A Man of Faith in the Marketplace

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Go to kolov.org, kolov.org and make a donation of any amount. A note? You want my latest book and you receive a personalized copy of Nakita, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption. Kolov, it's time to man up. Welcome back to It's Time to Man Up.

The devil's worst nightmare. He's not happy I got up today. Hey, I have a question for you. Have you ever had a desire to work for yourself or own your own business?

Perhaps you're content working for someone else and that's okay too. But my guest today has been an entrepreneur for 40 plus years and has built from the ground up a successful $50 million business. Joey Osborne from the Hickory, North Carolina area is here with me. His lovely wife, Tanya, that I have met over the years.

Two lovely daughters, right? And welcome to the show today, Joey. Well, thank you, Nikita. I appreciate it. I can't tell you how excited I am about what you're doing with this, with taking your ministry, I believe, to another level.

And this whole concept of manning up, I believe, probably lies at the root of solving and fixing many, many of the problems that we were faced with in the world. So congratulations to you with this new show. I appreciate it.

I really do. And yeah, I mean, for me, the calling, you know, to come out of, I never would have guessed it in a million years that I would have left the world of professional wrestling. And only 11 months later to find myself at an altar surrendering my life to the Lord and then hearing that there's, oh, I have a call to ministry on your life. And fast forward all these years later from 1993 to present day and to have been fortunate now to travel the globe. And God gave me a vision for one, for these man up conferences that we do, a one day conference.

Parlay that into a full five day catalyst that Lex Luger and I co-facilitate called Man Camp. I know you've invited me. I'm still trying to get the nerve.

I hope I can make it to the one coming up soon. Well, here's what I tell guys all the time. They're like, yeah, I'd really like to do that.

I remember telling my pastor this one time. He's like, yeah, I'd really like to do one of those, one of those camps. I'm like, well, Jay, here's the deal.

I had lunch with him yesterday, right? I'm like, Jay, here's the deal. I go, I know you and I know how busy you are. And until you make it a priority and just put it on your calendar like anything else you schedule and then not let anything get in the way of that. Jay, you'll never do one.

He goes, yeah, you're right. So that's my challenge to every guy. Hey, make it a priority, put it on your calendar and then don't let anything get in the way and maybe recruit somebody to come along. So that's my thing. Maybe my escape is to recruit someone else.

At least I'll have a partner. Well, that's OK, too, because actually the very first camp that I went to actually recruited one of my best friends to fly out to Texas with me and and to do that. So I appreciate that. And I feel there is a real mandate there in today's climate, in today's world, really to call men, you know, like yourself. You're out in the marketplace, but, you know, it's not necessarily a call to ministry, although I view yourself even as an entrepreneur, a very successful man in the marketplace, that that in itself is a ministry.

No, I think it really is. And thank you. I appreciate the the intro. Yeah, being an entrepreneur, as it said of there's upsides and downsides, there's upsides and downsides to owning a business. But one of the things and I'm most appreciative of and most thankful for having been a lifelong entrepreneur and had some success is that what that enables me to do. You know, what are the other things that I can do? How can I start now to give back to to society and give back to the world? And and in this time we're living in now, there is a lot to be fixed. What can I do with my voice and what can I do with my resources to affect some change? And, you know, that takes all sorts of forms. And the most important one right now for me is the fact that I do have two daughters.

I have a 12 year old and a 17 year old and they need all the encouragement, all the manning up that I can muster to be the right role model, the right father figure for them and steer them in the right direction because we all know how many negative influences there are out there. Well, and we'll circle back around to that. Those are some some great points you just made. Let's just back up for just a moment. Now, of course, you live in Hickory, North Carolina, but you're not a native of Hickory. Well, I might as well be. So just north of there in Caldwell County, Lenoir. So, yeah, I'm a I kind of I mean, there's not that much difference between Hickory and Lenoir. So I'm yeah, so I'm a local local guy, which is kind of kind of moving in towards the mountainous region up there. Right. Towards towards Western Carolinas, which I know you have a real heart for the Western Western Carolina.

Yeah, no, I certainly do. That's really where my folks are from. My grandparents moved down from the mountains of North Carolina back in the 30s and 40s when when business climate in the mountains wasn't that good.

There weren't that many jobs. So they came down. But yeah, I do have an affinity for you. I love the outdoors.

I love the mountain settings, but just the people. They're just there's a lot of a lot of goodness there in the mountain mountain folks. And and I know, you know, we've mentioned we've talked about being an entrepreneur and I'm convinced some people are destined for that.

Right. They're just destined to be an entrepreneur, destined to work for themselves while while others are really honestly more comfortable in the role of working for someone else as as an employee. Have you have you known from a very young age that you had that entrepreneurial spirit in you or how that transcends? I think anyone who claims to be an entrepreneur and doesn't say that that was the case, they're they're opposers.

They're not they're not authentic. So, yeah, my wife would tell you it's an affliction and not so much an attribute, because the problem with us entrepreneurs is we can't leave anything alone. I mean, if you leave me in the studio long enough, I'm going to say this poster is in the wrong place. This chair should be here.

I've already thought this microphone is is not comfortable. So but that's the problem with us entrepreneurs. But every now and then we fix something that actually works.

And if we're smart enough to hand it off to someone who can manage it, then it becomes a good thing. But, yeah, I've been, you know, I don't know, six years old. I can remember back selling door to door Christmas cards and flower seeds in the summer. And always not that I'm a good salesman. I actually don't like selling too much. But when you have that entrepreneurial drive, you that's just part of what you want to do. Well, you're a better salesman than you realize, because you're married and Tonya bought into your story. So you must have a pretty good sales.

Yeah, probably. So I'm still trying to live up to those big promises that I made. Never, never ending thing.

But, yeah, after all these years, she's figured me out and tolerance. Oh, that's you know, I'm reminded, you know, you're reminded of a book I read a number of years ago by a guy named Robert Kiyosaki called Cash Flow Quadrant. Have you ever read it? No, I have not. Heard of it?

Yeah, I've heard of it. OK. And just a quick snapshot of condense that down. He talks about what are the four quadrants was the E quadrant, an S, a B and an I. And the E quadrant, of course, is an employee, the employee, someone who works for someone else. The S quadrant is self-employed.

The B is business and the I is an investment quadrant. And what it talks about is, is, you know, you need people in all four quadrants, of course. And and it's like the employee who realizes one day wakes up and has an aha moment says, hey, I'm an electrician making twenty dollars an hour while my boss is making 40. I could go launch my own business and make the full 40.

Well, what he doesn't realize is the downside of that is you're going to go from working 40 hours a week to working 80 hours a week. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

And then you're writing your own check. So, I mean, there's yeah, you mentioned earlier, there's some people that are just cut out for, you know, any and I'm sure that's what Kiyosaki is saying. There's people are cut out for each of those quadrants. And it's important to know where you are and who you are.

Yeah. I know where you where you where you fit in that. And that may be that you start out as an employee, but you have that inkling one day of wanting to own your own business and then you make the leap from employee to self-employed. But you reminded me of something when you that book, when you said to that, that leave you in here long enough and you're going to make some changes. That's one of the things that he Kiyosaki talked about making the leap from from self-employed to the business quadrant is that person. That person sometimes struggles with allowing others to make mistakes. And in a sense, he's almost like a perfectionist and no one said, oh, saying you can't do it as well as I can do it. But in order to make that leap to that B quadrant, you have to be willing to let people make mistakes. And and yeah, you might have to clean up a mess or two here, here or there along the way. Yeah, no, that's just a matter. Yeah, absolutely.

He's spot on. It's a matter of becoming familiar with yourself and knowing what your what I call unique abilities are. You know, what are my unique abilities? What are your unique abilities? And if we can identify those as a team, then we're able to start to focus on on letting me letting you do the things that you're best at, because more than likely you find the energy there.

And then that makes you much more efficient, frees me up to do the things that are within my unique ability that where I find the energy. So and I think that's definitely it's definitely important thing. But, you know, so many people think that they need to be one of the in one of those other quadrants and they really don't. You know, there's a there's a role for everybody out there. So I think it's it's it's but that's a very, very useful tool.

I had heard of that quadrant. Well, when I look at you and I think about, you know, what what you've done out in the business world and and really from from an employee to a self-employed to a business owner. And then the investment quadrant is kind of interesting, too, because it's someone and I view you. This is what I how I see you is is OK, so I can go from self-employed to become a business owner, bring in other employees to work for me and realize it's OK if they mess up and I can clean things up there. And then to make the leap to the next is is into the is OK. I don't want to just, you know, just have a business. I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to be a multiplier. And that's where I see your business, Mosquito Authority. And you started out just with one yourself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We started out now it's been 15 years. It just stays a little sideline thing that entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs typically do looking for something else, a plan B and and that. So now that's how the business started. And almost despite a mere in spite of my efforts, it kind of kept growing and growing. And it's what's the saying? A blind hog stumbles on an acorn or whatever. That was kind of like squirrel find an acorn every now and then. Exactly.

Whatever the saying is, I've heard it both ways. That's really I mean, I have to say that's what it is, because I've been doing the same entrepreneurial thing for 40 years or so prior to that. And but then one day you hit the thing that clicks and you realize, wow, this is people want this and they're going to continue to want it. So, yeah, it was just great.

It's been a great ride. But you talked about the investment piece of it after you finally get to that point where, you know, Maslow, I think, described this hierarchy of needs is one of the most accurate things that applies to human psychology probably ever created, where until we meet certain needs, we're not really capable of doing the next thing. So one of the things that I had the good fortune of having taken care of myself now and my family. Now it's investing.

It can take a different term. So now how do I invest in others and how do I invest in the world now? And if nothing else, having just the free time, you know, rather than now having to work 60 or 80 hours a week like I used to, I can spend some time with church. I can spend more time reading.

I can spend more time with with the kids. So that's a really valuable part of that ascension. But we talked about it earlier of just being the best that you can be every single day. And I was thinking about it driving over here to your studio is how close am I to being the best I can be?

And I'm nowhere close. So the good news about that is it means that there are a lot of things I can do to improve. And I think it's the case with you and everyone. So if we could just incrementally improve toward that being the best we can be, just one little thing every day.

And enough people do that. The impact on the world is is huge. It can be huge.

But we first have to be OK with the fundamentals, the basics in our lives to be able to even think about that sort of thing. Well, I think you I mean, you're you're you're a success story in the sense that even as I'm referring to these different quadrants, how you have, you know, in the sense, kind of graduate from one to the next and the next and next and even take a mosquito authority from from from sole ownership to to to franchises. Now, I mean, all over the U.S. and Canada. Right.

We're I think 38 or 39 states now, about 400 in some locations. So, OK. And the other thing that strikes me in what you're saying, too, is that in relation to the things you've learned as in the 40 plus years of being an entrepreneur, the success you've had, something that really translates right now or resonates, I should say with me is as you're describing the improvements day by day, because, yeah, let's face it. I think if we're all honest and every listener right now who's listening and dialing in, if we're all honest with ourselves, there's always room for improvement.

There's always room. I like to say for myself, I'm a lifetime learner. And so I don't ever want to think that I've ever arrived to a place where I where I know it all. You know, right. But here's what I'm reminded of.

Joey is is I call it the slight edge principle, the slight edge principle. And by that, what I mean is I don't have to improve 100 percent today. I don't know. It's unattainable. Right.

I don't have. But but if I just break it down and say, OK, but if I can just improve one tenth of one percent, not even one percent, just one tenth of one percent. But then I compound that, as you're referring to, day by day by day.

Well, guess what? A year later, I've made vast improvements over trying to just transform overnight in an area of my life. Absolutely. And you and you spoke in terms of improvement. So that implies over yourself. So so many times we we pick these role models.

We are up on some pedestal and we start to judge our our status and our place based on where they are. And and that's discouraging. And we just really never we don't make nearly the progress we can make is that we just if you did if we all did do just what you said.

And that's look at that incremental one tenth of one percent every every day. Yes. Game change. Total game changer. Slight edge.

Just just just set out to just slightly improve some area of your life. Right. You know, each and every day. And that could be in the form of what the food we eat. You know, if you're if you're eating three bowls of ice cream every night, just eat to go next night.

Two and a half. So, you know, if you know that you're in terms of this man up concept, which we'd love, my wife loves it more than anything because she now can remind me of Nikita says this is what you think. But no, I think those are those are great things to have because then it then it reminds me, yeah, I need to be this.

I need to level this up in my relationship with with Tanya or I need to do this as being a better father with my girls. Well, and that and that is for for those listening out there, that is one of the goals, a part of the vision God gave Lex and I with these camps and these conferences, but especially the camp, because that's that's for men who really want to get serious about this and really deep dive. I mean, let's face it, a five day catalyst is not for the faint of heart and not to scare you away. That's to welcome you in. But it is to send men home, to equip men and send them home to be to be better husbands, better fathers for the ladies listening out there, because I know there's some ladies dialing in.

What are these guys talking about on it's time to man up is to be better fathers, better husbands, just overall in general, better men of God in all areas of their life, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. Now, let me let me ask you, so you're a man of faith and and what's that story look like for our for our listeners? I mean, it was a young age that God hit you, the revelation, I need a relationship with Jesus. What did that look like?

Yeah, thank you for asking. For me, it was 10 years old, crystal clear. I had sat in the pew of a Baptist church all my life. I've always been in church.

Thankful, very thankful to my parents and my grandparents for making that happen. And I remember specifically struggling probably for a year just feeling the compulsion to walk down that aisle because I was a very bashful child. And here's another thing, too, the whole concept of baptism. You have this amazing ability to bring things out of me that I have never told anyone. So I was terrified of being baptized because I cannot hold my breath.

I still can't. I don't swim to this day, so. You and I have a lot in common there, too. But anyway, but then one Sunday, someone was being baptized.

And I noticed that the preacher up in the baptismal put a handkerchief over their mouth and nose. And I thought, that's the ticket. I can do it. I can hold my breath for a few seconds. But anyway, I fought it for a long time, but just because of the bashfulness. And one day I couldn't control it.

My feet turned, my legs moved, and before I knew it, I was down at the front. Wow. And that was obviously a very transformational time for me. Have I been the best Christian all 40 plus 50 years now of that?

No. But I've had that core Christianity, Godly role in my life somewhere along the lines of being in church or being with my family have always compelled me to live the best I could in terms of being a Christian. Yeah, well let me, I guess for our listeners, take a sigh of relief to know that there are no perfect people. So we can certainly relate. And once again, even in our spiritual journeys, there's always room for improvement. We're all flawed and all have our faults and shortcomings and all of that.

So I appreciate you sharing that part of your story. So let me ask you this, as a man of faith out in the marketplace, I mean, it's one thing to look spiritual and all that in church every Sunday morning. We can all, in a sense, put on the facade. But I'm reminded of a story my dad told me a number of years ago about his brother, my uncle, who I never met, who saw the elders and the deacons, how they carried themselves in church on Sunday and he worked at a golf course through high school. And they saw a different person out on the golf course during the week than they saw what they represented themselves as on Sunday. So in relation to business and out in the marketplace as a man of faith, certainly I'm sure there's been some times where you've maybe been in a position of compromise.

And, hey, do I pad these numbers for it to look better for the shareholders or what do I do? Is there a story that our listeners could relate to on how you overcame that temptation to compromise and held true to your faith? Yeah, I appreciate you asking. I'm trying to think of one that the statute of limitations has run out on.

So there are definitely plenty. And rather than a specific one, I think what comes to mind is just the day-to-day process of realizing, and I've learned this from experience, I think, is that things tend to come back around. So if I misrepresent something last week or a year ago, at some point in time it's going to come back around.

I'm in the process right now of selling part of my company. And the auditors and everyone who comes in in a case like this are forensic experts in finding things. And I've had just the best feeling about this whole thing is because I know that I haven't done anything intentionally wrong in our business for the past five years, however deep they're going back. And I actually encourage them to find things because they're things that I want to correct. But I think, if nothing else, just experience of knowing that things come back around. I like to be able to sleep at night. I like to be able, when I lay my head on the pillow, rather than worry about what did I do today that might catch up with me tomorrow, my nighttime routine now is I just go through this series of gratitude things. It's almost like a recitation where I just start thinking out loud about all the things that I'm grateful for. And you can't hold conflicting things, right? So if I'm holding worries and things like that from things that I've done, then it's hard to be grateful, and I know that's a better place to be. But no, it's all about thinking in terms of being as godly as we can be.

I love, what was the saying, the thing that came out years ago, What Would Jesus Do, WWJD, I had the t-shirt. So there's really nothing more, a better guideline, a better compass than that, and I try to apply that. The biblical principle that comes to mind, Joey, as you're talking is the principle of sowing and reaping. How you said it was, it's going to come back around, how I think of it is, whatever I sow, eventually I will reap. And as one of my mentors, Jim Rohn, used to say, you don't just reap, you reap more than you sow. Because you plant one apple seed, you're not just going to get one apple seed in return. In fact, I've got a pear tree in my front yard with hundreds of pears on that one tree.

My daughter, who recently was over and planted it, she was doing it for her social media, she said, this was a stick when I planted it, and now it's producing multiple fruit, right? The whole intent was, for that very reason actually, years ago, for years later now, for her to see an illustration of how our lives are to bear fruit, bear good fruit. And I want to ask you this before we go on, and I can so appreciate you coming in and just sharing with us today.

So you built this business, Mosquito Authority, as you mentioned, you're just getting ready to sell off at least a part of the company. So that puts you in a time of transition, and you talked earlier about being able to give back. So is there something you envision, of course, you're going to be able to do now with more time back?

Yeah, thank you for asking. So I really want to, I think maybe like everyone else, I want to be a mentor. I definitely want to help other people. So working on a book, I'm going to have some time now to finish up a book, and it's going to be designed and targeting young entrepreneurs primarily, who I hopefully can help to avoid going down some of the wrong avenues, wrong paths that I went down, so looking forward to doing that. Well, and I commend you on that, taking all of your years of experience and your years of success, and certainly that's a critical need in our, again, as a man of God like yourself and having that foundation, couple that with the success you've had out in the marketplace in business, and I think just those two components in raising up young men. I like to say one day I may have a man camp for young men, 13 to 17-year-olds, so that they may not have to come to the man camp later in life because we helped them avoid some of the pitfalls earlier in life. Great idea.

Essentially, so that's what you envision for yourself, is to be able to give back that way and help some of these younger entrepreneurs avoid some of the pitfalls and mistakes that you learned from over the years. Absolutely. Okay.

Well, that's pretty amazing. Any word of encouragement for the entrepreneur out there or for the person who would like to step out from the E quadrant to the S quadrant? Absolutely. There's never been a better time than today to either start a business, be in business, any sort of platform kind of thing because it's just there's so much now with the Internet that makes things way easier than it was 20, 30 years ago. Never been a better time to do it. There's money available for financing of such projects, so there's never been a better time, so I encourage people to dive in. Awesome.

And they could always become a franchisee of a mosquito authority as well. That's right. Well, I appreciate you in the studio today, Joey. As always, I'd like to end with a story, and this comes from Kenneth Dyke off of Twitter.

And again, you guys reach out to me on social media through Twitter, through Instagram, through Facebook. Nikita Koloff is the number one behind it, and he just says this. He says, Nikita, you were one of the reasons I wanted to be a wrestler. Well, you know how many times I've heard that story. My dad would take me to wrestling at the Civic Center in Roanoke, Virginia every time y'all, you know this guy's from the south, y'all came. I had the pleasure of meeting Ivan Koloff in 1989. He was one of the nicest guys to me.

Thank you for helping make my childhood fun. Hey, send me your story, man. Maybe I'll get it up on air.

I just appreciate you dialing in today. And just remember that just as you heard Joey's story of entrepreneurship, hey, what's your story? You should have a story.

If you don't have a story, surrender your life to Jesus, and he'll open it up for you, because it's time to man up. Men, I would like to challenge each of you to consider spending five days with Lex Luger and I at Man Camp, pursuing the heart of God. Ladies, if you're listening, we'll send your men home better equipped to be men of God, godly husbands, and godly fathers. God appeals to you. Give them your blessing, and encourage them to sign up today at mancamp.info. Pastors, if you would like to bring Koloff for Christ Ministries and Man Up Conference to your community, go to koloff.org and email me. Remember this. It's time to man up.