REAL AF with Andy Frisella - 494. Small Business Revolution In America Ft. Codie Sanchez

00:00:00.000 What is up guys, it's Andy Priscilla and this is the show for the realist's sake, goodbye

00:00:20.440 to the lies, the fakeness and delusions of modern society and welcome to motherfucking

00:00:24.580 reality.

00:00:25.020 Guys, today we have a special full-length episode with a very special guest that I will

00:00:29.620 introduce in just a moment.

00:00:31.520 If this is your first time listening, we do shows within the show.

00:00:34.380 This is not your normal podcast.

00:00:35.780 We have a number of different formats.

00:00:37.100 Today, you're going to hear a full-length podcast.

00:00:38.720 It's very similar to what you see on most other podcasts, but other times when you tune

00:00:43.460 in, you're going to have a variety, a plethora of options.

00:00:47.540 We have Q&AF.

00:00:48.900 Q&AF is a question and answer show.

00:00:51.040 For those of you that don't know, I'm an entrepreneur.

00:00:53.240 I've been mildly successful to say the least.

00:00:55.800 And I share my information with you guys for free when you ask me for shit that you

00:01:00.200 want to know.

00:01:00.820 You could submit your questions a few different ways.

00:01:03.880 The first way, guys, email those questions into askandy at andyfriscilla.com.

00:01:08.460 Or if you didn't know, we just started uploading our full-length episodes on YouTube after eight

00:01:15.540 years at being audio exclusive.

00:01:17.340 I know a lot of you guys are still on all the audio platforms and that's how you like to

00:01:21.060 do it.

00:01:21.320 That's cool too.

00:01:22.220 But if you want to submit some questions, you could submit a question underneath the

00:01:26.740 video episode on YouTube of Q&AF and we'll pick some questions from there as well.

00:01:31.240 Other times when you tune in, we'll have CTI.

00:01:33.360 That stands for Cruise the Internet.

00:01:35.100 That's where we talk about current events, the news.

00:01:37.720 We talk about what's going on in the world.

00:01:39.340 We speculate.

00:01:40.260 We talk about who's lying, who's telling the truth, and we make fun of all these dumb

00:01:43.360 motherfuckers.

00:01:44.720 And if you have no sense of humor, you're not going to like that show.

00:01:48.360 So I just pass on that.

00:01:49.420 And then other times you're going to have real talk.

00:01:51.620 Real talk is just five to 20 minutes.

00:01:53.160 You guys would probably call it a rant.

00:01:54.420 I just call it the truth.

00:01:55.660 And that's pretty much the wrap up of the show.

00:01:57.940 And a lot of you guys ask all the time, you're like, well, why do you guys talk about politics?

00:02:01.440 You know what, Andy?

00:02:02.080 I really like your business advice.

00:02:04.180 You know, it's really helped me a lot, but your politics are really fucking stupid.

00:02:07.620 Well, let me explain to you something.

00:02:08.980 It's very unlikely that I'm stupid in one area and good at the other area.

00:02:12.120 The reason I talk about the social issues that you need to know about is because without

00:02:17.220 a clean environment of freedom, we cannot prosper as entrepreneurs.

00:02:21.460 So while we've all had our heads in the sand for the last 15 years, living it up, making

00:02:27.160 great money, doing great shit, some people have gotten in the way and they're taking our

00:02:31.960 freedom.

00:02:32.520 And if they continue to take our freedom, we won't have the opportunities to grow our

00:02:36.260 businesses.

00:02:36.660 And that's reality.

00:02:37.700 Think of it like fish in the fish tank.

00:02:39.680 If you don't clean the tank, the fucking fish die.

00:02:42.320 That's why I talk about politics.

00:02:43.780 That's why I talk about social issues and for all of that shit.

00:02:47.600 Okay.

00:02:48.720 If we provide value, if we make you laugh, if we make you think, if we do a good job,

00:02:53.180 if you learn something, if it helps you out, whatever the case may be, if you like the

00:02:58.380 show and it wasn't a waste of time, please share the show.

00:03:00.560 That's what we refer to when we say pay the fee.

00:03:03.020 I've never run an ad for this show.

00:03:04.840 I don't run ads on this show.

00:03:06.380 You're not going to hear me talk about a bunch of shit that I don't use, that I take

00:03:09.720 money for.

00:03:10.260 I'm independently wealthy.

00:03:11.140 I don't have to take anybody's money.

00:03:12.240 And that way you get my straight fucking opinion every single time.

00:03:15.900 And in exchange for that, please tell somebody about the show.

00:03:18.520 That's it.

00:03:19.360 If we do a bad job, you don't have to tell anybody.

00:03:20.880 I'm not asking to share the show.

00:03:22.100 Just if we do good, we just happen to always do good.

00:03:25.000 All right.

00:03:25.840 So what's happening, DJ?

00:03:27.260 What's going on, brother?

00:03:27.960 Hello, children.

00:03:28.680 We have a very special guest.

00:03:30.780 Yeah, we do.

00:03:32.760 Mrs. Cody Sanchez in the house.

00:03:35.520 Thanks for having me.

00:03:36.420 What's going on?

00:03:36.800 Yeah.

00:03:37.140 It's good.

00:03:37.760 It's great to see you.

00:03:39.020 It's great to have you guys here.

00:03:40.180 Both of you.

00:03:40.840 Right back at you.

00:03:41.520 It's cool seeing your facility.

00:03:42.900 This is wild.

00:03:43.860 Thank you.

00:03:44.400 We've only seen half of it.

00:03:45.400 We still got the other half of the tour.

00:03:46.840 That's tiny.

00:03:47.480 It's really small.

00:03:48.160 What I've seen so far.

00:03:49.620 Really little.

00:03:50.800 I asked you to come on the show because I feel like, and this is a genuine feeling of

00:03:56.240 mine, that I feel like you're putting out some of the best entrepreneurial content on

00:03:59.940 the internet right now.

00:04:00.820 So, as an actual operator of businesses, it's very easy for me to see who's who when it comes

00:04:08.600 to who's giving advice.

00:04:10.700 I just had Eric Spofford on.

00:04:12.880 Eric Spofford is an actual operator.

00:04:14.820 I can recognize it.

00:04:16.200 You're an actual operator.

00:04:17.480 I can recognize that.

00:04:18.420 And we're filled with a world of people pretending to be operators to sell their coaching.

00:04:23.080 And so, what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to expose people to real entrepreneurs, people

00:04:27.960 who understand real things.

00:04:29.160 And I've been watching your content consistently for at least a year.

00:04:33.660 And you're doing a freaking awesome job with it.

00:04:35.900 So, I'm excited to have you on the show.

00:04:38.200 Well, same.

00:04:38.700 I feel the exact same way.

00:04:39.900 Just watching your operation here.

00:04:41.460 I mean, talking about tactics.

00:04:42.900 I've been listening to you for a while too.

00:04:44.240 Probably more than a year.

00:04:46.420 And a couple things really just blew me away when I walked in here that we talked about

00:04:50.620 prior.

00:04:51.900 But I hope on this podcast, what we get to do today is like, I think we should go pretty

00:04:56.340 deep on tactics.

00:04:57.720 I think your audience can handle it and can actually make some change because we have so

00:05:03.160 many crazy people in the world today.

00:05:04.560 Like, let's make some more owners because like we were talking about before, we don't

00:05:08.360 have enough people with skin in the game.

00:05:09.320 Yeah.

00:05:09.760 One of the things that I like about you that you talk about consistently is how successful

00:05:15.520 boring businesses can be.

00:05:19.120 Let's talk about that because that's something that no one else is talking about.

00:05:22.240 Everybody else is talking about e-com and they're talking about, you know, I'm going

00:05:26.200 to become the next Facebook or they got these big plans, right?

00:05:29.500 That never happened.

00:05:30.940 And, you know, nobody's talking about the real bread and butter that actually produces

00:05:34.940 most of the success in the United States of America, which is small mom and pop, medium

00:05:40.720 sized mom and pop, boring shit that you never think about.

00:05:43.700 And like, give us a little history and let these guys know where you come from, because

00:05:49.060 like that content to me is the shit where I watch it.

00:05:52.120 And I'm like, dude, that's fucking gold.

00:05:54.400 And I don't know that everybody recognizes how gold that actually is.

00:05:58.100 Well, I think one of the things most people don't realize is we're kind of under attack

00:06:01.560 from a technical standpoint in this country.

00:06:04.200 Like we got a bunch of people that fuck around on the Internet and, you know, we're doing it

00:06:07.940 right now that want to be on TikTok and YouTube and don't want to go become a plumber

00:06:12.360 or become a welder.

00:06:14.720 And yet plumbers and welders make more than people in marketing, aka TikTokers, by and

00:06:19.440 large.

00:06:19.880 And simultaneously, I think what people don't realize, but they do, is that when you don't

00:06:25.520 have a lot of cash and there's a recession and things are going bad, but your toilet

00:06:29.380 breaks, you fucking call the plumber.

00:06:31.780 And so these businesses are not recession proof.

00:06:34.820 I don't really like that word, but they're really resistant.

00:06:36.680 And so I obsess on businesses that make communities thrive, that people have to spend money on

00:06:43.300 no matter what, because they're the trades that are specialties.

00:06:47.160 And I've done that for like 15 years.

00:06:49.160 I used to call it private equity.

00:06:50.500 Like this is not really a new thing.

00:06:52.540 It's just nobody was on the Internet talking about it.

00:06:54.840 And it was actually because so when I started in finance, one of my first bosses, who was

00:06:59.860 the CEO of a pretty big company, a couple of hundreds of billions of dollars under management.

00:07:03.860 And he said to me, when I started speaking on a few circuits about private equity, what

00:07:11.340 we do, we buy these little businesses, we apply leverage, aka other people's money on

00:07:15.040 it, and we help them grow.

00:07:16.900 And he's like, Cody, we get rich quietly here.

00:07:20.700 And I was like, yeah, kind of.

00:07:23.280 But like, we can't buy all of these small businesses.

00:07:26.220 I think we should have more people learn how to buy small businesses because then they'll

00:07:30.900 make the businesses bigger and then we can buy the bigger businesses.

00:07:33.400 And right now, what's happening instead is all over this country right now.

00:07:38.080 There's 11.2 million small businesses for sale in the U.S.

00:07:42.080 Let's be real and say like 10 to 12 million.

00:07:44.540 It's real hard to track.

00:07:46.120 And out of these 12 million small businesses, let's say, one in 12 in a year will not sell.

00:07:52.240 So that means they're just getting shut down.

00:07:54.160 And you know, because you've run businesses, every business has value.

00:07:57.500 Like let's say just this little podcast business that you have.

00:08:01.280 Imagine you shut down tomorrow.

00:08:02.600 Well, what do you do with all the camera gear?

00:08:04.520 Well, what about your historical videos?

00:08:06.000 Well, what about your AdSense revenue on YouTube?

00:08:08.120 There's a value in everything.

00:08:09.940 And so I get obsessed with how do I buy those businesses before they turn to zero?

00:08:15.420 Because that's a travesty for the person who built that business that gets no value out of it.

00:08:20.420 And for the assets that just disappear, they just go poof.

00:08:23.340 How much of this do you think has to do with cultural differences between the generations?

00:08:31.300 Meaning, so I noticed this too, right?

00:08:33.980 Like I have a couple of building projects going on.

00:08:36.960 Actually, a couple of really big projects, construction projects, and then some smaller projects for personal stuff.

00:08:42.580 And it's hard to find trades, right?

00:08:45.020 Like people don't want to work.

00:08:46.420 They look at the sparkly, shiny things like we talked about, e-com, TikTok, YouTube superstar.

00:08:54.060 And they think, fuck, I don't want to own a plumbing company.

00:08:56.640 You know how many rich motherfucking plumbing company dudes I know?

00:08:59.300 Like quite a few of them.

00:09:00.300 And dude, we're in a vacuum right now, I think, where, and I think the data shows it.

00:09:07.120 You know, you and I, I think we were talking about that article from Japan, where in Japan right now,

00:09:12.480 they have a situation where a lot of the older business people want to retire,

00:09:17.080 but they don't have kids or they don't have people interested in taking those businesses.

00:09:21.380 How many of those 10 to 12 million businesses do you think that's the situation,

00:09:26.160 where they just don't have an error or maybe they have kids.

00:09:30.660 It's a session plan.

00:09:31.280 Yeah, but their kids don't want to work.

00:09:32.960 Yeah.

00:09:33.300 You know what I'm saying?

00:09:34.080 And it seems to me like it's a cultural difference, like where they want to work.

00:09:38.940 But the reality is, is because what you guys all have to really think about,

00:09:43.980 what I would encourage you to think about is that the less there are of those things,

00:09:48.480 the more they are worth.

00:09:49.520 So you might look at a plumber because you've looked at a plumber with a condescending view, right?

00:09:54.980 Like you think of a plumber as like some big fat dude underneath the sink with his ass crack sticking

00:09:59.600 out, right?

00:10:00.120 Like we all think of, they made a million, but the reality is there's so few people getting

00:10:05.220 into the electrical trades, getting into the plumbing trades, getting into construction trades

00:10:09.000 that those jobs are going to become increasingly more high pay, not less pay, you know, because

00:10:15.220 there's none, there's none around.

00:10:16.300 So I'm curious to think what you think about, about, about all that.

00:10:19.840 Yeah.

00:10:20.000 Well, one, I mean, in Japan, yeah, they're giving away businesses for free, which is wild.

00:10:24.120 That's crazy.

00:10:24.540 And these are profitable cash flowing businesses.

00:10:26.780 These are not businesses that you have to plow money into.

00:10:28.900 These are not what I call hopes and dreams, AKA Silicon Valley, venture capital, social

00:10:33.140 media apps.

00:10:34.100 These are real businesses that the day one you take it over, they start cash flowing to

00:10:37.080 you.

00:10:37.980 And, and the reason is exactly that.

00:10:39.760 I think there's a mismatch.

00:10:40.900 You know, where we are in my mind is we're like 20 years ago in real estate.

00:10:45.100 Remember when real estate and maybe a lot of people listening, but there didn't used to

00:10:48.920 be MLS forever publicly.

00:10:51.000 Zillow and Redfin are very new.

00:10:52.700 You didn't used to be able to go and see what something was worth really easily in the real

00:10:56.540 estate market.

00:10:57.220 Now it's become a commodity, right?

00:10:58.920 Stocks used to be like that 50 years ago.

00:11:01.540 The next, I think, venture is businesses.

00:11:05.700 Right now, businesses are just a little bit harder to buy.

00:11:08.280 They're not all the same.

00:11:09.480 They're not the same price on the same block like a house is.

00:11:11.740 But in the future, I think there's going to be technology that changes that.

00:11:14.620 So anybody that starts buying businesses now, you're taking advantage of, this is kind of

00:11:19.360 a big word, but in finance, we call it, you know, opaqueness in a market.

00:11:22.840 And anytime there's opaqueness, meaning that you can't see through it, it's not see-through

00:11:26.440 glass.

00:11:27.160 Then you have an arbitrage window, meaning that you can make more money.

00:11:31.560 And every time an arbitrage window happens, they close at some point.

00:11:35.640 And usually they close pretty quickly.

00:11:37.100 But this one won't because businesses are really different.

00:11:39.680 So I think actually there's, I think there's a couple of false narratives.

00:11:43.660 First false narrative is there are actually, my businesses, we don't have a hard time hiring.

00:11:48.580 Your business, you probably don't have a hard time hiring.

00:11:51.100 Why?

00:11:51.720 Because you're a good operator.

00:11:53.580 This is the beautiful part about small businesses is the guys operating these businesses, like

00:11:58.940 bless them because they powered our communities for years, but they're operating on fax machines.

00:12:04.960 You know, we got, I mean, I went into a place the other day.

00:12:08.080 They're running on dot matrix printers.

00:12:09.680 Yeah.

00:12:09.860 He asked me, he sent me his AOL address.

00:12:13.220 I'm like, immediately I want to buy your business because I know there's opportunity for the

00:12:16.500 upside.

00:12:17.020 Right.

00:12:17.560 And so they just don't have the right technology.

00:12:20.820 But when you are our generation, you're interested in technology, you can overlay technology,

00:12:26.140 marketing, and social media on a plumbing company.

00:12:28.380 It becomes pretty damn sexy.

00:12:29.880 Actually, if you like money in your bank account and not, you know, egotistical follows on social

00:12:34.340 media, then you'd be into it.

00:12:35.980 No, I'd rather just be famous.

00:12:40.020 There's some downsides.

00:12:41.280 I think people don't realize.

00:12:42.320 Yeah.

00:12:42.480 We could talk about that all day.

00:12:44.940 So what do you, so let's get into some of these tactics that you want to talk about

00:12:48.260 because I'm, I'm definitely, I want to showcase the things that you want to talk about here

00:12:52.080 because I think you're, like I said, putting out some amazing content that people need to

00:12:56.020 know.

00:12:56.520 What are some of the key, key performance indicators that you look at when you're looking

00:12:59.980 to buy a small business that, that make it appealing for you?

00:13:02.520 Yeah.

00:13:02.940 Well, what, you know, what's cool is you just told me a story that I didn't know about

00:13:05.680 you, which is how'd you start this bad boy?

00:13:08.460 You did a $0 asset acquisition basically.

00:13:12.320 Yeah.

00:13:12.440 You know, you basically had first form, well, it wasn't first form back then, but let's

00:13:16.460 just simplify it.

00:13:16.720 It's called Submo Superstores.

00:13:17.900 Yeah.

00:13:18.040 It's our retail company.

00:13:18.920 We still own it.

00:13:19.580 Right.

00:13:19.900 Yeah.

00:13:20.020 And, and you did, and you probably didn't even know what it was called back then.

00:13:22.600 You were just like, you have this excess machinery and you have a problem with it

00:13:27.040 where you can't make that machinery make you money.

00:13:29.380 And so I'm going to come in and I'm going to make this machinery make you money.

00:13:32.540 And for that, you're going to give me part of the company.

00:13:34.260 That's right.

00:13:34.560 And that's called an asset acquisition.

00:13:36.500 And you did it with $0 and just your smarts.

00:13:39.760 And the thing is, in finance, we learn all this stuff real early.

00:13:42.260 We learn terms like leverage buyouts, which basically just mean buy something, use somebody

00:13:46.880 else's money.

00:13:47.860 You know, we learn these things like asset acquisition, which basically just means somebody

00:13:51.780 has something that can produce and you buy it.

00:13:55.560 And, uh, but when I, you know, was starting out, I didn't know any of this stuff.

00:13:58.680 So I think the most important part for, for people listening today is basically the second

00:14:03.380 that you want to get bored listening to us.

00:14:04.900 And the second that you want to instead go watch, I don't know, you know, the Senate

00:14:09.800 hearing or whatever it was, and they're shitting on Howard Schultz, or you want to get into

00:14:12.780 what's happening in Nashville and you want to like get on the, the wheel of, um, angriness

00:14:17.700 because of what's happening in the media, like stop and listen and get excited when

00:14:21.660 people talk about taxes, finances, and individual metrics, because that's where all the money

00:14:25.240 is at one of my favorite, uh, mentors, he said something like he's a KKR, uh, which

00:14:31.760 is a big private equity firm for people listening.

00:14:34.300 Um, and he said, uh, rich people don't bitch about taxes and then pay them, which is what

00:14:41.800 poor people do.

00:14:42.740 Rich people learn about taxes and then outsmart them.

00:14:46.040 And so I think that's the same thing with buying businesses.

00:14:48.900 So the first thing I would say, if you listen to anything, it's just like, Hey, a bunch of

00:14:52.320 businesses are for sale.

00:14:53.400 If you don't know how to do deals, you should probably learn how to do deals and you can go

00:14:56.580 to the internet and just Google deal making.

00:14:58.900 You can Google private equity.

00:14:59.880 So I think that's first, the second thing that I'll say, and then I'd be curious, your

00:15:03.180 take is like, when I buy a business, a lot of people, they put a lens on a business that's

00:15:10.200 Pollyanna.

00:15:11.240 And so they'll look at a business to buy and they'll say, well, if I'm in charge of this

00:15:15.700 business, then we're going to do X millions.

00:15:18.040 The most important thing you have to remember when buying businesses is you want to buy businesses

00:15:21.660 for what they are today.

00:15:22.960 You want to look them in the eye.

00:15:24.100 And if they're ugly, you want to tell them they're ugly.

00:15:26.020 And you don't want to try to buy a business and think that you're going to be better than the

00:15:29.380 plumber that was in place there before because you're probably not.

00:15:32.420 And so I buy profitable cash flowing businesses.

00:15:35.480 And so my little framework to make it easy, because I think that's important on the internet,

00:15:38.940 this stuff intimidated me before too, is called BRRT, which means buy boring businesses that

00:15:44.620 are profitable.

00:15:45.400 They have to make money in recession resistant asset classes like plumbing, landscaping, construction,

00:15:51.700 right?

00:15:53.440 Raise prices because the average small business is underpriced by three X in what they sell

00:15:58.900 and then add technology.

00:16:00.760 And that's kind of it.

00:16:01.900 If you understand that, then you can take it to the next level.

00:16:04.840 But I think it's really cool because I never knew that you started your company through

00:16:07.120 an acquisition kind of.

00:16:08.240 Yeah.

00:16:08.360 Well, I mean, sort of.

00:16:09.900 I mean, we still had to operate.

00:16:11.180 It wasn't from like an investment standpoint.

00:16:12.840 You know, my take on my take on what you're talking about is like, because I'm not a that's

00:16:18.700 not what I do.

00:16:19.460 I'm a I'm a brand builder.

00:16:21.220 I'm a business builder, pure operator.

00:16:23.420 So like, I'm not a guy who goes out and invests and buy shit.

00:16:26.280 The shit that I've acquired happened to be just stuff that was coming my way that made

00:16:30.540 sense.

00:16:31.180 And I picked it up along the way.

00:16:32.440 I really don't do any sort of investment outside of my wheelhouse because I'm literally

00:16:37.160 dedicated to this for life.

00:16:38.620 Like, I'm going to build the next fucking Nike.

00:16:40.140 So like, do you ever buy companies and add them in?

00:16:43.840 Yeah, we do.

00:16:44.780 We've done it a couple of times.

00:16:46.120 But most of the time, those companies would be the exception to your rule because they

00:16:50.160 actually were run like shit.

00:16:51.520 And I was able to turn them into something completely different.

00:16:54.460 Interesting.

00:16:54.960 So I think it depends on how much you want to put your hands in it.

00:16:57.740 But running a portfolio of a number of different companies that are unrelated, like you guys

00:17:03.100 do, I think that's, you know, it's just a different animal.

00:17:05.960 You know what I mean?

00:17:06.460 And I think your system for that will probably make a lot of sense.

00:17:09.220 And it's probably very true.

00:17:11.920 I look to vertically integrate.

00:17:13.580 So like when I acquire anything, it's all about where does it fit in our supply chain?

00:17:18.480 You know, we own things all the way from some of the land that some of the shit that we

00:17:22.480 put in our products has grown on all the way down to the finished goods in our own finished

00:17:26.740 stores.

00:17:27.260 So my whole plan is to vertically integrate all areas of our business so that they all,

00:17:32.140 you know, we have more value.

00:17:34.040 So, um, I, you know, I think there's multiple ways to look at it, but I think that there's

00:17:39.760 massive opportunity, especially for young people right now who are in their twenties

00:17:45.200 who are like, dude, I want to be an entrepreneur.

00:17:46.780 I want to be a business owner.

00:17:47.920 I want to do this to do it just like you guys have done it, which I think is fucking cool.

00:17:52.400 Well, I think the other thing is too, you had an idea and you were obsessed with that

00:17:57.200 idea and I've stayed obsessed with it for 24 years.

00:17:59.300 What if you're sitting out there right now and you don't have an idea, but you don't

00:18:02.520 want to work for somebody else and you know that you've got the grind and the hustle and

00:18:06.260 the figure it out, but you don't have some brilliant Facebook, YouTube, Tesla, you know,

00:18:11.160 in your, in your mind.

00:18:12.640 And for those people, I really like this type of entrepreneurship because you start, I call

00:18:18.280 them the gateway drug businesses because once you get the business bug, like you can't stop.

00:18:23.400 I mean, we were talking about this before.

00:18:25.000 I mean, it's painful, right?

00:18:26.580 Running these things.

00:18:27.300 It's the weirdest shit ever because it fucking, it sucks.

00:18:30.920 Every, we got on this tangent before the show started about fucking happiness.

00:18:34.940 Like people.

00:18:38.800 All right.

00:18:39.400 I'm just going to fucking say it.

00:18:40.540 A lot of you young motherfuckers have no idea what the fuck you're talking about.

00:18:44.280 And you fuck yourselves over, over and over and over again in your life.

00:18:47.320 And you really don't even know how bad you're fucking yourselves over because you put happiness

00:18:50.520 at the forefront of the life equation.

00:18:52.760 When in reality, happiness is something that you produce through struggle, through purpose,

00:18:57.800 through discipline, through overcoming.

00:18:59.960 Okay.

00:19:00.620 And what you end up doing is you go from this thing to that thing, to this career, to that

00:19:05.460 career, to this, to that, to this, and what's going to end up happening.

00:19:08.240 And when it happens, don't fucking come crying to me because I don't give a shit.

00:19:12.440 I try to warn you, you're going to be 50 years old.

00:19:14.900 You're going to be tired as fuck and you're going to have to work because you're going

00:19:17.960 to have to eat.

00:19:18.720 And that's going to, that's where this chasing happiness shit that these young people are

00:19:23.860 all about right now is going to, is going to end up because I'm going to tell you something.

00:19:27.580 And I know this is true for you guys too.

00:19:29.080 I've worked every motherfucking day since I was 19 years old, hard as fuck.

00:19:33.080 Okay.

00:19:33.480 Like none of this shit was given to me.

00:19:35.180 Not any of it was given to me.

00:19:36.880 In fact, I believe I should be much further down the road for the amount of work that

00:19:41.600 I've done.

00:19:42.260 And I just see these young people all day long because they see these dudes traveling the

00:19:47.060 internet or these people traveling in there and they're fucking rented band, you know,

00:19:51.260 taking pictures of the fucking mountains and shit on their journey.

00:19:54.260 Right.

00:19:55.200 And they still think that, you know, when I get to be 35, I'll figure it out and then

00:19:58.660 I'll start, bro.

00:19:59.360 There's not enough time.

00:20:00.480 You're not that good.

00:20:01.940 You don't have the time you think you have and people don't realize that.

00:20:05.260 And so one of the things I like about what you're talking about and what you do is that

00:20:10.260 it allows these exact people who may not like their career.

00:20:14.040 They may not like exactly their job, but instead of hopping from thing to thing, to thing,

00:20:19.000 to thing, to thing, you could actually learn what Cody's talking about and you can build

00:20:23.120 a portfolio, an asset portfolio that could be bigger than even maybe like what I do with

00:20:28.200 one or two or three brands.

00:20:29.620 Right.

00:20:30.040 Like that's it.

00:20:30.640 That's a huge thing.

00:20:31.720 And the reason I really wanted you to come on was to show people this because nobody's

00:20:36.840 talking about it and it's a huge issue.

00:20:38.780 And there's there's like do 12 million fucking businesses out there for sale that people

00:20:43.540 can't give away.

00:20:44.860 Like you can't tell me that you can't get creative on some financing and figure out how to pick

00:20:49.180 up one or two of these things and get to work.

00:20:50.880 Like that's that's it's right there for us to take.

00:20:54.960 And in fact, I'm sitting here thinking I'm like, shit, dude, I should start building a

00:20:58.600 portfolio of these small businesses like this is something I could do with very little

00:21:01.520 effort.

00:21:02.040 You absolutely should.

00:21:02.760 Yeah.

00:21:02.960 And, you know, and the other thing to talk about happiness for a second, you know, happiness

00:21:06.360 looks like purpose.

00:21:07.400 And I think people are robbing us at the elite levels in society by making us think that we're

00:21:13.420 not capable.

00:21:14.100 Hold on.

00:21:14.500 We're the elite.

00:21:15.440 Well, that's true.

00:21:16.000 They're not the fucking elite.

00:21:17.000 Fuck them.

00:21:17.820 That's a good caveat.

00:21:18.500 You know, I think I think anybody who tells you you can't, you know, somebody else has

00:21:24.140 to solve it for you here.

00:21:25.380 Let me help it.

00:21:26.360 You should run.

00:21:27.020 You should walk or you should run, not walk away from them.

00:21:29.420 In fact, you should be leaning into everybody who tells you it's hard, but hey, like you

00:21:33.140 can figure it out.

00:21:33.940 And that's the thing about small business.

00:21:35.480 You know, I get pissed because people on the Internet all the time are like, you know,

00:21:38.320 oh, you know, you can't really buy a small business if you've never won run one before.

00:21:43.000 Oh, buying small businesses is just for people who have a lot of money.

00:21:45.880 And I'm like, I can show you we track I'm ex-finance.

00:21:49.280 I can't help it.

00:21:49.880 We track every single dollar in profit and revenue that somebody has sent us their actual

00:21:55.220 bank statement and PPM, basically the offer doc that shows people they bought a business.

00:21:59.000 We track every single dollar that we aggregate.

00:22:02.340 Our people who follow us in one capacity or the other on the Internet and in our groups

00:22:06.200 have bought $97 million in profit.

00:22:09.660 And so like this is we've only been talking about this for a year and a half.

00:22:12.800 These are people who, you know, one of them, Renan, is a single father.

00:22:16.800 He bought an $8 million business.

00:22:18.980 This is not normal.

00:22:19.960 This was a cool deal.

00:22:20.940 But he bought an $8 million business for $0 in seller financing.

00:22:24.680 And he now runs this big HVAC trucking company in New Jersey.

00:22:28.360 And instead of having to travel nonstop because he wanted to hang with his kid more, he gets

00:22:32.520 to run a local business.

00:22:33.980 Is it easy?

00:22:35.380 No.

00:22:36.080 But is it simple?

00:22:37.180 Yes.

00:22:38.020 And so I think the purpose that Renan has from that job as opposed to working a job that he

00:22:44.780 hates and resenting the person who's giving him money to feed himself, that's a sickness.

00:22:50.500 You know, I don't think.

00:22:51.980 That is a sickness.

00:22:53.660 It's a sickness.

00:22:54.840 And I don't think that everybody needs to be an owner.

00:22:57.120 But I think more people need to be an owner in the U.S.

00:23:00.400 I think there's a lot of people.

00:23:02.560 I think there's a distinct difference between operators.

00:23:06.980 Like, look, entrepreneurship.

00:23:09.600 I've been in this entrepreneurship platform game for 12 years now at a high level.

00:23:14.480 OK, 10, 10, 12 years, 10 years at a high level.

00:23:18.240 I went right to the fucking top.

00:23:19.400 I can tell you for fucking sure, for sure, that most of the people out there that are

00:23:27.600 out there looking to do whatever it is that they want to do, they are consistently overlooking

00:23:33.300 the low-hanging fruit for the big glory plays that everybody else seems to be hitting it big

00:23:39.000 with.

00:23:39.240 And it's so frustrating to watch these people do that because they talk about purpose and

00:23:44.680 they talk about what they want to be happy, right?

00:23:47.920 Well, bro, if you want to have purpose and you want to be happy, all you have to do is

00:23:52.700 decide what the fuck your purpose is.

00:23:54.880 And a lot of people, they're chasing this fake, because I've seen it happen for over a

00:24:01.680 decade.

00:24:02.060 There's this fake image of entrepreneurship being sold.

00:24:05.600 And in my opinion, I think there's a lot of people who think they are equipped to actually

00:24:10.020 operate that really aren't.

00:24:11.800 But I also believe on the flip side that there's a lot of people who are intimidated by doing

00:24:16.860 it that could do it, that won't do it because of the fake shit that's been spewed out about

00:24:22.660 the internet on the internet or the entrepreneurship has been branded as something for everyone when

00:24:28.320 it's not.

00:24:28.980 It's not for everyone.

00:24:30.100 That doesn't mean it's not for you.

00:24:31.440 It's just not for everyone.

00:24:32.400 And it's hard as fuck and it's not for someone who says, oh, I want to be happy every day.

00:24:38.280 It's not for that.

00:24:39.240 Like it's for people that want to solve fucking problems and actually build real shit.

00:24:42.920 And it's interesting to me to watch the dynamic of like people who should be entrepreneurs,

00:24:50.740 not be.

00:24:51.360 And then people who quote unquote are entrepreneurs that shouldn't be like watching this whole

00:24:57.160 thing happen and then seeing all of these influencers out there who are pretend entrepreneurs tell

00:25:02.660 these people how easy it is and how simple it is and how quick it can be and how rich

00:25:07.360 they got.

00:25:08.240 And here's look at my cars.

00:25:09.380 And by the way, I fucking love cars.

00:25:10.900 But guess what?

00:25:11.480 I earned every motherfucking one of them.

00:25:13.120 I didn't fake it.

00:25:14.580 Okay.

00:25:14.940 And like, dude, we have such an interesting cultural dynamic around the idea of being your

00:25:20.520 own boss.

00:25:21.840 People don't realize that when you're your own boss, you're not really your own boss

00:25:25.640 because the customers are the boss of you.

00:25:28.120 That's the reality.

00:25:29.240 And so it's just interesting to me to watch how this is all played out because I see like,

00:25:34.740 dude, even when I go to events and speak sometimes, which I don't do very much anymore,

00:25:39.860 the questions I usually get are like, they come from a place of total confusion.

00:25:45.980 Like people are totally confused about what it is they should or shouldn't be doing.

00:25:49.900 You know, they hear, they hear, and I love Gary V, bro.

00:25:53.520 He's one of my really good friends.

00:25:55.100 I talk to him all the time, but they hear Gary say, you know, happiness, passion, purpose.

00:25:59.420 And they, they, they, what they hear, because Gary presents it a certain way, which is always

00:26:03.860 a nice way to present it.

00:26:05.220 A lot of times they hear like no friction, easy, fun all the time.

00:26:10.760 Right.

00:26:11.120 And that's not reality.

00:26:12.220 And so like this issue of happiness that we talk about, and by the way, bro, I love you,

00:26:16.920 Gary.

00:26:17.160 I'm not talking shit.

00:26:17.940 I'm just saying people sometimes misinterpret what you're trying to say.

00:26:21.480 I know what you're trying to say.

00:26:23.400 But that happened to me too.

00:26:24.680 Like, like my team, one of us, like we put out content now, right?

00:26:28.460 But I own these 24 businesses.

00:26:30.280 So content is 10% of what I do and the businesses are 90%.

00:26:33.920 And maybe now it's like 20, 80.

00:26:36.500 But so my team puts out a lot of content for me too.

00:26:39.600 And I review all of it, but sometimes, and one of these times I saw them use the words

00:26:43.640 passive income, which is a huge no-no for me.

00:26:46.860 I don't believe in those two words.

00:26:48.000 Run from that shit.

00:26:48.340 It's not real.

00:26:48.780 I don't believe it.

00:26:49.180 It's not a real thing.

00:26:49.900 It's not real.

00:26:50.460 Now, I believe in horizontal versus vertical income.

00:26:52.940 Vertical meaning you make it in your nine to five and that, you know, your time is tied

00:26:57.900 to that dollar.

00:26:58.760 Okay.

00:26:59.020 You can't have horizontal, which means your time's not exactly tied to it.

00:27:03.100 AKA rental properties, a secondary business that you own, the bonds or mutual funds that

00:27:08.660 cashflow to you.

00:27:10.080 Horizontal.

00:27:10.580 Yeah.

00:27:11.000 Not passive.

00:27:12.140 Ask anybody who owns a real estate company where they rent property if it's passive.

00:27:17.280 Ask anybody.

00:27:18.600 The internet got very mad at me about that though.

00:27:20.980 Really?

00:27:21.380 Oh yeah.

00:27:21.720 I did a tweet, which is always a dangerous thing to do.

00:27:24.780 And it said, and it said, it said exactly that.

00:27:29.760 It said, if you've, if just about ask any, ask anybody who has run any sort of real estate

00:27:35.340 portfolio, if it's passive, and I'll tell you if they're a liar or not.

00:27:38.460 Yeah.

00:27:38.860 And the internet was like, no, I run it completely remote.

00:27:41.340 I'm like, I can tell you who's got a course or not based on the answers to these questions.

00:27:45.360 No shit, dude.

00:27:46.020 No shit.

00:27:46.900 It's a fact.

00:27:47.920 Like, dude, that's a flat out fucking lie.

00:27:49.840 And it only takes your first property to learn that lesson.

00:27:52.520 Yeah.

00:27:52.780 You know, now, now maybe if you own 10,000 units and you have proper management in place

00:27:59.080 and your cashflow and real good, maybe it's, maybe it's passive then.

00:28:03.020 Right.

00:28:03.400 Yeah.

00:28:03.720 Cause you're fucked.

00:28:04.360 But like, dude, the amount of work it takes to get to that point, it sure is fucking passive.

00:28:08.460 No.

00:28:08.900 And that is the biggest lie told on the internet.

00:28:10.900 It's the biggest lie.

00:28:11.680 But I also think there's joy in it.

00:28:13.140 I mean, we talked about this before.

00:28:14.360 Your company does a lot in revenue now.

00:28:16.820 We won't say how much, but it does a lot and it doesn't get easier.

00:28:19.960 There's always somebody fucking up when you have a big company, but you actually find joy

00:28:24.260 in it.

00:28:25.160 I mean, I find if you put me in a room with a bunch of people who only want to talk about

00:28:29.420 the weather or sports, sorry, Cardinals, I know it's opening day.

00:28:32.480 Like I'd rather shoot my brains out than sit in that room.

00:28:36.160 Now, if I get to sit in a room with a bunch of people who are building things, I don't

00:28:38.840 care if it's tractor supply or carpeting.

00:28:42.580 I find that so much more interesting because we humans are meant to be here to build something.

00:28:48.300 And I think there is an assault on ownership in the US and you saw it yesterday.

00:28:52.900 Actually, if you watched, do you watch any of the Howard Schultz stuff?

00:28:56.320 So they basically, you know, Bernie Sanders was coming after him and kept calling him

00:29:03.500 a billionaire in the way that you would say a four letter word, right?

00:29:07.420 And so Howard stopped him and said, hey, wait a second.

00:29:11.460 I don't like how you're using this word.

00:29:13.980 I grew up in subsidized government housing.

00:29:17.080 I built a company up from nothing.

00:29:19.880 Nobody handed me anything.

00:29:21.360 And I thought I was the achievement of the American dream.

00:29:23.840 And now you're calling me a billionaire, but it sounds like, fuck you, right?

00:29:28.980 And he might have not said those last two words.

00:29:33.440 And Bernie tried to shut him up.

00:29:34.980 And Bernie tried to shut him up.

00:29:36.140 And more power to Howard that he, you know, pushed back.

00:29:39.920 But I think they're trying to pit us against owners, which is why I want more small business

00:29:44.920 owners, because tragedy of the commons, man.

00:29:48.340 If nobody owns anything, if nobody, if everybody's responsible for something, then nobody's responsible

00:29:54.540 for it.

00:29:55.040 That's the goal.

00:29:55.700 That's cultural Marxism.

00:29:57.120 The goal, the goal is to pit.

00:29:58.940 Like, if you go to Karl Marx grave, it says on his gravestone, workers of the world unite,

00:30:04.060 but they don't want to do work.

00:30:05.380 They're not workers.

00:30:06.220 They just want the shit.

00:30:07.440 And Bernie Sanders is just a dude who is perfectly OK with owning three fucking massive houses,

00:30:12.900 OK, on other people's money.

00:30:15.260 But for Howard, and by the way, it's kind of, in my opinion, it's interesting, at least.

00:30:23.160 I kind of think what Howard is getting is part karma, because he's facilitated this fucking

00:30:28.400 bullshit in his own company for how many years?

00:30:31.700 Like, I think most of the socialism in this country was born in a fucking Starbucks.

00:30:37.400 So now you're starting.

00:30:38.720 I'm being real.

00:30:39.700 It's real, bro.

00:30:40.080 Go to Starbucks.

00:30:41.180 Listen to the fucking employees.

00:30:43.540 He's cultivated that woke ass culture inside his company.

00:30:46.640 Now he's getting hurt for it.

00:30:48.440 I don't do that shit here.

00:30:49.900 So you woke motherfuckers come here.

00:30:51.500 You find out real fast about what it is.

00:30:54.200 Real talk.

00:30:55.360 You won't get in.

00:30:56.040 I won't hire you.

00:30:57.500 Discriminate and sue me all you want.

00:30:58.680 I don't give a shit.

00:31:00.020 But while you're looking for people who actually want to put their nose to the grindstone.

00:31:03.260 And I think, I mean, my husband and I kind of joke about it.

00:31:06.860 There's part of me that loves those humans.

00:31:09.200 There is part of me that loves the people that don't do the work.

00:31:12.220 Because for every person like that, it just means it's a little easier for the rest of us.

00:31:17.000 And so I actually think, you know, people in finance, we don't like to teach people how to buy businesses using leverage and using these structures.

00:31:25.560 Because then people would realize, oh God, why am I paying $2 and $20 to a bunch of financial professionals to run a private equity company when I could go out and buy the neighborhood laundromat?

00:31:34.360 Or when I could start really small.

00:31:36.100 Like if I was a high school student, my father was an entrepreneur for years.

00:31:40.760 He would never call himself that, by the way, which I think is funny.

00:31:42.980 He'd be like I was a small business owner.

00:31:44.380 But I mean, I would start with like a vending machine route.

00:31:48.240 I would buy a couple of used vending machines and I would learn the game of business by understanding a P&L and inventory management and doing it with a thousand bucks.

00:31:57.480 Yeah.

00:31:57.640 And you know what?

00:31:58.200 You can learn that shit in a fucking day.

00:32:00.200 A day.

00:32:00.660 A day.

00:32:01.500 Like one day.

00:32:02.280 Like the terms intimidate people.

00:32:05.080 A hundred percent.

00:32:05.480 You know, they hear all the terms or they hear someone who's smart, like you are talking about all the shit that you know, like the back of your hand and it confuses them to where they're like, oh, I could never learn all this.

00:32:16.180 But really, dude, it's like 10 things.

00:32:17.640 And if you can learn them all like real quick, like, you know what I'm saying?

00:32:21.760 It's interesting that you say that about the about the building thing, because I'm the same exact way.

00:32:26.600 Like I, I don't care if we're building a snow cone stand.

00:32:29.740 I don't care if we're building.

00:32:31.580 It doesn't matter.

00:32:32.460 I have to.

00:32:33.160 I have to create shit.

00:32:34.500 Like I help a lot of my friends with their businesses for free because I care about them and I want to see their businesses win.

00:32:40.900 And it's honestly like that's more fucking fun for me than even working on my own shit at this point in time.

00:32:46.980 And I love it's funny because it's there's a paradox almost there because like it's hard and it's kind of stressful, but I'm also the happiest when I'm like that.

00:32:57.520 And that's what's so interesting to me about how people value their happiness.

00:33:00.940 It's like, dude, if you're really if you're really being honest, are you happy when you're sitting at the at the Starbucks with a coffee and a fucking donut working on your are you happy or are you really happy when shit's hard and you're like coming up with a solution and you're overcoming some of the shit that we have to overcome that to me.

00:33:20.020 And I know everybody's not wired like me and you, OK, but and this is what I'm talking about, that, you know, the eight percent of people that should be running businesses versus the ninety two percent that shouldn't.

00:33:29.360 Most of those people should be those kinds of people where they can recognize the happiness in the struggle, because, dude, for me, like I am happy like this is this is really fucked up to say.

00:33:40.700 And it's a lot of you guys might not get it, but I made this post yesterday when I'm out doing my ruck.

00:33:45.540 I've been doing rucks every day for like 40 days straight or some shit because Jason McCarthy owns Go Ruck trolled me on the Internet for a long time saying that I was a pussy for doing walks during seventy five hard.

00:33:55.300 So now I'm going to rock for the rest of my fucking life.

00:33:58.180 All right. It is what it is. I'm going to shove it down his fucking throat in a friendly way.

00:34:02.480 But here's the reality. I made a post and I love you, Jason.

00:34:06.440 You're my fucking boy. My boy blue. You're my boy blue. That's right.

00:34:09.800 You don't even know that shit, bro. Nobody's saying. Yeah, that's right.

00:34:12.880 I know you've never seen the actual movie. So DJ is the guy that we pick up on the roof, tie the block to his dick.

00:34:21.580 So sounds terrible. Yeah. So, dude, I made a push.

00:34:25.240 Just as I was doing the Go Ruck, I'm like talking about happiness and it's like, dude, you know when I'm happiness, like when I'm truly happy is when I'm doing shit that I know motherfuckers aren't doing.

00:34:35.860 Like when I know that people who are on my level competing, like, dude, most of the people are on my level or smoking cigars, fucking off.

00:34:42.820 They're on vacation. They're on a fucking boat. They're flying a helicopter. Fuck you guys.

00:34:48.040 I'm fucking working, bro. And I take pride in that. It makes me fucking happy.

00:34:51.500 When I come in here, which I don't have to do, and I sit down with the team, we get on the whiteboard, bro, that's my fucking bread and butter.

00:34:58.080 I love that shit and it's hard. And like, so it's weird to me how how different people see happiness as totally different things.

00:35:06.220 Like, dude, if I sat at a Starbucks all day, just on my computer eating fucking donuts, bro, I'd be the most unhappy person on the fucking planet.

00:35:15.280 Like I could I can't even tolerate the atmosphere. Like it makes me cringe.

00:35:19.220 I feel like I'm going to catch something in there. You know what I'm saying?

00:35:21.840 Like, like I'm going to catch mediocrity. It's going to get on my skin. I'm going to fucking wipe it off.

00:35:27.040 Like, I'm sorry. It's just how I feel. And, you know, so I think a lot of people misjudge happiness when it comes to their career because it's hard.

00:35:37.880 Oh, yeah. Right. Like the minute it gets hard, I'm not happy.

00:35:41.080 Bro, what the fuck are you talking about? This is a challenge to get over this challenge going to make you happy.

00:35:44.680 Well, it's because of what they paint the things you have to do to be happy as.

00:35:49.600 Oh, well, now, nowadays, here's what it is, DJ. You got to fucking wake up at four o'clock in the morning.

00:35:54.060 You got a cold plunge. You got a journal. You got to fucking do twenty five jumping jacks upside down.

00:35:59.160 Then I can get ready for my deep work. Right. And by the time like, dude, it's just this constant.

00:36:04.320 Dude, these people are full of shit. Dude, I wish the Internet like real talk.

00:36:08.960 I wish the Internet. Had a like we have a glass door, right?

00:36:13.500 Let's have a glass door on Instagram for people's bank account.

00:36:17.580 Oh, yeah. OK, that would solve the problem real quick. All right.

00:36:21.200 Half of these motherfuckers out there telling you, dude, do this deep breath work and all this shit.

00:36:26.580 Look, you can do whatever the fuck you want. I promise you, when you look in their bank account, it's fucking small.

00:36:32.320 Yeah, small. I'm living minimalist.

00:36:34.500 Yeah, no, because you want to, bro. Yeah, that's right.

00:36:36.960 Because you want to. You're just fucking broke, dude.

00:36:39.260 You haven't been in Nantucket. You know what I'm saying?

00:36:41.260 That ain't how it works.

00:36:42.340 I wish, too, that there was something on the Internet where you could track people's advice.

00:36:47.000 Like all those people who are hawking crypto.

00:36:50.280 Oh, my God.

00:36:51.300 NFTs. Yeah.

00:36:52.300 I mean, I wish we kept a list of that.

00:36:54.340 I think that is criminal.

00:36:55.840 I think NFTs are definitely that was definitely fucking bullshit.

00:37:00.120 That's how I know not to trust almost anybody who touched one.

00:37:03.420 Crypto, they're intentionally going to bury.

00:37:05.920 Yeah.

00:37:06.040 Which is what I've been.

00:37:06.900 Dude, I sat on a board at 2017 at this crypto conference as the person who was anti-crypto.

00:37:13.680 OK, so I'm on the board with all these fucking crypto experts.

00:37:16.400 Oh, I bet they love you.

00:37:17.120 Oh, they fucking hated me, dude.

00:37:18.700 Because like I'm exactly who I am.

00:37:20.860 Like I am who I am on the show.

00:37:23.220 I am who I am in real life.

00:37:24.480 I am who I am on stage.

00:37:25.820 Really quiet.

00:37:26.400 Oh, yeah.

00:37:26.860 Really quiet.

00:37:27.720 Definitely not annoying.

00:37:28.680 Happy.

00:37:29.340 Fucking no sense of humor.

00:37:32.280 No.

00:37:33.120 Perfectly polite.

00:37:33.980 No smart mouth.

00:37:35.100 Never interrupt anybody.

00:37:36.800 You know, all the things.

00:37:38.160 I'm actually totally a perfect human being.

00:37:40.780 Right.

00:37:42.880 But, dude, these guys were talking about crypto.

00:37:44.740 I said, look, dude.

00:37:45.880 I said, you guys are talking about like crypto at retail level.

00:37:49.280 That's what they were talking about.

00:37:50.180 I said, look, all right.

00:37:51.620 Let me prove to you why this ain't going to fucking work right now.

00:37:54.920 Explain it to my dad.

00:37:56.400 What do you mean explain it to your dad?

00:37:59.540 My dad's 77 years old.

00:38:01.040 Explain it to my dad.

00:38:02.140 Explain how he's going to fucking use.

00:38:03.720 How are you going to price something in crypto dollars?

00:38:06.160 Like they couldn't explain it.

00:38:07.480 And I know there's a workaround to it now.

00:38:08.980 Yeah.

00:38:09.180 But the point is, is that it's not usable enough for the average person to adopt.

00:38:15.780 And that's what they were trying to sell it as.

00:38:17.320 And now they're selling it as like a secure way to hold funds outside of the Federal Reserve,

00:38:22.080 which I think is a noble idea.

00:38:23.720 But the problem is these people are criminals and they're going to fucking crush all that

00:38:26.680 shit.

00:38:27.000 Like I've been saying that too.

00:38:28.180 So, but yeah, dude, I agree with you.

00:38:30.220 Like terrible advice nonstop.

00:38:32.860 And if we could just see like, dude, if you guys could just see in these people's lives,

00:38:36.460 like see their bank account, see where they're leveraged.

00:38:39.260 Like, dude, a lot of these people with the flashy shit, bro, they're leasing that shit

00:38:43.200 to max.

00:38:44.420 They do.

00:38:44.960 They probably have less than a hundred grand in their bank account.

00:38:47.280 And they're talking about how they're a deck of millionaire and all this shit.

00:38:50.160 And like, it's, dude, it's fraud.

00:38:53.400 Yeah.

00:38:53.660 Well, I think you got to show me what you know, not what you bought.

00:38:56.640 You know, I don't care about what you've bought.

00:38:59.380 I want to know, what do you know that I don't know?

00:39:02.340 Yeah.

00:39:02.600 And you know, one of the things Chris and I were talking about, like Chris is my husband.

00:39:06.100 How, why do you think we've had any sort of success?

00:39:08.440 If you could say that we, we have.

00:39:10.340 And, and I think there's like three reasons.

00:39:12.680 One is we go where the game's played.

00:39:14.380 So if I wanted to be in supplements and fitness, I'd probably get my ass out here to first form.

00:39:19.060 If I wanted to be in tech and innovation, used to be Sam Fran.

00:39:22.320 Now it's probably Austin, right?

00:39:24.080 And so we've just gone where the game's played.

00:39:26.660 That's step one.

00:39:27.480 Most people won't do that.

00:39:28.500 Most people will never leave where they were born.

00:39:30.940 And then step two is we're ruthless for the people that are around us.

00:39:35.560 And, and it's that stupid saying that you've heard a million times, except it's true about

00:39:39.420 the average of the five people surrounding you, except what you find in life, you know,

00:39:43.560 and what Chris and I have found is, and you are way ahead of me.

00:39:46.360 So you've seen it probably soon, much sooner than I did, but there, there come these unlocks

00:39:50.820 where you, you level up, you level up and the people around you can't support your next

00:39:55.000 unlock because they know the past version of you.

00:39:57.480 Yeah.

00:39:58.000 And so I think.

00:39:58.700 And they expect that.

00:39:59.520 And yeah, and, and they love it.

00:40:01.340 They love you.

00:40:02.020 Yeah.

00:40:02.220 They love you.

00:40:02.940 And so they love that version and they're scared for what the next version might be.

00:40:06.440 So even if we're being super altruistic and giving them some benefit of the doubt, they're

00:40:10.240 not ready for the next unlock.

00:40:11.840 And so that's why I kind of, I obsess around getting around other builders, other people

00:40:16.540 who tell me more reasons why something could happen and not more reasons why it couldn't

00:40:21.140 happen because it's really easy to tell people why they can't do something.

00:40:25.260 It's actually quite hard to show people how they can do something.

00:40:29.220 And so anytime I'm around those people that show me, oh, here's what I know, here's how

00:40:33.720 you can apply it.

00:40:34.700 And like, yeah, I think you're capable and like you might fail, but we're just going to

00:40:37.980 make sure two things.

00:40:38.980 We're going to make sure we never let you make a decision that bankrupts you.

00:40:43.200 We're going to make sure that we never have your first deal go sideways.

00:40:46.780 Because if you think if your first deal goes sideways, a lot of times people think, man,

00:40:51.140 deal making's bad.

00:40:52.020 Not I did a bad deal.

00:40:53.960 That's right.

00:40:54.200 Exactly.

00:40:54.960 So that's what we got to protect against.

00:40:56.940 But I think a lot of people, you know, and the other part that I actually, we have a

00:41:00.480 mutual friend, Alex Formozzi, and I always joke with him.

00:41:02.280 I was just thinking about that.

00:41:03.360 Like literally, as you were saying that, I was just thinking about that because the

00:41:06.740 last conversation I had with him, he said almost the exact same thing.

00:41:09.300 Oh, he did?

00:41:09.720 Yeah.

00:41:10.020 Like personal conversation out on the air.

00:41:11.980 Yeah.

00:41:12.380 Yeah.

00:41:12.700 He, well, he and I always jokingly go back and forth because-

00:41:15.700 He's a smart motherfucker, man.

00:41:16.660 I agree.

00:41:17.220 Well, I think both of you guys are low key.

00:41:19.580 He, you know, you do a really good job of being very broad, which is necessary on the

00:41:24.300 internet to bring lots of people in.

00:41:26.000 But then if you, if you double tap, you can go real deep, which I think is, is the sign

00:41:31.060 of real intellect.

00:41:31.880 Yeah.

00:41:31.980 That's where I do it.

00:41:32.760 I do that with Arate, with M.I.L.A.

00:41:34.260 We go real deep inside of Arate, but on the show here, like, you know, we're talking to

00:41:39.740 lots of different levels.

00:41:41.300 Well, no, it's exactly what you want to do.

00:41:43.360 But I appreciate that.

00:41:43.480 You want to have a big, I mean, it's not that different from religion, actually.

00:41:46.760 I love your content because it actually is pretty deep.

00:41:48.900 Yeah.

00:41:49.060 And I think that's, Spofford does the same shit.

00:41:52.680 He talks about concepts and ideas that you have to be an actual operator to totally grasp.

00:41:58.480 And I actually, you know, for me, dude, I love that content because it's real shit.

00:42:02.460 Yeah.

00:42:02.620 You know, it's not just this, like, you know, Instagram buzz stuff.

00:42:07.820 Don't tell me to fucking manifest.

00:42:09.360 That's my, that's just bottom line.

00:42:11.500 I am a huge believer in that, but like, that's, that's not what you lead with.

00:42:14.760 I think it just helps.

00:42:15.760 I think that's right.

00:42:16.500 Well, maybe I believe you.

00:42:17.780 Chris is a big, we call it visualization, which I think is something different.

00:42:20.980 It is.

00:42:21.340 You think about it like an athlete.

00:42:22.060 Yeah.

00:42:22.340 You don't, and you visualize exactly what you're going to do exactly the next step.

00:42:27.180 You know, it's tactical in the way that you execute it.

00:42:29.620 Manifesting to me is like, I'm just, it's coming.

00:42:33.160 Yeah.

00:42:33.340 You know, I'm going to get rich.

00:42:34.680 I see the riches.

00:42:35.820 Visualization is tomorrow.

00:42:37.000 I'm going to have this meeting.

00:42:37.880 This is exactly how it's going to go because I've prepared this way and I see it going down.

00:42:41.700 Yeah.

00:42:41.920 I think there's, I think there's, I think there's truth to all three of those scenarios

00:42:46.440 a little bit.

00:42:47.180 I think where people really fuck it up is that they don't accompany it with the work.

00:42:51.680 You know what I'm saying?

00:42:52.320 Like I've always been, I, the, the, the law of attraction truly changed my life.

00:42:56.340 And I know that sounds people, because I, when I first heard this shit, um, it was from

00:43:02.300 this girl that I knew back in like 2006 and she was a chiropractor and she was super hippie.

00:43:08.760 And like, I was, at first I was like, man, she's very granola.

00:43:11.900 Like this is, this sounds crazy, but I was broke as fuck, dude.

00:43:15.780 And I was living at my dad's house.

00:43:17.240 I had to move back in with my dad six years after I started my business.

00:43:20.300 I'm like, I don't give a fuck how I don't, I don't care if this doesn't work.

00:43:23.420 I'm going to try it.

00:43:24.020 Cause I didn't have nothing to lose.

00:43:25.320 And dude, I promise you, like it changed my entire life.

00:43:29.420 But here's the thing I did that most people don't do is I did the work.

00:43:33.440 I did.

00:43:34.120 I think it's, I think it's like 50%, you know, knowing where the fuck you're going

00:43:38.980 and then putting that energy out and then 50% just working your fucking face off until

00:43:43.740 you get there.

00:43:44.300 Yeah.

00:43:44.780 And, um, at least that's how it's been for me, man.

00:43:47.900 No, I agree.

00:43:48.580 I think, well, a lot of it, what stops us, what stops us before anybody else, before

00:43:53.200 failure, before anybody tells us we can't is that we don't even try it.

00:43:56.660 We don't even try to do it because we don't believe in ourselves.

00:43:59.180 And because things like we don't have a belief that we could actually do it.

00:44:03.760 And thus our energy says no dice.

00:44:05.840 So I do, I mean, we live in Austin.

00:44:07.800 We got a little bit of the crystals and woo-woo going down too.

00:44:09.900 I feel you.

00:44:11.160 I do think though, you know, one thing that I like to preach on the internet that's really

00:44:15.180 different is I don't care how you make money.

00:44:18.480 I just think that everybody should have a moral obligation to get enough tools in their

00:44:22.560 toolbox to protect themselves on the downside.

00:44:24.800 And a lot of people see people, I think like you or like Alex, for instance, and they're

00:44:29.240 like, I need to sleep on my couch, you know, on my floor for three years in order to do

00:44:34.180 this.

00:44:34.540 And that's what they did.

00:44:35.460 And they had this huge idea and then they went big for it.

00:44:38.920 I don't think that many people are like you and Alex.

00:44:41.720 You guys are relatively rare.

00:44:43.400 And so people can take that way or they could also take small steps and small bets.

00:44:49.660 And that was, you know, I'm a little different because I was risk averse.

00:44:52.500 I was scared.

00:44:53.220 I don't know if I would have been able to go like sleep on a floor and do that.

00:44:57.220 You know, I was in a finance job.

00:44:59.220 I mean, I worked in hardcore finance at like Goldman, State Street, Vanguard, all the big

00:45:04.200 guys for 12 years.

00:45:05.820 You know, I was working for the man 60 hour weeks.

00:45:08.220 I didn't see the sun.

00:45:09.580 You know, I lived in Chicago.

00:45:11.220 We literally, you know, went into the office before the sun, left the office after the sun.

00:45:15.320 Yeah.

00:45:15.980 And but I did it working for somebody else because I was too scared to go do it by myself.

00:45:20.520 I didn't have the balls.

00:45:21.500 Yeah.

00:45:21.640 See, I just didn't have a choice.

00:45:22.800 Yeah.

00:45:22.960 It's not like I wanted to sleep on the fucking mattress.

00:45:24.940 But you could have gone and like worked for somebody else, right?

00:45:28.700 You took a big risk.

00:45:29.720 Could you imagine me working for somebody?

00:45:31.900 Let's be fucking honest.

00:45:33.660 Like it wouldn't work out.

00:45:36.020 Like it would last a day.

00:45:37.820 You're unemployable.

00:45:38.680 Yes, absolutely.

00:45:39.760 Like I did not have a choice.

00:45:41.260 And I agree with you.

00:45:42.340 It's not for everybody.

00:45:44.520 That's actually fair.

00:45:45.600 Yeah.

00:45:45.840 But what I think most people should do is like get in the game a little bit.

00:45:49.880 You know, take that first tiny step to having one income stream and then getting another one.

00:45:55.960 And Alex always breaks my balls because he's like, no, one thing laser focused nonstop.

00:46:02.120 And I think there are different types of humans.

00:46:04.200 Some humans can do the laser focus.

00:46:06.160 And I think that's incredible.

00:46:07.580 Most humans I don't think can.

00:46:10.220 I think they have to start with having a few things because those few things make them feel safe.

00:46:15.460 And then they could narrow down and really go ham on one.

00:46:19.600 But I like one of my missions is basically to make people feel comfortable that you don't have to be an incredible operator.

00:46:26.460 You don't have to be a savant.

00:46:27.860 You don't have to be a hard ass.

00:46:29.200 You could be a scared single mom, you know, with nothing to fall back on.

00:46:32.620 And become an incredible operator.

00:46:33.980 Exactly.

00:46:34.340 That's true.

00:46:34.860 And start small.

00:46:35.920 You know?

00:46:36.300 Look, I didn't know shit when I started.

00:46:38.380 My first customer, well, my first real customer.

00:46:41.520 My first customer was a guy named Nick Vespa, who's still a buddy of mine.

00:46:45.580 He bought a $7 product from us because he felt sorry for us.

00:46:49.320 He still buys product from us, I believe.

00:46:52.240 Thanks, Nick.

00:46:54.760 The first real customer.

00:46:56.660 You're my boy, Nick.

00:46:57.320 Yeah.

00:46:58.120 I remember whenever I had my first real customer, dude, and I didn't know shit.

00:47:02.160 I had a guy.

00:47:02.740 And this is why retail is such a great, great thing, man.

00:47:06.480 This guy walks in and he's like looking around.

00:47:10.080 And he like looks at this.

00:47:12.040 And I remember the product.

00:47:13.080 It was Celltech by Muscletech.

00:47:14.320 And he looks at it and he shows it to me and he's like, what do you know about this?

00:47:19.540 And I'm like, I walked over to him real quick.

00:47:22.300 I grabbed the bottle.

00:47:23.120 I go, well, it says right here, seven pounds of muscle in seven days, man.

00:47:27.060 Sounds pretty good.

00:47:28.180 I didn't know shit.

00:47:29.540 I didn't know shit.

00:47:30.940 So like, just understand, everybody starts there.

00:47:34.640 I didn't know fucking anything, dude.

00:47:36.300 Like people used to walk in my store and they'd be like, so are you going out of business soon

00:47:40.200 or what?

00:47:40.600 And I'm like, I had no idea what they were talking about because I thought I thought

00:47:45.400 we had something like I was like, dude, we're going to be rich, bitch.

00:47:49.020 This is going to be great.

00:47:50.540 No, but we just opened.

00:47:51.740 Yeah.

00:47:52.240 And they would look at me and they'd be like, really?

00:47:55.180 But they'd always buy shit.

00:47:56.500 Yeah.

00:47:56.800 And I know why.

00:47:57.960 Because they felt sorry for us.

00:47:59.180 They were like, look at these fucking idiots and they would buy shit.

00:48:02.380 But, you know, we, we learned along the way.

00:48:04.220 And I think that's the thing is like, we have to all realize that you guys listening

00:48:08.220 who are scared, who don't have, um, you know, like, dude, look, this personality, I

00:48:14.720 have her Mosey's personality, Layla, like all these people, bro, this is, this is learned

00:48:20.800 skill.

00:48:21.260 It's not, it's not, that's not a gift.

00:48:23.580 I like, dude, if you saw me 20 years ago, I was just a dumb motherfucker.

00:48:27.000 Actually, I'm still dumb motherfucker.

00:48:28.240 I just talk a little better, right?

00:48:30.300 Same.

00:48:30.760 Yeah.

00:48:31.080 Right.

00:48:31.420 Same.

00:48:32.060 I'm fooling a lot of you guys.

00:48:33.680 You see good words.

00:48:34.620 Yeah.

00:48:34.900 Right.

00:48:35.400 Peruse.

00:48:35.900 But the truth is, man, I don't, I'm not really that smart.

00:48:38.380 I'm just not, I've just been doing this for so long that I understand this and really

00:48:44.160 not a whole lot of other stuff other than tyrants and shit going on in the world.

00:48:47.360 You know, I know that.

00:48:48.220 Well, and pain tolerance.

00:48:49.840 I think if I could, that's a big deal.

00:48:51.880 If I could give one person, you know, we, so I've, I don't know, I probably invested a couple

00:48:55.880 hundred companies by now, not, not all my own cash, but with our private equity and

00:49:00.220 venture capital funds and like the number one trade, I mean, it's Angela Duckworth talked

00:49:05.760 about it in her study at University of Pennsylvania, grit.

00:49:09.720 Grit.

00:49:09.940 Yeah.

00:49:10.080 That's what I thought.

00:49:10.620 And so, um, you know, the number one study for success is just how much pain can somebody

00:49:15.840 tolerate?

00:49:16.720 And it's not physical pain.

00:49:18.420 That's my husband, former military.

00:49:19.980 I can't do that, but it's, can they show up every single day and deal with the shit?

00:49:24.480 And I also like, uh, we were talking about Ben Horowitz earlier.

00:49:27.100 He said a line that I thought was amazing, which is, uh, if you have to eat shit, don't

00:49:31.060 nibble.

00:49:31.700 And, uh, and sort of like the Mark, Mark Twain frog, get it over with.

00:49:36.240 Um, and so that's the thing that I think we were talking about the fitness community,

00:49:40.020 like the fitness community gets it because you do the really hard thing in the morning.

00:49:43.900 You work out in the morning, the rest of the day, you kind of are like, bring it.

00:49:47.580 I could maybe have a beer at two because I've done the hard part in the morning.

00:49:51.440 Um, and so I think that's really, really big, but I also like, did you ever have, I suppose

00:49:56.960 your really hard experience that I know of at least was this beginning of starting this

00:50:01.880 company.

00:50:02.260 You know, I, I didn't have like a, a failure moment like that in a company early on, but

00:50:08.340 I had a, um, what I call sort of my tipping point was that early in my career, I was a

00:50:14.140 journalist along the U S Mexico border.

00:50:15.900 Oh, that's cool.

00:50:16.820 Yeah.

00:50:17.100 Human trafficking, drug smuggling.

00:50:19.880 I did.

00:50:20.340 I remember reading that and I was like, dude, that's fucking bad ass.

00:50:22.860 Yeah.

00:50:22.980 I don't talk about it enough.

00:50:24.000 I should, but it, it was really what's going on now.

00:50:26.880 Yeah.

00:50:27.280 I have a lot of good insight.

00:50:28.380 Oh yeah.

00:50:28.640 I mean, I've crossed the border illegally like 20 or 30 times writing stories.

00:50:32.500 That's crazy.

00:50:33.140 Um, no, it was, it was really cool.

00:50:34.500 It was incredible.

00:50:35.160 Yeah.

00:50:35.420 And the part that, that formed me that I'm so thankful for that only an idiot who's like

00:50:39.660 a young kid would go do, cause I did it when I was still in college is I lived in Juarez,

00:50:44.320 uh, and El Paso and Juarez at the time was called, um, La Ciudad de Muerte, the city of death.

00:50:50.560 And I was writing this story.

00:50:51.660 Sounds friendly.

00:50:52.040 Yeah.

00:50:52.240 It was a super lovely neighborhood.

00:50:53.660 Really great neighbors.

00:50:55.600 Sounds like St.

00:50:56.240 Louis.

00:50:57.680 Actually, you guys are number one.

00:50:59.400 Yeah.

00:50:59.560 We are number one.

00:51:00.380 Yeah.

00:51:00.460 Fuck yeah.

00:51:01.000 We've been number one for 23 years straight.

00:51:03.140 We ain't no losers, baby.

00:51:04.860 We ain't no losers.

00:51:05.620 We ain't that number one, baby.

00:51:06.240 That's painful.

00:51:07.500 Yeah.

00:51:07.680 Because, and so you guys have probably seen it because I remember I was writing stories

00:51:10.920 about.

00:51:11.140 DJ grew up in the worst neighborhood in, in the worst neighborhood in the United States.

00:51:16.120 Yes.

00:51:16.340 You know, there was this, you remember the documentary, uh, called gang lands.

00:51:19.540 Yeah.

00:51:19.980 They filmed the episode on my blog.

00:51:22.240 Wow.

00:51:22.640 It was bad.

00:51:24.060 It was bad.

00:51:24.320 That's incredible.

00:51:25.540 Yeah.

00:51:25.760 Good times though, man.

00:51:26.520 His story of his story of his upbringing is incredible.

00:51:29.740 It's actually probably worth an entire episode by itself.

00:51:32.260 Yeah.

00:51:32.560 I'd want to listen to that.

00:51:34.060 You're very humble too.

00:51:35.440 I mean, I, I don't like the, cause I, the, the problem with that stuff, it can very easily

00:51:39.920 success.

00:51:40.440 Well, it can easily turn into like that victimhood shit.

00:51:43.020 Like I like, I'm not proud of anything that I came from.

00:51:46.580 I don't regret it or like, you know, uh, or, or like hate where I came from.

00:51:51.020 Right.

00:51:51.220 But like saying like I'm from the mud, I don't take any pride in that.

00:51:54.600 You know what I'm saying?

00:51:55.060 Like it is what it is.

00:51:55.980 Well, you're still building.

00:51:56.760 I'm no, I'm no longer there anymore.

00:51:59.100 You're just getting started on your journey.

00:52:00.920 It's just to me, like I've seen where he's grown up and it's incredible that you're even

00:52:05.420 fucking alive.

00:52:06.580 Real talk.

00:52:07.480 Thanks, man.

00:52:08.060 Yeah.

00:52:08.180 I'm glad you are.

00:52:09.120 Thanks.

00:52:09.500 Yeah.

00:52:09.660 Well, I think other things too about that is like, uh, my generation, uh, I think a lot

00:52:16.020 of the reason why we, why we have all of the things we have today is because people feel

00:52:19.260 like they don't have real struggle.

00:52:20.480 So they want to manifest it.

00:52:22.000 100%.

00:52:22.400 So like a lot of people, you know, Oh man, they want a victim story.

00:52:26.200 So true.

00:52:27.220 They grew up so fucking soft that the minute their feelings get hurt, they're fucking have

00:52:31.960 this sad story of something.

00:52:33.900 Yeah.

00:52:34.140 Well, I think it's even deeper than that.

00:52:35.600 I think deep down a lot of people feel like I feel guilty.

00:52:40.400 I feel guilty from having it easy.

00:52:42.880 And so I must be privileged.

00:52:44.620 And so I must have a story.

00:52:47.340 Right.

00:52:47.780 As opposed to, I think, man, if you went through that, my father's the same.

00:52:53.280 He had, it came from a really tough background.

00:52:54.500 And every time I bring it up publicly, he's like, he always jokes with me.

00:52:57.880 He's like, yeah, it's amazing.

00:52:59.080 I speak English and, you know, have a company and stuff.

00:53:01.420 He's like almost a little embarrassed.

00:53:03.200 He's like, don't talk about that.

00:53:04.400 And I'm like, no, no, no.

00:53:05.400 That's incredible.

00:53:06.240 It's inspiring.

00:53:06.720 It's incredible.

00:53:07.720 Yeah.

00:53:08.100 But he just doesn't see it like that.

00:53:10.580 He doesn't want to talk about what he's been through.

00:53:13.100 And I respect that a lot.

00:53:14.640 I do too.

00:53:15.000 I think those stories are necessary though.

00:53:17.020 You know, I think it's important for people to understand, especially right now in these

00:53:20.400 times, that even as tough as they are, and even as the boot gets more pressure on our

00:53:28.900 necks as American citizens, it's still the land of opportunity.

00:53:33.060 And there's still many, many, many amazing opportunities for every single person listening,

00:53:38.040 regardless of where you came from.

00:53:39.780 And those stories inspire those people.

00:53:42.360 You know, I think it's important for people to tell those stories, but I also understand

00:53:45.780 the other side of that mentality too.

00:53:47.880 Yeah.

00:53:48.400 No, I think, I think you should tell the story.

00:53:50.940 I'm, I'm team DJ podcast episode.

00:53:53.960 I agree with that.

00:53:54.960 I appreciate it.

00:53:55.880 It should be a video segment, bro.

00:53:57.380 We should, here's what we should do, bro.

00:53:58.920 We should do a video episode and take motherfuckers to where I grew up and then take

00:54:03.040 where you grew up.

00:54:03.820 Yeah, well, I'm down with that.

00:54:04.920 They look similar.

00:54:05.820 Yeah.

00:54:05.980 Yeah.

00:54:06.200 No shit, man.

00:54:07.360 Well, I mean, it's, it, you know, you lived it, but I only was in Juarez for like a year

00:54:13.040 back and forth.

00:54:14.080 And I remember when I was there, it was when the Sonoran and the Sinaloan cartels were

00:54:18.480 going at each other aggressively.

00:54:20.120 One of the biggest prisons was in Juarez and they brought a fucking Apache helicopters

00:54:25.200 in the cartels with anti-tank missiles and broke out one of the cartel leaders.

00:54:29.260 Wait, the cartels on Apaches?

00:54:31.300 Holy shit.

00:54:31.920 Well, CIA gave it to them, but yeah.

00:54:33.860 Yeah.

00:54:34.320 Well, give me one.

00:54:35.660 I want one.

00:54:36.920 Kevin, help us out.

00:54:37.800 You would definitely not be allowed to.

00:54:39.060 Yeah.

00:54:39.400 You would not be allowed to.

00:54:40.300 I'm on the list.

00:54:41.100 Give me a fucking helicopter.

00:54:42.920 You go to Mexico, you can probably get one.

00:54:44.940 Yeah.

00:54:45.420 But they, you know, it was, it was, I mean, I would see bodies hanging from freeways.

00:54:50.440 Holy shit.

00:54:51.180 My job at the time was to go to the morgue, not every day, but almost every other day

00:54:55.860 and, uh, and determine how many women were actually murdered and mutilated, uh, that day

00:55:02.000 because there were two newspapers.

00:55:03.300 There was the cartel backed newspaper and there was the government backed newspaper.

00:55:06.840 And we were trying to figure out what's true.

00:55:08.980 What was true.

00:55:09.580 Yeah.

00:55:09.880 Yeah.

00:55:10.060 Because they have this thing there called Las Disapparecidas, which is the disappeared women.

00:55:14.260 Yeah.

00:55:14.960 And every year in war has thousands of women, uh, are found murdered and mutilated in the

00:55:20.380 desert and they can't quite figure out why.

00:55:22.520 And, and back when I was covering this, nobody had covered it.

00:55:25.100 Now there's like a JLo movie on it and stuff like that.

00:55:27.260 And so we won a few awards, but at that time, what was wild.

00:55:31.460 So JLo basically plays you.

00:55:33.080 Yeah.

00:55:33.400 Hardly.

00:55:35.300 There's a few, few slight things different there.

00:55:38.880 I really want to work out a little bit more like her.

00:55:42.040 I'd say you made it, man.

00:55:43.000 Yeah, exactly.

00:55:43.660 I'm going to, let me, let me hit JLo if you're listening, um, copyright infringement.

00:55:47.800 Um, but, uh, but what was wild is, um, it only hit me after I had been there for a minute,

00:55:56.340 but have you ever been to Juarez?

00:55:57.660 Either one of you?

00:55:58.400 No.

00:55:58.580 I mean, great vacation destination, but you, you cross the, um, the Rio Grande, right?

00:56:04.740 And the, which separates Mexico and the U S El Paso one was, and there's this highway

00:56:10.320 and it's exactly how you would picture it.

00:56:12.140 Tons of, of steel and things cordoned off.

00:56:15.420 And as you cross it, I wonder if it's still there, but there would be this, there was this

00:56:18.180 huge wooden cross.

00:56:19.280 And on this wooden cross were all of these pink ribbons and mementos and pictures.

00:56:25.240 And so as I got closer to it, I realized that it was covered with missing posters of these

00:56:29.740 women.

00:56:30.160 And what was wild for me at the time, one, there's thousands.

00:56:33.640 You would go on every street corner and you would see these missing women.

00:56:37.140 But, but then I realized, Oh my gosh, wait, I've got really long brown hair.

00:56:41.420 I've got brown eyes.

00:56:42.560 My last name is Sanchez.

00:56:44.460 Whoa.

00:56:45.000 You know, I could be on one of these and I, and I was covering it.

00:56:47.880 And what it made me think is like, what's the difference?

00:56:50.100 Like, why do all these people go missing and nobody gives a shit?

00:56:53.860 And why, if, if I went missing in the U S like it probably, there would be some noise

00:56:58.660 startled up.

00:56:59.500 And I don't think it's a race thing.

00:57:01.480 I don't think it's a gender thing.

00:57:03.200 It is one thing.

00:57:04.480 It's who has money and who doesn't because money makes you hard to kill and hard to silence

00:57:09.600 as you know.

00:57:11.380 And so that's why I think it's so important that we all get some skin in the game and some

00:57:16.800 cash on hand.

00:57:17.520 Cause it's a lot easier to speak your mind when you have cash to back it up.

00:57:21.500 If you can't pay your rent, if you don't have the bottom pyramid of Maslow's hierarchy

00:57:24.280 of needs, like you're probably not going to speak out because you're going to be squashed.

00:57:28.820 I think it's the biggest problem we have in America right now.

00:57:30.680 We have, we have this cultural environment that's been created by most of the biggest

00:57:35.760 companies in the world that is then copied by the small companies because they see it

00:57:40.260 as the way to do it.

00:57:41.720 Like, you know, cause small companies tend to emulate the big companies.

00:57:45.160 And now we have this culture inside the workplace where people feel afraid to say anything because

00:57:50.800 they're going to go to HR, they're going to lose their job and they're going to do this.

00:57:54.120 And dude, like, this is the bane of my fucking existence.

00:57:57.280 I've been doing this for three years, trying to get people to speak the fuck up, but they

00:58:01.640 won't because they're afraid that the culture in their workplace won't allow it for it to

00:58:06.380 happen.

00:58:06.800 You know, they go on social media and a lot of people won't even share my show because

00:58:11.200 they go, they think that if they share it, their boss, I hear this all the time.

00:58:15.000 Their boss might hear it or they're like, dude, we talked about this on a, with, with

00:58:19.120 Spofford, didn't we?

00:58:19.900 Yeah.

00:58:20.680 So dude, I got some DMS about that.

00:58:23.340 They're like, bro, I love your show.

00:58:24.520 I'm one of those people that can't share it though.

00:58:26.160 And here's why.

00:58:27.220 And the reason they can't share it is because they're afraid they're going to get fucking

00:58:30.100 fired.

00:58:30.680 And like, bro, that's insane.

00:58:32.100 Like we live in a fucking free country, dude.

00:58:34.660 Which to your point, that just made that that's an obvious indicator that you are past the

00:58:38.760 threshold and you're just a consumer.

00:58:41.260 Well, dude, yeah.

00:58:42.400 You don't want to be leveraged like that.

00:58:43.860 Like you don't want to have to answer to people like that.

00:58:46.520 And like, I think it's a man.

00:58:48.760 I think what you're saying is super fucking important.

00:58:50.980 It's not about having a billion fucking dollars.

00:58:53.160 It's about having enough money to where you're a, you're, you can actually have some sort

00:58:57.640 of sense of freedom and self.

00:58:59.700 Meaning like if you do get fired from your job, well, fuck it, dude.

00:59:03.420 I stood for what the fuck I believe.

00:59:05.440 And like, because we're not responsibly looking at money the right way.

00:59:10.260 Now we're not me, but a lot of us are in a situation where we can't say what we really

00:59:15.100 believe because we're afraid that we'll lose our way to live.

00:59:18.880 And dude, that's no way to live, man.

00:59:21.320 That's, you're a slave at that point.

00:59:23.400 Like you should be calling your boss fucking master at this point because that's the truth.

00:59:28.980 That's the truth.

00:59:30.040 That's exactly right.

00:59:31.040 We'll take it a step further, but like even think about all the employees, like all your

00:59:34.380 fellow colleagues, right?

00:59:35.320 Like if you left that business and you went to go start your own and then you create an

00:59:40.160 environment that is freedom, right?

00:59:42.140 And now all those colleagues at your last employment, they can come work for you.

00:59:45.940 It's a massive ripple effect.

00:59:47.360 Dude, look, I think half of the reason that most of these companies have problems hiring

00:59:52.020 people is because they've copied the culture of the fortune 100 companies that has been

00:59:56.840 passed down by the world economic forum and, and tied to ESG and diversity inclusion requirements.

01:00:02.900 And they've copied that culture and nobody wants to work in that culture so that you can't

01:00:07.060 hire anybody.

01:00:07.660 So like, dude, do you want people, like you said earlier, I don't have a problem hiring

01:00:11.020 people.

01:00:11.300 There's a wait list to come here and work.

01:00:13.100 You know why?

01:00:13.920 Because it's fucking free in here, dude.

01:00:15.960 You could say whatever the fuck you want in your political beliefs.

01:00:19.540 Like, I don't care.

01:00:20.580 We have plenty of people in here that disagree with what I'm saying.

01:00:24.260 It's just, it's America, man.

01:00:26.060 That's what the fuck we do.

01:00:27.460 You know, like disagreements produce better results, better solutions.

01:00:32.820 Well, it's, you know, it's wild.

01:00:33.800 So I started our little media company, Contrarian Thinking, in 2020.

01:00:37.340 Yeah.

01:00:37.520 I was never on the internet before.

01:00:39.860 And, uh...

01:00:40.680 Yeah, you came out of nowhere, dude.

01:00:42.460 Yeah, I was, I was heads down building companies, buying them.

01:00:45.700 And, and, in 2020, we stopped traveling.

01:00:48.320 So I had some free time because I wasn't running around all the time doing road shows.

01:00:51.800 And the reason I started Contrarian Thinking, if you go back to my very first little article,

01:00:55.600 the reason I started it is because people were losing their minds in 2020.

01:00:59.180 And I thought, God, we can't meet, you know, we can't have conversations.

01:01:03.460 I'm going to start this newsletter.

01:01:04.880 But really, it's going to be back and forth between me and my friends.

01:01:07.340 And I want to debate the ideas that are happening right now because I don't agree with a lot of them.

01:01:10.680 Yeah.

01:01:11.100 And, and my thought, hey, I have something I call the modern hierarchy, which is like,

01:01:15.680 first you need financial freedom.

01:01:16.760 Then you get physical freedom.

01:01:18.320 Then you can have philosophical freedom, aka, think what you want.

01:01:22.400 And...

01:01:22.520 I like that.

01:01:23.080 Yeah.

01:01:23.280 I think it's pretty true.

01:01:24.440 Yeah.

01:01:24.860 That's what I thought, too.

01:01:25.620 Yeah.

01:01:25.860 And so I thought, let's try to get more people into this pyramid.

01:01:28.660 But the problem is, nobody thinks that they think poorly.

01:01:32.900 Like, everybody thinks that the way their brain works makes sense.

01:01:36.260 They don't...

01:01:36.340 And they also think that everybody else thinks the same way they think.

01:01:39.100 Right.

01:01:39.920 Yeah.

01:01:40.260 And if they don't, they're idiots.

01:01:41.680 They're a piece of shit.

01:01:42.260 They're bad guys.

01:01:42.640 They're villains.

01:01:43.240 Right?

01:01:44.100 White supremacists.

01:01:44.940 Right.

01:01:45.560 And so you especially.

01:01:46.720 Oh, absolutely.

01:01:47.620 You are.

01:01:47.840 Yeah.

01:01:48.440 Yeah.

01:01:48.760 Black face white supremacy right there, buddy.

01:01:51.800 You guys are giving me too much credit.

01:01:53.560 You are literally elders.

01:01:56.420 Good.

01:01:56.580 And the, and then what I realized is, so I started contrary and thinking, trying to get

01:02:02.020 people to talk about mental frameworks.

01:02:03.420 And I realized nobody wants to talk about this.

01:02:06.180 And so I used the Trojan horse strategy was, which was, what does everybody want?

01:02:10.360 Money.

01:02:11.260 Riches, bitches, Bentleys.

01:02:12.520 Right?

01:02:12.900 That's what everybody wants.

01:02:14.240 And so I was like, all right.

01:02:15.640 I love that.

01:02:17.440 It's not the top of my list, but like, that's what I've heard.

01:02:19.900 So, um, so anyway, so then I started talking about money because on the internet, if you

01:02:24.900 say, here's a way to get X money that this person made, you're kind of backdoor sneaking

01:02:31.720 them into skin in the game and ownership.

01:02:33.680 And my, my idea, we'll see if it proves to be true is once you own a part of the house,

01:02:38.900 you don't burn it down.

01:02:40.020 You build it.

01:02:40.920 Right.

01:02:41.540 You know, once you own part of main street, you don't light that shit on fire.

01:02:45.380 You protect it.

01:02:46.420 That's right.

01:02:46.820 And, and if you look, we did this analysis, which is fascinating across all of the main

01:02:51.380 sectors in the U S you see one trend, more of that sector going to fewer companies.

01:02:58.740 And in fact, when I looked at grocery stores, um, every sector, every sector, in fact, the

01:03:06.300 top 10 companies, you'll be getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

01:03:09.580 That's right.

01:03:10.120 And most of those companies then become subsidized and then they create rules that stop anti

01:03:14.820 competition, that stop competition.

01:03:16.440 They're anti-competitive.

01:03:17.820 And so, you know, when we looked across these sectors, 25 to 30% of them are owned by the

01:03:22.460 top 10 companies.

01:03:23.780 And that, that number has just been going like this.

01:03:26.560 So I started thinking, man, we got to do something against that because how much easier is it to

01:03:30.620 collect taxes on 500 S and P 500 companies, as opposed to 30 million small businesses?

01:03:36.380 How much easier is it to do COVID mandates on 500 companies than 30 million small ones?

01:03:42.160 They couldn't do it.

01:03:42.640 Right.

01:03:43.280 Yeah.

01:03:43.920 And so that's why we have, I mean, people talk about, they tried it, they tried to do

01:03:46.920 just like I said, they do, dude, people don't understand this.

01:03:50.780 They, they show, they show the businesses that are mom and pop, how to operate.

01:03:56.120 And these mom and pops emulate these big companies, which is the wrong fucking way to do it.

01:04:01.040 Yeah.

01:04:01.300 Just because Coca-Cola is doing whatever Coca-Cola is doing does not mean that your 17 person

01:04:07.980 company should be running the same culture system or the same operational system inside.

01:04:13.040 And we have, they, they're smart, dude.

01:04:15.580 They understand that if they put that down through the biggest companies, that those 30

01:04:19.660 million small businesses will start to copy it and they tried to get their way.

01:04:23.180 And that's what they did with that vaccine shit.

01:04:24.820 Yeah.

01:04:25.040 You know, they, dude, they threatened us, uh, with, with a $700,000 fine per employee

01:04:30.600 if I didn't force them to get him vaccinated.

01:04:32.540 That's wild.

01:04:33.060 Do the math on that.

01:04:34.200 We have 450 people in this building.

01:04:36.040 Yeah.

01:04:36.560 That's insane.

01:04:37.600 That's total tyranny, dude.

01:04:39.360 I sold a fuck.

01:04:40.100 You put me in fucking jail.

01:04:41.440 I don't give a shit.

01:04:42.320 Yeah.

01:04:42.500 It takes a lot of balls to do that.

01:04:43.960 That's really hard to do.

01:04:45.100 And I think, but like, that's why we need more.

01:04:47.440 People talk about decentralized ownership, Bitcoin.

01:04:49.360 Yeah.

01:04:49.660 I'm like, I get the idea, but I think decentralized ownership is actually ownership of small

01:04:54.560 businesses.

01:04:55.200 Yes.

01:04:55.520 Yes.

01:04:56.040 Because you're decentralizing the money, the power control that they have.

01:05:00.180 That's exactly right.

01:05:00.960 Dude, this is why I say all the time, and you're busy doing your own thing.

01:05:05.020 And I know you listen sometimes, but this is why I always say personal excellence is

01:05:08.140 the ultimate rebellion.

01:05:09.220 Because dude, if you can get yourself financially in a great place, dude, this gives you the freedom

01:05:14.720 to actually say the truth that you believe, which makes a difference.

01:05:17.760 It's like, dude, that's a great fucking point.

01:05:21.240 Well, I hope that we, I agree with you a million percent.

01:05:23.960 Yeah.

01:05:24.240 I mean, our goal is a million small business owners.

01:05:26.560 That's what I want to create.

01:05:27.500 I love that.

01:05:27.980 And I don't think it's that hard.

01:05:29.340 You guys are, you guys are, you guys are, you guys are pouring into the revolution that

01:05:33.120 we need.

01:05:33.680 I don't know if you're, you know, if that's your main purpose or not, but what you're doing

01:05:37.860 is important work because of what we're just talking about.

01:05:40.560 I think you're right.

01:05:41.220 Yeah.

01:05:41.420 Dude, I sat in on this crazy, I was in a room that I can't mention with people that I can't

01:05:46.280 say their names and it was the day before SVB collapsed or came out publicly as being

01:05:51.240 taken over by the government.

01:05:52.780 And, you know, my husband and I do a decent amount of stuff with political donations.

01:05:57.100 Because I think once you have some money, you have a personal responsibility to do that.

01:06:01.760 Yeah, I do too.

01:06:02.600 To be a civil, you know, if you're not going to be a civil servant, to donate.

01:06:05.820 And so.

01:06:06.320 The only problem with that is, is the fucking text messages afterwards asking you to donate

01:06:10.040 more.

01:06:10.600 Oh God.

01:06:10.680 Holy shit.

01:06:11.440 Especially during somebody's campaign in particular.

01:06:13.360 Fucking kill me, dude.

01:06:13.920 Yeah.

01:06:14.680 Yeah.

01:06:15.000 That was awful.

01:06:16.760 Yeah.

01:06:17.160 And the list you get on.

01:06:18.940 Oh God.

01:06:19.620 Yeah.

01:06:19.900 I gave a, I gave a couple million bucks this year to some, some pro free.

01:06:26.160 I won't call them conservative because they're not, they're pro freedom candidates and they

01:06:29.980 happen to be in the same primary race and they're, they actually, you know, I'm good friends

01:06:33.700 with both of them and they fucking hate each other, which sucks.

01:06:36.840 But, but, uh, they're both great dudes, bro.

01:06:39.080 They're both great dudes, but I understand why they don't like each other.

01:06:41.360 I get it.

01:06:42.100 But, uh, it's funny because I started getting these messages from Trump's team.

01:06:46.780 Like donate to Trump, donate to Trump.

01:06:48.660 Dude, I'm writing back.

01:06:49.800 Fuck you.

01:06:51.380 Stop texting me.

01:06:52.680 Like, bro.

01:06:53.220 And I don't even feel that way about Trump, but I just got so annoyed with the text.

01:06:56.240 I was just see what I could get away with texting them.

01:06:58.100 Yeah.

01:06:58.260 Right.

01:06:58.600 You know, they don't care.

01:06:59.880 No, they don't.

01:07:00.400 They keep sending them, dude.

01:07:01.520 It must work because yeah, they do it on both sides.

01:07:04.960 Yeah.

01:07:05.260 I got like Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Sanders, whatever.

01:07:08.080 Yeah.

01:07:08.500 But, uh, but I think the, the part that was fascinating is, so we're in this room and we're

01:07:13.600 with a bunch of investors who are freaking out because their cash is in this bank and

01:07:19.640 contagion is going to happen.

01:07:20.940 And, and I was at Goldman in 2008.

01:07:23.940 So I saw what the run of the bank run on the banks like actually could look like.

01:07:29.420 And what was wild is the person who was up on that stage, it was a member of the government

01:07:35.580 in a position to make things happen.

01:07:37.920 And he acted like it was nothing.

01:07:41.940 And why are you guys even talking about this?

01:07:43.780 Incredibly dismissive.

01:07:44.680 And I was like, wow, this is not the crowd to do that to one.

01:07:47.740 And two, you really must not understand finance if you don't understand what a bank run could

01:07:50.940 look like.

01:07:51.600 That would be horrifying for this country.

01:07:53.720 And then I, so I chatted with a few people who are behind the scenes on it.

01:07:57.360 And they told me that JP Morgan made an offer to buy SVB that weekend and the government

01:08:01.420 blocked it.

01:08:02.000 And in that moment, I just, yeah, two people confirmed it.

01:08:06.480 Two very, two very high up people.

01:08:08.500 I have no firsthand knowledge.

01:08:10.000 I don't know, but it makes sense to me.

01:08:12.720 Why?

01:08:13.520 Because they don't want the, they don't want crypto.

01:08:15.620 Exactly.

01:08:16.100 Well, that's the signature bank thing.

01:08:17.480 That's, that's the real deal.

01:08:19.240 But the part that I thought was fascinating is like, there really is this narrative that

01:08:24.440 they want to go against the owners and the people who fund decentralized ownership,

01:08:30.260 which is what Silicon Valley does.

01:08:32.460 Now, I don't like everybody in Silicon Valley.

01:08:34.780 I'm the opposite of that.

01:08:35.740 I buy fucking laundromats, you know?

01:08:37.260 Yeah.

01:08:37.580 I don't, I don't have a social app.

01:08:39.100 Yeah.

01:08:39.120 You're, you're, you're, you're being the American citizen version of BlackRock right

01:08:43.420 now.

01:08:43.640 Yeah.

01:08:43.980 Yeah.

01:08:44.200 Right.

01:08:44.560 For real.

01:08:45.000 Right.

01:08:45.420 That's what they're trying to do.

01:08:46.500 And all of the shit that we're talking about here.

01:08:48.480 Exactly.

01:08:48.940 This is about taking from the middle class, consolidating to the ultra wealthy and leaving everybody else

01:08:54.680 to be poor.

01:08:55.280 And this is why what you do, and this is really so critical.

01:08:58.140 Listen, dude, I'm about to like, dude, communists, in my opinion, like this real shit, they should

01:09:03.620 be killed.

01:09:04.320 Okay.

01:09:04.600 That's where I, that's where I stand.

01:09:06.000 It's my opinion.

01:09:06.600 If you don't like it, I don't give a shit.

01:09:07.900 They should be killed.

01:09:08.920 Their, their thinking is flawed.

01:09:10.380 It's killed more people than any disease, than any war.

01:09:13.400 And actually then all the diseases and all the wars combined, it's killed more people

01:09:17.180 than that.

01:09:17.680 It's a very, very, very bad thing.

01:09:19.860 And what we're witnessing and why the true reason I wanted to bring you on the show was yes,

01:09:25.520 your content is amazing, but yeah.

01:09:28.140 What we're talking about here is actually the revolution that needs to happen.

01:09:32.220 Yeah, I agree.

01:09:33.300 It's fucking amazing.

01:09:34.480 And the cool part is it's doable.

01:09:36.420 Because I think a lot of times if you hear, you know, I don't talk about the SVB stuff or

01:09:40.300 like if you watch my content, I talk really tactical stuff you could do every day because

01:09:44.400 when I hear that stuff, I'm like, gosh, I have some wealth and success and I can't do anything

01:09:49.580 about SVB and the government blocking JP Morgan.

01:09:52.120 It makes you feel sort of helpless.

01:09:53.580 I didn't know that.

01:09:55.060 Ask around.

01:09:55.660 I believe you a million percent, but I thought that was astounding because it's insane, dude.

01:10:02.720 Yeah.

01:10:02.960 Well, it makes sense, though, doesn't it?

01:10:04.400 Because they want to demonize the only people who are almost more powerful than them right

01:10:09.740 now.

01:10:09.920 And who is that?

01:10:10.480 Big tech.

01:10:11.140 Yeah.

01:10:11.580 Big tech and the people who fund them.

01:10:12.920 And so those people are on a collision course, as you can tell by how ridiculous the lawsuits

01:10:18.680 are that they brought against Facebook.

01:10:21.660 Yeah.

01:10:21.900 And what they really should be looking at are maybe some other companies in the realm.

01:10:25.920 And so, yeah, I think, you know, when I listen to all this stuff, what I go back to is what

01:10:32.500 can you do as a human today to get some ownership and some skin in the game in your community?

01:10:36.800 Like, you know, you've done an incredible thing here in St. Louis, you know, built this

01:10:41.700 huge company that you guys have built up that employs people locally.

01:10:45.940 I was asking around to people, where are you from?

01:10:47.640 Where are you from?

01:10:48.280 St. Louis, St. Louis, St. Louis, which was and I'm sure there are people from all over.

01:10:52.140 Oh, yeah.

01:10:52.440 But I thought that was really cool.

01:10:53.960 That is this local.

01:10:55.620 And, you know, we were standing in front and what were a bunch of people doing?

01:10:58.480 They're getting ready to go to the first Cardinals game.

01:11:00.140 Right.

01:11:00.620 And so and when a day and age where, you know, Budweiser gets sold out to another international

01:11:06.420 company, which is OK, they're still bringing money to your local economy.

01:11:09.720 You guys are sort of you're a little fence post.

01:11:12.360 You're you're a stick in the ground.

01:11:13.860 We're we're actively working to.

01:11:16.500 So before that happened, the InBev takeover of a baby.

01:11:21.380 Yeah.

01:11:23.560 Dude, no, I can't explain this and I can't be I can't.

01:11:29.120 I cannot overstate this.

01:11:30.660 You could not buy a Coors Light in St. Louis.

01:11:33.120 Could not buy it.

01:11:34.440 Could not fucking get it.

01:11:36.040 OK.

01:11:37.180 And that goes for any beer that wasn't a.

01:11:39.120 If you drank a fucking if you drank a Coors Light in St.

01:11:42.360 Louis, bro, somebody will punch you in the face.

01:11:44.180 That's how it was before that InBev.

01:11:45.760 And everybody was crushed when that happened.

01:11:47.760 Yeah.

01:11:48.020 One of our main things in first form that we like to do that we that our goal is is to

01:11:52.040 replace that feeling of pride that everybody because we don't have a lot in St.

01:11:57.160 Louis, dude, you know what I'm saying?

01:11:58.340 We're not known for a lot of shit.

01:12:00.180 And so what I want, what one of my main goals, we do a lot of community stuff.

01:12:04.220 We do a lot of charitable things because we care, dude.

01:12:07.560 These are our fucking people.

01:12:08.740 You know what I'm saying?

01:12:09.460 Like we don't have shit here.

01:12:10.820 And we've got some incredible people.

01:12:13.660 And so one of my goals, it's funny that you brought up, baby, because we talk about this

01:12:17.320 internally all the time.

01:12:18.240 One of our goals is to become that source of that fence post, like you say, for our community.

01:12:23.840 And it's an important thing.

01:12:27.380 Yeah.

01:12:27.680 People take pride in that shit, man.

01:12:29.720 Well, and I mean, before we go and try to fix the problems of the world, maybe like start

01:12:34.020 in your home, then start in your neighborhood, then start in your community, then your city.

01:12:37.500 And so, I mean, we live in Austin and we're pretty big on this.

01:12:39.900 We're like, we're going to donate to the local, you know, situations happening in Austin.

01:12:43.760 We're going to actually probably invest in some local businesses.

01:12:46.800 Like I own some laundromats in Austin and they're nice.

01:12:49.820 They're like a place where somebody can come in, they can get their clothes clean.

01:12:54.000 They've got like stuff for the kids to do.

01:12:56.100 It's not a hard business to understand, but you can have a little pride in your local

01:13:00.700 community.

01:13:01.420 I think people really underestimate how good that feels.

01:13:04.320 It's like super selfish.

01:13:05.580 I also think it's, I think they underestimate how important it is, right?

01:13:09.840 People are tired of Global Corps, man.

01:13:11.700 Like they're tired of everything feeling like it's owned by BlackRock or, or one of these

01:13:18.000 bigger companies or, or, you know, I do, I think people are tired of fucking shopping

01:13:21.600 at Amazon.

01:13:22.380 In fact, I have the data to prove it.

01:13:24.120 Oh yeah.

01:13:24.420 I like, dude, my retail company, uh, supplement super stores here.

01:13:29.240 We have, I don't know, 30 something stores.

01:13:32.020 Um, that those were killing it.

01:13:36.340 We're better than we've ever been.

01:13:37.680 And there's no explanation other than what I've been talking about on the show for the last

01:13:40.980 three years is that people are becoming more aware of the way to counteract what some of

01:13:46.160 these things that we've been dealing with in society.

01:13:48.580 And, and they started to understand like our dollars matter, our dollars matter.

01:13:52.040 We vote with our dollars.

01:13:53.060 We buy from independent companies.

01:13:55.080 And I can see this because in our retail, like dude, in a time where, you know, money

01:14:00.140 is, is getting a little bit harder to come by.

01:14:02.180 People are becoming a little more discerning.

01:14:03.860 They're thinking about where they're shopping their money.

01:14:05.880 Our sales continue to go up.

01:14:07.380 And I believe our sales go up because yes, we've, we, we do a good job.

01:14:10.840 Yes, we service the customer.

01:14:12.720 Yes, we, we create a great experience.

01:14:14.720 We do all the things we should do.

01:14:17.520 But I think that that extra thing, like where people are starting to become conscious of,

01:14:22.280 of reinvesting with actual real people, right.

01:14:25.280 Instead of like faceless corporations that nobody knows, uh, investing in their law.

01:14:30.600 I think that, I think people are becoming aware.

01:14:32.480 And I think that the time, the pendulum is sort of swinging back away from convenience

01:14:38.360 into, okay, some things are a little more important than convenience or even price.

01:14:43.160 Sometimes we have to reinvest in these businesses that are giving back in our communities in order

01:14:47.880 for them to thrive.

01:14:48.620 Like one of the things I'm very grateful for about St.

01:14:51.260 Louis in general, St.

01:14:52.280 Louis has always been very conscious about that.

01:14:54.600 We have Dearburg's, which is a family owned company.

01:14:56.740 We have Schnucks, which is a family owned company.

01:14:58.840 These are both billion dollar plus grocery companies.

01:15:01.340 And people support these places because they understand that these are real people that

01:15:04.760 employ real people in their neighborhood.

01:15:06.040 And there's a pride there.

01:15:07.160 So like, dude, even these, like these, these laundromat, like, I think I truly believe

01:15:12.200 that what you guys are onto is a huge, it's a huge, I think you're way ahead of the curve

01:15:16.160 of what buying, um, behavior is going to look like for the next 10 years or so.

01:15:21.500 I think you're right.

01:15:22.220 Yeah.

01:15:22.360 Yeah.

01:15:22.700 You have a business that makes a hundred thousand dollars.

01:15:24.420 How can we turn this into a million dollars through acquisitions?

01:15:26.740 Right.

01:15:27.360 Yeah.

01:15:27.560 And I think there's going to be a flood of bankruptcies.

01:15:30.740 This is like a little bit of a pivot, but thinking of acquisitions, there's going to,

01:15:34.460 do you know, right now, I was looking at the data yesterday,

01:15:36.320 private equity firms who touch something like one in four dollars in the U.S. economy,

01:15:41.980 depending on how you calculate it.

01:15:43.540 In 2007 and 2008, so big recession period, obviously, they had about a hundred million

01:15:49.220 dollars, negative a hundred million dollars on their balance sheet because they're levered,

01:15:52.480 right?

01:15:53.520 2015, it was like 300, 400 million.

01:15:56.420 Today, 700 million dollars.

01:15:59.180 So these companies are-

01:16:01.120 So it's coming.

01:16:01.760 Yeah.

01:16:02.060 Because rates are up, man, right?

01:16:04.440 It's coming.

01:16:04.820 You know, you guys don't do that because you didn't grow through acquisitions and all

01:16:08.520 of this crazy financial levering.

01:16:10.560 But I think we're going to have so many bankruptcies that you're going to be able to pick up businesses

01:16:15.080 for pennies on the dollar.

01:16:16.320 We're already seeing it.

01:16:17.900 I'm already seeing that in a number of industries that are parallel to what we do.

01:16:21.900 Oh, interesting.

01:16:22.480 Yeah.

01:16:22.720 And so I'm not going to name any names because I'm friends with a lot of these guys and I'm

01:16:26.040 not happy about it.

01:16:26.940 Never.

01:16:27.580 Nope.

01:16:27.760 But the truth of the matter is, and this just isn't for us, it's for anybody that's

01:16:32.660 in a strong position.

01:16:34.680 And this is why you should do it the right way.

01:16:36.800 This is why you should take the long road.

01:16:38.840 Because when the long road, when you take the long road and you build a solid foundation,

01:16:42.980 when shit goes haywire and everybody else is panicking, you actually get to leverage up

01:16:47.780 three or four different levels.

01:16:49.440 You know, in 2008, I was just running my retail company.

01:16:53.280 We had just started FirstForm.

01:16:54.740 So it took me 20 months to launch our first product at FirstForm because we didn't know

01:16:59.440 what the fuck we were doing, right?

01:17:00.360 Yeah.

01:17:00.680 And like I told you, we partnered with a company that also didn't know.

01:17:04.460 So we were learning as we went.

01:17:06.280 Yeah.

01:17:06.560 And so there was a lot of trial and error.

01:17:08.080 It took a long time.

01:17:08.960 But dude, during those five years, we grew our retail company 100% every single year for

01:17:14.860 one single reason.

01:17:16.460 No one else tried.

01:17:17.440 Everybody else quit.

01:17:19.740 Everybody else said, no more marketing, no more advertising.

01:17:22.900 We're pulling in all of our assets and we're going to ride out the storm.

01:17:26.240 And while everybody else rode out the storm, I took all their shit.

01:17:29.440 And now they're all gone.

01:17:30.620 Like we cleaned them out.

01:17:31.700 And that same type of scenario is about to happen.

01:17:34.000 Yes.

01:17:34.340 A hundred percent.

01:17:35.340 That's what she's saying.

01:17:36.480 That's what I think you're saying.

01:17:37.520 A hundred percent.

01:17:38.480 Well, and I mean, the part I was at this.

01:17:40.140 That's what the data shows.

01:17:41.200 The data shows is coming.

01:17:42.320 The data shows.

01:17:42.720 I've been talking about it.

01:17:44.340 Dude, how many times we talked about this?

01:17:45.820 A million?

01:17:46.640 About a million.

01:17:47.440 One, two, right?

01:17:48.880 A few, right?

01:17:50.240 At least once.

01:17:50.880 That data that you just said, that just fortifies my position that this is going to happen.

01:17:56.580 Yeah, I'll send it to you.

01:17:57.260 It's going to be worse in 08.

01:17:58.660 Yeah, I think so too.

01:17:59.440 And longer.

01:18:00.200 I mean, this is like so technical and weird, but I was at this company called First Trust

01:18:05.320 at the time.

01:18:06.600 Actually, you would love the CEO.

01:18:08.940 It's a private company.

01:18:10.180 He wipes his name off the internet.

01:18:11.720 You can't find him anywhere.

01:18:12.660 I definitely had my disagreements with him, but he's a billionaire.

01:18:16.200 Hundreds of billions of dollars under management.

01:18:18.040 America is fuck.

01:18:19.200 I mean, they have a Christmas party.

01:18:21.100 They don't have a holiday party.

01:18:22.440 You know, they have like these lines in the sand.

01:18:24.780 Yeah, fuck yeah.

01:18:25.660 Yeah.

01:18:25.800 He's a hardcore dude, Jimbo, and he's going to hate that I'm talking about him right now.

01:18:30.220 But anyway, but I have a lot of respect for him because of the culture that he's built.

01:18:33.520 And he has this one economist, Brian Westbury, on Twitter.

01:18:35.840 And I'll give Brian a shout because he's, I think, the best economist that I've ever followed

01:18:39.420 in that he doesn't follow the narrative at all.

01:18:43.100 He spoke out about everything you guys have spoken out about and has an analyst team that

01:18:47.700 does a ton of research.

01:18:49.020 So it's all backed by data.

01:18:50.280 And and he told me one thing in 2007, 2008, I had come to their company more like 20 2009,

01:18:58.960 2010, and and I was working and running their Latin America business.

01:19:02.740 It was a pretty big asset management business at the time.

01:19:05.820 And Brian gave me this presentation that blew my mind and basically showed how, again, technical,

01:19:11.840 but like follow me for three seconds, something called mark to market accounting, right, which

01:19:15.860 basically means like if I have this desk right now and we bought this desk for a thousand

01:19:20.200 bucks, I have to at this exact moment go try to sell it in the market and whatever the

01:19:25.720 market will pay.

01:19:26.520 So let's say eBay is the market.

01:19:27.680 Whatever the market will pay is what this desk is worth.

01:19:30.160 So if I have a thousand dollar desk and I'm going to go sell it on eBay, what are you going

01:19:32.840 to get for it?

01:19:33.400 Like ten bucks, a hundred bucks?

01:19:35.260 You know, there's a big discount to the market, right?

01:19:37.880 Well, in 2008, they changed the mark to market accounting regulations.

01:19:42.820 And what they did is they changed that for the banks.

01:19:45.520 So imagine billions of dollars worth of loans, right?

01:19:48.340 And they said, if you have loans on your balance sheet, you have to mark those loans to what

01:19:54.840 the market will pay you for them at any given time.

01:19:57.620 Well, that's OK.

01:19:58.480 Normal day to day things trade liquidly, you know, with a lot of liquidity.

01:20:02.640 But when there's a liquidity crisis, aka 2008, and nobody's buying anything because we think

01:20:08.720 the world's going to end, how much are people going to pay for that desk?

01:20:12.380 They're going to pay pennies on the dollar.

01:20:14.120 And that's actually why the crisis happened.

01:20:15.820 It wasn't what everybody talked about, which is, oh, the banks are so bad and they're out

01:20:20.340 doing these crazy loans.

01:20:21.780 It was that the government changed one tiny little tax practice.

01:20:25.540 And that tiny little tax practice of mark to market essentially meant that the banks looked

01:20:29.880 bad and like they had bad assets on their balance sheet.

01:20:33.160 But if you have a mortgage portfolio and you pay your rent, that's all a mortgage is, right?

01:20:36.740 And that that rent is getting paid every single month, let's say, 80 percent, then the mortgage

01:20:43.700 is worth at least 80 percent of its value.

01:20:46.120 So 80 cents on the dollar, right?

01:20:47.980 Well, the market would only pay 10 cents for that loan.

01:20:50.900 So they mark it down immediately.

01:20:52.460 The second that they change mark to market accounting, and you can look at this on the

01:20:56.260 notes for the Fed, is when the V-shaped recovery happens.

01:20:59.460 So I'm like, I fuck you not.

01:21:02.020 It happens in 2009, the second that they change the accounting.

01:21:06.100 And so they pile all this stimulus and TARP and all of this money into the economy.

01:21:11.560 And that has a correlation to the market going up.

01:21:15.200 But Brian's argument is no causation.

01:21:16.980 That's not why the market went up.

01:21:18.380 It's just that they changed this mark to market accounting.

01:21:20.860 And so that's why I go back again and again to it's all about, do you understand the finance

01:21:25.960 terms?

01:21:26.380 Do you actually understand what's happening at the dollar level?

01:21:29.440 Because that's what drives our economy.

01:21:31.360 And so the reason we had this really quick V-shaped recovery is because we didn't have

01:21:35.780 as bad of a market as-

01:21:37.720 As it was portrayed.

01:21:38.940 Right.

01:21:39.260 But today, there's no mark to market accounting.

01:21:42.100 That's right.

01:21:42.840 It's something different.

01:21:43.900 So it's not going to feel like that.

01:21:45.220 I think it's going to be, I think it's my, you know, hold on.

01:21:50.940 Uh-oh.

01:21:52.620 There we go.

01:21:55.380 All right.

01:21:56.380 Now I can qualify to talk about this.

01:22:01.760 I personally believe that what is happening is an intentional destruction of our financial

01:22:09.480 system because it's irreparable.

01:22:11.340 And the intent is to hyperinflate the currency, trade out what people are insured for in

01:22:19.440 the banks or digital currency, and then basically start everybody over at 250 grand or less

01:22:24.860 and say, oh, by the way, you still owe your debt.

01:22:27.440 That's what I think is going to happen.

01:22:29.400 I hope you're wrong.

01:22:30.280 I know.

01:22:30.720 That has been a word.

01:22:31.720 I'm usually not.

01:22:32.440 Yeah.

01:22:32.840 That was a word from Andy Domus.

01:22:34.520 That's right.

01:22:34.940 We come back.

01:22:36.140 We come right back to normal Andy.

01:22:37.600 Well, but I do think you have a point, which is what's the only way to combat that?

01:22:41.800 Assets and not just cash in the bank.

01:22:44.920 You need to own companies.

01:22:46.480 You need to own land.

01:22:47.640 I mean, everybody talks about inflation being bad for everybody.

01:22:51.100 No, it's bad for people who don't own anything.

01:22:53.040 My houses, my businesses go up in price.

01:22:55.980 If you don't have any assets, you're, you know, you're inflating away your salary at 3%

01:23:00.940 a year's salary increase.

01:23:02.280 Yeah.

01:23:02.800 You know, it's an unwinnable war.

01:23:04.700 You can't win it.

01:23:05.760 No.

01:23:06.020 And this goes back full circle.

01:23:09.060 Okay.

01:23:10.320 To you not quitting when you're unhappy.

01:23:15.040 That's real talk.

01:23:16.160 That's real shit.

01:23:16.660 Because what ends up happening is you get to be 75 years old and you don't have shit

01:23:21.740 because you guys all think that you're going to save a million bucks or 2 million bucks

01:23:26.460 and it's going to be worth 2 million bucks when you're 70 and it's actually going to be

01:23:30.020 worth like 200 bucks.

01:23:31.480 And that's where the, that's where the, dude, you said our economy runs on, you know, people's

01:23:37.200 understanding of currency.

01:23:38.020 I actually think our entire economy runs on people's ignorance to what's going on in the

01:23:42.560 financial system.

01:23:43.560 That's the only reason they're able to do it.

01:23:45.740 You know, we don't know.

01:23:46.980 We don't know.

01:23:48.440 We don't know as consumers what's actually going on.

01:23:51.240 And, and, and like you said, with the opaque thing, uh, where there's mystery, there's money.

01:23:56.460 Right.

01:23:56.860 And they got a lot of mystery with their shit for most people.

01:23:59.280 It's highly confusing for the average person.

01:24:01.440 This is why they don't teach us this shit in high school, which is very easy for us to

01:24:07.180 learn.

01:24:07.700 We don't even learn how to manage our personal bank accounts.

01:24:10.820 No, but I know the Pythagorean theorem.

01:24:12.460 So that's important.

01:24:13.120 I learned that.

01:24:13.900 Yeah.

01:24:14.120 I use it frequently, you know?

01:24:15.880 Exactly, dude.

01:24:17.260 Exactly.

01:24:18.400 Well, Hey, I'll tell you what, um, this has been an awesome conversation.

01:24:22.040 I really, really appreciate you making the trip up here.

01:24:25.100 Thanks for making the trip up here, Chris.

01:24:27.020 Appreciate you guys.

01:24:28.240 Thanks for having us.

01:24:29.880 Guys, where, where can, where are you doing most of your work?

01:24:32.940 I know you've got a big YouTube and, uh, you're doing a lot on Instagram and that's

01:24:36.640 growing like crazy.

01:24:37.740 Where tell people where to follow you.

01:24:40.000 Yeah.

01:24:40.280 Probably Cody Sanchez on Instagram, YouTube, or contrarian thinking, which is our newsletter.

01:24:45.280 Okay.

01:24:45.680 All free and just follow along and buy a business and tell us if you do.

01:24:49.440 I would love if somebody tells Andy or me or DJ, if you bought a business because of this,

01:24:55.600 if you employ people because of this, like, let's, let's show them that, you know, it's

01:24:59.820 not just trolls that respond to the comments, you know?

01:25:02.460 You guys, you guys are doing amazing work.

01:25:05.120 And you too.

01:25:05.860 Dude, I'm like, I knew this show was going to be cool, but like, honestly, this has been

01:25:09.800 one of my favorite shows that we've ever done.

01:25:11.580 Um, just based upon your experience, your knowledge, and also the purpose of why you're

01:25:19.940 doing what you're doing, I think is incredible.

01:25:22.360 Uh, I would appreciate if you guys gave these guys support, support Cody and what she's doing.

01:25:27.080 Um, it's, I couldn't say enough good about it.

01:25:30.740 Well, it's very cool.

01:25:31.600 Back at you.

01:25:32.020 Yeah.

01:25:32.160 Can I say one last thing?

01:25:33.580 Sure.

01:25:33.860 I think it's really cool what you guys do.

01:25:36.240 Chris and I were talking about this beforehand, like no shame on the rock.

01:25:39.380 I like the guy.

01:25:39.880 Like, but then I think, man, you have this giant platform and you choose to do a tequila

01:25:43.920 company and, uh, like an energy sports drink company is the only things you do.

01:25:49.200 I'm like, why?

01:25:50.000 Like he's a healthy dude.

01:25:51.360 Like, why not do something that would be really great for the country and the world too?

01:25:56.380 I mean, tequila is fine.

01:25:57.320 I like tequila, but like, I'm not sure that's the deal.

01:25:59.560 And so what I think is really cool is even in conversations here, you walk the talk, man,

01:26:03.700 which is weird on the internet, first of all.

01:26:05.520 And like, uh, I wish more people out there would listen to this and like,

01:26:09.560 don't just go create the next social media app.

01:26:12.000 Don't just try to go get rich quick on a new alcohol.

01:26:14.600 And if you actually listen to this and you have massive reach, maybe do the hard thing.

01:26:19.380 Like the rock works hard as fuck.

01:26:21.440 Why not do a company that could actually really change this country?

01:26:24.780 Um, and so I think it's really cool what you're doing.

01:26:26.820 I'm really stoked to be here.

01:26:27.680 Thanks for having me.

01:26:28.160 I, I, I actually think the way that you guys are investing, like the way that you look

01:26:33.800 at acquiring small businesses and building a portfolio, you know, and you can, you can

01:26:38.940 do this with stocks.

01:26:39.860 You know, you could do this with crypto.

01:26:41.460 If you feel a little risky right now, you know, there's other ways to do these things,

01:26:45.160 but what I love about what you guys are doing.

01:26:48.120 And by the way, I own a tequila company.

01:26:50.080 Oh shit.

01:26:51.380 Yeah.

01:26:52.480 Well shit.

01:26:53.340 That's okay though.

01:26:54.180 That's okay.

01:26:54.800 Because I'm building brands and it's going to, you also offset it with a giant gem and

01:26:59.460 some stuff.

01:27:00.020 My main, my main, I also own cannabis too.

01:27:03.000 So like, you know, I got all the vices.

01:27:05.660 Um, me too.

01:27:07.180 Yeah.

01:27:07.480 The, the, but the main thing is, you know, personal development is improving.

01:27:12.260 It is getting better.

01:27:13.100 And, um, anyway, I, I just think what you guys are doing is incredible because it really

01:27:18.620 is that revolution that we need.

01:27:21.060 Yes.

01:27:21.260 We need higher standards.

01:27:22.400 Yes.

01:27:22.620 We need you to become disciplined.

01:27:23.920 Yes.

01:27:24.120 We need you to become fit.

01:27:25.280 But when it, when it comes to where your, your assets are going to be focused, I think

01:27:32.580 what you guys are doing is incredible because what you're doing is you're bringing back small

01:27:36.320 business America.

01:27:37.120 And I think that's just, I hope that you guys listening and watching understand how big of

01:27:42.820 a fucking deal that is and how you can actually be a part of it very easily.

01:27:47.740 You know, it, yes, it's going to be hard.

01:27:50.080 Yes.

01:27:50.560 It may be not easy, very simply.

01:27:52.600 Okay.

01:27:53.040 But it is an obligation for us as citizens to own the economy that we operate inside of.

01:27:59.340 You know what I'm saying?

01:28:00.280 Like, that's something that we don't talk about.

01:28:02.120 Nobody talks about that.

01:28:03.160 Like you guys have an obligation to own these little stores that people utilize and these

01:28:08.680 businesses that people utilize in your community.

01:28:11.040 It's a big obligation that we have passed on to companies and corporations that do not

01:28:17.520 have our interests in mind.

01:28:18.620 They have their own interests in mind.

01:28:20.120 And, and dude, if we're going to fix what's going on in the country, what you guys are

01:28:23.900 doing, and I just hope that people really listen to it and pay attention to it because

01:28:28.180 that is actually what's going to save everything.

01:28:30.920 Yep.

01:28:31.100 No more Starbucks.

01:28:31.900 Yeah.

01:28:32.060 No shit.

01:28:32.820 That's right.

01:28:33.740 That's right.

01:28:34.700 Well, thank you so much.

01:28:35.660 Thank you.

01:28:36.140 Yeah.

01:28:36.280 This has been amazing.

01:28:37.280 Thanks, DJ.

01:28:38.140 Oh, thank you.

01:28:38.800 All right, guys, that's the show.

01:28:41.420 I think, you know, that's a word to share.

01:28:43.780 Don't you think?

01:28:44.560 So give us a little Sherry share.

01:28:45.960 Give us a little likey like, and we'll see you next time.

01:28:48.720 Yeah.

01:28:49.920 Went from sleeping on the floor.

01:28:51.580 Now my jewelry box froze.

01:28:53.300 Fuck a pole.

01:28:54.080 Fuck a stove.

01:28:54.940 Counted millions in the cold.

01:28:56.620 Bad bitch.

01:28:57.440 Booty swole.

01:28:58.280 Got her on bankroll.

01:28:59.920 Can't fold.

01:29:00.800 Doesn't know.

01:29:01.600 Headshot.

01:29:02.420 Case closed.

01:29:03.100 Close.

01:29:03.440 Close.

01:29:03.560 Close.

01:29:04.440 Close.

01:29:04.500 Close.

01:29:05.500 Close.

01:29:06.500 Close.

01:29:07.500 Close.

REAL AF with Andy Frisella - March 31, 2023

494. Small Business Revolution In America Ft. Codie Sanchez

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