How Josh Blackman of Brownstone Property Has Built a New York Real Estate Empire

[00:00:00] Josh: we start by just talking about things that you can control and things you can't control. And people quickly realize that they have control over themselves and nothing else. You don't have any control over outside forces or other people. The next thing we do is questions that kind of ground them in their strengths in the present and where.

[00:00:16] Josh: Really excelled in the past. And then we do some, journaling about kind of what they want their future to look like with some pointed questions. Then we do a visualization where we take 'em through their life and we even take 'em towards the end of their life and asking them what they want to see.

[00:00:32] Mike: Welcome back to The Better Than Rich Show. You are in for a treat today with Josh Painter. If you haven't heard her, Josh, he has a book called Best Version Ever, which just reached the Wall Street Journal bestseller list, which is a huge accomplishment. It's a really fantastic book. it's not a difficult read.

[00:00:49] Mike: It's, uh, about 150 pages and it is a blueprint on how to. create your best version ever. He talks about great stories in his book he talks about just going back to some of the old gurus and how, you know, stories that they tell the best practices, implementable tools that you could use.

[00:01:04] Mike: But during this conversation specifically with Josh, we ask him some of the hard-hitting questions of like, Having a child at an early age and navigating through how to create over a billion dollars in real estate over the course of his time working in the real estate industry and how he was getting, you know, into those slums of not wanting to get off the couch and struggling with addictions early in life.

[00:01:26] Mike: It's a really great conversation. Again, if you haven't heard of Josh, he is the best version ever community, and he's helping tons and tons of people all across the world crush their goals and reach their full potential in all areas of life. This isn't just cool fufu stuff. We really dig into some strategy, and you'll notice Josh has one of the most low-key demeanors and chill personalities that we've ever had on the Better Than Rich show.

[00:01:50] Mike: So get ready for another great episode with Josh Painter.

[00:01:54] Mike: Welcome back to The Better Than Rich Show. I'm your host today, Micah Perowitz, with my dear friend Andrew Bigs. And we are in for a special treat with best version ever, Josh Painter. I've been digging into this book. It is really a very excellent read lots of great reminders in this book.

[00:02:10] Mike: Josh welcomes to the Better Than Rich Show. We're excited to have you

[00:02:12] Mike: here, brother.

[00:02:13] Josh: Dudes, thanks for having me. It's good to be here.

[00:02:16] Mike: this book, it's really cool to see some of the information that you put in this book. I mean, a lot of simple stories, a lot of simple best practices, things that some individuals might be able to, like, literally read this and say it like, I like how you have it set up.

[00:02:29] Mike: It's like, take action on this. Here's some questions to consider. Here's some things. you could begin right away. I love the stories like bringing back Jim Carey and his visualization and talking about the brick layers and understand the purpose of why they're doing some, these are really classic, great stories.

[00:02:44] Mike: I am curious what was the inspiration? Like, what made you say, all right, let me go ahead and create this best version ever book, this movement, this community. Where did this come

[00:02:52] Mike: from?

[00:02:53] Josh: Yeah, it was a few different things. I do these live in-person goal planning workshops, all day seminars. And, you know, I always ask for feedback at the end, and the one thing that kept coming up was. Hey, this is great that we spend a day doing this. It would be nice to know some of the reasons why and the information behind this.

[00:03:14] Josh: So that kind of sparked because the event is called Best version Ever. So that sparked the idea of, Hey, I should write a book about why some of this. works, right? Because when you're doing live workshops, the last thing you want to be doing is just up there talking the whole time, right?

[00:03:28] Josh: And trying to explain things. so at this point, the book gives more explanation on the event. And at the same time, the event is still the place to take massive action from the book. And then the second reason is quite honestly, I was just the one book that I could just kind of hand out most of the time that it, that has the information I would want to pass on. kind of got tired of recommending five to 10 different books or 15 on.

[00:03:51] Josh: Subjects. So one of my friends Scott calls it 27 personal development books in one. So that was kinda the main

[00:03:58] Josh: idea behind that.

[00:03:59] Mike: I agree with that, man. I mean, what's interesting is it's not like you have this I wouldn't say big background in personal growth, not like you were immersed into writing books and stuff your whole life. I mean, you have a huge background in real estate.

[00:04:10] Mike: I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but if I've read this right, a company over a billion dollars, a billion dollar real estate

[00:04:15] Mike: company. Is That

[00:04:16] Mike: right?

[00:04:16] Josh: sold over a billion dollars. Same way McDonald's sell. Says they sold billions of hamburgers. Like we've sold over a billion in, real estate sales. And that happened recently. when I realized, I was like, Wow, . It's a big number,

[00:04:27] Mike: dude, that's incredible. I mean, that in itself is incredible and I'd love to speak to that. I wanna kick you to bigs in just a moment, but can you speak to just. an overview. I'm sure I wanna pick on to, some specifics there, but our audience is a lot of entrepreneurs when they hear a billion dollars in real estate, that is some of their lifelong dream goals.

[00:04:43] Mike: And this is like, you just said it like, yeah, nonchalant. Yeah, it was, it was kind of cool. it was a cool like thing. But this is like, someone's like BHA goal. Can you kinda speak to like the journey getting there and what that is like, what that experience is like?

[00:04:55] Josh: I, think I speak of it nonchalant cause I realize it's like a 12 year journey, right? It's the overnight success but it took 12 years to do it. So man, I mean, I started as a, real estate agent in 2008. I was a mortgage lender from oh five to oh eight, so perfect storm. And I think, well, I tell that story in the book of how I kind of transitioned over, but long story short I had worked forever on this one loan, and at the end of the day, I got paid 400 bucks on it.

[00:05:22] Josh: And I remember calling the real estate agent to congratulate her and her just saying, oh, cool, thanks. Like it wasn't even that big of a deal. And her comment was, I think I only made $4,000 on this deal. so that day I just decided, you know what? I want to be on that side of it. Seen real estate agents and what it took to succeed.

[00:05:39] Josh: so that was an oh eight oh nine. I had a chance encounter with some investors and really took advantage of that. In 2010, I started my own real estate brokerage to piggyback off the business I was doing with the investors and then thought. Got my own brokerage, I should invite some friends to come over.

[00:05:56] Josh: And then it just kind of like spread through word of mouth. And then in 2013 or 14, I started a real estate team trained two bartenders I, I often think about how, fortunate I was to meet both of them in the same year because they are both now, like in the. Five in our whole city and they both have teams of, 10, 20 agents.

[00:06:16] Josh: So I don't know, man. It's just years of making relationships and trying to do the right thing.

[00:06:21] Andrew: it's really cool what you're saying, Josh, and again, I always appreciate somebody who's, very humble about their accomplishments the way you are and recognize there was a journey and also a billion dollars. that's not like, you multiply a million by 12 or whatever.

[00:06:34] Andrew: You get 12 million. We're talking, way more factors than that. So we're talking. tens of millions, hundreds of millions a year I'm sure sometimes. So it's pretty impressive, man. And it's also impressive to hear kind of like, okay, I took two bartenders and turned them into top five producers in the city.

[00:06:49] Andrew: I mean, is there anything to that, like, is there a method to your madness or is it just the relationships? I mean, there's gotta be a lot of leadership and development that you've had to pour into people in order to take. from maybe not having a background at all in sales and performance and business to being top five, like what would you say to.

[00:07:04] Josh: one of the philosophies that's always driven me, and, f it's something I learned train somebody so that, they can replace you, but treat them so they'll never wanna leave something to that effect. Train someone so well that they can totally replace you or go out on their own, but treat 'em so well that they never want to.

[00:07:20] Josh: And I've noticed there's like this trend, or maybe it's not anymore, but there was a trend for CEOs to like, sit down and come up with their vision and what's your vision of the company and where do you want to go? And then once you've sat down forever and come up with your vision, then hey, tell all your 50 employees what your vision is and get them to buy in.

[00:07:39] Josh: Right? And so, One of my favorite books that I read years ago was called Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly. and the whole, premise is like, employees don't wanna follow your dream. they want to create and follow their own dreams. And if you can tap into that and help them achieve their dreams they'll always love you for that.

[00:07:55] Josh: And they won't have reasons to. Looking elsewhere and to, meet their own dreams. I mean, I took onto that really early on and just, helping the bartender. I mean, he was like in his twenties, man. I mean, he was bottomed out and now he owns two houses. dude was driving a Lambo until I told him that's probably not the best financial decision, but he still made, a profit on it based on the way the used car sales are.

[00:08:15] Josh: So, I mean, he's doing great. Man. Takes vacations, married, probably gonna have a, their kid next year. So I mean, that's amazing. I've just always wanted to invest in their dreams, and so in that sense, my dream is watching. , fulfill their dreams.

[00:08:29] Mike: Well, I definitely have follow ups on this one because I love the dream Manager, by the way. I read it, probably 15 years ago at this point, and then I reread it again maybe 10 years ago, and I went so far as hiring a dream manager for my, staff. That would give them coaching calls and mapped out their dreams.

[00:08:45] Mike: This was back in I don't know, maybe 2017, 2018. And I was paying a dream manager to work with my staff to get them towards their dreams. And I love this and I'm very interested to hear because then a friend of mine Dan Esgar, you might know Dan as well. Front Rod dad, he has the dream machine.

[00:09:00] Mike: he does a lot of Dream summits, dream workshops, and it's really been fun. We'll probably have him on the podcast at some point soon. I'm very interested in how did you incorporate this dream? Like what was the strategy? How did you incorporate it? Did you go as far as hiring a dream manager to sit down with your staff?

[00:09:15] Mike: Did you do more of like a bergoff exchange program where it was like collaborative conversation? Like how did you document it? How did you communicate it? How did they communicate it? Like you could actually go through your structure and your infrastructure of incorporating dream management? I'd love to hear.

[00:09:29] Josh: so you're probably gonna be super underwhelmed when I tell you my strategy, but it worked. so it was like three components. The first one was the workshop that I already do every year. And so that was big I mean, they still do it. It's been years. and it's not even like for my real estate team anymore.

[00:09:44] Josh: It's like. All industries come to this, but my real estate guys still come to this. So there they kind of plan out their dreams for the year. The second thing was I would just meet, them one-on-one and just ask the question from the book, which is, what dream are you chasing? Right? And then the third super unscientific method that I used, which was not hiring a dream manager, was just writing their dreams on little three by five cards and taping them to my wall so that I saw them every day.

[00:10:11] Josh: And then that would prompt me to remember, oh, that's right. So-and-so's goal is to buy a house this year. I can ask them how they're doing on this. You know, so-and-so wanted to lose weight. it was a constant reminder to me to like, oh, ask them how this is going. When I see them,

[00:10:25] Mike: That last part was not that underwhelming dude, that was

[00:10:28] Mike: pretty good

[00:10:30] Josh: Basic right? There's no tech involved or anything like that. It's just I need everything in my face, or I forget, man, I live by to-do lists and just things in my face, right where I can see.

[00:10:40] Andrew: I think it's great because how many managers have sat down and ran the workshop, right? And I guarantee there's a listener right now who's listening and they're like, yeah, this is me. I'm willing to admit it. And I've even done this in the past for sure, where it's like you run the workshop, everyone comes up with their dreams, they even tell you their dreams and.

[00:10:56] Andrew: You don't even ask about it. You know, for the next six months, 12 months, right? And it's like, oh yeah, wasn't one of your dreams this year to do this? How do we do on that? It's like we didn't do anything, you know, nothing happened and nothing comes of these, workshops sometimes because there's no follow up and there's no intentionality.

[00:11:11] Andrew: So like, you basically have a vision board for your people on your wall. That's what I heard.

[00:11:17] Andrew: You know what their vision is, and you're helping co-create that vision with them. That's how much you care about. and that, really speaks to why they don't wanna leave. I would love to get into kind of some of your catchphrases.

[00:11:27] Andrew: I love this idea of the best version ever being. 27 personal growth books in one. I love some of these catchphrases and quotes that you like to kind of bring forth. hope is not a strategy and you also kind of hit on it really seems like you have a hard work component and a component that really brings people to like, Hey, hours matter more than talent and these sorts of ideas.

[00:11:45] Andrew: Can you speak to those a little bit, like, When you think about, the ethos of your brand and what you like to really get people to tap into, what would you say are the most important elements of that for you?

[00:11:55] Josh: I, I think the most important elements are your life's purpose, it can be becoming your best version ever. And you get to decide what that looks like, right? there's no. , there's no outside forces that you need to be pressured by or, expectations that you need to meet.

[00:12:09] Josh: So, I mean, in the beginning the book starts off with, living a life that others expect of you and why that's a bad idea. And then we just kind of crush that right from the beginning and say, Hey, you know, your purpose is actually to. Your best version ever, but you get to decide what that looks like.

[00:12:24] Josh: And it gets to change as often as you want it to. Right? I mean, for some people, if they can just go surfing every day after work, they're happy. That's their best version ever. And that's good. You know, you talked about hours matter more than talent. I really realized that when I decided to learn to play the drums, right, because I just think.

[00:12:42] Josh: Most people think, oh, you know, that's something that people are just born with this talent or they just have a knack for it. And as I was learning, every time I would tr I would go to learn something new or a new beat, I realized it was just. Playing it in super slow motion. Oh. It's like, okay, this hand goes here and then the next thing is this foot's gonna go.

[00:13:02] Josh: And then it was just slowly speeding it up and speeding it up. And you know, I just realized that anything you see someone else doing is, evidence that you could do it. they just have way more hours doing it. going back to the anecdotal 10,000 hour rule, right?

[00:13:16] Josh: Like the saying is if you put 10,000 hours into anything, you're gonna be pretty near expert level at it. And so when you see someone who's an expert at something, they just have more hours than you. that's really

[00:13:27] Josh: all it is.

[00:13:28] Andrew: I couldn't agree more. I'm a pianist, and I think all the time it, has nothing to do with, you know, your talent or whatever. Like, you sit down and you practice for hours and hours and hours and you get good at something. And it's something that I constantly have to remind my kids, my seven year old at least cuz he's starting to learn.

[00:13:44] Andrew: It's like, Hey, we gotta be patient with yourself and all these things. Someone asked me how did you learn this stuff around business? Like, is this just like, come easy to you? It's nobody pops out of the wound knowing how to run a business. Like, of course not , you know, it's all just hours and experience.

[00:13:58] Andrew: Everything that we've learned is hours and experience, right? So nobody's like naturally better at this or that and the other just show up and put in the hours. I think that's really good stuff. Mike, what's coming up for you here?

[00:14:07] Mike: My curiosity was you, you mentioned. That the real estate journey started more towards like that late twenties. And I know in the late teens it was like girlfriend got pregnant, you know, trying to get like the quote unquote real job. I would love to hear just that gap, in there because some of the listeners are on the journey moving towards that dream of having that start in that company or, they're still kind of in survival mode and trying to figure some things out. So I think, getting pregnant early in life is something that some audience members could relate to. And I'd love to just have you share that.

[00:14:43] Mike: how was that process? I asked that question another one of our guests too, and I'd really loved, the way he explained it. And I, I'd love to hear how you explained your journey as well, if

[00:14:51] Mike: possible.

[00:14:52] Josh: I mean the gap it was grueling, right? I just remember my twenties. just working these jobs and feeling like there was more to life, but quite honestly, not knowing what the answers were I wish that I had access to like the book that I wrote right now, right? Like that kind of information. I didn't have any kind of like, personal development type in my life. I mean, dude, I just worked away and then, , I just remember turning 30 and thinking if I don't do anything different, like before I know it, I'm gonna wake up and I'll be 40 and another 10 years have gone by.

[00:15:22] Josh: Right. And so, the pain of staying the same has to be more painful than the fear of change. and that's what happened. Right? I just decided like, can't do this anymore.

[00:15:31] Mike: these individuals that are in their twenties, I mean, you literally just fast forwarded a decade. We went from , your girlfriend got pregnant at 17. You're like, yeah, I just did a bunch of shit. And then turned 30 and realized like, I need a wake up call. Some of these individuals, like whether some of the people listening, you know, their parents have kids that are in their late teens, early twenties, or someone's listening and they are in their early twenties.

[00:15:49] Mike: And I don't wanna skip this, where we give them permission. It's like, yeah, your twenties don't matter. You could fuck up all you want and then you could get 30 and have a wake up call. you could. Prepare it and just like I did and then read my book or I would love to get into what were some of those consequences that you experienced?

[00:16:04] Mike: What were some of the painful lessons that you endured that maybe a parent listening says, damn, okay, I probably should parent my kid through some of that stuff. Or if it's someone in their twenties saying, All right. I don't have to wait till I'm 30 to have this wake up call. Like if you could like really feel into some of those.

[00:16:20] Mike: What were the lessons? What were the consequences? What were the stories? Like what was it like being this version of you?

[00:16:25] Mike: Yeah,

[00:16:26] Josh: okay. I mean, I was a, corrections officer, jail guard for five years, right. Nothing that I would've ever growing up thought like that. I would end up doing I just happened into it. Right. Heard they were hiring, sounded like an interesting job with some time off and good benefits.

[00:16:42] Josh: So I worked in a jail and then it felt like I was in jail because, you know, I would go to work and the sun wasn't out. And 12 hours later after my shift, I would go home and the sun wasn't out. So, I mean, days of not seeing the sun, right, I did that. For five years. So now I'm around 25. And I was just like, I gotta get outta here.

[00:16:59] Josh: So real estate sounded interesting. It was 2005. Everything was going amazing, right? So I jumped into that. I do wanna rewind on something you said, right? So if someone in their twenties is listen, To this podcast, they're already way ahead of where I was in my twenties, right? Because I didn't do anything like this.

[00:17:17] Josh: if parents are listening Start feeding the kids, the information early. Right. That's what I've started doing. Just like, even if they don't want to hear it at least like exposing them to it so that when they are ready, they know where to look. One idea that I had heard and I haven't implemented it, but it could be an idea, is just, paying your kids to read books and write a, book report on it when it's done right.

[00:17:38] Josh: Again, I haven't implemented it, but I always thought that could be an interesting idea right here, read this and write a summary about it and I'll pay you. But anyway back to my story, right? I mean, I jump into real estate in oh five. It's going okay, oh seven hits. I do not have the capital or the relationships to kind of sustain me through, you know, the.

[00:17:57] Josh: Market crash of our lifetimes. So I did the trifecta of bad credit, right? I realized I couldn't pay my bills and filed bankruptcy. And then few months later, I realized that one of those bills that I couldn't pay was my mortgage. So I lost my house and then few months later I thought it's time to burn the boats.

[00:18:13] Josh: And got a divorce. So that was at the EI trifecta in oh eight. So I'm renting a two bedroom apartment.

[00:18:20] Mike: and that woman that you divorced, was that the same one that

[00:18:24] Mike: you got pregnant at? 17.

[00:18:25] Josh: so yes.

[00:18:26] Mike: so she was with you through this valley that you were in with as a correctional

[00:18:30] Mike: officer

[00:18:31] Mike: as well?

[00:18:32] Josh: yeah. my son was born when I was 17. Our daughter was born when I was 20. And so, you know, I just thought like, that's what you're supposed to do, right? You're supposed to get married and Buy a house and all that good stuff. yeah, we were together about 12 years until I was 30.

[00:18:44] Josh: oh eight comes renting an apartment two bedroom so that each kid can have a bedroom. I get behind on my rent, it's like dude. I already filed bankruptcy and lost a house the year before and now I'm like behind on my bills again. I think the only reason I didn't get evicted is cause the landlord was also.

[00:19:01] Josh: Real estate agent and she knew what was going on. But, you know, I just, kept grinding. I mean, that's a whole story in itself, right? How I switched to real estate. so I told you about the girl who said I only made $4,000. So the next day I just drove to a real estate office, signed up, bought a bunch of open house signs, put 'em out bunch of people came in.

[00:19:20] Josh: I wrote an offer. The offer didn't get accepted, but I just thought, you know what? if I just do this 40 hours a week, like there's no way. I'm not gonna sell one house a month. And so yeah, later on that year, I sold, some houses and, caught up on my bills. Hope that helps.

[00:19:33] Mike: so that hustle, that you had to go do this 40 hours, this, Really genius way of marketing. I it's like the whole, let me just work my ass off to go find a way to create something. I'm gonna put out all these open house sizes just go create something for yourself.

[00:19:47] Mike: The shift happen where you're, I'm not gonna work for someone else. I'm gonna work for myself. I'm gonna make this happen. I'm gonna go. I got inspired by this. She didn't know she was a mentor, but this inspirational person in your life and said, wow, there could be more to this. And you created a shift.

[00:20:00] Mike: Now, all those painful moments of, I'm sure those conversations as a young parent, and a conversations as a young married couple as those young parents you know, we could get into the weeds of some of that stuff, but I really am most impressed by you. Navigating through these valleys and these unpredictable times and being willing to share that with our us and our audience because they think a lot of people could relate to how much uncertainty happens.

[00:20:27] Mike: And then there's sometimes just a moment that we got to make a shift. And you chose a different path. You made the CH choice, you started aggressively pursuing this, and you fast. 14 years later, I guess, and you have a billion dollar company, company worth that has sold a billion dollars worth of real estate to use.

[00:20:47] Mike: Said, I don't wanna like over embellish or exaggerate, but that's, you know, a billion dollars worth of real estate that you're responsible for from such you know, I would say a dark place and a deep valley that some people would never be able to climb out of. So let me kick it to you, Biggs, but I just wanna

[00:21:00] Mike: reflect that that was,

[00:21:01] Andrew: I, really appreciate it too because sometimes it's, for you, the listener to, when we have like amazing guests on the show to go, But they don't understand my life. They don't understand the challenges I've gone through. And when you hear stuff like that, I think it's super helpful Josh.

[00:21:13] Andrew: So thanks for being willing to open up and share the trifecta, experience that you had to go through to learn the lessons you had to learn to become who you are today. Taking it to this, idea of kind of where and how you serve people. You run these goals, workshops, you connect them to wise, help us understand and I think one of the more interesting things is when you're leading someone through goals, I found that sometimes it's almost like some people are used to it cuz they're, in this world, but some people aren't. And it's almost like when I ask them, what do you really want? They don't really know . Right. Have you experienced that and how do you navigate that and how do you help someone connect to like, What do they really want?

[00:21:51] Andrew: Not what, you know, society tells 'em they should want, not what their parents wanted for them, not what their wife or husband wants for them, but like, what do they really want? And I've just found it sometimes difficult, especially with people who are less initiated to this world to get that breakthrough.

[00:22:04] Andrew: Like, what, do you do there and, and what have you found?

[00:22:07] Josh: Yeah, I agree with you. I think if you just sit someone down and say, what do you want? The mind could go many places, right? So you know, you had mentioned, I think, Bergoff earlier. I've studied a lot with him and just. Really formulating the right questions. I like to start the event the workshop, whatever you wanna call it.

[00:22:24] Josh: And we start by just talking about things that you can control and things you can't control. And people quickly realize that they have control over themselves and nothing else. You don't have any control over outside forces or other people. The next thing we do is questions that kind of ground them in their strengths in the present and where.

[00:22:41] Josh: Really excelled in the past. And then we do some, journaling about kind of what they want their future to look like with some pointed questions. Then we do a visualization where we take 'em through their life and we even take 'em towards the end of their life and asking them what they want to see.

[00:22:57] Josh: And usually that ends up being most people's favorite part. And then by the time we've gone through all. From there, the goal setting just seems to kind of flow and happen effortlessly once they've gone through all of that.

[00:23:11] Andrew: That's awesome. And I think what I'm hearing there and like the meta, kind of takeaway from my side is when you're connected to. a vision, and you're also feeling the emotions, right? Because if you do a visualization and then you take someone to the end of their life and they're sitting kind of, you know, quote unquote on their rocking chair on the front porch, looking at the grandkids running around what kind of cars in the driveway?

[00:23:31] Andrew: What's the house look like? what are the relationships like? What's the quality of energy around the dinner table? And you actually have them really connect to that. Better answers right. Are gonna come forth. So this is just like really good stuff. In terms of like a playbook where if you are struggling you're probably listening to this, it's probably early in 2023 as you're listening to this and, now's a great time to think about what are you gonna accomplish this year, right?

[00:23:55] Andrew: And if you haven't gotten great answers or it's been kind of wishy-washy take some of the lessons that Josh has given us. You know, put 'em to work there. But this is awesome.

[00:24:03] Mike: Yeah. And I know in the book you break down, smart goals. You break down a lot of these. Good question asking that you can I really love the little section. It was a small section about the tele taking a helicopter trip. Where was it? Belize, if I remember

[00:24:15] Mike: correctly. you

[00:24:15] Mike: know, so it was a little bit of ventured there.

[00:24:17] Mike: If you wanna tell that story, I, was like, man,

[00:24:19] Mike: that was pretty badass, you know,

[00:24:21] Josh: Yeah.

[00:24:21] Mike: I'd love for you tell the story where I was getting to. I'll get to the end and then I would love for you to riff on that. But I'm sure that that inspiration came from doing your own, like smart goals activities.

[00:24:32] Mike: And what I would love to have you riff on is what are some of the cool shit that you and some of. Audience and the clients that you've had and people you served. Maybe you can go on a whole rant of all the really cool stuff that some, boxes that you've seen get checkley. we've already heard about the Lambo, now you're gonna tell us about a helicopter trip in Belize.

[00:24:51] Mike: I would love to hear and maybe inspire some listeners of like, Hey, here's a bunch of like cool things that I've witnessed or I've experienced because I set smart goals and I followed this best version of.

[00:25:01] Josh: No, totally. I mean, so whole point of the Belize helicopter story was, sometimes we set goals because we think that that's the goal we want to set, or we think that would be a cool goal or that others expect from us. But when you really take, the smart framework and ask, is this relevant to me?

[00:25:17] Josh: You know, I was flying in a helicopter over the great blue hole in Belize and I. Thought. Okay. This was amazing. My goal next year is going to be to get my helicopter pilot's license. I want to do this a lot, right? You know, and I'm a big fan of taking massive action and, immediate action.

[00:25:32] Josh: That's one of the things we do at, my events. But that day or, maybe right when I got home, I contacted a school in San Diego where you can get a helicopter pilot's license. Took an introductory flight. It was like, this is amazing. I'm all in. Right? And then it's like, okay, what does this look like?

[00:25:47] Josh: Well, it's gonna be four years of school. I'm already almost out. But then talking, it's like , nevermind. So okay, four years of school, I could probably swing that. Let's see. Oh, and it's, and the school's $60,000. Oof. Okay. and the kicker was like, okay, then what do you do?

[00:26:05] Josh: Well, you can rent a helicopter. To use for thousands of dollars every time you want to use it. Or you could buy one for one to 200 grand. And so, you know, at the end of the day, I had to ask, is this really relevant to me at my time in life? Right? Am I gonna spend. $250,000 getting a license and buying a helicopter or a hundred grand getting a license and renting a helicopter, or could I just take that money and pay a helicopter pilot to fly me in a helicopter or whenever I get the itch.

[00:26:32] Josh: So the goal wasn't relevant to me in my place in life. And I can tell you I haven't been in a helicopter since. And so what is that like five? So that's how we use that to break down. Like, is this really relevant to you or does it just sound awesome? anyway, so that's the story on that.

[00:26:47] Josh: Getting back to what you had asked what the goals that I've seen people achieve, My favorite story, my favorite one so far is a year ago in December I was doing an event in Southern California. And after the initial questions and the visualization my friend Rob stands up and he says, you know, I realized it's time to start a.

[00:27:07] Josh: and you should have seen this fiance cause she kinda looks at him and is like, oh, this is happening. So that was in December. In February, he comes home, there's a box on the table. He opens the box and in the note it says, congratulations on crushing all your goals for this year. And underneath is a positive pregnancy test.

[00:27:24] Josh: They just had their daughter a few months ago. . And he, says that that was from the event which I find amazing I don't know how I'll ever top that story. You know, one of the ladies at the event called her boss and said, Hey, I'm gonna start working part-time right now cuz I need to follow my dream.

[00:27:38] Josh: You know, weight loss is a big one. we had a lady from last year's event she lost 50 pounds this year. And. You know, generally speaking, people have bought houses, started new careers ended toxic relationships. Began new relationships, right? So yeah crushed sales goals. I remember a few years back, one of the agents wanted to sell 40 homes.

[00:28:00] Josh: That was his goal. He sold 140 last year,

[00:28:03] Andrew: Wow.

[00:28:04] Mike: that's inspiring. I mean, the ability of a human spirit is sometimes incredible when someone chooses to tap into it. what oftentimes is they need that little reminder. Of what's by hearing stories like what you just shared. And they also need the framework which is what you laid out in the best version ever, which is fantastic and I love that you've taken on that responsibility to share that with others.

[00:28:25] Mike: I know you also started charity as well. Is that a recent project that you

[00:28:29] Mike: started?

[00:28:30] Josh: that would've been around 2017. But essentially, I remember waking up, all my stories start on my birthday. But I was 38 and I just was thinking like, okay, I started reflecting as I was getting closer to 40 and I thought, okay, if you died early, What would they say about you? Oh, he was a good real estate agent, you know, for me, that wasn't good enough. wanted to impact the world outside of real estate. So, you know, we started an organization locally where we would, have a few charities come and speak, and. Everyone would contribute and it was winner take all.

[00:29:03] Josh: So, you know, at these events, we would instantly raise 10 to 20 grand for a local charity that needed help and ended up raising hundreds of thousands of dollars before Covid. It's a little slower nowadays cuz we're finding that charities have gone, out of business and it's interesting cuz that was the exact reason we started this.

[00:29:20] Josh: It's like, there's x amount of charities in the US and every day, hundreds go out of business. And it's not because they're not doing good things, it's because message isn't out there and nobody knows about them. So our platform was to get exposure to charities that no one had heard.

[00:29:34] Mike: I'm curious on this. You said a lot of inspiration has come from your birthday and you said this inspiration that happened, you know, I guess about five years ago if it was 2017 or so where are you at now?

[00:29:43] Mike: Like, what is the focus? you have these, children from the first marriage from the context of the book. You got remarried at some point in. I know you're in front row, dads , or at least we have a lot of mutual connections there, so it's like, what directionally, like what's next?

[00:29:57] Mike: Like, what are you working towards? What is inspiring you nowadays with these awesome lessons that you got from the twenties and the valleys of your twenties, the foundation you built in your thirties and now in the, forties and beyond? what is next? are you, what are you building

[00:30:09] Josh: no, I'm glad you asked that. Because my 45th. Is in like two weeks. it's so interesting. so, it's at the beginning of the year, right? So that doesn't hurt. It's already a reflective time of year. So, next year this sounds so horrible to me. And I'll tell you why.

[00:30:24] Josh: I'm going all in on just like family relat. And it sounds horrible because I just realized that I haven't prioritized it like I needed to. Right? I've been grinding and doing this and working on the book and the business and sales, and it's not like I've neglected them, but next year I just want to go all in family even if it's to the detriment of everything else.

[00:30:43] Josh: I just don't. Meaning like, I don't know, man. I remember being in my thirties and forties, seemed so far away, and now that I'm about to turn 45 like my 40th birthday feels like yesterday. It feels like so recent. And the hair's gotten a little gray since then. And it's just like you know, I bought my first pair of glasses ever, and I'm just like, dude, this is happening.

[00:31:07] Josh: Like, how is this happening? 40 hits different, man. It just hits so different and so, next year. It's like all my goals are just gonna, not all, but my, my primary focus is gonna be like family

[00:31:20] Mike: I would love to feel into that a little bit. When you say family, is it like mom and dad, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles? Is it kids, is it wife? if you could even more clear of like, directionally, what are those experiences? Who are those people? who are the people and what are the experiences that you're like, all right, I wanna strengthen these relationships with these people and this is how I envision us doing.

[00:31:40] Josh: my wife, my two kids I have a niece and a goddaughter who, you know, I treat as my third and fourth children. and then my goddaughter's parents, of course, are our great friends. My parents nearby my mother-in-law I love my mother in. I know there's jokes about mothers in-law, but she's awesome.

[00:31:56] Josh: And just, friends, my friend family, right? We call them family. I even put that in the back of my book and people are like, I think you have a typo. I'm like, no. It means friend, family What does that mean? It means checking in with them, asking how things are going spending quality time and scheduling it.

[00:32:12] Josh: Right. it's like for me, if it doesn't get put on the calendar, it just gets talked about. Right? yeah, just making it a regular practice to check in. 26 and my daughter's 24, so it's easy to go a week or so, or even two sometimes where you just kind of. superficial texting or whatnot, right?

[00:32:29] Josh: It's like, no, I wanna see them wanna hang out.

[00:32:31] Andrew: I think it's really beautiful and I think the truth is this is why you wanna set yourself up , financially quite frankly, right? Because like, if you can set yourself up financially now, you can even say, even if it is to the detriment of my finances, I know I'm good.

[00:32:45] Andrew: I wanna spend time with my family. But so I think so often people find themselves on that hamster wheel because they aren't freeing up their, finances. And quite frankly, they also aren't finding a way to have their business run kind of without them almost like they're a cog in the machine and so if they were to step away, the whole thing would fall apart.

[00:33:04] Andrew: And it sounds like you've done a really good job, with both of those things such that you actually can now afford to. Yeah, 2023 is about family. What does that mean? Maybe I'll work like 10 hours a week and hang out with my kids bunch and travel and, just spend quality time, reconnect with my wife and all those things.

[00:33:21] Andrew: I think it's really beautiful. yeah, man, I think, this is really, really cool. I'm curious from your side we always ask three questions of our guests. The first question is, What do you think the world needs most right now? What would you say?

[00:33:34] Josh: the world needs a spiritual awakening or recentering on what's really important, right? We get so lost in these. Mindless conversations and social media and just, fear and whatnot, and just sometimes remembering to just look outside. It's like, oh yeah, the sun is still shining.

[00:33:51] Josh: I still have a roof over my head. I have food today. I think life is good, you know?

[00:33:57] Andrew: Beautiful. I

[00:33:59] Andrew: agree

[00:34:00] Mike: The second question we'd like to ask is, what are one to three books that you think people should read? Obviously best version ever is one, so maybe two or three others.

[00:34:09] Josh: Yeah, so, oh my gosh, so many to choose from. I think my current all-time favorite book is Untethered Soul by Michael Singer. I know. Hard to beat that one, right? I'm a big fan of

[00:34:20] Mike: I'm reading Living Untethered

[00:34:21] Mike: right now, his sequel, so I'm reading that it's like so hard to read more than like two pages at a time because it's so profound and I'm like, what the fuck did I just

[00:34:31] Mike: read? Oh my God. Like this just took me so deep, so fast,

[00:34:35] Andrew: All right. You

[00:34:36] Andrew: guys are selling me on it. I haven't read it. I gotta buy it today, guys.

[00:34:39] Mike: I mean, it's so crazy. he's like, if you cut off your hand and you witness who witnesses that, you cut off your hand.

[00:34:46] Mike: And I'm like, what? What? Just

[00:34:49] Andrew: Totally like, Yeah, Mo Muji is another one of my favorite guys like that. Okay, cool. I

[00:34:54] Andrew: got it. I

[00:34:54] Andrew: got

[00:34:55] Andrew: the

[00:34:55] Andrew: genre. I love it.

[00:34:56] Josh: I love the Rhythm of Life by Matthew Kelly, who also wrote Dream Manager. There's a book I'm gonna recommend right now cause I loved it and I haven't read it in forever, so it's a reminder to me, but it's called Sacred Commerce which I think would be really great for your listeners because it's kind of bringing the whole spiritual and, impact into business.

[00:35:15] Josh: So yeah, it's such a good book. I'm just reminding myself right now. I don't think I've read it in over five years, but every page, every other page, you're like, oh, yes, yes. That's it. So,

[00:35:25] Josh: yeah.

[00:35:25] Mike: Is it Sacred? Calmers.

[00:35:27] Josh: The author is Inglehart.

[00:35:30] Andrew: Yeah, that's a new one for the list, so we'll have to

[00:35:32] Andrew: Add it on. I love

[00:35:33] Josh: It's such a good book, man. Hal recommended it to me or John. Hal and John gave me a copy.

[00:35:38] Andrew: Beautiful

[00:35:40] Josh: I just wanna look it up real

[00:35:41] Josh: quick.

[00:35:42] Josh: It was years ago. lemme get the author right. , so, it's Matthew Engelhart.

[00:35:47] Andrew: cool. cool. and we'll link to all these listeners in the show notes. If you wanna check ' you can purchase 'em directly off of the show notes there. that's great, man. I'm excited about checking that one out too. Final question before we, you know let the audience know where they combine more about you and, follow you and such.

[00:36:02] Andrew: We always ask our guests what does it mean to you to be better than rich? What would you say to that?

[00:36:06] Josh: Better than Rich. So the first thing that comes to mind is that saying, which I will butcher. but the idea is that, you know, we spend the first half of our lives sacrificing our health and our relationships for money, and then we spend the rest of our lives. Willing to spend all that money and give up all that money to get our health and relationships back.

[00:36:27] Josh: So better than Rich to me, would be realizing that ahead of time. before we're halfway through that, what's really important in life is the relationships the impact that you've made and the way that you've made others feel.

[00:36:38] Mike: That's cool. I like that a lot. I appreciate you for sharing, Josh. So tell us more about this best version of a movement if people wanted to hop on board. I know you recently did a live event. I know the next one's not coming up for a little bit, but if you wanna speak about the book or where people could find you, where they could find the book, where, you know, if they wanted to just hang around stay in touch with you, learn real estate, whatever it might be.

[00:36:58] Josh: Yeah, sure thing. So, I mean, you can find everything@bestversionever.com. I'm sure we'll be doing a live event soon, probably February or March. If you're a business owner and you want to do I can come in and do a workshop for your entire team. We can talk about that. you had said earlier, you know, a lot of companies don't do that whole dream manager thing or hire.

[00:37:17] Josh: You know, you can just hire me for a day to do it. We could talk about that. But yeah, more than anything you know, you can get the book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble. Just hit Wall Street Journal list, so it's easy to find.

[00:37:28] Mike: Congrats, man. That's exciting. I'm really excited for you and, just everything that you're into. I know, like I said, we have lots of mutual paths that have crossed and I'm really glad that we got a chance to meet today and. I'm sure it won't be our last conversation even though it was our first.

[00:37:41] Mike: And I really thank you for being here. Josh, I thank you Biggs, for joining the conversation as well. And I obviously, as always listeners, thank you for taking the time to jam with us during this episode. And assuming that Josh helped you in this episode, helped you. Well, it's your turn to pay it forward.

[00:37:57] Mike: Help others share with a friend. Subscribe on YouTube. Leave a rating review on Apple and Spotify and remember as always, leave today better than you found it. Till next time, we'll see you then. Take care.