8 Figure Business Exit, Trusting God and Dreaming Bigger With Josh Kosnick | Ep 90

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to Never Stop Building, where we discuss all things business, growth and leveling up to become the most elite version of yourself. We're here to challenge fear and shatter doubt. Let's dive in what is up everybody. Welcome back to Never Stop Building. I'm your host, sam Kaufman. As always, incredibly blessed, grateful and excited to be with you today. I have a super special guest with me. I have Josh Kosnick, founder of Cairo's Coaching and Consulting. Josh had me on his podcast a while back and we had not really met prior and that was one of the better, one of the best podcast conversations I've personally had on his podcast and I know for a fact he's got a lot of value and quite a story to deliver to you today. So, josh, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2: 0:53

Glad to have you, hey, excited to be here, sam, thanks. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1: 0:57

I'm here to talk to you about the current board sessions behind you and everything You're ready to rock yeah dude, we've got, I've got SWAT analysis on one side and budget planning for a client on the other side, and that's you know you. Just if you want money or strengths and weaknesses, you just flip it over, depending on what you want, good stuff. So, josh man, can you, can you tell the audience a little bit about you? Who are you? Who is Josh?

Speaker 2: 1:20

Yeah, first and foremost, I'm a child of God and father of family, man for four young kids 12, 10, eight and six, husband Jenna, and for beyond that, I'm an entrepreneur at heart, so that's why you and I connected so well, I think. And so back when I was 24 years old, I started in the financial services business, started advising on both the defense of an offensive sides of financial planning and now. So that was my first foray into entrepreneurship and along the way, also owned fitness franchises and that was more my wife's gig. I was kind of the business mind and financials behind it, but she ran it until we had our second child and then we sold those to focus on family as I was running my financial firm and actually sold my first exit. Well, the first exit would have been the financial franchise. My second exit would have been, I should say, the fitness franchise was the first exit.

Speaker 2: 2:26

My financial firm, the personal practice that I ran, was my second exit when I was 30, 35, 36. And what was happening at that time was I was doing a dual role where I was recruiting and leading and developing new people as well as running my personal book, and I was finding more joy in the leadership side of things, sam, and God was just pulling me that way. So I was asked by this Fortune 100 company to buy out and secede my father, actually, in running this large financial firm and at 36, I did that and I had over 100 advisors, about 250 staff, and two years ago, at 41, I exited that for just over eight figures and I had offers to go and build it again and for different firms and different companies and that would have been the easy path. Honestly, big offers and God was just. Every time I took a meeting. Here's what happened I felt a little sick to my stomach and I didn't know what. I didn't know exactly what it meant. Right then and there, other than it just didn't feel right.

Speaker 2: 3:39

And then, with some prayer and reflection, it was that God was calling me to help more entrepreneurs, that I had achieved everything I needed to achieve in that industry and it's more to help entrepreneurs. And I still love helping financial advisors and firms and leaders grow because I just know that industry so well and they are entrepreneurial in their own right. But it was more about expanding my scope to help all entrepreneurs grow, scale, overcome some of the bad shit that I had to go through and maybe help them get through some stuff or not have to face some stuff that I had to face throughout my career. That's really where my passion lies is helping people avoid some of the pitfalls that I've fallen into, avoid some of the bad things that I had to deal with HR compliance wise, all the shit that we all have to deal with as entrepreneurs. If I can make that just a little bit easier for anyone else, I see that and help them live a better life outside their business. That's really my main mission and goal.

Speaker 1: 4:42

That's awesome. First of all, applause for introducing yourself as a child of God Same here and I really, really appreciate when strong and successful men say that out loud, because I think that's a huge component that is missing. I know a lot of Christians, men of God, just won't say it out loud, don't want to say it on the podcast, don't want to put it in the content. So I just have to highlight that because I think it's a beautiful thing and I think that that alone, if we ended the podcast right there, it would make an impact on a lot of people, whether we see it or not, and so I just want to thank you for that. So, first, so for clarity for me, so the second was the two years ago eight figure exit, the third exit in total. So that was the third exit. Okay, cool.

Speaker 1: 5:33

So just out of curiosity here, though, but like, do you now like help some of your clients with exit? Specifically Because I know like, especially in the last two years and the next two years, businesses, business buying, selling, entrance, exit, equity plays like this is becoming a much bigger Let me actually rephrase that it's becoming a much more accessible style of business for people where five, eight 10 years ago, like entrance, exit and equity, was for a different kind of echelon of people. It wasn't as wildly open as it seems to be right now. There's a lot of content about buying and selling businesses. There's a lot of ebooks about buying and selling businesses, and so I'm just curious this is really just my own curiosity but do you get asked a lot from people about helping them with entrance and exit of businesses or equity plays and stuff like that?

Speaker 2: 6:22

I would say more exit than entrance. Okay, so what do you get asked about? Yeah for sure it's interesting. In every business and every niche of business has different modes of exit. Right, and mine was very specific as far as, like when I sold my personal practice, there was very specific methodologies that have been laid out over decades of what a book has worked, whereas in a lot of other industries the ambiguity is all over the board.

Speaker 2: 6:55

So you get people that talk about EBITDA, you get people that talk about multiples of revenue, all the different things, and it's really coming to grips with what does that business produce? More than what does it hope to produce? I think, in the simplest sense, what does the business produce versus what the owner thinks it can produce, or even what you think it can produce? Because oftentimes, if you're the buyer or you like, or I've seen this even if you're just starting a franchise, there's all this excitement around what you think the business can do, but then reality hits and you're like that's not what I thought this was going to be, and so the reality checks for most. I think is a hard pill for a lot of business owners, whether or potential business owners or business sellers to swallow, that hard pill of what the business actually produces, what it's truly worth.

Speaker 1: 7:58

So would you agree that a lot of people try to value the business at their visionary? Where I could be in four years If I did these things? It would be worth this much. So I need to sell it as this much. Let me follow that up with Do you witness a significant amount of greed in that world, that exit world, from the buyer and the seller side? Or and this is just or do you witness just a level of naivety Like they just don't know? I just never done this, it's just an assumption. I want I pick, I Google multipliers and I just put a multiplier on it and that's what I think it's worth. So do you think there's some naivety in there? Do you think there's some greed in there? That's a healthy combination of both.

Speaker 2: 8:48

Yeah, I think it's far less greed. I think it's more naivety and just wishful thinking. For instance, like you brought up that like hey, in four years it could be, if I do this it could be. Well, why don't you do that now then? So if you think the business can do this, if you did this, we'll just fucking go do that and make it worth that.

Speaker 1: 9:09

Right.

Speaker 2: 9:10

Right. So it's like it's more naivety and hopeful and wishful thinking and that's why I say it's a hard pill to swallow when someone like me that's actually exited three businesses because on my first exit same thing Like here we got this and plan this plan, this plan. I went and renegotiated the lease for you, I went and got extra space for you because we let this other place come into the building that we had exclusive rights on blah blah, blah blah. And he's like, yeah, but then I got to build it out and I got to buy the equipment and this, this and this. And I'm like, fuck, yeah, you're right, and actually yeah your job is gonna be harder, that's true, yeah exactly so.

Speaker 2: 9:54

It's just the rubber meets the road and you gotta be able to swallow that pill. That's really hard and I get it and I've been there and that's where I'm like, hey look, let's have a real conversation about what it's actually worth. I used to ask this question when I was doing I worked. Part of how I got into entrepreneurship as well In my financial planning side was I loved working with entrepreneurs as a financial planner and because I was one of those guys, that was like a lot of financial planners have ego about them and they'll say that they can earn more in the market than the business owner can in their business or they should diversify.

Speaker 2: 10:26

And that's like a guys for diversification or whatever. And I would. It's the opposite. I'd go in there and be like look, your business is your number one investment. You're gonna earn far more year over year rate of return putting money into your business than you are into the stock market. So I'm telling them the exact opposite and I said now, that being said, diversification is smart. There are some tax strategies that are smart to utilize with investments, but don't let any other financial planner tell you that your business is not gonna earn as much as the market year over year.

Speaker 2: 10:59

And so I would ask this question. I'd say, hey, just out of curiosity, if someone showed up here today and was able and willing to stroke a check for this business, what would it need to be? What would the numbers on that check need to be for you to walk away? And most of the time the number was and I had no context yet of what the business was actually doing and what the numbers were showing, what the liabilities were. All that I was just like gut level, mr or Mrs business owner, what does the check need to be?

Speaker 2: 11:32

If I'm sitting here today, I got my checkbook out what do you want for this thing? What's that have to be? And I was just trying to get a gauge of where they thought like delusional or not, where they thought the value of the business was, because it helped me give context as to were they a realist, a pessimist or an optimist, and could I help them on the side of financial planning. That I felt like whether protection needs or protecting the downside, or going after some upside on some things, the tax strategies, all the different things. But it's a great question, I think, for business owners to ask themselves, because most of the time when I went to see them they weren't trying to sell. That was their baby. I just wanted to know if someone did show up with a check today. What does that number need to be for you just to go walk away and go start a new thing or sail off into the sunset?

Speaker 1: 12:21

Did you ever hear? Was there any common answer? That seemed to be. Was it like a million dollars? Was there any commonality in the answers or was it just all over the place confusion.

Speaker 2: 12:31

I've never thought about that. It was all over the board. Yeah, actually a lot of times the answer was I have never thought about that because they had no intent of selling at that juncture. But I think it's a prudent exercise because, especially as you teed this up with, people are looking to buy. So if you don't have an answer, you should have one, because if someone, if that just by chance did happen, you should be prepared.

Speaker 1: 12:56

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:58

And not just prepared with a number, but also prepared emotionally to be like, yeah, that makes sense, I would walk away for that number and actually go start a new thing or go sail off into the sunset, or no, I wouldn't accept that number because here's what the effort I plan and the plan I put to want to put in place to make this thing 10x what it's worth today. Yeah, I'm not done with this yet. My legacy is this like you gotta be able to prepare to have that answer.

Speaker 1: 13:25

Yeah, it's almost like just being able to, and I think, for you know, though, we're going down an exits as, like an unintended topic, this is very, very good, and I'm curious. I think that people, a lot more people, are strategizing, right. People have coaches now. People are listening to the content, people are running right Stratus, what Right? People are doing their strategy sessions and doing, but I don't think enough people think about the end, the end of the business as it is for them, right, and so like, is it exit? Is it passed down to kids? Is it what is the actual? And like, yeah, people make 10 year targets in five year and three and one and all that good stuff.

Speaker 1: 14:06

But I guess my question to you, from your experience, would be when would be a good point for an entrepreneur to have their business value-aided, just for their own knowledge of? Because I've always kind of been under the impression that it would be wise to have a valuation done and understand from a professional what you should focus on to make it more valuable. Even if you don't plan on eggs, like if you, let's say, you have a massive family emergency, a major change of life, a major epiphany, god calls you to something extreme way outside. Wouldn't it be wise to know what it's worth, what it could be worth, what the next steps should be to make it worth? Say like I need to exit for a million dollars. Well, it would be smart to have a value-aided tell you it's only worth 350,000. But if you did this, this, this and this over three years, you could easily walk away with 1.5. What's?

Speaker 2: 14:59

your take. Yeah, that's a really good question, and, in fact, one of the questions I did ask in the financial planning, as I was getting to know business owners as well, is what is the ideal exit? And you brought some of them up. Maximum amount of money is one kids, your legacy selling or gifting to the kids, or one of your kids, um, how about another one, a key employee taking over selling to one or more key employees? Um, right, so those are probably the three main ones, and there's probably a couple other minimal ones that we're not thinking up right now, but those are the three main ones. What is the ideal exit? So, to answer your question, though, about, uh, when do they get evaluation, I think that you got to get a profitable first, and also probably not off, like off the ground level, to the next scale, right, the next level up, where you're building in some infrastructure, uh, where you actually have a business. You know you move past that solo for newer space, and you're now you know you have some employees that you're responsible for their livelihoods, um, and I. So I hesitate to put a year or timeframe on that, because that could be your five for some, that could be your two for some, that could be your 10 for some. Um, but I would say, once you've gotten to that next level of scale, you're profitable. You're starting to look how to grow even further, how to multiply this thing, how to multiply you so that you're building something that's a little bit more robust. About that time would be good to just get a pulse of stake in the ground.

Speaker 2: 16:29

And the fact is, a lot of these valuation companies don't charge a lot. It's probably about the most. It's probably about the same as getting a state plan done A few thousand bucks, yep. So if you get a just a solid one done by a reputable company, it gives you a great um baseline for you to grow your business to. And, like you mentioned, like hey, I want to sell this for a million, but it's only worth three, 50 today, and that valuation company goes well. If you increase, uh, this lever here and decrease this liability over here, it goes to a million, like that, yep. And now you back in now with your SWOT analysis and your year end planning, all that different stuff. Be back into that over 12 months and boom, you got your number 12 months from now.

Speaker 1: 17:12

Dude, I don't think I'm so glad you laid it out that, simply because I don't think people understand a lot of entrepreneurs I don't think understand their business is, or it could be, a legitimate, major sellable asset, not just their like job, but like it's, it's. I see a lot of entrepreneurs get very wrapped up in um, not having really any idea what an exit would look like in any capacity. And look, sometimes the exit is you failed, like that. Look, so businesses also fail. And like we don't. We don't talk about that. Right, we're coaches and we do the like. We may talk about it, but our space doesn't talk as frequently about like hey, you could also fail, like you actually probably will.

Speaker 1: 17:55

Like I don't know about you, but like my entrepreneur entrepreneurial journey has involved 15 plus LLCs and 13 of them getting shut down, with two of them doing pretty good it like the story isn't. Like start business, business is awesome, I guess we'll sell for a lot of money. Like that's not my journey. At least, my journey was a lot of a lot of the rubber meeting the road, uh, but I think if you have like a legitimate, what's the end game of this company? How many, and even as like how many people do we want to impact, how many lives do we want to check and like at what point does selling actually increase the impactability of my company? Because there's also.

Speaker 1: 18:37

I've I've talked to people and worked with people who who actually have a valuable asset and they're the roadblock in the company scaling, growing, impacting more people, and I think there's people that would actually be happier selling, exiting, letting the business get cause at some point. The business what I'm wanting is your opinion on my take here At some point, for for some people, really successful business becomes its own organism, where you, I believe you can grow your own business to the point where you're not the best leader for it anymore.

Speaker 2: 19:12

Yeah, yo, 100%. In fact, I was going to say one of your comments there was that oftentimes the CEO becomes the roadblock. I would say that the founder oftentimes and we could even say the majority of the time is the bottleneck. Yep.

Speaker 2: 19:28

So, I do a lot of EOS implementation as well and I'm going in and helping people with the entrepreneurial operating system implement that into their business. From the book traction that's one arm of my coaching business, but that is that's part of our teaching is like hey, figure now where the founder is the bottleneck and talking about hitting the ceiling Cause every business does and you either plateau, and the plateau only goes for so long because you're either going to go down from there or you're going to figure out a way to break through the ceiling. Okay, so you got to make a decision to change as a leader to break through that ceiling and help and engage the others underneath you. Now let's go back to the valuation conversation real quick, because there's a really key thing there to wrap a bow around. What we're talking about Is, if you formulate a plan, let's say, let's say I'm the entrepreneur and Sam's my key guy, he's my top sales guy, he's the best leader, I got all the different things and I see him as being the future of this company, so I can, with the financial planner, implement some tools that actually start the buyout process now, like in in creative vision and some kind of golden handcuffs on Sam to really say hey, sam, I believe in you.

Speaker 2: 20:43

This is where we see the company going. I see you being the next generation of my legacy and we're going to put some golden handcuffs on Sam and start helping him create an investment or savings tool plan that allows the buyout process a lot easier and pretend I would say potentially, but actually the majority of the time makes the company worth more when you go to sell it. Because now Sam has some capital. Instead of just going and buying, um, or, I'm sorry, borrowing money from a lending institution, we got an actual utilization of an asset that's within the business. That's probably a tax write off that also is part of Sam's business, part of Sam's compensation, and now is going to help buy out that person. And you did this 10, 15, 20 years in advance. The accumulation and just compound interest is going to be much more worth it. And again, then you go to get it valued again and they're like, holy shit, you implemented this 10 years ago. Yeah, now your valuation is five X what we talked about before.

Speaker 1: 21:46

That was incredibly, what that was definitely like. The financial, the finance expert who exited three businesses coming out right there.

Speaker 2: 21:55

That definitely 100%.

Speaker 1: 21:56

That was the finance guy who's exited an entrepreneur and coached Like. That was like a whole wealth of 20 years of wisdom just wrapped up into one suggestion.

Speaker 2: 22:05

Appreciate that, but I will say this as a caveat and we're more of a warning. There's a ton of financial planners advisors out there. Not many of them are skilled with working with business owners and creating these types of plans, because these types of plans are heavily scrutinized by our IRS and some of the practices out there. So you really got to work with a financial planner that knows what they're talking about with entrepreneurs and business owners.

Speaker 1: 22:33

So, all right, that leads to a really good question. I'm listening to this podcast and I hear the first 20 minutes of this episode and I go all right, I really need it. I need a Josh, I need a really good financial planner somewhere. What am I looking for? What am I asking? What are my red flags? When do I go? Oh, you're not the guy.

Speaker 2: 22:52

Yeah, so I'll give you this, I'll give your listeners this first. I'm in a really unique position right now where I'm unaffiliated and so, just like with our RRT brothers, when someone has a financial question, our brothers and sisters in RRT and my name comes up all the time because, instead of someone like that is in the financial advisory business, like hawking them and going right into sales mode, like they're like hey, talk to Josh and I can go. Hey, based on your situation, your needs, I would recommend this person.

Speaker 1: 23:23

Right.

Speaker 2: 23:25

So I would give your listeners this. Reach out to me and I know people all over the country. I've been in it for 20 years, I know who's good and who's not and I'll give you a referral. So I'll give your listeners that. Now, beyond that, to the question I would, I would understand, want to know their experience with working with business owners and possibly get even some testimonials from those business owners locally.

Speaker 2: 23:52

Locally, because here's what I found out like and maybe you've even found this in the coaching space too, because I have recently, you ever noticed those people that have built a reputation online, and especially coaches, but then they don't have any local clients. Yes, I have. Yeah, and the question then comes up it's like what did you do locally that you burnt all your bridges or ruined your reputation where you don't have any local clients, and you had to go and seek a new market nationally or social media-wise, online, like that's always the question for me. It's like so I want to know if I'm in your local area. If I'm, you know, I'm in Madison, wisconsin. Like I want to know who your clients are locally because I likely know them, or we're two degrees of separation away from knowing them and knowing if that's a successful business, and then they can back up the words that you're saying.

Speaker 1: 24:50

Such an incredible, incredible piece of advice I have absolutely. It's funny too. I've coached with WinRae. You know Mike, you know coach with Mike. We have been insanely so. They're headquartered out of Greenville, south Carolina. Probably 20% of our clients are in Greenville, south Carolina and growing. When we make content we highlight the city that we're in, we're in all the city event.

Speaker 1: 25:19

And it's funny that you say that I've always been a little turned off by people because we are you and I have there's the Aratays and the other ones and I'm not gonna mention Aratays my personal will be my home for a very long time, but there are lots of others and I've always been a little turned off by the guy who's hubbed in Dallas, who sends you only referrals in Seattle, new York and South Florida. I'm like you got anybody in Dallas. There's nobody within 10, 15, 30 miles of where your office is that you can get like nobody you've been working with for years or not, or even two years, I mean, but you don't know anybody. That's not. You got three random people and they're all like sub four months long clientele, right, because I do think there's a length of client. That's important when getting references too.

Speaker 1: 26:08

I don't really want a reference for the guy that signed up with you 48 days ago. That guy hasn't caught you yet. Like, who's send me your longest time client? Somebody two, three, five, something, something. But no, that's a. That's a phenomenal point and I think, I think the ability to grow businesses online is amazing. The podcast, all this stuff is good, but if, yeah, if there's no impact locally at all, what do you like? I'm not sure yeah.

Speaker 1: 26:36

Yeah, what do?

Speaker 2: 26:36

you? What did you do to your reputation locally? To not have any?

Speaker 1: 26:41

clients, especially in an industry like financial planning, which is, yeah, I don't want to say I'm not, I'm not saying easy, but the local client build is a part of that game, that's part of that system. Building for financial planning, just like real estate or insurance, like the local community, is a huge part of building a successful firm right.

Speaker 2: 27:06

Yep, and it changed a little bit with COVID, right, because it opened up the national where people got used to this interaction, the Zoom interaction, whereas before it was all face to face, like everything. And then when I was running the firm through COVID, I had to, you know, take a hundred advisors and their teams and put them all technologically based on computer screen. I was fearful, I didn't know how much that was going to impact the business and would our clientele be okay writing checks and rolling over money and doing all the things via Zoom without that human to human interaction? And turns out that they were and we were up 30% that year, which was amazing. However, I was definitely fearful going into it.

Speaker 2: 27:49

But yes, you were correct, the golf club, the shooting ranges, the networking, meeting, meetups, all those different things like that's. That's how we build our business. Initially is relying on our connections to get us to people that you know may or may not need our business, but that we can impact them and the timing right. It's done through human to human, shaking hands, looking people dead in the eyes and saying, hey, I got your back. Like I'm, I take managing your money and your livelihood with the utmost highest responsibility and you have to look someone in the eyes and shake their hands and feel comfortable doing that.

Speaker 1: 28:28

That's. There's a lot of people that would call that old school man and I'm not one of them. I like. That's why I still. I'm still a firm believer, and I know you recently spoke at a pretty, pretty good sized events I saw until like even Vegas, I think.

Speaker 1: 28:47

I'm still such a firm believer in and this is more national, obviously, not just local but I'm still a firm believer in events, event attendance, event sponsorships, in-person relationship development, like I don't call DM anybody for any like to sell anything ever, literally like there's no cold, like it's not, like I will reach out to people like we're right, right, like an RTA, for instance, like yeah host says I need help. Well, let me DM this guy. Hey man, is there anything I can do to help you? I'm in similar industry. I did this and this or anything I can do. That's a lot different than hey, so glad we could connect. Can I sell you something or get you in my free group right now? You know those, you know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 2: 29:27

Oh, I get hit up every for a good day. It seems like that's instant block, especially the media, than, like the digital media. Hey, notice your content. I can do it so much better. Or in your comments, check your DM. I literally reply no.

Speaker 1: 29:43

No, Dude, I started. So I get hit up on Instagram all the time where, like, I grow people's followings for a living. I can get you to 100,000, blah, blah, blah, blah. Go to their profile 243 followers Bro it. What? Like, don't ever send that message if you have not proven you could do it for you. Like, could you? I couldn't, and I know people do this. But, like, I couldn't imagine talking to a prospective coaching client and saying, hey, man, I can help you grow to multiple, multiple, seven figures and scale your team and implement systems and processes and and then go oh well, you've done that before for yourself. No, Uh-uh, Never. I could not imagine that being my answer. Like, I think the only thing that makes me credible is saying, yes, I have done it actually multiple times over, Absolutely, and I will walk you through the system that I used and we will tailor it to your business needs specifically. But could you imagine, like, just like the people, I can grow your Instagram following, but I couldn't do it for myself. I will help you scale your business. I have no idea how. I've never actually done it.

Speaker 1: 30:43

I can't empathize with your sleepless nights. You're at wife that wants you to be home. I can't empathize with any of that, Because that's that I think is such a key to what we do. To make an impact on people is not just because, to be honest, you could buy a series of books and probably teach somebody how to scale their business. There is a simplicity to the business side over time, Right. What I think key, that you have, that I have, that some people we interact with have, is man. I can empathize with the guilt you feel as a father because you're working on this right now and you're not at home right now, and I'm going to help coach you to be home and get this worked on. I'm going to coach you to focus on your faith with Jesus and grow your business. I'm going to coach you on how to love your wife better and be fully focused and fully intentional and hit that date night every week and not feel guilty that you're not at the office and does that. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2: 31:38

Yeah, absolutely, and that's that's. That's exactly it. I only want to take advice from people that have been there. Yep, and then I realized that there are some good coaches out there that haven't done it there, but I would say that's the minority. Yes, right, because, yeah, it's just interesting. So for you and I, we've been there, done that, but I've always been. The thing is like I, even when I started the financial business, I only wanted to work with someone that was doing it bigger and better than me as far as like a mentor is concerned, and because I know that they have been through the same stuff that I've been through or I'm going through right now and can help me navigate those chaffee waters, and so that I 100% agree.

Speaker 1: 32:21

Good. Can you, while we're kind of now we shifted a little bit Talk a little bit about you? Got four kids. You've got multiple exits.

Speaker 1: 32:34

You made a decision and I love this, but you made a decision in your career to impact people. You probably turned down a lot of really instant money to make that decision. Judging on how you outlined that in the beginning, I imagine there were some offers and you had to sit there and go. Is this stupid to say no to Like? Is this a bad call? And so I would love for you to touch a little bit on like, leaning on God in those process because, like I've recently, I've made some similar decisions where I had to look at them, and I did this thing where I visualized two options.

Speaker 1: 33:12

I was looking at two options. When I visualized through one, the only thing I could see was money, nothing else. I got a weird, I didn't feel good about it and the only upside that I could visualize through the next three years was money. When I went down the path of the other one, I saw joy and I saw time with my family and I saw impact on clients and I saw a future. That just looked bright and I know this might sound soft or whatever, but it looked colorful and happy and it looked like man. If I walk that one, I'll probably never worry about money again. But if I walk this one there might be a short payoff, but I think I'm gonna be really missed. I don't think God wants this from me, like he's speaking to me actively as I'm visualized through this and I just man. Could you touch on that a little bit like being in that position and making that decision and then sticking to it?

Speaker 2: 34:11

Yeah, it's actually even harder than it may have seemed how I told the story, because I briefly glossed over that it was my father's legacy. But what happened was my exit wasn't a happy exit, is I had a. It was a very difficult exit, and not that the money wasn't right. It wasn't my intent to exit at that time. My intent was to run it for 20 years, from 36 to 56, grow it to this monumental thing and at 56, exit and figure out what the next phase of my life was gonna be. You know you wanna make God laugh. Tell him your plans, that's right. So I had this young leader who decided to utilize the political environment that we're in and play the race card. And this is someone that I recruited, mentored, trained, taught him everything I know. I played football with his father and he decided to play the race card with me, assuming for discrimination. Wow, and that company, that Fortune 100 company that I had a partnership with when I needed them most, bailed on me and decided they were going to grow a different way to save themselves from the lawsuit. Now, the lawsuit ended up being like a pimple on an elephant. So I asked especially to them a $350 billion behemoth? Um, right, and it was a pimple on an elephant's ass to me. That's the end of the day. But a lot of turmoil emotionally in the interim to get through it.

Speaker 2: 35:57

But to go to your question now, so the harder, even harder part was not only turning down money but also the chance at revenge. So I had to battle emotionally both. Right, the easy money there would have been seven figures easily, plus upside in building these other firms again. But I could also go and recruit my advisors back, the people that I recruited and developed to that other firm. I could recruit them away and hurt the company that hurt me. I could, yeah, all the different things to get payback right, but that's not what God wants, right? So that's where I was going to every meeting that I was taking with these companies. That was part of where that sickness was coming from. What reason are you doing it for? Yeah, and are you leaning on God's wisdom? Because he allowed this to happen, right? Yep, right. So I could blame the company, I could blame that individual, but either way, god allowed it to happen for a reason.

Speaker 2: 37:05

So I had to continue to pray and continue to lean into the whispers and just continue to vision, so, like during that timeframe, not only am I, I'm just taking these meetings none of them fell right but I'm saying yes to these meetings and just asking questions of myself after. And every meeting I took I did learn something different about the other companies out there, because I had never once explored like this previous company I was with, like I was married to, like I was ride or die with them, and that was the other thing about it was like I was so damn loyal and they betrayed me so badly, like that was where that hurt really came in. And so now, exploring these other companies, I learned a lot about them and about myself and all that different stuff. But God just kept pulling me and so I started visioning. So I had this like feel the dreams of them.

Speaker 2: 37:55

I was like all right, I decide I'm gonna coach and speak and impact others and continue to have a bigger impact on the world. And my wife looks at me and goes, yeah, we got four young kids, I don't want you traveling that much. I said fair, I said okay, so I go into this like visioning thing and I actually did something really really out of my character. I did this like spiritual experience with like a shaman. I'm like at that point I'm like, fuck it, I'm willing to try anything. Figure this out.

Speaker 2: 38:30

Whatever works man Give me all of it, you know so so, yeah, I'll try almost anything once, and so I did. But that's where I had my field of dreams moment, like, and what I mean by that. For those that are young and may not have seen Field of Dreams which you should see that movie because it's an all time classic but if you build it, they will come. So I envision this property, this 80 to 100 acres. They start jotting this down Generally. I'm like I want a space where people can learn financially. I want a space where people can learn spiritually. I want a place where people can pour into the professional being. I want to like all these different things. I started writing down what that would mean and build out this retreat center and if you guys are watching on video, you can see the house behind me and I got the beautiful board table behind me, 22 foot windows. So I go to find this place 80 to 100 acres. I put my real estate agent on him like go find it, and I think I'm going to have to build all of this thing I'm envisioning.

Speaker 2: 39:26

I told like two people this vision. One of them was my best friend, one of my best friends in the world, and he's one of those best friends that we probably only hang out a couple of times a year. But we pick up right where we left off last time we hung out and I tell him his vision and he goes dude, have you seen this place? And forwards me a video. And this place is not listed on MLS. And he I see this video. I'm like, holy shit, this checks this box, this box, this box. Go out to check it out. I had to sign an NDA to come check. I'm like I'm viewing a property of what the hell am I?

Speaker 1: 40:04

signing an NDA, for that's the owner.

Speaker 2: 40:07

Yeah, the owner's just really private. I'm like, well, if I'm signing this, tell me who the owner is. I'm just out of curiosity. And they tell me the owner's name. I was like I know him. Tell him to be here next time. He's the guy that built my wife and I's first house.

Speaker 1: 40:23

Really.

Speaker 2: 40:25

Yeah, he sold his development company to his sons 10 years 10 years ago, maybe now 12 years ago, and he started. He took over this property. There was over 160 years old state in the same family as, like in the fifth generation in trust, completely rundown, made it this magnificent property Black five foot horse fence all the way around it, the 150 year old barn built a 12,000 square foot horse arena, built this modern house toward toward on the old farmhouse. So I started talking about the vision and I didn't have. This is in the midst of me negotiating my exit, still negotiating that, and I was like I don't have the money. It was an expensive place.

Speaker 1: 41:09

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 41:11

And he's like Josh, I've known you for a while. I know you're good for it. I'm willing to do a land contract with you, also a Christian man, right, so like and so here's here's how God work put this all together, orchestrated this and on December 29th of 2021, I finalized my exit with my previous company and on December 30th I closed on this property. And this year alone we've hosted multiple businesses. We've hosted for their corporate retreats, leadership teams, stuff of that nature. I've done some EOS work with teams here. I've done a retreat leadership retreat. We're planning I'm planning with a couple of X Navy SEALs some retreats next year. We've hosted two large weddings. Like, all I want is people to experience.

Speaker 2: 42:01

This property is meant to be shared. Get out of their fluorescent lights, get off their zoom screens and computers and get out in nature. We got alpacas, goats, chickens, we're at horses, we're adding donkeys and peacocks next year. Like, get out of nature, get into or get into nature. Get out of your business, get out of your head, get into your soul and go back to your world a better human being. That's really what this property is for.

Speaker 1: 42:26

That's a. I'm really glad I asked that question Because you definitely definitely skirted over that a little bit in the beginning. You're like I exited. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry. So this is a perfect. We're right up at about 45 minutes, but this is a perfect segue. If people are listening and they're interested in renting or being, however that works, how do they do that? Where do they find that? Where do they find you? How do they rent space for this? Because that's, I've talked to a lot of people. Talked to a lot of people who say they want to build something like that and have not, and I've talked to a lot of people who are constantly looking for things just like that for their businesses. I mean, exactly like that, because that's not the tip. You can usually find one of the components that you just named in a general local rentable space, leasable space for a corporate or company retreat. How do they get ahold of you and that space?

Speaker 2: 43:23

Yeah, I would just say DM me. All my social media is at Josh Cosnick. You can also reach out same through my website, joshcosnickcom. We don't have a website specific for the place because I have our conservation easement Like it has to be friends or family Well, all my clients or anyone that reaches out to me as an instant friend. So we don't have a website specifically for the place.

Speaker 2: 43:48

And it's one of those things where, again, enjoy having people out here, man the brides, what they envision, so cool, like we give them a blank slate and like do your thing. And what they've envisioned, just cool. And same thing with the leadership teams how we want to use it, like get out on the property on the 80 acres. You know different? We're building a gun range in two weeks before the ground freezes up here, and so getting people a little bit uncomfortable teach them leadership, responsibility and a healthy fear of guns instead of an unhealthy fear that a lot of people have the great leadership principles. And again, that goes along with some of the in my ex Navy SEAL special forces friends that are going to help with some retreat stuff next year. But I told them I'd get that done before next year, so we'll get it done. So, yeah, I mean reach out DM. I'd love to host, love to have a conversation, and I can get you a video of the property so you can begin envisioning what you may want to use it for as well.

Speaker 1: 44:47

That's really cool, man. Hey, I'm going to link Josh's ads in the show notes. Man, thank you so much for coming on today. You want to leave the audience with anything specific?

Speaker 2: 44:59

Yeah, I'm going to leave you with this, so I've been keen on this. It's the end of year, right, so I don't know exactly when this will come out, sam, but you got the SWAT analysis behind you. Most people would say I'm a big thinker. Everyone that knows me say I was a big thinker, and it's interesting I've been having this epiphany lately that man I didn't think big enough when I was in my twenties is I've accomplished almost every one of my be hags. And so this quote always stuck with me of we often will weigh or severely overestimate what we can do in a year and severely underestimate what we can do in ten. And so I was thinking about yeah, so I had these exits and I had those things accomplished and I worked my ass off to do that. But I also have this thought of man. Well, I hit those.

Speaker 2: 45:54

So did I think big enough? And if I had thought big enough, with my work, ethic and drive to get to know the right connections, to get to know the right people, to get the right resources, I probably would have hit something bigger too. So I just think, like, for as big as you think you. If you think you're a big thinker now I'm just telling you you're probably not thinking big enough and that's your ego talking and you need to lean into some vulnerability. Get a coach like Samurai or Mike or whoever that can help you think even bigger than you're currently thinking to get you more uncomfortable, because the biggest tragedy isn't thinking too big and not hitting it, it's actually thinking too small and hitting it. And that quote I can't remember who said that quote and I may have butchered it a little bit, but you get the point. That quote sticks with me. As to why I think I haven't thought big enough is because I hit almost everything that I set out to hit.

Speaker 1: 46:54

Dream bigger. That's a really perfect. That's a perfect piece to leave at the end of a podcast called Never Stop Building. So we're going to call it this episode is called Never Stop Dreaming Bigger. Thank you so much for coming on, dude. As always, guys, if Josh brought you value today, please send this to somebody who needs it. You never know how much you can positively impact somebody's life by sending them something valuable. Rate review subscribe. We'll see you next time. See you, josh, see you, buddy.