As The Leader Grows with Ken Joslin

Chris Salerno | Building Success Through Leadership, Mindset, and Strategic Innovation

• Ken Joslin

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Chris Salerno, the dynamic young CEO from Charlotte, North Carolina, joins us to share his extraordinary journey in the business world. At just 29, Chris has founded QC Capital, managed half a billion in real estate assets, and authored a compelling book on multifamily real estate. We explore his transition from a successful residential real estate company to private equity and his ambitious leap into the car wash industry. Chris's story is not just about business success; it's a testament to leadership, the influence of family, and the importance of instilling entrepreneurial values in the next generation.

Promise yourself a transformative mind-shift as we discuss the critical role mindset plays in achieving success. Drawing inspiration from influential figures like Eric Thomas and David Goggins, Chris shares how meditation, reading, and continuous self-improvement have shaped his entrepreneurial journey. We talk about pushing beyond perceived limits and nurturing mental and physical health to thrive amidst life's challenges. With recommendations from impactful reads like "Think and Grow Rich," this conversation is packed with insights that can redefine your approach to achieving your dreams.

Finally, we delve into the art of building investor confidence through strategic planning. Chris reveals his strategic pivot from multifamily real estate to the car wash sector, highlighting the challenges and strategies involved in this transition. Learn how trust and thorough education play a vital role in engaging investors in new ventures, and discover the untapped potential of the car wash industry. The discussion underscores the power of discipline, consistency, and surrounding oneself with forward-thinking individuals as key drivers of enduring success.

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:

Hey guys, welcome to another episode of as the Leader Grows. I am your host, ken Jocelyn, and I've got a super. We've been literally on off air for 19 minutes talking and connecting Chris Salerno. Chris is in Charlotte, north Carolina. The dude is 29 years old. One of the top CEOs voted in Charlotte as one of the top young CEOs in the city of Charlotte. Founder and CEO of QC Capital, author of the multifamily book. This dude is absolutely crushing it, chris. Welcome to as the Leader Grows, my friend.

Speaker 2:

Hey Ken, thanks so much for having me Excited to have a conversation and let everyone listen to our conversation as well. Thanks again.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, pumped dude. Tell our audience real quick. A little bit about 29 years old is impressive as hell. Tell our audience real quick about you in Charlotte. A little bit about your company, what you guys do. You've got your own private equity firm at 28 years old. Talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Love Charlotte, North Carolina. Been here over 18 and a half years single father. I have a four and a half year old son. It feels like, like I told you going on 25, you know, he just wows me every time we have a conversation, but I think the big thing, what I do is that he's here at work with me.

Speaker 2:

So he's in the office and when we have meetings he sits in our meetings. I want him to hear what's going on so he can absorb it, because whether, if you're you know if he's playing on a game which he doesn't when we're in meetings and he's just sitting there, it's astonishing how quickly they absorb information. So I always like to bring him to the office. But around a decade ago I got into the residential real estate market where I grew a company to about $40 million in annual sales in a year and a half. I saw an opportunity and I took it From there. I sold that company to a larger company and then I became their COO. As their COO, I brought them from 92 million all the way up to 147 million in about two years.

Speaker 2:

After that I got a little burnt out, just because it was a lot of feelings involved, and I'm more hey, black and white, it's business. On top of that, uncle Sam started knocking on my door at a young age which no one tells you this saying hey, you're making too much money, you need to pay quarterly taxes. And I just refused. I said I'm not going to be doing this. So I ended up educating myself on depreciation and why all these billionaires don't pay taxes. It is legal. There's a tax code out there. You just have to read it, and so I figured out how to do that. I ended up creating QC Capital Fast forward to 2022, we held roughly half a billion worth of real estate under management just in a quick you know, three to four years from there.

Speaker 2:

So I saw where the market was headed in the multifamily space, sold off assets, and then now we are in the commercial or, excuse me, the car wash industry, which we are super excited about. We are heavily involved in it. We foresee that for the next decade Right now, just in our first year we'll end the first year with 10 assets. Next year we'll probably have around 30 total and that, right there, would put us about probably 200 to 250 million just in car wash real estate assets that we have.

Speaker 1:

I love that. So let me ask you a question, because I love what you talked about. I mean I've got four daughters. When we do our Create Conference here in Atlanta, we have hundreds of people. Two or three of my daughters are there every. I mean I'm a church planter, so they helped me plant a church when they were kids and so they love it. They're serving at the table and doing registration. My oldest daughter is 28. She's got my most precious eight month little grand, old, granddaughter. They, they love serving, they love being around their dad and they've seen that now for 20 plus years. You, you talked about the importance with your son, especially as a single dad, bringing him in and showing him, bringing him. I love it. Dude, that's probably one of the greatest things I've ever heard Not interview some amazing people. Where did you learn that at? Where did it come for?

Speaker 2:

you? Yeah, that's a great question, Ken. I learned that from my father when I was my son's age, I was in a suit and tie and they have pictures of me falling asleep in a chair. You know late at night when they're at a conference or in a meeting, and it's a catch-22. You know at night when they're at a conference or in a meeting, and it's a catch-22.

Speaker 2:

Throughout everyone's childhood. I didn't grow up from a wealthy family. I grew up from a lower middle class family which they lived paycheck to every other paycheck, so essentially in debt their whole life. And so I always say my parents taught me what not to do, how not to invest, how not to manage money, how not to grow money, how not to respect money. And so I did the complete opposite and thankfully I have a wonderful business, great employees, great family. And when it comes to my son, my goal is to be a leader. My goal is to show him by example. Now I can only do so much. As he gets older, he's going to want to try things on his own, and I have to sit there and tell him hey, don't do this, Let him do it. He learns that he has to fail, but keep pushing through.

Speaker 1:

And so I said Let me stop you really quick, chris, on this, because I want to get to the root of you, like you grew up in that I mean I get, but what in you went? I want something different. This is not what I want. I want something different and I'm going to go out and find, because I really believe you're only two things away from the next level in your life the right information and, as Grant Cardone would say, the right amount of action. But what in you was the trigger, chris, that made you go? I'm not cool with this. I want to go do something else.

Speaker 2:

And Grant's right, the right amount of action. I think with that action you have to have the right mindset and the right discipline, which is a lot of people don't have discipline in life and throughout business. That really eye-opening experience was going around to wealthy areas. I didn't live in a good area Back then. We didn't have iPhones, so I was on my bicycle and I had to ride to find new friends. I had to ride to just explore. I wasn't on my iPhone back then Didn't even have one.

Speaker 2:

So I rode on my bike to the wealthy area and I saw how the wealthy lived, I saw how the poor lived and I saw how the middle class lived and I saw that the wealthy looked a lot happier and they were a lot more fulfilled Now. A lot happier and they were a lot more fulfilled Now. Don't get me wrong, fulfilling is catch 22 in certain circumstances. But I noticed that lifestyle Money, at the end of the day, does provide freedom and it does provide happiness to a certain extent, the happiness it provides. Money provides experiences, which causes happiness. And so I realized that at a very, very young age I think I was like 10 or 11 years old by by analyzing that Uh and and from there I said look, I will not grow up this way. When you, if you ever come to Charlotte, I'll let you come to my house, kent, you may have to, uh, put on a hoodie, because it's around 62 degrees in my home, my home.

Speaker 1:

That sounds just likeate's house dude.

Speaker 2:

I had my lulu joggers, my jordans and my lulu hoodie on in his house yesterday, so I love it yeah, and the reason why I have that is because I grew up in florida with no ac and because my parents one did not want to spend the money, and so I said, okay, well, now I've made the money, I'm to keep my house as cold as I want to keep my house and so I.

Speaker 2:

But I realized how the wealthy lived. I realized how many options and life's about experiences. I'm not a big gift receiver, so if you're giving me a gift, you know obviously I'll be very appreciative of it. I mean, I love experiences. I love to go travel to Italy. I love to you know, come down to Atlanta, hang out with you, have a nice dinner with you. That's an experience that I'll have, compared to just giving me a gift. And so I realized wealthy individuals can create unlimited experiences, which also causes happiness. But our world is surrounded by money. You have to understand how to respect money and make it and multiply it to essentially get to where you want to be.

Speaker 1:

I love that because you said that, and I want to go back a little bit about your journey. Grant always says money's like a woman If you don't pay attention to it, it'll leave.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, Most definitely. And if you don't respect it, it will also leave. That's exactly right. Yeah, and so you need to understand how to nurture it, how to respect it and then also how to grow it.

Speaker 1:

Who are some of the people early in your I mean, you're 29, so it's still early who were some of the people in your life when you said, hey, I want this different, like you're biking into wealthier neighborhoods and areas of town to see whether and I don't know if you know Jesse Itzel or not Jesse did the same thing. Oh really, jesse would go when he was broke. He would go to some of the hotels in LA and some of the nicer areas and have lunch and just have water and one thing, just so he could be in that atmosphere. And that's how he started connecting with people.

Speaker 2:

So to touch on that real quick, I remember a neighborhood that, uh, they probably I think they fixed it. They put some uh uh spacers below it, but they whoever the developer was wasn't intelligent, uh, but they built a fence and it was a two feet, two to three feet clearance at the very bottom. So I'd throw my bike under and I'd I'd go under the fence and then I'd get on my bike and just ride through the homes back then they were800 to a million, now they're probably $2 million homes and I would just ride through there, see people outside, see the cars, feel the energy, the atmosphere stop me. And you have to go above and beyond to get into those rooms to feel that energy, because it is a different energy, it's a different lifestyle and it's a different mindset. And if you don't prepare your mindset for that, you're not going to get to that.

Speaker 1:

I love that because mindset is huge. I mean, that's one of the things I talk a lot about, is in one of my five affirmations I do in the morning is I'll live a life where my heart, my head and my relationships are in alignment. Because your heart's, where you dream and paint the picture God has gifted us to be able to be creators and man, we can see some unbelievable things for life. But if our mindset isn't where it needs to be, man, our dreams will trip over our mindset and you'll get I mean you literally will lose hope because your mindset keeps getting you stuck in a loop.

Speaker 2:

I professionally meditate on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So I meditate twice a day by myself, but on Tuesdays and Thursdays from seven to eight. If you tried to text me, ken, you're not going to get a response because I turned my phone off and I'm in a professional meditation room with a person who's guiding me through breathing work. Like that's the extent I go to and I'm even trying. I'm even going to retreats next year to take that to a whole different level because, kent, you only have one mind.

Speaker 2:

So why, wouldn't you pour it with great information? Why wouldn't you get healthy, you know, and and and feed your body with nutritional type of foods and water? Because you only have one mind. You cannot change it. They haven't done brain implants yet, I know. I think Elon will probably be the first one to put a computer in a brain or in a head. But you have to make sure you preserve it and take care of it, and I realized that very quickly and that's why I only like to fulfill great things in my mind.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and we'll get to the nutrition part and the health part. You and I have got someone common that we admire, but who are some of the people for you? I was going to say in your 20s, but you're still in your 20s. In your early 20s there were people that you looked to or listened to or read their books.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So I will tell you, throughout high school I went to college, ran Division I track. I dropped out of college. They were going to give me a partial scholarship and I actually dropped out to create a business and learned a lot through that proposal of that business. I didn't get the contract, but I learned a lot through that, and so they actually put me in special reading classes and they said you're dyslexic, you need to learn how to read. I had teachers reading me tests. I had to listen to tests on headphones and I just realized, looking back is I didn't get excuse my French, maybe beep it out. I didn't give a shit what they were trying to teach me because I did not find it being relevant in society, right, and so that's why I wasn't intrigued.

Speaker 2:

But my number one book I love is Think and Grow Rich. That is a book that I read and I fell in love with it. I read it so quickly and then I said, okay, well, instead of go party on spring break, I'm going to go sit my butt in Barnes and Noble. What options are, what type of real estate assets there are out there? And that's what I did and I fell in love with reading. Now I can listen to a book on 2.5x speed. Depending on the book 3x, I can read through a book very, very quickly. Why? Because I'm passionate about business, mindset, health, and so I would say Think and Grow Rich would be the number one book. But I grew up with Eric Thomas. I was fortunate to meet him, great guy, grew up with him. His motivational background ET.

Speaker 2:

ET's a good friend, love ET, love, et, and then from there really started getting knowledgeable about John Maxwell, everything he's done. I mean very knowledgeable individual, david Goggins those individuals has tapped into a mindset that everyone should strive to and not necessarily you know, david Goggins, of running miles, you don't have to tap into. Hey, I want to run miles like David, but you can tap in. Hey, I want to get my business to a 10X level, but I need my mindset there Because, as a business owner and depending on what type of business you're in, I'm in private equity so I'm dealing with lawsuits every single.

Speaker 2:

You know, not every single day, but every week. You know here or there dealing with issues every single day. I wake up with issues and I know that. But if I had a poor mindset, I wouldn't be able to build the company I am and multiple companies that I have coming online by the end of this year. Uh, and I think David Goggins, et, john Maxwell all touch on that type of mindset which you need to make sure you take care of Because, again, you only have one mind.

Speaker 1:

I love that because you know, with like with David, you know his thing. Being a Navy SEAL is like what you think your limits are are really not your limits. Like there's more in you than you think. Like when you think, okay, I'm done, no, you have extra push, speak real quick and I'm going to let me drop this book. I don't know if you've read this. It's Thou Shall Prosper.

Speaker 1:

Ten Commandments in Making Money by Rabbi Daniel Latham Bro. It's like I'm on my second time through. It's why the percentage of Jewish people are wealthy. The vast majority of wealth in the world are owned by about 2% of the population. It's absolutely an unbelievable book on why they're wealthy. So anyway, I'll throw that out there to you. But the mindset component for guys like David Goggins are like you can do more than you think you can. But entrepreneurship is tough, it's hard. What are some of the lessons that you've learned? Because you've walked me through, I did this and then I did this, and then we sold off and then now I'm doing these car washes. What are some of the biggest lessons you've learned maybe in the last 12 to 24 months?

Speaker 2:

lessons you've learned? Maybe in the last 12 to 24 months Biggest lessons to learn that I have really analyzed is I don't with the investment side of QC Capital. I don't want a big organization. Look at Warren Buffett. He only has 12 to 15 employees on the investment side, yet he owns a lot of businesses and he also has one of the largest capital holdings of just capital sitting in the bank ready to deploy.

Speaker 2:

And so a big lesson I've learned is don't be too big enough to not pivot, because market cycles are going to come. We saw the market cycle through COVID shutting down lots of businesses. What happened with the businesses that got shut down? They didn't pivot to online sales. The ones that pivoted to online sales, they got through and then now they're flourishing even more than what they did. So don't be too big enough to pivot is something I would definitely say. Don't be afraid to pivot, you have to go ahead and do that. I think a big thing I've learned as well is that it takes about 12 to 14 months to be fully immersed in any type of industry, and that's what knowledge, experience and things like that. So when you do pivot, expect 12 to 14 month runway from personal experience.

Speaker 2:

And then another big thing is I studied a lot of billionaires and I've understood the businesses they've created. And it's great looking at a billionaire and their success, but when I look at a billionaire, I want to see their failures. I want to see what do they do through their failures. Why did they make those decisions and what information was presented to them and what information did they get to make that decision to either pivot or change something within their companies to ultimately have them have that success. And a lot of it, I see, is a lot of these billionaires have consistency and they have self-discipline and you have to learn how to practice that. But those are some big things that I've learned over the past 12 to 24 months, especially firsthand in business, pivoting and then also studying really every billionaire, all your top billionaires on. Yes, it's great to see their successes, but you should also study their failures so you don't make those same mistakes 100% People will tell me.

Speaker 1:

just yesterday it happened. I was sitting in the parking lot in the gym talking to a friend of mine in California and she was like Ken, you're so wise. I said do you know how many mistakes I've made in 56 years? Oh yeah, do you know how many friends that I have very close friends, that I get to watch their life and I get to learn from their mistakes as well? Oh yeah, I love how you said on when you talked about pivot. Have you read Good to Great?

Speaker 2:

Oh, love that book.

Speaker 1:

Oh yes, where he talks about the S-curve and then the doom loop. Like for you when you're growing because for those of you guys that may not know the S-curve and doom loop and good to great, it's literally like as your company is growing up and to the right and then all of a sudden it's that free fall and then you start doing the same things and more of the same things. That got you that momentum Correct and all it does is cause the crash to go faster.

Speaker 2:

And if you real quick, I'm going to interrupt. If everyone's been on an airplane, I'd hope when you get on an airplane you take off and right when the plane starts to settle and you kind of feel your stomach, just give out. That's what.

Speaker 1:

It's, just like that curve. So with you, when you pivoted the last time out of multifamily into the car washes. Walk me through that journey with you, Like what was the aha moment that Chris Salerno had to go? I need to pivot out of this. I need to make it. I need to make a transition. So, that's going to be one question. Let me ask this, cause I'll forget it because I'm super let's do it. How did you battle the fear of doing that? That's a good one.

Speaker 2:

So, as the owner of you know the only owner I own 100% of the company. As the owner of the company, you have a lot on your plate. You have to say, okay, well, we have a handful of investors, handful, couple hundred investors that are used to us seeing multifamily. How do we start educating them on the car wash sector and get them comfortable with us operating car washes? Because they know we can operate multifamily, but now it's a whole different asset class, it's a whole different ballgame, whole different animal. It's actually a true business. How do we get them to feel comfortable with doing it? And some didn't and some did because they trusted us at a very high level. So some said, yes, we know you can do it. Some said, hey, we want to see how you guys perform and then we'll invest. And so really it was educating them first. So there's a lot of pillars. So I had to make sure, okay, pivoting here, we need to educate our investors about the car wash industry. Why is it lucrative? Why we can provide high cashflow, better tax benefits than any other commercial real estate asset class out there. And then, before I had to do that, I said to my team there's no way that we can increase rents two to $400 per unit with just paint and carpet. Don't get me wrong. Our investors and we are taking advantage of it. I said, but there's no way that's going to last a long time. The economy in the United States cannot do that. So I said sell off the assets that we can sell off because of the debt that we have on it. I said sell off the assets we can sell off right now. So we did that and our investors were so happy they walked away with over 35 plus ARR returns. They were ecstatic. Then I said okay, there's going to be a very strong struggle in the next three to five years in the multifamily space. And I still believe that in the next three to five years, very strong struggle in the multifamily space. We can dive into it on another podcast, but there's going to be. And so I said we need to pivot asset classes. Self-storage is saturated. It's going to go ahead and start declining, like multifamily. I'm not. I love the cashflow of mobile home parks. I'm not a fan of the clientele that you know uses mobile home parks. So I said we're not doing that.

Speaker 2:

So then I realized about car washes being 85 to 90% mom and pop. And so once I started analyzing that, it took me about two to two and a half months of deep research. Then I started educating our investors with articles, with posts about me looking into the car washes. So they're now, psychologically, because here's a book. If no one has ever read this book, make sure you write it down. It's called Giftology. The book is called Giftology and I'll touch on why I love this book towards the very end. Psychology, and I'll touch on why I love this book, uh, towards the very end.

Speaker 2:

However, I started educating them through articles on why we like the car washes, the statistics, the growth, why the tax benefits are so high, why the cash flow so high. And then after that, it took me another six months so that's already three and a half months before I started educating them. Then it took me another six months of a lot of educational content. But throughout that six months, on my social media, on my instagram, I started posting pictures of me visiting car washes, me going to manufacturers, me flying all up and down the East Coast, midwest, to chemical providers, equipment providers, you name it, and I started taking pictures and started educating all of our investors on it. And then from there. That's when we announced after about a year, we're getting into the car wash sector, and you guys have already seen why, because I've been posting about it. I've already built it up. This is what we're doing now. And then from there it started growing substantially. I love that.

Speaker 1:

So talk about so you're doing that. I love that strategic plan, so a lot of people, because this has been a huge topic for us, because we have so many things going on right now on the strategic planning side. I'd love to ask you, like, how long did it take you to come up with a good strategic plan to implement everything you just talked about?

Speaker 2:

I don't sleep much so, Ken, if you text me at 1, 2 am in the morning, I'll respond to you.

Speaker 1:

Listen, if you text me at 845, my ass is already asleep, so now I'm up at four. I was up at 330 something this morning.

Speaker 2:

There you go, there you go. I don't know I've been gifted with high energy.

Speaker 2:

I don't sleep much. I sleep four to if, on a good day, six hours and that's it, and I can operate at a very high level. So when everyone is on Instagram, you know, looking at things, I'm researching business. I understand, I'm understanding business, understand market trends, and so to really put together a strategy it did take me a couple months because, again, we have a lot of investors that we are now educating on a new asset class. I got to make sure they feel comfortable with us operating and thankfully, we'll end this year of 2024. I don't know when this airs, but we'll end this year of 2024 with 10 sites.

Speaker 2:

Um, we have a COO that has over 12 years of Carworth experience. We're hitting the ground running. Next year we should do around 20 sites, which puts us at 30 sites in total. Uh, I would love to see more than 20, but it took me a couple months to get the strategy essentially put together. We looked at development. We said, no, we're not doing development. It's gonna take two to three years. Investors are not gonna get cashflow by them, plus all the politics I don't wanna get in it.

Speaker 2:

So then we switched to acquisitions and then that's what I said okay, we can take these type of opportunities because your mom and pops will say, when you ask for a P&L, first they'll be like what's that?

Speaker 2:

Then you'll have to explain to them what a P and L is, and then after that they give you a napkin, or a picture that they just took of a napkin with their P and L on it.

Speaker 2:

So now we're scratching our heads and we're like, okay, now we got to get the bank statements, now we've got to go ahead and get tax returns to make sure we back into these numbers, pos reports, and so it's a whole different ballgame. But that sees opportunities for individuals like you and myself who understand business, where we can buy these operating businesses that are not operating to our level at a corporate level, doesn't have the right systems and processes, and we go in there because you and I have already done it with different type of businesses and implement those systems and processes and just grow it, and so that's essentially everything I ran through in my head just in a couple months. Then, like you said, grant Cardone says you got to put it into action, you got to take action on it, and so taking action, the biggest failure of individuals them not necessarily failing after they took action. It's them doubting themselves before they took action.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's the biggest. It goes back to the mindset thing we talked about earlier.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, your mindset. I tell people listen it is always, always, always mindset.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and the majority of people. The reason it's mindset is because you don't get around the right people to be able to. And I met Grant five years ago, this week, this past week, he looked at me. I had walked out in the hallway after hearing a 25K Grant Cardone licensee pitch with 400 or 500 people, and I was one of three that took action. I walked down the hallway and we're standing there and Grant is coming down the hallway with two of his bodyguards and he's like 5'5" he's a little bitty dude, oh, wow. And he sees me and he makes eye contact about 15 feet away. He does not break it. He walks around and puts his finger right in my face and goes why are you here? Yeah, and I said, grant, I'm here to blow the lid off my mindset of what's a lot of money and I want to help pastors equip their business leaders in their church so they can, in turn, fund the vision and the mission of that pastor.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and Grant spent five minutes talking to me and he looked at me. He goes Ken, if you'll let me, I'll help you. I said, okay, I will. And that was the difference, because it's mindset and it's being in the right rooms. In my planner I created, I have a quote right here on the bottom Get in rooms with people who think bigger than you do, that's right. And when you get in the rooms and you get around people you mentioned John Maxwell and you're reading David Goggins and you're going Jim Collins good to great, like all these books that we just talked about when you're doing those things, man, it is literally lifting the lid off of you every time that you do that.

Speaker 1:

Oh, my God yeah, you mentioned giftology. Yes, so John Rulon was a.

Speaker 2:

Oh really.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, john was a yeah was a dear friend. How did how did that book and and and John's gift for that? How did that make a difference in what you're doing?

Speaker 2:

We. We implement that book on everything we do and giftology. For those who haven't read it, go out and read it, buy it on Amazon, listen to it on audible, but I'll give you a little snippet. I'm not going to tell you the whole book, but one of the major things we do and really we model it and I built it out after giftology is that it's a psychological play. Is that when you invest with us, we don't tell investors this. But if you're listening to this and you end up investing with us, you're going to know.

Speaker 2:

But we send investors gifts after they invest with us and when they get this gift, it's a beautiful white box with our logo only on the box, and then it's a handwritten card from me and then everything in the box. Depending on the amount you invest with us, everything in that box has your last name on it and it's a psychological play. So if so, if you you know, if you're one of our bigger investors, ken you're going to get a. Uh, you're going to get the whole package. But one of our top packages is a handcrafted wooden bamboo charcuterie board and you pull out the bottom. It has knives there, like it is the whole perfect entertainment, for if anyone's coming to your house and then on that it has your, your last name on, and so what's going to happen is, every time you go out and take that board out, your wife takes that board out to cut, cut those steaks that you like to cook. You're going to think of who got you that cutting board.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Every time you go get one of our hand custom made Yeti cups, you're going to think of who got you that? And you're going to use it because it has your name on it. And then, when you're entertaining, people are going to be like, oh wow, that's a really nice cutting board and it's a pretty damn expensive cutting board. I'll tell you that, and I've got to buy a lot of them too. But hey, I'm okay doing it, but your guests are are gonna be like, wow, that's a beautiful cutting board.

Speaker 2:

Where'd you get that? You're going to think of us as a company. And then what? Now? That just sparked the conversation. So so that's what we do when it comes to our gifts. The only branding we have is on the box and on the handwritten card I have. Other than that, all the items inside are personalized, because it is a psychological play where we are giving it to them. They're going to use it all the time because it has their last name on it, whereas if it had QC Capital as our company name on it, they're going to keep it in the very back of the damn cabinet, but it has their name on it. They're going to put it in the front of the cabinet. They're going to be proud to use it every single day and they're always going to remember who got it for them.

Speaker 1:

I love that. I love that. What's one of the biggest things you've learned?

Speaker 2:

in the past 30 to 60 days. What's a lesson? What's something that you've learned? Something I've definitely learned is learn how to stay disciplined, and that falls into dieting as well. We touched on that before we got on here and I ended up hiring a nutrition coach that actually, uh, trained zach efron. He trains, he trains a lot of uh celebrities, um, but one uh being zach efron for the movie baywatch. Um, one late night, um, I got some, something came up and I remembered that movie and so I went in. I went on instagram, found out who the coach was, slid in his dms, ended up having a call with him and saying, hey, I need someone to write me a full meal plan based off of my macros, micros, all that in a full workout schedule and boom.

Speaker 2:

And so that discipline of making sure you're eating healthy throughout the month, making sure you are staying disciplined and there's a chocolate cake not eating chocolate cake that falls over to your business and staying disciplined, can I uh, there's a deal that's right outside of Atlanta.

Speaker 2:

I looked at a couple of days ago, right down the street from a couple of our assets that we have. This deal is beautiful. It's gorgeous, numbers are wildly profitable. However, I, I just I can't get comfortable with the deal, so I'm not moving forward with it, whereas most people would go ahead and just move forward with it and take the risk. I'm being disciplined because I don't have all the boxes checked and so I'm being disciplined before I put my personal capital in and any of our investors capital in, and so that discipline again also helps in the world of health and work out. Working out it also helps in the world of health and working out it also helps in the world of being a wonderful father to my son is being disciplined. So I would say that has really opened my eyes up, is really how to stay strongly disciplined, and that starts with mindset.

Speaker 2:

You have to have the right mindset to tell yourself hey, don't eat that food or hey, that's not a good deal, don't buy it.

Speaker 1:

I love that. I showed you my before and after picture. Earlier we talked about Gary. Brackett, which you know, gary, I created a concept about four and a half years ago in that journey called incremental, not monumental. Small daily discipline, decisions over time, always equal monumental results. Success cannot escape you when you do the right things every single day.

Speaker 2:

But people don't want to be disciplined. That's the biggest thing. But also, on top of that, they don't want to be consistent. You have to be consistent with those little wins to get that ultimate win.

Speaker 1:

Yep, and that's what I love doing, man, when I coach people on performance and morning routine and daily routine, I'm like, listen, I'm not the most talented guy in the world, I'm not the best looking guy, I'm not the most gifted guy, but you will not get up at 4 am more times than I do. You will not walk through your morning routine and goals, gratitude affirmations, top three. You won't do the things that I do more than I do them.

Speaker 2:

I'll tell a quick story. You know you are a hundred percent on that. You have to have that mindset. I know we're coming up on time, I and I. I have that mindset when it comes to work. You will not outwork me. I worked a position one time that I worked 36 hours with no break. The boss came in, yelled at me because they just got fined by the state of North Carolina. So that right there, having that mindset that you have and you pour that to your whole inner circle, is just phenomenal. And the great thing is, once you have it, you can then help other people too. Chris, final thoughts for our audience today. Final thoughts is I know you probably got a lot in an earful out of this whole podcast, but final thoughts is definitely stay disciplined, stay consistent with what you're doing. I promise you you will see that success. Definitely, make sure you follow Ken and I on social media. But, yes, stay disciplined, stay consistent. So now I've got to ask you another question after you just said that.

Speaker 1:

What are some of the things that you tell yourself when on the outside it doesn't look like you're winning or you're just tired Like I do want to have that cookie. I do want to have that cake.

Speaker 2:

So that's a big thing is I don't get tired, I don't get sick. If you're going to go around I mean, there's so many books out there the placebo effect. I have a headache, so I'm going to take this pill, that Advil, or I'm going to take a pill that is really nothing, and then once you take that pill, so I'll find the book and I can give it to you. But one of the books I remember reading that the statistics show out of the scientific study is that individuals who had that placebo pill, compared to the quote, unquote Advil pill, actually healed faster and stronger. And so if you're going to tell yourself you're sick, if you're going to tell yourself you're tired, if you're going to tell yourself you're not going to do it, well, you're right, you're sick, you're tired, you're not going to do it. So it starts with your mindset. Don't adopt that type of negativity in your mind and we all have it at certain levels, I'm sure, ken, I can tell you there's certain times that it starts to creep up. The goal is to shut it up as fast as possible, and you do that with positive affirmations to yourself.

Speaker 2:

One thing I'll never forget, my father told me, is that Muhammad Ali used to jog next to the bus and when he stood up and the teacher said what are you going to be? He says I will be the heavyweight champion of the world. And he told me another thing too is that he would look in the mirror and I don't know if this is true or not, but it still resonates with me is that he'd look in the mirror and say I look good, I feel good, I'm the greatest. And look, you're not cocky. When you're doing that, you're giving yourself positive affirmations and you're telling your body you look good, you feel good, you're the greatest.

Speaker 2:

And ken and I, I'm sure, goes through a lot of you know negativity the day, a lot of situations that we have to go ahead and make sure that we can get a grasp of and take care of. And if we had poor mindsets, we wouldn't be sitting in the chair or you wouldn't want to be listening to us, because on our own time, when I'm meditating, I'm telling myself I look good, I feel good, I'm the greatest. This will, whatever situation I'm dealing with, we will get through this. We just need to find that solution. But I know we will get through this and you have to adopt that mindset.

Speaker 1:

I love that I just shared last week with our collective on our Wednesday night call. It's never as bad as you think it is, but it's also never as good as you think it is. Oh yeah, and it helps you just develop this even keel Like man. I'm just going to stay even keel. If it's great, great. If it's not great, I'm still good. I just I just know because it's going to get better If I keep doing the work. People are like dude, did you lose almost a hundred pounds? I ate less than I worked out every day.

Speaker 2:

Oh, it's shocking. Even if you didn't work out, it's all about your diet. So you stay consistent and you say discipline. Discipline not to eat shitty foods, and you say consistent with eating healthy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that dude. Well, dude, we uh, we're out of time. We're going to have to do another one, cause we didn't even talk about health at all, which is huge. We did talk, and we talked about that for 19 minutes before. Chris, what's the best way for people to get in touch with you, find out more about you and connect with you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, best way to get in touch with me is directly on Instagram. Chris underscore, salerno underscore and my CMO may get on me for this, but for the next couple weeks we'll be running. If you go to the link in our bio, you can go ahead and fill out the information on our Instagram page and we are going to be flying one lucky person out to Charlotte to spend a weekend with myself. Be around me in the office, see my day-to-day what I'm doing, sit on investor calls with me, you name it. So if you go, follow me directly on Instagram Chris underscore, salerno underscore.

Speaker 1:

Make sure you go ahead and click in that bio to enter to win, to come out spend a week with me Q1 of next year. So you're going to give them pre-workout so they can keep up with you for the weekend, or how does that work?

Speaker 2:

Well, I can give them some lion's mane, some healthy stuff. But I will tell you, after those three days you're with me, you will be very tired.

Speaker 2:

My son can't handle it. A lot of people can't handle it. You will be very tired, but I will say you will leave with a wealth of knowledge, new information that you haven't learned and you'll get, obviously, my personal cell phone number, all that fun stuff. But we'd love to have you come out. You can see our office, talk to our team, be around our team, see how energetic our team is, because they feed off of me If I came in doom and gloom. They're not going to feed off of that, or they will, but they're going to be doom and gloom. They're not going to feed off of that. They're going to, or they will, but they're. You know they're going to be doom and gloom and they're not going to want to enjoy work. So I'm excited to hopefully pick, you know, one winner from your podcast to come out and hang out with me for a weekend.

Speaker 1:

I love that. Guys. Chris underscore Salerno underscore on Instagram hit the link tree, link down there. Register for this, guys, listen it. It my new book is called. Proximity is a Cheat Code Relationships. Every time you go to the next level in your core five areas whether it be faith, health, relationships, business or finances it is always, always tied to a relationship. You've met someone, they've spoke something into your life, you've learned something for them that helps you go to the next level. Chris, thanks for joining us today. My friend Ken thanks so much for having me. Hey guys, thank you for joining us on another episode of as the Leader Grows. We'll see you next week with a new guest. Appreciate you, guys. Thanks.