Grant Cardone: How'd You Build $350 Million In Real Estate

Foreign.

Hey, good looking people. This is Ryan Daniel Moran. Welcome to Freedom Fastlane. Today you're going to hear one of the keynote speeches from Freedom Fastlane live. On day two, we were joined by Grant Cardone. I asked Grant to speak on our stage because Grant has a real estate empire that's currently worth between 350 and $400 million, which would make quite a nice down payment on the Cleveland Indians. I invest in real estate, but after hearing Grant talk, I realized that I've been operating my real estate holdings in the slow lane. I own less than a million dollars worth of real estate. Grant owns $350 million, and I wanted to find out what the difference was, and I wanted to find out his process for amassing that empire. There was just one problem. Even though we went over his talking points before he came to Austin, and while we were in the green room preparing for points about amassing this empire, Grant got very, very sidetracked while on stage. So I had some work to do in our Q and A session. So I brought a couple glasses of wine out, and I said, okay, Grant, I'm gonna get you drunk and hear all of the talking points that I actually want to hear you talk about. So I had to dig pretty deep to find the answers to the questions that I was seeking. And what you'll be hearing in this podcast is that Q and A session that I had over a glass of wine with Grant. Please note that there is quite a bit of colorful language used between Grant and myself. So if you're driving and you've got kids in the back seat, maybe you want to listen to the one with Pat Flynn or with Jeff Hoffman or one of the cleaner episodes of Freedom Fast Lane. However, if you don't mind that, then you will definitely enjoy this chat with Grant Cardone.

You.

You seem pretty low energy, so I brought you some wine.

Yeah, thanks.

Yeah.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

And I'm apparently gonna have to get you drunk to talk about this freaking $350 million. So drink up, Grant Cardone. So let's talk about this $350 million, eh?

All right, all right. Well, you low. First of all. Call it what it is, dude, because you low. You low. I mean.

That'S good, man. That's good.

No, no, no, no, no.

Dude, it must be.

We're. We're looking. You're up.

I want to apologize to everybody. If anybody in the room, I offended because I cursed, you know, I apologize.

You can say balls whatever you want, Grant.

No, But I. I genuinely mean that because I know it does offend some people. Because you're like, dude, I don't like the cursing thing. So I do apologize, and hopefully I'm good. Forgive me for it.

I'm good on our cursing.

All right. All right.

So let's talk about the empire.

Okay.

Because you started small, and you regret starting small.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So if you could go back 30 years, you said you've been in real estate 30 years. If you could go back 30 years and you could go big in real estate, rather than starting with one house, and you can come out swinging. One of the things we're talking about backstage is that with this event, we just wanted to come out swinging.

Yeah.

So if you could do the same thing with real estate 30 years ago, how would you have done it differently?

Well, I would have. You know, first of all, the three years. The three years that I spent every weekend shopping real estate, literally, I called people up, hey, can you show me that deal? Can I look at the books? How does it work? I asked so many questions. I mean, like, one of the things that helped me was the number of questions, the number of times I will ask a question.

There's some questions that I have asked on every deal. Every time I already know the answer. I'm asking it to get.

You know, all the data, you know. So what would I have done differently? The first thing I did right was that I shopped. I spent the three years. The three years. And I didn't buy anything. I didn't buy one deal. I just shopped. Then I left Houston, went to La Jolla, and I promised. When I left Houston, I said, man, I will never. If I ever. I knew I was right. But I didn't have the guts. I didn't have the courage to pull the trigger in Houston. And when I look back, I'm like, oh, my God, that market was perfect, dude. I could have just killed it.

And so when I got to La Jolla, when I moved to La Jolla, by the way, I just moved there because I wanted to live there. I think that's important to do, you know, to be nimble and move around. Don't be stuck in one place. I moved to La Jolla, and I said to myself, I said, man, if I ever feel this thing again, I'm gonna freaking. I'm just gonna go all in. And one day, I was in downtown San Diego, was with my buddy dale. Dale had $50.

And he was a psychologist. So, you know, he's telling me to Chill out. Take it easy. I'm like, dude, you're broke.

You might be the wrong guy to give advice to anybody. And I'm driving around San Diego and I have this sensation. I know exactly where I'm at. I know the street I'm on in downtown. I'm driving around like, dude, I feel it right now. It was right after the savings loans had busted. Y' all remember that? That's 1995. There was, I don't know, 1700 banks bust out, credit unions mostly, and savings and loans. And I'm like, dude, I feel it. I feel it. He's like, you feel what I said I feel something, man. Okay, there's something. It's happening, man. Literally, 21 days later, I bought my first deal. 38 units. It was $1.9 million. It took $350,000 in cash. My first deal cost me 350. So I went from a $70,000 house that I rented for 700 to my first deal, 350 grand. Okay, now I'm telling you that to tell you this one, you need bank. That wasn't my only 350 grand. You need bank because it doesn't take money to make money. It takes courage to make money. Takes courage. Most of us in the room, you're not going to have enough courage the first time. So the way to get the extra courage is to have the Extra bank put 350 in this deal. It was $1.9 million. I knew I stole it. I mean, I knew that day I'm like, dude, I just made 350 for sure. Well, I sold it for like 6 million.

And I bought my first deal. It was 1.9. Nobody knew I was doing this. I'm out speaking, by the way, 250 times a year. This is when I was on a full time, 250 gigs a year, 365 days a year. My speaking business paid for the real estate. It funded the real estate. So I was out selling, dude. I was raising down payments every day. Every day. The first business funded the third business, the one that would take care of me. Now that third business, the real estate business, now takes care of the first business. So I can actually help people, which is what I love to do.

You understand that? That's the business that feeds my heart. Help doing what I'm doing today feeds my heart. If it was just money, I would be in Austin looking at real estate deals today. I wouldn't be doing this. Okay? I could have bought a deal today already. So first deal I did was 1996. It was 38 units. My second deal took place.

It was 48 units in Vista, and it took place 60 days after. And then I. Then I bought 500 units in San Diego. Okay? Biggest mistake I made was selling any of them.

I should have never sold any piece of real estate I had, except for one or two maybe. And then I sold that portfolio. I'd been doing this five or six years now. And then I went to Tucson, Arizona, about 2200 units in three days. I'd never even been to Tucson. It was a feeling, man.

Got to go. Okay. The woman I'm married to.

I'm like, dude, that's the chick. That's her, man. She's gonna have my babies or make me think, you know.

They look like me and Leo, the neighbor. Okay, all right. So I. I don't know. I mean, you know, so, so, so then, then I moved. Then I moved to Florida. When I left la, I moved to Florida. In the last. In the last couple years, I bought 4,500 units. I got 4,500 units right now. And I want to go to 10,000. 10,000 gets me to a billion. And I ain't buying a sports team. I'll let you and Gary do that shit.

We'll make it worth the roi. So the businesses were the war chest. They were the war chest for funding the long term scalable income streams that were never going to be touched, that were never going to go away. No economic change was going to put that out. But the business was the war chest for that.

The sales business. My first business was a seminar business. Basically, I went around the country. I had this idea that I had a new way to sell things. Not. Not a Brian Tracy way. I love Brian. Me and Brian are friends, but a different way in the 21st century. I knew the Internet was coming. I knew transparency was coming. I knew even if those things didn't come, I knew that people hated salesmen and the reason they hated salesmen. And this is where you got to really start looking like I was when I was sitting on that second row right there. I was watching the conference and I came up with this unbelievable idea for conferences to solve a problem that people have in conferences. And maybe I'll tell you about it later, but because you watch, you got to watch, man. You gotta, like, you got to micromanage it. You should be looking all the time, everything, everywhere. And.

So I used that first business basically to raise money, but I needed that first business because I didn't know the real estate was going to come on. So while I said in my presentation, I regret not reinvesting in the company, the truth is that money. I always wanted to buy real estate. How many have ever had that sensation? Like, I want to buy real estate one day? Look at everybody that's ever freaking killed it. The JPs, I mean, all of them. All of them. Look back at the last hundred years, okay? When inflation hits, you want to be in two places, real estate and art. And art don't pay me art. Because they inflate, right? They inflate. We hadn't had inflation for 20 years in this country. So they say we don't have it now. I think we're in it right now. I think we're inflating right now. And they're just lying to you. So I don't know what your question was, except that.

Where do I get.

My damn $350 million?

I would tell everybody in the room this, okay? In the next 25 years, there's one thing that is indestructible. It is an easy business. Everybody in the room should do it. It will protect your children against inflation problems. People will have to rent in this country, okay? There's 150 million people in America that are renters, not buyers of homes. They're more inclined to rent. 80 million. How old are you?

28.

80 million. You own a house.

Only investments, okay?

So look, look, the millennials don't want to buy anything. You guys don't. You wouldn't even own your phone if you could get out of the contract. So. So the new. The new thing is to be nimble, man. You don't want to own stuff, okay? I rent where I live.

And I own what I can rent. It is indestructible. No app, no piece of technology. Nothing can destroy it. And it's the easiest, lowest maintenance of all my businesses.

Tell us about the criteria that you look for because.

You'Ve never read a.

Dude, if it don't feel good. If it don't feel good, I don't do it.

Well, what are the triggers, then? What are the triggers that.

You got to look at a lot of stuff to know what you know. You got to look at a lot of women to know the one you want.

You got to look at a lot of cars to know. You know what, dude, I dig that car. Dude, that car. I don't. I don't drive cars. When I buy them, I'm like, dude, hell yeah, the car salesman. You. You want to drive it Dude, I don't want. I want to look at the damn thing.

I only use it 5% of the time. Most of the time, I'm just fantasizing about it in my head. Anyway, I got this big watch on. I didn't try to watch on. I said send it to the house. Dude, do you need to try it on? I need it at my damn house.

Why don't you come in and look at it? Dude, I don't want to come look at it. I want to fucking buy it.

You buy, you buy exclusively. So first, commercial property only apartments.

Only apartments. I will not buy retail. I will not buy office, only retail.

Why?

Because I know there's 150 million and growing that have to rent. Okay? So now that could change with Hillary. Hillary gets in, she'll loosen up all the regulations to make sure everybody can buy the American dream.

Bernie Sanders is going to try and.

Prevent that from happening. Okay, so. So the point of that is I buy only things that produce income. The criteria, this, it has to feel good. First subjective, and then it has to meet an objective, very strict objective. Process of due diligence.

Which is based on history.

As I would buy any business, I would base it on the history. I'm not a speculator, okay? I'm not Gary. Gary's in Twitter. And good for you.

You buy all that stuff you want to buy. I want sure things. I want guarantees. I want. Don't lose my money.

Ever. Okay, who's got my money now? I got it. Don't lose it. Multiply it. So you might want to look at your businesses and say, dude, how long the gentleman was talking about woke up and didn't feel like I was interested anymore? Dude, the more real estate I get, the more real estate I get. The more income I get. The more passive stuff I got going on, the more I love my first two businesses, the more I love people, the more I love my kids.

The more I love my wife. Dude, I got to tell you, the more passive income coming in. I'm just a nicer person to everybody.

I don't mind a hit. I don't mind a hit. I don't mind this. You know, the guy comes in late. Dude, you're fired. How can you do that? I got a lot of passive income coming in. Get out of my face. Get out of my face. I don't want you showing up late. Dude, I don't even show up late. I show up late and I feel bad. How many in the room show up late and you feel bad? Dude, at least exert that same freaking expectation on other people. I'm not being hard on other people. I'm hard on me.

Dude, you did a good job with that mastermind group, right? Give him a big hand, huh? That was awesome. A big hand. Big hand. Come on.

Dude. The guy asked all those questions and didn't have any notes. I'm like, how's he doing that? Has he got an earpiece?

I have very high testosterone.

He's Tony Romo or something.

What are. What are your warning signs for deal? What are the things that scare you out of it and that.

That. That are. That are clear indicators that you need to run?

Well, I didn't finish the story on the 1100 units, okay? I bought. Bought from overseas, but. But I just knew that deal was right, okay? So I said, look, show me the trailing 12. There was 38 bidders on that deal.

He knew the other 37. He didn't know me. Probably the biggest sale of my life was this deal, okay? And.

Four years ago, the portfolio was $58 million. It's located in St. Lucie Port, North Florida. I haven't even been there but one time, and it was 1100 units. They wanted $58 million or 60. They wanted $62 million. And the guy told me. I didn't know the guy. I said, man, I know you, dude. I've heard about you for years. You're the freaking. You're the freaking. You're the king, dude. See, what am I doing right now?

No, I ain't. I'm selling, dude. I ain't feeding his ego, dude. I'm selling. This is a sales job. When you're trying to buy something, it's a sales. Sales job, not a buyer's job. I am never a buyer. I am always a salesperson. Always.

Always. 100% of the time. Salespeople have control. Buyers don't. Okay, so I'm selling, right? So I have to convince him first. I got to get to the top of the. This is. This is what a business has to do. I got to get to the top of the list, man. I got to make the top three. I can't be in a competition with 38 people.

So the first thing that's going on is. Robert, man, Grant Cardone. Da, da, da. I've heard about you. You're amazing, dude. I heard about the 1100 units. I know the old man died. He's got to sell him. I had done my homework, right, dude? Let's do this deal. I'll buy the deal from you. I'm ready to go right now. I said, dude, I'm on a red eye right now to fly in to meet you tomorrow morning. I can't be there tomorrow morning. I'm thinking, neither can I. Over commit, over commit, over commitment. Figure out how to follow up later. Over commit. Figure the rest out later, you guys. Okay? So I'm like, look, I don't need a bank. There is no board. I'm ready to roll. Let's go. It felt good to me. I've only done a Google search at this point, but it felt good, okay? I felt the property. I felt it right. How many of you had that feeling before? You're like, there's something. There's something that feels right and you passed. Now I got to do my due diligence, but before I do my due diligence, I got to get to the top of the heap. Okay, man, I'll consider the offer. And I sent the loi. He said, send me the loi. I sent a video loi. I sent a loi, which, because there was five board members that would make a decision on the property and whether I was the guy. And I sent that loi. And it had a. It had an embedded piece of technology in it that would tell me if they open this video.

They opened the video 17 times. You don't see that with a piece of paper or an email. Okay? So I sent a video. In the video, I was. I was in my house in Los Angeles and I'm like, hey, guys, you don't know me. I know every one of us. Done my homework. I know the property. I've already walked it. We've done two walkthroughs actually.

And I didn't do the walkthroughs. We've done two walkthroughs, okay? I love the property. I have to own this. My family has to own this. I'm willing to pay all the money to get this. I have never not closed on a deal. It's about a three minute video, right? I promise you, you don't know me and I know you. Know, I don't haven't met you, but I'm your buyer. They opened it 17 times. Did they take any serious. Who else sent a video? Nobody. Okay? I made it to the top three. The guy that got it, I didn't get it. I didn't get it. The guy that got it, Robert, calls me up, says, we didn't give it to you. Actually feel bad about it. I don't even know why I feel bad. About it. I don't even know you.

I said, bro, if that guy. If that guy scrapes his foot, I'm coming with lightning and thunder, okay? He called me a week and a half later, dude, you still a buyer? Bang. Jumped. I jumped as fast as I could. I said, tell me what number. He told me 62. I renegotiated back down to 58. It was just appraised for 108.

So I don't know. I don't know. I put $15 million down when I bought it, dude, that's a lot of money. $15 million. 15 million. But I knew this. It was going to pay me a million five that year. So how's that a bad deal? How's 15 million down? Pay me a million five before I do anything, before I put my voodoo on it, okay? It's going to pay me cash if I don't do anything. If I just walk in and take it over, it's going to pay me money. So anyway, that's what I do, dude. I don't know if that helps, but I do big subjective. It's got to feel good. And then I do a big due diligence, but I commit before I do my due diligence.

What's your primary source of leads for those big deals?

I personally am sending out emails almost every day. It's like asking me who runs my Twitter account.

Go on.

I do everything, dude.

So you're manly going. You're manually going out.

Thank you. No, I do everything, dude. You guys talk about delegating everything. I don't delegate everything. I do everything.

But when you say that I do.

Everything, I'm telling you I do everything. You know, we have probably 50 employees in Miami. The more employees I bring on, the more I do. Doesn't matter to me, man. I could bring on 5,000 people.

I'm giving a presentation tomorrow that'll probably help you with that.

I don't want help. I don't want help with that. I love working, dude. I like Twitter. I like playing on Facebook. I like talking to people. I like being. I have an open flow. I think the one reason that I have good things happening to me is because I have open flows. Things come in, things go out. I acknowledge people, talk to people. High five. People take selfies with people. You want a picture with me? Do you? Grab me wherever I'm at? Okay. I love people. I love people. I like helping people. I don't like people that are bitches. Okay. I don't like people that criticize. I Don't like people that gossip.

They.

But if you don't have. If you have so much hustle that you don't have time, like this is a barometer for me, or if that's a word, a litmus. If you have so much hustle, if you got so much hustle that you have no time for hate, I'll be your buddy. If you got hate and everybody's got some hate, some garbage, right? But if you got enough hustle, dude, you just won't find time for it. So I'm so busy trying to produce and create something, I don't have time to critique you.

So if you want to critique me, it just tells me more about you and your hustle than me and my hustle.

No problem. But I just don't have the time. You found to criticize other people.

In some of your podcast episodes you.

Recommend that people use.

This isn't bad, dude.

Why didn't you buy something for everybody though, dude?

What kind of operation? Yeah, yeah.

Aw, Dear.

I immediately regret this decision.

So, Grant, in your podcast episodes, you recommend that people use some public sources to start sourcing some deals or at least to start practicing looking at some deals. Is that where you are starting the conversations and finding most of your leads, or are you using other places of.

Getting the contact information of the audience?

Like, I'll go on LoopNet. Okay? LoopNet is a great real estate source or co star. And I go in there and I'll see a listing. I'm not looking at the listing. I'm looking at the guy's name. Then I send the guy a personal email. Hey, my name's Grant Cardone.

Here's my real estate company. I've bought and sold $500 million worth of estate. The real, real estate. I am a real player. I will not waste your time. You guys like hearing this? I will not waste your time. I am not waste time. I am not a lookie, lookie. What do y' all call them? Looky Lou. Okay. I will not waste your time. I am a bone stole cold call killer. And I don't have a board. I don't have decision makers. I'm a family fund. I am the only one in charge. There is nobody else. What am I doing?

That's all I'm doing. That's what I do with everybody. I do that with my kids. I keep doing it with my wife. You know, I keep. I did it with this guy for the last three weeks. Dude, can I help you? What can I do to help you? How Can I help you right? How many times I called you the day before we had the conference call, dude, Can I promote it? Can I get it out? How can I help you? I want to collaborate. How do I help other people? Because if I can't help other people, I probably can't help myself.

You guys that are passing by people, you passing a homeless guy. You passing a guy busted out at Starbucks. I don't need to give him money. But pay attention to him, man. Hey, how you doing, man? Pay attention. Send somebody energy. Don't give him money. You don't need to give him money. You need to give him, hey, dude, how you doing? How you doing, man? I don't need to give you money, dude, there's so much money on this planet, it's unbelievable. You can't find your own damn money.

You can't find. Yummy. What's wrong with you? Okay. Lady in Santa Monica's like, can you give me some money? I could.

But I ain't, because ain't nobody gave me any.

So, you know, get out there and hustle, dude. Get some skills. I'm homeless. Good pitch.

Get attention.

Ask for more. That's what I gotta do. So if I wanted to go, like, if I wanted to go right down, say I wanted to raise a fund, let's say, because I'm tapped out all the time. I'm always out of money. I'm busted all the time. One of the things that I've done right is I stay busted. I stay broke constantly. So I wake up, I go to sleep, literally, like I'm broke. And I'm waking up like I'm starving.

So it doesn't matter. I go to sleep like I'm broke.

And then I wake up like, oh, my God, I'm starving. The reason I stay broke is I take this. I take all the money from the first couple business and I dump them in a third one or the fourth one or the fifth one, I dump everything in. I go all in. I don't diversify. I got three or four things I do. I go all in on those things.

So I wake up the next morning, I'm like, I gotta go get some money. Who's got my money? Everybody try that. Who's got my money? It's such an easy thing to learn, man. And the schools don't teach it. Did they teach you this in math class? That's all math is about, who's got my money? I taught my daughter how to count. I said, look, you get to 100, and then skip to a million.

You do not. Don't let them teach you the numbers. After the 100, you go, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 9, 100, skip. And that's what I wish I would have done earlier. I wish I had a dad or a mom telling me, dude, skip, don't be in the middle class. Don't think middle. Don't settle. Don't compare yourself to other people. Blow up. Because it's out there, man. It's out there right now. It's waiting for you. So how do I source my deals, dude? I'm looking at deals every day. Every day. I just. Anything I want to do, I look at. I look at deals when I don't have money for deals.

Would you talk about that? Because you mentioned that you don't raise funds. You don't raise outside funds for your deals.

So let's say right now I'm broke. I don't have any cash. And.

So let's say that.

He calls me up and says, dude, I got a deal. I close a lot of deals at the end of the year, November and December. Why do I close deals in November and December?

Because nobody else does. I don't compete. I want to either dominate or I want to collaborate. So in October, I started making phone calls, dude, I got a 1031. We got 25 million in cash. 25 million and 1031 money. We got 25 million in cash. What am I doing? I'm trolling, dude. Trolling. I'm chumming the waters. Chumming. What's a real estate agent want to hear? 1031? Money, man. Shit, Money's got a freaking clock on it. Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick. What am I doing?

Damn, they pretty. Okay. It reminds me, man. So. So? So we chum the waters in October. I mean, I'm chumming all the time, right? Even when I'm broke. So somebody calls, he calls me. I got a deal. Good. Where's it at, dude? I take the search. It's got to pass this test.

Right? And then I do what, man? I'm sorry. Okay, let me invest a little bit of money to figure out what I got to do. Do I want this deal. I make an offer, tie it up, commit. First.

I don't have any money, dude.

Shit.

Now you need some skills.

And then you need skills, baby.

Banks. You need banks. You need lenders, hard money, soft money. Moms, dads, uncles, aunts.

See, your family's got you so scared to talk to them.

Now. Don't mix business and family. How many are told that? Dude, if you can't raise money from your family. Shit.

If you believe in the deal, if it's a good deal. I borrowed 90 grand from my mom to make a deal work. I'm like, Look, I need 90 grand, dude. I've committed. I came up 90 grand, short dog. Okay? You bought me a car, you sent me to school. Like, I need 90k. Are you gonna pay me back? Oh, I'm pay you back. I'm gonna pay you back with interest.

You're not gonna own part of the deal. I'm just gonna pay you back in interest. You're not a partner. I don't want any bullshit from you.

Have you ever had a colossal failure that made you question if you were on the right path?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, 2008. 2008 was terrifying to me. 2008 was the most terrifying thing that happened to me in my life.

Well, pause there, because you mentioned. You mentioned earlier that you wish you had been liquid during that time.

Yeah, man.

And you think. You think another one's coming or might.

Be worth a billion dollars right now.

And you think another one's coming? Correct?

Yeah. Yeah.

So what happened in 2008 that made you question your path?

What happened? Well, because. Because, number one, I put my family at risk. And this whole thing about more. I'll never make it over there, dude. Maybe I will.

Commit first.

And so.

What I did was I, you know, 2008, my wife, we're watching TV in LA, and my wife, she's an actress, and she's like, oh, my God, what's happening? You know, we're watching. Y' all remember the guys walking out with boxes and shit? Lehman had collapsed. And my wife's like, oh, my God, what does this mean? This looks awful. She's doing her drama. And I said, baby, we're gonna die.

She's like, we're not gonna die. You told me you would take care of us. I said, oh, no, this time I can't help you.

I up and we're gonna die. Okay? What happened was literally in a span of three weeks. I mean, this is the life of an entrepreneur. In the period of three weeks, my first two companies had literally.

I mean, been derailed. They were both in the service industry. They were both servicing car dealers, mainly auto. Auto dealers. And the second company that had a partner, I mean, like, just, like, shut down. Okay? The first business was the seminar business where I'd go around the country and do these live seminars.

You guys know what happened, okay? You cut your staff in half. So even if I. If you wanted to send somebody to a seminar, you didn't have anybody to run the company and send to the seminar. Even if you wanted to go, you couldn't send people. People weren't flying. Everything stopped. The third company, the real estate company, I had one problem. I had never, ever considered the bank that I owed the money to. One bank called the note.

Okay? I was hitting maturity at the same time the collapse happened. But it wasn't the bank that I owed the money to that called the note. The bank that I owed the money to busted out. They were fine. They were all cool. Dude, I never missed a note. The government gave money to a handful of lenders to buy up other banks. I don't know if most of you don't know this story, because it's never been told to anybody. The new bank that came in, U.S. bank.

Called the note 60 million.

You can't go get $60 million. I mean, not in 2008. So now the story's not over. You know, when it rains.

Then I get a lawsuit from a guy that I was trying to buy his company that claimed that. That I ripped his company off and ruined his company. And he sued me for 60 million. Now I got to defend this. And the bill's 700 grand a month from the leap from legal. First two businesses are tied up. Third business, they're calling a note. And the fourth thing I got, now, I didn't have enough going on. Now I have this guy trying a frivolous lawsuit. You'll get one sooner or later.

Jack. And you probably somebody in the room going to sue you today.

Hey, that's not enough. That's not enough. I got a baby on the way, and she claims it's mine.

So, you know, dude, you got to be liquid, baby. You got to be liquid. You got to be ready. You got to have more. Whatever you guys think you have, whatever you think is enough. You are. You're seriously, seriously wrong. I don't know what your number is. You talk about a million dollars in here like it's a lot of money.

It's not a lot of money, man. There was a time when you'd pick up a quarter. Ain't nobody picking up one today.

Are you of the opinion that another similar 2008 is coming? And if so, I think it's going to be. Are you operating differently now than you were 2008?

Well, it won't be a housing bust because housing hadn't recovered as much as you Guys would like to tell people it has. That's all multifamily. By the way, most of those housing numbers include apartments.

So, you know, I think there's going to be a big tech bust. Could be a big bio bust. And there could be. There could just be a big. There could just be a big. You know, we're basically America's the. It's the cleanest shirt in the closet, dude. And that's it. You know, we look good. I don't even know what's holding this up right now. I don't understand it. It's because there's so much money.

So will that hit real estate? It'll probably hit my apartment buildings. They won't be worth. They won't be worth real what they could be worth today. But it's not going to change the rents because everything that I own rents for like 900 bucks a month. A guy taught me this years ago. He said something to me. I never did a business deal with him, but I learned from everybody. And the guy said to me, he's like, are we still videoing this? What happened, man?

No, no, don't worry about it. It's good that you're not. He said to me this. I hope this doesn't offend anybody in the room. Hey, Grant, just remember this. Poor people are always poor people.

Poor people or always poor people.

In other words, you selectively choose the properties that you go into.

I mean, to be.

I'm either higher than what most people would target.

I'm either, I'm either. I'm all bread and butter property. I don't want destruction, right. I don't want disruption. I don't want to be at the top. I don't want the $3,000 rent. Will I do, will I do that rent? Yeah, I will. In very select markets that are very compressed, very, very tight. San Diego, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco. I mean, the rent in San Francisco right now, Palo Alto, okay, is $5,800 for a one bedroom.

So. So I'm looking for. Now, I wouldn't go by there. I don't want to be at the top of that scale, right, Because Silicon Valley, I'll be the first person to predict this will bust out. It will bust out, okay? These tech companies cannot keep going there and affording. You can see Austin's happening because Silicon Valley, I come here, man, it's cheaper. So I can't keep paying people 200 grand to live there when their rent's 5,800. Imagine $6,000 a month for a one bedroom apartment. That's 72 grand a year before you get paid anything. That means that guy's got to get paid at Google. 120, 130 to break even. 76% of Americans, including Silicon Valley, live paycheck to paycheck. Look, I know people make 250 grand a year living paycheck to paycheck. How many know those people? If I chart them, if I chart them and say what's 250? Where does that put me amongst income in the planet? 250 grand puts you in the top 1% and you're broke. So all the data is incorrect. Okay, the idea of a middle class. There is no middle class in America. Zero. That's, that's a fantasy. It's an illusion created by politicians to convince you that everything's fine and you don't go freaking crazy like you should on this guy right now because he didn't buy you wine.

Grant, what does capitalism mean to you?

Well, you know, when you say that word. I know you like the word, you know, but I mean really, I think a visa, MasterCard.

To me that's different than entrepreneurs. It's a great name to attract entrepreneurs. I'd have to look it up in the dictionary, but I don't think it means what an entrepreneur is. I think capitalism, if I look it up in the dictionary actually is very wealthy people. Very wealthy people or companies that use their money to invest in getting more money. Most of you in the room are not very wealthy people. Is that fair to say? So you got your only other choice is this, to be an entrepreneur so that one day you can be a capitalist.

And for me, that's where I started. I had no money, I had no connections, no money. I had a college degree that nobody ever asked about, had an accounting degree. It was a good degree.

I had no money, no connections, no self esteem, no information. Hated sales. I mean, my big deal was this. I learned how to sell stuff. I learned, I learned. I didn't learn from a buddy. I learned from tapes and CDs and watching people over and over thousands of times. He says the payments are too high or the price is too high or he's got to think about it. I have exactly strategies to handle those. Different than Brian Tracy. I also took a sales process that was typically longer. You, how many of you know this? The longer you spend with somebody, the better off you are. And I collapsed it and reversed it to spend less time with people. And when you spend less time with people, learn how to compress time. You actually get a higher margin and a happier customer. And I validated and proved that and then went to the marketplace and sold it. But any idea has to be sold. Any idea. Anybody you know? Steve Jobs, salesman. Warren Buffett, freaking monster salesman. I mean, you want to duplicate a great salesperson. Mark Cuban. Mark Cuban on Shark Tank. What's he going to ask Robert tomorrow? Robert's going to be here. Ask Robert. Dude. When you evaluate a company, what's the first question you ask? What are the sales? Not what is the idea. What are your sales? Same thing with real estate. I look at real estate. Oh, there's a product being sold. What is it? A place to live. What did you get last 12 months? What it cost to operate that deal? What's it going to cost me to operate it? Can I make money on this deal? Does it feel good? Do I want to own it? In bad times, good times.

We need to head to a cocktail hour where there will be wine for everybody. Thank you very much, Grant Cardone. But first we need to get take two questions from the audience. So mic runners, if you are prepped, you can. You're not. Okay, so we'll ask another question.

Dude, I can hear you. I can hear you guys.

We got microphones.

We got a professional. Hey, give this guy another hand for doing a freaking awesome event. Stand up. Come on, come on.

Awesome, dude. Awesome.

Thank you, sir.

Hey, Grant Hassan from Edison, New Jersey. Love how you said take a seat. I took yours. You were sitting here.

I also am the one who always asks you how do I get a seat on 10x? But I'm going to figure that out. So that's up to me. So what it really is. I try to find value for my followers. That's kind of something I'm putting a lot into now is education. And I took their questions and that's what I want to deliver for them. So they asked, how did you find your why or what was it that led you to your why?

My why is money.

I mean, I don't know why we don't talk about this more often.

You know, because your mommy and daddy told you not to talk about money. My mommy didn't talk about money and she didn't have any. She didn't know how to get money. My dad died when I was 10. My dad was intent, hell bent every day on getting a financial situation right for the family. Every day he went to work for money so he could take care of his family, period. He was a man's man. Great. Up early, showed up late, Tired. Heart blows up in his chest. At 52, all he wanted to do was get the finances of the family right so he could feed five kids and his wife and take care of them the way a man would take care of their family.

Since I was 10 years old, dude, My. Why is this? I want money. I don't apologize. Anybody's got a problem with that. Something wrong with you? There's nothing wrong with me. I'm taking care of my family, okay? I'm going to give my kids the best education. I'm not talking about a school. They'll go to three. Get a choice to go to three colleges. If they don't go to those three colleges, I'm not sending them to college. The only reason they go to those three colleges is to meet people, not to learn anything. I'll teach them everything they need to know, okay? So my kids are in a class right now. They're in English. They're in Spanish and Mandarin. They don't want to go to Mandarin class. I'm like, I don't care if you want to go or not, dude.

Okay? This is my party. This is my parade. You're in it. Get on the float.

Okay? Learn the freaking Mandarin because your freaking bankers are going to be Chinese, okay? I need you to learn some Spanish while you add it, too, because I'm going to take you down to Colombia. I'm a bust that country up.

I need a freaking translator, okay? Okay. All right. I need you guys hustling, okay? I need you to introduce yourself to everyone. I'm giving you a great freaking lifestyle. We got our own plane. You get to be on it. Run up and down the aisle. Act like a freaking idiot, okay? You get to get on the microphone. Welcome to 10X Airlines, where the adults don't mean anything and the kids get to run wild, Right? I said, dude, you want that? You want to play with daddy? You want to fly all over the place? Okay? I need you to introduce yourself to every person. Every person you meet. You walk up, introduce yourself. My name's Sabrina. My name's Scarlett. How you doing? I need eye contact. They're four years old and six. I need eye contact. You freaking. Hey, you bust eye contact, you ain't getting shit.

Okay? So I. I need. I need my kids. I need to use my kids. If I can't. I had a client. I couldn't sell the client. The client's like, hey, I want you to do this deal. I love you. I love the message. We don't have the budget. I'm like, dude, look, the number is the number, bro.

Think about it. You always have the right to change your mind. The only way you go from no to yes is maybe. Can you get the maybe? And I hung up on him.

I did a video with Sabrina. I said, sabrina's video time. Okay, I need you to say over and over and over again, I'll give you a piece of gum.

Give my papa the money. You can actually go on YouTube and look at the video. Give my papa the money. Just say it over and over. Can you do that? Practice one time. Give my papa the money. No, no. Eye contact, smile. Give my poppet gum. Right? She said it over and over again. I sent the guy the video. We got the deal.

The point is, I use my kids, man. Why not use your kids? Why wouldn't you use your kids? They're using you.

Robert uses me. Robert uses me. You use me, Robert. I use Robert. See, we talk about this in my office. I'm using you, you use me.

But most people don't talk about that. Like, what's your why?

I need some money, dude. Now, if you got a bigger why than that, I think the question is, what are your whys?

Because money clearly is not my only why. Otherwise I wouldn't be here today. I love people, man. I love entrepreneur. I love hustlers. I love stories about, dude, I saw you in December, freaking, you know, change my world, rock my life. You know, I know there's some of you already came up to me and said, dude, this thing 10x my business, that's why I write books. I don't write books for the gig, for the money. I write books to meet people.

Let's give it up one more time for Grant Cardone.

Thank you very much.

One of the things that I have picked up from Grant, not necessarily on what he says, but by observing what Grant actually does, is I have become much more aggressive in my real estate pursuits. You know, I originally got into real estate thinking it would be, for lack of a better term, a cash flow business. What I learned from watching Grant is that it can really be a disruptor. If you can have 350 or $400 million in real estate, that ain't a cash flow thing anymore. You're now changing generations. And I realized that with a consistent plan that I could really accelerate the growth of my investing practice and build something really substantial if I just turned up the gas. So rather than buying single family homes with cash, I'm now looking at commercial properties and using funding to do them and operating it more like a business rather than this thing that I do on the side. That is what I got out of listening to Grant and chatting with him for an hour or so after his talk. That is what Freedom Fast Lane LIVE was all about. It was all about thinking bigger, collapsing time, making things happen faster. And that's what we believe in. That's what we want to represent here at Freedom Fast Lane. If you resonate with that idea of accelerating the results that you want out of life, please share this episode with someone that you know will find value out of it. And please, if you've been listening to the show, but you haven't yet subscribed on itunes, let's make this official. Hit that dang subscribe button. It helps us spread our message by ranking higher in the itunes store and showing up in front of more entrepreneurs and people that we need to recruit in order to be personally responsible for the results so that we can change their families, their communities. Start businesses that change the world. Because entrepreneurs and capitalists are how we solve the world's greatest problems. Thank you for listening to Freedom Fast Lane, and we'll see you on the next show.