Blaze Your Own Trail - From Multi-Million Dollar Company to Losing it All Then Rising Up in a Big Way with Vick Tipnes

Episode Date: February 10, 2023

Vick Tipnes is a true success story. Having built a multi-million-dollar company, losing it all, then starting over again after a divorce and $78 in his bank account. In 2012, he founded Blackstone Medical Services with zero revenue and in the beginning years he was losing $30K per month, then almost went bankrupt twice. Through perseverance and persistence; he turned it all around and built Blackstone to an Inc 5000 Company with 325% growth over the last 7 years. Today, Blackstone is a dominant leader in the Sleep Apnea testing space and Vick is inspiring and educating business owners, entrepreneurs and business professionals nationwide. Thanks for listening to the show! Connect with Vick: https://vicktipnes.com/ Connect with Jordan: https://jordanjmendoza.com/m/social Installing strategic sales systems & processes will stop the constant revenue rollercoaster you might be facing which is attainable through our 6 Week Blazing Business Revenue Coaching ProgramBook a discovery call with Jordan now to learn more! Are you an entrepreneur?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop to take action!Use code: FOUNDING100 for 12 months access FREE and Founding pricing for life! (While Supplies Last)Join now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I had a total 11 jobs between the age of 11 and 17, just trying to help and support my mom. When I gave away my ATS resume template, I used to church $3,000 for it. If I were someone that wanted to work with you, I think the thing that would resonate with me the most is the fact that you have been as far as they will fall. I gave her all my videos, and today she's sent me a message saying I got my first client, and it could not be happier for her. On my show, one thing I love to do is really get context into people's journey. I saw eggs and I sold vegetables door to door. I saw newspapers. I do it because they truly care to help.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. I'm your host, Jordan Mendoza. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. My name is Jordan Mendoza. I'm your host, and I've got a very special guest today. His name is Vic Tippnaz, and hopefully I said that correctly, Vic, and you can correct me if I'm wrong. But I'm going to have him tell you a little bit about who he is and what do you. does today. Yeah, so I'm a health care entrepreneur, built the largest medical sleep testing company

in the country or not the world. We're an international company. We have offices in North America, South America. We're opening an office in Mexico City this year, too. And I'm excited to be on the show and chat a little more with you. Awesome, man. Awesome. Well, my favorite part of the show as we kind of talked off air is really taking a rewind, man, and finding out about your journey. And the show is all about blazing your own trail and everything that I've done my research on, you definitely qualify as a trailblazer. And I know that you're not, you're just getting started, man. You're not stopping anytime soon. So let's take a rewind. So if you can share with the audience, you know, where were you born and raised? And let's talk about those formative years, elementary, middle to high school.

And then what kind of stuff did you get into? So, you know, I was born in Leicester, England, in 1976. I grew up in England and, you know, we were actually, you know, upper middle class in the UK and, you know, went to private school and all the stuff. And then I remember all the snow we had and all that stuff. And then I was about seven, eight years old when we moved to Tallahassee, Florida. My dad bought a small motel, 25-unit motel there called Ponce Dillon. For you guys, I don't know who Pons Dillian is. He was the guy that supposedly found the found the youth here in Florida in Tallahassee, or maybe he found it in Florida, supposedly. Anyway, and we pretty much went from this nice posh lifestyle to living in a motel, working in the

motel, and I grew up there pretty much from the age of seven or eight until I was about, you know, 18 years old. Awesome, man. Awesome. And so what was that experience like? Anytime I think about living in a hotel, you know, you think of like home alone too, right? The kid gets to live in the hotel.

And I'm sure it was a little bit different than that. in the Tallahassee area. So I'd love for you to just share a little context. What are some lessons that maybe you learned from seeing your dad have this business? You know, he's probably, he's on the grind every day. You mentioned family work there. You probably had stuff to do. So what are some early lessons that you learn in seeing your dad have that business?

And also seeing another side, right? Because you said you came from this posh lifestyle in England. And then now here you are in a hotel in the United States. And I'm sure it was a little bit different. of an environment. So I'd love to really get your take on what that was like, what the transition was like. And then also, you know, I don't know, did you have an English accent when you arrived? Because you don't have one now. So I'm just curious on how all that played out. No, I had a proper English accent. And it's funny because if I go back to the UK, it comes back,

like in a week, like, I'm back, you know, talking like the Brits, you know, talking the exact, like it just comes back. So it's just natural to me. When I came here, I had to adjust, you know, I got picked on because I had this British accent, you know, this skinny kid, you know, a British accent, Tallahassee, Florida, like, you know, what the fuck. So, you know, it wasn't home alone, too, I can promise you that. You know, my dad was a very frugal person and it was a very hardworking man, my mom also, and we grew up in a motel and every weekend it was work. You know, we were fixing things because, you know, we couldn't afford to call a maintenance

guy or electrician or whatever. So I grew up doing manual labor like my whole life. That's why now I have this kind of like resistance to go into Home Depot. I did a video about it on TikTok one day. I was just like, dude, you'll never see me at Home Depot. I have no like interest in doing, you know, weekend around the house work because I did so much of it. Like we, you know, we were putting freons in air conditioning. We were putting tar on the roof.

Like I'm talking about real work, you know, putting concrete slabs down, breaking concrete. So we had to fix a pipe underneath the, you know, the total. toilet in the bathroom and we spend the whole weekend doing that type of stuff. So I can hang drywall and do all that shit, but I don't want to anymore because I just did it my entire life. You know, so. I know the feeling, man. You know, I didn't do any Freon or A.C.s or repairs, but so I met my dad when I was 12 and my dad's, you know, Philippine immigrant jump ship in the 80s for to get a piece of that American dream. And I go out to D.C. from Oregon to meet him at 12. and he has a landscaping business.

So I didn't do some of the stuff you did, but you better believe I was landscaping, mulching, digging holes, learning all this stuff. And I realized real quick, that was not for me. And I remember my dad saying like, man,

one day you're going to take over this business. And I'm like, I'm not meant for this, bro. Like, this is not my style. I'm meant to communicate, to talk to people. And I can't go eight hours without communicating.

Like, it was rough. And then I had to learn Spanish because his crew didn't speak English. And so I'm a kid that grew up in Oregon with my white mom and I'm coming to D.C. And I'm learning Spanish. And so I just, you know, so the language thing, man, I was just like, this is not the life for me.

So eventually I got, you know, kept doing sales, got into property management. So I definitely can relate to like, I hire landscapers. Like I don't want to do it. I don't want to touch grass. I don't even want to look at it, bro. So I can completely understand. Yeah, no, I'm in the same way. I grew up doing it so much.

I was like, I don't want to do this. But I remember being, you know, 17, 18 years old thinking this is not how you expand. And my dad, God bless him, had a very limited mindset in that he felt like he was saving a dollar. And he was. But when you have a mindset of trying to save a dollar, you're not going to make a million dollars. Like you can't, you can't think that way. You have to think with, okay, how do you expand? How do you get out of, you know, doing everything yourself?

You know, like my dad was never going to save his way to being a multimillionaire. Like my dad didn't, didn't reach those levels of being a multimillionaire because he was always focused more on the, how do I save a dollar? here, save a dollar there as opposed to, you know, okay, how do I replace myself? How do I expand? Yeah, and it's funny because my dad is actually similar. He's getting ready to retire, you know, from 40 years of having his business. And he's really got nothing to show for, man. Like he only has his paper business cards that he made in 1986. He still got the same ones. Like he didn't invest in marketing. He didn't invest on, he's, bro, he's not raised his prices. I'm like, and I tell my son, I'm like, listen, your grandpa's had a business 40 years,

to tell you some things that I want you to take away from the way he did it because he's about to retire and he and he's is he going to have some type of social security and stuff like that yes but he's not going to have a legacy because of it and so I'm trying to tell my my 17 year old like listen here's some lessons I learned from my dad and here's some things that I won't take away from my dad that I'm going to actually do the opposite in business because like you said he's not actually building something that's sustainable or that he can even really pass down to us because once he's gone like my brother's not going to take it over i'm not going to i have no interest in in taking it over and so then it's kind of we did this 40 years for what right yeah exactly yeah

you got nothing to show for at the end of the day so no i completely agree with you so let's talk about you're 13 years old you get this idea to put out an ad uh so tell the audience a little bit about this this story you know you were i think you mentioned i spread somewhere you you got your brother gave you a pair of his aviators and then you put an ad in the paper and a guy shows up at your door and then you end up making a $60 sales. Can you give some background on that? And then I'd love to get into the car stuff as well. I know that you had some experience working at a dealership. Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, yeah, I was about 12 years old, I think. And I, my brother, my oldest brother had some Rayban sunglasses. He ended up

giving to me for some reason. I don't know why, but I ended up having them. And then I was like, dude, I'm not, I'm not going to wear it. I was 12 years old. So I got the idea. I'm like, I'm going to sell them. I'll make some money. So I called the Tallahassee Tribune. This was when you had to call and make an ad and I was able to get them to send me a bill because I didn't have an account. It was $6 or $7 a place to add. So I just put the ad for the Rayban sunglasses, you know, like new, call if interested, blah, blah, blah. And then I got calls and then I told this one dude, I'm like, yeah, just come over. And he shows up in my house knocking on my doors, grown-ass man. You know, is it like, hey, I'm here to see Victor.

about the sunglasses and my dad's like hey what the fuck is going on yeah i came i made the deal dude i sold it for 60 bucks paid my eight bucks you know i made 52 dollar profit that's a lot of money for 12 year old you know that's a nice little transaction at 12 100 percent yeah i was i was falling out of chucky cheese man i was bawling out of so so what were your thoughts there obviously you're like man i think i can do this again right i'm sure that probably crossed your mind like wow if i could repeat this but what what did you end up doing now that you you kind of had that sale, right? Not only the sale, but you got to think about, like, you took initiative.

You actually reached out. You spoke with somebody. You had them send you. I mean, that's a whole system and a process that you built at 12. And there's plenty of 12-year-olds that wouldn't think like that in 2022. So what did you use with that new asset? I think if it as an asset, right, you had this skill set that you developed. So what did you do with that going forward?

I mean, I think I just always, I cultivated it, right? I knew that it was, you know, I thought everybody. thought like that to be honest with you i didn't realize until i got a lot older recently that i realized not everybody thinks the same way so for me i was just like okay that's just normal i didn't think of it as a special like attribute i was just like who wouldn't do this like it's just obvious to me it's like why wouldn't somebody do this like you're not i'm not what am i going to do with these sunglasses this fucking cell you know and then it would it just started to kind of like you know it kind of unfold as i got older and i started to see opportunities i would just act on it

And I was just like, I just thought that was normal. I didn't think it was anything unique at all. Yeah. And that's what is unique is action, right? I mean, especially now, there's so many people that are so comfortable being comfortable. You know, no one wants to be unstable. And instability is what creates stability, not the other way around. You know, so what would you say to people that have a hard time taking action?

What would you, what was like one or two tips you would give today? Well, I mean, I think people that don't take action, just, I guess the best advice would be just like you got to get out of your head and you got to do something. Like, you don't want to be known for a guy that just talks all the time. You got to take some action and you got to move. That's the only way anything's going to happen. It's like the secret, right? The biggest fraud about the secret is that they don't talk about any, any sort of action. You know, like you're just going to sit around and dream up of an amazing life. This is not going to happen. People got to understand that. And or they think they're actually taking a lot of action. The reality is that they're not. So many people are so inactive,

but so inactive and they don't understand the amount of effort it takes to actually create something great in their life like how much effort and action you have to constantly be in action to get something done and I think sometimes the only way for somebody that is inactive to see it is to be around somebody that's active and be like oh wow like it's not an accident that somebody's successful yeah no I completely agree success leaves clues 100% right you see someone else doing it and all a sudden you're like how do they have the things that they have like why are they you know moving ball down the field and why am I sitting here on the bench? Like what's going on? And so it's all about, I think, perspective, but also seeing those examples is 100% huge. Let's talk high school, man.

So how was high school for you? Is it something you enjoyed? For me, I hated it. Honestly, I basically skied my way through barely, you know, and I was just that disruptive kid that was daydreaming and imagined about what I was going to do after school. So I ended up a break dancer for 10 years too. So that helped get the ladies in high school and, you know, doing windmills in the halls and stuff like that, but that was more of my focus was just trying to have some fun. So what was the experience like for you? I hated high school. I hated it. I mean, I played sports, played soccer in high school and all that stuff, but I hated it from the aspect of I just knew that school wasn't for me. Like, all I did in high school, I'm surprised I even, I graduated. Like,

just I got Cs and Ds and Fs, never paid attention in class. I was always daydreaming about the shit I was going to be doing in the future. And I just knew that, like, high school wasn't for me. Like I was not going to be, you know, a road scholar and, you know, go get a degree and all this stuff. Like, it just wasn't for me. And it wasn't because I was dumb. It's just, it just wasn't for me. I didn't want to apply my energy to that. So, you know, I just, I focused on just playing sports and girls, really.

It was pretty much that was my life at that time. And I was just, you know, being a kid. But I was always, I was always focusing on the future. Like, what did I want to do, how I was going to do it? Like, I knew I wanted to be a businessman. I knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. So I was just always kind of just really kind of carefree. I never really stressed about stuff.

I wasn't worried about my future. None of that. I was just like, okay, that's what I'm going to do. I had to get older, really. It was kind of one of those things where I was just waiting. Yeah, I know that that resonates with me a lot. So what did you do after high school? Did you get a job?

You know, did you continue to work at the hotel? And when did this car dealership role come into play? I think right after I graduate high school, I had some other jobs. And then I pretty much at that point started working at a dealer. I really wanted to, I knew at that age, like I needed to learn how to sell better, right? I was already a good salesperson, but I wanted to get better. So I decided to go sell cars. And I was like, within a few months, I was salesman of the month, like every month.

And I was doing great as an 18-year-old selling cars. And then I got recruited by Porsche Mercedes, which was a great compliment in the town. I was in Tallahassee, the Porsche Mercedes-Farar dealership there. It actually came over and recruited me to work, work for that. And so that was a great compliment as an 18 year old. I thought I was the shit. You know, I was like, man, fucking Porsche wants me to fucking self. And then I'm like, you know.

And everybody else was like, you know, 8,000 years old over there. So I was like the youngest guy. And I did that for a while. And then, you know, at the same time my dad had his business, his motel business. And, you know, my dad's, my parents' health wasn't great. So my mom called me and she was like, hey, I need you to come help us out. So I literally just packed up, like literally overnight. I packed up my shit. I drove to Tampa.

And I ended up, you know, living with my parents from 18 to maybe 21, 21, 22 years old, just working with my dad, trying to help him in his business. But I had no, I had no ambitions to take that business and grow it. Like, I did not want to be in the motel business. I fucking hate that business. So I was just like, I don't want to do this for the rest of my life. So then I was thinking about the next thing. Okay, what do I do? What do I do?

And then an opportunity came where I was like, okay, I want to be in health care because my parents were sick. I was going to health care facilities. I saw that the service and healthcare facilities was horrible for the most part. You know, they treat you like cattle. And so I thought, oh, here's an opportunity for me to get into a space that I feel like I can make a big difference. Plus, I knew at that age, like the hotel business is very, very dependent on the economy, right? Gas prices go up. Something happens.

Terrorism, blah, blah, blah. People stop traveling. And all of a sudden, you know, you got this big, you know, hotel asset. People aren't coming to stay and spend money. So it wasn't something I wanted to be involved with. Makes sense. makes 100% sense. So what was that first role in healthcare?

And what do you remember kind of from that, maybe first 90 days in it? Did you kind of know then that it was something you wanted to pursue for the long haul? Yeah, for sure. I think that I really love healthcare. I think healthcare is an amazing industry to be in. I highly encourage a lot of people to get into healthcare space.

And one of the reasons I put out so much content about healthcare is that I want to encourage more entrepreneurs to be in healthcare. But I love healthcare from the very beginning. I just, I loved every, I loved all the different aspects of it. I learned a lot of, lot in my first company that I started that I built up and then I sold and made no money. I sold

it for $9 million and walked away with like $150,000. You know, wasn't that, all types of stuff. It's just, I made every entrepreneur mistake you could imagine. But what I did gain was a lot of experience, you know, and I gained a lot of know-how about what I should do and when I shouldn't do the next time around. So I pretty much was, you know, I worked for the company that bought me out for about four years. And during that four years, I was trying to figure out, okay, what am I going to do? Because I knew that I wasn't going to continue to work for somebody else. I needed to start my own thing again, but I needed to figure out what that was. And then I got an email from a buddy of mine at the time about medical testing related to the sleep industry. And it was

like, boom, that's it. And I got the idea and I was like, okay, that's it. So then I built a company around that, literally from my kitchen. Like I just started in my kitchen. I had one or two devices. And I remember meeting the sales rep that sells a device at Panera Bread here in Tampa. And I was like, hey, dude, like, I'm going to build the largest sleep testing company in the country. He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. I hear that shit all the time, right? Seven years later, he calls me. He's like, well, you weren't fucking kidding where you?

And I'm like, no motherfucker. I fucking told you I was going to do it. So, anyway, but that's how I got started in the game. And that's what I did. So, man, it's awesome, right? It's awesome that you found it and you, and it just kind of clicked, like, this is that space. And there's something about when you commit like that, when you commit and you tell yourself that you're going to go all in on something. There's something that just, I feel like perpetually continues to push you.

Yeah. It gives you the energy to keep going. And so less than a decade ago or maybe in 2013, I think it was, you mentioned you were three days away from bankruptcy. Can you talk a little bit about that, man? Because I think there's something to be said about people that go through adversity, right? Because some people stay in it and they let them, you know, let that. diversity keep them down, but you went through it. So can you talk a little bit about what your mindset was like and what happened and how were you able to actually pull yourself out?

Yeah, sure. So, you know, it was 2013. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was like a Tuesday afternoon and I got a call. I was going to pick up my two boys and I got a call from my business partner at the time. And it was like around 5 o'clock. And he was just like, hey, you know, the investor that was helping me fund the losses called him and was basically like, hey, he's not going to put any more money in the business. He doesn't believe in the business model. And at that point, financially for me, I was tapped out. All my credit cards were maxed out.

I was just finalizing my divorce. So I had no money. I had a place to stay as about it. You know, furniture on the floor, that type of thing. And he was just like, hey, so then he hits me with another bomb. He's like, what? And so I didn't ask him. I said, yeah, but you got some money that you can put in, right?

And he goes, oh, well, I've been meaning to tell you that I actually want out to. So then I was, okay, so this guy. out, the investors out. And it was the pinnacle point. I think a lot of entrepreneurs probably people in life generally go through situations like this. I call them defining moments. And I was just like, I literally just made the decision at that moment in time. And I remember like it was just yesterday. I was like, I'm like, this ain't going to be my story. I'm like, I made a decision. I'm like, fuck this. I'm going to make it go right. I'm going to make this thing win. And I'm not going to go out. Like, what the fuck was I going to do? Like, we're going to go cut.

grass. I had nothing to fall back on. I don't have a college degree. I don't have a trade. I can't go fucking, you know, be electrician or some shit and make money or an attorney or nothing. So I was like, this isn't going to be my defining moment. Like I'm like, you know, fuck you. So I was like, okay, dude, you know what? If you're out, it's cool. Give me your stock back so I can go raise money, but I'm not going to fucking quit. And then I literally hung up the phone and I literally got to work. And I started calling people that I knew. And I, that week I had payroll. I think our payroll at the time was like 20 grand. I think I had like eight or nine employees or 10 employees and I only had I had no my had $78 to my name at the time and I had nowhere to leverage anything. So I went and I think we had

$2,500 in our checking account in the business. Payroll was 20 grants. I literally start calling friends. I'm like, hey, can I borrow five grand, 10 grand, whatever to make payroll and I was able to scrape up like $18,000 to make payroll. And I'm literally like putting, the money in the account the day before payroll is going to draw. I got through payroll, but then I was, I was short. I was short 150 grand to get me through the next, you know, three months. Didn't know how I was going to make payroll the following two weeks because we were, we were losing, you know, 40, 50 grand a month at the time. So I got through the week, I got through that week. And then I was like, okay, you know, I went, I just went to work,

man. I didn't throw a pity party and, and all that shit. I was literally on the phone, call on, call on, calling, call and calling and getting people. Like, you know, I had, I had a business that had some life, right? It had a heartbeat. And it was almost there. So I had something that people were interested in. Like, oh, wow. Okay. Well, so, okay, you're doing revenue, but you're short. Yeah, I'm like, yeah. But then, you know, three to four months down the road, I had some contracts that were going to hit to where I was going to make the company at least break even. So again, I wasn't, you know, we weren't sinking where somebody wasn't like, oh, fuck, I'm not putting money in that, right? But some people looked at it that way and others didn't. So I had, you know,

three or four people that were like, hey, I'll put in, put in some cash. I had. I had a few people that put in some cash. I think it was like, you know, 50 grand at the time, raise the money. And those three or four investors are still with me today. They're 50 grams worth millions of dollars now. They're very happy. But they hit a home run. I hit a home run because I was able to cover the shortfall in a short period of time and move on.

But, yeah, there were many scenarios like that that happened that were kind of close calls. But, yeah, if I didn't, if I didn't have the friends to reach out to to get a few thousand, a box, you know, would I still, would I be here talking to you? Probably not. He wouldn't be talking to me. Hey, also though, bro, like you had to trick and suck your ego up, suck your pride up and make those calls. I mean, it's not easy, right? Like, let's speak to the person like right now. There's somebody that's going to watch or listen to this when it airs that's in that situation. There are 78 bucks away from bankruptcy, but their ego is so far up their butt that they don't want to make that call. So what would you say to them? I mean, I think you got to put your ego aside, right? I mean, I had employees

that were counting on me for their, you know, for their families, for their, you know, put food on their table. So if I didn't do everything that I could possibly do, then I wouldn't be able to look myself in the mirror. Like at the end of the day, I mean, whether I was able to raise the money or not, at least I wanted to be able to look myself in the mirror and be like, hey, I did everything I possibly could. And I still do that today. Like I like, look, okay, did I do everything that I possibly could do to make the situation go right? And so if somebody's going to sit on their ego. I'm like, well, I had too much pride to reach out this person as for money. You're just dumb, dude. Like, don't be dumb. Don't be stupid. You know, you got to think

about all the people that you, that you're responsible for. 100%. Yeah, I believe in that. And I guarantee you, because you did that, the culture was strong, like, your company culture was strong, because people saw you go into bat. People saw you making these hard calls. And they knew that you were trying to stick up for them. You're fighting for them. And that, man, that means a lot. Yeah, I mean, dude, I'd be on the phone sometimes with a vendor just for like a half a day, just trying to get them to shut, not shut me off. And we didn't have any money. So I was like, dude, like, I was the king of a post-dated check.

Hey, man, you got to do what you got to do, bro, right? You got to make it happen. And you were willing to do it, you know, at all costs without, you know, obviously selling your soul off. Like, you were willing to put in those reps and, you know, ask and ask and ask. And as you know, man, like, you don't get anything you don't ask for. You know, there's people that like, man, like life sucks. And I'm like, have you asked anybody?

Have you asked any questions to anybody? Because you have to, you know? Like if you don't ask someone, the answer is always no. Yeah, of course. Of course. No, you got to be out there, man. You got to be out there. You got to be going to put yourself out there.

You're not going to get shit sitting at home, not putting yourself out there. So let's talk about, you know, the next eight years, seven years, five years, right? Because I know that there's been, you know, tremendous growth. I mean, you're all over the world now. you're about to open up in Mexico City. So what was that like? And when was there this kind of paradigm shift where you saw that trajectory just started to shift and go upwards?

I think it was in 18, 2018 was when it really started to shift, really started to change. And I think that happened because I changed the way that I was viewing the way I was viewing what I was really responsible for and what I wasn't. And I realized, you know, prior to that, I probably wasn't as focused as an entrepreneur. I was distracted a lot, right? I was distracted with friends, with girls, with all the stuff. And it was just like a big distraction for me. And I felt like I kind of took inventory of where I was and where my attention was.

And I probably, to be honest, I probably had 60 to maybe 50% attention on the business. And we were still growing, right? I mean, I was still growing at 40%. But in 2018, I really looked at it. I'm like, why am I not growing enough? what is missing where that that is preventing me from exploding and it was really attention and it was it was where I was putting my attention every single day and so you know I looked at some of the most successful people in the world and what I realize is the most successful people in the

world have very stable personal relationships look at Christian Ronaldo right the most successful guy in the world in his profession and he's got a very stable relationship which allows him to focus 99% on his craft and his passion as opposed to 50 or 60%. And so I really just started looking at other people that were very successful. And I was like, okay, these people have stable lifestyles. And when I looked at my lifestyle, I wasn't a stable. I wasn't a stable person. So I was like, okay, how do I, what do I need to do? And so I just started making really tough decisions. And I started cutting people off that were not helping me be stable in my life, started, you know, just cutting off every single toxic relationships I had. And I just said,

okay, this, what do I really want in my life? And I just started focusing on that. And I just, I got to work. You know, I really got to work. And I, I, since 2018, until now, I've never worked harder in my life. Like it's every single day, 99% of my time, my attention is on, is building my companies and, and focused on expanding. And I'm outworking everybody else. And since then, I've quadrupled the size of my business. Like quadruple. I've done more than three years and I did in seven. Awesome, man.

Awesome. Yeah. And it's tough sometimes, right, to cut those people off, right? It's hard because some of the things, it's fun, right? It's good fun going out. It's fun hanging with your boys. It's fun doing these things. But I love how the fact that you realize, like, this is hindering my growth.

And if I don't do something now, you're going to probably look back and say, what the heck was I up to? So I love the fact that you, you know, put your head down, man, you know, and you just said, I'm going to invest my time and energy. I mean, three years to better than the last seven, like that's, that's massive, man. That's massive growth. Yeah, I did more than three years. I've done probably 15.

I mean, fucks up. Like, I've done more in three years than I've done in 15 years because I've just committed to success and committed to what I wanted to do. And I got rid of every single distraction. I met my wife. And, you know, that's such a stable influence in my life. And it's like, you know, I have such a stable. environment. Like we've never argued. We've never had an argument, you know, the three years we've been

together. And that's a huge attribute. And then having, you know, very stable people around me in my professional life, my personal life has just been huge, you know, so when you can grow more in three years and you've done in 15, it's like. Yeah. That's massive, 100%. So I'd love to talk about that growth, right? I mean, you're now, I think 400 or so employees, right? I'm a company of one. So I can't imagine, you know, having 399 other people report to me. So I'd love your take on, you know, how you've grown and scaled that way, because your company culture has got to be strong. I know I've seen some of your videos just talking about your attrition rate is

significantly lower than a lot of other companies. So what are a couple ingredients that you think attribute to that? Well, I think, you know, I think a lot of it is just, culture is always from the top down, right? Unfortunately, I think a lot of the entrepreneurs that are listening to the show, you can't listen to the, you can't listen to the so-called leadership gurus online that talk about, you know, leadership. They've never run a company. I won't say names. But if you know who I'm talking about, like people that are talking about leadership and they've never run a company. You know, they just can't, they're just not. So the biggest thing I'll tell you is that company cultures from the top down. If you've got a non-engaged CEO, you're going to have a non-engaged. team if you got a CEO that's slacking off fucking around you're going to have a whole team and culture that's slacking off and fucking around but if you have a CEO that's engaged and and runs the company to the ideal standard that he or she knows it should be then you're going to have people that

try to that are going to follow that right and that's the simplicity of it and the other thing people don't understand is like you know there's all these books out there about company culture and yes you want company culture but you know the other thing is people people implement employees want you to lead. They want somebody that's willing to make a decision. And right now you've got a whole culture of these so-called gurus that tell leaders that they need to run their company like a democracy. It's not a fucking democracy.

Like, dude, Blackstone and my coming. There's no democracy, right? It's a fucking dictatorship. Like, we're going to run it the way that we're going to run it. And either you're going to get on board with that or you're not. And if you're not, it's okay. Go find another democracy that you can be in. but companies are not governments, right?

If you look at governments, look how well they run. They're all fucking broke. Not well at all. The government, they're broke. If they didn't have the ability to print money, they'd be even more broke. They'd be bankrupt, right? So companies are not democracies. Companies are dictatorships.

Now you've got to have the right dictator. Now, the word dictatorship has a negative connotation. You think, oh, dictatorship, they can throw people in fucking, you know, dungeons and giving them bread and water. No, dude. Like dictatorship from the aspect of, like, You got to have a leader that just makes a decision, right? You have a leader that says, hey, here's the ideal scene. Here's what we're trying to go for.

Are you in or you out? Right? You can't have a leader. It's like, hey, well, hey, hey, committee, what do you guys think? Bro, there's so much of that. So much of that going on. And you have, like, gurus, like, the Simon Sinek's of the world. Oh, you need to go listen to your, no, dude.

He doesn't run a fucking company. Like, Simon Sinek needs to go build a company, get hundreds of employees, and then go talk about leadership. until then he needs to like sit down and let the adults talk like the guy has no clue what he's doing he's no clue what he's doing he's never done it you can't go sing kumbaya and all this bullshit that's not how you run a business right you have to run a profitable business in order to be profitable you have to say hey this is what we're going for like i tell our employees all the time we want to be immensely profitable we want to be shitting cash we don't want to have thin margins we want to

have big margins why because we want to be around next year 10 years 20 years for now, right? You're not going to get there singing kumbaya. And that's what all these people failed. These leaders just get soft, man. They get really soft. They listen to this kumbaya bullshit. And they think, oh, this is the way to go. I need to have a get my employees together and listen to them and empathize. No, dude. No, no. No, you need to lead. You need to step up to the plate. You need to make the tough decisions. You need to make the decisions that are best for the business, that help the business. I've always followed this philosophy. If you take care of the business, the business would take care of you.

If you make bad decisions for your business, right, meaning overpaying for shit, keeping employees on your payroll that you shouldn't, but you feel bad that, you know, oh, but they're, you know, their relatives or this. No, dude, like there's none of that shit here. Like, if you perform, you're going to be here, you're going to be paid well. You don't perform. You're out. Like, we're not going to fuck around for the business and make the business pay for something

that the business shouldn't pay for. That's not how you run a business. That's how you go bankrupt. Right? And 65% of companies in the United States are broke. They're not making money. 65% of businesses are making no money. That's a huge number, man.

Yeah. And when you go into it, you start peeling the onion back. What you see is probably got a Simon Sinek book sitting on their fucking counter, singing kumbaya, having all this bullshit going on. And they're not like making a decision saying, hey, dude, let's work. Like, let's make the tough decisions. Oh, we got to get rid of these 10 people because they're not productive. So instead of dicking around with that, get rid of them.

And people don't want to make those tough decisions. And they think that reading some book is going to help them. It's not. It's not. Yeah, man. And that's why I left my last company. I was there 15 years, which is unheard of in 2022. Now people stick around for like 15 days or 15 months, you know.

And so I was one of the most tenured guys in my role. And I just started, we did a recapitalization in 2013. And man, the culture just started to take a dive. And I can kind of see it on the wall. And one of the things that really frustrated and annoyed me about the company is they had all these task force, right? All these task force all around the U.S. Guess what? The same people were on every task force.

It's like, how are you going to get anything done when the state? It's like the sustainability task forces, these VPs and these regionals. And it's like, why don't you get some diversity in the room? Like, have you seen what the corporate like picture looks like? And then we want to talk about diversity and inclusion, but you don't want to be. be diverse when you're building task force it's like i don't understand that concept and again it's to your point it's too many chiefs yeah a lot of books by a lot of gurus that have never done shit and that's what you get right there that's what people got to stop like if anybody gets anything out of this podcast

today stop reading books and listen to people that have never done it you're just going to be so much better off you're going to be so much about it's like a dating expert coming to you saying i'm going to hook you up with your life partner and you ask them like well are you married no i haven't found the right person the fuck like what the and people will hire those people they don't think like well hold on but you haven't done it i get guys coming to the office years ago they're like hey man i'm gonna take you to the next level i'm like oh really you're gonna take me another okay so tell me about your business i'm like okay so you know how many employees do you have oh we don't really have any okay what's your revenue oh we did like you know 600 000 last year and i'm like i'm doing that that's i'm doing like

like 10 million bucks at that time. I'm like, dude, you're going to, you're going to take me, like, bro, I should be fucking charging you. But people don't, they don't think about that. They don't think about that. Like, you really think, like Warren Buffett says, like, hey, dude, I'm not going to get financial advice from somebody that makes less money to me. Yeah. Yeah, 100%. What a concept. Yep. But what do people do? Oh, okay, Mr. Consultant, I'm going to pay you $15,000 a month. If you're going to help me take it to the next level. Meanwhile, he's living with his fucking mom. Like, it's just ridiculous. But it happens. Happens every day.

100%. It happens all the time. Yeah. So one thing I wanted to make sure I did on this episode was give a shout out to your media team. I don't know how many of them are around you right now or you can hear me. But man, they're sharp. They're right in here. But yeah, bro, they are sharp.

They're on it. I mean, I see the stuff that they're putting out. You know, they're consistent. And I know it takes a lot of work, man. So I just wanted to give them a huge shout out. I love what they do. I've been trying to connect with you and follow you on, you know, all the platforms. Because, I mean, it's moving the needle, right?

And you mentioned something in one video. You're like, I don't need to be on social media. Like, I'm not doing this for the money. And I love that too because there's no pressure. Like you're just going to show up and you're going to speak to your mind and you're going to educate and you're not afraid of what people think about you. So what would you say to the people that maybe have that limiting belief where they're afraid to show up. They're afraid to speak their truth on social media, but they have something to say they feel like. So what would you say to those folks?

Well, I think, you know, you have to make a decision about if you feel. feel that you've got information or life experience that's going to help somebody else, you know, at that point, do you want to keep it to yourself or do you want to help other people? I'm more for putting myself out there and saying things that I just believe in, like, hey, it may be controversial. Okay, whatever. But I believe that it's true. And I believe that having that piece of information has bettered my life. Right. So if I can give you that piece of information is going to better your life. And it's a win-win, right?

So it's a bit of duty to say, hey, why do I want to keep it to myself? A lot of the people, you know, in the healthcare space, for example, they don't want to tell other people to get into health care. They're like, no, don't tell people to get into health care because this can create competition. Okay, well, I don't, you know, I don't personally care. Like, dude, if you beat me and your competitor, good for you. Like, that means I was slacking.

Right, I tell my team all the time, like, we don't, we don't worry about competitors. We don't even, I don't even know who our competitors are. All I know is we can kick in their ass. right, because we're focused on what we're doing and making our product and services better every single day, right? So me getting out here on social media telling people to, hey, get into health care, start a health care company. I want brighter minds in the health care space. I'm not afraid to say, hey, get into health care space because I'm concerned that I'm going to somehow lose money or lose market share or whatever. I don't care, right?

Because, again, it's the best man who wins. So I think if you have something that you feel is helpful to society, I think, you know, best thing to do is get it out to let other people use it. Yeah, no, I 100% agree. And that's really how I got my journey really was actually LinkedIn was the first platform that I started to build an audience. And that was back in 2019 while I was in my corporate role. And I remember, man, like, I would get so much crap from corporate because they're like, why do we see your, every time we open LinkedIn, we see Jordan's face. Like, what is going on here? Are you working? And I'm like, I post a video in the morning. I might post one in the evening. And am I getting my job done? And they're like, yes. I'm like,

So why are we even having this conversation? Like it's pointless. And then I got written up for it because some knucklehead, you know, 70-year-old lady in accounting was like, we never see this guy around the office. I don't, he's slack it off. Meanwhile, I'm at home working on a dang project to make her software better. You know what I'm saying? And so people just kind of make up these things.

And so I felt so undervalued when the pandemic hit. I built six new virtual sales classes for the company. Because we didn't know how to sell online. You can't go to apartments when COVID. immediately hit. So I had to literally teach the organization how to sell virtually. And here's how they repaid me, Vic. At the end of the year, they gave me 85% of my bonus. And that was the last straw. I said, you know what? Like, I'm out of here. I need to go blaze my own trail. I've got enough skill sets. I've been in sales and marketing 25 years. I've built an audience. Now it's, you know,

almost 70,000 on a business platform doing a million views a quarter. I was like, I don't need them. But again, for years, I thought I did. For years, I thought, What am I going to do if I'm not here? Until, you know, they diminished my value so much that it actually showed me where my value was. And so, man, it's, what would you say to folks that are getting started on the content creation journey? You know, maybe they look at a guy like you. They're like, man, this guy's verified. He's got $2 million on Instagram.

He's verified. Like, that could never be me. He's got 200 and something on, on TikTok. He's built this audience, you know. And some people look at that and they say, that is never. attainable, what would you say to them? Because obviously it is because you've done it. Yeah, I mean, I think it's, look, it's always attainable. I think what one man can do, another man can do, right? So I think I had to start somewhere. I didn't start with millions

of followers. I started with just being out content. I started with one follower and it grew and it grew and a group. I think what I would probably tell people is, you know, you want to create an audience that has a reality or an affinity for what it is you authentically do. So, I have an audience that I've built over years that authentically likes the fact that I just say what's on my mind and I'm not politically correct, right? And I call people loud on their bullshit. And so I think that what I'm doing is I'm just documenting what's happening in my life on a day-to-day basis as opposed to manufacturing, right? I don't manufacture content. And I think that's an important part. Like I think, like whoever you are, you just have to be real. There's an audience out there. I mean,

there's 8 billion people on the planet, right? So you're going to have tens of thousands, if not millions of people that have an affinity for what it is you do. I think the audience, though, can see through the bullshit when you're not being real. Like, you can perceive it. They can perceive it. They're not, they're not dumb. So if they know somebody's manufacturing content and it's not really them and they're not really saying who they are and what they think, people don't engage. You know, people don't engage. I literally was not on TikTok five months ago. And I'm almost at 800,000 followers and 8 million likes. Huge.

And that's just all organic, right? 100%. But I think I wouldn't have that sort of pull if I wasn't just being real. Like if I was being politically correct, which I'm not, I'm not a politically correct guy. So it's not being real. And I'm not manufacturing content. Like, oh, okay, let's stage this thing and make it look like we're doing something. We're not like, no, which literally like got a camera.

We're shooting. This is what's going on in our life. Yeah, I'm handling this. Yeah, I'm doing with this. Yeah, blah, blah, blah. And people appreciate that. So I think for the people that want to get started, I think they have to think with that.

Like, just document what's real. If you're starting a business, document you start a business. Yep, love it. Love it. So I've seen some content. And I know you recently was interviewed by MD Motivator. You know, there's guys like Peter Bond. I think you've probably seen his content.

And I've seen you do some similar things where it's so awesome and positive where, you know, someone's delivering something and you're giving them a nice note and you're and you're blessing them with some amount of fun. So can you talk about, you know, why that's important to you to do that? And where did the idea come from? Is it, did you see someone do it? And you're like, man, like, why can't I do that? Why not me? Or did your team say, hey, should we try this? I'd really love just to kind of get the behind the scenes of where that all started. Well, I mean, I've always done it. I've just never documented it, right? Like I'll go to, you know, dinner or lunch and, you know, the waiter tells me about a story that, you know, dealing with

then I'll give them a hundred box or 200 bucks, you know, on a $50 bill on a $50 tab, you know. Or I would just do nice things, you know, like I bought my mother-in-law, a brand-new car or whatever. You know, I just do that. And I never really documented that stuff. So then I started seeing videos and people documenting. And I'm like, okay, I was just document. So then we're, okay, well, how do we document? Oh, well, let's just look. Hey, I want to give something away.

So let's just give it away. Let's give it to this guy. And we would find people that were actually in need. You know, they weren't, they weren't like just, you know, they're doing well. driving a $80,000 SUV and it's like, here's 100 bucks. Like we literally look for people that were in need. And then we found them and we would just reward them. And it was a game changer.

Like one guy, you know, we gave $500 to. Then he told me that he was two months behind on his car payment. I gave him another 500 bucks. He kept his car. We actually saw him. Somebody saw him like a month ago. He kept, he was able to keep his car and he was able to still work for Uber because, you know, it's your cash.

So those types of things are just kind of, you know, really special and cool and I always enjoy doing surprising things for people that I that I love and care about. I do it every single day. You just don't get to see it because we don't, yeah, I do a lot for other people and I don't record it. So then, you know, and you get the haters are like, oh, why are you recording? I'm like, well, dude, we want to show by example. Maybe that would get other people to do it again. 100%. Yeah, yeah. And because again, yeah, you see it and you're like man like I feel bad like I should be doing more you know like you it hits your heart right pulls on those heartstrings and especially if you're a servant leader

if you've got empathy and you're kind human which are all qualities that I think people should have yeah it's going to tug on your heartstrings a little bit and you're like man like maybe I want to want to give somebody right it kind of plants the seed and that's what it's all about is it's planting seeds right everything you do is planting seeds it's planting seeds it's planting seeds and whether or not people decide to move with that it's up to them exactly yeah maybe it gets somebody else to go and it and it did like we gave we did the giving videos every time we do it we'll get people that will send me a picture on social media of cash they gave one person did notes for like eight people and gave $20 because it's all they could afford and they went gave eight people $20

each I mean you know dude it's like you met the ripple effect it creates is huge love it love it as we're kind of wrapping up here man I'd love to hear from you how is it being a Tampa celebrity now I guarantee you wherever you go there's people that recognize you from TikTok or Instagram or LinkedIn or any of that. Do you have people that run into you and they're like, oh, Vic, love your videos or hey man, can I get a, you know, a picture? Is that really transpired since you've been putting out so much content? Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's happening a lot more and more every day now. Like just yesterday I was at the gym and two people came up to me and one guy was like, hey, I recognize you from your neck tattoo. I've been following you for a while, blah, blah, blah. And he walked away.

and another guy walked up. So, yeah, it's definitely happening. A lot of it's happening now weekly. I went to Miami. My wife and I, two weekends ago, and I was in the Louis Vuitton store, and this kid walks up to me. He's like, hey, man, follow you on TikTok. I love your stuff, super inspiring.

So, you know, it's very flattering and all that. And it's just, to me, it's just, it's kind of a nice acknowledgement because I'm here all day long and I'm working and I'm in the studio, and shooting and shooting and I'm literally in my bubble. You know, I leave this bubble. I get in my car. I drive to my house. So I go to eat or whatever.

So I'm not a party guy. I'm not out partying shit where it's like, yeah, I get to see a lot of people. So when I do get acknowledged, it's nice. You know, it's like, wow, okay, cool. This stuff's working, right? Because when I hear, I love is, you know, like this one guy at the gym, he was just like, hey, man, you know, I'm in the real estate business,

but I really want to get into health care. And now that I'm watching your stuff, I'm like, I'm going to start an adult living facility, you know, and he's now going to branch out into that because of the video. that he saw for me talking about health care. So that to me is really rewarding, really cool, like that I get to see that, you know, so, which I love because it's not like, oh, hey, I saw your pose, cool car. Yeah, I get that too, but it's like you actually making a difference in getting people to start

to shift in terms of where they're looking to put their money. It's huge, man. Like that, me, that's like, dude, you're listening to me. No one fucking listened to me five years ago, bro. Like, nobody listened to me five years ago, bro. Five years ago, nobody. Somebody called me the other day and they were like, yeah, you know, I was swimming upstream. Like for seven years, you know, I'm telling everybody testing.

Oh, it's the sleep testing is where it's at. You got to, you know, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Miles is I going to work. Now it's not going to work. Now it's not going to work. Now it's not going to work. Now it's obvious that fucking works, right?

But five years ago, like nobody, nobody listened. Yeah. Yeah, I feel that way too. Like, you know, before 2019, nobody knew who the heck I was, right? But then as you start to build an audience, you're consistent, you're consistent, you're accurate. you put in the work. Now I go places. They're like, hey, I've seen you on LinkedIn. And it's like, you know, it's not the sexiest place to be found in 2022. But at the same time, I'm doing my job, right? People are recognizing me. They see me. And they're like, hey, I see what you're doing. You know, thank you for putting that out.

That video was great. That podcast was great. And it does mean a lot, right? It's meaningful that it's because I feel like I'm like a no. I'm like just, I'm a regular guy with five kids, bro. Like, I'm not cool. I'm not special. But I appreciate the acknowledgement. It's nice when someone says it. It makes you feel. good about the work that you're putting in. Because like you said, man, it's a grind. Like you're in your element. And then you go somewhere like to Miami and a kid tells you how much your content means to them. Yeah.

You know about the event next year, right? I don't. Okay. So just real quick. So next year in June, I'm putting on my first ever event. It's going to be called Rise, Rise Conference, RiseCon, 2023, 25 of the top A-listers in the world are going to be here in Tampa. Awesome. three-day weekend, June 15th, 16th, and 17th.

Or is that I think, yes. Is it June 15th, 60th? Yeah, I think it's June. June 15th for sure, but it's three-day, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I can't tell you the list of the names of the speakers yet until we release them in November. But tickets are going to go on sale in November and it's going to be one of the biggest business networking events in the world. I will be there, my friend.

It sounds awesome. Huge. It's going to be gigantic. Very cool, man. So we're going to know pretty much. much all the speakers are A-list. Awesome, man. I'm excited to learn more about that. And I'd love for you to just tell everyone where you want them, you know, whether

that's a platform, your website, any of that, the best place you want them to go and do more diligence and research on you. Because there's going to be people that listen to this. There's so much value. There's so much wisdom. And, man, your story's inspiring, you know, from being in England and then having to come, you know, England to Florida. Like, that in itself, it's a crap show, right?

You're an English guy in basically like a surfing town, and now you've got to get acclimated to this, and then you're living in a hotel, and then almost bank. I mean, there's so many things that you've done. And the thing that I can say is that you're like a rhino, right? Rhinos have tough skin. They've got tunnel vision. They put their head down, and they just charge forward. And so kudos to you for all the success, but it's not an accident, right?

Success leaves clues, and you've definitely put in the rep. So where's that number one place you want the audience to go and find Vic? Well, I appreciate that. I mean, you can find me anywhere, man. TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, whatever. And I'll tell you that I do try to get to all my messages. So if you do message me a question, man, I will definitely try to respond within 24 to 48 hours. And it is actually me responding.

If it's not me responding, my assistant will say it's my assistant. But I definitely try to get to the messages. So feel free to message me. And let me know how you enjoy the content. And if there's questions that you guys that have and content you'd like to see about certain things in business or health care, just, you know, hit me up in the DM or in comments. Let me know. We'll definitely take that feedback and create content with it. Love it, man.

Love it. Well, you're definitely a trailblazer, my friend. Let's go ahead and do a cheers for you. Let's cheers guys for Vic. What a rock star this guy is. He is a true trailblazer. Vic, any parting words for the audience? No, man.

Just look, I hope if anything, you know, my legacy is. He's like just never quit, you know, never give up, no matter your background, whether you have a degree, don't have a degree, came from a rich family, poor family, whatever your scenarios in life. Like, you can always change it. You can always change it. Even today, you could be 45 years old, 55 years old, and you can still change the trajectory of your life. You just got to make a decision and just go for it. Love it, man. And I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up until I was 39.

I think you said 38 in some content somewhere. So, yeah, that's a true testament, right? that like you don't have to have it all figured out because there's a plenty of 50 and 60 year olds that are still trying to figure it out they're still out flummingly around and trying to figure out what trail they're going to blaze he started KFC he was 60 yep Morgan Freeman didn't start out until he's in his 50s right I mean yeah there's so many stories of people that decided to blaze their own trail a little bit later in life but I appreciate your time brother thanks so much for being on the blaze your own trail podcast and keep blazing your own trail you too

man thanks so much Jordan really appreciate it man