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Episode 018: Ken Wimberly

Ep.018 Ken Wimberly
Episode 018
#IAmMovement Logo
Episode 018:
Capturing Memories and Creating a Legacy of Love

“Everything I do in business, in my leadership, and growth as a person, is to be a great example to my family first, and then to others.” - Ken Wimberly

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Simon Sinek #IAmMovement

It is incredibly easy to get so caught up in our day-to-day lives that we often forget to ask ourselves one very important question: what are we leaving behind when we go?

Ken Wimberly has spent years weaving his own legacy for his children and helping others do the same. Ken is a devoted husband, father, and entrepreneur. He is also the founder of LegacyofLove.app, co-founder of Laundry Luv, Operating Principal of Keller Williams in Abilene, TX, and founder/Chief Visionary Officer of KW Net Lease Advisors.

Outside of his business pursuits, Ken has a passion for health & fitness; he loves adventure races – he recently competed in his 10th Tough Mudder event – and he loves learning, growing, and traveling with his family. 

On this episode of the #IAmMovement podcast, Rock and Ken discuss the vital importance of living with intent and setting an example for those around you, what it means to define your “why”, and the wisdom that comes from experience. Join the conversation. Listen in.

Topics Discussed

00:00 – Introduction to Ken Wimberly

02:20 – What we leave behind and LegacyofLove

08:15 – The importance of perspective in young lives

09:40 – Creating a narrative that enables balance

12:00 – The moment that gave Ken his perspective

14:12 – The impact of defining yourself

17:25 – Education and experience

19:30 – How Ken’s past shows up now

20:55 – Finding communities that help you grow

28:05 – The mission of Laundry Luv

32:00 – How to connect with Ken

You’ll Learn

How documenting moments and memories can build better future generations

Why knowing your purpose can change your life

All about manifesting aspirations

And much more!

Resources:

Note: some of the resources below may be affiliate links, meaning I get paid a commission (at no extra cost to you) if you use that link to make a purchase.

Enjoyed the Podcast? Be sure to subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. It means so much to hear your feedback and we’d love for you to help us spread the word!

Key Takeaways:

“Slow down, capture the moment, tell the stories of your life, because they pass so fast. They’re just gone in an instant.” – Ken Wimberly

“My ‘why’ is to be the best possible example I can to my wife and my children in all areas of my life, and that includes health and fitness, it includes entrepreneurial business, it includes personal finance, it includes love and relationships, it includes contribution to others.” – Ken Wimberly

“Everything I do in business, in my leadership and growth as a person is to be a great example to my family first, and then to others.” – Ken Wimberly

“It’s not just the business. As I defined that big ‘why’, so many other things in my life started getting into place.” – Ken Wimberly

“The real education comes from books and reading and the people we surround ourselves with, and the courses we take, and the continual evolution of ourselves as people.” – Ken Wimberly

“Putting yourself in the right environment is imperative for all of us…Surround yourself with the people you aspire to be like.” – Ken Wimberly

Full Transcript

Intro: 00:00

Hi, I’m Rock Thomas, the founder of M1, the tribe of healthy, wealthy, and passionate people, also known as fulfillionaires. You’re listening to the #IAmMovement Podcast, where we believe that the words that follow “I am” follow you. Join me and the world’s greatest thought leaders as we discuss the power of transformation and making success a part of your identity.

Rock Thomas: 00:31

So I’m in studio here, and I’m really excited for today’s guest because I’ve known him for a long time. If you are really conscious of the I Am Movement, you’ll know that the words that follow “I am” follow you. One of the things that this gentleman has is a very, very high degree of integrity. If he says he’s going to do something, from everything I’ve experienced with him, he follows through on it.

Rock Thomas: 00:52

He’s a phenomenal father. He’s a really, really dear, great, kind individual. He’s also a hard-working entrepreneur that is building multiple businesses. We’re going to learn about that and how you can balance your life between being a great father, husband, and an amazing entrepreneur. Please welcome to today’s show Ken Wimberly.

Ken Wimberly: 01:12

Thank you, Rock Thomas. Great to be here.

Rock Thomas: 01:15

Yeah. So we’ve known each other for five or six years. We met through a Mastermind group, and we just … Of the thousands of people that have gone to those Mastermind groups, you find a few people that you have a kindred spirit with, and you’ve been that person. We went on a few trips together. Where have we gone together?

Ken Wimberly: 01:32

We’ve been on a few different ski vacations together, but also we went to Vietnam together.

Rock Thomas: 01:37

Right.

Ken Wimberly: 01:37

So around the world together.

Rock Thomas: 01:40

Yeah. Then we hung out with Jeff Hoffman, a billionaire who blew our mind, and we did a little golf together. So we’ve done a bunch of things together, and now I’m watching you follow through on the things you told me about years ago and building your app and creating memories. So why don’t we dive in and talk right away about that first? Because I know it’s kind of like your passion project turned into something real.

Ken Wimberly: 02:02

Yeah. Right, and you mentioned Jeff Hoffman. Jeff was the final push for me to take action and go build this app. You say “I am” and the words that follow, and it’s so true. What I am is a husband and father, and a dedicated husband and father. With my children, I made a commitment when my daughter was very, very young, one year old, and my oldest son was in the womb to make an impact in their lives and be a really, really involved father and to kind of leave behind things for them in the event that I was ever gone. I will be gone, of course, one day.

Ken Wimberly: 02:45

What I started doing was I started journaling to my children when they were tiny. They were itty-bitty. In all of that process, I’ve journaled to them, on average, once a month, since Graceful was one year old and Knox was in the womb. Those writings have been words from my heart to them about their life and the evolution of them and us as a family.

Ken Wimberly: 03:09

It’s taken us through some really, really cool stuff, from the little milestone events in their lives and the fun things, the birthday parties, and vacations, through the heavy stuff, the financial downturn of ’08, ’09 and what that meant for us to suffer and struggle through that. I got divorced from their mom in 2009, and so I’ve kind of journaled to them about that process.

Ken Wimberly: 03:32

As I’ve done this for my children, I’ve talked to hundreds of other parents and fathers and moms and encouraged them to do something similar, to slow down, capture the moment, tell the stories of your life, because they pass so fast. They’re just gone in an instant, and I was encouraged for many, many years to do something with it. Right? Again, you need to create something. You need to create some kind of platform based on this.

Ken Wimberly: 03:59

Again, Jeff Hoffman, I kind of pitched the idea to Jeff, and he said, “Yeah, that’s a great idea. You should actually go take action on that.” So I did. I talked to you about it in Vietnam. That was, what, a couple years before Jeff Hoffman there, as I was thinking about it. “Here’s something I’m thinking about doing.” So I’ve taken action on it.

Ken Wimberly: 04:15

I designed and built a multi-platform program. So it’s web, it’s web, iOS, and Android. So we have apps on the iOS and Android store, created something called Legacy of Love. It is a cross-platform app, a place to capture moments and memories and leave the stories of your children’s lives. You can document with text, photo, video, voicemail. I think of the sweetest times when kids leave you these little voicemails when they’re three, four, or five years old, and that’s just the precious little squeaky voices and everything.

Ken Wimberly: 04:51

I’ve had some of those that frankly, I’ve lost over the years, that meant so much to me at the time. Phone upgrades and as things happen, the voicemails just go away, and so we created a place where we can save all of that and create a digital timeline of your child’s life, of the major moments and memories that you have, and pass it on for generations to come so that, like I said, it’s a stopgap. If I get hit by a truck when I’m heading out today and I’m gone, I’ll have this to pass on forever for my children.

Rock Thomas: 05:24

Beautiful.

Ken Wimberly: 05:26

It’s my passion.

Rock Thomas: 05:27

I have a few questions for you that I’m going to try to imagine other people will have, and I’m sure you’ve had many questions yourself.

Ken Wimberly: 05:34

Yes.

Rock Thomas: 05:34

So I’m going to give you a few, and then you can answer them as we go. One is people are certainly going to say, “How do you have the time to do that?” I’m sure is one of them. Correct?

Ken Wimberly: 05:46

Yeah. I get asked that a lot. “How much time does it take?”, and 30 minutes once a month.

Rock Thomas: 05:53

Okay.

Ken Wimberly: 05:54

Can we allocate 30 minutes once a month to slow down and write about what’s happening in your child’s life? Or if you don’t want to write, shoot a video of yourself.

Rock Thomas: 06:06

Right.

Ken Wimberly: 06:06

Shoot a video. Do an audio file. Upload it there. But can you slow down for 30 minutes once a month? The answer is absolutely.

Rock Thomas: 06:15

So you collect all these. When do the children get to see all of these and experience them?

Ken Wimberly: 06:20

For me, it’s going to be my high school graduation gift to them. It’ll be 18 years of your life through my eyes. For others, I know people right now that are doing it, and they are automatically giving their children access to it so they can see it. So it’s up to the individual. For me, it was always the intent of I would give it to them when they were a little bit older, so when they graduated high school so that they could then read the words and understand the perspective of what was going on in our lives.

Rock Thomas: 06:50

So what do you think will be the response, or what are you hoping will be the response?

Ken Wimberly: 06:55

I hope that they will really understand the depth of my love and caring for them, and I hope that they’ll be able to read some of the words that I wrote and they’ll understand why I made certain decisions in their lives. When you’re 10 or 12 or 15 and your parents are making a decision, you don’t always understand why, and it maybe just pisses you off that your parents made this decision. Look, as a parent, I don’t freaking know if I’m making the right decision all the time, right? I don’t know. So I’m doing the best I can figure this out.

Rock Thomas: 07:30

Right, right.

Ken Wimberly: 07:30

So, a lot of times, I’ll write down to them, “Hey, I don’t know if I’m” … I’m in one of those situations right now, Rock, with my 15-year-old son. I don’t know if I’m making the right decision, but I’m doing the best I can.

Rock Thomas: 07:40

Right.

Ken Wimberly: 07:42

So I’ll write in here, “Here’s my concerns, here’s why I made that decision, and here’s what I’m hoping comes out of it” so that they’ll know as they become mothers and fathers of their own. Maybe it’ll give them a little groundwork and framework so that they can make decisions as parents and have a little bit more perspective than I had.

Rock Thomas: 08:05

One of my coaches says, “I get paid as a coach to change people’s perspective or to give them a new perspective.” Somebody is looking at something and saying, “This sucks” or it’s difficult or it’s unfair. The coach comes along, and he says, “well, why don’t you look at it this way? What’s great about this? How could you use that? Maybe it’s a lesson that’s meant to serve you,” and they go, “Oh, I never looked at it that way. Okay, I feel better.”

Ken Wimberly: 08:28

Yes.

Rock Thomas: 08:29

So I find that’s cool that you say that maybe they’ll get a new perspective because imagine if that’s what they got. They turn 18, and they reflect back on their life. They now start to have this wisdom, and they get to hear your inner narrative. They’re like, “Okay, wow. I never thought of it that way. I was coming from I wanted to go out with my friends on Friday night, and Dad wouldn’t let me. Wanted me to come home, but I actually realized that he was thinking they were a bad influence on me, blah, blah, blah. He actually really had my best interests at heart. I never thought of it that way.”

Ken Wimberly: 09:02

That’s my hope. Again, if you hear that at 15, it maybe just goes right over your head.

Rock Thomas: 09:08

Right.

Ken Wimberly: 09:08

But when you reread it or when you read it at 25 and you’re a father-to-be or 30 or whenever it is, it’s a whole new perspective.

Rock Thomas: 09:18

Yeah. Very cool. So let’s back up for a second. On your previous career … You also still have that career. Let’s talk entrepreneurial. So you’re a dad and a husband, and you take that very, very near and dear to your heart to show up that way. How do you now meld all that together? Because you’re a very, very successful realtor, and you’ve got to put in a lot of time. You take care of your health. You’ve won some of our pushup contests and pull-up contests, and you’re a beast when it comes to your health. Most people believe you can’t have it all. You can’t be really excelling in these different areas. What inner narrative have you had and shared with yourself that’s allowed you to excel in so many different areas?

Ken Wimberly: 10:01

Yeah, I think, really, Rock, it’s a purpose of mine. My purpose, my why is to be the best possible example I can to my wife and my children in all areas of my life. That includes health and fitness, and that includes entrepreneurial and business. It includes personal finance. It includes love and relationships. It includes contribution to others.

Ken Wimberly: 10:29

When I kind of defined and understood that purpose and big why and this is who I am, it’s driven me to succeed in all of the areas of my life. So everything I do in my business, in my businesses, and in my leadership and growth as a person is to be a great example to my family first and then to others. So I’ve realized that there’s a lot of other people that are watching us that we have no idea they’re watching us. As I’ve made that realization, it has made it incumbent upon me to be a great example, even for those that I don’t know that might be watching me.

Ken Wimberly: 11:05

So I guess that’s the big thing, is I’ve had this realization. Others are watching. Others who are always watching, and certainly your family is watching. I want to be the best I can be in all of these aspects of my life. On the fitness thing, Rock, I will tell you that today marked day 308 consecutive days of working out. So how about that?

Rock Thomas: 11:25

Whoa. Most people are happy with three times a week. That’s a stretch. So God bless you, man. That’s amazing.

Ken Wimberly: 11:32

Yeah.

Rock Thomas: 11:33

So was there a particular time when you came to that realization? Was there a moment, an epiphany? Because it’s interesting. You and I share very a similar perspective. My father said to me, when I would go out on the farm to do chores, he goes, “The universe is watching. God is watching you. Even though I may not be there to see how you’re doing your chores, somebody is looking. So do a good job, son.”

Rock Thomas: 11:56

I never forgot that, my entire life. When I was doing a job at McDonald’s cleaning toilets and I wanted to … Nobody was around. I could skip that toilet. Then I looked up, and I went, “Oh, okay, better do a good job.” But it’s served me, to have incredibly high standards and to have integrity for the job at hand. Did you have a moment when the light bulb came on and said, “This is my purpose, to have high standards everywhere”?

Ken Wimberly: 12:23

I did, and it came late in my life, to be quite honest. So I’m 48 now, and it didn’t come until my late thirties, Rock. The early stage of my life, I wasn’t raised in a … or I was raised in an environment where I had no real positive role models. I was surrounded by addiction and alcoholism, and I was what they call the latch key kid. I’d just go out and do whatever, because I had a single working mom that wasn’t home a lot. She’d be out doing her thing, and my sister and I just did whatever we wanted. We just didn’t have great examples.

Ken Wimberly: 13:02

So the first great example that … I think one great example was my uncle, but I was never super close to my uncle, growing up. So he was not a direct example for me. However, my first great, kind of direct example and mentor was Gary Keller. So when I got exposed to Gary Keller and he talked about this concept of a big why and a purpose and living with intent and living, being true to your spiritual self, that started to change things for me.

Rock Thomas: 13:32

Wow.

Ken Wimberly: 13:33

So Gary set me on the journey of discovering my why and my purpose.

Rock Thomas: 13:38

Wow.

Ken Wimberly: 13:39

That was, again, my late thirties.

Rock Thomas: 13:41

So that’s really encouraging for some people that maybe are thinking, “Gosh, my conditioning’s in. I am this way. I am a procrastinator. I am a failure. I am a divorcee” or whatever, to know that. So was it around 2008? When was it?

Ken Wimberly: 13:56

It was 2009 is when I kind of first got exposure to Gary Keller, and I heard him talk about the big why concept in February 2010.

Rock Thomas: 14:08

Tell us how that affected your real estate business.

Ken Wimberly: 14:11

Yeah. When I got serious about it, it was crazy. So I got serious about defining who I am and who I’m meant to be and what I’m meant to do as an example to others. So prior to that time, I got in the real estate business in 2002. So, from basically 2003 until 2009, I would do an average of, oh, four to six million a year in sales, and I felt like I was doing pretty good. Yeah.

Ken Wimberly: 14:39

When I got serious about things and I started building my business, I went from 6 to 9 to 14 to 35 to 75 to over 100 million in sales. I built a big business around that, and that big business allowed me to start doing other things, to invest in real estate, to put some deals together on my own, to later become a franchise owner of Keller Williams and then to just continue to build. It’s allowed me to fund a legacy of love. It’s allowed me to do a lot of other things in my life.

Rock Thomas: 15:11

Now, you do commercial real estate. How high did you get up in Keller Williams, as far as your ranking as a commercial agent?

Ken Wimberly: 15:18

We built our team up to the number one team in all of Keller Williams’ commercials.

Rock Thomas: 15:23

The number one team.

Ken Wimberly: 15:25

Number one, number one.

Rock Thomas: 15:26

So if you’re listening to this, I want you to go back maybe about two or three minutes when Ken said when I got serious about defining who I was. To me, that is literally a defining moment, and it’s the same thing that will happen to almost all successful people.

Rock Thomas: 15:44

When you say, “I am” and then you follow it with an entrepreneur, a committed investor, or somebody who’s going to build a new app and serve people with the legacy of love, when you define that and then you … Where attention goes, energy flows, and results show. What you do is you give yourself the opportunity to access all of your resources and then just pour into it. So it’s no fluke. When you gave me those numbers, is that year after year after year of growth?

Ken Wimberly: 16:13

Yes, sir.

Rock Thomas: 16:14

So from what you thought was pretty impressive, kind of four to five million, all the way up to 100 million and number one, with one concept of defining yourself, to me, that blows my freaking mind. That’s so powerful.

Ken Wimberly: 16:27

We did that within five years, and it’s not just the business, right? It’s just a crazy thing. As I defined that big why, so many other things in my life just started getting into place. Relationships improved. I improved serious relationships right there. My health and wellness significantly improved, just my growth as a person. I met you through that process, and I’ve put myself in a position to grow as a person. It all started with doing some internal soul searching to define who am … The who am I is initially aspirational, right? It’s not necessarily who … It’s an aspirational “Who do I want to become?” or “Who am I committed to becoming?”

Rock Thomas: 17:14

Yes, yes.

Ken Wimberly: 17:15

Then we manifest.

Rock Thomas: 17:16

Yes, yes. Beautiful. So what’s your educational background?

Ken Wimberly: 17:21

I’ve got a degree from TCU. It’s a finance and real estate degree from TCU.

Rock Thomas: 17:29

Okay.

Ken Wimberly: 17:30

Yeah.

Rock Thomas: 17:31

Do you consider yourself incredibly well-educated, somebody that comes back and has a high sense of wisdom?

Ken Wimberly: 17:42

It’s interesting. As I age, I do feel like I now am getting … because experience creates wisdom, and I’ve had so much experience, good and bad, that I’ve gotten that wisdom. But, as far as the education, the college or formal education, whatever. It’s worth whatever it’s worth. The real education comes from books and reading and the people we surround ourselves and the courses we take and the continual evolution of ourselves as people. I think education today is … It’s going to continue to morph into something very, very different, because college has gotten so insanely overpriced on things.

Rock Thomas: 18:19

Yeah.

Ken Wimberly: 18:19

Yet education is available to us all, and we can get really, really educated in nontraditional ways.

Rock Thomas: 18:26

Yeah. Well, even listening to podcasts like this, which are free, there’s wisdom chunks. There’s opportunity to meet people and connect with people and follow people that are getting the results that you want.

Ken Wimberly: 18:38

I can point to five different relationships that have come as a direct result of listening to podcasts. Yeah.

Rock Thomas: 18:45

Wow.

Ken Wimberly: 18:45

It’s been incredible. Yeah. I’ve either reached out to people or people have reached out to me, but where I’ve reached out to people and said, “Oh, I heard you on this podcast, and it really resonated with me,” a couple of them, I’m now in business with.

Rock Thomas: 18:57

That’s amazing. That’s fascinating. Cool. That’s so cool. So if you were to look at somebody … because I say to people, “Hey, it doesn’t matter where you came from, what your background was, as long as you’re willing, have that aspiration to define the future you, and then to pour into it.” You came from a troubled childhood. Was your father around it all?

Ken Wimberly: 19:22

I saw him every other weekend, if he was available or if the timing worked out, and a couple of weeks during the summer, is when I saw him. So he was around, just not involved. It was the typical divorced household from the ’70s.

Rock Thomas: 19:40

Yeah. So was part of that your desire to break that cycle and become a dad that was there, instead of a dad that wasn’t there? Is that what birthed some of that?

Ken Wimberly: 19:53

Big time. To be the dad that was there and to be the positive influence on my children’s life, because there was so much negative influence surrounding my world as I was growing up, and I wanted to bring a positive influence to these kids and to do whatever I could to make a significant impact in their life.

Rock Thomas: 20:17

How old are your kids now?

Ken Wimberly: 20:18

Grace is 16, Knox is 15, and Kai is three.

Rock Thomas: 20:22

Your 15- and 16-year-olds, how do you believe that they’re absorbing the world? Are they handling it on their own? Are they going through tough times? How’s that working out?

Ken Wimberly: 20:34

Grace had a little period at 14 years old where she was trying to figure out who she was, and she has … At 16, she’s like 16 going on 40. She’s so emotionally intelligent and is just put on this earth to serve others, and she really knows. So she volunteers at her church incessantly. She went on a mission trip last year … Not a mission trip, a group build-on and went and built a school in Senegal, Africa. So she’s organizing the build-on trip this year to go to Nicaragua and build another school.

Rock Thomas: 21:11

Wow.

Ken Wimberly: 21:11

She has a heart of service, and then Knox is figuring his stuff out right now. We’re working through a few things, and it’s just figuring out what crowd are we going to hang out with? Who are we going to let influence our lives right there?

Rock Thomas: 21:26

Nice.

Ken Wimberly: 21:26

So we’re working through some things. Yeah, someone told me a long time ago, “Little kids, little problems. Big kids, big problems.” There’s some truth to that.

Rock Thomas: 21:35

Yeah. So you joined the Mastermind group GoBundance in 2014, was it? ’15, ’13?

Ken Wimberly: 21:44

’15. January 2015.

Rock Thomas: 21:46

Okay. So tell me, how has that influenced your life?

Ken Wimberly: 21:50

It’s been a massive impact from the people that I have met. I met you there. I met so many others there that have just poured into me as a person, from the transparency of the organization. This is what I love about GoBundance is it’s so authentic and transparent about … It’s bearing the soul to who we are and where our issues are and not putting up walls and facades. Through that, we’ve created some really great local groups now here in DFW.

Ken Wimberly: 22:19

It took us a while to get going, but now we’ve got a great local group in DFW. I’ve got a small group that I’m a part of as a GoPod, and we talk every week with this GoPod. Then I’ve got little subgroups that I’ve created within there that is my fitness accountability group that we’ve kind of created. So to have this group of folks that have come together and influenced my life has been really wonderful, not to mention the … Well, I will mention it, because the big part of it was the family portion that kind of rolled out of GoBundance to become FamBundance has meant so much to plug my wife and my children into this common environment there, where we can grow as a family and learn as a family and plan our futures together, which is just uncommon amongst most people.

Rock Thomas: 23:10

Yeah. So there’s a division of GoBundance, which is a tribe of healthy, wealthy, generous men, it started out as, that choose to lead epic lives and don’t apologize for being awesome. Then, from that, it’s morphed out into many, many different divisions of FamBundance, where families get together and kids are taught some of the principles they’re not taught usually in school, as you mentioned. Families get to co-create their vision.

Rock Thomas: 23:35

Then we also have a division of M1 where those people that are not yet millionaires, we help them march toward their millions and multi-millions with a really solid base curriculum that we believe provides them with what we call the guardrails of success, is the type of thinking that allows people to have access to behaviors and habits and rituals that cause them to perform. The interesting thing is that, most of the time, people are like, “Well, when you go to a GoBundance or an M1 event, people are awesome.” People are awesome when they’re put into an environment that allows them to be awesome, and people can be completely unawesome when they’re in environments that allow them to be unawesome.

Rock Thomas: 24:15

So all parts of us have the ability to do all those things. But the more you’re in an ecosystem of greatness … and for you, Keller Williams provided part of that for you, a really learning-based institution with leadership and vision and systems and models and tools and courses that bring the best out of us.

Rock Thomas: 24:36

So for me, I’m like you. I’m not highly educated in traditional school, but I do consider myself a street-smart millionaire and a guy who’s always reading and always learning and very, very curious. I did a talk yesterday, and I said to people … I said, “If you have a work ethic,” which you and I both have, “and you’re passionately curious,” which you and I both are, “you can achieve anything,” because you just continue to show up and learn and apply and show up and learn and apply. Eventually, you’ll figure it out. If you surround yourself with people that can coach and mentor you, then they’ll guide you so that you’re not going to take the longest path. Does that make sense?

Ken Wimberly: 25:21

A ton, and the environment, surrounding yourself with those people and putting yourself in the right environment, is imperative for all of us. That’s what I try to teach folks, people that I coach, and my family and friends. Please surround yourself with the people whom you aspire to be like. Right? Because those are the ones that are going to help you to elevate your game, and those are usually the people, also, that are so generous.

Rock Thomas: 25:46

Yeah.

Ken Wimberly: 25:47

They’re so generous with their time to help you and help you through issues, because the world’s problems have all been seen before. So when any of us encounter something massive that we feel like it’s just unconquerable, a few phone calls to some of these great people we surround ourselves can often help get us there.

Rock Thomas: 26:07

Yeah, yeah. I like that. The world’s problems have all been encountered before. It’s kind of like we get to them and we think, “Oh my God, this is only happening to me.” We can be susceptible to that, right?

Ken Wimberly: 26:18

Yes.

Rock Thomas: 26:18

So let’s do a little inventory, because … I would say the words that follow “I am” are very important, but I would say there’s a part of me that goes, “I’m nothing special. It’s not like I was born into this rich family that had the access to an advantage and that I had a 4.0 GPA and that I was the smartest, the football quarterback, and blah blah.” I wasn’t any of that, but I never gave up aspiring to be the best version of myself, and I will politely put you in that category, too. I think you and I are kind of average folk that never quit being extraordinary. Would you agree?

Ken Wimberly: 26:59

100%. I have a lot of people I’ve known in my life that have stayed at that average level. Right? I’m sure you do, too, that we were friends with, and you just keep plugging at it and keep plugging at it and keep plugging at it and keep educating yourself.

Rock Thomas: 27:15

Yeah.

Ken Wimberly: 27:15

You mentioned you read a lot of books. I read 20 books a year right now, and there’s always something that comes out of some of those books I read that elevate my life to the next level.

Rock Thomas: 27:28

So you’ve got your real estate business, number one in the world. You’ve got your … Tell us a little bit about your laundry business. That’s an interesting twist on the laundry business.

Ken Wimberly: 27:38

Yeah. We got into the laundromat business this year. It was by a fluke. I was actually looking for a tenant for a shopping center we were looking to acquire. Long story short, I ended up getting in the laundromat business, and the beauty of that is, as I got into this or started studying the laundromat industry, it gave me the opportunity to get into business with two people that I had admired a great deal and respected, one of which I was already a partner in a real estate deal with. But he and I formed up with another guy that was just an incredible operational guy, and he’s our operating partner. We have three partners now. We put our heads together, and what do we want this to be?

Ken Wimberly: 28:21

So our concept is called Laundry Luv, L-U-, and laundryluv.com. We are a laundromat with a mission. Right? Our mission is to improve the lives of our customers, our team members, and those in the communities in which we serve. So our laundromats are large store format, brand new machines. We’ve got 100 machines in the store, 6,200 square foot flagship store, dedicated children’s play area in our laundromat.

Ken Wimberly: 28:49

So a place where the kids can come and play. We’ve got blocks and Connect Four and games they can play in this area with soft flooring. They can kind of roll around on. Next to that, we’ve got a dedicated children’s reading area, so little stools and areas with just hundreds of books, where the kids can come and read, because what we learned as we started going through this process was that, in the communities where we serve, they’ere generally lower-income, impoverished communities that go to laundromats. Many of the children don’t have a book in their house, a book. You and I read 20, 30 books a year. These children don’t have a book, and literacy or the lack of literacy is one of the biggest, biggest factors that contributes to prison down the road. Right? Incarceration.

Ken Wimberly: 29:36

So we are using our laundromat as a vehicle to help impact literacy in the world. So we’ve opened up our first. We’ve been open now a little over a couple of months now. Our goal is to become the largest laundromat operator in the world. I think right now, that person has a little more than 120 or 130 units. So our goal is to surpass that. We’ll likely open number two and three and maybe number four next year, in 2020.

Rock Thomas: 30:04

That’s amazing. So it’s interesting. You have love in virtually all of your titles of your businesses. It’s unusual, but it does really say … The words that follow “I am” follow you. That resonates through you. You had an opportunity to say a few negative things about a few things on today’s call, and you’re like, “College, well, you get what you get.” So I think it really has to do with who you are, at the very core level, and the time you spend working on yourself is a beautiful thing. Any other businesses you’re working on?

Ken Wimberly: 30:38

We have a laundromat business. We have, of course, the app business. Our two big ones right there. I’ve got a coaching business, so I do some coaching and consulting for folks in the commercial real estate space, and to help launch a company that’s doing that. Then we’ve still got the commercial real estate brokerage business. Then Amber, my wife, we have a residential real estate brokerage business as well. Oh, and then our Keller Williams franchises. So we have one Keller Williams franchise, getting ready to launch a second. So we’ve got our fingers in a few things.

Rock Thomas: 31:14

That’s amazing. So multiple streams of income, great dad, a beautiful story. As you go forward, how can people follow you, get hold of you? They may want to get into business with you, talk to you. They may want to get your app. What’s the best way for them to reach out to you?

Ken Wimberly: 31:32

Well, come check out our app at legacyoflove.app. So it’s dot A-P-P, Legacy of Love, L-O-V-E, dot app or our laundromat at Laundry Luv, L-U-V, so laundryL-U-V.com, or if you want to get in touch with me via email, it’d be ken@legacyoflove.app. Get in touch with me there. I’m on Facebook, Instagram. Although I’m on there, I’m not a rabid poster, but I am on there, and you can connect with me on those things.

Rock Thomas: 32:00

I will have all of this stuff in the show notes, so you guys will be able to follow up with a wonderful and beautiful human being, Ken Wimberly. Thank you so much for joining us, and let me remind the followers and listeners that the words that follow “I am” follow you. So describe yourself with intention. Maybe define yourself, like Ken did, and then believe that you can just move more and more toward it gradually everyday by showing up and being the best version of yourself. Now you have a new peer group and a new mentor, Ken Wimberly. Thanks so much.

Ken Wimberly: 32:33

Thank you, Rock.

Outro: 32:35

This is the #IAmMovement Podcast. To find out more about how you can join the I Am Movement and take your life to the next level, go to go gom1.com, G-O-M-1 dot com.

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