Pejman Ghadimi - Secret Entourage & Exotic Car Hacks

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What'S going on, everyone? Casey Adams here. Welcome back to the Rise of the Young podcast. We have Pejman Ghadimi here with us today, and I've been following Pejman for quite some time and it's. It's been really cool to learn from him and he's opened a lot of doors in my life in terms of the people and the networking opportunities. And it's funny because before we started this, I told him that he was one of the first people that I really followed when I started putting a lot of time and effort into social media. So I definitely appreciate you hopping on the podcast, Bajran.

I appreciate you having me on.

Absolutely. So real quick, before we get into it, like I said, I've been following you for quite some time and I believe a lot of the young listeners that are following me, they've either probably seen your content or heard of Secret Entourage, but. So it's one of those platforms. Like I said, Secret Entourage is something that I know you've really built a brand around, and that's where I really know you from. But I'd love for you to just give a quick overview of what Secret Entourage is and what you currently are teaching people with your different programs before we get into the story of everything.

Sure. So Secret Entourage is a platform I founded 12 years ago, believe it or not, where we were the first platform that enabled people to get an inside look into the lives of other successful entrepreneurs. This was the platform that started before the whole podcast era and all of these new you know, platforms that have since come out trying to say we do interviews and so on and so forth. We would pretty much go out and interview people who have had that massive success in business, including people that most people would not have heard of. And then we spent a lot of time making sure that the people we're doing interviews with were actually real, meaning they weren't just pretend entrepreneurs. So we would check their financials, we would go deep into understanding their business model. And then myself having been someone who had built a very successful, very successful, at the time, eight figure business, I was in a position where I was having conversations with people from a very lateral standpoint. So it was very easy to bring out like the nitty gritty details that, that they really weren't willing to share in common interviews. So, you know, we started doing these kind of interviews slash conversations and built an entrepreneur academy since then called the Secret Entourage Academy. And so we brought people a ton of real down to earth content on entrepreneurship business and have done a really good job at separating the difference between being an entrepreneur and being and being a business owner for people. As a result of that, I teach through two of my most famous books, one known as Third Circle Theory, the other one known as Radius, its sequel. One is a self awareness book, the other one a business book. And then outside of that, I'm also well known on the Internet for my fun project Exotic Car Hacks, where I have a community of now over 5000 savvy exotic car hackers. People who are intelligent about how they look at exotic cars and use them as assets instead of liability. And I also teach WATCH trading through my Watch Trading academy found@watch conspiracy.com where again, I teach people how to leverage the art of timepieces in order to create incredible residual incomes for themselves. So I've been a teacher for the last 12 years and I truly enjoy teaching. I'm sure you've heard the line, those who can't do, teach something that a lot of people make fun of gurus for. I usually come back and tell people those who have done teach better, better. So perhaps a reason why it's important to make sure that the teachers you follow or listen to are individuals who have done an exercise, or perhaps still exercise the items they're teaching. Because I say current teachers usually hold more weight than past teachers. Because just because something worked 10 years ago doesn't mean it'll work today. So if the person you're following is a living example of what they're teaching, then that's perhaps A person worth following. So hopefully that helped. J.C. yeah.

Yeah. No, no, Absolutely. No, I really appreciate that. And I wanted to point out, too, because like you said about Secret Entourage, I didn't know it's been 12 years, because I. I got into this space. I'm 19 years old now, and I think I want you to be aware that a lot of the people listening to this podcast, they. They tend to be anywhere 16 to 25, and maybe entrepreneurship's new to them or they're. They're. They have a business for the last couple of years, but for myself, it's. I thought it was really cool just hearing you having that for 12 years. Like, you were in my eyes, too, when I first got into the scene, like the first entrepreneurship community that I saw as something that is actually credible in terms of the people and yourself. And like you said, there's. There's a lot of BS out there today, and I want to help you make aware to the people listening today about, like, your platform that you've built is not only legit, but it's. It's stood the test of time. You have people vouching for you, and it's something that you've truly built up and spent a lot of money and effort to really build this quality community. So, real quick, I think the next thing I want to ask you is just 12 years ago, like, when you started Secret Entourage, like, where. Where were you at in your life in that moment before you decided to start this group of entrepreneurs? Because I think nowadays that's something that people may see a lot of today. Everyone's starting masterminds and different podcasts, and it's this. This, I would say, industry that I've now had the opportunity to sort of see what's up. Last three years you've been in it for. Shoot, 12 years ago, I was seven years old. Right. So 12 years ago, where were you at in your life before you started Secret Entrepreneur?

Well, you know, this is the best part about my life. I was already rich. And that's kind of like what I loved about it is I started Secret with the right intention. You know, it wasn't the intention to teach to get rich. It was the intention to teach to help, you know, and Secrets, even though it started that way, still evolved into a business, you know, and revenue in a lot of times where needed in order to expand the business. And people sometimes go, well, why do you charge for things? Well, because first off, it was free. You wouldn't value it. Secondly, because we charge, we're Able to reach more people and spend more money on advertisement, you know, and bring more people to our cause. And so often, you know, the point is that a lot of the things we've done through building this community has been because of our ability and my experience as a business owner first to be able to come and be into this kind of brand that's today, you know, more known out there now personally. Twelve years ago, I was in the middle of building my other company, VIP Motoring, which. VIP Motoring is still a company I own today. I haven't worked there since 2011, but I've owned it since 2005. And basically, it's a company that helps people make investments into alternative assets such as cars, watches, and art. So we're a bank that enables individuals to literally take investment money and invest it in those things instead of bonds, you know, mutual funds, stocks, and so on and so forth. And. And I built that business to. At the time, it was doing about $30 million in revenue. And I just. I had this epiphany one day, you know, I saw. I went to the club. I was young. I was enjoying myself. I had a yellow Marcelago, and I was, like, really excited because you're young in a yellow Lamborghini, and, you know, doors go up and you get this ego boost in your head, and you're like, oh, man, I made it. You know, and I started really poor. So for me to get to that stage was already like, this is, like, amazing, you know, but when I. When I got there, I realized one thing. You know, everybody. Everybody that was in line at that club saw me, like, walking in, and everybody was talking about my car. And I realized then that it made no sense at all. I was like, you have no idea what I've done to get here in life, and yet you don't know me. You just know my car. Like, people were like, oh, I've seen that car before. I've seen him drive around town. I've seen that gar. That guy come here.

This car be parked here.

And I thought to myself, I said, how meaningless is my life that is defined by the things I have, not the person I am? So I started realizing at that age, I think it was like, roughly 27 or something, and I started realizing that, like, you know, something's wrong with that picture. And I wasn't very happy with it because my mom struggled a lot growing up. You know, she was a single mother, and she went country to country to see sacrifice everything she had for me to have a chance of trying to make it in America. And I was like, how am I honoring her sacrifice by just having nice cars and nice houses and stupid shit like this? So I started wanting to matter, and I wanted to matter in a very egocentric kind of way first. But I realized that the way I was going to matter was by doing what I was best at, which was teaching. And so I decided to kind of literally put aside my business and focus on building this completely free platform at the time that really wasn't even scheduled to make a dollar, you know, And a lot of people made fun of me. A lot of people said, you know, you're crazy for this. Like, why would you give up a $30 million plus business to go and build an online blog? Which idiot does that? You know? And I think one of the things they didn't understand at the time was that I wasn't building a blog. I wasn't building another successful business. What I was doing was accepting that I was gonna have to take 10 years to learn how to transition from having a brick and mortar business to having a real online business. And they didn't realize that I was just getting a head start because I knew I was gonna need the education because I wasn't an online guy, I wasn't an IT guy, you know, so. And again, the Internet wasn't what it was today, Social media wasn't what it was today. So a lot of the things that I had to learn along the way were part of that 10 year journey. And people never realized that that's what I was doing when I decided to kind of start doing that. But I also realized that I couldn't give up all the money I was making. So I assigned the CEO to kind of start working with me at my investment firm so that we could eventually evolve and leave him in place. And then in 2011, a couple of years later, I did transition fully to work on my online businesses and gave my company in the hands of a close friend who was my CEO for a few years then.

Got it. Got it. So I'm curious now, so like, in terms of where the market was 12 years ago with social media and digital advertising, and now seeing the huge brand you have online, whether it's a personal brand or secret Entourage or whatever, just 12 years ago, for the people listening, what would you say was the most important thing that you were doing was social media and importance? Was it building the blog and just writing the articles about entrepreneurs? Was it doing the interviews back then? Because, like, I'm just, I would say Curious, because it's such a different time nowadays. So looking back, like when you first got into this whole online space, like, where was your mind at? Because then I want to ask prior to this, just where you spend your time now, but 12 years ago, like, what was the scene and what were you putting a lot of time and effort into?

Well, I was, you know, we had no content, so I was putting in content, you know, like day in and day out, I was writing like five articles a day, you know, trying to contribute to 10 different publications, trying to establish my name on the online space. While I had success in the offline world, nobody knew who I was, you know, so. So there was a lot there that that was needed. But also in general, I ended up spending a lot of time early on just trying to understand which platforms we wanted to be on because there were so many upand coming social platforms. Many didn't make sense for me and many did, you know, so it was like, where do we spend our time? Advertising? How do we even advertise? And one of the things that I learned then, which is even more important now than it was then, is that creativity is the key to being able to grow when you lack resources, meaning when you're not willing to invest thousands of dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars into a business. The only way you can overcome that when you have so much competition in the space is, is through creativity. You know, And I think creativity is the key. There was a key then, it's still the key today to being noticed. And ultimately that's what led to our success. It was that and one other thing we did then that was equally important then that today would not have enabled us to get where we're. We were very careful about our associations. I think a lot of marketers just market anybody's and they just jump on each other's game because they make money. And we made sure that people understood that we weren't marketers, we were teachers. And as a result of that, we weren't going to be teaching A, something we didn't know. B, we weren't going to be marketing things just because there was money in them. And instead we would reject a lot of people from our core base. Like, I mean, if you think about how many times we're approached by like the Gary Vee's of the world, the Tai Lopez's of the world, and those people, and we completely turned them down. Most people would have said we're idiots because there was such an opportunity to sell stuff to their audience and Cross promote and do this. But we never did anything we didn't believe in. And I think that's part of the reason why 12 years later we kept our integrity and we still do what we do versus so many people are like, eh, you know, I don't want to do this anymore.

Got it. That's really important. And something that I strongly believe in, what you just touched on is just reputation. And I think that's something that I've now seen and I've been learning about. And I want to touch on this to the audience more in terms of not only the association with your company, but just associated students overall. Like when you were 18, 19, the people you were surrounding yourself with and then now with the people that you're interviewing and talking to. Like what would you say in your experience has been the importance of association and how do you maintain your reputation association with such high caliber, high caliber people nowadays? And where did that journey start?

Well, I mean, I think reputation comes down to one simple task, right? Being true to your word. And I think that is the key. Like, like people speak these days without intent or understanding the, the repercussions of what they're saying. You know, they say whatever it takes to get someone's attention. They say whatever it takes to try to get someone to buy a product. And they don't understand that while it is easier to, it is easier to be able to obviously bullshit people into buying a product, it also doesn't last very long. You know, if we look at, it's actually funny, there's videos on YouTube of Dan Locke, that cartoon character, and how five years ago he was saying one thing and today he's saying something else because it's convenient. And they have him literally side by side what he was saying five years ago and what he's saying today just because it's convenient for him to say it. And I think a lot of people don't value words when they see people constantly changing their mind just because it's convenient for them to do so. I think what I was saying five, you know, five years ago, 10 years ago or 20 years ago is no different than what I'm saying now. And I think that that is a big piece of why people trust, you know, our brand, our product and our service. But I also think one of the other things that's really important is I've always been true to my word in my associations, both personally and in business. Meaning if I told someone I'd meet him somewhere at 6pm I kept that appointment. If I told you I was going to be on this podcast conversation, you know, at 3pm I was here. So the point is, no matter what, once you commit to something, you have to follow through on your word. And the biggest commitment people fail to realize is the commitment they make to themselves about their integrity and who they are. And I think people don't make that commitment, so it becomes very easy to break that commitment to themselves.

Got it. So I wanted to get back because I think a lot of people that could already be following on social media and they see the life you live and what you've built. And I'm curious myself, like, when was the switch for you in your life to become a business owner or an entrepreneur? Or was that always something in your family? I know that you said you come from background and your mom, you told us briefly about where you come from, but what was the point of your life? And whether that's an age or a moment that really allowed you to change and go into having your own business and starting a company? Just when was that switch for you? And overall, how did this whole life you live now come about in terms of entrepreneurship?

Well, I mean, the. The basics for me is that I wasn't into entrepreneurship until very late in my life. Like, I was fired from. I had an incredible career, like, amazing career in banking and finance, so good that I was way rich by the time I got fired from my job. So it's not like I was poor leaving work and then wondering, what am I going to do for money? Kind of thing. You know, a lot of people have sob stories where they get fired and they have fire under their ass to make it. I think one of the big cutting points for me when it came to getting fired from my job wasn't that someone took away my money and I didn't know what to do, but it was really that someone took away my purpose. You see, I had made it very high up the food chain when it comes to banking. And when I got fired, they pretty much. They didn't take away my job, they took away my career. And meaning that no other bank was ever going to hire me to be in the same position I was with at my bank, because I had worked my way from the bottom up in a manner that was just impossible for me to duplicate elsewhere. And so what ended up happening is that when they. When they got rid of me, they pretty much took away all I was, all I wanted to do, which I was a really successful banker. I wanted to keep doing that for years. And when they took that away. It made me realize that my value was only driven by the confines of the brand that was hiding behind or the four walls of the office I worked in. And that made me realize that it wasn't a question of never going to a job again and jobs are evil and this and that, but it was more understanding that, you know, purpose and this idea of enabling someone to take it from you just isn't something I want to go through again. I don't want someone to tell me what I can or can't do the rest of my life, just the same way that I don't want someone to tell me how I should live or what I should buy or not. But more importantly, I don't think someone else should define if I'm allowed to be a banker or not for the next 10, 15, 20 years. And I had put myself in a position where I did allow someone to define that. And when they did define it, I was upset, and I pretty much took it against them to be like, you know what? It's their fault. You know, like, they fired me. I'm gonna retaliate this and that. But I really started realizing that I had fired myself, you know, so I had indirectly fired myself because I didn't believe in what the company was doing anymore. And so I was no longer, you know, trying to make things work. And one of the. One of the big things there is when you realize that purpose is not some divine intervention that comes from above and shows you what you're meant to do your whole life, but you start realizing that purpose is nothing more than your acceptance of your function in a time and space. At any. At that moment, you start realizing that you can be purposeful in everything you do. You know, I talk about this a lot in my book, Third Circle Theory, but the idea is that if humans were more purposeful on a daily basis, they would then build a character necessary so that one day when they want to commit to a greater purpose than themselves, they have the character to follow through on it and not confused about how to bring someone that's important or something that's important to them to life.

Got it.

That's.

That's amazing. So what would you say when you were, let's say, taking it Back to, I'm 19 years old now, like, when you were 19, what would you say your purpose was in your early stages of your career?

Well, to be a banker. You know, that's the thing. Like, we. We accept our purpose when we accept the job, right? If you're A cashier in a store, that's your purpose for that moment. And what I'm saying is that doesn't sound very exciting to be your cashier as a purpose. Right. But it doesn't mean you have to have that purpose for the next 50, 60, 70 years. You know, you can just accept that that is your purpose for the moment because you accepted a job that enabled that purpose to exist. But I think because people think of purpose as a divine, long term kind of concept, they forget that they are committing to a purpose at that moment and therefore refusing, even though they accepted to, to actually commit to it, which is bizarre. So my job when I was 18 years old was I became a bank manager. I was the youngest bank manager in the United states. And at 19, my purpose was to be a great banker. And that's it. There's nothing else to it. There was no side job, there was no special entrepreneur thing? No, it was like that was my purpose. That's what I accepted to do. And I did it really, really well, you know.

Got it. That's super cool. So, so where exactly did you grow up? In a sense, I want to kind of give people the, some more backstory because I believe that was a pivotal, I would say just the importance of where you're from is everything. So just give us some context of like where you're from and a little bit more about your childhood before coming a banker and committing to that purpose.

Yeah, so I was born, I was born in Iran in the middle of a war, you know, and the we, I was born to a fairly wealthy middle class family and as a result my, my mom and dad both were powerful individuals that worked in great jobs in, in the middle of the era of the Shah in Iran. And when the revolution happened, me and my mom had to flee and so we left to go to France because we weren't allowed to come to the States. And we were pretty poor because she had to leave all of her money behind. Nobody could send her any. And so as a result she had to start from scratch. And so we started living in basements, doing whatever we had to. And then kind of 11 years passed. She started a business, did okay, didn't really make any money. We got to a stage where we had a car, a home that was like a one studio apartment and ultimately just got to a place where we finally got allowed to come to the United States. So it took about 11 years. We finally make it to the United States, end up in la and once again my mom's supposed to have all this money with her from her business, something to at least give us a better head start. And unfortunately, her brother takes it, so she has nothing left. So again, we start from zero. And, and this time, in order to try to get our papers, you know, our green cards, et cetera, we establish a business to do so. And unfortunately, the business fails miserably. But it gets us at least kind of the paperwork necessary to get ahead. But all of whatever little money she had went into that business. And we are back to a basement. And now from California, we moved to Virginia and we're living in her brother's basement. And my mom goes to work as a cashier in a store. So the lady that was head of import export for weapons for an entire country is now working as a cashier serving for $6 an hour. You know, and I started looking at that, and I started looking at the fact that we live in a basement, and I'm like, okay, so I don't think it's gonna get better. You know, there is no clear path that my mom's gonna get rich now and we're gonna be okay. So I start saying, you know what, I gotta go and do something. And nothing magical. I didn't even have a green card then in a full yet, so I didn't have the right to work yet. So I went to McDonald's. I begged them to let me clean the floors for $3 an hour, and they declined because I didn't have a green card. So then I begged neighbors to let me clean their cars for $5 a car. And this was important because no matter how cold or hot it got, it didn't matter. I went to clean cars. And so I started very young with just a very small detailing car wash business that's actually the same business that later evolved to VIP Motoring. So that in itself is a five hour story. But that's pretty much. That was the start. And then from there I finally got a. I finally got papers and was able to go work as a telemarketer somewhere and then did really well in sales service from 15 to 18 and was the director of that remodeling company at 18. And from there got a job in banking, which I persuaded someone to get me a job as a manager in a bank and started there.

That's super cool. By chance, what part of Virginia were you in? Because I'm actually from Richmond that sells super.

I'm in Northern Virginia, in Fairfax, actually. My investment firm, VIP Motoring, is actually in Loudman county in Northern Virginia.

No way. That's super cool. Are you familiar with J.R. garage? He's super big in the car community.

Yeah, I know who that is.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's one of my good friends. Yeah, he's right in there. Loudoun County. So that's a small world. Yep. Cool. Yeah. So, no, that's amazing. So I want to switch it up to Secret Entourage because I. This is something that I obviously for the purpose of this podcast and why I've interviewed people. Seeing your community and what you've done and built inspired me in a way, for sure. So what would you say in terms of the interviews you've done? I'd love for you to give some context to the people, like how many interviews you've done and really just highlight how you built that network in terms of. Was it social media based? Was it the people prior to social media that you brought in to educate and teach people? Because that whole community, Secret Entourage, that I want people to get familiar with, it's been something that I know a lot of the acquaintances in my life now, they've been a part of it and the people that are in it, like you said, they're people that I trust and people that I know are truly credible and have actually built something amazing. So I'd love for you to give some context on just how many interviews you've done and really just what you've learned from interviewing all of these successful entrepreneurs. Because I know it's truly changed my life and I'd love to hear. Hear it from your point of view as well.

Yeah. So to date, you know, we've done, I mean, I've personally interviewed over 450 people that were accredited enough to be featured on there. I've interviewed probably about 1500 people, but like a thousand of them never made the cut. And you know, in those 450 people, it didn't really start with just social media and reaching out to people. What it actually started as is me as a business owner and someone who already had a lot of success in life having a lot of exotic car buddies. And so I started just interviewing friends at first, people who were not as famous but I knew were legit. So I started doing those interviews first. And after I had like about 20, 30 interviews, I started getting more strategic about the people that I thought would bring value to the community and I would go after them. So we attempted to cover about 80 different industries. So these 400 plus people, they're. They're built out of these 80 different industries. So it Gives us more than just one person per industry. So it gives us context and different strategies. And then to date, we've now have over 37,000 students, roughly who are in the academy globally, and all just, you know, working on their businesses and trying to not just make ends meet, but actually build a future for themselves and their family, which is pretty impressive and interesting. Even the guys over at Movement Watches, I don't know if you know the guys that did the watch. Yeah, that just. Yeah, exactly. Jake.

Yeah.

They recently got acquired by Movado for like, $200 million or something. And they started at C. Entourage, meaning they were inspired, just like you to kind of get started. So it's pretty impressive that a lot of the brands that.

That is amazing.

Right? A lot of the brands that. That people kind of had ideas about 10 years ago or so started with us, meaning they were just regular people like. Like you and I at some point that were like, I have an idea, and I don't know where to go for support. I don't know where to go for real information. And they came to our community, engaged with people, found their way, and went from there, you know, so it's a pretty. It's simple, but I always say the best things in life are simple. They're not free, but they're simple. And so if they're. They're simple, that means that anybody can understand how to access them, how to use them, and it just takes a little bit of thought process to be able to get there. And that's why I love what we do.

It's funny because I literally. I talk about Jake and Blake, all those guys from Movement all the time. They. Every time I speak, because it's. When I interviewed him, they talked about, like, starting out of their college, like, bedroom and how they started with the E commerce store and the white labeling of products. And I didn't know that. So that's. That's super cool. Fun fact of the day, because I've interviewed Jake, and he's been on the show, so that's super cool to see it all come together like that. Yeah.

I mean, them. There's the guys from Entrepreneur, you know, like the actual quoting company. And I mean, there's so many people. People who have started with us who even have told me, like, after I actually. I interviewed a couple of them recently that told me from back then, they were like, oh, I used to watch these interviews and wonder, like, man, I wish I was good enough to be featured on there. And, you know, there's a good like decade that goes in, in between that and then they are featured because they've been doing the work, you know, and it's incredible to see that.

That's super cool, for sure. So what would you say in terms of Secret entre? Just the people that are in there today, like if people are listening and they're curious about it, like if they were to get involved with the platform and get involved in the community, like what is the typical, like what should they be expecting if they are involved? I'd love for you.

Well, I think, I think most people these days expect people to feed them information down their throat the exact way they're going to use it to make millions of dollars. And unfortunately, business doesn't work like that. Like, I think people don't understand that entrepreneurship in itself is not a road that is already paved. Right. So even if people can't really tell you they can't teach you how to create an entrepreneurial venture. What they can teach you is how to think like an entrepreneur, how to act like an entrepreneur, so you can apply these principles to being an entrepreneur. And I think too many people are like, well, I want to be an entrepreneur. Give me the step by step guideline. And I'm like sitting there like that. That doesn't exist because everybody's entrepreneurial journey is different from another, you know, and, and I think the more people expect to come in, excuse me, and take on a one time like secret, that's going to make them rich. It's the, the faster they'll realize that our community is not for them. But the way I, I try to expose what we do to people is saying this. Imagine if you could have coffee with someone who's extremely, much more successful than you and you wouldn't be able to choose who they were or what they did. So you can't just pick them because like you think they're an ecom and you want to learn ecom, you just got to kind of listen to people. Then you're forced to keep an open mind and understand more about different industries and things that maybe you would have never had interest to see before. It's like a movie that you weren't excited to see, but when you watched it, you're like, man, that was a great movie. And, and it's really the way I like to look at life. Life is about expanding your awareness. And so what you expect to receive in at Secret Entourage is to be exposed to different ways you can be successful. Because real, when you think about disruption and, and people and Entrepreneurs disrupting industries. Disruption always happens from the outside in, never from the inside out. So it's always someone who's not in the industry who's able to see things from a perspective that people in the industry can't see. So often I tell people, if you want to be disruptive in a business, if you want to be creative, if you want to be different, and if you just want to find success above and beyond that that the 99% of the rest of the people couldn't find, then you have to do what the 99% of people weren't willing to do. You have to do your research. You have to get exposed to other people who have had success, and you have to pay attention and learn business as a whole, not just business, because it's convenient to make money. And I think that's the big difference about what we teach, is we allow people to expand their own awareness, run their own discovery, and work at their own pace, and ultimately own and take ownership of their own success. Something that a lot of platforms don't do because it's not sexy. And honestly, I could make a lot more money if I was telling people, I'm going to teach you how to make a million dollars. But I choose not to because that's not truly how people will find success, you know.

For sure?

For sure.

No, that's. That's amazing. What would you say, just like, in terms of that group and the people you've interviewed, what would. What would you say some of the things that you've learned as of. Yes, you're interviewing these people, and it's for the community. But what I've seen is I do this podcast with someone like yourself, and I learn so much from everything I do, just from sitting down with successful people once a week or twice a week. So what would you say you've learned not only about yourself, but about business from sitting down with all these successful entrepreneurs over the last 12 years?

Well, I think the one thing that I've kind of put in my head since I started doing this is that, you know, a lot of times we say, is there money in this industry? Is there money in this business? I think that's a big thing we ask as human beings all the time, you know, and one of the things I always say is, perhaps those are the wrong questions we're asking. Because one of the things I've learned is that there is money in all businesses. Okay? So one of the big things is to stop asking, where's the money? And instead start asking, what am I willing to do to make sure I'm successful earning money this specific way? And I think that's the thing people aren't asking that. I've learned through the years that there's money in everything, so that's really where the value is, you know?

No, totally, totally. So I'm. I'm curious to ask yourself too. So. So 12 years ago, you start this platform, and I obviously, I've been aware of who you are on more so Instagram and from your personal brand. And then I figured out what you had to offer as products and services. So what was, I'd say, the transition point for you when it comes to putting time and effort into building a personal brand on Instagram or on social media overall? Because. Because obviously, like I said, that's where I came across your content. So when did you really make that pivot to start building that brand online?

Well, I started from the very beginning. I mean, the day I started creating content for the Internet was the day I started, you know, buying into my own kind of online brand. Right. So it wasn't like I started. It was not like I started, like, after I had started this online business, you know, so that's not how that works, you know. Okay. If that makes any sense, you know.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

So it's been going on from the very beginning, and I started more personally putting myself out there and everything else. But, you know, as a human being, I'm not a circus monkey, so I don't enjoy being on Instagram all day and showing people, like, the insides of my life, if that makes sense. So, yeah, when I do give people a glimpse of it, it's very authentic because I don't like to be on there. So therefore, I don't just post content to post content, you know?

Yeah, yeah. Totally. Super cool. And so one thing I want to kind of tie things together with is the two things that you talked about in terms of the exotic car hacks and the watch conspiracy. Those are two things that I've had really intrigued me. And I know it's just from seeing the content you put on Instagram and what you talked about with it. I know that a lot of people, A, are curious about it, but B, I'd love to really go over that, like, when it comes to something like exotic car hacks, which you have as a product, and I think you said there's over 5,000 people in that. Just when did you get involved with that? And if people are truly curious about it, like, what should they be expecting that. Because I know you said it's helping people buying their first exotic car in as little as 90 days without worrying about the insurance or repair costs. I'd love for you to just give some.

Yeah. So to be clear, and I'm glad you asked that question, because on the surface, you know, exotic car hacks is marketed in a way that it is about your exotic car. Right. But it's really not, if you actually think about what I've done is, you know, I have a firm that. That helps investment individuals make investments. Yeah. So I'm saying my firm in Virginia is an investment firm that enables our clients to invest in exotic cars, watches, and art. Right. They need $5 million in investable assets to work with us. And that's a lot of money that doesn't fit into a lot of people in the community. Right. So I've created a model that enables us to teach people how to do this themselves at home, on their own, with cars and watches. Because, you see, we've made watches and cars an investment asset for people since 2005, and there's money to be made in them. If not, we wouldn't have exotic car dealers, and we wouldn't have, you know, any type of watch dealers. So we have those things because there's money to be made in those businesses. And one of the things that's happened is we've used these as investment collateral for years and years, and now we're teaching it online so people who don't have $5 million can do it themselves. So when you talk about exotic car hacks, it's not really a car platform as much as it's an investment mindset of understanding the financial numbers behind exotics and why they're different than normal cars. And once you understand that, then your entire mind opens up to the opportunity that driving exotics is a lot cheaper than driving basic cars. And so we teach people step by step how to be in a position to leverage either their cash or credit to purchase an exotic, drive it for the duration that they want and be able to sell it easily or even trade it into a dealership for the same money that they paid for the car. And so it enables them to have a free exotic car. And if they do that and they follow their process, we have a process that enables them to not worry about insurance or extremely high repair costs, because we have networks of people that help with those things that make it very affordable, like the Lamborghini. Insurance on my one Lamborghini is less than someone else's Mini Cooper Insurance. And I know this because, you know, there's plenty of people in my family who refuse to do this, who want to lose money on cars because they're afraid and they don't want to do the work to learn the process. So ultimately, what we're teaching people is a mindset on how to understand money as it pertains to exotic cars. The other thing with Watch Trading Academy and the Watch Conspiracy is that those are money making concepts, meaning there is margins of 20 to 30% on watches to be made every single day. I average out 15 to 20% of my money every single week than money that is invested in watches. And so I keep anywhere from like 800,000 to $3 million in watches. And I rotate that money on a continuous basis the same way you do in stocks. And because you understand the world of watch trading, you understand how easy it is to buy and sell a watch once you go through the course. And so you open up this whole new world of finance of how watches can be used as safe investments where the actual investment itself is always safe and the margin is what's constantly changing. And I think that's what people don't understand. Hey, can you hear me?

Yeah. Oh, perfect. Sorry, it cut off for me for a moment. Sorry about that. All right, jump right back into it. So when it comes to exotic car hacks, like you were saying, you've had this model where people would usually have to qualify by having $5 million in investable assets. To now teaching someone the tools and tactics and the strategy to more so do that, but in their own way. Correct, correct.

Without having to invest with me, but learning how to do it on their own for themselves on smaller assets rather than, you know, much more expensive assets.

Got it. And I'm curious too. It's like when someone comes into this program to learn, like, is it. I'm sure you see just probably crazy transformations in terms of someone's mindset saying, hey, like, how is this possible to then like getting their own exotic car or something? Like what's been some of like the, the stories or I would say like just the mental shifts of like what's actually possible with. Possible within that. Because I think it's something that everyone is curious about and wants to know more about and you really provided that platform to do so. So I'd love to hear from your experience.

Yeah, I mean, we have a ton of people who never thought they could even own an exotic in five, 10 years. You know, to buying their first exotic like 60 days later and Seeing how much life changes as a result of it. Like the people you meet, the networks you grow, the actual business opportunities that open up and so much more. Right? And that occurs only because they understand and take their mindset away from this dreamy mindset that exotic cars are like this lifelong goal, and instead realize the technical data that make exotic cars affordable. You know, and so when they look at it that way, they go, wait, this isn't that bad. I can actually do this. And the belief system is what we trigger first. On the watch side, it's even easier because then you have 17 year olds who know nothing about watches coming into this and saying, I didn't realize how much money was in watches and how easy it was to sell a watch. And they start realizing that like, wait, I could sell three watches a month and literally pay my way through college. And I have a student named Camden that does just that. You know, he started at 17, he didn't even know what a Breitling watch was. And Today he's making five to $7,000 every single month, trading watches, paying his way to college. And then I have other students who have gotten to their own strategies, you know, doing what I've taught him, and now they're making half a million dollars in just six months. So, you know, I don't think anybody coming into the space is going to make half a million dollars in six months. But I think the, when I look at the success rate of our programs, more than 20% of our students are applying our program and seeing their results in their first 90 days, regardless. That is cars or watches. And I find that to be incredible because most programs out there have a 2% adoption rate. So for us to have a 20, not adoption rate, but success rate is a very big achievement that, you know, I would love to have a hundred percent one. But I understand that some people are scared and they just, they personally are the, the ones that no matter what are going to have to take action, you know?

Yeah, totally, totally. No, I have one more question before we wrap it up. And just like overall, just through the journey of having these programs and meeting all these people and now having this brand that you have tons of people just following you and just in depth with your life and what you provide to them, what would you say to yourself, like me coming and asking you questions at 18 years old and learning from someone like yourself? I'd love to just have you give someone like myself and the people listening who are between 18 to 25, just something tactical from a business perspective. That you'd want them to know before stepping into, whether that's an online business or entrepreneur. What would be one of those things that you'd want to make sure that they're aligned with moving forward?

I think, you know, I always tell people it's about excellence in life. If you're not willing to commit to something, just don't start. If you're not willing to commit to being the best at it, don't do it. You don't have to find the perfect business to get started, but you have to commit to whatever business you choose to start. And I think that's the big mindset shift you need to have. If you're not willing to attempt to become the best at something, then don't. Just, just don't get started because you'll end up failing and it'll end up costing you more than you know. So it'll just waste your own time, out of your own life, you know?

Got it.

For sure.

And then lastly, just. I know we've talked about a secret entourage and exotic car hatch and about the watch community that you have for everyone that's listening. That's just probably like, where can we find out more about this? Where's the most easiest place that they can go? And I'll make sure to link that down below so people can check it out as well.

Yeah. So I think that if you, if you've never heard of any of these platforms and want to kind of see what I'm. What I'm cooking up or what kind of books I've got out or anything else, just go to learnfrompj.com.

Got it.

And I'll make it one site. Everything's in one place and you can explore whatever, you know, floats your boat.

Yep, for sure. For sure. I mean, that being said. And what would you say is Instagram the best place for people to learn more about just personal life and stay connected with you? Yeah.

If you want to follow me, definitely follow me. On Instagram. I create millionaires. That's the best social network that I'm actually updating myself and I manage my own social when it comes to that one. So if you have, if you want to DM me or something, I actually respond to people. Got it.

Well, Pajama, and I just want to say thank you so much for taking the time to do this and people listening. Make sure you take some time. Go to that website, learnfrompjay.com I'll make sure to put it down below so that you can check it out. And like I said, it's one of those communities I've heard about and been involved with Secret Entourage for quite some time now. And I know a lot of people that are involved with it and a lot of them have been on this podcast. So I just want to say thank you for just creating that whole entire movement for the last 12 years, because it's not only inspired myself, but millions of people. So I really appreciate that.

Yeah, you got it, buddy. I appreciate you having me on. Okay, best of luck to all of your listeners and people who are out there grinding and trying to make ends meet. Just remember that success is a 10 year journey, not a you're not a one year goal, you know?

Totally. Well, that being said, everyone, thank you so much for listening to the Rise of the Young podcast. Make sure you follow Pejmon, go check out what he's doing. And again, thanks so much for listening to the show. Thanks so much.

Legacy of Monsters An Apple original Series the world is on fire. I decided to do something about it on the November 17th. This place, it's not ours. Believe me, the most massive event of the year arrives. If you come with me, you'll know everything. I promise.

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Monarch Legacy of monsters streaming November 17th only on Apple TV. Plus.