Overcoming Adversity with Joe Evangelisti

ome on level this is George G and the time is right.

Joe Evangelisti 0:14
welcome today’s guest strong

a powerful Joe evangelist. He Joe, are you ready to do this? Yes, sir. Let’s do it. Alright, let’s let’s go. Joe is an entrepreneur. He is a coach. He’s a veteran, podcast host as well as a veteran. Thank you for your service, sir.

Thank you. Okay.

george grombacher 0:32
He is helping people to unlock their potential and make life changing transformations. Joe, I’m excited to have you on tell us a little about your personal life’s more about your work and why you do what you do.

Joe Evangelisti 0:45
Absolutely, man. Yeah, no. So personal life. Let’s see, I got two little girls nine and 12 and beautiful wife and two dogs. And I love real estate. That’s about that’s about the summation of my, my personal life.

Yeah, I mean, why why I do what I do? It’s a great question. I just because I’m passionate about I’m driven for it. It’s exciting for me. And I feel like most people should try to find what drives them and go out there and do it right, I got lucky enough, I’ve been in construction my entire life. Actually, like you’d mentioned I was in the military, I was in the US Navy Seabees for many years, and did construction for the military, which a lot of people don’t realize you can do, especially the Navy.

And then right after that got out and started flipping houses. And my partner and I did about 1000 flips that fix and flips and rehabs and 12 years and finally called it quits about three or four years ago and decided to pivot into self storage development. So that’s what we do. Now we buy amazing pieces of ground all over the US and develop them into retail, self storage and retail component tree. You know, and, and we get to bring along some amazing people, some amazing contractors, developers, real estate investors, and, you know, of the like people like that. Love it. So how, how do people find what drives them? I think that that’s, if you can help somebody connect with that what the probably the nicest, most wonderful thing you could ever do for him. Yeah, I tell people this all the time. And it’s really, really true. Because a lot of people don’t believe this. But every one of us has an absolute superpower. I don’t care what it is, right? Like, you’d be the most amazing cake baker, you could be some incredible skateboarder, you could be really, really good at negotiating real estate deals, you could be a great salesperson, but every human being has not only something that we’re really, really great at, but usually the reason that we’re great at it is because we enjoy the hell out of it. Right. We’re passionate about it. And so,

you know, the challenge is not only finding that, but then having the guts to go after it. And I think the second part is the most difficult for a lot of people, right? A lot of people know what they’re great at, but they’re just they’re driven to say, Okay, well, that’s, you know, I’m not meant for that, or I’m not capable of making that into a business. Or why would why would anybody want to learn that from me? I hear that a lot, right. And the real reality of it is, there are people making millions and millions of dollars all over this world, basically selling what they’re great at. I mean, I was just using an example the other day, I bought a stretching video, like stretching, you know, like, I don’t even know how it came up. I just decided I do Jiu Jitsu. And it’s really better if I’m more flexible. And this thing comes across my Facebook ad and it’s you know, $37 this advanced stretching course, you think about it, this guy’s is so millions and millions of these things. In fact, when you go online, and you Google his name, you’ll just massive, right? Literally, multi multimillionaire teaching people how to stretch. If he if he can do it, anybody can do it. Right.

I love it. So it’s, it’s, it’s fear, it’s unworthiness. It’s, what is it that it requires guts.

It’s mindset, you know, it’s people, a lot of us unfortunately, feel that, you know, we’re not good enough, or the self doubt creeps in, or I’m not worthy of success. These are these other modalities of fear, right, that, you know, I’m not worthy. Or if I try something, I might fail. Or if I try something, there’s people that are going to be paying attention that they’re going to maybe mock me or make fun of me or judge me because I didn’t do something well. And that’s really the three major modalities of fear. And so our mindset shift, what I do with my clients is I really go behind the curtain and try to figure out like, what drives them? What are their obstacles, what values what morals and are they are they driven by? And then where do they stop? Like, where’s that like, like, like roadblock for them? And a lot of times it’s resetting their mindset on what they think is capable, what they think they’re capable of, and unlocking that, that true potential through figuring out what the fear is, you know, once we know what the fear is, and we can define it. A lot of times, it’s amazing. You’ll see when you literally write it down and you make it real, then you start to look at okay, well what’s the worst what’s the worst case scenario, what could possibly have? Well, I my dreams could come true. But people might make fun of me. Well, that’s a pretty good trade off. Right? Right. So for a lot of folks, it’s really just unlocking those limiting beliefs that are holding them back from their own success from their own abilities.

george grombacher 5:17
Nice. So you and your partner, you’re, you’re out there flipping, you know, dozens, almost 100 houses a year, for goodness sakes, just a ton of them do 1000 of them. And then for a variety of reasons, you you decide to get into self storage. So was that just like, oh, just wake up one day? Or did you have fear and apprehension? i Yeah,

Joe Evangelisti 5:41
wide fear about getting into self storage? Yeah. So it was a big move. For us. It was It was basically a scalable option. I think, you know, if there’s one thing that this whole COVID thing has done, for most of us, it’s a lot of business owners, I must say most of us a lot of business owners, adversities, plants, the seed for opportunity, right? And so, a lot of times when this adversity hits us, we start to realize, like, you know, in order for us to survive, we have to pivot, we have to course correct, we have to make a change and reflection back on that. A lot of times when there’s an unfounded adversity, or this, this this that, you know, out of out of left field adversity, like a pandemic comes across, you start to realize that you probably ought to maybe should have been doing that thing all along. Right, it helps people start to, you know, define what’s working and what’s not working, and what’s really working a lot better. And I think you saw that around the world where a lot of businesses took off for the last two years. And the reason why is they were forced to pivot. You know, I had one of my companies, we had 14 Live salespeople in the office every single day. And on March 13 2020, I remember the date for some odd reason. We call them up and said don’t come to work. And they were all like, What are you talking about, we’re going zoom, guys, we’re going virtual, we’re going zoom, we’ll send you training will take in 48 hours, our entire company when virtual. And, you know, the adversity created the opportunity, which was I figured out, we don’t need to hire people that are just in our backyard, right? I’m hiring people in Venezuela, and, and Panama, and, you know, all parts of the country, that are actually way, way more skilled and talented. Because I’m not locking them into coming to an office every day, all of a sudden, I can expand the horizons of the availability of the human, you know, treasure that’s out there, you know, of all the people that are capable. And so I think a lot of businesses experienced that during this time. And that’s just one example of adversity, creating change that maybe should have been here all along, people are downsizing their offices, they’re shifting, they’re creating more opportunities online, people are building working virtually. And for a lot of owners, it’s that it’s that also that mindset shift of, well, I feel like I have to have control of them if they’re not in front of me all day, every day, or they’re going to be working right. And what they found, I think by loosening up that grip and letting go of that bind was that not only do people work better, when they have freedom, but they they’re more passionate about it, right? They’re not, you know, they’re more committed to their work, and they feel like they’re more tied to something, even if they’re sitting in their own living room.

Do you think that that do you think do you know, if you are wired differently than most people strikes me just in the short amount of time that we’ve spent together that when you run into something, and it slows you down? You don’t sit there and get sad about it? You just keep moving and keep moving until you find your way through the through it or around it?

Yeah, yeah, I’m definitely not I’m not unique in that when that way, I can tell you that because I hundreds of coaching clients that I’ve had, finding ways to unlock that is the key to success. I was actually on the call with my own coach this week. And what we were talking about is what we call the refractory refractory period. Right. And so, like, what is Tom Brady, Tiger Woods? You know, any any man any major performer that peak of their ability, Michael Jordan, what makes them special is how quick they recover. Right? It’s how quick they get knocked down and get back up, shake it off and focus. You know, and MJ could miss that three pointer that you know, was 10 seconds away from winning the game. Okay, well, I could spend the next 10 seconds, you know, crying in my soup and lose the game or I could spend the next 10 seconds come up with a game plan to figure out to get the ball back score so we could win. And that’s what that’s what Brady does. That’s what tiger does. I mean, look at the pressure Tiger played in over years and years and came back to to win another masters. I mean, it’s that’s what the peak performers of the world do is they learn how to bounce back quickly. Mm hmm.

Yeah. What did you call that refractory?

We call it the recovery period or the refractory period, right? It’s like that that time where you have to catch your breath because let’s think about this. You know, every every business owner, if you’re doing something notable, right, you’re getting slapped in the face every day. Like every day there’s a right hook every day. There’s a challenge the problem maybe not every day but damn near feels like every Right. And so it’s a matter of when these things happen. What are you gonna do about it? Right? Are you gonna spend three days complaining about it and whining about it? Or are you going to pick yourself up and go back into the game? And that’s what makes peak performers different. You know, when you see people that are out there, that we want to emulate that, why does that guy always seem so happy? Why does he always seem like he has it together? Why does he always seem like he has all the answers? It’s not that he does. It’s just that he’s easier. He’s capable of bouncing back quicker. And he’s present. And he’s focused. And he’s, he’s a problem solver. Generally he or she, I’m not just talking about men out there, obviously. But, you know, amazing leaders generally are able to bounce back quick.

Yeah, I appreciate that. Like that. That’s right. So how are you spending your time, right now? What is a regular day look like if there’s such a thing?

Yeah, I actually love to have completely different days, every day, that to me, I am a variety guy, I can’t have the same schedule all the time. But I mean, for the most part, the beginning of the week looks like me getting my companies going. So I run three different companies. And we I do that off of what I call an L 10. Meeting, which is something out of traction, the book traction, if anybody’s ever read that book, but hour and a half meeting, get the team situated, get them straight for the day. And, you know, I might do a couple coaching calls during those days. And then, you know, Wednesdays, Thursdays, there’s mastermind group meetings, it’s podcasting. It’s, you know, doing amazing interviews like this, and then I leave my Fridays empty, and my Fridays are generally empty to fill in the blanks, if I need to get some stuff done in the morning, or, you know, spend the afternoon my wife and you know, the kids are off during the summer, or if I can pick them up early from school. You know, the Fridays are generally my, you know, calming down days, and then I spend the weekend getting set up for the following week.

Nice. Tell me about the masterminds that you are part over the year running.

Yeah, yeah, we do. I do two different types of masterminds where, and we’ll go to two amazing places, like we just got back to Mexico a couple weeks ago. You know, and we spent half the time working on, you know, mindset and obstacles and challenges and business and, you know, whatever it is, we want to solve at the boardroom table. And then we spent half the time, you know, out there having fun, right, you know, doing expeditions going on yacht trip, doing, we did zip lining, we did some scuba diving, we did some, you know, all kinds of just different activities. And what I found was, you know, over the course of years of running these things, you know, sitting around a conference table for two days is great. And all you know, it’s fun, you get some problems solved. A lot of times you leave there you feel really good, but really the best interactions, the best networking, the best, lifelong connections, they’re built around a fireplace, you know, maybe with a whiskey in your hand or, you know, when you’re out there riding, you know, ATV at 50 miles an hour, you’re bonding with somebody like those, to me are the best type of events because you’re you’re mixing in yes, we’re going to solve problems. Yes, it’s a write off. Yes, this is business. But we can also have fun while we’re doing business.

Yeah, yeah, I appreciate that. It is a you can get a lot done with whiteboards in a conference room table. But but the experiential stuff, and the the human element, and there’s something about fire, I think also, and I know that there’s something about whiskey, so there’s definitely something about fire, you’re onto something. George fired whiskey commendation,

that’s, that’s where lifelong connections are built?

For sure. So is is is that part of your real estate business? Is a confidence part of your coaching?

Yeah, I actually. So I would say 90% of people who come to those events have some kind of real estate, either need or one, you know, maybe they’re running a law practice, but they want to start investing in real estate. Maybe they’re, you know, I have one of my one of my just think of some of the people are coming to Vail in a couple weeks. One of them’s a nationwide general contractor who’s looking to invest in real estate, whether he’s a you know, an accredited investor in a deal or whether he starts buying his own real estate. So I think there’s a real estate component, but I like to mix up the room with different business owners. I don’t want people who are just real estate investors necessarily, some of them are. But you know, I like bringing in, you know, as an attorney, I love bringing in someone who wants an insurance company or a marketing agency or an IT firm, because the truth is, when you’re sitting in a room full of people that all do exactly what you do, you don’t solve as many problems as if you’re in a diverse room of people who have experiences from all different walks of life who can chip in and say, Hey, I’ve had that problem. You know, this is what worked for me.

Yeah, yeah. I’m sure it’s possible to learn from people who are just like you but but you’re missing out on so much from just the lived experience perspective, but from just the perspective that people are coming at and everything so I appreciate that. So, when when you are putting these masterminds together, how are you how You advertise you know, like like you say this is come to value

social media Yeah Hey guys we’re going to we’re on unveiled a couple weeks hit me up if you want some information on that they PMA because I look at myself as the curator of the room. I mean, these are events that I run, but it’s not just come learn from Joe, and he’s gonna stand there and preach to you for three days. This is curating the room with a bunch of people who have some level of really good success, and they’re going to add value to the room. So it’s not just because you can afford to come you should show up because anybody has a lot of people have checkbooks, right. And I always say without trying to think about cursing, like I always say we have a no aihole rule. Right? So like, one will spoil the entire event, you know, yeah. So So I want to interview them, I want to talk to them. If it’s not somebody I’ve known for a long time. You know, what is it you’re looking to take away from the event? What is it you’re looking to bring to the event. And generally curating the room is my number one job getting a really, really good roomful of people. So you don’t have that bad apple. And that’s what makes the experience so much more epic is, you know, you can you can find really just amazing people to spend time with.

So when you’re doing maybe a post mortem, well, what what do you want to hear from somebody that’s going to make it a successful event?

I, well, you need feedback from it from a previous event? Yeah, I want to I want to hear their takeaways, like, Well, what did you learn? Who did you connect with, because everyone’s coming there with at least one big obstacle, I try to tell him to keep it three or less, because you know, you try to solve 10 problems, you’re never going to go take action on them. But give me your one big obstacle, I guarantee we can overcome your obstacle, we’ve never had an event where we couldn’t overcome that obstacle with the people. Right, and a lot of people are, you know, they’re trying to build a good culture, they’re trying to figure out how to recruit the right team, they’re trying to figure out how to take care of the team they have and incentivize them, so they can get, you know, a better work product out of them, while still making them happier and more, you know, productive people in society and community. Some people are looking to, you know, just raise private money, right. So, you know, it’s a lot of, again, getting outside your comfort zone. And just, you know, we call it paradigm shifting, right. So like, if you’ve never, you know, spoke on stage before, you might be super nervous about that, but then we get you in front of a stage, you start speaking now, all of a sudden, you’re a speaker, right? That’s a paradigm shift, you can never go back to not being a speaker once you stood in front of 100 people and made a speech, right. So, you know, creating those paradigm shifts, where it’s like, you know, I’m not sure about how to raise private money. Now I have raised private money. Now I feel like it’s more tied to me or, you know, I haven’t been, I haven’t been comfortable speaking. But now I’m an event speaking in front of people, ways to just help people break through those zones where they can come to a new paradigm. And then usually that discomfort or again, that adversity we were talking about earlier. That’s what breeds opportunity, right? When we shift into those new paradigms, and all of a sudden, you find yourself in a new opportunity. That’s where that that creationary thing happens.

Love it. Like Napoleon Hill said, every adversity carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefits.

There you go. There you go. I think that I think that quotes been bastardized about 10,000 times in the last 100 years.

So I certainly imagine. Joe, the people are ready for your difference making tip even though you’ve given us a lot, what do you have for them?

Yeah, different speaking tips gonna sound so simple, but it’s take action. Right? You know, I have clients all the time, or people come up to me and say, you know, I’ve been thinking about this thing a long time. And whether you believe in faith, you know, the bigger universe, a God or religion, somebody and I always say God is tapping you on the shoulder, right? If you’re dreaming about this thing, if you’re thinking about this thing, if you’re constantly focused on what if I had that success or if I was able to make this a business or if I was able to make this a viable thing, or if I was able to free my time up more, that’s God tapping on the shoulder saying take advantage. Get outside your comfort zone, right? hire a coach, hire a mentor, you know, get around the right room of people that can help you succeed because those people will help push you to that end goal to that end dream so it’s really take action on your dreams. Right? So many of us live these lives of quiet desperation but decades without taking action. I can’t tell you how many coaching clients I have in their 50s that say to me, man, I just wasted 20 years and my kids are grown up out of the house and I need to I need to buy that time back. We don’t get to buy time back George

I think that that is great stuff that definitely gets come up not the lives of quiet desperation thing that is not good stuff. That is an awful thing. And while you’re but your your your your your point is well taken. I mean, there’s never going to be a better time to right now to do this stuff, ma’am. So wherever ever

people are waiting, you know, I’ll wait for the COVID restrictions. I’ll wait for this. I’ll wait for that. You’re gonna wait until you wake up 10 years from now wonder what happened the last decade and I just can’t stand to see that happen to people which is why we go out into into these types of events. Love it.

Well, Joe, thank you so much for coming on. Where can people learn More about you how can they engage? And how can they get to one of these events?

Yeah, they can they can actually visit my my Facebook wall Jove Angeles do they could search me out, they could find me they could follow me there. Most of the time, that’s where we’re posting things on these things. They could also go to legacy builder dot coach, Legacy builder coach.com. That coach. Again, that’s where we host all of our there’s a ton of free downloads there and you know, ways to help you achieve more success in life.

Love it. Well, if you enjoyed as much as I did, show your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciates good ideas, find Joe on Facebook, and I will look link that in the notes of the show and then go to legacy builder coach, and take advantage of other great resources in maybe find yourself sitting in front of a fire with a whiskey solving that big problem that you’ve been just ruminating on for so long. Thanks again, Joe. Thank you. And until next time, keep fighting the good fight. We’re all in this together.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai