S6 E08 | Oil at Zero

How in the heck can you use fear as a gift? It's usually a repellent, the thing we're most terrified of. But to find the gift and the opportunity in fear and massive uncertainty is what we're talking about in this episode of Broke to a Woke.

Let's go back five years.

It's March.

2020.

And talk about timing. You nail timing.

Nailed it.

I mean, you are. There's something special about the way you pick and release dates because you went and launched the opening of your island. Right. The big, big day was scheduled to be when?

April 1, 2020.

So we're talking like it's right around. So this is what March 20th is when we're recording this right now. So you're building up.

Killing myself, not sleeping, overnighting materials, making sure everything's ready to go, staff are.

Trained, and it comes out pretty much right around today. Five years ago, almost to the day.

Global pandemic got some bad news that day.

Yeah, everything is shut down. So this is right. In the last episode, you talked about economic uncertainty. I mean, that was a big one. But you got punched in the throat. How did you navigate that? Specifically from a leadership standpoint? Right. How did you. How did you pull this one off?

How was my mental health, you mean? It was. You know, at first I did not want to believe it. And it's hard to think that it could be real when we've never experienced it in our lifetime.

Right.

Something that could shut down tourism as we know it.

Right.

I mean, the world, but specifically tourism and travel. And you don't really have anybody just walking around private islands. So you can't just capture people that are already there because they're not already there. You have to get them there. Yeah, I sold a lot, put a lot on the line, got overnight everything and day cruise, night cruise, just to be ready for that worst news ever. And then again, when we got it, we heard it's going to be two weeks. And I was, like, devastated. And it was going to be two weeks. And then when I found out it was, it was lasting a lot longer than two weeks. I definitely felt the fear, but courage is what I leaned into the entire time I was bringing that island to life. It's something I've never done before, is a project that big, a project by the ocean, a resort, like all these things. So much of it was just listening to God on direction of how to do something that's never been done. And as a newbie in the space and then doing something that's never Been done. So courage is a great encouragement to everybody else that you don't have to actually feel brave. You can be terrified down to the very cells of your body to the point that you have got diarrhea every day for six months. You're going to be skinny.

Anxiety induced diarrhea, but you still keep moving forward. So at that time I knew at that point that opportunity never goes away, it just switches places. And I learned that from my mentor, Paulie Kazanowski, who we're actually in his house right now. What a cool thing to be back here. And he showed me, in the worst economic time in history, how you can still be a successful real estate investor in 2008, 2009. Oh, my gosh.

Wait a minute. So you're telling me.

Yeah, I have apparently a knack, and I don't want to speak this over my life, but I have been given the opportunity to try really brave things in the worst economic times ever. And what I can point to in my real estate career is the excellence that I had to learn. There's nobody freaking better than us. Like, I learned that from Paul. Like, be the best for the least and everything that you create, like have the best product and be the least expensive and you will always be successful no matter what the market's doing. And so, yeah, when the borders closed officially for nine months, but it was one of the more difficult places in the world to travel to, so it was essentially closed for almost two years.

I was stressed, scared, worried all the things, but I really cared about my staff. You know, I really honor people who work with me. They gave me their one chance on earth, their hours of their day to day to move forward. This vision that God's given me and that we came together underneath a company brand to create and so really cared about my staff and I'm super proud. I never actually fired any of my team. I talked to them and I repurposed them and we had meetings every single day. So some of the best advice I have for navigating difficult times is one, it's okay to feel scared, but just find ways to move through it and ask yourself, is this fear serving me? Because there's a book called Fear is a Gift and it's so good. It helped me really organize my anxiety. I felt for years to show me that it really is a gift for your brain to be able to pay attention to things you would never see were you not hyperactively aware. So is this fear making me focus on the things I have to do to be able to get through this scary moment so I don't get killed or knocked out of the game. So I appreciated the fear and I repurposed my team. We had daily meetings every day and say, this is all I know. This is uncharted territory. Team, please know. Like, I do not have this figured out, but we're going to move through this together if we so choose.

Right?

And I always tell my team, opportunity never goes away. It only switches places. So let's look at the opportunity together. Let's brainstorm together how can we pivot to be able to capture the market, where it's going instead of be mad that it changed.

Right.

And so those were some really foundational elements for being able to survive it, lead it. And then mental health wise, it is hard to just feel stupid all the time. You feel so stupid. I'm waiting for the day to look like a genius on this one.

Geez. But that's why you have to have your own relationship with God. And being able to hear and be guided is again, I had this vision when I was like 17 of going through this swamp in the middle of the night and just hanging onto the back of Jesus with my eyes closed, knowing there's alligators in the water. We're up to here. But if I hang on, I can get through this because he knows the way. And that vision has really helped me go through dark waters and be able to survive it. No, like I don't have to understand it now, but I'm going to do my best. I'm going to do my best with everything I've been responsible with. Going back to those cash sheets again to recash, planning, talking to your vendors, letting them, giving them confidence that you're not going to not pay them. If you're in a situation that you can't just communicate with people, don't go dark.

Yeah, but here's an interesting question that I've received a bunch for you, is when is it appropriate though to quit? Whereas like, this obviously isn't working. The math doesn't work, the numbers don't work. I'm just going to give up and stop doing this because it's obvious that it's not going to work.

Yeah.

Is there ever that situation?

I'm sure there is a lot. I mean, I'm not, I don't have my own construction company anymore. And it's not because I quit because I couldn't do it and it was too hard. I looked at my life and said, is this still the right vehicle to accomplish the purpose and is it bringing me, is it bringing the right opportunities into my life? Is it robbing me of all of my peace? You know, like what are those questions and is there a way to fix it from robbing me of all my peace before you just quit on it? And so I needed it until I didn't need it anymore and I stepped into the next right opportunity for me and I've been fine letting go of whatever I don't feel like doing anymore. And so it's not if that helps answer. Like I've shifted my business a lot. You know, I started out wholesaling, bird dogging, wholesaling, rehabbing new construction, land developments, apartment complexes, now an island. And so I've been fine to move through those. Those are actually all different businesses to be able to get to where I am, to be able to go to the next level. And so I'm always fine moving on. But moving on is different than quitting.

How so?

Moving on is this no longer serves me and where I need to go, I don't need it anymore versus quitting. Is this is something I really want to do and I'm giving up to me.

Well, no, it's a valid point. So the distinction there is having the intention of being aware of why you're doing it.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

I don't think I've ever quit on anything in my life that I wanted to do. I've never, I've beaten dead horse death. I've gotten. But I've gotten through anything I really need to get through. And then again, it's never been like I quit my construction company. It's been like a slow unraveling to where I didn't need all of those pieces going on, if that makes sense. So yeah, we have both been through a lot and right now there is a lot of economic uncertainty and we're gonna share what we are seeing as opportunities and what we're investing in. But before we go to that, I wanna ask you, what have you gone through? Cause you know, stocks are always very stable.

Super stable. Yeah.

And I'm sure you haven't gone through any economic downturns or storms or tariffs creating some shake up out there before. What have you gone through and how did you navigate those times?

Well, I mean, as you know, I own the unofficial Guinness World book of Records for buying silver at its highest price ever in history. In history. It's still not even close. No.

Is it really?

Oh yeah, it's like 32 right now.

You were that guy has to be.

That Guy I was. That was me.

Golly.

So, I mean, that's 20, 2011. But the interesting thing about the markets, and this is one of those industries slash sectors that is quite uni is because when there is. We don't even have to call it uncertainty, when there is crazy volatility and let's say things are just crashing, plummeting, it is red out there. You can make a lot of money because in the markets, it's like if you're a trader and you know how to play the downside, and there's a big old downside, you can make tons of money.

Right.

And it's harder in real estate to make money as the markets are specifically going down. I'm not extremely aware of how to do that. But in the stock market, it's not the best.

It's different in real estate.

Exactly. Yeah. So to that point, it's like there's actually a really, really awesome advantageous opportunities when markets do crash to make really good income for yourself or for others. Right. You can create good cash flow, but the awareness is when you have radical, amazingly huge shifts in the economy, the stock market is the place that feels it the fastest. And so when you have overnight moves, the one that has. That caught me totally, totally, totally off guard, which is rare, was Brexit. Brexit, yes. Yeah. Overnight, the markets were down 12%. Overnight.

Is that a lot?

Yeah, it's a lot. So when I talk, when I say markets, I mean like the Dow Jones, the S and P, the nasdaq.

What's the world record for an overnight?

I would probably say, I mean, depending on. It's 1987, you have the flash crash. I mean, the flash crash was May 10, 20, 2010. Markets dropped 30% a day. But like overnight, it was actually probably Covid. Truthfully, I mean, they had. They froze the markets. They stopped it. They turned it off. Yeah. What's called.

Yeah, how do you do that?

You had a limit down during COVID So they go, hey, the markets are down so much, we're turning it off.

No.

Yeah.

No.

Yeah, it's crazy. Stop trading.

Just skin it.

We're shutting it down. Yes. During COVID Yeah, they turned it off. They said, sorry, guys, go home. Yeah. So probably recently Covid, but Brexit was very, very close to that. And markets opened, they were down. All the brokers turned everything off. Everything you couldn't trade. Everything was frozen. And I was hemorrhaging money. Yeah. Just so much money. So over just immediately lost.

Well, what made people make them Lose just because of Brexit.

Yeah. Again, back to that uncertainty. And it was just, they didn't know what was going to happen. They didn't know why.

Humans don't love uncertainty, do they?

No, it's actually our biggest fear. Our biggest fear as humans is uncertainty. And we can start finding ways to, to your point, understand that it's coming. There will always be some level of uncertainty. And to your point, one of the lessons that you have to learn is when you are investing into anything, make sure that you cannot lose money that you cannot repay.

Yeah, no, that's really good.

I mean, like when you go into any investment, know that that money can be gone somehow. There can be some uncertain situation that causes the whole thing to crumble. So before you even get into it, if all of your money goes to zero, can you afford that happening? If the answer is no, probably shouldn't do that.

Don't do it.

Yeah, don't do it.

I tell people all the time.

Yeah. And that was the, that was a big learning lesson for me was the Brexit situation where I did lose a lot of money, but it was all money that I could afford to lose. And it wasn't a situation. I was like, oh man, I'm totally unprepared for this.

Then you're rich.

Yeah, yeah, it helped, it helped being rich. That was 20. That was August 2015. So having the awareness, having the understanding that you're always going to have uncertainty in markets. To your point, you mentioned brainstorming, right? Getting around people, having masterminds of other individuals. This is how not only can you prepare, but you can also navigate sitting down. You mentioned the word communicating, asking really powerful questions to people that are around you. How can we overcome this? What is the opportunity? Because I see myself in this situation, I've really done this numerous times, planning ahead of time as the President of the United States of America. We're going to have a lot of these meetings where I am not the smartest person in the room. And so I'm going to assemble a cabinet, a world changing cabinet. You're going to be on it, obviously. And I'm going to be asking the individuals that are on this cabinet, where is this opportunity? What is the strife? What is the trials? What are the tribulations? We know they're there. Okay, how do we solve this problem? How do we fix the problem? We're going to write it down. Because Einstein said a problem written down is halfway solved. So at this point we know that it's an issue globally wars, challenges, bombings, terrorism, attacks, all of this is going to happen. We know it. We just don't know when. And that's the uncertainty. So we plan as much as we possibly can. We create contingency plans, we create exit plans, we create observational plans. But from there, we know things are going to happen. And so you have to be and assemble a team of people around you that are amazing. You have to either pay money or time or energy. Those are only three things that you can pay with money, time, or energy. So pay one of those three resources to be around great people so that they also can help you navigate it. Because back to the situation in 2020, hashtag, Covid was doing some weird things for the stock market. I had to reach out to people that were smarter than me. There was something that was very, very interesting. Things happened. Oil went below zero. The price of oil went negative during COVID and no one knew what that meant.

What?

Correct.

What does that even mean? So I'll pay you to buy my oil, right?

No, it went below zero.

This is why the stock market stresses me out.

It's so wild. So I had to call my mentor.

Dennis, and I was like, dennis, shut out.

Dennis, bro. What? What are we doing? Like, what's happening?

Go below zero.

I went negative. What? Unreal. Yes. Yeah. The futures contracts of oil were negative.

Oh, my God.

For hours. And it was a fascinating whole global shift because everyone thought the world was over, right? Zombies are attacking. And Dennis said, literally, find as much money as you possibly can and buy as much as you possibly can afford. That's what you need to do right now. I was like, yeah. But he goes, find it.

Always so scary.

Find it.

What if I'm wrong?

Yes. And I loved what you said. I feel so stupid doing this. That is what I tell all of my investors when you're buying a down market and you just see it just like, for example, right now, this is 2025 March. Tesla has gone down every single day since the inauguration. Like, Trump's like, hey, I'm president now. Every single day, Monday through Friday, Tesla just keeps going lower.

You pull up the chart.

Is he only getting paid for this stuff?

And it's right side note, and it's red. And it's red. It's been very fascinating. And so as I am buying Tesla, as it keeps going lower, I'm over here running out of cash, trying to figure out how do I go get more because I know it's going to go back up because make a million dollars of revenue an hour. They'll be okay. And the revenues are continuing to go up and they have all these aspirations.

Just going down for the haters every day. Just the haters.

No, truthfully, I don't think so. I think that Tesla right now is going down generally because you had a lot of people who are profitable. Right. 480 a share was the highest price it ever been. And you know this very well that when people are very profitable, they sell. So you have a lot of haters. Yes. That are selling, but you have people that were profitable also were selling. And so you have a combination of both of those people selling and the fact that he's been very, very public in the political space and people are again saying, oh, he's too all over the place. He's not focusing on Teslas.

Yeah, yeah. The leader's busy.

Right. So he. But he's been there before. He's done this before. The company, that's the mark of a good company. Can it continue to run without, right, a CEO? Can it? Can. Can it still do its thing without the main person being there? Did you build a company? Did you build a business? Can it run by itself? So saying all that to say you will always feel like a dumb. Dumb.

Yeah.

When you are buying assets at discounted prices. I haven't figured out how to get over that. But keep doing it anyway. Keep being dumb. Keep buying amazing assets as they go down. That is a strategy that is going to work.

Oh yeah, it does.

It can be in real estate, it can be in business. I would love to talk about business opportunities and this global navigation of the shifting of the economic changes that are coming. Talk about the business opportunities, talk about what we can do, what we are going to.

What are we investing in now?

Do you think people want to know what we're investing in?

I don't. I mean, yes.

Yes.

What about you in the next episode.

See you there.

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