S1 E12 - I Got Fired

Welcome to the Broke to Woke podcast. Our mission for this podcast is to help each and every person out there in the world not only become a force for good, but also uncover those micro magical mental moments that help you become an absolute cerebral pyromaniac. Okay, last episode, we started talking about the imposter syndrome, the two faceness. What do you do when everyone is telling you no, everyone's telling you to stop? All of your friends, your family, the people that you care the most about. That's what we're going to continue talking about in this exact episode.

Cliffhanger.

Yeah.

How did you deal with that?

Through. This is going to sound so cheesy. Through education now. Hold on. Yeah, it sounds like very. When I say education, what I started doing is going to. Okay, if you're telling me that God disapproves of what I'm doing, let me go find out if there's another God who will approve.

Whoa, no.

Yep.

Okay.

So I started going to other churches. Yeah. I took classes online. I read books. I read the Bhagavad Gita. I started reading about Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism.

Old, ancient, like, Indian tribes, tribals, really going down different routes. Yeah.

There's gotta be a God out there that's okay with this.

You know, what's. That is exactly what I did.

You're so practical.

Yeah.

Oh, my God.

I was like, if he says no, who says yes? I'm finding somebody.

This is crazy. Crazy.

Yep. And so I just started going down and what happened through all this, I know we talked about a little bit last night, is I started realizing that there was this one beautiful message that was kind of in everyone's beliefs and everyone's tenants, the bottom core of everything. God is love.

Yeah.

I was like, well, wait a minute. I'm a loving person. And if I'm created in God's image, and if I'm loving and he's loving or she's loving or it's loving, if this force is loving, if everyone is love, if all these religions talk about love, all I want to do is help people. I know this at my core. That's who I am.

Therefore, there can be nothing wrong with what I'm doing. Because what I'm trying to do is make enough of an impact to help people. And if money is the byproduct of that, that's cool. But the only way I see to make a lot of impact and help a lot of people and enrich millions of lives is I need a lot of resources to do that. And that's gonna be money, so I'm gonna go get it. And so that's what I did. And I started just going, okay, this is what's gonna happen. And now we're getting into our 20s on this whole discussion because you mentioned a lawsuit in one of our previous discussions. So we're gonna get to that because I got one coming up, too.

Oh, man.

And then I got the death of my father, and I got the death of one of my brothers, and I got a divorce. And it gets fun.

The works.

The works are coming. Full pizza.

So speaking of imposter syndrome, I wake up to a banging on my window. I'm sleeping in a grocery store parking lot.

Which grocery store? Was it here in Nashville?

It was here in Nashville. Oh, my gosh. I think it was. I want to say Piggly Wiggly, but the one on.

The one near Centennial Park.

No, I was farther out. Okay. I was out there in the sticks. I didn't want anybody to find me.

Wiggly Wiggly.

Yeah.

I haven't heard that name in so long.

It was out, and this truck driver's like. And I'm like, I gotta get out of here. It was so scary. That happened all the time and imposter syndrome. I was like, screw it. I gotta get out of this car.

Yeah.

I called a girl. I said, I need you to find me a place. I don't care if it's a dungeon. I can afford $500 a month. Which was a lie I could not.

Blatant lie.

I could not. The part of the story I haven't shared yet was the day I got fired from this job. I moved.

You moved to Nashville 4.

I moved to Nashville 4.

Everyone's telling you, don't do it. You're done. Don't do it. You're an idiot.

Da, da, da. I'm like, it's gonna work out. It's forgot. Blah, blah, blah. That job. The day I get fired, I met these two guys. I was at a conference because the guy I was working for was a speaker. And there are these two really loud people in the audience. They kept going up to the front of the stage. Their names were Paulie and Dr. Phil. That was their nicknames. And they were so loud. Always bragging about all these deals they're doing. They were trying to find investors.

Yeah.

Doing deals. Yeah. What are the deals doing?

This is what people look like when they have a lot of.

You should meet those guys. They're crazy, but amazing. And Paulie wouldn't actually let me hang out with Them he had just gone through a divorce and did not like women at the time. Was not a fan. I think he. There was some cheating involved or whatever. He was not a big fan. And so I worked for Dr. Phil in a basement in the creepiest dungeon in the world doing paperwork. He was a bit of a hoarder. I would just clean up just the grossest stuff you've ever seen. And I would work for free in order to learn. And I was learning short sales.

Oh, wow.

This is the most paperwork in the world, and I hate paperwork. But I was willing to learn. So I worked for him for months to someday get to ride in the car with Paulie. And I begged and begged and begged and begged, and I finally got my chance. They said, meet me at this house on Woodville Drive in Nashville at 6am So I used a dollar to make some muffins that I had. So I made some muffins to bring him some breakfast just to, like, get some brownie points.

Well, back to that discussion points. When you said giving.

Yeah. Mm.

Right. You're giving.

So I was there early. Yeah, I'm never early. I'm working on it. But I'm just. Yeah. Anyway, so I bring. I brought him muffin points, and he let me ride in the car. He would pretty much not give me any attention. He's on his phone all day, like, doing stuff. Yes. He's just a. He is the best rehabber ever. He does more than anybody you've ever met. And this is 2010 now, which the market was crap in Nashville in 2010.

Yeah.

Everybody's like, oh, it's 2008. Yeah. But that was the beginning of the crash. This is when everybody's saying it's a double bubble. Blah, blah, blah. Fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear. So I'm sitting in the crowd like, this is my only day. How can I let this guy let me learn from him more than just today? And so I'm taking notes on all of his problems. He didn't tell me how I could help him. He's like, I don't need any help. Blah, blah. You just get to sit in the car. So I'd listen to all his problems. He needed more deals. He needed more investors. He was angry at this wood flooring subcontractor and the tile guy. He hated his agents. They were never good for anything. And da, da, da, da. So I made a list of all these things, and I asked how I can help. He's like, da, da. I don't need any help. So I would go find a way to fill those problems.

Yeah. So he asked me before I got out of the car that day after just like being really tough on me. He's like the world's toughest coach just kind of beating me up. He asked me why I wanted to learn. And I told him about my big dream of someday building an orphanage. He's like, you're a good kid.

I'm gonna make you the best. And I was like, okay, sure. So I spent the next nine months working, working for free 18 to 21 hours a day for Polly and Dr. Phil, secretly living in my car most of the time.

What?

Still dry shampoo, baby.

Oh, my shampoo. What is dry shampoo?

Ask any female in your life. It makes you look not greasy and homeless without having to take a lot of showers.

But you were homeless.

Yeah, but that's the power of makeup. You can hide this ish. So you asked about my first deal and I kind of have a two parter.

Yep.

Because after nine months of working for free, I found every way to create value for these deals. I got my agent license, I would find deals, I'd sell them, I'd give them back the commission. I was like absolutely starving. Oh, my gosh. But I was learning.

Literally starving.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Figuratively. Oh my gosh.

I was like all three 20 pounds lighter than this. Of just not having food.

Yeah. Just don't eat. Saves money.

So sad.

I've done that.

Yeah. I survived because I filled up these rentals they had in the worst neighborhoods, like gunshots outside the door. $300 a month in just dangerous areas. I filled up their whole rental portfolio and I'd get like a hundred dollar commission. So I survived on that. And after nine months, I said, all right, Paulie, I found this deal. It makes $45,000 profit. I found all, all the investor money for it. I want to manage all the subs and I'll sell it. The agent commission is $6,000. I'll give it back to the deal all I want. Or the agent commission was like $7,000. All I want is $5,000 for the whole thing. I just want to, you know, continue to learn the safe environment. He had to think about it for three days. And then I pressured him, which was fine because I never asked for anything. I made them a couple hundred thousand dollars over that nine months. And I finally. He said, all right, fine. And when it closed, I have a picture of my bank statement and I was negative $836.72 in the bank? Yes.

You had some NSFs.

Instead of getting $5,000, they gave me $4,000. I spent $2,500 sending him and his wife on a cruise to say thank you for being the first people to believe in me.

Giving again. Okay.

And then I was paid off the negative amount, and I had, like, a couple hundred bucks left.

Yeah.

But that was my first deal.

Wow.

That was my first deal. And he had trained me really good. He's still a very, very, very tough coach. Never gave me a break. Like, super hard on me, but he expected the world, and I learned, though. And so he's like, all right, you're ready to do this by yourself? Oh, my gosh.

Cannot wait to hear about the next one.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh, man.

Crazy journey awaits. Crazy journey away. So I want to pick back up on your story.

Okay. Which part?

Leave a cliffhanger on mine.

Okay, sounds good.

All right. So you are leaving this religion. Yeah. You've left.

Yep.

You're out. You have no wife.

None.

You are 25.

Yep.

You're in Nashville.

Yep.

What happens next?

So now I'm working for a company, and due to some lawsuits, I'll just not name the company because they're here in Nashville. But pretty much my objective was to work for this company and do what I do really well, which is sell and create value and build things for people and give phenomenal ideas. That's why I kind of got brought there. And I was trading at the time. So now I'm 25. I'm probably making somewhere around, like, 200 bucks a month. But it's consistent trading on your trading. Yeah. Which is nothing. I know. But it's getting a billed. But the 200amonth was, like, phenomenal for me because previously I was just train wrecking everything. And I go to the company, and I start asking the company, hey, what can I do? How can I offer value? So on and so forth. And eventually I built them this course, and I was one of their main instructors for the course, and they didn't pay me what I personally felt I should be compensated. This much money was coming in, and I was receiving this much, you know, so one of those situations where I was doing all this and getting this and I was giving and giving, kind of going back to your situation. And one. One of the times where everything really came to play for me is I was trading a company called Freeport McMorin ticker symbol FCX. It's a copper company. And I was day trading it. I was day Trading options. Day trading options is probably the most aggressive thing you can possibly do in the stock market.

Oh, my gosh.

So. But at this point, I had. I knew what I was doing. So this was finally, you know, 25.

But you're not an aggressive guy, you.

Know.

So I'm playing fcx. I get into this trade, and I have this rule that says I must walk away for two hours when I get into a trade. Like, okay, so I get into this trade, I walk away, and I come back, and it won. And I had won, like, thousands of dollars on this particular trade. It was like, $3,000. And some change was one of my biggest wins up to date that I was just cool, calm, and collected about. So then I go to lunch, and I sit down at lunch at this Thai restaurant, Smiling Elephant, here in Nashville. Right? Been there. Love this place. And I eat just normal chicken pad thai. 17. Whatever it was.

Pad thai is the best sell.

Great. And I left a $100 bill as a tip or just, you know, to cover my food and everything. Everything for the tip. And when the waitress picked it up, she's like, I'll be back with some change. I was like, no, it's all yours. You can keep it. And she turned to me and started crying immediately.

And that's when I was like, oh, man. It hit me right in the feels. I was like, I need to do that again. Like, I want to keep doing that. This is amazing. I love giving money away. I love helping people. Like, this is what I made for. I was like, and I just made 30 times that on by pressing buttons. I need to do it again. So I go to my this company, and I ask him. I was like, hey, I want to raise. I need more money. And it's like, let me help do all these things for you and the company. I was like, I'll build this and I'll do this, and I'll work 47 hours every two days. I don't care. And they're like, no. I was like, really? Yeah. No, not really. I was like, I want to make. I want to be CEO of the company. I want to run everything. They more or less just did not give me these opportunities that I wanted, which is fine. It's like, okay. That's okay. So I then call some friends who had some money. Donovan, my nephew, very integral part of the story. He was born premature, and they spilt water, boiling water on him in the NICU unit. And he got burned.

No.

Yeah, he got burned. And so my mom and his mom.

He'S carrying boiling water around the nicu.

Don't know, but my mom and his mom sued the hospital, and they got the lawsuit and they got a settlement. And we hadn't even known about this. So at the time, I'm 25, he's 22. So when he turned 21, his annuity came through and he had some money. So we started talking, and me and him started talking. I was like, hey, man, let me borrow a little bit of your money. And I'm a trade with it. I'm going to start giving you some money back, so on and so forth.

But you're so brave.

But by this point, yeah, by this point, I knew what I was doing. I had some rules. I had rules written down and I had strategies. Like, I had spent five years putting as much time and energy and effort as I could into learning this stuff. And as I learned it, as I realized I can do this, I started borrowing money from him and paying off the Korean mafia. So they were fully paid off by almost 26. And now my dad has, like, two years left, and again, the tick, tick, tick. And so I realized that there needs to be more because I still want to help so many people. And there's this just burning desire inside of me, like, I need to go help as many people as I possibly can. So with all the money that Domin's given me and that we're trading together, we start paying off all the debts, and I get into a position where I'm pretty happy. And then I decide to potentially start my own company. And that's where we'll pick up on the next episode, because that's what we're talking about. You got my real passion and drive and mission starts coming forward, and I really start finding myself. But as soon as that happens, as soon as you take those really big steps out of your comfort zone, you're going to get hit on the head with something. And mine was a lawsuit. And that's where we'll pick up. I'll see you then. Okay. You guys rock.

Thank you so much for listening in on Broke to Woke. We are so excited about this podcast. If you're interested in doing this for yourself. Good news. There's more. And if you want to connect to us, go to GeForce Mastermind on Instagram or geforcemastermind. Com. You can even hang out with us, go on a trip with us. Our goal is to help you find your purpose, understand the little key differences, so that you can be an even more powerful force for good. In the world.