The InteGRITy Advantage: The Attitude Code To Transforming Your Life With Glenn Stearns

In a world full of turmoil, despair and darkness, you need to carry the light. Season three of the Get Attitude podcast is where we will ignite your mind, your heart, and your attitude. And welcome to the Gap, the Get Attitude podcast. My name is Glenn Bill. I am your host, international best selling Author of the ABCs of Attitude, America's number one attitude keynote speaker and baby award winning podcast host for the third time. Me and my good friend Jason are here to welcome you to the Get Attitude podcast. And today, if you need some light in your life, if you think you've had it tough, let me tell you something. Our guest today, he's had it tough. And you will learn stories and lessons from a gentleman who was on Undercover Billionaire. Let's just take a quick peek at what that was like.

My name is Glenn Stearns, and with hard work, I'm worth low to mind. No, I'm not gonna say that one.

Way, but you just did.

I did, didn't I? One year ago, I took on the hardest challenge of my life. I went undercover in Erie, Pennsylvania, a city I knew nothing about. I bet myself a million dollars that I could be stripped of my name, wealth and contacts and be giving only $100. My audacious goal, to build a brand new business from scratch in just 90 days. If it's a penny short of a million, I'll put $1 million into it. The people who help me get there will be rewarded, but they don't know it. I nearly died doing it. Feel like crap.

I love it. I love it. You guys want to make sure that you check out that show and check it out, you can see it on YouTube and I'm sure your favorite streaming service. Ladies and gentlemen, today we are going to introduce you to Mr. Glenn Stearns. He is going to help you find the gap from where you are to where you want to go, from who you are to who you want to become. Very briefly, Glenn was born to alcoholic parents. Glenn Stern was diagnosed with dyslexia, failed fourth grade, and fathered a child at the age of 14, his age in the picture above, which is in his new book called Integrity. And I tell you, I just read the book called Integrity, and it is awesome. And there's lots of lessons to be learned there. He graduated high school in the bottom 10% of his class. By this time, he developed a drinking habit that rivaled his parents, struggled with a quick temper, and found himself in jail more than a few nights. But then you know what? He became a billionaire. And his book called Integrity will Help you understand how he did it. And I love what he wrote in his dedication. If you're listening to this, if you haven't yet realized your full potential and you feel like you're not worthy of success or think you're not or that you have not made it, this book is dedicated to you, the underdogs of the world. Remember, it's not how you start, it's how you finish. Ladies and gentlemen, gappers around the country, around the world who are listening, we want to welcome Mr. Glenn Stearns. Glenn, welcome to the Get Attitude podcast.

All right. How you doing, Glenn?

I am so. I am so awesome. And we're, we're honored to have you. I want to make sure I get your book up here and boy, what Undercover billionaire. Let's just start with that clip. You nearly died. Can you. Can you just kind of give us an encapsulation of what that was all about? And did you succeed?

Feels like a lifetime ago, I tell you, you know, it was, it was interesting about, I don't know, 18, 19 years ago, my wife and I did a reality show, which was a weird, just happenstance, you know, somebody asked us to do it and we did it, and. And I ended up winning the show. And. And then for years, people kept saying, hey, do you want to do another show? Do you want to do we got a great idea? And I always said, no, you know, I'm a business guy. I'm not really interested in that. And then I would at the end, after a while, I say, you know what I will do? Put me anywhere in this country. No money, no contacts, and I bet you I could rebuild a business. I said, if you're interested in doing something like that, I said, count me in. And I just say that to these guys, knowing it would never happen. And they called me back, hey, if you're serious, Discovery said, they'll do the show. I said, yeah, I'm serious. I had not thought of anything else. Didn't think of a plan, didn't think of what would happen. And so you talk about, you know, just being thrown into the fire. It was a very big wake up call for me, that's for sure.

I bet. And so did you get it done? Did you hit your goal? And when you said you almost died, what was that all about?

Well, you know, I had cancer and it had kind of came back. And so when it did, Speaking of cancer, yeah, I got a problem with that. So I had cancer and it had come back, and when it did, they had to cut my Epiglottis out. Oh. And so what that is, it covers your windpipe, and the food can go right into your esophagus. And so I don't have that anymore. So, you know, I really kind of had to stop eating. But I was trying to eat. I was trying to eat some of those noodles in the. On the show, and basically I aspirated, and I was in the hospital, I think, for four days or something. We didn't show that we look like. I went in and I came out a couple hours later. But we didn't want to make it about being sick. I didn't tell anybody. I was literally eating out of a feeding tube, and nobody saw that. You know, we would just sneak off into a car, you know, and Glenn has to take a phone call. But really, I was eating. So anyway, it was brutal. But. But again, the show wasn't about poor Glenn and his cancer. Right. We didn't. We didn't talk about building a business from literally nothing and how you get from survival, you know, mode to thriving. And that's pretty much what it was about.

I. I love it. And so we always like to start our. Our podcast with this. Do you have a Glenn Stearns definition for attitude? And who would you say was your number one attitude coach?

Yeah. Well, I'll tell you what. It's. Attitude is everything, right. Because whether you think you can or you think you can't, as we know, you'll be right, right?

Yes.

And so you have to get the right mindset. And, you know, in my life, I mean, there's always been these times that things have come to me. Example was, I was 14, I get a girl pregnant. It is the end of my life. Right? Oh, my gosh, there it goes, right? Everything out the window. You know, you look a couple years later and you go, oh, my goodness, I got this beautiful daughter. So what I thought was the worst thing turned out to be the best thing, right?

Yeah.

When I was younger, young, my mom would get my sister and I, hey, we're going to get lost. Let's go in the car. We'll go get lost, you know, and so why. My daddy had a little drinking problem and maybe wanted to get us out of the house. Okay. We drive and drive, and we get to a field, pull over. Oh, no, guess what? And we'd say, we're lost. And so it was an attitude of, it's not fear, it's excitement. Right. There's a difference, obviously, in where you put your mind in things. So I think, for me, I grew up very fortunate that I was put into situations where I then began to see the silver linings of life. Right. Not the problems and this issues and why it's bad, but why it's going to be good.

Yes.

And when you put your mind there, anything's possible.

Yeah, I love that. When. So it sounds like mom probably was your first attitude coach or maybe who manifested this unbelievable attitude that you have when you read this book. Integrity. Right. It's. It's just all about attitude. My slow and painful journey to succeed. I love that small tagline. How did you come up with that? I can't believe that you're a person that says, yeah, it was slow and painful because I know how positive you are. But when you thought of that, I mean, it's very catchy and it probably was slow and painful. Just tell me a little bit about how you came up with the title for the book and that subtitle.

Well, the, you know, I mean, my life has been based off of, of. Of my word, you know, and I've learned a lot from watching people that didn't do what they say. And, you know, I look at a lot of situations and it's. You always have to think very far in advance. You can't look at what you're going to get out of it. The second you have to look at your life and how you're going to feel about it. When you turn around at the end of your life and you're laying there, are you proud of what you did? And so my dad used to instill that kind of word in my head. It's all about integrity, son. It's about how you, you know, what you say, what you do. You know, you can say one thing and do another thing, and you can always make an excuse for it, but, you know, deep inside your own mind, you know what's the right thing. And so, you know, when we plant our seeds in life, it'll come back and, and, and get you either good or bad. Right. And so I'll give you one example real quick if I can. My son, he had a little problem with a, with a girl in high school. We'll leave it at that. Right? And so I said, okay, you guys have been caught. You got kicked out of school. Yeah. I said, what happened to the girl? She didn't get kicked out of the school. I said, do you think it's fair? And he says, I don't know, maybe. I said, I think it's fair. And I'll tell you why I said you had 12 demerits, and they were all little things. Your tie wasn't on right. You wore the wrong shirt, your hair wasn't, you know, whatever. They were tiny things that you thought meant nothing, but every one of those little things, and the fact that you were. Your grades weren't good. She had zero demerits, and she was on the honor roll. So when the people came to look at you, they saw all these little. Nick, Nick, Nick. Bad things going on in life, and you're not a good student, and they drop you. And for her, she's a good student, never been in trouble, never had any issues, and they caught her. So that's life. You can call it karma. You can call it anything. You want to call it bad luck. I got a bad great cloud over my head. Or you got the Midas touch. You got great luck. No, you plant those seeds throughout life, and they're tiny things that don't mean a thing until they all add up one day. Because everybody is gonna get, you know, judged one day, so to speak, you know, and people will catch you or they'll let you fall.

I love it, and I'm gonna dig into that. But, you know, you did mention your father and your mom, and they were both big drinkers, and. And my mom more of a big drinker than my dad, but we certainly grew up on alcohol. We would always get a beer and a cigar every time we won a championship when we were six. We have pictures of that. Love, my parents. So many times, though. We believe that. Or I believe what I found. Interviewing some of the greatest people on earth. You. I can't tell you how excited I am to interview you. Sometimes the greatest lessons in attitude come from the generation before our parents. And I'm just wondering, did you have a relationship with any four of your grandparents and were one or two of them. Was there a story that we can learn from them and tell and. And just tell us about your grandparents, what they learned and what their attitude lesson was, because that's always gold for our people.

Yeah. You know, it's interesting. My. My dad's father was a very, very severe alcoholic. And my dad said he threw a bottle at him and choked him out, and that was the last. He basically saw them at 15. Wow. And so when I was a small kid, he was still a drunk. I didn't know him very well. And then he died a drunk. My other grandfather, same thing. Died. Liver problem or something. Right. And then my grandmother. I'll tell you an interesting story, and about integrity Too. She. I remember being a young kid, she'd always collect my birthday cards. Oh, I got all the. It had money. I'm helping you. I'll put it for a college fund, right? Well, when I got to be in college, I thought. I don't remember her ever giving me any of that money back, you know? And so I had wrecked my car, and I asked her, I said, can I borrow $2,000? And she said, yeah. She lent me the money, and I bought another car. And then as time went on, my mind went to, you know, and I don't think I ever got paid my money for when I was a young kid, when she'd collect that money. So I thought, you know, maybe I don't really owe her the $2,000. Oh, yeah? Why? Because I made it okay in my head, right? Because she had taken this from me. So I think we're probably even. But that wasn't the deal I made with her, right? I called and said, can I borrow $2,000? But I struggled with. With making it right. And so maybe a couple years later, I. I came back into town and I gave her a check for the money. And she looked at me and just started crying. She said, I never thought you'd repay me. I said, why? And she said, I never thought. I said, I owed you the money, didn't I? And I didn't bring up the past, because you know what? I don't. Maybe I was wrong. When I was 5 and 6, you know, who knows what I remember? But it didn't matter. My word was about the fact that I borrowed $2,000 and I was going to pay her back, right? She cried, and. And inside I felt very good. I did what I said I would do. Now I have another beef over here that was different, right? And whether it was right or wrong, I felt really good about it. I never brought up the past. Who cares? And so she ended up passing away after that, you know, maybe a year later. But I felt really good that I. I proved I was a man of my word, you know, and no one was looking. That's kind of what integrity is about, right? Is you do things when no one's watching, and you make sure you do the right thing. And. And anyway. But that was about the only story I can think of with my grandparents. They were, again, pretty, you know, as a rocky road out there for what I grew up on, but.

Well, yeah, iron sharpens iron. That's why you're sharp. And sometimes our greatest blessings are the toughnesses of life. Which is what the book Integrity really is all about, when you think about, you know, paying back 2,000 when you know you didn't have to. And I've had. Again, as I read this, I had so many parallel similar stories in my life, and I have a feeling there's a lot of people. That's why this book's so good. It's so relatable to so many people. I'd love to know, is there another story where you paid somebody back that you didn't have to or what? I'd love to know. Because for God's sakes, right? I mean, billionaire, That's. That's quite a thing. What's the most money you ever borrowed that you actually paid back? I'd love to know that story.

Gosh. Well, I'll tell you one interesting story. I was in. I used to do HUD contracting. I became the largest contractor in the country for hud, for two different companies I had. One was an audit company, and one was a title and settlement company, and I had a partner. I'd go to certain cities, and I didn't have any coverage. So I would, you know, I'd land somewhere. And not literally land, but, you know, go in and find the best people that did title work. As an example.

Yeah.

And there was a guy that I knew in Philadelphia, and I didn't know him, but I had met him, and we got together and I struck a deal with him. He would do all the title fulfillment for me. I had the contract. I'd come in, bring the people. He do his side, I do my side, and I ground him hard. I'm. You know, I like to get a good deal. So I. I ground him pretty good. And about a year later, I called him, I said, I'd like to see you. And I flew in and I brought my cfo, and we sat down and I told him. I said, tony, I need to change the deal. And he said, glenn, I can't, man. I mean, you know, I am, like, on this thin of a profit as I could be. I just can't do it. I said, I know. I need to change the deal. I need you to make more money. I said, what? And I said, you know what I've learned? I said, I want a partner in a fair deal. And I said, I think I. I did. I wasn't fair to you, and I need to be fair, because it's about the future. It's not about the past. And he was like, oh, my goodness, man. And so I changed the deal, and that man and I were loyal until those contracts ran out. Right. And. And so, you know, again, I guess you get a little more maturity in your life, but a good deal is where both sides maybe don't get exactly everything they want, but they feel okay about it. Right.

And.

And, you know, I like to, you know, grind as far as I could. And now I've realized you grind, you make sure it's fair, but, you know, you don't want to get taken advantage of, but you got to leave some on the plate for the other side, you know, and it's important.

So I love it. I love it. Through your history in business, certainly you got your ass kicked and lost. Would love to know what was one of your biggest losses or the biggest times you felt, man, I died, that wasn't good. So I want to hear that story. But then I want to hear, and I'm guessing this happens to you all, what's your attitude after the ass kicking? Right. So we have people that are listening to this right now who may have gotten bilked out of money. Maybe you're in a business situation. They're filing bankruptcy. So I just want to hear that story because I know it's going to be good. And then how do you come back from. From the ass kicking?

Okay. So I had sold my company to one of the biggest private equity groups, actually, I think it's the biggest in the world. Okay. And I was really proud to have them as a partner. So they wanted to buy 80% of the company. I said, no, 70. And then I said, matter of fact, I'll even carry some paper. I want to be alongside of you. We're partners. And. And then I ended up with cancer or I had cancer. That was part of the whole reason of kind of getting out. And we had put a CEO in to replace myself. I was out. I'm now just a shareholder. I'm not on the operating committee. I'm not part of the company. And the company changes when I'm not there. Right. And they start doing things a little differently. And when about four years into it, five years later, they sell some assets that are very valuable for the company. Well, I get 30% of that income, only it doesn't go to me. It goes to the company. So I have 30% of income, phantom income that I need to pay, you know, some taxes on. And then they realize, well, we bought this and that now we don't have enough money, so we're going to go file bankruptcy.

Oh, my.

Wipe me out of not only My stock, but all of the equity. I mean, not only the equity, but also the. I held a large note, right, that they. The interest kept rolling. So now I'm the largest besides these bonds, the largest creditor.

Wow.

That I've been wiped out of that. Wiped out the other equity. And so when they called me to basically say, you know, what was going on, I was pissed, right? And they said, look, we'll let you come back in. We want to give you 5% or whatever. And I said, I tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to open up across the street from you and I'm going to go at it and head to head against you again. Right. I was mad, right.

Love it.

And what I realized after, literally after I hung up the phone and it's in the book, by the way, that these people are the best at what they do. They did not do anything illegal. I was just not a partner. I thought of myself as a partner. I was excited. I was just another piece that they can move around on the chessboard and to get their return that they need to get. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing. So I can either be angry or I can understand that that is their role. They're not apologetic and nor should they be. Okay. Now, was I on the short end of the deal? Damn right I was. Am I mad about it? No. I use it as a fuel. I started kind lending. I went back into the same building, the same floor. I took over my same office. I took down the sign, it said Stearns up there. I took it my own name down and put up kind lending. And so I was excited once again to get back into business and to go at it again. So to your point, you can be the victim or the victor, right? You can get angry and you know, and again, they did nothing wrong, you know, they, they, you know, I wish it had ended differently. I wish, you know, I wish I stayed in operations. I think that was probably the key thing there. But hey, I learned a lot, you know, I wish I learned it on a smaller company, but. But I learned a lot.

So what was the total losses? Like 60 million or something crazy?

No, a lot more than that.

He don't even like to say the word, do you?

No.

So, yeah, losing 60 million would affect my attitude, there's no doubt. But like you said, you got a $60 million or whatever that number was. Maybe it's $600 million education. So kind lending, you know, I mean, you met for the first time a Couple weeks ago I'm like this guy's kind as hell. So what's your mantra of kind? Why did you put kind in or what's, yeah, just what's the backstory that yeah.

And again I, I, I look at what happened in our industry and I'm again in mortgage banking and not to bore your, your listeners but when Dodd Frank came in, when they changed everything because of what happened in 0708 and the financial crisis, they really put tightened down everything. Well, what these real smart Wall street guys did is they, they understood that the banker, the banking industry was going to change because of things like Basel 3 and a lot of things that had to do with servicing too heavy stuff. But what happened was they understood the banks were going to shed servicing and the non banks that people like us, the mortgage bankers were not real banks like bank of America, Wells Fargo, we were going to become the dominant players in the mortgage industry. They were right. They're very smart. So when, when that started to happen, the, the industry changed because a lot of Wall street influences, private equity people went public. A lot of things happened in these real nice normal mortgage industry became ruthless and we're going to give you a sign on bonus of more money than you've ever dreamed of. But now we have you locked down for two years or three years. So the world changed. It was a handshake, now it's contracts and we'll sue you.

Right.

So it got to be very a different company over the last 10 years, 12 years, 15 years. And I mean industry, not company. Yeah. And so I came back in and I said, you know, I'm going to put the kindness back in our, our business.

Awesome.

And I'm not going to do these sign on bonuses. Well Glenn, you're not going to get anybody. No, they can come and go as they want. I want to pay them well. But I also want to make sure that they, if they leave, I'm not going to be mad at them. I'm going to be mad at me. What did I do wrong?

Right.

I'm not going to sue them. I'm going to say how could I have kept you? You know, it's just a different mindset, that's all.

Yeah, so you mentioned the mindset of, you know, seeing things in the future. Right. So many people that I see are very short term. So I've got kind of two questions for you. Number one, you obviously hired a lot of people, you partnered with a lot of people. What do you look for in a partner? What do you look for in a hire. Does, does attitude come through when you're interviewing people? And what do you see the biggest mistakes? People. And I, you know, obviously the one is people aren't looking long term enough. And I think you're right. But what else are you seeing people doing wrong or companies doing wrong as you look at things?

Yeah. So, you know, it's interesting. Like people have always said to me things like, well, didn't he or she have the most beautiful blue eyes? Or didn't they have the most amazing teeth? Or didn't. What about their hair? And I'm like, I didn't even see their eyes or their teeth or their hair. I'm looking at whether I think they're a truth teller, whether their expression tells me that I can get closer to them or whether I want to get farther away. I'm analyzing the person. I'm not looking, oh. At their blue eyes or their, you know, it like it's a different thought process. Right. And so I like to size people up on whether I think that they're going to be loyal and whether they're going to be somebody that is going to be able to want to be on the team and fight hard. And they have integrity and they have the things that it takes that are very important. So to me, that's where I go. I am the feel good understanding. I don't ask questions about their skill in underwriting or their skill in how they, you know, sell. I that's, I got other people who can do that stuff with all the operations and all that. I need to know if they're the type of person I want to work for us. That's important to me. I was in around 9 11, you know, when the terrorist attacks happened and everything. I had flown right when we could fly, remember? We couldn't fly for like five days or something. I then flew to Maryland and got on a train and went up to New York and I went there with hard hat gloves and I wanted to move rocks. Right. I wanted to help. I didn't understand that the National Guard would put a big fence up. And I just thought, I want to see if there's still people you could help.

Wow.

And so when I got there, I wasn't allowed in. And so I left. I went back on the train. And I get on this train and this old man sits down. I'm sitting in one of those table areas. He sits right in front of me, looking at me. And behind him he had put his wife in the corner seat. So I'M a little awkward. I'm staring at this man and I look down, I see he's got a ring on and it's big, you know. It said basketball. I could just read the basket, you know. And I said, so you like basketball? And he says, I guess you could say so I own the team. I said, you do? What team? He goes, well, it's the Washington Bullets at the time, right. With the Wizards, right. And, and then the Washington Capitals. It was Abe Poland who owned both the. The teams. And it's a longer story, but I sat with this man for whatever that two and a half hours was. Just tell me about your life. Tell me about your pluses and minuses and how you lived and, you know, your successes, failures, all these things. And, you know, the one thing that he also emphasized to me was the importance of loyalty and the people that have worked in his firm forever and how, you know, he went on and on and you do things that are the best, son. He goes, you take the Irene. You know the Irene, that apartment complex in D.C. he says, do you? I go, yes, sir, I know that. It's the one with the marble. It's the best. I built that in 1964 and it was still to this day, it's. I said, yes, sir, I know that one. He goes, you want to know why I named it the Irene? I said, yes, sir. Hey, Irene, come here, meet this kid. His wife was Irene, right?

Oh, I love it.

And you know, and. But I've got my receptionist out here. She's been with me for 26 years. I have my assistant, 27 years. Our president's been 20 something years. You know, many, many, many people in our lives for long time. Loyalty, it's important. And then how you treat people right, because people aren't going to stay when you're, when you're a jerk, you know, so.

Right. Yeah, I love it. Great, great, great, great answer. So I feel like you have this innate ability to understand people. I feel like you can feel energy. Which leads me to this question. Who is your best friend when you're 14, 15, 16? Is he or she still your best friend? Or who is a friend that, like, stuck. Stuck with you through the tough times outside of business? Just on a personal level, it's honor that person and maybe tell us what you learned from them.

Yeah. So his name's Shane o'. Malley.

Okay.

And Shane's been in my life since, you know, actually, I met him right. In eighth grade. Ninth grade. Right. Then when I, when I moved on, we've been through it all together. I mean, the good, the bad, the ugly, Right. You know, and I mean, he witnessed everything with me, you know, and, and there was a time when I had to fly out and pick Shane up and bring him here to LA and put him in a little rehab. And Shane has not touched a drop of alcohol or anything else. And that's been, I think about 18 years now. Right. And so we've been through a lot. He's been through hell with me, I've been through it with him.

Nice.

And he's a wonderful, wonderful guy. You know, I'll see him next week, he's coming out here. But, but we're just, you know, it wasn't about money to your point. It wasn't about any of those kind of things. It's just been there, celebrated my life, you know, when things went well. You know, he's not one to be jealous or, you know, he's just been a true friend.

Yeah, I love that. And so what, I'm just curious, is there, did you guys do anything together that was like quirky or fun or did. Is there, was there an attitude lesson? Like when you think of him, his spirit or his energy, like, what did he teach you?

Well, we, you know, I mean, again, I grew up kind of a redneck, right? I mean, you know, we would, we would get in a lot of fights, you know, I mean, with each other, right? And you know, I mean, I don't know, it's just so many crazy things. Again, I didn't come up with a very normal household. I remember many times we'd be in our kitchen again, I have this. It was 800 square foot house, very small, and we were in there and drinking at 15, you know, and getting sideways and we get in a fight and my dad would go take it outside, so we'd go outside and we just duke it out. So one time it was me against Shane and Cliff and I just duked it out and they just beat the crap out of me, right? They're on top of me, beating me, and my dad just walks down, goes over, grabs my hair, picks me up, throws me in my room and they run off, right? Well, you know, five minutes later, they both come up to the porch and they're crying. Mrs. Stern, is Glenn okay? They're worried about me. They beat me up, but now they're worried they beat me up too much, you know. So in the middle of our insanity, we still cared about each other, you know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I got friends like that Getting ready right after we do this, one of my dearest, oldest friends, we played dice baseball as a kid. And dice baseball, basically whatever you roll is either hit it out, whatever. So we're in game six of the Yankees Cardinals, greatest of all time, and we will be having a few Beers playing Game 6. So, Tom Ackerman, when you hear this, you'll know I was talking to Glenn Stearns about it. So there's nothing, there's nothing like friendship. So what we always do in our podcast is we move to something called knowledge. Through the decades. Glenn and I want to walk through your life and get the attitude lesson at each decade where you turned it. And I'm going to ask you to just recall and, and, and remember your life and, and share with us your walk and what the attitude lesson was at these, at these benchmarks. And so we always start with childbirth. Right. I know you have children. You may not remember being born, but when you think of birth, what do you consider to be the attitude lesson in birth?

When I was very, very young, you know, it was a curiosity of wanting to, you know, learn and go out. And I was not one to stay inside. I was a kid. I would crawl. They caught me on the roof trying to get the cat. You know, I was three years old. They, lots of lessons about just being outside and trying to, you know, get away from the world, you know, curiosity.

Great attitude lesson, curiosity. Now I want you to think about being 10. That would have put you in about fourth or fifth grade, just about the time you remembered with us. But was there a time at 10, was there a teacher? Was there a friend? Was there a circumstance? Was there a bully? Did you, can you go back to when you were 10 years old? What was the attitude lesson? You got it.

I failed fourth grade. Okay. So, you know, I'm in fourth grade again.

Right.

By the way, for your listeners, hold your kid back in kindergarten when he won't remember but fourth grade, he knows he's a dummy, right? It's not, it was not a good year to hold me back. So I'm held back and I am, I watch all my friends move up and now I come in and it feels horrible, right? Yeah. But then about a month later, I end up with all these new friends and all these other friends. So I really, I had, now I'm friends of both sides. Worked out fairly well. But, you know, it was a weird time. Didn't. I didn't have a lot of, I was pretty insecure, let's put that way.

Wow. The. And you said insecure, but you said a word earlier in our interview and you said silver lining. And I'm just not so sure. What you just didn't describe there was where your ability to find a silver lining, no matter what faced you, didn't occur at 10.

That's exactly. I think my point of when I look back, I look at things that go, wow, I had good friends now in both grades, you know, it built up through your life, right? Like, you don't just have it, you reflect and go, every time something happened to me I didn't like, I found something really good out of it. And then that builds and then you start to look for that as you get older and you really realize there's always a positive, even in a negative.

So you're 20 and you're at Townsend University. Do you remember turning 20, maybe 21.

What was Nelson University? I was just the commencement speaker there.

Oh, wow.

As I said to them by, I'm a doctor now, by the way, Glenn, so please address me formally, if you don't mind.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you. And I'm joking, but. And as I said, you know, I think they got the wrong guy, right? I said, I graduated with like a 2.1. And the dean goes, it was a 2.16. We looked it up, Glenn. Right? So. And the guys in the back are like, there's hope. There's hope for me, you know, so. So yeah, I'm. I'm 20 and my life is more about. I'm in the rut. Oh, I am in the rut. I am followed in my father's footsteps and my whole family's. I am. My 2.1 was not by accident. I am out every night partying it up, having fun, and then just to stay in that era. But right when I graduated, I'm at a bar, it's 1:30 in the morning, I am sitting with my friends and I am laughing hysterically at something like, my friend fell, he got a beer thrown on him, a girl slapped him. I don't remember that part. But in the middle of my laugh, and as I say in the book, in the middle of the most foggiest of bogs, I had the clearest thought. I don't want to do this anymore. This is boring. And that was starting my change of going, I don't want to fall in my father's footsteps. I don't want to be a drunkard. I don't want to. There's more in my life I can do. And it happened that one Moment really weird is clarity of a stop.

Yeah. That is powerful. So then from being drunk in a. And so you're an all American partier. I get it. And your 2.1 was very well earned from what I. What it sounds like. So. So you go through the next 10 years and you turn 30. So do you, do you remember your 30th birthday? Where were you and what was going on? What was your attitude lesson when you. That the big three zero hit with you?

So I don't really remember my 30th birthday. I remember that time where I was all about making money. Now it's like I got a new vice. How much can I make? How rich can I be? What can I drive? You know, how much business can I do? And so I was very driven to continue to grow and succeed and build and you know, all those kind of things that you do about that time. And it was all materialistically driven, you know.

And so with that materialism, with that drive, with that hunt, because you know, that's primal when it. And look it, it's okay to make money, it's okay to get rich and it's okay to hunt. When it comes to being in that mantra, that state that, that go get it. What, what was like, what, what's the best trick for those guys that are there now? They're like, I don't, I don't really give a. I need to make money. Like, what was the number one most important thing you did? Or what's the advice you can give a 30 year old listening to this about making money?

Well, I mean I look every. I, I left it at that because I moved on to the next phase which I want to tell you about in a second. Right. Which I'm gonna achieve. But I made it okay. Yeah. But let me stay in the phase of making money. I don't regret a single thing. I loved it. Right. I loved the caveman warrior, you know, I love the hunt. I love the drive. I loved it. It's fun. It's fun to go and just wake up early and stay in the office till midnight and plan out how you're going to win. Right. There's nothing wrong with it. I think it's misdirected for me to just try to become rich or just try to be the win that was. I loved it. I love that phase. Okay, cool. I don't regret a single thing of it. But can I move on to 40 for a second? Tell you why? Not yet.

Yeah, no, no, we're going to Move forward. But what I heard was this. Gappers, right? If you want to do it, you got to get your ass up earlier than anybody and you got to go to bed later than anybody. And that's called commitment. So that's that lesson on making money.

It's. It's. And don't be apologetic. Right? There's. I don't. You know, there's nothing wrong if you're doing it again with integrity, if you're doing it correctly. It's a. It's a wonderful game because you've got a wonderful way to keep score, and that's what you're doing, right? Am I making more money? Am I growing my net worth? Am I making other people wealthy? All those things. There's nothing wrong with it, you know, at all.

I love what you said. Am I making other people wealthy, too? Because the true wealth comes from helping others become wealthy. All right, so now it's your 40th birthday.

There you go.

Do you remember your 40th birthday? Where were you? Was it a big event? Or. Tell us what the attitude lesson was.

It for right around that time again? Because it wasn't exactly that day. I go on a hunt, and I go with Dr. Robert Schuler, if you remember, the hour of power. Wow. Yeah. And I go with his. It's his son, though. He's 60 something. But this is when I'm 40, and we fly in to Portland and we get on a helicopter and we go up the Willameth river or whatever. And. But when we get in on the helicopter, he says, you see that jet and that jet and that jet? Those people are all already at the hunt. And they. He set me up knowing there's some wealthy people going to this hunt. And I'm 40. And so I get there, and there's two gentlemen. Foster, freeze. I don't know if you remember Foster. He's very well known billionaire that was behind Rick Santorum and all that stuff and. And Mike Ingram and a lot of other guys, but they were the two that kind of ran the hunt. And I don't know anybody, but instead of everybody sitting around, we're at breakfast. He goes, Foster says, hey, let's start right here. Let's get to know you. Tell us about yourself. And I was sitting next to whoever the guy was. So immediately my mind goes, how do I fit in? How do I tell these people I'm worthy to be at this table? I. They got their jets. How do I sneak in some of my toys so they know I'm. You Know, Great. A man too, that has succeeded.

Yeah.

And so as his first gentleman talks, he didn't talk about planes or any of that. He starts talking about building homes in, you know, Mexico and all this kind of stuff. And then it doesn't go to me, it goes the other way. And then I get to hear the next guy and the next guy. We get through all of breakfast and we go hunt and then we get to lunch and it keeps going. Right. And so by the time it gets to me, I realized none of that materialistic things mattered.

Wow.

These people moved from, from success to significance.

Yes.

They were talking about how to change the world. They were talking about how to build happiness and how to feel fulfilled from that day. You're going to sit on your deathbed, that you're going to look back and say, I did good in the world. I made an impact. And boy, did my life change that minute listening to these people that had all been so much more mature in their lives of where they were. It wasn't just about making money. It was about how do I make a significant impact in the world. And now I'm crying in front of these men, telling them I had a divorce and I was so, you know, I regretted this because it's a failure. But I am best friends with this woman and my kids love us and my wife and I are friends that I took my ex wife around the world with us to teach my young kids. Right. I mean, so it's not what happens to you, it's what you do with what happens to you. Right? You know?

Yeah, yeah.

And so the things I talked about were how I'm going to go and make a difference. And I started a foundation and I did a lot of things out of that, you know, because of that. And I became very, very, very good friends with Mike and Foster. As a matter of fact, it's interesting because it was, it was, it was Ross Perot Jr. Tucker Carlson, another gentle, big gentleman that spoke at Foster's wedding. There are three, um, I can't remember the third guy. And then me, right. I'm going. I, you know, I feel it was a wonderful, you know, kind of, I felt really grateful that they wanted me to be the fourth speaker. Let's talk at his funeral. But he made an impact.

That, that is so great story for 40. We're going to get to 50. But since you mentioned the foundation, what is the foundation? What's the mission and how can people find it?

Well, no, it's the Stearns Family Foundation. It's A private foundation, and we just go and help where we can.

Well, that's good. Well, you can try to be a part of my university of attitude. We're changing the world one attitude at a time. Our mission is to simply help people change their attitudes. That's why we're here. That's why you have people like you on this podcast. People say, where's the university of attitude? I said, we have 6 billion campuses on the planet, and we're changing every campus. And you are the president of your own campus. So that's what we're doing. So that's just so impactful for me. All right, now. Dang it. You had to remember when you turned 50. Didn't you have a big party when you were 50? And.

Oh, do I remember 50? I literally. It was a big party. And. And I'm sitting there at 50 years old and I don't feel well. And I'm having dinner. This is after the big party. I'm having dinner with a gentleman. You might know this guy's name. His name is Dick Cheney. Yeah. And his wife and Lynn and Liz. There's the three of them. And it was Mindy and myself. We're at their home in Virginia, and. And Dick is telling me I got a new heart. I feel really good, Glenn. And I said, you know what, Dick? I feel like crap. What do you mean? I said, I don't know. I got something big. I can tell. Something big. And that was when I found out. He got me to his doctor the next day, and long story short, cancer.

Whoa.

And all of a sudden, did my life change. It was, again, the ultimate equalizer, right? Yeah, it does now. It doesn't matter how much money you have. It doesn't matter how much impact you're making. It's about, you might be dead in a couple months. Right.

Holy crap.

And immediately went right to my family. That was it. Friends and family. What was the most important thing in my life? And so that was exactly the minute. You know, bring in an outside company to own the majority of the company, let them take over, that I'm going to go and spend time with my loved ones. And I went around the world for a couple years and like I said, brought my ex wife to be the teacher, brought my kids. We brought a boat, nice boat, had a helicopter on it, so we could go anywhere we wanted. And we just. I got my dad. Now, my dad had not drank since 1982.

Nice.

That man was a good man. And we went and for 42 days, he and I dove and fished every day in Indonesia.

Wow.

Until the 43rd day, I was like, I feel guilty. The world is moving and I don't care. We're just here just with my family. And I finally got to a point. I'm like, you know, I gotta come out of this, you know, dream. But it was a wonderful, wonderful place to be for. For a long time to just focus only on my family.

I was going, and. And that's powerful. And again, hopefully gappers. You will not have to get cancer to learn this lesson. And I was going to ask you, traveling the world, Indonesia. You brought it up. Was there any other place that was very profound to you that you felt something deep inside? You were like, I can'.

Here.

And I mean. Or was Indonesia?

Well, yeah, we had come from somewhere. I don't remember where, but I had there. I had the palace. Basically, it was shut down. It was just my family got to go through and tour it, and we go to some little concert at the end. That was amazing thing. And then we leave and we go to Cambodia and I'm in the killing fields. Whoa. Okay. And here my kids are seeing what happens to people that were innocent people that were killed because they had education and because they were not a part of the regime. It was in Dachau, and we went to some places and we saw again, the best and the worst of mankind, you know, and just a lot of amazing places that you just go. How can humans get to this level? You know, how can we allow people to be like this and the other side of it, you know, so it was very eye opening. You know, it was very interesting time.

So that's what I was looking for because. Yeah. And that atrocity of humankind is still exist in. In today's planet. So we are very fortunate. All right, so you turned 60, right?

Had.

I mean, gosh, you've been battling cancer for 10 years. I'm sure you're like, holy crap, I made it to 60. Tell us about your birthday or what you did at 60 and what the attitude lesson at 60 was.

I'll tell you what I'm gonna do, because I'm 59 and so I'm almost there.

Oh, you're not sick or. Okay. I thought. Okay, I thought you were just turned 60, so go ahead.

Getting there. But it's funny because again, the gift I got out of. Out of. You know, I did that show Undercover Billionaire, and it was about building a business. And, you know, I did it in 90 days. But when I got done all of a Sudden I was like, man, I really want to do this again. Like that was so fun. So when this happened to me, I shouldn't say happened to me, happened for me.

Yes.

When, you know, I was washed away with the company. I'm now out because of the bankruptcy. I'm like, I'm going to really do it again. So I've been focusing on kind lending. Right. And building this and having a blast because it's different now, right? Yeah. It's not all just grow when it's, it's, it's that coupled with, with kindness and coupled with this is a fun game and understanding having a maturity level that's different than before when I was 30.

Yeah.

So to be able to do it now and not have as much stress over it, it's a lot different. Right. I'll give you an example. So we've got, we're a mortgage company. We're supposed to be in ties and supposed to be rigid. Right. Like no, we work together. We are here more time than we are with our families. So look, we're going to tone it down a bit. Now we have a software that we have to, we have to use with the, the broker community and they get to bring in their business and they get to use it. That's their portal. Well, we call it the Quickie because it needs to be fast and quick. And so we got the Quickie portal and we've got happy beginnings and happy endings. We've got, you know, we're going to be easy, we're going to go easy on you. If it was your first time and all these little innuendos and people are laughing and they're going, are you really saying that? We're like, get over it, come on, it's fun, it's light and if you don't like it, we're really sorry, you don't have to bring your business here. And most so many people. We have grown faster than anybody right now. The mortgage businesses are tanked, are in the bottom and we've grown 300%, 340% just since January. Okay. From last year. We're up well over 300 something percent. We have just been killing it because we're real, we're authentic. We're not trying to be anybody else. You know, they say don't measure, you know, you never measure yourself as someone else's ruler. Yes, right, right. We're just ourselves, man. I'm not trying to be anybody else. And it's working.

And, and so that is now success lending. Correct.

That Is now that's Kind Lending. And Kind Lending formed a partnership with exp.

Okay.

And we together own that 5050 with exp. And that is success Lending. Okay. That's taken up. That is an amazing combination of a wonderful real estate company in EXP and a wonderful mortgage company in lending. Yeah.

And so I'm honored to be a stockholder in that. I'm honored to tell you that I've put three or four LOS in there. And I'm honored to say that you have funded many, many loans for us over the past two months. So being a part of that growth is exciting.

They're doing wonderful.

Yeah. And I don't know, I texted you my purchase mentality program. I'll resend it so you can peek at it. But everything I teach and that I do, how to get inside the heart and mind of a real estate agent, deals directly with what you're saying. So hopefully you'll get to peek at that. So in closing, Glenn, you've been. You just dropped some unbelievable knowledge on our gappers today. You've certainly helped them think about their lives, how to get from who you are to who you want to become and from where you are to where you want to go. And so we always just like to let you get on the pulpit, if you will. And, and I specifically would love before you to do this for me. We have people that are in hospitals that listen to us. We have people that are fighting cancer that have cancer, that are listening to us. If you could just tell me your attitude about the. The fight that you fight with. With cancer. And can you give those people that are taking the chemo, that are doing the radiation, that are my dear friends and you know who you are, if you're listening, You've battled this thing for 10 years. What, what's your advice to them? What's your attitude? What's your message of hope for them?

So, you know, again, we're all going to die. Now, if cancer comes in your life and you dodge that bullet and you stay alive to me, I am grateful that I got to. Not that we had dodged the bullet. I'm grateful I got the experience of seeing, oh, my gosh, I might not make it through. Like that opened my eyes so much to understanding to just don't sweat the small stuff and allow yourself to live in the moment and be your. Who you really are. Right. Because when we sit and we look at things like cancer, it's. Some people will absolutely take them down, take their families down, and it's a horrible Horrible disease. But we're all gonna be faced with something. And so fortunately, you know, my. My life, I'm different now. I don't eat right at all. Nothing. Don't eat, don't drink, because it all has to go through a feeding tube, as I said. Well, I could focus on that or I could focus on the fact that cancer didn't get me. Right. It is my new normal. Okay. That's where I am.

Cool.

So we'll go back to your mindset. Right. I think that, you know, things like. Like that anything in the world, you can look at it and just say, am I the victim in this situation or will I turn it around and find something positive that's going to allow me to keep going? Because I'm alive and I'm grateful for that. I love it. I'm not sitting in a position of. Of anger or remorse or anything that is negative because it won't do you any good.

Yeah. Yeah. So powerful. So then the last thing that I'm just going to ask you to do, we. We got people, I'm sure, listening to this, and cars, walking on beaches, sitting in their home. And when you think about the question, how did you get from where you were to where you are now? How did you get from the person you were to the person you are now? What's the secret? What's the gap? What's your piece of advice for those people that are looking, that are standing at the edge of the bridge going, that's where I want to be, but I got to bridge the gap. What's your best advice on bridging the gap for our listeners?

You know, I think that you're always learning. Right. And. And we got to remember that we got to stay humble and stay true to who we are and be authentic. I have gotten more in my life out of showing and talking about and discussing my flaws.

Yes.

Than I have about discussing all the good things and the. The toys. Right.

Yeah.

Because I think what happens is you become relatable to people. We're all very similar, but some of us want to put up a wall and show that we are perfect. We are just perfect. And that's some people's way of dealing with life. Right. And other people are showing how they are just a pathetic mess and that, you know, and you got both sides. I think that are, you know, that just. They suck life out of both sides.

Right.

Perfect. I'm horrible. Right. And I think that neither are true. It's just our personalities are drawn to do something when you can be authentic when you can be yourself, when you can focus on your own gift, your own gift. Every one of us has a gift. Some people it's retention of knowledge. Some people it's sales. Some people. But it's different gifts. We focus on whatever we are good at, and we do it with authentic behavior. And we're not trying to be someone we're not. And then we tie it all in with a little thing called integrity. We will be able to rest our head, take our last breath, and put a big smile on our face and go.

I love it. Ladies and gentlemen, the eternal optimist, the silver lining detector, Mr. Glenn Stearns. Glenn, thank you for being on the Get Attitude podcast.

Love it. Thanks, Glenn.