A Personal Journey of Growth, Success, and Wealth Creation w/ Ben Albert

We have mentors in our life, or even people that are almost like the anti-mentor the bullies, the people that push you down, and then you get a chip on your shoulder and then you want to be better than that because of the way they made you feel. It's so huge, man. I think people should write this down. I didn't come up with it, but instead of fake it until you make it, why don't you be it until you become it? If you can learn how to communicate and tell stories and be curious and be creative, your entire life will change. Very worthy will help you tell stories that will change your life.

The journey to wealth is a long walk and some may walk quicker than others, but what good is sprinting to the finish line if you pass out when you cross it? On Walk to Wealth, we enlighten and empower young adults to build wealthy, abundant lives. They say the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and your first step starts right now. This is Walk to Wealth with your host, John Mendez.

Hey everyone, welcome to the Walk to Wealth podcast. If you're tuning in on YouTube or any of the podcast directories, make sure to do yourself a favor and give us a follow, because I would hate for you to have FOMO and Missile and all the amazing guests I'm bringing on this year. So, without further ado, let's get right into this. One Ben for anyone who hasn't had the opportunity yet to get to know you, to get to meet you and know who you are, let's tell us your elevator picture. Who are you?

and what do you do? Yeah, well, first off, john man, you're amazing. Thank you for the opportunity. I love the show. Brother, I joke that I ask questions. I ask questions for a living, and there's two main categories. I too have a podcast, real Business Connections it's all about asking questions and getting the wisdom from the people who have it to the people who need it. And then I run a marketing firm, boward Marketing. It's all about coming in knowing that nothing in life is square peg around whole, asking intentional questions to get to strong problems and help solving them in marketing online. So that's the, I guess, elevator pitch. I'm not an elevator pitcher. I like to sit down and chat and get to know somebody.

Yeah, I'm a sucker for long talks man, hence why I started the podcast. So I'm glad that we're here today and we have a bunch of time to talk. So take us back in the time machine a little bit to start things off. What was it like? What was it like growing up? Tell us about your childhood, and did they have a factor into what you're doing today or who you are today?

It's wild. Our childhood always factors in who we become, whether we know it or not, whether we realize it or not, we have mentors in our life, or even people that are almost like the anti-mentor, the bullies, the people that kind of push you down and then you get a chip on your shoulder and then you want to be better than that because of the way they made you feel. It's so huge man. When I was younger, I wanted to be a basketball player, like literally a jersey every single day of the week. Back in the day, I mean, we're talking Vince Carter, shaquille, neil, kobe, brian wanted to be the next Michael Jordan, reggie Miller and I had a jersey every single day of the week, played all day, every day. I was literally the shortest boy in school. The only person shorter than me in elementary school was a little Asian girl, olivia Lee. So I mean, what do you think happens, bro? You want to be the next Michael Jordan, but you're the shortest boy in school. You're destined to be about 5758. What do you think happens, man? I got bullied. I got pushed around a lot. I wasn't the cool kid when I was younger. I had skillset, but people would just bully me because I was the little guy you know playing basketball. And the reason I tell this story. It's crazy because it was high school that I first found the music industry. Good friend of mine, brendan Gansmer, showed me some local bands. Before you know it, I was going to every local show show. I was handing out flyers, I was wearing the t-shirts. Then I got to the point where I was running the merch booth and I was doing, like this gorilla, marketing just for something that I loved, not even knowing exactly what I was doing, why I was doing it. My conviction was unmatched because I loved the music and I loved what I was doing. And nowadays, bro, I run a marketing firm. So if I didn't go through that you know hardship, which I mean we all get bullied once and you know it's not a big deal If I didn't go through that point when I felt small, if I never found that tribe and music, that community, I would have never found marketing and I wouldn't be doing what I do today and I wouldn't be having this conversation with you. So even the weirdest things that happened are a childhood. That happened for us and I'm excited to be here.

Let me ask you a quick, deep question. Yeah, man, what was it like coming to the realization that the dreams you originally set weren't going to turn out the way?

you thought of them? That is a deep question and it's funny because I don't even think I thought of it at the time. Really, what happened? Is it played out in me smoking a bunch of pot and starting to drink as a teenager? A lot of us do. I'm not unique in that sense, but I didn't sit back and think about what is the meaning of my life. I just felt like I wasn't good enough. So I started a party to numb that pain and, honestly, that pain builds up inside of us and it wasn't until recently that I realized that I was kind of like sucking the light force out of me by not sitting in the emotion. So I don't have a good answer for you because I don't remember what it was like, but if I were to do it again, I'd sit in that emotion. I know that's deep, but I'd feel that pain because that pain is a catalyst for growth if we use it to our advantage. I suppressed it, bro.

So let me ask you then, because I had people that around me that kind of did similar things growing up in high school People having hard times at home and, of course, there's always like bangers and tellies of what we call them and parties, and it's like all these functions are always going on. There's like so many people in high school, especially college, it's like they're at each and every single function going in and drinking, smoking the same people over and over again. A lot of those people, secretly, are just like almost to escape their current reality and the present reality. Let me ask you, what did you do to break out of that? I know you started going to the music festival, but at what point in time did you start like stop doing that, at least to numb yourself?

Dude, I really hope. I mean, you're a great example of this, john. You're kicking butt at a young age. I know your listeners. A lot of them might still be young and they're already kicking ass and, honestly, they're probably going to laugh me. They might even laugh you. I wish that I had made changes sooner because imagine this I was learning some of the personal growth stuff I was very passionate about human behavior, went to school for psychology and was really passionate about human behavior. So I understood like the actions I needed to take to be better. I read the books, I knew that I needed to sleep good, I knew that I needed to start writing, do something creative. I knew that I had to go help people. So I knew where my North Star was. But since I was partying so much, imagine you know the North Star, you know what to do, but you're running backwards and it's like you're actually getting farther away from it. You see it, but you're getting farther away from it. You know the answer, but you're not actually listening to the answer. What do you think happens, man? You start to feel like an imposter. You kind of start to feel like a piece of crap, and it went through years of me meditating affirmations, visualization exercise, reading, writing, starting a podcast, and I would look in the mirror once in a while, john, and I would say an affirmation, like you're good enough now and you're only getting better. And I'd look at my freaking dopey ass. And I'm tired today, but my dopey ass, eyes, looking tired, hung over from the previous day and I started asking myself I'm telling myself I'm good enough now. I'm telling myself these things, I'm lying to myself because I'm telling myself that I deserve success, but I'm doing all these things that the unsuccessful people do. How am I going to be rich? How am I going to grow? How am I going to make impact If I know the answer? Yet I'm binge Netflixing, I'm watching porn, I'm drinking too much, I don't have good intimate relationships Like, how am I going to have success? So, honestly, man, I wish I just, you know, stepped my fingers and figured it out. It took a lot of years of getting in my own way, but then, once I realized honestly, just a few years ago, that I was getting in my own way, my growth has just exponentially like as soon as you get out of your own way, man, the growth is so quick and exponential, man.

No, I love that you mentioned that you were looking in the mirror telling yourself that you know I'm successful and I'm going to win, and all these different affirmations, and then realize that it doesn't work like that. And that's one of my biggest things about the you know, the abundance law of attraction people and sometimes it's like, like I believe very much it's you need to have an abundance mindset, like I believe that's just mandatory in order to become successful. It's like at least wealthy and the holistic sense right, because you can get a lot of money on a scarcity mindset. You know being super competitive and cards close to your chest and stuff like that. So it's like you want to live like a I believe, like a truly wealthy life, like money, relationships, family, all that stuff. This is an abundant game that you got to play. And a lot of people that you know talk about law of attraction. They always say you know I'm a money magnate and all things are working out in my favor and all things. It's like another, the one that I hate. It's like if you're meant, if it's meant to be, it'll happen, and I just feel like that's such a passive role that you could take in your life. Yeah, I all these different affirmations it reminds me of, like the fake it to make it quote. And everyone says and it's like you're literally telling people to lie to themselves. And with these affirmations, people don't realize that speaking in the mirror doesn't get the job done. Are you getting the job done, that's it, that's all that matters. And if you're not speaking in the mirror, it's pretty much like almost like a, like a mirage. You feel like you're going towards something but you're not really going towards anything. You just have to talk to yourself in the mirror and wasting time that you could be spent working and it's one of those things, just like you got to do the activities that come with success. So when you came to that realization, what were the steps you took to start getting out of there? Like all right, you start literally realizing in the mirror like okay, I'm starting to figure this imposter syndrome, I'm running away from my north star. What are the steps that you took to get out of it? And then, from there, what kind of led you into the marketing road?

Yeah, man. Well, let's get into the steps. And at first I kind of just want to say I think people should write this down. I didn't come up with it. But instead of fake it until you make it, why don't you be it until you become it? Just the concept that you're faking it like you're a fake, you're a fraud. You're not that person you're pretending to be. You're trying to trick your subconscious, but your actions aren't in alignment with that person. So just be that person and then you'll become that person. You don't have to tell yourself you're that person. Just be that person and then you'll become that person. So what I did is I just started to take an action. Man like COVID had hit. I was let go for my sales executive role, like I was drinking heavier than ever in 2020. I felt isolated and alone, like laying there with a handle of whiskey literally every weekend and then again having the bloodshot eyes and being like I'm lying to myself, I'm faking it, I am a fake Felt like crap. And that same year I replaced my sales executive income in literally a year. And it's because I started to take action. You asked me like what the steps were For me. I had marketing chops. I had worked in the marketing field literally since I was a kid, handing out those flyers. Not even knowing it, I had been marketing. You know, my whole life. I was marketing to my kids, my kids. I was marketing as a kid when I was trying to get that candy bar. I was selling the fact that I'm going to get that candy bar in that grocery store. So I had been marketing and selling my whole life. It was preparing me to this weird situation where I was unemployed and I loved podcasting. So I'm on this show with you because I love your show and I love what you do. I loved podcasting. I had a music podcast. I had started in 2016. I thought you know, music Ben is a party animal. Let's be real. I'm going to just I'm going to flip it on its head. I'm going to redefine myself and I'm going to be business Ben. It bends cool, but business Ben is going to take some massive action. So I started a Rochester business podcast because I'm from Rochester, new York. I called it Rochester business connections because I wanted more business connections. And then I used the Rochester business connections podcast to start networking with industry leaders in my hometown. It was a pandemic. So it was really easy to do. Over Zoom I do. I'm talking to C-suite executives and they can show up in their pajama pants Like that was never going to happen pre pandemic, pre podcast. So by launching the podcast, by surrounding myself with the people that I wanted to be more like, the people that have the knowledge I needed, I was able to get business knowledge quick, maintain and build relationships quick, build a personal brand by creating content with the podcast and then grow that marketing firm. So when I say I've replaced my sales executive income in a year, it's not like again I flipped a switch. But all those experiences and marketing and music and failure and podcasting prepared me for that calling to show up and do it for myself. And I think anybody can do it and honestly, the younger the better off. Shut up. After this one point I say you're young. Or even better, you're young and brand new to a city. You just went to a new college. Like you're, brand new, people are going to take that call. You just say hey. I'll just use the name like hey, mike, congrats on making it big time. I'm new to the city, I'm an entrepreneur. I want to highlight, I want to showcase you on my podcast, on my blog, on my video series. I want to showcase you and learn from you because I'm impressed with everything you've done. Are you willing to give me a shot? You could be a 19 year old, new to the city, doesn't know anybody and before you know it, you've got coffee chats every single day of the week just because you have a podcast. So that's literally what I did, man, and the younger and the hungrier the better, because it's not rocket science, it's one of those things like I still remember back in my journey.

So when I first got into real estate, I reached out. I was doing, I was still taking the classes this is fresh after me dropping out my sophomore year and I was still during mid semester when I dropped out and I started taking my classes and then I looked up top five real estate agents in Stanford and I just emailed, cold emailed all five and this before I even had a podcast and they all hopped on a five 10 minute phone call and it led to a really good connection. That's how I ended up getting licensed with color Williams back way back when. And it's like one of those things which, like every amazing opportunity I've had so far, has come through networking every single one of them. And now it's like I'm on the rise now. But when I talk to other people that are still similar in their journey, it's like a podcast itself. That that thing, that word, bears like weight. As you hear the word podcast, it's like, oh, all right, he's up to something. It's like hearing author right, you hear the word I'm an author, I'm a writer, everyone writes. I'm an author. Oh, he's an author, probably has a book out. It holds its own weight. And so if you say you have a podcast, now, they don't need to know that you don't have an actual podcast. But it's like if you don't have a podcast, then it's like, hey, I'm actually same thing what you said, right, I would like to highlight your success and your journey. I would like you to be my debut episode. So not only are you asking to hop on your podcast, you want them to be the debut episode, the premier debut episode for the launch. And now it's like, oh, my goodness, he wants me to be his very first guest. It's something about being interviewed and that just makes people feel good. People love to talk about themselves, and so now they're going to talk about themselves. And then you're going to promote them. So it's like now their perceived value goes up because all the people that see him, they're going to be like, oh, shoot, that guy's official. Because a lot of these C-suite people, a lot of these big business people, don't have large followings, right, they have a lot of business success, not much following. So it's like, oh, this guy, he probably knows something about marketing and social media, because we have this intrinsic like innate marketing credibility. If you're Gen Z. People just think you're a marketing expert just for growing up with social media. So leverage that. And so asking these people like, yeah, hop on my podcast whenever and always make it an opportunity for them. Don't make it seem like you want their time. You're taking your time. Here's like hey, I'm actually launching a podcast. I'm highlighting amazing entrepreneurs and successful business owners such as yourself. I would love to interview you and have you be my debut episode. I think it'll be a great opportunity for you to get in front of a younger crowd, or to get in front of a local crowd or whatever another crowd, an online crowd, whatever it may be. It's like now, that's beneficial to them and also beneficial to you. And I've done the same exact thing and that's how I've been able to connect with some of the biggest people I've been able to connect to, and the president of Cuddle Williams. I'm scheduled to have him on my podcast. You have to reschedule, you have to be hop on already. So, hopefully, by the time this comes out, I've had a hopefully already interviewing right, I have interviewing a guy that has like 1.5 million followers on IG that I've reached out via DM random DM text message. It's like when people know that you have an opportunity for them, they're gonna be a lot more likely and willing to take that call, to take that interview, to take that coffee chat and it's like, man, I love that you bring this on, because I was thinking about this for a while now and I would just love the fact that you brought it up because it's something that I've been telling people about kinda and I love that you're doing it. So now to segue a little bit, you started doing this Rochester Business Connections podcast. It is definitely at least for me, has been a labor of love. What was it like for you starting a podcast and growing that and interviewing people? What was that whole process like? You take us through that time period.

Ooh, you said labor of love. That was true. I was lucky enough that I was doing the music podcast from 20,. I took a couple of hiatuses, but I was doing it from 2016 up through 2020. As soon as COVID hit, I relaunched that baby, because musicians couldn't play out, so we were doing live streams and they were coming on the podcast playing live. So I already had some chops because I was doing this for fun. Now the new podcast was like okay, business Ben's gonna use this as a marketing channel, but I had already had the skillset, so I'm a little bit detached because I had already developed the skills. The most difficult part is the stuff you don't see, but I'm not trying to scare anybody off. The most difficult part, though, can be the stuff you don't see, but literally, man, I just showed up and had conversations with people. We did what you. Your pitch was great. Literally, my pitch was basically that same exact thing it was. I was reaching out to SUNY Brockport Alumni State University, new York, brockport, to where I went to school, so it was as simple as being like yo, john, I see you went to SUNY Brockport as well. Congrats on making it big time. If they connected with me. This was a LinkedIn message. I was using LinkedIn. If they connected with me, I'd be like I'm launching a business podcast or showcase some of our industry leaders here in Rochester. Would you be interested in coming on? Now, frickin' everybody's saying yes, like everybody's saying yes. And one thing I learned from sales you always gotta ask for referrals. Now, you don't ask somebody for a referral on a podcast per se, but I would say, john man, you brought so much value today. Is there anyone you know? I mean, I know you're probably connected to great people Is there anyone you know that you wanna nominate for this show? I'd love if you have any nominations for the show. And then everybody's introducing me to other people. We're talking networking here. I just happened to use a podcast but, dude, you were saying it like add some frickin' value, bring value into their life and then they're gonna start introducing you to people. For you know it, november of 2020, I did a 22 episode launch. So I did an episode a day, monday through Friday, all of November. If we were to create like a family tree of connections. Those 22 episodes led me to meeting thousands of people, in driving hundreds of thousands of dollars, a profit from 22 people and then them introducing and them introducing and them introducing and them introducing. This joke's kind of old, so I don't know if people are gonna get it, but if anybody had a MySpace page I don't know if you remember MySpace, but Before my time, before my time, so I'll explain it. I was born in 91. So it was right kinda at the customer my time you would sign up for MySpace and you'd immediately have one friend. Your first friend was Tom. Tom from MySpace was always your first friend. You know why Tom was your first friend? Because he founded the frickin' platform. He started the platform. So if you want friends, if you want influence, if you want connections, you gotta start the platform. If you wanna seat at the table, you just bring the table. If you're trying to speak on the mic, why don't you just bring your own mic and then you invite people to sit down at that table with you. That's what Tom did with MySpace, that's what Zuck did with Facebook. That's what all the platforms do they create something that didn't exist. And each and every one of us whether it's a blog, a podcast, a live event, a charity, a Facebook community, each and every one of us has the capacity to create something that didn't exist. So if you're trying to make connections, create something that didn't exist before you and then invite people to be a part of it and dude, like the person I was five years ago, would be jealous of who I am right now and all I did is start a frickin' podcast and start asking people to be a part of it, man.

It's one of those things where it's like I realized that and I didn't even realize that until, like, I already started my podcast and I was like, oh man, I'm a mon or something here. And then it kind of clicked and I was like he who owns the platform owns the attention. Yes, and he who owns the attention controls all. So it's like I'm here, I've been building up this platform I forget at what point in my journey I realized that, but it was earlier on. I didn't have that many episodes out and I was like, oh, my goodness, there's a saying in real estate. So I'm no longer focused in real estate. There's a saying in a lot of things I learned about business. I learned during my time trying to figure real estate out and that just been implementing into what I got going on now. And it's like one of the things is like he who owns the listings controls the market. I was like, okay, how do I take what I learned from real estate and then apply that into podcasting and as marketing stuff that I'm doing? Because there's no correlation, at least direct correlation. And that's something that I would have to do Because, like for me, going into college I never really had job experience. I was a student athlete. So like, all right, how do I take the stuff I learned from football and then apply it to the actual job where I clock in? It's like I never had work experience. I was playing sports. It's like I've always been. I've been pretty good at taking experiences is one thing and applying it to other fields. And so when I learned about the platform thing, it was like, oh my goodness, and the thing with podcasting is you get credit bitterly for lasting Like if you last, you get automatic credibility even if your show is not pulling numbers. So I was like 40, 45 episodes in, barely getting any downloads at all whatsoever. And it was like you know, people was like, oh my goodness, yo, I got to hop on your show Like John, you got to have me on and I'm going to people. You know assistants reaching out to me, people's admins reaching out to me, marketing you know not marketing booking agencies reaching out to me. People reached out to me themselves Like damn, like all these people reaching out to me hopping my show, I'm not. I don't even got to pop in yet. You know, I'm still early on in my my baby podcasting stage. I don't really have a fan base or listenership like that, and people will come out of the woodworks to hop on your platform. Everyone wants to share their story and then we start, I think, um, like a a really big milestone is episode 100. So I just hit that recently and so once you get to episode 100, as I people look at you it's like, oh, triple digits, like triple digit, like triple digit. Podcast is like like six figure earner type of thing. I eat this and I used to weigh how it's been for me. It's like people thought I have, you know, 100 podcast episodes. They're like, oh, you, you got to like an established show, like an incredible show now. And it's like, yeah, and now it's like I'm going outbound now. To have people on before is a lot of inbound stuff, but now that I have a track record of consistency and I've also been able to pull some really amazing people and some bigger names, now I'm reaching out to other big names and I coined this term. So circle prospecting I learned this during my time in real estate and it's kind of what you're doing. I just call it a circle prospecting. Well, I had an open house and during the open house, like the weeks the day before, I knocked on every single door, all the neighbors doors, gave them a little flyer for those that didn't over answer the door, I put the flyer on the door handle and I just circle prospecting and that open house ended up getting like 28 people or 30 people to show up. It was just me by myself, it was busy and, as I said, I'm taking this stuff I learned from real estate. How do I apply that for podcasting? And so people all have a network and if there's someone that you want to reach out to, you may not have the best chances of going to him directly. So if you could find someone else in their sphere and then tap into them, you could slowly but surely work your way up to getting the person that you really want to help on your show. The guy that I said had 1.5 million on IG. I had someone hop on my podcast back in September and he talked about payment processing great interview. He has like 150,000 followers. And then I was looking at the people where he's been on to kind of get ready for the podcast. You know this other guy, the guy with like one over a million followers I was like, oh, he hopped on his show. Yeah, all right, my show is still not really all that put together yet, so I'm gonna hold off. But I followed him and then in February or March, I believe that's when I DM'd him and I was like, hey, I had a guy that was on your show back seven months ago. I would like you to be on my guest, and so I had that in, even though he didn't directly introduce me, because we had similar guests on both of our shows. So if we have similar guests, we it seems as if we're on similar statues, although his, yeah, far more successful than mine, but I was able to get to him through somebody else Indirectly, so a little bit of a tangent there. But, dude, pretty much exactly what you're talking about.

Can I, can I tangent with you on this man? Yeah, because for real, like, whether you like it or not, credibility is more valuable. Authority is more valuable than even like logical numbers. Now, once in a while you're gonna get someone who's hyper logical and they want to see analytics and they want to know Listener ship and specific demographic and you might not be able to get someone like that in your circle here on your show. More people than not. If you've got authority, they don't. You could have two listeners. If you have someone they respect on and you name drop that person, they immediately see you as an authority in the field. Like that is some serious marketing. So I'm not gonna go on a big tangent, but I've been getting Testimonials from a lot of my guests and then I utilize those testimonials to get bigger guests and I don't know if I want to say you know, I'll say it out loud, why not? So do you know Brad Lee Dropping bombs but Brad's reds? I follow my IG dude, he's a king, he's good. I've been following him before he was big. He jumped on Grand Cardone show and I won't go on a big tangent, but like Grant was over talking and Brad's like are we gonna actually help anybody today? He was like a jokester. I started following him like freakin, like 2018 and before he was big on IG and all that. And I'm not deliberately doing this just to get Brad. I will get Brad. But Chris Van Vleet he's a four-time Emmy Award women winner. Jordan Harbinger he's one of the biggest podcasters of all time. And then there's small people that are up and coming, like Shawn Michael Crane, who was in prison for a crime he never didn't commit and now he's a mental like he talks about mindset and speaking. These are all people that I've had on my show that have also been on Brad's show. So I'm not gonna just start a podcast and DM Brad, but since I've had a bunch of people that I know Brad knows Now when I DM and I haven't done a yet but when I DM him and I name drop these people, do you think I'll at least get his attention? And all of that is hacking credibility. Now I'm over delivering, I'm getting testimonials. I'm not forcing anybody to come on the show. I'm doing the work, but I'm hacking credibility while I do it. So I can get better speaking and get engagements, I can get in the door, I can get bigger guests and you said it with real estate. Like you and I are talking podcasting today. This doesn't just apply to podcasting, this applies to anything in life. Let's say as a simple example You're selling a product to a community. You get one big player, you get one small player. Then when you're talking to person three, you name drop the big gun and you name drop the small business. It builds credibility and it gets easier and easier. The book of business, the connections you make. It just gets easier and easier and easier as you go.

It's crazy. As you were talking, I was supposed to interview Sean. We had three schedules, but I do. These are the guys July he's a good guy on a calendar for July to read we reschedule for July, so I'm excited for that one. I said I was following him for a little while because he, he knows someone he follows, he's connected to someone that I started following because that person is connected to someone that I know personally and so it's like I said a following him and then, as I said, just DM them, just reached out and and that's what anything I said. We've been talking about podcasting, but even in you know, so I have. I'm in marketing as well. Myself, I'm actually getting ready to launch my. At the time of recording this, I'm launching my, my Marketing course for realtors on content creation and AI for realtors. I'm dropping that in three weeks from the time of recording this and it's like I was teaching classes and my first class had like 440 people signed up, and it's all because I was in a mastermind group and the host of the mastermind asked me to teach a class. How I said, I'm teaching a class on my own. I guarantee you, maybe 20 people would have showed up just because they liked me as a person, yeah, but like, what led up to that is like I was in the group, I was providing value, like we would have this call on Fridays and there's like a script call. We just practice our, our sales scripts and On Fridays was like question Friday, and so they would. Everyone will just have their best like Question, like sales question to ask, you know, to overcome an objection, and it was dependent on the topic of that day. And so I would scribe all the questions out in the chat. Then people would save the chat and put it in the Facebook group. I would scribe the questions, put the chat onto a Google doc, take out all the banter in between, so just only sales questions, and like put it like a nice little Fond on it and then upload it to the Facebook group. Right, so I was doing that. People started becoming like and started to notice me a little bit. And then what happened on? I was always active on a cause. When the cause I made a quick Facebook post Because I was at the gym so I couldn't share live, and it was just like five quick posts. And then the host connected me. I was like John, like you teach a class on this and that's all. I never taught a class before. But then she was like John, when do you want to scheduled? And so that class, as I said, I had a ton of people signed up for it. And now, because, instead of trying to build my own credibility, I hacked. Well, she reached out to me. So I believe it in hack but essentially hacked the credibility she has, because there's several hundred people on that early bird, that early morning, mad like real estate mastermind every single Monday through Friday and it's like she, pretty much like cosine almost for me. And then from there my credibility went from just a Guy in a group that you know, you know just participating, was active and like a pretty solid member in terms of activity. I was always, you know, talking and sharing. But then I went from bad to like instant social media marketing expert and like, just from that one post, because the host, cosine and that authority, like you mentioned, went from Like I say, on a scale from one to ten, maybe like a solid three, to like Like broke the scale Just because of the host, dude, and it's because you are adding value Well before, like you, didn't, she made the ass.

That's, that's bad ass. You need to make the ass. You added value like. Give someone an example, that isn't podcasting. If I go to a live event, I'm taking notes. You know what I do with those notes. I turn those notes into show social media graphics and then I share it with the person who said it. I share it on my wall, I tag them, I put them in the story, I share it. I just created content for free why not? It's high quality content. And then Nick's in an astosso. I'm in his mastermind. He's shouting up me out for my social media content all because I made content around him. And now he's shouting me out in front of the entire group. It's that simple. He's touring with Tony Robbins and he's shouting me out as someone who knows how to do social media. All I did is do some stuff for free. I'm not telling people to do stuff for free per se, but you need to add value and if you don't have much credibility and if you don't have as many connections as you'd like, maybe you've got to have to do a couple things for free. You got to put your chips on yourself. You have to invest your time in your business and then, before you know it, like John, they're actually reaching out to you, like you don't even have to reach out to them.

It's because you added value to the group and yeah and I want to jump on that point and like, really emphasize it it's okay to do stuff for free, but it's never okay to do something for nothing. Free is just money. Money is not the only bartering tool and I'm learning, right, there's other ways to get value. For example, you know, I made teach a class for free, but the good will that I'm gonna have and the other opportunities because now that first class that I did for free, let's have many more classes, and now I'm about to launch a course. From the time of recording this, it's like but all that started was from a free class, right? So it's okay to do something for free. It's never okay to do something for nothing. So if money isn't the how you getting paid, how can you get, like, the email list? How could you get connected to somebody else? Like how, what can you get? That's not money from that situation, or or. But the best is when you come from abundance. It's like you do something and don't expect anything in return. Cause that's what I did. I didn't expect anything in return for the marketing classes. It was like I was just happy that people thought I was credible about something. I was just happy that people thought I could teach about something. So I got an opportunity to talk to all these realtors. They're all selling a lot more houses than me and they want to hear me speak. Like I was just honored to go out there and present and there wasn't a. They literally told me John, don't do another one of these without charging. And then what I do, I didn't charge why? Cause I was building up that goodwill. So many people just like took that first opportunity and just started. You know, fumbling at the mouth like, oh, money, let me take it. But so you let that goodwill compound. Then you can make a much larger ask in the future. And so it's like I've been building up a goodwill for so long and this is a long-term marketing play. But, as you said, when you're 21 and you got nothing but time and energy, you can play a long-term game. And that's what I'm in it for, man. I'm in it for the long-term, not trying to ruin my credibility or my reputation to make a quick buck. I'm like how can I play this abundantly? How can I play this to in five, 10, 15, 20 years? So many people are so focused on like the next week? It's like nah, I got this big long-term plan, and I know where to work out, cause I'm consistently making an effort to push the needle forward. So, ben man, we talked about tons of amazing things. I think networking is one of the most, if not the most powerful, thing on the planet. Man, I've been able and, as I said, you had someone on your show. I'm also scheduled to hop him on his show, cause he's the man he's the man you didn't even really meet him, like know each other for real, and it's like we're connected now, not only because you hopped on my show, but now we're also connected because we also had similar guests right. So it's like you start connecting with some of these people and then you get to see that their circle is like you already kind of have mutuals everywhere, and then it's like you just start elevating to that level and you start almost being pulled up to that level just because you have so many people that are surrounded with success. So and work through, we find you out, work through, connect with you, work through to get some business connection, knowledge and just keep up with your story and all the amazing things we have going on, dude, and I see you, john, I saw Nick Gray's been on the show.

He's been on my show as well. He's the man. We probably have more guests that we don't even know off the top of our head. I want to tell people honestly, like they're already consuming this. I want to make sure that they're subscribed here. If they're watching on the YouTube, hit five stars. Hit, subscribe. Hit five stars, leave a review, do that first. You can find my show Real Business Connections. It used to be Rochester, now it's Real Business Connections. You can find my show wherever you found this. But barrier to entry is leave this guy a review first, or at least hit five stars or subscribe, because you're already here, and then you can find me wherever you found this Amazing Ben, and now it's time for our famous five questions.

So start things off. What is the most impactful lesson you've learned?

so much, dude, there's so many. I've got two answers. Can I give you both the answers? Yeah, give me both. Give me both the first one. They're both cop out answers, but actually they're both basically the same answer. But ultimately there is no perfect solution to life's biggest questions. Like it's a constant evolution of self, like we have never made it. We are always leveling up and changing. We're always either living or dying. Like we're either getting better we're getting worse, and an extension of that is there is no perfect key to success. There's no cheat code. It's a combination lock and each and every one of us has our own unique combination, just how each and every one of us have our own unique fingerprint. Why do you think they take your finger when you get arrested? Because that stuff's unique. You are unique. That's why there's no key. It's a combination lock and what I did, and what John does, is surround yourself with the right people so you can create that combination. So don't if anybody thinks they have like the end all be all solution, they're lying to you. You got to find your own solution and that's finding your own combination. What is the most admirable trait a person can have? Admirable. So I think the most required trait is curiosity, but I don't know if that's admirable. I mean, humility is huge and I think that goes with curiosity. The best trait you could have, in my opinion, is curiosity. But being humble is admirable.

I can't even say that word, bro, I don't know I need to find an easier word when I was like this would be a great question, and then I started saying it at the end of interviews. I'm like yo it's so hard to pronounce Like admirable.

I don't know how to talk. I had a speech in pen and in most of my life I can't talk, but curiosity and humility, because curiosity will get you there but humility will keep you there.

If you had to change someone's life with one book, which book would you recommend?

I've only read it once. I need to reread it, but story worthy story worthy by Matthew Dix. He is one of the greatest storytellers of all time. He's won a tremendous amount of awards for it and if you can learn how to communicate and tell stories and be curious and be creative, your entire life will change. How would your life change if you're an exceptional communicator? Story worthy will help you tell stories that will change your life. So I've only read it once, but it's a pretty damn good book. What is the legacy that you're trying to leave behind? I stole it from Brad Lee, but I'm trying to get the knowledge from the people who have it to the people who need it. I usually say the wisdom from the people who have it to the people who need it. I want to impact at least a million lives, and I'm not talking like alike, because they saw a six pack Like I actually want to change a million lives, and the way we do that is knowledge. So if I can get as much knowledge out there as possible, that's the impact I'm trying to make.

The duty of the Enlightened is to enlighten the Unleightened. Plato. It's a quote that I'll thereby. And to finish off, man, if someone wanted to embark on their walk to wealth today, what is the first step that you would?

recommend. Create something that doesn't exist yet, and Facebook communities exist, but yours doesn't. Podcasts exist, but yours doesn't. Start something new. Start something that doesn't exist and ask people to be a part of it.

You've now finished taking the first step. Now let us help you take the next one. Subscribe to our newsletter at walktowealthcom. That's walk, the number two wealthcom, so we can keep you moving on your journey. We'll see you on the next episode of Walk to Wealth with John Mendes.