Why Networking Events Are the Key to Success| Natalie Dawson DSH #1289

Summary

Podcast Summary: Digital Social Hour | Episode 1289: Why Networking Events Are the Key to Success with Natalie Dawson

Release Date: April 2, 2025

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Introduction

In the latest episode of Digital Social Hour, host Sean Kelly engages in an insightful conversation with Natalie Dawson, the co-founder of Cardone Ventures. The episode, titled "Why Networking Events Are the Key to Success," delves into the pivotal role that networking plays in entrepreneurial success, the challenges of public speaking, building resilient business partnerships, and navigating the complexities of personal and professional relationships.

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Natalie Dawson’s Journey to Success

Natalie Dawson opens the discussion by recounting her transformative experience at the 10x Growth Con in Las Vegas, where she and her husband attended in 2019. This event was a turning point that led to the formation of Cardone Ventures, a joint venture with Grant Cardone.

[01:11] Natalie Dawson: "Those four days changed my life. And we went up to Grant afterwards and said, are you interested in adding another billion to your net worth?"

Natalie details how, despite initial reluctance from Grant Cardone to partner, her and her husband's consistent presence and investment in his funds eventually led to a successful collaboration within three months.

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The Crucial Role of Networking Events

The core theme of the episode revolves around the significance of networking events in achieving business success. Natalie emphasizes the importance of not just attending these events but actively engaging and making meaningful connections.

[14:55] Natalie Dawson: "We didn't know Grant, there's 35,000 people in the room. How do we show up and be different and really differentiate ourselves?"

Natalie and Sean discuss strategies for standing out at large conferences, such as purchasing front-row seats, taking detailed notes, and presenting themselves as competent and committed individuals. They highlight the necessity of having a clear plan and actionable steps to maximize the benefits of attending such events.

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Overcoming Public Speaking Anxiety

Natalie shares her personal battle with public speaking anxiety, an experience that significantly impacted her early career. She narrates a harrowing incident during a leadership presentation that left her unable to speak in front of groups for four years.

[03:06] Natalie Dawson: "I just would not [speak]. What would you have done? Would you like dry, dry mouth? Is that your thing?"

Determined to overcome her fear, Natalie sought professional coaching and immersed herself in public speaking opportunities, gradually rebuilding her confidence. She underscores the importance of persistence and deliberate practice in conquering personal fears.

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Building Resilient Business Partnerships

A substantial portion of the conversation focuses on the dynamics of successful business partnerships. Natalie credits her long-term partnership with her husband, Brandon Dawson, as a cornerstone of her business success. She highlights the balance between her structured, process-oriented approach and Brandon's visionary and relationship-driven strategies.

[28:15] Sean Kelly: "You balance your other... Well, I realized you need someone like that because I hate phone calls, I hate business meetings, but I got a right-hand man for that."

Their collaboration exemplifies how complementary skills and mutual respect can drive a business forward, fostering an environment where both partners can thrive.

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Handling Negativity and Criticism

Natalie and Sean address the inevitability of facing negativity and criticism in the entrepreneurial journey. Natalie shares her approach to dealing with negative comments and public backlash, emphasizing resilience and focusing on constructive feedback.

[33:18] Natalie Dawson: "There's like, in some cases just like a tiny bit of truth to it and that really you can either choose to do two things."

Sean complements this by advocating for letting success be the response to negativity, avoiding engagement with baseless criticisms, and learning from valuable feedback.

[36:14] Sean Kelly: "Best way to deal with negativity is success, in my opinion. I don't even talk back anymore. I just succeed."

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Personal Life and Business Balance

The episode explores the intricate balance between personal relationships and business endeavors. Natalie speaks candidly about her 20-year marriage to Brandon Dawson, highlighting how their strong personal bond translates into a formidable business partnership. They discuss the challenges and rewards of intertwining personal and professional lives, emphasizing the importance of mutual respect and support.

[26:59] Sean Kelly: "That's beautiful. Yeah. There is no negative stigma when there's a big age gap. Yeah. It's interesting. A lot of shame."

Their relationship serves as a testament to the potential harmony between personal and business realms when founded on trust and shared goals.

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Discussion on the Red Pill Movement

In a thought-provoking segment, Natalie and Sean delve into the Red Pill movement, a controversial trend aimed at empowering men. They express concerns about its implications on relationships and societal norms, debating its impact on trust and long-term commitments.

[51:14] Sean Kelly: "Red pill movement is basically the counter to feminism."

Natalie challenges the movement's ideology by emphasizing the value of stable, trusting relationships over casual engagements, questioning the long-term viability of such perspectives.

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Impact of Social Media on Attention Spans

The conversation shifts to the pervasive influence of social media on human attention spans and productivity. Both Natalie and Sean lament how incessant scrolling and superficial content consumption are diminishing human potential and focus.

[48:23] Natalie Dawson: "Am I watching somebody die? Am I watching this half naked girl? Am I going and building this business? Am I going [to] help people? Like, I'm fucking confused."

They discuss strategies to mitigate these negative effects, advocating for intentional content consumption and focusing on activities that align with one's goals and values.

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Conclusion: Key Takeaways

The episode concludes with a synthesis of the discussed themes, reinforcing the message that networking events, when approached strategically, are invaluable for business growth. It underscores the importance of overcoming personal challenges, building strong and respectful partnerships, handling criticism with resilience, and maintaining a clear focus amidst the distractions of modern life.

Natalie and Sean leave listeners with actionable insights on leveraging networking opportunities, the significance of personal development, and the necessity of fostering meaningful relationships both personally and professionally.

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Notable Quotes

• Natalie Dawson [00:00]: "For most women today, what do we talk about? Oh, you have a girl's night and talk about your husband. The jerk is like, that's normal. That's not. That's actually not normal."

• Sean Kelly [28:15]: "You balance your other... Well, I realized you need someone like that because I hate phone calls, I hate business meetings, but I got a right-hand man for that."

• Natalie Dawson [14:55]: "We didn't know Grant, there's 35,000 people in the room. How do we show up and be different and really differentiate ourselves?"

• Sean Kelly [36:14]: "Best way to deal with negativity is success, in my opinion. I don't even talk back anymore. I just succeed."

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Final Thoughts

This episode of Digital Social Hour offers a rich exploration of the multifaceted nature of success in the entrepreneurial world. Through Natalie Dawson's compelling narrative and candid discussions with Sean Kelly, listeners gain profound insights into the power of networking, the importance of personal growth, and the value of authentic relationships in building enduring business empires.

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For more episodes and insightful conversations, visit Digital Social Hour.

Transcript

[Natalie Dawson]

It's so logical and yet no one talks about it. In fact, for most women today, what do we talk about? Oh, you have a girl's night and talk about your husband. The jerky is like, that's normal. That's not. That's actually not normal. It doesn't make any sense. That's the person that you go to home, you go to sleep with and you build a life with, and yet we're just going to talk shit about them. What does that really say about you?

[Sean]

Okay, guys, Natalie Dawson here today, co founder of Cardone Ventures here in Vegas for 10x growth con.

[Natalie Dawson]

Right? Sure am.

[Sean]

You about to speak?

[Natalie Dawson]

We'll see. We never released the list.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Natalie Dawson]

At a time.

[Sean]

He keeps it as a surprise.

[Natalie Dawson]

It is a surprise. We got some big ones. It's controversial people, some interesting people. It's gonna be good.

[Sean]

That's cool. Have you been to the last few 10x growth cons?

[Natalie Dawson]

I have. So when we partnered with Grant Cardone because my husband and I went to a growth con in 2019, so he got me tickets for Christmas because I was like, this Grant Cardone guy is gonna change our life. And I think we should be business partners with him. And I forced him to read a bunch of Grant's books and decided for Christmas that year, he bought me growthcon diamond. Front row growthcon tickets.

[Sean]

Wow.

[Natalie Dawson]

Went to the event. 35,000 people in arena. Those four days changed my life. And we went up to Grant afterwards and said, are you interested in adding another billion to your net worth?

[Sean]

You know what?

[Natalie Dawson]

An offer looked a little funny. People make that offer to him all the time. Like, people just bullshit their way through all sorts of, you know, I'm going to 10x this. I'm going to do this for you. And he doesn't take the bait very often. And he didn't take our bait initially either. But we invested in his funds and we showed up as competent people around him. And three months later, we had a joint business called Cardo Ventures, running that for the last six years.

[Sean]

Within three months. That's impressive. So you convinced him?

[Natalie Dawson]

We did, yeah.

[Sean]

I told him when he just came on, he changed my life. I went to his second ever Growth Con.

[Natalie Dawson]

No way.

[Sean]

And that was my first conference ever.

[Natalie Dawson]

Which one was it?

[Sean]

It was the one in Vegas at the Luxor, I think.

[Natalie Dawson]

Okay.

[Sean]

Or no. It might have been Mandala.

[Natalie Dawson]

Mandalay.

[Sean]

Yeah. But I stayed at the Luxor.

[Natalie Dawson]

Dang.

[Sean]

And I was just like, oh, my gosh, I need to step it up.

[Natalie Dawson]

Amazing.

[Sean]

Yeah. When you see that crowd, like you said, like 20, 30,000 people. It makes you want to just work your way up to that stage.

[Natalie Dawson]

I feel like the tennis community, what it's done for me is just made me feel okay with being disappointed in myself. And it was the first time that I joined a group of people who were all just like high performers and not saying like, oh, it's okay, Natalie. You just, you're doing okay, you're doing well. They were like, yeah, you haven't done anything. What have you created in life? What impact have you made? And if you were to go up on that stage, what would you talk about? If you had the opportunity to speak in front of 35,000 people, what's the thing that you've done or you've created or the impact that. That would be interesting. Like, could you even talk back then? Six years ago when I went to that event, I could not have spoken.

[Sean]

I couldn't either back then.

[Natalie Dawson]

Like, I just would not. What would you have done? Would you like dry, dry mouth? Is that your thing?

[Sean]

Yeah, I had terrible anxiety back then.

[Natalie Dawson]

Okay, has that gone away?

[Sean]

Mostly now it's situational, so we'll pop up here and there. But I'm aware of it. But back then I had no control over it. Yeah, I would get invited to talk and I'd say no.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah, same. I would do the same thing. I had a terrible public speaking experience when I was 20 years old. I just dropped out of college and was working for a company that, where I was making this leadership presentation in front of 40 leaders. Everybody was older than me. I had been working on this for a little while. I'd never really had stage fright up until this moment. This moment changed the trajectory of my life. And I get up to make an hour long presentation. It's 8:05 in the morning and I start the presentation off. And five minutes in, for whatever reason, I turned around, I looked at the screen and then I went back to the audience. And when I went back to look at the audience, there was something that just instantly took over me. It was like full blown anxiety. Never experienced that in my life. I finished the rest of my hour long presentation in about five minutes. And I ended the presentation. Mind you, it's 8, 10 in the morning. I end the presentation by clapping and being like, well, you guys can go to the bathroom now. They're like, we just sat down, like, our coffee's still hot. What do you mean we can go to the bathroom? It was mortifying. And for four years I couldn't Speak in front of groups. If it was more than two or three people. Like the words cannot come out of my mouth. It was a very scarring experience for me.

[Sean]

Dang. What got you through that? How'd you get over that hurdle?

[Natalie Dawson]

Going to GrowthCon, really? I sat there and watched Elena Cardone and was like, I am so fricking inspired by what she's able to do. Her kids can write their own speech in front of 35,000 people. And Natalie is just too self important to not figure out this fear, this like, this mumbling that would happen in my head that would come out of my my mouth like, what, what am I even doing? So I hired a public speaking coach. After that, I took our own 10x stages. Like, again, at the time, we weren't partners with them and I just started actually making speeches. Every day I'd make speech whether it was a toast at dinner or I would just make up reasons to give talks.

[Sean]

So reps. Yeah, same. Yeah. Public speaking is actually the number one fear in the world.

[Natalie Dawson]

It's horrendous.

[Sean]

It's awful, I think. What's up, guys? Shout out to RX Sugar, one of my favorite snack brands. That about to try a flavor I've never had before. Vanilla cream. See what we got here. Not solid. Hello, vanilla. It's my favorite ice cream flavor. Definitely check them out, guys. R Sugar. A lot of people learn it from public school, honestly, because I hated it because of public school. Why you're presenting on topics you don't care about and it makes you like question yourself. But if I public speak about podcasting or whatever I'm good at, I don't get worried at all. Like, I know I'm confident I've done the work. As soon as I start speaking goes away.

[Natalie Dawson]

I think that's the difference is when you've done the work, you don't feel like you're a fraud.

[Sean]

Right.

[Natalie Dawson]

Or for me. And I don't know if you experience this as a man. Man. I think of this as like a male, female kind of thing. I wasn't working out. I had just kind of like let myself go a little bit. I was probably 15, 20 pounds heavier than I am. Just like had no muscle mass, just ate whatever I wanted. But I never felt good in work clothes. When I thought of public speaking, I always imagined I have to be in work clothes. So I'm going to go get up on stage, have all these lights on me and I'm not going to feel confident in my body. And then I'm not going to feel confident in what I'm saying. So it's just going to create this, like, cycle. So I actually also got in the gym in order to be able to publicly speak.

[Sean]

Helps your confidence, right?

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah.

[Sean]

I struggled with confidence growing up massively, like huge introvert, only child and just lacked it. But business helped me gain confidence. Having some sex in business and going to the gym and stuff.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yep. You gain competence and all of a sudden you have confidence.

[Sean]

It's a weird thing and it impacts all aspects of life now.

[Natalie Dawson]

So true.

[Sean]

So a lot of people are struggling.

[Natalie Dawson]

With confidence, so it's really sad.

[Sean]

Big issue.

[Natalie Dawson]

I think people just don't know what to get stats in. That's what I always say. It's like, what is your stat? You have to get a stat in something. And when I didn't feel confident, it was because I was talking about things that I didn't know anything about and I didn't have a stat. There wasn't something I could say like, hey, I went and did this thing. I was kind of like toying and things. And today's society, with social media and all the different things people can be watching and consuming, there's not a lot of people producing. So you're not creating stats, you're just consuming.

[Sean]

Right.

[Natalie Dawson]

But once you have the stats, you become unstoppable. Once you learn that you can get really good at something that makes you feel good about yourself, it's just like this game that you just want to become. This is my experience. I just want to become better at more things so that I can gain more confidence, be able to help more people. And then the real game becomes, how do I help other people gain confidence so that they can then go do things? And it just becomes this thing that really is a ripple effect.

[Sean]

Yeah, yeah. That's what you're doing now. You got tons of companies under your belt. Right. How many are in the portfolio at the moment?

[Natalie Dawson]

Right now we have 10 companies. We have our core business, which is Cardone Ventures, and then one of our largest portfolio companies is 10x health, majority owner. And. And we have a handful of other home services businesses. We just partnered with park and Heather El Moussa on a beauty business, and we're launching our first fund in the upcoming months, which is really exciting.

[Sean]

Wow. Big things.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah.

[Sean]

So you don't care about the industry or do you apply your mindset principles to every single industry?

[Natalie Dawson]

We do have some industries that we're particularly bullish in. I would say the health and wellness space. We have A good amount of capital invested there. And then also the home services, space, graphene, electrical.

[Sean]

Yeah. So the high ticket stuff, basically.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yes.

[Sean]

Yeah. I'm the same way. Low tickets, just the margins are too thin for me. And there's a lot of logistics.

[Natalie Dawson]

Solve people's problems. Who can pay to get their problem solved. You're solving people's problems and they can't afford to pay you. It doesn't matter that you're the greatest problem solver. You have the greatest product in the world. If they can't pay to solve that problem, you're not going to be able to create a business around it.

[Sean]

Right.

[Natalie Dawson]

And now you just chase all the small problems. There's like, there's no reason. There's no money there. Don't do that. There's many other places. Let's go solve really big problems.

[Sean]

Yeah. I mean, Elon, I think it was Elon, he's like, you're paid in proportion to the difficulty of the problem you solve. Yes, that's so true.

[Natalie Dawson]

Speaking of Elon, we were talking about this a little bit before the show started. So I was at Mar a Lago a couple weekends ago and I am just hanging out. I'm about to go up to my hotel room. A friend of ours is a member, Elena Cardone is a member. And I'm hanging out and they're in the patio. This is the same weekend of the Zelensky episode. Elon and Donald Trump are just sitting on the patio. Donald's drinking his Diet Coke, DJing for the crowd. That's what he does. Elon Musk is sitting there. They're just shooting the shit. Two of arguably the most powerful people from a business and a political standpoint in the world leave Washington, D.C. on the weekend to go recharge, to continue to talk business, but also to DJ and to play a Spotify playlist. And it was fascinating to me to just like. I've never really thought about what presidents do on the weekend. Yeah, that's what they do. They hang out with Elon Musk.

[Sean]

Yeah. It's weird to view them as normal people, right?

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah.

[Sean]

The President of the country.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah.

[Sean]

That's funny. How was his playlist? Be honest.

[Natalie Dawson]

Playlist was interesting. Of course, there was ymca. That's a song. My favorite song was actually the Star Spangled Banner. He has a version of the Star Spangled Banner that actually has him speaking in different parts of it.

[Sean]

Wow.

[Natalie Dawson]

So it's like, you know, that sounds.

[Sean]

Like something Trump would do.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah. And it's like him singing or him talking and then the rest of the song. But it was cool, like, just to be in proximity, that much power. We were around him. We actually gave him an award on New Year's Eve just a couple months ago. And before the event, this is what he did. He showed up to the event space to check it all out to ensure that the seating is right. And this man's about to become the President of the United States of America. He's still showing up to the venue to check out the lighting, the staging. And as he was leaving, I was standing right by the door, and he stopped, and he looks at the wall at Mar a Lago, which is his country club in Palm beach, and he looks at the wall and he says, the paint's chipped there. We need to get the paint fixed. Like, this man is about to be the leader of the free world, and he still today cares about the details of this place where he wants the paint to get fixed. And the second thing that was so fascinating to me, especially for business owners, because that's who I work with every day. So he makes the paint comment and his chief of staff or whoever, it wasn't like the actual chief of staff, but the person that was responsible for the property was like, okay, great, well, we'll get that handled. And he's still staring at the paint chip on the wall. And he goes, and don't let me forget to pay Joe, because I think I forgot to include him in the Christmas bonus this year. I don't remember writing his check on New Year's Eve. To think that he is paying attention to his people and their incentive compensation and remembering to pay his people's incentive compensation, to me, is why he is as successful as he is, regardless of what people believe. Left, right, center on politics. Donald Trump's ability to run a business and to pay attention to the details is why he is successful. And I think it's easy for business owners today to get really caught up in, oh, I'm more important now. I don't do certain things. I have staff for that. They get a little bit cocky as success happens.

[Sean]

Right.

[Natalie Dawson]

And how many business owners are actually paying attention to their team's incentive compensation? I believe that's what separates great business owners from terrible business owners. Great business owners don't really care about their compensation. They're good financially. They review their P and L, they review their balance sheet. They understand what's happening on a monthly basis in their business, but they care and fight for every single day their team's compensation if you don't have incentive metrics for your team, if your team doesn't know how they win working with you, you're never going to get a great team. You're never going to build anything big. So Donald Trump on Chris or on New Year's Eve this year is focused on his team's incentive compensation, which is a lesson for all of us as business owners, is how often are we really thinking about our teams and how much money they're making and the opportunity that they're going after through working with us.

[Sean]

I love that he's always been great with people, great at communication. I've noticed, like, he could talk to anyone and they would like it. Yeah, he's just present. Even though he's a billionaire, he'll talk to, like, someone on the street randomly. And it's just impressive to me. You know, some. Some people, when they get to that level of wealth or success, they lose touch with reality, they call it. But it doesn't seem like that's happened to him. He stays pretty grounded.

[Natalie Dawson]

It can't imagine what it'd be like to live in a fishbowl. I mean, you have everybody in the world, wherever you go, wanting to take photos, pictures, like, get some sort of piece of you. So to still be able to maintain that curiosity of life and other people knowing that they probably do want a photo with you or something from you is really an admirable quality.

[Sean]

Yeah, yeah. You hear about that bubble in D.C. and politics, how these guys just get so lost in everything, they lose sense of reality. Right.

[Natalie Dawson]

What was wild to me to think about, not to, like, make this whole show a Donald Trump show, but since I had all these epiphanies while I was sitting there with him, it's like most presidents don't have the independent wealth to be able to take Air Force one from Washington D.C. on the weekend to go to their home. I don't think Joe Biden wanted to drive or fly to his house after a long week at the Oval Office. When you're in the Oval Office, most of them are like, I'm staying in the Oval Office. This is a dream I've been fighting my whole life, my whole career, been trying to get here. I'm getting the best service. What does he do? No, he leaves to go to his home because his home actually has people. His home is Mar a Lago. That's where he lives. His home has people that love him, that support him, that are there. People cheer and clap and are excited for him to be there. But Most presidents don't actually have that ability because they aren't as financially well off as he is. So for this presidency, he's just going to be hanging out at the Mar A Lago. The. The Winter White House is what they call it.

[Sean]

A lot goes down in Mar A Lago.

[Natalie Dawson]

Sure does.

[Sean]

Paying for access is something I'm a fan of.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yes.

[Sean]

I'm in a few masterminds. I pay for the best ticket at conferences when I come. Yep, it's changed my life. Yeah, I know people try to cheap out on that kind of stuff, but I've seen a direct ROI from me, at least totally.

[Natalie Dawson]

People who think that that's the best way to save money, they. They are missing what the game is. When we showed up to that growth conference, we didn't know Grant, there's 35,000 people in the room. How do we show up and. And be different and really differentiate ourselves? We're one of the things that I think people don't do when they show up to events like that is maybe they'll pay. A lot of people can pay and they like throw that around. But are they actually there and are they present and do they take notes? That's the most respectful thing that you could do to anybody in power. If I'm in a room with somebody that I respect, I'm not going to pretend like I'm better or I'm cool or I'm anything. I'm going to hang on every single word. I'm going to take notes and actively show that I'm interested in what they're saying. Because it's so easy to just look around. Even in meetings that people run with their team members, you look around and no one's paying attention. They're on their phone. They're not really showing or demonstrating that they're totally on the ball, that they've got this, that they're able to duplicate what the person's saying and ask really great questions. So if you're showing up in the front of the room, and I'm sure you do this because you're successful, it's like, yes, you can pay. And that's step one. And then step two is, I'm in my seat. The person sees that I'm there. Grant saw that we were there the whole time taking notes. We bought products to demonstrate that we're not just there to do business. Grant always says, to do business with me, do business with me. If you want to be a partner with me, you want to do something, okay, demonstrate to me that you're actually willing to do business, so you continue to throw down money. And my husband wore, like, really sparkly shoes because his thought process, like, the lights would hit the shoe, and so the shoe could, like, get a glimmer into. Into Grant's eye. And you know what? We did end up working because obviously.

[Sean]

Got to stand out.

[Natalie Dawson]

Exactly.

[Sean]

Yeah. That's the thing. For me, the first step is front row. Right. And then you try to get in the backstage. That's where you make good connections.

[Natalie Dawson]

What's your strategy for backstage?

[Sean]

So now that I have the podcast, I just. Whoever's organizing the event, I'll be like, yo, let me interview your speakers backstage. I'll get you X amount of views. Because we're getting 150 million views a month right now. So I could guarantee tens of millions of views for your speakers. It'll look good for the conference. It'll help you move tickets. So it's like a win win. So you gotta provide a valuable offer because they're not gonna let anyone backstage. So if you're watching this, figure out what you can provide backstage, and that's the spot to be at.

[Natalie Dawson]

I love it.

[Sean]

I've gotten so many guests backstage. Yeah. Tai Lopez, you know, all these big guys on social media backstage.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah. Because you have something that they want.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Natalie Dawson]

But what is first, somebody listening or watching? Like, what is the thing that you have that somebody actually wants? They'd be interested in you for a split second because that's all you have. You have, like, a moment, like, paid all this money, and you have your chance. What are you gonna say in your chance? You can say, I want a freaking selfie.

[Sean]

No.

[Natalie Dawson]

Even if I do want a selfie, you don't ask for the selfie.

[Sean]

No. They. They lose. You lose respect for people when they ask you. Right.

[Natalie Dawson]

Instantly.

[Sean]

Because you can't treat them as equal from there because it's like you're fanboying.

[Natalie Dawson]

Exactly.

[Sean]

It's like, come on, dude.

[Natalie Dawson]

Exactly. I told Brandon, I was like, you have to act like a hot chick.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Natalie Dawson]

He's like, what do you mean you have to act like a hot chick? I'm like a hot chick. When they see, like, somebody that they're interested in, they're not, like, instantly clamoring all over the person. Hot chick. Pretends like they don't even exist.

[Sean]

Facts.

[Natalie Dawson]

It's like, don't. Like, oh, my gosh. I've read every single book, and, ah, don't do that. That's not what you do. What? I made Brandon do, because at the time, this was in 2019. So my husband sold his business in 2016 for 77 times earnings. And 150 plus million was a purchase price, was a published purchase price, was actually more in total dollars. But we were nobodies. We didn't have any social media following. I didn't have the social media presence that I had today. Brandon had like 200 followers back in the day. And I'm like, if we meet Grant and we say to him, we want to add an extra billion to your net worth, how is he going to know that we're legit? So I forced my husband, who's like, traditional private equity guy, he did not want to partner with Grant and Alina Cardone. He wanted to go raise traditional private equity and go work with corporate people. And, like, I don't think so. Let's. We have a skillset that we can join forces with people who are already in the social media space, who are talking to business owners every single day using their phones. So I made him do a photo shoot in the suit, and he's like, this is ridiculous. Because my perception is that most men do not love photo shoots, my husband included. He's all excited about it. And I did the photo shoot, and on the business cards that I had made for growthcon, we launched our website that morning so that it was ready, so that if Grant actually ended up meeting us and we were able to give the business card, like, there'd be a legit website that would tell the story. But also, I put the photo of Brandon on the business card. It's how many events do you go to? And you just meet tons of people, but you don't actually remember who they are, what they do. So not just using the business card. It's like, my name's Bob. This is my business. Here's my phone number, and here's ABC Landscaping. Okay. There's a picture of Sean. Oh, okay. I remember meeting Sean. Yes. Sean had that podcast. Oh, and the thing, it says podcast on here. Like, you use your business card in a different way today than what traditional business cards were used for. And Grant, I kid you not. This was part of how we became partners with him. Grant, we gave him the business card. And a week later, on Instagram, out of nowhere, Grant posts a video on his stories that says Brandon's business card. Brandon Dawson. I wish I could do the Grant Cardone accent. Brandon Dawson. That's, like, very Southern. What did he say? Brandon Dawson. This is a good, good dude right here. Brandon Dawson. He's my new friend, and he, like, pulls it over the business card and, like, blocks out all of his information. But that was part of what allowed us to be legitimate, was having a fricking business. Because, like, you got to give somebody something.

[Sean]

That one little change to the card.

[Natalie Dawson]

One little thing is his photo, and he looks all smiley. It's cute. Picture of my husband. And so, anyway, well done.

[Sean]

You had a plan, and you executed.

[Natalie Dawson]

You have to have a plan before you show up. If you don't have a plan before you show up, what the frick are you doing?

[Sean]

I'm the same way. When I see the speaker lineup, I have a plan for every single speaker.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah. If you had the chance to meet them, what would you say? What's interesting? What research can you do?

[Sean]

It's already prepared for me for each single person, and I leverage existing connections. So if I see them go on a podcast of someone I'm friends with, I'll bring up their name, establish reputation, and then I'll provide value to them.

[Natalie Dawson]

Because the worst thing that you can do to somebody in Grant's position or anybody who's powerful is be like, oh, you know what? What advice would you give to be successful? You've written books on this. I watched every single YouTube video that Grant and Elena had put out, which was in the thousands before we were partners with them. I stopped hanging out with my friends. I read every book because I wanted to be business partners. I knew that I'd. If. If they were real, which we went to the event to actually figure that out, if this whole thing was real that we saw on Instagram and on YouTube. Like, these are the people in our lives that we are missing. We can help them. They can help us. And this could be the greatest business partnership that we could ever create. And so I just went to town taking notes, watching everything, reading everything, so that you don't ask the dumb questions like, what would you say to your younger self if you were 20 years old? What would you tell yourself?

[Sean]

I hate that one.

[Natalie Dawson]

It's the dumbest question. It's a question that somebody that. Who doesn't know you would ask. It's just a layup. Instead, it's like, hey, I remember you mentioning that you were struggling with drugs when you were 20 years old and that your dad had left or he had died when you were 8 years old, and it was really hard for you and your mom when you were 20. What did you do to get yourself out of the position of being really impacted by the father figures? That you had and the drug use that you were in. Like, that's a fricking good question. You only ask that question because you actually know the story and you did your research.

[Sean]

Yeah. When you're referencing the ages of their life events, they get impressed.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah. But, like, you can't do it. Like, you can't be a super stalker. I was borderline a super stalker. Have you ever had super stalkers?

[Sean]

Yes.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Yeah. They're not fun. Yeah, there's. There's a point. Like, I've been on one podcast, he does 30 hours of research for each guest, and that's borderline. But it's impressive, the type of questions he comes up with. Like, he made Dana White cry because he just knows a lot, you know? So there's a limit.

[Natalie Dawson]

A lot of respect that's transferred through that. I'm sure you don't do that type of prep for everybody, but you do prep.

[Sean]

I do prep. Yeah. Can't do none.

[Natalie Dawson]

No, that is.

[Sean]

It's disrespectful to the guests. You're doing no prep.

[Natalie Dawson]

Everyone's wasting their time.

[Sean]

Yeah. I also hate the one where it's like, can I pick your brain over coffee?

[Natalie Dawson]

No, you can't.

[Sean]

Yeah. The answer is no, I hate that one.

[Natalie Dawson]

You cannot pick my brain.

[Sean]

Like, why are you going for the ask on the first question?

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah, that's a huge ask. You just don't even realize, though, how huge of an ask that is until you're in a position where people are asking you that question. And the reality is, if you are in a position of being successful, you are sacrificing time with your family, you're sacrificing time with your friends, and you're sacrificing time with your clients and your team members by going and meeting a stranger for 15 minutes or 30 minutes so they can pick your brain. That is the trade off that that successful person is making. They can't do those other things because they're, quote, unquote, picking. You're picking their brain.

[Sean]

Right.

[Natalie Dawson]

So it's just a massive disrespect to all of these other people that they can't actually spend time with because they're so busy building and creating what they're creating. So what are your choices? You can either become a client. Okay, great. You could probably pick my brain. If you become my client. You could be a team member of mine. I'm happy to have you pick my brain. There's moments where there's one on ones. There's moments in the Car. There's a whole bunch of opportunities if you're a team member. You can't become my family unless you marry my brother. My brother is single, so maybe we. You could pick my brain. If you marry my brother, start dating him and you. It'd be kind of difficult to become a friend because I don't know you, so that'd be a little weird. Right. So you really have to think about if somebody is successful, like, who else you're competing with for their time and energy and what are you giving them. You're obviously giving them a huge opportunity to get visibility and podcast.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Natalie Dawson]

It's a huge. Like, you're adding your additive, not just taking.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Natalie Dawson]

Pick their brain.

[Sean]

Absolutely. Yeah. Have you always had a working relationship with Brandon or was it personal at first and then you became business partners later?

[Natalie Dawson]

I've known Brandon since I was 12.

[Sean]

Wow.

[Natalie Dawson]

My mom was his doctor for 25 years. He was my neighbor growing up.

[Sean]

Wow.

[Natalie Dawson]

Which is weird for. For people who are new to this. New to me. Hi, my name is Natalie Dawson. It's great to be spending the last 20ish minutes with you. It sounds really weird. And honestly, I don't like talking about that piece too much because I think people. I'd rather have people get to know us because the story is just so wild and shocking. But, yeah. I've known Brandon since I was 12 years old. I went to high school with his oldest two kids. I was friends with his oldest daughter, and I fell in love way later. I was valedictorian in my high school class.

[Sean]

Nice.

[Natalie Dawson]

I got a full ride academic scholarship to college, attended the London School of Economics. I wanted to be this smart. I don't need a man. I'm gonna be a lawyer and get my MBA and just, like, do the career thing. And I literally, out of nowhere, fell in love. And Brandon is twice my age. This is like, everything that I was so judgmental about for other people. Like, I would look at other people that looked like us and be like, I cannot believe she just, like, devalued herself. And what is she doing and what does she see in him? Oh, she just married him for the money, all that stuff. Brandon is the single most incredible human that I've ever met. He is my best friend. I feel like I am the luckiest person on the face of the planet to be able to be married to him. And it was really hard for me at first because I just felt all of this pressure of what everybody was gonna think about me and felt very not confident and not secure in myself. So today, Brandon and I, we've now worked together for 10 plus years and I get to see behind the scenes like, we're partners. We're partners in life. We're partners in business. We built this last business together. And I just respect the hell out of him. And I think that's hard to say. Most businesses that have family in it, they figure out family. Yeah. But they don't actually respect each other. And they can't still confidently say in front of thousands of people, this person's the real dude. I really vouch for this person and I feel that in spades with my partner.

[Sean]

That's beautiful. Yeah. There is not negative stigma when there's a big age gap. Yeah. It's interesting. A lot of shame.

[Natalie Dawson]

It was. Yeah. Especially because, you know, I didn't, I didn't need the money. It wasn't. It actually. I thought the money was gross. It was like really? I really did. I really did. I'm a different person 10 years later. But back then I sold all my possessions. Um, I was working under bridges in downtown Portland and it was like very. I'm gonna just like help save the planet one homeless person at a time.

[Sean]

Humanitarian.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah. And Brandon was like, listen, what if you could learn how to build a business that could create financial resources to impact millions of people versus you being able to impact a couple hundred? That's a good question.

[Sean]

Right.

[Natalie Dawson]

Thought about it like that before. Cs changed my life since I was very young. And he's a genius in business. He and I work really well together. I'm book smart. I will read things. I'm like structure and process and love all of the complexities of business from a structure standpoint. And he is a visionary and he understands strategy and relationships and things that no textbook could ever teach you. And I view life as a gift to be able to build what we're building together for the time that we're able to do this.

[Sean]

Yeah. You balance your other. Well, I realized you need someone like that because I hate phone calls, I hate business meetings, but I got a right hand man for that. And it's just 10x the business, honestly.

[Natalie Dawson]

Interesting.

[Sean]

Because I'm an introvert.

[Natalie Dawson]

Okay.

[Sean]

Huge introvert.

[Natalie Dawson]

That's shocking because you don't seem like an introvert.

[Sean]

Yeah. I could toggle it on and on for podcasts. On and off. I'm in. But a lot of podcast hosts are introverts. If you, if you look at this top shows, which I've studied all the.

[Natalie Dawson]

Top shows I Don't know that I believe in this thing called introverts.

[Sean]

Really?

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah.

[Sean]

In what sense?

[Natalie Dawson]

I just, I think it might be just like made up. Yeah.

[Sean]

I wonder what the actual like factors and definition is behind it. But I've taken tests that say I am so I don't know, like I've taken the 16 personalities test.

[Natalie Dawson]

Is it a blood, like, how do you.

[Sean]

I don't know how. And I'm sure different websites have different like, definitions for it. You think so?

[Natalie Dawson]

I think there are labels that we put on ourselves.

[Sean]

I do believe there are labels that are misleading, but I think there are people that are naturally just more shy and they're not as expressive. And then you got the people, people that are more outspoken. So that's what I'd consider an introvert. Like they keep to themselves more. So I listen more than I talk. So that to me is an introvert.

[Natalie Dawson]

But you're able to do this and be in front of thousand, millions of people.

[Sean]

Yeah, but I have a 80, 20 rule on the, on my show, I let the guests speak 80 of the time usually. Yeah. But I love being an introvert, honestly, because I just, I'm a nerd. I study books, I read, like, listen audiobooks, podcasts.

[Natalie Dawson]

So the business partner does what all.

[Sean]

The business stuff, the sponsorships, the. I do a lot of in person events. He does all the sponsors for that. He does the venue. I just show up and get people there.

[Natalie Dawson]

Interesting.

[Sean]

So it's a great dynamic.

[Natalie Dawson]

Interesting.

[Sean]

Yeah. Shout out to Charlie, man.

[Natalie Dawson]

Let's go, Charlie. Everybody needs a Charlie in there.

[Sean]

Everyone needs a Charlie.

[Natalie Dawson]

Let's go, Charlie.

[Sean]

Yeah, so I just focus. The thing for me is I focus on what I'm good at. Podcasting, coming up with questions and interview topics and that's it. Everything else is outsourced. And I used to be a huge micromanager and that's why I was stuck at seven figures a year for seven years.

[Natalie Dawson]

What did you learn about micromanaging?

[Sean]

I just tried to do everything and I was like, I've been doing the same revenue for seven years straight. Like, how do I grow? I need a team.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah. So this is changes everything.

[Sean]

Past two years have changed a lot with the team. Yeah. Were you stuck at any moments throughout your career, revenue wise?

[Natalie Dawson]

No.

[Sean]

You've always had growth.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yes. Besides a business. Before this business I was really excited about the space was in the dental space and there was a bunch of different opportunities that were exciting for the growth of the business. But if the core technology wasn't working, then There really was no long term in the business model. We found out that after investing a lot of money and a lot of time into it, that the technology integration just wasn't going to work. We were trying to essentially take all these different dental practice management softwares and put them so that a dentist, it didn't matter if they were on eaglesoft or whatever system they chose, they could actually see a dashboard to understand their adjusted production and understand all their different metrics. And the integration. The software person that we were using at the time essentially like, yeah, we can't do this. After researching this for six months and after you paid us hundreds of thousands of dollars, we just aren't going to be able to make it happen because of how these softwares like, change things in the back end. I'm not a technologist, but our business was based off of like the theory and the, the thesis for the business was based off this technology. And so I had to. I was 24 years old and had to fire 50 people, shut down a business. And, you know, they already thought that I wasn't competent or didn't know what I was doing and probably wasn't competent and didn't know what I was doing. You know, that wasn't. I couldn't figure out how to turn it around, but I was so invested in where I was going that I just like, for whatever reason, I had some sort of internal strength at the young age of 23. Just be like, I'm not gonna let this define me. Even though this feels like a complete failure. And everybody is saying essentially, like, I was wrong and right.

[Sean]

Yeah. I think when you're that young, you have a healthy level of delusion. Sometimes you don't know what you're getting yourself into. Right. And sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Not happen to me too.

[Natalie Dawson]

Did. Did it?

[Sean]

Yeah. I've had, I've made and lost my money twice already.

[Natalie Dawson]

Okay.

[Sean]

And I'm talking millions of dollars. So I'm, I'm looking back at it now. I'm so thankful because it made me grow even more. But it sucked at the time. I had an ego check, for sure.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah. And when people say mean things about you when they, they hurt, what I've realized is there's like, in some cases just like a tiny bit of truth to it and that really you can either choose to do two things. You can cave into it and just take it as a loss and always think of yourself as a loser, or you can say, okay, I lost. That sucked. I didn't Know something? I'm gonna take this and convert this and use this for fuel for me to figure out the next thing and just not quit. And by the grace of God, I chose the second option. Just wasn't gonna stop after that one loss. But it is easy to just, like, take what somebody says and be like, oh, that doesn't apply to me. Why does it hurt so bad then? Yeah, like, it got you. So, like, why?

[Sean]

It's easy to lie yourself.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah. So how do you. Like, how do you balance both sides? That's. That's at least how I look at negativity or hate. Like, how do I balance both sides? What could potentially be true? And how do I work to make sure that that thing that might be true right now that, like, stings a little bit isn't true in the future? Because it could be. You could be on inexperience right now.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Natalie Dawson]

Somebody's saying, like, you're an inexperienced idiot. You're just a kid. You don't know what you're doing. You're like, well, I've built this thing. So, like, I kind of know what I'm doing, but I am inexperienced and I don't know everything. So how do I keep doing that and handle where I'm at today and still feel confident where I'm going in the overarching direction?

[Sean]

That's something I've been navigating a lot because I probably have one of the most hated podcasts in the world.

[Natalie Dawson]

Really?

[Sean]

Because of the guests I have on.

[Natalie Dawson]

Interesting.

[Sean]

I have on the most controversial people in the world.

[Natalie Dawson]

And how do you handle it?

[Sean]

I look at who's hitting. That matters to me a lot. So, like, if Grant Cardone told me I'm messing up, I'm listening. But if it's some random comment with no profile picture, 300 followers, I'm like, what is that? Like, fake account. You can't even comment on your real page. But I do take lessons from some of the comments. Like, there's some interviews where I could have asked better questions. I could have been more prepared. So I'll. I'll go back and I'm going to have that person on again. David Pacman, huge liberal, and I wasn't prepared. He basically took me to town, and I'll admit I lost that one. I wasn't prepared for a debate because that's not my style, but that's his style, and I wasn't ready for that.

[Natalie Dawson]

Interesting.

[Sean]

So I'll learn from some of the hate. Like you said, there's a little Truth in all the comments, but a lot of the hate is biased too.

[Natalie Dawson]

So true. And what I've realized with the hate is nobody cares after two days.

[Sean]

No one cares.

[Natalie Dawson]

No one remembers. No one cares. We're in some. For the very first time ever, we're in a lawsuit right now. And the person we're in a lawsuit with is very public figure and has decided to smear us. And we don't have lawsuits. We don't have people who are unhappy with us. We have a group of people who are just, like, they support us. They're rooting for us. And so this has been a little bit of uncharted territory. And what's so interesting about it is, like, no one cares. No one actually cares in the moment. It can feel like people care, and you can allow it to just entirely take over. But think of all of the wild stuff that happens in politics. Think of all the wild stuff. I mean, this Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively, like, crazy stuff. Do people really care? No one's talking about it, remember? No. So if you can just, like, move through it and not honestly have so much self importance that it just entirely swallows you. We have a saying. We just, like, we just keep being successful regardless of what happens. Just show up, be a good person, keep being successful, because that's really the only thing you can do. But it can be easy to just let people who say negative things just like, oh, everyone's thinking this. Not everyone. Yeah, Full people. Okay. Am I good with losing that handful of people? Totally. I got good people over here. I'm doing good things. Do I need to clean up this area of my life a little bit? Cool. I'm gonna start cleaning up that area and figuring out how I can be better and improve in this specific thing. But it doesn't mean that the negativity is actually true or I should stop going.

[Sean]

Best way to deal with negativity is success, in my opinion. I don't even talk back anymore. I just succeed. I climb the podcast rankings. I get more views. I have on a list, celebrities, whatever it is. Like, what are you gonna say about that?

[Natalie Dawson]

Exactly.

[Sean]

Also, you can't fake in person stuff. So, like, a lot of people are like, you have these followers. I'm getting a thousand people in any city I go to in a room. Like, who else can do that?

[Natalie Dawson]

So cool.

[Sean]

Like, because a lot of people have followers, but they don't know how to monetize.

[Natalie Dawson]

They can't convert it. Yeah, they have all this attention, but the attention was built off of Some, like, clickbaity stuff. Exactly. It was like the cheap way to get attention. And so you can keep getting cheap attention. A lot of people get a lot of cheap attention on the Internet. But is somebody really adding value to your life? Is somebody really a real person that you can stand behind, you can believe in, that you can trust, that you're like, oh, I'd be interested because of the way this person actually lives their life, not the way that they just put out content to where I'm interested in hearing from them and learning from them, because they have a life that I want to live. They have some qualities of a life that I want to live. They've done something, they've created something, They're. They're successful in some way.

[Sean]

Exactly. Yeah. I'd rather get a thousand views on a video that provides value than a million on something that's hurting society.

[Natalie Dawson]

Did you used to have that perspective?

[Sean]

No. And there is still an element of me where I am chasing views, naturally, because as a podcast, you're based off your views. But I know that in the back of my head. So like, every month I'll sprinkle in, like, a controversial guess. I can only fans girl or whatever, just to get views. But I do want to provide value and help people. That is the goal of the show. But it's hard to do that on a super massive scale because people just don't care. You could provide amazing advice from a billionaire and it'll get 5,000 views. And then you could have on. Lily Phillips, who slept with 100 guys in a day, just gets 5 million views.

[Natalie Dawson]

Did you have that type of those.

[Sean]

People she came on a few weeks ago, yeah.

[Natalie Dawson]

Okay, interesting.

[Sean]

So it's a balance, because I am trying to sell this thing one day.

[Natalie Dawson]

Okay.

[Sean]

So I need the viewership and I need the sponsorship dollars.

[Natalie Dawson]

Interesting.

[Sean]

So it's a tricky dynamic.

[Natalie Dawson]

It is a tricky dynamic. I didn't realize that I didn't do enough research on your show. Yeah, fascinating.

[Sean]

Well, I let the audience decide on how they feel about the guests. I try to stay as neutral as I can.

[Natalie Dawson]

Interesting. Because that's how you have to.

[Sean]

That's just my style. I'm not trying to piss off or burn bridges. I'll go to the rnc. I'll probably go to the DNC if they let me. We'll see. I interview Democrats, Republicans, all sorts of people.

[Natalie Dawson]

Interesting. You ever feel bad that you're putting out a message that could negatively impact people, even if it's not your message?

[Sean]

Sometimes, yeah. So I'M still trying to figure that out. But I try to let the audience ultimately decide. I think they're pretty educated these days.

[Natalie Dawson]

But that the audience is educated.

[Sean]

I think mine is. Yeah.

[Natalie Dawson]

Really?

[Sean]

I get a lot of feedback from the comments that they're educated, that they know. Like, when Lily Phillips came on, she got pretty destroyed in my comments.

[Natalie Dawson]

It's sad to think about. You know, I. I think everybody who creates content online has to navigate this. Like, what am I willing to be controversial about? What am I not willing to be controversial about?

[Sean]

Yeah. And you have to.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Or else it's unfortunate, but it's just a reality.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah.

[Sean]

People love drama.

[Natalie Dawson]

But then, of course, people are educated. I just think people are really freaking confused.

[Sean]

That's true, too. There's a lot of misinformation and stuff on the Internet.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah. I'm like, why am I even listening to somebody talk about sleeping with? You know what I mean? Like, and no shade. Like, it does not come from a place of judgment or whatever. It's just like, what I guess. What am I trying to do? I go back to everything in my life. I'm like, where am I trying to go? What am I trying to do? Okay. How do I put things in my life that help me get there? Because I'm. I'm. My goals and my aims, if I want to do these things, should be worthwhile, should have some sort of purpose. If they don't have purpose and they aren't worthwhile, why do I want to do them?

[Sean]

Right.

[Natalie Dawson]

So if you really question at that level, it's like, then all of the content that I watch and all the people that I talk to and all the things that I do would be to help me get to this worthwhile thing.

[Sean]

Right.

[Natalie Dawson]

So it's clarifying that first and making that target really freaking big. Because I think people are capable of creating incredible things on this planet that there's so much disaster and negativity and just, like, really awful stuff that happens every single day on this planet. For a capable person to be able to target just one of those issues, like, I. I can't save the. My goal is not to save the. The ocean. It's not. Like, that's not my. My thing. Although I think that that's a really worthwhile goal and somebody should do it. That's just not my work here on this planet. So it's like this interesting idea. And I think about this often because I do create content myself. And, like, what am I willing to do? What am I willing to say? But, like, also, what am I willing to consume? Because so many people are confused and am I adding to the confusion? And I think when. When this is just my own view.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Natalie Dawson]

And this was not even meant to be controversial with you, but, like, where I've landed on this for myself is I just don't want to add to people's confusion. I don't want to contribute to people just, like, being uncertain or, like, doubting their life choices or being worried that they shouldn't, like, go in this direction. I want people to learn how to make more money, to be better business owners, to be able to provide for their communities, to believe in themselves. And that's everything that I think, eat, breathe, consume, and anything outside of that, I'm like, maybe. Maybe next lifetime.

[Sean]

Yeah, I love that. You know. You know what you're here for.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah. You know, it's true.

[Sean]

If I'm being honest. I'm still trying to figure it out. I'm still trying to.

[Natalie Dawson]

How old are you?

[Sean]

28.

[Natalie Dawson]

28?

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Natalie Dawson]

I'm 31, so I'm not that much older.

[Sean]

Wow. So you figured it out. Pretty young, relatively. I feel like a lot of people get lost for a while.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah, I think it's really easy to get lost because it's so freaking confusing. You have people out there on the Internet telling you a whole bunch of stuff that it's like, that's again, going back to Grant and Elena and my husband. Like, I so vehemently believe and trust in them because I actually see behind the scenes and they're not confused. They're great parents, they're great spouses, they're great team members. Like, they show up consistently. And so when I look at people who are successful or look at people who are giving me advice, I really look at, like, who are they hanging out with and who's better in their life.

[Sean]

Right.

[Natalie Dawson]

People aren't better, and there aren't people next to them saying, like, hey, I'm rooting for Sean. Like, Sean's fricking awesome. The way he shows up, the way he helps me, the way he cares about my family. If people in your life aren't like that, I'm like. Like, Sean might be a liability to me because why can't he be great to the people that are around him? I think that through every single interaction that I have with people, and so if you don't have people at a certain level of success who are saying, I'm rooting for this girl because she's impacted me, and at some level, you should question, like, is she really real? Real people attract real great people.

[Sean]

Yeah. What's your opinion on friendships if they're not on your financial level?

[Natalie Dawson]

Hmm. I don't care about the financial level, but that's not a concern to me. But if they're not trying to create something or trying to make some sort of impact that can be measured, then it honestly becomes distracting. I used to have a friend who would just talk about, like, she was a nice person. She was, like, a fun person to be around a good time. You want to invite her to dinner party, she's gonna, like, tell all the stories.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Natalie Dawson]

But eventually, like, where does the conversation land? Like, I don't. I don't leave that dinner thinking, like, man, I really feel enriched from this experience. And she actually helped me get to where I'm going. It feels like a distraction. So anything in my life that ends up being a distraction, if I'm really serious about what I want to do, I can't have it. I'm trying to impact the lives of a million business owners. I'm like, I'm actually trying to build something that's cool and that helps people. If I either have to say I'm not really willing to do what it takes because I'm gonna spend my time being all sorts of, like, distracted and, like, floating over here and then sometimes focus on this thing, or I'm gonna go after this thing. So people who are just, like, good time people, they've eventually kind of faded out in my life, especially over the last six years, just because I don't have time, There's. There's no space for them. I have time for my husband, for my family, for my team members, for my clients and my family and my clients and my team members, like, they become, in some ways, my friends. I'm not confused about it. We're not, like, going to the bar and, like, drinking together. They're not that kind of friend. But, like, I support them. I'm helping them make better decisions in their lives. And because of that, they respect me. And we're able to go from having zero employees to hundreds of team members and people that you couldn't ask a single team member of mine, like, what's the behind the scenes with Natalie? And have them say anything. But she's really intense, and she cares about what she does every single day, and she is who she says she is. If you like what she says, then you'll like her. If you don't like what she says, then it's probably not for You.

[Sean]

I love straight shooters. I grew up on the east coast, so that's the only style I know.

[Natalie Dawson]

You just like, when I move for it.

[Sean]

Yeah. When I moved out to la, I was like, man, people are just. Just tell me the truth straight to my face. Like, why are you talking behind my back and stuff.

[Natalie Dawson]

It's kind of a West coast thing. I grew up in Portland, Oregon. I feel like it's just like the nice thing to do. I was not always a straight shooter. I had to learn how to be a straight shooter. But I respect people who are straight shooters.

[Sean]

I personally love it because I don't take things personally when I'm getting advice. A lot of people do for some reason. But I want to get better. Like, yeah, tell me advice. And if I respect you, like, I'm going to listen.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Like, if you're doing better than me in business, in life, whatever I'm trying to learn from you, I'm gonna listen.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah. That's why I like Grant and Elena so much, is they had a relationship and obviously you had this experience because you went to Growth Con.

[Sean]

Yeah. And they've both been on the show. I've learned so much from them. They've been great guests.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah. Like, how do you. How do you build a marriage of 20 years and have kids and a business where people are rooting for you? Like, when you actually try building a business and having a marriage? I don't have kids, so I can't speak to that one. It's freaking hard. This shit's hard. And to be a good person through all of that and have somebody watch you handle it, it's just challenging. And it's. Honestly, I think that that's more so than the strategies and the tactics. That's more so. Why people don't build bigger businesses because they don't have the support or they treat their, their team members who are their family, like they. I view my team members as also. The extension is my family. They don't actually treat them very well. They're like the guy or the girl to everybody else, but behind closed doors, they're like, weird with money. Or they have like, just these weird limitations and negative behaviors to where you, you talk to the wife and the wife is like, oh, yeah, he's great to everybody else, but he's not great to. To me. It's a huge red flag to me.

[Sean]

Yeah, I don't like that.

[Natalie Dawson]

I don't want to be around that person. But it's, it's, it's more frequent than, Than Not.

[Sean]

Yeah, I learned that from Elena. She had a viral clip saying, never talk badly about your. Your spouse. And I used to do that when I. I'm in an eight year relationship. I used to do that early on, but yeah, I don't do that anymore. So childish.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah. Because they're your partner.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Natalie Dawson]

What do you mean you're gonna talk bad about this person? You're. You chose this person. You're on a team with them. That's part of what got me excited about Grant's content, was listening to when it talk about stuff like that. It's so logical and yet no one talks about it. In fact, for most women today, what do we talk about? Oh, you have a girls night and you talk about your husband. The jerky is like, that's normal. That's not. That's actually not normal. It doesn't make any sense. That's the person that you go to home, you go to sleep with and you build a life with. And yet we're just gonna talk about them. What does that really say about you?

[Sean]

Crazy.

[Natalie Dawson]

Not great things.

[Sean]

Yeah, A lot of toxic relationships at the younger ages, for sure. I think people just pick up on it and they don't lose that bad.

[Natalie Dawson]

Habit, you know, think that there are so many options out there. It's like there's all of these apps, there's only fans. There's all this stuff out there that just makes it seem like it's a commodity instead of something that's really special. And when you find somebody, you have to create on it. There's not just another person that you can just like magically whip up and create to build a life with.

[Sean]

Yeah. Well, Instagram is pretty much a dating app at this point.

[Natalie Dawson]

Is it?

[Sean]

From what I hear. Yeah. I haven't been in the dating game for a while, but that's been off.

[Natalie Dawson]

The market for eight years.

[Sean]

Yeah. Get married this year. Yeah.

[Natalie Dawson]

Congratulations.

[Sean]

I'm excited.

[Natalie Dawson]

When?

[Sean]

October.

[Natalie Dawson]

Okay. What day?

[Sean]

17Th.

[Natalie Dawson]

Okay. Mine's the 10th.

[Sean]

Oh, you're going to marry too?

[Natalie Dawson]

No, my anniversary is.

[Sean]

Oh, nice. October 10th. Nice. Yeah, we wanted a fall wedding on the east coast. Flowers and everything. Can't wait.

[Natalie Dawson]

Best decision ever.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Natalie Dawson]

They tell you it's ball and chain. It's the greatest thing ever.

[Sean]

Not a lot of people trying to talk me out of that. Well, there's this. Have you heard of the red pill movement? No. Okay. So you isolate yourself pretty well on social media.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah.

[Sean]

You're very targeted with what you consume.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah. Like if it's not positive and it's not business stuff. I'm not.

[Sean]

Well done. Not a lot of people operate that way on social media. They call it doom scrolling. They're just seeing all sorts of content. I see deaths on my Instagram, like people dying.

[Natalie Dawson]

Wow.

[Sean]

I see like half naked girls.

[Natalie Dawson]

It's very turbulating. No, it desensitizes you using like, I'm, I'm fricking confused. What am I, what am I doing right now? Am I watching somebody die? Am I watching this half naked girl? Am I going and building this business? Am I going helping people? Like, I'm fucking confused.

[Sean]

It sucks. Yeah. But for me, I have to study viral content, so I have to scroll, you know, or else I'll. I'll not get as many views. I'll not have interesting guests. I'm constantly looking for cool people to have on why this video is going viral. So I'm studying the algorithm. But yeah, stuff like that will pop up. It's super disturbing.

[Natalie Dawson]

I'd like to be able to figure out how you can and like do this without having this like, interpolation.

[Sean]

Yeah, it'd be interesting to see.

[Natalie Dawson]

I have any ideas on this. I will, like, I'll be thinking about you for the next, for the next while until I figure out how I could, how you can do this in a different way because that, like, how do you stay freaking focused?

[Sean]

It's tough. And my attention span has gone down a lot and they were doing studies on this. Now because of the scrolling, people's attention spans are shorter than a goldfish now.

[Natalie Dawson]

Isn't that crazy to think how capable human beings are to think of how, how much potential we have? I mean, the ability to build empires, the ability to build Las Vegas or Dubai out of just sand. And to think that we're allowing ourselves to just get like caught in this very silly trap. It's just a trap. It's a trap we created. Somebody's profiting off of this trap. It's like we have all of this capability and all of this potential to write books, to create poems, to fall in love. And like our attention span is now that of a goldfish because of a trap that we're like happily walking in. Yeah, really interesting. Like, why are we doing that?

[Sean]

It is interesting. The people that invented the scrolling are like, I heard they're really upset.

[Natalie Dawson]

Well, they're really upset. Why are they upset?

[Sean]

Because they ruin society in a way. Oh yeah, you know, kids, attention spans. I feel bad for teachers now. Like, I can't even imagine teaching a kid of 20 kids with tick tock on their phone must be super difficult. I could barely pay attention when I was in school. I can't even imagine how it is now.

[Natalie Dawson]

Just getting them to focus. Yeah, I mean, it does beg the question, like, what are people trying to distract us from?

[Sean]

What's happening could be by design. Right.

[Natalie Dawson]

People don't want us. Want us medicated, they want us distracted. Who profits off of that?

[Sean]

A lot. Powerful people.

[Natalie Dawson]

People want us to just not ask questions, really look and pay attention. If you're on ADHD medication because you think that you have a problem with anxiety, but your or your anxiety is created from this, you can't really see what's actually happening around you. But somebody profits from all of that, and I don't think it's the person actually taking the drugs.

[Sean]

That's why you're in the health and wellness space, Right?

[Natalie Dawson]

Exactly.

[Sean]

What, we're fixing a big problem there.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yeah. But back to this red pill thing in the marriage. So what is this?

[Sean]

So red pill movement is basically the counter to feminism.

[Natalie Dawson]

What does that mean?

[Sean]

The feminist movement was like a big deal, like maybe five, seven years ago. I don't remember the exact timeline. But then the red pill spawned after that. To empower men.

[Natalie Dawson]

We're empowering men.

[Sean]

Yeah. So that's the red pill.

[Natalie Dawson]

That's what we're doing these days.

[Sean]

That's what people are doing. Yeah.

[Natalie Dawson]

We're empowering men. To do what? What, what are men unempowered to do?

[Sean]

Couldn't tell you.

[Natalie Dawson]

Okay. This is wild.

[Sean]

Yeah. You got to check out the red pill movement.

[Natalie Dawson]

This is breaking news. So your friends who are like red pill movement?

[Sean]

I wouldn't say friends.

[Natalie Dawson]

They're people. They're people online.

[Sean]

Yeah, People online. They've been on the show as well. A lot of them are saying just marriage is a scam. Marriage isn't worth it for a guy. Marriage isn't worth it for a high value net worth guy. Stuff like that.

[Natalie Dawson]

Because they can have whoever they want.

[Sean]

Yeah, that. That kind of logic, I think. Yeah, it is interesting. But I'm doing it, not letting it get to me. I really trust and believe in my fiance.

[Natalie Dawson]

You know, I just to contribute to the lack of. To the confusion. To try to clear up my. On the confusion. I trust men in business who have spouses that can say, I vouch for this person. I will do business with that person. This is a bias that I have, but I think a lot of people actually have. There is something about somebody who is 50 years old who cannot figure out how to get their home life in a place where they're able to keep somebody and keep somebody who is excited to be with them and vouching for them and is happily married and also positively contributing to society. It's one thing to be able to just like have a trophy wife. I've spent a lot of time thinking about this particular topic. It's one thing just like have a trophy wife. When you're sitting at dinner with Jamie diamond, when you're sitting at dinner with anybody that you respect, what does their wife say about them? That's the first question I ask. And maybe it is because I'm a woman, but I'm so curious, like, what does that person's wife have to say? Say? Because I want to know their perspective because that's who I'm getting into business with.

[Sean]

Right.

[Natalie Dawson]

And who they are to their spouse and to their kids and to the people that matter to them really does have an impact on the way that they do business. And if there's out ethics in that situation, I know that they're going to fuck me in our business. I know it. Every single time. Every single time I ignore this, I'm like, oh, it doesn't really matter. There's a situation with somebody very public that we were interested in doing business with and there was this, this huge scandal with their significant other and like absolutely not pull the ripcord out. If they're willing to do this to their spouse, they will do this to me in a heartbeat.

[Sean]

Wow.

[Natalie Dawson]

You can't trust that person. So this like disassociation where like I don't want to have a spouse, I don't want to be married. I like it's more rewarding for me to be with a bunch of people. I, I'd be interested to hear how that pans out for people who decide to move forward with this men empowerment movement when they're 80, 90 years old and haven't built a life with somebody who really trusts them, validate them and has deep respect for who they are. I get that. I can just have a bunch of women that's cool until it's not. Until you're sick. Who cares about you when you're sick and you have 12 different people that you've just been sleeping around casually hooking up with. What is their self worth anyway? It's just like a whole slew of problems that that creates.

[Sean]

No, I'm with you. There's no long term date on it yet because it's a newer trend, I guess. But Red. Red pill movement.

[Natalie Dawson]

What is the red pill? You, like, take a red pill.

[Sean]

I guess it's like, have you seen the Matrix?

[Natalie Dawson]

No.

[Sean]

Oh, you haven't seen the Matrix White. It's a classic.

[Natalie Dawson]

I'll add it.

[Sean]

There's a famous scene where it's like, take the red pill and leave the Matrix or take the blue pill and stay as npc. Like. Oh, you know.

[Natalie Dawson]

Oh. So marriage is the Matrix, basically.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Natalie Dawson]

And like, we don't want to do the Matrix. We want to, like, escape the Matrix life.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Natalie Dawson]

As men. Have men been able to, like, screw whoever they wanted and just like, have fake marriages for a long time? Isn't that been. Yeah, for a very long time. Like, since the dawn of time.

[Sean]

Yeah, it's been a thing for a bit.

[Natalie Dawson]

Okay.

[Sean]

I'd love to see you on a podcast with a red pill moment guy.

[Natalie Dawson]

Love to hear this. This. I would love to.

[Sean]

Would you ever debate I could set that up for you?

[Natalie Dawson]

Oh, my gosh. Totally.

[Sean]

Okay, we're going to do that next.

[Natalie Dawson]

I don't know what the heck this has to do with business owners, but happy to have this conversation.

[Sean]

Do it. Could get you Myron Gaines or I could get you Rolo. They're both the faces of the movement.

[Natalie Dawson]

Oh, great. Would love this.

[Sean]

That'd be very interesting.

[Natalie Dawson]

Would love to talk. So these men just, like, hook up with a bunch of women.

[Sean]

Yeah. So they have girl. Multiple girlfriends.

[Natalie Dawson]

Cool. And the girlfriends come on the show too.

[Sean]

They never have their girls on it.

[Natalie Dawson]

Oh, that makes sense.

[Sean]

What they'll do is they'll have on eight girls and he'll just roast them the whole episode.

[Natalie Dawson]

He'll roast them about marriage, about their lifestyle. Okay.

[Sean]

Yeah. So he'll like, married a little. The right word. I don't know.

[Natalie Dawson]

He'll just talk down a little.

[Sean]

Some of them are. Some of them aren't. He's had 2,000 girls as guests, so it varies.

[Natalie Dawson]

Interesting. Yeah, but see, I want like.

[Sean]

But for you, I would do a one on one debate with him, but.

[Natalie Dawson]

The right way to debate with him is to bring the girls that he's casually hooking up with. Like, great.

[Sean]

To question them.

[Natalie Dawson]

Yes. If we're gonna talk about men's empowerment, let's talk about everybody else that's connected to the whole situation and see how well they're doing in life.

[Sean]

Let's do that. I'll have him bring his girls, you'll bring Brandon. You guys question each other.

[Natalie Dawson]

Sit down.

[Sean]

That'd be hilarious.

[Natalie Dawson]

I'm down.

[Sean]

All right, cool.

[Natalie Dawson]

Scheduled.

[Sean]

Well, Stay tuned for that, guys. Natalie, anything else you want to close off with?

[Natalie Dawson]

This has been awesome. I'm rooting for you. I hope you do a lot of cool things with a lot of cool people and just really excited to be on the show. And thank you for having me.

[Sean]

Awesome. We'll link 10x Cardone Ventures below. Cool. Thanks for watching, guys. See you next time.