Welcome to the High Level People podcast with your host, P.J. Crescenzo. This is the show where every week we go inside the minds of modern market leaders. These are world class entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and ministry leaders who are making a generational impact on the world today. The question is, if you're going to compete, why not compete at the highest level possible? And that's what this show is designed for, to give you a playbook for your life so that you can continue to climb levels week after week. This is the High Level People podcast and welcome to today's episode. Welcome to the High Level People podcast. Today, I have a great friend, an amazing coach, an amazing leader, a mentor, and somebody I'm really excited to go deep with today for you to learn the way that he processes and thinks about certain issues. Chris Welton, Man, what a pleasure this is. I mean, it's just, I was thinking about this morning when I was getting ready for my day, I'm like, one train ride changed everything. One train ride dude changed everything and we get more of that story later, but like that train that day I decided to get on that train And all of a sudden you and I are on the same train. It changed the trajectory. I think of both our lives, like things have just drastically changed over the last 14 months since we met, but we can go into detail on that later. But like just one train No, I love it, bro. We can start there. We can go deep. So walk the audience through how we got connected and you know, what the first couple of months look like of conversations and then kind of what it looked like after that train ride and how much mutual business we've done Yeah. So I get a message, a DM, I believe I got a DM or an email. Actually, I got, I got a calendar invite to my website that the guy named PJ wanted to do a call. I'm like, okay, great. So we get on the call and he tells me that a good friend of mine, Brian Covey had said, if you're looking for a mortgage coach, this is the guy you should talk to. And at the time, I think you told me you'd interviewed like 10 people or maybe more like who you wanted to coach you, right? Like who would it look like? And this was just the beginning of that. And then we were going to have a conversation with your business partner and the guy who's the president of the organization now and kind of go further. Um, so that's where that conversation started and we hit it off right away. And then we went to that call, that conversation with Evan and yourself. And I thought it was another great conversation. Um, and then I got the text message that you were going to go with somebody else. And my thought was, I'm not going to stop. You want to grab lunch? Like, Have more conversation. Right. Cause like you were in the same area as me at the time. Now we're on both different worlds. Like you're in Colorado. I'm in Indiana now, literally used to be like 40 minutes apart. Now we're like multiple hours away on a plane. But so again, we hit it off at lunch. Great conversation. We really, we really gelled there. And I was like, we're going to work together at some point. I could just feel that that was going to happen. Um, and then. God put us in the same place at the same time. I gave a keynote that morning in Delray beach, Florida. I had my team with me. And those of you, if you've never seen me travel before, I've always got my one Jordan stuff on and my whole team wears it as well as we travel. And we got on a train and got on the train and my camera guy was on the train with me and PJ sees my camera guy with the one Jordan. I was like, Oh, that's Chris Welton. And, and Logan, my camera guys, well, he's sitting right here. So next thing you know, PJ and I are sitting across from each other for a three hour train ride back to Orlando. And by the time we got done, we had agreed to Bro, unreal. And I wasn't even supposed to be in that section of the train, which is even more powerful. But yeah, I want to extract something you said, which I liked, which is you said, even though I texted you and said I was going with somebody else, you said, let's get lunch. Walk me through the sales mentality of not getting discouraged when somebody is thinking about going somewhere else. Like how, how You know, I think it started years ago when I was selling cars and when I was a car salesman and they tell everybody tells you, you know, all the time, right? You just have to take that and what do I get to turn to know until yes, I always looked at it as. No is not. It means just not today, but doesn't mean no forever. And if I like somebody and we have a connection, then it's my responsibility to go give you more reasons why we should partner and do business together. So I'm like, I like bison. Let's go have some bison, dude. You know what I mean? Let's meet the bison spot there in Winter Garden and And it worked out perfectly. I like to communicate and have conversations with people that are like-minded, right? Like, too often do people try to sell you on things. right away. And if you say no, then they run and hide. But I, if we wouldn't have had a values match and you said no, I'd have been fine with That's a good point to continue to pursue when there are value, value. There's too much here for us to go. We needed to go further with like, and most of my line, most probably my most powerful relationships started with a no. They started with a no, like, not right now, Chris, we're not, whatever that is. And I'm like, hmm. I got to keep going and push forward to that. So that's kind of how it's like, let's just grab some food, like whatever. Like I'm the king of the just curious text message. Like I just just curious people all the time. I like, Hey, just curious what it makes sense for us to jump on another call soon. Like I've got a list of point of contacts today. I've got to make to people that want speaking engagements and other people that want coaching and they haven't signed yet. So I just, I hit them with a just curious, just curious what it makes sense for us to connect again. And most of the time we were like, yeah, So that's kind of how the journey started. So walk me through, cause I want to go deep in a couple of different places. First, nobody knows who Chris Walton is. The story of Chris Walton, like where were you born? What did your childhood look like? Who was, you know, six and 16 and 26 year old Chris and kind of those That's a lot. Yeah. So I was born in Southern California in a town called Huntington beach. Um, you know, in a lot of my family still lives there today. My aunt and uncle still live in my grandparents' house that my grandfather built after world war two. Wow. They still live in this house. So I get to go visit it from time to time. And My mother, um, suffered from lots of mental illness in drug addiction. So she was a heroin addict and she was, uh, using drugs while she was pregnant with me. So I was born missing half my left arm. I was born, I was super small. I was like just under four pounds when I was born. You've met me. I'm a little bit bigger than four. Wow. Um, and so I, I was born a fighter. I got the deck was stacked against me from the start. So that's, I guess that's another reason why I don't take no for an answer. And, You know, I grew up in, I think the other day I said on my wife, we counted it out. I believe I lived with seven different families, um, growing up and went to 12 different schools in 13 years. So, you know, you think about that, that's a lot of moving around, right? and bouncing from place to place. My mom would go in and out of rehab. She'd get custody to back of me. My dad never really wanted custody of me. He never tried once to get me. So I would go to aunt's and uncle's houses and all over the place. So, cause if he had tried, he'd have Wow. Did you find yourself being a chameleon in all those different environments or did you double down on who you thought you were supposed to be and just kind of held firm? Like how did your identity shift with that much exposure and that, and that many moving pieces as a That's a great question. Um, I think I was just super adaptable to what, to the environments I needed to be in, which helped me later in life. Like you can't put me in a room now where I can't find somebody to talk to. Right. I'm not shy. Like my wife's always like, every time we get on an elevator, you're on vacation, you make friends with the people before we get to the bottom floor. I'm like, yeah, it's just what it is, you know? But like, so that helped me develop later in life into someone who wasn't shy of having conversations. Um, You know, I lived with some rough stuff growing up with the family members. I had an uncle that just loved to pull the belt out and whip the shit out of you. You know what I mean? That's just who he was. And being force-fed food sometimes when you wouldn't eat the stuff he was giving you. But I became this person who was probably a lot more less argumentative. I've been categorized as a good kid because I was really afraid for my safety. And that caused me to not be a troublemaker when I got older. I had a lot of friends who were troublemakers and made bad decisions, but I was always the voice of reason because I was like, dude, you don't know what it's like on the other side. I mean, you How did your relationship with adversity develop over time? Cause I know that's something you're big on and we've talked through a lot and something you're passionate about. So you have all this adversity as a child, right? How did your just relationship, engagement, understanding of like trials and tough situations Yeah. I mean, I didn't get start figuring out that I had my relationship with the diversity was until I'm 53 now to probably my late forties, to be honest. Wow. what had happened made me better at what I am. Right. And when I look at those things, like when I, when I look at the adversity, um, that I'd gone through countless times in my life and those types of things. And somebody asked me the other day on a podcast, I said, Chris, if you can go back, what would you tell your 15 year old self or something along those lines, or what would you change? And I said, I wouldn't tell him anything. I wouldn't change anything. I've been through some really sad stuff, but if anything like that changes, then I'm not where I am right now. I really dig where I am right now. I have a great family. I've got great relationships. I'm impacting people on a daily basis doing something that I love. I'm doing my work that I'm supposed to be doing. Once I learned that all the adversity I'd gone through and the story was important to tell to help others, I couldn't tell it fast enough. Like I just started outpouring and anybody that would listen, I would have conversations with. Not to be the victim, but to be somebody that said, Hey, whatever you're going through, you What questions could you have asked yourself earlier to accelerate that understanding you got in your late 40s? Like what questions could you have sat down and asked yourself in your 20s or your 30s that would have allowed you I think the first one is that, should you really be embarrassed by your story? Because I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed that my mom was a drug addict. I was embarrassed at all these things I went through. So I would hide them. Now, later in life, I come to find out that everybody in the neighborhood knew my mom was a drug addict. They just didn't say anything to me, and they protected me, right? But I was afraid to share that with people. I was embarrassed. Because when you're kids, what does everybody talk about? How great everything is, right? Like, I didn't have to, I didn't say, hey, just so you know, when I went home last night, my mom was passed out on the couch with a syringe in her arm. Like, I never shared that, right? Like, that wasn't something you shared. And I didn't share that. I woke up to go surfing one morning and my buddy picks me up and he goes, hey, there's a car running in your garage. I go in my garage. My mom is trying to kill herself. She's running exhaust, you know, hose there in the garage. And so I opened the garage and drag her in the front yard, throw her in the grass, call 911. I So I think that if I could ask myself earlier on, what is the meaning of this? Why is God putting me through these things? Then I would have been able to protect other people with understandings later on How has your relationship with God developed going through all that trial and adversity from the time of a child to now? Because I've heard you get more vocal over the last couple of years, and I think people have come into your life Yeah, you know, I thought I had a good relationship with God until I lost my son, CJ, in 2020. And when CJ passed away in 2020, for about eight months, God was not my friend. I was like, why would you do this to me? There's a drug addict that just left their kid in the car at Target in the summer and they died. Like, why would you do that to me when you know we were gonna be great parents, right? You know, like, you see us. So why is that? And it finally happened one Sunday morning afternoon. I was sitting on my back deck and I was going through my journal. And in my journal, I'd written down all these things I was gonna do with my son, right? We're gonna go to all the ballparks, we're gonna do this, we're gonna do that, we're gonna like, this is it. I mean, I journal all this stuff, right? And my wife came outside, she sat with me and she could tell I was having a hard time. And she said, I need to talk to you about the relationship with God, what's transpired. And she said, I want you to know that The reason CJ's gone is because God needed him more than we do. God needed him to protect us, our family, his siblings, somebody else more than we do. He was not meant for this world. And if she had told me that three months earlier, it would have clicked. It would have clicked. But for some reason on that back day, I can see it. I can see myself sitting there in the lanai right now. in Florida by the pool, it's 46 degrees here where I'm at today. But sitting by the pool and her telling me that, and that's as close to as peace I'll ever be about losing him. Like it just will It's so powerful. God knows more than we do. Well, I think that one statement helps capture the reality that there are two worlds, right? When you're a believer and you believe there's eternal hope and there's something after this life, you can actually identify with the reality that he's in a better place. How, how has that, because I've heard you talk about this, but not only for yourself, but also talk about coaching others. How has that shifted the maybe moral responsibility or urgency you carry with the way you perform and carry yourself today, going through that situation. It's such a painful experience. And how does that translate Yeah, so I show up a lot differently than probably you would expect me to. Those of you who don't know me, I'm 6'5", 265, but I show up with a lot of empathy. You know, most people my size don't have much empathy. They just don't come across that way, but I show up with a ton of empathy first in the coaching space because everybody on the other side of that call or phone or Zoom with me is going through something I don't, I'm not aware of. And how can I help them? So the first thing is the empathy. The second thing is I've got a tattoo on my arm. It says right there, see it says CJ's watching. So everything that I do, he's watching me. I know that, right? So I have to be better than I ever was before because there's another set of eyes watching me to making sure dad does what he's supposed to do. So those are the two big things. And I can be a hard nose accountability coach and put people in their spot when I need to. But we got to get to that spot. You have to be in the spot to receive it. Right? And I think too many people today will come and tell you exactly what you should do, but you're not in the mode to receive it. Right? Like you and I had a quick conversation before you got on here. And if I were to come at you in a different direction, when you got on here, when we, before you No, I love that. What, so I want to go back to the, the origin and then I want to cap with some of the recent lessons that you've learned with your coaching with events. Cause I know we're both big personal development guys and I think we can relate to a lot of that. All right. So we have this childhood, right? What is the formal, just so I could be respectful, what is the formal, is there a diagnosis, right? So your, your mom was abusing drugs when you were born. What is, what is it called when you're born with, not having two forearms. Um, you know, back then they, they, back then they called it a congenital amputee, which means that I was born without an arm the way I And competed in high rocks with one arm, brother. I got first place in high rocks. Let's go. Come on. I want, I want, I want the one arm division. Um, yeah. And the, was so crazy. I think about it all the time because I'm trying to train to get back to that shape again. It's only been a few months ago. I'm like, I don't think I can ever get back to like that. So, congenital amputee is what they would be called. And then in today's Okay. All right. So, born with a limb difference with no control or fault of your own, right? Your mom's abusing drugs. You have this radical childhood with 12 schools and seven family members. And you're watching your mom abuse drugs. When did you first get into business? Right. Did Yeah. So, okay. I'll take you back to the seventh grade. Okay. So, um, the summer between sixth and seventh grade, there was, we lived in this apartment complex and on four city road in Orlando. So people that know where that is, it's in the hood, right. It's called Lake Western apartments. And they had signs on the polls that said, junior salesmen make $100 a week, 13 and up. So I took the sign down, went to my mom and said, look, I know you can't make the rent, we're struggling, like it's just is what it is. And she's like, but you're not old enough. And I said, you tell them I'm 13, okay? I look 13, you tell them that. So we call the people, they show up. She's like, yeah, he's 13, whatever. So I memorized a script and I spent the whole summer going on Monday through Fridays, going in businesses, selling candy, selling, you know, cookies and turtles and gummy bears, all this stuff, right? Like for $3 a box. Okay. So this would have been 1984. Okay. So we're selling it for$3 a box. No, the 83, my thing, 83. So we sell it for $3 a box and I can made 60 cents off of every box. So I just learned the script. I learned to talk to people and I just went out and did it. And I was making a couple hundred dollars a week all summer. Unreal. Yeah. And I would sell out, I'd go to car dealerships and I'd sell everything and, and, and I'd go knocking on doors on the weekends and we'd sell there and Um, and that was my first sales job. And I was like, dude, I'm pretty good at So you start selling candy. When did you get into the car dealership or the Yeah. So, well, let me go to middle school too. Right. So right after that summer, I was done. I'd saved a bunch of money. I bought myself this bike, the flea market right out of bed, you know, like a mongoose, right. But, um, And my mom decided to take all my money from me. Like she, I hit a hit and she took all the money. So I had no money left, but I'm going into school and she would give me $2 a week for lunch. Okay. Lunch was like $1.75. She gave me $2 a week for lunch. And what I would do is I would stop at the convenience store and I would take that $2 and I would buy blow pops and gum. And I would get the hauls in the morning and I would literally sell that stuff for enough off the $2. to pay for my lunch for the week. I paid for my lunch. I had this idea. I was close to the cafeteria, right? This was an eighth grade close to the cafeteria. I'm still selling candy every day, but nobody wants to wait in line at lunch. So I was the first Uber Eats. I would take orders from some people that were in the classroom before lunch. The deal was I get to keep the change. So if it was $1.60, I kept$40, whatever it is. So I would take like six or seven people's order. As soon as that bell rang, I'd run down the hall, boom, I'd get in line first at the snack bar. I'd buy the stuff, bring it to the table, give it to them, and I kept all the change. So that's how I was able to have lunch money and go and move to go to the movies when I That is unreal. All right. So we start selling candy. We're trapping in the cafeteria. All right, keep going. How do Well, what made me get in the car business was when I would go to the car dealerships, I would sell them all my candy. They would buy all of it. Right. And these guys would reach in their pocket, pull out a lot of cash. Like I'd never seen before. And they'd say, give me three boxes that or whatever you keep the change kid. I'm like, I'm like, dude, these guys are rich. Now, when I got in the car business, I didn't realize that that was all the money they had and they had to keep in their pocket because they're behind on child support or the bank would take it from right. So there was a lot of things I learned, but, but at 19, I was in Atlanta, Georgia. I lived in Ackworth, Georgia at the time, and I went to Marietta Dodge on Cobb Parkway. And I went in there and I talked to the GM and interviewed for a job. And he's like, you know, kid, I'll give you a shot. So my first day out of training, I'm standing on the porch. All the other trainees went home to start the next day. I'm like, we're open till 10. I'm staying out. So I stayed. All the guys are like, go ahead, take this one, kid. It was this whole hoopty old car pulled up. They missed it. These people were ready to buy. I sold them a custom van. My first client I ever met, put them in the finance offices down the road. Then I see there's something in my mailbox. I thought I had a message. I go check it. It's my commission slip. I made $1,270. I made $1,270 and I was like, Bro, I'm rich. Like this is about to change everything. So that was my start in the car business. And I, I had a lot of success in the automotive industry, learned a lot of hard lessons, but right out of the gate, I mean, I was a salesman and I could go sell, sell, and I wasn't afraid to talk to people on the lot and I'd grind and work and put in the effort, which is what most people lack. Most people lack putting in the effort. You know what I mean? Like I'm talking with a guy earlier today that I coach, who's a president of a mortgage company. And he says, He had to have a conversation with one of his key people. And the guy didn't follow up the way he should with somebody, an opportunity. And I'm like, that's the difference. I told the guy, the president of the company, you know him, by the way. He's the guy, he's in the Winter Garden market. What's Greg? You know Greg. And he says, I said, that's why we're so good. That's why we're different, PJ. That's why you and I are different. Why? Because we would have called the guy back. You wouldn't have waited. Right. So, um, yeah, but, but then into, you know, but the sales car sales What was your greatest takeaway from sales being in that industry, being in the car business? What was one thing that you took with you into mortgages into coaching where you're like the car business taught me how to do blank taught How many people are so great at setting it up and then they can't ask for the business? Like, what are So good. And like how much fortune is made in the follow-up. I mean, that's probably your whole business, right? It's the follow-up. It's the second, third, fourth, fifth text. All right. Walk me through. Cause I, all right, let me ask this question. I have something I want to ask and we'll go to mortgages. What do you think in 2026 sales, any industry, car, real estate, mortgage, right? You're coaching people in different industries. If you're a full-time sales That's a tough one, man. Um, I mean, it's so funny cause people, you'll still hear people go, Oh, I made six figures. Let me tell you some six figures. Like that's not, Pre-COVID, maybe it was something, but you need to be 250 or more is just the bottom, is the baseline, really. To be considered as successful of That's not me being snobby, but that's just what it costs to survive and live. 100%, bro. If you can buy a nice house, you got I'm so glad you said that. I think that's the problem is I think a lot of people have the wrong floor. And if your floor is off, then everything's off because your target is just, you know, you're just not, not where you need to be. Okay. All right. So car business taught you how to communicate. Then what was the next step? What was the opportunity that popped up where you, you go from, you know, I'm making $1,200 per custom van to blank. Yeah. So I got into me, you know, I sold cars there for a while and then moved to Indiana. and became a sales manager at 20 years old. They made me a sales manager at the dealership here in Indiana, which was a bad idea. Like it shouldn't have made me, I wasn't ready for it. But I learned a lot, but I got into management and then I was in management from that point forward, whether I was a a sales manager, a general sales manager, a GM, whatever it was, I was in that spot. And then I got to a spot, uh, I was about 27 years old and they're running these special events with car dealers all over the country. These marketing companies were, and we ended up doing one of these events. I'm like, Oh man, I could do this. So I started my own company doing that. Started calling on dealers and going in and running sales for them for four days and taking 20% of the profit. Wow. you know, 80 grand a year as a sales manager to make it a hundred grand a month. Like, like that, like that, like, like sometimes I'd have a $60,000 a week. Oh yeah, dude. Just crazy. Yeah. This would have been, um, 99, 2000, 2001. Okay. So I mean, bro, really it's more like you probably had another 10 to 15 grand So all right, so then you start making big money. How did making big money change your world or shift your mindset or Well, making big money, I learned big lessons because I thought I was invincible. You couldn't tell me anything. So I'd make all this money and I thought the goal was to be on MTV Cribs. So I got this house. It was 6,000 square feet. I had four cars. I would literally, when I wasn't working, instead of trying to grow my business and do things, I was in the basement smoking weed and playing PlayStation. Like, that's just what I did. Like, you know, or we'd go, like, I would, it would be nothing for me to take 50,000 in cash, put it in a backpack and go get a one way flight to Vegas. We just do that. Right. Like, I mean, I look at it now. I'm like, that's the most insane thing I've ever heard. But like, that was just the lifestyle that I had learned. And Take care of it. I didn't take care of things, right? And all of a sudden now I'm like, okay, we'll got to sell my Rolex to make my mortgage payment. Right. Got to sell my cars cause I can't pay for them. And so I learned very valuable lessons at that point in my career. That's why I'm so dialed in. I believe I'm helping guys that are your age that are under 30 that are making money to make sure they don't go through what I went through, right? Because nobody needs to do that. But I had no myth. Like I had, I learned money habits of a drug addict, right? So the money habits of drug addict is I know how to hustle and get money, but you're supposed to spend it all. Like, there was no, like, safer rainy day. Like, there was none of that stuff. And I would just blow money. Like, it was just insane. You know what I mean? So we've overcome that. We're not that way anymore. I do have a crazy shoe collection. I still blow money on shoes. But as a whole, we're very What, what has pain taught you? Right. We talked about some of this, this relationship with adversity, but like, bro, we're going after painful moment after painful moment for painful moment. So like how, how has Chris Walton today when you have a painful moment, how do you respond differently than how you responded in So I'll teach you something that I use and actually I did a TED talk on it and it's called the adversity backpack. So when I run into pain or adversity, which are very similar things, um, I have a backpack on everybody's got the backpack, whether you want it or not, it's there. Most of the time it weighs you down because it's got all the bad things that have ever happened to you in there. And it keeps you from making decisions. It keeps you from putting yourself out there. But what I realized was I need to start putting receipts in there. Proof of things I've gotten through. Proof of big wins. So now when I hit that wall and something painful happens, I'm pulling that backpack, I pull it out, man. I'm like, oh, dude, this ain't nothing. I've been through this before. I got this. I can get through this. Oh, this was really bad, but guess what? I'm still alive and made it through. So that would be how I handle it now is that. You know, it really comes down to- Another notch, another notch on your belt, bro, your pain belt. Yeah. I mean, like I talked with a client today and I said, man, it sounds to me like God's giving you a test day. Like you're being tested, right? Like I'm going to test you, PJ, for you to make sure what you say you want is what you really want. And That's so good. It's what you want, really what you want. I think we've seen the evolution of that. What have you found? So last year, what was total production that you coached combined I honestly, I don't know that number. I'm going to just going to guess is probably 500 million So coaching 500 more than it actually. Cause I think yesterday on yesterday's just yesterday's call alone, our mastermind, we had, 250 on there yesterday, 300, probably 300 on there yesterday. So it's probably closer I think 700 was the number you shared end of the year. So let's just say somewhere between five to 700 million annual production coach. What have you found separates your top 1% producers versus your, you know, entry level group coaching? Hey, I'm looking to get my business going. What do you see differently in the mentality and the non-negotiables of those Well, That's so funny because a guy who I just finished coaching with the other day, we decided to part ways. He asked me that question. He's like, what's the difference between me and the big dog I coach? Like, like the, the first thing is, is to have an understanding that you have to be unique and different to win. So if I'm a high level producer, I'm a high level producer because they're because of who I am, not because I'm trying to be like JJ Mazza or I'm not trying to be like Gavin Ekstrom or, you know what I mean? Like I'm a high producer because of that. The other part is these guys that are high producers, um, have self belief. They believe in themselves. There's no like, Oh, I'm not good enough. And I'm like, you know, like those conversations don't happen. And, and they found niche niches to be the best in. So one of the guys we talked about early on the call. He is the best in the country. I believe in that niche. Like I don't think there's anybody better than him. Like, and he's had a 40%, almost 40% growth since I started working with him. And you guys started working to like 40%, right. And he's, he's still could do way more. Right. But like 100 units a month. So if you want to be great in the mortgage space, be known as an expert in one area and the rest of it will come to you. Right. Rest of it will come to you. Like, The top guy that I coach, he was an expert in non-QM for a long time. And it was all short-term rentals. And then he had a partnership fall apart, so he had to adapt. So he did, and he still did more last year than he did after losing a $50 million channel account. But he adapted and created systems to offset that. But he got that good That's so good. How do you coach or speak to, and again, this is probably something we both go through, but okay, I want to pick a niche. I want to be an expert. I'm going to go all in on one thing, but there's three things that I can do. There's five things I want to speak on. There's 10 things that I know about. Where do you get the discernment to know where to I think, where What part of it is most fulfilling for you? And like for me, I have all these different things I could speak on. but I use the one Jordan strategy to get in the rooms, to speak about what I really wanted to speak about. Now I'm considered a thought leader industry wide on, on getting through adversity. Like that's literally what people pay me to come talk to their teams about. I just signed a deal a little while ago with a, um, a big family office, financial advisor group. They want me to coach their team twice a month on how to handle adversity and get through things. Right. So, It's not as sexy as the one Jordan story, right? But I mean, there's no doubt that is your thing. Not because I asked for it, that's just That's so good. Okay, so car industry, car business taught you how to communicate what did being in the mortgage business teach you? And if you want to shed some light on kind of how you got into it, and what your journey looked like, and mortgages professionally, before you went into coaching, what Yeah. Um, so I got in the mortgage space because I had left the automotive space and what became a business partner with a couple of guys in this is a whole nother story, a business partners with a couple of guys, um, in the, um, oh no, we lost connection. You there PJ. Yeah. I lost it for a second. I recalibrated. So we're good. So I'd gotten into the mortgage space because I had partnered with a couple of guys in a staffing business first. Okay. I funded the staffing business. They were doing the work. I left, became partners. One of the partners embezzled a bunch of money from the company. It took money that was supposed to go to the IRS. So he takes all this money. IRS shows up and asks us where the money is. We confront him and he kills himself. All right. So then we go from four people to three. The company's kind of doing okay, but whatever. I go on vacation. I come back. The two business partners combine their shares and vote me out of the company. Like literally vote me out. So I'm like, what am I going to do? You know, I got my money out. It took him a year to pay me. Right. But I got my money back, but what am I going to do? So I call my, my guy who's been my best friend since you're eight, Jason Purcell. And I said, Hey, I think about getting a mortgage space. Now this was 2006. Okay. 2006, it was March of 2006. So he says, oh yeah, you should do it, man. Things are great. So I'm like, okay, so I get my license and I talk to a guy locally in Indiana and we start, he brings me in. Jason's like, Hey, there's sales mastery event coming in Palm Springs. You should come. I'm like, okay. So I get on a plane, we go to Palm Springs and. Guys like Todd Dunker there and Bill Hart's there and Pat Riley speaking and, um, you know, Barry Habib. And like, so I subscribed to mortgage market guide. I'm on an elevator. I run into a guy named Dave Savage who has this thing called mortgage coach. I subscribed to mortgage coach and get my floppy disc. Cause it was on a disc back then. Right. And I'm putting all these things on my Amex that I have no way to pay for. Like I'm just blowing this Amex up. Right. Um, so then a guy named Doug Andrews, um, wrote a book on how to get people to pull equity out of their homes and put a whole life insurance policies and create an arbitrage. So I read the book over a three day period and I went after nothing but financial advisors. Wow. I met a Northwestern Mutual guy who just got out of college. He introduced me to his boss. We hit it off. So in the next eight months, I did over 20 million in business, all financial advisors. And back then the average loan size was 185,000. So I did 20 million in business, all based off of the things they taught me. I just wouldn't do what they told me to do. speaking on why mortgage-backed securities are the art, educating people and like people like, Oh, nobody's ever talked about this before. And then I went to Arizona and got certified as a certified mortgage planner. So 20 million. And then the next year I did like 60 million and, and then Oh eight happens. And in a matter of three days, my pipeline went from about 40 deals to six deals. Um, most of the stuff I was doing was, um, stated income loans back then. Uh, because I was in a lot of private health, private business owners. I had wires not showing up to closings and everything. So I'm like, I don't know what I'm going to do. Like, here we are, we're falling face first here. Um, so I picked up the phone, called a buddy of mine that owned a car dealership and said, Hey, he goes, Oh, you want to come back? I said, yeah. He goes, I'm going to go fire the guy right now. You can start tomorrow. And they literally fired the guy and the next day I So I went back in the car business for, for an extended period of time. And then 2016, Jason asked me to come to Florida and partner with him and help him run certified mortgage planners. And that's the rest of his history. Unreal. All right. So two stints in the mortgage industry, coaching mortgage producers. What did the, what did the mortgage industry teach you? Right? Like if we're building, you got the adversity backpack, we're building the life backpack of business Patience. Patience, because in the car business, it's all adrenaline. You sell something today, they pay today. And that was the hardest thing to figure out. Someone said yes, and they signed disclosures. It's like, it's 45 days before it ends. And you're like, dude, this sucks. Let's go. So it taught me patience. And then the other thing it taught me was, because once I got out of the bubble I was in, in the mortgage space, Sky's the limit on what you can do in the mortgage space if you really want to put in the time and effort. I'll never forget in 2017 when I went to Dallas, Texas to a core event and Gavin Ekstrom got on stage. And I hadn't met Gavin yet at the time. He's on stage and he says he made 8.6 million the year before. $8.6 million. And I'm like, that can't be legal. Like what's he selling, kilos? Like what? 8.6 million? And he sold, he made 8.6 million. So I'm like, holy cow. And then the next year he made 12 million. So I was like, okay, like this industry, people don't get it. You can make so much in this industry. If you put in the work in the right spot and build up a good business and don't get lazy. So for me, it was. probably it's probably the business you can make the most money in for the least amount of work in the Wow, bro. What a powerful statement. Okay. So mortgage business taught you patience. Now let's transition. You're two to three years Okay. All right. Happy three year anniversary. What has coaching Coaching's taught me that this is what I should have been doing a long time ago. Wow. My, my ultimate calling and all the things I went through was to make me a coach. Wow. To, to have the opportunity to help and to lead people to levels that they didn't know they were capable of. And I mean, I can just, I'm not going to get into the numbers, but I can tell you this. We started in 23. I left a great job. I had a beautiful glass office. I could have worked there forever. Unlimited vacation. I just could have done it forever. Went all in on myself because 10% of the people wanted to get better. 90% wanted a paycheck. I just couldn't deal with it anymore. So I go all in on myself because my wife is my biggest fan. She's like, dude, you got to do it. So I do it. We write the book, becomes international bestseller. And then I look at my whiteboard, I've got my results up here from 24, 25, and then about 26. We doubled from 24 to 25, literally doubled in revenue. And so far this year, so first quarter over first quarter, we're up, we're over double of what we're up. So we're like, like 110% over what we did last year, first quarter. And, and we, we will probably, well, I mean, yeah, based off of what we signed today and the two other things we have that are going to be signed this month, um, this'll be our biggest month in the history. Let's Come on. So what would you tell somebody that's hesitant to Like I've never regretted betting on myself ever, ever. Like, You know, think about this. My wife was, when I left the company in 23, I left at the end of August 23. My wife was six months pregnant, right? Like six months pregnant with Leo. So like I left. You know what I mean? I'm out. I put it all on the line, dude. I look at it now and I'm like, dude, that was one of the craziest moves you've ever made. But I did the same thing when I decided to go to Florida to get in the mortgage space. Left the lucrative automotive industry up here. Could have worked up here forever making a really good living. sold everything I had except a Honda Accord and I drove the Honda Accord and put all my clothes in the back and drove and lived in Jason's guest room for three months and made like no money. Like literally they paid me next to nothing when I started working there. But I knew that if I did what I'm supposed to do and I show up every day, that I was going to be able to be successful in whatever way I choose. My definition of success has changed so much over the years. But in whatever way I decided to be successful, I knew I could get there regardless of where you put me at. That's so good, bro. All right. So two Number one, this is the high level people podcast, right? So we're talking to high level people. We're also helping people level up no matter where they're at in their journey. So somebody feels stuck. They feel stagnant. They want to break through to the next level. What's one word of encouragement or maybe even a simple tactic, something they can do maybe practically tactically their sales professional, they're an entrepreneur and they're just like, bro, I just can't break I would tell them to do a check real quick on their environment. Are you in the right spot? Are you stuck because there's been a ceiling put on you Come on, baby. Let's go. I love that environmental scan on Because you may be somewhere where what you dream to do is not physically possible because of the ceiling or limited beliefs around Unreal. All right. Final question. When it's all said and done, you do your last I want to say something real quick on that, too, because I have multiple clients that I coach that work for your organization, right? That work for you. And they all have done way better because when they got to you, you guys didn't put a ceiling or constraints or any of this bullshit on top of them, right? Like you gave them opportunities to grow. And they had all come from PTSD environments where they were told things that weren't exactly clear or true just to hold them back, right? And now these people are shining at a level they just didn't know was possible before, so. Amen. Thanks, No, I appreciate it. Thank you. All right, final question. Yeah. When it's all said and done, you give your last keynote, you do your last Ted talk, you write your last book, you hang it up, you put the mic You know, it used to be, I wanted to be known for the modern day Eminem, the millionaire If people sat around after I was gone, I would hope that they would say that he was an inspiration to me and he gave me the belief that I needed to get where I wanted to go. Hmm, because I think that we know about the transference of wealth, right in generational wealth. But I think we're the biggest misses the transformation of belief, right? Like, like, if more people believe in PJ, then PJ is going to believe in himself. So I would hope people can say that Chris believed in me to a level I didn't know was possible. Therefore, I've been able to accomplish the things I have. So good, bro. So I think it's accurate to say from an upbringing of heroin to winning high rocks, to developing modern mortgage producers into heroes. Honored to spend the time with you, bro. Thank you so much for being on the show. I'll put the link below. If you guys want to check out any of Chris Wallen's work, it'll be in here. Honored to have you as a friend. Happy blessed day. Love you, bro. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode of the High Level People podcast. If you've learned anything from today's content, or if it made a positive impact on your life in any way, please feel free to subscribe on your favorite platform. Importantly, if you think there's somebody in your life who would benefit from today's episode, please shoot them a link. Encourage them to do the same. Encourage them to subscribe because every week we're committed to adding value. I look forward to seeing you soon. Hope you guys have a blessed day, blessed