Respect The Grind with Stefan Aarnio: Recent Episodes
Stefan Aarnio High Performance | Real Estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Certif
Respect The Grind with Stefan Aarnio is a podcast for high achievers and real world grinders. Listen to award winning real estate investor, Stefan Aarnio, discuss success with people who have achieved mastery and freedom through discipline. Stefan interviews entrepreneurs, athletes, authors, artists, real estate investors, or anyone who has achieved mastery and examines exactly what it takes to get there. If you want to learn how peak performers operate and dominate, then tune in to Respect The Grind with Stefan Aarnio!
Mar Lou is a father of three wonderful boys and a husband to a supportive wife. Mar Lou joined the Blackcard community 2 years ago as a Bronze Student. He was then coached by Sean Lacap and now being coached by Jason Greschuk as a Platinum Student.
Mar Lou is a whale for wholesale deals. He has the talent and perseverance to get things done accordingly. He is humble and knowledgeable, being a young father he took advantage of it to relate with the sellers, gaining their utmost trust. Now he is teaching and exposing his eldest son on what real estate really is and the knowledge and value they can gain from it.
Of course all success stories have a rather unpalatable past. Before he began this journey, Mar Lou had spent his saved up money to buy his own property and use it as a rental after reading Rich Dad Poor Dad. Being a landlord was not easy and simply not a pleasant experience for him. He was losing more-than gaining from it. That’s when he told himself he had to take a different route.
“and then I heard about Stefan Aarnio, curiosity got the best of me, I searched who he was and now I am here!”
He now has almost a dozen doors of rental properties, gaining him almost a million in equity in such a short amount of time. In addition he also built a multi six figure wholesaling business.
Mar Lou believes that not limiting the knowledge you’re willing to share with people to achieve such success in life would be an honour to look forward to.
It is better to sell one $1,000 hot dog than to sell one thousand $1 hot dogs. That’s why Stefan Aarnio chose to get into real estate. Selling one hot dog for $1,000 makes so much more profit, requires less effort, and has less customers and overhead than a high-volume business.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, you’ll learn all about the three business models: the horizontal, the vertical, and the diagonal. You have no idea where thinking big could take you, so there is nothing wrong with asking for more dollars for a single hot dog. Compare a $1 hot dog to a $1,000 hot dog, which cart would you rather own?
“I got into real estate because in music I was selling hundreds of $1 “hot dogs,” whereas in real estate, I could sell a few $1,000 “hot dogs” and make a much better living.”
Baseball is America’s favorite pastime, and believe it or not, baseball and entrepreneurship have many things in common. Many baseball terms are also used in business, and today, Stefan Aarnio will be focusing on his favorite terms: “single” and “home run”.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, you’ll learn how business and baseball are closely intertwined. You’ll be taking a lot of value with you as well, for you’ll be having a glimpse at business and the entrepreneurship world from a fresh and fun perspective. Are you ready to switch to the major leagues?
“In my own business, I decided to swing for a home run at the start of my career; the payoff was high if I succeeded, but defeat would absolutely crush my investors and myself if I failed.”
Cash flow is the goal of most long-term, buy-and-hold investors. Cash flow is the dream and the allure of real estate. Even though cash flow is a concept that excites most people, it is often what makes people leave the business as well.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, Stefan Aarnio breaks down the glorified “cash flow” concept for you. You’ll understand what it really is, why it is not a synonym for profit, and how you can make money from all the information in this chapter.
“Everyday in every market, there are new investors who absolutely hate real estate. They are in pain and want to get out of the market. Find these investors; relieve their pain, and get paid handsomely to take their pain away.”
Flipping real estate is one of the most sensationalized forms of real estate investing around today. This is a very popular and romanticized real estate strategy, but many flippers are uneducated, unsophisticated investors who can lose their shirts if they play the game wrong.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, you’ll learn about the one biggest calculation mistake flippers and new investors make, spoiler alert: if used, it will absolutely kill you. Stefan will provide you with his 15% rule to appropriately calculate profit. From the final sale price to the financing, carrying and insurance, this formula will make everyone happy, especially you.
“If your deal still makes sense after applying the 15% rule, you have a great deal.”
You don’t have to be a genius to make profit. In fact, the best entrepreneurs in the world are even college dropouts. Business is a simple game, so you should always keep it simple. If you’re having a hard time making money, you’re probably messing up and making your life tougher.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, Stefan Aarnio will teach you the importance of finding audiences instead of creating them. You’ll learn the valuable formula for no-risk profits, and important lessons Stefan learned through his own experiences. Stop making your life so hard, find your audience and give them what they really want.
“The lesson that I have learned from my experiences is to know your audience inside and out. Know what they want; know what they don’t want and make sure you deliver at the right price.”
A man alone is nothing. A group of men is nothing, and they need women to have a future. Men must compete for women, but there is a point where men become weak around women. They say that when a woman loves a man, he becomes her strength, but when a man loves a woman, she becomes his weakness. When a man falls in love, he surrenders and is willing to do just about anything for the woman he loves.
Women, relative to men, are a double-edged sword. Women possess a high sexual value and are willing to trade it for power. They are aware of their own value, and will do anything to protect it and ensure their own survival, even betraying their partner for a stronger man. Women are creators and destroyers, in a world of weak men, they’ll do what it takes to find a strong man.
Has it ever crossed through your mind that Coca-Cola and drug dealers share a lot of things in common? Addictive products, insane profit margins, and concentrated producers are some of the features both share. The success of both models lies in the fact that “everyone who touches the product gets paid”.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, Stefan Aarnio compares the addicting soda with illicit activities’ to prove a point to an important statement: everyone who touches the product gets paid. This strategy is relevant for you and your business, since you want everyone to be paid, well and happy to work with you.
“Learn from Coca-Cola and drug dealers, and implement the “pay-everybody” strategy in your business. If you build a good program and stick with it, then you will see fantastic results in thirty days or less.”
Christianity is nearly 500 years ahead of Islam in ideology, because Christianity is 500 years older than Islam. During this time, Christianity has had more time to grow, explore, and move from an intolerant warrior culture to a tolerant, pacifist, female-ruled culture. This 500 year gap is the reason we find Islamic practices so barbaric and medieval. So, should we let the violent, intolerant, militant people from Islam into our pacifist, tolerant, and weak society from the West? What do you think will happen?
America embraces the melting pot ideology where you become American when you emigrate to America. Here’s the problem though, America also believes in religious freedom, so when Islam moves in, they do not have to assimilate into the melting pot. What will happen when the western families are outnumbered by the poor families of the welfare system? In 50 years, Muslim refugees descendants won’t even have to invade, they will already be settled in and ready to enslave the weakened and subverted Americans. Are you willing to allow the demise of our nation?
Speed is a virtue in all arenas and it is a key to victory. In the wild and in business, it takes to be fastest to be at the top. In real estate investing, speed marks the biggest difference between a novice, an intermediate and an advance investor.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, Stefan Aarnio breaks down the models and strategies he prefers in his real estate career. From wholesaling to buy-fix-sell, you’ll learn all about fast strategies to stop wasting your most important currency: time. Hop on and leave the slow, “residual” businesses behind.
“Money can be manipulated and recreated if it is lost; Time is lost forever when wasted, and it is the real limiting factor in any business.”
After the mind shifting lessons he received from his jungle tour guide, Stefan Aarnio was ready to take action. He had set himself an ambitious 100 deals goal for the next year, and he would need to raise from three to five million dollars, all cash, no banks. Up to this point he had shyly asked people for money, now he had to raise millions of dollars on a cocktail napkin.
If you are going to get rich, you have to get rich by using someone else’s money. In this episode you’ll learn why becoming a capitalist is so important in the business world, and why a simple strategy repeated 100 times is much better than a single complex strategy. Raising capital is the main skill of entrepreneurs, it is not the time to be shy!
“If you want to survive in the real world as an entrepreneur, you must learn to become a capitalist because raising capital is the #1 skill of the entrepreneur.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
Between the top of the market and the bottom of the market is “no man’s land”, also known as the middle of the market. Being in the middle represents a huge threat, because this is where recessions destroy businesses and entrepreneurs. There is no loyalty in the middle market, it is a savage place to be.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, you will learn about the importance of avoiding belonging to the middle market. If you play in the middle you have a high risk of being wiped out by a recession. Play smart, stay focused on the top or the bottom, and make your customers either want you or need you.
“There is loyalty at the top, as long as you are the best. There is loyalty at the bottom, as long as you are the cheapest.”
It’s one thing to survive in the jungle, but it’s another thing to thrive. Stage 5 real estate investors are undisputed kings and queens of the jungle, and usually there are only a handful of these entrepreneurs luring from the shadows.
What do Warren Buffet and Donald Trump have in common? They’re both rich, but they became rich by raising money. Never underestimate the power of using other people’s money to manage deals. In Stage 5, you must become a capitalist, after that, the world of the billionaires is around the corner.
“So I guess I have to become a capitalist if I want to be rich in real estate.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
In every war, the winner gets to write history, and cleaning up the history books is a way to strike first as a victorious empire. Nazi Germany killed millions of people in WWII, but since Germany lost the war, in history books they are demons to say the least. America committed genocide with the American Indians and yet it is romanticized by pop culture in the cowboy and western genres. Why strike back when you can strike first?
When we look at dystopian novels that were written decades ago, it is alarming to notice the similarities they share with our modern world. George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World have traits that are manifesting as a reality for us. Where do men fit in with the future of the Empire? How long can this Empire last?
Why do so many smart, educated “A” students with high-priced aducations struggle to make a living while total morons can win big profits in real estate? Stefan Aarnio thinks real estate is one of the few industries where investors or owners can be absolute morons and still win. The answer to the question has to do more with the industry and less with the individual and his traits.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, you will learn about the six natural profit centers of real estate. While other industries can only profit through a single center, in real estate there are six different ways in which you can make money come your way. Get inspired and ready to take action, who knows? Maybe you’ll hit the jackpot on your next deal.
“It’s always easier to be on the outside of the market wishing you were in than to be on the inside wishing you were out.”
In Stage 4 it is time for you to control cash-flowing assets. If you make it this far in your real-estate business, then you have now proved yourself as a money-making machine and you are earning a sizable amount of cash. The fourth stage of any business is to control cash-flowing assets, but unfortunately this type of business is screwed up badly by most people.
In this chapter, you’ll learn all about cash-flowing assets and why investing in transitional zones that yield the greatest appreciation is the way to go. No one has ever got rich off cash flow, instead, you get rich on equity. Discover Stefan Aarnio’s 3 ingredient formula for success and how you can get filthy stinking rich.
“If you buy the right property in the right neighborhood with the right management and the right finance, this is one of the best ways to get filthy stinking rich!”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
The Western World loves the Star Wars and The Hunger Games franchises, their plots and protagonists. We cheer for the rebels, we cheer for the barbarians but we fail to recognize that in reality, we are the evil empire, not the rebellion. Why is it so hard for us to see our own evil and our own darkness? It’s because tribally, our killers are good, moral, and justified.
In the real life of tribal competition, the losers are brutally eliminated from the gene pool. We have become so weak that we cannot even see the barbaric invasion and war of ideology that are happening right in front of our faces. We are blinded by false empathy and compassion when history has proven that ignorant people will kill their liberator without hesitation. Bringing truth to the masses is an extremely dangerous business, but it is part of being a leader, and crucial to guarantee the survival of the tribe.
In investing, there are two major schools of thought: fundamental investors and technical traders. Both strategies can be successful, and both can make a lot of money. Both strategies should be used together to create cash both immediately and in the future.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, you will learn the basics of the investment strategies used in real estate, while Stefan Aarnio shares his own strategies and advice. Always pay close attention to the customers, specifically the loaded ones. Determine the strategy that suits you best and begin assembling your team!
“The beauty with real estate is that there is something for everyone and the more creative you get with a strategy (generally), the more money you can make.”
Stage 3, creating amazing products, is where real estate becomes a full-blown business and therefore, you become a true entrepreneur. If you’ve made it this far, then your chances of taking more money home increase exponentially. When you invest your time on training and improving your skills, the rewards awaiting you are huge.
In real estate, Stage 3 is all about flipping houses, which involves big money, but also big risk. When house flippers fail, it’s likely that they weren’t properly prepared for the game. There are deals that can be profitable but are not safe to invest in, and there are deals that are safe to invest in but aren’t profitable. Never get those mixed!
“If you build your skills properly, you will have lead flow coming in the door from your marketing skills and you will also have profitable deals coming in the door from your negotiating skills.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
All empires were born from violence, all empires are built on the back of slaves. Rome, Persia, Egypt, America... history is full of examples of sophisticated empires that were born out of violence, fire and blood. Men were made strong in the hard times of birthing a nation, but as they grew rich, comfortable and tolerant, they became weak and docile on the way down.
Men would be farmers or factory workers in peacetime, and when the war sirens rang, they grabbed their swords or rifles to defend their land, families and what they cherished the most. Our men are no longer ready to fight, and nations are even taking in refugees and outsiders out of “compassion”. How do we know if these people aren’t foes with hidden intentions? These refugees now, could potentially turn into barbarians in the future. Will you be ready to pull the trigger first to defend what you love?
It doesn’t matter who you are and what your job is, every single human being wakes up to chase value. The real question is, what is really value and what is actually valuable? When it comes to real estate, most people will consider their properties their biggest asset, but the truth is, all real estate is actually worth zero dollars.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, Stefan Aarnio will teach you an important lesson regarding value. From irrational buyers to intrinsic value, learn how to make a profit in any market. What kind of value will you be chasing, of even better, offering today?
“The key for profit is to buy with an intrinsic value, pump the value, and sell to an emotional, irrational buyer.”
In real estate, there is no inherent profit in any property. People who have mastered the art of negotiation can build profit into any deal. Spending time and money to become a better negotiator will have a huge impact on your business and the money you make.
In this episode, you’ll learn why you must get rid of your scarcity mentality and be smart about how you spend your money. When you pay people, they will do the work for you so you can focus on building a better machine. When you’re an entrepreneur, you should never be cheap!
“Money is infinite and it flows through the hands of the people who have mastered it.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
Strength and being a strong man come from use. When you don’t use your body, it weakens, when you don’t use your mind, it weakens, and when you don’t use your spirit, it weakens. In today’s world men and women have become practically equals, we have women running around doing the same jobs as men. Women have become men themselves, so they don’t need men at all.
Success in real life is about having the best man for the job, and sometimes that doesn’t include women. Today, men are no longer the backbone of the families, they are no longer important in the workplace and have basically become an inconvenient afterthought. Men are no longer needed, strictly optional. Society has made sure to repress young men and treat them like girls, and lynch the few strong men that remain out there. Men are obsolete now, especially strong men, who have “fallen on the wrong side of history.”
Stefan Arnio often hears people complain about deals: “You can’t do that here”, “There aren’t any deals where I live”. The truth is that deals are everywhere if you are trained to see them. Yes, it is true, the opportunities change but the truth remains: deals are made- not found!
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, you will find Stefan’s staple formula for a great deal. Remember, the money wants you more than you want it, so there is always money to be made. Learn all about creativity and deal engineering to see the hidden opportunities where no one else can see them!
“Get a mismarketed opportunity, create value, and reap the rewards. The formula is simple.”
What’s the lifeblood of any business? Errr, wrong, not money! Leads! So many businesses struggle or go bankrupt because they don’t have enough leads walking in the door or the phone doesn’t ring enough. If you have leads, you have customers and money; if you don’t have leads, then you will eventually go broke.
Walk with Stefan Aarnio as he learns important lessons regarding marketing, lead selling and the hideous WE BUY HOUSES signs. It takes money to make money, why wouldn’t you pay people to bring in leads through the main door?
“Sometimes there is more money in the services related to real estate than there is in real estate itself. If you want to be rich, you have to think outside the box.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
Societies are born out of intolerance, and they die when they become too tolerant to function. America was born as an intolerant nation but has become an over tolerant one. Tolerance leads to weakness and weakness leads to hard times. What is next for our weakened nation?
Every single glorious empire has been taken down by strong, violent and hungry invaders seeking the luxuries they lack. People who are poor, the have-nots, the frustrated youth of history have always attempted to rise up for a better life. The world and the future belong to warrior societies, because good times create weak men, who will ultimately be destroyed by the strong men outside the gates.
While some people believe in luck, Stefan Aarnio believes in the law of certainty: certain things done in a certain way will achieve certain results certainly! In order to raise money for a real estate joint venture, the game must be played in a certain way.
In this chapter you will find Stefan’s twenty-one steps list, which he uses to put the Money, the People and the Deal together in a sustainable way. Nobody said it would be easy, and getting to the top requires a certain amount of effort. Take a deep breath and get ready, there’s still a long way ahead!
“If the game is played in a certain order, then certain results are certain to occur.”
There are 5 stages to becoming a fully developed entrepreneur, but most people think they can handle the jungle without proper training and polished skills. If you are stuck in your business, it means that you lack some critical skills. Stefan Aarnio had leaped from Stage 1 to Stage 4 of entrepreneurship and was now facing the consequences of his rush.
In this episode, you’ll understand why Stefan, and maybe even yourself, was so deeply stuck in his own real estate nightmare. By changing his thinking and letting go of his limiting beliefs about capitalism and money, Aarnio was about to be placed on the right track by his teacher. Building a strong skill set in the right order will help you build your business!
“I didn’t bother to learn the skills of marketing, negotiation, sales, production, finance, or even how to buy cash-flowing assets properly. I just jumped right in and now I’m stuck and feeling the pain.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
Zoologists have deeply studied numerous ape societies to draw parallels between their behavior in comparison to humans’. We’ll be interested in the following ape societies: chimpanzees and bonobos. The first are patriarchal, while the second are female dominated. While there is nothing wrong with any of those models, it is important to point out the contrasting factors of both when compared. The amount of resources, free time and specific interests of each tribe will dictate their behavior, and all of these are closely connected to our own behaviors as humans.
Are female-driven human tribes able to persist and survive over time? The answer is “no.” Eventually, a group of strong men will invade and dominate them. As long as men exist, there will be war, and today, war is much needed to bring the strong men back. We are on the verge of bouncing back to hard times, as history dictates the closure of yet another cycle. We are about to witness a violent war between strong men, and we must stay on the victorious side.
There’s a hidden attribute in failure that only leaders know how to take advantage of. Learning from failure is way more valuable than succeeding after the first attempt. When life gives you lemons, you should learn to squeeze out glasses of lemonade.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, you’ll learn about the importance of managing failure and using it to your benefit. Most people give up when they fail, but you must learn to push through failures and turn them into successes. Walk with Aarnio through his life experiences, his Olympics metaphor and the classic story that best describes his life so far. Are you prepared for the failing scenario?
“They say that the formula for failure is to try to please everyone. In contrast, the formula for success is to take your current rate of failure and double it.”
There are two types of deals in real estate: sexy deals and profitable deals. Everyone wants to do sexy deals but they really don’t make much money. These deals do make money when executed by professionals, but even then, it can be difficult for them.
Going too big too early can ruin your career. In this episode, you’ll learn about a valuable analogy of singles versus home runs. With good management and smart math, a small budget team can win the world series! Go for profitable, not sexy, it rarely pays to be sexy.
“Investing is like baseball and everyone wants to hit a home run because home runs are sexy. But in reality, a home run is statistically the most difficult feat to accomplish in all of sports.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
In today’s society, men are forced to go with the masses like brainless sheep. Today, men are judged and oppressed for questioning things. If he questions people of the same sex getting married, he’s a homofobe, if he questions a woman, he’s sexist and if he supports barriers separating nations, he is a xenofobe. What most people don’t realize is that going with the flow and not questioning things is how America has been digging its own grave.
In this episode, Stefan Aarnio explains why democracies are the true silent killers in nations, and why they shouldn’t last forever. America is weaker every day, and today’s now celebrated tolerance will be our future regret. Sure, politicians love democracy, because poor people won’t ask much for their votes. Are you willing to start questioning things, or conform with bread and circus?
We all want success to be easy, but in reality success never is. What if we could increase our probability for success by focusing on one certain personality trait? If you had the chance to pick a specific personality trait, trust Stefan Aarnio, you should choose grit, it is directly correlated to success.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, you will learn why slow but steady is the right way to achieve anything you want in life. When you don’t give up easily there’s nothing left for you rather than a promised success. Be the tortoise, not the hare.
“A person with a high level of grit will move from failure to failure and keep their eyes on the prize.”
The key to wealth in real estate is very simple: earn income and invest earned income into passive income. Money is all about speed, and you can’t expect your investors to wait until the next deal. Stefan Aarnio sat down with his mentor at a pizza restaurant as they both revised Stefan’s complicated real estate plan and expectations. Aarnio was about to be shown a business model that would change his career.
In today’s episode you’ll learn about the two-step process for building wealth in real estate, why flipping properties is such a demanded practice for investors and how to truly manage your money in real estate. Get ready to restructure the way you think about money, cash flow and wealth.
“I had become obsessed with the bricks, stick, and dirt of real estate and had failed to see where the real money was made. Managing money was the game I needed to play.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
In the modern world, the rejection and denial of deities is normalized and well accepted. In America, educational institutions have stopped inculcating the previously dominant judeo-christian values, which has resulted in a society where religions are “outdated” and atheism is a popular practice among young people. This “liberal” trend is actually making men weaker, and crushing all the values that served as pillars for our now crumbling society.
By avoiding religion, men are denying themselves access to the spiritual realm. The spiritual realm provides men with infinite intelligence, creativity and the ability to unleash their true power. Without religion or anything to believe in, a man is vulnerable and weak both in mind and body. Cut out the distractions, avoid sin and master your mind. Connect with the spiritual realm and see what you truly need to see.
Life is not easy when you are on top… Everybody wants a piece of you. In business or in life there are three types of people: professionals, amateurs and traitors. Stefan Aarnio is no stranger to each type and knows exactly what kind of treatment each one deserves.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, you will find an incredibly valuable lesson that Robert Kiyosaki first passed on to Stefan, and who’s now passing it on to you. Surrounding yourself with the right people is relevant not only in business, but in your personal life too. Be ready to evaluate all your relationships and spot the ones who are dragging you down.
“Your life sucks when you are hanging out with amateurs and traitors; you give them money and you don’t get results.” Robert Kiyosaki.
For Stefan Aarnio the small monthly income he made on his cash-flowing real estate was simply not enough, he had an appetite for adventure. As time went by, and due to the nature of real estate, his credit cards started to get maxed again and he was basically burning out. In desperation, he looked for a mentor who would be willing to share his expertise. The good news is this mentor existed, the bad news is his fee was crazy high.
In this chapter you’ll learn why you shouldn’t quit your job if you’re not a proficient seller, the importance of a mentor's tough love and why you should never back out of your agreements. If you only had $500 left, would you spend them or invest them?
“Suddenly, I hit a magic number. I now had more than 10 rental units and self-management was becoming a nightmare.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
All the systems that exist in today’s world are broken and obsolete. The education system is no exception and it may even be the worst of the bunch. Outdated teachings, useless degrees and a model that enslaves everyone that enters the system makes education a corrupt and rotten place.
The world has changed and evolved at an exponential pace in the last couple of decades, yet we’re still glorifying the education models that were relevant around 1930. Entire generations are still being sent to buildings to kill their creativity and prime and train them to become brain-dead slaves. Mentors, coaching and self-learning are not the future, but the present of education.
In every market, with no exceptions, there are lions and there are gazelles. Lions represent the leaders of the market, while the gazelles symbolize the average players. As an entrepreneur, which one would you rather be?
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, Stefan Aarnio will provide you with a hard to swallow pill to determine if you’re just following the herd or evolving into a lion. To be a gazelle is to be average, to be a lion is to be a champion.
“Every morning when you wake up, you must make the choice between running the field as a lion or a gazelle. No matter which one you choose,you are going to be running anyways.”
Stefan Aarnio got more than a check from his 4-plex nightmare deal. After bouncing back from financial hell, he became a local real estate mogul, which led him to do a lot of public speaking. With a solid reputation, it didn’t take people long to approach him and pinpoint the properties he could potentially flip. Aarnio didn’t even have to look for properties now!
In this chapter you’ll find Stefan’s redemption story of flipping a house with leadership and determination. You’ll learn about the importance of public speaking and why a fishy looking guy could lead you to your next big deal. Never get intimidated by stinky houses, because in reality stinky is the smell of money.
“With the profits from this deal, I wiped out all of my credit cards and became debt free. Finally, I had no debt and no job. It was time to do more deals!”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
What’s the major difference between the genocides of the Native American from the now US and Canadian territories? The first were slaughtered and wiped out, the latter were left “alive” with their broken spirits, and doomed to subversion. Subverted communities have by far a worse time than nuked ones, and only one of them has a true chance of rebuilding their philosophies, values and beliefs.
Subversion is happening every day all around the world, but it is an invisible force, not something you can see. Unfortunately, man has trouble fighting an invisible enemy. As an effective war tactic, subversion has in fact been taking place in America since the 1960s. Do not take it lightly, since it is even more destructive than an atom bomb. It is our chance to decide to fight it now or succumb to it and fall like all the greatest empires did before us.
Pressure makes diamonds... but it can also crush people. Being under pressure is definitely uncomfortable and yet somehow it can bring out the best version of ourselves. Pressure shows us who we really are, and can bring out rather the hero or the wimp inside of us.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, Stefan Aarnio shows us the importance of pressure, stress and discomfort for our personal growth. Pressure is necessary to push to the next level and become better. Following your instincts and taking advantage of your natural skill sets while adding a little pressure in the mix is a great strategy to success.
“Pressure is what turns coal into diamonds, and it also turns a raw, undeveloped, average person into a refined success.”
What if you were on the verge of bankruptcy with zero chances to recover and you only had 90 days to save your ass from financial hell? Would you become the businessman you were unable to be when everything seemed “alright”? “I’m in charge” were the words Stefan Aarnio took so long to pronounce, but marked the start of the conclusion of the painful project he had been dragging for months.
In this chapter you’ll find Stefan’s 90 days journey from being unable to sleep at nights to getting a well deserved $100,000 check. Learn the value of owning up to your own mistakes and what leadership is really about. If you aren’t willing to get your hands dirty, then you should probably stay at home, but that won’t really get you anywhere.
“I had made far too many mistakes on this project and it was nose-diving straight into the ground. If I didn’t act fast, I was going to crash and burn alive in the flames.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
How to ensure the fall of an empire? How can a first world nation transition into a third world one without it even realizing it? America is currently suffering a harmful transformation, the shocking part is: it has been transforming for decades, but we’re realizing it just now. By erasing God from the map and people’s hearts, Americans have nothing to believe in but their government and money. If a man stands for nothing, he’ll fall for anything.
Money is an illusion, every existing currency is fake. An average Joe can’t even afford a decent home anywhere in the USA. Long gone are the times when a single man could buy a house, a car, support his wife and kids and still make it to dinner. Now, a man, his wife and their credit cards are necessary to just survive. Talk about a broken economical system. When the average man is so poor that he can no longer buy bread, a revolution happens.
A million dollars cash for you is on the other side of a field of explosive landmines. What do you do? Would you stay put, make a run for it, go slow and steady or follow someone who knows the quickest and safest way? Choose wisely.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, Stefan Aarnio will teach you the formula for wealth so you’ll understand there is no such thing as luck. Success is a choice, but you need to find the best conditions to go for it. For everything you want in life there is a minefield in the middle, how will you cross all of them?
“In my career, I have earned my education at the “school of life” and have paid my tuition with blood, sweat, and tears. I have stepped on a few “landmines” on my journey and fortunately, have not been wiped out by doing so.”
Stefan Aarnio landed any real estate agent’s dream and had basically hit the jackpot. He was just months away from transforming the worst house on the block into the best house in the neighborhood. This project promised Stefan nothing but success and a monthly income, until it was time to ask for the building permit. Working with the city administration in any city can be frustrating, but for Stefan, it was excruciating.
In this episode, you’ll learn about the importance of leaving the pros’ work to the pros and how to know when you need a financial intervention before your mother calls you out. From a delayed project to bleeding credit cards, this episode will definitely show you where you don’t want to end up. Are you still avoiding looking at your bank account?
“I had 2 mortgages, a car loan and only a few thousand dollars in my checking account. I had no job, and no income. In 90 days I would be bankrupt and financially dead if I didn’t get this deal finished.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
Even though religion as both a concept and a practice has taken a major role in human civilizations and throughout history, today it seems like religion is mostly rejected by large groups of people. By disconnecting and avoiding religion, men are preventing themselves from unleashing their true potential and creativity.
Religion is crucial for mankind for two simple reasons: it efficiently organizes large groups of people and it grants access to infinite intelligence. A man is not a man without command and mastery over the spiritual realm. The most successful men in the world consider themselves religious and embrace the discipline, rituals and practices that come with the price of achieving infinite intelligence. We are limited in our power and our knowledge, but the spiritual is truly infinite.
Focus brings clarity to the mind and success, and with focus comes happiness and productivity. The enemy of focus, however, is options. When people have too many options they lose focus, which leads to hesitation, anxiety, and unhappiness.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, you will learn why the people with the least options are the ones with the most determination. When a person has their back to the wall, their failure rate dramatically drops and the success rate dramatically increases. There’s a reason you can only have security or freedom, but never both. Which one are you pursuing?
“In my own life, the happiest, most exciting, most relevant moments have all been moments where I had put myself into a “no options” situation.”
Buying ahead of the curve will make all the difference for you. Stefan’s ambition and passion for real estate led him to find the property he had been looking for for the longest time. He could see the potential of both the building and the neighborhood, the only thing left in the checklist were investors who shared his vision.
A dentist, a secret investor and a hungry shark walk into a bar. This confession holds not only an inspiring story of a young entrepreneur but important life advice that could change your life today. There is nothing in this life you can’t get, you just need the correct allies.
“I used the skills I had learned to create a loan proposal and business plan. I spent late nights researching the area, coming up with statistics, doing numbers and building budgets, and finally I had a binder of facts and data that I could show to an investor to build a case for them to fund my crazy project.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
Long gone are the days when the “weirdos” had to hop on their cars, drive for twenty minutes, enter a fishy store, awkwardly and barely interact with the staff on shift and drive all the way back home to finally “enjoy” some pornography. Porn has never been so accessible, so disgustingly abundant and so cynically shoved up in people’s (and even kids!) faces. But the real threat of the porn invasion lies in the long term repercussions it has on young men.
Millions of young men are wasting not only time, but their divine, creative sexual energy by consuming porn without any financial or moral cost. If these men used their sexual energy and transmuted it into something productive, they would all be building successful businesses and empires. Pornography is actively killing young, bright minds and turning them into weak, enslaved asocial beings that do nothing but eat pizza, play videogames and empty the tissue box. Are you ready to stop being a degenerate and follow your true purpose?
Money is an illusion, money does not exist. We insist on giving it enough meaning and value for it to gain power over us. The only thing holding anyone back from reaching his or her dreams is mindset.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, you’ll be challenged to start a “no cash diet”. Believe Stefan Aarnio when he says this decision is difficult, not only due to our money driven mentality, but also for all the painful situations it could potentially unleash. Understanding that money is an enslavement tool is a valuable lesson, and the first brave step Stefan encourages you to take to get closer to your own freedom.
“Understand that money is a drug; the more you have—the more you want. If you have none, money cannot control you. It’s very liberating.”
Remember those horrid team group assignments back in school? Were you one of those kids who bailed and waited for others to do all the work, or were you the poor kid doing everything on your own? In his early twenties, Stefan was left with worse than a school project: a dream house that got trashed along with its mortgage.
Building your network is very important in business, but you should never rush and partner with strangers. Even the sweetest deals and opportunities can end up in shitty situations with the wrong group. In this confession we’ll learn about the mistakes Stefan had to fix on his own after his partners bailed out from what had once been a successful investment.
“I felt angry; I felt stupid. I was in over my head. I called my partners for help, but no one seemed to care enough or agree on a single point of action.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
If the word “patriarchy” seems to have a negative connotation, you have witnessed (and maybe even been a part of) society’s efforts to destroy men. Being a strong man in today’s world means dealing with hate, anger and attacks from several groups, especially women. In a society where being politically correct is (apparently) more important than being an actual breadwinner, we can’t help but wonder at which point in history we screwed everything up and ended up like this.
Here’s a hard to swallow pill: tolerance, acceptance, the exaggerated celebration of diversity and the empowerment of women are doing a lot more harm than good. Increasing divorce rates, kids dropping out of school, suicidal children, adults with behavioral disorders, teenage pregnancies, prostitution and daddy issues... all the things that can go wrong in a household do end up wrong with the absence of a strong, father figure. The weak men and the weak ideas that are now prevalent in our societies come from the elimination of fathers, masculinity and discipline from the basic unit of society: the family.
What makes the rich man different from the poor man? The first's will to work for free. The most brilliant people in the world have started from the bottom without expecting a single cent in return for their work, and Stefan Arnio experienced this hard but fruitful path himself.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, you will learn about the power and value of working for free. Young people today are reluctant to see opportunity in this controversial path and yet choose to stay chained to draining and menial jobs instead. Stop chasing dollars, man up and follow your heart.
“If I lost everything tomorrow, had no skills, no money, no contacts, and no experience, I would rediscover what I am excited about and offer to work for free in the industry.”
There are problems with the common saying ‘fat is where you produce testosterone.’
You need a balance of good carbohydrates and vegetables as well. It’s not just about getting rid of your belly, it’s about becoming a stronger man.
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
Actions equal dollars and work needs to be done. Follow Stefan’s first call, appointment and close with a long forgotten lead that was pointless and dead to the company. Thanks to Aarnio’s excitement and fresh mindset, things were about to change.
Opposite minded mentors will push you to think outside of the box and the set system. People think raising money is a long and complicated process, but in reality, the money wants us more than we want it. Listen to today’s episode to learn Stefan’s important lessons to the art and science of sales.
“In sales, you need to psychologically reward yourself every time you make a call, not when you close. When you close, you are just picking up the money that you earned while dialing. Actions equal dollars, dollars don’t equal actions.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
Negativity is all around us. To notice this, all you have to do is bring up a decent idea to someone. Watch them find 10 reasons for you not to execute instead of 10 reasons why you should. Ignore these people COMPLETELY.
In this podcast with Neil Auricchio I discuss how and why you need to get into the mindset of ignoring the negativity.
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
Would you rather have to choose between two different ice-cream flavors, or from 63 different flavor options? Remember the world where things were just simple? In different times, men and women were so busy that they had no time to think about anything but survival-related stuff. Now, in a too friendly and explicitly not hostile environment, with enough time and creativity to give away, 63 genders have suddenly popped up out of nowhere. All of them meaningless and even unnameable to the average person.
We live in a strange world today, where every group and every minority is given a megaphone, a channel, an outlet to scream at the top of their lungs for special treatment. But the truth is, intolerant societies are strong societies. Our tolerance is our weakness. As men, it is our duty to actively choose to be men, play our roles in society and stick to them. Stop complicating things, to be a man is a simple idea.
In this podcast, we discuss why the competition is much harder on social media.
Gimmicks and cheap tricks will hurt your business and your brand. Prepare to be in this for the long haul. Focus on quality. Social media pushes us to make content all the time. Learning how to balance output with excellence is essential.
Do you know how to make content while running your business?
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
Throughout history, many people have searched far and wide for the formula for riches. Some people would call it the philosopher's stone or the fountain of youth. However, Napoleon Hill's formula is the one that hasn't made any mistakes. His formula for great riches is both a philosopher's stone and a fountain of youth.
Discover in this chapter of Money People Deal how wealth and riches are created inside of us in intangible realms, and how the results are manifested through physical success. From affectionate loving parents to a supportive partner, you must suggest taking a moment to compile an inventory of your life and your support system.
“Having a strong support system in the intangible realms through loving parents, a supportive spouse, and strong religious faith is the foundation of the structure that is required to reach the stars and become a top achiever.”
So you want to know what it takes Being a man in the modern world? Listen to this Respect The Grind podcast with Stef Sifandos to find out. When you don’t live out your primal nature, you become repressed. Knowing how your biologically built as a man helps you manage in the world. You’ll know what you want to express and how to express it in a healthy way. Aggression is normal. Put your aggression into physical sports, activities, and creativity.
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
Learning as you go could be the best thing to ever happen to you. Aarnio got his dream job and felt like he was now on the right track, but bumped into a wall regarding the company. Turns out there were no guidelines, no processes and the previous employees had done nothing but taking everything but a desk and a phone in the office.
Everyone can innovate, and when you don’t know what you’re doing and don’t have the right tools, who’s going to stop you from solving problems in creative ways? Stefan cracked the code and by pushing himself to learn on his own he came up with a concept that impacted his business life forever.
“I had cracked the code on a sustainable model for purchasing money down real estate. This formula captured my heart and my mind. Instantly, I was in love.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
In this podcast you’ll learn the Importance of Building a Brand, thanks to this Respect The Grind Podcast with Jamie Shanks. Technology is getting more and more advanced. Online connections are invaluable.
If you’re not keeping up with the changing technology in your business, then you’re falling behind.
Are you on Instagram?
Do you use instant messenger?
Know where your audience is and go to them.
What are you doing right now to keep up with the changing times?
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
In the modern times, homosexuality has been normalized and widely accepted by the majority of society. Homosexuality has been a constant throughout history, going as far back as ancient times, and yet it is still important to sit down and think about how it has impacted civilizations. Are we born gay or made gay? Or in reality, are men just “prison gay”? Nature, numbers, leaders; multiple factors develop a very important role when it comes to homosexuality.
In today’s chapter you’ll find a detailed, unbiased analysis on this controversial topic. From ancient Rome to the modern Western culture, sex, religion, women, family; Stefan Aarnio compiles his thoughts and takes on homosexual pair-bonds. We highly suggest you to sit down and listen with an open mind, this chapter is packed with data, ideas and opinions that aren’t necessarily suitable for close minded people and/or snowflakes. But in the end, it all comes down to what you, as a man, will choose.
In this podcast, you will learn how College Is Overrated on my Respect The Grind Podcast with Josh Steimle. It’s the 21st century, that means traditional education is pretty outdated.
Free market education is the new wave, and you will find it in your best interest to search for the best professors/coaches. These are the people that will teach you the REAL skills needed to make it in this world.
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
It is proven by science that daily tasks help us become the person we want to become in life, creating energy and success. All of the daily tasks we are taught to do on a daily basis have a special purpose, they feed our spirits and nourish our souls. Performing tasks we enjoy might help us become the person we want to be.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, Stefan Aarnio explains The New York Times best-selling author Raymond Aaron’s term: dead money. Are you ready to learn how to succeed even if you earn zero dollars at the end of the year? Money is only a medium of exchange and is called currency only because it needs to move to stay relevant and useful, just like electricity or water. Keep your money alive.
“If money stops moving, money dies.
If people stop moving for long enough, people die.
If the spirit stops moving, the spirit dies.”
In this podcast, I speak with my friend about what it takes to be a strong man in this day and age. I go over the “Hard Times Create Strong Men” theory and why every 20 years the cycle changes.
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
Either you like it or not, people will always judge you on your appearance. Aarnio was rejected by a particular girl who was way out of his league every single time he asked her out until he made radical changes to his image. The right hair, suit, and shoes will take you places, as shallow as it may sound.
People buy your image even before they buy you. Your outfit is as important as your body language and tone when you’re dealing with clients, investors, and even women. Next time you feel someone’s implying you should fix that hair, do yourself a favor, get the hint and get a makeover.
“My heart stopped, I leaned back in my chair and thought I was going to fall forever into nothing. Howard had politely tried to tell me for weeks that I had a bad self-image, but was too polite to tell me straight. I was the punch line of my own cruel joke. It was time for a change.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real-life story of Stefan Aarnio (award-winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
ALL deals come from one of three sources. Networking, marketing, or negotiating. In order to find 100 units or more developments, my friend Chris Grenzig will do direct mail, cold calling, and he’ll talk to people in his network that he’s already built trust with.
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
We’ve all been deeply interested in a woman and even though we’ve even nailed a date, it is still hard to read her mind and make a move. Is she interested as well? Should I kiss her now? Can we finally sleep together? Knowing all the tricks, triggers and the complex threads of a woman’s mind sounds tempting, and it is actually doable for any average Joe. In this chapter, Stephan talks about the short term magical effects of the Pickup Artistry (PUA) and, as a victim of it, advises any men to avoid even getting involved with it.
Manipulation is the core of PUA. It “builds” relationships based on lies, wastes a man’s sexual energy, and drives him away from his true purpose. All the men who once took part in this practice will unavoidably have a hard time bonding with the woman they truly love and will end up broken emotionally and spiritually. Never become a player, don’t get caught in the PUA trap, since it is a door to sin, and sin is a waste of energy. Do you have any to spare?
This podcast is an important one for you to listen if you are concerned about the political climate and state of the nation in 2020.
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
As we come to the end of this audiobook, the best part has arrived to your ears as well: the power of scripting and the perfect sales choreography is here to tell you to stop selling and start serving! If you have listened to the full episodes of this audiobook, you will dance along with technology to use the elements in any sales choreography. Online ads and application forms, free reports and E-books, webinars, online videos, free demos and gifts are only a few of the things you can do to promote yourself out there. Discover your sales skills from low to high and ask yourself, what holds you back from your sales potential?
Push away the six ghosts of fear and the seven deadly sins, achieve business balance and find the shortest path through the sales cycle in this final section of The Close.
The Close 7 Level Selling will give you all the tools you need to make your sales happen: testimonials, white papers, a published book, and the power of a video testimonial will all lead you towards the best deals you can imagine.
Enter Stefan Aarnio’s world and discover why investing in yourself is the best way to build your self-made wealth empire. Order The Close 7 Level Selling and all Aarnio’s books, here: https://stefanaarnio.com
Natural salespeople, all have two things in common: they 1) follow a natural framework for their sales presentation and 2) they all sound amazing. A great salesperson is a blend of mechanics and delivery which creates both a logical and emotional argument for the sale.
The Close lays out the framework, mechanics and delivery for the human mind so that you can effectively influence and persuade anyone regardless of your experience level. The Close provides a fresh new perspective on how to open the sale, present the value and close the sale using proven methods that have worked in all industries. Some of the techniques in this book have never been seen before and are so powerful that they could be used for tremendous good or evil if used by the wrong hands.
In a world where all the tricks are gone, where there are no more hacks in generating internet content, the only thing left to do is what you should have always done - generate quality content.
In this podcast, Evans Carmichael shares his journey and lets us in on the open secret of what it takes to become a successful internet personality.
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
A real entrepreneur is a real visionary. From Henry Ford to Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, all of these men had amazing visions that preceded their inventions, and they all changed the world for good. So, what makes two men different? It’s pretty simple: vision.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, Aarnio shares with you the importance of creating a vision plan to go further than having goals, hopes and dreams. Learn why vision is so powerful and how once we get a great vision, we can reverse engineer our reality from the blueprints.
“The future belongs to those of us with strong visions, clear blueprints for achieving the vision and a specific plan of daily actionable steps”.
This podcast shows How to Raise Money for Real Estate with a Reptile Brain. People aren’t swayed by facts. People are swayed by their emotions. Tell a compelling story, and people will respond.
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
It comes easy for everyone to judge and cringe at certain professions, such as door to door salesmen, especially the vacuum cleaner squad. What is challenging though is to see and acknowledge the genius and skills required to sell a hard item such as a vacuum cleaner. Join Aarnio in today’s confession to learn about the time he trained to become a salesman and the reasons that led him to quit.
The bigger picture is hard to see when you’re young and naive, but with maturity comes wisdom and change. Stefan found his dream job plus a second opportunity in the field, after denying himself the chance to learn from the best at 17. This confession will teach you why you should never judge any salesman and the importance of believing in yourself despite what others think.
“These men were proven warriors in the art of direct sales. They had sharpened and perfected their tools selling every day for their entire adult lives. The moment I learned that my mentors were professional vacuum cleaner salesmen, I began to cringe.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real-life story of Stefan Aarnio (award-winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
In this podcast we discuss why Men Can’t Speak Out Anymore. People are going to disagree with you.
They’re going to label you, call you out, and troll you on the internet.
Should this stop you from having an opinion? No.
Should this stop you from making an argument? No.
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
Young generations are confused around sex, love, marriage and forming a family. With modern ideas and the rejection of protocols, the committed man-woman relationships are constantly being destroyed by naive and ignorant couples. In today’s chapter Stephan narrates an illustrative interview around a couple who are thinking about entering a dangerous game, without even realizing its aftermath both for the short and long term.
Monogamy is apparently cancelled and “liberal” ways of love are being normalized. Men are allowing their women to fool around with other guys, surrendering to their requests and losing any trace of power or even common sense. We are entering a cuck culture, this is the end of civilization, and now more than ever the world is lacking strong men. Become strong, draw boundaries and stick to your positions, if you give in, you’re part of the problem.
In this podcast, you will learn what it takes to Win the Deal Without the Money.
Realistically, all you could ever dream of is right in front of you, all you have to do is reach out and grab it.
Maybe you don’t know all the right steps to take, but that’s okay if you’re committed to learning and are okay with changing your mindset than you are better off than most people.
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
You’ve been warned by Stefan: Dressing for success is about creating absolutely ZERO reasons why someone would not want to do business with you. After knowing that, he gives you the complete guide to commanding power with your appearance: from facial hair and using man rings, to poor grooming and smelling of smoke, or being out of shape, this is the complete guide of habits you need to change ASAP to command power with your appearance. Also, on decision making, how do buyers make decisions on spending money and the three parts of the human brain: the primate, the mammalian and the reptilian.
The Close 7 Level Selling will give you all the tools you need to make your sales happen: testimonials, white papers, a published book, and the power of a video testimonial will all lead you towards the best deals you can imagine.
Enter Stefan Aarnio’s world and discover why investing in yourself is the best way to build your self-made wealth empire. Order The Close 7 Level Selling and all Aarnio’s books, here: https://stefanaarnio.com
Natural salespeople, all have two things in common: they 1) follow a natural framework for their sales presentation and 2) they all sound amazing. A great salesperson is a blend of mechanics and delivery which creates both a logical and emotional argument for the sale.
The Close lays out the framework, mechanics and delivery for the human mind so that you can effectively influence and persuade anyone regardless of your experience level. The Close provides a fresh new perspective on how to open the sale, present the value and close the sale using proven methods that have worked in all industries. Some of the techniques in this book have never been seen before and are so powerful that they could be used for tremendous good or evil if used by the wrong hands.
In this podcast, you will learn The SIMPLE FORMULA for Winning in Real Estate.
Figure out your ‘why’ for running a business.
If you don’t have a why, you won’t figure out the how.
What are your core values?
Do you value independence and progress?
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
Just like any business, the real estate business has a very high failure rate. Believe it or not, 9 out of 10 businesses fail within the first five years. Just like any business, when it comes to real estate investing, there are countless forces that can and will work against your hopes and dreams of achieving financial freedom, and to do that, you have to memorize the next phrase: To succeed in the business, you must become unstoppable.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, you will learn all about the Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle illustrates the difference between people with a strong “why” and people without a “why” in their lives. Ready to find your why, your how and your what? Become and exceptional person in business and in life and:
“Remember that a man can have thousands of reasons to fail, but he only needs one reason to succeed”.
There is always a reason behind getting better and that all starts with just one word; ‘Why.’ Before you hop on to making a kickass strategy for your dream job or business, make sure you have enough answers to your own ‘Why.’ Because this is what is going to fuel your soul, your efforts, and your determination towards whatever you want to achieve in your life.
Just be true to your ‘Why’ always keep it in your head and eventually you will come up with visionary ideas to be the best version of you.
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
As Aarnio found himself jobless and hopeless, as he played “businessman” and failed in a miserable way, he started looking for a regular position in Winnipeg, his hometown, during a summer break. He told himself perhaps he would find a job in his inbox and there it was.
Discover how real estate became the new rock’n’roll for Stefan, where are the real job opportunities, and why developing the ability to sell has to be the most important skill for you as an entrepreneur. Persistence always wins and you fail only when you quit.
“The newspaper was full of low-end, entry-level, dead-end jobs and the more qualified jobs required specific education, which I didn’t have. I closed the newspaper and dragged my defeated body upstairs to search online for the security and shel- ter that a new job would provide.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
What would you do with a burned-down building? If you were completely free of doing whatever you want with it, what would you transform it into? In this video, I show you how to deal with a 4 plex and make it a profitable project. Watch this video right now to take advantage of this awesome opportunity!
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
Have you ever stared at your girlfriend for a long time and wondered if she is the one? Don’t you wish there could be some method to evaluate if she is a keeper? Today’s your lucky day because in today’s chapter Stefan formats a complete checklist to determine if your relationship is worthy of your time and effort.
What is your woman bringing to the table? Are your values, virtues and beliefs matching? Is she constantly making you bring out the best version of yourself? Predict the patterns looking at her family relationships, consider her history and attitudes and evaluate if she is the woman you are meant to spend your life with. Love, marriage, family, an empire; what do you want to build? The woman beside you will determine the kind of man that you’ll become.
Though it's not rocket science, in real estate, the devil is ALWAYS in the details.
Everything must be put into consideration. You ALSO must have the cash flow figured out and down to a science.
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
Listen to Stefan Aarnio as he walks you through the importance of knowing where you fit into the food chain of a company and how different departments can affect the relative case of a sale. It’s all about your brand, marketing and sales. In this section of part 4, Stefan gives you the pyramid of making a successful sale and the soil beneath this pyramid or “doing what’s right for the customer”. Also, one of the keys to successful selling: Getting in front of the right people and the importance of dressing up for success.
The Close 7 Level Selling will give you all the tools you need to make your sales happen: testimonials, white papers, a published book, and the power of a video testimonial will all lead you towards the best deals you can imagine.
Enter Stefan Aarnio’s world and discover why investing in yourself is the best way to build your self-made wealth empire. Order The Close 7 Level Selling and all Aarnio’s books, here: https://stefanaarnio.com
Natural salespeople, all have two things in common: they 1) follow a natural framework for their sales presentation and 2) they all sound amazing. A great salesperson is a blend of mechanics and delivery which creates both a logical and emotional argument for the sale.
The Close lays out the framework, mechanics and delivery for the human mind so that you can effectively influence and persuade anyone regardless of your experience level. The Close provides a fresh new perspective on how to open the sale, present the value and close the sale using proven methods that have worked in all industries. Some of the techniques in this book have never been seen before and are so powerful that they could be used for tremendous good or evil if used by the wrong hands.
Are in a rare real estate investing situation? This is how to deal with free condos.
Years ago, I would have loved to live in this condo; or sell it. That’s because I needed the money. I was broke! But now, I don’t need it at all. And so I want my money to flow.
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
When people ask Stefan Aarnio, “How do I get into real estate investing?” He usually says “work for free”. That’s right, Stefan has built his career in real estate by using more than this first method (find out the rest of them inside this chapter).
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, you will find out three methods to get ahead in this world: work for free, pay for training or try to succeed alone and make your own mistakes. Find out how humans have learned skills from a master-and-apprentice type of relationships throughout history and what to do when considering taking on deal partners, contractors, assistants, designers, or anyone onto your team.
“Working for free is the litmus test for finding a winner and weeding out the losers. A winner will persist; a loser will give up after a few hours”.
How do you know what type of house you should buy? There is so much information out there, that it’s difficult to know where and how to get started. Watch this video to learn about the different types of people you could target and sell to!
My suggestion is to take the time to study your market. Understand the people you want to sell to.
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
There is nothing more dangerous than a half-educated man, and even though Stefan Aarnio felt like he was fully educated by virtue of spending thousands of dollars on education, he got it all wrong. He felt he was more ignorant than ever, and that’s where he decided he needed to do something about it.
Learn in this confession how to hire for aptitude and fire for attitude, why labor does not entitled a worker to equity in a company and to always have a second income… just in case. And remember, real business is about solving problems, and being busy doesn’t mean you’re being productive.
“It was fake. I was a fake. I looked busy but I did nothing, produced nothing and was nothing. The game was all about appearance and ego; it had nothing to do with creating greater value in the world or solving problems.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
Does toxic masculinity exist? In this podcast, Stefan Aarnio and Logan Paul discuss toxic masculinity on the Impaulsive podcast. There is only masculinity. It's the absence of masculinity that is toxic. Guys these days have daddy issues. They can't take masculine criticism. Hard times create strong men and weak times create weak men.
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
Have you ever wondered how much crazy is too much crazy? And even worse, how much hot is too hot? Every man must stop for a moment and really reflect if a certain woman is true wife material. For this chapter, Stefan breaks down the Universal Hot Crazy Matrix to let go of the woman you want and spot the woman you need.
From fun women, to hot and crazy and the nonexistent “unicorn” women, get ready to put your lady to the test and determine if she’s a keeper. Learn how women only see two features in their partners and why successful men always date but never marry the prettiest girls. Money, power, assets and looks are all set in the table when looking for the right wife.
Major world events are coming soon. Are you prepared? Watch this video to find out what I think will happen. In 2020, it’s the 80-year cycle of war after World War Two. We could have a civil war… In 2026, it’s the 250 year birthday of the United States. And usually, after 250 years, democracy turns into tyranny. We could have the end of democracy in that same window!
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
Ready to manage your time and learn step to step the ideal sales day? From waking up at 5AM and starting to feed your mind to going to sleep with the magic of power and infinite intelligence, here are some keys to ongoing success that Stefan Aarnio puts in practice every single day of his life.
There are three choices to constantly make in life: what’s easy, doing absolutely nothing and what is hard but good. Discover in this section of part 4, the three patterns that form when we make daily choices to live our lives: Pursuing the same thing, the addiction curve, and the pursuit of anything good.
The Close 7 Level Selling will give you all the tools you need to make your sales happen: testimonials, white papers, a published book, and the power of a video testimonial will all lead you towards the best deals you can imagine.
Enter Stefan Aarnio’s world and discover why investing in yourself is the best way to build your self-made wealth empire. Order The Close 7 Level Selling and all Aarnio’s books, here: https://stefanaarnio.com
Natural salespeople, all have two things in common: they 1) follow a natural framework for their sales presentation and 2) they all sound amazing. A great salesperson is a blend of mechanics and delivery which creates both a logical and emotional argument for the sale.
The Close lays out the framework, mechanics and delivery for the human mind so that you can effectively influence and persuade anyone regardless of your experience level. The Close provides a fresh new perspective on how to open the sale, present the value and close the sale using proven methods that have worked in all industries. Some of the techniques in this book have never been seen before and are so powerful that they could be used for tremendous good or evil if used by the wrong hands.
What makes the man a king? Watch Brad Lea and Stefan Aarnio discuss what makes a good man! I recently jumped on Brad Lea's podcast and we had a good discussion about what makes a good man and what makes a good queen.
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
In every market, whether it’s electronics, food, real estate or clothing, Aarnio can assure you something: the market will always attempt to force every single company and product into a commodity. Why? Because commodities are price driven, like coffee or sugar, and the consumer always wants the lowest price. Stefan will show you how some businesses have done an amazing job of forcing most products into commodities.
Learn in this episode why brands are complete opposites of commodities and the secrets to evolve from a company or person into a great brand and the golden question: How Does this company make you feel? From Starbucks and McDonald’s to Donald Trump, you will find our how they get visible in the market, their size and their brand equity.
“Great brands are built over time and a brand can be defined in a few different ways. Great brands are the emotional experience that a customer gets from first contact all the way through the sales cycle, until the customer becomes a client and is retained for life”.
Are Women Happier Living Their Purpose? On this Impaulsive Podcast, Stefan Aarnio talks about the feminity and masculinity between men and women. When women are in top of the ladder they become unhappy because they can't find anyone better. So what should they do?
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
Sometimes it’s starling to see that life-changing lessons can be handed to a room of 400 people on a silver platter, and for Aarnio, it’s ironic that we go searching for wealth - while wealth, riches and opportunity are hidden in plain sight.
Opportunities are always hiding somewhere close to us, we just have to get a closer look of what’s around us. If you finished the last confession and decided you are not working for free, we must insist you reconsider the idea.
“‘I want to work for free’ was my pitch, cold, no frills and direct. I was like a wild beast that had just been violently tamed.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
You want to do your work, she wants to go to LA or whatever. She, she's saying, Hey, let's have family time. You're saying, Hey, let's have work time. And when a man puts his purpose first, his work first, that usually makes him attractive to women because women want a man on purpose.
The first chapter in the book is a man's purpose. I get guys who email me or message me cause they read hard times and they go, Oh I got problems with my woman, I can't get a girlfriend, I can't get sex or some sort of nonsense.
Guys who have problems with women, it's usually because they're off purpose. Their purpose, their work, their mission, they're totally off. Maybe they are watching too much porn or video games. They're way off in the weeds. They're not on their purpose because when men are living their purpose, like when you show up to work here and you got this empire here, you're probably sexy to women. Women probably like that. They're like, oh hey, let's go to LA or and you're like, no, I'm working. I got this thing to do. And that's, that's what the masculine and feminine are struggling with right there. You want to do your work, she wants to go shopping. She's saying, hey let's have family time. You're saying, hey, let's have work time. And when a man puts his purpose first, his work first, that usually makes him more attractive to women because women want a man on purpose.
Women don't want a man that's off purpose. That's why porno or video games isn't good for men. They are all distractions from a man's purpose.
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
For this chapter of Hard Times Create Strong Men, Stefan Aarnio has eight amazing rules to live your own purpose and give women what they really want. Viktor Frankl says that “life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose”.
Contrary to the new popular narratives, gender homogenization is unfavorable with men and women when it comes to two things: sex and attractions. In spite of your woman’s requests, you better stick to your purpose, and that must be your work. Women are not liars, however, they don’t say what they really want. Your woman wants to see the “killer” in you, she wants to see you lead your tribe, and usually, the alpha male leader must make life-and-death decisions. That’s what she wants to see in you. From power, war, and seduction to mastery on their men, women want to exchange their power, sexual and reproductive power in exchange for real power in the real world.
“Women want the decision of the man to protect her so that she can relax into the feminine. She does not want to be an equal-voting-decision-making partner as our society would now suggest."
Hard times create strong men, and weak men create hard times. It is the inevitable cycle of life where great empires are built and destroyed. Unfortunately, millennials are currently living in the era of weak men that drown in ephemeral pleasure and limited desires. However, strength and greatness are determined by one’s self, and so this is the best time to seize everything you have ever wanted!
My ego was in control. It made me a millionaire but it also could not take me to the next level. It capped me where I was. After 43 days in the jungle, I had ego death, found God and completely changed my life. Your ego is not your amigo.
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
Ready to turn into a pro when it comes to sales? Part four is the real deal, the macro game of closing sale deals. When Stefan Aarnio was only seventeen years, he realized he had a burning desire to sell. His blood was boiling from a very early age, however, he had a lot to learn before turning into a pro. Discover how to transform yourself from a sales amateur into a super-pro salesperson and why you need to be a super-pro in today’s world. The market is getting too competitive for you to stay as a newbie when it comes to sales. In section one of part 4, Aarnio shows the 5 proven and profitable sources of leads.
The Close 7 Level Selling will give you all the tools you need to make your sales happen: testimonials, white papers, a published book, and the power of a video testimonial will all lead you towards the best deals you can imagine.
Enter Stefan Aarnio’s world and discover why investing in yourself is the best way to build your self-made wealth empire. Order The Close 7 Level Selling and all Aarnio’s books, here: https://stefanaarnio.com
Natural salespeople, all have two things in common: they 1) follow a natural framework for their sales presentation and 2) they all sound amazing. A great salesperson is a blend of mechanics and delivery which creates both a logical and emotional argument for the sale.
The Close lays out the framework, mechanics and delivery for the human mind so that you can effectively influence and persuade anyone regardless of your experience level. The Close provides a fresh new perspective on how to open the sale, present the value and close the sale using proven methods that have worked in all industries. Some of the techniques in this book have never been seen before and are so powerful that they could be used for tremendous good or evil if used by the wrong hands.
Stefan and Brad talk about how religion made America prosperous. Whether you believe it or if its just philosophy, it makes us prosper and that's what I care about.
We're spirits with bodies and whatever religion you are in, you have a soul and you have a body and the soul runs the body. There's a source of energy that's central to the universe. Infinite intelligence, God, the source, whatever you want to call it. Christian religion in this part of the world has made America prosperous. It's made the West more prosperous than ever in history. This is the most prosperous place in the most prosperous time. The Christian religion is an amazing, amazing tool. And it's what built our laws.
"This podcast showcases an impactful portion of Stefan's life that was captured on camera.
We want to make sure everyone knows that Stefan's brand and lifework will continue on through the social media posting and with the entire BlackCard Team.
The @blackcard.u team @highkeyagency will be making sure that Stefan's knowledge continues to prosper from his books, stored video content, seminars, podcasts, meetings, house tours, and so much more!"
In this confession, Stefan Aarnio had been on the quest to buy an investment property for months, He attended all the classes he could afford, and even some of the classes he couldn’t afford! His ambition and craving for knowledge were taking him to outer-space places.
Learn why the education you can’t afford is the one that makes you rich, working for free to someone with more experience than you in order to learn from him, and the best advice: working to learn, not to earn.
“A man becomes poor when he wants things he does not have. A man also becomes poor the moment he desires things he cannot afford.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
Even though many entrepreneurs enter the business field alone, as time passes by, we realize that, to achieve real success, everyone needs to build a strong team to move forward and achieve goals and dreams. In this episode of Money, People, Deal, Stefan Aarnio shares the truth about “Lone Rangers” and how they get squashed on a daily basis by teams of professionals.
In this chapter, you will discover what separates the “mom and pop” from the Walmarts, Home Depots and McDonald's to achieve success in business. How can we create what is called a “sandman empire”? Learn all about the two types of investors: active and passive investors and answer the thirteen questions that must be asked before placing your money with an active partner. These questions are an interactive activity that can make you materialize in a faster way where you really want your money to go. Plus, how to avoid becoming a victim of bad due diligence.
“If an active investor can provide satisfactory answers to all of these questions, then he or she is a prime candidate to build a ‘Sandman Empire’”.
For this chapter of Hard Times Create Strong Men, Stefan Aarnio has eight amazing rules to live your own purpose and give women what they really want. Viktor Frankl says that “life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose”.
Contrary to the new popular narratives, gender homogenization is unfavorable with men and women when it comes to two things: sex and attractions. In spite of your woman’s requests, you better stick to your purpose, and that must be your work. Women are not liars, however, they don’t say what they really want. Your woman wants to see the “killer” in you, she wants to see you lead your tribe, and usually, the alpha male leader must make life-and-death decisions. That’s what she wants to see in you. From power, war, and seduction to mastery on their men, women want to exchange their power, sexual and reproductive power in exchange for real power in the real world.
“Women want the decision of the man to protect her so that she can relax into the feminine. She does not want to be an equal-voting-decision-making partner as our society would now suggest."
Hard times create strong men, and weak men create hard times. It is the inevitable cycle of life where great empires are built and destroyed. Unfortunately, millennials are currently living in the era of weak men that drown in ephemeral pleasure and limited desires. However, strength and greatness are determined by one’s self, and so this is the best time to seize everything you have ever wanted!
As humans, we must have a certain amount of power, in order to be happy and get things done in life. In the final section of part 3, we study the 8 elements of power: the power of legitimacy, of prizes, of punishment, of integrity, of charisma, of expertise, of timing and finally, the power of information. Power is a tool we all need. Discover which one is your own personal power in this episode and the five outcomes you can get at the end of any sales presentation.
The Close 7 Level Selling will give you all the tools you need to make your sales happen: testimonials, white papers, a published book, and the power of a video testimonial will all lead you towards the best deals you can imagine.
Enter Stefan Aarnio’s world and discover why investing in yourself is the best way to build your self-made wealth empire. Order The Close 7 Level Selling and all Aarnio’s books, here: https://stefanaarnio.com
Natural salespeople, all have two things in common: they 1) follow a natural framework for their sales presentation and 2) they all sound amazing. A great salesperson is a blend of mechanics and delivery which creates both a logical and emotional argument for the sale.
The Close lays out the framework, mechanics and delivery for the human mind so that you can effectively influence and persuade anyone regardless of your experience level. The Close provides a fresh new perspective on how to open the sale, present the value and close the sale using proven methods that have worked in all industries. Some of the techniques in this book have never been seen before and are so powerful that they could be used for tremendous good or evil if used by the wrong hands.
By the time you listen to this new confession, you better know that good entrepreneurs put their money to work. But every entrepreneur also has dreams that are bigger than his wallet will allow.
Learn why guaranteed investments at the bank return yields so low that they don’t even beat inflation; the best way to rob a bank, why no matter how much cash you save you will never have enough and avoid investing in businesses of passion. Rationality is key.
“I knew I would never have enough money, no matter how hard I worked, so I looked for avenues that would grow my income in exponential ways. e #1 way that I found to grow my income was to invest in education.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
Lead generation can become very easily one of the biggest expenses for any business out there. It costs nearly seven times more dollars and effort to attract a new client than it does to sell to a pre-existing client. But the question to ask is: Why do most businesses, investors, and entrepreneurs focus mostly on trying to find new business than build on their pre-existing client base?
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal Stefan Aarnio shares with us a one-of-a-kind story of how, without planning it, he began to adopt the partners-for-life strategy that he learned from JT Foxx. Discover the Seth model and the different variations of it and take action! After this Money, People, Deal chapter you will have clarity of the people you know who could potentially invest with you.
“In life, it’s not what you know; it’s who you know that makes the differ- ence. It is always the biggest partner’s responsibility to attract the new largest partner to the group because people with money know people with money.”
We can assure you, women do not want the movie What Women Want. Plus, if a man types “what women want” into Google, he gets about 5,900,000,000 results. Yes, my dear friends, 5.9 billion results.
Some people claim that all that women want is money, some others say that all they want is a family, children, or love. But what do women really want? As complicated as the topic seems, womens’ biggest desire is simple, but powerful. Listen to this chapter of Hard Times and discover why to make a woman happy, one must give her a real and strong man. Attraction, polarity and sexual excitement lie in the denial of what a woman wants. This may sound unfair and cruel, but this is life and biology. Ready to discover that, in many ways, we are no better than the apes? Here’s what women really want, and how they want it.
Hard times create strong men, and weak men create hard times. It is the inevitable cycle of life where great empires are built and destroyed. Unfortunately, millennials are currently living in the era of weak men that drown in ephemeral pleasure and limited desires. However, strength and greatness are determined by one’s self, and so this is the best time to seize everything you have ever wanted!
R.I.P. Stefan Aarnio. A brilliant man, author, investor, industry trailblazer, an inspiration to many others in the world, and lastly a friend.
As we finish with the Counterintuitive Nature of the Upsell, Aarnio will narrate to you why he is a firm believer in highly precise language and execution through polished scripts for every single sales presentation he does. Ready to learn all about stock and standard closes and the difference between dealing with a hard closing process vs. a soft closing process? Also, one of the most powerful closing tools: the power of silence, the art of buying questions and the types of buying indicators like price and terms, details and delivery. In addition, Aarnio will walk you through the common types of objections, why all of them are the same at the end of the day, and last but not least, asking for referrals (they are free!).
The Close 7 Level Selling will give you all the tools you need to make your sales happen: testimonials, white papers, a published book, and the power of a video testimonial will all lead you towards the best deals you can imagine.
Enter Stefan Aarnio’s world and discover why investing in yourself is the best way to build your self-made wealth empire. Order The Close 7 Level Selling and all Aarnio’s books, here: https://stefanaarnio.com
Natural salespeople, all have two things in common: they 1) follow a natural framework for their sales presentation and 2) they all sound amazing. A great salesperson is a blend of mechanics and delivery which creates both a logical and emotional argument for the sale.
The Close lays out the framework, mechanics and delivery for the human mind so that you can effectively influence and persuade anyone regardless of your experience level. The Close provides a fresh new perspective on how to open the sale, present the value and close the sale using proven methods that have worked in all industries. Some of the techniques in this book have never been seen before and are so powerful that they could be used for tremendous good or evil if used by the wrong hands.
In this Self-Made Confession, Stefan Aarnio will show you through his story why it is not worth to take a job only for the money, and the importance of working to learn, not to earn. Plus, one of the fastest ways to get ahead and the beauty of having two jobs, including the fact that you’re too busy to waste your extra cash.
Learn how Aarnio managed to crack the code and increase his credit lines by working at Frito Lay, student credit lessons, and when it’s the perfect time to quit the vehicle job to pursue your entrepreneur dreams.
“I began the brutal immigrant lifestyle of waking up at 3 a.m. to start work at Frito Lay at 4am. Every day I would be done work at noon, then I would work on my real-estate deals for 5 hours until 5pm. In the evening, I would teach guitar for 2 hours and then work on another side business for 2 hours until I fell asleep”.
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
Go to StefanAarnio.com for EPIC timestamps and episode resources
Are you starting to feel anxious about your economy and the future of your business? We’re sorry to say this but the shit show is just getting started. COVID-19 and its repercussions on health, society, and the global economy are just a fraction of the problems ahead. We saw it coming and it is finally here, the cycle couldn’t be stretched any longer, welcome to the start of 80 years of hard times.
Chapter 7 of Money, People, Deal will show you exactly how to grow your business at an exponential and geometric rate, by buying two elemental things: time and talent. When it comes to investments, time and talent are elemental. Discover how Aarnio changed his mentality to use all resources to create lead generation, websites, brands, videos, blogs, articles, photos, seminars, billboards, employees, teams of bird dogs, databases, referral programs, books, and social media campaigns to build a web of influence around him.
Go to StefanAarnio.com for EPIC timestamps and episode resources
We have officially entered the hard times Stefan Aarnio and so many others have been waiting for the longest time. Hard times create strong men, and the current crisis will start to form the strong men the world and the male culture are so desperately in need of. Our today’s guest knows everything about not only physical but mental and spiritual strength. Elliot Hulse was doing push-ups since he was very young and once he held a barbell in his hand he learned that with discipline, consistency, and effort he would be unstoppable.
Success is your duty. Economic success can be yours to keep. In this chapter of Hard Times, Aarnio will show you why a man should strive to become as rich and powerful as possible so that he can protect himself, his family, his wife and children and his tribe. Listen to Stefans’ family history, and discover how displacement of power, especially economic power works, and how to prevent the reversal of the masculine and femenine polarity in a couple.
If you really want to, and have the opportunity to make a million dollars this year, what are you waiting for? Sometimes opportunities come once in a lifetime and we don’t always have the chance in our lives to make that kind of money. “Sacrifice a few years of your life to live in ways people won’t, to live the rest of your life in ways that people can’t. Your kids, your little girls will look back on their father and thank you later in life for your sacrifices and your duty that you carried out so they can live comfortably”.
Hard times create strong men, and weak men create hard times. It is the inevitable cycle of life where great empires are built and destroyed. Unfortunately, millennials are currently living in the era of weak men that drown in ephemeral pleasure and limited desires. However, strength and greatness are determined by one’s self, and so this is the best time to seize everything you have ever wanted!
The brain usually runs two separate movies through the mind: a positive one and a negative one. In this episode of The Close, we will learn all about The Action Threshold, and the four ways to lower this when it comes to the selling process. By the time of any close and once the sale has been made, your prospect jumps to be now your customer, and the purpose by this point is make them a client of yours by offering upsells, bundles and downsells. Walk with us as we discover the counterintuitive nature of the upsell when it comes to closing a sales deal.
The Close 7 Level Selling will give you all the tools you need to make your sales happen: testimonials, white papers, a published book, and the power of a video testimonial will all lead you towards the best deals you can imagine.
Enter Stefan Aarnio’s world and discover why investing in yourself is the best way to build your self-made wealth empire. Order The Close 7 Level Selling and all Aarnio’s books, here: https://stefanaarnio.com
Natural salespeople, all have two things in common: they 1) follow a natural framework for their sales presentation and 2) they all sound amazing. A great salesperson is a blend of mechanics and delivery which creates both a logical and emotional argument for the sale.
The Close lays out the framework, mechanics and delivery for the human mind so that you can effectively influence and persuade anyone regardless of your experience level. The Close provides a fresh new perspective on how to open the sale, present the value and close the sale using proven methods that have worked in all industries. Some of the techniques in this book have never been seen before and are so powerful that they could be used for tremendous good or evil if used by the wrong hands.
Successful people are always learning. In this confession, Stefan Aarnio shares the way he feeds his mind and all the different ways you can learn everything about real estate. As a marvelous student, Stefan decided to take out a mortgage to buy a cash-flowing investment in real estate and ran into a big surprise when the banker realized he was self-employed:
“I felt as though I had built credit and decided to apply for a mortgage again through my local bank after being rejected the first time. I waited in line to meet with my banker and we sat down in the same chairs we had sat in the first time I applied for credit.”
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
When it comes to stocks, insider trading might be illegal, but in real estate, it's essential to win the game. And as a real estate investor gets the first chance to purchase a property in a private way, he can easily get rich.
In this chapter of Money, People, Deal, Stefan shares with us how, in his opinion, the stock market is not designed for the average investor to win, how he controls his investments and the outcome of his returns. Learn how you can become an insider in real estate with Aarnio’s ten keys and why the best deals always come to those who are the most visible, the most connected and the ones who are in control of the information in the market. Information is king!
“By the time the property gets to you, everyone has explored any easy chances for profit, and you are usually too late to the party. Plus, you now have to pay the price that the seller wanted, plus the commissions of two realtors and two brokers. Negotiating becomes muddled because the realtors always have their own interests above their clients, and sometimes the brokers can complicate negotiations as well.”
Learn what’s the easiest way to play the deal game in four steps, how to find investors, and the reason why does “the money” love money people deal. Learn from Stefan Arnio how to invest in yourself so others invest in you: https://stefanaarnio.com/
For centuries, entrepreneurs have taken resources from different sources and have assembled them to create higher value. Great entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Henry Ford and Donald Trump have all understood very clearly how to assemble Money, People and Deals together. The intellectual value that these men brought to their ventures was so great that they built their businesses by using none of their own money; this is the skill of the entrepreneur and the fastest way to wealth.
There is a famous story about the transformation from the boy world to them and the world, and the famous story is called “Jack and the Beanstalk ''. Learn through this tale the 3 pillars of becoming a man: The singing harp, the golden goose and the rescued princess. It is not enough to just make the transition of boy to man through your work, your purpose, and your ownership of the good, bad, and ugly 108 Hard Times of your life. In addition, a man must take care of the four parts of his being: mind, body, spirit, and emotions.
In this chapter of Hard Times Create Strong Men, Stefan shares with us the four parts of being an effective and strong man: Strong mind, strong body, strong spirit and the power of being emotionally strong.
Hard times create strong men, and weak men create hard times. It is the inevitable cycle of life where great empires are built and destroyed. Unfortunately, millennials are currently living in the era of weak men that drown in ephemeral pleasure and limited desires. However, strength and greatness are determined by one’s self, and so this is the best time to seize everything you have ever wanted!
In part three of The Close, you’ve finally come to the closing process and its magic. But before we dive in, what does it really mean 'to close'? In this chapter, Aarnio tells us a particular story of two salesmen sitting on by he curb, defeated after a long day of selling, when suddenly, one of them says a very curious thing to the other me. Discover the complete story here.
As you read this, you will find out why everybody is on commission, regardless of their job, base pay, salary, benefits or incentives. Plus, the anatomy of the Seven Level Closing Process. Ready to crack the code of buying strategies?
The Close 7 Level Selling will give you all the tools you need to make your sales happen: testimonials, white papers, a published book, and the power of a video testimonial will all lead you towards the best deals you can imagine.
Enter Stefan Aarnio’s world and discover why investing in yourself is the best way to build your self-made wealth empire. Order The Close 7 Level Selling and all Aarnio’s books, here: https://stefanaarnio.com
Natural salespeople, all have two things in common: they 1) follow a natural framework for their sales presentation and 2) they all sound amazing. A great salesperson is a blend of mechanics and delivery which creates both a logical and emotional argument for the sale.
The Close lays out the framework, mechanics and delivery for the human mind so that you can effectively influence and persuade anyone regardless of your experience level. The Close provides a fresh new perspective on how to open the sale, present the value and close the sale using proven methods that have worked in all industries. Some of the techniques in this book have never been seen before and are so powerful that they could be used for tremendous good or evil if used by the wrong hands.
Did you know an immigrant is four times more likely to become a millionaire than a native-born American? Shocking, isn’t it? Some people may wonder why immigrants are more likely to become millionaires, but we often forget that selling everything you own and packing up to move to a foreign land is the most entrepreneurial thing that anyone can do!
“I decided that I would break out of my comfort zone, become educated in real estate and investing. The decision to change was painful and scary to think about: I had invested my entire life into something else and now it was time to throw it all away”.
Walk with Aarnio as he confesses why one of the hallmarks of successful entrepreneurs is angst and how entrepreneur souls like yours are often idea factories, igniters and visionaries. Why should knowledge be your best leverage to escape poverty? Listen to this Confession of Self-Made and discover how $1000 a month of clear profit in a small side business can be equivalent to the net profit made at a real job after expenses like a car or work clothes.
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?
What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?
Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
Chapter five of the Money People Deal starts with a definition everybody should have as their mantra: risk. All of the definitions involve some form of loss or suffering, but they all have an element of variability, probability, or chance. After that, Aarnio shares his own definition of risk, as an inventory of elements that are under your control compared with an inventory of elements that are out of your control.
Stefan’s “risk” definition has two primary distinctions that the average definition does not:
It assesses your degree of control in a situation, and assesses your emotions and how you feel about your level of control, eliminating the words “probability” and “chance” from his definition.
“In my world, actions and options are more important than probability. No matter how bad a scenario gets, there are always actions to be performed and options that can be explored. Probability and chance come from past data, and may or may not apply to the present or the future.”
Learn what’s the easiest way to play the deal game in four steps, how to find investors, and the reason why does “the money” love money people deal. Learn from Stefan Arnio how to invest in yourself so others invest in you: https://stefanaarnio.com/
For centuries, entrepreneurs have taken resources from different sources and have assembled them to create higher value. Great entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Henry Ford and Donald Trump have all understood very clearly how to assemble Money, People and Deals together. The intellectual value that these men brought to their ventures was so great that they built their businesses by using none of their own money; this is the skill of the entrepreneur and the fastest way to wealth.
Click here for EPIC timestamps and episode resources
We all know how important social media has become in the last 10 years. Especially when we talk about success, that’s why today’s episode is something special. Luke and Jordan Lintz of Highkey Clout podcast are convinced about something: followers is the new currency. That’s right folks, followers are really valuable when it comes to growing your own business or your personal brand. They give you credibility in this social media world, even if they are just following you for a giveaway. Today’s episode is all about building and focusing on the right audience in order to build and sell through social media.
It has never been easier to start a business thanks to social media. You can sell products to people you will never know and talk directly to anyone in the world that has an Instagram account through a private message. By training his students in the real estate market, Stefan’s top student makes more than one million USD per year, and he could not be happier. Learn in this episode how Stefan Aarnio builds entrepreneurs along with the HighKey Clout.
From political issues and the possibility of a war starting anytime soon to discovering the secrets of leveraging your business through social media, Stefan believes it is important for both men and women to read Hard Times Create Strong Men. We can’t be sure when the good times will be over, but we must be prepared.
Learn why direct messages (DM’s) are the new phone calls, the 1900’s true definition of Clout, how it stands out in business and politics and why it is so relevant, Stefan’s biggest house flip, his greatest real estate mistakes and why reading a book every day of your life can save you from the end of time.
What does it mean to be a man? Specifically, to turn from a boy who lives with his mother, in the world of women, the world of the feminine of fun, of games, of play, and then transition into the masculine world with the men, responsibility, and work?
The Spartans were some of the strongest, most revered warriors of all time. Popularized in movies like 300, the men of Sparta never surrendered and they were hard and rigid, but it was this same rigidity that prevented them from growing into an empire like the Romans. Eventually, the Spartans’ rigidity led them into their demise.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one most adaptable to change.”
Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species
In this chapter of Hard Times Create Strong Men, Stefan analyses the fighting mentality of armies like the Spartans of Ancient Greece and the Germans in WWII, who eventually lost due to their inability to bend instead of breaking. In battle and in life, it’s much better to be resourceful, and flexible in your thinking than to be rigid and one dimensional. In the Art of War, the perfect warrior wins the fight without violence.
Hard times create strong men, and weak men create hard times. It is the inevitable cycle of life where great empires are built and destroyed. Unfortunately, millennials are currently living in the era of weak men that drown in ephemeral pleasure and limited desires. However, strength and greatness are determined by one’s self, and so this is the best time to seize everything you have ever wanted!
Questions are powerful if they are asked with the correct guidance. We have walked through polishing and shaping your communication skills and empowering words inside Part 2 of The Close 7 Level Selling. Once you have mastered the influencing types of tone, Stefan Aarnio is here to help you disable your conscious mind and at the same time make your prospect feel more involved in the sales process. Learn the two rules about asking questions, and the best strategies to ask them while making the perfect sales presentation.
Throughout the second part of this book, you will discover the four types of buyers in the world, and each specific language to make this sale happen. Walk with Aarnio as he moves a prospect to the seven levels of agreements, giving them the medicine to their sickness. Analyze the gap between where the prospect is and where they want to be; learn to calculate their goal in a magnificent way to have deals closed.
The Close 7 Level Selling will give you all the tools you need to make your sales happen: testimonials, white papers, a published book, and the power of a video testimonial will all lead you towards the best deals you can imagine.
Enter Stefan Aarnio’s world and discover why investing in yourself is the best way to build your self-made wealth empire. Order The Close 7 Level Selling and all Aarnio’s books, here: https://stefanaarnio.com
Natural salespeople, all have two things in common: they 1) follow a natural framework for their sales presentation and 2) they all sound amazing. A great salesperson is a blend of mechanics and delivery which creates both a logical and emotional argument for the sale.
The Close lays out the framework, mechanics and delivery for the human mind so that you can effectively influence and persuade anyone regardless of your experience level. The Close provides a fresh new perspective on how to open the sale, present the value and close the sale using proven methods that have worked in all industries. Some of the techniques in this book have never been seen before and are so powerful that they could be used for tremendous good or evil if used by the wrong hands.
Click here for EPIC timestamps and episode resources
In past episodes, we have talked about overnight success, and most importantly, that it doesn’t exist. Real success comes with effort and long hours of consistency, passion, and desire to achieve freedom and take control of your life. Our today’s guest knows perfectly what we mean: Dedric Polite is an entrepreneur and a 10-year real estate investor that started in this industry with a house hack. Stay with us in this Respect the Grind episode as Dedric tells us why the BRRRR Method is his favorite strategy to win in this game.
Years ago, young Dedric Polite purchased a triplex, lived in one unit and rented out the rest: by doing that, the other two rents paid his expenses and the property even appreciated significantly. Up until today, this property still generates a lot of cash flow to Polite. Today, he is the co-founder of Be Polite Properties, a company that owns and operates income-producing single-family, multi-family and commercial real estate. They focus on acquiring well-located properties around Boston, MA, North and South Carolina, and other metropolitan areas.
Walk with us in this new episode as we learn from Polite how to find potential property sellers, drive around your neighborhood and look for properties that are distressed. Plus, other amazing strategies to let owners know you are interested to find their properties and the power phone calls, letters and postcards. It’s never too late to go back to the classics, right? Discover how avoiding distractions and choosing knowledge will give you more satisfaction than procrastinating your life.
Join Stefan Aarnio in this confession, where he shares meeting new people actually related to his own new passion (real estate), how he assisted to seminars, read real-estate material and books with the illusion of meeting the right person or finding the right opportunity.
“We would meet in basements around the city like resistance fighters fighting a common foe—our own fear, weaknesses, and ignorance. We met secretly to feel like we belonged to something special, perhaps an elite club, but in truth, we met secretly to connect with like-minded individuals and avoid the ridicule of our friends and families.”
By putting in action the wealth principle of “giving” instead of “taking”, Aarnio decided to push his theory to the limit and force himself to act in the opposite direction of his poverty mind. Learn how trying the opposite is one of the quickest ways to turn failure into success.
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?, What are the steps you have to take today achieve this dream?, Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real life story of Stefan Aarnio (award winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
After listening to past episodes of Money People Deal, Stefan Arnio it is time to ask you some questions. Do you have the skill sets to effectively raise money for real estate? Seven skillsets sound like a lot to deal with, but no one is perfect in all of them for the game. Before you start answering every question in this episode, identify your strengths and weaknesses. “Knowing where you excel and where you are weak and extremely powerful''.
Everyone is different, and depending on how your brain is naturally wired, you will be strong and weak in different areas. This episode will take you to a personal journey to discover your skills from Sales and Marketing, People, Management, Deal-Finding and Analyzing, Negotiating and Closing Skills.
Ready to take some action steps? Aarnio will lead you to examine the seven skill sets and give yourself a score from one to ten, to have an insight into which skills you can delegate to a partner, contractor or employee and which skills you can strengthen up to make a great deal!
Learn what’s the easiest way to play the deal game in four steps, how to find investors, and why does “the money” love money people deal. Learn from Stefan Arnio how to invest in yourself so others invest in you: https://stefanaarnio.com/shop-books/
For centuries, entrepreneurs have taken resources from different sources and have assembled them to create higher value. Great entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, and Donald Trump have all understood very clearly how to assemble Money, People and Deals together. The intellectual value that these men brought to their ventures was so great that they built their businesses by using none of their own money; this is the skill of the entrepreneur and the fastest way to wealth.
Still thinking it’s impossible to become a self-made millionaire at a very early age? Well, today’s guest is here to confirm that making your dreams come true can become a reality if you are persistent with your goals. Samuel Leach started making a lot of money when he was in college. He created a trading training that led him to start teaching other students ways in trading. Samuel Leach is the perfect example of why getting out of your comfort zone and being uncomfortable can be the key to success. He’s done it all, from teaching millennials to improve their financial skills and building his own international trading company, to becoming a Forbes Contributor in personal finance and a speaker at TED Talks.
Samuel Leach discovered a gold mine while he was in college: He realized everyone needs financial education, and because the educational system doesn’t care about this matter, he decided to do it himself. Inspired by his underprivileged background, Samuel decided he would change his parents’ lives and help others educate themselves in financial circumstances. After 8 years of founding Samuel and Co. Sam and his team had taught over 3,000 people from 63 countries how they can build wealth, through earning a second income from trading or learning how to become a full-time trader through different programs.
In this episode, we talk to Sam about stock trading, keeping your trade goals realistic and avoid greediness to make a positive impact on your finances. Learn how to keep your feet on the ground and stop caring about money, to actually earning some. Leach wants everyone to know good mental health is really important when you have this job: There are many ways to fall into temptations like gambling, luxury items and even getting into drugs when you have that much money. Join us as we talk to this genius and walk through a day in the life of a trader.
Men are wired to solve problems To men, they are a hammer, and every problem is a nail that must be whacked down. Women just want to talk about the nail and how they feel about it; men want to whack the nail. We don’t feel the need to constantly express our emotions or gossip with our fellow mates, we can watch a game of football or fix up a classic car in the garage without uttering a single word.
Video games do not serve a man’s purpose, and in that way, they are unmanly.
In this chapter of Hard Times Create Strong Men, Stefan opens up on his vast experience as a gamer and the huge toll it can take on your life. The fact is that gaming can is extremely addictive and detrimental thanks to its reward mechanisms and the very time-consuming nature of it. Think about all the things you could have done if instead of gaming, you were developing your own business or developing skill and mastery in an art form or as an athlete!
Go to https://stefanaarnio.com/shop-books/ to get a copy of Hard Times Create Strong Men by Stefan Aarnio now!
Inside this book, you’ll discover the secrets of discipline, freedom, adventure, and responsibility, distilling history’s wisdom into one practical and profound book. Stefan Aarnio shatters the modern myths of science, faith, and human nature, while feeding the mind and lifting the spirit of his readers.
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As we enter a new decade, we must set spectacular and powerful goals. It’s obvious we can set goals at any time of our lives, but sometimes we need certain motivation to keep the tracks going. What better way to start a new year with an amazing example of goal achieving through the psychology of success? Our today’s guest has combined his passion for real estate investing with his own personal philosophy: goal setting, envisioning and manifesting success led him to become ‘One of America’s top real estate investment and high-performance life coaches’. Join us in this new Respect The Grind Episode and discover why Rod Khleif believes success depends from 80 to 90% in your mindset, and the other 10% relates to external factors.
Khleif was born in Holland and migrated to the US when he was only 6 years old, to live with his mother and brother. Like most migrants, they didn’t have much, but Rod’s mom was able to buy a house and that was the time when Rod’s real estate curiosity was born. After getting his broker license, Rod managed to earn more than 17 million USD, and suddenly lose it all during the 2008 market crash. From great success to spectacular failures, Rod has built over 23 businesses in his 40 business career and he is convinced that if you write your goals down, it can be a lot easier for you to commit to them. He knows from great experience goals must be measurable in order to achieve them and that if you follow your passion, amazing things can happen to you.
In this episode, we chat about Rod’s tough childhood, how to overcome hard times by changing your mindset and transform your life to build successful multi-million dollar businesses. Khleif opens up about how he learned the hard way that cash flow is more important than value. Also, goal setting key questions: what do you want to have, what do you want to do? What do you want to learn and who do you want to help? Learn the art of using powerful words and the positive impact they can have in your life. Stay with us in this episode as Rod Khleif tells us why, regardless of your situation, giving back can boost your success and can make you feel more fulfilled than anything else you’ve ever think of.
In this second part of The close 7 Level Selling, Aarnio presents to us the Anatomy of a Sale in a straight line, and he lets us know that ‘a good sale is straight from open to close, offering no room to get off track’.
Learn the difference between selling and negotiating (even when they are closely related to each other) and a well-structured sale vs. A badly structured sale. Inside any good structure, there are extremely limited possibilities, and without a doubt, inside a bad structure, there are too many possibilities. Usually, the salesperson must be a natural or excellent negotiator to close with no structure at all.
As we know from part 1 of this book, there is power in every word we say. Once you become a salesperson, you’ll never settle to a regular vocabulary. Aarnio will give you empowering words to incorporate into your language, appear more certain, and powerful while handling any prospect.
Polish and shape perfectly your consciousness, communication skills and do tone training to become a tremendous salesperson. In addition to this, discover 10 core influencing types of tone as identified by Jordan Belfort.
Enter Stefan Aarnio’s world and discover why investing in yourself is the best way to build your self-made wealth empire. Order The Close 7 Level Selling and all Aarnio’s books, here: https://stefanaarnio.com
Natural salespeople, all have two things in common: they 1) follow a natural framework for their sales presentation and 2) they all sound amazing. A great salesperson is a blend of mechanics and delivery which creates both a logical and emotional argument for the sale.
The Close lays out the framework, mechanics and delivery for the human mind so that you can effectively influence and persuade anyone regardless of your experience level. The Close provides a fresh new perspective on how to open the sale, present the value and close the sale using proven methods that have worked in all industries. Some of the techniques in this book have never been seen before and are so powerful that they could be used for tremendous good or evil if used by the wrong hands.
Are you afraid of owning who you are, unapologetically? Is there something in your past that’s keeping you from stepping into your power? If this resonates with you, then you are not alone. Our today’s guest is author and lifestyle entrepreneur Ashley Hannawacker, maybe the best-looking person to ever come to this show, but she is much more than a pretty face and she’s here to show us why. Ashley Hann is here to help you be yourself, stop telling yourself bullshit lies and invest in your foundation.
Ashley Hann is the author of Magnetic Confidence, a lifestyle entrepreneur and a personal branding expert. She suffered some serious trauma during her early years that kept her from embracing herself and expressing her true craft. She hid behind a brand for years but struggled to reflect her personal brand out to the world. This unclear message got people thinking of Ashley as a fitness coach (even her close friends!), and it wasn’t until Gary Vee stepped in to work his magic on her that she grabbed the courage to become a personal brand and make sure everybody knows what she’s all about.
In this episode, we’ll take a close look at being a digital nomad, living the freedom lifestyle and working with a laptop from anywhere around the world. We’ll also deep dive into why by being your true self, you will become polarizing and how to design your business around your life. Tune in and learn why it’s time to get super clear on your vision and your values and stop people-pleasing if you want to take charge of your life.
Making a million dollars of ambition a reality takes guts, determination, an exercised risk threshold, and a Self-Made spirit. If Aarnio didn’t have those, real estate would’ve never become his muse, his lover, his focus, and his reason to be.
Just as fast as he learned the music language and thanks to determination, he suddenly became a financial preacher to anyone and everyone who would or would not listen.
Soon, he got enthusiastic to tell his father everything he was learning for this new passion, and the answer was: ‘Real estate is a fad, you know music, stick to music. This is just your flavor of the week. You will never buy a property!’
Some of the self-made lessons you will learn in this Confession are:
People who didn’t achieve their dreams might try to kill yours, so find people who are chasing the same dream and form a spiritual family. You can always learn new skills to bring new words and a new language to your life, and last but not least, don’t forget to save a portion of your cash each month for further education, school is never finished for the professional.
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?, What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?, Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real-life story of Stefan Aarnio (award-winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
Click Here for EPIC timestamps and episode resources
What’s up with all the excuses you keep making up for yourself? If you are reading this, you are part of the privileged group with access to the internet in this world, yet you still find the time to complain. If this sounds like you, it’s time to step back and let our podcast guest Andy Dane show you the way. No matter where the world put you there is always something you can do about it, but remember, you are going to have to hustle to get where you want.
Andy Dane, the author of One Hundred Doors and real estate titan based out of California, has investments in Florida, Texas, Ohio, Tennessee, and Cali. Andy was born into a poor family and he has been working since the age of 12, a real hustler. Starting out as a bartender, he showed up 20 days in a row until he got a job as a waiter in a fine-dining restaurant. Within a year he was managing the place and he was also a successful sommelier. The wine lifestyle eventually burned him out and that is when he transitioned into a mindful, grounded person through the power of ancient medicine like Yoga, oils, and crystals. Today, he brings wisdom into his life and business decisions and teaches others how to unlock their own success mindset.
In this episode, we’ll learn why no one stays in the flip game for long and how you can wholesale paper and earn just as much as flipping without the excruciating effort. Plus, Andy shares with us the buy and hold principle, why syndication is the name of the game and the emotional drain that comes out of coaching. If you think Yoga and mindfulness are for ‘pussies’, then you better think again, because it may be the thing that stops you from unlocking your power.
Let’s be honest, sometimes we get confused by words and we believe they mean the same thing. Well, guess what? This chapter gives us all the answers we have been looking for when it comes to thinking that cash and credit are the same, or that money and wealth are the same.
The biggest distinction between wealth and money lies in the units of measurement. Wealth is measured in time, and money is measured in dollars. With easy to understand examples, Stefan shows us that living paycheck to paycheck (doesn’t matter how much the paycheck is), does not imply you are going to be wealthy for the rest of your life. But if you owned a large real estate portfolio instead, that can provide you more passive income than you need to live.
Can you survive forever without working again living off your paycheck? Wealth is measured in time; money is measured in dollars.
Learn what’s the easiest way to play the deal game in four steps, how to find investors, and why does “the money” love money people deal. Enter https://stefanaarnio.com/mpd/ and get a copy of Money People Deal today!
For centuries, entrepreneurs have taken resources from different sources and have assembled them to create higher value. Great entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Henry Ford and Donald Trump have all understood very clearly how to assemble Money, People and Deals together. The intellectual value that these men brought to their ventures was so great that they built their businesses by using none of their own money; this is the skill of the entrepreneur and the fastest way to wealth.
Click Here for EPIC timestamps and episode resources
If you are about to enter the real estate business, you better be aware of some things: nothing in life comes easy, not even flipping houses. You better start looking for the perfect real estate model for you, just like our today’s guest: Chris Grenzig got started in the real estate game the day he entered a house flipping course and not far from that day he realized he could make a lot of money out of a single property. Tune this episode and see how Chris went from being the Assistant Men’s Soccer Coach to become the Asset Manager of an Investment Company with over 3,100 units and more than $195 million in assets acquired.
Chris Grenzig grew up in Long Island and moved to Brooklyn 2 years ago to get serious on the grind. After discovering the flipping model, Grenzig realized this was not the ideal real estate model for him. Later on, he found out about syndication and this suited his necessities in the perfect way. This guy knows there are only two ways to scale in real estate: whether you start making more deals, or you start making bigger deals. Finding the ideal real estate model may not be easy, but once you find something that was made for you, it all starts to make sense. According to Chris, all deals come from three sources: networking, marketing and negotiating. Without one of these, closing deals will be more difficult, that’s why Chris goes classic on doing phone calls as his primary strategy.
In this episode, we will learn how elemental phone calls are not only to talk about business, but to build strong relationships with clients; why Chris spends literally hours a week nurturing his relationships through the phone, the importance of managing properties and the not so sweet parts of real estate. Ready to learn how to get results after putting all the effort into your body, mind, and soul? Listen to this episode as you invest in your professional and personal development and learn to Respect the Grind.
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When hard times come to us, we must defend what is ours truly and do not let anyone take it away from us. We are living through a time that is hard for men to stay strong. That is why today’s guest speaks and writes about a topic we are not used to seeing anywhere these days: masculine philosophy and spirituality. Jack Donovan helps other men create an environment for men only, to make their own lives better through spirituality, without feeling vulnerable. As we end this upside-down year, this guy will share with us why women are not supposed to define masculinity, and males are not supposed to define femininity.
Jack Donovan was raised in Pennsylvania and studied fine arts in New York. Over the past years, he has written amazing books like Becoming a Barbarian, and A More Complete Beast, his most recent work. His foundational book, The Way of Men has sold more than 100,000 copies and has been translated to French, German, Portuguese, Spanish and Polish. Donovan also founded Brutal Company, an online shop that specializes in selling shirts with pagan artwork. He speaks at events, promotes and discusses masculinity and the challenges men have to face in the 21st Century. Jack created his own meaning in life, and he has taken advantage of it through the hard times we are currently living.
In this episode of Respect The Grind, we chat with Jack Donovan about the infiltration of females in organizations that used to be for men only, and the importance of men getting together and talking about masculinity. Meet this badass and discover why boys should be separated from girls during education and how to make biological differences disappear. It doesn’t matter how straightforward, politically incorrect a speech is, if it’s true and it’s changing the world, we must listen to it. If you are looking for a man to worship as a strong and powerful role model in your life, this episode is for you.
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Finding motivation within ourselves is sometimes a bit difficult, however, it is just a matter of time for us to realize motivation can’t be anywhere but inside ourselves. Our today’s guest grew up watching the University of Georgia football games with his family and very soon decided how he wanted to achieve all his dreams. Walk with us as we discover how Candler Cook came up with the greatest tool kit to overcome obstacles in life, and the perfect recipe to achieve goals: intrinsic motivation, making concrete steps, holding yourself accountable and finally, hitting your end goal.
Candler Cook grew up as a football player and he always dreamed of becoming part of his favorite football team. One of his biggest struggles as he began to get closer to that goal was not being strong enough, fast enough and heavy enough to achieve first division. The result of that: Eat up to 15K calories every day just to gain weight and achieve the goal of this life. Cook is the living proof that finding something that excites that much, is enough to keep working towards until the end. Believe Cook when he tells you, efforts will slowly show up and the view will clear up eventually.
In this episode, we will learn how Cook went from being an underdog to being a bulldog, and writing a book about it; the correct way to look at goals to achieve them, and why ‘not having time’ is the most stupid and lamest excuse you can say to not get things done. We know for a fact that no one can be really motivated about everything, still, every human on this planet has at least two or three things that you are really, really excited about. Prepare your pen and paper and start making that motivation list to get things done this 2020!! Listen to this episode with Candler Cook and discover the evident: things that come easy, aren’t satisfying at all.
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Nothing tastes sweeter after respecting the grind for so many years than having wealth and success. And what better way to learn how to crack the rich code from an internationally recognized leader and performance empowerment training expert. To achieve wealth and success, we all need some guidance. Our today’s guest, entrepreneur, advisor, and inspirational keynote speaker Jim Britt is here to share with us how to find the perfect coach for you and your needs, not just for business but for personal growth.
Jim Britt is an author of 13 best-selling books including, Cracking the Rich Code, The Power of Letting Go, Freedom, Unleashing Your Authentic Power, Do This and Get Rich-For Entrepreneurs, to name only a few. He has presented himself in seminars all around the world sharing success principles for entrepreneurs and life-enhancing realizations with thousands of people. Furthermore, this OG has been named one of the world’s top 50 speakers, having the ability to influence his audience being a huge factor that has helped Jim across his coaching and speaker career.
Our guest from today opens up with this story: how to become an awesome speaker building influence and confidence, why putting yourself in the spotlight and stepping out of your comfort zone will help you break free, and why we all should be taught to manage our lives and learn to think like an entrepreneur. Ready to make disgust a power trigger for change? Stay here and learn about leadership, addictive cycles and cracking the rich code with Jim Britt.
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Are we finally coming to an era where the apocalypse is near and we should be moving to another planet, just like movies have predicted it? Our today’s guest has seen the future multiple times. G Michael Hopf is the author of the acclaimed and international bestselling post-apocalyptic series The New World. He also has authored dozens of other post-apocalyptic and western novels and he is convinced good times create weak men and that it only occurs every 80 or 90 years. He is an expert in historical cycles and is pretty sure 2020 is the year of civil war.
Geoff lives with his family in San Diego, California and he is a veteran of the US Marine Corps, and he is here to teach us some major cycle lessons: The first 80-year cycle refers to how relevant warlike events take place, like the WWII and the US Civil War, and the second one refers to the change in political systems that happen every 250 years. This guy believes we are heading to the end of democracy in the US and that disarming population could be a bad idea, that nothing is for free and when people tell you is for free, it can always end up in tyranny.
From post-apocalyptic stories to developing strategies for resistance, this guy is a true believer in the power of storytelling, holding on to the truth and why we should be moving to another planet a while ago. Discover in this episode how educational systems have brainwashed, discouraged and disable your people, the reason sometimes we feel lack meaning and purpose, feel lonely, and how to channel struggle to grow as human beings, and the perfect moment to publish your written work and show it to the world.
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For those who think overnight success really exists, there is some news for you: you better get rid of that idea in your head. Behind every artist entering the spotlight and exploding all over media, there are years of effort and struggle, knocking on label doors, dozens of castings made, marketing plans, and constant look-out for signing contracts. Once we realize we can do it all independently, and still get the support of your audience, it’s only a matter of time to overcome these situations and transform them into challenges. Our today’s guest is an independent artist that owns her own corporation, her masters and all the copyright to her material. Get to know Joy Villa and how she took action and control of her life, marking her own steps to success.
In 2017, Villa outsold Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Adele, thanks to time managing and appealing music with strong messages. After long years of starting her career, she decided it was time to make a name for herself, and having time is more important to do that than money. Besides making music and becoming a #1 Billboard Rock artist, she is a GOP Strategist and Speaker and promoter of a vegan and fitness lifestyle. She is a strong Trump supporter, sees him as a strong paternal figure, believes honesty is crucial these days and is not afraid of what other people think.
In this episode, we will chat with Joy about her ten-year-overnight-success, what its like to be an entrepreneur in the music industry and why knowing how much your time is worth is elemental for people to know your true value and pay what your work deserves to be paid. Joy knows there’s nothing wrong with acting like a diva and she uses her music to send a message. Stay with us as we discover Joy’s dark facet in her life and how she took action and move on, and why hard times also create strong women.
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Sometimes we end up in the wrong path of life and have to start from zero, depending on each individual’s situation. Whether we hit rock bottom financially, emotionally, mentally or spiritually, every crash can be painful and challenging, but it strongly depends on us to own this situation as a motivation motor to go back not for more, but for all. Our today’s guest is the living proof of the burn and rise of a phoenix: Trevor McGregor has worked with clients from all around the world, including high executives, real estate investors, entrepreneurs, world-class athletes, and multiple business professionals and all of them have one thing in common: They want a life-changing transformation, just like Trevor’s.
Trevor McGregor used to be in the restaurant industry until he lost it all back in 2011. After struggling with that big failure, he entered the real estate industry, and in an impressively fast way, Trevor paid both his and his parents’ loans with an impressive cash flow portfolio. That was when he decided to start walking the business coaching path to help companies and individuals transform their lives. The equation? Mindset and modeling to achieve success and teach people to focus on their goals. Trevor was a Master Platinum Coach with the famous Tony Robbins Group, and he offers elite coaching, unlike any other program in the world. He holds assets in his portfolio that include single-family homes in Vancouver and multi-family apartment buildings in Texas, Memphis and South Carolina, and self-storage units in Key West Florida, co-owns a Luxury Resort Center in Costa Rica and the list goes on and on.
In today’s episode, we will get to know Trevor’s hard work, how he went through the grind until he got where he is today, when and how he discovered cash flow and the differences there are between being a life coach and being a business coach. Plus, how to turn decades into days bypassing your mentor’s learning curve much faster than he did, what are the three things guiding us through life, and the 7 Step Blueprint to Extraordinary Success. If you are getting shitty answers, you better start asking better questions. Change your state, your story and your strategy with this episode of Respect The Grind.
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How do we know when it is time for our companies to grow? How do we know if our managers, employees and clients are doing great with our internal culture and our services? Some may say employees are the workforce, but they are more than that. Today we are changing our work mindset and taking a wider look into the future. Stan Slap, our today’s guest, is an expert in developing and improving the best environment and work culture around companies to grow. From small to large and big companies like Microsoft, this internationally-renowned thought leader is here to help you focus on your goals and share how he is making a difference in the world.
Stan Slap is a New York Times, Wall St. Journal and USA Today best-selling author (just to name a few) for the books Bury My Heart at a Conference Room B and Under the Hood. By making a name for himself over the past years, Slap has achieved impressive metrics impact for companies like Google, Facebook, HSBC and Time Warner. He has been a keynote speaker in global conferences, presenting solutions in over 70 countries around the world. Slap is absolutely convinced the most successful people are usually the most focused, and that focusing on your goals doesn’t mean you have to limit yourself in only doing one thing. Nevertheless, putting extra time an energy in your biggest passion, will lead you to places you never imagined.
Our chat today with Stan lays the cards on the table and points the evident: He knows you can’t write a book about something you don’t know, and you have to make a big commitment on promoting your work once its done to have good results. Learn with us why people want to belong to groups, projects and companies that make a positive impact in the world, and the importance of making your internal culture a place where your people feel like they are growing instead of looking for other jobs. If you thought the classic business thinking was still on the board, you better start studying the new work-culture trends.
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Steven Pollack is a legend in the fix-and-flip industry. He founded his company Anchor Loans back in 1998 providing private capital to fix-and-flip in Southern California and right now he keeps killing it as CEO of his own company. He brings over 30 years of experience and a powerful understanding of the cyclical nature of real estate investing. There are no mistakes when it comes to Steve Pollack’s history: he helps his clients fund projects, by lending them money from private resources, instead of coming from banks like a classic way.
Dr. Pollack went from having nothing back in ’97 to own 170 million USD in 8 years, and the US Government helped him achieve that with a social program. Originally from New York, this guy has a Doctorate in Optometry from the University of California, Berkley and a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychobiology. Although he had his career all figured out (he even ran a successful optometry practice) he always had a passion for real estate, which led him to develop a huge portfolio of properties.
In this episode, Steven Pollack shares how in a blink of an eye he went from being an optometrist with a successful business to a landlord and a professional poker player. Learn Steve’s reasons why real estate is not for people that want to get rich the fast way, but for those that want wealth as a permanent state in their lives. If you think you are failing simply because of the decisions you make, think again and this time, count your strengths and weaknesses. Practice patience to achieve your goals while listening to this Respect the Grind episode.
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Michael Blank is a Virginia based Sales King: He has all the secrets to raising money when buying your first apartment building. Husband and father of 4 children, our today’s guest is a full-time entrepreneur, investor and personal coach with a huge passion for helping others achieve financial freedom. Michael is convinced real estate investing is the greatest even for investors without experience. Listen to this episode as he shares with us all about Investment returns, cash flow, and money recycling as the most attractive features of the market.
With Michaels’s training programs you can achieve financial freedom in less than 5 years, by investing in apartment building deals with a very special focus: raising money. Michael Blank owns a company called Nightawk Equity, where he controls over 65 million dollars in performing multifamily assets across the US. Author of the best-selling book Financial Freedom With Real Estate Investing and host of the Apartment Building Investing Podcast, he is also a regular writer for Bigger Pockets and FlipNerd’s REI Classroom.
In this episode, we will learn all about platform building, how to get your audience to trust you and the power of podcasting as a platform to impact and influence people all around the world. Plus, the toughness of selling books with all the content creation and distribution channels out there, and the new marketing way to create duality and targeting niches. Discover why this software developer changed his destiny to sell apartment buildings and is now helping others achieve their financial dreams.
Thank you for listening to Respect The Grind with Stefan Aarnio. If you liked this show don’t forget to subscribe, share it with your friends, and leave a review on iTunes.
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Matt Porcaro has been in the real estate business for 5 years now, and like most people, he entered this world looking for the golden ticket: Financial Freedom. 29-year-old Porcaro, soon realized that by entering the workforce, he was never going to achieve the idea of quitting his 9 to 5 regular job. With the help of one of the greatest money motivators on Earth, Robert Kiyosaki, Matt got his first taste into understanding how people actually get rich.
Matt Porcaro is the vivid image of dream achievement: He graduated from Manhattan College with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineer, and right now he is the Electrical Project Manager for Broadway National, a company that helps facilities like Walmart, Starbucks, UPS, Morgan Chase, and many more to drive down costs and achieve transparency on their electrical services in New York City. Imagine that! Plus, he has been a real estate agent for more than 12 years now and he is the creator of the bestseller, The 203K Way Method.
In this episode, we talk with Matt about how he founded The 203K Way and why he thinks looking for this loan is the best decision he could’ve made in his life. Porcaro shares why having enough money to buy a gaming console makes you richer than most people, and the importance of your first deal in a real estate career. Porcaro is convinced that if every person could know exactly what a 203K loan can give you to get a property and fix it, this move can get you closer to achieving your dreams and securing your financial future. Stay with us in this episode as we learn from 29-year-old Matt why you need to pay for mentorship and all the benefits it can give you in the long term, taking it slow on the rich thing instead of looking for the fast dollar, and why you need to learn a skill you can sell to anyone.
Thank you for listening to Respect The Grind with Stefan Aarnio. If you liked this show don’t forget to subscribe, share it with your friends, and leave a review on iTunes.
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Greg Reid has published more than 80 books and 34 of them have been best sellers. Our guest for today is a motivational keynote speaker, author, and adventurer, ready to take you through a journey where everything is possible and let you know that the true meaning of wealth is not entirely about money, but about time and land mixed up. If you’re looking for the key to success, stay with us as we have a chat with this Ted Talk Award-Winning Keynote Speaker and you discover that whatever you seek, is also seeking you. Have your eyes on the prize and take action just as Dr. Greg did.
Besides having written endless bestsellers, such as Wealth Made Easy, Stickability, and Three Feet from Gold, Dr. Greg Reid received his honorary Ph.D. in literature and he is convinced that you don’t have to be a millionaire to be a hero. This master storyteller knows there’s a big difference between being a best-selling and a back-selling author. Greg has secured his books having a regular spot on Barnes & Noble’s shelves, by talking to the owners of this big library chain. Ready to learn the power of perseverance?
In this episode, we will talk with this natural entrepreneur internationally known for his giving spirit, and his talent for translating complicated situations into simple, digestible concepts, just as he does with his books, that have been translated into 45 different languages. Dr. Reid will show us what are the things real billionaires are doing that you are not, and why he doesn’t give a shot about how the universe keeps teasing us due to our mindset. Learn how to surround yourself with positive mental attitude people, and how this will help you achieve all your goals.
Thank you for listening to Respect The Grind with Stefan Aarnio. If you liked this show don’t forget to subscribe, share it with your friends, and leave a review on iTunes.
Click here for timestamps and EPIC episode resources.
Success can come in many forms, but there isn’t a more marvelous way for success to be presented to us than this name: Grant Cardone. For those who don’t know who Grant is, he is an internationally renowned speaker on leadership, real estate investing, entrepreneurship, social media, and finances. He is the author of the famous 10X Rule and creator of 21 best-selling business programs. Cardone is here to make success our duty, our responsibility, our obligation, and to help us rise above all the out-dated, unworkable, middle-class myths and limitations, to achieve freedom in the best form we can as for ourselves and our families.
Beginning as a bestselling book, Cardone’s 10X movement started in 2011, and a few years after great success, he decided it was time to bring more sugar and spice into his life, and he has just nailed it since then. Cardone has been named one of the Top 10 Snapchat Business Gurus worldwide and Forbes #1 Marketing Influencer, to name just a few titles. He has worked with companies like Google, Sprint, Toyota, GM, Ford and thousands more, besides operating and directing several companies that give him annual revenues exceeding $100 million dollars.
Our today’s guest is a hard worker and an individual who knows why you gotta respect the grind to achieve your goals and dreams. In this episode, we will learn from the great Grant Cardone why it’s okay to show off and think big (despite what other people tell you); why focusing on reaching millions of people is way better than putting energy on that one client that rejected you; Showing up and getting better every day, getting recognition, and elevating the questions you ask yourself. Grant Cardone went from being broke, selling cars and making 2K a month, to become the best-selling business program creator and internationally recognized guru he is today, and he is damn certain that YOU can do it too!
Click here for timestamps and episode resources.
Brandon Dawson founded his first company at 28 years-old and learned everything about raising money from high net worth individuals, private equity firms and strategic partnerships. He knows investors are bored of listening to the same tales from start-ups presentations. What investors really want is to invest in people that see a passion for them and their ideas. Our today’s guest is on a constant look-out to reinvent himself and the businesses he owns in this accelerating world. After losing his first company, Brandon Dawson has focused on empowering business owners to take control of their lives, create value for themselves in the best personal, professional and financial way possible.
Brandon is a serial entrepreneur that created systems once he saw companies lacked, and he ended up making great businesses with amazing returns. He has created a unique, variable-expense shared-services delivery model with one purpose and passion: supporting independent business owners that want to become more profitable and to grow or expand their growth and markets. Brandon helps people and businesses grow in two days, literally. Our today’s guest is sure money doesn’t flow to people with education or skills, it flows to people who solve big problems.
Discover how Brandon went from driving tractors for the New York Elite to acquire 25 million USD of businesses, and the importance of not leading your presentation with your end game but with your deepest passion. Brandon Dawson looks at obstacles as opportunities to solve problems, and he is nailing it.
Click here for timestamps and episode resources.
Everyone has a friend that is an expert in something, besides our most passionate pet lover friend. Our guest for today’s show is both. He is a true master turning companies around and he can even offer a money-back guarantee if things don’t work out for you. Chris ‘Bulldog’ Collins is the world’s #1 bulldog lover and he is absolutely sure that if you are consistent on playing by your own rules and turning your trials into strengths, you can definitely learn to turn your biggest passion into a lifestyle and your ideas into pure gold.
Chris Collins grew up with a pastor-missionary stepfather that led him to become a missionary kid, and after years of being his father figure, he disappeared one day in the middle of the night, leaving Chris and his mom with literally nothing. From being a general manager at BMW to running his own personal brand, Chris Collins Inc, 'Bulldog' is now a business outlaw and entrepreneur coach plugging solid systems into his clients’ businesses to help them have a commitment with success and personal excellence.
Chris will share with us in this episode how he realized the only way to coach others was to change their mindset; why running a successful business has everything to do with leadership and the art of flipping companies vs. flipping houses. Chris is sure that if you do business just for the sake of money, you’re doing it wrong. Stay with us while we chat with the Bulldog and discover why good business is all about pursuing your passion, thinking big and educating yourself when it comes to finances.
After World War II, a new world order was established with America as the center of the universe. American culture invaded other countries for economic gain, and this made America a world exporter of not just goods, services, money and debt, but also culture. One of America’s biggest exports during this era of newfound wealth and surplus was a new kind of citizen ready to wreak havoc on society: the teenager.
In this chapter of Hard Times Create Strong Men, Stefan explores the birth of the teenager and how it led to the deferral of adulthood, also known as the emerging adult. The continuous struggle for adults in this generation is to “find themselves” and their perfect match. And how the constant quest for happiness and fulfillment leaves many men in between things and never allowing them to reach their full potential…
Why not. instead of trying to find yourself, you define yourself, make yourself and create yourself as you go. Draw a line in the sand, claim yourself and say: this is who I want to become. This is how I shall live today. Who are you to be today?
Go to stefanaarnio.com/hardtimesbundle to get a limited time offer of the Hard Times Create Strong Men series, which you can purchase as one bundle for just $99. A small price to pay.
Jason Capital was born in the late eighties, and he vastly went from living in his mom’s basement and struggling as an online salesman, to become an internet marketing guru and certified BSD. Jason decided to drop out of school to achieve his dreams and get out of the rat race. Thanks to the networking he did during an underground online marketing seminar with Yanik Silver, he managed to bring his e-book business from the ground, and ha hasn’t looked back ever since.
Author of the book: Higher Status: The New Science of Success and Achievement, Jason’s net worth is $2 million dollars, thanks to coaching men and women to improve their finances. Capital is part of Barack Obama’s list of Top 100 Entrepreneurs in the USA and he is one of the top leader motivators around the world when it comes to personal finance and dating.
There isn’t a thing Jason Capital can’t do, he sells his books and amazing courses like “Email Income Experts” and “Sales God”, in order to help people replace the fastidious rat race life for laptop life. Jason is convinced that the “text closer” is the future of sales, and you can mark his words as you see call centers displaced from our lives. Discover why Jason, of all millennial entrepreneurs out there, Respects The Grind, as he gives neat tricks like “giving in public and selling in private”, the importance of developing high-income skills like sales or copywriting and why personal development is hard but will change your life doing it.
Let’s remember something: Anyone who is pursuing entrepreneurship, business or real estate investing, your relationships are your one and only asset. We are now entering the 7 Core Levels of Agreement universe. The base of these levels is two words we often use when we talk about the weather: COLD or WARM.
The seven levels of agreement work in a sequence. That means you must follow each step to make it to the next level. From clichés, facts, and opinions, to hopes, dreams, feelings, weaknesses, and needs, these levels of agreement will give you the wide capacity and understanding to reach a true agreement or make a successful sale.
We all know opportunities come from connecting and being intimate with the people we come into contact with. A situation of this kind can present at work, at home, with our family or friends, or even with someone we just met. At the end of the day, we are all looking for the same thing: connecting with others. Learn to never be stuck in a conversation with nothing to say ever again. Become a master of connection and transition upwards with stock questions in the 7 levels of agreement.
“If you can connect with a person, and move them through the levels of agreement without creating conflict or blockage in the sequence, you will find what motivates them, what scares them, what their concerns are, and finally what they need to feel secure to work with you and your company.”
Enter Stefan Aarnio’s world and discover why investing in yourself is the best way to build your self-made wealth empire. Order The Close 7 Level Selling and all Aarnio’s books, here: https://stefanaarnio.com
Natural salespeople, all have two things in common: they 1) follow a natural framework for their sales presentation and 2) they all sound amazing. A great salesperson is a blend of mechanics and delivery which creates both a logical and emotional argument for the sale.
The Close lays out the framework, mechanics and delivery for the human mind so that you can effectively influence and persuade anyone regardless of your experience level. The Close provides a fresh new perspective on how to open the sale, present the value and close the sale using proven methods that have worked in all industries. Some of the techniques in this book have never been seen before and are so powerful that they could be used for tremendous good or evil if used by the wrong hands.
Let’s face this fact: we are living in the digital era more than ever before. Everything, absolutely everything can be sold on Instagram, and even if you think you have your brand in control and is doing its best performance with online marketing strategies, there are experts that know exactly how to play this game and win. Our guest for today’s show knows all about digital strategies, online marketing consulting and putting your business as high as it can be, with help from influencers like Kim Kardashian and Gary Vaynerchuk. If you want to discover the secrets and benefits from influencers to grow your business (trust us, Fyre Festival got some things right), stay with us to hear Shane Barker’s story.
Barker is a personal branding and influencer marketing instructor at UCLA. He is recognized in the influencer scene and has seen how over the past seven years, this industry is constantly evolving and changing, giving him the opportunity to learn every time and improve his marketing skills. He has been a keynote speaker at multiple prestigious conferences like the Influencer Marketing Days Conference, Influencer Marketing Hub, and Influencer Marketing Summit Mexico.
As an online marketing expert, Shane is convinced that all experiences in the entrepreneurial journey are foundational, even when a business fails. In this Respect the Grind episode, you will learn all about Shane’s career as an entrepreneur, how he manages his multiple businesses ventures from retail early on, the full scope into online marketing and influencer marketing, and his epic story worthy of a Big Short sequel (involving legal defense against lenders). Shane Barker knows the importance of Respecting the Grind. Discover why, above all, he is a top content contributor at INC. Magazine and Forbes, to name just a few.
What should we do when we realize our dreams are dead?
Stefan’s rock band sank like the Titanic and with that, he felt empty and exhausted. He didn’t move, didn’t shower and felt like no sleep at all. Some people would say he was depressed, but he called it burnout.
“I felt like an obsolete computer that had been tossed in the trash bin. I had been a loyal and compliant machine; I had faithfully gone down the assembly line of the entire education system from kindergarten through high school graduation and on to a post-secondary degree. I had gone to school; I had gotten a degree and I had a ‘good’ job just like I was told.”
After the great disappointment, Stefan was the only thing he didn’t aspire to be: an average guy.
You may know that average is dangerous, but extraordinary is where the fortune lies. After reading Rich Dad Poor Dad in his mother’s couch, real estate became his new rock’n’roll.
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?, What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?, Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty-Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real-life story of Stefan Aarnio (award-winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
What would you do if we told you can help and coach other people to generate millions in sales? Nothing makes our today’s guest happier than watching honest, dedicated business owners achieve their dreams. Over the past years, Ajit Nawalkha has built and sold numerous companies, online brands of coaches, authors, speakers, and online educators. He has co-founded and lead amazing companies like Mindvalley Teach towards massive growth, Evercoach, and Global Grit Institute, to teach the world what it is like to live extraordinary, fulfilling, happy lives.
Ajit is a firm believer that in order to live an inspiring life and have true relationships, you must surround yourself with people who inspire you to be a better human being. He is the author of the best-selling book, The Book of Coaching and Live Big, where Ajit shares why having your own mindset can get you closer to your goals and the importance of emotional, spiritual, and mental power to fight the ups and downs of business.
Ajit has consulted several other companies to achieve 30% - 100% growth year-on-year. Ajit helps to create more time freedom for entrepreneurs, and create systems that would allow growth in companies at a rapid pace. Thanks to precision and excellence, Ajit is an expert in building and training on systems that virtually “run by themselves”; he is the brain behind many successful businesses that are household names.
Learn with us Ajit’s biggest passion and purpose in life: help entrepreneurs, authors, speakers, and coaches create a positive impact in the world.
Thank you for listening to Respect The Grind with Stefan Aarnio. If you liked this show don’t forget to subscribe, share it with your friends, and leave a review on iTunes.
Stefan started investing at 22. He had no cash, no credit, and most importantly, no credibility of any kind when he started. On his own, he had to learn the skills required to play the game around Money People. “I was a punk kid who had taken two thousand dollars worth of real estate seminars and had to make the dream happen.”
Discover the 3 major ingredients of putting a real estate deal together:
The first and most important ingredient is money. Every entrepreneur needs money to start a business. After the money, comes the people; the team that will run and operate the business. Whether is a lemonade stand or building an apartment complex, people often represent the management and the technical knowledge of the business. Lastly, the third ingredient: “the deal”. A deal can be anything from a traditional business to patented gadgets. However, Money People Deal will focus on real estate as the deal, that is the most valuable part of the business,
“A good deal can be like a magnet quickly attracting the people and the money to get the deal done. In contrast, a bad deal can be impossible to fund.”
Learn what’s the easiest way to play the deal game in four steps, how to find investors, and why does “the money” love money people deal. Enter https://stefanaarnio.com/mpd/ and get a copy of Money People Deal today!
For centuries, entrepreneurs have taken resources from different sources and have assembled them to create higher value. Great entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Henry Ford and Donald Trump have all understood very clearly how to assemble Money, People and Deals together. The intellectual value that these men brought to their ventures was so great that they built their businesses by using none of their own money; this is the skill of the entrepreneur and the fastest way to wealth.
Chris Rood is a 38-year-old Entrepreneur and Real Estate Investor who owns 18 million dollars in holdings including Car Washes, oil change and mechanic shops, short-term vacation rentals on the beach, single-family homes, small apartments, land development, wholesaling and Mobile home parks.
Chris Rood is a firm believer in personal development and in growing your communication skills as well as your mind, body, and spirit in order to be successful. He’s been the 10X GrowthCon Sponsor 2 years in a row, has been featured on Grant Cardone’s show twice, and has a successful Real Estate Coaching company in the USA and Canada.
Thank you for listening to Respect The Grind with Stefan Aarnio. If you liked this show don’t forget to subscribe, share it with your friends, and leave a review on iTunes.
How do we know when a boy becomes a man in this modern society? Without the rites of passage from our ancestors and the struggles of past generations, many of our young children get stuck in the victim mentality and never fully develop into grown men. Age is just a number and it doesn’t reflect your true experience or manhood in this world. Nevertheless, when a boy decides to take ownership of his actions and stops putting the blame on others, this is when he becomes a man...
In this chapter of Hard Times Create Strong Men, titled Attack Of The Man-boys, Stefan digs under the hood of one of the biggest missing ingredients in today’s families: ownership. Through the destruction of the family over the last seventy years, mankind has spawned a zombie swarm of man-boys who are unable to look after themselves, let alone raise a family. Learn why to be a self-made man is not about money, but about the unconquerable soul of man.
Go to stefanaarnio.com/hardtimesbundle to get a limited time offer of the Hard Times Create Strong Men series, which you can purchase as one bundle for just $99. A small price to pay.
Aaron Amuchastegui has been married for ten years and has 4 children. He is an entrepreneur, and one of the best selling authors of "The 5 Hour School Week" that likes to run his businesses on the road while traveling with his family. In 2017, he and his family spent 3 weeks traveling and educating on the road for every one week they spent at home. They are focusing on experiencing life as big as they can while they can, with the belief that tomorrow is never promised so we need to live today.
Aaron Amuchastegui currently manages the acquisition, construction, management, rental management and liquidation of distressed single-family homes acquired mostly at trustee sale with a combined asset value of up to $25,000,000 at one time. Over the past 9 years, his companies have purchased more than 1,000 houses primarily at live distressed auctions across 15 states.
Aaron developed technology to help manage his real estate assets and funds nationwide and boost acquisition methods. He was able to reduce his team from 50 to 15 and still cover the same amount of acquisitions. Current CEO of Fubakaze LLC, a real estate technology and software company with holdings in Roddy's Foreclosure Listing Service, Roddy's Padhawk, Roddy's Portfolio Builder, and GEOS. He is hoping many of his next ventures will combine entrepreneurship opportunities with creating jobs and opportunities for those in need.
Thank you for listening to Respect The Grind with Stefan Aarnio. If you liked this show don’t forget to subscribe, share it with your friends, and leave a review on iTunes.
Stefan could feel this passion in his bones. Since he was a teenager, his parents used to push him to get a summer job. They also taught him what it's like to be a hard worker all his life. Later on, he decided to learn how to sell better than anyone…
Part 1 of The Close 7 Level Selling starts with a simple question: What is a Sale? After understanding this elemental term, you will learn why the basis of all human relationships is agreement and why we all need them in order to have a rich life. By understanding the power and impact words can have on other people, Aarnio moves forward to the “language of agreement”, in order to walk your way to success.
“Whether you are a new-born baby or the president of the United States, we all rely on relationships and our networks for our basic survival and our ability to thrive.”
Enter Stefan Aarnio’s world and discover why investing in yourself is the best way to build your self-made wealth empire. Order The Close 7 Level Selling and all Aarnio’s books, here: https://stefanaarnio.com
Natural salespeople, all have two things in common: they 1) follow a natural framework for their sales presentation and 2) they all sound amazing. A great salesperson is a blend of mechanics and delivery which creates both a logical and emotional argument for the sale.
The Close lays out the framework, mechanics and delivery for the human mind so that you can effectively influence and persuade anyone regardless of your experience level. The Close provides a fresh new perspective on how to open the sale, present the value and close the sale using proven methods that have worked in all industries. Some of the techniques in this book have never been seen before and are so powerful that they could be used for tremendous good or evil if used by the wrong hands.
Sean Kelly is an entrepreneur who founded Jersey Champs which makes custom jerseys based on trends and hip-hop culture as well as original designs. Sean launched Jersey Champs in May 2016 out of his college dorm room at Rutgers University. He started with $1,000 and took in pre-orders for his first jersey and sold all 100 jerseys within the first week. Sean dropped out of college during his sophomore year to work on Jersey Champs full time; the company is now a multi-million dollar company. His main goal in Jersey Champs is to revolutionize the sports jersey world with unique jersey concepts and make it a staple clothing piece for all hip-hop artists.
Sean Kelly is an experienced digital marketing expert with global experience in Social Media Marketing, Digital Marketing, Business Development, Business to Business Transactions, Email Marketing and Product Development. Utilizing his experience in business, Sean contributes to several websites including Business.com, BuzzFeed, Kivo Daily, Thrive Global, MillBuzz, Awaken The Greatness, Future Sharks & Succeed. With a large presence on Instagram, Sean Kelly has over 1M Instagram Followers and the Jersey Champs account has over 2.2M followers.
Thank you for listening to Respect The Grind with Stefan Aarnio. If you liked this show don’t forget to subscribe, share it with your friends, and leave a review on iTunes.
What does it take to make that million dollars of ambition a reality?
At the age of fifteen, Aarnio had a youthful dream to be had a rockstar while watching his parents work on traditional jobs. They told him to enter college and to have a degree in economics or become a schoolteacher, but that did not appeal to him.
“Imagine the challenge for a young person today, with the lure of the entrepreneurial lifestyle, and reading stories of highly successful millennials in the tech sector and other industries. […] It makes more sense to young people to pursue fame and fortune through music, acting, sports, or entrepreneurship than it does to “go to school and get a good job. Children are smart. “
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to know every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter: https://stefanaarnio.com/
What does it take to become a self-made millionaire?, What are the steps you have to take today to achieve this dream?, Is it possible for you?
Many have wondered, few have succeeded...
Self Made: Confessions of a Twenty-Something Self Made Millionaire follows the real-life story of Stefan Aarnio (award-winning real estate investor and entrepreneur) through the struggle of starting out with zero cash, zero credit and zero experience in his pursuit of financial freedom.
Corrie Elieff is the president of Cardone Training Technologies, Inc. Canada, and the founder and CEO of YES Academy Inc. He is a visionary entrepreneur and a sales trainer with an obsessive focus to coach and lead individuals to increase their abilities in sales, communication and personal development. At the Young Entrepreneur Sales Agency (YESA), he helps develop empowered, ethical, young sales professionals and partners them with smart, progressive organizations that are intentional in their approach to sustainable growth and social responsibility.
As a progressive person and a rising force in the Direct Sales Industry, he is committed to building and participating in the largest rise of empowered, educated and ethical young professionals ever before seen in history. He often donates his time to mentor young professionals who reach out for help and likes to also ensure that his businesses serve people and the community through their projects. Originally from Port Moody, he’s established himself in Kelowna where he enjoys jet-skiing during the summer, carving up the slopes up at Big White in the winter, and spending some quality time with his partner, Meagan.
Thank you for listening to Respect The Grind with Stefan Aarnio. If you liked this show don’t forget to subscribe, share it with your friends, and leave a review on iTunes.
In order to know to win any game, you must first know all the rules. If you don’t know the rules, it is practically impossible to win the game. In this first chapter of Money, People, Deal, Stefan shares the four fastest ways to profit in the real estate industry.
In this chapter, you will discover why speed has won all battles throughout history: from the Roman Empire to Lawrence of Arabia’s tactics in the pre-Second-World-War. Speed and distance are the most powerful strategies on the business battlefield nowadays. The four fastest ways to profit, according to Aarnio are: Flipping real estate and joint ventures as limitless resources and the two fastest because of the abundance of real estate, local marketing/branding for other people and public speaking.
“At any crossroads in life, there are always two paths: the common road and the road less traveled. When it comes to money, most people take the slow way by going to school, getting a good job, and saving for retirement. Like most people, I traveled on the slow road”.
Learn how Stefan Aarnio went from selling luxury hotel rooms over the telephone in the middle of the night, with a major in English and a minor in music, to knowing every rule of the game, and winning it. Enter https://stefanaarnio.com/mpd/ and get a copy of Money People Deal at an extremely discounted rate today!
For centuries, entrepreneurs have taken resources from different sources and have assembled them to create higher value. Great entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Henry Ford and Donald Trump have all understood very clearly how to assemble Money, People and Deals together. The intellectual value that these men brought to their ventures was so great that they built their businesses by using none of their own money; this is the skill of the entrepreneur and the fastest way to wealth.
Starting out as an underdog in the music industry with zero connections, Garrain Jones used MySpace to message producers. A chance meeting with Ludacris led to a recording contract, and opportunities to produce for stars like Chris Brown and 2 Chainz.
The business deals Garrain made excluded him from the financial rewards of much of his work. Before long he was $200K in debt with nowhere to turn. Burnt out and discouraged, he quit the music industry and became homeless and attempted suicide as his life spiraled out of control.
After committing to a massive overhaul of his lifestyle, Garrain spent four years building himself back up, defying the odds of failure that were against him.
Now a successful millionaire, he speaks and writes on how to undergo transformational life changes, and is an inspiration to those who feel like they have no options left. He was featured on Impact Theory hosted by Quest Nutrition co-founder Tom Bilyeu, a show that explores the mindsets of the world’s highest achievers to learn their secrets to success, featuring past guests like Michael Strahan and Wyclef Jean.
Thank you for listening to Respect The Grind with Stefan Aarnio. If you liked this show don’t forget to subscribe, share it with your friends, and leave a review on iTunes.
Good men are not nice men. A good man is the one who gets the job done, and sometimes this may require the use of strength and power. This is why a “nice man” can never be a leader, because it is a form of weakness. Men and women are always on the lookout for strong men to lead them. Women can do it, but they become masculine in the process. To lead the tribe is a masculine trait.
In this chapter of Hard Times Create Strong Men, Stefan discusses the difference between what being a “good man” and a “nice man” is. The systems of power in our society may have changed over time and the need for strong men has decreased. However, the fact that physical power is no longer needed, does not mean that we don’t need our strong men in modern-day society.
Tune in each week to listen to a chapter of Hard Times Create Strong Men by Stefan Aarnio and click here to get a paperback of the book now!
Inside this book you’ll discover the secrets of discipline, freedom, adventure, and responsibility, distilling history’s wisdom into one practical and profound book. Stefan Aarnio shatters the modern myths of science, faith, and human nature, while feeding the mind and lifting the spirit of his readers.
Khang Le was born in Vietnam and came to America at the age of 9. He dropped out of High School at 17 and met his wife at the age of 18. He moved in with her to live in a little shack behind a Mobil home park for 5 years. He sacrifices his teens and 20's to work on his future instead of partying and having fun. He worked at a job making $8.50/hrs and was fortunate enough to buy over a small hair extension kiosk in the mall at the age of 20. Now, he's working 2 jobs, from the age of 20-27.
He bought his first house at the age of 23 and got into real estate at the age of 27, without knowing anything about the real estate industry. Without any construction background, NO connections, NO Experience, NO Real Estate Vocab, NOTHING, he started out as a fix and flipper. It took him 6 months of hard work before he did his very first deal, making himself 50K NET in the process. After about 3 years of flipping, he had gotten to the point where he was pretty much tabbed out to buy any more. He was working 15-16 hours a day and realized that the reason he got into real estate was not just to make money but also to have time freedom. That is how he discovered wholesaling. He completely stopped the flipping game and went full time into wholesaling, making 28K on his first wholesale deal that took about 7-10 days to close. Now, he's doing about 250K/Month wholesaling houses virtually, working 2-3 hours/day!
What does it mean to be a man? A man’s purpose is his work and any man that shies away from work or doesn’t take his work seriously is… unmanly. Making the leap from good to great comes down to having a mission and being driven enough to make it happen. Achieving your labor of love may not be possible under your current circumstances, but with enough hard work and perseverance, anything is possible...
“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
There is no shame in taking a day job, especially if that work takes closer to your passion. Find something that you can never take a break from, and you will have found your path to power. Give away your TV and avoid the traps of comfort and poverty! Only when your desire to thrive is as strong as your desire to breathe, will you become successful.
Tune in each week to listen to a chapter of Hard Times Create Strong Men by Stefan Aarnio and click here to get a paperback of the book now!
Inside this book you’ll discover the secrets of discipline, freedom, adventure, and responsibility, distilling history’s wisdom into one practical and profound book. Stefan Aarnio shatters the modern myths of science, faith, and human nature, while feeding the mind and lifting the spirit of his readers.
Leonard Kim is a marketer who wins a lot of awards despite being a self-described expert at failing. But failing can’t be the only thing he is good at since book publishers like McGraw-Hill Business, companies like Cisco Systems, Keck Medicine of USC and Salesforce, universities like USC, UCI, Cal Poly Pomona and ArtCenter College of Design, large media publications like Forbes, CMO, Fast Company, Fortune, Adweek, Entrepreneur, and hundreds of others, and more than 500,000 followers think otherwise.
Leonard’s story began in 2010. He stopped paying his electricity bill for six months, had to shower in the dark, then was served an eviction notice. He thought he would spend the rest of his days living under a bridge until he called his mother who then called his grandmother, about how Leonard was about to be homeless. Surprisingly his grandmother took him back in (even though she originally disowned him when he was 16). According to his TEDx Talk, Why You Should Let Your Fears Guide You (recognized as a top TED Talk by Inc., Forbes and Mashable), by the end of 2011, he was so fed up with constantly failing year after year, that he wanted to end it all. Luckily for us, that didn’t happen.
One thing Leonard does extremely well is within the niches of marketing people and professional development, most commonly referred to as personal branding. He holds workshops at companies, speaks at conferences, works hands-on with executives and entrepreneurs who run 8 figure+ businesses, provides consulting and teaches his craft through online courses.
Leonard also coauthored a book with his business partner at InfluenceTree, Ryan Foland, called Ditch the Act: Reveal the Surprising Power of the Real You for Greater Success and runs a weekly radio show called Grow Your Influence Tree, where he does free personal brand consulting live on the air.
What is wrong with masculinity in modern-day society? A generation of snowflakes raised by television and a lack of purpose in a world devoid of hardships has driven our culture meaningless and vicious. The lack of mentors and father figures has brought up men that are addicted to pornography and video games, and that lack the virtues of the great American heroes that led us through two World Wars and the Great Depression. The warrior spirit has succumbed to hedonism and become distracted away from the pursuit of his dreams.
Thankfully, there is still a chance to do something about it...
Hard times create strong men, and weak men create hard times. It is the inevitable cycle of life where great empires are built and destroyed. Unfortunately, millennials are currently living in the era of weak men that drown in ephemeral pleasure and limited desires. However, strength and greatness are determined by one’s self, and so this is the best time to seize everything you have ever wanted!
Tune in each week to listen to a chapter of Hard Times Create Strong Men by Stefan Aarnio and click here to get a paperback copy of the book now!
Inside this book you’ll discover the secrets of discipline, freedom, adventure, and responsibility, distilling history’s wisdom into one practical and profound book. Stefan Aarnio shatters the modern myths of science, faith, and human nature, while feeding the mind and lifting the spirit of his readers.
Rogan O’Handley is a former Hollywood entertainment lawyer that now posts conservative commentary, news, videos, and memes on his social media accounts entitled “DC_Draino”.
In a little over 2 years, his social media following has grown to over 700,000 followers with tens of thousands more joining every month. He focuses on battling corruption within our government, defending the Constitution, unifying our nation, advocating for the civil rights of all people, providing real news, and restoring the promise of the American Dream.
He earned two bachelor degrees, magna cum laude, in Political Science and Criminal Justice from Northeastern University where he also served as the President of the Student Government Association during his senior year. He earned his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School.
Brian has helped countless people get started in real estate by providing educational content that helps kickstart their real estate careers.
As a college student, Brian got his first taste of real estate investing with rental properties. More than 10 years later, his thirst only grows stronger. To date, he has flipped countless properties across the United States and aims for continuous growth.
Brian admits that he’s made some mistakes in the past and his primary goal is to help others avoid those same mistakes. With his experiences in mind, Brian created the Apprenticeship Program to help people turn their real estate passions and expertise into profitable income while avoiding pricey mistakes. Join a network of real estate investors that are hungry for knowledge, wealth, and success!
After 16 years of education and graduating with an engineering degree in hand, I quickly realized I wanted more than 40 years in Corporate America. After getting into day trading and watching the volatility in the market take out many traders, I found myself growing a passion for real estate investing. Specifically investing in flips and rentals, but the focus has grown to investing in disinvested communities and providing quality housing options for the surrounding communities. As of April 2017, my company has embarked on its first revitalization project which is a $3.8M, 14 townhome development on a block of property I have owned since 2013 near downtown Houston.
With almost 20 years of experience, Tracy Tutor is one of the top agents at Douglas Elliman Beverly Hills and is an integral part of their Sports & Entertainment division. She has an undeniably strong presence and a confidence that has propelled her into the rooms of some of the most powerful people in LA, representing some of the most noteworthy brands in real estate, and iconic architects such as Frank Gehry, John Lautner, and Pierre Koenig. Tracy has consulted for the luxury five-star hotel and resort, Amangiri in Canyon Point, Utah on the sales of over $400 million dollars in branded real estate.She is also a representative of one of the most exciting new developments to come to Los Angeles, the West Hollywood EDITION Hotel and Residences, designed by British architect John Pawson and created by visionary hotelier Ian Schrager. Most recently, she has been chosen to be The US Ambassador for the Royal Atlantis Resort and Residences in Dubai, a breathtaking structure designed by award winning architects Kohn Pederson Fox, scheduled to be completed in Q4 2019.
Laura Loomer is a Jewish Conservative investigative journalist and activist. Originally from Tucson, Arizona, Laura began her journalism career working as an undercover journalist for Project Veritas from 2015-2017.
Kory MacKinnon
A former Corporate Trainer, and National Level athlete from small-town Sarnia, Ontario, Kory was able to able to use decades of Business and Competition work-ethic, habits and mindset to escape the Rat Race in his 30's with…Real Estate. What started off as a profitable side hustle has now turned into a Money Making Machine and a $10M+ Real Estate Portfolio.
Dan is a 10+ year SEO/Marketer. His business Evolving SEO has grown YoY for 5+ years. He has helped clients grow their organic traffic 10x-20x with his SEO and content marketing strategies. He also interviews guests like Rand Fishkin on his Podcast, Experts On The Wire.
Best known as the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad-the #1 personal finance book of all time - Robert Kiyosaki has challenged and changed the way tens of millions of people around the world think about money. He is an entrepreneur, educator, and investor who believes that each of us has the power to makes changes in our lives, take control of our financial future, and live the rich life we deserve.
Ryan Matthew Serhant is an American real estate broker, bestselling author, producer, and star of Bravo’s two-time Emmy Nominated reality television series, Million Dollar Listing New York, and its spin-off, Sell It Like Serhant.
Russ Ruffino is a business coach with a no-nonsense, high-reward approach to attracting the right clients at the right price. Back at the height of the economic recession, Russ Ruffino paid his bills working hard hours as a bartender. He was first inspired to launch his career during this time after noticing a friend’s success in online marketing and social media.
Mark Daoust’s passion for creating sales agreements that benefit both sides of the table led him to create Quiet Light Brokerage in 2007.
Cole Hatter is an entrepreneur, investor, and award-winning speaker. He invests in real estate, start-ups, and several funds exceeding $100 million. Cole is the founder of Thrive: Make Money Matter, an annual conference designed to teach entrepreneurs how to dominate in business and in life, while making the world a better place.
Jay Morrison is an educator, business mogul, influencer and the CEO and founder of the historic Tulsa Real Estate Fund; the first black-owned real estate crowdfund and the Jay Morrison Academy;
Josh Steimle is an author, speaker, entrepreneur, and executive coach. He has written over 300 articles for publications like Fortune, Time, Forbes, Inc., Mashable, TechCrunch, and Entrepreneur, and is the author of Chief Marketing Officers at Work. Josh is the founder of MWI, a digital marketing agency with offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, China, the UK, and the US. He is also the founder and CEO of Influencer Inc, a publishing, training, and events company that provides personal branding and thought leadership services to CEOs and other executives.
Jason Treu (Troy) is a coach who works with executives, entrepreneurs and rising stars to maximize their leadership potential and performance. He also helps them build and execute their career blueprint. He's the best-selling author of Social Wealth, a how-to-guide on building extraordinary business relationships, which has sold more than 60,000 copies.
Evan Carmichael believes in entrepreneurs. At 19, he built then sold a biotech software company. At 22, he was a venture capitalist helping to raise $500,000 to $15 million. He now runs EvanCarmichael.com, a popular website for entrepreneurs. He breathes and bleeds entrepreneurship. He's obsessed, aiming to help one billion entrepreneurs and change the world. He has set two world records, uses a stand-up desk, rides a Vespa, raises funds for Kiva, wears five-toe shoes and created Entrepreneur trading cards. He speaks globally, but Toronto (#EntCity) is home. He loves being married, his son, salsa dancing, DJing, League of Legends and the Toronto Blue Jays.
Dave Meltzer is currently the CEO of Sports 1 Marketing one of the world’s leading sports & entertainment marketing agencies, which he co-founded with Hall of Fame Quarterback Warren Moon.
Prior to S1M, he was CEO of the world’s first smartphone, the PC-E Phone, and later became CEO of the world’s most notable sports agency, Leigh Steinberg Sports and Entertainment. He is an award-winning humanitarian, an international keynote speaker, best-selling author, Chairman of the Unstoppable Foundation, and is profiled by national publications such as Entrepreneur, Forbes, ESPN, Bloomberg, CNBC, Yahoo, SB Nation, and Variety.
Allan is a Winnipeg known successful Real Estate Agent who in this podcast discusses what his company does and how he has gotten to where he is today. Allan provides tips on how to stand out in the industry and become successful in life.
Alex Hutchinson is a sports science journalist with the Outside magazine and the Globe and Mail. He is also the author of the New York Times bestseller Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance.
Ryan Wright is a successful Real Estate Entrepreneur who self-educated himself on how to flip and sell houses.
Anthony Iannarino is an international speaker, bestselling author, sales leader, and entrepreneur. He posts daily sales tips and insights to The Sales Blog. is an international speaker, bestselling author, sales leader, and entrepreneur. He posts daily sales tips and insights to The Sales Blog.
Angelo Poli is an internationally recognized expert in fitness and nutrition. He’s the Founder of MetPro, the world’s first algorithm based transformation engine. Using Metabolic Profiling, MetPro analyzes your metabolism and provides an individualized approach to obtaining your health goals.
Poli has spent much of his career as a motivational speaker, speaking regularly at universities, and hospitals around the country. Poli was a featured speaker at TEDxChico where he discussed his own achievement in overcoming obstacles. After recovering from a crippling injury himself, Poli brought to light a whole new way of thinking about health, fitness, and weight loss.
Tim Sykes is an extremely successful stock investor who turned his Bar Mitzvah money into millions of dollars. Tim has taken what he knows and has learned and now helps his students become successful and wealthy. He stresses in this podcast the importance of traveling and the eye-opening experience it has had on him. He has a charity of his that he now donates to and promotes. Tim stresses the importance of education and his role in helping to build schools for people that don’t have any to go to. He talks about the importance of people not giving up too quickly.
Stef Sifandos - relational alchemist, international speaker, and author.
Stefanos facilitates transformational growth through neuro-empowerment practices, an integration of spiritual praxis and western psychology to improve and enhance the quality of your relationships. Stefanos believes that intimate relationships and sacredness in a union is a direct path to enlightenment and freedom.
Immersed in deep men’s empowerment work and intimate relationships, Stefanos merges the best of eastern and western methodologies and philosophies to promote balance, sacredness, and joy in life. Using integrative techniques and methods, Stefanos has created programs and systems to enhance the quality of your life, your intimate relationship and in essence bring you closer to your potential.
Lauren is a well-known celebrity Life Coach who opens up and talks about how she got to where she is today. She discusses in this podcast how she got into the Life Coaching business. Lauren goes in depth on how no one knows how to keep a promise to themselves but they can keep a promise to everybody else. She provides advice on how to increase an individual’s integrity and touches on what she calls “The Seven Lies”. Out of this Podcast, you get a taste of the great life coach that she is.
Jamey Mroz is a Success Coach that brings his past experience with coaching in the NFL to help coaching with people in business. Jamey talks about how important your drive is as an individual and getting over your feelings and excuses.
Mario Tomic is an owner of the fitness and personal development coaching company "tomic.com". Started as a blogger Mario just wanted to consult
entrepreneurs and business people and his fans, but his project began to grow extremely fast, now it's a great team of professionals and the company is top rated!
Jamie Shanks is the CEO of Sales for Life, the world's largest Digital Selling training program for mid-market and enterprise companies.
Allison is the founder of Inspired Budget. As a teacher and small business owner, Allison combined her passion of teaching and finances to help others learn how to start budgeting. Allison's passion for budgeting surfaced after she and her husband found themselves newly pregnant and under $111,000 worth of debt. They did not have enough money left over each month for daycare expenses, so they
knew something had to change. It was during those years of sacrifice and paying off debt that she realized just how much she loved finances and taking back control of her money through budgeting. Now Allison is helping women all over the world get started with budgeting when they feel lost and overwhelmed.
Subir Chowdhury is one of the “50 Most Influential Management Thinkers in the World”
by Thinkers 50 of London, UK. He has been a pioneer in championing the Quality movement
across the globe through his thought provoking ideas, unique methods, pedagogy and passion.
Chad Howse is the author of the Man Diet, and an expert in helping men naturally increase testosterone levels. He's the founder of Average2Alpha.com, as well as the author of The Lost Art of Discipline
Mike Zeller is an expert in clarifying a brand’s storyboard and message, developing strategic partnerships, gaining equity slices by using your gifts and expertise and creating the ideal team environment.
Matt McKeever is a CPA, CA and Real Estate Entrepreneur in London, Ontario.
Matt quit the rat race (and corporate finance) at 31 and co-founded London On FIRE, The Ontario Real Estate Conference, and The Real Estate Rat Pack.
Randy Gage is a thought-provoking critical thinker who will make you approach your business — and your life — in a whole new way. Randy is the author of eleven books translated into 25 languages, including the New York Times bestsellers, Risky Is the New Safe and Mad Genius. He has spoken to more than 2 million people across more than 50 countries and is a member of the Speakers Hall of Fame. When he is not prowling the podium or locked in his lonely writer’s garret, you’ll probably find him playing 3rd base for a softball team somewhere.
Neil Auricchio is a multi-millionaire real estate investor, TV icon, and entrepreneur. He has worked in the industry since 1985 and has thousands of successful real estate transactions. In his peak, Auricchio was doing more than 100 real estate transactions per month.
Guy Kawasaki is a chief evangelist of Canva, an online graphic design tool, a brand ambassador for Mercedes-Benz and an executive fellow of the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.
He was also the chief evangelist of Apple and a trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation. His 14 books include The Art of the Start, Enchantment, Selling the Dream, and The Art of Social Media. He has a BA from Stanford and an MBA from UCLA, as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.
**Ryan is a 7-figure digital entrepreneur, influencer, investor, press contributor, and speaker.
He founded the globally recognized social media marketing company Social Revelation which helps business and personal brands increase their digital footprint and brand awareness online.
Ryan has also been featured on various entrepreneurial and business podcasts such as Entrepreneurs on Fire, Underdog Empowerment, The Daily Grind, The No Excuse Show, The Millionaires’ Hot Seat, and on the live television show "Good Morning LALA Land" in West Hollywood.**
Dr. Matthew Loop is the international best selling author of Social Media Made Me Rich: Here's How it Can Do the Same for You, a Harvard / Nasdaq speaker, philanthropist, and the highest paid social media revenue strategist in North America. He helps business owners multiply their influence, impact, and monthly income by harnessing powerful platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Since social media's infancy in 2005 he's trained thousands of clients in over 25 countries. Millions have viewed his free business growth tutorials online.
Blending 20 years’ experience as an elite international sportsman and coach along with three published books and an acclaimed TED talk, Andrew’s innovative and straight-talking views on leadership, teamwork, and strategy has resulted in his advice and guidance being sought after by key figures at several FTSE 100 companies.
After competing in 11 Inline Hockey World Championships for Team GB, in 2010 he was offered the perfect platform on which to try out his innovative strategies - as Head Coach of Team GB. With Andrew at the helm, they won Gold and promotion into Pool A for the first time at the IIHF World Championships 9 months later.
These days, Andrew speaks to aspiring entrepreneurs and business leaders all around the world, while Pfizer, Ericsson, Nationwide, Virgin Media and the BBC are among the global corporations who’ve turned to Andrew to empower its leaders to take full responsibility in their business, body, relationships and mindset. He does this with a plain English approach that molds together a range of techniques from his background in professional sport, business psychology and well being.
Through strategic planning, Richard helps others build business brainpower, make better business decisions, establish a common direction and create an implementation plan to guide your business success.
Raised in an entrepreneurial family, Richard built a business and corporate career where he learned to find opportunities, solve problems and implement solutions quickly. His cross-industry experience has made him a proven expert, one who has worked with a big four consulting firm, top-tier corporations, mid-level enterprises, and with many small business leaders and professionals globally. Over-the-course of his career, Richard became a business strategist, trainer and coach helping business leaders and professionals, who provide their expertise, products and services to larger organizations and consumer groups achieve the success they deserve.
He is an award-winning speaker and trainer in business analysis and entrepreneurship, and a professional blogger and author, SET for Success – a roadmap to transform your business. Richard regularly hosts a podcast and radio show where he interviewed business leaders and professionals on what it takes to be successful in business, career and life.
Unearthing hidden gems, Richard writes and speaks on what it takes to be a success in business and the positive impact it has on you and your community. He is high energy, candid, cheeky and fun; taking his client’s on a powerful journey, engaging people and bridging gaps for your business. With his no-nonsense approach, stories, and examples, Richard guides you in becoming SET for Success.
As a Santa Barbara native, Dusty Baker’s established reputation and knowledge of the local market seamlessly integrates into a successful real estate career which includes designations such as “Agent of the Year” and “Top 40 Under 40.” For nearly a decade, Dusty has been serving the real estate needs of clients in Santa Barbara, Montecito, Goleta and Carpinteria.
Dusty prides himself in truly connecting with his clients to ensure their complete satisfaction with his representation, which is one of the many reasons he is the area’s #1 rated real estate agent on Yelp. Client reviews consistently showcase themes of Dusty’s professionalism, caring personality, and local familiarity.
Throughout his tenure in real estate, Dusty has educated and influenced thousands of colleagues in the industry through his speaking and writing. His writing portfolio includes penning articles for top real estate news source Inman News and authoring the foreword for the Amazon best-selling book, From The Top. He has also spoken as a marketing specialist on a national level at conferences and real estate offices.
Dusty emphasizes robust marketing, skillful negotiating, uncompromised discretion, and concierge-level service. Buying and selling luxury real estate deserves nothing but the finest attention to detail, both in business practice and client experience. Dusty strives for excellence in every aspect of his business.
Transcript
Stefan: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show Respect the Grind with Stefan Aarnio. This is the show where we interview people who achieve mastery and freedom through discipline. We interview entrepreneurs, athletes, authors, artists, real estate investors, anyone who has achieved mastery, and examined what it took to get there.
Stefan: Today on the show, we have a new friend of mine, Dusty Baker. He's a Santa Barbara native, Top 40 Under 40. He's in the luxury real estate niche, and I'm really excited to have him in the luxury niche, because we get so many real estate people on this show, and it's super cool to have somebody in that super elite niche. He's also a speaker, he's also a marketing consultant. Dusty, welcome to the show, Respect the Grind. Thanks so much for joining me.
Dusty: Hey, thanks for having me. This should be fun.
Stefan: Awesome. Yeah, I'm sorry I can't say Santa Barbara. I don't know why I can't say it.
Dusty: Santa Barbara native.
Stefan: I can't say mash-chew-shits. Massachusetts. I can't say that either.
Stefan: Awesome. Dusty, for the people at home who don't know who you are, how'd you get started in the business you're in?
Dusty: Like you mentioned, stuttering over it, I'm a native here, and it's an incredible place if you've never been to Santa Barbara or heard of it. It's a really ... It's a small little town, about 100,000 people here, but the surrounding areas that make Santa Barbara up are about 200,000-250,000 people. It's a coastal beach town about an hour north of LA. It's radically expensive, it just is what it is. Montecito is the little portion most people know. Oprah has this huge compound. Estimates are it's worth probably $200 million at this point.
Stefan: Wow.
Dusty: Ellen DeGeneres buys and sells [inaudible 00:01:30]. We just have a lot of the celebrity crowd as well. But it's an area that's very different from LA, so it's this whole other vibe. But it's very expensive. I thought, since I'm going to stick around here, I better get into an industry that ... my pay is directly proportionate to paying to live here.
Dusty: It's just a great lifestyle. I'm a surfer, I like to hike, get outside. It's a fantastic place, so when I was young and getting my business degree, actually, I was going to a university locally, and I got an internship for a real estate office. Unpaid intern, I worked for every agent there doing just the stupidest crap you could imagine, but I learned a lot. I met a lot of people, and that office really became my family. It's kind of fun, because instead of the competitive vibe, we still maintained a great family feel even though a lot of us are at different companies and we're competing, obviously. It was just a great, great entrance, and that was over a decade ago, so unpaid interns, you're growing and growing, really organically, actually, led me here. I loved it. I wouldn't change it for the world. I had lots of fun.
Stefan: Wow. Yeah, well, it's amazing. They say riche in the niche, or rich in the niche, and you've got a really cool niche, niche there. I was down in LA in May, and I'm from Canada, up here in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I was down at Ty Lopez's house, actually, in May. I was at Bel Air or wherever he lives, and we went up to Orange County for a bit, and it's incredible, the money and the wealth there in California, right around Orange County, LA, Santa Barbara. It's absolutely incredible. Why is there so much freaking money over there between the mountains and the coast? Why do all these rich people want to live there?
Dusty: The quality of life is sky high, which ... It's funny, actually. Besides the fact that it's just very nice to live at the beach with 70 degree year round weather, I've had a lot of clients I've represented from ... Actually, Denver was two of them, and people around the country, Michigan, where their doctors prescribed them to move somewhere like Santa Barbara, because you can live so much longer. Your body doesn't take a beating like it does in the winters or in the summers. It's a really great quality of life. In fact, Santa Barbara consistently ranks as one of the top cities in the country to live, and actually, they did a study of the longevity of life, and Santa Barbara is number one. We won by five days or something like that.
Stefan: Wow.
Dusty: But we have the longest average lifespan here. So really, it just comes down to that. People just want really nice quality of life. It starts with the weather, and then it goes to the type of life. Orange County is very different, even from Santa Barbara. My wife, I was living in Newport when we met. She now lives, obviously, in Santa Barbara with me. But we go and get breakfast burritos, and you see 20 Lamborghinis go by. People are driving their net worth. They like to show off their net worth. Santa Barbara, totally the opposite. You could get a billionaire driving up in a 1981 Mercedes or a truck. So, very, very, very different. We're a very casual affluent here. Orange County's definitely different.
Stefan: You said something there, I was almost going to give you a gong for it too, but I was like, eh. It was, doctors prescribe for people to move there so they'll live longer. Man, that is crazy. I'm going to Costa Rica-
Dusty: It's real nice.
Stefan: Dude, that's incredible. Tomorrow I'm going to Costa Rica, I'm flying from Canada to Costa Rica, and I'm going to live in the jungle for 40 days on just water, water [crosstalk 00:04:59].
Dusty: Oh, wow.
Stefan: Yeah. It's something I do. And it's crazy 'cause the guy runs the fasting center. He wants everyone to be a raw vegan, raw fruit kind of life. And I was like, man, when I go back to Canada, it's so cold. I can't stay warm, and I'm losing too much weight, and all these things. And he goes, well, dude. Just move. And I'm like, bro, maybe I should. After you say that, moving down there for the health, maybe I should move down to Cali or something. It's so beautiful. I was looking on your Instagram. It seems almost like a Barbie and Ken charmed life down there where everyone is beautiful and the sun in shining and it's just so nice.
Stefan: Dust, tell me this, man. Top 40 Under 40. What does that mean?
Dusty: There's a ... Pacific Coast Business Times does something. It's not just real estate related, which is why I'm really proud of it. It just looks at the top 40 under 40 business professionals in the Santa Barbara County region, and actually, I won that ... God, four years ago. I was 26 when I won that, so I felt really good, 'cause there were people at 39 winning, because they were technically under 40. So, really proud to win that. They just want to highlight people who excel in their fields.
Stefan: Wow, that's great, man. Well, congrats. I think it's super cool. I've won some awards. I won Rich Dad International Hall of Fame 2014, which was cool, for Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
Dusty: That's rad, yeah.
Stefan: Thanks, man. But I'm not top 40 under 40. I'm 32, I've gotta get on that. Tell me this, Dusty. One of the things I think is super cool ... You're the luxury niche, so how much are these homes you're selling, typically ... How much do they cost, usually?
Dusty: Right now, I don't focus only in the crazy high end. I have a $5 million listing, a $12 million listing, a few other up in that range. But I also have a $3 million home and a $1.5 million listing and some buyers in between. So define luxury. When I talk to agents in Tulsa, Oklahoma, anything over $600,000 is a mega mansion. Here, anything under $1 million is a piece of junk. So in terms of the national scale, the national median sale price is $225,000. So the fact that I basically don't have any sales under $1 million is very, very high. I'm focusing a lot more on probably the $4-20 million range.
Stefan: Okay. Dude, I'm going to give you a gong for that. That's just cool as shit to me, because I live in Winnipeg. Do you even know where Winnipeg is?
Dusty: I've heard of it. I haven't been there.
Stefan: Yeah. Winnipeg Jets, they almost won the NHL last year. They made it to the final four against Vegas, so that puts Winnipeg on the map. But Winnipeg is like the Indianapolis of Canada. We're like the Indianapolis. If you go to Dallas and drive straight north, you end up in Winnipeg. It's crazy, 'cause we got a hardcore value market here. Average home is about $320,000, and then the market caps out at $2 million. If you go to $2 million in Winnipeg, you're done. Nobody is going to ... There is a lady here, I've talked about this story before. There was a lady here and she got $100 million in a divorce. I guess she divorced a construction guy or something. Got $100 million, and she built herself a $14 million California palace in the arctic Winnipeg. It's winter eight months of the year here.
Dusty: And she sold it for, like, three.
Stefan: Right. Dude, exactly. She gets $100 million, she builds a $14 million palace, $13.9 million, and then it sells for $3.9. The market just handled her. But the moral of the story is it wasn't her money anyway, so she ended up losing it.
Stefan: Tell me, what does somebody get for $20 million down in Santa Barbara?
Dusty: You get a lot. What's interesting, actually, is that obviously, Santa Barbara, Montecito, is very, very expensive. We're very, very cheap compared to other luxury markets, though. If you look at what's going on in LA, for instance, there are $100 million sales. We just don't see that here. And to buy something in [Bretwood 00:08:56], for instance, you're not spending less than $10 million unless you're buying a piece of crap. That's remarkable to me. Bretwood is so expensive, whereas Montecito, you get about $5 million, you're going to get a very, very nice house. For $20 million, you're getting an incredible, incredible house. There have been a few sales this year between the $16-25 million.
Dusty: It's remarkable. It's amazing. It would be on a Homes Magazine, or on one of those inspirational Instagram luxury homes profiles. You'd see it and you'd think, wow, that is a spectacular, spectacular home. 10,000-15,000 square feet, one or two guest houses, pool, tennis court, views. For $20 million, you're getting something off the charts.
Stefan: Right, right. It's almost like a compound.
Dusty: Yeah, pretty much. Yeah.
Stefan: Let me ask, for $20 million, are you getting a helicopter pad or no helicopter pad?
Dusty: No, probably not. If it's a helicopter you're really interested in, most people with a $20 million house or even $10, they can have a helicopter, and people prefer that actually, and the pad is easy. The permitting, basically impossible. The neighbors are not fans of helicopters. If you had $20 million, would you want to live in a house where freaking helicopters are going over? No. So it's one of those not in my backyard things. Once in a while, there's a property that actually has the permitting and the zoning to land a helicopter, but that's pretty tough these days. Sometimes people just do it without any ...
Stefan: If you're that rich, you just pay the fines, man.
Dusty: Yeah, exactly.
Stefan: Okay, let's talk about ... A $20 million house is cool, man. I get it. In the States, if you go to New York, there's $200 million condos that sell, some absolute retarded ... What kind of person is dropping that kind of coin? I know you dropped some names like Oprah, Ellen DeGeneres ... Let's forget about the mega celebrities. What kind of "average dude" would be buying those kinds of homes? Business owners? Who buys these homes, man?
Dusty: I will say, I dropped the celebrity names. That's usually why people know about Montecito, but the average wealth in Montecito is people you have no idea who they are, and that's what's really opened my eyes growing up here, is you see celebrities that are ... At one point, their net worth is way higher than this now, but I remember at one point there was an article that said Kim Kardashian's net wealth is $40 million, and I was like, ha. That's a joke for most families-
Stefan: Well, she made a porno tape. She's famous for having a porno tape and having a big butt. I don't get that, man.
Dusty: No, that's crazy in and of itself. And even sane people are thinking that the $40 million is extremely high, which it is, don't get me wrong. I don't have $40 million. But most of the big time residents in Montecito and Santa Barbara are complete no names that have way more money than that. We have 14 billionaires just in Montecito. That's a big number for a small town, and a lot of people worth hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. You would not recognize their name. They're the average guy who ... There's one gentleman, I won't say his name, but he invented and patented a chip that's in every single cell phone. That dude's doing real well. There's a guy with one of my listings right now, like I said, I think it's 11 99 [inaudible 00:12:15]. The showings that we've had have been businessmen. It's been real estate developers, some Middle Eastern money, some Middle Eastern billionaires. So we get a lot of the no name wealthy people. There's a lot of people making a lot of money that are not celebrities. A lot. And that's what we get the majority of here.
Stefan: That's cool, man. I love ... My background is I came from flipping homes, and I would go get a couple rich guys to back all my stuff. I'd get a couple rich guys and they'd back all my deals, and I'd buy it, fix it, sell it, whatever. Now I train people to do it as well.
Stefan: Let me ask you this, Dusty. How do you handle the affluent and the wealthy versus maybe just the regular person? Is there a protocol for that? Do you get out the white glove service? How are these people different than the average Joe, and how are they the same?
Dusty: The funny thing is they're very, very, very similar. I got in thinking, oh, maybe the crazy, crazy high end buyer, seller, they're the ones who are complete jerks, they just use and abuse you, just all the stereotypes. It's just not the case. Some of them are, some of them aren't, the same way that the average Joe Blow, some of them are jerks, some of them are nice. It's exactly the same thing in the ultra, ultra wealthy.
Dusty: And frankly, I don't know ... This is going to sound so ... Dusty's tooting his own horn. I don't know how to do anything but white glove service, which is why I push the high end, because the level of service I give, I wouldn't be able to give it to as many clients in, let's say, the $500,000 range, because I wouldn't be able to sell enough homes to make enough money. So that's why my whole career, I've really been focusing and pushing the luxury realm, because there's enough profit margin to do that.
Dusty: When there's profit margin to fly to Europe on a moment's notice to get a document ... I've never had to do that but I've used that as an example. When the product margin's there, I like that. I much prefer the white glove service. I really want to take care of people in a remarkable way, because I'm always fascinated by that. Last week I was in Hawaii, actually, at the St. Regis with my wife, and the service was excellent. Excellent, excellent. We'd show up at the pool, and they'd say, hello, Mr. and Mrs. Baker, and they'd go and set up two lounge chairs. There was eight towels involved. One at the top, the bottom. My wife is pregnant, so they'd roll up another towel, put a pillow behind her neck. Just unbelievable service.
Stefan: Yeah.
Dusty: Wow. That's amazing. I don't think that I'm so cool that I deserve that in all my life, but I'd certainly love to give that. So, yeah. There's no difference for me in my business of really, really high end to the [inaudible 00:14:37], but once again, that's why I'm really focusing my attention in only the high end, because I really prefer that method of business, which is why you probably had other realtors on your show that had big teams, 20 person teams.
Stefan: Right.
Dusty: I have zero interest in that, because my clients, I'm marketing Dusty Baker and my experience. I don't feel right having people sign on for the Dusty Baker experience and getting minion number six actually negotiating on their behalf. I want to be involved in all the high level negotiations, conversations, showings, everything, and the only way to do that and maintain a certain volume in sales is obviously to increase the average sale price.
Dusty: There are certain differences in terms of expectations. I had a client a couple months ago, and this person was a noteworthy person, I'll put it that way. And they had some expectations that probably the average person wouldn't. I'll put it that way. And you have to accommodate things that you may not want to typically accommodate. But at the end of the day, if you actually look at, frankly, how much money I'd be making through that deal, it's not an unrealistic request that this person would want A, B, C, and D, even if it seems a little ridiculous. I'm working for a lot of money here. So it's not that unworthy.
Stefan: What are some of the things, Dusty ... I'm from Winnipeg up here. An agent will get you a box of cookies and a bottle of wine or something when they buy or sell a house. You get a gift card to a steak house or something. You mentioned flying to Europe. Obviously that's pretty extreme. What are some of the normal Dusty Baker experience things that you do that give that white glove service so the customer's like, wow. I've totally gotta refer Dusty to my other rich buddy, or whatever?
Dusty: It's funny you mention that, the closing gifts. That's reason number 26 why I prefer the industry that I'm in, 'cause I get some of the stupidest gifts ever, and I get pitched by certain people, certain companies, hey, you really should send all your clients this gift, and I'm thinking, I'm not going to send that in a million years. I'm not going to brand a ... I can't even think of an example. A cheap knife set. I'm just not going to do that. I'd be embarrassed to do it.
Dusty: A part of the white glove service ... I'm showing a property to a high end buying in a specific part or area that this person was familiar with. We were leaving, and I said, I don't know if you two, this person, their spouse, have plans tonight. There's a certain restaurant I think would be phenomenal. Do you have time? They said, actually, we do have time. I said, just get in your car. By the time you get there, you'll have reservations, you'll be taken care of.
Dusty: So they got in their car. I called ahead, they were booked, and I said, listen, you really need to make this happen for me right now. This is who I am, this is who I work for. You have to make this work, and they made it work, which ... Fantastic. I gave them my credit cards, it doesn't matter what the order, it's on me. That's the type of experience. I really want people to feel the experience of, hey, I'm in Montecito. I'm in San [inaudible 00:17:36] Valley. I'm in [inaudible 00:17:38]. And I think that that's really, really nice, and people get to not even have to make decisions. People just point and say, go eat here, I'm paying for this, order this, and they get to just sit back and relax and experience a lifestyle that we know that they'll enjoy here.
Stefan: You said a big word there, lifestyle, and it sounds like you got the everything's handled part of the experience down. That's such a premium. You go to Amazon.com, you push the button, everything's handled. It's a one button experience. One thing I've done with my clients is we do a lot of seminars and training of investors in my company, and we came out with an all-inclusive package. So the flight's included, the limo's included, the dinner's included. We drive you to a property that we flipped or someone else flipped, and it's amazing, because people pay such a premium. We have people, they're so happy to pay $2,000, $4,000 for that experience. And then we strip it all down, they don't even want to pay $300 for the base experience. It's amazing how as soon as you can say, everything's handled, one price, one mystery price, how everybody just gets on board with that. Would you agree?
Dusty: Absolutely. You hit something else, too. Different than what you said is people will pay anything for the right experience. The number almost doesn't matter.
Stefan: That's a gong. We got an instant replay of that. Instant replay, one more time.
Dusty: People will pay anything for the right experience.
Stefan: Damn.
Dusty: Especially in the high end. Let's say we're in the $100 million. Do you care if a steak is $50 or $200? Absolutely, no, you don't. Who cares at all about that difference? You just want quality, you just want the experience. So, specifically in high end real estate, they need that experience, because no one needs a fifth house in Montecito. Absolutely not. I'm dealing with a very different buyer than, hey, my wife is pregnant, we live in a one bedroom condo, we just need to buy anything with two rooms.
Stefan: Right.
Dusty: So if you're not selling that lifestyle, then I don't know what you're doing. In the same way that you said everything's taken care of, people want that luxurious experience of ... They don't want the decision fatigue, I should say. They don't want to try and figure out the area. Why are you-
Stefan: One more gong, dude, one more, 'cause decision fatigue. Damn, bro, stop hitting on me like that. Tell us about decision fatigue.
Dusty: Okay. I go to a restaurant. One of my favorite restaurants, it's actually 40 minutes away from here. It's called the [Santa Ana's 00:20:05] Valley Kitchen. Santa Ana's Kitchen.
Stefan: Right.
Dusty: And they have this world-renowned chef, they're fantastic. And part of their lunch special usually is there's just, this is what we're making. There's no, I'm going to order this, this, or this. This is what we're cooking, and I love that crap. I'm going to show up ... world class restaurant. You are the world class chef. You tell me what to eat. Why am I going into a restaurant that's fantastic and I'm telling you what you should make me? That's ridiculous. It should be completely the opposite.
Stefan: Right.
Dusty: And the same thing when I'm showing someone an area. They don't want to ... I can't wait for them to express what they want to see, or the experience they want to have. I need to give them that experience and make them see what's going on and show them what they should see, because they don't even know what they don't know. They don't want to make those decisions. If I'm going to ... I always think about myself. I love New York City, I'd love to own a flat out there at some point and do sort of a bi-coastal ... Not selling, this would be later on in life. I would think, okay. If I'm flying to New York City, my realtor's picking me up, what experience would I want, I just want to sit back. You show me New York, it's your backyard. You show me the restaurants, you show me what area I should by in. You show me the building. I'm not the expert here.
Dusty: You can't, at the risk of sounding too aggressive with them, you have to say, this is what you want.
Stefan: Right. Right. I love what Henry Ford used to say. He said that if I made what my customers wanted, they would've wanted faster horses. Instead he made the car. Or Steve Jobs, he invented the iPad. Nobody knew that an iPad was coming, nobody knew they wanted that. But you're the taste maker, you're the brand experience, you're the expert, and I love how you're like, hey, man. I'm the doctor, here's the medicine, buckle up. People pay premiums for that, man. That's amazing.
Stefan: Let me ask you this, Dusty. You're in the pretty high end, relative to the country of the United States, relative to the country of Canada, a pretty high end market. How do you find these high end clients? 'Cause that's something that I think everybody has this fear about. They're like, oh, I want to get more business, I want to get better clients, I want to get wealthier clients. How do you go about prospecting these wealthier clients?
Dusty: The low end ... The typical real estate, if you were to go ... I use Tulsa, Oklahoma all the time, 'cause I have a buddy out there. [crosstalk 00:22:21]
Stefan: Right. Bro, I love Tulsa. Let's love on it, man.
Dusty: Yeah, yeah. Let's say you're there and you join Keller Williams or something, and they say, how do you grow your business? You should farm a geographical neighborhood, you should mail that neighborhood, door knock that neighborhood, because that's how you get to know people in that physical, geographic space. Okay. That's fantastic.
Dusty: The high end doesn't have that quite as much. It's more of a group of people not in a physical location, but in a network of people. So the easiest way, obviously, is to infiltrate. That's a terrible word, but infiltrate a network, because most of my business is referral based. You do a bang up job on one person, and it gets out there. But that's why something like a country club would make sense, because it's not that they all live in that specific area, but they all congregate there. Certain types of industries like the equestrian industry, obviously, gather truly affluent people. A yacht club, yachting, high end activities.
Dusty: Also, Santa Barbara specifically, I can't say the same thing for your market. But Santa Barbara, a lot of people have second, third, fourth, fifth homes. They have a little pied-a-terre out here. So for me to go about getting these clients, I have to do a decent amount of travel and tremendous amount of networking around the country in feeder markets. Our number one feeder market, of course, is Los Angeles. But San Francisco, New York, Palm Beach are big, big markets. I do a tremendous amount of networking with agents in these feeder markets, the financial advisors, the attorneys. A lot of homes are sold because someone passed away, unfortunately.
Dusty: There's a lot of ways to getting ... It's extremely different than the ... for lack of a better term, the lower end real estate. I really compare the two as one is soccer, one is baseball. It's different sports altogether. What marketing would work in this area would kill you in this area, and the same way ... If you took this marketing and put it towards here, it would kill you. It's radically different. One's not better than the other. It's very, very different. You have to focus on client experience, it's different, the actual terms ... marketing and listings to get in front of buyers is completely different, and certainly the networking is different.
Stefan: Yeah. It's a high trust game. Rich people, they really value their privacy. There's a great book, I don't know if you read it, or maybe you should read it. It's Dan Kennedy's Marketing to the Affluent.
Dusty: Really?
Stefan: And they talk about the affluent people, they value their privacy. They have fetishes. They'll have something they'll spend any amount of money on. I just ordered a $450 gold pen. I want this gold pen. I write my plans with my gold pen, I want my $450 gold pen. That's my fetish. But they also have things that they won't spend anything on. They'll still get the no name canned tuna. So you've gotta know their fetish, and there's a real trust based game. It's interesting. You're talking about, there's the high end marketing and the low end marketing. In our game, we're buying a lot of wholesale real estate, so messed up stuff. We do a handwritten letter on yellow, horrible loose leaf in black Sharpie and stuff it in a mailbox, and the low end, messed up wholesale buyer loves that message.
Stefan: But then we're doing high trust sales, so we have a book, a nice book with gold foil on it, it looks high trust. It's so interesting. The high trust, low trust. Another thing you said that I thought was really cool was going into the sports, and you're wearing a sport coat, and the suit and sport coat comes from equestrian. That's where that fashion comes from, and it's interesting when you look at history and you look at fashion, if you go to the ghetto in, let's say, the Bronx or something, and you see guys wearing Adidas snap pants or they're wearing some basketball stuff, sport clothes have always been a symbol of status because it means you have enough resources to play sports and have leisure.
Stefan: It's so interesting, what you said there about sports and getting to the good gyms and the good country clubs and the equestrian, 'cause that's where they all congregate, right? Do you ever do charities or churches or anything like that?
Dusty: I am involved in my local church, and I've gotten a tremendous amount of business from that. But I never go that angle, I think that is absolutely the most classless way to get business, is to be that guy at church. I just happen to be a trusted resource. A lot of people go to me and that's fantastic. I'm never marketing at church.
Dusty: Charities, though, absolutely. You mentioned if people are affluent enough to have the spare time to do sports, like you mentioned, in Santa Barbara it's the spare time to get involved, join a board, be a part of the nonprofit. People typically are in Santa Barbara ... I keep referencing my market. Other markets could be totally different. But the average person coming to Santa Barbara is someone who has that feeling of, you know what? I'm going to join this community, I'm going to make this community, I want to be a valuable citizen. We get some good, good people here, which is fantastic. But, yeah. Charities are fantastic for that.
Dusty: I was even chatting with my business coach yesterday, and that's a bigger component of this 2019 marketing, is being a lot more involved in sponsoring charity, actually, which is great. If we're going to spend marketing dollars, that's not a bad way to do it.
Stefan: Yeah. If you go to a dinner that's $150 a plate or $300 a plate and there's a celebrity or something-
Dusty: Or much more.
Stefan: Yeah, your market, I'm talking Winnipeg numbers here. Yeah, man, your plates out there could be $1,000 a plate or more. What's so interesting about that, whether you look at that from a sacred kind of look, biblical or something, or you look at it from a secular view, even in the book 48 Laws of Power, they talk about ... despise the free lunch, and the people who are making it, they're giving back, they congregate together. Charity is a real powerful thing for meeting people who ... They've got time, they've got money, they've got resources, and your message might work with them.
Dusty: Sure, sure, absolutely. But you can't be the guy that's clearly there for business. They can sniff it out pretty quickly. So it has to be something you're actually passionate about. That's the other "problem". I thought about this a lot in the past, and I've been approached for certain nonprofit boards, and I've been like, you know what? I think that could be good for business, but I would burn out so fast. I have no passion and I probably would look like the guy that's just doing this for business.
Dusty: So I ... I keep getting emails. Let me ... volume off, okay. I just joined, actually, a board for some other cause that I just have a ton of passion about. I actually bring something to the table, it's a great group. So I'm also trying to be wise about that, because if you just start spreading yourself too thin or doing something that isn't true to your heart, it doesn't work out, it shows through.
Stefan: Right. You've gotta be congruent. That's the main thing with branding, it's gotta be congruent, it's gotta go together, the curtain's gotta match the carpet.
Stefan: Let me ask this, Dusty. Switching gears a little bit, you do some speaking, you do some writing. Tell us a little bit about the content you put out there, and what are you an expert in, your writing and your speaking?
Dusty: It's funny. I got involved in that ... I got a good ... I like to surround myself with really intelligent people. Why not? It's just a lot more fun for me. I have a tough time chatting with people who are just doing absolutely nothing with their life. What do you talk about at that point? So a lot of my friends are radically driven, really intelligent, really successful people.
Dusty: One of my friends that runs a marketing company, he's just one of these incredible, incredible minds. So, starting years and years and years ago, he said, you have to get out there and start blogging. He said, I know you have a big social media presence, you've got all this. But if you don't own that domain, let's say Instagram goes out of business tomorrow. Where are you? Whereas if you own that website, that blog, you capture that audience.
Dusty: So, fine, I'll do that. But I'm not doing the normal real estate blog where it's like, I'm your neighborhood realtor! I thought it was cheesy, even though it probably works. I'm going to go the opposite route. I'm going to actually start writing, blogging, towards educational ... to other agents, because I've been really blessed. When I did intern early on, it happened to be for a group of really top agents, and then I had a mentor early on that had been selling real estate longer than I'd been alive, and I've just been surrounded by this incredible, incredible group of people who have helped me so much, so I have a lot more than 10 years of wisdom in me because of everything that's been passed along.
Dusty: So I said, okay, I'll start writing. I started writing articles, and started getting a pretty big following, actually. Because of that, I ended up writing for Inman News. Inman News, for the time, that's the largest real estate news source, Inman News. I've read Inman. It's fantastic. It's like, yeah, it's amazing. I got involved in that, writing for them. But the first article, I said, you know what? I'm going to go in, bring a bazooka to a knife fight. This has gotta be good.
Dusty: So I did some backend analytics with my friend who owns this marketing company, and said, hey, we can run the stats, even on their website, what the most popular articles have been, the topics, the this, the that. We did all this research, and it turned out at the time ... This was a while ago ... It was around tagging, it was around social media, a lot of questions about that, about what to do with marketing. So I said, you know what, I'm going to write about that. I wrote about how I grew my Instagram portfolio and how I'm getting actually a lot of business from it, and just the real practicalities that no one else was going over, and it just exploded.
Dusty: It ended up being the second most read article they've ever had. It's since been beaten, obviously, but right when it came out, it was just really, really, really popular, and that kind of pigeonholed me a bit. I wrote articles on a lot, and I wrote the foreword for a book called From the Top, which ended up being an Amazon bestseller, and that was more just ... It was just a foreword, so I was chatting about what this author spoke about. I've done speaking on other components as well, but a tremendous amount went around online marketing, social media marketing, and things like that.
Dusty: It's funny, because it's not necessarily something I love talking about. I actually much prefer to talk about, hey, how do we up our game at the white glove service? How do we be straight up concierge, how do we be the most trusted resource where it's total anonymity for our clients, things like that. I really prefer that, the Four Seasons approach, but usually it ends up being about online marketing.
Stefan: You know what my favorite part of that story is, Dusty, is where you went in with your marketing guy and analyzed what the market wanted. That one step is such a pro step. That's such a smart step, and I think everybody, when they get into marketing, get into business, they just start putting out whatever they want. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. Like Donna Karen, DKNY, she was making clothes for her baby and her husband, and then somehow she ended up with a clothing line. Sometimes it works out, most of the time, it doesn't.
Stefan: But you went in and you figured out, what does the audience want, and you delivered exactly what they want. There's a huge lesson in there for the people at home. Why'd you have that instinct to go in like that and not just write something from your ego that you wanted?
Dusty: 100% from my buddy. His name is Seth, he runs Nexa Marketing, N-E-X-A Marketing, and it was all him, 100%. He was even the one saying ... because my website got pretty big, and he said, okay. You've maxed it out. You know how you get even bigger? Instead of creating your own parade and gathering people and calling city officials and pulling permits, why don't you just find another parade and jump in front and start marching? It's like, oh, okay, I'd much rather do that.
Dusty: He said reach out to other top blogs and start writing for them. He said, everyone on top websites, their job is to write. You'd be doing their job for them. They'll take you. I said, okay, great. I researched all the top real estate websites. In News, number one, absolutely number one, and I thought, I could never get in there. I'm going to go for the lower end, which is the lamest approach. I went after the lower end once, and they all said no. It was like, crap. He was like, why don't you go through Inman? I was like, oh, fine. So I went after Inman and they said yes. Like, oh my gosh.
Dusty: His name is Seth. He said, okay, now that you've got your foot in the door, this has to be good, and I mean good. It was his idea. I'm going to run the backend analytics, we're going to go ever everything, figure out what's worked really, really well. And then I wrote the article. I had he and another friend that I've done a lot of brainstorming with go through a couple rounds. It really was just a fantastic article. You only get one first impression and I wanted it to be spectacular, and it worked out really well, and it created this ... Listen, that was just a one time thing. I ended up getting to know everyone at Inman, on the staff, the conferences, speaking. It's a wonderful family. It's kind of real estate meets TED Talks. I have the utmost respect for them. It's amazing. I was glad I was able to connect in that way.
Stefan: I love that story, I think it's a great strategy, and I think anybody at home could do that.
Dusty: Sure.
Stefan: Anybody could do what you did there. But the way that you and your marketing guy masterminded that is just genius. Writing that one good article and getting that thing placed properly ... because content is one thing, placing it, it's another thing to get traffic. Then you mentioned you got on some speaking stages from that, right?
Dusty: Yeah.
Stefan: Okay, awesome. Are those paid gigs or they just let you sell stuff? How did that work?
Dusty: No, I didn't even take it that far, to be honest. I probably could've had products to sell. I never even got that far. It was just unpaid, but it just grew my presence in a really spectacular way. A lot of people even ask, on the lower level, they ask, how do you have 15,000 followers on Instagram, and I say, years of hard work and a ton of speaking engagements. And a good number will ask, how do you get all these great referrals from agents all around the country? I say, years of hard work, travel, and speaking engagements. How incredible is it to get in front of 2,000 people and be seen as an expert? You would know, look at what you do. You're on stage and people just assume you're the expert. You could be the stupidest guy in the world, but you're on stage, you're the expert.
Stefan: Yeah, man. I love that. And I've got a similar background. I blogged for 120 days when I started. I did a blog every day, and I shared it on social media every day. It was a consistent blog, it was a 1,000 word blog. It's crazy, because that turned into speaking engagements. People wanted me to come speak at their clubs. Then that turned into winning awards. Somehow I was visible. Then I started winning awards, people started giving me awards, and then people started, after the awards, I started getting calls for coaching. I got calls for classes and products, and then I turned those blogs into a book. It's crazy. Now I've got five books and an international coaching company. But it's crazy how that one little article or that one little thing can just snowball and snowball and snowball and just keep going.
Dusty: Have you seen the videos? There's a video on Facebook ... No, on YouTube ... and it talks about the physics of dominoes. I'm sure that you've seen it. But a domino can knock over something one and a half times its size, so they have a video where it's like a little piece of gum or something, and they push that over, and seven or eight dominoes later, it's pushing over a 100 pound piece of marble that's 1,000 times its height, and that's what it is. You get that one little domino going, and then you go 150%, 150%, and just a few steps down the road, you're a lot further along than you thought.
Stefan: Bro, you just got yourself a gong for that. That's a great concept, man. I love that.
Dusty: Now, let me ask you. You said you wrote 120 blog posts in 120 days. I think people listening, they would say, oh, that's not too bad. I could probably do that. Okay. Well, where were you in life that time? I imagine you had work and bills to pay. How did you fit in those 120 articles? How did you have the bandwidth and the structure and the discipline to do that? People don't understand how hard that is.
Stefan: Yeah. Well, I was broke, man. I was flipping, I don't know, maybe a dozen houses a year. I had some rental properties. I remember I went to conferences and they'd say, you gotta put out content, you've gotta get your web presence, get your brand together. So I was like, okay, okay. I remember I started a little website for $7. I got a Weebly website for $7, and I got a domain and I put a picture of myself up there, and then I looked at my site, and I'm like, man, my site sucks. There's nothing on it.
Stefan: So I said, okay, man. Every night before I go to bed, I'm going to write a blog, and I can't go to bed 'til I write a blog. So I'd write a blog, I'd post it, put a picture up, and every night, I just did that. I said, I'm going to take some seminar notes, I'm going to turn those seminar notes into a blog. And it just consistently did that, and now I've written five books. My latest book, Hard Times Create Strong Men, is 150,000 words. It's a big-ass book, and I wrote it in 11 ... because that was shift writing.
Stefan: I'm a writer by trade, and I say to people, look. If you want to do this, make it a shift. You show up to your shift, and the best times to write, I find, Dusty, is first thing in the morning out of bed when you're drowsy, or last thing at night before going to bed when you're drowsy. You get in that mid state where you're almost drunk, and you can just type and type and just write because you're not judging yourself.
Stefan: So I think the best thing you can do is make it a shift. You're just like, I'm going to show up to work for my shift at the end of the day or beginning of the day. You write something, maybe you read something right before so you've got something to think about, and then just go.
Dusty: Yeah. What I love about that story and why I wanted to hear a bit more is that I think one of your prompt questions I read on the piece of paper you sent over was, what do you think being an entrepreneur has led you to see and to experience life and things like that? And first of all, I will say that I think real estate is barely getting in the door of entrepreneurship, I really do. I think what you're doing and what other people do, actually creating a real different business out of nothing, is very, very different. Real estate agents and financial advisors already have a framework. They still have to kill what they want to eat. So I think we get in the door, but barely.
Stefan: Right.
Dusty: I have that much more respect for [inaudible 00:40:03], because I know how hard it's been for certain times in my life, when you have to ... No one's paying you. People don't get that. They think, oh, somebody just pays you? I'm like, no. They take money out of our paycheck. But they don't pay me. It's given me this incredible perspective to even hear a story like, hey, I wrote 120 articles. People, you don't know how hard that is until you've tried to do it, period. I bet you couldn't even get someone to run one mile for 120 straight days. You couldn't get people to do anything for 120 straight days. But look at what kind of fruit you can see from your labor. People just will not do it for the long run. They'll do it for four days and then they'll quit.
Dusty: So I have the most respect for things like that, and it doesn't have to be rocket science, but that's what being an entrepreneur is like. You do things, and people ... How many people asked you, why are you doing this? And then you have to say, well, I don't necessarily know. I'm laying a foundation for an area that I don't even know if I'm going to build on, but I'm just going to do it, because why not? It's better to have a foundation than not to.
Dusty: But how many people asked you why you're doing this?
Stefan: Well, I do it for ... The real deep reason is my parents divorced when I was 17, and my dad wasn't making enough money, and he was an entrepreneur, but never educated himself. I'm here creating an education company to try to save my dad. Some deep, deep, psychological stuff. So I'm obsessed with education, I'm obsessed with books, I'm obsessed with training and coaching. We've got ... Some of our students are Canadian investor of the year in Real Estate World Magazine. We've got some guys buying, fixing, and selling 30 homes a year. We've got some guys who are 27 years old, they've done 82 properties, as an investor.
Stefan: So it's really rewarding, it's crazy. I don't have kids, so this is my thing, is educating and helping people, and what you asked is a great question. Why do you do this? This is a great question for anybody, because you're going to get hit with buckets and buckets of this every day. People are going to yell at you, they're going to tell you you suck, you're going to have stuff not work. If your why is not very strong, you're just not going to make it, right?
Dusty: Yeah.
Stefan: That's money. I like what you said there, Dusty. There's one thing I really want to drill down on and point out, it's you said entrepreneurs, real estate investors, financial advisors, maybe insurance too, are like the beginning of entrepreneurship, because you've got the marketing, you've got the sales. But the product's done for you. One thing that I think is really, for me, has been a major struggle in entrepreneurship, hardcore, straight up entrepreneurship, is product market fit. You guys get a product, you get a luxury house, you get a piece of crap house or whatever house, and you've gotta somehow find that market.
Stefan: What I think is so crazy about Elon Musk, let's say, is he's gotta make some stuff out of thin air. He makes a car or something, and he has to hope the market wants that, or he's gotta do enough research to know that that's where the lightning's going to strike next. If you study a guy ... You ever heard of Ray Kurzweil?
Dusty: No.
Stefan: Ray Kurzweil, he works for Google, and he's an inventor. What he realized that being an inventor was ... right invention at the wrong time works out to be nothing. So what he did was he started trending inventions in the market and he would predict in the future what people would need at what time, and he started to do that and he got super rich, he got super wealthy, and he's one of the guys behind AI right now. Ray Kurzweil is a big artificial intelligence dude, because it's not so much about, do you have the best car? The electric car, GM tried to do that years ago, it didn't work. Well, Elon Musk, he found that little sliver of the market and he went right in there-
Dusty: But also, remember with Elon, I had buddies that worked for him 14 years ago. His first concept was a Lotus, a lease type of electric car, and that absolutely tanked. Tanked, tanked. He had to switch it to the current Tesla, where it's like, okay. It's actually a family car, but it's kind of sexy as well. He went [inaudible 00:43:57] go full sexy, went nowhere.
Stefan: Right. Yeah, that's the product market fit. It's interesting. When I was down in Orange County, the Mercedes wasn't nice. The Jaguar's not nice. The Audi's not nice. It was the Tesla. People are driving these white Teslas everywhere, and that's the status symbol now. He cracked the code on how to make that thing a status symbol, and all the rich people wanted a Tesla 'cause, I don't know, it's cool or whatever. What do you-
Dusty: It's also a political statement. That's something interesting that not many people talk about is ... What do they call those stupid Priuses? The Prius is one of the ugliest cars on the planet. But now it's the green car. So Montecito, it's pretty left leaning in Montecito and Santa Barbara. Prius was like a status symbol, because it's saying, listen, this is how good I am to the environment. This is what I do. That's the status. It's not necessarily a Lamborghini status, it's a lifestyle political status. Elon provided actually a good looking political status, so that's a huge component too. It looks nice that's great, but it's saying, hey, I'm green.
Stefan: Yeah. He doubled down on that. Dust, we've gotta wrap up here in a couple minutes. I just want to ask you some of the questions I love asking everybody, 'cause I think these are just the coolest questions ever. If you go back in time, Dusty, to 15 year old Dusty, and give himself a piece of advice, what would you say to 15 year old Dusty?
Dusty: Oh man, I'm so embarrassed of 15 year old Dusty. I can say the older I get ... Every time I think I hit the threshold of, wow, I'm working really hard, the next year I'm like, wow, I didn't do crap last year. I wasn't working hard enough. This is working hard, and so on and so forth. I would've just showcased to my 15 year old self, listen. You have no idea what hard work is, and I would've pushed him 1,000 times harder. I would've pushed him to go Ivy League and focus on the right things, don't screw around with all the crap that takes up time that does absolutely nothing. I'd just tell him to focus and work harder, because it's very rewarding. I'm happier now than I've ever been in my entire life, because I'm more focused and I'm working harder.
Stefan: Yeah. Love that answer. It really is about focus. I know they had Bill Gates and Warren Buffett around the same table, and they asked all these very successful rich people, what is your number key to success? Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, the top five richest people in the world at any given time, both said focus.
Dusty: Yeah.
Stefan: You can't split your focus. That's it. What are the top three books that changed your life, Dusty?
Dusty: You know, it's funny you mentioned Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I read that early on, and that's a great foundational book. It's not rocket science, but it's a great foundational book for how you look at life, money, and finances. I have to throw that in there. For young audiences, that's a great, great entry level book.
Dusty: Another great book is, gosh. Others ... There's so many good books. I don't read quite as much as you and Ty, but ... Oh, gosh.
Stefan: I don't know if Ty reads the books, man. He's got the summaries.
Dusty: Yeah. He skims.
Dusty: I enjoyed a lot of components ... I wouldn't put this top three, but Love Is the Killer App. I thought it was well done. Have you read that?
Stefan: What's that one about? Love Is the Killer App?
Dusty: It's before apps, so 15 years ago. It's not cell phone app, it's like an application of life, and it talks about how societal relationships can really have you jump forward in success, the love component. But it's a lot better than it sounds. If someone were to explain that to me, I'd say, oh, it sucks. But it's actually quite, quite good, and really logistically, how you stay involved with people, grow incredible relationships, and not utilize those relationships just for success, but success always begets success. So that's really, really, really well written.
Dusty: This is going to be radically controversial, and I don't mean this ... I wish he wasn't in politics so I can say this, but I read this when I was really young. The Art of the Deal, I liked, because-
Stefan: Great book, great book.
Dusty: Not because of Trump's statement, but because I think that there's something within entrepreneurs that actually digs the art of the deal, that digs ... I remember one portion where he said he wanted to join this specific social club in New York that it's impossible to get a hold of, and he would just call once a month to say, as confidently as possible, good afternoon. My name is Donald Trump. I would like to talk to so and so. And of course they told him to pound sand the first eight times. The ninth time, they transferred him through. After that, my name's Donald Trump, and I'm going to be the next member. And he became ...
Dusty: So it's one of those things where it's sort of a dichotomy of actually enjoying deals. I don't want to retire. I enjoy deals. And then the component of, you stand up straight, you have incredible confidence, and you say, I want this. I'm going after this right now.
Dusty: So I thought it was well done. Like I said, I think the Kiyosaki and The Art of the Deal, I'd say have a high schooler read them. I wouldn't say a 40 year dude read those. But I think it's pretty cool foundational wisdom.
Stefan: Yeah, well, people always forget that Trump is ... He's a fucking billionaire, dude. He started with a million dollars and he turned it into a billion. Sure. He's kind of like the modern Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great inherited the best army in the world to conquer the world by 30. Trump inherited the best real estate team in New York, good for him.
Stefan: But dude, Art of the Deal is a good book, good real estate book. Another one that's good, a good Trump one, is Art of the Comeback. You ever read that one?
Dusty: Yeah, that's good as well. That's very good.
Stefan: Yeah, that's like when the chips are down, and when shit is going down and he's getting divorced, he did some brilliant stuff, and I don't think people give him enough credit. He did some really smart stuff. He knows how to make money.
Dusty: On that note, really quick, I will say people crap on him because when you start with a million bucks, that sounds like a lot of money. Yeah. I don't care where people started. If someone's successful right now, I don't care if they were given $10 million. I bet the average person, if they were given $10 million, next year, would have $500,000.
Stefan: They'd be in a cardboard box, bro.
Dusty: [crosstalk 00:49:51] and grown it. I don't care if people came from money and I don't care if people have resources. You still have to work your ass off to get really successful. Even to use his daughter as an example, yeah, Ivanka Trump had to have the name of Trump and a ton of money and expertise. You don't create a clothing line like that without working very, very hard. So I've learned to really respect people, even if they came from a place with much, much, much more than me. I assure you they're working hard.
Stefan: Yeah. Ivanka, she's amazing, man. She's, out of the kids, she's, I think, the smartest, the greatest.
Dusty: Oh, yeah.
Stefan: She's the empress over there. I've had George Ross, Donald Trump's lawyer, write the foreword to my book, 10 Commandments of Negotiation.
Dusty: Oh, nice.
Stefan: So I've heard some stories, and they would send those kids out to the farm in Germany or Russia or wherever, and they had to work. They put those kids to work. They're not spoiled brats, they're well behaved. Nobody's doing cocaine and crashing cars. If you've got good kids, you can't lie about good kids, man. That's awesome.
Stefan: Dusty, the last question I got here that I love asking everybody is, what's the one thing that young people need to succeed these days?
Dusty: The ability to be malleable, I think. I read a great book, I don't even know the name of it, actually, but it was ... chopped into each chapter was a different author, actually, so it truly was a book of experts writing each chapter. It had some statistic where 20 years ago ... 80% of the jobs that exist now didn't exist 20 years ago. Imagine if someone that's 25 years old was thinking from five years old on, oh, I want to be this position. Well, it probably doesn't exist anymore.
Dusty: So be very, very malleable. I can't make any promise real estate will be the same, I have no idea. I can assure you my commission's going to go down in the next 20 years, no chance [inaudible 00:51:39], so maybe I need to be a tad malleable and move into something else. There's also incredible, incredible hedge funds for the new [eye 00:51:47] buyers. Real estate could change, even though that's such a fundamental thing. So the ability to basically make hard work your ... the foundation, your identity, and then carry that in a malleable fashion.
Dusty: I have a one and a half year old daughter, for instance, and I have a little boy coming. My wife and I talk, okay. How do you parent? A lot of the books we've been reading, and I think this is fantastic is ... Her name's Kinsley. Let's say Kinsley is playing soccer, and she scores a goal. Instead of saying, hey, great job scoring that goal, you scored that goal, you're the best. Now she's like, well, the goal is the outcome. If I can't get the goal, I'm nothing. I say, hey, I saw you on the other side of the field, and you had to run harder and faster than everyone else to get to that ball. You worked your tail off. It didn't look like you were going to be able to get the ball and you did. You worked hard. I saw you sweating, I saw how hard you worked in practice this past week. That's what got you that goal, and praising the work ethic instead of the accomplishment, because accomplishments always come out of the work ethic.
Dusty: So I think that the coming generation needs to have just an incredible work ethic, and that will go towards anything. The dollars will always follow that. If you have that work ethic and that's your id and you can focus it in a malleable fashion depending on what's happening to the economy, you're good to go.
Stefan: Yeah, yeah. I'll always say it, man. You've gotta respect the grind. You've gotta understand that it's going to take repetitive actions, you've gotta have that work ethic, and then apply it to whatever is malleable in the market. I love that.
Stefan: Dusty, how can people get in touch with you if they want to know more?
Dusty: My phone number. I'm so online it's not even funny. Search Dusty Baker real estate, and dustybakerrealestate.com is my website. My phone number is on there and my Instagram handle and Twitter handle is @dustyjbaker, the reason being is because there's a famous baseball player I was named after. His name was Dusty Baker, he managed the Giants in fact.
Stefan: Right.
Dusty: So you look up Dusty Baker, and there's a buff black dude in a Giants jersey, that's him, not me, unfortunately.
Stefan: You just play him on TV, man.
Dusty: Exactly, exactly. I can't tell you how many people walked in who say, oh, you look different. I'm like, yeah, I know. I'm [inaudible 00:54:01].
Stefan: Nice, man. Okay, awesome. Thanks so much for being on the show, Dusty. I really appreciated having you, man. Great conversation, and respect the grind, brother.
Dusty: Hey, thanks so much. Really appreciate it.
Stefan: Thanks, man.
The owner of Identified Talent Solutions, it's a talent recruitment company and this company has grown to the point where it's in the ink 500
Paul David
Stefan: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show. Respect the Grind with Stefan Aarnio. This is the show where we interview people who have achieved mastery and freedom through discipline. We interview entrepreneurs, athletes, authors, artists, real estate investors, anyone who's achieved mastery and examined what it took to get there. Today on the show we have Paul David. He is the owner of Identified Talent Solutions, it's a talent recruitment company and this company has grown to the point where it's in the ink 500 of feet. Indeed Paul, welcome to the show. Respect the grind. Good to see you, my friend.
Paul: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me Stefan.
Stefan: Awesome. Yeah, I love having guys like you on the show because we got so many real estate people. I'm a real estate investor you know, I teach flipping houses and rental properties and stuff like that. And I love having someone from a different field and so for the people at home who don't know you that well Paul, tell us how'd you get started in the talent recruitment business? That's something that I'm sure is an awesome business. I've just never thought about it. So how did you get started?
Paul: Sure. It was about 15 years ago, right out of college. I got into a firm that does third party recruiting. So basically they provide candidates, they provide employees to other companies. I did that for about six months. Very salesy position. Didn't think I was very good at it. I was really, really shy back then. But then I went into a mortgage company, they shot as a recruiter, mortgage was booming back then. I learned my whole entire trade from that particular point. After 10 years I decided, well it's about time to go on my own, utilized a lot of the relationships that I had over my 10 year career and I built the business basically in my garage.
Stefan: Wow. I love stories where it starts in the garage. I think Apple started like that. All of these, I think Harley Davidson started in the garage. They all start in garages. I think Google started in a garage too.
Paul: Yeah. Amazon started in the garage.
Stefan: Yeah Bro. It's great. So really pertinent topic I think is recruiting. And a lot of people listening to the show, maybe they're solo preneurs or maybe they got like two employees or one employee or they want to recruit more. How does somebody effectively recruit? 'Cause I'll let the cat out of the bag here Paul. Every recruit I've done for my business has always been a referral. I've never done well with a head hunter. I've never done well with somebody recruiting for me it's always been through someone I know and I've tried agencies before. I've spent money before for whatever reason they don't stick. The talent is good if they don't know my brand or they don't know me in advance for whatever reason doesn't go. So how do you effectively recruit talent for so many companies and how does that match really work?
Paul: Yeah, that's a good question. I mean I think what they need and recruitment's really tough because it's not only a matter of just the skill set that they have, but it's also how do you fit that person into a culture? Even if they have the incredible skillset. I mean that person might be really successful in one company, but then they go into a different culture and then they're completely off. So it is a little bit of a difficult process, but you said that most of your hires have been referrals. That by far is the best way to hire people in your company. Is if somebody in your company or yourself or someone that you know and trust vouches for them then that's fantastic. It's almost kind of like dating. If you meet someone and they're like, yeah, they are a great person, then generally you're going to trust that.
Paul: But, if you don't have that capability, it is really important to stream that person properly. Now there's no silver bullet. So I mean you've kind of seen it. There's no silver bullet in picking the right person off the bat. I mean employment's like a dating process. So what we do is one, we're very narrow in the things that we do. So we know the skill set. So if you're a generalist and you're trying to do everything for everyone, like the larger staffing firms, it's really hard to understand what kind of skills are looking for cause you have to master one particular vertical. So what we do is we're mastering one specific vertical and understanding the skillset so the candidate is an optimal candidate from a skillset perspective. Then what we need to do is really, really build that relationship with the client. What is their team like? I mean not only the culture of the company, but what's the team like? How do they operate? What are they composed of? I mean what do they like to do? So you can look at the intangibles and the tangibles and place that candidate properly.
Paul: So that's kind of how we do it. We really have to, I mean it's like a dating process. We got to make sure that we know our client really well so we know exactly what kind of candidate put in there.
Stefan: I like what you say about the dating and I teach people real estate investing and they'll say, "How do I get a good deal?" And I'm like, "Bro, you got a good deal in real estate just like dating." You pick the most beautiful girl at the school, the Prom Queen. And if you go ask on stage wearing her sash that says homecoming and her tiara, you're never going to get a date. But if you wait for her to break up with her boyfriend and she's under the bleachers crying, wearing some dirty sweatpants with makeup running down her face, that's the time where you go in there and go, "Hey baby, look, let's grab a cheeseburger." And she's like, "I've been hungry for years. Let's go." And so it's really interesting 'cause I think people always try to over complicate business.
Stefan: We always go, "Oh man, it's different. My industry is different. This business is different. This time it's different." It never is. It really is just dating. It's relationships. And I like what you said about, it's almost like a marriage. These two people have to come together, the culture has to come in with the skill set and it has to fold together. What do you think when you're out there recruiting people Paul, what's the most important thing that you look for in any candidate? Maybe like is it grit? Is it drive? Is it just general intelligence? What's something that when you're just meeting talent that you want to see in just about everybody?
Paul: For me what I'm looking for is an intangible skillset. You can have someone that has the most impressive resume, the most impressive of education, but if they don't have a personality where they can build relationships, well I mean, at the end of the day, the fundamentals of business is relationships. If you do not know how to build a relationship, then you're just going to fail, period. I mean like, you know, I don't care how much you automate things, all the click funnels I hear, if you do know how to shake hands, talk to somebody and really build that relationship, you're not going to be successful, period. So I want to make sure that one of the things that we make sure it is how do we converse with this person? Will this person be able to influence other ... I don't care if it's an individual contributor or a manager. They need to be able to interact with people regardless if they do software development or if they're a nurse.
Paul: So relationship skills are very, very important. Communication skills are very, very important and that's what we look for first and foremost. It's not a complicated thing, but I think people would really want to work with other people and that they can kind of get along. And if that happens then what happens is you build trust, right? So once you build trust, because you [inaudible 00:06:37] then you can kind of work through anything else.
Stefan: I love that. So is it more, would you say, are you looking for more he EQ or IQ? I guess you're more of an EQ guy. Emotional quotient.
Paul: I'm an EQ guy. I mean most of the people that I have, you know what I first did this, I was looking for skills, but when I started my company, I was looking for grit. I was looking for someone that had tenacity. Someone that wanted to improve, I can teach them the skills, I can't teach them to drive.
Stefan: You just got to respect the grinding bro. Yeah there go. You've got a gong already. A gong's been hit man. I like that. You know, grit is something that in the military academies, they noticed that that's the number one thing that keeps people going. And one thing I say all the time is, I fail at 80% of the stuff I do. I'm failing all the fricking time, man. I'm an entrepreneur, so it's constant failure. And then the 20% I win on is so big. It handles all the losses and then some. Now, how would you describe grit? What is grit? What is the ability to keep going? What is that?
Paul: You kind of hit it on the head. It's like for me happens after my why. Why do I want to achieve something? Why do I want to, what is it that's important to me? Once I fundamentally understand why something's important to me, then it's the dedication. What I've learned about grit is grit really is the ability to embrace failure, right? And really learn from that failure. 'Cause here's the deal. I don't care what you do in life you're going to fail. I don't care if it's walking down the street. One of these days you're going to fail. 'Cause I look at things this way, you're going to fail or you're going to succeed. And those two instances for failure, I'm going to learn something. I'm going to learn something really quick so it doesn't happen again. And if I do that, then I'm going to succeed. So I try to rush into failure as much as I can.
Paul: I try to embrace it as much as I can and I look at it, I think being able to have grit is you can look at that failure not as a failure itself, but an opportunity to learn. Because all of us entrepreneurs, if we don't know how to learn from our failures, we're never going to be succeeding. So I've kind of looked at it in a different perspective. I actually enjoy failure because it's like, "Oh crap, I didn't do this right. Well let's try to figure out something else." So that's how I see it. So I think grit is the ability to understand that failure is more of a learning opportunity and something that sets us back forever.
Stefan: I like what John Maxwell says. He says, "You either win or you learn."
Paul: Yeah. That's in his book Failing Forward.
Stefan: Yeah, you win and you learn. And that's just something I started to do in my life. I had some pretty hardcore things happen to me this year is what's the meaning of this? What's the story? What am I learning here? And I don't know if you ever read the book Man's Search for Meaning. You ever read that Viktor Frankl? It's one of Tony Robbin's favorites, and it's about a man who was thrown in the Nazi death camps in World War II. And he had a book manuscript, I guess he was like a scientist or something. A book manuscript he was going to publish and the Nazis took his book and they I don't burn it or ripped it up. They took it away from him. And what he noticed when he was inside the death camps was the optimist died first. So the people who were "Oh, we'll be out by Christmas, we'll be out by Christmas, we'll be out by Christmas."
Stefan: Christmas comes, they die of a broken heart. But the people who lived through the death camps were the people who had meaning and they had a child to see. They had a book to write, they had a spouse to go find after the camp. And that to me when something bad happens to you in life, it's so interesting because there's two meanings. There's the victim meaning you can have, and then there's the, what am I learning meaning. Is that something you see in some of these very successful people where they have major setbacks and kind of the bigger the setback, the higher they climb?
Paul: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think a lot of people that have overcome tragedy, have been very, very successful because they know how to adapt to it and they know how to get over it. I think when we first started talking, I told you I never really wanted to be an entrepreneur. I was kind of forced at it where my wife died of cancer at 36 we went through a four and a half year battle with cancer. I was left with a four year old. I had $150,000 in debt. And it's like I had to make a decision at that particular point. I had to look up my why, which was my daughter. What am I going to do? Am I going to crumble? Am I going to fall apart? I mean, that's not an alternative that I want. So I did, and I had no idea how to start this company.
Paul: All I know was I needed to do it. So with that intensity and that drive, I said, I have to make this happen. And after that what's all your focus is I think from tragedy, once all your focus is pointed to one direction, then you'll start to see the opportunities that you've never seen before. So, I mean, I think people that have gone through tragedies and really decided to not let that tragedy define who they are, but let their choices make them who they are, that you see magic when that happens. Because intensity to succeeding and making sure that they're never defined by what happened to them in life so.
Stefan: Bro I'm giving you a gong. I love you, man. Dude, I love you man. You know that story you have. I'm so sorry to hear your wife died. I mean that's just the most brutal thing. But I love that you picked up the pieces and I love that you saw the why in your daughter. And I love that you were able to get that emotional charge 'cause so many people would have folded like a lawn chair. It's so easy. Whenever you go downtown, you see a homeless guy on the side of the street. That's someone who folded a lawn chair, but you said, "No, I'm going to use this. I'm going to use it as fuel." And it's tremendous to see what you built. Now shifting gears a little bit, Paul-
Paul: I actually wanted to kind of comment on that I don't know it's going to be ... I have colleagues and friends that have children right? And every time I hear them they say like, "Well, I can't do this. I can't do that. I can't do that because I have to take little Johnny or little Cathy or little whatever to the baseball game. I can't do that." I decided and I think people should decide that you know what? You don't make your children your reason why you can't do things. You make them your reason why you do, do things.
Stefan: Oh, another gong. Bro. We're hitting today. Church of the grind is in session. Damn. Instant replay on that. I want you to say that again for the kids at home. Paul, one more time.
Paul: Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, I have colleagues and I have friends that continuously tell me "I can't do this because I have to take little Johnny, or they have to take their children or their little Kimmy to their basketball game. Their ballet practice." But you know what? You have to be able, I mean, either you're going to choose to have your children be the reasons why you can't do something or you make them your reason why you can. So that's the different mindset. I mean, you have to make your kids a reason why you can achieve your dreams. Because that's the truth of the matter is if you don't, they're going to learn from that. Don't ever make your children your reason why you can't do something for yourself because that's not their fault.
Stefan: You know, it's like the old seminar story. I don't know if you've heard this story, but there's two brothers and they're identical and they're twins. And one brother says he's living in cardboard box downtown and it's raining on this cardboard box and he's with the woman that's ugly. And they fight and they hate each other and he doesn't know where his kids and he can't hold down a job. He's got no money in his bank account. His creditors are coming after him all the time and life is horrible for this guy. And he says, "My life's a failure 'cause my dad was a drunk who beat me and my mom was a prostitute, smoked weed." And then I cross the tracks. And the nicest part of town is his identical twin brother who's in a mansion, the gorgeous wife and they have great sex and they've got lots of kids and the kids love the dad and they love the mom and they'd go on four vacations a year and they got the dream car and money in the bank and they sleep well at night.
Stefan: And he says, "Man, I'm a success today 'cause my dad was a drunk who beat me. My mum was a prostitute who smoked weed every day." You know that same thing happened to those two guys. But on one side, one guy says, "This is my fuel." And the other guy says, "Oh man, this thing totally devastated me." And I love your story, man. Massive, massive props to your story because I come from a family, my dad was the son of an alcoholic and he had the dad who beat him. He says "Oh, I can't do this. I can't do that. It totally froze him." And with me, I use it as total motivation you know, my why. I think these interests are the whys, you're talking about your why's your little daughter. With whys I notice it's either people's parents that they want to save or it's their kids.
Paul: Sure. Yeah.
Stefan: And it's just either they want to help their parents who are screwed up or fix the parents or whatever, or they want to help their kids. And you know, how important do you think Paul to have a reason and a meaning outside of yourself to succeed? It can't be all about you.
Paul: Oh, 1000%. I think if you don't have a reason outside, I think as human beings we're called to do something bigger than ourselves. And the reasons have to be more than ourselves. So I think innately, if you do not have a reason outside of your own personal gain, then it's going to be futile at the end because the drive stops. The why stops. So it's like when people are only motivated about money or cars or whatever, and they get that, then what happens after that? Right? If you have a purpose that's intangible and that can create a change for everybody else and the reason outside of yourself needs to be there. I mean it just has to.
Stefan: I love that. We're going back to the Viktor Frankl Search for Meaning. You know, Man's Search for Meaning. What is the meaning of all this? And I think that one thing that's common across all of our shows, you're a very successful guy, especially in the space you're in. Is that the darker people get, the more they go into the darkness, the more they're in the light. And the worse it is and the deeper that pit of despair is, I call it the pit of despair. The deeper people go into that darkness, the higher they're able to climb after. And I think there's so many people at home that want to, they want to have it easy. They want to get a job, they don't want to go through any of the risk or the pain, they don't want to have their whys die, anything like that. But in some ways, Paul this is an interesting thing, like that event of losing your partner in some ways is that the best thing that ever happened to you?
Paul: Yeah. I mean it's the worst and the best thing that happened to me. When I look back at it now, it's been about five years since she's passed away. But I look back at it now and even when we were struggling, right. And it was even before that, I mean we were homeless when my daughter was born and she was three months and we were sleeping out of our pathfinder and then a year later she got cancer. I mean we were going through a lot of crap, but I look back at it now and I think about it. If I didn't go through any of those struggles, it wouldn't have made me who I am today. Because I had to choose-
Stefan: I'm going that. I'm gonging that bro.
Paul: I had had to choose to be better. I had to choose. And I think seeing my wife pass away at an early age, that kind of pushed me too. 'Cause I think what happens is people don't realize how delicate their life is. Right. They can always wait until tomorrow. They can always wait till tomorrow. They can always wait till tomorrow. And you never know. You never know. Like my wife never knew she wasn't supposed to die when she was 36 so.
Stefan: Right, right. Well that's super young men and like most women live till like 86 or something. So it's like 50 years too early.
Paul: Yeah really early.
Stefan: One word that you use and that I love those, the word choose. And the one thing that no one can ever take away from any of us, even if we're thrown in a Nazi death camp, is the choice to choose.
Paul: Yes.
Stefan: We can always choose the meaning of things. We can choose, what does this mean? This horrible thing. Is this going to be a wake up call? Is this going to be your fuel for the future? I had a big event in my life when I was younger and it was my parents' divorce. And it's interesting, my brother loved them to pieces. He uses it as a reason why he can't do stuff. You know, he says, I remember once he was yelling at my mom, he said, "Mom, if you guys didn't get divorced, I'd be in the NHL Right now." I'm like "Really?" I'm like "Dude, I don't know about that. You're a December baby. December babies don't make it in the NHL. You've got January, February, March, April go in."
Paul: You've got a lot of Malcolm Gladwell.
Stefan: Yeah man. I'm a Malcolm Gladwell reader. But it's so interesting 'cause I was with one of my girlfriends at the time and she said to me. I remember she came to one of my seminars and she said "All this stuff that you do and all this that you built, you do it for him." And I said, "Who?" She didn't know me that well and I didn't know her that well but she in two seconds as a woman with her intuition knew that the education company I've built is for my father 'cause my father never had that. And that was, yeah, there's such a deep meaning there and there's such a big why and it's so much fuel. 'Cause in life you got so much shit thrown at you all the time. They just, it's buckets and buckets of shit over and over again. And the people with a strong enough why can bear any how. What do you think about that famous quote? I think it's a Nietzsche quote.
Paul: Yeah. No, I absolutely believe that. I absolutely believe that things that get you through the day. And the thing that gets you through life is why are you doing it? If you don't know why you're doing it, you're like a sailboat without a rudder. I mean, you're just kind of going endlessly through and through life, you know? And I think nowadays, I look at it nowadays with how instant everything is. Postmates, instant coffee instant, instant this, instant that. We're forgetting that the true gift of success is actually the journey that you go on. It's who you have to become, to become successful. That's what the gift is, not the actual achievement. It's who you have to become to achieve that. So like, yeah and to achieve that, you need to know your why and why you do it. I mean, so yeah, I absolutely believe in that quote.
Stefan: Wow. Yeah. Now, I love what you're saying about the process and you know, this show's called Respect the Grind, right? You've got to respect that 10 years, respect the 10,000 hours. You can't cut the line. And we live in Instagram life, it's Instagram, Insta popcorn, Insta sex, Insta phone, Insta everything. Right? And I wrote about my book here Hard Times Create Strong Men. It's my fifth book I wrote. And it's interesting, right now there's like a porn and video game epidemic with young men. And I did the math. It's 10,000 hours to master let's say business or something, right? 10,000 hours. Well, you can master a video game in 500 hours. So where we give up our 10,000 hour endeavor, like maybe becoming an artist or a musician or an athlete or maybe starting a business.
Stefan: Those are all like really worthy things. We go play World of Warcraft for 500 hours and we're at level 100 torrent shifting or something. What do you think about, does that translate into the workforce now with you recruiting young people? I mean, are there people out there who just don't get it and they're playing their world of Warcraft but they're not willing to put in the 10,000 hours?
Paul: That's funny that you're saying that because I've visited Blizzard many times for one of our clients.
Stefan: Dude, I want to work for Blizzard when I was younger, they didn't return my phone call though.
Paul: Oh man. They give away like swords and shields when you hit your five and 10 year anniversary. Quite an organization but to your question about the younger generation, you know we do a lot of work with this particular segment because they're the incoming generation, they have to take over in the workforce. Right. You know what we are figuring out, it's not that they're not intelligent and it's not that they're not motivated or driven. They just want to get from A to B as fast as possible. And you and I both know it's like that's not going to work. You can't master anything. I don't know taking an online course or skipping out of school or whatever it is. You've got to learn the fundamentals and the basics. It's like building a house, right? If you're building a house and you decide that you don't really want to do and you think that the foundation, you just build it on the rock side it came on, it's got to fall down eventually.
Paul: So we forget that I need to build that. But yeah, I mean I think because of how society is propagating this instantness that we're having, we're not putting in the fundamental work to make sure that not only our minds are strong, but our characters are strong, our will is strong, our drive is strong, everything is strong. So it is getting a little bit harder to recruit the younger folks just because they want things more instantaneous than before. And what they do is if they don't get it, they start moving to a different place of work or something else. I mean, I think the statistics were that the new grads, the last two years of college graduates, their average tenure at a company's eight months. So after eight months they're out. If they're truly a millennial, the average tenure at a company is 18 months. So we're seeing them just take off. So even if you get into a company, there's no level of mastery yet in that.
Paul: And even if you're an entrepreneur, because it seems like everyone wants to be an entrepreneur now, but it takes a lot more than 18 months or eight months to really master a craft. You can't do that automatically. And if you do, you're probably going to lose it in the end. If you get lucky, you'll make a lot of money, but you lose it in the end because you don't have the fundamental to see it through different types of market.
Stefan: Yeah. You know, those numbers are scary to me, man. I mean, I'm an employer and what happened to me last year, I came out of the jungle. I was fasting in the jungle for last year's 18 days, I'm going on a 40 day water fast actually. Yeah bro. So I came out of the jungle last year and I wrote this book, Hard Times Create Strong Men because I came out of the jungle and my young 21 year old, 22 year old millennial employees were saying like, "You're mean, I don't like you. You make me feel like a piece of shit." You know, they started complaining. And I was like "What's wrong with these guys? What's going on?" And you know it's interesting 'cause their tenure, those young millennial boy's wasn't very long. Probably right in that timeframe that you mentioned. And what happened was I went home and ... Well first I had to give these guys a talk. I gave two three hour talks one week in my office of how to be a man, which is like the most, that would never happen in the 50s. That would never happen in the 60s right?
Stefan: The sixties you'd like smoking a cigar and a scotch and everyone just knew how to be a man. That was a normal thing. But I give this like six hour how to be a man talk and do your work. Being a man is about your work and that's what you do. We don't have a uterus, we don't have ovaries, we can't bear children. You're a dad by proxy, but you didn't have that thing come out of you, man. I mean you planted some seeds and walked away right?
Paul: I didn't do it. I did the fun work.
Stefan: You did the fun work yeah. It was like two minutes. So like-
Paul: One and a half. You're being too generous to me.
Stefan: One and a half minutes yeah. And I'm going to give that a gong. Bang. So these young boys, they're like, "Oh man, I want to be the leader of the company. I want this big salary. I want to make all this money." And what I found that was really interesting was these boys who were complaining like teenage girls never had fathers. And it was so interesting because you know, look at the stats 50% of the couples are divorced now, the marriages fall apart. And then I don't know what the status for dads sticking around, but dad's typically don't stick around 'cause either they don't want to stick around or the laws are so bad, the guy isn't around. And then you've got this entire generation of young men raised by young women and they don't know how to be a man and show up to work.
Stefan: So I wrote this book Hard Times Create Strong Men and the cycles of history go hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. Weak men create hard times.
Paul: That's absolutely right. Right.
Stefan: And we're in this like weak man time and it's so interesting, my sales manager Ian, he had a very strong relationship with his dad. And his dad has a farm, a goat farm out East and the we're in Canada up here. And he had a great relationship with his dad and because he had a great wish up with his dad, he has a great relationship with work. And it's so interesting cause the guy with the good dad, he's a great worker, he does great work. And then the guys with problems still at my office guess what? Have daddy issues. You ever notice this where there's like daddy issues on some of these men and then they creep in your workforce and now they're bouncing after eight months. You ever notice that?
Paul: Yeah. I think there's a strong linkage between how someone grew up and what their family structure was to whether it work [inaudible 00:26:14]. When people say that there's a work life and then there's a home life there's no difference. You're going to blend your personality with both. So yeah. I see there's a strong linkage. And also there's a strong link to you what you just said about your book where like, you know, when we're looking at World War II where all these young kids were born in a battle, right? They're after depression. There was a lot of adversity. But then you look at our times now we've been going through a lot of prosperity, especially in the last 10 years. I think we're both old enough to understand. In 2007 2008 there was a crash. Nearly all of us were getting our house foreclosed on and everything.
Paul: So you've got these kids that have been going through this prosperity. I mean, you can throw anything at the wall and make money nowadays. And they haven't seen that [inaudible 00:26:54] yet. And then I think it's problematic in our domestic workforce too, because like especially in the technology field, because if you think about it, we've had all this prosperity and it's been a little bit easy, but then you have these emerging countries, these emerging markets like India and China that were oppressed for a long time and they're like, "Screw this shit." You know, like I want to work. Right. They were what we were going through back in World War II and the depression and things like that. So now they're becoming the very, very strong capitalistic societies that were a little bit more weak. So, I don't know it just, you made a really good point about your book because I completely agree with you on that.
Stefan: Yeah. Well, they're hungry. Right. And like immigrants in America are four times more likely to become millionaires than native born Americans.
Paul: Mm-hmm (affirmative). I know that 'cause I'm an immigrant, so I get it.
Stefan: Where were you from, man?
Paul: I'm from the Philippines. Yeah, my dad- from Manila.
Stefan: Okay. Awesome. Yeah, I'm up here in Winnipeg and we got, I think 16% of the population is from the Philippines. I would flip houses and I'd sell them to the new immigrants. So I'd give him the Canadian dream for like a 100 grand or 129 grand. These houses look like little mansions. Right? And I always have these customers from Manila and they'd see it and they go, "Oh man, I got to have that house." And we actually just got a Jollibee bro.
Paul: Oh my God. That's awesome.
Stefan: We got some spaghetti and like a chicken leg or like a mango pie. They're pineapple pie or mango pie at Jollibee?
Paul: It's a mango pie.
Stefan: Oh, a mango pie. I haven't been there, dude, I haven't been to Jollibee yet, but I heard they play the song, the Jollibee song and-
Paul: Yeah, you got to go, man.
Stefan: Man. I'm trying to look after my health here, man.
Paul: You can do it once.
Stefan: Yeah go try it once man. Do they have a hot dog spaghetti at Jollibee too?
Paul: Yeah they do. So the Spaghetti they put a little bit of sugar in there to sweeten it up.
Stefan: Oh, of course. Of course. My dad's from Sweden, so I have an immigrant dad, and I remember going to Sweden when I was 12 and we're sitting down at the table and like Sweden is like, it's one of those countries, I looked it up, I was like, what's a racial slur for a suite? They call the Spanish people spics and they call Italian people waps and I looked up the Swedish one there isn't one because they're tall and they're beautiful and they're smart. So nobody's the Swedish people. But I'm over in Sweden and it's such a developed place. And they had these like Woodfire pizzas back in the day and they had like nice little pastries, they're so civilized.
Stefan: And then we sit down at the kitchen table at my aunts or great aunts, I don't even know who these family members are. We're sitting down at the kitchen table at their house and they're making spaghetti. And I'm like, "Oh damn, I love Spaghetti." You know, my mom makes a great spaghetti back in Canada. We sit down at the table and they give us these like white boiled noodles. So it's like plain ass noodles and then you know what they do. And Paul you're going to be horrified at this man. They put the ground beef like straight up on noodles. So you got just playing ground beef, not taco meat. It's just like plain like gray brown ground beef on these plain white noodles. 'Cause like in Sweden they're not into spices. It's like salt is the white band spice over there. Salt and bill pepper.
Stefan: So they put the ground beef down on the noodles and then I was horrified. They pull on a ketchup bottle and you cover it and ketchup. I know Bro. Ketchup spaghettis, you haven't ground ketchup and it wasn't just white noodles. I went to house to house to house. I was like "How are you guys eating this ketchup spaghetti 'cause you know we got like Oregano, we got basil, we've got garlic, we got all these great things written in the Ketchup Spaghetti." But I digress. I digress Paul. Now, let me ask you this. A lot of young people listening to this show, 12 years old, 15 years old, 18 years old, different ages, younger people. Do you think in 2019, it's going to be 2019 in like a week. Do you think that it's still good to get a degree today? Or do you think that no degree is the way to go and just get some skills and figure it out?
Paul: That's kind of a controversial topic, but I promote education. I think you should at least get your college degree. And the reason why you should do that is, and this is just what I truly believe is that college is an opportunity for you to, it's kind of like a playground, right? You're accomplishing something. A four year degree isn't easy. So it's the first step I'm trying to accomplish something before you do anything else from the studies. I got my degree in Kinesiology, which is exercise physiology. I obviously don't use that, but what I learned from college is I communicated with a lot of people. I had to collaborate with my other students. I had to do projects with the other students. I had to get them to buy into a lot of things. I was part of a fraternity, so I understood that organization.
Paul: So it's much more of an experience than anything else. And that's what I grew out of. But I look back, I mean I even got my MBA, but a lot of the reasons why I did that was because of the networking progress and the ability to build relationships during that. So I was really active in college and that's why I think it meant something to me. The stats don't lie, I don't know the stats exactly off the bat, but college graduates tend to earn twice as much as high school graduates. People with masters have by 40% more earning potential then that someone with just a high school degree. Now we have to understand that, okay, well don't go to college and then start your own business. But the failure rate of business is 99%-
Stefan: I was going to say 99 bro. 90 in the first five, 90 in the second five but 99 yeah, you're going to die man.
Paul: Right. So it's like go ahead and not have any education and then you have nothing to really kind of I don't know fall back on I guess. And not to say that a degree is going to help you out because I'm in recruitment, so you have a degree and you don't have skills, it doesn't really matter. But what I've noticed that every time I do interview someone, someone that has been active in college and has gotten through college, they will most all the time be better communicators and be better at being able to grip through their job. So I mean, that's my opinion for whatever it's worth, I still believe in it. I come from a very highly educated family. My Dad's a physician, so I don't know, look at the statistics. Most of the billionaires have a college degree, so I wouldn't dash it I guess.
Stefan: Yeah. There's a lot of BAs actually in the billionaire club, bachelor of arts, which is interesting. I got a degree in English. So I went to school, I went to music school 'cause I want to be a rock star. So my mom says, "Oh if you want to be a rock star, get a music degree." Right? So I go and I'm studying jazz of all things, which jazz, it's funny it's all over here up in Canada, 2005 so like I don't know what is this. Like 50 years after jazz is relevant. They opened this new music called Jazz [crosstalk 00:33:23] behind. So I went and got a ... I was working in the jazz faculty there and I was a professional musician and then I realized I don't want to be a jazz musician 'cause it's a very hard and horrible life.
Stefan: And then I dropped out of that and I went to the business school and I dropped out of that. Then I went into computer science, I dropped out. I was very good at computer science. I wanted to work for Blizzard bro. That was actually ... And then I ended up dropping out of computer science and I went to the registrar and I said, "Hey, can you recommend a way for me to get out of here without dropping out that won't piss my parents off." And she said, "Yeah, take two poetry class, you're going to have an English degree." So now I have an English degree with a minor in music. And I remember 2008 that was when I graduated, it was May 2008 and I went to go get a job. And the only thing I could get with an English, was a call center job in the middle of the night selling luxury hotel rooms to rich people, and you actually needed a degree.
Stefan: And it was, we were making minimum wage, it was just like hardcore minimum wage. And I remember having like a post grad depression about that cause I was like, "Man, I spent my whole life, I spent 12 years plus kindergarten or whatever, plus four years of university and that degree got me here to a call center job. I could have just painted houses." But here's the bittersweet flip side of it is I'm a resourceful person. So I've written five books now, I'm 32 I've written five books. I'm sure the English degree helped with that a bit.
Paul: Probably.
Stefan: And then Mark Cuban, the billionaire in Texas, he says that today in today's world, an English degree is suddenly one of the most powerful degrees to have because we live in the world of content. People need more and more content. All content comes from writing. And so it's interesting, I used to totally bash on my degree. I used to totally beat on it. I still beat on it, but I kind of have to shut up about it now because I've published five books. By the end of this year I'll be up to eight books. I'm an avid blogger. On the flip side though, I wrote my first book when I was 12 before I went to school. So it's an interesting thing. I think it's a catch 22. I throw out resumes with degrees in my office. When they come in, I got a stack a degrees and it's actually kind of sad.
Stefan: I get guys with PhDs, they go in the garbage. I get guys with MBAs or master's. It's pretty sad man. 'Cause a lot them are applying for entry level sales jobs. Now let me ask you this, Paul. I mean degree in school versus learning to sell. What do you think is more valuable? Someone who knows how to sell and make money on commission or somebody who has some sort of degree. We don't even know what it is. Mystery box. It could just be a mystery degree. What would you say is more valuable?
Paul: Selling. Hands down. If you know how to sell, you'll beat out a degree.
Stefan: So, okay. I love that answer man. I mean that's powerful stuff and I think being good at sales, it's funny like the Mormons in Utah, they all go on missions and they sell bibles door to door. So they have all these fantastic call centers up in Utah for these educated smart, street smart salespeople who speak two languages or more. With learning to sell, what are some of the best places that people can go to learn to sell? 'Cause there really isn't a degree in that there isn't a school. Nobody teaches it. Where do you think people should go and learn to sell?
Paul: You know what? I'm kind of lost for like where people would want to sell. I mean, like when I'm talking to my sales guys I think the most important thing before any sales techniques is again, going back to the ability to build relationships. I don't think anyone likes to be sold to, but I think in order to be an effective salesperson, you have to be in a relationship with somebody and understand what their problems are, what their needs are, right? You can't just push it on them not knowing that there is a need. Right. I think the ability to be able to problem solve is one of the highest, well, one of the most critical abilities that there is. And the only way to do that is to be able to get into relationships.
Paul: So, I mean, as far as sales techniques, I mean I don't know I guess I'm kind of lost as far as I think the best thing that you could possibly do in any kind of sales is really understand what the problem is. Or who you're dealing with and get into a relationship with them and make sure that once you do it, you can understand what their problems are and then you can fix it.
Stefan: Right. Right, yeah. I love what you're saying man. I got a book I wrote here about sales called The Close: 7 Level Selling. On the back I put stop selling, start serving. That's just the main thing you said nobody wants to be sold these days. But it's funny 'cause everybody wants to buy.
Paul: Yeah everybody wants to buy.
Stefan: And they want to buy but they don't want to buy in some salesy way where they feel like you're manipulating them. They want to buy on their own terms. So how do you make it so that they choose you? So they decide and they want you. Coming back to dating. It's interesting like the man might choose the woman he wants to date, but he has to make the woman choose him.
Paul: Yeah, I mean it's the same thing I think we're talking about. If we understand what the wires. So like let's take for instance our clients. If we get into a relationship and understand okay where their inefficiencies are, what's happening, what their troubles are with their current staff, what we can do. Once we understand what's keeping them up at night and what's keeping them desperate and what's keeping them in pain, people want to alleviate pain. So the minute you understand what their pain is and then you bring up a solution, you're not selling, they're going to be buying all day long.
Stefan: Bum. You know, I heard a great quote weeks ago, I was down in San Diego at a conference and one of the speakers said "All human beings, all purchases are either avoiding or alleviating pain or elevating status."
Paul: Yeah, true. I would bet it's more about pain. I think people are motivated by the carrot or the stick, but I think most people are motivated by pain. They don't want it. Why do we follow rules? Well, I don't want to get in trouble, right? Sometimes people don't understand the pain. So you have to be like, "Hey, you know what? As an expert, here's what's going to happen if you don't do that." So you've got to sometimes the pain understanding that you got to do good for them. You can't just create pain and just sell them crap. You've got to make sure that whatever you are doing is going to improve their situation. And I think that's how you have long lifelines. I'm sure you see that all day long in the real estate industry.
Stefan: Yeah. Well one thing I say to my, and my sales guys, I say, "Look, do what's right for the customer.: And that gets in the ethics. I think ethics is the base, then it goes the product, then it goes sales, marketing, brand. And if you do what's right for the customer, whatever that is. If you go to chick fil a and you forget your credit card, the guy comes running out to get your credit card and hands you your food. If you do what's right for the customer, if you take care of the customer, you're always going to have food to eat. Right?
Paul: Absolutely. I think in dealing with business integrity is the most. I mean that's the one thing that you cannot succeed without. You cannot succeed without integrity.
Stefan: Yeah, absolutely. Well, Paul, I've got some questions I'd like to ask everybody. Here's one that I love just floating by you. Now, you see all sorts of people, man, you're in the hardcore people business. You got employees, you're recruiting, you're matching with customers. You're just like, your business is nothing but people. What do you think is the biggest cause of failure in people?
Paul: They lose reasons on why they're doing it. It's always going back to the why, the problems, the challenges, the obstacles, whatever they have become bigger than the reasons why they're doing it. And once you start doing that, and a lot of it is perspective, if you start looking at, okay, I didn't get this promotion, I didn't to get this client, I didn't get this. And they start looking at all those challenges and obstacles and setbacks, that starts to vary your why. And I think that's one of the biggest reasons of failure. If you don't hold onto the reasons why you're doing things, you're going to fail nine times out of 10. So you've got to want to embrace that. But if you can't hold onto the reason why the heck you're doing something like a fitness goal, right?
Paul: Like, okay, I want to lose 20 pounds. I lost 92 pounds. I was really heavy at one time and I wanted to do that because I wanted to be there for my daughter, right? And it got hard. I didn't want to wake up in the middle of the morning. I mean, it's not, the first thing that I want to do is wake up and be like, "Whoa, holy crap, I'm going to run like five miles." It's like I want to go to bed, but why am I doing that? Why am I doing this? And the reason why we fail is because we forget why we're doing things. Why was it important to begin with? So that's what I feel the biggest reason of failure is.
Stefan: So it's really coming back to meaning, you know, when working out to be alive for your daughter or being healthy for your daughter's there, that's way bigger than you want to look sexy at the club and that mesh shirt you bought, right?
Paul: Yeah. I mean that can be motivating to people too-
Stefan: Oh yeah. Right. There's, there's some sex there, right?
Paul: Yeah. There's always a why. If you don't know your why, then you're never going to be able to hold on to anything. You'll feel at everything if you don't know why you're doing it.
Stefan: Right. I love that, man. I think we've had a really deep conversation here about the meaning and the why and it just translates everything. Now, Paul, if you go back in time, to let's say 15 year old Paul. And you would give yourself a piece of advice time machine here, what would you say to a 15 year old Paul?
Paul: Do you. Don't think about anybody else and their opinions. Whatever's you feel is going to make you succeed, you do it. That would be my advice.
Stefan: Yeah. Well everybody else is taken. You might as well do you, right.
Paul: Exactly.
Stefan: Awesome. Top three books that changed your life.
Paul: Principles by Ray Dalio.
Stefan: Damn. I'm giving that a gong. Great book.
Paul: Awesome book. The Bible is one I mean just from a learning aspect and then Failing Forward by John C. Maxwell.
Stefan: Those are three tasty books. Let me ask you this, the Bible and organized religions have lost a lot of ground in the last 70, 80 years in the United States, why do you think the Bible is so important? Personally, I think it's like I was born into a church and then I went to university, became an atheist communist as they manufacturer over there. And then now I'm back hardcore with the book of 5,000 years of human civilization and all the things that worked and didn't. But why do you think the Bible is so important?
Paul: I think because there's a lot of great fundamentals in there. I think success books have, I mean they've originated somewhere, right? Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich is to think is great right? But then if you look back at Proverbs, it says "As a man thinketh so he is. So if it's like if you kind of go back to it, I'm not saying that I'm religious or anything, but I just actually like the content of the book. The story of Job where he was really depressed and he went through this whole entire depression and then what he did to come out of that. I mean those are all very applicable things for me in my life now. I'm not a big organized religion guy, but I mean if the Bible is the most read book in the entire world, there must be something coming out of it. So I wanted to try and get my bits and pieces out of it and I've just noticed after reading it, it's very similar to a lot of the new things that we talk about. So that's why I'm like it.
Stefan: Yeah, well it's so interesting. It's incredible. I did a bit of a study on it and my book Hard Times and what it is is it's the base values of our civilization. Our laws come from those value. Our entire framework comes from there. So whether you're religious or not, it's super important. And you know what else I think is really cool about the Bible. I was lecturing my secretary the other day about how to live her life as old men like me do. And I said, "Look, the Bible, you got to study it because they've already tried everything. They tried it all for 5,000 years. 'Cause there's the Old Testament, there's the New Testament. They tried it. They tried all the bullshit we're doing now. If you look at Sodom and Gomorrah, the Tower of Babel, they already did this shit. They already did it, and they move on exactly how it happened or how things went down and they wrote down all the problems. So you know in advance, if you just read that thing, you can see the future because it's 5,000 years.
Stefan: And I think it's so interesting how every 70 or 80 years, we always think we're smarter than the past. You know, oh, let's try out communism this time, or let's try out something that clearly does. Try socialism out I know. Yeah. Let's try out socialism. And when you read back on that text, whether it's history or not history, it's amazing because all the answers are in there.
Paul: It is.
Stefan: And the Bible means the book. It's the original book so.
Paul: It is, I mean, I think if we don't learn from history, we're destined to repeat it right? That's the quote, right?
Stefan: Right. Yeah it's money. All right, awesome. Well next question here, Paul. Talking about the young people again. This is one of my favorite questions I ask this absolutely everybody. 100% of the people on this show get this question. Come back to the young people, the millennials. What do think is the number one thing that the young people today need to succeed in this world?
Paul: We just talked about him. Grit. I mean you just need to, I mean there's always going to be challenges. You need to be able to have heart and critic and desire and quite frankly you need balls man. This world is tough. So regardless if you want them to be successful, you've got to have balls.
Stefan: Big massive bowling ball balls.
Paul: I mean, yeah, absolutely. If you want to be anything you got to have balls 'cause the opposition to be successful is so, so stiff. I mean you just have to have the biggest pair of balls ever so.
Stefan: I'm giving you a gong for that one, boom. Yeah, some big balls, big ovaries, whatever you're running with there. Awesome. Paul, how can people get in touch with you man, if they want to know more about you?
Paul: Sure. I have a personal website, paulmichaeldavid.com and my Instagram handle is Paul Michael David. Those are the two best ways you can reach out to me. Our company website is identifiedtalent.com.
Stefan: Awesome. Really appreciate having you in the show Paul. Respect the Grind, man. Yeah, we'll have to have you on again. I thought we had a really great chat today and I really appreciate you and your story, man. Bless you.
Paul: Yeah, bless you too, man. Happy holidays brother.
Stefan: You too. Bye, bye.
He's a libertarian, anarcho-capitalist. He hosts the biggest conference, Anarchapulco, for anarcho-capitalism. He's The Dollar Vigilante. Originally from Canada, hailing from Mexico.
Jeff Berwick
Stefan: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show, Respect The Grind, with Stefan Aarnio. This is the show where we interview people who achieve mastery and freedom through discipline. We interview entrepreneurs, athletes, authors, artists, real estate investors, anyone who has achieved mastery and examined what it took to get there. Today on the show, I have a very special guest out of the norm, Jeff Berwick. He's a libertarian, anarcho-capitalist. He hosts the biggest conference, Anarchapulco, for anarcho-capitalism. He's The Dollar Vigilante. Originally from Canada, hailing from Mexico. Jeff, good to have you on the show today. Respect The Grind, my friend.
Jeff: It's a pleasure. Thank you.
Stefan: Yeah. I really appreciate having a guest like you on the show, because we normally talk about like business and making money, and real estate. A lot of people listening to this show, they want financial freedom for themselves, and they're trying to make money. They're trying to invest, whatever that means. It's cool to have a guy like you on the show. We had a mutual friend of ours, John Sneisen, on the show a little while ago, and I love talking to guys like you, because we end up talking about the money system. We talk about freedom in the free world, free speech, all this kind of stuff. For the people at home who don't know you, Jeff, can you introduce yourself in your own words? Who are you, and why is this a relevant conversation for us to be speaking?
Jeff: Sure. Yeah. Actually, it's a totally relevant conversation that's everything that I talk about. I've been doing that for about nine years now, since 2010, with The Dollar Vigilante, which is a anarcho-capitalist financial newsletter talking about how to free yourself. Not just financially, but in every way possible. Of course, for people that don't understand the word, "anarcho" means anarchy, of course, and that's a Greek word which means "an," without, "archy," ruler. I just believe that no one should have a ruler and no one should be a slave. I don't know why that's controversial at all, but that's the government indoctrination camps that people have had for about 12 years that most people have been forced into.
Jeff: Then the capitalist part, a lot of people actually misunderstand that word, too. They think that what you have in the U.S. today is capitalism. There is a small part of capitalism still remaining, and that's why the U.S. is still standing, but it's mostly fascism, and crony capitalism, and what I call crapitalism. Really, when I say "capitalism," I just mean free market. I've been, and completely free market, so no government involvement whatsoever, no taxation, no regulation, no central banks, and no fiat currencies and things like that. I've been doing that for about nine years.
Jeff: I also do a podcast called Anarchast. I've been doing that for about seven years, and it's grown quite a bit. It's nothing too huge, but it's actually spawned an entire conference now called Anarchapulco, as you mentioned. It's now the world's premier liberty and freedom event held in Acapulco, Mexico, every year. It's coming up in February 14th to 17th. We're expecting about 3,000 people, because the freedom, the idea of it is actually growing, believe it or not. I've been doing all that stuff for about, as I said, about eight or nine years now.
Stefan: That's tremendous, Jeff. People like you, I really got to salute a guy like you, because it's not easy. It's not easy going against the grain. It's not easy speaking out about this stuff. It's not a popular table topic at the Thanksgiving table or the Christmas table. I remember when I was telling my family years ago about the money system at like at Christmas dinner or Thanksgiving dinner. Everybody got up and left. The average person doesn't want to hear about how they are enslaved. They don't want to hear about the money system. I remember years ago when I was 21, 22, I read a book called Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, and that's the capitalist bible. The communists have Karl Marx, Das Kapital, and then the capitalists have Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. It's number two most influential book in the United States.
Stefan: Can you explain to the people at home, that's where I've first heard the word "libertarian." What's a libertarian? Because people, we're from Canada, or I'm from Canada, in Winnipeg, today, and people hear "libertarian," and they think libertarian is liberal, because it's L-I-B. They don't know the difference between the two words. What's a libertarian?
Jeff: That's interesting you're up there in Winterpeg. I'm originally from what I call Deadmonton, so up in Canada.
Stefan: Dude, that's the other Winnipeg. I'm giving that a gong. Bang. Just gonged it up. Deadmonton and Winterpeg.
Jeff: Yeah, so the word "libertarian," I actually didn't even really know the word until about 15 years ago. It's become quite popular. It's become fairly popular since Ron Paul ran for president in 2008. Really, what the word means is, well, it's pretty simple word, "libertarianism." What it means is that if you're a libertarian, then you hold as one of your highest principles liberty or freedom. If you truly hold that as one of your highest principles, then you should actually be a anarchist, because an anarchist believes in complete freedom. It believes in the freedom of the individual that no one has the right to enslave and say they own another person. Of course, whenever you have a government, you're just born somewhere, and they go, "Well, you're ours now," especially in the U.S., where every baby born today in the U.S. has a quarter of a million U.S. dollars worth of debt and liabilities overhanging it from the government that it's supposed to pay off.
Stefan: My God.
Jeff: That's absolutely criminal and absolute tyranny and slavery. That's what we have in every country today, as well as Canada and every other country. A true libertarian truly believes that no one should be ruled or owned by anyone without their permission. Of course, there's a lot of people who don't mind being owned or being slaves. They're called statists, and if they want to do that, that's fine. I have no problem. As a libertarian or as an anarchist, do whatever you want. Just don't aggress against me. The only problem is, when they get these governments going, they always seem to include us and seem to think that, "Well, you are now owned by whichever government in whatever area you're in." I just completely disagree with that.
Stefan: Yeah. I saw Jordan Peterson. You're probably familiar with Jordan Peterson, right?
Jeff: Yeah.
Stefan: I saw Jordan Peterson speak in the summer. He was speaking here in Winnipeg, Winterpeg, at the Burton Cummings Theatre, and he said something interesting that I thought something that I think people need to hear more often. He said, "The human race for most of history has lived under tyranny. We used to have monarchies. We used to have feudalism. For most, most of the human race, we've had tyranny, and for very brief times, we've had democracies or republics, but democracy lasts for about 250 years. Then it turns into a tyranny, usually, and then after that, turns back into a monarchy." Why do you think monarchies and tyrannies have existed throughout history, and why does it always seem to consolidate power like that? Why can't we just stay as a democracy or republic all the time?
Jeff: Well, first of all, I'm not so sure about human history. I think most things we're told about history are lies, and so really, anything beyond a couple of hundred years ago, I really have doubts about what really happened. I really don't know what happened, but I don't trust anything that we're told by the media, or the governments, or the schools, which are all sort of the same sort of people running those sort of things, but what I understand happened is, a few hundred years ago, there was things like kings and queens, and they were doing that quite a bit. They were going around doing similar things that governments do today and say, "Hey, you were born here, so now you have to pay us a certain percentage of whatever you make," and that sort of a thing.
Jeff: Really, a few hundred years ago, and it sort of seems to have happened in France, which is kind of interesting, because there's a bit of an uprising happening there again right now, is a lot of people said, "This is crazy. Just because you're born, this whole idea of kings and queens is so insane." I love the Monty Python, I think it was in the Holy Grail one, where the king's walking around, and he's like, "I'm your king." They're like, "You're who?" He's like, "I was born of this mother," and everyone's like, "What?" He's like, "I found a sword in the lake, and therefore I'm your king." They're like, "You're crazy," but for whatever reason, people kind of fell in line with that.
Jeff: Of course, a lot of these monarchies were really tyrannical, and they would really, if you didn't pay them, they would kill you, that sort of a thing. That's very similar to governments. A few hundred years ago, people kind of woke up from it, and they said, "Well, this is stupid." The people who were in control at the time really realized they're going to lose a lot of power, and so they came up with an absolutely ingenious idea. That ingenious idea was democracy, which is a totally heinous, evil system of mob rule. If you have 51% of people decide that legally they can kill the other 49%, then everything's fine.
Jeff: It's absolutely insane and just keeps people battling each other, but it's absolutely ingenious, because they've managed, through the government indoctrination camps, and through the media, the mainstream media, television, propaganda programming, to tell people that, "Oh, when you have a democracy, then you are the one who rules yourself, and you get to rule yourself by voting once every four or five years. You get to tick a box," and then some guy goes somewhere, and he makes decisions about what you're going to have to give up and how much they're going to extort you and things like that, but it's absolutely an ingenious idea. It's worked now for a few hundred years, and people have really fallen for it, but they're starting to wake up to it. That's what we're starting to see across the world, really.
Jeff: We're starting to see that in France right now. Again, they're starting to realize, "This is absolutely insane that we have people ruling us without our permission, and taking our money, and things like that." Even Donald Trump, in the U.S., was to an extent an awakening of people going, "This system is horrible. We've got this total political class that is totally ruling us and just totally enslaving us."
Jeff: What they thought was, "Well, we have democracy, thank God. We have democracy, so we can elect someone else," so they elected a kind of a bit of an outsider, Donald Trump, who's best friends with the Clintons and has been involved with central banks and with the Bush family for decades. His family's been very involved with the Bush family, so he's been very involved in the political class, but he came in as sort of an outsider, and you kind of see a lot of people saying, "Oh, he's an outsider, so he can fix things." He's not an outsider whatsoever. It's another sort of ruse in the whole democracy game, but really, that's what we've got today.
Jeff: Now, what we've got at The Dollar Vigilante, I cover how bankrupt all these nation states are, how the central banks are printing money until we're going to be, hit hyperinflation very soon, so we're very near the end of this sort of system of these big nation states, of these big welfare states, warfare states, Big Brother nanny states, where everything is controlled, and regulated, and extorted, and taxed, and that sort of a thing. It's all going bankrupt right now, so even if people didn't wake up to what I'm talking about, we're still going to go through a massive amount of change in the next few years as all these systems all go down because they're all bankrupt.
Stefan: Yeah. Well, there's a ... Man, Jeff, you said a mouthful there, man. I don't even know where to start, but I'm going to try to weigh in on what you said there at the end. Now, I wrote a book here called Hard Times Create Strong Men. I'm holding it up here for the camera for the people at home, and the cycles of history, as I understand it, goes like this. Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. Weak men create hard times. That whole cycle takes about 80 years, and every 80 years, there's a major war, a major crisis, a major reset. 80 years ago was World War II. 80 years before that was American Civil War, and you can trace this back in history. 80 to 100 years, every 80 to 100 years, is a major reset. Now, if you trace that out to the future right now from World War II to now, 2020 is the next "hard times create strong men."
Stefan: That's what the book's about is, the men are becoming weak. When men become weak, the backbone of society falls apart. The family falls apart. The churches and the freedom of that falls apart, and what we end up with is some sort of major crisis. Would you say something like that's coming up?
Jeff: Oh, absolutely, and I think those cycles are very true. If you just look at anyone who's like a rich kid, so his father most likely worked really hard his entire life and amassed a fairly large fortune, and then the kid comes along, and he's just pampered, and he never does anything. He never learns how to do anything. He never has to learn anything about life, and they usually become idiots, and they actually end up usually wasting or losing most of their money. This is a very natural sort of a cycle that can happen if you're not smart, if, as a father, if you make a lot of money, you don't just give it to your kids. That's absolutely ridiculous. Talk about a really great way to destroy your children, but the big problem with that cycle that you just mentioned that's been going on now for centuries is the government.
Jeff: When you get the government involved, it's not just people who are destroying themselves through the cycle of people having to have hard times to get better and actually learn skills and work hard, and then they get soft afterwards, and then their kids get really soft and that sort of thing. That happens all normally, but when you add the government into it, it gets way worse, because then what, that's exactly what we're seeing today in a place like the U.S., which used to be quite capitalist. It has been fully capitalist, really, since its inception. It hasn't been, definitely has not been capitalist since 1913 when they first put in the Federal Reserve and the income tax acts in the same year, which is no coincidence whatsoever. It's been kind of a mix of the socialism, and communism, and fascism since then.
Jeff: About what you've seen because of the capitalism, because of the free markets, there was quite a bit of free markets in the U.S. There isn't any more, but there used to be quite a bit. You build up all this wealth, and when you have a government, it always seems to skew to these people going, "Well, now that we have quite a wealthy place, we should be quite giving." Yeah, that's great. Give, but what they're talking about is, the government should steal money from everyone, extort everybody, and then give some of it to some people, which is absolutely heinous, and evil, and destroys everything.
Jeff: Even the welfare system destroys the people on welfare, but as I was mentioning, like that whole cycle would happen probably quite normally unless people start to wake up and realize what they're doing, but the fact that we have governments today makes it so much worse, because that's what we're seeing in the U.S. You even see communism is really catching on in the U.S., because you've got all these pampered little kids. They sit there on their MacBook Pro at Starbucks ranting about how evil capitalism is and saying they want communism, and they don't even look up the last 100 years of what communism has brought a lot of places, like the Soviet Union, or Cuba, or Venezuela, and places like that.
Jeff: They just, because they're so soft, and they've never really done anything, that's why they call them little snowflakes and things like that, and they become social justice warriors. Really, they're just non-player characters, NPCs, but yeah, the big problem with that whole cycle is government. If we can get government out of the way, then you'd have families destroying themselves over time over and over and not realizing the problems that they keep creating for themselves, but they wouldn't force it all on the rest of us through government.
Stefan: Yeah. Wow. I mean, this is some really good stuff, and the snowflake thing, the snowflakism's a reason why I wrote Hard Times, because I had some of these snowflakes in my company. I have a company. I got 13 employees, and these little snowflakes were crying, "Oh, you're mean, and I don't love this. This isn't my dream job, and you make me feel like a piece of shit," and I had people showing up late. Just snowflakism all day, and I said, "Where does this come from? Where does the snowflakism come from?" I started writing this book Hard Times, and it's interesting, because what you said is absolutely true.
Stefan: We've had some communist subversion come in from the Cold War into our schools, into our churches, into our militaries, everything, and we got this virus in our brain that thinks that communism is going to save inequality, but in history, communism has never worked. It has never worked once. It ends in massive, massive killing and massive death. There's something like 100 million people slaughtered in the last 100 years with communism. It's something brutal. It's the biggest cause of unnatural death, and every 80 years, we think it's going to work somehow. Somebody somewhere's trying communism.
Stefan: As an extension, I've been studying communism, I was watching a show with Stefan Molyneux on Freedomain Radio, and he was talking about how feminism actually spawned out of communism when they started talking about equality, and men and women are equal, and next thing you know, in communist Russia, in 1917, when they switched over to communism, you had all sorts of major problems, where there was one crazy stat was, more babies were aborted than were born. You think about that, it's just a big, crazy, evil system. Why do we get this idea that we think that communism's going to save us from our own poverty? Like why does that idea keep coming in every 80 years into different societies around the world?
Jeff: Yeah. That's a good question. I wish I knew the real answer, because it makes no sense. Obviously, these people don't look at actual history. As you pointed out, there's never been one ... It's not like there's been one that really worked out well, and they're like, "Oh, we screwed it up a few times." It's like every single one turns into disaster. It actually makes total sense why, because of human nature. For someone like yourself who's read books by Ayn Rand, you kind of understand the individualist sort of a thing, and that people will always do what's in their best interest. That just makes total and normal sense as human being. When you have this system that comes in and you say, "Okay, the guy at the top decides everything that we're all going to do," you don't keep anything from your work, so that makes it so a lot of people don't really want to work anymore, because why would you work if all the incentives go away to ...
Jeff: I don't know about you, but when I do work, it's because I know I'm going to get something from it. I'm not just doing it because for no reason whatsoever. A lot of these people, especially ... Well, what's really happened in the West is that they've really pumped it up in the government indoctrination camps. That's why I say to people, "Get your kids out of the government schools. There's nothing that can be worse than that than having government actually teaching you ... " Not teaching, actually indoctrinating your child for like 12 of its most important years of its building of its sense of self, of its intelligence, of everything. Even Vladimir Lenin, of all people, said, "Give me your child for four years and the seed I plant will never be uprooted."
Jeff: It starts a lot there, and then you go home in places like the U.S., or Canada, or a lot of places, and you turn on the television programming, and it's called programming for a reason. You get pro-cops, and pro-presidents, and, "The government saved us today," and turn on the news, which is total fake news. It's just government propaganda, and they're like, "Well, we saved this today," and all that sort of stuff. With the cycles that you're talking about, and we're in the snowflake cycle now of sort of this millennials that have never seen anything hard their whole life. To them, the hard thing they've seen is like when there's a long line at Starbucks or something like that.
Stefan: No Wi-Fi on the plane. There's no Wi-Fi on the plane today. Darn.
Jeff: Yeah, like that's the hardest times they've seen. Because they've gone through this indoctrination and that they're really, I actually stay away from colleges and universities, because it freaks me out to hang around, like they're all zombies, and they're the stupidest people I've ever met in my life. They're all indoctrinated and programmed. You go there, and half the classes are talking about communism and socialism, so they've got them in this sort of thing, and they're all going out there now. We've seen that ... What's that, there's that U.S. politician, some young girl, is just complete and total moron who's just got selected or elected into Congress. It's called Congress because it's a con game, and it's called the Constitution because that's also a con, and all that sort of stuff.
Jeff: You've got those people out there pushing this stuff, and these kids just go out, and they think, they don't know anything better. It's very unfortunate, but that's why it's really important that we continue to push out what we push out, which is more free market stuff. A lot of people do catch on to it. It's not as bad as it seems. The worst place that it really is in the world today is the U.S. They've got everyone ... Not everyone, but most people, they're so indoctrinated, and so brainwashed, and so propagandized, but you go to a lot of other places like Mexico here, and a lot of people are pretty free market. They don't like government and things like that. That's why they make Mexico look so bad on the news. That's on purpose, because it's a lot more free market down here.
Stefan: It's amazing. I mean, you moved to Mexico. I have this prediction that Russia right now is a freedom-growing country. They're getting more freedom over there. It's like the 1950s U.S. over there, and then over here, it's like we're a freedom-losing country in Canada and the U.S. It's interesting with, you're talking about the universities being scary. When I get a stack of résumés, and I'm hiring, I throw the ones with degrees in the trash. Yeah, they don't-
Jeff: Yeah, me too.
Stefan: The people can't think for themselves. I remember I went out with this 18-year-old girl, and she wanted a job, so we went out for lunch, and I said, "Okay, look. What do you want to do?" She goes, "I want to start a social media company." I'm like, "Great. Start it." We're eating lunch. I said, "Great. Start it." She says, "Well, I'm in the business school, and I'm going to get my MBA, and I don't think I can start, because I don't know how," and I said, "Well, go google that. Just start." "Oh, I don't think I know how. I'm not qualified." The school system literally disabled her mind from figuring out how she could just start a social media company.
Stefan: I mean, I got some guys running my social media. They're 18, 19 years old, and I just met them at a restaurant. Boom, they're banging out my social media like crazy, doing a great job, but this same girl in the government indoctrination camp, as you say, the universities and the schools, can't think for herself. I also think it's interesting in the colleges and universities right now, the number one read book on economics is Karl Marx. That's just like, that just doesn't make sense. Why don't you tell me a bit, Jeff, why does Karl Marx as the number one economics book not make sense?
Jeff: Oh, my God. First of all, he knows nothing about economics. He was a homeless guy who had no money, and he wrote a ... If I was around when he wrote the book, I would have given it a few minutes, or even maybe a few days, maybe even a month or two, of thought, because it sounds really good. Right? Like what is the communist sort of slogan? It is, "Give to-"
Stefan: Seize the means of production?
Jeff: No, but they have this slogan like, "Someone's needs ... "
Stefan: Oh, "To every man's need," or, "To the best of his ability and every man's need," or something like that.
Jeff: Something, but basically what it's saying is ... See, that's how stupid it is. I don't even memorize the stupid quote, but basically, it sounds nice. It sounds like, "Yeah, if people can't do things, then you help them." It's like, "Yeah, sounds great," but the way they're talking about is, you have this giant government. They come around. They steal things from people, and they decide who gets your money, essentially, and things like that. Yeah, and it's shocking that ... It's really mostly caught on in the U.S. Like obviously, if you go to the ... You brought up Russia. If you go to Russia, no one wants to read Karl Marx. They'd probably burn that book if they saw it, just because they'd be so angry at it.
Jeff: Anyone who's actually lived through communism, a lot of the old Soviet Union, the Eastern Bloc, Poland, and a lot of those places, even Germany to an extent, they still remember a lot of that. That's all you need to know about communism is live through it, and you realize it. That's one thing that I always thought that's funny is, you have all these people like Bernie Sanders and all these people, and they're so pro-communism and socialism and all these sort of things. It's like, have you ever even just gone to Venezuela even for a weekend? Because I was there like a year and a half ago, and it was pretty bad.
Jeff: I remember being there about 15 years ago, and it was really nice. In fact, you can look up Venezuela back in the '60s and '70s. It looked just as nice as what you see in the videos of the U.S. People got around in nice cars, looking all nice. Everyone's looking good and happy, and they have lots of food and all that sort of stuff, and now it's just a complete and total disaster, so ... Yeah, you have some people still ... It's mostly in the U.S., though, I have to say [inaudible 00:23:04].
Jeff: I meet a lot of people from the U.S., and they say, "Man, this whole world's going to hell." It's like, actually, it's not too bad. Most of the world is pretty good. It's really the U.S. is like, and Canada is almost just as bad now, and when you go to the universities, as you pointed out, and I do the same thing, I have only hired one university graduate ever, and it turned into the biggest disaster I've ever had. He was actually a producer at CNBC, I hired him in 1999 to head up a video department of a internet company I had, and he was a total disaster. He was an MBA, and I had all the, all that stuff, and I ended up having to pay him out like two years' salary to get him to leave, that sort of-
Stefan: Oh, my God.
Jeff: But yeah, so I just stay away from the universities. As you pointed out, if I ... I've got a number of businesses myself, so if someone's interested in working with us, I'll ask them what they do, and if they go, "Well, I just spent the last eight years in university," I'm like, "Well, you don't make very good decisions, do you? You [inaudible 00:24:00]-"
Stefan: Bro, I'm going to give you a gong for that. Boom. I want you to instant replay that for the kids at home. "If you're hanging out in university the last eight years, you don't make very good decisions, do you?" Tell me why that's a bad decision in 2019.
Jeff: Well, I'm sure there's probably a couple courses you could take in college that make some sense somehow. I've never seen them, though, but I ... There must be a couple, but the reason that it makes no sense in 2018, 2019, is because we have the internet now, and all information is on the internet. You don't have to pay $100,000 a year to go sit in a room with probably a unionized teacher who's never done anything his whole life, that's why he's a teacher, he doesn't know anything, and sit there with a bunch of other idiots like you, because you don't know anything, they don't know anything, and learn about socialism-type stuff pumped into you. It's a complete and total waste of time. Really, the best-
Stefan: You mean it's a virgin sex therapy class, so the guy teaching, it's a virgin, but he's teaching sex therapy to everybody?
Jeff: Yeah, that's one good way to put it, but yeah. It's just a waste of time. I think trade schools or something, where if you're going to become a mechanic, so you have to work on cars, so you can't really do that over the internet, I think that makes some sense, but 90-percent-plus of what you go to college for is just a complete and total waste of time that you could just totally learn much better stuff on the internet. It actually just came out, I don't know if you heard this, but Google and Facebook just said that they've removed university education as one of the requirements to work there. I think they're really slow and late to do that, but I think they're starting to realize, it's like, "Man, the people we're getting from the schools are just brainwashed idiots, whereas the young guy who's sitting at home just hacking away, and going on the internet all day, and figuring everything out, those are the kind of guys you want."
Stefan: Yeah. I got a policy in my office, and when people come to me and ask for stuff, I say, "Google it, or handle it." Those are the two things, handle it, google it. Google and ... I think it was Google, Apple, Facebook, they don't need degrees anymore. I think that's been going on for some time, but it's an official statement now. Right? That's like super, super official. Jeff, let's go back to collapse of society and things like that. One thing that's common in history, and I've studied it over and over again when these collapses happen, it's usually, the people can't buy bread. The nonsense can keep going on. The ...
Stefan: I've got the numbers in my book here, Hard Times, about minimum wage, and minimum wage in 1968, indexed to gold, is 103,000 dollars U.S., so you work at McDonald's, you made one cheeseburger, one hamburger, French fries, Coke, and a milkshake, you made 103 grand in purchasing power back then, indexed to gold. Same guy today making a cheeseburger, hamburger, French fries, well, he has to make 150 items down at McDonald's. They got a crazy menu.
Stefan: Same guy at McDonald's makes 13,000 a year, so he's lost 90% of his purchasing power indexed to gold, and this shenanigan with the money system where the banks and the government rob people through inflation every year, and then suddenly, at some point, it keeps going, going, going, going until the average man can't buy bread. That's when the Russian Revolution happens. That's when the French Revolution happens. Why does that pattern keep happening over and over again?
Jeff: Well, first, let me just mention that the reason that these jobs have gone so far down in value is because of the central bank. It's because of money printing and inflation, and that's why you pointed out those numbers in inflation terms. You have a lot of people out there today who are like, "We need to raise the minimum wage," which is, what you're saying is, "We need these people who extort us, called the government, to go out with guns and force businesses to pay us more because we can't afford to live." Well, the reason you can't afford to live is because you've had most of your stuff stolen from you by the central bank, and the central bank, by the way, is a tenet of communism, and that's why I say the U.S. is nothing even close to capitalism today.
Jeff: Actual communism has already destroyed most of these people. You ask about revolutions, and yeah, it seems that people, this is one thing you can say about anarchy, a lot of people think about anarchy, "Well, if there was not government, it'd just be chaos, and horrible, and everyone would just kill each other." It's actually not true. Your average person, and this relates to your question, your average person just really doesn't want to do too much. They want to have a nice little life. They want to have a family or whatever, or they don't, but they want something nice, and that's about it. They don't want to go out and rock the boat too much. Your average person just does not want to rock the boat, and that's what ...
Jeff: That's one of the problems we have today is, we have the statist system, and most people are just too scared to change it, but it appears, at some point, when you finally run out of even just food, and you can't even eat anymore, that's when finally people start to wake up, and stand up, and demand some sort of change. When I say demand, the problem is, they're demanding from the government change. What they should really realize is, the government caused it, the central bank caused it, and just break away from this system and stand up and become their own person and not be a slave to the systems, but yeah, it's unfortunate that your average person, for whatever reason, will wait until they're basically starving before they actually face the real problems in the world.
Stefan: It's interesting in history, I think Putin kicked out the central banks. Is that right?
Jeff: I'm not sure if Putin did, but the ruble basically collapsed. I don't think they had a central bank, definitely, at the start there.
Stefan: Well, I've heard Putin's kicked out the central banks. I think it's interesting is, Hitler did that back in the day. I guess Germany was so poor, and they were so messed up, and they couldn't make their war reparation payments. They just couldn't pay, and that's how World War II started is, a bunch of people, super poor, couldn't pay their payments, boom, world war starts. It's interesting, because somehow, in the system, the political system, they go right versus left, and the right versus the left, and the left versus the right. Really, it's the same kind of thing. Nobody points the finger at the central banks.
Stefan: One thing I love about America that still stands is, there's 300 million guns in the States and 300 million people, and they keep that gun amendment in there because they know that tyranny's going to come at some point. They left that in there, and if people can't buy bread, or they're really hungry, that's where those 300 million people with guns are going to rise up. Do you think we're going to see something like that in our lifetimes?
Jeff: Yeah, definitely, because the U.S. is going to collapse in the next few years. It's not going to be decades, because it's so bankrupt. We have 22 trillion dollars' worth of debt now, so we're basically ... I said when I started The Dollar Vigilante that the U.S. dollar will collapse by the end of this decade, so we've got about a year left. I think we're pretty close to on track. That's how close we are to the end of this system. Yeah, we're definitely going to see collapses anyway. As far as people in the U.S. having guns, I think all people should have the right to defend themselves, obviously. I don't think anyone should be able to say, "You can't have this," if you're not hurting anyone else, and that's what government does, of course. It's very good. That's the only thing left in the U.S. that is keeping it from being complete and total carnage is that the people still can protect themselves, so the government has to be very careful about how they enslave everyone, but they've done an incredibly good job of enslaving people.
Jeff: When you think about how the U.S. started, it started over the Tea Party, where it was a tax from England on tea, and that was it. It wasn't a tax on everything else, income tax, and capital gains tax, and smoking tax, and hotel tax, and food tax, and all this sort of stuff. It was just a little tax on tea, and that started the so-called American Revolution. Now you have people in the U.S. today where you have taxes that are over 50%. It's probably closer to 60 or 70% when you add up all the taxes, because literally every single thing in the U.S. is taxed today, including death. Death has a tax, and so when you die you get taxed. You still don't have people wanting to revolt. It's because, again, people are fairly, if they have a decent life, they don't tend to want to change things too much. You look at the U.S. and your average person, even poor people have a television. They probably even have a car. Even poor people have cars in the U.S.
Jeff: That's how much free markets, even the poorest people are still ahead of a lot of other people in the world, and so because of that, they don't really want to have a revolt or anything like that. Plus, they don't even ... Because of all the years of government indoctrination and all the war propaganda about how they're trying to save the world by spreading freedom by bombing the entire world in the War on Terror, war of terror. It's absolutely insane, but your average person just doesn't seem to want to even break out of this system.
Jeff: What's going to probably happen is, that system's going to collapse on its own because of all the debt and go into hyperinflation. Then hopefully, and you brought up about how Russia's become much more free market now. That's what happens. The same cycles that you mentioned before when you have countries, they usually start off quite small and poor. Even the U.S. was like that when it first started. Because it had a lot of freedom, it becomes quite rich. Then they get soft because of that and because of government and statism, they start doing socialism and all these sort of things which start to destroy everything. They start putting kids into the government schools and all that, and they get worse and worse until they eventually totally collapse, like the Soviet Union. Once it has a total collapse, then you can actually have free markets again. The U.S. actually, once this collapse happens, and after a few weeks or months, and that's sort of what happened in the Soviet Union as well, it takes a little bit of time, like weeks or months, definitely not years, then you can start to rebuild immediately again with free markets.
Jeff: We've seen how the free markets, if you just allow people to be free, you just have to look at places like Hong Kong. That was a fishing village like 200 years ago. Look at it now. I don't know if you've ever been there. It's amazing to even go there. Singapore, even 100 years ago, was a fishing village. It's now one of the most luxurious, wealthy places in the world. Dubai was just desert. They just started doing like low-tax, no-tax sort of stuff, and all of a sudden, there you got like indoor ski parks in the hot, 150-degree desert. Once you have like all this tyranny, it will eventually collapse. Then once it collapses, you have freedom again, and then things take off again.
Jeff: Really, that's the whole point of what I do at The Dollar Vigilante is, that's our actual tagline, which is, "Helping you to survive and prosper during and after the dollar collapse," because if you can hold on to some of your assets, and if you can get through this collapse that's coming, we're going to go on to amazing, prosperous times again, but if you have no assets, you'll have to work a lot harder to get back up, but if you have kept some of your assets and things like precious metals or cryptocurrencies, once everyone else gets wiped out, and all the banks close, and the currency becomes worthless, you'll be one of the richest guys around, and then you can start rebuilding the new free market.
Stefan: Yeah. There's two cycles that are coming to an end. I wrote about this in my book, Hard Times. One is the 2020, which is that 80-year cycle of war. That's an important one to watch. Hard Times Create Strong Men. Then the other one is the 250-year cycle of democracy. Democracies only last about 250 years, so if the U.S. was born in 1776, it's going to be dead by 2026, so somewhere between 2020 and 2026, we know there's probably going to be an end of democracy, probably usually goes democracy into tyranny, and then tyranny back into monarchy usually is what happens. We'll see something happen. Do you think it's going to go back to tyranny and monarchy, or do you think it's going to go just to open freedom?
Jeff: Yeah. A really good question. I don't know how it's going to play out. I could definitely see the tyranny part coming after this. What will likely happen, and probably be Trump will be in, his regime will be in as this collapse happens. As everyone's gets wiped out, as the banks close, as it's complete, way worse than 1929, Great Depression, someone like Trump will become sort of like Hitler-like in that sense, in that he will be the strongman who will lead the country out of this. Because of that, we're going to need more laws, and of course, Trump has been pro-asset, civil forfeitures, having the police just take whatever they want. He even came out recently and said that he's okay if the cops go and just take everyone's guns and then figure out if they did the right thing afterwards and go to court in that afterwards, so no due process and things like that. Yeah, I could totally see that we have this collapse in the next couple years.
Jeff: It leads into a very sort of like Nazi Germany like sort of like tyranny type thing, and perhaps war, because the U.S. does have a massive amount of military just sitting there, and of course, if you're desperate, and if you're broke, and if your people are all crying out for something to be done, and of course, what do they always say on the news, the television programming? "Well, it's always Russia. Russia's always messing with us." Russia's not doing anything to the U.S. whatsoever, but they've been putting this into place, and they also mention China a lot. Yeah, they'll probably go into some sort of major war at some point. The key for people like us will be to stay outside of it and let them all go through this, again, if they want to go through this again, which is unbelievable.
Jeff: There's lots of stories of people surviving through all of these, World War II, World War I, the Great Depression, and coming out way ahead afterwards, and even surviving quite well through it. A lot of them would go to places like Argentina or whatever for a few years, wait till all the craziness dies down with their assets and things like that. That's really the key, and to me, it's, we can't change everyone else. I wish we could, but we can't.
Jeff: Actually, I don't wish I could. That'd be a huge responsibility, to change everyone else, but I wish that they would be a bit more able to see what's going on, but if they can't, really all that's left for us to do is to take care of ourselves and to keep spreading this information the ways that we can do it, but if they're going to go ahead and destroy the whole world with their statism, and their craziness, and their communism, and socialism, and fascism again, then it's really just up to us to survive and prosper through it and then try to be there to help rebuild once they get through doing it all again.
Stefan: There's two interesting things that come to mind when you say that. There's the Hitler-Trump connection, which I think is super interesting. There's two things I want to allude to. There's the Hitler-Trump connection, and then there's another one, an Abraham Lincoln and Trump connection. When you look back in history, so if we go back 80 years to World War II, Germany was one of the most advanced civilizations on the planet, probably actually was the most advanced in science and medicine. They were so broke, they were so poor, they were so hungry, they were so messed up that the Nazis became popular, because Hitler was offering them a better life. He said, "Look, here's a better life. We can have a better way." People got behind that, the most sophisticated, probably, society on the planet went into absolute terror at that time.
Stefan: I think there's a similar thing going on in the U.S. You've got a huge amount of people on food stamps. People are poor. People are pissed off, so they elect a strong leader. It's not ... It's interesting, like if it wasn't Hitler back in World War II, it probably would have been somebody else leading them, because the people were so poor and so messed up ... I like what Jordan Peterson said in the summary. He said, "You don't have an idea. An idea has you." That idea had Nazi Germany. I think there's a similar idea in the Brexit right now. There's a similar idea in the United States, and then that's the 80-year cycle.
Stefan: If you go back 80 years before, you got the Civil War, the American Civil War, and Abraham Lincoln got shot. It's interesting, because Lincoln was a guy that wasn't totally popular with half the country. He got assassinated, and those things are all kind of floating around. You got a Trump, Trump-Hitler-like ruler there. I mean, I actually like Trump, personally, but at the end of the day, there's a sentiment in the country and a feeling around that that's Hitler-like, and then there's also an Abraham Lincoln kind of feeling where do you think he could get assassinated?
Jeff: Look, I think it's possible. I think most of those sort of things, they're all actually orchestrated. JFK, for example, I believe that was Lyndon B. Johnson and the CIA who took him out. Ronald Reagan, that was the first Bush, the one who just died, George W. Bush, or sorry, George Bush, who was behind the assassination attempt, so-called assassination attempt, on Ronald Reagan. It's usually like an inside sort of a thing. It's really controlled. It's really theater. They actually keep all these things, including Putin, including little Kim in North Korea. They're all controlled by the same people, and it's just this big theater to keep people just mesmerized and watching their CNN and, "Oh, what did Trump say today," and all that. It's just no different than people in North Korea like, "What did little Kim say today? What are we supposed to do today?"
Jeff: That sort of a thing, but anything is possible, but it is pretty tough to assassinate the president, as an outsider, but as an insider, it's not that hard, but they also seem to have some sort of weird like almost like protection around them. Like even George W. Bush, when he was in Iraq and the guy stood up at the media thing, and he was very mad, because Bush had been destroying his country and killing his family and all that sort of stuff, and he threw one shoe, and Bush just did the little dodge and just missed him, and then threw another shoe, and he just ... It's like, I don't know what it is with these people. They're kind of like, I don't know what it is, but it seems like he can't really get to them that way, not physically violent sort of thing. I think the only way we get rid of all of this is for people to wake up and realize that these people don't own you, and start to move away from these systems, and these people just go away and have to get real jobs.
Stefan: I think one of the problems with human nature and people, I mean, you were talking about human nature and communism, where human nature doesn't work inside of communism, and then there's also another side of human nature, which is, I think humans have a hero worship, innate hero worship ability where we see someone, we see a leader, and we just want to worship them, and we want them to handle our problems. We want to have a personal Jesus. We want to have somebody we can just give it all to. Somehow, that's going to be the easy button. It'll all be solved, and then we don't have to think or deal with anything. Would you say that's true?
Jeff: Oh, absolutely. That's exactly what government, it really is. That's what government always does. You look at every election. They come up there, and they give all these promises. "I'm going to solve this for you. I'm going to solve that." They never solve anything. They're just extorting you and destroying everything in the process, and making everything worse in the process, but yeah. That's absolutely the case is, your average person just won't take responsibility for themselves and just say, "I don't need this person to run this entire country for me. I can run myself," and that sort of a thing. Of course, it gets a little interesting how that would all, we've been in statism now for hundreds of years, so to actually break away from it's going to be difficult.
Jeff: That's actually why we're starting up numerous sort of countries across the world now, so we've started Liberland in Europe, which is near Croatia and Serbia, which is a new sort of anarcho-capitalist country that's just being started, and there's some few others working on buying some islands, and we're going to start some totally anarcho-capitalist free sort of places there. We're also seasteading, so we're trying to start up in the ocean, start up our own little, what you call countries. None of them are really like countries, because there's no real government, but it's a place that we're going to start up that it's going to be completely free. Then through that, hopefully we could show the world, because they've never really seen it, what life would be like in a true free market.
Jeff: If, all evidence seems to point to when you have a totally free market that it's incredibly good for most people. It just increases the wealth dramatically, as we've seen, as I pointed out, in places like Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai. Whenever you have a lot of freedom, everything gets a lot more prosperous. The only sort of question a lot of people have is, "What if you have total freedom? What would happen?" We don't really have any good examples for that yet, so we're hoping to start do that in the next couple of years and try to show the world the light that, really, this governmental sort of statism system with central banks, and all these sort of things, are just absolutely terrible. The best thing for all humanity is to get rid of those sort of things and not have a belief in their authority.
Stefan: Sounds like a page out of Atlas Shrugged right now. You got all the productive smart people wanting to go start their own country or start their own island. This is, it's just human nature. It's all written down in the book. It's all happened before, and here's a thought, Jeff. I don't know if you thought about this. At some point, there probably was some nice, true freedom in the Wild West, maybe, Wild West America or some place, and then at some point, the people organized themselves. At some point, there's a government. At some point, there's a king. At some point, there's a good king. He dies, and then you got his son, the bad king.
Stefan: Do you think we've had freedom in history at some point, like true freedom, and then it just got consolidated into power? Because it seems to me that whether you look at a market like a real estate market, or you look at a Monopoly board, or you look at anything in life with humans, it seems that there's like always a consolidation going on. There's a consolidation at some point where somebody just ends up taking over, and we just end up in that over and over again, and the dominoes fall down at some point. We reset. Do you think we can actually exist as free people, like truly, or do you think someone's going to seize power at some point?
Jeff: Well, the thing is, if you have enough people who actually believe that freedom is the way to go, and they want to do that, then no one can seize power, because there's nothing there to seize. You pointed out rightly that over history, it appears that people have always been okay with giving away their power to someone else and hoping this guy takes care of them all, and that never works out for the best, just like communism, it just never works out well.
Jeff: Yeah, that's actually been the case over time is that people seem to have always sort of gravitated into these sort of things, but at the same time, when you think about life even today, we actually live in a state of complete anarchy right now. It just so happens that there's a lot of governments on earth which you can just consider to be criminal organizations who are stealing and extorting people, and kidnapping people, and forcing them to do things they don't want to do, but we actually live in a state of anarchy.
Jeff: Your average person, actually, every single day of their life, pretty much lives in anarchy. When you're in your home, or you're talking to your friends, or you go to work, that's just anarchy. That's just day-to-day life, and there's no one there telling you what to do, except for a street cop or whatever, a road pirate who might try to extort you if he thinks you're going a little too fast over a arbitrary speed limit or things like that, but generally kind of already live in anarchy. Really, the important thing to understand is that the word "government," what it really means, "govern" is, the word "govern" comes from the Latin [Latin 00:46:24] which means to control, which makes a lot of sense, and the word "ment."
Jeff: There's a lot of different sort of where that came from, but I lived here in Mexico, Spanish, [Spanish 00:46:34] is mind, so really, government is mind control. It's controlling people's minds to make them believe that this thing has authority over them and that it's sort of taking care of them as well. This is where we get into Stockholm syndrome and things like that, where people actually begin to really adore their kidnapper, the person who has basically kept them enslaved. I see [inaudible 00:46:56]-
Stefan: I wanted to give a gong. At some point, you got to stop for me to give you a gong. I didn't know that "government" meant mind control. It's really interesting, because if you control the information, you control the thoughts, and if you control the thoughts, you control the stories. You control the stories, you control the beliefs. If you control the beliefs, you control reality. It's almost like ... In Hard Times, I talk about we almost live in a 1984 future from George Orwell, and some of it's like Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, which was Orwell's mentor. We got half of our stuff is the American Aldous Huxley Brave New World future with orgies, and synthetic music, and all these women with narrow hips that don't bear children anymore, and we have alphas, and betas, and gammas, and deltas and all that stuff, and epsilons.
Stefan: Then the other part of our world is like the 1984 future where there's three gigantic powers that are always at war with each other, and it's like a Stalinist future. What do you think about those two books right now, Jeff, like 1984, Brave New World, and what we got going on right now?
Jeff: Yeah. Both those guys, both, I think they went, both went to Oxford or one of those major schools. They hung out with the same people like the Bush crime family and all those, so they hung out with what you could call the elites, or some people call them the Illuminati or whatever words you want to put to these sort of secret societies that mostly sort of are in these schools like Oxford and stuff like that. They were actually good friends, as you pointed out, and it's really amazing that that long ago, what is it, like 60, 70, 80 years ago, they wrote-
Stefan: It was 1945-
Jeff: ... these books.
Stefan: ... I think. It was like right after World War II the books came out.
Jeff: Yeah, so I can't do the math. I went to government schools, but 70 years ago, whatever it was, and they've really just roadmapped the exact both ways that we're going. Actually, they're both happening at the same time. The Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, that was a lot of bread and circuses. The people would be too dumbed down, which we're seeing, through fluoridization in the water, through all the government indoctrination camps, through the television programming, all that sort of stuff. People are just watching the Kardashians and all that.
Jeff: The sports, so the sports ball games, and that sort of thing, so people, that's what Aldous Huxley was saying is, people would be too dumbed down and too into these things like sports and entertainment to even notice that they're enslaved. That's what we have today, especially in the U.S. Then on the other side, there was Orwell went the other way with a bit more it's like a hard, top-down dictatorship. You can't say anything. Everything's the opposite of what it means in political speak, which is what we have today. You brought up about how there's these certain sectors of the world that always at war. East Oceania's always at war with whatever the other one was. That's what we have today. It's like, who's at war with who? This War on Terror, it's a war on a feeling. It's a war on, it's like terror is a feeling. It's like, "I was terrified when I saw that. We need a war against that." It's like-
Stefan: Well, we got the-
Jeff: ... "Who are you [inaudible 00:49:47]"
Stefan: ... War on Drugs which doesn't work. We got the War on Terror that doesn't work. You got the War on Cancer that doesn't work. You got all these wars. They keep just funneling money into a couple dudes' pockets, and the War on Drugs makes drugs worse. The War on Cancer makes cancer worse. The War on Terror makes terrorism worse. It's pretty scary how those things just simply don't work.
Jeff: Yeah, and it's all by design, like the people who really do these things know this is what's going to happen. It's just sad that people keep falling for it, but people are slowly waking up thanks to the internet. Yeah, I even saw like, who's that blonde, fairly not attractive, woman on U.S. TV who's like a really mean, nasty sort of ... Anyway. She just came out, and she just said all these wars are just stupid. They're just like, like we shouldn't be doing them. She was like a total war sort of a person. This just came out.
Jeff: People are starting to wake up, but the biggest issue is, they don't know what the answer is, and so that's why they keep going back to what you pointed out, which is this false left-right paradigm, which they tell everyone that's all there is. There's left or right or somewhere in the middle and there's nothing else, but that's a very narrow range of political spectrum. That's basically statism right there, and you can have left or right in statism, but there's a whole other spectrum of just not having governments whatsoever that could really free a lot of people. It's really growing, actually, like when we first started Anarchast, Anarchapulco, Anarchapulco started five years ago. It was 150 people. We're now expecting about 3,000 people. It's doubled every year.
Stefan: Wow.
Jeff: My show, Anarchast, a lot of people said no one had ever watched the show, but anarchy, that's crazy. They think anarchy is throwing bombs and all this sort of stuff, but it's catching on. People are catching on to a lot of this stuff now, so we're going to see what happens. We're at an amazing time in human history, because all these things are coming to a head all at the same time. All these governments are bankrupt. The central banks are about to go into hyperinflation. Then we have people waking up and starting to realize what's going on, and then you still have all these people in the universities who think that communism's the way out, so they'll probably try to push for that.
Jeff: It's just amazing, incredible time, and there's going to be so much change in the next 10 years. I don't think anyone will believe what happens over the next 10 years. I couldn't even imagine what will happen, but I know it's going to be mind-blowing what happens. It's going to be that much change.
Stefan: Yeah. It's unbelievable. Now, Jeff, I got to wrap up the show, but I want to ask you a couple questions I ask every guest, because I think they're cool. If you can go back in time to, let's say, 15-year-old Jeff and give yourself a piece of advice, what's a piece of advice you'd give yourself?
Jeff: Oh, man. That's a good question. I would say work on yourself. I really just started working on myself over the last couple of years. I'm like 48 years old now, and it's changed my life dramatically. I didn't deal with a lot of my past issues, childhood issues, a lot of the programming that we get from our cult, our culture they call it, but our cult, through our younger years. That still stays in your head. I think if I would have, if I could go back, I'd say, "Buy Bitcoin as soon as you hear about it," and I'd-
Stefan: [inaudible 00:52:55].
Jeff: ... say, "Work on yourself," like-
Stefan: [inaudible 00:52:57] man.
Jeff: I'd probably also say, "Don't go to the bars that much. Don't be having a lot of drunken sex. It's a total waste of time. Try to find a good girlfriend. Try to fix yourself and work on yourself more than anything." That's what I'd tell him.
Stefan: Wow. Great answer. Top three books that changed your life.
Jeff: A good question again. We talked about G. Edward Griffin earlier. The Creature from Jekyll Island was one of the first books that got me looking into all this stuff that I talk about today. That was a really important to my life. I'd say The Lord of the Rings is, I read it when I was very young. I used to love to read. I was probably like 12 or something. This giant book, it's even bigger than your book there. What I didn't realize about The Lord of the Rings that is interesting, I love the book, and I loved everything about it, and it wasn't until a couple years ago I realized that that ring of power was actually a metaphor for government power. I actually looked-
Stefan: Wow.
Jeff: ... into it a couple years ago, and J. R. R. Tolkien, who wrote the book, called himself an anarchist, so that entire book was an allegory about the problems caused by government. Those two books are pretty good. I guess the third book that I thought was really interesting, and it's like a pamphlet. You can read it in about two hours. It's called The Market for Liberty. You can actually find it online for free in PDF format, and it shows what the world could be like without government. When I read that book, it just blew my mind, because I'm sure if you even read it, you'd go, you'd be like me, you'd be like, "Wow, I never thought things could work that way or that ... "
Jeff: They actually thought about how things would work without government, so there'd be like private security companies. Well, how would that work? Well, there'd be insurance as well, so the insurance companies ... For example, like people go, "Well, how would you put out fires without the government?" Which is kind of funny, because the government rarely puts out fires [inaudible 00:54:34].
Stefan: Fire insurance.
Jeff: Yeah. Fire insurance, and then the insurance companies have all this insurance money, and they'll have to pay out a ton if there's a giant fire, so they actually put out fire stuff, and fire stations, and all that kind of stuff so it can all work in the free market. I think that book really, in just such a small amount of time, can really just show how the free market can handle everything.
Stefan: Yeah. Well, that's great. I always, people say, "Well, who's going to pay for the roads?" Well, you just tax cars and gasoline. If you got a car and gas-
Jeff: Not even tax, right, but like the businesses would own the roads. You would never put up ... Let's say you're Walmart, and you want to put up a Walmart somewhere and there's no road there. You're going to build the road, because you want people to get to your thing. Plus, not to mention there's already all roads. All roads that already exist. I don't know why people think they'll just disappear, but obviously like gas stations would have a giant interest to making sure there was roads, so they would probably do something. The gas stations would all work together and say, "Okay, let's take 10% of all of our money that we make every month and put it into maintaining the roads." Right? It's fairly basic sort of stuff.
Stefan: Right. All right. Second last question today, Jeff. What's the one thing that young people need to succeed these days? Let's talk to the snowflakes. Let's talk to the millennials, the guy with the MacBook Pro at Starbucks. What's something you want to say to him?
Jeff: One thing to succeed. Actually, I was going to mention this earlier when we were talking about this is, forget about school, and I mean even government school, like high school, junior high school. Forget it. Don't even go. Complete waste of time. You have all the information there on the internet. Always do your best to learn, and follow what your passion is. That's the biggest problem with these schools is, they're forcing you to do stuff that I didn't want to learn. I didn't care much about math when I was 12 years old, but they forced me to do it, and wasted a lot of my time, and I didn't really learn it, because I didn't really want to, but I really cared about computers, and I just went home, and I worked on computers all day by myself. That was actually my best education.
Jeff: One would be, follow your passion, get out of school, and the third thing would be travel. That's absolutely one of the best educations out there. Once you travel around the world, you start to see how different cultures do different things, and you start to see the good things, and the bad things, and you start to see, actually, tons of opportunities, because that's one of the best educations you can get is to actually see the world, because what you see on your television programming and the news is not even close to the truth about what's actually going on in the world. When you get out there and you see the world, you get a massive education, and you see massive amounts of opportunities.
Stefan: Fantastic. Jeff, if people want to know more, how can they get in touch with you?
Jeff: I write The Dollar Vigilante. Just check it out at dollarvigilante.com. If you're interested in freedom stuff, check out my podcast, Anarchast, on YouTube, and we have our annual conference coming up in February, February 14th to 17th, called Anarchapulco. You can just go to anarchapulco.com. It's kind of hard to spell, but you can probably just type it into Google, and you'll find it. Those are the three main things I'm doing right now.
Stefan: Incredible. Jeff, thank you so much for being on the show. Respect The Grind.
Jeff: Thank you.
Tyler Harris has sold over 8,000 life insurance policies face-to-face in about three and a half years. He runs two agencies, over 140 agents, he runs two podcasts, and he says he's just an ordinary guy doing extraordinary things.
Tyler Harris
Stefan: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show Respect The Grind with Stefan Aarnio. This is show where we interview people who have achieved mastery and freedom through discipline. We interview entrepreneurs, athletes, authors, artists, real estate investors, anyone who has achieved mastery and examine what it took to get there.
Stefan: Today on the show, we have a superstar, Tyler Harris. He's sold over 8,000 life insurance policies face-to-face in about three and a half years. He runs two agencies, over 140 agents, he runs two podcasts, and he says he's just an ordinary guy doing extraordinary things. Tyler, welcome to the show, Respect The Grind.
Tyler: Thanks for having me, Stefan. It's a pleasure to be here.
Stefan: Yeah, man. It's really great to connect with someone like yourself. You know, we got a lot of real estate people on the show, I'm an investor myself, so I've got into house flipping, and that's been my thing. But super cool to have a life insurance person on the show.
Stefan: Now people who are out there wanting to make money, one of the biggest things I find with my audience is a lot of people want to make 100 grand, they want to get into sales, they want to hustle, they want to grind. They're younger, they don't know what to do. Why did you choose to get in the insurance space of all things?
Tyler: That's what I love about the whole story, and it's what I preach about when you have the average person that says, "Well I don't really do something that interesting. Why should I put myself out there on social media." I'm like, "Aye, I sell life insurance. There's nothing interesting about that whatsoever."
Tyler: But man, mine was purely out of circumstance. Some mentors came into my life when I was at a really bad place. I was broke, I was in debt, depressed, had gone through a business failure, a marriage failure. These mentors came into my life and really breathed life back into me. I joke around today and say that if they were selling rubber bands at the time, that I'd be sitting here with you guys as the greatest rubber band salesman of all time.
Stefan: One gong right out of the gate for comedy, man. Good for you.
Tyler: They happen to be in the insurance business, and gave me an opportunity. Quite frankly, it was exactly what I needed because it was transactional, fast-paced, and it gave me the ability to build my confidence back very quickly. I put in effort, I got a reward, I put in effort, got a reward. That became an addicting process to see how much reward I could get out by the effort put in, and it just so happened that insurance was the product that we were selling.
Stefan: Eight thousand life insurance policies. That's a big number, man. How many people do you have to meet with a day to make that kind of sale?
Tyler: It's an insane amount. We have developed a very, very narrow niche and built a system around going all in on that niche. That's the biggest thing that I preach to people, is developing a system around working with the people that you want to work with, but developing a system in a way to where every word that comes out of your mouth, it's like if you're speaking to someone that speaks Spanish but you're speaking German, it's gonna be difficult to sell that person. But if you speak Spanish to them, then they're gonna be able to make a buying decision a whole lot quicker.
Tyler: We know exactly what to say, how to say it, what to wear, what to have in our hands, the motions that we go through, the certain clothes that we use to be able to extremely efficiently sell and do a whole lot of volume. That's been the precursor to that volume. But at the end of the day, a system is all good and well, but it's the hard work that goes into that system. We've had plenty of people that have come in, and we've given them the magical system, and they've done nothing with it. The rest is left up to the individual, and the amount of hard work that they're willing to put into it.
Stefan: You know, I love what you said there. There's two things I love. You say, "Rich in the niche, rich in the niche," we're Canadian, so we like to throw some French in there, rich in the niche, rich in the niche.
Stefan: I got a question for you, Tyler. I've been training people for six years. I'm a real estate investor, I was buying, fixing, selling houses. I came from the private equity world. I was good at raising money, eye for design. I'd flip up to 30 houses a year, and people would see that and they'd go, "Man, I want to flip houses like Stefan," so I start coaching people.
Stefan: Now I learned a dark thing when I started training and coaching people, and the dark truth that I discovered, maybe you can confirm or deny this dark truth, is that 50% of the people just do nothing. You sign up 10 guys, and half of them just literally do nothing. They buy the cake mix, but they never make the cake. They buy the IKEA furniture, they never build the bed, or whatever. Do you find that number to be ... Is it 50%, no matter what they just don't do anything?
Tyler: I think it depends on what your process is. With our recruiting process, yeah, 100% in the beginning we found that. We have gotten laser focused and have gotten our recruiting process down to a science to where we know when we bring someone on, that they've got a 90 plus percent probability of succeeding, and it's through about eight different layers of a recruiting process to weed out those people. But that's only being done through trial and error of the beginning of running through a million of those 50%-ers.
Stefan: Right, right, right. Yes. Tell me about the recruiting process. Eight layers of weeding out the guys. Let's hear about that. This sounds like you're joining the Navy Seals when you're joining Tyler Harris for insurance. Let's hear it.
Tyler: It's almost that tough. But number one, all of our recruiting efforts, it's all done through Facebook. That's the only place we recruit from. When they come in, they got to submit an application, and then they've got to upload their resume. They've got to answer a bunch of essay questions. Then they go to their first interview, which is face-to-face with our head recruiter here in house.
Tyler: From there, they're given a script that they have to go memorize in 24 hours, and then they have to come back 24 hours later and interview via Zoom, and perform that script. That script is similar to one of our sales processes. They've got to be able to perform that, then from that we give them some feedback that our head recruiter gives them some feed back on what they could have done better, and then they have to go perform that script again the next day on video to see if they can actually follow some instruction and follow some feedback.
Tyler: From there, we go through and in-depth personality profile assessment. It's the one that we found that works by far the best. It takes all of them and throws them together, and puts them on steroids.
Stefan: Which one's that?
Tyler: It's through TTI, through a group called The Rainmaker Group, and it's incredible. It's the only one that actually has a patent tying the results to actual brain research. Myers-Briggs can't say that, strength finders can't say that, none of the other DISC can even say that.
Tyler: But this one is pretty remarkable, and we have created basically a money ball style system of grading the recruits, and knowing what the probability is of them being able to succeed. They're gonna do that. They also have to do a two-minute phone call pitch on why they're the best fit, and we make them at the end do a video pitch as to why they are the best fit for that particular territory. We take all of that, we bring it to our meeting that we do, just got out of it on Friday mornings. There's six of us that watch the video of the person, hear all the information, hear that money ball grading score, and we make a decision. From there, they go to one last interview with our Director of Training, and from there we make a final decision on somebody.
Stefan: Wow. I'm gonna give that a gong. That is probably the best recruiting process I ever heard. I got a very tough one myself. We make people do four book reports. They have to read all of the books, so I guess it's five books. I've written five books. They got to read five books and do book reports, and they got to pretty much be ready on day one to come in and sell. But yours is damn good, man.
Stefan: Now let me ask you this, Tyler. What's the failure rate if 100 guys sign up for your recruiting process, how many make it to the end? Like two?
Tyler: Maybe three, but it's low. It's two or three, and we like it that way. It's much more cost effective that way 'cause we invest heavily. The insurance industry, it's notorious for just churn and burn, bring a bunch of people on, see if they can stick for a few months and then invest in them when [inaudible 00:07:53] bring them onboard, our training and onboarding process is intensive, and it's expensive on our side. We want to make sure that the people that we bring on and we invest heavily in have the greatest possibility of giving us a return on that investment.
Stefan: That's awesome. I love it. It's almost the opposite of what you'd see in the industry. I've been running a sales team now, so we do high-ticket coaching and consulting in the real estate space. I've gone through, I've collapsed five phone teams, I've failed five times. The sixth time I got a good team.
Stefan: What's the key to running a good sales team? Is it having a great manager? Is it great training? Is it great recruiting? Is it all of the above? What do you think is the linchpin there to make it work?
Tyler: It's certainly all of the above, but I think the most important is having the leadership, having them lead by example, and having them have been in the field. The CEO, myself, and my other two partners, there's four partners in this business, we all have been in the field, and we all excelled at an insanely high level. We know what it's like. We're not afraid to go out today and go sell with the agents.
Tyler: To me, there's a big issue in the sales industry as a whole, and its current credibility versus past credibility. The way I like to talk about it in sports terms is you've got a guy that makes it into the NBA. He plays for X number of years, he's a all-star, a couple championships, retires, makes it to the Hall of Fame, then becomes a coach. He's able to coach that team because he has these insane accolades to be able to use past credibility.
Tyler: What the reality is, in most organizations, they haven't been around long enough to have that level of past credibility, so it has to all be about what are you're doing right now, versus what have you done. I just want to be the hardest worker in the room at all times so that the people that I'm telling to do something, I can never tell them to do something that I am not doing myself or haven't done.
Stefan: I'm gonna give you a gong for that. It's all about the integrity, man. You wouldn't ask someone to do something you haven't done yourself.
Stefan: Now let me ask you this, Tyler, how important ... It sounds like you guys [inaudible 00:10:06] some technology in your training and technology in your recruiting. How important is technology to what you're doing right now?
Tyler: Technology is huge. It gives us the ability to onboard our agents all over the country at one time. We use a bunch of different ... We're huge with role play. Role play, role play, role play, role play. It's the biggest asset as far as training sales people, and we have some software that we use for that. We're constantly having people certify or re-certify using that role play software.
Tyler: But even down to the agents that are in the field writing the policies. Everything's done through e-app now. They're able to right at that application, have that thing submitted and have a commission check in their bank account 48 hours later. Whereas that process used to take a lot longer when you have paper applications having to be sent through the mail, and processed, and all that. It makes everything a lot more efficient.
Tyler: To me, the biggest thing, especially when a salesperson is first coming onboard, you got to get a check in that person's hand as quickly, as humanly possible. Technology enables us, from a training perspective, to get them completely certified and ready to sell faster, but also that e-application process gets those commission checks into their bank faster, which builds that belief, and that's when they'll really go all in.
Stefan: I love the word you use there is belief. I find that the biggest thing with no matter what you're training on is we train people to flip houses, and a lot of them have the dream of flipping a house, a lot of them watch the videos with flipping the house, they read the book about flipping a house, they come to the seminar. But until they go into the field with their coach, and see it, and touch it, and taste it, and smell it, and feel it, then they believe in Disneyland. Do you find that's the same thing with training insurance guys or sales guys, is that they got to watch someone do it so they believe it and they see it?
Tyler: Yeah. I agree. They've got to watch someone do it, but they've also got to go out and do it themselves before they get to certain aspects of the training as well.
Tyler: We have a boot camp training that we bring them into our home office, and it's like drinking from a fire hose for two and a half days. But we strategically put that in the process once they have been out in the field, and they've had a few weeks of success and failure. We want someone that's gotten their teeth knocked in a couple of times, a bloody nose here and there, so that now when we bring them back to training, and we can really refine those skills, now they're being able to learn things based on experience, "Oh yeah, when I was in that situation, when I did get that objection, that's how I should have handled that."
Tyler: In the past, we were doing all of this training upfront, then sending them out. But some of the training you have to be in that environment first to really understand the importance as you're going through that part of the training to understand that, "Hey. Man, I've experience this a couple of times. Now I know how to handle it. When I experience this again I've got it."
Stefan: Yeah, I love that. It's all about building up that bank of stories, and the stories make the beliefs, and the beliefs make the reality. I think that's really powerful.
Stefan: Now Tyler, let me ask you this. Sounds like you're in almost a blue ocean strategy. You're doing something that I've never even seen or heard of anybody doing what you're doing, which is super cool. Do you think that for mastery, let's just say you're a master right now, do you think it's more important to be a master right now on the creative side or the discipline side? 'Cause I think the creativity and discipline blended creates mastery, but what do you think is more important? The creativity or the discipline?
Tyler: It's a great question. I think at the end of the day discipline is what takes you there. People ask me all the time, they're like, "Man, how do you stay so motivated? You always seem so motivated." With the amount of content that we put out, I understand that could come across that way, but I always answer them, I'm like, "I'm not all that motivated. There's plenty of days where I wake up and I don't feel motivated. But it's the discipline, it's doing the stuff that you know you're supposed to do even when you don't feel like it."
Tyler: To me, you can build a team that can provide the creativity that you need, you can build an environment that can provide aspects of creativity for you, but discipline is something that you've either got it or you don't. To me, I would take a person with discipline over creativity any day.
Stefan: Yeah, the creativity is the starving artist. If you're delivering the daily bread, as you say, that's one of your podcasts, The Daily Bread, you got to go out there and do those daily bread actions.
Stefan: One thing that I notice when I'm training people all the time, Tyler, is that I got a bunch of sales agents right now, and I'm training real estate investors. I notice that everybody has a fear of the phone. The key to success, I believe, if you're in sales, is making X number of phone calls a day, whether that's 50 or 100, or whatever that number is for that industry. Why are people afraid of the phone? Why are they afraid of picking it up, and making offers and proposals?
Tyler: We see it all the time. I think it's because people don't understand the numbers in the beginning. If you haven't had the longevity of a few years of running those numbers, and knowing that, "Hey, I just know if I make this many calls, I'm gonna set this many appointments, which is gonna lead to this many sales. It doesn't matter if the last three were no, I know that if I make X number of more calls, then there will be this many yeses. It just always turns out that way." But when you don't have that, that experience on the backend, and when you're first getting started, then it just seems like this monumental task to go do, and that phone freaking weighs a million pounds.
Tyler: To me, I think you have to build some level of competition. They got to be driven by something other than just self-driven. They got to be driven by, "Hey, what's this guy doing, and how am I gonna make more calls than him or her so that I can win this daily competition, weekly competition, monthly competition?" Organization is always fostering healthy competition where I love every person on our team, but I want to destroy them on a daily basis. That's how all of our agents feel.
Stefan: Yeah. That's really important. We expanded our team. We went from three agents to six agents. We got a small little sales team here. It was interesting 'cause we put them in two different rooms, and as soon as we split the rooms for whatever reason, people stopped working. Then we crammed them all back into one room, and a room that's made for four guys, put six guys in a room for four, and suddenly the pressure ... I don't know what it is. They got a feel of the sweat, they got to hear the bell ringing, they got to feel it, they got to see it. I don't know what it is with people.
Stefan: I'm a self-motivated person myself, so I go and I work. I'd say maybe there's one other guy in company, the manager, he's a self-motivated guy. But everybody else for whatever reason needs constant whipping. Why is that?
Tyler: I think it's human nature. A lot of that ...
Stefan: Gong for human nature.
Tyler: A lot of that has to go back to the recruiting process, making sure that you got the right person. You're not gonna get the wrong person to do the right thing. It's just not gonna happen. I think a lot of that is based on these personality profile assessments that we do, and figuring out what their motivators are. If they're not money motivated, then what is their motivation?
Tyler: We've learned so much through this process of really understanding our agents, and what their behaviors, their motivators, to understand how to get them to do the things that they maybe don't feel like doing, but we know that are gonna lead them towards success. We know that, "Hey, what's that extra 10 grand this month? What are you gonna do with that money?" Then we get them to start visualizing these things. I'm gonna give to this organization, I'm gonna be able to buy this, I'm gonna be able to go on this trip.
Tyler: As we're going into 2019, an extra 50 grand, an extra 100 grand, what does that look like? What are you gonna do with that money? Let's go ahead and plan that trip, let's go ahead and plan out, let's go look at some properties 'cause you said you want to do some real estate investing this year, let's go look at a few properties, let's get some pictures of those properties. You make it a much more real than just, "Hey, Johnny. Pick up the phone because you've got to meet your quota."
Stefan: I love that, the visual indicators so that they can see it, and they can believe it, and they can tell themself a story about how they're gonna have it. I think that's super powerful.
Stefan: Now, what are some of those personality indicators? Tyler, you mentioned that money motivated is one. If you're gonna be in sales, you better be money motivated 'cause otherwise you're just gonna do human nature, and stay at home and do nothing. I've got a theory actually that the natural state of humanity is poverty. You can't really fix poverty 'cause it's natural, it naturally occurs in nature, and unnatural forces like training, and pain, and all other things drive people to succeed. What do you think of that theory?
Tyler: I've never heard that before. That's interesting. I think the majority of behaviors are gonna be learned behaviors, but there are things that are just born in somebody that you're not gonna be able to change. A lot of that is resiliency. That's a huge one that we look for, is this person gonna get knocked down and be able to get back up?
Tyler: Mojo loss is a big one with resiliency. When someone lose ....
Stefan: What's mojo loss? What does that mean?
Tyler: When someone gets a few nos and they get their dick in the dirt, they just can't overcome it, they can't pick up that phone again, or they can't go on that sales call the next day, and it takes massive coaching. Quite frankly, it's not cost efficient to deal with an agent that has the propensity for a lack of resiliency or for that mojo loss.
Tyler: To us, it's so important. When we start to even sense that someone's losing their mojo, when they're starting down that downward spiral, we do, it's like all hands on deck to make sure that we can do everything that we possibly can on the front-end to make sure that they get right back in the game, because if they start down that process, they're gone. It's just the beginning of the end.
Stefan: That's interesting. You know what, I heard a really scientific term there, dick in the dirt. I've never head that one before. When the guy gets his dick in the dirt, he's got a dirty dick.
Tyler: That's it.
Stefan: It's almost like it sounds like you're having an intervention with the guy when he gets into the downward spiral, into the pit of despair. What are some of the things you do to pull him out? 'Cause I think this is one of the biggest things, man. I think that what you're talking about right now is why people fail. I always ask on the show, why do people fail? It seems to me like there's an isolation, there's a pain, they get into pain, then they start numbing the pain.
Stefan: I had one guy who was a hardcore drug addict. I don't know what he was. It was gambling, prostitution, or something. He was wasting all his money. [inaudible 00:20:24] gave him 10 grand. The next day he needed a $100,000 advance, always. The guy had some sort of addiction. It seems that when people get pain and they're isolated, that's when this downward spiral really happens. How do you keep them from being isolated. Tell me some of these intervention techniques that you're using to get these people back on the bus.
Tyler: Isolation is the beginning of the end. When communication starts to go away, then we just know that person's on their way out. There's a couple of things that we do.
Tyler: One thing that I personally do with our agents is I do coaching with them. We call it LIFE goals. LIFE stands for L is love, which is relationships; I is influence, which is the mind; F is finance, which is the business; E is energy, which is the body. We've constantly got three goals in each of those four areas for every 90 days. I take them through this process where I hold them accountable. Every 30 days, we're on a Zoom call, and I'm just literally going through each goal, and I'm saying, "Hey, Stefan. It says here we're gonna do date nights every Saturday night with your wife. How was your date nigh Saturday?"
Tyler: Well, we couldn't do it this Saturday. Well, okay, what happened? Because this says mandatory date night every Saturday, so what happened? Well, we couldn't get a baby sitter last minute, yada, yada, yada. Okay.
Stefan: I hate the babysitter, I hate the babysitter objections. Dude, it's 50 bucks or 30 bucks. Come on, man.
Tyler: Yeah, and we take it a step further and we'll say, "Okay, great. Let's get on care.com," or whatever website, "and let's find you a second or third babysitter than you can have in your arsenal so that doesn't happen again. Hey, while we're here, let's go ahead and plan out your date for this coming Saturday?" We got on here that you're not doing carbs and sugar. How's that been going for you? Well, you know, it's Christmas season. They had this party the other night.
Stefan: Dang.
Tyler: I just hold them accountable to teach these areas.
Tyler: It's funny, the business portion of that conversation is the least. But what we know is that a byproduct of winning in the other three areas is always gonna be an increase in production.
Stefan: You know what, I feel like I'm meeting my brother here from another mother. I mean, I'm up here in Winnipeg, you're down in South Carolina. I've got my team on a thing called the High Performance Journal. It's three goals, 90 days. It's a 90-day journal, daily, weekly monthly. I said, "Look, here's the deal. You got your health goal, you got your wealth goal, you've got your relationships/happiness goal." I used to be like, "Oh, do whatever you want for your three goals, like two money, or one health." I was like, "No, man. The holistic thing, it's health, it's wealth, it's relationships."
Stefan: Now influence. You said love, influence, finance, and energy. What was influence again?
Tyler: That's the mind. We got a lot of people that for the very first time in their entire lives, they're meditating, they're reading books, they're listening to the podcast, they're doing all these things to feed their mind.
Stefan: Yeah. I love that, man. I just got into mediation two weeks ago. I'm 32, I feel like it's too late, but it's never too late. I use this headband. I put the headband on, it measures my brain. You ever tried that?
Tyler: I have. I have, yeah. It's awesome. I use Headspace. It's worked pretty well for me. I think I've logged in 4,000+ minutes this year on that thing. I just got started this year. This year is the first time I had ever meditated. I made fun of it for the longest time. I'm like, "There's no way I'm gonna sit. I've got ADD." I'm just thinking, "Sitting down for 10 minutes sounds like a nightmare," but it's been life changing for me. I absolutely love it.
Tyler: When you're doing the first thing in the morning, if you can start your day on your terms ...
Stefan: Oh. Bro, [crosstalk 00:24:01] I'm getting shivers over here, man.
Tyler: Start ...
Stefan: Stop seducing me, man. I'm getting shivers.
Tyler: Well I mean, for so long I just literally from the second that I opened my eyes, it was chaos. It was self-induced chaos. It was I felt rushed, late, behind. I started thinking about it, I'm like, "Late for what? Rush to what? I control my schedule. Why do I feel like it's instant chaos 'cause I'm reaching for my phone, and I'm looking at notifications, and I'm responding to text messages and emails." Taking that first 10 minutes of the day, on purpose, with a purpose, for me, it changes everything. It changes the outlook of the entire day, and honestly, it's been life changing.
Stefan: Something I made my team do with the journals, I said, "Look team, so everybody's on a journal, everybody, even including the secretary, bookkeeper, everybody's on the journal." Then I said, "Okay, team," this is what I said last week. I said, "I want you to book your sleep in your calendar. Minium six hours, just book it in your calendar, so 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m., or whatever. Just book that in. Sleeps on there."
Stefan: Then I said, "We're gonna have three hours booked as your core 10 items." There's 10 I wanted them to do every day. I said, "Book three hours before you come to work, that's your time." You've got your six hours of sleep, you've got your three hours for your core 10 items, and I prescribe them 10 items which include a lot of these, love, influence, finance, energy, they got to discover something, they got to declare it, they got to meditate, they got to revelate, they got to fitness and fuel their body. I even got down to sex and [inaudible 00:25:30], manager your sex energy 'cause you start wasting that, you're gonna be totally messed at some point.
Stefan: I said, "Look, you got your sleep, you got your core 10, then you got eight hours of work, you got then, and then you got another five to seven hours for you." I said, "I don't care what you do with the day, but you got your core 10, you hit your core, hit your sleep, everything else is just out there."
Stefan: Now what's some of the things ... Let me ask you this, Tyler, since I'm a new student of meditation, I think it's gonna be a life thing for me. I actually am going to the jungle here for 40 days. I'm gonna meditate like crazy, I'm gonna grow a beard like you bro, I see you on camera. It's a great beard. What are some of the epiphany, or some of the divine wisdom you've got from the source from meditating? 'Cause to me, it's been huge. What are some of your biggest things you've found?
Tyler: Gratitude.
Stefan: Bro, you're just hitting gongs everywhere, man. Gratitude, tell me about it.
Tyler: That's it. Yeah, as a part of the meditation, I do a gratitude journal afterwards. I just jot down three, four, five things. I try to make them different things every day that I'm grateful for, and spending that time just by myself, and just gratitude. Completely grateful for all the opportunities, all the things that I have. Some day I'm writing down, "I'm glad that I woke up in a warm house with a roof over my head and food in my stomach," some of the basic necessities. Then some days I'll take it, what I look at as level 2.0, and I'll be grateful for the things that I don't have yet, as though I already have them. That visualization has been huge for me.
Tyler: But it's gratitude, man. Every single person that is listening or watching this has so much to be grateful for. There's someone else on the other side of the planet that's praying for the things that we complain about every single day. It just drives me crazy. We have so blessed, but it's all about perspective. I think that meditation gives me that 10 minutes of perspective to just focus on what's really important, focus on what I already have, and focus on where I'm headed. That's really it, man.
Tyler: There's a lot of power just in that process of doing something that I said I was gonna do, first thing, and starting my day that way, that anything that actually comes from the meditation is just icing on the cake.
Stefan: Wow. Wow. Now when you're meditating, Tyler, are you a mantra guy or do you just focus on your breath? What's something that you do?
Tyler: I've tried a bunch of different things. Again, I'm ADD. For me to sit in silence is a little difficult. I like a lot of the guided stuff. I do use Headspace just because again, competition-wise, I love being able to show people how many streaks, how many days in a row I've done it, how many minutes, like keeping track of that kind of stuff. But I like the guided stuff because I'm certainly no expert in meditation. If you can tell me how to breath, tell me what to think about, tell me how to sit, I'd do a lot better with that than just sitting in silence and staring at the wall.
Tyler: But I feel like that'll progress over time. I've tried some of ... I did a podcast with David Meltzer, who's just freaking incredible. He talks a lot about the particular meditations that he's doing, and there's a bunch of different things that I want to get into in 2019, but for me it's just starting the day intentionally.
Stefan: Yeah, man. It's huge. You either come at the day with your agenda, or the day comes at you with its agenda. One of the two is gonna take over.
Stefan: One thing that's been new to me that has been a revelation in the last two weeks for me is do versus be. We're here on the Respect The Grind show, and you've got hustler in the background, or hustle or something, and I think we live in a world where it's do, do, do, do, do. Respect the grind is do, do, do. Hustle is do, do, do, do, do. We're masculine so we want to do, do, do things, and what are you doing, and how can I do that?
Stefan: I think the other opposite side of that is the feminine, which is be. Who do you have to be? That's more about essence rather than doing. How important is it to have that essence and the being to go with the doing?
Tyler: Do a lot of that with the visualization. I just have a deep understanding that the person that's gonna accomplish the goals that I have for 2019 is a different person than the person that's talking to you right now.
Stefan: Gonging that up.
Tyler: In order for me to do those things, I'm gonna have to be someone else. Then it's just a journey in becoming that person. I know the person that I have to be to accomplish those things, and that person's gonna have to level up, that person's gonna have to go through some challenges, that person's gonna have to expand in a number of different ways, but I am constantly chasing after that next version of myself.
Tyler: I think that's a big encouragement for those that are going through tough times, is that when you're in the middle of a struggle, if you can understand that there's purpose in this, like I'm going through this for a reason, and there is a blessing on the other side of it, but until I become the person that can receive that blessing, it's not gonna happen. I actually have to change who I am in order to get out of this, and step out of this obstacle, step out of this pain, step out of this struggle, and step into the blessing that's on the other side.
Tyler: It's easy to say in hindsight when you've been through it a number of times. You know when you tell somebody that and they're in the middle of it, they're like, "Screw you. That doesn't take the gun out of my mouth. You don't understand what I'm going through." I would just tell that person, "Yes I do." It's always the same. It's always the same no matter how hard, no matter how difficult, there's always a blessing on the other side of it, and I am of the mind that the harder it is, the bigger that blessing is.
Stefan: Man, you just dropped a lot of wisdom there. I love what you said, the harder it is, the bigger the blessing. I noticed on the show from interviewing so many successful people the lower the low, the higher the high.
Tyler: Absolutely.
Stefan: You know the lady who was living in her car, or the guy who's totally, totally bankrupt, or whatever is usually where that guy rebounds equally high. I think that's from Think and Grow Rich. Inside of every failure is the seed of a greater success. It's interesting.
Stefan: There's a lot of people out there that don't really want to fail, they don't want to try, they don't want to see how dark the darkness is, they just want the light. What do you think of that attitude?
Tyler: I take it to a weird place where I'm almost envious of other peoples' low, low, low, lows. When I hear somebody's story now, like the other day, I had lunch with a guy. We sat down, and we didn't know each other, we had connected through Instagram. We sat down for lunch, and he just unloaded just what was going on in his life lately. It was heavy. He's going through some stuff. At the end of just unloading this information, he says, "So what do you think about that?" My response was, "Dude, I'm so freaking excited." He's like, "Okay." Completely caught him off guard. I was like, "Man, I can tell by your tone that you've made that switch."
Tyler: That's the big, it's the if you've made that switch. But no matter how low, the lower it gets the better. If you can make that switch it's directly proportionate to how high you can fly. To me, it's so exciting to watch that in someone. Someone that has right when you know they've made that transition, and they're starting that upward trajectory, they're almost on the other side of it, those are the best stories. Those are the stories that we pay to watch, and that's what life's about, is overcoming obstacles. Everybody loves an underdog story. Man, I get envious sometimes. I'm like, "Man, I wish my lows were that low. I wish I had that story."
Tyler: I wish there was some college course or some mastery program we could create where we just absolutely destroy your life at a young age, like at 20 to 25, just destroy every aspect of your life, and then help you rebuild it so that you can go on. I'd much rather experience it at 25 than 55, and go on and live a great life.
Stefan: Wow. You know what, dude we're getting deep. We're getting deep now, man. Talking about it, it reminds me of the movie Fight Club. You ever seen Fight Club?
Tyler: Oh yeah.
Stefan: Yeah, so that one part in the movie, and actually I wrote a book called Hard Times Create Strong Men, it just came out. The last of it, hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, weak men create hard times. It's the cycle of history.
Stefan: That one part in Fight Club, where Tyler Durden goes to the convenient store, and he pulls that little Asian guy out from the desk, and he throws him in the back alley, and he points a gun at him, and he says, "What do you want to be in your life? What do you want to do?" The guy's like, "I want to be a vet. I want to be a vet." He says, "All right Raymond K. Hessle," and he pulls out his wallet, and he takes his ID. He like, "I got your ID, and tomorrow if you're not on your way to becoming a vet, I'm gonna show up at your house and I'm gonna kill you."
Stefan: The narrator is like, "Oh my God, what are you doing? You're ruining this guys life." He's like, "No, tomorrow Raymond's breakfast is gonna taste better than ever, and the colors will be brighter, and the birds will be singing because he's gonna be on the exact path of what he wants to do with his life, and he can say goodbye to this job at 7/11," or whatever. What do you think of that story?
Tyler: Dude, it's incredible. I could not agree more. People don't need more information, they don't need more motivation, they don't need more inspiration, they need clarity. They need clarity in what they really want, like what they actually want. I love taking people through that process. You say like, "Hey man, what's your goal? What do you want?" I want to be financially free. What in the world does that mean?
Stefan: Yeah, what the fuck?
Tyler: They're like, "Well, you know." I'm like, "So tell me, what does that look like when you're financially free?" Well it's when I'm no longer a slave to debt. Okay, that's still ambiguous. We're getting closer. What does that look like when you're no longer a slave to debt?
Stefan: Yeah, what does it mean?
Tyler: We take through this process, where you just keep asking why, and what does that look like, but why? But really, but why do you want that? But why, why, why? When you dig down deep, all of a sudden you realize that the person really just wants to ride horses again because they had a horse when they were ...
Stefan: Multi gong for that.
Tyler: They had a horse when they were growing up, and they found so much joy riding freaking horses, and now they're in this corporate environment, and they're killing themselves with work every day, and their relationships are terrible, and they really just have no outlet to find peace again. It's like, "Oh, got it. Because you said you wanted to be financially free, but now we know, you just want to buy a freaking horse. Let's figure out how much does a horse cost, and where are you gonna keep it?"
Stefan: Three thousand bucks.
Tyler: Yeah. Let's do that.
Tyler: Or you find out that it's, I want to be able to pick my kids up from school, and I want to be able to take this many weeks of vacation, and I want to live in this house. But until you get clear with what you actually want, it's a absolute joke to try to put together a plan to get somewhere, you don't know where you're going.
Stefan: Dude, we're hitting bed rock here. We're getting so deep, we're hitting the bottom. I think what you're saying is so relevant. I can tell you Tyler, you're the real deal, man. I got to praise you, I got to appreciate you, I love having guys like you on the show. Sometimes you get a dud, you're a stud, man. Sometimes you get duds, but no, this is stud day today.
Stefan: One thing that I think is super crazy, I'm really going through a lot of changes right now myself. I notice that our reality goes through the lens of our beliefs. Then our beliefs are controlled by our stories. There's a lens, on a lens, on a lens. You got reality, which is this is a cup. I got a cup here sitting on my table. That's reality. But then there's a belief about that, that comes from a story, and then inside the story when you're stuck, there's a lie. To fix somebody or make them move forward, or make them unstuck, or make them do whatever they got to do, you got to find that story, change the story, which changes the belief, which changes the reality, and edit out that lie. What do you think of that piece of wisdom that I've downloaded in the last two weeks.
Tyler: It's extremely deep, but it's extremely important. Something that I'm certainly no expert on, but it's something that I'm extremely interested in, and it's given me a lot of compassion learning, is this whole law of first truths. The reason I say it gives me compassion because let's just take an extreme example.
Tyler: Let's say you've got a guy that's racist. He's racist. Okay. The whole world would just say, "That guy is racist, and let's get in an argument." Okay, great. But why is that guy racist? Well it probably goes back to a moment when that guys was four years old, riding down the road in a car with his dad, and his dad looked over and saw someone on the side of the road and said, "That person," whatever that person was, color, ethnicity, "we hate those people."
Stefan: Right. It was like Lion King, everything the light touches is our kingdom. He goes, "That's the dark space. We don't go there."
Tyler: Exactly. In that moment, that four year old learned that we hate those people, not why, but just that we hate those people.
Stefan: That's the story.
Tyler: It's been developed over time, and through their culture, and that's the way they are.
Tyler: It's given me a lot of compassion. That's an easy example to use. It's given me a lot of compassion for that person that normally society would say, "Well I hate that person, 'cause that person thinks this way." No, I don't hate that person. I hate that that person went through that situation to bring them up in a way that would make them think that, but until you take that person all the way back, like you said, until you unfold that story and figure out where the lie was, which in that moment, that was the lie in that person's story, is when that was told to them, and they just believed it because it was their dad and that's just what they said. They understood it and they believed it, and it became true. Figuring out where that lie is in their story and being able to rebuild from there.
Tyler: But until you go all the way back, you're never gonna solve the root problem. That's probably one of the biggest problems we have in society today, is you got a lot of people that have never gone through that process, and they just think that the louder they yell, the somehow more truer the words become, which is absurd.
Stefan: Yeah, we got a world now where everybody's got their own media channel, right? You hear the people who scream the loudest.
Stefan: I remember Howard Stern was saying that in the old days, Howard is one of the biggest radio people in the world. He used to be offensive in the '90s. Nowadays he said he's tame 'cause everybody's got their own channel, and he just blends in now, which is crazy.
Stefan: Now I was out with a girl last week, and it was a really interesting conversation, 'cause we talked about the stories and lies, I said, "You know, you're a beautiful girl. Why don't you marry? Why don't you have a relationship." She goes, "Oh, I don't want to be my parents." I go, "Okay, so what about that? Why?" We go deeper, "Oh, I don't think my dad should have had kids." I go, "Okay, so you shouldn't have been born. Okay. I get that. Your dad shouldn't have had kids."
Stefan: I say, "Okay, why?" She said, "Well he didn't know how to raise us, and he was a dad, and didn't do all this stuff." I said, "Well, from your dad's perspective, do you think that he loves you but doesn't know how to love, and everything he does, ever day is his best choice?" Everything he does, even the dumb stuff, he thinks that's the best thing at the time. He's running around on this earth doing what he thinks is best, even though he's totally messing it up. Maybe he's got an 80% or 90% mess up rate, but he still loves you."
Stefan: It was interesting 'cause that whole perspective flipped in that second. When you think of it from the other person's perspective, my own parents, they love me, they love each other, they couldn't figure it out. There's things they didn't know how to do, there's things that they still don't know how to do, they're just people, they aren't perfect. What do you think of that technique of looking at the story from the other person's perspective in some of your traumas to maybe reverse that or change the story?
Tyler: It's huge man. It's empathy. It's being able to hold space for someone and be able to not judge, and not necessarily even try to fix. I think there's a huge problem now, especially with men. There's a problem where men don't have these conversations, men don't have real conversations. They walk around and, how are you? Great. Hey what's up man, how are you? Awesome. Hey man, how are you? Can't complain.
Tyler: Meanwhile, they hate their wife, their kids despise them, their business is barely staying afloat. They're on thin ice in all areas, but they keep this alpha male, keep charging like I'm good. Everything's good. Everything's good. The reality is they need those vulnerable conversations with people that they could trust, that don't judge, that will just listen. It's an epidemic with men.
Tyler: It's one thing that I'm super passionate about is creating environments for those conversations to occur because I think it's so important. We can't do life alone. I think so many of us are trying to, especially men. It just doesn't work. It just doesn't work. I think it's an extremely important thing that you just said. You've got to have other eyes on your situation because there's things that other people will see that you don't.
Tyler: But that being said, there's something that I learned from a guy, he has this thing called The Art of Conversation that he discusses. He travels all over and speaks. He gave me this line to use in situations when I'm talking to people. It's been pretty transformational in the conversations that I've had.
Tyler: When someone's explaining to you something they're going through, a struggle a problem, when they're done speaking, just to be able to ask them one question. It is, "Hey, do you mind if I give you some feedback on that?" That one question just opens everything up, because quite frankly, they may not want your feedback, they might want you to try to fix it, they're just trying to vent, and they just need to get this off their chest, and they're just trying to work through it themselves. That's fine.
Tyler: But if they say, "Yeah. I'd love to hear your feedback," then they're giving you permission to try to give your viewpoint on what they're going through. That's been a really valuable lesson that I've learned in conversation lately.
Stefan: Dude, this is a deep show. I really got to give you some props, Tyler. This is a great conversation, man. I wish we were going for two hours today, but we both got actual businesses to do. We can't just play around on the podcast.
Stefan: I got a couple questions I ask everybody on the show.
Tyler: Sure.
Stefan: One of them is, if you can go back to the beginning, let's say 15 year old Tyler, what's a piece of advice you would give yourself?
Tyler: Be patient.
Stefan: Oh man, I'm giving that a gong. That's gong Friday here. Tell me more about being patient, 'cause I think that's a lost art form in today's world.
Tyler: As I alluded to in the beginning of the show, it was just four and a half years ago I found myself in a really, really bad place. I was completely broke, had a bunch of debt, I had been through a failed marriage, a wife that had had an affair. I was led through about a year of just turmoil to me landing in divorce, business failure. I was just in a bad place, all around. I was out of shape, I was depressed. At that time, I was 28, 29 years old.
Tyler: You had these pictures in your head of what you're gonna look like when you're 30. What's life gonna be like at 30? I see so many people. Whether it's 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, what's life gonna look like then? When you do that to yourself, you start feeling like you're behind, you start feeling like you need to play catch up, you start feeling like the odds are stacked against you, and it creates bad decisions, it creates riskier decisions than you should, and it just can really, really take someone into a bad place.
Tyler: But what I would tell people is to be patient. It doesn't matter if you're 20, 30, 40, 50, 60. If you're still breathing, you've got time. There's so much more time than people realize. I'm 33, and I feel like I'm 23. I know people that are 43 that feel like they're 23, 53 they feel like they're 23. You've got so much freaking time.
Tyler: The last part I'll say to that is, everything can change so quickly if you're just patient. It's almost like the more patient you are, the fast it comes, which really doesn't make any sense. But I've just found it to be true in my own life. The times where I felt the most patience, things progressed quicker. The times where I felt rushed, things took longer. If you can just believe that, if you can just hear my voice and just say, "Okay, I'm just gonna believe that, because this guy says it's true, he's experienced it," if you could just believe it, then just try it. Get yourself ...
Tyler: Unfortunately it's one of those things where if you pray for patience, God doesn't give you patience, he gives you the opportunity to be patient. That could be frustrating at times. But it's in those opportunities to become patient that you really prove yourself, that you really are able to develop, like we were talking about in the beginning, the disciplines that will ultimately carry you toward your success.
Tyler: Patience is huge because when you're in that feeling of being behind, or feeling like you've got so much to do to catch up, man, that's a hopeless feeling. I've been there. Man, I'd hate for somebody to feel like that when they don't have to. You don't have to feel that way because you have plenty of time. There's plenty of reasons and things that are gonna happen to make you feel pain. That's not one of them. Yeah, it's just patience. To say patience is virtue is obviously cliché, but man, this is so freaking true.
Stefan: I think it's a book, The Richest Man in Babylon, where Arkad is teaching he's the richest man in Babylon. He's teaching these kids about money and he said, "One of the ways to lose your money is to expect too high of a return from it." That's the same thing. If you're expecting too high of a return, you're rushing, as you're saying, rushing through life, you're gonna lose your life. I think that it's so interesting. Time, money, all that stuff is the same, and be patient. I can hear the meditation coming out your voice, man. Live in the moment.
Stefan: Tyler, top three books that changed your life, man. What are they?
Tyler: Top three books. I love The Four Agreements. I love ...
Stefan: Bro, I've got to stop you. You're the third person in the last 24 hours that has said that book.
Tyler: Oh, really?
Stefan: Yeah. I don't what, is the universe is bringing that book into my world? I just [inaudible 00:48:59] last night, so you're the third person, 24 hours that said The Four Agreements, The Four Agreements. My secretary last night at midnight was saying Four Agreements. I was like, "Oh man. I got to get the book, dude." Tell me about it.
Tyler: It's meant to be. Qbq! Qbq! is a big one for me, the Question Behind the Question. I truly believe that your life, the success of your life will be determined by the level and value of questions that you ask yourself and others. That's a freaking incredible book.
Tyler: I'm reading one right now though that I'm getting obsessed with, which Atomic Habits by James Clear. I am really enjoying that one, so that ones gonna be a big one for me for next year.
Stefan: What's an atomic habit? Is that microing down your habits, or what?
Tyler: It really is. It tells a story about a guy that lost 100 pounds, and the first six weeks, all he did was get ready to go to the gym, go to the gym, and then five minutes later go home. We're like, "Well how in the world did he lose all this weight?" Well you can't develop a habit that doesn't exist. You can't increase or enhance a habit that doesn't exist. For six weeks, he developed a habit of going to the gym.
Stefan: Just going.
Tyler: Then he built upon that habit, and now he's lost 100 pounds, and he'll keep it off because now that habit is ingrained in him.
Tyler: So many of us, especially as we head into this new year, so many of us, we get these new goals, and let's just use the exam of working out. You haven't worked out in a year, but January 1, I'm gonna go workout for two hours, and then January 2, I'm gonna go workout for two hours. I'm gonna be so sour on January 3 and 4 that I don't go back for three months. It's just always what happens.
Tyler: There's a system that he details out about these habits, and about different hacks really, like combining habits with things that you're already doing, which is very interesting. Making habits enjoyable, and just all these different aspects of habits, but what has been a little bit of theme in this show is it's those habits that create the disciplines. It goes hands in hand.
Stefan: You know what, you're coming back to patience. It's coming back to patience, it's coming back to those small wins compound. You know what's something I've always said to people who are training is, "We can multiply you, we can't add." Whatever you're doing, we can multiply by two or three or four, but if you're a zero, you multiply zero by two, it's still zero. Right?
Tyler: Yup. Absolutely.
Stefan: Last question today for the people at home, Tyler. What is the one thing that young people need to succeed these days?
Tyler: What is the one thing people need to succeed these days?
Stefan: Yeah, we're talking 18 year olds, 19 year olds. People who are just coming into the game now, and maybe they're obsessed with Instagram, or maybe they're obsessed with Facebook. They're young kids, they got all sorts of ideas. What's the one thing you'd say to those young kids starting out?
Tyler: Man, they just got to be willing to do the work. You got to be willing to do the work. The idea that you're somehow gonna stumble into success is a joke. If you have the audacity to want to live an extraordinary life, or have extraordinary things, have extraordinary success, then it's gonna take an extraordinary amount of work. That's the only way you get there. One of my favorite sayings of all time is that, "If you seek discomfort, the world will deliver you pleasure. If you seek comfort, the world will deliver you pain."
Stefan: Wow. That's deep.
Tyler: I've gotten to a place in my life where I'm just constantly searching for ways to make myself uncomfortable, and getting comfortable with the uncomfortable, if that's possible. But putting the work in when you don't feel like it, when it doesn't make sense, all those things, they're uncomfortable. But that's what ultimately will get you to whatever success is to that person. Get clear on that, and then just be willing to absolutely put the amount of effort in that's required.
Stefan: Wow. Tyler, you know it's been an absolute pleasure speaking with you, man. You are a evolved spirit. I really appreciate this.
Stefan: How could people get in touch with Tyler if they want to know more?
Tyler: Yeah, so Instagram, Facebook are the main spots. It's @tylerharrispage. You can go to tylerharrispage.com. It's got all my links there. Would love to connect with everybody, I respond to every single message that I get. I would love to talk to people.
Stefan: Tremendous. Tyler, thanks so much for being on the show. Respect the grind, brother.
Tyler: Absolutely. Thank you for having me.
He is a coach. He's a real estate broker. He's a real estate agent. Ex-professional basketball player, and he's grown a pretty big YouTube channel. 110,000 subscribers, which is super, super impressive.
Stefan: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show, Respect The Grind, with Stefan Aarnio. This is the show we interview people who've achieved mastery and freedom through discipline. We interview entrepreneurs, athletes, authors, artists, real estate investors, anyone who's achieved mastery and examine what it took to get there.
Stefan: Today on the show we have a friend of mine, a new friend of mine, Bryan Casella. He is a coach. He's a real estate broker. He's a real estate agent. Ex professional basketball player, and he's grown a pretty big YouTube channel. 110,000 subscribers, which is super, super impressive. So, Bryan, welcome to the show, Respect The Grind. Thanks so much for joining me, man.
Bryan: Stefan, thanks for having me bro. I'm excited to be here and ready to drop some knowledge.
Stefan: You're a young guy, 32 years old. I'm 32 as well. You've done a lot of things in your short life. Tell me Bryan, looks like it's pretty good today. Was it always like this or where did you get started?
Bryan: No, man. Growing up, my family is actually from South America. I'm the first one from my family. Born in LA in the states and growing up, I wouldn't say that we were terribly poor but I didn't have a lot either. So we were very just meager, but okay. Barely above poor, we can say. I remember growing up and seeing a lot of scarcity around me from being told that Lamborghinis and nice things just weren't going to be a part of my life. I still remember to this day being three, four or five years old and just telling myself, "It can't be like this. I have to break out of this. I wasn't meant to live this way."
Bryan: So, growing up around age 10 or 11 is when I got into basketball like we were talking a little bit off the air, and I just really dedicated myself to that and I had dreams and aspirations of getting to the NBA. By age 14, 15, I really just started grinding every day. People would be on vacation, people would go party, I would be in the gym working out and getting some shots up. I went into college, I got a scholarship, I played in college. You fast forward after that, I played professionally in Europe and South America for three years. My last year I injured my left ankle the second time and had a second surgery on it, at which point it took a toll on me mentally and it really affected my ability to play. So, at that point I said, "Okay, that's it, I'm done. No more basketball." At that point, I'm age 24, 25.
Bryan: Getting out of that I fell into a year of just being completely lost, didn't know what I wanted to do, felt almost borderline depressed and sorry for myself until one day I decided, you know what, I have to change something. From that moment on, I just kind of, you can say, put the switch on to look for something outside of basketball because I did basketball from age 10 or 11 until 25, and I came across one of those cliche signs we see in front of the real estate buildings that says, make 100,000 your first year as a real estate agent. And in my mind, I said, okay, everybody's not doing that for sure, but there's probably one guy who's done it and he's cracked that code, let me go talk to him.
Bryan: So, I walked in, long story short, I talked to the broker for two hours, I signed up, got my real estate license and I just never stopped, man. I just grinded my first couple years, then I've built my team and I got to where I'm at today. But that decision to do it changed my life to get into real estate for sure.
Stefan: I love the stories about the athletes turn business people. It's always like the most rewarding for me. I used to be a captain of volleyball team in high school, I played basketball. I'm not a very good basketball player, most not a very good singer, but I love seeing the transfer of athletics to business. Why do you think it transfers so easily, Bryan?
Bryan: Well, I think a lot of the core fundamentals if you apply them, you'll do great because I would say most athletes, especially if we get to a high level, we have a very high level of discipline and commitment to the sports. All we need to do is transfer what we're doing on the field or on the court into the business world. And more than anything, I think we're all super competitive. We want to be number one, we want to beat everybody else and that's ultimately the drive that keeps us going and I think allows most athletes to transition into sales jobs or the business world, it gives them a much better headstart or opportunity than everybody else.
Stefan: Yeah, it's really all about discipline. Now, Bryan, we talk to all different people on this show, and we sometimes have actors, artists, authors, real estate people, why is real estate so attractive? Like, it seems to me that everybody on this show has either made it in real estate, they're holding in real estate and all millionaires in the world are either made or held in real estate, why is real estate so attractive?
Bryan: Well, at the time, man, when I looked at it, especially, I would say, anybody under the age of 35, it seems from the outside like a very low barrier to entry type career with a huge upside. Meaning, you can get licensed especially here in California, you can do your three courses and state test and be licensed within, I believe, three, four months. So, it's really quick, you spend maybe $1,500 max and now you can sell a home which out here in Southern California the average price point now is around 600,000 or 700,000, and you can make 15,000, 20,000 depending on what commission you get. That alert to people, just the dollar is I think really what attracts them.
Bryan: Now, they get slapped in the face right when they start in the reality of how difficult it is to put these deals together and actually build a business with it, but I think that's really what attracts people is the fact that you can create this business where you're kind of like an entrepreneur and by yourself and you can make a lot of money right away. I think that's really the ultimate attraction for most people at least below the age of 35.
Stefan: I've heard a lot of times, "I don't love real estate, but I love the benefits." Would you say that's true?
Bryan: Absolutely. Yeah. 100%.
Stefan: Yeah, lots of benefits. Now, something you said there is like really, I think, important that people need to hear is, people get excited about the money and they get excited about the 100 Grand or whatever the thing is, and then you said, it's a lot harder to put a deal together than you think. Tell me, why isn't it just magic and why can't everybody just make 100 Grand in real estate? I'm a real estate investor. So, my background is I came from raising capital and flipping homes. That's what I do. I'd flip homes, sell more money. Never been an agent, bought the course three times, but always been pure investor. I teach people now how to be investors and go full-time if they want to raise capital, build their brand. It's funny because I think a lot of people get in and they go, "Shit, it's harder than it looks." Why isn't it just so easy to put deals together on the agent side or the investor side?
Bryan: Well, especially from the agent side, man, we watch shows like Million Dollar Listing where these guys just show up in suits to the office and they get a call, "Hey, I want to buy a $20 million house, come show it." And then they negotiate it over the phone in five minutes and the deal is closed, supposedly. When I got in and what most people fail to realize is when you get in, most brokerages and companies don't hold your hand and help you. They're just like, "There's your desk, there's your phone, get to work. Good luck." Again, most people getting into real estate don't have a sales background and it's a direct sales job. Unless you're spending thousands and thousands of dollars on marketing to bring people in, you're going to have to get out there and talk to people. Whether it's-
Stefan: You still going to close it, bro. You marketing, you got to close it, man. You're paying for the leads. It's like jacked up version of that now.
Bryan: ... Yeah, exactly. Yeah, because you're right. Even if I pay for the leads and they come in, I still have to make a phone call and go meet with them and still speak with them. So, I'm going door to door and making phone calls like Wolf of Wall Street on steroids and those deals don't come easy. I mean, you have to go through a lot of rejection. You have to face your own insecurities that a lot of people are not willing to do. And there's really no guarantee per se that you're going to get it because even my first couple of deals, when I sat down with those people, they were interviewing two or three other agents and I had to win them over.
Bryan: So, it's not this glitz and glamour. "Oh, yeah. Hi, Bryan. I'm going to sell my house. Come on in, we're going to pay you 10%." It', "Okay, I'm interviewing you and three other guys. Why should I pick you?" And you're sitting there brand new, sweating with your cheap suit on trying to make ends meet and you're now trying to convince somebody to hire you to sell their $500,000 home or a million dollar home and that reality slaps people on the face very quickly as soon as they start.
Stefan: Right. It's not cheap. It's not easy. I think it's interesting. I've sort of creating a course curriculum here over the last six years and we teach sales, negotiation, marketing, wealth, and raising capital. And it's funny because four out of those five things really is sales, and the ability to negotiate and sit there and sweat it out when you're going to get the contract. How important is it to be able to sell and negotiate in this world?
Bryan: It's 100% vital, man. You said something earlier, most people say they're not passionate about real estate or love it, they just love the money. One other kind of angle that I took on it is I said, "Well, I may not per se be passionate about real estate, but if I get into this game of real estate," what you just said about sales, "that's something I'm going to dive into and learn." And that to me was an essential life tool. I still believe that people look at sales, maybe it's because of Instagram, man, and all this stuff we're seeing on social media, they still look at it as like some gimmicky thing, when it's like one of the most vital skills you can have in life because everything we do, we're negotiating all the time. Everything is sales, but people fail to look at it that way, so, I think it's 100% vital.
Bryan: Like if I had a son right now, the first thing I would teach them is about sales and I'd have his head in books, and I would be like, probably doing mock negotiations with them and I'd be teaching them so by the time he's 10, he'd be like a master negotiator.
Stefan: Yeah. One thing I want to do in our kids is I want to say like, "Okay, look, here's the deal. Rent starts at age three, it's one penny a month, you got to pay your rent. And then there's chores in the kitchen on a big board and the kids can do the chores, invoice mom. Invoices get paid on first and the 15th." And then if they're like, "Dad, I want money." I'm like, "Okay, you got to write me a business plan and then I'm going to give you a loan at 7% and you get some chocolate almonds, you bag them up, you go selling them door to door." You got to get the hustle on early. You got to be selling early because otherwise people will do ... One thing I see too a lot, Bryan, with coaching people is, negative view on sales is usually a negative view on money. If someone is negative on selling or being sold, they're just not going to have any money. Would you say that's true?
Bryan: Absolutely, man. A lot of that programming comes into us at a young age. Like I mentioned in the beginning, I was brought up to fear the salesman, to be afraid of contracts, to look at rich people as if they were evil. I remember when I started this process of kind of reprogramming my brain, that was what I had burned into my mind was money is the root of all evil, and now let's say I get into your coaching program and you're teaching me and giving me these tools to now start making money and have sales skills, well, my own mind doesn't conflict with that because it tells me money is the root of all evil. So, I mean, I'm not going to ever get it or if I do get it, it's going to be gone very quickly. Just like I always tell people the classic example of somebody winning the lottery and hitting 50 million or 100 million, and a year later, they're broke or in a worse position than they were before they got the $50 million payout or whatever it was.
Stefan: Well, it's interesting, and a lot of it comes down to changing that broke programming. I remember when I started being interested in money, I was a guitar teacher making 10 Grand a year, and teaching guitar at my mom's house in university. That's what I did. I would save 70% of my money because I read Rich Dad Poor Dad, a little book called Rich Dad Poor Dad. It says, start saving your money and take a real estate investment course. I thought, shit, that's great. So, I started saving 70% of my money, the rest went to my rent for my mom. So, I paid rent to my mom, and then I had this like sliver of money. It was like $20 a week for entertainment and bus pass. I was like, bus pass, bagels for 99 cents, and like rent to mom and the rest went into savings.
Stefan: It took a long time for me to shake that broke mentality. I tried to save my way to freedom. Usually in the modern world today, you can't just save your way to freedom. The currency is always inflating, the money is always devaluing. What I've found is I had to go ... Actually, what got me out of that mentality, the poverty mentality was throwing down on some big coaches and mentors. I spent 300 Grand on coaches and mentors in the last eight years. And that really got me, it forced me into the abundance mentality and out of the scarcity mentality. What are some ways that someone can get out of scarcity and into abundance?
Bryan: That's a great question. What you mentioned about investing yourself, man, I mean, I think I've spent probably 300 Grand in the last three or four years alone.
Stefan: Damn, dude.
Bryan: Yeah, and it's one of those things where I've just doubled down on it because it's so important. Part of that is not just, I think, most of the times the coaches and the mentors, but the people that we meet with and within those programs that has really helped evolve me because when I've put together these masterminds or I've met with coaches and gone to their events and I've been able to make new relationships and new friendships, I've been fortunate enough to get around people who don't exhibit that mindset who are way ahead of me or closer to where I want to be in the future that getting a taste of that in real time is what started shifting me mentally a bit. And I sort of, "Well, my relationship with money is so different than them. Like, let me pick their brain. Let me just even observe them for an hour and see how they sit down at this restaurant, how they look at the menu, how they interact with people, even how they tip."
Bryan: I really just started making mental notes and just witnessing it. That's when I first started making the connection. Another thing I started doing that I can't remember who taught me this, otherwise, I'd give him credit. I started doing little things to get me out of that broke mindset. Like, for example, I'd go to a hotel and I pull up and I'd asked myself, "What would a millionaire do here? Would he do the self parking or would he balle and pay an extra five Bucks?" And I'm like, "Well, obviously, he's going to pay an extra five bucks and balle because time is money."
Bryan: So, I would do little stuff like that. I'd spend the extra five bucks to balle just to get the experience. And the more I did that and really immerse myself not only in the coaching but with these other people who already were farther ahead than I was, it really started changing me. A lot of times I didn't even realize that change was happening until I was presented with a new situation and then I responded to it differently. Like when a bill came and I went to tip, it became automatic for me to tip 20%, instead of pulling pennies together and tipping a couple of bucks.
Stefan: Right. That's interesting. When I was broke, I remember I flew down to Palm Springs. I had five grand in the bank I'd saved up. So, I'm a guitar teacher, saved up five grand in the bank was like all the money in the world and I was going to buy myself a good duplex, like a rental property. That was my goal, of 50 grand at the time in my town. I remember I flew down to Palm Springs ... Well, I went to a seminar and there was a guy there named Bill Barton. He was a self made billionaire. It was 2008 and I guess the banks were crashing in the states and he said, "Look, last time I got rich the banks are crashing and I bought up all this credit card debt for a penny, two pennies, three pennies, four pennies, five pennies on the dollar. Come down with me."
Stefan: I remember watching and I was like, "I'm not signing up for that. I'm going to stick to my rental property." My friend said to me, he's like, "Stefan, if anybody was going to do this, I thought it would be you." So, I threw down all my five grand on this course with this guy and I went down to Palm Springs, I had no money to my name, but I went and booked a super nice hotel. And it was like the Omni Rancho Las Palmas or whatever in Palm Springs, gorgeous hotel. Four and a half stars. I remember being there and I'm like, wow, beautiful marble. Beautiful girls at the pool, beautiful view, nice wood on the walls, or whatever they're doing there. And I was like, "Oh, man, I want to get back here. I want to do this. I want to live this life." And I remember eating like a lobster club at the restaurants like a $30 lobster club sandwich and I see bill that's eaten a $5 foot long from subway behind the stage. The actual billionaire he's eating a $5 foot long ... I mean, the $30 lobster club being broke.
Stefan: And I went 10 Grand into debt, further debt at that seminar. So, of course, they can't teach you everything in industry in three days. We all know that. So, do you want to really learn at this time? It's $10,000, 10 Grands. Not 10 Grand in the whole going in on this thing? And I'm like, "Oh my god." But I'll never forget spending a week with a billionaire when I was 21 and that classroom was totally worth it. Learning to make them a loan proposal, learning to make a business plan, learning how to pitch, learning how to ask for money, learning what it's like to live in a nice hotel for a little bit. All those images stayed in my mind and Bill, he died I think two years ago. But he went and he jacked up a new company. First time it was called CFS, Commercial Financing Services. And His Second CFS two. When he went out to raise money, Bryan, for his second company, he raised 400 million in the first round.
Bryan: Wow.
Stefan: So, watching him for a week, invaluable, living in that space for a week, invaluable. Just tasting it because in your mind you just want to get back to that. Would you say that that's a powerful thing?
Bryan: Yeah, man, because then you have that reference. We dream all the time. For example, before I bought my Lamborghini, I can't tell you how many times in my mind I had driven in it, seen it in the garage, could practically taste the leather in there and the suede, but when I really sat in one, and I started going to the dealerships and then talking to the sales people, and then meeting some of the other owners, that's really when everything started accelerating, and it really just fired me up even more. So, having that real life reference point, like you just described, I think, is invaluable for sure.
Stefan: Yeah, absolutely. It's just like, I find with people, and I'm in the house flipping business teaching people how to flip houses, until they fly to the city where their coach lives and they watch their coach flip a house, they watch their coach make the calls, they just don't do it. And I don't know what it is. It's just like, you need the evidence in your brain, and it's like you need someone to do it right in front of you. It's almost like sex. Like you have to do sex to know sex. You can't just read a book about it. You got to like get in there and see someone do it, right?
Bryan: Absolutely, man. Yep. Experience.
Stefan: So, Bryan, one thing that I think is super impressive are your 110,000 YouTube subscribers, bro. That's amazing. Good for you. How did you build such a big channel? What got you that kind of following?
Bryan: Thank you, man. I appreciate it. It's really been consistent effort over time, but more than anything, I believe it came down to a few key points. Number one is, this is the first thing I did, even when I got into real estate, and it was right before I started doing video and social media. I started going around just asking people, what does a realtor look like? The average realtor in your mind? What do they look like? What do they sound like? What do they do? And pretty much everybody unanimously was giving me the same description. Older person with a briefcase, black suit, white shirt, very boring, no energy, life
Bryan: And I was like, man, I have an opportunity here because the way I am, if I can transcend this boredom and the stereotypical image of what a realtor is, that already is going to get me a step ahead and get me attention. That's kind of what I did, man. I went to a lot of seminars too, real estate seminars, everybody was kind of walking on eggshells. Everyone's afraid to curse and everyone is so wound up and just so tight. I said, I'm the opposite. You know what, I'm just going to bring my personality into this and not be afraid to break these barriers. That was the first thing that I did that initially was kind of like a shock to everybody, but very quickly started attracting and garnering a lot of attention.
Bryan: The second thing was I wasn't afraid to show my personal life. When I even go on my Facebook and see people who follow me, especially the ones who are in real estate, or any type of brick and mortar, "real life business" outside of online, all they really show is their business. Oh, I closed this deal. Oh, I flipped this house. Oh, I just listed this home. Oh, I sold this home to this buyer. But we don't really know anything about the individual and I knew, "Hey, I'm watching these people." Just like we used to watch people on TV back in the day, we're just genuinely curious about finding out, what stores do they shop that?
Bryan: What clothes do they wear? Do they wear the same shoes as I do? What kind of toothpaste do they use" I started getting more intimate details about my life, how I think, what I did on a day to day basis, what my hobbies were, and that alongside what I just told you about kind of breaking barriers, really just opened up the floodgates, man. Because then I started collaborating with other people, people from different walks of life started following me, and what I wanted to establish in everybody's brain that I was in real estate and the businessman who was always there, it was just communicated in a different way. And that really is what got a lot of attention because at the end of the day, if we do stuff on social media, there has to be an element of entertainment, and most people forget that. You can be super educational, super informative, but if you're boring and you don't entertain people, they're not going to stick around, and I think that-
Stefan: You just got yourself a gong bro. Entertainment, man. So, what's some of the things that make your content entertaining that makes people want to come back?
Bryan: Let's see. Well, one thing I started doing about a year ago that really helped me out was collaborating with people outside of my space and bringing that element into my social media. Because, you know, I do what most people do in my space. I travel and speak, I talk about real estate and that kind of stuff, but I really started interviewing and collaborating and doing things like people outside of my industry. For example, I'm a huge car nut. I love cars. Because I own like six, but I'm going to buy like 10 more the next couple years. I'm just a car nut. I'm very good friends with a lot of people not just locally but internationally who are in the cars, and because of that I now have connections with the people who have been the, we can say like the forefathers to the Fast and Furious franchise. I know Paul Walker's family like very intimately now, and I've gone opportunities outside of that, whether it's in the real estate business to sell homes, let people invest or whatever it is, or other business opportunities because of that.
Bryan: That alone brings an element of entertainment to my channel and what I do because they know, hey, if I go to Bryan, I'm not just going to be hearing about real estate and how to sell a home and negotiate, dude, he's over here hanging out with the guys on the beach, cruising down PCH with six Lamborghinis and Ferraris. That's cool. He's doing this, he's doing that. Today, man, I just sat down with a guy who I actually just recently found him but I thought the story was incredible. He spent 10 years in the penitentiary here in the United States and he's turned around and he's a multi millionaire within four to four and a half years of being fresh out of prison. And now he's a multi millionaire. So I interviewed him.
Bryan: Being able to put him now on my channel, which I'll be posting that video on Instagram and YouTube tomorrow. No one else in the real estate industry that's doing social media would ever even think about doing that because they would say, "Oh, I can't associate with somebody who has tattoos and who's been to prison, that's going to ruin my image." That part, that uniqueness, that mystery like, "Oh, what's Bryan going to do next?" That's one of the biggest pillars that I have for sure as far as entertainment on my channel because they can come into my channel and not show up for a week, and when they show up the next week, someone's going to slap them in the face because I'm doing something new.
Stefan: So, you're pretty much a rapper. You're like a rapper of real estate. It's interesting. I used to have a rock band and I wanted to be a rock star, and I think rock had one of the fatal flaws that the bands wouldn't collaborate. Like a rock band was just a rock band and they had their album and that was it. But rappers would always get like, M&M would get 50 cent on his album. And Jay Z would get, you know someone else on his album. So, there's all these collabs going on. Would you say collabs is the key to growing that audience?
Bryan: Absolutely. What I think and it totally is, I think some people are afraid because they think, well, if I collaborate, people are going to forget that I'm a realtor or a real estate investor, whatever it is, they're not. Anywhere I go, I'm known as a real estate agent, the leader of my team. That's going to transcend whatever space that you're in, and it just opens up you to a new audience. I can't tell you how many people now have turned into clients or students that I've taken from the car community.
Bryan: For example, I have another group of friends that are dating coaches, and I do stuff with them. So that opens up another audience for me. So, just between that and the car community, I would say that's contributed to an additional 20%, 30% of my growth and just brand awareness because I've been able to open those doors which I know other people would want to do, but there's this fear saying, "Well, I'm the real estate guy, I can't talk to the car guy." Because it doesn't make any sense when I think that's one of the key is to really grow your brand.
Stefan: Okay, we're growing the brand. Now, let's come back to it. So, growing a brand is expensive, dude. I've been doing that for like, almost 10 years now. Growing a brand costs money. There's a reason why there's not a million brands out there because it's expensive to grow a brand. You got to monetize it somehow. So, I guess you're monetizing through real estate skills. And then you're also doing a coaching program. Right?
Bryan: Yeah.
Stefan: Cool. So talk about the coaching program, Bryan, what's some of the things that are in there? Like, you said, you got all different types of people joining your coaching. Who joins Bryan's coaching and what types of things are you teaching them?
Bryan: Yeah, man. Modern Success, which is the name of the program. I started it like I told you seven, eight months ago. And it started because I was getting so many requests. "Hey, man, do you have any products on this or new coach and this and that?" And it became such a regular thing to get text messages and emails and DMs on Instagram. And I said, why not start something? So, what I do now is I created a private group on Facebook. We do one weekly live call on zoom just like this for about an hour, an hour and a half depending on how many questions people have. We're all pick a topic and lecture on it for 30, 45 minutes and then I'll open it up to Q&A. And then throughout the week, I also put four to five videos in the group teaching something, whether it's a skill or a little mindset thing to help people make a mental shift, but the focus is really, I would say mainly on three pillars.
Bryan: One would be the business aspect, learning sales, some sales skills. Number two, being able to handle your finances and then eventually build wealth, and three getting your mind right. I think so many people, especially younger people now who grew up with social media will look at you, me and some other people who maybe have been putting in work for a long time, but they'll think that there's such a big gap between us and them that they can't do it. All these limitations coming. "I'm too young. I'm not from the right place. I don't live in LA. I can't do it." I feel like people have literally mentally crippled themselves into the point of what we were just talking about, where they'll see you doing it, they'll be on your program and they still won't take any action as I said. So, my whole basis of building that program was to get people off their ass and into action, and the kind of testimonials I'm getting and the results that I'm seeing are just out of this world.
Stefan: That's amazing, man. I got the same problem now in my Instagram. I think I got to 60,000 followers and I got all these like, kids. 12 years old, 13, 14. I've this one girl, this girl from India she's like, "Hey, I have a crush on this boy. What should I do?" She's like, "Should I tell him how I feel?" I'm like, "Yeah, why not?" I said, "Ask him out to lunch or something and if he says, no, he wasn't yours to begin with." And then today, she texted me. She goes, "He said, no, he rejected me." I'm like, "Big deal. Fuck up. Move on girl." So, it's crazy. You got all these people, and monetizing that traffic can be cumbersome. Especially I got 12 year old kids in India checking out my stuff now. Well, they can't even afford $199 audio books. So, what is your coaching cost if someone wants to join that kind of thing? What's the price point?
Bryan: It's $97 a month. I wanted to keep it affordable because I know, especially with my audience being people between 18 and 35, most of them being aspiring to become an entrepreneur or a business person that money is tight for them, and I wanted to keep it simple that way if somebody is getting in. 97 Bucks a month for most people is something they can scrape together if they really take a look at their expenses and get some basic finances in order, they can do it. I wanted to find that sweet spot. I will be raising it later on, but I thought 97 a month was the perfect introductory price for somebody.
Stefan: Yeah. No, that's wicked man. I mean, that's 1,200 Bucks a year. I think it's a magical thing and you know, some people would say like the negative people like, "Oh, man, you're ripping those people off." But there's probably guys out there you're totally changing their life, you're totally changing their mindset, and you got to pay for curated content. If they want good curated, branded stuff, it costs money to put that on. I really appreciate that. Yeah, go ahead, Bryan.
Bryan: Yeah, man. And think about all the money you've spent too, and I, and that I've spent and anybody above us. They've spent that money. They paid their dues to get that information and a lot of times I feel like if I was to take this precious piece of knowledge, that maybe I've saved for my paid group and I just give it out for free, people aren't going to appreciate it. If we hold an event. Let's say me and you hold an event and we make it free. How many excuses that are going to come up the day [inaudible 00:28:30] for people not to show up. "Oh, sorry, guys. It's snowing a little bit today, I'm going to sleep in I'll catch the next one." You best believe if we charge them 500 Bucks or 1,000 Bucks to show up, I don't care if the world is ending, they're going to show up to that event because they forked out their money and they've put some skin in the game. And that's-
Stefan: The gong. The Gong came on for that, bro. Give me an instant replay on that, Bryan.
Bryan: You got to put your money where your mouth is, man. If you want to learn from the best and get the best knowledge, you got to be able to put either your credit card down, the cash down, the check down, whatever it is, or we'll go back to the dumb and dumber days, an IOU, whatever it takes, you got to put something down. I mean, a lot of times, like I even mentioned earlier, maybe at the event I got, yeah, one or two pieces of information, but I met that one person who then later on gave me a connection or introduced me to somebody else, who then gave me that next breakthrough. So, you never know how it's going to happen. But you got to pay to play. You got to pay to play.
Stefan: You got to pay to play. You know I love that, man. I think you're bang on. You go to what you pay for. It's funny. I do an event called Blueprint to Cash, and it used to be called Self Made Live and Self Made was like I would sell my book, and people get the book and they get two tickets for like 50 Bucks. That's how it works. So, they're overpriced book but underpriced tickets. So, you get the $50 book and the two tickets to the event and that's cool. I remember we do these events and [inaudible 00:29:47] 100 people and then like the afternoon comments that people leave, it's people leave the next day. They weren't committed. But as soon as we turned that event and is like a Blueprint to Cash, we sold for 2,000 Bucks now, same event, and we include their flight, we include their hotel.
Stefan: So it's like a great experience. We got a limousine driving thing to like a dinner at either, like a flip, or my house, or whatever. And it's amazing man because people show up, they don't quit, they stick through it, they have a great experience. It's just, you can be in the free line, but it's kind of like going to Costco and eating those free winners. It's not really a meal, dude. You can go there and eat those little baby winners, but you might as well spend the $85 and get the hot dog and the drink. Get the real thing.
Bryan: Exactly, man. Yeah, I agree.
Stefan: Now, Bryan, let me ask you this. You're successful in a lot of things. Did it in sports, doing it on YouTube, you got a coaching mastermind group successful, real estate salesperson. Now, what's your obsession?
Bryan: My obsession, man, and this sounds weird to a lot of people is just simply me pushing, we can say, barriers on my own potential. That's really what it boils down to because I've thought about that a lot myself. Like, well, what's this drive in me? What's this spark in me? It's really, part of it maybe it's because I grew up being told I couldn't do anything, and that I would be average. So now maybe because of that my quest is just, what else can I do? Like I'm already talking to one of my clients right now who we're about four months we're about to close this new development over here by the beach for like 5 million. It's going to be a sick, sick house, man.
Bryan: And we're talking about going in together to open up a sports bar because I've always wanted to open up a bar. That thought wasn't really in my mind until a year or two ago, but I'm like, "Fuck it. Let's do it." So I'm all about pushing the envelope and just seeing, maybe it's not worth it, but what I can get away with [inaudible 00:31:39]. Like somebody said, let's try this. I'm going to do it. Another idea pops up in my mind you know what, let's go for it.
Bryan: Thrill seeker, we can say. I really don't know what it is, man. But I think that is the best way to sum it up because I've gone in so many different directions that that seems to be the most concrete definition I can give as far as what keeps me going because that fire is always there. I wake up every day like, let's make it happen. I don't like sitting idly. I don't take vacations. I'm just like, let's keep going. Let's keep hunting like a lion waking up every day and just looking for the deer and the gazelle and saying, "Okay, I'm getting this one." Just being relentless.
Stefan: I love that. Being obsessed with being relentless and being obsessed with what I can get away with. I got a similar feeling in me, man. I think we're similar dudes. What motivates you to be great at what you do? You could show up, Bryan, and you could be like average, you could be like a seven out of 10, you could be like an okay kind of guy. What motivates you to take it over the top and be great?
Bryan: Great question. Even when I was a kid, like if we played video games and you were beating me I'd throw the control at you. I was like, "Okay, we're playing again." I never was okay being second place. One thing I hear now is that kids are getting like participation trophies, just like, I'm a dude. That completely belittles the guy who worked hard to get first place.
Stefan: That's we're all fair, man. That's it. That's we're fair.
Bryan: That's what I was thinking. I was like, when I got the trophies in basketball or whatever it is, I put in the work. If we were to look at my life and the other kids life preparing for that game, let's say was like a one on one tournament, you would see that I put in the work to get first. So, with me it was about being the King of the Hill, not so much for the recognition but to myself to say, "Yes, I could be first." It's more like a personal achievement thing, and just having a high standard for myself because when somebody says average, in my mind I'm looking down to average and it's like why would I be down there when first place is, okay, this is where I'm at. Like, why would I look down and be like, "Let me step down to average." That just doesn't line up with me mentally, you know.
Stefan: I love what Napoleon said. He said, men will die for little pieces of medal. Guys like me and you we want the trophy, we want the medal, we want the first place, and I love what you said about, when they give up the participation trophy, it ruins the whole thing. It's interesting I was watching a psychologist and he was talking about how men when they're with other men will compete, but then when you introduce women into the competition, the men stop competing. Like when women are competing alongside men, the men don't try as hard, and then what ends up happening in like the case of school right now, like the school system, is like men are competing as women and then the men actually, the boys in university and in high school, they don't even try anymore. So the girls get the high marks, the boy is like, "Whatever, I don't want to compete with a girl." And next thing you know, they're out being entrepreneurs or something like that.
Stefan: Now, let me ask you this, Bryan. What's one moment where you thought you'd fail and this whole thing would come crashing down and it'd be over for Bryan?
Bryan: Oh, man. Early on, dude. I mean, I dealt with those demons a lot in my first year in real estate especially, dude. I think my first year in real estate alone as an agent, I was probably in tears at least on three separate occasions. This is coming from somebody who until that point, bro, I can't remember the last time I cried besides, maybe when my grandma passed away when I was like 11. So, this tough guy who hadn't shed a tear in, I don't know how many years, 20 years almost, breaks down three times in one years.
Bryan: I remember when I got my license, a buddy of mine bought a house so I got a deal right away. Like literally the day that I got my license, boom, I ended up helping him buy a house. I got another deal a week after that. I got a listing that ended up selling, but after that there was probably this three and a half four month period where I was just grinding man. Just nose to the grindstone like six and a half, seven days a week just nonstop in just the business with that coming, and dude, I went through every emotional up and down in those three or four months and every thought, every negative opinion that somebody had expressed when I said I was getting into real estate and going down that route, that image was vivid and clear in my mind and I could hear their voice nagging in my ears, "I told you, I knew you weren't going to make it." Man, it was tough.
Bryan: But I'm so glad that I went through it, but I would say that was probably one of the darkest times because now that's when your own mind starts becoming your worst enemy. And that's a very pivotal point where you hit the fork in the road for most people, and they say, I think 87% of real estate people fail the first two years. I think it's because when they hit that fork in the road, they just succumb to the negative imagery and the negative voices in their mind instead of just pushing through because in those dark moments, what saved me was, every single person I had looked up to, studied, conversed with, and sat down with in that beginning process told me, you will go through that.
Bryan: Like you will be in moments where you're going to cry, you're going to feel like quitting, you're going to feel like the world is against you, what are you going to do? How are you going to respond? And if you respond like everybody else, your results are going to be like everybody else. But if you keep going and you understand that, hey, this is going to work. People have done it before you, then you'll make it to the other side. But so few people can make it through that. Those voices, man, for my mentors and people I looked up to is really what saved me.
Stefan: You know I've noticed during this show, Bryan, is that every single person comes on this show who's successful, we usually have only successful people. Sometimes we get a dud, but everybody who comes on this show and is successful usually has a really dark moment. And what's cool about the dark moment is usually the worst that moment is, the higher they jump after. Like, I had one lady, young lady. She's 29 years old. She was living in her car when she was like 18. I remember she was working at Cheesecake Factory and she made no tip. She made like $2. Couldn't pay her rent. That same young lady who is in $100 million development right now at age 29 because she was able to go in there and face the demons and face the darkness. Whoever's on this show, the darker it is and the worse it goes, the higher they jump. Why do you think that is?
Bryan: I tell people you have to go through that. You have to experience that to really get to the other side. I believe in polarity too, to the degree that you swing this way you're going to swing the other way. For me, another way I looked at it mentally too was, everything that I'm encountering right now is a test. So, if I'm willing to experience the lowest of the lows, I'm now deserving of the highest of the high because I was willing to be in the black hole and swim in it with a smile on my face and not succumb or be afraid of it like everybody else. Because all those moments really are, if we break it down it's just unknown because we're not sure what's going to happen. We're not sure if that deal is going to go through. I tell people, you have to be willing to dance and have fun in the unknown like you're dancing in the rain. Because to the degree that you can go into that black hole and into that unknown and darkness, you're going to get that much more light on the other side. And I just think there's a direct correlation with being able to withstand.
Bryan: Like, we've heard some really crazy inspirational stories like Oprah, for example, and to see where they're at now. It's like, well, look what they went through and look what they overcame. So to me, it's just basically like a video game, and if I'm willing to go through this, I'm unlocking that next level that other people aren't willing to unlock.
Stefan: Right. I love what you're saying there, man. You are really unlocking the next level all the time. There's a great book I read was called What Got You Here Won't Get You There. Have you read that book?
Bryan: Haven't read that one yet, no.
Stefan: You got to check it out. It's about a guy and he's like a business coach. He's coaching executives. What he noticed was that the skills that got a guy into an executive suite like a C suite, CEO, CFO, COO, or whatever, would inhibit him from going to the next level of leadership. They'd be salty, they'd be mean, they would be harsh, all these things, and his job in his program was what got you here won't get you there. His job is to undo all those things and then teach you the next level of leadership, which is being a statesman instead of being a warrior and being somebody who has compassion and things like that, but still is strong. Would you agree? That's like a really big thing, is unlearning your last level to go to your next level?
Bryan: Yeah, man, absolutely. I could even think of a lot of people in the real estate space who wants to start as a solo agent and then eventually build a team and ship more into a leadership role and position. Two completely different things. You could be, I know so many people who are superstar agents who are doing millions in commissions, but when it comes to running a team of being a leader, they can't do it. Because that next level for them to get to that level, it's a different skill set and know how. A different blueprint. I think a lot of people can't navigate that and I think athletes fall into this category too. We're so stubborn sometimes and hard headed where it's like, oh, no, we have to do it this way. We want to be a perfectionist, and we're not willing to listen to that next person or pick up that new book to teach us that stuff.
Bryan: I think one of the main reasons that I was able to make this transition so seamless as it seem to people was because I embraced what you just said. I didn't read that book, but what you're talking about, I think I've gotten from somewhere else, maybe that story or the kind of like that teaching because that popped into my head immediately as I started growing my team was, I need to understand that I need to unlearn some of that old stuff to really break through to the next level.
Stefan: Yeah, I think one of the biggest things too with an entrepreneur or somebody who's like hustling on their own dime is to go to that next level, you have to take a massive pay cut. Like you pretty much, you probably got to hire a coach because you probably can't figure it on your own. If you could, you would have done it on your own. So, you probably have to hire somebody so you take a pay cut on that. And then when you go into management, you're not making the commissions now. You're trying to get other guys to make commissions and they're not making money right away. So now they're not making money and you're not making money and you're living off your savings, you're living off your credit cards and it's all really scary. Then what people do is they go back to just being a hustler because it's what they know and building stuff is tough.
Stefan: Now, let me ask this, Bryan, what do you think is the biggest cause of failure in people?
Bryan: Biggest cause of failure. It would be this. A lot of people, let's say they want to be an investor or they want to be a real estate agent, whatever it is. I ask this to people, how long are you willing to fail? It's like a test. And if they give me a date, like, "Well, I'm going to give this a shot for 30 days or 60 days." If anybody gives me a finite date to how long they're going to try something I know they're going to fail. I think that's one of the biggest reasons, is when I got into real estate I remember people asking me, what's your plan B? How long you going to give it a shot? I'm like, "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm going to make this shit happen no matter what."
Bryan: Hearing people who give that date, I've asked in the last couple of years, six people that have given me dates and all of them have quit or they're not doing what they're doing. So, I really think that's number one thing is, if you go in with the mindset that, "Oh, I'm just going to give this a shot for 30 days," and you have that date, it's not going to work.
Stefan: Right. Yeah, it's like the, I'm ready to jump out of the boat kind of thing. I think it's interesting when I coach people and we do real estate. So, buy, fix, sell houses, and we teach them to raise money and stuff, whenever we get somebody's like, "Oh, I'm wondering payment plan can I pay." I'm like, "Bro, you're not going to make it. You got to be in, you got to be committed." Because when you try to call it, when you try to go to something on a payment plan, that's just the license to quit. Halfway through, you think you're going to save money by quitting while you're actually just losing all your money at this point.
Stefan: So, Bryan, if you can go back to the beginning and talk to let's say 15 year old Bryan, let's go back half your life about 15 year old Bryan, what's a piece of advice you give yourself?
Bryan: I would say you have to learn very quickly to stop living your life based on what other people want you to be like and what their opinion is of what it should be like. The last couple of years for me especially have been the most revolutionary because of that. The moment I was able to really detach from other people's opinions, what they had to say about me, how they saw my life and how they wanted me to live my life, it's like I could see the light and everything changed from that moment. So, I would say stop worrying about what other people say, live your life not someone else's.
Stefan: That's getting a gong man. That's like a big thing for young people. Young people are always trying to please people and I've read a quote somewhere I was like, by the time you get to 40 you don't care anymore. You're just like, "Whatever man." When you when you get a little older.
Stefan: Now, Bryan, top three books to change your life, what are they man?
Bryan: Top three books. Thinking and Grow Rich [inaudible 00:44:03]. One book by Anthony Robbins, Unlimited Power was fantastic, and the book by Oren Klaff, Pitch Anything a little bit better.
Stefan: Oh, Oren Klaff, yeah bro. He's from Cali too.
Bryan: Yeah.
Stefan: Yeah, Pitch Anything. Why do you say Pitch Anything? I think that's one of my favorites for teaching people to raise money for sure.
Bryan: It just offers a very ... It's kind of like we were discussing earlier right. Unlearning some other stuff and really unlocking that next level and what he teaches in that book I believe, after you have a basic understanding of sales will take me to the next level for sure.
Stefan: Yeah, there's some powerful stuff in their. Power framing, time framing, analyst frame, he's got some stuff. Oren is one of the best.
Stefan: Now, Bryan, I got to ask everyone this question on the show. This is like my number one. Everybody gets this question and it happens to be one of the last questions. What's the one thing that young people need to succeed these days?
Bryan: More commitment. I think people, no matter what space they're going into, especially now with social media as much as it's a blessing it's a curse, there are too many fucking options, they need to pick one thing and just stick with it. So, if they go to , they need to go all in and just stick with it and commit to the process. Everyone's one foot in and one foot out. "Oh, I'm going to try this then I'm going to try that." What do they call it? Jack of all trades, master of none more commitment. You need to double down and commit and say, "I'm doing this and that's it. Regardless what mommy says daddy says what he says or she says, I don't care if I'm not going to get any likes on Facebook or Instagram, I'm going to do this." If people would commit like that, just that sheer commitment like a lot of athletes give where they commit their lives to the sport, they're going to make it to the other side for sure.
Stefan: I love what you're saying, man. You're preaching the gospel here in the church of The Grind. Now, Bryan, if people want to get in touch with you, how can they get ahold of you to interact, be a part of your brand, maybe get into coaching.
Bryan: I'm all over the place, man. Bryancasella.com, B-R-Y-A-N C-A-S-E-L-L-A. That's my website. It has everything. My handles for Instagram and Twitter and everything else is just @bryancasella. It's really simple. Same thing with YouTube. Bryan Casella.
Stefan: Awesome, man. Thank you so much for being on the show, Bryan, Respect the Grind, and we will see you in the future, man.
Bryan: I really appreciate it.
Chris Kwon
Today, the Arcadia, California native applies that lesson to his real estate dealings. And it's paying off: now in his 5th year as a real estate professional, Kwon has increased his volume every year since he started, and had his best year in 2016, helping 28 families buy and sell and nearly 20 million in sales.
"I believe that I need to always be sharpening my skills on a daily basis so I'm ahead of the curb and daily trends."
Jonathan Hawkins is the epitome of hard work and recognized early in his career that nothing comes easy.
He began his career in real estate with an intention to put Service, Integrity and Success at the forefront and quickly transformed himself into the top 1% of real estate brokers in the world.
His company Amavi Group is comprised of Amavi Properties and his media and marketing company, Amavi Media.
Jonathan specializes in connecting with his clients at the highest levels, he accomplishes this by making it his mission is to create an unforgettable experience that leads to a lifelong relationship.
He has been quoted in Inman, Wall Street Journal, Realtor.com, The Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register, Real Estate Agent Magazine, Who’s Who in Real Estate and Tom Ferry International.
Henry Kaminski Jr. is the founder of Unique Designz by the HMK Group, a full-service graphic design, branding, and marketing company.
He is the author of the Amazon best seller "Refuse To Give Up." He’s also the host of the popular “Brand Doctor’s Podcast” where he talks about strategies that help entrepreneurs design reputable and
profitable personal brands.
Paul Getter is an internet marketing expert, consultant, motivational speaker, and founder of The Internet Marketing Nerd.
Just 9 short years ago, Paul Getter was broke, struggling, and trying to make ends meet delivering phone books out of the back of his 1996 Dodge Caravan…
Paul started learning about the power of internet marketing, and within just a few short years become one of the most sought after marketing experts in the world, spending MILLIONS per month online for his clients.
Colton Lindsay is an Internationally recognized Real Estate Sales Trainer, Online Marketing Specialist, Passive Income Creator, and Inner Game Master.
He has been in the industry for 13+ years and is founder of The WGR Academy.
Ricky Carruth lives on the Gulf Coast of Alabama, where he started selling real estate in 2002.
By 2014, he was named the #1 RE/MAX agent in his State, selling over 100 properties each year since recovering from real estate disasters in his coastal region (two major hurricanes and the related insurance crisis, and the BP oil spill).
Having grown up with parents who taught him the value of hard physical labor and strong ethics, he never takes his success for granted and lives each day to do his personal best with the ultimate goal of helping others.
Ricky is a perfect example of someone who respects the grind!
Mark Salerno, Broker of Record, Euromart Realty Ltd. Brokerage.
Growing up in and around the real estate business, becoming a Real Estate Broker was always a dream of Mark Salerno’s.
Year after year Mark continues to be a Top Producer being a "Go To" Broker for all of his clients.
Stefan Aarnio is an award winning real estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Author and winner of the 2014 Rich Dad International Hall of Fame award. He has been featured in Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine named him one of the Top 10 Real Estate Influencers to Follow. Starting with only $1200, Stefan has built a multi-million dollar portfolio for himself and his partners and been recognized on The Self Made List.
Amy Morin is a psychotherapist and international bestselling author of books on mental strength. Her TEDx talk, The Secret of Becoming Mentally Strong, is one of the most viewed talks of all time.
She’s been dubbed the “self-help guru of the moment,” by The Guardian and Forbes refers to her as a “thought leadership star.” Her advice has been featured by numerous media outlets including Time, Fast Company, Success, Business Insider, Oprah.com, Fox News, CNN, CNBC, and Today. She also appears in a Red Bull TV show called Visions of Greatness.
She lectures across the globe to provide trainings, workshops, and keynote speeches that teach people how to build their mental muscle.
Stefan Aarnio is an award winning real estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Author and winner of the 2014 Rich Dad International Hall of Fame award. He has been featured in Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine named him one of the Top 10 Real Estate Influencers to Follow. Starting with only $1200, Stefan has built a multi-million dollar portfolio for himself and his partners and been recognized on The Self Made List.
Stefan Aarnio is an award winning real estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Author and winner of the 2014 Rich Dad International Hall of Fame award. He has been featured in Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine named him one of the Top 10 Real Estate Influencers to Follow. Starting with only $1200, Stefan has built a multi-million dollar portfolio for himself and his partners and been recognized on The Self Made List.
(Ret.) Senior Chief Thom Shea is the CEO of Adamantine Alliance, a unique leadership and demanding human performance training organization. Thom is an executive consultant to the fortune 500 businesses.
Thom has trained 100s of individuals to date to master what he calls “the Five Pyramids of Human Performance®”.
Before founding Adamantine Alliance, Thom served 23 years with distinguished Valor as a Navy SEAL. During his military career he served in three wars, ultimately leading a team of Navy SEALs into Afghanistan in 2009 where he earned a Silver Star, Bronze Star with Valor, Army Commendation with Valor and his second Combat Action Medal. He was hand-selected to serve as Officer In Charge of the famed SEAL Sniper course from 2009 – 2011.
He is the author of the national best-selling book, “UNBREAKABLE: A Navy SEAL’s Way of Life” published by Little Brown and Company.
In his downtime, Thom competes in various ultra marathons and has volunteered countless hours to charity, raising funds through his athletic events for the Navy SEAL Foundation, the SEAL Legacy Fund, the Special Operations Warrior Foundation to name a few. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Ball State University and a Master Training Specialist certification from the Naval Special Warfare Center. He now resides in Greenville, South Carolina with his wife and three children.
Thom delivers keynote speakers unraveling the core design of human performance and conducts corporate seminars delivering results in human performance.
Chris is the author of Unoboy.com. His mission in life is to demonstrate that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to create a world class ecommerce business or have a sophisticated marketing operation. Chris started in his late 20s, creating an ecommerce business called Bec Sport and scaled fast through Instagram. Today Chris owns and runs multiple ecommerce stores selling physical products all over the world.
John Haime is a Human Performance Coach who prepares performers to be their very best by helping them tap into the elusive 10% of their abilities that will elevate them to the top. This is something that anyone with a goal craves and John Haime knows how to get performers there. John closes the gap for performers in business, sports and the arts taking them from where they currently are to where they want to go.
The best in the world trust John. They choose him because he doesn’t just talk and theorize about the world of high performance – he has lived it and lives in it everyday. He is a former Tournament Professional Golfer with professional wins. He has a best-selling book “You are a Contender” that is widely read by world-class athletes, coaches and business performers. He has worked around the globe for some of the world’s leading companies. Athlete clients include performers who regularly rank in the World Top 50 in their respective sports. John has the rare ability to work as seamlessly in the world of professional/high level sports as he does in the world of business/leadership or the performing arts. Clients all agree that John Haime cares about them as a performer and a person.
Working with individuals or teams, John takes clients inside his world of high performance and provides insights and long-term solutions to help them build on core capabilities. He shares the fundamentals and a defined, proven, step by step process that he uses with the world’s best. The process features the very best elements from performance psychology, emotional intelligence, sport psychology, business planning, executive coaching and neuroscience. Clients learn what separates the average from the elite and how individuals and teams can maximize abilities.
John is passionate about helping others prepare, think and perform like a world-class athlete. He coaches clients on how to tap into the 10% that makes 90% of the difference in daily performance.
Along with a variety of professional accreditations, John has been mentored by some of the top industry practitioners in human performance and leadership. He is a life-long learner believing that what worked yesterday is often outdated today. He has researched, studied, investigated and used trial and error to help people perform at extraordinary levels. His only benchmark is measurable, sustainable results for valued New Edge Performance clients.
He is a graduate of Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN USA.
John lives in Ottawa, Canada with his wife and son.
Stefan Aarnio is an award winning real estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Author and winner of the 2014 Rich Dad International Hall of Fame award. He has been featured in Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine named him one of the Top 10 Real Estate Influencers to Follow. Starting with only $1200, Stefan has built a multi-million dollar portfolio for himself and his partners and been recognized on The Self Made List.
Shawn began his real estate investing career in 2007, utilizing his private residence as his first rental. That same year he purchased his first property to be used as a buy, renovate and sell property. Since that time, Shawn has done many different types of Real Estate deals including rent to own, buy and hold, full scale renovations and even some more creative strategies. Through experience, Shawn has developed an in-depth understanding of residential real estate investing.
Sua Truong was born in Can Tho, Vietnam (1970-). His family fled to Thailand during the Communist take-over of South Vietnam in 1979. He and his family was eventually sponsored to Canada in the fall of 1980 to start over. Sua believes that success comes to those who can endure and outlast the trials and tribulations that we face in our life. After many challenging careers that spanned several industries from construction, hospitality and high-tech sector, he has finally set his eyes on the financial services sector. He feels on purpose when he can make a big difference in people's lives and this industry is where he feels that he can make the most impact.
Clayton Morris is the Former FOX News anchor who left television after achieving financial freedom. Now he devotes himself to helping other people build passive income and achieve financial freedom. He runs a turnkey real estate company called Morris Invest. Clayton is also the host of Investing in Real Estate podcast, which has a laser focus on buy and hold rental properties. The podcast utilizes expert interviews, case studies with normal everyday investors, and Clayton's own methods for achieving passive income.
Bruce M Firestone is best known as an entrepreneur and founder of NHL hockey team, the Ottawa Senators, their home arena, Canadian Tire Centre, and the Ottawa Senators Foundation, a children's charity, as well as a real estate investment coach, consultant and broker, urban guru, author, novelist, and professor.
Today, if you are one of the 80% of Canadians or Americans who don't have a defined benefit pension plan, you need to find an alternative way to support yourself and your family. Firestone successfully coaches hundreds of people to help them acquire a top performing real estate investment portfolio to bridge this gap.
Michael Bull, CCIM, founder and CEO of Bull Realty, is an active commercial real estate advisor. He is a licensed broker in nine southeast states and has assisted clients with over 5 billion dollars of transactions over his 30 year career.
Mr. Bull founded Bull Realty in 1998 initially with two primary missions: to provide a company of brokers known for integrity, and to provide the best disposition marketing in the nation. Now Michael and his brokers provide disposition, acquisition, project leasing, tenant representation, and advisory services in all major property sectors.
You may know Michael as executive producer and host of America's Commercial Real Estate Show. The popular weekly show began broadcasting in 2010 and today is heard by millions of people around the country. Michael and other respected industry analysts, economists and leading market participants share market intelligence, forecasts and success strategies. The show is available on-demand on iTunes, YouTube, and the show website, www.CREshow.com.
If you get a chance, see Michael speak at commercial real estate events around the country. Michael is a national speaker and senior instructor with Commercial Agent Success Strategies. The company provides live and on-demand streaming video training for commercial agents. Preview videos at the website, www.CommercialAgentSuccess.com.
Mr. Bull’s articles have been published nationwide including in the National Real Estate Investor, France Media Publications, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Atlanta Business Chronicle, Multi-Housing News, Shopping Center Business, The Broker List, and Nation’s Restaurant News.
Michael’s involvement with professional organizations include CCIM Member, National Association of REALTORS, the International Council of Shopping Centers, the Real Estate Brokerage Managers Council, Atlanta Leaders Group, Real Estate Group of Atlanta, the Georgia Bankers Association, the Atlanta Press Club, the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the Georgia Real Estate Educators Association, Urban Land Institute, and the National Association of Real Estate Editors.
Michael lives in the Chastain Park area of Atlanta and enjoys spending time with his family, off-road performance vehicles and performance boating.
Find out more about Michael Bull at:
commercialrealestateshow.com
Looking to grow a real estate empire but don’t know where to start? Pick up a copy of Money, People, Deal by Stefan Aarnio for only $3.95 at www.moneypeopledeal.com/podcast.
To get exclusive podcast listener only offers for the 100K Challenge (like a free hotel room for the event), email Devin Savage at DSavage@StefanAarnio.com.
To learn more about the 100K Challenge visit www.stefanaarniolive.com.
Gallant Dill is an award winning serial entrepreneur and is sought after for his marketing and business experience.
Gallant is an advisor/consultant to hundreds of business owners ranging from startups to multi-million dollar conglomerates.
By the time he was 23, he had placed dozens of products into retail stores around the globe.
He has been in 30 under 30 three separate times and has grown some of the world’s largest entrepreneur communities on Facebook.
Not only does Gallant have over 5,000 entrepreneurs in his training programs, but he has donated millions in free trainings to business owners in need.
Find out more about Gallant at:
www.gallantdill.com
Looking to grow a real estate empire but don’t know where to start? Pick up a copy of Money, People, Deal by Stefan Aarnio for only $3.95 at www.moneypeopledeal.com/podcast.
To get exclusive podcast listener only offers for the 100K Challenge (like a free hotel room for the event), email Devin Savage at DSavage@StefanAarnio.com.
To learn more about the 100K Challenge visit www.stefanaarniolive.com.
Andy has been in the web design and interactive marketing space since January of 2000. In that time, he’s helped thousands of people do a better job getting results online. He’s a true evangelist for content marketing and ethical digital marketing.
Together with the team at Orbit Media, Andy has put out some of the best digital marketing advice available in hundreds of practical articles, including posts on virtually all of the top marketing websites. Then there’s the book, Content Chemistry, which is currently in its fifth edition.
Andy is also a regular speaker both locally and nationally. Not only is Andy a founder of Content Jam, Chicago’s largest content marketing conference, but he’s also a regular face on the national circuit. If you go to a content marketing conference, the one Chicagoan you’re most likely to hear is Andy Crestodina.
Looking to grow a real estate empire but don’t know where to start? Pick up a copy of Money, People, Deal by Stefan Aarnio for only $3.95 at www.moneypeopledeal.com/podcast.
To get exclusive podcast listener only offers for the 100K Challenge (like a free hotel room for the event), email Devin Savage at DSavage@StefanAarnio.com.
To learn more about the 100K Challenge visit www.stefanaarniolive.com.
Ben Muresan, aka, “Humble Wholesaler”, has been a Canadian Real Estate Investor for 12 years. Ben moved to Canada in 1991, originally born in communist Romania. Ben jumped in to real estate in 2009 at the height of the economic downturn. Over the past decade, Ben has become an expert in wholesaling real estate and purchasing properties with no money down.
Find out more about Ben the Humble Wholesaler at:
https://takemydeal.net
Looking to grow a real estate empire but don’t know where to start? Pick up a copy of Money, People, Deal by Stefan Aarnio for only $3.95 at www.moneypeopledeal.com/podcast.
To get exclusive podcast listener only offers for the 100K Challenge (like a free hotel room for the event), email Devin Savage at DSavage@StefanAarnio.com.
To learn more about the 100K Challenge visit www.stefanaarniolive.com.
Stefan Aarnio is an award winning real estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Author and winner of the 2014 Rich Dad International Hall of Fame award. He has been featured in Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine named him one of the Top 10 Real Estate Influencers to Follow. Starting with only $1200, Stefan has built a multi-million dollar portfolio for himself and his partners and been recognized on The Self Made List.
Looking to grow a real estate empire but don’t know where to start? Pick up a copy of Money, People, Deal by Stefan Aarnio for only $3.95 at www.moneypeopledeal.com/podcast.
To get exclusive podcast listener only offers for the 100K Challenge (like a free hotel room for the event), email Devin Savage at DSavage@StefanAarnio.com.
To learn more about the 100K Challenge visit www.stefanaarniolive.com.
Ted is a leading Social Marketing Strategist, Photofy CMO/Advisor, MC/Host of Brand Innovators Monthly Summits… Speaker/Author/Provocateur. In March 2009 he started using and evangelizing the term ROR, Return on Relationship™, hashtag #RonR…. a concept he believes is the cornerstone for building an engaged multi-million member database and engaged community, many of whom are vocal advocates for the brand.
Ted built these for e.l.f. Cosmetics as the Chief Marketing Officer between 2008 and 2010, OpenSky where Ted was Chief Social Marketing Officer until the end of April 2011, and for Collective Bias (whose Advisory Board he joined in January 2011) where Ted became Chief Social Marketing Officer, and an equity partner, May 1st 2011. Ted worked closely with Collective Bias since it was founded by John Andrews who Ted met through the blogging community when he was leading Emerging Media at Walmart. Ted left his position as Chief Social Marketing Officer of Collective Bias on August 31, 2013. He remained a principal shareholder until the November 2016 seven-figure acquisition by Inmar.
In the words of Collective Bias Founder John Andrews… “Ted, you were the vision, heartbeat and soul of Collective Bias, thank you for building a great company. From innovations like cb.Socially to the amazing relationships you built with the blogger community, clients and employees, you drove the epic growth. You will be missed!”
Many people in the social media world know Ted for his enthusiastic, energetic and undeniably personal connection to people. Ted is the most followed CMO on Twitter according to Social Media Marketing Magazine; one of the most interesting CMOs on Twitter according to Say Media, #13 on Forbes Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers, and number #2 on the Leadtail list of Top 25 People Most Mentioned by digital marketers. ROR is the basis of his philosophy… It’s All About Relationships! Return on Relationship, ROR, #RonR, is the basis of his philosophy… It’s All About Relationships!
Looking to grow a real estate empire but don’t know where to start? Pick up a copy of Money, People, Deal by Stefan Aarnio for only $3.95 at www.moneypeopledeal.com/podcast.
To get exclusive podcast listener only offers for the 100K Challenge (like a free hotel room for the event), email Devin Savage at DSavage@StefanAarnio.com.
To learn more about the 100K Challenge visit www.stefanaarniolive.com.
Born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Jay’s entrepreneurial flame was fanned on a 1987 trip where he saw firsthand the successful business his grandfather built. "The only way to be truly free is to own your own business” his grandfather told him. This statement had a profound effect on Jay. Upon his return home, he told his parents… "I'll be working for myself by the time I'm 25 years old."
At his parents' urging, Jay continued his education and acquired a degree in chartered accounting from the University of Waterloo and worked in Big 4 accounting firms. He left the accounting world the day before his 25th birthday, thus setting the stage for his entrepreneurial career. Ever since, Jay has had failures and successes in the various businesses he has owned.
After his first child was born in 2005, Jay jumped into the world of real estate investing. Based on his experience as an entrepreneur, Jay was well-equipped to make the transition into real estate investing. Even though he experienced several challenges along the way, he built a multiple seven-figure real estate portfolio.
Having that portfolio help Jay resiliently deal with a heartbreaking personal tragedy in 2014. This experience lead Jay to reevaluate the purpose of his life while taking a multi year sabbatical. Before his wife passed away in 2014, Jay thought he was financially prepared. After going through the experience of being the executor of his wife's estate, he realized he wasn't.
Today, Jay makes an impact raising his three children and empowering Fathers to secure their Family's Financial Future as the founder of Prepared Fathers.
Find out more about Jay Gabrani at:
www.jaygabrani.com
Looking to grow a real estate empire but don’t know where to start? Pick up a copy of Money, People, Deal by Stefan Aarnio for only $3.95 at www.moneypeopledeal.com/podcast.
To get exclusive podcast listener only offers for the 100K Challenge (like a free hotel room for the event), email Devin Savage at DSavage@StefanAarnio.com.
To learn more about the 100K Challenge visit www.stefanaarniolive.com.
Brandon Elliott went from house arrest to buy and hold investor with investment properties out of state that have a 60%+ CCR. He encourages daily personal development and fulfilling your purpose. An advocate of financial awareness and time management skills becoming embraced to lead down the path of success.
Brandon supports startup companies and overall entrepreneurs to build multiple streams of businesses. Brandon was also apart of a non-profit organization called Y.E.S. (young entrepreneur society) which provides high school students with additional options rather than traditional college to become their own boss. His vision is transforming distressed neighborhoods into dream homes through real estate to pursue financial freedom. Brandon's passion stems from creating a united strong family that pushes each other to prosper and thrive.
Looking to grow a real estate empire but don’t know where to start? Pick up a copy of Money, People, Deal by Stefan Aarnio for only $3.95 at www.moneypeopledeal.com/podcast.
To get exclusive podcast listener only offers for the 100K Challenge (like a free hotel room for the event), email Devin Savage at DSavage@StefanAarnio.com.
To learn more about the 100K Challenge visit www.stefanaarniolive.com.
Through his company Nighthawk Equity, Michael Blank controls over $65 million in performing multifamily assets all over the United States. In addition to investing nationwide, he teaches others how to do their first apartment building deal through tons of free content on TheMichaelBlank.com as well as additional training programs. Michael has helped students acquire over 750 units valued in excess of $27M and on track to do a 1,000 units in the next 12 months through his unique coaching and “Deal Desk” program.
Michael is the host of the popular podcast “Apartment Building Investing with Michael Blank” and writes regularly for the Bigger Pockets and Flipnerd’s REI Classroom. He lives in Northern VA with his wife and 4 children.
Looking to grow a real estate empire but don’t know where to start? Pick up a copy of Money, People, Deal by Stefan Aarnio for only $3.95 at www.moneypeopledeal.com/podcast.
To get exclusive podcast listener only offers for the 100K Challenge (like a free hotel room for the event), email Devin Savage at DSavage@StefanAarnio.com.
To learn more about the 100K Challenge visit www.stefanaarniolive.com.
Stefan Aarnio is an award winning real estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Author and winner of the 2014 Rich Dad International Hall of Fame award. He has been featured in Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine named him one of the Top 10 Real Estate Influencers to Follow. Starting with only $1200, Stefan has built a multi-million dollar portfolio for himself and his partners and been recognized on The Self Made List.
Looking to grow a real estate empire but don’t know where to start? Pick up a copy of Money, People, Deal by Stefan Aarnio for only $3.95 at www.moneypeopledeal.com/podcast.
To get exclusive podcast listener only offers for the 100K Challenge (like a free hotel room for the event), email Devin Savage at DSavage@StefanAarnio.com.
To learn more about the 100K Challenge visit www.stefanaarniolive.com.
70 major world cities, 5 continents. Les is an Elite transformational mentor to media celebrities, rockstars, movie stars, Olympic athletes, high-level politicians, millionaires, billionaires, royalty, top-shelf executives & entrepreneurs.
Alexis Assadi is an investor, entrepreneur and advocate for building multiple revenue streams. At age 26 he became financially free - where his passive income exceeded his expenses. After his first investment of $1,000 at the age of 19 in a mutual fund, he became interested in investing. At age 23 he discovered passive investing and has been building his wealth and empowering other to do the same since.
Kaitlyn and Brad Blair are the owners of Spruce Homes. Based in Saskatoon, SK they work to revitalize neighbourhoods through renovation and infill projects. Their passion is building and renovating unique spaces that suit their client’s needs and they take pride in fighting the cookie cutter model. Spruce is dedicated to delivering the highest quality of workmanship at an affordable price. A driving force behind what they do is their mission to give back locally and on a global scale. With each Spruce home that is sold, a child is sponsored in one of the poorest parts of the world.
John Sneisen grew up in Norway and says he had been brainwashed by the collectivist agenda until he was awakened by a book called Rich Dad, Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki (a member of the Freedom Force Hall of Honor). John now is a passionate advocate of individualism.
He is the founder of a non-profit organization called The Economic Truth, which has over 10,000 followers in more than thirty countries. His organization analyzes economic events and hosts workshops on world monetary history. John is a two times Amazon Bestselling Auther of The End of Freedom: How Our Monetary System Enslaves Us and Canada, The Greatest Economy In The World? The Facts You Are Not Being Told About Your Money. And How To Protect Yourself From The Coming Crisis. He is also the Economic Analyst and contributor to World Alternative Media who reaches millions of people on a monthly basis talking about Economics, Investing and Geopolitics.
Jim is a Master Sales Trainer, an Expert Team Builder and a Launch Expert. With more than 20 years experience in building teams and leading them to success Jim has a solid track record of achieving results!
More than that, Jim is a launch expert! He and his team have led dozens of entrepreneurs to huge success in their launches, driving sales and surpassing goals and expectations! Having shared the stage with Jay Abraham and Les Brown, Jim brings an exceptional level of experience and talent to the world of sales. Jim’s God given talent and nature allow him to inspire his team and partners to achieve their full potential.
Sime Sandhu graduated in 2001 with a bachelors in aviation science and then went on to fly as a commercial pilot both in Canada and India. In 2009 he returned permanently to Canada, frustrated with the lifestyle of the aviation industry. With an interest in business, he took over his parents' pizza restaurant, retiring them in the process. From that point, Sime has acquired and built several businesses and even ventured into real estate; successfully performing multiple flips
Learn more about Sime Sandhu at:
www.instagram.com/sime49
James Dmytriw is a real estate investor with an educational background that includes a degree in Environmental Design, specializing in Landscape and Urbanism from the faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba.
He is extremely involved in Building Science and Building Envelope Construction and is passionate about helping homeowners reduce energy consumption across Canada and the world. He is a professional Energy Evaluator and a Home Inspector. Currently, James is involved in the affordable energy program with Manitoba Hydro where he goes to applicant’s houses and evaluates the houses for eligibility.
Stefan Aarnio is an award winning real estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Author and winner of the 2014 Rich Dad International Hall of Fame award. He has been featured in Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine named him one of the Top 10 Real Estate Influencers to Follow. Starting with only $1200, Stefan has built a multi-million dollar portfolio for himself and his partners and been recognized on The Self Made List.
Stefan Aarnio is an award winning real estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Author and winner of the 2014 Rich Dad International Hall of Fame award. He has been featured in Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine named him one of the Top 10 Real Estate Influencers to Follow. Starting with only $1200, Stefan has built a multi-million dollar portfolio for himself and his partners and been recognized on The Self Made List.
Stefan Aarnio is an award winning real estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Author and winner of the 2014 Rich Dad International Hall of Fame award. He has been featured in Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine named him one of the Top 10 Real Estate Influencers to Follow. Starting with only $1200, Stefan has built a multi-million dollar portfolio for himself and his partners and been recognized on The Self Made List.
Stefan Aarnio is an award winning real estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Author and winner of the 2014 Rich Dad International Hall of Fame award. He has been featured in Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine named him one of the Top 10 Real Estate Influencers to Follow. Starting with only $1200, Stefan has built a multi-million dollar portfolio for himself and his partners and been recognized on The Self Made List.
Daniel Nagy is an active Real Estate Investor and founder of Emmett Leo Homes. Daniel is based in Winnipeg MB and involved in community programs and volunteer organizations. He is a member of multiple local real estate Investor networks, which focuses on investing through education. In staying active in the city, he understands the local areas and trends which are ever-changing.
As an active real estate investor that invests based on economic analysis and fundamentals, he is able to invest in economies that have strong growth and sustainability for the long term. He invests in cash-flowing residential properties through strategic, step-by-step systems. He and his team of experts look after all the tedious steps involved in acquiring investment properties.
Stefan Aarnio is an award winning real estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Author and winner of the 2014 Rich Dad International Hall of Fame award. He has been featured in Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine named him one of the Top 10 Real Estate Influencers to Follow. Starting with only $1200, Stefan has built a multi-million dollar portfolio for himself and his partners and been recognized on The Self Made List.
Stefan Aarnio is an award winning real estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Author and winner of the 2014 Rich Dad International Hall of Fame award. He has been featured in Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine named him one of the Top 10 Real Estate Influencers to Follow. Starting with only $1200, Stefan has built a multi-million dollar portfolio for himself and his partners and been recognized on The Self Made List.
Stefan Aarnio is an award winning real estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Author and winner of the 2014 Rich Dad International Hall of Fame award. He has been featured in Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine named him one of the Top 10 Real Estate Influencers to Follow. Starting with only $1200, Stefan has built a multi-million dollar portfolio for himself and his partners and been recognized on The Self Made List.
Stefan Aarnio is an award winning real estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Author and winner of the 2014 Rich Dad International Hall of Fame award.He has been featured in Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine named him one of the Top 10 Real Estate Influencers to Follow.Starting with only $1200, Stefan has built a multi-million dollar portfolio for himself and his partners and been recognized on The Self Made List.
Stefan Aarnio is an award winning real estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Author and winner of the 2014 Rich Dad International Hall of Fame award.He has been featured in Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine named him one of the Top 10 Real Estate Influencers to Follow.Starting with only $1200, Stefan has built a multi-million dollar portfolio for himself and his partners and been recognized on The Self Made List.
Stefan Aarnio is an award winning real estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Author and winner of the 2014 Rich Dad International Hall of Fame award.He has been featured in Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine named him one of the Top 10 Real Estate Influencers to Follow.Starting with only $1200, Stefan has built a multi-million dollar portfolio for himself and his partners and been recognized on The Self Made List.
Stefan Aarnio is an award winning real estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Author and winner of the 2014 Rich Dad International Hall of Fame award.He has been featured in Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine named him one of the Top 10 Real Estate Influencers to Follow.Starting with only $1200, Stefan has built a multi-million dollar portfolio for himself and his partners and been recognized on The Self Made List.
Stefan Aarnio is an award winning real estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Author and winner of the 2014 Rich Dad International Hall of Fame award.He has been featured in Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine named him one of the Top 10 Real Estate Influencers to Follow.Starting with only $1200, Stefan has built a multi-million dollar portfolio for himself and his partners and been recognized on The Self Made List.
Stefan Aarnio is an award winning real estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Author and winner of the 2014 Rich Dad International Hall of Fame award.He has been featured in Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine named him one of the Top 10 Real Estate Influencers to Follow.Starting with only $1200, Stefan has built a multi-million dollar portfolio for himself and his partners and been recognized on The Self Made List.
Stefan Aarnio is an award winning real estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Author and winner of the 2014 Rich Dad International Hall of Fame award.He has been featured in Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine named him one of the Top 10 Real Estate Influencers to Follow.Starting with only $1200, Stefan has built a multi-million dollar portfolio for himself and his partners and been recognized on The Self Made List.
Stefan Aarnio is an award winning real estate Investor, Entrepreneur, Author and winner of the 2014 Rich Dad International Hall of Fame award.He has been featured in Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine named him one of the Top 10 Real Estate Influencers to Follow.Starting with only $1200, Stefan has built a multi-million dollar portfolio for himself and his partners and been recognized on The Self Made List.
Paul Rogers is originally from St. Louis, Missouri and moved to Sacramento, California in May of 2006. He was a fireman in St. Louis for 17 years and retired 5 years ago. He now invests in real estate, owns his own fitness business and also mentors both real estate agents and investors who want to take it to the next level.
Find out more about Paul Rogers at:
www.rogersrealestateteam.com
Humberto Kauffmann started weight lifting at the age of 17 with a desire to increase muscle mass and strength. He quickly became interested in the art of Bodybuilding and realized that it was much more than just lifting weights and that if he wanted to progress, the nutrition aspect needed to be solidified.
A few years into the lifestyle Humberto decided to do his first competition and although it didn't go as desired, it became clear that this takes time and patience. He persisted through the years and in 2016 he won his class at the MABBA Provincial Championship, obtaining the title of Mr. Mabitoba. A year later he switched to Classic Physique, obtaining the 2017 Provincial Overall Title as well.
Throughout the years, his passion for Bodybuilding led me to become a Personal Trainer and share the knowledge he had acquired with others that wanted to improve their quality of life and set and reach goals, competitive or non-competitive!
Find out more about Humberto Kauffmann at: www.atlasbodybuilding.com
For years Erwin Szeto, along with his team, have been working hand-in-hand with real estate investors from all over Ontario to invest in St. Catharines real estate and its surrounding areas. What started with a couple investments has grown into hundreds of residential investment properties worth tens of millions to our clients. Find out morea bout Erwin Szeto at: www.mrhamilton.ca
Successful entrepreneur and real estate investor since 1999 buying and selling residential and commercial properties. Elite Trainer and Elite Mentor for Robert Kiyosaki as an independent contractor, lastly a Consultant and Coach for companies that want to reach new and old clients with a old and new marketing and advertising expertise. If you or your company are looking for the maximum level of effectiveness for your team through personal development and defining of peoples strengths to maximize efficiency at the team and personal level then you have come to the right place. Find out more about Travis Howard at: www.nofearinvestments.com
Marco Robert is an international business consultant and inspirational speaker. Whether he’s shining on stage in front of thousands of people in Florida, advising members of a board of directors in South Africa, or coaching the CEO of a company in Malaysia, he can be described as a result-driven-disrupter. Equipped with the BOSS, his proprietary business framework, he challenges the status quo and finds solutions to the toughest business challenges. His entrepreneurial spirit was seeded at a young age as an apprentice in his family’s business. Later it sprouted on the benches of academia and finally blossomed through nearly three decades of business experiences. Find out more about Marco Robert at: www.marcorobert.com
Jack Donovan is the author of The Way of Men — a straightforward, politically incorrect theory of masculinity that became an underground hit around the world. He has appeared as a guest on The Art of Manliness, The Art of Charm, Mating Grounds, Renegade Radio, Blunt Force Truth and countless other podcasts to talk about his work. Donovan has been blogging, writing and speaking about masculinity and tribalism since for over a decade. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he leads a chapter of the infamous Wolves of Vinland — an esoteric tribe of Germanic pagans. Find out more about Jack Donovan at: www.jack-donovan.com
Dave Dubeau is a Real Estate Entrepreneur, Best-Selling Author, Speaker and Investor Attraction Expert based in Kamloops, B.C. Canada. He began his real estate investing career in 2003 doing 18 ‘creative’ flips in 18 months. He later switched his focus to client-first rent to own deals, and nowadays he invests in multi-family (apartment building) properties. For the last several years Dave has been the World’s #1 Investor Attraction “Imple-Mentor”. Using his proprietary 5 Step Investor Attraction Process, Dave helps his real estate entrepreneur clients to grow their portfolios significantly and in record time. Find out more about Dave Dubeau at: https://davedubeau.com
At age 3, Jason enrolled in his first skating class, and by age 6, he was playing in the youth hockey league. “It didn’t take long for everyone to notice – I was one of the fastest skaters on the team, and after seeing my sister come home with handful’s of shiny speed skating medals, I was inspired to try the sport myself.” Jason finished his first race in grand style; falling four times and finishing dead last – but that didn’t stop him – it FUELED his motivation and became an important life lesson (it doesn’t matter how many times you fall down, but how many times you get back up)! Jason rapidly improved, and at age 12, he competed in his first Canadian Championships! 20-plus years of training and commitment has rewarded Jason with hundreds of honors and successes. “I raced in 65 World Cups and 10 World Championships – over 130 international races overall.” (making Jason one of the most accomplished and experienced speed skaters in Canadian history). Find out more about Jason Parker at: wwww.jasonparkerspeaks.com
Before the age of 21, Majeed Mogharreban owned and sold five successful businesses and traveled to 24 countries. In the past 7 years, he has mentored hundreds of business owners, including a two-time Olympic gold medalist and MVP professional football player. Majeed has inspired audiences in Canada, United States, Australia, and New Zealand. He has appeared as a guest expert on TV, and been featured in various newspapers, including The Globe and Mail, Canada’s leading national publication. Majeed is dedicated to help people unlock their freedom to actively create a life of passion and purpose. Some might call him the arch nemesis of a directionless life. We call him Your Personal Success Guide. Find out more about Majeed Mogharreban at: www.majeedm.com
Best selling author, a 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, loves having 2 sons so he can play with their toys, still fantasizes about his wife after 25 years, loves ideas, but loves results even more, can simultaneously laugh and cry for different reasons at the same time, has never been star struck (but did not get a chance to meet Martin Luther King, and there would have been teenage girl screaming if he had). Jay Fiset is dedicated to instigating a global movement of Conscious Creators and supporting people to organize their life and resources around their passions and gifts. Find out more about Jay Fiset at: www.jayfiset.com
Visionary Balazs W. Kardos is the Founder of the Global Prosperity Movement. Balazs always knew he wanted to change the world, he didn't know how but he knew why. His mission is to empower people from all around the world to realize True Health; Physical, Financial and have Peace of Mind. Balazs is passionate about teaching people about preventative health, wealth and limitless freedom. He has a track record of success and mentors those who are ready the same principles he has used to retire his Mom & Fiancé in under 18 months, earn multiple 6 figures a year and have the unlimited freedom lifestyle we all desire. Since 2013 he figured out how and has helped over 10,000 people in 35+ countries, his organization today is doing over $1,000,000 per month in sales helping people just like you break free from the rat race and create a life by their own design. Find out more about Balazs W. Kardos at: www.FreedomwithBalazs.com
For over 23 years, Darren Jacklin has traveled 4 continents and personally trained and developed over 1 million people in over 46 countries. He has mentored entrepreneurs and business owners on specific and measurable strategies. These strategies have then been implemented into businesses to increase income, transform obstacles into cash flow and turn passion into profits. Darren has an uncanny ability to increase wealth and success by uncovering hidden assets, overlooked opportunities and undervalued possibilities. His talent has captured the attention of Tiger 21, Family Offices, The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo Finance, NBC TV, CBS TV, CTV, CBC, Global TV, international radio stations, magazines and newspapers, movie producers, best-selling authors, CEO’s and business experts worldwide. Find out more about Darren Jacklin at: www.darrenjacklin.com
Aaron Adams has been a full-time real estate investor since leaving his job teaching High School Spanish in the early 2000s. He has purchased thousands of properties in California, Indiana, Missouri, Texas, Florida, Idaho, Nevada, North Carolina and Illinois. Aaron has purchased several thousand properties with a particular focus on single-family homes in blue-collar and middle-class neighborhoods. However, his scope of experience includes: apartment complexes, commercial property, new construction and mobile home parks. He currently is focused on Indianapolis, Charlotte, Kansas City, and Dallas. Aaron was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Atlantic City, New Jersey, and attended college in both Utah and California. Aaron has a Masters Degree in Business from Cal Poly Pomona and after spending two years in Venezuela, when he was 19-21 years old, is fluent in Spanish. He is the proud father of two sons, Casey and Thomas. He is currently the CEO of Alpine Property Management and Alpine Capital Solutions, as well as managing partner in a private equity firm and managing partner of several dozen companies. Find out more about Aaron Adams at: www.irarental.com
Mark broke onto the scene at the age of 18, qualifying for the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow (which were boycotted). At age 20, he represented Canada at the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, Australia, 1982, and won the Gold Medal in the 110-metre hurdles in a Canadian and Commonwealth record. He repeated this achievement at the Commonwealth Games, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1986, once again setting a new Canadian and Commonwealth record. In 1984, qualifying for the Olympics a second time, Mark finished a close 4th in Los Angeles, setting numerous Canadian records on the route. He was disappointed with his performance at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, placing 7th in the hurdle finals. But he spectacularly redeemed himself in the Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, 1992, taking the Gold Medal in the 110m hurdles, the first Track Gold Medal for Canada in 64 years. A five-time Olympian, Mark was a member of Canada’s National Track and Field Team, 1980-94. He still holds the world record for the 50m hurdles (set in 1986 in Osaka, Japan), and is the former world record holder in the 60m hurdles and 4 X 200m relay. He is widely recognized as one of the fastest human beings from a still start in history. In 1996, he provided explosiveness training to the Canadian National Karate team prior to the World Championships in Prague, Czech Republic. The Team responded by winning 36 medals, by far their greatest total medal haul ever. Mark has extensive experience in creating the world’s best fitness and athletic training programs. He is also a recognized expert in empowering and training others in how to have a mindset of a champion and apply it to get breakthrough results everywhere in life, including in health & fitness, and in building winning teams and support structures. He is the world’s foremost motivator and educator of trainers in the top health & fitness methodologies. His leading skills are as a leader, doer, innovator, communicator, coach, trainer, tactician, motivator, change agent and fitness guru. Mark has been in the health and fitness industry for almost 40 years. Developing programs for himself and others as a teenager, he has continued (and continues) to develop and implement programs for a range of individuals from novice to professional. Find out more about Mark McKoy at: www.markmckoy.com
Ross is a full-time real estate entrepreneur who made a life-changing decision two and a half years ago to drop out of college, move from New York to Houston and quit his bartending job to create a real estate business. He did his first fix and flip two months into getting started and two and a half years later he has already done fifty fix and flips and built a solid team that is growing rapidly. He has also raised millions of dollars in private capital to buy deals. Find out more about Ross Alex online at: www.houseflippingexposed.com
Raymond Aaron, has committed his life to teaching people how to dramatically change their lives for the better. Raymond transforms lives by helping people tap into their own potential. He is the author of 10 best-selling books, including Branding Small Business For Dummies, Double Your Income Doing What You Love and the co-author of New York Times best-seller Chicken Soup for the Parent’s Soul and author of the Canadian best-seller, Chicken Soup for the Canadian Soul. He is also an avid adventurer having completed one of the world’s toughest races, Polar Race (a 350 mile foot race to the Magnetic North Pole). This trek to the North Pole has inspired his newest title, How You Can Get Rich Without Getting Cold. Find out more about Raymond Aaron online at: www.aaron.com
Epic Alliance empowers you, the investor, to have a consistent passive income and complete peace of mind by utilizing the power of real estate in Saskatchewan. You as an investor can reside in any city of Canada and still hugely benefit from the booming real estate market in Saskatchewan. Four years ago, Epic Alliance Inc. was incorporated with only one mission in mind, that was to create win/win opportunities for everyone involved in every deal and the company has never looked back. In 2016 Fortune Builders awarded Epic Alliance Inc. For the most creative residential real estate investment deal in North America. Find out more about Epic Alliance online at: www.epicalliance.ca
The son of an Ecuadorian immigrant and a first-generation Italian American WWII veteran-turned-schoolteacher, Anthony grew up poor in Brooklyn, NY. When he was just six years old, he made his mother a promise that he would make their family wealthy one day. And to her credit, she never let him forget it. That promise lit a fire under Anthony that led him to get his real estate license at age 19. By 23, he was a millionaire with his own brokerage, Rapid Realty NYC, and a growing portfolio of rental properties to his name. Find Anthony Lolli online at: www.anthonylolli.com
Alan has successfully produced an impressive real estate portfolio while building a company that reached more than 200 employees. After investing in a few single-family rental homes, he realized he could apply the same principles and techniques to larger properties and achieve much greater financial returns. With partners and syndication he has bought more than 2,000 apartment units and managed more than 7,000 units, along with hundreds of single-family houses. He owns numerous medical, office, and warehouse buildings, along with over a dozen shopping centers around the U.S., and builds multi-million-dollar custom homes. He has invested in apartment units and later progressed into other types of commercial real estate, as well as ventures encompassing private lending, student housing, and 55 and older apartments. Find Alan Schnur online at: www.alanschnur.com
Victor Menasce has raised several hundred million dollars for ventures, corporate buy-outs and real estate projects. As a fulltime real estate developer, he raises funds on a daily basis. Conventional wisdom is that raising capital uses sales technique. Victor strongly disagrees. Nobody likes to be sold. His authentic approach appeals to investors and entrepreneurs who take fiduciary responsibility seriously. Victor is a frequent guest on radio and television. He is the consummate educator, and loves to engage the host and the audience in the fundamentals of investing, relationship building, and raising capital. Victor speaks regularly on stage and is equally engaging to audiences of tens or thousands. Find Victor Menasce online at: www.victorjm.com
Robin Elliott started helping individuals, professionals, and the owners of small and large businesses to use Joint Ventures and collaborative, leveraged marketing to create financial freedom in 1987. He is the author of 15 books, and he presents seminars across North America and the United Kingdom. His website is LeverageAdvantage.com and he has also built a Team of over 6,000 people in more than 45 countries in this business. He practices what he preaches and runs his business with no overhead, employees, cost, or risk, and he has retired twice. He works with his wife of 29 years, Rika Elliott. They live happily in Vancouver, Canada, and they have four children and six grandchildren. Robin enjoys travel, reading, biking, hiking, downhill skiing, and kayaking.
Jon Simcoe has been investing in real estate since 2005. In the beginning, he used his own money, and learned a lot of lessons. Today, he regularly does real estate deals using none of his own money. He has learned how to own or control over $25,000,000 worth of real estate. Find Jon Simcoe online at: jonsimcoe.com
Britnie Turner founded Aerial in 2009 at the age of 21 with the mission of elevating people and places. Britnie has since formed multiple companies under the Aerial brand, all accelerating the mission by empowering people, sustaining the planet and utilizing capitalism as a force for good. Through the success of her companies, Britnie is resetting the standard of what is possible for women and young people across the globe and has won several national and international awards for speed of growth, innovation and trajectory. Aerial’s commitment to a triple bottom line approach is proving that conscious business is not only viable but the way of the future. Find Britnie Turner online at: http://aerialglobalcommunity.com http://britnieturner.com/
Nico Sanchez is an acclaimed real estate investment coach, mentor and motivational speaker; He is the co-founder and President of DS Realty Solutions Ltd. and President of The Greater Than Group, a Multi Divisional Private Equity Real Estate Investment Company. Nico’s Mission and Vision is to help you create wealth through strategic real estate investments and to spearhead humanitarian campaigns worldwide and to motivate, inspire and drive others to achieve more! Find Nico Sanchez online at: http://nicosanchez.ca
Frank McKinney, a true modern-day Renaissance man: Real Estate Artist, 6-time International Bestselling Author (in 5 genres), Philanthro-Capitalist, Ultramarathoner, Actor, and Aspirational Speaker who sees opportunities and creates markets where none existed before. Find Frank McKinney online at: http://www.frank-mckinney.com
Tammy Kling is a bestselling author who teaches others that “words are currency.” Her TEDx talk, describes how your words can change and even save lives. Tammy often coaches celebrities, athletes and CEOs through the book process. Find Tammy Kling online at: http://www.onfirebookswritingcompany.com/ http://www.whereworldchangersmeet.com/
Dan Lok, a.k.a The King of High-Ticket Sales, is one of the highest-paid and in-demand consultants in the real estate and high-ticket space. Dan has an inspirational story that resonates around the globe. The Dan Lok brand is a global movement with one mission: To empower 1,000,000 entrepreneurs to become successful in life and in business. Dan is one of the extremely rare keynote speakers and business consultants that actually owns a portfolio of highly profitable business ventures. To learn more about Dan Lok visit: https://www.fumoney.com/ebook http://www.danlok.com/
Over the last two decades, Douglas Vermeeren has conducted extensive first-hand research into the lives of the worlds top achievers. Doug has the success strategies of top business leaders from Nike, Reebok, Fruit of the Loom, FedEx, KFC, United Airlines, Microsoft, Disney and others to share with you. ABC television and FOX Business refer to him as the modern-day Napoleon Hill. In addition, Doug is the producer and director of 3 out of 10 of the top personal development movies ever made. He is the producer of The Opus (featuring Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Joe Vitale, John Demartini, Marci Shimoff, Morris Goodman, Bob Doyle and others.) The Gratitude Experiment (Bob Proctor, Marie Diamond, John Demartini, John Gray) and The Treasure Map (John Demartini, Loral Langemeier, Raymond Aaron, Marshall Sylver, Randy Gage.) Doug has authored 3 books in the Guerrilla marketing series and is creator of PERSONAL POWER MASTERY which is rated one of the top personal development programs in the world providing powerful tools to companies, individuals and students. To learn more about Douglas Vermeeren visit: https://www.douglasvermeeren.com/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031818787056244/about/
Paul “Paulie” Kazanofski is one of the top real estate investors in the U.S. as well as a highly successful entrepreneur, author, speaker, and TV personality. He has been featured on A & E’s Bid, Build and Design and he has been the subject of a documentary called the 24-hour entrepreneur. Paulie was also a World Champion Kickboxer and he carries that intensity that he had in the ring right over into his work as an entrepreneur as well as when he coaches others on how to become successful real estate investors and entrepreneurs. To learn more about Paul Kazanofski visit: https://www.facebook.com/paul.kazanofski
Shawn Shewchuk is described as the #1 results coach in the country. Founder of “Change Your Results”, Shawn works hard to help people create change and optimize the results in their life. When many of North America’s high achievers seek a strategic expert to assist them in the achievement and acceleration their results, they typically seek out or are introduced to Shawn Shewchuk. Shawn Shewchuk is committed to studying, understanding and helping others achieve more, in less time. If you want to better your life, your career or business, and of course your results, you need to meet Shawn.
To learn more about Shaw Shewchuk visit:
http://changeyourresults.com/