Deep Wealth Founders Jeffrey And Steve Reveal The Power Of Mentorship For The Podcast's 200th Episode Special (#200)

[00:00:00] Jeffrey Feldberg: Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast where you learn how to extract your business and personal Deep Wealth.

I'm your host Jeffrey Feldberg.

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When it comes to your business deep wealth, your exit or liquidity event is the most important financial decision of your life.

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Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast, and this isn't any episode. This is the 200th episode of the Deep Wealth Podcast. And firstly, for our listeners, thank you. A heartfelt thank you for your support Because of you, we're now ranked in the top 5% of podcasts globally. What an honor. And to honor the 200th episode, we have with us a friend of the community, my fellow business partner friend, Steve Wells.

Hey Steve, welcome back. Great to have you with us. How have you been?

[00:02:07] Steve Wells: Well, great, Great to be here. I know it's been a while since I've been able to join the podcast; been well doing well, and really glad to be on this 200th podcast, so let's kick it off and see what we can talk about for our folks.

[00:02:21] Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, absolutely. You know, offline, we were talking, I was sharing with you the unfortunate news that my uncle recently passed away. Just a magnificent man and a titan of business, not just for me but really for the entire world in terms of what he was doing. And we were talking about the role he played for me as a mentor; both him and his brother, who's my father, were both my mentors, my superheroes growing up, and how for me, that just really molded and sculpted me into what I would later become.

And we thought, hey, you know what? Why don't we share this with our listeners about mentorship? Perhaps while you're growing a business, starting a business, then when you rise through the ranks, get to where you're going to and become successful, how you can give that back. But let me ask you this, Steve, and we can go back and forth.

Looking back at your business career to get you to where you got to, even before I met you, mentorship. How did that play a role? Did it play a role for you?

[00:03:15] Steve Wells: Yeah. You know It's interesting, I remember your uncle and I'd met him on many occasions. And you can share some stories, you know, in my case, I would have to say that my mother gave me a lot of entrepreneurial confidence. My father died when I was very young. We had just moved to Florida, and a couple years later, I was 14, he passed away, and then he, unfortunately, had left my mom with no money because back then, I guess the regulatory structure wasn't there. And the insurance policy they thought they had didn't exist, and she had to strike out on her own. And she, of all things, picked Mary Kay, which was a multi-level marketing makeup, people are very familiar with. So, I grew up as a young teenage boy with hundreds and hundreds of Mary Kay reps in my home, and pink Cadillacs, and all kinds of things. But my mom really just always said, you can do anything you want. And she showed that and mentored that kind of spirit in me and in my two younger sisters as well.

I think that was very formidable, important in my life to become the entrepreneur that I later was able to enjoy.

[00:04:25] Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure. Just knowing you like I have, you can see that theme really with everything that you've done, not just in business. But in life as well. And for myself, thinking now of my uncle, thinking of my father, both were immigrants to the country. And that immigrant philosophy that was ingrained into me works hard prove your worth to others.

There's no self-entitlement. You're up early doing whatever it cans, but you know, mostly, it's helping other people. The values that I learned along the way, and sometimes not much in words, but through actions really for both my father and my uncle later on, when they were very successful. If you were to look at them, you would never know.

There's nothing pretentious about them. There was nothing fancy. They weren't flaunting. They were very humble and servant kind of attitudes with people, and treating people equally. Doesn't matter how many zeros. Maybe you have no zeros in the bank account. Maybe you have a lot of zeros in the bank account.

For them, it didn't matter. And in the early days, I don't know about you, but when I first got into the business, I didn't know what to do and where to start. So, Where do you turn? Well, I turned to my uncle. I turned to my father. I was very fortunate with both of them growing up. I was in the workplace, seeing what that was like.

My father had the pharmacy, and he would take me in. When I was younger, and I would see what was going on later on in high school, I would work at my father's pharmacy, but also, growing up, my dad would take me to my uncle's place, which was a factory. And being in this kind of environment and you have a whole mishmash of people from all different backgrounds, and to me, he was just my uncle.

I didn't know any different. It was only later on, when I looked back, I realized what an empire that he had built. And it was through, again, being as servant kind of attitude. Being respectful for people, looking for the best in people to bring out the absolute best in them. Not looking to build people down or take people down but to build people up even when things didn't go right.

How to light that fire inside of them to be that guiding light were some of the principles that I know for myself and you and I together. We would later take out into business, into Embanet, to build that up and get things out there. How about for yourself when you look at your mother or mentors in general I mean, what do you see?

[00:06:43] Steve Wells: I remember, when I first got outta college and was first married, I was in my bedroom making cold calls for my advertising agency. And I would dress up in a suit and tie back then just to give myself confidence, you know, this young 20-year-old kid. And then later, as I got a little bit more success, hardly much success.

I needed an office, so my mom had some space that she used for all her Mary Kay meetings, and she's been in this now, many years. And she would have products there and meetings, so I would share that. She helped me with my very first office space where I could have meetings, and again, it's funny. I didn't think of it at the time.

As a leading people in Mary Kay, you've got to give them confidence. I heard the speeches. I saw the coaching; I saw her mentoring. They probably didn't use that word in that circle, but that's exactly what it was. It was her showing people that to overcome their fears, to get out of their comfort zone, to not be afraid that they can go out and they've got a good product.

They can help people, but all the principles of sales really and confidence that she was giving and coaching these ladies. I was listening to so you know, I kind of benefited back in the corner, so, to speak. Hearing those pep talks and learning what that meant, that was impactful to me.

[00:08:02] Jeffrey Feldberg: And you know, for our listeners, Steve and I, we've shared this before, it's worth saying again, and we didn't even realize it at the time, Steve, but we become the average of the five people that we spend the most amount of time with. And if those people like your mother, like my father or my uncle, even my grandfather who was a traveling salesman of all things, we pick up from them habits and we become really the sum of who they are.

And for our listeners, as we're talking about mentorship and, we're looking at for yourself how you can help yourself those around you for your business and who are you hanging around with. What would you have to say about those people from an outsider looking in who doesn't even know those people?

What would they say about them? Is it on the plus side? If it on the negative side? Steve, you and I were very fortunate. We had people around us, in this case, our family, who were in our incredible people and put all the right values in us. I'd imagine of someone who didn't have that; you don't have the best examples.

Maybe you don't realize that in the early days, but you realize that a little bit later on. What would you say to that person, Steve, in terms of finding the right kind of mentor? Where do we turn? What do we look for?

[00:09:13] Steve Wells: We were fortunate that we had some good examples and there are many people that don't have that opportunity. And we know now that we've exited and many of the listeners have exited and they've become older or more mature, that this is a great opportunity for us to give back and help and coach and mentor other younger business people, back in ancient times, biblical times, but even beyond the Bible there was a concept of elders at the gate. The elders would gather, they'd be right outside the gate, and the elders would rule on decisions. They would be there for people to get council and to get help I think it's a great kind of visual concept to try to be an elder at the gate for younger people and for other people to find those elders at the gate. And where's the gate? Today? Well, I could be various places. It could be in some type of business club, service club. It could be at social organizations, churches, synagogues.

There's all kinds of places, but I think it's to be sensitive to look for those persons that you think would help you if you're looking for that mentor. And on the other side, be sensitive to those people around you. And I know you have, I have. I have young men that have come to me over the years many times, and I meet with them regularly to help them.

And you know what we'll find is that you're gonna start with business and maybe you're a successful business person so the younger business people kind of want your advice, but what happens always is that beyond the business, it becomes the personal life. Like how do you deal with life? How do you have a work-life balance?

How do I communicate with my spouse about business or my children? What do I do? And these are great opportunities for us to share our experiences and to help people. And if you're a younger person, I think you're doing yourself a great service to get some input from someone outside of your sphere who's been down the path a little bit more than you have.

[00:11:18] Jeffrey Feldberg: You're so right. And Steve, as you're thinking about this, when I look outside of my father, outside of my uncle, who else made a positive mark on me? And back in the day, the internet simply wasn't there. For me, it was books; it was biographies, and autobiographies where in a few hours, you can distill a lifetime of learning from a very successful person.

And success isn't necessarily on the financial side, it's someone who perhaps led a social movement or just made a such a positive impact. With society today, when you fast forward, there's so, much media around through the internet. It could be a podcast, it could be on social media. You get these little snippets, but finding the right person who has a terrific background, the right values can make the difference.

And as we're talking about this, Steve, I'd love to compare notes. I know for myself when I first started in business; it was, I'll call them the dark days. Look, it was depressing. It was tough. It was very difficult. People look at you and I today, and they think it was perhaps just easy a quote-unquote overnight success.

I know for Embanet it was a 13-year overnight success, but the power of mentors for me, particularly in the early days, I would ask myself the question when I was back up against the wall, what do I do? Do I even give up? Is there even a place to go? I'd say, okay, what would my father do? What would my uncle do?

And this was in my mind. I can go and ask them, and I did. On many occasions, I would visit with them or have lunch or have a phone call, but many times during the day, okay. What would dad do? Or what would Uncle Saul do? What would he tell me? And I would have these imaginary conversations knowing them like I did, and that would ultimately guide me.

And if I'm gonna be really open and transparent with you and everyone listening, when we reached our pinnacle of success with the liquidity event and then beyond, when I look at, when I went off the path, made those huge mistakes, been still clinging those up today, all these years later, it's when I stopped asking that question, Hey, what would dad do?

Or What would my uncle do? And I just started going on my own path. And really, if I were to call myself out, it was ego that came into play. Oh, I know better. I am a self-made person. I had that success even spiritually. I turned away from that path because I thought I was the person of persons. My ego was bigger than the size of the country.

And that's when I went down the wrong path, and is only now when I, in recent years, I returned back to that. Okay. What would these people do? How about yourself, Steve? Did you ever have some of those moments both on what to do and leaving that path?

[00:14:00] Steve Wells: Oh, of course. I don't think that any entrepreneur or business person hasn't struggled, and particularly entrepreneur who's doing so, startup. You've got so, many potential obstacles in the way and things to get over. Again, aside from my mom, my wife, I have to give so, much credit for because when she, when I met her in college, I told her I was gonna be a lawyer and I think she had this image of this stable, prestigious position and nice white house or picket fence, whatever. Instead, I took her down this bumpy, rocky, difficult path where we couldn't even know where our next meal is coming from. But you know, it's those challenges and she persevered and she helped me get through it that you look back and you go, bow. I dunno if I could have done it without her. And it is probably why when you think about, you know, your kind of estate planning and you've gone through events and you have children and I've got a daughter who has got three kids and great son-in-law and you've tried to help them and mentor them, and why it's so, hard sometimes for your children to have the same maybe entrepreneurial or business bent is that they didn't really have to probably struggle as hard. So, those things that we thought were so, terrible back then and we were getting help through our friends and our family council. Sometimes our children didn't have to go through that. And we try to teach them, the life teaches you a really tough lesson that I think are they stick with you. And those tough times become building blocks, hopefully for a better character and a better stability.

[00:15:37] Jeffrey Feldberg: And Steve, you are really spot on with that because we are mentors for our children. And it's not even through the words that we do, it's the actions that we take. And this really hit home for me during the eulogies for my uncle and then speaking with people afterwards.

Some of the people it was their observations is what really guided them. And when they spoke so lovingly and with so much admiration and respect for my uncle, or even when my father passed away, the same kind of thing. It's amazing how even the smallest of actions that in the blink of an eye, we can miss.

People don't miss that. And there's adults saying actions speak louder than words, and it's so, true. And for the listeners out there, you're hearing Steve and I talk about mentors and mentorship, but here's a question for you as we're talking about. What do your actions say about you? Or maybe what does your inaction say about you?

And it's never too late to change and to go down the right path. And you know, Steve, as you talk about your wife, Christie later on, who sounds like is a mentor for you, and the two of you have just such a wonderful relationship. For myself, I'll put you into the mix and I'll put Waleuska into the mix who became my mentors, even to this day where I'll find myself in situations and looking for your insights and your feedback along the way to make such a difference.

And really it's surrounding ourselves with all the right people and for this part of the conversation. So far, Steve, we've kind of been rambling here a little bit, but there is a method to the madness. We've been talking about the impact that mentors make upon us and we've shared how find some mentors.

If you don't have any, find some mentors. Maybe it's at your church or your synagogue or your mosque or in a President's CEO group that you belong to or in the community. Or if not, they're in a book that you can pick up a and find. But let's talk now about paying it forward. You and I have been the benefactors from many people who mentored us to become the people that we became and the success that followed with that, you started to share, Steve, how you're paying it forward with mentorship of other people.

What does it mean for you to be a mentor and how do you do that day in, day out and still have a semblance of what you like to do with your life?

[00:17:51] Steve Wells: Well, you know, You have to be intentional, I think or we may miss opportunities. I know there's times, and it's probably just been selfishness on my part that I have. I have no. rejected a mentee, but maybe I just was not aware of the need around me or projected an openness or a willingness.

And I know when I changed that for some reason people would come then to me. There was a period of time too where I just kind of had some young people, young men around me mainly. I haven't really mentored too many women. I have done that in a group and I wrote their names down and just, you know, said maybe, you know, I would just think about them and say, you know, if there's an opportunity I'd love to help them out.

And it's amazing kind of that intentionality. Not all of them, but a lot of them, after sometimes years, I was able to have a relationship with them and help them out. It's just, I think generosity in our finances and generosity in our time and our friendship is so important.

It's an obvious statement, you always get more than you give, and to see other people's lives bettered and changed and see their appreciation, just like you said with your Uncle Saul and at his service that people notice the little things, these little things you do come back and I know people have come back to me and said you know, remember you said this or that, and I really don't.

But it was such an important part of them. And I was glad that I could be there for them in that moment.

[00:19:22] Jeffrey Feldberg: That's so, true and for me, it would be analogous to if you took a lit candle and that lit candle, you used that to light another candle. The original lit candle, it hasn't changed. You've taken nothing away from it. It still continues to be lit and it turns the darkness into light, but you now have another candle.

You have more light, and you can do that just about endlessly when you think about it. And to what you're saying just now, the smallest of comments that take you a millisecond to be able to do. For my father, he was always building me up, Jeffrey, you can do this. I really believe in you. And he's very specific in what he was telling me that he would believe in.

And why I was able to do it. And with my uncle, he would tell me stories of him growing up and how difficult things were and what he was thinking at the time. And that really built me up hearing, okay, if Uncle Saul could do it and look at all the things that he had against them, then I can do it. Or if my dad is saying he believes in me and how that made me feel, then he's seeing something in me maybe I didn't see for myself at the time.

Then I can do I'm not gonna disappoint. And for our listeners out there, you can say one sentence, one compliment that can forever change the trajectory of a person, and Steve; I'll share with you recently, I had time over the holidays to spend with family members, nieces, nephews, cousins, and just sharing the stories.

And you can see in their eyes, they just light up with the imagination and the examples that you're sharing and really setting the path for them and talk about a gift that keeps on giving when we can instill in people, not just our successes. Yeah. It's always easy to talk about success, but tell me what you think.

When we share our failures, we show we're human. We become more relatable. And oftentimes, knowing what not to do is as important as knowing what to do. What do you think about that?

[00:21:15] Steve Wells: Yeah, again, I think when we are a little bit farther down the path of life, and we can look back in someone else's life and see where they're going and how that could be helpful to them. And the crazy thing I think about mentoring, it sounds oh, I have to be an old sage and I've got to, I've had all the answers.

You really don't, in some ways, you only need to be one step ahead, really, to help somebody just that one step. And they all they need is maybe just a little bit of light to see which direction they may need to go. I remember my daughter, there's so many things you could see in a child that you know, and I knew that she, her future spouse, John, who she's gonna marry.

I saw this boy when they were young, and I remember telling her, I said, her name's Stephanie. Stephanie, John. He really is a nice boy. And she went, Dad, no way. He is way too competitive. I'm going, oh, okay. I'll just be quiet here. She was competitive as well; I think that stuck in her.

And then later on, of course, they end up being married and they have three children. We can see things in other people that maybe they don't see or see opportunities. We can give him a little nudge and a little guidance and it's always fun. I think in that case when you, we go back and I share the story with her now and we laugh about it, but that was helpful.

[00:22:37] Jeffrey Feldberg: That's a cute story. And you're so right. Yes, you have elders at the gates, but dare I say, why not be the youngster at the gate? You're talking about your children, I was just thinking of my two daughters and you know, growing up from both my uncle, from my father, it's that servant leadership.

It's always going above and beyond. Both of 'em would tell me, Jeffrey, always go the extra mile. Never expect anything in return, do it just because, and I remember recently, actually, my eldest daughter, Victoria, she's driving now and doing her thing and her car was in the shop. She had to borrow my car, return the car, and she said, oh, by the way, daddy, I returned your car.

I noticed your tank was about half full, so I filled it up with gas for you. And I was like, whoa, where did that come from? That's kind. And looking back, maybe it was me, maybe it wasn't me. I don't know. I would hope that some of my above and beyond and going the extra mile. Or even with my youngest, Emma, I'm always talking about family; family is so important.

And she had a long day; she's still in high school, had a long day at school, she's really tired. And I was in the house and she came back and from her room, she's doing some homework and said, daddy, I didn't see you enough today. I wanna spend some more time with you. Can we spend a few minutes together?

Floored, just blown away that a teenager would do that. But for the listeners, we're sharing these stories for you of just examples, the things that you do. You're planting seeds today that really you can reap the fruits of your labor in such beautiful ways down the road, with no expectations of what that's gonna look like or how it's gonna become, but you're just doing it for the sake of doing things and Steve, maybe let's look at both sides now of the mentorship equation here, and we've talked about mentorship and having mentors. Not only growing up but even as adults. If you had to sum that part of the equation up in terms of, I don't know, two or three things, positive things that came for that, that were game changers for you, what would that be for you?

[00:24:38] Steve Wells: For me personally, I think I already shared one of 'em. I think my mom instilled in me, it probably wasn't realistic, but the idea that you can, if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything. Now, I think you can go too far on that and that's, and there are certain things that's unrealistic, but for me, it created in me the ability to not fear and that was just, I think a great gift.

That is something that I like to share with people and when I'm mentoring them, because we get so, fearful and there're sometimes a fear is not even real, and it's just emotional, or you're fearing something that hasn't even happened yet. And to overcome these fears that we all have, I think is really important.

So, how we do that through people guiding us and how we help other people? What's real fear, what's not real fear, and how to overcome that, I think is a great gift and a great benefit to be able to do that.

[00:25:36] Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow. What a gift that you were given. And then let me ask you this. On the flip side, you're now mentoring; you're paying it forward. And I know some listeners are saying, I am just so busy. I don't have time. I barely have time for myself and my family, never mind anything else. I'm building the business.

I've got a growing business. I have all these other responsibilities. To that listener what would you say to that listener who thinks that they don't have the time? As you reflect for yourself, Steve, of what mentorship is, not only of what you've given but what you've received in return.

[00:26:08] Steve Wells: Well, you know, technology gives us some flexibility, meaning that we could do Zoom calls and phone calls. And I have done that with mentors just to keep relationships going. Again, there's really nothing. I think even though Jeffrey, you and I were in the online learning business and we preach that to universities there is nothing about as powerful as being with a person.

Just the last week. There's a young man that I see from time to time and I really had been gone forever from my home, and I just got in, like the night before and he wanted to meet and I took the time to go meet him and we had a cigar and talked and he appreciated it so, much and made me feel so grateful that I could do that.

And he was sharing with me, he said, I don't get to do this. I haven't done this with a friend, you know, for so, long. I've got two kids. I'm busy with my work. And he had some really important life questions that we were able to talk about and some business questions that he was really concerned about and it was so, helpful.

It was worth all the effort and time that I took, and again I said it before you get so, much, I think out of helping someone with those life decisions and even just being there, sometimes you may not even have the answer but just to show your support a lot of time is really, it's all that's needed.

[00:27:30] Jeffrey Feldberg: As you say that I'm taken back to the real early days, very start of Embanet. Steve, this is where, just graduated from the MBA program and I had started this initially it was just myself and one of my mentors, Waleuska very early on, who I would later marry and you know, husband and wife and Waleuska, her mentorship for me in the early days.

You know, truth be told, I don't know if I would've been able to do Embanet on my own. This is before Waleuska came in. Before you came in. I often wonder if Waleuska wouldn't have stepped in. Would I have just quit? Would I have, you know, really succumbed to that fear. But very early on, she mentored me, hey, stick with this, Jeffrey.

I believe in you. I can't talk to you about the technology. I don't know if I understand it, Jeffrey, but you do and you can do it. I believe in you. And it was her belief that every day. I mean, the world headquarters as we now joke, was I was in my parents attic. It was my room and the parents' attic, and wake up and walk the 10 steps to the desk.

But those early days of her being there and mentoring me really gave me the inspiration. And as everyone knows, together with the three of us, we changed millions of lives. Millions of enrollments went through embanet. And Waleuska, when you listen to this heartfelt Thank you. I don't think I tell you that enough.

I don't think I would've sucked around had you not been there. And then see the other thing as you're talking, for our listeners, we don't really talk a lot about this, but Steve and I, it's a passion company. I don't even want to call it a business because it isn't, we write the check each month for it.

We created a cigar, it's called Corban Cigars. We'll put the link in the show notes, and we created the cigar for one reason, to celebrate life's magic moments because in the early days when we were getting Embanet two out there, wow, do we have our butts handed to us on a silver platter from the marketplace.

And it was the Corban Cigar to celebrate the wins it makes the wins that much better, and the really sore losses, it makes them a little bit more tolerable. But Steve, you mentioned something great. You know, you can be mentoring someone, and you and I have done this often, either with each other or people that we're helping.

We'll sit down with a cigar if they happen to be a brother or a sister of the leaf. We'll have a cigar, we'll talk, and the mentoring goes so, much more than that because we're not only helping the other person, the other person's helping us, and we're doing it while we're relaxing.

And by no means this is promoting smoking cigars. Does anyone do it? Because you want to and all those other good things that go with that. But you know what a gift that can become when you can help someone. You enjoy what you're doing. If it's not smoking cigars like we like to do, it could be taking a walk or a drive, whatever the case may be.

Really where you're combining different things to take it to the next level, would love your thoughts on that, Steve.

[00:30:17] Steve Wells: Yeah, we just recently did that. You've been a part of the YPO Young President's Organization for a long time when you were a Young President. Now you're not a young president anymore, you're a mature president. But we recently had that event where we were able to do that with some young and some more mature people, and it's always amazing to me that when you're willing to share your story and help people, and again, the cigar is just one of the connectors that we use to bring people together and it creates a structured time to be calm, calm down and a lot of type A people need that.

And they're gonna be sitting there for 45 minutes or an hour at least, as we talk about life. But there's other ways to do that outside the cigar, and I think the important thing to take away is to create an environment where it's comfortable and safe, and there's no rush. And that people feel the ability to sit there and just think and discuss and talk, and that can be done in lots of different ways.

[00:31:20] Jeffrey Feldberg: Really? Yeah. The takeaway is find what you enjoy, find what gives you pleasure, and incorporate that into doing that. And along the way you will, as you like to say, or as you said earlier, Steve, oftentimes the giver receives more than the receiver, just in terms of how that goes so, as we begin to wrap up some takeaways for the listeners and Steve, you know, chime in if you think I'm off base with any of this, or please add to it.

On the one hand when it comes to finding mentors, don't have to be the gazillionaire that you read about in the newspaper or online, although it could be through perhaps recorded talks that they've given or books, or perhaps you're able to get in front of them.

More than likely though, it's gonna be people within your family. It's gonna be people within your community. And we also spoke about how ensure you're spending time with people who, when you aggregate what they represent, it's on the positive side of the ledger. They build you up, not take you down, and they don't have negative reputations or actions that perhaps aren't the best actions and don't reflect really well on you find the mentors, they're there and just ask the, you know, another one of my mentors was my grandmother, who would always say, actually on both sides, on my mother's side, on my father's side, they always would say, Jeffrey, you don't know unless you ask so always ask. So ask, hey, can you share some insights with me, or I have some questions? Could you help me with that? You'd be surprised how most people want to help so don't deprive them of the opportunity of helping by not asking and being afraid to ask and see, when it comes to finding mentors or identifying mentors, anything in that list that you would add.

[00:33:02] Steve Wells: No, I think that's a good listen. There's lots of ways people can structure it, and you could have short-term relationships, meaning you're gonna have a start and a finish, or you could have good relationships that go on and on for years and years. It's probably more up to mentor to structure it.

They may be even books that you could go through, business books, self-help books, any kind of book. And you use that as almost a way to stimulate discussion. You could be individual, or could you be small group? I wouldn't wanna put any limits on how it's done. I think it's just important to try to do it and find different ways and find different people.

I think that was great advice, Jeffrey.

[00:33:38] Jeffrey Feldberg: And then on the other side of becoming a mentor, one food for thought, an actionable takeaway for the listeners, because you always like to have an episode where you have an immediate action. And Steve, you and I and you can kick me under the table if you think I'm off base here. I don't believe I am.

You and I are big believers in do not leave the scene of where you are until you take an immediate action and the immediate action for our listeners; what both Steve and myself are gonna ask you before this episode ends, in your mind, make the commitment right now that every day you're gonna become a mentor.

And what do I mean by that? I'm not saying taking hours of your day to mentor people but in your regular interactions. Be curious and look for ways that you can build somebody up, and it could be a 32nd compliment, a genuine compliment of what in that person, perhaps that other person doesn't see in him or herself.

But be a daily mentor. Build people up, find the good in them. Be that candle that's lighting up that other person and watch where that will go, because it'll just, I know for myself, see for yourself what we've seen with the people that we've helped and mentored and really through Deep Wealth and Deep Wealth Experience, we've been very privileged to be part of an entrepreneurs or business owners or founders journey, and to see where that can go and just changing the lives of people.

For our listeners on the flip side make that commitment now, Steve, anything you'd want to add to that in terms of being a mentor for giving back?

[00:35:05] Steve Wells: No, I don't think so. I think we've covered it and I don't wanna kind of repeat myself, but I think your advice is exactly correct. And you know, I shared that I had created a list of people that I actually thought about, prayed about over the time of, to create a group. I think what we're all we're just saying is just be aware that when those opportunities, those moments come by us we can grab and seize them and be useful to somebody else.

[00:35:31] Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific. And Steve, you know, we have our tradition,actually, you created the tradition full credit to you of asking the famous question that we now ask. And I'd be remiss if we didn't tackle that on this episode just to keep the tradition intact. So, let me ask you the question, but I'll put a little bit of a slant in it because you know we've done this question so many times, but It's a thought experiment where you're thinking of the movie Back to the Future, and you have that DeLorean car, which will take you back to any point in time.

So, Steve, imagine now it's tomorrow morning. You look outside your window, the DeLorean car is there, the door is open. It's waiting for you to hop on in here's a little twist Steve, you're gonna go back to the younger Steve and for the younger Steve, what life wisdom or life lessons would you give to the younger Steve from a mentorship perspective?

If there was a theme of mentorship that you could share with your younger self, some wisdom on that. What would that be for you?

[00:36:23] Steve Wells: What immediately pops into my mind is, look for a mentor. Cause I did not really go outside my family much. And I think you and others are better, and I don't know if it was my generation, but I see a lot of young people approaching me. I didn't really approach older men. And look for that. And I think that would've been so, helpful.

I would've avoided probably some mistakes. And I wish young Steve would've just looked around and asked some people and gone up to him and said, could I ask you, could you help me? Could you be my mentor?

[00:36:56] Jeffrey Feldberg: Some terrific advice. And you know, as we begin to wrap up this 200th episode again, a heartfelt thank you to our listeners for being part of the journey, being part of the community, making a difference, and it's official, Steve, we're putting the 200th episode in the book, as you always like to say. For yourself, Steve, for everyone listening, please continue to say healthy and safe.

[00:37:20] Sharon S.: The Deep Wealth Experience was definitely a game-changer for me.

[00:37:24] Lyn M.: This course is one of the best investments you will ever make because you will get an ROI of a hundred times that. Anybody who doesn't go through it will lose millions.

[00:37:34] Kam H.: If you don't have time for this program, you'll never have time for a successful liquidity

[00:37:38] Sharon S.: It was the best value of any business course I've ever taken. The money was very well spent.

[00:37:45] Lyn M.: Compared to when we first began, today I feel better prepared, but in some respects, may be less prepared, not because of the course, but because the course brought to light so many things that I thought we were on top of that we need to fix.

[00:38:00] Kam H.: I 100% believe there's never a great time for a business owner to allocate extra hours into his or her week or day. So it's an investment that will yield results today. I thought I will reap the benefit of this program in three to five years down the road. But as soon as I stepped forward into the program, my mind changed immediately.

[00:38:22] Sharon S.: There was so much value in the experience that the time I invested paid back so much for the energy that was expended.

[00:38:33] Lyn M.: The Deep Wealth Experience compared to other programs is the top. What we learned is very practical. Sometimes you learn stuff that it's great to learn, but you never use it. The stuff we learned from Deep Wealth Experience, I believe it's going to benefit us a boatload.

[00:38:46] Kam H.: I've done an executive MBA. I've worked for billion-dollar companies before. I've worked for smaller companies before I started my business. I've been running my business successfully now for getting close to a decade. We're on a growth trajectory. Reflecting back on the Deep Wealth, I knew less than 10% what I know now, maybe close to 1% even.

[00:39:05] Sharon S.: Hands down the best program in which I've ever participated. And we've done a lot of different things over the years. We've been in other mastermind groups, gone to many seminars, workshops, conferences, retreats, read books. This was so different. I haven't had an experience that's anything close to this in all the years that we've been at this.

It's five-star, A-plus.

[00:39:31] Kam H.: I would highly recommend it to any super busy business owner out there.

Deep Wealth is an accurate name for it. This program leads to deeper wealth and happier wealth, not just deeper wealth. I don't think there's a dollar value that could be associated with such an experience and knowledge that could be applied today and forever.

[00:39:50] Jeffrey Feldberg: Are you leaving millions on the table?

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