From Life Support and Job Loss to Starting Businesses from a Wheel Chair with Self-Storage Expert AJ Osborne

Speaker 1

00:00

 Wow, I just had the opportunity to talk to AJ Osborne and listen to his story about adversity. Some very, very challenging adversity that he's been through. AJ's in the Self Storage industry, and he has multiple other ancillary businesses and into technology. And it's got a bunch of things going on. They have a lot under management and think he has 80 employees. He's 38 years old. It's a, yeah, he's, he's a type, A go get her, for sure. However, he went through over the last five years, this had some very serious health challenges, and we get into that. And we talked about the impact on relationships, and how he started to company from his wheelchair, which is just incredible. You know if you're ever having a bad day, Just listen to this, you know if he can get through this and still Thrive, you know, I don't know what problems I have. So that's the way I look at this. It's just incredible, you know, very, very challenging times, you know, in the hospital that he went through and certainly affected his family life and everything else. And but one of the interesting things he says, is that he's happier now than he's ever been, even though he's in danger Daily physical pain. So it's really all about your perspective and what you do once you get through that pain and what how you handle the pain and how you handle the adversity, which is what this podcast is all about, a.j. Is a phenomenal guest. And his story is perfect for our show and I know you're going to love it. Inspiring stories of.

Speaker 2

01:55

 Real people overcoming incredible odds to live life to the.

Speaker 1

01:59

 Fullest.

Speaker 2

02:00

 We are all guaranteed to face. Hardships, how will we handle the adversity? Join us to be moved by every day, people who have turned poverty into prosperity and weakness into wealth Be Inspired as these relatable Heroes, get vulnerable and former counterintelligence investigator Jamie Bateman puts his interviewing skills to the test, restore your.

Speaker 1

02:22

 Faith in humanity as you experience. True Cinderella stories of average people.

Speaker 2

02:26

 Turning surreal struggle and deep despair into.

Speaker 1

02:29

 Booming business. Has and financial Fortune. Take ownership of the life, you are destined to live and.

Speaker 2

02:35

 Turn your adversity into abundance.

Speaker 1

02:43

 Welcome everybody. To another episode of from adversity, to abundance podcast. I am your host Jamie Bateman, and I am very excited today. We have a special guest on with us AJ, Osborne AJ, how are you doing today?

Speaker 2

02:57

 I am doing awesome, man. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1

02:59

 Absolutely. AJ runs Cedar, Cedar Creek, wealth, excuse me, and self-storage income, among other couple podcasts and a bunch of other things. So we just mentioned to you before we hit record how I kind of follow you on Twitter. And I listen to a recent podcast that you were on, and I was so inspired by your story that I am just, I was like, I got to reach out to that guy. So I really do thank you for coming on. I know you're very busy. Busy. So for our audience who is a little bit less familiar with you, can you let us know? Kind of who you are and what you're up to today. Yeah, 100%. So.

Speaker 2

03:41

 I my main business and what most people know me from is a self-storage. So I wrote the best-selling book in the industry as well as have the largest podcast in the industry where I talked all about self storage, have been in the space since 2004. I have owned several other businesses. I have started up several companies, I have got started in insurance, but we own operate manage over 2 million net, rentable square feet across 10 states. We are fully integrated, everything we own the, the tech stack within our company, Property Management Systems, which the tech companies based in California, I am based out of Idaho, but I also found member of the largest co-op in Self Storage. We have, can't remember how many facilities or even under us now. And in the coop, we were Pioneers in space, like automation where we connected physical assets to software, installing ability to do true. What we would call true automation, qos technology, and we're pioneering the software space to try to really revolutionize Is that industry and take it away through our technology companies. So I have been in a space for a long time. It's, you know, it's kind of my thing. I love it. It's amazing. It mans. Has it changed?

Speaker 1

05:19

 Well, we were talking a little bit about that before we get recorders. You know, I sell storage is a very popular space to be in now and for good reason, of course, And this is certainly not a knock on any cell storage investors. At least for me you can knock on with you want but you know it seems like in the last 45 years. I don't know how many operators have popped up, and I am sure there's still room for growth. You can speak to that much better than I can, but the fact that you have been in this space is just, it really says something about your, you know, I think you're going to bring a unique element to this episode where, as somebody Who just started in self storage or just bought one facility. Last week may not be able to speak to kind of economic changes market conditions and different states. You mentioned, 10 states so the fact that you have that vast experience is awesome and oh, you don't just do Self Storage. You mentioned all the ancillary businesses and everything else. So yeah, anything else you want to mention on the kind of current context before we get into your backstory?

Speaker 2

06:28

 No, I mean, I, you know, done online businesses benefits consulting firms started. That's kind of work on MySpace and started more, and it, you know, it is an interesting landscape and I think you're right in self storage and I don't knock on anybody that's in the space because you got to start sometime. But you're, you're right, most people in self-storage that anybody even knows about they have only been around in the last five years and it's been the best. The Best five years in the storage industry's history by far like is crazy covid, really helped. And I think that has really shaped like that contents, like you even feel right, you hear it, you feel it around storage where it's palpable and it's a shiny object and it seems like all these people are just big, it's so much money and you know it makes for a very interesting environment that never existed before and I think it you're right. It lacks a lot of On text and it, no matter what business, I have started investing in or anything, I try to be level-headed. I try not to be a cheerleader, which is funny because I am the largest podcast and artists selling book in the space. But yeah. Like, I not to be, I tried to say no. Listen, the idea here is that we're gaining Financial Independence, and freedom, and that some storage is a vehicle, but it is just this isn't rolling, the dice. This isn't a sin and Self Storage has changed. A lot of people aren't aware of it, which makes them I think really unaware of the risks but also unaware of their ability to take advantage of the industry. And I think that's a social thing that happens within economics, right? We get hyped up your people, get feverish, and they started. It's just like, you feel like you can't win or you can't lose and then goes the other way where people like this assets over and it's done. And either one of those extremes are true at all.

Speaker 1

08:23

 Right, right. Yeah. Absolutely. No. I would like to get your thoughts later on. We're, we're Essentially headed know what? No one knows for sure. But, you know that's, yeah, it's definitely one of those in the last, you know, I guess I will say, six, seven years ago, when I was really kind of looking at different asset classes outside of single-family homes and it was self-storage mobile home parks. And you know, maybe Senior Living seem to be kind of like the three other than just the blanket multifamily. Everyone seems to be on to but so yeah I would like to get to that later. But for now let us dive into your backstory. Of course, we don't have time to cover every detail of your life, but I was absolutely moved. Like I said, when I, when I heard you on another show regarding specifically your health challenges that you have faced and I know you have been very open about this stuff on Twitter and different. I think different websites and things, so I appreciate that. I think it's Helpful for our listeners when the guest is willing to be vulnerable. I mean and just relatable and human. And you know, this is not an episode to get into how to do self storage or what's coming. You know, this isn't a financial. We're not giving investment advice or anything like that. This is more focused on. Look we're all human we all face challenges and but that doesn't have to stop you. So Yeah, you can pick it up where you'd like to as far as the health challenges and again people can if they really want to dive into it to it, there are other resources out there. But yeah where would you say where do you want to start with that?

Speaker 2

10:13

 Yeah, so honestly this is probably what I have become most known for very unique circumstances and I don't I try Not to hold anything back and try. Try to talk openly about it. And I think that it's good to, I wish more people would because I think that we see people on top and you say, you're winning the game right now and that makes the it's because you're either perfect, or do you have everything going as it, maybe I am wrong least, that's what I did. So you know what I mean? It was like you're killing it and if you know, like must be nice, must be nice. If I had that ability or I had that right? Which, you know, I kind of gotten some of a lot of that too. And the reality is that there's like that I know of and never seen a path that isn't without major adversity and sometimes it takes Major life-changing adversity to make life-changing moves. And unfortunately, that's, you know, a lot of times, that's not in the way you want to do. It definitely wasn't human. Yeah, it was definitely unexpected. They short story real quick and then I can kind of go into it more but almost overnight perfectly healthy 33. I am thought of 3338 now, and I was Backpacker fly fishermen, working full-time, for a brokerage firm has health insurance brokerage company, we manage health benefit dollars, as I was building my real-estate Empire and I just had her fourth child. Heightened, my wife did, but we didn't, but we just had our fourth child. He was three months, and we're Around traveling and I became basically a quadriplegic overnight. I wasn't due to an accident, we didn't know what was going on. So for the first couple of days, I had gotten into the bathtub because my legs were killing me. I was in a lot of pain and I went to get out, wife's put kids to bed or anything like that. Went to get out and I couldn't move my legs. My legs stopped working. We she had somebody else. Grab the kids, take care of the kids. She rushed me to the hospital. Spittle, and within days, I didn't ever really say goodbye to the kids or anything. And the thin days I was being put into a coma and when I woke out of the coma, I was on complete life support. So I couldn't do anything talk nothing, and I was hooked tubes that were keeping me alive and I laid there for over two months then I finally Ali got off the tubes after that, meaning I could breathe on my own and then I started to learn how to do everything again. Use my hands walk. I mean, walk came way later, but occupational therapy, eat drink everything. Wow. And that I was fired in the hospital, so no fire doors. They let go because there was no expiration date. I was not leaving the hospital. Nobody knew when we had a two-month period of time that we didn't know. If I ever would leave, if we were just going to flip the switch and end it because I wasn't moving, there was nothing. Nothing was happening for me. And the whole time during this, I was in incredible amounts of pain. My nervous system had been completely shredded apart and destroyed. So according My brain, every piece of my body had been ripped to shreds, so I didn't sleep for weeks. The only way I slept as I would pass out, so my body would just shut down and then I would sleep for a little bit and then wake right back up to 10, searing pain that they couldn't stop. They, no matter how many meds they gave fact my wife at once. Just like you have to give him more meds and Like if we give him anymore, we're going to kill them. They're like if we gave you what he was on right now you would die within like a minute, he would just get kill you and so they're just like we can't, there's nothing more. We can do. They couldn't stop it. And, so I would lose my job as paralyzed now. 33 for kids, she said an infant when I didn't get to see my kids for a long time because we didn't they didn't know what to do. They were like, I we don't know what to tell the kids, right? It's like, what do we do? Like that. So I was like, Dad sick, we don't have answers.

Speaker 1

15:24

  so they didn't know what, what your condition was or at all. So they.

Speaker 2

15:27

 Figured it out after a few days, but they didn't have an outcome. So, there was no way to fix it. Right? There's nothing they could do. So it was like, we're gonna put him on tubes and keep him alive and if his body can come back, it can come back. But there's no, no one knows. So it was one of those parents where you, like, what do you bring the kids in and Dad's going to be okay or not when you don't know? So we waited for a month and then finally it was like a you just have to bring them in and you have to show you have to tell them and you have to try to work that with the kids that this is Dad now. And you know, we are going to figure this out, we think he's going to get better. We hope he will get better ride. But, so I want a month without seeing my children, except for my baby. Who would lie next to me because I could move my lips. Oops, right. So I could play with him, moving my lips and giving him a little kisses and things like that. So they just lay them on the pillow and that was the highlight of everything. I don't know what I would have done without that kid. Like I mean just he every Advertiser just looking wait in the hospital for that kid to come in. He was the only little bit of joy I had, but from there, my brother actually moved from Hawaii moved in basically to hospital. Stay with me every single night because I am suffering from something that was called ICU delirium. Which would give me mass hallucination hallucinations. There were no windows I would lose my senses. So my mind would struggle to find grips with reality of where I was. Because like, I didn't know like you're lying in a bed completely paralyzed. So all the senses that you have are gone. So the brain starts to struggle and because you're in a room for so long.

Speaker 1

17:14

 Yeah. You have no context of where, like relationships, you know where things are, where, where the parking lot is or whatever.

Speaker 2

17:20

 Else. I mean, No, I didn't know when it was time lost. All, meaning I thought I would been there for years, and so they'd stay with me by my side and my brother, when we, when I move into more of that delusional statement hysteria, he would be there to try to bring me back and try to, you know, get me back on. And so, we did that for a while. And then from there, I got was in a rehab facility, and they were working with me to learn how to get on and off my wheelchair and how to I to make it, so I could function not being in the hospital and after that they sent me home paralyzed and that was it. There was nothing else, it was gone home. Here're the meds to try to make the pain, not be as bad, but nothing else to do.

Speaker 1

18:11

 I just there. So it's just I don't even, this is there so many ways. We could go with this so many questions, I just obviously can't fully relate, but and so this was only E 5 years ago, Zoe said.

Speaker 2

18:23

 Yeah, this was five years ago and still partially paralyzed in my lower legs. I still have 24/7 pain, and of my lower legs. Don't function correctly. I can't run. I can't, you know, do things like that. They don't, they don't quite work like that. But, you know, I am walking, which was more than we expected. So we could not be happier obviously, with where I am at. Sitting here and talking to you. I can hold my kids. I can, you know, get in the pool with them and I all deal with all the other problems because they're just my new compared to where we were.

Speaker 1

19:03

 So in the context, so you had a full-time job but you also had, you obviously had been in self storage and many other things just from an investment standpoint. What else did you have or small business standpoint? What else did you have going on at that time?

Speaker 2

19:18

 So after the time that what it was My self storage company and my job and that was it. After I lost my job, I expanded my self-storage Empire and I started a couple of businesses out of my wheelchair.

Speaker 1

19:34

 And those were self-storage.

Speaker 2

19:36

 Related Alice. One of them was an online company. Another one was a benefits brokerage company and then not another one was a private Equity company. So three.

Speaker 1

19:50

 So wow. Now do you want to say what the what your condition is or what caused it?

Speaker 2

19:57

 Yeah so it's G hombre. So G Hombres, a white blood cell problem. So normally Guillain-Barre is much more mild, I think then I was the worst of the worst case scenario. You can have liar.

Speaker 1

20:17

 Case you have moms out liar.

Speaker 2

20:19

 And On. So I, you know, I told my wife, I Everything. I Do. I Do big. So you shouldn't have. You shouldn't have been? Why are you surprised? Of course, I am lying. I am gonna do it. I am gonna do it. Like.

Speaker 1

20:32

 So that's, that's.

Speaker 2

20:33

 Hilarious. That's right. So, I gotta.

Speaker 1

20:35

 Find some humor in it. That's.

Speaker 2

20:37

 Awesome. Exactly.

Speaker 1

20:39

 Okay. So and that was, I know you.

Speaker 2

20:42

 It's not something that you catch or anything else like that, everybody has it, it's because it's not anything. So it's got a weird even trying to Explain it because it's not like its something it's not like a disease that you have, it's not a problem. When what happens is you have a trigger and something happens within the body, those white blood cells, get massively confused, and they think that this outlier that came in is they get it. Confused with your central nervous system. So then your body produces white blood cells at extreme amounts, like Justin mass and mass amounts of white blood cells and then the white blood cells, Your nervous system to bits and sever your brain from your body.

Speaker 1

21:25

 And I know because you went into a lot more detail in the focus was the tribe of millionaires podcast, a couple months ago that came out probably will be, you know, four or five months ago once this airs. So people want to listen to that show. I mean, you go into a lot of detail about what caused the condition, which was vaccine-related, right? Not covid, vaccine and Utah. I remember you talked about You know, the whole controversy with covid vaccines and all that and so, but it sounds like this was most likely caused by a whole bunch of vaccines that were given to you pre before the international trip, right? I.

Speaker 2

22:04

 Was headed to Brazil. And that's the number eight. That number one trigger is the flu vaccine and the covid vaccine. Mine wasn't either one of those. So this was prior to covid and it wasn't the flu vaccine. It was actually the MMR. So I don't know how many people just shut down. Shut off your podcast. So I saw sorry for some reason I became very controversial in the lab. Yeah, there're two years, and I am like I didn't do it. I am sorry. But and so it's a you know interesting effect on that has on people when they.

Speaker 1

22:42

 Bought a little versus speaking about what happened to you in the facts.

Speaker 2

22:45

 And nothing is and I do I know you. Fishing. And, so I just had to get updated on my mmr's and I used to live in Brazil, so I would already had it, and I didn't have anything happen. So, I would already been fully back semi-authoritarian eyes, dmr's, and everything else. It was my 10-year time, I had to get a redone and it was at that time, I had received that and then that's what happens. That's actually how they diagnose. That's how they figured out, what, what was going.

Speaker 1

23:16

 On? That's just wild. I mean it's just I mean, you know It probably means nothing, but I am very sorry that you had to deal with all this you know. And again you know this is how I remember you saying you're not anti vaccine and covid vaccine or anything like that. So this is not meant to be a controversial take. It's just this is I mean I think just having more information reality and so now.

Speaker 2

23:44

 It's you know when you got it goes back to what I was even talking about. So storage and everything, people are too extreme. I am afraid to like it's you gotta understand. We have gray areas and I would suggest everybody don't be so harsh on these subjects and understand those area. The end of the day, there's right around. Roughly 3% of everyone. That takes a vaccine. They're going to be in trouble. They're going to die. They're going to end up like me. They're going to have issues, that's not controversial. That's right. Right? We accept that as Society, like I tell people, I am happy to have what happened to me, so my kids don't have polio. I am fine job. I am okay to take that for society, but it's ridiculous that people don't accept the people that take that fall. They are true. I mean, we accept, and I accept a lot of things. I accept things, like, guns. I accept things like sure. We have risks in this world that I accept, and I am one of them and you should Eli's that and instead of like being upset by it or anything else like that, we should be grateful for people that have to go through those challenges. So that we can then covid vaccine is not perfectly safe. Am I grateful that? My dad isn't going to die of code because he got shot. Yes. Did I give it to my? Kids know, there's gray area. People, we need to be accepting of that. And I think that's part of adversity. Like, when you go through adversity, when you're doing it, people should be open to understanding. That adversity that you went through that, they didn't go through. So we can have understanding that we can pull things from it that are tangible that are real. That we can utilize in our life. I am not talking about back saying, I am talking about all adversities and to be staunch about certain things is not an educated or an intelligent way to go about.

Speaker 1

25:40

 Life. No, absolutely. I have definitely learned that more and more. As I have gotten older myself, just there's a lot of gray in the world. It's great to have principles and, and the things you can rely on you. That's, that's, you know, we need that standards, but not everything is black and white. So when you, let us get to your, of course it was. I mean, you know, we have people on the show who kind of maybe created their own adversity through some bad choices and it maybe it took a long time times.

Speaker 2

26:12

2. Yeah.

Speaker 1

26:15

 Mark Owens. Our first episode. He this guy was. It's a phenomenal. Episode. He was on drugs like illegal drugs, selling drugs robbing banks, I mean this was way years ago, and then he completely changed his life around turned his life around became a real estate investor and now is financially free incredible story, but he had a lot to do with you know his own adversity happening to him in this case. I mean it kind of just happened to you and you know, I am sure you have made bad choices like you just said, Said, but it's just.

Speaker 2

26:51

 This is had anything really to do with this? Yeah, and it.

Speaker 1

26:54

 Is a choice, right? And it was, it was instantaneous pretty much to it was just. And then the fact that you lost your job. Nobody even. It was.

Speaker 2

27:03

 My office. Literally. Everybody was, like, where's AJ and on Monday, and everybody and nobody could talk about her teller, say anything. And it was all the sudden, I just evaporated from the face of the earth. I was called as crazy opening happening. They're like, why can't we get a hold of a I mean, it was like, when we say flip a light switch, it was not only one day, our am I normal? I am for kids, I am a high performer. I am like, I am outdoorsy. I work out every day to evaporating from the face of the Earth, but not dead. That is.

Speaker 1

27:38

 So now, of course, there's been, you know, I am sure many different, you know, kind of aha moments or transitional periods over the last five years. But what would you say has helped you get through this? You I mentioned your youngest son spending time there and obviously your brother and your wife, you have already mentioned as well, but as far as mindset let us go there first what would you say are kind?

Speaker 2

28:01

 Of but we sure this is the clearest distinction. I was sitting in the hospital, and I was in a wheelchair and I don't like to blame other people and I don't like to Like I just in no way shape or form. Am I like I want a sued companies and how could they do this to me? And like I think first of all the number one thing is we have to even in adversity, remain very pragmatic and the idea that nothing bad should happen. To me is so egotistical, it's mind baffling so to lash out because bad things happen has nothing to do with the bad things but more to you and I mean that's Seriously and not as in a dismissive way because trust me I know things are terrific and trials and life can be horrible. What I mean by that is you shouldn't go through life with the expectation that won't happen. We are all going to die and dying is not fun. I hear that from a lot of people dying is not fun, and it's, that's just part of life, right? So, I think that, and this is really easy to set Say but it's really hard to you Andre and to give you context, just felt like when I was going through it I was happy. I was very upset at my family that they were keeping me alive. I did not understand why. They would not, let me die. It was far, worse than death, what? I was going through, and they were doing me a massive Injustice by keeping me alive, and they knew that, and they knew we were rolling as we're only going to torture him for so long. And then we're going to pull the plug and let him die. And so it was not Something that is like, oh yeah, I got better energy. Oh no, no, no. I begged screamed in my head and prayed every day to die. And so when you go through things like this, first of all, there are things that are so much farther worse than death divorce bankruptcy, many of the things that we face today and I became a little less like I became way sympathetic on one side but I became a lot less sympathetic. Talk to a lot of the struggles that I use are quotation that we go through right now. We are in the greatest country that has designs like it now so spoiled right? All of us. Absolutely. I am so spoiled and it's in and that's okay as long as we recognize it. And, so I think we have to go about a mindset of mental toughness. That is not saying it's not there, I bawled, you know, I bawled today, I get exhausted, I fall down even today, I just The end up in tears, mental toughness, isn't that? You're not showing emotions, not that you're crying, right? But I still keep up getting up and going and that you don't become a horrible human being because adversity turns you into it. Now, this is really tough and this is not easy. And this is not something, but it is part of life. And I see so many people that we go through life, and we have things that I would, you know, today I would never even call adversity, and they become horrible human beings. It's due to what are very mild things that even though I understand when they're going through it, it's horrific just like what I went through. It was horrific. We mentioned this before like right trauma and problems like our brain can't segment, like I your people, and they're like, oh yeah, I broke both of my legs once that I was in a wheelchair for three months, but it's I don't want to talk about because it's nothing like you, and I am like it's exactly a massive adversity. You were in pain, right? It's like into to me. Honestly, I think probably if I got A divorce. That would be harder than what I went through. Is our brain has a really hard time distinguishing when it hurts when it's a problem. It feels like it's the end of the world, right? Every time. It doesn't matter if it's small or big, it's true.

Speaker 1

32:00

 So you were so two months in a wheelchair. You said, or, or 22 months when you were in the bed on tubes, and then how long in a wheelchair.

Speaker 2

32:14

 Over the next three years, I was in and out of a wheelchair leg, braces and arm crutches to move, and to walk.

Speaker 1

32:23

 And again, this is not meant to bring back pain as just to get more context.

Speaker 2

32:29

 I am okay digging into the pain. I mean you got to understand I lay down in bed. What's the tubes doing? Nothing, they would roll me on my side to bathe me for months, like, I have no Pride anymore on that. It's just like, it is what it is. And I, you know, I think we should lean into it. We should talk about pain, and we should talk about the reality of Life instead of hiding away from it and too often we want to be dismissive of these things, and we.

Speaker 1

32:57

 Should. So, how did you get from? You know, that one, I mean, wanting to die, to deciding you wanted to create two businesses, you know, from your wheelchair. I mean, there's obviously yeah, well, talk us through that.

Speaker 2

33:10

 Progression. The hospital. Well, I knew I was going to leave. I was in rehab, and I was sitting in my wheelchair, looking outside up the window, I was very happy to be in rehab in a wheelchair at this point, because that meant I for your like, it is hard to its hard for someone to understand what have wheelchair means to somebody that can't walk the freedom to be able to go to use. The bathroom is incredible. Yeah. And you know, I was like it's a, we got involved at a charity where we took tape wheelchairs to people in third world countries that don't have it because it was just like holy cow. That's wheelchair was amazing.

Speaker 1

33:52

 So I can relate to that on some level and I mentioned to you before we hit record and I bring this up way too much. Much but ruptured, my Achilles Last year, not the end of the world, right? But man you have no, well, you do but many people, I had no idea how much I would care for my knee scooter or appreciate my new scooter and I joke with my wife, you know, closer to that thing than it was with her. But anyway, I mean so much freedom and the facts show and then I got a basket on the front, and I am not then I could actually use my hands. I didn't have to carry things with my hands. I could Put things in the basket, incredible.

Speaker 2

34:30

 Amazing. And it's weird to talk about and think about this, but yeah, when you're in these situations and for me, the littlest things became so amazing to me, I mean, the first time I drank water like we have videos, one of the first time that I eat, and I am there helping me. Put this watermelon up to my mouth as I am trying to learn. You know how to eat to get and I can take a bite and I eat and I don't cook a duck and everybody, cheers the whole room. Ring, and I am looking around, like, I am a three-year-old that, you know what I mean? And it was, yeah, I am proud of it. I sermon, you know, and it's so dumb and so little, but that's.

Speaker 1

35:09

 Awesome.

Speaker 2

35:12

 When I was in my wheelchair, and I am looking outside, I think what really happened was I was trying to be very conscientious. These things were talking about, I tried to lean into it, not avoid. I didn't want to sit and I didn't want to Stu and I said, you have got to think this through AJ because your We all know you're screwed up right now. Like, there's no way you want to be there, we're screwed up, and I was in, you know, they I handled it, I think very well, and they were very concerned with, because people after my position, suicide rate, death rate, physical harm to others, is extraordinary high. So you have to go through a lot of before, they will release you of these counseling therapy stuff. Beep. So they didn't really show on your own, and I was going through that and I think it was probably the day that they were doing that in the first question, they asked me was, do you want to kill your wife? And I looked up, and I was like, excuse me, and she looked at me, and she said, do you want to kill your wife? And I was like, oh my gosh. No. Like, are you kidding me? She's like, my savior over here. Right, I wear obviously, wanted the room. Then the next question was, do you want to kill Children? And it was so extreme and it was so shocking to me. But what was more extreme and shocking was how 100% serious she was and how concerned she was about it. And after she left and after I would gone through these questions and this was one of many to come. I am looking out the window of my wheelchair, and I am like a j. This is, you're going to become this person. You were either going to become AJ in the wheelchair or you're going to become AJ, something else. And I don't mean AJ in the wheelchair. Whereas in you can't walk. I was fine. Not walking, I was fine, staying in my wheelchair. I meant that I identified is that this became me and it ruined me to the core and it was right there. I go. You have two choices. That's it. This is so extreme. There's only two ways to look at this. You are going to become that guy. You are going to not be able to hold a job. You're going to be addicted to drugs, you're going to be sitting in a wheelchair and you're going to lose your family and your kids because you can't deal with this. You can't move forward. Or you're going to become somebody else. And it's not who you were before. Yes. On whom you are now. You don't know who it is, but you will become. And those are the only two options that you have. And I just said right there, I won't become that guy. And then everything revolved around this future AJ and who he was and how he lived and how he treated his kids. And you know what he did for us? Others. And I think that set me on a path of such incredible gratitude and almost obsessive compulsiveness about being someone. But that person bent, I went on overdrive and I started starting companies and I started, you know, nonprofits and I work harder than I had the biggest excuse in the world that I work. And I work harder than my employees are. Just like, it's crazy. Nobody can keep up with you, okay? And her life. I understand it. You have a bag full of meds that you literally carry around with you and you can hardly walk, and we can't even keep up. And I am like, it's lonely. You were at where I was. You wouldn't know why. So, it's a choice though and I think we can make it. And that's why to I think that what happened to me was for the better. I wouldn't take it away. I am a better person because of it because I learned how to make that choice and that Fades away. So, like, it's Even now five years later, it's really hard. Like I am building a house, and I am getting frustrated. I am getting rid upset over things that don't matter, and I sit back, and I am like, you're going back to that guy. Somebody that you have left behind. This doesn't matter, right? And it's something that I have to continually, and this is why I get think I love talking about it. Because, like, it's reminding me right now. AJ. It's like you better be more be better. Remember how it was?

Speaker 1

39:25

 Yeah, well, I am not even going to charge you for this therapy. So, thank you I appreciate how kind I am very often.

Speaker 2

39:32

 Very helpful.

Speaker 1

39:34

 So that I mean it's just like I mean we could there's so many that's just your story is incredible and that so you made that decision and then started multiple companies afterwards. Wow, I mean.

Speaker 2

39:48

 My wife started a school. I am nonprofit that teaches kids about the real world about economy finances. With talks about, we talk a lot about emotional intelligence and building confidence and changing your surroundings and the school exploded, and she's got hundreds of kids. We have a whole new campus, it's a non-profit that's awesome. What's it? What's it called its called innovate Academy. So, she started that after we got out after I got out of the hospital It was, we are tolerance for things that we have like was at an all-time low, but are complaining. Also, hit an all-time low as in. If our tolerance is nothing, and we're not doing something about it, we just need to shut up or I need to do something about it, and we shouldn't let other people do things for like shouldn't expect other people to change things that we need to be changed. And so, even Chi it changed her so much. She did. Yeah.

Speaker 1

40:44

 It's that's awesome. You guys took You know easy for me to say right? But you took ownership, you took responsibility, you became the change, you wanted to see in the world. It sounds like it's the.

Speaker 2

40:57

 And that's into. That's what I think. Like all, you can do like and that's it. That's the number one thing you got to take away from this. It's like, okay, I am a dyslexic kid that's ADHD. That is now partially paralyzed and it's like, I can't, you know, I have to deal with all this crap in my life. I for kids, I have 80 plus employees. And we have hard days. We it sucks. I don't know why we're doing what we're doing? I know I get tired to the ends and the point is you just make the choice to go do it, and it's like, you get, but you always, everybody has that choice every single person. And it's not that it's executed perfectly. Oh no, we screw up so much. We mess up so much. It's about doing it and it's, I hope that my kids feel that I Like that. You know? I hope that. Yeah, I just hope that's what people are. It's not about me. It's about that's really what I am doing. I hope I could say okay, we know that we can it's never going to be easy and I think that was maybe one of the good things about being paralyzed and always being in pain. This idea that it should be easy or even fun that evaporate for my life. I haven't woken up and over five years that was not because I was in pain, it hasn't happened. Like I so every day to me is just a Sentence of I am going to be in pain, this is going to hurt. So then all the sudden it became does it matter? No, it really doesn't because it's the same and I wish I would have learned that without becoming paralyzed. Sure. So what I mean.

Speaker 1

42:35

 Well, I will say just having done a bunch of shows. Now, bunch of episodes for, for this show, one of the common themes is that it's just, it's not about you and I don't mean You personally, but just, that's where people get to, who have been through some extreme adversity is it's about others and serving a greater purpose and being a part of something bigger than yourself. Otherwise, although it's, you know, you need to go through that phase where you're focused on the pain and you're leaning into it and you're focused on your condition at some point. What are you going to do about it and you and it's, and it's you just got to look, you know, I will say higher or at some bigger purpose. And so, I just that's been one of the themes, through the show, which has been, you know, just driven home through with each guest.

Speaker 2

43:24

 I love it and I think honestly, you know, me and my family were happier than we were before. I am, I am in pain every day, and I am happier than I was before and it's like this is a there was a study done by. Okay, I am going to say it was in the 1970s and it was it's called Mouse Utopia.

Speaker 1

43:45

 He heard of this, okay?

Speaker 2

43:47

 Some not sure. So what they did in the 1970s and you can look it up. I can't remember. The guys name is, like, said I need a burger or something like that, of course with. Okay. Like some Germany, no, it's the mice. What he does is he creates a mice Utopia, and he puts five females, five males into an area where they have, all the betting that they need. There're no Predators. They're never exposed to Predators. They.

Speaker 1

44:15

 Has John, could John Calhoun? 1960s Mouse Utopia, right? That's right and.

Speaker 2

44:20

 1960s and they give all the food that these mice could ever want, right? And so there's no adversity to these mice at all. Nothing at first, the mice flourish, they're healthy. They're having babies, they're doing a great job and long story short by the end of like it's this is over a long period of time but like once it gets into Multiples are they're killing each other. There are mice. They stop. Mating the male's Retreat, and become recluses, they get diseases their social fabric of the man is completely broken down. They start eating like the babies and it, like, any normal thing that you would ever see, it's gone, it's out the window, and they found that the moment you took away all the restraints of the heart that you actually took. A death for these guys. I mean, you actually took away problems. They went extinct Mouse. Colony went extinct without adversities, right? Only could they not deprive? They died off. And so they got 260 mice, the whole entire thing could hold it was like over 100. They never reached Peak capacity. They never reached every until they started deteriorating and it all went away. And that truth is life. If you're too comfortable, you're not going to be happy. And that's it, that's it. Such contrary things that we have in our minds. That is so hard to come to grips with because our minds are set on one thing. One thing only comfort, I am more food. I don't want to be in the sun, I need to survive, right? Like I need to stay away from danger, I need to be comfortable and in Comfort. We find, you know, peace and things like that in a moment, but if you take away and it's only comfortable, and I think that has a lot to do with what we see in society today, what's going on lately? Yeah.

Speaker 1

46:17

 And I think it goes back to what you said before about either extreme comfort, you need comfort, right? And you need.

Speaker 2

46:22

 Safety, the surviving don't want to be king and all.

Speaker 1

46:26

 Right, so, but the extreme of comfort 100% is not good either. So we're running a little short on time and I know you have, I mean 80 employees. I think you have a couple things. You probably got to get to Let us fire. I am going to fire off a few questions here, and then we will wrap it up. What would you say? What do people misunderstand about.

Speaker 2

46:51

 You? Oh, geez. Oh, man, you're a, you got two good questions. Um.

Speaker 1

47:00

 You can skip it if you want. Yeah, I am gonna have to.

Speaker 2

47:03

 Think about that one. That's, that's a great. Great.

Speaker 1

47:06

 Question. I have, let us do this. If you could have coffee with any historical figure, who would it be?

Speaker 2

47:12

 Okay. Coffee with any.

Speaker 1

47:14

 Historical figure can be a present-day, you know, person or, or past?

Speaker 2

47:19

 Yeah. So, Wow, I can think of presidents, I can think of Teddy Roosevelt. Roosevelt Abraham Lincoln obviously George Washington but then it to I can also think of more, you know, like Jesus Christ as he went through his life. What that looked like? I mean, Buddha like there is so many people that have, like, talk to, but I think it would actually probably be closer to today because I would want to understand I think Now, if I was really thinking about it, it would probably be way more to do with the founding fathers. I would want to see at the turn of the world when everything was going on and as the re-creation of new Society was happening, what the mentality? The thought process was, I would want to understand where they were coming from. I don't understand what they were thinking and how they were looking because we have just gotten so far a lot and that obviously directly affects my everyday life, everything that I do. So I feel like I could pull a lot away from that. That would help me share with others. So it would probably be some one of the founding fathers of time and things.

Speaker 1

48:32

 Like that. Absolutely, like, couldn't agree more. What is a challenge that you're facing in your business right?

Speaker 2

48:39

 Now? Hiring. I need really good people, but we don't hire for Executioner's. I am hiring for growth. So I am hiring people that can come in, and they can help me build my business to where we need to take it. So we're whatever 300-plus million dollars in assets. And we're trying to get to a billion in the next two years. And so these people that I am but I have to bring on these, aren't you know? These are people that are going to fundamentally shape our company and So these aren't hires that I have to be so particular about. And I have been I think I have been nervous about finding the right, people getting those right people in and the lack of, I think options available out there of good people to bring in that, that can do that. I think that's a pretty big thing.

Speaker 1

49:33

 It's hiring something that you your sounds like you're very involved with it. Personally, only the executive.

Speaker 2

49:39

 Gotcha. Well, the executive. So that's what I am talking about. The lower hiring is always, it's really hard during times like this, but it's not as impactful so, and I don't mean that is a degrading thing. I mean, the people at the upper level, I am hiring them for 20 years to make our company, what it will be not what its today at the lower level. It's to keep things operating as today. So that it's a totally different type of person. And that's really difficult to find right.

Speaker 1

50:04

 Now. And those people you're hiring, are going to be making decisions about hiring other people. I would presume she.

Speaker 2

50:11

 Culture of the company. They're going to shape who we are and, you know, culture isn't something you write down on a piece of paper culture is something that the people create because of who they are.

Speaker 1

50:24

 Absolutely and that's huge within a company. What would you say? So just real quickly, but we're again, running long on time short on the rest of our time. But where do you think You know, we're headed in the markets? I mean, in general.

Speaker 2

50:41

 Just next few years are going to be fun. Yeah, we're not it with. We're going to have stag stagnation, we already do. Housing markets, going to stagnate, people are going to stop moving ninety-nine percent of all. Mortgages are under today's interest rates of that over 80% of every single Mortgage. In the United States is half of today's interest rate. We are going to see major challenges with the unprecedented amount of debt and money that has been printed we have to get rid of it. Now that's coming through a harsh restructuring and period, we put on so much. It won't happen. We are just trying to figure out a path now to get it. So our economy is transitioning from an old world to a new world and the social problems within the United States that is caused at the end of these long-term debt cycles and what we're seeing. As it plays out, it hits you on all sides hits. From social, it hits economically, it's politically it's the family. So when I say it's going to be hard, I mean that more than economically because all people think like social problems, right? Or generate change, things like that. Social problems are actually more occurrences of economic things that are happening. So the reason we got rid of slaves was due to economic problems, it wasn't due to Enlightenment, right? Know people were not being doing horrible, horrific things, due to economic incentive stuff. And that's hard for us to imagine today, but it wasn't till the freedom that the Industrial Revolution brought on that. Not just in America. The whole world was really able to come off the necessary for human capital. These big transitionary times in the economy, world economies right there, difficult their heart. And so over the next year's we're moving through this transitionary period in. To something else. And we hope that we are going to do this with ease and by he's I just don't mean that it happens and Wars things like that. Right? But we are now is the first time that we have had a major foreign power invade. Another one sends the world wars and this is that transition that we're talking about, right? So it's going to be rough. We're going I am an eternal optimist acquis will prevail but because of that roughness, it's going to cause major social problems. And it's you know we see it, we feel it today. It's not going away. It's going to, it has more chances of getting worse than it does better. It's not going to get better any time soon and it's just a has to accept it. It's going to take a while we have to get rid of the money in the economy, we have to get back to a productive functioning economy, where people are actually working. We're producing, we're doing things. We're eliminating debt down. We're getting rid of this excess cash that is just been given by The governments of the world that have just crave increased demand and cratered Supply chains and it's this is a mess and it's going to take a while to get out.

Speaker 1

53:45

 Of. Are you guys doing anything in your business because of anything? You can highlight specifically.

Speaker 2

53:51

 We started restructuring Acquisitions about two years ago. We said I was big, I said there's going to be inflation then when I was transitory inflation, I am like, it's not transitory. So we started buying projects that were uniquely able to hedge against inflation. Elation and then take advantage of it and that's been extraordinarily profitable for us. So it's been, you know, it's where, and we're moving towards that so inflation. How we predict it what we're looking at? We have completely changed our Capital, allocation our projects are building what we're doing with investors over the last three years. For this we take took massive moves in 2009 and 10. After the Great Recession, we took another bunch of massive moves, right? Covid hit and financial markets were shutting down for the first three months. We went on big buying sprees and it. Now we after covid. And all the printing, we started to restructure, we're buying why we're buying it, and we're moving forward in that way. We the economy shifting were building different. We're building things that have we have never done before because how demands moving, how it's shifting that we think going to play really well during these times of unrest. First, we're betting on places that will benefit from unrest, we're seeing Mass migration in the United States. So if there's unrest there's there certain parts of the United States with the United States is A Tale of Two Cities there. It's not going to be the same, the outcome of what's going to happen in certain States versus other states will be dramatically different. So we are very particular about where we're investing where we're putting Capital where we're hiring people to. Void those locations.

Speaker 1

55:39

 Got it. Yeah. That's there's a lot to unpack there. That's, that's really good as we wrap up here, where can our listeners reach out to you? And anything else you want to plug before we sign off? Yeah, I mean, you can.

Speaker 2

55:53

 Check out the podcast. We talk about all of these things and more, we talked about how we're scaling or business Instagram. I am on there all the time. I am trying to give, you know, inside looks back up. I do get on Twitter, not as much as I should. Hey, Twitter is kind of mean world, but he can make can be yes, yes, I haven't even got it down yet. So, but.

Speaker 1

56:16

 So what's the in the names of the two?

Speaker 2

56:18

 Podcasts Osborne so, AJ Osborne podcast a jails one on Instagram and then self-storage income. So anyone that's like, I really want to learn about self storage self-storage. Income is the education company behind self storage. Which once again, it's all like free. So it's YouTube podcasts and we talked.

Speaker 1

56:37

 Only.

Speaker 2

56:37

 About self storage and we talked about everything.

Speaker 1

56:40

 Awesome and the name of your.

Speaker 2

56:41

 Book growing wealth in self-storage. The investors got to run Wilson. So storage. It's the blue one on Amazon, so.

Speaker 1

56:50

 Awesome. Awesome, thank you so much AJ. I know you got a thousand things to get to, so really appreciate it. Your story is incredible. It's the I know it's going to be inspiring for somebody out there, so I know this hour was well worth it. So thanks. Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2

57:06

 I appreciate Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1

57:07

 On and to our listeners out there. Thank you for spending your most valuable resources with us, which is your time. Thanks, everyone. Take care.

Speaker 2

57:15

 Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of the form adversity to abundance podcast. If you're enjoying the show, please feel free to rate, subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Speaker 1

57:27

 That helps others find the.

Speaker 2

57:28

 Show and we greatly appreciate it. Thanks again for listening, and we will catch you in the next episode.