You were a great shirt too.
Whoa, hey, we did.
It's coordinated, you know, what do you mean to do that?
Welcome to Vision Pros Live.
I'm here with Dean Forbes, friend, client,
and now business partner at First Class Business.
So Dean, hey man, thanks for making the time on a Saturday.
Oh yeah, man, of course, man.
This is fun.
It's been a fun ride so far.
And so yeah, let's just go.
Hey, Vision Pro fans.
Let's see here.
So StreamYard had some super awesome announcements,
by the way.
They did some new things.
Drop some new bombs on us today, which got us about 15 minutes
behind on this from what I was hoping.
But let me do this.
I got to save these changes real quick.
There we go.
And so we're trying to give you a buying the scenes
look of what we're doing.
But just to announce it, StreamYard has new interfaces.
And so we haven't had the chance to play with it.
I'll just show one custom layout.
So here's an example of a custom layout.
And I know it, if you don't use StreamYard,
then it might not have too much context.
But the ability to become your own in-house studio
and get your podcast out there, or get your message out there
to your audiences, to host guests and all that,
like just went to new levels.
And to be able to set the right types of backdrops and stuff,
it puts you on the level of like an ESPN or a Fox.
Everything being.
Yeah, I think so too.
I mean, I was watching it.
And I'm pretty sure it probably resonated with you more
than it did me because I'm not that techie.
But what I saw looked great.
Let's put it that way.
What I saw looked great.
Can you see what I'm doing while I'm doing this live?
While I'm moving our picture around?
I can't see what you're doing when you're moving the picture
around.
I think you can only see that if you're the one controlling
the interface.
Ah, gotcha.
I have it live.
Let me do this.
Update the layout.
Now we moved, right?
We did move, yeah.
We moved to the corner over here.
Right.
It's kind of weird.
And I'm just playing with all this stuff
because anybody who's watching this,
like, you got to study your tools.
You got to know about them.
You got to know what's going on so you feel comfortable with them.
So you're not doing things like this when you're live.
This is kind of like a meta experience, by the way.
We're getting you all completely in the back end.
There's nothing official about this other than the fact
that Dean and I are now officially partners
at First Class Business.
And we're exploring all the essence of what that means.
Mergers and acquisitions between the different brands,
how we're going to associate on that,
what types of relationships we're
going to have with prospects and clients.
Dean going to Sweden next week to train a bunch of people
on sales while I run the company, a new chief operating officer
involved.
There are so, hey, look at that.
And Manuel is jumping in and saying
hi, he's our HR director, personnel, trainer, development
manager, and also part of our, he's our sales manager as well.
We all wear a lot of hats in this company.
So Dean and I, Dean, how long have we been talking today?
What does this start like?
This is hour number five.
It was like 11.
No, 12, right?
12.
Oh my god.
It might be hour number five.
But I think it was around 12.
I remember waking up this morning,
Groggy, because I went to bed at like 4 to 5.
I was playing the guitar almost all night.
I was really, really like, I haven't played in a while.
And so I wake up because like two hours before my alarm,
I set my alarm for like 10.50.
By the way, I can't do it.
And Dean's going to call me at 10 anyway.
I woke up at like 8.53.
Maybe 8.33.
And I see, whenever I texted you, right?
Right when I woke up, I see the text in the early.
And I was like, oh my gosh, I feel dizzy.
But here I go.
I can't help it.
I got to go into this.
Because I wanted to.
I know it's crazy.
I know.
It's all right.
Yeah, it's definitely crazy.
And then the power was out this morning.
So my whole morning kind of got thrown off
in terms of how it was going to start and where I was going
to end up.
But it turned out to be a great day, man.
I mean, the power came back earlier than they said it would.
And we ended up being able to move things forward here.
And it's been a great day so far.
So welcome to behind the scenes as to what crazy entrepreneurs
do on a Saturday for fun.
And that's exactly what it is.
This day is a day of choice.
And that's really what it's about.
It's like, there's a lot of things that could be doing.
But to be able to get to know my new business partner,
to be able to turn the pages in his book
and understand who he is as a family man,
what he wants to show up and do as a business owner,
what types of contributions he has here.
Don't get me wrong.
Dean and I have known each other for a couple of years now.
And we've had super intimate conversations
about business that have led us to this point of trust
where we're like, yeah, we definitely
should combine forces on this.
But it's a lot like a marriage.
You don't find out what it's really
like to be with somebody and to be working with somebody
and to be managing things until you're actually in it
and doing it.
And that requires a massive leap of faith.
100%.
Jackson, you said it earlier when you
talked about it being like a marriage.
It's like, you are definitely trusting the other person
with your livelihood, with how you take care of your family.
So when you become a business partner,
it's not just, hey, you're forming a profitable business
that's going to make money.
You're saying to that other person, hey, look, man,
we are of the same vision in terms of what we want to do.
But I'm trusting you to take care of my family.
And you're trusting me to help you take care of your family.
And we've got to take care of our families first
before we start taking care of the 8 billion people
in the planet we want to serve, right?
But that's a huge, huge thing.
And I do absolutely believe that it
has to be like a healthy marriage, for sure.
Dude, I agree.
I think it's interesting too.
I'm twice divorced and I'm not currently
in a marriage relationship.
But I was when I established my first partnership
with my silent partner, our silent partner now,
Dr. Todd Snyder.
And he was very aware of my marriage
and what I was going through.
And I was very aware of him and his wife
and how their marriage.
I didn't know all the intimate details, very little,
about their personal relationship.
But we have to be aware of the relationships in our lives
that are affected by our relationships
as business partners.
And so I think that's why it's so important.
I see so many people that don't do that, so many business
owners, they get into partnerships
and they kind of glaze over that.
They think, well, they're married and I'm married.
So our marriages must be the same
and we must really understand each other.
And so let's just try to figure this out.
And we wonder why 96% of businesses
fail within 10 years.
Is there any wonder with the lack of research,
the lack of commitment, the lack of consistency
that we put into things, the lack of formulas
that we have for operating?
There's a lot of things that can cause problems in both the
business partnership and the marriage.
I also want to talk a little bit about balance
because we're here on a Saturday.
And if anybody's looking at this, it happens to be here.
Don't judge yourself for also being tuned in on Saturday.
Unless you're doing it when you know you should be doing
something else.
I love you, but go away.
Go do what your priority is.
I'm not here telling my kiddos to wait and put them on hold.
I'm not here telling other people,
because I ignore all the other responsibilities
I have in my life.
I'm here because this is the most responsible thing
that I can do with the vision that I have to bless all
the lives that I serve and all the people that I'm with.
Yep, totally agree with that, man.
It is a choice.
But guess what?
It's a choice that we get to make.
And at the end of the day, again, we
talked about friction earlier, what kind of friction we're
willing to deal with.
And I said to you, I'm willing to deal with a certain level
of friction in order to complete what I know I'm called to do.
Because it's not going to come with all flowers and rainbows
and everything else.
You're going to end up disappointing people.
You better be ready.
Yeah.
You're going to end up disappointing people,
making some people mad.
You're going to offend people.
There are lots of things that are going to happen
that are not going to feel good while you're going through
the process of trying to build what you're trying to build.
But you've got to do it.
If you really are in it, to win it the way you see it,
the way you're called to do it, then you
have to accept that there's going to be some friction and bumps
and bruises along the way.
Hell, you might get knocked the hell out along the way,
but you've got to know you're doing the right thing anyway.
And just keep on trucking, man.
Moni Maldine, this is a massive shout out for you.
You are, after years, by the way, of working with thousands
of realtors and doing different trainers.
You are, by far, the best one that I ever, ever worked with.
I freaking love Moni Maldine.
He helped me find my house in Hutto, just
north of Austin, Texas, years ago,
and about my first house.
And he was with Kelly Williams.
I don't know if he is now, but he had the background of an
inspections guy.
He knew how to construct houses.
He protected us.
But the coolest thing about Moni, and speaking of balance,
I'd love to have his opinion and thoughts on this at some point
and get the chance to talk to him about it.
But Moni had this incredible ability
to be there for me whenever I needed it.
Now, that's extreme for some people's lives.
The amount of dedication he put in,
it would be easy for somebody in the outside to say, wow,
does this guy have a life?
Is this guy really that toxic?
Does he show up that way everywhere that he does?
But no, we went golfing together.
One time, he came to our open house
and brought one of those infusion things for us.
But here's a crazy thing.
North East Austin.
And he was living in Buda, which is south of Austin.
And Austin traffic, by the way, it's notorious.
People know about this world famous, notorious.
He would travel from Buda to Hutto in the middle of the night.
And I was plugged in almost every day of the week on that.
While my kids were still super, super, super young,
and my wife and I had an agreement on that,
we would go at midnight to open the houses up and look at them.
Couldn't believe it.
And he always treated me with extreme respect.
I have absolute respect.
In the Austin area or near there,
and you are looking for a realtor to work with,
that's the guy to go to.
If you're looking for a realtor,
you're looking for a realtor to work with.
If you're looking for a realtor or a business owner,
a successful person to learn from,
and you're anywhere in the world,
Monty Maldine, again, fantastic individual.
So I got the cops call.
I got the cops call.
I didn't remember that.
That's funny, man.
So her way overdue.
I look forward to you meeting Dean as well.
What's up?
Now, I said, Monty Maldine, shout out to Monty Maldine,
then, for sure.
I don't have a question about it.
Absolutely.
So one of the big things that Dean and I are working on,
and I told him, we took a 15-minute break,
and I went and showered during the break,
and I had three massive visions during that.
It was amazing, just in this little 15-minute window,
because we brain-dumped and heart-dumped on each other.
All the things that are in our lives,
and all the realities, the strengths, the weaknesses,
the opportunities, and threats,
as many as we could, as fast as we could,
and while acknowledging each other,
like, is this right for you?
Okay, with this, like, oh, wait.
Dean's like, I'm pissed off at you about this,
and I was like, I don't know yet.
Let's figure it out.
Maybe we are.
Like, within seconds, we're like, oh, nope.
Just word choices.
Just word choices on both sides.
So there we are.
And when you go and decompress from something like that,
if you move on to the next task, you're kind of screwed.
Right?
You got to have a plan or whatever.
Well, we needed that time.
So I'm showering and getting ready for the, like,
okay, we're going to get on Zoom real quick,
and that opportunity to just meditate on what happened.
Bro.
Now we're here, live.
Oh, my gosh.
We're not even going to have time to talk about it.
Because we got to have seven minutes
before we got to get to other responsibilities of mine.
You're going to keep me accountable to my timing,
of course.
But look, here, since we're live,
here's, I do want to share something for everybody
that's going to see this, and it's this right here.
One of my favorite rappers is Nas.
And one of the things that he always says,
you always say, he said it in a few rhymes already,
but he always says it when he talks.
He says, don't make moves unless your heart's in it.
Now, I've heard other people say that,
but I don't think people understand what that really means.
Right?
It's like, it's like making a move,
if you're spiritual, let's say you're making a move
and you know God's hand is not on it,
and you're still going to do it.
That's disobedient, right?
Well, if you treated your heart like the heart of God,
why would you make a move when you know that that's not in it?
Why would you pretend that?
And so what I'm sharing is, if you've got something
that you know your heart's really in,
that you've been skipping out on, putting off, not doing,
let me just tell you right now,
it is the most fulfilling thing that you could ever do
with something losing your heart in it.
See, that's what this partnership means to me.
My heart's in this, right?
Call it the hand of God if you want.
Call it whatever frame makes sense to you.
I don't make moves unless my heart's in it.
My heart's in it.
Dean, period.
Dang dude, like, so I hadn't shared with Dean yet,
vision number one.
I hadn't yet said that, but vision number one that came to me
and just hit me super loud and clear is,
one of the things I'm pretty famous for saying and coaching on
when I consult is the art of making space for other people's opinions,
where they come from and how they view things,
other people's worldviews.
I've been very careful over the last few years
to when I meet somebody new, I ask them,
are you agnostic, atheist, spiritual, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, whatever?
I don't have any judgment on that.
I embrace the fact that you have your own ability to choose
and we can appreciate each other's paradigms, perhaps, on that.
I try to make that space for people.
I've done so to the point to where I've been playing with this concept,
this idea of imponder it for many, many, many, many days and years
and it's always on my heart.
One of my big realities was it's time, Jackson,
to be unapologetically a follower of Jesus Christ
and to own that and not in a way, not for me to put it out there too far
but to unapologetically own the fact that that's where I find my principles.
That's where my balance is.
That's how committed I am to my principles
and if somebody is unapologetically Hindu or unapologetically Muslim or Buddhist,
it's my opportunity to say, whoa, cool, what does that look like for you?
Because that gives me a framework that's universal,
that I can understand, okay, well, we both believe in the golden rule,
for instance, I know that about those religions.
And if I'm not unapologetically open about where my principles are,
guess what people have to feel and what they have to feel of doubt or fear or worry
that, well, where does this guy reside with this stuff?
Doesn't mean it to be perfect at it,
but that was one of the big realizations.
So I'm really glad that you brought that up Dean.
For me, my alignment comes from heart and mind combined,
but at the same time, I'm also left to my own devices.
So I actually get that when I need that.
But in most life choices, it's my choice to make.
It really doesn't have to do with either one.
It's just, hey, I get to choose.
But those are there as detectors, as I need them.
And I think it's really cool that you gravitate right towards that.
Thank you for that.
Yeah, of course, man.
Yeah, it's the energy that's here.
And so I want to acknowledge it and give it the proper reverence that it deserves, to be honest.
And again, maybe not just because we're alive, but yes, because we're alive.
Also want to put out there as part of first class business,
I think we should continue to do things like this to show people that they're real people that are behind these ventures.
And because one day we're going to be huge, right, in terms of how people view us from the outside looking in.
And one of the things that people don't have is they don't have a mechanism by which to understand where this company came from.
How did they come to be this?
What kind of people are they?
Like, are they over there and I'm over here and there's this separation?
No, there isn't.
There are real people here with real hearts, real issues in their lives, real things they have to overcome.
You know, all of those things apply are applicable here.
Regardless of how great we become, I want people to remember that there was a sacrifice and a decision that was made and there was a walk that was done and continues to happen.
There's a learning, right?
There are lessons, right?
There are stumbles, there are falls, there are failures, there are successes.
There's all those things that came with real people and I think it's important to know that some of the biggest companies on the planet that do the greatest things actually have real people behind them.
There's no magic.
Just decisions, man.
And they build on these principles.
Imperfect.
They build on these principles.
Right, believe it or not, they're not perfect.
Exactly.
Right, you know, and I know that some people make it seem like they're the devil because they're not perfect.
Right, but guess what?
Here's another truth from my side of the book is I'm a big fan that Jesus said contention only comes from the devil.
And so if we have a tendency to point our finger at others and label them as being the problem, guess what?
We're being contentious.
That source does not come from a source of truth.
So anytime I hear somebody judge somebody else, right, anybody else, I don't judge a person.
I love the person.
I judge the action, right?
And say, ooh, I have to be careful with this person's opinion moving forward because I know they're the type of person who dominates, right?
Who tries to tell other people.
And just like I told Dean today, we have to wear gray shirts from now on.
And then the company, I was like, we have to.
There were no exceptions.
That's what we're doing moving forward.
That's so funny.
It's not that funny.
Dad jokes, dad jokes, all right.
But Dean, I know I do got to kick you out here in the next couple of minutes.
We got like one more minute, but I'm going to name drop some people because our original goal too was to discuss which prospects, right?
Which clients are we going to go after and how are we going to help them?
And that's what it's about.
If your number one rule, right, and or your top several rules, right, one of mine is I do what's best for those that I serve.
And I learned that from Taylor Welch at the sales mentor.
I really love the rule.
Does he do it perfectly?
No.
Do I do it perfectly?
Absolutely not.
Am I going to fail to do that at times?
Absolutely.
Guys, you can count on me being human.
I want you to remember that, right?
I don't want to be judged as perfect.
It's not fair to me.
It won't be fair to Dean.
We're going to make plenty of mistakes and Monty, I'm going to leave this comment up here because I appreciate you acknowledging that you feel the spirit talking, right?
And that's that's exactly what, whether I'm celebrating or whether I'm moving towards business principles or whatever it is I do, the moments that I leave, the ability to feel that are moments that are
typically not in alignment with where I need to go in life.
And I can feel that at baseball games, I can feel that at events.
I can feel that going to a family event where my family drinks and parties and is doing drugs, perhaps, and doing things like that.
They're doing things like that.
And I'm not saying my family members, but people who might go to that and stuff, like it's still a place where I can, if I'm supposed to be there for my family members, I can be there and be myself and have my boundaries set.
But I'm not seeking the opportunity.
I'm there for my family at that time.
Right. We have different places we go and in different things we need to do where we've got to make sure that we were constantly protecting ourselves.
But we're also in the world and not of it from my perspective.
So Dean, we talked about Jessica Light.
We talked about Craig Hanley.
We talked about Alyssa Josh.
We talked about Jake Larson a little bit.
We talked about contacting.
Who else did we talk about?
There was a big list of people.
All these people are people we know that are.
Brad Powell. We talked about Brad Powell.
Brad Powell as well.
Right. Exactly.
All these people, like I gave you my list of about 70 different people who are kind of my closest to me.
People I haven't had a chance to talk to in a while, but they're still like brothers or sisters from another mother.
And they're people that I'm like, I know we could do so many amazing things with them.
And it's time for us with the way that our company is built and the structure, we can go forward and serve boldly.
So if we named you, we're probably going to comment.
And we really hope that you get the chance to see that and know that we're coming with a massive vision to say, guys, it's time for all of us to step up and do bigger things.
You want to close this out Dean? Or if you close this out?
Listen, maybe Monty wants to close it out. I'm glad that he said he feels this for a talk and I can hear that. Look, here's what I'm going to say.
My closing arguments as they say the enemy only has one move. It's to divide family, friends, business partners, our relationships.
Wow, that is awesome. I love that. That's amazing right there.
And all I can say is that look, when I say coming, I want you to know something.
We're not coming for anyone, but we are coming to serve everyone that we can touch that needs. We have to bring to the table.
We're coming for that reason and that reason alone. Service.
Amen and amen.
Welcome to Vision Pros Live and Prompto episode on a Saturday. We look forward to seeing you and hearing from you soon. If you want to reach out to us, LinkedIn, Facebook, we're kind of out there.
So it's not hard to find us. We don't bite, but we are here to serve. And if we see an opportunity to serve you, then we're going to let you know what that is.
So we can figure out is that what's best for you or not? It's your opinion. You decide what you're going to do.
We're just here to invite you to take brave steps forward and we're here to help you, help support you as you do that. Everybody take care.
Take care guys.