Welcome to the The VICI Code, where we unlock real stories of small business owners who've battled chaos, crushed doubt, and conquered their challenges. Faith, family, and finances. No fluff, just raw, honest conversations that decode the path to victory, one story at a time. That It is number one, you know, so it, uh, I don't know. I, I tend to ramble when I'm a little nervous and get off So you showed no signs. You, I think you just, you told your story, man. I, and I, that's my goal is I don't, I'm not trying to throw any curve balls. I'm not trying to trick anybody or trying to, get too cute with it, right? We just want to hear the story and I I think it went pretty well. I wish it's, the path forward is never a straight line. It really isn't. Man, I failed way more times than I Yeah. It's what it is. Nothing is my own. I'm not some brilliant person by any stretch of the imagination. Everything that I have is taking little bits and pieces from the thousands of people that I've worked with and having some awesome mentors along the way. And then having some not so good leaders and learning exactly what not to do. You know, yeah, I think, you know, everyone's highlight reels out there, right? Everything, everything's a highlight reel on, on social media and on, you know, TV and stuff. So people do it. The reality is, is, you know, you can go from zero to a million. Um, but it's just so rare. It's, it's, you just can't let that define like success, right? Success is really just doing, being consistent and disciplined and doing the same thing and tweaking it a little time. And you don't know how to tweak it unless you've done it, you know, a hundred, 200, 300, a thousand times and figured out what works. It's usually that slow, gradual climb. That's where, you know, success really is. Most people, are on that type of slow grind on the way up. Uh, it's very rare to see people explode overnight. It happens. Um, but it be just because it doesn't happen like that for you shouldn't be, um, shouldn't, shouldn't really, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? Um, Uh, you know, make you feel like you did something wrong or you failed, you know, you learn here, you iterate, you keep going. Um, so, you know, uh, my story is very much like yours. I've had a few different businesses I've had, I've worked for a few different people. And even now, as we sit here today, it's still. It's still a grind. I'm going into year two of my business and despite having all the experience that I've had, there's the growing pains. It's almost like textbook what you read about what happens in a business in certain years. I'm sure that building the systems and the processes and all the things I've learned from before will definitely help me scale more efficiently, but it's never going to be easy, and I think that's just a really important lesson for us. uh, entrepreneurs in those early stages that you, that the company that gets you your first million, you may not be in it, but you should be learning everything you can from that business that you're in now. Cause that those lessons will help you, uh, get Oh, for sure. You know, um, One of the, I've been an entrepreneur, entrepreneurial spirit since I was, since I was a kid. Didn't even know it. It's, it's just, it is what it is. Selling candy in school, running P&L reports, and you know, I had no idea. You know, those are stories that I hear, you know, that I heard from my parents. You know, we go to Costco, I buy a box of lollipops, selling for a quarter a pop, you know, when they cost me a nickel, and I was writing all that stuff out, I need to do this, and then I can do this, and I can do that. Got a little older, you know, and then started selling glow necklaces at fireworks, you know, New Year's, Fourth of July, you know, did that hustle. And then I started employing a couple of great successes there. Then I started employing my friends and I paid them to go sell stuff for me. You Employing your friends is always a delicate balance. Like I've turned down jobs with friends because You just never know. You see, sometimes you just step away and you say, you know what, my friendship's worth more than what could possibly go wrong. Um, you know, so that's, that's always a brave road to go down. Did that, did that work out for you or did you have any, any regrets with Oh, so that was still as a kid. Our goal was 100%, you know, 4th of July, sell as many of these glow sticks as we can, because I wasn't taking any of that money home. We were going straight to the fireworks stand because those guys are letting stuff go 50 cents on the dollar or more. And I was buying two years worth of fireworks. And we're going to go one half, we're going to blow that stuff off tonight. So that was the goal with that. Now, speaking in the business world, no, hiring friends is absolutely burdening. And that's, you know, you put blinders on. you know, I did anyway, you know, I was, I put blinders on, ah, you know, they're just, you know, that's their attitude, or that's just them, that's just this, where anybody else, that talk, that behavior wouldn't be tolerated, I'd be turning that person out. And those are cancers that grow in a business that can contaminate everything and everyone. Even your, I mean, I had a gentleman that was working for me when I started the logistics business and I had no idea, you know, like I'd worked with him for years in a previous life, worked with him. So I was accustomed to his attitude and how he talked and how he carried himself. So it didn't impact me. But as my business grew and he got into a position And that had left me, once he left me is when I realized how much of a problem it really was, because then my vendors, then other people came and said to me, oh man, this was going on, and that was going on, and this was a problem. What? Why are you talking to me? Oh, isn't he your brother? Isn't he this? Isn't he? I was like, no. And if he was, I'd fire my brother for that. You know what I mean? Like, what are we talking about here? Do the right thing. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, never again. I hate to say it like that. I won't go into business with friends again. I will not go into business with family ever again. That was a crash and burn that I took a chance. I knew it was going to crash and burn, and it did inevitably. You know, it's tough. Those are really tough situations, you I know some people can be- Even as clients, like I've turned down clients that are friends. Like some friends I'm doing business with and it's not always easy. Cause you know, you're your friends and it's like, you know, my deadlines don't mean anything to friends sometimes. Cause it's like, you know, Oh, it's Joe. And I wasn't always, you know, who I am today. So people still treat you like who you were in high school and college. And it's, um, not that they don't take you serious. They just don't take you serious enough. Right. Um, so they look at you as the buddy, not as the professional that they hired to do the job that they hired you to do. And the only way you can do that job is if they, do their part and giving you the stuff that you needed to satisfy the deadline. Otherwise. you know, um, in doing what you do, there's real world penalties. It costs money. Right. So are they going to accept responsibility for that penalty? Or are they going to try to push that off on a joke as Joe didn't get it done? Well, I can't get it. You You set me up to fail. Right. And you know, usually it's usually during a time when we have less time to actually fix the things that were not done. Right. It's like, Well, you know, what do you do? Um, and I, so I'm, I'm a lot more selective with, you know, family and friends that, you know, we do business with. Cause at the end of the day, it's money's money. And, um, you know, I rather just go grab wings with somebody and, you know, talk about the old times, not not have to talk about There's more than enough business out there to have to eliminate a friendship for Tell me a little bit more about your fitness journey, man. I'm super excited for you. I'm stoked that you're down 20, you've got goals to keep moving, and I'm really happy for you, dude. That's great. It's gotta be a part of the recipe. It's the recipe for most people, like having that mental and physical exhaustion through working Oh, there's no doubt. Other than just being, how do you say it? Just more comfortable in your own skin. I'm starting to sleep better, think clearer, be able to pivot, not have the brain fog because you overloaded on carbs or you overloaded on the sugars, you overloaded on the things that are just basically toxins to our systems and drag us down. Um, it's been a hard road, man. I've been up and down, um, weight my entire life. Uh, when I was in martial arts is when I was really in the peak, um, physical form, you know, my peak physical fitness. Um, and, uh, and you're still young, dude, you're still young. We're both young. You're early forties. 46. 46? Do you know that Stallone did Rocky IV when he was 40 years old? We're from that generation where like those movies were awesome, man. Like I, I grew up thinking like, man, that's, that's going to be me. Those training montages, like we're still in our prime. We just, we just need to believe it. And it's true. Right. And you just got to stay on the grind and it takes, you know, it's, it's, it takes a little bit longer to get back on track. And when you get off track, it slides pretty quick. So you just got to be consistent. So, you know, you, I definitely know you got it in you, man, for Yeah, it's a, um, I'm going to get back into, into martial arts, back into my training more than anything else. Uh, you have to be able to have an outlet, right? Um, some, some guys it's the one of the gym, you know, um, that's not my bag personally. Uh, I need to, you know, I need to lift weights. I need to do things just to, to burn the energy. I've got the mass. I'm a big dude. I, you know, I'm just, I'm never gonna, I'm never going to be a 200 pound guy at six to 200 pounds. I'll be skin and bones. I just got a big frame. I Some guys are built for speed. I'm built for, you know, wrecking ball. but I can do it all day long. Those guys will, you know, when So when I'm training a new hire or I I'm out in the field, cause I got a guy on vacation and I'm working with their helpers or whatnot, you know, they look at me, I'm a big dude. I'm like, how, how are you outworking me? That's just because I'm big doesn't mean I'm, I mean, I'm not in my best shape, but I'm not out of shape. I run circles around for sure. A lot of guys just, I'm big, you know, but I can keep going forever and ever and ever. Have you ever done CrossFit? No. I, so I'm with you. Hold on, hold on one second. I'm with you though. Like I stopped going to the gym because I was, uh, you know, the bodybuilder type for a very long time. I just lifted and just got, you know, during COVID I got bored with it and obviously it was a good time to get bored with the gym cause you couldn't even go. But, um, maybe it was different in Florida. I'm sure it was. But, um, It was crazy. I got into running and doing outdoors and hiking, which I'm happy for that. Like I, I still do all that. It's still a big part of like, you know, my, you know, my, my success. Um, but you know, now. And I went back into the gym and I just, just, it's just boring, dude. I don't like seeing the same people. I don't like doing the same workouts. The CrossFit stuff is just, it's just so stimulating and you're working out so many different muscles and you just, you're just doing so much more. And I don't know if you've ever tried it before, but I think you'd like it, dude. The community aspect, not that I go there for that, but it is a big part of their recipe for success. You meet like-minded people. You meet potential business. Not that I did it for this reason, but I've got people from our gym that have definitely reached out for me to help. Geez, I'm training now. I'm actually, I'm going to get my L1 license to be certified. So, Yeah, I'll take a look into that. One of the big things for me is I do like martial arts, which is, that has driven a passion that nothing else in Um, it had a lot of fun and the conditioning that I did was, I mean, I was training with guys that went and fought in the UFC and Bellator, you know, um, and those are the, I'm, I'm blessed to have been a part of their journey. And I did their conditioning. I was just past my expiration date. Average, you know, when I was at that level, you know, average age of a champion was 27, you know, I was like 35. I was already expired before Um, you know, but, uh, when you say martial arts, are you talking about jujitsu or is it like, uh, uh, uh, So, um, I mean, I, I, I practiced crank creation. I'm belted in penetration. Um, I did, uh, I did BJJ. I was a two stripe blue belt when I left BJJ. Um, I've done judo. I've competed judo. I'm unbelted. I don't have, I don't have any rent official ranking system. Um, but, uh, what I did was, uh, Oh man, master Woody. What, uh, Who was ninjutsu, which is more of a traditional Japanese Japanese jiu jitsu. And that's. He was he was amazing, I mean, he he he studied Wally J. small circle jiu jitsu. He was an incredible, incredible instructor. And I learned a lot from him and in his time, he passed some years ago, but, uh, that's, and with him, you know, that's where everything was birthed from BJJ come from Jiu Jitsu, Judo from Jiu Jitsu, you know, Arnie's I do a lot of, you know, um, stick and knife. uh, type training, you know, working the hands. Um, though it's Muay Thai, you know, it was really, you know, MMA in essence. Um, but my discipline is pancreation, which is, that's the original Olympic version of, of fighting. It was, you know, bring all weapons. So Very cool. My son, we, we got him in my oldest son did karate a long time ago. And we, that got my younger son into it. And then, Uh, then wrestling came in to the fold, you know, several years ago, right around like the pop Warner age, they started wrestling. And, um, so now they wrestle and Um, they're beasts if they wrestle and do jujitsu. They, I mean, they're conflicting ideologies though, you know, as far as, as Yeah. One being on the bottom is good. And on the But yeah, but I think, you know, just from a mindset standpoint, I know, like I don't, you know, I know with my, I push them to lift a lot, work out a lot. I want them to, you know, be familiar with it, know what they're doing so they can't get hurt. But as far as like the wrestling, jujitsu, it's all mindset. It is all mindset. You do that stuff in life just becomes a lot easier because you're just like, You, you just find ways that you can change your position, right? You change your position, you know, in, in kind of like how you, you know, you make your pivots. Um, so for me, it's, it's just, uh, it's something they, they can do for the rest of their life, you know, um, no matter what age and it's, it's going to continue to improve, uh, their outlook on life and, and, you know, being able to Some of the largest companies, not just in the country, in the world, you know, when they look at wrestlers, wrestlers are sought out because of There was no one, you know, when these guys are getting ready for competition and they're getting ready for their meets and having to cut weight and the discipline that goes into watching what you eat, watching what you drink. Um, being able to, well, I'm glad that they're not having to cut the weight that they use. So you have to weigh in and step on the mat, not weigh in the day before. So some of those guys would put on 10 pounds in a day. You know, that's, that's brutal for, for high school athletes to do. It's brutal for anybody, but for kids, it's not, it's not healthy. So I'm glad that some of those changes, um, came into play. Um, but the amount of discipline that it takes, no matter how you do that. mental hortitude. Those are the people, those are the people who win in You know, if, if business was easy and they just, and they, and they just more the problem solvers, right? When you got to solve a problem, when someone's got you in a Nelson and you're like trying to figure things out, like, Now give that guy the same amount of time to do it in a day or in a few hours rather than in a split instance. Like you're just decision-making, um, is elevated, uh, when it comes to, you know, the, the lessons you learn from the mat and then you take it out into Well, the lessons, you know, I tend to believe the higher skill, the higher skill, other than some natural talent, is they train, they train, they have check down lists, right? I'm gonna beat them, they're gonna do this, A or B. And if they do A, I'm gonna do B or C. If they do B, I'm gonna do A or D. They always know, there's always a check down list all the way down the line. So no matter what happens, They already know what the next move is. They do this, I'm going to do this. They do this, I'm going to do this. They do this, I'm going to do this. That transfers the business and that transfers the life. So they know if this is happening here, I have to do A or B. Those are the things. So those are just life skills that transcend. And some of the guys that I've seen, in I don't have a background in that, Mark. My discipline has been the Marine Corps, honestly. That's what I bring to my business. I get it. It's how I run my business. That's why we're VG Financial, Latin for conquer. We're coming in. We're not like all these other accounting firms. We are doing things differently. We're doing it in a let's get shit done manner. And it's like, You gotta be professional and we are, but also, you know, you gotta be realistic and you gotta be direct. And I just feel like you just get a lot better results when you're just honest and direct and you don't yank people around. So, you know, unfortunately we're not the right cup of tea for everybody, but that's fine. There's a big pool of people And you nailed it a hundred percent. I wish more people operated with just honesty and clarity. This is what I need. This is what we can do. You know, we're either a fit or we're not, you know that tends to drive a lot, a lot longer, better working relationship than just selling somebody for a couple of bucks. Cause that's, that's, That's a transactional mindset. Transactional mindsets don't tend to last too long, because you're gonna get what? One transaction, one transaction versus repeat. Building repeat business on top of the transactions, that's how you scale. But if you're just gonna get a whole bunch of one-offs, you're I agree, 100%. What Oh, man, I got a stack here. Dan Martell's Buy Back Your Time. I'm going to read his SAS book as well, having a SAS background. Let's see. Emotional intelligence is the two, oh, that was one that was handed off to me from one of my mentors. That was, that was important. I'm currently reading the seven habits of highly effective people. I just went, and then I've got the eighth, I've got the eighth habit. Seller be sold by Grant Cardone. Just went through the 10X rule again by Grant. And then I've got atomic habits. the workbook. I've got a another book here from from Gary B, 12 and a half that's on my hit list. And Gary B's got me this one I've been avoiding and that's taking charge of ADHD because it's I'm always occupied by something else other than what I need to be doing. Yeah. Um, and recognizing you shouldn't be avoiding that. What's It's a, it's a book of hard truths that I'm sure I'm going to read to. And some of those things are always the hardest to, to jump into is, is recognizing those faults and random things. Nonetheless, I believe, how do I say this? I think as just a species, we're all ADHD. And any species, as evolution, as we come up, you have to have your head on a swivel, or you're going to get eaten by something, or you're going to get knocked over the head. So having those types of things, we're not meant to be. you know, stuck in a cubicle for eight hours a day, doing something, you know what I mean? We gotta be moving, we gotta be doing different types of activities. I could still be, I could still be active and doing what I get up. I can't, you know, like I got my office set up, but I got multiple things that I do. I'll get up, I'll walk and talk on the phone. I'll do my phone calls moving around. So that way I don't feel like I'm trapped in this one activity. Those are little things that I do, but being able to do multiple things at multiple times. It's a superpower, but it can definitely hurt you if you don't have it under control. That's just where I'm at, dude. Absolutely. There's a billion dollar industry called the marketing industry that feeds off of that. If you can't control, if you can't set up boundaries, man, it'll, it'll really mess you up. So it's, it's, it's a superpower, but also, um, you know, you gotta make sure you're managing it. So how about your son? Like, uh, you know, we talked about, you know, fitness and reading and stuff like that. Like, you know, those are really good habits, you know, to role model. Um, what, what's, Yep. I got two boys. Um, Isaac is 10 and Zane Yeah. And then, you know, they're seeing you work hard. They're seeing you read, they're seeing you, you know, change your diet and get back into Oh, you know, absolutely. Um, Isaac, my oldest, he's, uh, they both gotten, they got into soccer first, um, and being active and, and then went from soccer to cross country. Right. And then now both of them, you know, done soccer. They both did cross country. Uh, then Yeah. Yeah. You know, and, uh, Isaac is taking, um, it's a little bit challenging for him, um, more than, more than Zane, but he's reading every day. He's taking it a point, you know, and that's something that I told him, you know, look, this is something that I avoided for so many years of my life. And that's why I asked him to do it. Now I don't have to ask him or tell him he You know, he'll go and set the timer and he'll, he'll read for 20 minutes. So that way he gets to do his other free free activities. Right. Um, but, uh, You know, I says, look, I'm doing this more now because I didn't for so long. And if you do that stuff now, you're going to be way, way ahead of where I am today. And that's, you know, and then him seeing how much I've worked and how much time and all the different things that I've done. I was like, I'm doing this now because I was a knucklehead then, you know, and I didn't do the things that I was supposed to then. If you do those things now, you're going to be ahead of me. You know, when you get up, when you go into high school, you're going to be ahead of me. You're going to be that much farther ahead. So you're not going to have to go through the headaches that I've gone through. And they recognize it. They see it, you know, and, uh, Isaac, he's my lover, man. He's got such a big heart. One of the biggest things that he wants to do is, uh, he doesn't want to see homeless. He doesn't want to see people hungry. He wants to 100% he's like, I'm going to work with you or I want to do my own thing. So that way I can help these other people. You know, it was, we, we were, uh, we were at beefs. This is maybe a couple months ago now. Um, we're wrapping up dinner and it was a busy night. It was probably, you know, a trivia night or something. And there was, uh, um, an old, older, older woman that was in a Walker. There was no place for her to sit, nothing. He got upset, like visibly upset. She had been standing there for maybe 20 minutes and you could tell that she's getting uneasy. I didn't notice any of this. This is all things, you know, I'm on my own little life and talking, you know, and not recognizing the stuff. He had noticed it to the point where he was so upset that he got up from the table. brought the chair over to her and sat his chair down, like drug it across the restaurant and sat so she could sit down to where everybody that was in that section kind of looked and recognized that we're all being blinded. We're, we're, we're all so wrapped up in our own world that we don't recognize other people that, that are in need. And she was so thankful and the hostess felt like crap. The other people that were there, everybody started feeling like crap about ourselves because. of the blinders, you know? So I'm, I absolutely, that's something that almost brings tears to my eye because it just shows where his heart and where his head is. Even though I can't get him to pick his socks off of the floor, he sees those types of things and it's, it's just instinctual. It's in him and it's all the time. He can't turn it off. So I'm excited. I'm excited for him in his life and the things that he's going to be able to do. Cause if he has that type of heart, He has Yeah. You Jamie, you and Jamie are doing a great job. I can tell from that story all by itself. Um, well, I appreciate you man. Uh, and just, you know, put it all out there. You should keep doing more podcasts. I can, uh, I can connect you with a bunch of people. You know, Sebastian can connect you with a bunch of people. If you want to do more podcasts, you know, let me know. There's a bunch of them out there. I think you got a great story and Oh, man, I really appreciate you. Yeah, I'd love to love to connect, you know, get more of different parts of the story. I mean, I got a lot of I got a lot of interesting things that have happened on my journey that. people either get a kick of, or some of it's cringeworthy where hopefully no one will go down that path because we've all But yeah, I really- It's hard to help people if we're not sharing those stories, right? We're all worried about oversharing and I'm, you know what, I stopped being ashamed of those things a long time ago. And, uh, I'm an open book. You can just ask me and it is what it is. It's not who I am today. It's who I was then. Correct. So, you know, I'm speaking of the past, not of, not of who I am today. But I appreciate you, Joe. No, um, I love any kind of connections, but, uh, Awesome, brother. Well. Stay blessed, brother. Well, let me know when you guys break through the accounting issue and you know, we're here when you need us, but this should air sometime in May. We've gotten really lucky. Just so many people have signed up. We've, we're booked out to like almost the end of May. And that's kind of like where some of these episodes are landing. They're about two months away from actually showing up. It's crazy. Um, but thank you for coming on. I'll, I'll give a shout out to you and, uh, you know, we'll talk to you soon, man. Thanks for tuning in to the Vici Code, where the underdogs rise and the numbers finally make sense. If today's story hit home, share it. And remember, faith fuels