Join host Steven Pesavento as he sits down with guest Kris Krohn, a renowned entrepreneur and real estate mogul. In this episode, Kris shares his journey from traditional education and career expectations to achieving financial freedom and creating a life of impact. Discover the key takeaways from Kris's insights on wealth-building, delegation, and prioritizing a balanced life. Learn how Kris's personal experiences, including the loss of a dear friend, led him to redefine success and create a perfect week that revolves around family, purpose, and growth.
Key Takeaways
Resources Mentioned
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About our Guest:
Kris Krohn is an accomplished entrepreneur, real estate investor, and educator with a passion for making a positive impact on the world. Kris has built an impressive portfolio of single-family homes, created successful businesses, and achieved financial freedom at a young age. Beyond his business endeavors, Kris is dedicated to philanthropy and empowering others to live purposeful lives. He is a sought-after speaker, educator, and mentor, sharing his wealth-building strategies and insights to inspire individuals to create their own paths to success and fulfillment.
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00;00;14;08 - 00;01;08;10
Steven Pesavento
I'm excited to have a special guest in the studio today, Criss Khron How you doing today?
00;01;08;10 - 00;01;12;07
Kris Krohn
Chris Yeah, I'm doing really good. Stephen Glad to be here on the investor mindset.
00;01;13;06 - 00;01;44;10
Steven Pesavento
Man. I'm really, I'm really glad to have you. You're somebody I've been watching grow online and been really inspired by the businesses that you've been able to build. You know, I know you're on track towards over $100 million of revenue in your business. I know that you've bought and hold many, you know, 6500 plus single family homes. You've done real estate, you've done private equity, you've built an incredible team and you've done all of that while building a life that you love.
00;01;44;17 - 00;01;59;15
Steven Pesavento
I mean, you're traveling all the time. You're spending time with the family. You're teach them the things that are most important. I mean, it's a true inspiration. What I'm curious about, Chris, is at what point did you realize that the life you were creating was more important than the work that you were doing?
00;02;01;00 - 00;02;16;21
Kris Krohn
You know, my my father was a German immigrant and he just said, Chris, you have to work hard, as all immigrants say. And he said, You got to get really good grades and then you got to go to college and you got to get a degree, and you're going to do that for 40 years and then you're going to retire rich.
00;02;16;21 - 00;02;46;27
Kris Krohn
Like my dad sold me this dream. And I think it was easy for him to lean into because he didn't really have an education beyond elementary school from Germany. He learned he was a master craftsman, trained in woodworking, and so he felt like he was giving his son the very best advice. But my life, when I look at what it's become, I thought it was going to be go to school, go to college, become a doctor, work really hard, be you know, make some of the best money at the top of the food chain.
00;02;46;27 - 00;03;00;21
Kris Krohn
And then I would really be set for life. And the best thing that ever happened to me was funny. I thought I was too stupid to become a doctor. Like, I'm in college, I'm taking organic chemistry and I get a C, it's a weed or glass and my brother says, You got to take it again. And I worked.
00;03;00;21 - 00;03;22;08
Kris Krohn
I got a tutor, I double down and I got a C minus. The second go around. I'm like, Oh my gosh. And you just said, Chris, this is not like you should pick a career that comes easy and natural to you. This does not. And he was right. So I gave up that dream and, you know, I started searching inside the walls of college for, oh, well, maybe it's marketing director, or maybe it's this thing, or maybe I'm going to be an engineer, or maybe I want to be a teacher.
00;03;22;19 - 00;03;38;15
Kris Krohn
And all I saw across the board was whatever career I picked, you're pretty much going to make 50 $800,000 a year. And I looked at that and said, That just sounds like kind of a normal working life. And I started realizing I'm going to get trapped in. I also got married young. My wife and I've been married for 21 years.
00;03;38;15 - 00;04;01;16
Kris Krohn
And when we first got married and she didn't have kids, she said, Chris, like you're the one that's going to be the breadwinner. You're going to be the one making the money. I was like, okay, I got it. I got to pick a good career in college. And as I search, I'm like, I'm screwed. I'm going to I'm going to be set for 40 years of indentured servitude, giving the best hours every week, 40, 60 hours of my life every week to something I probably don't even care about.
00;04;01;16 - 00;04;15;04
Kris Krohn
That's going to pay me tiddledywinks. And when it all is done, at the end of the day, I come to retirement, I'm going to be screwed. And I didn't just kind of get there on my own. I had this telemarketing job and when I was in college I spent a year interviewing people that 30 years earlier had gone to college.
00;04;15;15 - 00;04;47;03
Kris Krohn
They got a degree. These were Dave Ramsey kind of people. They were for when cares, IRAs, House offers. And I started just after talking to thousands of them. Here's why. Here was my sense by their mid-fifties they maybe had a net worth of a couple hundred thousand dollars. Maybe they had their house half paid off. And I was like, Oh, no, Like then you talk to the ones that get to 65 and it's like, shoot to maintain your standard of living if you're going to annuitize your money and live off of it, off of the interest you need, at least, you know, two and a half, $3 million and you have two, three, four or
00;04;47;03 - 00;05;07;18
Kris Krohn
$500,000. So I just saw all the math as a 21 year old and I figured it out. I figured out that everyone's going to fall really short financially and that honestly, Steven is what encouraged me to say, that's it. I am going, I'm going, I'm going off the ranch. I'm going to go so far outside this university model and I'm going to use a real simple model.
00;05;07;23 - 00;05;19;19
Kris Krohn
I'm going to go find the most successful people that I can, and I am going to tie myself to their ship. I'm going to learn everything I can from them and their products will show me the way. And that's essentially what I did. That changed everything for me.
00;05;20;16 - 00;05;36;24
Steven Pesavento
So you dove in. You found I mean, real estate was one of your first models that really allowed you to be able to build wealth. And obviously you've expanded you're running a ton of businesses now. At what point did you get your first coach?
00;05;37;24 - 00;05;56;03
Kris Krohn
My first I found three people that had all made over $10 million in real estate. The first person that I found I scared off because I went to their house at 11 p.m. at night and said, Mentor me. And they didn't like that and they slammed the door on my face. But the next to one of them was a neighbor across the street that looked like he was poor.
00;05;56;13 - 00;06;23;03
Kris Krohn
He dressed like he was poor, his house looked like he was poor and he was worth millions of dollars. And then my other mentor was the opposite. He was in the process of building a 14,000 square foot house that had all of the bells and whistles and extras and branding cars and boats and everything else. And so I had these two funny mentors that were like total opposites, but both had similar results, and one was all flash and one of them had zero flash, but I basically followed them around.
00;06;23;03 - 00;06;37;26
Kris Krohn
I did deals with them. They help me structure and do my first deals and I basically just learn the ropes from them. And so by the time I graduated college, I had a modest portfolio. I had 25 homes pay me residual, about $12,000 a month. And it meant when I graduated that I didn't have to get a job.
00;06;37;26 - 00;06;59;13
Kris Krohn
In fact, I had a job in college. I quit it and I was done. I honestly never needed to work again. And that was just like the beginning of wealth building, right? Small net worth, couple of million dollars. But I was free and I had my time back and I could pretty much do whatever I wanted. And so that was kind of a pivotal moment where I'm like, okay, I'm out of the system and I'm just starting my life.
00;07;00;16 - 00;07;35;06
Steven Pesavento
I mean, you found your way there really early, right? You found your way there while you were in college, 26 years old. You're free. But let's fast forward, right? You're running, you're running your business, you're buying a bunch of houses, you're growing. You know, there had to be a point along the way where you you got pulled into the trap that so many operators fall into, where you're pumping all of this time and effort, energy, you're building this business, and then you realize that there has to be more to this, that it's actually about the family, it's actually about these things.
00;07;35;06 - 00;07;41;05
Steven Pesavento
Or was that always core to your belief, even at 21, 22, 26?
00;07;41;05 - 00;07;55;27
Kris Krohn
No, no, I didn't figure those out when I was young. I had two things happen that really changed the direction of my life years ago. The first one was like seven years ago. I was had paid 100 grand to be in this Tony Robbins finance. Then it was like a weeklong event and the very first hour of the event.
00;07;56;26 - 00;08;12;09
Kris Krohn
He has a studious little exercise and he says, What are you learning? And I, I, like many other people, raise my hand except for some reason. Tony picked me, walked right up to me, and I walked right into an intervention. I didn't even know it. And for the next hour was just processing me in front of a room of 300 entrepreneurs.
00;08;12;23 - 00;08;36;04
Kris Krohn
And what came out of that experience was realizing that I'm a brilliant creator. I like to start the party and make the money, but I hate the long term executive implementation of growing teams and building cultures and scaling. And that's actually what most entrepreneurs do. You're a creator and implementer. You rarely boast. And so a lot of entrepreneurs are like, Well, I created it, now I should implement it.
00;08;36;04 - 00;08;56;05
Kris Krohn
And they loved the creation and they hate the implementation and they can't figure it out. They're also control freaks. They hire down, they hire people dumber than them, the people that they can control and wield, and they can't figure out why they don't have the right people on the team. And so after the intervention in that week long with Tony, I always wondered, how can you get $100,000 of value from an event?
00;08;56;06 - 00;09;14;17
Kris Krohn
Oh, I figured out how in fact I'm on the way home. The very first phone call I made was to a director in my company over my marketing firm, a team, and I basically said on Monday, I'm fired. I'm not running the company anymore. I'm not the president, I'm not the CEO. I'm nothing. I'm the creator. You are the executive director.
00;09;14;17 - 00;09;36;19
Kris Krohn
You're going to run it and that you're my company quadrupled and it's because I got out of the way. So that was a very important moment when I started learning the true power of delegation, when I realized that you have to learn how to empower the right people if you want to be everywhere, like right now, I'll get 10 million views on all of my social this week and I've got 400 companies and I'll work 25 hours a week.
00;09;37;11 - 00;10;02;02
Kris Krohn
If I work less than 25 hours this week, I would feel unaccomplished. I'd feel unfulfilled. If I work more than 30 hours a week, it's going to start messing with my mojo balance in my life. So I had to learn how to trust people and how to empower people. And that was the moment when it happened. But the real Steven, the real thing that changed everything for me was it's a little over four years ago, my best friend, Grant Thompson, was one of the top 100 YouTubers in the world.
00;10;02;12 - 00;10;28;00
Kris Krohn
His channel was called King of Random, and he brought families, parents and kids together with homemade social science experiments. And I got a phone call when I was coming back from Peru that he had just tragically fallen out of the sky. Paragliding caught bad wind, collapsed his his chute and fell against the mountainside and died. And when that happened, that was after two other bodies, same ages.
00;10;28;00 - 00;10;49;27
Kris Krohn
And he had also died earlier that year. So weird. And it's just like this keeps happening. And now it just happened to my best friend. And I thought, seriously, Chris, if you died tomorrow, would you really be fulfilled? And the answer was no. I was wealthy, but I felt like I wasn't honoring. I had all of the money in the world to achieve the balance that I wanted, but I wasn't giving myself permission.
00;10;50;04 - 00;11;08;29
Kris Krohn
And after my friend that I said, I'm giving myself permission. I pulled out a pen and paper. I designed my perfect week, 168 hours a week, just like everyone else. I design my perfect week and I've been living that perfect week ever since. And since then, I've never struggled with balance. It's just available and it comes down to standards.
00;11;09;10 - 00;11;28;25
Kris Krohn
I just needed to change societal ideas. For example, every Wednesday, my wife and I, tomorrow's Wednesday will spend the entire day together. We've been doing that for such a long time now. Like my wife is my best friend. I love spending time with her. We might get on my jet, go to Disneyland and just chill at Disneyland, do the part for a day and be back in my bed.
00;11;28;25 - 00;11;47;07
Kris Krohn
That night. We might go hang out at the spa. We might literally lie around a bed and just watch Lord of the Rings trilogy. I don't know. But that's her day. That's not conventional in the middle of week to take a day off and treat like a Saturday. You know, I work three days a week, Mondays, social day for studio work, and then Tuesday and Thursday I work from home.
00;11;47;22 - 00;12;07;24
Kris Krohn
Friday is my kids day, Saturdays my day, Sundays, God's day. I don't ever obligate myself to do anything in the evenings that isn't family unless I'm putting on one of my events Outside of that. And then I wake up at 4 a.m. and I have a five hour routine that I do every single day, Monday through Friday, and that routine lights me up and cultivates energy and sets me free.
00;12;08;12 - 00;12;17;00
Kris Krohn
I built that the day after my buddy died, and I've been living that schedule ever since. And so since then, balance has been very, very doable.
00;12;17;26 - 00;12;39;10
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, I mean, it's sometimes life gives us some of the hardest gifts to receive. You know, it's going through that kind of loss, that kind of grief. You know, about four years ago, I had a similar situation happen in my life. My younger sister, she died in a car accident unexpectedly, and she had left my house that morning and was driving back to Minnesota.
00;12;39;23 - 00;13;08;09
Steven Pesavento
And it's in that moment that you realize these things don't just happen to other people. They happen to you. That life is we don't know how long we have and we really need to enjoy every moment that we do. And I feel like you've been a really powerful example of somebody who took that, took that message that you received and decided to make your life about something really meaningful.
00;13;08;25 - 00;13;14;22
Steven Pesavento
And what did that do for you when you when you started living that perfect life?
00;13;15;02 - 00;13;33;22
Kris Krohn
So it's so crazy. You know, a lot of people are like, Dude, you're crazy. You get up before him in the morning because they're thinking about sleep. And I'm not. I'm thinking about energy. I'm thinking about my meditation, which is it's sacred, it's powerful, it's life building. It adds to my life force for the entire day. My wife does my entire routine with me.
00;13;33;22 - 00;14;02;18
Kris Krohn
Every morning we work out at the gym together. And so this whole, you know, reading books and everything that we do during that time, it's the most precious thing that I do every day that builds my destiny. It's what prepares me to be a dad, a husband, an employer, an influencer. And so I spend 5 hours a day investing in myself and learning and growing and basically sharpening those skills that has been so and valuable to me all the time that I have with my family.
00;14;02;28 - 00;14;22;00
Kris Krohn
We just got back from two and a half weeks in Japan the month before I took all my friends on my private jet to Iceland. Before that, we were in the Galapagos Islands with my kids on a on a private yacht for a week. This this the ability to maintain this balance. I fast for 20 years and I'm like, who am I going to be?
00;14;22;00 - 00;14;32;28
Kris Krohn
I will always be able to look back and say, I got to have the time as a father and as a husband for my loved ones. And that, I think, probably means more to me right now than anything else.
00;14;33;25 - 00;14;55;24
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, I mean, when that moment happened to me, I mean, it just knocked me knocked me out. I'm sure you experienced something really similar losing somebody so close to you. Yeah, but it really made me realize, like, what's important and it's super easy as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, as somebody who is out there publicly, like, like you and I are, it's easy to get pulled back in.
00;14;55;24 - 00;15;16;12
Steven Pesavento
There's so many people asking for our time. There's so many things that we want to do to make an impact, to be able to make an income, to be able to change people's lives. And it's so easy to get pulled into the minutia, pulled back into the administration, into being an integrator when, you know, that's not that's not me.
00;15;16;12 - 00;15;44;25
Steven Pesavento
I'm very similar to you, very much like the creating side kind of making things happen. What what tools have you used or how have you been able to hold yourself accountable to that decision that you made that every day you were going to live and put those priorities first, The things that actually matter most, keeping yourself in alignment, keeping your relationship tight, and making your family the most important thing instead of getting drawn deeper in because you have three or 400 companies.
00;15;44;25 - 00;15;58;27
Steven Pesavento
So I would imagine that, you know, a guy like me who has three or four companies, it's it's easy for me to get pulled back in. I'm not fully out yet. So what is what is allowed you to stay accountable to those changes that that you made?
00;15;59;16 - 00;16;20;21
Kris Krohn
I think the first thing is that I tell everybody about my lifestyle. Everyone expects, like everyone knows, don't text Chris on Wednesday. It's his wife's day. He's with his wife. My wife knows it's my wife's day, my kids knows my my wife's day. And so, you know, just because I share with the world and I say what it is, I think that just sometimes creates it.
00;16;20;21 - 00;16;36;12
Kris Krohn
Listen, when someone wants to change something, they say it quietly and then they do it internally and they don't want to tell anyone, and then they're surprised when it doesn't work. I believe in peer pressure, my peer pressures. I'm just going to tell the whole world exactly what I'm doing because I found that it's a very, very easy tool for accountability.
00;16;36;12 - 00;16;56;06
Kris Krohn
But probably the more technical answer is that I have a team that I trust. And Steven, that means that you can have two cooks in the kitchen. I have CEOs for each of my companies, so I can't really get pulled back in to playing that role. At best, I can be an advisor. And so I'll show up, I'll be an advisor, I'll show up to the board meeting.
00;16;56;16 - 00;17;16;06
Kris Krohn
Outside of that, they might put me on a special project, but then I'm out. And so I have to respect my people and their boundaries and because of that it works. I used to meddle and just kind of get involved a little bit. And then I saw that what that did was disempower. I'm a strong personality. I empower my people.
00;17;16;06 - 00;17;28;29
Kris Krohn
I basically Thomas and I here's the objective. Not sure how we get there. Yeah if you can get me there working 80 hours a week or 8 hours a week, I don't care if you take 80 hours a week and you want me to feel bad for you, I won't. I'll think you're stupid. You could do it in 8 hours a week.
00;17;28;29 - 00;17;49;15
Kris Krohn
I'll praise you for your intelligence, wisdom, your cleverness and for your level up. I don't care what effort you put into getting the outcome. You get the outcome you get paid. And so that means they have to be in charge of the house, not me. So I have to know what I want. You know Sir Richard Branson, he's known for saying like, how do you become a billionaire over and over and over again?
00;17;49;15 - 00;18;01;10
Kris Krohn
He said, step one, you have to have a clear vision on what you want. Step two, you have to find the best people on the planet. And step three, you get out of their way. I follow that mantra really, really closely, and it's been working. It's been a good thing.
00;18;02;27 - 00;18;16;03
Steven Pesavento
What what have you used to be able to attract those kind of people into your world and to be able to build that trust internally in yourself, to know that, you know, Hey, I'm going to step back, I'm going to let them do their thing.
00;18;16;24 - 00;18;34;26
Kris Krohn
It starts with one person. You have to find the person that is going to run everything that you implicitly trust. I put years into Carson teaching when he was my director of marketing and I made him the executive director, and a year later I made him CEO. And three years later I made him the president of my board, who then was in charge of ten other CEOs.
00;18;35;25 - 00;18;55;14
Kris Krohn
We spent weekly time. You know, when I say work 24 hours a week, I spent a couple of hours a week with him. So I'm always investing in him. And now, years later, that investment has yielded a relationship that is so powerful. And as long as he and I are single minded in our outcomes, he knows how to lead the rest of the crew.
00;18;55;19 - 00;19;16;17
Kris Krohn
You have to have one person on your team that gets you inside and out and will be loyal and will honor your wishes, etc. This individual has some huge financial incentives in place for hanging with me and doing what he does and we've become amazing friends. He's not going anywhere. So he's a linchpin to everything that I have today.
00;19;16;24 - 00;19;28;19
Kris Krohn
If I didn't have him, I wouldn't have the confidence that I do in answering this question. So I think it starts with having one, and then that one person should help breed a dozen more. And then finally, you just keep expanding.
00;19;29;09 - 00;19;47;01
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. So it's you're really you've invested this time in one person that, you know, gets your vision that you believe and that you trust. That's proven themselves over and over again. You didn't just one of the big mistakes I see a lot of entrepreneurs do is they go out, they run, they hire people, and they just step back.
00;19;47;09 - 00;20;04;24
Kris Krohn
It's a mistake. It's a mistake because you don't have rapport with these people yet. You don't know if you can trust them. It's amazing how easy it is to lie in an interview. Some people are really good at just causing you to believe they're the guy, but I always believe that the real interview happens 30, 60 and 90 days after the hire point.
00;20;05;08 - 00;20;20;24
Kris Krohn
And it's just like when I hire someone, I'm not really giving them a job like they think they're getting a job. I'm not getting the job. I'm telling them, Yeah, I'm going to give you a salary for a month and 30 days. We're going to circle back and I'm going to find out if you're two faced or if you exceeded expectations or if you fell short.
00;20;20;24 - 00;20;28;10
Kris Krohn
And I'm going to reevaluate. And then at 90 days, I'm going to do the exact same thing. After 90 days, if you're with me, you're hired. You get to keep the job.
00;20;30;04 - 00;20;53;17
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. And that's so key because you're allowing them to prove themselves, build that trust and you're checking in on them. You're not just 100% hands off. Yeah. So kind of pivoting away from the business side of the conversation. I mean, for you, you really got to financial freedom, really early. Yeah. You've continued to grow. You've continued to see those new lines.
00;20;54;24 - 00;21;10;22
Steven Pesavento
What what's your number today or what? What what have you named that is that line in the sand that you're targeting? Because I can see. Right. Like you don't need to work, you don't need to run more businesses. There's something else greater that you're going after. And I'm curious, what is that?
00;21;11;04 - 00;21;30;02
Kris Krohn
So I've got to give you a funny answer on this one. First, two years ago, I had the director of my foundation say, Chris, in Ukraine, right now, since the war has broken out, you have these families that are broken. The dads are being sent to the front lines. These mothers that have been pregnant, they're having premature babies.
00;21;30;02 - 00;21;47;28
Kris Krohn
And some of these babies need surgery to stay alive. The problem is they don't have the medical support and these babies need to be transported to Poland to get the surgeries. And they don't have the ventilators to allow them to transport so they can't survive the trip. And he said, let's take $1,000,000. Let's go in five weeks to Ukraine.
00;21;48;13 - 00;22;06;01
Kris Krohn
There's a particular baby that was just born preemie. Her name is Sophie, and there's hundreds of others. Let me get all the medical supplies and let's deliver them and save these babies. And my heart was pricked with an absolute yes. Everyone thought that I was crazy. Like, I don't know why you're going. You're risking your life. It's an act of war zone.
00;22;08;10 - 00;22;24;19
Kris Krohn
But honestly, the spirit of my grandmother, who is a refugee during World War Two, who has since passed on, I felt her spirit just break my heart and say, Chris, the only reason why you are alive today is because when I was a refugee, someone helped me and it was like, Man, I have I have to do something.
00;22;24;22 - 00;22;44;03
Kris Krohn
So five weeks later we loaded up $1,000,000 of medical supplies and we were on our way to Ukraine. And I was so relieved the moment we got to do the handoff to one of the hospitals and I specifically had Sophie's ventilator. I said, You get this to this little girl because she's just hanging by an inch and you get to the pole and as fast you can.
00;22;44;12 - 00;23;11;14
Kris Krohn
A few days later, we were leaving the country and we got word that Sophie had made it to her surgery in Poland, but we found out she hadn't survived. And it was so heartbreaking. We had saved so many babies, but we didn't save Sophie and I came back from that with a wounded heart, but a bigger heart. And I just decided that this is a big part of my mission.
00;23;11;23 - 00;23;28;03
Kris Krohn
I don't need more money for more shit. I don't need stuff. Yeah, but there's a purpose. There's a capacity. If I'm able to create this level of value, then to what end? It's certainly not to give to my children. I'm not going to give hundreds of millions of dollars to each one of my children and ruin their life.
00;23;29;00 - 00;23;53;10
Kris Krohn
You know, this work is for the people who can't help themselves because these innocents, they are in the world and no one is coming to save them. So that experience in the spring, I'll be taking my fourth trip to Ukraine. And we are this weekend. My wife's going to be in Mexico at one of our safe houses for kids that we're pulling out of sex trafficking and slavery.
00;23;54;18 - 00;24;19;15
Kris Krohn
You know, this this foundation and the work that we're doing right now is the most fulfilling thing I've ever done. So the line in the sand correlates really to one outcome. I don't need the money. It's for something else. I told myself in 2009 that I was going to be a billionaire. That was I was 13, 14 years ago now, and I'm probably within a year, maybe two at best, of actually hitting that goal.
00;24;20;07 - 00;24;37;01
Kris Krohn
And I know what that money is for. It's for an endowment fund. It's to keep growing, spending it off and then endowing it to have that interest just go perpetually into the foundations, you know, where the where the most important work is being done on the planet. So that's that's really what it's all about.
00;24;37;26 - 00;25;01;10
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, it seems like the higher the level of success that that you create, the more likely that impact starts becoming more and more of a focus point. I know for myself, impact is really important, yet I keep getting drawn back to that scarcity mindset that I grew up with, right? I've broken it in so many ways, but it's easy to get pulled back to it.
00;25;01;18 - 00;25;20;00
Steven Pesavento
And yet the thing that really is fulfilling is being able to help people be able to make a change like in those individuals lives. AT What where did this shift for you away from? Hey, I'm running a business to this is about something greater than that.
00;25;20;12 - 00;25;23;29
Kris Krohn
I think I've told myself, Stephen for a long time that I'm not altruistic Guy.
00;25;24;12 - 00;25;24;22
Steven Pesavento
Yeah.
00;25;24;29 - 00;25;45;13
Kris Krohn
But until I step foot off of that plane in Ukraine, I didn't know it. On my second trip to Ukraine. We were on the warfront. There was a highly disputed area. There was missile fire going back and forth, you know, between the Russians and the Ukrainians. And there was this little neighborhood caught on the top of a hill that was being bombed with indirect fire.
00;25;46;06 - 00;26;10;07
Kris Krohn
And we were there to rescue 12 people that were stuck in their homes. And some of the homes were being literally just blown up. And so I was in the Jeep that raced up the hill amidst all of the firefight and pulled these people to two safety. And in that moment that I was there, something very, very special happened, something very spiritual.
00;26;10;07 - 00;26;30;01
Kris Krohn
It's actually kind of difficult to describe. But in that moment, I realized that I was a meat sack, like, I'm not a near billionaire, I'm not a successful entrepreneur, I'm not an influencer. I am a man with a body that can pull these people to safety. I am nothing. I am less than the dust of the earth like these bombs.
00;26;30;01 - 00;26;49;05
Kris Krohn
This war doesn't care whether I'm important or not, whether I'm special or not. None of it mattered. And it was really a transcending moment for my life because I just realized that a part of my ego died That just said, Chris, like, here's the real truth. Yay for you. That you've had a lot more success than a lot of other people.
00;26;49;05 - 00;27;11;19
Kris Krohn
But all that really means brother is greater responsibility. And if you are blessed with so much privilege and you're not using that to better society and create value, then you're really messing it up. And so I think I think those trips to Ukraine and Mexico have been for me, those moments that I think I went from a desire to be altruistic.
00;27;11;19 - 00;27;18;13
Kris Krohn
It kind of sounded nice to actually becoming that person that really just wants that for other people. Now.
00;27;19;22 - 00;27;37;18
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, it sounds like a really transformational moment because I know for myself, I, I am drawn to it. I enjoy the fulfillment when I'm, when I'm working with somebody one on one and we make a shift and that ends up leading to big change in their life, or you're helping to support somebody, you're volunteering, you're doing these things.
00;27;37;18 - 00;28;09;12
Steven Pesavento
It's all it, it feels great in the moment, but it's easy to get pulled back to that bigger drive. Yes. Yeah. Yet there's this part of me who knows that my purpose is to help change individual people's lives and and be able to do something greater. And there's this resistance inside because there's almost like a fear of of being able to let go of the focus on money, because that was the thing that got me where I'm at and got me out of the situation that I grew up in.
00;28;09;17 - 00;28;44;15
Kris Krohn
You know, that's going to sound a little crazy and this may not even be fully appropriate to do on your podcast, but I will drop this every trip mission trip that I take to Ukraine. It it is filled with entrepreneurs that put up at least $100,000, and they're hurting their pocketbooks because they're hoping to have an experience and they're the ones that will spend a week or two with me in Ukraine, basically delivering the goods and witnessing the direct impact of helping people and every single person that's gone with me and come back has had their heart completely transformed and the trajectory of the rest of their life.
00;28;44;15 - 00;29;08;14
Kris Krohn
I know it it's never you don't have an experience like that without becoming a different human being and never been the same again. And you're asking how? Well, I'm sure there's a lot of different ways, but that is most certainly a way, and that might be something you want to consider as maybe you're on maybe this coming spring you're on that jet with me, you know, getting a chance to be there, front row, helping the people, seeing the people and and making the difference.
00;29;08;14 - 00;29;26;21
Kris Krohn
I think that I think that it's when we do become front rowers to the cause of good, that we become enrolled into it. So it's one thing to just sit back and write a check and say, Man, I really hope that makes a difference. I heard that empowering speech. You know, I've been to Tim Tebow's event, wrote him a several hundred thousand dollar check.
00;29;27;00 - 00;29;31;10
Kris Krohn
You know, writing the check feels good, but it's very, very different than when you're the helping hands.
00;29;32;04 - 00;29;59;00
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, I mean, that sounds incredible. Definitely. Let me know more about that. Chris. Yeah, that's it's it's really it's really powerful because as, as we kind of take a step back, it's like we're all grinding to try to create a better life for ourselves. And then once we create it, we want to share that with other people. Yeah, for, for you.
00;29;59;00 - 00;30;16;25
Steven Pesavento
I know you've been a big Tony Robbins guy. I know you're a lion. I know you're your travel around, you're spending time with with the crew. I've been big in the Tony community myself. It's made a huge impact. What what impact has coaching made in your life and in your team's lives?
00;30;17;10 - 00;30;49;24
Kris Krohn
So I've had I'm proud to say I've had 32 different mentors from beginning to this point that in most cases I paid a steep price of time and money to basically get in their airspace. And I don't know, a faster methodology for human growth than when you inconvenience your life, both time and money, to be somewhere where you can really sit at the at a master's feet that has achieved ten times, 100 times or a thousand times more than your greatest and wildest dreams.
00;30;50;13 - 00;31;29;23
Kris Krohn
And so I think Tony was like my 26th mentor, you know, in the game. And I was in his ecosystem for two years. And I love I love basically feeling into my intuition, feeling who I feel drawn and called to, and then going out of my way to get there airspace to essentially say, teach me. And that's where I've learned, you know, I would say coaching for me, being coached and as much as possible, not even in group format, one on one has been for me it's it's been some of the most profound training that I've I've ever received.
00;31;30;03 - 00;31;57;04
Kris Krohn
I think that it is the creme de la creme. I think that it is the most rapid way to growth. If anyone's listening to this that has never been to a multiday, full immersion event, anyone that has only maybe turned to books and podcasts for their learning. If you want to know when the growth is so fast that it's like you're in a rocket ship and it's shaking and you think the bolts are going to come out of the side and accidentally leave you in space dead.
00;31;58;14 - 00;32;16;11
Kris Krohn
For me, I find that when I go to these full immersion events and then when I hire a one on one coach and I've had group, you know, coaching dynamics with Tony Robbins, I've been to his house. I haven't actually ever had Tony as a one on one coach, but I've had so many others that that's when the dynamic for sure becomes the most meaningful.
00;32;16;11 - 00;32;17;13
Kris Krohn
And you should seek that out.
00;32;18;25 - 00;32;45;05
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, there's there's something really powerful to that. And there's nothing like going to an event for three, four or five, six days and just being full immersed. I actually just recently drove in, you know, the next chapter of my growth into Joe Spencer and some of his work and have had my mind completely blown from being somebody who is pushing for everything towards actually pulling it into my and into my world.
00;32;45;05 - 00;33;00;20
Steven Pesavento
But also that feeling of like unlimited love that comes out of these meditations. Yeah, it's impossible to explain to somebody who hasn't experienced that, to be able to think you can create that within yourself. But it's only by getting into a community of other people that you start realizing that it's possible.
00;33;01;01 - 00;33;21;18
Kris Krohn
Yeah. Yeah. No, Joe's absolutely he's he's a stunning man, brilliant soul and absolutely amazing. Now, I love that. That's beautiful. I put on, you know, every quarter I put on a four day event. I own my own event center. Several hundred people will basically gather and we will do one one half is just all wealth training and how you do it.
00;33;21;18 - 00;33;46;07
Kris Krohn
And it's a blueprint on how you become a billionaire. And then the other half of the time is just pure mindset, breaking through, limiting beliefs, creating just like the perfect environment for transformation and growth that isn't found sitting in a seat, you know, whether we're doing glass walks or fire walks or some of the other crazy, crazy modalities, it's it's all about creating a transformational experience so that you basically look back and say, my life is never going to be the same again.
00;33;46;23 - 00;33;54;18
Kris Krohn
And so those experiences are out there and they are deeply, deeply meaningful. So yeah, that's my favorite way of coaching.
00;33;55;18 - 00;34;14;01
Steven Pesavento
When it when it comes to the investing side, you know, the system that we're living in today is broken. You know, go to school, get a job, work for a foreign car, and hope that someone else is going to take care of you or hoping that it's going to work out. But that hope doesn't. It's not real like it doesn't work anymore.
00;34;14;01 - 00;34;34;25
Steven Pesavento
Maybe worked a couple of generations ago, but so many people are trying to figure out another way. But there's so much fear, so much fear of stepping out of the traditional stock market world and into the world of real estate or in private equity or business. From your perspective, what what is the best way for somebody to get there first steps in that direction.
00;34;34;25 - 00;34;41;00
Steven Pesavento
I know you have a new book that's out. Kind of talk to me a little bit about some of your methodology and how you think like an investor.
00;34;41;09 - 00;34;59;11
Kris Krohn
Yeah. So in the beginning it was real estate. Investing in real estate was really easy to figure out. Given enough time, I'll become a billionaire just in real estate alone. However, it wasn't until I entered the world of private equity that I realized that you could make that happen in leaps and bounds and very, very, very short timeframes.
00;34;59;29 - 00;35;19;20
Kris Krohn
And so private equity is that mergers and acquisitions game of basically finding a way to identify companies with high asymmetric upside. Like for example, one of my companies six months ago that I started that is MVP going to market right now it provides a it provides a software solution to a huge a huge problem in our supply chain.
00;35;20;04 - 00;35;41;24
Kris Krohn
And what it does is it allows the brands that are shipping products to retailers to actually do split pay methodology so that brands who basically know who makes stuff and give it to retailers and get paid months later, it allows them to use their technology to get paid. The moment something sells. And what it does is it puts the banking on the sides of the brands instead of the retailers.
00;35;41;24 - 00;36;03;25
Kris Krohn
And now retailing, you can get into that business for a 10th of the cost and I'm providing valuable data back to the brands. Well, I already have $100 million valuation on that company based on companies that have signed up to use that software. Their company has $100 billion net worth. That company only came to me through iteration and magical conversations that happen on private jets.
00;36;05;08 - 00;36;20;26
Kris Krohn
Iteration is this idea that your very first company isn't going to be the big one. Your fifth one is your first one is training wheels, and some people will get so addicted to their first business are like, No, no, no. I'm going to figure this out. I'm like, No, no, no. It's taking all your time and it's the hardest money you're ever going to make.
00;36;20;26 - 00;36;37;15
Kris Krohn
How do I know this? Because when you finally have the freedom in the position to exit from it and let someone else run it so you can work on a second one and you increase your standards, your second one is inevitably significantly bigger than the first. And then you learn the pattern. Your third one and your fourth one will also grow.
00;36;37;16 - 00;37;03;07
Kris Krohn
You might have some failures in between, but eventually you learn the game of business. By the time you get your fifth business, that's when you select a business on all the proper criteria. What has great exit value? What produces max value in the world? What's super scalable, what has unlimited database and traffic sources? And all of a sudden you now pick a company that can just shoot through the moon and go, You know, right now I'm working on several companies that all have billion or multibillion dollar potential.
00;37;03;18 - 00;37;20;18
Kris Krohn
And most people would say, But Chris, you only need one of those. I'm like, No, I need a hundred of those. Well, why? Because 20 or 30% of them are going to do exactly what I hope they will and the rest are going to do some of it or they're going to falter completely and fail. And if I have 20 or 30 of those billion dollar companies come to fruition.
00;37;20;20 - 00;37;37;01
Kris Krohn
Hello? Right. So iteration is, I think, one of the been one of the greatest teachers in the game of business, which is don't be satisfied with your current business. That's the business that you'll beat your head against the wall, like smacking your forehead against bricks and just bleeding profusely, saying, I can find a way. I can find a way.
00;37;37;06 - 00;37;54;13
Kris Krohn
I can find a way. You met your Peter level. You need to iterate a new idea to have new potential because if you understand the language of finance and Six Sigma, you probably already got to your Max sigma and there's not more to gain. You think there is, but you're delusional. You need to move on to something with higher standards to create something better.
00;37;54;13 - 00;37;58;26
Kris Krohn
Instead of trying to force your current baby to turn into the monster that you hope that it will.
00;37;59;23 - 00;38;19;04
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, that's that's such a powerful thing because so many people that I know that are young entrepreneurs, they think it's all about this. They got to make this thing happen. They got to get it to the max level. But what you're actually saying is, yeah, enjoy that process. Bang your head against the wall, learn the lessons, but start thinking ahead.
00;38;19;04 - 00;38;41;10
Steven Pesavento
How can I get somebody in here to start running this business so that I can go focus on creating the next one and the next one and the next one? Yes. And what role does, you know, thinking like an investor play in that process? I mean, you're not actively working in many of these businesses. It sounds like it's really the capital that's coming in from the things that you've created in the past.
00;38;42;02 - 00;39;05;14
Kris Krohn
The mindset has everything. Steven. I mean, look, anyone that does anything great, they didn't do with money. They didn't do a community, they didn't do by people. Delegation We're confused. These are all none of these things are the thing. Everything starts in the mind. Think about this. You're having 70,000 thoughts a day, depending on the number of words you use in a sentence.
00;39;05;14 - 00;39;34;29
Kris Krohn
You're having at least a half a million words a day, and the untrained mind will use words like bad, horrible, can't, didn't work out. They'll use these words that are negative driven and they're just normal descriptive words to them. But in my world, everything adds up, all the negatives and all the positives. So if you had a half a million words a day, most people had at least one or 200,000 of those words that are limiters, they're negative minded.
00;39;34;29 - 00;40;00;25
Kris Krohn
And what that does is it brings down your energy, it robs your motivation. And it it what it does is, is it coerces the confidence out of you instead of being, you know, properly placed. And so one of the things that I do at my events is I teach people how to reconstruct all of their thoughts and sentences so that all of their language can work towards their benefit, and that ultimately when someone says, well, what even is a mindset?
00;40;00;28 - 00;40;20;21
Kris Krohn
Well, for me it's it's got to be positive. Positive is the fertile ground where a thought can really take root becomes something the skeptics going to kill that newborn, It's not going to allow it to thrive. And so watching our, you know, like lawsuits, that it's really watching our thoughts that become words, that watch, that become behaviors that become destiny.
00;40;21;00 - 00;40;40;19
Kris Krohn
It all comes down to our it all comes down not even to fight. It comes down to a word. What are the words that we're using to assemble life people? Cuz, Mel, it sounds like, dude, you are so positive, you're so happy. How do you do that? It's because I altered my standards. I don't use negative language anymore as building blocks because everything that you think is a building block to something that you're creating.
00;40;40;29 - 00;40;47;00
Kris Krohn
And if it's not a good building block, then it is hurting you instead of helping you. So, I mean, the the mindset is where it all begins.
00;40;48;05 - 00;40;57;05
Steven Pesavento
Everyone wants the tactic. Everyone wants the strategy, but they actually need to start by changing what they're thinking about. Yeah, before any of that stuff matters.
00;40;57;15 - 00;40;58;03
Kris Krohn
100%.
00;40;59;25 - 00;41;13;13
Steven Pesavento
Well, Chris, it was so great having you on the show today. Really appreciate you joining. Where can people find out more about you? I know you got a book out. I know you've got a bunch of different things that you're doing. Yes. The best place to point people to.
00;41;13;22 - 00;41;35;22
Kris Krohn
So free wealth Gifs.com for slash Stephen my teams put together based on our interview today, they put together, I think, some of the greatest giveaways, free tickets to my events, things that people here might really appreciate free wealth gift dot com forward slash Stephen is where you can go to see some of the ways that you can connect with me, connect with my social get my books for free.
00;41;36;09 - 00;41;43;14
Kris Krohn
Everything is free on, on that website and I hope that it will honestly and sincerely help you on your journey to figuring it out and living your life at a higher level.
00;41;43;29 - 00;41;46;19
Steven Pesavento
It's amazing. I would love to come join you for one of those events.
00;41;46;19 - 00;41;49;24
Kris Krohn
Chris Please do. Your brother would love to have you as a special VIP guest.
00;41;50;05 - 00;42;08;05
Steven Pesavento
Sounds like a ton of fun. This has been incredible. Thank you so much for being such an inspiration to me personally. And I know millions and millions of other people and thanks everyone for listening. Look forward to seeing how the next episode and signing off.
00;42;47;01 - 00;43;15;07
Steven Pesavento
Hey, this is Steven again. Just one more thing before you take off, and that is the insider's newsletter. Would you enjoy getting a email every week with some of my favorite things, including tips and strategies on how to get the most out of your life and your investments? Basically, what it is is some of the coolest things that I've discovered or in pondering when it comes to life investing in business delivered in a short email every week to your inbox, easy to sign up for to cancel.
00;43;15;07 - 00;43;23;02
Steven Pesavento
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