Episode 64: Creating A Life Of Abundance: The Intersection Of Spirituality And Financial Success With Joe Legolvan
What if you had the wisdom of a 100-year-old man with the permission to unlock your limitless potential at the age of 21? How would you now create your life? Through a life-changing psychedelic experience, today’s guest shares how he created a multi-million-dollar real estate portfolio and how he is now helping young men to create the lives of their dreams. We sit down with Joe Legolvan, the owner of four businesses, a father, a husband, and mindset and life transformation coach. Joe spent a decade as a spiritual counselor in a Denver jail. While he was there, he was able to share with the people a deep message about overcoming challenges and living a healthy and happy life. Don’t miss this chance to learn how to merge your spiritual and financial success. Tune in now!
---
Watch the episode here
Listen to the podcast here
Creating A Life Of Abundance: The Intersection Of Spirituality And Financial Success With Joe Legolvan
What if you were given the perspective and wisdom of a man who’s lived 100 years and was also given permission to unlock your limitless potential at the age of 21? How would you now create your life? Through a life-changing psychedelic experience, my guest now shares how he created spiritual harmony, and a multi-million-dollar real estate portfolio, and is now helping young men tap into their own authentic power to create the life of their dreams. Welcome to the show. Let’s get limitless.
Joe Legolvan is the owner of four businesses. He’s a father and a mindset, life, and health transformation coach specializing in depression recovery, body transformation, and goal fulfillment. He is a licensed CMT, PTA, CPT, and member of the Wes Watson Elite Business Coaching Program. He is the co-author of a five-star rated book called The Story Teller. Joe spent a decade as a spiritual counselor in a Denver jail and was able to share a deep message of overcoming challenges while creating several successful businesses and becoming a multimillion-dollar real estate investor.
---
Welcome to the show, Joe Legolvan. How are you doing?
I’m good, brother. Happy to be here.
I’m so glad you can make the time to come on now. I really appreciate that. We met through a mutual friend of ours, Brant Falliaux, who was on my show. We were talking about Bitcoin and mining stuff. He said that I got to interview you because you have an amazing story on your transformation in life, your spiritual journey, and also your financial success along with how you help young people become more of a better version of themselves. That is such a beautiful story, and I want to hear all about it. What does living a limitless life mean to you?
First of all, I’m happy to be here, and what a great question. To me, we were born into these bodies with limitations in this world. Physically, we are limited to a single body here from being here. I think it is amazing that we can break through those limitations. We have so many ways to do that. It’s about hitting all areas, the personal, financial, material, and spiritual, and trying to break through all those limitations. Ultimately, that means becoming the best version of yourself. That’s a unique and individual thing because we all have ideas of what we want in this life or what our purpose is. Maybe our purpose is to go off and do something in the material world, save the whales or whatever that is.
That’s all great, but t the end of the day, I truly believe our own purpose is to become the best version of ourselves, whatever that looks like to you. As long as we are striving for that within our own psyche or conscience and we are trying to live a consciously congruent life where we are aligned with that, I believe we are on our purpose, and we are going to be doing what we are here to do.
The deeper that we go internally and find that alignment and authenticity within, we can then affect the outside world in a more profound way. When we are listening to outside voices or outside expectations of who we should be, it takes us away from our true power, which is the ability to create anything. We are limitless potential, and we are limitless beings. We can have the ability to do all of that, yet it has to come from that higher self that we all have. It’s creating the Wi-Fi connection a little bit stronger with that. We are going to learn about how you are able to do that in your life and maybe how we can teach others how to do the same. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got here?
When I was younger, I went through a spiritually transformational experience where I wanted to look deeper into the meaning of things. I’d been living a one-dimensional life. I was very materialistic in my own thinking, not branching out at all. I went through some painful experiences. I went through some things that taught me a lot of lessons. Now, I’m trying to integrate both the spiritual and the material. There are multiple things that I have gone through. It’s hard to touch on maybe one. To start out, is there anything specific that comes to mind or any specific area that you want to touch on?
All of the above. Whatever the most profound experiences of your life that you’d like to share, you are welcome to, like awakening up to your spirituality. What was the catalyst for that?
When I was younger, one of the big things that helped me in that journey was going through a psychedelic experience. If anybody’s had a psychedelic experience when they are not really ready for it, that can be pretty profound because it can actually push you toward your soul’s purpose, but it’s not exactly the most pleasant way to do it. It can open up a lot of things that you may not be ready for. At that point, I had an experience with mushrooms where I basically saw my life. I saw the decisions I was making. I saw the people I was affecting in that experience, and it made me think deeper about what is my effect on other people.
That was a huge catalyst. From there, I went from a very one-dimensional life to seeking spiritually. I studied everything. I studied from Hinduism to Buddhism. I spent several years connecting with the ISKCON temple here in Denver, which is the Hare Krishna Society, and the Hindus out there. I met a lot of really cool mentors through that. I learned about meditation. I learned about Vedantic teachings and such. Spending so much time with that, I double down into spirituality, but I got to a point. This is what I think is interesting. When you get super deep into that spiritual life, you almost reject the material life in a big way.
That was my existence. I was meditating several hours a day. I was spending a lot of time at the temple, and I wasn’t experiencing a lot in my physical body. I was leaving that whole part out. There was a point when I realized that I wanted to experience the material and the spiritual together. It reminds me of the story of Buddha, where he went from the opulent life of a prince to an aesthetic life where he rejected everything and then found the middle path.
For me, that middle path is integrating all levels together, integrating the physical with the spiritual and enjoying our physical body, enjoying being here, enjoying creating businesses, money, and relationships. Now, at this point in my life, it’s the integration of all these different levels. Coming back to your original question there, what is living a limitless life? That, to me, is trying to become the best version of myself on all of these different levels within my own conscience and unique purpose and destiny.
Thank you for giving us that 30,000-foot view. I want to dig deep into that and find out. Let’s rewind a little bit. The mushroom experience that you had, did you go into it? How old were you? What was your intention? Was it a ceremony or was it for recreational use?
It was a recreational experience, which, at that point in my life, that’s all I was really into. I was about twenty when that happened. It’s one of those things where I’m hanging out with friends. I’m going to do it. It was life-altering, to say the least. With hallucinogenic, I get that they are getting a lot more recognition nowadays, and I think they have their place.
For me to look at when people are using it in more of a fun way or more of a party way, to me, it’s almost unfathomable because it was so traumatic. It was so life-altering that having respect for these things is very important. Make sure you have an intention with them because it’s a rough ride if you don’t if you are not able to process it and able to utilize it in a positive way. Luckily, I did have the spiritual foundation around me to start seeking that did help me process it in a positive way. If people are lacking any exposure to that, it can be a little bit throw you off-kilter without that knowledge there.
Thank you for sharing that and being honest about it. The intention is such a big part of the psychedelic experience. When people go into those waters, it can get really deep. Be aware of what your intention is. To do it in a safe setting or a ceremonial setting, you were very lucky to have accidental enlightenment, but I believe that everything happens for a reason. This was the catalyst for your journey. For me, it’s when I did ayahuasca for the first time. I didn’t get into psychedelics much when I was younger. I never had anything other than marijuana a couple of times but didn’t do anything for me at the time.
When I was 34 years old, I was seeking out ayahuasca. I ended up getting invited to a ceremony in New York City at a really small two-bedroom apartment. It was a legit shaman, but it was still a really strange setting because you could hear sirens and everything outside. This was before people were doing ayahuasca mainstream. I didn’t know if the cops were going to burst in or whatever. It was not the ideal setting. I would always suggest people go to a safe ceremonial setting where it’s appreciated, loved, and respected.
I also had that life-altering experience where it changed my life for the better. Not everybody gets to experience something like that when they are not doing it in the right setting. That’s the only reason why I prefaced that. What were some of the things that destroyed your ego and that you are like, “I can’t go back to the way that I was living?” You were such a young kid, so we all did dumb things in our early twenties. You were able to find this out at a very young age, which I applaud you for.
No doubt. The big thing I think around that was seeing how much our mind impacts everything we experience. I was talking about this on my Instagram. It’s not what we are seeing in life, but where we are seeing life from. You can have the most fabulous life externally. You look at somebody like Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, and Elvis Presley, those types of people. Externally, their lives were phenomenal. They had fame, fortune, and people loving them. There are tons of love.
How many people complain because they don’t have enough love? “Nobody loves me. I’m alone.” Look at those people. They had millions of people who would do anything for them and yet they were miserable. It was because even though they were viewing a beautiful life, they are viewing it from a negative space. For us to have a great life, where we are viewing it from is to align with our own higher self, align with a deeper purpose, and align with the truth. From there, we can view whatever life we are experiencing from a better place. That was helpful to me to see that what I’m experiencing in life is so determined by where I’m experiencing life from.
Spiritual And Financial Success: For us to have a great life, where we are viewing it from is to align with our own higher self, align with a deeper purpose, and align with the truth. From there, we can view whatever life we are experiencing from a better place.
One of the things I have studied deeply was Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. If anybody’s ever heard of that, that’s a psychological therapy that says our cognition is creating our emotions. For example, if you are having a negative thought, you are going to emotionally feel negative. If you are worried about the future, you think something negative is going to happen in the future, and you are going to feel negative.
The whole basis of that structure of thinking is based on what you are thinking right now and how you are going to experience life. For me, when I started getting a spiritual perspective, seeing things from a higher perspective changed my entire emotional state. What do I mean by that? If we are viewing our lives from a purely materialistic standpoint, like I’m a temporary body or person that’s going to die someday, everybody I love is going to die, and everything I create is going to be destroyed, we are going to be very depressed.
If we view it from the reality of us being eternal of energy never be created nor destroyed, we are going through a transformational experience here because energy is never created or destroyed, just transformed. That will change my whole experience and perspective. With that hallucinogenic experience, it exposed me to eternity and what it is like to live in a material world or temporary body but from a place of eternity.
The quality of the mind perceives reality the way that it wants to perceive it. It’s you are looking at negative things or from a positive perspective. When you do psychedelics or go into deep meditations and see that eternity is everything, and it’s not this 3D reality, it opens up the blinders and allows you to see, “This is a small little life experience that we are going through.” It’s what we want to create while we are here and having some fun, but also having a lot of heart and spirit behind the actions that we do. There are karmic consequences for going on a path that doesn’t serve us or others versus going on a higher purpose and achieving our dreams and our life by helping and uplifting other people.
That can’t be understated there. Probably the biggest lesson out of it all was how I was impacting other people at that time. I was not living a very consciously congruent life. I was living very out of that where I wasn’t thinking about others. I do believe when you are exposed to something like this, you sense that. We all know that scientifically, it’s starting to prove that we are all connected. Everything is connected. We are connected with other people.
When you have a hallucinogenic experience like that, you feel that and actually experience that. If you are not ready for that or if you are not in the mindset where you are not prepared to experience the ramifications of your actions that hurt other people, it’s going to be very intense and painful. That was my experience because I was not living thinking about other people, or how they are connected to me in a deep way.
What’s interesting is the idea of morality comes from our identity. The thinking is once we know who we are, we know that we are connected to everybody, and we know that we are one, then a lot of morality comes in because it’s based on we are trying not to hurt ourselves at the end of the day. It’s not that I’m trying to be a good person and trying to help everybody because it’s the right thing to do. It’s just they are me. I’m helping myself. That comes from being exposed to who you truly are.
It’s interesting that the idea of morality comes from our identity.
That’s why some of the most morally aligned people in this world are people who have seen the truth. They are not being good based on, “Maybe I’ll get to heaven someday. Maybe some deity in the sky will smile at me if I’m good.” They are being good because they know that they are other people at the end of the day. We are not our brother’s keeper. We are our brothers.
The way I try to look at things or people is everybody is a mirror. Whatever triggers us about them is usually what triggers us about ourselves. The other thing is to look at other people as the childhood version of themselves. If they were a plant or if they didn’t receive certain minerals, water, love, sunshine, or whatever it was, maybe that’s how they turned out, but it’s not because they want to be that way. It’s because they lacked something.
Until they wake up, then they can start having more of an awareness. It’s the same thing with myself. I have to constantly catch myself if I’m going down a path of judging somebody or looking at somebody in a certain way. I have to realize that that’s not good for me. It’s not good for them. It’s not going to uplift both of us.
It’s like seeing that person, “How can we love more? How can we lean into that care for them in order to help them even energetically?” Even if we don’t have to have a conversation with that person but send them love or be loving towards them because you don’t want to pity anyone or you don’t want to judge anyone because what you project upon others also shines back at you.
It’s so true, and I think also how we experience ourselves too. I’m building on that thought, too, based on how we look at others. Is this person an evil or horrible person, or is this person going through a learning experience like myself? If I can look at them from a less judgmental role like you are saying, but also seeing that flower that maybe didn’t get the sunshine or exposure that it needed, that’s going to give you a lot more compassion and viewing, and therefore a lot more compassion to ourselves.
I run a physical therapy or massage therapy wellness center, which sounds like that’s what you do as well, which is another way we align. One thing I have noticed is some of the most depressed people I get to have so many qualms with other people. They have so many negative things to say about their family, friends, society, and life. They are always complaining about it like some politician whether whatever side you are on. They hate them, and they will talk about how much they hate them and how evil they are.
Our subconscious mind does not know the difference between ourselves and another person. Subconscious means the part of our mind that is not conscious. When we are calling somebody else an asshole, our subconscious mind is saying, “You are an asshole,” and it’s going to feel bad about itself. On the other end of the spectrum, some of the happiest people I meet are not necessarily people who have it all together, but they see other people with compassion.
They are very compassionate towards others. They see them in a loving way, even though people aren’t perfect. It’s not like rose-colored glasses where you are assuming everybody’s Mother Teresa, but they see them as people on a mission, on learning, growing, and trying to become their own best version of themselves in whatever capacity that they are at, at that level.
When you look at other people from that compassionate perspective, you end up looking at yourself with that compassionate perspective, and it takes away a lot of guilt. Guilt is the underlying root of a lot of our problems. It’s the underlying root of anxiety and depression. It’s an underlying root of us not overcoming our limitations because, with guilt, there comes fear. Fear becomes a limitation. In order for us to live in limitless life, we have got to break through those limitations. We all know fear is one of the things that hold us back, but people don’t look at the deeper root, which is truly the guilt, which comes from our judgments of other people.
Spiritual And Financial Success: Guilt is the underlying root of a lot of our problems.
If you dissect all of that stuff like fear, it comes down to the absence of love. It’s like the absence of shining light in certain areas. When we hold things in a dark place, that guilt, shame, or whatever it is, it’s going to fester there. It’s like this thing that needs to detox out of the body. Once you detox it out, whether you have hatred for somebody and then you end up forgiving them, there are so many beautiful things that happen. I know during your mushroom experience, you had an epiphany where you wanted to write a letter to all of your ex-girlfriends. It’s very similar to the thing to happen to me, but can you tell us a little bit about what prompted you to do that?
Probably the biggest part that I saw was the people I affected in the deepest way were some of the intimate relationships I had had. I had felt a lot of their pain. At that point, one of the things Brant always jokes about, he goes, “You were a total Chad at that part of your life.” I guess that’s a term for a douchebag.
When I felt that and I felt the depth of their pain through that mushroom experience I did, I went out on an almost like an AA experience where you tried to rectify those things where you tried to tell them, “I was not coming from a place of enlightenment and truth. I’m sorry, and please forgive me.” That lowered my karmic burden a little bit because it enabled me to release my guilt about my past to move on and become the best version of myself.
When we do have regrets in life and mess up, which everybody does because nobody gets out of here without hurting people, it’s sad but it’s part of life. To move on from that and not recreate it, you got to start with self-forgiveness. That can be prompted by giving letters like that out and stuff. For me, I was finding people that I had hurt in the past and tried to reach out to them. It sounds like you did something similar there.
Nobody gets out of here without hurting people. It’s sad, but it’s part of life. To move on from that and not recreate it, you have to start with self-forgiveness.
I talked about it on my show a few times, but I was not a Chad like yourself. I always looked at myself as a victim, or I always felt like I was being gaslighted. I always came in with a scarcity mentality, so I always felt like I wasn’t good enough. When I perceived some girl that I was dating or whatever to gaslight me or to hurt me, I would send them nasty emails if things didn’t work out or whatever and be like, “You are this and this. You are out of integrity.”
I would project my own lack onto them. It was frustrating inside me. After I did ayahuasca that first time, I was able to see any interaction I had and not with ex-girlfriends, but it was any interaction at all that I had with other people that I either hurt or they hurt me. I was able to reverse roles and see it from their perspective, but see it from an outsider’s perspective, see both people and what they were feeling at the same time, and understand from a higher perspective.
From there, I ended up the same night I came out of it. At 4:00 in the morning, I was taking notes. The next day, I started writing emails out to all these people that I wasn’t so loving or kind to. It felt so good to put pen to paper, to email, or whatever it was, and release myself of that guilt. A lot of them wrote back and were like, “Thank you so much. That meant a lot to me.”
I felt bad about the way things ended. If it was my family members with whom I wasn’t giving love or when they were trying to shower me with love, I ended up making amends for that. All this guilt that we have in these interactions with other people is hurting us when we put ourselves in these combative and adversarial roles with people. It never feels good.
Anytime you have an issue with someone, you pass them on to the street. It’s all this very sticky and ugly. If we can remove that, that’s when we live freely. A lot of physical pain and emotional pain go away when we can express ourselves because we don’t want to hold that baggage onto ourselves. Even if somebody hurt us, why hold it onto our shoulders? We are carrying around all that weight our entire lives if we continue to hold this anger towards anyone. It’s proven in cancer studies of certain cancers where they go in the body. They are related to certain emotional grievances people have. This whole idea of holding onto this anger towards others is very interesting.
What a deep level of maturity to have there. It’s amazing because I know people that are in my practice or stuff like that that are in their 70s, 80s, or 90s who haven’t reached that level of maturity. They still are holding onto stuff, and it’s so sad to see. You see younger people who may have some spiritual experience and who are able to let those things go.
Our quality of life is dependent on that. That is so huge and super mature to know that, “I’m projecting out onto these people, and I am holding onto this inner turmoil because of it.” One thing they have always noticed is if you ever talk to somebody who’s going through a breakup and they are going through a rough breakup, their ex is always a narcissist. Have you ever heard that? Everybody’s ex is always a psychopath/narcissist, which is one of the ways we project. Maybe they are. Who knows? I don’t know.
They say that 1% or 2% of society has psychopathic tendencies, but it’s everyone you talk to.
That is not helping us out in any way because if we are able to let go of this baggage, then we can pursue what we are here for. We can pursue a limitless life. We are held back so much by our psyche and mind, and a lot of that is welting in nonsense. It’s the baggage. It’s negative thinking about others. It’s about being a victim and those types of mentalities that do not help out anything in the creative process. It’s super cool that you have that experience.
Spiritual And Financial Success: If we are able to let go of the baggage, then we can pursue what we are here for. We can pursue a limitless life.
We talk about this on the show, and we try to live it in our lives. To be honest, I still struggle with it on a daily basis. For instance, if I have an interaction or a client has a bad interaction with us, or they leave us a bad review because of something they did or whatever, I get angry. I have to talk to myself and say, “Everybody’s trying to do the best that they can,” but it does affect me when there’s an interaction that doesn’t go great, but I have to constantly be mindful of it.
It’s not something that is like, “You learned the lesson once,” and then everything is all roses. It’s a daily grind, especially in this world where there’s so much heated emotion now. It’s very important to constantly check ourselves. Also, you have a way of releasing that stress that we have through movement, meditation, or many different paths. I’d love to hear about how you got into Eastern Philosophy Hinduism because you grew up in Denver.
For me, it was the knowledge that there was more. Coming through that mushroom trip, it was like, “I’m not getting the answers in my traditional Judeo-Christian background,” which I have nothing wrong with that. I’m open to that. I respect that as a philosophy. It helps a lot of people, but I was not getting all the in-depth answers that I needed.
The thing about Vedanta, the ideas of Vedantic teaching is a culmination of things. It’s a culmination of people and ideas. I love the explanation of not one person invented the fighter jet or the computer. You can’t point to one person and say such and such invented the computer because it was multiple minds coming together with a congruent mindset to create something in this world, and Vedanta is that. It’s all these different mentalities and teachings that if they fell into this congruent logical habit or area, then they were actually accepted and moved forward with.
It wasn’t taking one guy’s word for granted. It was tons of teachers. I love the Vedas. I love Bhagavad Gita, Chaitanya Charitamrita, and all these different books had so much knowledge and wisdom from everything, from food, atoms, and spirituality, to who we are, and to who God is. I took a lot of that teachings to help me get balanced here and try to figure out my place in the world. I spent a lot of time on that.
The deepest thing they taught me was Japa, which is the meditation with the beads. That helped me to clear my mind to get focused. Everybody talks about how it’s so hard to close your eyes and meditate because all the thoughts come in, especially with the stimulation we have nowadays with phones and with the internet. Japa helped me because it gave me a mantra to focus on.
That was extremely profound because, at that point, it wasn’t just that I knew about these concepts intellectually. I’m like, “Intellectually, we are a soul. I’m eternal.” It was like, “No. I know this because I’m experiencing this on a daily basis. I’m experiencing the self beyond my physical self. I’m experiencing the soul that is eternal that is having a temporary human experience and diving into that.”
That is something that can be explained, and the intellect helps us experience that. At the end of the day, the experience needs to be personal. It needs to be real for the person experiencing it. I’m all for intellectual studies as long as they point to an experience that you can have individually because if we don’t have that experience, we are still going to be taking somebody else’s word for it. That can’t change us because if we lose faith in that person, we lose faith in the entire belief system.
Spiritual And Financial Success: It needs to be real for the person experiencing it. Otherwise, we are still going to be taking somebody else’s word for it
I grew up in the Vedanta, Hindu religion, and Eastern philosophy. One of the things that resonated most with me is that it talked about seeking knowledge in many different forms. There’s information that you can derive and eternal truths in every religion. Including Vedanta, there are certain spiritual teachers nowadays that try to influence people’s minds by telling them, “You need to follow this particular path.” I think all religions are guilty of that.
When you study Vedanta just from the purest point of view and interpret it in the way that you see how it relates to your life, the exploration in life is encouraged to explore the mind, body, and spirit in this 3D reality. It’s a great guidebook. You can take what you need. You don’t have to take everything from it, but that’s one of the things that resonated with me, and I see it.
I grew up in this so it was easy for me to continue with it, but I see so many people, my friends who are really into spirituality. They get into yoga or meditation. They learn about the Vedas, and they incorporated them into their life. There’s nothing wrong with also believing in Jesus, Buddha, and Muhammad. There are so many different ways to derive knowledge.
My personal belief is love is the essence of it all. If that is the ultimate religion, then that resonates with me on every level because all teachings do that. Also, there are manmade inputs that tarnish the teachings of the truth of what God is and what this life is all about. It’s all about unity and love, and how we create together a bit better future.
In the world that we live in, we are going through so many turbulent times. This is all talked about in the Vedanta with the Yugas. I believe we are in the Kali Yuga where it’s the age of destroying what’s not needed or not in Earth and humanity’s future. All this chaos and turmoil is happening at a quicker pace, but it’s necessary because this means it’s signaling the end of this cycle and onto the next.
We need that destruction in order to grow. With Kali Yuga, they would say it’s the age of quarrel and destruction which summarizes our world in such a great way. It’s fighting and destruction. That’s pretty much all you get in this Kali Yuga. That’s also part of the cool part of the journey. One of the references that I always like to make. What people get down on the world, what’s going on in the world, and our politics and all this stuff is if the video game was if you had all the cheat codes to a video game, what fun would it be to play?
We come into this world with all these problems and issues, and that’s part of the journey and experience here. Even the negative things that we go through in a bigger sense are all part of it. I love that you mentioned Kali Yuga. We are at a high level here in an age of quarrel and destruction. If we can overcome that personally by not falling into that, that’s when our character’s tested.
Our character is not tested when we are around people who share our character. It’s tested when we are around people who are doing the complete opposite. It’s very easy to love other people who are loving us. It’s very easy to be kind to people who are being kind to us. There’s that saying in the Dhammapada Buddhist text that’s like, “How wonderful is it to be selfless in a world where people are selfish? How wonderful is it to be giving in a world where people are not?” That’s where our character is tested. That’s where we can move on to higher levels of thinking and higher levels of being.
Our character is not tested when we are around people who share our character. It’s tested when we are around people who are doing the complete opposite.
Touching on the point where you talked about we are eternal and limitless, we are an incarnation of God and this illusion of separation that everybody is a different person. When you zoom out a little bit, you realize that with the Earth now and what we are going through is a little experience. It’s a tiny speck in the reality of it all. What if the people who are causing so much chaos, destruction, and illusion are an aspect of God that is here to help us not fall for this illusional trap? They are serving. They sacrifice their lives to become dark in this particular reality in order to help us ascend to higher evolution and enlightenment. What you damn damns you back. When you understand the creation of it all, there is no separation from God and everything.
That’s such a great point. You see people get caught up in dualistic thinking. In reality, there are negative people that manifest negative things in this world. You can’t be rose-colored glasses and not see that. In a deeper sense, as you said, we can see that it’s for a bigger purpose. When you zoom out a little bit, you realize everything is one anyway. I always like to think about going back to the beginning. Let’s say that we are all one big mesh of God. We are in this state of unity, love, and complete knowledge, and we are chilling with God in this soup of bliss or whatever.
We would want to create something that would be the opposite of it for us to experience ourselves. This world is so amazing because it’s where the limitless experience limitation. It’s where the non-dual experience duality. It’s where the connected experience disconnection. We get to experience all these different states, which ultimately helps us grow which is for our joy and experience at the end of the day. Even the negative from a larger perspective zooms way out. I know it’s hard for people to grasp that, especially if they are going through something negative, but if you zoom out far enough, you will see that it does all serve a purpose at a higher level. I love that you said that.
In accordance with the Kali Bali, they talk about the Law of Polarity and the higher realms you could go to. You have to understand what the opposite is because it’s all-encompassing, and it’s all one. It’s one moment always. It’s understanding that there’s always going to be polarity and duality in this world. It’s how it is. It has to be dark or light. What is light versus what is dark? You could always see a lighter version of something else, and you could always see a darker version of something dark. If you look at a thermometer, it goes from cold to hot. What exactly is hot? Is there a point at which it becomes hotter? It’s always going to move along the scale.
That’s a great point, too, because when we are coming back to our original point of becoming the best versions of ourselves, a lot of times we are doing that by comparing ourselves to other people, which is a total relative game. Imagine if we were on a different planet where everybody on that planet was enlightened to some degree and everybody was manifesting their purpose. If we ourselves were in that world, we would start to level up around those people around us and think, “This is normal to manifest your purpose. It’s normal to think very consciously congruent life.” In this world, it’s not normal. It’s very unique to think like that because a lot of people are in the age of quarrels and destruction, and their egos are on a very high level.
To pull yourself out of comparison and the relative game to listen to your conscience and inner voice, it’s very difficult to do. That’s when we are living our best selves. That’s when we are at most peace. A lot of people struggle with depression, anxiety, and those type of things nowadays. To me, those are generally a symptom of not listening to your voice, inner psyche, or inner truth. A lot of times, when we are not congruent with that, we are going to start to feel a certain type of way that isn’t feeling peaceful and loving. I love that you were talking about how the ideas of hot and cold are all relative to what else we have experienced.
It’s important. What I try to do is look at myself as the eye of the storm where the very central point inside of there is the safest place to be. To be calm, cool, and collected inside that space, then you understand that all this chaos can happen around you, but it’s never going to affect who you are, your character, your being, and what your purpose is in this world. No matter what until the last day that you are breathing, you have this mission and not to get dragged into something else that’s outside of you.
It’s an interesting time that we live in. I think about it all the time. We do have to understand the spiritual, which we did a deep dive into. Then it’s like, “How do you take that knowledge and then move it into creating this life and living in this reality?” Can you tell us a little bit about when you decided? I know you went deep into the spiritual realm, and then you decided at one point, “I need to now start putting my mark on this world.”
That is such a nuanced point because when people get so into spirituality, they almost want to reject the world. The analogy I always like to look at is a video game. To me, the video game is a perfect analogy for this world because we are eternal beings having a temporary human experience. Just like in a video game, if you become a character in a game, you become that character for a little while, but you are safe and sound on the couch. If something happens to the character and the game, you are still okay. If the character dies in the game, you are still safe and sound on the couch.
The video game is a perfect analogy for this world because we are eternal beings having a temporary human experience.
Similarly, we are eternal. We are connected to our source. We are connected to love and God. No matter what happens to this little individual human here, we are still safe and sound on the couch. Once we realize that and once we have that realization in the video game, would you go and sit in the corner and not experience the rest of the game?
No. You would go and play the game. Why do we play the game in the first place? It’s because it’s fun. It has value in the experience itself. Even though you aren’t fully identified with the player in the game, you are still playing the game. You are not rejecting the game and saying, “There is no game. I don’t want to play the game anymore because it’s not real.”
You are going to play at your highest level because that’s why we are here in the first place. When I came to that conclusion, what happened to me was I was in such deep spirituality that I was not experiencing the physical world, and I wasn’t becoming what I think I was called here to become, which I had a lot of desires.
To me, I felt like all those desires are bad because they are not spiritual enough. I had the desire to get in incredible shape or have an incredible body. I had the desire to make a lot of money. I had the desire to build businesses. From a spiritual perspective, those weren’t good because they are materialistic. You shouldn’t think like that.
I realized that it happened one night, and I still remember that particular night. I was with a friend and we had got done. We spent eight hours at the temple that day and had a great day. I was so blissed out. I was in a space of complete peace. I remember I dropped him off at his house and, all of a sudden, it hit me that I am not experiencing it myself. I’m not experiencing this body. I’m here for a reason. I’m here for a purpose. I’m here in the physical world to do something. Once that hit me, it completely changed my life.
What’s good about it, and I’m so thankful I have had those spiritual experiences, is I have been able to take that mindset into my business career, real estate career, personal career, physical stuff, bodybuilding, and all that type of stuff that I have been into since, and integrate that thinking into it. It helped me in my way achieve my personal success in those things. I have been able to manifest the body I have always wanted. I have been able to manifest several million in real estate under my guidance and stuff like that. It’s been crucial to my success, but it’s also helped me have a detached look at it to make the wisest decision.
Some of the people I love are Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. They are known for being the best investors of our time. When you read any of their books, their biggest thing is it doesn’t take high intellect. It doesn’t take knowing all these different crazy things. The main thing they talk about is temperament. It’s having a good temperament.
Having that temperament will enable us to make better decisions because, at the end of the day, what is investing but making good decisions? If we are caught up in our ego, dramas, BS, or some fight we had with somebody else, we are not going to make good decisions. If our temperament is clear through spirituality, I believe we are going to make the most intelligent decisions to advance that player in the game. Even though we know it’s a player in the game, we are going to try to make that player advance to the highest level for the joy of the experience, and why not?
Can you tell us a little bit about the path that you decided to take? You have your own business in terms of having a wellness center, PT, and massage, and then you are also in real estate. How did you decide on the different businesses or income streams that you wanted to go into?
I have always been interested in freedom at the end of the day, and I love real estate because of the cashflow. You can get the cashflow going in. I like to be diversified as well. I try to put all my eggs in one basket. One thing I did do was when interest rates were really low and I could see that inflation was coming around the bend, we had printed more money than what we had in the last several years or some crazy thing like that.
If you look at the statistics, and I’m probably wrong with that but I know it was very significant, we printed several trillion dollars in a matter of a year because of COVID. I knew inflation was coming, and we also had interest rates at the lowest possible rate. What I did was I went out and bought a crap ton of real estate. I have got a storage facility. I have got dozens of properties. We have got an Airbnb in Aruba, which is a family thing. We can go out there and enjoy that, but we also have that cashflowing.
What’s amazing about taking out debt in an inflationary environment is not only when the dollar is denominated or goes down in value, like when it costs more to buy eggs or go to the movies. All these different things that cost more nowadays are debt also goes down. There’s the only way to align your interests with a government that is trying to inflate its way out of debt. Every fiat currency has done it since the time of the Roman Empire.
Everyone has failed.
Every single fiat currency has failed. If you get your debt denominated in that currency, but it’s a hard asset, something that is going to appreciate and has intrinsic value, then you are going to be able to benefit from that. Not that I agree with the idea that we should probably go back to some standard, maybe the gold standard or whatever. I don’t agree with it, but it doesn’t mean I’m not going to play the game to the best ability.
As I have on all this real estate, the real estate keeps going up slowly. We will have our ups and downs, but people are paying me rent to cover my debt obligation, and also the debt is fixed. The debt is not going anywhere. They are locked in at these low rates. I have a friend whose mom bought a house down in Denver for $10,000 back in 1930. In her mind, that was a lot of money, and her mortgage was $100 a month.
Fast forward, $10,000 won’t even get you a car. That shows the power of inflation. It shows the power of getting locked in at a good rate and buying something that is a hard asset that has utility. The utility is very overlooked when we are looking at the value of an actual asset, and the value of an asset is based on how useful is it to people. A house is one of the most useful things to people because it provides shelter, safety, and all these different things. That’s why I personally love real estate.
I am looking at another property probably this 2023. Maybe a 5-plex or 8-plex, something in that world. I buy out of state and all over the place because here in Denver, the prices are very elevated. It’s very hard to make cashflow on them. I am looking primarily in the Southeast in those types of areas as well. That’s been my real estate journey and the logic behind it.
Now that interest rates are higher, it’s a little harder to make it work, so I am looking at other assets. I do buy businesses in the forms of stocks, crypto, and those types of things as well, especially now in the down markets. It’s probably smarter to move some of my money into those assets because they are in more of a rough place right now.
Thank you so much for sharing that mindset behind it. You can create a shit ton of wealth with the right opportunities and do it very quickly. You are doing it in a very intelligent but safe way because when the interest rates are super low, you are fixed. Now as inflation goes up, your cashflow is going to increase over time. Every time the economy has one of these crazy experiences where almost hyperinflation, you are going to be protected in that.
I had this realization. I have had mentors in the real estate space. One of the things you were talking about is not comparing ourselves to others. What helped was getting around people who were at such a higher level than me. When I was explaining these types of things to friends, they are like, “You are crazy. Why would you buy all these houses and properties? What are you doing?” Their level of thinking was at a certain level were the mentors I had were at such a higher level.
I remember one time I talked to one of my mentors. At the time, I had seven properties, and I was freaking out. I’m like, “I don’t know if I can do this. It’s too much.” He looks at me and is like, “You got seven properties. I got 70. You don’t even know what you are talking about.” He called me out in that sense, but in his mind, it was such a small level to play at. When we do get around bigger thinkers, we are going to be able to raise that.
One realization I have had, and that actual same mentor, is his portfolio is about $14 million. What’s crazy about that is it is he’s got self-cannibalizing debt on that portfolio. What does that mean? It means the tenants are paying off the debt of this $14 million portfolio he’s got. In the short term, he’s making some cashflow. He’s making a couple of grand a month, and he’s got a lot of management stuff. He’s got to deal with tenants and all of these things.
Fast forward 30 years to what his net worth is going to look like, that’s what’s amazing. Imagine that that debt is paid off by the tenants over 30 years. He’s got a $14 million portfolio now. Let’s fast forward to 30 years, and at a low level, let’s say that portfolio is doubled. That’s a very low level of appreciation. Statistically, with real estate, it most likely would be 2.5 to 3 times the value.
Let’s say for numbers, they hit doubles. Now his portfolio in 30 years is completely paid off, and it is cashflowing $500,000 a year and is worth $30 million. All he did was take out a bunch of debt, have a bunch of tenants in place, and was able to smartly do that. How many people in their 401(k) are going to build up a $30 million nest egg that gives them a $500,000 cashflow or more per month after 30 years?
With all the advances we are making in technology and our health, I truly believe people are going to live a lot longer. One of my goals personally is to live to 116 years old. It sounds crazy and, again, people around me, are not thinking at that level. They tell me, “Why would you want to live that long?” You don’t want to live that long in a shitty body. If you are living that long in a very healthy and balanced body, and you feel good, why not live for a long time?
If I’m thinking very short-term, “In the next two years, I want to make $1 trillion or whatever,” that’s usually going to burn me. If I’m thinking long-term, past the 30-year mark, and thinking about when I am 60, 70, 80, or 90, and looking at my net worth from that standpoint, the 30-year fixed rate debt is one of the smartest things you can do because it’s subsidized by our government.
You don’t get these types of long-terms in other places as you do in America. That changed my mindset to watch these guys build up these huge portfolios that were self-cannibalizing debt. The reason they are doing that is they are doing it for their kids, their future, and for everybody they love, and to have financial freedom, and that is my goal as well.
All it starts is with one property. Once you start cashflowing that to another one, then another one, and you are able to build it in a few years. A lot of people say, “Try to buy 1 house every 1 year or 2 years.” If you are doing that over the course of the long-term, you are going to build up a $30 million, $60 million, or $100 million portfolio depending on the different markets you are in. Unless you are a member of Congress, you are not going to create that wealth in the stock market.
Unless you have got some insider knowledge there. I do like the liquidity of the stock market, so I do invest in that long-term. I think about that. The leverage piece in real estate is what sets it apart. If you are going to buy places in cash, you might as well go into the stock market because your return is going to be lower than what you get in the S&P 500. That is one thing, but I do try to keep the liquidity there.
I am investing in the stock market because who knows if I need that cash on hand. If something comes up, I would like to have the access to it because real estate is notoriously illiquid, which helps me out. There are times when I would have sold at the “top.” I would have panic sold or done all these stupid things that I can do in liquid markets like Bitcoin and stocks where you can click a button and get rid of millions of dollars of assets. You can’t do the same thing in real estate, so I like that. It keeps me grounded. It keeps me cashflowing and not worrying too much about the ups and downs.
Diversification is key. As you mentioned, you want to be a part of everything. It depends on when you enter that market. Now, as the stock market is down and continues to decline, which is the same thing with Bitcoin, these are the times you want to start accumulating rather than 2001 when everything is at its highest point ever. That’s when everyone is FOMOing into the market. It’s very basic. Math is a basic cycle. Emotions get the best of us and, as you mentioned, Charlie Munger and Mr. Buffett hate Bitcoin. They call it rat poison, but they are incredibly smart at what they have done. It’s a new paradigm that they haven’t gotten into with Bitcoin and stuff. Diversification is the best way.
What’s funny about Charlie Munger is we are asking him about the future of money. He’s probably not even buying green bananas at this point because he is at the point of his life where he is ready to go. That guy has no Fs to be given. He cracks me up. He’s not going to understand it, and I get it too. He’s not going to want to completely deny the system that has been around since he experienced that. He is not the guy to ask with that, but that’s what’s cool. I always try to learn from everybody regardless.
My coach spent ten years in prison, and he is a very flawed individual. You see it in his character, but he has also helped me so much with my content and building my own fitness business and stuff like that. I can learn from people who do have these different flaws and try to take the good and leave the bad. That’s a beautiful thing about going back to our original point of not judging others. You are able to take the good from so many different people. Whereas if you have a very judgmental side of us, we are not going to be able to learn the good from other people because we disagree with 1 or 2 things they say. It’s a benefit of living in that mindset that you had talked about of seeing the best in others.
Spiritual And Financial Success: That’s a beautiful thing about going back to our original point of not judging others. You are able to take the good from so many different people.
You can learn from every single person whom you interact with. It could be a billionaire or somebody on the street. Everybody has some knowledge to share. One thing I love about you is that now that you have worked your way up to an accumulation of knowledge implemented in your real life, and have success on many levels, now you are starting to share it with other people. Can you tell us a little bit about how you work with some of your clients?
I do personal one-on-one coaching. It integrates with diet, fitness, routine, and mindset habits. I would say that a lot of my clientele are younger men who are struggling with depression. They are struggling with a vision for their life. They are floating. They are overstimulated. Their dopamines were killed. They don’t know what they are here for. They don’t feel good about where they are at. They are out of shape and all these different things.
What I’m able to do is we are able to work together on a one-on-one basis and formulate a life vision. We are able to sit down and say, “Let’s talk about where you want to go. What is in your heart to do?” We work on removing the limitations of that life vision. A lot of that requires discipline and consistency, and that’s the accountability piece that I’m there with as well.
I work with females as well, but the main demographic that I have been working with is younger men because I can relate to that. I have been there. I have been lost in those states. I have been in places where you don’t know what is next. You don’t know why you are here. You don’t know what a good and bad decision is.
To come in there and say, “Here’s your goal, and here are the habits and rituals that will get you to that goal. When you fall off, here’s me to help you remind you about your goal,” it’s a nice and congruent relationship there. What’s cool, too, is I end up learning so much from my clients as well. It is a two-way street.
When I’m able to coach somebody, I’m coaching myself and helping myself on my journey because I’m reiterating these ideas that they are simple and true. Truth is always going to be the simplest thing. It’s not hidden from us. It’s not somewhere off in the mountain somewhere. The deity here put truth right in front of our faces. He’s not trying to hide it from us. We are not victims here where we have to climb Everest to find the truth. It’s right in front of our faces, and he did that on purpose.
Truth is always going to be the simplest thing. It’s not hidden from us. It’s not somewhere off in the mountains somewhere.
The truth is simple, but when I’m reiterating those truths to these people, I’m reiterating to myself, and it keeps me on track. It’s a very nice and congruent relationship there. I have never been happier in my life because I can give back now. There’s money involved, but at the end of the day, I’m doing this because it is in my heart to do. I love doing this stuff.
I spent about a decade at the Denver jail mentoring guys for literally free, and that was one of the most profound experiences I had in that world. This is doing it on another level with people who aren’t in jail, people who do have more opportunities, and people who can create the life that they want. That’s what we do. We help them create the body, life, mindset, and relationships they want. We help them in every single area so they can become the best versions of themselves as well.
You and I grew up in a different time. It was a different world when we grew up. Nowadays, there’s so much confusion as to what being a man should be. Everybody can define it in a different way, but the traditional role of a man is shifted, at least from a cultural perspective. Nowadays, when young guys can look at guys that are successful, most importantly, happy, fulfilled, and living on purpose, those are the people that they can start emulating and learning from in creating a better world rather than listening to what society wants, which is the complete degradation of societal norms.
It’s craziness all around, whichever way you want to look at it. The fact that you are doing this you don’t have to do it, but you do it because it fulfills you. You are looking at it as planting the seeds of a better future for humanity. Thank you for doing that, and I’m sure your clients are getting so much benefit from it and creating freedom in their lives financially and with happiness as well.
It is amazing talking to you and seeing your vision for this life that you have, not only creating more happiness and fulfillment in your own life but helping other people. That’s what it comes down to. Where I get most of my fulfillment is when I make an impact on other people’s lives if it’s a short conversation or if it’s working with somebody long-term. It’s always fulfilling to see the growth in other people because if you are only excelling in yourself and seeing everybody else being left behind, it’s not very fun. You want to be celebrating successes with everybody else.
One of the things that you talked about is the people you surround yourself with to find people that are achieving the things that you want to achieve and learn from them. Even if you are at the bottom of the rung there, you are looking down, and there are people underneath you in terms of where you are or where they want to be. It’s always like this self-fulfilling or this circle of knowledge where you are sharing with other people. You are learning from other people, and it’s flowing in abundance because this world is limitless.
That’s so true. It is hard to get around people who are at a higher level. Our egos don’t like that. This is where spirituality comes in where when you have had ego destruction and you realize that at the end of the day, love is all that matters, it’s easier to put yourself around people who are at a much higher level than you because you are not going to feel as bad.
That’s why our success is, a lot of times, dependent on us being able to overcome that and us being able to have a spiritual perspective because we are going to be willing to get around people. I’m meeting with a coach, and this guy is doing 100X what I’m doing. When I first see that, it makes me feel bad. I’m like, “Why do I suck so badly?” In reality, I have got to let that go. I’m going to move on. I’m going to learn as much as I can from him.
What’s cool about that is that it will push me to a new level. Whereas if I had an ego and I was in this space of like, “Screw him,” and I’m trying to look down on him, I would never be able to grow. That angel said, “The meek shall inherit the earth,” and that’s what I truly believe it means. Be humble enough to learn from people at a higher level than you. If you are humble enough to do that, you are going to end up inheriting the earth in a metaphoric sense.
Also, going back to the original point, we are talking about everyone as a mirror. That person that you are looking up to and thinking, “This person’s so much better than me,” is the same as you. He’s showing you the path that this is the way to get there. Especially if you are working with a coach, they are going to give you the steps in order for you because there’s nothing new under the sun. They learn it from somewhere.
That’s very rare that somebody all of sudden wakes up and is successful without learning the steps it takes to get there. It’s appreciating where you are in life, and what it comes down to is having self-love, knowing that you are capable of anything and that you can go in any direction that you want to. It’s being patient with yourself.
Also, take action and be in the right mindset, right feeling, and right heart space. Once you start putting all those things together, then you start seeing the magic unfold in your life. I can see it in your life. I feel it in my own life that what I have now is journaling about it. I’m looking around my view, the place where I live, and the people that I have in my life. All the things that I wanted a few years ago, I was like, “I wish I could have this and this.”
It’s like, “It’s here. Now, what are the next five years going to look like, and what is stopping me? It’s only in the limitation of my mind.” When I can start expanding that, then I can start expanding the reality of what I can create. Your dreams and visions are only as big as what you can essentially think of and feel and you are worthy of it.
You saying that reminds me of myself to do the same thing to sit back and be grateful for where you have come from because it does improve your faith. When you look at your life and go, “God, I wanted this,” a few years ago, and I thought this was fallible. Now I’m here, what else can I do? What else can I create? When you have a little wind like that and these little winds start compounding, you start realizing how much power we have as creators here and how much our intention and our vision matter to us.
Now that we know where you are and where you came from, what is your vision for life going forward?
It’s multifaceted. It’s in every area. Real estate is what I would like to be 10X what I have got now. Net worth, relationships, and my coaching business are the same thing. Everything I’m doing right now I love, but I would like to do more of it. I would like to help more people. I have got my vision board on my phone, which got all of the different lists of specific things that I’m trying to create. In my life, one of the big things is to help a million people in a deeply profound spiritual way.
That is one of the things I truly believe in my heart that I’m here for a purpose to do that and to help myself in the process. There is nothing more consciously congruent we can do than heal ourselves and try to heal other people. That is the ultimate bliss of life. Everybody’s looking for fulfillment and a way to be happy in this world, and that’s it. Heal yourself and heal other people. If you do that, you are going to live the most badass life regardless of your external circumstances. For me, that’s where my head is at in trying to create that.
Spiritual And Financial Success: There is nothing more consciously congruent we can do than heal ourselves and try to heal other people. That is the ultimate bliss of life. Everybody’s looking for fulfillment and a way to be happy in this world, and that’s it.
The big thing I work with people is getting them that vision because the way our minds work is we need something to do. It needs something to think. Our minds are going to be working regardless. That’s why when we sleep, we still dream. Our mind is “turned off.” Very few people get to the stage of pure silence. Unless you are a highly elevated guru, rarely do we get to that place of silence.
What I realize is I need something for my mind to focus on because if I don’t, I’m going to start thinking about my fear. I’m going to start thinking about the negative things that could happen in my life. What could go wrong? What could take away all these different things? If I’m starting to think about that realm, guess what? I’m going to start feeling that, and I’m going to start feeling bad.
Whereas if I’m thinking about what’s next and what I want, this was great. I’m grateful for it. What can I create in the future? What more badass experiences can I have? What more people can I touch? I then start to think about those things as opposed to going into a worry or lack state. That’s one of the reasons when I work with guys who are depressed or who are having anxiety in those types of things, we work on getting a detailed vision for their life in order for them to start to think in that way and start to think productively rather than thinking in a negative light. That’s super important for me, and it’s one of the things that I truly believe in. It’s formulating that vision so then you can move forward in a positive direction.
Thank you so much. This is a perfect way to conclude the conversation. We scratched the surface, so we are going to have to do this multiple times, and maybe next time we do it with Brant. I know there’s some magic going on there in the conversation we had last time. I want to thank you so much for coming on. I believe that anyone reading this show is going to be so inspired to see the journey of your life and, hopefully, you can help them out if they reach out to you.
I appreciate you and all the stuff you are doing. It’s cool to meet people like yourself because people like yourself are very rare in the world. I’m honored to be around you.
Thank you so much. God bless.
You as well. Thank you, brother.
Important Links
Joe Legolvan – Instagram
Brant Falliaux – Previous Episode
About Joe Legolvan
Joe Legolvan is the owner of four businesses, a father, a husband and mindset and life transformation coach specializing in depression recovery, body transformation, and goal fulfillment. He is a licensed CMT PTA CPT and member for Wes Watson elite business coaching program. He is the Co-Author of 5 star rated book “The Story Teller: An orphans journey to enlightenment and freedom”
Joe spent a decade as a spiritual counselor in a Denver Jail, and was able to share a deep message of overcoming challenges , while at the same time creating a healthy and happy life for his family and several successful businesses.
