I can't keep living my entire life this way. There's gotta be another way. There's gotta be a better way from that phone call that day that changed my entire trajectory of my entire life. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to Gathering the King's podcast. I am your host, Chaz Wolf. Today, we welcome Josh Wilson on the King stage Josh is the CEO of JW Global Enterprises where he buys businesses through M And A and we cover every single angle of his winning strategy. Here's what we discussed.
Josh gives 5 reasons why business owners would want to sell to a holding company. At the end of the day, instead of you getting that $3,000,000 exit, you're gonna let's say, 10,000,000 for your company on an exit. It's gonna be way more than if you decided to sell it by yourself. We talk about the key traits of Josh's dream team, including how he found and recruited his C suite. I used to have that mentality of mindset that If I can't do it, no one else can do it.
I've learned the hard way that that's not the way to grow, and you'll never grow that way. We also talk about the train wreck. This is where Josh shares his story of how he lost over a $1,000,000 on one single investment. I was full piece of vinegar and had a huge $25,000,000 real estate portfolio. What could go wrong? Enjoy the show.
We were just kinda chatting off air a little bit, but you've got you've got a wide experience and you are in a big transition play a piece of your life and things going on. And and so I I'm just this conversation is gonna be incredible. I just wanna tell the listeners here, but tell us what kinda businesses, the things that you're kind of attached to, there's quite a bit here. So give us the lay of the land. Yeah. So we're at 4 states. We have 6 companies right now. And over 156 employees.
And we do everything from special needs, transportation, to property management, so med spas, to not emerge to medical transportation companies. So we do it all right now, and we're really locked in on on a specific verticals, which is the transportation sector, but you know, we'll jump into that. I'm I'm sure later on. Yeah. Well, I love it. My first thing that comes to my mind is that you're you're you're cut from the same cloth that I am. I like lots of stuff.
Different industries have nothing to do with each other except me. Yep. Right. And so why? What what is that about you as a serial entrepreneur that you just like lots of stuff? Honestly, I'm a recovering real estate addict. I had a large portfolio built up a $25,000,000 real estate portfolio, full year last year. Took me about 15 years to do it. And we sold off pretty much majority of that. I got a couple pieces left, but not not a whole lot.
And the reason why is because, like, most real estate investors were equity rich cash for. So I I just started wanting I wanted more cash flow. Cash flow is the name of the game and more cash flow. And so I got my eyes open up to the world of M And A, which mergers and acquisitions. And I decided to start investing in businesses. I've already owned multiple business before, man. Early on when I got started, believe it or not, I was a DJ, and that was my first exit of a business.
I started a DJ co I started a wedding production company, when I was, like, 16 or 17 and I ended up selling it when I was, like, 19 or 20 for, like, $25,000 to my employee and his dad. And that was my first, like, that was my first entrance into the M and A space. And ever since then, I've always, you know, started businesses but now it's a lot easier just to acquire them. So that's what I do.
Yeah. Well, we're definitely gonna get into a bunch of m and a talk here today for sure, but I I loved, honestly, how you gave yourself credit for that 25 k exit because it it was. And and I just I actually, I'm being serious here. Why is that part of your story. Why is it important that it's part of your story? Well, look, I got started in the entrepreneur space at a very, very young age. My grandfather used to take us on cruises, so every Thanksgiving would go on a cruise.
I don't know if you ever been on a cruise before. But but they give you these little carts that you, get on the cruise. So he gave me a cruise credit card, and I went around and I started using the cruise card. Well, a bunch of the friends that I made on cruise didn't have access to the car. So that they only had cash.
So I was then able to go out and use my cruise card and buy them the items and the candy and all the good things that they wanted that couldn't acquire because they didn't have a floor. So the little entrepreneur in me at seven years old was like, Hey. I can make a dollar or 2 on each transaction. And then at the end of the cruise, I'll just pay my grandpa back. Well, that's exactly what I did. I got a I I got this cruise bill in at the end of the cruise came.
They slit it underneath my door, and I pick it up. I gave it to my grandfather not knowing what was going to happen. But then he chewed me out with this $500 bill. And but I had, like, $700 in my pocket. So I pulled out $700, David, to him. And he's like, where'd you get all this money from? And I told him that I was like, every single transaction, I was charging a couple of bucks extra for them to use my card. And he was like, he was like, holy, done. You're you are an entrepreneur.
And so Ever since then, that that was it, man. Like, I just I got locked in and to be an entrepreneur. It it was in my blood at a very young age My grandfather was an entrepreneur, and I really looked up to him a lot, and that's how I got started. Dude, I I'm just the entire time you're telling this story, I can think about is my son. He's only 4 now.
So I I can't imagine him doing something quite like this exactly yet, but here in, like, another year or 2, I would not be shocked if he came to me and we're on a vacation. And I'm like, I the the level of pride that I would have in that moment, I'm sure your grandfather was like, Oh, yeah. What? So here's my here's my little dude. Do He went from, yeah, he went from angry to, like, so prideful in a matter of minutes. It was it was very gullible. I that's what a special moment.
That that baseline of I can take something add value, make money. What does that look like in the M and A space? Yeah. So that's what we do pretty much on an everyday basis. When we go out to acquire a company, we're looking at companies. We're looking at good companies. And we wanna make them great. So we're not buying, like, in real estate. You go and buy a value add company where you have to go and rehab the property and all that in M and A, you could do the exact same thing.
You could buy a company that is really hurting in revenue that needs some extra help on the cash flow side, things like that. We're not we're we're not buying those companies. We're buying companies that are really good solid companies that we can come in and make great and then add our value to it just by utilizing our team, by utilizing our technology, our software. So, yeah, that's what we do on a daily basis.
We're looking for companies that we can add value to, but again, at the same time, we're looking for really good solid, long term mom and pop companies that are maybe just outdated when it comes to technology. They're running things really inadequately, and we can come in there and add value in in that capacity. There was something about m and a that made it make sense for you.
You kinda hinted at cash flow, but when you were, I'm assuming at a conference, you were around somebody, and they were talking, what was that M and A bug that bit you? It was really back in COVID. I was a full time real estate investor, so I was worried about rents getting paid. And sitting in that hot tub freaking out, not knowing if my tenants were gonna pay rent. And finally, thank goodness they did. They paid rent, but at the same time, I was thinking that I needed to diversify.
I needed to get into other spaces, other verticals, and that's really what set me off and got me on the M and A journey. So that's what I did. I bought my first company to Orlando, Florida. That was the first acquisition. I've started multiple companies before that, but that was the first acquisition.
And I started that comp acquired that company Orlando, Florida back in 2021, and I have not looked back since we are now closing in on our 7th acquisition year, probably within the next 30 days in Chicago. I've started companies my entire life. That's like I feel like that's all I've ever done. I've never worked for what say I never worked for anyone else. I've worked for 1 one employer in my entire life, and that was at Winn Dixie.
And I was a buggy boy, And I think I lasted at that place for probably 2 months, and then I got fired. And I I got fired and left that job, but after that, I've pretty much worked for myself ever since then. And it's it's probably the best thing that has ever happened to me because I just know that I'm just not in employable. I'm not able to to work for someone else. I I I think differently, my vision is completely different.
And when it comes to M and A, I'm I'm looking at companies completely different than I think an employee would look. They're looking at it from a strictly a paycheck standpoint, a security standpoint, I'm looking at it as a risk versus reward standpoint. If we invest our, you know, funds here, we raise our capital. We do things that we do. What is the risk reward? Will we gonna be able to generate as far as income? When are we gonna be able to generate for a multiple? Not years from now.
We're looking real we're looking down the road 5, 10, 15 years down the road of what this company can generate for our portfolio. Yeah. I love it. Now let's talk for a minute here about the difference of different angles that you've gone, different industries, rather, different verticals. Some some entrepreneurs speak Stay focused. Do one thing. Don't do lots of things. I mean, you might argue that your one thing is acquisitions, but inside of your portfolio, there's lots of stuff going on.
Completely different things that don't relate to themselves, or do they? In a sense, So we have companies that are in completely different sectors. So imagine, right, trying to have, like, our COO has a meeting with our transportation and special needs. And then she goes immediately to the other meeting, which is our med spa, completely 2 different industries. We've gotta be handled completely differently with the staff or everything else. So that is a little bit of a challenge.
So what we have done recently is we are now locking in on one vertical. And we are going deep now on that vertical. So what I mean by that is we are now acquiring special needs transportation companies probably in the foreseeable future. To lock in on that vertical so that down the road, let's say 5, 10 years from now, we can then go and exit at a higher multiple to a PE company to be able to get out a better exit on the mall.
Yeah. Okay. And so you have found value in going wide to be able to maybe locate that specialty piece that that really made sense for you. Is that how it happened, or is there some different? I think I think for me, it was it was more of and I'll admit this. I think it was more of a learning curve. When I first got started in M and A, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I just wanted cash flow. That was the goal. It is free cash flow. Right.
And then I'm sort of getting all these opportunities. So you're an entrepreneur. You get opportunities. You get excited. You you you joke on things that make sense to you. And I think that's what we did. And so we started acquiring companies that just made sense at the time with no real goal or plan. Just we just wanted more cash flow. And so that's what we did.
Now looking back, had I 5 years now into the the acquisition M and A space of acquiring companies, I would probably do it differently, which we have. We've pivoted a little bit and changed our course, which if you're a real entrepreneur, you have to master the art pivoting. You have to master know when things are are heading in the wrong direction and be able to make a turn and pivot to get yourself back on the road. And so that's what we've done.
So we are now looking at the specific verticals like the transportation sector to be able to really go deep in those verticals versus, let's say for instance, we're not looking to go acquire another med spot today. Now that being said, if the opportunity prevent presents itself and it's a really good opportunity, we would likely then acquire that company because we already have a med spot. So we can then double down hold that trajectory and continue to build up our multiple.
Cause at the end of the day, Our goal is we do wanna exit. We want we wanna exit, and then be able to level up again and climb that ladder to be able to acquire even a larger company. And so the only way to do that is by continuing to invest into the same verticals we're already in in fattening the pie, so to speak, so that it becomes attractive for a private equity company to want to be able to acquire us.
The great thing about the way we have our company set up now And this was not how we ended up in the beginning. When I first acquired my first company, it was just me. It was me running the show me handling the management, we making sure that our accounting team was doing what they need to do, setting up the managers, setting up the drivers on a daily basis. Now looking back 5 years from now with all the companies we have under our belt, we have a c suite now.
So we have a CFO, we have a CEO, we have a COO, And those things, those folks pretty much run the day to day. They oversee the managers. Makes my job a lot easier now because now I'm focused on growth and vision. And that's exactly what I wanted to do from the beginning. So we may have gone off force a little bit, but we've righted the ship into the lane we need to be in order to be able to continue to have that growth. Our our goal is 10 companies, 10,000,000. So whichever comes first.
We wanna get 10 companies under our belt or 10,000,000 in EBITDA, and that's been our goal since last year. And that's where we're headed towards, and we're driving. We're we're getting ready to go up to number 7, and we'll see, see what happens. Yeah. I love it. And when you're I I got kinda the same question, but we're gonna look at it in two different ways. The first one is as you're looking at these businesses, I wanna know what kind of metrics and stuff that you're looking 4.
And then the same question is, what are you building towards that this PE company is gonna be looking at later? So when you're at an opportunity to come across your desk, How do you know if it's a good deal you wanna look at it further, or you pass on it right away? Of course. So we're looking at stuff that's at least a $1,000,000 in EBITDA or $1,000,000 in cash flow. We're we're not looking at really anything under that. I get deals all the time. They get sent to me.
People are like 500 k, 750 of cash flow. And that's not like, I'm not trying to stick my nose up in the air or anything like that. It's just now now it becomes time. What is my time worth? And I want to make sure that we're investing in companies where we can get the maximum amount of return, and our time is going to be able to be utilized properly. If I go and acquire a smaller company, $500,000 cash flow, it's not gonna give me enough runway.
It's not gonna give me enough runway to hire the proper management team that I need to run that company. Now if I buy a company, that's a $1,000,000 plus, It's gonna give me some runway. I'll be able to hire proper people. I'll be able to pay my people properly. They're not gonna be complaining about wages, etcetera. I'll be able to put the right people in the right seats.
So that we can then grow that company strategically and not under the gun under pressure because we're we're clamped down by cash flow. Lesser learned that that was the reason. How how do I know this now? And it's just because a lesson learned when I bought my 1st company bought 1st company for $350,000. So I could do anything at the time. And I learned really quickly that I had to jump in and really pretty much run the company.
So now looking back, when we're acquired Chicago, Chicago is over a $1,000,000 in cash flow a year, and that's strategically that way because We know weekend number 1. There's some some expense cutting we're gonna be able to do to create a net value to continue to bump that up even higher. And then number 2, we know we can raise prices. Prices are low. That's an that's another thing for your listeners. They were thinking about getting into the MNI space. And they're looking to a fire company.
Or if you're an entrepreneur and you already own a company, you need to look at your pricing. If you haven't raised prices since COVID, you were losing out on a tremendous amount of cash flow. There have been a mass massive increases in price, massive increases in prices, across the board and pretty much every sector. So look at your pricing if you ever done that. And that's one thing we do when we go and look at a company to acquire.
We ask the seller, we look at their books and say, when was the last time you increased your prices? And believe it or not, nine times out of 10, most of them haven't increased it for years. And so that that's a value add for us. So we know we'll be able to increase prices by at least 10 to 20%. If that blinking an eye, you know, our customers won't even feel So those are the kind of things we're looking for. Cash flow, $1,000,000, in cash flow. We're looking for good companies.
We're looking for long term good mom and pop companies. Where we can add value when it comes to cold, outdated technology. And then we're looking in in a buy box probably in the where of anywhere between 3,000,000 to 5,000,000. No more than 5,000,000 because of the SBA lending rules right now. We wanna be able to maximize our loans we can get with SBA. And SBA will only lend up to 5,000,000. That will likely change at some point as we continue to grow.
We will then probably get out outside of that SBA box. And start just raising the capital in full and go out and acquire larger companies. But that's where we are today. Love it. Okay. And so you're putting together this 10,000,000 EBITDA conglomerate portfolio, and you're gonna try to locate a p that that's excited about that. What inside of this are you building the value add piece? Of course, you're adding price and all the semantics to be able to get the value there.
But what what is a PE looking at in your organization that you're in the process of building? Like, why would somebody wanna maybe link up with you? Or you know what I mean? No. It's it's a great it's a great great transition. So number 1, why would why would PE be even interested in me? Well, they would be not right now. They're not interested. Because we're not big enough. But they would be interested if we if we hit that $10,000,000 EBITDA mark. Meaning, hey, we have $10,000,000 of cash flow.
We have a full suite, C suite that's running all these entities. We have a full back office accounting team that's handling the day to day. We have general managers and management level staff in every single organization. That is attractive to them because they're just coming in buying the cash flow. They're not having to come to think. They're not having to come and be strategic about the growth.
They could buy the cash flow, maybe put in some add some additional capital, inject capital, and companies they think, that they can grow, and then do the same thing and flip it over again. And so that's that's what they're looking for. At some point, I assume that, like you said, you're gonna transition away from the SBA. You might be trying to raise capital. Somebody might wanna be attracted to what you are doing specifically. Why am I even as an entrepreneur myself?
Like, I have a I have a whole community of entrepreneurs. We talk M and A all the time. Why would we wanna either do a deal with you or link up with you? Is that even a possibility? Yes. Yes. So so right now would probably be the best time. To link up with me to possibly do a deal. And here's the reason why is because you will be able to get access to our multiple, our cash flow multiple, when we go to exit. So let me give you an example. Let's say for instance, you have a company.
You have a plumbing company in Duluth, Minnesota. And you want to sell that company. You could come to me, sell me your company. I will then, buy your company and give you a piece of equity of our holding company. So when we go to sell at to a PE company, instead of you selling your company, let's say, to a mom and pop buyer at a 3 x multiple, you could then get the upside of selling your company as a whole with all of ours at, let's say, a 8 to 10 x multiple.
And so that's the reason why right now, we're looking partners. We're looking for operators, folks that want to be able to maybe get a higher multiple. I could wait it out a couple of years and join essentially our holding company and get equity in our company while they're selling it to our our holding company. So Yeah. That that at the end. That's that's a it's extremely attractive. Yeah. You got listeners right now.
I wanna I mean, I'm kinda shamelessly giving you a plug here, but You've got listeners in all different types of industries are are gathered in the king's community. Mastermind community is full of all different types of industries.
If they've got a 1,000,000 in EBITDA and they're interested in a larger multiplier and they can be an operator still for 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 years, however long that runway is, they wanna connect with you because they can still run their business, but they get an exit and then a second exit. You wanna, like, elaborate on that? Yeah. Absolutely. So we could give them some cash up front to basically solidify them as the the the first exit per se.
And it would be, and they'll get some equity in our company. And so when we go to sell as a whole, as as a company, they will then be able to realize a larger exit than they normally would. Let's say for instance, your company is doing a $1,000,000 in cash flow and you wanna go sell it on the rep regular marketplace, you'll be lucky if you get anywhere from 2,000,000 to 3,000,000. Maybe if you're lucky, if it's a really solid company, 3a half 1000000 bucks.
But if you sell it to us, let's say for instance, we can give you some cash up front, maybe give you a half a million bucks today and say, look, tell us your company. We'll give you 10% equity in our company, but at the end of the day, instead of you getting that $3,000,000 exit, you're gonna get, let's say, 10,000,000 for your company on an exit. It's gonna be way more than if you decided to sell it by yourself with a broker on the front end versus selling it to us.
I mean, we can get into really technical numbers down the road, but That's just the gist of it. Instead of getting a 3 x multiple, you'd be able to realize almost a 10 x multiple by getting the equity in in in our company. Yeah. I love that. I'm gonna go back to the team that you built, the the C suite, and, of course, higher level management down to in the weeds management down even to the, you know, the interval teams. There's a lot of hiring going on, a 156 employees.
Some of those are are the executives. We'll start from the top and go down. Was that was that a challenge? These people come from your network. Did you post them from Linkedin Harvard? Like, what? Give us your shot. Yeah. So I I found our CFO through through Upwork. I I was looking through Upwork, and I probably interviewed, I would say, probably 75 different accounting professionals looking for this particular CFO that I wanted. I wanted someone that was also an entrepreneur.
I didn't want someone that was just numbers, meaning that the they came from a background of strictly numbers. They don't understand risk. They don't and leverage and understand all that stuff. And so I met John. John's our CFO. He's been with you now for almost a year and a half, almost 2 years. And He's been phenomenal. He's great. But, again, it mev grew up work just like going through a dating site.
So that's exactly what I did, but best decision ever made He is so in line and so in LinkedIn with our vision and and the way we operate. And he his responsibility is essentially to keep the company's financial health in check. And that's what he does every day. He manages cash flow management. It tells us where we can we can pay people, where we can't pay people. We need to collect AR. I mean, he he's all over And I I I love it without him. I don't know where I'd be today.
And then secondly, I have our COO, who is aura, and she is a godsend. She's probably one of my she's probably a best friend. Became a best friend since we started here. I I talked to her about an and everything. I mean, 9:30, 10 o'clock at night, I have an idea. I'll pick up the phone or shoot or text and say, I was thinking about doing this or making this move. What do you think? And she's a great sounding board. How did I meet her?
Well, she, when I used to coach back in the day, the real estate, she was one of my students. She managed 150 employees in about 25, I think 25 or 30 Waffle House locations. And I knew she had an incredible management experience. She'd been doing that for 10 years, got burned out. And I said, hey. Have you ever thought about maybe just coming to work for me? I was like, we're getting to a point now where we're really growing. We're we're buying more companies.
I was like, I'd love to just talk to you about it. So we bank for coffee just hit it off one day, and the rest is history. And she's been with me now for almost a year and probably one of the best decisions ever made because I now also have a great friend, someone that I could bounce ideas off of and Again, it's back to the alignment. Like, everyone is so aligned on growing the portfolio, and that's what I love and and they care about the team.
And then also have Mark Mark also can he's our business development guy on our C suite level as well. He handles, pretty much all the sales, top line growth for all the companies, and help facilitate the new acquisitions. And I met him through my first acquisition in Orlando. He was actually the owner of our Orlando company. So, What what is the lesson here? Right? The lesson is trust your gut. That's one thing that I've always done.
Trust my gut is especially when you come when it comes to hiring people. You gotta have a good gut ceiling about them. And I had to make all those key hires. It was that was my entire team. Like, I made the I picked that roster. So very, very fortunate, and I love the roster that I have. They're great key people. They all align with what, my vision is, and they're all they they all have the entrepreneur mindset, and I think that's what I that's what I wanted.
I didn't wanna have people that had a, employee mindset. That we're looking for security, looking for safety. I want people that want to that are gonna cheer me on to take the risk and support me and say, let's do it, Josh. Let's go. We got this. We know what we're doing. And that's what I have in my my c suite. Yeah. You didn't want a ball of nose. Exactly. No. Because I I can I can get that anywhere? Yes. Literally.
It's it's funny because as of Julie and I, my wife, we've we've been together now. 19 years this year, married 16. And we've we've both had this back and forth of she used to be the not the spender and I'm the creative idea guy, but we're back and forth of, yes, no, maybe so. And so there's this there's this tension, I think, which is super healthy. To have people in your life that always question things from a good place.
But what you're talking about, employee is more of like, you know, I want somebody who's thinking growth. Growth oriented, not necessarily how is this not gonna work, but how can it work? And, yes, there's some checks that we gotta we gotta gotta make sure it's a good investment. But how can it work? Not necessarily the opposite. Right? Absolutely. And and and that that that's something that I don't I don't get on a daily basis. So I want people that are gonna be able to say, hey, Josh.
Look, they're they're not all, like, yes men, right, or yes women, but you know, they will they will question me and, like, even our our GM and our our GM and our property management company, Diana, She is probably the first one that has ever questioned, you know, a moves that I made. And I told her one day.
I said, look, I commend you because most people just agree with And I was like, I appreciate you challenging me because what it it's helping me understand where you're coming from, and it's helping me help solve the the problem that we're we're having with this particular, you know, particular SOP problem.
And so being able to to have that have those folks challenge me and and and tell me where I'm wrong and then also support me and and give me the guts and the glory to to go out and and fight for another company and and require another company is tremendous because that that's what gets what keeps me going. I love to motivate. Like I said, in the beginning, I love to motivate. I love to inspire people and they inspired me to wanna continue to to continue to grow and and grow our team.
And at the end of the day, we have over 156 employees now. So You gotta remember, man. I didn't I didn't just, like, walk into a 156 employees. I Right. I started just probably like most of your listeners did. In the grind, in the in the trenches, just trying to trying to get by with you being the only employee. I was the only employee for a long time, and I'm just I used to have that mentality of mindset that if I can't do it, no one else can do it.
I've learned the hard way that that's not the way to grow, and you'll never grow that way. And now with the team that we have, that there's no way it'd be impossible to to do what we're doing. Yeah. There's a there's a there's an enlightenment here, I think, for the listeners that maybe still understand or believe life to be like that.
At some point, you realized, or maybe there was a communication to your your team that you're good at, in this case, the acquisition, the relationship, the finding, the hunting, the the that task, if you will, that hat, And the operations of making sure the accounting is good and the operations and the people are in HR is all good. Is someone else's strong suit? And we we hear these things, like, oh, yeah. I'm good at that. She's good at this. It's like, no. No. No. Seriously.
Like, if I just go do this, and they just go do this, then they don't actually wanna do what I'm doing because I really don't wanna do what they're doing, and it's actually like a like a mutually honoring situations. Like, no, Thank you. My team tells me. Thank you for being on the podcast. Thank you for leading the groups because you're kind of the show pony. And, like, just go out there and, like, stick your ankle out there and get us some attention. Yes. We don't wanna do that.
We just just just bring us the wonderful clients and and guess and and we'll take great care of them. 100%. There's, like, freedom in this. Yes. But also freedom for them. And so talk just for a quick second here because we're this, you know, we'll wrap up this little section, but the freedom for us as entrepreneurs, that makes obvious sense. Like, we know we can just go be free and go sell and and acquire and do the things that entrepreneurs do well.
But for the team members, whether they have a piece of ownership or just straight employees, There is a there is a play for them to go like, oh, no. Like, that's freedom for me also. And now you stay out of their lane. You're not bugging in micromanaging and thinking that you can do it better. Talk about that piece for the for the listener. My team, they want us to do well because for them, that means that they're they're gonna get you know, incentivize for the growth. We have we have GMs.
We have our C suite. They're all incentivized. They they share in some of the profits. And so if the companies aren't doing well and they are in control of the companies. It's a reflection on what they're doing. And then also at the same time, it's a reflection on what I'm doing as far as leading the the C suite team. So but all goes downhill and it all starts with me.
And so they they have tremendous incentive to make sure that the companies are operationally, sound and functioning And then also at the same time, our even down to our, managers and and our employees, our team members, all the way down to the guys who are driving vehicles or the to the girls at the med spa that are injecting Botox. I mean, everybody everybody's incentivized. And so I I did that on purpose. The way we we we made we structured that, we did it on purpose.
And so we wanted to We wanted everyone to feel like they were a part of every single piece of the journey, and that's what we've done. And I think it's worked out tremendously Hey, Kings and Queens. Jazz Wolf. I wanna talk to you about something that's super important to me. We put a lot of time and effort. We, meaning myself and my team, into this podcast into the content that goes out every single day.
And if you have been getting any sort of value or insight from this, we want it to be able to reach other business owners too. So we would love if you would like, comment, share, leave a review, post, share again all of the things on social media, on all the different platforms, or even on the podcast mediums of Apple and Spotify. We would love to be able to get our content into more hands, more entrepreneurs so they can grow their business as quick as possible.
Together, we are building community of like minded entrepreneurs who are committed to growing their businesses to new heights. So let's do this. Let's help each other grow. You talk. I don't know if this is a, maybe, a new topic, but being wealthy on the inside is something that came up in in just your content and stuff that you're that's important to you. What is being wealthy on the inside to you? Man, got a guy by the name of Mike Kiko.
I give him a lot of credit because without him, I probably wouldn't be in the place that I'm in today. And what I mean about the place that I'm in today is being in survival mode versus being in creation mode. I lived my entire life in survival mode. Why why is that? Well, I I can go back and look and and realize back in 2008 when I first got started in real estate, I was during the crash.
Who in their right mind would be okay with getting started in real estate during a recession and during a crash. Well, we did it. I did it. And so I almost said PTSD, believe it or not, back from that time. And I I I've looked back and every every decision I made, every decision I did, every check I wrote, every bill that I added over, every monthly expense that I took on, keen from a place of survival learned. Every decision, every risk that I didn't take was in survival mode.
And so That was because of back what happened in 2008. I was just sick to my stomach, and I never wanted to be in that position ever again. So I finally said to myself, I can't keep living my entire life this way. There's gotta be another way. There's gotta be a better way. And Then I I started acquiring companies, then I acquired my first company, wildly successful, acquired my second company, It was a train wreck. I lost a $1,000,000 in South Florida.
And then I got in touch with this guy by the name of light Kiko. And I was in a very, very, very dark place. Called him up. I said, Mike, I I don't know what to do anymore, man. Like, I feel like I've I feel like I saw it. I was finally over. It got to the top of the mountain, and I feel like somebody just pushed me off, and I fell all the way back down to the bottom again. And I'm like, I don't know what to do. I need some help prayerpeace wise, and we just had this long conversation.
And something he told me that really struck with me. They probably said it's pretty crude, but, you know, he told me. He's like, Josh, we're all gonna die. One day, we're all gonna die. And everything you've done is gonna get washed away, and people are gonna forget. They're not gonna care. And he was like, why are you so stressing about this? He was like, You you probably if you're lucky, you have enough 40 years.
He was like, go enjoy it, enjoy the journey, learn from the mistakes you made, Don't make them again, but enjoy the process, enjoy the journey. So that's what I did. That after that phone call, my light bulb just switched and said, I can figure this out. I've done it before. I need to start attacking the problem and stop feeling sorry for myself. So that's what I did. I stopped feeling literally from that phone call that day that changed my entire trajectory of my entire life.
And I I I went on I went on this rampage of trying to live life from creation mode and not coming from a scarcity mindset. Yeah. So every decision I made was in creation mode of What can I do to further elevate our portfolio? What can I do to further elevate my inner piece? What can I do to get rid of more negativity out of my life? And that's what I did. I did that every single day, and I still do that till this day. I'm living.
I I believe 100% that you have to get your inner wealth in check first before you can receive the external wealth. Yeah. And your internal wealth, you're kind of categorizing as this ability to take control, but simplify, I'm hearing. Yeah. Absolutely. So when it comes to inner wealth for me, that me, I I have the the 3 c's. I don't know if you ever heard clarity, commitment, and certainty. I 100% live by those every day. I'm very, very clear about what I want in life.
I also made a massive commitment to make sure that I get what I would what I desired and I get what my vision is. And then I flood myself with certainty every single day that I know what I'm doing and that we're gonna achieve it because you will have doubts. You'll you'll have people question you, not only yourself, but you'll have outsiders that will question you.
So you have to continue to flood yourself with certainty, but also make sure you get people around you that are gonna give you that give you that certainty and give you that power and give you that support system to support you maybe when you're not stealing yourself. And so that's what I did. I live by those 3 c's every single day, and that that helps absolutely change absolutely achieve the vision that we set out for.
Yeah. The the listener might be thinking, I mean, first off, you you very glanced over, I lost a million bucks there. So we're gonna go back to that quickly here. You you lose a million bucks. You you're on the top of the mountain. You feel like you've been pushed off because you lost a million second deal. It's an absolute train wreck. And you gave us the the result of the this coach, this guy that just said, hey. Like, but it's it's you can't change it.
You might as well just enjoy the journey. How does clarity commitment, these these c's that you're talking about, how does that come from that level of a of a deep fall? If you will. Yeah. So the the 3 c's didn't take place until probably a little bit after that. I had to I had to come to a personal realization that The only way this is going to change is if I start making a change and stop feeling sorry for myself. And so that's what I did. I I immediately went into action.
That same day, I went into action. I remember calling my attorney saying, I'm done fighting. I wanna get this over with. I wanna sell this within the next $48. And because I knew that it was just costing me money, it was costing me time. It was costing me energy with my family, with, my life at the time, my kids, I was just a miserable person to be around. And I I told him, said, I wanna settle this. I'm gonna lose money. It is what it is. I'll make it back. And that's what we did.
We settled and we that thing was done. But here's the thing. Is that as soon as I settle, that deal. And I put that behind me. I lost the money. It hurt like hell. And, yeah, there were times where I was trying to figure out where the hell is gonna pull all this money from to be able to repay back my investors. It all worked out. I figured it out, but all worked out. They got paid back every single dollar, every single one.
And but it it didn't it didn't start until I was able to say, finally, within my mind, come to peace with myself and say, this is the beginning of the end. And that's what I did. I wanted to end that part of my life. And that's what I did. I finally put it into it and then started over. And then the rebirth happened. And so I don't know if you wanna get into the $1,000,000 story a little bit, but Yeah. Yeah. That's what happened. Yeah. So I'll I'll give you the quick version went down.
I was full piss of vinegar, and I had some companies under my belt. Had a huge $25,000,000 real estate portfolio. What could go wrong? Right? I was enamored by a $100,000 a dollar a month net cash flow company, medical testing company down in South 4. I had five locations in West Palm, Miami, Fort Lauderdale. You name it all around all along the South Florida coast down there. And I went and visited these companies, and my gut told me something was just off. Something was not right.
And that's why I'm kinda going back to what I said earlier. Trust your gut. Man, your gut doesn't lie. So I didn't listen to my gut. It was enamored by the cash flow, enamored by the money, and ended up buying the deal. That that deal was pumping out by $2000 a day in revenue based off of their projections and based off of their tax returns based off of their P and Ls, bank statements, all that. First day I bought it. It was right during Christmas time.
I think it was I bought it 3 days before Christmas. And I remember that 3 days before Christmas that they closed on it, and we're supposed to have a full day of of income. I mean, we're supposed to make, like, $10. Like, every day is gonna pop in at about $10,000. First day, I bought it. If we did $500 in sales. So you can imagine the question marks that just start going off in your head. Like, what is going on? What did I do wrong? We didn't change thing. We literally just bought the company.
Like, nothing changed. Why are we so slow? Then it was like, okay. Well, it's the holidays. Maybe that's what it is. It's slow. Then you go back and look at last year's numbers, and it didn't really change. So in the Christmas day, man, I remember sitting here Christmas day, just looking, thinking to myself, oh my god. What did I do? Like, what did I do? My family's sitting all around there enjoying their presence. I am just in the fog. Like, I can't even think. And because you gotta understand.
Not only did we not we not have the revenue. We we didn't have the $10,000 a day revenue. But we had a $10,000 a day expense of 5 different locations. So you have the expenses of all these locations and you're not bringing in the revenue, you're getting double hit. So you're getting all you're having all the expenses in and out the revenue. So That being said, after Christmas, I was like, holy shit. Something's up.
So I ended up figuring out that there were some fraud going on and some things that just just didn't didn't look good. So we ended up settling the for the case, lost a $1,000,000, paid back all the investors, settled the case for pennies on the dollar for pretty much, yeah, pennies on the dollar. And but everything happens for a reason.
And this is what I feel like is the the best thing that has come out of all of this is that I ended up buying the company because of the loss that I had passed on 3 years ago prior. So let me explain that. So our next company, our 3rd acquisition was in Boston. I bought that company because of this company of the loss that I had here. I had some money that I just sold off some real estate because I had to pay back investors. So I sold off some real estate to pay back my investors.
I had some extra cash. I had about $300,000 left over that I needed to deploy. I needed to buy another company. So every person I spoke to I was putting it out into the universe. One thing that Mike taught me was like, hey. You gotta manifest this. You gotta speak to every single person. Let them know what you want. Let them know what you're looking for. And get ready because when you ask for it, you gotta be ready to receive it.
And sure enough, I started asking for it, like, 3 weeks after doing this little exercise last for it, asking for it, asking for a deal, asking for more cash flow. All of a sudden, it came to my doorstep. I saw the deal, went through the numbers. The guys like, Hey, man. You passed on this deal 3 years ago. I'm like, I don't care. Give me the deal. Let me look at it. Looked at the deal. The seller was actually in some financial financial restraints. He was he was hurting.
And I made him an offer, gave him a $150,000 cash or cash down. Basically, that was the money he put up to buy his company with the SBA loan. So game 150, I assume just $1,000,000 in SBA debt. Go figure, man. It's like, who in the hell would do that? You just lost a $1,000,000. You just assumed another $1,000,000. Gave somebody a 100,000 hours a year. Weeks later. Weeks later. I mean, talk about Gahoney. I was just getting ready to say. I'm literally about to say that.
You gotta have you gotta have, you know, so yeah. So, anyway, so end up buying the company, and that we closed on it. And the best best damn thing I've ever done in my entire life, that got me out of the hole that I was in. And like I said, in the beginning, I said that I'm gonna make it back. I just gotta get out of this. So let me get out of this, and I'll figure out a way to make it back. So that's exactly what I did. Sold the cup. I mean, I bought this company.
And here's the serendipitous part about all of this is that when I went to go meet the seller of this company, but 3 months later after bought it at the Bank of America. We were transferred over bank of account, signers on the bank accounts. I met him, walked up to him, put my hand out, shook his hand, said, hey, man. How are you doing, Josh? She said, hey, man. How are you doing, John? He was like, you're an angel. And I kinda looked at him, like, a little funny.
Like, what are you what are you talking about? What do you mean? I'm an angel? And he said, man, you're an angel. You saved my house. You saved me from losing my house. And I literally just turned back around him and told us, like, man, you saved me from losing my house. And had I not bought that company?
I was probably pretty damn teetering close to filing bankruptcy because I was losing so much money in cash flow, just paying attorneys and and all that stuff and then trying to keep the the business afloat that I was believing pretty bad. So I needed that company more than that company needed me. And I bought the company, and it was just what what a great serendipitous moment and how things always happen for a reason and just trust your gut.
I I don't I don't know really what else to say other than things things just happen for a reason, and they always work out. Yeah. Yeah. That that it'll all work out. I said that earlier in the call or in the in the show as well, but there's been times. And if we really peel back your story. If we peel back the times in my life where, where I I grew up, I grew, a franchise brand, not not my brand, I was a franchisee, and I grew several locations, and I grew very fast.
And the thing that actually saved me during that time, nobody knew that we were having consecutive down years, but I was doing so many things, taking so much action, making money in different areas that I basically covered the loss, and nobody knew because I had been taking action and at such great levels which is in essence what you're saying. Like, 3 weeks later, boom. You're assuming another $1,000,000 s b I mean, that's a big deal.
Especially coming out of a situation where you're like, dude, just cut it. I know I'm gonna lose a million who cares. It's like, juice. You know? This is how it works, though. But that that's what saved me, man. It was that it was almost like it was almost like when you're, like, maybe you're dying of, like, of of a of a wound. Right? And, like, you eventually, at some point, you just kinda you know what? I'm gonna cut I'm gonna cut the bad shit out.
I'm gonna take myself back up, and I'm gonna figure it out later. And keep on going and keep finishing the race. That's exactly what I did. Yeah. If I can get far enough, medical help will be somewhere. So I'll be able I'll be able to reach the hospital at some point, but I gotta keep running. And that's that's what I did. Yeah. That's the action piece. Well, mean, it's just such an incredible story, but you as an entrepreneur have an incredible story.
And you're just really getting started, which I just love. I love at your level that you're just getting started. I love talking to guys. Like you that at your level, where guys listening right now are like, oh my gosh. If I could just be, we're Josh's. But I know that you're just getting started, which is incredible. So 10 20, 30 years from now, maybe our kids are doing deals together. That'd be kinda fun. Man. We'll be able to look back.
I was like, dude, this is they're there's a scenario here where where you've been through all this stuff, but yet there's so much more to go. Right? Yeah. And and and look, I mean, this is probably not the last, lick on the face I'll I'll take, but I think I've learned a lot. And I I've I've I've been able to weather the storms. I just know now I have the confidence knowing damn well that this too shall pass, and we'll get through it. That's cool, man.
Well, how can the listener connect with you? Maybe they want to just you on social. Maybe they wanna think about reaching out and having you, do a deal with them. How can they find you? Yeah. Absolutely. So you can go to our website at www. Jwenterprise.co, or you could follow me on socials at the real Josh Wilson, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, one off. Perfect. We'll put all that in the show notes. It's been incredible talking with you.
I'm sure there'll be some fun stuff that we can do, in coming months years together, but I just appreciate your time. As I said at the beginning, thanks for pouring into our listeners. Thanks for being here, brother, blessings to you, and all that you're touching here this year. Yes. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening to gathering the Kings today. I hope that you were able to pull out a few nuggets to go apply into your business right away.
More importantly, though, I hope that you're realizing that it takes more to be successful than just being by yourself doing it all on your own, carrying the weight all by yourself what I have realized, not only in my own journey, from multiple businesses and multiple different industries, and now interviewing over 2 or 300 other very successful 7, 8, and 9 figure business owners is that it's tough to do it alone. And so gathering the Kings exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs.
In fact, we are putting together 1000 kings, specifically who are grateful but not done. We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities, and here's what we believe that in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, that it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy. So if that relates and resonates with you in that you need people around you, sharp, qualified, other very successful business owners.
I want you to go to gathering the king's dot com. I want you to take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit. To 1000 kings. Talk soon.