Confronting Jason Oppenheim On The 2022 Real Estate Bubble | Selling Sunset

Welcome to the Ice Coffee Hour. I'm Jason Oppenheim and so far this podcast has made $1.8 million. [laughter] Oh, wow. Way off. Jeez, I wish. All right, fine. Gosh, I can maybe getting some revenue cut with that. You're the highest guest so far. People have ranged anywhere from like Well, I know what you do on your other [laughter] Oh my gosh. Uh, so I'll tell you the total. $180,000. That's more realistic. All right. So, the lifetime revenue of this $146,000. Pretty close. Close enough. Is it worth your time, Graham? Yes. Right. Because we have sponsors. So, this is just the ad revenue for free. You do this for free ice coffee. Well, I I have my own iced coffee now. Bankroll coffee. Oh, that's right. I Yeah. Yeah. I got to give you some coffee. All right. You could actually put it in the office. I should be shouldn't be drinking this Earth Cafe then. So, Oh, that that dirt. That nasty stuff. You have oat milk? Then I'll do it. We do actually. Well, thank you. Thank you so much for coming on today. I really appreciate this. Oh, my pleasure. I think it's come full circle because I've been with the Oenheim Group since 2015 when you first opened up the office in West Hollywood. Had no idea that anything would happen with a show. That was never the intention. It was just pure real estate. What show? Selling Sunset. Oh, that's right. We got we got to we got to introduce that. So, uh yeah, I think a few years ago we would have intro this entirely differently, but uh now you get this this hit show on Netflix. Five seasons, right? Yeah. Season five comes out in a couple months. Wow. I gotta say, so admittedly, I do know what show. Just doing it for the audience. Okay. Um my girlfriend is a fan of the show. So definitely familiar with it. But I heard that it was such a hit show that now there's a spin-off. Is that true? Yeah. Selling the OC about my Newport Beach office. We just started filming a couple weeks ago. I know. And hope hopefully a Vegas show because I think I'm going to open up a Vegas office soon. Yeah. If we could talk. I've been so excited about that. You don't you don't know about this actually. No, I didn't know about this. I've been good. I have not Well, I haven't signed a lease yet, so I can't say where, but um should we should we wait to talk about a lease? No, I don't care. Okay. I'll probably sign [snorts] it in the next week or so. I've been really looking forward to it. I have not told a single person this entire time, which is hard for me to keep a secret like this, but I've been so excited to be able to go back into the office and get my real estate license. So, I'm going to do that this year. Yeah. We're gonna get Graham out of YouTube. back to real estate. I So, so when I buy a house, you're going to you're going to rep me and you're going to give me the whole commission, right? Don't get carried away. Sorry, I got I still got to get my commission. [laughter] [gasps] But yeah, the show is such a success. But tell us from the very beginning how you got involved in real estate because you were a lawyer before got into real estate. You were working uh as an assistant, right, for the first two years. I worked as a real estate agent for Joyce Ray's office. Yeah. Um, and yeah, I I was a lawyer for many years. I enjoyed itish, you know, I mean, as much as I think you can at a major law firm, but I'd always loved real estate. So, after traveling for a while, after I left law, I came back to real estate. Um, yeah, tough couple first years, you know, like making 50 grand a year, you know, not much for Los Angeles. Uh, and then you know things and I worked with Stacy and Joyce who you know and and then I worked across the hall from you. Yeah. You know we were both Graham was hustling leases and I was hustling everything I could too. So you know it was a it was a fun but you know not exactly glamorous first couple years. You were telling me too that you left law and I I think you had seen a survey or something that said it was the most unhappy career or something like that. Right. I mean a real estate agent was was ranked the happiest career. So, I went from the least happy to the most happy, which is I mean, I wouldn't say that I was miserable as a lawyer. I think most lawyers are. I think I I was okay. I was on a great case. I had great uh colleagues, but I mean, I'm so much happier now. So, just to get the timeline right, you were working So, a after you stopped being lawyer, you went into real estate, you're working across the hall from Graham. And then after that, is that when you decided to start the Oppenheim Group? Yeah, it took I think I was there maybe like three and a half years at Coldwell Banker and then I decided to start the Oppenham Group. And what did you because I'm assuming you brought Graham along with you uh at some point. Yeah, I think you were my first hire, right? [clears throat] And so what did you see in Graham at that time working with him in Coldwell Banker Coldwell Banker that gave you the idea, you know, this kid working leases, why should I bring him on with me? Like what did you see in that? Well, first of all, Graham and I were friends just from working so close together. And two, he was just like a a hustler for sure. I mean, he really really put in the hours and you know, you can just tell when someone's got that energy and that ambition and motivation and Graham had that and it was just, you know, we just got along. So, it was like it was an obvious first hire for me. Yeah. I remember you in in the office, Jason. So, Jason got this little it was basically a closet. It was it was it was actually Well, before that I was in Stacy's office and with like a little desk in the corner. Right. Then I ended up getting my own littleet right next to you. Yeah. And that's where we started interacting. It It was a closet. Like I guarantee your closet is bigger than Jason's office was at the time. Yeah. It was smaller than than this. Oh, yeah. Way small. It's like half the size. I also started in the closet or actually the laundry room. The laundry room. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We needed a space for Alex to edit videos and we're like, "What's the one room we don't use at all?" The laundry room. So, and it was big. Laundry room was actually probably the size of your office. So you and I have probably started in the same spot. Yeah, because Jack was in here and but now that he has his own place, you know, I can work right there and you know, so it works out. But yeah, definitely. But you decked out that office. I mean, relatively. I put like hardwood seal hardwood uh flooring on the ceiling and the floor. [laughter] It ended up backfiring because it was like it was so noisy in there because it was like this little box and when I would talk it would ricochet off. So it wasn't such a great idea, but No, it was a terrible idea because everyone could hear you on the phone usually yelling. Yeah. [laughter] and you would be on on hold with customer service and you would have he would he would have these outbursts. You wouldn't hear [laughter] him at all and he would leave his door open and he would say, "You will not put me on hold. Do not put me on." And he gets put on Oh, I would have I had attitude back then. Who were you on the phone with back then? I don't even know. I mean, I was I didn't have an assistant back then, so I was doing all the little myself and I get annoyed easily. Yeah. So, but I remember because I was working with this other clients probably. Yeah. Do not put me on hold. But this other agent, his name is Vigelli, would have to go over and shut the door [laughter] because he was on the phone. He just walk over, close it because it was so loud with the with the hardwood ceilings. And literally our our office was like three three feet from each other. So yeah. So So you did the two years there. And how much did you make those two years total over the two years? Like 100 grand. Yeah. Like 50 grand a year. I mean that was a rough couple years because I was used to making you know six figures as a lawyer. Um so it was So you took a pay cut as a Oh, huge. Yeah. Wow. Because I mean I was I think the law was paying you know two to 300 when I left probably 300 by the time I left. And then when I started back I was you know living in a I mean I was living in a one-bedroom apartment with my buddy Alex swapping back between the couch and the bed because you know like one month on the couch, one month in the bed. So it was not by any means glamorous. Driving my my grandfather's like $700 I think I paid $700 for it and I think I sold it for 600. So it didn't depreciate. Okay, that's good. But yeah, I mean it wasn't, you know, I wasn't on the high life like I was as a lawyer, but I was happy because, you know, I no expectations. I didn't have any real responsibilities. Uh, so, you know, it was fun. And I, you know, I was I was playing the long game, which anyone should getting into real estate. You shouldn't focus on your first few years. What were your savings like when you left? Did you have like I had about $110,000 saved up when I left and then I traveled the world for three years, spent all of it plus another 40 grand on credit cards. No. So, I was Yeah, I was hurting financially when I came back. No job. Yeah. And And I don't I we I think my dad had to wire money into my bank account so I could get a an apartment at $1,400 a month with my friend and I'd give it back to him after after we got the apartment because I had no job and no money. So, I couldn't even get an apartment. Did your parents think of you leaving? Oh, they were supportive. Yeah. They've they've they've always been supportive of uh I mean, my friends thought I was stupid. mostly but my parents were super supportive. Okay. And then after your two years in real estate, what made you want to open up the opponent? Well, why not? I think I had a my third year I was I was getting more successful. Okay. Well, you know, at at Joyce's office and then No. And actually, I think I spent four years with Joyce. My third year was a little more successful. My fourth year was pretty damn successful. And that's when I thought, you know, I've always just wanted to work for myself. Always wanted to be an entrepreneur. Um I was super nervous about going on my own. I thought I was going to lose at least 50% of my business. You know, the big brokerages always tell you it's all about the brokerage and you better like, you know, stay with them and they're gonna get your ass handed to you if you go on your own. Yeah. And but back then there were weren't that many boutique brokerages. I, you know, I think the agency had come out, but it wasn't like this free-for-all like it is now with all these different brokerages. Uh, and I just worked out of my my house. You know, I had this small house. I had a second bedroom. I just worked out of the second bedroom. Uh, hired an assistant. I mean things were pretty slow the first year decided to get an office you know which is the the current office and then you Yeah. Then you started you were doing well up until the point where you got an office. Yeah. Yeah. I think I had done like 300 my my third year and 700 my fourth year. And that's that's a lot of money to make four years in real estate. 700 grand. Yeah. I was doing pretty well the third and fourth year and that's when I decided to to go on my own. Yeah. How'd you do that? Well, most people are in real estate for 20 years and they're never making 700 grand. Yeah. I was I mean you remember I mean I was just working I was grinding back then I was working 10 15 hour days. I loved it. I was super ambitious. I you know I was scared you know what I mean like I had left a successful career and I wanted to be successful again. So I just had every motivation. I was just hustling. Oh my god I was hustling. I wish I still had all that hustle. But before we go to that I want to thank our sponsor Story Blocks. Graham I don't have time to record this right now. I have so much editing to do. Are you using Story Blocks? No. Why? Trust me, once you use Storylocks, you're going to have all the time in the world to get back to work. Storylocks is a subscription service that gives you instant access to millions of highquality, royalty-free HD and 4K footage, templates, images, sound effects, you name it. Yeah, finding the right piece of B-roll is crucial. And finding something like this really cute kitten would have taken me hours before, but with Story Blocks saved me the time and it was right there. 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No, I'm supposed to say back to the podcast. Jack's thing. All right. Back to the podcast. Do you find that that goes away after a certain age or like is it a dollar amount or is it an age where you start to want to like not work so hard? You know, I think I think I I work much smarter now, you know? I I delegate a lot more. Um, back then I wasn't comfortable spending any money on an assistant. Now I delegate a lot. So, I'm a much smarter worker. You know, I I focus on the more high level things, but back then, and I think that's where you learn, I was just doing every little thing myself. Uh, and and I and I was I still am, but just overly meticulous and and OCD about everything. Everything had to be perfect. Yeah. I would reread. I didn't I didn't probably have a single spelling mistake in a single email for like the first four years of my career. Maybe five. Now, I mean, you'll be lucky if I capitalize anything. Wow. I kind of see a little bit of of parallels between the work ethic between you two, and I could see why you guys got along and why you hired Graham. Yeah, we were super similar, you know. I mean, you you are still grinding your off, too, but we were probably the two hardest workers in the office, I would say. Yeah, I would always stay in the latest. I would you and usually for for those first few years, I wouldn't leave until usually like 1:00 a.m. I loved I loved working late. That was my thing. Yeah. It was just it was so just the two of us in the office. Yeah. But like after 9:00 p.m., it just something about it where there's no one else there. There's no traffic in front of the in front of the office and it's just peaceful and like you could get anything done and there's not a rush. I really like that. And I also like in real estate that you can work 15 hours a day. I mean there's always I mean the first couple years I didn't have much going I didn't have I don't think I did a deal for the almost the first year. I think my I started in January of 2010. I think my first deal was October of 2010. So, I mean, you know, 10 months of studying street maps and I remember I would print out every single contract uh there was and just read it and highlight it and memorize every single contract. So, if a client ever asked me a question, I had the answer. Yeah. It was very tedious, menial, you know, and then go into every open house and broker open trying to trying to learn about, you know, what a house is worth and finishes, fixtures, I mean, the whole thing. There's so much to learn. That's why I love real estate. What was the most challenging part of that? Was it the contracts or was it the Well, that stuff was always super I was getting clients. I mean, for me, I as an attorney and just someone who's whose mind, you know, enjoys uh contracts and negotiations, I love all the detail. So, for me, it was it was the clients that was probably the hardest thing. And did you ever set any goals when you first started your own business? Like, oh, I know I'm successful when I hit X dollar. Oh, I remember. It's funny because I'm we're in I was in Vegas with the with the guy who I set my goal with and we wanted to make $10,000 a month. That was our ultimate goal was if we could we figured if we could be making $10,000 a month and we're living the high life and you know we could do whatever we want which is amusing because I mean the more you make the more you know you need and the more you get tied down and my costs right now are insane. Um but that was the goal. The goal was $10,000 a month. Yeah. So when you made that $700,000 year four years in, did you save that? Were you investing it or what were you doing with that money? Well, I was saving to buy a my first house. So I think in two Yeah, in 2013 I bought my first house for like 1.3 million in London day. Still have it. That was an incredible buy by the way. Yeah. Incredible. It was essentially it's a triplex basically. Well, then I spent like 1.2 million remodeling it. So I'm really into it. Like 25. But yeah, that thing was awesome. And what's it worth now? Probably four, I'd say. And so I'm into it like I would expect more than that. No, I think just four. Yeah, because it's like 3,000 square feet total. And maybe it's worth like four. Who cares? I'm never selling it. I have a 30-year loan on that thing. I'm just never selling it. It's like my little Do you currently live there or No, no, I rent it out. Oh, okay. Okay. So, yeah. So, you're saving up to buy that that property. And then when did you decide to open up the office that was like almost right across the street from that? Yeah. So, the office was about 100 feet 200 feet from from my house. Um, early I think I late 2014 I signed the lease and I think I opened like January 2015. Yeah. How'd you do the math on that to make sure you weren't going to lose money because going from nothing to $10,000 a month. It was I don't do the math on business decisions, which is served me well, but I wouldn't recommend it to, you know, to anyone. But I always just do what I think is going to be fun and exciting and I always just like have this belief it's going to work out. Same with Vegas. This Vegas office I'm planning on spending like 1.5 million to build it out and you know hundreds of thousands of dollars a month in rent and it it makes zero business sense what I'm doing. Zero. Um but you know every other business decision has worked out. I've just done it the way I want to do it and just believe that that it'll work out. Yeah. So when doing the Openon group, how did you pick the first few agents who are in the office? Friends, just chose my friends. Yeah. I mean, for me, what's important is, and I've always gone about it this way, which is why we still have, you know, the same 15 people at the Alenheim Group. Um, I've just always wanted to enjoy what I'm doing, be happy, you know, and I don't want I'm very particular about people, so I just want people that I enjoy working with, you know, enjoy going to lunch with, whatever. I like that environment. So, it's not worth it for me to be hiring people that I don't I don't see myself like becoming a good friend with. Sure. Have you had any experiences where you've hired someone though and it turned out to be different than what you expected? It didn't work out. I've let I've let a couple people go um just because I just, you know, I didn't get the the feeling that I wanted. Okay. Yeah. And how are you finding people now? People reach out every day. I mean, we're not really expanding. I mean, in Vegas, I'll have to hire a bunch of people. uh Orange County. Um I, you know, I didn't really reach out to people that people reached out to me and I just selected those people I thought I would like. So why Vegas? I know you say because you have a feeling, but there's got to be a more strategic reason of like Well, okay. One, it's it's there's a few reasons. Yeah. Yeah. You'll be my first hire for a second time. It'll be That would be great. I want I can I [snorts] can get back my little brows. Yeah. So I took Yeah. So that was from the Oppenheim group. Uh I forgot what it was. LA office. Yeah. You you were moving this carrying iPads. Yeah. In the window with our listing with our little, you know, photos of our listings. Why'd you move them out? I forget. I forget what the reason was. You took them. [laughter] You just took them. Yeah. One more. No, you know, we did. We moved them out to put a TV in the window. Oh, that was it. Yeah. Then you So then you took them. Yeah. But cool. I'll get them back from the [laughter] office. Cool. Those are yours. Those are yours. But uh so why Vegas, though? So, okay. One, it's close. So, I can be here I can be here door to door two hours. Um, two, the real estate market in Vegas, the luxury market is is going very well. I mean, you're seeing a exponential growth. Uh, three, there's a tremendous confluence from Los Angeles to Las Vegas because a ton of people from California are moving to Las Vegas. Uh, so it's a kind of a natural uh, progression for me. Um, it's West Coast, you know, so kind of building the brand slowly on the on this side of the of the country. And also uh, I like Vegas, you know, I like coming out here. There's great restaurants. I can stay at the Encore and stuff. So, it's nice and there's a lot of reasons. And then my friends are out here. And then Alex and Alice and Matt will help me build out the office. It's so close. I found a insane spot. So, I'm really happy with that. That's cool. Are you worried about the real estate market going down? I think a lot of people are concerned about housing values inflated. Yeah. But the real estate brokerage model doesn't really care so much about prices as much as it does about volume. So, I think we're going to still see a lot of volume. I still think we'll see a lot of uh purchases and sales. I think there's a lot of of luxury land coming on the market and a lot of luxury building. Now, unfortunately, a lot of it's like Toll Brothers and things like that. They don't have agents. Um but I think the market in Vegas is poised for, you know, some some very good years ahead of it. Do you think it's possible for because in LA we don't have like a Toll Brothers builder. It's not like they could buy big trucks of land. It's it's here there's land is everywhere. So, if a builder buys like 20 30 acres, they could build all these properties on it. sense at scale, but do you think that model would allow for like an individual to go and be like, I'm going to build this house and sell it here? No, I don't think there's a great model for individual building here unless unless that person is has economies of scale. So, I think by definition, if you're just building one house, you don't. Uh or maybe if you're building like a $20 million house, you know, so you could do everything very custom, but someone coming in and just, you know, remodeling a house and flipping it doesn't make sense here. Yeah. Um Yeah. Because or somebody coming in and just building a $5 million house and selling it doesn't make sense. Can't compete with the economies of scale, big buildings. So, where is your expectation for the real estate market over 2022? probably I'm up a little bit but relatively flat. You know, I think interest rate increases will probably put a damper on this kind of extreme growth that we're seeing. Um, and I don't think we're going to see a ton of sales. Honestly, I think that there's this, you know, supply problem right now. And I think that as interest rates go up, there's not going to be a lot of people wanting to sell. I mean, if you have a 2.8% rate and interest rates are now at 4 and a.5%. Why would you sell, get rid of, and lose your great loan to go get a four and a half% loan? So, I think you're going to see that also keep prices up, too, because there just won't be a lot of supply. But, you know, for me, unfortunately, I don't see a ton of volume moving forward in the next couple years. Yeah. Are you ever worried it's going to get to a point where prices are just so high that buyers are thinking, nah, you know what? I'm just going to wait it out. Wait it out. See what happens. Things It depends on what market you're talking about. you know, maybe in the one and $2 million price point you'll see some of that, but I think the wealthy are not, you know, concerned about waiting. I think if they want a house, whether it's 5 million or 6.5 million, they're going to buy. You know, I I think that if you're on an on a fixed income and you're trying to buy your first house and things have gone up, you know, like they have like 30%. You're going to see some people waiting on the sideline. But I'll be honest, I've been hearing about people complaining about housing prices since I got into real estate 12 years ago. And I'd say it's been going up for 12 years since we I wonder what would have happened if if CO didn't happen because the market was When did they raise rates? Was it 2018? Yep. What? That still did. Oh, what happened to that? It probably just dropped. Okay. So, you own a lot of real estate, too. Could you tell us about what you've bought? Yeah. So, I buy luxury residential real estate in Los Angeles, stuff that I love that I want to live in, but it ends up that I don't live in them that long and I rent them out. But I like uh I like luxury rentals because you can get, you know, there's a lot of wealthy people that want to rent nice properties in LA. And I do my houses really nice. So, I have like kind of like a niche uh for people that really want, you know, something nice because a lot of rentals aren't, you know, exquisitly furnished and artwork and all that stuff. Um and I just Yeah. So, I rent out several homes. Uh, and I'll maybe I'll live in one here and there, but it's kind of hard because they rent out for so much and I don't want to lose that income. So, I end up renting in like smaller places. Yeah. So, when you say luxury homes here, what what are we Well, 5 to 10 million uh value and then rental, you know, 30 to 60,000 a month. That's That's insane. Yeah. Who would pay for that? I just rented a house last week for 65,000 a month. and that's short-term rental, but there's a lot of people coming in. Uh I mean, I've got several rentals all in that price point. There's just a lot of money and a lot of people don't want to buy yet. They just want to rent or they don't know what they're doing for a year or two. Uh so they just come in and rent. And then if you have that product, if you have like a very nice luxurious house with a view, [clears throat] you know, you know, exquisitely furnished, then there's really not much competition. You know, you can charge what you want. Wow. See, my thought is if they don't know what to do for a year or two, they would be maybe maybe we think a little different. My thought is I they would live somewhere where they could use that money. But I guess if they already have 65K, you don't care. Yeah. They want to have fun. They want to enjoy their year or two in Los Angeles, a different market. And the idea of trying to save 10 or 20 grand a month for them doesn't really matter. I'd say above 20 grand a month. People don't care about budgeting. Not to that extent of like, well, we could be better putting this towards our down payment in the future. To them, it's like it's a drop in the bucket. It really is. Yeah. And, you know, oftentimes it's [clears throat] like two guys that will rent a house and so they're each paying, you know, 20 grand a month and which is far more reasonable. Um, and then they get, you know, a $40,000 a month house and it's big enough for two people. Yeah. So, that's what happens a lot. But, who are these these clients that you're working with? And have you noticed a trend with your clients? Because Ryan Surant was mentioning that his wealthier clients have been getting younger and younger. So they're no longer these like 60-year-old people. They're all in like their 30s now, their 40s. Well, in the Hollywood Hills, it's never been uh a 60-y old demographic. It's always been the 25 to 40 and it still is. Um it still is. So I wouldn't say there's been much change. I mean, you do notice money coming from different areas. You know, you see a lot of crypto money now. Um YouTube money see as well. Uh, so, you know, you'll see it coming from different areas like, but you don't The Hollywood Hills was never about like some 70-year-old guy that made his money in oil and gas, you know, it was always the the young kind of YouTube star or whatever. Yeah. Maybe actor, but they don't usually spend that much. How many crypto people have you worked with? How does that come out? Do they do they just tell you like, "Hey, I just made a whole bunch of money in Bitcoin." [laughter] Yeah. I mean, because I I'll need to qualify like, "Hey, do you take crypto for this house?" No, I've never sold in crypto. Uh, but definitely actually I would say I'm I'm certain that one of my tenants uh has made money in crypto. I think another one of my tenants has. Um, so I mean it's certainly out there. I just uh I'm I've got a client looking to buy up to 10 million in Las Vegas crypto money. So I mean it's definitely, you know, pervasive. Do you know what crypto? He's Bitcoin. Bitcoin. In fact, I think most of them that I'm talking that I I'm working with are Bitcoin. Okay. So, you've yet to represent someone like Dogecoin or I have a Doge. I have a friend I'm I'm leasing her house and she has a lot of money in Dogecoin, although I don't think she's done exceptionally well. [laughter] We'll see. I told her to get out. She bought in right when SNL was Graham, tell them your return on your current return on Doge. Oh, [snorts] well, okay. So, well, the first story is that uh when we first started this podcast, Jack told me to invest $1,000 in Dogecoin, and it was a fraction of a penny. And he said, "Just buy it. It's just going to it's going to be good content." So, I bought it on Robin Hood. And uh I thought it was stupid and I sold it. At the peak, it would have been worth about 160 grand from a $1,000 investment. So, it would have made more money. Everyone has a story about like my brother bought Bitcoin when it was like, you know, $12 a coin. But nobody [snorts] I mean he says, "Oh, if I just held on to it." But bro, you would have sold it 50 times before it ever got to, you know, $50,000. That's true. Graham would have sold it if he made would have sold it. Yeah. Graham would have sold it a hundred times before it got to I I probably would have sold it when it hit 5K because I'd be like, "That's that's a 500% return." Like it's it's all those people that talk about that. I mean, they never would have held it until it got that high. So, what are your thoughts on crypto? Oh, I have a lot of thoughts because No, I don't own any. Um, Eric's been telling you buy, by the way, for a very long time. I think crypto is is probably the future. I mean, I I do think that over the long term, it's probably an excellent investment. Although, I think that it might be inflated now. So, I'm just too concerned to get in now. I think and I'm not I'm not really good at owning anything that I can track on a day-to-day basis. It drives me crazy. I'm always I will be looking it up like every two hours. So I wouldn't I don't think I'd enjoy having a substantial stake in it crypto. That said, I do believe that you know in 10 years I will have wish I bought crypto, but I don't know if I would be happy in a year from now or six months from now. I think you should take a million just a million bucks by Bitcoin or just 50/50 Bitcoin Ethereum. If there's if there is a big crash, I might jump in. But there might not be a crash. Just like you said, it's kind of inflating. People were saying the same about the housing market and here you are being like a couple reasons why I first of all you can't really leverage crypto the way you can leverage a house. I mean if I could borrow you know $5 million at 2.7% and buy crypto with it and hold crypto for 30 years on that 30-year loan. I would do it but that doesn't exist. Yeah. But the leverage if you think of the leverage and you think you know the housing market went up let's just say on an average year let's say even 5%. So you're making like a 20% return on your money. When you look at Bitcoin, you could be doing 50% annually, 40%. Not to say that that'll happen every year. Well, in real estate, I think you're making 20% on your cash just from your average in uh average increase. Plus, you're making rent. So, I think, you know, you I could probably make 10% on day one on my cash on rent. So, it's really 30%. Uh I don't think you're going to You know what? You know what Bitcoin would have to be for me to if I put a million dollars in Bitcoin and it and I made 30% for the next 10 years, Bitcoin would have to be at like a million or something like or or over a million. I mean, I don't know. My math isn't that good. But so, no, I don't I think I I could make more money in real estate. We could use this clip when it hits a million. [laughter] I mean, who knows? I've spoken with some people who are really into Bitcoin, like uh you know, like I'm losing track of my nine figures. Yeah, like nine figures in in Bitcoin who are convinced it'll hit a million dollars. Like beyond give a what anyone's convinced. Um because there are people that are convinced it'll go down, you know, to whatever. Uh I don't think anyone knows anything about the crypto market, you know. I think it's there's just way too much speculation right now. A ton of um people leveraging and I think that's really dangerous. So, I think there's going to be a lot of regulatory um uh things going on in the next couple years that will probably have an effect on the market, but I mean to pretend that you know what's going to happen to cryptocurrency is laughable. I mean, I can't even understand what's going to happen in the real estate market and I think there's way more fluctuation uh in crypto. Got it. So, yeah. Yeah. So, um you're in the luxury real estate market. ask me a question about vintage football cards [laughter] or real estate. What about the luxury uh metaverse real estate market? Oh yeah. What are your thoughts on the metaverse? So interesting question too. Um I think that that's also I think maybe partially inflated right now, but I think over the long run I think that metaverse land is probably an unbelievably awesome investment. I mean, in the future, I don't think there's any question that in 20 years, we're all going to be in the metaverse. I mean, no one's going to be working because there probably not any jobs because we're all going to be automated except luxury real estate agents. [laughter] But honestly though, I mean, 80% of our workforce in 20 years will be they'll be sitting at home in the metaverse. Um, plus when you introduce like porn into the metaverse, I mean, I'm just being honest. Yeah. Then everyone's going to be staying at home. [laughter] So I think the future is probably a lot of people staying at home, you know, on the metaverse. It's it's too expensive watching it probably doing it in the metaverse. I mean, it's you know, you have to think, too. I was I got this idea like because we were talking about the they sold a virtual yacht for like 900,000, right? And I'm thinking, imagine that person who bought that yacht could rent it out. A lot of people are renting out. Only people who could afford to pay the 50 grand can network with other people who are willing to pay the 50 grand. Imagine the networking that you could do on a young It's like owning a board ape. I mean, they have that network. But you know what I'm mad about? Did you see the qual like the resolution? That's terrible. It's all about It's all about 10 years from now. But I could pay a developer 900 grand and be like, "Hey, develop me a better yacht." I could chill out. They spent I think about 150 or 250,000 uh building that yacht out. Easy. Yeah. So, it's a lot of work. And then but then they you know they sold it for way more. Listen, I think that it's unquestionable that land in the metaverse is going to be a tremendously valuable investment. The problem is you don't know what metaverse. Yeah, Facebook's coming out with one. Others will. So if you knew like Dententraland was the metaverse that was going to be huge, but it's not going to be huge until it's threedimensional until you're wearing and and nobody wants to put on a 10 pound Oculus. So in 10 years from now, you'll probably have a contact lens. You'll put that in and you'll be seeing, you know, a threedimensional metaverse. And then like I said, I hate to be like, you know, uh, overly honest about this, but I do believe that once porn gets introduced, it's going to you're going to see a lot of guys staying at home, you know, because it's going to be the most vivid like sexual experience for people. And I'm I'm I'm actually concerned [laughter] because I think Yeah, because you're you don't you're not going to need the other thing, too, is it's going to affect real estate, these glasses for these contact lenses. You're not going to need a $5 million house with a view because everyone's gonna have that. You're gonna in the metaverse. Yeah. You're gonna be in the metaverse probably 10 hours a day. You're just gonna probably, you know, use the restroom and eat and then sleep outside the metaverse. So, I think you'll be that's why I think land in the metaverse is so You think it's worth it to go in that direction though, like as a society to be able to I think it's extremely concerning from a societal perspective. But that said, it's going to happen. No, we're going to be I think there's going to be a tremendous loss of purpose uh in 10 20 years. I think you're going to see kids I mean I think that our our um the number of people having kids is going to reduce dramatic to a very concerning level. I think relationships will suffer. I mean I think that when you can be at you know in the metaverse having relationships that that real relationships will probably suffer tremendously. Um I think a lot of things are going to suffer. I mean I think you think Instagram is bad. I mean it's nothing compared to where people are going to be in 20 years on the metaverse. Yeah. Well, you say Instagram. I think Tik Tok because if we're talking about like we're whatever. I'm just saying like people are concerned that people are spending too much time on Tik Tok and Instagram. When there's three dimensional like you know universes out there and everything else I already discussed. Trust [laughter] me, people and there's no jobs because everything's automated and you all you don't need much money to live. The job the jobs would be in the metaverse though. Oh, did you see that they hired uh casino hosts in the metaverse? Yeah. Yeah. So there's people in other countries that get paid more than their living wage. Oh yeah. Go. To be a virtual. I think another problem though is that the metaverse is so egalitarian in terms of people that can work because anyone around the world can work there. I think that the pay is going to be very low and I don't think it's going to attract, you know, any any skilled workers. Yeah. I think it was Ghana that people were making now like $4500 a month. So it's four times the minimum wage. Yeah. uh on Axi Infinity, which is great for a lot of developing countries. I presumably, unless I'm missing some things, but I don't think that's going to be you're not going to be able to make $90,000 a year at these, you know, low-level jobs in the metaverse. I maybe there are jobs in the I don't know enough about it, but regardless, people are going to be waking up, putting in their contact lenses, and staying at home, you know, 15 hours a day. And it's going to have a lot of negative consequences for society. It's just wild to think about because if if it's really that good, would you want the real world anyway? No, you won't. It's literally like the Matrix, right? No, most people will choose the No, the blue pill. Most people will be choosing the blue pill in 20 years. I mean, we're not there yet. The metaverse is still like kind of a, you know, grainy two dimensional thing, but there's no question that we will have contact lenses and be living in a metaverse in 20 years. I mean, there's just no question. I mean, imagine this, Grim. you you wanted to buy um that car from Hoovie. Oh yeah. Or just imagine you you didn't have your GT yet, right? Why would you spend 200 and however much grand on a car in real life when you can buy it on the metaverse for 20 grand and it's the same experience to drive the car to display the car exactly the same. I think years it might be a very similar experience. So why why would anybody like Ready Player One. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So why would you choose the real life car when you get the exact same out of the the metaverse? I don't know. I think it's going to it's going to be used in the beginning for flexing of people to show the beginning. It'll always I mean, right, there's no universe you put whatever name in front of it [laughter] you want where people won't be flexing their money. Yeah. Yeah. There'll be halves and have nots in the metaverse, too. So why don't you buy lands in the metaverse? Why not just take a little again because I equate it to crypto. I think that that the values have gone up so much that there could be a little bit of a reckoning. Um but again in and again I don't know which which metaverse I think that's the most important. There's no question. Yeah, there's no question that land in whatever metaverse ends up being like one of the more dominant metaverse is going to be an excellent investment. I mean there'll be millions and millions of dollars for good pieces of land and for houses. No question. Yeah. It's interesting. One of my first clients, his name was John Jacobs, and he held the record, and I remember looking him up when I'm trying to like research who he was. He held the record for the most expensive virtual item ever sold in 2010. It was in this uh they called it it was a game. What was it? Uh it was like this Entropia Universe. Oh, he had the disco tech. He had No, he had an asteroid. Yeah. Yeah. It was a disco. Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. You visit his asteroid. Yeah. So he sold this for $630,000 in 2010 back then and it was a disco. He was making $200,000 a year from this and people would pay to gain access to his disco in the game and he owned the same going on in like other you know metaverses right now. You're going to be making a fortune if you own land and you build a casino or you build like you know a destination and you rent it out. Yeah. or people and people will be spending most of their money in 20 years 10 to 20 years people will be spending most of their money in the metaverse. Are you worried about the impact on real estate for like let's say for you 20 years from now if you're thinking ahead how does this impact business? I think that the listen there's so many things that that that are hard to kind of figure out about this but if I had to guess in in in 20 years I'd say that a lot of people will not need as much from where they're living. I mean, I think first of all, you're not going to probably see many shopping centers and a lot of and and I don't really think you're going to be seeing um you know, commercial spaces like you've got these big towers, you know, with thousands of people coming in to work. I those will have to be converted to to residential housing at some point because I mean, who we're not going to be having a bunch of people going to work in 20 years. Um, and I think that you'll have a lot of people that could probably live in, you know, a 600 foot, you know, condo without a view. And there'll be technology in 20 years where you can put a, you know, a little window on a wall, you know, like like a Samsung frame TV, but imagine it, you know, 50,000 times better and it'll look like a view and it'll move when you move and it'll be whatever view you want. So, I think you could probably turn a really crappy dark apartment into a gorgeous little, you know, apartment just from these little fake windows. Uh, and and you'll have natural light. I mean, you'll probably be able to have sunroofs, you know, for in 20 years, you'll be able to buy a sunroof. just put it onto a dark ceiling and it'll look like the sun and the sun will move and you won't be able to tell if that sunroof or whatever you want to call it sunlight is uh is real or not in 20 years you'll have no way of knowing and it will be at night and you can black it out when you don't want to wake up I mean it's so I I think that technology is going to have a huge impact on on real estate that's crazy whole but I will also say that people will be living at home more staying at home more so you've got I guess different, you know, pulls and pushes. Go for Alex. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say I think we should talk about the the Netflix show. I mean, there's a lot of That's so boring. Let's We I always talk about the Netflix show. This stuff is more fun. Let's see if there's because since Jack's not able to make it, he has a few questions, right? I just want to see if there's anything in here that that has to do with the show that we could get out of the way on this. Sure. Um I'm not saying I won't talk about it. I'm just saying it's boring. Yeah. I'm just saying I think maybe people would like to hear a little bit. Okay, fine. Yeah. Um, I like the metaphor. So, Jack wants to know, why do you continue to sell real estate when at this point you could leverage the show and you could leverage your audience to make money in other ways that don't involve that and maybe you could make way more. I haven't leveraged the show honestly to make $1, uh, anywhere else besides buying and selling property. I have not used my Instagram or anything else to make literally $1. That's what when Jason told me that I was like I I thought for sure collaboration I'm like Jason why aren't you doing sponsors on Instagram I'm not saying I wouldn't do like a quality you know sponsor I just I don't know it's not I'm not trying to like you know sell a make $20,000 on a post to like sell a razor and be like oh my favorite you know beard trimmer I think you're under I'm not saying you have to by the way beard trimmer companies [laughter] I got you but not you know you got to pay me who did we do for the for the we did oh manscaped We did a sponsorship with Manscaped. Oh, I was Listen, you can talk to me in a year and I'll have done like 20 sp I'm just saying I have not yet. Not really my thing yet. You you went through the same progression that I did in the very beginning. Uh the first I think three months on YouTube, I didn't put any ads in my videos because I'm like, "Oh, you know what? I don't need the money. I don't want to be that guy. Yeah, I don't want to be that guy's putting ads in this. This is silly." Uh and then I was just like, "Well, if it's going to help the algorithm, I'm going to put an ad in the video." And it helped the algorithm. And then I started making some money. I was like, well, if one ad helps the algorithm, what's two ads? It helped the algorithm even more. And then then I was actually making a decent amount of money. But I said no to sponsors for three years. I didn't do a single sponsor because I was thinking, I'm making so much money from ad revenue, I don't need to take sponsors. You only need to take sponsors if you I can't imagine you saying, "I'm making so much money from ad revenue. I don't need sponsor." Yeah. That's how I felt because only the people who were doing sponsors, they made no money in ad revenue. So, I was like, "Okay, they have to do sponsors, but I don't have to do that." Uh, and then it it started started trickling in. I think it was Simply Safe uh was the one of the first sponsors on the channel, the home security system. Oh, that you know what? I remember seeing that and it was such a natural integration because you set it up in your house, right? Yeah. I love So, that to me makes sense. Like I would do like a collaboration with like, you know, Sonos or something like that, like some type of real estate. Listen, we're we're going down the rabbit hole here. Listen to this. Okay. Yeah. Everyone is telling me you're going to make more money from sponsorships than you will from ad revenue. It's like I didn't believe him. Well, sure enough, a year later, more money from sponsor. Way more money from sponsorship. I am not going to be making more money from Guess what? We had a sponsor the other day. Actually, the post today, our company where uh technically we are both lords. So, you have to refer to both of us as a lord because we bought land in where is it? Scotland. Ireland. They sponsored a video. so far for like [laughter] $50. So, uh, Jason, we've devolved. Are you a lord? Are you a lord? Ever. So, but you don't own land. Yeah. Are you are you a [laughter] lord? I'm a lord. Seriously, they send you a certificate and everything. But I'm just saying the promotion. Well, if they send you a certificate, then you're then it's legit. They sponsor the video. But my point is we've gone from like I'm not doing a sponsors to now like you can be a [laughter] lord for like $30. Well, we'll [snorts] do a we'll do a podcast every year and I'll update you on that. But I'm telling you, I think for very minimal work, you'd be able to clear an extra probably three million bucks a year w with with very little work. Yeah, listen, I would I would do that. Yeah, I just have not gotten off my and and you know, thought about it yet. Maybe I need to hire someone that can do that. But I think there is a way to leverage this and make more money than you're expecting. And maybe that might uh shift your I don't want to say it might because I'm always going to work in real estate. Nothing's going to pull me away, but I'm more than happy to do, you know, extracurricular things. worth it to pursue. Why didn't you He just called it extra career. Yeah. Yeah. Some extra. Why didn't you pursue the route that I saw Brett take, which is creating a program? And I think just the the time I mean my brother spent like a year and a half on that. I And I mean I was I could never have spent a tenth as much time as he spent creating that class. So I think for that reason I bet in a weekend though if you well I guess probably about a week I bet you could spend five days with somebody planning it out and a weekend going over it just as though you're talking to you and I like 18 months every day didn't need to he but that's our personality though is just to be we just you know our personality is not to bang something out. So I'll tell you when when I did the first real estate agent program I spent a year working on that thing and it was horrible. I scripted everything out. Yeah. I hated it. Oh, you were there for that? Yeah. And I It bombed. It just like nobody was interested in it. I just didn't it not that many people were interested in that. My YouTube program on the other hand, I spent 30 days on that. Nothing was scripted and I just had bullet points in front of a whiteboard and I was just, you know, talking and making the points. I I'm like someone who just wants to just, you know, go over script everything out. I mean, but plus the other thing too is my brother has the best one out there. Like I'll I would never want to have another one. Like I will never do one as good as he did no matter how much time I spend. So I don't know. I mean, but then you would have something that would compete with him maybe. First of all, I wouldn't want to compete with him. But regardless, I I've watched it. I will never ever do something that good. We were talking a while ago doing a mentorship where you would basically have people pay you, you know, however much just for your thoughts on their real estate situations or or if something is good buy or how to negotiate or something like that. I thought really well. I don't know. I just it's that's not totally my personality, you know? I'm just more like uh yeah, I don't know. I don't think I would be doing that. I just think my personality is more just like focus on buying and selling real estate. Got it. And just, you know, I'm not trying to add a ton more to my plate right now. I say that as I open up a Vegas office and maybe get a third show, but [snorts] um whatever. Yeah. Do you think there's any point that you're just going to retire and take it easy or or you know scale back a little bit from what you're doing? You know, probably not because I think that if I every time I think about where I want to be before I retire that if I once I get there and I've done that many times, I just want, you know, to be working harder and expand more and be more successful and I also love what I'm doing. I think I'd be bored off my ass if I retired. So, I don't I think I could slow down and and travel more. You know, I already am. Uh but I I just don't think I ever want to unplug what I'm doing. What if you weren't? Plus, at some point, the shows will, you know, stop. Yeah. And I'll have more time. Yeah. Have you been surprised at the success of the show? Yeah, obviously. I mean, what was your reaction when it first came out? Because I I remember I don't know if we could we could talk about this, but in the very beginning I think that when you saw the first episode or two, I think you weren't you disappointed that it wasn't more real estate? I think I think in the beginning you had told you had told them it's like I wanted this to be like 80% real estate. Yeah, I think and then they had their direction and wasn't there some clash. Well, no, it wasn't a clash. I mean, at the end of the day, they were completely right. We have a a show that is 50 times more successful than any show that I would have ever, you know, wanted. Um, but yeah, I thought, you know, I was so concerned about my brand and I was I'm just, you know, barely kind of controlling and um, and I like to manage, you know, everything. So, for me to delegate anything was very difficult like in season one. But once I saw that it was good, um, I, you know, I chilled out and I and I stopped, you know, I just let production do their thing. Um but yeah, I mean at the at the beginning I I wanted the show to be real estate focused, but honestly it would have probably been a show. Yeah. How did the show even come up to begin with? Did did they approach you in the beginning? So we had been approached by you know different ains and producers and Adam Dilla our current producer and Skyler I think one of them reached out and you know even we were not interested when they reached out but then they like pushed to get a meeting and we hadn't taken a meeting in like six months or a year. Um, and so we took a meeting and then we, you know, we kind of warmed up to it. I think the other agents were, you know, excited about it as well. And one thing led to another and we, you know, before you know it, we were filming a pilot. Yeah. But yeah, at first I wasn't I was I thought it was more risk than reward. What was the Why did you agree to it then if you felt like there's too more? I just I just turned I just started getting more excited about it. You know, I just kind of we had a it was a good producer. I thought it was going to be fun. You know, I'm definitely one of those people that likes to take risks and, you know, you know, yolo type of thing. So, that was probably it. Do you get Do you get uh maybe fans of the show that come to the office and try to like look through the window or every two minutes? Yeah. Really? I can almost not even work in the office. You know what's crazy? When it the show first came out, I would be the only one in the office at 9:00 p.m. And this is like the very first. And uh I could it was difficult because they would they would come in and they they'd peer in and I would be the only one in there and some of them would like knock and I'd be like like this or or they'd go there and try to open the door. It's like at night. What if it was expect you have to make sure it's locked. Wow. You should you should It's insane now. It's every I would say 40 to 50 people come by during the day. I mean it's it's every couple minutes. Usually they just jump out of their car, take a photo in front and you know we just continue working but a lot of times they will knock and and listen at the end of the day I mean I think I you have a responsibility because these are you know your fans and and they are really happy when you go out and take a photo with them. So how do you balance going and taking pictures with people while still working because I know how distracting that is. It's difficult. I mean I I I try to remind myself that it's 10 seconds of my life and it makes them really happy. So from that utilitarian perspective, I really, you know, I feel like it's an obligation to do that. Um, but you know, I mean, sometimes you, you know, you're trying to get work done. So it's it's a hard balance because it's certainly with season 4, it's gotten or worse, I guess I want to say. How surprised are people to show up to the office and see someone on the show in the office? Are they expecting like happy and surprised? I mean, it's usually me. I'm there a lot, so it's me a lot. Um, no, they're they get pretty excited for sure. I did that with Pawn Stars. I was so excited for really sad to see them. Wait, are they actually there? No, nobody was there when I No, sorry. No one was there. I thought like for sure I'd see one of And all their was super overpriced. It was like actually Yeah. They don't even sell thing out of there anymore. I mean, they do, but it's like they put everything at such a high price just because it's a novelty to be able to go in there. Look, you know where I bought this? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. But I mean, everything's like 50% more than it should be. Yeah. Do you watch the show at all? Have you seen Selling Sunset? Do you watch it every time? They send us a screen. Yeah, we have to because we have press that asks us about it. Okay. Um, so they send us a screener usually just a few days before it airs and then I watch it. Got it. Yeah. I mean, I'm not someone who watches reality TV. Outside of watching Selling Sunset, of course, I've watched every season of Selling Sunset. Is there anything in the show where you think it wasn't portrayed the right way or you've seen something and been like, "Oh, that was taken out of context." remember like uh they made me look jealous of Simu coming into the office. So So that was a little fun. I had so I I have not seen any. I think I saw some of season one, but I scroll and I just find myself and I'm like that [laughter] that's what I've done. But season four, right, this last one it was on an airplane and I watched the entire thing the first time from start to finish all in one go. It was really good. But yeah, but the Simu thing, how did that take place? Yeah, they had some fun in the in the production bay wi with that. But I mean, listen, whatever. [laughter] So, you So, was it taken out of context or or not? I mean, I was not Yes, I was not I mean, I I I think that guy is awesome, but I was not uh [laughter] that I don't think that's exactly how it went down. Okay. Oh, man. If you weren't doing real estate, what would you be doing? Uh, maybe I would, you know, it'd be probably fun to own like a a card shop maybe and like buy and sell like vintage baseball and football cards. That's or artwork. I do like like collecting art and like uh sports cards. So something in there would be fun. What if you were starting over and you're broke today and nobody I mean I take that as the same question, right? Um I would Well, I would do if I couldn't do real estate. I mean, if you could if you could do real estate, like let's say you have zero dollars and you're starting out, some kid comes to you, he's like, "What can I do?" Give me like three steps. I I I mean, you're asking me what I would do. I mean, I would do real estate. I mean, basically is what I did when I had that decision, you know, uh 10 years ago. I would make the decision every day. Uh you asking me what they should do specifically. Yeah. I would do what I did. I would join a a brokerage where you partner with like a really good agent. I mean that's I think more and forget about what brokerage really I think you need to partner and this I think equates to not just being successful in real estate but anything um as a lawyer I worked under an amazing Dan Petelli who was an amazing lawyer uh and I think that whatever you're doing but let's let's go with real estate you partner with a really good person to and you don't focus on the money you don't focus on the commission I mean you know how much commission we were giving up to our real estate partner then to Coldwell Banker I mean we weren't making I think I was making 27 seven cents for every dollar I made in commission, but I was focusing on experience, learning, you know, building a um a client base. So, that's what I would do. I just focus on learning. A lot of people focus on like this get-richqu mentality and they and they really just think about, oh, how can I make quick money? And I think crypto has a lot to do with it. And I think, you know, seeing other people make money so quickly in in the metaverse or in a crypto punk or in, you know, Bitcoin, whatever. And so they don't have this mentality of like a 10-year plan. Uh and I think that's what, you know, we need to get back to is like where do you want to be in 10 years? I know to say it cliche, but spend the next three to five years building a a you know, a client base, you know, learning, becoming an expert. I mean, what happened to actually just being great at what you do? That's how I got successful, just by working hard and becoming, you know, excellent at what I do. Mhm. Um, and I think people just need to focus on like the old school mentality. Yeah. So, if there's one thing out there that you haven't accomplished yet that you still want, what would it be? I don't even know. You got everything. I feel accomplished. Yeah. I I don't feel like there's I don't have any yearning for any type of, you know, uh, extra success. But I would have answered that this question 10 years ago the same. I I don't really like a not like a goal oriented person in that way. I just like to just keep pushing forward and whatever happens happens. But I don't have like, oh, I need to make this or do this or own this or whatever. I just just keep moving forward. Got it. What questions do you have for us? Ask away. How much money has the Iced Tea Coffee Hour with Graham and Jack made uh with with sponsorships? Yeah. I don't I don't know to be honest with you. We've had some good months. Uh under a million I think. I don't know. I I have no idea. Jack does all the accounting on that. I have I have no clue. You might want to You might want to find out. Okay. Let me see what other questions I have. Okay. Can you keep up the same amount of content and same quality of content that you're pushing out now or you going to burn out? Oh my gosh, I'm burn I've I've been saying this for a while now. I remember asking you I think it was like two years ago. I'm like Jason I'm kind of burnt out. I can't do anymore. Uh and you told me to scale back and I'm like h maybe you know maybe at the end of the year and then I just I pushed through and I just told you it's a marathon. I said you got to you know have you got to get through at least five more years. So yeah. So Alex is starting to edit my videos and after this he's I know what I told you. I told you to start delegating and bringing on people. We're still uh we're still working on that. Yeah. Well, so you had a problem with that even back then. Oh gosh. He didn't want to do anything within. He didn't want anyone to help him. Yeah. It's impossible. That's how I used to be. And so I get it. Yeah. And but you have to start delegating. Yeah. I actually I called Jason. Jason was the one who really convinced me to hire Jack in the very beginning. Really? Yeah. Because I was thinking, ah, you know, I could do it myself. Really? And and Jack came on and and it wasn't anything Jack. Jack was doing such a good job, but it was just like I But I was there, too. I mean, I had a really hard time hiring my first assistant. And then afterwards I was, "Oh my god, how did I ever live without an assistant?" I bet you you don't even know how you could do it. You couldn't go back. No, I couldn't. Well, not with all the content that we're making. Yeah. Yeah. But now it's a it's almost I'm fearful of that because you can't go back. So once you do that, then that's like a permanent little brick that you put up there and it's always going to stay there. So you can't take that away. Are you calling me a brick? Yeah. Brick. It just doesn't It just doesn't leave. [laughter] Uh, but no, the answer is I've I've constantly felt like I burnt out constantly. Um, and I get like usually about two days a week where I'm just like I'm I'm over it, but the other five days are fine. So, it's like sometimes it's challenging, but I I push through like my goal. You really feel like that? What? Like you don't know that? No, because that's exactly how I feel. Oh, yeah. I think everybody feels But he feels it like six days a week. But my thought was like, how does Graham work so much and never feel burnt out? I didn't know you actually burnt out and then and then like then I get that one to two days where it's like it's like a hump and you're like work and then um you get that one day on the weekend or something where you know oh you have dinner with your girlfriend and then you do Netflix and then like my whole mind resets like I didn't know you actually feel burned out. Yeah. Oh yeah. For three years probably two or three years I felt like that. You just have to monitor your happiness. If you drop below, like I I look back like, you know, you got to look back every six months and just be like, you know, what's my happiness like? If you're ever below a seven, you should be But I feel like there's also a time to like keep pushing and grinding and like, you know, so what if you're not like a 10 happiness? No, I'm just saying you got to make sure you're like at least a seven. You know, my whole life I've always made sure that I'm at least, you know, seven. I don't know. The last year just feels like a total blur. Like I have no idea. Like you ask me what I did last night or Yeah. I had no I have no clue. It's I really don't know. So like Fuku Burger Fuku Burger but I forgot because there's there's just it's But you're also building you're building a you know I think you're building your finances to the point where you're protecting yourself for life. So there's a value there. You know that you have to just push through, right? So, you do you have to make some sacrifices. If you were I mean I think I guess what I'm saying is probably more relevant to somebody who's you know not making as much because I think when you're making enough to where you're really securing your financial future, you got to just push through, right? It's difficult for me because originally that was hiring Alex and having Alex edit my videos. So, he's been doing that. Uh but it's odd because sometimes for me editing is my way to reset my mind and because now it frees up like let's say five hours uh so 15 hours a week now it's kind of freed up for me but my editing was a way to like kind of like just zone out for a little bit get a video done and then I'm refreshed but now it's like when I finish a video so planning and filming I hand it off to Alex and I'm like I got to go back to planning so I don't have that like five hour so I can't increase my own productivity because I get back to planning and I'm like Everything's crap out there. There's there's nothing to talk about. Versus before where I would edit, I'd have that five hours to zone out and then come back refreshed. Maybe I gotta find something else. Maybe you got to edit a little bit more. I don't know. Yeah. Well, I mean, I'm just a I have, you know, I delegate the hell out of out of things that that I don't I'm not needed for. I mean, I think that's the trick to anyone becoming successful. Do you think Graham Graham has this idea? And and I don't have an opinion on it, just so you know. Graham has this idea. Jack has a different idea. Graham thinks that he can't really delegate like script writing um because that's kind the videos are him, right? Um and then Jack thinks oh I don't know what Jack thinks. I don't want to speak for him, but some people do say that he can delegate script writing. I think that at some point, I don't think it's black and white, but I think at some point you should obviously hire someone to do scripting. And you can you can review it or not use it, but I think the natural course of where you're going is going to have to be people, you know, doing more scripting and you doing less scripting. I don't think it has to be all or nothing. It's just tough because once I make a change, I I won't go back. So I know, but don't you get ideas from people? So that's like, you know, ideas from the comments or the best ideas comments. Yeah. Scripting in a way. Yeah, I mean so it's just it's a it's a you know a gray area in terms of a it's not black and white but I would say that's scripting getting ideas getting comments getting things to talk about and then then the next step would just be someone creating bullet points for you and you review the bullet points and you highlight the ones you like and you script from there but I mean so it's a it's a progress but I definitely think you have to start delegating that to some extent. Sure. Yeah. I was thinking I I told uh I think I I told both of you by the end of the year I wanted to go down to two videos and now I'm at the end of the year I still want to once if I go down to two it's forever going to be two. So I can't do it. Yeah, we've been we've been grinding this. Is that a financial hit if you go down to two possible sponsors? Maybe. So Jack says I would make more because by doing two I could dedicate the extra time to finding sponsors and have like a 100% fill rate. every video would have a sponsor in it. Whereas right now they'd be one in three. Oh, then I would spor I would do less work and and and get more money for less work. But then it's like then every video is sponsored and then I don't think that matters. I mean I don't think it ma matters that much. But I don't think but I could do three videos and we can have them all sponsored too. Yeah, but you got but you're not doing that. I know. Yeah. I think you maybe go down to two and get them all sponsored and you make just as much money and for less work. I don't know. Yeah, I just listen on about YouTube. So, I'm just so I just moved the goalpost a little bit. So, it was the end of the year and now I'm thinking my birthday in April that then I could if I could keep three videos up just until April. Well, I mean, you got to it's a marathon. I I've always told you that. Same with real estate. I mean, I I'll be honest. I don't hustle like as hard as I used to. Like, I will, you know, delegate a million. I used to do a $700,000 condo. you know, and now I'll delegate, you know, a million, $2 million house to other agents. Um, because I mean, quality of life matters, you know, so you gota So, it's not I mean, I'm not going to delegate a $5 million house and I'm still going to be totally involved because that's just my personality. But yeah, I mean, I just delegate more and more as I as you grow. What's some other advice that you have? I I don't know if I'm great at advice outside of real estate really. Yeah. It's got to be something. It's not really to consider it a business, business, financial, whatever it might be. I mean, I enjoy I enjoy investing. I mean, I enjoy financial investing. Um, but I think I have a, you know, a very biased take towards it because I invest a lot of that in real estate, but I enjoy stocks, you know, I I enjoy like little quick plays in the stock market. But at the end of the day, I'm smart enough to know that that nobody really knows about stock market, cryptocurrencies, metaverse. I mean, it's just it's just gambling. So, uh I don't I wouldn't want to pretend to advise about that. What about advice for Alex, myself? Any questions you have for us? It's your chance to flip the script here. I don't I mean, I'm not I'm also not good. I would I would suck over doing your job. Yeah. What did you Yeah. What did you think when uh when Graham was growing on YouTube? Did you see that inevitably he would have to leave the brokerage? No. So, I mean, it's a good question because I when Graham first told me he was going to start doing YouTube, I I rolled. Yeah. [laughter] You know, Jason had a talk and he said, "If if you if you just stick with this, I guarantee you'll make like 700 grand in real estate." In real estate in the next like, you know, two years, all you got to do is just stick with this. Really? Yeah. No, I was not a fan of him doing YouTube. I'm like, "Bro, come on." It's [laughter] And then he wanted to do it out of the office. I'm like, "No, I cannot." Remember that? Yeah. He told us he would uh he would wait till everybody was out of the office and he would film. Yeah, exactly. He would. I was so embarrassed because one time I think it was Deina. I was I was in the upstairs office or something and I heard the door like beep beep and I was s I sat there with like the phone up and I was so embarrassed that Deina came in [laughter] and I was like, "Do I say I'm here? Do I spook her?" So yeah, that's what he would do up. He'd be upstairs doing YouTube. Yeah. So you were convincing him to to I didn't I mean listen I mean that's on me but because Yeah. I was saying no focus on real estate. But I mean come on you you know how many people get into YouTube and aren't successful. Yeah. I mean probably 98% of people. Yeah. It was it was interesting. It was just a feeling I had. I I couldn't explain it. I And I told Jason this. I'm like I just I I I feel like this is what I have to do. I hear also like uniquely I think you you have some unique qualities that are really good on YouTube. Like you're you're really smart but you're able to relay that to people whereas I think a lot of really smart people are not like I would be terrible on YouTube. I don't know how to like connect to that audience. Yeah. Uh so I I think that you have that relatability. Of course. I mean how would I know that at the beginning? Yeah. Yeah. Plus, now I've lost a great He was one of my top agents, so now I've lost a great agent. But you know what? You know how much money I make off a gram now? Nothing. But you know what? You did help me in the beginning. Uh and I don't think I've I've ever expressed this. In the very beginning, you were really upset at me for swearing in my videos. And that was he called you out. Yeah. Yeah. Uh because in the in the first few because I saw YouTube as like no like no one was was adding any personality to find finance videos didn't exist and the people that did the videos were like in front of a whiteboard and they'd like you know write stuff out. So I came in making fun of Jeremy right now. Well, yeah, Jeremy. No, this is before even Jeremy. Before Jeremy, but Jeremy had the whiteboard, too. But, uh, no one came in with the personality of like swearing, so it like caught people off guard. And so, when I would say the f- word or like, you know, the sword or whatever in a video, everybody was like, "Oh, this is so refreshing." It's like some they could they could relate to that. Yeah. Uh, because it was more on their level, just like, you know, just a bud who's messing around talking about personal finance. Um, but then you came to me and said, "You did not want me swearing." Um because it was a reflection on the reflection on the Oenham group and in the beginning I'm like this is it then you know because then I felt like I'm not given my full personality and then I have to like censor myself on YouTube and it turned out to be the best decision that I didn't swear because shortly after that YouTube went through the ad apocalypse like I think it was like that year where they demonetized any content with swearing and so because I had then built up this audience without swearing in a really clean image. It worked in my favor. Okay. So, in the beginning, in the beginning, it was something I was just like, "Oh, man." So, in a way, he made you money. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And now we don't swear at all. Like, you you've said a few naughty words here. We edit those out. Yeah. I watched I watched one video. Maybe I picked the wrong one. But I'm like, you know what? I've never watched Graham's videos. I got to check one out. And I just watched like a two two minutes of one video and I heard his cussing. I'm like, bro, you got to knock that off. I was freaked out. I'm like, is that in every video? Was [laughter] he just Was he recording in the office, too? Oh, okay. No. Um, but uh No, in the the office videos I didn't Yeah. I think he at first said I that he he's like, "What if I don't swear when I'm in the office, but [laughter] I mean I wasn't trying to like, you know, manage your your content?" But I didn't He was an agent at the Oenheim Group and I, you know, I'm very protective of the broker. So, I But I'm thinking of it if if I were in your position, I'd do the exact same thing. I'd be like, "This isn't a good reflection." Like if Jack started a channel, but if he's out there just like cursing and doing whatever, I wouldn't want that because that would come back on me if something were to happen. So I get it. I think I mean listen, I had such a disconnect from when you were like you were like oh outgoing and like energetic and like cussing and and I was not very much my personality. So I was like holy the turns have table. Now you're the one who said some naughty words to leap out. [laughter] Yeah, I probably care less now than I than I used to because I mean at some point you just have to stop, you know, caring as much but to the to the story. Yeah, I'm always curious now if I swore in the videos how that would impact them today if people would find it. Now I think the audience also depends on what words you're talking and it depends on your sponsors. I mean I think you just got to be careful with your sponsors. That's and that's true too. Yeah. I mean people are so sensitive. No offense [laughter] that uh but they really are. I mean, it's just unbelievable how many haters are out there and how sensitive. Actually, I don't even think it's real sensitivity. I just think that there are people that just love getting worked up. Like, I don't know how if they're just super bored or not happy or whatever it is. Yeah. I feel like that's been social media for a while now. Just people will get worked up. I don't read I I don't read comments. I don't do Twitter. I don't I just can't I just can't deal I cannot deal with like all of the oversensitivity and hating out there. I I just can't. So, I don't deal with it. You know, I don't even watch I can't even deal with news. I mean, every news channel is either so left or so right. I mean, you can't watch I just I'm so over all of it. I just And I'm way happier. But the thing is that gets views. So, like I've noticed even on YouTube. Well, that's what all that's what all content's about is views. The drama. People love that. So, I posted a video on the uh the Island Boys. I don't know if you're familiar with them. Okay. Well, they they walked out of somebody else's podcast because they were given financial advice and they did not want to hear it. So, I did a video analyzing their finances and why they walked off of the podcast and why that was a good or bad decision. And that video on that drama got like five times the views as anything else because it was like I mean I'm on Selling Sunset. I mean I I I Yeah, exactly. It's I mean it does Yeah, it does well because of the drama, I'm sure. Um, but I'm just in general I just think, you know, we're we're so geared towards I mean everything has to be a fire or a tornado or a car accident or, you know, I mean, everything is so negative because it's clickbait. I mean, everything has been reduced now to what gets people's, you know, what what raises people's people's cortisol levels. That is literally what, you know, most things are right now. And it's just Yeah. I I don't want to engage in that. Did you see that movie with Leonardo DiCaprio? Yeah. Yeah. It reminds me of that when they're like, "Well, we see the uh the metrics on this and we got a spike right here, but then it died down. So, it's it's we can't push this anymore." Yeah. But it's true. But that's that's what happens with YouTube. I mean, that's why I almost want like almost like like a public news channel. I mean, isn't it isn't it like PBS or something? Boring though. I know. But that's what news should be. News should not be like clickbait, you know, and then and then super biased towards one political party. So, see, that doesn't bother me. What bothers me is I guess the cancel culture of just if if something happens, people will latch on to it and then just go crazy and then everyone people really enjoy, [clears throat] you know, people falling. I mean, it's just I don't know if it's just like a human nature thing. I think it's a human nature thing. I don't think there's anything new. I mean, I was so paranoid. It's just easier now to like to get involved in that in that. And not only that, but then you get a community behind you who all believe the same thing. So, you're part of this big, you know, group of people who all want to like hit on this one person and you feel better as a result. I think people feel better about it, too. Yeah. There's a lot of just unhappy people out there. I don't know what's going on. But listen, I think, you know, there's you can avoid it. Like, I generally just avoid it. I mean, I don't read news, don't watch news, don't engage in comments or read comments or really anything reading the com because I you I also just genuinely uh don't really care, you know. So, I have like a, you know, I I think that's I got lucky in that respect. I'm just not particularly sensitive to what other people think. And then maybe that's a bad thing. I don't really care. See, I don't care. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I think I'm just kind of immune. You know, it doesn't if like some article comes out, it just doesn't bother me. I'm not very sensitive. I'm happy. I know who I am. I know, you know, my relationship with my family and my friends. It's really all that affects me. But do you think there there could be something where you have to speak up if it if something impacts the business? Because now I'm worried it's like anything you do or anybody does then is back on the Oppenheime Group in such a big way. You don't even need to do anything. I mean quite honestly like you just if you're a public figure I mean you know you're you're a target. So yeah I have not had to but you know I mean I would definitely speak up if if something if someone got wronged. Yeah. If anyone on the team got wronged. Does that worry you though that that it's just like so many eyeballs on the Openon group and just I guess people not working with you as a result or like I don't like spend my day worrying about this stuff, you know? I mean I just I just do I just act in a you know in a manner that that I'm you know that I should act. But yeah, I mean, listen, anytime you're in the public eye, and I think it's particularly sensitive now, um, with cancel culture and, you know, everything else and just a lot of political correctness, I think that any little thing could get blown out of proportion. So, I mean, I've always encouraged everyone, I mean, I've told every agent, you know, on the cast as well as off the cast, uh, for years now, just, you know, need to always act as though they're you're being videoed. Always act as though you're being recorded and videoed. And quite honestly, you know, I mean, I think people should you first of all, you are I mean, almost all of us now, but you know, I I it's been nice because no one is really no one's an idiot. No one does stupid stuff that I'm aware of. So, you know, nothing has really uh happened. But I think you just have to be extra careful because nobody loves more than than you know, a public figure screwing up. I mean, I was so paranoid when you hired me. I never expected to be on camera, first of all, ever because grandma hired me as an assistant. But I was so paranoid that I don't know what I I didn't even post bad things. But I deleted my whole Facebook when I moved out to Vegas. I made a new one. Yeah. But just because I was paranoid like because that's the culture that we're in. Oh, I mean, yeah, you have to when I be was becoming a public figure. I mean, I've never there's nothing in my past that I'm that would be concerning, but they definitely go through I mean, I've never had to delete a post or anything I've ever said. Um, but yeah, I mean, they anything that you've ever done wrong would would come out. I mean, any acquaintance or friend would sell you out, you know, I guess not a friend, but I mean, if you had ever done anything wrong, you cannot be a public figure. I mean, it's just it's unbelievable because they would look at everything. Yeah. I wonder if there's a service that you could pay that would look through anything in the past and they'll be Well, actually, I think Netflix goes through and make sure that you're Yeah, because you can imagine if they build a show and someone on that show, you know, has done something and then it comes out later, then the show has to get cancelceled. So, no, they do their research to make sure that that there's no I mean, you can never do everything. But, yeah, I mean, at this point, if anyone on our show had probably ever done anything, it would probably be out. Yeah, you got to knock on wood. Let's Let's not jinx it anything. You don't knock on wood. No, I don't. You don't? No, I don't believe in this. Okay, I'll do it though. Yeah, there we go. You saved it. Cool. Uh, is there anything else? I think we're good. Yeah, I think that was good. Uh, anything else you want to say? No, no, I'm good. I It's just good to check out your house. It is. Yeah, first time seeing. What do you think of the house? I love it, man. Yeah, it makes me want to buy something in Vegas. I think you should. Yeah, I might. I mean, I wish I bought like a year ago, but no, th this I like this community. Yeah, you're still building. Why don't you just sell me this at the same price you you know you paid for it. Plus Bitcoin [snorts] plus a Bitcoin. [laughter] I think you should buy it here. I I mean I like this gated community and I and I this is like the right size house for me. Oh yeah. Well, I'll think about it. All right. I'll convince you. So thanks so much for Where's the camera? See you guys. Right there. Oh, and then you got to make sure to get your free stock down below in the description when you sign up for public. Did you do that yet? It's worth all the way up to $1,000. I'm not worth my time. No, you just just say yes. [laughter] Just say yes. What? Yes. Sounds good. Okay, there you go. Public. You can get one, too. Public. I'm available. I have not done a collab ever. [laughter] So, all right. Let's go get him his free bankroll coffee. Oh, yeah. I'll give you some bankroll coffee. I'm more interested. Yeah. Available at bankroll coffee.com. [laughter] All the plugs. All the plugs. Thanks, man. That was perfect. Oh, cool, guys. Thanks. I'm sure I'll get in trouble with something that I said, but