If You Want to Leave Your 9-5 in 2024, Watch This Interview

I think money, and I go, money. Okay, I'm gonna give you a bunch of tactics and tools, because that's kind of the way that my brain works. You know, how the universe repeats lessons. It's like, do you get it? Do you get it? Yeah.

How many times do you want this one?

Yeah, exactly like, no, I'd like another face punch, please.

Wisdom comes from questioning your beliefs and stepping into the uncomfortable. 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. That's got. That's instinct. And when you do it long enough, it just. It's like a really great. 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 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 going to watch things that took you months, that take weeks, that take days, that take hours, that take moments. If someone goes, what about this business? You go, no, that. That won't work. Second, 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 tried share our experiences online, we turn decades into days, which are, you know, a 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 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. 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 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 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 look around. And everybody else is sort of like curled up like, like closed tight or just like money or money. 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, like, I could give you a list, I could give you the spreadsheet, I could tell you every single thing to you. 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. Yeah. 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, 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 dynamic. 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 gotta pick. Which one do you wanna 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 f. And I left. And then I said, hey, we're gonna go our separate ways. But actually, I respect you. I kind of get it. 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.

To make a choice.

Yeah, I wouldn't have then gone. And even then, Dean, I did 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 gu. 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 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. And so then the same thing happened. I started getting big. 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, God, again, Pick 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 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. Sam.