I Try to Pretend in Business That I’m Terrible at Everything with Robby Clark

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'm here talking with Robbie Clark. Hello, Robbie.

How you doing, Larry?

Yeah, and Robbie's in la. We're talking about winning. And Robbie said the last time we talked, I try to pretend in business that I'm terrible at everything. And how did you get that concept? Where did that come to you?

Yeah, that concept was to again to really like just expedite my thought process in building out teams because ultimately I knew, like I told my first agent, who I still work with now after buying our second property, that, you know, I was going to have over 100 properties. I wasn't sure how I was going to do it. I didn't have the resources, the money, the credit, the anything. But I knew I was going to get it done because once I, you know, focus on that task, I'm always confident that I can accomplish it. And a lot of that comes from acting. Being around these incredible people when I was younger really helped me give that belief like, well, if they can do it, then I can do this as well. You know, familiarity breeds contempt, but it can also breed confidence as well too, if your mindset is in the right position. So for me, you know, I grew appreciation and confidence from what I was around and applied that to anything I did in life and in business was the next big feat that I wanted to climb. And that's the headset that I, I got into because I understood as you get more and more staff, you know, I just I to myself, I tell myself that, you know, if you're doing all the positions, you're taking opportunities away from someone else and if you really want the time to learn and focus on other big things, then it's, that's my position as an owner. I know that's not really a small business mentality and not everybody can do that, but that was always my approach. If I want to provide the most value, then I got to create opportunity for everyone. And I shouldn't be responsible for making all the, all the day to day decisions. And for my team and everyone, I got to focus on learning and learning and bringing good ideas and maybe some work, maybe some don't, but that's how you provide the most value in my Mind.

And.

How did you, you know, they.

Said.

The joke is of how hard is acting? If acting was hard or someone said acting's not hard. Shirley Temple had it down at age 4, you know, and, you know, you could dismiss that thing, but, you know, we all know there's great actors out there and we all have our favorites. And it's an art, it's a craft. But the point is it's still an individual type thing. And you see most of the people that are successful in that thing try. I mean, they're getting involved in businesses along the way. And so it's not just the people who fail in acting or run out of jobs and get involved in other businesses. You know, sooner or later, you like some stability. So how long did it take you to. Did you ever get up to your 100? Because I know you diverted and you got other businesses going. How long did you stay exclusively in the real estate before you morphed over into these other opportunities?

Well, the other ones kind of. So, yeah, to put it mildly, Sid developments in our real estate is 95% of, like my mind frame when I'm thinking about businesses. The majority of what I'm doing is learning. I have the most developed team in that company of the other ones. And yeah, we're at, we're at close to 500 properties now. So we flew by that, that 100 mark a while ago. But, you know, I still put the energy in there. My goal is to, you know, we go to towns that really need the work that we're doing. So we find depressed properties and then we renovate them and then do a lot of affordable rentals in those cities as well, too. But we're taking these homes away from terrible landlords who have not done anything with their properties and just try to, you know, add value to every city we're going to. And we also go to cities that have black development. They're under the price of build. So there's not many, there's nobody there really renovating, typically when we first go in there. So our job is to kind of, you know, fluff the city a bit, if you will, and make sure that we can bring up this unused inventory to where it needs to be. Because the big problem with Canada, especially Ontario, but Canada wide, is that we don't have enough inventory for people in general, let alone the immigration that's. That's moving in. And so, you know, that's. The other businesses that I've started up, I've always tried to do them with another partner. Like an operating partner, because I understood where my focus needed to be. So even though I have these other companies, I'm not as active in those as Sid. I've tried to, like I said, place other teams there and other operating managers and partners that are better at that industry than I am and just to make it succeed. But truth be told, like, you can't juggle. You can only juggle so many balls. Right? The best singer in the world is probably not going to be the best actor, and you're not going to be the best athlete if you're. If you're focused on acting. And, you know, the real estate is definitely the largest business by far in what we're doing, because that's where all my energy and focus is. And to bring a point, because you said acting like, you know, that's one thing people wonder a lot, like, why either you're a good actor or you're not. Aren't you just kind of born with it? And this is where I learned, kind of like that the world doesn't work like that, because if that were the case, you know, when your mind frame is negative, you would still get. Get roles and be okay. And that didn't find that to be the case with me at all. Right. Even if I tried hard at a certain point, like, pretend to get back in and try hard and felt like, oh, I definitely should have got it. I'm more experienced than this guy. I know I did a great job. For some reason, the universe wouldn't reward me with a role because I had such a disdain for the industry that I was in. So you got to be open to receiving things, and practice makes perfect if you're not from experience. When I was religiously working on my craft, I got everything. And when I stopped doing that and stopped being offered parts, I got nothing. So it doesn't matter what industry you're in. People have different acting styles. They, like, some people love Kiana and some idiots don't love Kiana. But, you know, at the same time, they all put a ton of effort into their craft. And you go around the top actors in the world, they are obsessed with what they do. And there's something about being in that mindset, even though acting styles are different, that allows people to stay successful when they're there.

And.

Would you. That's basically, you get a winning. To win, you have to have a winning edge. You have to have a mindset. And it's a very tough thing to get. It's a very tough thing to describe. But it's like a zone. It's a frame of mind. And I've always heard, you know, if you work forever to get yourself in that thing, and when you're there, you want to lock in and keep the blinders on, because if you lose it, it's really tough to get it back again. And you experience that first in the acting world.

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Yeah, 100%. And that's why you have to. I know they say it's cliche, you got to love what you do, but I love to learn. Right. Like, my things I'm trying to do next year, like, you know, I would love to. You know, there's a few people I'd love to meet. Some I have, but Elon Musk is on my list for one of the guys I would love to meet and have a conversation with. Joe Rogan, I would love to be on there. I actually used to grapple with him in LA when I used to live here. So there's certain people. My quest for business is really about knowledge more than anything. It's not about the money and things like that, which makes it easier to make financial decisions, I think, because I've had it, I've lost it. You know, I'm convinced if it was all taken away again, at which. Which I did a few years ago, I got into a really, you know, bad lawsuit, unfortunately, with someone I was taking care of in my mind, you know, and someone real close, and they really. They really screwed me. I put a bunch of assets under their name and. And I lost everything. Not only everything, but I was in a way worse position than I was at 21 because I had debt on top of that that I couldn't pay. So I had to climb out from the bottom again with a 400 credit score. All my funds tied up in properties that I put under somebody else's name with you, very loose contracts, because just thought I could trust them, and I had to climb back from that. And that was like Hell on wheels for me. And even then, though, I was so convinced of where I should be and whatnot, that I knew that I would overcome that, and I did. So mindset is so important. I feel invincible, but I'm not stupid. I know that I learn on a daily basis more than others, and I really enjoy learning more than anything. And that's what I think keeps me able to be consistent and not switch paths.

Absolutely. There's one. It's one thing to be broke, you know, that's. It's one thing to be, you know, you went bankrupt, but it's another thing to go bankrupt and you owe a ton of money. I've got a guy. I have a guy I've been in business with for. For decades. And the thing that I admire about him the most is that when he started with me, he was 400 grand in debt because he did what you did, a similar thing. He had another business, but they decided where we're going to go into real estate, and they bought an office building. And with the other guy, partnership this, that, and the other. And as soon as the things turned sour, this guy disappeared, leaving my friend holding the bag. And when he started, he was 400 grand in the hole. And this was 1980. That's what. Yeah, yeah. That's a lot of money. And the guy has never, you know, he's super successful. The thing I respect about him the most is he never asked me for any money. You know what I'm saying? I mean, you know, like, help me out of this, and then I'll come in and be. And so you got to respect people, have that character, but it's a character building. It's either a destroyer or a character building experience. Unfortunately, you wish you didn't have to go through those experiences to build. Build that kind of character. But life is going to throw you things. And sometimes the people you do the most for, I think they take it for granted. It's the people that you trust the most, you least expect and you give the most to. But somehow, especially if it relates to money, they're not interpreting. Not everybody's going to be interpreting that the way you think they're interpreting it. And that can flip overnight. And so when it comes to one of the things you learn is it's easier to have things in contracts written down, do things by the book and not create the opportunity, because I was embezzled by well over a million dollars by my personal assistant, and I'm not alone in that. And just about everybody goes through that you know, and, or accountant and whatever. But the thing is that it's the people you don't suspect. So the tax attorney told me, he said it's always the little silver haired grandmother at the bank that makes cookies for everybody that they find out was embezzling all the money.

The true sociopath. Yeah, and that's the second thing. Another thing with the find, like when I went bankrupt the first time, it was lack of financial education. I really shouldn't have because the biggest bill I owed was access contributions to my RSPs when I was a minor that, that the union. And so I'd already spent those by that point. So I just didn't have the education around me or the right guidance around me to go, hey, you didn't actually owe that. So I actually filed for no reason because I wasn't liable. The second time was a much bigger situation. I definitely didn't, I didn't file for bankruptcy. I refused to every single. The lenders that were out on the properties all got their capital, even the creditors. Like I had a bill on me for Amex that I couldn't pay. Right. Because I had all my funds were tied up and now they were gone. I cleared that as well too. So I had to grind out back from the bottom with like I said, no credit. But you know, that's just what you got to do. And I was even more determined at that time that I was going to make this work. And like you said, the universe, the world will throw you problems and your ability to problem solve them is what determines your success. The larger problems you have, the more success successful you're going to be. And I was on this path anyways, but that certainly expedited some of my beliefs and thought patterns on how to grow a business. And you know, yeah, it expedited, it expedited my motivation.

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, and put them into something for you to watch. Go to whiteellawinning.com webinar now in order to move up as fast as possible. I'm Larry Wydell and I run the Million Dollar Mastermind. Go, go, go.