The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Elite Entrepreneurship and Networking Strategies with Scott Joseph & Me Plus Ultra

Starting point is 00:00:00 You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast. The hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show. The preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready. Get ready. Strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times, because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. This is Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com. There you go, ladies and gentlemen. She was a little late getting to the show today.

Starting point is 00:00:47 She's a little running behind. So welcome to the show. Family and friends, as always, we are the most smartest people we bring on the show with you. We ask that you refer the show to your family, friends, and relatives. Go to Goodreads.com, 4Chance Chris Voss. Subscribe to the big LinkedIn newsletter. Go to YouTube.com, 4Chance Chris Voss, and TikTok1 on the TikTok. All those crazy places.

Starting point is 00:01:04 We are on the Internet. We have all the CEOs and the billionaires on the show, brilliant people who've built businesses, share their stories, White House president, advisors, astronauts. What else do we have on the show? I think we covered it, but I believe we have our fourth or fifth or third billionaire coming on the show that we're scheduling right now. So stay tuned for that. That show would always be good. We have smart people on the show, like our current guest, Scott Joseph, who's joining us on the show today. He is an elite entrepreneurship and networking strategist. We're going to be talking to him about some of the projects he's been working on and what

Starting point is 00:01:38 he's done and some of his life experience we can learn from. He is the CEO and founder of Me Plus Ultra. He's meticulously crafted a space where thought leaders and disruptors gather to exchange groundbreaking ideas and strategies. His business, Bourbon and Cigars, Leadership and Mastermind Retreats are more than events. They're incubators for innovation where shared expertise fuels business breakthroughs and personal growth welcome the show how are you chris i am doing very well thank you for having me on i appreciate it there you go scott it's wonderful to have you i love the business bourbon and cigars

Starting point is 00:02:17 that's always good so there was a time where that would have been really before i quit drinking would have been really great for my life but i I still love bourbon. Give us your dot coms. Where can people find you on the interwebs to learn more about you? Well, I'm on all the social channels. LinkedIn, I'm pretty active on there. Instagram, Facebook. But the best way to reach me is probably meplusultra.com. There you go.

Starting point is 00:02:38 So give us a 30,000 overview of what you do over there and how you do it. Well, me personally, I i mean i connect people and so what i do now and when i started off started off with the marketing digital marketing agency actually it was a direct mail agency that's how long i've had it it did a complete pivot to digital marketing in 2011 with jnl marketing but the success of that agency allowed me to buy three dealerships, but all of those became passive. Oh, yeah, Honda. There you go, Honda.

Starting point is 00:03:09 So all of those became passive income for me. I'd done a decent enough job delegating and elevating, and I thought, you know, I'm working really hard to get to that level, and then I got there and realized this isn't as fulfilling as I thought it would be. So I started Me Plus Ultra in this mastermind group. Getting back to your question, I'm very good and I enjoy connecting people, especially if they've got like a diverse skill set, great vision, doing those introductions, watching that magic work where they either discover some type of new business opportunity or some type of breakthrough. And so everything I'm doing now is trying to group people together to accomplish that goal. There you go. Build community, if you will.

Starting point is 00:03:55 Yeah. There you go. Well, it's funny how we all try different things in life and then we're like, is this all there is? I thought the view would be greater here or but sometimes the view is greater but sometimes it's just not your thing right well you know what used to excite me just eventually became mundane to me the agency i i've done i've been involved with for 33 years so that's a long time dealerships i think the first dealership we bought in 2004 so not as long but done decent it's just 20 years man that's pretty long it's a long time what time clock are you running on well i'd like it you know when i look back i'm like son of a bitch i'm old but you know that's how i feel too every day yeah yeah i look and I'm like, how many years ago did we start this crap? How many years ago did I do this?

Starting point is 00:04:48 My back hurts. Mentally. I feel the same as I did when I was 22 when I started it all, but physically, physically, not so much. Yeah. Yeah. I don't mind it too. I got, I get plugged for testosterone treatment therapy.

Starting point is 00:05:01 I checked my testosterone. I was a little low and now I feel like a 30 year old again. So it's awesome. Just plug for that if you check your T-boys. So give us a little bit of your history. I think you kind of did. You told us about how you went through it. How did you grow up though? What influenced you to be an entrepreneur, start your own companies? Was there some parental influence? Was there some cathartic moments or crises? I think I really looked up to my dad. That's unfortunate. No, I'm just kidding.

Starting point is 00:05:29 I love my dad. So I really looked up to him. And quite honestly, when I was very young, he was selling vacuums at Sears and Roebuck Company and left that to go sell cars and did well enough that and eventually went on to run dealerships and become a general manager it was a drastic lifestyle change for us and i i saw the difference of having begging mom and dad for a 13 gym shoe and only getting the three dollar one and versus oh now we can afford to buy pretty much everything and we're traveling and we're doing all these nice things. And so I wanted to get into the car business and I wanted to run a store. I wanted to follow that same path. It's an interesting,

Starting point is 00:06:19 so I'm in college. I only made it a year and a half a semester. But in that half a semester in my second year there, my mom and dad were out in California on a business trip. And I had been begging my dad, please let me sell. Let me sell. I'm in on my lunch hour. I'm working at the dealership as a lot tech, so washing cars. And literally, I'd beg him. I'd go into my lunch hour. I'd watch sales training tapes i was

Starting point is 00:06:45 only one that was watching him by the way every you had to dust him off he would never let me so when when he went out on this trip i literally used his name to my advantage i called other stores up in cincinnati we're down in louisville i called other stores that were owned by the same owner, Jeff Weiler Auto Group. And I said, I want to sell cars. And so he was the best general manager in the group. So his name carried a lot of weight. And I knew I could get the interview easy. So they said, when can you get there?

Starting point is 00:07:18 I said, I can get there in an hour and a half. So I went up there. I landed the job. And before mom and dad moved out, I dropped out of college and moved up to Cincinnati with no money. And I figured I'm just going to make it happen. So I did that for a little bit. I got my nose bloodied and realized, wow, my dad's a lot better than I gave him credit for. I did sales. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:07:38 Used all the – entitled because of who he was. Immature, I will say. didn't have the right work ethic. It wasn't consistent enough, had the ability, but didn't know how to take advantage of it really well, used all the excuses I could come up with. Eventually, long story short, I end up working for him and finally selling for him because that was the key. I needed to be trained by him. And so one day I had a friend

Starting point is 00:08:05 that was just crushing it, selling these high impact sale events, sale campaigns for car dealerships. And he was making more than me and he wanted to start an agency with me. So he started doing that, walked in, told my dad, I'm going to start this company. This was when I was 22. He goes, you'll be back here in three months, which if I was him, I would have said the same thing to my son if I had the same work ethic. But the work ethic changed when I started my own thing. There was a lot more consistency to it. I had everything I saved up. I started the company with $12,000 and that's J and L marketing. It's still around today. It's crushing it. I had everything I saved up. I started the company with $12,000 and that's J and L marketing. It's still around today. It's crushing it. We've got clients, you know, BMW, Shell Oil,

Starting point is 00:08:52 Mopar, Stellantis. I mean, long list of, of high, very large companies. And, and that afford, that allowed me to, to buy the dealerships. And with that, I mentioned delegate and elevate. I've got great managing partners in all those businesses, which has freed up my time and my resources to start Me Plus Ultra. Wow. And so now here you are. What a journey. Do you think it was sales skills you need to learn or was it a combination of those other things like you mentioned the work ethics and different things well i think maturity comes along the way yeah and and the work ethic you know when you're when i start selling cars i was 19

Starting point is 00:09:35 years old and thought i could get by on on sheer just ability and you know i'd have great months and then i'd have one or two really bad months i'd live off the good one right and and so there was inconsistency there when i put my focus in and i was disciplined the results were always there i just didn't do that consistently when i was young now i do there you go you know it's interesting too you mentioned that when you got your own gig you worked harder at it it's interesting too. You mentioned that when you got your own gig, you worked harder at it. It's interesting how people do that. You know, when it's yours and there's nobody to back you up, you tend to apply yourself a whole lot more.

Starting point is 00:10:13 At least I think, I don't know, you should. Yep. Well, when you're challenged and told you're not going to make it, you'll be back here and you're determined to prove that wrong. You got the last laugh on the old man on that one. There you go. Those are the best kind. And means well but you know he did well and maybe maybe that was the reason he that was the reason maybe the reason he set you off is he goes this light him up he was well it's funny because you know i grew up in sports And so when you're in sports, especially back then, the coaches were very in your face and hard on you, pushing you, constantly having that hand on your back, pushing you forward to become better and better. And my dad, I'm half Lebanese, so we're a loud

Starting point is 00:11:00 family. He's constantly just hand on the back, pushing, pushing, aggressively pushing verbally and everything. And so I could take that, never bothered me. But a lesson I learned, I went into starting this business and my first handful of employees, probably the first five to 10 years, they had to suffer through a person that didn't know how to manage or lead. I was probably motivating and they probably believed in what we were doing, but a lot of mistakes along the way in terms of how I was building a culture and the accountability factor in those businesses. There you go. And so now you've got the me plus ultra setup.

Starting point is 00:11:44 And now there's a few things you do too well as well. Tell us about your podcast. You have a podcast. Is it named the same? Well, I named it Business Bourbon and Cigars. So Me Plus Ultra is more of an exclusive group. I want high growth entrepreneurs in that. I want C-suite executives.

Starting point is 00:12:01 And then we've got industry innovators that come into that group. Business Bourbon and Cigars, obviously from a podcast name, that's going to be a little bit catchier name than Me Plus Ultra and draw more attention to it. But Business Bourbon and Cigars is also a leadership retreat that we do. And we do that every March and every September for our members. It can also be an entry level into the group to kind of get a feel for the membership and what we're all about in the community. But with that, you know, that's all rolled up into me plus Ultra.

Starting point is 00:12:32 There you go. And so do you need to, is there a minimum net worth or a minimum type of person who can apply to be part of it? I want people with great vision. I want people with good skill sets. If you're a business owner and you've got high growth potential, we want you in there. But from an income level, I do not put a minimum on it. I've got people in this group literally making anywhere from $50 to $100 million a year. I've got them as low as a couple hundred thousand you know if someone's making you know if they're not even making six figures more than likely they're not in our ideal yeah you know they're not they're not a high growth entrepreneur they're not a obviously not a c-suite executive so it's who we're targeting and who we want in the group kind of takes care of the income level there you go yeah i would say that too any usually anybody making over a hundred,000 nowadays has got their potential down and working hard

Starting point is 00:13:31 and got their money in their place, especially if they own their own business and stuff. So that's, yeah, that's usually a good targeting thing. I think we have just a private group of about 10 or 20 of us and we just made $100, the cutoff mark for most of us but i mean they're some of the guys are you know they're doing really well let's see has leading the me plus ultra mastermind group transform your perspective on business development and networking a hundred percent so first off i've probably worked harder in the last two years getting this set up and now doing it than I have in the last 10. But it doesn't feel like work. When you're doing something, I don't believe in finding your purpose. I believe more in creating your purpose.

Starting point is 00:14:18 But I enjoy this. I wake up and it's right back to what it was 30 years ago for me. I went to bed at 4 a.m. two nights ago, right? And because when you're on a roll and you're in a good flow, you don't want to stop that because sometimes that's hard to get back into from a creative standpoint. And I love it. I enjoy it. But so much has been learned. There's been a side benefit to all of this. And my inner circle, my network has grown exponentially and with all the right people.

Starting point is 00:14:52 I mean, some of the people I've met in the last three years through, whether it's Me Plus Ultra or Business Bourbon and Cigars, they've become literally my best friends. And so there's been new business opportunities that have come about, whether it's investments in different companies being a part of that, whether it a competitive person and I isolated my business and me. And it was all about competing, crushing that competition, you know, and just outdoing everybody. Right. And God, so much could have done so much more, so much faster with the right strategic alliances and just working with people and not worried about getting it all for us. Yeah. Yeah. It's that team effort, the networking effort.

Starting point is 00:15:53 You know, networking is like so important in building things and finding resources. You know, back when I started my companies, the brick and mortar age, there was really, there was no online anything. It was all brick and mortar age, there was really, there was no online anything. It was all brick and mortar. And if you wanted to get someone to help with you, you know, every now and then, you know, there's consultants back East or something, but you know, there wasn't like a ready amount of knowledge or database that you could tap into. But the only thing you could do was either hire a board of expensive people, or you could pay an expensive attorney to give you business advice. And usually their advice was just awful because they were attorneys.

Starting point is 00:16:28 But I'm sure there might have been some good ones, but usually it was really expensive too. Exactly. And you're just like, you go to the attorney guy who's the business attorney and it's 500 bucks an hour or whatever the hell it is. You're just like, well, it's- That's funny you say that. I have a story. This is about 15 years ago met a guy who had accomplished a great deal

Starting point is 00:16:51 and he did it in a way to my target audience at the time for the agency so this is back then the agency was focused 100 on automotive and so he had connections into all the different manufacturers that really could have been big check type clients. And I remember him being well-connected and he says, this is what I do. This is my new business model for a hundred thousand dollars. All right. He then would walk you in to these decision makers. And it was worth it if you had the right product. And we did. I didn't pay it. I found it.

Starting point is 00:17:33 Not because I lacked the confidence that we couldn't sell them once we got in front of it. I just had a hard time paying someone $100,000 just for an introduction. But today, I get walked into people and introduced to people for free. And, and I'm going to give you an example. I've just, I literally just went out to Pebble Beach and finally golf that, that course. So this was a five day. I was out there for six days, went out early, but a four day say golf tournament, but really it's a networking event.

Starting point is 00:18:04 And it's an exclusive group of guys. You mentioned billionaires early on your intro. Four billionaires in this group. I've worked three years to try and get into it. I finally got the invite, and I got to tell you, just the camaraderie, and I did it strictly on the business. I'm not a good golfer. I love the whole thing. Some of those guys were like, oh, my God.

Starting point is 00:18:33 But I was blown away after the four days of the friendships that were formed. I mean, I'm communicating with these guys left and right. So I look at relationships and networking completely different than I did just five years ago. Huh. There you go. All the difference in the world. It looks like there's a lot of things that take place on your events. How does it work?

Starting point is 00:19:01 It looks like I need to apply for membership. Walk us through the sign-up process and onboarding process. So with business bourbon and cigars, I've got two different ways to get in. You can either be a sponsor partner, and obviously those people are trying to appeal to all the participants in it and form those relationships. And then you can come in because you want to be part of this mastermind process if the agenda fits or is relevant to what you're trying to accomplish. The one we've got coming up in March out in Scottsdale, one of our first mastermind breakthroughs is going to be on culture and accountability. The second one is building a bulletproof sales strategy, and the third is retaining employees. And then we've got a couple panel discussions. But when we do these events, when we first started it,

Starting point is 00:19:46 I did not want the typical event where you just show up, you listen to a bunch of speakers, and there's nothing against that. I go to events and conferences where I listen to speakers, but it's mainly on topics that I know I don't know things. And I'm like, I got to listen to this speaker to first discover what I don't know things. And I'm like, I got to listen to this speaker to first discover what I don't know. All right. And then what part do I need to learn?

Starting point is 00:20:11 But most of the people we were inviting early on, they already have a lot of knowledge when it comes to things like culture and client retention, but they want to grow it. They don't want to be, they want to be industry leading in those areas. They don't want to just listen to the same common best practices. So we have no speakers at this event. We literally get up there. We explain the process and we'll take our first mastermind thing.

Starting point is 00:20:37 I put people in assigned tables. So everybody, end of two days, everyone's kind of worked with everybody at some point. So every mastermind breakout session, you're rotating to a different group of people. And what we do is each one's a little over two hours and you work on things individually for your own purpose. Like, all right, here's where my culture is. This is where I need it to be. I'm going to now write out my action plan to improve it. Then we get back into our mastermind group and we start sharing those examples. And that's where the mastermind process starts to work. Everyone starts building on the ideas and helping everyone.

Starting point is 00:21:16 Oh, wow. I send the table leaders up at the end. So then you get to hear all the best practices of the different tables and kind of expand on your own plan. And so what happens, what's beautiful about this event, first half of the day is filled with those mastermind sessions. Second half of the day, we do a lot of fun things. So when you're spending half a day helping people and getting help from the others, when you get to the networking part, there is no awkwardness. There's no clicks. Everyone's best friends by that point.

Starting point is 00:21:52 So the actual relationship in that you forge real connections. It's not, you know, you go to a typical networking event. Two things usually happen. You either see someone you already know and you spend all night talking to that person so you accomplish nothing, or you walk around and you get about 20 business cards, put them in your pocket,

Starting point is 00:22:15 nobody talks to anybody again. No one uses the credit cards either. They throw them away at home. Yeah. So I just sit there and that this wasn't planned it happened organically and when i look back i'm like wow this is a really good formula that we kind of lucked into and man but it's a working conference and just the the relationships that are forged and the connections that are formed they happen fast and they're strong i like the working conference

Starting point is 00:22:46 concept i i hate going to listen to people bark at me in speeches and stuff this is not a fan i'm just like you know i i like the working thing because that's really what you're going for you're you're there to work with other minds you know years ago when my business partner left i didn't have any board didn't have a business partner i mean he was my board, I didn't have any board. I didn't have a business partner. I mean, he was my board. And I didn't have anybody to bounce ideas with or share ideas with. And so I called a bunch of my entrepreneurial friends instead of hiring a board. And I said, hey, will you guys be like my virtual board? And I'll be able to bounce ideas off with you and talk to you about stuff I'm cooking.

Starting point is 00:23:20 And then I'll do the same for you when you need ideas and someone to share ideas. And they agreed to it and that that was really efficient for me because i could call them up i could run stuff by them and you're right i mean you can have i've been in those conferences where you're like none of the speeches i've heard i've learned anything from maybe i'm maybe i'm pretty experienced or i know i'm not smart but maybe i'm pretty experienced i I know I'm not smart, but maybe I'm pretty experienced. I think I probably am after all these years. And so a lot of stuff people tell you, you're just like, whatever. That or worse, they just pump you out this fluffy corporate fad language that you're just like, I don't know what you just said. I don't think you do either.

Starting point is 00:24:02 Well, you're saying it perfectly right you're quite honestly what you do with this show you know at least for me when i interview top guests right on our pocket i learned there's a side benefit for doing the show right oh yeah and that is man you're picking up knowledge left and right from incredible people. And so you've done this for so long and had so many great guests that, man, your knowledge, you just got, going to speakers, I would imagine that bores the heck out of you. Yeah, it does. But no, I mean, I get epiphanies off of every guest. I get different paradigm shifts off every guest.

Starting point is 00:24:41 There's usually always a tidbit I learn here and there. You know, what's the old saying? The teacher learns more than the student. And so I learned a lot of things. You know, sometimes I already know it, but it's the paradigm shift that the guest brings where I'm like, I didn't look at it from that angle or think of it in that way. And sometimes that's the most strategic way. So what have we talked about with what you're doing on me plus ultra that we can tease out before we go? Well, you know, I, what I do a little bit different than a lot of mastermind groups is for one, I'm not max, I'm not capping it. You know, in a perfect world, what we do is I do, I meet three times a month virtually. So it's always the first, second, and third Wednesday of every month.

Starting point is 00:25:26 Do it at five o'clock Eastern Standard Time. It always goes to about 6.15. We never go past 6.15. And the first two Wednesdays, I do hot seats. And I'll spend an hour with the person that's going to be in the hot seat the following week. I'll spend an hour with them really fine-tuning. Is this the ultimate question you're trying to ask help with from the members? I get all the background information I can possibly think of.

Starting point is 00:25:53 And then what are they hoping to achieve? And I want to get that out to the members in advance. So they come armed with questions and we don't spend all our time asking a bunch of clarifying questions. I want most of the time and focus being on solutions for the person in the hot seat. And a couple of things happen from that. One, if you're not in the hot seat, most of the topics apply to all of us. On most businesses, we all have the same challenges. It's very rare. We all need to hire better salespeople. We all

Starting point is 00:26:23 need a better sales process. We need a better client experience, retain employees, whatever it might be. We all want to improve our culture. And how do I hold people accountable better? So when someone's in the hot seat, it usually touches on something we can all relate to. But at the same time, what I love, Chris, is I love hearing all the different questions when people are asking the clarifying questions. Like you just said, this paradigm shift, right? I love listening and watching this and being like, I would have never thought to ask that.

Starting point is 00:26:57 I think I'm a good question asker. You know, I think I ask good questions. But sometimes I'm listening to this and thought, man, that's a good question. I would have never thought to ask that question. And so I'm learning that way, not just in the ideas and solutions that they're given, but also in the types of questions they're asking. And then on the third week, we'll bring in, third Wednesday, we'll bring in an expert speaker. But our two leaderships, if you're a member, our two leadership events for Business Bourbon and Cigars are included in membership. And the reason I'm not capping it at the 20 or 30, and it's a very good process we follow.

Starting point is 00:27:32 It's not a bunch of people talking over each other on the Zooms. I've been part of groups before where I travel a lot. My schedule's very busy. And I didn't want to feel guilt when I couldn't make it. And what I didn't want is to create a group that everyone felt like this horrible obligation and started dreading being a member because they couldn't attend everything. So we record them. We put them on the website in the resource library. And then what happens is when they're able to come in, some members make every single meeting.

Starting point is 00:28:08 Some meeting, maybe two out of three. I've had some members one month, maybe only make one meeting, but it's always there for them. And in this way, you know, as we scale up and let's say I got a thousand members in this thing, I'll start breaking it into multiple hot seats

Starting point is 00:28:22 with different Zoom rooms and different facilitators. And that's how I'll keep it intimate, so to speak with different Zoom rooms and different facilitators. And that's how I'll keep it intimate, so to speak. There you go. There you go. NFC and everything. I'm seeing some people on the website that are saying the hot seat was a lot of fun for them and really helped them in their business. Pitch out to people.

Starting point is 00:28:39 Give us your final thoughts as we go out. Pitch out to people on how to onboard with you and your dot coms for it. Go to meplusultra.com. Everything is on there. The Business Bourbon and Cigars podcast is on there. Our blog is obviously on there. The membership application and everything involved in Me Plus Ultra is on there. Our leadership retreats are on there and information about those and how you can sign up to participate in those. So, you know, you brought up the name early on, Business Bourbon and Cigars. Nothing pleases me more than we're at a resort and I have people in other events or conferences walk by our event and they see the signs.

Starting point is 00:29:21 And they all point to the name and say, that's the event we should be at. That's the name. The name's awesome. Do we get free bourbon? You get free. So first off, in our events, every breakfast, lunch, dinner is included. There's no excursion. People pay out of pocket for only their travel to get there in

Starting point is 00:29:45 the room and i bring in this this we bring in rare bourbon so we'll have pappy we'll serve two different pappies at this one it's it's top notch i've got i've got two different pappies i think we've got an eh taylor then because it's in arizona we're going to do a nice tequila as well there you go now is the bourbon breakfast, lunch, and dinner? It can be. Might be a bit much. As long as it doesn't interfere with your mental capacity to be great in the masterminds.

Starting point is 00:30:13 There you go. Well, I imagine it would probably have a little bit. So there you go. Give us the final.com as we go out on the show. MePlusUltra.com. There you go.

Starting point is 00:30:28 What's been wonderful? Me with an M, like mom. Me with an M. There you go. Yeahcom there you go what's been wonderful me with an m like mom me with an m there you go yeah there you go what's been wonderful to have you on scott thank you very much for coming the show we really appreciate it chris thank you it's a pleasure and honor to be on here honor to have you as well and thanks for sharing your knowledge and people on board and and get involved with what you're doing there. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for the... Thank you. Thanks for my honest for tuning in. Go to goodreads.com, 4chesschrisfoss, youtube.com, 4chesschrisfoss, linkedin.com, 4chesschrisfoss,

Starting point is 00:30:54 and chrisfoss1 on the tickety-tockety. Thanks for tuning in. Be good to each other. Stay safe. And we'll see you guys next time. And that should have us out.

The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Elite Entrepreneurship and Networking Strategies with Scott Joseph & Me Plus Ultra

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