and I just want to highlight a few relationships in my life that have made an Unbelievable difference. Guys at 55 years old, almost 56 years old, having just seen God do some unbelievable things through Gard Erwin McManus, gary Brekka, vic Keller, amberly Lago, marie Cosgrove, amy Lacey just some phenomenal, phenomenal human beings who have a passion for entrepreneurship. From doing that to our mastermind, which has become one of the largest faith-based masterminds faith-based entrepreneur masterminds in the country. We just spent five days in Puerto Rico with a couple dozen amazing human beings setting next 60 goals in our core five areas of faith health, relationship, business and finances, building relationships with one another and literally changing the trajectory of our lives through a transformational few days. And so there's no way, as I start this podcast today, there's no way in the world I would be where I'm at today, nor the thousands of people that listen to this podcast, that come to our Create Conference every year, that are a part of our mastermind, that are part of our GSD collective and our online community, that meet twice a week of faith-based entrepreneurs across the country, absolutely crushing life and have a great passion to become the best version of themselves.

Speaker 1:

But I want to back up a little bit to Ken fifth grade. I actually I'll back up a little bit before that, second grade. My parents got divorced. Born in Detroit, raised in Pontiac, go blue. Yes, we are national champions. And for all of you Ohio fans out there, suck it. Born in Detroit, raised in Pontiac, parents got divorced when I was in second grade. I was eight years old, mom moved us from the Detroit area in Pontiac actually in Troy to the Atlanta area in Gainesville where, in that area, I lived about 35 of my 55 years and I'll never forget. We moved there. Second grade, third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, was a pivotal, pivotal year.

Speaker 1:

Now, if I asked you this morning who your favorite teacher was out of your entire life, a lot of you guys could say it was Mr So-and-so or it was Ms So-and-so. My favorite teacher hands down in my entire life was my fifth grade teacher, ms Lambert, at McEver Elementary in Gainesville, georgia. It's crazy because we still stay connected today. I have no idea how old Ms Lambert is, but we still stay connected via social media today. Idea how old Ms Lambert is, but we still stay connected via social media today, and every year on her birthday I post a paragraph or two of the impact and the difference that she has had in my life as a child, as a young boy who is coming off the divorce of his parents, the older child, the only boy or slash man in the home, because I quickly had become a man. Um, walking into my fifth grade year at the beginning of the year, breaking my femur, my left femur playing football, laying in traction in the hospital in Gainesville for six weeks. I gained a ton of weight. Obviously you can't move, you can't get out of the bed, you're stuck.

Speaker 1:

Coming out of that experience, finally getting back into school, ms Lambert cared for me. She didn't see a troublemaker, a little 10, 11, 12-year-old boy, little fifth-grade boy. She saw a young boy who was, who was hurting. She saw a young boy who had been through a lot of trauma, a young boy who had been Uprooted from all he knew, his first 10, 12 years of life into a brand new situation single parent home, um, and unbelievable traumatic event and breaking my femur. I all I can tell you is one of the only things I remember about that moment was coming to and waking up and they said I was still in shock and looking at my left leg and it went down about halfway between my hip and my knee and then my leg went sideways, almost a compound fracture, again laid in traction for six weeks.

Speaker 1:

But Ms Lambert was, and forever will be, my favorite teacher in my entire life. And you say why? I said because she loved a young boy who needed to be loved, loved a young boy who needed to be loved. She looked past all of the actions and misbehavior and all the things that I did and she constantly spoke encouragement to me. She constantly spoke to me that I could do it. I could be whatever it was. I wanted to be. That, even though life had dealt me the hand that it had dealt me, it wasn't the end, that as a fifth grade boy I had a bright future in front of me and that it was my decision. It was up to me to be able to take that future and make it something I'll never forget.

Speaker 1:

We'll fast forward a little bit from there into my time, 1986 to 1990 in the Air Force. Sergeant Parker was my. He was my NCOIC. He was an unbelievable man. Again, here's this.

Speaker 1:

People say why didn't you retire? One of my brothers retired from. Here's this People say why didn't you retire? One of my brothers retired from the Air Force. People say why didn't you retire? Because I was too big of a punk. You could not tell me anything. But Sergeant Parker was different. He cared for me, literally, was firm with me. He taught me how to tie a tie. Here's this 19-year-old white kid with an African-American NCOIC who cared for him and I pretty much grew up You've heard my story 12 schools in 12 years. Six different high schools moved back and forth from the Atlanta area to the Detroit area to live with my dad six different times. I pretty much grew up from second grade all the way through my senior year with no father figure in my home. And here was Sergeant Parker, and I still have a picture in my phone. It's one of my favorites and I share it every year on Veterans Day.

Speaker 1:

Here was Sergeant Parker, who took a young man who had very little direction and took me under his wing and tried. He gave it everything he had to help me during my time in the Air Force. Again, all the way back to. I'll never forget, I will never forget. I worked night shift 11 to 7, him teaching me how to tie a tie. He was one of the first people to teach me excellence Every night we came in.

Speaker 1:

Now, obviously, in the Air Force you could wear your BDUs or you could wear your blue uniform, and it didn't matter what day it was. It didn't matter which uniform Sergeant Parker had on. He always carried himself with excellence. Even now, as I sit here and I do this podcast, I'm thinking wow, man. I remember how pressed his pants were. I remember how he was a tech sergeant, so I think it's an E6, I think is what that is in the Air Force E5 or E6. It's an E5. And just even his BDUs with his stripes on his arms were crisply pressed and his shirts always looked awesome. He walked around either his boots were spit-shined I mean to just a mirror-gloss image to his patent leather shoes if he wore his dress blues into the into work. Um, but he taught me excellence and I think there's a couple of things for those of you guys listening today. You're like man, can. You're like way back in the past? Yeah, because it's important. It's important and, and the way that we honor our past I believe has a direct result of what our future looks like. So in the Air Force I come home.

Speaker 1:

I had started my junior senior year of high school in Michigan. I started umpiring Little League Baseball. I mean like little kids, like 10 year old. So I'm like what? 15, 16 years old at the time, but 15 to 16 years old I I fell in love with the game. I fell in love with officiating. So here I am, I'll never forget this. Here I am doing like 10, 11, 12 year old, um, fast, pitch baseball with one of those big umpire balloon things you would hold in front of you like really not even any shin guards, obviously had a face mask on. And I did it. And people were like, why did you do that in high school? Because I think I made 10 or 12 bucks a game and I think the minimum wage at the time was like $3.30 an hour. So I could work an hour to an hour and 15 minute baseball game and make three times what I could or what any of my friends did anywhere else. And it taught me man, I can and I was good, I was, I was and I was a student of the game and so I'll never forget moved to Georgia and I started umpiring, just park and rec basketball or park and rec baseball. And then they were like, hey, you want to do basketball and I'm like sure I'll do basketball. I never fit. Bob Brady said hey, come do an. Emmett said hey, come do a, come do basketball for us. So I started doing basketball Like when I say basketball I mean like three nights a week, four nights a week and on Saturday like six to eight games in a row, just bam bam, but I was making a ton of money.

Speaker 1:

I think at this time. It's funny I still have this calendar it's one of the old ones you write in and I still have this calendar about the games that I would very meticulously track my games and the money. I think I made 25 or 27, 25 a game in the field, 27 a game behind the plate, and they were our games. And I'm working a job making $10 an hour. I mean literally officiating. If you're a college student or if you're someone that wants to make some extra money, you can literally make about three times whatever the hourly rate is now. You can make about three times that amount of money. And so I mean fast forward just a little bit. So I'm umpiring Little League Baseball, I'm refereeing Little League not even Little League, little League like park and rec basketball and somebody goes dude, you're really good.

Speaker 1:

Let me get you connected with this guy named Doc Sisk, and so Doc was my high school supervisor in the northeast Georgia area for a long time, about 15 to 20 years and so Doc and his wife Nan both were women's college basketball officials worked in the SEC. Nan worked one of. I think she worked one or two NCAA final fours. She was the woman chosen from the United States for the 2000 Olympics in Greece. I mean so already like my high school supervisors were some of the best of the best of the best.

Speaker 1:

I'll never forget calling doc and he goes hey, listen, we've got this high school camp at Riverside military Academy. All the local high schools are coming in and I don't even remember what the cost was 75 bucks, a hundred bucks for three days. And we've got some amazing clinicians coming in and I'd love for you to come and learn how to referee. You're obviously you're doing a great job. You're like the best guy. I mean I was like one of the. I was the best guy they had in like several counties. And he goes, come to Riverside and uh, and work this camp. And so I step on the floor the very first time and I look up and I meet this redheaded lady named Sally Bell. Some of you guys are like can I have no idea who Sally Bell is? It would be like mentioning the name Michael Jordan to a basketball player. Everyone in officiating knows who Sally Bell is.

Speaker 1:

At the time Sally had worked Gosh. This was 1993. At the time Sally had already worked several women's final fours At the end of her career. I believe she had worked 12 or 13 final fours in women's national championship games. She was the sole woman chosen to represent the officials the women officials for the United States in the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996. I believe when she finally stepped down from being a supervisor several years ago she was the supervisor for officials for the SEC and about five or six other Division I conferences. In about five or six other Division I conferences I mean she is. If there is a Mount Rushmore of women's basketball officials, sally Bell is on there. I still have a referee magazine monthly with Sally Bell on the front of it. Huge article on Sally and the first time I step on a high school basketball court, sally's my clinician. How much do you think I learned in those three days? How much do you think that changed the trajectory of my officiating career? Because she was on the floor with me that day and not only that day but the next three days, every time I stepped on the floor, sally was my clinician. How much do you think that changed the trajectory?

Speaker 1:

When I talk about the power of your circle and I'm going to hit in these next few weeks and in the new book that I'm releasing, I'm going to talk about three spheres of relationship your community, your circle and your corner. Your community is that large group of people you travel with. For us it's our GSD Collective. It's the hundreds of faith-based entrepreneurs that come to our Create Conference every year in Atlanta. It is the men and women who make up our GSD Elite Mastermind, who gather quarterly around the country in places like Puerto Rico and Sundance, utah, here in Atlanta in August, who have a passion to become the best version of themselves and have God use them in an unbelievable way. But how much do you think that changed the trajectory?

Speaker 1:

Now here I am, a young kid. In 1993, I was what? 20 some odd years old, 26, 27 years old, 25 years old, and now I'm refereeing high school basketball, one of the few people in our association ever to referee a varsity basketball game. In my second year. In my second year I was working some of the best games we had in our area. In my second and third year of officiating why? Because when I stepped on the floor the first time, my clinician was the best person in the world, literally the most accomplished women's official in the history of the game I'll never forget.

Speaker 1:

I would fly with Doc and Nan and Sally, two different games. I believe it was 1993 or 1994. It may have been 95, but it was the Hall of Fame. It was the State Farm Hall of Fame, tip-off classic in Knoxville, tennessee. And if you have any understanding of women's college basketball, you know who the coach was. At University of Tennessee it was Pat Summitt, and the four teams that played that day were the four blue bloods, let's say, of women's college basketball. It was UConn and Gina Auriemma, university of Tennessee, pat Summitt, university of Virginia, which Dawn Staley, who's a big head coach now for South Carolina, was actually the point guard on that team, and then La Tech, and those were four of the top teams in the country when it came to women's basketball.

Speaker 1:

And I got to fly up on Nan's brother flew us up on his plane, and so it's me, doc, nan, sally, and Doc and Nan and Sally are working. Actually, sally, doc didn't work, it was Sally, sally Bell, nan Sisk and Patty Broderick. Patty was, and may even still be, the supervisor for the Big Ten and I got to sit in pregame. Listen, they're doing the UConn and La Tech game. I believe it was the first game. I think it was Tennessee and Virginia was the second game. They're doing that game and I get to sit in pregame with them and watch them and listen to them and learn from them and then sit on the. I literally sat on the court and watched them referee and I'm taking mental notes in my head and when we go back in for halftime I'm listening to them debrief and talk about calls and talk about plays and talk about how to make Gino or Emma.

Speaker 1:

I'll never forget a story. Nan told me one time. She's sitting there and I didn't realize what had happened. But Gino, nan had a call, or one of her partners had a call. Gino throws a towel up in the air and this is back in the day when the officials could actually talk to coaches the way they wanted to talk to coaches. And she turns around and she looks at Gino, who is the number one coach in women's college basketball history. She turns around to Gino. Gino throws his towel in the air. She looks him out in the eye. She's standing a few feet away. She said Gino, when that towel hits the ground, I'm going to tee your ass up. So I got to learn officiating at the highest level you can learn. But I was a student, I was a sponge I'll never forget.

Speaker 1:

In 1996, I got a call from Doc and he said listen. He said Nan, keith Sumner, who was one of my best friends, who was already an SEC women's official, myself, the four of us, sally and Nan, are going to go over to the University of Georgia and the women's Olympic team, the 1996 women's Olympic team, is going to scrimmage some of Georgia's ex-male basketball players. You can't referee, but if you want to go with us, you can go with us and watch. I said, man, I'm all in. And so here's this guy. I'm two or three, like I get jacked talking about it and thinking about it right now. So here's this kid who has only been refereeing about two years. I'm already working some high school varsity basketball games in my area. Again, one of the youngest to ever I don't know of anybody ever my good friend David Edmondson, I think, works in varsity games. In his second year he's worked a few state championships as well. Here we go.

Speaker 1:

It's 1995, 1996, before the Olympics. I hop in a car with Keith and Nan and Sally and Doc and we go down to Athens, to UGA, and I'm sitting on the floor with these guys doing pregame, talking to Tara Vandiver, the head coach at Stanford, rebecca Lobo Swoops, teresa Edwards I mean some of the goats of women's college basketball and I'm watching this team play and I'm getting to have conversations about specific calls and positioning on the floor and what to look for. And you're like Kim and you're talking a lot about officiating. What I want you to understand is the power of relationships. These people were my circle at that point in my life community, that large group circle, the 10 or 12 people you spend the most time with. And then you've got your corner, which is the three, four, five guys or girls that have a 10,000 foot view of what's going on in your life. But this was my circle when it came to my officiating.

Speaker 1:

Fast forward a few years. I had an umpire in a minute and I get a call again from Doc. He's also the supervisor for all the umpires. He goes hey, I'd love for you I know you umpired for a while. I'd love for you to come and work some high school baseball. And for those of you guys that know I basketball and several years of of, uh, men's baseball, division two works in division one, non-conference stuff and I go to my very first high school baseball camp. Now here I am, I'm one of the best guys in my area and I go into this high school baseball camp and again I'm going to speak some official language and some umpire language.

Speaker 1:

But my clinician that day was Marvin Hudson. For those of you guys that don't know Marvin, he's been in the big leagues now for about 25 or 26 years. He's been a crew chief in the big leagues for about three or four years, I believe. At the time he was probably in AA or AAA, because this would have been back in the 90s AA, aaa at the time. But now has been in the big leagues now for 25, 26 years. Worked the plate in the Chicago Cubs Cleveland Indian World Series when Chicago broke the curse and won their first World Series in I don't know 90 or 100 years. So Marvin was the guy who taught me how to umpire baseball. He took the skills that I had and taught me how to do that. And you're like Ken, you just have been ridiculously fortunate man. I'm not even close to being done.

Speaker 1:

When I got in youth ministry I had just had a passion to love students and love God and I walk into an event in Atlanta, georgia, called Acquire the Fire. And I stand in this huge arena 12, 15,000 students, youth pastors, senior pastors, leaders and I'm watching this whole event take place for two or three days by a guy named Ron Luce who was the founder of Teen Mania Ministries. By a guy named Ron Luce who was the founder of Teen Mania Ministries. No idea that in a year and a half to two years, ron would become one of my biggest mentors. He would become one of the men that spoke into my life first, just through his leadership. Now I'm going to go. Old school cassettes Like this is back before CDs, back before podcasts. None of this stuff existed. It was cassettes and I'll never forget.

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We had invited, we were doing this huge rally for students right before school started. We called it the One Conference. It was all the different denominations. In my town of Gainesville, myself, my good friend Tony Elrod and some other youth pastors had gotten together and we couldn't agree on who we wanted to come in and speak at this conference and I said what about Ron Luce? And immediately we had consensus. Everybody was like yes, great idea, perfect, ron comes in. We're doing this event. We have over a thousand students show up to this event. I'm emceeing and speaking. We have one of my really good friends' band comes in to do worship. It is hopping. I'm on stage.

Speaker 1:

I watched Tony who had went to pick Ron up at the airport. I watched him walk Ron in and he walked him up the balcony area in the very back of the building and I watched him walk up and I watched him sit in a camera. Well, and that night after we finished, we went to Chili's to grab dinner and we're sitting there at dinner and I never forget. I grabbed a pen and a napkin from the server and I said Ron, I said thank you so much for being here tonight. I said, but I really want to know what we could do, what we could have. And I'll never forget he looked at me and goes dude, you guys did great. It was phenomenal. I said I know we did great. I said, but what can we do better? No, seriously, ken, this was I mean for you guys to pull this off in just a few months and have me in and you've got a thousand students there. It was unbelievable. You guys did a great job.

Speaker 1:

This, what I said to him next, changed our relationship forever. And I looked him in the eye and I said, Ron, when you walked in the building, I saw you come in with Tony. I saw you walk up the balcony and I saw you sit in that camera. Well, and I saw you sit there and I saw you. Just, you were looking around. I've been listening to your leadership cassettes for about a year and a half now. I know we did good, we knocked it out of the freaking park. It was amazing. But I know you saw things that we can do better. Guys, for 10 minutes, one right after another. He just ripped them off. I'll never forget. The first one was well, the projector was crooked on the screen, which I noticed because I'm OCD. He just ripped them off and I'm sitting there taking notes, one right after another, one right after another, one right after another. And it changed our relationship. Why? Because I wanted to learn.

Speaker 1:

You're like, how do you get a Sally Bell to teach you Listen? There was a time when Sally needed a shift road moved and Doc said, hey, sally needs a shift road move, can you help her? And I said, yep, if she'll referee a high school basketball game. I'm talking about somebody who's working women's national championship games in the NCAA and final fours and Olympics and I'm like, yeah, if she'll work a high school basketball game with me, I'll come move, I will, I will get some guys, we'll come move this shift road for her. Like I was such a student of what I was doing. I was so hungry and so passionate to get better, to become the best at what I do. Listen, if you have a passion to become the best version of yourself in, let's say, our core five faith, health, relationship, business and finances If you have the, if you have the passion to become the best mom or become the best dad or become the best whatever it is, you fill in the blank. I promise you God will bring the right people into your life. This is the power of relationships, even before I started GSD.

Speaker 1:

I'm 2019, it's September. This is several months, six months before COVID, before, literally, our jacked up government, tried to shut the world down. I'm making about 130, 40 grand a year, making about 10, 12 grand a month, bored out of my mind, doing real estate. I'm literally working 10, 15 hours a week. I'm umpiring college baseball, I'm refereeing women's college basketball and high school basketball, and I am bored out of my mind and an ad pops up on my Instagram with this little dude with ridiculous energy and I'm like, who is this Grant Cardone guy? Like I've never even heard of this dude. Who is this guy? So I swiped up on an advertisement.

Speaker 1:

I'm a snake number one with Grant because now you're like Alice in Wonderland and you're in the rabbit hole and about two weeks later I found myself on a free webinar from Grant talking about the power of mentorship and relationship. It's supposed to be 90 minutes. It started at noon Eastern and by 2 pm he's still going and has not even come up for air, but he's going hundred miles an hour. I've literally sitting on my we had this large kitchen Island and I've got my Mac book sitting there and I'm literally have my credit card out. I'm like I don't know what this guy is selling. I have no idea it's going to be mentorship, but I'm in. I have no idea what the cost is. I don't know what. I don't know anything, but my credit card was sitting there ready to go. Grant pitches his first ever mentorship. It's $997 for 12 weeks. Man. I picked the phone up and they put the number. I called and now my good friend Jack Lombard answered the phone and I signed up for my first ever mentorship. You're like man Ken, that's a thousand bucks, yeah, a mentorship. You're like man Ken, that's a thousand bucks, yeah, a thousand bucks. Well, what some people don't know, and I'm going to wrap this podcast episode up with this story. If you've not heard this before, I'm telling you it's transformational.

Speaker 1:

I'm working on a $3 million commercial deal real estate. I've done about $300 million me, my team being a mortgage broker over $300 million in real estate transactions in 20 some odd years. And Monday afternoon I'm working on this $3 million deal. Monday afternoon I get a call from the banker. I'm helping an African businessman, pastor, friend of mine buy this building for his church. Now the building is unlisted. It's not, you know, it's not on MLS, it's not on one of the commercial sites. It's unlisted. I found it through a friend. 72 year old Chinese man who doesn't speak any English owns the building and I'm having to use his 22 year old grad student daughter as as our interpreter. So we negotiate this deal for 3 million.

Speaker 1:

I get a call Monday afternoon two days after I signed up for grants mentorship program. It just dropped a thousand bucks. Banker calls he goes. Can we got a problem. He goes. The appraisal came in at 2.6, $2,500,000. Now, for those of you guys in the real estate sector, you know we're screwed Like my. Literally, that was a hand grenade in the middle of my deal. Now listen, this is a $78,720 commission, my largest commission I ever earned by far. $78,720. My deal's dead.

Speaker 1:

I hop on the first mentorship call that night about four hours later and I'm reeling. I'm like holy cow, man, this is, this is my biggest deal ever. It's just crashed. I get on this mentorship call. There's a thousand plus people on this mentorship call. Grant goes. Hey, listen, those of you guys that bought in for the mentorship man congrats. It's going to be an amazing three months. But I want to let you know this weekend we're going to be in Miami at my 10 X bootcamp. It's going to be three days. It's all about business and the cost is like another four grand. It's five grand, but I'm going to give you a thousand dollar credit. So it was like four grand.

Speaker 1:

So I'm sitting there and it's decision time. I'm like crap, what am I going to do? And I just literally this is exactly what I told myself. What's the worst thing I can do? Spend another four grand plus thousand plus. I think I spent six grand with a grant, with travel and everything in a week and didn't even know who he was.

Speaker 1:

I go down to 10X Bootcamp. I sit in there on Friday. At the end of the day on Friday I'm like holy freaking cow. It was like being in a room full of me. I was like holy cow. These people have lost their minds. They're just as passionate, just as crazy, just as excited about the purpose and the vision for their business and for their life as I am.

Speaker 1:

Saturday morning I come back, I'm fired up, I come to this special session that's not part of the day, but it's free and it's about becoming a licensee with Grant $25,000. This guy gets up, he speaks, he's really, really good and I'm like I want to do this. I walk in the hallway with this guy named Richie Dolan and two other people who are interested in becoming licensees and spending $25,000. Now I mean, we're already like at 30, some odd thousand. I've spent. I don't even know this dude and I'm standing in the hallway and there's just a private hallway. There's only four or five of us.

Speaker 1:

And then down the hallway comes Grant Cardone. He's a little bitty dude. He's like five, five. He's tiny and he's got a couple of bodyguards with him and he, he literally locks eyes with me about 10 or 15 yards away. He beelines past everybody else, comes right to me, puts his finger in my face and goes why are you here? Comes right to me, puts his finger in my face and goes why are you here? I said I'm here for two reasons I want to blow the lid off my mindset of what's a lot of money and I want to help pastors build their business, leaders, so they can grow their businesses, so they can fund the kingdom and the vision of pastors. Because when I planted a church financially it was hard and I want to help them do that. And Grant looked me right in the eye and he goes, ken, he goes. If you'll let me, I'll help you. We spent about four or five minutes talking and from that moment forward he's always called me preacher. He goes in, they whisk him away, they put him on stage, our session, and then we have a Q&A session.

Speaker 1:

After that next hour session, about 30 or 40 of us that signed up for the mentorship got a private Q&A with Grant. Well, I walk in, I grab the microphone and I'm like I'm asking the first question and I pitched my real estate deal that I just told you about. It's dead. I mean, I have lost 78,720 bucks and here I am looking at investing. I've already invested about five or six and I'm looking at investing another 25. You're like Ken, did you have 25 in the bank? No, I did not. But I knew it was what I needed to do to get to the level I needed to get at so I could accomplish everything God had put in my heart. I'm talking about the power of your circle. I'm talking about the power of your relationships. I grabbed that mic.

Speaker 1:

Grant walks in. He goes. Who's first? I said I am. Every eye in the room is looking at me and he looks. I'll never forget. He leaned across the table and he goes what you got preacher? And I pitched my deal to him. I said my deal's dead. And Grant looks at the end of me talking. He looks at me and he goes just buy the building. And I was like what? And he goes if you overpay for the building now, when your client sells it, someone will overpay for it in the future. Because we're $375,000 short on this appraisal. I'm like, okay, we get done at the end of the day, 5 PM, I picked the phone up.

Speaker 1:

I call pastor Steve and I go hey, my friend, I'm in Miami at this thing called 10 X bootcamp with this guy named Grant Cardone. He goes oh, I love Grant Cardone. I've got money invested in Cardone capital. I'm like, well phenomenal, you're going to love what he told me to do. So I told him he goes how are you going to do it? I said I'm going to fly home on Monday. We're going to arrange a meeting with the seller at 3 pm and I'm going to negotiate a seller held second for the $375,000 that were short at the same interest rate as the bank on a five-year balloon note. Are 5,000 that were short at the same interest rate as the bank on a five-year balloon note? Are you okay with that? He goes let's do it. I flew home on Monday. I negotiated a seller held second. We closed it on Wednesday. I made $78,720. I text Jared Glant that day and I said dude, I closed my deal that night.

Speaker 1:

We hop on that Zoom call with a thousand people and Grant goes where's my preacher at? Put him on the screen. Put him on the screen. He's going. Nuts Puts me on the screen and I share my story. Guys, if there's anything you hear me say today, and listen. You can love grant or hate grant or whatever there's things grant does, I'm like dude, you can't do that. Like there are things he does that I'm like bro, come on man, but I know the impact and the difference he made in my life. Guys, the power that you're looking for is found in your relationships. The power that you need to live a life of fulfillment, to live a life of impact and influence, is found in your community. It's found in your circle and it's found in your corner. I'll see you next week on as the Leader Grows.