The High Value Man Conversation

Justin Hermann's Blueprint for Success and Personal Growth

Erin Alejandrino & Josh Lashua Season 3 Episode 19

How do you transform from an aspiring pro hockey player to a highly successful entrepreneur and ultramarathon runner? Join us for a riveting conversation with Justin Herman, who shares his path to financial independence and personal growth. From the ice rinks of college hockey to the demanding trails of business school at Arizona State University and the construction industry, Justin's journey is filled with lessons on resilience, integrity, and the power of a motivating community.

We dive deep into the significance of reinvesting in oneself for growth and the transformative power of mentorship. Hear how Justin navigated the uncertainties of the 2008 housing market crash and leveraged insights from "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" to pivot towards a career aligned with his passions. Discover the challenges and triumphs of opening a new office in Texas and how adapting to a virtual sales model during COVID-19 showcased the importance of flexibility and strategic planning in business.

Moreover, we introduce the High Value Man (HVM) template for success, emphasizing Vision, Values, Victories, Vice, Voice, and Vocation. Learn about Justin's disciplined approach to life, the impact of personal development programs like 75 Hard, and the paramount importance of making actionable steps towards your goals. Whether you're looking to gain financial independence or find inspiration to chase your dreams, this episode is packed with actionable insights and motivational stories to help you create endless opportunities through hard work and dedication.

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Speaker 1:

Your income like as you make it. You can invest back into yourself so much easier, because your bills are lower, so less liabilities, so you can take that money, invest it back into yourself, to grow. Because, ultimately, when you get better, everything gets better.

Speaker 3:

What I've seen in your company in just a short amount of time that I've been exposed to it, is that you guys are young, entrepreneurial and you pivot very, very quickly and those are really powerful skill sets If you think you're going to align with anybody. It's like a have somebody that with this some credibility that's been doing it for a while, but also the ability to think around the corner, find something that has what you want and work to become like the best mentee you can to learn the skill set. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And their template, because success is found in templates. So if you can find a template that's going to create excellence, then pay'd. Pay the price, young, when people want to help you.

Speaker 3:

This is the High Value man Conversation Podcast, a show dedicated to the mission of building high value men. One great man means a great family, a great neighborhood, a better city, community state and the world. The question is, if not you, then who Guys? Well, welcome back to the Highlight man Conversation here in studio with my good friend, man of God, mr Justin Herman, and we were just recapping our 100-mile ultramarathon that we did last year. Justin's done two 100-mile ultramarathons Former college athletes, husband, not yet father.

Speaker 1:

To a French bulldog French bulldog, that's right.

Speaker 3:

He's got Cowboy, which is, you know, for any dog owners out there, that is very much your child, wife's pride and joy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm here to support.

Speaker 3:

I get that, I get that, and we met originally through Mighty Men, so our men's group here at in Texas Elevate Life Church. And it's interesting when you get around a different community. I remember I first moved out here Everyone's talking about this hundred mile run. I was just like the conversation and I was like there's no way. Like I had ran marathons. I'd run two ultra marathons at that point, like 32, 33 miles.

Speaker 3:

But as soon as you start changing the people that you spend time with, like the culture, you get different seeds, possibility, and so everybody in the gym, everyone was just talking about running a hundred mile ultra marathon and our friend Steve Weatherford that's the group we connected in. I linked up with him when I first came out here. We knew each other from back in the day in California. Yeah, just started seeing like different groups of guys and I just remember being really drawn to you in the beginning. It's like dude, this dude's a gangster, he's young, he's motivated and he just does hard things. What you said life works when you're in integrity, and I just want to give honor to you said life works when you're in integrity and I just want to give honor to you, man. I've seen your life work because you've been integrity, putting God first, relationship first and really discipling discipline in a really beautiful way. It's awesome man.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I appreciate that, I received that and I'm honored to be here with you today. Yeah, like you said, our relationship over the past year it's been incredible and knocking out a hundred miles with you is just like just another. You said our relationship over the past year it's been incredible and knocking out 100 miles with you is just like just another you know, another feather in the hat. Yeah, another deal to the bucket list. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

It's been great. So, yeah, honored to be here with you, yeah man, I'm excited to hopefully, you know, help somebody through this. Hopefully somebody gets what they need from it.

Speaker 3:

I love it. You have a ton of wisdom and I'm a plant this seed. Now, justin, you're 31, right, 31 years old, married beautiful wife. You guys just had an epic wedding in Italy, right, and he, you're doing very well financially and we won't talk about specifics and numbers, but I'm talking like very well and the kind of income about specifics and numbers, but I'm talking like very well and the kind of income yeah, all glory to God, but the kind of income that most people don't see in a year, like you're producing in quarters and months, and there's a really neat process behind that that I want to lean into, but I know that hasn't always been the case for you. Like, give us a little bit of background on where you come from and what got you here.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, grew up in Phoenix, arizona, or, yeah, phoenix, uh, arizona, born and raised oldest of four and, uh, I always thought I was going to be a pro hockey player. That was the goal growing up and I realized my freshman year at ASU that I wasn't going to be a part of that 0.0001% that gets paid for what they love. And, yeah, it sent me on a journey like the past 10 years trying to figure it out right. I remember college hockey ending and now I'm sitting in business school like actually listening to what the teachers are saying.

Speaker 3:

Sun Devil, right, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, asu, right, yeah, and sitting in, I mean ASU is huge, right, it's 80,000 students on just Tempe campus and yeah, I just remember actually listening after hockey was done and I mean there's not a lot of direction in business school. They're talking about being department store managers, about being department store managers and I'm paying my way through school thinking like what, what's it all for? Am I going to get to the end of this four years?

Speaker 1:

And you know I ended up back in a department store that I was working in in high school, right, yeah, yeah, um, I just, I was looking for a template, something to follow, because hockey was it before, and I realized like I need to make a change. My dad was in construction and so construction was like that next go. So it was hockey, it was business school, then it was maybe construction will be it.

Speaker 1:

Maybe I can find passion. I didn't have passion in it growing up, like I didn't like labor and getting yelled at for not doing the job right. And it did teach me how to complete the job because my dad like would not let us off the hook unless the job was done. Um, I remember just like even you know, the ceramic garages, like just bump in the garage, like the little things, but if it wasn't done right, we did it again okay, it's a good lesson and um.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but construction school did that for five years, was working in the bar scene, distracted at ASU during that period of time because I didn't have my purpose and something I loved, like hockey. It was working to pay my way through school, going out buddies. I joined a fraternity during that time and I got really distracted during that season and you know, everything happens for a reason. I needed that season. Uh, according to god's plan, right? Yeah, I just remember living in the past while I was going through that season because I'm like, okay, I get to build buildings, like it's a little bit better, salary out of school is a little bit higher, be able to pay off student loans quicker, right yeah and living in like the past, because like oh eight, oh nine was really tough time for my family.

Speaker 1:

My dad worked really hard yeah.

Speaker 3:

Tough time for the whole world. Yeah, u S economy. Yeah, that was the the big housing market crash in 2008.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. And so he lost his business during that time and it was really tough for the family, not because he didn't work hard, not because he wasn't doing things right, but just if you're not getting paid for the work you're doing, it's tough to keep your doors open.

Speaker 3:

Right, and that business model of construction is so dependent on mortgage security and housing and all that, and so you have a financial crisis. What I hear you say is that you know that external event affected your entire family.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, and it did lead to. And money's not everything, but it is important. When I mean money is freedom, money is the ability to not have to think about money and I just I do remember like parents did end up splitting and going their ways. And I just remember, like going to school without the financial backing and support and being in construction for five years, I'm like do I want to build a family on the same framework?

Speaker 1:

the same template it's going to. I know there's going to be really high highs, but I'm scared of the low lows, not because of like, not willing to work hard, but because of the economy, if you will.

Speaker 3:

Sure.

Speaker 1:

And so, um, I learned that my parents are amazing. They did a great job raising us kids and, um, you know, I, just as I graduated, I got out of school and I wanted to make six figures out of school.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, like crazy enough. Every college like graduate stream. Yeah, make six figure income.

Speaker 1:

Yeah crazy enough. Every college, like graduate stream, yeah, make six-figure income. Yeah, I'm like, I'm like around 70k out of school. I think I was, you know, good at talking to the guys at the career fair. Uh, probably better than my my reports showed as far as grades. Like, I was average student but, um, you know, hit it off with a guy at their career fair, got a good job out of school, was doing a project engineer for dpr construction. We were doing, um, I was in the hospital remodel okay, part of it, and um, I was getting good at it. But I knew I needed something on the side as well, something that was like my business, a way to produce additional income to get over the six figure mark, and something that might be in a different industry, if you will that was stable.

Speaker 3:

That takes a lot of guts, first off, to recognize that the footsteps you're walking in, you're following kind of your dad's roadmap, isn't 100% the direction you want to go in. You know, I talked to so many guys that they just they follow the template that their dad unconsciously laid out for them go to school, get a degree, you know, following the family business, without really searching their heart and searching out their vision of like, what do I ultimately want? So honored you on that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, thank you, and it's not easy, right, but I think, as you can identify it, you understand that. Um, what does Nick Bear say? He's like choose the hard right over the? Um, easy, wrong, yep. And so things compound. And I understood that, young, I understood robert kiyosaki's cash flow quadrant like yeah, rich dad, poor dad self-employed business owner investor and if you're an employee, someone's telling you how much your time's worth and you're only getting paid while you're working.

Speaker 1:

Around the clock yeah, self-employed was like the goal out of school to have a self-employed deal on the side, ultimately to become a business owner once I could have money to start a business. Right. Smart and then investor, ultimately to have time freedom.

Speaker 3:

Time freedom, passive income, income where your money is working for you. You're not working for your money, yeah, and then you're able to be at kids games yeah you know, have a family that you know.

Speaker 1:

Money's just not the factor for it yeah you have the financial backing and then you can be a blessing to others as well. Blessed to be a blessing yes and so um, yeah, money's freedom at the end of the day, and and when you don't have it, you're focused on it and I, I. My next try was like stock or stock market. I think that's naturally the progression.

Speaker 3:

I was like.

Speaker 1:

Oh, like, if I get a couple bucks, you know, throw it in Robin hood, see what can happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh or there's probably there's definitely more uh secure brokerages. But at the time it was Robinhood and my buddy was doing option trading and he was making money with it and he was teaching me and he gave me a book on it. Okay.

Speaker 1:

And he. It's crazy, like everything happens for a reason. I remember the week before I found what I do now. He lost like six grand. Oh, that stings In option trading. And I was playing with like fake accounts, because I know how to do it yet. Yeah, let's, let's just use these like, uh, fake money accounts and see how this goes.

Speaker 3:

But I had to be a pretty like awakening moment, a like someone that you were trying to learn from. Like lose their shirt as like fresh out of college. Like six grand, that's a lot of money for anybody yeah, for he wasn't like 30s, like he wasn't older.

Speaker 1:

He was like literally the same age as me, 23 at the time. Yeah, so it's a lot of money, that's a ton of money, yeah, yeah how did how did that experience?

Speaker 3:

so I'm noticing a pattern here. So you're um an observant person. You're observing a your dad's decisions with his career path, and then the reality of the housing crisis affecting the entire family. This other mentor making some maybe not poor financial decisions, but also losing his shirt at $6,000. So now Justin's kind of watching these things. How did that mentor's decision and lose that money? How'd that affect your? Your decision down stock trading?

Speaker 1:

it woke me up, yeah, like it's kind of like another whoa, like the construction thing's like oh, uh-huh, all right, so this. So I'm gonna make money like kind of busting it with the construction. I mean, I was working like 60, 80 hours a week because they give you salary and then you're called in on the weekends, not really getting paid for the weekends, sure, um, and you just when you're an employee, you think like whatever you're spending money on, you relate it to the, the work you had to put in for sure.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, there's an hourly like a cost to correlation, yeah, and so I started.

Speaker 1:

I basically had a friend that was he was working hard to make money, like he was investing his time and making money and not like relying on his money to make him money. And I had time at that point, god's plan, like me and my now wife. There's a happy ending to it. But you know, buddy lost six grand girlfriend Girlfriend broke up with me. She was in college at the time. We had been dating six, a little over six months at the time, eight months maybe, okay and she was going back to school and I was going out into the real world and, yeah, I. Just same weekend as that happened, my buddy let me know what he was doing in in insurance, and I wouldn't normally be open to insurance. I didn't ever think that that was something I would do, but it just was so simple how he explained it he's like our buddy david is he has.

Speaker 1:

We have a mutual friend's dad who was really successful from this company, retired on his residuals. You know him, he was able to be at all of his son's stuff and he retired from this company on his residuals and he basically told my friend that you're going to work really hard, it's not sexy but it's a way to get wealthy. And that's what I did. And so my friend, who I believed I could do anything that he could do, was doing it.

Speaker 1:

And, um, essentially he was helping families and the company gave him the families to see the leads. They gave him a script and it was about at that time. It was like $600 a sale. It's about seven750 now on average and my brain just started running the numbers. Like you said, I'm observant, I'm more introverted. I'm in the gym thinking how we can grow in all aspects of life each morning and I couldn't let go of it. I'm like $750. If I protect two families a week, week, I'm supplementing my income. If I'm protecting four families a week, by the way, that's like one person protection. So if it's a couple, I could make 1500 protecting one family and I'm helping them. Yeah, like on the job site, I'm talking to the same people, the company who we serve, how you get the leads, it's unions and veterans. I'm like I'm sitting on the job site.

Speaker 1:

It's like telling these guys I'm like, I'm sitting on the job site. It's like telling these guys to keep their hard hat on and taking pictures of them on my iPad. You know, kind of like being a tattletale, almost as a project engineer. That's almost your job. Yeah. And at the end of the day, like when they go home to their wife, does their wife really care too much about what they did on the job site?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean maybe, but they're more concerned with the money that they bring home to provide for the family, right, and I'm keeping them safe on the job site. But I'm like, hey, if I just move my focus, get good at this, I can help protect their finances. So I'm still like in the safety department almost right, like we don't know when our time is and if people aren't educated on life insurance, it is a challenge and everyone has our whole deal. What I was educated on was that everybody has benefits through work and especially like they pay dues for their benefits and they're great while they're working, but as soon as they leave, change careers, retire those benefits, they go away and they're great while they're working, but as soon as they leave, change careers, retire those benefits, they go away, and so where we fill in the gap is we help them with permanent benefits that fill in the gap.

Speaker 1:

So when they leave their job, change careers, retire, they have them in place and they can lock in rates younger and it made sense. I started looking at my circle and I'm like who Talking to people realizing that everybody's dependent on their work benefits and they don't even understand that they need permanent benefits right, it's good, that's a good point, yeah I mean as a business owner, you're a problem solver right and um, I just identified a big problem.

Speaker 1:

It made sense and it seemed like a great opportunity and fast forward I'm still rocking and rolling with it?

Speaker 3:

yeah, man. So how long ago was that, um, when you uh, it sounded like you started um the insurance, um, on the side of the desk while you're still working construction? When was, like, the shift? I'm gonna go all in on this what was? What was that moment?

Speaker 1:

yeah, um, my buddy made 12 grand his third month, the one come on. I was starting yeah, and from what I believed at the beginning, I'm like anything he, my buddy david, can do, I can do, I just okay when you're your circle, like you, have confidence in knowing what same thing about the hundred miler man.

Speaker 3:

There's never. There's never in a million years. He talked to me two and a half years ago. I would even considered running 100 mile. The same thing for the first marathon I ran. It's only because I was around people that talked about and had done it. Um Bedros and I were at a at a event in cause. It was like 2019. And he was sharing his story about running a marathon and dudes built like a gorilla. He's like 220 pounds, like he's a big dude, and I was like, if he can run and complete a marathon, I can run and complete a marathon. And so it's just by spending time with other men they're doing great things that you start to have that seed of greatness planted within you. And so same thing for a hundred mile and same thing for. You know, you see someone create possibility in life. $12,000 in a month post college Like that's some money.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, 2017,. It even went further, you know. Yeah. So, yeah, same thing. Well, I started working out like my friend's dad was a pro, pro bodybuilder at the time and I was like 12 years old and he would take us to the gym and you know, you start. You just think that's a normal thing is to work out all the time when the people around you are doing it. So Awesome.

Speaker 3:

So you see, your friend make some money um three months in to this line of work and I imagine right around there you probably exit the construction and go all in. What is what is your first year look like?

Speaker 1:

Well, I actually so he? It became a reality because we have a really good mentor. His name's Dustin Minicamp and he's responsible for most of the U? S expansion for our agency. Um. We're the number one agency in the company by a lot, and he moved 15 times to open new territories back when we were in person. Okay.

Speaker 1:

So he was in Arizona and he would like to invite us over to his house for trainings. And so we were at a training at his house after David had just made $12,000. And I'm still studying for my test Not the best test taker but I passed. And I was sitting around the fire and one of the guys there started having a real conversation with me. He's like so when are you going to burn the boats? And I gave him my word and I quit the next week.

Speaker 3:

No way.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome bro. I didn't tell anyone I had peace about it.

Speaker 1:

I knew my script. I had seen um, seen it work in the field and I believe I believed in myself and I knew that, if I was, if I was going to compete, if you will like if I was. I don't want to do something and be a part of like the majority. Yeah, I something and be a part of like the majority yeah I want to be a part of, like the top 10 yeah, that's good and so, uh, I gave my word, I quit with my project manager.

Speaker 1:

I remember walking back from lunch with him. We just had lunch at the hospital. We're walking back across the parking lot to the construction trailer and, um, just kind of taking a pause and like letting him know it was on my heart From a place of like I just know that this is where I'm being led. And he kind of like, and he's like, take him back, because I'm obviously the guy on the job. And I told him, like if you need three weeks, like whatever it takes, to get somebody trained up, I'm committed to it. I don't want to leave the job hanging. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And he like kind of freaked out for a second and then he gave me honor. Actually, once we got back to the trailer and he thought about it for a second. He's like man, honor to you. And then he's like you gotta quit with Lee. So Lee was our superintendent of the job, like missing half a finger, one of the smartest guys I've ever met, and he's like kind of laughed. He's like insurance, yeah, that's the first, that's about all he said. And then I got a call later from the project executive and he's like offering me more money to stay and I just knew what. I knew Like there was peace in my decision and I gave him my word and I was going to see it through Because ultimately, like when you're young, I'm thinking like if I'm in this game, I move 15 times open offices, like who?

Speaker 1:

do I want to work with. I want to mentor the guy who is like all in committed, like leaving a job, like boats burned is going to do with. Yeah, I want to mentor the guy who is like all in committed like leaving a job like boats burned, is going to do whatever it takes.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and I wanted to be that person for my mentor, and so and I think that, like that's such a good point If, if you're a 20 something and you're figuring out like the next season of life, latch on to a great mentor, you know, find a culture that you fall in love with, because when you're young you have time and time is one of those things. You talked about. This you know. Your relationship ended and so you had a season where you're like I can just double down on the work and, if you can, yeah.

Speaker 3:

And if you can leverage that time in your twenties. Yes, so good, so good, man, that's great.

Speaker 3:

So I'll over you, no no, no, I'm excited for you. It's cool to see, and I see, such an opportunity for you know, I talk to young guys quite a bit and the biggest thing I think they think is that they're not as far along as they want to be. You know there's this comparison. Social media is just very destructive in that standpoint. You see so many other people out there that you think have more, but the truth matters. What you have in your twenties that you don't have, you know, later in life is you have the ability to make a lot of mistakes. Twenties like they're, they're typically. If you can find a good mentor, like older guys love pouring in 20 somethings, if you can learn the skillset of sales, great communication, leadership in your twenties, your thirties, forties and fifties become just a completely different life.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and your income like as you make it. You can invest back in yourself so much easier because your bills are lower, so less liabilities, so you can take that money, invest it back into yourself to grow because ultimately, when you get better, everything gets better.

Speaker 1:

Amen Yep.

Speaker 3:

It's good.

Speaker 1:

The reason the 1% is the 1% right.

Speaker 3:

Yep, a hundred percent, yeah, so tell me about this. Uh, your first year. So you, you burn the boats, you hop in. Um David makes 12 grand. What's the first 90 days or so? Um, you fall on that footstep, you leave construction management and what is your first 12 months? Look like.

Speaker 1:

I paid my bills, my first and my second month. Okay, we were in field. I had like a not fuel efficient car we would pick up lead packs for like small towns for the union. So I remember going to like Bullhead Arizona for my first road trip.

Speaker 1:

Three weeks in and David and I just put it on our credit cards at the beginning of it. We knew we were going to pay it back by the end of the the trip. Yeah, I had faith and uh, we're training two guys actually from nevada who had to come over the state lines because in bullhead there's a, there's laughlin nevada on one side of the river and then it's arizona. Right, so we would stay in nevada and then we'd write business in a to start training up Nevada people. Okay.

Speaker 1:

It wasn't virtual, you couldn't sell over. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

It's like it'd be cool to open a bad office. We were thinking like three months in this way and I wrote 6,000 in production, so it's about $3,000 and six days. That was the first time I really had a successful week and, man, I was working like I was figuring it out right, and I was working all day. I think all my sales were after 7 pm at night, but made it happen, you know, and, uh, didn't really have service.

Speaker 1:

I remember getting back and switching my provider from my dad's plan to my own plan because I'm like man, I'm losing money, being on team over right and my relationship struggling because my wife can't get through to me. Yeah, when I'm out in the for girlfriend at the time, but no wife, she can't get through to me and, um, but I have an ability to like focus and we all have that ability. If our vision's big enough, like if our vision's right, then the work makes sense. Yeah, true, and so I don't think you ever work harder than when you're back against the wall, yeah, and you like are up like a little bit from pain. But you can't operate from your pain. You got to operate from purpose. Right, it's good, turn your pain to purpose, and so I was thinking, like this person was putting my account and if and if they don't wake up tomorrow and I didn't get to them tonight, like that's on me.

Speaker 1:

So, my structured hours. I would run and I would go to the buzzer and then, provided whatever happened, I could sleep good that night and I would just use that purpose. And so, month two, I got a promotion into a leadership role, which was something I was excited about. From the jump, I'm like I'm leading on construction job sites, like I want to lead in this next career too. What do I got to do? And then you can get promoted. Your second month If you do this, this and this Accomplished that. My third month. I was our first test month. If you will, it's kind of like running Like you have your base building weeks, yeah, and then you have your 100 mile race.

Speaker 1:

Right, right, yeah. So my first test month was July 2017. I trained my first agent that month, which was exciting, and we're still rolling together now, trace. I wrote over like 20,000 LP. I made over 12 grand cash, just like David had done, and so he made 12 grand. I made 12 grand and then fast forward to Trace. Tr trace, his second month after training with me that that month and he came from sales. He's actually teaching me sales when he was with me, because I didn't understand sales psychology, I just knew the script and what it was doing.

Speaker 1:

He's like yeah, bro, you're pre-empting all the objections for their objections. That's what the script does. Oh my god, that makes sense, and he's working to use his sales skills to pre-empt, just naturally in a salesy way, but not with the script and it wasn't working. So it was interesting because he got the script down after that month after just seeing like repetition of it working yeah and he wrote over 20k in 10 days.

Speaker 1:

That following month made 12 grand wow and he had to borrow a car to go on that trip because you like not making a whole lot of money for a month is tough like you can figure things out, but it's.

Speaker 1:

It ultimately comes down to a way of thinking of like like I need to do this because of this, not I can't do that because of this true and so he found a way to win, went on a road trip to new mexico with us and, um, he even borrowed a girlfriend's car to go out there. But he was able to come back, made 12 grand in 10 days, leased a new Lexus like, drove onto the lot, gave him his broken truck like, got into a new apartment, and I think that's where my leadership got put on. Was like seeing somebody else have a breakthrough in their life change like in a month.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and it just flipped the light and I got like addicted to that and we, yeah, together, have gone on to fast forward a year. We got an opportunity to open an office in texas and, um, just continue to grow and and help people figure it out. I love that what?

Speaker 3:

what did you do first year in the business? Like revenue wise revenue wise.

Speaker 1:

I made six figures. I made over 100 grand my first year 100 grand.

Speaker 3:

So when?

Speaker 1:

you factor in the first quarter construction money and april, and then may through december, uh, I made six figures. That's awesome.

Speaker 3:

So you hit your vision of wanting to make six figures out of college.

Speaker 1:

And it's compounding right. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

So I actually made eight grand the week before Christmas to get over the hump, and it was because of just being focused on the right things throughout the year and compound pounding and being able to build a business. And so, man, I just remember, like week before Christmas, $8,000 hits your bank account and, uh, exciting, I bought my sister to Christmas presents, cause I didn't know which one she wanted and was able to, um, you know, really have a feeling of having some financial stability for the first time. I had never had that since ever. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

But that was like the breakthrough. It was actually the week before Christmas, like right almost to the buzzer, that I broke over the six figures.

Speaker 3:

Wow, well, that's awesome and it just it speaks so much to. Yeah, it truly it does. And, you know, having faith, having good vision, surrounding yourself with men that already have fruit in their life, having a good mentor, and then but I also hear you talk about that there you know there's a, there's a plan and there's a structure that you're kind of following throughout the process, which is really powerful. So you're not out there just trying to figure it out. I think so many guys.

Speaker 3:

I love the idea of stepping into entrepreneurship. Everyone has a dream, especially in America, of being a business owner. But if you don't have the, if you don't have a vision, if you don't have, like, proper structure, if you don't know what you're doing, if you're not following a template, you're going to lose more money than you're going to make and it's going to be one of those things like, oh, I tried that business ownership thing but it just didn't work for me and so, like what you're, what you're presenting is that it's like a package deal follow the script, run the play get a good mentor and you can create success.

Speaker 3:

Man, that's how I got average grades in school is copy paste.

Speaker 1:

There you go, yeah. So I knew I needed a template that was simple and I could copy and paste, cause I'm willing to work.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I love that. You put hard work with the right template and then you can create fruit Dude. It's beautiful man. I love it.

Speaker 1:

That was that first year and there was a lot of learning experiences, sure, going into starting a new office in Texas. We basically had to restart because we built Arizona a bit and it got us promoted to be able to go be the people that were chosen to go open an office. It was myself, trace and then a guy from Washington. We all moved to Texas on four weeks notice. We were really excited Like we got the high-rise apartment we had. I remember Trace came out and he like looked at two apartments and they were both by American Airlines and at that phase in our life we weren't as focused on the right things as we are now. Like he was messing around partying in dallas, like looked at one apartment, looked at another one and um, he like I had two options, we just that one, it didn't really matter where we lived anyways chose that one and then um moved, put office staff in the office.

Speaker 3:

We had a front desk person, hr manager, because all this is pre-covid, right where you guys are still meeting a person, and so it was really the first time like I had overhead as well, nice apartment, nice car and um it.

Speaker 1:

It was like a wake-up call, because we went from doing six figure months as far as production goes to like cut back to like 40 and we're like completely rebuilding phase. Yeah. And it was like starting over again. But I didn't want to do it slow this next time and because, like when you, with what you're doing, when you do it the next time, you know how to do it better than you knew how to do it the first time so it's not like a full restart.

Speaker 1:

It's like I knew what to do, but I didn't want to do it as slow, yeah, so I added finances to the picture, because we can invest two things we can invest time, money or both and so I was committed to investing both the second time and so investing and we got it growing. It took about a year and there was a lot of growing pains through that year, learned a lot about myself. First time I did 75 hard was actually six months in because I'm like how I'm doing things. I'm not as focused as I need to be. I'm not leading people the way that ultimately, they need to be led.

Speaker 1:

And if this thing's going to take off, it's going to be because I get focused and so I did 75 hard for the first time with like four of the guys and, um, fast forward, two quarters made board of directors the end of that year. It's awesome and um and spoke on stage for the first time at one of our conferences at caesar's palace in vegas and it was cool. And the month after that everything shut down for covid, so it was like a new, a new reboot, right it was like virtual sales is different.

Speaker 1:

It was like arizona, and then it was texas and then it was um, virtual sales and now scaling that model and figuring that model out and helping people figure that model out, I mean literally. I remember driving. We were in new mexico on a road trip. Because this is like a trend, we would go every six weeks to a small town pick up lead packs and go protect the families in those places, and so they were going to close the border in Texas. So I drove back to Texas to sit at my counter and do what we used to do in person, virtually with the papers for the first time, and I actually had enrollment on my first one. It was a referral that I was meaning to get to in person and I finally got them uh, got them seen from my countertop of my apartment and we didn't go back it was 100 virtual from that point and helping people figure it out.

Speaker 1:

But there's three groups of people and change. There's people that are going to make it happen and then like right away, they're on it yeah there's people that are going to see, like if it works, and then people into it which I mean commission like can't really wait early too many weeks especially when you're new into it yeah and then, um, there's the people that are waiting for it to go back, so you lose people.

Speaker 1:

you're working to get new people trained up on a system that, like it's brand new and it was just growing pains. I'm grateful for it all because it's helped me evolve into really being able to coach and help people on that next level. It's helped me understand myself more and be able to get outside of myself. It's led me to my faith. Like during that. It was right before we went virtual. It was like the month before. Like that's when God really brought me to my knees and I'm like there's got to be more.

Speaker 1:

Like you led me to this, like this is where I'm supposed to be, but I'm screwing it up somehow. Like how can I be better? And that's like that's really been the x factor is like putting god into the mix with things, just like in my relationship, when it's ella and myself and then god's at the, at the top, and we're both focused on being our best for god, our relationship works better. Once that started happening in the business, it just started growing and like people were positive and excited and helping each other.

Speaker 3:

Even though you're facing national shutdown. You know fear in the media and everything else massive business pivot. You know so many companies shut down during COVID but the ones that are still standing today are the ones that pivoted like created a new opportunity from. You know old, traditional model. I mean for decades, probably more than 100 years, people were selling insurance in person, over at a countertop, belly to belly, and then being able to shift the business model online. And what I've seen in your company in just a short amount of time that I've been exposed to it is that you guys are young, entrepreneurial and you pivot very, very quickly and those are really powerful skill sets. If you think you're going to align with anybody is like a have somebody that with there's some credibility that's been doing it for a while, but also the ability to think around the corner, because you know technology is changing, everything's changing. We're we're completely digital world for the most part right now.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and honor to our, our chairman, rick Altig. He's been doing it for 42 years, so he started doing it like pay phone and map. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Getting around town to start the agency in like 1982. So he's such a bright mind and he's so committed to the agency. He's always like five steps ahead of wherever we're at. It was crazy. He knew like he was already ready for virtual before we had to make the switch, wow. And so it's gives you a lot of confidence knowing you have leadership like that, where they're already like they're already 10 steps ahead of where you're at and so it alleviates you of having to, like, be the innovator, figure it out, and you can be the implementer.

Speaker 1:

And I'm okay being the implementer, like, yeah, we need to go run 100 miles. Like I'll figure out a trading plan, we'll go do that right. Yeah, you know, uh, now this phase of my life, but uh, it's the same thing in business, like if you have an innovator, that's like paving the way and you know things are only going to continue to get better. It gives you a lot of confidence run the play just running the play.

Speaker 1:

Yeah'm just going to do my part and I know like it's all going to work out. It's all going to be good.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so you have all the benefits of an entrepreneurial business time freedom, financial freedom, leadership, growth, impacting purpose without the overhead of a traditional business where you're spending decades like learning very expensive mistakes and failing and falling and doing it really by yourself. And so many entrepreneurs are in the field of whatever their profession is, and if they make it past that five-year mark, which is like typically where most small businesses shut down, then they can see some level of success. But most of them are just suffering and struggling because there's not another person that has already ran the runway and they just end up like losing losing the house on it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and to your point with that, like that five year like that's just the thing amongst all businesses. And so I remember being like five years into the business and things were were challenging. Like this is when we were actually going through that phase of like we were going through a little bit of a pruning phase and in in the agency to get to our next level. Was that first year virtual? And um, I remember plugging in at elevate with the guys and, like you know, when you get around other entrepreneurs you realize everybody's got the same stuff going on like you're you're not special.

Speaker 1:

You know like this is just like, if you're gonna be a successful business owner, like you gotta figure these these things out about you so that you can grow and lead and have your faith in god and and grow. And so, yeah, absolutely like, the five-year mark is a real thing and it's. I became really grateful for our structure when I started hearing about other business challenges that solo entrepreneurs were having cause. I'm like, okay, I don't have to worry about that, that's nice. Like yeah, and if you can be grateful, everything works.

Speaker 3:

It's so good. It's good, man, let's. Let's fast forward a little bit. You just got back from Ireland, yes, and this was a work sponsor trip. How, how was that telling about that? That culture? And just like I know that these are one of the many trips that the company puts on for you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, rick brought his whole family, so that's our mentor and 40 years in the business, so seeing the Altig family how they operate, it's an incredible template. But he also brought 180 of us to Ireland.

Speaker 1:

That's crazy man. So if you've been to ireland, like there's not a whole lot of places you can really fit 180 people in. All these 180 people made over 30, 40 000 in march, wow. And so just like, with bright minds, like all of the best were together in an environment where you learn the most offline, just hanging out with people, figuring out what's going on and so great people, great environment and man.

Speaker 1:

They treat you incredibly like they want to give you world-class experiences because, ultimately, once you've experienced that, you want that for your future family like you want that for your friends, and so like they rented out the cathedral, a thousand year old cathedral we had dinner at it and um just incredible experience I hear guinness in ireland tastes better man, that was my birthday.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, my birthday. We went the hills like a whole deal, but guinness, the gravity bar was great, like straight from the tap like they give you a class on how to pour it and, yeah, it tastes. It tastes different in ireland, like I don't know it was. It was incredible. We had dinner. There's a restaurant right next to the gravity bar and then they had the whole place rented out and um it's all had a dance party after the dinner and it was was just it was beautiful.

Speaker 1:

Rick Altig was like swinging his wife around and showing us all how to dance.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's what's up, man, that's cool. And I know one of our other friends, brandon Bowman, united States Marine.

Speaker 1:

He's really only been at the company for about a year or so and he qualified to go on that trip Just putting head down like grinding it out, and I think he had his best month leading into coming out there, right yeah, he's the first person to ever do 50 000 in production on 100 referrals wow and so what we're really focused on right now is, as of the past two years, as veterans and the relationships with vfw are really strong and they're actually counting on us to serveFW are really strong and they're actually counting on us to serve veterans at the highest level and they're endorsing us and giving us videos with the quartermasters and they've created a scenario where everybody wins when we serve veterans at a really high level. So Brandon used to be a U S Marines like a tail.

Speaker 3:

I've only been correcting this every time I talked to him. So once Marine, always a Marines. Marines like uh, once a marine. I've only been correcting this every time I talk to marine. So once marine, always a marine, so it's never a former.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yes, okay, good call, yeah yeah, um, thank you for correcting me, making me better he'll listen to it and it'll be like always a marine

Speaker 1:

yes, absolutely. And uh, he, he, you get out of the marines like tailgating, that's not a civilian job. So you get out of the Marines like tailgater, that's not a civilian job, so you get out of that. And yeah, he got back on mission with AO. That's good. Veteran serving veterans. He can communicate with a veteran way better than I can, sure, just with rapport, and that's who the guys ultimately want to talk to at the same time is like another veteran. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

You don't have to be a veteran, but vet to vet is cool. And, yeah, another veteran, yeah, um, you don't have to be a veteran, but vet to vet is cool. And yeah, he's testimony to what's possible. He's out with a veteran. The guy helped him with 20 other veterans to go see and all month he was just going veteran to veteran on leads that he had created himself and wrote 55 000 alps, doing like 30 calls a day, made 40 000 cash, got to speak at the cathedral on what he's doing and, um, his wife's now been able to leave her other job and they're having a family business, so cool. So, yeah, it's really cool to see what's going on with the bowmans?

Speaker 1:

yeah, that's beautiful man and honor them like they created that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and again, following the vision you know, being a part of like a rock star culture, like just running the play, which, which is the biggest thing, and then it creates the freedom you know. There's almost like a formula to it. Yeah, template leading up to this conversation is that and what I, what I love about hearing success in in other people's lives is like what is the template? What is, what is the process that anybody could do? If you are a 20, 30, 40 something, you're out of the service in the military, you're looking for purpose. If you are mediocre man, trying to become a high value man, like, what's the template? We've got a template in HVM. We. You know, if you've listened to previous episodes, it's the six B formula vision, values, victories, vice, voice and vocation. So there's a process you can follow. You follow anybody in any domain that has success. There's always a template, and the great thing about templates if it works for one man, it'll work for another man, and so you don't have to be, you don't have to have like 180 IQ, you just need to be able to follow the plan.

Speaker 3:

So what Justin and I were talking about leading up to this is there's a template for success that you've created One. It's this vision is like having clarity of vision, having mentors that have vision, that can look down the road, so you don't have to be the innovator, but you can be the implementer. And so that's like such a critical piece is if you don't have a vision for yourself, latch on to another guy, another community, another tribe that's got a vision that's big enough that include your vision, and so you can start to pick up the seeds of greatness. And so we talk about vision culture, because if you're not running with other people that like to run like you, then life's boring.

Speaker 3:

And I think about the coolest thing about what we have at Elevate Life Church Mighty Men Inside your Company, just the tribe we have around us is the culture athletes, high performers, dudes that are crazy enough to say yes to a hundred mile ultra marathon, like go on the ice bath, like workout, like that's a gangster culture, because it truly is. Um, you know that, that proverb that iron sharpens iron, so you have good people around you. Then the third aspect of this template is structure, and you've talked about this. Leaned into it is that you just run the play right. You just like literally run the play, like fought like pull up in the playbook follow the script, do the thing, do the thing and then you create which would be the last piece is freedom, and so yeah, and with the template like step one is always vision, because when I was in construction, I didn't have.

Speaker 1:

I didn't have the vision. My mentor on the job site didn't have what I wanted. The mentor and insurance had what I wanted the relationships like people talked about him so highly, like his life was meaningful. The mentor in insurance had what I wanted. He had the relationships People talked about him so highly, his life was meaningful. He had the finances. He could retire that day and be completely good, making millions a year. He had the wife, the kids and so vision's number one what do you want and can you actually achieve it through what you're doing? Because if you can't, then you have to be okay and find gratitude with what you're doing and understanding that there's not that.

Speaker 1:

Next, yeah, that next thing, if if I mean priorities right but, um, I got really excited about not having a ceiling and being on mission with veterans. We're talking about protecting three percent of the three percent. That's 300 million in sales within the next five years, where he did 30 million last year. So like I can get really excited about that vision and it fits a lot of people. So vision and then culture, ultimately like what we offer the company as culture within our environment we were just talking about, like with elevate life, like an incubator of greatness where people can invest their time, talent, their energy and they can get a return from it they can help and serve people and uh, and just get better.

Speaker 1:

You talk about faith, family fitness, finances like we can level all that up if our culture is focused on, on all of those areas for people. So good, yeah, and then um structure. It's a script, we read it on a computer to clients. Yeah, and motion emotion is important, right, you really have to care and transfer the emotion and you learn tonality and pace and all of that through training. But, um, you know, it's got.

Speaker 3:

It's got a runway. Yeah well, I love the simplicity of it too, but then there's there's a growth path from you know personal production and a leadership side where you're learning all the business lessons, um, that a normal entrepreneur would and you, just if you keep following the blueprint, the plan, you can create, you know, a business, that that works for you, yeah, I want to run my own like insurance franchise, right?

Speaker 1:

And so my mentor put a plan in place with me and I was able to accomplish that and then help other people accomplish running their own businesses, their own franchises, having residual income with it. Every policy you write you get paid on for the lifetime of the policy. Was that like fail safe for me that gave me so much confidence investing my time Because, like every year, my base level lifestyle can increase, like even if you know I do the same thing, right, because you have the policies from the prior year and the prior year and the prior year like all compounding to ultimately give you freedom, to be able to invest it, to create more freedom. I'm like what if I can pay my price in my 20s, invest in my 30s and live out my purpose in my 40s? What does life really look like?

Speaker 3:

So, good.

Speaker 1:

And I was able to find that vision through the company and, ultimately, the freedom.

Speaker 3:

I love that man. So good, all right. So I got a question for you. I want you to just riff on what advice would you give to a 20 something knowing everything you know now?

Speaker 1:

find something, that somebody that has what you want, and work to become like the best mentee you can, to learn the skillset and their template, because success is found in templates. So if you can find a template that's going to create excellence, then like pay your price young, when people want to help you more and you have time to get the fruit. But when you get better, everything gets better. So ultimately, like find somewhere where you can grow your skill sets and who you are and everything else will naturally fall in place.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, I love that. I love that man. It's um, I just uh, the a lot of listeners are in that 20 age, you know, early 30s and um. I think that that's such wise, sage advice is find somebody that has fruit in their life, that has put the time and the effort into something, and you don't have to make the same mistakes that they made. You can actually time collapse, and what I love so much about what you just did, very naturally, is you observed older men and mentors in your life and you're like ah, that dude made a mistake, I don't have to make that same mistake. Well, I think a lot of young dudes they just they are unconscious or not paying attention to it, or they don't realize that there's another option, and so they just make bad mistake after bad mistake, when really, no matter what age you're in, if you can find somebody that's already failed and has a good template for success, you can save yourself so much pain and misery and just start living much more purposefully.

Speaker 1:

Yes, absolutely, it's great. What does George Bush say? He's like fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, can't get fooled again. Yeah, yeah, wow.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, true, love it man. Great dude, this has been awesome.

Speaker 1:

How has been awesome pocket house? How can people find you?

Speaker 3:

uh. Social media, justin herman, underscore um, or online at justinhermanmindsetcom. Great, great, I'm gonna leave this little little uh droplet here um, if you are man or woman and you are passionate about helping other people, you're committed and coachable, you're willing to be mentored and you're thinking about maybe a career shift or change like. Reach out to Justin, have a conversation. His team's growing and, just on the outside eyes, being able to do life with you. Man. You've got fruit in all of domains faith, fitness, family, finances, and it's one of the reasons I consider you a very close friend and I just love what you're producing and reproducing. You're coachable, you're mentorable, but you're building something really powerful and, as a 30, something like the amount of freedom and opportunity you're going to be able to create in your lifetime is truly exceptional. So if you're, if you're in that domain, you're listening and you're like man, I can maybe do that. I could follow, I could follow some structure. I need a greater vision for my life. Reach out, cause this guy is here helping serve man. Feelings are mutual. Love you brother. Yeah, man, peace bro.

Speaker 3:

All right, my friends, if you enjoyed this episode, do us a big favor. Give Justin a follow on the socials, like, subscribe. Leave us a comment on this video, share this with another person on their journey that might benefit from it. And, more so than anything, go out there and take some seeds of what you heard in this call and go do something with it, because life is short and you can create an infinite number of opportunities if you just do the work. Absolutely Amen, much love, many blessings. Talk to you guys soon, boom.

Speaker 1:

We're off the podcast.

Speaker 3:

Get back to the fucking mental lab.