Episode 64

February 27, 2024

00:35:42

Episode 64 - Geoff Suval - From Struggle to Success: Geoff’s Journey Through Adversity and Personal Growth

Hosted by

Drew Deraney
Episode 64 - Geoff Suval - From Struggle to Success: Geoff’s Journey Through Adversity and Personal Growth
From Caving In To Crushing It
Episode 64 - Geoff Suval - From Struggle to Success: Geoff’s Journey Through Adversity and Personal Growth

Feb 27 2024 | 00:35:42

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Show Notes

This episode: From Struggle to Success: Geoff’s Journey Through Adversity and Personal Growth. 

 

Here’s what you’ll learn about:

Personal growth and self-improvement. (0:03) 

  • Geoff Suval shares his personal journey of self-discovery and growth, from struggling in elementary school to achieving success in high school and college.
  • Geoff reflects on his decision to pursue a different path in life, despite his initial success, and how he has continued to grow and learn since then.

Career pressure and a car accident. (3:30) 

  • Geoff faced pressure from expectations after starting a family and building a successful practice.

Accident, financial security, and purpose. (5:09) 

  • Geoff reflects on a near-fatal accident, wishing he had died to provide financial security for his family.

Financial struggles and mental health. (7:19) 

  • Geoff reflects on past financial mistakes and how they led to current struggles.
  • He considered suicide due to financial struggles and unrealistic expectations.
  • Job loss and financial struggles after retirement. 
  • Geoff was let go from his job at a retirement advisory firm due to his personal credit issues.

Financial struggles and mental health. (12:22) 

  • Geoff discusses financial struggles, depression, and talk therapy.

Addiction, recovery, and personal growth. (15:23)

  • Geoff struggled with alcohol addiction and met with a friend to discuss financial and recovery issues.
  • He finds a new job at a virtual business management software company and forms a close relationship with the president.

Career growth and personal relationships. (19:15)

  • Geoff shares his personal journey of resilience and growth, from being adopted into a new company to being promoted to executive vice president.
  • He emphasizes the importance of relationships and support systems, particularly with his family and colleagues.

Personal finance and business credit. (23:20)

  • Geoff reflects on past challenges, recognizing gifts and lessons learned (e.g., meeting wife, becoming sober)
  • His current Company helps small businesses separate personal and business finances, avoiding personal guarantees and potential bankruptcy.

 

To learn more about Geoff’s mission, go to his LinkedIn profile at or https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoffsuval/

Or his website at https://jgalt.io/gsuval

 

Geoff’s Bio: Geoff Suval

Executive Vice President and Business Credit Expert – J. Galt

As an advisor and consultant in the financial services industry for over 27 years, Geoff focuses on helping people, companies and worthwhile causes.  

As an Executive Vice President at J. Galt, Geoff and his colleagues help business owners separate and keep separate, their personal credit from their business credit and get access to the credit and capital they need without having to give personal guarantees.

Geoff is a frequent speaker and presenter on the importance of building business credit to mitigate business owner personal financial risk while providing access to the funds needed to grow, scale and prosper.

Geoff earned his BA in Government from Cornell University and has held the FINRA series 6, 7, 24, 53, 63 and 65 licenses as well as the Life, Health, Property and Casualty Insurance licenses.  He has earned the LUTCF®, ChFC®, AIF® and CHSA® professional designations.

Geoff is Past President of the Baltimore Chapter of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) and is Past President and on the Board of Directors of the Greater Chesapeake Foundation (GCF).

Geoff is a proud father of two amazing young adults ages 21 and 18. 

 

About your host: I'm Drew Deraney, the proud father of three children. For most of my life I've been concerned with what people thought of me and how I was supposed to act. I learned not to be my authentic self and instead became a people pleaser, a man wearing a mask.

In a 9-month span a few years ago, I endured four faith-shaking life events that caused me to question my existence.

I became determined to find a better way to live. Through intense self-reflection and awareness, I realized that in order to be happy, I must adhere to my standards of honesty, integrity and truth and needed to break free from the belief system that was anchored in me for close to 50 years.

I found my purpose and my mission in life. I've now become the man I know I am meant to be. My mission is empowering men ready to make a change to do the same.

My men's group and one-on-one coaching provide a safe space for men to share, without judgement, and transform. My male clients learn to release their inner greatness and stop self-sabotage, the #1 roadblock keeping them from reaching their goals.

 

HOW TO CONNECT WITH COACH DREW:

Website: https://profitcompassion.com/

Email: [email protected]

Free Webinar: Overcoming Self-Sabotage Registration

https://profitcompassion.com/caveman-webinar

Men’s Group Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/771474359577?aff=oddtdtcreator

Book a Coaching Discovery Call: https://link.mavericksystems.online/widget/bookings/netweaving/connect30

Pick up a copy of Drew’s book: https://amzn.to/40dsbyR

View Full Transcript

Episode Transcript

[00:00:06] Speaker A: Welcome to from caving in to crushing it, the podcast for those who find themselves immersed in adversity and choose to write their story instead of having others write it for them. I'm Drew Deraney, and I'm your host. Today's guest is Jeff Souval. Jeff is executive vice president and business credit expert for Jgault. As an advisor and consultant in the financial services industry for over 27 years, Jeff focuses on helping people, companies and worthwhile causes. As an executive vice president at JGault, Jeff and his colleagues help business owners separate and keep separate their personal credit from their business credit and get access to the credit and capital they need without having to give personal guarantees. Jeff is a frequent speaker and presenter on the importance of building business credit to mitigate business owner personal financial risk while providing access to the funds needed to grow, scale and prosper. Jeff earned his ba in government from Cornell University and has held the following F-I-N-R-A series, 6724-5363 and 65 licenses, as well as the life, health, property and casualty insurance licenses he has earned the LUTCF, CHFC, AIF and CHSA professional designations. Jeff is past president of the Baltimore chapter of the National association of Insurance and Financial Advisors and is past president and on the board of directors of the Greater Chesapeake Foundation. Jeff is the proud father of two amazing young adults, ages 21 and 18. Thanks so much and enjoy the show. Jeff Souval, so great to see you, my friend. Thanks for coming on. [00:01:51] Speaker B: It's my great pleasure, Drew. Thanks for having me. [00:01:54] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely. So I always love our before I hit the record button, the talks before, because I even learned, I actually learn sometimes more about my guest in the five to ten minutes we do before the record than I do any other time. So I definitely enjoy that. I have to give a shout out. I always give a shout out to the people who introduced me to the guests, and I'm going to indirectly give a shout out to Keegan Schaefer because it was in his men's group, now called tribal stoics, where you and I met. And so I'm very thankful for that. So, Jeff, there's a reason why I chose you to be on. And I bring people on, men and women alike, who have gone through faith shaking events in their lives that have caused them to pause. And all these defining moments, they're all relative. It depends on the person. Some people, it's a tap on the shoulder and they hear a voice to say, do something different. There's a better way to live. Some, like myself, needed a two x four. Hit me upside the head to wake me up and realize there's a better way to live. So I know you've gone through a lot in life, and I know that you've made a decision not to retreat. And you've made a decision to go forward and become a stronger man for your adversity. I'd like you to reach back as far as you feel necessary to grab that one or two or three defining moments that were either the tap on the shoulder or the two by four upside the head that said, hey, jeff, there's a better way to live, pal. Do something different. You don't have to live the way you're living. Give us a good story, my friend. [00:03:32] Speaker B: Yeah, well, that's great. Well, to do it justice, I know we probably don't have a ton of time, but, yeah, it's been an interesting journey. I will go back, and I like to kind of just sort of frame the way things were. Candidly, I basically had a pretty idyllic childhood. It started off kind of rough. I mean, I was left back in the first grade, and this was before parents were holding their kids back to give them a leg up or athletically. I actually couldn't read, right. But that might have actually been kind of the first log on my fire that made me always want to kind of prove myself right. So I always put in the effort and maybe combined with a little bit of natural talent and being a generally good guy, I had some early successes. Athletically, socially, academically. I mean, high school, I was a good athlete. I got good grades. I was homecoming king. Things were good. Right. I got accepted to Cornell early decision, where I had an amazing four years, a very unspectacular lacrosse career. That was brief at best, but I made some truly amazing friendships that just continue to get stronger and persist today. Right. So, college was great. And frankly, early post college career was also great. Living in, you know, making great relationships. I had a pretty good, impressive early career trajectory and was building that resume. So things were good, Drew. I mean, I was checking the boxes, so to speak. Right? Marriage. I started a family. I was winning lots of trips and trophies through work. But at that point, things started to get a little bit dicey. And frankly, I started to feel a little bit of pressure from expectations. And these weren't just expectations that were being thrust upon me. A lot of them were expectations that I was placing on myself. Right, right. Some of those. I mean, frankly, I started putting too much emphasis on outward appearances. Right. And this is going to be kind of a theme I think that I'm probably going to want to talk about quite a bit today. But honestly, there was just a lot of keeping up with the Joneses type behavior, which caused some mounting financial pressures and problems. But things were still going okay. But probably the first big defining moment was in late September 2013. I was heading up to a meeting, business meeting. I was doing retirement plan advisory work. I built a successful practice for a pretty big company, and I was heading up to a hospital client of mine up in York, Pennsylvania. And I got involved in a pretty horrific car accident that was actually caused by a truck driver, an 18 wheeler, who was texting, oh, no. Now, that accident definitely should have taken me out. I mean, looking at the pictures, it's kind of a miracle, but it obviously didn't take me out because I'm here chatting with you. Thankfully, however, there were many times in the subsequent years that I actually kind of wish that I had been taken out in that accident. I had $7 million, 5 million of personal life insurance, a couple of million in business insurance that would have covered me. Plus there definitely would have been probably a pretty significant settlement from the trucking company and their insurance carrier. And financial security was always something that I thought was my biggest responsibility, to leave my kids and my family, my wife and kids. And so that certainly would have left them better off financially, which was always my goal, but it obviously didn't happen. And after that accident, and I'll share the pictures with you at some point, but after that accident, my brother in law, my sister's husband, who's just sweetheart of a guy, he's also a pretty spiritual guy, but he's somebody that he believes that things always happen for a reason, right? And he would be like, jeff, he's like, you survive for a reason. We'll find out. It will be revealed. And I always kind of thought my reason was, or my purpose was to be a provider for my family and make sure they were safe and secure. And I still believe there's something to that. Clearly, that's my goal, is to do what I can for them. But he was always like, I think it's something else, right? So I guess we'll see. But I lived, obviously, and I suffered a major concussion, lots of cuts and bruises. But I only spent one night in the hospital, which is crazy. It literally shut the interstate down for 6 hours. I mean, this was a major accident. Nobody died. I was the most messed up, and I was only one night in the hospital. Truly a miracle. But that accident drew was the beginning of a series of very unfortunate financial events that, when combined with some pretty absurd actions by my former employer, my employer at that time, which there were some broken promises, they essentially offered me a 70% pay cut for building this beautiful, really profitable business for them. [00:09:44] Speaker A: That was their thank you card to you. [00:09:46] Speaker B: Yes. They waited a year until after the accident, but they had already done some other things before that which ended up hurting me financially significantly. But those things, they weren't the cause. Like, the cause of my financial issue were my know, my keeping up with the Joneses, like these irresponsible spending behaviors that, frankly, in lifestyle choices, private schools for the kids and clubs, know really nice cars. Like, know stuff that I placed too much value on because it was about outward appearances. Right, right, exactly. But after the accident and this unfortunate stuff happened where my resignation was forced, I really, for the first time, started having some doubts, like, about my ability to deliver. Right. [00:10:34] Speaker A: Oh, boy. [00:10:35] Speaker B: Yes. And certainly my ability to provide for my family. But I continued the financial facade, which was not a great decision. And this was when I definitely had thoughts of suicide. Oh, boy. And it's because I had still a good amount of life insurance. Right. That I knew would have paid, but I would have made it look like an accident. Or I was thinking of, well, what are some ways that I can sort of put myself in dangerous situations where I can be saving somebody else so at least I can go out looking like a hero. [00:11:24] Speaker A: Absolutely. I'm sure a lot of people have thoughts like that. Oh, my boy. [00:11:28] Speaker B: So things got pretty dark, and it was primarily because, honestly, I couldn't meet these unrealistic expectations that I had set for myself. Yeah, exactly. And those expectations, which were largely around money and having material things, I placed just way too much value on. Right. And those led to problems. So I was so focused on what I lacked materially that I just lost sight of all the awesome things. The abundance that I had. Right. The love of my friends and my family, which. I'll talk more about that. But eventually, in 2018, my wife said she wanted to separate, and I understood why. A lot of it was around financial stuff. [00:12:23] Speaker A: Right. [00:12:24] Speaker B: So I was living in a rented apartment, but I was still seeing my kids a ton. I got two kids, both in college now, but my wife and I, my experts, we were still getting along great. But then the retirement advisory firm that I was now working with let me go, because they were being acquired by a very large Wall street bank that we've all heard of. Anyone in finance knows this company. I guess keep their anonymity to protect their innocence such that it is. But even people not in finance would have heard of that, right? But I was essentially let go because my personal credit situation was so bad, I couldn't pass the bank's screens, right? Again, my own fault, my own decisions in the past led to this, right? So I was let go. And at that .1 of my best friends, a really great budy of mine, his name's Mike, and he was like, jeff, just don't spiral. Jeff, don't spiral. Right? Like, living alone, no job, know, he's like, don't spiral. He knew about all the other stuff. Right? I actually wrote little pieces. I wrote don't spiral on little pieces of paper and put them all around my apartment as, like, reminders not to spire. [00:13:51] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. [00:13:53] Speaker B: That was probably helpful. The already bad situation financially started to get worse, even more dire. But I was able to slide into a position with an insurance company, and I don't believe me, I'd done insurance earlier in my career, and I'd had some success. I didn't love insurance anymore. I did this out of necessity. I had to earn money somehow. But that insurance company owned the exclusive rights to this very cool guaranteed financial aid, very cool guaranteed tuition reduction program that I was actually an architect of. So it allowed me to get back to something that I had had success with earlier. So that made the insurance certainly more palatable. And I was actually starting to have some success, like making money again. I remember, right, I had a couple of really good months, and my partner in that business, who's a good friend to this day, I remember him saying, you see, jeff, it's always darkest before the dawn, right? And it was. I was starting to feel pretty good. And then the pandemic. Geez, that thing which brushed that business, Drew. Because that business, the type of insurance that they sold. Yeah, the tuition stuff was. It came along with the insurance. [00:15:20] Speaker A: Okay. [00:15:21] Speaker B: But the insurance that they sold was work site voluntary insurance. Pretty hard to sell worksite voluntary insurance when no one's going to the work site. [00:15:33] Speaker A: Really not market resistant, I'm sure. [00:15:35] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. And the businesses, the companies, the prospects, they're not interested in changing benefits. They were worried about their own survival. They didn't have the bandwidth. It was a crazy time for everyone. So sales weren't great, to say the least. So the financial picture continued to get even more bleak. I then went to my doctor for routine physical. I mean, it took months to get an appointment, if you remember, broken anyway, but went in, had a physical with my doctor, and she was like, would you be open to taking these anxiety and depression questionnaires? So I was like, sure. So I answered them honestly, and she confirmed that I was, in fact, depressed. It may have been situational depression based on the financial stuff and the feelings of failure and inadequacy. But luckily, though, I've always been open to suggestions, and she suggested talk therapy, and I did it, and it helped, but I was definitely drinking too much. Okay. [00:16:48] Speaker A: All right. [00:16:49] Speaker B: I'd always been a heavy drinker, but at this point, my drinking changed from having fun with friends and social to essentially being medicine that would numb the pain my mind off of, at least temporarily, my situation. Right. The financial stuff, the feelings of failure, inadequacy, all that. I needed to move out of the apartment, the nice apartment that I was renting again just to lower expenses. And so that same friend who was like, don't spiral, Jeff, he owned a building that had a basement where I could store all my stuff. And so he's like, come check, know. Come check out Shenley in the basement. You can put all your stuff there, because I lined up a room that I was going to rent, but it was basically just a room. It wouldn't fit any of my. [00:17:42] Speaker A: Right, right. [00:17:44] Speaker B: So, again, this is not how we drew things up when we're kids. [00:17:47] Speaker A: Life was not linear from having a. [00:17:49] Speaker B: Lot to literally renting a room. So I met my buddy on early morning Sunday, March 7, 2021, and I checked out the basement, and like, yeah, this will fit my stuff. And as we were wrapping up, he was like, can I talk to you for a minute? And I was like, sure. And he's like, look, with the separation and financial stuff, getting ready to declare bankruptcy. True. He's like, with all that and business collapsing and moving again, do you think that maybe if you stop drinking, I mean, being a little bit more clear headed and sober as you try to dig yourself out and write the ship, think that might be helpful. And he was right. And honestly, I was ready to hear it. So that was one of those be ready to it, you know? And I honestly drew, I drove home from that meeting with my buddy Mike, and I remember, huh, I may have had my last drink. [00:19:03] Speaker A: Wow. [00:19:04] Speaker B: And he also put me in touch with one of his good buddies, who's a really big deal in the recovery world. I also knew this guy. I knew he was a doctor of some kind. I know what kind of doctor he was. He's a really big deal, though. Anyway, so I talked to him, and that guy told me about Alcoholics Anonymous. And he made some suggestions and that was over two and a half years ago. And except for maybe two days through, gone to an AA meeting every day and I've not had a drink since. Thank you. Yeah, I've totally embraced it and committed to it. I've also been totally embraced by that sober community and just the love and the connections and the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. But it was the talk therapy that opened me up to being more honest with myself. First and foremost, you have to be. [00:20:05] Speaker A: Open to the talk therapy too. Some people are so close to that that you need to have that talk therapy to crack the door open a little, to allow Alcoholics Anonymous to actually work. So kudos to you for not just being able, but being willing to do the talk therapy and really let it help you. All right, so now you're working on kicking the addiction of alcohol. Now, where were you working at this time when things started to get better? [00:20:40] Speaker B: So I had found this awesome company, this is now 2021, called Accelerant. It's a one stop shop for small and medium sized businesses. For lack of a better description, they do everything. They started as a business management software company and then sort of morphed into everything. Merchant services, virtual employees, digital marketing, you name it. Right? It's an awesome company. Great leadership. The president's actually become a good friend and we've never even met in person. It's an entirely virtual company. Right. It's really cool. They have 6000 small business clients all over the country. [00:21:21] Speaker A: That's awesome. [00:21:22] Speaker B: But I was looking for another arrow to add to accelerant quiver when I then found what I'm doing now. Right? And so I found my current company and then I was talking to my boss from Accelerand and I was like, I found this awesome thing. He's like, well, tell me about it. I'm like, you're going to love it. And he's like, that sounds amazing. He's like, all of our clients need that. I'm like, yeah, well, I also saw they were hiring, so I threw my resume in there and I already had one interview. Wow. [00:22:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:03] Speaker B: And he was like, I mean, I was 1099 with them and he's just like, jeff, that's awesome. [00:22:09] Speaker A: Of course, right? [00:22:10] Speaker B: Anyway. [00:22:13] Speaker A: Good. All right. Even though you were 1099, they cared about you enough over there not to make a big deal out of that. They wanted to see the best for you. [00:22:23] Speaker B: Absolutely. Well, we're still doing a bunch of stuff together. [00:22:26] Speaker A: Yeah, I definitely want to get to that. So where was this opportunity and where you are now. [00:22:32] Speaker B: So I was lucky enough, after three interviews, including a panel interview, to be adopted into the JGalt finance suite, the JGalt family, and I was brought on as a regional managing partner. And the company. It's unbelievable, right? And we're experiencing exponential growth, and things have gone well enough. And this was just. I got the call that you're adopted on January 27 of just this year. [00:23:08] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. That's awesome news. All right, great. [00:23:11] Speaker B: But things have been going well enough that I've actually been promoted a couple of times. I'm now an executive vice president, the state director. So I'm building an incredible team of people that are very mission driven. And you know, our mission. We shared this. Right. [00:23:30] Speaker A: I love your mission. [00:23:31] Speaker B: Right. I am relentlessly embracing my destiny to serve as an industry disrupting pioneer, committed to prospering, protecting, and promoting small business. [00:23:41] Speaker A: I love that every word there is impactful in a positive way. I love the relentless piece. How is the personal life going? [00:23:53] Speaker B: Awesome. So, thankfully, I didn't screw up my relationships when I went through the deepest challenges, the darkest days. And I've always had a very strong relationship with both of my kids. Two kids, freshman in college, senior in college. They're totally supportive of my recovery and everything they do. They know that I love them, and I would do anything that I can for them. And they're awesome humans, so those are great. My ex wife and I get along really well, and even my ex father in law has passed, but he was awesome. And my mother in law is a saint on earth. Ex mother in law. But I found this just unbelievable woman. I met her through recovery. She knows all my stuff, right? So it's not like there's no secrets and she hasn't run away yet. [00:24:49] Speaker A: I love it. [00:24:50] Speaker B: So the honesty, right? It's about honesty and vulnerability, and she's all, baby, and she hasn't kicked me. [00:24:58] Speaker A: Out yet, and she's not going to either. I love the fact that what you've gone through, it resonates with each other, and you're each other's support system. And the fact that you feel comfortable to be vulnerable and you have somebody who's going to embrace that and help build you up is also a beautiful thing. [00:25:17] Speaker B: It's awesome. Yeah. Thank you. And without having gone through the stuff I went through, I wouldn't have found her. Know, that's why. [00:25:36] Speaker A: We froze a little bit here. Jeff got some technical difficulty. We froze a little bit. All right, so let's go back. Yeah, it froze for a while. [00:25:56] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. It says my connection is unstable for some reason. [00:25:59] Speaker A: That's right. We'll fix that in editing. That's okay. All right, so let's pause a little. Okay. If you hadn't gone through what you went through, you wouldn't have met your wife. You wouldn't be where you are now. So, in a way, you wouldn't change anything that's happened. [00:26:17] Speaker B: No, I wouldn't. And she's not my wife yet, Drew. [00:26:19] Speaker A: Not your wife yet. All right. See? Cart before the horse. Nice young lady you're spending time with. [00:26:26] Speaker B: Yes. I would not have met her, and I would not be able to be as honest. And frankly, I'm just better for her. She's better for me. And had I not been through it, obviously, had the separation happened, I wouldn't be with her had that not happened. And frankly, if I was still married to my great ex wife, I would not be sober today. I would not have the gifts that I have now. So it ain't great when you're going through it. No, especially when it's not your decision. Right? Yeah, true. But somebody that we know, they're always like, look, when things happen, it's like you got to ask yourself, what's the gift here? What gift am I being given? With the benefit of some hindsight, you can actually be like, thank God that happened, because this. And this has happened. [00:27:29] Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah. And you know what? It's good to be able to have somebody call attention to what gifts come from challenging situations, because we don't think about that on our own, usually. [00:27:41] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah. [00:27:43] Speaker A: So tell me specifically what type of business? I know that Jay Galt's there to rescue small businesses. What specifically is unique about the company's offer from other financial service companies? [00:27:56] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. Well, it is entirely unique, which is great. Now, there's some copycats popping up on YouTube, university, but I don't think they can. So we actually help business owners, small and medium sized, mostly small, though. We help them separate and keep separate their business credit from their personal credit and get access to all the credit and capital, the money they need for their business at better rates and better terms without personal guarantees. So we do that by helping them build, like, real business credit, corporate credit, on the EIN number, which is obviously attached to the business. So when they need money, they'll never again put their personal finances or personal credit or assets at risk. So that's why we literally rescue. Because bad things could happen. Right? I mean, our CEO, one of his childhood friends, had a very successful small business and businesses. Fortunes turned and the business went bankrupt, leading to personal bankruptcy. Because of the personal guarantees, divorce guy committed suicide. When that happened, our CEO was like, this is an all too common story. Not the suicide part, necessarily, but bad things happening when businesses. [00:29:18] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:29:18] Speaker B: And so we're trying to rescue them from that sort of bad fate. So we are unique in that there's no other company that does that. Again, people are and very savvy business people. And I considered myself to be a savvy business person, thought that, well, I have business credit. I had my own small business. I still have it, actually. And I have a platinum credit card right here and name of my company, me. And I had a business line of credit, but every time I used it, my FICO score was going down. I'm like, wait a minute. I thought this was business. So there's business credit, and then there's real business credit or corporate credit. We do the real, right? So it's awesome. So literally, we rescue small businesses, and it's been amazing. We're exponential growth. I'm group building a great team of people that want to have. We look for that servant mentality for people that we bring into J golf, and you have to want to. Muhammad Ali said it best, right? Service is the rent you pay for your room here on earth, and I believe that. And we definitely carry that with us. And so we try to give as much as we can. [00:30:43] Speaker A: I love that. I love that quote by Muhammad Ali. That's awesome. [00:30:47] Speaker B: He's got some good ones. Good boxer, too. [00:30:49] Speaker A: Yeah, he was fairly good boxer. You're right. [00:30:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:54] Speaker A: And your boys are doing well in college. That's awesome. Where are they going? What states? Are they far away from you? [00:31:01] Speaker B: Yeah, they're far. They're like, well, I'm getting out of Maryland. My daughter, she's a senior at Ole Miss, so I don't know why you wouldn't want to go to Ole Miss awesome. She's having a blast. And honestly, she was high school, class of 2020, so she didn't have her. She missed prom. She missed graduation. Ole Miss has been amazing because there is no pandemic in Mississippi. Right. They managed to avoid it. And my son is a freshman at Indiana University, and I think he's having fun. So he's doing the fraternity thing. My daughter, big time in the sorority thing, which is huge down south. So they're having fun. They're great people. They're coming back for Thanksgiving, which I can't wait because that's my holiday with my family. We're all getting together up. [00:31:48] Speaker A: That's great. [00:31:48] Speaker B: And back up to. Yeah, yeah. Awesome. [00:31:51] Speaker A: I love it. I love it. Well, I'll tell you, the audience certainly has captured the essence of Jeff Souuval. Thank you for being vulnerable and sharing your story, Jeff. I consider it a comeback story. And comeback stories always have good endings, although you're not ending yet. You're going strong. So just want to let the audience know if you want to get in touch with Jeff, just to talk to him personally or if the services that Jay Gault provides sounds good to your small business. Jeff's on a mission to rescue small business, and he is offering a complimentary 30 minutes call if you want to talk with him about your certain issues situation. And best way to reach him would be via email at G Su V-A-L at jgault IO. I get that. Right? [00:32:49] Speaker B: You did perfect. [00:32:50] Speaker A: So let's say, let's do a little role play. I call you for this complimentary 30 minutes call. What can I expect, Jeff? [00:32:57] Speaker B: Well, I really want to learn more about you and your business. Right. And what got you started and what's your why. Right. But then what are your challenges? And then with that information, it'll help us determine if we'll be a good fit for each other, frankly. But I'll definitely give you a lot of good information about the hows of building real business credit, the process that's involved. We're the only company that guarantees results. And then after meeting with you, I'll pull a complimentary business credit report so you can see kind of what you look like in the eyes of the business credit world to see what you might be eligible for in terms of real separated business credit. And then I can tell you how to go about doing it. So business credit reports all around. Wow. [00:33:52] Speaker A: That's an extremely valuable asset for entrepreneurs, whether they're just beginning or have been up for a while or even trying to scale up especially. [00:34:02] Speaker B: Absolutely. All the above. [00:34:04] Speaker A: You definitely want to separate your personal from your business. There's no doubt about it. So, Jeff, you and I can talk for hours. To wrap up, I have two final questions. Are you ready for these? I don't know. All right, put your seatbelt on, man. Here we go. So, Jeff, you have an opportunity to sit down with young seven to ten year old Jeff Souval and give him advice about life. What are you going to tell him? [00:34:32] Speaker B: The seven to ten year old Jeff Souval was a precocious one. I would say try to form some good, healthy habits and learn to always move forward and also always be nice to people and definitely don't be influenced by people who it love it. [00:34:56] Speaker A: All right, different hat. You're now sitting down with young Jeff Souval to discuss. He's the young businessman, young upcoming entrepreneur, and you want to give him advice about business. What are you going to tell him? [00:35:10] Speaker B: Well, first of all, I'm going to tell him you should probably build some business credit. But that aside, I'm going to say, look, always stay positive and positivity is huge. Right? It's about mindset. But stay positive, put in the work. Always commit to doing your best and avoid excuses. Right. Like, let's take some ownership of our failures, but also our successes. But do not be afraid to ask for help and give yourself a break, especially when it comes to your own expectations of yourself. Right. And never compare your insides to other people's outsides. It doesn't help at all. [00:35:54] Speaker A: I love that insides to outsides comparison is a very dangerous thing to do. Well, Jeff, I thank you so much for coming on. I'm grateful we're in each other's world together. Please keep doing what you're doing. You're a wonderful human being. And I thank you again for coming on. [00:36:10] Speaker B: Thank you, Drew. It was my great pleasure. I loved it. [00:36:13] Speaker A: Absolutely. All right, everybody, you take care of yourselves. Be well. Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe and give us a review you to help others find it. If you find yourself immersed in adversity and would like to find support from other men in times of struggle, please become a member of my men's supporting men collaboration tribe by emailing me at [email protected] expressing your interest and I'll get in touch with you. Speak to you soon. Bye.

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