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- [00:00]
Grant Cardone
In my lifetime, $100 bill. If I had a 1958, if somebody had given me $100 and I put it aside and pulled it out today, it would say 1958 on it and it'd be Ben Franklin on the front of it. It's worth nine bucks. I can't save it. I'm losing money. It is impossible. You can only spend it, waste it, or invest it. That's it. The first two don't work.
- [00:27]
Podcast Host (Mick Unplugged Intro/Outro)
Welcome to Mick Unplugged, the number one podcast for leadership and relentless growth. No fluff, no filters, just hard hitting truths, unstoppable strategies, and the mindset shifts that separate the best from the rest. Ready to break limits? Let's go.
- [00:53]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of MC Unplugged. And today I'm talking to one of the four pillars that, that gave me the blueprint of life. He's the 10x visionary who turned rejection into real estate empires, authoring multiple bestsellers, commanding stages worldwide, and helping millions rewrite their money story. From humble roots in Louisiana to billion dollar boardrooms, please help me welcoming the relentless, the visionary, the unstoppable, my Uncle G, Mr. Grant Cardone. Grant, how you doing today, brother man?
- [01:25]
Grant Cardone
Great to be with you and so happy to hear what you're doing with your podcast. You guys are hitting top, top five. I think you're number three today, so well done. Perseverance, never quitting always pays off.
- [01:37]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Hey, you know, I tell people all the time, there's four people that shape my business mindset, my business career. Damon, John, Robert, Irvine, Les Brown, Grant Cardone. You four man collectively is me. Right? Like. Like, you guys help create this version of me that I probably didn't see. But more importantly, what you taught me was what you just said. Don't ever effing give up, man. Like life, Life is not supposed to be easy because if it were, there'd be billions of billionaires.
- [02:11]
Grant Cardone
It would just be harder. If it was easier, it would be harder.
- [02:15]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Right, right.
- [02:16]
Grant Cardone
Because there would be more people to compete with.
- [02:19]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Exactly. And, and Grant, there's so much I want to. I want to talk to you about, but I always start with this question, man. Like, what is your because? And I define your because as that thing that's deeper than your why. Right. Like, I believe your why is superficial, but there's a reason your why is your why. And I call it your because. So for today, 2025, what is Grant Cardone's because?
- [02:44]
Grant Cardone
Well, there's probably two of them, right? One of Them is that when I was a kid, I didn't have anybody to help me. And I was so angry about it and frustrated and anxious and, and it cost me a lot, dude, because I didn't have anybody to kind of guide me. And, and I wanted leadership so bad and I wanted somebody to show me the, the tricks and the, the inside so bad that, that you'll end up finding somebody. And I did. I found a drug dealer. And I wasted 10 years of my life on drugs because I went the wrong path. But it's, it's because, because I desired mentorship. And I see this happening to a lot of people, a lot of kids, you know, they're looking up to the ball players or the rappers or, you know, we, we make poor choices. I'm not saying those are poor choices, but they're definitely, they definitely come with a lot of risk. And, and one of which is you don't really have a potential to succeed. It's very low compared to being a business person. Yeah, I picked, you know, since I straightened up my life, I picked the easiest, longest path you can pick, which is business. We outlive ball players. And you know, there's, there's, there's. I can do this till I'm 150 years old, bro. Like, I can do real estate deals forever. I can, you know, start companies, buy companies. So that's, that's a. Because the second because, which is probably just as compelling for me is my interest in my own potential. And this is a very spiritual, I have a very spiritual connection with God. And my, my God connection is not sitting in a pew in a church. It is Monday through Sunday trying to discover my potential. And the therapist called it. The therapist told me I had some problem, some inadequacy and some self worth problems. Yeah, I'm like, I am trying to discover my full worth. I do not have a self worth problem. I am in pursuit of my potential that God gave me. So, you know, I don't like to settle, dude. I don't like to like. I've achieved a bunch of stuff in my life way beyond anything I ever dreamed or imagined I would achieve. Yeah, super grateful for it. I don't want anybody to think I'm not grateful. I am grateful, but I am not satisfied.
- [05:08]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
There you go. I love that, dude. I love that so much. And knowing your story like I do, like I probably have not researched and been a student of someone as much as I have Grant Cardone because you taught me how to scale. You taught me the mindset that's needed to scale. But we also have something in common, man. Like, your dad told you something that my grandfather told me a long time ago as well, too. And I think every successful person that I know, this is one of the top three pillars that they focus on or core value, and that's reputation. My grandfather told me when I was 10 years old, he said, mickey, the only thing you have in this world is your name. And it is totally up to you what you do with it. And it's only because of what you do, of what your name is going to stand for. And today I say to people, your name is your brand, and your brand is represented by what you do, the things that you do, the stories that you tell. So I'd love for you to just hit on that too, man, because I know that's something that your dad told you as well.
- [06:12]
Grant Cardone
Yeah, my dad told me, hey, man, protect your name. You know what? My dad didn't know. And my dad was a people person. He was. He would not pass a person that he did not say hi to. I still do that today. I don't care if it's the bellman, homeless person. I treat everybody like they're going to be somebody. I was telling Jared, my president of my company yesterday, I said, we, we need to start stressing the importance of treating people like billionaires. And my dad, my dad was very much a people person. He believed in the name, your last name, you know, that name Cardone grant protected. And he. My dad was. I was 10 when my dad passed, but I didn't get a lot of time with him. But I do remember that now if I was with him today, I would tell him, hey, pops, one other thing. You got to get the name known, bro. Like, you know, my dad would be so happy today because not only, you know, millions of people know my name, and my dad didn't do that. My dad was extremely well respected in the community. Everybody loved my dad, and he never let anybody down, did what he said, didn't let his family down. Like, you know, he was a. He was a pillar in the community.
- [07:22]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Yeah. And.
- [07:24]
Grant Cardone
But, dude, they didn't know him all over the world. So I'd be like, look what I did, man. I made your name, dad and your. Your father's name known everywhere around the world. We have, we help so many people today. I'm so happy to know that I've helped literally billions of people with sales, marketing and closing and negotiating and, and real estate investing and scaling and all this stuff. But it's really. Know some of that has been Mike, and it's been a bit of a selfish thing that I've done. Helping others has really been me trying to understand what it is I just learned. I think the best way to. To actually master anything. Somebody was on X the other day and said, list one thing that you've mastered. I'm like, sales marketing, social media, real estate investing, crowdfunding. They're. They're raising kids. I'm excellent at raising kids. Okay. And those are things that I've studied over long periods of time. And then when I studied, I got good. I went from bad. In every case, I went from bad. I was no good, had no confidence in every one of these. I was not. None of these came easy to me. I didn't understand how to do it, didn't know anything about it. And then I got good, and then I got better, and then I got real good, consistently good, which is different than good. And then I became, oh, man, he's doing something special. You know, there's that special spot. And then I started sharing that all along the way I would share with others. I didn't get better because I did it more. I got better because I shared it more. Yeah. And when I start sharing nuances of what I'm doing, I start seeing the. The around the corners. And then you become a sensei or you become a master of a craft, and. And you. You have a lot to share with other people. And then I end up meeting a guy named Mickey one day that don't look like me. That says, bro, you help me.
- [09:21]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Yeah, that's it. That's it, brother. And I want to go to something you just said about, you know, you would tell your dad now, your name is no. Right. So. So here's what you don't know, Grant. Like, and I know, you know, we talk a lot offline or whatever, but what you don't know is that in my company, your name is an action.
- [09:43]
Grant Cardone
So that's crazy.
- [09:44]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
So we have these moments where we are cardoning or we are in our cardone zone. And that means, like, you can't mess with us, right? Like, hey, I'm in my cardone mindset right now. Like, your name has become action within my company. And a lot of my clients, we go through that as well, too. It's like, hey, you got to get in that cardone zone right now.
- [10:04]
Grant Cardone
Yeah.
- [10:04]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
So.
- [10:04]
Grant Cardone
Yeah. What is. What is the cardone zone?
- [10:07]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Hey, our mindset is, let me into my zone.
- [10:10]
Grant Cardone
Don't let me into my.
- [10:11]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Exactly. So we're in that mindset of pure making big things happen without distraction. Right? And so that means that we're laser focused. We're focused on one or two things, not 50 things. And I think that's where most entrepreneurs go wrong when they think about scaling. They try to fix or solve a bunch of problems. And it's you. You taught me there's usually one or two things that you really got to fix or that you got to go get to make money. And so when we are in our cardone zone, our salespeople, they're getting checks, brother. They're getting checks. They're focused on the clothes. And we don't distract that because that mindset, again, when you're in that zone, that has to be the mindset because it's easy to get out of it. And then you start making excuses. Yeah, yeah. So. So going back to that name, though, for everybody that's watching or listening, you often say obscurity is your biggest problem, Right? Like, again, I study everything you do. In today's digital chaos world that we're in, how can entrepreneurs cut through the noise and become known?
- [11:18]
Grant Cardone
Yes. So look, obscurity. The word means I. I can't. It's obscure to me. I can't see it because it's out of my vision. But there's also a second definition. It's in my vision and I can't see it.
- [11:30]
Podcast Host (Mick Unplugged Intro/Outro)
This podcast you're listening to, it was once just a dream. A dream that became reality not by accident, but because someone decided not to let the what ifs keep them from creating something they believed in. Starting your own business is a dream lots of us share, but too many let it remain just a dream. Don't hold yourself back from creating what you believe in and turn those what ifs into why nots with Shopify by your side. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e commerce in the US from household names like Mattel and Gymshark to brands just getting started. What if I can't design a website? Shopify's got you with beautiful, ready to go templates to match your brand's style. What if I need a hand? Get help with everyday tasks like enhancing product images, writing product descriptions, or generating discount codes with Shopify's AI tools created for commerce. What if people haven't heard about my brand? Shopify helps you find your customers with easy to run email and social media campaigns. And what if I get stuck? Shopify is always around to share advice with their award winning 24. 7 customer support. So turn those dreams into and give them the best shot at success with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com realm. Go to shopify.com realm shopify.com realm.
- [13:03]
Grant Cardone
And by the way, that's most people's obscurity. Like you could be across the desk from a client, which I have been thousands of times. I was with JP Morgan four or five years ago. I brought a client, she was worth $2 billion at the time, and I brought her up there. They didn't even pay attention to me. Yeah, I was obscure to them, even though I was in the room because she was the target, not me. Which is fine. It was fine in that case. But many people, I'm sure much of your audience can, you know, attest or remember a time when you were in a sales presentation or you're trying to get somebody's attention and they can't see you. My wife, the first time I met my wife, 22 years ago, she did not see me. I was like Casper the Ghost. She didn't see me. She wasn't looking for me. I said hello to her, she said hello to me. But she still. I was still obscure to her. So this is the first level of, of this is way worse than rejection, by the way. I hear people talk about rejection. They're like, I hate rejection. I'm like, rejection is nothing compared to not being seen at all. Be careful what you don't like. If you're being rejected. At least you were seen. Yeah, okay. The, the much more damaging thing to a business or salesperson or anyone seeking the thing that they want is you simply are not seen. You're not acknowledged. You're not seen. You're not validated. This is the most painful part of being in business. In the beginning, no one will see your vision or your dream or even your potential, including the people that love you the most. Your mom, your dad, your uncle, your aunt, your sisters, your siblings, your. They will not see the new version of you because they remember when they, you know, when you were three years old and they had to wipe your butt. That's what they see. And, and mom sees the, the little boy version of Mickey or Grant. And you know, even I was 50. Let me see, my mom was 89. I was 50, 51 or something. My mom still saw me as a 10 year old.
- [15:07]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Yep.
- [15:08]
Grant Cardone
And I'd call her up and say, mom, I just did this big real Estate deal. I love you just the way you are, son. She would always say that. And I'm like, yeah, but Mom, I appreciate that, but I don't love me just the way I am. I want. I want that next version. I didn't hate myself. It wasn't like I hated me, but I wanted that next version really, really bad. And so the obscurity thing. Look, you can't do anything without a whole. You can have. All the wise in the world, you can have because. Because if you don't figure out how to get other people to know who you are, you're not going any place on this planet. Okay? There is no such thing as independency independence. I'm. July 4th is Independence Day. You ain't independent, but quit kidding yourself. We are dependent upon one another. Black, white, brown, male, female. Other countries, you need other people. Folks, this idea that you're going to be the boss and you're not going to need anybody and you're going to work for yourself, this is ridiculous. I have never met a human being in my life that works for themselves. I was on the phone last night with a guy. He's worth $18 billion. He is the wealthiest biotech guy in the world. I can call him anytime I want, get him on the phone. He gives me advice. He is dependent upon other people, Right. And so who you know is very, very important. Who knows you is like a hundred times more important. Who knows you and what do they know you for? Do they know you for showing up late, just doing the job? Or do they know you for coming in early, staying late, breaking the mole, doing exceptional things? And if they don't, the way to find that out, by the way, people should be complimenting you. Well, first of all, if you work for another company, if people aren't trying to hire you away, you're no good at your job.
- [17:10]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Yep.
- [17:11]
Grant Cardone
And if they're. If they're asking you to come work for you, then you're really not that good at your job. Because once you get to that mastery level, people will. People will know you're not for sale anymore. What they'll ask you is this, man, can you teach my people how to do this? They'll ask you, what do you eat, dude? What do you learn? What are you reading? They're going to be. They're going to take interest in this special sauce that you supposedly have because they can see it. And that's how they define who you are, because they now see something exceptional.
- [17:42]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Amen to that, dude. And you Know, I was going to go here towards the end, but I want to go here now, bro.
- [17:48]
Grant Cardone
Then we started this now. There's no schedule now.
- [17:52]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Oh, for sure, for sure. So if. And this is for everybody that's listening or watching. If you haven't been to a 10x growth conference, like, go online right now. You all know Grant Cart, Just Google them. You'll see one of the next. Like, you have to go. And then you're gonna go to. To many. Because when you talk about the obscurity and being seen and letting people know you, that's what your conferences are about, bro. Like, it's that network that's building your net worth. It's about. And I tell people this. There are many times, I don't care what level you are if you're continuously trying to level up. And if. If you're. If you are obsessed with that, like Grant Cardone is right. You've got to start surrounding yourself with different people and your conferences, bro. Like, the people that you are surrounded with, I don't care what level you are, there's people that are at the next level that you're trying to get to. And, you know, you were talking about not being seen, or your. Your family sees you the way that they've always seen you. So do your friends sometimes, so do your employees. If you're an entrepreneur doesn't mean you need to change your employees. Right. But it also means you've got to look at who's in your circle, because if you're trying to level up, your circle can't go with you most of the time. I've never seen it where a group of 10 people all level up together. There's usually one or two that say, okay, I see the next version of myself. I can't stay right here because you only see this version. I'd love for you to take a few moments and just talk about that.
- [19:20]
Grant Cardone
Yeah, look, they're not coming with you. I have never seen it. Okay. If you've seen it, I've never seen it. If there's 10 guys in a circle, only one's getting out. Okay. And the other nine are not going to come. No, they're not coming.
- [19:33]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
And they're reaching for that person, trying to pull them back down all the time.
- [19:36]
Grant Cardone
They want you to come back. They even say it. You'll hear this, you'll hear this, you'll hear this. In. In communities that are suffering, they'll be like, why did he go off and make it big and not come back, man? He Left. He made it big, and he didn't come back. And I'm like, bro, his job isn't to come back. Your job is to go to him. Now, Tyler Perry, I said, tyler, how many people came with you? He's like, none of them came with me. They didn't think I would do this. And I said, how many of them want you to go back home? He's like, all of them. I said, it's not your job. He's like, I love that, man. It's not your job to go back. It's the community's job to leave. Jesus left his home, okay? Jesus could not pitch his deal where he lived. He had to go to strangers in order to be seen. And then he went along the road. He suffered along the way, okay? He went by himself. He didn't make any excuses. He created tremendous amounts of miracles along the way. And he told other people, go and tell the others what you saw happen here.
- [20:36]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Yeah.
- [20:37]
Grant Cardone
And. And. And then he gathered people along the way, and he ends up being a posse. And by the way, some of that posse was no good.
- [20:44]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Yeah.
- [20:44]
Grant Cardone
But by the way, if we didn't have the betrayal, we wouldn't know him. So. So literally, literally, like, you know, the road is going to be lonely. You have to leave the people. You know, I have gone from a guy that couldn't make two grand a month to a guy that made 3,000amonth to 4. 4,000amonth, all the way up. Like, this has not been. I've never, ever connected with a bank. Nobody's given me a handout. I'm not Donald Trump. Fred didn't give me 10 million or 100. I. I didn't have any credit. I didn't have any connections. I mean, I did have some things going for me. Yeah, I'm white and I'm a male. But after that, bro, like I had, I ruined my reputation because of those 10 years of drugs. I lived in a small town, a refinery town. You either worked with the unions or you didn't really have opportunity there, there. I didn't have any natural gifts. I was terrible in school. But I had one thing. I had this disgust for myself because I knew God wanted more for me than I. Than I. Than I was delivering in the marketplace. And so at 25 years old, I just decided, I am not going to live like this. I have to become something. And I quit looking for vehicles to get in that made me look better. I don't know if that makes sense to you. I quit looking for shoes to make me look better or a suit to make me look better or a job to make me look better. I said, I'm going to take what I have, and I'm going to look better. And I happen to be selling cars. At the time, I had an accounting degree. Five years getting an accounting degree, and that I was proud of. And if you're. If you have an accounting degree, selling cars is a step down. Like, six steps down.
- [22:29]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Right.
- [22:30]
Grant Cardone
Even my family said, what are you doing selling cars, dude? You got a degree in accounting. And school was very easy for me. I wasn't good at school, but it was always very easy for me. And. And I was in the wrong town. I cannot tell people this enough. I was in the wrong location. If I would have been born in New York City, I would be worth $50 billion today. Be worth 50, 40, or 50 times what I'm worth today. I was born in the wrong location. Okay. Because there's only so much opportunity there. Like, if I was. If I was born in the Gaza Strip in 2025, you know.
- [23:09]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Yeah.
- [23:10]
Grant Cardone
Be stuck in the Gaza Strip, it wouldn't matter how much potential I have. So you guys have to get. You have to get in the right place. You got to be in the right place where things are happening, where there's money and movement and possibility and potential. And you need to be with the right people, because if you're not with the right people, levels up. Will not hate on you.
- [23:29]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Nope.
- [23:30]
Grant Cardone
Sideways and down.
- [23:31]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Will hate on you all the time.
- [23:33]
Grant Cardone
And your mom. Let me tell you, the first level of resistance is your family. The ones you love the most will hold you back the most. They will, bro. They don't even know they're holding you back.
- [23:45]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Yeah.
- [23:46]
Grant Cardone
Okay. They don't want you to do better. They want you to stay the way they are. What they are. The way you were. I'm a. I'm a father of two kids. They're. My two daughters are 13 and 16 right now. And I find myself not wanting them to grow up because I'm selfish. I'm a selfish dad. Right. I, like. I want those times back when they. You know. But, bro, like, I know I got to let them go, and I got to let them grow. And I. You know, the best thing I can do as a parent. As a parent is give them the example of never ever being satisfied. And that means leave where you are and know that you're going to leave a bunch of people behind and probably most of them. Last part of this, Mickey. I'll tell You. Because you got me talking now. A friend of mine named Dale Christensen, he was 52 years old. I was at the time. I GUESS I was 35. He was 52 at the time. Maybe I was 42 years old. And he was 52. He's 10 years older than me. He had $52 to his name, and he was 52 years old. And he was a therapist. And the guy had helped me a bunch. He'd helped me come out of the drug problem and everything. We. We lived in La Jolla, California. He was going through a divorce. He literally had $52, and he's 52 years old. And I just started buying real estate, and I bought two deals, and the guy Rudy. Rudy Medina, that I'd given a chance to buy some real estate with, quit calling me quit because he thought I'd bought two deals. He thought I was done now. $5 billion worth of real estate today. So he thought I was done after, like, $4 million. He quit on me. He didn't quit, but he just kind of checked out and started looking for other opportunities, what I call vehicles. I hung up the phone with Rudy. I said, dude, I told you, I'm a. Blow this thing up, keep finding deals. I hung up. I was pissed off. I. And Dale's sitting across the desk from me because he always hung out with me. And he says, if I do for you what Rudy used to do for you, can I get a deal? Now? Dale didn't know anything about real estate. He was good with a hammer. He's good with plumbing. You got to be, because you don't have any money. If you don't have any money, you got to learn how to fix your own stuff, right? And I said. I said, dale, do the same thing for me that Rudy did. I'll give you 25% of the company. I'll buy it. I need a 12% return. I'll give you 25% above that. He made $11 million in 11 years. Okay.
- [26:17]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Wow.
- [26:18]
Grant Cardone
No, in under 10 years.
- [26:20]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Wow.
- [26:20]
Grant Cardone
Today. Today. Now. Now. What he did. I hope Dale sees this. What he did after he did that for 10 years with me, he started doing his own deals after I helped him.
- [26:29]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Hey, he called me up.
- [26:32]
Grant Cardone
I'm doing a deal. I'm closing on a deal. I'm like, why am I not involved in it? He's like, I want to do this one by myself. I'm like, okay. And that was the last deal we did. So I went on and grew, but he. He ended up getting what he wanted. We're still friends today. But the point is, when I called him yesterday, because I always want to stay in touch with people that I've left, he picked up the phone. He says now he's watched my whole run for 40 years now, okay? He's seen it all. Way more than you've seen. He's seen all the suffering, the struggles. And he said to him, he's like, you're feeling pretty good about yourself right now, aren't you? Because he watched the growth, you know?
- [27:10]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Right. I love it, brother. I love it. So I want to hit this topic because I'm going to tell you how you changed my life now. And I've never told you this. I'm going to tell you now. And it was a simple mindset shift for me. You said, everybody in the world talks to you about saving money. You can't save it unless you make it. And then when you make it, you don't need to be saving. You need to be investing.
- [27:38]
Grant Cardone
Yeah.
- [27:38]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
And I sat there and I said, that's all I needed to hear.
- [27:43]
Grant Cardone
Yeah.
- [27:43]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Go freaking make money.
- [27:45]
Grant Cardone
Yeah.
- [27:46]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Talk to us about that mindset.
- [27:48]
Grant Cardone
Let's tweak it a little bit.
- [27:49]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
All right.
- [27:50]
Grant Cardone
This is huge, man.
- [27:52]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Yeah.
- [27:53]
Grant Cardone
You don't need to make money. You need to get money.
- [27:58]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Okay?
- [27:59]
Grant Cardone
Now, a lot of people are going out there believing they need to make money. If you keep saying you got to make money. First of all, it's against the law to make money.
- [28:05]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Well, okay.
- [28:06]
Grant Cardone
It's called counterfeiting, okay? And this is. This is so important. I've made billions of dollars when I dropped this. Yeah. I finally understood. I did not need to do anything except collect money. I need to be seen. I need to get in front of it. I need to get with it. But I don't need to, like, make it right. I need to show up. I need to be in the cycle. Now, the first thing that's going to do for everybody is like, that ain't. That's not at your house. There is no money at your house. I have never, ever made money for my home. I'm in my house today. But. And we're set up like an office here, and I got a couple offices down the street. But you understand my point. Like, you're not going to walk home one night and $10 million is going to jump out of the kitchen.
- [28:54]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
He's not going to be waiting for you, right?
- [28:55]
Grant Cardone
No, it's just not so. So you. But you don't. And you don't have to make it right if I asked you to give me a hundred dollars, right? Now you'd give it to me. If I could do that a thousand times, I. You know, and I could repeat that activity. The panhandler, he doesn't make money. He just goes out and says, hey, give me money, right? So. So one, you don't make it. There's so many things we don't understand about money that complicates the whole thing. You don't make it, and you certainly cannot save it. It's impossible. The banks. If I was President of the United States, I would remove that term. My first day in office, I would put on every dollar bill, this is impossible to save.
- [29:30]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Yep.
- [29:31]
Grant Cardone
So quit trying to do it. When you guys leave money at bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, whatever, the bank you're leaving your money at, bro, they ain't keeping it there. They're calling me. They're giving it to guys like me. Now, I didn't know this when I grew up, okay? My financial indoctrination came from a woman that had no financial literacy. So my dad died, he left some money. I don't know, maybe 100 grand or something. We still don't know what it is today. Because my mom would never talk about money, ever. Don't talk about money, don't talk about religion, don't talk about politics, okay? If you don't talk about those three things, you cannot ever improve the quality of your life. You have to talk about money, you got to talk about politics. And if you have a religion, you ought to freaking tell people about it because why are you hiding, right? So is it going to offend somebody? Maybe they're not going to do business with you. If your religion offends them, they won't go do business with you anyway. So. So my mom was like, we gotta save the money, save the money, save the money, save the money, save the money. That's a defensive act.
- [30:39]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Yeah.
- [30:39]
Grant Cardone
Okay? I'm trying to prevent myself from getting something. You can't do both at the same time. So now me, this is where me and Dave Ramsey, like, kind of buck, you know, boom. Like, what do you mean, don't save money? You know, because you can't. In my lifetime 100 bill, if I had a 1958, if somebody had given me a hundred dollars and I put it aside and pulled it out today, it would say 1958 on it and it'd be Ben Franklin on the front of it. It's worth nine bucks. I can't save it. I'm Losing money, it is impossible. You can only spend it, waste it, or invest it. That's it. The first two don't work, okay? So for 40 years, when I get $100, I take $20 and live off of it. And 80% of it, I invest. If people could figure out how to do that, literally for every thousand dollars, 800 gets invested and I live off of 200 bucks, the 800 is going to create passive income for me. So it starts replacing my earned income, what people call making money. It's going to replace my earned income. So now, at some point, three or four years into this, I'm going to have earned income and passive income. I'll have both of them working. But I'm always broke. I literally have no money on me today. So if I wanted something today and I wanted to go out and buy something, I'd either have to figure out how to get the. The person selling it to me to give me terms, or I have to get you, Mickey, and your audience to help raise money to get it. So don't save money. Don't even try to, because you can't.
- [32:17]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
I got you.
- [32:22]
Grant Cardone
And if you, if you don't have any money, what you're going to be doing all the time is earning money.
- [32:27]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Yeah, yeah, that's it. That's it, man. And you also taught me the difference between credit and good credit, right? Like, you have this philosophy that if you put something on a credit card, you're not paying any interest, right? Like, you are literally paying it off within the. The first due date, 30 days. Talk to people about why that's so important.
- [32:57]
Grant Cardone
Well, because, I mean, I'm not, I'm not. You know, first of all, I'm gonna back up a second. You know, I am never going to improve the quality of my life or living standards from earned income ever. Like, if, if, if people could. Would figure out how to do this. I only improve the quality of my life through passive income. So if I get passive income, I can spend it on anything I want to. I can be as dumb as I want. If I earn income, If I earn $10,000, okay, I will not spend it on anything or anyone. No one gets that 10 grand. I earned it from Bob, by the way. That's other people's money. Earning is other people's money. So you guys are like, I don't like debt. All money is debt.
- [33:46]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
All of it?
- [33:47]
Grant Cardone
Yes, it's all debt. Every penny you have. You guys are being silly. Like, I'm not going to have any debt. I'M going to pay my house off. You live in a country that's $36 trillion of debt. There's another couple hundred trillion dollars of debt nationwide, okay? You, if you're the only, you're going to be the only one with anything paid off because everybody else has it, okay? Now, I do not have debt on consumption items. I will never owe a penny to a bank or a credit card for something I'm merely consuming or living off of. I'm in this house today. It's paid for in cash. All my other real estate has debt on it. So if I get $10,000 in, I'm going to take 8,000 and I'm going to go buy something that's an investment that has passive income. And so the $8,000, let's say pays me 48 bucks this month. That's the only thing I, I'm going to go earn money. I'm going to go earn 10 grand again. And I got $48 coming in, passive. Only thing I can spend that month is $48. And you're like, I can't, I can't pay my rent with $48. Guess what? You're going to have to hustle more tens. You're going to have to work to get more 10 thousands to make more 8,000, $8,000 investments to get whatever the 400. It'd probably be like $400 a month coming in. I do that twice. I got $800 coming in. I do it three times. I got 2,400 bucks coming in. I'll pay my rent like that. But I'm not going to improve the quality of my life from earned income. I'm going to improve the quality of my life only from my investments. And if you do that, you'll never spend your earned income. All of it turns into an investment. The investment income. If you do the right things and buy the right kind of investment that have passive income and tax write offs, you'll reduce your tax bill and you'll start creating passive income that can live, that can take care of your living while you're alive and can take care of those you love when you're not.
- [35:40]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Amen, brother.
- [35:41]
Grant Cardone
I don't know if that was too much too quick, but nope, that was, that is, that is, that is my little hack. That is my little hack. By the way, it is financial advice. I know a lot of these financial planners will not. They want to be your advisor, but then they say, this is not financial advice. What I just gave everybody is a billion Dollars of financial advice given to.
- [36:04]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
You by Uncle G. Uncle G himself. These are the conversations that you want to be having. This is the mindset that you need. If you are trying to do the 10x life grant, man. I want to end it with this. For the entrepreneur that's listening and watching and. And I'm gonna. I'm gonna shout out one of my clients, Tom Larson, insurance agent in upstate New York, if he's trying to scale his business today. Right. What's one piece of advice that Tom Larson, the insurance agent, needs to know so that he can start to scale?
- [36:41]
Grant Cardone
Go buy. Go buy. 10 of you. Go buy 10. Tom Larson's easiest way to scale your business is to buy it. That's the easiest way everybody should be thinking about. You got a laundromat. Go buy 10 of your laundromats. There's 32 million small businesses in America, and most of them don't even want to be in business. The kids don't want to run the businesses. They're broken, they're tired, they're branded. They're already set up. They're in place. You can literally buy these companies for no money. I bought a company three and a half years ago called Streamline from a guy named Gary Brecker. You might have seen it. It was called 10X Health System. Now, Damon's. Damon's actually going to do something similar to this, I think, but. Or trying to. And we took that company. We paid Gary out of future earnings and took over a majority of the company, and now we have it all. But that company will do, I don't know, $14 million this year, this month. And we. We. We didn't. I didn't start a company. I. I would tell all you guys, quit trying to start stuff from scratch, man. Go get in something that's already moving.
- [37:55]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
I tell people that all the time.
- [37:56]
Grant Cardone
Like, I don't. Yeah, I'm like, it's all around you, by the way. It's everywhere. If you look for it, you can see it. But if you don't look for it, you won't see it.
- [38:07]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Yeah. Yeah.
- [38:09]
Grant Cardone
Look for opportunities that are easier, faster.
- [38:13]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
And all the hard. The early stage hard work is already done. I'm not going to say all the hard work is done, but the early stage hard work and the. The customer acquisition has already been figured out that you can go and enhance branding and marketing. Probably you can go in and enhance. But the early stage hard work is already done.
- [38:31]
Grant Cardone
You're not. Yeah, you're fixing stuff, not starting stuff. You know, and by the way, the hard thing, if you guys are trying to avoid hard, you're on the wrong planet, Right? Gravity. Gravity's a. You know, like. Yeah, wait till you get older and see what that does to you. Hard is hard.
- [38:49]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Yeah.
- [38:49]
Grant Cardone
Okay. It's hard. It's all hard. It's hard if you got a billion dollars, and it's hard if you broke. I've been both of them. I've done both of these. And I'm just telling you, it's better to have hard at a billion dollars than it is hard at no money.
- [39:02]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Well, Uncle G, man, I appreciate you so much. I'm gonna put links to all your websites. Everybody know who knows who Grant Cardone is. I don't have to say, where can they find you and follow you? They already know who you are. But I'm gonna put links to your website, to your books, to. To your courses. Everything that you're doing, I'm going to make sure we have in the show notes and descriptions, but any final words you want to give anyone, the audience, viewers, listeners, anything you can do, anything.
- [39:31]
Grant Cardone
You want to do. You can't do everything. You can do anything, but you cannot do everything. And, you know, I. I write my goals still today. I write my goals in the morning. I write them down at night. I write them down when I'm disappointed. Right, Right. I had a. Had a meeting this morning. Was very disappointing. And after the meeting, I'm like, okay, don't worry about that. Meaning, where are you going? Where are you going? Get back to your goals. Where's that rear. That. That. That. That windshield in front of you? What's. What's the destination? What's the target? If you can stay focused on the target and get other people around you or at least study other people that have achieved bigger targets. Don't listen to the people in the back seat, bro. They sitting back there for a reason.
- [40:15]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
There it is. I love it. I love it. Uncle G, I know you're busy, man. I'm just blessed that you took a few moments out of your hectic schedule to spend with me. I know you probably headed off flying somewhere. I love you from the bottom of my soul. Thank you for everything that you have done for me and that you mean to me. I love you, brother.
- [40:33]
Grant Cardone
Appreciate you, Mike. Thanks a lot, man. Thanks for having me.
- [40:36]
Mickey (Podcast Host/Interviewer)
And for all the viewers and listeners, remember your. Because is your superpower. Go unleash it.
- [40:45]
Podcast Host (Mick Unplugged Intro/Outro)
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Mick Unplugged. If today hits you hard, then imagine what's next. Be sure to subscribe, rate and share this with someone who needs it. And most of all, make a plan and take action because the next level is already waiting for you. Have a question or insight to share? Send us an email to hello icunplugged.com until next time, ask yourself how you can step up up.