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Alright alright, tell me what you just told me. Alright, tell me what you just told me. Alright, so um, the first time I actually saw you was on a cell phone in one of our lovely federal here in the United States. So I was housed in one of them for almost four years. You're a big hitter, yeah. Yeah man, yeah. I mean everybody's got a dream. You interview people that had a dream and turn it into something. What did you do? What did you just do? Tell him so my family and I have an HVAC company. Um, it's 42 years old. My dad's got it in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area. We just brought it down here to Texas about a year and a half ago, emerged and had a 49% exit about six months ago. How much did you sell it for? 7x from what we had it for. So we get 7x our dividend. So how much were you doing in terms of revenue? We were doing about three and a half million dollars in Oklahoma. So you guys made a cool 20 million off that? God had a plan for us. You hit rock bottom. You hit rock bottom. You went to a federal penitentiary. What was that got you out of rock bottom and that enabled you to go and build a multi-million dollar business? My relationship with Jesus Christ. God had a plan for me. Find him in prison. Did you find him in prison? No, I mean, I knew him before I went in, but you, you find him real quick when you get in there, you know what I mean? What did you learn about people while you were there? Cause you have a different perspective being with you're at the table with people with private equity guys buying companies. You're there with guys that are in prison, cartel members, you name it. Yeah, so what did you learn about it? It was so interesting. I learned that when nobody has anything, really are. So when nobody has anything to offer, but their handshake and love, that's what they got to offer. Give me the best advice that you received when you came out. I'll tell you something. One of my cellmates, name was Darrell Rosen. He was an executive of Proctor and Gamble for 35 years. One of the smartest people I've ever met in my life. He said, hire your weaknesses. Said your strength is where you make and your weakness is where you keep it. So I'll take that to the grave with me. Find people that are better than you to come do your job, not at all. If you bring something to the table, everybody eats. So let's talk right now. Somebody doesn't believe in God. What would your message be to them? My message would be this. He believes in you. I went through a long time in my life where, you know, I've done the wrong thing. I made mistakes and I paid for them. But I promise you, the comeback is so much greater than the setback, man. That's the best advice I can give anybody. If you hold on and you stand true to it, is so much greater than the setback, bro. That's amazing advice, my friend. Thank you, bro. Thank you so much for your time, man. I appreciate you, man. I appreciate you, man. You know that I'm from small town Oklahoma. Look where I'm at now, bro. Yeah, come on, man. I'm proud of you, bro. Hey, hey, that, come on, man, that was awesome. Come on, that was awesome. James, do my man, I appreciate you. James, do my man, I appreciate you. Dallas has been insane so far. And we're headed right now to go interview our next billion dollar entrepreneur. But before we do that, I need you to listen very carefully. Look, I know you watch me interview billionaires every week. But let me ask you a question. What if you weren't just watching them? What if you could be on a Zoom call live, asking your questions about your business directly to them and getting an answer directly from someone who's built a nine or a 10 figure company? Well, that's exactly why I built the school of mentors, which is my private community for entrepreneurs, just like you, where every single week, we host live Zoom calls with three separate calls with three billionaire founders, all in just one day. And you get access to all of it. Now, here's the craziest part. If you join the School of Mentors now, you know how much you can join for? You can join 100% for free. All you have to do is go down and click the link in the description of this video to join the School of Mentors today. I can't wait to see you on the inside. That being said, let's go get our next interview. Imagine being the CEO of not just one, but two multi-billion dollar fortune 500 companies. Well, that's what Jim Keys did. Sold 7-Eleven as the CEO. Ran Blockbuster and made a lot of damn money. And we're about to meet up with an interview him right now out here in Dallas, out here in Highland Park. You guys come on. What's going on, James? How you doing? Good to see you, my man. How are you? It's good to see you, man. We, we were letting them know, man, that you ran not one, but two Fortune 500 multi-billion dollar companies, man. I did. Lead a blessed life. I don't think people realize, man. You're 70 years old and and and you you look amazing. I am. You move like you're 35, man. So hey, man, every day is a new adventure. You gotta stay fit to get out of these things. 100%. Well, look, I've got one rule for the interviews. A lot of the people, they see me and you before. Yeah. We're not gonna hold back in this one though. We're gonna give them the real secrets on what it takes to you were in the trenches of two of the biggest companies in the world, man. So we're gonna give them the secrets, right? Can we make that happen? Good times and bad. It's more important that you teach them how to handle the bad times even than the good times. Let's get right into it. What was the most amount of money you made in a single year, haha, or single day? Single day? I sold 7-Eleven. You sold 7-Eleven for how much money? Haha, many billions of dollars. Many billions of dollars. Did you come from a lot of money? No, no. I grew up literally in a house with no running water. How broke were you? I mean, really broke. No, I really broke. Now, among yourself and the most successful CEOs in the business world, what's that one trait they all have in common? Fearlessness. It's what you have. It's the ability to walk up to somebody and be able to transact without any fear. How important were relationships for your success? Relationships are everything. It took me almost my entire career to realize that the most valuable resource of any company is the human resource. And yet we take that for granted so often. Your team is critically important to your success. A lot of people say that you can't get rich working in the corporate world. Do you agree with that? I don't agree with that. I think that the corporate world, most people are not cut out to be. Not everybody is an entrepreneur. And the corporate world provides an entrepreneurial opportunity. You still have to be an entrepreneur to be successful. I call it being a corporate entrepreneur, but it provides a little more structure than an entrepreneurial environment. And I found that to be a great solution for me to be able to be an entrepreneur in a corporate environment. What's the best advice that you received throughout your career? You know what the secret is? What's that? I learned this the hard way. As an entrepreneur, you need to know this. Three things. One, cash. Cash flow is critical to any business. It's your oxygen. You gotta watch your payables and you gotta be able to watch that cash flow. Number two is communications. Because we don't do this on our own. We have a team. And if the team doesn't understand where you're going, they can't execute. The team is uncertain and scared. That brings in fear. Fear means uncertainty is a killer. And then the third is probably the most important. Character in times of trouble, you are going to be tested. Your values, your resilience, your self-confidence will all be on the character. Is what will ultimately separate a winner from a loser. Able to stay the course, recognize it's not personal and have the confidence to weather that storm. This is a master class right here. It's absolutely a master class. The richest people in the world that I read a ton of books. What was the no. 1 book that changed your life? I'm gonna give you one. The standard answer might be, of course, the Bible, you know, but I'm gonna give you a that you'd be surprised at. And this is directly aimed at leaders and at business people or entrepreneurs. You know what the strongest book I read in business was? What's that? The Boy Scout Handbook. It sounds crazy. I'm an Eagle Scout. Yeah, that's right. You are? That's right. No, no, no. I made it to life, but go back to the Boy Scout Handbook. A scout is and I know you know this. Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, thrifty, brave, clean, reverent. And if you think about those principles, those elements of scouting will serve you well as a leader, whether you're an entrepreneur or running a multi-billion dollar corporation. It absolutely works. You got amazing advice, my friend. Hey, I connect with all the billionaires I could I get your contact? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Guys, the time has now come.