Welcome to the Adaptive Mindset. I'm Brett Gallant, cybersecurity thought leader and founder of Adaptive Office Solutions. Here, we don't just talk tech, we unlock the strategies, stories, and mindset shifts you need to stay secure, lead boldly, and thrive in a digital world. Let's get started. Welcome back to the Adaptive Mindset. And I'm really excited to have Blake Elsner here with me today. And I want to tell you a little bit about Blake. He's a third generation realtor with over 200 million in real estate transactions since 2015. Blake brings a wealth of knowledge and passion to the table. With a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and administration, Blake combines analytical thinking with a deep commitment to elevating others. He's the vice president of Ellsner Real Estate, powered by Worth Clark, managing over 600 transactions ranging from 50,000 to 1 million and beyond. So Blake's expertise extends beyond real estate. He's a visionary entrepreneur, podcaster, and content creator. As the host of the Elevate with Ellsner podcast, he highlights stories of passion, grit, and impact, aiming to inspire audiences to embrace growth and ambition. He also leads multiple ventures, including Solarize Tech and Seal the Deal Co, lending innovation with practical services to help clients achieve their goals. So he's driven by a mindset of inner wealth. Blake is a dedicated family man, philanthropist, and an advocate for meaningful connections. Whether he's navigating the complexities of real estate or creating engaging content, his focus remains on making a lasting impact. And Blake's journey is a proof that success isn't just about numbers. It's about building trust, creating opportunities, and inspiring others to reach their full potential. Welcome, Blake.

Brett Gallant 

Thanks, Brett. I pride myself on a good introduction, and I was going to say you hit that one out of the park, so appreciate that. You're a rock star. Hey, we're trying, you and I both, right? We already got to jam once and this will be our second time jamming, so that's awesome, right?

Blake Elsner

Yeah, I had the privilege of being a guest on your podcast and we had a great conversation. We get to do it again, which is a privilege. So you get to share who you are.

Yeah, I mean, you kind of told the people a little bit about who I am. Obviously a third generation realtor, family's been doing it for 75 years. We've been through every type of market, good, bad, ugly, as they say, seeing interest rates all over the board. And the thing about that is we have a lot of vital information that we've learned over the course of our family's generation and how to properly invest in real estate. So that's kind of our bread and butter. And we have builders, we have rehabbers, we have, um, you know, Airbnb type investors. We have all different types of people that come to us in search of real estate investments. Now, ourself, we don't actually own any real estate. We are more in the transaction side. So that keeps us grounded. It keeps trust with builders. It keeps trust with rehabbers in the way that, hey, we're not gonna take anything out from underneath you. We're your source to go out and find great investments and same thing with just residential family, um, stuff like that. So yeah, we've, uh, since 2015, I have been a part of over about 200 and I guess we're actually 200 and probably 10 million now and transactions and, um, we do quite a bit. And right now it's, it's myself, my father, and we have a full-time assistant, Mickey, and she is awesome. She's been with my father, um, well before I started. So, uh, without her, we, we definitely wouldn't be in the same spot we are today. And, uh, so yeah, that's kind of, that's, that's the bread and butter, but as, as real estate is somewhat, you know, shifted, we've gone through different, you know, interest rates since 2015, where, you know, you could, pretty much buy anything and make money on real estate. Now it's completely different. You have monies, you know, a lot more expensive and things are a lot tighter. Margins are slimmer. You know, labor is higher. The cost of goods is higher. So everything is has shrunk into a very small little ball that now you're seeing that, hey, if you don't if you don't have somebody, you know, in your corner that's really guiding you in the in the process that You know, you can make a bad investment. And that's one thing I don't think we've really seen in a while is bad investments, because all you hear about today is, hey, you know, buy this and make overnight X, Y, Z. And, you know, unfortunately, that was true on certain cases. But now as we start to break into like more expensive money, there are going to be some bad investments out there that people are going to end up getting stuck with. So yeah, we have to be more selective.

Yeah, you got to be. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, totally, totally. So and, you know, I don't know exactly the exact market situation where you're at, but here in St. Louis, where I'm at in St. Louis, Missouri, you know, we have a relatively affordable real estate market. And, you know, the average price of a house is around 300,000. So it's not a crazy, you know, we're right in the middle of the country. So it's, it's not a crazy expensive, like the coast, the East coast, West coast, Florida, stuff like that. It's, it's not like that. So it's a lot more affordable. I understand that dynamic.

I live in Eastern Canada in a small, beautiful little community called Miramichi. And, and we've especially noticeably since the pandemic, And during the pandemic, we've seen a lot of people from Western Canada and other parts of the country come back to the East Coast. And on top of that, immigration. So we've had our housing market explode and the valuation of the properties have exploded here. And we've had the great pleasure of having a lot of immigration from other countries. And so the market has shifted that people are coming from the other part of the country, selling their homes in Ontario and other parts of the country and coming here and getting a bargain. And because of that, we're seeing a little bit of a different dynamic than what you're experiencing. House valuations have exploded and we have zero occupancy here right now. So it's a real struggle. But at the same time, what you said is there's a lot of people making investments in real estate here in my community and this part of the country. And I'm sure with the reality of interest rates and the economy, likely bad investments. So are there any things like for you that that you like for a mindset that you could say to somebody that's thinking about doing real estate or investing in property? What would you your best advice be to tell?

Yeah, that's a that's a really good question. And the thing about there's a lot of noise out there and and that's kind of my biggest uh, fear is that somebody is going to fall into the noise and fall into the trap and, and, you know, get in over their head to where they have a private money lender. Then all of a sudden, you know, their, their asset that they're, they're trying to flip or pay back, um, you know, falls through or they buy it on the wrong street. St. Louis is a perfect example. Unfortunately, certain streets, certain blocks, um, even breaks down to now that, Hey, like, that street, that block, that 800 block is not great as the west side of the street on the 400 block. So, you know, you're getting down to the nitty gritty. So I would just say, hey, do your research, figure out who knows the area. Even if it's not a realtor, find an investor that you can trust and just ask them, maybe take them out to lunch. That's one big thing is just get out there and start connecting with people because I think on a level, on a connection level, if you talk to even somebody that's not in real estate, you know, like even like yourself, you've realized like, hey, people are moving from West Canada or Western Canada over to the East Coast, right? Yeah. So even yourself, just me hearing that, you're not a realtor, but me hearing that, I go, wow, that's stuff now I fill my knowledge, fill my mind with. And I can go on and educate people about that. That's an interesting thing that I can take now.

I think what you said, though, there's some wisdom in all that too, though, that people can take away from all aspects of life. Do your research and have that human connection. We rely just on doing the internet research and we don't actually have that conversation, that one-on-one and reaching out to an expert like yourself and to other professionals and even talking to people in the community to get a real pulse of what's going on. Because in this digital age, which I'm very much a part of with cyber security, we forget about that human element, which is also important to have those human one-on-one, face-to-face, or Zoom-to-Zoom, or teams-to-teams connection.

It is. That's a, that's a very valid point. And for, for so long, like throughout those COVID years, this was, this was like the normal year or, you know, zoom in or, or, you know, on the phone or not face to face. So you, you know, for a little while you, you feel like either you kind of leveled up while you talked into a. or talk through a screen, or you kind of leveled back or leveled down a little bit if you didn't really connect because you really couldn't, right? I guess in some ways, some people actually weren't physically able to get out. So I think it's tough to find that alignment to where you feel like you're grounded in a way, right? Yeah.

So looking back a few years, Have you ever had these moments where throughout your career and working in your family business that you've had these mindset shifts of what was possible? I'd love to hear a few insights of where you've had these shifts where you've maybe overcome some limiting beliefs and seen another perspective of what was possible or elevated to take from your podcast, elevated yourself to another place.

Yeah, so I struggled for a while with external validation. That was a big, big thing of mine. I grew up, I was a people pleaser up until, let's see, I'm 32 right now, up until about 31, I would say I was a people pleaser. I never realized like you when we talked last time, put your oxygen mask on first. Right. And that's that's something that I never did. I was I was always going to put my oxygen mask on last. And I never really understood that till I met an individual named Mike Kitko. And he's he's part of inner wealth. And. He kind of changed my whole mindset about like, hey, Blake, you got to be grateful for the little things like that. You can get up in the morning and you can go turn your water on. You can go flush your toilet. You can go look in your pantry and realize that, hey, there's something that you can eat today. And I would just take that stuff for granted. And I just in the external part and the gratitude part, there was just so many things in my life I was missing. And it was all about my inner wealth, which is kind of like my soul to my mind was just all distorted. And I never really. But myself first, which then I never was able to present the best version of myself to somebody else. And so until I started figuring that part out, until I started realizing I have to fix myself in order to present the best version. Once I realized that, my life kind of changed and I started to become a different person.

Okay. And have you seen noticeable changes in that? Any takeaways that you can share from that?

Yeah, so I used to drink a lot. My wife and I, our second child was through IVF, and I don't like to blame any certain scenarios, because we're always bad. Everybody's battling something. You know, you you you feel for like people over in California, those wildfires, like stuff around the country right now in the world is just a little chaotic. So, you know, you feel that everyone's battling stuff. But through that whole IVF process, I was I was drinking, drinking very heavily. And it was kind of just to numb the pain and the process of going through the to get our second child, like, hey, are we going to have a sibling? Are we going to be able to do this? And so my mind was definitely a little distorted and I would I would numb and, you know, I'd give her a shot every night about eight o'clock. You know, I'm not a not a nurse. I'm not a doctor. So, you know, giving her a shot. the best I, my ability each night to put this oil into her, this IVF stuff, all this, all these different type of fertility drugs was, was tough. So I, I was drinking and, you know, then I finally, once we had our second, I, you know, I woke up a little bit and I started putting myself in the right circles. Sebastian being another one of the podcasts, he helped launch my podcast and he's truly an incredible credible human being just, just from a mentor standpoint, but, but that's what I really did. I started putting myself in the right circles. I started finding, you know, they say to seek out your enemies and you'll find your supporters on the way. And kind of, that's what I did. I go, where are my enemies? And all of a sudden I, I looked to, to, to my right and to my left and there are my supporters standing next to me.

Yeah, and in some ways you were self-sabotaging, and then all of a sudden you had that awakening and you had that blessing of that second child. And then being around somebody like Sebastian and other mentors, incredible people like Sebastian, I quote him a lot. He says this, I've heard him say this a few times, who's missing out because you're not showing up. And then you show up in a new way and recognizing that gratitude for all those blessings you have in your life. Things that we take for granted. Like I live in this community, a beautiful community with a beautiful river. And oftentimes there's some people in our community that you know, talk down about it and what it is, but we take for granted where we live. We have likely one of the most beautiful rivers in the world, lots of trees and forests, and we have great people around us. I take tremendous pride and gratitude that I get to wake up and live in this community, and at the same time, connect with people like you through this means and share your message. So you're a family man, too. You have two children, right? Yeah. How old are they?

Almost five and ten months. Okay. Yeah. And I guess a little fun pointer for the snowbirds up there. Do you have snow on the ground up there right now or no?

We have a little bit. We had snow this Christmas. Typically we get a load of it, but Mother Nature is playing tricks with us. We sent it to you.

That's why those low pressure systems keep dropping south. I'm like, it's pulling all that cold air and keeping the moisture down. I'm like, what is going on? That's why it's snowing in Dallas, down in Texas. I'm like, holy moly. Yeah, no, that's what's crazy about being up here with this snow. Like our city just shuts down. We have, you know, There's five days this week. We had a snowstorm, Monday or Sunday, Monday, and then then they went back to school on Thursday and then. Another snowstorm this morning. So here we are back home. Kids are home from school. My wife teaches first grade, so she loves snow too. Yeah, my wife's a teacher, so I relate to that.

Wow, look at that. We didn't even know that. Our children, one time, that was about three years ago, we knew there was a snowstorm coming. And there's this little habit that we've had in the past of putting ice cubes in the toilet to have good luck for for to have no school. So they did that way, but we put about six or seven in the toilet. Everything was shut down for six days. We ended up getting a nice storm. And the kids said to me, I think we overdid it.

Should only put three ice cubes in there. Yeah, we only do one now. That's funny. I like that dice, the lucky ice cube trick. Wow.

Lucky ice cube. You heard it here, the adaptive mindset, ice cubes for no school.

I was going to say, well, here, I think we got another, I think it's been about three inches maybe. And yeah, that's enough to close everything down. Oh, it's incredible.

Blake, I want to ask you something. I noticed quite interest here. You have some other business interests with solar and that. What prompted you to take that leap to start another business? And have you navigated those complexities of having those other opportunities to grow and yeah.

So my thing about was kind of like the interest rates going up and I'm like, okay, if people don't cycle through their houses like they normally do, like they've have, and you know, about every four years people will move, you'll sell them something or obviously investors and builders are different, but the single family residential type homes that are, they're going to cycle through, they're going to have a family and then they're going to move, you know, they buy their starter house. Well, it's kind of different now. Now you're seeing some people that are, you know, they don't even have kids yet and they're buying a half million dollar house to hope to stay in that, to have a family. When prior, it's like, hey, we start small and you move up. People are just, they're just going to the top because they're like, well, I don't want to do this anymore because they're thinking like, is this going to be like this every single year? Is the competition to get a $300,000 house so crazy that we just got to go up to a half million dollar, $700,000 house? And so people are doing that now, which is interesting to me because It doesn't have that, that cycle next to it. So then I was like, well, if these people are going to stay in their house, if they're in a $700,000 house and they don't have kids, the odds of them moving in four years are slim, right? Unless that's right. Yes. Unless life changes. And so I'm like, well, I got to think of other things to sell. Like, right. So I went to the solar, solar side of things. And for a while, um, state of Illinois had really good, Obviously, I'm in Missouri, which is St. Louis, but we're on the border. And Illinois had very good tax incentives to practically to where you were getting it almost for free between the federal and state credits. And Missouri was like that as well until. Basically, Ameren, which is the electric company, they were having to basically pay people for the usage of the solar. Obviously, it's a give and take system. So people were giving too much back to Ameren and Ameren was having to cut checks. to some of these people that are, they're like, well, wait a minute, we're having to pay these people now for the, the overage of their solar storage. So now they cut that off and now people are, I have to go into batteries and obviously batteries were expensive during. the COVID years, they've luckily come down a little bit, but that now has put a little rife into it. So that's kind of thrown it into a little bit of a stall. Um, since now in Missouri, you're, you're kind of looking at, it's more of a, a long-term investment now rather than, um, you know, a quick, easy tax credit type thing. And on top of that, um, People just don't feel their electric bills, I think, as much as someone to go, hey, I feel this $150 electric bill or $300 electric bill. I'm going to go put solar panels on. And I think that's a thing that energy prices, as much as they keep going up, they're really not as high as everything else. in relative kind of, as strange as that sounds. So I don't think it really impacts people because there's so many other things that are expensive. So that was one reason why I kind of jumped into that. And then the transaction side, I kind of did a transaction side business. Obviously, we always do transactions in our business. So I kind of did that to just have another degree of professionalism on our transaction side of things in our business. And then on the content side, I kind of work with different people and try to help with Google business profiles and content and different creation and stuff like that. And I do it for our business as well. And it's really fun. I've gotten into a creative creative mindset, and I've always had it in me. It just took it took some people to pull it out of me to actually say, hey, it doesn't matter what Bill, Joe, Karen Lewis thinks about what you have to say.

Nobody's going to care when you die, because if it's in you, it's on you. it must happen that you have to share that, share the best version of you with the world so that they benefit from that. And you bring something positive and help this business and help your business. And if we're playing chicken, I don't wanna say the word for, but we have to break free from that and break free of that fear, false evidence of appearing real, which I've heard. Break through that and fight for your goals and your dreams. So kudos for you and pushing beyond and sharing you. I wanted to ask you something. Do you invest any time in reading books or personal development that you do to elevate your mind?

Yeah, actually. Well, you know, I wasn't big into books and then you have audio books, right? So there's, there's no, no more excuses, right? You can't get distracted while I'm writing. That was my biggest problem. I'd read a book and I'd start thinking about a million other things. Now I can, with the audio books, it's a lot different, a lot easier to, to sit there and have somebody read it to you. Right. And you're here and you get to, you know, take it in. So yeah, buying, you know, buy back your time. Uh, yeah, I love that book.

Yeah.

I'm looking on my, uh, Who Not How is another big one of mine. That's a super favorite one. I don't know if you've ever read it. It's by Dan Sullivan. It's a good book.

I had that in Audible. What's your big takeaway from that book?

It's the external part. My biggest thing was just to be who you are, be your authentic self, and people, it's like, you become like a magnet, and if you just be yourself, people wanna relate to you, people wanna be around you. If you start being, trying to pretend like everything is awesome, and you never really show the true side of you, the side that people wanna relate to, then nobody really cares about you know, all your wins and as much as people do, they want to hear about your wins every once in a while, but people want to hear about, you know, things you're going through. They want to relate to you as well.

And the why, and the why you're doing something.

Exactly. And that's a, you know, I think. Obviously who Dan Sullivan, you know, he's obviously a business coach and the, the way he, you know, clearly figured out this process and, and it's similar to, you know, buying back your time as well. Like. you know, there's certain things like they say, you know, if you make a certain amount of money, you'd be a fool not to, um, have help around the house. And that's like interesting to me because it's like, Hey, if you make over, I think, you know, I think one of these, one of the smarter individuals out there, uh, I won't drop any names said like, Hey, if you make over 200,000, you probably should have some help around the house because that's the only way to buy back your time. And you shouldn't be running around doing certain errands. You shouldn't be doing certain things. You should delegate those tasks.

Totally get that, Blake. And I've actually, I'm living proof of that. We're not wealthy by any means, but I can tell you this wholeheartedly. I'm a father of five beautiful children. We have a busy house. And after reading Buy Back Your Time, and I've done a considerable amount of personal development. I even listened to Anthony Robbins told his story about how he hired a personal assistant for two hours a week. And I want to tell you something that really helped me. We hired somebody to come in and organize our house and she comes into our house for three to four hours a week. That has made all the difference in our lives, in making things even smoother. As a busy entrepreneur as I am, and my wife is a school teacher, having somebody come in even for that Allowing yourself that privilege has been tremendous. Those are good insights. Investing in those fractional ideas, that way you can buy back your time.

Yeah. I don't like to clean. I, you know, I don't like to as much as we have to clean our houses, right. All the time. I, I get my house clean at least once a month by a professional cleaning company, because there's something that. When I pay that and the cleanliness of the house and I don't have to do it. It's just the, it's a morale boost. Like you just feel better. You then can do other things that. you wouldn't have done if you had to spend two hours, three hours, you know, scrubbing every toilet. Well, I was asking my cleaning lady, I said, you really like doing this?

Oh yeah, I take great pleasure in it. I'm like, really? I said, that's terrible. But there are people that love that. And there's some things that I, that we just don't like to do. And when we give that opportunity for other people to do it, we're fulfilling what they need to do. And then at the same time, we're helping our own success and fueling, you know, giving our time ourselves the time so we can work on our dreams.

And so that's, yeah, that's, I, we have, we have awesome, uh, cleaning company and their family too. It's a mom, the daughter, a few cousins. So yeah, they come over here and they- You're helping feed a family, Blake. Yeah. I love that. That is an awesome way to look at it. And I refer her so much business too. She's built an entire cleaning business after. She actually used to run a hotel, like a large hotel chain, like a Hyatt type. And she was in charge of like the head of housekeeping. And then she, started getting business from us and she started and then she opened her own cleaning company. And now she's got tons of clients. I go, I, I go, I can't even get ahold of you sometimes. No. Yeah, she's, but that's what we love. We like, we got people that have, they ride our coattails and they make a living. Like we have handy people, you know, we got electricians, plumbers, um, you know, HVAC people, they, they know like, Hey, these people have business that flows to them. let's go ahead and connect with them. And the ones that do, hey, we reward them, um, you know, nicely and they reward us too, by giving us leads. So it's, it's kind of a, you know, it's a two way street, but you gotta, you gotta help people. Right. You know, we're in a business to help people and people will help you back. Yeah.

I look at the, one of the things in my life, the main purpose of my life is to serve. to serve. And I believe that's why we're all here to serve each other. So, yeah.

And if you haven't looked at, like, if you've ever heard of your human design or diving into your gene keys, stuff like that, you know, your life's purpose, like the, it'll really, you know, it'll tell a lot of, a lot about you. And I've dove, you know, I've dove into that and some people are, Hey, they're like, you know, I'm Catholic right here. I'm a Catholic boy. I grew up Catholic, but I'm interested in that type of astrology stuff because it's scary how accurate it is. And to see what my life purpose is, and then I realized, wow, that coincides with who my new self is. And it's like, You know, had I known this when I was younger, but you know, that's part of, you know, evolving.

Life is a journey. There's one person I've listened to a lot over the years and he passed a few years ago. And just what you said, I want to encourage you and the listeners, if you haven't heard of him, Bob Proctor. Ever hear of him?

I've heard of, not exactly though.

Yeah, Bob Proctor, he really embraced the power of the book, Think and Grow Rich. And he has, there's quite a lot of great content on YouTube and Instagram of his posts, but he says that there's the vibrations of what you put out in the world, you will attract. So if you give and you're a person who's giving, that will naturally come back into your world. There's some really great philosophies and things. Have you ever read the book, Thinking Grow Rich?

No, I say that, you know what, that's where I've heard that name and I need to read that one. That's it.

Oh yeah. Three feet from gold. You should read that story. Uh, uh, there was, um, if you are watching on YouTube and it'll inspire you, but yeah, um, pretty exciting stuff. I got a final question for you. Yeah. Where do you see things going for you in the next 12 months to three years, and what kind of mindset shifts do you think you need to have or that you already have that will allow you to get to where you're going to go?

That, you know, I have to, there's consistency, there's clarity, there's commitment, purpose. And I'm still in a way, I think, trying to figure out my purpose. But I think as I show up every day and I continue to tell my story and just kind of put myself out there, it seems like by taking these small and actionable steps and sharing examples from my life that people are starting to come to me and want to be around me and learn from me. And as strange as that sounds, I'm like, You know, I never would have thought like, hey, people actually want to take something from you. And because I was always the person that wants to please somebody else. Now, I never thought somebody would want to be pleased through what I have to say. So that's kind of been a big thing. And it's yeah, inspiring. And that's kind of why I went out and started a podcast and why I went out and wanted to be on like your podcast. Stuff like this is it's truly uplifting. It elevates me. And there's one thing that I would what I would end with. And it's changed my way of thinking after chasing deal after deal, thinking there was happiness on the back end of every single financial deal. And I realized there wasn't. And the reason why is because when you think about the odds of being alive and how every day is a chance to just create impact and pursue passion, you're going to know that a difference in the world is not going to be through financial gain. It's going to be through some type of impact, some type of passion or some type of avenue of that route. So I just would say that not every success is through financial gain.

No, no success could be just as simple as being able to get up in the morning and give your children a kiss on the forehead and put them to bed at night and having them come to you and run to see you and say, daddy, that's success. That's beautifully said right there. And for you being here and share that beautiful message. And that's what we're here for, to help people. have the Elevate people to borrow from your podcasts and have those mindset shifts so that we can be the best version of us. And Blake, I can't tell you how happy it was that I've had the opportunity to meet you for the second time and it won't be the last. And folks, you really wanna check out Blake's podcast, Elevate. The link will be in the notes. And Blake, I'm really grateful to have you as a guest. Thank you. Yeah, Brad, absolutely. Thanks for having me. I appreciate this. Awesome. Thanks for tuning into the Adaptive Mindset. If you found value in today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who's ready to thrive in the digital age. Stay secure, stay adaptable, and I'll see you next time.