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SOLO | Make Money by Becoming Obsessed, Thinking Bigger, and Ignoring Quitters - Lessons from my Grant Cardone interview
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You're listening to the Travis Makes Money podcast presented by gohighlevel.com for a free 30 day trial of the best all in one digital marketing software tool on the planet, just go to gohighlevel.com travis what's going on everybody? Welcome back to the show. On this episode, it's just me, you and the mic and we are continuing along our series of what I have learned from the plethora of past guests here on the show and on my other podcast as well. It's over a thousand people now, so there's quite a few that I was able to dig through and find. And today's episode is all about a guy by the name of Grant Cardone. Now if you're tuning in and you know who Grant is and you don't like Grant typically, I'd encourage you to listen to this episode because you might find that there's actually a lot of really good helpful things that Grant tends to say. It just is, you know, sometimes overshadowed by his, by his robust personality, I guess I could say. But I have found a lot of Grant stuff to be really helpful over the years. At first I was like I was a major fan. It was basically like Grant and Gary. That was all I listened to when I first got started in the space, probably actually probably about a decade ago now, which is pretty insane. But at the time I was also a door to door sales guy. So I really liked a lot of Grant's sales lessons and things like that and his objection overcomers and a lot of the content he put out about sales I really liked. And so I that was like the gateway for me. Then I got to know more of his content. I had him on the show, had like all of his executive team on the show, got to know them over the years and a couple events with them. And every time I've spent any time with Grant behind the scenes like one on one or small groups, he is not opposite of his brand. Like he's still his brand. He's still like a big Personality but his, his efforts on social is just to get people in the door. But he's he behind closed doors man, like he knows what he's doing. Very, very smart business person who's figured out a lot of things. And so yeah, I, I, I, I have remained and this is not true of everybody by the way. There have been several people who I will not men who have lost a lot of respect from me over the years. I'm not one, I'm not one to just follow people blindly because they're successful. And that's sort of the advantage to talking to over a thousand people on the show at this point is that I've seen so many examples of success that I know you don't have to behave a certain way in order to be successful. So the ones who choose to be a holes or the ones who choose to engage in fraudulent activity, you know, those are the people that I'm, I'm just separated myself, distanced myself from them even if I've had them on the show in the past. But Grant's somebody who I feel is, I was going to say unfairly hated, but he kind of brings on the hate in a purposeful way just because he knows it's going to be, it's going to get him more views and impressions and ultimately more sales and get him everything that he wants. So you know, you, you do you Grant, you do you. So here's a few of the lessons and takeaways from our interview. And to this day we still get comments on this video and it's also on Grant's YouTube channel. So you can, if you go search Grant Cardone, Travis Chappell on YouTube, you can find the interview either on my channel or on Grant's channel. And I was taken aback by how many people in the comments were saying like this is the best interview that Grant's ever done. And I was really proud of, of that, of that interview because this was the first in person interview I ever did. So I was wildly out of my comfort zone. I was, I, I was in, I was in his house, so to speak. You know, like I flew out to Miami and did this recording in his studio. So it would have been easy to just let him take control and dominate the conversation because he already is that type of a personality to begin with. Allowed like I, I at the very beginning kind of set the tone that this is my interview. And then he sort of allowed me to steer the ship from there and we got him some really good stuff and it was, and, but it was also not just that, it was, it was because I actually came in really properly prepared for this. Like, studied and prepped for hours. Actually read his whole book before I interviewed him. And so there's a few moments in there where he was just kind of shocked of the things that I knew. But it allowed us to have a really great conversation. And so like I said, if I had several people that actively, like, told me, they were like, oh yeah, I hate Grant. I don't like gr. I don't like the way that he does things. I don't like how he, whatever. And then they, they watched the interview and they were like, this was definitely, like, this made me like him. And I did not think that I was capable of liking this guy. So listen with an open mind, if you, if you don't like Grant, if you like Grant, then forget everything I just said because you'll probably already find this helpful. So a few lessons, takeaways from my time with Grant. Number one, boredom is the enemy. Obsession is the antidote. This goes into the. A lot of things that I grew up with, I, I don't believe anymore, but there's a lot of things that I grew up with that I actually fully believe. And this is definitely one of them. They used to say, idle, idle hands are the devil's workshop or something like that. And this is sort of the same idea. Boredom is the enemy. Obsession is the antidote. And so Grant, at the very beginning of our conversation, he starts talking about his drug addiction. It wasn't about pain or trauma at its core. He said plainly that the only reason he was using drugs was that he was bored and he just was looking for things to do with friends. And the moment that he finally had, or the moment that he had nothing rather to channel his energy into, he found trouble. And what turned his life around was not willpower alone. It was throwing himself completely into his work at the car dealership and staying so occupied there that there was just no space left for the self destructive tendencies that he was engaging in prior to that, to that change in his life. So his book Be Obsessed or Be Average came directly from that realization. If you're obsessed with something that's worthy of your time, then you don't have time to be obsessed with something that destroys you. And by the way, this does not always mean drugs. This does not always mean, like the worst thing that you can possibly imagine or think about. This could be watching tv. It could be, it could even be reading books. Like, it could be anything that distracts you from your core mission or purpose. It's not necessarily always just talking about like, well, you know, drug addiction and, you know, prostitutes and whatever. It's like that's where people's mind goes when they think about this. But, but there's lots of other things that are eating away at your dreams. And look, if you don't have those big dreams, then watch away, read away, do whatever you want. I'm not trying to convince you that you should have the same goals and dreams as I do or as some of these other people do. But there is something to the idea that if you have a bunch of free time and you're just bored all the time, that you're probably going to find that time being filled with not useful activities in a good case scenario and in a bad case scenario with actually effectively, you know, destructive activity. So boredom is the enemy, obsession is the antidote.
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two, the middle class is a myth built on comparison. Grant's take on the middle class certainly gets a lot of people in a tizzy online, and he said it pretty, pretty plainly on the show that I did with him. The middle class is a mythological creation by politicians. It only exists as a concept because people compare themselves to those below them to feel okay about not pushing further. And on the opposite end too, they compare themselves to those above them and say, well, I'm not greedy, so I'm just going to be content with where I am. And then they find that that situation is actually a worse situation than they thought it was going to be. And his seven year old daughter at the time, I don't know how old she is now, she's probably close to being an adult. But at the time, his seven year old daughter defined it really, really well. She said, rich people who are really po. And that was his, you know, proud dad moment of saying like, yes, that is the middle class. Rich people who are really poor. You're making 70 grand, you can't actually leave your job, you're locked into payments, but you feel okay with it because you're not destitute. And in poverty. And that's not wealth. That's just a comfortable trap. That last piece there is, I think, defining a lot of people's living situations is that they're just, they're in a comfortable trap. Nothing's great. Everything's okay, everything's fine, Everything's good. Good. Everything's just kind of like, yeah, it's not terrible, but it's like, but it should be fantastic. And you can make it fantastic if you really want to. And so, and, and look, I am sort of on the opposite end of the spectrum when it, when it comes to Grant's take on this, because I know I've heard him say stuff like, if you're not making, you know, if you're only making 500,000 or $400,000 a year, then you're broke and you're not a good provider and things like that. And it's like, I, I tend to be more on the Gary Vee side of just like, look, it's about self awareness to know what you want. But I also think the reason for my Travis makes money po is to try to get the message out there that you will, like, everybody will probably need more money than they think that they need. So the number that you're thinking like, okay, this is what I want. I don't want to build a hundred million dollar business. I just want to not have to work for somebody or whatever. And If I'm making 120 grand and I don't have to work for somebody, that's a great scenario for me. But if you start doing the math and you're like, well, I got three kids and I got a car payment and we want to buy a house and, and then, you know, I want my, my significant other to stay home with the kids. And then you start doing all the math and you start going like, oh, maybe, you know, 120 is actually probably not going to cut it unless we move to like the middle of Nebraska, which is not something that we want to do. So, yeah, if, if you're stuck in this comparison loop, that's why, that's why comparing is typically just a useless thing. It's just like you, you can find examples of anybody that you're doing better than. You can find examples of anybody that you're doing worse than. It's not trying to build a life that compares to the life that other people live. It's trying to build a life that compares to the life that you ultimately want to live yourself. And so do not allow the myth of the middle class to draw you in to a life of. That just becomes this, this trap of, of comfortability, comfortability, comfortableness. I don't know. You get what I'm saying? Number three, never take advice from a quitter. This one I have actually, I've, I've heard this in my mind a few times because what, what happened was this is back in like 2018, I did this interview and back at the time clipping from long form content was like very, very, very new. And it was, started working my producer Eric, because this is the first time I had a I, it was an in person video interview rather than like a Skype or Zoom interview or something. And so I was like, hey man, can you cut this up for me and give me four or five clips? And granted, ended up posting all these clips. But one of the clips that, that we posted was the never take advice from a quitter. So I can hear him saying in my mind because I've listened to that clip so many times. It's been posted across all of our channels and his channels and everything. But it actually was something really useful to me over the years because there's, I've taken a couple of swings that have not worked out and I, and I went back and thought about this because he's not saying to ignore every person who's ever struggled or failed or had obstacles in their way. He's saying be very specific about where you're getting your advice. Because if somebody quit on their financial ambitions because they tried to, you know, expand and go, go for their dreams and, you know, reach this pinnacle of success and then the economy or the situation or the market ended up just smacking them and beating them, then if that's the person you're getting your financial ambition from, they're probably just going to tell you not to pursue those things and be like, well, I learned this lesson the hard way that you shouldn't expand, you should stay small because this is actually better profit and whatever. And so if someone went bankrupt by expanding too fast, they're just going to tell you not to expand. They're just going to tell you to say stay small. Their advice is a projection of their own failure, not a map for your success. So seek out people who are actively in the cycle of winning right now, not people who won a decade ago and then checked out, or somebody who went really big, lost everything and then decided to stay small afterwards. And of course, again, this is based on the caveat that you also want to go really big. If you don't Want to go really big, then go find somebody who's built the lifestyle business that you're looking to build and who's done it really well and take their advice. But if you are seeking out this, you have this big goal, this big dream. I want to build this, you know, a hundred million dollar service business or I want to build this billion dollar tech company or I want to build this 10 million subs, subscriber, YouTube channel, whatever. And then you go talk to people who pursued that path and did not actually attain what they were going for. And then afterwards because of, because they failed, they stay small. Then their advice is just going to basically be based on like, like I said, it's going to be a projection of their failure, not a map for your success. So seek out the people who are, are actively winning. And maybe you have gotten slapped a few times but got back up and kept those goals big. And this is something I've thought about several times when I've taken a big swing that hasn't worked. Immediate reaction is to, is to allow the insecurity in my mind to take over and just allow the imposter syndrome, those voices to come back up and say, see, you can't do it. See you tried and you failed. You're not meant to do that. Do this other thing, just stay small and be content with where you're at and things like that. And this piece of advice I've taken and used in my life several times to get me out of a funk and just say, you know what, it's just a matter of time. Anybody who's ever, ever built anything big failed multiple times before they were successful in building that thing. So never take advice from a quitter. Number four, flow power to power. When Grant moved to Miami, he didn't start by trying to extract value from successful people. He called business owners and asked what charity they cared about so he could help that charity, instead of showing up with a pitch and a taker mentality, showed up with a gift. And he called it flowing power to power. So, and this was in the context of me asking networking specifically because the show at the time was builder network. And so he was just talking about getting access into high powered circles. Once you're in those circles, the access compounds. Most people try to get something from powerful people before they've given anything, which is backwards. And then they wonder why the doors don't open. And it's like, look, everybody in that person's life wants something from them. So if you can be the different person who's just trying to give something and not trying to take anything and truly doing it because you're just trying to be generous, it will end up working out better for you in the long run. It might, might not be every single person you've offered. That's why it has to be without the expectation of receiving anything in return. Because if you have these invalidated, unsigned, undocumented social contracts that you've drawn up in your head and then you start doing stuff for people, then you're, then you're going to become spiteful and angry when the people you do stuff for don't do anything back for you in, you know, immediately or, or they don't support this launch that I was doing or this big thing that I was doing, but I was helping them. All these other things like you can't, you can't count all. It's not a SC board. You just have to do, you just gotta be generous to people, do the right thing, help people if you can help them and, and be okay with whatever happens after that. But I promise you more good things are going to come to your life because you're a generous, open, honest, caring person and you're just trying to do the right thing for the right thing. So flow Power to power Number five. A home is not an investment, it is a chain. Now this is probably one of his most polarizing stances and still gets lots of arguments at the dinner t. Don't buy a house where you live is his argument. A single door property is not an asset, it's a liability. It locks you up to location, ties up capital, and the equity that you're building is equity that you can't spend without doing another massive transaction. So his argument was buy real estate that pays you every month. Own what generates income, rent where you live. Again, this take has been criticized a lot online and I've gone back and forth on it over the years because I grew up the son of a realtor. So I bought my first house when I was, was 21 and then we were doing some flips here and there. I don't know, we've probably done 10 to 12 total purchases in the last like decade or so. So I'm not like an active real estate investor. But you know, we do something from time to time and I went back and forth on this for a little bit and there's a while where I was like, oh, we're just going to rent, we don't want to buy. And then we ended up buying and I'm actually Very, very happy with the decision that we made to buy. And look, there's a, a lot of nuance to this and I've broken this down in episodes before for oh, my overall sentiment is like owning a home is still better than not owning a home for a lot of reasons. But the deal has to be a good deal. And if you're, and like what Grant's saying, like if you're locking yourself into location, you're tying up capital that you could use for cash flowing assets or you could use to invest into your business to increase your income, and then you, and then you're, you're, you're tethering yourself to a physical location when maybe the opportunity that you should be taking advantage of is in a different state. But now you can't move to another state because you know you're upside down on what the house is worth versus what you owe. And then you, your, your, your payment is, your mortgage payment is above market rate for rents and you wouldn't be able to cover it. Like, there's just a lot of things that prohibit you from being able to be nimble and flexible. But again, a deal is a deal. So if you can find a home that's a good deal. I am still on the side of don't wait to buy real estate. Buy real estate and wait because especially, and really, essentially not just especially, but if you're in a market that, that's growing and has potential and it's gonna be around for a long time, then yeah, don't wait to buy real estate. Buy real estate and wait. But Grant's argument is that a house is, is never an investment, it's just a chain. And I can understand what he's saying because people do tend to put it in the asset category and owning your home is less of an asset than it is a liability, to be honest, because it doesn't pay you any money and it only requires you to pay more money for it. Especially if you're not buying anything that's like newer construction in the last five to 10 years. It's like you're gonna have to replace H vac system and you're gonna have to replace a roof and you're gonna have to replace flooring and plumbing issues and all that stuff is on you. So it does, you know, it can rack up the bills and not pay you a dime. To me, it's more, to me, it's more just like a store of value. It's almost like a forced savings plan, so to speak. Having a House because it forces you just to put the money into the mortgage. You have to do it, and then the equity builds up over time. Eventually you own the house free and clear. The house is going to be worth More in 30 years from now when it's paid off. Even if it's 15 years from now, it will be worth more at some point. It might be worth less at some point during the time that you own it, but over the course of time, it's going to be worth more. So. And not to mention, one of the big things I think is a big advantage is like, it's like a rate lock. You know, like, rents are going to continue to increase with inflation over the next 30 years. If you sign a mortgage, that's your payment. Let me change that. As long as you don't sign an adjustable rate mortgage, your. Your payment will be the same and it will not increase with inflation, which is how you have people that are still affording to live, like, near the beach in Orange county on like, a. Not great, Sal. It's like, yeah, because they bought that house 27 years ago when it was like $430,000. Market value now is 1.2 million. But there's no way they'd be afford. They'd be able to afford to live at that house right now if they were renting. And there's no way they'd be able to afford to live anywhere near that community, even if it's an apartment, because the rents are way higher than what they used to be. But they locked in their mortgage 27 years ago, so they still have that home, and then they have all the equity that was built in that home. So I still push back on this one a little bit, but. But I can see where Grant's coming from. And my thing now is just like, ask the questions and find a deal to try not to get too emotional in the purchase of your home. And, you know, like, you got to have a lot of certainty to be like, this is our forever home in order to be able to just. To just buy whatever you want and not think about the financial repercussions. So, anyway, there's a few of the takeaways from my time with Grant. I do recommend checking out the full episode, especially if you don't like Grant in particular, because we got a lot of great feedback on this episode and a lot of people saying, like, oh, this episode actually changed my opinion on who he is as a person. So, yeah, check out the full episode with Grant. But that's it for this one. Thanks so much for tuning in. We'll catch you guys next time. Peace.