Ryan Serhant - Owning Manhattan | Started on Wall Street's Worst Day, Sold $20B Since

Summary

Success Story with Scott D. Clary

Episode: Ryan Serhant - Owning Manhattan | Started on Wall Street's Worst Day, Sold $20B Since
Date: December 15, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this candid and energetic conversation, Scott D. Clary interviews top real estate broker, TV personality, entrepreneur, and author Ryan Serhant. Serhant dives deep into his journey from multiple “career deaths” to building a $20B+ real estate empire, discusses the power of chaos for success, and lays out clear, actionable insights on ambition, resilience, personal development, and leadership. The episode’s core is about harnessing adversity, maximizing one’s capacity, taking action, and building future success—regardless of one’s starting point.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Harnessing Chaos & New York’s Energy

• Ryan attributes his drive to his environment in New York, a city of chaos and ambition.
  • “Most people are tornado chasers. You're a tornado creator.” — Ryan Serhant (02:06)
  • Success comes from leaning in to chaos rather than avoiding it.
• The city is described as addicting, built on get-up-and-go energy.
  • “New York City is the loneliest city in the world. The people who say that are the ones who don't understand that the city is built on energy.” — Ryan Serhant (03:28)

2. Resilience and Bouncing Back from Setbacks

• Ryan shares having three “career deaths”: failing the LSAT, being killed off a soap opera, and starting real estate the day Lehman collapsed (04:24).
• His perspective: Nothing is final—setbacks are “speed bumps, not brick walls.”
  • “Any setback is just a speed bump. It is not a brick wall.” — Ryan Serhant (05:57)
  • Encourages always treating adversity as temporary.

3. Expanding Personal Capacity

• Ryan identifies “capacity” as a superpower: the ability to handle many projects without losing focus (07:05).
  • “I have found greater success in your ability to create more capacities.” — Ryan Serhant (08:00)
• Describes “milking” every opportunity to the fullest, turning TV exposure into multiple ventures (08:32).

4. Action Over Inaction: Hard Work Over Luck

• Advocates relentless effort as the driver for success—work begets luck, not the other way around.
  • “Hard work beats luck when luck doesn't work hard. If you take care of the work, the work will just take care of you.” — Ryan Serhant (13:28)
• Action is the antidote to anxiety or low moods.
  • “Worry comes just from inaction… contentment comes from taking action.” — Ryan Serhant (14:00)

5. Letting Go to Scale Up

• A major transition for Serhant: learning to delegate and hire better talent.
  • “You had to learn that, though.” — Interviewer/Co-host (16:18)
  • Shares examples of key hires (CTO, capital-side executive) who took responsibilities off his plate, allowing him to grow (16:27).
  • “I get to learn now. I go into some of my meetings... and I learn. It's a wild transition in my career.” — Ryan Serhant (18:04)

6. Working for Your Future Self

• Ryan works for the man he wants to be two years from now.
  • “Who am I really working for? It's for me, but not me today... two years from today, that is a future Ryan that is really, really, really hoping that Ryan today shows up and works his ass off.” — Ryan Serhant (21:31)
• Planning and daily actions are guided by future ambitions rather than current comfort.

7. Privilege, Representation & Impact

• Ryan addresses the structural challenges facing many aspiring entrepreneurs, especially from underserved communities.
  • “The housing market isn't broken, it's rigged... set up to work against everybody, against all millennial and Gen Z buyers, against black and brown people in the United States.” — Ryan Serhant (23:45)
• He defends reality TV’s ability to expand representation and show underserved viewers new possibilities.
  • “You have no understanding the effect that these goofy TV shows have on underserved communities to let them know what's possible in their own lives.” — Ryan Serhant (25:57)
  • Cites having a diverse cast as purposeful to inspire broader audiences (27:06).

8. Ownership, Mindset & Skill Development

• Encourages a mindset of ownership and skill acquisition—even suggesting reclaiming just 30 minutes of daily screen time for learning (29:49).
• Advocates for “learning budgets” at his company and supports personal growth for team members beyond core job skills (30:03).

9. The Thousand Minute Rule: Valuing & Structuring Time

• Ryan’s productivity strategy: break the day into a thousand productive minutes.
  • “I created the thousand minute rule because I have no boss... So I gotta break it out.” — Ryan Serhant (30:54)
  • Treat each day’s time as currency. Don’t let a single bad event “spend” your entire day’s worth of minutes (32:59).
  • Uses calendar notes as a self-therapy tool: write anxieties 30 days out to see how time heals setbacks (34:08).

10. Phases of Life, Saying Yes, and Learning to Say No

• Early in careers: say “yes and” to opportunities to discover what sticks.
  • “At the beginning of my career, your number one job is to say yes and... do that so much that you get to a point where you can start to say no, but.” — Ryan Serhant (34:51)
• The ability to move from saying yes (grind/hustle) to saying no (focus) defines long-term success.

11. Personal P&L and Work-Life Integration

• Advises everyone to know their personal profit & loss: what does your life cost? (39:27)
• Argues against rigid work/life separation: “Work, life, balance doesn't work if you try to keep it as work over here and life over here. You just have life.” (40:03)

12. Habits of Ultra-Successful People and Their Relationship with Time

• The wealthy have much more “white space” (free time) on their calendars for focus (41:14).
• The most successful see money as a tool, not a resource (43:29).
  • “It's just a tool. Like a hammer... once you learn how to use the tools, you can build real big and real fast.” — Ryan Serhant (43:47)

13. Looking Forward: The Future Ryan & Lasting Lessons

• Ryan envisions building a globally recognized company with more personal “blank space” (44:05).
• If he could pass one lesson on: follow the golden rule—treat others as you want to be treated (44:52).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On adversity:

  “Any setback is just a speed bump. It is not a brick wall.” — Ryan Serhant (05:57)

• On hard work vs. luck:

  “Hard work beats luck when luck doesn't work hard. If you take care of the work, the work just takes care of you.” — Ryan Serhant (13:28)

• On representation:

  “You have no understanding the effect that these goofy TV shows have on underserved communities to let them know what's possible in their own lives.” — Ryan Serhant (25:57)

• On future-focused action:

  “Who am I really working for? It’s for me, but not me today... [it’s] two years from today, that is a future Ryan that is really... hoping that Ryan today shows up and works his ass off.” — Ryan Serhant (21:31)

• On the value of time:

  “Every day you wake up with your own thousand dollars in your bank of time.” — Ryan Serhant (31:37)

• On delegation and learning from others:

  “You are like a type A personality. And obviously now you've scaled, but it was probably very hard to give up some control at the beginning... You just know when you have the right guy in the right seat within 48 hours.” — Ryan Serhant (16:18, 16:27)

• On life integration:

  “Work, life, balance doesn't work if you try to keep it as work over here and life over here. You just have life.” — Ryan Serhant (40:03)

• On money:

  “It's just a tool. Like a hammer... once you learn how to use the tools, you can build real big and real fast.” — Ryan Serhant (43:47)

• On the golden rule:

  “We would be in a much, much, much greater place if we understood that every action you take against or with another person is also going to be against or with you... we just build something much better for the very short period of time we have on this.” — Ryan Serhant (44:52)

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Important Timestamps

| Segment | Time | |-------------------------------------------------------|-----------| | Ryan’s environment, “tornado creator” comment | 00:00–02:06| | Chaos and New York’s energy | 03:17–04:24| | Setbacks as speed bumps, not brick walls | 04:50–05:57| | Expanding capacity, milking opportunities | 07:05–10:28| | Action vs. inaction, hard work beats luck | 13:17–14:00| | Letting go and hiring to scale | 16:16–18:38| | Working for future self, not present self | 21:22–23:10| | Representation and impact of reality TV | 25:52–28:08| | The thousand minute rule for productivity | 30:36–34:08| | Phases of life: saying yes, then learning to say no | 34:51–36:12| | Personal P&L, integration of work and life | 39:27–41:02| | Calendar habits of the ultra-successful | 41:14–42:17| | Money as a tool, future vision | 43:29–44:05| | One lesson for the next generation (the golden rule) | 44:52–end |

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Recap: For Listeners Who Missed It

Ryan Serhant’s path wasn’t easy—multiple failures, a rough start in real estate, and plenty of chaos. He credits his rise to not just surviving, but creating chaos and using setbacks as “speed bumps.” He believes in expanding one’s capacity, working for the person you want to become, and taking relentless action. Serhant stresses the value of learning to delegate, viewing money as a tool, respecting personal time, and integrating work and life rather than separating them.

Above all, he champions the power of representation, both to encourage aspiring professionals from all backgrounds and to show what’s possible. His final lesson: follow the golden rule and build a better world for the short time you’re on it.

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Find Ryan:

• Owning Manhattan on Netflix
• @RyanSerhant everywhere online

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Final Word:

“We just build something much better for the very short period of time we have on this.” — Ryan Serhant (44:52)

Transcript

[Ryan Serhant]

I am a product of my environment. A lot of it comes from living in New York City. Someone said to me once, most people are tornado chasers. You're a tornado creator. I think part of it comes from just being in New York City where everything is chaos.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

He didn't just sell real estate. He built a brand powered by ambition. Brian Sarahant stepped into one of the most competitive markets in the world and chose to stand out. He turned pressure into momentum and momentum into scale.

[Ryan Serhant]

New York City is the loneliest city in the world. The people who say that are the ones who don't understand that the city is built on energy. It was created by people who had a get up and go attitude. The greatest relationship I've ever had, I probably haven't even met that person yet. Any setback is just a speed bump. It is not a brick wall.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

From record breaking deals in New York City to founding Surrent, one of the fastest growing real estate and media companies in the world, Ryan transformed attention into leverage and vision, into an empire that extends far beyond real estate.

[Ryan Serhant]

Hard work beats luck. When luck doesn't work hard. If you take care of the work, the work just take care of you. We would be in a much, much, much greater place if we understood that every action you take against or with another person is also going to be against or with you. We treat people nicer, kinder, we just build something much better for the very short period of time we have on this.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

You lean in to chaos. Like, that's one thing that I think you do very, very well. I think that you always lean into chaos and you speak about how you are always on the go, always moving so fast. I was watching a podcast the other.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

Day where they were joking about you.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

Stepping out of your car before it stops because you always need to get to the next thing so quickly. Is this something that you learned that led. Was this like a, you know, like when you look for signals in your life and you're like, when I do this, I get successful or I achieve the thing. Was this something that was a signal that you've just sort of included into your personality, the leaning into the chaos, or was this something that was always a personality trait?

[Ryan Serhant]

No, I don't think so. I am a product of my environment. I think a lot of it comes from living in New York City. You know, someone said to me once, they're like, most people are tornado chasers. You're a tornado creator. I was like, what does that mean? Like, you go into nice fields and you just bring tornadoes and then you get to deal with what's left and you put it back together and you rebuild it so now it's better. But you need a tornado sometimes to come in and just really shake things up and sometimes terrify people. No one dies. I was like, I don't know if I really like, I don't know if I, I like that anecdote, but I'll, But I'll take it. I think part of it comes from just being in New York City where everything is chaos. You're surrounded by chaos. If you want to be calm, you can sit in a nice room with noise canceling headphones, right. And city quiet windows, and you could be anywhere in the world. But when you want the tornado and you want that chaos, it's right outside. And I think that was something that I really noticed when I first moved here, that every single person on the street is a potential relationship that could change my life. And I. And why let it go to waste?

[Interviewer / Co-host]

I know what you're saying. Also, the city, I find, gives me energy. Yeah, the city always gives me energy. And I don't know what it is, but you're 100% correct. You have to lean into it, or I think this city would just eat you alive if you don't.

[Ryan Serhant]

That's why they say it's, you know, New York City is the loneliest city in the world. And the only the people who say that are the ones who don't understand that the city is built on energy. Right. I mean, it was, it was created by people who had a get up and go attitude. Like the entire country was created by people who had a get up and go attitude. And the entire city was built, right. It's verticalized by people who are like, no, I want to be better, I want to be bigger, for better or for worse. And it can be really, really addicting. And so. But to your initial question, like, yes, the. I have found, for better, for worse, for my mental health, that creating the chaos results in a path towards success that oftentimes I didn't even know was there. But you got to have the pain to get to the profit.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

I know that people somewhat know your origin story. I don't want to go too deep into it, but you've had sort of three career deaths, you failed the LSATs, you killed off, you were killed off a soap opera, and then you started real estate the day that Lehman collapsed. Right. So this was not a, an easy start to life. So what did those things teach you that you've Brought into current Ryan.

[Ryan Serhant]

I think the first two. So, like, bombing the LSAT so I couldn't go to law school. It's not like I was 4 years old hoping one day that I could be a lawyer and just sit in a room and read all day, you know, and, you know, getting killed off the soap opera was. Was a rough one for sure, but I was still so young. Like, I, I, There's. I had so much more life left to live. Like I was, you know, 21 for bombing the lat. I was 24, I think, when I was, When I was killed off. As the World Turns. And so I, I still was so young, and I still felt like very much a kid. Maybe I shouldn't have. Maybe I would have taken them more seriously. But I, I kind of have always believed that nothing is ever final. You know, there's a moment at the end of the first season of Owning Manhattan where I say that the greatest deal you've ever done, you haven't even done it yet. And I've always followed that line of thinking, like, the greatest relationship I've ever had. No offense to everyone I know in my life today, but I probably haven't even met that person yet, you know, probably it's possible that I have, but it's probable that I have not. Same thing for business, same thing for deals, same thing for careers. And, And I, and I've said before, and I give this advice to, to now young people who work for me all the time, and I give speeches all over the world, like, any setback is just a speed bump. It is not a brick wall. Right. You can't look at it like a brick wall. It can't be. I'm packing up my bags, I'm moving home. Right. It's just a speed bump. Right? Just bump in the road and you have to slow down.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

That's an interesting point, because same thing can happen to two different people, and they, they. The, the them on the other side of that thing. Completely different reaction. Right. So something I think you do very, very well is when there are speed bumps and I'm, you know, I said three, like, career deaths. Not to take you back there too far.

[Ryan Serhant]

No, let's do it.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

But, But I feel like that's what has allowed you to be successful. Like, you, you hit the speed bump, you take the lesson, you learn, and then you, like, go forward full speed.

[Ryan Serhant]

Yes. And I, I actually think my superpower, I think I have two of them. I, for, for my professional life, anyway. First superpowers, I think I have capacity that I've realized that people around me just don't have or just don't want to have. Right.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

Capacity for.

[Ryan Serhant]

For like, I run a holding company that owns 4C Corps. So I'm the CEO of four separate businesses, and I have to do them all day, every day, plus the TV show, plus the books, plus talent, plus family, plus plus life, plus sleeping, plus eating, and I can add more in. So you have people who can engage in and create capacity for their lives while not losing anything. And then you have people just can't. Right. Who can just focus on one thing, and they're really, really, really great at it. Neither is right and neither is wrong, but I have found greater success in your ability to create more capacities. That's one thing. Two for me has been not just recovering from career death, but the minute I feel that I've got, like, I don't know, like a great fruit of. Of an idea or a thing or a win, I milk it. So as an example, a lot of people have gotten on reality TV okay, compared to the global population, a fair amount.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

And then they become irrelevant, right?

[Ryan Serhant]

They have a season of a show or they're. They come and go really, really, really quick. Owning Manhattan is my fifth reality TV show. When Million Dollar Listing happened in 2012, I'd finally, I got in the door. So NBC Universal, that owns Bravo, baby, said, hey, we're gonna, we're gonna pluck you out of these 3,000 other real estate agents. You know, we're gonna legitimize you through our third party thing. The whole world will now know you. And I said, great. What else can we do? And I'm like, just do this show. I'm like, awesome. Is there a. What is it, Biz Dev? Can I meet. Can we. Can I give you ideas? And I must have pitched. And no one else in Million Dollar listening to this, I must have pitched 50 shows before in 2018. So six years later, they picked up Sell It Like Sirhant, which is my second show that no one watched, but helped me launch sell it.com, which is now a massive edtech company we have. So every again, speed bumps versus, like, pathways towards success. Same thing. When I saw, like, cable TV was slowly going down. Million Dollar Listing wasn't going to last forever. Okay, we're about to do it for our 10th year. Okay. And I put together the concept for House of Sirhant and started taking it to Netflix and Peacock and HBO and Amazon, like, while everything was happening and just moving and moving and moving, just squeezing it as much as I can, I think, you know, and creating the chaos. You have to write your own memoir while you're living it. I think a lot of people wait to live life, to then look back and think about what happened and then plan their next year. And I'm a big believer in like every year is a new chapter in the book already. So why is anyone reading today in that chapter? Like, make it count. You could get hit by a bus and the book's over.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

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[Interviewer / Co-host]

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[Podcast Host / Narrator]

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[Interviewer / Co-host]

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[Podcast Host / Narrator]

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[Interviewer / Co-host]

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[Interviewer / Co-host]

For somebody who doesn't take action, doesn't take ownership, feels like they don't have control over their own life, which I think is the exact opposite of your worldview.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

What's your advice to them?

[Ryan Serhant]

Hard work beats luck. When luck doesn't work hard, you can sit and wait for your talent to arrive, or you can just put in the work. And if you take care of the work, the work will just take care of you. Don't focus on the money. Don't focus on the accolades. And every dollar that I have, every accolade I've ever gotten, every trophy that's ever been given to me has come from just putting in the work and not asking, just giving and giving and giving and giving and giving and knowing that you will slowly surround yourself with people who want to be surrounded by people just like you, who understand that you got to put in the work to create your own luck. And then when you do that, you end up looking pretty lucky. Like, the people who come to me say, man, it's so lucky, so lucky. Like, I don't know, man, it was a lot of work. Like, it's, it's just, this is, it's a lot of. This is a lot of sleepless nights. It's a lot of sadness, right? It's a lot of like, moments of, am I depressed? Should I? Am I? Do I need to take something like, how come things aren't working? And then just saying, no, no, I'm just gonna go back to work. I'm just gonna do more. It's the Greatest way to cheer yourself up or to get through anxiety or nervousness or sadness. It's just to take action. I think worry comes just from inaction, right? And I think a point of not even happiness, but of just being content with your place in the world at that very specific moment can come simply from taking action.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

I think that you and me are very much kindred spirits in the way that we look at work. And every problem in my life really has just been solved by just doing an insane amount of stuff, actually. I think that sometimes you can tell me if you believe this or not. I think that sometimes I do more work than is required. Like, sometimes I, like, don't always look for the easy way or the hack to get the thing done. I'll work too much because I get comfort in my own ability and my own work. I don't know if you feel that, but I know that some people, they don't look for the hardest way to the end result. They look for, like, how do I get the hack or the shortcut? I just feel like that has never worked out for me. I don't know if you feel anything like that at all.

[Ryan Serhant]

But there are things that I know only I can do best. And so I have structured my days and my minutes based on I am doing it because only I can do that thing. Whether it's TV or pitching listings or buildings or being in the room to sell something or thinking through big vision. Everything else. And this gets bigger and bigger every year now. Everything else, I don't. I don't founder mode. It, you know, I don't like CEO get in the weeds. I make sure I surround myself with people who are just better than me.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

You had to learn that, though.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

I had to learn that.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

You are like a type A personality. And obviously now you've scaled, but it was probably very hard to give up some control at the beginning until you.

[Ryan Serhant]

Experience how amazing it is to work with someone who's better at you at doing the thing that you were just doing. And they could go start their own company, they could go do it elsewhere. But because of your ability to create culture, they say, you know what? I'm gonna. I'm gonna do it with you. Like, for example, I just made two very, very key hires. In our business, we're always hiring. I feel like it's like my life now. I'm just all constantly in interviews and stuff. Because someone also told me, the CEO of one of the biggest companies of all time, he said, as CEO, you can hire people to do Everything but hire people. It's like maybe, maybe one day I'm going to find someone to do that too. But we just hired our, our a CTO of our holding company Greg Chan. He was spent 20 years at Microsoft and Amazon. He was part of the SharePoint team and part of the team created Amazon prime and he was the CTO of a, of a fintech company called Akoya and like you just know when you have the right guy in the right seat within 48 hours with the types of questions they ask, the way they even handle onboarding with the way you don't have to handhold like ah, I don't have to worry about automations today I got a guy, same thing for new construction. We have a massive new construction business so we work with developers, lenders, capital partners. We do you know, single family home construction but we're mostly known for condominiums right up and down the east coast and New York and South Florida specifically. I have a guy, you know he's, he was a carlile so he's on the, the, the capital side. Never been on the brokerage side before. His name is Peter Rooney and like again within a very, very short period of time I now don't have to be in every single tiny little detail because he's actually better than me at doing those things and I'm like oh this is so great. I get to learn now. I go into some of my meetings now and instead of just being the boss and dictating and getting people to partner with me and work I'm actually going into my own internal meetings that cost me a lot of money because I pay everybody and I, and I and I learn. It's like it's a wild transition in my, in my career.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

Quick question, what's your go to when you got 10 minutes before a meeting or a workout? For me it just used to be whatever I could grab which usually meant skipping meals entirely or just grabbing something that left me crashing, crashing an hour later because it was just full of garbage. That's why I'm partnering with Huel. This black edition Ready to drink is a complete meal.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

So it has 35 grams of protein.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

6 grams of fiber, 35 essential vitamins and minerals. It is no sugar added, gluten free under five bucks. I always keep a few of these in my fridge and honestly it solved the whole back to back meetings. Go, go, go non stop, no time to eat problem. Super well and this one's new for me. It's Huels Daily Greens. I had the blueberry this morning. Honestly, first impression it was way better than I expected. It's up by registered nutritionists and dietitians. There are 42 vitamins, minerals and superfoods. Only 25 calories, 4 grams of fiber and just 1 gram of sugar. I throw one back first thing before my morning calls. Every single morning look, if you're running a business, time is the most valuable asset. HU makes healthy eating simple and they also just launched into target source nationwide so you can get it everywhere. Try both products today with 15% off your purchase for new customers with my exclusive code [e-mail] Scott try both products today with 15% off your purchase for new customers with my exclusive code Scott S C ott.com Scott use my code fill out the post checkout survey to help Support the show that is Huell.com Scott they really make healthy living taste amazing. Even if you're on the go. Healthy eating, healthy lifestyle doesn't have to taste bad. It doesn't have to suck. Net Suite is a success story. Partner now what does the future hold for business? If you ask nine experts, you'll get 10 answers. Bul bear market rates are up, rates are down. At the end of the day, it'd just be easier if somebody invented a crystal ball. But until then, over 43,000 businesses have future proofed themselves with NetSuite by Oracle, the number one AI Cloud ERP that brings accounting, financial management, inventory and HR into one unified platform. Here's what I love about it. Instead of juggling multiple systems, you get one source of truth, real time insights and forecasting that actually let you peer into the future with actionable data. When you're closing your books in days instead of weeks, you're spending less time looking backwards and more focusing on what's next. Whether your company is earning millions or hundreds of millions, netsuite helps you tackle immediate challenges while seizing your biggest opportunities. If I needed this product in my business, this is what I'd use. It's a game changer for business visibility and control. If you want to see how AI can transform your financial operations, download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning for free. That's netsuite.com Scott Clary that's netsuite.com Scott CLARY Clary netsuite.com Scott CLARE 1 thing.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

That you said and I I really do like this idea is you said that you don't work for yourself today, you work for yourself two years from now. Where did that idea come from?

[Ryan Serhant]

Trying to figure out who my hero was and who my mentor was. So years and years ago, someone said, like, who's your mentor? And I was by myself. You know, I didn't really have a boss when I got into real estate. And when you're a real estate agent, say what you want about the business. You're a 1099 independent contractor. There's no salary, There are no benefits. You eat what you kill. You want to work for.05%, go for it. If you can get someone who's willing to pay you 10%, like, go for it. We want to work for nothing. No one will pat you on the back. And if you make all the money in the world, no one's going to say, like, hey, how come? Because you work for it every single day. Right. It's. It's the power of sales. And it is a limitless career across every business, not just real estate, you know, SDR reps, et cetera. And I had a hard time answering that question. I would always answer with my dad. Right. My dad. But then when I would talk to my dad, you know, he's a different generation. He's much older, obviously, and, like, doesn't understand what I do today. You know, he doesn't. Like, so big picture thinking, sure, he can be helpful. And I had to answer that question of, like, who is my mentor? Who am I really working for? It's for me, but not me today, because that plan has already been put into motion. It's not me in, like, a month from now, because I'm barring catastrophe, I'm pretty sure, like, I know what I'm going to be then. But two years from today, that is a future. Ryan, that is really, really, really hoping that Ryan today shows up and works his ass off so that his life can be a little bit better. And that's where that came from.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

If you think about why people. Why people don't pursue, like, the goals that actually serve them, it's because they're too, like, stuck in the moment, in the now. Like, what you're doing is. You're saying, like, Ryan, in two years from now, this is what. The life that I want to have. This is the life. And this is how much money I want to make. This is how big my business should be. And everything I'm doing today is in pursuit of that.

[Ryan Serhant]

Yeah. I think a lot of people, too, are grounded by circumstance. You know, I think it's very difficult to. To move outside of the world that, you know, in part because nine times out of ten is just too expensive.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

Yeah.

[Ryan Serhant]

I Know, depending on where you're born, who your parents are, what your, what, your internal DNA, your make, like, there are things that the system is just rigged against you for. I literally, I wrote an article today, and we posted it like 27 minutes ago, about how, I mean, I talk about housing a lot. You know, how the housing market isn't broken, it's rigged, and it's working exactly the way it was set up to work against, against everybody, against all millennial and Gen Z buyers, against black and brown people in the United States. It's. It's set up that way and it's just performing as, as planned. You know, big picture. Sure, it's very, very scary to plot out big goals and go after them because you don't know where to start. But goes back to our conversation about an action versus action, right? Sometimes you just have to go and take action. And the best part about planet Earth is it's full of people who've taken the same action that you're too afraid to take. And sometimes you just got to reach out and ask and surround yourself with a better level of people. Even if it's uncomfortable, even if it's hard, and even if it's just in your local community, right? You are the people. You keep.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

Of course, the average of the five friends, all the cliches are very, very true. And I think that that levels up your thinking. It levels up your mindset. It lets you see what's actually possible. I think that also this is actually very sad, but the reason why, the reason why in impoverished communities have a hard time becoming successful is because all their influence are people that are at a certain level. So if you, for example, if you look at the success rate of an entrepreneur that's coming from an upper, you know, upper middle class, like, predominantly, like, white neighborhood, Caucasian neighborhood, well, if their uncle's an entrepreneur and their dad's making 3, 4, $500,000, I mean, like, that's your reality. So your worldview is shaped by the people around you. It's not just 100% who can, like, give me the job. It's like, who influences my perception.

[Ryan Serhant]

I get a lot of shit for reality tv.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

Why do you get shit for reality?

[Ryan Serhant]

Because it's, it glamorizes a really tough industry. Or, you know, we talk about dollars and money or commissions or, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's. It's not really what our life is like. And what I say to every real estate agent who says that to me, which I Will tell you is 100% a white agent who says that to me is. You have no understanding the effect that these goofy TV shows have on underserved communities. To let them know what's possible in their own lives because they might not be getting it at home and they might not be getting it at school. And so, like, owning Manhattan is an incredibly diverse cast. Is the most diverse real estate agent cast on any real estate show in the history of. Which is a great. And it's by design to show people not just what New York City is made of. Right. And what the world is made of, but to also, like, send a really, really strong message to anybody who thinks that a career like this would not be for them and say, but it could be.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

Right?

[Ryan Serhant]

Like, we. There's a character. A character. She's a real person. Genesis. Her name is Genesis. She's in this season of the show. She's Dominican. She is amazing. She's hilarious. She's stunning. You know, she's also fallible, right? She makes mistakes, but she owns them. Lots of crying and the amount of comments we've gotten and reviews who. From people who are just so surprised to see. To see a girl like that on TV in a career like this. Also speaking Spanish with her family in Spanish and not jumping to English. They don't even know what to do with it. And it's such a cool. Like, it's just. I don't know, I think it's just so cool because it'll send a message to so many little kids out there. And it's not even just little kids. Anyone out there where maybe English isn't your first language and you can never become a real estate agent or go into sales or be an entrepreneur. And then maybe you turned on this fun real estate show and you're like, oh, I see someone like me now. Maybe that's possible.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

It's huge. It's huge, man.

[Ryan Serhant]

It's huge. And no one talks about that. They just talk about the negatives. Because it's easy to talk about negatives. Right? It's actually hard to talk about positives.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

You know, it's so funny because when you put up motivational content, I put up something that I got semi canceled for the other day. The thought was, you should work your 9 to 5 and then learn a skill between 5 to 9 that can, like, sort of set you free from whatever it is you're doing that you don't like. And that got a ton of hate. Like, I'm talking, like, a lot. A lot More angry than, like people in the comments were angrier than most of the shit that I put out.

[Ryan Serhant]

Because people can't do it.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

You mean?

[Interviewer / Co-host]

The point is there is time for you to escape the reality that you're in that isn't serving you. If you. It doesn't have to be every single, every single evening, every single weekend. But I do like the idea of ownership. I think that's a very important idea. But ownership only happens if you truly believe that you can achieve the outcome. So for example, when they see a show with its diverse cast, it's making good money, all in real estate, all killing it in New York, they have to see that example. Somebody who is not happy has to see that example before they can truly internalize it and believe it and take action against it. I think it's very hard to really take ownership over a reality that doesn't make sense to you. You've never experienced.

[Ryan Serhant]

Yeah, I, I think I would probably, I don't know, dial in a little bit on kind of the idea of the 9 to 5 and the 5 to 9 and say like, you know, if and when it's possible for you to find the time to focus on skill, what I tell people that it's like, just get off your phone for 30 minutes. Like that screen time function on the phone now is a terrifying thing.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

It is.

[Ryan Serhant]

And to just really look at, like, what if you took back 30 minutes of TikTok or hangout time or anything and just put it into a skill, like something that we do at our company. A lot of companies do this, you know, is you have like a, you know, you have a learning budget that you give to everybody in departments. Just say like, I want you to learn and improve here too. Even if it's not in the skill set that we've hired you to use every day, whether it's an online course, you go back to school, or you want to be a part of a networking group or something like you being a more full human being is of great benefit to you and to us. And so we want to enable that to happen. Don't worry about it. Just tell us, tell us what it costs and we'll like, let's make you awesome.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

I want to talk about, you have a thousand minute rule where you talk about a thousand productive minutes in a day. What do people get wrong about the relationship with time? Is it just wasted? Is it squandered? Is it not respected? Like, this is obviously an important idea for you and I know that you schedule your calendar like down to the second I am.

[Ryan Serhant]

I created the thousand minute rule because I have no boss. So 15 years ago, I was trying to figure out, okay, how do I break out my day? I'm in sales. Do I just go talk to people on the street for 10 hours a day? Do I go to the department store and try to meet foreigners? If they have more than two shopping bags, does that mean they can afford an apartment? Do I cold call? Like, what do I do? There's no SO guidance. Okay? And so it's trying to figure out one, how do I structure my day? So I got to break it out. I. Because I had no responsibility at the time. So, right. I have 14, 40 minutes a day. Let's say after eating, sleeping, whatever I need to take care of for my life, I have roughly a thousand minutes to be productive. Some days I have a hundred minutes, some days I have 1200 minutes. If you are a single mom of three kids and you have three jobs, you might have your entire day is your productive time, but it's not doing what you want to do. So you have to look at your own life and your own calendar and determine, okay, especially if you're in sales and you're an independent contractor, how can I stay productive that way? And so it helped me think about time as an asset and time as a dollar. So every day you wake up with your own thousand dollars in your bank of time. But then the real reason it's stuck and the reason I think Harvard wrote about it and built out that case study was for my mental health, because I would go through in this business, you do a deal on Monday, deal dies on Tuesday. So on Monday, you ride a high, on Tuesday, you ride a low. And it would like, ruin my day or ruin my week. And I'm like, okay. But if I look back on time, say 30 days ago, what was a good thing or a bad thing that happened, barring a tragedy, most of the times you remember the good things, like, oh, yeah, I saw that movie, that was funny. Or I went on that date. Yeah, that was great. Or I got that deal done. Okay, try to think of a bad thing that happened 30 days ago. I have to have to think because time heals all wounds. So it's like, okay, if someone yells at me for 10 minutes, does that mean I throw away 990 minute dollars? Probably not. So.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

But we do do that.

[Ryan Serhant]

We do do that, yes. And so how do I compartmentalize what happens with my time for the benefit of my own sanity in my heart? And so that's where the thousand minute rule came around. And then I broke it up into finding time, keeping time, doing time. And then I also do a little calendar trick where when things do go wrong, which is all the time, I will go into my calendar 30 days out and I'll just write a read me and I'll just unload hard. Like I don't need a therapist, I just need my calendar. And I just hard in the notes my this guy. And this happened because I know what's going to happen in 30 days going to get there and I'm either going to have fixed it, I'm going to have replaced it with something better, or I'm just not going to care because life has gone on. And so now the, the muscle memory has been built that just typing the note, taking the action to verbalize and to write down what I'm so mad about. I then get to use that not as something to take me down, but to take me up. Because my body knows what's going to happen in 30 days. And so why not just start feeling that way now? Why wait?

[Interviewer / Co-host]

People that are super high performing people where they optimize everything, yes, that'll get a lot of shit done. Does is it ever a detriment to you? Like is there ever a moment where you're like I am moving too fast and I should slow down a little bit? Like I feel like your mental health is more or less pretty good. I feel like if you do this kind of life for too long, it can wear on you. So for the person who is, you know, not hustle culture per se, but like non stop in pursuit of the thing and I don't want that person to let the rest of their life fall apart. All the other important pieces, their physical health, mental health, relationships, all that stuff. How do you know when to slow down, turn off, when over optimization is actually not serving you.

[Ryan Serhant]

Your life also comes in phases. So at the beginning of my career, your number one job is to say yes and because you can take it on because usually you don't have a significant other and a mortgage and kids, you know, and tons of debt. Right. You're newer so you should be saying yes to lots of different things. Because I'd rather regret the things I did than the things I never tried. And you don't know, if I hadn't had had that mentality, I wouldn't be where I am today because I would have never said, sure, I'll get my real estate license, why not? I was on a soap opera I was hand modeling, I was passing out flyers for a gy, I was temping. I could bartend, I could wait tables. I guess I'll be a realtor. Yes, and see what happens. And then one little thing sticks. But your goal is to do that so much that you get to a point where you can actually start to say, no, but. And that is a magical moment when you can go from having to say yes and to get to yourself to a place where you can say, no, but here's why. Or no, but here's what we're gonna do. Or no, but let's discuss this in three months. Send it to me in a calendar invite and I'll be there. And so you just have to understand what phase you're in and where you're trying to get to.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

Indeed is a Success Story, Partner. Now if you're hiring, Indeed is all you need. Let me give you an example. If I needed to hire a new editor for this show, I'd go to Indeed and be super specific. Not just can you edit audio. I'd say I need someone who's edited a conversational podcast for at least three years, gets our style and knows our softw. Someone who's done this before. And here's the thing with Indeed sponsored jobs, I'd get people who fit that description. I'm not digging through resumes from people who've edited one YouTube video. I'm getting actual podcast editors who know what they're doing. People who've worked on shows like ours and can prove it. That's what makes a difference. You get people who actually are what you're looking for. According to Indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on indeed are 90% more likely to report a higher than non sponsored jobs. And people are finding quality hires right now. In the minute that I've been speaking to you, companies like yours have made 27 hires on Indeed according to Indeed Data Worldwide. Spend more time interviewing candidates who check all the boxes. Less stress, less time, and more results. Now with Indeed sponsored Jobs and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help you get your job the premium status it deserves. @ Indeed.com Clary just go to Indeed.com Clary right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com Clary terms and conditions apply. Hiring do it the Right Way with Indeed. HubSpot is a success story, partner. Now look, if you're in marketing right now, or if you're an entrepreneur who's hired marketers, or if you're a founder who leads a whole marketing.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

Team. You know the.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

Drill. You are creating content for 12 different channels. You're launching campaigns, you're scoring leads, you're analyzing all the data. And somewhere in there, you're actually supposed to do great marketing. And it's exhausting and you're spread too thin. But this is what actually works for marketers to give you your life and your time back. HubSpot's marketing hub. HubSpot's content hub, combined with their new AI called Breeze. Now what this actually does is basically everything that you shouldn't have to do yourself. It remixes your content instantly so you're not starting from scratch every single time. It handles lead scoring so you know exactly who to focus on, which customers will probably convert. And it pulls all your analytics and your data and KPIs into one place instead of having them scattered across 15 different tabs and tools. Plus, the AI agents that HubSpot builds for you can automate the repetitive stuff that's eating away your day. Bottom line, you get better results faster burning out. See, with HubSpot, everything's connected in one platform instead of duct taped together. So if you're tired of being spread too thin, check out HubSpot.com marketers to see how this actually.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

Works. Was that hard for you to switch seasons? Because I think that that's the issue. Right. It's when you don't switch out of that season of your life when you are in build.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

Mode.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

Yes. And, and just going 100 hours a week, which is useful to get something off the ground, especially a career, business, whatever. Was it hard for you to switch out of.

[Ryan Serhant]

That? For sure. For me, I think it came down to just pure revenue goals. Like once I was at a point where I didn't have to worry about personal expense, then I can start to pull back and say no, but so that I can say yes and to the things that I want to. And that's not about like having fun. It's more about where am I going to be the absolute most productive so I can really, really, really.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

Focus. But that's an important point. Like you have to know your number and you have to know what life that you're actually.

[Ryan Serhant]

Going. How much your life costs. Yeah, it's crazy to me how much. People don't really understand fully what their, what their monthly cost is. Like how, what is your personal P. L. I.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

Know. And then they just, they just run after. They don't even know what they're running after. They don't have that North Star to go after. So they just work and work and work and work and then they fast forward, they're very successful and the rest of their life is falling apart. And it's funny because they probably don't even like. I mean, the reason why they started the thing, the business, they've made more money in year five than they even know what to do with. But they're still pursuing some goal because they never set it for themselves and they don't even know what that goal is. But yeah, they don't know they're. I like that. A personal P L. Yeah, you.

[Ryan Serhant]

Have to have a personal P L. You have to wear a CEO, a CEO and a CFO hat personally all the time. That for me was the finder of the business, the keeper of the business, the doer of the business. Fkd and you have to be, you know, and you also have to give yourself like unlocks. You asked me, like how I relax, like I do. I have a daughter. So we have Saturday, Saturday, you know. And I try to also bring as much synergy into my life as possible so that they're a part of it. They know what I'm doing. You know, Xena, she's in the show this season. I think she's the star, to be honest. Like, she's only in one scene because that's, that's all we, we let her do. But she crushed it. My wife is in the show, you know, pulling the strings in the background, you know, as I'm having mental breakdowns. She's like, cut him at the knees. I'm like, oh, um, you know, I, I think people have a hard time when they try to keep things really, really separate. Work, life, balance doesn't work if you try to keep it as work over here and life over here. You just have life. Like it's just.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

Life. I would say, or I would.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

Ask rather, what are some of the habits that these, you know, ten figure people have that you think are useful? What are some habits that are maybe not so.

[Ryan Serhant]

Useful? They definitely have different calendars. They have a lot more white space at that level. Yeah, I was on a. I was on an airplane with the CEO of a, of a bank. And I was just so curious to know what his calendar was. We've spent like 10 minutes talking about time, you and I right now. I was like, what's his calendar look like? And it was like sporadic meetings everywhere. I'm like, what kind of, what kind of bank CEO are you? Oh, you're like the best One wild. You know, he's very, very clear structure to his life. His calendar is set is I think about a year in advance. And it has enough room to just be really present during the day where he can dive in and focus on what he needs to focus on that day, that week. It was like, oh, I don't, I don't have that. I need to work on getting there. I'm still not.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

There. But, but you know what you're, you know what you're working towards.

[Ryan Serhant]

Now. Yeah, working towards getting to blank.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

Space. I think that means you've actually optimized in the right way. Not optimized your calendar that you are involved in, but optimized your life and the people around.

[Ryan Serhant]

You. I think that the wealthiest people I know also respect their time even more than I do also. I mean, the things that are not good about, I think the super wealthy, for better or for worse, have to have their guard up. So they're, they, they really don't trust easily, which I think is fine. I think it's good. I think it is the price you pay when you've achieved success like that. But also it removes a lot of the magic of life, of the possibility of serendipity. Like it'll just never happen because you how now have not just one or two, sometimes ten gates and gatekeepers. You know, one of the, one of the magical things about life, the way we were talking about that I, I still find to this day is like the greatest relationship I've ever had. Maybe I don't know that person yet, you know, as a friend or a, or a client or a boss. Who knows, who knows. And if you're just gated, you make, you make life happening with you so much.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

Harder. What do these people know about money that the average person.

[Ryan Serhant]

Doesn'T? Mr. Tool, it's just a tool. It's not a resource. It's purely just a tool. Like a hammer. You know, it's a hammer, it's a screwdriver, it is a tool in their tool belt. There's different types of money, there's different uses for it. You know, there's, there's cash, there's bonds, there's, et cetera, et.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

Cetera. It's all just a.

[Ryan Serhant]

Tool. Yeah, it's just a tool. So once you learn how to use the tools, you can build real big and real.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

Fast. What are you excited about in the future? Like, I mean, if somebody's going to look at. You mentioned you build for Ryan two years in the future, five years in the future, whatever. Who are you building for right now? What does that future Ryan look.

[Ryan Serhant]

Like? He has a little more blank space. He's built a company that is internationally known for selling luxury real estate in an AI world. His TV show has crushed it and he's won.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

Emmys. If people want to connect with you, I mean, Owning Manhattan's on Netflix now. Where should they go to Netflix.

[Ryan Serhant]

And just watch Owning Manhattan? It's the greatest TV show in the world by far. And then anywhere at Ryan.

[Interviewer / Co-host]

Serhant. So if out of all the things you've learned over your life, your career, say you could only pass on one lesson to the next generation, to, To. To your. Your kid, what would that lesson be and.

[Ryan Serhant]

Why? I think I immediately just go back to the golden rule, because I don't think it's passed on as much as it used to be. Where you do unto others as you'd wish they do unto you. You know, we would be in a much, much, much greater place if we understood that every action you take against or with another person is also going to be against or with you. You know, we treat people nicer, kinder, and we just build something much better for the very short period of time we have on this.