Bringing Main Street Businesses Back w/ Codie Sanchez

You know how the universe repeats lessons. It's like, do you get it? Do you get it yet?

How many times do you want this one?

Yeah, exactly like. No, I'd like another face punch, please. Building businesses in whatever way allows you to become this uplifting mechanism for a bunch of other humans. You can be the elevator they stand on. Get some skin. Because I promise people burn down less houses when they own a part of them.

Own your future. Because if you don't, someone else will. Welcome to the Own youn Future podcast. Thank you for tuning in. Today is going to be so special. I have a brand new friend. So many times I'm like, oh, this is my dear friend. This is a new friend we just met for the last hour. But you know when ever anybody ever tell you to read a book, like read this book. And then a day later someone else tells you, then you get an email to read it. You got to read it. I have to tell you, it's the same thing with you. This is Cody Sanchez. She is doing an amazing job. She's bought over 26 businesses, from a journalist to the finance world, working for some of the top companies and now buying your own businesses. Over 26 businesses. Over $50 million a year in revenue now.

70.

70, $70 million. I was off and like that book. In the last month, three people have said, this girl, Cody Sanchez is on fire. You got to meet her. And I've had the chance to meet you today. I geeked out and watched some of your podcasts and interviews. I'm so impressed with what you're doing. Our audience is going to absolutely love you. And your number one thing is buying other people's businesses, but not with a lot of capital, in some cases not buying companies that need so much work. And that's what I want to get into today. Because when I say you buy companies, I think people think corporate America, hedge fund, lots of money, angel investing, lots of millions raised. When that's not the way you approach it and how you're helping people, not only you do it for yourself, that's your main business. You're also now helping others do the same. I am so stoked. I have some questions I want to personally ask you. Again, thanks for tuning in to the Own youn Future podcast. And I want to say thank you so much to today as I'm sitting here, we are still, we are the number one podcast in the world in our category. That's because of you. So follow, subscribe, like, share. But now let's get to this Interview. So you buy businesses. How the hell did that happen?

Started really corporate. So unlike a lot of entrepreneurs or people that I think come and speak on podcasts, I was, I was a fraidy cat for years. So I worked in corporate America for a long time in finance. And what we do in finance and private equity is we buy businesses, but really big ones, right? So $100 billion transaction, we use other people's money, aka the bank to do it typically. And then we make millions, billions of dollars. And at some point I was kind of miserable. I don't know if anybody could relate but you know, 60, 70 hour weeks and I didn't see an end to it. You know, I looked at the managing directors that were higher than me and thought I don't want, I'm going to be them.

If I do really well, that's the goal. That's, that's where I go.

And I was like, I don't want it, I don't want any of that. They don't seem happy. And, and so I started trying to figure out where could my golden parachute be? Like how could I get out of this? And what I realized is wait, there's nothing that difference between a giant transaction and a little transaction. Why couldn't I buy a tiny business and use other people's money in order to do it and I could maybe buy enough of those where I could just cover my salary, like that's it. Maybe if I do your goal, I.

Mean, and, and but before we go any further, tell me something I've been geeking out on for the last six, six months is I've been an entrepreneur since I was little, 17, 16. I started cutting firewood and selling it. Then I bought wreck cars and fixed them. Then I had a collision shop, then I got a tow truck. Then I got into apartments and then building houses and then I bought Tony Robbins course and then I started writing books and do like always been that guy. And it doesn't mean sometimes people like oh, I didn't have enough struggle or I'm not the guy that wants to sacrifice and, or the girl that wants to and like we all come from different places. Every entrepreneur comes from a different path. We all have our own. But the only, sorry to digress but what you just said, I want to do enough to cover my salary. What I've been geeking out on, I just want you right down or put in the back of your head for talking about later is there is a career mindset that I think you get not brainwashed but you get used to compared to the call entrepreneur. And unfortunately, entrepreneurship has gotten a bad name in recent years when it's the foundation of this amazing country that my. My wife's parents can come from Mexico. And by the time my wife is 30, she owns two businesses, she's doing amazing things on her own. Where else can you do that? So I'm so. I love the word entrepreneurship. It's been my whole life, and I love being an advocate for entrepreneurs. I know you are too. I know it's your goal to create a million of them. Right. So I love it. This conversation is going to be easy. Getting too long winded here for career mindset versus entrepreneurial mindset. I don't think there's people watching right now that don't realize that they've been programmed to be a little quieter to just look for the promotion to see, oh, I could get to the C suite. If I do this and I do this and I do this, and if I quit, can I cover my salary by. And it gives you this wrong perspective. Before we go any further on your journey, the woman you are now, what would you say to that person who was a little scared thinking, I shouldn't do this because I'm safe and are you really safe? It was an illusion. All right, all right. I had to jump in here real quick to make sure that you have reserved your spot for the own. Your future challenge. Yes. This is the podcast. I'm talking about the challenge starting August 1st with myself, Tony Robbins, and some of the greatest guests on the planet. It's happening for five days, the first through the fifth, about two hours a day. It's not kind of free. It's totally free. And Tony and myself and our guests are going to pull back the curtain and show you how to live a life of purpose, a life of passion, but how to tap into an industry to succeed on a whole new level. It is going to be unbelievable, and I don't want you to miss it. O y f2023.com always start sooner than you think.

Do it before you're ready. You'll never feel ready. Sort of like, you know that conversation people have with kids, like, you're never ready. I feel like people should say that same thing to people who want to become an entrepreneur. The difference maybe is like the people.

Who want to have kids, like, you're never going to be ready.

Just have the kid. You're like, you're never ready. Just do the thing. Yeah, great point, but I actually think I'm A little different. Like we were talking about mutual friends. We have. I have a couple mutual friends that are like, I slept on a couch, I lived on the floor. And I do not think you have to do that.

No, absolutely not.

I think that you could be a little scared and you could tiptoe your way into it. And. And so if I was Talking to my 19 year old self, I'd say, start tiptoeing sooner. You don't have to take a big jump.

Tiptoe, investigate.

Right, Exactly.

And don't be so afraid of the unknown.

Yeah.

Learn it's actually scarier to be stuck in something you don't like and be at the end of your life and go, damn it, I missed it.

Yeah.

Rather than saying, let's tiptoe. All right, so back to your story. You're. You're helping doing these big transactions. You realize they're doing it with big money. Can I do it with small money? If I buy a couple of these small companies with somebody else's money, can I cover my salary? Where'd you go from there?

So from there, I did what most people do. I waffled around, cried, you know, didn't make changes for a bit. And. And then finally I started thinking about businesses that I could do from afar. At the time, I was running around traveling like every week, nonstop, two flights a week at least. And so I couldn't buy a business and run it myself. I was working way too much. But I found a guy who was operating a Laundromat. And at the time, this guy who was operating a Laundromat, when he was explaining it to me, we knew each mutual friends. I was like, wait a second. Like, you just need a little bit of cash to operate a lot. What if you run a laundromat and I buy one? And we could buy one from really cheap. Here's how I think we could structure it. Because he was like, laundromats cost a million dollars. And I was like, I don't think so. Because I know how to find these businesses that are kind of going a little sideways, or maybe businesses that are really small but never want to be big businesses. And I thought, let's apply the same idea we do in private equity, which is we find kind of little guys that need some help, and we either give them capital or we give them operational capacity. 100%. And so we did that together. We did my first little laundromat transaction. So that was like $100,000 that I invested for $67,000 a year. In profit. Now, to be clear, $100,000 is a lot. And now I teach people how to do deals with a lot less cash. But back then, 100,000 was a lot for me, but wouldn't bankrupt me. Right? Got it.

Yep.

And I did that first transaction, and. And I was like, oh, this works. I don't have to step foot in it. I'm in Chile half the time doing deals, and this tiny business works. And then we bought another one. And then we bought another one. And then I realized everything rhymes and we are building our own little private equity holding company. But the fascinating part about it was I was quiet. Like, I didn't tell anybody. I was. I've only been on the Internet for like, two years. And prior to this, like, I was almost embarrassed. Like, I own these little dirty businesses, these boring businesses, and maybe the people listening, maybe you have that thing that you think you shouldn't do or that is dirty or that is boring or that somebody's make fun of you. And it turns out the second I started talking about it on the Internet, now we have 4 million followers and 100 million monthly views and all talking about Laundromats, you know, Ridiculous, right? So that was the first deal. That was the catalyst for all the other deals.

Well, isn't. And. And I love that story. So thank you. And I'm going to ask more questions on it. But isn't it crazy, you know, when people hear things in personal development? Change your beliefs, change your life, change your story, change your life. You're like, I don't need any of that stuff. Just give me a good business. But when you really, as you get older especially, and you're doing so amazing again, I mean, this. It's incredible what you've done. You're going to see that those little things are actually the big things.

That's so true.

What you felt about Laundromats. No one will care. Was that reality or belief?

Belief.

Right. And once the belief was shifted, you thought, what other companies? What other businesses? This seem a little dirty or you don't want to talk about, but could do the same thing for me. And really, when. When people say, what's the secret to success? There's a million things, but the little things are the big things. And wisdom comes from questioning your beliefs and stepping into the uncomfortable.

Yeah.

And once you step into the uncomfortable, solve bigger problems than you ever had before. When you step back, that knowledge turns to wisdom. And over years, it compounds and compounds and compounds. And then all of a sudden you say, God, that person's got such great intuition. No, if someone says, you know, somebody that's got great gut instincts or good intuition, it simply means they failed more than most. They face their fears, they question their beliefs, and they know the experience on the other side. That's. That's wisdom. You're so gut. That's instinct. And when you do it long enough, it just, it's like a really great on. Well, AI is artificial intelligence. We actually had it. We are the founders of AI right here between our ears. It's the cumulative effect of, of these experiences. You're going to watch this as you go, and it's gonna be a fun journey. And if we know each other for a lot of years, I get to watch this. You're gonna watch things that took you months, that take weeks, that take days, that take hours, that take moments, that someone goes, what about this business? You go, no, that, that won't work. 102nd. You'll know it a second or in a second you'll go, oh, I need more info on that one. Right, yeah.

Well, you said something when we were chatting that I loved, which was that, you know, when we share our experiences online, we turn decades into days, which I, you know, little light bulb, you're like, I'm going to solve your issue about thinking about sharing information in 30 seconds. And I was like, sure, let's see. You know, and then that line, and I was like, God, that's exactly it. And that. What's so funny is in finance, we are taught tactics, tactics, tactics. You know, give me the financials, give me the spreadsheet all day. And what I realized actually not so long ago, you would be proud, I think, because I could see, like, you and Tony, you found this stuff out, like 30 years ago. I found it out 30 minutes ago. But, but I was at, I was at the, I gave this speech and I was listening to the person before me give theirs, thankfully. And they were talking about how people physically represent money. So their body, if, if they could have a physical representation of money, what would that look like with your body? And it was a group of small, group of women, very successful women, by the way. Six, seven, eight figure women. And they were like, I want you to think about money. Close your eyes, and then make your body a physical representation of money. And so I'm like. And so I, you know, I, I think money. And I go, money, like, hands up, right? I'm like, I don't even think about it. I don't say the words out loud. I'm just in the back, like, yeah, I like it, you know, whatever. And then I open. Then she says, open your eyes. And we look around and everybody else is sort of like curled up like, like closed tight or just like mommy or. And it was the weirdest thing I've ever saw because then I went on and said, okay, I'm going to give you a bunch of tactics and tools because that's kind of the way that my brain works. But if you, if your physical body is like this and this is how you think about money, I give you the list. I could give you the spreadsheet, I could tell you every single thing to do. But I kind of feel like you need to go and listen to somebody like Dean or somebody like Tony first. Because if you don't believe it, then all the numbers won't back it.

You don't believe love. We ever find love.

Yeah, I mean, it sounds so touchy feely, which, like, hurts my little finance soul, except it's true. And so I think it's really powerful. The stuff that you do when you open people's aperture larger and then they can see the numbers and they can see the tactics, but before it, they'll just be on the Internet saying, well, fucking work. No way, no how, whatever.

So then buying Laundromats evolved to this is your business. I mean, you have a company now, 26 companies. Or is it more? Is that what it's at right now?

Yeah, 26 boring businesses, I call them. And then we have essentially our media companies. So now we have three of those and then we have five, what I call media accelerated companies. So what I realized is there's just levels to every game, right? So I had that first little Laundromat and then I was like, huh, well, I could just have more Laundromats because it's the same thing. And then what about car washes? And then how about, oh, this is a landscaping company with the same dynamics. So I started building up this thing and then a weird thing happened to me in, in private equity, which happens to a lot of employees, which is I made more money in my side stuff than my main stuff. And at that point in my career, I mean, I'm like eight years into finance. I'm pretty senior. I'm making, you know, a million bucks a year as, as an employee, I'm doing pretty well. And. But I was making more in this other thing. At this point, I actually really liked what I did in private equity. I was. I could have been an employee for a long Time, actually, except some of the other people that I worked with got wind of how much I was making in this other stuff. And I started becoming a little bit public. I wasn't making any money. I wasn't selling anything online. I just. People found out about portfolios. My leadership business grew, and so I got a couple of, you know, CNBC spots and whatever. And I remember one of my partners at the time said, you know, we don't. We don't build ourselves. We build the company. We don't talk about you, we talk about we. And at the time, I was pissed. I was like, I have made you hundreds of millions of dollars now. I kind of get it as a boss. He's right. I was playing with his chips, and he did me a huge service, which is. He said, you got to pick. Which one do you want to do? And to this day, we're great friends. He's an incredible CEO. Like, you would love him. The culture he's built in finance is incredible. But I left. We took a walk on the beach. He said, you pick. I was kind of like, I think you're ridiculous. Like, you know, we kind of fought and. And I left. And then I said, hey, we're going to go our separate ways. But actually, I respect you. I kind of get it, of course. But if he hadn't, he didn't fire me, but if he hadn't put that ultimatum on the line, I wouldn't have had a choice. Yeah, I wouldn't have then gone. And. And I. Even then, Dean, I did the. The wussy thing again. I went and partnered with somebody else in a private equity firm. I went into theirs. I didn't think I could do it by myself. I thought I needed somebody.

That career mindset, evolving to, I can do this on my own.

Yeah, I needed a bridge. And then I realized quickly, oh, man, I'm bringing in all the money to these guys. I'm bringing in all the deals. Why am I doing this with somebody else? And then I had to have the. You know how the universe repeats lessons. It's like, do you. Do you get it yet?

How many times do you want this one?

Yeah, exactly like, no, I'd like another face punch, please. And so then the same thing happened. I started getting big. I was in. I was in private equity and cannabis. And I had been in private equity cannabis for like, six months. And I'm, like, headlining the Private Equity Cannabis Conference. We're getting all the deals, we're doing whatever. Same thing with one of my partners. They're like, this is too much. Outside of the partnership, we don't want to be public. You obviously want to be public. So pick. And I was like, got. Exactly again. And I had, you know, I had a lot, millions of dollars invested in there. And so then I basically said, again, I think you guys are wrong. Fine. And. And then I left that private equity fund. I finished that last fund with us and did the fundraise and was like, I suppose I am now unemployable and I shall work for myself. And. But it took.

It took nudges. And how many times do we all get the nudge and we ignore it a lot. I love that. I love. Sorry. I'm just gonna tell me it's a great second grader joke, but it's a joke that somebody's in the Midwest and they live in the flood plains. And it starts raining. It starts to flood.

Yeah.

And fire truck pulls up and says, hey, buddy, get in the truck. That the flood's coming. It's going to go over your house. Like, no, no. I pray every day God will save me. So he leaves. You heard this? I love this. And then it gets up to like the second window and a boat comes. It's like, yo, yo, the water's going to go over your house. Getting the boys like, no, no, no, God will save me. Finally, it's up on the roof. Helicopter drops the ladder. He's like, no, no, no, God will save me. The water comes over, drowns him. He gets to heaven. He's like, dude, I thought you were gonna save me. He's like, I sent you a car, a boat and a helicopter. What else do you want from me?

That was me.

But I say that as a joke. I know it was you, but it's everybody. We all have the human condition. It's like, knock, knock. You're called to this way. You've just been trained to think this way. Like when people say, I take the safe road, is working for someone else safe?

Yeah.

Covet came. We saw everything. 2007 came the shift of the economy. There's probably another big shift coming. The economy now, AI could disrupt the industry you're in. There's nothing safe. And is it hard work doing your own thing? Hell yes. Well, simultaneously do you get to create your future, your destiny, control your, you know, I mean, like it like there's a gamble of each one. There's also staying comfortable in a job and getting to the end of your life and go, man, I never went after what all these callings they sent the boat, they sent the car, they sent the helicopter. I should have. So I think at first I just want to recognize that it only took two smacks in the face for you to. To jump. You know, sometimes there's. There's people with smack marks all over them. Right, Sure.

I feel you. I feel your pain. Yeah. Well, I think the other thing, you know, that I like to talk about too, is, and I know you're the same way I could. I have a business that employs hundreds of people. If there were no employees, no way. Do I think everybody should be an entrepreneur. Do I think it's super easy? No. What I actually think is that every human should fight for skin in the game they're playing. And so every person that I employ has skin in the game. AKA, if we do xyz, you will make more money. If you bring me a deal, you will get a percentage of the deal. If you bring me an investor, you'll get a percentage of the investor, and I won't ever be able to take away that percentage of the deal, that percentage of the investor. You don't have to show up for work to get that. And so. So, you know, I have a father and a mother. My father, you know, wasn't. Was an immigrant, you know, didn't go to college. Smartest man I know. Bought business, sold business after selling business. But he was. He would say if he was here that he was super scared of risk. He was risk averse his whole life. But guess what? Him taking maybe what he perceives as not a lot of risk or the safe route allowed me to take way more.

Right, right, right.

And so I have a lot of respect for those people who are, who want to work and build for others. What I don't have is if you do it begrudgingly, you know, if you're working in a company you hate, if you're doing something you don't like, that's your fault. That's not the company's fault. It's not the job's fault.

Right. It's perspective again.

Yeah.

I mean, that could shift in a moment. If you say, hey, this is just the stepping stone to where I'm going, Let me be happier today. So when I'm where I want to be tomorrow, I could say, hey, that was a good experience along the way.

Totally. And you get there so much faster.

So getting back to so Laundromats, evolution, car washes, all right, I gotta do my own thing. Right. The universe put the spotlight on you, so you start your own Thing.

Yeah.

So where to go from there?

Yeah. So I had the businesses at that time, so I was making money. And so basically I took a big breath and I was like, well, It's January of 2020, not a great time for Cody to fully start something completely by herself, without partners. And you could say, you know, at that time, my. My business portfolio was probably doing $20 million in RE. It was, you know, that paid for my stuff. I could have just retired, probably. But I realized the. The other thing that I hadn't been doing because I was scared for a long time is like you talked about in the beginning, I was a journalist way back in the day. Human trafficking, drug smuggling, crossing the US Mexico border, seeing horrible things, but learning a lot from it. And I didn't pursue journalism because, you know, my mom said journalists don't make any money. Why would you do that? Journalists are miserable, the newspaper business is dying. And. And I went that way. And so in 2020, I started writing again. I started writing a newsletter and I just thought, well, maybe a few people subscribe. And I started with this idea of people are losing their minds in 2020. Right. Like, you can't have positive debate, you can't have constructive criticism. There was nothing. And so I thought, I'm going to start something called Contrarian Thinking, a newsletter, and I'm going to just send it to people that I think are thoughtful, and I'm going to ask them to have a dialogue with me, and I'm going to talk about some things and frameworks that I think might help us as we're digesting what's happening in the world around us. And that little newsletter started picking up, and all of a sudden it had a couple hundred subscribers and it had thousands. And right about when it had thousands, I was like, oh, wait a second, this is a thing. This is something that has a characteristic that looks like a business potentially. And so then I.

Welcome to my last 30 years.

Right. I had no idea that this Internet world existed, to be frank. I mean, I was.

I thought Internet learning.

Yeah, right.

Self education.

No idea.

Right.

I really thought the pinnacle was being at Goldman Sachs. Like I was being a partner being in a private equity fund. And then I realized that that's an I game. And this could actually be that we game. Yeah, the actual real world we game that my CEO doesn't even have. Back in the day, he had a team. Like this little team was the we. But what if my. We could be giant and it could be everybody. And I remember another CEO said, To me once, you know, Cody, we get rich quietly here, you know, we don't. We don't talk about the stuff we do. And I thought about that, and I was like, nah, I think, like, everybody could get rich.

Yeah.

And in fact, if I talked about it, I bet I could get rich faster, and so could they, because we'd just be sharing what was happening. And so that little newsletter now turned into, you know, that 4 million subscribers, not just in the newsletter, across all of our media, and a business where we teach people about stuff that I thought nobody cared about, AKA private equity buying businesses. And we're. We're still so fledgling, you know, I mean, even though I say the numbers now of, let's say we do 70 or 80 or 90 million all in, I see what's possible in this world and all the people we can touch.

Here's what I want to promise you. At your age, you'll look back when you're in it, it seems like it's taken forever.

Yeah, it does.

When you're 50 and you look back, you're like, I did all that before 36. Holy. Like, that's just the way it works. Like, when you're in it, it's like, why is this. We are two years in. Like, you say it out loud, you're like, oh, I'm gonna be quiet. I'm four years in. We're at 90 million. I, I.

It's so true, right? Yeah.

And perspective is everything, you know, it's amazing. I was in. You get bit by the bug. This is what I. I've had this conversation with our mutual friend Alex Hermosi, and Pace Morby was just here not that long ago, and, and some other. But I've had this conversation with everybody, with Tony Robbins, with Matthew McConaughey. He wrote Green Lights.

Yeah. Love that.

I got done reading Green Lights. I'm like, oh, this guy's deep. Like, he's been journaling for 30 years.

Yeah.

He saw patterns, follows the patterns, lives a more successful life, realized Hollywood wasn't the best place to live for a family. Moves like, saw patterns. Right. Just does cool stuff. I read that book. I'm like, this guy needs to have a course. This guy needs to teach more. He got bit by the bug.

Yeah.

We became friends. I'm like, you could take. A book is very inspirational. A course is transformational. So remember that language. You read a book. When's the last time you read a book and, like, literally shifted your life? Usually you read a book, you're like, I Love that. You tell three friends and you go on with life.

Yeah, yeah.

You get a course, pay a little more, you do more work, there's exercises, and if you actually do it, you start implementing it.

It's true.

And then sometimes you want to take it further and go, man, I loved the book. The course was incredible. I need a coach. I need somebody to hold me, kick my butt, keep me accountable, give me the homework. That's our industry. And. And what do we do? I shared that earlier with you. You're like, you know, when I started sharing what I know, or selling a course or doing a training, you're like, my, my thing, what I said to you was, is what would it be worth to you to go back with what you know now at 36 years old, if you don't mind me sharing that.

No.

What would it be worth to you to go back and spend a day with your 20 year old self?

Yeah, a lot. I said millions.

Yeah.

Which is true.

Right. So you take your 16 years, you put it into a 500 course, then you feel bad sitting in 500 bucks. It's like, no, you just save somebody a decade of angst and worry. I mean, I always share that and I said that to you. What I love about the entrepreneurial journey is I get to appreciate the invisible. If you're just starting your journey, I know what you're going to experience, and some of it's hell and it's worth every bit of it. The sleepless nights and all, like, all that's part of this amazing journey. So when I see you at 36 doing what you're doing, I know all the mistakes you had to make. I know all the times you questioned yourself. I know all the times other people questioned you. I know you probably had to look a loved one in the face and say, I understand what you're saying, but this is my life, not yours. I know all of those pieces. And when you could take, I was sharing. And it was Tony's words. Decades and days. When you can take that 16 years and give somebody the collapsed version and go, no, no, no, don't go that way, please don't go that way. Go this way. That's this industry. It's why I love it. It's why I'm doing this podcast, it's why I write books, it's why Tony and I partnered and Matthew and I did this together and we got other cool stuff coming. It's because you get to allow you shorten people's learning curves and you get them from to where they are. But here's the cool part about your business. When you teach it, you get exponentially better.

Yeah.

I see people who are good at marriage and they start teaching marriage. They take their marriage to a whole nother level. Right. You see somebody who's teaching financing, they start teaching it, and you watch their own business go to another level. I watch Pace Morby. He's. I know he's a friend of yours. He was in real estate, started teaching real estate. He built this tribe. Now his deals come from his tribe. Right. And he's exponentially growing. It's the same thing probably happened with you. When you say it out loud, you go, oh, before I say that, is that a hundred percent? Right. Is that my perspective? If I'm going to teach this, if I'm going to be responsible enough and it sharpens your pencil. Do you feel that happening?

Oh, 100. I also think the world is now public record. Like everything that you think is now out there publicly. You know, if I say something and it's wrong, I'm going to hear about it in 30 seconds on the Internet. You know, 100 million people are going to review the stuff that I say. And so I don't profess to be perfect at everything. And the beautiful part about the Internet is I'll quickly learn if I'm wrong. And I think some people don't want to get public because especially in finance, we think if anybody finds me out, if they realize I don't know this, then, you know, it's over, game over. And what I quickly realized is, no way. This is like free learning for me. Actually, all of these humans who are going to come in and tell me one way or the other.

And the cool part is in. In this industry and because we're talking about it, and many of the people who watch are part of our family and mastermind family. You don't have to be the master at all. You find your swimming lane and go deep. And if someone's better at, you know, real estate or investing in bonds or stocks or like, you find the expert in your lane. And that's what's great about the Internet. You find somebody that you believe has the same values as you, they treat the relationship the same as you. They communicate the same. They swear. They don't swear. They drink. They don't drink. They party. They don't party. Like, you get to pick the person who's doing the thing you want. Yeah. Who's a chapter ahead, a year ahead, a decade ahead. And you get to let them forge the path. Right. There's somebody bloody that has forged the path before you. You can figure it out on your own or you can learn from the sweat and tears that they had.

Well, the other thing that I think you've realized in business overall way before me, but is when, when I buy and build businesses, I get to bring along my favorite humans with me. So like, my dad was at the meeting right before this. My dad is part of our acquisitions group. You know, my mom did our accounting back in the day. I hired my brother into his first job and paid him out his first six figures for one of my businesses, you know, and, and then a lot of the people that are in my businesses are friends and I have pretty high expectations. So I set it up front really well, which is super important if you're going to hire friends and family. You know, it's like, here's the expectations for the business, here's how I'm going to communicate. You have to determine if these two things will fit you. And if it doesn't work, you're going to know ahead of time, but then we are going to part ways and you have to be comfortable with that. But I think building businesses in whatever way allows you to become this uplifting mechanism for a bunch of other humans. You can be the elevator they stand on. And that is really powerful for me. So if I think about the impact I can have by buying my next couple hundred million dollars in businesses, which is still like crazy, but you know, that's the goal, right? We build hundreds of millions of dollars of businesses and, and invest in hundreds of millions, I'll never be able to do as much as a collective audience of humans can. So like I think, and you know, I talk about this until I'm blue in the face sometimes. But I really think that humans in our country right now are a bit of a turning point because I think that you see all around you, you are in real estate. You know. You know, one out of four single family homes was bought by large institutions last year. We live in neighborhoods where our, our neighbors don't own their homes. That's a new phenomenon.

It is.

And that same thing is happening in businesses. 25 to 30% of small businesses are owned by the biggest 10 companies in each sector.

Wow.

And so if we even take the idea that I'm having a great time, I love buying businesses. It's super amazing for me, I think we as a society, if we can all help the next human get a little bit of equity, get a Little bit of ownership.

They got skin in the game.

They got skin in the game.

That's what you said earlier.

And that's the whole game.

So. So I loved this conversation up until now about your journey, thought process behind it. Listen, we all start. There's so many people thinking, I could never buy a business, and maybe that's not your jam. Maybe you just want to be a coach or. Or start a pizza restaurant. I. I don't know. But know that the same philosophy of you buying the big businesses when you worked, working for, you know, the finance compared to you buying the little ones compared to somebody thinking they couldn't even buy a Laundromat.

Yeah.

But they want to start a coaching or whatever business. It's all the same philosophy. What I love about doing this podcast again, I shared this with you earlier. My team's been asking me for five years to do it. I've just been putting it off because if I did, I wanted to do it right. I want to have great guests, ask good questions. But I hope what people are getting from today is the common threads of all successful businesses. Right. You're sharing some of the same stuff my last 10 guests have shared in completely different worlds, in completely, completely different industries, at all levels of success. But the common thread are some of these things we're talking about. And I. And again, if you never thought you'd want to buy a business, maybe you will after this podcast. But no, whatever it is you want to do, it's the same stuff. It's just the stuff. And we all face the human condition and we all face doubts. So I love that. But I'd love to go a little deeper on what you do, because I think. I think we talk about how you got here and what you do, but maybe a little deeper. I started off by saying, how could possibly buying a boring business could be a replacement from maybe a bootstrap startup? So I'd love to talk more about that. And then a question I wrote down is, what are three things that you see in a business where you get that tingles like, oh, we're buying this one. Like, you don't even want to say, like, if you're in a room and the owner is there, you have to work really hard not to smile. You know that feeling like. Like they say, well, we're doing this, we're doing this. No, we haven't done technology. And you're just like, oh, my God, oh, my God, I want this right now. Like, if your hus. If your father's There you're like texting them under the table.

Like, shut up, dad. Don't you say word.

I am buying this business.

So, yeah, there. There actually are three things. Maybe there's four, but I'll go with three. Okay. The first, very first one is I call some. There's something called the fax machine test that I do, which is basically, I'm writing these down.

I hope you're writing this down at home.

Exactly. If you see a business and there is a fax machine in it, or there is a landline that is in use, or there is like a scanner that looks like it was built in the 80s, I immediately my little spidey senses go up because it tells me, oh, my God, this is the most unoptimized business of all time. All of us in our generation are like, there's this thing, it's called text message. Should we maybe use that? So the fax machine test, the second thing.

So behind on technology, kind of.

Exactly.

Number one, behind on technology. Okay.

The second thing that gets me all hot and bothered is when they talk about in the business that they have a lot of profits that they make, typically. But the problem with the business is that they don't like to pay taxes on it. So they sort of. They do a lot of spending inside of their business. And the reason why I like that. So that's basically just if you have a business does $100,000 in profit, let's.

Say they're paying their car payment.

They're paying. Right, right, right. So they, they start to do these things, they're called add backs. And the reason why I think that's interesting is this is slightly technical, but basically what it means is that when you are buying the business, you get a discount because they put a bunch of stuff into the business that shouldn't have been. So their profits aren't very high.

Got it.

So you're basically looking how much are they making really? Versus how much does the IRS think that they make because of how they play to the business. And now I get a deal. It's like a Blue Line special.

Walmart.

Right. Then the third thing that makes me really excited about a business is when the operator starts to tell me things like I call it the one month policy. But like, yeah, well, you know, I went on a vacation last year for a month. I climbed the. The Kilimanjaro Mountain, you know. And the reason I like that is because that means he doesn't have a job, he has a business. Somebody else had to run the thing while he was gone. So every deal I do, I always say, what do you do when you're not working? Do you have a, what do you like, do you have hobbies? Mountain bike. Is that a mountain bike over there? When was the last mountain biking vacation you go on?

And that's, they're like, I don't leave. I'm here today. God forbid I left, this business would go under.

You're like, yeah. You're like, I'll be right back. Yeah, yeah. Or maybe that's a great business for somebody who really wants to run a business, but not me. And so you have the one month policy, you have basically bottom versus top line and you have the fax machine test. And those three things get me a little tingly.

Good.

No, now, you know, you know, figure that you did.

And I love this and I love the fact of when you say a boring business, it's just kind of the hidden businesses, the things that you drive by every day. And also I heard you say, because I again just getting to know you, I geeked out this morning and listened to some of your interviews and there's something you said that I thought was powerful is so many times, especially in the European culture. It's generations of hand the business down to the next generation. And we're at a generation where the kids don't want dads or mom's business business. Is that true?

Very true. I mean, there's actually a thing I haven't talked about very much yet, which is if you go to Japan right now, there is an agency, one agency that is completely dedicated to trying to find people to buy other people's businesses. There's an entire governmental agency because there is a disaster in ownership transfer. Literally people do not want to buy these people's businesses. And so one of the newly minted billionaires in Japan is a guy who created an algorithm, an AI algorithm to try to find all the business sellers and get them to business buyers, right? And using AI in varying ways to do it. And so this happens so frequently that you can't imagine. And I've, I've mentioned this story once before, but actually there was a plumbing company here in Arizona, where we are today, that was owned by one of my family members. And the reason I even really started thinking, thinking that I could do this at scale was because this family member of mine had a, had a company that was doing millions of dollars in revenue, millions of dollars in profit. And when he went to retire, because he was in his 70s, he just shut the business down because he had no idea he sharecropping family. He built the business up from nothing. He was a plumber. Then he built the plumbing business. And he spent hundreds of thousands, thousands of dollars to shut the business down. Because, spoiler alert, nobody tells you it costs money to shut a business down. And so this business, which could have been sold for, let's call it 6, 7, 8, $10 million, got shut down because nobody. He didn't know that he could sell it, and nobody came.

Wow.

And knocked on his door. So I think sometimes people listen to this stuff and they think, well, you're taking advantage of sellers. Or how do you get the deals at that price? It's like, no, no, no. You are buying. When you buy a business, you are buying work. Don't get it twisted. Like, I don't believe in purely passive income. You know, real estate. Like, there's no such thing as. And by the way, if you're the type of thought, it's a great idea. I mean, the only passive income is when you have a ton of money and you give it to a financial advisor, and that financial advisor pays you out. Theoretically.

Or dividends. Right. That's.

That's it. Yeah.

And there's still stocks, bonds.

That's it. But that type of money makes money. Takes money to make money. And so that realization that we are now doing more tiktoks than we are, you know, trade jobs.

Yeah.

Is actually a shining opportunity. Just like probably every chaotic moment in history.

This is so great. And I love talking about diverse topics because it stretches people's minds. Yeah, right. I'm sure you have girlfriends or new people that you meet, and they're like, wait a minute, you do what? Oh, yeah, you buy. And I'm sure people are probably like, is that what your dad did?

Yeah.

Or is that what your husband does? It's like, no, no, I'm bringing my husband into this business. I'm trying to get his feet wet, like. Or whatever. Right.

Yeah. Actually, we were, like, speaking on. So I was at the nasdaq and I was going on to talk about public equities at the time because I was an investing. My name's Cody. Right. Kind of androgynous name. And I'm there with my husband. He's like this burly dude, ex Navy seal, you know, and. And he's standing next to me, but he's in a suit. In time. And I'm in my suit. And they, like, come up to both of us for me to go, you know, on stage and they're like, talk to your husband, Mr. Sanchez. Right this way. And they start motoring him. He's like, oh, no, no, no, no, no. You know, it's her. And the guy didn't mean anything by it. But I do think it's helpful sometimes to see a human that doesn't look like a traditional private equity.

Of course it does.

Buying these businesses.

All right, so I'm getting so boring. Businesses are kind of the ones you drive by.

Yeah.

The opportunity to do the same concept for something really low could allow someone who's dying to be an entrepreneur that if they want to bootstrap, they should. But if they want to enter, they have other options. And there's businesses out there, and you help people with that. I love that you created a newsletter. And later here, make sure you tell everybody how to find you. In fact, how do people find you? Sharing that.

I think the best place is Contrarian Thinking Co. That's our newsletter.

Love it. Go check it out, please. So you can buy a boring business. You could do some creative financing. You help share that. So we won't go deep on that today. I love that thing. And. And there's three things that you love. The fax machine, little behind on technology, using every dollar they possibly can to pay their personal stuff. So they don't pay much on taxes, but if that goes away, that becomes profit. Right. Ebitda. Right. Like where that is. And then the third is that they go on vacation, they leave, and the business can run even if they weren't there. Love those three things. What about snapshot financially? You look at a plumbing company, they make a half a million dollars a year net profit. Do you think to yourself, three years, five years, Is there. Is there a quick. I know this is what you do. If you bought 25 companies and do 50 million revenue, you have a really deep algorithm. But the back of the napkin, you're sitting down and they tell you it hits the three things, you're like, oh, that's all solid, solid, solid. They made a half a million bucks last year. 560 the year before, 490 the year before.

Yeah.

What are you thinking in your head?

I buy businesses for 3 to 5x profits.

That's how I figured.

Yep, yep. And typically I can get them for 2-3x with structuring the deal. Right. And this is where, you know, this is where the real money is made. And then people start to, like, you know, like, tune out is when I start talking terms. So I won't talk too much, but What I would say is if you want to make real money and you don't speak the language of finance, AKA terms, it's not going to fucking happen. Like you need to speak the language of finance and money if you want to make money. You guys talk about that all the time. And so the 101 language is like savings, you know, versus spending versus whatever the 505 language is, deals. And so if I want to buy a business that does $500,000 in profit, I would broadly say somewhere between 3 and 5x. But I would try to get it for. Which means two to three. Exactly. I would try to get it for two to three. And the way that I would do that is by messing with the terms. So instead of giving you, you know, 200 to $300,000 right now, today, I might say them, how about I give you $500 or $500,000, but I'm going to give it to you over 20 years. Or how about I instead of giving you $500,000, I give you $200,000 but you get to participate in some of the upside. Potentially. Yeah.

Love it.

Right? So simple. But people don't know it.

But here's the thing. You just took the same negotiating I did when I was 19 to buy my first real estate deal and you're just applying it to a different, seemingly something bigger. And here's the thing. Once you stretch yourself, do you know why I believe, just listening to you, why I believe it was so easy for you to transition into that?

No.

Because you were doing multi hundred million, dollar twenty million, fifty hundred million dollar deals.

Yeah.

So when you got down to a $200,000, you're like, oh, this is a joke. You were like probably thinking yourself, I wish I could do more. Even though someone that can't do their first deal is like you did a hundred thousand dollar. Right.

Exactly.

It was just perspective. You, you got, you were looking at these big deals. So when you downgraded for your own, even though it was a monster to somebody starting. Yeah, it was so. It was perspective. And I love, I love, seriously, I love that you're sharing what you know that I believe. It's the reason Tony and I created Mastermind. It's why we do a big event yearly. It's why we help people get in this space. I believe everybody who has life experience, if they die with that knowledge in their head, they're doing the world a disservice.

Totally.

And the only reason Tony and I created Mastermind to help people do it is because we've been friends for a decade. I golf twice a year with Tony. It's the only time I golf. It's the only time he golf. And. And we'd been talking about doing something together. I'm like, you know, we're such good friends. Everybody wants to do business with you. Let's just say buddies. You don't need me, I don't need you. But one day we're on a golf course, and we said, if we were gonna do something, what would it be? And Jim Rohn, if you know anything about personal. Jim Rohn, amazing. Changed Tony's life.

He went.

Tony went to a seminar when he was 17 years old. He spent 47 bucks to go. Jim Rohn filled his head, and life was never the same. Tony did that for me. When I was 27 years old, I bought his course, and I said, what's the thing that changed both of our lives? I said, I. I'd be asking you if you want to supersize that burger. If I didn't get into personal development, like, that's. I don't mean that disrespectful, but that's what I felt. Right.

Yeah.

And we both were like, man, if we didn't learn from other people who already forged a path, where would we be?

So true.

So why don't we help everybody unlock their life experience and help somebody? Because wherever you are, somebody's starting off where you used to be.

That's very true.

And that's how we can help change this world. Traditional education has not kept up. We know that.

It's.

It's. It's. It just. I'm not knocking. It just needs to. It needs to grow. It's growing linear, and the world's growing exponentially. Right. So anyway, that's. When I see somebody like you who's done so well in your. You know, in your life. It was very structured, and then you got kind of pulled into the newsletter, and you realize the impact you were making. And by sharing, you all grow. I love that because you're entering my industry, and you're helping people, and it's a lucrative, incredible business. All right, I want to.

Can I tell you one thing? Yeah.

Yeah, I'd love.

So there's this graph that I'll send to you afterwards in case anybody wants to see it. But basically, going back to that university thing, I tried to understand why. Why I kind of started to feel like university was a waste of time, even though I went to Georgetown for masters, have a PhD, all that jazz. But and so I started looking at the data and the data basically shows that the average graduation payout for a college four year college degree, they make about 4, 47 to, depending on how you calculate it, $54,000 a year. That has grown basically not at all in the last 30 years. So pretty much you make the same.

Amount now living cost of school.

Now the average cost of tuition plus board is $172,000. And so the, the relative value has basically completely eroded into the negative for university degrees. And so the data shows why. You know how that's like a trope everybody talks about now we know that the universities haven't caught up. No, no, we can see the data. When you go to the numbers you see, actually categorically, by the only measure that most people don't go to university, just you wouldn't pay $170,000 a party for four years. Most people wouldn't, you know. And so you can see very linearly that you don't grow. I mean, I was talking to one of your people here who went to asu, which is where I went to school, you know, really? Harvard of the West.

Harvard of the West.

But he's in there smiling, he's like, Cody. But when I went to asu, it was. If I hadn't been obsessed with learning, I would have gotten very little out of that school. Like, sorry guys, you know, I had to get three majors is what I graduated for. And I graduated a year early in order to do my college thesis to like extrapolate enough value out of it. And yet somebody could go through one of your programs or they could go to, you know, unconventional acquisitions and what we do, and they can make 100x in one year.

Right. And because where was that when we were learning curve. Yeah, you shrink the learning curve.

It's painful for me, the university thing.

It is, because I think that could be beautiful.

I think the institution matter.

Complete overhaul. Yeah, it needs a complete overhaul. And that's why it's the lowest college entry right now than in the history of the United States. At least it just did, you know. Did you ever see the stat that 82%? I think it's 82% of people or no, 78 of all people who get a degree don't use it. 78 don't use it. 50 of the people who do use it don't like their job. So 78 right. Is it's like 14 of people who get a degree use it and actually like it. Right. It's like it's like, so I think that's why this industry, the self education industry, knowledge industry, whatever you want to call it, it's one of the fastest growing industries in the world right now. 10 towards a billion dollars a day right now. And they expect it to be a trillion a year by 28, because people are realizing, I could go to school for eight years. I could try to get in my first deal. I could mentor somebody, I could do a 10 year run, or I could work with this Cody girl who's already been there. Oh, my God. She shares all of this, what she learned in 16. I mean, it's just when you say it like that, you're like, duh. Like, would somebody please have hit me over the head a few years ago? All right, I want to get to some other questions and that. That are just part of what I love to ask is you unbelievable. Your confidence, your clarity and where you go and what you achieved when somebody sees someone like you doing that. And there's a lot of women watching this right now, especially that. Go, God damn it. I know I'm meant for more.

Yeah.

But. Yeah, and I think when they see someone like you, like, well, confidence, courage, nothing bugs her. She's not scared of anything. What's something that bugs you and nobody's watching that. No one would expect.

Nobody.

Or scares you.

I think the real question is, what doesn't? I'm scared all the time still, which is funny because my parents are like, really, like, we don't ever remember you being scared. And perhaps I just don't project it.

Yeah.

But inside of here all the time is a little bit of fear. But, you know, some of the stuff that scare me that maybe would surprise people is even just, you know, I was sitting talking with one of my. One of my friends the other day actually, and he's a. He's a billionaire. You know, probably like what some of those conversations you've had with Tony and, and we were sitting at his compound overlooking the lake in Austin. It's beautiful. $60 million. Like, it's so great. And he's a former hedge fund manager. His name's Bill Perkins. And basically I'm walking with Bill and Bill invites me over to his house and I'm. And I'm a little late. So now I'm stressed because I got lost. So I'm like, bill, I'm so sorry. I'm here. You know, I will get out of your hair, right out of this. He's like, well, he's like, you're the reason for the Day, don't worry about it. It's all your time. I'm like, no, no, no. You don't have a lot of time. I'll be here. He's like, stop. You're on the agenda day. I'm like, why? And. And he's like, well, I think that perhaps you have been investing in small businesses for so long that small has infected your thinking. I was like, painful also. Why? And he's like, you own this portfolio of small businesses, and that's great, but I don't think that's anywhere near enough for you. And I think that you still are thinking like that employee you were working for somebody else 10 years ago. And he's like, I just have more zeros, which allows me to see wider than you do. And so I think my biggest fear is actually that I stop having conversations like that and that I don't take action. And, you know, when I was in.

In finance, I remember leaning into the uncomfortable.

Right. What is that moment where you decide wherever you are? Where I decide I'm not going to keep going because I'm scared. I don't think I can. Maybe I need somebody else to do it. And I see that in so many humans that it scares me. I'm worried, is it contagious? And that's what I don't want to have happen. I want to be in a room as often as possible, the littlest human, the smallest, so that I can keep sort of reaching for the next thing. And not just monetarily, because categorically, like, I mean, you see my outfit, I'm wearing, like, sneakers, you know, driving my mom's car here. You know, I stayed with my parents last night. Like, I. I don't really care about the money, but it's somehow like, at the end of your day, remember that? Oh, gosh, who is it, Hemingway, who said, like, at the end of the days, when I show up at the pearly gates, I want to be there, bruised, battered, sliding in and saying, that was a hell of a ride.

Exactly. The last thing that you ever want is to get to the end of your life and meet the person you could have been.

Oh, yeah, Is that awful?

You mean sits in the wrong place, that version of me, she. That Cody lived inside me?

Yeah, that'd be awful.

That uncomfortable feeling that I said no to, like, that. That. I think that's. I think that trumps all other fears. When someone says, I'm afraid of failing, are you afraid to get to the end of your life and go, and I missed It. What's scarier?

Yeah. Can I ask you a question?

Yeah.

I mean, you. This is your industry, like, personal development, getting humans to their fullest potential. I know how to get a human to buy a business. If they sit with me, I can teach them how to do that. And I can make sure, if they listen to me, that unless they're not a hard worker, the probability of success is very high. What I can't get people to do is, like, believe in themselves. And what I can't get people to do is to change their habits. Like, why do you think it is that there are so many humans out there? You can just see it in their eyes that they're not achieving their potential, that they're not healthy, that they're not reaching. Like, why? What is that? And is there a way to change it? Will it change?

Yeah, it's really. It's what I obsess on every single day. It's. It's. And I don't want to go back to the basics, but in. In most cases, if you think about it, we're only as good as our past experience if we keep living it. Right.

Yeah. So.

As crazy as this sounds, there's insecurities, there's actions, there's stories, there's past experiences that shape all of us. Right. You fall in love with the perfect person and they're unfaithful and they leave you, and all of a sudden, men or women are bad forever. And it's hard to get out of that pattern. Your parents tried their own entrepreneur business and went bankrupt, and you had to move schools in seventh grade. You're trying to be an entrepreneur, but deep down there is that vault of no, it'll ruin your whole life. So I believe all of it is. And my advice for you would be, if you teach, if you look at anything I've taught or anything Tony taught, what I think we've been able to do well is get people to believe in themselves by shifting their identity.

Yeah.

And then give them the tactics so they can implement it in their life.

Yeah.

So as you continue to educate, and I'm not talking about getting into personal development. You don't have to be a personal development expert.

No, they just go to.

You guys spend time. Enough time for them to really identify their identity. And what drives them, Right. What drives them away, what drives them forward? What is the story? What is the belief? I know this sounds like Personal Development 101, but in 30 years of doing this, it all comes back to if you believe. Henry Ford said If you believe you can, you will. If you believe you can't, you won't. And when people are just dabbling, they are waiting for it to go wrong. It's like having the headache thinking it's a tumor. And you Google tumor and headache, you find it in two seconds. Seconds. When someone's going into a business dabbling, they're like, this is going to fail. This, I'll try it. I'll listen to what Cody said, but it's going to fail. Going to fail. First thing they see the feel like, see, I knew it. I knew this. You know, people like me don't buy businesses. It's like you already set yourself up for failure. So I think the best advice I could give you on that is I've always been trying. I wrote a book called Millionaire Success Habits. Yeah, I've always just tried to get people to go upstream and realize, hey, what happened upstream? Yeah, that makes you think this way. What happened in your life? And if you stick with that story, what does it already cost you and what will it cost you? So I'd love to challenge you to have a new identity, a new belief, a new thought. And. And there's a million things we do on that. We make someone find that thing that held them back, project out 10 years and say, what if it keeps holding you back? How will you feel if you're still doing the same thing because of that story? Is that story worth it? It we go through a process of helping people find a true why. I mean, everybody's purpose, why. But really, like, why the hell do you want to start a business? Why do you want to do your own thing? And not because I want more money. Dig deep. It's like my dad wasn't there for me when I went to bed at night and I don't want to do that for my kids. Like, when you find that, think about it as a toolbox of leverage.

Yeah.

And all I say is I don't know exactly which one does it, but I will dig into. Imagine getting to the end of your life and meeting the man or woman you could have been. Imagine if you stick with this same story, you're going to be the same person in 10 years. Imagine not living into who you're supposed to be. Imagine you'll end up like your parents. Imagine you'll end up maybe your ex husband who told you you're a loser. Maybe he was right. You just got to find the thing. And that's the reason we do so many different angles, is because it's like, no, I don't care about my why. That's too bad. Oh, I'm gonna end up like my dad. Screw that. I'm going all in. You know what I mean? Like, it's just. You just gotta find the thing to get them distinct disturbed with their own inaction. And that's. That's the game. That's what we work on every day, is because if I get someone disturbed with their own inaction, I know they'll. They'll go through the course, they'll do the thing, they'll do what they want. If they get stuck in their head, they get jammed up, they go back to their old ways, and they don't even realize how many people watching right now or listening right now. How many times have you had a dream, a thought or belief? And you said, I'm doing it this time. I'm finding love, I'm losing the weight. I'm starting the business. And then you don't even know when you drifted back into your old. You. You just gave up on the dream. So I love disturbing people. I love poking them and go, hey, you said you wanted to start buying businesses. You got the blueprint. If this is the blueprint that works and you want to do it, what's the denominator? That's not working. It's you. So that wasn't a specific answer. No, but just approaching ways to find the belief that's holding them back and helping them craft a big enough compelling future that it pulls them forward.

Yeah, that makes sense. Interesting. Yeah, we. I think we also. You talked about past experiences. You know, when I think about when I was younger, the experiences were really positive, and I had an incredible childhood. But you know, that childhood of mine. Can I get you some water?

That was the water that went down the wrong way.

Oh, no, I hate that. So when I was younger, I think I had a lot of stories about, you know, why I needed my dad for a lot of things. For instance, in a positive way. Like, in an incredibly positive way. But that led me to bad partnerships. Like, I knew that I had to redo partnerships and totally learn how to partner up with somebody. And I think a lot of people, this is one of the things that I obsess on with humans is. And you know this very well, but I obsessed on humans choosing the right partners to go through life with from a business perspective. I don't know about marriage and otherwise. I've done, oh, well, you know, well, thus far, hopefully. But. But when it comes to businesses, I see so Many humans partner with whoever's in front of them, not set the terms, not start with the end in mind, not write a prenup to their business. And what people don't realize, if you go to venture capitalists and you ask them what are some of their top three things, while they'll why they would invest in a business or another, one of the very first things is they want co founders. Why? That doesn't seem like a great idea to me. Most people get divorced because they make them set parameters for the divorce that could potentially happen. And they know that entrepreneurship is so hard, it's likely one of them will fail or want to be done, but the other one won't. And so if you think about that, in every business venture that you do, you've partnered with a ton of people. You know, partnership is really, really powerful, but it's really hard. And so the past experience of me thinking that I needed my dad everywhere led me to partner with other men that I immediately thought were as great as he was and then realized, oh, not everybody's my dad. I've got to be a little bit tighter. I've got to be a little bit more thoughtful in partnerships.

I got something I want to ask you. Tell me so we all can have a perspective. Guilty. A charge of feeling like an underdog. Right. But the. One of the biggest realizations, I wrote a book, book called the Underdog Advantage. And I'll tell you why I wrote it. One of the main reasons I wrote it is I did live in a trailer park as a kid. I didn't have money. I. I was the sleep on the floor kind of guy, right?

Yeah.

My nephew, who's my sister's. My only sister's son, works for us. Tanner, he's now our co runs. Is amazing. 30 years old, runs the company unbelievably well. He comes in, he's five years with us, and he is just killing it. And we're sitting around one day and he said, you know why I'm probably not successful? Think about this perspective. He said, I'm probably not going after my own business or not as successful as I could be because my wife wasn't. My life wasn't so hard. Like your mom, like my mom, my sister and you, Uncle Dean. Like, he's like, my parents were good. They were amazing. I got no complaints. I went to a good college. I had a happy freaking life. So it made me realize that he felt like an underdog because he had a great life or some of us feel like an Underdog because we had a struggled life. And really, all of us can manifest the thing. Right. And I don't want to diminish his thoughts. I mean, that's the way he felt. And it was probably more of when he first started and we shifted that into power for him on a different belief because of that, he could start off. For some people, he could start off on third base.

Right.

And. But just saying that is, you came from a great childhood. That doesn't mean that you can't have that. That you needed. You need pain and sleep on a floor to be successful. And I think that's such a great lesson today, no matter where you come from. If you're. The one thing I know, if you're listening to this podcast, is, you know, you're meant for more.

Yeah.

And that's a common denominator. Republican, Democrat, Christian, Muslim, it doesn't matter. None of that matters. You're meant for more. That's this common thread. And the way to get more is find somebody who's done what you've already done, model what they do, take uncomfortable action. And I'm so glad that you are not. Not only the success you've had, but you're sharing it with others. I think it's absolutely amazing. Any. Any last words before you go?

I'll end on a ridiculous note. My. Yeah, my husband and I used to have a joke that he riffed off from a comedian and changed a little bit because he was a Navy seal. And it was. He had a tough upbringing. And so he always says to his parents, you know, thanks for. Thanks for me up enough to be a Navy seal, but not enough to be a stripper.

So that is like, we just got to shut it off right there.

He's gonna be like, you really shared that on a podcast. But I. I thought that same perspective. He came from a really tough childhood. I came from either a perspective where I'm a very. Glasses overflowing at all times, or, you know, so I lost a sister when I was younger. You know, my parents had a lot of trouble and struggles financially, but thankfully, they imbued in me this, like, idea of positivity. But, yeah, I love that line. I'm always like, chris, we should not lead with that at cocktail parties. So. So wherever you are, I do think, good, bad, struggle. No, struggle, struggle. Whether you see it or not, I don't know about many things, but I do know that I haven't met a human yet who can't be an owner. And so whether that means you own something for somebody like you and your business, or they own a whole business by themselves. Get some skin. Because I promise people burn down less houses when they own a part of them. And if we all did that, we'd have a better neighborhood.

I love the mission you're on. I love all you've accomplished wanting to create a million. Is it a million entrepreneurs? I love that goal and I just know you're going to achieve it. So appreciate you having you. This has been fantastic. Thanks for being a part of the Own youn Future podcast. Wait one more time. How do they find you?

Oh, contrarianthinking co or Cody Sanchez and all the interwebs.

Go find her. This was so intriguing. I learned a lot. I love it. And make sure you subscribe, follow, share it with someone you know who needs us. See you next time.