Latest / The Hannah Hammond Show / Secrets To Scaling Revealed By His Billionaire Mentor | Andrew Abernathy

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Secrets To Scaling Revealed By His Billionaire Mentor | Andrew Abernathy · The Hannah Hammond Show

• 0:00
  Like, a lot of buddies of mine have built really big $100
• 0:01
  million businesses, but the problem is they build the
• 0:03
  company around themselves and then they can't get away from
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  it. They can't back out of it.
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  It's impossible. It's hard.
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  So all the companies that we have, I've built around somebody
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  else. The goals I set for these guys
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  are it's crazy, like, hey Luke, Nate, can you build US100
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  facilities by 2030? Four.
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  That's insane. So you made your first million
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  by. 17. So you said in the beginning of
• 0:20
  our podcast here, you bet on a good company, but you didn't
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  make a right bet on the people. And Gary Vee, I watched his
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  podcast a couple days ago on the Cody Sanchez Show, and he said
• 0:30
  the same thing, Like I made a bad bet.
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  It was a good horse, bad jockey. Yeah.
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  It's really about people and that's where I basically now
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  just meet people and build businesses around them because
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  those are the hardest things to find and you can find it.
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  I mean, if you go to a dinner with a bunch of business people
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  and the conversation gets quiet, you can tell the conversation
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  they want to have about what? So if you accompany passion with
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  a good person as morals, that's driven and already financially
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  successful already like it's magic and he's build a business
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  around them. How have you been able to
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  identify and secure talented people like the best many
• 1:00
  players in the game? And how do you structure
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  incentives to actually keep them aboard and keep them happy and
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  keep them operating in their realm of genius?
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  Today I'm here with Andrew Abernathy, who is the chairman
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  and founder of Abernathy Holdings, which is a company
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  that, I mean, you started investing at 13 years old, I
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  read with $4000, which I can't wait to dive into that.
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  And then you've turned that into a company that's now worth
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  almost 200 million and you've raised 200 million in capital
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  and you developed Class A storage facilities and your
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  local to Arizona, which is even cooler.
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  Yeah. Now I am North North Dakota
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  Original, but I've been here long enough now so it counts,
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  yes. Let's talk about that.
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  So you were raised on a farm and was your family very
• 1:44
  entrepreneurial and kind of ingrained that in you?
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  Or was it your own thing? Like to walk us through your
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  journey that got you started investing and then investing at
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  13 years old, which is crazy. And it sounds like me setting up
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  a custodian account when I was under 18 and trying to trade
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  stocks and stuff. But yeah, I'd love to hear that
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  journey. Yeah, so my family started
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  farming in 1901. So there was, I was an
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  entrepreneurial bug, you know, the homesteaders, I mean, they
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  had a lot harder life than I did, that's for sure.
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  And so, and farming's the most risky business.
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  I mean, it's risky as heck. And so everything else seemed
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  pretty low risk to me because you know, you throw all your
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  money out in the fields and hope the weather cooperates, you
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  don't lose everything. So but the family only focused
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  on farming operations. It's all we did.
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  And when I was, you know, about 10:00-ish started doing green
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  cart combine work on the farm making 5 bucks an hour.
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  That's how I saved up to 4 grand.
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  I actually saved up 6 grand, but I spent 2 grand on a go a go
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  Kart. So I had four left, of course,
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  right. And so I started investing.
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  I just, the market crashed when I was in 9th grade.
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  And it was just a perfect entry point.
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  I mean, everything was, I mean, I bought Ford at $0.99, Bank
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  America at 3 bucks. The 1st 4 grand, 80 grand was
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  all pretty much lucky. That was just timing.
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  I learned a lot. Been a big Warren Buffett fan
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  since the start. That's what I emulated Abernathy
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  Holdings after. Is is Berkshire Hathaway a
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  permanent capital vehicle? And so that was that was a
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  start, yeah. So so you just set up a
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  custodian account under your dad or something and then started
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  trading stocks with your savings?
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  For trading and that was the first and then I was farming
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  too. My dad got in a really bad
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  accident so he was gone for a while.
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  So my brother and I took the farm over and I was in 10th
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  grade and he was a senior. And then hybrid app the holdings
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  was just a side hobby. And then when I was 16, I found
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  some apartments for sale in Bismarck, ND 3 hours away and
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  had some research on why the oil boom was going to come back like
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  the 80s and they needed 1.125 million was the price.
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  I only had $80,000 and the bank would not give me a loan with 80
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  grand down. So I went to a farmer and I
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  didn't have the money for legal work.
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  So I printed off Warren Buffett's 1956 partnership
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  agreement and he put in 300 grand.
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  I put an 80. We bought them and the oil boom
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  did hit and we sold them and I made my first million about my
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  junior year with that deal. That's insane.
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  Yeah, so I was a great start. Is it even legal to buy property
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  before? 18 That's why you need the
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  investor for a lot of reasons. Yeah, I was gonna say.
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  So he. Was a guarantor.
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  Yeah, he's a guarantor in everything.
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  That's insane. So you made your first million
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  by. 17 yeah 1817. Holy hell yeah.
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  That's crazy. Those are first two lucky deals.
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  You know, I thought that I was always like ahead of the curve a
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  little bit, 'cause people tell me like you read Rich Dad, Poor
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  dad at 13 and you sold your first property.
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  Yeah, so good, right? But then now I hear your story
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  and I'm like shit, I'm way behind.
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  There's nothing else to do in North Dakota except make money
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  and probably some other bad stuff you can do.
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  So it was good. Yeah.
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  And then and then that was kind of the, the launching point
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  that, you know, I was farming. Now this fund was a company was
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  $1,000,000 plus the guy that came in said let's do it again.
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  I'll keep it, keep it going. So I went to a lawyer and I
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  learned what APPM was and all the regulations and I made an
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  offering when I was 18 for 10 million and I went and raised it
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  from local farmers. I raised it in within a year, I
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  was like 8 months. I raised 10 more $1,000,000.
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  Oh my God. And so, you know, it's something
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  because I'm in that capital raising financing equity, debt,
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  all that stuff. And a lot of people ask me like,
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  how do you get over the hump of being a young entrepreneur, a
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  young investor? Because a lot of the what am I,
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  the contradictions, the objections, Yeah, a lot of the
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  objections is like, well, how do you know what you're doing?
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  You're so young, and this fund manager has been doing it for 50
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  years. So how did you overcome some of
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  that? Yeah.
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  I mean, the biggest thing was timing.
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  So farming in that in that time frame was do it was really good.
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  I mean it's probably the best it's been in 100 years.
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  So you have people that have capital.
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  Farmers are a unique group. They're not going to, nobody can
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  fly in from outside our circle, from a farming circle and, and
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  they won't give them money. It's just such a tight group.
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  So they had money, They had nobody else knocking on their
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  door. Nobody's going to, I'm going to
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  land for North Dakota to raise money.
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  That wasn't something people thought from New York.
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  And so I was in a captive audience.
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  They had capital and, and each door I went to, it's like, hey,
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  here's how I turned 4 grand into $1,000,000.
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  I want to go do it again. I'm going to, I have all my
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  money. My net worth is in this 100%
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  next year's and and everyone did like 50 to 100K, right?
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  It was kind of like, let's see what this, this kid can do.
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  So every, I mean, I knocked on 10 doors a day and it was 500 to
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  1,000,000 bucks a day. And it just kind of got to my 10
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  million goal. And then I then I proved it.
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  Once the model was proven after that, then raising was easier in
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  my 20s because the track record when I was 24 was 10 years, 11
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  years. So then it started to kind of
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  get a little easier and now it's real easy.
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  Yeah, yeah, it just keeps. Now I don't need any more money.
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  That's probably. It's like, yeah, when it's easy,
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  I don't need it. So it's hard and.
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  Then it's that balance of why do I keep taking on more?
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  Correct, because I'm deluded. Yeah, because I owned 100% of
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  Holdings obviously at the start and had four grand and I'm
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  Holdings itself. We have JV relationships as
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  well. But holdings, we're coming up on
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  about 100 million capital raises just in holdings equity, not
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  including debt and without a valuation currently at about 180
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  a 180 million and I own 30% still so.
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  Now, are you evaluating that based off of the real estate
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  equity valuation? So it's unique.
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  Holdings is Berkshire Hathaway, which is everything is owned
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  within the holding company. So Holdings owns the assets, it
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  owns a construction company, it owns a garage door dealership,
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  the equipment dealerships, all the vertical operations.
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  So we're valued actually a multiple of book because we're
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  actually somewhat of an operating company as well.
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  There are no fees. So I get a salary that's set by
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  the board. I don't get a profit share.
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  I don't get anything my upsides, my shares.
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  So people actually pay a multiple on book because of the
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  uniqueness of the deal. There's all the developer fees
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  from J VS get paid into holdings, not to me personally.
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  So it's unique. So you will not actually see the
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  fruits of your labor really beyond your salary until you
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  exit. Pretty much.
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  Damn. Yeah.
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  I mean, it's balance sheet looks great.
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  Yeah, but cash flow, I mean, I have a great salary, I live a
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  good life, but you know, I'm not flying around on PJS yet or
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  anything, right? You.
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  Should get on that. I should I should sell a couple
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  of shares and make that happen. Exactly.
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  Can you? Yeah, I can.
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  I try not to. There's a, there's a super
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  majority clause. So as long as I own 28.1%, I
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  have effective control. So I could sell a few there, but
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  you know, when I'm 40, we'll probably start doing dividends,
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  you know, and even if we do a couple couple bucks a share,
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  I'll be making with my salary before 5 million a year in
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  income. So I mean, I'll like that I can
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  enjoy all the leisures then. Yeah, so you make it sound so
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  easy, but I know it's. Not yeah, there's a lot of
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  things going on. So what were in your early
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  years, what were some of those challenges that you face, maybe
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  your first deal or or your first fund, your first $10 million
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  raise that you know, what was that mental battle that you went
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  through and some of those bigger challenges?
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  Yeah. So, I mean, the biggest mistake
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  is for me was in 2017. So I was going for a while, call
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  it 10 years, easy math, nine years and everything was kind of
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  working. But I got a little broad.
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  I wasn't focused on. I mean, I had HUD buildings,
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  commercial properties, equipment dealerships.
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  I was on the board of a public company in Alabama, insurance
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  company we own got control of. We just had a bunch of things in
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  2017. I found this undervalued
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  helicopter company of all things and invested just 1,000,000
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  bucks. We're about $20 million company
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  at the time, just to give you kind of reference.
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  You were what? The, the company was a $20
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  million company at this time, just to kind of give you a
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  reference of, you know, so I put 1,000,000 bucks in, so 5% of the
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  market cap and doubled it to 2 million and, and sold.
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  And then the stock dropped again.
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  And it was a company that had a billion dollars in, in liquid
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  assets selling at a couple 100 million valuation.
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  So I put a million back in, dropped again, put a million in,
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  dropped again, put a million in. The next thing you know, had 15%
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  of our company in it. And it was our liquid cash too,
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  which is hard. I underwrote the business,
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  right, But I underwrote the people wrong.
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  And they did a voluntary bankruptcy, golden parachutes,
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  debtors flipped it, sold it for 2 billion.
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  Like the numbers were right, but the I underwrote the people
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  wrong. So that's my fault and we lost
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  it all. I was the lead plaintiff of a
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  lawsuit. We won.
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  They went to jail. Like they did some illegal
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  stuff. So that's a great, but we got
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  $0.10 on the dollar back five years later, you know, it takes
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  forever. And so that was a really hard
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  time. I mean, that was the first time
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  our share price went down. It was liquid capital.
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  So I had to go and loan money from someone that I knew
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  personally at 10% interest and put all my shares as collateral.
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  And I loaned it into the company at 0% to keep it going for the
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  year. And and that's why I met my
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  mentor, Gary Theroldsson. He's North Dakota's first
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  billionaire. And he said, Andrew, you know,
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  you get at a lot of things, you're not great at anything.
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  And that's when I learned that I need to start focusing and not
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  adding divisions until I've focused and built and taken one
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  division to where it can be first.
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  So that was a big learning experience.
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  And what did you decide to focus on from that point and
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  recalibrate and how did you make that decision?
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  Yeah. So Gary, how he made his wealth
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  was he printed hotels. So he said, Andrew, I'm not
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  really in the hotel business. I'm in the I'm the manufacturing
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  business. I just happened to manufacture
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  hotels. So he started in 1982.
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  He was one of the first to start with Marriott because Marriott
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  owned 99% of their hotels in the 70s and now they own 1%.
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  They went to an asset light model.
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  Once they built the brand, Gary came in and owned the hotel.
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  So he's built over 400 hotels in his career.
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  He's going to turn 80 here this year.
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  He's made multiple multi billion dollar exits to Goldman Sachs
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  and few other groups. And so his model was simple.
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  He vertically integrated the process.
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  He manufactured a type of hotel, Marriott's.
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  He was opening a new hotel every eight days.
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  At his peak in the nineties, 10% of the hotels in the US came
• 11:49
  from him through the 90's, the new hotels.
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  And so I wanted to do the same thing.
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  I'm like, how about hotels? And he's like, yeah, you know
• 11:55
  what's that's been done, What's what's what's new?
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  And so I searched I was going to is between nursing homes and our
• 12:03
  assisted living and self storage.
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  Self storage in 2017, which was the time of this conversation,
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  public and extra space for the first time said you can now use
• 12:13
  our name, third party management.
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  And it reminded me so much of hotels and the other benefits
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  are houses getting smaller, affordability issues, Amazon and
• 12:22
  drop shippers use them. So I just saw a lot of upside.
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  So I went and told Gary, he's like, that's your billion dollar
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  idea. And that was the start of the
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  the new model. Yeah, so 2017, so it's been a
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  good run in. Storage, our company went from
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  20 million to 200 million since 2017.
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  That's crazy. I found my niche, yeah.
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  Congratulations, it's so. Cool, I.
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  Love, I love. I get so inspired by people.
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  I never understood people that get envious of other people's
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  success. I'm like, what is wrong with
• 12:54
  you? I guess I do understand it's
• 12:55
  because these people just suck and they're never going to be go
• 12:58
  anywhere with their life and they want somebody to point the
• 12:59
  finger out because they won't point it at themselves, but
• 13:01
  they're the common denominator and their failures.
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  Exactly. But it.
• 13:05
  Does happen a lot. Yeah, but I love it.
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  I love seeing people like playing the game at the highest
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  level and who are just obsessed with it.
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  It's so fun and it's a game. It's it's not about the money.
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  Like I'm going to probably give it all the way at the end
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  anyways. You know, I'm really big with my
• 13:18
  foundation and I just love the game.
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  Like I want to create a private trillion dollar holding company
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  and as long as I lived in 95, I think I can get her done.
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  It's time compounding, you know. It's so awesome, it's so nice
• 13:29
  to. It's refreshing to meet somebody
• 13:31
  who has crazy massive dreams and goals like I do because people
• 13:36
  tell me I'm a little like, bit too big of a dreamer.
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  But you have bigger ones than me.
• 13:40
  Yeah. Make them bigger.
• 13:41
  Let's go. I'm like, cool, I'm I'm shooting
• 13:43
  for a billion and you're just throwing out the T.
• 13:46
  Word, yeah, I know through the T word well, by then it'll be like
• 13:48
  300 billion in today's dollars inflation, but.
• 13:51
  Inflation adjusted, yeah, no, that's, that's awesome.
• 13:54
  And so how has, because I know the whole economy, it has been
• 13:59
  challenged over the past few years since rates and the COVID
• 14:02
  debacle and the printing and all that stuff.
• 14:04
  We had some good news recently with the the big beautiful bill.
• 14:08
  Whether you like it or hate it, at least for.
• 14:10
  Real segregation of storage gonna be great.
• 14:12
  Yeah, it's back. But where have you seen whether
• 14:15
  it's somebody you heard of or whether it was any of your own
• 14:17
  deals, where have you seen any deals go bad over the past few
• 14:20
  years? You know of any that?
• 14:23
  You can share none of ours, fortunately.
• 14:27
  So I mean, I'm going to chalk it up as fortunate, but I, I'm a
• 14:30
  big reader about the cycles like Ray Dalio's changing world
• 14:33
  orders, like the Habsburgs, the Dutch, the British, the US, the
• 14:37
  Fiat non Fiat, the long term, short term debt cycles.
• 14:39
  Like I can go on for an hour just about that.
• 14:41
  But so in 2019 I wrote, I read an annual letter of your
• 14:45
  shareholders and 1/4 an annual letter 12 our shareholders every
• 14:49
  year and do a quarterly. And in 2019, I was writing about
• 14:53
  the we're at the mid cycle and obviously I didn't know that
• 14:58
  Kobe was going to come or anything, but we sold everything
• 15:00
  in Fargo, which is also the time we were going to transition into
• 15:03
  storage full time. So we sold everything off.
• 15:06
  So when COVID hit, we got really fortunate.
• 15:08
  We had a lot of cash and, and, but we bought a lot of land over
• 15:12
  here in Arizona to start developments.
• 15:15
  And then when COVID hit, there was a the stimulus, the all the
• 15:18
  money was kind of being given away.
• 15:20
  PPP yeah. So it kind of reminded me of
• 15:23
  farming when I first started. I was like, a lot of people have
• 15:25
  money and they don't have to do with it.
• 15:27
  So we did a $32 million offering, filled it in like 10
• 15:29
  months. And then then I remember we were
• 15:33
  in Arizona and things were really crazy there for a while.
• 15:35
  Like everybody like a shovel ready site for storage was like
• 15:38
  $5,000,000. Like just you couldn't get
• 15:40
  entitlements done. It was cash closed no matter
• 15:42
  what. Like, it was just a crazy time.
• 15:45
  So we had these ambitious plans. We had all this cash in our
• 15:47
  checking account ready to blow up.
• 15:50
  But I just couldn't get a deal that made sense at average rate
• 15:53
  because rental rates were, you know, growing at that 3 to 5%.
• 15:57
  But then when COVID hit, rental rates like spiked in storage and
• 16:00
  everybody was underwriting them on that buck, $80.90 a foot.
• 16:04
  And I was still trying to underwrite stuff at $1.35,
• 16:08
  right, The median if you looked at the big picture.
• 16:11
  So we actually sat on our hands and this was the hardest, one of
• 16:13
  the hardest points of my life. We sat on our hands for a good
• 16:16
  two years and didn't buy one thing and all this cash.
• 16:18
  And towards the end, it sounds easy now looking back, but
• 16:21
  towards the end of it, I'm like, I'm either really wrong or
• 16:24
  really right. Like if I'm wrong this because
• 16:26
  this is going to be bad, right? Because maybe this is just the
• 16:28
  new normal. Maybe this is just going to be
• 16:29
  great. And sure enough, obviously
• 16:32
  interest rate spiked and things crater.
• 16:34
  And then we started we, then we put the foot on the gas pedal.
• 16:37
  I mean, we, we, we got over a, we got a million square feet
• 16:40
  plus. We're going on now like it's,
• 16:42
  it's crazy. And so that was lucky.
• 16:45
  Yeah, 'cause you timed it right, 'cause if you would have done a
• 16:47
  raise, you have to deploy the capital.
• 16:50
  And that's where all these fund managers get in so much trouble
• 16:52
  because they're like, we have to spend the money.
• 16:54
  Yeah, and we don't. Yeah.
• 16:56
  So we sat on 50 million for 24 months.
• 17:00
  And you didn't give the investors back their money?
• 17:02
  It's a holdings, it's just sat there.
• 17:03
  They have shares 'cause they buy shares and holdings and holdings
• 17:06
  still at our equipment dealerships operating.
• 17:09
  You know, we have, we saw we just got a mobile Home Park,
• 17:11
  which is a new division we started this year.
• 17:13
  But yeah, so that's a big one of ours now.
• 17:16
  But no, yeah, they were good. I mean, in my letters I
• 17:18
  explained to them it's the time to raise money and the time to
• 17:20
  place it are rarely in the same time frame.
• 17:21
  So they understood. So is this a public company?
• 17:25
  No, we're still private. OK, so.
• 17:26
  It's just shares in the. The YEAH units we're in LLC
• 17:29
  Delaware LLC, but it's a company that never ends.
• 17:32
  People do buy and sell shares amongst each other companies
• 17:35
  first trade refusal, 2 and a half million shares units issued
• 17:39
  in the company and I own 750,000 of them so so it's amazing.
• 17:44
  I'm trying to keep it private. It's getting harder, though,
• 17:46
  every day. Yeah, I've heard, I know a lot
• 17:48
  of people that have gone public and they're just like biggest
• 17:51
  mistake in my life. Oh, that's good to hear.
• 17:52
  Yeah, I've, I've had a lot of it.
• 17:55
  But then you meet the people that do the public and they do
• 17:58
  amazing and whatever. But I have definitely heard it
• 18:01
  can be not the best decision. Well.
• 18:03
  There's three reasons to go public access to capital, which
• 18:06
  I haven't had an issue with, liquidity, which I haven't had
• 18:10
  an issue with and using your shares as currency and then the
• 18:14
  4th 1 would be ego. So I just haven't had an issue
• 18:17
  with any of those four things that.
• 18:18
  Should be the first one. Yeah, that should be the first
• 18:20
  one. So I haven't had an issue with
• 18:21
  those four things. But if any of those four things
• 18:22
  become an issue, then that would be a reason to go public.
• 18:24
  But I always make sure I remember those because they're,
• 18:27
  those are the only reason to take the ego.
• 18:29
  The other three reasons are the only reasons to go public.
• 18:31
  And so if I don't need those three things and it it's not
• 18:34
  because I need to go public. So I, I haven't.
• 18:36
  But our shareholder counts grown grew 20% last year.
• 18:40
  The shareholder had count and we didn't issue any shares, so it's
• 18:43
  starting to become a beast of its own that I'm trying to keep
• 18:47
  intact. How do you guys have you
• 18:51
  identified your deals and I mean you're in multiple different
• 18:53
  industries and asset classes. So how do you know it all right,
• 18:58
  like Jack of all trades and master none type thing.
• 19:01
  I mean, how do you evaluate that and where's your deal flow
• 19:03
  coming from? So Warren Buffett's model is a
• 19:06
  decentralized management system, centralized capital allocation
• 19:08
  system. So my job is capital allocation,
• 19:11
  basically being a capital allocator cheerleader.
• 19:13
  So I and I work with all the presidents.
• 19:15
  So we have a coming up on 100 employees now.
• 19:17
  We have 3 divisions. We have our equipment
• 19:20
  dealerships division run by Luke Stewart.
• 19:22
  We've got our self storage, Abernathy development, that
• 19:25
  whole division, all the verticals run by Nate Mays and
• 19:27
  then we got Ozark Communities, which is now our mobile Home
• 19:30
  Park communities division that's run by Dan Gibson.
• 19:33
  At the holdings company only have three employees.
• 19:35
  It's myself, Matt Halverson, he's the President, Chief
• 19:39
  Operating Officer, he runs everything.
• 19:40
  And then Charles, he's our controller, CFO.
• 19:43
  And so how we manage it is each division has their talent.
• 19:47
  Each of those individuals that run these divisions have been in
• 19:49
  in that industry for 15 plus years.
• 19:51
  They became wealthy independently.
• 19:54
  They put a lot of money itself personally in the holdings.
• 19:56
  So they are in charge of each. Every companies run differently.
• 20:00
  So let's just dive into self storage.
• 20:02
  Nate May as a land team of two individuals, they use a lot of
• 20:05
  AI. They have a lot of software
• 20:07
  stuff they subscribe to. We have an individual in each
• 20:10
  state we're in with boots on the ground and their job is to
• 20:13
  literally just build relationships with brokers, do
• 20:15
  cold calling, mailing, trying to find these sites.
• 20:19
  And then once the site's found, it goes to our underwriting
• 20:21
  team. Once the underwriting is done,
• 20:23
  if we do it, then it goes to the getting the entitlements, then
• 20:26
  it's handed to our our own in house construction company.
• 20:29
  So then the construction company takes it and we have Subs that
• 20:32
  literally falls around. So like we have one site up and
• 20:34
  running in 12 months, like we have it down to a science.
• 20:39
  And then once it's open, the keys go to Public Storage.
• 20:41
  And then once it stabilizes, we have a portfolio of over 100
• 20:44
  million, we make an exit and we recycle that capital.
• 20:46
  So we always sell portfolios, we build them for less, sell them
• 20:49
  for more and do it quicker. So our IR and we don't have any
• 20:52
  pref or carry for anybody and we get all the developer fees from
• 20:56
  our JV's. So our IRR is mid to high 20s on
• 21:00
  something that most people would make 18% on.
• 21:02
  Yeah. Because of all the verticals
• 21:04
  and. Yeah, that's a really good
• 21:05
  structure because that pref really can, you know, screw you
• 21:09
  if it you don't time it perfectly, which is at some
• 21:12
  point you won't. Yeah, exactly.
• 21:13
  No, Yeah, there's some that are great.
• 21:14
  Some are, but I mean, but the goal is to we want to build 100
• 21:17
  of them here by 2034. We got a quarter billion
• 21:20
  currently in the pipeline and in that division.
• 21:23
  So you need to build 100. If you go bad then hopefully the
• 21:26
  more better than the other ones. And then we give away a lot.
• 21:29
  We give away 2% of everyone. We build our employees.
• 21:32
  So every hundred rebuild we give away too.
• 21:35
  Nice. I love that.
• 21:37
  That's a yeah. So let's dive into that.
• 21:38
  That's a good segue. So how have you built an
• 21:41
  organization of 100 plus people and managing multiple different
• 21:45
  verticals, Lots of things going on not only from capital raising
• 21:49
  to deal flow and management, but in multiple different industries
• 21:51
  to your construction vertical and your equipment rental
• 21:54
  company. How have you been able to
• 21:57
  identify and secure talented people like the best A players
• 22:01
  in the game, and how do you structure incentives to actually
• 22:08
  keep them aboard and keep them happy and keep them operating in
• 22:11
  their realm of genius? Yeah, no, great question.
• 22:14
  So I mean, I've been really fortunate.
• 22:15
  I've really, what I've, what I've come to do is I find I'm a
• 22:19
  nerd and I read a lot about every industry And so and you
• 22:23
  know, the average company in the US makes I think like 13 to 15%
• 22:26
  return on total tangible assets, the operating companies.
• 22:29
  So I, I find I've in my head, I know the industries that make 25
• 22:33
  plus percent, 20 to 25% plus, which is the, the higher insulin
• 22:38
  of the industries that I like. So I know the industries I like.
• 22:40
  And then when I'm just out and about in the world, I find
• 22:43
  people that I like, that I admire, that have morals and,
• 22:47
  and have done really great things that are obsessed about a
• 22:49
  certain industry. And if I find that person, then
• 22:52
  I build a company around them. I see a lot of, like a lot of
• 22:55
  buddies of mine have built really big $100 million
• 22:57
  businesses. But the problem is they build
• 22:59
  the company around themselves and then they can't get away
• 23:01
  from it. They can't back out of it.
• 23:03
  It's impossible, it's hard. So all the companies that we
• 23:06
  have, I've built around somebody else.
• 23:09
  So I think people are the most important parts.
• 23:11
  So I first find the person and then I then I build the business
• 23:14
  around it instead of back the other way around.
• 23:16
  And then the incentive is unique.
• 23:18
  So we do again, I stole from Warren Buffett.
• 23:21
  But our equipment dealership, the average equipment
• 23:25
  dealership, municipal equipment dealerships make 18 ish percent
• 23:29
  on book are on, on total tangible assets.
• 23:31
  Excuse me, So what I do with Luke Stewart is every dollar
• 23:34
  above average, he gets 10% off. So we have a 9010 partnership
• 23:38
  holdings and Luke Stewart above that benchmark and I and then I
• 23:42
  teach him things to do that quick, you know, receivable
• 23:45
  timeline, turning inventory quicker and four times instead
• 23:49
  of three times making sure you're carrying the right
• 23:51
  products. There's a semi, we have a semi
• 23:53
  fleet. Do the math, 20% your heart
• 23:56
  hurdle or 18%, do you use it enough?
• 23:59
  Could you rent one the three times you use it a month and not
• 24:01
  own it on your balance sheet? These people then think like an
• 24:05
  owner and they are an owner and where else can you get that?
• 24:08
  I mean, every single president has made millions and millions
• 24:11
  of dollars by running our divisions because of this comp
• 24:13
  plan. Yeah, and then who's responsible
• 24:16
  for recruiting? Inside of the companies.
• 24:19
  Yeah, like, I mean they are. I don't even really know any
• 24:23
  employees outside of the the six that I mentioned at the start.
• 24:27
  I mean, you know, I'll go to Christmas parties and say hi.
• 24:29
  But outside of those presidents and outside of the three in
• 24:33
  holdings I have, I don't say or sway anything.
• 24:36
  That's awesome. And I just kind of hang out.
• 24:38
  You know, the human condition is the most difficult thing to
• 24:43
  master in life in my opinion. And in business it is.
• 24:47
  And the systems and you know, all that stuff can, it's much
• 24:52
  easier taught. But to deal with humans and be
• 24:56
  able to influence them and support them and encourage them
• 24:59
  and guide them and give them all the things that they want to
• 25:01
  actually stay happy. Because humans are just
• 25:03
  inherently always looking for something more or something
• 25:06
  different or something else. So.
• 25:07
  And they're all different program different, you know, and
• 25:10
  that's what we always talk because I talk to the presidents
• 25:12
  multiple times a week and I'm a big reader.
• 25:14
  I read a book like monthly, if not more frequent.
• 25:17
  And so I always send the leaders a book that I think would help
• 25:21
  them in the current situation they're in.
• 25:23
  So I could do great with the book.
• 25:24
  I just sent Luke Stewart because he was, he was kind of in that
• 25:26
  in a scenario where you needed a players and all that.
• 25:28
  So I'm like the, the, the advisor, the the, the partner
• 25:34
  that just hangs out and lets them do their thing.
• 25:36
  It's their businesses. Yeah.
• 25:37
  And are you the visionary or do OK?
• 25:39
  Because I push hard. I mean, the goals I set for
• 25:42
  these guys are that's crazy. Like, hey, Luke, Nate, can you
• 25:44
  build US100 facilities by 2034? You know, there's a 20 million
• 25:48
  bucks a pop. Yeah.
• 25:49
  See, that's the thing, Andrew. I'm like, how do I get everybody
• 25:53
  to row the boat in the same direction?
• 25:54
  Because I've found that not everybody has the same dreams
• 25:57
  that I do. So it's like, OK, so I run on
• 26:02
  EOS Entrepreneur operating system.
• 26:05
  You know, for those who don't know, EOS is just an operating
• 26:08
  system to manage your business and track KPI's and have your
• 26:12
  quarterly planning meeting in your annual planning meetings
• 26:15
  and make sure that everybody is accountable for their number,
• 26:18
  right? Whether it's sales calls out in
• 26:20
  a day or whether it's revenue coming in or deals close or
• 26:23
  whatever their KP is, might be. But when I create a vivid vision
• 26:28
  for my company and think of my goals, I always find myself like
• 26:34
  pulling myself back. Well, I can't say that because
• 26:37
  they're going to freak out or they're not going to believe
• 26:39
  it's possible or how do I get people to actually buy into this
• 26:43
  and, and want to do it? And so I try, what's the balance
• 26:47
  for you basically? Because when you throw out these
• 26:48
  numbers and they're the ones executing on it, I mean,
• 26:52
  obviously you are too, but operationally. 100%.
• 26:55
  Yeah. So how do you balance that?
• 26:57
  Because I'm like, I don't want to pull myself back, but I also
• 27:01
  don't want to create a number that everybody thinks is
• 27:04
  impossible, possible. And then we don't actually hit
• 27:06
  our metrics and then they become irrelevant if you're just never
• 27:10
  hitting them. And then they're like, well,
• 27:11
  these goals don't actually mean anything because we're never
• 27:13
  going to hit them. Yeah, there's a fine line.
• 27:15
  I mean, I was watching a documentary is Richard Brunson,
• 27:18
  and it was them talking about the Rockets, and the video was
• 27:21
  on him. And he's like, yeah, we're going
• 27:22
  to be in space in two years, whatever.
• 27:24
  Then it goes to like the engineers and they're like,
• 27:26
  yeah, he said they're going to be in space in tears, like it's
• 27:28
  not going to happen. And it goes, you know, it's just
• 27:29
  really funny, the dynamic. Same with Elon Musk.
• 27:31
  He has the same relationship, you know, all the greats have
• 27:35
  this really huge vision. So it's a balance.
• 27:39
  I don't know if there's really a science to it, Gary.
• 27:41
  Thailand's the same way. I, I always set really big
• 27:45
  visions, but I also like, like this year we're going to last
• 27:49
  year our equipment dealership surpassed.
• 27:50
  I mean, they like a 50% top line, 62% bottom line growth in
• 27:54
  one year is just insane. And then, you know, this year
• 27:57
  they're actually going to drop a bit just because the egg
• 27:59
  industry is not doing all service trucks.
• 28:01
  Long story. But it's OK to say, hey, Luke,
• 28:03
  like it's all good. Like let's just level up.
• 28:05
  Like, you know, we have it's going to be OK.
• 28:08
  You know, so it's I've never these presidents are going to be
• 28:11
  hard enough on themselves. So I do set really big goals,
• 28:14
  but my goals are usually 10 years out.
• 28:17
  You know, I don't get too crazy on setting huge goals like that
• 28:21
  next month or something because then those it's tough.
• 28:24
  If it's ten years out, you can kind of pivot a little bit to
• 28:26
  make it kind of come out where it's not too hurtful, yeah.
• 28:30
  Cuz they're like, oh, it's so far away.
• 28:32
  Whatever you know. Do you?
• 28:34
  Do you run on an operating system?
• 28:35
  Every company's different. Yeah.
• 28:37
  So most of them do the EOS, some of them do not.
• 28:40
  Some of them do some other different programs.
• 28:41
  They all kind of have their own systems.
• 28:44
  So whenever I'm in a board meeting with that company, I I
• 28:46
  partake in whatever. Like today we had a quarterly
• 28:48
  with our equipment dealership and we we run that one runs on
• 28:51
  EOS. So yeah, we're all different.
• 28:54
  Holdings is pretty simple. I mean, what I do is, you know,
• 28:57
  I got all these investors, 3 divisions, one checking account
• 29:01
  and holdings, and they're incentivized to send me money
• 29:03
  they can't put to work. And when I my cash pile gets too
• 29:05
  big, I got to open a new division.
• 29:07
  So do you guys pass through depreciation and everything to
• 29:09
  the shareholders? Of this to me K ones that's
• 29:12
  people. So we've never done a dividend.
• 29:14
  Waiting on my damn K1 from Jeremiah.
• 29:17
  Yeah, he's a storage fund out of New England.
• 29:21
  And yeah, I I'm like, I gotta find, I need a new CPA.
• 29:24
  Sorry, all these things are piling on my To Do List.
• 29:27
  But they're great still. Mobile homes are great too.
• 29:29
  So yeah, we've never done a dividend.
• 29:31
  Shares were $7.92 in 2012 and today they're 80.
• 29:36
  So our, our compounding growth for 12 years has been I think it
• 29:38
  was 20.62% compounding. Our goal is 15.
• 29:41
  It's we beat it, but so this the dividends is basically the K
• 29:47
  ones. I mean the depreciations
• 29:48
  astonished like this year will open up, you know $70 million in
• 29:52
  storage and thirtyish percent of that will be cost sag and 100%
• 29:57
  now with the new tax bill. And mobile homes are like 50%
• 30:00
  like we bought 1500 lots or 1300 lots last year, Mobile home
• 30:04
  parks. Wait, you said mobile homes are
• 30:06
  50% of what? The cost sag is a lot higher on
• 30:09
  those, the bonus depreciation, yeah.
• 30:11
  So just two great industries for the cost sag.
• 30:14
  Yeah, it is so nice. I know when I was flying around
• 30:17
  with Arthur and Jeff Hyatt, the cost SAG guy, he was sharing
• 30:22
  that you know different asset classes are not created equal
• 30:25
  when it comes to cost segregation and that can have a
• 30:27
  big impact on your bottom line. Big time.
• 30:29
  And we try to design to do, I mean if it's movable, if you do
• 30:31
  movable walls, whatever it is like you can milk that too and
• 30:34
  get more out of a building in that in that bonus depreciation
• 30:38
  column. Yeah.
• 30:39
  And that was another thing is different companies will do
• 30:43
  different levels of depreciation.
• 30:45
  Like I was working with the client that we're doing a loan
• 30:47
  for and he's like, yeah, this company said they'll depreciate
• 30:49
  1.7 million, this company said 2.7.
• 30:53
  And I actually didn't realize that I was always just like, OK,
• 30:55
  this is the person I go to. But I never really thought of,
• 30:59
  you know, it's just like ACPA, They all have different
• 31:01
  strategies, strategies and your tax liabilities not going to
• 31:03
  look the same. Depending on it's yeah, it's
• 31:06
  tough. There's no right answer.
• 31:08
  Right. Yeah, but where?
• 31:10
  Do you feel comfortable with? Cost segregation and if you are
• 31:12
  watching and you don't know what cost segregation is, it's
• 31:14
  basically the American dream of in my opinion.
• 31:18
  And This is why I choose to be in real estate, honestly is one
• 31:21
  of the reasons. There's so many reasons, but
• 31:23
  cost segregation allows you to. And we actually have a podcast
• 31:26
  being released. Well, it'll actually come out
• 31:29
  before this one gets released, but it's going to be on my
• 31:31
  channel, It's with Jeff Hyatt. It's on cost segregation.
• 31:34
  The whole podcast is about it. But it it allows you to save on
• 31:37
  taxes. So if you buy $1,000,000
• 31:39
  property, you might be able to write off $400,000 against your
• 31:44
  ordinary income. If you're a real estate
• 31:46
  professional, you get some benefits.
• 31:47
  If you're not a real estate professional, they're not quite
• 31:49
  as great. But yeah, it's a huge tax
• 31:52
  strategy. So you can actually compound
• 31:54
  your wealth much faster. Because imagine if you're saving
• 31:56
  thirty, 4050% percent of whatever you buy each year and
• 32:02
  you instead of giving that to the government, you get to buy
• 32:04
  more real estate, more assets, whether you're buying it on your
• 32:06
  own or investing in somebody's fund like Andrew's.
• 32:09
  And then you just get to compound that wealth much
• 32:11
  quickly, much more quickly because you're building on pre
• 32:15
  tax dollars essentially. So yeah.
• 32:16
  And the other thing too that's unique, we have and I personally
• 32:19
  get a debt basis too because I personally guarantee Gary and I
• 32:22
  personally guarantee all the loans and holdings.
• 32:24
  So I always tell investors like I have 30% of the upside and
• 32:27
  100% of the downside because I'm the only PG with Gary about by
• 32:31
  PG and the debt, I actually get a debt basis too.
• 32:33
  So like my $70 million in shares that I own, I bought them for
• 32:37
  12:00. Well, that's my cost is
• 32:39
  depreciated out to 0. But now I'm even depreciating to
• 32:43
  the negative because I get my debt basis.
• 32:45
  Now, if debt shrinks, I have to recapture that, but in theory it
• 32:51
  could just keep on rolling even past my cost basis.
• 32:53
  Yeah, due to the PD. I mean, there's risk with it,
• 32:56
  but yeah. Yeah.
• 32:57
  So Gary is your mentor. He's also your partner.
• 33:01
  Yeah, JV and he owns some shares in Holdings, but he comes in on
• 33:03
  our projects 5050. He pays a developer fee and a
• 33:06
  construction fee and all that, which goes to Holdings.
• 33:07
  So our IRR and Holdings is a good 2 to 4% higher than his.
• 33:13
  But I can see I'm slowly just wanting to be more in Holdings.
• 33:16
  And how did you meet him? Cold called him when I was like
• 33:19
  20. No.
• 33:20
  Way. Yeah, I was in Fargo.
• 33:21
  I'm like, you don't know who I am.
• 33:23
  I called his office. Yeah.
• 33:24
  And he called me back. And then he just took me under
• 33:26
  his wing. And now, like, we're best
• 33:28
  friends. Like I hang out with him and his
• 33:29
  family all the time. The whole they're great people.
• 33:32
  So you were just Googling farmers?
• 33:34
  Or did. You Oh, I Googled the richest.
• 33:35
  Well, I Googled the 10 richest people in North Dakota, and I
• 33:38
  called every one of them but Gary, the the most wealthiest
• 33:41
  one that called me back and took me under his wing, and now we've
• 33:44
  been friends for about a decade. That's so cool.
• 33:46
  And I followed his model and and did something with it.
• 33:49
  So then he just loved me more because we just are the same.
• 33:52
  He's older than me, 50 years older, but we have the same
• 33:54
  mindset. Yeah.
• 33:55
  Who? Not how?
• 33:56
  Right, I think. And that's what this podcast is
• 34:00
  about, you know, when I was younger.
• 34:03
  What? You're 3031.
• 34:04
  Yeah. 31. OK, I'm 29.
• 34:06
  Yeah. So.
• 34:06
  But they didn't have podcasts. It was like you had to go to the
• 34:09
  library and try to find a book or luckily we had Internet.
• 34:12
  I can't. Even imagine YouTube and all
• 34:13
  that was lucky but. Yeah, although I never went on
• 34:17
  YouTube. Yeah, I did a Harvard class.
• 34:18
  I learned a discount. I learned discounted cash flow
• 34:20
  on a YouTube hour feel on YouTube.
• 34:23
  Really, it's amazing, you know, and then now with AI, it's a
• 34:28
  complete game changer. And so knowledge is free.
• 34:31
  Truly, absolutely free. Emotional intelligence is the
• 34:34
  difference. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 34:36
  The relationships, all that. But I think that's The thing is
• 34:38
  one of my biggest mistakes or regrets was I had so many
• 34:41
  internal issues growing up that I just put everything on me.
• 34:47
  Like I have to figure it all out.
• 34:49
  I have to be the one to execute. I have to go do this.
• 34:50
  And I didn't put any energy or effort into building
• 34:53
  relationships. Now all I do is relationships
• 34:56
  and that's what I really love and thrive in.
• 34:58
  But I had to get I was so insecure that I didn't have the
• 35:01
  confidence in myself to actually go meet people or find people
• 35:04
  are called the, you know, richest billionaire in North
• 35:08
  Dakota. I would have never thought to do
• 35:10
  that. But it's just so cool that you
• 35:13
  you're so smart and you knew so young, like exactly what you
• 35:17
  needed to do. You got to Robert Kiyosaki tells
• 35:19
  me that's all the time. It's like you're what is the
• 35:22
  three skills? Like the three skills out of the
• 35:24
  most important skills is capital raising, public speaking.
• 35:29
  And there's one other that I'm forgetting right now by capital,
• 35:33
  capital raising and public speaking are the the two most
• 35:35
  important skills. So you pretty much started that
• 35:40
  like right away, really young. Yeah, really young and building
• 35:43
  those relationships. Yeah, trying to raise money for
• 35:45
  the letter 50 plus. And then and then my presidents
• 35:47
  were, well, way older than me. I mean, I'm a 20 year old hiring
• 35:50
  40 year olds to run companies like it was.
• 35:54
  It was something I had to figure out.
• 35:56
  And you just met these presidents who end up becoming
• 35:59
  your partners organically? Or were you cold like
• 36:02
  identifying them and cold calling them?
• 36:04
  Well, when I was when I was 19 or 20, I bought my first
• 36:07
  operating company. I bought the equipment
• 36:08
  dealership in Great Falls, Mt was started in 1947.
• 36:12
  Bought it for all over $3,000,000 and I've never been
• 36:15
  to Montana. So I'm like hey mom, dad, I'm
• 36:16
  heading Montana. See ya.
• 36:18
  Not sure when. So I went and got this like $20
• 36:20
  a night hotel that was like 5 blocks on the door.
• 36:22
  It was sketchy and I lived there for three months and I remember
• 36:27
  I was, I closed on the deal and I'm sitting in the in the in the
• 36:32
  office with the guy I'm buying it from that's running it and
• 36:35
  owner operator and he's showing me how to do everything.
• 36:38
  And I'm in, I'm in my head like, oh shit, like I never thought
• 36:43
  of. I don't want to run this
• 36:44
  business and I just didn't think about it.
• 36:46
  I decided he'd stay on for a while and it'd be good, but he
• 36:48
  was going to head out. And so I'm like, shit, like I'm
• 36:52
  not going to live in Great Falls, Mt and run this thing.
• 36:55
  So there was a guy that was there.
• 36:57
  He was like 50s and he was showing all the employees a new
• 37:01
  piece of equipment. He was like the representative
• 37:02
  for a manufacturer we sold equipment for.
• 37:05
  And so we're driving to get a steak dinner.
• 37:06
  Mind you, I'm not even 21 yet. I had to get AI.
• 37:09
  Don't mind, can't say that. Anyway, so we're driving to get
• 37:11
  a steak dinner and and I said, you want this job?
• 37:14
  Do you want to come and run this company?
• 37:15
  Like employees love you, you know what you're doing?
• 37:17
  And he's like, no, I'm too old, but I know a guy.
• 37:21
  So after the night we call up this individual company named
• 37:24
  Luke Stewart from Idaho. It's been in the industry for 15
• 37:26
  years. He kind of hit a cap at his his
• 37:28
  other business because the owner's son was going to run it
• 37:31
  and he drove. That was about the company.
• 37:34
  January made that call in February.
• 37:37
  He came for an interview in March and he was in the
• 37:40
  president's chair by April 15th. And I was back-to-back to North
• 37:44
  Dakota. And he single handedly has 15X
• 37:46
  that business. He's just a rock star, so very
• 37:50
  fortunate. That is incredible.
• 37:52
  So I never bought a business that I didn't have somebody
• 37:54
  lined up for right after that experience.
• 37:56
  Yeah, and Jeremiah with a Patriot talks about this.
• 37:59
  He's my best friend and one of my closest people in my life.
• 38:03
  And so he talks about. He actually did talk on it at
• 38:06
  one of the masterminds we're a part of.
• 38:08
  But it's called ultimately is you.
• 38:12
  When you're making a bet, you can't just bet on the horse or
• 38:15
  just on the jockey. You have to bet on both.
• 38:17
  And so the horse is the vehicle, that's the asset class or the
• 38:21
  business model or whatever, right?
• 38:23
  And then the jockey is the person behind it.
• 38:25
  And so you said in the beginning of our podcast here, you bet on
• 38:29
  a good company, but you didn't make a right bet on the people.
• 38:32
  And Gary VI watched his podcast couple days ago on the Cody
• 38:35
  Sanchez show and he said the same thing, like I made a bad
• 38:37
  bet. I mean, it was a good horse, bad
• 38:40
  jockey, and it's so important and it's really when you're
• 38:43
  looking to invest in companies, I almost feel like the the
• 38:49
  jockey may be more important than the horse.
• 38:50
  I think so, yeah. Because they'll they're
• 38:53
  relentless. If you have something like we're
• 38:54
  not quitting, you know, we may mess up, we may lose, we may
• 38:57
  fail, but we're never actually going to lose or fail because
• 38:59
  we're never going to give up. We.
• 39:00
  Know how to pivot. We never give up.
• 39:02
  It's going to happen no matter what.
• 39:04
  And that's, that's 100%. It's really about people.
• 39:07
  And that's where I basically now just meet people and build
• 39:09
  businesses around them because those are the hardest things to
• 39:12
  find and you can find it. I mean, if you go.
• 39:14
  So when I was, I'm on a six and my parents did such a great job
• 39:17
  as young as younger kids to, to find our passion.
• 39:20
  We'd be on the dinner table and they would throw topics out and
• 39:22
  whenever one of our eyes would we turn and look or feel
• 39:25
  interested, then we they'd have one-on-one time with us on that
• 39:27
  topic. And we've all followed our own
• 39:29
  dreams and did whatever we wanted.
• 39:31
  I do the same thing with business.
• 39:33
  I mean, if you go to a dinner with a bunch of business people
• 39:36
  in the conversation gets quiet, you can tell the the
• 39:40
  conversation they want to have about what?
• 39:42
  And Luke Stewart, he naturally lights up when he's talking
• 39:46
  about equipment. He dreams about it.
• 39:48
  Nate may use with storage and Dan with with mobile home parks.
• 39:51
  I mean, you can you can see passion.
• 39:52
  It's so clear as day. So if you accompany passion with
• 39:55
  a good person as morals, that's driven and already financially
• 39:59
  successful already like. It's magic and he's build a
• 40:02
  business around him. Yeah, I love that you said that.
• 40:05
  I'm actually doing a talk next month and I was writing out my
• 40:09
  talk over the weekend and my talk is called Flow versus Force
• 40:13
  and how living in the Green Zone can exponentially grow any
• 40:19
  business. Yes, I think that's what I
• 40:20
  titled it. I like that.
• 40:22
  But yeah, and this was the catalyst for me because I kind
• 40:24
  of mentioned growing up by anxiety, depression, the ADD 80,
• 40:28
  like all these issues and. I depression as well, so there
• 40:30
  you go really. Yep.
• 40:32
  Oh, welcome to the Columbia. Yeah, 2 kindred spirits here,
• 40:35
  yeah. Yeah, I, I, I don't anymore.
• 40:38
  I think I got off antidepressants about a year
• 40:40
  ago. I need to.
• 40:41
  I'm scared because I got testosterone stuff now because
• 40:43
  that's part of it, but I'm really scared.
• 40:45
  But I should probably get off of them, yeah.
• 40:47
  Yeah, we'll Oh my gosh, we will. Have to do another whole.
• 40:50
  Yeah, we'll have to do a whole other podcast.
• 40:52
  But I was scared too because I was like, I don't want to go
• 40:55
  back, but I did so much work to get myself out.
• 40:59
  You know, it's like Western medicine just wants to cover up
• 41:03
  the side effect and then that creates another issue and then
• 41:06
  you get to get another drug. You know, I was on 15
• 41:08
  medications and I just had so many problems.
• 41:11
  And but when I did all the the inner work and the therapy and
• 41:15
  you plant medicine was a huge catalyst to to letting go
• 41:19
  because I think we just have so much stuck energy inside of us
• 41:23
  and us drivers, especially in entrepreneurship and the type A
• 41:28
  driver personality is we just shove it down, focus on the next
• 41:34
  high, the next deal, the next hit, the next client, the.
• 41:36
  Next Capital. Yeah, exactly.
• 41:38
  And we can fake it. We can lie to ourselves and make
• 41:42
  ourselves believe that we're OK because we're always high on
• 41:46
  things that society rewards us to be high on, versus alcohol or
• 41:49
  drugs or whatever other bad habits you could have.
• 41:52
  But yeah, and then if you never actually tap in, like, peel back
• 41:58
  the layers of the onion and tap into all those little things
• 42:01
  that have been one of my therapist that I've worked with,
• 42:05
  she calls it a soul tumor. Like, right when we're just a
• 42:07
  kid, we get a tumor starts to develop in our soul, whether
• 42:11
  we're bullied or made fun of or our dad doesn't see us or our
• 42:13
  mom judges us or, you know, our girlfriend dumps us or a
• 42:17
  boyfriend cheats on us or all these things.
• 42:18
  And then this tumor just grows and grows and grows and we're
• 42:21
  never taught how to actually cope with it or heal from it or
• 42:24
  process it. And so we become these shell of
• 42:26
  human beings that are machines that are just obsessed or
• 42:32
  addicted, a disconnected. And then at some point we wake
• 42:36
  up in our lives and like, who the hell am I?
• 42:38
  What am I doing? And I'm am I like, I'm actually
• 42:41
  miserable inside. And then that's what happened to
• 42:44
  me. I'm like, OK, well, I thought
• 42:46
  money was going to make it better, but it it did.
• 42:49
  Money makes misery easier, but I'm still in misery and.
• 42:53
  When did you start that journey? 25I hired an energetic
• 42:58
  intelligence coach. Well, I hired a business coach.
• 43:00
  That's the only way to get in my circle is business related,
• 43:04
  right? And so a friend of mine who is a
• 43:06
  big land guy out here, he recommended I work with this guy
• 43:11
  named Poet. And he's like, yeah, he's a
• 43:13
  great business coach. I've been working with them.
• 43:14
  And at this time I had, I was raised in such scarcity mindset,
• 43:18
  no money. I can't have this, can't buy
• 43:20
  this, can't do this. And so I was terrified to invest
• 43:24
  this $10,000 into this coach. But I was so hungry to grow.
• 43:28
  And I finally had the capacity. I was like, OK, I'll, you know,
• 43:31
  invest the money. And we didn't talk about
• 43:33
  business one time through the 8 sessions we had no.
• 43:36
  And I was like, I thought this was business coaching.
• 43:37
  He's like, it is because this is the most, this has a bigger
• 43:43
  effect on business than anything else than any marketing plan,
• 43:45
  any funnel, any whatever, right? And it was all about energetic
• 43:49
  intelligence. And he said that same thing as
• 43:51
  like, start to take energy audits throughout your day, like
• 43:55
  tool #1 energy audits throughout your day.
• 43:57
  So set alarms because you're not, you're going to forget and
• 43:59
  you're going 1,000,000 miles an hour, just 32nd check in.
• 44:02
  Where am I? Who am I with?
• 44:03
  What am I doing? Do I feel good or do I feel bad?
• 44:06
  Do I feel expansive or do I feel contracted?
• 44:08
  Do I feel excited or do I feel stressed, overwhelmed, or bored?
• 44:11
  And I started to track the things that lit me up and the
• 44:15
  things that sucked the life out of me.
• 44:18
  One of the people that sucked the life out of me was my
• 44:20
  fiance. So I left him.
• 44:22
  And so it was this. And nothing against him, he's a
• 44:26
  great human, but I started to be in tune with my energy and the
• 44:29
  things that let me up or not clients, right?
• 44:33
  Because I used to say yes to every client or capital, say yes
• 44:36
  to every dollar or I started 3 construction companies chasing
• 44:41
  money. I hate construction.
• 44:42
  I have no passion for construction.
• 44:44
  And so just starting to pay attention and just that little
• 44:47
  tool helped me actually start to lean away from the things that
• 44:51
  made me feel contracted and lean towards the thing that made the
• 44:54
  things that made me feel excited and passionate like you can I
• 44:57
  get so excited about this, this. Is.
• 45:00
  Passionate. First, Yeah, first example here,
• 45:02
  yeah. But that little shift started to
• 45:06
  compound so massively in my nervous system and in my
• 45:11
  exterior results. Because the quote that he taught
• 45:14
  me is the outcome can only be as great as the energetic state in
• 45:20
  which you initiate the action. And so he said there's no point
• 45:23
  in doing anything if you are not in a peak energetic state
• 45:27
  because your outcome's going to be shit anyway.
• 45:29
  And that's where you hear like, everything's gone wrong today or
• 45:32
  dotted on people like, oh, you woke up on the wrong side of the
• 45:34
  bed. It's energy.
• 45:36
  It's all energy. And when you can enter actions
• 45:40
  with peak energy and stay in a state of flow, then you're going
• 45:43
  to have great outcomes and it's going to just be easier.
• 45:46
  That's why people always say like, you know, you're lucky or
• 45:49
  you're this it's, you know, and yeah, I've had some things, you
• 45:52
  know, but I, I and the Gary's told me that he's like Andrew, I
• 45:55
  like investing with you. I like being with you because
• 45:57
  you're just, you're a happy person.
• 45:58
  Like I'm optimistic even when things are bad.
• 46:01
  I'm just like, it could be worse, you know?
• 46:02
  It's just that energy and people are attracted to people with
• 46:05
  great energy and great excitement and optimistic and
• 46:08
  like, not a Debbie Downer an Eeyore.
• 46:10
  So yeah. And as a leader, you have to be
• 46:15
  a cheerleader like you're. Going to follow a pessimist.
• 46:17
  Right, and there are some pretty you.
• 46:21
  Know yeah, there are leaders. Yeah, for sure.
• 46:23
  So people do, but I just think the outcomes are not as great
• 46:27
  and what's the point of it all if you're not going to be happy?
• 46:31
  Yeah, because if you're happy without money, you won't be, you
• 46:34
  won't be happy with it. I mean, it'll make you, it'll
• 46:36
  make things easier, but it's not going to like make you all of a
• 46:39
  sudden just peaceful and and happy to the core.
• 46:41
  I mean, that's what I've learned and that's where for me, my
• 46:45
  lifestyle hasn't really changed much and my net worth has a lot.
• 46:49
  I mean, it's just once you get to that a few 100 grand a year,
• 46:52
  like it's, and I do want APJ someday and I do want that,
• 46:55
  don't be wrong. But I'm like, gosh, I better
• 46:56
  wait till I'm at least 40 because if I get it at 30, then
• 46:58
  what? Like what's next?
• 46:59
  You know what I mean? So I'm just kind of hanging out,
• 47:01
  just trying to like make sure I enjoy the simple things in life.
• 47:04
  And yeah, I do nice things, don't get me wrong, but.
• 47:07
  What's that plane? The Danville's area, You know,
• 47:09
  that's the one I want, The G7. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 47:11
  Black. Matte black with the HP logo.
• 47:13
  Gulfstream, right? Yeah, yeah.
• 47:15
  So nice actually I everyone I know that has jets that are like
• 47:18
  it's a nightmare. Yeah, I think mat jets actually
• 47:20
  might be the way I that's what Gary does.
• 47:21
  Yep. That's so much easier.
• 47:23
  I don't know. That's what I'll do, yeah.
• 47:25
  Same. I don't want my assets to own
• 47:27
  me. Yeah.
• 47:28
  Or just rent, have experiences you know?
• 47:32
  Although it would be cool, it would.
• 47:34
  Be cool, here we are dreaming. Check it off the box and then be
• 47:38
  like, OK, been there, done that. I'm going to go to net jets.
• 47:41
  Now, and it's not if it's not if, but when for us, like that's
• 47:43
  a fact. So that's a cool thing for us is
• 47:45
  it's actually going to it's a thing.
• 47:47
  It will be a thing, you know, for some people it's just like
• 47:49
  not even a reality or a dream, so.
• 47:53
  So how are you married kids? I was married for nine years,
• 47:59
  got divorced about, you know, coming up on a year, 3 little
• 48:03
  boys, got married really young. She's a great person.
• 48:07
  Just, you know, we're really good Co parents.
• 48:08
  Yeah. So, well, you know, it's, it's
• 48:11
  so hard. Relationships are so hard and
• 48:13
  especially in your 20 to 30, especially as a man because they
• 48:16
  take a little bit longer to like.
• 48:18
  Fully. I sure did, yeah.
• 48:20
  But you changed so much. They changed a lot.
• 48:21
  We both did. And I'm, I want to do all these
• 48:25
  things and I'm really ambitious and a big dreamer.
• 48:27
  And, and I think she just wants to, you know, live a good life
• 48:30
  and just and, you know, do do what most people want to do,
• 48:34
  right? Just hang out.
• 48:35
  And yeah, it's hard to explain, but just want different things.
• 48:39
  But she's a great person. It just didn't work out.
• 48:41
  Yeah, and you know, I. Like 20, so, you know, so young.
• 48:44
  Yeah, I like, I don't know who said this.
• 48:50
  I think it was Lila Hermosi. But you want to find a partner
• 48:54
  that has bigger dreams for you than you do, correct?
• 48:57
  And for people like you would be that could.
• 48:59
  Be kind of hard, yeah. It could be a little challenging
• 49:02
  and for me particularly like to find somebody that feels that
• 49:05
  way that isn't 80 years old, you know, like somebody that's.
• 49:09
  A little shit. Yeah, exactly.
• 49:12
  So I struggle. I struggle.
• 49:13
  I've always struggled in relationships.
• 49:16
  I've been through many, many relationships and I just have
• 49:18
  never found that thing. And then also like this guy
• 49:22
  asked me out because I'm single right now.
• 49:24
  This guy asked me out on a date. He's like, when can we hang out?
• 49:27
  I'm like I'm booking into October.
• 49:29
  That's the other thing because I again basically recently now
• 49:34
  ready to explore and dating is a lot different now than when I
• 49:37
  was 20. Like apps and all these things
• 49:39
  like what is happening? So I just want to go where can I
• 49:41
  pick you up? And they're like, pick me up.
• 49:42
  I'm like, what do you, I don't know, like that's normal, right?
• 49:46
  And I had one too. I'm like, oh, I'm not available
• 49:48
  till like next month and she's like next month and she just
• 49:51
  didn't even reply back. I'm like, sorry.
• 49:53
  Yeah, and it's like, we're not even trying to blow you off.
• 49:56
  Yeah, Like, we really want to get together.
• 49:58
  Yeah. So how do you.
• 50:00
  I've been having this conversation with my friend
• 50:03
  lately and about, you know, he's 45, I think, and built a massive
• 50:11
  empire, you know, has it all. Great guy, amazing
• 50:15
  relationships, great returns, great wealth, all these things.
• 50:19
  But then he's like at this point where he's like, well, what,
• 50:21
  what is it all for? You know, I don't have a kid.
• 50:24
  I'm not married, never been married, never been engaged.
• 50:26
  I, I just work 100 hours a week, been working 100 hours a week
• 50:30
  since I was 18. And it's great and I love the
• 50:33
  game, but is this it? Right.
• 50:36
  And so I'm thinking about that right now because some of my guy
• 50:39
  friends are like, Oh, well, you should probably, you know,
• 50:43
  prioritize a relationship because you're going to end up
• 50:46
  alone and old and rich. But for what?
• 50:49
  Right. And, and, but I struggle with
• 50:50
  that because I'm so obsessed with the game and I love my team
• 50:54
  and the business and the deals and all those things.
• 50:56
  But then part of me is like, oh, am I, am I missing something
• 50:59
  here? Am I missing the mark?
• 51:00
  You know, am I robbing myself of the full human experience
• 51:03
  because all my eggs are in the basket of business?
• 51:09
  What are your thoughts on that? I don't think there's a blanket
• 51:11
  answer for everybody. Think everybody's different.
• 51:14
  You know, for me, I have three amazing boys and I've set up the
• 51:18
  dynasty trusts and I write annual letters to the boys and
• 51:22
  they're, they're amazing. Like that's, that's my legacy.
• 51:25
  And so I take a lot of pride in that.
• 51:26
  I'm excited, But I don't think that there's an I think it's
• 51:31
  harder for a woman too, because guys can have kids at really any
• 51:35
  age for the most part. Yeah, and guys become more
• 51:38
  attractive as they age to a certain.
• 51:40
  I think what 40 some they peak or 45 whatever it is.
• 51:44
  Because they they get more wealth and they're more mature
• 51:46
  and they guys in their 40s are good looking.
• 51:48
  Too, they're way more stable and they just, yeah, they know who
• 51:51
  they are and that's attractive. And so I don't think I don't
• 51:55
  think I have the right to even speak on it for from a female's
• 51:59
  perspective because my perspective is a lot different,
• 52:01
  right? Like sadly, I mean, you can
• 52:03
  freeze eggs and you can do things like that too.
• 52:05
  I just think people live longer. I think now like longevity is
• 52:09
  going to be getting to a point where who knows how long you can
• 52:12
  live. So I don't think people have to
• 52:14
  have Russian have kids and do all this in their 20s, even
• 52:17
  early 30s. I just, I feel like it can be
• 52:20
  prolonged a bit. I think you can maybe have it
• 52:21
  all. But I'm also an optimist.
• 52:22
  I think you can just have everything.
• 52:24
  It's so funny. I always say that I'm.
• 52:25
  Like, I think you have it all, yeah.
• 52:27
  Maybe not all at once. But eventually.
• 52:30
  But eventually it takes time you got.
• 52:32
  To and sometimes maybe some people meet people that have
• 52:35
  kids. Like it doesn't need to be your
• 52:37
  own kids. There's adoption, there's
• 52:38
  surrogates. I mean, there's just so many
• 52:40
  options to have a family. I think, I think all, all kinds
• 52:42
  of families are beautiful and it doesn't need to be the
• 52:45
  traditional sense. That's my my thought.
• 52:47
  So what? What drives you?
• 52:51
  Building something bigger than me, you know, I'm 5th
• 52:55
  generation. I'm excited to leave the family
• 52:59
  legacy bigger and better than I found it for my three boys.
• 53:05
  And I just want to continue to grow as a person.
• 53:07
  I'm better than I was when I was 20, and I'm hoping I'm better
• 53:10
  when I'm 40 than I am now at 30. Like, I just love self
• 53:13
  development. I do a lot of therapy, doing
• 53:15
  Academy therapy right now. I'm just always trying to better
• 53:17
  myself. And yeah, I just really want to
• 53:20
  build something really big. I want to make a mark on this
• 53:22
  planet and then I want to give it away.
• 53:24
  I'm going to probably do the giving Pledge.
• 53:26
  You know, if the kids get 10% of whatever I build, they're going
• 53:29
  to be more than fine enough to do anything, but not too much to
• 53:31
  do nothing. But they're 90%.
• 53:32
  I want to go back to society and I want to do something really,
• 53:34
  really big. Yeah, because I feel that way
• 53:37
  too. And sometimes the worst curse
• 53:38
  you could give to a kid is a trust fund. 100% Yeah, it can be
• 53:41
  great if if it sounds. Like you have amazing parents,
• 53:44
  Minor. Great.
• 53:45
  Yeah, but if it's not very well designed and thought out, it can
• 53:50
  be a disaster as well, just as being poor can be a disaster as
• 53:54
  well. For me, it was a massive driver,
• 53:56
  but it didn't work out so well for my brother.
• 53:59
  You know, we're very opposite people.
• 54:00
  People are like, how Are you sure you guys are from the same
• 54:03
  family? It's funny how siblings can all
• 54:05
  be different. Are you all successful?
• 54:07
  Your siblings. Yeah, in our own ways, yeah.
• 54:09
  I mean, you know, one got, one's got a doctorate, 1 was Misty in
• 54:12
  North Dakota, top 3 Misty in America, and she did her stuff
• 54:15
  with that. One farms one's traveling Europe
• 54:19
  right now, she's like 23. One's a teacher.
• 54:21
  So they're all successful in in all their own ways and happy.
• 54:25
  Just great. We're really close.
• 54:26
  I mean, three of us live in town and three of us live back in
• 54:29
  Lansford and we get together all the time.
• 54:31
  Best friends. That's so awesome to have an
• 54:33
  awesome close family is something that I always wanted,
• 54:38
  but I have I have AI call my adopted family now they're
• 54:42
  they're a big real estate and they're just amazing.
• 54:45
  I'm flying out to Wisconsin to see them.
• 54:46
  I love that this month but. See family comes in all shapes
• 54:50
  and sizes. Exactly.
• 54:52
  Yeah, my mentor tells me about that too.
• 54:54
  Is like family doesn't need to be blood and we choose, we can
• 54:59
  choose our family. So it's really beautiful to be
• 55:02
  able to build those types of relationships and get so close
• 55:05
  with people that aren't your blood too.
• 55:08
  But what I know we we don't have much time left here, but I want
• 55:10
  to dive in because you seem like you have it all right, You're
• 55:13
  amazing and you're wealthy and you have this mouth of company
• 55:17
  and you all these things that everybody dreams of, right?
• 55:19
  But then you also mentioned that you struggle with depression.
• 55:22
  So I want to spend the last few minutes here and dive into that.
• 55:26
  Like when did that start and where do you think that stems
• 55:29
  from? Yeah, You know, I started a
• 55:30
  young age. I think it's in the family.
• 55:32
  Like for generations it's kind of been a thing.
• 55:36
  Nobody's ever actually, like, taking care of it or got
• 55:38
  medication until our generation. My family didn't even talk about
• 55:41
  it. But then it turns out all six of
• 55:42
  us kids are actually on some sort of medication we didn't
• 55:45
  even know about. So it wasn't like, talked about
• 55:46
  or ingrained in our brains. It just we naturally all went
• 55:49
  about life privately with that, and we all ended up being on the
• 55:51
  same thing. Oh, wow, it was kind of in the
• 55:54
  genes, you might say. And then with six kids, like,
• 55:58
  you know, I, I don't have it all right.
• 55:59
  I mean, my wife and I didn't work out and, and, and that,
• 56:03
  that's been hard. That's A season of life and we
• 56:06
  were always loyal and great people.
• 56:08
  But you know, I, I, I had codependency issue from
• 56:10
  childhood. There's six kids stuff to get
• 56:12
  all a lot of attention and see you kind of get this insecurity,
• 56:17
  you know, tumor you mentioned earlier.
• 56:20
  And that's something I really had to work through through my
• 56:21
  20s was that insecurities and just not thinking that anybody
• 56:25
  would want me or why does she want me?
• 56:27
  And then you just that's, and that's not attractive or great.
• 56:30
  And so that's something I had to work on.
• 56:32
  The depression was kind of part of that.
• 56:34
  So it's been a lifelong journey. The depression part it I mean
• 56:39
  really hard when I was like 1617 so.
• 56:42
  Yeah, that that was pretty dark days for me, too.
• 56:46
  Yeah. And college was the worst.
• 56:48
  College was the worst I. Was 100% isolated, yeah.
• 56:50
  That was bad for me as well, yeah.
• 56:53
  Even with medication. Yeah, I was, I got dosed a bit
• 56:56
  wrong. I had had a mistake and it was,
• 56:59
  it wasn't a good couple years. So then I got scared of it.
• 57:02
  So then I got off of it and then I got back on it and now I've
• 57:05
  been on this dose and it's been good for since by 2016 ish.
• 57:10
  Now I'm just scared to get off. But I do peptides, you know, I
• 57:14
  do testosterone because that was like really low.
• 57:16
  I think a lot of stress. It was like 200, which is really
• 57:19
  low for someone in their late 20s.
• 57:22
  So that's really helped a lot. How do you handle the stress?
• 57:27
  Stress is thinking about things you cannot control.
• 57:30
  So I try to think about things I control and when I do get
• 57:33
  stressed, I instead of looking up at Mount Everest, I just
• 57:36
  zoomed down to my steps I got to take for the day.
• 57:38
  So I just kind of have little methods I use because every day
• 57:42
  is different. Some days I'm just all good
• 57:43
  looking at the stars rolling and then some days I just got to
• 57:46
  focus on what needs to be done today because I'm a little
• 57:48
  anxious and just not feeling really good.
• 57:52
  Do you have a morning routine or what's your what's your routine
• 57:55
  to get into flow? Yeah, wake up.
• 57:57
  If I have the boys, I spend time with them, make sure I get them
• 58:00
  to school. We have breakfast.
• 58:01
  If I don't have them, I do breakfast.
• 58:02
  I work out and I usually start my high level meetings around
• 58:04
  11:00 to 2:00. That's like my peak brain.
• 58:07
  And then from like 2:00 to 4:00 I'll do, I'm an XL shoot nerd.
• 58:10
  I love to just like dive into all the businesses so I know all
• 58:12
  the numbers or doing emails or catching up on calls.
• 58:16
  And then usually if I don't have the boys, I'm doing supper
• 58:18
  meetings. Yeah, I say supper Midwest.
• 58:21
  And if I do have the boys, I pick them up every day and we
• 58:24
  have our dinner or go swim. I'm at the Optima now and watch
• 58:28
  a movie and tuck them in and have my routine with them.
• 58:30
  So and then the next day starts. Which Optima?
• 58:33
  I'm sorry you're in Kierlin like 2 minutes away.
• 58:35
  OK, I'm just to say we're. We're neighbors.
• 58:37
  I'm I'm closer. I'm in paradise.
• 58:39
  Valley, Oh, you are like just sold my house in Silver Leaf.
• 58:42
  So I just moved in there two weeks ago.
• 58:44
  So nice. My new life has to begun.
• 58:46
  Yeah. Well, Congrats.
• 58:47
  Thank you. And what, Yeah, I, I have a
• 58:51
  morning routine too. And that was another tool that
• 58:53
  my energetic intelligence coach taught me was you have to get
• 58:57
  into a flow state. And so you have good outcomes,
• 59:01
  right? And you feel good and you want
• 59:03
  your organization to be in a flow state, train them how to
• 59:06
  audit their energy, manage their energy, be able to reset their
• 59:10
  energy if they recognize they've been knocked out of a flow
• 59:12
  state. So.
• 59:15
  What does yours look like in the morning then?
• 59:17
  So I wake up just before sunrise, I drink a 32 ounce of
• 59:20
  electrolyte water. I bring it with me on my walk so
• 59:23
  I can't chug it and I do a sunrise walk in silence, no
• 59:27
  phone, which has been a game changer.
• 59:30
  That's kind of my meditation. I played with meditating, but I
• 59:32
  always found it to be a very stressful thing.
• 59:35
  But if I kind of walk and meditate where I see the sun
• 59:38
  coming up and I hear the birds, I can still kind of have that
• 59:40
  stillness. So that, and then I run to the
• 59:43
  gym, workout, weight train, run back or I usually I walk back
• 59:47
  with my audio book in. So I learned something, you
• 59:49
  know, personal development, business, entrepreneurship, real
• 59:51
  estate. And then from that point I, I'm
• 59:54
  pretty much in a, a peak state. And while I'm at the gym, I
• 59:57
  listen to like house music, high beat per minute stuff.
• 59:59
  It gets me really energized. And then I'm usually sitting
• 1:00:02
  behind my computer by like 738 o'clock depending if I wash my
• 1:00:06
  hair or not. Yeah.
• 1:00:08
  But yeah, and then I just keep, you know, keep it going
• 1:00:10
  throughout the day. And I just stay very aware of
• 1:00:13
  the things that make me feel energized and things that really
• 1:00:16
  drain me. And sometimes I'm just exhausted
• 1:00:19
  because I burned the candle at both ends.
• 1:00:21
  And then I have to realize, OK, it's not the things I'm doing or
• 1:00:24
  the people I'm around. I just need to take a day off or
• 1:00:28
  sleep. You know, do you sleep how many
• 1:00:30
  hours a night? Well, so lately I haven't been
• 1:00:37
  sleeping well. So I, I, I had an insomnia
• 1:00:42
  issues for many, many years, but if I don't sleep at least 7
• 1:00:45
  hours, I'm pretty miserable. So yeah, I need 7 hours.
• 1:00:49
  But I slept really good the past few days because I smoked my
• 1:00:54
  weed vape before bed. And so I'm so energized today,
• 1:00:57
  like I feel so good. But that's something I struggle
• 1:00:59
  with too, is I always was kind of a little bit, a lot of it
• 1:01:02
  dependent on my, you know, THC vape to help me sleep because
• 1:01:08
  otherwise I will just stay up all night.
• 1:01:10
  And if I don't have sleep, there's nothing worse.
• 1:01:13
  Is that bad 'cause I'm with you? Like I do a sleep Med every
• 1:01:15
  night. I can't sleep, my mind does not
• 1:01:17
  shut off. You what's a sleeping bed?
• 1:01:19
  Sleeping bed like I do a yeah. Unisom is like my go to.
• 1:01:23
  Pregnant people can take it. It can't be that bad.
• 1:01:26
  Maybe it is, I don't know. If I take any sort of sleeping
• 1:01:30
  pill or even melatonin like the. Next morning you're.
• 1:01:33
  No, I get very, very severe nightmares.
• 1:01:37
  Horrible, horrible lucid in my room.
• 1:01:42
  Nightmares like murder, rape. Like.
• 1:01:45
  Horrible So. Stick to the THC.
• 1:01:47
  Yeah, and so that's the only thing that I found that just
• 1:01:49
  black out sleep, wake up so refreshed wake up before
• 1:01:53
  sunrise. I.
• 1:01:55
  Feel like that's not bad. Like sleep.
• 1:01:56
  So important. I know that's what I was telling
• 1:01:58
  myself. Like, yeah, I do unison every
• 1:02:00
  night. But like, could be, you know,
• 1:02:01
  not sleeping is probably worse. Yeah, Yeah.
• 1:02:03
  It's just, it's always that balance, right?
• 1:02:04
  It's because we, people like us, we don't want to be relying on
• 1:02:08
  anything. We want to Like we got this
• 1:02:10
  control. Yeah, I have a control.
• 1:02:11
  Like I don't drink, I work out every day, I do my routine and
• 1:02:14
  all these things. But at some point it's like
• 1:02:16
  sometimes we need a little bit of help here and there.
• 1:02:18
  And it's just that balance of what's healthy, what's not,
• 1:02:22
  what's a good balance. And is this ultimately serving
• 1:02:25
  me in a way that is beneficial? And it doesn't have like,
• 1:02:29
  everything has a side effect, right?
• 1:02:30
  As I wake up, like a little bit, I notice I have a little bit of
• 1:02:34
  tightness in my chest if I do have the vape.
• 1:02:37
  But yeah, but only for a few minutes.
• 1:02:40
  And as soon as I get my routine going, it's gone.
• 1:02:44
  So that's the only con I've noticed.
• 1:02:46
  And I eat sometimes. Too much, Yeah, when I do it
• 1:02:51
  like, yeah. Yeah.
• 1:02:53
  So that's that's it. But other than that, it's seems
• 1:02:55
  to be beneficial. That's the hardest part.
• 1:02:57
  And I'm not a drinker. Yeah, no, no, yeah.
• 1:03:00
  That's the nice thing is like, it sounds really bad.
• 1:03:02
  Like I do more weed now that I have kids because like hangover,
• 1:03:06
  you don't have a hangover. I know who has time to be.
• 1:03:08
  Hungover. I know.
• 1:03:08
  It's like, yeah, kids and business, like, Oh my goodness.
• 1:03:11
  How many hours a week do you work?
• 1:03:14
  I mean, I'm always, always on my phone.
• 1:03:16
  I do everything on my phone and my iPad I always have with me.
• 1:03:19
  I just love it. But I really try to, when I get
• 1:03:23
  those boys, when I have them, half the time I really try not
• 1:03:26
  to be on it at all. But I'm always on.
• 1:03:29
  If I'm not on it, I'm still on it, you know?
• 1:03:31
  Yeah, that's what I struggle with.
• 1:03:32
  I'm like, I don't know how I could possibly in a million
• 1:03:34
  years have time for a partner or a child.
• 1:03:40
  I know. But I think that it just shifts
• 1:03:42
  probably too as you. It does.
• 1:03:44
  And I'm always doing and I bring the boys like we're going to
• 1:03:48
  Australia here in January and I'm always trying to integrate
• 1:03:51
  them and I can't wait till they're a little older.
• 1:03:52
  Like I bring them to the buildings.
• 1:03:54
  Like every one of them says they want to build buildings like
• 1:03:56
  Daddy when they get older, we drive down the Interstate and
• 1:03:58
  they're like, did you build that building?
• 1:03:59
  I'm like, no, every building they think I built, I'm like,
• 1:04:01
  no, but they they want to be me. And it's just like, so that's
• 1:04:06
  fun to me. Like I'm still working, but I'm
• 1:04:08
  still spending time with them. Yeah, has it?
• 1:04:11
  How has parenting changed you? I have slowed down and I have
• 1:04:17
  way much more of a routine, which has been really healthy.
• 1:04:20
  You know, without kids, I feel like I'd be traveling a lot.
• 1:04:23
  And I when I'm traveling, I want my routine back.
• 1:04:26
  When I got my routine, I want to be traveling.
• 1:04:28
  So it's really tough. So the kids have really helped
• 1:04:29
  me be balanced. It's like a healthy tether to
• 1:04:32
  the world to make sure I'm not just floating out in outer space
• 1:04:35
  lost. So it's just been a really good
• 1:04:37
  connect. And I'm not saying I couldn't
• 1:04:39
  have got that any other way. I mean, I had my first kid at 23
• 1:04:42
  and so I don't, I had my last at 27.
• 1:04:44
  So I don't really remember, I guess prior to that much.
• 1:04:48
  That's what I think it's benefited, but I never really
• 1:04:51
  lived a life before that weirdly.
• 1:04:52
  Like, you know, you're young, it's just college.
• 1:04:54
  It's normal stuff, you know. But if I had my first at 30, I
• 1:04:57
  probably could have had a better answer of comparing adult life
• 1:05:01
  before and after. Right.
• 1:05:02
  It's just been your life. It's just my life.
• 1:05:03
  Yeah, I don't know any different.
• 1:05:05
  I mean, they're I'm not much older than them.
• 1:05:07
  Yeah, that'll that'll be really cool because you'll be such
• 1:05:09
  close friends. Oh yeah, they're, they're the
• 1:05:11
  best. Yeah, Well, cool.
• 1:05:13
  Well, thank you. I know we're we gotta stop here,
• 1:05:15
  but what is who are you studying right now or what's a good book
• 1:05:21
  you've read recently that? It would be good for the
• 1:05:24
  audience, a lot of them I would say.
• 1:05:26
  So I do a lot of like documentaries.
• 1:05:29
  I did one. It was Kirk Akorian, the
• 1:05:33
  Gambler. I really enjoyed that one.
• 1:05:35
  That's a really good one. I'm doing the Elon Musk book
• 1:05:38
  right now. I did Ford's book last week.
• 1:05:42
  His the story of the Ford. I'm trying to think of like some
• 1:05:47
  education ones that aren't just biography.
• 1:05:48
  I do so many biographies. Good to Great was a great one.
• 1:05:54
  Yeah, Jim Collins, built to last.
• 1:05:56
  Built to last. I just did a leap of confidence
• 1:06:01
  leap. I think it was a leap of
• 1:06:02
  confidence. That was a really good one to
• 1:06:05
  kind of just build some confidence.
• 1:06:08
  I have. So I mean, I literally have like
• 1:06:10
  hundreds I could. You know, it's it's so funny
• 1:06:13
  that the most the people that should be the most secure are
• 1:06:17
  often the most insecure. A. 100% yeah.
• 1:06:19
  It makes no sense logically, right?
• 1:06:22
  Like why? But sometimes these people just
• 1:06:24
  I am people. I mean, I'm way better now,
• 1:06:26
  yeah, but you know, divorce set me back a bit on your.
• 1:06:29
  Shoulder. Yeah, yeah, just weird.
• 1:06:32
  It is weird. I know I've I'm a lot better now
• 1:06:34
  too, but Oh my God I was the most insecure, broken person I
• 1:06:39
  had ever known. Goodness, I'm not, but yeah.
• 1:06:43
  Right. That was the only place I had
• 1:06:44
  confidence. And that's why we like living in
• 1:06:45
  here. Yeah, It's our happy place.
• 1:06:48
  Exactly. We're just going to stay in our
• 1:06:50
  happy place, which is most people's nightmare, I know.
• 1:06:53
  Whereas we're like, it's our comfort bubble.
• 1:06:54
  I feel like 1000 feet tall in the industry and then when I'm
• 1:06:57
  not in it, I just, it's weird. Yeah.
• 1:06:59
  It's two life. Help me.
• 1:07:01
  Do you have any good books? Oh so many.
• 1:07:03
  I'm an avid reader. When somebody asked me, I always
• 1:07:06
  like freaks. I'm like I literally have so
• 1:07:07
  many. I know, I know.
• 1:07:10
  Yeah, that's the one I'm reading right now.
• 1:07:12
  I just finished who, which is about hiring like the a method
• 1:07:15
  and how to hire an interview properly because I'm not a good
• 1:07:19
  interviewer. I'm very much a I'm a fixer.
• 1:07:24
  Interview You're a podcast. No, I mean within like team
• 1:07:28
  members, I'm just like, I like your because I'm so energy
• 1:07:31
  driven. If I like their energy, I like
• 1:07:35
  them. And sometimes that doesn't mean
• 1:07:37
  that they're actually good at what the job is, Right?
• 1:07:40
  Exactly. So I'm trying to hone my craft
• 1:07:42
  as far as interviewing go, like how do I really uncover like one
• 1:07:45
  of the skills in the book was if you are trying to ask someone if
• 1:07:49
  they're detail oriented, for example, don't ask are you
• 1:07:52
  detail oriented because of course they're going to say yes,
• 1:07:54
  most likely. Instead, you start to learn how
• 1:07:56
  to ask strategic questions as in explain to me what your closet
• 1:08:00
  looks like. And they were like, I don't
• 1:08:04
  know. For me, I'd be like, well, it's
• 1:08:05
  a shit show, but my maid keeps it pretty organized, you know?
• 1:08:09
  And so I'm not a detail oriented person.
• 1:08:11
  And so that would tell the interviewer like, okay, this
• 1:08:13
  chick is not detail oriented, but if you ask, I would have
• 1:08:17
  never known that question. They were trying to figure out
• 1:08:19
  of my detail oriented. It's like, here's what my closet
• 1:08:21
  looks like. That's interesting.
• 1:08:23
  I mean, you could say it's color-coded, but that's 'cause I
• 1:08:24
  only buy black. So it's just black.
• 1:08:27
  But yeah. Your color of choice.
• 1:08:28
  Yeah, it's all I wear 99% of the time because I don't like to
• 1:08:33
  think I'm too busy to try to figure out what I'm wearing.
• 1:08:36
  Like I have multiple pairs of the same outfits.
• 1:08:39
  That's who I am too. Yeah, then the cleaner washes
• 1:08:42
  them once a week. I'm like I got 5 pairs of
• 1:08:43
  everything. I've really opened up lately,
• 1:08:45
  but usually it's just T-shirts and I like 5 buttons.
• 1:08:48
  That's easy. Yeah, you blue eyes though,
• 1:08:50
  right? Yeah, yeah.
• 1:08:50
  So usually you look good blue. Yeah, gotta wear that blue.
• 1:08:52
  Yeah, I'm color blind too, so. No, There you go.
• 1:08:55
  Yeah, so I know, but thanks. But yeah, that that was a good
• 1:08:59
  book. And then I'm reading my mentor's
• 1:09:01
  book. He's also I think he's almost a
• 1:09:04
  billionaire. I don't know if he is at the,
• 1:09:06
  the, the Bee mark yet, but he just released a book called 17
• 1:09:10
  Runs. And so I'm just reading that
• 1:09:13
  one. And one of the best quotes from
• 1:09:14
  the first 3 pages I read was he talks about brick removal.
• 1:09:19
  So we all are walking around with bricks on our head.
• 1:09:22
  And these bricks are limiting beliefs, self sabotaging beliefs
• 1:09:25
  that have been formed from the time we were a child, from our
• 1:09:28
  parents, from our, the people around us, from society, from
• 1:09:31
  all these things, right? And there's a process called
• 1:09:35
  brick removal, which is how you really reach your highest
• 1:09:39
  potential. You have to remove these bricks
• 1:09:41
  that you're walking around with on your head that you believe to
• 1:09:44
  be true and they're not true, right?
• 1:09:47
  But he said when you go through the process of removing the
• 1:09:49
  bricks from your head, removing the obstacles that are in your
• 1:09:52
  way, you have to be prepared for the discomfort that you will
• 1:09:55
  chase as you start to rewire your old patterns.
• 1:09:59
  And that I've read that line so many times over and over because
• 1:10:03
  it's so true. It's like we have to understand
• 1:10:06
  that it is painful to change. Like it is so painful to rewrite
• 1:10:10
  the script. It is so painful to let go of
• 1:10:12
  old beliefs. It is so painful to question
• 1:10:14
  your own identity. And when you understand that the
• 1:10:19
  pain is a part of it, the pain is a privilege, and it's part of
• 1:10:23
  the process, then it makes it a little bit easier to lean into
• 1:10:26
  the pain and understand that all the answers you're looking for
• 1:10:28
  lie within the pain. And that was what was very
• 1:10:31
  helpful for me as I shed all the disorders that I was diagnosed
• 1:10:35
  with and most importantly, just actually was able to create a
• 1:10:40
  life where I'm really happy, like just to exist.
• 1:10:42
  And yeah, that that process of brick removal and leaning into
• 1:10:46
  the pain, I'll. Have to get that book that
• 1:10:47
  sounds sounds like a good one. Yeah, it's good.
• 1:10:49
  I'll send you one. Yeah, please do.
• 1:10:51
  That'd be good. Yeah.
• 1:10:52
  Gary's got a book too. Secrets of Success.
• 1:10:54
  That's a good one. It's about Gary's life.
• 1:10:56
  A mentor. Perfect.
• 1:10:57
  I'll have to read that. Getting another one written now.
• 1:11:01
  You're next. Yeah.
• 1:11:01
  Well, I'm going to be in that one.
• 1:11:02
  So that's exciting. Perfect.
• 1:11:03
  Yeah. That is exciting.
• 1:11:04
  Yeah. Have him.
• 1:11:06
  I know Robert Kiyosaki wants better.
• 1:11:07
  I want to write a book, but I'm like, worth the time.
• 1:11:09
  Ghostwriter for sure, you know. Yeah, would you actually write
• 1:11:12
  it yourself? Oh, I don't know.
• 1:11:14
  I can't. I'm a talker.
• 1:11:16
  I'm not a It takes too long. I do like Audible because I
• 1:11:18
  can't like understand reading. I mean, I ought to read, but
• 1:11:20
  like I absorb it when I watch it or I listen.
• 1:11:24
  They do like a lot of documentaries, visual or
• 1:11:27
  audible. Same I know I recently started
• 1:11:29
  speaking and I do not like writing speeches so I just talk
• 1:11:36
  into my phone and it all writes it out for me and I'm like
• 1:11:38
  perfect here we go picks it up. Yep, like ChatGPT just picks
• 1:11:43
  like the grammar and the structure.
• 1:11:44
  On this. And yeah, and then just practice
• 1:11:48
  it and make sure it flows well. But.
• 1:11:49
  I do write our annual letters typing, but then ChatGPT makes
• 1:11:52
  it like I just kind of word vomit.
• 1:11:55
  Tall I love ChatGPT so much. You know you people using
• 1:11:58
  ChatGPT though, you got to remove the dashes.
• 1:12:01
  Yes, you do. That's a giveaway, Yeah.
• 1:12:04
  I like it's such a giveaway so fast.
• 1:12:07
  I'm glad you said that. And and like a lot of the
• 1:12:10
  massive accounts. On social media has all these
• 1:12:13
  dashes. I'm like, come on.
• 1:12:15
  I know, please try people with millions of followers like
• 1:12:18
  rookie move, rookie move. Gotta watch the dashes anyway.
• 1:12:21
  All right, well, I have another podcast, so you're awesome.
• 1:12:25
  You should definitely come back and we'll get into all the the
• 1:12:29
  mindset and mental health and that kind of journey more on the
• 1:12:32
  emotional side of things. But thanks for coming on the
• 1:12:34
  show. Yeah.
• 1:12:35
  Thank you. Appreciate it.