The Determined Society with Shawn French
The Cheat Code to Success: Believe in Yourself & Execute Daily
Fri, 18 Apr 2025
What’s the real cheat code to building success and living a life of purpose? It's not books, podcasts, or flashy routines, it’s internal belief and relentless execution. In this episode, Shawn French sits down with LJ Hunt and Julian Rivera of Iron Valley Real Estate to talk about how they left behind burnout and built thriving businesses during one of the most uncertain times in modern history. From waking up at 4 AM to train before the world wakes up to scaling new systems while raising families, this conversation is packed with grit, gratitude, and game-changing strategies. If you’ve ever felt stuck or unsure of your next step, this episode will remind you that belief isn’t optional, it’s required. Get ready to be fired up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who are the guests and what is their background?
To win.
Nice. It was cool, man. Yeah. It was cool. I'm like thinking the whole time. I'm like, man, I remember, you know, when going on the road, I would bring my workout stuff and I would never go. Right. And now it's like today was a non-negotiable for me. Right. And I was there and that kind of discipline really, you know, helps throughout the whole day. Yeah. You make that first tough decision, guys.
It's, you know, it always helps. So. Anyway, tell me about, let's start with LJ. LJ, tell me a little, tell the audience about yourself a little bit briefly, kind of give the background, how you came to Iron Valley, you know, maybe your past and, you know, we'll do the same thing with our boy Julian here and then we'll get down and, you know, down and dirty.
Well, I'm a local here in the area, Hampton Roads area. My family kind of got pieced together. So my mother's from Boston. My dad's from here. Grandparents from Akron, Ohio came because of the military. Then, you know. Talking about myself is not the best thing that I do, man. I'm not going to tell you.
So, I mean, long story short, man, I was around, I was in the hospitality business for two decades. So my most recent job, if you will, before I went into real estate was with Yardhouse. So I was... I got the truffle fries. It was the best. I got the recipe if you want it. Yeah. I have a lot of those recipes. Oh, there we go. But... You know, COVID hit.
So, COVID was a real challenging time for everybody, obviously. You had essential employees doing just basically the essentials, right? So, we laid off everybody except for the management team. So, managers were opening the building, running the kitchen, cleaning up, like, the whole nine. Yeah. It was, like, just trying to keep the business together.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Then we opened back up social distancing and just kind of everything that was going on. And I mean, long story short, man, I just, I had enough of it. I had been working 12 hour days, seven days a week for an eternity.
It felt like, and, uh, the old principal broker of the Hampton roads and iron values to come in, you know, obviously before everything shut down and he's trying to get me into real estate all the time. You've got the personality for, you can do it. Like you're a local, you've got all these connections. Like you would love it.
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Chapter 2: How did LJ Hunt transition from hospitality to real estate?
Yeah. What was some of the things that held you back or that, you know, when you start talking about it, right? Because there's a level of fear, right? I would say probably of, okay, I'm in the hospitality business for 20 years. And now this gentleman is saying that I would be great in real estate. What...
That in between, when you were hesitating, or not even hesitating, before you pulled the trigger, was there some sort of fear or kind of a mindset thing that you were battling with for you?
Absolutely. What was that? I mean, I think it's with anybody that's got the old J-O-B, really. The first thing is really believe in yourself. Mm-hmm. You know, I didn't realize it, but investing in yourself just in general is something that we don't do. You know, you live in paycheck to paycheck or just getting paid by somebody else.
You don't have that self-confidence that you would normally have, especially if you're an entrepreneur or a business person. So I've realized, you know, I was always taking care of other people, other people, other people, whether, of course, my family, the team members, you know, the people in the kitchen, the guests that were coming in. I wasn't really taking care of myself.
Yeah.
And probably didn't even realize that until maybe a year or so in. And you were just talking, you know, about how you woke up and went to the gym and all those sort of things. Like I do the same thing, but in my gyms in my house, you know, and I literally just have a bench and some dumbbells and it's my alone time. And he just talked to my wife. Okay. I really want a home gym.
Yeah, I mean, it's amazing because it's about time as well. Like, I don't have to drive to the gym. I don't have to get dressed. I don't have to do anything. Like, I literally wake up, I have my coffee, I have my water, do a little meditation, relax, put on some iron, and I'm done for the day. Then I can... How does it help you operate through your day? Clarity.
You know the thing... It's the worst, man. Like, you are tired when you wake up. Yeah. But just a little bit of water, a little hydration, relaxed...
I feel like that point right there, like when your alarm goes off and you don't wanna get up and go do the hard shit, right? If we give into that inner voice that says, don't do it, and our brain is wired to keep us safe from anything, right? And it doesn't want to take that risk. It wants to feel comfortable.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did Julian Rivera face while starting in real estate during COVID-19?
Chapter 4: Why is self-belief considered the cheat code to success?
Chapter 5: How does daily discipline and early workouts contribute to success?
Mm-hmm. Then we opened back up social distancing and just kind of everything that was going on. And I mean, long story short, man, I just, I had enough of it. I had been working 12 hour days, seven days a week for an eternity.
It felt like, and, uh, the old principal broker of the Hampton roads and iron values to come in, you know, obviously before everything shut down and he's trying to get me into real estate all the time. You've got the personality for, you can do it. Like you're a local, you've got all these connections. Like you would love it.
So when things started kind of happening, it was like, all right, well, maybe I'll make this move. Maybe I'll make this move. And then obviously I got to my breaking point and I said, all right, I'm going to do it. So I went all in, man. Seriously, all in. I drained my 401k. I quit my job. I took the test in November of 2020. Didn't get technically licensed until January of 2021.
15, that's a couple of days ago, it was my four-year anniversary. Congratulations. And then just... Just took off.
Yeah. What was some of the things that held you back or that, you know, when you start talking about it, right? Because there's a level of fear, right? I would say probably of, okay, I'm in the hospitality business for 20 years. And now this gentleman is saying that I would be great in real estate. What...
That in between, when you were hesitating, or not even hesitating, before you pulled the trigger, was there some sort of fear or kind of a mindset thing that you were battling with for you?
Absolutely. What was that? I mean, I think it's with anybody that's got the old J-O-B, really. The first thing is really believe in yourself. Mm-hmm. You know, I didn't realize it, but investing in yourself just in general is something that we don't do. You know, you live in paycheck to paycheck or just getting paid by somebody else.
You don't have that self-confidence that you would normally have, especially if you're an entrepreneur or a business person. So I've realized, you know, I was always taking care of other people, other people, other people, whether, of course, my family, the team members, you know, the people in the kitchen, the guests that were coming in. I wasn't really taking care of myself.
Yeah.
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Chapter 6: What role does internal change play in achieving external success?
One of my late mentors to mayor, I met him at the radio station. In radio and TV, you have three main departments. You have your programming, which is your talent. Everyone is on the radio doing it. You have your marketing, everyone running the marketing, the concerts, the events, the radio remotes, and you have your sales. Sales is what drives the entire ship.
Without sales, you don't have the other two departments. That's just what it is. they kept trying to get me to come to sales. I'm like, no, dude, I'm good. I'm fine. Like, I'm having fun over here. I'm running the marketing department. I called myself the entreploy for a long time because I had my other businesses that I'm running on the side while doing this. And it was great for a long time.
But he kept pushing me in a very polite way. At the time, I didn't realize this, but he... He was really good at making somebody stronger what they're already good at. He never tried to focus on your weaknesses, at least out the gate. And he was always the number one sales manager every quarter just because he related with people better.
So long story short, I ended up moving over to sales side, aka the dark side. But it was a really big reason. I was making good money doing what I was doing, but I was writing it all off. So what couldn't I get by doing that? A house. A house. And I needed to get a house because, fun fact, I have five kids. You do? I know. I look good. It's crazy. I know. It doesn't even look like you had one.
Exactly. That's the goal here. That's why we got to stay in shape. That's why we do push-ups before the show. My oldest just turned 21 on Wednesday. Wow. Yeah. So 21, and then 19, 16, and then I have eight and three. Talk about an age gap. Whoa. Right. So when you're talking about being determined. Yes. That's my that's my why. That's why I do what I do in my way.
I have an amazing wife, Myra, of being together for almost 14 years. We're finally having our wedding in a week and a half, too, by the way. Congrats. So we but the whole thing behind that is that we wanted to get a house. Right. We were always we were renting. We were growing up, whatever the case may be. So I jumped over there, get documented income.
I slayed it over there better than I thought I was going to do. But that was me, not like you were saying the confidence. It wasn't to that level I thought I had, but it was there. I just needed somebody to get me, get it out of me, which boom happened. Killed it every year. Breaking goals. This is when digital marketing started becoming huge. That was my forte.
So I really went heavy into that in the social media realm. Fast forward a few years, I opened a few more businesses while still working here. But I was like, you know what? One thing I realized by talking to all these business owners, bro, The only thing that differentiated them between me and them, they believed in themselves. They went for it. Yeah. They went all in.
On a few of your episodes, I always hear you talking about going all in, being laser focused or just doing that regardless of what guests or whoever that you have. So I decided I'm going to go all in. So I developed a plan. to retire from corporate America in January of 2020. That was my plan, but I've made that plan until the 19th.
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Chapter 7: How do Shawn, LJ, and Julian balance family life and business growth?
Chapter 8: What strategies helped Iron Valley Real Estate thrive during uncertain times?
You know, realtors just in general have a bad rap in the industry because of how much money we make or whatever it is. But if you're doing it the right way, It's so gratifying for the people and for me itself.
So I've grown from being able to do that with my clients to still doing it with my clients, but also now teaching agents how to do it properly and teaching others how to focus on their business so that they can do it so they can teach more people.
I'm getting to the point now where it's like I'm spider webbing everything that I can do for more people and actually touching more lives and helping more people. And I think that's where it burns from more than anything after that.
My answer was gonna be service, right? You're serving the people and it's the same answer, right? And that's why I kind of smiled when you said you care for people. Like I find that most successful entrepreneurs actually give a shit about human beings. Like if you just chase the number, We've all done it at one point, right? Like I'm guilty as shit. I like, you know, I got to sell this amount.
Here's my quota. We got to get it. We got to get it. We got to get it. But what I've found now is that when I operate at a place of love and respect and the care for others, and I'm just here to, to give and give and give.
It's funny how things boomerang back around, and a lot of times it's not that specific situation with that person, but you're like infinitely blessed in another area that comes into that circle, right? And then yes, you do capitalize, you do end up making a lot of money, But it's not because you're out there grinding and like Wolf of Wall Street boiler room stuff.
You're showing the people who you really are and who we really are as service-driven men. That's what we're here on this earth. We're here to serve.
Yeah. You talked about the KPIs and people focus on the volume in the real estate industry. And volume to me is just noise. That's all it is. It's about how many families we have. Yeah. Period. We're a transaction-based company, and I think that that's one of the reasons Iron Valley has grown so fast is it's like, I don't care about the $10 million home or whatever it is. Yeah, great.
If I get one of those, awesome. But I care about how many families I can help, how many agents I can teach to teach how many families to do it the right way, because that's what ultimately matters is, again, taking care of the people. So that's where I kind of came up with that.
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