Welcome to Close it now, the podcast that's revolutionizing the H Vac and home improvement trades industries. Get ready to dive deep into the world of heating, ventilation and air conditioning. We're turning up the heat on industry standards and cooling down misconceptions. And we're not just talking about fixing vents and adjusting thermostats. It's about the transformative movement that's reshaping the very foundation of H Vac and home improvement. We're the driving force, inspiring top performers who crave excellence not only in their professional endeavors, but also in fitness, nutrition, relationships and personal growth, proving that we can indeed have it all. This is Close it now, where excellence meets excitement. Let's get to work now. Your host, Sam Wakefield.

Well, all right. Welcome back to Close It Now. Sam Wakefield here. I am just as jazzed today for this interview as any that I've been excited about. You are going to love this guest today. I am. This is a, the, the guest today, he has a mission that I am so behind and you're going to be behind his mission and want to be involved the second year it as well. So my guest today, he is not only an author but and I'm holding in my hands his book the American Dream. He is a entrepreneur. He also is the founder of the American Dream podcast. So he's podcast and the American Dream event, which, as you know, if you've listened to the podcast, I was just a privileged enough to be a speaker at the second annual and the last event that just happened and that's where we really connected. So I'm so excited to introduce to our show today Mr. Steven Martinez. Thank you for joining us, sir.

Thank you so much for having me, man. I appreciate the, the kind words and the support.

Absolutely, brother. So let's get into this a little bit. When we, when we met, we've chatted a little bit, but I would love for everybody to just have a bit of your highlight reel. So first, first question is let's set some context for everybody before we get into what you've accomplished in your life. How old are you, Stephen?

I'm 26.

26. So everybody listening. Keep that in your mind. So hit us with your highlight reel, man. What, What? Why in the world has. Have you earned. How in the world have you earned the. The place here on the podcast, let alone everything else you're doing in life, man?

Well, I'll start off by saying this. I'm 26, but mentally I'm like 60.

Right.

I feel like I've lived Ages. But I know, all jokes aside, I think it really boils down to, like, most people, which is their. Their childhood. And my mom and dad immigrated from Colombia, a country in South America for, like, anyone, an opportunity, a dream to have a better life for themselves, for their family and kids. So immigrated here. I was born here, you know, throughout my childhood. It wasn't the easiest per se, in terms of, you know, imagine coming in from a different country, not understanding the language, having to kind of learn the barriers. Right. The financial barriers to within the community and market that we're in for, the Latino community. So, you know, but they hustled. They never complained. Eventually, my mom and dad got divorced when I was maybe 12, 13. I stayed with my mom. She had to clean houses. My dad worked in construction. And I would wake up with my mom at like 5am before school to help her take out the trash vacuum. Just, like, out of my own goodwill too. Like, no one forced me to do anything. I'm a middle child. I just wanted to do it to help my mom. I didn't want to see her struggle. Sure. And just kind of seeing that, you know, sacrifice, I really start to kind of understand what opportunity means, you know, like, why come here and do this? You know, like, there's people that have educations outside the U.S. but they come here starting from zero.

Sure.

You know, why? Why is that? And it's because the American dream isn't dead. And I say that because, you know, through the trajectory of the childhood, you know, raising up with my mom the way she was raising me was great. And then I started to really take advantage of what we had, the opportunities that we had. And school was very important. I think it was something along the norms of, you know, stability, consistency, we want you to work a nine to five, blah, blah, blah. And that was my idea at first of the American dream. So I was just in school. I managed to play soccer overseas. I got my degree in business Covid hit, and I came back to Houston. And I don't like to be complacent. I like to be proactive. So I was like, okay, the world kind of just froze. Everything's paused. What can I do to be proactive? Productive.

Right.

Well, let me do my master's, my mba. So when you do your mba, you took. You take your gre, which is like your SAT for high school.

Yeah.

I don't know how I got accepted, but I did anyways. I managed to pass. I got accepted. I was doing my mba, specializing in marketing, and I was doing Uber Grocery. Like, I would go to Target, Heb, Walmart, because no one wanted to go to the stores back then. Sure, pretty good money. I was just, you know, just hustling, working on the side. And then this is where it kind of pivots to that American dream moment. So it was my buddy's birthday. As I was doing that, he was like, hey, man, it's my birthday. Do you want to go to. To a bar and celebrate? I'm like, sure, you know, let's go to a bar and celebrate. I'm not opposed to that. Of course. So we go to this bar, just having a good time, minding our business. And then maybe two seats to my left, I see this guy dressed like an entrepreneur, you know, very sick. Like, you could just tell, you know, when you can just tell from their or. I was like, this guy's very successful, I can see. And I was like, wow, you know, must be nice. I wish one day I could be there, or one day I will be there. Kid you not. 30, 45 minutes later, we started talking and I tell him, I'm doing my mba. I'm going to do an internship. And he looks at me, he's like, I did my mba. All he did was teach me how to say fancy words. Last year we did 20 million. I'll show you how it's done if you really want to learn. And it's one of those moments where, you know, it's kind of like, you know, what path do you choose, Right? Like, what pill do you want?

Sure.

And I'm like, okay. Like, you know, I don't know his intentions. I just met him at a bar, you know, I don't even know his name. But there was a feeling inside me that I cannot explain. I think may call it a gut feeling, a sixth sense. Maybe the universe just was trying to tell me something. And I got his number. I was like, you know what? You sure? I'll take his number. Why not? And I called him in the morning. He picked up at 7am he said, We're leaving to Louisiana in an hour. If you're serious, come. So then I'm like, okay, well, what do I tell LA when I get there? And he tells me his name and the Anthony Dometico. And then I'm like, okay. So then I Google him quickly. I'm like, you know, who is this guy, right?

Who am I talking to? Yeah.

So he checks out. He's legit. I'm like, all right, cool, awesome. And then I get to the hotel. You stand at this penthouse, I'm mind blown. I'm like, wow, this is amazing. He's like, yeah, we're leaving in 30 minutes. And I had literally, like a little polo shirt, some shorts. I was like, all right, let's go. I told my mom, mom won't be able to make it. I have an opportunity. I don't think I can. She's like, I love you. Good luck, take advantage. And then that's where I learned the whole game. So he has a conference called Win the storm that they just sold wts to Josie Parks training platform. And we were in Lake Charles during hurricane Laura, Sally Delta and Charlie. And I learned the whole blue collar game. Insurance, plane process, you name it. I don't even know what a shingle was back then.

Right.

But if for him it was more sink or swim, like, yeah, that you get it or you don't. And I. He had nothing to lose. I had everything to lose. So I learned it super quickly, was like, dude, you're a killer. You're good. Come to Scottsdale, Arizona. Come work in our headquarters. I ended up going to Scottsdale. I was a little hesitant. I was like, I've never been to Scottsdale. I don't want to live in the desert. Turns out Scottsdale is really nice. I don't know if you've been yet, but.

Really?

Yeah.

Scottsdale's gorgeous. Yeah, I love that whole area over there.

Yeah, it's really nice. So I was with him, and he was like, hey, man. He had a big mansion. He was like, stay in one of the rooms, save your money, and then go get your own place. So I was with them for like two months, but, like, we were like brothers. And he was pretty much teaching me how to run a $20 million company. Like, I was seeing stuff you don't typically see. You know, the scenes. I was seeing everything. What. What I would have done as a marketing coordinator in a cubicle. I was seeing everything from sales, production, quality control, admin, hr, the whole back end stuff, everything. And this is when a light bulb moment kind of came about. So I started to build all these relationships, clients, and then he would host this event. And this event would have maybe 3,4000 people for the blue collar space. I think we all know that the blue collar space predominantly are Latino based, Right. Aside from the labor force, there's a lot of Latinos in there.

Absolutely.

I've noticed that. I see all these conferences. I'm like, man, I don't see one or two Latinos in these events. Like, why is that? And then I kind of had like a light bulb moment where like, you know, I kind of felt like a calling almost to be an advocate to level the playing field and provide our community the opportunity that I had. You know, no one gets that lucky by chance, you know, to meet someone at a bar.

Sure.

Less, you know, go for it. But I wanted to provide them that opportunity. And then that's when I pretty much made a concept, made it better and applied it to a different market. And through that, it just blew up. We started the whole vision maybe three, four years ago. We had our first event two years ago.

We wrote.

I wrote the book three years ago. You know, just stages of credibility and laying down the right foundation. That way we can really elevate our event and brand to the next level. So that was kind of how everything transitioned. You know, just being a part of that and, you know, taking a leap of faith when I met someone and then just going all in.

I love it, man, what a cool story. I'm thinking about a couple different things. One that you mentioned is, you know, there's no coincidences. You're right. The universe aligns for us. That person that takes action, leap in the net will appear. You know, we've always heard, but man, talk about your network is your net worth. Talk about that and the importance of surrounding yourself with winners and how you elevate to kind of meet, raise that to meet the standard. Right?

Absolutely. I think there was that saying. I'm not sure if you heard it, but I said at the event too, I was like, if you're the smartest guy in the room, you're in the wrong room. Right. So I always like to be, you know, surrounding myself with people that are more successful, make more money or they could just be smarter in different areas that I'm not necessarily have to be monetary. Right. They can be the most in. In shape person ever and I can want to hang out with them so I could better my, my physical being as well.

Right.

Just running myself with, with those people. And I started to slowly realize I believe a lot myself in Law of Attraction. I'll be honest, I do have a pretty, I don't want to say weird routine, but I'm big on, you know, meditating, going outside, soaking in the sun, attracting what I want, manifesting it. And it does work for me. Name it what you want. Everyone has their own little.

Oh, we can absolutely deep dive into that on this show. We're wide open to exactly this.

Awesome. So I'm really based on that anyways. I like to associate myself with high level people. You know, we're all creatures of frequency and atoms and, you know, there's a level of frequency and I like to be with high level, high frequency individuals. Having said that, you know, there were moments in my life, especially being young, where, you know, I'm surrounding myself with people that are my age or 25, 24, whatever, but they're not on the same, you know, level. Right. And sometimes I have to be by myself. And there's nothing wrong with being by yourself. I'd rather be by myself, knowing my worth and knowing that the five people around me are successful than me, you know, wanting to be like, oh, let's not be lonely, let's go hang out with these five cats. And then it just drops me down. So there's, there's nothing wrong with, with being alone in the long term. I hope that answers your question. For me, it's more, I understand my network, but I think the most important thing about understanding your network is that if you understand your value, don't settle for less. Yes, that's the most important thing. That's what I was looking at.

Yeah, no, 100%, that's so, so valuable. And when you, when you know that worth, when you know you're, you're where you're at. Well, I mean, so many too. Yeah, yeah, exactly. The clarity of that, I mean that, that's so many times when I'm coaching people in training, I mean, half the training is helping them understand their own limiting beliefs and how to get past that and, and to find themselves in that. So one thing that, man, I want to camp out on this for a sec because, you know, when we were talking before the show, and for everybody listening, I know all the, so many of you listening will resonate with Stephen and especially when he's talking about the struggle of coming to the country, finding the American dream. First of all, everybody listening. The American dream is real. It's very, very true. We have so much opportunity here. I don't care what the news says with the American dream is still alive. But talk, man, when I went to the event and to hear everybody speak and see how much passion and grind and more importantly, you know, I left the event with this mind, total mindset and perspective shift because I know from my journey how hard it's been for me. But then the perspective that I got was, wait a minute. I don't take for granted the privilege that I was born into being a white middle class, entering in America, entering in the trades And I don't say this to. Obviously, it's not taking away from that, but it gave me such a better respect for everyone else grinding, and it just made me turn around and want to give back even more. Because to see what the speakers at your event and yourself have accomplished with the extra baggage that is, you know, nobody's fault necessarily, other than just our society. And man, it just, it. That's what inspired me so much, is to like, be able to give back. So everybody listening. When you. If, you know, if you're coming from that minority place or the immigration place or all of the areas, women in the trades and just all the different groups, we support you. We are here, we're here to tell you you can accomplish. Don't get thrown off by what seems like it's harder for me. Make that your reason why, right? So anyway, so my soapbox has had to like, oh, I had to get this out because my perspective changed so much just by two days of, you know, hearing these awesome achievers and how much they care and pour into it. So, yeah, man, that's such a cool part of movement like this. So talk more about the movement, man. I love. So what is the purpose of the American Dream event? And how can, like, really, where is it going? What is the. On a granular level, what's it doing for people?

The overall idea or concept of the American Dream? Obviously, we target a specific market and demographic just based on the industry that we're in, and we want to educate and provide financial literacy. However, the overall goal of it is to eventually target all Americans, right? Everyone's. Everyone's an American. Doesn't matter where you come from. We all descend from somewhere and want to help them achieve that dream, whichever dream it may be. Everyone's opinion is subjective, but it's fine. But how do you achieve success from a business standpoint? Well, business standpoint is it's almost like a formula, right? There's different industries, but business has the same principles, right? You have your sales, marketing, production, quality control, blah, blah, blah. So the overall goal is to help people understand and educate them, you know, on how to scale and build your business. What do you need to do to get to that next level? What? Why are you stagnant right now? Is it your business or is it interpersonal? Right? And. And life in general has so many variables, right? They say business is an extension of who you are as a person. So if you're good mentally and interpersonally, then your business should thrive. Now, if your business isn't Thriving is because maybe there's systems, procedures and operations that aren't established yet. So the overall goal is to impact people, motivate people, inspire people. The aspiring generation, and not just the Latino community, but all. All in every community. And then we're going to keep building it and building it. We had our first one two years ago, and then we more than doubled the attendance and we're expecting to more than double again.

Sure.

It's, you know, we're all in with what we're doing and we see the potential and so many people are behind us and because we do it from a place of wanting to provide value.

Yeah.

And I think people are very transparent, and I think people can read energy, too, where if, you know, you can see when someone has bad intentions for the most part, and when people are behind a product or service and that person believes in their product or service and they believe it has value, and you're not looking to monetize that, and you're genuinely trying to make a difference, the money follows. And that's what we're trying to kind of get people to understand, too, you know, the power of relationships, the power of networking, understanding the, you know, how business is built, you know, what we can do interpersonally to help you get yourself to that next level and just everyone win in general, because we want to build a legacy. Tomorrow isn't promised. So if we can build a legacy and change some lives, and I think we're doing a good job.

Yeah, 100% agree with that, that's for sure. The lives that I was watching changed, literally in the sessions. It was so cool to go out into the lobby and just overhear conversations where attendees were meeting each other, networking, but also they're swapping their biggest takeaways and nuggets from each of the speakers. And it was really fantastic because I was overhearing them talk about how they're going to implement these ideas into their business, which, as we know, it doesn't matter how much you learn, it's how much you implement. So to see them actually putting, you know, feet to the fire and putting boots on the ground, like in the sessions, was. Was really, really exciting. So it's not something you see very often at different events. Yeah, it was just such a. I. The word that comes to mind when you're talking about this is authenticity, when people can read your intentions. It's such a more authentic event than anyone I've been to. And I've been to, you know, puns over the years and. And I Love that because I mean, you could really see your, your intention and the whole purpose of, you know, is really there. So let's turn the corner a little bit and talk a little bit about some of the ways that, so this podcast is really known for like giving people actionable things they can implement right away. So let's do this a little bit because I know you've got a lot of experience running big sales teams, running companies, et cetera. What are maybe you know, the top two or three, like pitfalls that entrepreneurs run into when they're trying to grow, they're trying to scale, or either pitfalls or maybe a couple best practice tips that you can give that you, that you find that people are commonly missing.

So one of the, one of the things I like to always say give, I give this example. So what runs a business? Revenue. What runs revenue? Sales. What runs sales? Leads. What runs? Leads? Marketing. What runs marketing? Content. What runs? Content? Branding. So branding and content are one of the most important things and most overviewed areas within a business. You can have the best, best restaurant in the world, but if no one knows about it, no one's going to come into all comes down to branding and content. So I'll give you an example. Funny enough, when you know, you grow your company to, let's say eight figures and the private equity comes in to buy it out. So I'll give you, for example, Tommy Mello sold a one garage for 150 million. Tommy now fully focuses on his branding and content for A one garage. So obviously you come into a business, you're wearing all these hats, right? Typically it's, typically you're the top producer for a company and you're like, oh, I'm making all this money, I could just make it myself. But then all the back end stuff that happens to a company and now you're like doing all this stuff, right? And then let's say eventually maybe you do build it. You get two, three guys, cool. And you start to slowly kind of, you know, organize it with systems, operations procedures, which is fine, it's just, just strategy and a formula. But the thing that really elevates a company is branding and content. And I'll give you a perfect example.

Okay?

If you watch a trailer and the trailer is great, you will watch the movie and the movie will be horrible, but sold you. It's the same concept and metaphor when it comes to business. You need to understand your branding, your target audience and how do you can, how can you give them that product or need and understand it that way they can become a client. Right. And it comes down to that. That's the main thing that I think can help elevate anyone. Because if you're like, oh man, I don't have the money to, you know, bring in more people or this without, okay, well, if you can start off with branding and content and marketing consistency, it can even be organic, that's fine. It's one of the few things and the most important thing, I think that's the foundation of a business because they always see owners come back to that to help bring them higher. Another one I would say is retention. I think retention could be a big one. I think sometimes people lose focus on their company culture. There's a saying is train your employees to leave you but treat them so they stay.

Right.

Something like that. So, you know, you want to train them to leave you so they can start their own company, but you want to compensate them and treat them so good that they want to stay.

Right.

That's the kind of the analogy. Right. You want to, you don't want to cap them, you want to, you know, incentivize them, have good KPIs, all that good stuff. And it comes down to company culture. I think company culture is important. I've seen a lot of great company owners go downhill just because of the way they treat people. I think that's the way to ever treat people at all, especially if it's your company.

Sure.

And aside from that, I would say branding, content retention, I want to say, I mean, marketing, of course, marketing is always important, but for the overall scheme, you know, you really want to have employees have been there helping you build the company from start to finish. They want to see that, that progress and they want to keep building it. I would say recruiting will also be a big one as well. You want to always be recruiting. Always. Recruiting is good. Tommy Mellow perfected that. He has a whole training facility in Arizona and he'll bring in people, train them up, and then branch them out to specific offices that they're in nationwide. And the moment, the moment you can perfect branding, content marketing and recruiting, you're going to build the machine.

Right?

Right. Especially if you're treating people well. So now you're recruiting and they're staying and now your marketing is going up, your leads are going up and then everything else is just basic stuff which any guy could perfect within the operations, you know, our admin, all that stuff.

Yeah. All the back end fulfillment of what we're selling. Right. And that's an interesting thing. Too. I'm sure you've seen this before also where, you know, maybe a company starts. And I've actually absolutely seen companies do this. They'll focus so hard on the marketing and the sales and revenue and then outsell production because they just didn't have any focus there. So it's that constant back and forth balance. Right. I've seen companies fold because all of a sudden they hired a rock star who went out and outsold them, booked them out for a year and then everybody was mad because nobody could get, you know, just didn't have the crews to do it.

That's 100 true. I think that happened to Kaiser, actually before he opened up Blue Hammer Roofing. He had a company prior to that and he had the same thing. He scaled too quick.

Yeah, for sure. So, like the emotional intelligence to know, know what your limits are, grow fast, but also do it within the balance of, you know, all of the components working together. Right. Yep.

It's like an orchestra.

Yeah. Love this, love this. This is really, really, really good. So everybody listening. Hope you're taking notes. We're learning from a master of scaling here. So. So I love this and thanks for that. Helpful. So when you're recruiting, because, I mean, you were recruited from a bar, basically. Yeah. So talk a little bit about that. Because when I'm coaching, the biggest question that I get, other than, you know, why I'm there doing sales training, is usually, how do we find people and how do we find the right people and how do we bring them onto the team? Because, I mean, people are always in the trades. Of course, the common concern or just things we hear is, well, there's not enough workforce. Well, there is enough workforce. We just have to recruit them into our company. So when you're doing recruiting, what does that conversation sound like? I mean, how do you handle that? To be a good recruiter, a great recruiter, what inspires people to join your team? You talked about culture, but, but let's break it up a little bit. How do we unpack that?

So there's, there's a study if you want to. I, like, I'm, I'm a pretty nerdy guy, believe it or not. So there's a study. When I was doing my mba, it's a personality assessment test. And a lot of corporate companies actually utilize these assessments to, to a T when it comes to company and the way it's going to operate and pretty much determines the efficiency of a company based on the employees and their personalities and their compatibility. So one of the Things I always noticed is that the really top tier companies, they do some sort of personality assessments to see if they're the right fit. Because you can, you can easily sell someone Candyland or the Willy Wonka factory, right? They're like, okay, I'm in. Cool. But are they really the right fit for the company culture? Your company culture can be different. You know, you could be, and everyone's different, which is fine. You can be very strict, you can be very open, you can be like sadaisical, you can be chill, whatever it is. But if you really want to find the right fit for your company to where everyone is content, right. It's like a bad apple, right. You have greater than one bad apple comes and they kind of run in the rest. You don't want that. So you really under, under, need to under understand that within the recruiting though. And this is, this is the key part actually.

Okay.

Recruiting is the easy bit, right? And then knowing how to weed in the good apples and the bad apples comes down to the training. So Tommy, for example, recruits like crazy. He'll bring in like 50 people to 100 people a month. And then the training is 21 days because technically it takes 21 days to become a creature of habit. And by 21 days either you're in or you're out. Kind of like the marines or a boot camp, right? After that you're rewired and you know exactly what to do. You know everything about garages, you're a technician. And then you're fit for the company culture because you're programmed within the company culture, right? Now if I just get, let's say Matthew from down the street and plug him into my company out of the blue, which has three, four reps. And Matthew, you know, he's a bum and he doesn't care. But I like the guy because he's cool. Well, he's going to end up affecting my employees performance, right. Especially if he's going to go with my other guy, Bob in the truck and you know, shadow him.

Sure.

Now that it's not the same. So one of the things is recruiting is fine. Selling the company vision, selling the company goal is fine. But make sure when you recruit, you implement training. Now you do need some capital behind that because no one's going to do training for free. But let's say you pay them 500 a week or 400, right? Whatever it is, sure. And then you pay them for the 21 days. So now they're happy.

Okay, cool.

I'm just coming in. I'm learning I'm not really doing much, but it starts to really weed in. If, if they're in or out and you're vetting them essentially, sure, they're enhanced. Going to help scale and build a company, it's actually quite genius. That's why the army does it. That's why a lot of other but big corporate companies do it as well. That's why they do internships too, actually. It's for experience, one part. But the actual company wants to see if you're going to be a right fit and they don't want to waste their money. So it's a win win and gain experience and then they can check you out and vet you out.

I love this. I heard something recently too. I'm in a some different masterminds I was asking about. I'm in the process of scaling the coaching company as well. So this is a very hot topic right now in my brain because it applies to everything that I am training as well as what I'm doing personally. And somebody recently said when you hire, especially if it's for people that are more commission based in sales or that type of thing, always hire in pairs. They're multiple people at a time. If you hire and you invest in the one and they don't work well, now you've just wasted those dollars. But say you hire two or more people and somebody washes out, well, you've brought them in in batches. So somebody will more than the one that takes off will more than make up for the lost investment cost in the people who didn't make it. And so it's a cool ROI in that when we just start thinking in terms of leverage instead of an individual, think in terms of the position, not a person.

Absolutely.

Yeah. I love it. So what. There's a couple things I want to ask you about. One is let's kind of just make this a little bigger vision. What are you really excited about right now in. In Stephen's life, right. What's going on that is really getting you fired up.

In my life. Right. So one of the main things that I want to do eventually that I'm trying to get my foot wet in the water is get involved with the city more. The city of Houston. I, I love the city. I think the city is beautiful and I want to some way or another get involved within Houston, within the political side. I think, you know, if someone I always. There's a mentor of mine, his name's Lance and he always has the same. Why not me? You know, if Someone's gonna do it, why not me? So I kind of see it like that too. You know, eventually in the longer road, I would like to be some sort of position where I can help build the city, make the city better, safer, all that good stuff. I really do love Houston. Aside from that, me personally. We have our Mastermind event in November, November 7th and 8th in Houston. And we have our next event, June 2025. I've. I've learned a lot from, I guess, life in general to. To live more in the present. I think I have a. I used. I mean, sometimes I still do, you know, I think as an entrepreneur, I think we think too much in the, in the future.

Right.

We never like, really think in the present because we think about this and that and then the next thing. But I've been doing my best to really enjoy the present, spend more time with family, and I take care of myself significantly. Well, if I'm, if I do say so, at least, at least I try to. I mean, I have like a really weird routine, but it works for me. Aside from that, just being more in the moment. I know that sounds cliche, but what am I doing right now? For me, Steven is just being more in the moment, spending more time with family, obviously focusing on business, which is important, and then just building up those bricks by bricks to help create, you know, the long term game plan. You know, we want the annual event, the Mastermind. We're going to be having a community soon. We're going to be doing webinars once a month with special guest speakers. We're building full blueprint. Right. So it's, you know, step by step. The way I like to do it is one day at a time, but each day, do your absolute best.

Yeah.

Because if, if you look at it from the long term, you're going to end up, you know, jumping off a cliff and be like, this is too much work to do. But it really does start to add up when you do your best every day, little by little.

Love it. Well, I was actually. The next question on my sheet here is to ask about the Mastermind event, which you just, you just talked about. So tell us more about the Mastermind event. What. What does that look like? And who's it for?

So one of the things we've noticed for annual events, which is the annual events that we do are great. It's great. It's more I want to say, like, yeah, you get motivated, you get motivated. You do get educated as well. But now when it comes to personally being able to dissect your business from a personal level, it's very tough to do because there's so many people. So we want to do something where we're doing something where essentially we bring in 20 to 30 people and those people are doing 2 million revenue plus, not profit. And then we get those 20 to 30 people that do 2 million plus in revenue into a room and then we really dissect and get deep with it. You know, from. So it's a two day event. So day one would be business systems operations procedures, build it, scale it, sell it, private equity, the whole A to Z on that side. And then day two is going to be on our podcast studio where we talk about marketing, digital marketing, SEO, pay per click, branding, content positioning, and then, you know, it all goes in cohesively, hand on hand. So we want to really kind of dig deep and dissect it and get more in detail and in depth. And we have some pretty cool speakers that have done significantly well within their business. They're going to come and provide value, educate, and that's what we want to build to kind of bring more proximity within what we're creating and have a more private network.

Sure. I love this. So out of that I heard you mentioned you're building out the community as well. I definitely am on board with that because we all know that the accountability over time is the important part of this type of building and scaling and holding us accountable to do the things we said we're going to do. Did you actually get it done right in entrepreneurship? This is what I love about entrepreneurship is the things that we know we need to do are easy to do typically, but they're also easy not to do. And so having that accountability to actually do the things and stay on task is so important. So I know you haven't rolled it yet, but talk a little bit about the vision for the community and how that's going to connect the dots between the main event and the mastermind.

So what we're doing, everything falls under the American dream, right? We have the annual event, the mastermind, the podcast, the book, and we're building out the community. So the community essentially is the foundation of it all. Right, all. All the attendees, everyone, and then just the people we keep building and bringing into to our network. Now within that community, we're going to be doing monthly calls, webinars, where we touch base on a lot of different stuff. We have a guest speaker who is a specific expert on X or Y. They come in, they educate, and it would be once A month, it would be the second Thursday of the week, and then the call would be for around an hour, 45 minutes to an hour. We don't want to do. So we calls, we want to keep the scarcity there. That way people are encouraged to come and want to be involved with our calls. So once a month, every second Thursday of the month, and then we bring a special speaker and we really touch base on overall. Obviously, we're probably gonna have a lot of people, so we can't really personally, you know, talk to everyone.

Sure.

But that's why we have the masterminds as well. So we can really dissect it. But for the community overall, it's, you know, just everyone understanding, hey, we're all on the same mission here.

Right.

You know, we're all going through stuff, whether it's highs or lows. Right. Just how do you. How do you maintain that equilibrium and keep your foot on the gun and understand, okay, this is what I have to do to scale or this is what I have to do to fix this or that?

Sure. Yeah.

I just want to keep building it and building and building it.

Love it. Yeah. Let's get past. Let's get us past all those business walls, right? Yeah. That's so much to understand and unpack here. I love that you have such a handle on the blueprint on. What I've said pretty often that really hit me in the last few months is, you know, if you don't understand the rules of a game, then it's frustrating. It's, you know, we're stabbing in the dark. We're just guessing at things. But the minute that you understand the rules of a game, it becomes fun and easy because now we know what tracks to run on and what we can and can't do and what's allowable and not, et cetera. And this business is just a game. Sales is a game. Marketing is a game. Business is a game. When we understand the rules, then now we can get off to the races. So I love that you're teaching the rules to people who now have ability to follow it and break it down simply so they can really get off to the races there, which is cool. I'd love to take a second and plug one of the people who were at the event and, you know, way better than I do, but I met for the first time Grasso. Oh, sales training. So for everybody listening, if you are Latino and Or much more Spanish in the way you use, much more Spanish in the way that you learn that your first language and also are looking for sales training for Spanish in Spanish. I'm really cool. He doesn't even know I'm doing this, but I'm going to pump him a little bit. They've translated the entire sales training into Spanish specifically and announced it at the event. So I hope we'll put the liner in the notes, the link to be able to access them in the show notes. But one more way that I'm trying, I'm helping to get back. So everybody go look up Grosso. Do you happen to know the website link right off the top of your head?

I do not. No, I do not.

Okay, we'll look it up. Actually, let's hit pause real quick and I'll clip this. So everybody listening. If you want to know more about sales training in Spanish, which I don't have yet, I will eventually. But until then, go to grossouniversity.com G-R-O-S-S O U N I V E R-S-I-T-Y.com and Dominique Caminata is a sales master. Highly recommend. If you want some Spanish sales training or if you just want to check out the sales training in general, go check out grossouniversity.com they are incredible. I mean, going to be talking to him about having a guest on the show as well. And so for everybody listening, one more voice. I love to promote everybody. It's abundance mindset. There's not enough trainers in home services for everybody that needs help. You can multiply us by 10 and still not have enough. So. So go check out Grosso University. They have Spanish sales training if that's what it would be better for you as a listener. They're incredible. So highly recommend. So back to this, back to this episode. Thanks for being a guest, but also letting us plug because great guys, great people. I love Donald. Yeah, he's such a good dude. And for everybody listening, he scaled a company, a sales team from 8 million to 100 million in just a handful of years in windows and gutters and exteriors. So definitely knows what he's talking about. But let's get back to this. So we've got your event coming up. You've got your mastermind, you've got the book. So much is going on right now. And so one of the questions that comes up is how in the world do you manage it all? This is like a little more of a higher level type of organizational question. Can you talk to that a little bit about. As entrepreneurs are growing so many times they get so overwhelmed with all the things and it's just so much happening. So when I'm sure you've been through those phases of being overwhelmed and then learning how to manage it and those kind of things, what are a couple skills or a couple things that you do to keep all of these things in order, keep them managed and have the right amount of time for each one so things don't start falling through the cracks?

That's a great question. So one of them, and this is I think more of a personal, personal trait which I think is a. It's a pro and a con, but when used the right way, it can definitely benefit. I have ocd, so I'm very organized and clean.

I.

The way I process stuff is very meticulous. I'm almost a perfectionist, which again, could be cursing and a blessing. So it comes down to a little bit of who I am as a person. I'm very organized and structured. Now having said that, though, there are moments where of course, you know, I kind of get hit at once with all this stuff and it really starts to. You need to become adaptable in those situations. You know, there's. I'll give you an example for an event, not an event. No event is ever going to be perfect. Even if you as the attendee don't see it. The back end stuff, there could be stuff going on that I just got hit with the side and have to adapt and overcome and find a solution.

Sure.

So I'm a problem solver, right. And if there's ever a problem, I'll find a solution. And if I can't find a solution, I'll create a solution. And the way I manage all these stuff is, you know, I, I really do lay it out step by step by step by step. Now you could say, well, you know, you can't just say like, this is how you're going to get to the end of the rainbow.

Right.

Well, to get to the end of the rainbow, you have to go through phase one, phase two, phase three, phase four. And it really starts to. You really do have to create smaller goals or at least tasks. And it comes down to simple things such as. And it sounds cliche, but it's. I think for me it's very true because then you start to discipline yourself. And discipline is important in business.

Right.

You know, like making your bed. I wake up and I have a routine. I wake up. I actually. So I go to sleep with the blinds on because I don't like to wake up through the phone. I like the natural light to wake me up because I have. I'm not a morning person, but subconsciously, I don't know if people know this, but the light naturally wakes you up quicker. So I do that. I wake up, I do my bed, I listen to music with over 130 beats per minute, so it kind of gets my. My frequency up and running. And then I take my vitamins, I take my CMOs, I take SU keton, I take vitamin C, I take ashwagandha. What else do I take? Magnesium. I just take a bunch of stuff every day. It's like a routine. Take a cold shower, right? I freshen up, do what I have to do. But it's like those little small tasks. Like, you know, if I don't do my vitamins, I feel left out. I feel like something's missing. If I don't do my bed, I feel like I'm not gonna have a good. It starts off with the simple things, and it all comes down to discipline, right? You can be doing all these things at once, but. But if you're not disciplined, you're not going to be able to manage it. So the moment you're disciplined, you say, okay, I need to do this first. Prioritize this first. Do this, this, this, and take it one day at a time, as I mentioned. So when. When you do the simple things one day at a time and you do your best, you're going to start checking it off and then eventually you're going to get there. I didn't. I didn't write a book overnight. Sure, it's about discipline, discipline, discipline and achieving those tasks, but it comes down to. To the small things, too. So I hope that answers your question.

It does, it does. I love the answer because it really drills down the importance of the consistency, the 1% mindset. If I can be 1% better today than I was yesterday, every single day. That power of compounding over time, it reminds me of a book I read a bunch of years ago. It's actually the. Oh, what was it? Darren Hardy is the book the Power of Compounding, I think is the name of it. And so it's just about this, you know, it's just really great book, of course. But yeah, I love this topic, man. It's so important to master yourself. Like, we started off talking about knowing yourself, you know, what your personal standards are, the things you refuse to compromise on. And, man, set your day off. So I thank you for hanging out today, man. I wish that we had way more time, but it's about time to land this plane for everybody listening, I am going to be on if you want to hear part two and a little different perspective. I'm going to be on Steven's American Dream podcast coming up here pretty soon. So make sure to announce when that episode will release and we'll make sure to share it across the platforms. But before we go, I would love for you to just. You said your mission is to inspire, motivate, encourage, take a second and talk directly to that person. Right? The person that's listening that maybe is just like you five years ago. Right? Five years, three years ago. When you're really finding yourself just getting into what's going to be more of a career mindset, but they're maybe a little bit discouraged, trying to find their way. Talk to that person.

Yeah, absolutely. One of the things I would say, you know, it really comes down to knowing who you are as a person, knowing yourself, knowing what you want out of your life. Some. I mean, in some cases, someone might say, well, I don't know what I want yet. That's totally fine. I didn't. I didn't know I was going to be in this situation and spot either. But it's about preparing yourself for any opportunity that comes, because anyone can. You can have an opportunity right now, in the next 30 minutes, but if you're not prepared, then you just missed the opportunity. The train just left. It's knowing yourself as a person, understanding you and what you want to achieve overall and just becoming better and being ready for any opportunity. The same way I met my mentor at a bar. And I didn't know that was going to happen, but I was ready for the opportunity. Not being hesitant, understanding that there are people out there that want to see you win, winners want to see you win. That's like a law promise you that successful people want to see you be successful. And then one day you're going to take advantage of that opportunity and then you're going to meet a little kid and you're going to be like, wow, that person that helped me, I'm going to help them. Right? And then becomes this whole butterfly effect, ripple effect thing. And it comes down to really fundamental things that is very simple. And you could start off by, number one, being disciplined. Number two, self respect and self love is big. And then number three, being kind. I think being kind is very important. I think it's not said enough. Funny enough, I think a lot of my relationships in business have become. Have become stronger because of the kindness and love and respect that I have towards them. Seeing Some of the most successful people you could think of, man, they treat their top players from their bottom the same. And they're so nice and respectful. And it all comes down to just being human, understanding that, you know, we're all here, nothing's promised, just your absolute best that you can every day. Being disciplined, having self respect, being kind to people. Because that person you're kind to could actually end up being the CEO of a $20 million company. Sure, right? You never know. And down to those, those small things. And then Kaiser told me this one time too. He said, the small things start to add up. And I, I took that to heart. You know, the small things, the very tiny things, you know, like doing your bed, this and that, slowly, like you said, the compound interest starts to slowly add up, add up and just start like that and realize that no matter what situation you have in life, inside, from business or monetary, financially, or it could be interpersonal, relationship, family, there is an end goal. There is light out of that darkness, out of that tunnel. All you have to do is just keep pushing. That's all you have to keep doing. Keep pushing and keep believing in yourself. Because I promise you, the American Dream is not dead.

Love it, love it, love it. So give us the dates for the November event again. And then how does everybody get a hold of you? Where can they find the book? How do they get in touch with you? What they want to know more about the organization and the events and stuff.

So the Mastermind event is November 7th and 8th, 2024 in Houston, Texas. We only have 30 spots. That's limited for obvious reasons. And then our annual events will be June 19, June 20, 2025 in Houston, Texas. And then if you ever want to get a hold of me, Instagram is Stephen Underscore Martinez. Facebook is Stephen Martinez. I don't have Twitter. I do have LinkedIn, Stephen Martinez. Tick tock Stephen Martinez with two z's and then YouTube. If you go to the American Dream podcast, even Martinez, it should pop up. Same thing with Spotify, Apple Music, all those other podcast channels just put American Dreams, Stephen Martinez. And the main one though of course is our landing page, which is www.americandreamevent.com American dreamevents.com Love it.

And I will make sure to have all of these links in the show notes for everybody listening. So don't drive off the road trying to remember this and write it down. Once you get where you're going, just look at the show notes, links will be in there and man, thanks for joining me today. This has been a really awesome interview.

I appreciate it. I'm happy we did it now than before. I think now was much better too, because we had after the events. And I appreciate you inviting me and I look forward for you coming to Houston and being in ours, man. It's gonna be fun.

Yeah, absolutely, man. For sure. I appreciate it so much. I'm going. We'll sign off here, everybody listening. I'm gonna make a couple quick announcements and then, yeah, we'll. We'll let you go for the day. Go crush it, everybody. And just like always, go save the world one heat stroke at a time.

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