Failing His Way to a $100M+ After Quitting Wall Street with Jeremy Delk – EP 212

Justin Donald: What's up, Jeremy? Welcome to the show.

Jeremy Delk: How's it going? Good to be here, Justin.

Justin Donald: Yeah. This is going to be fun. I'm talking off-air. I was like, "Hey, we probably should have hit record a little sooner than we did," but I'm glad that we're going to have a fun conversation because you've got the makings of so many people in our community being a founder who has exited and now you're on the investment side. But I'd love to talk a little bit about your journey and some of the lessons that you've learned as an entrepreneur. And then I think it'd be fun to get into what life looks like today with investing and tax strategy and peer group and how that has probably shifted over time.

Jeremy Delk: Yeah, for sure. No, I'd love to. So, I'm in Lexington, Kentucky now. I'm from a small town called Bardstown, which is like the bourbon capital of the world. So, I'm a good supporter of the bourbon industry, by the way, with like 30,000 people. And growing up in that small town, I always wanted this, you know, I always had this yearning desire to kind of just want to go do more, see more, and be more. I had that big fish, small pond mindset. And I always set my site on New York for whatever reason. You know, like Sinatra, right? If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

And through a really winding path, that's why the title of my book is called Without a Plan, no actual direction, I ended up on Wall Street. So, day trading when I was 19, made a couple of million bucks before I was 20. Lost all that in four days, which was awesome.

Justin Donald: That's painful.

Jeremy Delk: But like one of the top two best things that's ever happened to me in my life retrospectively, right? In the moment, you're like, "It's over." But that actually catapulted me into, I think, my career on actual Wall Street as an institutional equity trader. But I think that comeback from 20 to 22 is what fueled this naive confidence maybe. You know what I mean? That just had me to go through, like, what's the worst that could happen? Are you going to lose $2 million in four days? No. Okay. Well, we got to that. And that's been it. So, actually, I started my entrepreneurial journey soon after I was on Wall Street.

So, I'd lost a bunch of money, was in college still. My mother would have killed me if I dropped out. Got an opportunity to go and get hired on Fidelity, and I was to get trained for my licenses, 37, 63, etcetera, and then going to night school to finish college. And I made it. I was in New York City. I was living in Chelsea and like just living the life I had built. I didn't build back the $2 million, but I was high net worth, well, high net worth and making really good income for a single guy in Manhattan. But something really just was like a light bulb went off. I always had all these ideas and I don't think all of them were bad. Maybe not all of them were good, but some of them had to be good.

And no matter what the idea was, I would take it up to my senior or the senior trader or what have you. And it was a lot of just, "Just stay in your lane, kid. That's cute, whatever." And you hear me speak now. I don't sound like I'm from Kentucky. The first thing was I'm just a f*cking hick. Maybe my idea is great but maybe I just sound like Jed Clampett or something and that's why they don't believe my idea. So, I started to really just be a bit of a chameleon. Now, I do business all around the world. If I'm around my Aussie buddies a lot, I'll be speaking like I'm from South Melbourne or something. But that was the first piece.

And then after that, you quickly realize that I was making a lot of money but that was all I was making. And I found out where, fortunately for me, because most people don't find this out until later on in life, that I'm a creator, I'm a vision, I'm this idea person. And that's what fuels me. It happens to pay pretty well, too. But I didn't care about the money as much of like I can't see myself doing this. I was driving a BMW. My guy that was 40 years older than me had a Bentley like f*ck, it ain't that far apart, man and we were doing the exact same sh*t. And there's no way I could have seen myself doing that for another 20 years.

So, just to completely wreck my mom's life, I told her after I got my sh*t together, I'm going to resign and go start my own company. And that was Delk Enterprises, and that was in 2002. So, yeah, and first year in business, I made $6,000, which doesn't go far when your apartment rent is $5,500 in Chelsea.

Justin Donald: Oh, man. Yeah, behind the eight ball.

Jeremy Delk: But we had some savings. I had some bullets. And again, it was that piece of, "F*ck, I have already done it," right? And so, it wasn't this sphere of like, what happens if it doesn't work out? Like, f*ck it. It doesn't work out, I can go back to Wall Street, but I don't think as a 22-year-old kid, I would have had that confidence to make it if I hadn't taken the big piece. So, I love doing these shows and speaking on stage because the big piece and every entrepreneur gets it. But anyone that's not been through a cycle or a struggle, so many people have this negative connotation of failure.

And that's the title of the book, Without a Plan. The subtitle is A Memoir of Unbound Action and Failing My Way to Success because that's really what I've done. I just took chances, f*cked up a ton. Try not to f*ck up twice, right? Like, learned the lesson and then kind of go back for it. And that's really what's got me here. So, I'm an overnight success 22 years in the making.

Justin Donald: I love your point about trying not to make the same mistake twice. I tell people often that I make a ton of mistakes, but I'm good at only making that mistake one time and learning the lessons from that mistake. And hopefully, it doesn't have to be so painful to teach me the lesson. But, I mean, like you, one of the greatest lessons I ever had was losing a whole bunch on my very first investment and then losing even more. You know, what was it, probably five years later on another investment that ended up being a Ponzi scheme. But those two incidents, those two situations defined so much. Like, I learned so much and I'm such a better investor today because of those situations. So, I'm thankful for them. But in the moment, like you said, it does not feel good. I actually just got back.

You're the first person that I have met with, talked with since my trip to Asia. So, we went to Taiwan, spent most of our time in Taipei City, and then spent some time in Hong Kong. Just an awesome group with several of my friends that are part of the Lifestyle Investor mastermind. And it was just, I mean, we went to like 10 to 15 Michelin-star restaurants. It was incredible. So, you were talking about like being a chameleon and getting to know people doing international business. And I just think it opens your eyes when you get outside the borders of your own country and experience the rest of the world. So, I love that.

Jeremy Delk: Yeah. No, for sure. Offline, I want to hear your Ponzi scheme. I was in one as well, so I think it's like a rite of passage. You have to lose a few hundred grand in a Ponzi scheme. I knew when I invested, it probably was but it was just like f*ck it. It was worth a couple of hundred grand to see because the returns were that good. But you're right. I mean, I think I love - and that's why definitely offline we'll talk more about it because like my very first company I exited, I've had several, but the very first one wasn't a big exit. It was a couple million bucks. So, it was material. Each time it was a transaction.

So, we took a public, took a private, and then exited the PE, but not for big numbers, but enough to kind of make it worthwhile. But the thing that really did it, we were launching an animal health biotech company and I saw the world, man. So, from a kid that like that was a dividend. Like, yeah, I got some money and it's been paid but literally I think we launched in 26 countries around the world, dude. And I just got through and love Hong Kong. Been there a million times. I've actually not been - maybe I have been to Taiwan. I have not been to South Korea, but I've been to Taiwan, but Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong hundreds of times, Philippines, I mean, Middle East.

The travel piece is the best, in my opinion, the best level of education beside this, but it's so much because you just get an appreciation. I know we did a lot in Manila, in the Philippines and, dude, like you want to feel like a real asshole, like take your f*cking US problems and go there, right? Because it'll show you people that are living day by day that have like the worst conditions at our vantage point who have the biggest smiles on their face you've ever seen. I mean, it's such a powerful thing.

Justin Donald: No kidding. Well, and for you, I love how early it started because I think you started trading when you were 16 years old. So, you built a lot of money. You were trading in your dorm. I mean, it's just so incredible. Made a ton of money, lost a ton of money, went into corporate America, and then came out the other side starting a company. When did you exit? So, you started in 2002. When was your first exit and when were kind of subsequent exits from there?

Jeremy Delk: So, that one was a lot. So, I left in 2002, so my first real exit. So, we had a building... I was making good money in New York City, but not real estate development money. So, I was sending cash down to Kentucky buying houses, renovating, doing fourplexes and rentals and that kind of thing. So, I was sending the money out because my money went a lot further. Believe it or not, back in the day, I was building single family homes for $55 a square foot. Now, my wife can't f*cking find tiles that's f*cking that cheap. But that was the first piece of my first. So, I was already doing that at Fidelity, and that's how Delk Enterprises actually started a little bit before I exited.

And a buddy of mine also left Wall Street, and he was in the building material business. And this was a thought process. I'm building sh*t. He needs windows. His family was in the lumber business and then he opened a window distribution business and a retail shop. I originally got involved to just, "Hey, maybe I could take these windows from New York and bring them to Kentucky." I didn't know anything about windows other than they open and shut. But that business taught me so much about business because we took it from a retail setting, which is really sh*tty, but like I learned everything about windows more than I'll ever need to know.

Then we took out the distributor we were buying for, became the nationwide distributor. A few years later, started OEM, our own manufacturing facilities in Germany and Italy. And then now having lumber yards that were 80 years old, our customers, right? Just two kids from Wall Street. So, I learned so much about that business. I moved back to Kentucky in 2007, 2008, and that's when I started the animal health company. So, I had a technical exit to my partner but, I mean, it was like a million bucks. It wasn't a lot of money. My first real exit, more than actual true arm’s length was that animal health business.

Justin Donald: Okay. And how long of a time frame was it from start to exit on that business?

Jeremy Delk: F*cking long, man. So, it was much longer. For the dollar amounts, it was probably six, five years. Five years. It was a biotech. It was in stem cells when no one knew what stem cells were like you thought we were killing babies. I mean, so the tech was too early. The company is still around, which I talk about in the book, like most of the businesses I've created still precede me, which I think that's a real business that if they don't need you.

Justin Donald: Yeah, fantastic.

Jeremy Delk: So, those businesses are still around. But we made some money like the first couple of years and then started to grow as biotechs and started to burn. So, the money I made, we did a reverse merger with a public company in Australia. So, I spent so much time down there. I took it back private. So, I made money on both of those licks and then my last lick was selling it to a local private equity company who owns it today as a portfolio asset.

Justin Donald: That's great. That's fantastic. And so, early days, so now I think Delk is more of like a VC fund, right? In early days, is that what it was or you were just doing one-off projects?

Jeremy Delk: So, the Delk Enterprises, it's called strategic capital. And most of them was like I talked about Ryan Deiss in War Room, most of them was f*cking going to War Room and coming up with ideas and I would just say, "F*ck, that's a great idea." So, I either buy a company or start, right? So, I had a lot of shared services. So, in my kind of port cos or op cos that I was operating on, I had a lot of things that most businesses need. So, finance, I had a good finance team. Sales and marketing, have a great sales and marketing team back when Facebook was good old days, right? Not, you know, most keywords.

Justin Donald: Different today. Yeah.

Jeremy Delk: We would go through so I had all those businesses so it started so a lot of the businesses on the website, if you look at the ones that were started, a lot of those we incubated and started, ran fast, failed, and we had a very, you know, we put $50,000, $100,000 in each business, gave it four months, set the expectations. It worked or didn't work. But out of those came real, real businesses, which was fun. And then from there, the investing have been a lot of, I mean, you know how it is. Like, deal flow, like deals get deals. And I don't know how to explain it other than that's how it works.

So, we would go through and you're at a conference. You're going through. You see a strategic like that makes sense. One and one equals four. Let's go and put them together. So, that's what we like to do. And so, it started again just like everything I've done and that's why the book, Without a Plan, is yeah that makes sense. Well, why don't we do it? So, I've got my second Inc 500 company this year, TruDiagnostic. The first one was a pharmacy business. I can tell you everything about what our business with… I don't know if you know Bryan Johnson who does, you know, like that's all us like biological age. We're on the Kardashians.

A hillbilly from Kentucky is involved with the world's leading epigenetic and biological aging company. Makes no f*cking sense from Wall Street but if you string together regenerative medicine stem cells to human pharmacy, if you put it all together, they're just building blocks. And I think that's the big piece is backing up and looking at all the sh*t I've got now doesn't make a ton of sense. But if you just peel back and just go back a couple of years, a couple of years, it just kind of layering through. So, now...

Justin Donald: When you learn the importance of process over industry, it's like, "Hey, this works regardless of the industry," right? You've got a playbook. The playbook, if you follow the blueprint, it's going to work, agnostic of industry.

Jeremy Delk: Exactly. We are very industry-agnostic. That's how I always describe it because business is business is business. I don't care. B2B, B2C, I don't care what level you are. People do business with people and you have to have a compelling thing. And going into an industry where you don't necessarily have a f*cking clue is sometimes a superpower because every consultant think, "Oh, well, this is how. I don't give a f*ck how it's done, man. Like, just don't tell me because it's only noise."

Justin Donald: That's right.

Jeremy Delk: This is my approach. I may fall on my ass. Great. Okay. But it's sometimes you get lightning in a bottle when you zig and they zag. When you take a very unconventional approach at things, that's how big problems can be solved. And that's what we like to try and do.

Justin Donald: I love that. Yeah. I mean, we took a very similar approach. Like for me, even getting into, you know, when I started the Lifestyle Investor Mastermind, it's one of those things. I was never in financial services, so I never saw the model the way that they saw it. I just saw it the way that I thought it should be. And that's been a blessing to our community because the way that we do things is totally opposite of the way that it's done on Wall Street, where my goal is not take a carry on anything. You know, I want people to pay membership and I want to have the most unbiased approach because I don't want any compensation anywhere around any of the things that we do.

And that way, you know, I feel like in Wall Street and in conventional financial services, everyone is paid based on assets under management or they're paid to carry. They're always making money on other people's money. And I wanted to be the one place in the financial world, in the investment space, where people aren't making money on other people's money, where I specifically am not making money on other people's money. I only make money because my money's in the deal.

Jeremy Delk: Yeah. I mean, I've got some really because my best friends are PE guys and f*cking 2 and 20. I love flying on their G550s, man. I like it but it ain't free. I could tell you that sh*t. It ain't free.

Justin Donald: That's right. There's no doubt. And by the way, I get it because you're going to make more money if that's your model. But that I don't think is the best model. I think there's misalignment through and through with who would be investing.

Jeremy Delk: Because you're hitting a niche, right, presumably because, I mean, you mentioned a couple of numbers and I knew you mentioned two. I knew both of them. Right? So, you're hitting a niche which is well under-served. Kasim had an exit, whatever, but people that we know had exits and have some liquidity. And then like for most entrepreneurs, that's the worst f*cking thing because now like they're f*cked. They've got this identity crisis. What am I supposed to do now? Like, I did my burnout or I did my garden duty and like, now what? And then that's when they get scammed out of this. The friends come out of the woodwork.

So, like, after all that sh*t cycles through, then you're like, "Well, what's real? What's a good deal?" Because entrepreneurs, I mean, like after losing that money I have, other than my kids' 529, I don't have a dollar in the market. I control what I do, right? I was early 23andMe, early Uber. Travis f*cked me on that one but another story. But I usually exit once they go public if I like the idea but most of my investments are illiquid early stage where the risk is. And I go in there knowing that because that's where the gold is, not most of the time, actually, very rarely but when it is, it pays for all the losers.

So, I think the conventional like, you know, my PE buddies are going to this allocator of funds, this teacher pension. I mean, it's just a different bucket of these massive things where they have a problem that you need to get rid of capital because they're making it. So, it's all just even a Ponzi scheme. I mean, it's not dissimilar to Ponzi scheme. It's still a racket to keep the machine going because Blackstone's got how many trillions. They've got to go and allocate a smaller PE then it just kind of goes down. The guys that have got 5, 10, $20 million in the bank who are entrepreneurial, that doesn't resonate with them. It's not fast enough and they don't get it. More importantly, they don't f*cking trust it.

So, I think what you're doing makes a ton of sense that you're finding that value. And that's where investors from my piece, you know, I always kind of talk through and coach people trying to raise money. The knee-jerk reaction is like, "Justin, let me tell you about this idea." And you ask me a hundred questions. I'll give you 102 answers, right? I know everything. Well, I'm either a f*cking liar or just f*cking stupid, one or the other, because the most vulnerable thing you can do, and this why I talk about being like your true, authentic self is so important, the most vulnerable thing you can do is like, "Man, Justin. I've got this great idea. I can sell anything, ice to Eskimo. I can go through. I f*cking can get investor money. I can, like, make it rain. I don't have a f*cking clue how to operate this sh*t."

Bing. Figure that out now because that may be a trigger like I don't want to deal business with you. And that's fine but at least we get to know it. Or it could be, "Great, man. I know how to do that really, really well. That's how I can help." So, that's why the strategic capital piece comes on. Everyone's so scared. Well, if I'm going to ask for money, I need to have it all figured out. No one has it all figured out. And they do tell you that. They're lying. Like, show me the business plan in 2019 that someone had a contingency model for a f*cking global pandemic. I'll give you a million bucks. No one has it.

Justin Donald: Well, and if you had it all figured out, you don’t need the money or you don’t need the team or you don’t need the systems, like you’re already mature. So, yeah, there’s no doubt. And for me, I want to solve this problem because you’ve gone through this and I’d love to talk through your experience, but someone has an exit, an entrepreneur sells her service, sells part of their business or all their business. Maybe there’s an earnout, maybe there’s not.

But now, it’s a different season of life. If there’s an earnout, now you’re working for someone versus being the person in charge. Things kind of change. Dynamics change. Those generally don’t work out well and they don’t last as long as what they’re scheduled to last. But for those that have a clean break and a true exit, now all of a sudden, the identity is gone. Your ego for being a founder isn’t there. It’s kind of like, who am I if I’m not a business owner?

And then, also the dollars that you earned and lived your life on through that business are no longer there. So, you have this money and it dwindles every single week or every single month as you’re spending it down. And most entrepreneurs think, because I’m so good over here as an entrepreneur, I’m going to be so good at investing in companies or investing in entrepreneurs. And it’s two different skill sets. And most entrepreneurs flop hard. They’re not good investors. Some are. Very few are.

But one of the things I like to teach is, hey, instead of taking these big risks on early stage companies, maybe you allocate a percentage of your net worth the way the wealthiest families do, somewhere between 1% and 10%. And then you get a portion of your portfolio that is earning cash flow, enough cash flow to cover your lifestyle, and then you can figure out the other investments from there. And that we’ve had a great cadence for that because we study these billionaire family offices and what they do and how they do it, what their asset allocation looks like.

And contrary to popular belief, most people are in the stock market, as you mentioned before, more than 15% to 25%. I mean, that really is the average. And like you, I’m super low. I’m even below that. I’m 1% max. And it’s more because I know I can get about a return. Like, if you study the data, the private markets are going to outperform the public markets, the indexes, whatever portfolio you have there by generally 50% year over year. And this is true over the last 100 years.

Jeremy Delk: Yeah, for sure. Plus the fees, I mean, forget the 2 in 20, like big boy stuff, just on, oh, I’m going to put it in a Schwab mutual fund. F*ck, bro. Good luck. Like, run the data. Run the model for 30 years of what one and a half points on that looks like with the return baked on. Only person who makes money is the game, right? That’s why 401(k)’s were invented and I mean, I can talk about all of that for another show, but that’s the level of financial illiteracy that there is.

And I agree, most investors, and like the only time I’ve seen good entrepreneurs be good investors, if you were a f*cking excellent hire, like if you could hire talent and recruit talent really well and spot it, then you can have a chance of being an investor. Most people, and I used to be this way, I could bring f*cking someone like the most low energy person just because of my energy and I could bring the best out of someone and make them be like me, but that’s not what you want. You want someone that’s counterbalancing you or what have you. So, if someone can recognize that piece, which usually happens after a couple businesses that you have where you can have a recognize for talent, that’s it, because the idea is the cheapest part of the whole game in, nothing but execution.

Justin Donald: Yeah. Now, you mentioned the power of being in War Room, the power of being in a mastermind. I’d love to hear you expand because you said a lot of the ideas, a lot of your best ideas you took were from that community or were from people you partnered with. And I love to hear your thoughts.

Jeremy Delk: I’ll give his name and I remember, because I thought masterminds, like I wasn’t in a fraternity in college. I was like, f*ck this, I don’t need to pay for friends. So, he went, his name is Wayne Godwin, still one of my dear friends. I talked to him about a month ago. We’ve had three businesses together. He was in Russell’s mastermind.

Justin Donald: Russell Brunson, I’m assuming.

Jeremy Delk: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry. And like the big one, like small, like maybe 50 grand a year. And he would tell me he’s going to f*cking Idaho. But the f*ck? I didn’t get it. I was a pain in the ass and tell me on this stuff, I’m like, bro, if you want a friend, give me f*cking 20 grand and I’ll f*cking come. Hey, you just come up here and we’ll shoot the sh*t. I thought it was the dumbest f*cking thing. And he was doing it for his son and exposure and whatever, and his son, and actually, still, I still have, like, I think I have a f*cking 10% of the business. I get it. It’s nice. I get like, hey, there’s a $20,000 deposit. Hey, thanks.

Justin Donald: Nice. Well done.

Jeremy Delk: His son did a great job, Brandon. But I’m like, dude, this is f*cking stupid. Like, Delk, just try it. So, we went to T&C for my first time, like, all right, this is pretty cool.

Justin Donald: Traffic & Conversion Summit back in ‘98.

Jeremy Delk: Sorry. Yeah, yeah. Traffic & Conversion, which is like the best. And I’m not a marketing guy, but I’m a sales guy and I love the understanding. And I heard about War Room and I met Perry. I don’t know if you know Perry.

Justin Donald: I know Perry, yeah.

Jeremy Delk: He’s a Kentucky guy. And we f*cking hit it off well. And I f*cking, like, what did Perry say? Like, if you f*cking hate f*cking expensive dinners and stay in nice places, you’re f*cking hated, which is like the greatest line. And so, like, I did it and I’m like, I don’t know what it is. Because I think back then, we were grandfathered in. It was like 25,000 bucks. I think it went up as the years went. I think you actually got to bring a partner with that or something. This was early days of War Room, not like founding members, like midway through. We were there for five or six years.

And I just couldn’t justify it. And I went to that first one and I remember it was Beverly Hills, because we did some in Austin too, wherever it was, because we usually did the Four Seasons, I think, in Austin. But I just walked out of there with my mind f*cking blown just because, like the way they did it, and again, they broke off and did other ones. I think we still have them, but they’re never the same. But the way they did it was just so good where it’s like signing on disclosures before you come in and like, you go in there and it’s no f*cking theory, no ego, no bullsh*t. Like, oh, I think if you do this, like, no, motherf*cker, I did this, I ran it, I lost my ass. Like, don’t do it. Kasim, what does blow him up, always had the best sh*t. He’d always win the final.

Justin Donald: Oh, yeah, he’s so smart. That’s right.

Jeremy Delk: But he would always, because he just comes up with sh*t and be like, what the f*ck? Who are you? Like, where do you come up with this stuff? And can you apply everything to your business? Like, he had an agency business that did well, but not always is there a direct correlation, but most of the time, there was something that you could imprint over that would still hold water, which goes back to business being agnostic, right? So, it’s business is business is business. And that happened literally every time.

The problem with going was like, f*ck. I mean, I told my whole staff, like, I promise I’m not going to start another company. I promise. I’m going to be the best. Never kept the promise to anybody. And again, none of them all work. But it was a lot of fun. It’s like-minded people. And yeah, it was a great run.

Justin Donald: Yeah, there’s so much value in them. And I encourage anyone that’s listening to this, check out, find one that is good for you. I think peer group matters so much. Mentorship matters so much. Menteeship matters. Like, when you’re good at something, you should be teaching people how to do stuff. But at a minimum, you should be elevating your peer group and expanding your horizons and finding whatever. So, it doesn’t have to be Lifestyle Investor. It can’t be War Room, that’s over now, but it can literally be any community. You just want to find like-minded people that are playing the game of business and life and wealth creation at a higher level. So, it matters.

Jeremy Delk: And again, because like you’ve got people that are speaking on stage and going through and like, that’s good. And sometimes, there’s a product, good, or service that’s attached to it, but like Steve Sims. Do you know Steve?

Justin Donald: I love Steve. Yeah, he’s been on the show.

Jeremy Delk: Dude, f*cking Steve’s a legend.

Justin Donald: He is.

Jeremy Delk: We built a great relationship. I was talking with him earlier. He’s going through a health deal, but dude, one of the nicest, most genuine guys ever. And we just connect because we sat across from each other and I went to his event a couple of times. But like, you can go through and talk and no one gives a f*ck because what’s good? Am I going to steal his lifestyle concierge, but like, no one’s going to be taking things from you. And he was going to, that’s when he was actually, he was just exiting Bluefish.

And you can say, like, hey, well, this is how I did or this is what they did to me. Or make sure you pegged working capital because I’ll f*ck you on it, like all these things that no one tells you, no f*cking lawyer or consultant is going to tell you, but someone that’s been through it, they want to share that because it’s almost like, dude, f*ck it, I got screwed here. Let me look at. And that’s invaluable.

Justin Donald: Well, and people let their guard down. So, it’s been tough to reach people that are actually not tough to reach once you get into the group. So, figure out who you want to connect with or what groups they’re in and get in those groups. So, I love it. Now, one thing I would love to touch on is your experience. So, you sold several companies. At some point, you gave into a lot of money. You can share specifics or you can be vague with it, but there’s a pivot from being an entrepreneur to being an investor. And I’d love for you to share what that was like. I mean, partially, ego shifts a little bit. You’re no longer the guy running the show, but to a certain degree, you can be on the investment side, right? But what was that like for you?

Jeremy Delk: So, after the small company, which I was CEO and the biotech deal, I think I grew up on that one, on the next company and we grew that. That was Inc. 500, like 24th fastest growing. We grew from 0 to almost 50 million in revenue. And it got him machine and still is, like that is the company, we sold it, and they just did a $12 million expansion and still, we had 100 and something employees, like that you really quickly realize that you can bootstrap. I’m not saying bootstrap, not like necessarily the finances because this was super profitable, but you can bootstrap yourself so far to where I don’t give a f*ck how many hours or you just can’t do it, right? So, that’s when you started having to get creative on how do I put trust in people and put managing and put processes in place. So, that was for me the adaptation of a real business. And that’s what you want, like if it’s going to grow and big, you can’t do all of it. And that’s what you quickly learn. So, it wasn’t as much ego shift, it was much more of realization, like you are becoming an impediment to the business, not an asset.

And I think when you go from that piece, understanding who you are is super important. Like, I get bored, man, I have to bring adults in. I’m a zero, like Peter Thiel, a great book, Zero to One, I’m that guy. I love taking idea. That’s why I’m doing a lot of real estate development. I love taking a commercial to resi conversion. Like, I love that. I’ve sold out. We haven’t owned the building a year. We’ve gone 20 million in sales, closed on stuff, like completely did it in 12 months. I f*cking over that project where you have no idea, because there’s nothing else, like it’s on autopilot. Just build this sh*t, hold it close, like there’s nothing cool. I’m that. That’s why I love Wall Street. I love the early stage kind of piece. So, I found that after about 30, 40 million bucks, I will f*cking destroy that business just on trying to tweak and tinker. And you need to bring in the adults who are operators.

Justin Donald: True C-Suite, right? The professionals that do it for living.

Jeremy Delk: Just because I have the ability to be an operator. I have the ability. I f*cking hate it, but I have the ability. And then what you find, oh, operate, everything’s going good. What if we just f*ck with this sh*t and then there’s a problem that I can go and fix? That’s what I love. I think my social media team put it, I think, says, don’t call me if your business is scaling, your profit has been going good. And that the joke is like, call me when your sh*t is burning down because that’s what I’m actually interested. If everything is going good like F, f*cking them, I’m sorry, man. F*ck to your account, I can’t help you.

Justin Donald: Well, like you, it’s the greatest. So, I’ve played two different roles in my businesses before. I’ve been the COO, right? I’ve been a CEO, of course, but COO, truly running things. And the problem is, I’m actually equipped to do it. Like you, I don’t enjoy it, or at least I don’t at a certain point, right? I’m okay figuring it out. I’m okay, like taking it to whatever level. But at a certain point, that probably isn’t the greatest gifts or use of my gifts, but I can do it, which is dangerous because then it makes it harder to bring someone in if you can justify doing it.

The same thing for a CFO. I’ve been a CFO for several of the businesses that we’ve run and I have the skill set to be able to do it. I don’t enjoy that either. But sometimes for a long time, I didn’t bring in the professionals because I had enough know-how to do it right. But what I will say is once I made the decision to do it and I found the right person, it was like the decision was screaming afterwards, like, why did you wait so long? This person is so good. They’re so much better.

Jeremy Delk: Exactly. So, I just realized with, even your response, I didn’t really answer the question. So, I think it’s part of that. The whole component is how you deal with it after the exit is, you should have that process as you’re building the business and the fact that, hey, what is my superpower? What did I do in this business to maximize value? Most of the time it’s vision-oriented idea, big thinking. And having you being able to execute and other people being able to execute, that’s most founder situations.

Justin Donald: That’s right.

Jeremy Delk: So, if that’s what you like, well then go and do more of that and you can do it. So, now, I think I’m on the big dynastic business that it should change the world, like our goal, I brought on partners who had access before, so none of us give a f*ck about money. Like, you couldn’t bring a big number to us, like, f*ck you, we don’t care.

Justin Donald: I love it, I love it.

Jeremy Delk: And we will be either the most valuable health care company ever or just some small couple of hundred-million-dollar business. Either way, the worst case isn’t that bad, but that’s the mindset. And so, now, like, I’m on weekly calls because I don’t need to be there, right? So, it’s more than a board level. So, I’m on a weekly advisory call, and then if I hear something, I’ll mix it up and say, hey, maybe consider this. And there’s no like, did it work or not? You don’t have to report to me. I’m not on the org chart by design. Zero people report to me. I f*cking love it. But I love being able to say, hey, I don’t get my hands dirty. That’s so freeing to have now, let me play and do silly real estate stuff or invest in these Israeli startups or whatever it is I’m looking at.

Justin Donald: I love that. And I just think that there’s a power in getting to a place where you financially don’t need the money because you make better life decisions and better business decisions. Earlier in business, when money’s not taken care of, you make decisions based on the top– the number one question is can we afford it? Can we not? That’s not always the best quality question, right? Is that best for the customers? Is that best for scale? Is that best for employees?

There’s so many better quality questions, like, is this the direction we want to go? So, I think that the sooner you can cover your lifestyle with passive income, the better decisions (a) you make in life in general, higher quality decisions, and then (b) the better decisions you make in your business. So, that to me is just everything. You clear that and you’re just going to be asking better quality questions and having better quality outcomes.

Jeremy Delk: For sure. And this is almost like, I think, that’s so important for early founders because I see so many people take money from the wrong f*cking people so often and like, that’s a marriage, man, it ain’t f*cking easy to break that sh*t up. So, like, hey, I need this money, but do you really need it? So, like, cash-starved businesses make so much, even like when we were having our little incubator, we were funding deals. Like, yeah, I can f*cking write a check for five times of what I was writing to go and do it, but that’s f*cking lazy. Then you hire a consultant. Your consultant is like get in there, dig it out, do the split task, like go and do the work and pretend you have no money. I’m going to backstop you, right, which is a good safety net, but a cash-starved mentality will force you to make better decisions every time.

Justin Donald: That’s right. That’s right. Well, this has been such a fun episode. I love just spending time with you hearing your thoughts, hearing about your business successes, your investment successes, just what life was like in those different stages. Where can people learn more about you, Jeremy, and your book and your speaking and coaching that you do?

Jeremy Delk: Yeah, so it’s JeremyDelk.com. I’m Jeremy S Delk on all socials and, yeah.

Justin Donald: That’s awesome. Well, this has been a great episode. I appreciate you spending some time with us and I like ending every episode that we do with a question to our audience. So, my question is the same every week. What is one step you can take today to move towards financial freedom and really living the life that you desire, so life on your terms, not a life by default, right? Keeping the playbook open for life by design. So, what’s one step from what you learned from Jeremy today that you can implement in your life to move one step closer? Thanks. And we’ll catch you next week.