From Childhood Casino to Global Entrepreneur

Speaker A: You asked me about writing the book, what that did for me. I gotta tell you, the podcast is like writing a book on steroids. It does so many things. Not only do we get to share valuable information, but it's like you said, if you have, uh, somebody you want to land as a client, have them on your podcast.

Speaker B: Here we go. We're back. We're going overseas to sit down with a good friend of mine who's always been very supportive of the dreams here as we grow and grow. Joe, joining us from the Philippines. It's great to see you and welcome back to that entrepreneur show.

Speaker A: It's great to be back. And yes, we should mention that I was actually born in Brooklyn, raised on Long Island. I just wound up here through series of coincidences, let's say that, uh, and

Speaker B: we're going to dive into working abroad, changing locations for work and how to stay successful and so much more. Joe's built several successful businesses, now is doing a lot of great work with AI of course, you may recognize him from our earlier shows where he talks about the accounting practice he's built, all these great things he's done. Books, podcasts, and I'll put the links in the episode description for you to catch up on his journey. But before we dive into what led him to the Philippines, what got him all the way there, we're going to start, of course, with why he became an entrepreneur. But first, let me welcome everyone back and thank you for taking some time to join us. Keep this show a, uh, top two and a half percent global show. Please, after you listen, share this with someone you think would find value in it and remember to subscribe to stay current. So, Joe, you didn't always want to become an entrepreneur, but you became the entrepreneur with a cpa, which is amazing. Let's go back in time a bit. What led you to become a small business owner and entrepreneur?

Speaker A: Honestly, I believe that some of us are born to be entrepreneurs. Some of us could learn how to become entrepreneurs, but I was born to be an entrepreneur. When I was 10 years old, I had a casino in my driveway. And that was my first real entrepreneurial endeavor. I believe that's when I formally became a bona fide entrepreneur. Because I got the fever. Okay? For a long time, I thought there was something wrong with me. My wife, uh, had me going into counseling. Like, why are you starting so many businesses? But long story short, the casino only lasted one night. I made like two or three bucks, which was a fortune for a ten year old in 1970. But here's the fun part. I had a ball. All my friends that attended, not only did they pay me to come to the casino, they all had a ball. And I'll never forget asking my mother the next day, said, why do people get jobs when they could just start a business? And she said, I don't know, but you'll find out. Little did I know it wasn't all going to be fun and games. And I said, you know my story. When I was 17, I started getting into trouble. I was hanging out with the wrong crowd. And, uh, my father saw something, and he knew that I needed a different direction, and he knew that I had the business bug. So we go to a family picnic, and he points to some guy and he's like, you see that guy over there? He's a cpa. Like, it was. He's a cpa. And I was like, that's great, dad. What the heck is a cpa? And he's like, they run businesses, and other business owners go to them for advice. So I said, well, I'm going to be a cpa. Then I didn't know that meant I was going to be an accountant. I became an accountant, and I'm stuck doing bank recs and payroll. And for a long time, I resented my father. I said, what did you do? Why did you, uh, trick me into becoming a cpa? And then one day I woke up and I said, I have some pretty unique experience. I've worked with thousands of business owners. I have a perspective. Yeah, I'm an entrepreneur. But how many entrepreneurs, uh, can say that they have an accounting background? Most people go into business and they know nothing about accounting and taxes. So I said, I have an advantage. And that's how I got started. To tell you exactly how I wound up in the Philippines, that's part of my story. Because the truth is, I don't believe there's any coincidences. What was it, let's say, 18 years ago? I'm sitting in my office, fairly successful, could never grow, could never really scale my business, my accounting business, for a number of reasons. Mostly what I found out was it had to do with me. It had nothing to do with the outside influences, even though I wanted to believe that. But I just felt empty. I'm like, here I am. I thought I would be a successful business. I thought it was going to be like Steve Jobs, right? And I said, there's got to be something more that I could do with my experience. So I started a journey of self awareness. I started reading books and one of the first, actually, this book was given to me, like, 40 years earlier, but I didn't pay attention. It was called Think and Grow Rich. So I reread that and. And then what really turned me around was a book called the Science of Getting Rich by a guy named Wallace Wattles. Weird name, weird looking guy. And that was actually the book that was the impetus for that movie, the Secret. Okay? And I actually found the book because I read the book the Secret. I didn't just watched the movie, I read the book. And when I read a book, I start at the beginning, and I read the. Whatever it was, and I found out that Rhonda Byrne, who produced the movie, was given the book the Science of Getting Rich by her daughter. And she said, mom, maybe this will change things for you. And it did. And it changed the lives of millions of people. But what he says in there was life changing. What he said was, you have to get out of the competitive mindset. There's enough opportunity in the world for everybody. You don't have to be competing. What you have to do is everything you do in business and in life is give value. Give more in value than what you get paid in money. Okay? Simple concept. Not that easy to do in practice. Okay? Think about it. I'm an accountant. I'm, um, measuring how much am I getting per hour. I'm not getting enough per hour. So I got to get rid of this client. It turned that whole thinking on its head. And it took a while. But the other thing I did was I actually did what Napoleon Hill said to do. I wrote out my definite chief aim. Okay? It's in Think and Grow Rich. It's actually a simplified version. I did it based on his first book, which was the Law of Success. It was actually. It was written as a correspondence course, and it's really the long version. And he asked, uh, things like, do you get indigestion when somebody walks in the room? Like, does somebody turn your stomach? And then, why did they turn his stomach? So it was really a look at myself. Like, why do I act the way I act? And what's stopping me from being successful? So those two books combined really did it for me, because in the definite chief aim, and I get chills down my spine when I think about this. What I wrote in there was I was going to teach millions of people the success principles that I've learned. Okay? And the way I was going to do it was I was going to speak about it every chance I got. I was going to write about it. And As a result, because there's three parts to it, it's where do you want to get to? How are you going to do it and what's the result going to be? So what I was going to do, the value I was going to give was teaching people how to become successful. The way I was going to do it was by writing, by speaking. Now just bear in mind, I never wrote a book at that time. I spoke publicly a couple of times, but I hated it. Who likes public speaking? Okay, and how was I going to reach millions? I had no idea. But he says in there, Napoleon Hill says, don't worry about the details, just write it down. And the last part was, I'm going to be able to work wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted, with whoever I wanted. I'm going to be able to travel all over the world. And guess what? Um, I'm reaching. I don't know if it's millions of people now, but you know, with the podcast, you can reach millions of people. I started teaching, literally, I started teaching Philippine people how to do U.S. taxes and incorporating all those other success principles. Right now I've taught thousands of Filipinos. I came here to visit, I loved it. And here I am now, halfway around the world, able to reach millions of people. I'm talking about the subjects that I love. What a coincidence, right? I'm living proof that it works.

Speaker B: You said so much good stuff there. I can't thank you enough, Joe, for coming on. Everyone stick around a little longer so you find out where you can find a lot of his free resources and all those things. But you're highlighting a great book or two for the community. But let's also shed light on your books, right? I know we don't have time to talk about all of them, but first, what has becoming an author done for your career, your life, your personal life? What are some of the benefits in case there's someone listening on Today? They want to grow their reach, their brand, but they haven't committed to a book.

Speaker A: Great question. And the answer isn't going to be what you probably expected. But, uh, the truth is writing the books has been a, uh, part of my journey of self improvement and self awareness. Does it help my business? Yeah, because people hear you're an author, they're like, oh, wow, you're an author. And yeah, I have some best selling books on Amazon, not New York Times bestseller, but it is nice to say, hey, here's my book. It's a promotional thing, it can be a marketing thing and it does give you some credibility. Not everybody. And you know this because you've written bestselling books. Not everybody could say I wrote a book. And you know this. That first book, the imposter syndrome, who's going to want to read? I don't have anything good to share. It took me two years to write that first book. And, and it's probably not even 100 pages. So the procrastination and then the constant edits because I was just scared.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: I was afraid of, oh, what do people read this and they don't like it. Like, who cares if they don't like it? That's their problem.

Speaker B: Last point right there is you're not supposed to try to please everyone. Something I learned the hard way where you don't want to quote, miss out on sales. Right. You want to really serve your current market. The people that you can add value to. If someone was to pick up one Joe D book today, what's one book they should go on Amazon and pick up first?

Speaker A: That's a good question.

Speaker B: And does have a lot of books. So when you go on his author page, he's got a lot of value. Again, they're not Harry Potter length, neither are mine. Right. But they get right to the point so they don't waste your time. I mean I've got his escort book. He also does accounting services for me. So reach out if you want some info on how to get help there. He's got some small business books, but what's one book if there's listening to this, that Entrepreneur show episode they should pick up.

Speaker A: I had to tell somebody to read a book. It would be the first one From Myths to Money. I got that one too because it was my attempt on trying to uh, share with everybody the mindset, the mistake that we make going into business. It's not about not having enough money, it's not about not having enough connections. It's all about, listen, I have something that is valuable and I want to share it with people. That's what business should be about. That's really what the book is all about. And the last chapter, Larry brought my friend, former special Ops, Green Beret. He's one of the people that they would send into Iran now and open up the Strait of Hormuz. Right. Uh, coach, world class entrepreneur. He writes the last chapter about tenacity and it's a great read because he talks about his training to become a special ops marine. And it's interesting because they drop him on an island, no food, nothing. And they drop a bunch of people there. And the people that give up, they give you a flare. And if you want to give up, the flare goes off. And he's talking about he has to eat worms and leaves and just survive. And every time he saw a flare go up, he's like, that's one more down. I'm not going to be that guy. Uh, yeah. Even if you just buy the book to read that one chapter, it's worth it. Because, Vincent, you don't start a business and stay in business unless you're tenacious, right?

Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, these downs are, uh, will eat you up and chew you out. If you don't have great support system, it may not be family. For me, I'm grateful that I do have family. I've got friends, I've got people I mentored with menteed, with connected, everyone. You don't have to start a podcast with Coming Alive Podcast Production, our show sponsor, but you should do it because, again, you never know who's going to get your message anywhere in the world. Joe and I connected through me having a podcast or we may have never been put in touch. It's the ultimate form of a business card. A, uh, book and podcast that you never knew you needed. Sending someone a free PDF of your book, mailing them a book, inviting a potential lead or client on your show. So many amazing things can be done. But, Joe, you've been on a few times. I'm curious to see if the ending has changed. If you could choose an entrepreneur throughout history to sit down with at this point of your journey. I don't know if you. Come on. You might have become one since you've been in the Philippines, but now that you're over here, who would you choose?

Speaker A: That's easy. Benjamin Franklin.

Speaker B: I don't think you changed. I think you had that one. Yeah. Let's hear why, though. In case they miss your first one.

Speaker A: His biggest regret was that he was born too early because he saw all the things that were possible. I mean, just the guy. He, uh. His stove thing, he sold the stove. It wasn't even one of the best stoves. It actually was pretty bad. But he made a fortune off the stove. But I think his biggest contribution was he created the first franchise. He was a printer and he actually franchised it. That's how he made a fortune off of that. Because I went back and I said, who created the franchise system? Because look at all the franchises. Uh, it was Benjamin Franklin. I would. Yeah. If there's a lot of other people, if you ask me, but if you're asking me, business person, who would I I want to talk to, it would be him, definitely.

Speaker B: I love it. Well, I can't thank you enough, Joe. All the value I got today, each and every conversation we have. Everyone remember to subscribe so you don't miss Joe's next episode. But of course, our next episode in the series. Joe, you've got a lot of great stuff online, a lot of value to add. Where can people go to find more?

Speaker A: So we rebranded. It's Bedrock 360 business solutions. Bedrock 3. 6 is like the umbrella. We do AI stuff. I started doing coaching. We do accounting and taxes and the podcast. And I. Let me mention one other thing. You asked me about writing the book, what that did for me. I got to tell you, the podcast is like writing a book on steroids. It does so many things. Not only do we get to share valuable information, but it's like you said, if you have, uh, somebody you want to land as a client, have them on your podcast. And this is a secret, but it's not really a secret. If I want to ever learn a subject, I find somebody that's an expert in that subject. I just did it with Google Notebook. Your friend Gary. Yeah, I can't. I had him on the podcast and now I'm like, I'm addicted to Google Notebook. Uh, I'm like this. Great. So it works.

Speaker B: I appreciate that. And everyone, the goal of this show was going AI. We got away from it with the conversation. So I'll just put it out there. We're going to have a part two will be a continuation of this, more focused on what he does specifically with AI. But as he said, they just rebranded to Bedrock 360 Business Solutions. Go there now, check out what they have to offer. There's free resources, things you can get ready for when the next episode airs. Again, we have all those old episodes in the description which have different value in different areas. They're great. Everyone, thank you so much again for tuning in to keep this show a top global podcast. My name is Vincent A. Lancy, and you can reach out to the show at podcasts by lancy, uh, gmail.com and danica will be waiting for you there. But with that, we're signing off today from the Philippines all the way down here to Florida. Joe, thank you so much.

Speaker A: Thank you.

Speaker B: Thank you for tuning in to another episode. I would love to hear your feedback. What did you love? What do you want to see more of? Are there any questions you would like me to ask the guests who come on the show. This show is not possible without you, the amazing listeners, so please email us@podcastsbylancymail uh.com and let us know what you think. We'll also feature you on a later show. Please remember to subscribe to stay current with our amazing community of guests who will continue to come on the show, sprinkled in with solo episodes from me, Vincent A. Lancy. With that, I look forward to introducing more shows to you each and every week. And with that, we're signing off today. Enjoy the episodes and make it, ah, a great day ahead.