Episode 224: "The Advantage Clarity on "What You Really Want Gives You . . ." with Multi-Million ...

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Weddell. And before we get started, if you want to know exactly how to win again and again, go to Wydell on winning.com webinar now to watch something I've put together for you. Now let's get going into this episode of Million Dollar Mastermind.

I am with Danielle Oropesa, and she and her husband have their own business and have got, I guess, a thing you got thousands of people, got a distribution company and outlets. How many? Are you guys pretty much in Florida or have you started expansion yet? Well, welcome, by the way. Welcome back.

Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. We are definitely spread all over Florida. And now with Zoom, we've spread a lot, you know, into different states. I know, like Texas and North Carolina and South Carolina. And our main, the majority of our offices are all throughout Florida.

And so let's talk about, as you kind of, you're growing up and where you got out on your own, what were some things that you remember? There were big difference makers in terms of either challenges or ideas that you put in place to keep yourself on track. Things that went right, things you did right, things you did wrong. Advice that was good, advice that was bad, as you got out from under the umbrella of, you know, the. I call it the cocoon. In my books, a serial winner.

Yeah.

The cocoon that we all grow up in of our family and friends and find out for yourself what the world is all about. What did you tell us about that?

So when I graduated from college, I moved back home with my mom and dad. And I have a, you know, really great relationship with my mom and dad, very close with them. And so they were, of course, like, yes, yes, come back, you know, come and live with us. And so I moved back in to kind of figure out what I wanted out of life and what direction I wanted to go in. I knew I wanted to go in big directions, but I didn't know exactly where that was going to, you know, how I was going to do that. So now why.

Let me ask you this.

Yeah.

What in the world were you thinking about in college? Did you not think about this?

Well, in college, so I graduated with a business degree.

Okay.

I think it was because I really always wanted to be like my mom. I wanted to find a husband who we could grow a business together and we could work together. And so I saw that growing up. I saw my mom and dad working together in a business common. And so that was what I always really wanted. So for me to try to find that, I think I almost had to find both at the same time. Like, you know, what avenue am I going to go in and what husband am I?

Yeah, kind of all together. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Because I didn't really, you know, necessarily want to do something, like, all on my own. I wanted to. I wanted to have kind of have it all, have the great life included, you know, great family life, great home life, great business life, very successful. I wanted all of it together.

What you're explaining is what you did do in college, which is get, you know, more and more clear about what you were going to be looking for. And when the clear you are about.

That.

It allows you to make more likely the best decision. A lot of people rush off and they make decisions without really thinking through what they want. You know, they think like, what I should or what my parents want or this or that, or to do it for superficial reasons. You know, there's the most handsome, the most beautiful. He's funny, this, that, the other, okay, let's get married. And then it's like, I don't even like this guy. You know, I don't even like this woman. And but the more you think these things through, you get kind of. It gives you a strength, don't you think?

Yes. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And exactly what you're saying, I mean, that was pretty much the constant thing that went through my head, was I want to find somebody who's going to work really hard, who's going to be motivated, have big goals and dreams so that we can really grow together and we can do big things together. That was really, like, the constant thing that kept going through my head. I kept envisioning it over and over and over, was that I needed to find that kind of a person.

And.

And so that was so, you know, there was a few years of, like, out of college, and I lived at home, actually worked with my parents for a while, running their office and just kind of trying to, you know, figure out my next steps. And then my parents actually were the ones that introduced me to Omar, to my husband. My mom and my dad knew Omar very well through the business, their same business, you know, in common. And so my mom's very close friend, Sharon Fitzpatrick. Sharon and my mom decided that they were going to fix me up with my future husband. And so they talked to Omar and they talked to me, and they kind of, you know, paired us together. And so we actually, when we met, it was funny. He always tells this story when we met, I didn't really like him. I found him to be.

No shock there.

Found him to be a bit arrogant, a bit overconfident.

You really are kind.

And so when we hung out, like the first couple times, you know, I came back to the, like to my dad and I said, I said, dad, really? You really like this guy? I was like, I don't know. I don't know if this is the one for me. I said, yeah, he's money motivated and, you know, he has big goals and dreams, but he's a little full of himself. And so my dad said, no, no, that's, you know, that's like the front that he gives off. He's just trying to impress you, you know, Omar. To know Omar is to love him. And so you got to get to know him. You got to, you know, and you'll see that he has such a big heart. And so really, very quickly after Omar and I, we became friends for a few months. Talked on the phone a lot. And through talking on the phone, I realized that he was very, very much like my dad. You know, came from a rough upbringing, you know, had a lot of challenges growing up that he had to overcome, but he, you know, knew that he wanted to go places in life and he wasn't, he was very tough and thick skinned and he wasn't, you know, gonna let anybody kind of get him off track. And. And he has a very big heart like my dad, you know, so. The arrogance, not so much. My dad's more on the very humble, relaxed side. But.

Yeah, but when these. There was a purpose to these conversations because you, you had a grid in your mind of what you were looking for, and you were essentially doing your due diligence. And the truth of it is, your mother and Sharon knew Omar was a talent, but they also knew he wasn't going to make it by himself. And you were the sacrificial lamb. And fortunately for him, that was the greatest sale of his life. There's no way, no way he would be here without you. With all respect, Omar, but. But the thing is that you. So once you get in, you get past that stage now you work your way through these things step by step. This stuff doesn't happen. People want success to happen instantly, but there's a lot of gears that have to mesh and things you've got to put together for anything. Like if you're building a skyscraper.

What.

I see, what you had in your mind, you were looking for a life that could be big, like a skyscraper that could Last. But it had to have a solid foundation, and that takes time to put in place and get that going. So what are things that you did, you and Omar, to start this business as a couple and to really set the stage for what it's become. Don't let people know how many people are in your organizations. You're in offices and things like that.

I think we have 90 offices.

Wow.

Yeah, 90 offices. And I think I've lost count, actually, on the number of license rats. We're at several thousand. Six, seven thousand, I believe.

And I think now's the time you're going to have to slow down, because if Omar keeps it up, you know, you guys are going to get as bigger than me, and that would. That would be unacceptable. And the thing is that you have also duplicated your success. We'll get back to that foundation to begin. But not only have y' all long since gone over the million dollar income.

Mark.

You produce million dollar earners. I mean, you got what, four, three, four, $5 million earners on your team. And that's pretty staggering, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pretty amazing. It is pretty amazing.

Go ahead, go ahead.

No. So, yeah, going back to what you had said, like in the beginning of when Omar and I got married, I think that that was, you know, what we really focused on, were making good decisions together, making more good decisions than we did. Not good decisions. You know, I think that that was really what started off the basis for our, first of all, for our relationship. We needed to get a strong foundation for our relationship before we could get a strong foundation for our business relationship, you know, and so when we got married, we really. We were. He had already grown the business to a certain extent, and so we were able to kind of coast for a little while, you know, work some, but also, you know, just hang out a lot. We ate lunch together every day and, you know, we'd go home together every day. You know, didn't put a lot, put some hours into the business, but not as much. And so we really developed our relationship in that time where we talked a lot. We talked about, you know, my dreams and goals and his dreams and goals and kind of where we wanted to go in life. And we talked about our budget and we talked about, you know, talked about important things in our life and kind of like, once we get to this income, how are we going to live? And, you know, once we grow our business to this level, what are we going to do or how are we going to live? So we did that early on and then we, after about a year of just kind of, kind of hanging out, kind of working, I actually said to him, we were. He might get mad at me for telling the story, but we were on a vacation in Naples. Naples or Marco. And we were walking on the beach. And so I said, I said, do you remember all those, like, goals and dreams and, you know, those like, big aspirations that you had in life? I was like, so is that still there? You know, is that still here? Like, are you still wanting to grow this business big? And he said, he said, yeah, of course. I want all that stuff still, you know. And I said, okay, well, I think it's time we get started on it all, you know. So I was like. Because he, I think he worried. He knew how much he needed to work and we needed to work in order to grow the business, but he also wanted to make sure that our foundation was strong prior to doing it, you know, And I think that really made a big difference was that we really, our relationship was very strong. So when we wit. When we really did go to work, you know, we were both like. He's like, are you okay? Are you ready to go to work? I said, yeah, I'm ready to go to work.

So.

And, you know, then we both went to work, both with, you know, 8, 9, 10, 12 hour days. And you know, we would leave the house at, you know, he would leave, I would leave around 9, get to the office, 10 o', clock, whatever, and then I would work until 8 or 9, you know, sometimes 10, and he would go and, you know, he would work different hours, usually 12 to 12 or 1 in the morning or whatever, you know, but we worked a ton and that's when we were really able to just grow.

You bring up a really great couple of great points. One is you have to get past that delicate thing of is your partner going to be behind you if you're gone? A lot that, you know, you have to do to get, you know. And there's the old story of Alex McEban. I mean, I think they had one or two children already, maybe a daughter. And then he's starting his business out in California and his wife has triplet boys.

Oh yeah.

And he was going around the clock with his business and he just had so many places to go and wanted to provide. Now he had triplets to provide for. So he's thinking, I got to get this thing going. He takes his wife home. They don't even have any family around to help her. He takes his wife home and drops her off with the triplets and says, honey, I got to go to an appointment. She said he ran and he was in the car going down the street. She said, couldn't you give me a glass of water before you left? And you know, it's just getting past that thing, you know, I remember that I was the same way when we, you know, because we had moved up to North Carolina and started an expansion thing. But then my wife was home with the little boys and you know, you want to kind of help out, you realize, don't have new friends, don't have the roots down in the community, don't have any family around. And so, you know, you know, I felt bad when I was not there, but then, you know, we were. So we're moving up on an expansion. So we're in a rental house. And sure enough, the 20 year old son of the property manager who kept up with the rent and everything, he took over from his dad. And we'd sit the check in. The check was in the mail, but like the morning, it wasn't even due until the fifth of the month. Okay, so the morning of the second, whatever month it was, I think it was in February. The we get a knock on the door at 6am and there's two sheriffs out there. And so, you know, we're all in pajamas of the kids, you know, and like what, what? And they said, you know, you're behind in your rent, you know, you need to pay your rent. We got a summons, okay, it's some kind of paper. And I said the check is mail was mailed three days ago. Give me a break. Get out. You know, I was. And then I found out the 20 year old was taking over his dad and he was going to be a tough guy, you know, and so that just enraged. But that was a gift of God because there was no reason for it to happen. We had said it, it just hadn't got there. And then the young kid. I don't know how the sheriffs must have nothing to do in Greensboro. But what it served was it cost. This confrontation with my wife in the sense of she said we got to get our own house. I said, well that's what we're doing. We're trying to, you know, that's why we moved, you know, so we make money. And again she said, I don't care if I see you for the next six months, but you got to go out there and get X amount of dollars so we can make a down payment on a house. And I said thank you Very much. I can't tell you what a relief it was when she said that. It was like, yeah, I could do that, but I can't do that with two hands tied behind my back. And when I'm working at the office thinking I got to get home and help out around the house because I got a new family and my wife doesn't know and she's wondering when I'm going to be back and everything. I mean, you got to get turned loose like that. And I can understand exactly what he was going through. And I think it was important. It's kind of like you needed that warm up time. But then, you know, you also needed to say, okay, enough of that, let's get going.

Right?

And what happened after that, hey, listen.

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So after that, we, we. And, and okay, so we were married about a year. We had that conversation and like you said, I mean, I think that's what it is. It was like I gave him a license to just, you know, turn him loose kind of on the amount of time that he needed to spend. I took all the, the pressure off of him, you know, to like, I was like, you're fine, go, go. You know, I don't need to. Just every once in a while let me know that you're okay and, you know, and whenever you come home, you come home and, you know, we're good. So after that, at the time, we lived in a townhouse, and so we made a conscious decision to be very, very smart with our money through that time period, because we were just married, we had no kids, we were making a pretty good income, and we knew that if we could really be financially responsible with our income, and especially as we were growing our income and, you know, the more money that we could save and invest, the more we could get into a position very early on in our young, you know, married life. And so we made the decision not to have kids at the time. Also we made, you know, we wanted to really work and concentrate Concentrate on the business. It was kind of, you know, a perfect setup where, you know, he already had a business. I kind of inserted myself into the business. I was really good and we kind of, we used our strengths and weaknesses. I was really good at all of the office stuff, you know, all the working with clients and working with reps and, you know, any dealings with anybody. You know, I'm a nice person, I'm friendly.

Yeah, they needed to see a lot of you and a little bit of him. Yeah, it's kind of like, it's kind of like the Mr. Inside, Mr. Outside type. You know, you need someone on the outside promoting it, getting people excited about bringing new people in the door. But then you gotta follow through and, you know, you spend more time and that, you know, develop those long term relationships. So you have the yin and yang inside and outside. And all successful people, many successful people I know about have done those kind, had those kind of relationships. You know, you have, I won't get into them all, but the, the thing is that you hit the accelerator and growth really started to happen. How did the, how did your income. Was that reflected pretty quickly in your income over the next, you know, one, two, three, four or five years?

Yes, it was, it was, it was probably a year of really working hard to lay the foundation to then have our income, you know, grow a little bit that first year. But then after that, it just kind of started to multiply.

Like how?

And it was like how? Yeah, well, it was a matter of how did it happen or how the numbers go up.

You know, he was probably at 100,000 when you got married, right?

Actually, we were at 200, 215, I think when we got married. And then when we really started working, you know, we went to like 250, 280, but then it was like a, you know, 400 and 600 and 800 and 900. So. Yeah, so then it really multiplied exponentially those next few years because we kept.

Focused and what we're talking about, clearly here, Danielle, is setting and how you set something up to continue to compound and grow and to last. Most people in the 1 percenters, it's staggering to me. Most of the people are in the 1% on income only last one year at that level, only 1 out of 11 will be there for 10 years, much less 20, 30. And we're looking back now at y' all being in the 1% for probably 20 years or more now. And the same thing's happening with the, you know, if you have a solid business and you have your values, but that was what was happening. When you work with your family, you're getting your head right the first year with Omar, and then boom. And so Sandy Weil. So we're talking about here about getting your team together, and your team for your business was you and Omar. So it was important for you to spend all that time talking. And because you were real sure that also saved you a lot of time when you started to expand, to look for the same ingredients and qualities and the people you were not just bringing in and giving a tryout, but that you kind of identified as being serious people who were going to last long term and were worth spending the extra time with. Because the people that you're going to build your team with or expand your team with are going to be the people that you spend the extra hours with, new people, given the basic training, go through all the basic repetitive stuff. But the people you single out and you bring into your inner counsel and you go to lunch with and breakfast with and have the phone calls with, those are people. They've got to have the values that kind of mesh with what you've already taken weeks and months to set up in your mind is where we're headed, you know, and that will be intuitive if you get these things clear to yourself. But a story there. Sandy Wild, he was in line for, in the 80s for American Express president. He was a vice president there, and he made 1,000 millionaires. A thousand people became millionaires with him as the executive vp. But then they decided they weren't going to have a Jew. This is not me. Not me. Don't call me. But he said they decided their board met and American Express in the 80s was never going to have a Jew run American Express. So he took his package and he went out after. I mean, he had heroic leadership job, and he took a year off and just looked at the market. And then he had his assistant, I forget her name, and he had Jamie Dimon graduated from Harvard, I believe. And his father had always worked with Sandy. So when he graduated, he was going to work with Sandy. He didn't know what Sandy was going to do. As we all know, Jamie Dimon is JP Morgan now. But Jamie, he said, I'm going to be around Sandy Wild. He's a winner. And so it was just Jamie and Sandy for a year. And they would talk about opportunities and companies that would come up, and they would go lunch every day and hours and hours and hours getting that relationship together. And then finally Sandy was ready and he bought this little two Wall street people, crappy commercial lending company called Commercial Credit down in Baltimore. And so everybody on Wall Street's going to say, what a Sandy Weill, what an idiot. He's going down to a little home loan company down in Baltimore. How stupid. But what Sandy did down there, he used to. He would go down on Monday, come back on like Friday morning, stay down there, like Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Thursday night. And he assembled a dream team of people that he got from different areas of the financial world to come down and help him straighten out that company and get it organized. But what they would do, Danielle, is every night after work, they would go back to the hotel because they were all down from New York. And they would eat and they would smoke cigars and they would drink and for hours just talking, just talking and scheming. But see, he assembled a super team, his own dream team, financial dream team. And they all locked in on this vision of building the biggest company in financial services. And so after a year of that, pretty soon he went and started acquiring other companies. Before you knew it, he had acquired Smith Barney, he had acquired Travelers Insurance, and then he merged with Citibank and had called it Citigroup. And for a year he was, you know, he talked them into, you know, being a co CEO. You know, like, that's like being a co CEO with a viper. You know, how long are you going to last, like. And so we knew that wouldn't last long. Pretty soon he was in charge. And when he went out as CEO, they were the number one company in the world. Not just the number one company of financial services, but the number one company in the world. Way ahead of the General Motors and the Googles and the apples and the stars of today. I mean, Citigroup, they were that big, but that's where it came from. You know, he set the similar pattern of growth. Setting the foundation, getting your core group, and then like working like dogs. And they would have every month at the end of, once they started expanding out and having all these companies involved. He would bring in all the top executives of all the different enterprises into an end of the month meeting. They called it the planning group. And I asked Jamie once at a convention, I said, what do you. How do you guys go about making the decisions you put in your buying company, selling companies, bringing in new leaders and this and the other? I said, what's your. How does your decision process go? He looked at me dumbfounded. He said, the facts. He said, how do we make our decisions? The facts we Just look at the facts. You know, we bring everybody together, everybody tells us what they're doing and we, you know, and it's very obvious if you keep your eye on the facts. And so the pattern that you set as just you and Omar starting your business, that is the model that winds up being behind the formation of a lot of super successful movements. And so what I like people to think about is like, how can you now start to find if you're all by yourself, how can you start? First thing is get real clear of what you want. Start looking at the work, make sure you got your act together on work and discipline and organization and clarity about how you want to make an impact and get yourself ready to be the leader, grow yourself and refine yourself into where you can be the leader of something dramatic and big and impact that people will want that quality, people will want to join and not just be a part of, but work day and night to help you together achieve these things. They're not going to do that if they see weakness in you. And, and then start to see what opportunities and what people and start to get your momentum going in that direction to set the foundation for your own personal skyscraper and who knows how big and how fast it'll go. But there's patterns that for building every skyscraper, you have to get the plans, you have to get the approvals, and then you have to get decide who's going to do what and then you have to go down, you know, get the foundation in and all that preparatory work before it comes out of the ground. And people say, wow. Danielle and Omar, their, you know, income, 3004-005006-00700, like wow. Skyscraper. But a lot of work in advance to make that happen. And so people can put themselves on that track. Right now you can't automatically have 100 story skyscraper tomorrow morning, but you can start to get yourself on track where that could happen for you in your life. And do you want to put a wrapper on any of those things?

Yeah, exactly what you said. I mean, that first year was a foundation for our relationship. Then the second year was a foundation for our business. You know, that was a year where we were like, okay, let's go. We were working morning, noon and every single day, seven days a week, you know, and laying that foundation so that it was ready to, you know, to explode after that. And exactly what you said about having the vision, that was a huge part of that. We had the vision. Omar and I had communicated with each other many, many times about what our vision was for our business, for our family, for our future. What was the short term vision and what was the long term vision? And so we were both on the same page as far as making great business decisions, great family decisions, great financial decisions, because we had that vision and we were very clear about the vision. It would grow. Like the vision grew as we grew, you know, but we had that, communicated that vision with each other. And then we would start, which I think is super, super important, we would share the vision. You know, we shared the vision with our key people and with our office managers and with our new recruits and, you know, in trainings. And so everybody knew the vision that we were trying to accomplish, which allowed us to stay very focused.

Yeah. Fantastic. And are you enjoying this?

Yes, yes. It's a lot of fun.

It gets you really to examine, like, how did I actually do that? You know, but see, folks, this is the stuff that's behind the scenes that makes the difference in people who win and people who basically have holes. Not that they're not good people to work hard, but they've just got holes in their life. They've got holes in their thinking or their values or their relationships that sooner or later causes cracks, and then they wind up having to having the thing blow up on them. And so what we're talking about is how you go about. It's never perfect, but how you go about stacking the odds of success and do it sequentially, you know, hey, thanks so much. Next time I can chase you down. I'd love for us to talk about the expansion piece, because once you get that compounding, you know, the income starts coming in, the bank account grows, you get to the big house in parkland, gated community, the envy of everybody. You know, it would be easy to get sidetracked, but what's the drive behind expansion? And why is that smart? And really, why is that? What's behind that? What's behind that thinking that most people would think, okay, I'll kick back and have the easy life, which is a choice, but why would you keep on going? Let's talk about that next time. You up for that?

Yep, sounds good.

Thank you. Danielle, if you enjoyed what you've heard.

And are dead serious about finding out for yourself exactly how this works in the real world, I've taken the most valuable business lessons I've learned over 40 years and put them into something for you to watch. Go to Whiteellawinning.com forward/webinar. Now, in order to move up as as far fast as possible, I'm Larry Widell, and I run the Million Dollar Mastermind. Go, go.