Tony Cuccio | From $200 on Venice Beach to a $2 Billion Global Empire, Reinventing Beauty, Real Estate, and the Meaning of Success

Summary

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Podcast Summary

School of Hard Knocks Podcast

Episode: Tony Cuccio | From $200 on Venice Beach to a $2 Billion Global Empire, Reinventing Beauty, Real Estate, and the Meaning of Success
Date: October 31, 2025
Host: The School of Hard Knocks (James, Jack, Josh)
Guest: Tony Cuccio

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Episode Overview

This episode features Tony Cuccio, renowned entrepreneur and beauty industry pioneer, who transformed a $200 Venice Beach hustle into a $2 billion international empire. Cuccio takes listeners from his modest beginnings in Brooklyn to revolutionizing the nail industry, scaling globally, and amassing success in beauty, investments, and real estate. The conversation offers a raw, practical “masterclass” in entrepreneurship, financial wisdom, and the importance of giving back—delivered with Tony’s signature wit, candor, and hard-won insights.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The $2 Billion Journey: From Venice Beach to Global Mogul

• Venice Beach Origins
  • Tony arrived in California with $200 after two failed businesses.
  • Observed immense foot traffic at Venice Beach and began selling beauty products from a 5 sq. ft. booth.
  • “I was the first person to sell on Venice Beach. Sometimes you have to take circumstances and try different things.” (02:04)
• Discovering the Beauty Niche
  • Gel nails existed before, but Tony’s innovation was in marketing and improving durability: “I made them durable, I marketed them, and made hundreds of millions of dollars.” (03:19)
  • Reinvented industry standards—turned small retail into wholesale, parlayed profits by continually reinvesting.
• Scaling Without Investors
  • “I never wanted to go public… I want to keep it all for myself. I never took a line of credit or borrowed money.” (06:40)
  • Emphasizes bootstrap mentality, keeping overhead low, and the need for relentless sales.

2. Global Expansion and Lateral Thinking

• Entering 90 Countries
  • “I started traveling to 90 countries. The nail business started in California, but I knew they were going to want it in Africa, Europe, Japan… I had to get there first.” (04:41)
  • Brazil was the hardest but proved most rewarding due to protectionism and local production challenges: “It took me 15 years to build out.” (19:30)
• Novel Distribution & Negotiation Strategies
  • Rather than buying expensive trade show booths, Tony bought VIP tickets, organized his own meetings, and secured distribution contracts: “I walked away with ten contracts for ten countries… 44 years later, nine are still my distributors.” (14:08)
  • Lateral thinking: Pivoted to luxury brand “Cuccio” after reaching a growth plateau with his mass-market brand.

3. Power of Platforms and the TikTok Revolution

• E-commerce Evolution
  • “TikTok is going to be a thousand times more explosive than Amazon… They’re buying the content of the world.” (08:03, 09:02)
  • Shared story of young Singapore entrepreneurs generating $1.4 million on TikTok Live in a year (10:00).
  • Praises TikTok’s interactive power—teaching, selling, real-time customer feedback: “There’s nothing better than TikTok Live because it’s interactive.” (12:46)
• Where Attention Goes, Revenue Flows
  • Emphasized attention as a precursor to sales: “Where attention goes, revenue flows.” (13:27)

4. Philosophy on Business, Wealth, and People

• Never Get Burned Twice
  • “Nobody has ever fucked me twice… If someone screws you, just walk away.” (30:02)
• People: The Ultimate Asset (and Risk)
  • Building loyalty: Early employees given golden handcuffs (equity) to incentivize longevity and commitment.
  • “Without good people, you can’t do it yourself.” (28:14)
• Sales: Always Selling Yourself
  • “I never sold the product. I sold myself. My seminars were about how to make money, not nails.” (20:41, 25:14)
• Giving Back & Mentorship
  • “If you can figure out how to make other people money, you'll never fail.” (47:04)
  • The story of mentoring a young musician who became Beyoncé’s drummer after a viral TikTok clip (45:00–49:00).
  • Now finds more joy in giving than making: “The only time money is important is when you don’t have it.” (49:56)

5. Financial Masterclass: Bonds & Real Estate

• Tax-Free Bonds
  • “Tax-free bonds are a rich man's game… but everybody who's listening could buy one for 10,000. There's no risk if you don't sell before maturity.” (32:39–36:45)
  • “Don't leave your money in a checking account! If you can get 5%, why would you give your money for free?” (34:09)
• Real Estate Wisdom
  • Inspired to own rather than rent by wealthy mentors: “Why aren’t you the landlord?” (39:54)
  • “Buy investment-grade property with income, put 50% down, never second it, and never sell.” (40:49)
  • “Your rent goes up, your mortgage goes down, give the property to your kids. That's why they call it real estate.” (40:49)
  • Favors industrial real estate for e-commerce era, encourages young people to start small and hold long-term: “If you’re 25, each market cycle you live through compounds your wealth.” (56:00)

6. Lessons for Young Entrepreneurs

• Key Principles
  • “Perception is reality. You have to pivot when you hit a ceiling.” (16:08)
  • “Don't get shiny object syndrome, but adapt quickly to win.” (17:39)
  • “Ask questions, find mentors, learn from experience.” (22:15, 44:36)
  • “Old people aren’t smarter, they’ve just lived longer.” (21:00)
• Favorite (and Most Underrated) Places for Business & Life
  • Emerging, third-world markets offer fastest growth (60:30)
  • Travel favorites: Costa Rica, Brazil, South Africa; tip for Americans: Roatán, Honduras (62:20)

7. Legacy and the Meaning of Success

• Religion & Ethics
  • “The greatest religion is: do unto others as you want them to do to you. Karma is real.” (63:40–65:13)
• How He Wants to Be Remembered
  • “Somebody who grew up poor, became successful, helped a lot of people… Forgiven a lot of people globally, got a thousand families out of poverty.” (65:19)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Wealth:
  “The only time money is important is when you don’t have it… Don’t do what I did. Stay in $80 hotels and skimp on everything and think money is God.” – Tony Cuccio (49:56)
• On TikTok:
  “TikTok is going to be a thousand times more explosive than Amazon. Amazon overbuilt, TikTok needs no buildings—it’s buying the content of the world.” – Tony Cuccio (09:02)
• On Mentorship:
  “If you can figure out how to make other people money, you’ll never fail.” – Tony Cuccio (47:04)
• On People:
  “Without good people, you can’t do it yourself. You have to cut loose the ones who don’t work fast.” – Tony Cuccio (28:14, 30:02)
• On Sales:
  “I only sold one thing in my life: not the product, I sold myself.” – Tony Cuccio (25:14)
• On Real Estate:
  “Buy investment grade property… never sell. Give it to your kids. That’s why they call it real estate.” – Tony Cuccio (40:49)
• On Legacy:
  “The greatest religion in the world is 'act onto others as you would wish them to act onto you'.” – Tony Cuccio (63:40)
• On Experience:
  “Old people aren’t smarter, they’ve just lived longer and have more experience.” – Tony Cuccio (21:00)
• On Change:
  “My brother said I was a chameleon, I changed my mind every month. Now I have to change my mind every day.” – Tony Cuccio (16:08)
• On Failure:
  “Nobody has ever fucked me twice… If someone screws you, just walk away.” – Tony Cuccio (30:02)

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Important Timestamps

• [02:04–03:19] Tony’s Venice Beach start and “accidentally” discovering the beauty business.
• [06:40] On refusing investors and scaling through reinvestment.
• [08:03–10:00] TikTok as the next global sales giant.
• [14:08] Lateral thinking: pivoting, creating new brands, negotiating globally.
• [25:14] Philosophy of seminars—selling yourself and empowering others.
• [28:14–32:14] Investing in people, difficult personnel decisions, and hiring strategies.
• [32:39–36:45] Deep dive into tax-free muni bonds, IRAs, and financial planning.
• [39:54–44:00] The leap into real estate, building generational wealth, and learning from mentors.
• [44:36–49:00] The drummer story, impact of mentorship, and personal responsibility in success.
• [49:56] How giving back surpasses personal wealth.
• [56:00–60:00] Real estate for young people; why buy-and-hold wins over flipping.
• [60:30] Top countries for business/travel and advice on emerging markets.
• [63:40–65:13] His philosophy on God, karma, and ethical living.
• [65:19] The legacy Tony wishes to leave.

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Final Thoughts

Tony Cuccio’s story is a testament to relentless reinvention, financial discipline, and the power of helping others. Listeners are left with tactical advice on entrepreneurship, global expansion, and investing—delivered with the hard-edged humor, authenticity, and generosity of someone who’s actually done it. His call to young people is clear: seize the platforms, ask questions, invest wisely, and above all, build something that helps others—even (and especially) after you’ve “made it.”

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For more actionable stories from top entrepreneurs, check out The School of Hard Knocks Podcast's other episodes and their School of Mentors community.

Transcript

[James]

How much sales have you done throughout your career?

[Tony Cuccio]

I've done $2 billion in my career.

[James]

90 countries, and that's billion dollars. With a B.

[Tony Cuccio]

With a B. You know, Cardi B says, I want a man with a B. Yeah, there's got to be B's involved today.

[Jack]

So you've been to 90 countries. What is Tony Cuccio's top three countries that they got to visit as a.

[Tony Cuccio]

Business person or as a young person who wants to explore the world? Which one?

[James]

Both.

[Tony Cuccio]

Both. Both.

[James]

Have you ever been over in business before?

[Tony Cuccio]

Of course I have. I'm going to tell you this right now. Nobody has ever me twice.

[James]

You like TikTok?

[Tony Cuccio]

I like TikTok. It's going to be a thousand times more explosive than Amazon.

[Josh]

So is it safe to say it's more fun to give away money than it is to make money?

[Tony Cuccio]

You know, up until the last 10 years, I would have laughed at you when you said that. And I realized one thing about money. I thought it was God. Don't do what I did.

[James]

I asked you in the first interview I did with you if you believe in God, and I thought you had a beautiful answer to that question.

[Tony Cuccio]

This is a good one for everybody.

[James]

What's going on, everyone? And welcome back to the School of Hard Knocks podcast. I'm James and I'm here with Jack and Josh, and we are out in Beverly Hills with an absolute mogul, Mr. Tony Cuccio, the inventor of gel nails, going all the way back to 1981, started it with $200 on Venice Beach. And go ahead and tell him yourself. How much business, how much sales have you done throughout your career?

[Tony Cuccio]

I've done $2 billion in my career.

[James]

90 countries, and that's billion dollars. With a B.

[Tony Cuccio]

With a B. You know, Cardi B says I want a man with a B. Yeah, there's got to be B's involved today.

[James]

The billion boys club.

[Tony Cuccio]

Right? It's got to be B's.

[James]

There we go. So we're going to be diving into everything today. I want this to be a masterclass on business because I've interviewed you before. A lot of people have seen our prior interview, and it comes straight from the heart and the gut. You've been in the trenches. You've done business in 90 countries. You built numerous massive businesses. So I'm ready for today. I want to first get things started. Take us back to 1981. You know, you're about to launch this product that really revolutionized the beauty industry. You went into a market, a niche that a lot of people wouldn't expect. I mean, you look like a mafia boss, you know what I mean? How did you kind of come about this invention and really go and disrupt the beauty market?

[Tony Cuccio]

Well, that's funny you asked that, because I am Sicilian and I did grow up in Brooklyn, and a lot of my friends were good fellows. But my father was a plumber, and he never wanted me to do that. So I moved to California. And sometimes accidents happen or you're in the right place at the right time. My first two businesses, I failed. I had a candy store and had a beer and beverage. Never made any money. Came out to California with $200, and I started selling on Venice Beach. I went to Venice beach and I saw all these women and guys roller skating. And I turned to my brother and I said, there's more traffic on Venice beach than there is on fifth Avenue. Let's go ask this landlord here, the owner, if we can rent 5 square feet. In 1981, I was the first person to sell on Venice Beach. There's me and my wife on Venice beach in 1981. So I started with $200. So sometimes you have to take circumstances and you have to try different things. And I got lucky because I hit on the beauty business. My third endeavor at 25 years old. But I kept trying, and I knew when I hit the beauty business, it was something that I loved.

[James]

But how did you even land on gel nails as that being the product that you were going to take to.

[Tony Cuccio]

Gel Gel nails were around. When I say I invented them. I want to clarify for all your viewers, because I've seen a lot of people say a scientist invented in 1950. Gel nails were not popular until 81. We put calcium, we put fiberglass in them. We made them more durable. So everybody, you know, when you say you invented, it's really not a great word. I marketed them and made hundreds of millions of dollars on gel nails.

[James]

I love that. When did you learn that you weren't going to get rich working for somebody else? You mentioned that you started a couple businesses you had failed. Your dad was a plumber, I believe.

[Tony Cuccio]

Yes.

[James]

And so you didn't have that really entrepreneurial spirit within your family, but you kind of found that yourself. Where did that come from?

[Tony Cuccio]

It's funny you asked that. I was in Inc. Magazine in 1987 as the fastest growing companies in the United States. And on national television, they asked if my parents. They asked me why I was successful. And I said, my parents. And they said, was your father in business? And I felt like saying no. He used to cloghe used to do clogged bathrooms in the Transit authority. But I didn't want to be facetious. So they said, how did your parents help you? And I said, you know, my father and mother gave me so much love that I never thought I could fail. And that's what's carried me all these years.

[Jack]

When you were selling the nails on Venice beach, how did you get people to get interested, to come and stop and buy from you?

[Tony Cuccio]

Well, first of all, we had something that nobody had in that year. There was a company called Madeline Mono and Stage Light. Who had fish scales that they colored and they made eyeshadow out of it so it would glitter. So it was like the first time that people in California saw this makeup where you can make your eyes glitter. So it was something that was really hot. And we used to sell unvetted speech. In a day, we do five, six hundred dollars. And then we take a shower and we go to Westwood Boulevard. And I remember the police would try to stop us because we went on the sidewalk. They could arrest you. But we knew that in the front of Allendale's, which is a men's clothing store, that was private property. So we'd have to take five or six trips around to make sure. We bought all the boxes in. And then we'd set up, because they had lights for the men' store. And we'd sell at night, make another five, six hundred dollars. And from there, we needed to get a SRA number because people wanted to buy wholesale. So we went to the bank and they said, what's the name of your company you need to get, you know, accept checks? We said, I don't know. And they said, who owns it? I said, stephen, Tony and Roberta. That's Starnell. And from there we started wholesaling. And then I started traveling in 84 to 90 countries. People thought I was crazy. But you gotta remember, the nail business started in California. So I knew that they were gonna want it in Africa. I knew they were gonna want in Europe. I knew Japan would want it. So I had to get there first, Right?

[James]

But I wanna get in. We're gonna get into the 90 countries. Cause that's a fascinating aspect of things. But with gel nails alone, you did $100 billion in sales. You didn't take on any investors. And you mentioned, you know, we've talked about this before, that you were just reinvesting. Reinvesting. What was that? Initial money and real profits going back in the business for you to end up scaling and a two parter to this is do you regret not taking on capital to kind of scale the business even more?

[Tony Cuccio]

No, I'll answer that first. I never wanted to go public. When you're making a lot of money, I don't want to share it with the public. I want to keep it all for myself. The only time you go public is when you need to scale really fast and it's millions or billions of dollars and you have to hit something really quick. I started with $200, I parlayed it to four, I parlayed it to $1,000. I kept my overhead down. I didn't take money for the business other than the rent for my apartment for the first two years. I just needed inventory, inventory, inventory. I never took a line of credit from the bank, I never had a mortgage, I never borrowed money, I've never taken money out of a bank. Banks are to put money in, not to take money out. So what you have to do is you have to keep your cash coming in and your money coming in and your sales coming in. The biggest thing that most people don't understand is they put up a website, they think they're in business. A website is an outer space. If you don't get people to that website, you can't sell. Today of course we got avenues like TikTok. We have avenues of platforms. They're the greatest thing for young people in the world. I wish I was your age again, 25 years old. I do exactly what you're doing. Using the platforms to get to 90 countries, 100 countries instead of going on a plane.

[James]

How old are you?

[Tony Cuccio]

I'm 71.

[James]

And you like TikTok?

[Tony Cuccio]

Do I like TikTok? Six months ago I met a woman who owns 40% of ByteDance, Chinese woman and I told her my idea of doing TikTok sales using to roll out TikTok sales with co branding, with influences and she started taking notes. At the end of the night she wanted me to get on the board of ByteDance for TikTok. Unfortunately the minimum investment was 50 million and I didn't know what the geopolitical situation, where Trump was going to be and it was too much of a risk for me to do. I don't like TikTok. I think TikTok is the greatest platform in the world. As a matter of fact we do millions of dollars on Amazon. If you look up Cuccio cuticle oil, there's 140,000 people commenting on it. We sold 8 million bottles of cuticle on Amazon.

[James]

Why is it so appealing to you?

[Tony Cuccio]

Why is what?

[James]

Why is TikTok so appealing to you?

[Tony Cuccio]

Well, Jeff Bezos said on cnbc that in 25 years Amazon will go bankrupt. And his answer was some kid who's born tomorrow will disrupt his business. But he was wrong because the guy's 42 years old and they own TikTok. The reason why TikTok is going to be a thousand times more explosive than Amazon is the Chinese and TikTok are buying the content of the world. When we went on rodeo right now, and that's 16 year old kid knew you, that's a platform that for you to get the next generation and the 12 year olds and the 15 year olds, they're going to be customers. And what TikTok is doing different than Amazon is Amazon overbuilt during COVID They have many, many buildings empty. TikTok has merchandise, billions of dollars of merchandise. Amazon TikTok has no buildings, no infrastructure, has no merchandise. They have 10 forms of revenue. So basically what they're doing is look at Netflix. You have to buy content, you need movies. Well guess what? TikTok's buying the content of the world is giving you a platform. They've given you a platform to get all these followers. It's free. Is it really free? It isn't free. Because what TikTok wants to do, remember we're dealing with a communist country. TikTok wants to do TikTok sales and there's 200 Chinese kids 24 hours a day with 100 iPhones now. And once you go on TikTok sales they'll cut off your content. You can only talk about the products. I'm going to give you the greatest for instance in the world. I have Singapore distributor, older woman buying 30,000 a year. I fly to Singapore a year ago. The 22 year old daughter is dating a 23 year old Chinese kid who's a gamer. Told me he was a gamer. I didn't know what a gamer is. I mean I played game my whole life all over the world but I didn't know what a gamer was. And I told him why don't you use TikTok to sell products? He's selling my cuticle oil. And they did 1.4 million the first year on TikTok Live he's going to net 700 grand. These are 22 and 23 year old kids. Where in the world can people 22 years old go into business with very little capital, start their own business and go global. TikTok I'll give you how I knew TikTok was going to blow up in 2019. The first TikTok video I saw, which is amazing, and I tell people this all over the world, was 30 Zulu women. Now, you can show breastfeeding on TikTok because it's natural. If you could prove for 5,000 years that these women went topless, then they could do it. It's cultural. So there was 30 women the first month of TikTok Live who had beaded skirts, and they wrapped their arms around each other, and whoever kicked to the ceiling the highest would win. Last year, they made $10 million in roses. 7 million went to TikTok. 70%. And these 30 women made $3 million and never left their huts or their Zulu tribe. And I laugh about it now. I guess they're using that as a set, and they all have beautiful houses. But you tell me, what platform in the world can send $3 million to 30 Zulu women in the middle of Africa? That's the power of TikTok.

[Jack]

For those listening, when he says roses, he's talking about the gifts on the platform. He's not talking about physical roses. Just for everybody that didn't understand that reference.

[Tony Cuccio]

Yes. I'm sorry. Yes. With Ro. So I get very animated, very excited. With TikTok, I. I spend at least three hours a day on TikTok. I hire people on it. You got to remember one other thing. When you have 130,000 people telling you how great your product is on Amazon, there's nothing better than TikTok Live because it's interactive. You can talk to these people. You could ask questions. The greatest thing about being interactive is you could teach people and you can sell.

[Josh]

One of the things that you've understood from a young age is that where attention goes, revenue flows. What? That's why.

[Tony Cuccio]

Say that again. Where attention.

[Josh]

Where attention goes, revenue flows.

[Tony Cuccio]

Yes.

[Josh]

Which is what, you know, brought you your love for Venice Beach. It was like, we have to sell something here. And originally, you started out selling multiple beauty products, and you ended up settling on nail products and going all in on that. And throughout your time and your expansion to all these different countries around the world, you have not only sold, you know, your core product, you know, the nails, but you've also expanded into luxury lines. And that way you have, you know.

[Tony Cuccio]

Five companies, you have mass.

[Josh]

Yeah. Distribution of all these different products. How important is, you know, that vertical integration of the different products? And how do you decide which ones to double down on versus the other.

[Tony Cuccio]

Ones to kill that's a good question. Vertical integration really is lateral thinking. The biggest thing for an entrepreneur today is to think laterally. I'll give you, for instance, my first beauty show was in Dusseldorf in 1984, and it was 50,000 for a booth. I couldn't afford the booth. There was no way I had 50,000. So I called up the owner of the show And I bought 10 VIP tickets and I. I paid $1,000 for them. And I invited two people from every country to the VIP room. And whoever I thought was the best prospect I had come to the VIP the next day. I walked away with 10 contracts for 10 countries. 44 years later, nine of them are still by distributors. And I remember my wife and my brother saying, how do you know they're going to be any good? And I said, you idiot, I got $10,000 more, and I have a clause in there on the performance. So we got a hundred grand, we got our products in 10 countries, and if they don't perform, I can cut them off. So at the end of the day, I think when you vertically integrate, it's really lateral thinking. You have to see where the niches are. For instance, gel, we sell for $25. It cost a dollar. I knew gels were going to be big for me. I mean, cocaine is only 10 times your money and it's illegal. What product do you know that you could 25x and sell it to the end user? And plus, as the business started to progress globally, I saw the need for nail care products. I saw nail art was a niche, then I saw body care. And we went to Cuccio. One of the greatest lessons I'll tell you on this podcast, and this is probably a lot of people listening today, is a lot of times you hit the Peter Principle. If you don't ever read a book called. It's called the Peter Principle. It means everybody reaches their level where they can't go any further, and you have to go around that level and learn how to go around. So I was stuck at about 10 million 25 years ago. And there was a consultant that was working for Nike, Jewish guy from New York. And he wanted 200 grand to consult me for a month. I couldn't pay anybody 200 grand. I don't know if I would do it now. So I got smart and I invited them to Carmines for dinner. Of course, we had some beautiful women there. And the first 20 minutes he was getting mad at me because I was asking him all kinds of questions. And finally he said, Mr. Cuccio, what the hell do you want me to tell you? What do you want? So I have a problem. I have number one company, OPI, number two company, creative, doing 80 million. My brand is private label. I can't get around the 5,6 million. He said, let me ask you a question. If you RC Cola, could you ever become Coke? I said, no, because RC is the cheap brand. He said, well, why don't you change your brand and start a different perceived value? And in 1999, I started Cuccio, which is now my luxury brand. And Starnell is still doing 5 million and Cuccio does 25, 40 million a year. But I had to realize that I hit my PETA principle with that brand. I was pigeonholed. Perception is reality. So what I had to do is I had to pivot. My brother used to say I was a chameleon. I changed my mind every month. I tell him, now I have to change my mind every day.

[James]

Do you. Do you think that was a blessing or was that something that maybe, you know, because you kind of get that shiny object syndrome because you're constantly changing, going after that thing. Did that help you or did that hurt you?

[Tony Cuccio]

Ultimately, I think in the beginning they perceived it as being not a good thing because I wasn't staying on something all the time. But in today's world, things change with social media so quickly that you have to change like platforms. Now we only sold professional salons. If I stayed in the salon business, I would be broke. Once Amazon came out, once T mo came out, once all these platforms came out, people want to buy on these platforms. Why wouldn't you want. My wife has Amazon delivered twice a day. And I make a joke. Last week, the Amazon guy came to the door with no packages and he said, is your wife okay? I said, yeah. Why? He said, he hasn't had a delivery in two days. It's a joke. But as she says to me, why should she buy pee pee pads for the dogs? Why should she go and park her Mercedes in a parking lot and take her time to buy paper towels? You can have it delivered free the next day. So these platforms are changing everything. And the great part about being young is you guys are taking advantage of these platforms to build the business. And you're starting very small with no money, and now you're scaling it up. The question's going to be, are you going to do 6 million, 30 million, 60 million or 600 million? The rest is up to you. Because you have to take advantage of things that are changing. And the different opportunities that are happening.

[Jack]

So you expanded to 90 countries with your product. Which country did you choose first? And what was that experience like trying to go expand into another market outside.

[Tony Cuccio]

Of the US I chose Brazil first because Brazil was the greatest challenge for every American company. If you don't know what protectionism is, Brazil for the last 30 years didn't want free trade. Brazil put 100% duty forever on every product. So when you go to Brazil, there was no Jack Daniels, there was Brazilian whiskey. When you bought shoes, there was no Italian shoes, there was Brazilian shoes. So I KNEW There was 220 million people, and it was a captive audience. It's almost like a business mafia. The government runs it, so you can't bring products in. So I started a factory there 24 years ago, and this year we'll probably do 15 million there. And we're the only American nail company in the market. Just to show you the biggest shows in the world in the United States of 40,000 people. I just came back from Brazil. There's 220,000 people. So I had to pick Brazil first because I knew that would be the hardest. It took me probably 15 years to build it out. Now I have to go every year.

[James]

What did your mom tell you about you in sales?

[Tony Cuccio]

My mom told me, first of all, when she was dying, I asked her if she knew I was going to be rich or successful. Why? And she said, that's why. Ever since you've been two years old, you said why 40 times a day. I said, ma, I want to know why. So I asked you why? Because I didn't know why. Because I wanted to know why. So my mother used to laugh and say that I could sell a cat off a dead fish truck. Again, the number one thing I could tell everybody out there today about sales, I only sold one thing in my life. I never sold the product. I never sold a widget. I never sold a beauty product. I did seminars in 90 countries. How to make money. If you make other people money, then you'll make millions of dollars or a lot of money. The whole goal is to sell yourself, and it's exactly what you guys are doing here. There's a need for young people. When James interviewed me for an hour and people were able to ask me questions, I got off the phone after an hour and I told my daughter, and I tell every young person about your avenue that you have said. If I was 25 years old and I could pay $49 a month and get to ask Tony Cuccio any question, I Want I'd be on there every month because it's the greatest way for young people to learn. Listen, old people are not smarter than you. They just live longer and have more experience. And that's another thing that I did when I was young, that my wife and my brother used to think I was crazy. Every time I met a successful person, I would ask them how they did it. And believe it or not, just like James goes around and asks me and asks other people, how did you do it? Every one of those people taught me something. So that's why I think that your podcast and I think that what you do for the consulting for people going on there, instead of having 7,000 people, you should have 70,000.

[James]

Yeah. And guys, what Tony's referring to is the three of us, we launched and built what has become the number one most powerful entrepreneur, community and network in the entire world. It's called the School of Mentors. And you said every month, but literally every week, we give you guys watching this right now direct access to the eight figure, nine figure and billionaire entrepreneurs that we interview on this channel. We'll go ahead and put the link down below in the description to the School of Mentors. That way you guys can all check it out.

[Jack]

There's.

[James]

There's not a single platform that costs less than $50 out there in the entire world that people can kind of get access to. As you know that this is. It's crazy.

[Tony Cuccio]

Two people go to McDonald's, it's $50 for hamburgers. If I can get on there and I can listen to other entrepreneurs, even at 71 years old, I guarantee you I'm going to learn something. And it's free. What I mean by free is $50 is nothing.

[James]

Right?

[Tony Cuccio]

It's a business.

[James]

It's a meal out. It's a meal out.

[Tony Cuccio]

Yeah. It's a business.

[James]

Think about the amount of money that they'll make off that investment. You know what I mean? That's why you love that. You love that model.

[Tony Cuccio]

I love that model because the people that were on there wrote me letters and emailed me and thanked me and took my advice. If I make $20,000 an hour, you couldn't hire me, but you can go on your platform and ask me any question you want. And let me tell you this. I love teaching young people. And the reason I love teaching young people, I told my daughter, she's 36, she's in business with me. And I said, d, you're stupid. You should be asking me a hundred questions a day. She said, Daddy, I do. I said no. You asked me two, why should you be asking me a hundred? Because, honey, I'm the greatest sugar daddy in the world, okay? When I die, you're not going to be able to get any of my information. Drain me. You're my daughter. I'll give you everything I got for free.

[James]

Yeah. And once again, guys, we're going to put the link down in the description for you to get direct access to ask your questions directly to the multi millionaires and the billionaires that we interview for your business.

[Tony Cuccio]

That's the important part.

[James]

But I want to go back to talking about sales, right? And we started to talk a little bit about distribution, the 91 countries. What were those tactics, the negotiation tactics for you to get your product in overseas? Right, you started in Brazil, then you went all over the world. How did you ensure that? How did you get into these markets and ensure that the quality of the distribution and your product would move out in all of these other places? What was the strategy?

[Tony Cuccio]

It's interesting that you said that, but I started doing seminars when I was 27 years old. My first profession was a neonatal respiratory therapist. And we had invented the first infant monitor for crib death in 1979. Company was called Health Dyne and they had me up on stage with neonatologists. And if you can't tell, I have a Brooklyn accent. I went to what's the matter you? You know what's the matter you? That's the school. It's like the school of hard knocks. It's what's the matter you? I actually do have a medical background. And what doing the seminars for neonatologists taught me is they all went to Harvard, you know, med school. And they all, the first 20 minutes didn't listen to anything I had to say because of my accent. And I guess they thought I was stupid. Never judge a book by its cover. And once I got into the product or the liability of not having this infant monitor and how they can get sued, they would wait online. So the first thing I realized from that job was why would I sell one person when I could sell a thousand at one time? So my seminars acted to be to build countries. And I'll tell you exactly. I'm going to Dominican Republic at 71 years old next month. In the first two days, I'll be working with my dealer, with their people, teaching them how to scale their business. Personally, I finance a lot of my 90 countries. So I'm the bank. They call me BOC Bank Accuccio. So I Have to make sure that they're growing their business and they're doing the right thing. So my first two days is with the owners. My next day is with their distributors. Because anybody can tell you I got great shit, but let's see if you could sell it. So I go to the distributors and I sell them because they're responsible when I leave for moving my product. Then the last day is the most important day. I get 2,000 of their customers, and I get up there at lib and I speak for two hours. But it's not about product. I don't sell my products. I sell myself and people buy my products. My seminar for 44 years is how to make money in the nail business. People, they really want to know is, how do they make money? Products are products. Widgets are widgets. Okay? At the end of the day, you have to sell yourself. When I look at all the comments on your School of hard knocks, 50% of them are about me. When you got 57 million views on all three of your platforms, and 50% were that they love James because James asked the right question and wasn't boring and it was spontaneous, that's selling you.

[Josh]

One of the things that you said is the most important thing you can do is sell yourself.

[Tony Cuccio]

Yes.

[Josh]

And you also said that the most important asset into any company is the people you have to invest into your people. For people that don't understand that, could you explain why that's so important?

[Tony Cuccio]

It's another great question. But it's a hard lesson that I learned that I wish I could teach young people. When I was young, I thought it was me. I didn't realize it was us. But I was smart. I used the Brooklyn thing. I hired a girl at 22 years old, 41 years ago, and I gave her 5% of the company when I sell. And it was a Sicilian backhand deal because I knew I would never seal sell. But what it did is it put golden handcuffs on her because people offered her a lot of money through the years, but she wanted that 5%. She now owns 14%, and without her, there'd be no company. So at the end of the day, I have over 40 people with me over 40 years. If I didn't have Christina Yan and I didn't have Rob Novak and the people that have been with me for 30, 40 years, then I wouldn't be here today. So, you know when people said, people say your people are the most important asset when you're young, it goes right over your head because your figure is Just a figure of speech, but it's the truth. Without good people, you can do it yourself. You can run the ship, you can make the calls, you can guide the direction to scale up. But somebody's got to run your company. If it wasn't for my wife, I've been with my wife since I'm 12, 58 years. We're married 48 years, I think I'd be in jail or dead. And my wife would run the company with Christina when I was traveling around the world. So I never would have got the opportunity to set up 90 countries if I didn't have good people.

[James]

But I want to add on to that, though, because people say that, yes, people are your greatest asset, but they can also be your greatest liability. Were you ever. Have you ever been fucked over in business before?

[Tony Cuccio]

Of course I have. I'm going to tell you this right now. There's three types of reaction in the beauty business to Tony Cuccio. One is people who hate me, who never met me because they know I made so much money and I'm flamboyant, they think I'm a jerk. A lot of people are ignorant. They judge a book by the COVID A lot of my competition didn't think I was competition until I was bigger than them. Then there's a second group of people who really hate me because I put them out of business. Because there's an old saying in a Sicilian Bible, it says, fuck me once, shame on you, Fuck me twice, shame on me. Nobody has ever fucked me twice. And the key to that is, even for relationships, I have employees who. Their husband hits them and they say, he's not going to do it again, he's going to do it again. The most important thing I could teach young people is if somebody screws you in business or in life, just walk away. Don't give them the opportunity. If you give them the opportunity the second time, then you're going to be the one to lose. So, yes. And then you have to make decisions. James, what you said, you have a lot of losers. I probably hired over 2000 people in my life. Sometimes you have a good gut because people give good interview. A lot of people just give good interview, but they don't really want to work, and you have to get rid of them fast. So you have to make the decision on the people that you know aren't for you and aren't loyal and aren't willing to put the work in. The hardest thing is to cut them loose fast. And I do that without even thinking. If I know that they're not a worker and I know they don't want to make more money. Whenever I hire salespeople, I ask them one question. Do you want to make commission? I didn't say how much commission. Maybe I can give you 50% or do you want a salary? Anybody who wants a salary automatically gets thrown out of the interview. Because you didn't ask me how much commission. What if I wanted to give you 90%? So somebody who just wants to take the job, it just wants to work and they just want to get through life.

[James]

I got to ask you this. So I've asked you before where the richest people put their money and thinking about you, your investment, your portfolio. And you mentioned to me there were two investments that you made that really had the greatest return for you and the small businesses outside of my business, outside of the businesses. And you mentioned tax free municipal bonds, industrial real estate. Tell us the story of how you discovered real estate.

[Tony Cuccio]

Those are good stories. First of all, when I was 27 years old, when I started making real money, I used to play the stock market. And I'm not the kind of person that wants to lose money. So if you start looking at that stock market every day and you think it's always going to go up, you're crazy. So I learned tax free bonds. For every young person who's listening today, no matter what state you live in, tax free bonds are from people who really have a lot of money. And the way they work is very simple. Somebody's got to build roads in Austin. Somebody's got to build the schools, somebody's got to do the utilities. In every state, the tax free bond interest is only 5% of their debt. So they could never default on that because they need to build roads. So right now I took a portfolio. I started with a million dollars and it's up to 40 million. And all I did was keep rolling the tax free bonds. Tax free bonds are triple tax free if you buy them in your state. If you live in Texas, you buy a Texas tax free. There's no federal, there's no local. Okay. And you don't have tax. In Texas, you're lucky. We have 13% here. So every 5% I get in tax free bonds is equivalent to 10. If I make 10 million a year, I have to pay 5 million to taxes. And always remember one thing to everybody listening, your goal should be to pay more taxes every year. Your life. I want to pay more taxes every year.

[James]

Why?

[Josh]

It means you make more more money.

[Tony Cuccio]

Because I'm Making more money. And you always got to pay the government. If you try, there's one person you can beat can't beat the federal government. So I laugh every year and I say yes, I paid more taxes because I made more money. So on the tax free bonds, it's just the way you know, some people, I hate when I meet kids and they have money in a money market because you got to pay interest on that. I hate when they have money in their checking account. I get nuts. If my daughters keep money in a checking account, you can get 5%. Why would you give the bank your money for free? You don't have savings accounts or checking accounts. So tax free is a rich man's game. But everybody who's listening could buy one for 10,000. Now there's no risk and let me explain the no risk to you because you need to know the pluses and the minuses. If you buy a bond, it goes from 1 to 30 years. I ladder mine every year different because I don't need the money. A tax free bond goes from the interest rate of the 10 year bond. So last week 10 year bond went from 470 to 4 0. And the Fed cut by a quarter of a point. Okay, if you bought a bond a month ago at 470 and you paid 100, it only be worth 90. And my daughter say Daddy, I'm losing 10. I say, no honey, you only lose it if you sell it. If you keep it to maturity, even if it's worth 50, if interest rates goes to 2 and you bought it at 5 and the bond's only worth 50, the state has to give you 100%. The only time that you could lose money on a tax free bond is if you have to sell it before the maturity date. So if, let's say you have an extra ten grand, twenty grand, you take it and you go five grand a year out and five grand two years, five, three years, five, four. That even if interest goes against you, you just keep it, you get 100%. Now on the other side, not only is it tax free and I don't know where I can get 10% guaranteed. Don't tell me the stock market, because they say over 50 years is 12%. But what happens if I go into a period where it's only 4%? The upside of tax free bonds is if interest rates I quoted at 16% in the 80s and it went to 5 and my bond, I paid 100 is now worth 180. So I was getting the tax free income And I caught the interest, right? And I made the premium on the bond. Now, the second thing I told you is real estate.

[Josh]

Hold up.

[James]

That was a damn master class right there, Tony. That was. That was a master class.

[Josh]

You know where they don't teach that.

[James]

Tony, where don't they teach that?

[Tony Cuccio]

What?

[James]

Where do they not teach that?

[Tony Cuccio]

They don't teach that in high school. They should be teaching. Instead of having sex education, they should have personal finance education in every high school. One of the greatest things I do is with children in Inglewood and a lot of people who have no money, that are poor, they do a podcast for me, and I'll get 30 or 60 students and I'll teach them how to balance their checkbook. I'll tell them not to keep their money in the bank. And the greatest thing, I do it in my Rolls Royce with the rap music on. And I get letters from an 11th grader saying, you were so cool. I listened to exactly what you said. I'm going to know how to get a checkbook. I'm going to know how to do this. So I think, you know, one of the things that the United States government is missing is the government should give me a tax break. I don't want money, but I would teach personal finance for free if they would give me a tax break. And the ones who need it the most are the kids, the 15 year olds, the 20 year olds, the 25 year olds. They don't have. Iris, how could you not have an IRA? How could you not have a Roth? I have 200 employees. I've started 90 IRAs for them. Do you know what I do January 2nd? I lend them $7,000 and they cry. And I take it out of their paycheck every two weeks. Very little amount. One girl's with me 25 years. She's a Mexican girl. She has $200,000 in it. If I didn't start that IRA for 20 years, most people don't understand that the federal government gives you two tax breaks. They give you an IRA, and if you make under 250 grand, it's a Roth IRA. Roths are unbelievable. They don't charge you interest on the money you make till you're 65. And when you're 65, you could take it out tax free. I got millions of dollars in my ira. I'm going to pay double. I already paid when I made the money, and now I'm going to pay double because I can't do a Roth. Now, the greatest part about an IRA is it Comes off the top of what you make this year. So I just tell my girls that work for me. Are you a schmuck? How much money did you pay last year? Taxes? Well, I only paid $5,000. I said, well, you're a schmuck. If you did an Iraq in a 27% in 13 state, you would only pay 2. You mean they're going to give me 3,000 back? No, you're not going to pay it. The IRA comes off your gross earnings right off the top. It lowers how much money you made. So the government's saying to you, kid, I'm going to let you put 7,000 in. I'm going to give you 3,4000 January 2nd back. I'm going to let you make interest until you're 65, and then I'm gonna let you take it out with no taxes. And you say, I don't have the money. Find the money, borrow the money.

[James]

Now let's talk about real estate. How did you discover real estate?

[Tony Cuccio]

Real estate, you know, a lot of times you learn in life through life lessons. I used to own racehorses. Andy Granatelli from STP and a very good friend of mine. We were in the box one day and they were older, they were very successful business people. And I was renting my warehouse and Larry Petrocelli said to me, cooch, do you rent your warehouse? I said, yeah, why? He said, do you pay your rent? Does your company pay your rent? I said, of course I pay my rent. He said, why the fuck aren't you the landlord? And I scratched my head and I said, what do you mean? He said, why don't you buy a goddamn building and pay yourself for the rest of your life and get the upside on it instead of making somebody else rich? So I bought my first building. Then I bought my second building. My last building I bought 22 years ago for 4 million. It's worth 40 million.

[James]

You got to tell me the story about the hotel room.

[Tony Cuccio]

Well, this is a very funny story. In 1987, two things happened to me that I remember, I'll never forget. I would go back every 10 years to Inc. Magazine to meet a lot of the new entrepreneurs. And the first story is I met Sergei, who started Google in prior years. And I was drinking with him and he wanted me to put 5,000 to enhance the search engine for the algorithms in Google. And I remember 2 o' clock in the morning, I said, I'm from Brooklyn, I could beat anything. He said, well, you can't beat Google. I said, I'll bet you $1,000 I never pay you a nickel. And I have the first 30 pages of Google. So you know what I did? I went home and I printed up a million cards in 1987 that say Google, Tony Cuccio. And now I have the first 30 pages, that same meeting. And I didn't know what an algorithm was. I just laterally thought, how can I beat it if that many people punch my name in? I'm going to make my own fucking algorithm. Right? The real estate is a funnier one. The guy who was number one, I was only 377. The guy who was number one, his name was Mitch Slosberg. I think he's dead now. He was a Jewish kid from Cleveland. And at that time, at 27 years old, I never met somebody 100 times richer than me and 100 times smarter. Because I don't like being number 377. I wanted to be number one. So I was drinking with him and went back to his room at 3:00 in the morning. He looked at me, he said, are you gay? And I said, what do you mean by gay? I'm Sicilian. There's no Sicilian gay people. And he laughed at me and he said, why won't you leave? I said, mitch, I have to tell you, I never met anybody that's that much smarter than me. I want you to teach me real estate. He said, tony, I'll teach you real estate, but you're too stupid. You won't understand. And I said, try me, motherfucker, try me. He said, it's very simple. I could teach you in two minutes. I said, teach me. He said, buy investment grade property that has income. He happened to own all the parking lots in Cleveland when he died and rented them to the city. Put 50% down. Never ever second them because if the market goes down you don't get pushed out and never sell them. And I looked at them at 3:10 in the morning and I said, you're right. How the fuck do you make money? He said, you moron, your rent goes up, your mortgage goes down and you give the buildings or the rental property to your kids. That's why they call it real estate. Why would you sell it? State of California. Now I wish I was young again. The governor here put ADUs. I'd be buying 10 houses now, putting three ADUs. January rule 1033 AB. This governor said you could rezone that property and sell those two ADUs. So my daughter does it, she puts two ADUs down and she wants to sell the two ADUs. And I grabbed her and I said, no. She said, daddy, I could pay for the first property and be in it for free and then have the house rental. I said, you idiot, why not have three incomes and give it to your two boys? Why would you sell the two adu? Don't sell real estate. Just buy it and buy it and buy it.

[Jack]

Did you have any. Did you have any other mentors besides, obviously, you told us that story about the guy that taught you the real estate in two minutes. Did you have any other mentors along your journey? Yeah, cuz, like, you know, we were talking, you know, you. You know, saying that if you could get on a platform like the one that you came and did the call with us for 30, 40, $50 and ask however many questions you want, then you probably took advantage of that when you were younger as well.

[Tony Cuccio]

I would have taken advantage of it, yes. It's the greatest $50 you can spend. I didn't have specific mentors. I had a lot of older people, Jewish people, who were very successful in business. When Kanye west said everything about the Jews, he was right and he was wrong. He said it in the wrong context. What he should have said is, I admire the Jewish people because they started with nothing and got where they are. I admire the Jewish people because they run Hollywood instead of taking the negative side of it. And as I said to one person, the average time that black money spends in the Black community is 72 hours. There's a saying for the Jewish people. When one Jew makes money, four Jews make money. So I think if I had to say a mentor, it wouldn't be a specific. It would be a group of people. I grew up with a lot of rich Jewish people, and I worked in a kosher restaurant as a waiter. And I think those people taught me the most. And I'll give you a great. For instance, When I was 15, I was poor and we stole some frankfurters, and me and my friend got caught. I went back to the boss to get my paycheck, and I was so embarrassed. And he sat me down and he said, cooch, you just worked 284 days without a day off. You're the hardest worker I ever had. You should never steal anything. But if you're going to steal something, don't let it be frankfurters. Now put your apron on and go to work. I never took a pickle out of that restaurant from that day on. So I think as a whole. And again, you can't generalize, but a lot of the Jewish people who are in business, you know, on my wife's side had businesses, and a lot of them taught me business. One of the uncles owned a big building in Manhattan and he was 85 years old. And I asked him, and I had a hamburger place and I said, how do you stop your employees from stealing? He said, you don't. You just make sure they steal a little and leave a lot for you. So mentor, you know, you can have methods. I'm going to show you something only because we have the time. This is a great story and I want everybody on here to hear it, because then I'm going to tell you the punchline. I was in Beverly Hills with my Rolls Royce and this young, good looking black guy came over to me at a light and he said, sir, can you help me? So I reached my pocket, I won't give 20 or 100, but I'll give somebody $5. And he said, no, I don't want money. I'm failing in business. I'm in the music business and I want you to help me. And I said, you know, I usually get paid. He said, listen, I'm almost homeless and I really want your time. I said, get in the car. So I helped him for about two months, you know, mentoring him. And about a year ago, he called me up and he wanted to go on TikTok, and he put this on TikTok, and I allowed him. Well, when I did, it changed my life. A man by the name of Tony Cuccio, who made $100 million in the nail industry, said these words to me that changed my life. He said, if you can figure out how to make other people money, you'll never fail. Dozens of our members are making more money than they ever did because of our youth. Here's the great part of that story. I lost contact with him for about seven months. And I called him, I texted him, said, diamond, how are you? And they called me and he said, you know, I said, how you doing? He said, I'm doing well. I said, well, you fucking stupid, because you haven't talked to me for six months. Could be doing Weller. He said, Mr. Cuccio, do you know what happened with that TikTok that went viral? I said, yeah. He said, don't you follow me. I said, I don't follow you, motherfucker, you follow me? He said, that video went viral and Jay Z's business manager saw it. And now I'm the drummer for Beyonce and I'm in Dubai right now and I've Been traveling the world with Beyonce. He said, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be here. I said, kid, that's not true. Let me teach everybody on this podcast, okay? He had to be the best drummer, otherwise he never would have been. Got the job. And I said, I'm going to tell you a story, kid. Guy saves up 100 grand, he retires. He's 65 years old. He goes to Vegas. He wants to be a millionaire, okay? Takes his hundred grand, he's going to take the shot of his life. He has bad luck, he loses it. You kids don't remember, but 50 years ago, if you had to take a shit, you had to put 25 cents in. You have to pay to go to the bathroom. So he borrows 25 cents, he goes to put it in, and somebody's in there taking a shit. Is finished. Opens the door for him. He puts the quarter in his pocket. He takes a shit, he comes out and he hits for 2 million. Who should he thank? The guy who gave him a quarter, only let him take a shit. The guy who opened the door, gave me the opportunity to make the 2 million diamond. All I did was open the door for you. That's a great lesson in business. It's a great lesson in business. I cried that day when he told me that. Because you can give. I can give a million dollars to charity, and they're going to spend 900,000 on dinners and bullshit. When you help somebody's life personally, it's the best charity in the world you can do.

[Josh]

So is it safe to say it's more fun to give away money than it is to make money?

[Tony Cuccio]

You know, up until the last 10 years, I would have laughed at you when you said that. Because people used to say to me, it's better to give than to receive. And I used to say, fuck you. Just give me, give me, give me more, give me more, give me more. But in the last 10 years, as I reached 60 and I was 71, I realized one thing about money. I thought it was God. And that's what I could teach everybody in this podcast. Don't do what I did. Stay in $80 hotels and skimp on everything and think money is God. I thought when I was worth 50 million, that would be it. Then I wanted 100 million, okay? The only time money is important is when you don't have it. When my mother would cry because the refrigerator broke and she didn't have $300 to get a new refrigerator, that's when money was important. So the only thing I could teach all the young people on here is, you got to have a balance. And I laughed at people when they told me, because I would work. I haven't had a vacation in 25 years, okay? I like making money. And when I go to Dominican Republic next month, they're going to pick me up, pay for my hotel. I'm going to get in front of a thousand women, I'm going to have a great time, they're going to buy me dinner, and I'm going to go home with a check for a product for 500,000. That's vacation to me.

[James]

But you love what you do.

[Tony Cuccio]

Well, let's talk about that in a minute. My grandmother told me, if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life. I went to work today at 5. I want to tell you two stories for everybody on this podcast that really happened in my life. My daughter knew all the rich kids of Beverly Hills. She went to Buckley. When she got to go to school, she wanted to go to usc. All her friends, Roxy, who married Bijan, and I'm not going to use other names, paid 100 grand to get her in. So my daughter said, daddy, you got to give me 100 grand to get me in. Said, honey, you had a boyfriend and you were a cheerleader. Your sister was a doctor and went to Columbia Med School, but you chose to be a cheerleader. I'm not. You got to do it on your own. She said, you want me to go to Santa Monica College with the Mexicans? I said, well, you better learn how to eat tacos, and you'll probably meet the nicest people in the world. She went to two years. She got out, and she got into UCLA and usc. Where should I go, Daddy? I said, you make the decision. She said, usc didn't want me. I'll go to ucla. She had offered to go on to Kardashians, and she got offered to go on to rich kids of Beverly Hills. I looked at the script. The script was going into my wife's closet and showing all these pocked books and all this stuff, and I ripped it up. And I said, if you go on that, I'll disinherit you. And she said, why? They're paying me a lot of money. I said, I go to countries where they can't afford rice. Why would you want to brag to these people that you're so entitled or so lucky? So she graduated. She wanted to be an esthetician. So I had a bet with my wife that she would last two months. My wife said, a month. So she went to beauty school. She became an esthetist. She quit after three weeks because the owner made her clean the bathroom. My daughter always had a maid. So she came home and she said, daddy, this esthetician beauty business, a bunch of bullshit. I said, why, honey? She said, you can't put chemicals on people's face to make them beautiful. So what makes you beautiful? She said, it's what you eat. It's yoga. It's breathing. It's lifestyle. It's natural stuff. I said, why don't you start a company like that? She said, I'm going to go into yoga first. I'm going to become a yoga guru. And I'm thinking to myself, she's 25 years old. Go ahead, go and try. She's making 300 an hour, first two years. And she's got all celebrity people doing yoga. She thinks she's great, but she's only making 80 grand a year, okay? Her house is $5 million. She says to me, daddy, I can't make any money. I said, anytime you do a service, you can't make money. What's the similarity between a nail technician, a surgeon, and a prostitute?

[Josh]

They're all selling their time.

[Tony Cuccio]

They're all doing service, okay? A nail technician can only do one set of nails. Can't be buffing somebody and filing surgeon can only do one appendectomy. He can't be cutting somebody here and suctioning his ear. Usually a prostitute can only do one customer at a time. How much is everybody in the world and everybody in this room worth from their neck down? The answer is limited. How much money are you worth from your neck up? So I said, you got to go into yoga products. So she wanted to call it Cuccio Yoga. I said, no, no, no. So the next day, there was A young girl, 25, with her mother came in, and I said, are you an esthetician? To my office, she's from South Africa. She said, no, I'm a somatologist. I said, what the F is that? She said, well, in Africa, we go for two years after esthetician and we become somatologists. I said, spell that name for me that night. And the next day, I trademarked the name globally. And I called the owner of the school up, And I said, Mr. So and so, I have your student here. You're a genius. He said, why? I said, you raised the perceived value of an esthetician to a somatologist. I just trademarked it. In every country. Thank you. And I said to my daughter, your company is now called Cuccio Somatology. She said, nobody's going to know what somatology is. I said, when they do, you're rich. The second part of this and happened in my personal life is my daughter went to Columbia Med School. She's a gynecologist. She always wanted to be a doctor. She didn't care about money. She came from the lucky sperm club, so she didn't have to worry about it. And she married a guy. The Jews have a rule with their kids. Never let them go to school more than four hours away from home. I wish I would have listened because when my daughter went to Colombia, now I see her twice a year and my grandchildren. So the Jewish people were right. If they go four hours, you can drive there. So she graduated, she got married. And my son in law before he's my son in law, his bachelor's party. His brother got up and said, I'm glad Eric is marrying a very wealthy young lady so he could stay home and watch porn and play video games. And I'm sitting in the back of the room, my sunglasses. He has no idea who I am. So I just filed it. I didn't say anything. They get married, she's working as, you know, gynecologist, making good money. He's not working. So I called him one day and I said, hey, kid, what are you doing? He said, I think I'm going to be a stay at home dad. I said, stay at home dad, huh? There's only one fucking problem. You got no kids. So he started laughing. I said, no, I'm serious. I said, what do you love? He said, I love dogs. I said, don't play with me. Do you really love dogs? He said, I love dogs. They have five right now. I said, tomorrow morning you're starting an LLC for a dog company for spa products. And the tagline is going to be tested on humans. His first six months, Martha Stewart. I gave him a pen that I had in Sally Beauty supply for nail art. It was water based, so if the dogs bit their nails, they wouldn't get the Nitrocellulose. He did 2 million his first year. He's in business 12 years now. And every year he comes to visit me. I have to give him a new idea because I got to scale him up. So you want to know the new idea I gave him? In January? I took my dog, I have two French bulldogs and they get, they cut their nails with a dog cutter, but it scratches you and the dogs freak out. So I have a machine that we use in the nail business to file the nails on. It's really quick. But I made a hat and we put a bone on it and you put peanut butter on it. So when you're filing the dog, the dog's eating the peanut butter and is not looking at what you're doing. And he's selling them now to all the vets and he's selling them to all the spas, the pet spas. But the moral of that story is he really loves dogs. He has five dogs now and after 12 years in business, he loves going to work. I got to convince him now to buy a building because he thinks $7 million is too much money. But remember, getting back to real estate, you guys and you people don't realize that real estate is time. The younger you are, the more turns you're going to have. So if you're 25 years old, each market usually turns 7 to 10 years. After 08 with the financial crisis, it's now going 14 years. It's not going to last forever, guys, okay, you're going to get your downturns. That's why I put more money down. But when you realize if you're 25 years old, you're going to go through at least six different cycles. So if you buy and hold, you're going to go 6x because you have the time, I don't have the time. So I have to look at how I can make money. Now, you guys being 25, 26 years old, get into I don't care what you buy, I don't care if it's a fixer upper house, I don't care if it's a piece of land. I love industrial. I'm going to tell you why I love industrial. All my buildings. I have 200,000 square feet on industrial. When Amazon moved in, it went from 200 a square foot, 400 a square foot. You guys know the E Commerce is going to be around forever. Yeah, you're young, you know TikTok, you know Amazon, they're always going to need high ceiling buildings. Everybody's going to need products, everybody's going to need merchandise. Industrial, Texas. Now you're going to laugh at me. 400 a square foot in California. I'll look for you in San Antonio. I bet you we could buy a 50,000 square foot building there for $150. And construction cost in California is 1 45. So, you know, again, start small. My first building was 5,000 I went to 13,000 and I took the scariest thing of my life. I went from 13,000 to 100,000. Thought I was going to rent it out because at that time it was a lot of money, four and a half million. But then I grew into it. So real estate is great for young people.

[Jack]

So you've been to 90 countries, brought your product all over the world. For everybody listening, what is Tony Kuchi of his top three countries that they got to visit that they might be.

[Tony Cuccio]

Sleeping on as a business person or as a young person who wants to explore the world? Which one? Okay. As a business person, the greatest opportunities are in third world countries because they're emerging markets and they're growing really quick. If you start a line of a product and you go to New York City or you go to Rome, you're going to have a really tough time. But if you go to Costa Rica and you find a good distributor, or Guatemala or Brazil, you get third world countries. You could scale up a lot faster and you could make it indent in the name of your product. As far as the countries in the world that I love, Costa Rica, Brazil, South Africa, 1994. I was the first person to integrate blacks and whites under President Mandela. And I remember them telling me, it's going to be very dangerous. And I said to my partners, they said that the blacks there, they stopped them from going to school in second grade. That was apartheid for hundreds of years to keep them stupid. And I thought that was horrible because I'm Sicilian and I'm part black and I'm proud of it. And I told my partners the next time we come back, the only thing I want to see white in that back room is teeth. So I think, you know, having my favorite countries beauty, okay, Africa is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Brazil is beautiful. Sicily is beautiful. For United States, for you guys, I'm going to tell you somewhere where you've never been, which is only two hours from you and you're going to freak. My favorite resort, Roatan. Do you know Roatan, Honduras? Honduras, you know that?

[Jack]

Yeah.

[Tony Cuccio]

But you know you can fly from Dallas. I used to have to take a ferry. I rent a two bedroom suite for $200 a night. 10ft from the ocean. It's Caribbean, 85 degree water, second greatest barrier reef in the world. And I hire a chef for $30 a day. That's a two hour ride for you, right? Plane ride right now. So, you know, in 90 countries, I've seen a lot of beautiful countries yeah.

[James]

Tony, we like to end these podcasts off by asking our guests two final questions. I'm gonna start, and then Jack's gonna ask the last one. But, Tony, you're 71 years old today. If me and you perish tomorrow. If me and you died tomorrow. And you knock on wood. Knock on wood.

[Tony Cuccio]

Do you know why people knock on wood?

[James]

Why?

[Tony Cuccio]

In 1895, the Germans believed there were spirits in trees, good and bad. And if you said, I haven't been sick, they would knock on the tree to wake up the Goodwin. And we're lazy today. We know this came from a tree.

[James]

Before. I'm sorry. Before we end with these two questions, I asked you in the first interview I did with you, if you believe in God, and I thought you had a beautiful kind of answer to that question. Can you explain what your answer was? Listen, and actually, matter of fact, I want this to be the last guiding principle to the younger generation. And then I'll let Jack in this.

[Tony Cuccio]

This is a good one for everybody. I don't care whether you're Jewish. I don't care whether you're Catholic, whether you're Presbyterian. Religion has been put here so we act civil to each other, okay? Whether you believe in God, you don't believe in God isn't the question. The greatest religion in the world is act on to others as you would wish them to act on to you. Don't do anything that you wouldn't want somebody doing to your daughter or your son. So religion is a big word, okay? And I'll give you this statistic which will really make you think, okay, if we took you three gentlemen and me, and we went back 25 generations, and each generation is 20 years, do you know how many people made you? 33 million. So the guy who wrote the book went back 25 generations, and I remember having dinner with him, Steve Stefano from Joyco. And I said, why didn't you go back three more generations? He said, you idiot. You know why? There wasn't enough people in the world. So I want you to realize this. 30 in the last 25 generations, it's exponential. I could show you a chart. 33 million people made you. How do you know what they were good at? You don't know. So, again, to answer your question, I'm not religious where I go to church every Sunday. But I believe if I do the right things and I help people and I have good karma, that good karma will come back to me.

[Jack]

Yes, sir. And if everything ended tomorrow, how would you want to be remembered?

[Tony Cuccio]

If Everything ends tomorrow. How would I want to be remembered? I want to be remembered. Somebody who grew up poor, became very successful, helped a lot of people in life. Okay. My mother was 92 when she died. My father was 46. I gave her $1.7 million and I never flew first class. I'm going to tell you why, because I promised my mother 50 years ago that the difference between coach ticket in first class, as soon as I landed, I would send her the money. And every time she got a 5 or $6,000 check, even though my neck was hurting, it gave me, gave me more gratification to help my mother. So if you said to me, if I died tomorrow, what would I want to be known for? Forgiven a lot of people globally, probably a thousand people that make their living off me and families that got out of poverty and that their kids now are in college and all the people that I helped and my family.

[Jack]

That's amazing.

[James]

Beautiful answer and incredible podcast. Tony, we appreciate you being here, my friend. Thank you for everybody tuned in right now. Be sure to like and subscribe for amazing content we've got every single week, guys, the three of us are bringing you guys, the biggest and best business owners in the entire world to give you guys actionable advice on how to make your money work for you, create million dollar companies. And let's take things a step further, guys. Like we mentioned earlier in the podcast, guys, every week we give you direct access to these millionaire and billionaire entreprene that you see here on these podcast episodes. If you go down to the link in the description of this video, you can join the number one community and most powerful entrepreneur network in the entire world called the School of Mentors, where you can ask your questions, live and get mentored every week from the most successful business owners in the world. So we can't wait to see you on the inside. With that being said, we'll see you in the next.

[Tony Cuccio]

Let me add something on that. If you don't have the $49, it's so worth it. I'll give it to you.

[James]

I love it. And it's less than $49, which is even crazier. But we can't wait to see everybody on the inside. We'll see you in the next episode.