\n<\/p>\n
Lewis Howes<\/strong><\/a> has made a career taking the insights of millionaires and masters of crafts<\/strong> and turning them into digestible, actionable steps that everyday Americans can use to achieve their dreams. He\u2019s talked to investing moguls, sports icons, mindset authorities<\/strong>, and everyone in between. Through doing this, he\u2019s become an expert on building the mental landscape that makes you successful, accountable, and ready to make meaningful action<\/strong> in the world. He knows what it takes to <\/strong>build wealth<\/strong><\/a>, get rich<\/strong>, and start eight-figure businesses<\/strong>. And he also understands why you may not be ready to achieve your wildest dreams.<\/p>\n Lewis Howes knows most people aren\u2019t ready to get rich<\/strong>. It\u2019s not because they aren\u2019t smart or savvy enough at investing. It\u2019s because there\u2019s something missing deep down\u2014something they didn\u2019t even know about. And Lewis has real-world experience with this struggle. He was flat broke only fifteen years ago<\/strong>, sleeping on his sister\u2019s couch<\/strong>, watching his dreams of becoming a professional athlete slip away. He even got caught by his first mentor stealing food after a speaking event when he didn\u2019t have enough money to eat.<\/p>\n Fast forward to today, and Lewis is a best-selling author, owner of a multi-million dollar business<\/strong>, and gets paid more in an hour than most Americans make in a year<\/strong>. So what changed? What steps did Lewis take to accomplish this unbelievable feat, and what can YOU do to repeat the same system that led Lewis to greatness? All that (and more) in this episode!<\/p>\n David: Lewis: David: Rob: David: Lewis: David: Lewis: David: Rob: David: Rob: David: Lewis: David: Rob: Lewis: Rob: David: Rob: David: Rob: David: Rob: David: Rob: David: Lewis: David: Lewis: David: Lewis: David: Lewis: David: Rob: David: Rob: David: Rob: David: Lewis: Rob: David: Lewis: Rob: Lewis: David: Lewis: Lewis: David: Lewis: Lewis: David: Lewis: Rob: Lewis: David: Lewis: David: Lewis: David: Lewis: Rob: Lewis: David: Lewis: David: Rob: Lewis: Rob: Lewis: David: Lewis: David: Lewis: David: Lewis: David: Lewis: David: Lewis: David: Lewis: Rob: Lewis: Rob: David: Lewis: Rob: Lewis: David: Lewis: Rob: Lewis: David: Lewis: David: Lewis: David: Lewis: David: Lewis: David: Rob: David: Lewis: David: Rob: Lewis: Lewis: David: \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Help us reach new listeners on iTunes by leaving us a rating and review! It takes just 30 seconds and instructions can be found here<\/a>. Thanks! We really appreciate it!<\/p>\n Interested in learning more about today\u2019s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Check out our\u00a0<\/em>sponsor page<\/em><\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n Note By BiggerPockets:<\/b> These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.<\/p>\n
This is the BiggerPockets Podcast, show 737.<\/p>\n
A lot of the things around money for me is about the relationship you have with yourself, the way you feel if you\u2019re worthy and deserving of it, and also if you have the mindset to take on the pressure and weight and responsibility of money. And that\u2019s where I feel like the greatness mindset plays in perfectly with money, investing and millions of dollars.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s up everyone, this is David Greene, your host of the BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast. Here today with a special episode for you. Rob and I are going to be interviewing Lewis Howes. Many of you know him from the School of Greatness. Lewis is a very successful online personality. He interviews some of the smartest, most successful people in the world, gleans what they are doing well, and then shares it with his audience. And we have him on today to share a lot of the lessons that he\u2019s learned about what other people have done to become great as well as himself, and how that would apply to our real estate journey, as well as some of the personal elements of his own story where he went from rags to riches in a very cool way.
Rob, for someone listening who\u2019s new to real estate investing, hasn\u2019t bought their first property, maybe they\u2019re still living with roommates and just trying to make ends meet, what are you excited for them to get out of today\u2019s episode?<\/p>\n
This was a really particularly good episode because I think he broke down this idea of success, we\u2019re all searching for success and he immediately nixes that and he\u2019s like, that\u2019s not what you need. What you need is greatness. And I don\u2019t want to spoil it, but it was something that really resonated with me because I think he really got into this idea of elevating everybody around you. And that to me is what can make your real estate career great, is if you have other people that are right alongside of you, crushing it. It\u2019s a lot more fun of a journey that way I\u2019d say.<\/p>\n
For experienced investors, one of the things he mentioned, because he just wrote a book that\u2019s coming out, he talks about the three steps to becoming great. Was you got to find a problem to solve, that was part of his second step. And I think we can get bored once you\u2019ve got a little bit of success, you got a little bit more money, you get comfortable, you get out of the position that you were at where you felt like, I want to move from A to B, you\u2019re at B, and then you just stop. And there\u2019s always this feeling like, I know there\u2019s more to life. I know that there\u2019s more to me, I could do more. But you don\u2019t have the motivation to keep going. We talk about that in the show, how sometimes pain and bad can lead to blessing. Sometimes you need that.
Well, if you could focus on the problem that you\u2019re trying to solve, you can stay motivated, you can end up earning more money in the future and your business will continue to progress as long as you keep the attention on that and not just the balance sheet where the money is coming from. And on that note, today\u2019s quick tip is, find your greatness. What are you great at? If you can find what you\u2019re great at, you won\u2019t feel like you\u2019re working, you won\u2019t mind the energy that you\u2019re spending as you go about your day, as you take on new challenges and as you take the shots that everybody takes for this is a fight and you\u2019re going to get hit in the face. And if you don\u2019t really want to be in that fight, you\u2019re going to find an excuse to stay knocked out versus getting back up and keep it going. So when you can find your area of greatness, you can find the will to stay in the fight.
All right, please allow me to welcome today\u2019s guest. We have Lewis Howes. Lewis is a podcast host, a New York Times bestselling author, a speaker, a pro athlete, all around. Awesome dude. And you can check out the first time we interviewed him on BiggerPockets Podcast, episode 405. Lewis just wrote a book on greatness, a topic that is near and dear to his heart, that will be dropping on March 7th, and we\u2019re going to be getting into that. Lewis, welcome back to the BiggerPockets Podcast.<\/p>\n
David, Rob, thank you guys. Appreciate you.<\/p>\n
Thank you for that. Now usually on this show we bring in real estate experts to help break down the real life ways people have found success in the industry. It\u2019s almost always someone who\u2019s done well with real estate investing, helps real estate investors. Today\u2019s show is a little different. Lewis has interviewed, I don\u2019t know how many people, I\u2019m sure, hundreds at this point, successful people and pulled out of them what made them successful. And he\u2019s here today to basically share the collective wisdom of all these different people. A bit of a hive mind at this point, Lewis has like absorbed, like Ultron in the Marvel universe except not a villain. He\u2019s got all the information of the collective world that he\u2019s going to share with our guests today so that hopefully more of us can be more successful. Lewis, welcome to the show.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m excited. As I was thinking about this and preparing for this, bigger pockets is the thing that I wanted a lot when I was broke. I was broke on my sister\u2019s couch and I wanted more money. I wanted to have bigger pockets to fill it up, all the money of the world that I could get my hands on. And I remember a mentor of mine early on, I was on my sister\u2019s couch making no money, working for a mentor for free for about six months, learning, developing. And I said, hey, I\u2019ll work for you for free for six months if you let me interview you once a week during a lunchtime. We\u2019ll go take a walk and I\u2019ll just be able to ask you whatever I want. That was my payment that I got, my spiritual payment. And after months of this, I remember saying to him, he ended up actually paying me a little bit to work, but eventually in the beginning it was to do it for free.
But after many months of this, I said to him, man, I could really use some money. I got to figure out how to make money. I don\u2019t know what to do. I\u2019m sleeping on my sister\u2019s couch trying to figure out what I\u2019m going to do next. How am I going to generate this money? How can I overcome the fears that I have? How can I develop skills that bring in more money? Whatever it is, I have no clue. And he told me something I\u2019ve remembered since this day. He said, money comes to you when you\u2019re ready for it. And I remember saying at this time, I\u2019m pretty broke. I\u2019m ready to make some money. I feel ready for the money. Where is it though? I feel ready. And this is something that Rob was just saying off camera about a lot of people don\u2019t believe they are able to be a millionaire. They don\u2019t believe they\u2019re able to generate six figures or whatever it was.
For me, I felt like I was ready, but I truly wasn\u2019t ready. There was something missing inside of me. There was a mindset that was missing inside of me to be prepared for the money that was coming in, the money that I wanted and the responsibility and the weight that money would have. If I wasn\u2019t prepared for it it wouldn\u2019t come to me. I didn\u2019t make sense to me when he said this. Because I was like, well, I feel ready, I am ready, because I\u2019m broke. So what do you mean? And over the next year and a half, it probably took about a year and a half until I started to generate more money and at the time maybe, I don\u2019t know, three to $5,000 a month.
And that eventually it started to come in quicker. In the business that I was building, it started to multiply, 20,000 a month, 30,000, $50,000 months in sales for the business. And I remember thinking back to when he first told me, money comes to you when you\u2019re ready for it. I was like, two years ago if this was coming in right now, I wouldn\u2019t have been mentally ready, prepared to deal with the weight, the pressure, the responsibility, the taxes, all the things that I don\u2019t know about money. I want to acknowledge you guys for being a sounding board, an investment platform of education, wisdom and knowledge to prepare people to receive more money because it only comes to us when we\u2019re ready for it. And you guys know there\u2019s lots of examples of people who just get handed money that aren\u2019t prepared for it and they lose it all. They go bankrupt, they go, whatever.
You hear the stat from NFL players, 78% after four years of retirement go bankrupt. They weren\u2019t ready for the money. You hear about lottery winners, they make all this money and then they go bankrupt or they commit suicide or something bad happens, they go depressed, they weren\u2019t ready for it. Not that often do people who get a lot of money quickly know how to manage it and nurture their money and appreciate their money and invest it wisely. And so I wanted to start with that. That a lot of the things around money for me is about the relationship you have with yourself, the way you feel if you\u2019re worthy and deserving of it, and also if you have the mindset to take on the pressure and weight and responsibility of money. And that\u2019s where I feel like the greatness mindset plays in perfectly with money, investing and millions of dollars.<\/p>\n
God, that is so good. And to be frank, it doesn\u2019t get spoken about very often. You get a lot more YouTube clicks if you say this is the secret no one will tell you about, how to make a million dollars in two weeks. Everybody wants to click on that and it doesn\u2019t work that way like you just said, you throw 500 pounds on the bar when you\u2019re trying to bench and it\u2019s your second day in the gym, it\u2019s just going to crush your rib cage. It\u2019s not getting anything done and money is a heavyweight. Prosperity in general is much, much more difficult to manage. That was an awesome opening. I love that. Before we get deeper into your story, I\u2019m going to give the audience a chance to get to know you as well as I have a little bit here playing a fun game called fact or fiction.
So in this game, Rob and I will take turns asking you questions. We will have to guess if we think it\u2019s fact or fiction, and then after we\u2019ve guessed, you\u2019ll let us know if we\u2019re right. All right. First question or first statement. Lewis, you\u2019ll be commenting on ESPN for March Madness this year. Rob, let\u2019s say you.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m going to go, yes, because Lewis is a pro athlete and considering the realm of possibilities and all the crazy things he\u2019s achieved, I think that\u2019s a very doable thing. So I\u2019m going fact.<\/p>\n
All right. I have a bit of an advantage here because I interviewed Lewis once before and then researched stuff about him because I thought, this is a really cool guy. Is he pulling the wool over my eyes? Because it can happen. Sometimes charismatic people are complete psychos.<\/p>\n
That is true.<\/p>\n
I did a lot of research on Lewis and I\u2019m happy to report I do not believe he\u2019s a psycho at all. I think he\u2019s very genuine. I like him a lot. But in my research, even though he\u2019s a pro athlete, I did not see anything that was related to basketball. In fact he played sports and was very good at them that did not use the same type of skillset that basketball requires. I\u2019m going to go with no, only because it\u2019s March Madness. Lewis, what\u2019s the truth?<\/p>\n
Well, here\u2019s the funny thing, there\u2019s nothing planned right now, but we\u2019ve actually been pitching two ESPN to have me be a mindset teacher during March Madness because that\u2019s when my book The Greatness Mindset comes out. So there was some talks about it. So you guys you\u2019re both right, but right now there\u2019s nothing yet.<\/p>\n
I think even though you saying that, I\u2019m going to give it to Rob. Because what are the odds that anyone that we know is even getting close to pitching ESPN to be an analyst? That\u2019s so far ahead of everybody else that I\u2019m going to say you\u2019re basically in there even if it doesn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n
All right, hold on. Really fast, Lewis, I think we should on air create the hashtag March mindset.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s go.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s pretty good.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how you know that this is a professional YouTuber because they can\u2019t stop thinking that way. It\u2019s like if you\u2019re friends with Eminem, he probably doesn\u2019t go to the diner and just order food like everyone else, right? He\u2019s like, I\u2019ll have the eggs and bacon, make sure I\u2019m nice-<\/p>\n
And mom spaghetti.<\/p>\n
\u2026 awaken. Everything has to rhyme just as he\u2019s talking. Rob\u2019s like that, Brandon Turner was like that. They can\u2019t stop thinking in terms of algorithm. Their brain is just wired that way. March mindset. All right, next statement. Lewis, you were on USA\u2019s national handball team. All right, Rob, what do you think?<\/p>\n
Oh man, you\u2019re definitely going to get the point. I think I\u2019m going to go fact, I\u2019m going to go fact.<\/p>\n
Lot of conviction in that.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s true because that\u2019s where I\u2019m at.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve mastered the art of making a statement, but throwing a question mark on the end of it.<\/p>\n
I am Ron Burgundy.<\/p>\n
Yeah, that\u2019s it. The Ron Burgundy thing. I\u2019m going to go with true on this one.<\/p>\n
Yeah, it\u2019s truth, truth. Eight years with the USA National team. I haven\u2019t played in the last couple years, but I\u2019ve played the USA National team, represented America and played all over the world against other Olympic teams on my pursuit of going to the Olympics, but we never qualified.<\/p>\n
And you recently posted a picture of your handball photo, right? On your social media?<\/p>\n
Yep.<\/p>\n
It was like how every kid in high school, they get down on one knee and they get that mean look on their face. They always want to like-<\/p>\n
Exactly.<\/p>\n
\u2026 the tough dude. You\u2019re like smiling a little bit and there\u2019s no pads on. It was very different. It was the version that they would take to send to grandma, but then they keep the mean. Did you play high school football too? I bet you did.<\/p>\n
I played high school, college, arena football.<\/p>\n
All right, next question. Now, a lot of people don\u2019t know this, but you\u2019re actually friends with Brandon Turner as well, the former co-host of this podcast, also known as the bearded one. When in Hawaii hanging out with the bearded one, you were knocked off your surfboard and avoided being bitten by a shark while surfing with Brandon Turner.<\/p>\n
Fact. Fact. Fact.<\/p>\n
Wasn\u2019t there a thing in school when you have a true or false test where you would write the T but then put a little thing on it also like to make it-<\/p>\n
That\u2019s totally me right now.<\/p>\n
\u2026 the true, false. You try to put both in the same letter.<\/p>\n
Well, it\u2019s just so outlandish that it\u2019s like this is a very specific fiction. So I\u2019m going to just go fact. Put the question mark.<\/p>\n
All right. I\u2019m going to go with fiction here because it\u2019s so outlandish. It tempts you to think this could very well be true and what a cool story that would be. But I\u2019m pretty sure if that had happened, Brandon would have shared this with me. And if this ends up being true, that just is a reflection of the deterioration of my friendship with Brandon. There\u2019s a lot riding on this Lewis.<\/p>\n
It is fiction. That did not happen.<\/p>\n
Nice.<\/p>\n
There we go. The first one Rob\u2019s gotten wrong. All right, and this last one we know is a fact because we teased it a little bit in the beginning. At one point you lived on a couch and had $7 to your name, a handsome double like you full of confidence. That would\u2019ve been hard to believe, but you\u2019ve already admitted that that\u2019s the truth. So we know if someone like you, that was at one point a professional athlete was on the Olympic team playing against other countries, best athletes, could still be at one point having $7 to your name, sleeping on a couch, there\u2019s hope for anybody out there to do the same.<\/p>\n
Well, in a sense that\u2019s fiction, because I didn\u2019t have any money. I was living off three credit cards and I had student loan debt, so I had no cash.<\/p>\n
You had OPM. You had other people\u2019s money.<\/p>\n
I had other people\u2019s money that I had to pay off. It was not the kind that you invest in real estate with, but the kind that you\u2019re just trying to feed yourself.<\/p>\n
You had $7 of change in the couch cushion somewhere, that-<\/p>\n
Somewhere.<\/p>\n
\u2026 you\u2019d have to dive in.<\/p>\n
Maybe I did.<\/p>\n
You claimed it as yours.<\/p>\n
But I didn\u2019t own it because I had to pay it off.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s right. That\u2019s true. There\u2019s a lot of people with negative debt worse, and we don\u2019t talk about that, but just because there\u2019s broke and then there\u2019s worse than broke, there\u2019s owing people money broke. A lot of Americans are in that situation, and I think as the economy gets worse but people spending habit say the same, you\u2019re getting more and more people that are going to fall into that same category. So even though not everyone has gone through the same experience, not everybody has been sleeping on somebody else\u2019s couch, it did happen. Right? So how did you end up there and what was your mindset? You\u2019ve mentioned I didn\u2019t want to be broke anymore. But were you struggling with personal demons at the time that kept you from finding your way? Were you just not sure what direction to take and you were in a holding pattern until you figured out? What was going on in your head?<\/p>\n
I think I\u2019ve been struggling with personal demons up until the last couple years, if I\u2019m being honest. And it\u2019s been a journey of overcoming the challenges, the insecurities, the doubt that it\u2019s held me back in different areas of life. At that time I was afraid of making money because I didn\u2019t understand money, I didn\u2019t know how to make it. I was playing arena football right before that. So I got injured. I broke my wrist and I had a surgery and then I had to wear a cast for six months. So from top of my shoulder to my fingers, I was in a cast, in a 90 degree angle, and that caused me to not be able to work. This was in, August of 2007 I had the surgery. So this went till March, 2008 in the cast. Then from the next year I was recovering with the wrist, with mobility and strength.
During that time, as you guys know, the housing market went through I guess the biggest crash of all time. I don\u2019t know, one of the biggest, and just the economy was crashing. So there wasn\u2019t really jobs for average arena football players who were injured, who didn\u2019t have a college degree, they weren\u2019t giving jobs to people with masters at that time. I remember people struggling, saying, I\u2019ve got a master\u2019s and I can\u2019t get a job. And I was like, there\u2019s no hope for me then. So this is 2008, going into 2009. I started to reach out to mentors and ask them about what to do. I had no clue, and I looked at my life as a sport. I got to a level of success in athletics through having great coaches. I don\u2019t understand money, making money, getting a job, starting a business, being an entrepreneur, any of this. Why do I think I could do this on my own without mentors, coaches, or wisdom?
So I started reaching out to them. I was afraid of money in the beginning, I didn\u2019t know why anyone would hand me a dollar, $100, $1,000, I didn\u2019t understand what value I could bring because I was very insecure. This goes back to mindset. I felt a lot of fear and doubt, and I\u2019m a big believer that self-doubt is the killer of all dreams, of what holds us back from having the courage to act. Whether that\u2019s getting the career we want, making the right investment choices, getting in shape, whatever it is, it holds us back. But I seek mentorship early on and I really just said, whatever you tell me to do, I will do it to 100% to the best of my abilities. I will try to overcome these fears. I will develop new skills, whatever it is you tell me. And that\u2019s what I did for a couple of years.
One of them told me, why don\u2019t you check out LinkedIn? Maybe you can get a job there. This is when LinkedIn had, I think around 12 million people on the platform, early days, 2008 social media. And I started using that at wisdom and advice, and I went all in on LinkedIn for about six hours a day, literally during that time on my sister\u2019s couch, just trying to figure out what is this platform? How do I optimize my profile? How do I connect with influencers, leaders, CEOs, people that know more than me? I ended up building a pretty large network of communities through LinkedIn and eventually started hosting networking events. Again, all these people were messaging me as I started connect with them, saying, I don\u2019t have a job, or it\u2019s really hard to hire the right people right now, or I\u2019m struggling getting business and leads.
I found a problem where I said, well, let me try to connect people through LinkedIn. Then I started to connect people in person and real events. And I did this for first few events until I realized maybe I could charge at the door $5, because people are getting value. I started charging $5, then $10, then $20. Then I started doing sponsorships. Then I wrote a book about LinkedIn. Then I started doing LinkedIn consulting. I just said, how can I maximize the one thing I\u2019m using, to add value to people and figure out how to charge for it? That was the messy figuring it out phase until things started to click after a couple years, and when I really learned about online marketing, creating courses, webinars, and selling online. That was that original journey.<\/p>\n
Sure. So you broke your arm, you\u2019re in this new world where you\u2019re trying to figure out what life is like outside of being an athlete, how can you work, how make money, and you\u2019re reaching out to mentors. I\u2019m curious, were there any low points in that journey or do you feel like as soon as you started working with mentors and grinding, you were off to the races?<\/p>\n
I was already at the lowest point in my mind because my identity was shattered. All I thought I was going to do was be a professional athlete and eventually make it to the NFL. That didn\u2019t happen. So during this year and a half, two years, I was sad. I was really sad. I also was, I turned 24 around that time and I was thinking, I am a sad grown man. I\u2019m a 24-year-old. I don\u2019t have my own apartment. I can\u2019t afford my own food. I can\u2019t pay off my debts. I don\u2019t feel proud about who I am. So the whole thing was sad, but I knew I wanted to overcome it, and so I had the hunger, the desire, the passion to at least take action and mess up, and I knew that it couldn\u2019t really get any worse for me. I was already in three credit cards, I already had student loans I needed to pay off. I had no money. I was on my sister\u2019s couch. I was as humiliated as I could potentially be.
So all I knew was all I could go is up from here. One of the most humiliating points, here\u2019s a low point for you. I started to go to Toastmasters, which is a public speaking class, because I was terrified to speak in front of a group of five people. I went to a number of Toastmasters groups to see which one was the scariest to join. And one of these had, this is one I had my cast on. So imagine going to this professional setting as a 23-year-old bum, with a shirtless sleeve because it wouldn\u2019t fit over the cast. It was so big. So a cutoff sleeve, everyone\u2019s wearing suits and I\u2019m wearing baggy jeans and a cutoff t-shirt with a backwards cap walking in there, in my early 20s, everyone\u2019s in their late 30s, 40s and 50s, suits, professionals and pro speakers.
I walk into this one Toastmaster\u2019s club and there was some cheese and crackers and bread and whatever, hummus in the back of the room for people afterwards, no joke, after the meeting, I\u2019m thinking to myself, I don\u2019t have money to buy food. I start stacking and stuffing in tissue paper and napkins, all the bread and all the vegetables that were back there and shoving them in my deep pockets. I had bigger pockets with my pants. They were big baggy pants. And was stuffing this food in there with one hand and my wrist like broken, shoving it in there. And this guy comes up to me, one of the speakers of that day\u2019s session, he comes up to me, he goes, what are you doing? And I go, I don\u2019t have enough money for food. So this is probably a low point. I don\u2019t have enough money to actually go buy food and I\u2019m stuffing this for the food later in the day.
And he goes, let me just take you to lunch right now. He took me to lunch and I think he just saw something in me. Here\u2019s a kid who\u2019s broken literally then a cast, shoving food in his pockets. Let me take him to lunch right now. And he was like, it\u2019s amazing that you\u2019re actually showing up here. You\u2019re wanting to improve, you\u2019re wanting to overcome this, even in spite of all these things that are happening. And he became one of my mentors. He taught me public speaking. I wrote my first book with him because he had written many books. So he guided and mentored me, because he saw that I was willing to take extreme action. And I think a lot of people who are afraid to invest or make a million dollars or increase their income, they\u2019re afraid to take the actions necessary in order to generate new skills, overcome fears and insecurities that hold them back and figure out ways to add more value to people.
Because usually they\u2019re afraid of rejection, they\u2019re afraid of the no, they\u2019re afraid of looking bad and whatever it might be. That\u2019s why for me, everything around money comes back to mindset. It comes back to if you want to earn more money, you got to increase the quality of your mindset. If you want to invest wisely and learn to understand that you\u2019re going to lose money on certain investments sometimes too. You\u2019ve got to be willing to develop a stronger mindset. And so that\u2019s why it\u2019s been a powerful journey of all these different stages since that moment.<\/p>\n
First off that you\u2019re willing to admit that a very successful person like you walked into a Toastmasters, just hearing that part right away I\u2019m like, I\u2019d have to be at rock bottom. I had to go to a Toastmasters thing for college. It was a speaking class and they forced us to go to one. My kryptonite is having to go to events where I don\u2019t know people. I\u2019m incredibly introverted. You don\u2019t think so because people only experience me in an area where I\u2019m confident playing a sport, on a podcast where I get to talk. It\u2019s so much easier. If I have to go to a place like a party where I don\u2019t know anybody, my skin is crawling. I just want to turn myself inside out and hide. I can\u2019t stand it. And Toastmaster is not like that, but I got to talk in front of all these people. It\u2019s terrible.
So you go into that environment that I would\u2019ve hated. I\u2019m guessing you probably aren\u2019t the guy who just walks in the room and be like, hey, you\u2019re not Frank the Tank either.<\/p>\n
I was just terrified and I was also just like, I don\u2019t have the skills that all these people have, I don\u2019t dress like them. I\u2019m not old as old as them. I\u2019m just like this young punk trying to figure out how to overcome my fear. It was terrifying.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re like the fat kid at a CrossFit gym walking down the first day. It\u2019s the worst feeling ever. You\u2019re looking at all these people that are way better off than you are, and now you\u2019re also so poor that you\u2019re taking food from the thing and you\u2019re grateful that there\u2019s food, but you\u2019re humiliated that someone sees you doing it. That\u2019s fighting spirit, is all you can really call that. You don\u2019t know where you\u2019re going, you\u2019re at rock bottom, but you\u2019re not willing to just give up. You\u2019re not going to say, I quit. I\u2019m just going to slip into depression, slip into drugs, slip into just being a loser, because the world\u2019s tempting me with that every day. What is the point of trying here? And you\u2019re so humble that you\u2019re willing to put yourself in that position.
I think that is, when we talk about mindset, that spirit that you had, that I will humiliate myself, I will cut the shirt off my sleeve, off my shirt, I will go to this place. I will be embarrassed. I don\u2019t care. I have to get better is absolutely the first steps to getting out of the place we\u2019re at. And for the people who are in a job that\u2019s comfortable, but they don\u2019t love it and they want to be an entrepreneur, that\u2019s the attitude you got to have. When you\u2019re like, I don\u2019t care what I have to do, I will do anything to get out of the position I\u2019m in, you\u2019re starting on that journey. And I think we\u2019re going to get into deeper parts. I\u2019m going to throw it over to Rob here in a minute. But if you\u2019re trying to start the journey without thinking that way, it\u2019s like you\u2019re half committed. You can\u2019t like sign up for CrossFit unless you\u2019re completely committed something you want to do.<\/p>\n
And here\u2019s the thing, it\u2019s really hard to strive for more when things are good. When things are good, I was having a conversation yesterday with a guy who came and was having a meeting with me and they were recording to some content for me. He\u2019s in his late 20s. He had a successful business that he started when he was 21, pretty young, a coffee shop in his local town, made some good money. He\u2019s got three kids, beautiful wife. Life is really good, but he\u2019s been for two years wanting to take the leap to do something, but he\u2019s been afraid because life is good, but he knows it\u2019s not exactly what he wants. It\u2019s like there\u2019s something calling me, but-<\/p>\n
But I got something to lose.<\/p>\n
Exactly. Something to lose. When you have nothing to lose, when it\u2019s really, really bad, when it\u2019s bad, it\u2019s not bad enough. It\u2019s when you really go through an extreme breakdown, an extreme breakup, you go through an extreme near death experience or you lose your career or you go through a divorce or something like that, that\u2019s when you can start to reflect and say, okay, it can\u2019t really get worse than this, or I don\u2019t want it to get any worse. And that\u2019s when a lot of people start to act. When it\u2019s bad, at least we\u2019re familiar with it and we\u2019re not willing to break through. It needs to be really, really bad in order for us a lot of times to break through. Some people have the courage to recognize life is really good, but it\u2019s not exactly what I want. Let me start going all into my fears and my insecurities and overcoming these things. It\u2019s rare when that happens, but it\u2019s inspiring when people will not accept goodness and they go for greatness.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s really great, and I think it\u2019s really cool to just hear your turning point here, because you did the Toastmasters thing, someone reached out to you and they\u2019re like, let\u2019s go to lunch. And they showed kindness to you and they mentored you. It\u2019s always really cool how one person who\u2019s unlocked their own version of impossible and their own success, talking to them for a bit can do that for you too. So it seems, like for you, taking action is what got you off the couch and in the game. And you\u2019ve built this massively successful, influential business from there. Do you think you could break down the step-by-step process of how you unlocked that success? Because I have a feeling that a lot of people at home need to hear this.<\/p>\n
Well, let me first define the difference between success and greatness, because I think people, I want to create context around this first. In my mind I was extremely successful in sports. I was a two sport Allstate and high school. I was a two sport all American in college. I was a professional athlete. I played with the Olympic handball team. I felt like with the talents that I was given, and then I nurtured and developed, I accomplished as far as I could in sports. And then I felt like I did a similar transition in the business and I\u2019ve accomplished a lot of success, quote unquote, in business in my own way, right? New York Times bestseller, top podcast, eight figure business, yada, yada. But here\u2019s the thing, success for me by itself is selfish. It\u2019s about me. It\u2019s about wanting to look good. It\u2019s about wanting to look right. It\u2019s about wanting to win so that I get celebrated and seen and feel good about me.
That\u2019s what I did for a long time, from sports to the business world, and it was never fulfilling. The more I would accomplish, the more money I would make, the more I would be New York Time bestseller, all this stuff, it still didn\u2019t feel enough. It didn\u2019t feel satisfying, fulfilling, and enough. And I said, well, maybe I need to accomplish more. I need to succeed more. And it still didn\u2019t feel enough. And so that\u2019s why this whole journey started 10 years ago when I started my show, School of Greatness. I said, I don\u2019t know what\u2019s wrong, but I\u2019m accomplishing success and it\u2019s not working. So let me figure out what greatness is. And to me, greatness is pursuing the goals and dreams that you still want to accomplish for you, but making sure you\u2019re in service to those around you in that pursuit, lifting others up, inspiring others around you, helping others, empowering them and celebrating others as well.
And that\u2019s why it\u2019s been a journey for me, because the worst thing that you can do is win at the wrong things. The worst thing you can do is be successful and still not love yourself, in my mind. Sure, money can help you solve lots of problems, but it doesn\u2019t help you solve the problem of accepting, loving yourself and being a good human being. It might solve money problems, but not mindset problems and emotional problems. And that\u2019s why for me, I could tell you what I did to be successful, but it wasn\u2019t enough for me to accomplish these goals. And so that\u2019s why I want to talk about what I\u2019ve reinvented for myself from studying all these great minds over the last 10 years, making a lot of the same mistakes over and over again, really until the last couple years, in order to finding peace, acceptance, and fulfillment as I\u2019m on the journey of constantly growing and building what I\u2019m building.
Greatness again is going after the things that are successful to you and empowering those and being in service to those around you as well. I\u2019ll give you the steps based on that context. I don\u2019t believe, and I don\u2019t know if you guys actually got a copy of the book, but I\u2019ll share a page for you on page 201 in The Greatness Mindset, there\u2019s a graphic that talks about the powerless mindset versus the greatness mindset. So if you want to have a step-by-step approach to achieving more success, making more money and being greater in your life, this is the context of understanding where this stems from. A powerless mindset. And so think about this in terms of how you\u2019re making money, how you\u2019re investing in your real estate and building your career and building your business. A powerless mindset lacks a meaningful mission.
So if you don\u2019t in one sentence have a meaningful mission clear, it doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t live a good life, but it\u2019s just not stepping into your full greatness. So a powerless mindset that lacks a meaningful mission is controlled by fear, is crippled by self-doubt, conceals past pains, is defined by the opinions of others and drift towards complacency. For me, that is more of a powerless mindset way of thinking. Now, if we want to step into greatness financially or any area of our life, we are driven by a meaningful mission. We\u2019re very clear in one sentence what that is, and I\u2019ll talk about that. That is our first step. They turn fear into confidence. So anything we\u2019re afraid of, we turn it into a superpower. For me, that was public speaking. I know David for you, that was something you struggle with also, but we say this is the obstacle I\u2019m going to overcome and actually make it a power.
Something that made me feel powerless for so long is now something I get paid $150,000 to do in 60 minutes. But if I didn\u2019t turn that fear into confidence and overcome it, then I\u2019d still be held back into a powerless mindset. Overcome self-doubt, heals past pains, creates a healthy identity, and takes action with a game plan. So again, to give you context there, Rob, the first step is identifying which mindset am I currently living in? Are there anything from the powerless mindset that is holding me back or am I living more in the greatness mindset? So step one is identifying where I currently am in this place. Do I have any fears? Is there anything from my past that I\u2019m still holding onto that I haven\u2019t mended or healed yet? Do I have a healthy identity with myself? Do I get angry, resentful, frustrated, or am I loving, kind and generous? So what is the identity that I have of myself?
And this doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re right or wrong, good or bad, either way, I\u2019m just speaking into the greatness that is possible within you, identifying it and leaning into it. So step one is that. Step two is getting clear on what season of life we\u2019re in. When I was on my sister\u2019s couch, Rob, I was in a season of sadness. I was in a season of transition. I was in a season of denial. I was in a season of, who am I? Rediscovery. And I was in that season for a while. I was trying a bunch of things. I was feeling the sadness, I was feeling bad for myself, and I was trying to discover, what do I want to create next? That was the season. And all I could think of is my mission is to get off my sister\u2019s couch. How do I make enough money to get off the couch? I couldn\u2019t think beyond, I\u2019m going to change the world or cure cancer. That wasn\u2019t I part of my makeup. It was just how do I make money to get off the couch?
And I think we have to recognize what season we\u2019re in, because some people listening or watching right now, they may only be making a few thousand dollars a month, and it\u2019s probably hard to say, how do I become a millionaire right now? Really we should be thinking about how do I get to six figures first? How do I get to eight grand a month, because eight grand a month will help me break through the first emotional and mental money barrier. You guys know that six figures was probably the hardest thing to do first. For most people six figures is the limit. It\u2019s the ceiling. And there\u2019s an emotional and mental breakthrough that must happen in order for us to get there. Then hitting six figures again is easier. Then the next hurdle is the million dollars, seven figure mark, and it seems really hard.
But six figures was harder for me than it was to seven figures, because I saw myself break through one barrier first and got me to there. So there\u2019s certain things we must get clear on. It is what do we want in this season? What is the mission for this season? And that mission can evolve over time. Mine is to serve and impact 100 million lives weekly to help them improve the quality of their life. It\u2019s simple, it\u2019s clear, it\u2019s direct. It allows me to have a clear game plan and guidelines for how I act accordingly in my days. What I do in my schedule, what I say yes and no to it. It allows me to stay focused and not distracted, and allows me to measure my results. So if we\u2019re thinking about money, just what is the clear mission you have around money in this season? I want to make my first six figures, okay, well, you guys talk about this all the time. All right, that\u2019s 8K a month. Okay. How much is that weekly? That\u2019s 2K a week roughly.
Okay, that\u2019s, I don\u2019t know, 350, 500 bucks a day, whatever this is, I can\u2019t remember. All right, so how do I make 500 bucks a day? How do I get there? What are the steps then? What are the skills that I have? How can I generate more money? How do I package, position and receive the value that I want to put out in the world? There\u2019s lots of strategies. You guys talk about these things. So David or Rob, why do you think most people are limited in the way that they think and feel about breaking through and either buying their first investment deal, real estate investment deal, or getting their portfolio to a certain level of investment? What is the fear that holds people back from believing they can actually make it happen?<\/p>\n
This information translates really well into where most, especially beginner real estate people are starting. There\u2019s a desire to want to have more, but then there\u2019s also a conflict that you don\u2019t really deserve it. So real estate is, making money in this industry is so different than other things because you get used to this W2 mentality. I put in X hours, I made X money, and we measure our value by your dollar per hour. If I can make $20 an hour and I can get to 25, I\u2019m now 25% better of a human being as far as the value I bring to the marketplace, and we get locked into this linear thinking. Okay? Real estate investing is much more profitable than that, but it makes no sense on that logic. There is no, I put in these hours and I got this result. Sometimes you put in a whole bunch of hours and get nothing until you finally develop the skillset and then boom, you make a whole bunch of money.
Sometimes you don\u2019t realize that you even made money. Inflation just occurred, and you look back and you\u2019re like, I gained $200,000 of equity and I did nothing. Right? There\u2019s this separation, like when you\u2019re in the matrix and you have to believe I\u2019m in a simulation. This isn\u2019t real, and then you can fly or jump or move fast. Once you recognize that the construct that your brain operates by was something you made is not how the world actually works, that money does not work the way that we first understood it when we were 16 years old and we babysat for four hours and made $100. Whatever it was that we were doing, you do way better. You start to recognize patterns. You start to understand that owning assets, making sure that they cash flow, buying in area is more likely to see rent increase, and none of that has anything to do with logging in hours.
What we\u2019ll do is we\u2019ll try to teach new investors, hey, here\u2019s what you need to do. You need to analyze X amount of deals. What we\u2019re really trying to get you to do is see patterns. Houses in this neighborhood at this price range, never cash flow. Or short term rentals in this area do well, but they have to be this size or they have to look this way. It could be five hours, it could be 500 hours, you\u2019re not getting paid for the time, you\u2019re getting paid for the skill you build on really the pattern recognition. And then creativity comes into play. Can you look for creative ways to find someone that has that asset that\u2019s going to let you buy it from them with all the different strategies that we teach? But this idea of you got to be ready for it before it\u2019s going to come. This is what stops people from succeeding in our world.
I\u2019m so deep into real estate investing, I don\u2019t look at money the same way that I did when I started. I don\u2019t look at money as a form of currency where I trade it for something. I look at it now like a storage of energy. I traded eight hours of my time at Footlocker for $200 of a paycheck. The government took 50 bucks, I traded eight hours for $150, but dollars was just the storage of my eight hours of time and labor. Okay? If I put that $150 into a new pair of shoes, I basically traded eight hours of my life, my time, and my energy for a pair of shoes that lost value the minute I put them on and continue to lose value. If I put that $150 into a stock, it will slowly become worth more over a long period of time. If I put it into real estate and then I can leverage, I can borrow 80% of that 150 from a bank, and I can take that 150 and turn that into say like $1,000.
Then that 1,000 is going to grow over time. I\u2019m just putting energy in places where it grows or I\u2019m putting energy in places where it bleeds. It\u2019s one of the two things. My mind never started to look at it that way until I got out of that linear thinking you\u2019re talking about, and I think everyone listening has some form of where they\u2019re living in the matrix in some way. The way they were taught money work, the way that they saw rich people and had ideas about them. There\u2019s only so many hours in a day you can work. There\u2019s only so many years in your life you can work. There has to be a mindset change before the money\u2019s going to come.<\/p>\n
Well, also David, I\u2019m curious, I\u2019ve heard a lot of people say, I got into buying a short term rental or buying a place and doing the Airbnb thing, and it was so much time, so much energy, so much hassle, ended up losing money on it. Restrictions came up, and then they give up. They stop. Because they have a bad experience. They lose money. They realize this took me three months, six months of my life away from making money, and people said it was so easy, but I\u2019m learning that it\u2019s extremely difficult. What would you say to someone who lost money, five years of savings and said they finally took action on their first thing, it didn\u2019t work out, should they give up or is it just a lesson of like, okay, now you have the information of what not to do for the next time?<\/p>\n
Rob, that that\u2019s an area that you spent a lot of time in and you\u2019ve taken a lot of those Ls. What did you learn in that process?<\/p>\n
I always say that my mistakes make me millions, and that really is true. A lot of people go into real estate, it isn\u2019t just short-term rentals. I know a lot of people that will go into a flip and they lose money on that first flip and they\u2019re ready to pack it in. And I\u2019m always like, you have to keep pushing through that because imagine all the greats out there who wouldn\u2019t exist had they had a big failure. Tony Hawk, right? One of the greatest skateboarders of all time, arguably the greatest skateboarder of all time. If he had fallen and broken whatever bone, which I\u2019m sure he did many, many times, and he had said, you know what, I\u2019m going to stop skateboarding. We wouldn\u2019t have the legendary Tony Hawk in part of that world.
So real estate is very similar to where you meet all of these people. I meet millionaires, mega millionaires, decamillionaires, billionaires, and all of them are that level of wealth because of the amount of failures and the amount of time they aided in real estate.<\/p>\n
So did your first deal, was it successful or did your first one, did you lose money?<\/p>\n
It was successful, but I made a lot of mistakes in the actual hosting, in the [inaudible 00:43:25].<\/p>\n
And so here\u2019s the thing, your first one made money, and it wasn\u2019t like a failure let\u2019s say, or a big loss. But a lot of people they aren\u2019t not lucky as you, but they don\u2019t have that type of success the first time. Yours came later where you lost some money or you had some Ls or whatever, but at least you knew, but I\u2019ve done it before so I could do it again. When it\u2019s someone\u2019s first time and they go all in and they study you guys or someone else and read all the books and they say, I\u2019m doing exactly what I\u2019m told to do and what seems like the right location and what seems like the right style of real estate investing and it doesn\u2019t work out, what would you guys say to those investors? Because I\u2019m sure you get that a lot in those emails and those messages, a lot of people who succeed right away, but then some that don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Well, it comes down to your step number two, finding your meaningful mission. If you get into real estate investing because you just want money and you think it\u2019s a science, like if I put in this many CCs of this thing, I\u2019m going to get this result, you\u2019re going to fail. There has to be a passion. It has to have a power of yours behind it, and then you have to want to solve these problems if you\u2019re going to get through that initial you suck. The example I always, I look for parallels in life where I feel like if it\u2019s a universal truth, it won\u2019t just apply to whatever we\u2019re talking about. It will apply in relationships, it will apply with fitness, it will apply in all these other areas. Okay? Your first time in the gym and when you haven\u2019t worked out, you\u2019re going to get zero strength that you\u2019re actually going to build.
It is a useless workout if that\u2019s how you\u2019re tracking it. All you\u2019re doing is conditioning your muscles to get used to what you\u2019re doing. So if you go in there and you throw yourself, you go for broke, you just spend a week in bed and you can\u2019t move because you\u2019re so sore, you didn\u2019t get any stronger. What you do is you go in there and you know I\u2019m not going to have any success from this first workout. I\u2019m just going to lightly hit every muscle so that I get it conditioned working out, and then I want to be back in a day or two so I can go do it again and get that baseline built. That\u2019s how you want your mistakes to be in real estate. You don\u2019t want to dump your whole nest egg in your first deal, cross your fingers and hope that this goes out.
How do I get in this thing with minimal risk? And I\u2019m excited about the passion, the power, and the problem to solve, to learn about it. Because you got to get through that initial sore phase before you start making the gains with real estate. And that\u2019s what I love about what you\u2019re talking about. If you\u2019re chasing it for the money, if you\u2019re going to the gym that first time because you want to get ripped, it\u2019s going to be a useless workout.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s like just wanting it for the six-pack, as opposed to I want to live a healthy, abundant lifestyle. You know what I mean?<\/p>\n
And then those things are byproducts of I want to live a healthy lifestyle. You end up with a six pack.<\/p>\n
Exactly. A lot of people when they\u2019re getting into anything, whether it\u2019s their career, investing, money, relationship, getting clear on their meaningful mission is using those three Ps you talked about, which is talked about in the book, your passion, your power, and then the problem you want to solve. And some people don\u2019t like real estate, but they get into it just because they say, here\u2019s a way to make money. You\u2019re probably going to make a lot more mistakes if you could care less about homes or about being of service to people and providing a home for them or whatever it is that you care about.
So if you\u2019re going about it just because you see it\u2019s an opportunity to make money alone, by itself, you maybe could make a lot of money, but if you don\u2019t truly have a passion or curiosity or interest, you don\u2019t have a skillset, a power around being creative, like you said, finding deal opportunities, working with people, building relationships, all these different pieces that come to real estate investing, and you don\u2019t care about solving the problem that\u2019s in front of you, whether it be rehabbing or building out the portfolio and supporting your family in that way, then you\u2019re probably going to make a lot of mistakes and say, this real estate thing doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s 100% right. If you\u2019re in a fight, you\u2019re a boxer and you don\u2019t want to be there, you just did it for the paycheck-<\/p>\n
You\u2019re going to lose.<\/p>\n
The first shot you take is a knockout. I\u2019m not getting up. That\u2019s it. You walk in there, you get shot, you get knocked down, okay, I\u2019m out. I didn\u2019t really want to be in here fighting Mike Tyson anyway.<\/p>\n
Was that you and CrossFit, David? You just like-<\/p>\n
I never actually went to CrossFit. No, I was honest with myself. I like to go at a pace I want to go at, right? I\u2019m building up to someday, jumping into CrossFit. But I have seen that, like in a jiu-jitsu match. If you\u2019re like, I am exhausted, I\u2019ll tap from a choke that it\u2019s not actually choking me out just because I don\u2019t want to be there. If you really, really, really want to win, you figure out a way to get through that problem. And that\u2019s the passion that we\u2019re talking about. You\u2019re going to take L\u2019s, you\u2019re going to get knocked out, you\u2019re going to get hit in life. When you want it, you get back up, you get in the fight, and these are the people that you hear the success stories. When you just wanted the paycheck, you won\u2019t stick with it.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m curious for people listening and watching right now who maybe this is their first time here, hearing this show, maybe they\u2019ve been here for five years hearing you guys talk, what are the top three approaches to real estate to dive into at this season of life that will pay dividends five, 10 years from now? And I think a lot of people get into it wanting to make quick money as opposed to thinking, I\u2019ve got to have a meaningful mission that\u2019s beyond just quick money. If quick money comes, great. But what is the two or three approaches to real estate investing that you see, that has worked in the past and will continue to work for the next five to 10 years with all the different economic challenges, wars happening, with the Great Reset, with the changes that are going to happen, the 2030 plan, all these different things. What are the three real estate strategies of investing today that will pay dividends in the future for people?
Is it flipping? Is it buying single properties? Is it duplexes? Is it quads? Is it buying apartment buildings? Is it Airbnb stuff? What is the top three things that most people can get into right now, who are making about 80 to 130 grand a year of household income and doesn\u2019t have a ton of money right now, but maybe they could source money, what are those three things they could do moving forward if they\u2019re interested in this?<\/p>\n
This ties in really well with your step three, take massive, imperfect action. Once you know the direction you\u2019re going to go in, start down that road. Rob, what are some of the things that you think are the hottest strategies for 2023?<\/p>\n
And that also are going to pay dividends for five to 10 years, with everything happening, with all regulations, with changing of the laws, all that stuff?<\/p>\n
This is pretty topical. This one we\u2019ve discussed quite a bit in the last month, I feel like. But in my opinion, the number one way to get into real estate that will absolutely pay dividends for five, 10, 15, 20 years, is house hacking and renting out a room or a space on your property to subsidize your mortgage. Because in my opinion, the faster you stop paying a mortgage, the faster you can use those funds to reinvest into other forms of real estate.<\/p>\n
I like it.<\/p>\n
And scene. All right, good one. Dave, what about you?<\/p>\n
House hacking is 100% the reason, and Lewis, you hit it on the head. As the market\u2019s heating up and interest rates are rising, we\u2019re not seeing a big drop in prices because there\u2019s so much competition for these assets. It\u2019s a very strong field. The first thing I tell people is you have to get away from this idea that you are going to buy one house and make a bunch of money in year one. This has gone from a short-term game into the long-term game that real estate is really meant to be. It\u2019s meant to be a long-term buy and whole thing. You have to be thinking five years down the road, how\u2019s it going to be doing? So understanding that, the first strategy is picking the right location. Okay? There\u2019s a very big difference between buying in Columbus, Ohio where it\u2019s going to be the same price 10 years from now than what it is today, and buying in Austin, Texas, Miami, Florida, some of these markets where populations are moving into.
And so it\u2019s not as crucial if it makes a ton of money right out the gate as you know it\u2019s going to over the next five years. Then you can combine that with house hacking which allows you to put less money down, get a property, and you\u2019re not as beholden to a lot of the regulations that are being put on short-term rental owners, because you own the house yourself. And then combine that with short-term rental. So if you buy a house in a location that\u2019s going to blow up, you make it a primary residence and then you rent out parts of that house as a short-term rental, you really get all the benefits of real estate investing without as much of the risk that you see a lot of people struggling with today.<\/p>\n
What if people are like, well, I like the idea, but I don\u2019t want people living in my home, that aren\u2019t like my family? What would be the next strategy beyond that?<\/p>\n
I always think that a multifamily, I\u2019m starting to become a big fan of this, an entry level multifamily, something that\u2019s like two to 10 units, because the cash flow from it on a long-term rental, it\u2019s not going to be a ton. It\u2019s not going to be quit your job money, but the appreciation that you\u2019re going to get from that in five to 10 years, I think could make you a lot of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity, in appreciation, that you can cash out and use over and over again for the rest of your real estate investing career.<\/p>\n
Got you. I love it.<\/p>\n
All right, Lewis, you talk to experts a lot about what they see in terms of the bigger social and the economic trends that are going on. What insights can you share with us about what you see happening in 2023 in the business world as well as the economic world? Where do you see opportunity?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m going to give you a counterintuitive answer. I see opportunity and in mastering your emotions. From all these interviews that I\u2019ve done, and I\u2019ll get to why. From all these interviews I\u2019ve done from therapists to doctors to world-class athletes, to billionaires, to brain surgeons, to all of it, I usually ask people, what\u2019s the number one skill that anyone should develop to help them be greater? And most people comes back to mastering their emotions or managing them, having emotional regulation. I think the greatest opportunity is acquiring more skills inward, is learning more about how to overcome your insecurities, your fears, your triggers, so that when things happen, a war happens, a pandemic happens, something happens, you actually go into peace, you go into abundance as opposed to scarcity and holding back. You actually expand into whatever opportunity is in front of you with courage as opposed to retreating.
And I think that\u2019s something that happened to me in 2008, when the economy was going through everything, I was in this phase for a year and a half just trying to figure it out. And I was in hoarding mode. Let me save what I have, which was nothing. Let me just keep it all together. And I remember saying, when this happens again, never ever again am I going to want to feel this feeling of being broke or feeling scarce. And so I said, from 2008 until 2020, I prepared myself emotionally for 2020 without knowing that\u2019s what was going to happen. And my business continued to expand over the last three years because I was expanding internally, emotionally, and I was working on emotional regulation. One of the things that I talk about is really healing and mending the different things that cause you to be reactive or scared or holding back, and empowering yourself with whatever skill that is for you to be able to be ready, because the next time something happens, 2023, 25, 27, and things crash, are you going to pull back?
Are you going to see the opportunity you guys talk about and actually lean in and say, this is my opportunity, now I\u2019m going to take the risk, now I\u2019m going to jump in at the right timing. That\u2019s what I see. It\u2019s a counterintuitive approach, but I feel like from all the people I\u2019ve interviewed, and even I\u2019ve been to some very powerful masterminds in the last couple of months, with some of the biggest names that you guys would know in this industry. And behind the scenes even some of them are doubting themselves at this stage. They\u2019ve got all the money, they\u2019ve got all the success, but they\u2019re like, well, now what do I do? And it\u2019s like, go back to working on yourself. Go back to improving the emotions that hold you back. I think that will give you power anytime anything happens in culture, society, economic crashes to act and seize the opportunity.<\/p>\n
It really seems like the recurring thread here, just hearing your journey and your process, the idea of going from broke to millionaire really is mindset, and it\u2019s the ability to overcome just doubting that you can actually achieve what you want.<\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s mindset, and it\u2019s, again, I go back to this analogy. You have probably both met a lot of people who\u2019ve made a million dollars and they neither lost it or lost a lot of it. And it\u2019s hard for them to come back and bounce back. Because some people can break through to accomplishing the success of the millionaire status, of the multimillionaire status. But I\u2019ve interviewed a lot of people who have fallen back and going bankrupt after doing that. What got them there, they forgot to keep breaking through mentally. They forgot to keep breaking through and sustaining the mindset. They fell off the wagon and they lost it all. This is why I\u2019m a big fan of having a coach or multiple coaches in business, having you guys as a coach for people, when they listen to you every week and they have you as mentors, guides, coaching them, you\u2019re encouraging, you\u2019re bringing wisdom, you\u2019re bringing lessons, and you\u2019re keeping people on track.
But when we try to just do it all on our own, I think it\u2019s really hard. It\u2019s hard to make a million dollars on your own. It\u2019s hard to invest on your own, unless this is all you do and you obsess about it, it\u2019s really hard to sustain it at a great level. We just witnessed, I don\u2019t know when you guys are airing this, but we just witnessed recently LeBron James breaking the all time scoring record, right? And after his first championship, he didn\u2019t say, you know what, thanks coach. You got me here. I don\u2019t need a coach for next year. I think I can go win this championship on my own now. He didn\u2019t say that. He actually put millions of dollars a year into investing into more coaches, more experts to support him to stay at the top. And it\u2019s one of the reasons him, Jordan and all these guys were able to sustain greatness and stay up there.
That\u2019s why what you guys do is so important. And everyone needs to be listening, if you\u2019re investing in real estate, you want invest in real estate, you need to listen to this show weekly to stay on top of what\u2019s happening. What are mistakes am I going to make sure I avoid by listening? And how do I stay on top of mind? I need the encouragement, I need the accountability. We need these things. And that\u2019s all part of mindset.<\/p>\n
All right, so the three steps to breaking down the process of how you went from broke to millionaire was identify your mindset, then identify your season or find your meaningful mission, right? The passion, the power, the problem to solve. It can\u2019t just be I want money, it has to be something deeper behind it. And then number three, take massive, imperfect action, which is my favorite thing because perfection creates paralysis. No one ever does it. LeBron James still doesn\u2019t play perfect. This is a little clip I\u2019ll add before we move on. When you try to play a game perfectly, you focus on minimizing mistakes. And so if you never dribble, if you never shoot, if you never pass, if you never do anything, you could play a perfect game and be outperformed by the person who went out there and scored 50 points but they missed some shots, they made some turnovers, they got beat on defense a couple times.
When you\u2019re in the throes of the game, mistakes are going to happen, but you get paid by how many things you did right, not how many wrong things that you avoided, right? That mindset hurts people when they\u2019re like engineers specifically, when they work in an industry that mistakes cost money and then they try to get into entrepreneurship. Money doesn\u2019t respect that. Money doesn\u2019t flow to people who make the least mistakes. It flows to people who take the most action.<\/p>\n
Exactly. And you think of the greatest baseball players, 70% of the time they fail, right? They strike out, they miss, they don\u2019t hit the ball. And if you\u2019re focused on failure you can\u2019t get into flow.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s good.<\/p>\n
You cannot get into flow of whatever action you\u2019re doing if you\u2019re focused on failure-<\/p>\n
That\u2019s so good.<\/p>\n
\u2026 if you\u2019re focused on success or if you\u2019re focused on the judgment of other people. And these are the three fears that cause us to doubt ourselves the most, whether it\u2019s investing, whether it\u2019s starting a career, launching a business, the fear of failure, success and judgment. And when we get clear on identifying which one of that is for us, for me I was never afraid of failure of success. I was crippled by judgment. The opinions of other people. What are they going to say when I make this investment? What if it doesn\u2019t work out? They\u2019re going to say, I told you so. You\u2019re an idiot. What were you thinking you were doing? I\u2019m sure a lot of people in real estate who\u2019ve made a mistake and lost money for that year heard all those things from the people in their life that said, you should have invested in this, you should have done. You should have saved your money.
What were you thinking about starting this real estate dream of yours? That\u2019s crazy. And look at the results you created. If you have that fear of the judgment of other people around you, friends, family, peers, of making the mistakes, then it will cripple you from actually taking action. And you cannot get into flow if you\u2019re afraid of failure, success, or judgment. And that\u2019s why we got to learn to identify which one holds us back. And then we talk about how to break through that and overcome it.<\/p>\n
Perfectly said my man. If people want to find out more about you or get your book, where can they go?<\/p>\n
The Greatness Mindset, they can get the book on Amazon or Barnes & Noble, or you can follow me at Lewis Howes on social media or the School of Greatness Podcast for more.<\/p>\n
And Rob, where can people find out more about you?<\/p>\n
You can find me on YouTube at Robuilt. R-O-B-U-I-L-T. Same thing on Instagram. And what about you, Dave?<\/p>\n
I am davidgreene24. The most boring handle of everybody here. You can find me on all social media there. Lewis, my last question for you before we let you get out of here. If my goal for 2023 is to grow a head of hair like yours, what\u2019s the first thing that I can do?<\/p>\n
Man, just implants, man. Just do implant therapy and you got the head of hair, man. I\u2019m sure you got enough back hair to just pluck it and put it up on top of the head right there. You know what I\u2019m saying?<\/p>\n
Two birds with one stone.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s going to take you from millionaire to broke. That\u2019s the only catch.<\/p>\n
All right, Lewis, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it, man. It was great to see you as always. Hopefully that book does well and we have you back on.<\/p>\n
Appreciate you guys.<\/p>\n
This is David Greene for Rob, the comedian, Abasolo signing off.<\/p>\n