I Was Broke & Helpless…Now I Make $300 Million Per Year

Is this your Ferrari? Yeah, it is. What do you do for living out in Houston, Texas to be able to afford a Ferrari? I'm an entrepreneur. I wasn't always the smartest person in the room. But I was always the one person that refused to quit. My company will do 300 million this year in revenue. The intestinal fortitude it takes to start something out of nothing. Every single day, massive obstacles are going to come your way, setbacks are going to come your way. I can guarantee you I've taken years off my life building this business. What are you seeing these days in terms of a potential recession coming on? So, in my business, we have a front row seat to when things are going well and when things are about to turn really bad. What secrets do you know in terms of terms of business? There's one mistake that's guaranteed to put people out of business and that's Louis. Thank you so much for coming on the ice coffee hour. I first found you on a channel, School of Hard Knocks. Yes. Came up to you on the street in a Tik Tok video. Asked you what you did for a living. You said in that video your company was doing about $300 million. That's correct. And that video got 20 million views. Uh mind-blowing, right? Last thing I ever expected to happen for sure. So, we're here in your garage. How many cars do you own currently? Uh currently, embarrassingly, uh we have 28 cars in the collection. I think there's about currently another eight incoming. Of those eight, we'll only replace two. So, we will net gain six over the next 12 to 15 months. So, that'll put us at what about 34 cars total, but 28 in the garage at the moment. And what's the total value of your collection? Currently, our our our current value is about $31 million. So, it's more than a million dollars a car. roughly. Yeah, if you average it out right, obviously there's some big hitters here. F40, F50, La Ferrari, that's those are big chunks, right? Even the car right behind you, the 599 GTO, uh that car is more than doubled in value, and it's right between a 950 to a little over a million dollar car today. So, I'm curious, what are the logistics of owning something like this? How much does it cost? Let's let's just start there. Well, you know, that's a crazy question and crazy time you would ask that. a video that we just put out. We went through and we I had not consciously added it up in total what we're spending to maintain these cars. Uh but we went through the video and I went spoke about each car uh individually. And currently we have spent about $800,000 on the cars that you see in this garage today to get them at the level that they're at. The the reality is that I'm kind of doing both things with cars. There's guys that have drivers cars and then there's guys that have more like concourse level cars that never get driven. I want both uh which is very costly to do to maintain cars at a concourse level. As you know, we were talking soon as you came in. There's some cars in here that are have won platinum at at the Cav the Ferrari Cavalino show. They're 100point cars. Uh but I also drive those cars. I mean the F50, right? My wife and I road trippped that 1,200 miles from Houston to Palm Beach, uh, Florida where they host the Cavalina show at the Breakers Hotel. Then showed the car and not only won platinum in that car, but but won best F50 overall. And then what's the 100 point rating that you're referencing? Okay. So, um, there's a show called the Cavalino Show. Big car show. They host it every year at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida. It is the most prestigious car show anywhere in the world for Ferrari only. Okay. Uh so on Saturday it's only Ferraris that are there. Uh it's a very curated group of cars. You've got to submit your car. A lot of documentation has to come along with that submission and then they have to approve your car just to be in the show. Then when your car is in that show, they have the most the knowledge these judges have are absolutely insane. I mean, it's unreal the knowledge that these judges have of these cars. So, they come around and they judge everything. I mean, they open the the front bonnet up, they open the rear engine up. Uh they even so much just get down into where the little uh tool uh tool kits that come with some of the older cars. And it's got the bulbs and and and uh fuses and things like that. They pull them out to make sure they still look pristine and clean. And some of these cars are 30, 40, 50 years old. So yeah, we actually had to get somebody to sit down and get the tool kit out and use a Navy jelly to hand polish these tools and little ends on the bulbs and and all those things. But they they go through those cars to that to that extent and judge them and they they they rate them. So you start out at 100 points and every flaw, blemish, or something that's missing or something that doesn't work right on the car, you lose points depending on what it is. Some points some things are half points, some things full points, some things will be two points. Um, and as long as your car when it's all said and done has 97 points or more, it would be awarded platinum. Okay. So, that is the most rigorous, highest level uh for Ferrari only judging that there is anywhere. Can you make changes on the spot? Like, let's just say, hey, there's a little blemish here. Could you say, "Hold on one second. Have a guy come over. Let's just fix it." Unfortunately, really. So, it's like what's there is there. What's there is there What did your car get? So, I know that it got platinum. They don't give you your scorecard. I did request it, right? Uh but the F50 that we have did win platinum, so it's at least 97 points. Uh I think it's I think it's actually 100 point car. Reason why I think that is there were some amazing F-50s there in class. Really amazing uh examples of that car. And let's remember there's only what uh 349 F50s in the world. Um and there's only 31 yellow ones ever made. Uh so we have one of 31. And uh but then we were awarded uh the best F-50 in class. And actually what made as special as that was, what made it even more special is that Enzo Ferrari's greatgrandson actually is the one that handed my wife and I that award. So that was a really really cool moment, life moment. So what's the value of that car? So currently that car, you know, speaking to to the brokers that that know my car really really well. We were just having this conversation last week because we had to insure the car because we're sending it over to Italy because this is 2025. It's the 30-year anniversary of the F-50. So Ferrari is actually arranging an F-50 Cavalcade through Tuskany and whatnot. So we have to get the car appraised and insured. And they're appraising it minimum 6.5 closer to 7 million because of the pedigree with the car. So you drove a 7 million car 500 miles. You 1200 miles 1200 miles three Why? Why did you do Why not? Because the value that that you're maybe losing by putting that extra mileage on the car, like how much do you think realistically putting,500 miles on that car devalues it? Well, I don't think it did. And this is my reasoning. Okay. So, I've been collecting cars for a very long time. And in the last seven, eight years, my wife and I've really gotten into collecting older cars. And what I have found is that the older cars that sit around and they're show queens or garage queens, they don't get driven. They're full of problems. They're absolutely full of problems. Nowadays, when I go to get an older vintage uh car, whether it be Ferrari or any other brand, you know, our Countach is another great example, right? I want a car that's been driven a few thousand miles. I know that the engine's still running, the seals are not dried out, the hoses aren't dried up, the car has been maintained to this point that it's still running and driving reliably. and I get a car with a lot less problems. So, in my opinion, number one, I'm gonna drive and enjoy my cars, right? My primary intention of my car collection is not the ROI of the value. It really is not. This is my passion. This is what I enjoy doing. These cars bring me a lot of joy in life, and they're kind of my reward to me uh for what I've accomplished in business and in life, and I'm I'm having a blast with these. It's my toy box, if you will, right? Um, so for me, I want I'm like, what is the coolest way to show a a a extraordinarily rare car at a car show? Road road trip the darn thing there. Make some memories along the way. My wife and I road tripped it together. Had an absolute blast along the way. Met some amazing people along the way. So rather than just being the stuffy guy that shipped this incredibly valuable car to this prestigious car show, wor got awarded my trophy and then loaded it back on the truck and shipped it back home. We made a life memory out of it that my wife and I will cherish forever. And that carries much more value to me than whatever value is on the car. Now to answer your question though, I think it increased the value of the car. That's now known as the F50. They got road trip 1,200 miles to Cavalino and one best F50 overall. Okay. And then when you're driving this $7 million car, are you just like white knuckled, eyes focused on the road? Absolutely. Caffeinated to the max. I'm caffeinated to the max. Now that part is for sure. Now, I will say I was white knuckled for about 3 and 1/2 hours. Uh I think that was a Saturday morning portion of the drive. It did nothing but pour. So, I'm driving this 30-year-old super car. Uh, no traction control, no nannies assist whatsoever. You know, F1 V12 engine in the back. A true F1 derived V12 engine. Gated manual. No, no ABS, none of that kind of stuff to help you in pouring down rain. So, there was a white knuckle portion to that. Other than that, you know what? I drive these cars hard. So, what's the most amount of money you've lost on a car? Oh, goodness gracious. We have done very very well with the vast majority of cars. Um I hate to to admit it, it is painful, but uh everyone you guys have all seen where the SF90 values have just dropped dramatically. Uh and we lost almost $400,000 on our SF9. How much did you buy it? We So we we paid I think $815 for the car and I traded in uh and I got 400,000 for it. So we lost $415,000 on that car. Yeah. And that was the peak of the market for that car, right? It actually got a little bit higher than that. I mean I remember maybe 2021 going into 2022 somewhere in there there. There were some of those cars trading over $900,000, you know, uh, and and they just, boy, they just plummeted. Why do you think that car took such a big hit, you know? That's an interesting question. I get asked that quite a bit. And, you know, I have to guess because, well, it's it's an educated guess. I I say guess because I've had a great experience with that car and and I'm on my second one. I have the Spider. Uh, my SF90XX is in production now. It'll be here hopefully in the next two months. I'm very excited about that car. Uh, and that car is actually trading way over MSRP. I just saw a car last week at 977,000 MSRP SF90XX coupe trade for 2.1 million. I just saw it myself last week. So, it's not rumor mill. I saw it myself, which is amazing to me that the XX version, the light version or special version is trading more than double MSRP when you could get the coupe base model version for $400,000 right now, maybe even a little bit less. So, what I've seen with that car is there's a lot of people that don't understand how to use that hybrid system. So, uh, believe it or not, there's a little setting in the menu that you have to put hit charge on the the generator to charge the the hybrid battery. So, I personally know of three guys that thought their battery went dead on the car and were just done with it, were going to sell it because they didn't want to be bothered with it. And when I talked to him about it, they had no idea that you had to hit to tell that car to recharge. So, it was a little self-induced. I I could actually say that I think that a lot of the sales guys that were presenting those cars when they were taking delivery, customers were taking delivery of them, they weren't that well educated on how that hybrid system worked too, that was new from Ferrari, other than a lot of Ferrari, which that system's completely different than what's in the SF90 or even the 296. So, I don't think that a lot of guys were explaining that very well at delivery or they just didn't retain it because that's new to the customer, too. And uh so, they just didn't really understand that hybrid system. They had a lot of problems with that uh due to not understanding it. I've I have not seen any SF90s. I'm not saying it didn't happen, but I personally have not seen any that have actually had any sort of hybrid system, electrical system failure. Yeah, I'm sure it's happened. I haven't personally seen it, but I think that that rumor just got around and it scared a lot of people and I think it just turned the market. I think like uh the financial markets are a lot of time driven based upon emotion and and and once people start seeing a little bit happened, they think, "Oh, these guys know something I don't know and then they start selling or they all start buying and it can drive the market up and down and it had nothing to do with actual factual business, right?" And so I think that happened with that car. What's the most that you made on a car? on any one single car, I have made a little over a million dollars um in one car that I did transact. Now, there's cars sitting here today that have increased much more than that in value, but I haven't transacted the car, so it's I guess it's on paper, if you will, right? What's So, what's the biggest paper gain you have so far? It's it's close right now because when you look at with with the F80 that's out now, right? Obviously, the reaction to that car has been mixed to say the least. And what that has done is it's really driven up the values of the F40, the F-50, the Enzo, and even the La Ferrari. So, for example, our La Ferrari right now, I know what what we paid for it, right? It was January of last year. So, in just a little over a year, uh two cars that I saw transact in the last two to three weeks, we're up about 1.2 million from what we paid for this car, right? Uh our F40 were up at least 1.7 million from what we paid on that car. Uh and then the F50 for what we paid for it were up about 1.5 closer to 2 million on that car. And those are in very short periods of time. But I do have to agree that that's directly driven because a lot of the guys that had different aspirations for what the F80 would be have packed away from that and now they're chasing these other cars because they realize it's never going to be produced again. So, you recently did an interview where you talked about what you do for a living, right? The top comment of that video is Lewis might have some secrets. What secrets do you know in terms of terms of business? It seems like it's a positive thing. Maybe not. Okay. Oh, yeah. I was hoping it was I haven't read that comment. That's interesting. Lewis might have some secrets. That's interesting. So, I'm curious what secrets. Okay. So, you know, it's it's kind of funny. you know, the longer that I'm in business, uh, not only myself, I know what lessons I've learned, right? And then I know what what attributes I think I've contributed most of my success to, but uh, and that's what's kind of been really cool about being in the car community. You meet other guys that have pretty similar stories. A lot of them are entrepreneurs. A lot of them have started businesses of some sort. And the more we get to talking, you start realizing just how similar a lot of those attributes are. And not only how similar they are, but what I kind find it comical is really how how basic and simple it really is at the end of the day. Uh secrets. So, uh one of the things that really drove my business model and the idea that I had for my business model is an interview I saw back in my early 20s of Warren Buffett where someone had asked him what does he look for in businesses that he chooses to buy or invest in? And he says really quite simple. I look for companies with a clear competitive advantage in their industry. that really resonated with me. Um because, you know, I wanted to I knew that I I know what my business was going to be before I started it, but I knew I wanted to start something that within 30 seconds I could say we're in this industry and this is what makes us different than everybody else. Here's our competitive advantage, right? So, that really resonated with me and and I believe that we've done that with our business and most of the people that I meet, they understand that if they're going to build a business, it's going to be successful. They need to have something that makes them stand apart from everyone else that's in that same industry or space or niche or whatever. That's number one. Number two, and it's no big secret, and I tell my kids this all the time, anybody that comes to me that that's looking uh for advice about mentoring or or should they start their business or what do I think of their business idea or things like that, and I love those conversations uh because I'm at a place in life now where um I've I've kind of done my thing in terms of professionally. And uh I'm getting much more joy by being in a position where I can give people hopefully some good sound advice or direction and hoping that I can positively impact impact their future. Even if and many times it is uh that's a great idea that's never going to work. And so I'm saving them from themselves, right? Um but like I tell people and I tell everybody the same thing. It's really some basic elements. I I wasn't always the smartest person in the room and I'm even to this day I'm not the smartest person in the room but I was always the one person that refused to quit. I just once I locked on to something and I do that with anything in life. Even to this day at 46 years old uh whenever I lock in on something I grind and grind and grind away at it until I feel like I've gotten to being the best that I possibly could be with whatever that is. Now when it comes to everyday spending here's what I've noticed. A lot of the purchases we make are out of sight, out of mind. like those daily coffee expenditures or the streaming subscriptions you barely even use. It adds up very quickly. That's why our sponsor, Rocket Money, helps you notice these patterns and put more of that money back in your pocket where it belongs. For those that don't know, Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps you find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps you lower your bills so you can grow your savings. 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Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with RocketMoney. Go to rocketmoney.com/istic today. That's rocketmoney.com/istic. Once again, rocketmoney.com/istic. Thank you so much to RocketMoney for sponsoring this episode. So you said all of these other high level entrepreneurs, these very successful people that you've spoken to, you guys have shared attributes. Would you say that's the main one? Absolutely. Perseverance is absolutely the main one. That is for sure. Absolutely. What what other similarities you see? Definitely perseverance. Okay. And then uh all these people I found they're very good with with other people. In other words, they're very very good at motivating and inspiring others around them. Because none of us that when I speak to people that have built really large companies, it's one thing to be self-employed and have a small mom and pop company. And that's great. You can make a great living at that, I'm all about it. But the I'm talking about the guys or gals that have built large corporations. None of us could have done what we have done alone. And we had to have the ability to inspire others to not only see our vision and our dream, but to want to be a part of it, to want to be an impact and be a part of making that dream and that vision a reality. So their ability to motivate and inspire and influence others around them. Uh also all of us I think attribute a lot of our success that we were able to make people feel very appreciated and valued for the impact that they're having on on on our business and the goals that we're trying to achieve. Those are absolute attributes that I think any successful entrepreneur those are must haves. Uh perseverance uh people skills to influence others. So for a viewer out there, maybe they don't have those people skills and ability to motivate people, but they're still really motivated to build a massive corporation. Would you say that those people skills are something that you've had for your entire life and you could easily look back to when you were young, you had the ability to like rally the troops and get something done or is that something that was kind of a byproduct of running this business? You were forced to learn these skills. They certainly got honed over the years. There's no doubt. And you grow and mature and you learn. But absolutely, if you look back, you know, it's funny raising kids and you see groups of kids, their friends and whatnot, and you can start pinpointing who's got some of those attributes, who's that natural leader, like even if it's on a playground, it's that one kid that comes up and he's he or she's got the idea of what the whole group's going to do, and they're kind of taking lead with the whole thing. And you can see people naturally just kind of flocking to that one person as as the leader of the group. And and so I do believe that those are innate skills. Uh, I think you can hone and sharpen leadership skills, but having that innate ability to inspire and lead others and people that want to be a part of whatever it is that that individual's doing, I think that's really innate. I really do. So, one thing that was really attractive about your interview with School of Hard Knocks was just that $300 million per year income. You hear that? Yeah. Completely blows your mind. It's just an absolutely incredible number. It was still kind of hard to figure out exactly what it is that your company does. Okay. Yeah. So, if you were to explain very simply how your company makes $300 million a year, what is it? Well, we don't we we generate that in revenue. We don't make that in profit. I wish we did. That's revenue. Uh and then of course all of our operating costs come out of that. Then there's a net profit. So, what we do is we partner with companies. All my clients are in some sort of manufacturing or distribution assembly business, things like that. um and they outsource their labor force to us. So we become the full employer and we handle everything from recruiting, onboarding, training, and then the management of that entire labor force. So what I'm doing is because of our scale, not only am I getting my my customers out of the people business, so they can focus on their business, right, their core competency, whatever widget it is that they're producing, if you will, right? Um and I'm providing that labor force back to them at cheaper than they could do it themselves. right? Uh which makes them more efficient uh and profitable as a business. And when they're more efficient and profitable, they're able that gives them a competitive advantage to grow their business. Okay? So let's just say Jack and I want to hire a hundred people to help us on the podcast. We go to you and say, "Hey, we don't want to spend all this time hiring. We're going to go to your company, find us these hundred people." How much do you charge for that service? Like what would I would I pay you a percentage? Is it a flat fee? Mhm. Yeah. It's a percentage of over the payroll that that you use each week. So, you got a 100 people working on your podcast, right? And uh whatever their job's doing, we we generate that payroll. Uh we're paying them, you know, probably every other week in this scenario. And whatever we're generating for the payroll, the labor that you have used, we pay the employees. They're our employees. Okay. And then we bill you back that payroll plus a markup. Got it. So, I'm not hiring the people. I'm hiring you. That's right. So, I'm paying you and you pay them. Are the people then legally your employee? They they're 100% legally our employees. And there's a huge benefit to you, the customer, and to the employee in that scenario, right? Because of our scale, right? First of all, I'm my my my my costs per employee are going to be far cheaper than you only having 100 or 200 or 300 employees, right? We have some clients where we're providing, you know, over 2,000 employees, too. Um my cost per capita is going to be much cheaper. Number one. Number two, uh we're far better uh than you are uh at interviewing, pre-screening, and training people to do this job because this is all that we do, right? So, we're going to bring the the expertise of all of our clients from all these different industries on how we've been able to take people and onboard them, train them, and get them up to uh a maximum efficiency to run your your facility at full capacity. And what if someone an employee of yours wants a raise then? Do they then go to you or do they then go to the the establishment in which they're working, right? And that's where I was going to talk about the wind. There's the win for the company, right? Because of our scale, we're able to provide that labor force at a cheaper cost than they could do it themselves. And what that allows us to do where the win for the employee is, right, is that our job primarily is to train these people and and and set them up to for the best career advancement opportunities they they could have. And that's what we're really good at, right? That's that's our space. And so when there is opportunity for promotions or raises because we have lowered the labor cost to our clients, that provides much more money for raises and promotions and increases for the labor force. So, our clients win and the employees win as well long term. How do you get started doing that? Wow, that's a great question. So, when I got in this industry, I didn't even know it existed. I fell into it by complete accident. I got kicked out of college at 20. Uh, as I like to say, uh, I got out on the early release program. What What did you do? Um, mostly, uh, just being bored and doing silly shenanigans on on on campus. Oh, you got to tell us what you did. Okay, we may have to edit that out. Okay, so I will tell you the story. You guys decide what you do with it. Oh, I don't know if I want to tell you the story. Um, it's not bad, but it's Just tell us. I'm sure we're going to find it funny. You'll definitely find it funny. All right, so uh at the university I went to uh there was a statue of the namesake of the university in the middle of campus, right? Campus Square. And it's like a waterfall. So he's kind of standing there and he's got one foot up on this rock and he's got this long out in the distance stoic look on the statue of his face, right? And and then the water flows from his feet and the rock into the fountain below. And everybody used to soap the fountain when we were in college. And that was just kind of lame. Of course, as with everything I do in life, I kind of have to take it to the next level. So, uh, we soaked the fountain, but then we took a summer sausage, a big long summer sausage. He said, "Where this is going?" ran a rope through it, tied it around his waist, and then put a jeep pink g-string over his head. It's funny. So, it is really funny. Yeah. Uh uh this was uh what late 90s, I think 1998. And uh uh there was a a little thing that was getting to be much cheaper to have and much more prevalent that uh we didn't take into consideration security cameras. And so because the university was tired of kids soap in the fountain, um they put security cameras in and we were one of the first to uh And what was the what were the repercussions? So uh suspension, right? So I got suspended. Um and uh so got suspended from college. Uh fun fact, when you get suspended from a state university, you're suspended from all state universities in the state of Texas. So I couldn't go to any other state university. Well, suspended or expelled? Suspended. just so so I say kicked out kind of loosely. It was a suspension, right? Um what was amazing though is uh through other goofy shenanigans on campus, mostly me being bored, right? Of course I didn't realize at the time I was I was a kid. Uh I got I it wasn't my first time to sit down with the dean, right? And uh so finally uh during this situation, he said, "Listen, Lewis," he said, "Serve your suspension." And he said, "If I were to give you," and he said, "You know, I've been doing this for, you know, 30 some odd years," whatever it was. said, he said, um, you know, if I could give you some advice, he says, don't go back to college. He said, this is not where you need to be. He said, you're going to be an entrepreneur because I have no idea what kind of business you're going to end up in, but that's going to be your space. You're truly wasting your time. Continue to go to college. It sounded like really like it felt reassuring cuz I knew my heart was not in college, right? Wasn't in that at all. Did you have other businesses going on? Like why would he say entrepreneur and not just like stay out of jail? Yeah, I that probably would have been good basic uh advice. So, you know, uh no, I didn't have any other business going on. Uh you know, I was involved in a lot of different things on campus and I think uh he he saw that I I as we were talking about those innate natural leadership tendencies and qualities and and I think just from over 30 years of seeing people come through the door, he he's probably knows the type, somebody that's going to, you know, be an entrepreneur and going to do their own thing and and and kind of blaze their own trail, I guess, if you will. But that was the advice that he gave. Was this the first business you started? In short order, I had to get a job when I got home. Right. And um I originally I even though he gave me that advice, my dad's like, "You're getting your butt back in college. You're going to finish." That's what every parent would say, right? And uh so I for whatever reason just thought I would get a job bartending at this TGI Fridays here in town uh so that I could serve my suspension for one semester and then have a night job to to maintain while I go back to school. That was originally the idea. Uh and the next day uh so I went to go interview at TJI Fridays for the bartender job and uh so I did the interview with the manager on duty. She says, "You'll come back tomorrow at 2:00, meet with our general manager." So, while I was waiting for that that that that interview, I decided to go get a haircut uh literally at a super cuts in a strip mall right next door was a temporary staffing agency. And a buddy of mine from high school was with me and he's like, "Listen, man. You should go in there. I can find you a job." I'm like, "Listen, I don't need a temp job. I need a real full-time job." Right? And uh after him, you know, lecturing me there for a little bit, I reluctantly went ahead and went into the Savvy Engine next door. The regional vice president happened to be uh visiting that office that day. She interviewed me, uh asked me, you know, what skills I had. I'm like, you know, I can sell, right? And that's that's really about all I got. Um I was 20 years old. Lo and behold, she hired me as a salesperson in that branch office, right? I had never even heard of the staffing industry before this, right? And you the training was really sophisticated. They just hand us a yellow pages if you guys remember that. And it was just smile and dial, call these companies, see if they they have a need or for some short-term employees or temporary employees or whatever. And that was it. So just started beating away at the phone. Actually ended up doing very very well in a short period of time. But I quickly realized like there's a downside to this business. Like like we're only staffing our comp our clients for temporary needs. And although that is a there is a value there, uh I'm like we have I understood because I was pricing the business. So I understood how the pricing worked. And I started talking to some of my customers about what their payroll costs were, what their uh legal exposures were relative to unemployment claims, workers compensation claims, EEOC type claims, and all that kind of stuff that they're not really that well-versed and that equipped to to manage and mitigate uh and and prevent by, you know, a lot of these times they get sued for honest mistakes because, you know, they're too busy running their business. They don't know all the employment laws and they get themselves into trouble inadvertently, right? Most people are out to do the right thing. Okay. And I'm like, not only are my payroll costs cheaper because I know I I had to understand what our payroll costs were to price out, you know, the the employees we're providing our clients. So I I quickly saw there's a huge by because of our scale, there's a financial opportunity here. And I go to these customers, I said, "Listen, you've got, you know, I started out kind of small. Maybe they had 30, 40 employees in their warehouse or in their distribution center or whatever it was." does. I said, "Listen, you could we could take over as the employer, right? Provide these employees better benefits than what you're getting them and save you money and eliminate all your liability because we're the legal employer." And I love that because not only was I actually making providing real value to my clients bottom line and really making their businesses better, um, but we were able to provide much better u benefits for the employees, right, because of our scale. So, it was a win-win and it really worked well for me because rather than having employees working short-term where I would get uh commissions and then those assignments end, these employees are on our payroll forever. How much did that business cost to start? So, I had that idea, started working really well. Um, and then I started my business as soon as, you know, a few years later and the biggest problem I had was I'm paying these employees each week and then my customers want to pay me in 30 or 60 days. So, I've got to be able to carry four to eight weeks of payroll before I get my first payment from my clients. So, you need a line of credit to float that payroll and the payroll taxes on. And uh, of course, to get a line of credit, you need to have equity in your business. Well, when you start out a company, you have no equity. I was 24 years old. It's not like I had some big assets that I could let the bank leverage against to give me some sort of line of credit. So, I had to factor my invoices, which is one of the roughest things that What does that mean? Okay. So what factoring is is basically you generate the invoice to your customer and then I call it lone shark money because the rates are outrageous that they charge you when you back then I don't know what they are today back then cuz it's and they're very good at hiding the fees. Well, there's a buy rate, then there's these processing fees. The interest rate they show is not that bad, but when you add all the fees together and you divide that and you average it out by by your APR, your annual percentage rate on how much you're borrowing, it's closer to 21%. It's outrageous, right? And so they will, but these these factoring companies will do is you you generate the invoice to your customer, they buy that invoice from you. So legally they own that invoice from you and they set up a lock box, okay, at a bank. So when your customer sends their payment in, it goes straight to that lock box. The financial factoring company that loans you the money on that invoice takes their money, their fees out, and they give you whatever's left over, which considering that payroll and payroll taxes are by far our largest cost of goods sold. and then you put 21% on top of that, it just destroyed our my my profit margins back then. But it was one of the greatest things that I've ever gone through and I'm extraordinarily grateful for it because it taught me a very valuable lesson I see so many entrepreneurs make today. It's and and I think social media has driven a lot of it too because there's so much glamorization on social media of, oh, I've got this new car or I've got this new watch or I'm taking this exotic trip here or there. As soon as someone starts a business and they start making more money than they've ever made before, okay, great. You've got a successful business, that's awesome. They start spending that money, living that lifestyle, right? And not understanding that they're robbing themselves of a future. You've got to reinvest that money in the business. You've got to build up your balance sheet. You got to build up your retained earnings in that business or you're a you're never going to grow. That's one. Number because it costs money to grow. Number two, every business is going to go through hard times. Every business is going to go through hard times and you've got to have the cash to get you through those hard times. Okay? And these these people are I see it far too often are not doing that. So going through what I went through, it forced me every week, whatever profits we made to leave in the business. So that next week I had to borrow a little less and a little less and a little less. But then of course I kept growing. The business was growing. So that was a really difficult part emotionally and managing financially because I'm having to borrow more and more and more to fund the growth because my growth far exceeded how fast my cash flow was catching up. So it took probably the first three to four years of taking the only thing I took out of the business was just enough to pay my household bills. Right. And the hard part, if you guys saw the school of hard knocks um interview and and I saw a lot of the comments and people don't really quite understand what I was talking about and that's my fault when I talk numbers. I tend to go fast because I've been doing this my whole life. But when you're making that profit as a business, people think, well, if you didn't take the money out of the company, you don't pay income taxes on it. That's not the way that works. That business, it's an LLC. So whatever profits the company made flows to your personal income tax whether you took it out of the business or not doesn't matter. So when you look at and I referenced it in that the gentleman on school of hard asked me have you ever been broke before? I'm like every entrepreneur has been broke before but the the brokeest I'd ever been I was actually making a lot of money at that time. I was 28 years old. The company made about $3 million. Okay. I was not able to take very much of that out of the bank at the time. I had $10,000 in my personal bank account, right? That was it. But because the company and me, because we're one and the same in terms of as the IRS, had made 3 million bucks, I owed like what was it? $950,000 in income taxes. And Uncle Sam doesn't care that your money's tied up in the business. And if you take that cash out, you're bankrupt the next week because you can't make payroll for all these employees. That and that's how we generate revenue. Like I said, our revenue is a percentage of the payroll. So, I've got to go generate that payroll, right? So, that was one of the the most difficult financial times I went through. But all that to say, I'm so grateful I went through those years because it gave me a lot of financial discipline uh to to to build, you know, to never rob the company of its cash, build up the the the company cash, and also to live, you know, far below my means. What was the company's revenue over time? Then running this podcast means I am constantly saving massive files from video to audio to thumbnails. I mean some episodes are over 1 terbte of storage and after a while it just clogs up my MacBook and slows everything down. And that is where today's sponsor, Clean My Mac, comes in. For those unaware, Clean My Mac makes it easy to clear out junk and system cache you don't need, find duplicates that are hiding in your download folder, and fix issues like battery drain and overheating. It even has built-in Moonlock anti-malware engine all with just one click. It is way cheaper and better than buying a brand new computer just because yours feels slower or laggy. Keeping your Mac clean saves so much money and makes editing, uploading, or any other work way faster, too. So, boost your speed, cut your costs, and clear out some space today. You can also feel free to try Clean My Mac free for 7 days by using the link down below in the description and using the code coffee for 20% off. Thank you, Clean My Mac, for sponsoring this podcast. We grew really fast, you know. So, I I'd been in the industry for about four or five years before I started my own company. So, I had some relationships uh that once my non-compete expired, which was a 12-mon non-compete, I was able to to leverage those those relationships and grow the company very quickly. So, for example, our first year we did really really well. I'm very proud of it. We did $14 million in revenue. Okay? I think we did 22 million the second year. I know the third year we did 31 million. Okay? So, it was growing. Those are large percentage chunks, right? Uh and then by our fifth year, we were just over $70 million in in revenue at the time. Was it the same strategy that brought you to 10 million, the strategy that you implemented to go to 300 million? That's correct. Or what was it? No, it is. It absolutely is. You know, I think um I've had people ask me that question or similar way. They ask me that question and I I I still stand very firm on this. Growing a company to say a million, right, depending on what it does, but let's just say it's growing to a million is one thing. Okay? And you probably don't have to really scale that much to get to a million in a year in revenue, okay? Maybe even 2 million. But to go from two to 10 or or to 20 million, you have to learn how to scale whatever that that that that foundation of that business is doing, right? That's where you learn how to scale. Okay? And once you understand how to scale your business, then yes, it's it's taken that same strategy, the same mindset that that it took to scale that business from 1 to 10 or two to 20 to get it from 10 to 300. And and of course, you know, I I I am very proud of the size of the business it is today. Uh that number kind of pisses me off to be really honest with you guys because I you know, the goal is to get it to a billion. Uh I wanted to do that before I turn 50. That's four years from now. We'll see. We'll see. The team's working very hard to get there. What do you have to do to bring it from 300 million to a billion? And I think it would be cool. 365 million. So that way you could say a million a million a week or Yeah. a million a day in revenue or whatever. Yeah, that would be cool. We're not there yet. Uh we're just a tad over 300. So, what do we got to do? You know, it's really a matter of of continuing to do what we do, but we've got to um really ramp up the the and this is where it's gotten tougher over the years. Technology has actually made this harder because this is a businessto business sale. Okay. And and our business model, we're extremely proud of it. Uh it it it's so beneficial. The clients win, the employees win, and of course, we win as a business as well. So, it's it's a tremendous scenario where everybody wins. Uh we don't have any direct competitors that do exactly what we do. Uh because we're not a temporary staffing agency or any that kind of stuff that people see. That's not what we do. Not knocking it, that's just not what we do. So, it's a matter of getting in front of decision makers and with technology that's getting so much harder because people are much more mobile now, right? Uh so, getting a hold of them. uh everybody just assumes whenever our new business development team is trying to reach out to them, it's just another salesperson uh or it's another temp agency which they have no value to them for any of that. And I get that. I get that perspective. So getting in touch with someone, getting in front of them to be able to drive down what the value proposition is the business has gotten much harder in the age of technology and everyone being so mobile, no one's tied to a desk anymore. What do you think about AI taking people's jobs? Like do you have a concern that all of these people that you employ could theoretically have a percentage replaced by robots or artificial intelligence or you have some humanoid that's going on and like putting something together? Absolutely. I mean that that is a strong reality, right? And uh and I don't know where all that shakes out. Where where's the right balance, right? I mean the companies need automation, right? To reduce their labor spend. I mean all my customers labor is uh either number one or a very close number two shortly behind raw material for their cost of goods sold. So they have to seek that competitive advantage as it becomes uh readily available and and reliable a reliable real resource. So uh you know I do see that that is a reality and then and then what comes of that right you know so if if companies they're going to have to leverage it because their competitors are going to do it to remain competitive they have to do it. It's not the companies are trying to be evil. They have to do it. The market says, "Hey, this widget is only worth X dollars and if somebody is able to do it cheaper, customers are going to buy from that person. So if that person's leveraging AI to reduce its cost and ultimately it's cost of its product, they're going to do that. So we're what does what does that do for uh you know employment in our country or really any country, right? Uh how many thousands or maybe millions of people I mean you look at our company, right? You know we we we process about 34,000 W2s a year. Well, what if you know a third of that was able to be replaced through automation? Just my company alone, you know, that's nearly, you know, 11 12 between 11 and 12,000 people, just my one company. Multiply that by however many thousands of other companies are out there. You know, does that result in a massive unemployment situation? You know, I I mean, if we just think, you know, logically and analytically, that's a strong possibility, right? So, it'll be interesting to see where all that shakes out where we have to value what's good for humanity and society. Uh, and then how AI impacts that. Let's hope that we find a healthy balance and um, and the AI is able to what I'd rather see AI do is allow people to do more with the effort that they put in. So, they're able to produce more. They're able to be more efficient. There's less risk for for bodily harm or or for any sort of workplace accident. And I really hope that AI focuses in that so that we're actually enriching uh the lives of of of of employees. What are you seeing these days in terms of a potential recession coming on or higher unemployment because I feel like you would see it before anybody else. That is that is 100% correct. I tell people all the time I have a front row seat to when things are about to be really good and when things are not to to be not so great. Right. Because the companies be began hiring when they are anticipating growth. Right. Right. So, I see that before the market sees it because the growth hasn't come yet, but they know that they've got business coming their way. So, they've got to ramp up their their employment. Same thing when they see out in the distance, whether it be a year from now, two years now, or even just 6 months out that, hey, new business is starting to slow down coming our way, right? They start to trim down the labor force, right? So, we have a front row seat to see when that's going one way or the other. Uh and absolutely right now listen um wherever you stand politically uh it's got nothing to do with it. It's just the reality of the marketplace and we are across the board seeing a slowdown. That is an absolute truth. And again my customers are in many different industries isolated. You're seeing an overall slowdown on average. How big of a slowdown? We right now I would say almost I would say about 12 13%. Just from January through right now mid-March. It's fast. It's fast. It's very fast. Yes. I was expecting a year ago through today, not January. We ended fourth quarter really strong. How much of that correlates to the stock market? So because my customers are all manufacturing some sort of widget or or or or something or refurbishing some for electronic whatever. Ours is really driven by consumer spending. So I really look at the the uh consumer spending index CPI. That's what I really look at. Um, but I do think that's directly correlated because when people see that their 401ks are going down or however they're invested in the marketplace and the market's down overall, right, they start to tighten up their their discretionary spending, right? Uh, and they start stretching their dollars a little bit more and that's what we're seeing right now. So, it is indirectly related to what's going on in the stock market because that's directly related to people's personal wealth. How much do you think this has to do with the tariffs? I think it is directly related to the tariffs. You know, it absolutely is. I mean, I don't have one client right now that's not looking at and already factoring in the uh how the tariffs are going to impact their business because all of my client listen, we are a global economy. That's a reality, right? There's very little to nothing happens just in a silo within any one single market or country, right? Everything's globally impacted. even my clients that are you know Americanmade American produced businesses where they're called where does raw where does the raw material come from where's transportation uh and things like that have to happen. So there's a lot of raw material and things like that that they have come from other countries right into our country to produce whatever it is that my clients are producing. So it is absolutely directly related to the tariffs. I have a friend that runs a sheet metal manufacturing and laser cutting business in Southern California and he was celebrating the tariffs because he said for his business specifically they've really positively impacted him. You know, I'm glad you brought that up though because currently yes, it's it's having an impact. Okay, I can say that strongly. Very strong education. I've seen it straightforward. Okay, that's not my rumor mill. That's not I didn't read it online anywhere. I'm speaking directly to my customers businesses. That being said, long-term the I think the goal of the tariffs is to bring much more of our production and manufacturing back to the United States. So, I think this is a short-term pain that even and I'm feeling the pain, too. But I'm willing to do that for the long-term good of the country and the long-term competitive landscape of where that puts us because if we bring more uh manufacturing and production uh and things like that back to this country, number one, it it I think it makes it is good for national security because I think it uh makes us less reliant on other countries should, God forbid, some sort of world war break out or or something like that. Uh but countries have less to leverage over us. I mean, you know, I was so shocked and I don't know how many people knew it, but it was news to me when COVID happened that that nearly all I think 90% of our vaccine, don't quote me on that number, but a very large percentage of our vaccines were produced in China. That's kind of scary to find out realizing that, you know, medicines that we all rely on to protect our society is vast majority being produced in another country that may not always be our best friend. Do you worry that tariffs though, even though there could be a long-term advantage, will result in higher prices for everyday people? Because my thought is that if it is manufactured in the United States, great, more people have a job here. There's more opportunity here, but it's going to cost so much more money that at the end of the day, sure, it might be produced here, but the cost could double or triple. Like, if an iPhone were made here, I saw like some there was some article that that calculated it would be like $4,000, $5,000 if they made all of the iPhone here. It's like some exorbitant cost. Well, that number is probably true when you don't consider all the other factors when you start looking at the fact that we're leveraging the playing field for the global economy. So, prices will come down overall, right? That's what uh you know I I think the tariffs will ultimately do. Now, listen, I'm no economist, right? I'm just speaking by what I've seen and experienced in my you my time in in in this business, right? So I think that that would happen if everything remained the same, right, is what I'm saying. I think that with the tariffs, it starts equalizing the playing field where everyone has to start lowering their cost of production to be competitive. It's kind of like resetting the the global economy, if you will, right? Uh to where we're not getting taken advantage of. That's number one. Number two, if more production is done in the United States, that means there's more demand for employees. Guess what that means for people? higher wage rates because because the need the demand goes up tremendously, right? I mean, look look at what CO did for wages, right? So, you look at our company, like I said, roughly 300 million in revenue, right? A very large percentage of my of that revenue is my my payroll cost, right? Well, just because of COVID, when I average out the wages across all my different clients, how much they've gone up during COVID because of of the demand, um it's up 38% across the board. The counter to that is that sure wages might have gone up, we'll call it even 50%. But houses are now up 100%. The stock market is now 100% higher. Groceries maybe not 100, but but everything else has risen more than the cost of labor. I I haven't seen those numbers. I haven't se my my home value didn't double. I wish it did not double. Um the stock market has certainly had a tremendous run. That that that's a fact. But that's good for everybody. So, if your wages were in the stock market, your wealth has gone up tremendously probably since 2019, right? Um, just just even if you were I mean, if you're in the S&P 500, uh, or even in in in safer positions in the market, you've gone up tremendously since. I think the argument, and again, I'm playing devil's advocate, is that a lot of the people don't have their money in the market or in the house. That's a fact. So, if you if you had your money in, yes, absolutely, you came out on top. But for the people that didn't, I feel like they're further behind. Listen, there's it's not good for everyone, right? And again, I I can't say I'm not sitting here advocating for the tariffs, right? I can't say that I would have if I were president, I would have gambled with a a trade war, right? I can't say that I would have done that, right? Um do I think that we needed to do something to equalize our ability to remain competitive on a in a global economy? Absolutely. Do I think we had to go this route? I'm not so sure. Right. Uh I would like to believe uh maybe a combination of some tariffs, but maybe some renegotiations with some trade agreements I think would have been a far healthier way to go about it. But I'm no politician. I don't have that level of expertise. I I do think it's right now I think that we're slinging a sledgehammer and maybe maybe we didn't really need to. I don't know. But I you know I'm not in that position. I just feel like between an economist and you, I would trust you more because you have just a firsthand experience and no race in the game really. It's it's just you're seeing what's going on before an economist could even begin to recognize that data because you're seeing it in real time. They're seeing it 30 days out and just tracking month over month. Right. Do you change at all your investment perspective based on what you're seeing? Oh, 100%. And so where are you placing your money these days given what's going on? So we're, you know, we're we're being very conservative, right, with the investings. I'm not in equities at all right now. Right. Really? I'm not in any equities right now. Uh were we were some uh we probably had maybe call it between 20 25% uh in equities just what I have overall invested, right? Um and we we've pulled out of that. Um, but when uh in January? No. Yes. Listen. All right. Listen. As soon as I knew uh that I didn't know that this administration was going to be all about tariffs. I really didn't know that. Maybe I wasn't really paying attention. I don't know. Right. Um, I'm far enough down the game that that we've been through I've ran my business through so many different administrations that I don't really get all, you know, tied around I don't get too uptight about all this kind of stuff one way or another. The idea is to find a way to continue to make money and run a business successfully and take care of those employees that that that make the business happen. That that's that's what I care about. So, when I found out that that he was going hard on tariffs, uh, yeah, absolutely. I'm like, listen, this is a lot of uncertainty that's going to going to spark. I understand that all these companies are manufacturing producing something. Uh which means that this is directly going to affect their cost of goods sold. Uh and so we we pulled out of equities, right? We just got very conservative. So what's your plan now? Like okay, so you pulled out I'm guessing treasuries, right? Lots of treasuries. Absolutely. Uh some mutual funds along the way as well. Um so then what's the what's the plan? How do you know when to buy back in? And then what do you buy that? You know what? I don't have that. I don't have that clarity yet. Okay. Right. I really don't I I I I am waiting and seeing how this plays out because listen, there's a we're not It's pretty transparent to me that a lot of these tariffs are a lot of bluffing and and negotiating tactics. Okay? These are not going to be played long term. I mean, uh at the end of the day, whether you voted for the guy or not, the one thing that is true, Trump is a businessman and he's a shrewd negotiator. Uh I don't know that I would want to have to negotiate with Donald Trump. Uh I I really don't. Uh I think he knows how to just beat you down and beat you down to where you're just like, "Okay, enough." Right? And I think that's really what he's trying to do here. So I'm going to let that play out a little bit. We're going to stay conservative until I start to see some signs that um either we are starting to make some concessions uh or some of the other countries starting to make some concessions. Sure. and and depending on which countries are doing what and then and based upon which companies are are those countries would directly impact their business then we'll slowly start easing back into equities. So if that's 25% of the overall portfolio, where's the other 75%? I say very conservative. You listen, I I I run a business. I've lived with risk for 26 years. When I pull money out of the business, it goes in one of two places. Uh cars, which bring me a tremendous amount of joy and have turned out to be very good investments, right? Uh and then and then the rest goes invested. But but I because I live with so much risk being a business owner, I I invest pretty conservatively. So like you said, a lot of treasury, uh mutual funds, things like that. So even when I am on the aggressive side, it's only like 25%. You know, I keep on saying pretty pretty pretty pretty conservative. So who do you think should not be an entrepreneur? It's a tough question to answer because I don't want to paint in too broad a strokes, right? But you know, people have to really have a hard look at themselves. You know, uh the intestinal fortitude it takes to start something out of nothing, right? To create something that never existed before. every single day uh massive obstacles are going to come your way, setbacks are going to come your way. Let's put it this way at you know, and I still consider myself relatively young. I'm 46 years old. I would not want to have to go through today at my age what I went through in my early mid20s to get that company up and off the ground. You know, it takes an unbelievable amount of perseverance and uh tenacity to overcome uh situational setbacks and obstacles that come your way. Um and and people have to have an honest question, an honest discussion with themselves and say, "Have you really demonstrated throughout your life the ability to do that? Do you really have those innate skills?" And also, how far are you willing to push yourself to make this happen? Because I promise you, one thing's for certain, however far you think that is, that you think you're going to push yourself to do it, that's half of what it's going to take. Do you notice any difference between like Gen Z and millennials and like Gen X? Is is there a difference in work ethic between the two? You hear a lot of people complaining about Gen Z. Do you see it? I I absolutely do. You know, I listen, they just have such a different mindset and uh you know, they're they're definitely used to instant gratification. you know, at 46, I didn't grow up with the internet. Uh, I didn't have immediate access to whatever I wanted. Uh, I couldn't Uber eat deliver whatever I wanted to have for dinner that night, you know, and and that's that's the uh that's the world they've grown up in. So, they're looking for instant gratification. And there's just a reality that your career doesn't happen overnight. Business opportunities don't happen overnight, right? These things take long time to develop. And so, they have an expectation of how rapid things should happen for them. and and they're they're massively disappointed because business and and career growth and opportunities just don't happen uh at the speed of instant gratification. And so I see them like struggle with that. Okay. Um and there's definitely a difference in that. And there's also a difference in when you look at uh you know the generations that come before everyone uh by and large understood that if they work hard and they persevere that the rewards will come to them in life. And so they have a stronger work ethic. They're more methodical. Uh they're more about being part of a team. A lot of the the Gen Z and again not everybody uh but but but painting with broad strokes, they're really more about what's in it for them individually uh than they are really about how can I make a bigger impact to the team and then as the team wins, we will win together. And what about having a work life balance? Is that possible? Oh boy. Yeah. Uh they want a life work balance, not a work life balance. And they you know, um I always joke around with with with them when they when they say, "Hey, you know, I I uh I want six weeks vacation." And I'm like, "Okay, so basically you want to be gone a week every other month. If my company can fully operate with you gone one out of every eight to nine weeks, then then maybe I don't really need your position, right?" and and most successful entrepreneurs run how learn how to run a business very lean so that what uh what profits and growth are are available can be given back to those that really deserve it versus carrying so much fat and having to cover that massive cost. Right. So yeah, they they they definitely the work from home thing, you know. Yeah, I was going to say such BS. I'm going to go on camera and say that and I'm not ashamed. Get a lot of hate. That's fine. Let me tell you something. Look at what's in your best interest for you working from home. Okay? How are you getting mentored? Who's growing you? How are you getting career advancement sitting on your couch banging away a laptop? You're not. You're not. How are you growing leadership skills? That we've spent this whole time talking about so much of what I attribute the success of being an entrepreneur or in any sort of leadership position for that matter. You've got to have great people skills. If you can't connect with people and inspire them, they won't follow you. So, you can't lead people that won't follow you. How do you develop and hone those skills sitting on your couch and you know in your pajamas and a laptop? You can't. So, it's not in the best interest for the employees that think that they want to work from home. Now, listen, if you the only way work from home works is if you're in some sort of um productivity based role, right? Where let's say you're an account I'm just going to make up a position. Let's say your account's payable. All right. Well, the bills come in, you get them, you key them into the accounting software, and you know, you process the payments each week, and we can measure uh your productivity. You're getting everything done on time and and that but that's a productivity- based role. And but if somebody wants to grow to become a CFO, how how do they get there? Working from home, right? Now, what about the people who work from home, get their work done on time, but they outsource it to somewhere else, and you don't know about it, but they're basically taking the cut. I got a real problem with that. That's an integrity issue if you ask me, right? Uh I hired you because I thought you were the right man for the job. I thought your skill set, uh, your background, the the the sense that I got of your integrity, uh, your commitment to doing the right thing, to doing a good job for my company, um, uh, the, um, the way I feel like you'll fit and and and contribute to our company culture, because company culture is a major thing that you've got to have to have a company that's going to continue to grow and to continue to foster growth of the other employees. You got to have a strong company culture of everyone trying to lift one another up. I felt like you were going to bring positive contributions to all that. And they come to find out, I'm paying you because of those things. I, as a company, committed that role and that salary to you and all the benefits that I'm providing to you. And then you turn around and you're outsourcing out the back door. But now, what if that person's reviewing all the work? So like they they send it out, it comes back to them, they look it over to make sure it's perfect, and you notice that they're one of the highest performing employees. Like in terms of quality, they're topnotch, but they're outsourcing it. I still find that be deceptive. And I feel I still find an integrity issue with it. Now, if you were forthright with it, that's a whole different story. But now, let's say you're not forthright with it, but you come and you say, "Hey, how are you getting all this work done?" And they're honest with you. Say, "Hey, listen. I've been outsourcing this for the last two years." Would you give that guy a promotion saying, "Hey, you know what? I want you to look throughout the rest of my company and let's find a way we could continue doing this." That's like there's that saying to hire like the laziest person to do the job because they'll find a way to do it the fastest. There's certainly some truth to that. And I'd have to really consider that because you know to trust someone to have broader influence on your business, I have to also believe in your integrity, right? Um and again, had someone been forthright with me on that. I'll give you a great example. I'll give you a really great example. So, I had a guy um doing sales for for our company, doing new uh uh new partnership development, and he was very forthright. Says, "Listen, uh pay me as as a 1099 hire. I've got an LLC. Hire my LLC because what I'm going to do, I've got five people. They're going to do all the the research work, the cold calling, the appointment setting, and I'm going to take the appointments and close the deals. I was all about that. 100% all about that. But he was forthright, right? And quite honestly, what we ended up doing, I learned so many lessons from how he had it structured that we implemented a lot of that structure in our business, right? And full credit to him, right? So he got I mean not only did he you know come into the fold but but you know got a larger role in the business because I saw that this person had strong business acumen understood how to maximize his efficiencies. So listen I I don't my time is not mo best used making cold calls or research in the background of companies and who the decision makers are. It's being in front of as many decision makers possible and he came with his own little team to do that. Fantastic. Now we've built teams that do nothing but that. Reminds me of Jack on the second channel. So this was years ago. Jack was editing videos on my reaction channel, okay? And he came to me and says, "You know what, Graham? My time is better spent not doing this and I want to hire this out." And I was really concerned about it because Jack has such a good eye when it comes to videography work, humor, doing the right cuts in the right spots. And at first, I was really against it because I'm like, "Dude, why why would I pay you when I could just then outsource it to someone else?" And the more Jack brought this up to me, the more I said, "You know what? Maybe how about this? If I don't know it's outsourced and I review the episode and I have no idea that you didn't do it, I'm good with it. Right. But you're holding him accountable to that. Yeah, sure. No problem. And uh but he was still forthright. I had Oh, yeah. He came to way before integity. Oh, I was asking him if if I could do it for a long time and he was like, "No, no, no, no." I'm like, "Dude, I would have said no to it in the beginning. It's not worth it." But then fortunately, after enough time, he budgeted. Yeah. And there were there were a few episodes that I was like, "Ah, this is really good work." Yeah. and I posted it and then I think Jack told me, "Hey, for the last like month, I haven't edited any of those videos and they've been outsourced." I was like, "You know what? Good job. The quality is the same or higher. Doesn't impact me. Go for it." Well, now he's chief editor. Chief editor. Yeah, I like that. Look at that upward mobility in the company already. See that? Thanks. So, what's the important of work ethic these days? And why do you think that so many people see themselves as a victim of the system? A victim of the system. Uh, I would have to hear how someone finds themselves to be a victim of the system. Um, like they're being oppressed by bosses who are too demanding of them, that they don't have a chance to get ahead, that things are too difficult, that maybe they're going to look at you and say, "Well, back in your day, you had it easier." It is technically more difficult for for most people to have upwards mobility I feel like right now because back in the day the primary wealth builder was the home and the home is becoming less affordable relative to to wage increases and so there is there is a valid argument there or just to grow financially that is a really interesting perspective I don't know that people looking to your personal residence as the primary wealth grower is is is a is a very I I don't know that's a real reality because when people look at that I'm going give you a great example okay great example my wife and I had a second home that we bought bought it in 2019 okay uh September 2019 we sold it May of last year so huge COVID swing right huge swing in value right uh I'm born and raised in Texas I've never seen real estate jump like that in my life, right? So, we benefited from it. But then we look at So, we sold it for about 40% more than what we paid for the house. That sounds fantastic. Then you back out 5 years of property tax, maintenance, utilities, you know, repairs, so on and so on, right? Upgrades that we did to the home. We really didn't we made nowhere near 40%. We we really didn't make much money. It really dollar for dollar was not a a very good investment. Now, where I also challenge you on that though, that perspective, listen, the the stock market moves so much faster now than it did when I was young. There was no day trading back then. Bitcoin, how many millionaires, multi-millionaires have been generated because of Bitcoin? Uh, and then and then social media, you know, you look at all the different ways that people are making money via social media. Um, those avenues did not exist back in the day, so to speak. I'm not that old, but but but those avenues didn't exist. So So it was only through traditional get a job, hard work, or start a business, grind it out. That was the only way. I also strongly argue against the idea about um it was easier back in the day. So you talk about work ethic, right? back in the day, if you will, um, everyone could walk up to you, shake your hand, look in your eye, carry on a conversation, had decent, at least relatively decent social skills, personal accountability, uh, you know, and and today, you know, because people spend so much more time uh online or or or, you know, through through their phones and whatnot. Uh, I mean, listen, there's a reality that that that social skills have diminished. They they truly have. Uh, I've learned that working on uh my YouTube channel. We got Anthony off camera here, but you know, he's brought a couple of guys. They're good guys that they didn't even know to walk up and shake my hand, introduce themselves to me when they were going to come work for me. And you know, and I literally walked over to listen and the guy is a good guy, but he just didn't know. And I w and I didn't know how to accept that. I thought it was extraordinarily disrespectful. How old is he? Uh, I would say he's probably 21, 22, I'm guessing. 19, 19 year old young man. And by the way, a very nice young man, come to find out. But when he walked in, Anthony knows exactly what I'm talking about here. Uh, and I was standing over here in the warehouse. Guy walks in and Anthony, "Oh, that's Mr. Floy over there." He just kind of throws me the peace sign. I'm like, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no." The peace sign like, "So, what's up, man?" Yeah. So, and so I walk over. That's That's what prompted it. So, I walk over, I shake his, "Hi, I'm Louis Flory. I like to shake people's hands and greet them in the eye." Were you doing this? Yeah. No. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We We weren't doing any of that. Yeah. Yeah. I said, and I was like, you know, like a real man does. And my wife was standing there and she was like, I should I was looking for a dog to pet or something. She's like, it was such an awkward moment, right? So, uh, and I'm making a joke. Well, that did happen, by the way. How did you respond to that? Yeah. Okay, here's the response. All right. My wife thought I was too strong in my response. It just happened. I didn't contemplate it. It just happened. It came out naturally because I felt really disrespected. Um, worked with the guy that day and realized he is a nice guy. He just didn't know any better, right? Uh but the but probably four or five months later went by, right? And he ended up working on a project with us again. He came up, hey, Mr. Flory, good to see you again. How you been? Connected with me, spoke to me, looked me in the eye, shook my hand, and I'm I didn't say it to his face. I told my wife about that about that night. I'm like, he's been better. He's a better man for it, you know. And so, and I'm making a joke out of this or telling a funny story about it. But what I'm referring to though is when when when I was growing up and when I was younger in my career, everyone had that ability. Right? Today, if you had that ability, you stand head and shoulders above everyone else that is more like that young man that day that just doesn't have those levels of social skills anymore. And in a professional world, you've got to be able to connect with people in a professional setting, in a professional manner. And I just see such a massive degradation that so I tell my kids quite honestly I'm like listen if if I were y'all's age today I would kill it. I would absolutely kill it because I don't see the motivation. I don't see the drive. I don't see the grit in this generation right now. I don't see the ability uh their social skills there. Everything's so focused about them. they're very very uh uh personentric if you will or or or I don't yeah just personentric that that they're not looking at you know how do I benefit others around me to build a team and rally around what I'm trying to achieve and they're not focused on any of that. So uh you know and another person feels the exact same way as Dana White he's like he would be a savage today and I agree with that by the way because the the level of competition is it's it's lower when you in in that frame. Now, there's certainly a lot of positive things I can say about this generation as well. I mean, uh, they multitask very well. They're used to doing things at a much much quicker pace. Um, I think that if they could leverage the networking they do on social media into businesses, and I've seen a lot of them do that very successfully. uh a lot of these people that that that that have that acu that business acumen to leverage that. Uh there's some of the the wealth generation I was talking about earlier that I see that those those opportunities weren't there when I was growing up. It's so funny cuz you sound exactly like Graham every single day. Graham is always going it's so easy to get rich because the average is so bad. People show up late. They don't complete their jobs on time. The quality of their work is really bad. average is so bad. And if you're just good or better yet, great. You'll be completely fine. You know what I said? All you have to do is pick up the phone when someone calls you and show up on time. That's it. That's it. If you do that, you're in the the 90th percentile. Just those two things. And when an entrepreneur sees someone that just does those couple of basic things, we latch on to them. Oh yeah. Oh my gosh. Like it's so much harder to find that these days. So 100% I I I think it's easier. Plus, you know, listen, there's another reality of it, too. Look at the wealth generations that's happened over the last 15 years globally. Globally, right? I mean, you know, listen, we we look at supercar channels, right? And and the number of people that's I remember when I I was 28 years old. I bought my first uh Lamborghini, which actually is here. I bought it back and restored it. Uh but when I bought that car, you didn't Houston is the fourth largest city in the United States. You didn't see Lamborghinis, Ferraris very much at all around town. Now they're everywhere. There's been so much wealth generation through a lot of the avenues that I just talked about that didn't exist, you know, when I was younger. And so I think that's a great thing. It's it's it's giving much more opportunity for a lot of people these days. Um but but but yeah, having going back to having those basic skill sets, uh there there are few I think is another one is being able to talk on the phone. Yeah. Versus texting. I think that's the biggest difference between I'm going to put Jack on the spot here. Jack's really taking some wrath here. Poor guy. Go for it. Go for it. You hate taking phone calls and you Sometimes you just need to hop on a quick call to bang it out versus texting back and forth. Bang it out with you, Graham. Okay. First of all, I'm not going to do that. Second 30 seconds. That's all you need, man. He's paying for that. That's what he needs, right? You know, listen, that's a good point. At the end of the day to to Graham's point, like I get so annoyed when I look up and I'm like, I've exchanged 27 texts with this person that a 3minut phone call would have resolved. The other big thing too with texting uh or it's really texting these days, not so much email, um is tone and intention gets lost, right? People read it not the way you intended to say it and and and then sometimes that can certainly have a negative effect. So So for clarity, yes. Yeah. for a couple things. I'm gonna Jack, I'm going to start calling you once a week just to force you to answer. Good luck. My phone's always on do not disturb. No, but and everybody your age is on DND. Yeah, but here's the problem is we have so many people reaching out. I had Graham as actually pushing through my do not disturb, but then but then we couldn't figure it out because it would only ever ding and it was it was becoming an issue when we were recording podcast for some weird reason. But we like voice memos and I think a lot of the viewers that are younger can attest to this because in voice memos you get like the tone that you're trying to across. And also with our employees it makes it so much easier if they're trying to call me it's either a call or they don't transmit the message whatever information they're trying to relay to me right but instead if I miss that phone call then it's gone and I have to then inquire about what it whatever it is that needs to be tended to. But if they just send a voice memo, let's say I'm in the middle of doing something, we're having a meeting or maybe we're doing a sponsorship read or this or that or I'm reviewing something, I don't want to break focus. As soon as I do break focus and I go and I use the restroom or I go and I get a drink, then I can pop open my phone, listen to the voice memo, and then send a voice memo right back. Yeah, I would say I'll give you a Jack's fairness. Good one. Half of the phone calls could be a text, but the other half it's better for the phone call. If it could be a text and it's a phone call that for me I'm like like it just breaks my focus and I already have a really hard time breaking focus and getting right back in. So if I'm hyper fixated on like a work activity, that's all I want to be doing at that moment. You know, I'm listening to you give this expand upon your answer and I'm going to have to go and own it that if you call me for something that a simple text don't make. I'll be really honest. That is 99% of it right there. It is. It's if if you could have just texted me. Boom. Or another thing that you do a lot, not to just completely air out all of these issues. Listen, let's get a sits going here. We can really work this out. You'll be like, "Hey, is there any chance Gavin can do this?" And I'm like, "Why don't you ask Gavin? Why are you asking me to then ask Gavin?" Because if I don't if I don't if I'm not on my phone because we text way outside of like we'll text at like 11:00 p.m. at night or we'll text early in the morning whenever a thought comes in his brain. And then if I don't get if I don't get to that in three hours, right, and then I text it to Gavin and Gavin doesn't get it to it in three hours, that's six hours of delta between when the thing needs to be solved and when it actually gets solved. But if instead he could have just texted Gavin directly, which it should happen, that would have been so much better. Yeah, it's made me very selective. When I call Jack, I don't call him if it could be in a text, unless it's something I need an answer like pretty quickly on something. So, I've got very selective. Now I know when I call Jack will pick up unless he's like in a truly in the middle and just can't pick up. Yeah. So it's made me very I'm very conscious if if if I call you it's usually something that you know I'll pick up the phone calls. If you call me I'll pick up bang it out. Bang it out. Well it's been trying to find space and we just bang that whole thing out too. Yeah. You might be asking yourself what makes a leader stand out. It's not just about taking charge but about setting new standards and embracing bold moves. That's why if you lead by example and live with passion, then our sponsor, the Range Rover Sport, is made for you. Every model of the Range Rover Sport offers a unique blend of dynamic sophistication and sporting luxury. It's where refined elegance meets visceral power. With focused on-road performance and worldrenowned off-road capability, this vehicle rises to every occasion. You're able to experience the adaptive off-road cruise control that adjusts to your terrain and dynamic air suspension for superior agility and control. Plus, adaptive dynamics ensures smooth, composed handling by minimizing unwanted body movements. For those who elevate their desires and lead by example, the Range Rover Sport is so much more than a luxury vehicle. It's a statement. And you could build your Range Rover Sport today when you go to range Rover.com/us/port. Also, with the link down below in the description. Again, that is range.com/us/sport. Thank you so much, Range Rover Sport, for sponsoring this episode. Now, really quick, fun story, but when Jack and I started the Ice Coffee Hour, we had to figure out everything ourselves from the best cameras to use, the best audio equipment, every single day presented a new challenge. 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So, if you're ready to sell, you're ready for Shopify. Turn your big business idea into Seriously, guys, this is the best and easiest way to create the business of your dreams. Live the lifestyle of your dreams for just $1 per month with their $1 per month trial at shopify.com/ic. It's just a dollar. Shopify.com. Shopify.com. Thank you so much to Shopify for sponsoring this episode. So, I'm curious. Why did you start a YouTube channel? Because it seems like you you got everything figured out from a business perspective. You don't need to be making videos. You're not trying to do this from money. That's right. So, uh that's a really great question and and this is when I talk about, you know, uh people that come to me about, you know, business advice or opinion on on whether it be a business that they have they're trying to scale or business they're thinking about starting. That's really food for my soul. I love being able to uh give whatever experience and hopefully a positive impact to them. Um, I really love that. Rings a lot of joy in life these days. Um, for me the cars are also in that same vein. Um, you know, I grew up extremely humble uh uh background and uh you know a lot of people say that. So we went and made a video where we actually drove where I grew up. So like listen this isn't some you know uh feel-good story. Here's a reality, right? that the the area was so bad they had to tear down and move the elementary school because crime was so bad in that area, the elementary school I went to. Um, and but but back in those days, one of the things that really drove me in in in really aspiring for for something more than what I'd ever seen in life, because again going back to those days, you know, there wasn't social media, there wasn't the internet. So, we didn't have a lot of exposure to what levels of wealth or opportunity or possibilities are even out there. And I was living on my grandparents farm. And so that all started for me though when I won a poster of a Lamborghini Countach. I didn't even know what the hell that was. I'd never even seen them like that before in my life. But obviously the car just looks so extreme. Hell, that car looks extreme today. And that poster was on my wall. And and and it became like, wow, I didn't even know that levels of success existed in the world. And I just kind of thought, why not me? What what what says I can't achieve something like that one day? And that is what that poster became to mean to me. and and it drove me to reach beyond anything I'd ever seen before in my life to levels of wealth that that you know, not only that I've gotten to today, but obviously there's people far more wealthy than me. But it was a strong motivation for me. So now when I would go to some car shows and we don't really do a whole lot because I've been busy raising kids and so my weekends are usually, you know, whatever kid activity we have going on, that's where I was at. Now that my kids are getting a little bit older, um my weekend's a little bit more free and I would do some car shows here and there and I would see kids and I would see just how enamored and and just wideeyed they were to see some of these cars and it just hit me. I'm like, "Oh my god, I could be inspiring some some young person today like I was with that one poster and and and then by way of doing it on a YouTube channel." Listen, this the cars are my passion today. A lot of my time in my life is doing different things with these cars, uh, events and and chasing cars and things like that, whatever it is I'm doing with these cars. So, fil I'm already doing these things anyway. and then bringing people along and showing them what's possible if you really hone in on some of the attributes that we talked about earlier that that if someone like me can come from their grandparents farm on welfare to sitting here with a $31 million car collection. If I could do that, so can you. And I'm really hoping, and that's kind of our little tagline is that we're driven to inspire. You know, cars are driven to inspire. I'm really hoping that we can inspire that growth uh or or or that next young person to believe in themselves, take a chance on themselves, bet on themselves, and make something happened out of their life that they never even dreamt possible before. So, how did you know if you had enough money to buy your first Lamborghini? It was a matter of of cash flow, right? Uh and in in the business, right? So, it was a matter of being able to say, "Hey, uh you know, the the business cash flow is good. We're in a good spot uh cash flow wise." um took care of some some personal things, you know, for for uh personal financial securities, was able to start doing a little bit investing to start building a little the family nest egg, if you will. And uh now I couldn't really take the money out to go buy a brand new Lamborghini at the time. Uh but I did I bought a uh a 2005, so at the time it would have been I think it was 08 or 09. So it was either three or four years old when I bought the car. So I bought it used. Um, and so knowing that I that I had enough money for it, I knew that I could take that money out of the business, uh, not impact the business, not impact the financial security of the family, and reward myself with, you know, an exotic car, a little toy. Can you just say how much money you had at the time or how much you were making at the time to justify this purchase? Yeah. Well, so at the time, I was probably making somewhere between $3 to $5 million a year, something like that, like personal income. Yes. So, it was just easy. This is way higher than I expected. I thought I thought you say 3 to 500,000. I was like, "Oh, wow." Yeah. Stretching it. That seems like a no-brainer then with the income versus the cost of the car. How much was the car? Uh, at the time I think I paid gosh uh 195,000 for the car. And so your net was probably a few million bucks. No, no, no. Guys, you got to understand. Yes and no. Yes. But it was tied up in the growth of the business. Remember, think about this. Okay. Right. cuz you did a whole different I talked about the growth of that business growing you know 10 17 30 and then you know what was it year um year I think it was year four what it was uh you know we were doing a little over 70 million in revenue so you know I was funding all that growth with that cash and then having to pay income tax on the income which was extremely difficult to do uh because my my business is a very cash intensive business because you got to float those receivables for so long floating those payrolls is a lot of money you know And so, you know, even right now, you know, the the company's carrying probably close to $20 million in receivables. That's cash. Is that every month? Uh, yes. Well, that that's weekly. That's weekly. That's weekly. Yeah. That's what we're carrying on the books, right? And uh, you know, we've gotten ourselves away from uh from debt. So, that's all, you know, through the years I've continued to build my returns and I finance it with my own cash. Was this when you had paid off all of the debt? Yes. So, this is after you paid off all the debt at that time. You got to understand you you pay off that debt at that time, but it's not static unless your company stops growing, right? Once you take on more clients, then you need to take on more debt. Unless if you have the cash. Unless you have the cash. That's right. Exactly. Now, what about for the average person? They want to buy a Lamborghini. What would be your advice to that person? How much should they have to spend $250,000 on a car? You know, that car purchase needs to not be a major life purchase financially speaking. Okay? So, when I say to say like, you know, you going and buying that car should not mean that, well, I'm going to buy this $250,000 car. I'm going to put 20% down, right? Or something like that. I'm going to finance this. So, so I put say $50,000 down and I've got, you know, $50,000 left over in the bank, right? So, if you're taking half of what you had saved and putting that as a down payment on a car, probably not wise, right? Uh, I think that whether you choose to pay cash or finance is really a decision based upon what interest rates you're doing at that time and what you're doing with your money otherwise. So, if interest rates are low, there are times that I will throw debt on a car, especially back in the good old days where I could get 1.9 or 2.9% interest. Well, I wasn't going to take my money out of, you know, good investments to to do that. But you you you need to be able to pay cash for that car very easily before you go spend that kind of money. So, how old were you when you first bought your Lambo? 28. 28. And did you have a girlfriend at the time or were you single? No, I was married. You were married by the time you bought your Lamborghini. I was going to ask you if you got more attention from women once you started buying supercars, but I guess no, just from one maybe. Uh uh uh. Your wife is going to see this, so be careful. Yeah. Well, yeah, exactly. Uh and the answer is no. It's kind of funny like I don't really find at any stage of life where cars have gotten me much attention from from females. It's mostly other dudes. Graham wants to know. Yeah. Is it other? So, it's mostly other dudes is what you're saying. Well, it's all 16year-old boy out. Well, that's right. Really? That's a fact. That's fact. You know, 16. You are the man when you drive by the high school. That's that's all that is. So, you know, I always think it's kind of funny. People have this I think it's more of an older mindset cuz the younger generation I think accepts uh you know, exotic cars so much more uh than than older generations did. Uh, but the older generation was always like, you know, oh, so and so's doing it for attention or they're really insecure or this or that. I'm like, the only attention you're getting is from teenage boys, so that's probably not feeding your ego very much at all. So truly, uh, these all any car I've ever owned has been because it brings me personally joy. Okay. But if you are trying to get girls, which car is the best? That's a really great question. You had to pick one. Wow. It doesn't have to be in this garage. Just like any car to get girls, if that's the primary objective and money is not a concern, no object, then you got to go big. You got to you got to outshine every other guy out there that's got a Huracan, you know, or a whatever. So, Mazda Miata. Uh, no. You got Yeah. Yeah. You got to But you got to outshine th those guys, right? So, so to show you're the real deal. Uh, money's no object. So, you're you're obviously like They don't even know, do they? Listen, I'm pretty sure the average lady does know that a cost much more than or Corvette or Corvette. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The Z8 or whatever. Uh they probably don't have any idea that it's three to five million versus Oh, I bet that's a million dollar car versus a Huracan, you know, is a couple hundred,000. So, you think a Bugatti would be I would say something of that level. Yeah, probably a Bugatti. Now, Kona say they're not even going to know what that is, right? You're right. Guys know that. What about Pagani? Uh, Pagani, probably not. Probably not. Um, I would Bugatti probably would be the move. Um, you know, that's weird. But yeah, I think you got to get a a big car. Um, any Ferrari. Ladies don't know the price difference between a Love Ferrari and a 458. You know, that's just not their space, right? Um, and if they do, that may not be the girl you want to attract, right? If they do, they've had past experience that you don't want to compete with. Yeah, that's a good point. My answer was going to be a convertible Porsche Turbo S. Now, why is that the car you think gets the most girls? Porsche. I think they just they just know the name over Ferrari. Yeah, I would say because I think the the go-to sentiment is that Ferrari, he's trying to show off to people. What does he have to prove? Porsche in silver is a little bit more subtle. It's a convertible, which is kind of fun. And it's a Turbo S, so it gets attention from car guys, but not from people who think that you're trying to show off because it's very under the radar. Graham, a girl does not know the difference between a Carrera and a Turbo S. But the Turbo S know the difference between a car and a Turbo S if I'm being honest. You don't. Maybe you should. So, so, so, all right, let's qualify the expertise of your opinion. Yeah. Married, single, married. Okay. All right. And I don't have a Porsche Turbo S. But but I'm just saying if I was single and if I was trying to like, you know, do the dating scene, it would probably be a Porsche Turbo S. I would absolutely go get some convertible Ferrari. That's exactly what I would do. Uh if I was just in generally speaking trying to get attention from girls, right? It would be a convertible because a Ferrari is more in generally speaking it's more classy or elegant if you will than a Lambo. Lambo is says show off, got something to prove, all that stuff all day long, right? And don't get me wrong, I love Lamborghini, but if we're just speaking from where the opinion I think ladies would have, the the Ferrari is known as, in my opinion, um more of a connoisseurs car, especially, you know, uh uh when you look at the history of Ferrari and things like that, it's a more beautiful car. It's got curvy, more sexy lines like a beautiful lady would have. Uh, Lambo is every 14-year-old's rendition of what they would draw of a supercar. Now, what about if you want a ball on a budget and you have $50,000 and you want people to think that you've got way more than that? 50,000. I think a little great option. Absolutely. Give him answer. But I love that answer. I absolutely love that. I listen I was kicking around you know I don't know that Corvettes even though listen I think I think the new uh was it the Zora uh air the 01 and then there's I thought there was a project Zor yeah I mean listen I think they're doing phenomenal things um but it's always going to be a Corvette you know uh but you know you get a C6 Corvette uh that's a phenomenal car I would say that's balling on a budget that's a that's a badass car uh that's a bought a car for the money, especially these days. Uh, a Lotus 100%. Lotus at least gives that exotic vibe, right? You know, the funny thing is the sales tax on one of these cars would be worth more than the Lotus. Oh, god. Yeah. The sales tax. I mean, nuts. Now, the first car I bought, uh, like the fun car, uh, was a 2006 Lotus Elise. I bought it in 2009 for $30,000. Okay. And I sold it 2 years later for $30,000. Then the next one I bought was in 2014. It was a 2008 Lotus Exiege S240. I paid $50,000 for it. Drove it two years. I sold it for $50,000. And then in 2020, I got a 2010 Lotus Avora GTC with the body kit on it and everything. Still have it. Still have it. Still have it. And what year is it again? 2010. Any problems? No. It's been solid. Right. So the the the only problems are are self-inflicted problems to the car because it's modded, right? And so the issues I have are stupid stuff because he redid the the prior owner redid all the interior with Alcantara. Like everything on the car is custom, but the door handle broke. So there was one time where I tried to get out of the car and the door handle wouldn't open with me in the car and I had to climb out the window. Little things like this or I had to replace some fuses on the car. Uh which requires you taking out a back panel and in fixing that fuse now the radio doesn't work. Oh yeah. So it's like little things like this. It's a little annoyances. Mechanically it's been perfect. All Lotuses have been perfect. Oil changes. That's it. That's a 15-year-old car. Like there's just a reality to some of these older cars that just things silly things like that just because of age. I actually think I'm going to update my answer, but we got to update the budget just a little bit. If I want a ball on a budget, it's a really gorgeous car, super cool, and very few females would know the difference between this car and a super expensive version of that car. I'd go get a 360 Spider. You could probably pick one up for 75, 80 grand. H that says Ferrari. It's convertible. It's gorgeous. What if you don't have the money for the maintenance? You know, the maintenance isn't that bad on that car. It's not like this 355 over here where every 3 to 5 years you got to do the engine out and stuff like that. The maintenance on that car is not that bad. Especially going back to what I said, don't buy the one that's got 3,000 mi on it and it's a, you know, a 2002. Get the one that's got 15 18,000 m on it. The guy's been driving it. He's kept it maintained. So, there's not a bunch of uh uh back maintenance or deferred maintenance on that car. He's probably kept it in good shape. That was probably his baby. Took good care of it. and you buy that car for you probably buy that car for 70 $75,000 and you look no different to most ladies like the guy that's got the latest and greatest $500,000 you know SF90 my vote if you want a ball on a budget is any used Aston Martin oh that's excellent a used Bentley the Bentley GT is a 2006 that you could pick up in the 30 grand range it looks like 150,000 $200,000 car and they look almost identical to the new ones. They do. They That is so true. That is absolutely so true. That's those those are two actually really same thing. Mercedes S-Class. You could now find them in like 20 grand for a used Mercedes S-Class, like a 2010 2009 with 80,000 m on it. And I see them with 200,000 m on these cars. They just they're bulletproof. They maintain them. They're great cars. Absolutely. And if you roll up in that S-Class, everyone immediately assumes it's at least $150,000 car cuz they don't look that different year to year to year, right? You know, another one, um, nowhere near that that price point, but I laugh about the fact that like Rolls-Royce, right? Oh, the Phantoms like the $70,000 Rolls-Royce Phantoms. You roll up in an old school Phantom like that. Wow. Like I don't even care what you paid for it, you're a baller. Even in my book, I'm telling you, that's that's a baller car. There was a Maybach that went for sale. I think it was on Cars and Bids, a matte black one. And I'm looking at it and it's got like 10 hours left on the bid and it's at like 40 something,000. And I'm thinking for a Maybach and I'm just thinking to myself, if this sells for under 50, there's no reason why I shouldn't be buying this car. It's just a good deal. And I'm always a buyer of anything if it's a good enough deal. Even if I'm not in the market, if it's a good deal and I can make money on it, I'll buy it. I thought at like 42 grand it's worth it to buy the Maybach. Isn't that crazy how some cars do that? That's amazing. Bentley is one that really uh I'm I'm a I'm a huge fan of the Bentley uh the Continental GTC, you know, convertibles. Uh I I had one I sold it recently just really to make room for stuff and there's more stuff on order and all that kind of jazz. But it's a car that I miss. It's a phenomenal car, but I've owned two. I had a my last one I think was a 2022 I think it was. Bought it brand new. My first one was a 2011 or 2012. It was actually Robert Ory's car, come to find I bought it used, right? And the difference between those two car was minimal. Like if they were both parked outside, 99.9% of people would have no difference of the of those two cars yet. One of them to your point is $40,000 today, you know, and the other one was what 303 brand new. There was in terms of uh catching attention from the or even just making a statement period, there was no ROI in buying the brand new one whatsoever. I agree. What are you finding right now with the car market? Are prices trending downwards? Absolutely. Yeah. Things are definitely getting much softer. Uh, you know, depending on the car, right? You know, listen, the blue chip stuff is still pulling crazy numbers. Uh, which kind of runs counterintuitive. I mean, no one's immune to the markets being down. Nobody's immune to a lot of things. We talked about what's going on economically. But, uh, you know, I'm still watching blue chip cars trade at absolutely ridiculous numbers. I mean, look at the the Ferrari SP3 Daytona. I mean, that car is changing hands right now between $6 and $6.5 million. That's a $2.2 million MSRP. 2.2 million. That's insane. It's absolutely insane. Now, speaking of that though, to be able to get that allocation, what do you have to do to get that car? A lot. A lot. Um, so to get to that place with Ferrari, and it's really interesting what Ferrari's done with their halo cars. You know, we talk about like the big five, which is now the big six. So I'm currently I'm referring to allocations of the F80 when I talk about that versus the Icona cars. The icon I icon cars are the Monza SP1 and twos and now the Daytona SP3 which I think is one of the most beautiful things to come out of Marinelo down. That car is unbelievable. Notice I don't have an allocation of any of the uh Icona cars in my garage. And the reason for that is you can almost consider it kind of like a a a Y or a fork in the road with with your path your customer path with Ferrari. So, so the things you have to do and have to have done with Ferrari. Okay. So, to get the F80 allocation, uh, and listen, this isn't written in stone anywhere. This is my understanding, my personal experience, and the experience I've seen of many of my friends that are kind of in that same boat. Some that did and some that did not get allocations, the F80 and the Icona cars. Okay. You have to have, I would say, probably 12 or 13 cars in your garage, Ferraris. Of those 12 or 13, I would say at least five to seven of them need to be limited edition cars. You know, a 458 Speci Ali Perta, 59 GTO, F12 TDF, things like that. Limited edition cars. You have to have a full order bank. And what I mean by that is that whatever Ferrari is producing right now, you need to have at least one of them on order. Pure Sangu, Roma Spider, uh 296 Spider, SF90, whatever, whatever they're producing, you need to have one of those on order. You also need to be involved uh in participating with the brand whether you're doing um cavalcades that they h they host over in Italy or actually all over the world uh like me uh racing in the Ferrari challenge series. Uh so you need to be doing other things where you're you're intimately and very much involved with the brand and that's you know a lot of people want to hate on Ferrari with that. Okay, we kind of have ourselves to blame because they didn't set the standard of what the top five to 600. It's really the top 600. They when they refer to Ferrari top clients, they're talking about the top 600 in the world. It's it's what we as the marketplace have been willing to spend on the brand that continues to raise the level of what it takes to be in that top 600. So, it's really not Ferrari going, you must check all these boxes. It's what everyone's been willing to spend with Ferrari that has risen the level of competition. How important is the relationship with the saleserson or like at what point does the chain of command go up that like that person makes a decision? So used to be it was much more about the relation relationship with the dealer. Ferrari is taking control a lot of that. Uh and and and guys can argue both sides whether that was a good or bad thing. But what it did do is eliminate a lot of backdoor under the table dealings that that some people were doing with their dealer to get special allocation cars. It'll level the playing field to say, "All right, listen. Uh uh we in Italy are going to look at the profile of each customer and we're going to dictate who gets the allocations." The really special stuff. So, it it it evened out and I think it brought some integrity to who gets those allocations. Okay. Now, with the Icono cars, all that I've done, I checked all those boxes. Everything I named my wife and I do. We participate in quite a bit. Not because we have to, but this brings us joy. We actually really love it. And we love these cars. I don't buy anything I don't love. Um, and u, but with the Icona cars, when the SP 1 and2 Monzas came out, I didn't get it. I'm like, all right, it's an A12 with a body kit on it. It doesn't have a windshield. They weren't homologated at the time and couldn't be homologated in the United States, so I couldn't drive it on the road. I didn't want to buy something that's a garage queen. None of my cars are garage queens. I drive everything I have. And uh, so my wife and they offered this allocation of the SP1 or2. Which one would you like to have? And I'm like, listen, my wife and I are going not going to go down the road with a helmet and goggles on in this car. And so we didn't take an allocation of it. Then the SP3 came out and oh my god, that car has just dropped it. Gorgeous open top V12 limited edition Ferrari. Yes, across the board. Start reaching out to my dealer, start reaching out to those at Ferrari about, you know, is there anything I could do to you potentially get an allocation or whatnot? and they don't directly tell you, but looking at it, the only way you get an SP3 are the guys that uh are high up with Ferrari and have an SP 1 or two in the collection. And then you guys may know the SP 4 and 5 is coming very soon. And the rumor right now that I'm hearing very strongly is the SP4 is going to pay homage to the F40. I think that's going to be an unbelievable car to have. And then the the SP5 is gonna pay homage to the 250 GTO. So, does that mean you're just out of luck? Like, out of luck. You're out of luck. And what I'm hearing right now, listen, obviously anyone that follows my channel or knows me personally knows how near and dear the F40 is to me and really my whole family, my my wife, my kids, the F40 is really our car, the pinnacle of our collection. the fact that they're going to do a modern interpretation of an F40. And could you imagine for a moment to do that car justice, you'd have to put a manual gearbox in it. So, they twin turbocharged, do a twin turbocharged V8 just like the original F40, gated manual, no hybrid, no nothing. Modern interpretation of that car. Oh my god, we'd love to have that car. I mean, any of course it'd be very similar the 250 GT 250 GTO, but it'll be a gated manual V12. I'm not saying they are gonna do a manual, but I'm thinking if you're gonna pay homage and do it right, you kind of gotta right. Um, and if they do that, so I very much want to get in a position to where we get an allocation of fun on that. You're mentioning a Y. You go down that one Y and let's just say you don't get that one allocation. Now, the rest of that Y you don't have access to. But does that mean you could go through another series of cars and continue that trajectory? Just not this one. Yes or no? The only way for me to get an SP 4 and five, I've got to go buy either either one, an SP1 or two. I don't have to have both, but one of and an SP3. And that's about a $9 million investment, maybe $10 million investment because SP3s are changing hands at 6 million, between 6 and 6.5. Let's say we got one at six. And the SP1s are uh mid3es and SP2 are changing hands right around 4 to 4.2. But do you have to buy through Ferrari or you could buy secondhand? You can buy secondhand. You absolutely can. And then just ensure that it gets entered into your profile with Ferrari. So Ferrari knows you have those cars. Is it still then not guaranteed though? It is then still not guaranteed. That's correct. Like I said, no one these these these are what we as consumers and and participants heavy participants of the brand have deduced. Uh let's say it this way. If you don't have an Icono car, I don't care how big your collection is, you're not going to get a future Icona car. That's for sure. That's guaranteed. No way. No matter even with all the the brand participation that my wife and I have done, even with all the cars that we have, all the stuff we have on order, I do not believe there's any reasonable chance that we're going to get an allocation of an SP4 and five unless we make the investment to get the one and a three. And I say one and three, just do the math. They're they're going to make probably 599 of the SP4 and SP5 just like they did the SP3, which was 599. Well, if everyone's already got a SP3, right? Um, uh, but then some guys have an SP one or two, those are going to be the ones that get those this, I think, has a very strong chance of getting the four and the five. How much is the the F40 vehicle going to be the the one that pays mod? I do not know that that's I I listen, had you asked me that question before the the pricing schedule, the F80 came out, I would have said similar to the SP3 about 2.2 2 2.3 million is what I would have said. Everyone was surprised to say the least at the pricing of the F80. Uh no one expected that to be a a almost $4 million MSRP car, right? And and Ferrari's clearly looking at the success of their halo cars, the market growth. We've been talking a lot about wealth generation. Uh I mean, listen, there's been so much wealth generation. Even Ferrari recognizes it within their own financial uh outlook because up until about I don't know even just a few years ago the top clients it was the top 500 in the world. Well, there's so much more wealth generation in the world now that Ferrari expanded it to be 600, right? So, uh they're now looking at what these cars are changing hands secondhand. Well, Ferrari is a public Ferrari is a publicly traded company. They're going to maximize their ROI. Why don't they just increase prices though? If if things are constantly trading like I know, isn't it a constant thing though that if you get an allocation for a Ferrari, let's say you pay like a million bucks for it, immediately you could turn around and sell it for like 1.5 most of the times. Well, that's what they've done with the F80. A lot of people would argue that's what they've done with the F80 versus selling it to us at 2.2 two like they did with the SP3 and seeing that the market will absorb another $4 million of cost because people are buying that car at 6 million. Ferrari's going well look at look at the love Ferrari. Okay, that was what a 1.6 to$ 1.7 million car depending on your spec. Okay, that's a that's a 4.3 to I just saw a black one change hands last week at $4.9 million. So Ferrari is recognizing that there's much more demand at a higher price point in the marketplace and so the F80 ends up being almost $4 million. So to answer your question, I really don't know where the SP4 and 5 are going to be priced. I would bet strongly it'll be far uh more expensive than what the SP3 was cuz the market's changed so much. Here here's what I think is you have to make people work for it to value it. And if it's just money, a lot of these people just throw money at it and get the car. But as soon as values start falling on those cars, the entire market cracks apart because then people get in the precedent of, well, you know, if I'm going to pay 5 million bucks, but it's going to sell for three, I don't want to take a $2 million hit. There's something special about them selling out every single time about selling out, but also them giving you, hey, here's $2 million of equity. No one else could get this and you've worked hard for it. It's like a reward. That makes sense. That's how I see it. Well, that's an absolute fact. But also remember that is a fact. And also remember the mindset of uh the people that are that are that are the Ferrari customers. You know, as we said, the vast majority of these people with that level of wealth are business people that are entrepreneurs of some sort. What what would you say is the median net worth of people buying those Ferrari halo cars, the big halo cars, probably 100 million or more. And what does someone have to do if they're starting out today? They got a little money coming in and they want to work their way up the Ferrari chain. How would they do that? I just laid it out. Like I said, you're going to have to first of all, you got to have a full order bank. Listen, if you go buy, let's just say you went and bought a 59 GTO, F12 TDF, let's just say you went bought a love Ferrari or an F40. Those are all used. Good for you. Ferrari made zero dollars off of you because those are all secondhand. Ferrari is a business just like any other business, right? So, you need to have a full order bank. So, you need to be ordering one of everything that they have. That's basic. There's a lot of guys out there doing that. So that doesn't make you special yet. Okay. Oh, that's nice. You bought every, you know, production car we have going on right now. That's not going to get you a special car because there's too many other guys that have done that. Plus have some of the special edition cars, Halo and Halo cars in their collection. So, it shows the commitment to the brand, the enthusiasm of the brand. And Ferrari is trying to reward the people that are really passionate about what they're doing because they know to your point these limited the SF90XX now they got the 296 uh version speciality coming out, right? That car is going to do very very well. I think it's I think that car will probably do even better than the SF90 XXX cuz every guy that's a real driver knows that the 296 is a better driver's car. So the version specialtity, the the light version, track version, whatever you want to call it, is going to be an even better car. So I think the car will do it. So they know that that when they reward people with these cars, there's a big upside. So they're trying to reward their most loyal customers to it. So yeah, you're going to have to make a very large investment if you want to get in a position where you're getting some of these cars. You're going to have to have a full order bank. You're going to have to have about 13 minimum I think about 13 cars in the garage and about six or seven are going to have to be limited edition. Just curious, what do your children drive? Oh, I'm so much for me to catch so much hell. Their dad's a car guy. Okay. How old are your kids? All right. Uh my daughter's almost 21 and my son's 18. Okay. Okay. So, my daughter um was really talk about balling on a budget. I bought my daughter uh now she's almost 21 now. In my house, I painted myself into a corner because these are all the cars that I have. I don't really have an average daily car. So, in Texas, when kids turn 15, they can go to driver's ed and and get their learner permit and start learning to drive. And my wife's like, "You have to buy was my daughter was the first, she's the oldest. You're going to have to buy her car at 15." I'm like, "That's absurd. I'm not buying a 15-year-old kid a car." She goes, "Really? What are you going to teach her how to drive on?" And I thought, "Oh crap, I really did this to myself." So, I went and bought her a a very used Mercedes I think it's a I think it's called a 330 GTC. I got it for $34,000. It was used. It had 28,000 mi on it. So, the little Mercedes SUV and and she just came over GLC. GLC. Thank you. Thank you. 330 GLC. And um that's been a phenomenal car. Every time I get in that car, I think dollar for dollar is the best car I've ever bought in my life. It's reliable. It's fun. It's peppy. It's classy. It's comfortable. and and it's a beautiful little car and it's we've had zero problems with it and she's driven it now for going on 6 years. Uh my son's first car was a little Subaru BRZ and then he started a little pressure washing business uh in the summers and uh because he wanted to mod the car and I'm like look buddy I bought the car for you but I'm not paying for the mods and that and the other. So, he came up with the idea to start a pressure washing business. Did really well, and he's put 18 $19,000 worth of mods into this car. You know, he got the procharger on it, heavier clutch, airbags, exhaust, uh you know, you name it. Uh body kit wrap, the whole bit. How do you teach your kids about wealth and make sure that they appreciate all the work that you put in, understand where you came from, and not have them just be entitled or spoiled? that that I think that is the key thing as a parent, any parent that that has done well in life when you're raising kids. You've I think it's one of the the the strongest obligations you have as a parent. It's also one of the trickiest ones to navigate because you want to do a lot for your kids at the end of the day. You know, um it's about the the expectations in the home. Uh nothing's given, right? And so like for example, you know, my son, it's a Subaru BRZ. It's not a super expensive car. Nothing flashy uh about that car at all. Uh and then if he wanted to do mods on it, he had to work and and and do those. So, um he knew that that getting a little local hourly job was never going to be able to save the kind of money he needed to to do that car. It was his idea to come up with starting his own business. And then he comes to me, he says, "Dad, I'd love to start this pressure washing business." I said, "Son, I think that's a great idea. That's a lot of hard work, too. Plus, it would force my son to really come out of his shell socially speaking because he's not the big e extrovert. His personality is not really that much like mine. So, for him to go knocking doors and trying to make cold calls. Yeah. So, I was all about it. Um, and I said, "Well, uh, where are you going to get the money for the equipment?" And, uh, so we talked about a little bit and I said, "I'll tell you what. I'll make you a business loan, interestbearing, right? And you got to pay it back." Uh, and so he's all excited about it. He researched it and he got kind of he was very uh particular with with with his choice of what equipment he bought and he said to be reliable but knew he didn't want to go into too much debt with dad to start his little business. Uh now he's 14 well 15 years old at the time, excuse me. So he comes back downstairs. Uh he's all excited. He's been researching equipment and he goes um he goes, "Dad, I um how do I get to and from my jobs?" And I'm like, "That's a problem. you don't have a driver's license and I don't have a car that we're throwing a pressure washer in the back of. Well, at the time we had a little golf cart that my kids would drive around the neighborhood on. So, he comes back downstairs about an hour later, I researched it. I can I can get this little trailer and this little hookup on the golf cart. D the whole assembly was like 600 bucks or something like that. So, I made him a small business loan and he went we went and got the equipment. uh was charging them interest on the loan and I was like listen you can either carry the debt and pay the interest which is going to cost you more money over time or you can earn money and pay the debt down quicker but much less of your money is going to go in your pocket right away much like the lesson I had to learn when I started my business and so he had to go knock doors which was way outside his comfort zone but he's in debt he's got to make money now right and he started knocking doors the kid made $14,000 that first summer pressure washing and uh he sold his first couple of big jobs where he needed help and getting his other, you know, 15-year-old buddies to come show up and do this cuz this manual labor in the middle of Texas summers was hard. Uh, so sure enough, one of his buddies supposed to show up and help him. Didn't show up that morning. He's got to get to this job and uh it was he knew it was going to take him like 9 10 hours to do this job. So, his first employee helper was me. So, I actually have a video of me out there dragging this hose and moving this pressure washer while he's up there pressure washing the back patio and the planter pots and everything. But it was so awesome. It taught my son uh hard work. Uh what it means to start a little business. I set him up a little financials, a little balance sheet. He could uh you know log in his revenues and his operating cost, pay down his debt, build up the assets uh and minimize the liabilities on his balance sheet. I also go over the company financials each month with my kids of of our main company. Yeah. Want them to understand how business is run, how you manage the financials of a business, why I make some of the decisions that I make financially speaking relative to the company, how I determine what the company's cash flow needs are going to be, the cash flow health of the business. Uh so they understand that and they understand what it takes to make make those things happen. The other thing too is like you got to look at like what their jobs are, right? They don't have jobs when they're growing up, but their job is there there's chores to be done around the house. Um, you don't I I just don't believe in giving an allowance for nothing. You earn your money, right? So, there's no allowance, but but uh and and and by the way, making your bed and doing the dishes, that's for free. You know, I'm not paying you to do that kind of stuff. Um, but you know, uh, if my son wants to pressure wash the house because we get to, you know, whatever is going on, we'll do that. Um, but their job is also school and applying themselves to to to school education and whatever extracurric extracurricular activity they're going to have. And they got to have at least one. I prefer two to three because I need them to be working hard a lot of different areas. It develops them in a lot of different areas. I I I I'm a big fan of them doing team sports. They learn how to win together, lose together, rely on others, uh have others rely on them uh to do their job and and also leadership gets built a lot in team sports as well. I think a lot of those really and I still I still consider them traditional values and that shouldn't change whether you as the mom or dad have been financially successful or not. I think it's what I see and it's not very often, but once in a while I see kids that are like what we're talking about that that they grew up very entitled. Uh there's there's one person I know that that comes to mind that uh he's in he's mid30s uh you know grew up very successful uh families and you know is about as entitled as they come. I can't stand you know just it's a real problem. But I can tell that that um the parents kind of gave this person everything they wanted. Everything kind of was handed to them. They didn't really have to work hard. they come to expect people to um uh uh what's the right word uh cater thank you they expect people to cater to them because of who their mom and dad was or whatever the situation was and that's when I mean what good can come out of that right so with with us and with my family and the other thing too is here's a really big thing especially when you're a business owner my kids listen when you're a business owner you never know what tomorrow brings this can all be gone tomorrow and so value it uh be wise with with what you've earned what you do how you treat others um and hopefully be wise with securing your future. At what point did you feel like you were rich? And you know there's two I look at being rich and being wealthy as two very different things, right? Um I probably considered myself rich um probably right around the age of 30 where the majority of the company's cash caught up. a good chunk of what we were making I could actually take out of the company and deposit into my personal bank account to start developing my own personal uh u financial portfolio, right? Investment portfolio having money not in the business but in my personal investment accounts. That's when I really started to feel rich and and really I didn't feel rich until I had like like a million dollars in my own personal bank account and and investment portfolio. And then I felt like I was a rich person cuz it's weird cuz like you make all this money in a business but you can't take it out because especially when you're in a cash intensive business you don't feel the benefits of that money because it's not in your pocket yet right taking out of the business and and so yeah so as I think that through it was probably right around the age of 30 when I had about a million dollars in the bank personally. And then what about wealthy? Probably when my net worth exclusive of the value of the business because again the value of the business is one thing that's great on paper that can diminish quickly if you have a few down down years that can go away very quickly. So I've never really considered that me determining myself to be wealthy when I looked at that number. It was really when I looked at my my personal assets, uh, outside the business, uh, everything inclusive, you know, real estate, cars, uh, uh, uh, uh, you know, my my investment portfolio, things like that at about $50 million is probably where I started to feel like that's a difference between$50 million 50 million being lost. Is there anything at at 50 million that you still couldn't afford like flying private jets or buying a yacht or anything? Well, yacht, I don't I mean, there's some like two $300 million yachts and more out there. And fortunately, that's a direction I've never gone. I've never gone the the yacht route, but but private jets, you know, I've certainly done over the years. Um, but but but to answer your question, you know, and that's that's that's what I I I tell people and and it's kind of hard to understand that or or visualize that, but I should say conceptualize that. There is a number, right, after which you you can continue to to add to your your your personal wealth that doesn't change your life. Okay? Uh, and absolutely listen, if you've got $50 million worth of assets, you having $300 million worth of assets probably isn't going to change your life at all. Having a total net worth of a million dollars versus having a total net worth of 50 million is a very different scenario, right? That difference is huge. When would you say the the law of diminishing returns really kicks in? Probably around 20 million. 20 million. Just think about it at $20 million, right? Let's just say you have $20 million invested in various different avenues, whether it be real estate that's paying you return, invested in the market, or some sort of any other asset that's driving income, cash flow, okay? Whatever that may be. If you've got 20 million doing it and it's doing say, let's just use easy 8 to 10% per year, right? And you stop earning a living otherwise those assets are still paying you between $1.6 to $2 million a year passive income. That's your passive income is paying you that kind of money a year. Spend that. That's pretty wealthy. Yes, you can. I can show you how. Well, sure. You know, we're like ultra luxury goods. For sure. For sure. But but but your your lively, your life is so secure at that point, right? So where I'd say you're and that's I'm speaking of being wealthy, right? Rich. Well, let's back that number way down. You know, if you've got $5 million, right, drive, and I'm talking about being rich, okay? You've got $5 million of assets that are driving cash flow uh or or some sort of return to you for a passive income. That's probably paying you in the neighborhood of $400 to $500,000 a year. That is there's nothing you can't do without getting into ultra luxury stuff with that kind of income per year that's going to significantly change your life whatsoever. How did your life change going from being growing up very poor to growing to like being wealthy? What were the main differences that you noticed? I guess two things. One, um it got me to this place where I'm at in life now where I've got nothing left to prove to myself. So, a lot of inner peace knowing that what I believed I was capable of, I actually have now done. And that brings a whole another level of happiness that unless you struggle with with that, you can't really appreciate. And that was probably one of my biggest things in in in my my younger years, especially through my 20s. Um, so I'd say late teenage years, through my 20s, that I had expectations of what I I demanded of myself, but this massive fear of not having the ability to achieve it. And that that that that that put it really put a massive fear not only in me but gave me a lot of uh anxiety and it it probably drove me maybe a little bit to an unhealthy level was I just didn't want to look at myself in the mirror one day and not feel like I'm looking back at myself in the eye because you can't lie to yourself when you look yourself in the eye. Did I actually achieve what I know and believe my potential really is? Okay. So having achieved that really brought me a tremendous amount of inner peace. uh I'm not really chasing that that that mindset anymore. Uh the other big thing too is it allows me to be in a space where I'm sitting here with you guys today and there's zero benefit to me. I'm hoping that a we have a wonderful chat. I I make uh uh you know wonderful new friends, but also I hope that people watching this video uh I hope I can make an impact on their lives. I hope that there's something that they see whether it be from my background or my perspective on things in life or whatever advice that or opinions I've shared here today. I hope it helps someone uh enrich and and better their lives because having the ability to positively impact someone else's life, I think is one of life's great joys. Do you want to become a billionaire? Yes. And I don't care. Yes, I do because I know where my company stands in the marketplace and I understand that it's right in front of us, my business to be doing about a billion a year in revenue. And once you're doing that in revenue, it's only a matter of time that the personal net worth gets to a billion, right? Uh through retained earnings, uh there's another part of it that doesn't care because it's not going to change my life, right? And that's not really what I spend every single day driving for anymore. You know, the the last, you know, I would say four or five years of my life have really been more about uh maximizing my time uh as a father. uh and and for the first time in my life where the business I don't wake up and that's the first thing on my mind. So I've really that that is not the primary priority that I have in life today. Right now it's it's uh family uh it's it's it's life experiences and then uh hoping that that everything I do the people that I meet I hope that uh I can make a positive impact on them and that that's what's really bringing me joy today. What do you think is a big waste of money? Oh my gambling. I don't gamble. I can't stand to gamble. Uh yeah. Yes. It's just I think it's just a massive waste of money. You know, I tell my kids all the time, we'll go to Las Vegas and listen, I love Vegas. It's fun. Uh I love the shows. I love the meals. My wife and I, you know, we we'll do some shopping or whatever out there. Uh I I want to see F1 this year in Vegas. It's a good time, right? But you will not find me throwing down large amounts of cash at the crafts table or on blacks. I'll play a little bit just for fun and entertainment, but like I tell my kids when we walk down the ve uh the the Las Vegas Boulevard, the strip, these big beautiful casinos and resorts were not built on us winning. The odds are stacked against you, right? That's just a fact. So, I think gambling is a massive waste of money. Um, believe it or not, and oh boy, I'm going to this is controver, but it's just a fact because I understand what the markup is in these things, but but um jewelry does not hold value. It does not. You know, you're the markup on diamonds, like 300%. Horrible. It's horrible. I joke with with with, you know, obviously I love watches and those are usually authorized dealers that are a jewelry store and I joke with my that are my friends that own they are the authorized dealer. this. Listen, the only time jewelry is a good investment is if I'm on your side of the counter. Uh so I don't I don't really spend a whole lot of money buying my wife. You listen, she's got a beautiful diamond ring and earrings. And fortunately for her, she really doesn't care about that stuff either. And she has the same perception I do that, you know, there's some sentimental pieces that have meaning behind it. Um but does she want me to lavish her diamonds and do I go buy a bunch of diamonds and stuff like that? No. It seems like a lot of those are best spent secondhand because you could buy them for like 20% of the value new and they always just go down in value. Always. Always. Diamonds are not nearly as rare as your jeweler wants you to believe. Now, speaking of that though, let's switch to watches. Yes. How similar is the Ferrari buying experience to getting a high-end Rolex? There's a lot of similarities there, right? So, you know, again, and and again, the market has done has made this happen, right? There's such a demand for Rolex watches today, right? That the jewelers or the authorized dealers have got to decide I I've I've got, you know, a hundred people on this waiting list for the next Daytona, right? Stainless steel Daytona. How do I decide who gets that watch? Well, how much money have they spent with me in other ways? How big of a customer is that to my business? do they are they part of some of the the events that we try to host and things that we try to do to grow and build our our jewelry store and things like that. So, it ends up being not as competitive, but there's a lot of similarities in there. So, so how do I get a Rolex Daytona from Rolex? How do you do that? So, you're probably going to have to a you got to find a good a good authorized dealer. You're going to have to establish a relationship with them. You can't just be another person walking in the door asking for a Daytona. you're the 30th guy walked through the door that day asking for a stainless steel Daytona. Okay. Um, a great thing too, little known little cheat code here. Um, guys have a much more demand and interest in watches than ladies. Go buy your wife a couple ladies watches. They don't move near as fast. You're helping the dealer out, right? And they will greatly appreciate that. Um, and then you're probably going to have to buy a little bit of jewelry along the way just to kind of up your profile with the overall dealer. But I would say if you if you went and bought your wife, which is good for you as well, uh, or any of us that are married, buy her a Rolex. Uh, you're helping the dealer out. Like I said, they don't move nearly as fast. Uh, buy her a bracelet or a necklace or something like that. Uh, be patient, be a good dude, participate some of their events. You'll probably eventually get a How much do you think you have to spend? You know, that's okay. So my wife and I travel a lot. Okay. So the answer would be very different if if uh when we're in New York City cuz look at the the market there, right? There's millionaires and billionaires everywhere, right? Houston's a very large market as well. There's a lot of wealth in this town versus, you know, maybe I'm in some small town USA, but it's big enough to to support a Rolex dealer. My spend will probably be a lot less to get a Daytona. If I and I'm just guessing here, okay, you're probably gonna spend at least $50,000 with that jeweler in some form or fashion. Which is why the great market, although it has calmed down a lot, has done so well because a guy goes, "Listen, I could pay $10,000 over today and get the watch I want today versus spending 50 grand with a with a dealer hoping someday that my name rises to the top of that list and I get that call." So, I get it, right? But that's shortterm and it depends on what your goal is. Is your goal to have one Daytona or is your goal to collect many Daytonas and Sky Dwellers or whatever it is that you're after? Uh if it's only one, I say go buy it off the great market. Just be done. Get what you want, pay a little bit over, and be done with it. If it's, hey, I want to start getting into the watch collecting game. You don't want to keep paying over retail. Spend a little money up front, do the couple things I suggested, and then you'll start getting watches slowly but surely. The one thing I never understood is that vintage Rolex watches I think are so much more unique, so much more rare, and they're about the same price as a new one, MSRP, from the dealer. I don't get why those aren't going up in value more. I don't either. I I I agree with you 100% and that is exactly where the market's at. They're they're not It's like the new stuff has risen on the secondary market tremendously, right? Even though it's calmed down a little bit. Um, and I say it's probably down from about about 30 35% from where it was peaked at, maybe closer to 40%. But because the numbers got so crazy, I mean, look at what a John Mayer Daytona was selling for. What that's uh I'm trying to remember what MSRP is on that watch. 40. It was like 42 grand somewhere in there. Okay, give or take. Um, 30s maybe, right? I think it's like 37. And of course, Rolex raises their prices every year. Um, but I mean I remember at one point that watch was like 160 $170,000 on this on the gray market which is crazy. Now it's I think it's come down I think maybe you could buy them probably around 7075 somewhere in there. Uh, still an excellent return if you bought it at MSRP, right? So when you look at that new stuff with these crazy but but you know my dad you know had a had a had a Rolex growing up, right? He still has it. It was a gold day date back in the day. he probably bought it in, I don't know, '91, '92, right? Um, that watch didn't go up in value tremendously at all, but you know, all the new stuff did. So, that's a phenomenon. I don't I I I don't know if it's just driven by everybody wanting the latest and greatest, but not caring about the older stuff, which is different in cars, right? Because the value of new stuff and then you look at older stuff. I think older cars have have riven risen dramatically in value, whereas, you know, there's a lot of new stuff you can still lose a lot of money on. Yeah. Does this differ with PC? How are Rolex and PC different when it comes to allocations? Well, let's look at like this. It is cubitus came out. Who how do they decide who gets that new PC? Yeah, if you're getting So, you're going to have to have been pretty loyal to the brand for quite some time. You know, you got to remember PC only makes what I think 72 maybe 74,000 pieces a year. That sounds like a lot. But then you remember that Rolex makes what 1.4 maybe 1.6 million pieces a year. That's a dramatic difference. Okay. And what's crazy about PC is that, you know, even going back, I bought my first PC in 2016. It was a Nautilus 5726 stainless steel. Right. Walked in. I was on a cruise with my wife and we were in St. Thomas. Walked into an AD there. I bought that and a 5960 uh stainless steel. bought them both the same day, right? What was the cost of that? Like 30. So, so the 5726 I think was around maybe close to 40ish and and then I think that the 5960 at the brand new I I'm guessing it was this was you know 9 years ago. But I think all in all done I think I I wired like $92,000 over for both. Was that just on a whim? You just a guy I never met before in my life. I never walked in that shop. Right? No big deal. If you could afford it, it's in the case. You can have it, right? And and that will never happen today ever, right? Uh and so so the demand for PC has just exploded. And I really think it's mostly because of social media. Uh listen, in in 2015 being I was a always been a watch guy, right? Uh I was in a Rolex. I thought that was really it, you know, and then a little bit of AP I started seeing uh I got in the Alonga and Son pretty heavily. Phenomenal watches. That's a watch that's not really gotten it to do on the secondary market yet. Um I think it eventually will, but it hasn't yet. Why? I don't know because it's a phenomenal watch. It's not trendy. It's not trendy. It doesn't have the trend. When did PC become trendy? When rappers started wearing it. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly right. I think it was Drake. I think Drake wrapped about a lot of these watches. He brought a lot of it in. Yeah, that's what I think when you see him like doing this and he's talking about got the, you know, the the PC on the AP, right? But but otherwise, raise your hand at home if you were even aware of PC Philipe in 2010, 2013, 2014. No. So, when did Drake come out with that song? Probably it was it would probably be he was rapping about these like 2014 to 18 give or take. But it became he started getting it out there and I think people started thinking, "Oh, wow. He's got this million dollar watch on." Right. Who who who makes that one? Right. Right. And so I think it's the awareness and then going back to the wealth generation that we've seen in the world uh since say 2010. Right. The last 15 years has been phenomenal wealth generation worldwide. So much more many more people can now afford. But is it sustainable? That's where I don't I I don't know about that. Right. Um I don't think so. I think there's only so many people that will buy that watch at that price before eventually everyone's already bought it. They're making 75,000 excess watches a year. A PC is one of those things that doesn't you just don't throw it away. What do they call it? You only own it uh it's only yours for like this generation because it's meant to be like passed on. You're like the curator of it or whatever. There's a term they use for it. You're taking care of it only for the next generation, right? So it's like there's always going to be 75,000 more PEX every year. Always. They don't get destroyed. It's not like a car. They, you know, they get crashed and, you know, they degrade over time. A watch Yeah. How how many how many how many gold Nautiluses have they made in the last 10 years? Right. So, I think it it's it's a bit of a bubble that has to contract a normal level. It is absolutely a bubble. There's no question. And and listen, we're already starting to see things starting to soften. And you know, uh, okay, that's an excellent point you say and and I can not only theorize it, but prove it. So, my wife and I uh were on a trip two weeks ago. Had a little bit of time to kill. We walk into um a Rolex dealer. Never bought anything in there before. And a year ago, you walk in, there's all the display only. Nothing for sale, right? Nothing for sale. And we walked in and without saying much at all, now we both were wearing some sort of whatever we were wearing that day, but a a nice watch. So, they knew that we were into watches, right? She immediately showed us six pieces that were available for sale that day. Immediately I'm like proof positive. The bubble is bursting. Are they nice pieces or are they just like the standard? No, no, there was there was a sky dweller, right? What what color dial? Uh I I can't remember now, but but there was one that uh is a very special piece uh that I was shocked that I'd ever even seen again that I I did buy my wife uh two years ago for Christmas. It's a very rare It's actually an off catalog piece. They had it in the window and it was for sale. They they would have allowed us to buy it. What was the watch? So, it's it's a uh it's a ladies uh day date all diamond with uh the Tiffany colored dial uh all diamond and then the Tiffany colored uh leather band. So, I I I don't remember the reference number of the watch or whatever it is. I had never seen another one of those. And not only did they have it, but if we would have wanted it, it was for sale. That's out. I mean, that's insane that with the way the watch game has been lately. Do you think if you walked in with a replica Rolex or a replica AP to to an authorized dealer, would they be able to tell? Like if you're trying to impress them and get sold a watch, like is that a good $500 investment? You walk in, they think, "Oh he's wearing a $50,000 AP." Yeah. Uh we should sell this guy something. Probably not. All right. Okay. Listen, I have seen some really good fakes for 500 bucks. I don't think it's going to be a very good fake. Let's say a,000. Okay. Yeah. Let's just say you have a good fake, whatever it cost. And I don't know what they cost. Let's just say you got a really good fake. At a minimum, it will get the conversation across the counter going. They will assume you're a a a true watch collector, a watch connoisseur, whatever. They will assume you have the wealth to buy that watch, they will assume that not only could they potentially sell you a watch of that caliber, but we can sell you some other stuff cuz they really want to sell you the other stuff. Remember the the margin in watches is only about 40 points. Well, only that's still very very good. But my when I say only because the margins in jewelry like we just talked about is about 300 points, right? So they really want you to buy your wife that necklace or diamond tennis bracelet or another ring or whatever so they can really make some money and then maybe we'll get you that that that $15,000 Daytona that you really want. So if someone's buying their first watch, what do you recommend they buy? There was a a a well-known thread on Twitter, by the way, where the guy said, "If you're a man between the ages of 18 and 25, sell everything you have. Max out your credit cards. Do whatever you can to buy a Rolex Submariner because that is going to give you enough attention from other guys in terms of the watch status that they're going to give you a chance on other things that are going to make you 10 times more. And that is just gonna get your foot in the door for so many opportunities. All right. As a man that is wearing a Rolex Submariner from maxed out credit cards, two of them, don't do that. Don't max out your credit cards and sell everything. It was a very divisive thread. But yeah, but half of people believed in that and said absolutely if I'm if I'm a salesperson, I'm wearing a Rolex Submariner. Yeah, I get more sales with the Rolex. When you do that, please hit up this link down below in the description where you can get discounted Rolex Submariners. Find the thread. I just want to say I don't I don't wear watches all all too often. I have two Submariners and I maybe wear a watch how often? Once every like three weeks. Begging Jack to wear once every three weeks honestly. Maybe once every two. So watches are not your thing? I like watches. I just don't wear them. Like I love I love having them. I love collecting them and looking at them. Oh, I got you. But I don't really I don't know. I just like the on my wrist it doesn't really plus I have like a lot of arm hair and so it gets caught in the in the links. I don't want to be like a leather strap guy, you know. Uh anyways, I don't get attention from guys because of this watch. I don't know if I've actually ever had a single comment. Jack's hanging around the wrong crowds, I have to say. Well, I I wear this during the right opportunities like when we do something fancy like this. this is when I wear the but you don't know anything about like like we we've been to a few events where I've pointed out oh that's the you know the 5711 and that's from this year and they're really how did how did you know that oh well I really like and it gets the conversation going and then they're like what's that I'm like it's a 1969 Zenith Promero I just don't think they're like anyone's going to do that with a Submariner it gets you in the door it says I I like watches enough where I I I'm sophisticated not over the top but so this is financial advice if you're listening to Graham. Sell everything. Max out the credit card. Buy us a merit. I think in certain industries it'll help you. I think in sales it it could absolutely help. Whatever happened to buying a $300 fake? That was something that you vouched for. I would still vouch for that. I think you know what? Between maxing out a credit card and getting a fake, you got to get a good fake. If you get a good fake, you're still getting the same ROI though, right? Actually, a far greater ROI. Excuse me. You're getting the same effect, but a far greater ROI. Yeah. I would say if you have to max out credit cards and sell things, get the fake. All right. I'm going to tell every young man and lady out there, don't go into debt over luxury stuff. Please don't do that. Okay. Um, public service announcement there. All right. I love Submariners. Uh, they are such a classic. Okay. Do I Has a Submariner ever opened a door for me? I don't really think so. Now, if I walk in and you know this 5990R, that says a very different statement. Uh I don't know that it opened doors for me, but um you know it it does make a different statement if that's what I was after and I wasn't. I love I think it's a phenomenal watch and I think it's absolutely gorgeous. If I was telling a young man cuz I'll speak to the young men right now because most of the time it's young men looking to buy that first watch. Most ladies watch was probably their husband bought it for them or it's not a big it's not important to them, right? by and large the best watch you can buy that I think uh phenomen far better ROI than even the the Submariner. Okay. And does make a statement that says you're not just the the the comic Johnny come lately or hopping on the bandwagon or just another guy with a Submariner. Uh when I see someone wearing this watch, it tells me they're intelligent, they make independent decisions, and they're very wise with their money. An Omega stainless steel Speed Master. Dude, you're gonna say that? Yes. Oh, that is such a classic watch. Sorry, Rolex. I love the brand. I love what you're doing. That Speed Master is an amazing movement. There's a reason why all those Speed Masters have a clear case back so you can look at the movement. The Daytonas don't with the exception of the new uh platinum one or whatever. But other than that, for all these decades, they they really didn't. And Omega's always proud to show off their movement. It's a phenomenal watch. It's about five 54,500 maybe $5,000 cheaper than that. And and the the Submariner uh tells the uh time and and you may or may not have the the date bubble on it, right? Um that's relatively simple watch movement at what is that 125 127 these days? Close to 13 for that watch time. Oh, I think I think MSRP is at least 125 maybe more. MSRP. MSRP. Mhm. I don't know what MSRP is. manufacturers suggested real reason retail. I know what it stands for. I just don't know what the MSRP price is. It's high MSRP. I'm on camera. I'll tell you right now, off the top of my head, it's at least 125. Okay. Um and and you can get uh the Speed Master. It's around it's in the $8,000ish range, right? But that's a chronograph, which a far more complicated watch. So, to me, it's it's someone that made that decision for themselves. They bought it for themselves. They didn't buy it to impress others. Yeah, they're well researched and they make independent decisions. So, I'd love to see that on a young man. What else do you think is a great thing to spend money on that you found you've got the highest ROI from? Listen, cars or watches have been very good to me, right? Uh I'm very passionate about both of them. Uh we were talking about this off camera. Uh most all car guys are watch guys. So, uh that those passions go hand inand those interest that mindset goes hand in hand. and and by and large I have done very very well buying things that I really enjoy bring me true enjoyment uh in life that have done well from a value standpoint. Um outside of that uh when you're looking at luxury brand stuff um it doesn't have to be luxury brand. It could be a first class plane ticket, good food, just like in general maybe that the that most people watching would be able to purchase if they saved or might have access to. That's an excellent point. Okay, with that with that with that question framed that way, um spend your money on things that make memories because that's value. That's true cherished value that you take with you the rest of your life. So, so spend and save and go on a very nice vacation. Go see places in the world that you've never been to. Go to Italy. Italy is one of the most beautiful places in the world. The culture there, the people there, the food, the history is unbelievable in Italy. Uh I was so grateful when the first time my wife and I went to Italy. Two months later, my kids were still in school at the time. Two months later, they were out of school for the summer. We went back to Italy. We've been several times. Um it is literally one of our favorite places in the world to go visit. outside of cars and watches and things that I think could potentially bring value, spend money, see in the world, uh live your life and make memories with those you love. Just curious, if you were to go back in time, would you have done anything different? Maybe ease your foot off the gas pedal a little bit near those those last years where you were really grinding, or are you content with the way you did things? No. Um I'm so grateful today. I live the life I live today because of how hard I worked back then. how much I grinded, how much I I uh stressed and and agonized and and pushed myself uh to to reach what I felt like was my potential. And now, not just me, but more importantly, you know, my family gets to live a financially secure life. And I've afforded them to be able to go for the things that uh that that they dream of in life, whatever their expectations are of themselves. um I've built that ability for them and it took me going through all that I went through uh the level of stress I have no doubt in my mind I took many years off my life building a business of that magnitude uh but I'm ever grateful to make that sacrifice for for the benefit long-term benefit of my family. Um, the only thing I would have done different seeing what I do admire about a lot of young people today is they're very good about reaching out uh for people to mentor them. And I wish I would have done some of that in my earlier years. I wish I'd have gotten involved uh whether whether it reach out to someone that I really believed in that I thought maybe could have mentored me. It probably would have helped me to figure a lot of things out quicker. I probably would have avoided some some business mistakes that I made along the way just out of not knowing, lack of experience. Um, but the other thing too is is I wish I wish I would have joined a group where no one's in the group is there to sell anything to anybody. Those just annoy the hell out of me and they're a huge waste of time and and and I get no value out of it. But if I'm sitting around a room with a bunch of other young entrepreneurs and we're all going through a lot of the similar things at the same time and we can bounce ideas off each other or collaborate or or hey, I had that same problem. Here's some things that I've done to overcome it. having and even just even if you don't have the answer, knowing that I'm not the only one going through this right now with my business is gives you such reassurance. It's funny. I just started something like that. Exactly like that, by the way. Uh and I'll put a link down below in the description, but it we we've spoken to some of the people on the list and it's incredible how similar they all are. Absolutely. And we're starting at a point of the list where they're making more than 10 million a year. And it's literally the copy and paste of the same people with the same problems, with the same concerns. And I'm actually most surprised about that group when we're interviewing those people. None of them said they wanted to make more money. It was all how do I make sure my kids grow up well adjusted? Uh tax planning is is a big one. Oh yes. Uh asset protection. Mhm. structure and then it's also I think about finding relatability that a lot of them say I have problems that come up in my life and I've had the same friends but they don't understand the problems that I'm going through from my perspective and I just don't have access to other people outside of my industry. Yeah. I mean unless you've gone through something you can't relate, right? You know I mean most of my buddies that I hang out with, right, we play a lot of golf together. We go do a lot of goofy stuff together. or whatever it is, guys trips here and there, whatever that case may be. You know, we can all relate uh on the level of of dads being a father, right? Uh well, most of them only a very, you know, couple two or three of my friends that I genuinely hang out with just as friends. uh own or run a business and could ever relate to any the things that you go through when you're trying to run a business, trying to grow employees, uh incentivize employees, get people to think about uh or look at the business the way that you need them to be looking at the business because you can't do everything. Everything can't run through you if you're really scaling a business. All those kinds of things. Um so that's the one thing I wish I would have done uh in my in my 20s and my early 30s. I wish I would have spent more time with that. And I just I just didn't for whatever reason. I just felt like no one's going to relate. I'm just going to grind it out and figure it out myself and kind of, you know, went about it my own way. Um, and I think I could have got a lot of value out of it. Maybe that's why like I enjoy mentoring people today so much. Uh, cuz I know how much that would have meant to me back in those days. I think the same thing applies uh at least for me with YouTube is just reaching out to other creators who are doing what I'm doing and just asking them. And the amount of help that we've gotten from other creators has saved us so much time. And we do the same thing back. Like we had someone on the podcast recently who was telling us about uh some of his issues with his channel and we're like, "Oh, that's easy. Just do this and this and this. Oh yeah, don't do that. You're wasting." Like we probably save we could either save or made him like $100,000 with five minutes of a conversation. I will I will take those five minutes for our channel. Oh, 100%. Yeah. No, I could help too. Yeah, for sure. For sure. But, you know, but having that, you know, that's really what's been very different for me now that we're doing a little bit of the social media stuff is it's so different for me than than being in business, right? Uh, and obviously social media is a can be a business, but but you know, in the traditional sense of business, my my my peers were my competitors. So, we weren't collaborating together. We weren't sharing advice and and and guidance with one another whatsoever. Uh, we were there to outdo one another, right? But in the social media space, uh, everybody wins together. It's not a competition. Just because someone's your subscriber doesn't mean they're they can't be my subscriber, too. So, if if we work together, collaborate, I'm not taking subscribers from you. So, we both win. I've got subscribers that that that, you know, now discover you. You've got subscribers that now discover me. And we both win uh with with that exposure and collaboration long term. So, it's a really cool space for a guy like me that's been in a hyper competitive business, you know, space, his whole life to kind of be in this, hey, we can we can all be friends and and benefit together. I found on YouTube especially, the better other people are doing, the better you're doing, too. And people find you through other channels that are doing well. That's right. And so, if they're doing well, chances are a small percentage is going to find you. Small percentage from you is going to find someone else. And it just it trickles down. Yeah. And it's so different than traditional sense of business. So, so it allows me to still have fun, you know, while doing a little bit of the social media stuff as well. It's like, oh, it's collaboration. It's not competitive. We're not at each other's throats. We're we're really there to help one another along and and have a good time doing it. So, it's been cool, man. I got a link in the description. I got one more question for you. What's your workout routine? When we're home, and my wife and I travel a tremendous amount, okay? Uh, but when we're home, I'm pretty hardcore about diet and exercise because it takes both, right? Especially at 46. Listen, you know, I can physically I can do everything I could do at 20. Uh at 46, it just uh it hurts more. But uh so I eat when I'm home, I eat five meals a day. Five meals a day. Five meals a day. That's right. I'm very strict about the diet. Okay. Uh because you can put all the work in, but if you're not eating right, you're never going to get the results that you're after. So for example, if I go back so so uh two years ago before a lot of this travel and and really the a lot with uh racing in the Ferrari Challenge series requires a lot of travel and some other things that we're doing with the brand and then of course now my kids getting a little bit older, we're we're we're we're seeing more of the world. Up until two years ago, you know, I I consistently maintain between 9 and 10% body fat, right? Uh that requires a strict diet. So uh I ate five meals a day. I was very strict about what I was doing. is very intentional. 40% came from protein, 40% came from carbs, 20% from fats, okay? Um, and eating every 2 to 3 hours, your metabolism is just burning like crazy because your body knows we're going to get fed again two or three hours versus, you know, you go 10 12 hours without eating, uh, the metabolism slows down. So, five meals a day, very intentional about my macronutrients and caloric intake. Uh, and then workout regimen. Uh, I work out seven days a week when I'm home. Uh, I do a what I call a three-day split. So uh I work uh uh I lift weights. I work two muscle groups a day. I lift weights for about 50 to 55 minutes working two muscle groups. So for example, day one will be chest and back. Uh and then I do then I run three miles when I'm done. Day two it's uh shoulders and legs run three miles. Day three biceps, triceps, run three miles. Day four, I don't lift at all to give the muscles a day to recover, but I run between six and seven miles that day. Uh, and then day four, five, and six, I'm sorry, five, six, and seven are a repeat of days one, two, and three. Wow. I know. I ran that bike fast. Have you always been like that or is this a recent development? Well, I mean, so I grew up loving sports. Uh, you know, I uh I I played football and I kickboxed, right? Uh, so I've always stayed, I guess, pretty physical, I guess you'd say. Uh, when I got out of college and started working on my career, I didn't touch a gym for like three years. I just wanted nothing to do with it. Uh, and then I slowly started realizing I needed some sort of release, right, from from the mental stress. Uh, and so I got back in the gym really just to kind of get something that I had to focus on to get my mind off work or whatever I was stressing about or whatever. So I got back in the gym and started working out again. Uh, and then I and and so yeah, I've I've stayed physical pretty physically try to stay physically fit my entire life. Uh, at the end of the day, I love my life. I want to live it as long as I can. And to do that, we got to take good care of ourselves. Are you adopting? Like, would you consider another like a grown son? Yeah, that's a very kind uh I'm I'm bringing on new close friends. Let's say it that way. But nothing more than that. No. Nothing that could sneak into a will. I don't think that's going to happen. Absolutely not. Yeah. The the trust the trust fund and the will has been locked down. No new additions. Okay. Not not a chance though. Uh unfortunately, no. Unfortunately, no. But we'll definitely hang out more. feel like I loved it. Yeah, we kind of Is there anything else you want to mention or uh You know what? I did want to say the fact that you guys spent time to look at the content we're putting out there, take an interest in my story, uh and and to make the effort to come here, spend time and have this conversation. I mean, not only has been tremendously enjoyable conversation, but I'm incredibly humbled and honored that you guys saw it enough of my story to make the effort to come down and spend some time with me. So, thank you very much. 100%, man. Absolutely. Thanks, Jack. Appreciate it, buddy. ask. Yeah. And with that, we're out. Oh, we'll link to all of your information in the description. I found your video, I think it was 4 months ago, you you did a tour and I was thinking to myself, or maybe it was the F40. Okay. Who is this guy? What does he do? And this is before you did a lot of the interviews, but I was just watching the channel thinking, "This is a insane collection." Thank you. Like, there's got to be more to it. So, this is something that I've wanted to do since then. Well, uh, pleasure is all mine and I'm honored that you reached out. Thank you for coming on the show. Thank you for being so generous. Thank you. Thank you guys for watching. Next time.