You vs. You: Master Mindset for Winning in Business & Life | Jerome Maldonado DSH #1186

Summary

Digital Social Hour: Episode Summary

Episode Title: You vs. You: Master Mindset for Winning in Business & Life | Jerome Maldonado DSH #1186
Release Date: February 17, 2025
Host: Sean Kelly
Guest: Dan Fleishman

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1. Navigating Real Estate and Market Dynamics

Discussion on Real Estate Trends:
Sean and Dan delve into the intricacies of the real estate market, reflecting on their experiences during pivotal moments such as the 2008 recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. Sean shares his strategic decision to exit land development just before the recession, attributing his timely exit to luck rather than skill:

"It was luck. My son was born, so I said, okay, no more out-of-town development." [02:46]

Market Corrections and Future Outlook:
The conversation shifts to the current state of the real estate market, highlighting the impending correction due to overleveraged investments and rising interest rates. Sean emphasizes the resilience required to weather the storm:

"Who can get through the bullshit we're going through now? The strong are going to survive." [04:25]

Investment Strategies:
Dan inquires about venture capital firms’ involvement in real estate, to which Sean confirms their active presence. He elaborates on his diverse portfolio, including single-family homes and multi-unit complexes, showcasing his adaptability and foresight in investment choices.

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2. Personal Development and Mindset Mastery

Overcoming Mental Barriers:
Sean discusses the significance of mental resilience, drawing parallels between endurance sports and business challenges. He recounts his experience running a half Ironman, emphasizing the importance of focusing on solutions rather than obstacles:

"Don't worry about what other people think. It's you against you." [07:26]

Teaching Children Resilience:
A substantial portion of the episode focuses on parenting and instilling a winning mindset in children. Sean shares heartfelt stories about his children's gymnastics careers, illustrating the balance between pushing for excellence and respecting their personal desires:

"What you need to know is Dad's got my back. It's you against you, and that's life." [09:57]

Impact of Early Education Experiences:
Sean reflects on his own tumultuous school years, highlighting the transformative role of a supportive mentor:

"She sat with me and just believed in me. That changed the trajectory of my life." [35:44]

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3. Health, Wellness, and Biohacking

Natural vs. Synthetic Health Solutions:
The hosts delve into health optimization, debating the merits of natural methods versus synthetic interventions like testosterone replacement therapy. Sean expresses reservations about synthetic hormones, advocating for disciplined natural approaches:

"I’ll just sustain man. I'll just get up every morning and do my 150 push-ups." [19:37]

Addressing ADD and Focus Challenges:
Dan and Sean discuss living with ADD, exploring its effects on their entrepreneurial journeys. They commend the creativity it fosters but acknowledge the difficulties it presents in maintaining focus:

"A lot of our friends that are entrepreneurs have ADD. It's where the creative part comes in." [15:28]

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4. Business Management and Leadership

Dealing with Toxic Employees:
Sean and Dan offer insights into managing workplace dynamics, particularly addressing the challenges posed by toxic employees. Sean emphasizes the importance of removing detrimental influences to preserve company culture and productivity:

"If you're out there getting DUIs and doing dumb shit, domestic violence, you need to get deported." [44:06]
"Self-destructive people within the company are the bigger cause of their demise." [49:30]

Mentorship and Networking:
Sean highlights the pivotal role of mentors in his real estate success, recounting his relationship with Joe Dehad of the Orion Group. This mentorship propelled him into larger investments and significantly expanded his portfolio:

"Joe challenged me and pushed me to overcome my ego." [37:11]

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5. Goals, Freedom, and Legacy

Shifting Goals Beyond Wealth:
As Sean's career progresses, his focus shifts from purely financial achievements to attaining personal freedom and flexibility. He discusses his aspiration to "buy back our freedom" to spend quality time with his family without business constraints:

"My goal is freedom, flexibility, so we can be wherever our kids are without dealing with bullshit." [52:37]

Future Aspirations:
Looking ahead, Sean contemplates re-entering the investment arena post-retirement, driven by passion rather than necessity. This forward-thinking mindset underscores his commitment to continuous growth and legacy building:

"Once we hit that, I'll probably go back into the money game. I have no intentions of ever retiring." [53:46]

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6. Coaching and Community Building

Empowering Others Through Coaching:
In the latter part of the episode, Sean introduces his inadvertent coaching initiatives. Through a social platform aimed at raising capital for real estate investments, he has cultivated a community of over 1,800 members nationwide. This platform empowers individuals to scale their real estate portfolios, fostering financial independence and success:

"Our students are crushing it. They're buying land, building houses, changing lives all over the country." [54:15]

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Conclusion

Throughout the episode, Sean Kelly and his guest Dan Fleishman navigate a spectrum of topics centered around mastering the mindset for success in both business and personal life. From strategic real estate investments and overcoming personal challenges to nurturing the next generation and building a supportive community, the conversation is rich with insights and practical advice. Notably, the emphasis on mental resilience, authentic leadership, and the pursuit of personal freedom resonates as key themes driving both hosts towards sustained success and fulfillment.

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Notable Quotes:

• "It's you against you. Don't let others' opinions hinder your growth." — Sean Kelly [09:57]
• "A drowning person can't save a drowning person. Fix your own finances first." — Sean Kelly [07:26]
• "Mentors can change the trajectory of your life if they believe in you." — Sean Kelly [35:44]
• "Focus is super important. Your phone is destroying your focus, but you can reclaim it." — Dan Fleishman [14:37]

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Resources Mentioned:

• Sein Kelly’s Coaching Platform: Accessible via Cliff Notes (Note: Replace with actual link if available)

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Stay Connected:

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Transcript

[Jerome]

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[Sean]

Testosterone levels back. And I. And I. I battle mentally because I. You want to take the testosterone replacement because it keeps you leaner. But it scares the out of me, man.

[Dan]

I'm not a fan of anything unnatural.

[Sean]

Yeah, because, I mean, you take that and then your body loses its own natural mobility to produce testosterone.

[Dan]

Yep.

[Sean]

And. And bro, you're just. You're on that forever for the long term effects for it. Foreign.

[Dan]

Guys, with Jerome here, we're gonna talk real estate and life today. Thanks for hopping on, man.

[Sean]

What's up, Sean?

[Dan]

Yeah, it's been a while. Been a year and a half. Couldn't believe how fast time flies.

[Sean]

Time flies too fast, man. It's crazy.

[Dan]

Yeah. Shout out to Dan Fleishman and the guys at Aspire for hosting events.

[Sean]

Yeah, those dudes are badasses. I was talking to Dan last week. They're trying to sell the ranch up in Temecula, so.

[Dan]

Oh, because of the fires?

[Sean]

No, I Think it's just the right time. They're gonna, the Olympics is gonna do their equestrian arena there. And I think he wants to move here to Vegas and put something together. Here in Vegas.

[Dan]

Nice.

[Sean]

Just get away from the California politics and some other stuff.

[Dan]

It's hard to be Vegas, man.

[Sean]

I like it here. I was doing land development out here in the late in 2000, 2004, 5, 6, 7, 8. Right before the recession. And we got out of here at the perfect time before everything fell apart pre recession.

[Dan]

Was that luck, skill or both?

[Sean]

No, it's luck. It was luck. It was luck. My son was born, so I said, okay, no more, no more out of town development. My son was born in 2008 and I just sold off last development to Toll Brothers. And I said, we're going to stick back, we're going to stick it. Stick to doing work and development just here at home. And so it was a little bit of luck, more so than anything.

[Dan]

I love the honesty on that because some people would have said skill.

[Sean]

No, man, I, I wish I was that smart. I wish I saw it coming. I had sucker written all over my face in that day, bro.

[Dan]

Yeah, well, no one saw Covid coming too. That was another.

[Sean]

Oh, I know we got lucky with COVID though, man. Covid worked in our, in our benefit really a lot of ways. Yeah, Housing prices went up. The, the interest rates went down. I mean, we're paying the, the backlash effects of it right now from a banking perspective. But, but damn, we, we killed it. In fact, Ty, Ty Lopez and I were doing some stuff over in Virginia and we had, uh, we had a project tied up in South Beach, Florida at the time and over on Meridian Espanol, the heart of South Beach. And when we got that property, we panicked because we thought we were overpaying for it at the time, nonetheless. And we thought we were screwed with a pandemic. And ironically enough, prices in South Beach Miami doubled down in a year. No, not in a year, but during the course of like three years.

[Dan]

That's still great.

[Sean]

Prices just went through the roof. And then we found ourselves down in Puerto Rico because things just got too crazy.

[Dan]

Yeah, Puerto Rico is where you go when you make crazy money, right?

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Dan]

And you got to write off some taxes. Yeah. Miami exploded. Vegas exploded too, during the pandemic.

[Sean]

Everything, you know, I think nationwide, I don't think there was a bad market. Everything was doing good.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

You know, now, now the question is, who can get through the bullshit we're going through now? Because now we're on the backside of all of that and the reality of all of the attributes that we went through during that time period are now coming back full circle. And so it's the strong they're going to survive and the backlash for people that don't really understand how to facilitate business and real estate and, and what happened with all the appreciated values and stuff are going to get, they're going to get a beaten to say the least.

[Dan]

Yeah. Because those people that were over leveraged are going to get wrecked. Right?

[Sean]

Yeah. And it's one of those, it's that whole game that people play. You know they go I think I got one more. You know before the market, I mean everybody knew that it couldn't last forever. Right. And we, the market was already kicking ass in 2018 before the pandemic and then it continued and, and then it even got even better. And so there had to be a correction of some sort coming. And so we're living it right now.

[Dan]

Absolutely.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Dan]

Yeah. It's going to be interesting to see how long do they call this a bear market right now or what are they calling this period?

[Sean]

I call it a bad market. I mean it's a good market. You just have to know how to invest. Right. So right. It's a great market for buying, it's a great market for repositioning. It's those that, that come into this market right now in five years from now we're have a heyday. We're going to make money hand over foot here in a few years. But those that, that can't survive it because they over stimulated their investments and their reach post pandemic those folks are going to take a beating and they'll probably never enter back into the market ever again.

[Dan]

Damn.

[Sean]

You know, so we'll see, we'll see how everything plays out. But there's like $2.8 billion that are $2.8 trillion worth of real estate that's going to come to the market over the next two years. Just defaults from, from the low interest rates and repositioning of, of mortgage payments and the 51 arms that were real popular back then. So it's going to be interesting to see who weathers it weathers the storm.

[Dan]

There's rumors of all these VC firms stocking up on real estate. Have you experienced that on your daily basis?

[Sean]

Yeah, they're out there.

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[Sean]

You know, people focus on that stuff too much. I mean, the reality is like, how many people do you really know that can compete with those guys, right? Like, I mean, very few. Yeah, so when you look at it from a reality standpoint, it's like I always tell people, a drowning person can't save a drowning person. Like, go, go fix your own finances first and focus on there's so much opportunity out there. You literally, there's opportunity within a couple miles of your own front door and people are all over the place and they're worried about everybody else that's picking that stuff up. It's going to happen, right? I mean, there's politics that are beyond our abilities and control. We try to lobby and be the best example and part of correcting the problems that are out there. But not any one of us alone can do that. So I always tell people, before you start trying to save the world and worry about all the big reefs and stuff that are going in, buying this real estate, go focus on getting yourself financially corrected. And that more importantly is what really needs to happen. Because then with those people and their finances more well corrected, then you can go in and make an impact.

[Dan]

Yeah, I love that mindset. Cause a lot of people try to compare themselves to other people and they're comparing their level hunter to level one. It's like no comparison.

[Sean]

Yeah, there's no comparison. I told my daughter that this weekend. My daughter's been competing in gymnastics and she was a little girl. She got started 18 months and she, she has, she's more talented physically than my son. My son's just a harder worker than her and he has the Mindset. Well, let me take that back. He's not a harder working my daughter. They're both hardworking. He has the mindset and he competes like a dog. My daughter retracts and I told her, I said, look, stop worrying about what other people think. I said, when you go in and you master something it and you become great at it, you're going to be judged. But if you worry about who's judging, you're never going to grow yourself. I said, when you can go in and mentally place yourself in a position where you stop caring what other people think, that's when you'll excel. And we were in Dallas two weeks ago and she had the worst competition that she ever had. She got like a five something on, on her bars, fell three times.

[Dan]

Damn.

[Sean]

I couldn't believe it was the first her since she was a little girl and she just got crushed. And I told her, okay, now here's the thing. You need to stop worrying about other people. I said, you were worried about me, your uncle Rick that was there, that never comes to competition and everybody else and how they were judging you. Now it's you against you. You got to come back. And then yesterday was it yesterday, what was it? What's day? Today's Monday. So Saturday she competed. It was the first competition since then and she took fifth in the all around, which isn't her best performance, but damn drastic change from what she did two weeks ago.

[Dan]

Wow.

[Sean]

And, and I told her, don't be worried about anybody else. It's you against you. You know, who fucking cares what everybody, anybody else thinks? I said, are they going to affect your life? Do they play any placehold in anything that you do in your life? And I said if the answer is no, don't worry about them. You focus on you, it's you against you and that's life. If the people that can get through that, they are the ones that will hit the highest level of success because they stop worrying about everybody else's bullshit and what other people think.

[Dan]

Love that. A lot of mindset things you could take away from sports.

[Sean]

Oh my God, we've used sports. Our kids are spoiled to death. They don't do around the house. It drives me crazy, you know, Absolutely crazy. But man, we have used sports to drive and instill a work ethic into them. It's been a great tool. Yeah.

[Dan]

I was a distance runner and I think that's one of the hardest sports. Mentally at least.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Dan]

Because you're really like locked in mentally.

[Sean]

Yep. Yeah. Because you want to Quit like you. You got. I. I like running is one of those things. I hate running, but running, I ran for. Because I was, you know, in college. I ran in high school for. Because I was a wrestler.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

So we had to run. You know, I hate running because it's one of those things. And I. I did a. I just did like a 10k about. What was it, two years ago. And I remember running in. In Omaha, and I remember running the first mile, going, okay, I haven't ran a long time. I'm gonna get through this. Then I got to about the third mile, I was like, oh, I feel like I'm gonna die. And then I got to about the fifth mile, I was like, okay, I got my pace. And then it gets a little bit easier, you know, and so. And then I didn't get. I didn't go too far beyond that on a 10K. You know, I ran a little bit past that. What's a 10K?

[Dan]

Six miles.

[Sean]

Six miles. Right. So I. Little bit past that, and then we were done. And I was like, okay, cool. I actually was. I felt good about myself doing it. But they say that the hardest part of the marathon is. Is. Is not the end. It's the middle.

[Dan]

Interesting. Yeah. That they call it. What is it, Runner's block or you hit the wall. Yeah, something like that.

[Sean]

I've never ran a marathon, full marathon, so I.

[Dan]

It's on my bucket list.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Dan]

Yeah. The most I've done is probably like 12, 13 miles, maybe half marathon.

[Sean]

We did a. I did a half ironman and I did fast paced walking on it. I didn't really run. I did a fast paced walk. Really did good on the bike and did okay on the swim. Did pretty good on the swim.

[Dan]

What was the toughest out of that, the swimming, the running or the bike?

[Sean]

You know that the swimming was the hardest mentally because it was the first event that we did, and I was a little concerned with the winds because we did over in Cozumel. And if you know like Cozumel, the island, one side of the island is 100% of the time, is windy. And so once I got through the. Once I got halfway through the swim, I realized I was going to be fine. And then. So my personal mental block was that was the hardest getting started. I thought the biking was going to be the easiest until I got on the bike. And the bike, because it was in a circle, when you hit that wind, it felt like you were pedaling and you weren't going anywhere on one side of the island. And we had to loop that island. I can't even remember. We had to run right, 110 miles on the bike. But I can't remember how many circles around anymore because it's been so, so much time. But I remember riding across that. That stagnant wind part, that was the hardest because there was times that you sat back and you thought you felt like your legs were going to die. You were exhausted. And then my buddy's wife, we couldn't find her because usually we were lapping her. And so we landed up, turning back around, going back the opposite direction. And so it added time to obviously do what we were doing. And she got. It totally annihilated her. She landed just walking on that side of the island. And then that was where she. She gave up on the.

[Dan]

Holy crap. It was that windy?

[Sean]

It was that windy? Yeah. Like, literally, bro, like, you're pedaling. Like, if you're on a stationary bike, you're pedaling, pedaling on a low gear, just trying to keep going, and it felt like you were standing still. And it'll jack with you mentally, because, like, if you're watching, looking at your sign right here, and you're pedaling, and you keep pedaling, it feels like you should be a block ahead over here, and you're only here at this other one, dude. It messes with your brain.

[Dan]

And that's half the race. That's 50 miles like that. Oh, my gosh.

[Sean]

So I think that was the hardest part because. And it was mental, right? And I kept telling myself, right, Jerome, don't look at the landmarks. Like, don't look at the trees, because if you look at the trees, it'll jack you up. Just focus. And it's. It's like life, right? You got to just focus on your goal. Just look in front of you, keep pedaling. Don't worry about it. You're going to get there, right? But you got to stop focusing on the. On the obstacles and focus on the solution. You just got to focus on where you want to go, where you want to go. So it's just like that in life and in business, too. And that's one of the reasons I did it, because I suck. I suck at it running and that type of stuff. And so it was one of those mental things where I was like, okay, let's see if I can really put my mind to this and get this shit done. And that was the hardest part of the race, was that I love it.

[Dan]

Focus. Yeah, Focus is super important. A lot. A lot of people Struggle. Because they call it TikTok brain these days.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Dan]

Your phones are just destroying your focus. But I attribute a lot of my success to focus. Being able to just work and lock in for six hours without looking at my phone.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Dan]

I mean, not a lot of people can do that anymore.

[Sean]

No, no, I won't look at mine. I'm pretty good about. I have two phones, so my media phone, I'll lock in. I won't, I won't even touch that thing during the day a lot of times because I'm so busy on my other phone, my work phone. Right. Like my day in, day out stuff that hasn't ever been a problem for me. I can work. I can work.

[Dan]

You always had that in you.

[Sean]

I've always had that in me. I can work. Yeah. I don't. That, that hasn't been. You know, I am an ADD though, so if you get me off of work something else, man, my focus goes left, you know.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

So if you get me bored where I'm sitting around or something, I'm, I'm, I'm drifting quick.

[Dan]

I get bored so easy, dude.

[Sean]

I so easy.

[Dan]

Even conversations sometimes I'm bored.

[Sean]

But bro, do you think that's part of why, like, like the creativity of being self employed and stuff? Do you think that's a big part of it?

[Dan]

I think so. A lot of our friends that are entrepreneurs have add.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Dan]

Have you noticed that?

[Sean]

Oh, bro. I mean most of them do. And I think that's where the creative part comes in.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

You know, and like I was in front of a room last week and I told them, I always ask people, I say, hey, how many of you guys are immigrants in this room? And I say, you guys have a better opportunity becoming successful doing what I'm doing than anybody else that went through our education system. Because you guys haven't been taught all the right. And, and I tell them, and I said, maybe that's why I'm successful. I, I was, I was dyslexic, add. I was pulled out of class half the time. And maybe that, maybe that contributes to my success because I wasn't fed all the. In our education system probably. And it kept my creativity going.

[Dan]

Yeah, yeah. Damon John has all of those too. He's dyslexic, ADD everything.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Dan]

A lot of autism these days too.

[Sean]

Yeah. You know that I think that has to do with our nutrition, man. I really do. Because I had. Bro, you don't see that in other countries, you know, and you travel a.

[Dan]

Lot, so you're Speaking from experience.

[Sean]

Yeah, it's just, bro, there's so much in our food, man. Our kids are eating, and then we as parents are ingesting. That stuff's got to be with our kids, man. You know?

[Dan]

I mean, 100%. Look at the fertility issues going on. Our average lifespan is decreasing in the U.S. so for males like us, we're only living to 71 on average.

[Sean]

Yeah, bro, that's crazy, man.

[Dan]

That's super young, man.

[Sean]

Dude. Yeah, that's 21 years away from me, so.

[Dan]

Damn, you look good for 50.

[Sean]

Yeah, bro. So I'm. I'm going. I'm going against that, man. I'm going to be going. I'm going against that grain.

[Dan]

I love it. So am I. I'm aiming for 100.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Dan]

You know, you got to be careful with these numbers. My dad would always say, I want to live to 60, like, growing up, and that stuck with me, but he ended up manifesting that it's pretty young.

[Sean]

Oh, that's. Bro, that's way young. My buddy Ricky did that, too. He. I remember we were in our 20s, and he had such a hard upbringing. He goes. He goes, I don't care. I'm gonna do. And I remember he was doing steroids and just all kinds of other stuff. And I go. I go, bro, you're freaking crazy. And he goes, dad, I'm gonna die at 30 anyways. And then. And then 30 just came fast, you know? And. And he's 52 now, so he's.

[Dan]

Oh, okay, you said. I thought you were gonna say he died.

[Sean]

No, bro, no, no, no. Unfortunately, we lost his wife to ovarian cancer a few years ago. That was hard.

[Dan]

Cancer's everywhere, man.

[Sean]

Dude, it's crazy. But. But no, he's still with us and we still enjoy. In fact, he's working with our team now. And it's. It's great having him because he has such a. He's so light on his feet.

[Dan]

I love that, man. Yeah. Everyone watching this, I would recommend a mri. I just got a full body mri. Did you detect cancer early?

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Dan]

Yeah. So super helpful.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Dan]

Shout out to Pernubo. They're in la.

[Sean]

Are they? Yeah, I need to do something like that.

[Dan]

I'm super into, like, because people are just guessing with their health. But I'd rather take some blood work or whatever.

[Sean]

Nowhere else blood work. I do. I do that every six months. I go and get blood work every six months. You know, most looking, like, see about cholesterol, testosterone support. Yeah, testosterone is important. You know, I've never had a testosterone problem. I, I've been able to naturally keep my testosterone normal. It was always high.

[Dan]

Yeah. Wow. It's like even at 50 you have.

[Sean]

No, now it's like normal. But I have to, but it was, it was hitting the low end of the normal about a year and a half ago. And so I, I started doing organics. Right. Like almonds and just a lot of avocado. There's, there's nutrition, there's nutrients in our foods that we can get.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Our testosterone levels back. And I, and I, I battle mentally because I. You want to take the testosterone replacement because it keeps you leaner. But it scares the out of me, man.

[Dan]

I'm not a fan of anything unnatural.

[Sean]

Yeah. Because I mean you take that and then your body loses its own natural mobility to produce testosterone.

[Dan]

Yep.

[Sean]

And, and bro, you're just, you're on that forever. What are the long term effects for it once you're on it?

[Dan]

You know, it's so bad cuz people that take it and then they stop, they're. They're screwed.

[Sean]

Yeah. You tits and they soft on the side of the chest. Dude, I'm just like, you know what man, I'll just sustain man. I'll just, I, I'll get up every morning, I'll do my 150 push ups before I get going every day. I'll do it seven days a week religiously. I'll make my family late if I need to to make sure I get it done. But bro, that just it, it cuz otherwise man, that other stuff scares the out of me.

[Dan]

Yeah. I mean you never know. I mean it's interesting seeing all this, this biohacking peptides and stem cells. But I just try to be as natural as possible, man.

[Sean]

Yeah, I do too.

[Dan]

You know, I do too.

[Sean]

We're still eating garbage. I know you're doing it on, you know, without even knowing.

[Dan]

When you travel, it's tough to eat healthy. It's tough, but super tough.

[Sean]

I think making the right choices at home makes a big difference.

[Dan]

Absolutely. Getting a chef was like the first hire for me when I had money.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Dan]

Because I, I knew no matter what I ate it would impact me a lot. So.

[Sean]

Yeah bro, I still need to do that, you know.

[Dan]

You have a chef yet?

[Sean]

No, you know, we've, we only do it sometimes when we travel just to eat better. We need to, we, we had explored it at one point in time. Our kids are so busy with, with sports and stuff and we're traveling so much. It just, it didn't make sense to have them unless we had them travel with us, which we could have done, but we just hadn't. But we, we were, we're pretty good about it. Like, my wife cooks. We don't eat out during the week. I cook, you know.

[Dan]

Yeah, as long as she's not overwhelmed, then you're probably chilling.

[Sean]

Yeah, you know, she's overwhelmed. You know, it's part of our household, man. I think everybody in our household at some point in time during the day gets a little overwhelmed. We live a pretty high intensity lifestyle. Between all of us, we all grind pretty hard.

[Dan]

You know, I think you, I assume you have high expectations for your kids, right?

[Sean]

Yeah, and I think they have high expectations for themselves. You know what's hard about kids is that both my kids are gymnasts. My son's a two time nationally ranked gymnast. My daughter's working to try to get to nationals this year. And I think that's why what's playing on her brain soil hard.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

But you know, we pushed my son so hard in gymnastics because we were trying to teach him just how to win, you know, mentally, physically, that he land up just hating the sport. Right? Like, he just land up hating the sport. He went through the motions for the last couple years and those were when he was going through the motions is when he actually did the best because he didn't care. And then we got to a place where we felt like, we said, you know, what's our goal? Right? Like, is our goal for them to be like these super athletes or do we want them to be a part of our lives forever? And in our. My wife and I are real close to our kids and I go, we're going to kill them, the morale, we're going to kill our relationship with them if we do this. We saw the other parents doing it to their kids and he said, at some point in time, they just have to want it and they have to love it. And if they don't want it and they don't love it, then we can't make that. We can't make them want it. We can't make them love it. Right. They're going to land up resenting us for it. And we felt it with my son because I remember going, we were in Costa Mesa and he had a gymnastics competition up in Costa Mesa. And I remember he was expected to win it. He was doing vault and the coach brought him up to me and said, and he, I think at this time he was in seventh grade, he goes, his coach, Joey, comes to Me and goes, hey, I don't know if Joke Jacob's gonna be able to compete today. And I said, why? He goes, he's just. He's falling apart on us, you know, you might want to talk to him. He was just bawling, crying. And this was in my son. Like, my son doesn't cry.

[Dan]

Wow.

[Sean]

Especially not for stuff like that, you know. And so, so I said, what's up, man? He goes. And then he. He was like, gasping for air. And. And basically, in so many words, without saying much is basically, he's felt overwhelmed with the pressure that we put upon him and, and for. To do something that he didn't want to be doing. Right? So as a parent, we had to recognize it one and. And not say, okay, he's a puss. Like, you know, we're going to push him anyways, right? Like, there's like a. A level of reasonability and a threshold that you gotta. That you gotta focus on. And I, I called my wife. I said. I said, jacob is mentally crushed, man. Like, we gotta figure out, like, what we need to do. And we need to listen to him, man. He was talking about he wanted to play football, want to play football. We had him in private lessons. We're sustaining, holding him off on that. And like, now he's crushed it, man. Like this last year, he was first team everything. First team, all metro, first team, all state team, all district offensive player of the year, 6A state champions. And he crushed it. But it was his choice, you know? And we tell him now, like, he'll come home and say, oh, my grind hurts. Oh, I broke. And his finger was sideways. He went to state jacked up. Hey, man, you could tell us you want to stop right now. This is your choice. You could tell us right now you want to stop and we'll be okay with it. Like, we're not really okay with it like that, but you know what I mean? It was like, hey, you know, this is you. You pick this sport, you decided you wanted to do it, you want to do it at this level. We're here to support you. But the second you tell us that you don't want to do it at this level, we're okay with it. We just love you and we want to support you. And they go, so quit. And I told him quit. And then he just doesn't say anything, goes back. And then he goes back and competes harder. And so. And my daughter's in that phase right now where she's at her breaking point with gymnastics. We've Used it as a good tool. But we've already told her like last weekend was that same type of a transitional period for her where I told her, look, man, like, fuck gymnastics, right? Like the competition's you against you. Like, what are you going to do with this in life? What she needs to know is Dad's got my back. And dad's right, I need to do this for me, for my mental state. Because if I let her get crushed, like, and just lose and acclimate to losing, that's a habit and it scares me. So I sit back and go, no, I can't teach her that losing is okay. What I have to do to teach her is that focusing on your mental health is important and that with your mental health you're going to win.

[Dan]

Yeah, right.

[Sean]

And there's like so many different moving pieces to it. It's the same thing in sports that we deal with in business. And it's, and it's one attribute that I just thank God that I got when I was in sports, not even knowing I got it in sports. And so when I got into business, even when we're going through hard times, they were hard times and they did feel like hard times, but they did, didn't, you know, and all the hard times that we still go through, they feel like hard times, but they don't. And it's because we've conditioned myself through sports my entire life to, you know, to get back up when things are tough.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

And I think if we can give that to our kids and they get it without killing their morale and their self confidence in the process, it's one of the most self sustaining attributes they can take with them forever.

[Dan]

That's beautiful, man. Because there's a lot of parents in that same situation you're in, right. With their kids and they're forcing, they're shoving sports down their throats.

[Sean]

Want it more than the kids. We see it every day. We see it in football. Like, kids like, don't, dude, it's, it's a, like I was like, like no kid wants to get out there all beat to hell and go play. You have to love it, man.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Because those kids by state, man, they're, they're beat up. Like, you have to love it. They have to themselves have to want it.

[Dan]

I think a lot of parents project that they didn't make it in sports, Right?

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Dan]

They wanted for their kid.

[Sean]

Yeah. They use it, they use that as they try to live through their children vicariously. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's stupid. It's crazy, man.

[Dan]

It's tough, man, because sports are supposed to be, you know, like a learning experience, fun, make lifelong friends, and then you turn it into a business. It gets tricky.

[Sean]

Yeah, it, you know, it's, it's what's going to build character. A good. It takes a. Like they say, it takes a village to raise a child. And the whole point. And we've had really bad coaches for our kids, but we've had some really good ones, man. And the really good ones really make the big difference because they themselves will help you as a parent fill the gap where your kids don't listen to you, you know, so we've been blessed. Now that my son's in high school, he has incredible football coaches, just great guys and great attributes. They were Division 1. One of his coaches was a Division 1 college coach. So to come back to a high school and coach at a high school level to be with his kids and his family and give that up. Those attributes he gained at the Division 1 level. Oh, bro. The life skills that he's given my son, that I try to give my son, but he doesn't listen to something dads has to say, you know, just like. Because we listen to our parents, though.

[Dan]

Yeah. You know, teenage phase is rebellious. I was rebellious with my poor mother.

[Sean]

So rebels. I was being sarcastic. I was horrible, bro.

[Dan]

Yeah, Yeah. I think it's natural, right? You want to rebel once you're a.

[Sean]

Teenager, you don't listen to your parents. Your parents don't know nothing, you know, and so my son, you know, he lists. They hear you, but they don't really. They don't want to listen. Listen to you. So it was so having those little bits and pieces of mentorship in their lives from coaches, bro. Priceless.

[Dan]

I love that, man.

[Sean]

So freaking priceless.

[Dan]

Are they at a public school, both of them?

[Sean]

No, we. Oh, dude. So that's a whole different story. Roll up, dude. I. Dude. So we. So my son in kindergarten went to a Catholic traditional Catholic school because we grew up Catholic. My wife and I both went to Catholic school. Growing up in high school, I went to a public high school because the, the Catholic high school didn't have wrestling. So I. That was my ticket out. Got it into public school. In that day and age, I was like, oh, my God, thank God. I schooled all my cousins. I got to go wrestle. So we, we homeschooled our kids. We put them in a 5050 hybrid until my daughter started competing at the highest level in gymnastics. Then we put her in full time homeschool and we kept my son In a 50, 50 homeschool, Christian based homeschool that was like a co op. It was awesome. It was great because we had them with us all the time. They had plenty of interaction between the 50, 50 aspect. There was a lot of mentally challenged kids in a lot of those schools and, and it was, I think that was probably the best attribute to, to that program. My son became more genuinely not softer, but more in tune with. With people and, and just a little more sensitive to. Because I wasn't me, you know, And I still ain't like that. I stuffed work hard, really hard to be sensitive to people's emotions and stuff. And this is because I'm not. I'm hard on myself. So I'm hard on everybody.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

But. But because it was kids that I think were challenged athletically, mentally. That's. That school catered to a lot of diversification in personalities with kids. And so it was great. And my son went in like a rock star in high school, just getting straight A's.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Sucked at taking tests at first, so he had a hard first semester. And my daughter, we decided to do public school this year and we, we filter in 8th grade to public education. We're homeschooling her again. It's so fucked that fast, bro. It's so fucked down. Do the, the teachers.

[Dan]

Where is this?

[Sean]

It's in, it's in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. So just outside of Albuquerque. We, we live just outside of Santa Fe and we spend our time half in Arizona, half in New Mexico. But the teachers are up. There's some good teachers, there's some good teachers, but there's a lot of teachers that are really up you. When you call. And like my daughter had been homeschooled, she never, she never done like standardized test taking, nor did my son. But we, My son has a very outgoing personality, so he was able to get a lot of the help he needed just with his own personality. My daughter's not quite like that. My daughter's a little bit more intense but like doesn't speak up with her intensity. She, she kind of holds it in more.

[Dan]

Introverted?

[Sean]

Yeah, she. Well, yes and no. Like there's times that she is very introverted, but. But she. And there's times that she's very extroverted. Right. But when it comes to that stuff, she hates being embarrassed. So going out and asking teachers for help, she wouldn't do it. So I said look, I'm going to intervene. And I started making calls to the, to the Teachers, no phone calls back. I do emails, say hey, you know, because I sucked in college. And I went through, all the way through college, but I just communicated with my teachers. They sat down with me, they worked with me. Shit, I got seized just because I think they felt sorry for me. They were like, fuck, this kid's been here every damn day. He signed into tutoring every single day. This guy's still getting Fs on tests. And I think at the end of the semester they're just like, okay, we're just gonna give this guy a C, you know, Because I mean, he just worked his ass off, you know, and that was me. And with my daughter, you know, I thought I told my wife, just communicate with them. I'll just do with my daughter what I do with myself. No phone calls back, Nothing. They don't help you, they don't work with you, they don't want to sit with you. Nothing.

[Dan]

Wow.

[Sean]

Yeah, it pisses you off. You want to go choke a teacher, you know?

[Dan]

Yeah, that's nuts. I guess from their point of view, they're being paid hourly, right? So they don't want to devote any extra time to the students.

[Sean]

I don't know what it is. I think it's fucking crazy, you know, like I have my education platform and, you know, we're doing this stuff and I didn't think I love it as much as I do, but you know, one of the things that I love the most is seeing people succeed. And it's cool, man, like when they're under your influence and you help them do something they wouldn't have done without your influence, man, it's one of the most gratifying feelings in the entire world. And I think that they're in the wrong profession. And I know we need more teachers, but God, at what expense, man? Is my, is my question to that. And I told my wife, I said, this is bullshit. Yeah, Said we're pulling her back out. And I talked to my daughter about it because she was really enjoying the social aspect with the kids and stuff, but she gets plenty of social interaction. And so we talked to her during Christmas break and we said, hey, it's up to you, you can go back. But school was slowly demising her, man, because she was feeling stupid, like she wasn't smart. And I was like, I was like, oh my God, you're friggin smart, man, you're super intelligent. And she is, she just doesn't know how to take standardized testing. She's never had to. And so, so anyway, so that's my little story on education. So for all you parents out there that have the ability to go out and take advantage of homeschooling your kids, friggin do it.

[Dan]

Yeah. Homeschool or private? I think for now, until the public education system can fix something.

[Sean]

Yeah. And like my son's doing fine in public school. You know, there's, there's parts that we, that we, that we can appreciate with the growing up process and there's other areas that there, it's, it's lagging big time, you know.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

But anyways, you know, he's acclimated. Well, my daughter's going to go to public school next year for sports, so she's going to have to acclimate and we'll just deal with it one, one step at a time.

[Dan]

Yeah man, the right teacher has a lot of impact because you're not only affecting that person but their family, their friends. Like. Yeah, you're probably seeing this with all the people you coach, right?

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Dan]

So it really matters.

[Sean]

I had a big difference, man.

[Dan]

I had some pretty bad ones growing up, some pretty good ones.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Dan]

But I had priests, man.

[Sean]

You know the word? My worst teachers were priests, man. I, so I remember seventh grade, I, yeah, I thought, I think those priests are going to be living in hell, bro.

[Dan]

Damn, they're that bad.

[Sean]

Oh bro. 7th grade was tough for me, man. You know when you get to a point when you're a kid. I wasn't a bad kid. I had good parents, man. I came in, came from a good, good upbringing, good family. Seventh grade was so tough, man, that I was segregated out because I couldn't read, write and pulled out of class and things were blamed on me and rightfully so. At the end of my sixth grade year, me and three friends took out the little nuts out of the lockers and, and we, we were just dumb kids, right. Like it was. And they, we used to wrap our books in paper bags and this girl put her bag, her, her, her bag of books at the last day of school in the locker and her, the bottom of her locker fell through and it was like a domino effect, like five or six lockers and we were like little kids, we thought it was funny. Just like you laugh like, you know, we're just like little kids, like ah, laughing. Well, that was the last day of school. They couldn't suspend us. So when I, the other two boys didn't come back to school, I did. And so from that point forward, everything was my fault. Damn, I blame, everything was blamed on me. The bathrooms got flooded. It was my fault. And then I beat up a kid that found out. I found out who did it. And I was aggressive kid. And I go. And I told him, I said, you tell him that you did it and it wasn't me, or I'm going to kick your ass. And. And he didn't. So I kicked his ass. Then I got suspended for fighting.

[Dan]

Jeez.

[Sean]

And then he told him it was him, but then they thought that because I beat him up, I made him tell him. So then through the whole year, just never ended.

[Dan]

Wow.

[Sean]

And so. So then you get to a place where like, well, any. Everything's my fault anyway, so it's all gonna be my fault. Who cares? Like, you know, I'm gonna fight. I'm gonna do whatever I want to do because everything's my fault anyways. And that was kind of the app. The attitude that I acclimated in seventh grade. And then my mom put me in a different. A private school. And there was this teacher, her name was Sister Ada. Ah, God bless her heart, man. She. She just. She sat with me and she goes, no school wanted me because they thought I was just this bad kid, and I wasn't. But they. She sat with me. She goes, hey, hey, Jerome. She goes, I know you're a good kid because God doesn't make bad kids. She goes, I want you to come in, work with me. And. And she goes, we're going to get you through your eighth grade year. And no other school wanted me. She accepted me in. And just her just believing in me. You just don't want to let them down, you know, and so that in itself will make you a good kid.

[Dan]

Wow.

[Sean]

You know, and that was like a turning point. I was like, see, I'm not a bad kid. I am a good kid. I didn't, like, deliberately go out to jack shit up and get in trouble. But when it just took her believing in me my eighth grade year, that changed me in my attitude because she just didn't accuse me of stuff. She didn't condemn me. And I was able to be put in a position where I had this one woman, this one nun, that she just believed in me, you know, as a person. And. And I just didn't want to let her down. And that. That changes the directory of a kid's life, man. But what if I didn't have a sister? Like, what if she. What if God didn't put her in my life? Like, what could have happened would have.

[Dan]

Been a whole different life, Right?

[Sean]

Yeah. Like, who how many kids go through that, you know?

[Dan]

A lot.

[Sean]

A lot, bro.

[Dan]

Public teachers don't really give a about it.

[Sean]

It happens in the home. It happens in, in school. It happens. I mean, it happens more than we can pro. We even know, you know, Like I live that and I, I was a lucky one, you know, Cause I had a sister Ada in my life. But God only knows where I would went if I didn't. You know, thank God I had the mom. I did that was persistent. It kept placing me someplace because she knew she knew better, you know?

[Dan]

Yeah, she could have given up on you, right?

[Sean]

She could have, man. My mom could have. Subject said, but my mom knew I was a good kid, you know, she's like, you know, so my mom continued to work to try to place me at the right place. And thank God she did, you know, because it made all the difference in the world.

[Dan]

I love that. Yeah, the right mentor and teacher is a game changer, dude. Oh, not even just for kids. I mean, for adults. Yeah. Like I'm sure you had one getting into real estate.

[Sean]

Yeah, you know, I, I had a, I had a business mentor. I didn't have a real estate mentor per se. Per se. I mean, I guess, you know, you find your own leadership elsewhere. You know, Google was, was a mentor of mine because I found a lot of underwriting skills and training skills on Google. When I really got into the big game of real estate, I really wanted to learn the game. And brokers that confided me, you know, they were also mentors without me knowing, like, I'm here for the National Multifamily Conference and like there's a gentleman, his name is Joe De had. He owned the Orion Group and he probably doesn't even know this. I just had lunch with him the other day. He was a big, big piece of, of mentorship for me because I was, I was already doing good. I was probably worth about $20 million at the time. Back in like 2000, you know, 12 or so when I met Joe and Joe challenged me, man. He, he sent me out to this 84 unit apartment complex. I was buying all this small retail stuff and I was staying in this little safe haven that I felt was safe and was afraid to push it into anything bigger. And Joe challenged me leaving his office one day and he told me, he goes, he goes, hey, go drive by this property. He goes, like, this might be a good property for you. He said, I think. And I go, what do you think it'll, it'll trade for? And he goes, I probably about 7.8 million. And I was like, ooh, okay. You know, I was like, all right. You know, and I so, and I'm thinking this to myself, like, I ain't telling him that, but I'm like, all right, you know, I'm, you know, I'm trying to man up in front of him. And, and so I went and looked at it and it was a beautiful property. And I, and the first thing that goes to your head is that there's no way I can afford this, right? But then Joe challenged me and he goes, bro, if you really want to get into this stuff, you know, he goes, you could be one of two people. He's like, you could be the guys that come in here and act like they're going to do something. Then I never hear from them again. Or, or somebody that comes back in. There's very few of them that come back in. He said, we'll find out which one you are.

[Dan]

Wow.

[Sean]

And I was like. So I drove to the airport in Phoenix that day. I remember driving out there going, drum, don't be a puss. Stop being a, you know, like, man up. And I looked at it and I was like. And I kept you. All these things go through your brain, right? Like, okay, I do this, I get money from here, I pull from this, I do that, you know, and all these, these all. You're putting all these, you're putting all of the, you're trying to find solutions, but you're putting all these roadblocks in front of you, and that's what people do. And, and sometimes it just takes somebody challenging you like that, and, and you pushing past your ego and you sit back going, and you just take it one step at a time. And that's what it was with Joe. Joe put an offer together. He, he explained the underwriting on it with me. I sat, I went home and I, I went back through it and then I understand, some jacked it up. Joe fixed it for me and said, no, bro, that ain't the way you do it. And he took the time to help me fix it. And lo and behold, six months later, I bought another property from Joe, you know, and, and I was still buying stuff from Joe today.

[Dan]

Wow. So you bought that one for seven, eight?

[Sean]

Yeah, I bought that for seven, eight. I still own that property today. It's worth a little. Well, depends how you look at it. I, I, I did a cash out refi of $15.5 million about three years ago during the.

[Dan]

Wow. So it double.

[Sean]

Yeah, doubled in price. And I pulled like $5 million out tax free out of that property. Property, Damn.

[Dan]

That's why I love real estate.

[Sean]

And that came from a portfolio that I bought during the 2008 recession in Phoenix. A bunch of garbage, little garbage. Like, I was buying these single family homes for like 25 to $30,000.

[Dan]

That's it.

[Sean]

Renting them. That was it, man. I was buying them cash. I was buying them sight unseen in central Phoenix. And in Phoenix at that time, they were going through. They had a. They had their. The mayor and the. And the governor were both high and heavy on Mexican immigrants. And they were like, look, if you. If you get caught leasing to somebody that doesn't have legal Residency, it's a $2,500 fine per occurrence.

[Dan]

Damn.

[Sean]

And so I rented all of them. Frigging all of them.

[Dan]

You didn't care.

[Sean]

No, that, man, I didn't care. It was wrong. It's. If it's wrong, it's wrong, bro. Let me tell you why I didn't care. One, I had retail back home that I had built, and I was struggling through the 2008 recession just to stay alive. And I was buying this real estate site unseen in Phoenix, and I'd go down to the Home depot on. On 36th street in Thomas, and all these Mexican cats were in the parking lot with signs saying, hey, you know, they needed work, and these guys want to work. And there was some that were bullshit guys that. But most of these guys just needed work, man. And I needed workers. And I needed workers for a very reasonable cost. You know, it wasn't a time, a day and age in that moment that we wanted to spend exponential amount of money renovating stuff. You needed to do it on. On the Slim. And so we went in and I started picking these guys up and saying, hey, you know, I got. I just bought a fourplex over on 44th and into the 202. Come down and help me with that one, right? And you've. I found a handful of just really freaking great dudes. And they brought me in guys that. They were like, I thought I was gonna buy appliances. They're like, oh, no, 25. They buy me this little piece and the whole. The whole stove would work, you know, wow. Be a little flint. And they fix the whole stove for like a 25 part. And. And then I was buying these houses, and then I bought one house and they. And I put it up to Ren is like, hey, how about me? You know, can I. Can I. Can I live here?

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

They say, yeah, you Know, I rent it to him. And then they go, you got one more? I got a cousin, you know, that needs a place. And I was like, no, but I'll buy. I'll find one, you know. So I go buy another one, man. And I lease to their cousin and I start renovating. They're like, no, no, no. They're like, it's good, you know. And I was like, no, it looks like shit, I can't live there. And they're like, no, no, we got it. And then they would renovate for me in lieu of exchange for rent money, you know. And so I started putting this portfolio together just housing Mexican immigrants, man. And was buying all these shitty four plex is for like 40,000, 42,000 for a four plex. And I was buying these single family homes for like $28,000, $25,000. I assembled this portfolio with about $800,000 out of pocket. I had 64 for Plex, 64 units of four Plexes and 12 single family homes. Homes. And I sold that whole portfolio out for a little over $4 million back in 2015.

[Dan]

Wow.

[Sean]

And that was the money I 1031 exchanged into some of the bigger stuff that I got into.

[Dan]

Damn.

[Sean]

And I landed up with a little over $3 million after. After taxes and stuff.

[Dan]

That's incredible.

[Sean]

See 5x on that.

[Dan]

And you helped out a lot of people.

[Sean]

A lot of people, bro. And some of those guys still work with us today. They're still doing work with us today.

[Dan]

That's cool, dude.

[Sean]

Yeah, yeah. All those rules.

[Dan]

Yeah. I didn't know Phoenix did that.

[Sean]

Yeah, they've. Since that was all the old McCary days and stuff. Those days are gone, man. And I mean now it's just, you know, there's laws like that, man. It's just that are just wrong. What's wrong is wrong.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

You know, I mean, who's really doing wrong? Like, was it me doing wrong by. By going against their, their legal actions to do that or was it what they were doing?

[Dan]

I think their policies were, dude, even right now. So 75 of the workers in the fruit fields are not showing up to work anymore.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Dan]

So it's going to be high prices, you know, because they're scared that they're going to get deported. Deported?

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Dan]

Crazy.

[Sean]

Yeah. My guys are worried, you know, we still run our concrete company. I still got guys, man.

[Dan]

I got friends freaking out, dude. Yeah, like really scared because they're deporting. Like there's a tracker like tells you like 500 per day. Right now?

[Sean]

Yeah. And you know there's going to be a threshold to that, right? So, like, I told like one of my guys, he has three DUIs that works for me and he's still driving. The other day I got mad at him. I go, bro, you're not supposed to drive my trucks, man. You know, because you drive my trucks. And I told him, you don't learn, man. Here's the thing, if you're doing shit right, there's going to be a threshold. And what they're trying to do is they're trying to cut out. They're trying to cut the. So, like, you know, what they're doing right now is a little different than what we went through in Arizona. Big picture, these guys that, these guys that they're sending back, they're trying to get. They're trying to get place back in the countries they came from because not all of them from Mexico, they're from South America, from different areas. And these are the. Some of the worst criminals. And the, the country they came from don't even want them back. They won't even take them back, bro. And so the biggest thing is, is they're going to clean house with those that shouldn't be here and they're and are causing trouble. And I told my guys that. I said, look, guys, if you guys just put your head down, stay working and go to work, you ain't going to be messed with. They're not going to mess with you.

[Dan]

That's what I'm thinking too, you know.

[Sean]

But if you're out there getting DUIs and doing dumb shit, domestic violence and doing dumb. You needed to get deported because you don't learn, man, like, okay, give you a slap on the hand, fix your stuff, but if you don't learn, deport their ass. You don't, if you're not gonna do right, leave, you know? Yeah, I mean, I'm all for, for immigrants coming to the country. I love them. I love immigrants, man, because they come to this country for opportunity.

[Dan]

They work hard, bro.

[Sean]

They come. This country, based on what this country was built on, was built on capitalism. It was built by our forefathers for free enterprise, you know, and hate it or love it. That's what America was built on. And the reality is, is that those people that come to this country come for opportunity. Because as bad as our politics are and as bad as some of our policies are, we're still the one. We're still the best country in the world when it comes to economics and capitalism. And so When. When you look at it from a real perspective, we are the land of opportunity. And just because people that are born and raised here don't want to take advantage of it, there's people that come to this country because we are still the best country to live in and create a life of entrepreneurship. I mean, Chip, Vietnamese people come here, they don't even know how to fucking speak English. And they're crushing it in nail salons. They're crushing it with flower restaurants. Yeah, whatever it is. Yeah, restaurants, bro. You know, Ukrainians, I'm doing. I have a development that I just finished up in Kirkland, Washington, and all of our trade labor. Now, they're not Mexicans, they're Ukrainians.

[Dan]

Wow.

[Sean]

And these guys freaking work, man. And they came in from their country scared with the war, and these guys just put their head down, they just go to work, you know, Those guys need to stay here. We need those people.

[Dan]

Facts.

[Sean]

Those people need to be here, you know, because people born and raised here, they're too comfortable, man. We have fat homeless people on the side of the street. You know, we're the only country with. With fat homeless people. You know, we have no lack of food. No one's starving in our country. Is really starving our country, you know? So the reality is those people need to be here.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

You know, we help them be here.

[Dan]

There was that whole drama with the H1B visas. Did you see that?

[Sean]

Yeah, Yeah, I did see.

[Dan]

Yeah. Sounds like you side with Elon and Vivek on that one.

[Sean]

Yeah. Yep.

[Dan]

Yeah, it's tough. I mean, I get it from both perspectives, you know?

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Dan]

As a business owner, we want to save money, but we also want efficient workers.

[Sean]

Yeah, we do want efficient workers. We do want to save money, but it's, you know, there's. There's a balance to everything, you know, and that's what's hard about everything that's happening right now is. Is things are going to get a little worse before they get better. People only look at the worse initially, but sometimes if it's broken, sometimes you just got to devour it and then start all over again. And when you devour something as, you know, like if you. If you. If you're getting rid of poison in your company, it's going to get worse initially before it gets better.

[Dan]

Right.

[Sean]

We've all dealt with it with employees, where you have that one employee that's poisoned and it feels like when you get rid of them, because usually it's the most talented person. I know.

[Dan]

It always works out, though.

[Sean]

You know, it isn't like, like the shittiest person poison in your family because then it's easy. It's like, bye, get out of here.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

No, it's usually the person that has the most talent and they're the poison. And then you're sitting back going, damn, man, that person makes me money, but they're killing me.

[Dan]

Yeah, it was my top salesman and he was just so toxic to anyone else. And he was by, like, probably by 5x the top salesman. But I had to let him go.

[Sean]

Yeah, you, you have to. And at the time when you let him go, it's painful. You feel like, damn, okay, how am I going to replace them? But God's good, man. God works in great ways. And if you, if, when you finally get rid of them, you realize what a hindrance they were on the company. Everybody else comes too. Sometimes you even feel like you're going to lose some of the other ones because they're so influenced by this toxic person. The second they're gone, though, it's amazing. All these people were wanting them gone as much as you did.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

You know, and then all of a sudden leadership starts popping up. Even within your own, your own environment, you know, from it.

[Dan]

How many chances do you give your employees? Are you pretty forgiving?

[Sean]

Oh, bro, I'm way too forgiving, man. I'm hard in life in general, but damn, I'm, I'm really forgiving. And you know, I do it and I take, I tell my wife, I said I do it for my own sanity sometimes because the amount of work it takes to train good people is, is tough, man. It takes a long time. So. And I try to see the good in everybody and I, and, and look, most of these people are good people, right? They're self destructive in so many ways. It's more of their self destructive nature that is the bigger cause of their demise than it is them trying to demise my company.

[Dan]

Right.

[Sean]

You know, we haven't had a lot of jealousy or like stuff like that. We've had a little bit of that. We've had to fire people. But really it's self destructive people within the company that are like bringing alcohol to our job sites. Right. And we tell them not to, but then they're bringing all these other guys and they get a whole crew drinking.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Right. And so, but they're just an alcoholic, man. And you can't reason with an, with somebody that, that's an abuser, with substance abuse of any sort, whether it's alcohol, whether it's Tobacco, whether it's drugs, amphetamines, whatever it is, man.

[Dan]

That happened to one of my landscapers. I was pissed, bro. They showed up drinking the whole time, I'm like, why am I even paying you?

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Dan]

You know, it's unprofessional. On the job at least. Like, do whatever you want outside of work.

[Sean]

Yeah. Just don't do it in my trucks.

[Dan]

That's what I'm saying.

[Sean]

In my customers houses. Those are my customers. I own those customers or my customers. I marketed them. That's my job.

[Dan]

That's customer representation of.

[Sean]

Yeah, it's a representation of everything that we do.

[Dan]

Yeah. That's tough, man.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Dan]

You're up to a $600 million portfolio now, right?

[Sean]

Yeah, we are. I mean, probably lower now the way the interest rates are. So real estate's funny, you know, it's probably worth 300 million.

[Dan]

Okay.

[Sean]

It just depends. So real estate is very arbitrary. Arbitrage on. On valuations because of. It's all predicated on cap rates. Right. The value of it is like, if I sold it all today, I probably have to scrub the portfolio at a discounted price. Right. Because everything's based on. On interest rates and valuations based on financial revenue. So right now, you know, our revenues are the same. Everything's the same. But because cap rates went so low, values artificially got really high. And. And so now that interest rates are higher, cap rates have to go higher. And so values are kind of. Have kind of softened.

[Dan]

Got it.

[Sean]

But values will come back. They always do. And so. So, yeah, so we've been able to accumulate about a $600 million portfolio over the course of. Of the last 28 years that I've been self. I've been self employed for 32 years, but I've been in real estate for 28.

[Dan]

That's impressive. Is the be your goal the 1B?

[Sean]

Yeah. I don't know that that's a goal. People keep asking me that. And you know that it isn't the money that's my goal anymore. It is when I was younger, because I think that's what drives you when you don't really have much else that's driving you. My goal now is just better. I'm just trying to. I've been telling my wife we got to buy our time back. My son graduates high school next year. My wife and I are simple people, man. My wife is super simple, God bless her heart. As long as she could be by her babies. She's cool, man. And so our goals are a little different. Where, you know, we know our kids are going to probably go to college abroad someplace, you know, either in the United States or, you know, someplace else. But so we just know we're gonna have to travel. And she just, she asked me about 10 years ago, she goes, I just want one thing. When the kids graduate. She goes, I just want, I don't want to be tied to this. Because every vacation we go on, we're tied to our businesses. Phones are ringing, there's problems, shit happening back home. We're dealing with tow trucks and trucks getting. With broken transmissions. We've never been able to enjoy a transmission, I mean a transmission. We've never been able to enjoy a vacation for 20 plus years together because we enjoy them as a family. But every vacation has, has issues at home.

[Dan]

Got to put out a fire, right?

[Sean]

Yeah, man. I mean when you're self employed and you got people and you got boots on the ground, man, there's. That has to get taken care of.

[Dan]

I can't vacation without working. I'm not gonna lie.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Dan]

There's certain hours I have to spend.

[Sean]

Working and I don't mind working. I just want to be able to work 100% remote. And so that's like what the whole personal brand is. That's why I started raising capital. That's why we got so heavy into large assets back in 2016. And that's why we scaled, you know, was, was because I made that promise to my wife. And so for me, it's less about the dollar achievement of what our net worth is and more about, okay, can I do what I'm doing now and still make what I'm making now and still play the game at the level I'm playing it now without having to be stuck in an office and, and to give my wife the, the, the one thing that she asked me for, you know, over the last 27 years that we've been together and if I can't give her that, why did I do all this, man? Like to be a slave to myself. So we've been really just trying to buy back our freedom. So my goal, more is wrapped around that now. Once we hit that in the next couple of years, my, my daughter graduates high school, then I'll probably go back into the money game. Being that, that goal. Yeah, because then I'm just gonna be old and I'll just be like it, man. Let's go all in, man.

[Dan]

You're so close at that point.

[Sean]

Yeah, I'll be maybe, you know, at that time, hopefully grandpa or something. I'll be like it. Let's go freaking. Let's go all in, baby. You know, and then it's. Yeah, and then I might do it, you know, because I have no intentions of ever retiring. But right now, that's not my goal, man. My goal is freedom, flexibility, position, my wife and I, where we can be wherever our kids are at any given time, at any point in time without having to deal with bullshit.

[Dan]

Love that, man. Yeah, I don't believe in retirement also. I think that's how you age quicker, actually.

[Sean]

Yeah. 100%.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Yeah.

[Dan]

Dude, this has been awesome. I can't wait to do more with you in the future. Anything you want to close off with? You got any coaching programs or anything?

[Sean]

Yeah, I mean, we're. We're. We're coaching on accident, man. Put together. I started a social platform to raise capital to scale my real estate portfolio. Started helping people do the same in their own real estate portfolio, and now we have like 1800 people nationwide. We're fucking crushing at our. Our students are crushing it. They're kicking ass. They're buying land, they're building houses. They're buying land and building apartment complexes, and we're changing lives all over the country. So I'm proud of that. Your audience can find me just with the Cliff Notes and.

[Dan]

Cool.

[Sean]

They can see what we're doing and see what our audience, what our community is doing. I'm proud of what we've built. It's been. It's been really fun, and it's been. It's been very. A very interesting ride over the last few years. We've created it.

[Dan]

I love it, man. Yeah, we'll link it below. Thanks for hopping on. On. Check them out, guys. We'll link it all below. See you next time.

[Sean]

You are no dummy, but you're kind of acting like one. You used to crush it in school, outsmarting opponents on the field. And now, well, you're still smart, but not exactly challenging yourself. You could be advancing nuclear engineering in the world's most powerful Navy. You were born for it. So make the smart choice. You can be smart, or you can be nuke smart. Become a nuclear [e-mail] nukesmart. America's Navy forged by the sea.

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