From Broke at 35 To $1.5B | Finding Your "Why" w/ JP Newman

You started over completely at 35, right? With, with like nothing.

Single, broke, living in a rent control apartment in Santa Monica for 400 bucks a month.

Wow. I think you've done over a billion dollars in transactions. There's over a billion five now.

Yeah.

Wow. Good work.

Thank you, man.

Congratulations.

Might be more, I don't know, but something like that, in hindsight, I did. I suffered for a long time and it was unnecessarily suffering. If I could have gone back with what I know now, if the older JP could have spoken to younger jp, I would have said, trust me, your ship's gonna come in. That investment right now into your why might be more important than your investment in your business.

Wow, that's bold.

If you go for the money first and don't have your house in order on the other side, you're gonna be vastly disappointed.

Oh, do I get that?

Now that I know what I love and what I believe in, I can't go back to being that person I was eight years ago. Like, I can't talk my way out of this because I know it moves my heart.

You're an entrepreneur because you want to make a lot of money, but why do you want to make a lot of money? You want to have a great lifestyle, you want to have awesome experiences, but.

Why do you want those things? If you can answer that question, I.

Bet that you can have a really profitable business faster. I'm going to be joined today by my dear friend and my mentor, JP Newman. JP talks in this story about how at the beginning of his business, he was completely broken, driving a cheap car, living in a rent controlled apartment, and today he's done over a billion dollars in transactions in his business. But he says that he could have got there with way less stress and much faster if he had asked these important questions. I've experienced in my life that when I have something that is driving me more than the goal, I make more money. It's the craziest thing. When I have a goal that is just about making some money, I will get somewhere. But I usually fall short. But if I have a deeper why, a deeper driver behind that, I end up making way more money. And I started to learn about this from jp. So if you're at the beginning of your journey of building a business, it's great to follow my book or my strategy of four products to 25 sales a day at a $30 price point. That's a million dollar business. But if that's all you have, you, you probably will not do it if you've heard me say the formula or the tactics and you haven't done it, it's probably because you haven't defined what you want on the other side of having it. And so I hope this episode gives you the permission to define those things for your life so that then you can follow my roadmap to building a million dollar business with a lot more energy and a lot more drive. And of course, whenever you're ready to start that road to 1 million, come join us over@capitalism.com 1. We can take your why and your motivation and give you the plan and the strategy to make it a million dollar business. We do that inside of our mentoring program and I'd love to have you inside with that. Let's go hang out with my dear friend and mentor, J.P. newman.

J.P. you're one of my longest standing friends now. Amazing how fast that happens.

I'd say more longstanding just sounds old. I'd say closest.

Of my closest friends. And you've asked me the question throughout our relationship of digging into the why behind the work that you're doing. And sometimes I'd say, when we first met, I found that question more annoying than anything else because it was like, I want to make money, I want to be successful. But recently somebody reframed the question just in a different way that made me think about it differently. And when I, when I bought back my old company, they asked me the question, what's the why? That makes you cry. And I had a really clear one. And for me, it's fatherless homes. Like, if I talk about that mission for too long, I'll get really emotional. And it gives me a different energy source from which to communicate about that brand. For me to think about the products behind that brand, the long term vision of that brand. And it was, it was a time that I really started to get it. I really started to see why you dig into that question with me so much. And I also know you've gone through a bit of a transformation re exploring this question and you've had a good amount of success in your career and now you're redefining the why for yourself and your company. And I wanted to start by you talking about that transformation of re exploring that. And I want to see if we can dig into how entrepreneurs can explore that.

Yeah.

Because I am now realizing it's just such a much deeper energy source from which to launch a company and to grow something meaningful. And if there's a way to give that to entrepreneurs earlier in their Career. We've done them a great service. So what has that transformation been for you over these last couple years of having a very successful investment company here in Austin and then saying, okay, I've got to find 2.0. I've got to rediscover my why.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, it's interesting, Ryan, because, you know, my original work was with Tristan, who's been one of the guests on the podcast. Tristan. That was about 10 years ago, and that was my really, my first time of digging into the why. Really? And like a 6 to 12 month process. Deep, deep, deep. Looking into it.

He was your coach at the time, right?

Yeah, he was my coach who really kind of hit me the question, you know, going back, if I was to go back younger, I'd say in my earliest years, when I was just my 35, when we talked about a little bit about, you know, starting the company, I didn't like, I had the luxury to think about my why. It took me a couple of years to get. I know we want to talk about that a little bit more, but it was really at a point where I felt safe enough that I could start exploring the why. And that's what happened with Tristan. And it really set the roadmap for me of my company, my values. It was like the first painting, the first canvas of what I wanted my life to be like. And why, emotionally, what was the emotion behind it that was so important that was actually driving me?

So when you started asking that question, or when Tristan, we're talking about Tristan Truscott, when he started asking those questions, you had a certain level of success.

Yes.

It pales in comparison to where you are now. But you were. You were on this new journey.

Yes.

You had started over at 35 and started this new company.

Yes.

And once you were a little bit established, he started asking, okay, what do you really want this to become? Is that right?

Yes.

And what did he walk you through? What kind of questions did he ask you to get you to reveal that? Because you probably didn't know at the time, if you're like most people, I had no idea.

Zero idea. And by the way, I just remember meeting you was part of my original why when I met you and came to your capitalism conference. I'll tell more about that. I was just thinking, literally, I came to your conference because of the roadmap that Tristan laid out for me.

Cool.

Thank you, Tristan. So what process did he take you through? What kind of questions did he ask?

You know, it's not just one simple Answer, answer. It's called the Satori Method. They actually. He actually talks about it a bit in the podcast itself. But I'll kind of give you the basic things. Some of the things that I remember that I've discussed is reverse engineering your life. Like really looking towards legacy, towards the last day of your life and what you want to be known for and remembered for actually being put in the ground. Like literally almost imagining, like literally your body. It's pretty dark. And what are people saying about you and does it matter? And what would you want people to say about you? And were you a good father? Was that important? What kind of father were you? Were you a community leader? What do people know you for? Were you honest? Were you funny? Did you help others? So, like, literally you're listening to like the people in the audience at your funeral and what they're saying. Do you agree with them? Do you disagree with them? How does it feel? And it was very. I cried. I mean, I really cried. It was very uncomfortable.

I mean, that's already convicting. That's already.

Giving me a couple light bulb moments. And everything that you've said so far is more about who you want to be.

Yes.

Not what you want to do.

Right. It's really. Exactly. Because at the end of the day, everyone will tell you all the books that tell you it really doesn't matter what you did or how much you made. You know, what did people think about you? Did you push forward on something to one person, a million people, whatever it is, on scale, did you do something that was worthwhile?

Yeah. I'm thinking about something. Alex will. Will tease me for this. Every once in a while. I'll get. I'll get into serious mode. Right? I forget.

I think.

I think that business is supposed to be serious. And that phase is like how I'll snap out of it sometimes. Like I'm business. It's hard. And I fall into this. This belief that if something is worth doing, I have to take it very seriously. But who I want to be is loving, kind, funny, light hearted. I want to bring people together. Those are the things that I want people to say at my funeral. Regardless of if I help a million people become millionaires or I have a small little supplement company, or I just had a little podcast that a few thousand people listen to. Regardless of what the outcome is, who I want to be in, that is how I want people to talk about me at my funeral. And so that's an interesting reframe that. Regardless of if I choose a completely different Career in five years. How I want to be in that is actually what's most important to the experience of life.

It is. It is the other thing I do with Tristan besides, you know, I've talked about the Starbucks exercise, which is literally writing down, you know, once you get to kind of, like, the values, writing down what you want life to be like in three years from now. You can even do 20 years. But 20 years is a long time. And getting really audacious, taking yourself out of your mind. What's. You wake up, what's it like? What does it feel like, what have you. And really writing things that don't make sense. Like, if you're broke now. Like, I was pretty broke when I wrote. When I started this exercise, and I actually pasted pictures of the office I wanted and wrote about what it would feel like to be in that office. You know, what my relationship with my wife would be like, what my relationship with my kids would be like. Like, all aspects, what my body looks like, how am I feeling in my body? Like, you know, you just do this whole. There's, like, 20 points, if you think about it, that really matter. There's your health, there's your relationships, there's your money. There's all these sources. But most people, like, if you take more of a Tony Robbins approach, where there's nothing wrong with it, it's like, my goal is I'm gonna weigh 186 pounds or I'm gonna be worth $10 million.

Yeah. That's my process. Write down a goal.

Right? And the problem with goal setting, which is why most people quit their gyms and they sign up in January and quit by March, when they. Where they go, is because there's nothing really feeling. The goal. There's no. Like, you're not.

There's no rocket, no feeling behind it.

There's no feeling.

Yeah.

There's no rock and feel. So you create these goals that are kind of arbitrary, but if it really doesn't tie into something bigger. Like, for instance, now if I say to you I want to be 182lbs with muscles, and my reason for that is not, you can say, to look good, to feel fit. I want to be able to live as long as I can, because one of my top values is being a good family man and a good father. And I know if I keep my body strong, I have a better chance of being able to interact and ski with my kids. And I have this vision in 20 years from now and 30 years from now, being this radical guy who's still skiing and mountain biking with my kids. So my drive to work out every day and stay fit is actually because I get so much joy and pleasure and love out of this idea of being able to stay fit and really interact with my family.

That's a totally different energy than what I've been guilty of, which is I want to weigh 182 pounds with muscle so that I can take my shirt off and I don't feel like a loser.

Yeah.

Or so that I feel like I belong at the table with the cool kids. Or that I look good on social media, which was totally an unconscious driver of mine for a long time.

That's most people, because you're told to do goals. I literally have the visuals I started out with just cutting things out. Pictures that felt like the things I wanted for my life. It was the best bicycle that I couldn't afford at the time. You know, incredible office that I couldn't afford at the time that I actually wound up getting that office that I took a picture of.

Wait, wait, wait. It was the office that you took a picture of?

It's the craziest thing. I just took a picture of the office that wasn't for sale that I dreamed of that one day I'd be able to afford. And the kind of I wanted to be outside. I wanted to be connected to nature. And then I wound up buying the office four years later. It just came for sale when I bought it.

That's amazing.

So my vision board really, you know, for me, had that.

But.

But this idea. First a still thing, but then literally, like, as I even described you with my kids, I can actually feel I have the emotion in my body, as I describe it to you, of the joy and the love of having, like, being, let's just say, in my 70s, being Rad dad in my 70s and skiing with my boys through trees. And just the joy of how much joy that is. And I think the trick is not just to think it, but to feel it. And I think if you can visualize and actually feel, feel and experience and then realize that ties into my map. Because for me, I have two basic things. My pitch is like, I want to live through life basically, like, curiously, like. Like a childlike wonder about everything, whether it's business and you do or friends and just childlike wonder. Go through life and learn and just explore and connect with people. And then ultimately my value is I want to bring as much of my love both to give and receive, starting with my family, my closest friends, the community and the world at large. How, how do I put a dent in that? So those are like, those are my end. Those are my funeral goals. Like, JP will be known for a guy who really served, who loved big.

Yeah.

Who really had huge impact on the world. Huge heart. Like. So if you know that your roadmap, like, that's my roadmap for my funeral, then like, the reason why being fit is important to me right now is because being fit fits right into that goal of being able to. How am I going to ultimately be able to be a transmission and, and receiver of love if my body's not healthy?

Yeah, that is.

But if my body is healthy, wow, look at all these things that enables me to do so. It has nothing to do with £182 or how I.

Right. But now everything that you just described about yourself is how I perceive you to be. Is that how you were when you did the exercise?

Not at all.

Okay, tell me about that massive change.

I was a Tony Robbins guy. I, I, at 20 years old, I was, you know, doing my goals. You know, the running joke between you and I is I absolutely did not understand. I had, I had a goal to be. Had my first million dollars by 30, and I was broke, if you remember. And so every goal that I try to hit, for some reason, I knew I was smart, but, like, it didn't exactly work. I couldn't, you know, the weight, the just any goal, because I just didn't really understand it. I was following that. You know, I wasn't like a mess. But like, the goals just really, it didn't work that way. They weren't that effective. All these goals that I was in every year, I'd probably like deep Excel spreadsheets and tasks. Like, I was really into it again. I got a lot, I got a lot accomplished. It wasn't like I didn't get anything. Yeah.

But it loses its juice after a while. Like, the drive dries up really quick.

Dries up. And then when you hit the goal, it's kind of meaningless. Finally hit the weight and you hit the, you're like, great. And then I'd put the weight back on because it didn't really mean anything. I was like an empty goal.

Same thing with me. I did the exact same thing.

And then with money, like I told you, I told you when I actually made my first big check, it was so uncomfortable because I just, I had all these things of what it could mean negatively. I could become an idiot. I could, I could just become this total jerk. I could Become untrustworthy. I had all these, like, beliefs because I know I had no vision of what the money could mean in a positive way. Like, how it could positively affect me, other people, how I could give. Like, I had no notion of what this money could mean. So all of a sudden I went to the other side because I was a per. I was used to having scarcity. So it became more like, oh, my God, Like, I've seen so many people, they become egotistical or they just become douchebags. Like, I don't want to be a douchebag. Is money going to be a douchebag versus, like, now it's like, my God, the more money I make, it is so much fun sharing it with people and giving it and being able to help people in need and help my.

Relatives, or it confirms who you're going to be talked about as you're at your funeral.

It goes right back to the same ultimate thing of love. How do I bring love to my family? So this is, like, to my community. And now I get to play so big and so money is threading right back into, not only both things, by the way, both into being able to transmit love and give to people that you love, strangers and family members, but then also the first goal of walking life through curiosity. Guess what? I get to invest in businesses, startups that are doing some cool shit. I just made a commitment this week to a new technology that might really be able to help people with depression and anxiety to diagnose it much faster and give them a score so doctors can immediately. Because right now, if you have depression or anxiety, how are you feeling? Do you have dark thoughts?

It's all subjective.

It's all subjective. The AI is creating this objective way to actually give it a number and a score. And I'm investing in this company this week. And so for me, you have no idea, like, how much joy that's bringing me. Because it's that childlike wonder I was telling you about. Going through life with childlike wonder was one of the two I told you so. That investment, whether it makes it or doesn't make it, it's an amount I can afford. It's a Series A, so I could lose the whole thing. Probably will. But it connects to me of service, helping people who in depression and anxiety and childlike wondering, curiosity of how humanity is moving forward. It checks all the boxes. Do you kind of see, like, every day, like, things that come in my life that I say hell yes or hell no to? It quickly goes to that ultimate end. Goal is really checking that end goal and moving me in the direction that brings me the most joy.

Let me throw a wrench into the argument, because our mutual friend Brooke Castillo, one of her core tenants of what she teaches, is that life is 50 50, and she'll say that it's no better here than there. So once you reach all of your goals, life isn't better. The goalposts just change. Meaning you still have problems, an equal number of problems, an equal number of challenges. They might be higher quality problems, but they feel just as crappy. But the way that you're describing it might counter what she is describing. So what's your view on something like that?

It's not my experience. That might be her experience. That's not my experience. My experience is that when you're spending more time in your natural state of being, of joy, because you know what joy is, you know, it connects, you know, it lights you up because you know your why there's just more joy. People always say, you know, how optimistic I am or how loving, how much energy I transmit. And I wasn't always like this. This wasn't. If you would have known me, Ryan. You know, I've always been high energy, but it's a different energy, It's a different transmission now. But my. My own internal experience. Not that it's. I'm always happy. Certainly I have crappy days or you have moods or fear. It's not like I've. It's not like I've transgressed that I'm still a human, but I have so much time now in satisfaction. Like right now, talking to you in this moment, my. My experience is presence, joy, love, everything I dreamed of that I wanted in that end. Like, because. Because podcasting and being with close friends and being part of my community, like, this is the stuff that stokes me. So this is like, once again, even this moment is checking all those boxes.

Now, you mentioned that you had a certain level of success when you started asking these questions and that before you designed your life this way, you were a little more serious, less jovial.

Depression. I think.

More depressed. Okay.

More anxious. I felt anxious often.

Okay. So often my question is, do you think that you could have done this process and made this change earlier, or.

Did you need that energy?

Did you need that anxious, negative energy in order to get to a certain point, to give you the capacity to do more? Is asking these questions a place of privilege in hindsight?

I suffered for a long time, and it was unnecessarily suffering. If I could have gone back with what I know. Now, if the older JP could have spoken to younger JP I would have said, trust me, your ship's gonna come in. If I could have just trusted myself that my ship was gonna come in any way that looks like it didn't have to be a dollar amount. Just trust me. Because I think I was chasing happiness for so long, thinking that the money would bring me happiness or this would bring. And you're chasing it. And the harder you chase, just like if you chase a woman, the faster they run. The more you chase, the more elusive it is. And I think that was a lot of my. A lot of my 20s and 30s.

Yeah. I think we can get to a certain point with that motivational energy. You can. You can accomplish some things.

You can push.

You can.

You can push. You can.

But it always burns out. Like that is. That has a. That has a capacity. So the earlier you can tap into something that is deeper than just the drive to succeed, the. The faster you can do that, the more capacity that there is to expand. And my experience has been in the. In the moments when I am able to tap into that, which is still a muscle I'm working on building, but in those moments where I'm able to tap into that, it doesn't matter what happens in the external world, I know that I can still show up and be the person that I want to be. And then the world just sort of morphs around my desires.

The world will support whatever energy if you're. If you're. I heard a little bit of a sad story. I was talking to a friend, and no matter what her son does, he's always in drama, but he's totally created that environment. You know, you just can't get out of drama. Like, the car gets hit, and then the next day a tax collector, and the next day a building falls. Like. Like. Like just trouble, like, just surrounds this person. I'm not making light of it, but I do understand that, like, there is a certain thing that you are. You are attracting certain things. So if you like what you're attracting, you're probably on the right. You're probably on the right frequency. If you don't like your life or what you're attracting, whether it's friends, pressure, threatening phone calls, lawsuits. I say that we have a certain. I mean, we can't control everything, but I would say we have a certain amount is in what we're. The frequency that we're transmitting. So I'm agreeing with you.

So when you were in that transformation of going through what you want and taking pictures of the office that you end up buying is on the car.

I mean, I did everything. I had crazy pictures of my family, places I wanted to travel. Like, I really. This was a big book. I need to share it with you.

Yeah, I'd. I'd love to see it. And was. Was this the first time that you were practicing? You're calling it that frequency or that vibration? Is that the first time that you were building that muscle? Did you have to put effort into thinking about, like, oh, I would like that. I'd like to have that. It was painful. Okay, great.

So.

Because it's hard for me sometimes. So tell me about it.

Remember I told you this took six to 12 months? Like, I'd show things to Tristan and he'd go, like. Like, I'd show him. Like, I'll just give you an example. Let's just say I showed him a car. He's like, well, why is that car important to you? And I'd say, well, because it's why I like to drive fast. Why do you like to drive fast? And you know, because it gives me. Because I look at. Right, yeah. Well, why do you like adrenaline? And like, on. And I like drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, drill. Until we got to the root of motion. And it's amazing how much time all of us. I think it's just human nature we spend in our head or we don't even know why we. You know, we have all these stories where we're constantly manufacturing stories. Some of the stories are good, some of the stories are bad. But. But a lot of em are just stories of who we think we want to be. We want to look cool. We want to look cool. Like, what's my story? Like when I'm at a cocktail party and I mean someone new, you already know what you're going to say. You know, you have a certain story and you're going to. Most people will try to tell the best story they can. Yeah, right. So you're already starting to create a.

Perception, a perception of how you want to be.

This is who I am. And we all do it. It's very human to do it. But you tend to tell a story, and the story is not always necessarily. It's the story you think is of who you are, and you. You buy your own story when you tell it. So you think you're. You think you're that story. You think that's what you want, and it could be right, and it could be completely like Disconnected or somewhat disconnected, actually, from what's the most important thing for you, for your spirit and actually what brings you the most amount of joy.

So what would you suggest to go in the other direction to do something different? Is it about asking yourself what those root emotions are and then finding the things that bring more of that in your life? What would you say to somebody? And I'm asking selfishly because this is a struggle for me where it's like, I want that thing, but do I really want that thing? Is that really going to change my life? Or do I really just want to look cool on the Internet or to this person over here? So what advice would you give?

So I've talked about the story. I think the first thing to start with, I always say, is the Starbucks exercise, which is go to a Starbucks. Take. Take one to three hours and just start writing and don't edit. Try not to edit every time you want to come in with, like, practically.

How to do something.

My life in three years. Audacious. I've got all the money in the world. I've got all resources. There are no limitations. What am I doing in three years from today? Two years from today? Like, what, What's. What's. Like what? Am I breathing? Why? You know, where am I? Am I by the ocean? Am I near the mountains? Am I outside in a balcony? Is my. Is my desk outside on a balcony? Or am I in a really small office with a hundred people thriving with all these people around me? Like, keep bringing me energy, you know, do I have a family? Do. Do I have my best friends? What's it like, my relationship with my best friends? Am I dating someone? Am I married? What's that like? What's it feel like? Like, like if you can't. I'm more visual, so for me it's easy. Some people, they like to see it in writing. Some people are more like. If you're more like in auditory record storyteller, just use your computer, hit dictation and just start telling a story, an outrageous story. Ask ChatGPT. Maybe. Maybe they'll make it a better story. I'm visual, so for me, I love painting the picture. Like literally describing the house, the wood, the, the everything. I just love describing things. That's just how my mind lights up and how I visualize things. And so when I think about hell yes or hell no, even to today, it's all visually based. I can almost like see. I can see myself skiing. I can see. I actually see my relationship now. I don't want to skip too far ahead because I just recommitted to the process after a 10 year hiatus. But I can see my relationship with my wife. I know what it feels like now and I know like what it's going to feel like in three years from now with this vivid visioning thing. And it's not even that different. It just gets at this point it's almost like a refinement.

Well, let's talk about that because at this point I think you've. I think you've done over $1 billion in transactions. Billion dollars in management and real estate.

Five and seven something. Yeah.

Oh my goodness. It's over a billion five now.

Yeah.

Wow. Good work. Congratulations.

Might be more, I don't know, but something like that.

So. So.

I'm guessing you've accomplished most of the goals that you put on paper from 10 years ago.

I did. That's why, that's why I decided to re. Commit to a process that was.

Yeah, yeah.

Because I realized the goals from 10 years ago. Are you pretty much done?

Yeah, there's. There's probably no juice in that squeeze anymore. It's like do it again. Right. So what is, what do you do this time in order to find Thrive 2.0 or JP 2.0 to come back to those emotions? Because the goalposts have moved.

Yeah.

So how is the process different or is it exactly the same?

Well, it's. I chose a different way to do it. You know, I'm Tristan, still very close in my life, but I purposely did not choose Tristan again because I also wanted to make sure I was challenging myself to the very edge. So I chose someone else. Here in Austin, I died a coach. The program is through. It's called Vivid Vision, which Cameron Herald, if you look up Cameron Herald, if you ever want to hear the TED Talk, what Vivid Vision is, just go to his TED Talk. But Vivid Vision essentially is very, it's very similar. It's just a little bit of a different approach. But it's your life in 36 months from now. And he purposely says don't go to four years, don't go to five because it's too far off. 36 months is a manageable amount of time of all aspects of your life. And so I just went through a one on one coaching process that I just, that I just finished in birth. And it was really hard. It was a lot of sessions, a lot of my facility. And you can do this. I can tell you the less expensive way to do this. I just wanted to go for it. So I had a facilitator. One on one, we would do rebirthing exercises for an hour. So just to get me out of my own head, it was like an hour of physical movements first before we even ask the first question. So that it wasn't just the story. Like, get out of your story and get into your body. What is your body telling you? What is your gut telling you? And then it was meditation. And so there was a lot, there was a lot of challenges to mix it up to make sure I wasn't regurgitating my cocktail story, which we all do.

Yeah, it sounds like work.

It was a lot of work. Multiple, multiple sessions of just a lot of questions. And she was grilling me. Questions now and questions in the future. What do I really want? It's almost like there's another exercise. It's a really tough one. And a lot of these self help places do it. You literally ask someone in their eyes, what do you want? What do you want? Tell me what you want. And the person's like, always, most people start from their head. And you do this for 20 minutes with someone, it's grueling. And you can get. The person on the other side can get as animated as they want to get. Because what you're really trying to do with the other person is get them out of their head and into their, like, what do they really want? I can tell you I've done this exercise a couple of times and I've also facilitated it. And we may not try this at home unless you're ready for it, but you will get out of your head if you have a good person supporting you on the other side. And it's the same question, by the way, what do you want for 20 minutes? And it sounds so silly. I promise, if you ever want to do it with me, and really you have someone, really who's committed to your growth, you will go right out of your head and right in your body. And usually tears will flow. And then when your tears start to flow, you know exactly what you want. Everybody. If you say, I'm not that kind of person, I. I don't know how to feel that way. I'm a little numb. I don't know. That's not me, that's someone else I call.

Because I'm that person who doesn't know how to. I always said I was the person who was numb in my 20s and 30s, I was that person who said I didn't know how to feel and I couldn't feel things. And I wish I Could feel more. That's. I wasn't that intuitive. Like, I didn't get it. And it's still hard to this day. It's not like, you know, I'm not that guy who generally cries at movies. I wish I cried more at movies. I just don't. But I know as a human being, we all have it deep within us, and it's there. And if you're feeling numb, if you're watching this and you're feeling numb, just know you're a human. You matter, and you absolutely have access to this. And it's just finding the right tools. You know, I've talked in the past. There's. There's another course called Lifebook, which it's, you know, three days of really going through your whys. That's another way to do it. Starbucks exercise is free. If you look at Vivid Vision, some of the questions for Vivid Vision are free. Just go to the site Vivid Vision. And, you know, you can do. You can do the questions yourself. They have group Vivid Vision. So there's a way to do this that if you feel like money is an obstacle, there's ways to get rid of that obstacle. Money.

And what did you discover after going through this? In this chapter of life, after having a lot of success, you're more emotionally intelligent now. You're more in tune with your feelings.

Yeah.

What did you discover you wanted after going through that?

Yeah. So it was really interesting. And one of the reasons why I want the different coach and went one on one is I wanted to make sure that I went for it and that I wasn't just going to, like, fall back on comfort, but that if there was something I didn't know.

I wanted to know it about myself. And I wanted to, like, I really came into it with 110%. Like, I want to know. And by the way, that's really scary, Ryan, because if you actually go into this exercise of why, what if the answer is not something that you like?

What if the answer is like, I want to be in another relationship? Like, I'm not. I'm like, yeah, it's like, I want to end this relationship. Or what if the. What if the answer is, I actually don't like what I do for a living, I really want to be helping children. What if I had these same fears? What if I want to close up my shop? What if I'm just done and now I want to just help children in Ecuador for some reason? Like. Like, it's really scary, and it takes a lot of courage to really ask your why? And even as I'm talking to him, thinking.

Did I go for it enough? Did I really, really give my soul the opportunity to really ask the question? And I think I did. But I would even say, now, is there more? And I always say, I think that's a healthy thing to always. You don't get just to answer the question once and get to rest on your laurel.

Yeah. Because what you want changes as you get different experiences in life.

It does. It really does. So I can tell you that what surprised me so far is it turned out to be more of a refinement than anything. Like, radically different than what I'm doing.

What I got really clear about for me, like aha's, is that I get the most joy at this point being in communities and friendships of servant leaders, usually entrepreneurs, that actually are doing something that's pushing humanity forward. And I really want to spend most of my time at this point, whether it's doing, you know, the podcast, investing on purpose, being here with you.

I don't think I can do real estate anymore unless it's got some of that juiciness to it. So unless it's really pushing the nonprofit forward, unless it's doing something. And again, the nice thing about apartments, it is community.

Yeah.

But if I'm really just. If I'm just social greenwashing and talking about it in marketing, actually not doing something, I think my days are numbered.

That makes sense. And the way that you've described your real estate deals is, is often about the types of communities that you can create and build with this next investment. Whereas most people will tell you about the numbers and what our projected internal rate of return is, and that's all great. There's a purpose for that. But I know for you, spending time with you, you think more about, okay, how do we do something special for these residents? How do we cultivate community within these apartment buildings? And as a result, you're able to get really good returns. But it's secondary to what actually has your interest because it matches the values that you want to bring to that.

Let me tell you the risk in that. Like, first of all, if you would have asked me this eight years ago, return would have been the number one importance. I wouldn't. It wouldn't have been the same response. I wouldn't have said to you, if it doesn't have purpose, I don't know that I can do it. I promise you, I wouldn't say that. That's actually scary for me to say today. Like, I'M if this doesn't bring me satisfaction in that way, I quit. That's a really scary thing to say. It's. It's like, wow, there's a lot of ego behind that. There's. I know there's a lot more potential financial rewards out there. So, like to say that is even a threat. It's threatening to my ego to even make that statement on camera.

But I bet it brings you a completely different level of opportunity.

I think it does. I think. I think it really does. And I can tell you the transformation of bottom line first, of making sure I return first of all, was a different part of my career because, you know, I was more in my. My brain was in survival mode. It wasn't. I wasn't in my mind giving myself the lecture. It's not that I couldn't if I wasn't giving my luxury of the why because I didn't know about it.

Yeah.

But here's the thing. You had to be prepared. If you do the why exercise, I can't go back. I can't reverse engineer. So now that I know what I love and what I believe in, I can't go back to being that person I was eight years ago. Like, I can't talk my way out of this because I know it moves my heart. And so if you're that kind of person, this is where it takes courage. Like, once you commit and say, I really want to know my highest because for myself, but also, you know what my purpose and my legacy, my why is you won't go backwards. It's like, it's like trying to unknow the truth. It's like, it's like being in a relationship when you know it's not right and then trying to make it work, you can't. So just know if you do your why exercise, you know, the reward is, I think for me is life satisfaction, joy, connection, intuition, more coincidences, more serendipity than you're ever going to have in your life. But the downside is you're not going to go back to your. To your original story. And your ego is. For most people, we are connected to our stories of looking good, telling it the right way, the angle. So there's risk. There's risk in doing this. And you have to decide that you really want to do it. And I really applaud people for the taking the amount of effort and the courage to break through your thoughts and your ego to go to that next step. And you call it your spiritual exploration.

You started over completely at 35.

Yeah.

Right. With, with like nothing. Yeah, like nothing. Nothing. Right. You, if I remember correctly, you, you had some relationships that didn't pan out as much as you wanted them to, maybe trusted the wrong people, they weren't gracious. And how things ended. And you were pretty much left with nothing.

At 35, single, broke, living in a rent control apartment in Santa Monica for four bucks a month. Wow. At 35, driving a piece of shit car. That is the only thing I could afford after driving nice cars and when I had a job at Sony, but now I didn't have the salary, so I'm just driving piece of shit cars and I don't live in 400 rent. Rent control apartment. And it's not very pretty. You know, we talked about this. It's one thing to do that in your 20s. It doesn't look very. Talk about bad story. And my story looked bad. All my friends are married and they're doctors and professionals and I'm in a piece of shit car, in a rent control apartment, single, trying to find my way.

And so you got into real estate because you needed opportunity. Right. You didn't, you weren't asking these questions back then. It was like, I gotta make, I gotta make something happen.

Yes.

Right. What if you could, if you could give a message to that man at 35.

Yeah.

Who is starting over.

Yeah.

What would you tell him? And do you think that it would matter?

Yeah. You know, I think we all, it's easy to criticize ourselves and doubt ourselves that we can actually do it. Like you know, even when you think you've got the best product or that you're gonna make it, it's, there's, there's, we all have this little doubt. What if I don't? And then how much time are we spending on what if I don't make it? Like what does that look like?

Oh man, I give so much airtime to that.

Right. It's not only is like your own, like you take. I just did an investing on, on purpose podcast with Gordon and Gordon says most entrepreneurs if their business, if their business doesn't make it. And high failure rate in businesses. Right. 80, 90% failure rates. He says the first thing he mentors them and tells them is remember your business failed, but you didn't. Remember as the entrepreneur. And he's the next question, so what's next? And be prepared to fail because then that failure actually wasn't failure. You Learned to take 500 no's. You learned everything. That's not going to work. You Learned that being an entrepreneur, while it sounds good, is one of the damn nastiest, hardest, ugliest, riskiest, rejection filled job you can want to do.

Yeah.

And yet we keep saying on, on podcasts and people how sexy it is to be an entrepreneur. It is not that sexy to be an entrepreneur. How many times have you had a risk, problems, failure, stress, sleepless nights, no's backwards, backwards. You gotta, you gotta get up the next day and be resilient or take the punch or get out of the game. Yeah, it is hard.

It's hard and that's why you should join the 1%.

Yes. Now you're right though. Having that comedian.

So, so it'll be the hardest thing you ever do in your life. The hardest thing capitalism.com One the hardest.

Thing you ever loved. So if I was to go back ryan to the 35 year old, having more grace on yourself, having more patience, having more faith.

Realizing that you're not in it for the like the, the, the success doesn't need to be. Don't be so desperate for your own success. Know that you're in a process and.

Bet on you that I, I felt when you said know that you're in a process.

Yeah.

Because boy did I go have I gone through processes.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think we make a mistake here. I think the western society is just like, you know when you see that person. My new thing now is when you see somebody on, on Instagram or tick tock in a with a Lamborghini behind them to asking you investor telling them, trying to sell you on their educational course of how they made it just go to the next thing because that's not the energy. I'm not saying they're good or bad. I'm just saying that's not the energy because that's not the process. That's not things we're talking about. That's, that's someone trying to give you a quick way to make money. But that quick way to make money, it totally negates everything what you and I are talking about, Eric A it probably won't work and they're just going to make some money selling you an education course. Two, they probably lease the Lamborghini and two, it's not the one I buy anyways.

So you're not going to get there or if you get there, it's not going to get there in true success because you're trying to shortcut a process that can't be shortcut. If you want a real definition of success which could be financial Abundance coupled with life satisfaction as opposed to just hacking something, just like trying to lose weight. So you starve yourself for three days, you take ten pounds off your goal, and guess what? You eat a bunch and you go right back to. You still got to live with this every day. So you achieve really very little.

The first page in my book is actually got into a fight with my editing team on this, which was I wanted to say, don't read this book. And it is like, I won. You know, the opening pages. Don't read. Don't read this book. And I say that because entrepreneur. I say in the book, it's hard. It's a life sentence. It will cost you more than you realize. But if you're one of the crazy few that desires to create life on your own terms, regardless of what it costs, you can't. You can't say no. You have to accept that call to adventure. And I think part of the reason why I thankfully don't get lumped into a lot of those driving around Lamborghini guys is because, like we say, this is really hard. It gets a grind for three to six months. And then the first year is when you. After a year is like when you start to really enjoy some fruit. Not a lot of fruit, but some fruit. Yeah. It was a year into sheer strength that Matt and I put ourselves on payroll at $60,000 a year, you know, a year in, we're like, I think we can afford to pay ourselves $60,000 a year. Whereas most people who are just going for the fast thing is about filling some sort of internal void rather than creating what it is that you really want. And if you take that time, which feels a lot like work of digging into what it is that you really want, which is, as you're saying, it is not as surface level as we think it is, that is when you. I think you have the fuel to be able to build something that is meaningful. You remember the time that we were sitting in your hot tub and you had me close my eyes and you kept asking, why do you want that? What do you want people to say? We only did that for maybe six or eight minutes. And that was so hard for me.

I remember you.

You do it. You remember watching me struggle with that. It was very hard for me to think about anything other than the result and the status, the result that it would give me and how people would perceive me. And you've told me later, like, you could tell. And you stuck with me, right? Because you were like, there's a good heart in there, beyond all this surface level mumbo jumbo. And I'm guessing that's because you could relate to that struggle completely.

And by the way, I think the struggle is ongoing. It's not like I've. It's not like I've transcended the entire struggle. I struggle through my struggles. Like, as you're talking about, as part of my vivid vision now, I'm building Thrive 2.0 and 2.0. I've got a lot of stress right now. Like. Like, it's not the same game. This isn't rinse and repeat. You know, you and I have talked about, you know, I'm creating more of a sales funnel. Times have changed. Yeah. Marketing change. I. This isn't just like, oh, I've hit the top of the mountain. Now I'm done. Like, I'm really challenging myself. I'm having some successes. I'm having some failures. I'm figuring it out. So I'm. I kind of feel like, yes, it's more comfortable this time because I'm not eating ramen on my apartment.

But. But your 400amonth rent control, piece of car. But, but I, But I'm seeing that. Listen, I'm still, you know, figuring out, you know, getting my team motivated, creating my own vision, making sure it's. You can have your vision in your head. But, like, is the vision effective? Is that the right vision at the right time?

So you bring up.

You brought up something really important there. You said motivating your team because your team has to have a why, too.

Oh, they do. If it's in your head, even in your heart, and your team's not feeling your energy, you're. You're kind of. You're wasting your time. Here's what I've learned, Ryan. At this point, I really tell people, at this point of my company success, when you get to a certain point, a CEO or an owner or a founder is really like a great basketball coach. And all I really need to do is coach at this point. Like, the push. The push was 1.0. 2.0 is being the best coach I can and then creating the A team. And the A team is skills. It's. It's the right hiring. You can go through the whole thing about how you hire. Right. Hire and fire. As Cameron Herold would say, knowing when to fire and thin your. Thin it. And then they need to know not only what the. What the. How to win. Like, what's the game? How do I win? But why do I want to win?

Why do I want to win is usually a mission or a social thing, but it's also why do I want to win? Needs to throw it into their own success. How am I going to get bonus time? I need to get promoted. What needs to happen? What if this happens for the company? What does it mean to me? So I'm doing a lot of these days, a lot of thoughts into how do I make sure that when we hit a metric, like my next metrics is right now, I'll tell you this before my employees, because they're going next week in the next real estate cycle to get to 10,000 apartment units in the next 36 months. That's like one of my goals. That's a lot of money. It's. It's going to take, you know, a lot of fundraising. That's almost like $500 million of fundraising that I need to do with my combined businesses.

I am not going to tell you what I'm going to do, but I'm already clearly thinking that when we hit that number, what it's going to mean to my team. Not just in a bonus, like, not just like a fun vacation, which is great, but actually like compensation, like, how will they get bonus? Like making sure that they get to taste and share, not only in the mission and the joy of what that can bring for community, what that can mean for Veritas, the nonprofit. What does it actually mean for them?

Okay, well, JP, what you just said sounded a lot like goals. 1.0, 10,000 apartments, 500 million.

Right.

Bonuses, incentive plans. So how do you combine that or reconcile that with.

That's the fun part.

Okay, tell me.

Well, because they now they are goals, but the goals are rooted in wise. But you still. I'm a numbers guy, right? I'm a financial, like, I'm a financial guy, everything.

What is that?

Why?

What is the emotion that came first?

So the emotion that came first is now that I know how to create this and now that I really have trust and faith that my company is a company that's out there to serve and do good for communities. Well, why would I do more of that?

I see. So you unlocked or discovered that for you it was community, it was service. That's what lights up no matter what you're doing. Right? And now you have JP 1.0 has done 1.5 plus billion dollars in transactions. And you're like, okay, we've proven that we've got something. How do we tie this to the rocket ship of the emotion that drives us? Let's do 10,000 homes in both.

Yeah, it's arbitrary. I can say 7,500. And by the way, it doesn't really matter If I did 7,005, if I did 15,000. It's not that it's not nearly that important to me. It, it really isn't. But you got to start somewhere and you got you. And as a coach to your team, you got to tell your team what does scoring look like and how you can get bonus by we score. So in a way it's arbitrary, but it's realistic.

But, but the, the, the big aha I'm having there is that it's wrapped in. It is something much more important than just the scoreboard.

Oh, it's, it's the scoreboard's the 10 or 20%. Like I said, it doesn't really matter. It really doesn't matter to a certain degree.

So what would you say to the entrepreneur who relates more to the 35 year old living in a rent controlled apartment with a dream of building a great business, having success? They can relate more to that than, oh, you know, it must, must be nice to be able to sit there and think about the why. What would you say to that person who is still in that part of their 1.0 story?

Well, I would say that I'm looking back and what I would say is that investment right now into your why might be more important than your investment in your business.

Wow, that's bold.

Yeah. Because what do we want as human beings really at the end of the day, you know, we don't know. Let's hopefully we all live to be old. Some of us live to be old, some of us don't. I found out that acquaintance that I knew pretty well just died yesterday and is young, late 40s just died. It happens. And as you get older you see more of that. Unfortunately, just people die of different things. And so there's no guarantee you're going to live for 80 years. So what's the whole gig about? What's the gig about? The money's great, money's super fun. I mean vacations and houses and experiences and family gets to, kids get to go to college, you're not in debt, it's great. And so I'm not negating the material part of it, but all those things are feeling experiences and those experiences, you hope ultimately why do you want those experiences? Ultimately? Because you want to have some form of peace or happiness. Everyone wants the same thing. We want to feel safe, we want to feel loved. And hopefully if you're lucky, you have some peace in your heart because you feel. And hopefully you can go to sleep well at night because you know, you're a person of integrity. You've got a moral and ethical code. Whatever religion or spiritual path you're following, you have a moral code and you follow it. And you know that who you are at church or at temple in the weekends is the same person you are on Monday through Friday. It's the same person. You don't have to compromise any of your values and people know that. Then you've, then you've got your character and that is everything. Because if you go for the money first and don't have your house in order on the other side, you're going to be vastly disappointed.

Do I get that?

You're going to be vastly disappointed.

I know I've made this point already, but it's just, it's worth repeating of. When you have alignment behind those. I'll just call them values like who I want to be. And you bring that into whatever it is that you are doing. I found that you can make almost anything work and work in the sense of fit around those values. I mean, like if you have that, why, you can bring that into building a million dollar E commerce brand or you can do it around being a value investor in the stock market because you choose what you invest in differently. You can bring that into your relationships and friendships. You can bring that into being a consultant. And it's almost like the boundaries through which you're going to operate and provide value for other people. And I've experienced that when you know that things happen really fast, much faster than when you're just trying to pound pavement and make something happen.

I was just thinking, we all know the word business is like busyness, right? And so you can get very busy. But why do you want to start a business in the first place? Really? Probably summer. Because you want to be happy and you think that money's going to bring you happiness, but you got, you know, hit the happiness either simultaneously. So again, do the work, guys. And again, don't let money. Don't let anything stop you from.

I just had something click that I, that I've. I've thought about for years and I. It just clicked. Oh, we're out of time.

Next episode.

So you've heard about freedom to and freedom from, right? So Dan Sullivan talks about this idea of there's two types of freedoms. There's freedom from and there's freedom to. Freedom from is the easy one. And this is what most of us put down about what we want. I want to have a million dollar business so that I can be free from my job. I want to be free from debt. I want to be free from financial hardship. I want to pay off my student loans. These are what most of us focus on.

The Freedom 2 has always been a.

Struggle for me because once we've solved that base level needs, what's next, that has to be much more intentional. And I've always done it with a sense of, okay, now I'm going to set a new set of goals that I'm going to work towards. I want to be free from these things so that I'm liberated to pursue the things that matter to me. And what matters to me is hitting these goals. But what I'm processing after hearing you talk through this is, is that the Freedom 2 is the why behind it. The Freedom 2 is the internal emotional relationship that you have to whatever it is that you're doing.

It's your North Star. It's your North Star becomes your North Star in everything you do. Right.

So in your case, it's, it's community service, love. I want to be free from these things so that I can operate more in freedom, service and love. And I always thought that you had to go freedom to freedom first. I'm sorry, freedom from first and then pursue freedom too. But in the way you're describing it, it actually is one package where if I'm in pursuit of community service and love, then whatever I'm creating is going to give me the freedom from these things and I'm going to also be pursuing something that is much more meaningful. I have never been able to bridge those two together.

That's exactly right. And by the way, that's taking me about 15 years. Okay. Like, like, I, I, you're in a process. I hope, I hope some people in this audience can figure it out faster. But again, not having any guidance or not having this podcast to listen to, I was just making it up. But what you're saying is correct. And the greatest thing is when you're following your North Star, every decision gets easy. Your, your hell yeses and your hell no's get super easy because you're just naturally more in, you're more inclined to make the right decision because you're, you're more connected to why you're, what's driving you, what's driving the map.

Well, this was beautiful, jp.

Yeah, this was really cool.

I enjoyed everything.

I didn't know where we're going to go with this, Ryan, but always I love when we go into our conversations and it's actually really helpful for me too. It makes me think about even more pointedly about these things. I never really thought about that framework of freedom from and freedom to. And that's actually. I did it very sloppy. A lot of pain, a lot of potholes. But yes, that's exactly. You're describing it exactly right.

I'm going to go to Starbucks this week and write down Starbucks, baby.

And there's better coffee. Go to a better coffee that doesn't use plastic in their cups.

Well, obvious.

Obviously, if people want to connect with you more, they can subscribe to the podcast that we co host sometimes Investing on Purpose and then thrive fp.com is the website for the real estate business.

Thank you so much.

Good to see you, man.

Thank you.

If you enjoy this episode and you want to hear more conversations like this, JP and I co host a podcast called Investing on Purpose. So you can find that on wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. The thing that I hope you take away from this episode is when you have the why or you have meaning behind what you are doing, you will show up differently in your business. You'll show up differently at work, you'll show up differently with your family. And I've seen that make a huge difference in which entrepreneurs are successful when somebody is just in it for their own selfish gain. Sometimes they are successful, but most of the time they just quit. But when there is some sort of internal drive behind what they're doing, they have no problem following a plan to get four products at 25 sales a day at a $30 price point. And when you've got that drive, putting in the formula, putting in the strategy is easy. That's our job and that's what we do really well. So if you've got a big why, if you've got a drive behind what it is that you want to do, and you need help on the strategy and execution side, I got you there. Come join us inside the 1%@capitalism.com 1 fill out that form and we'll get you on the road to 1 million. And then you'll have more firepower, you have more cash flow, you'll have more growth and more resources to be able to make your why more real in the world. I'm Ryan Daniel Brand with capitalism.com, thanks so much for listening and I'll see you on the next episode.