Stop Chasing Success: How Business Owners Find Real Freedom and Clarity

Harvey Yergin (00:00)
I had everything I wanted, that I was something, that I was somebody, I was worthy, that I was worthwhile, that I was worth it, whatever it is. And it wasn’t until maybe the last two years that I finally realized I was out there in the ocean, in a rowboat, rowing like crazy, trying to get to this destination that really did not exist. I was never gonna get there.

I was just going to I was just going to row and row and row and row and row for the rest of my life.

Quentin (02:02)
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds, and I am excited to be here today. And I say these lines, and I know they sound repetitive, but I say it because I really, really mean it. I have another fantastic guest.

This is going to be a great, great conversation. ⁓ He’s a business coach. He helped people within the real estate space, specifically construction workers, builders, developers. ⁓ And he helped owners kind of understand how to grow. But I’m excited because not only does he help other people grow, I’m excited about the growth that he’s going through himself. Y’all know what I always say.

at the center of each business is the business owner, is us, is you. And so I’m excited about his growth, the way he’s helping others, his mindset. And so I am so excited to introduce you all to Mr. Harvey Yergin. Mr. Harvey, did I get the last name right? How did I do, My bad, my bad. Sir, how you doing today, Yeah, yeah.

Harvey Yergin (03:08)
You nailed it, man. Yep. I’m really good, man. Thanks for having me.

Quentin (03:14)
I love it, man. I love it. Hey, listen, I’m the type. I love to dive in. So I would love for you to tell the people what’s your main focus these days. If you can give us a little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got to the space you are now. We love origin stories. And man, tell them where you are in the world. People love to know where people are geographically. So what you’re up to, man, your origin story and where you are. Mr. Harvey, sir, you have the floor, man.

Harvey Yergin (03:38)
Yeah.

Yep, I’m in Columbus, Ohio. I was born in Akron, Ohio, and graduated the same year LeBron James did. So me and LeBron James are from Akron, Ohio. What I do now is I help business owners and I help them get what they want from their business. really what I do is I help alleviate pain and suffering.

Quentin (03:42)
Yeah. Okay.

Harvey Yergin (04:02)
And I’ll tell you why that’s so important to me and why it’s so personal to me. My journey from Akron, Ohio took me to go play collegiate Division I baseball outside of Chicago at a university called Valparaiso or Valpo. If you’ve ever watched the NCAA basketball tournament, you might have heard that before.

But anyway, I D1 baseball. That shaped the first part of my life just because I was a baseball guy and I did baseball things all the time. I was an athlete and that’s who I was. That’s what I did. I got to really love team. This idea of working together towards a common goal. I was on a lot of good teams. I was on a lot of bad teams. Just kind of like how things work. After college, I went and worked as a civilian for the United States Army. So I went… ⁓

Quentin (04:38)
Hmm.

Harvey Yergin (04:53)
out to close to where you are queues ⁓ down to Fort Eustis, Virginia, the Hampton Roads area. And as a civilian, I went through military training. I don’t think it’s a it’s a program I don’t think exists anymore. And I came out on the backside as a leader and said, I was like 25 at the time, why don’t you go lead some teams of soldiers and former soldiers. So I did I spent close to 10 years doing that.

Quentin (04:58)
Okay. Gotcha.

Mm.

Mm.

Harvey Yergin (05:21)
Virginia took us to Tennessee, Tennessee, to Oregon, Oregon, to Michigan. It was good. A lot of teams again. We got to lead teams, be a part of great teams, be a part of not so great teams. And eventually we had three kids and we needed to move back home because we wanted family to be a more present part of our kids’ lives. So we moved back to…

Midwest and moved back to Ohio and that’s when I also left my government job. And when I left the government job, I had already been listening to the Bigger Pockets podcast and was getting excited about real estate. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do yet. So when I left my government job, I actually spent close to two years as a full-time dad to three kids under five. While I tried to figure out why

Well, I over-corrected for what I thought was not enough time with my kids. I was getting all kinds of time and trying to figure out what I wanted to do next. So finally in 2017, 18, I forget exact year, finally worked up the courage to spend $35,000 on a distressed house from a wholesaler. Here’s where I was.

I listened to almost every podcast. I had read almost every single book. The only thing left for me to do was to take action. And I was scared to death. But I did it. And I said, all right, let’s go. In this house, there is, you think about the worst possible house you could buy from a wholesaler, that was this house. It had every imaginable disgusting problem and people issue that there was. But we figured it out, you know?

Quentin (07:41)
Mmm.

Harvey Yergin (08:01)
hired a contractor, dealt with break-ins, dealt with title issues, had to decommission a septic tank and hook it back up to the sewer, but finally got it flipped and on the market and sold and made some cash. And I was like, ⁓ okay, this is interesting. So I did it a couple more times on my own and I liked that. And I eventually decided I want to do more of this and I’m going to cut out the wholesaler. So I opened up

I bought a home investors franchise, which is the We Buy Ugly Houses people. They might see on billboards on the side of the road. And I took a partner and I started to build a team and we got to, I went from doing maybe two deals a year to doing, you know, 12 to 25 deals a year. And man, did things get crazy. Things got wild, out of control. The overhead was, was a lot.

⁓ The operations were chaotic and complex. The relationships on our team were less than optimal. ⁓ Accountability was low. I was losing sleep. I wasn’t a particularly present husband. I wasn’t a particularly present father. ⁓ So I needed help. And one of the things that I got in the form of help was this book, Traction, by Geno Wickman.

that somebody had given to me three years prior. And I said, I don’t need to read that. I got it figured out. I did not have it figured out. ⁓ So I read this book and it started, light bulb started to go off and I started to see how I could use some of these tools, these frameworks, this language to fix the problems that I had in my business. ⁓ Mainly get more clear, start driving accountability, ⁓ get focused on what we actually were there for, what we were trying to do, where we were, we were going to

⁓ And so fast forward, we it it worked to some extent we got more clear ⁓ certainly got more focused Eventually what it led to was some real real clarity on a couple things one the relationship with my partners probably was never going to work ⁓ and to I actually hated real estate it I felt very very stressful ⁓ And it you know, I

Quentin (10:21)
Woo!

Harvey Yergin (10:28)
I wouldn’t trade the education I got in that industry for anything, not just in that industry, but as a business owner. ⁓ So I wound up being able to package what was that franchise and the other things that I had around the franchise and sell it to somebody else. And then I went to go be a COO of sorts for a commercial real estate company for about a year. And then I also got to use the tools, the US tools to help with that business a little bit. And then when that ended,

I was like, man, I like this. I like helping people. like this, these EOS tools that I’m talking about from the book Traction and helping business owners maybe avoid some of the mistakes and hardship and pain that I went through as a business owner. And so that’s what I did. So I went and I’ve been an EOS implementer ever since going on three years now. And that’s the gist of it. It’s the gist as I get to go help business owners who are

They’re wanting something that they’re not currently getting from their business and I just get to help them with these tools to help them get there.

Quentin (12:10)
Man, as you were talking, I got chills. And I think you know why, because I told you, it’s so much parallel between you and I. And so ⁓ I’m a person of dramatic. So I’m to love asking you this next question, but I want to build up to it, right? First thing I want to do, man, I want to applaud you. And I want to, in a sense, champion you. I often say on this podcast,

Harvey Yergin (12:25)
Okay.

Quentin (12:36)
there’s difference between a self-aware leader or person and a self-confident person. Both of them are aware of who they are. They’re aware of their weaknesses, superpowers, but a self-confident person, he’s aware of himself to the detriment of everybody around him. Meaning, if he knows his superpower, he’s arrogant about it, egotistical about it, he will show his grandiose, his hubris, he will run over everybody because I’m self-confident.

You don’t know it like I know it move off the way. And when he’s weak, won’t, he won’t address the weaknesses. He know them, but he’ll continue to act like he’s strong in his weaknesses and things will just crumble around them. The ecosystem will fall apart. People that’s supposed to be thriving around them. They’re not thriving. That’s a self-confident person. They know who they are and they, they over inflate the good things and then never address the weaknesses. But brother, you are self-aware leader.

Harvey Yergin (13:30)
Yeah, well.

Hmm.

Quentin (13:34)
Self-aware leader is not aware of himself at the detriment of everybody else. He’s aware of himself at the compliment of everybody. So he grows, he uses his superpower to make sure the ecosystem is stable for everybody and everything to thrive. He’s aware of his superpowers. He uses them well, but he’s aware of his weaknesses. Not afraid to ask for help, not afraid to face it and say, hey, I actually suck at this. And even be like, hey, I’m not ready to get help.

Harvey Yergin (13:51)
Hmm.

Quentin (14:04)
I’m being honest with you. I don’t want you to tell me how to fix it right now because that’s gonna be a road that I’m not ready to face right now. But he’s aware and he makes sure that he deals with what’s in front at the compliment of everybody else, right? So I told him, I’m gonna play it for the dramatics. So everything you said, well, everything you said, was actively listening. I tried to write everything down, but I had to stop. But I’m gonna regard to say some things back to you because I’m gonna make a statement and I’m gonna ask you a question.

Harvey Yergin (14:20)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Quentin (14:34)
So born and raised in Akron, Ohio. Shout out to my boy, LeBron. LeBron is one of my favorite players of all time. you you help business owners to help alleviate, no, I’m sorry, alleviate pain and suffering. Played D1 baseball. You love team, man. You love the team aspect. You went into the Army as a civil servant on the civil side of the Army, went through training, became a leader for 10 years.

Harvey Yergin (14:34)
Okay.

Thank you.

Quentin (15:04)
had three kids, moved back home. I love how you said to be present. My wife has a saying where she says, your presence is a present. Like you being here present, that’s the present for us, you being here. And so that kind of helps me align like what I do. ⁓ You left your government job, full time dad. I mean, I can go into my best friend. We had to walk through the journey of his businesses.

taking a step back so he can be pretty much a stay at home dad. And the first leg of the journey, it was rough. Cause he like, I like to make money, but now he realized his stability in the house was the best thing for his girls. So that’s, that’s a whole nother story, right? So I applaud you for that, man. What else did I write? Make sure I ain’t miss nothing. All these things, bro. I say this because I say this on every podcast pretty much. Destiny.

Harvey Yergin (15:47)
Mmm.

Quentin (16:03)
has no wasted moments. I’m gonna that linger for a little bit.

Destiny has no wasted moments, meaning the journey has no wasted moments. We borrow from each leg of the journey and it makes us the people that we are today. It has reinforced our mindset. It has caused us not to think in a way we used to think. Growth mindset, it reinforces our why we’re able to stand in our why and know why we do what we do. It has swarmed our passions.

Destiny has been building momentum to the people we are now. So Harvey, all the flair for the dramatics, right? Here’s the question. What has the moments, what has the destination taught you about yourself? Has it taught you discipline, resilience? Like how has it framed your mindset? What has the journey taught you about you, Harvey?

Harvey Yergin (17:42)
Wow, that is

We could talk about this for a really long time.

I’ll just highlight some things from what has been a 15 plus year journey of self reflection, self development, let’s just call it.

I think the most important things that I’ve learned about myself in the last 15 years.

Probably could be probably the most profound lessons have happened in the last two years

The most important of which I think is that I am not everything you see out here in the external world.

Harvey is a former athlete. Harvey is a father and a husband and a former real estate investor and a current landlord and an EOS implementer and somebody who enjoys playing pickleball and golf and bowling and baseball. Well, who I am is

a piece of something way bigger than that. Who I actually am is an infinite piece of ⁓ a source that goes beyond anything we see in the external and also connects all of us together as one.

And I know I spent the first 40 years of my life in a lot of pain on my own, just being so attached to all of this, all of this that we see out here in the tangible world. And I just beat my head against the wall for all that time trying to ⁓ arrive somewhere, arrive at a place that would finally make me feel fulfilled.

Quentin (19:26)
Mm.

Harvey Yergin (19:30)
that would finally make me feel like

I had everything I wanted, that I was something, that I was somebody, I was worthy, that I was worthwhile, that I was worth it, whatever it is. And it wasn’t until maybe the last two years that I finally realized I was out there in the ocean, in a rowboat, rowing like crazy, trying to get to this destination that really did not exist. I was never gonna get there.

I was just going to I was just going to row and row and row and row and row for the rest of my life.

And once I realized, ⁓ finally understood, like there’s a difference between knowing it in your head and then like being completely absorbed in an understanding of something. Once I finally understood it to that level that what’s inside of what’s inside of me, who I actually am, this piece of an infinite.

source of energy and you can call it God, can call it universe, you can call it whatever you want. That’s who we actually are and it connects us to something bigger than ourselves and to each other and that everything else that’s happening around us is a representation of just this one brief moment and this container that our energy currently ⁓ inhabits. Good Lord is that that freeing? Is that

it brings overwhelming peace to realize that ⁓ the moment is all that matters, that what’s happening right now is all that matters. And I can detach myself from all of this stuff that I used to wrap my entire identity in and have peace and confidence in who I really am. And it turns out when you approach the external from that state, ⁓

you approach it with so much more love and so much more heart and people can feel your energy in a way that they otherwise can’t. And you can serve people and help people in a way that you otherwise can’t because you’re aware of just the oneness and the connection between you and another human being. ⁓

Some of that I understand is woo-woo and it’s gonna go over the head of a lot of people and I would just encourage you that if that is the case, that’s okay because for like I said 40 years that it was the same for me. But I would just encourage you that if you feel unfulfilled, if you feel like you’re chasing a destination, if there’s any amount of dialogue in your head that says once I get to this place, then I’ll be okay. You can be okay right now. You can be okay right now.

So I guess that has been my biggest lesson overall from the journey.

Quentin (22:21)
Sir, thank you for your thoughtful answer, your reflective answer. I’ve already resided myself. We’re going to go over the time that we stated, you know, because we, because I mean, because I still got at least one more question to ask you. But I think I know, I know you said, you know, it may go over some people here and it may, but people that watch me, they know what you just said is very in line with the things that we talk about here within.

the podcast that I host because I told you, we said at the jump at the center of each business is the business owner. And most of the time, these are the business owners that watching this. absolutely love what you said. I want to even ground it even more. Do you have, do you have sons? Everyone’s son. How old is your son? If you don’t mind me asking. 13. They’re beautiful. So those that have kids track what I’m about to say. You know, you buy them outfits and some outfits.

Harvey Yergin (23:08)
I have one son.

He’s 13, yeah.

Quentin (23:20)
fit them how they are right now. But sometimes you buy stuff in advance because you know they’re going to fit into it. Right? So with every stage of growth, you grow to a capacity where you’re able to wear clothes, put on what you’re supposed to wear. Right? And I love how you talked about earlier, the little child in us, you know, there’s a little child in everybody that we’re trying to feed.

So 13 years old son, don’t know how he look. I hope your son don’t mess up my analogy, right? Imagine that shirt that you have on. I want you to go, you know, try to put it on your son. More than likely. I don’t know your son. don’t know how he physically built, but more than likely it’s going to be big on him. Right. But eventually as he grows in capacity and stature in life, eventually he may be able to fill out the shirt that you wear. That’s how it is without destinies, without journeys.

Harvey Yergin (23:50)
you

the world.

Quentin (24:15)
Each, there is a destination that’s waiting for you that if you tried to put on right now would be over big, be overly big, you wouldn’t be able to move in it, you wouldn’t be able to function in it. The journey is designed to give you the nutrients. So when you grow to the capacity that you’re supposed to be, it fits you like a glove. You can wear and move around in the place you’re supposed to be.

And I say that because what you said, it may win over some people here, but I hope it, I hope it don’t. I hope they know that the journey develops the person that you’re going to be. But like you said, you can be that person now. It’s developing who you’re supposed to be now. There are things you’re supposed to wear now that fits you. And yes, you’re going to grow in capacity, but you just got to keep growing. You just got to keep showing up. Most people are aware of the story of David and Goliath, right? The old school story of David and Goliath.

Part of the narrative is David went out to about to fight Goliath and the king tried to put his armor on David. He put it on him and David said these famous words. He said, I can’t wear this. haven’t proven this. Like I can’t move around in this. I know you proficient in this. I’m not proficient in this armor. He took it off and he had his slingshots and his stone. Cause that’s what he was proficient in. All of us have a stage and a capacity that we are proficient in.

Harvey Yergin (25:29)
Mm.

Hmm.

Quentin (25:37)
and we don’t have to put on nothing else that people are putting on us. Just go out and slay the giant the way you are supposed to slay your giant. And Harvey, your giant, not my giant. And the clothes you’re supposed to wear, listen, we both big ages. I can’t put that shirt on. I’m a big age, but that shirt, it ain’t gonna fit me like it’s fitting you. You know what saying? But there is a shirt, there is something that I can put on that fits me well. And then maybe people compare, like, yeah, like,

Harvey Yergin (25:45)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Quentin (26:07)
Yeah, you ain’t gonna look like you like how are you looking at and guess what? I can’t let that cloud my judgment because I know who I am I know my journey and so I just wanted to kind of put an anchor on what you said man like You nothing stopping us from being the people that we are supposed to be right now And guess what? Nothing can stop us from growing into the capacity was supposed to grow in only us And only if we just stunt out growth and that’s we do that ourselves

Harvey Yergin (26:14)
Yeah.

Quentin (26:35)
And so, ⁓ man, I appreciate your mindset, bro. I appreciate it. I gotta ask you this cause I wouldn’t be a good story. of this podcast. What is your next, when it comes to your business, what is your next goal? What are you looking to solve a scale next?

Harvey Yergin (26:35)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it’s really about my practice of helping business owners through this, these tools that we call EOS. ⁓ And I’m just trying to get to 20 clients in my backyard. I’ve spent the last three years or so traveling around the country to serve business owners. I’ve cut my teeth, I’ve got a lot of experience.

A lot of sessions under my belt. It’s also been stressful and taken me out of the home more than I’d prefer. So I’m rebuilding my practice of sorts here in Central Ohio. ⁓ Yeah, dude, I just want to help as many business owners as I can right here in Central Ohio so that can also adequately fulfill my other ⁓ roles and responsibilities in life at the same time.

Quentin (27:31)
Yeah.

man, hurry bro, I could talk to you easily. Probably number 45 minutes, easily man, easily. But listen, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you sir?

Harvey Yergin (28:04)
Yeah, if you want to if you want to reach out to me directly, I would love to meet you and love to talk to you and I’m absolutely willing to help you. You are not a bother to me at all. If there’s anything that’s in the back of your mind, like I feel like I should be reaching out to Harvey, but I don’t want to bother him. Please just do it. Just just listen to that little voice and do it. My email address is Harvey H.A.R.V.E.Y. dot Yergin Y.E.R.G.I.N. at EOS.

Eosworldwide.com. And you got how you can reach me directly. If you’re just interested on how to build a better team, if you feel stuck in your business, and you know that people might be a reason why you’re stuck and you want to grow in and beyond where you are right now, just go pick up the book called Traction by Gino Wickman. And that resonates with you. There are there’s hundreds of other EOS implementers out there like me, they’re all fantastic people who

be able to help you maybe go reach out to one in your in your local area.

Quentin (29:08)
Well, listen, my friend, Harvey, I want to say three things to you. And I want to say them sincerely. ⁓ Some guys are working outside my window, so I’m like trying. I don’t know if you can hear it or not, but I want to make sure you hear this, man, because I appreciate you so much, And I always say ⁓ being humble and being meek is meekness is not weakness.

Meekness is being humble about your journey and where you are. So I appreciate you showing your strength today. I really do. And so three things. Thank you for your time. You could have been anywhere in the world, but you were here with us. got three kids, you got a family, you got a business. Thank you for your time. I know where the podcast is, the scope of it, but when it comes down to it, you granted us your time. And I appreciate that. Secondly, Kobe Bryant had a sand on one of his last interviews before he passed.

He says, nothing in this world moves without story. Stories are so powerful, man. And so I thank you for your story, for your narrative, for your authenticity, for your humbleness, for your vulnerability. All these things you gave us was a gift. We could have just came on here and just talked about business strategies and all of this, but you gave us a gift of yourself. And so I appreciate that. Lastly, man, your mindset. Thank you for your mindset, bro. What you have paid for some in money, but some in just experience in life.

in failures and success, the journey. So thank you for your mindset and bringing that mindset to this platform. Sir, I greatly, greatly appreciate you being here today. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Well, listen, y’all heard Mr. Harvey. Get into the show notes. His information is there. Get in contact with him. Check him out. Connect with him.

Harvey Yergin (30:43)
Thanks for having me man, it fun.

Quentin (30:55)
but definitely make sure you are subscribed here. And I got this big smile because I say it all the time. And I challenge you that when it don’t happen, call me out. But I keep saying, we’re going to continue to bring up incredible people, just like Mr. Harvey. And we keep doing it time and time again. So I challenge you, call me out when you’re like, yeah, that person was a dud. Call me out. No, man, people are just incredible. We are incredible in our journeys.

Mr. Harvey, thank you again. And everyone else, listen, you all have a fantastic day.