Loading summary
Transcript117 lines
- [00:01]
Host
At 26 years old, Steve Weiss was homeless in LA, sleeping in his car in a 24 Hour Fitness parking lot. He had $200 to his name. Six years later, he sold his company for over $100 million. The day the money hit his account, he was standing at the holiest place on earth and got an unexpected and tragic phone call. He says the exit gave him one less thing to worry about, but I asked if it made him happy. There's a ton of podcasts out there and resources that teach you how to be wealthy and how to make money. But there aren't that many resources that try to teach you how to handle the life changes that wealth brings. This podcast is brought to you by Hampton, a private, highly vetted community for
- [00:37]
Dan
CEOs, business owners, those types of people.
- [00:39]
Host
Most of the people do on average around 25 million a year in revenue. And so I'm able to see tons of conversations about wealth, how to handle all the changes that come with it, how to spend, how to have all these types of conversations that typically just
- [00:50]
Dan
aren't happening in public.
- [00:52]
Host
And by the way, if you're a CEO of a company or you own
- [00:55]
Dan
a business that does at least $2
- [00:56]
Host
million in revenue, you check out this community@joinhampton.com in this podcast, Money Wise, we talk about real numbers and real people who are doing things that typically are
- [01:06]
Dan
only spoken about behind closed doors.
- [01:08]
Host
The people who come on, they're going to be radically transparent about their numbers. Sometimes they're anonymous, sometimes they're not. In today's episode, we're going to talk about whether or not a $100 million exit makes you happy. In today's episode of Moneywise is Steve Weiss. Welcome back to another episode of Money Wise.
- [01:23]
Dan
Thanks for joining us today. Steve Weiss, we have as a guest on the show. Thanks again, Steve, for joining us. Sounds like just got done with a workout today. How you feeling?
- [01:31]
Steve Weiss
Feel great. Dropped my kids off at school when did a quick workout and now I get to hang out with you, Dan. Let's do it.
- [01:37]
Dan
And it was chest day, which is always nice. I know there's a, there's a whole, a whole group of people that avoid leg day like it's like it's the plague. But I'm actually one of those people that goes to the gym for leg day because I'm a long distance runner. So you have to. I'm the opposite of most people. You got it. You got to force me into a chest day. But I know I'm the weird one in that sense.
- [01:56]
Steve Weiss
I love the leg. I did leg day two days ago. We did a little backwards dumbbell lunge, which is pretty co. We did some deadlifts.
- [02:02]
Dan
Nice.
- [02:03]
Steve Weiss
I love. I'm with you, man. But as, as you get older, in my opinion, it gets more and more important to do weight training. I think that weight training is the way you retain balance, the way you, you know, make sure you're, you're, you're working optimal recovery. I mean, I, I just feel like it's the greatest thing you could do 100%.
- [02:19]
Dan
Well, I appreciate you joining the show today. I'd love to open up just with your exit. Mute 6 is a company. I'd love for you to tell us more about what mute6 was and kind of walk us through the build of the company and then ultimately be the exit back in 2019.
- [02:33]
Steve Weiss
So one thing to know about me is I'm a veteran of natural disasters. I know that sounds like. What do you mean by that, Steve? Well, a lot of like the events of my life is based around natural disasters. Sadly, I was in Hurricane Sandy. My stepdad was one of the 11 people who died in the storm. He was my hero as a, as a guy who grew up in Jersey, grew up in a lower middle class part of Jersey. My biological dad, he kind of was out at a young age. And my stepdad, who lived an hour away, was kind of like my hero, the guy that, I consider that the main male role model. And so after he, after Sandy, I moved to LA to pursue comedy and acting. So at one point, if you believe this, I thought I was a funny enough guy to make it on stage and compete with all the other funny guys. The Shane Gillis's is a word.
- [03:18]
Dan
I believe it.
- [03:19]
Steve Weiss
I believe it. I thought I was funny. Go, go figure. You know, my wife would strongly disagree with that statement.
- [03:26]
Dan
Someone's got to keep you grounded. As long as someone thought you were funny, you were a comedian.
- [03:30]
Steve Weiss
Fast forward to 2012. Sandy happens. November of 2012, December of 2012 to I guess January of 2013. I made the decision to move to LA. I didn't know anyone in LA, you know, I just knew the weather was nice and I knew they had really good burritos. And you know, west coast hip hop, I had a lot of respect for. I know I had O' Shea Jackson on my podcast, O' Shea Jackson Jr. On my podcast. So lots of respect for west coast hip hop and west coast basketball, but moved to la chasing a dream, man. I stayed on my buddy's couch. My buddy Sean. Sean. I'll give a big shout out. Sean Singh. He. He let me crash on his couch. And, you know, he was doing what he was doing. He was selling drugs out of his house. And one day, you know, I'm staying on. I think the second week I'm staying on his couch, his house gets raided. And I have 200 to my name. And after his house gets raided, I'm homeless. So I know I'm just another one of those California homeless guys that Spencer Pride is talking shit about. You know, the zombie. I was a hopeless zombie. You know, go figure, right?
- [04:26]
Dan
Were you not caught in the crossfire of the raid? How did you get out of that?
- [04:30]
Steve Weiss
So I went to go get a. I went to go to In N Out Burger. It's. It was in North Hollywood. And I walked in, it was just great timing. I was like, I left my book.
- [04:37]
Dan
Yeah, perfect time for a burger and fries, I assume.
- [04:43]
Steve Weiss
When I came to la, I just rolled out with my book bag. I had like two pairs of underwear, two pairs of shorts, two pair, two shirts. I was like, I was 26 years old and, you know, I wanted to make it, you know, I had a deep desire. So I went up to the. To the place and I went, asked the cop, I was like, listen, like, I'm not a party to this, but I left my book bag here. And then he opens up my book bag and sees that there's no drugs in there, lets me take my book bag, and then I leave. And then from there, you know, it was whirlwind of like homeless, you know, my mom, I was staying in like youth hostels for like $13 a day. Then my mom sent my car out here, which was great because then I was sleeping in my car and I was like, putting. Parking my car in 24 hour fitness and waking up taking a shower felt very normal to me. And then I found out, you know, I started trying to get people to my comedy shows. So my mission was just get people to comedy shows. I started. I didn't know anyone, so I started running ads on Facebook to get people to my comedy shows. And that's how. That's how the idea of Mute six started, was just, you know, use Facebook ads as a tool to drive demand for products.
- [05:47]
Dan
What a wild time. And you were one of the first, like, productized Facebook ad agencies, right?
- [05:52]
Steve Weiss
Yeah, we. So, like, I'll give you a little bit deeper background. I was building these fake fan pages, like the Dane Cook official fan page, totally before verification. Now if any of these people Listen to it. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that. But, you know, I need to get people to my comedy show, Dane Cook or Chris Rock or anyone's listening to this podcast. I'm really sorry to use your name, image, and likeness, but at the time, I was hungry. I needed to get people to comedy shows, and that was what I needed to do. So I built all these fake fan pages. I started running ads on Facebook saying, chris is performing at this comedy club. Use my name at the door. And that's how I started having success with Facebook ads. I would geofence locations, and it was crazy. I'd fill up comedy shows on 2030 ad budgets. And at one of the shows, someone was like, hey, Steve, can you, can you run ads for my company too? I do e commerce. And I was like, sure, I'd be happy to. And that's how Mute6 started. One client would refer another client, and that's, that's where it all became. And we, we were the first, I'd say, like, our key differentiator in the market was a. I, I come from a call center background. So I, I, I used to build, like, sales, you know, sales machines. So I looked at what we were doing. I was like, we need to build a sales machine. So that was, it was a method. It was a mentality thing, I think, of, like, how do we scale this thing fast? And then two, performance. Creative. Like, we, our, our go to market was that we believe that there shouldn't be a creative agency, and the creative and the performance are the same group of people. So, like, the person doing your creative should understand performance. And that was like a call 2016. That was like a new methodology of like, whoa, whoa. That's amazing. So, so the light bulb turns on electricity. They were like, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's how it works. That's how it works, you know? Yeah.
- [07:39]
Dan
Wow. So 2013, you're running Facebook ads for how many clients in that first year?
- [07:46]
Steve Weiss
Maybe four. Four or five.
- [07:48]
Dan
And then 14 at 10x or. What were you at the end of 14?
- [07:52]
Steve Weiss
I met my partner in 2014. I think we definitely 10x the business. It was probably. I probably made, you know, the first year. I'll go on a limb. I probably made $250,000 in profit just from hustling. And then I think we, we probably made probably a million dollars or so or in 2014, our first year together.
- [08:12]
Dan
So then 15, 16, 17. Walk me through how it continued to scale up until the acquisition in 2019.
- [08:19]
Steve Weiss
Every year we grew probably, I want to say 50 to 100%, except like 2018 and 2019, which was a bit of a dud. But every year we grew the business. I mean, we kept adding more services. So we started doing retail media, Amazon, Walmart. We started doing large scale video creative, we started doing CRM, email, text message, we started doing Google. So like what we started seeing was not only were we selling more and getting into bigger, you know, RFPs for getting into bigger deals, but we also saw that our revenue per customer was going up significantly. So when I first started, our revenue per customer was seven or $8,000 to a point where at peak we peaked out right before we sold, we were probably at like, you know, 13 or $14,000 revenue per customer. So we were doubling the revenue per customer. You know, we're doing great work across the board and just kept adding team members. I remember like we, we would only be able to grow as fast as we could hire. So because there was so much work, there was so much demand for people, you know, for this specific skill set. So as we kept adding more and more team members, you know, we, we kept selling more and more. So to a point where, you know, we're doing, you know, you know, seven, $8 million in EBITDA, you know, when we sold, we were probably in that ballpark of seven or eight or nine million dollars. I don't remember the exact number, but that's where we sold at.
- [09:40]
Dan
Real quick.
- [09:40]
Host
Today's episode is sponsored by Ocean's Talent. If you're trying to hire a great EA or Ops person, right now you're looking at 80 to $100,000, sometimes more. And I know a lot of founders have tried to go the remote route
- [09:52]
Dan
before and gotten burned.
- [09:53]
Host
Sometimes they get ghosted, the work sloppy, you end up redoing everything yourself. I've heard the stories before and I've even personally lived them. Ocean's talent is completely different. They pre vet every single candidate with thorough skills assessments. So whoever they match you with is ready to go on day one. And it's not just EAs. They do marketing, ops, finance, HR, sales, even AI workflows. I've hired people personally through Ocean's Talent and I'm blown away by the quality
- [10:21]
Dan
of work they produce.
- [10:22]
Host
Sam Parr has his personal assistant through Ocean's and he describes her like she runs my life. I couldn't live without her. I have total trust in her and I don't trust anyone. That's the bar they set. So if you're a founder Drowning in stuff a great hire should be handling. Check out Ocean's talent@OceanStalent.com forward/moneywise. That's OceanStalent.com moneywise.
- [10:49]
Dan
Okay. And so you sold for 100 million. Is that accurate?
- [10:52]
Steve Weiss
Yeah, I'd say deal value was, was a little north of that. Yeah, we sold in 2028, 2019, end of 2019, to be exact. I think our deal closed September of 2019. And then, you know, we were really excited to like, collaborate closely with Dentsu in Japan. And then they told us they were sending a contingent of, you know, Japanese ninjas to come visit us. The ninjas were supposed to land and I'm just joking, not ninjas. I was like, wait a second, this
- [11:20]
Dan
is a crazy story.
- [11:21]
Steve Weiss
I didn't expect that. No, no, no, I'm just, I'm joking. No, they were going to send a contingent of, of, of their team from Japan who we were like, really excited to work with. They're, they're great guys. And then Covid hit right after that. So everything that we were going to do with Dentsu kind of like went, went out the door because Covid hit and you know, we had to shut our offices, obviously. We had to. You know what they call that shelter in place, I guess you call it in California. We had a shelter in place and we had to put our masks on. And it was, it was very like difficult to go through an earnout when, you know, you know, we was. What was the.
- [11:57]
Dan
I was going to ask about the earnout. What was the structure of that? You, you sold for? Let's call it a hundred million dollars. How much did you personally make from that acquisition?
- [12:05]
Steve Weiss
And I'll just say I made north. North of. I just say at the end of the day I made north of 50. I don't want to go into exact, exact details of $in, $out, but I'd say it's, it's north of, north of 50 and south of 70. So somewhere in that ballpark.
- [12:22]
Dan
Okay, so somewhere between 50 and 70 is post tax or pre tax.
- [12:26]
Steve Weiss
That is, that's probably. I don't want, I don't, I don't, I don't want to say like wrong information. Just somewhere in that ballpark.
- [12:32]
Dan
That's okay. Yeah, somewhere in that ballpark. And that hit your account all at once or was there an earn out period?
- [12:36]
Steve Weiss
There was an earn out period, but yeah, a lot of it hit on the front end and some of it hit on the back end. But yeah, it was a lot of money. That Just came in really fast. And I'll never forget when it.
- [12:46]
Dan
75% of that came in?
- [12:48]
Steve Weiss
Yeah, about 75% of it, yeah.
- [12:51]
Dan
What'd that feel like? I mean, when. When that hit your account, what were the emotions you felt?
- [12:55]
Steve Weiss
So I'll tell you. I'll tell you a story. I just have the craziest stories sometimes in my life, but this is probably going to blow a lot of people's mind when the money hit. I'm sitting in the Western Wall in Israel, the holiest place on earth, seeing everyone pray. And, you know, the lawyers say the deal is done because we were. We were trying to get this deal done for six months. It was just. It was really difficult, very stressful, you know, sleepless nights. Just a lot of details, whatever. Right. You know, they're a big public, you know, they had to hammer out some stuff on their side. We hammer out some stuff on our side. So, anyway, the deal gets done, and then I get a call from a friend of mine, you know, while I'm basking in the glory of looking at my bank account and be like, holy shit, I've never seen that many zeros in one place. Like, that's a lot of zeros. Like, I'm used to seeing just zeros, but now I'm seeing.
- [13:45]
Dan
Yeah, like a single zero.
- [13:47]
Steve Weiss
Yeah, a bunch of zeros with. With a. With a subtraction side, you know, next to the. You know, so, yeah, numbers everywhere. Yeah, sure. And so any. I get a call from one of my buddies saying that one of my best friends in la, you know, a guy that, like, had another agency, but he was always, like, our biggest supporter. And he was just like, a great dude. Like, just like someone that, like, if he called me up, he's like, steve, I need something, I would jump at it. And he. He was just like one of my close friends in LA that I really loved and appreciated. I was at his wedding. He hung himself and killed himself, like, you know, the day. Same time that we. We sold our business. So it was a very, like, sorry, man. Difficulty, you know, it was kind of like, yay, we sold. And you're like, oh, no, the D killed himself. And, like, it was just really. I had such a mixture of emotions that night. Like, I was like, is this, like. Is this like, what the. What, like, we all try to be in life is just be successful and, like, it's going to solve all of our problems and all of our pains. And I just came to a realization that, like, I don't feel much better. After the money hit, I feel great that the deal was done and the money hit, but I, I, I just felt really sad for like Danilo's wife and Danilo's like, whole family. And like he was just the most amazing guy that you would meet. Like he, you know, yeah, he, he was a little bit flashy, but he also, he cared about his friends. He's one of the best people that I've ever met. And like, just to see him out of nowhere just commit suicide was just really sad. It was just, it broke my heart. So like the same time that happened and, and now, you know, we're, you know, in the pantheon of like, we sold a big agency. How many, how many hundred plus million dollar agencies are there? There's probably five that you can name six. So we're in the hall of fame of marketing agencies. But that, that really didn't change my life. I don't have a big ego, I don't like material. I, I, dude, I was like considering not coming on this podcast because I, I, I don't like talking about money. It just makes me really nervous. And I, the reason why I'm here is just to send a message to people and say that money doesn't cure all your, all your sin. Like it doesn't cure, it doesn't create happiness like you think it does.
- [15:52]
Dan
I appreciate you sharing that. I'm sorry about your friend. That's, that's a terrible story. I wanted to double click on something you mentioned and it's actually from a LinkedIn post you wrote. And I'll quote the part of the post you said it was almost impossible in Post Exit Life to replicate the purpose and meaning you got from Mute six. And now let's say seven years in from that Post Exit Life, do you still feel that, that sense of, or lack thereof of purpose? Are you looking to be filled the same way you were with Mute six or have you figured out kind of what that looks like now in Post Exit Life?
- [16:27]
Steve Weiss
I think the purpose comes from different places. I think that I got a lot of purpose out of training, mentoring and helping others while I was at Mute six. You know, whether it was clients that we're having a big impact with, employees who, like, I just loved and enjoyed working with. That was the purpose. Now I think my purpose in life is just raising my two daughters and seeing them grow up and being there for them and trying to be the best version of myself to them every day. Trying to be the best dad, the best husband, the best, the best version of Me to them. So I think the purpose, you know, when I wrote that post, it was trying to find purpose in business. And now the reality is, is that you don't need to find purpose in business. I, I don't believe that like the word passion, business is, oh, I'm passionate about it. No, you got to be passionate about life. Because if you're just passionate about business, then you're gonna, you might lose your business and you're gonna lose everything. Or you might sell your business and you, you sell everything. So I think where I'm at now is like, I'm just passionate about life, about, about living and all this stuff that we're doing and business is integrated into that passion. Like I'm passionate about what I do, but it's not just, it's not just like, hey, I just passionate about business. Does that make sense?
- [17:42]
Dan
It does make sense. Yeah. And you mentioned you're not super into materials. So now with being passionate about life, you have a family. What are you spending your money on?
- [17:51]
Steve Weiss
So when you say spending money, do you mean investing or you mean like just like.
- [17:55]
Dan
Yeah, let's start with personal. Yeah, personal spending. Just, you know, when you buy stuff, what are you buying and why? But then we'll move to investments as well.
- [18:03]
Steve Weiss
So a lot of our monthly budget is probably food.
- [18:07]
Dan
Nice.
- [18:08]
Steve Weiss
We have, we have in and out exclusively. Yeah, no, we get, you know, erewhon eats up most of our monthly budget. So like a lot of our budget is erewhon. A lot of our budget is, you know, we have a chef. A lot of things like big believer in like what you put in your body is. Your body's your temple. You should only put stuff in your body that, that you, you know, that, that you believe is great for your body. So we, we invest a lot. Like a lot of our month call. We have a monthly p L that I look at like religiously just because I want to know where, where the money goes. But yep, a lot of our money is food. A lot of our money.
- [18:43]
Dan
The chef, is that a live in chef or do they come? No, make all the food.
- [18:47]
Steve Weiss
He comes like three or four days a week and he'll prepare stuff and then we'll, we'll eat. You know, we don't do leftover. I'm not a big leftover guy. So like he'll just come three or four days a week. And I also have a wife that's way more functioning than I am, so she cooks a lot and nice. So. But we use a lot of really Good ingredients. So that's, that's one thing we're not. Travel is also. Travel and experiences are also really important to us. Non profit is important to us. I donate. You know my wife has a non profit which helps mobile spay and neuter for cats in, in la Cats and dogs. So a lot of our, a lot of our money goes to the non profit. I mean I'm the biggest donor. So you know, every month.
- [19:29]
Dan
How much do you give?
- [19:30]
Steve Weiss
I think I'm probably a little bit north of a hundred thousand. North of north. I'll just say north of 100 a year in, in non profit I think. And so it's a great cause. Yeah. And so a lot of it goes to that of just. And like I just love like how passionate my wife is about it and you know it's easy for like I guess a significant other to see your husband have some success and just do nothing all day and just spend money. But she, instead of buying a Birkin bag or you know, something nice, she's like no, just give, give me more money for the spend for the cats and the dogs. Give me more money for the non profit. So it's really impactful for that. Yeah. So I guess what else do we spend money on? So it's that we, we, we invest a lot in our house. We have a lot of help to make our life easier with kids. You know, we, we definitely have nannies, we definitely have cleaning people. That's a big line item on the, on the P L And we have a lot of real estate. So like I bought when rates were really low, I bought a place place. I have a condo in New York City. I have invested, you know, in different areas of the country. Utah, you know, I have a couple places in la. I have some land. So a lot of, a lot of our piano also is like insurance. You have the best insurance. I'm a big believer in investing in insurance. I know that sounds crazy but as a Palisades resident the, the insurance invest. Investing in a great insurance company that was a good investment because we, we, we were taken care of.
- [20:55]
Dan
And tell me, tell me more about that. Why, why? It's, it's I guess somewhat contrary to be a big insurance investor. I mean how did you come to that decision and that belief?
- [21:04]
Steve Weiss
Because I'm paranoid.
- [21:05]
Interjecting Speaker
Real quick pause. Because this is important. If you're running a company, you already understand leverage. You apply it everywhere in your business. Most founders, they treat health like it's a rounding air, inconsistent training, reactive eating, good weeks, bad Weeks start, stop, repeat. That was me. I didn't need motivation because I had plenty of that. What I needed was structure. I needed systems, better energy, lower body fat, more muscle, something that actually stuck and not some 12 week sprint that I would abandon when things got busy. And so I hired a coach and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. Training built around my schedule. Nutrition that survives travel, clear targets, clear metrics, daily accountability, no guesswork. And so today's sponsor is brought to you by Daily Body Coach. They are premium online coaching for entrepreneurs and executives who want their body keeping up with their business. It's run by an exited software founder who's already a Hampton member. And yes, a bunch of Hampton members already use it. Everything's personalized. They're coaches, they're available seven days a week. And the habits they help you build survive. Board meetings, late nights and back to back travel weeks. This isn't about looking good on the beach. It's about being strong and sharp in your 40s, 50s and 60s. So if you're serious about it, go to dailybodycoach.com Hampton like dailybodycoach.com Hampton okay,
- [22:19]
Steve Weiss
I come, I come from about what? Well, I come, I come from the world of natural disaster. So like, yeah, I've seen 911 with my own eyes. My best friend's dad died in 911. My, my other friend's dad also died in 9 11. So my stepdad died in Hurricane Sandy. And then I was involved, deeply, deeply involved in the Palisades fire. Our whole neighborhood burned down pretty much. And so like I am extreme levels of paranoia around, you know, you know, and I was still dealing with PTSD from the Palisades fire. Still not 100 my myself. But yeah, I'm still, you know, it's just a big line because I think like there's such unpredictability around everything related to like, you know, I have a lot of health insurance. I have a lot of, you know, life insurance. You know, if I'm giving advice to like new founders, make that investment insurance. Because you never know. You know, the unpredictable can come out and I've seen it in my own eyes. And so that's a big line item. We also invest a lot in health. Health. And well, you know, we have a, you know, I have a functional wellness doctor that I, I see like a lot of our line items also in our, our P and L are also around health. So you look at health, you look at insurance, real estate, nonprofit and food. Those, I guess it's Grouping together of like, that's where the P and L really sits. And what does that.
- [23:44]
Dan
What does that P and I look like month to month?
- [23:45]
Steve Weiss
We're probably somewhere between the pay for all the real estate, like the all, like the, you know, the loans and the insurance. Probably somewhere between 75 and 100 grand a month. Ballpark. Okay. Yeah.
- [23:58]
Dan
Cool.
- [23:58]
Steve Weiss
So like you said, to work to make money, you know.
- [24:02]
Dan
Sure. I'm curious about the, the paranoia. Is that a result of the tragedies you've lived or have you always sort of been a bit of paranoid?
- [24:10]
Steve Weiss
No, that's the direct result of being through a lot of natural disasters. Of. Yeah, just seeing, like, you know, you feel comfortable one day and you wake up one day and you see fire, a big fire coming down the hill. I mean, that happened to me two years ago. I woke up, I went to go work out at Equinox, and I see this raging fire coming down the hill in the palaces. And, you know, I thought it was like the end of the world, to be honest. I thought, you know, I didn't know what to make of it. And so like, I was like, we got to get out of here. And is not much different than, you know, than Sandy was. Sandy was just, just as bad. You know, you see, you know, cars flooded and, you know, you have to take a boat around your neighborhood. You know, it's craziness.
- [24:52]
Dan
Did you. Did you lose property in Palisades?
- [24:55]
Steve Weiss
No. No. You lose. Probably. It's, you know, it's. It's a very controversial thing this, to say. It is, but I believe in that. You have to protect your stuff. I don't believe that any type of, you know, not that I believe in anarchy or anything, but I believe that, like, if I want to save my house, I gotta rely on me to save the house and not, not like the fire department or the police department. So, you know, would our house have been. Without the methodology, would our house have been destroyed? Sure. Like, if I didn't go back in it and have. Have one of my guys, one of my buddies help as well, like. Yeah, I mean, I think we would have lost our house for sure.
- [25:34]
Dan
Yeah, that's. It's terrible. Yeah. Obviously the whole world watched that fire and, you know, wished more could have been done. I wanted to shift gears to something you said at the post Exit Founders conference a while back. You said that finding purpose and meaning was something that you've personally struggled with. And I'm curious if you can be more specific, like on a Tuesday. What does it look like for you to struggle with this post exit life and, and what does it look like actually day to day to find meaning? How are you building a life full of meaning given some of those things that you've shared?
- [26:06]
Steve Weiss
It's hard because I look at, you know, I'm a part of a co working facility in, in Venice and I see people just grinding, just freaking, just straight up grinding. And like they, I feel the energy in there of like, people just want to make money. They want to make, they want to crush it, they want to be rich, they want to be, you know, they're like, boom, boom, boom, boom. And like. And sometimes there's some days where I just don't feel the, the drive to, to do it at the scale I used to do it at. Now I still feel driven. I, I still have like huge desires and to change the world. But like, you know, there's just some days where, where I, you know, I have to will myself. You know, I listened to what's his name from what's the dude's name he was on, he was on Joe Rogan. He's like the military guy who, who runs like 26 miles all the time.
- [26:52]
Dan
Goggins.
- [26:53]
Steve Weiss
Goggins. So Goggins is helping insane episode. Yeah. Yeah. So I've listened to Goggins three or four times and yeah, he's inspired me to, to like, overcome a lot of like, you know, this call. I call, I joke around, but it's like cement in my shoes sometimes of like getting up and at it, you know. And so like, you know, he's inspired me. But there, you know, when I look at purpose, I'm just, I question, you know, beyond money, beyond like family, like, how do you impact this world? And I put my. I put a lot of pressure on myself and I. There's some days where I just feel like a bit lost of like where, where do I put my energy and time to make the biggest impact?
- [27:30]
Dan
Did the 100 million dollar exit make you happy?
- [27:33]
Steve Weiss
No, it. It just gave me one less thing to worry about day to day. I think it gave me like, I know if people listen to this podcast who are like, yeah man, I want 100 mil. I'll be happy from there. It'll solve all my problems. And I thought it would too. And it goes back to my childhood because when I was a kid, I believed that the only thing that matters is money. And like, the way I'm gonna feel loved, appreciated and taken care of was by being rich. Because no one, because that's what I was told by kids in the neighborhood was like, that's all that matters, you know. And so I sold drugs. I did all types, anything I do to get my hands on it. I was hustling like from probably from like 12 to like to my adulthood. I hustled everything. I sold everything I can get my hands on. You know, anything from pills to like to PlayStations to Xboxes to, to mortgage leads to, you name it, I sold it. And so like I thought though that that was what was going to bring purpose to my life of like feeling loved, appreciated and taken and taken care of. And it just didn't make me feel any of that. It just was one less thing to worry about. That's, that's how I describe it. I know it's a, it's not as like sexy as everyone wants to make it out to be, but it's just one less thing you worry about. It's just you still have to wake up every day and put your pants on and go to work or do something. You know, it doesn't solve everything.
- [28:53]
Dan
Yeah, what's, what's the advice you have for those people listening that they're chasing the a hundred million exit? Or maybe they're feeling similar, they resonate with this. I mean they had the hundred million dollar exit and now they don't feel that purpose. They thought they would. What advice would you give them?
- [29:07]
Steve Weiss
Yeah, it's a great question. So as I said earlier, like I've been thinking a lot about this, you know, because I talked to a lot, I talked to a lot of people in similar boats who've had levels of success. I think make your purpose around impact in other people's lives. Like try to make it so that you have as biggest reach of positive impact in other people's lives and that'll bring impact to your life beyond just money. And I think like, it goes back to like the more value you bring others, the more successful you'll be. And so I keep thinking of like, how could I do, how could I bring value to people's lives of scale? Because I think that's where I get gratitude from. That's where I get great feelings from. So like versus just trying to make money, make money, make money. You have to have something else besides business that brings gratitude and value. Like you gotta, you know, if I would have known this early on, I would have done more, done more with non profits, done more. You know, I was a youth basketball coach for a while, but I would have put my before kids and Wife. While I was running a business, I would have put more time into finding other places where I could generate value and purpose besides just business. But that'd be my advice. Like, if you put everything you have in business every day is don't. Don't, like, feel bad about it. But, like, when businesses, that business might get sold, that business might go out of business, you gotta have something else that you derive value and purpose from. Because if you don't, the end result, whatever that end result will be, it'll be very hollow.
- [30:36]
Dan
Yeah. Is that something else for you right now, your family? Is it some of the work you're doing or how are you filling that void today?
- [30:42]
Steve Weiss
I mean, I think for me is my kids. I mean, yeah, I would trade every single dollar that I made for my kids. And now I would. I wouldn't want to, like, necessarily do that, but, like, I would trade everything I have for my wife and kids. Like, they are. They've brought more. They've kind of, like, my childhood was like a broken glass, and they've kind of, like, put. Helped me put the glass back together, you know, piece by piece, just by being there for me. And so, like, I think that, like, that's, in my opinion, like, that's the greatest thing that I could ever ask for is like, having a wife. Wife and kids who are just there for me and who just love me unconditionally. So I think that's. There's purpose there. But I'm. I'm still figuring it out, man. I'll just be real. Yeah, I don't really, you know, I'm starting other businesses. I love business. I love bringing value to people. But I'm. I'm really, every single day, like, I'm learning more and more about myself and about, like, what brings value to me.
- [31:39]
Dan
Yeah, that's a great answer. And tell me more about your venture real estate fund. I know you. You have a bit of an incubator right now.
- [31:45]
Steve Weiss
Is.
- [31:46]
Dan
Is it S. S.W.
- [31:47]
Steve Weiss
b? No, no, it's not a venture real estate fund. I. I don't. I don't have any funds right now. I'm just. I'm just building companies. I have a podcast. I. I just. I just invest. So SJW is just my investment arm that I use to, like, invest into companies and stuff. But I. I don't have any venture or real estate fund or anything. I deploy money into mobile home parks. Deploy money into, you know. You know, I will. I'm. I spend a lot of my day in real estate, so I Spend a lot of my day looking at real estate, whether it's land projects or, you know, you know, every asset class in real estate, like, I've been going deep on. So I do that. But mainly, like, I'm focused on my podcast. I also have a podcast called the Steve Weiss Journey. So if you. Yeah, if you like this. If you like this podcast, you're like, I'll give this guy another try. Steve Weiss Journey. But I've been. I've been loving doing that. I also have a company that I'm starting that's in stealth in the AI space. And, yeah, that's pretty much what I've been focused on is. Is just telling the story and inspiring others.
- [32:50]
Dan
If you were to go back in time 15 years, would you do anything differently?
- [32:54]
Steve Weiss
Good question. I guess I've done a lot of things, a lot of things differently. I was always such a. Like, just if I look at my company, like, I never read business books. I never had a mentor. I never had, like, someone that I really looked up to that had my back. I would have tried to find someone that I could look up to that I. That I, like, really appreciated and respected. Like, I didn't really. I guess one of my biggest regrets in business is that I never had a mentor that, like, took the time to invest in me, and I invested in them. So I guess part of me is, like, how could I mentor others? Because I know how hard it is to find someone that really has nothing. They have no financial gain from helping you. They don't care. Like, they. They're already successful. They're not billing you life coaching hours or, like, business coaching hours. They're. They're purely invested just to see you win. And I guess there's a part of me that, like, wishes that I had a mentor that would have spent, you know, once every three months with me or once every two months. Because, like, when I sold my business, one thing to really understand is I had no rich people in my family. I got. I'm the wealthiest person in the history of my family, so nowhere. Nowhere to talk to, no one to talk to. I felt like I was on an island. I had all these people pitching me to manage my wealth and manage everything. And, like, I had no mentors. I had no one I could be like, hey, like, what do I do here? That someone that would give me unbiased advice based on just, like, steve, I care about you. Like, I just want to help you. I had no one that would do that. So that's probably my only Regret is I never found that one mentor who, like, really cared about me.
- [34:26]
Dan
How did you find that? Since then?
- [34:28]
Steve Weiss
I kind of haven't, to be honest. Okay. I don't think I have. I think I've replaced that with trying to be that for other people. I know it sounds weird, but, like, no, it doesn't.
- [34:39]
Dan
Does that give you the same value or similarity?
- [34:42]
Steve Weiss
It gives me the same value and gratitude, you know, it really does. You know, there's a lot of people that. I think the reason why I have a decent reputation in this world is there's a lot of people that message me, you know, out of the woodwork, just be like, steve, what do I do here? And, like, you know, there's always opportunities to say, yo, man, pay me X amount of dollars and I'll do something for you. And I always will say, no, I want to help you because I want to help you. I don't. I don't need. And I don't need any. Any amount of money. I just want to help someone and, like. Or just give them my advice because there's a lot of empathy. Like, I know what it's like to. To feel alone, to feel like that. That you don't have someone to call on. So I guess that's my only regret is I never found that one mentor who I could, like, really, like, rely on as I go through this journey.
- [35:27]
Dan
That's deep, it sounds like. Are you still searching for that?
- [35:29]
Steve Weiss
Oh, yeah. I mean, I think, like, I'm pretty far along, but. But, yeah, I think that anyone that gives the time to me, I want to give the time to somebody else, like, help others and pay it forward. I'm not perfect, man. I just want to be real, Dan. Like, I'm not a perfect guy. I got. I don't have it all figured out, but, like, what I do know is, is, like, the more you help others, the more you help yourself. And, like, yeah, anytime you're going through a mental health episode or you're feeling like shit, if you find a way to bring value to others, the cure is in that. And that, like, you're. You're going to cure whatever issues you have, but because you feel like a purpose and you feel like what you're doing is impacting others, so what? I wish that I found someone that's, like, a little ahead of me, you know, They've had a ton of success, and they, you know, they want to invest their time with someone like me. Like, hey, they're in their late 40s, 50s. They've had a couple exits and they're like, Steve, you know, let's, let's chat, man. Let's talk. You know, let's chop it up, man. Anytime you need something, call me. They check in with you? Like, yeah, would that be nice? It'd be, it'd be fantastic. But like, where I get my purpose is, I always say where I get my rocks off is like just being that resource for others. And like, you know, I always tell my closest friends that, you know, I want to be the guy you call on when you, when, when you have something that's burning. You know, I want to be the person that's running back into the fire. I want to be that. I want to be that leader and like, that's, that's a lot of my identity is like being the guy that people call on when something is not working or when they need help.
- [36:56]
Dan
That's great. That's, that's noble. What is that said, what does the next five years of your life look like if you had a crystal ball?
- [37:03]
Steve Weiss
Oh, it's a good question. I think I want to continue to be deeply involved in my kids life. I want to find activities to do with them. I want to get that. I want to, you know, be the, their youth sports coach if they choose to play sports. I want to be at their school plays. I want to be a present dad. So one thing I really care about is like, I want to be the present dad number two. You know, I want to find a way to positively impact people at scale. So I was thinking at some point, you know, politics, which my wife won't let me do, but that was one idea.
- [37:42]
Dan
That's fun.
- [37:44]
Steve Weiss
Yeah, that won't happen because she doesn't want me to do that. But okay, like starting business.
- [37:49]
Dan
What type of politics? I mean, you're talking like local politics.
- [37:51]
Steve Weiss
Yeah, like local politics. Okay, local politics in California.
- [37:55]
Dan
That's an interesting one.
- [37:56]
Steve Weiss
That probably won't be happening because the wife doesn't want me to do that. But I'm going to be starting, starting businesses and putting my time into building communities, into building impact and doing stuff that has impact of scale. You know, maybe that's making money at a venture, maybe that's, maybe that's putting my time and be going back to you. I love sports, so maybe that's going back into doing some stuff with you. Youth sports. I don't know, you know, but like, and then I guess the last thing is, is just health is next five years. I want to get in the best shape of My life. I want to, you know, try to optimize my health as much as possible. You know, my issue is food. So I like eating a lot of food. Stop eating food.
- [38:40]
Dan
Same. Yeah, just stop completely. Yeah.
- [38:44]
Steve Weiss
Take all the good food and food is.
- [38:47]
Dan
Food is the gift that keeps on giving and the curse that keeps sticking around keeps on cursing. I'm the same way.
- [38:52]
Steve Weiss
Those are the three or four being a present, dad. Impact at scale and getting the best, getting the most out of my body and mind every single day, just continuously optimizing. And that's what comes to mind over the next five years, is there's one last thing is like, I think in my mind, like, I want to prove that I could. When you sell a business and you have success, like, I think you want to prove to yourself that you could do it again. So. And you know, have I done it again at small scales? You know, I sold a little tiny e commerce website, but there's a part of me that wants to do that, has a deep desire to prove to myself that I could do it again. And so hopefully over the next five years, I could have some success in proving to myself that I could do it again.
- [39:36]
Dan
That's awesome. I appreciate you sharing your story today, Steve. It's one that I think a lot of the listeners are going to resonate with also. You're inspiring. I think the vulnerability is. Is something that more people wish they had, and I think it just helps a lot of people to. To kind of package together some of the things that they're feeling in similar boats and similar stories. So thanks again for joining Money Wise today, Steve. This has been great.
- [39:56]
Steve Weiss
Thanks. Yo, dude, thanks for having me, man. I'm grateful that you had me. You. You guys have an awesome podcast and just grateful to be here.
- [40:03]
Dan
Thanks, Steve. Take care.
- [40:04]
Steve Weiss
Cool.