#127: Risk the $600K in His Home or Play it Safe?

Summary

Next Level Pros Episode #127: Risk the $600K in His Home or Play it Safe?

Host: Chris Lee
Guest: Seth Shaner
Release Date: October 15, 2024

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Introduction

In Episode #127 of Next Level Pros, host Chris Lee engages in a candid and in-depth conversation with Seth Shaner, a seasoned entrepreneur navigating the complexities of personal finance, business growth, and personal life challenges. This episode delves into Seth's journey from financial struggles to entrepreneurial endeavors, highlighting the pivotal decision he faces: risking the $600K equity in his home to propel his business to new heights or opting for a safer, more stable path.

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Background of Seth Shaner

[00:12] Seth Shaner: "We're being house poor."

Seth Shaner introduces himself as a 48-year-old residing in Orange County, California. With a background in selling restaurant businesses, Seth shares his entrepreneurial spirit shaped by multiple ventures, including founding businesses that reached nine-figure revenues. His experience spans from managing large teams to navigating financial hardships, providing him with a wealth of knowledge in the business world.

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The Challenge: House Poor

[00:00] Chris Lee: "You can't have her high society desires overcome what your income is. Right. Because you guys are being held back by the 600k that you have in this house."

Seth candidly discusses the concept of being "house poor," a situation where significant equity in a home restricts financial flexibility. Despite owning a valuable property worth approximately $600K in Orange County, the high costs associated with maintaining the home have strained his finances, limiting his ability to invest further in his business ventures.

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Seth's Career and Entrepreneurial Journey

Seth recounts his entrepreneurial journey, starting with a failed construction-related business in 2008. Facing bankruptcy, he chose to negotiate his debts, successfully paying off around $1 million over eight years. This period tested Seth's resilience and commitment to overcoming financial setbacks without resorting to bankruptcy.

[01:02] Seth Shaner: "After 2008, my business went under. I ended up negotiating all that and paying it off over the next eight years instead of filing bankruptcy."

His career progressed as he joined GE Capital's Franchise Finance division, selling loans to restaurant franchisees nationwide. Seth excelled in sales, a skill honed during his two-year Mormon mission, assembling a robust foundation in financial services. However, the sale and subsequent layoff from GE Capital pushed Seth to explore new entrepreneurial avenues, leading him to his current focus: selling restaurant businesses.

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Personal Struggles: Divorce and Family

Seth opens up about his personal life, including a challenging divorce that added emotional and financial strain. Living arrangements became complex, as he remained in Orange County to maintain stability for his three children. Balancing family responsibilities with business ambitions has been a significant hurdle, compelling Seth to consider drastic measures to achieve financial freedom and professional growth.

[06:08] Seth Shaner: "When I was 14, my parents were bankrupt. We moved to a small town in Illinois where they grew up."

This early exposure to financial instability profoundly impacted Seth's approach to risk and business, instilling a cautious yet determined mindset in his entrepreneurial pursuits.

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Current Situation: Consulting and Brokerage

To sustain his finances, Seth currently engages in consulting, helping restaurant owners optimize their businesses. While this provides a steady income, it pales in comparison to his ambitious goals of scaling his brokerage operations. Seth is simultaneously navigating the sales cycle of high-value deals, some worth up to $100K, but faces challenges in closing these deals consistently.

[12:12] Seth Shaner: "I have very specific things. I can look at a set of financials and say, look, I can save you a million bucks, however much it is for sure."

Despite securing clients, Seth acknowledges that the income from consulting is insufficient to meet the high cost of living in Orange County, prompting him to contemplate more aggressive strategies to boost his revenue streams.

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Discussion on Risk and Self-Imposed Limitations

A significant portion of the conversation centers on the theme of risk versus safety, with Chris and Levi encouraging Seth to evaluate his comfort zone and assess the potential for exponential growth by taking calculated risks.

[08:37] Levi: "Zero perceived risk. Is if you work for somebody, you have a job, that's stability... but if you're W2, you can't get a house loan if you're an entrepreneur."

They discuss how societal norms often discourage entrepreneurship due to perceived risks associated with being self-employed versus the stability of traditional employment. Seth reflects on how these perceptions, combined with family responsibilities, have influenced his cautious approach.

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Strategies for Growth

Chris and Levi propose several strategies to help Seth overcome his financial constraints and business limitations:

1. Hiring Support: Outsourcing low-value, high-time-consuming tasks to interns or affordable labor (e.g., Filipino workers) to free up Seth's time for high-value activities like negotiation and deal-closing.

   [39:25] Seth Shaner: "I need to build a database of people to go after... it's a lot of administrative stuff. I can get an intern for that."

2. Building a Personal Brand: Leveraging social media platforms to position himself as an industry expert, attracting more leads and establishing trust with potential clients through educational content.

3. Focusing on Core Competencies: Prioritizing activities that align with his strengths, such as having in-depth conversations with willing sellers, analyzing financials, and negotiating deals, while delegating other tasks.

4. Financial Planning: Developing a comprehensive five-year plan to outline organizational structure, sales strategies, and operational processes, ensuring sustainable growth and scalability.

[41:01] Seth Shaner: "The things that are the most valuable for me to be doing are having conversations with people who are ready, who want to sell their business."

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Steps to Overcome Challenges

The dialogue between Chris, Levi, and Seth culminates in a actionable roadmap to help Seth navigate his current predicament:

1. Sell the House: Addressing the house equity to unlock $600K, thereby alleviating financial strains and providing capital to reinvest in the business.

   [66:33] Seth Shaner: "Sell house and then sell house."

2. Stop Consulting: Eliminating low-energy, high-value consulting work to focus entirely on brokerage activities, increasing capacity to close more deals.

3. Build a Five-Year Plan: Crafting a strategic plan that includes organizational structure, team roles, and financial projections to guide business growth.

4. Develop Systems and Processes: Establishing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and other frameworks to streamline operations and ensure efficiency.

5. Build a Course and Brand: Creating educational content to establish authority in the industry, attract leads, and generate additional revenue streams.

   [68:43] Seth Shaner: "My thought was to... do a five-minute video, once a week, send it to the Philippines, have someone cut it into audio and post it."

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Key Insights and Conclusions

[60:14] Seth Shaner: "I started getting crap done when I went to [coach]. After working with him, I had a lot of things that I was stuck already. He gave me tools to help me be way more effective."

Seth acknowledges the importance of mentorship and coaching in overcoming personal and professional obstacles. The conversation underscores the value of stepping out of one's comfort zone, leveraging available resources, and making bold decisions to achieve substantial business growth.

[64:11] Seth Shaner: "Having some difficult conversations about selling the house and then making my plan, my five-year plan."

The episode concludes with Seth committing to the proposed game plan, demonstrating his readiness to confront the challenges ahead and seize the opportunities for scaling his business. Chris and Levi provide unwavering support, emphasizing the potential for Seth to transform his financial situation and achieve his entrepreneurial aspirations.

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Notable Quotes

• Chris Lee [00:00]: "You can't have her high society desires overcome what your income is. Right. Because you guys are being held back by the 600k that you have in this house."

• Seth Shaner [00:12]: "We're being house poor."

• Seth Shaner [08:37]: "Zero perceived risk. Is if you work for somebody, you have a job, that's stability... but if you're W2, you can't get a house loan if you're an entrepreneur."

• Seth Shaner [39:25]: "I need to build a database of people to go after... it's a lot of administrative stuff. I can get an intern for that."

• Chris Lee [64:03]: "You gotta put yourself up for the best opportunity to be able to go and build this business."

• Seth Shaner [60:14]: "I started getting crap done when I went to [coach]. After working with him, I had a lot of things that I was stuck already. He gave me tools to help me be way more effective."

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Conclusion

Episode #127 of Next Level Pros offers a profound exploration of Seth Shaner's entrepreneurial journey, emphasizing the delicate balance between personal life and business ambitions. Through honest dialogue and strategic brainstorming, Seth confronts the limitations imposed by his financial situation and familial responsibilities. The episode serves as an inspiring blueprint for entrepreneurs grappling with similar challenges, illustrating that with the right mindset, support, and strategic actions, significant hurdles can be transformed into opportunities for growth and success.

For those seeking to elevate their professional trajectories, Seth's story underscores the importance of taking calculated risks, leveraging personal strengths, and building robust support systems to navigate the complexities of entrepreneurship.

Transcript

[Chris]

You can't have her high society desires overcome what your income is. Right. Because you guys are being held back by the 600k that you have in this house.

[Seth Shaner]

We're being house poor.

[Chris]

Yes.

[Seth Shaner]

Well, well. And I always said I would never be house poor, but we weren't like, we were. We were doing fine. Now I am house poor because the house is the expensive part. My name is seth Shaner. I'm 48 years old. I live in Orange County, California, and I sell restaurant businesses and tune into this episod of Next Level Pros.

[Chris]

So, Seth, man, it's been a while since we've chatted.

[Seth Shaner]

It's been a long time.

[Chris]

Yeah. So you and I, we were neighbors back in the day.

[Seth Shaner]

Yep.

[Chris]

When I bought my first house at.

[Seth Shaner]

The age of 24, I was older than you, but that was my. I think that was the first house I bought as well.

[Chris]

Okay, cool, cool. You've been up to a lot of things changed.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah.

[Chris]

Cool. So tell us about what you got going on right now. You're. You're in the restaurant industry. You're selling restaurants. Give us a little more detail.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah, yeah. After. You know, it's funny because the year that we were 2008, my business, I had a business that went under. So I was, you know, really like, what am I going to do? And it was pretty rough, actually. For the next eight years, I had. I owed a lot of money. It was about 1 million bucks. And so I ended up negotiating all that and paying it off over the next eight years instead of filing bankruptcy. I know. You know, you talked about that in your story.

[Chris]

Right.

[Seth Shaner]

And. But I said, I told my wife at the time, I said, where do you want to go? Because we should go. We need to go somewhere else, a bigger market. And she said, orange County. So we agree originally from there? No, she's from Utah.

[Chris]

What took you to Orange County? Like, just sounded nice.

[Seth Shaner]

Apparently on our first date, we talked about this, and I don't remember the conversation, you know, kind of a guy thing, I guess, but we talked about where we both want to live. Our number one place was Orange County. Just weather and lifestyle and the weather is nice.

[Chris]

We're going to have to talk a little bit more about Orange county because I know, you know, you're kind of in a dichotomy right now. Right. Like you're. You're trying to make money.

[Seth Shaner]

Yep. In one of the most expensive places. That's. That's kind of part of the issue. Right. That said, sometimes I think being in proximity to people, you know. And situ, you know, can be helpful too. Yeah. Right. So there are a lot of people around me that are very successful and that can be helpful as well. And the brokerage I'm with is in Newport beach, so.

[Chris]

Right.

[Seth Shaner]

So anyway, fast forward. So we moved to Orange county, but part of that was then I got a job with GE Capital. Franchise finance.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Seth Shaner]

So I started selling debt. So I was selling loans to restaurant franchisees all over the country. It turns out I was really good at that and took me back to, you know, I did a two year Mormon mission back in the day and I was really good at that. And so the sales thing for me has been a theme, but I kind of kept ignoring it. And so when I was a GE Capital, things went really well. The problem is, at the end of the day, the GE end up selling all of GE Capital.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Seth Shaner]

And so we all got sold and laid off. And, you know, I did a couple things to start a business. I went to another bank for a while and ended up getting hired by. I was going to do this same thing I'm doing now, selling businesses in 2019. But the same week I had an offer to go run a big restaurant company from one of my customers from GE Capital. And this is 127Denny's. And then they just make it 33. Bought 94. Made a big organization. This is 4,000 employees, 200 million revenue. And I took over as president six weeks before the pandemic hit. So this is my first time running restaurants. But you know, the reason I took that job over the brokerage job is I thought this is the only time I can always go back to do a brokerage. I'm not going to go in as the president of a company this big. You know, it's not going to happen very often.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Seth Shaner]

So I felt like that was a unique opportunity to be able to get even deeper, learn more about my industry. So then I have the finance side and now I have operations.

[Chris]

So let me just like wrap this all together. So you owned a business back in 08. Was that the first business you ever owned?

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah. Yep. Okay.

[Chris]

And that failed?

[Seth Shaner]

That was. Yeah, that was. It was construction related. It was. Right, yeah.

[Chris]

And then since then you've operated as like a high level. Either executive consultant. I mean basically a high level employee for the last north of a decade.

[Seth Shaner]

I did start one other business in 2017 that I sold in 2020 and that one was. So the first one was a failure. That one did well. It succeeded. I sold it you know, it wasn't.

[Chris]

She saw it for.

[Seth Shaner]

It was like 800 grand. It wasn't a big hundred on that. No, Maybe half that. Okay. But, you know, we. I had bought. There was. It was a. There was a messy. I had a partner who really tried to take the company. I bought him out using debt, and then he tried to take the company down after that. Broke every agreement. You know, it is tough. And that really kind of hurt because.

[Chris]

I mean, you've had essentially a couple messy experiences. I mean, obviously you sold the second.

[Seth Shaner]

Business, which is good, but sold it, but really didn't.

[Chris]

But even that was a little messy.

[Seth Shaner]

It was actually, yeah, pretty messy because I was in. Because I was. Had a partner who was a bad person.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Seth Shaner]

And I recognize that because, you know, at the time, he's telling me all the right things, but my gut told me this is not someone you want to do business with.

[Chris]

And so, you know, I, I read your bio. You wrote a whole lot more than I ever knew about you. Like, we were next door neighbors, attend the same church and everything else. And like, I didn't know half the stuff that you wrote in here, which was, which is interesting. And so, like, I mean, you've got, you know, obviously there's, there's a lot of reasons why you should play small.

[Seth Shaner]

Right.

[Chris]

Like the way you were raised, your parents were, you know, not into the entrepreneurial scene whatsoever.

[Seth Shaner]

They. No, they tried. Well, they tried. And when I was 14, they were bankrupt.

[Chris]

Right. I mean, they, they fail.

[Seth Shaner]

I don't even know if I said that.

[Chris]

And what I mean is, like, you've seen, you've seen a lot of examples of failure, right, Regarding entrepreneurship. And so you really have every reason to be a little scared of it. Right?

[Seth Shaner]

Well, and not only that, when I was growing up, my dad made a book. He read this in another book or something. And I remember being a teenager, we were living. My parents were bankrupt. When I was 14, we moved to this small town in Illinois where they grew up. And it was a house was $28,000 with a half acre. And I mean, it was run down. We. Anyway, and my dad at that time could not get a job. And he made this book, the many, you know, called the Many Failures of Stephen W. Shaner.

[Chris]

Yeah, I read that title. I was like, what? He wrote a book. Not just like, how he sucks, he.

[Seth Shaner]

Just put it all in there. And I, and I look, I love my parents because they've always been super supportive. Like, they're always like, you can do anything. Yeah, I Just have never had. I never had the example of it. Do you know what I mean? And so I think it was hard for me to put together. It's like. It's like, if you've never been to Mars and now you're trying to navigate, like, where do I go?

[Chris]

So what do you think is the biggest thing that's held you back? Has it been that. Has it been your. Because, I mean, you. You've been through a lot. Just reading up. Right. Like, family was. Was pretty unsuccessful financially growing up.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah, financially. Right.

[Chris]

And financially, you know, you had to provide a lot for yourself. Your first business failed, your second business, you were able to sell. You've had. You've gone through a divorce and a few things that. Like what. What do you think? Like, the main thing that's kept you from, like, going and achieving, like, the big dream?

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah. I think I've thought about this a lot. Yeah. Because I've been. I've been digging this into this with my just myself.

[Chris]

Right.

[Seth Shaner]

Trying to understand this for the last kind of year or two.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Seth Shaner]

And I think part of that was I had this concept of, you know, being conservative. And some of that, for me, came from. I felt like my. My religion. I think it also came from, you know, I was married to someone who's an amazing person. I'll never say a negative word, but not. Does your person. Not. Not my person. And not. Doesn't like that. She wants stability, you know, nine to five, just no risk, salary, zero risk. And it's hard. I think it's hard to be sorry.

[Levi]

Zero perceived risk.

[Chris]

Zero perceived risk. Right, Right. Because obviously there's a lot of risk with what you're doing, getting laid off with some of these big corporate jobs and everything like that.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah, yeah. I've been laid off of a bunch.

[Levi]

Of them, but I understand.

[Seth Shaner]

I was laid off. I mean, so it was something with that company that caused change.

[Chris]

Yeah. Because I think that's important for anybody watching this thing. Like, if you have a job right now and you're considering becoming an entrepreneur, like, realize that risk doesn't only land on the side of entrepreneurship.

[Levi]

Correct.

[Chris]

There's a lot of risk associated with being an employee.

[Levi]

The perceived risk that we're taught. Right. Is if you work for somebody, you have a job, that's stability. You can't get a house loan if you're an entrepreneur because, you know, and make a hundred grand because of your deductions and stuff. But if you're W2, it just the. The society set up to, like, Support or favor jobs as something that's stable when in reality, we know a job can be gone just as fast as. As anything.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah. It's. It's really set up for us to not take risks.

[Levi]

Yes.

[Seth Shaner]

And.

[Chris]

And so, like, let's just call it spade a spade. Your wife held you back from taking risk, right?

[Seth Shaner]

I held me back, but I chose to. You elect the relationship over. Yeah. And I. Yeah. And so I just don't, you know, and so now, you know, it was very freeing when I said, you know what? I'm going to. I need to move a different direction. It was really a really hard decision. I mean, because we also, you know, we're married a long time, and we have three kids, and I love them all. So it's not about that. It's about, you know, at some point, you got to be who you need to be, and that was a hard decision for me.

[Chris]

Do you. Do you feel like anything's holding you back right now?

[Seth Shaner]

Me? Yes.

[Chris]

What's holding you back? What are your biggest fears that are keeping you from being the session or. They can be.

[Seth Shaner]

Well, so one of them. So then when I left my job early, 23. Okay. So I thought my thing was going to be to go acquire some of these smaller restaurant chains. So five to ten store. I had four deals last year that I was trying to close, and it wasn't a lack of capital or financing. It was. Each one had a situation that I couldn't really control. One of them, the cash flow kept going down, the price kept changing. Two of them, they just at the last minute said, oh, I don't want to sell. Change their mind. So I thought that was my past. So part of it has been, who. What kind of entrepreneur should I be? Right. And so I started out doing that, and I spent a lot of time, you know, legal costs, travel, you know what I mean? You've done it. I mean, trying to do deals.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Seth Shaner]

And they didn't work out.

[Chris]

Right.

[Seth Shaner]

And so by the beginning of this year, when the last, like, the fourth one didn't work out, I was like, okay, this brokerage had approached me, and I'm like, you know what? I'm good at selling. I know I can do that. But what I didn't want to do is have to go kill all the time. You know, like, you. You kill. You know what you kill. But then I'm like, well, I can always do something on the second, you.

[Chris]

Know, like, so let's. Let's lay some groundwork here. So let's talk about your personal finances. Right. Like, how are you making money right now? Because I don't. I know you're, you're trying to close these deals, right? With, with brokering restaurants, right?

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah. So now I'm. Yeah, now, Yep. And I'm sure you paying bills that well and it's, it's tough because now I'm doing consulting to pay the bills.

[Chris]

What does that mean? What does consult?

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah, it means like kind of definitions out there, there are. And really helping restaurant owners to make more money.

[Chris]

And going in, you're signing contracts to work with these guys for six months.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah.

[Chris]

Just be there like sounding bored by very specific things.

[Seth Shaner]

I have very specific. So I can look at a set of financials and I can say, look, I can save you a million bucks, however much it is for sure. And then. And I know exactly where to do it.

[Chris]

How much money are you making doing that right now?

[Seth Shaner]

Not, not as much as I. How much you making money right now? I, I'm. I'm turning over clients. So I just have an. I have a new client that just signed on Friday for four grand.

[Chris]

Four grand A month.

[Seth Shaner]

A month. Okay. I have another one that they, they were calling me this morning. I think they, they'll be in like another six grand a month.

[Levi]

Okay.

[Chris]

So if I understand your situation, you're divorced from your wife, but you're now living back in the same home. Almost like.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah, I have like a JC in.

[Chris]

The garage type deal.

[Seth Shaner]

Right.

[Chris]

Yeah, I have a little mother in law apartment type deal.

[Seth Shaner]

Yep.

[Chris]

Okay. So you're with your kids. Is your wife or ex wife working?

[Seth Shaner]

She teaches piano and.

[Chris]

Because I'm just trying to wrap my head around like, okay, how are you living in, in Orange county making four grand a month with wife, kids?

[Seth Shaner]

Well, it's not. Yeah, it's been about 15.

[Chris]

I'm assuming you're helping contribute to the bills there.

[Seth Shaner]

Oh, I'm. Yeah. So it's been about 15,000amonth. And then I'm just in this transition where I trans transitioned out of a couple of clients and now I'm transitioning back in to some others.

[Chris]

So you.

[Seth Shaner]

It's about 15,000.

[Chris]

You've been making 15 grand a month?

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah. Which, which is really not.

[Chris]

It's not a lot of money in Orange county, especially when you're talking about federal income tax, state income tax, property taxes. I mean, just everything that's affiliated with living in the state of California is absolutely terrible.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah. It's not enough. But the challenge is I've been trying. I don't it's like I don't want to take on too much consulting because then it's going to take away from the long term. Long term is the brokerage. You know, like I signed a listing last week that'll pay me 100 grand. When that sells, I have another one, I think in the next, it'll sign the next few days. That's about 120. So that's the pro. So then the sales cycle for those is six to eight months.

[Chris]

Right.

[Seth Shaner]

So that's my challenge is like I'm.

[Chris]

So you're making. What would you say an average deal would be worth to you? 100, 150 grand?

[Seth Shaner]

Let's call it 100. Yeah. Some will be smaller. I'll get some little things here and there, but I don't, you know, my focus is these decent sizes.

[Levi]

Let me ask, let me ask, on the consulting side, how many clients do you feel like you could bring in on that if you were to say.

[Seth Shaner]

I'm going to get bring in more like it's, it's. This industry does not like consultants because there are a lot of people out there trying to do what I do and they don't know what they're doing. And so they've been burned before. So the challenge is they want more of your time than you have.

[Chris]

So you don't like that industry.

[Seth Shaner]

And I say, well, I don't like to consult to the industry. I either need to own it because I know what to do and I'll do it and I'll do it fast. Like I can change. I can, I can, I can get someone a five times return on what they're paying me in six weeks.

[Chris]

Right.

[Seth Shaner]

And so I'm even doing now I'm starting to do a guarantee. Look, I will guarantee this. If it doesn't work, then, you know, I will pay you back.

[Levi]

You're saying.

[Seth Shaner]

Starting to help.

[Levi]

You're saying you can go into a restaurant and turn things around pretty quickly?

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah, not. This is usually five to, you know, at least five restaurants, but a chain. So if they're doing like 5, 10, 20 million revenue. Okay, I've. The one this morning is 50 million revenue. They're losing money. 50 million revenue, losing money. So I could, I told him, I said, look, I can get you flipped by 2 million bucks cash flow in the next three to six months.

[Unnamed]

What is it about that, what, you know, specifically that brings that much value to a restaurant like that quick.

[Seth Shaner]

So I'm, look, I'm a technician. I don't know Anything about food? I don't, I'm not a chef. I hate making food. Stresses me out. But I know how to fix businesses. My first job was consulting Fortune 500. That was my first job out of college as top five firm.

[Chris]

And so I mean, why don't, why don't you go back in, like work as an executive for one of these Fortune 500 companies, go make 3, 4, 500 grand a year plus stock benefits.

[Seth Shaner]

I mean, that's what I was making. So my last gig I was making about 350. I should have made more, but it, but pandemic killed bonuses and, and I had a profit sharing plan, so that was the goal. I thought this is going to turn out to be, you know, 600,000.

[Chris]

So why don't you go back there?

[Seth Shaner]

Well, because I don't think that that's me.

[Chris]

Okay.

[Seth Shaner]

I'm better at selling. Like this is, this is a good fit for me.

[Chris]

And so I'm trying to, I'm trying to break this down. I just need to understand like the level of risk that you can go and tolerate. Okay, so right now you're making 150 grand a year.

[Seth Shaner]

Now I'm making, I mean 15amonth would be like 15.

[Chris]

So you're making, so 180. Oh, 180.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah.

[Chris]

Okay. And how much do you need to live?

[Seth Shaner]

I mean, that pays the bills with a little extra without taxes.

[Chris]

Okay.

[Seth Shaner]

Which I mean, I have a lot of.

[Chris]

So are you going into debt actively right now?

[Seth Shaner]

I'm technically, I would be going into debt right now.

[Chris]

So you're going into debt. Okay, so you need 200 grand to live?

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah, I need. I mean, in California, I mean, I mean we're talking 200, 250.

[Chris]

Okay, so why are you still living in California?

[Seth Shaner]

Well, because there's not, I'm not the only decision maker.

[Chris]

Right.

[Seth Shaner]

So that's part of it. Right.

[Chris]

But the decision, the other decision maker isn't making any money. Right?

[Seth Shaner]

Not much.

[Chris]

Okay. So, you know, I think that the key thing to understand here, like a lot of times we put ourselves in self imposed prisons, like, and you know, I get it. I'm sure you understand this.

[Seth Shaner]

And the other part of it is I have a lot of equity in the house.

[Chris]

Right.

[Seth Shaner]

I mean, I own my home. Right. And we bought at the right time. Yeah. And so, and I'm sure there's benefits.

[Chris]

To being in Southern California. Kind of like what we talked about, right. Being around certain people or whatnot. But like, couldn't that take place through travel?

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah, that's not the reason. The main reason to stay is keeping the kids, like my daughter's sophomore. My. I have a son in junior high. And so it's just keeping their friends and their celebration. But who's telling you that?

[Levi]

Yeah, I think. I think one of the. One of the things that I'm seeing reading this, Chris is kind of starting to hit on it is like, you got. Basically, I feel like you're looking at your past as the building blocks of where you're going. In other words, you're this guy who's been divorced, you left your religion, you. Your parents have this, like. And these are all the things that you identify with, right?

[Seth Shaner]

I think I did. And I'm trying to. I'm trying to let those go. I don't really. I don't think about them as much now. I'm thinking about, you know, signing my next however many deals, but it feels.

[Levi]

Like you've kind of numbed yourself so that you don't feel those things. And so now you're looking at your future. You're not looking at it with passion. You're looking at it with, like.

[Chris]

So let's. Let's play the what if game.

[Seth Shaner]

I'm passionate.

[Chris]

Let's play what if game.

[Seth Shaner]

And you have to understand, there's. So part of the deal here is there's whatever they say, like, 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day. This business. There's no one doing what I do in this way to sell these.

[Chris]

We're not telling you not to do this business.

[Seth Shaner]

No, I'm just saying I'm excited about that. So I don't want to get that wrong.

[Chris]

Yeah, I think. I think great business. I think a lot of opportunity, 150 grand. Like, we can help you build a business there, but I think we need to foundationally, like, solve some issues here. Like, first, let's play the what if game. Right. What if there were no strings attached to any past decisions. Right. Family's not involved, whatever else. And Seth Shaner had an opportunity to start completely fresh, like, knowing what you need to go and do. Would you be in Orange county right now?

[Seth Shaner]

I wouldn't need to be. I don't know where I would go.

[Chris]

Okay.

[Seth Shaner]

I. I don't. I don't really have anywhere to go. Okay.

[Chris]

But is Orange county the best option for doing what you're trying to do on the budget that you have?

[Seth Shaner]

I don't. I mean, I see where you're going. I don't think it needs to be. I can do this job anymore. I Could do it in Mexico.

[Chris]

Okay, so now. So now we're. Now we're going somewhere.

[Seth Shaner]

I almost did the what if.

[Chris]

The what if game. And I know you've. You've. You've been working on, like, re. Identifying yourself, right? Like, you've left your religion, you left your. Your family. That used to, like, like, those are. Those are big steps. If you're trying to completely redefine yourself and like. And if that's what you want, I applaud you. Right. Like, because that's hard for most people. Most people, it's really difficult to say, like, like, you've been dedicated to this belief system, this family, track whatever else and go and do something. So, like, if that's what you want, like, congratulations, you know, that wouldn't fit for me, but, like, that. That's great. But I think along those same lines is, like, what other limiting beliefs do you have that are holding you back from making the best decisions that are going to impact you and your family?

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah. I mean, I think part of it is there's two of us, so, you know, we have to agree. And some of that's legal stuff. Right?

[Chris]

Right.

[Seth Shaner]

Like, wherever.

[Levi]

What. Why both. Why do you have to agree? You have to agree on what?

[Seth Shaner]

Because we have children.

[Levi]

So you have to agree on where we're.

[Seth Shaner]

Where the children so that we can see that where the children. And part of that is what we want. I want to see my children. Okay. Like, I'm not going to be, you know, a lot of guys take off. Right. Or whatever, or just aren't around much. That's not the life I want. I don't want that for my kids. And so part of this is the other. Another part of this is I look. And it doesn't mean that I can't make other decisions, but a big part of this, my biggest why, is I want to show my kids that, yeah, things can be tough and we can get out of it.

[Chris]

Right.

[Seth Shaner]

I didn't think we would. It would get this far. I didn't think I'd have that many failed deals. So last year I had, you know, cash, and it was going to be fine. And then we. I got to the point where it was like the. The last failed deal was like, kind of put the nail in the coffin where things got it tighter.

[Chris]

Have you talked to. Have you talked to your ex about relocating?

[Seth Shaner]

No, she's thought about it, but she would want to go somewhere. I won't work for me. So it's just one of those.

[Chris]

Why.

[Seth Shaner]

Why wouldn't We've never had an active conversation.

[Chris]

Why wouldn't somewhere where she wants to go wouldn't work for you?

[Seth Shaner]

Because where she wants to go, I don't want to be. Where does she work? For me.

[Chris]

Where?

[Seth Shaner]

Idaho.

[Chris]

She wants to go to Idaho. Why wouldn't Idaho work for you?

[Seth Shaner]

Because I don't want to live in Idaho.

[Chris]

Okay.

[Seth Shaner]

The lifestyle that works for me doesn't. Is not there. Okay, but it doesn't mean. I mean, there are other places. Like, I'm just.

[Chris]

I mean, I mean, I'm thinking of all the places in the world that you could live besides crazy California.

[Seth Shaner]

What is it? Yeah, it's not so crazy. I know.

[Chris]

I love Orange county. But guess what?

[Seth Shaner]

You're great people.

[Chris]

I'm great people. But you still are at the beck and call of Governor Newsom. Right? Like, you still have the, the crazy taxes, the crazy everything else. Like, I don't care how great the people are there.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah. No Orange County. I wish Orange county could secede from California because it really is completely different. But I understand what you're saying.

[Chris]

But what I'm saying is, like, you have ownership over this. Like, you could go to Vegas, you could go to Idaho, you could probably go to Utah. Like, there's somewhere that your ex wife would agree to that would still give you the benefit that you want of being around your kids and spend way less money, which would allow you the dollars to be able to go invest in what is absolutely needed to be able to grow this business.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah, I think part of it is I've seen this as a very short term issue. You know, once I get a commission or two, this, I mean, we're good. And things are, you know, things are rolling because I anticipate having a lot of these coming up quickly. So that's the other part. I mean, another option is.

[Chris]

But what if they don't sell it?

[Seth Shaner]

Well, what's the other. I mean, the other option is sell the house. We have a bunch of cash and rent for a little bit. And then, you know, it buys me a lot of time, actually, which. That would work too.

[Chris]

Yeah. Yeah. And you know, I'm just, I'm just trying to poke holes in like in your, in your beliefs.

[Seth Shaner]

I'm glad. No, these. It's good. It's good for me to. Because part. A lot of this is my, the second, my second half because I've been trying to be respectful to her and what for sure, how she sees her life, how she sees raising the children. The children, you know, all these friendships and Things that we've made over the many years being there. It's not that it shouldn't be hard for me to make the money we need. It's the challenge is doing these two different things at the same time can be tough. Now the deal from February that, the last one that he pulled out three weeks before, called me Friday and said, I'm ready now. I'm serious. And this is the deal that I think I can add, you know, million bucks of cash flow within six months.

[Chris]

Levi, would you say?

[Unnamed]

Well, I was asking why Idaho? Like, why does she want Idaho?

[Seth Shaner]

She has a sister there. That's why. That's the only reason.

[Chris]

How much, how much money could you give by selling your house?

[Seth Shaner]

I mean, it's got about 600, maybe a little more of equity.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Seth Shaner]

And technically I sell businesses now. Right. But I have a real to sell that. I have a real estate license, so I could save some money on the commission as well. Yeah.

[Chris]

I mean, dude, I mean, 600,000 versus, like how much cash you have in the bank right now.

[Seth Shaner]

Not enough. Right. What's your 40 or 50?

[Levi]

What's your, what's your house worth?

[Seth Shaner]

Two million.

[Chris]

So. And to go and rent something very similar in the same area.

[Seth Shaner]

Well, it wouldn't even have to be that big. Right. I mean, we live in one of the nicest. I mean, it's one of the nicest communities. Nice home, which at the time made a ton of sense. I'm super, I'm super glad I bought it when I did because it, it made a lot of money. We actually already took a little bit out to pay some stuff off before. It was great. Like we were in a great situation.

[Chris]

You feel like you're lying to yourself living there.

[Seth Shaner]

I haven't been at all now.

[Chris]

I mean, do you, do you feel.

[Seth Shaner]

I don't, like, I don't feel like I am. No, not at all. You know, I feel like that's, that's what's strange is I feel like I completely fit in.

[Chris]

Right.

[Seth Shaner]

The issue is it's a short term issue.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Unnamed]

And so everything works out, though.

[Seth Shaner]

How short term? Well, that hasn't worked out. Right. Right. I've already been through a lot of that.

[Chris]

Right.

[Seth Shaner]

And so. Yeah, it could be longer for, you know, whatever, but.

[Levi]

So the fear. The fear is that if it works out, great. If it doesn't work out, what do I do?

[Seth Shaner]

Well, it'll look, it'll. It'll work out. It's a matter of time.

[Chris]

Okay, so let's.

[Seth Shaner]

It's a matter of is it?

[Chris]

Now, let's continue down the what if game. You go, you sell your Property, you make 600 grand. What would you do with that? Well, first of all, would your ex wife be entitled to half of that?

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah, she would. I mean, the goal was for us to keep stability for the kids. So, I mean, I'd say. I don't know it again, this is. If it was my decision. Okay, that. Let's play the what if game. If it's my decision, then they would move into a house that was cheaper. They could rent a place that's four grand a month or something. Okay. For. They would have enough bedrooms and, you know, then I could actually rent a place for fairly cheap and, you know.

[Chris]

So what would you do with. What would you do with money? What would you do with proceeds?

[Seth Shaner]

Well, I. Yeah, I've never thought about it. That's a good idea.

[Chris]

I would.

[Seth Shaner]

I would take the first 20. Sorry, can you.

[Levi]

No, go ahead.

[Seth Shaner]

I would take the first 20,000 and invest in what I'm doing because right off the bat, I've got a bunch of little things that I could be doing to drum up a lot more of these deals. Because the more deals I have, the more listings I have, the more likely it works out and the more likely it works out faster, right? Because if I have five deals all at the same time, if two of them don't go through and three of them go through, great, you know, that's 300 grand.

[Levi]

So. So one of the. One of the biggest challenges, right, is like, you're trying to create a specific experience for your kids.

[Seth Shaner]

I'm trying to create consistency for my kids. I think divorce is already chaotic enough. And as I talked to people whose parents were divorced, I asked a lot of questions about what hurt you in the end. Like, what were the things that, you know, if they didn't happen, would have been better. A lot of those are around how they treated each other, the two, you know, mom and dad, how they talk about each other and another. And just the consistency of, you know, still having the same friends and, you know, having. If this one part of your life is different and it's difficult, having everything else consistent can be really helpful for children. But that doesn't mean I can't look. I can. There are other houses in the same neighborhood, you know, a block away that are half the price.

[Levi]

Because I think one of the biggest challenges you have is, like, how you define what's best for them and the sacrifice to. To provide that. In other words, maybe there's a short term sacrifice that creates way more stability, but it's, it creates instability before it creates more stability. And I think sometimes there's. There's like limiting beliefs in that aspect of. It's like you have a priority to create stability, but your worst case scenario. We talk a lot about your worst case scenario. A lot of times you're so close to your worst case scenario that. And that's where people stay comfortable is because they don't want to get to their worst case scenario, which would be.

[Chris]

Like falling only a little bit further.

[Levi]

Falling a little bit further. But your best case scenario is like 10x20x what you're currently experiencing.

[Seth Shaner]

What's funny about this, I don't. I'm not afraid of the worst case scenario because I've been through a lot worse.

[Chris]

Right.

[Seth Shaner]

That 2008 situation, that was terrible. I mean, that was like you're talking.

[Levi]

You'Re talking finances or are you talking kids?

[Seth Shaner]

I'm saying, I'm talking at the. Well, I'm saying like worst case scenario at any moment in your life, right? And everything changing, saying, okay, I need to move, I need to do that. Like when your whole life changes. Right. So that's as bad as it gets, Right? The bad as it gets in this world is you move somewhere else. Right?

[Levi]

Yeah.

[Seth Shaner]

And you're still alive and you can still provide food for your family. It's really not as bad as everyone thinks. Right. And so for me, I actually think so, given this conversation, I wonder if it'd be an interesting. It would be interesting to sit down with the family and say, look, if all of a sudden we lived in a different house, but now we could go do more things as a family.

[Chris]

Right.

[Seth Shaner]

I mean, because that's interesting to me.

[Chris]

Because you guys are being held back 600k that you have in this house.

[Seth Shaner]

We're being house poor.

[Chris]

Yes.

[Seth Shaner]

Well, well. And I always said I would never be house poor, but we weren't. Right? We were, we were doing fine and the path was there and Covid did hurt my earning potential for a few years because I all of a sudden didn't get extra profit sharing and all this stuff. But that said, because I'm, you know, that said now I am house poor because the house is the expensive part.

[Chris]

Yeah. You know, well, so, I mean, so going to the kids, right. I think it's a great idea, sit down with kids, like really find out what they want. First of all, like, we think our kids want more that are like completely different, what they actually want. Right. I Put my kids through. We've moved 14 times during my career, right. And the before we live in the house that we're in right now, we lived in my in laws garage in an apartment. I had four kids in that apartment in this, in this house. And we had moved from our house in California, which was a really nice home, 3,200 square feet in San Diego, right? Really nice. Into a garage and then into a really nice home. And we were in that garage for a year and a half. Guess what? Their life didn't change, right? Like they were happy, they were good, they made new friends and everything else where like everything from the outside looking in from a parents standpoint would have been like, oh, I'm putting my kids through this crazy thing or whatever. And so I just think we buy too much into that narrative that it's just not real.

[Seth Shaner]

And I agree with you. I actually don't think that especially if I could keep them in a similar neighborhood, going to the same schools, like they'd be great, you know, I don't think they'd have a problem with it at all. I think the challenge is my ex wife who you know, she's, I've been trying to help keep her head in the game, let me put it that way, right. Over the last couple years because for her she's like, oh my gosh, now I don't have income anymore, how am I going to live? Yada yada yada. Now I'm not the kind of person that I'm not going to leave her and make her go, whatever. I prefer that she and I didn't grow up with parents around. And so our commitment when we got married was that I would work and she was going to stop working. So she didn't develop her career and she doesn't have a way to make good money and we want our kids to have parents around at least one.

[Chris]

Well, here's I, I think the unfortunate truth is as a non income earner, you have to be the decision driver in this situation, right? Like if you're, if you're paying, if you're paying the bills, right?

[Seth Shaner]

I mean as the income earner.

[Chris]

As the income earner, right. If you're paying the bills, as the income earner, you've got to be the more of the decision maker, right? Because at the end of the day you're responsible, right? Like she's not, she's not the one.

[Seth Shaner]

Floating the bills and I want to be because I'm the one who can do it.

[Chris]

And that's and that's fine. Like, congratulations that you're pulling that off as a divorce man. Because I think that's great and a big, big honor. But like, but like, you know, you can't have her high society desires overcome.

[Seth Shaner]

Yep.

[Chris]

What your income is. Right. And so, like, you gotta put yourself up for the best opportunity to be able to go and build this business.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah.

[Chris]

Because. So let's, let's continue out of this game. You said you take 20 grand. So if you had, you came upon this money, you sold the house, you had 20 grand, you would go and you would invest in opportunities to be able to market.

[Seth Shaner]

I would do a few. Yeah, I would do a few things because I, you know, the goal would be to start to test what's working. Right. Because right now what I'm doing is working and I'm doing very little and I need to do a lot. I could do a ton more first. I would bring on interns to help me input data and make.

[Chris]

Would you stop consulting?

[Seth Shaner]

Absolutely.

[Chris]

So first of all, let's just unburden that right now. We're going to use a little Kamala Harris crap here. Unburdened the past. Must we unburden what has been or whatever she says?

[Seth Shaner]

Right. So I wouldn't know what she said.

[Chris]

She, she has this funny phrase that everyone makes fun of her. So, so let's, let's just say you unburden yourself from actually having to go do the thing. Which. Would you say that you hate doing that right now?

[Seth Shaner]

Well, I hate it. The only reason I hate it is because they don't listen. And it's one thing if you have clients who want to change, but they don't. And I'm. And I'm selling myself for pennies when I could be investing in.

[Chris]

Have you heard us, heard us talk about the energy matrix?

[Seth Shaner]

No.

[Chris]

Okay, so turn around here. I got it just right on the tv. Right behind you. Okay, so there's four quadrants. This is quadrant one, two, three, and four. Okay. So quadrant one is low energy. Low value. Energy is defined by things that you love doing. Right. Like when you do it, you get energy back. You're like, that's awesome. Right? Value is defined by what it would cost for you to do it or somebody else to do it. So low value would be something that, like, is cheap to hire somebody else to do.

[Seth Shaner]

Right.

[Chris]

And so what I hear you saying is that consulting is quadrant three. It's low energy. People aren't listening to you. They're not doing what you. So you're not you, but it, but it's high value. It's paying the bills, Right? Would you agree with that?

[Seth Shaner]

At the moment, yes. Under current circumstance, borderline. I mean, if anything is somewhere between quadrant three, Quadrant one.

[Chris]

Okay, so it might actually not Low energy, low value.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah, because not really paying, but it. What it could or should.

[Chris]

Right, right. But I mean, it's higher value to your current situation.

[Seth Shaner]

I mean, let's put it this way. I, I was charging one client 10,000amonth, and in six weeks we had a half million dollars a year in savings. I mean, I should be charging a lot more. So my point is, that's why I say it's low value.

[Levi]

Okay.

[Chris]

So it's, it's even.

[Seth Shaner]

It's really, it's.

[Chris]

I was saying it's not quadrant four, right? It's not.

[Seth Shaner]

No, it's quadrant one.

[Chris]

Quadrant one.

[Levi]

Let me ask you, Let me ask a question on it. So right now your focus is restaurants. Is there, are there other industries that you can apply your same skill set on?

[Seth Shaner]

Of course. I worked in 30 industries between private equity and consulting and all the stuff.

[Chris]

But this is your main niche, you know, this the best.

[Seth Shaner]

Well, this is where I've got the most. Yeah, I've got a lot of credibility. But the other thing is like anything that's like chain, right, Whatever. That's like a perfect model. Restaurants are one. They're the most complicated, actually. Most others, like you think about gyms or all these like Jiffy Lubes or whatever, they're way simpler. So restaurants are about as complicated as they get.

[Chris]

Okay, so let's, let's keep going down this what if game, because the what if game, I think, is your roadmap to where you're going to get some freedom here.

[Seth Shaner]

Right?

[Chris]

And so you're able to put away consulting. Right. And you're able to go and spend some money. So first of all, when building a business, when building any type of business, you have to first identify the quadrant one activities that you're doing on a daily basis. Right. And from the sound of it, you have an assistant that you're hiring for one hour a week right now.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah, yeah. She. Look, because if I have a 30 cable bill, I won't pay it even if I have a million bucks in the bank. So I hire her to make sure I pay.

[Chris]

That's awesome.

[Seth Shaner]

I know my weaknesses and I.

[Chris]

And that's, that's a perfect example of.

[Seth Shaner]

She's amazing.

[Chris]

Low energy, low value. Right. Like you'd rather pay her.

[Seth Shaner]

It's cheap Low energy, high value. Well, it's the highest value I have in my life. She is the most important person.

[Chris]

Well, you're saying it's high, but the.

[Seth Shaner]

High value to me.

[Chris]

But I'm saying the. The actual thing that she does is. Is a low value because it doesn't cost you a lot of money to get it.

[Seth Shaner]

Oh, okay, right. Low cost.

[Chris]

Yes, Low. Low value. Right. Value is cost.

[Seth Shaner]

Value is. Okay. Value is cost.

[Chris]

Energy is what. What it. So that you would hate doing. You hate paying that bill.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah.

[Chris]

Right. And it. And you can easily hire it out. So now what we have to do is identify the other things in your life that are the same way.

[Seth Shaner]

Right.

[Chris]

That you would do in building this business that are low energy, low value.

[Seth Shaner]

And I've identified a bunch of those things. Yeah, well, so one of those things is I need to build a database of people to go after because I have to go find these people who own the restaurant chains. Right. There's something like 750,000 restaurants in the US and a lot of those are franchise, but the independents are the ones that need my help the most. And that's where the biggest niche is. That's not being filled. So for me, it's. I gotta put them in a database, so I gotta go find information. Blah, blah, blah. It's a lot of just administrative kind of stuff. I can get an intern for that. You can intern.

[Chris]

You can get a Filipino.

[Seth Shaner]

Right?

[Chris]

Like, dude, there's Filipinos that do that kind of crap for five to six bucks an hour and are phenomenal at it. They can do incredible research, like access to databases, everything else. Like, that's literally all they do.

[Seth Shaner]

That might be even better because then they don't graduate. Right?

[Chris]

They don't graduate. It's essentially like an intern forever.

[Seth Shaner]

Right, Right, right. No, I mean that. And that could be. And so that's one. It's like putting stuff in the database. A second one could even be cold calls, just, hey, are you considering selling your restaurants in the next two years? And then set up a meeting for me? Kind of put me up as, like, the expert, because I am. And so what.

[Chris]

What would you say when you're in, like, your zone, your expertise, what's your high energy, high value? Like, what activities do you need to be doing every single day to make this thing just.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah, the things that are the most valuable for me to be doing are having conversations with people, like, who are ready, who want to sell their business. Right. So, like, talking. Talking to them about what?

[Chris]

Get closing deals.

[Seth Shaner]

So seeing the numbers. I need to see the numbers.

[Chris]

Analyzing.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah, analyzing them. I don't need to necessarily put them all together, but I need to see them in the end to say, okay, what do we have here?

[Chris]

Yep.

[Seth Shaner]

And then what is this worth? And then having conversations with the seller to say, you know, those conversations are the most valuable for me.

[Chris]

So negotiation.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah, negotiation. And. Well, and the initial sale to get the listing. Because when they meet me and I can talk about every single piece of their business and they realize I understand it that way, it, it's, it builds a lot of trust.

[Chris]

So if I'm hearing.

[Seth Shaner]

Try to trust fast, if I'm hearing.

[Chris]

You right, if you had a magic wand and you could have somebody build a database, do cold calls, generate leads. Generate leads. And, and then you just sat. And then you would also want somebody to compile the, the information, right?

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah, yeah. And then help and then.

[Chris]

So like analytics and administer.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah. Or maybe you're saying the financials. Yeah, I could, Yes. I could have someone put the financials together as well. Yes.

[Chris]

So you'd want somebody to do some initial due diligence.

[Seth Shaner]

This is what I, When I was at GE Capital, I got a guy like this and he was like, how.

[Chris]

Much did he cost?

[Seth Shaner]

Well, I wasn't paying for him because I was an employee luckily.

[Chris]

But how much do you think he'd cost?

[Seth Shaner]

He cost, at the time, he was probably 120 grand or something. Okay. But I don't need that. Right? I mean, at the time, you know, he was an up and comer at ge. He was under me and I would just, if I was out having meetings, I'd call him. Hey, I'm sending you financials. Have them ready by the time I get back. I get back, we have a meeting the next day, we have an approved deal by the next. I, I was super efficient, so I dropped.

[Chris]

Okay, so we're, we're going to keep playing this what if game. If you had unlimited leads and like deals put in front of you, how many could you close a month?

[Seth Shaner]

I mean, a lot. I don't.

[Chris]

A lot.

[Seth Shaner]

I'm not.

[Chris]

A week. One a week.

[Seth Shaner]

Because the only thing I would have to be doing right, I could, I could hire out almost everything except for, you know, some of those initial calls and like a check in. I mean, I don't know, 10, 20, 30, it wouldn't really matter.

[Chris]

Okay, you can close 10. You could close 10amonth.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah.

[Chris]

Okay. Okay, let's. This is great. This is great. And each deal is going to be worth at least 100 grand on average.

[Seth Shaner]

I think they'll be about 100 grand.

[Levi]

Okay.

[Seth Shaner]

The stuff I've been going after, it's all built about that.

[Chris]

So let's, let's think about this. You're talking about a million dollars in deals, right? 10amonth. A million dollars in deals. Okay. What would it cost to generate a million dollars in deals? So we talk about, like a data compilation guide, due diligence, that's 10 grand a month.

[Seth Shaner]

Okay, well, and some of this, the other side of that is online, right? So there's a lot of people that I don't have any information for that I need to go find by. What are you saying? I'm just saying, like social media, whatever.

[Chris]

Okay.

[Seth Shaner]

Linked. LinkedIn might be a great.

[Chris]

Okay. But we're talking about, like, your most expensive employees. We're talking about somebody that can do data compilation, due diligence, or 10, 12 grand a month. Okay. Somebody that does database compilation. We're talking about a Filipino for 2k a month, right? We're talking someone that does cold calls. You could literally have five Filipinos doing cold calls, literally, that, you know, now, now we got, you know, 4K a month. Okay. And you can go and spend a bunch of money on marketing, Right? Like, you can literally spend 50k a month, right?

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah. And I was going to say the thing. I might run out. I may run out of leads like to call. So that's where I got to figure out where to find the information.

[Chris]

Well, so I think you're saying there's 700. How many, how many restaurants?

[Seth Shaner]

There's. I mean, the numbers that I see, like across, I mean, is about seven or 50,000 restaurants in the U.S. okay, so 750K. Now, a lot of those are franchised. Like, you know, McDonald's has 20,000. You know, Subway has 20,000 restaurants, that kind of thing. So a lot of those are Them are those. Now I do have. I can go after those too. I have, you know, two. I can, you know, I have a couple very large national brands that are kind of under. That are under me as well, that I could be having someone call.

[Chris]

So what I want to point out here, turn around.

[Seth Shaner]

There's. There's a lot.

[Chris]

What I, what I want to point.

[Seth Shaner]

Out here is, let me say too, if I run out of restaurants, there's other businesses I can go to, gyms I can do.

[Chris]

You could do home service businesses for us because we're, we want to buy those deals.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah. So I, So, okay, let, let's just. Okay.

[Chris]

We're talking about 10 deals a month is a million. Let's say you don't do a million. Let's say you do one deal, right?

[Seth Shaner]

Right.

[Chris]

And you hired everything out that we just talked about.

[Seth Shaner]

And that's been my goal. One deal. Okay. But I don't want that to be my goal.

[Chris]

64, 66,000. So on the worst case scenario, you close one deal a month and you net 34k, you'd have 66k in expenses, you'd have 34 in net, which is about three times as much as what you're, what you're making right now, right? So like if you had a full time team, right? And let's, let's just say initially you didn't spend the $50,000 in marketing, but you had a full time team of, of people that are compiling database cold callers and somebody that's going to do all your due diligence and everything else. We're talking about $16,000 a month. How many months could you go off of what you have in equity to go and build this without making a deal?

[Seth Shaner]

So let's say 15k for the family to live and then whatever, 30,000 total, maybe with living and this.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Seth Shaner]

So we go, what is that, 20 months?

[Chris]

20 months, dude.

[Seth Shaner]

Yep.

[Chris]

You can go for 20 months before you close one deal, right. Would you ever in your life go 20 months full time and not close a deal?

[Seth Shaner]

I'm getting close to that right now.

[Chris]

No, that's not true. You've been closing deals.

[Seth Shaner]

That's true. I've been closing deals. Yes, you're right.

[Chris]

You've been closing deals. You've been closing consulting deals, Right. Like, have you ever in your life concentrated on something for 20 months and made zero?

[Seth Shaner]

Well, and that's what I would say. No, absolutely not. I mean, even at ge, they gave me the worst database. They. I mean, my friend who was already there told me not to take the job, right? He's like, this is a crap database. They put 11 of us out there, they hired 11 people, gave us the worst stuff. They said, we don't think there's any deals here. After the first year, I did like two or three deals. No one else had done any. They let all those people go, they gave me the whole database and then I started blowing it up.

[Levi]

I think on the other side you're talking.

[Seth Shaner]

Yes.

[Levi]

You're always talking about the seller side, right? You're trying to reach out to people.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah. Dubai said too.

[Levi]

I think the buy side would be even more lucrative as Far as deal.

[Seth Shaner]

Flow, it can be. It's, it's the, you know, the, the challenge is buyers, you know, you don't always, it's matching the buyers is harder. But if you have a listing, you know, if you go list your house, you're going to get paid for it. Right. But if it's going to sell at all, so that's the place where I'm going to make the most money. But to your point, even on the way here, the listing I got last week that isn't even up yet, I was already calling a, I think the perfect buyer on the way here, telling him this is your deal.

[Levi]

Well, what I'm saying though is people who are looking to buy restaurants, right? Like they're getting, there's restaurants on the market, they just don't know if they should buy them or not.

[Seth Shaner]

Right.

[Levi]

And so like private equity, I mean, we've had private equity where they bring in an expert. Right. Why aren't you getting brought in on those deals as the expert where you have a piece of the transaction?

[Chris]

That's consulting.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah. Well, the funds in our industry, they're specific to restaurants and they know what they're doing.

[Levi]

Got it.

[Seth Shaner]

They don't need me.

[Levi]

So you're just selling.

[Seth Shaner]

They need me. But to give them deals. So. And I know them and I have a deal I'm working on with one of them right now.

[Chris]

But I'm just saying, which, I mean, dude, there's, there's. The opportunities are unlimited. Right? But let's, let's just focus on what you have here. Right?

[Seth Shaner]

Like, yeah, I was hoping this is where we went today, because this has been. It's almost like I'm afraid of this dude.

[Chris]

And here's the thing.

[Seth Shaner]

But I didn't have a way to fund it. But we just figured that out.

[Chris]

We just figured that out.

[Seth Shaner]

Like, and so I've already got the.

[Chris]

Money, apparently, dude, you're, you're living in a, in a self imposed prison right now.

[Seth Shaner]

I know, right?

[Chris]

And you're not taking the action. You're doing things that you hate, like consulting. You're barely paying bills and you're slowly kicking your side project down the, down the street hoping that a few of these deals close rather than you're like, dude, you know, right. Like, you gotta stop lying to yourself. You know, this will work.

[Seth Shaner]

Oh, I know.

[Chris]

If you go 100%.

[Seth Shaner]

Like, I, it's almost like this sick hobby that I just sit there and I just like, okay, who's the next person? Because I get excited and I don't think everyone in this world does this, but I'm sure you do, and you probably do too. But, like, what will the next thing, the next rock I turn over, what's under it? Like, I just get excited about it. I don't know why.

[Chris]

You're a deal maker. You're an entrepreneur. Like, and here's the thing, you can go and build this business. I know you have a goal to make a million bucks next year. Let's freaking make a million bucks a month, dude. Like, no, like, and, and this is totally doable. You literally just have to say, you got to look at your worst case scenario. Okay? I'm going to go, I'm going to sell my house. I'm going to have 600 grand. I have 20 months. Okay? That pays for family and that pays for full. Like a full team, dude. Like, we're talking all the Filipino back that you need and one MBA that, that knows what he's doing to be able to do all the work that is necessary, literally to fund that crap, to fund family, everything you need. One deal every three months. Yep, one deal every three months. But let's take the real upside, right? Like, you know that with a team like that, how many, how. What is the potential that you can go and close?

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah, I'm already on a, on pace for about two a month because I've got two that should sign that, you know, almost one assigned. The next one should sign. I have two more. I'm teaming up for next month. And now that's without doing hardly anything.

[Chris]

And now.

[Seth Shaner]

And that's 10sb be.

[Chris]

And that's you doing it on the side. Right? Because, because your consulting thing, you get rid of the consulting team, you go a hundred miles deep on this one thing and you have no downside potential. Because you know in the back of your mind, I got 20 months to make $0, right?

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah.

[Chris]

And I could just go all, all in. And now we go and scale. We put dollars behind leads. We go. And then literally a million bucks or 10 deals a month. Very doable. And then what does it look like to go and scale this to 100 million a year?

[Levi]

But what you're also forgetting, he's already as. You already have deals lined up.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah, that's. Yeah, I already have deals lined up.

[Levi]

And those will take what, six months?

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah. So that's the thing. It's been the sales cycle that's a little bit long, but which you can.

[Chris]

Which you can afford under this scenario.

[Seth Shaner]

That's part of the value, right? Is being able to wait. A lot of people can't. Can't or won't do that. But, but the other, the other part of this too is in getting the deals. You know, if I start, when I start to think about like referral sources. So investment advisors who know their client has this business they need to sell, they're not going to get paid the advisor till they sell that business and invest the money, right? Like estate attorneys, other brokers, a lot of them don't want to do restaurants. So I have, I could have someone calling all these people too, who are all referral sources.

[Chris]

Levi, what are you thinking, man? What's going through you? What's cooking over your brain over there?

[Unnamed]

I was just cooking up like the outreach piece of like getting leads, but also thinking about your marketing strategy because, like, you're clearly the expert in the industry, how easy it will be to position yourself where you could save a lot of money by positioning yourself as the expert, right? Giving out information, everything, and selling implementation like Alex Ramos, he does. And people are now coming to you like, hey, I'm, you know, you make an Instagram video or YouTube video about, hey, how do you understand if my business is ready to sell? Or like, how do I go find a good deal? And now people are coming to you like, holy crap. Now I know this is everything I need to do to get my restaurant ready to sell. Now you've got a.

[Chris]

And I've seen this, like in your write up here, right? Like, you have this part of your model. You're like, hey, I'm going to go and do short videos that educate the restaurant industry. Do like my own little podcast.

[Seth Shaner]

I can totally do it because.

[Chris]

And here. And let's go back. The reason you're not doing this is because you have these chains built up, right? Like, so we just remove those chains, get back to this, this area of freedom of imagination, right? Of like, what if, what are the possibilities, right, dude? Like, so my challenge would be to you. One, go and get that money, right? Like, like, literally free that up as fast as you possibly can sell the house. Like, it's, it's your ball and chain, okay? Two would be go and build a five year model. Okay? So we have, we have a five year model. It's part of our course. We're going to, we'll give you the videos for that on, like, how to build the five year model, which is like mapping out what you want this thing to look like from an organizational structure, backing it in with like what you would pay to salespeople and everything else. Because, dude, I really think you have the ability to build like Levi's talking about that personal brand, generate leads, be the authority of this space and have a huge sales team that you're doing $100 million in commissions a year. Like, I really think you have something here that's absolutely phenomenal. And nobody is effectively doing well in private equity.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah. And people are. And there are a lot of people trying to sell. Franchise. Everyone's so focused on Franch Restaurant. Franchise. Right. Franchise, franchise, franchise. Because now it's sexy.

[Chris]

Right.

[Seth Shaner]

Even though it wasn't for a long, long time. And now. But the. But there, there are these ancillary things that no one's doing. So there's a huge opportunity.

[Levi]

I think, I think another thing too. And this kind of ties back to our initial conversation. So. So first off, like making your money in concentration, you. And then you keep your money in diversification.

[Seth Shaner]

Right, right, right.

[Levi]

So we've talked about concentrating and what's really going to make you the money. But secondly, I think once with that clarity, I think you have an opportunity to teach your kids something really cool. Right. Pitching them the vision, letting them see the vision go from idea to formation. Like that's a lot of value.

[Seth Shaner]

Well, not only that, but I. Someone the other day said, why aren't you hiring your kids?

[Chris]

Right.

[Seth Shaner]

And I'm like my third, you know, my 13 year old would probably. I'm a 15 year old too. They would love to be one of my Filipinos.

[Chris]

Right, Right. Yeah. Some of, some of your database, cold callers, whatever else.

[Seth Shaner]

Right? Yeah. Then doing the database stuff, they could totally do that. They're super smart and they want to earn money and I've just been like, perfect opportunity. We don't have. There's no newspapers anymore.

[Chris]

Right.

[Seth Shaner]

So they literally can't get a job. Right. But I'm like trying businesses.

[Chris]

I'm talking you, Gavin Newsom.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah. I hope he's listening. I'd be happy to sit down with you with him.

[Chris]

Love to.

[Seth Shaner]

We have a lot to talk about.

[Chris]

Let's go. So, okay, so I mean, dude, tons, tons of, tons of opportunities. So what we're going to do, we're going to give you, we'll give you access to like some of our five year plan. Definitely go and like implement that. The other thing is, so we do weekly consulting with a bunch of business owners. We want to just give you free access to come and be a part of that. Come, come join our calls for a month. Love to be a Part of that. So for anybody that's watching this show, you guys can go and try it out. But yeah, we have a paid group where we do twice a week calls, everything like that, where we do a lot of this. Right. Like question answers, this is what's working and whatnot. So we're going to invite you to come and join and just be a part of that with us. And just for being our guest, you come and do that for a month. But dude, like you've got, you got some awesome here. If you just will take the action.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah, yeah, I've got a. So we're talking about selling, right. And I've got a couple ideas to sell to different people in my family now. Right. Selling the house. And that's not a, it won't be a simple task. But this is the thing. If I think back to, you know, I'd never been divorced, I'd never gone through that process.

[Chris]

Right.

[Seth Shaner]

And there are a lot of feelings sometimes. Yeah. And especially for, you know, my ex wife, she had a lot of feelings about it. And you know, now I think we've gotten to a place where I think at the time it wouldn't have worked. Like. Yeah. But now, you know, we're in a better place. She wants a little more freedom. She want, you know, I think the things that we want. I think things have calmed down enough that the, this conversation could work.

[Chris]

Create some alignment. So what do you, what do you think is going to be the biggest hurdles in going to executing the game plan?

[Seth Shaner]

I think it's convincing her to do it.

[Chris]

Okay.

[Seth Shaner]

But I, but I, but I think taking a step back to say, hey, look, you're part of this. Look, I need to make her a part of the team.

[Chris]

Right.

[Seth Shaner]

And I believe in that. I just, we're, we're a team forever, no matter what. We have these beautiful children together and they're awesome kids and we want everyone to be happy in our family, you know. So I think helping her understand kind of the longer term view, helping her understand why I'm doing what I'm doing. She believes in me. It's not that. And I think she's become more and more open to the fact that this, what I'm doing now makes sense. I'm on the right path.

[Chris]

Right.

[Seth Shaner]

So I think that in, you know, in my kind of initial reaction, that's, I think the hardest. That's really the hardest. Yeah, I think that's it.

[Chris]

Yeah. And I just say to like anybody watching this, like it is so important that you realize how much self imposed chains that we put on ourselves. Right. Like we feel that we are captured and incarcerated to our current lifestyle. We have a choice. We have a choice to make.

[Seth Shaner]

Right.

[Chris]

Whether it's selling the house, whether it's relocating, whether it. I mean there are so many ways that we can change our life. Yet we just think like, this is my situation, I just have to deal with it. And so like I, I love just the idea. It's one of my favorite practices is the what if game. Like what if things were different? How can we just imagine, like allow ourselves to be free for a second. Right. Like, and not bound by the current situation. Just be free and like, how would we go about this differently?

[Seth Shaner]

And I'm not, my, my intention is not to plug coaches here.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Seth Shaner]

But I do think that it's so valuable to be able to have someone, you know, who's, you know, your friends don't always see that or they won't tell you that or I don't know, whatever it is. Right.

[Levi]

Yeah.

[Seth Shaner]

Friends don't always. They're great. They're there to support you and love you no matter what. Right.

[Levi]

Well, sometimes they're trying to protect the relationship, not the person.

[Chris]

Yeah. Usually protecting the relationship. Yeah.

[Seth Shaner]

All kinds of motivations. Right. But not bad. But you know, going to a coach, like, you know, you and I, we, we both worked with Sama. Right. Satema changed my life.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Seth Shaner]

Like I started getting crap done when I went to.

[Chris]

Absolutely.

[Seth Shaner]

After working with him.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Seth Shaner]

And I had a lot of things that I was stuck already. And he helped me get, give me tools as a coach that I could use. I'm super like addicted. Right. And it's just, and it's hard and sometimes I'll get in my head and get emotional about things. And he really gave me some tools to help me to be way more effective. And I'll tell you, you know, leading that, you know, 4,000 people in that company through the pandemic, I wouldn't have been able to do as good a job at all. I wouldn't even have taken the job. Right. Had I not worked with him.

[Chris]

Right.

[Seth Shaner]

And so I need to level up again. And you know, I just think that sometimes it's helpful to have someone else who can look at it and who's smart, who's been through it. Like you guys can say, you know what, you're missing something. Right? Right.

[Chris]

Dude.

[Seth Shaner]

So valuable.

[Chris]

You've got all the tools here. Right. Like you've got the unit economics, you've got the know how Right. Like, it's just, you know, like I said, unburdening yourself from, like, all these things and allowing yourself to go all in on this thing, that's absolutely an incredible.

[Levi]

It's a huge opportunity, I think, to echo that.

[Seth Shaner]

Right.

[Levi]

You can only see yourself if you look in the mirror, but we can look at you and see all, you know, all aspects of what's going on. Coaching is a very valuable for that aspect. What's interesting is, like, we all go through experiences when we're maybe less. Less mature on, you know, whether it's like, facing bankruptcy. Right. Sometimes you're like, crap, I have to do bankruptcy. And it's like, no, actually, you can go negotiate with every one of your debtors and not go through bankruptcy.

[Seth Shaner]

Which is what I. It's actually what I did and what.

[Chris]

I wish I would have done.

[Seth Shaner]

Well, I went to a bankruptcy attorney in Orem, Utah, where you relived, and I said, I paid the guy for one hour and I said, you know, tell me my options. He's like. He looked at the situation. He said, you don't have options. And I'm like, what are you talking about? He's like, yeah, file bank. There's no way. File bankruptcy. And I was like, screw. I think I said, screw you. And I walked out and I went. And I tell you, I feared the doorbell for years because, you know, at that house where you and I lived, that neighborhood, that doorbell would ring and it would be. It was another someone else delivering papers to me. And I immediately call him. And I'd call him right away, say, look, I. Sorry, you're good, man. Share. I owe you money. This is what I have is what I don't have. You know, how can we work it out? And so I. I did avoid it. Everyone around me told me I should file bankruptcy. And I'm not. I'm not proud of it. Still, though, I lost money. I didn't. It wasn't my intention.

[Chris]

But you face it like a man. That's awesome.

[Seth Shaner]

I face it. It took me eight years, and I paid it all off. And it was through selling at GE Capital. I made commissions, paid it all off, and then I was able to buy a house. And I have, you know, whatever. So it's not even about the credit score. It's not about any of that. It's more about, like, I just want to see if I could do it.

[Levi]

Yeah, I think that's. I think that's the power and what your story is. Right? It's. It's no matter what the problem is, there's always a solution. Sometimes we don't see it and it's how can you get some more clarity to see past the problem?

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah.

[Chris]

You know, one of the things that we do with all of our guests is we have them do a disc assessment, which he did. And you know, you're a high D, low C, low I. And your, your disc style is results driven, which is like one of my favorite personalities.

[Seth Shaner]

Right. Like, not mine. It has his minuses.

[Chris]

It has, it has its negatives.

[Seth Shaner]

It does.

[Chris]

But you get crap done.

[Seth Shaner]

I do, yeah.

[Chris]

That's the beauty. Like when you have a personality like this and an opportunity like you do where literally you can run for 20 months without making income, you will find a way to succeed because of who you are.

[Seth Shaner]

Right.

[Chris]

And man, just lean into that, man. Like go in and like, I know it's going to be difficult. There's going to be some, some heartache and making some of these changes.

[Seth Shaner]

Right.

[Chris]

Going to addressing it with the ex wife, with the kids, with community, with your pride. Right. What, whatever it is. Right. Whatever. Whatever the things worried about that.

[Seth Shaner]

Right.

[Chris]

Like, but it's going to be hard. Like you're going to have to go and do some stuff that's not comfortable.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah.

[Chris]

And so like man, go address that and like, dude, go run, man, this thing, this thing is awesome. Get away from that consulting. Get out of, get out of that, you know, quadrant one and quadrant three and like just get in your zone of quadrant four. The things that you love doing, negotiating deals, leading teams.

[Seth Shaner]

Right.

[Chris]

Like you can go and build something that's pretty freaking awesome that can be gone and sold for, you know, eight, nine figures.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Chris]

So sweet, man. So what are you committed to doing?

[Seth Shaner]

Having some difficult conversations about. Yeah. Selling the house and then making my plan, My five year plan. Okay.

[Chris]

So I got here game plan. So conversations.

[Seth Shaner]

Yep.

[Chris]

Stations for selling house. Okay. Two, you said what? Five year plan.

[Seth Shaner]

Five year plan. Which then needs to back up to a one year plan, which needs to back up to 90 days. Yes. And then of course I go to weekly and then start hiring and training. I mean, well, I need to build the structure.

[Chris]

Yeah, so you need to build the systems.

[Seth Shaner]

Like what's the end structure look like and what would it look like today? Who's going to wear what hats? I'm good at that.

[Chris]

So you're pretty good at building out sops?

[Seth Shaner]

Not sops, Structure.

[Chris]

Okay, so build structure.

[Seth Shaner]

But I can do sops. Yes. That's not a big deal.

[Chris]

Okay.

[Levi]

Are there Zero list. But any things you're going to eliminate.

[Chris]

Stop consulting.

[Levi]

Okay.

[Chris]

When you, when you, when are you going to stop consulting? Is that, is that step two, step three, step four?

[Seth Shaner]

Well, it's as soon as the house is sold, I guess.

[Chris]

Okay, so all right, so, so step two is sell house. So conversation to sell house.

[Seth Shaner]

Sell house and then sell house.

[Chris]

All right, Three would be stop consulting.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah.

[Chris]

Because I'll tell you what, one of the worst things that you could do right now is go sell the house, right? Like have the hard conversation, sell the house. And you're like, I'm going to hold on to this precious little client over here.

[Seth Shaner]

No, no, no, no. Right, well, well. And the challenge is this too though, and you brought up is that the they, some of them need some prep. So I have a deal right now that, you know, they could sell for 4 or 5 million, except they're not doing the, like, they don't have SOPs in their restaurant group. They have family tied into jobs that, you know. No, no, no. We need to professionalize something. So the challenge is like, that's partly why I want to do a video series because I want to be able to walk people through. Here are the steps to get your business ready to sell. Yep. Because a lot of them, you know, someone, someone starts their own restaurant and all of a sudden people buy their food and then they sell more of it and then they hire more people and then they do another one, another. But they don't ever professionalize. It's the other problem is it's harder to sell. So I would like to, at some point I need to, I would like to provide that so I don't have to do. I want the consulting to be in a video format so I can so.

[Chris]

Build course somewhere along the line.

[Seth Shaner]

Build a course needs to be full, save line.

[Chris]

So can I, can I give you a couple just cautions there?

[Seth Shaner]

Yes. As mentioned.

[Chris]

So it's going to be, it's going to be a temptation to want to build that course because there's value in it, right?

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah, but it's, I think it's a long term, longer term thing.

[Chris]

It is a very long term. And I would say, I'm not going to say don't do it, but make sure that isn't like your sweet spot is going to be in front of customers closing deals. Right. Like that needs to be 80% of your time and then this other 20% of the time doing these longer term things that are going to play the long.

[Seth Shaner]

Where would you put, where would you fit, where would you fit in? Like building a personal brand.

[Unnamed]

Let me add to that. So anything that you think of when building a course, like if you're like, these are all the steps that you would take to get your restaurant ready for business. I would carve that out and then record the content and just post it for free on social media.

[Seth Shaner]

I was gonna start doing good. Yeah.

[Unnamed]

Because like Alex Moses is a great example. I also think of Ryan, what's his face, the real estate guy. Sirhan.

[Seth Shaner]

Oh, Sirhan.

[Unnamed]

Like you kind of look like him anyways.

[Seth Shaner]

But.

[Unnamed]

But what he did is he like, he positioned himself on social media, is like this real estate guy and now he gets deals because people just know him as the real estate guy. Even if maybe he's not the best real estate person in the world. So whatever you think of like the three things you need to do to fix your financial desert rush or you know, whatever that is for you that is in your brain, just post it to Instagram and tick tock and YouTube for free.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah, my thought was to. My thought was to. I heard this somewhere in, I don't know, some Spotify something and they were saying, hey, just do a five minute. I mean this would work for me. Five minute video, once a week, send it to the Philippines, have someone cut it into audio and this and that and this and that post and this and that and then it's done.

[Unnamed]

And a simple framework to do it is like you're talking about getting your kids involved. Like I would explain restaurant business to your kids so they can understand it and like, boom. Like oversimplifying it to your customer base is how you'll build value. Like, and so like that could be a video right there is explaining to your kids, you know, whatever.

[Chris]

Absolutely. And so when I say 80 20, I mean like consistently 80 20, right? Just making sure that 80% of your time is revenue generating activities.

[Seth Shaner]

Right.

[Chris]

Like things that are going to bring dollars in the other 20. Play the long game, the personal brand, the course, the, the different things. Right? Like, and don't overcomplicate it either. Right. Like just, I mean, right. It doesn't have to be professional. Cut. You literally can just hold your phone, shoot a video, drop it in social, upload it to Spotify.

[Seth Shaner]

Right.

[Chris]

Like it. Because at this point, initially it's just practice and if you start getting followers, great. And you can just improve it a little bit at a time and. But more importantly than anything is just that you're consistent consistently doing it.

[Unnamed]

The opportunity cost of you because what happens is a lot of people in your position when it comes to like building a personal brand is they'll wait for content to be perfect and they'll, they'll do the Philippines route, They'll do all this. They'll get the nice camera and stuff and they'll. I'll wait till it's perfect. But the opportunity cost of you not doing it all right. Far outweighs waiting till it's perfect. Like Chris was saying that I. Some of my most viral videos were me just with my phone with very little cuts. And so, like, honestly, it's more transparent that way and people enjoy it more. So anyways, consistency far outweighs perfection when it comes to personal brand.

[Chris]

All right, so, so we got these, these aren't numbered correctly, but so we got game plan, we got conversation for selling the house. Sell the house. Stop consulting. Build out a five year plan. Build out, structure, processes. I would probably say in here, higher team. And then build. Can't spell here. I dropped out of college. We're chilling.

[Seth Shaner]

We're just.

[Chris]

And then build. Build a course and brand. So I think, man, you go and run this. This right here. Yeah, this is going to be a life changer. You committed?

[Seth Shaner]

Of course. Yeah.

[Levi]

We need you to commit so we can talk to you in a year when you're making a million bucks a month.

[Seth Shaner]

Yeah. Then next, then, then I'll fly into Pasco instead of Seattle.

[Chris]

Let's go, let's go. All right, guys, we appreciate you jumping on for this episode. Next level pros, remember, no matter where you're at in the level of success, success is not determined by a destination, but a trajectory. There is always a next level. Whether it's in your relationships, your spirituality, your economic, your physique. There's always ways to improve. Let's take it up to the next level. Until next time.