Latest / Get Real with Jim Weiss / Robert Croak's Financial Wisdom is Changing Lives

Transcript

Robert Croak's Financial Wisdom is Changing Lives · Get Real with Jim Weiss

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Robert Croke was awesome.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Wow habits podcast almost a million followers on social changing spot.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: He doesn't have more. I mean, you know what a
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: chap that got. I mean, you know, he mean just
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: from silly bands to making the world a healthier place
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: financially is kind of cool. But you know he's not
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: like a Susie Ormond, right, I mean, he's really helping
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: people unlock their inner entrepreneur, they're inner business person, helping
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: people gain that confidence that is so important that I
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: do spend a lot of time myself doing with the
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: people that have worked with and for me. So I
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: definitely bonded with him about you know, our mission match, right,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: which is to make the world a healthier place through
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: better finance, right, And that's something that I think people
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: take for granted, but you know, you hear it all
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: the time, like what's the biggest cause of marriage breakdowns?
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: You know, money is right up there at the top,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: you know, and then there's a million other you know
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: things that come into play. You know, the stress that
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: it can cause, the anxiety, the mental health, you know,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: kind of hit you take when your finances are not
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: in order, and once you get them an order and
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: you feel a little healthier financially, you can feel healthier
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: in other ways. You can also start spending your time
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: getting healthier in other ways as well. Otherwise you're spending
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: all your time trying to fix the money problems, you know.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: And what we were saying is, and I've said it
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: a million times, if you do it for the money,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: it tends not to work out. If you do it
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: for the mission, for the cause, for why you get
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: up in the morning, a lot of times, the money follows.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: He also gave us a lot of great tips and
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: techniques about, you know, how to engage with your audience
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: and connect with your audience. And I'm so new at
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: this and learning myself that I love having guests on
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: that I learned from, and I generally do. I mean,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: someone said this a perfect venue for me. I love
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: to converse, but I love to learn, you know. And
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: I think we're learning together so many things from so
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: many really good people who blaze the trail ahead of us.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: For sure.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And he said all of his colleagues when he
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: started doing this made fun of him. They were like,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: why are you trying to be an influencer?
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: What are you doing, dude? Why did you buy that camera?
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: And here he is five six years later.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: He's got a big podcast, he has a course, he teaches,
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: he has multiple hosts on his show.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but he's done it. You know it's not you
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: know he and I. So there's authenticity to him, like
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: there should be to everyone we listen to. If you're
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: going to spend time listening to a podcast, it better
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: be with somebody who's been there, done that, which he
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: has rights. He's like built tons of different types of
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: businesses from real estate to you know, the crazy bands
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: and you know, all that stuff that I think, you know,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: a lot of us take for granted. You know, he
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: understands the supply chain and you know, so many things
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: he's not talking out of as you know why right,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: He's really talking from experienced knowledge and sharing that with
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: others that I think you know, when you do that,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: you really can't go wrong. Robert thrilled to have you
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: on Get Real Honor, to have you admire what you've
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: done in your financial lane. I'm working in the health lane.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: I wanted to really start by talking to you about
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: health and healthy finances. Why are financial health and well
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: being almost as important as cardiovascular health?
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: I think they're so important because we hear the story
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: all the time, the fable of the person that works
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: their whole life to get financially free, and then by
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: the time they achieve that they're too old to enjoy it,
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: they're hobbling along the beach. They try to go to Paris. Finally,
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: after forty years of talking about it. And that's why
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: I think it's so incredibly important that you have that
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: intersection between healthy finances and healthy body, because financial stress
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: is the number one biggest stressor in adult lives, especially
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: right now, and so I think it is ultimately the
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: most important thing is to remember to bring your health
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: along with you as you're building finances and financial freedom,
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: because so many people forget about that.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: I've never been victim to it.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: I've always preached that people need to have balance, and
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: a lot of people forget to have balance along the way,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: and they end up at forty five, fifty five, sixty
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: five years old, they're overweight, they have bad skin, they
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: haven't done anything to maintain their body over the last
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: thirty years because they're chasing financial freedom.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: So I think it.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Is the most important message out there is, Yes, build
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: the habits to be financially free, but also build those
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: same habits with your health and longevity so you can
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: enjoy the fruits of your labor when you get there.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Why do you think people don't always think of financial
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: hygiene or what are some things that would help people
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: see these issues sooner?
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: I love this because it is so important to me.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: I have millions of followers across all platforms, and so
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: many people rely on me for how to help them
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: with their finances, how to help them with their mindset.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: And I think a lot of it is we're in
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: a place, finally, Jim, where we're heading back in the
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: right direction with education and all these cool tools that
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: are out there to help people track their health. We
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: have the or ring, and we have all these cool
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: functional health in all these platforms where you can get
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: the blood tests. They make it pretty seamless and you
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: can keep track of it. But we're a little bit older,
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: and that didn't exist ten twenty thirty years ago, and
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: when I came up in business and entrepreneurship, it was
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: all about owning assets, building wealth and owning things. And
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: I think, finally, even though we're living in this society
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: right now where everything is comparison based. All we see
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: all day long is Instagram and TikTok and all these
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: cool highlights, these made up highlights of people's lives, and
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: we don't really see the truth that lies behind all
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: of those highlights.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: But I do think we are heading back in the
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: right direction.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Younger people today are drinking less, they're doing less drugs,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: they're smoking less. There's a lot more cool activations around
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: leading a healthier life. But when I was thirty five
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: and even forty five, that didn't exist. It was all
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: just go go, go, go go, and we didn't take
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: the time I did. I was very fortunate. I stayed
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: the path of health. I did triathlons for many many years.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: I kept running, I played tennis along the way. So
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: I've been very fortunate. But a lot of my friends
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: have not been. And so for me, when I see
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: them now, friends of mine that are in their fifties
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: and maybe sixties or even late forties, what's a big
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: difference between how they look and how I look Because
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: I've maintained my health along the way. So I think
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: a lot of it is lack of education, lack of
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: understanding the importance you got to bring your health with
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: you and your well being along the way. Otherwise it'll
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: be too late and you'll be backtracking trying to fix
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: all the damage of thirty years of neglect.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, I guess we could view what you're doing
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: similar to me, as a way to make the world
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: a healthier place by helping people get that financial stability
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: that helps you get healthy. Like they actually work together.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: One percent, and most people don't put that together. Because
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: with AI modern medicine, all the supplements that everything that
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: is out there right now, the golp ones even and
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: you look at all the peptides and everything, people are
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: going to live longer, healthier, more rewarding lives.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: I like to do the origin story your grassroots guy.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Like me, I wasorn and Scranton. You were from Toledo, Ohio. Yep,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: it's not like you come from New York and Wall
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Street per se. Right, you've described in your story at
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Huffer upbringing. How did that shape you into the business
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: person you are today or became?
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, you almost never see someone with a ton
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: of success that didn't from hardship because that tennasty that
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: you learn through getting out of that hardship in the
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: pain is what mold you, I believe, and for me,
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: it's the prototypical story. I remember when I first became
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: really successful in my mid twenties. I was crushing it.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: Everything was going really well. And immediately, and this was
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: before social media.
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: Obviously the restaurant, right, it was the restaurant.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: I had a vending route, I had a T shirt shop,
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: I had multiple rental properties at twenty five years old,
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: and immediately everyone was like spoiled, rich kid, came from
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: a silver spoon, all of that, and little did they realize,
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: you know, I came from the worst of it. My
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: mother and father split when I was six. My mother
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: had two sons that were drug dealers from her prior husband.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: My dad moved away, my mom moved away when I
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: was nine years old.
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: I was left in a house with these two older
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: drug dealer brothers. It was a true.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: Testament to just surviving. It wasn't even about thriving. But
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: I always knew, even at nine, ten, eleven years old,
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: that I was blessed with a brain of just a
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: substantially gifted brain. And that was the turning point for
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: me because I knew and we used to joke when
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: I was a kid. Even in high school, I would say, yeah,
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: I don't care what happened to me, because I had
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: to have been switched to birth. I was always meant
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: to be born into this successful, wealthy family. And I
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: used that as my fuel to not make it the excuse,
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: but the reasoning to make sure that I always got
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: out and then gave back. And so recently did a
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: video because I just get so much of the hate now,
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: and so I did a video and we filmed it
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: in Ohio. We went to my childhood home, we went
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: to my childhood grade school, and I showed it all
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: and I did a voiceover to let people know that
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: no matter where you start, you can still make it
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: out if you have the tenacity to keep moving forward.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: One of my old colleagues, when I started coming from
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: my small town, I was a student council president and
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: I was maybe more nice guy. And this guy says
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: to me, you don't have the killer instinct to be successful.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Do you think a killer instinct is required or is
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: it something else that gave you the edge?
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's a huge misnomer. The number one
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: thing that I have learned over decades of owning and
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: building businesses and doing partnerships and private equity, is that
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: if you negotiate with the killer instinct where you have
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: to be the only one at the table that wins
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: to very lonely existence, because you should, and you should
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: desire to. You want to let everyone win as long
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: as they bring value to the deal and value to
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: the situation. So for me, I crack up every day,
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: and some of them make more money than me and
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: have more followers than me. The guys that have the
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: fake alpha male killer syndrome and they've got all their
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: tats and they wear their really small shirts so you
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: can see their muscles and all of these things, and
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: they think that that is real business, that killer alpha
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: male business. And I think it's just a huge misnomer,
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: because you can be kind, you can be generous, and
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: you can still be really really successful and good at business.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: And I'm not saying you don't fight for what you deserve,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: because I think you don't get what you deserve in life.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: You get what you negotiate for. But you can negotiate
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: in a way that works for all parties concerned. I've
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: done that my entire career, and I don't think the
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: killer mentality is necessary, and I think it's definitely very
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: antiquated and probably has been for twenty or thirty years.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: So tell me what did you learn about and maybe
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: what you're applying today and still using today from those
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: early business experiences in terms of cash flow and money
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: management and all the rest. Do you use some of
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: those lessons with your audience a lot, the good and
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: the bad? What was one good? What was one bad?
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah? I definitely do.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: Every Tuesday night with the Rich Habits Network, we do
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: a private live and I stare in the screen to
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: four or five hundred people and I tell them my
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: brain dump of the week of what do I think
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: of the markets, what do I think of real estate?
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: What do I think about this? And the number one
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: thing they all ask for is a learning lessons story
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: from my career. So every week I tell one of
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: those stories. It might be silly bands related, it might
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: be back in the bar and restaurant days related, but
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: I always try to tell them a heartfelt story that
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: is still relevant to today's business world, because we see
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: this every day that many many of the fake gurus
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: that are online right now selling people business courses and
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: success courses and entrepreneur courses have never really built anything,
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: because if they did, and they were making all this money,
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: why is their main focus selling courses?
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: Doesn't make sense to me.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: You got coaches selling coaches how to coach courses, and
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: it's just this one big, crazy Ponzi scheme that I
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: don't like. So I always share the good and the
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: bad because I want people to understand for people like me,
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: it's not all rainbows and unicorns. They never really realize
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: the crap that someone like me has to crawl through
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: every single month, even at my level now, when you're
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: dealing with things that happen in business.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: So yes, I always tell every.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: Week at least once whether it's a good one or
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: a bad one, and it's usually relative to something traumatic
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: or something that was a breakthrough or a scaling event
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: or something that really changed the course of that business
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: or one of my businesses or projects at that time.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's probably plenty of good bad ones.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say the worst one was back in
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: the early early days of my career. I had built
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: up i think at the time six businesses on a
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: two block radius in Toledo, Ohio, and I owned the buildings.
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: I was fixing the area up.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: We renovated a park, and we were doing all these things,
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: and then one of the competitors, which I won't mention names,
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: all of a sudden we started getting picked on by
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: the government whatever they call it, the Tobacco, Alcohol and
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: Firearm Division. They started picking on me, and I couldn't
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: figure it out. We were creating all these jobs. The
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: neighbors loved us. Everything was fantastic, and I think it
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: was just so much jealousy from the competitor because there
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: was only like three big people in the bar and
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: restaurant business in Toledo, Ohio at that time. And within
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: two and a half years of that happening and starting,
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: we were out of business. They took away all of
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: our liquor licenses, they closed everything down, they made up charges,
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: They literally picked on us for two and a half
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: years till they finally won in court to be able
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: to shut us down. And I knew it was something
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: incredibly shady behind the curtains, but you know how it
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: goes in the business world. You can't fight something that's
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: invisible if you don't have some tangible way to fight back.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: My lawyers knew it. Everyone knew it.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: And then a few years after it happened, I had
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: already rebooted started doing all the online things. This was
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: back early early two thousands, and a girl came out
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: that knew me, and she came out publicly and said
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: that she was kind of the conduit for all of
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: the payoffs to these federal officers and the people that
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: were doing all this to me.
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: And so there ended up being this big.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: Underground story that came to light and people got in
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: a lot of trouble, but it was already too late
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: for me.
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: I couldn't rebuild.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: So that's probably the worst thing that ever happened to
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: me and my family wouse. We were running really beautiful operations.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: I was in my late twenties, my mom was involved.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: It was great, and then poof, two years later, I
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: had all this real estate and I was out of
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: business starting over.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: So that'd probably be the worst thing.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: And obviously the best thing would have to be Silly Bands,
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: because you know, everyone thinks it was an overnight success
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: and they don't realize it was silly Bands. I originally
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: had the idea after being at a show in China.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: My staff thought it was a stupid idea. So I
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: didn't do it for like a month. Then I came
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: back to the staff and I said, no, I'm going
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: to launch this. We've done well with Silicona products. We're
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: going to rock this thing out. And it has gone
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: on to be one of the biggest trending phenomenons in
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: the United States and globally over the last fifteen or
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: twenty years.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: And now Silly Bands is seventeen years old. It is
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: very very.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: Popular again and doing well, and we've got a lot
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: of really cool partnerships in the works right now. So
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: that would probably be the best because at that time
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: in two thousand and nine, we scaled from seventeen employees
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: to over three thousand employees to handle the global demand
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: of Sillyband sales and manufacturing. So that was a really
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: critical learning and growth period for me of how to
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: scale something when you've got the tiger by the tail
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: and you're trying to figure it all out. After the fact,
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: they always make it sound like we had every single
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: successful person that's exited a company. Nowadays, when they do
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: the interview in the podcast sector.
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: They're like, oh, yeah, we figured it all out and
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: it was perfect.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: It's never perfect you leave millions on the table, you
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: lose millions of dollars in mistakes. I don't scale, you
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: don't hire fast now. But they always paint a picture
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: of rainbows and unicorns. So that's why I intentionally show
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: people the behind the scenes, the crap, the hard stuff,
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: because I don't want to paint a picture ever that
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: entrepreneurship is easy and it's a hockey stick up into
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: the right because that's just not the truth. And I
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: don't ever want to mislead my audience because I want
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: to guide people as much as possible, because there's no
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: reason in twenty twenty six, as we film this for
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: anyone to learn from their own mistakes.
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: They should be learning from our mistakes now.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: I guess that's the key. I always said that business
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Eyebilt was a series of mistakes well made, because that's
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: all you're doing. You've gotten up. And I always say,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: if you're not getting some snow down your butt crack
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: when you ski, you are not trying hard enough, right,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: So there's going to be a lot that you gotta
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: do to really do it. And it's great to hear
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: you say that. I mean, of course, people know the
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: brand and it's famous and it sounds easy, But what
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: do you think some of the core reasons for success were.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, obviously it was a cool product that people loved,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: but what were some of the ways the business succeeded.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Was it people? Was it the tech and the manufacturing?
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: What were some of the secrets to the success from
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: your perspective.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm going to generalize it for most people, and
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: I think the keys to success for people that really
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: make big success a lot of times comes down to
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: two things. Mindset and the tenacity to get up after
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: you're knocked down. We see it all the time. There's
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: a lot of content around it. There's a lot of
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: memes about it. Your one meeting away, your one phone call,
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: your one podcast away from a totally different life. And
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: I truly believe that.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: But most people.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: Do not have the tenacity to keep going, and they
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: give up so soon. I don't know the new stats
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: of podcasts, but it was something like seventy five percent
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: of all podcasts stop after three episodes.
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: And it's just like pople to do social media.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: Wow, Yeah, they start doing social media and they're like, well,
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: I've done eleven videos and nothing has blown up. I've
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: gotten no momentum and they quit. So I think, for me,
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: the biggest keys to my success. I have no quit
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: in my game. Even today. I have younger partners in
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: the Rich Habits podcast. Christian and Austin are both I
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: think Christian's twenty nine, Austin's thirty, and they admire the
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: fact that I have so much energy and tenacity to win.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: I love that word tenacity, man.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: I think those two things for me are always the
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: keys to my success and my message to help others
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: succeed because I see it all the time where people
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: launch a product and go, yeah, man, I lost money
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: for two months and I quit and I went back
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: to my job.
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: I'm like, what are you talking about? Like two months?
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: And I try to get people to understand because there
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: is a lot of misinformation out there. Also, Jim, there
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: are a lot of us out there that say, quit
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: your job, follow your dream, and you'll never work a
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: day in your life.
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: That's the dumbest crap ever.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: Anyone that says follow your dream and you'll never work
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: a day in your life is obviously already rich. Because
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: at the end of the day, you should not quit
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: your job. You should keep your job, work nights and
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: weekends on the side hustle. That's going to become your
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: entrepreneurial path. And when that side hustle or small business yeah,
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: eclipses the money you make from your job, then you're
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: in a better place. Because so many people listen to
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: that message and they just quit their job and go,
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: I'm going to start this candle company or this car
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: wash company or whatever it is barbershop, and then eight
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: months later they're in credit card debt. They owe all
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: their friends and family money, and they have no way
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: to survive. And the worst thing you can do in
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: your entrepreneurial journey is chase money. That is the worst
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: thing anyone can do, because you're not building your business,
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: you're chasing money to survive. And that is why I
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: always tell everyone, please, don't quit your day job until
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: the other thing is making more money and more successful
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: than the day job. And even then, keep it as
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: long as you can so you can get ahead of
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: the curve financially by having multiple sources of income.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: I say this all the time. Everything I did for
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: the money, and that was the main reason I failed.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: That it just never seemed to work. Taking a client
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: on or working on a project that was just about
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: the money, or you took it because of that, and
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: that ended up being the problem. I mean with Silly
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Bands wasn't about the money. I mean, obviously it's this fun,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: cool thing that tell me what it's done for the world.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Like I work in healthcare and the products I promote
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: are very much about curing disease and making lives better.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Tell me the Silly Bands story in that sense.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think Sillybands is a product that has
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: done anything for the world. I think what it did
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: at the time of its creation is if you think
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: when we launched in two thousand, we were in one
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: of the worst recessions in decades in the United States,
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: and it became so incredibly popular with the youth at
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: that time through Facebook and really went viral on Facebook
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: back then. And I think what it did do is
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: it created an entrepreneurial mind in all of the youth
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: because it was meant to be collectible and tradable, and
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: so I really that's what the focus was. Obviously, I
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: wanted to succeed and I wanted it to be a
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: successful project, but I also wanted to make sure that
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: the message was this isn't just another acute fashionable wherein
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: it's right. It was about creating this interaction between people,
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: because we're in a world now where everyone's on their
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: phones and their iPads, and it was just starting back then,
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: and I wanted to have something that had an old
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: school feel to it, where it would bring in the
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: entrepreneurial spirit through trading and this and that, and those
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: are all all the stories that I hear about it
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: is I remember back when I was in high school
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: or grade school, and I was trading silly bands for
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: lunch things, and I was doing this and doing that
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: and collecting them.
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: And now, even more so.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: Than back then, everyone that got Silly Bands to where
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: it was back in twenty ten, eleven, twelve is now
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: in their mid twenties and they're introducing it to their
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: younger brothers now, which is really cool because it's that
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: whole thing again. And we've had a big, like a
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: lot of outcry from people saying this was the first
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: big collectible of our generation. It was kind of like
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: the NFT of our generation, et cetera, et cetera. So
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: I don't think we can compare what Silly Bands has
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: done for the world to your products, because your products
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: change people's health and lives. I think Silly Bands has
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: a good, heartfelt story because it was an inexpensive collectible
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: that anyone could afford at the time, because we were
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: in a bad economy. I launched it at the worst
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: possible time for that reason. So I think there is
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: a feel good story about it. And then obviously now
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: fifteen years later, I get stopped every day all day
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: airports outside on my streets. Oh my god, you're the
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: Silly Bands guy. I remember when. So there's a lot
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: of feel good energy around Sillybands. But it didn't change
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: lives in the way that your medicines do.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Maybe not in that way, but it brought people to
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: gather a creative community. This stuff's important, especially in a
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: world we're on phones and all the rest. So I think,
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: actually it broke round, But I think we both learned
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: that building meets products. What I do in healthcare is
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: niche relative to other things and services, and working in
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: not so glamorous fields can lead to success. You know,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: a lot of people think, yep, I gotta be in Hollywood,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: and you know, I just came back from can you know,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: and they want to meet all the people and be
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: in the midst of all that. I never went to
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: a can until the last couple of years. I mean,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: long after I've built a fairly sizable business and we're
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: beginning to win a war words there. I focused on
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: healthcare and came out of a market here in the
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Bay Area because that's not where advertising and marketing live.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: How did you come to this mindset coming out of Toledo.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: It's kind of a cool story. We're relative small town guys,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: so there's something about, yeah, we all carry a little chip,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: but what is your mindset around that?
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: I spent many years with the various products, silly bands
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: and other products that we've launched and in and out
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: of Hollywood, and I was paying a lot of these
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: influencers and celebrities to help us with these product launches
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: over the years, and it really bothered me, but I
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: never really did anything about it because it was just
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: the way to get eyeballs. And then around four years ago,
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: I was living in Colorado and maybe a little over
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: four years maybe four and a half years ago, and
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: I was doing a little bit of TikTok, a little
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: bit of Instagram, and I went to an alternative investing summit,
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: and I met a guy I won't mention a name,
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: very thankful for him for what he said. But he
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: said to me after I did this little speaking engagement
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: at a roundtable discussion, he said, why are you not
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: doing more in the financial and social media world. Your
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: brain is six hundred miles ahead of everybody else. I
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: was like, well, I never really thought about doing consulting.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: I do it a little bit for some companies and
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: some brands here and there, but I'm a builder, I'm
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: not a talker.
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: So I took that really to heart.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: I went back to Denver, and about a month later,
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: I was just one night, went to dinner by myself,
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: had a couple of glasses of wine. I said, you
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: know what, I'm going to try this and see how
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: it works. I didn't have a script, I didn't have
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: a microphone, I didn't have anything. I just held my
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: camera up walking outside. I did the video, posted it,
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: went to bed, woke up the next day, had two
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: point five million views, thousands and thousands of comments.
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: So a couple of days.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: Went by, I did another video, still not thinking anything
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: of it, and that video went on to be my
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: biggest viewed video in.
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: My history and currently through all.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: Platforms, I think it's at like thirty five million views
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: and like a million shares, and so that's just really
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: what changed the game. I was like, you know what,
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: maybe there's a world and this is what I'm meant
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: to do by helping.
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: Others figure it out.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: Because everyone has blind spots when it comes to mindset
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: business and finance, and I've lived through thirty years of
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: ups and downs and making millions and losing millions of dollars.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: So I was like, you know what, I'm going to
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: give this a try. And I remember it was kind
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: of funny because I was about a month in and
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: I went from I think at that time when I
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: first did the first video, I had like sixty five
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: thousand followers on TikTok, and then I went from sixty
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: five thousand followers to like four hundred and fifty thousand
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: followers in a month. In a month, and so wow, people,
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: And it was just an outcry of people reaching out
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: to me like this is incredible on that need right, yeah, yeah,
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: laying out the fact that building wealth in financial freedom
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: is not rocket science. And then I realized because I
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: was so annoyed with all of these fake gurus that
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: are like, hey, if you want to build learn how
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: to build wealth, just click on the link below and
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: join my this and it's.
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: Five thousand dollars and I'll teach you.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: So I was like, all right, I'm going to take
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: the Gary V model and I'm just gonna give it
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: all away. I'm going to give away the best sauce
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: I possibly can because eventually the money comes back. It
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: always does. You said it earlier. If you chase money,
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: you're never gonna get it. And I just started doing
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: videos and I remember my partners and friends in Colorado
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: made fun of me, and I'll never forget it as
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: long as I live. I was doing a video and
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: I came back to a meeting and I was in
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: the same building and they were laughing at me and
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: having a drink, and I said, what's so funny? And
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: they're like, well, we just think it's funny that you're
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: your age and you're doing these TikTok videos and Instagram videos.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: Isn't TikTok for kids dancing? And I was like, well,
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: you guys can laugh all you want, but I'm helping people.
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: I'm enjoying it, and I think I'm onto something really
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: big and you don't know what you're talking about. I
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: think TikTok and Instagram are the greatest commerce platforms And
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: this was four and a half years ago that anyone
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: could do and be part of to be able to
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: build an audience, whether you're a lawyer or a barber
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: or a restaurant owner, and the rest is history. As
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: they say, now I have over four point three million
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: followers throughout all platforms. I have a huge network of
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: people that trust me and look to me for help
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: along the way, and I get a ton of deal
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: flow out of it because I've built trust and name
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: and likeness over the years and I have a really
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: good backstory of success.
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: So that's that's it for me.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: Well, you know you made a transition from products to podcasts.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Is that just another product? And are you still making products? Right?
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: You are?
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: Yes?
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: And so it sounds like now they work together. We
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: were talking about this before. Well, I do want I
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: talking about communications as leadership. Leadership is communications. It's when
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: you're out there creating the context, articulating in it a
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: way that people can understand why the why matters? Yes, right,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: so how in making this product to podcast transition and
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: now maybe back to products, how does that all work together.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's all about building an ecosystem around my backstory
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: and my success. Tell the story all the time to
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: help people have the motivation to keep going. When Austin
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: pitched me on having a podcast, it was never on
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: my radar to have a podcast, And he said to
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: me in the very first call, he said, I think
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: our podcast will kill it. We have a thirty year
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: age gap, and he comes from a finance background. I
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: do as well, but I have more of an entrepreneurial
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: background after thirty some years in building businesses and all
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: that stuff in silly bands, and he said, we're not
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: going to make any money out of the gates, So
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: I hope we can stick with it because it takes
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: a long time. And I remember talking about it. After
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: a year of doing podcasts and writing and doing everything ourselves,
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: I made five hundred and eighty three dollars in the
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: first year. Most people would never keep going. They'd be like,
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: I'm done, this is a joke. It's not working. But
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: we made it to number one multiple times. I think
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: it was in the first eighteen months with the podcast.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: Now we hover in the top ten business and financial
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: podcasts on Spotify every single month, and we have for
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: a long time. And so it all gets back to
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: that tenacity and having the mindset and when you look
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: at it now, when you look at that ecosystem, it's podcast,
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: it's network, and it's everything else. And so one of
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: the biggest projects that I'm proud about that has happened recently,
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: we just launched a company of platform called vest Funder.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: You can share the link in the show notes, but
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: it is a rega platform to help all the little people,
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: the people that just have I've never had access to commercial,
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: big real estate projects. And I don't mean little people,
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: I mean smaller investors. But definitely I'm involved in a
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: lot of reg d's, but the average check size to
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: get in on a commercial project of condos or apartments
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: or houses, you know, you're one hundred, two hundred fifty thousand.
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: Dollars a check.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: So many people, millions and millions of people that want
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: to invest in real estate have been locked out of
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: that category. And a reggae is nothing new. There are
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: other reggae's out there, but I felt that was the
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: next great progression for my career was to launch a
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: rega vest funder to be able to allow every day
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: people that want to invest in big projects be able
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: to do that alongside me.
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: And so we made the.
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: Minimum investment fifteen hundred dollars per project and it is
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: so magical. We just launched three weeks ago. I'm really
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: excited for the future of that. But that, again is
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: part of that ecosystem because I've built the trust, I've
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: built the file, and people know that I have a
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: thirty year career in real estate, and I partnered with
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: a gentleman, a lovely human being. His name's Ron Walsh,
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: and he has forty years of development experience. So he's
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: at the helm running this and I'm helping him and
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: we're really excited about it. But that all just comes
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: down to staying within the ecosystem. You see it every
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: day in your world and I do too. Where one
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: minute you see somebody that's an influencer and they're talking
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: about four x trading. Six months later they're talking about cryptocurrency.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: They don't have any real sticktuitiveness to really educate people
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: because they're just chasing the shiny ball syndrome and that
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: is something I don't do. I stay in my wheelhouse
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: and I educate people. And that's also why people trust
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: me because they know it's authentic. I'm not chat gpting
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: a script of what to say that day to try
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: and get eyeballs, and I don't do clickbait. People can
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: feel like they have a voice of reason in the
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: finance and business world that they can trust, and I
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: think that helps a lot of our ecosystem of building
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: this flywheel of all of these opportunities for people that follow.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: A lot that vesting that you create by bringing people
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: into the ability to make money. I've always said, when
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: I took my name off the door and I started
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: to share more in the money making, and they weren't
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: making it for Jim, but now we're making it for
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: all of us.
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: That became a game changer. So that vesting, particularly your
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: best people, right in a meritocracy, that's important. So as
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: you've built your audience, what are some of the common
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: thread stories you've heard from people who listen and tune
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: in and watch. You mentioned you've saved people's lives, you know,
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: or turn them around anyway, which I love because that
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: equates to some of the stuff we do because I
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: really believe financial freedom, stability, success really is a health issue.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: I really really do. So tell me, how are you
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: saving lives? How are you improving lives?
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: The common thread, and this is hundreds of times a month,
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: whether it's a DM a LinkedIn post, people stop me
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: on the street, people jump out of cars at stop
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: science and be like Robert Croke, Robert Crok, Oh my god,
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: the common thread is always the same. I found you
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: two years ago, three years ago, four years ago, and
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: you changed my life. I didn't know what a roth
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: iray was. I didn't trust anybody. And these are people
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: of all ages. These are people that maybe started investing
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: in their thirties and stopped because they got burned by somebody,
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: so they never invested again. But it's always the same thing.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: I felt I could trust you, I started following you.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: I love your podcast and I have learned so much.
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: And what I love about it the most is And
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: this happened just the other day. I called out back.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: I think it was mid to twenty twenty three or
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: late twenty twenty two. I did one of my three
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: things videos and I said, one of my favorite categories
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: to invest in long term right now is AI because
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: everyone nobody was talking about AI in twenty twenty two,
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: and I said in my three favorite companies at that
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: time was Micron, Vallunteer, and in video. So I told
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: everyone about this, and I got a letter from two
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: different people, two different letters they don't know each other,
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: just the other day, and one of them was, you
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: changed my family's life forever. We took some money in
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: a bad investment and we moved it into those three
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: stocks from that video, and we've made over seven hundred
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars from our little investment in three years, and
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: our lives are changed forever. So a lot of it
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: is guiding people in a simplistic manner, so they take action.
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: That's probably the biggest takeaway of this show. Guiding people
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: in a simplistic manner, so they take action because so
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: many people hear finance and a lot of people are
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: victims of this. They talk over everyone's heads so they
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: sound smart instead of saying, hey, everybody, hello, audience. You
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: can do this if I can do it, and here's how.
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: So I never try to sound smart for the sake
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: of sounding smart. I try to tell people if you
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: listen to me and you take notes. One of my
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: biggest sayings is take notes and take action. If you
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: listen to me and you take action, you will win,
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: and you will inevitably be wealthy and financially free. And
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: you are one hundred percent correct that that ties right
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: into being healthy along the way, because if you don't
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: have financial stress, you don't have to go start looking
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: for stress. And I want people to live stress free
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: lives as much as possible.
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: No matter where they're at in their journey.
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: And I think that is what I'm best at, is
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: unraveling the hardest topics in money, finance and investing and
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: making people believe they can do it as well.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: You're more like a doctor, you know, in a way.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, you don't seem to be selling anything. You
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: seem to be sharing. So that's the thing. I think
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: someone gave me great advice who's super successful. I won't
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: say their name either, and said, you know, when you
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: come into a room and want to do a business deal,
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: it's better to come in with a gift than an ask.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: I think that's true.
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent. I make money from all this.
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: I do brand deals. We have a paid community the
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: Rich Abbots Network. I think it's seventy four dollars a
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: month for people to join, and they get me in
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: Austin for two hours a week for seventy four dollars.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: Plus the community and all of our coursework and everything.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: That's cheaper than business school.
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: Yes, all of our coursework.
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: I think right now we have thirteen hours of courses
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: that you get involved and we add new ones. So yes,
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: I make money from this, but ninety five percent of
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: it is just free. The podcast is free, the newsletters free.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: Everything is free except for the private community. And then
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: I make money from brand deals. But I don't even
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: do brand deals unless it's with companies that will sign
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: a long term contract.
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: That I already use.
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: I talk about public all the time, and I talk
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: about Taylor Brands, Charles Schwab. These are companies I've worked
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: with for years. So I don't do random brand deals
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: where you're going to see me holding a water bottle saying, hey,
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: buy this water. I don't do that because I only
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: wanted to bring value to my audience, and I hope
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: that they understand I do brand deals to help pay
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: for some of the overhead because there's a lot of
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: people that work behind the scenes to make all this
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: stuff happen.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: It's gotta be authentic. And the days of you know,
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: just throwing up a thing that you got, everybody knows.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: Everyone gets paid to do that, so there's not a
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: lot of credibility in anyway. So, look, you said you
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: did triathlons and stuff. Is there a health routine that
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: you follow that makes it easier for you to impart
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: this healthy financial information to your audience.
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: Nowadays, I live in a beautiful building and we have
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: a state of the art gym, so I try to
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: weight train three to four days a week. I walk,
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: on average right now, probably around ninety five hundred steps
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: a day. I try to keep it over ten thousand,
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: but it doesn't always happen, especially on big load days
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: where I'm filming a lot a lot of walking. I
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: play tennis regularly and I play pickleball regularly and weight training,
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: but it's also about keeping the right supplements. I am
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: trying some different peptide stacks to keep everything moving in
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: the right direction. I have really good sponsors create I
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: use them for my Creatine product. I feel they're very
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: clean and good, so I take Creatine every day. But
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of is just eating well is
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: one of the most important things, and doing everything in moderation.
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: For me, I'm not a crazy help nut, because.
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: I think that's unsustainable, especially when you have a busy
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: life like me.
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: I'm traveling constantly.
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: It's not always easy to megle prep and have chicken
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: breast and sweet potato and those kind of things with you.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: But I think for me, it's about understanding the importance
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: of my energy and my brain health to be able
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: to do what I do at a high level and
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: be able to have this much energy. People ask all
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: the time. They're like, dude, what is wrong with you?
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: How do you have so much energy? And I'm just like,
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: it's because I live a wonderful life. But I also
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: eat well. I try to avoid seed oils and all
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: the bad stuff. And I think if you do the
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: right things long enough, it pays off, whether it's in
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: your finances, your mindset, or your health regimen. And so
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: for me, I don't do anything crazy special. I just
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: like movement. I drink a lot of water and I
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: take the right supplements, and I think that has been
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: a big blessing for me over the years.
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: Awesome. So what are you getting real about right now?
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: Getting real?
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm getting real about obviously best funder. We're
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: doing a lot of cool things behind the scenes with
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: rich Habits in the net work. We're doing a lot
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: of infesting in these pre IPO companies, space x Eptronic,
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: stuff like that. So we give access to our members
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: and the rich Habbits network for those types of investments,
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: so they're not out doing it through retail.
• 43:14
  Speaker 3: So that's it.
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: And I'm getting really really real about getting my fitness
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: back to where it was four years ago. I'm in
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: good shape, but I don't look like I did four
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: years ago, and that is mission critical right now because
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: I want to get back to that shredded diesel look
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: and get it all where I had it four years ago,
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: and that is mission critical for me right now.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: Last question, what's your favorite vacation you ever took?
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: I would say, ooh, I really want to go to Portugal.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: Never been there either.
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: In the next two months.
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: I was gonna take that vacation four years ago, had
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: it planned. Something came up and I didn't take it.
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: So the plan is before the end of this year
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: is I'm going to go to Portugal. And then the
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: only other thing, and I don't have a reason to
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: do it other than just the orient of my family
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: is there's an international state park in Ireland called Croke
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: International State Park, and I've always wanted to see it
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: as an origin story to the history of the Croke name.
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: But Portugal is.
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: The fun one that I definitely want to do because
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: I've been to a lot of really cool places and
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: I need to get back to doing some of the
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: travel that I really want to do in Portugal was
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: the next one.
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: Wow, I mean I've canceled the trip to Portugal about
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: four years ago. That's because of my wife's illness. As
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: we talked about I want to get back. I want
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: to go. I mean, so yeah, send us selfies, brother,
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: I want to see what it looks like. That's right,
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: all right, Thanks for your time, man, I've learned a ton.
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: Healthy finance, is healthy life, and a few other things
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: we know that make you healthy. Robert. We hope to
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: keep talking over the years. We'll be watching you, your
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: role model. Thanks for all you've done, and you are
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: making the world a healthier place.
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: I appreciate that. Thank you so much.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: I appreciate you same here brother. Hey everyone, thanks for watching.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate that you take the time to listen
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: to this and tune in, so please subscribe, follow I've
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: got a lot of amazing guests. You're gonna learn a lot,
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: and you're gonna feel a lot better because you did it.