Best selling author, student of human nature, avid outdoorsman at 5 star hotels, speaks fluent smart ass, can see and reflect your life mission in 5 minutes flat, enjoys his 2 sons and beautiful wife Cory, loves ideas, but loves results even more, can simultaneously laugh and cry for different reasons at the same time.
Lauren: Hi everybody and welcome to the brand new podcast Investing Across Borders. I’m your host Lauren Cohen and I teach people how to invest, live, work, and play across borders, so you can do business pretty much anywhere you want without obstacles or challenges in your
path. I am here with truly one of my favorite people, Jay Fiset, who runs JVology, the perfect mix of people, fun and profits. Hopefully I said that right. His cup says “the best ever”. I’m sure hiswife, his adoring wife, got that for him personally,
Jay: but it’s sort of like it’s a signal. Like, ever!
Lauren: Just fill in the blank with whatever word you want. So not only does Jay teach people how to joint venture properly, actually now I just remembered how we originally connected. We’ll talk about that but Jay really teaches people how to joint venture with, enthusiasm, with passion, and with purpose. And the other thing that Jay teaches and this is something I’m going to ask about just a tiny bit, is that he and his wife Cory are now teaching couples how to find what is the power, the passion within.
Jay: We call it the power between but you know the truth is we’ve ran couples weekends and retreats for basically about 25 years plus or minus, and then we stopped when Cory went home to raise the boys, and we’re just coming back at it but it’s a completely different program than what we taught for decades. But we’re really excited about it so it’s yes, the power between the fundamental premise, is one of two things happens, the power between the members of a couple either leverages and moves us up a vortex of support and brings us together and closer where we magnify one another’s strengths, or we begin to trigger one another and we go into a vortex that goes down so the power between either lifts us or crushes us. And there’s a specific dynamic and a model that we’re teaching that we have lived a multitude of times, it is not a made up theory. Given that we just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary and we courted for 10 years prior to that.
Lauren: So that’s a long time.
Jay: It’s 35 years together yes!
Lauren: You have to reinvent yourself during that time you have to. I know that you’re very open about the fact that you’ve had your share of challenges. We’re not here to have a marriage podcast, but the reality is, I think, every person no matter who they are, whatever type of relationship you’re in, your relationship with your business, and you have a relationship with yourself and have a relationship with your family, and each of those relationships like Jay knows, I’ve had to share a bunch of challenges with my son. That being said, at home over COVID It was awful, and we’re going to go through ups and downs but that relationship between spouses whatever those spouses may be, your partners, and we’re using that term loosely because it can be any definition these days. Right. But that is going to drive you in your business as well, because if your personal relationship is strong and successful yourprofessional relationship and your business is going to be that much stronger because you’re happy at home so it just makes a big difference. So I think that’s a very important part and that you guys are teaching that. It’s awesome so my hat off to you as always.
Jay: Thank you, but it’s gonna be fun and honestly it’s been great for us, and it ties directly into our conversation here in terms of what we’re working on. The next stage of our life in our business of being able to, go on, how we want when we want. Now that it has snowed in Calgary we’ve been searching for condos in Maui. Anyway, I’m being somewhat facetious but, it does provide a whole host of options and opportunities that simply didn’t exist prior to getting your support with getting those visas done. Lauren: Thank you and we’ll talk a little about that but let’s backtrack for a minute so when COVID started, so Jay is one of those people that has, like, truly turned COVID into an opportunity. He has turned this pandemic. In the US, we won’t even go down that road because we know howJay feels about it and I’m in the same boat as you but it’s just had such an impact
on so many business owners, and one of the things that I talk about all the time and I’m so glad to be part of Jay’s high end group and, you know, just be in his presence, is the fact that if you have strong joint venture affiliate relationships your business is going to thrive and I don’t think
anybody’s business has thrived more in this time than your business, is that true?
Jay: Well, yes and it came through a whole variety of pieces. We have, and this is not by the way to poke anyone who’s having a tough time because I know COVID has been difficult, but the hashtag has been the hashtag best pandemic ever. No. Only pandemic we’ve been in as well. So let’s keep our fingers crossed but I believe that there is great truth to that and I acknowledged that I was probably better positioned than many people are in terms of if you happen to, own a bricks and mortar store in a mall that suddenly is closing, there’s no traffic, obviously your spot is a hell of a lot more challenging though with what mine was, which is we do education and primarily led events in the United States that were live and in person so it was
like we were also on the front lines of the damage, meaning, I can’t travel the United States nobody’s coming to a live event this is how we make our living so it wasn’t a complete walk in the park. But I think because of our technological willingness and adaptations those sorts of things, we sort of took a different approach we, relaxed and sort of worked on our relationship and our life and our world and our home and you know 12 million things that we’re sort of hanging out that I’ve been too busy to do, we did that. I started running and between Cory and I we’ve lost 60 pounds. That actually was pretty damn quickly, but what we really did say is, look so this is what’s going on. What is the best use of our time? How do we get reconnected with that part of this heart between, how do we take better care of ourselves, how do we clean up a bunch of what I’m going to call deferred maintenance. I know you’re doing much real estate stuff, so deferred maintenance around our house. And so we just started directing our energy as best we could without any big kerfuffle for that first 90 days, thinking that it would last about 90 days. And then after that it was like okay well, if this is what it is. What do we do, so we began re-adapting our live, in person events into online events. In fact we’ve got another one coming
up next week which is mastermind tamilians live are our program that really launched us in the digital space about nine years ago. And just decided we were going to work with what we’ve got. And give it our best shot and the truth is, this year, even though we probably took three months
off, you know, taking care of life and business and each other and other things. This will be another pretty standard seven figure year with taking three months off and dealing with Covid.
Lauren: So, all the complaining about it. And the beauty is that you were able to adapt and unfortunately it is true, not everybody is able to, and the first event I remember there were little glitches but you have to expect that because you’ve never done an online event this way before,
and it’s very different. However, I see so many people embracing it now it saves a lot of time, a saves a lot of money, saves a lot of headaches, and it allows more people to be in attendance. So when you recently did a hybrid because you did a live, and online events, when you took your Canadian plus one.
Jay: A couple of a bunch of hardy Canadians and a hardy Floridian.
Lauren: She’s not that hearty but she likes Calgary somehow. And I was like, wishing I could be there but here I am in the US not willing to do that quarantine and it was awesome. I mean, you did things that you wouldn’t have been able to do, because it’s a smaller group. You did some
pretty amazing training. Just a testament exactly of how fortuitous and how adaptable. So let’s talk a little bit about where your business is going and why you decided to get a visa, which we just bought like two weeks ago I guess it is now.
Jay: Something like that and actually so you’re impressed that we get there to do the visa, a few weeks ago, and they’re getting ready to stamp getting everything done and so they look at Jackson’s and my youngest son’s and his passport is expired. And I’m like, what? What? So, anyway, so that’s just insane so it is all complete in our hands and finished a couple of weeks ago. Well, so here’s, what happened for me is that back when our Mastermind 2 Million Strand took off, and that’s where we helped coaches, experts, authors first position onto either mastermind group, and to get leverage. It’s where everybody who’s listened to us don’t listen on 2 x speed and sound like the Chipmunks. Like, we should do an event, in my head, and then, as it became clear where most of our clients were, it’s like wait a second, it should be in the US. So we went and did a couple of what I would call joint venture projects in the US, in terms of not having to get a visa, so we had another organization sponsor and do all those sorts of things and I just went and spoke, so to speak. We didn’t know how that was really going to turn out over the long haul, that business was pretty exceptional, we went from zero, you know the brand not existing to about $2.6 million in 14 months. So that just sort of went poof. And we
found ourselves going back and forth to the US, a heck of a lot more than we thought that we were going to. And so, as that whole thing unfolded. I got pretty used to going back and forth, I got to be pretty good friends with the customs folks here in Calgary, it’s like “hey how are you
doing”, but it became clear that as my business evolved as we did more digital work. As we created an entirely new brand called JViology, the perfect mix of people fun and profit that this going back and forth thing was going to continue on. And, you know, frankly, we want to do it
right and we want to figure out how to do it right and what was the best way to do it right, and Lauren I told you this a couple times, that back when I had a partner, a dear friend of mine Joshua helped me build Masterminds Millions together. He has dual citizenship in terms of
going back and forth and we were trying to set up the corporate structures and the trusts and the relationship with, with two of us. It just was so freakin complex, and even though we went down the road a couple, maybe two or three times trying to figure out, we ended up always
hitting this roadblock where I was like well that doesn’t work because of x, whatever the hell X was sometimes it was the ownership of the trust, like it was complex. And then, I think I’m speaking in Colombia and, I don’t know exactly when we first first met but I do know that I was
on your way to Colombia. Yeah, I was sitting in a restaurant, bar in Colombia, eating Colombian sushi, which is a whole different conversation. When you and I had our first conversation and it was just like, we have to get this done, just whatever the hell it’s going to take, whatever those
roadblocks have been in the past we just needed to handle. And, you know, I don’t know what the timeframe was, I know there was a bunch of paperwork and details that you needed from me and paperwork and details are not my thing at all. But by the time we got the whole thing
done here, by the time we got the wheels on the bus, you know, this just gives us the freedom to do in North America fundamentally what we want, where we want, how we want, on what terms that we want without any consideration and I can bring the family. We don’t have to worry
about any of those pieces, we don’t have to count days. If we want to set up a secondary home or home base in terms of doing work in the US, that’s a possibility as well, and not anything else. I think 40 probably in the limit right now searching, looking for condos in Maui. So from the
perspective of an international entrepreneur, it was a little bit weird, but from the perspective of an international entrepreneur, those foundational pieces just have to be done. And honestly, it took us too long to get it done. It was not for lack of trying, but we just couldn’t get it through until
working with you, quite frankly, and there were some changes in that partnership arrangement, we did a whole bunch of things that evolved in that timeframe, but honest to goodness it wasn’t that we were ignoring it. We were trying to get the damn thing done properly.
Lauren: I think the other thing is Jay, you know especially for me with my clients, it’s not just a client, when I met you, it was an immediate like, brother, sister kind of thing where we got on well on so many levels. And I think that it’s that trust factor for me, with, especially my Canadian
clients for obvious reasons, but, you know, working with sometimes, I’m saying this in a public forum, but working with Americans or Canadians is sometimes not an easy thing because there is a trust factor or a lack thereof, or a presumption of what do you have, what are you up to,
what are you looking for, what’s your ulterior motive? When it’s from with me I think that you knew that my ulterior motive was the same as yours, which was getting you through that process and, and I don’t take on a million clients, because I can’t give them the attention that I
need to give like the, you know, like knowing every step of the way exactly what’s going on, you can do that for 100 clients or 50 clients, you can only do it for a certain number. And that’s why I’m very selective about the clients I work with and it really like I did not sleep that weekend
before you went for your interview, I was like, oh my god. It was Monday and then Monday I said, so how did it go? And tomorrow and another day! So, you know, at the end of the day it’s just such a pleasure to be able to help you to create that, based on what you’re going to
springboard to the world because, unfortunately, Canada is seldom going to provide that for you. It doesn’t have the prowess, even during this disastrous election, it’s challenging. And so I just wanted to kind of clarify the fact that it’s normal to go through what Jay went through, of
trying to figure out what the heck am I doing, and am I doing it well?
Jay: And even on that note, I think some people are more in touch with their worry than others. So for me I wasn’t all that worried about the interview like I was, I was excited and a little edgy would be the best way I would put it, but I tell you what, when we left and it was done, I felt like
10,000 pounds had been lifted off my shoulders, but you want to hear one one funny little thing. I created more reports about US, because we had that preparation coupled, so I created reports about our US sales and us customers did all sorts of things and we get there and the lady’s
going through and she asked me a couple of, sort of, what seemed like almost unrelated questions and then she says to me, “ So, this Canadian company that apparently you’ve had for a while, can you get show me some financials or something out of that” and it’s like “that
corporation is 30, years old I could bring you truckloads of it, but I wasn’t asked to”. Ask me anything, I will tell you whatever the hell you want, but it’s like we didn’t bring that. It’s been 30 freaking years. Anyway so we went through that back and forth. I’m sorry, seriously!. And then
at the end it was all good, but I did think that was funny as hell, it was like the one question, and the one that I had all the data for right, well, we didn’t bring that.
Lauren: That’s like the first time when Krista came to Calgary, and we did all that prep. So that she would because it was an essential essential travel we did all that prep and had her ready to go. You know, there’s no such thing as over preparation, I think, unfortunately, you cannot
control these Customs and Border people, you are prepared and I knew that you were going to nail it no matter what because that’s what you do. You say you were edgy, you weren’t nervous because you’re not a nervous person, what do you have to be nervous about? So Jay, tell us a
little bit about why you felt and feel and what you’re doing next, that the US is the best place to be able to do that from, why is it so important for you to have that visa?
Jay: Well, you know, the simplest answer is that in a shocking surprising way, in the online digital marketing world, the vast majority of that population currently exists in the United States, particularly if you’re English speaking. That’s it. The Europeans aren’t as not let’s call it “click
happy” or “buy happy” in terms of digital marketing and all those pieces. The Australians are a little bit more like the Canadians. Number one, there’s not as many of them and we’re a little bit more on the cautious side. So for us it was just very simple, I decided, probably 10 years ago I
was gonna learn this thing called Digital Marketing. And most of the digital marketing gurus people that I hired to learn from, I lived in the US, so that was a bunch of trips going that way. But when the dust settles we actually mastered what it takes to create and generate a sale online. When we get looking at it’s like 90 to 93% of all of our purchasers are from the United States. And then the other 7 or 8% is actually divided, half of its Canadians. And then the other half is scattered all over the world. So it’s just as simple as this, if we’re going to serve our clients in a more meaningful manner, if we’re going to be able to provide events, community, all those pieces, that’s an imperative piece and as you know we’re building the world’s first joint venture, matching platform driven by artificial intelligence, and that we were just approved for the scientific research and development grant of Canada, which means it’s a kind of rubber stamp. This doesn’t exist anywhere on planet earth and the government of Canada will give a tax incentive to build the thing out because they think it’ll do something great for them, for Canada and the world. So we’re about to embark upon that piece but again, that program or that platform is a SAS platforming software, as a service people are going to be buying on a monthly basis. And what we can tell, again, going back to population, and people utilizing digital tools and all those sorts of things. The lion’s share of our clients in that process are again going to be Americans. So it just, it just makes perfect 100% sense, if we’re serving primarily an American audience and our significant portion of our income is coming from the United States. We have to have all of the T’s crossed and the I’s dotted to make sure that we can go back and forth and do what we want, when we want, how we want, to build and serve those businesses and of course you know obviously, in terms of the visa piece, and of course contribute to the, to the American economy and of course hire Americans in terms of our staff and our team. Do all of the pieces that just make sense to serve our American customers easier, smoother and more joyfully.
Lauren: When you make sense, and that’s why you’ve got to speak up because that’s the story, the analogy. When people ask me, who is your ideal client, I say Jay. Why, because truthfully, there’s two types of clients that I work with, one is the client that setting up a business here and wants to move here and create a life here and send their kids to school here, that’s the typical client that most immigration lawyers in the US work with. J is not that client, because Jay is not moving here, and that’s okay. His kids play hockey. He likes snow somehow. Somehow I don’t know how I’m Canadian. I mean I like it on the ground, I don’t like it when the car and the boots and the shoveling.
Jay: And it’s a Make Work Project let’s be clear. And we trade to make work projects for happy kids and hockey.
Lauren: I don’t ever have happy kids and hockey, I thank God I have a happy kid at baseball. And it’s funny because when he was born, you know being a Canadian American born in America, but he has a Canadian mom and Canadian citizenship. What did they say in Canada, whenever a boy is born, he’s going to be a hockey player. I didn’t hear that from anybody in America, what’s gonna be a football player, football, but the point is that Jay’s not moving here. However, the goal of getting that Visa, is the freedom, the flexibility, the ability to go back and forth, transverse borders, without the challenges so that he can truly live and work anywhere. If he wants to play anywhere, invest anywhere he wants, we could do it, you know, we can set up real estate investing, whatever and you don’t need to have to move or even want to move. Now there are some people that want to. And there are some people that need to in Jay’s case, he is just running a business across borders so it made perfect sense. And that’s the beautiful thing, Jay is that perfect client who knows what he’s doing. You know, you may not have paperwork, but he knows the business and he had everything that we needed to show the story and so thank you for being my number one favorite client, and I’m getting some new ones now that are
going to give you a run for your money just wait.
Jay: I am glad to hear that. You know one of the things that I think we should talk about here just while we’re on this note because I’ve talked to, you know, some friends and associates of mine who are Canadian are going back and forth, and it’s just another part of the answer to the question. You’d ask but why do it? And all those pieces and, sometimes they’re a little rattled by the price, It’s “well that seems like a lot of money”, well, it’s not an insubstantial amount of money, let’s make no mistake about it. But you know what, if you’re making more than $100,000 from your American clients. And if your travel going back and forth to service those clients, it’s necessary to earn that $100,000. And for us, obviously we’re closer to a couple million in that process, maybe $100,000 if you have to go back and forth to do that, then you need a visa, and that amount of money is a small amount of money particularly amortized over five years and is a frickin joke, compared to what we’re talking about for the capacity to number one, service clients, already having to grow and scale a business and, you know, the largest consumer marketplace in North America, like that just makes sense. And I think people are sometimes a little short sighted about what that investment actually is, so just to me, one of the pieces, if
you’re sitting there, “so I wonder if I should do this?” So you know how I’ve been talking to people is, “you have $100,000 a year in American sales?”. “Yes. You need to go and talk to those folks on a regular basis? Yes. Then you need a visa, it’s just that simple”. So, you would probably, in the climate that’s coming that’s going to get more and more complex, and it is going to not be pleasant, how many years of $100,000 of income would you like to lose.
Lauren: Right now on top of that, not just lose but face it, not even being able to come into the country if you don’t have the right papers in place, and that’s a big challenge too. As you’re saying this then, one of the things that I’ve discussed with some of our colleagues, mainly in Canada is the differential or the, I guess the conflict between price versus value. Right. And, obviously, everybody, just like with Joint Ventures, you can find a cheap way to go, or you can find the right way to go. And it’s the same with lawyers, and same with consultants, the same with coaches, speakers, authors, experts, entrepreneurs, all the people that Jviology serves and Masterminds Millions, but the point is that is what I do and I think the reason that it worked for Jay is because Jay is busy. He is very busy. I had to go around some circles to get thim on this podcast today. He didn’t even know that he was being interviewed, he thought he was coaching me, and I simply was ready for the podcast. And he’s like, what? because I have to kind of go through some hoops with his wife and I had to go fix my hair. But, the point is that he’s busy, and he doesn’t have time to deal with which lawyer should I hire? How should I set up the entity, where should I set up the entity? What is my business plan going to look like, how do I do
this? You know, yes, at the end of the day, everybody’s going to have to pull together their own documents I can’t do that for you, but everything else I’m going to do for you so you don’t have to think and you don’t have to be stressed and if you are stressed, I’m going to look after that stress because that’s the thing that I bring to the table. And that’s why I say I can’t have 100 clients because I would never sleep, literally.
Jay: And the other thing too is just to add to that as well, is that sometimes when all the documents come together as happened for me, as the visa that we thought we were going to be going for it was, like wait a second, there’s a more direct route here, there’s a far easier path. And I just had to be one of, I think, an uncommon group of people that just qualified for that much more direct path, given how our process unfolded. But I think that’s the other thing as well is just to be with somebody who has enough expertise, because at first glance, it was like well I guess we should do this. And as we get closer, it’s like, that’s not necessary at all. And that probably saved me. And now I spend that money anyway, but it probably saved me in terms of having to prove and chase down all the rest of it. $100, $150,000 investment into the US, by going through the alternative approach that we discovered halfway down the road, maybe 20% down the road, a percentage.
Lauren: So yeah, I remember I was at a baseball game, as it turns out, so I’ll just share briefly and then I’ll probably let you go, what Jay is referencing is the E2 versus the E1 visa. The E2 is a Treaty Investor visa, the one is a Treaty Trader visa. Jay, and we originally thought we were
going to apply for a treaty investor visa because obviously he’s well invested in the US, and in business here, but the reality is that without bricks and mortar and without actually running the business here, it’s sometimes a little more challenging to prove your investment and that’s why
he was saying that, I may have had to invest another $100 to 150,000 US not Canadian, just clarifying. So we did the E1 visa because Jays business is really trading back and forth with this Canadian business and other Canadian entities that he is participating with. And so there was an opportunity to show that substantial trade in goods and or services with your home country, which is Canada, and that’s the visas that we chose because it made a lot more sense he already had invoices to prove that this trade was going on, and they’re going to be ongoing, so it’s an easy threshold to me, for him, but you know it’s also a great reason for somebody that’s not planning to live in the US. So, and I call it in my book The Forgotten Visa, because not a lot of people even look at that visa as an option. Everybody’s always like, “Oh, how much did you invest”, and, you know, the common thing is to go for the E2 but the E1 is available. So Jay, tell everybody how to find you. How to join your amazing, amazing group, how to participate with
you as a coach because I will tell you the journey has changed the way that I think about my business despite me helping him with the Visa. He has helped me in so many ways and I’m so grateful so please share your info with everybody.
Jay: Well I think perhaps the easiest way to find me, and what we’re up to is our core website which is jviology.com, and that will split you off into a variety of things that we have going on in the world. If you want to try and chase me down on Facebook I’m not very difficult to find there as well as just Jay Fiset, and if you’re interested in anything in the realm of Joint Ventures digital marketing, face to face Heart Heart communities that actually really help people to secure a steady stream of perfectly qualified leads for free and recurring passive income from serving your clients better with Joint Venture Partners. That’s our wheelhouse, we do that exceptionally well.
Lauren: They really do. It’s a great, great community to be a part of. I’m very proud to have been able to have an impact on the business and on you and your family, and I’m looking forward to being in Cabo and masterminding with all of the other JGiology folk. Then you want to just share quickly about the Cabo event in February?
Jay: Sure, we are so freaking excited to be in Cabo in February, because we have six inches of snow in Calgary In November, but that event is what we call sort of the top tier of our community which is, these are folks that are experienced in digital marketing njv’s. We come together, it’s a
very casual event it’s two and a half days where each person, basically does a JV invitation, does masterminding, gives a gift of generosity to everyone in the room, and quite literally people leave doing six figure deals, seven figure deals, like it is stunning. So we are going on February
21 to the 28th so it’s a one week time at a beautiful adult only resort because we have the assumption that if you have kids, and you’ve been homeschooling you probably would like to have a degree.
Lauren: Yes, it’s just why you’re homeschooling or not, it’s still good to have a break
Jay: Yes! So that’s coming up and we have a really high caliber group of people that are traveling there that I am so, so, so excited about. So, yeah, if anyone’s interested that, the site for that is JViology summit.com. And we’re gonna be hanging out in Cabo for a week having a fabulous time, and all things going well in terms of the little latest COVID crackdown, my assumption is that little COVID crackdown will get back to normal and the good news is both Canadians and Americans can scoot off to Mexico, at least for what Mexico’s current standards are, is good. And I think the only thing to say is that if for some reason if you wanted to play with that and if for some reason you can’t do it. Basically everything is refundable, so you don’t have to worry about your hotel or the flights or all those sorts of things, if it gets locked down then you’ll get your money back for all those pieces and then we’ll do a summit in a different way, in a different time, in a different place.
Lauren: Hey, if somebody wanted to be a part of that they would have to qualify, you’re not just letting everybody in, there’s a process right?
Jay: Yeah there’s an application that just makes sure that they’re at the level that we need them and then I do a personal interview with each and every one of them, make sure that we’re all in the same spot and away we go.
Lauren: Awesome. Well, Jay, it’s a pleasure as always, and I thank you, I’m so glad that I could scan some time in your calendar, I actually have another time scheduled for that legal discussion we need to have, so I look forward to that, you have a great weekend and stay
warm.
Jay: Thanks. Talk soon.
