← Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset
Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset
The Michael Little Story - From Foster Care to Real Estate Mogul | The Determined Society
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- [00:01]
Michael Little
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
- [00:04]
Shawn French
Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians.
- [00:10]
Michael Little
These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds.
- [00:15]
Shawn French
Visit progressive.com to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates.
- [00:21]
Michael Little
Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. My father was a crackhead, a heroin addict, a drug dealer. He went to prison. My first year in the Navy, I tried to get kicked out. My dad's ex wife who became my adopted mother, she actually ended up going to the penitentiary as well. I thought at that time, like, who's going to take care of my sisters? Because I spent my childhood taking care of them. That messed with me for a little while. You know, my first chief ever in the Navy pulled me in office and he said, what are you gonna do to go back to Ohio? They said, you know, work at McDonald's and sell crack. Why don't you just stay here and set the example for your family? It's not your job to save everybody.
- [00:58]
Shawn French
That was the pivotal moment. It was the moment that man turned you into a man. Dude, look at that. I got goosebumps.
- [01:04]
Michael Little
The moment that happened changed my life. Like right there in that moment.
- [01:07]
Shawn French
That's interesting. That's leadership, man.
- [01:12]
Michael Little
Sh.
- [01:13]
Unknown Artist
French, what up? This one luck. I let the pain inspire me. I put my all in. Everything I'm doing up until it's done, I'm me for the entirety. I put it in overtime. I'll be working. Just know I'mma go for mine cuz I earned it. They watch and I know it's time I confirmed it the whole society Determined.
- [01:33]
Michael Little
Determin.
- [01:36]
Shawn French
What's up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Determined society. I am your host, Shawn French and before I introduce today's guest, I want you to invite you to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Spotify and Apple. Leave a review. Send us some notes on Spotify for creators and let's us know what you want to hear or what you loved about this show. I'm here live right in Norfolk, Virginia doing an event with my boy Michael Little called determine your destiny. We're super excited about it. So my guest tonight is Michael Little. He's a principal owner of Iron Valley Real estate. He's a best selling author broker from the bottom and you're going to absolutely dig this guy's story. He's an absolute champion. He's a warrior and you're going to be so impressed with what he's overcome in his early life to become the badass Entrepreneur and human being, father and husband and friend he is today. So without further ado, Michael Little, welcome to the show.
- [02:31]
Michael Little
Sean, how are you, man? Thanks for having me. Appreciate you put me on your platform. This is pretty co.
- [02:35]
Shawn French
I appreciate you putting me on your platform. We're here in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, here to do this amazing event that you've put together. You know, we. We only met a short time ago.
- [02:46]
Michael Little
Yeah.
- [02:47]
Shawn French
And in a road, so I'm grateful as well, man.
- [02:50]
Michael Little
I appreciate it.
- [02:50]
Shawn French
I appreciate it.
- [02:51]
Michael Little
Thanks for coming.
- [02:52]
Shawn French
Hell, yeah. Dude. We've had one nice meal so far.
- [02:55]
Michael Little
Where?
- [02:55]
Shawn French
The Commune. Okay, so it's called Commune. Had some. Had some late breakfast. I think they got brunch.
- [03:00]
Michael Little
Yep.
- [03:00]
Shawn French
You know, had some.
- [03:01]
Michael Little
A little brunch action.
- [03:03]
Shawn French
Little brunch.
- [03:03]
Michael Little
Virginia beach is good for that, man.
- [03:05]
Shawn French
Yeah, man. And we're gonna go get some good dinner afterwards and. But no, man, Myself, my team, we're super grateful and super happy to be here, man. Man, listen, the one thing that I really want to share with the audience is kind of, you know, just. Not kind of, but your story, right. Your brand is broker from the bottom. You've built this amazing brokerage. Right. But. But there's a reason why you've been able to do it, and it's not what a lot of people think, Right. You didn't grow up with a ton of money in your pocket to start throwing capital at, right?
- [03:36]
Michael Little
Oh, definitely not.
- [03:37]
Shawn French
So why don't you walk the audience, you know, through a short journey of who you are?
- [03:42]
Michael Little
Okay. Well, you know, my brand today really is tenacity, the ability to be tenacious, which I define. I define it as the sustained, superior resilience, you know, the ability to just continue to overcome. The broker from the bottom thing actually came from my friend Tim, who you've worked closely with, setting all this stuff up, so.
- [04:03]
Shawn French
Love that guy.
- [04:03]
Michael Little
Yeah, he. He came so. Well. First of all, he and I met in the Navy. He's from Detroit. I'm from Dayton, Ohio. So we kind of connected on the Ohio State, Michigan, Midwest, you know, from really gritty places. But from that point to now, I had gotten out of the Navy, and he came to visit me when we did our grand opening at this office. And I told him I was getting my broker's license because at the time, I was just an agent. Well, just agent. A top producing agent, what have you. I decided to get my broker's license, and he gave me that nickname broker from the bottom. And I was like, that's really good. Yeah, I should trademark that yeah, and we, we trademarked it. And I remember the first postcard I made for like speaking and training engagements. And I wasn't even doing any of that yet, but went ahead and trademarked it. And then a couple years goes by, you know, and I end up becoming the principal broker and going from one office to seven franchises and 14 agents to 350 real estate professionals in less than five years.
- [04:56]
Shawn French
Wild.
- [04:57]
Michael Little
Last year we did 911 million in sales. Helped over 2600 families.
- [05:02]
Shawn French
Yeah, come on, man.
- [05:03]
Michael Little
But to your point, what you're really asking is how my life kind of started. So December 18, 1987, that's when I was born. I was born right outside of Boston. Boston, Massachusetts. And I was born to two drug addicts, you know, was born addicted to crack cocaine. I spent the first six weeks of my life in nicu.
- [05:24]
Shawn French
Holy.
- [05:25]
Michael Little
And then my mother's father and brother at that time, or at least the story I was told coming up, was that, you know, they both told my dad to leave and kind of never come back situation. So after that, you know, I grew up not knowing my dad really. By age 3, my mother had remarried and that man would abuse her and me and my only full blooded sibling to a point that at the age of three, we'd become, you know, property of the state. So I spent from 3 years old to 9 years old as property of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in, in a lot of different foster homes. And geez, at like 9, my mother had finally got me back. And at that point she told me she was going to take me to meet my dad. And I was just confused. Like, yeah, I thought that the guy that was beating us was my dad for nine years of my life. So she took me on this road trip from Boston to Ohio. We did like a pit stop in Pennsylvania. So my fourth grade year was like three different schools, fresh out of foster care. And when we got to Dayton, Ohio, I woke up one day and all my stuff was in a grocery bag and she had signed custody over to my dad. At that point, I would find out that my father was remarried, had kids with another woman that were my half sisters, which even for me was cool. Like that kind of was like, okay, I have a family, right? You know. But then I would find out that my father was, you know, a crackhead, a heroin addict, a drug dealer. He went to prison and I got left with his ex wife, Kim, who would ultimately adopt me. But once my dad went to prison, the summer I was 12 years old, I was to go visit my mother in Boston and come back. Well, my mother didn't send me back.
- [07:23]
Shawn French
Oh, my Lord, man.
- [07:24]
Michael Little
So my dad's ex wife, who became my guardian and adopted mother, she drove from Ohio to Massachusetts, beat my biological mother in court while my father was incarcerated, and took me home.
- [07:39]
Shawn French
She fought for you, man. Man.
- [07:40]
Michael Little
My father's testimony for that hearing came from the penitentiary. And I wouldn't know that until last summer, actually. And we'll. We'll. We'll get there. So at that point, my dad's in prison, I'm living with his ex wife. I'm like 13 at this point. She remarries a gentleman named Charlie, who actually taught me how to drive, taught me how to play guitar, like, you know, convinced. Who I would consider my mom to let me spread my wings a little bit, you know, I'm the man of the house. I need to prepare to leave. And that would turn into, I'm gonna join the Navy. All I wanted to do was be a Navy seal. That's it. Like, I just want to join the Navy, be a Navy seal. You know, they're the most badass people in the world. It's just kind of like, I'm not gonna live this life. I know that that will take me somewhere else. So I end up joining the Navy when I'm 17. So my. She's my guardian. She had to sign me away.
- [08:34]
Shawn French
Right, right, right.
- [08:35]
Michael Little
I graduated high school early, but it was one of those things where it was like, either I fall into what you would argue is the family business at this point or go do something else.
- [08:46]
Shawn French
Right.
- [08:47]
Michael Little
And there was a pivotal moment where I just knew I had to go do something else or I was going to get in trouble. So I left for the Navy. But what I didn't know was that at the time, you had to be a surface rate sailor to go spec ops. And that point in high school where I was like, man, I'm going to get in trouble, or I got to go. My recruiter had to switch my contract to something else. So I went from a surface sailor, a gas turbine mechanic, to be specific, to an undesignated airman, which is the aviation side. Once I did that, unbeknownst to me, you have to wait two years, then you have to qualify to go spec ops. Right. So by the time I did any of that, I already had kids on the way. Yeah, I was married, you know, but my first year in the Navy, I actually, I tried to get kicked out, and people be like, why you did all that? You know, you left Right.
- [09:40]
Shawn French
How'd you try to get kicked out?
- [09:41]
Michael Little
So my. My dad's ex wife, who became my adopted mother, who's the mother of my half sisters, she actually ended up going to the penitentiary as well.
- [09:50]
Shawn French
Oh, Lord.
- [09:51]
Michael Little
So I thought at that time, like, who's going to take care of my sisters? Because I spent my childhood, you know, a lot of my time was spent taking care of them. Whether it was homework or cooking, cleaning or helping them or just like, your dad's not here. I am the man of the house kind of thing, you know. So in my head I'm like, who's going to take care of them? Like, somebody's got to go home. And that messed with me for a little while, you know, My first chief ever in the Navy put me in office and showed me this news article about my family back home. It's like, wow, that's pretty heavy.
- [10:21]
Shawn French
Geez.
- [10:21]
Michael Little
But all I could think about was my sisters. But my. His name is Jeff Cook. He looked me dead in my face. He said, what are you gonna do if you go back to Ohio? I said, what do you mean? He said, you know, work at McDonald's and sell crack. Yeah, like, why don't you just stay here and set the example for your family? It's not your job to save everybody. And I do change my life, like right there in that moment.
- [10:43]
Shawn French
That's interesting. That's leadership, man.
- [10:45]
Michael Little
Real leadership.
- [10:45]
Shawn French
Yes, for sure.
- [10:46]
Michael Little
You know, So I would, at that point, their aunt, we call her Aunt Jody, which is actually Kim's sister. Kim is the person that adopted me. When my dad went to prison and my mom left me, she took my sisters in for, I think it was like three years or something like that. And so when I found out that they were going to stay with her and I had got the advice from him, I was like, you know what? They're right. And kind of right after that, I had found out I was going to be a dad. And then I ended up getting married. And then I just went on like this 10 year stretch of just tearing it up. Like I was. I was at a point where I was trying to get kicked out. And then it was like, no, I got to be the best of the best, right? And from that point to that point, I made chief in the Navy by my like 11 year mark, or right at 11 years. To most people, that means nothing because they don't serve, but right, it takes on average 18 years.
- [11:37]
Shawn French
That's amazing, man.
- [11:38]
Michael Little
And I did it with no school, no. No real father, no real structured Family, you know, just a lot of good mentors in the Navy. And tenacity, bro. Like, pure grit, work ethic. Like, I. Like, I can't lose. I got kids now. And the crazy part is, is, like, built this all American family, and I was doing real estate on. On the side of the Navy, and I was killing the Navy. And, you know, I end up going through a divorce. You know, my ex wife wants to get a divorce after, you know, I mean, a long time. So the divorce wasn't the prettiest. It was pretty tough. Turned into actually her attempting to get me separated from the Navy. So I had to fight her and the Navy. I fought the Navy for nine months. Long story short, I won. And when I won, I decided it was time to go home.
- [12:39]
Shawn French
Yeah.
- [12:40]
Michael Little
Because I felt like things weren't really handled the way they should have been handled. You know, you give somebody 14 years of your life at such an elite level to just have it come crashing down based on a phone call. It's pretty ridiculous to me.
- [12:53]
Shawn French
I would agree.
- [12:54]
Michael Little
But I stood strong. I stood tall. I. I beat everything that was thrown in my face. I left with my honorable discharge. I left with my benefits. I left for my dignity, my character, most important, Right?
- [13:06]
Shawn French
Yeah.
- [13:07]
Michael Little
But when I decided to walk away, I knew without a shot of a doubt I was going to do real estate time. And I knew that it was going to give me the time I needed to be around my kids and be there for my kids and do things that a lot of people take for granted, like just dropping your kids off at a bus stop or schoolhouse. Like, not many people know what it's like to not see your kid's face for nine months because you're deployed. Right.
- [13:28]
Shawn French
Like, yeah, that's a big deal.
- [13:29]
Michael Little
Well, I've done that multiple times. I travel the world multiple times. You know, all from 17 to 30 was all the Navy I spent. I served on four different aircraft carriers. I traveled the world several times. That's all I did. So my kids missed out on a lot of dad, you know, and then I had to go through all that stuff, and when I decided to leave was like, I signed up for college like all veterans do, because, you know, it gets paid for or whatever. But I started a team with a good friend of mine, Eric Edwards, and that ultimately turned into this brokerage. So in 2019, we both happened to get out of the Navy around the same time we started a team. First eight months, we did 30 million. It was like, okay, we need to open our own company. We need to open our own. Well, because we started to learn that all of the disciplines and the structure and the. And the schedule and the ability to time block and. And meet deadlines and like all these things, how a division or a department is constructed, how a second class, first class or chief's mess is constructed. Governing bodies like these are all actually how companies are ran.
- [14:34]
Shawn French
Exactly.
- [14:34]
Michael Little
So each branch of the military is just a Fortune 500 company ran by the government.
- [14:37]
Shawn French
It's amazing.
- [14:38]
Michael Little
So. And you just take all those skills and transfer it over to business. And for me, the specialty was always the leadership piece.
- [14:45]
Shawn French
Yeah.
- [14:46]
Michael Little
I would get good at a job, but I was great at getting other people good at a job, if that makes sense.
- [14:52]
Shawn French
Like, it does make sense.
- [14:53]
Michael Little
Like I'll do the job enough to figure it out.
- [14:54]
Shawn French
Yeah.
- [14:54]
Michael Little
But then I'm going to train my replacement leadership man. And it's been that same thing in real estate. So I walked away from the Navy after almost 14 years. I went through a divorce at almost 14 years. Pretty much started my life over from scratch. And at this point, I'm happily remarried. We've been together three years, married for two. She owns a restaurant out at the oceanfront called Gringo's Taqueria. If you like Cali Mex food Here in Virginia beach on Norfolk Avenue. Yep.
- [15:21]
Shawn French
Wait a second. That's what she's.
- [15:23]
Michael Little
That's. You've been out there 20 years, bro.
- [15:24]
Shawn French
Is that where I'm staying?
- [15:25]
Michael Little
Over there? Out there close to the ocean front? Yeah.
- [15:27]
Shawn French
So she's.
- [15:28]
Michael Little
Her restaurant's probably like seven minutes from where you're staying at.
- [15:30]
Shawn French
Come on, dude.
- [15:30]
Michael Little
Which. Which hotel do you end up staying at? Are you at the. The.
- [15:34]
Shawn French
I don't know. Some stalkers, by the time they hear they. Marriott. Marriott Oceanfront.
- [15:38]
Michael Little
Okay. Okay. Yeah. So you're basically at where we're going to have the luncheon, the VIP luncheon. You're like right next to there.
- [15:44]
Shawn French
Very nice.
- [15:45]
Michael Little
So my wife's restaurant maybe six minutes from there, right down the strip. Yeah. So it's just a little.
- [15:51]
Shawn French
Gringos.
- [15:51]
Michael Little
Gringos. Okay. Gringo's Taqueria, man. If you want to take the crew there for lunch or something.
- [15:55]
Shawn French
Yeah.
- [15:56]
Michael Little
You will not be disappointed.
- [15:56]
Shawn French
They do dinner. Yeah, okay.
- [15:58]
Michael Little
Absolutely. Lunch and dinner. So they're open from 11 to 9.
- [16:02]
Shawn French
Come on, man.
- [16:02]
Michael Little
They're only closed on Sunday, Monday, so.
- [16:04]
Shawn French
Well, I have a. I have a. My buddy calls it. That's. That's doing all my nutrition. He calls it my refeed meal. Tonight's the refeed Meal.
- [16:12]
Michael Little
Well, you guys Might have to hit gringo's man.
- [16:13]
Shawn French
My man.
- [16:14]
Michael Little
No, I mean wife. You won't. You won't be disappointed, I'll say that.
- [16:18]
Shawn French
Yeah.
- [16:19]
Michael Little
And then, you know, from then to now, we opened our first real estate office in 2020. You're sitting in it.
- [16:25]
Shawn French
This is awesome, man.
- [16:26]
Michael Little
This podcast room is actually where the closings for Noble Title used to be.
- [16:31]
Shawn French
No way.
- [16:32]
Michael Little
I swear.
- [16:33]
Shawn French
That is so cool, dude.
- [16:34]
Michael Little
So this little cut through you walk through right here, that used to be walled off. And this was suite 280. This used to be Noble Title. That was a lobby, a processing room, and a closing room. But it grew so quick that we moved it over to its own space across the street from Mount Trashmore. But so we opened this office. The first year, Eric and I did like 20 million a piece, which when your average sales price back then, it was like 260 or something like that. You know, we're a lot of home slinging. 70, 80 houses.
- [17:00]
Shawn French
You're moving some.
- [17:01]
Michael Little
Moving some properties and also recruiting and training and, you know, building the brand. So first year we signed 72 agents. The second year we hit 150. Right in the middle of the third year. Yeah, I hired a coach. One of my good friends became a coach. That's when we linked up with Jeff Glover. Glover U. Yeah. Their CEO is my personal coach. And at that point, we just started implementing things like a training program. And certain things I didn't know yet because I was in the Navy, like, leading a business is very different than leading in the military. Right. So I had to learn certain things about recruiting and retention in a business sense versus a military sense. And even training in the military. It's kind of like you do that, you go, if you don't tell, tell.
- [17:46]
Shawn French
Right, right, right.
- [17:48]
Michael Little
In this civilian side of things is truly instructional and educational, and there's more empathy and compassion involved than just point fingers and go.
- [17:58]
Shawn French
Yeah.
- [17:58]
Michael Little
Which is why I chose to hire the Michael Burts and. And go through the Rene Rodriguez's classes and seek out somebody like an E. T. When I had an opportunity. Which kind of brings us to meeting you. But year two, I went off, became managing broker, opened an office over in Chesapeake. After that, I had to come back. Eric and I actually had to remove an original partner, which a lot of people don't know about because, like, we don't publicize the hard times, you know, so we went through that. And then once we got through that and I became the principal broker and CEO, Eric and I decided to bring in some other partners and that turned out to be probably the smartest decision in the history of the firm. You know, we saw people that were repping the brand, that were performing at a high level and said, you know what? This is what the shares are worth. This is what it takes to do the job. Here's the books. Are y'all willing? And here we are a few years later. You know, we got seven franchises, 350 people.
- [18:57]
Shawn French
You know. You know what, man? And. And allow me to interject. I. To everyone watching and listening, everything's incredible. Like, I. I literally knew some of the story just because we're friends. But sitting here with you in this room and listening the last 12 and a half, 15 minutes of the whole story. Well, a lot of it, I'm sure. It's not the whole.
- [19:20]
Michael Little
It's like bullet points.
- [19:21]
Shawn French
Yeah, it's bullet points, right? We're bullet pointing stuff. Right? Hyperlinking it. But when it. To me, it comes down to one moment.
- [19:29]
Michael Little
Mr. Cook, you know, I would have to agree, man.
- [19:33]
Shawn French
That one moment in the audience, if you've. If you've forgotten that moment. He was trying to get kicked out of the Navy. And Mr. Cook says his master chief. Right, Chief.
- [19:43]
Michael Little
Chief Cook says Chief.
- [19:44]
Shawn French
Chief Cook sits him down. So what are you gonna do when you go back home to Ohio? You're gonna work at McDonald's and slaying drugs?
- [19:49]
Michael Little
Yep.
- [19:49]
Shawn French
Like, what are you going to do? Be the example for your family. And, dude, like, that was the pivotal moment, I'm sure. You know, people can look at things and, like, no, it was this moment in the business. It was this revenue target, was this partnership. It was separating from the other partner. No, no, that was the moment that man turned you into a man.
- [20:10]
Michael Little
He flipped a switch. Flip your switch, dog. But also, I had a full circle moment with him when I made chief in the Navy. Who do you think put the combination cover on my head?
- [20:21]
Shawn French
Yeah, man, I got goose, dude. Look at that.
- [20:24]
Michael Little
The moment that happened, I didn't need to do anything else there. Does that make sense?
- [20:29]
Shawn French
Like, it does.
- [20:30]
Michael Little
Like, don't get me wrong, I wanted. Dude, listen, I was Joe Navy, bro. Like, I wanted to make senior chief. I was going to make master chief by the time I was 35. Like, I was just great at my job. But the moment that he had an opportunity to do that, I felt like my obligation in the Navy was, like, you couldn't get to a better spot than that. Like, this is the guy that literally saved my life, saved my career. He's, you know, taking part in the definitive moment.
- [20:56]
Shawn French
Yeah.
- [20:57]
Michael Little
And after that, you know, not to say I didn't want it still, but, like, I felt like I met what was necessary. I don't know. I don't really know how to explain that.
- [21:10]
Shawn French
No, I understand it because I've come to that spot in a lot of different areas. Right. It's like, you know, and that's what led me here. That's what led me here to do my show and to create the brand and to you know, scale it so quickly, which it's feel like. It feels like it's been 100 years, but it's been four. Right?
- [21:30]
Michael Little
Yeah.
- [21:30]
Shawn French
But, like. And in the last year and a half, it's been exponential what we've done. And. And I all attribute it to the time in. During COVID when everything was shut down and I realized I'm like, I have to get in better shape. I have to. I have to figure something out about me. Like, there's this void inside of me where I don't carry a whole lot of confidence. Maybe it was because, you know, I grew up, you know, when I was young, and I didn't have a father until I was nine. I don't know what the story. I don't know what the real answer is, but I know the story I was telling myself. So for me, I had to really dive in, because no matter what I did, I was always unhappy, and I wanted more. Right. So. So it wasn't like. Like, now I'm super competitive with myself. Like, I want to do more. Like, I, you know, last year, 1.3 million lessons. This year, I want to blow 3 million out of the water.
- [22:19]
Michael Little
Right.
- [22:19]
Shawn French
I'm competitive within myself. I was happy with the 1.3 organic download. No. Not being 10 grand in marketing, like all these other fricking cats out there. Like, I'm doing this. We bootstrap this year. Right. Took me years to get an amazing production chain team that could come around with me and that I can be friends with and. And actually afford. Right. But it. It came in this one moment when I was going through my journey in 2020. Like, I am not happy. I can. I was in medical sales in. I was making probably a quarter million dollars. Like, this feels empty.
- [22:56]
Michael Little
Yeah.
- [22:56]
Shawn French
Yes. Am I helping doctors? Am I helping patients? By the tech, Absolutely. But for me, it was just like, I don't have anything to do here anymore. There's something bigger. And so when you talk about that, I understand it completely because I felt it.
- [23:12]
Michael Little
Yeah.
- [23:12]
Shawn French
And now you're in your wheelhouse and now I'm in my wheelhouse. It's like, this is my purpose the whole time.
- [23:18]
Michael Little
Absolutely.
- [23:19]
Shawn French
Like, it's wild.
- [23:20]
Michael Little
So that was kind of going to. Once I hired a coach, that was also another pivotal moment for me.
- [23:27]
Shawn French
Yeah.
- [23:28]
Michael Little
That particular day I got to see at my. Let's speak live.
- [23:31]
Shawn French
Yeah.
- [23:32]
Michael Little
First time.
- [23:32]
Shawn French
Wow.
- [23:33]
Michael Little
And. And I'm a huge Ed fan. I listen to his podcast. I love his book, obviously resonate with his story coming up with his father. And I just love the concept of the power of one more because I, I believed in it before, you know, I ever even saw that. Like, it's always been a go to failure. Do an extra anything that you're doing right. And he put it into, like Uncle.
- [23:53]
Shawn French
Ed says, blissfully dissatisfied. That's what I'm talking about.
- [23:56]
Michael Little
Yeah.
- [23:56]
Shawn French
Right.
- [23:57]
Michael Little
And then my boy Andy got hired as a coach to Glover U that day. And I hired a coach that day. Shortly after hiring that coach, my father died of a heroin overdose. Also right after I got out of the Navy. So did my biological mother.
- [24:14]
Shawn French
Oh, God.
- [24:15]
Michael Little
So in the course of ramping up this company to what should be a billion dollar company this year, in year five, congrats, man. Both of my parents are deceased from heroin overdoses during the course of that time. And we opened February 19th, 2020. The world shut down March 15th. So not only have we had to make it through removing an original partner, not only did we have to make it through the pandemic, I also had to fight through finalizing my divorce. I had to fight through both my parents dying. And the crazy part is, it all came full circle. I went to Jeff's Live on Real Summit last year in Phoenix. And I had never met my grandfather in my life, my dad's dad. Well, after my father passed, he and I kind of connected on social media.
- [25:01]
Shawn French
Interesting.
- [25:02]
Michael Little
And I was in Phoenix for that summit, and my grandpa lives in Tucson. This is going to get real wild here in a second.
- [25:10]
Shawn French
Okay, I'm here for it.
- [25:12]
Michael Little
So my grandfather's 85 at the time. I'm 36. Go meet him for the first time ever. You ready for this? He served in the United States Navy.
- [25:22]
Shawn French
Okay.
- [25:23]
Michael Little
He was a real estate broker. Check me out, dude, I already.
- [25:28]
Shawn French
Listen, listen, I, I, Dude, I'm already hair stand on.
- [25:30]
Michael Little
He was a real estate educator.
- [25:32]
Shawn French
Okay.
- [25:33]
Michael Little
He owned a title company. Literally everything I've done in my life, and I never even knew. He ran the Central Arizona realty educators for 30 years. He wrote the curriculum that Arizona real, like licensees are licensed under kind of thing, you know, and just to hear that he owned a title company and he was a real estate educator. He served in the Navy. And this whole time, I'm thinking, my family name is, like, I'm building something from nothing, right? But all of that tragedy turned into a moment where I got to meet him and learn that all of this is actually what I was born to do.
- [26:10]
Shawn French
It's in your bloodstream, you know, and.
- [26:13]
Michael Little
Literally skipped a generation, right? And then, obviously, you just met my son sitting out there, and my son is sitting here watching, you know, grand opening after grand opening, hundreds and hundreds of agents and employees and then their thousands of. Of connections and clients. And, like, even when we pull up to this event on Saturday, man, like, so excited. You know, my personal coach is there. You're there. We got an NPA NBA performance coach in the house. We got the number one gym in the city.
- [26:42]
Shawn French
Yeah.
- [26:43]
Michael Little
We got veteran advocates. We got financial specialists. We got. All of these people are really just like, a culmination of all the connections that I've made over the years and the reputation that I've built. And now, you know, my son and my wife get to witness that. You know what I mean, dude?
- [26:58]
Shawn French
It's funny because, you know, all goes back to Chief Cook. Be the example. Set the example for your family. And so it's funny what I'm gonna say. I'm gonna warn you guys, this is gonna sound very boastful, and I don't. Those of you that listen to my show know that I'm not that guy. But when your kids get a chance to see what you're doing, like, my kids, when they get the opportunity, like, they'll see my phone sometimes, see it light up. And my son can read. He's 11, right? Same age as your son. Yeah, right.
- [27:30]
Michael Little
They're smart, man. Dude.
- [27:31]
Shawn French
So smart. And they see things that I'm doing, and they. They turn on the TV, and it's a smart TV, and they see my YouTube, like, oh, my God, there's my dad. I'm like, guys, it's just linked to my Gmail. Like, it's not. It's not that freaking cool.
- [27:45]
Michael Little
Yeah.
- [27:45]
Shawn French
But I don't say that to them because it's like, I want them to. To see it as cool because, you know, one day, I see this as the legacy of the French family. I see the determined society. I see my kids running this company when I'm not doing it. And my kids are dynamic. I think my youngest daughter, Mia, is going to be the host in probably 20 years, and she's going to kill it. She's incredible. So one day, right? Because my kids aren't here, right. I'm in, you know, Norfolk, Virginia. They're not here with me. They're not going to see. They didn't. They. They weren't able to be at my TED Talk. Right, right. That was pretty cool.
- [28:26]
Michael Little
They can look it up, though.
- [28:26]
Shawn French
They can look.
- [28:27]
Michael Little
That's cool.
- [28:27]
Shawn French
Y. They can look it up. They'll find out, Right? They don't know what it is yet. But when my son's 16 and he knows what a TED talk is, he's like, my dad did that.
- [28:36]
Michael Little
Absolutely.
- [28:36]
Shawn French
But we're sitting there one day, it was kind of like the moment you had when we were in Traverse, Michigan, and my phone lit up and it was, yeah, dt.
- [28:45]
Michael Little
I was like, man, I'm meeting this guy.
- [28:46]
Shawn French
Why call this guy sitting there? I'm having a conversation with him, my phone lights up and it says, Rob Gronkowski.
- [28:54]
Michael Little
Yeah. That's crazy. And I saw you just shot. Was that with his brother?
- [28:58]
Shawn French
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [28:59]
Michael Little
That's awesome.
- [28:59]
Shawn French
He's incredible. Individual dude.
- [29:01]
Michael Little
Cool.
- [29:02]
Shawn French
I'm gonna be doing a lot of stuff with the Gronks. That's a spoiler.
- [29:04]
Michael Little
That's awesome, man.
- [29:05]
Shawn French
A lot of stuff. Amazing. You know, I credit my production team. I create my. My partners who know Gordy very, very well. Yeah, it was a natural connection. But. But one day, you know, Mike. And Mike calls me and he goes, what are you doing Sunday? It's like, I don't. I don't know. He's like, I. I need you to leave, like, an hour and a half open. I gotta probably have a guest for you. Yeah, it was Gordy. I mean, and, dude, it was. It was this moment that. I haven't told him this now, but I'm gonna say it right now. Early on, when we were building over the last year, right before we met you, my intention was to connect with Gordy because he seemed like a guy that. That we could do some cool things with.
- [29:49]
Michael Little
Yeah.
- [29:50]
Shawn French
And. And there was all these plans that me and my partner, Pat Sitkins were talking about. Right. And you've met Pat.
- [29:57]
Michael Little
Yep.
- [29:58]
Shawn French
And now every single one of those things are starting to happen.
- [30:03]
Michael Little
That's awesome.
- [30:04]
Shawn French
It's. It's wild to me. And, you know, and my son looks at me at that moment. He goes, seriously? I'm like, what? He goes, I see that. I'm like, oh. He goes, answer it. I'm like, well, duh, dude. But it's Funny, because, like, that kind of stuff, man, is. Is like, that's the power of connection.
- [30:28]
Michael Little
Absolutely.
- [30:29]
Shawn French
Right. And when you boil down to it, you know, I'm doing an event with Rob in. In April in Pennsylvania, but we're going to do some other things in between.
- [30:40]
Michael Little
Yeah.
- [30:40]
Shawn French
Right. But when the kids get to see that, it gives them the belief that they can do whatever it is that they want to do.
- [30:50]
Michael Little
Absolutely.
- [30:50]
Shawn French
My son, he wants to go play baseball at lsu, because that's where Daddy played.
- [30:55]
Michael Little
Yeah.
- [30:56]
Shawn French
Honestly, I don't want him going there.
- [30:58]
Michael Little
Yeah.
- [30:58]
Shawn French
I don't want him being in Baton Rouge. I don't. I want him going somewhere different. Right. But I want him to achieve whatever he wants to achieve. So I keep my mouth shut. It's like, well, we got to. We got a lot of work to do, man. You're 11. Once you're 13, we'll hammer down. He was like, but everybody else is working so hard now, Dad. I go, and they'll burn out. Yeah, they'll burn out.
- [31:15]
Michael Little
Absolutely.
- [31:15]
Shawn French
Trust me. I know how to do this. Right. So, like, your point man, setting the example for your. For your children is the most rewarding to me, is the most rewarding part.
- [31:25]
Michael Little
About this dude when I. You know, Daniel Gomez is going to be here, too.
- [31:29]
Shawn French
I cannot wait to hug that.
- [31:31]
Michael Little
So, you know, Daniel, he was my publisher. I met him through Michael Burt's course that I took. And both Coach Burr and Daniel had a huge part in this last year, from publishing the book to it being a number one bestseller, to giving me opportunities on stage that actually turned into paid speaking engagements for me. Just incredible. You know, and they're all going to be here, and my son gets to be in the room and not just listen to those people perform, but also see his dad, you know, nightcap, the event, and also haven't been the one to put it all together.
- [32:08]
Shawn French
Yeah.
- [32:09]
Michael Little
But furthermore, like, my winningest moment, you know, my family got copies of my book first. Right. Like, but my son sent me a picture one morning. I said, hey, son, did you read my book yet? He was like, read it. I'm rewriting it already. And he sent me a picture where he was literally taking notes to rewrite my book.
- [32:32]
Shawn French
Wow.
- [32:32]
Michael Little
And that was just.
- [32:36]
Shawn French
That's.
- [32:36]
Michael Little
That's powerful. Yeah, bro. Like. Like a baby.
- [32:40]
Shawn French
Like, yeah, good.
- [32:42]
Michael Little
Because there's never been a moment like that in my family.
- [32:48]
Shawn French
Right.
- [32:48]
Michael Little
You know what I'm saying? Like. Like, it. Like, that doesn't even exist. Right. So that was incredible for me, but also now, to a point where it's like, they've seen all these companies open. They watched me start a speaking, coaching, and writing business from scratch and be successful. They watched me crush the Navy for years, and they watched me do it all through a lot of adversity, dude, which is where the tenacity piece comes from, because it's, like, around somebody like me. There's just no room for excuses, bro. Like. Like what? Like, what are we even talking about? I get so tired of hearing people complain. Like. But I. I also sometimes forget, like, I've been through a lot of things that a lot of people don't go through.
- [33:29]
Shawn French
Yeah.
- [33:30]
Michael Little
And, you know, at 37, I tell everybody I live three lives, man. Like, I. I grew up in foster homes and trap houses, then I served in the military, and now I got this. This business journey I've been on. So it's like three different segments, but it's really. And it's still going. You know, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna speak on things from the last week, but you got an update from me, you know?
- [33:52]
Shawn French
Yeah.
- [33:53]
Michael Little
I've been dealing with some pretty heavy stuff even going into this. And at the end of the day, you know, we show up, we grow up, we don't complain. Right. Like, I. Like, I got. I got things to do. I got you and Coach Burke coming in tomorrow to train my people. I got a speech that I have to deliver. I have things I got to coordinate on the back end to make all of that happen. So it's just, like, the best thing I can do, even in the hardest time is continue to set that example. Right?
- [34:17]
Shawn French
So it's so funny, man. Like, I want to rewind real quick. And I agree, man. Like, you've. I don't want to not acknowledge what you've gone through in the last week or two. It's. It's heavy. Most people that would break, most people that would get to lay off the gas, but it just shows how connected.
- [34:36]
Michael Little
You are to your purpose.
- [34:38]
Shawn French
Right. And. And that's the thing, you know, even in my business, there's been so many times from, like, oh, my God, how am I going to continue under. Under this? Like, yeah, do I have to shut the show down? And of course it's okay to think that.
- [34:53]
Michael Little
Yeah.
- [34:53]
Shawn French
But, like, what's the response? And the response is usually like, nah, man, we're gonna keep going.
- [34:57]
Michael Little
I got a solution.
- [34:58]
Shawn French
Yeah, I gotta.
- [34:58]
Michael Little
I got an idea.
- [34:59]
Shawn French
Will, there's a way, right?
- [35:00]
Michael Little
Absolutely.
- [35:00]
Shawn French
So you bring in your troops, you bring in your connections. Like, how do we further this. Here's the mission. I think this is a global impact situation.
- [35:08]
Michael Little
Absolutely right.
- [35:09]
Shawn French
But my fan, my. My three kids got the first three copies of my book signed just like yours.
- [35:18]
Michael Little
Yep.
- [35:19]
Shawn French
And so when you said that, that resonated with me because then I didn't want to go further in the conversation without also saying, dude, that was the most amazing thing ever. My daughter was like, my youngest when that come out, like 21, 22. So she made three or four.
- [35:39]
Michael Little
Yeah.
- [35:39]
Shawn French
She'd read it, read it. And if they couldn't. If she couldn't find hers, that said.
- [35:43]
Michael Little
Mia, it's the coolest feeling in the world.
- [35:46]
Shawn French
It is, man. But you know what? There's been a lot of chapters added since then, so.
- [35:49]
Michael Little
Yeah, no doubt.
- [35:50]
Shawn French
We're gonna. We're gonna have to write another one, right?
- [35:52]
Michael Little
No doubt.
- [35:52]
Shawn French
We have a plan. I'm gonna write one soon. On how the, you know, the. The. The whole journey of the determined society. Right. And I. The. The thing that I love about the word determined and even to tenacity, right. Is. Is your word. They can kind of mean the same thing. Right. It's the ability to move in spite of what your emotions are telling you. Right. And I think that's one of. I know that's one of the things that impacts a lot of people's journeys.
- [36:23]
Michael Little
Right.
- [36:24]
Shawn French
And even tomorrow when I. And thank you. I'm so grateful to come in here and train your people.
- [36:29]
Michael Little
We should have. We should have a packed towel.
- [36:30]
Shawn French
I'm excited. But my conversation tomorrow is going to be about the intangibles.
- [36:36]
Michael Little
Yeah.
- [36:36]
Shawn French
It's nothing flashy, but everybody in that room is not executing those things. As a realtor, absolutely. They're not. Right. And what. What I've learned, dude, what I've learned is when we look at results, sales show growth, if it stalls or goes backwards, it's not because we lack talent. It's because we're lacking. Executing the process.
- [37:00]
Michael Little
100.
- [37:01]
Shawn French
Because we're so worried about, well, it. One plus 20. It's going to give me this answer. Like, meaning if I do this and this, I'm going to get this. That's not how it works. Everything in between, right. The journey, the process, the failure, the backsliding, the, you know, two steps forward, three steps back, whatever it is, that's the person you're becoming. And those are the moments you have to embrace and start to operate out of joy. Right. And being excited, enthusiastic about what you're doing. Because now it becomes contagious. Now people hear the passion now, if they thought you were. Or me if. Thought we were jackasses before, like, kind of hard to go against this guy now. Gotta tune in.
- [37:45]
Michael Little
Right.
- [37:46]
Shawn French
Gotta buy a house. Like, I gotta do it. And then all of a sudden, you build this reputation where what you put out is feeding the souls of other people.
- [37:55]
Michael Little
Yeah, absolutely. I think that's been the beauty of the growth of the company is, for me, it was never really about selling houses. Like, I always wanted to impact people, but I knew real estate somehow was the segue to that.
- [38:10]
Shawn French
Sure.
- [38:12]
Michael Little
And it turns out I was right, you know, because I've shown so many other people how to fish, and now you have so many other people eating based on skill and not on a crutch of, like, oh, here's a lead. You know, we teach people how to generate business and cultivate business.
- [38:26]
Shawn French
Come on.
- [38:27]
Michael Little
Naturally. And through relationships and consistency and delivering results. As you said, you know, everybody wants a paycheck, but they're not really doing anything for it. When I was with Rene Rodriguez up in Minnesota for that speaker's training, he said something called a breathing bonus. Like, people. Like, people just want to breathe. A breathing bonus. Literally. Like, they have no skill set. They're doing nothing, but they expect to be paid, and they deserve it. Yeah. And it's. And that's crazy. Like, no, you deserve it when you earn it, and you actually don't get to dictate when you've earned it.
- [38:56]
Shawn French
Yeah.
- [38:56]
Michael Little
It's whoever is ahead of you in that field or helping you come up that knows what it takes to earn it. That will probably let you know when you've hit the marker. You know what I'm saying? Instead of, somebody owes me. No, nobody owes you anything.
- [39:09]
Shawn French
Nothing.
- [39:09]
Michael Little
Um, and that's where I was in Nashville. Went to Coach Burt's Activate conference. Rory Vaden was there. Renee Rodriguez was there.
- [39:17]
Shawn French
Rory's dope dude.
- [39:19]
Michael Little
Yeah. So he said something that was like, you have to be able to boil your brand down to one word. And that night in the hotel and Tim was there, I'm racking my brain. I'm like, dude, how do you take my childhood, my military experience, you know, my personal life with ex wife, children, how things went, where I am now? Like, how do you boil all that down to one word? Right?
- [39:40]
Shawn French
Yeah.
- [39:41]
Michael Little
And I just couldn't think of it. And then I was like, well, you know what? I'm gonna take these 10 traits that I know about myself, throw them into chap GBT, and see what it says, which I never. I never use like, you know, even writing my book, I'm like super against, like, I think that an author should be an author. And you know, but I just couldn't. I'm like, I know these ten things about myself. What's that equal in one word? And it spit out tenacity. And I was like, hold on. And then I went and dug through and I was like, well, that's their noun. That's their verb version. This, that and the third. I was like, but what's my version of that word? And I, I dug back into my Navy days. You know when you're an early promote sailor or a sailor that's getting promoted at a fast pace.
- [40:17]
Shawn French
Yeah.
- [40:19]
Michael Little
There's a, there's like a standard blurb that people use. It's called sustained superior performance. Okay. And that's why I put the play on tenacity as sustained superior resilience.
- [40:28]
Shawn French
I love that, dude.
- [40:29]
Michael Little
So that became my definition of it. And then now I have a whole tenacity blueprint, top 10 pillars of tenacity. I got a tenacity assessment coming out soon. We'll talk about all that at the event. But that's like in addition to my already number one best selling book. But, but the next thing is I'm going to write a book. I intend to title it, Be Tenacious. And it's going to be from that cold day on December 18, 1987 to present day.
- [40:57]
Shawn French
Oh, man. Dude, I love it, bro.
- [40:59]
Michael Little
I don't know how long it's going to take, but I want to make sure it's right and I want it to go where it should.
- [41:04]
Shawn French
I love your brand story. Right? Because I remember I was sitting there with a, with a friend of mine and she was like, I want to help you build a personal brand. And I'm like, what's that?
- [41:19]
Michael Little
Yeah, what's that?
- [41:20]
Shawn French
Because they were. I was recruited into a direct sales organization, Melaleuca, right. Where you buy products and they're tox, you know, they're toxin free. And if you sign people up, you get, you get credit for it. Not.
- [41:31]
Michael Little
Right.
- [41:32]
Shawn French
It wasn't a multi level, but it was a direct to consumer store, Groceries, laundry, all that kind of whatever it is, right. And like, but you have to have like a Facebook page where people are going to really, you know, come to you and you're going to build this personal brand, they're going to come to trust you. And then you start dripping things in like, oh, you take a picture and you got a product placement, which is not how I do things.
- [41:57]
Michael Little
Right.
- [41:57]
Shawn French
Obviously, that's not how I do. Yeah, but. But it was the start. Right?
- [42:02]
Michael Little
Right.
- [42:03]
Shawn French
And she had me do an exercise. She goes, what's your brand? I'm like, I don't know. Like, I'm a dad, dude. I'm a former athlete. I don't know shit about shit. You know, I'm in sales, and I, you know, try to set a good example for my family and provide for them.
- [42:19]
Michael Little
Yeah.
- [42:20]
Shawn French
I'm a hard worker. She's like, no, so what I'm talking about.
- [42:23]
Michael Little
Yeah.
- [42:24]
Shawn French
So she said to me, I want you to take a picture of yourself in the gym, wherever, whatever picture you want.
- [42:29]
Michael Little
Yeah.
- [42:29]
Shawn French
Put it on your story on Instagram. And, like, I had, like, 800 followers at the time. Right in the. In the. In the question box. Right. What's the first word that comes to your mind when you look at me? I'm like, oh, God.
- [42:43]
Michael Little
So you took your brand from the marketplace?
- [42:46]
Shawn French
I did. I told the audience, my friend said, douchebag, you know, you suck, but they're joking.
- [42:54]
Michael Little
Yeah, Yeah.
- [42:54]
Shawn French
I was like, come, guys, come on, dude. I'm trying to worry. Help me here. And a lot of people came back, like, coach, leader, determination, determination, determined, determined, determined. Because that's the time where I kind of started going public with my, you know, fitness and started to get in better shape.
- [43:10]
Michael Little
Yeah.
- [43:11]
Shawn French
Then I got fat again. Now I'm in better shape again, you know. You know, the cycle.
- [43:14]
Michael Little
Life.
- [43:15]
Shawn French
Life. Yeah. So I said to her, I'm like, wow, everybody seems to think I'm determined.
- [43:21]
Michael Little
And she goes, huh, There it is.
- [43:22]
Shawn French
She goes, it's interesting. So what does that mean? I'm like, I don't know. Like, you tell me. Like, you do the work for me.
- [43:28]
Michael Little
Yeah.
- [43:29]
Shawn French
Hey, I did your assignment. Tell me what it is. I said, but at the end of the day, I said, you know, Nicole, what I really want, my dream is to wake up in a society where everybody is determined to go chase their dreams, no matter what their emotions tell them. And she goes, so you want to wake up in a determined society? I said, yeah.
- [43:45]
Michael Little
She goes, that's it.
- [43:46]
Shawn French
Make a Facebook page called Determine Society. I go, I don't like that.
- [43:49]
Michael Little
It's fire.
- [43:51]
Shawn French
I said, it's missing something. And she goes, no, it's not. Determined society. I go, no, the determined society.
- [43:56]
Michael Little
Yeah, like the state university.
- [43:59]
Shawn French
Congratulations. By. Let's. I mean, dude, it's gonna be a.
- [44:01]
Michael Little
Nasty run, but we'll see. We'll see. I'm not. I'm not. You know, anything can happen. Anything could Happen.
- [44:06]
Shawn French
Right? We'll get there too. We'll talk about that. But, you know, I. So she's like, start a Facebook group. But first go and, you know, pull the. You know, tell the audience, hey, like, something big is coming. I'm gonna drop a link when it drops. And I'm like, this is my first video that I've ever done. Flipped it around, completely cringe. Hated every bit of it. It was after running. I'm like, flush, and I'm like, got bugs on my face. And. And I'm, like, leaning up against the garage like an idiot with a blue Columbia fishing shirt on. I just remember all this, right? Because that was the start of it. And I started the Facebook page within 30 minutes of me posting the link. After I hyped it up for two weeks, I had 100 people in there.
- [44:44]
Michael Little
Crazy.
- [44:45]
Shawn French
And I started doing lives. I started doing, like, little motivational, like, slogans or, like, stories. One day, I'm driving down the road, and I'm like. I started, like, tasting colors, bro. I'm like, this is not a Facebook group. It is, but it's a podcast.
- [45:02]
Michael Little
A lot more.
- [45:03]
Shawn French
Yeah, it's bigger than this. And then here we are.
- [45:06]
Michael Little
Yep. So kind of similar for me in growing the brokerage and learning the new role of leading in business versus in the military. Obviously, I seeked out coaching, and I'm quite coachable. I'm really good at taking instruction and then doing it right. So most people probably wouldn't have implemented everything that I have in this first year and a half, creeping on two years of coaching. But the main piece was implementing a training program here at the company. But here's where it gets crazy. When me and Andy initially created the training program, which we white labeled Jeff's. Jeff Glover's Sales Rocket Program. And we integrated military experience, our marketplace, our experience, and we flipped it on Iron Valley branding. So we created Peak Performance Elite sales training, powered by Glover U. I love it. But here's where it gets like. Michael Burt had me going bananas because I was getting coached by two people at the same time.
- [46:05]
Shawn French
Yeah, it's hard.
- [46:06]
Michael Little
So I'm doing the real estate, and I'm doing the speaking and writing. But Bert teaches you on concepts, right? So they're. They're teaching me structure and to stand up the training with the stuff that I know and I'm already good at, but how to package that training. And then over here, Bert's like, conceptually, this is how you make everything intentionally congruent. Right. So listen to this. I own and Operate a multitude of Iron Valley real estate franchises. The name of the training is Peak Performance. You got to go to the valley to peak, right? I love it, dude, but I'm the broker from the bottom, and I take people to the top. See where this is going. And then when you take the peak of a mountain, the tip of it is the pinnacle, right? So now if you go to brokerfromthebottom.com you will find that my packages are Apex, Peak. Pinnacle. Peak Performance training is held in the Apex Room at the Summit Point location in Chesapeake. You see, it's all just wrapped together. It's crazy.
- [47:04]
Shawn French
It's wild.
- [47:04]
Michael Little
And then you got the pictures of the mountains and reach your peak and climb higher and all these slogans that branched from it. But so the real estate brand, my personal brand, my coaching brand, my writing and speaking brand, they're all the same.
- [47:18]
Shawn French
Yeah. Power of branding, bro.
- [47:20]
Michael Little
But it's all because I've paid the money, and I took the time to go seek those individuals who know what I did not yet know. Right? And then it was like, well, everything I did was working, so I'm just gonna keep implementing and keep doing. And then we got to the point where it was like, well, I have a coaching business. I have an idea. I know I can speak because I trained in the military for years, and I was always doing boards, and I speak in front of agents all the time, and I know I have a story. How do I put them all together? So I go to Burts for a week, do the package of purpose. I meet Daniel. I start writing a book, and then my boy Tim is like, hey, Eric. Thomas just hit me back. I said, what? Jeff Glover just hired him to be a keynote speaker. So we did a quick work. I did my first Broker from the Bottom event, hired ET For a webinar, and I turned that into a private watch party and also a book launch and, like, a whole thing. And then we negotiated a meet and greet face to face through Burns, who you know.
- [48:21]
Shawn French
Yeah.
- [48:22]
Michael Little
So that's when I meet you. I come to Traverse City to go to the Glover U event. I go to the lobby for my meet and greet. ET's calling you. I'm like, okay, so him and this guy are here for the same thing that me and this guy are here for. There's got to be some type of connection. And then we all got to sit there and just chop it up with ET for like, an hour and a half or something crazy.
- [48:42]
Shawn French
And now we're here together.
- [48:43]
Michael Little
Yeah. Yeah.
- [48:44]
Shawn French
That's the powerful thing. That's a powerful thing because, like, there's a new crop coming up, right. You have the goats. Like, et's the goat man. In my. In my humble opinion, like, for. For. For me, if I'm going to listen to somebody on end, it's going to be Eric Thomas. Right. For me, yeah.
- [49:02]
Michael Little
Always super high up there for me. Yeah, for sure.
- [49:04]
Shawn French
And. And, you know, and you go to these places because everybody goes to these events wanting to meet them. Yeah, I was there to meet him. Right. But also, you know, there was other plans. Like, I met you and Tim, and it's almost like that's how it works. If people would really realize that these events. Yes, you go there, you get nurtured with information. If you can meet them and shake their hand and have lunch, I'm cool.
- [49:29]
Michael Little
But it's actually opportunity brokering.
- [49:31]
Shawn French
But it's. Yes, it is, man. And. And a lot of times, what people don't understand, you're not going to become friends with that person. Like, the big one.
- [49:38]
Michael Little
Right.
- [49:39]
Shawn French
I was blessed that I am. I am friends with him. But, you know, I met you and Tim, and now we're off doing our first determine your destiny. There's gonna be more, I mean, I hope, right? Can we. We're gonna do more. Like, we'll restore. We'll structure it differently next time. Yeah, but, like that. But, dude, something was born out of that 100.
- [50:03]
Michael Little
And, and even just, you know, Michael Burt coming. Coming here to keynote my event. Like, you know, this is a guy that, he coaches a lot of people and he does a lot of events. And, you know, just to be someone who performed well under his tutelage, for him to come in and speak alongside you and myself with a couple other killers that I. I also met through all these events. Like, I met Janae through Daniel's Sticker Shock Speaking Academy. I met even that shout out to Daniel, man. Like, he was the first one to give me a stage. He made me a keynote of his speaking academy, like, the first time he ever heard me. Speaker 1.
- [50:41]
Shawn French
He's a good dude, man.
- [50:42]
Michael Little
Just because he. He was like, oh, that's a story. We can work with that, you know, And I've been at several events for him at this point, and everything just kind of comes back full circle. Travis Wallace, who. You guys are from the same neck of the woods. He's already been on your show. I met him speaking at Activate Conference, which even that, like, it's funny how people will put you in a position when they know you have what it takes. Kind of like the sensei testing the pupil, right?
- [51:11]
Shawn French
Yeah, of course.
- [51:11]
Michael Little
I was at Daniel's, the first thing that he invited me to. And I kept asking, what am I speaking? What am I speaking? What am I speaking? And I had titled my talk 20 to the top because I only had 20 minutes and it took me 20 years to get here. And I was just.
- [51:23]
Shawn French
Yeah.
- [51:23]
Michael Little
Ready to kill it. Yeah. He hits me up the morning of. He's like, hey, you're going on at this time. You got 35 minutes. But I'm like, what the.
- [51:33]
Shawn French
I need 15 more minutes now.
- [51:34]
Michael Little
But as a, as a professional would. I just adjusted. Killed it, you know? And then at Coach Burt's in Tennessee, I wasn't slated to talk. He texted me the night before, was like, be ready. And I was like, okay, all right. But he calls me up to speak. And just In a short 10, 15 minutes, Travis had the opportunity to see me speak. Somebody else saw me speak. That gave me a fifteen thousand dollar paid speaking gig.
- [51:58]
Shawn French
Wow.
- [51:59]
Michael Little
Travis just wanted to connect. And I'm sitting here like, bro, you trained Kyle Lowry, bro. Like, what? Like, yeah, like, basketball's my favorite sport. This is dope, you know, so all of those things have been curated in a room. Storytelling.
- [52:13]
Shawn French
Yeah. So connection.
- [52:15]
Michael Little
That's it. It's. It's crazy.
- [52:17]
Shawn French
Like, it's. It's nuts because, like, you know, coming here, like, you know, could I have Michael Byrd on my show virtually? Probably, yeah.
- [52:24]
Michael Little
But in person, absolutely.
- [52:27]
Shawn French
Right. I got to do. I got to have you on my show in person.
- [52:31]
Michael Little
Daniel, for me, Daniel, several other people.
- [52:33]
Shawn French
I haven't had Daniel on my show personally. I mean, in person, I've had him virtually. But he called me the other day, this is funny as hell. And he says to me, he's like, dude, you are not even the same dude. I was like, I think that's a thank you. He goes, it's a compliment, brother. He goes, did you know we've known each other for almost four years?
- [52:50]
Michael Little
I was like, that's not true.
- [52:51]
Shawn French
We've known each other for like a year, year and a half. And he goes, dude, I was on your show two years ago. Literally two years ago. He goes, come on, brother. Time flies. I'm like, dang, it's like it. But, but, but it wasn't like a knock on, like, yeah, hey, I've only known you this long. It was like time flies. It hasn't felt like that, right? And he's one person that. We always come full circle, me and that Guy. And. And when I saw you guys connected, like, I remember right on the post, I'm like, are we serious right now? Or, like, I'm like, wait a second. You guys are connected, too. Like, wait, you're coming to the event?
- [53:25]
Michael Little
Yep. He's speaking at it.
- [53:27]
Shawn French
I know.
- [53:27]
Michael Little
Like, because, you know, I'm very big on, like, scratch my back. I'll scratch.
- [53:32]
Shawn French
Yeah, man.
- [53:32]
Michael Little
He gave me, quite literally, my first opportunity to speak outside of real estate. Right. I've been on panels and. Yeah. And it's like. But the real estate wasn't where I wanted to go with it. I wanted to go my life route. You know, the story that's really going to impact people. And he gave me the first opportunity to do that. So I only saw fit, like, when I put on an event. Hey, man, come on. Yeah, of course. And the same thing for Bert. Like, I didn't expect to get that time at that conference. Like, dude, Renee Rodriguez, Rory Vaden, and Daniel Gomez had just spoke.
- [54:03]
Shawn French
Yeah.
- [54:04]
Michael Little
And I didn't even know, really, at the time until I published a book with Daniel and been to several events. Like, he's been on stage with John Maxwell and Les Brown and, like, goats. Yeah. And I'm like, okay, what am I doing right now?
- [54:16]
Shawn French
Yeah.
- [54:17]
Michael Little
I'm sitting here 15, 20, 25 years younger than all these cats. But my life experience and my story and the things that I've built, none of which have been on my own. You know, we had this conversation earlier where it was like, I really want to highlight all the people that have been believers and taken everything we have to the next level, because a lot of people look at me as, like, the face of things, but I'm one person.
- [54:39]
Shawn French
Yeah, man.
- [54:40]
Michael Little
Like, all the people holding me down and in the. From the team leads to the brokers, to the. You know, Matt was just here with you. Like, he runs that company. I'm the vp, but he runs that company. You know, and we have several other partners, and they all bring business through the door, and it's just so much more than just like, you're not a real boss till you making other bosses. You know what I'm saying?
- [55:03]
Shawn French
Like, leaders. True leaders.
- [55:05]
Michael Little
Lead leaders, they make other leaders. 100. So. But I always like to give back to those people that gave me a chance. So that's why Daniel's coming. That's why Bert's coming. That's why. I mean, even Janae, you know, I invited her to come because, one, she's a Navy veteran. Two, she's a veteran advocate but three, she heard me speak, and I don't know, that day, man, I. I tore it down. Everybody in there was just like, I've never seen anything like that. And I was like, I guess I'm like, this is what I'm supposed to be doing, you know, for sure, man. So from that moment on, she's been in touch, and we've been at different events together. And I also met Mark Murray, who's the owner of A one VA Ratings out of Texas. I met him through Coach Bird's class.
- [55:47]
Shawn French
Wow.
- [55:47]
Michael Little
Dude, this guy made me $1.2 million in five minutes. No joke. He's the top VA disability specialist in the country.
- [55:56]
Shawn French
Interesting.
- [55:57]
Michael Little
He took my laptop, redid my. Because, you know, you got to put in for your disability, what have you. And he just whispered in my ear, welcome to the 90% club. And I was like, yeah, whatever. Like, I've been fighting for this for, like, five years, bro. 4 months later, my rating doubled. My monthly income tripled. From the VA from his one submission.
- [56:17]
Shawn French
Unreal.
- [56:18]
Michael Little
Incredible. And since then, he's helped, like, 30 of my friends.
- [56:21]
Shawn French
Wow.
- [56:22]
Michael Little
And. And he came out to the event, no charge, pro bono, like, nor veteran population. He's. He brought a team of, like, eight people. He's going to be one of the main vendor booths at the event, just teaching people how to get their disability rating. So we got military fit women coming to town. Janae brought them through. Yeah, I mean, it's the power connection.
- [56:42]
Shawn French
I connected with him the other day.
- [56:43]
Michael Little
Just like you said, the power connection. Just, if you just show up and deliver and treat people right, it'll just keep coming, you know? Dude, even through the hard times, matter of fact, especially.
- [56:56]
Shawn French
Yeah.
- [56:56]
Michael Little
Through the heart.
- [56:57]
Shawn French
That's what's the most important, man. Anybody can. Anybody can be kind and collaborate when everything's going great and the roses smell fantastic, but it's really. When it smells like, that's when you need to come through.
- [57:08]
Michael Little
Absolutely.
- [57:08]
Shawn French
And show your best foot, you know, Put your best foot forward, so.
- [57:11]
Michael Little
No doubt.
- [57:11]
Shawn French
Shoot, man. We've been going for an hour, man.
- [57:14]
Michael Little
Well, we can't give them everything because we got other episodes. We got an event to do.
- [57:19]
Shawn French
Yeah, I got. I got another show with you, too, don't I?
- [57:21]
Michael Little
Like, yeah, we're gonna do the Iron Valley real Hampton Roads one, baby. That'll be with me and one of the managing brokers, and we'll just talk about kind of the original Iron Valley here in. In Virginia beach that set it all off, which. And I know you're going To Pennsylvania soon. Iron Valley is actually based out of Pennsylvania. The original is out of Pennsylvania. A lot of people in this area like, oh, you guys started Iron Valley? No, just here. Iron Valley corporates actually in pa. They.
- [57:48]
Shawn French
Wow.
- [57:49]
Michael Little
There's a. An office in Hershey. They have corporate office in Hershey. They have everywhere from Lancaster up to Carlisle. I mean, they got like 35 offices. Just.
- [57:59]
Shawn French
That's what I'm gonna be in Carlisle.
- [58:01]
Michael Little
So, yeah, Iron Valley's huge up there. You're gonna see them everywhere.
- [58:04]
Shawn French
Well, makes sense. Steel City, you know, Iron Curtain, like.
- [58:08]
Michael Little
And that was kind of like when we brought it here. People are like, there's no valleys here. There's no steel. How are you gonna. It's like, well, that's just it. It's that. I call it a blue collar work ethic with a white collar mentality.
- [58:19]
Shawn French
Boom.
- [58:20]
Michael Little
It's like a perfect fusion, you know?
- [58:22]
Shawn French
Love it, dude. I love it.
- [58:23]
Michael Little
And here we are.
- [58:23]
Shawn French
Well, dude, thank you, man.
- [58:24]
Michael Little
Thank you.
- [58:26]
Shawn French
Telling the audience about your story and, you know, it's been awesome. I'm super jacked up. Tomorrow's gonna be great. You know, we got some sales training, got some more shows to do.
- [58:36]
Michael Little
Charity workout.
- [58:37]
Shawn French
Charity workout. Yeah. And then we light it up and.
- [58:39]
Michael Little
Then the conference on Saturday.
- [58:40]
Shawn French
Saturday. Oh, the butterflies are churning, dude.
- [58:43]
Michael Little
I'm ready, man.
- [58:44]
Shawn French
I like butterflies. Like they.
- [58:45]
Michael Little
They. Yeah, they're good.
- [58:46]
Shawn French
They move me.
- [58:47]
Michael Little
If you don't have any, maybe you're not.
- [58:49]
Shawn French
And maybe you're doing the wrong thing.
- [58:50]
Michael Little
100.
- [58:51]
Shawn French
Listen, guys, you heard it. The one thing that I want you to get out of today from my friend Michael Little, is, you know, no matter what you've gone, what you've gone through in the past, no matter what you're going through right now, if you live your life out of tenacity and choose to move forward and work hard and set the example and break the cycle, it needs to stop with you. He chose to stop the cycle. With everything that going on with his family, him not having a family, incarcerations, drug use, overdoses, he decided to stop it with him. Now his children are benefiting, benefiting from it. And now he's built an empire and is going to continue to build that. So whatever you're going through, be tenacious. And until then, stay determined.
- [59:47]
Unknown Artist
This one, luck. I let the pain inspire me. I put my all in. Everything I'm doing up until it's done, I mean, for the entirety, I put it in nova time. I'll be working. Just know I'mma go for mine. Cause I earned it they watch and I know it's time I confirmed it A whole society determined determine.