Mindset, Millions & Mastery: An Infinite Gold Conversation With Hugh Zaretsky

Welcome back to the Infinite Gold Podcast. You've got your hosts Bree and Anthony, and then we have the amazing Hugh Zaretsky today. How are you doing, buddy?

I'm awesome. How are you?

Great.

Splendid.

This is perfect. We literally have both sides of the United States today. We've got California and New York.

Woo!

Bookends.

And then we get to come together at events. It's awesome. Heck yeah.

In literally less than a week now, or no, a week as of today. So perfect. So we've got Hugh Zaretsky with us today. He's amazing. Super, super knowledgeable when it comes to business, comes to real estate, all the good stuff. If you're out there and you have any questions about business, real estate, speaking. He speaks internationally. He's trained over 12,500 investors on investing and speaking. So if you've got any questions about any of that, you're definitely going to want to reach out to him. You're definitely going to want to listen to the rest of this podcast. He's also certified to teach and train real estate brokerages in California, Texas, New York. He could probably get certified in other states. So if you have any questions and you need him or you want him come to you.

You want him?

Yeah, you definitely do.

Trust me, he knows what he's doing.

Just a little bit.

I appreciate that, and I love your kids, by the way.

Of course. Well, our kids love you.

Uncle Hugh, that's the best part.

And obviously we'll talk about our events, but with our events, they're super kid-friendly. And so when we come to our events, it's not one of those where only one person gets to go. Everybody gets to show up, everybody gets to learn. The kids are learning in their own room. The best part about it is at our last event You missed it, but they did a great, great presentation of Hugh on stage and it was like on point. I'm just saying, I think I was crying the entire time, just laughing. It was beautiful.

It was. I know they were nervous that I would get upset, but totally nailed it. I was like, yeah, that's perfect. They did.

So Hugh, give us a quick backstory of you, of your life. I mean, it's, it's Pretty awesome. All the things that you've done in this short amount of time and kind of all different fields.

Yeah. So, you know, I think I'm like most people, uh, my parents were teachers and they always told me that lie of study hard and get a good education. Right. And I come from 3 generations of teachers, so it's like well ingrained. My grandfather was a teacher. Both my parents are teachers. My sister's a teacher. Me and my brother are the only ones that didn't go into the teaching industry. And so like most people in life, I think when we're good at something, our parents push us in that direction. So at a young age, I was good at computers and math and I didn't really have to study and computers were just coming out way before you two were born, but whatever. Right. They were just coming out and, you know, so my dad was like, okay, I wanted to computer programming and just sort of went down that rabbit hole. I always have this funny story. My parents were really into music and I was really into sports. So from a very young age, I learned how to negotiate, cuz in order to play sports, I had to play a musical instrument and we can, we can dive deeper into that in a little bit. I'll, I'll tell you the mindset behind that, but just to give you some of that. So I always had to like learn music so I could play sports and do what I wanted to do. And eventually I won. I'll tell you that story later. And maybe that's where Ling-Li gets it from too. I'm so cute with that. But from there, you know, I went into IT, it wasn't my passion, but I went into IT and. Had the opportunity to start working for a company called Getty Images. A lot of your entrepreneurs and people out there know Getty as they supply most of the photos. So whether it's paparazzi events, whether it's live events, whether it's news, whether it's, you know, commercial advertising and stuff like that, my job was to get a photo in from anywhere in the world and out to any major newspaper in under 5 minutes. I was director of technology for North America. So anytime there was a crazy event going on, you know, Angelina Jolie baby photos all the way to the Super Bowl. Like I was on call 24/7. Woo. And I was tired of commuting. Like you guys know the 404, there's just a little bit of traffic out there in California on that, right? The 4 or 5 hours or 4, right? So I was tired of commuting 2 hours. I decided to move into New York City on September 1st, 2001. I've got really good timing in life. So I moved in my apartment 10 days.

10 minutes. Or sorry, 10 days before.

Whew. Yeah, 10 days before 9/11. And both planes flew directly past my window into the Twin Towers. I was one of the first people to take pictures of the scene that day. That went out to every major newspaper. And we didn't have handy-dandy cell phone cameras back then, right? Our photographers all went running down to the scene. And in, in the book, I was the first time, the Launch Button book that I wrote is the first time I actually wrote that whole thing out. Now, my story is not as bad as a lot of first responders and military veterans. So I wanna thank you, Anthony. I wanna thank all our military veterans, first responders out there because they saw things way worse than I did. But that was my life. You're still here., but that was my wake-up call, right? People ask me about the conspiracy theories. I'm like, I know all I know is what I saw. Like I saw it all and we took the photos and I had to sneak back down past the National Guard even after everybody was evacuated. There's some stupid stuff I did that day to get back to my job and I realized this is definitely not worth it. So I started, I went to a friend's wedding in North Carolina, found this crazy investment called the Condotel that was on the ocean for like $60,000 compared to New York City or LA prices, like a condo you saw the ocean for like 60 grand, you're like, I don't— there's something wrong with this.

I don't think we can get a mobile home for, for 60 grand.

Well, I'd go back 20 years, right?

This is—

but even 20 years ago, I don't think you could get a mobile home for that price in LA, or— right? And yeah, me and my buddy Jeff looked at each other and we're like, there's got to be something wrong with this town. Like, you know, being from New York, we're quite skeptical, or like, there's definitely something wrong. How can you buy a, you know, a one-bedroom railroad-style apartment on the ocean that you could then rent out. Like, there's gotta be something wrong. And this is 2005, 2006, right? Mm-hmm. You know, so we just start, once we figured out the market, we started investing part-time. And I have a rule, I have a rule in my life that says if, you know, something 70 to 80% of what you want, say yes to the opportunity. Mm-hmm. And so like we ran out of friends and family to raise capital from, and I was like, all right, I need to learn how to raise capital, because to me it was a different presentation than I did at my IT job. I'm more than happy to go speak to Wall Street investors and analysts and say, hey, I need $5 million for a data center because we're going to do X, Y, and Z for this publicly traded company. But give me $1 million? That's a different conversation in my head. It is. So this is just to show you the little difference in age here. There was a magazine in New York City that had all these different trainings and events in it.

So I picked up this magazine, actual physical copy, We had magazines when we were younger too.

We're not that young. I think I was actually subscribed to like two different magazines. It was like teen magazines and teen Cosmo.

You were definitely subscribed to some magazines.

Yeah.

Yeah, I was. So I sign up for this course and I go to this course and at the end of day two of this three-day training, the lady's like, hey, can you stay after? And, um, I was like, okay. And she's like, hey, do you want a job? Flying around the country teaching and training real estate investors. I was like, you get paid to do that? Like, I didn't know this. Yeah. He's like, yeah, you had to go do, like, I had to buy their coaching program, go through all these things. So again, 70, 80%, I was probably going to say yes to the coaching program anyway. Now, but I also negotiated at that time to, to go ahead and get a guaranteed tryout for their company because it wasn't a paid job. It was a tryout. Like, hey, you come, you speak, We'll train you for 5 weeks. And that's all I wanted was training on how to do it. I was like, you're gonna train me for free and fly me around the country? Sure. I got plenty of PTO. I can do that. Mm-hmm. And that's perfect. That's how it started. But I do have to say, um, the guy that actually did this, and most people don't know this, he just passed away June 11th. My coach and mentor that did that like a week or so ago from cancer, but he was the one that fought because they tried to back out of that agreement. Otherwise I would've never been on stage or started to speak and stuff. Wow. I just want to say a big shout out to him and his family for Joe. Yes.

Thank you to them.

Yes.

Thank you to them. And so sorry for your loss.

Holy smokes. Appreciate that. But I then took the rocket ship and then we got on the stages and we started training investors that led one thing to another. Then I met Greg in The Final Percent and another company that I trained for. I mean, we went through the entrepreneur roller coaster, 2008, 2010 crash, and we survived that. I bet.

You know?

Yeah. Dave Johnson, Super Dave, has had this quote just on my podcast the other day. He says, you know, rock bottom can't take you out, right? Rock bottom can't kill you. It can only set you back. And that's what happened to us during the crash. It just set us back and then it took time to rebuild and makes me a better investor today because I've actually gone through a crash and survived.

So you know what things are going to lead up to one and you know how to get through them if you see it or if it happens. So yeah, it's It's perfect. One of the things I want to highlight right there for the listeners is that 70 to 80% rule. Can you dive more into that? Because obviously we love it and we live by it, but what, what, what does that mean and how should somebody utilize that?

Sure. So many people don't take opportunities because they're like, hey, it's not perfect. It's not exactly what I want. And it could be different things. One, you're not ready. 2, it's not what you think you wanted. Like, no, I wanted it this way or that. How many relationships break up because somebody's like, oh, they got me the wrong type of flowers versus hey, they got me flowers? Yeah, right. Like, oh, true, you don't know I like this type of flower versus that one. I hate roses. Oh, like, right. But it's the roses. It's like, you guys took the time to get you flowers. So do we appreciate that or do we focus on the like 10% that is wrong, right? Mm-hmm. So it's just sort of a mindset with that. And I've watched so many people pass on those opportunities because it wasn't perfect timing. And the three of us here know it's never perfect time. Like when you decided to have kids, it was never like, hey, this is the perfect time in our life. Like you may have wanted them, you may have been doing that, you may have thought, but then it happens. You're like, oh crap. Like we were not ready for this part or something. Right?

Like, no, 100%. We were both like, yeah, we're totally ready where this is going to happen. And then it happens and you're like, hmm. What? Wait, we don't sleep anymore? Oh, this, um, I don't remember this being on the pros and cons list of things, but okay, here we are, right?

Yeah. So it's never, it's never perfect, it's never those things. But so if it's, you know, 70, 80% of what you want, say yes. Because A, you're probably not ready for exactly what you want, right? You're like, hey, I want to go— if you want to be a speaker for all— I know you guys are coaches and with us and all those things. So if you want to go stand on that biggest stage, like the Aspire Tour, and you're like, hey, I can just walk right out there and crush it, right? That tour that comes around the country with Dan Fleischman that does $100 million mastermind, like, you are not ready for that stage. You've gotta go perfect all of these different things beforehand. If he said yes right now, you'd fall on your face and you'd never be able to do it again, right? You'd lose your opportunity. But if somebody says, hey, can you come talk here? Hey, can you come do this? You, you start to say yes to those opportunities and it leads to a path, right? Yeah. And so even in the story I just told you, most people float down river, like a log on a river. You're just sort of floating and then somebody's like, a little wave comes, pushes you to this shore, that shore. You're like, hey, this is easy until like, bam, a trauma happens. Yeah. Then all of a sudden you wake up, you're like, oh crap, I'm not happy. And that's what happened to me at 9/11. Like, I was making more money than my parents combined at the under the age of 30. I had stock options in a billion-dollar company. And I thought I was happy, but I wasn't. No. Right. And so just having that wake-up call, but so saying yes to that opportunity then leads you to the next one and eventually you get what you want.

Yes.

If I didn't say yes to that training and I had to pay for that training, right. It wasn't free. I had to pay for it. I had to do those things, but at that time I wasn't worried about money and I had plenty of time off. So it was like just one of those things. So it worked out and then yes, I had to give up my weekend. So for. You know, at one point I was flying around the country 3 weekends a month, but I was off during the week, right? So it was just a little bit of a different schedule. But you're saying yes, those opportunities then lead to the next step, to the next step to that. And I could trace, even if everybody goes back in their life, they can see what they said yes to that led to where you are today. Yeah. You guys didn't say yes to showing up at a, uh, wherever you originally met Greg, right? OBS. Okay. Operation Blacksite for the people don't know. Operation Blacksite, right? Let me translate Anthony for you on your own podcast. Joking, right? Yeah. Uh, but right, Operation Blacksite, then you showed up at a TFP event and then we all met, right? Like if you didn't say yes to that and, and you had no idea what you were really coming to when you said yes at that first thing, right? You never thought you'd be here.

I'll be honest, even for all the listeners, is for my background, I really didn't, was like, I, I don't need to be here. Like it's one of those things where I'm like, I'm gonna learn some things that I pretty much already know. So the only— to be honest, the only reason I went was for her. I wanted her to be ingrained in it, for her to see it. And look what happened. Like, if we, if we didn't take that, you know, that yes, that 70-80%, if we didn't say that yes to that one, none of this would be happening. We probably wouldn't even be on here. We definitely wouldn't be talking to you.

Yeah, no, I, and I almost said like a complete flat-out no because it was like the weekend before we were leaving for our late honeymoon, and Lainey still only like 5, 4 months old maybe. And I was like, I don't want to leave her for the weekend. We're gonna be gone for 11 days next week once we leave for, you know, Italy. And he's like, babe, it's gonna be fine. She's fine. She's in good hands. And then I was like, all right, fine. Because I like, I really did want to go, but I was so like, you know, that early mom thing. I was like, I wasn't ready. I wasn't— felt like I wasn't ready to go. And then I'm like, okay, well I do really want to go to this, so let's fucking go.

Yeah, it wasn't ready, it wasn't perfect, and I've had some of my best training moments holding Laney in my hands, bouncing her up and down on my knee, with some of the best training moments I've ever had. And I would have never had those experiences, or getting her to sleep on my shoulder at events.

Like, oh yeah, we got pictures of it. It's awesome.

She loves Uncle Hugh, and so does Jackson.

He's like, Uncle Hugh!

So let's segue a little bit into kind of the main thing that you do. Obviously you speak, you teach, you do all that stuff, but investing right now, you know, with again, politics aside, how does someone like yourself or how does other people who want to get into investing get into it when there's so much outside noise? Like, what do you do with all of that outside noise?

All right. So I'm a little different. Just like if people, like people get so wrapped up in politics in today's world. Yeah. And my philosophy is if same thing, like if I can't have a direct impact on it, then I'm not able to go ahead and worry about it. Right. Cause I can only control what's in my world and what I'm able to do. If I've got no control over it, like, you know, whether you like the president or you don't like the president. Doesn't really matter to me. I've got family members on both sides. I'm pretty much down the middle.

Same with us.

Yeah. You know, like pretty much down the middle. I think both sides are a little crazy, but whatever. Like, yeah, when we do this, the thing here goes is that that doesn't really have an impact on you or your business. What it does is it gets you on the entrepreneurial roller coaster. It gets your emotions high and low. And we have enough of that already in investing or real estate deals. Like you're like, hey, I'm making a million dollars. Oh no, deal fell through. Like, I can tell you a story, like, about a $100 million hotel deal here that we lost because one person lied about one little thing, right? Like, what's 1% of $100 million, right?

A lot.

A lot, right? A million dollars. That's a good deal, right? That's a million dollars right there. We lost, we had the whole deal lined up for the Carlton Hotel in New York City. We had an Asian hedge fund buying it. They were all set. And then somebody didn't have the connection that they said they had when we already had proof of funds and everything, right? Oh. So that roller coaster can take people out. So to worry about politics, to worry about what's going on out there, out of our control, you know, you just sometimes got to put the blinders on and like, yo, because there's, I do a training called Finding Real Estate Deals in 6 Minutes. Ooh. All right. One of the craziest things everybody says is I can't find a deal. I can't find a deal. I can't find a deal. There's no good deals, Anthony. There's no good deals. What are you talking about, Anthony? There's no good deals.

There's nothing out there.

There's nothing out there. And I will take 100, 300, 10 people, whatever size audience we have there. And in 6 minutes, every one of them will find a deal if they take the action. And I time it. It's been videotaped with the, in all the different organizations that I do it for. Like people just go through and they find a real estate deal in 6 minutes. Why? Because I take, I stop this. I stop. And for those of you guys on the podcast, I'm pointing at my brain. I stop this brain from thinking and causing you to postpone things and actually You just do it, you know? Yeah. Greg calls me one of the top action coaches in the country.

I'll take that.

Oh yes. Yes. I just get you out of your head, into your body, into action, and in 6 minutes you will find a real estate deal. Now I can't say it's a great deal. I can't say like you're going to make $100,000 on it, but you will take that first step and get you past your fears. And just like, you know, a lot of people are on their health fitness kick right now. You know, you got 8-minute abs. Well, we got 6-minute real estate deals. 5 real estate deals in 6 minutes. If you did it every day, you'd have like 30 deals. And that's really where you start to then, you know, have that ability to scale and find a really good deal. So, so good. Let's put the politics aside and just focus on what we can control.

The biggest thing he said right there is do the work. Actually doing the work towards whatever it is that you want to do is going to reap the rewards. If you're trying to think of all these outside noise, think of, oh, I can't do this because of this or this because of this. If you actually just sat down or stood up, whatever you need to do and did the work, it's gonna happen. Which kind of—

Focus on what you can control.

Exactly. And the best part about that is that leads into a statement that you say all the time that also we love is CDAs, consistent daily actions. Can you explain to the listeners what that means and why that's so important? Yeah.

So consistent daily action leads to success. It's not magic. Like we actually have t-shirts that are made up that says it's, you know, Consistent.

We got to make this, we got to make the shirts again.

Yeah, it's gonna happen. Consistent daily action leads to success. It's not magic, right? Because it really isn't. I was like, oh, how do you do that? Like, if it's fitness, if it's your vitality, if it's, you know, your business, if it's your relationships, if it's anything like that, if you're taking action towards it each and every day, you know, you're getting that incremental 1% better in that eventually it kicks in, but you don't see it right away. It's like when you go to the gym and you start working out, you're like, oh, you know, I feel like I'm putting on muscle, or I feel like I'm losing weight, but I don't see it. I don't see it. I don't see it until somebody else points at you and goes, hey, there it is. There it is. You're like, oh wait, because our mind's eye doesn't change as fast as our body does and different things like that, right? So it's that small, consistent daily actions. But also what people— and one of the biggest, hardest things I have to do with people is people are too outcome-focused. I'm gonna say it again. People are too outcome-focused. Yes. Did I make the sale? Did I close the deal? Did I get paid the money? Well, if we— that's one thing we can't control because you can do everything right and make a sale. Mm-hmm. You can do everything wrong and make a sale. Mm. You can do everything right and lose a sale.

Like the last one you just talked about.

Yeah. Right? So like certain things are not in your control. So, you know, when I worked with a lot of salespeople or real estate agents, investors, whatever happens to be there, like, I want to talk to 10 people. I want to have 10 good conversations a day. I'm like, okay, but what's a good conversation? Can you define that for me? Right? I can't control if it's a good conversation or a bad conversation. I can't even control if I call Bri from a number she doesn't know and she's going to answer the phone. She's probably going to be like, beep, send it to voicemail, right?

I know that person.

I don't know that person. Damn. She's like, she's like, Right, who's this crazy guy keep calling me, whatever, right over there, right? Like, so I can't control that. What I can— so I have to have people shift their mindsets, you know, and be like, hey, I can make 10 phone calls a day, okay? That I can control. I can't control if they answer it, but I can control— I leave a message, I'll either leave a message or talk to somebody. That's it, right? And so if that's your CDA, then you can hit it, because we want to create goals and outcome and consistent daily actions that actually build our confidence, not knock us down because, you know, your 6 inches do enough of that in the morning anyway.

Right?

It's always beating you up for the things you didn't do. So let's, let's habit stack positives and then you have more confidence through your day. So it's breaking it down into those little things that get you the outcome. Because, you know, if you make enough phone calls, you eventually do a sale. Yeah. Even if you're the worst salesperson in the world, you make 1,000 phone calls, eventually you're going to stumble on, you're going to get lucky and somebody's going to say yes.

Correct.

Yes.

And with those 1,000 calls, you're getting better. So you could be the worst salesman. You're incrementally getting better every single time because you're putting in the reps, you're putting in the work.

Yeah. And if you set the goal as, hey, I made 10 calls versus, hey, I made a sale, 1,000 phone calls you don't get to if your goal is I gotta make a sale because you quit and give up before that because it's negative, right? Ah, crap, I didn't do it. Crap, I didn't do it. Crap, I didn't do it. Hey, I hit my 10 sales. Hey, I hit my 10 sales. Calls here. I hit my 10 calls here. I hit my 10 calls.

Woo-hoo. Yeah. Those are the wins. Those little wins.

Mm-hmm. I mean, you guys do that with your kids. You just don't do it as adults.

It's true.

Yeah.

We got, we got, we gotta come back to our kids' days.

Yeah.

Make it fun. So you've got this thing, it says Launch Button behind you.

What is that? Yeah. So one of the things, um, I, I was really good in math, as I said, but I could not spell or do grammar. Right. And so like, even, even when I text people and they're like, oh, you spelled this wrong. I was like, obviously you figured it out. Right. I wouldn't even like correct myself. I would just be like, obviously you figured out the right word. Like there you go.

I actually, I, I love those, uh, those photos where the entire sentence is misspelled and it's backwards, but we can all read it because that's how our brains operate. Yeah. So you're fine. You can misspell all the, all, all the time.

So, so I had limiting beliefs and we talked, we talked about that. My limiting belief was I can't spell or do grammar and I just adapted that. I was like, I don't have to really worry about that. I'm gonna be really good in math and just go in that direction in IT and everything like that. Yeah. But back in 2005, somebody told me I needed to write a book and I was like, okay. And that was in my mind. I was like, ooh, that's really hard. So I'm gonna go hire a ghostwriter. Right? Like, I can't spell or do grammar, right? I have to change my wording because that's how I coach you. I couldn't spell or do grammar at that time, right? Like, and so it was like, okay, go do that. And then just before COVID I started, you know, I ran into like 3 different people. So we're sorry, we hired the ghostwriter. Let me finish that story. Hired the ghostwriter and it wasn't coming out right. It wasn't my language. It wasn't the way I wanted it. Like the stories were all off, even though I provided them. So I was like, all right, forget it. And the housing market crashed. I was like, put the book on the shelf. No, like, let's not come back to. Then in 2018 or so, I was traveling and a friend of mine wrote a book and he was like, hey Hugh, you know way more about real estate investing, but my book's an Amazon bestseller. And he is like, you definitely gotta write one. And I was like, yeah, okay, whatever. And then I was sitting in a bar in New York City having dinner and end up next to somebody that like is an editor. She's like, wow, your story's amazing. Like, you gotta go write a book. And then I hired a coach. Nice. To do something else. And I go out there, tell him, and he is like, okay, Hugh, you know, your story's amazing. You gotta go write a book. And he's a New York Times bestselling author multiple times, all of these things. Yeah.

I was like, nice.

All right. The universe is telling me I have to go write a book. Right. Like, it's like, I just gotta say yes. Yeah. 3 times in like a, 3 times in like a month. Right. Like, yeah. Wow. And once I gave myself permission to write, I ended up writing 2 books, enough for 2 books that I had to like trim it down. So nice. That's awesome. So it's a process of walking through people. The Launch Button book, you can find it on Amazon. It's now on Audible too. Woo-hoo! We finally got that done on there. And so it's a process of helping people find their passion if they don't know what it is, because oftentimes we have business. And my philosophy is we have business and real estate and they go together to help us fuel our passion, or one becomes our passion. But typically when real estate crashes, business does well. And typically when business crashes, real estate does well. So we have the multiple streams of income.. And if we do that too, but too many people go, hey, I want to help people and then they don't help themselves, right? Like, I just want to volunteer and do all that. Well, we can structure that based on that and you can build a lifestyle with Airbnb, different strategies like that. So you can travel the world. Like you'll see the pictures of like, you know, dolphins and turtles behind me.

Exactly.

All the things that I like to do in Hawaii for that, that you can build that life for you if we have that set up. But also oftentimes people don't even know what they're passionate about. Like, I didn't know what I was passionate about.

Mm.

So good. So we had to find it. So that's what the Launch Button Book does. It helps you find your passion or take it to the next level, whether you're at a corporate job and you're afraid to leave because we get handcuffed by our salaries or like the police, right? You get handcuffed like, oh, I can't leave because I'm making this revenue now, right? Like your friend Nick there, right? So like, we talk about all these different things, but let's find the passion. Let's build the side hustle. And then you take it full time. And so that walks you through the process. I love that.

You kind of tailored into it with what I, my next question was gonna be was the photos. Uh, I overheard you talking about it and a lot of people don't know, so I'm curious if we can discuss what your passion is.

Sure. Uh, one of my passions, I got a couple, but one of them is underwater photography. Now being in New York City, we do not have really clean water. I'm not getting— no, finding some cement shoes and swimming in the Hudson, you know.

You also are going to come up with probably a couple different diseases or other things too.

Yeah. Yes, 100%. Somebody doesn't— actually, I, I think I just posted on Instagram yesterday or a couple days ago, somebody was fishing in the Hudson and caught like a big striper. I was like, I am definitely not eating that, and I want to know what restaurant you work at because I'm not going there, right? Like, yeah, no.

That is funny.

But yes. Not, yeah. So, uh, wild caught. Yeah. So going back to the 70, 80% of what we want, uh, when I worked at Getty Images, my boss got, who hired me, got transferred to Australia and he was bored and he was like, hey, uh, why don't you come visit me?

And I was like, well, like, I was like, okay, that's a weird question, but all right. Yeah.

Like we were friends before that from a previous job. He's like, hey, I'm out here. Like, don't really know anybody, want to come to Australia, it's winter in New York, like come out, like take some vacation, you can stay with me in Sydney. So I was like, well, if I'm gonna go all the way to Australia, I'm gonna learn how to— I want to dive, like I love the ocean and stuff like that. Well, then I'm gonna get certified to dive and I'll come out there and I'll spend some time with you. And then another buddy of mine's a divemaster, like then we'll go dive the Great Barrier Reef. Yeah. Nice. And, um, so We're like, okay. And so that very first trip got me hooked. But here's a funny story with that. I'm slightly competitive and actually a lot competitive when it comes to—

I was gonna say, wait, slightly.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna go on a limb here.

Downplaying that one much.

Yeah. Yeah. So I'm highly competitive when it comes to certain things and especially when I was much younger. So I actually ran outta oxygen 40 feet below the water on the Great Barrier Reef on my very first dive after being certified because I did not— and your faces are amazing if we put this on YouTube. Yeah. And, um, so because I wouldn't tap out to be the first one that said I was halfway out. And there are, you know, it's a whole funny story. Like, yeah, because I dove in New York City, we had 5mm wetsuits, full body. And we went to Australia. Now it's summertime. Everybody's wearing like the 3mm shorties. Right. And you know, me, and this is the whole thing when we talk about in business, when you don't know what you don't know and you gotta need a coach or mentor. So I've got a divemaster that just certified me. And before we get in the ocean for my first official after-certification dive. And my buddy's a divemaster, by the way. So two, like, divemasters. And the only question they asked me was, are you sure you want to wear that wetsuit? Now, I flew 5,000 miles with this wetsuit and my gear and all of this, and I'm like, yeah. They were like, okay. Instead of educating me and being like, hey, by the way, you're gonna sweat your arse off— I'll say arse so we didn't put it on there— you're gonna sweat your arse off underwater you're gonna off-gas more. Maybe you should borrow one of our shorties. And I would have been like, okay, because I didn't know any better. Oh my God, the only thing I knew was I'm like, I just flew 5,000 miles with a wetsuit. I'm going in this water. Yeah, unless you give me a good reason. Now, I wasn't wise enough to say, is there a reason I shouldn't, right? At that time I was younger. I was just like, I flew, like, in my head, that's all what I'm saying. Yeah. So yes. So luckily for those of you guys, I don't wanna scare people about diving. The, the dive master does have an extra tank and an extra gauge so that for competitive people like me or stupid people like me at that time, they go ahead and give you the extra gauge and they're like, here you go. So by the time the first person went halfway, I was at the quarter mark. I was at the quarter mark and they were like, and you have to go up and do a stop, right? And then you have to go up, so you can't just go straight to the surfers, otherwise you get the band. So we have to go up, you have to wait for 5 minutes, right? And then head off. So the dive master just looked at me, shook his head, and I was like, how about you wear the shorties the rest of the time? I was like, how about you explain that to me? And I would have said yes the first time. Yeah.

Oh my gosh.

Oh, that's perfect.

That's wild.

Yeah, because you can't just shoot right up to the top because I got certified X amount of years ago. Oh my gosh, over 10 years ago. Yeah, I was Oh Jesus. But yeah, I remember cuz you can't, you, I went diving for the first time in Fiji and then they're like, yeah, no, you can't go straight up when you're like 60-something feet down or whatever. You're like, don't panic, come up slowly, do this, do this.

I'm like, all right, cool. You gotta do your stop. You gotta do your stop. You gotta wait.

Mm-hmm.

That's funny. But so a lot of these photos are from Maui and I even just love snorkeling and free diving.

Beautiful.

Because you can just drive around Maui. Like for like, I think it's like $30, you can rent snorkel gear for the week and you just go out there. And to, to your point, for you, I got certified like over 20 years ago, so I had to take a refresher. And during COVID 'cause I was going with another group and we were gonna dive Grand Cayman for another professional, um, development group. I knew their leader liked to dive and everything like that. And I was so mad. I paid like, you know, snorkel $30, I paid $300 to get recertified. In, in Maui, and they took me to the same spot that I snorkel. I was like, this sucks. Like, I can tell you where the eel lives. I can tell you where this lives. I was like, I thought I'm getting recertified. I'm like, we're going out on a boat, we're going somewhere fun. They're like, no, right off the beach, right where we go normally.

I was like, oh, wasted this money, but okay.

But I'm recertified again, right?

There you go.

But you're recertified again.

Nice.

That's awesome.

So prior to this call, we were talking about you traveling like all the time and being at home just a slight amount of the time. Where are you traveling these days and where, where is this all leading you to?

Yeah. So it goes back to that 70-80% say yes, right? Yeah. So, you know, we're doing a lot of— the three of us are actually doing a lot of events together and I get to see you guys and I get to see Jackson and Laney often. It's amazing with that. So we're going to be in Wyoming doing the, the Gammr event and then the, uh, TFP retreat up there. So getting off-grid for about 7 days over there.

It's gonna be, it's gonna be amazing.

Yeah. And then we're coming to LA with you guys on the 7th, you know, 16th, 17th to the 20th, whatever that happens to be. And then from there I go right to see family in Northern California. So we spend an extra time out there. Nice. Um, and then we've got events coming up in Miami. We got events in New York. We got a vet in Seattle. We're going to Africa for 10 days. So I have a big passion about animals, not so much hiking mountains, but so we're going to go on safari and, you know, it only costs—

I don't mean to interrupt you, but I do want you to talk about that because I think it's a great cause as to what you're doing for that.

So please, Clean Water Project, right?

Yeah, please tell everybody about it.

Yeah, so we're doing a Clean Water Project. I got a chance to go to South Africa in the end of 2023 into 2024. Uh, I had met Nelson Mandela's great-great-grandson at another event. He invited me to his town to check it out. And I was already, one of my passions were planning a trip there with another group. So from there, that sort of sped off. We got to see some of the amaz— amazing, um, safari and stuff like that. But what I didn't expect was when we went into the townships. And in essence, that's their ghettos and that's their neighborhoods and everything like that. And it was just a chance to get to meet some of the kids. Now, we did a lot of things that Anthony would probably not approve of as a police officer, safety checks and things like that. And definitely Chris Weitman would not at all. Like, we would be shot by Chris, like, what are you doing? Like, I went back into the town by myself, like, twice. I did have one guy walking with me, right? But it's obviously, I was very much the minority walking through there when we were going back to buy soccer balls for the kids and stuff like that. You know, I'm a big soccer player, played my whole life, and, you know, just the universal sport. So while we were there, all these kids, we were working on a garden, and all these kids started showing up by the vanfuls, by the taxi-fulls, because they don't have enough food at home. And we were at the school, at the garden, helping them. And then because it was Christmas, New Year's, it's actually their summertime, right? Because it's opposite of the US. And so they were all out and they may not have eaten that day and they just started showing up by the vanfuls. And so we, we went back into the town just to buy some bread and peanut butter and stuff like that. And then I got soccer balls and I was like, here, you know, this is a universal sport. So we got a big game of soccer. It was a whole great thing. And I realized like, so many things that we take for granted in our first world country that other people don't. Yeah. And it was just a great reminder. My parents have taught me that my entire life working with inner city youth and all sorts of things that they did. But sometimes we get, you know, we just need that wake up call. Yeah. So we, we want to go to, we're going to Tanzania and it's only like, I think $40 gives a person water. Like that's the crazy little amount that it takes to go ahead and do that. So we're raising about $25,000 to put a water containment system in. So we're doing like a 4-in-1 event. So it's— and for all your listeners out there that want to go, it is 100% tax deductible. This is how we design things as entrepreneurs. That's awesome. So you get to write the whole trip off on your taxes, number one. So you get that tax rebate. So we are going to go— we're doing Thrive in the Wild and On Stage.

That's really cool.

I love it. That's going to be so exciting. I can't wait for all of your photos.

The links will be in the bio, by the way, if you're interested in going and/or donating. I highly recommend at least donate.

It's a great cause.

Yeah.

So we're gonna do speaker training, like telling your story, getting more effective from stage, all of that fun stuff. We're gonna do some survival training with, with Chris and Carly in the wild. Yes. Then we're going on safari and we're gonna stop by the water system. Now I, cuz you know, I'm a little different, uh, made sure that we are not just doing a safari in a vehicle. But we were actually going to do a walk-in safari for those people that qualify. You're going to get to walk with the animals and we're going to have the Maasai warriors there. Now some of you guys are freaking out on the other side. That's okay. You can stay in the vehicle. It's not mandatory you stay in the vehicle. Yeah, I wanted to do a walk-in safari because, uh, last time we stayed in the vehicles.

Yeah, nice. Getting that extra adventure in.

That's so cool. Excitement. I mean, where, where else can literally donate to a great cause and experience all that stuff at the exact same time.

Yeah. And the great thing is we're going to document the whole water project. So you'll actually get all the videos, you'll get pictures, you'll get all of the whole thing with that because Chris and Carly are going to go back to the area multiple times, plus the organization. That was actually the hardest thing, to be honest with you guys. We wanted to start advertising this trip like 6 months ago, 8 months ago when we came up with the idea. We couldn't find a charity that was based in Tanzania that we could donate the money to, or donate the money to a charity to get it there. Like, because there's so many things with international, you know, transfers of money, and everybody's like, well, why don't you just take it? I was like, I don't want to be responsible for that. And like, then somebody said their money didn't get there, right? Like, so, and all the tax implications and all these different things. So we finally found a, a great charity. They're actually based here in New York, which is hilarious to me. Like after that, like searching around the globe, like we had like David Meltzer's group, like all these famous people that do water projects in different places back home. I was like, right here in our backyard. Wow.

That's right under my nose.

Yeah. Just came around full circle. That's all it is. That's awesome. It's gonna be cool.

It's gonna be awesome. So how can we help you and your listeners? What's the number one need you have for you and your listeners?

Yeah. So for the majority of our listeners, they're all looking for tangible ways to either create that hobby or, you know, do something different and/or break free from whatever it is that they're doing right now and do that and go for that passion. That's why I really loved how you talked about, you know, that 70 to 80% rule. It's like if you have that desire, if you have that passion to do something else, or maybe even think about doing something else and you're in that 70 to 80%, then you need to take that step. You need to go for that and push for it. And then we have multiple events coming up that highly recommend you, uh, be part of. Can you explain a little bit as to what the Final Percent, um, events and how they're different from others and why someone, uh, should go to them?

Sure. But I'm gonna give you guys a bonus first for your listeners. How's that?

I like it. We always like bonuses. All right.

If you reach out to Bri and Anthony, all the listeners on here, and you send them a message that says 3x3x3. Okay, 3x3x3. When we talked about the CDAs and the consistent daily habits, we're going to show you how to connect with people and go deeper. So I do another training called 1+1=1000. It's new math.

That one I know. It's great.

It is great. Right? And so if we do this 3x3x3, What we'll do is we'll set up a special event over Zoom, or if we do it live while we're in LA, whichever one works out better depending on when you guys do this, but you've got to send them a text or, right, or comment below this video, wherever it happens to be, or on the podcast, you reach out to them 3 by 3 by 3. We're going to show you the secret of connecting and going deeper with people.

Anthony, you saw this. That is so good.

You got a chance to see this firsthand when we were in Utah. We, uh, flew in, there was a whole bunch of us going to a guy's event and I just had done that strategy and a guy showed up, met us at, for lunch, like we're literally coming off the planes, we're all like, and, and one of my old connections showed up and he's like, hey, uh, I got this million dollar business that, you know, we need to go ahead and do this, but I'm doing this. So I ended up doing like a coaching live session right there. And now he's driving it forward and like now he's on fire with it. Right.

Just because we did this.

That's so cool. Awesome. And all I did was reconnect and that's the 3x3x3. I'm gonna show you how you can reconnect, go deeper, go faster with people just by doing that. So send them that message. 3x3x3.

Thank you so much.

We appreciate it.

And awesome. You should, you, you gotta do it. I'm telling you, Hugh knows what he's talking about. So if you're interested in this, yeah, definitely do it.

No, no. If they want to go deeper with you, not if they're just interested, if they wanna find their passion, they wanna launch what they're doing, they wanna take it to the next level, then you've just gotta send a message. It's simple. Just do it. It is.

Right?

There it is. Take the leap.

Take the leap of faith.

Thank you for that, Anthony.

We really appreciate it. All right.

No problem.

All right. So with the final percent, you know, uh, it isn't about the 1%, it's about going that distance.. And it's about sometimes you need somebody to give you extra energy. Sometimes you need somebody to give you extra support. Sometimes you need that ability just to talk to people. And that could be women talking with women, men talking with men, families talking with families, whatever it happens to be. You know, one of the great things I love, and I've spoken for many, many different organizations. And when I met Greg a couple years ago, and we decided to smash our worlds together, A really big thing of that was the fact that what was different, right? Because I've seen the good and the bad of the personal development space. I've been— there's been some crazy things that happened behind the scenes, and like somebody would say one thing on stage and then another thing off stage, and I'm like, that— those two things don't correlate. Like, it would have benefited me, but I'm like, that doesn't jive. Yeah. So it took Greg and I about a year of like sort of circling each other's worlds of being like, are you real? Am I— he real? Like all those different things to figure it out. But one of the things that I love is it is a family-oriented event, like you said earlier, right? Because oftentimes one spouse or once another goes to the event, the other one has to stay home. And then when the other one comes home, they're on fire. They're like, whoa, I learned all these things from Tony Robbins, from Greg Kimball, from all these different people, right? And they come home and the other spouse is like, here, take the kids. I don't care. Like, I need a break. Here you go. But when they come together, they have the opportunity to learn together and they grow together. And that's what it's really about. You know, we've got billionaires to people just starting. Like, it doesn't matter where you are, but we can have the conversation at your level and everybody takes something different from it. And with the Infinity Model, we focus on the professional growth, the personal growth, the vitality, and your community. And oftentimes we are really good in one area of your life, but not so good in others. So true. And we, and we tend to hide out. And so oftentimes we need to sort of slide backwards. Like if you're like, 'Cause everybody's like, 'Well, I gotta make more money, then I can become healthy.' It's like, no, it doesn't work that way. No, it doesn't work that way. Like, you know, there's the old saying in the US especially, you know, most people spend the first 40 years of their life making their wealth and then they spend the next 40 years of their life using their wealth to pay for their health. Ah, it's so true. Unfortunately it is sad, right? Versus doing it all at the same time. So, Yes.

Right.

You know, we need to be able to focus on that. We need to give you the support in the different areas, but oftentimes it's not where you think. Like if you wanna make more money in your business, you need a better mindset or something's going on in your personal life that's gonna prevent it. So we train in those 4 different areas. So we're gonna work with you on your vitality, making sure you've got a sound mind, body strength, sleep, all of those different things. Mental health all goes into that. And then 2, you get it, then you get into the professional growth, whatever on that to be, to be entrepreneurs, it could be traditional business, it could be right? Being the CEO of a business, it could be you hitting this glass ceiling at your job or work or police, whatever happens to be wherever you happen to be with that. And then we get into, um, the personal mindset is really oftentimes where it all comes down to, 'cause it all starts in your brain, whether we think we can do it or we think we can't, right? There's that famous saying, if you think you can, you're right. And if you think you can't, you're right. 'Cause your brain does whatever you think you can or cannot do. And then the community is a superpower, right? So true. Yep. So, you know, there's a saying, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. And that's how it is. Like, that's how we can spread out. That's how we can get opportunities that we've never had before. Like, that's how I used to do a lot of my real estate deals. You know, I had over 700 people around the United States and internationally that would bring me deals. Now, there's no way I could find some of these off-market deals if I didn't have 700 people like out there looking for stuff that I couldn't do.

And then just imagine how much time you save too. Yeah. Like they're coming to you and you're not trying to hunt them down. That's a lot of 6-minute deals just saying.

Yeah. Right. But it's, the community gives you that superpower. So if you're weak in an area, then you can lean on somebody else that's strong in it. And then, you know, it's not only when you're doing well, it's also when you're down. You know, we have the, I have the saying and I, I've got it from another organization. Sometimes you need the meeting or the event, and sometimes the event or meeting needs you, right? They need your energy. Like if you're having a really good day, like somebody else in that meeting is having a bad day, right? So, you know, sometimes if you're having a bad time, you're, you're like, ah, I don't know if I want to get on the call, get on the damn call with me. You can get on calls with me 3 times a week, right? So we keep you in action and we keep you moving forward and keep you on track so you don't spin off. And then. Yeah. What I love about those calls is everybody learns from everybody. I'm learning from people on there because people are sharing, this is going on, and somebody's like, oh, that's a cool idea. I can apply it here. Mm-hmm. And so the final percent brings all of that together and it's truly, are you going the final percent for you?

Whatever that happens to be.

That's true. Yeah. Now your, your final percent, you know, Bri's final percent, Anthony's final percent, and my final percent are all different.

Correct.

Yeah. And at different stages of our lives. So it's whatever is for you.

So true. So good. And we have, obviously you mentioned it, we have Wyoming here in a couple weeks and then, or actually in a week, and then we have the LA in less than a month and that one's July 19th and 20th. So if you're in the LA area, you're listening to this, you definitely want to be there. Links of all of these will be in the bio.

Don't be afraid to reach out to us and ask questions. Our DMs are open. We are happy to talk with you.

We really want you there. Yes. So, so here's what we're gonna say. If it's 70 to 80% of what you want, you heard on this podcast, there's no questions to be asked because you can only talk yourself out of it. Right? You just click the link, you just register. And where in LA— now understand this— where in LA can you get a 2-day event with personal, professional? You're gonna have millionaires and potentially, you know, almost billionaires in that room, and you're only going to pay $333. Like, where in LA are you going to get that?

You're not going to get that anywhere else.

No, yourself in a room of power proximity.

Yeah, right. You're not gonna get that anywhere else in LA. That event should cost you $2,500 to $10,000 minimum. Easily. Yeah, you're gonna get it for $333. So don't even think about it. Yeah. Don't even think about it. Just click the link, register, and then we get to meet in person.

It'll be awesome. Exactly. Yes. Instead of just over here on the audio and/or visual, depending on where you're watching or listening to this. Yep. So Hugh, we'd like to finish off these with our 3 golden nuggets. So what are your 3 golden nuggets our listeners should know about life, business, anything? Well, I guess really first The best part is that we haven't even gotten the same 3 from anybody yet. Yeah. So we're excited to hear what your 3 are.

Yeah. So I mean, I think I, I go by my golden rules, right? So I, I, my, my golden rules, you've already covered, we've already really covered 2 of them here. One is if it's 70 to 80% of what you want, say yes to the opportunity cuz you never quite know where it leads. Like, you know, saying yes to that training got me here today. If I hadn't said yes to that, I wouldn't be here. Right. And just like we tracked all the way through with you guys. Yeah. On there. Uh, 2, it's consistent daily actions lead to success. It's not magic. Mm-hmm. And we're either moving closer to our goals or further away based on our actions we take each day. Yeah. There's no staying the same. So if you're doing your CDAs, you're moving closer. If you're not doing them, you're moving further. Right. It just sort of happens that way. And then 3 is give yourself grace and patience. Because things don't happen in our timeframe. Nope, definitely not. Things don't happen in our timeframe. And I forget who said this, but it's a great statement. It says, we judge other people based on their word, and we judge ourselves based on our intentions. That is good. Right? We judge ourselves based on our attention. Well, I meant to be there, but you know, I was tired today, or I overslept or whatever, so now I'm not gonna do that. But if we held ourselves to the same thing, accountability that we would hold other people to, well, Bree said she was gonna be here at 9 to do this, right? Well, you know, Laney was up all night, so I gave myself permission over, you know, sleeping, whatever it is, right? Like our intention, my intention was to be there, but because of these other things, right? And so if we just give ourselves a little bit more grace and a little bit more patience. To not beat ourselves up for the things that we don't do, but actually start to focus on the wins. And that's why on our trainings we talk about the wins every day. Every time somebody gets on our training, I'm like, you have to tell me a win. People are like, I don't have any wins.

I was like, I don't know what word I can say on here, but, um, at this point I think we're already, we're already, yeah, we're already labeled as explicit, I think.

'Cause yeah. Okay. You know, I, I'm like, that's bullshit. I'm like, that's bullshit.

Right? Yeah.

That's just bullshit. Say it what it is.

Say it what it is. We've had Chris on, we've had a few other people on, so we're already past Past that point, I try.

I'm like, I'm like, that's bullshit.

It's clean for the most part.

Yeah, it is.

Yeah.

Like it's bullshit because everybody has a win. Your win could be the fact that you got outta bed today. Yeah. The win could be, you know, you're, you're walking, you're breathing, you're, you're here. You know, some people don't get to wake up the next day. Mm-hmm. You know, especially with what, you know, you know, you guys deal with. I know Bree's got military in her family, Anthony, like they've seen crazy things and it's like, oh, well this happened. Right. And it's like, well, that's not really a something, it's not gonna kill you today. So let, let, let's take that step. So it's all perspective on that. Give yourself some grace, give yourself some perspective. It's gonna take longer than you think. It's gonna not work, but you just gotta keep going.

That is so good. Again, if you liked anything from this episode, which you should have, if you weren't, if you're actually listening, uh, follow Hugh, um, reach out to Hugh. He's a wealth of knowledge. He wants to help people. He's here to serve you. If you have real estate deals, he'll, he'll take those too. If you think you can't find a real estate deal, he'll show you that you can in 6 minutes. So follow Hugh. Don't forget to follow us. If you have any questions, concerns, as you know, a lot of our Friday episodes are just Bri and I asking questions or answering questions. So if you have any questions you want us to answer, reach out to us again, LA Totality. Just click the link in the notes and just sign up. You got to be there.

They're down there.

Um, if you like the show, share the show.

Yes, thank you very much, and we'll see you guys in the next one.