00:00:00 Julie Roy
I was kind of always the black sheep, you know, honestly of our family.
00:00:04 Julie Roy
I always was the one who kind of pushed the envelope, you know, just shredded outside those borders enough to, like, feel like I was free enough.
00:00:15 Julie Roy
But not, you know, always I I did.
00:00:17 Julie Roy
I gave my parents a hard time.
00:00:18 Julie Roy
I mean, my mom particularly, she’s a single mom.
00:00:21 Julie Roy
And I really pushed the envelope.
00:00:22 Julie Roy
I mean, I was challenging growing up, you know, because I didn’t want to fit sort of in this norm, right.
00:00:29 Julie Roy
I was always like, but I don’t want to do that and I don’t want to be this way, right.
00:00:34 Julie Roy
So it is a chat.
00:00:35 Julie Roy
It’s challenging from a parental perspective and I think we’ve always had a challenged relationship honestly, because I’ve been sort of a harder to raise kiddo.
00:00:45 Julie Roy
But I was very, I was always very self-sufficient.
00:00:48 Julie Roy
I was super self motivated, I made my own money.
00:00:51 Julie Roy
I, you know, she never had to tell me to go to work or yeah, I mean I dug graves in the summer, one summer because I was like, hey, this is a great job, no one’s doing it and I’m not going to lose my job.
00:01:02 Julie Roy
People die every day, you know, like just I was outside of the box in terms of what I was willing to do for success.
00:01:09 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Welcome to the Kooler Lifestyle Podcast.
00:01:12 Matthew Kuehlhorn
I’m your host, Matt Kuehlhorn, and I’m excited to have you join me as I interview community members and business leaders from the communities in which I live, work and serve through my business, Kooler Garage Doors.
00:01:23 Matthew Kuehlhorn
We’re going to bring you highlights on characters in our communities.
00:01:26 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Why?
00:01:27 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Because community matters, and I want to know more about who is behind our business and leadership in order to understand and support the community fabric that our relationships make up.
00:01:37 Matthew Kuehlhorn
And collectively, we can build stronger communities that support our lifestyles, our youth and our health.
00:01:48 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Kooler Lifestyle Podcast.
00:01:52 Matthew Kuehlhorn
I’m your host, Matt Kuehlhorn.
00:01:53 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Today, I’m sitting down with Julie Roy, a new friend who’s an entrepreneur.
00:01:58 Matthew Kuehlhorn
I don’t say serial entrepreneur, now a real estate investor, man.
00:02:05 Matthew Kuehlhorn
I mean, that doesn’t do you any justice from what I’ve just learned about you.
00:02:09 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Julie, thank you so much for for coming in today.
00:02:12 Matthew Kuehlhorn
I’m excited for our conversation.
00:02:14 Julie Roy
Yeah, thanks, Matt.
00:02:15 Julie Roy
We obviously are super excited to be here.
00:02:17 Julie Roy
And yeah, I want to learn more about your community and just hopefully we can add value and help.
00:02:23 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, I have no doubt that we’re going to be able to.
00:02:25 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Where are you beaming in from right now?
00:02:28 Julie Roy
So currently Omaha, NE, we’re actually originally Canadians, moved here for our second business opportunity in 2019, moved our family.
00:02:38 Julie Roy
So yeah, now we’re in the middle of the United States.
00:02:42 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Awesome.
00:02:42 Julie Roy
We can know where we’re moving to.
00:02:44 Julie Roy
We thought it was Oklahoma for the first six months.
00:02:46 Julie Roy
So wow, that was always that was an X.
00:02:50 Julie Roy
Kind of a funny thing that we we chatted about for the longest time.
00:02:54 Julie Roy
My husband would tell when we have businesses in Oklahoma and I’m like, Nope, it’s a mom, we’re closed.
00:03:00 Julie Roy
So, yeah, So that’s what we’re being known from today.
00:03:03 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, awesome.
00:03:04 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Well, in our pre conversation, prerecorded conversation, you were talking about some of the different exiting that you’ve done through some various businesses.
00:03:12 Matthew Kuehlhorn
We connected through my wife and childcare centers, which you are now exited out of.
00:03:17 Matthew Kuehlhorn
And I’m curious to learn about some of the different tools and different thinking that you’ve had in doing that because not every business owner, I mean I think everybody dreams about exiting on a certain level, but there’s some real practicalities to doing that.
00:03:35 Matthew Kuehlhorn
And as we kind of build that up, I just wanted to have that as a tease.
00:03:38 Matthew Kuehlhorn
But I want to drop back first Julie and.
00:03:42 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Where did you grow up?
00:03:44 Julie Roy
Yeah, so interesting enough, I grew up in Canada in a small city, just we call it South of Detroit, which is winter Ontario.
00:03:53 Julie Roy
So yeah, small little town parents were both immigrants from Italy.
00:03:59 Julie Roy
My grandparents were the first kind of people to bring their siblings over and all of that stuff.
00:04:06 Julie Roy
So we grew up in a really modest sort of middle to lower income home and area, a real just hard working, lots of work ethic around our family base.
00:04:20 Julie Roy
My parents were divorced, so I came from a single mom, really, most of my life.
00:04:24 Julie Roy
And so work was not an option, even from a young age, you know, 9:00 and 10:00, I was babysitting other folks, kids in the neighborhood and just trying to make some cash and working on them at the market.
00:04:36 Julie Roy
You know, every Saturday, 5:00 AM, I take my bike down there.
00:04:40 Julie Roy
It was probably like 12, you know, my mom sometimes three jobs.
00:04:44 Julie Roy
So it’s just my brother and I, so latchkey kids, literally with a key around our neck, you know, So really just modest, modest beginnings, hard working, loving, caring beginnings, but definitely modest.
00:04:58 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah.
00:04:59 Matthew Kuehlhorn
How did the adventure unfold?
00:05:01 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Where did we Where did we end up moving from there?
00:05:04 Julie Roy
Did you go into traditional schooling as far as college and crazy?
00:05:08 Julie Roy
Yeah, crazy story.
00:05:10 Julie Roy
I was always seeing this, so my parents had a hardware store if we back up a little bit.
00:05:18 Julie Roy
And so during the recession, they were with another family and they had lost everything, right?
00:05:23 Julie Roy
And so, but before that, since I was, you know, real young, I was always working at the counter, at the cash register, talking to the people, and I was happy.
00:05:31 Julie Roy
And I just always want to own my own place, right?
00:05:33 Julie Roy
Because it was this entrepreneurial kind of vibe that I think my parents had.
00:05:37 Julie Roy
Genetically, I think there’s definitely an entrepreneurial vibe.
00:05:41 Julie Roy
But yeah, so I would say I always had this idea of, you know, doing more, doing better, getting out of the situation that we were in or what have you.
00:05:50 Julie Roy
So, so when to graduated high school was the first, you know, the one, I guess in our family to actually attend postsecondary education.
00:06:00 Julie Roy
I was the only one that went to university.
00:06:02 Julie Roy
And so I’m telling you, so you’re going to be a doctor or a lawyer, That’s sort of what you’re going to be because if we’re going to spend money for school, it’s going to be a return investment for your family.
00:06:12 Julie Roy
I mean, that’s really what it is.
00:06:13 Julie Roy
So.
00:06:14 Julie Roy
So I went into school to be a lawyer and hated it absolutely was not my jam.
00:06:22 Julie Roy
I’m super ADHD and energetic and crazy and reading like articles was literally just not my jam.
00:06:30 Julie Roy
The Long story short, I had always been working in a Montessori preschool during my college career, before and after school and just doing the assistant positions.
00:06:39 Julie Roy
And I just, I’ve loved children from day one, right?
00:06:42 Julie Roy
So I’ve maybe sat like it was a course of just being kind of like, you know, writing all the notes, being the little teacher, acting out stuff.
00:06:49 Julie Roy
When I was like when I was a kiddo, so super passionate about learning, I think always right?
00:06:55 Julie Roy
And I am an avid learner myself.
00:06:57 Julie Roy
So to kind of a turn went to play soccer in Europe for my first and second year university came home and was like, I’m done with this law school stuff.
00:07:07 Julie Roy
I’m done with being a lawyer.
00:07:08 Julie Roy
Like I don’t care if I’m disowned, I need to change my my course.
00:07:12 Julie Roy
So I ended up actually going in taking some finishing my degree in social site because that’s what I had started in and then went into Montessori preschool, got all my training.
00:07:23 Julie Roy
So infant toddler preschool level and early elementary which was a really big gamut of things went over to the states to do that.
00:07:31 Julie Roy
So then yeah, got into education from from that.
00:07:34 Julie Roy
But yeah, just that it would turn it once for sure.
00:07:37 Julie Roy
Not many people happy about me being a teacher initially so.
00:07:40 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, I would imagine that’s a little bit nonconforming.
00:07:44 Matthew Kuehlhorn
And.
00:07:44 Matthew Kuehlhorn
And how did family receive that?
00:07:46 Julie Roy
And, yeah, not really.
00:07:48 Julie Roy
Well, my mom was not happy.
00:07:50 Julie Roy
I remember she was kind of like, you know, I I think she wanted me to do whatever my heart desired.
00:07:56 Julie Roy
But I feel like she didn’t, you know, in the back of my mind, they didn’t want us to struggle.
00:08:01 Julie Roy
Right.
00:08:01 Julie Roy
And so it was like, how can you get there?
00:08:03 Julie Roy
How can you be better than what we had?
00:08:05 Julie Roy
Right?
00:08:05 Julie Roy
We always want more for our kids than what we’ve got.
00:08:07 Julie Roy
So I think in the back of her mind, she was like, you’re going to be a teacher, You’re going to struggle.
00:08:11 Julie Roy
You know, teachers don’t make a lot of money.
00:08:13 Julie Roy
I mean, yes, it’s a great passion, but how are you going to live?
00:08:16 Julie Roy
Like, I’ve had to work two and three job, right.
00:08:18 Julie Roy
There’s a lot behind that.
00:08:19 Julie Roy
So.
00:08:20 Julie Roy
So when she first came to my Montessori school in the basement of the shirt, she was like, Oh my gosh, these kids are like learning and they’re so well behaved.
00:08:26 Julie Roy
And she thought she was going to come into like a mass chaos, babysitting, you know, course.
00:08:31 Julie Roy
And so I think that sort of changed her mind.
00:08:33 Julie Roy
And then as we grew, she actually became the main accountant in our business and worked with us.
00:08:39 Julie Roy
So, you know, had a fairly lucrative career from it as well.
00:08:43 Julie Roy
But definitely it was a process, you know, to get them on board.
00:08:47 Julie Roy
And my family helped us through everything, you know, made cubbies, You know, my family was very my dad, my grandpa was very hands on.
00:08:55 Julie Roy
So did a lot for the schools for us to get to where we.
00:09:00 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Love it.
00:09:00 Luke Hylton
Hey everybody, this is Luke from Kooler Garage Doors.
00:09:03 Luke Hylton
Just want to take a.
00:09:03 Luke Hylton
Quick second to talk about our sponsor, Sommar Garage Door Openers.
00:09:08 Luke Hylton
We believe Sommar are the best in the business.
00:09:10 Luke Hylton
When it comes to garage door openers.
00:09:12 Luke Hylton
We always recommend them for residential installs because of the many.
00:09:15 Luke Hylton
Features they have, such as Wi-Fi connectivity and safety features like a fixed chain that runs along a.
00:09:21 Luke Hylton
Secure rail for a quiet and safe operation.
00:09:28 Luke Hylton
Click the link to.
00:09:29 Luke Hylton
Find out more about Sommar Garage Door Openers.
00:09:39 Matthew Kuehlhorn
So real quick, I want to dive in one more time on this and then extract a piece and then we can move on here.
00:09:45 Matthew Kuehlhorn
But you know the the component of like going against the grain of of family expectations, right?
00:09:52 Matthew Kuehlhorn
And for certain for certain family cultures, it’s a it’s a big, big deal and you know it resonates with me.
00:10:00 Matthew Kuehlhorn
This is why I’m picking up on it, because.
00:10:03 Matthew Kuehlhorn
You know my mom wanted me to have the comfy job the the benefits and and the whole thing and and when I got that, I couldn’t stand it.
00:10:11 Matthew Kuehlhorn
I was like, Oh my gosh, this is just suffocating me.
00:10:14 Matthew Kuehlhorn
And so from your perspective and that experience, Julie, where did I mean at what point did you know and you just knew you had to kind of break the mold and and was there anything or pieces specific that helped?
00:10:31 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Make that happen so that you would stay true to yourself and honor the relationship stories of those before you.
00:10:40 Julie Roy
Yeah, I would say that I was kind of always the black sheep, you know, honestly of our family.
00:10:47 Julie Roy
I always was the one who kind of pushed the envelope, you know, just shredded outside those borders enough to, like, feel like I was free enough, but not, you know, always I I did.
00:11:00 Julie Roy
I gave my parents a hard time.
00:11:01 Julie Roy
I mean, my mom, particularly, she’s a single mom.
00:11:04 Julie Roy
And I really pushed the envelope.
00:11:05 Julie Roy
I mean, I was challenging growing up, you know, because I didn’t want to fit sort of in this norm, right.
00:11:13 Julie Roy
I was always like, but I don’t want to do that and I don’t want to be this way, right.
00:11:17 Julie Roy
So it is a it’s challenging from a parental perspective and I think we’ve always had a challenged relationship honestly because I’ve been sort of a harder to raise kiddo.
00:11:29 Julie Roy
But I was very I was always very self-sufficient.
00:11:31 Julie Roy
I was super self motivated.
00:11:33 Julie Roy
I made my own money.
00:11:34 Julie Roy
I I, you know she never had to tell me to go to work or yeah I mean I dug graves in the summer, one summer because I was like hey this is a great job.
00:11:43 Julie Roy
No one’s doing it and I’m not going to lose my job.
00:11:45 Julie Roy
People die every day.
00:11:46 Julie Roy
You know like just I was outside of the box in terms of what I was willing to do for success.
00:11:52 Julie Roy
And I think that in general is, is and was and is still my motivating factor.
00:11:59 Julie Roy
Like everything is figureoutable.
00:12:00 Julie Roy
I say that every day and success is not an option.
00:12:04 Julie Roy
And from day one that was really sort of my mindset.
00:12:09 Julie Roy
And people that know we still today, they’ll say everything’s figureoutable, right, Julie, like it, you know, every time they talk to me because it’s true.
00:12:15 Julie Roy
I I really do believe that if there’s a will, there’s a way.
00:12:18 Julie Roy
And I know that’s just saying that out there, But I truly take that to heart.
00:12:22 Julie Roy
Like if you want it bad enough, you figure it out.
00:12:24 Julie Roy
And so for me, we got up.
00:12:26 Julie Roy
We started the schools with a loan, a $25,000 loan from a guy named Malcolm.
00:12:31 Julie Roy
It was a 19% loan.
00:12:33 Julie Roy
Was in the back alley behind McDonald’s in Windsor ON South of Detroit.
00:12:38 Julie Roy
I found.
00:12:38 Julie Roy
We added a newspaper.
00:12:40 Julie Roy
I know you can.
00:12:41 Julie Roy
It’s.
00:12:41 Julie Roy
Crazy little crazy shit.
00:12:43 Julie Roy
So we found this ad in the newspaper and it said, you know, willing to give money for loans for new business.
00:12:50 Julie Roy
And I was like, OK, this is it.
00:12:52 Julie Roy
We’re going.
00:12:52 Julie Roy
And so Beau, who’s my husband now, was my boyfriend.
00:12:55 Julie Roy
And I was like, you need to come.
00:12:56 Julie Roy
I don’t have anything.
00:12:57 Julie Roy
I just go back from Europe.
00:12:58 Julie Roy
I have no money.
00:12:59 Julie Roy
Like, I have nothing to put this against.
00:13:01 Julie Roy
Like, we’re going to probably need two of us.
00:13:03 Julie Roy
So he comes and the guy looks at Beau.
00:13:05 Julie Roy
We’re signing the papers.
00:13:06 Julie Roy
And he’s like, I hope you love this girl because if you guys don’t pay for this, like, he’s going to die.
00:13:10 Julie Roy
But I was like, OK, everything’s figureoutable and success is not an option, right?
00:13:15 Julie Roy
I mean, and so that’s where it started.
00:13:17 Julie Roy
And literally I have, every time I have dedicated myself to something, I have those words in the back of my mind.
00:13:25 Julie Roy
Like, Julie, you can do this.
00:13:27 Julie Roy
You can do hard things.
00:13:29 Julie Roy
You know, it doesn’t matter what people around you say.
00:13:31 Julie Roy
You have to have a lot of if you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will.
00:13:35 Julie Roy
That’s 100%.
00:13:36 Julie Roy
So when you’re saying, you know, how do you break free from that norm?
00:13:39 Julie Roy
One, I think you believe in yourself, right?
00:13:41 Julie Roy
If you truly believe, if you know you have it in you, you you do, you probably do.
00:13:46 Julie Roy
Not everybody has an interest in being an entrepreneur, right?
00:13:49 Julie Roy
Not everybody goes out there and it’s like, hey, I can manage risk and I’m okay with putting my life on the line and all the things right?
00:13:57 Julie Roy
So if you have it in you and you really, truly feel like you have good work ethic, you have good habits for success, you know your mindset is in place.
00:14:06 Julie Roy
It’s huge.
00:14:07 Julie Roy
Mindset is 1 in any type of business.
00:14:10 Julie Roy
I mean belief in yourself.
00:14:12 Julie Roy
The mindset that you can do it, The can do attitude, like, hey, we’re going to figure this out.
00:14:17 Julie Roy
Everything’s figureoutable.
00:14:19 Julie Roy
Success isn’t an option.
00:14:20 Julie Roy
Like, this is stuff I say every morning, like, I have gratitude practice.
00:14:24 Julie Roy
I do the same thing every day.
00:14:26 Julie Roy
I’ve been doing the same thing for 20 years.
00:14:27 Julie Roy
I eat the same food.
00:14:28 Julie Roy
I work out the same way.
00:14:30 Julie Roy
Like, it’s just it’s a whole process, right?
00:14:32 Julie Roy
It’s a whole body and my process, yes.
00:14:36 Julie Roy
Well, going against the grain is just something.
00:14:38 Julie Roy
I just, I think you know and I have.
00:14:43 Matthew Kuehlhorn
There’s so much in that we can unpack on different levels, but I want to go back.
00:14:48 Matthew Kuehlhorn
So you took out this loan.
00:14:51 Matthew Kuehlhorn
You started the Montessori school at a basement?
00:14:55 Julie Roy
Yeah, And.
00:14:58 Matthew Kuehlhorn
And and built this up to then exit.
00:15:03 Julie Roy
Yeah.
00:15:03 Julie Roy
So we we started with this, yeah.
00:15:06 Matthew Kuehlhorn
I guess my my real question because I I do want to hear this story, but I also want to drive towards like when you started when you were taking that loan in the alley, love that story.
00:15:17 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Did you have the end already in mind?
00:15:20 Julie Roy
Oh 100%.
00:15:21 Julie Roy
And actually I’m writing a book right now that the title is begin with the end in Mind 100%.
00:15:27 Julie Roy
I we have two books out right now.
00:15:29 Julie Roy
One is just a real estate investing book, which is pretty simple, just like how to get into real estate.
00:15:34 Julie Roy
And the second one is like begin with the end in mind.
00:15:36 Julie Roy
Because all of the stuff I’m telling you was all part and parcel of starting with this dream goal, this vision board I had in my head, which at the time, no one was doing vision boards 20 years ago, right.
00:15:46 Julie Roy
It was just like, here’s how I want to live.
00:15:49 Julie Roy
Here’s how I don’t want to live, here’s how I what I need to do to get there.
00:15:53 Julie Roy
I didn’t know the exact pathways, right?
00:15:55 Julie Roy
I mean, I had never had a business.
00:15:57 Julie Roy
I I I didn’t know the exact pathway.
00:15:58 Julie Roy
I didn’t know that I needed other people to get me there.
00:16:01 Julie Roy
I didn’t know all the lessons that I learned.
00:16:04 Julie Roy
You know, the other thing is we never call, we never say anything has been a failure.
00:16:09 Julie Roy
Because the only time a failure happens is if you quit.
00:16:12 Julie Roy
We’ve never quit.
00:16:13 Julie Roy
So failures only happen if you quit.
00:16:16 Julie Roy
We call failures instead in our home lessons.
00:16:20 Julie Roy
And as long as you’ve learned by them and you’ve learned from them, then, then it’s a lesson, not a failure.
00:16:24 Julie Roy
And so why I’m saying that is because yeah, you can have that end in mind and it may look like a straight path, but most of the time it’s all over the map to get and so but as long as that end is your goal and you continue to focus on that end goal, you get there, right, like in real estate, same thing.
00:16:43 Julie Roy
I mean in every business we’ve had because we have really been serial, manogle, whatever entrepreneurs, I feel like monogamist serial entrepreneurs because it’s been sort of one thing at a time, but very many different things that you know, in succession that came from sort of that first business.
00:17:00 Julie Roy
So, but yeah, so I think that the big piece is that you do need to have that end goal in mind because without that it’s really challenging for you to see where you want to get to and and having that goal was for me, my focus and my driver.
00:17:21 Julie Roy
So I think that’s important.
00:17:22 Julie Roy
Yeah, 100%.
00:17:23 Matthew Kuehlhorn
So, so here’s a little bit deeper question, and it’s it’s also a personal question in a lot of ways, because.
00:17:32 Matthew Kuehlhorn
There’s some alignment.
00:17:34 Matthew Kuehlhorn
I understand big picture goal and there are some personality traits.
00:17:38 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Some, some people don’t even have that.
00:17:40 Matthew Kuehlhorn
They want tasks.
00:17:41 Matthew Kuehlhorn
But there’s like 50% that does have the big picture goal.
00:17:46 Matthew Kuehlhorn
We put the goal out there, we start taking steps.
00:17:49 Matthew Kuehlhorn
We know we’re going against the grain of not just family, but a lot of society like big risks.
00:17:56 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Hold on.
00:17:57 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Like, be careful and yet.
00:18:00 Julie Roy
We’re holding on to this goal while we’re getting all these quote, UN quote failures lessons, Yeah.
00:18:08 Matthew Kuehlhorn
How do you maintain the self-awareness and that self-confidence to stay on that path while taking the hits while going through brick walls while…
00:18:20 Julie Roy
Dot dot like regardless, right?
00:18:22 Julie Roy
So I think again.
00:18:25 Julie Roy
My goal, my vision, mission, my values are so strong that like I just there’s nothing that’s going to shake for me, right?
00:18:37 Julie Roy
So for me, risk is a huge part of return.
00:18:42 Julie Roy
We every day we analyze what we do and how we do it via analyzing what we call our risk is our return of life, right.
00:18:54 Julie Roy
We don’t talk about return of on investment, it’s return on life.
00:18:58 Julie Roy
So like is this risk going to create a return on life for us that is superior to where we’re at now and or is it going to create a return on life on others, you know, with whatever we do.
00:19:15 Julie Roy
And so I feel like switching the return on investment idea to return on life idea has helped us stay focused on end goals for many reasons, right?
00:19:27 Julie Roy
For example, we have an end goal of doing all the continents with our children.
00:19:32 Julie Roy
Part of that is being successful in business in order to do that.
00:19:35 Julie Roy
So life goals are also parallel to these goals that we have in business.
00:19:40 Julie Roy
And so return on life for us became just a philosophy in our household like, hey, is that a return on life for you?
00:19:47 Julie Roy
We talked about it with our kids too.
00:19:49 Julie Roy
You know, like they’ll say why I want to do this or that.
00:19:52 Julie Roy
OK.
00:19:52 Julie Roy
So what would be the return on life for you And then they start to think about okay.
00:19:56 Julie Roy
Well let’s let’s put, you know what we feel like positives are with this.
00:20:01 Julie Roy
What we feel like, you know negatives are with this and is this going to get us every, every decision we make is are you getting closer to that end goal, that end in mind, right.
00:20:11 Julie Roy
Is this going to bring you closer to that?
00:20:14 Julie Roy
And if not then it’s you have to say no to things too in life, right.
00:20:18 Julie Roy
And so I think that’s where people get.
00:20:22 Julie Roy
Mixed up in terms of like their mindset and where they’re going because I think they get clouded by shiny object syndrome.
00:20:29 Julie Roy
It’s really hard not to, especially if you’re an entrepreneur, right?
00:20:32 Julie Roy
Oh, I can do this and I can do this, but what is that end goal and is what you’re doing?
00:20:36 Julie Roy
Is that decision going to take you closer to that and is it going to give you a return on life?
00:20:40 Julie Roy
And I think that’s what you have to always analyze because there are a lot of options for folks today.
00:20:46 Julie Roy
You know, a lot of avenues virtually non, that are distractions too.
00:20:52 Julie Roy
So, well, I’m needing distractions is a whole other conversation for another day, but yeah.
00:20:59 Julie Roy
There’s certainly plenty of so much in every and in every answer, you know.
00:21:04 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah.
00:21:05 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah.
00:21:05 Matthew Kuehlhorn
There’s certainly so much, so much noise going on and it’s.
00:21:09 Matthew Kuehlhorn
So I guess to unpack that a little bit and put it into some bullet points, what I’m hearing is define an end goal.
00:21:17 Matthew Kuehlhorn
And have a burning desire for that end goal and then also have enough self-awareness to know who you are, values, mission right.
00:21:27 Matthew Kuehlhorn
And then that vision component is this integrated piece and that’s where we can go through things and establish this mindset that is so bulletproof.
00:21:40 Julie Roy
And I think too like Matt, we have to talk about small consistent steps, right?
00:21:45 Julie Roy
Like consistency is key and a lot of people are like boom splurge, huge, you know, huge lightning, you know impact downtime, huge like lightning, impact downtime.
00:22:00 Julie Roy
And so we’ve just been sort of like steady increasing, slow, consistent gains.
00:22:07 Julie Roy
Like I said, I’m consistent in everything in my life, honestly.
00:22:11 Julie Roy
The way I parent, the way our relationship like Bow and ICE relationship is, the communication is hopefully consistent.
00:22:19 Julie Roy
I think as much as possible.
00:22:21 Julie Roy
Some days are better than others with the kids.
00:22:23 Julie Roy
But you know the way we do business, integrity, you know, everything we do is fueled with it, fueled by integrity and a kind heart obviously and a generous heart is, is our hope.
00:22:35 Julie Roy
But I think consistency is key, you know, in a in a in a relationship, in a business, in getting to the end goal.
00:22:43 Julie Roy
The consistency piece for us has been I would say one of the biggest drivers, small consistent steps.
00:22:50 Julie Roy
Yeah, rather than like big blasts of nothing and then you know, or big blasts and then nothing.
00:22:56 Julie Roy
I guess we’re not a peaks and valley kind of approach.
00:23:01 Julie Roy
We are a much more like let’s get this hike going and like what?
00:23:05 Julie Roy
Here’s the summit, right?
00:23:06 Julie Roy
This is just something.
00:23:08 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, yeah, I love that.
00:23:10 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah.
00:23:10 Julie Roy
Doing the reps, Daily reps, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:23:14 Julie Roy
Like, you know, they say you go to the gym the first six weeks, you see nothing then.
00:23:17 Julie Roy
That’s right.
00:23:18 Julie Roy
Absolutely.
00:23:18 Julie Roy
Well, you know, that’s right.
00:23:19 Julie Roy
Absolutely bicep after 90 days and then, you know, yes.
00:23:23 Julie Roy
But yeah, so I feel like that’s really been our philosophy.
00:23:26 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, the word that pops up to me is, you know, really the skill of patience.
00:23:32 Julie Roy
And I’m not patient.
00:23:33 Julie Roy
It’s hard.
00:23:34 Matthew Kuehlhorn
It’s really hard.
00:23:36 Julie Roy
It is hard, really hard.
00:23:37 Julie Roy
And entrepreneurial work really, really hard because you have a lot of people on the line, right.
00:23:42 Julie Roy
You have families that rely on you.
00:23:44 Julie Roy
You have employees that rely on you.
00:23:46 Julie Roy
At one time I had 386 employees.
00:23:48 Julie Roy
I mean, it’s no joke, right?
00:23:49 Julie Roy
You’re and during COVID when everything was a disaster in terms of life and business.
00:23:55 Julie Roy
And so tenacity, grit, like these are words that come to my mind when I think about successful entrepreneurs that we know and that we model and mentor or off of.
00:24:07 Julie Roy
I guess tenacity, grit.
00:24:10 Julie Roy
I don’t know if patience is my best indicator but I need to see games every day.
00:24:16 Julie Roy
And so I think more than patience, progress for me is so important.
00:24:21 Julie Roy
Like are we moving forward?
00:24:22 Julie Roy
Are we moving towards the goal?
00:24:24 Julie Roy
Where are we today?
00:24:25 Julie Roy
Are we better than yesterday?
00:24:26 Julie Roy
Personally, professionally, business.
00:24:29 Matthew Kuehlhorn
So that skill is then to see the the 1% gains, because we’re not having big jumps every day.
00:24:36 Julie Roy
It’s like sometimes you do, right?
00:24:39 Julie Roy
Sometimes you, sometimes you do.
00:24:40 Julie Roy
Absolutely love those days.
00:24:42 Julie Roy
You know you’re not right.
00:24:43 Julie Roy
Most days you’re like you’re trekking a slower path.
00:24:46 Julie Roy
But you know, they always say there’s a saying that kind of always.
00:24:51 Julie Roy
I mean it’s in my office too, but it’s something like, you know, entrepreneurs are willing to do 99% are willing to work sort of like 99% more than the 1% to get to where the 1% will never get to, right.
00:25:06 Julie Roy
And that’s sort of like what it is.
00:25:08 Julie Roy
I mean there’s success isn’t an option, everything’s figure out a bowl.
00:25:13 Julie Roy
But at the end of the day, you’re wanting it so bad that that that’s just the driver, right?
00:25:19 Julie Roy
Like you, you are so committed internally all around you, the people we associate with, right?
00:25:27 Julie Roy
Like we’re not just talking about business gains, but progress for us too means life progress.
00:25:32 Julie Roy
Like we’ve lost friends, family members.
00:25:35 Julie Roy
We’ve had to say no to people.
00:25:37 Julie Roy
We’ve had to say goodbye to people who create negative and cyclical, you know, destruction for us.
00:25:46 Julie Roy
And we’ve just had to move into places where we just associated with with better people, you know, for our self and our children.
00:25:53 Julie Roy
And so I feel like when you’re saying those gains you know are slow or you know that they’re 1%, it’s been not only just in business.
00:26:01 Julie Roy
I feel like in life as well, we’ve had to make some really hard decisions to get those gains.
00:26:06 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, I get that.
00:26:08 Matthew Kuehlhorn
I get that.
00:26:09 Matthew Kuehlhorn
So you’ve had some exits.
00:26:11 Matthew Kuehlhorn
You’re now in real estate holdings enjoying, you know, the quote, UN quote, passive.
00:26:16 Matthew Kuehlhorn
I think that’s a loose term in some ways.
00:26:18 Julie Roy
Yeah, we can talk about that too.
00:26:20 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, you’ve have.
00:26:22 Matthew Kuehlhorn
You have another.
00:26:24 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Level, I guess as far as where you’re playing and what are we excited for?
00:26:29 Matthew Kuehlhorn
What’s what’s kind of out in front of you now?
00:26:32 Julie Roy
Yeah, so, so we obviously scaled the businesses sold to some private equity and then had a really calculated exit, right.
00:26:42 Julie Roy
And again with the end in mind, so we with the with every exit thought okay, well how can we replace what we’re doing now with this exit and where can this get us to in terms of like next level for the next piece of our life.
00:26:55 Julie Roy
And so part of it was taking the end and breaking it backwards and breaking it down.
00:27:02 Julie Roy
So like, what do we need to live every month without active income?
00:27:05 Julie Roy
You know, so really calculating the moving backwards piece, which a lot of people don’t do, they just exit and are like okay.
00:27:13 Julie Roy
Now what do we do right, Like, and then they don’t have anything set up.
00:27:16 Julie Roy
They have no passive income coming in.
00:27:18 Julie Roy
They’re just going through this pot of money.
00:27:22 Julie Roy
Like it’s a deduction every day.
00:27:23 Julie Roy
Like if you’re not investing your money, like if you know any wealthy people, they don’t save, you know, wealthy people don’t save their money, they invest their money.
00:27:31 Julie Roy
And so that as well coming from where we came from, there was a huge shift in my mindset that we had to do in terms of money, in terms of my trauma background, philosophy of money, right.
00:27:44 Julie Roy
And so through this process, we’ve had to figure out that your abundance mindset has to come into play.
00:27:51 Julie Roy
We were brought up in a real scarcity mindset about money.
00:27:54 Julie Roy
And so that had a big change for us and also trying to educate our family, friends, etcetera around us about it.
00:28:02 Julie Roy
And some came on board and some are just not.
00:28:04 Julie Roy
And they’re still where they were.
00:28:05 Julie Roy
And that’s okay.
00:28:07 Julie Roy
And not everyone’s always going to be interested and available to your information, right.
00:28:12 Julie Roy
But for us, a big piece of this is creating abundance for others now, right as well.
00:28:17 Julie Roy
And so I’ve always been a teacher.
00:28:19 Julie Roy
I always love the passion of education.
00:28:21 Julie Roy
I’m still educating people.
00:28:23 Julie Roy
I have.
00:28:24 Julie Roy
We have a Facebook group called Roy Real Estate Holdings, an equity group where every day I post something about moving forward, whether it’s financially, personally, you know, just how to get, how to get there right and try to help others.
00:28:39 Julie Roy
We are doing syndications now that we never thought we would do.
00:28:43 Julie Roy
We got into real estate initially for passive income, obviously, because we needed a cash flow replacement with doing our goals for moving backwards, knowing what we needed to actively live.
00:28:53 Julie Roy
And so we created that, which was awesome.
00:28:55 Julie Roy
We bought a bunch, triple Nets, Starbucks, O’reilly’s, Autozone’s a bunch of things that basically pay us every month, okay.
00:29:02 Julie Roy
So that’s our income.
00:29:02 Julie Roy
Great check.
00:29:04 Julie Roy
And we got this huge tax bill and I was like, oh, God, now what do we do, right, because we didn’t play on this.
00:29:08 Julie Roy
And so then we got into multifamily because the multifamily offers with something called bonus depreciation.
00:29:15 Julie Roy
And in the US particularly, you can use that against your passive income.
00:29:19 Julie Roy
Well, all of our income is now passive.
00:29:21 Julie Roy
So we bought a bunch of multifamily deals that then eradicated our tax bill, which was huge for us, right, and for our family and a great learning opportunity.
00:29:30 Julie Roy
Again, paying for mentorship, paying for all kinds of money, smarter people than us.
00:29:35 Julie Roy
That put us in this position.
00:29:37 Julie Roy
So it’s not only just about where you want to be financially, but how to move yourself forward again with, you know, all pieces of life professionally.
00:29:46 Julie Roy
So now we live 100% passively in terms of passive income.
00:29:50 Julie Roy
We’ll talk about passive in a minute, but meaning that check comes in the bank every month and we don’t really do a ton of work for that piece.
00:29:56 Julie Roy
The multifamily is a little bit less less passive, but offers the bonus depreciation and the tax eradication for us.
00:30:03 Julie Roy
But what we want to do is help other people learn this, like all the stuff.
00:30:06 Julie Roy
The only thing we wish we knew was all of this sooner.
00:30:10 Julie Roy
You know, I feel like we always think if we knew this, you know, 10 years ago, where would we be now.
00:30:15 Julie Roy
But that’s part of learning, right?
00:30:16 Julie Roy
And we’re okay with, we continue to be blessed with information.
00:30:21 Julie Roy
So we want to continue to bless others with information.
00:30:24 Julie Roy
And so really that’s where we’re at the next phase of life.
00:30:27 Julie Roy
I’ll be 50 in December.
00:30:29 Julie Roy
So that’s a big milestone for us.
00:30:30 Julie Roy
I will have completed the continents with my children December 29th and my 50th birthday is December 29th.
00:30:36 Julie Roy
So I feel accomplished, you know, in that, in that sense as well.
00:30:39 Julie Roy
But but what we feel like for this next half of life if we’re blessed enough to live another 50 years, which I’m planning on beginning with the end in mind that we have 50 years to help others, right.
00:30:51 Julie Roy
And so generosity and abundance is what’s feeling us moving forward.
00:30:55 Julie Roy
And so when you talk about what’s next, I think a lot, right?
00:30:59 Julie Roy
I think a ton, but I think it’s for other people now.
00:31:03 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Love that.
00:31:04 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Do you know how old you’re gonna live?
00:31:07 Julie Roy
Yeah, I’m gonna be 99.
00:31:09 Julie Roy
99 Yep.
00:31:11 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Why’d you choose that number?
00:31:13 Julie Roy
Because I feel like I I don’t know.
00:31:17 Julie Roy
I don’t actually don’t know why it’s 99, but my grandparents live to like 93 and 94 and my grandma’s still alive.
00:31:25 Julie Roy
My grandma’s a little old Italian nona who cooks pizza still for 19 people and calls them and says pick up your, you know, pizza and homemade ravioli.
00:31:36 Julie Roy
And she has huge gardens and I have a very similar energy level and background as her.
00:31:44 Julie Roy
And so I feel like I’m going to still be doing that at 93 and 94.
00:31:48 Julie Roy
I think I’ll probably settle down a little at 9596.
00:31:51 Julie Roy
You know, she goes and visits the old people still at the old age home because they need, you know, they need stuff.
00:31:57 Julie Roy
So I think I’m going to be the same.
00:32:00 Julie Roy
I don’t know that I want to hit 100 because I feel like the apex for me of being a century.
00:32:08 Julie Roy
I feel like I want to accept that in the universe.
00:32:12 Julie Roy
I don’t know, it’s just something kind of weird.
00:32:15 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Right on.
00:32:16 Matthew Kuehlhorn
I’m going to challenge anybody listening right now to choose a age because that end in mind is important.
00:32:24 Matthew Kuehlhorn
And and when I chose, I mean, I have a I have a pretty clear vision of me at 103 on stages, still boxing, and I’m going to 108 and I already know how I’m going to go out and I’m going to laugh when it happens and I’m just going to give a whole bunch of gratitude.
00:32:41 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, but how do you, you know, as far as the power of ended mind, as I gained more and more clarity about that and I was like, OK, no, 108 it is now.
00:32:52 Matthew Kuehlhorn
I’m not even halfway there yet.
00:32:54 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Like let’s go like this is the beginning of this.
00:32:58 Julie Roy
That half half time left right needs to be different than the first half right For me anyways, I don’t know.
00:33:05 Julie Roy
I feel like there is.
00:33:07 Julie Roy
There’s got to be more clear to be clarity about where you’re going at this point, right?
00:33:11 Julie Roy
We’ve lived half our life.
00:33:12 Julie Roy
We know what we like.
00:33:14 Julie Roy
I mean, I’m very strong minded.
00:33:16 Julie Roy
I’m sure yourself like you kind of know what you want and what you don’t want, what you’ll accept, what you want.
00:33:21 Julie Roy
You know, I’m not not.
00:33:22 Julie Roy
I’m not interested in all the other stuff.
00:33:24 Julie Roy
I mean, there’s just a lot of things I’ve let go because it’s not worth it.
00:33:28 Julie Roy
It’s our return on light, right.
00:33:29 Julie Roy
So the next half has to be a return on light.
00:33:34 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Love it.
00:33:35 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Julie, how can listeners get a hold of you?
00:33:38 Matthew Kuehlhorn
How can we learn more from you?
00:33:40 Julie Roy
Yeah.
00:33:40 Julie Roy
So my Facebook groups, pretty active.
00:33:43 Julie Roy
You know I’m always in there on a daily that’s the Roy Real Estate and Equity Group One.
00:33:49 Julie Roy
I’m on Instagram as at the Julie Roy I believe.
00:33:54 Julie Roy
And then yeah, our e-mail is just Roy Holdings with an S LLC at Gmail.
00:34:00 Julie Roy
So they can contact me there if they have any specific questions, comments, concerns.
00:34:04 Julie Roy
But yeah, I just you know if I can be of any value or help at all.
00:34:09 Julie Roy
You know we talked a lot about the positives, but there was a lot of struggle behind a lot of the success as well.
00:34:15 Julie Roy
And then you know that’s something that we didn’t get into a lot today.
00:34:19 Julie Roy
But I do feel like that is something to be, you know, there is something to be said about those lessons as well as we sort of moved up this food chain and I feel like adversity for us for sure brought abundance.
00:34:35 Julie Roy
And so I feel like that’s something too that you have to keep in mind because a lot of folks are you know struggling and a lot of folks are in situations where they want to give up, right.
00:34:45 Julie Roy
And and maybe it’s not working and they’ve they’ve got everything on the line.
00:34:49 Julie Roy
And so we’ve been there.
00:34:51 Julie Roy
You know, we’ve had those days.
00:34:53 Julie Roy
We’ve, you know, we had $150,000 biweekly payroll during COVID when they shut our schools down.
00:34:59 Julie Roy
So, you know, I went into the basement like, yeah, you know, really had to do an internal check of what was happening and, you know, everything ended up working out.
00:35:10 Julie Roy
But again, there has to be that will, right?
00:35:12 Julie Roy
And the belief in yourself.
00:35:14 Julie Roy
And I think if I can just leave that with you, that, you know, struggles are part of the journey and the financial journey and the personal and professional journey is never without the struggles and lessons.
00:35:26 Julie Roy
That’s what makes us and it’s Okay, right?
00:35:29 Julie Roy
And sometimes backwards steps bring more forward steps and that, yeah, just to think about adversity as bringing abundance and adversity bringing courage, right?
00:35:39 Julie Roy
I think that’s really what we’ve had to do so.
00:35:42 Matthew Kuehlhorn
That’s, yeah, really well said And to kind of emphasize that and then encourage again listeners to replay this conversation and then reach out to Julie because what I’m hearing is yes.
00:35:57 Matthew Kuehlhorn
We choose big goals.
00:35:59 Matthew Kuehlhorn
We start making steps.
00:36:01 Matthew Kuehlhorn
We’re going to hit hard times.
00:36:03 Matthew Kuehlhorn
We’re going to have challenges that are also going to form us and create the next opportunity.
00:36:10 Matthew Kuehlhorn
And keeping the mindset in check is an important piece.
00:36:13 Matthew Kuehlhorn
You’ve referenced mentors, you’ve talked a little bit about network and how critical this is, especially entrepreneurship.
00:36:21 Matthew Kuehlhorn
It can be lonely unless we seek out this mentorship.
00:36:26 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Who’s already been there, Who’s been through this?
00:36:28 Matthew Kuehlhorn
I can just at least say, yo, I hear you.
00:36:31 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, it’s hard.
00:36:33 Julie Roy
Yeah, yeah.
00:36:35 Julie Roy
And even sometimes just those little whispers of people like, you know, either going through similar things with you or being able to say, hey, you know what?
00:36:43 Julie Roy
We did this and it helped.
00:36:45 Julie Roy
Maybe it’ll help you.
00:36:46 Julie Roy
Or, hey, you know what, maybe this wasn’t working.
00:36:50 Julie Roy
What are some other options we can look at like?
00:36:52 Julie Roy
And sometimes outside of yourself is where those answers happen.
00:36:56 Julie Roy
I feel like sometimes as entrepreneurs, we get really stuck in where where our mindset is in the moment or where we think the goal needs to go.
00:37:06 Julie Roy
And so sometimes someone just might say something and you’re like, Oh my gosh, like I don’t have to be stuck or so super hyper delineated in this one area.
00:37:17 Julie Roy
Like maybe I just opened this up and all of a sudden, you know, the trajectory changes, right.
00:37:22 Julie Roy
And I feel like so being open to the universe, to like the more open you are, the more things come to you.
00:37:28 Julie Roy
Like, you know, I do gratefulness, I don’t want a chance.
00:37:33 Julie Roy
But definitely some like repetitive conversation with myself in the morning about being open and you know, bringing abundance to me so I can bring abundance to others.
00:37:41 Julie Roy
And I think there’s a lot of self belief, self talk, all these pieces that especially when you’re in hard times, you really need to self focus, you know, on being open to receiving information.
00:37:52 Julie Roy
That sometimes when you’re in hard times, you want to shut down and not receive information and that creates bigger problems for you, you know?
00:38:02 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Amazing.
00:38:04 Matthew Kuehlhorn
There is so much value in this conversation.
00:38:07 Matthew Kuehlhorn
We will include your links so folks can jump in your group, reach out to you and social.
00:38:15 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Get your e-mail and I would definitely encourage the listener to reach out to Julie if this is resonating on levels.
00:38:21 Matthew Kuehlhorn
And man, thank you so much.
00:38:24 Matthew Kuehlhorn
It was awesome to have this conversation with you.
00:38:27 Julie Roy
Thanks Matt.
00:38:28 Julie Roy
And I know that you’re an avid entrepreneur yourself, so hopefully it brought some value.
00:38:33 Julie Roy
But yeah, if we can be of any assistance, like I said, you know, please reach out and we just want to really thank you for the opportunity, you know to be able to be on this today and and to hopefully provide that for y’all.
00:38:45 Julie Roy
So have an awesome day.
00:38:47 Julie Roy
Go get it.
00:38:49 Julie Roy
Keep the end in mind.
00:38:50 Julie Roy
Get it.
00:38:50 Julie Roy
Be positive and be focused.
00:38:52 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Let’s grow.
00:38:53 Julie Roy
Let’s grow.
00:38:54 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for listening to the Kooler Lifestyle Podcast.
00:38:58 Matthew Kuehlhorn
We count on your subscriptions, your likes, your shares and I encourage you to do that.
00:39:02 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Now, if you’re watching on YouTube, go ahead and subscribe lower right hand button.
00:39:07 Matthew Kuehlhorn
If you’re on audio, download this, share it, and we look forward to having you on the next one.