The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
From Door-to-Door Sales to Multi-Million Deals: Justin Colby’s Brutal Entrepreneur Truths
08 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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I literally came to the table with a $550,000 condo with three grand to close the transaction.
Isn't that insane? You guys are probably listening to this like, they're lying.
I think in the next 18 to 24 months, the government gets back there.
Trump just put something out saying like, yo, I'm going to try to pass this bill to surpass Congress and we're able to expedite this.
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Hey, guys, and welcome back to Level Up Podcast. This is Paul Alex. Guys, we are currently ranked top three in all categories, and we are currently number one in business because of you guys, the viewers, and the listeners. Guys, we are trying to reach 5 million downloads this month.
We have some special guests coming on board as well, some special interviews, and it's all because of you guys, okay? I'm pretty excited about this. People that I've never, ever would have been able to talk to you If I didn't have the podcast. But once again, it's all because of you guys. With that being said, I want to introduce you guys to a very special friend of mine.
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Chapter 2: What harsh lessons did Justin Colby learn after losing it all?
So Justin, for my listeners and viewers that do not know you, who are you, brother, and exactly what do you do right now?
Yeah, I've been in the real estate space for almost 20 years. I'm 44 years old, so it's funny to say that, right? You don't even go to school for that long. So I've been doing real estate since I got out of college. Went to UCLA. Born in the Bay Area, so you know I loved that lid the second I saw it. That's it? That's it. Went to UCLA, never used my degree ever.
Went straight into door-to-door sales, selling credit card processing. Love it. And so I wish I knew you then. I would maybe not even be in real estate. Yeah. But yeah, so then I went, I've been an entrepreneur through and through. My childhood was difficult as many people have it. I had alcoholic mom, dad, and stepdad. Moved out when I was 14. So I have the story, but it's not a woe is me.
I hope people hear some of that and can relate and say, okay, I can make it. I can get there. And so I've always had this entrepreneur, like I need to go make it myself.
Chapter 3: How can entrepreneurs build unshakable confidence during tough times?
So as a kid, I would borrow money from my mom, borrow, you know, like I would say, hey, mom, let's go to the credit card or not the credit card, the baseball card store. Give me 20 bucks. I'll be back in 20 minutes. So she would. And I had to buy a box of cards that was only $20 then. Now it's like $300 or something crazy.
I would open it in front of the store owner, wholesale him, wholesale prices the cards he wanted so he could sell them at retail. And I would give my mom the $20 back and I would have $20. And I didn't realize then what I was doing. I was just hustling. But I had this entrepreneurial spirit. On the day of recycling, I would go drive my bicycle around. I would take the cans and the bottles.
I would take them from all the neighbors instead of the truck. I would go drive them down to the recycling bin. I would get the penny or five cents for it. And I have all these different stories of how I did that. And so when I got out of college, I realized I wanted to go create. It was like I didn't have a dream to have a W-2 job. I didn't want to be an accountant or whatever.
And so I went into sales.
Chapter 4: Why is the coming market shift seen as an opportunity?
That led me into the real estate space back in 2007, which was a tricky time to get started in real estate. Oh, yeah. But here I am now in 2025. And so I've done thousands and thousands of real estate transactions. I've been teaching how to do that for over a decade as well.
I run several different companies, a tech company, and I have a bunch of different entrepreneur ventures that you and I were talking about off camera. But through and through, I've been real estate forever. I'll always be in real estate. And my real passion is people. So stuff like this.
My podcast, just like you know, has made so many introductions, opened up so many doors, brought me so many places. And so now, like, I'm all in on the podcasting thing as you are, right? Like, you're number one, I'm number seven. Like, It's great to make this much impact on people and see what comes from it.
No, it's huge, man. And I like that. You basically summarized the entire interview, brother. All right, we're done here.
I hope you guys liked it.
Which is good, which is good because it gives us a lot of things to talk about. So let's start off with you as a kid actually taking that step as being an entrepreneur, dude. Yeah.
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Chapter 5: What distinguishes entrepreneurs who succeed from those who quit?
Did you have anybody mentor you or tell you to actually take those actions as a kid that led you to become an entrepreneur?
Yeah, I didn't. None of my family really did anything big, right? I don't want to say we were like... like I always had Christmas presents, right? But I didn't come from money either, right? There wasn't like extra money for vacations and extra money for nice dinners. The things that you and I now as adults were able to provide, I didn't have.
And I think it was that drive, that chip on the shoulder I just knew there was more. I was like, dude, this isn't it. Like, you know, coming home in the middle of the day at school and your mom's passed out drunk on the kitchen floor at 2 p.m., like, this isn't it. There's more. And so it just kept driving me. And the chip on my shoulder created this, like –
It started with I wanted to be loved as a kid. I want to be seen. I was never seen as a kid. Again, this is not a woe is me. I know everyone has a story. It's just that's where I came from through a lot of therapy, I realize this. And so it was like, okay, I want to be seen. So I wanted to create something to be seen. And then I was never the smartest in school.
I know I went to UCLA, but I had to work my face off to get there.
Dude, and props, man, because I always tell people like college, don't not college.
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Chapter 6: How can one strategically rebuild their life after setbacks?
You know, when I have my kid coming in like two months, dude, and like he's going to go to college. Like it's mandatory. If he wants access to me, he's going to have to go to college, dude. I'm like, yo, OK, we can start a business after we can do whatever the hell you want. I don't care.
Yeah.
But college is just to me, it's the principle of it.
I love it. It's a flex, dude. Well, especially in today's world, right? It shows that you can accomplish something if nothing else. You're disciplined enough. That you did it, right? And so to me then it was a function of all my friends were going like I had the smart friends. So they went to Stanford, UCLA, Brown. Yep.
And then I ended up going to a junior college out of high school because literally my GPA was like a 2.8. Yeah. So then I felt bad. I was like, oh, I'm the dumb friend. So that put a chip on my shoulder. Let me show them all I'm not the dumb friend.
And at the age of 18, when you're getting out of high school, to be separated from a friend's dude, that gives you more encouragement because you're like, why me? Everybody else was able to do it, but I wasn't.
Yeah. And it gave me that chip. So now I kind of have these two chips on my shoulders, which explains my journey. But one is I want to be seen. I want people to notice me. Two, I know I can go achieve it. Let me go show them I can. And so I started this like I'm worthy like drive and it just never stopped. And so once I got to UCLA, then I had to keep grades at UCLA, which is brutally difficult.
Right. Right. And then I had to graduate UCLA, which is another fun story. My last final. So I was an English major. My last final was like a 15 page paper.
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Chapter 7: What role does faith play in overcoming entrepreneurial challenges?
It's my last, like I'm graduating. I fully plagiarize it word for word. Now I thought I was trying to be smart. So how I did it was not from the internet. I went to the library and I took books, real books, and I wrote down word for word. So I like try to be smart. Like they're not going to catch me. All that software is for the online stuff, right? They're not going to catch me.
Bro, I'm in Europe. UCLA had this thing. When you're poor enough, you get grants. So they had this grant for summer education, whatever. So I took them up on it. So I'm in Europe having a great time, and I get an email from the dean. Asking to come into the office.
And you don't get emails from the dean, bro. Unless you're in trouble. So what happens at that moment? That day, dude, you get that email. You're just like, oh, shit.
You're probably sick. I freak out. I literally, like, lose it. Because I know exactly, like, the dean does. So I know what it's for. So there was a sense of calm. Like, I got caught.
Right?
Like, okay, I know what it's about.
Yeah.
But, like, just my whole life, you think you're over, right? At eight or whatever I was, what, 21, like, you think it's over. Like, I'll never get a job. No one's going to want me. This is back to no one's going to want me. I'm not seen. Now I'm the idiot that, like, you literally think it's catastrophic, and it's not. Nothing happened. They basically said, hey, we're going to fail you.
Take the class over again. Okay, so I did.
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Chapter 8: How can consistent action lead to success in real estate?
No, you don't. No, you don't. Because I was a completely different person when I was 21, when I was 25, even when I was 28, dude. I didn't start changing and really start having some real common sense into my 30s. And I was, dude, I was a detective. I was doing all these great things. But I'm telling you, like, I just, I didn't know myself, dude. I was hiding behind my work.
I was avoiding a lot of shit to help myself level up. And a lot of it, a lot of people need inner work. I needed a lot of inner work. I still need a lot of inner work, dude. It's a continuous job to do, right? So, Okay, that's good, man. So out of college, I mean, you go ahead, you take the class again, you graduate.
What does your family feel about you being a college graduate, especially from UCLA?
So they were so proud. And one of the things that I loved, right, so my mom passed early. My mom passed when I was 22, 23. Sorry to hear that. Yeah, but she saw me graduate. Oh, that's bad. So I was great. Okay, okay. So I really love that. And it gave a sense of pride to my family. Like, wow. Like, literally, my family to this day, like, my aunt and my uncle, like, we were just so proud.
Like, you got to UCLA. Like, we did not expect that out of you. Like, I was never a dumb kid, but, like... Never a high achiever either, right? So to hear my family even just say how proud they were, so that was really good. But to kind of go all the way to the point of did someone give me an example? There wasn't that. And it just came from like I knew I wanted more.
And then just like when my friends got into colleges that were really hard to get into, it drove me. So to some extent my answer is this, like – I saw them do that. I'm like, I can do that. Yeah, I can do that. They did it. I can do it. So I did. Then I went to UCLA and then we graduate college and I go into sales because I don't really know what I want to do.
I'm doing door to door sales, selling credit card processing, all this stuff. Right.
What made you go into sales, dude? Did you have like a friend at the time? I was like, hey, bro, I'm about to go to sales. You want to go? And you were like, fuck it.
My buddy at UCLA was going to go start a real estate brokerage, but his point was like, let me go learn it first. Don't just let's do it together because I don't know what's going to happen. Yeah, smart.
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