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Language: en
if you're going to achieve outside
success you have to get so good you're
impossible to ignore this requires an
obsession with skill acquisition no one
starts out great you become great as
today's guest says the difference
between you being broke and being a
billionaire is just a set of ideas
understanding which ideas to invest in
which to discard and how to achieve
Financial Freedom through your own
actions to that end I bring you Cody
Sanchez the woman with an instruction
manual for success
what do people need to know about how
the world really works and how you went
from being an underpaid journalist to
buying a portfolio of small what you
call boring businesses that now kick off
just under 100 million dollars in annual
revenue to you business in general
especially small business gets way over
complicated so we hear these stories of
Silicon Valley billionaires who have
exited these giant tech companies and
built this next social app or Tesla and
in reality
your richest neighbor maybe not in this
neighborhood but in most neighborhoods
is probably somebody who owns the
plumbing company somebody who owns a
local landscaping company the community
all around you the services you use
every day can make you a lot of cash and
what makes real change is that you know
money is the architect for change in our
world you want to get somebody elected
money you want to change your local
community money you want to have
different zonings you can change the
businesses in your local area money and
so I don't acquire money because I want
Lamborghinis and fancy things I do it
because I think it is a way to freedom
because it is a tool for power I mean
when when I first had money was when I
made like thirty thousand dollars when I
left College I mean I made no money out
of college and I thought I was super
rich and I might never have to work
again and then I heard about taxes and
figured that out
um but uh quickly
I realized that um you know I worked at
a big company called Vanguard at the
time and Vanguard was the world's
largest uh Financial Manager and what
was fascinating about that company is
the people inside of Vanguard touched at
the time I think one in every four
dollars in the US economy was touched in
one way or the other because of the
mutual funds and pensions that they that
they invest and and I realized wow these
humans speak a language that I don't
understand like Roi ebitda you know
basis points there's this whole other
language and finance has that for a
reason they have it because you and I as
normal people do not speak that language
and so they say give me your money Tom
and trust it to me because you poor
thing aren't intelligent enough to
understand how to Shepherd your own
future and so I had people calling me in
2008 when I worked at Vanguard crying
asking me how Vanguard could have stolen
their money because of the crisis and
not realizing that the stock market has
fluctuations in it and at that point I
realized oh wow like I'm never gonna let
this happen to me and mine and that was
hard because my family thought to chase
money was evil and that we were happy
and we didn't have a lot of money so you
don't need money and then I heard this
thing uh called the napkin Theory
I can't remember who came up with it but
basically at the time I was struggling
with uh am I okay to chase after money
like is this bad am I a bad person for
this and I heard this story about a
napkin and imagine yourself in the
middle so you were standing in the
middle Cody and around me is my mom my
dad my brother my sister let's say on
each of the four corners and when you
Cody in the middle pick up your napkin
like this in order of pursuing Financial
Freedom you lift up everybody else
around you right because you can't be
what you can't see and also because
money trickles you know people talk
about trickle-down economics we could
think about that one way or the other
but money actually when you have more of
it around your family you can hire your
family members you can build new
businesses you can create more wealth by
spending it and so they explained it as
one of the best Pursuits you can have is
Pursuits you can pick everybody else up
and that changed a lot for me I have uh
a bunch of businesses that I own right
these small businesses is largely run by
blue collar workers and I remember I
called up one of the operators in one of
my companies the guy who runs the whole
thing overseas let's call it 100
employees and contractors and I was like
I want to do events for our like line
workers so for Blue Collar largely
Hispanic same thing and I want to do
self-improvement events like what could
we do what would they be interested in
we'll pay them to go even and I remember
he said to me um they won't go they're
not interested in personal development
you can't find those people and I
thought that was so fascinating so I
called up a couple other operators some
of the businesses that I owned this was
back in the day and like two or three of
them kind of like pranced around it a
little bit you know we're a little bit
PC and then said the same thing
I was like that's fascinating so are
they right or like is there some
miscommunication and what I basically
realized is that the language that we
use even the people on YouTube listening
to this right now by and large most of
the people listening are already
understand the words personal
development they think it's a good thing
not a bad thing and most people that are
blue collar workers at least in my
experience that I've worked with they
think about personal development a bit
like therapy like I told my dad I was
going to go to therapy with my husband
proactively like before we got married
he was like what's wrong are you guys
okay and I was like no no it's because
we want to work on this thing called
marriage would seems important and I
failed at once so like maybe we should
get some help and uh and he was like
okay that's bizarre you know and then I
told my mom kind of the same thing now
they're smart great humans but the words
meant something different to them and so
what I realized with our group is oh man
we basically have I think there's sort
of Two Worlds in the US right now and
maybe even three but one world are you
know it's kind of the elites and the
elites might even mean white collar
workers in corporate jobs that use words
like quiet quitting those words don't
exist in blue blue collar land
and so what I tried to do early on is I
realized I had some of those words like
oh therapy bad personal development why
what's wrong with you you know and I had
to
re-navigate and negotiate my language
that was the only way I could change my
relationship with money so it started
with being okay with things like
personal development which is totally
normal now the other thing I'll say is I
get really annoyed today when people
especially like on Twitter let's say
they start saying things like oh yeah
you should just get up at 5am get into
an ice bath then sauna then whatever
like you know you nerds and it's like
hey
I know that that seems crazy for a lot
of people but you guys are so inculcated
into this world of being Elites that you
don't even realize you're being extra
Elite by trying to tell people that have
never experienced what it feels like to
get up early and meditate that that's
unnecessary because it's actually really
powerful so instead of trying to like
break out of the you know world we live
in where people are obsessed with
personal development realize most people
are not in that world and help them
don't try to belittle it and that is an
interesting cycle I think we're in right
now today it's like self-education is
bad and I think that's so wrong I can't
remember where I heard this but somebody
said it uh might have been you uh where
there's mystery there's money like are
people intentionally creating a false
version of the world to keep other
people down
I think in this case it's more people
don't realize that they live in bubbles
people on the internet largely talk to
other people on the internet that are
just like them and so a lot of the
people who are mouthpieces like you and
I let's say and you've been at it a long
time they never had your experience of
of hiring ex-convicts speaking to them
and driving them around Beverly Hills
never and probably they've a lot of this
generation is like solo entrepreneurs
who like that idea of being a
solopreneur and want to talk about on
the internet hey I built this business
at 10 million dollars in 90 days and I
have no employees and I think that's a
tragedy I think one of the most
incredible things you can do is hire
people they're going to drive you crazy
but they're also going to mean you have
a legacy on this planet that's above and
beyond just what comes out of your body
as a small child or human and so I just
think they don't realize how bubbled
they are and that their idea of
Happiness AKA a solo entrepreneur with
10 million dollars I think it's going to
be really empty in the years to come
because you know this too but there's
nothing better than watching one of your
employees change completely underneath
you could call it your leadership or
just within your culture and building
this thing where people are creating
bigger than you it's an incredible
feeling so that's my belief yeah I'm
obsessed with that moment where somebody
realizes oh I'm actually capable of more
than I thought that I was so for me it
really it really did feel like as I
climbed my way up what I was doing was
pulling the curtain back and seeing how
the world actually works and that sense
has not stopped for me like the the
farther I go the more I learn the more I
succeed the more I'm like oh whoa like
the world Works in a certain way and
getting into Finance was actually the
big thing for me that was the first time
where I felt like maybe there really is
a conspiracy like when you start to
understand what inflation really is it's
like bro what is happening so how do you
because you're a big believer in and I I
think this is something that we'll
really share so I step back and look at
the world and I feel like it's losing
its mind and I'm like the is
happening and never did I think that I
would deal with culture War stuff or
anything even remotely politicky and
then I realized
that the world is tearing itself apart
because of bad ideas and that really is
my jam so how we start getting people to
pay attention to good ideas one thing
you said that really resonated with me
is getting more people to have skin in
the game
because if you own part of the house you
don't want to tear it down what do you
mean by that and what are you actually
trying to help people discover in that
moment yeah there's a famous law called
tragedy of the commons right and it's an
economic theory that is really crucial
if you want to understand why people
burn instead of build and I heard about
it from a famous economist by the name
of Thomas Soul
um oh my God yeah if I was going to be a
fanboy for anybody it would be Thomas me
too his book
fallacies I think is crucial reading for
anybody that wants to understand numbers
not regurgitate them
and to do it in a way that is a
competition of ideas as opposed to let
me just shout my idea the loudest and
and he talks about for instance when I
lived in in DC I saw it firsthand we had
uh we were in a new development we were
in Columbia Heights and
um you know some of the streets were the
hood some of the streets were brand new
developments across from us was a big
project that went up
um subsidized housing
really well done pretty
um and sadly within about the year that
we were living there it went from like a
nice establishment to by the end most of
the houses boarded up one year woof and
uh and I remember sitting there watching
it and at the same time I was rereading
economic facts and fallacies and Thomas
Soul talked about this about how instead
of subsidizing housing okay making it
cheaper for people but having no skin in
the game nobody is responsible for
anything in that place and some of them
live for free what they've done is
they've taken away their personal
sovereignty you know have you guys ever
been on a street let's say and you see
those scooters around right that
everybody you can rent for a few dollars
whatever bird scooters and they're like
beat to hell you know they're thrown on
the sidewalk in Paris they throw them in
the sun uh all the time and that is the
tragedy of the Commons in action if that
was your scooter you would take care of
it but because you don't own that
scooter and you have no incentive one
way or the other to take care of it you
beat it up and you being Collective you
all of us and so um I think one of the
biggest problems I'm our society today
we did this huge uh research analysis
and it it shook me
and it was we looked at sub-sectors in
the US economy so not just
um construction but let's say hardware
stores and roofing companies and what we
found is across I can't remember how
many sub-sectors but let's say 30 or 40
that 25 to 30 percent of all sub-sectors
are owned by the top 10 companies in
each sector and that number is growing
rapidly so we don't own our local
businesses anymore we don't own our
homes as much anymore one in four
single-family homes in 2022 was bought
by an Institutional buyer and so we are
sort of we're doing the narrative that's
supposed to not be true which is that
you know you will owe nothing and be
happy about it and we're doing it
um
we're letting it happen right in front
of our eyes and I think that's a
horrible thing because you have all been
to I mean you've certainly seen it here
in in LA but you go to a Starbucks right
and outside it's like kind of dirty beat
up the greeter doesn't know your name
the Barista spells it wrong they get
your coffee the brains are kind of burnt
and it's lost what it was the merman is
no more and then you go to a local
coffee shop and what do you feel like
it's the same person every day I just
was at one in San Diego the other day
gosh I wish I remember his name so I
could shout it out but great little
coffee shop in Bird Rock the owner is
right there he's making the coffee for
me we get to know each other he's having
a community party on Sunday that is
never going to happen at a Starbucks and
that's why owning those small businesses
is so important I think and that skin in
the game is all the difference and then
I'll shut up but last thing is just
I don't think everybody should own a
business it's hard you know that better
than anybody you've been playing this
game in a big way but I do think having
some incentive where if I do X more I
can make why more and I can leave my
stamp on the world it's really important
so that's my mission
I love that I think it's really
important as you were talking so uh
you're gonna own nothing and be happy so
when I got into this I really thought
anybody if you believed in any
conspiracy you were out of your mind you
were like oh geez I like do I even have
time to have this conversation and then
uh I really started thinking about the
way that people think so here's my
thesis dear smart people stop trusting
yourself because you think you're real
clever and I'm just gonna tell
you right now you're wrong more than
you're right I'm glad you're there I'm
glad the world has smart people and I'm
glad that people really pushed the
envelope and do things and take chances
and believe in themselves that's not
what I'm talking about what I'm talking
about is the scientific method like you
you have to approach everything with
humility and when I hear things like
You're Gonna own nothing and be happy
it's like bro stop trying to do top down
top down always ends in tyranny not once
not most of the time it always ends in
tyranny and so seeing people snatching
buildings up or whatever
one I think it's unwise to think of it
as a grand conspiracy I think it is
better to think of it as
well-intentioned people they aren't evil
they certainly don't view themselves as
evil but they they have a belief system
that we have to dunk on and we have to
understand we being anybody listening to
this that you can get so good they can't
stop you from controlling your own life
you can get so good that you can buy a
bevy of boring businesses that generate
a hundred million dollars that's so
crazy and getting people to understand
that
and I love that you used to be a
journalist that you did not go to
Harvard that like I think at one point
you said I did more keg stands than like
mcap prep I forget what the other thing
was but I was just like just oh God it
was so on point and yet
you learned the rules of a game and now
you play that game well and so I've been
thinking a lot about okay my Show's
evolved a lot over the years always with
the same Mission I want this moment I
want people to understand that you can
get so good at the game that nobody can
stop you that's it it's the only reason
I do all of this I work this
hard for that one thing
and as I get into this part of my thing
where I'm trying to have way deeper
conversations so for the person that's
been following me for seven years
it's like cool in the beginning we got
your mindset right then we helped you
get your personal finances and your
relationships right and now we're like
full reality Distortion field and what I
want people to understand is that the
game of life has rules you can Master
them and you can play to win
and so the the tagline I'm noodling on
uh is life is a beautiful game because I
don't want people to hear wolves howling
in the background I don't want them to
think of Klaus Schwab as an evil guy he
really thinks he's good yeah like he
really thinks he's trying to help you
and if you approach him in that way
you'll be better off anyway I want
people to understand life is a beautiful
game
but you need to master it yep and so
looking under the curtain seeing how all
of this works like that really is what
I'm all about at every level whether I'm
doing a comic book working on the video
game
or doing one of these interviews it's
like lift up the curtain see how this
that see that it has rules
once you know how to play then you can
really get good oh yeah well I love that
um because I think you're right I mean
think about first of all the beautiful
game is interesting because that's what
they call uh football or soccer around
the world and which is the most viewed
sport uh in the world right globally
which I love and I think also if you
think about it as a game
then you think about problems as levels
and you think about them as natural and
you start to look forward to the
solution of said problem as opposed to
expecting that life instead of a game is
a vacation with a mai tai on a beach
chair somewhere which I think is what a
lot of us expect like it should be easy
I should have this it's not fair that
this happened it's like
why do we think that we want life
without some villains in it and without
some worthwhile adversaries there's no
David without Goliath and so you need
those those enemies and adversaries
because they're how you level up how
boring of a game would it be if we were
just handed the prize as soon as we
walked on stage what are we going to do
with the rest of our time and so I've
really tried to program my mind over the
years and to learn from people who look
at problems and they're like oh this is
Juicy what are we going to do about that
how do you think okay let's get curious
like do we use the do we use the
lightsaber you know do we use the laser
gun and if you can do that with business
too then I think this whole world of
opportunity opens in front of you where
you become the wizard behind the curtain
and you realize oh man you know actually
every single any game you want to play
there's rules then there's ways to break
those rules then there's Trends then
there's ripples then there's rhythms and
so as soon as you realize that you can
have fun with it I mean we're talking
beforehand about YouTube and I have so
much fun with social media online
because it is a giant game it's hyper
algorithmic there are tons of rhythms to
learn and watch from other people
there's a feedback loop that tells you
if you are succeeding or not almost
immediately and that is just like
business so if you like playing around
with social media and learning which
posts go viral because of the human
attention span then you might actually
like business too and that's why
sometimes people are like
you know well I want to be a influencer
online or I want to be a singer or an
artist it's like I don't know is that
actually what you want do you want that
label or do you want to play a game in
which you have some skill set that maybe
you could uniquely apply in order to win
a little bit more than you lose and they
do want the label I know but I think
they're happy once they get it they're
not because they didn't earn it but the
the and this is where I really want to
get into the way the world actually
works so this is all psychology yours
and others and the reality is people do
want fame for nothing they do want money
for nothing now what they don't
understand going back to money is just
the great facilitator so if you don't
know what you want to do it's going to
implode you no one will believe you
until they do it themselves but that
really is true and so the question is
how do we get people to understand that
in fact you've said this the happiness
is struggle
and once you understand the way that I
come at it is from an evolutionary lens
so over millions of years of evolution
nature realized that it had to put
algorithms in your mind one of those
algorithms is you won't enjoy anything
if you don't work hard for it period
because Nate tried to make sure you were
willing to face a saber-toothed tiger go
hunt go gather like every day in an
unrelenting parade of difficulty and
misery you had to keep going and so
there had to be a tremendous reward for
I just worked hard this is why no one
once ever said I worked my ass off to
get this thing and I'm so sad I did it
right it's like I worked my ass off to
get a thing I care about that is
important Cody Sanchez says be careful
the mountain you choose to climb which I
think is very wise but if you worked
your ass off to get something you care
about then you feel good not just about
the thing you feel good about yourself
but there's a reason that rich kids
implode
because when you get that thing it's not
gonna hold the emotional weight that you
wanted it to and so the thing I fear
with kids is when I got into business I
didn't do it so I could get on the gram
the gram didn't exist so I spent almost
20 years just building businesses not
thinking one day people will think I'm
cool for this I was doing it just that I
could launch my studio that was it man I
ground myself into the dirt in
order to be able to do it and it was
only I was already worth hundreds of
millions of dollars before I picked up
my first social post
and if I could get people to fall in
love with go get good that will feel way
better than all the likes that you could
ever get all the followers and all of
that that is transient
but being good at something is forever
you can reboot your life your health
even your career anything you want all
you need is discipline I can teach you
the tactics that I learned while growing
a billion dollar business that will
allow you to see your goals through
whether you want better health stronger
relationships a more successful career
any of that is possible with the mindset
and business programs in Impact Theory
University join the thousands of
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foreign
you start to get around other people
that are rich and famous what's
interesting then is
they can see who's real and who's not
like this and you start to Crave
actually the respect of people that you
respect and so I've seen it implode real
fast because
you know I have a I have a a friend and
he's young and he's done well made
couple let's call it tens of millions of
dollars online
now but he's done it in ways
that people just don't kind of want to
associate with it and so it's also it's
this empty thing you have to pretend to
a legion of humans listening to you that
you're the real deal and yet at the same
time you feel
you can feel it and so you know I've
talked to him about it a decent amount
I'm like man you've got the thing you're
just chasing the wrong rabbit and so
you've got to find your actual real
rabbit because you're never going to
have the respect just from the likes and
clicks and you'll get it once you're
around a bunch of humans who are like oh
he's a builder oh he's got interesting
ideas no no he's not a hustler because
that's not really what the people that
you want respect from are interested in
it's like no he's a he's a Creator and
by that I mean a creator of value in
this world and most people don't know to
strive for that they think that we walk
around comparing our bank accounts like
no no but did you see this I'm real it's
like no we I have no idea what's in your
bank you have no I have no idea and also
if I told you you told me we wouldn't
what does that mean nothing you can't
talk about that over a dinner table you
talk about what ideas are in your head
and things are you building that are
worthwhile for us to have a conversation
that doesn't feel like we're at the
shallow end and at a certain point
that's where you want to go when you've
had some success and so you know Lisa
and I were talking about
how do you network with cool people it's
like be cool dude and I don't mean like
outfit cool I mean try to do cool or
inspiring or things that bridge your
curiosity because when you do that
eventually you just attract other people
who are interested
and trying too and that I think is the
real Joy of what we get to do is like I
don't really care about I mean you've
been in this game for a long time met a
lot of famous people and a lot of people
on the interwebs I'm like oh I could do
without that never mind not what I
thought and then you meet some Builders
and you're like this guy scrubs his one
of my CEOs scrubs his name off of the
internet you can't find it anywhere he's
definitely I mean he's never told me or
showed me his bank account but a
billions
and uh you couldn't find his name
anywhere and he is one of the most
interesting humans to talk to because it
is a one-of-one conversation and none of
it is regurgitation and so
I think it's important that people are
on the internet like you because
otherwise you have a lot of humans who
only do Chase Fame and that's not the
universe supports a vacuum so they're
going to fill it with
more Kardashians or they're going to
fill it with Builders and actually no
hate to them because they're Builders
now too but maybe not the world that I
want to see exactly right I get that I'm
a little obsessed with Kim Kardashian
I'm not gonna lie and when she lit the
internet on fire by saying maybe you
just need to work harder I was like yes
yes people need to work
harder I could not believe that that was
controversial I I agree with that I
stand by I stand in solidarity with the
Kardashians with Kim I don't know the
rest well enough but I will say that yes
it it is
what she has built is very impressive I
know
how are we all supposed to feel that it
started from a sex tape I don't know she
don't care about that I think like that
sucks that somebody did that to her or
that it got out I don't know that that's
like kind of I don't care I'm not a
Puritan I think I'm more just like oh do
I really think and I use it so what the
you know do I think we need more
makeup brands or more like clothing
brands everywhere
interesting to me that's a brand play
and so that's all psychology which I'm
I'm all for I don't have any beef with
that and I really don't have beef with
social media and leveraging that yeah
there there is something at the edges
I've not taken the time to dive into
this so I'm really sort of spouting off
right now yeah I think it's probably
good but that I haven't thought about
yeah I don't know like there's there she
did
um a friend of mine Matt Higgins does a
class at uh Harvard Business School
every year and he invited her in yeah to
be a case study and I actually thought
that makes a lot of sense to me dude me
too so in the modern era but there yeah
I get it there there's something at the
edges that I well and maybe not even
that I think
um
I think it's cool that humans are
building in public and I think anytime
you have people that have built multiple
billion dollar businesses not to mention
just one billion dollar business there
is something to learn there and you're
crazy to be a moral absolutist and say I
got nothing to learn because it started
from a sex tape how many sex tapes are
out there and they're not billionaires
so there's something to learn
there
um so I would take a master class from
her and her larger bank account any day
um but I do think uh I do think what I
would like to see a little bit more of
are like more people like you more
people like
um you know Andy frisella more people
like
um you know that are building something
that I think is super America focused
that I think has like the mission and
values I'm I'm more of a mission and
values sort of human in this world today
that's interesting that is almost
certainly the thing that bothers me I
don't know that there's a mission I
don't know I have not looked uh but I it
does not radiate out from what they
create thank you for putting your finger
on what bothers me
um yeah that's very we are living in a
time where I think it's it's
I would never have been an entrepreneur
in any other era because for me the only
thing that allows me to work this hard
is I have to hold uh people a small
group of people that I actually know and
love and show up every day fighting for
them so Quest it was fighting for my mom
and my sister they were morbidly obese I
wanted to make food that they could
choose based on taste and it happened to
be good for them and so I was willing to
fight for that I was willing to make
choices that cost me hundreds of
millions of dollars in order to just
well this is either going to help them
or it's not this decision makes me more
money this decision actually helps them
and so I was really proud of that with
impact Theory it it is again a very
small group of people and unfortunately
I've been to one of their funerals
already and that's heartbreaking
um but just the changes he made in his
life before just car accident just
dumb but
um watching him change his life was
unbelievable and it was just an
incredible reminder of how this stuff
really works but when you have that
mission that leaks out hopefully through
the choices that you make the products
that you build and that we're living in
an era where that's also great marketing
yeah it's hard to beat Obsession you
know that you can have all the tactics
and tools and money and leg up but if
somebody is obsessed with the thing
they're spending every day building
they're hard to beat because they'll
just work longer they'll sacrifice more
and uh you I do think that your success
level often is tied to the sacrifice
that you're willing to give doesn't mean
you have to work 100 hours a week but it
does mean you need to sacrifice a lot if
you want to achieve massive success and
I think anybody who says you don't
probably has never played the game
there's no way yeah there is no way
everyone has to fight against entropy
yeah and so I won't say that nobody ever
got you know didn't get lucky of course
some people have gotten lucky but that's
just going to be such a minor minor
minor minor thing but the thing that's
fascinating sitting down on a cross from
you who is a fellow Builder is that you
actually know how to do this so what I
want to do now is go okay look we've
talked mindset hopefully people
understand that money isn't what you
thought it's actually more powerful but
it's different uh you really can do this
um it really is about pulling back the
curtain it's about Understanding
Psychology knowing how the world Works
understanding how to insert yourself
into it but to do that for anybody at
home that's like okay I want to do this
but
now let's get into the real tactics so
that Obsession becomes a set of skills
it really is that simple and how do
people I think it's really twofold one
how do they know which mountain to climb
it might be worth telling that oh so
wonderful story yeah and then once they
know what mountain to climb let's really
get into the how death one climb a
business Mountain well
um
I think we all missed the class in high
school where they taught us to know
thyself you know oracle at Delphi style
but I do think this is reference yeah
that was good was that was that eyebrow
ride holiday would be proud I feel like
that was very stoic of it he's already
leaving a comment in the feed I can feel
it uh so I think
um man if I could have gone back and
done something different
that would have gotten me out of working
in corporate jobs that I didn't really
like for like 12 years
um even though I was a community I was
stacking cash as I was doing it what
would have changed that for me would
have been if I had thought more about
who am I and what do I want and so if
anybody listening hasn't actually
written down consistently I mean I did
it daily you can do it weekly monthly
but you know what are the things that I
like doing every single day what am I
actually uniquely skilled at what do
people come to me for advice on what do
I do and focus on even when I've never
paid a dollar and nobody's watching you
know what are the things that I find so
interesting that I become obsessed with
them and it's like they talk about that
flow State the whole world just goes
whoa and you're just you're narrowed in
and maybe even your family's annoyed
because you won't shut up about this one
thing that you're doing all the time
right where can you find those things
and as you narrow in as those they don't
have to become I think a lot of people
then go video games it's like no no be
more granular than that is it wow I get
obsessed with the characters or I really
like thinking about the technology on it
or I kind of understand how this video
game grew this much try to get really
granular and I wish I had done that
earlier because then I could have found
games that I actually wanted to play I
was too scared that I didn't have some
big startup idea like yours I didn't
have any ideas I just was like I want to
work hard I want to make money I want to
do what I like to do that for a second
yeah so one thing I heard you say in
another interview and I was like oh my
God know thyself as you said you said
I'm never gonna have the next idea about
a music app or whatever that's just not
me and I was like whoa because people
want to be cool they want to be the
person with the big Ideas everybody
thinks they want to be the CEO but not
everybody's wired for that and then even
if they are they may not be a product
LED CEO maybe they're a people-led CEO
or a process CEO whatever but not
everybody has to be in that same thing
but once you own okay that's not me now
you can start narrowing your focus to
what your strategy is going to be and
that's the cool thing about you is that
you really have taken a super unique
path to generating I repeat just under a
hundred million dollars a year as
bananas so the fact that you were able
to do that in a unique path but it's
born out of finally going oh I'm just
going to be honest about who I really am
and what I actually respond to the
question I tell people to ask themselves
along those lines is when you're trying
to figure out what it is you want to do
first of all who is it you want to serve
because you'll never fight hard enough
unless you're serving somebody but what
is the thing that you're prepared to
become the best in the world at because
if you're just prepared to get good
you'll get crushed but and look you're
probably never going to actually become
the best but when you think about that
you know that's going to be ungodly
difficult and then at least you're
approaching the problem honestly yeah
well actually my husband has us do this
incredible thing that I love which is
instead of saying what do I want what
are my goals it's what do I want and
what am I willing to sacrifice to get it
preach and so he has me do this with him
every year because I'm the workaholic
he's actually balanced really yeah I
know which is to say that about a Navy
SEAL feels like off I was going to say
it's like now you know how up I
am but uh you know he he is not
singularly driven by money and the
creation of an Empire and I am
interesting um and I'm not driven by
money in my pocket because I basically
deploy all of it for anybody that's
looked into your background that is very
clear yeah but uh but I just find it
fascinating I want to just build this
huge thing I want the billion dollar
business control yeah must be and I also
just think it's fine it's my favorite
thing if I have to talk about the welder
or PTA meetings I'm gonna just now are
you uh like the Oracle of Omaha where
it's like literally just a scoreboard
thing
no I think I will get to a certain point
um where there'll be a new game like he
has we've talked about this before he
has singular Focus for decades I mean I
I told this story on Twitter once but I
sat next to this guy on a plane I
actually think if you have enough cash
to do it first class even today where
everybody's posting all their private
jets or whatever first class today is
one of the best investments you can make
if you sit and talk with some of the
other people in first class except not
me because I hate talking to people on
planes I'm gonna say facts if you see
that facts yeah you can say hi that's
lovely but I want to talk to a whole
flight but what's fascinating is if you
get to the generation above ours so
let's call it 50 60 70 80. I was flying
back from somewhere in France must have
been con underneath and I was flying to
the UK and I sat next to this guy joffre
Kent who created Abercrombie and Kent
you remember that company I don't luxury
travel company first company that
created those Safari uh tent experience
very right he grew up with nothing in
South Africa built up these Safari tank
companies by himself then created one of
the largest luxury travel companies in
the world friends with the King of
England now like fancy billions
billionaire and anyway he was flying
next match I thought was kind of
interesting I was like huh like thought
he'd be on a jet and he's like I like to
fly commercial I'm like all right we get
to talking and I'm like all right you
ran Abercrombie and Kent you sold it
twice once for a billion dollars and
then gonna sell it again and probably
for another X and bought it back
um I'm like what was the secret yeah
he's fascinating
um I was like what is what do you think
the secret is like you did this for 60
years like billions in in um
in valuation and he's like well he's
like 60 years plus the same thing it's
like time plus consistency beats
everything else and I was like God
that's so true and not what people want
to hear because most people hear oh you
could be a billionaire at 97 years old
like Warren Buffett no thanks I'd rather
have my crypto Millions today and they
think they think but I sit there and
listen to that I'm like this is
fascinating like what if the only thing
that separates a billionaire and you is
time of working really hard on a
particular thing plus consistency of
doing that thing and getting better and
iterating every single day that means
that we have a much more even playing
field than I think people will tell you
today it compounds there's no doubt we
were talking before we started rolling
this is my mental illness I I really
really I have a very hard time narrowing
my focus and I am so keenly aware that
narrowing my focus with will give me
better results but the problem is I'm
also a human and so I have to love my
life and so when I'm very envious of
people like my wife for whom the thing
she wants to spend her time doing and
becoming the best at she loves from top
to bottom and so she's just all about it
I there thankfully it's not like I have
seven things that I'm trying to do but I
have two and I cannot seem to stop
myself
they're tied but there there is a big
enough Gap that I'm well aware if I
would just do like media be in front of
the camera or I would just do a
storytelling game development my life
would be better it would be more
productive in either direction and only
mental illness stops me from doing that
and I mean that very sincerely I'm not
happy about that uh but at least know
thyself I know that about myself we do
things in the company to protect us from
yeah that do you think why why do you
think that that's bad like Warren
Buffett has multiple things and is one
of the richest men in the world
does he because he as far as I know and
I may just not know but as far as I know
he's he is purely investing he finds he
if if you abstract out to what he
understands how to do is recognize a
deal when he sees it that's it as far as
I can tell that's all Warren Buffett
knows how to do that plus operate
I don't know I don't know him well
enough to know if if he operates
it doesn't operate like did you ever
hear the Charlie Munger quote that's um
he said uh oh it might not have been
Charlie it might have been his mentor he
said
um you know the difference between good
leaders and bad leaders is when I hire a
dog I don't do the Barking for it
and wow that's good and I thought that
has really driven a lot of my business
building is realizing I'm like you I'm
in some ways I I like I like hands and
pots which is not very good for Focus
um but what I found is that there are a
lot of people who are singular focused
individuals who do incredibly well with
one thing in front of them and so those
end up being my number twos and you know
you've built massive wealth so you're
obviously very good at Focus too but
sometimes I wonder like is there just
one way I mean maybe there is a main
thing and a side piece I really think
there are physics yeah I think that
whoever you point to oh God I'm gonna
ruin my own example here because I was
going to say except for Elon Musk like
it's freakish but I so here's what I
think blue origin yes but the vast
majority of his career was just focused
on Amazon it wasn't until he started
really starting to pull away and he had
so many of the world's most talented
people working for him
um and my problem isn't putting my hand
in too many pots because I don't want to
do people's jobs I am not a micromanager
because I tell people if I'm
micromanaging you it's because you're
not delivering results I don't want to
pay attention to you what I want to do
is the part I like the part that I'm
uniquely good at that's all I want to
focus at and if I'm getting results in
other areas amazing the problem is when
you're the CEO you have a bigger
responsibility you have to paint Vision
you have to keep people excited yeah
anyway
um
I I have a feeling
that even Elon Musk there I mean look
there might be networking things that
work for him but I have a feeling each
one of his companies would be better off
if he gave it 100 of his time in Focus
it's just that he is such a freak and
the rate at which he can think yeah and
also of his own admission he's not the
CEO of many of his companies he's
usually the lead product and engineer
guy yeah and so his mind just seems to
work very very fast so there's some
level of what's the speed at which you
think and how many tasks do you take on
so for instance if I could think faster
which would not be a stretch I am not a
fast thinker I'm a fast talker who
thinks slowly and deeply about a lot of
subjects and so I confuse people who
think I'm a fast uh fast thinker but I'm
not so if I could think faster then I
could have more output across more
things but I can't yeah so alas it it
really is holding us back so anyway
getting into the the Tactical side here
so you need to be you need to know
yourself you need to know what your
skill set is need to be very careful not
to misalign your particular skill set
with the way that you contribute
but the cool thing when you realized
okay I'm not going to come up with the
next next business idea I'm going to go
buy a business how did you begin to
build a criteria because you have so
many specific criterias from your get
rich tripod to your deal valuations have
to meet certain criteria like you've
really systematized the stuff how did
you in the beginning when you didn't
have any of that yeah how did you begin
to formulate it
uh I have a very bad memory and so yeah
so one of the worst things about a bad
memory is you can't remember things one
of the best things is you have to
processize everything and that
Frameworks and memes or
um you know specific vernacular actually
help you remember and so the reason that
I have the get rich tripod and you know
my deal box and you know our rules and
thesis for investing is because I have
to remember otherwise I do bad deals and
so I think one of the superpowers you
can have have is as you're going on your
journey what I had to do I didn't mean
to do it was document these frames that
I lived by because one when you're in
charge you got to communicate it to
people so I would go hey what kind of
businesses do we buy and they'd say like
brt right we buy boring businesses that
are recession resistant we raise the
prices we add technology is the business
that you're putting in front of me a
brrt business no it's not okay go find
another one and so I would use it to
communicate to people and to really
communicate with myself which is half
the on my Twitter it's like yelling
at Cody
and probably I don't know if you're the
same but exactly the same like when
people are like oh man like you're being
so hard on people I'm like bro I am
talking to myself that's all all to
reminder at some point I'll have to just
be like lessons to Cody and I'll just be
my Twitter feed
um but I like to framework them out for
that reason and the way that you do that
is just by taking inventory I make so
many mistakes all the time even like 15
16 years into doing deals I just had a
deal go bad last month and I'm like God
you think I'd figure this out by now and
every time that happens I have a post uh
op so just like after you have surgery
or after you have a game you sit down
and you analyze what went well and what
went wrong we do that for every single
deal we do that goes sideways do you
have a structure for that are you
running them against the brrt or we run
them against our entire investing
framework so we usually have something
called due diligence questions so it's
called the ddtq and we we build out our
ddq list is now gigantic and it's graded
so like what's most important to what's
least important
and then we look at these deals and we
say what did we learn and so in this
most recent deal I realized gosh I have
a flaw with Partners I pick bad Partners
if these characteristics are there if
they're friends of mine already I let
them in and I skip a bunch of stuff in
the dddq so now I go oh okay now I have
a new rule and the rule is No New
Friends you know I don't do deals with
new people until we've been together for
a long time otherwise they go to this
other person on my team and they run
them through the typical due diligence
because I have a weak spot there and so
everything that I'm doing it's just like
you know when you play a sport
um you know or when you when you do a
video game like you go through like what
went wrong there oh I can't step out
here because then the car hits me or
like I can't do I can't go out to the
left because that means the guy's gonna
get there he's faster than I am and I
think we don't do that enough in
business so I am non-stop
action analyze action analyze document
and as long as you do that aad then I
find that I can kind of continuously
make better decisions
that's really helpful how much time do
you spend on the um
either the the creation of these
documents and going through them well I
guess not or and and then when you're
doing the breakdown at the end because
running a company takes so much time and
energy when I was researching you I had
overwhelming sense of guilt because I'm
like God you do a lot of things that I
should be doing and I was like where the
does she find the time for all this
so yeah how much time do you spend on
that analysis I let a lot of things go
by the wayside one of the most important
things I keep reminding myself is that
no isn't actually wonderful word no is
an incredible word to use more often and
so is the ignore button you know I got a
lot of on Twitter because I posted
like leave your text messages on read
um I don't respond to a lot of text
messages I don't respond to a ton of
emails
um I don't take phone calls you can't
pay me enough money somebody reached out
with like a number that I thought was
crazy to just to test you know test my
resolve I guess for an hour phone call
and I was like no I just I don't do it
because I will get distracted too
quickly and I'm a golden retriever I
want to chase tennis balls right all
over the place and so um a lot of mine
is I let low level stuff fly all the
time and uh that's one and then two I
think I just have gotten in this process
of continuously each week because I'm a
writer writing this stuff down that's my
favorite part about content is it makes
it gives me like the right
to do Recaps and post-ops because I turn
it into content then it's one of my
favorite reasons for getting on the
Internet so every single week when we
have our investment committee and I
learned something new or a deal goes bad
and I'm writing the newsletter for next
week or I'm writing more content for our
business buying group
it's real time what's happening to me in
our businesses and I don't think I could
do content and running the businesses if
the two weren't intermingled at the same
time that's really interesting
it's really interesting yeah like
because you don't talk as much about the
stuff that you're building right now
from like a behind the scenes
perspective like document as opposed to
create content and I'm I really push our
team I mean my guys here somewhere
um Spencer sup uh because uh
because I was like I'm we can't be
creating these stories all the time what
what are we doing in our life right now
that we can just document because we're
actually real Builders we're not just
like creators creating stories
online all day we're building let's talk
about that it's way more interesting
than some fake story that we make up
based on the news and so now we try to
balance between the two but I would love
like I told I was telling Andy frisella
that the other day I'm like dude I had
no idea you did this in your company
like you don't talk about any of that
stuff online
um because I would love to hear more
about that from you I hear it about
quest which is how I know a lot about
your background but today even we were
talking I'm like yeah what do we do for
a living we make tick tocks you're like
actually I'm doing these six other
things and I had no idea about yeah Lisa
is unbelievably good at that she loves
doing that yeah for me I'm not joking
when I say from the moment I wake up
yeah so imagine I'm awake I will I did
this this morning so I have an episode
with you today I am still in bed which I
I give myself 10 minutes to get out of
bed but I'm still in bed I realize I'm
awake I reach over I already have my
headphones on which is a whole nother
story and I turn off my book right now
about Winston Churchill and I already
had an episode with you queued up and
ironically it was you and Andy frizzella
oh yeah and start listening to that I
get out of bed I brush my teeth all
while listening to that so from the
moment I wake up until the moment I
either go go to bed or if it's a moment
where I'm trying to get some time with
my wife till the moment I spend time
with my wife I I am working on something
yeah and so
I have I have a real problem being
pulled off a task that drives me crazy
so for a long time the social team be
like oh just real quick let's turn it
into like an Instagram post and I'm like
man I this so first of all
building a video game is the hardest
thing I've ever done and so oftentimes
I'm like my head is thumping and I'm
like dealing with and the last
thing I want to have to do is turn to
the camera and be like okay let me tell
you what we're doing it's like I'm
getting my face kicked in right now and
uh it probably would make amazing
content though so we actually are trying
to build that team up because the my
team has been haranging me to show more
of that side so well and even I mean one
thing that I I think I'm stealing from
Jay Shetty I was chatting with him the
other week but I liked I was expecting
from a monk like a lot of like love and
touchy-feely stuff and he actually gave
me some tactical stuff that I thought
was really interesting and um and I
really liked him but he he one thing
that he liked he's like
um I have efficient and effective days
and I have heard before like content
days versus building days and that never
resonated with me because I'm like a
whole day on content like I don't know
about that that makes me want to die and
I'm like but this efficient versus
effective I thought was interesting
because he's basically like I would I
would block segments of my time where I
know that like if I do the 20 thing that
drives 80
um the day is successful
and he's like and on those days where I
know that I am having he says on his
effective days so the latest where it's
just like to-do list to-do list to-do
list to-do list is the days that he
allows content documentation because
those are the days where your brain is
like less
you're not big picture thinking so that
helped me a little bit so now I have a
half day on Thursday each week where I'm
doing a lot of like I'll put all the
contracts I have to review and one-off
you know people issues that are just
lower level but have to be handled only
by me on that day and on that day we'll
also do content and so I'll be working
on stuff and they'll have ideas in
between me doing more monotonous stuff
um anyway works for me but you know you
could try it on
yeah it's interesting so I've tried many
things with my calendar and this is one
thing just re-focusing on the tactics
you've got to get your calendar right
like if you don't maintain uh if your
calendar doesn't reflect your actual
priorities you're in real trouble so I
keep a list that I call important things
yeah and the important things are what
is the most important thing that I could
be working on right now and I will just
tell any any stage entrepreneur but
certainly beginning stage entrepreneurs
you're going to have trouble
prioritizing and the reason you're gonna
have trouble prioritizing is because you
think you're dumb but in reality the
problem is no one's good at prioritizing
until they've done it a lot and then you
begin to get a sense of okay this is the
to quote Tim Ferriss this is the lead
Domino if I do this thing it'll make
everything that comes after it easier so
you'll start to identify those things
and you're going to do those until you
can't do them anymore either from
fatigue or there's just nothing more to
do and now you're waiting for somebody
to come back to you whatever
then you move on to the second thing but
I find everybody gets paralyzed by I
don't know what to put in first place
and so now you have seven things in
first place and so I and I constantly
fight with my team about this you stop
being weak like what's number
one like you're allowing yourself to be
emotionally paralyzed because you're
like oh it's all important yes
but you can only execute on
one thing at a time so what's that one
thing and so I'm just ruthless about
that yeah so the beginning of my day so
I'm up usually at 4 4 30 in the morning
I don't let anybody on my schedule until
nine a.m 9 30 if I can push it yeah and
then I don't let anybody on my schedule
after 1 pm I like that so there's a
narrow window where I've already gotten
four to five hours worth of work in the
beginning so I'm doing my most important
all execution then I take meetings
I make sure everybody's moving and they
have whatever questions they need
answered and then I'm in it I'm
in product and I'm in marketing those
are the two things I'm just like
obsessively focused about and so I'm
available I'm with the team which by the
way I'm gonna guess because of how many
businesses you own you don't operate
like this during covid I was like word
go wherever you want you can move away
no big deal now I'm like
you better get in the office like we are
back in a big way it is so inefficient
to not have people here
yeah well we we just bought an office in
Austin for the same reason I've
especially found you know I have an
incredible team because they'll tell me
they'll be really honest about it like
one of the guys on my team who runs part
of the creative thing he's like yeah I'm
just
I just don't work as hard when I'm not
in the office I'm like I can't believe
you just said that to my face but also
thank you and uh and and I think it's
true because most all of us have
willpower issues and all of us can
benefit from a little eye over the
shoulder and the reason why I think we
can really benefit is because I remember
when I was at Goldman Sachs and they
were watching us like crazy I was never
on social media I was never decking off
because I wanted to get out of that
office I knew I was going to have to do
long hours and I wanted to get out of
there when I was done I never understood
the Silicon Valley foosball make them
stay here all the time thing I'm like
come here give it intense maybe do a
workout break or a walk in between come
back to intense and then go live your
life you know and if you're like me
you're gonna work way more than that but
like be here when you're gonna be here
like think about work like meditation
you should be so singularly focused that
all distractions sort of Fades away and
if you do that then you actually have to
you have to work less because you're so
much more effective but I remember early
on in my career you know it's why I
couldn't stay at Vanguard actually
because I was sitting at a desk and I
was trying I was like you know those
Ducks were underneath the surface
they're paddling like crazy but on top
they're smooth that was me I was
drowning I didn't know anything about
Finance I'd come from journalism I
everybody was smarter than me everybody
went to Harvard and Stanford et cetera I
went to Arizona State
whoever to the West as you said
um and uh and I remember one of the my
teammates came up and was trying to talk
to me about lunch planning and stuff and
I was like CeCe I I'm focused I don't
have time to talk about any of this I'm
I'm here man we could talk like after
work but like I'm here right now and
that happened like a few times and I
wasn't trying to be a jerk I just
couldn't be distracted because then I
lost my focus entirely and I probably
have a little ADHD and so it would
derail me for like 30 40 minutes and I
remember that happened and then my boss
at one point was like
your team thinks that you would leave
dead bodies behind you and I was like
huh really why they're like well you
don't pay attention when they come up to
your desk you don't do party planning I
was like guy I am here to do a job and
I'm going to I would never like run over
somebody to do the job but I will be
singularly focused to get it done and so
that is I think
or are you
because now as a CEO I have to imagine
yeah you gotta make people feel a little
more warm and fuzzy or have you found a
way to be like yo I have good people who
are more warm and fuzzy than I am so I
found in life like you are who you are
kind of and every time I try to become
somebody that I'm not first of all it
comes off as inauthentic and second of
all it doesn't really work so if I come
in and I'm too warm and fuzzy nobody's
gonna buy it
um I am fun I think like I'm aggressive
but I'm fun so I'll make jokes and I do
something every Monday called the the
compass and basically it's just a little
PowerPoint 10 minutes that I give to the
whole team and in it are a few things
like our culture code every single week
I go through what the 13 values are I
pick like one one person who wins like
something for one of our values
um and in that there'll be some funky
fun stuff for each of them and so I will
like I will cheerlead the out of
the company during that period
um but when somebody needs a hug they
know to come to me about it for sure
um now I think the Counterpoint to that
is I've always taken care of my people
like as long as you are good to your
teammates and to the company like I will
have your back like if you need a new
job and this isn't the place for you I
will help you find a new job I won't
fire you like I will hand hold you
um you know if you have a health issue
I'm going to take care of you but like I
don't think you have to be warm and
fuzzy I also hire
like a lot of we're really honest about
who we are in interviews which I think
is really really I mean if if you you
know I was a terrible employee at
Vanguard because they're super
touchy-feely you know kind of socialists
and I liked Goldman I liked capitalist
kind of jerks but they were really smart
and uh
so I liked that I wanted the pressure
and so now when people come and
interview with us I'm like hey like talk
to me about like your favorite moment of
pressure talk to me about when you did
the thing that felt unreasonable to get
the goal and I tell them up front our
interviews start with all the things
that are terrible about the company and
why I'm awful to work for and if they
still like it after that then they might
be a win but otherwise at least they
know you know we have a very similar
thing so it's our culture doc you can't
come into interview unless you've read
it and yeah oh yeah and the funny thing
is uh I've had multiple people say hey
we've lost a lot of candidates when they
read the culture Doc and I'm like that's
the point because I want them to know
who we are and if you're not about that
life then this is not the place for you
I am trying to win a championship
nothing short I'm not trying to be in
also ran I'm not trying to play and get
a participation trophy I'm flat out I'm
trying to beat Disney yeah and that that
is a big task and the odds of success
are very low and and so I want to have
fun but I also want to be surrounded by
hardcore that are here to
win and the document says exactly that
and uh yeah it is very aggressive and so
yeah we have weeded people out but what
I always say to people saying like hey
are we sure like this thing is really
aggressive I'm like it found you yeah
I'm like what's your favorite thing
about this company the people exactly
like we are a very specific flavor oh
yeah and if you like our flavor I like
to think we're like black licorice which
I love now I know for some people that
is the most disgusting thing in the
universe and so I'm like but we're that
kind of specific for the right person
like we will be the favorite place
you've ever worked and for the wrong
person we will be trash so for any of my
entrepreneurs out there let me tell you
right now culture is one of the most
important things product Market fit more
important make more money than you spend
more important but then like culture is
going to be a huge deal for retention
for employees enjoying what they do for
you getting things done in a way that
you're proud of like
as I always say to people hey Lisa and I
ran the experiment of what it looks like
when you don't have the right culture
and it's ass yeah and we hated it as
much as anybody else and not liking
being at your own company that's really
lame oh that's awesome and so when we
founded impact Theory we're like never
again like culture is gonna be a main
thing that we hire against that we hold
people accountable to we have something
do you know Ray dalio yeah yeah oh God I
love this guy so for people that don't
know he built the largest hedge fund in
the world amazing and he has this thing
in this culture that he calls dots so
everybody can give everybody else like a
score on whatever 30 different criteria
and so we have a bunch of those criteria
that are part of our culture doc like
our people being hardcore
Etc et cetera so we can all rank each
other I love that you know what I find
fascinating is this
when I was poor or not where I wanted
that I ignored is the stuff that makes
you millions and then tens of millions
of dollars like culture like leadership
I used to think what like I'm just here
I get a job done I want to get rich I
want to do the thing this is how it goes
and so
you know I think it's really interesting
whenever I'm with Builders who have
built a lot they all want to talk about
the same stuff it's like how do you get
more humans to want to do the things you
want them to do culture
leadership and if people want to have a
real success and you want to do it in a
way where you're not killing yourself
all day those two words are like two of
the most important words in the English
language what's funny is I'm sure if we
did a YouTube video and the title was
how to build a 100 million dollar
culture people would be like snooze but
if you're like how to make a million
dollars with the vending machines in 30
days millions of views but guess
what the one on the left the the first
one 100 million dollar culture is so
much more valuable than the vending
machine video and so if you can push
through what the world wants you to
listen to which is literally the candy
the vending machine the sweets and you
can actually want to eat the broccoli oh
my gosh that's where all the magic is
um it's actually funny because I was
sitting with this the other day I went
to team three of the Navy Seals 40th uh
anniversary of being in existence right
it's cool so this was the the team that
my husband was at and we go on to the
new base it's incredible like we take a
tour through
you know these Halls where like our
friends their gear when they were you
know killed in action is sitting there
and my husband a flag with his name
written on it that was like taken away
from Isis and showed our yeah it was
just incredible right that's heavy it
was it was really cool it was cool to
see the steps that land from from people
that you've known before but what stuck
with me from a business perspective is
we're sitting we're looking out at the
ocean it's beautiful and we're sitting
listening to uh five people speak
Admiral mcraven who's probably one of
the most
um you know well-respected uh living
Team guys uh
Johnny Kim
um anyway
um both a Navy SEAL and an astronaut and
a doctor Jesus I mean total
underperformer yeah
exactly some people yeah and the current
head of of Team three what was
fascinating is you had Admiral mcraven
he gave this incredible speech right
like best-selling author one of the most
senior guys in the military you had the
head of the team you had uh overachiever
uh Johnny Kim astronaut doctor et cetera
but then at the very end you had what's
called uh this is CEO I think excuse me
if anybody in the military is listening
I'm probably this up but he's
like the head enlisted guy so there's
officers and then there's the enlisted
guys and they work hand in hand
but um the chief uh enlisted guy is a
badass sorry I won't say his name
because I don't know what's public or
not but um anyway he at the very end of
this like couple hour long segment it's
emotional they're you know mentoring
some of the people that have died I was
looking at it from a team perspective
and from an inspiration perspective and
all of these speeches were like
relatively formal they were good but at
the very end he comes up
and he uh has 12 7 or 12 Team guys in
full kits so like machine gun or ar or
something all decked out with their Gear
helmets on and they go and they line up
on the other side and so it's like very
jarring right you see them walk across
they a lot and uh and what they are is
they each represent members of the team
that were killed in action over the
years and what was incredible is he
closed out the ceremony and they would
yell out the name of of the person who
was killed so it'd be like you know
Brandon Looney and then everybody would
yell right like they yell really loud
and then they'd shoot off the machine
gun and so by the end of it everybody's
crying everybody's yelling and that guy
had set the tone he wasn't the leader he
wasn't the highest member of the team
but if there's one speech and one person
you remembered and one person who
everybody there 600 people would say is
like the epitome of what they wanted
team three to be it was that guy and um
and I think about that a lot because
people sometimes think you got to be the
CEO you got to be mcraven you got to be
the head of the team but like this guy
was what they call the heart and soul of
the team and I think that that is
something really important to take with
you for the members of your team and for
the people listening who aren't at the
top like you don't have to be at the top
to be the person that everybody goes to
and that stuck with me ever since that
day
it's really powerful so as somebody who
walked a very unconventional path
started with nothing like how do you
walk that path how do you go from being
that guy to running something
you know this this uh I think this guy's
an interesting one to stay on for a
second
um you know we have a saying we do the
work
um I I think it's a well-known saying we
just say it a contrarian thinking too
um but I think one of the ways that
people don't realize is super easy to
get ahead is there's two things curse of
competence which means there are
actually very few competent hard-working
driven people in this world way more
than I think people realize and you've
seen it before like you've seen when
somebody goes 10 percent more than the
norm it's pretty rare actually like how
many people have you had come in here
and not impress you just be kind of like
everybody else and then you notice the
guy who's like no no he's here before
everybody else oh he stays a little bit
later than everybody else could be 10
minutes on both ends oh he like
submitted a brief and an update without
being asked like do the work uh be that
one competent human in a
ocean of humans who are complacent
instead of competent and then the second
thing I think that surprised me about
how easy quote unquote easy it was to
succeed
is that
um most people
say they want things but they say it
almost like hopes instead of Wills and
so you know
my husband and I kind of talk about this
a lot we're like like do you want it or
are you going to do it and he has this
annoying saying he always says to me
which is like
you know are you a good white shark or
are you a great white shark and he says
it to me he says it to me often when
we're working out which is when I really
want to murder him
um but it's it's like a little family
motto like are you gonna be kind of okay
and good are you gonna be great and the
difference between good and great is 10
and nobody strives for it and so for
people listening I mean I don't know
look look how easy is that be there 10
earlier and stay 10 later than some than
everybody else at your company for six
months like Watch What Happens and if
that doesn't get noticed at that company
go to the next one or build the next
company in the 10 minutes that you're
there in the beginning in the end so
what I did at Goldman Sachs I got
recognized by the most senior director
and then I had multiple job
opportunities after that I wasn't
smarter than anybody else I didn't go to
any fancy schools I didn't have an MBA
then but I worked slightly harder than
everybody else I was competent and I did
a little bit more than everybody else
and that was it
when somebody's aggressive when they are
working harder than other people when
you can tell they want it there's it's a
joy to be around like there really is
something and I talk about this a lot
like don't make me drag you oh don't
make me drag you I'll drag you across
the Finish Line if I have to because I
am going to succeed but God damn like if
you can make me sweat that's thrilling
when I'm around people that I'm like
whoa all right look at this person like
they're really showing up they're
playing to win it's intoxicating it's
just for the right person for me that's
a thrill to be around I love that so
much and it really will get people a lot
farther than they think yeah now how did
you actually start learning like do you
have a process for how you learned all
this stuff because you were just saying
earlier you're now a finance person like
you really understand the finance of a
deal but you weren't a finance person so
you went from journalism to act like
straight up Goldman Sachs obviously
there was something in the middle but
like how did you go down the process of
learning something that you did not
previously know at all
um
what I've been Amazed by in life is that
most people don't ask questions they
pretend like they know things yes
at the top all the way to the bottom why
because
they
they think that if they ask questions
they looked up
and what I found is I was trained as a
journalist to do one thing ask questions
and actually the better the question the
better the results as a journalist
that's all that's the only thing and so
I never Associated asking questions with
looking dumb in fact I don't care to
this day I ask stupid questions all the
time in fact when we look at a deal I'll
often say explain to me this like I'm
six and then if they bring me a very
large deal Sam Zell was famous for this
I'm a big Sam Zell fan he wrote the
subtle no am I being too subtle
famous they call them the grave dancer
and he was a grave dancer yeah that's
quite the name uh-huh he was famous for
turnarounds of real estate businesses so
he would take him out of the Grave he
they would say danced on it but uh he
would take these businesses that were
going to fail and then turn them around
and build them to something that's huge
and um and Sam just passed away actually
and he uh famously when they would bring
him a deal like a you know some
multi-hundred million dollar deal they
were going to do one deal they threw it
in front of him big deal had a deal book
professional all these stats and
everything and he just flipped it back
to him and he said should we do the deal
the guy's like well like you know I have
400 Pages prepared here he goes give
this deal to me in a one-page brief and
then we'll know you understand it facts
facts yeah and it's so important oh my
God I'm constantly telling people say
your thesis in a single sentence yeah
because if you can't say it in a single
sense you don't understand it you don't
understand it and I realized this for
myself too in fact if you want to get
ahead quickly I think you know
associating yourself with people who
already have the things that you want is
really important one of the easiest ways
to do that back in corporate land was
everybody fought for one job and that
was the chief of staff job you wanted to
be Chief of Staff to one of the senior
leaders and the reason why is because
you learned one what do they care about
and how do you learn what they care
about from the daily briefs you put
together for them and so you actually
got a way to steal their ten thousand
hours by looking at the very few things
that they looked at every day that
determined what was important for them
and so briefing has become really
important at my company and people get
annoyed with me I was gonna say like I
need to do briefs like this you need to
do briefs it sounds hot also I did let
me tell you there's nothing sexier than
a hot brief and uh it's funny because my
team the other day there's this one
woman in our team all shatter out matild
who does incredible briefs and why does
that matter because it shows me how you
think and the way that you think tells
me how you work and how you work tells
me what you prioritize
and so these briefs are incredible and
the best way to learn them is you can
actually see examples of the president's
Daily Brief and who could have a more
succinct important Daily Brief than the
president of the United States and so a
lot of my team will look at that and
they'll also look at briefs for some of
the largest CEOs out there and so if you
have a team at all get them in the habit
of doing this and uh and that I think is
an incredible skill to get good at
yeah I love that the most yeah we we
will definitely be doing that I'll send
you some examples of what I have yeah
please that would be incredible yeah
okay so
um when you're going about learning
something for me anyway it's really
rudimentary it's uh I need to know the
terms yeah so that's gonna be the first
thing so and in fact I went on a I went
on a similar Journey for a very
different reason so when covet hit I
realized ooh the people so going back to
all my time in the inner cities I was
like they're going to get obliterated I
didn't understand money printing yet so
I just thought they're and so I
was like okay I've got to find a really
tactical like personal finance vein to
get people in on the show so that I can
help but I didn't understand Finance at
all I'm good at making money I'm not
good at investing money and so I was
like okay I'm gonna start learning about
this bringing people on all that starts
with learning the Lexicon figuring out
who the players are and doing what I
call reading and swarms now reading
could be YouTube whatever you're just
taking a topic you're trying to see it
from as many different angles as humanly
possible have you ever seen those like
sculptures that are made out of trash
but you can only see what they are from
like one specific angle okay that's life
yeah and so if you're looking at
business from the wrong angle it looks
like this big crazy mystery and it looks
like Cloud Schwab is you know the evil
madman he's gonna take over yeah you
start twisting it around and you realize
oh she's a bunch of people who think
that they're smarter than they are and
they really should learn to distrust
themselves but once it clicks into place
and you realize that Steve Jobs was
right the world is created by people no
smarter than you then it's like oh I'm
seeing how this really is
but to do that you have to see it from a
lot of different angles so when I'm
reading about a topic I'm trying to get
as many different perspectives on that
thing as I can so that I can triangulate
on what the truth really is then once I
have that and I have a sense of what
this is I'll formulate my own hypothesis
hypothesis will make predictions then I
go test that prediction now if that
prediction is accurate then I know that
I'm actually understanding this and this
is whether you're talking about business
or romance boys and girls your brain is
a prediction engine yeah once you
realize that it is very hard to discern
what is objectively true very hard even
even at the level of physics we don't
know so objective truth so you get into
perspective and interpretation okay cool
but
all of these things make a prediction so
I think if I do this I'm going to get
this outcome well do it if you got that
outcome then you're understanding your
mental map of the world is pretty close
if you try it and you get something
completely different you need to
understand your mental model is broken
so if you point to other people out it's
their faults the economy's fault no no
you didn't understand something that's
why it broke because let's remind Saint
Kobe that booze don't block dunks
doesn't matter how much somebody's
trying to trip you up doesn't matter how
bad the economy is there is a solution
to that puzzle you just didn't find it
and so if you can own that update your
mental model and try again just
recognizing it as a prediction engine so
that's how I go in to learn any new
thing disaster sound roughly analogous
is what you do I actually think I am
much Dumber on this so the way I'm going
to say it isn't Dumb whatever you're
about to say different perhaps so uh I'm
much less scientific so when I want to
start learning something I just go where
the game is played and get in I just get
in and so what that would mean in the
beginning was I didn't understand
Finance I wasn't smart enough to do what
you said you know read and swarms go
find a predictive I was like where are
Smart Finance people I guess this
company called Vanguard that's located
here could I get a job there and I go I
bet if I get a job there the job though
because they're gonna be like do you
know Finance no the funny thing about
humans are they love to hear themselves
talk and so one of the secrets to
getting a job places is you just ask a
lot of questions should I mind trick
nice yeah so at the time I sat next to
this lady Tara and I was like so what do
you do she's like Securities and I'm
like gosh that's a lot of work because I
thought she was talking about security
at the like you know she had a gun but
she was actually talking about you were
applying for the job and at Vanguard and
you did I wasn't applied I was sitting
at a conference next to her to be fair
okay so I stopped next to her at a
conference yeah is that were you at the
conference to learn about finances yes
okay Finance conference got it
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QR code and I hope people are drinking
this in to not know to be at a
conference for finance and to not know
what a security is that is amazing your
story gets better by the second yeah and
again why was I at the conference about
Finance because I wanted to get into
Finance but I didn't know anything about
it so I just said well let's go to a
place where they're talking about
Finance so I go to a conference then I
sit next late I get curious about her I
ask her all about her I ask all about
Vanguard I get really curious about her
job what does she care about what does
she do what's their mission and when I
get all those questions I write down the
answers and so I'm actually getting the
cheat code to what a hiring manager
cares about at Vanguard because I'm
asking her questions and then she gets
intrigued by the fact that unlike most
humans I'm not talking at her I'm asking
her information and I'm very tuned in
I'm like focused on her intently and I
follow up which most people also don't
do I send an email afterwards it was so
amazing to talk to you here are three
things I learned super interesting love
to have coffee with you a second time we
have coffee again I just ask a bunch
more questions and then she asks me to
apply for this very uh it was a
rotational development program so tons
of people all these fancy degrees
everywhere in little Cody who didn't
know what a security or a mutual fund
was
but I think
um you know the difference was I was
really curious and that is an abnormal
thing in a world of humans who pretends
that they know what they mean so crazy
and then so if if I was trying to do
this again I would do the same thing
when I wanted to get into content uh
what did I do I just went and tried to
talk to humans who knew something about
content that I wanted to know so if I
wanted to understand media today I would
probably get really curious and I would
learn on somebody else's dime I think a
job today is like a free MBA in fact
it's an MBA that they pay you for and
it's really underrated to have a job
early on the average employee at
Vanguard they say they spent a hundred
thousand dollars on training per
employee when I was making thirty
thousand dollars a year so I was given
this free MBA at Vanguard not to mention
three licenses that I've carried for the
rest of my life that have to be
registered at a company I couldn't get
them any other way so I think people
should just go get a job working
for somebody learning from them and go
where the games played and then the
amazing part is they could start in a
factory with you and if they're really
hard work workers they're super curious
and they keep asking if they know
thyself continuously you're going to
keep promoting a really smart a very
hard working very curious iterating
human and you'll promote them to
different things that they want to that
are within their skill sets and so I
probably to learn I just I like to steal
other people's ten thousand hours I want
to go where the games played I want to
sit with a bunch of winners and I want
pressure because then I think you can
learn and it's you know Lisa and I were
talking about this a little bit earlier
but there is scientific research that
shows that being surrounded by top
performers increases your performance by
15 and being around underperformers
decreases your performance by 30 percent
and so if you're in a company with a
bunch of underperformers get in one
where it is hard and if you are hanging
out with friends that all are
underperformers get in one where you're
with some top performers because you
know you're going to earn 30 percent
more money uh or you're going to earn
actually what is it you're gonna earn 45
more money if you're around top
performers than if you're around
underperformers and I think most people
don't think about that like people talk
about gold men I'm like that place
is amazing for a young hungry person
it's awful at a certain point but for a
young hungry person it's like top
performers that are make me earn more
that are going to put pressure on me
it's the only way diamonds are made it's
the same thing at work
I love that so much that is you know
when I think about why people fail
it's two things the other lack Clarity
or they don't want it badly enough yeah
and if you don't want it badly enough
because here's the reality so the
promise of this episode is that you you
really can lift the curtain up get
um so knowledgeable that you can
generate wealth and not be controlled by
other people
but it takes a lot like you really have
to get good at something that is
extraordinarily multi-faceted like it's
really multifaceted there are a lot of
different things you're going to have to
come to understand and it's going to
take an egregious amount of time and you
are really going to have to want it
because life is going to kick you in the
face the way that I explain
entrepreneurship to people and I'll be
curious to see if this resonates with
your experience is it's like being
kicked in the face and you're choking to
death on your own blood and teeth and
you're gasping for error and everything
is writing on this moment and you're in
extreme pain extreme pain and the thing
that's hardest because it isn't the pain
it's knowing that if you quit all the
pain goes away it stops instantly your
teeth snap back into place there's no
more blood it's instantly okay
and in the back your mind that little
thing is just with you like hey
you could Coast you could be one of
those B players and you could just get
by and let somebody else cover it and
all will be well and
you won't control your destiny
but for most people
that's okay and I I don't know how to
feel about that I weep for them but I
maybe I'm wrong like I'm so distrust
yourself right part of my whole thesis I
definitely distrust my own assessment
yeah but I remember when at Quest so to
your point we had hired all these
ex-convicts and
some of them turned their lives around
and some of them didn't and I just
couldn't fathom how you're given this
opportunity to rise up to make money
we're growing so fast whatever job you
can get yourself prepared for you can
have we had one guy go from so he he
came it's funny uh he started working at
Quest as a front for his drug money
but she admitted to me later
and he said you know it just ended up
being such a great opportunity and you
seem to care so much about me that I
decided that I was gonna go straight
and he just learned and learned and
learned and ended up going from minimum
wage line worker to making over a
hundred thousand dollars in like it's
like nine months or something I'm just
ridiculously fast because he just kept
being the right person for the job and
just getting promoted promoted promoted
and at the same time that same guy got
in a fist fight
with somebody who said you've changed
because you're reading
and I thought wait a second that guy is
so mad about somebody wanting something
and striving for it that instead of
being inspired and going okay I want
that pressure I want to turn into a
diamond
he got so angry it was such a challenge
to his identity that he threw punches at
this guy who's one of his best friends
wow I made him tell me that story like
eight times because I was like wait what
I'm like you actually got into a
physical altercation yes Tom he threw a
punch at you yes Tom I was like what the
world you I was like that is absurd
like you've got to get away from people
like that and that was really when I
realized and let's see how angry I can
make people but I believe this With all
sincerity I have dedicated my life to
this problem so people need to think
about that before they get too pissed
poverty is not a money problem it's a
mindset problem yeah people stop
themselves before they begin they don't
think oh I can go get better at this
thing but I'm gonna have to want it yeah
you know it's fascinating when we lived
in what I'll call the you know it was
the hood in DC basically what I found
fascinating is Chris had just come back
from the Middle East so he was at War uh
during that which means you have hyper
vigilance so you know he's very aware of
his surroundings wow it's super super
tight at all times we made friends with
our neighborhood drug dealer
as one does and uh and what was
interesting is I
I understood something then that I had
never understood before which is the the
stress level of living
at the poverty level or even being
surrounded by it we weren't at a poverty
level I was actually doing really well
we just happened to buy a house in a
place that we didn't really think about
that much and uh it was one of our
second homes so we were like oh this is
a cool street that was actually
surrounded in DC by not cool streets
and what was fascinating to me is I felt
this stress basically I felt the stress
of what it must feel like to live in
that every single day and there's a
young woman who lived across the street
from us most of the families around us
had like four generations living in one
you know townhouse and um and so she
would come over uh when she found out
that we went to college because she
thought that was really cool and that we
had been on an airplane which was crazy
and um and so we would talk to her about
you know what could she go to college
couldn't we apply for some grants like
you know Howard University
um you know they have an amazing grant
program and uh and anything anyway one
thing I thought was fascinating is she
to your point uh hid it from her family
so she had like cousins and brothers
that she wanted to go to college yeah
and then she was talking to us so we
would talk to her when her family wasn't
around but when her family was around
she'd just kind of look at us down the
street because they would all look at us
so like the lines were never to be
crossed and so I do think there is a
real thing about crabs in the bucket and
you know my realization was different
not so dramatic but I realized listen
the people who love you now your family
they love you as you are they don't love
the new you that you're going to be it's
just scary for them they think they're
going to lose you they think you'll
think you're better than them they think
you might realize that uh they're
they're failures all their projections
and insecurities come out so that's what
we would talk to her about would be like
listen you know this is something you
probably can't change in your family you
probably can't explain it away to them
and the only thing you can do is you can
live your life at inactions that show
them that it's possible and that you
won't leave them behind and hopefully if
you do that they'll come along with you
but if they won't then you will have to
leave them behind but I had never felt
before the stress and pressure to
conform and the stress and pressure to
also not engage with people that were
bettering themselves and uh and I'll
never forget that because like in the
Hispanic community that I was in that
wasn't a thing really it was we don't
want you to move away like could we stay
close as a family and that is a limiting
factor in some ways but it wasn't don't
become something else entirely thank God
yeah so that's something that I at least
didn't have to have to shoulder as a
burden but that is everywhere yeah did
you have to change your identity in fact
I will ask the community had a question
for you and that was what was the the
shift that you made that had the biggest
impact towards your success um
the biggest shift for me
period end of story was
finding others who already had the life
that I wanted to live and trying to
engage with them more often that was it
it was I actually think that money might
be contagious and that if you are around
people who have it the exact opposite of
everything we think happens or we're
told as a society like rich people don't
care rich people aren't giving you know
the rich people only want X Y and Z I
found that to be the total opposite of
true
especially when you're young and
especially if you're hungry rich people
love to be told how smart they are they
love to tell their stories and
oftentimes they love to be the enabler
we all think that like oh we're smart I
gotta figure it out let me tell you my
sage advice that I've learned from all
of this face kicking awful pain
let me make it mean something and so
I got around any human I could who had a
life that I wanted like cool business
you know healthy bodies big bank
accounts and I just started trying to
learn from them and the first way I did
that is I was assistant to the
wealthiest woman that I knew in Arcadia
at the time and I took her dry cleaning
and laundry and I drove her Hummers one
time I drove her Hummer actually and I
ran it into the garage and I I didn't
tell her about it for like 10 years I
paid her back later how awful is that so
like you know I did people's work
because I wanted to be around them so
smart enough and you know what those
guys they ended up giving me a million
dollars into one of my first Investments
so that was like 15 years later he took
one of one of the first uh risks on me
that I'll never never forget yeah this
is why it drives me crazy kids today
what's the matter with kids today so I
know we're getting old because I'm much
older than you my dear so uh yeah uh but
the thing that drives me crazy is that
people will freak out at the thought of
working for free and I'm like bro listen
money spends once
knowledge monetizes forever that's a
great line so I all day I would work for
some if they have knowledge that I want
all day I would work for them for free
and I would work until my little fingers
bled like I want the knowledge because I
know what I can do with it man somebody
can shortcut your learning curve also
I'm somebody that grew up without the
internet so for me like the thought of
the the fact that you put all this
information out and people can just like
learn how you buy business is crazy town
oh yeah or Ray dalio's book yeah yeah I
mean I would pay so much money to go
join
Warren Buffett's masterclass like
correct like unparalleled amounts of
money but you know it's a really good
point because
I work for free all the time right now
actually one of my little moves that I
like to do is um
I don't think I've ever talked about
this so
um when I find somebody that I think is
interesting and
um they are in a position of power
that's more than me I try to think about
what's one thing that I could give them
for free what does free work today Cody
Sanchez as is I'm pretty successful I
have some money I uh put together for
instance I met um Vivek ramaswamy right
so I met him at a conference I thought
he had some interesting ideas uh I was
like huh was he already running for
president he was already running for
president
and stuff I agree with him some stuff I
don't yeah but
um he was backstage in a room that I was
at and he was running around I couldn't
really get to him but I saw one of his
like lackeys with him right
uh and uh and so I was like huh and so I
just really quick was like God what
would I know that Vivek wouldn't know
I'm like well he already has lots of
money he's definitely built Big necesses
I was like oh social media I know
everything about that so I go into
social media real quick I'm like yeah
it's not that good so I go over to uh
this woman I'm like hey by the way I'm
Cody nice to meet you I'm like one of
the speakers here too oh you're with
Vivid great I'm like oh husband former
Navy SEAL you know now you have to pay
attention to us and um and then I
started talking to her I'm like man
you're social like here's what I would
do different here's a couple things that
I don't think are that great whatever
I'm like listen let me send you like
give me your email let me send you a
quick analysis of what I would do for
your social so we end up doing that I
put together this whole like one page
it's a big brief probably took me five
hours to put together and on the brief
is all the stuff I would change on his
social and why and uh and then I had a
member of my team do some analysis too
we shot it over
next thing you know vivix reaching out
now we're kind of buds we go out and do
his podcast we meet him in person great
and I was like huh that worked once and
so then I did the same thing for this
other guy SRI who's a big investor at
Andreessen Horowitz sure okay so three
reaches out to me and uh
and gets me involved in this Creator
group that he has oh right the one that
we're in
and
um
and I looked up his background I'm like
huh always wanted to like meet Elon
maybe one day we could make that happen
SRI knows Elon now I've never mentioned
this to street but I'm like huh let me
put together a whole thing analysis
first three and I did it for his content
and I did it for his podcast that I
would do different and I sent it to him
I didn't ask for a thing I don't want
anything from him but maybe one day
they'll remember that right I may come
to you yes exactly it's good that was
good I like that my favorite is not big
enough though I need like a suitcase
full of cash but like why would I stop
doing that now why would I stop doing
free work now
no no reason I I do not understand
people's reaction to that I don't
understand yeah well and and also the
fact that the government tells you not
to do it usually tells me that it's
probably a good thing to do you know
yeah
brittle all right I want to walk through
you how you go about actually buying one
of these businesses this is like the
most genius cool thing ever for people
that either they wanna they really want
a side hustle or whatever but they're
gonna go do something dumb it's gonna be
Drop Shipping on a product they don't
believe in they don't give a uh
it's not profitable already they're
gonna lose a ton of money so uh
the first time I heard you walk through
this I was like oh my God this is very
impressive so yeah let's uh let's get
into the weeds how do you do it okay
let's start with real boring businesses
so this is like the 1.0 version first I
would say do me a solid there's a blog
post on there called like 20 ways to
up doing a deal so before you buy a
business please read that
um because buy a one miss Cody Sanchez
yes oh yeah at contrarian thinking
um
so why I want you to read that first is
because the problem with investing or
buying anything is there's risk always
and so I'm very honest with people about
the fact this is not you know E-Trade
where I tell you to do this thing and
you're obviously going to make a million
dollars like there's risk and it takes
work now if you can understand that read
those things the next step I would say
is basically this that all around us
right now today there's something like
11 to 12 million small businesses in the
US that are up for sale
if you go in a room with entrepreneurs
you could try this at any time it's kind
of fun and go a bunch of entrepreneurs
who are like growth minded like we are
and maybe even still in Gross stage and
you go
how many of you would sell your business
at the right price and the right terms
at least 60 of the real their hands are
gonna go up you go in a room with people
who are 60 years and older 90 of the
hands in the room go up
most people will sell their business and
they have already done what you said
which is stacked skills and are ready
for the next transition most people are
which is fascinating so if you believe
those two things 11 to 12 million small
businesses for sale most small business
owners not even listed are interested in
selling then you realize that there is
it would be like if you were on a street
in the U.S and you looked at 12 houses
for sale 10 to 11 of them I'm sorry 12
houses on a street 10 to 11 of them are
for sale that's crazy all around us are
businesses that are open to being bought
and most businesses will not sell within
a year
and the reason I know this is because we
have data on thousands and thousands and
thousands of acquisitions
and mostly collect that data well we
have we get 100 million views a month
across our social media as well you guys
do a lot more
um we do 100 million views a month and
we have thousands of members of our
community that are all interested in
business buying and they submit deals
every single week so we get like I can't
even tell you how many deals submitted a
week what we need to do is what you're
doing we need to to add Tech to it going
forward that's this that's what like
keeps me up at night is thinking about
all the we're doing wrong you too
yeah yeah Facebook yeah
um so
um all these small businesses are for
sale the part that's interesting about
this is that most of these small
businesses sell from anywhere from
2 to 6X The Profit right so if a small
business makes a hundred thousand
dollars a year it's worth anywhere from
two hundred to six hundred thousand
dollars broad generalization but mostly
to true now most people think well I
don't have two hundred to six hundred
thousand dollars so just ignore Cody the
interesting part about that is sixty
percent of small businesses are sold
using what's called seller financing
right so I make a hundred thousand
dollars a year in profit I'm the
business owner nobody wants to buy my
business because 11 of the twelve houses
on the street are also up for sale or 11
to 12 other businesses on the street are
also up for sale so I need to make my
business look more attractive because of
that I'm going to offer seller financing
which means instead of you having to
give me the money or go to a bank I'm
gonna say I make 100K you're in profit
you need to pay me three hundred
thousand for my business why don't you
pay me 300 000 over five years so that
you can take from the hundred thousand
dollars profit the payment you're going
to give me across five years you can
keep some profit yourself if I can take
some profit off the table and I can exit
my business and so when I realized this
was the case I was like wait a second
why don't I just buy some of these
they're already profitable they're
already up and running I don't have to
take debt on the business I maybe don't
even have to personal guarantee it which
you would which is what you would do if
you had the government give you a loan
the SBA I can just work direct with the
seller
and so that's what I talk to people
about all day because here's the problem
and if you don't believe me go to Google
go to Google right now and type in
Japan's business selling crisis all over
Japan they are giving away businesses
for free crazy or the businesses are
shutting down and that's happening right
now in the US to the tune where now all
the time you're gonna if you go you know
ideas I feel like are like um
they're like the flu it's like once you
like somebody sneezes on you you like
get it and it spreads all over your body
you know and I think you now that I've
said this you'll notice people are
talking about born in businesses people
are talking about M A now it's becoming
the thing but two years ago you did a
thing I think we did which was cool very
fair at a hundred million views a month
yeah I would say you can lay claim to
that I do I do get excited when I see
people you know on Twitter like using my
exact tweets for it I'm like I see you I
know I know we did that first
um
and so uh this is happening all over the
place and I the reason that I care about
this why would I go yell about this on
the internet why don't I just buy all
these businesses one I can't buy them
all
um two of these businesses are small so
they're super hard to aggregate what I
actually need to have happen is I need a
bunch of people to go buy up these
businesses and turn the onesie twosies
into two Z's and five C's where they
combine them and then once they're at
twosies fives these tenzies I can buy
the bigger ones but we actually need a
Groundswell movement of humans buying
these businesses otherwise what's gonna
happen
Walmart
Walgreens the big companies are going to
own all of them just like they're doing
with single family homes except on
steroids and uh I don't like that idea I
mean you
have seen this from traveling all over
the country there's a period when I was
in private Equity where I was traveling
every single week I was on like three
different planes a week in three
different cities we hit the million Mile
Club right oh yeah I mean it's banana I
was all over the place and I started to
realize God topico looks just like
Milwaukee looks just like because
they're all strip malls like that sucks
uh nobody wants strip malls with
commercial uh conglomerates if we want
the little mom and pop stores so my
mission is like listen you can buy these
businesses you can use seller financing
to do it not always but like let's just
ease you in with this idea that that
could be the case and these businesses
are not rocket science to run they are
painful there's hard work there for sure
but you don't have to be a genius to do
it in fact your community might need you
to do it and they're all around you so
instead of going and like trying to drop
ship a bunch of nonsense you
know talk to some of your local business
owners around you and see if you might
be able to even instead of coming and
working for us even go talk to your
local
hardware store owner who's probably
looking like he's going to retire in the
next 10 years become a mentee of his and
start talking to him about hey would you
be interested in potentially letting
somebody like me buy this business as
you transition out and I think that
could happen all around the country and
in fact I I think it already is
happening and I think we got three to
three to five to ten years of this
before maybe 20 years at the high end
before buying a businesses as
commoditized and normalized as buying
real estate that's interesting I yeah I
would not be surprised if that happens
on the lower end of that time scale yeah
as AI starts to match people up and
because I know uh was it in Japan that
somebody's already made a billion dollar
business just off of linking people it's
like sakshuma I can't remember his full
name but yes it's exactly it's a
glorified business brokerage yeah that's
all it is and like we were trying to
build some stuff around that in the same
vein here so we'll see if we're able to
accomplish it interesting
um but that like my mission my
Acquisitions used to be laundromats and
car washes and now that I've sort of
seen The Matrix and with our giant
ecosystem like we should own the entire
satellite ecosystem to SMB acquisition
interesting that would be amazing I mean
that's certainly Smart in terms of
broadening out which speaks to a quote
one of your mentors friends somebody
said hey do you think doing all the
small stuff is making you think too
small tell me about that bill Perkins
you know him died of zero I know of him
I don't know him personally you would
like him he's also Hardo yeah he uh
we're walking so Bill reached out to me
we invest in a company together a
company called skyfi really cool company
and
um
so I met him I was on a little panel and
I think I was given my song and dance
and afterwards he came up to me and he's
like lovely to meet you I want to talk
to you again later okay cool didn't know
anything about him so I went home and
read his book and read more about him
it's like interesting dude so we
exchanged contact information and he
invited me out to his house in Austin
which is this beautiful compound
and I remember first of all I was late
and seems to be a trend of mine and I
was panicked I like to be late and panic
about being late yeah yeah it's great so
how I like to start off conversations
and so
um
so anyway so I'm panicked uh we get
there I'm like Bill I'm so sorry you
know we'll cut the meeting short like
I'll be in and out and he's like take it
easy he's like I'm here for you I'm here
for this and I was like still I know you
got a busy day and he's like you're the
day and I'm like why
and he's like well talk to me what
you're doing so I tell him about you
know we're buying this we're doing this
we're building this and he's like it's
really interesting he's like I think you
have a uh generational wealth
opportunity here and I was like me too
you know we're trying to figure it out
and I tell them my plans and he looks at
me about halfway through and goes can I
just stop you for a second I'm like sure
of course
and he's like uh do you think you have
been investing in small business for so
long small has affected your thinking I
was like
uh I don't know what do you mean and he
sort of he gave me the advice that I
didn't know that I needed which was
man Cody you're thinking like a
millionaire somebody that has that many
zeros would think and here's what it
looks like to think like a billionaire
and I I didn't know I needed that push
but it was another example of I don't
really know how to learn except I get
around other people who have more than I
do and I just see how they think and
then it opens up this whole aperture
it's like almost before like these
cameras over here you know they start
out really tiny in me for money and then
the more people I can see when I see
what you guys have and what you all have
built I'm like oh wait there's another
level to the skin I kind of thought I
was doing it and that stuck with me and
and still does he texts me all the time
too he's like how we doing and you know
he's just like my little stress my
little stress text every once in a while
that's cool Lisa and I say the same
thing there's levels to this yeah
we it was so funny the the world or the
universe has a way of of letting you
know where you're really at so we bought
this house and I'm not joking like three
days later we get invited to P Diddy's
50th birthday party
first of all that's cool right was he
cool uh we didn't get to spend any time
with him okay because we were invited by
somebody that uh I think yeah she worked
with him at the time amazing ladies been
on Lisa show a couple times
um and so we go and he has a 22 I think
million dollar piece of art hanging in
like the foyer and I was like okay like
I know where I'm at just when I thought
I was the man I'm like Jesus Christ
three days later yeah this is hilarious
so yeah I was like that's why you have
to be so careful about what money is and
what money isn't because there is always
somebody like when I think about the Gap
in wealth between me and Elon Musk it's
actually hysterical like it for him my
my entire net worth is a rounding error
it's like it's just too funny so but
it's good it keeps you from taking this
kind of stuff too seriously dude it's so
good what's especially I think at our
like at a certain level after you've
well I was actually talking to Andrew
Wilkinson about this I don't know if you
know him anyway he's he's a cool guy he
runs a company called tiny Capital it's
actually a really smart thesis he buys
Venture companies so old Venture
companies that raise too much Capital
are never going to reach expectations
for pennies on the dollar wow so we
bought like girl boss from Sophia morosa
yeah and they had raised a bunch of
venture funding the company was never
going to be a venture scale business so
he recapitalized to a whole business
basically told all the investors like
you're going to get Pennies on the
dollars for this but you'll get
something and you'll exit and so he's
had a really successful history of doing
that smart dude and Canadians so very
nice and uh anyway so he and I were
talking and
um
we were like you know I think
there was that study that said
there's no additional happiness found
after a hundred thousand dollars made
and I didn't believe that 100 000 100
000 that's what hundred thousand dollars
we can we can Source this so so that was
uh you know everybody quoted it all over
the Internet after a hundred thousand
dollars no happiness made then somebody
went and re like replicated the study
and basically found all these all these
errors in the study and was like it's
actually it might even have been seventy
thousand dollars seventy to a hundred
thousand dollars yeah I think the
original was seventy two thousand oh
there you go right and I remember
thinking uh I didn't believe it either
no right and so then they redid and it
was like what 250 000 or something like
that don't know I never heard about the
redo there's a redo and so I went
through and was thinking about this and
I was like huh definitely I was happier
after I made 100K I think I was happier
at about 250k but I actually think like
material happiness for me at least after
500k I was like
hard for me now a house and nice
vacations like I'm not really into a
closed cars types of things but after
500K
if you take out the fact you can buy
nicer houses and you can go on a little
bit nicer vacations but not I don't even
really want to take that expensive of
Vacations so let's maybe just say even
house like not that much material change
in in happiness and what I thought was
interesting then is then it stops at
least for me becoming about money it's
like probably with 500k I could live per
year
is that can I pitch you on something
yeah tell me okay so first of all you
and I agree on the exact number yeah so
my team has asked me yeah when did you
feel rich yeah and I said you'll feel
rich when you make 500 000 a year yeah I
don't know what it is about that break
point but that's the first time you're
like if you didn't grow up with money so
for me I did not so when I hit 500 000 I
was like oh word yeah I'm rich and that
was awesome same now I will say that
your your early thesis that money is
power is so right that there's basically
no time where you won't think I wish I
was a little more powerful 100 so and
when P this makes me mad we all have a
thing where we Redline you said one
years earlier I forget what it was
um but my red line is where people are
like how could you even spend all that
money oh yeah what like I I'm not
kidding I could spend a hundred million
dollars on a long weekend intelligently
yeah buy a business you know how easy it
would be wait though you could do it if
you couldn't spend it on business things
okay do you know how much a video game
costs a triple A game do you know how
much
um Grand Theft Auto 6 is the one that's
about to come out you know how much it
cost no to make right yeah no but if you
can't spend it on business it can't be
any business it can't be anything
related to personal
um I could I mean yeah so private travel
alone is ungodly expensive and amazing I
never do it yeah because every time it's
like I I just everything becomes an
employee to me yeah so I'm like wait for
a round trip ticket on a private plane
first any even like to go to Miami and
back it's gonna be like 500 Grand sorry
100 Grand so I'm like uh for a hundred
thousand dollars that's an employee
that's a good employee yeah and I get to
work with them all year I could have a
meaningful relationship we might build
more so I just can't do it yeah uh but
yeah I could spend I could spend a lot
of money with and I'm not uh I mean look
I have a fancy house I'll be the first
to admit but I'm not like an extravagant
guy if you saw my car it's from 2012 it
was a little fancy in 2012. I've had a
rats nest literal rats nest in the
engine twice uh so yeah I'm not I don't
have any fancy watches my shoes cost
forty dollars like I'm not that guy uh
so but even then like there are so
you're taking away my one thing I know
that's the thing because that's mine too
yeah I could spend it has to facilitate
hundreds of millions of dollars on
business
will you if I said that I was going to
create Charter Schools yeah does that
count as business
yeah
it's like it would have to research yeah
I think that all right once you take all
if I just have to piss it away and it's
like Brewster's Millions yeah then
that's such an old reference yeah uh
then yeah I'm not gonna be able to do it
yeah but but I do think that is a red
line for me how could you spend all this
money in the idea that
I think when people say that what
they're saying is rich people you don't
need your money and so let us help you
and yeah if you're pursuing this gross
thing called money yeah yeah which I
just think is ridiculous because what's
the alternative you put it in the hands
of the people who have never earned a
dime and don't actually know how to
distribute it at all because they're
politicians so here is let's play
Devil's Advocate
so the one of the problems with money is
minus irresponsible money printing yeah
which is rampant so I get why people
don't think of it this way but money is
a zero-sum game if you don't print more
so let's talk about Bitcoin for a second
Bitcoin is a zero-sum game not in a bad
way I want people to understand that's
what makes it good yeah it's called hard
money we're gonna derail
anyway when there's a finite amount of
something somebody really can win it all
and now you're in a hard spot so people
see because they don't understand net
worth versus money in your bank which is
the big problem no matter how
many times I say it people still don't
get it but they think oh wait there's
only whatever two trillion dollars that
exists that's not true at all but
whatever they have a number in their
head and they're like uh Elon Musk has
160 billion like where's where's the
rest of it and they think somebody else
is poor because he has that money
because they don't understand how
Economics work now look neither do I
economics is insanely complicated but I
understand it well enough to know that's
not accurate uh but yeah people do not
understand money and it creates all
kinds of weird beliefs those weird
beliefs keep them poor yeah I think
you're right well I think you need to
understand at a base level the
difference between money and wealth and
so you know for instance you can create
there's zero-sum games would be like
um hedge fund trading or Stock Market
trading I categorically am going to sell
a stock because I think it's going down
and I hope it does because otherwise
I'll be kind of pissed if I sold it at
that level right and in order for me to
win somebody else has to lose because
you had to buy it at a point where it's
going down right zero-sum game stocks
that's I think what people think of when
they think of money when I think about
wealth though I think about
I have a house and the house is a shack
it's just almost a tear down but I work
to rebuild that house and the house that
I rebuild then becomes worth more than
it was before was anybody harmed or was
any cash taken away from anybody in the
creation of that house absolutely not
that's the difference between wealth and
money and so I think people get confused
with money like in order for my business
to sell more I have to take money away
from Tom's business that's what they
think about but they don't realize
there's this whole there's this whole
bucket over here that is just no there's
entropy that happens continuously in the
world around us and wealth is just the
manipulation of entropy to be creation
instead or betterment instead probably
better word there but at least that's
how I think about it yeah I think
thinking about it as a zero-sum game is
a wrong way to think about it you want
to be thinking about I've created
something of value that people would
they want that thing more than they want
their money and some people are just
better at bringing that kind of value to
people so um Jeff Bezos is such a great
example and I'm so sad that people think
negatively of him yeah like he gave us
the era where you can want something and
like eight hours later have it like it's
bananas and so I am so grateful for that
and because I'm old enough to realize
that's like a modern Miracle did not
used to be that way you used to have to
wait six weeks it's six weeks that's not
me being hyperbolic if you wanted to get
something in the mail and the fact that
they can get it to you the same day in
some cases is truly a modern Miracle
it's unbelievable he's driven the cost
of goods down he's negotiated on our
behalf I've been a product maker and
seller who's hated him for how they
negotiate with people that create
products but as a consumer it's awesome
so yeah I don't uh I grew up in the 80s
so for me it was like you wanted to
strive to be more and to make money and
to get rich and so I used to tell
anybody who would listen when I was a
kid I'm going to be rich I'm going to be
rich I'm going to be rich interesting
now I had no idea what it was going to
take
but because I believed it was possible I
just kept running forward oftentimes
falling on my face but I just kept
running forward it's one of those like
it's very cheesy and I don't believe in
manifesting at all but if you believe
you can you will act in accordance with
that if you believe you can't you will
act in accordance with that so it's not
you're not convincing the universe to
give you something you're just doing the
thing you needed to do to actually make
that come true which spoiler alert is
going and acquiring skills that's so
true yeah Dan Sullivan Sullivan from
strategic coach said something cool that
I really liked I realized that
not a lot like if you're the type of
person that feels you need motivation
you need inspiration you can't get
through your day like hearing all the
Tactical stuff is really difficult for
you to then get motivated to do the
right thing Dan solovis has Stan
Sullivan has this incredible framework
that was so simple for me that I really
liked at a time when I didn't want to
work that hard and it was
um basically he said something like uh
every single day I want you at the end
of the day to write down your three wins
three wins at all that you had from the
day and then I want you to write down
three wins that you will have tomorrow
and not like a big the type of one you
and I would write like I'm gonna close a
million dollars tomorrow but like an
achievable win that you know you are
probably gonna hit tomorrow and then I
want you to do that every single day for
30 days and what I thought was
interesting about that is because we are
so often in the you know the gap of like
I haven't achieved this I haven't done
this this other person's doing this I'm
not good enough that immediately puts
you in what he calls the game which is
no here are these three things that I
already did I'm already a winner because
sometimes you need proof that you are on
the right path forward and I find this
with working out for instance I'm not
um I'm so business motivated that I just
will work Non-Stop and for me to want to
get to like the six-pack level of
working out is hard actually I'll always
stay healthy and fit but to get to that
next level of fit I have to put in some
work you know you don't get a six-pack
by accident are you gonna do it oh yeah
I'm you're gonna go all the way I'm
gonna go all the way I know but it's
hard for guys it's even harder for women
no you're gonna have to want that I
know well and in order to do it I have
to put I have to say what am I willing
to sacrifice yep I have to put some
money on the table because otherwise I
won't do it I need interesting I need to
find somebody who uh has already done it
who I can steal their 10 000 hours I
have to track it and I have to make
movement on it every single day and then
what I realized is I was like oh God I'm
kind of weak I'm kind of weak minded in
this workout thing because my why isn't
big enough or I don't know what and so
the three wins each day started to help
me because I was feeling like I'm like
tracking there's 47 things I'm tracking
and it's just more stuff to do and I
couldn't get motivated and so
um I think even for people like me at
least and I don't know about you there
are things that I still have to trick my
mind into doing
Oh you mean everything not everything I
have to trick myself into so many things
interesting I just have rules and
procedures and like ways to build desire
and how to focus it's yeah left to my
own devices I am extraordinarily lazy I
am not driven at all uh it's it's really
bad I had to overcome a lot and it was
only shame that allowed me to get going
in the first place I had Big Dreams but
I I was what I called an empty dreamer
so I had Big Dreams but I was not doing
anything to actually make them come true
and I then managed to convince this
young Greek girl from England that I was
actually going to do these things and
told her father that I was going to make
his daughter Rich one day and he didn't
believe me uh and then I realized whoa
I'm not doing any of the things I would
need to do to actually make that come
true and I remember thinking this was
the exact thing I thought I now have a
witness to my crimes wow wow and so when
I lay in bed there's a witness there's
somebody else whose life now is worse
because I'm laying in bed and that
really made me feel badly about myself
and it ended up being the greatest thing
of all time because that got me up and
it got me going and once I realized oh
this is what's been missing this whole
time I have to take the steps I have to
do the thing and now I'm getting better
and better and better but I have to just
keep pushing myself and once I realized
oh my God like the human is the ultimate
adaptation machine but I have to put
myself in an in an adapt or die
situation push myself to learn to make
use of it to stay curious which I've
heard you talk about and if I do that oh
my God on a long enough timeline I
became obsessed with this idea on a long
enough timeline I can beat anyone at
anything because life is a game of
attrition and most people will quit and
I won't that's absolutely true and just
looping around that that another thing
that I say which I hope this will give
people listening to this particular
episode some solace
I can be laughed at longer than the
average person that's my superpower like
I'm not afraid to look dumb ever and I'm
not afraid that I will make mistakes and
I legitimately will embarrass myself and
it will actually hurt my credibility and
I'll have been here on social media
screaming from the rooftops what
I'm doing and something's not gonna go
well and people are going to point and
they're gonna laugh and it's gonna hurt
and in that moment it's either crumble
or just keep going internally laughing
knowing on a long enough timeline I'm
going to beat all of the people laughing
at me because I just don't stop yeah
that's so good you know I'm I'm toying
around with this idea right now that now
I've heard you say it and two other
people I know that are really successful
and I feel the same which is that I also
think there is a superpower in a partner
in this day and age there's a lot of
people who are alone who want to swipe
left and right Non-Stop and who are
looking for an ideal before bettering
themselves
and man every time I feel like there is
difficulty in my life extreme difficulty
having a partner that I know can weather
the storm with me is an absolute Game
Changer and I have a feeling that you
know I don't know let's check in again
when we're all 80 and see where we're at
but I have a feeling that that
um
that second hand second set of hands is
something that's missing in a lot of
this generation like they feel isolated
they feel alone they feel like there's
nobody that has their back
and that might be because they need to
choose a partner
um and I never used to think that but I
was in a bad partnership before
and there's also nothing worse than that
and so now having somebody where when
something's going wrong I do I think
about what would Chris think about my
actions in this instance like is this
how we want to represent ourselves as a
family and those are really powerful
feelings to have and I don't hear enough
people talking about them you know you
couldn't you couldn't pay me enough
money
to like have an affair on the side I'm
like are you kidding me I barely got
time for this guy you think I might have
another one like no way and then on top
of that the type of human that I strive
to be does not suffer that
and so
um
you know I think it's interesting like
sort of what we're having in the world
happen around us and how little we care
about Partnerships and maybe there's a
superpower there for the people who
choose and I'm not saying I mean who
knows we will be Chris and I always
laugh that we're not interested in like
mental or physical polyamory but maybe
you know check in again in 30 years you
know
um and uh how long have you guys been
married we've been married uh three
years and together for six and known
each other for 25. right you guys went
to high school together yeah that's
bananas yeah how long have you guys been
married been married 21 years that's
wild yeah it's dope it so here's the
punch line for anybody that's wondering
no amount of success no amount of money
can possibly touch the rewards of a
successful romantic partnership nothing
it it is the greatest joy life has to
offer you now I don't have kids even
after 21 years yeah yeah more now than
ever yeah now you have to know how to
navigate it and it is it is not the
simplest thing but it is the most
rewarding like it's unbelievable and
there was a great quote I don't remember
who said it but the people who take the
biggest risks have the strongest home
life oh good and I'm ever going home to
least I'm being like Oh my God that is
so true because the number of times that
both of us have thought you know we're
doing this saying it's hugely risky this
could really all fail and because
success there is no Finish Line so
despite all my success I don't feel like
oh I've made it I'm on the other side of
some magical line and I can never go
back I'm always like oh you're only
a small series of bad choices away from
being broke and so yeah it that feeling
at least for me has never gone away and
I always think well if it goes away will
I still have Lisa because if I still
have Lisa I'm good I won't be happy like
that would be traumatic don't get me
wrong but losing Lisa's losing Lisa and
brain damage those are the only two
things that legitimately scare me
everything else I'm like ah it wouldn't
be fun but I'll be fine on the other
side of it losing Lisa would be like
the effect in my life would be the same
as if the sun just ceased to exist and I
don't mean in a romantic Like You Are My
Sunshine I mean you're the gravitational
center of my life and I will fly off
into the ether without you like because
I've been with her since I was in my
early 20s so I legitimately don't know
who I would be like I don't know who I
would have developed into yeah had I not
been married to her so yeah that's
incredible well what's interesting too
is like
you know I have a little peek back here
because I was up there chatting with her
and we all have friends like you know
Vanessa that's been friends with her for
a long time and
so you know we meet a lot of people
online but you can tell like when I was
up there with you I was like oh yeah I
was just down with your wife that was
incredible you were like lucky what were
you guys talking about you were you know
it was genuine which is rare especially
where we are right now like what you
guys are surrounded by
hey that's interesting this is just like
business though so you go okay there's
physics to this situation yeah this
thing works in a certain way and can I
figure out how this thing works and if
you can figure out how the thing works
then you can navigate it well like okay
um there are what they call the Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse in a
relationship and the most common one is
contempt yeah and so we were just like
okay well then we know avoiding contempt
is like one of the most important things
that we can do in our relationship and
so I won't derail this conversation on
that but there are like things you can
do and they're just like daily habits
that you make sure that you're
constantly keeping the you know the
marriage tuned up you understand what
you're each good at so she's far more
likely to feel disconnected than I am so
we never wait for me to feel
disconnected if she says I'm feeling
disconnected then I stop working and I
go spend time with her and we just don't
violate that and so it's like yeah cool
because this is you know going back to
something I've heard you talk a lot
about values you have to know what
you're values are and I'm just Fearless
when it comes to prioritizing so my wife
is my number one priority yeah my
business is my second and my family's my
third now that my family doesn't love
that they don't love that they're in
third place but I'm just being honest
yeah yeah so but Lisa really is my
number one and we act accordingly now
that doesn't mean that she gets as much
of my time as the business but it does
mean when the two Collide and she says
hey I need time okay cool yeah I'm just
not conflicted yeah it's interesting too
we we kind of practice this thing kind
of like you talked about with um
like realizing how little we actually
need like when we go on vacations for
instance
um we'll usually start at like not a
very nice hotel and then we'll end up in
like a sick one you know so it's like
like a you know something maybe we'll go
camping in the first night or something
you're doing that on purpose we didn't
do it on purpose originally we do it
because he likes to go camping and I
don't like to go camping so I
want to go to the amagiri and he wants
to go camping and so we had what I want
and we start where he wants and then
after a while it became kind of a fun
game because it was like we have an
incred now it sucks if you flip it yeah
if you start you never end on the cold
shower no you never start exactly
exactly but but it's kind of a fun thing
just to realize to your point if you
have those North Stars about what really
matter then you can cut out all the
stuff that is the reason why most people
don't make change in their life I mean
when you have nothing and you have
nothing to lose that is the best time to
take massive risk the worst part about
as you get better and bigger and more
successful is you carry a lot of weight
right and so those are the golden
handcuffs that people talk about and
usually that's what stops you from
taking risk and I saw it again and again
and again in corporate finance and
people would be stuck in these jobs
these hated for decades and
um one of the things Chris and I like to
practice is like oh remember how little
we need as long as it's like the two of
us we can camp still maybe we can't go
to the Hungary but we can
we can survive and actually be really
really happy would it be traumatic yes
but we can go back to that place where
we can continue to take risk because for
sure I mean it'd be a lot safer for both
of us to not spend I'm sure the amount
of money we're spending building these
businesses and just keep keep the cash
you know there are plenty of people that
do that I thought a lot about that
as I pour millions of dollars into
building a video game that could fail
yeah yeah I'm hyper aware of that yeah
all right I want to talk about something
that I think makes you uniquely good
because anybody listening to this if
somewhere in their soul they can feel
uh that
you know something still that they don't
you've been entirely candid in this
conversation I don't doubt that for one
second I have a quote in here I want to
see if I can find it
um
there's actually a couple so I'm going
to read a couple quotes from you that I
think speak to this thing so money is
the financial Trojan Horse I use to get
people to start thinking critically and
that idea of critical thinking is the
thing I think that really makes you
special that you understand that clear
thinking is more important than just
about anything else and just hearing you
teach you're very good at like okay this
is the plan that we said we were going
to stick to we stick to this plan when
we deviate things go wrong and you're
just like boom boom boom boom boom down
I think that that's very important
uh here's another one everyone wants the
hack be the person who wants the work
that's
that's money
um and then one last one that I think is
really interesting choose being the
Victor over the victim always and you
said that in response to somebody saying
what's it like to be a woman in business
and I was like the the the Brits used to
do that like finger snap thing I was
just like that's so on point like look
it is things are going to be harder uh
whatever your problem is yes 100 gonna
be more difficult it could be uh your
skin color could be your gender it could
be your height it could be whatever the
way you were raised the fact that you
don't know anybody blah blah blah but if
you take that excuse which is incredibly
valid you won't get anywhere
and so you don't do any of that okay so
get that in people's heads there really
is something special about the way you
approach the world but there's also I
want to know what is it that makes you
good because you have to convince
business owners to sell to you how do
you do that
well on that last point one really
quickly nobody wants to see Goliath win
so everything that you think makes you a
victim is what will make your story
infinitely better when you win
and the only reason we remember David
through history is because it was a
small man with a slingshot up against a
giant that was sure to beat him and I
don't know when in today's world we
decided that having difficulties put in
front of you meant that you were meant
for Less that is such a false narrative
so I just don't ascribe to it I am very
aggressive when people ask me to come
speak at like hey you know we want a
woman CEO to come to an event I'm like
okay I don't know and uh and I just I
say no I go I'm not sure what my vagina
has to do with it which really also
makes people uncomfortable which makes
me chuckle you know I just happen to be
born with that I don't know
um and I think it's totally unrelated to
running a business so what are we
talking about here and um and I think if
more people felt like that then it would
just be zeroed out and you'd realize man
what an advantage like I hope they don't
find out that I'm the only
long-haired Latino woman at Goldman
Sachs that doesn't wear a suit and so
how much easier am I to remember than
all Brad's Chad's Toms and Larry it's
like a lot easier and so I think it's
it's you're doing yourself a huge
service if you choose to label yourself
as a victim uh and the moment that you
realize that it's the moment your life
will change and
um as far as like how do I get business
owners to convince uh how can I convince
business owners to sell to me
goes back to asking the right questions
I think in life if I could leave one
thing one of our taglines is question
everything including Me Maybe especially
me but question everything and with
business owners what's fascinating
what's annoying to them is young people
coming to them and saying hey you know I
want to buy your business oh my God
you're doing this and this and here's
what we should do differently and we're
going to put it on slack and we're going
to API into this it's none of that you
never go to a business owner and you say
here's all the things that I want to do
to this poor tragic thing that you've
put together and let me lead it from the
future instead you come with a lot of
empathy like a journalist and you say if
if you were a local
auto mechanic owner I would go something
like this I'd go curiosity
empathy
pain pushing
solution giving
so I'd first go
hey Tom incredible you've built this
place this is your place oh that's so
cool how long you've been running it a
couple years that's awesome who's who's
gear number two who's taken over next oh
nobody yet okay cool like how many
people do you get in here man this is
crazy company curious right I'm just
starting to get to know you I'm not
telling you anything about me I'm just
being a human engaged with you because
that's rare then two empathy wow you
started this 20 years ago from nothing
you could and you built this up to what
oh my God how many employees do you have
today like I'm feeling it with you right
then once I understand a little bit
about your business and I show that I'm
empathetic with you I start to push on
the pain
oh man 20 years that's a long time like
sometimes
20 years is enough you know and you're
like yeah it feels like that on
some Tuesdays I'm like me too I used to
run this business you know uh the
employees are the tough part right yeah
man I'm looking for a new manager you
know I'd really like to retire and you
start to push on the pain buttons now
you can't create pain so you're really
only looking for the person that already
wants to sell they just might not know
it or they might not want to tell you
right
and I want to push on the things that
could be painful for them so that they
realize that I'm here to give them a
solution and then the last thing that
we're going to do is solution solving so
then we're going to say Ah that's
incredible like you built this huge
business you know you're kind of ready
to go on your next adventure there's
some stuff that's like a little bit
overwhelming in this business
interesting gosh you know I
I don't know if I told you this but like
I do buy businesses now I've never
bought a mechanic business locate
locally here but like I live down the
way and actually like I know so and so
that owns this business up along here
too
I buy businesses it kind of sounds like
they might be in your wheelhouse now I
have no idea if we would be like a match
for each other at all but if you're open
to it maybe I could just take a look at
what you guys do overall and we could
see if at the right price and the right
terms there might be something here for
us maybe it's months down the road maybe
it's years but regardless you'd at least
have a valuation for what your business
might be worth if you want to sell I
don't know if that might be interesting
to you and usually at that point they go
something like huh I don't like explain
to me what would that look like and that
moment what would that look like explain
that to me
is the open door and that's when you
start to figure out is there a dance
here and then one thing that I make sure
that I do is no matter how that
engagement goes I make sure that
engagement is a win for them every time
so if that business is awful and I would
never want something to do with it I'd
put together a little something for them
I'd be like okay
so
here's how businesses are bought you
know here's the valuation here's like a
little industry report on your business
if you ever wanted to sell this one your
business is a little too small for what
I typically buy but I actually could
maybe make some intros to some other
people if you were seriously thinking
about it or we could like touch base in
a few months I'm happy to be a resource
for you I want them to feel good about
it every time because what happens
business owners all talk to other
business owners because we're all
getting punched in the face together and
so they might not be your seller but the
next guy might be your seller or gal and
so that's that's the way it goes you
just start with curiosity empathy pain
pushing solution solving and you do it
again and again again until you find
you're still in the Cinderella shoe
and how do you go about
like what's the ratio of number of
pitches to Deals close like I know in
real estate that's a big thing you have
to have bird dogs that are out there
like how do you get the deal flow it's
so I don't do it I've never been a cold
calling mass volume type of gal I hate
that game I'm much more a I connect with
humans one-on-one and I get to know them
and usually they'll either take me
somewhere as in the form of a referral
or something with them so if I was to do
this I'd do something called a personal
p l review which basically means I mean
you could do the same thing probably
have but you look at all the things you
spend money on both personally in your
business and this is really easy for
business owners if there's any business
owners listening you should pay
attention in your business you spend
money on
I don't know ads you might have a vendor
that does ads for you you might have a
vendor that does events for you you
might have a vendor that does
um Studio setup and takedown everything
that is a liability or cost me money on
a monthly basis or an annual basis I
note and then I look for three things I
look for can I get to the owner of the
business AKA Jeff Bezos probably not
going to sell to me also couldn't afford
it is the business interesting to me
that I might actually want to own it
like I probably don't want to own
in accounting business for instance for
liability reasons but I might want to
own an ad agency or at least part of it
and then the third aspect of it is is
this a business uh owner that is aligned
with my Target demographic of a seller
so if I want to buy the business
outright it needs to be the owner that
wants to sell not a growth minded or
owner like you're not looking for a
young gun that's cruising right now
you're looking for somebody who's
probably a little bit older and ready to
exit
and on the other hand if you just want a
part of the business especially like you
Tom bill you if you're like huh like I
actually want a young owner because I
just want to own 30 of that business for
the cash flow and I want a young gun
that's going to grow it but if I mention
my vendors for this on my podcast once
I'm going to 5x this business so why
don't you give me 30 of the company for
the upside that I'm going to give and
we're basically just going to wipe out
one of the costs on my bottom line and
so um and usually you can you can do
those type of deals like
Revenue share profit shares what Equity
deals with you know one of three things
you either bring them more revenue or
profits so increase Revenue you can
decrease costs so help them cut centers
of costs in the business or you can
operationalize the business you could
take away pain from the owner like oh
man you know you don't have any systems
in here what about
um you know putting Sops what if we put
EOS over your business business owners
usually feel pain when they're not
operationally aligned when they have too
many costs or when they're not bringing
in enough cash and so for any of those
three things you could buy a business
for theoretically zero dollars
makes a lot of sense
um you talked about money Sweat Equity
does money and Sweat Equity do they
match out or is one more valuable than
the other
I talk about the get rich tripod which
is basically this you have no excuse to
not buy a business if you say I don't
have money it's not an excuse if you say
I don't have time that's not an excuse
if you say I don't have experience
that's not an excuse now might be a
reason why not to because you don't want
to that's cool but any of those three
things shouldn't stop you and here's the
reason why because buying a business is
like a tripod so you have three legs to
the stand money is your highest leverage
like right because it's not finite like
time is so if you have money you always
want to put money into a deal because
Tom's time is actually worth way more
than your dollars and so for most people
who have money it's much more expensive
to get an hour of Jeff bezos's time than
a hundred thousand dollars from Jeff
Bezos one's not equally weighted right
so I always try to use money if I can
first in a deal because I don't want my
time involved unless I have experience
which allows me to be a better deal
maker then I don't even have to use
money because and I don't have to use my
time because I really have experience
that this company wants or I have
experience at deal structuring so let's
say for instance I'm an accountant
I have a friend who has cash I have
another friend who has time like they
want to operate a business and I have
the experience of running an accounting
firm before or being an accountant I
might be able to get access to a deal
for zero dollars because I just have
knowledge that they don't I could
consult on it I could be a part of the
business in some way but my experience
could be an option and then the third is
if you don't have experience and you
don't have money you have time that's
pure Sweat Equity so this is basically
what Venture Capital does like Venture
capitalists say I have billions of
dollars you go take the pain of face
kicking on a startup I will give you
capital and you will pay me a return
based on my Capital at some point paired
with your time
and uh and so that's what you can do if
you have neither of the two so there are
people every day that I hire and get
equity in my businesses because they
operate them there are people every day
that I hire and get equity in my
businesses because they have experience
and then right now I'm the only money in
my businesses but uh theoretically if
people build funds like Ray dalios he
just uses other people's money right
okay people have gone on this crazy
Journey with us
um
they really are edging towards
sovereignty yeah owning their own life
being able to control themselves
why does that matter what's that I hear
you talk I almost never hear people use
the word sovereignty but you talk about
it a lot
I really should use more
like uh you know 25 cent words I think I
think sovereignty is the right word it's
just Irreplaceable
um you know sovereignty in my mind is
the ability to be a self-providing
island in a world of humans that need
Connection in order to survive and I
think money is one of the fastest ways
to get to sovereignty because it allows
you to build resources power tools and
time basically and so you know one of
the reasons that I'm obsessed with this
mission of skin in the game and people
becoming owners is because I think that
we are giving away our sovereignty and
we really saw it over the last couple of
years in many instances I was like you I
believed in no conspiracy theories I
kind of thought they were all crazy and
this is not political I think both the
left and right are nuts
um but what I realized is very few
humans had decision-making power because
they didn't have enough cash to sustain
themselves to make difficult decisions
one way or the other and they didn't
have enough cash to have the willpower
to say something one way or the other
and I just saw it I saw it for the first
time ever and I realized the people
who are actually Sovereign were those
who had built up uh assets which really
like form the modern day sword and
shield and so that's why I'm obsessed
with Financial Freedom because I think
you need to be healthy which is really
important to your mission
bank account doesn't really matter if
you don't have your health and you need
to be able to think critically in order
to make the right decisions at the right
time for yourself but even if you're
healthy and you can think critically but
you don't have Assets in this world I
think you're in trouble because people
will push upon your sovereignty
continuously and your only pushback is
zeros
and I think it's the only international
language that everybody speaks in this
day and age now maybe it won't always be
that way but I do believe that it is
that way today yeah I'm gonna guess that
it's always gonna be that way I don't
see a way around it yeah
um so given the importance of being able
to think critically given the fact that
you're you have named your company about
not conforming to anybody else's way of
thought yeah do you have a method for
thinking critically yeah I mean the only
method that I have is to to follow the
grades like we just launched this
Instagram account actually today and the
reason why is because what's the account
it's called contrarian thinking we're
really an original around here you know
also I'm terrible at naming companies
like could there be more vowels in that
company I could barely spell contrarian
um anyway the the we launched this
account because
I did money first like the Trojan Horse
like we were talking about because I
started in 2020 talking about contrarian
thinking like let's think for ourselves
let's look at these problems happening
in the world today what's going on like
can we can we have debates about this
let's let the ideas compete and
basically people are like I think great
what's going on up here it's awesome and
I'm right about those things because
people don't really want to question
their own thinking we want to question
everybody else's and we never want to go
huh idea in my head do I actually
believe you cognitive dissonance is hard
and so we started with money we got a
lot of people hyped about money and now
I realize it's shallow and we want to
make sure we go deep too and I think the
next step is we go to the greats who are
contrarians at huge personal risk to
themselves and kind of have this idea
which I've never really talked about
before but you know how Ryan holiday did
really normalize stoicism this method of
thinking that like basically was can you
be sort of the the calm in the storm
despite what's going on
and I think contrarian thinking is never
going to be stoicism in an ism
perspective but it might not be enough
to be a calm in a storm we might also
have to add like a push back to the wave
and so the idea is we put together some
of the top 150 contrarian thinkers who
paid prices for ideas that turned out to
be true do you have anybody off the top
of your head oh yeah I mean um taught
you know tons of them I have like you
know you have Aristotle you have Plato
you have uh Marie Curie you have
um you have Confucius you have
um uh oh my gosh the world is not flat
it is around
um Galileo uh yeah oh my gosh she's just
pretty sure Galileo was the one that got
can we let's look it up is it Galileo
okay we'll find out um tell us how smart
we are or not how cultured um and so so
we put together this list and then
there's like Christopher Hitchens who's
a perf like a personal favorite of mine
letters to Young contrarians he's
fascinating to me because he changed his
mind like four times on life-alterating
altering decisions he was a
communist really atheist and then by the
end of his life he was a capitalist
Christian really I don't know his story
well yeah it's actually a fascinating
story
um letters to Young contrains an
interesting book to read a fast one but
I also like going through and reading
some of his quotes because they really
punch you in the gut um and so I like
humans he obviously questioned his own
thinking multiple times and towards the
end of his life he had to go back and
say half the things that he thought were
true turns out they're not backed by
facts Thomas soul is another contrarian
thinker basically eradicated from the
history of the great economists because
his ideas were not politically correct
yeah he's amazing though he's amazing
yeah and so that is the only way that I
know to get better is like can I go to
people who have had these ideas before
and then could I try to backtrack the
way that they think do you know
Churchill much
besides reading his biography but I
think he would be another good one he's
hyper contrarian hyper contrarian that's
one of the things I find so interesting
is man talk about somebody who paid a
price for his opinions and he just could
not help himself like pathologically he
said I'm always going to say what I
think is true no matter what the price
is that's impressive and then he did it
and ends up still becoming prime
minister but there were times where he
for sure thought I'm done in politics
I'll never make it now because I just
had to say this thing that I thought was
true and then obviously he's banging on
about Hitler from like day one guys he's
a problem he's a problem I'm telling you
like this guy is going to be a disaster
he's built he's going for war I'm
telling you he's going to invade and
everyone's like oh Jesus here is
Churchill again just not shut up about
this guy and people were saying like I
don't know like Hitler seems like a nice
enough guy and he's like what the
like this guy's a psychopath no one
would listen he invades and obviously
the rest is history but it is very
impressive it is so easy to just not and
smile when it would be very
uncomfortable to push back
it's very easy I have a lot of
admiration for people who don't you know
what I thought was interesting about
Churchill too that I didn't know was
that he refused to meet Hitler did you
read about like and and I I never
thought about that because a lot of
times
like some of the big podcasters today
for instance will say you know who
should we have on a podcast one way or
the other and
um I always have sort of had the mindset
of well just anybody that you want to
curiously talk to them about their ideas
and then I remember reading that story
about Churchill how he wouldn't meet
with Hitler because he thought that the
more you met with a person the more
human you could see in them and it would
cloud your thinking about interesting
well the bad news is he did meet with
Mussolini yeah he did meet and for years
had a photo of Mussolini like a signed
photo of Mussolini in his house or his
office oh that's good and then it was
like oh whoops is like you know you put
the photo down real quick no perfect
humans yeah no I mean look you to be the
when I agree to have a guest on it's
like you do some vetting for sure but
you can only do so much yeah plus yeah I
don't know I'm not weird about
platforming people yeah my thing is do
they have something useful yeah and if
they're saying something crazy do you
push back and say that's crazy now no
one is going to be perfect I'm sure
there are things that I wish I'd push
back on and the worst part is when
somebody Clips something out they say
something crazy and you're like but but
if you look at the greater context like
I was in the middle of something thing
and like by the time he was finished
with the thing it's like ah we'd moved
on past that anyway it is a risk of the
job but yeah
do you bring on people that you know
you're gonna disagree with like I do now
I didn't for a very long time so the
show has gone through three very
distinct phases and it's only been in
phase three where I'm like I will
actively bring somebody on if I think
that we can have a good faith
conversation about something and then
it's like and I do really weigh a lot
like how far do I Stray how far do I ask
my audience to go with me on the Journey
of empowerment to me until you are fully
Sovereign you are not empowered yeah but
phase one was just like think like this
act like this people loved it they
celebrated me I did like they were sort
of albums of me like doing these really
inspirational riffs yeah we'd put music
to it and it was like that was a lot of
fun I had a great time and then it just
got to the point where I'd be
interviewing somebody and I'm like half
of what you're saying is and so
we'd film for an hour and a half and
release the 30 minute episode because
I'm like yeah so rather than confront
them I'd just be like well we're gonna
cut that out we're gonna cut that up
yeah because I like to get along I don't
you invite someone on your show and then
you're gonna like yeah it just it I
didn't like it yeah and then I started
to feel like a coward and so when 2020
kicked off and all hell broke loose I
felt like a coward and so I had Jordan
Peterson in my ear being like all it
takes for evil to win is for good men to
remain silent so I'm like oh God I'm
start talking about this and so I
thought okay yep don't be a coward say
what you think and so I started saying
what I thought and then it became
for a while our views really went down
and then then because you have to build
the new audience and then they started
going up and we were bigger than ever
and then I changed again and we went
down again and now we're bigger than
ever again so it's like the audience
keeps rewarding me on a long enough
timeline but uh uh yeah so it it is very
difficult to try to always see things
through that lens yeah to to
help other people see what I see I'm not
super good at that so it takes me a lot
of time to be able to say simply in a
single sentence like this is my thesis
these this is how these things connect
but so I'm working on that now but it's
as I said to my team uh you either lose
me as a host or we figure out a way to
expand who we can have on the show
because otherwise I just get bored oh
yeah 100 yeah that's one of my biggest
fears about talking or about doing a
podcast is I think the you get you lose
tolerance for
shallow conversation or really
and you don't want to be rude because
there's like it's one thing if you're
like oh no intellectually let's debate
because there's something interesting
there and I disagree and let's go and
there's something else with
this is it's not going to be fair or
it's just going to be mean right and so
what's the point in going at somebody
I've never really liked that it'll get
so it has gotten more fun for me and
part of it is okay now the audience
knows that I am going to push back when
I disagree in Phase One it would have
been so jarring I remember we actually
didn't release an episode I don't know
if I've ever talked about this before so
the when I decided okay I'm gonna start
pushing back on people we had somebody
come on the show who's very what I'll
call woo-woo oh yeah I don't have a
bone in my body and so we
started getting into it now I felt I was
being very respectful and I was only
saying what I believed and I was leaving
space But like I disagree with his ideas
and he disagreed with mine yeah so we
were like going back and forth and it
was like getting pretty intense you
could tell he had never been disagreed
with before he was so used to people
being like yeah manifestation is real
and I was just like
I don't see how that works and like let
me lay it out and so then it got
religious and so I was like well so I
can understand your position which is
curiosity right so I'm I'm not attacking
you yeah I just want to map what you
think is true but dude one thing I have
learned if you make people say in a
single sense what they believe and you
don't let them dance around and use
flowery words and you're just like are
you saying this
you can make them extremely
uncomfortable interesting it's
fascinating so that interview I was like
okay to my team I was like I don't know
if that was amazing or if that was trash
and they said the whole company
was gathered around the money because we
did it live so like this where we've got
somebody editing so it used to be in a
totally different room the whole company
was around the computer watching because
they'd only ever seen me do phase one
interviews fascinating and so they were
like what the is happening and so
we ended up not launching it because it
I guess I came across a little
aggressive so we ended up not it was a
while yeah well I live in Austin Land of
the woo-woo so I've I've heard it all oh
my God Austin to the maximum really oh
yeah I mean we were at part of this one
gym shout out Squatch there's actually
like there was an Instagram Channel
about like overheard in Austin or
something or maybe it was Twitter but
yeah I mean I would be in the sauna
and I eventually just told my husband
I'm like we gotta stop going there I was
like everybody's really nice but we're
in the sauna and I'm like oh what's
going on with Cody she's like I'm
rainbow I'm like and
um true story and I'm like that's cool
man you know great and somebody else
walks in it's it's her dude and I'm like
you know how are you guys what's going
on being normal I think they're like you
know great and and I didn't know this
stuff then but they had like the the
marks from like the toad you can like
you you like DMT no I think it's called
bufo Buffet oh yeah yeah okay I know of
it I've never done it yeah so no no it
leaves marks on you yeah it's like
little Burns and circles so I was like
oh man what happened there what's that
and he starts to explain it and then
they start to tell me that they live at
a
um a female coven
uh that is located in Austin that uh she
is the god what was the word I wish I
could remember this
she was the not the goddess but
something equally cringe of so she was
in charge of the coven of witches that
he lived in and um and I remember just
sitting there thinking this is
fascinating and also I wish I had
something to sell you guys because I bet
you would buy it like this is incredible
and so that's Austin basically today wow
even more so than L.A you guys had
witches yeah oh yeah the whole the whole
thing interesting last time I was in uh
actually what's that fancy no it wasn't
so one of the main streets in Hollywood
or Venice and there's a there's like a
Crystal Store there you've probably been
you seem like a crystal guy I'm going to
Crystal stores as As a matter of course
and I remember we were walking by and
they had a like a you know Crystal all
crystals being sold sale so I walked in
and I was like oh business is tough huh
like going out of sale nobody has money
by crystals and they're like oh no we're
getting a bigger store that one across
the way like two times the size wow I
was like yeah
you know explains it yeah yeah not your
people so I shouldn't send you a crystal
next time I probably shouldn't send me a
crystal it's very sweet and I appreciate
the thought it's very generous but I yes
I will not be wearing crystals or
putting them under my pillow or anything
like that but it is fun so here's what I
try to do because I actually don't like
being a dick that's not my personality
at all so I'm always like with genuine
curiosity I want to understand what do
you think is happening like is it that
there's something going on at the
quantum level that we don't understand
these crystals or what uh but that's
where people tend to derail when you
make them say it in very succinct ways
yeah and then I have a special place in
my heart for people who use quantum to
mean magic I can't I can't deal with it
like if if you do that you will not be a
guest on this show I can't do it I think
it's amazing I actually find the whole
thing fascinating because it's just such
a like have you watched that show it's
like how to build a cult or something
like that how to become a cult leader
this is amazing uh and I I think it's
really interesting that we humans I do
think we're in search of purpose at all
times and so you can either determine
your own or you can be given it and um
and I think in this day and age there's
so many people that want purpose oh very
bad that they will turn to things that
seem like they give them purpose and so
I do think it's something it's a
slippery slope I'm maybe a little bit
judgy about that
um just that I think you should
determine your own purpose and it's
probably not in you know feathered caps
and crystal necklaces but you know
that's that's just me yeah so how do you
determine your purpose
well I go back again and again too
the best
advice is the advice you give yourself
and I think most people know deep inside
if they were to spend some time with
themselves if they were to stop
distracting themselves if they were to
stop
medicating themselves and spend some
time in the awful place that is just you
in front of the mirror
then I think you actually often find
exactly what you're looking for and most
people
just aren't willing to look in the
mirror and I was one of those people for
a long time too I mean I was in
Corporate America for like 12 or 13
years living other people's dreams and
it took me really spending some time by
myself to realize man like this isn't
what I'm supposed to be doing and so I
really think for most humans it's you
got to start knowing yourself and that
was the secret that was told to us a
billion years ago by an oracle actually
to come from a circle you know and uh
and so I think if you're lost like you
probably have more answers than you
think listen to podcasts like this you
can believe in yourself a little bit
more but just start paying more
attention yourself because it's hard to
hide you know once you feel the sense of
purpose you can't let it go like it
becomes an obsession and watch out
everything else but most people cover it
up
has been amazing Cody Sanchez where can
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take care peace if you want to scale
your business and avoid all the BS
advice out there check out my latest
episode with Alex hormozzi you can drink
and do drugs and watch porn if you still
do this that's all that matters I want
to do the formula and then live my life
how I want to live each of us gets to
make a daily choice to