[00:00:02.060] Hello everybody and welcome to another amazing episode of the Unstoppable Success Podcast. I'm your host Jaclyn Strominger and today I get to introduce you to today's most amazing guest and it's someone who truly understands what it takes to build meaningful connections, lead with purpose and create lasting impact. So Jose Escobar, welcome to the show, is a Guinness World Record Holder and the founder and CEO of the Connected Leaders Academy and The Entrepreneur's Bookshelf.
[00:00:32.060] He built a seven-figure enterprise organically in 15 months. His growing the Connected Leaders Academy into a global leadership community of more than 700 entrepreneurs across all 50 states, 47 countries and six continents. That's a huge accomplishment. And through his events, coaching, speaking and published work, Jose helps entrepreneurs scale with greater clarity. I can't speak this morning.
[00:01:02.060] He's a great impact, but beyond all of his professional accomplishments, he is a devoted husband, father of six whose life is grounded in faith, family, leadership and legacy. So please help me join me in welcoming Jose Escobar to the Unstoppable Success Podcast. Welcome.
[00:01:32.060] How do you keep in mind everything I've built to this point started four and a half years ago? Prior to four and a half years ago, I had no business background. I have a tremendous corporate background that I've got things in leadership, upper management and sales and marketing and things like that but I've never had a business until four and a half years ago. So hearing that bio always gets me. It's like, wow, I look at it. It's amazing how much has happened in four and a half years and it's really just the made up mind. The power of made up mind, the power of being committed to a
[00:02:02.060] journey in a process having a big vision, putting in the work, and staying consistent
[00:02:08.060] right and follow through. So these are things that I'm about. I love what I do. Truly blessed.
[00:02:13.180] And as a matter of fact, the bio you just read. It's interesting because you said 47 countries.
[00:02:18.220] That was a week ago. We're 48, 48? 48? 49. 49. So we've added Belgium and Spain in the last week since
[00:02:26.940] you put that together. So isn't that amazing to see how fast we were? That is awesome. So take us back
[00:02:33.100] to what happened four and a half years ago when you had the shift and decided that you were going to
[00:02:39.260] create what you're doing now. So well, I remember, it's a very long story, but I give it to you and
[00:02:48.540] like a fast big job. Right. I would tell you that I have 25 years in person development. So I was a
[00:02:56.700] professional seat warmer for a long time going to all these events multiple times over all the
[00:03:01.580] big names you can think of. Brand Cardo, Les, Brown, Tony Robbins, John Maxwell, Jack Kanfield,
[00:03:07.100] Brandon Bouchard, and you name it. So I've been in these rooms. Got John Maxwell sort of five
[00:03:11.260] many years ago. And I've built on a relationship. And I've always been the guy who's invested in
[00:03:16.060] coaches and mentors and courses and programs and live event after live event and books and seminars
[00:03:24.300] and you name it. Right. So I have spent literally thousands of dollars prior to having a business
[00:03:30.460] easily over 25 years and spent at least 100k or more on personal development. And it got to the
[00:03:35.740] point where I never actually launched a business. I was not launching anything. And my wife was
[00:03:40.460] observing this. The few as I met and this guy is spending so much money on all these things. And
[00:03:45.020] there's always a new book in the front door stuff for Mamas Saunders, always a new court. She's involved
[00:03:49.260] and he's always going to these events and all you hire a new coach now. And so all these things
[00:03:54.220] and you know, she was always supportive. But he got to the point where I don't know five, six years
[00:03:59.740] and to be married. She said Jose like we didn't have a talk. And this was January 2nd or 3rd of 2022.
[00:04:08.940] And she said, and this is no business right in mind you, right? And we were in debt. We were making
[00:04:13.260] average money. I was making decent salary, but nothing significant to support the family. We had
[00:04:17.820] at the time. We had four kids at the time or three kids I think. And it didn't run.
[00:04:24.540] Yeah, it was just rough. And she and she was a teacher. You know, they didn't want to be in her
[00:04:28.060] job. She wanted to be a stay home home schooler and we just couldn't afford it, right? And we
[00:04:31.900] were robbing a Peter Paypal in your name. And so she said Jose like we could have been to Disney
[00:04:35.420] World multiple times over by now. We could have we could have investments in the works. We could
[00:04:41.020] have traveled more and done more things with our family. But you're spending all this money and all
[00:04:45.660] these things. And it's not really producing any fruit. She's I get like where you want to go. And
[00:04:51.260] I see the vision and I love her. And she's gave me the sandwich method, positive message,
[00:04:55.100] positive compliments, the message itself that was not pleasant and then some positive
[00:04:58.700] compliments at the end, right? So but at some point after she built me up, it's all these great things.
[00:05:04.540] At some point you got to start making money. And if you're not going to make money and you're
[00:05:08.140] not going to actually do this thing that you're supposed to be doing, then just don't do it.
[00:05:11.660] And just pursue your career and be your best at your career. And I promise you whatever you
[00:05:15.180] commit to, even if it's a day job, you're going to be phenomenal at that. Okay. So I know that.
[00:05:19.660] So that was a thing to me. And it was a bitter pill to swallow. So that day I took a walk in my
[00:05:23.500] neighborhood. I had a cigar. I had coffee. I did some prayer and meditation and I
[00:05:28.540] break my map on my whiteboard. And I journaled. I did a whole day to myself. And I was not happy.
[00:05:34.060] But I understood that she was right. And little did you know that in that time window of a day,
[00:05:40.140] I said, you know what? I'm going to do this. I'm just going to execute on everything that
[00:05:45.100] I have been talking about and planning and planning and planning and planning and learning and
[00:05:49.100] learning and growing and growing and growing and never executing. And so I said, I'm just going to execute.
[00:05:53.100] So from that moment in two weeks, I had a business model, right? Connected Losing Academy was born.
[00:06:00.940] I had a course. I didn't know which one to launch first. So I launched both at the same time.
[00:06:05.260] I said, forget it. I'm just going to launch two businesses at the same time. And then sure enough,
[00:06:10.620] in 30 days, I had 100 pain members. My business took off. And I have never looked back. And that
[00:06:16.940] was January 15th of 2022. The catalyst was not a lack of knowledge. It was not a lack of skill set.
[00:06:23.660] It was not a lack of anything. It was simply a lack of belief that I could do it. And my wife kicked
[00:06:29.340] me the right way. I'm not just me the right way and said, just do it or don't. And then I did.
[00:06:35.580] And then I've never looked back and it's been quite the journey. But that was the catalyst that kind
[00:06:39.180] got me off of the Netflix couch. Which is absolutely phenomenal. And listeners, first, I want
[00:06:47.600] you to hear something. What Jose just said is a huge nugget. It was belief in yourself that you could
[00:06:55.200] do it and having that person to also believe in you. And it is true. Like you can buy all the books.
[00:07:03.600] And you can do all those things. But at some point, you got to shitter get off the pot, right?
[00:07:08.720] And so listeners, that's the key thing. If you're afraid to take that step or you don't have
[00:07:16.160] the belief in yourself, that, you know, Jose is worried that you just showed execute. Find something
[00:07:21.840] that you can actually write on a three by five card. Maybe it's just the word belief. You know,
[00:07:27.680] if you've watched head lasso, believe, right? And take it to heart, right? Because you can do it.
[00:07:32.960] You can't do it. So that's a huge nugget. So Jose, you, so you start these two businesses. And
[00:07:43.840] a lot of people might say, well, how did you get that first claim? What did you do?
[00:07:48.960] Well, that's like in any network marketing business, if you think about it, if anybody's
[00:07:53.040] ever been in network marketing, whoever's, you know, listen here, I can tell you the first thing
[00:07:57.280] they tell you in any network marketing company. I've been in Amway. I've been in
[00:08:02.160] a premier financial alliance. I've been in like two others. I've been in like four network
[00:08:06.880] marketing companies in the very beginning. Well, I was kind of getting into my feet when in business,
[00:08:10.320] right? So I can tell you that the first thing they tell you is create an analyst of B list and a
[00:08:16.880] sea list, right? Of prospects. And who is your a list? Your a list is your family and your friends.
[00:08:21.760] So you're going to go and you're going to start there. Who and my family and friends
[00:08:25.120] can I potentially get into my world, right? So I said, okay, I'm starting a group of entrepreneurs.
[00:08:30.880] Most of my family is not entrepreneurs. Most of my friends are not entrepreneurs, but I know some of
[00:08:34.960] them. So I said, I'm just going to reach out to family and friends that have a business, right? And sure
[00:08:39.520] enough at the time, Raul Materin, which is a wise wolf. He was member number one. And this guy was
[00:08:48.080] launching his book and he was a book and was pursuing a speaking and coaching. And he, so he was like
[00:08:55.120] very beginner kind of entrepreneur at the time. And he said, Hey, I'm, I went to him and I said,
[00:08:59.360] hey, man, I guess what I'm starting the role of last I started going to my pitch. And he said,
[00:09:02.400] Jose, let me stop you right there. He said, listen, you don't have to sell me. I already know
[00:09:08.240] like and trust you. I know what you're about. And if you have a vision for this big group,
[00:09:12.480] that's just you and me right now. I'm in, you don't have to sell me in time. Yeah. So he was my first
[00:09:17.440] member. And then from there, I went down the list of some people. And then I exhausted the a list.
[00:09:23.360] And I went to the B list, which is acquaintances, people I used to work with, people that I used
[00:09:27.280] to know, people from school or college or whatever. And then the sea list is the people that you
[00:09:32.320] meet along the way. Right. That you just never knew and you're up to meet essentially to keep
[00:09:35.680] networking and building your circle. Right. So sure enough, between the a list and the B list of just
[00:09:40.240] my network and in general, I was able to get 100 members. I also call the sea list to chicken list.
[00:09:46.160] Yeah, that's the chicken list. And that was, uh, and that was the foundation of how I started. Right.
[00:09:51.040] And, uh, yeah, and we just blew up from there. And now it's 90% referral based. It's quite literally
[00:09:56.480] happy members before another people. And of course, the 10% growth is I go to events and I speak and
[00:10:01.360] I do things. And if I meet somebody I like, we hit it off. I say, we should talk. Right. Okay. So first of all,
[00:10:06.800] listeners, I want you to, uh, take this nugget that Jose just said. A B sea list, reaching out and connecting.
[00:10:18.560] And I'm going to ask you, did you just do it by text or did you do it with the phone?
[00:10:24.960] Oh, no. So in the beginning, um, at the time, zoom was kind of taken off more. So if it was COVID,
[00:10:31.280] post COVID time, time frame. So, um, I did it by two ways. I picked up my phone and I call people
[00:10:39.600] versus just expecting the message and a DM is not the same effect. Right. You got to, and if
[00:10:48.080] especially if you're charging prices that are going to require people to think a little bit,
[00:10:52.000] right, if you're charging 99 shoot him a text fine, right, if you're charging 25 bucks 50 bucks,
[00:10:57.920] $97 shoot him a text, no big deal. But if you want to enroll somebody into something that costs
[00:11:03.440] anything over 200, 300, 500, 1000, whatever, you're going to have to get on the phone. Right. So,
[00:11:08.960] um, so I started making phone calls and I started to head a list that I was trying to start making
[00:11:12.720] phone calls. And I also started dropping by like, Hey, I mean, your neighborhood, I would love
[00:11:20.080] to connect with you in person. I have a quick chat with you. Um, uh, it's been a long time
[00:11:23.920] conversation. I would have dropped by's where I would just happen to be in their area now.
[00:11:28.800] Literally, but I would, I would say, Hey, I mean, your area today, would you be open to meeting
[00:11:32.880] me up for coffee or for dinner or for lunch or whatever? And, and sure enough, they would say,
[00:11:36.480] oh, yeah, I can make time. And I say, okay, then I go drive to their area. And I would meet
[00:11:39.920] up in their area. And those were the drop eyes, right? And then of course, I would send BMs and text
[00:11:47.440] right. Only with the understanding that, Hey, I would love to connect with you on a one on one
[00:11:52.160] virtual coffee, a zoom call and to tell them anything just to literally get them in front of me
[00:11:57.600] like this. So it was either a phone call. There was a zoom caller was an in person drop eye. Right.
[00:12:02.160] Okay. So let's just I was asking this question because if you know me, I'm talking about
[00:12:06.800] relationship capital all the time. I talk about reaching out and connecting with people and not
[00:12:10.960] to pitch flat people. But if you want to grow a business, you actually have to use your voice.
[00:12:19.680] You know, we all sometimes, you know, do the busy work, but you actually have to do the hard work,
[00:12:27.040] which is actually picking up the phone. We all have, we carry one around with us. So let's use the
[00:12:32.240] the phone and call people. And as Jose said, you're not, you're not throwing up on them with your
[00:12:39.280] pitch. You're inviting them to a call or chat to see what's going on in their life. And you're
[00:12:47.440] making the connection you're building the relationship. And it might not be that they say, yes,
[00:12:51.760] right now, it might be maybe later or it might be a no, not now. But you are starting that
[00:13:00.240] relationship. So build the relationship and how did any most relationships start with a voice.
[00:13:09.360] Yeah. A lot of it on social media, you can connect with people, but you don't really have a
[00:13:13.680] relationship with them. You have a, you're connected to them because you made that connection.
[00:13:20.400] But until you actually have a virtual coffee, you don't know them. And we got to build that,
[00:13:30.540] 100%. So what you're saying by the way, Jacqueline is not the rocket science piece that you
[00:13:38.300] mean experts know. These are things that most people know, but you know what's crazy is a lot of
[00:13:43.580] times we stray from the basics. And we start trying to get fancy. We start to try to get techy.
[00:13:48.140] We start to try to get strategic and slick. And the reality is that the marketplace is too smart
[00:13:54.780] these days. Right. So the best way to go about it, instead of trying to be smooth and slick,
[00:13:59.500] is just be straight up and honest and look for a relationship capital at the beginning. And hey,
[00:14:04.300] I want to serve you. I want to be in your world. I want to add value to you. Let's have a
[00:14:07.260] conversation. Let's build a relationship. Right. The whole transactional piece of networking
[00:14:12.140] traditional networking, what it used to be is not what it is today. What I have connected to
[00:14:16.060] leaders, acadies, not a networking group, networking to me is transactional. It's very business
[00:14:20.700] card. You know, exchange information and we have any intention of maybe connecting, but we never do
[00:14:25.820] because most people never follow through. And then if they do, it's just a sales pitch, like you
[00:14:29.820] said, or a pitch lap. So it really comes down to relationships. I'm in the relationships business.
[00:14:35.900] I'm in building relationships that matter that are mutually beneficial that lead to collaboration,
[00:14:42.620] that lead to partnerships that lead to expansion of serving first. And then you receive, there's
[00:14:48.060] nothing wrong with with taking as a result of your giving. But I'm looking for givers in my life,
[00:14:52.140] not takers. Right. And that's a key, you know, and I think that's, you know, I think it's such a key
[00:14:58.460] point. You know, we get, I, you know, we get caught up in questioning the reasons why we're calling,
[00:15:08.620] just but if you're genuine, right? And you're coming from a place of, as I like to say, an
[00:15:14.220] authenticity level in mind, and you're reaching out to somebody, we're not selling them, we're
[00:15:22.640] connecting. Yeah. You know, and it's not that pitch. So, so talk about, you know, let's, you know,
[00:15:29.840] because connected leaders academy, I mean, obviously now you've got, you know, 59 countries,
[00:15:36.080] you know, where did the idea really come from? And, and you know, what was that genesis for it?
[00:15:44.880] Yeah, 50, 50 states 49 countries.
[00:15:51.440] The whole idea of came to me because I'm a visionary. I'm a big thinker, right? And for every,
[00:15:57.600] I don't know, 50 people, 100 people you need, you're going to find that one person that sees
[00:16:01.360] themselves changing the world, right? And that everybody has that vision and it's called the
[00:16:05.840] being a visionary, right? So I consider myself very much a visionary. I've been a visionary since I was
[00:16:09.760] an elementary school. My parents could tell you, I was always saying, well, maybe the first
[00:16:12.960] millionaire in my family, right? I was always saying I want to create global impact. I want to
[00:16:17.520] serve people. I want to do some crazy stuff. I want to expand. I want to travel the world. I've
[00:16:20.800] always been speaking this way. And the older I got and the smarter I got and the more I read,
[00:16:26.720] my worldview expanded and the more my worldview expanded and the more intellect and mental stimulation
[00:16:31.360] that I got, the more my dreams and my vision and my creativity started to kind of, all the
[00:16:36.400] juices started to kind of, you know, fire off in my mind. And I started to execute, right? Only
[00:16:42.240] until I started executing and realized, oh my gosh, executing actually can yield results, then the
[00:16:47.200] vision got bigger and bigger and bigger because your relief grows and grows and grows. And as your
[00:16:51.840] skill sets grow, that directly impacts your confidence, right? Because usually when people are lacking
[00:16:58.240] confidence is because we're lacking skill set. And the reason why they're lacking skill set and
[00:17:02.320] confidence is through their lacking execution. So for me is I just realized I got to get good at my
[00:17:08.560] skill set because the marketplace is in a pay you according to your value that's bring to it,
[00:17:12.320] right? So you got to be good at what you do. And you also have to have the ability to execute
[00:17:17.040] on the thing that you're doing. And then by default, you're going to get the confidence. But so many
[00:17:21.040] people are waiting for the confidence to come in order to do all the things. And it's the other way
[00:17:24.720] around. You got to reverse it, right? So that's kind of what I've done. And I said, you know what,
[00:17:29.040] I'm just going to do big things. Like I want to change the world. I literally want to be able to walk
[00:17:33.680] in just about any country in the world and say, I have made a dent in this country. I have made
[00:17:38.480] a dent here. I have changed lives because legacy to me is not so much just what I leave for my
[00:17:43.680] family financially. It is whose life was better because I lived, you know, who can say, oh yeah,
[00:17:52.000] if Jose never did this, this would have been possible in XYZ country and Zimbabwe and Dubai
[00:17:58.240] in Canada, in Slovakia, in Slovenia, in Lithuania. And what is this? In Greece, in Belgium, in
[00:18:13.520] in Scotland and England, all the countries that we're in, like, so that's the vision for me is,
[00:18:18.080] I don't want to just be in a country and say, I'm in a country, I want to know that impact was
[00:18:22.720] created in that country and that people's lives are better because I understand who moves the world.
[00:18:28.240] The people that move the world and create big, big, huge waves are the people that are entrepreneurs.
[00:18:34.000] Because entrepreneurs, you know what they do? They create services and products to serve and help
[00:18:39.120] other people with their problems, right? When you have a service or a product, why do you have that
[00:18:43.200] to help a problem to solve a challenge, right? And when you're doing this and you're helping and
[00:18:48.000] solving problems, you're improving the world. And in the process of that, guess what you're also
[00:18:53.200] doing? You're hiring people and you're changing their livelihoods. And that is what entrepreneurship
[00:18:58.960] is. So I understood the fastest way to change the world and reach the smallest person financially,
[00:19:05.520] anywhere in the corner of the world is to change the lives of entrepreneurs. And that's why I
[00:19:11.600] am growing one entrepreneur at a time. And that's why I said, man, if I can change the DMV, DC
[00:19:17.520] Maryland, Virginia, I can change Texas. If I can change Texas, I can change California. If I can
[00:19:22.240] be all over the country, I can go over the world. And that's where it is. But it all starts
[00:19:26.720] with a vision because Napoleon Hill said invest. He said everything in the world is created twice,
[00:19:31.840] twice, first in the minds, I and then in the physical plane. But you got to have the vision,
[00:19:36.160] you got to have the dream. Then you got to go after it. And that is so important. Having the
[00:19:42.240] vision and the dream and what you did that day, writing down and figuring out what you wanted and
[00:19:48.160] mapping it out on the whole board, I mean, that's, to me, that is one of the key parts to having that
[00:19:57.860] unstoppable success. For a lot of people, there's that moment that it was that changing moment.
[00:20:07.540] So for you, it was that day when your wife had that talk with you. For somebody else, it could have
[00:20:13.060] been a, you know, a life event, like a medical or something that happened. Like I've got to make a
[00:20:20.980] change, right? All right. So that's a sick child. There could be anything. Yeah. Right. And where you
[00:20:26.260] realize one day, like, you know, you that's like the line in the sand. I'm putting the line in the sand
[00:20:31.060] and making a change and we're doing something different. If I keep, you know, if I keep doing the
[00:20:35.620] the same thing over and over again, and I want different results, right? That's the definition
[00:20:38.900] of insanity. You can't do that. So, you know, listeners, if you have not taken the time to sit
[00:20:46.980] down and write out that vision that you have for you, your life, your family, take a day,
[00:20:55.220] write it. You know, for me, it was a drive. Like I will never forget that day where I was driving
[00:21:00.740] with my kids to drop them off at school. And I'm like, something's got to give, like something
[00:21:06.980] has to change. I was listening to a Katy Perry song war. And I said, I'm not worrying anymore. Like
[00:21:12.820] I'm not. And I went home and I said, I've got to make it. I've got to do something different.
[00:21:17.220] So that ended up, you know, being really, really different because I moved us across the country.
[00:21:21.620] But, but what keeps you, I mean, you know, I understand I can, I can, I sort of know what keeps you
[00:21:29.460] going. But how do you keep that flame going? Because there's always going to be, you know,
[00:21:33.620] highs and lows. Yeah. So what keeps the flame going are a couple of different things. One of them,
[00:21:40.340] I can tell you is waking up and knowing that my kids are watching excellence in action,
[00:21:48.020] right? Because I pride myself in having my kids catch me in the active excellence daily.
[00:21:54.180] From the morning routine, when they see me in my morning routine, right, nearly,
[00:21:58.820] they somebody will stroll in a hallway and they might hear me praying or they might see me reading
[00:22:05.140] the Bible or they might see me listening to a podcast and taking some notes. They might see me
[00:22:10.260] filming a video. They might see me on a call with a client international on a Friday,
[00:22:14.820] because I take or the causes earlier is 5am on Fridays, because they might see me at 6am having
[00:22:19.060] a call with somebody in Romania, right? And so on and so forth. So they catch me in excellence,
[00:22:24.180] they catch me working out, they catch me making a better healthy food choice and the things that
[00:22:28.340] I'm eating. They catch me reading books every single day. I have reading time in my day where they
[00:22:32.740] see me reading, right? So the things that I expect from them, they see an action, right? So and
[00:22:42.100] it's not, this is what you should do and then I go do something and play different, right? So
[00:22:46.820] that's very, very important to me is is how I'm being seen and how my children are being
[00:22:54.180] influenced by my leadership that starts with me first. I got to lead me first before I can lead
[00:22:58.980] them, before I can lead anybody, right? So that's the first thing that keeps me going. Another thing
[00:23:02.420] I can say that keeps me going is around dreamers all the time. How do you keep your dream alive,
[00:23:07.940] hang around dreamers, right? So if you want to if you want to keep your vision big and bold,
[00:23:12.740] get around people that have the audacity to pursue their dreams, get around people that are in
[00:23:17.220] the trenches with you doing big things, get around people that are 10 steps ahead of you, right?
[00:23:23.060] And that's what I do all the time. I try to find the rooms where people are further along than I am.
[00:23:28.340] I try to stay connected to people that have big visions and big dreams and that's what we talk
[00:23:32.980] about. Well, I'm not going to a cigar lounge where a bunch of guys are talking about how upset
[00:23:37.620] they are with their wife or how unhappy their marriage is or how their kids are annoying or how
[00:23:42.740] they just talk about sports or talk about, you know, the fantasy football leagues and living in
[00:23:51.540] fantasy land, you know, like that's what I find a lot of cigar lounges. People thank you,
[00:23:56.420] high-end, high-class, you go to cigar lounges in part of the Sunday club and you find a bunch of
[00:23:59.940] guys just venting with each other about stuff that has to do with the vision, mission and purpose.
[00:24:05.380] So I don't hang around where the conversation isn't up here, right? So those are the things that
[00:24:10.980] keep me going in. Of course, the last thing I would say, there's much more, but I would say,
[00:24:14.580] I know that keeps me going is my reading habit, right? I have an insatiable thirst for reading
[00:24:20.500] because I understand how ignorant I am. I understand how little I know, which is why I surround
[00:24:27.460] myself by books as you can see behind me because I read two books a week on average and for every
[00:24:31.940] book I read I buy five. I have thousands of books in my personal home library. You cannot walk
[00:24:37.460] around my house anywhere without tripping over a book and that means that mental stimulation,
[00:24:43.300] the higher-house of intellect of always expanding your mindset and your knowledge is so powerful
[00:24:51.620] because that keeps me always thinking bigger. Those are just a couple of things that keep me going.
[00:24:56.580] Okay, so somebody people might say, how do you read two books a week? Are you a speed reader?
[00:25:01.780] That's easy. As a matter of fact, first of all, the biggest lie, there's a lot of lies out there,
[00:25:07.620] but one biggest lie that I find that's meaningful to me is people tell me Jose, I don't have time to
[00:25:13.060] read like you do. And what I say is belonging, right? We all have time. We all have 24 hours in a day.
[00:25:21.300] The difference between me and you is we prioritize our days differently. So whatever is important to
[00:25:27.460] you, you're going to make the time for it. You're not going to find a time because if you try to
[00:25:32.100] find a time for everything you want to do and everything you should do, it gets well, there is no
[00:25:35.620] time. You're right because there's only 20 hours in a day. But if you understand that reading
[00:25:43.220] is important, reading is a priority, reading is the non-negotiable in your life, what are you going
[00:25:48.260] to do? You're going to make the time to put it on your calendar to make sure it gets done.
[00:25:54.740] So if your marriage is a priority to you, you're going to make time to spend time with your spouse.
[00:25:59.220] If your kids are important to you, you're going to make time to spend some time with your kids.
[00:26:03.700] If your spiritual life is important to you, you're going to make time to pray, you're going to
[00:26:06.500] make time to do whatever you got to do. If your health is important to you, what are you going to do?
[00:26:10.020] You're going to make time to go to the gym. So it's not a matter of, I don't have the time, it's a
[00:26:13.860] matter of, is it a priority? It's just a matter of perspective and language, right? For me,
[00:26:20.500] I make the time to read. I read 30 minutes and I'm morning routine. I read 30 minutes in my
[00:26:24.740] evening routine and I read another 30 minutes throughout the day. It might be during my quiet
[00:26:30.260] reading time. It might be through my nooks and crannings of the day. There's a great book by
[00:26:34.020] Austin Cleon called, Show Your Work. I highly recommend it. And there he talks about the idea of
[00:26:41.540] where do you find a time to do the things you need to do? Like in terms of priorities, right?
[00:26:45.700] You find it in a nooks and crannies of your day. So where do you find spare change? You find spare
[00:26:51.140] change usually in the nooks and crannies. You're a car seat, you know, that's where you find spare
[00:26:55.140] change. So you find time that collectively adds up and ends up being 30 minutes or an hour. You find
[00:27:00.980] that nooks and crannies of your day because there are, there is idle time in your day where you
[00:27:04.900] might be picking up the kids or standing in line at the grocery store or waiting for a doctor to call
[00:27:09.700] you for your meeting or you just have Netflix time or you are, you know, just taking a quick nap,
[00:27:16.660] whatever. So you have to find... Oh my god, napping. I'm sorry. I know. So that's pretty much what I
[00:27:21.700] would say is it's reading to me as a priority. It's a non-negotiable. If you need time to read and
[00:27:27.620] you're not reading, I'm telling you right now reading is the lowest hanging fruit from point A to
[00:27:31.460] point B in terms of your next level. Yeah, you know, I totally, I love that. You know, and I would say
[00:27:38.180] say to our listeners, find the time to read, or if you're not going to read, you sometimes
[00:27:44.980] could multitask and you can listen to a book. Yeah. Like, you know, the best university is your
[00:27:51.860] car in the sense. If you have drive time, do you use that drive time to listen to podcasts to
[00:28:00.180] a book? Something, right? You know, it's funny. Um, I actually tend to, I mean, I like to,
[00:28:06.260] I read all the time, but one of the things that I do is airplanes. I love them because I get,
[00:28:12.980] I listen to books on planes. Like, I, you know, my, I see all these people watching movies on
[00:28:19.060] the airplane and I'm like, oh, how many books can I listen to on an airplane? And so while you're
[00:28:26.580] traveling, you know, if you, and I live in Reno, Nevada, so you're always taking multiple planes.
[00:28:33.300] There's very few direct flights. So, you know, it might be a two and a half hour flight one
[00:28:38.020] way. So you're halfway through a book or you're depending upon the book. So use your time. It's,
[00:28:42.580] it's, it's, it's, whether you make it a priority or not, you have to choose that. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:28:49.860] People think, uh, Jacqueline, that I'm a fast reader. I'm actually a very slow reader. Not only am I
[00:28:54.260] a slow reader, but let me take it one step further. I'm a slow reader, but I also dissect my books when
[00:29:02.260] I read them. So I read slow and then on top of reading slow, I highlight, I underline it,
[00:29:07.780] put dog ears, I have circles, I have, um, my own index, I start a little sticky pads on all the
[00:29:14.740] books that I read. So, so I read things even slower than a slow reader. So again, it's not a matter
[00:29:21.700] of how fast you read. It's not a matter of anything outside of your desire, understanding is important
[00:29:29.460] and creating the time to do it. And marginalia, uh, for those of you who don't know what that is,
[00:29:34.180] it's the, the interaction with you in the author in the book. It's whenever you're writing and putting
[00:29:39.700] notes in the margins and underline in highlighting and putting dog ears and not sticky notes and
[00:29:44.580] creating your index called marginalia. So engage with your book. That's why I love physical books
[00:29:49.700] more than I love audio and kindles, but you can really engage with it. And a physical book
[00:29:55.460] versus an audio or a Kindle is like freeways versus resistance machines. Yeah. It just incorporates
[00:30:01.300] more effort and the more effort you put into it, the more you digest and you actually receive from
[00:30:05.940] the book. Nothing wrong with anything else, but that's just a purpose. No, it's true. Um, you know,
[00:30:10.820] and actually one of the things that somebody else said to me once about reading, if you read
[00:30:16.980] and listen at the same time, like you're hearing it and reading it, like all the stuff
[00:30:22.980] sinks in. I mean, and you can still take the time to do it. I have a tendency, I personally
[00:30:27.540] have a tendency to listen to a book and then I buy the book if I like it and then I read it.
[00:30:33.380] Yeah. Yeah. What I get everybody's, right? I'm not saying my strategy better than anybody else.
[00:30:40.340] I'm just saying make the time create the time. Right. It's so important. So I was like, what is your
[00:30:47.060] vision? You know, I mean, you're growing connected leaders academy. So what is where do you see
[00:30:54.020] it being in five years? So five years, definitely in at least 150 countries and hopefully more,
[00:31:02.020] but I see 150 countries. I see myself at 5000 members, probably 10,000 by then. So between five
[00:31:08.340] and 10,000 numbers. And then of course, having starting to have like leaders that are running
[00:31:14.420] countries and running states to where I'm slowly starting to be focused on the other aspects of
[00:31:22.020] how to grow it and scale it while we have the leaders that are in those states and countries
[00:31:27.460] actually running it. And they keep a larger percentage and I just get a little cut of the pie very
[00:31:32.740] much like like a B&I model kind of thing. But we're very, very different than B&I in terms of how
[00:31:38.980] we operate. So that's the bigger vision in 150 plus countries, thousands and thousands of
[00:31:46.180] members, eventually a million members, right, a million plus members because when we are in the
[00:31:52.580] thousands and hundreds of thousands, I mean, that's when the real big impact starts, right?
[00:31:57.780] And by the way, I've built this thing one person at a time. Okay, because somebody might say,
[00:32:04.180] all 700 and four and a half years, mind you, I have met over 750 plus people. I said no to.
[00:32:12.260] Okay, so there's more people I said no to than I actually enrolled in my group. I can tell you
[00:32:16.020] right now. And there's people that said no to me that I didn't necessarily say no to that I wanted
[00:32:20.180] in the group that they didn't want to be in the group and that's okay too, right? And then I
[00:32:23.700] haven't rolled 706 people myself, one by one. Everybody is vetted by me personally. There is no
[00:32:31.780] sales team here selling people into the group. It's me personally. There is no back door to join
[00:32:36.260] my group. As a matter of fact, if you go to my website, there's no link there, we used to
[00:32:39.380] a card in sign up. It doesn't exist on purpose. If you're on my email list, there is no email
[00:32:43.940] blast that goes out and I don't buy Friday trying to mess with people. And I also read events
[00:32:48.980] a year in person virtual domestic international. I have never once put up a QR code trying to
[00:32:54.420] master people. Everybody joins one person at a time directly through me. We are personally
[00:33:00.740] vetting everybody to make sure the right people are here. Yeah. And I will say I will go to that.
[00:33:05.380] I was at a speaking event with Jose where we met the first time and there was no QR code. There
[00:33:10.820] was no nothing that was up there that said please join the Connected Leaders Academy. We did
[00:33:14.900] have a conversation after that. So totally true. So I love that idea. But you're not the be an
[00:33:22.100] I franchise model because it takes a different level than that. And it's actually a lot more
[00:33:31.780] personal than that model, which I absolutely love. So I love that. Every country, leaders,
[00:33:43.680] I love the growth. If you had to think about it, what has been the biggest challenge?
[00:33:54.290] The biggest challenge would be making sure that there is something for everyone.
[00:34:03.650] Right? Because again, two people can look at the same thing and see something completely different.
[00:34:10.130] Right? So and a coach, an author and a speaker could come into CLA and say oh my gosh, this is
[00:34:18.130] everything I've ever dreamed of. This is amazing. And then you can have somebody in the,
[00:34:24.610] in the, let's just say trade services like a roofer comes into the LA and says well,
[00:34:31.490] I'm not sure where I fit in this kind of environment. Right? So my goal is to make sure that any
[00:34:37.330] entrepreneur from any kind of background can come into here and find ROI and find value.
[00:34:42.850] And that's always been the tricky part is how can I strategically intentionally
[00:34:48.130] and in a very unique and out of the box lateral thinking way, make sure that any business owner
[00:34:53.330] from any walk alive can actually walk away from this and you know what? Now walk away like leave it,
[00:34:58.050] but be in it and saying what like this is a, this is where I belong. This is unique. This is special.
[00:35:03.650] This is different. I am getting value and I'm getting ROI. And wow, this is pretty cool. So that's
[00:35:09.330] that's the, the always the challenge. Right? Because I can just enroll people and assume that you're
[00:35:14.450] good, right? But I don't want to do that. I want to make sure that, oh, let's, let's check in on you.
[00:35:18.610] Let's see how you're doing. What's happening? What's not happening? How can we be better? Right?
[00:35:23.090] Those types of things. And that's the grand separator because I am not after a headcount in Paydays.
[00:35:29.730] If I was, you would see QR codes everywhere. You would see me master rolling people at events.
[00:35:35.570] You would see links on my website and funnel funnels and landing pages where you store credit card
[00:35:40.530] and sign up. And I wouldn't check in on anybody and I wouldn't care if you're grown or not.
[00:35:44.290] Because at the end of the day, like gold strip, you know, gold strip has like in one location
[00:35:48.450] has like 10,000 members and they no darn well. Only 50 of them are showing up regularly.
[00:35:55.490] They're charging back. Nobody consistently. They don't really care because they're getting their money.
[00:36:00.050] Right? So I do care. And that's the difference and that's kind of what separates us.
[00:36:03.570] Yeah. I absolutely love it. So Jose, tell everybody where they can learn more about connected
[00:36:07.970] leaders academy because I could talk to you about this all day because I am a member of CLA.
[00:36:12.210] I absolutely love it. But I listeners, Jose has just been absolutely amazing with his growth.
[00:36:18.130] He does have unstoppable success. And I know I'm sure you've gotten some wisdom. So share where
[00:36:23.010] people can connect the best with you. Sure. Uh, w w w my website dot connected leaders academy.com.
[00:36:31.010] Okay. Connected leaders academy.com pretty straightforward. Go to the website. There's information
[00:36:36.530] there. There's testimonials there. There's a little mini video of me about seven, eight minutes
[00:36:40.690] explaining a basic review and details about our community things that you should know. Right?
[00:36:46.690] And the whole idea of that website is not to make you know everything and to say, oh, this is
[00:36:52.130] for me or not for me. It's to just basically wet the palette to interest you to say, oh, this makes
[00:36:59.410] sense. And then from there, you schedule a call with me. My actual calendar link, if you want to
[00:37:03.730] book a call with me is on the website. So and when you book a call, it's going to say, if you
[00:37:07.890] were heard, so if you're listening to this podcast and you happen to go to my website and schedule a
[00:37:13.410] call with me, just where it says, who referred to you put Jacqueline's tromager. Okay. Because you're
[00:37:18.450] listening to her show. So that's what I recommend. And yeah, it's very simple. I'm also on Facebook.
[00:37:24.450] I'm on LinkedIn. And I'm on Instagram in that order in terms of how I live on Facebook. That's my
[00:37:31.650] second home. That's why I do most of my content and things. That's where I hang out the most.
[00:37:35.570] The M's are very fast with the M's. And then of course, LinkedIn is my second hub that I'm
[00:37:40.610] expanding and building. And then I'm also on Instagram. But those are the three platforms with social
[00:37:44.930] media. You can find me connect with me on social media, check out my website. If you're a business
[00:37:48.850] owner and you will learn more, I would love to chat over virtual competency. Well, fantastic. We will
[00:37:53.970] put all of those links in the show notes listeners. Please do me the favor and share, well, first of
[00:38:00.850] connect with Jose because he's amazing. And you definitely, you know, I would highly recommend
[00:38:06.370] everybody join the CLA. But go and check out the website connect with Jose because he really is
[00:38:12.370] truly amazing. And then do me the favor because there has been some amazing nuggets in this episode.
[00:38:17.090] Please make sure that you share this episode with your friends, your colleagues, your business
[00:38:20.370] associates, anybody that you think could actually needs to hear this message and can use the message.
[00:38:26.370] And that's lastly, if you have not already subscribed, please subscribe to the show. And if you
[00:38:34.530] become a supporter of the show, you will get some extra nuggets. Jose talked about your day. We have
[00:38:43.970] a tracker that you can actually look at your activity. So you can see how you're spending your day
[00:38:49.170] that will go out to all of our subscribers, our promotional, our people who are actually
[00:38:54.290] lovers of the show and actually subscribe. It's $3 a month to actually be a paid subscriber.
[00:38:59.410] So if you do that, you'll get some extra show information and nuggets. So please make sure you go
[00:39:04.210] ahead and do that. And that link is in the show notes. Jose, thank you so much for being an amazing
[00:39:09.490] guest. This is the unstoppable success podcast. I'm your host, Jeff and Stromager. And we help you
[00:39:15.650] leap to your greatest success.