How To Become A Millionaire In 2023 [MASTERCLASS] EP 1377

Here's the thing. There is one person in charge of how successful, how fulfilled and how happy you'll be in 2023 and beyond. And that person is you. That's right. I've got some good news though. I want to help coach you into living your greatest year yet for free in my upcoming training and I'm going to break down the keys to create long lasting change over the next 12 months and beyond and you can follow through on pursuing your dreams. You can rewrite the story in 2023, stop living out the same fears and self doubt that has held you back for years and you can take a major leap towards multiple areas of your life. But first you just got to make sure you click the link and show up. Join me for this upcoming free training. The four keys to overcome your fears and achieve your biggest goals by going to Lewishouse.com reprogram make sure to click the link to sign up and I can't wait to see you there.

I mean the chances of you being in the exact situation you're in in a few months is almost zero. Your life is not a snapshot. You're not trapped in this moment. It's a film strip. There's very few people who you see a meteoric rise in their wealth or their success.

Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur and each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Welcome to this special masterclass. We've brought some of the top experts in the world to help you unlock the power of your life through this specific theme today. It's going to be powerful, so let's go ahead and dive in. The Kia Sportage Turbo Hybrid has a bold design, a spacious interior with 232 horsepower and a 12.3-inch panoramic display to keep the adventure going and fit with the way you live. And with SiriusXM, every drive comes alive, bringing you closer to the music, the sports talk and podcasts that you love right in your vehicle or on the SiriusXM app. Every SiriusXM equipped Kia Sportage Turbo Hybrid includes a three month trial so the experience begins the moment you drive the learn more@kia.com Sportage Hybrid Kia Movement that inspires this message is brought to you.

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Well, I certainly don't say I told you so. That's not, that's not the message because I've been there. I've done stupid stuff too. And that's not helpful and it doesn't bring any healing. The thing is this, we all get wake up calls. We get wake up calls in our relationships, our spiritual walk, our leadership styles. We get wake up calls in our finances. And some people, the phone's ringing off the hook right now. They're getting wake up calls on a bunch of things. They're at home with their family and it's, and they're starting to realize I was disconnected from my family. I haven't been plugged in my. They got a wake up call on their relationships at home. They've gotten a wake up call on, you know, I don't have any savings and I've got, I'm deeply in debt. This isn't working. And so the, you know, the cool thing is when you get the call, then you have to make the choice, are you going to answer the phone? If you pick the phone up, that means maybe it's time to change and you can look back and you might be 27 years old right now watching this, and you're screwed. You lost your job, you got no money, you got no savings and you feel like it's all over. And I remember in 1970, I was 10 years old and I was in my grandpa's backyard. We were tearing down an old deck and I pulled some nails out of those old boards as we were taking the boards off, and he taught me to put them down and straighten them with a hammer and save those used nails in a coffee can. Now, my grandpa Ramsay was one of my favorite people on the planet. This is 1970. And he was still answering the phone that rang in the Great Depression. It changed his life. He was frugal and careful and wise with money the rest of his life. And so someday 27 year old and you're gonna get that opportunity. I was 28 years old when I lost everything. It was my fault. It was the SNL crisis, the banking, climate change. I built a house of cards. I was stupid. And the phone rang. It was my wake up call. Are you going to answer the phone? Are you going to change your life to where you say, never again. I'm going to control the controllables to where I'm the little pig in the brick house. Never again.

Preach to me, Dave. Come on now. I love this. What's, what's the biggest wake up call for you this has had? Maybe it's not the financial side of things or business because you guys are thriving. Is there something, you know, relationship, family, friendships, health. Is there anything that's woken you up now or in the near future recently?

Well, I've spent the last 15 years pouring into our leadership team and the Ramsey personalities, creating this succession plan of. And so it's not a wake up call is more of a source of pride as to how our leadership team and our Ramsey personalities are reacting in the moment here without me coaching them. They already knew what to do. They're leading. They're out there doing it. They're doing it.

They're out there not waiting for Grandpa Dave to say, what do I do? Tell me the steps.

They're, they already did it. They already did it. And then I found out about it, you know, and that's, that's awesome. And so it's just a sense of, ah, this is starting to work, you know, I mean, when Rachel Cruz and Ken Hogan and, and these guys are doing, Ken Coleman are doing all these hits and Chris Hogan, all these guys are doing all these hits, these radio And TV and appearances and all this stuff everywhere. And the networks are calling and asking for them, which is awesome. And so, you know, that kind of thing is. I don't know if it's a wake up call as much as it is. It's very satisfying to say, you know, all that work of the last decade and a half of getting everybody ready to win because we were winning in a winning environment. But then when you get the pressures on and you get squeezed, you see what comes out and it's good stuff coming out.

Hmm. What was the last. I mean, what year would you say was the last big wake up call for you around, you know, one of the main areas of your life. Do you remember when that was? Where you're like, oh, you know, I'm eating a little too many candy bars, or, you know, my relationship, or, you know what? It sounds like you've had the finances down for many years, but is there another where you're like, oh, you know what? I really didn't do as good as I should have done here.

I guess it's probably leadership. And I probably get one of those calls every day. There's some days I'm a world class leader and some days I'm just a.

But in what way? Like, how are you?

I mean, sometimes I do a better job than other times as a leader and I own it. I get it. But you'd think as old as I am, I'd be doing better, so. But I know what I'm supposed to do, but sometimes I just don't have the energy to do it. I don't care.

Yeah.

And I should just care more. I really should. I shouldn't be such a grouch.

Oh, no, you're. You care a lot about a lot of people. I'm curious, what's the best. What's the best dad joke you share?

Oh, Lord, I can't. I don't have no idea. You got me. I'm not a dad joke guy. Really? Other than just stupid stuff off the cuff that doesn't even make sense generationally.

So, yeah, no good dad jokes. What. What is the most common thing that you're hearing with your people that are calling in for you right now? What's the thing that you hear over and over again that they need the most support with?

I think there's a sense, I think when hope gets gut punched the way it has for folks right now, the answers fall. A lot of them fall in the category of this is not going to last forever because there's this Sense that, you know, stock markets down, Do I take my investments out? Well, only if you think it's going to stay down forever. Right. Because, you know, you're, you're 35. You're going to be investing for 30 more years. You don't think it's going to come up in 30 more years? I mean, really, you're predicting the end of America. I mean, that's, that's silly. But your emotions tell you lies when, when they're based in fear and when they're based in anger, they tell you lies and, and they tell me lies. We believe those lies in situations like this. So, you know, I lost my job. I know, but that's happened before and probably happened again. Just get you another one. Well, yeah, there's a lot of people hiring right now. There are a lot of people hiring Amazon. Amazon's hiring a hundred thousand people right now.

Yeah.

So, I mean, there's jobs. It may not be the one you want, but you can get some food. Yeah. I mean, get you a leaf blower. And rich people are afraid of leaves. You know, I mean, you can make some money. So there's some stuff to do out there. I mean, the chances of you being in the exact situation you're in in a few months is almost zero. Your life is not a snapshot. You're not trapped in this moment. It's a film strip. The story's going to continue to unfold. And so that when hope takes a gut punch, though, and we get down in that fear or we're mad or however it is, we manifest that stuff, that those negative things, the emotions that we all have in these situations, that's where a lot of my questions are coming. They're all built in that. And I'm spending all my time going, yeah, but it's not gonna last forever. Yeah, but it's not gonna last forever. Yeah, but let's visit this in May. I think you're gonna be okay. You know, some people are gonna have devastating, horrible things that are gonna be life changing, but that, that's a very small percentage compared to the number of that are worried about it.

Yeah.

And so, you know, and you're gonna.

Get out of it. You're gonna get out of okay.

Most, I mean, you're, you're gonna be okay.

I like, I like Preacher Dave, man. This is a, this is just a preacher show, you know, I like this. What is the worst investment people should be making during this time? And what's the best investment they can make.

In my life when I have become desperate right after. That's when I become stupid.

Yeah.

And explain the other one. The other one is when I get. Well, when, you know, when you get scared and you go rushing towards something out of fear, that sense of desperation, this thing when you do that, you're getting ready to screw up. I mean, just count on it. And the other time you do that is if you're greedy. If you think you. Okay, I got this one can take advantage of this. And I mean greedy as a lack of virtue greedy. I don't mean greedy in a positive way where I'm being ambitious. Okay. I mean the negative sides of greed. And so if you're functioning in desperation or in this no holds barred, I'm gonna just clean up on other people's pain thing, that's when you're getting ready to screw up and you're getting ready to make a major mistake. And so you're set up also for con artists when you do that. And so if you're. If you're functioning in high emotion, your brain just doesn't work good. My friend Art Laffer says people, when you're panicked and when you're drunk, you don't make good decisions. And so, you know, when you're on high emotion, your brain is. It's your critical thinking skills shut down. And so that's when I've made the biggest mistakes in my life, is when I was desperate. The few times that I was greedy where I thought, oh, I'm gonna slip in there and that's gonna be easy money.

What was that?

Easy money.

Can you share a story of one of those greedy times where you tried to jump in and get a buddy of mine?

A buddy of mine? I was in my 20s, and a buddy of mine was buying gold. And now this is in the 80s, okay? It's a million years ago. And he's buying gold. And he had this friend that was a gold. He was a gold bug. He was picking gold. And this guy had picked the gold prices where they were going within a dollar like 14 times in a row. And so we both dropped five grand into this thing. And if we had hit, it was a. It was a margin deal. And so I would have made 50 grand. And I thought, I'm putting money. Thousand bucks in here. I'm gonna make 50 grand. But it's a margin play, which means you're either gonna make 50 grand or you're gonna make zero. And so he picked it, right? 14 times the time I got in, the 15th time, missed it. I got zero. Turned 5,000 bucks into zero instantly. Last time I bought gold, last time I played stuff on margin. Last time I got greedy.

Was there, is there ever a time where. So what's the difference between greed and a great opportunity of being ambitious? Can you make money? Can you make money fast in certain things or is typically most things take a certain amount of time and energy and effort.

The vast majority of people who are successful financially and successful have done it incrementally. There's very few people who you see a meteoric rise in their wealth or their success that keep it. And I think because you build your character along the way to be able to hold on and be able to do it. I think that's my theory on it. I mean, I got rich quick. I started with nothing. And by the time I was 26, I had $4 million worth of real estate. I built a house of cards, you know, and I had a million dollar net worth. I made $250,000 in 1984. I was making 20,000 bucks a month and in my 20s. So I mean, but you thought I had it all figured out. Meteoric rise to the top. But the very thing that caused me to be, the incredible overdrive of ambition caused me to go so fast that, that I missed the blind spots. I missed the detour signs, I missed the bridge out signs. And so I built this house of cards I thought was a st, but I was naive and didn't know. And along comes some regulations changes, a few shifts in the economy, a little SNL crisis and kaboom down. You know, all of a sudden Dave looks like an idiot instead of a genius. And so it turns out I was a little of both because you don't build something like that at 25 if you're not somewhat of a genius. But I was obviously an idiot in the way I built it. And so I get to do it again. Get the opportunity, the wonderful opportunity to start over and built the right way.

Yeah, yeah.

But I mean, in the midst of that, as I was falling, it took two and a half years to lose everything we own. I had stuff presented to me. I almost got conned. Serious conned, like people. Just a real con artist type guy. There's not many of them out there. Most of the time you get screwed by well meaning ignoramuses. But these were real con artists coming into my path and I was about to give them money because I so desperately needed to turn quick money into. Into big money to save myself. I was desperate and right about the Time you get desperate is when you get stupid.

So don't, don't make those decisions. So there's not really. So what I'm hearing you say is the wealthy, wealthy people, it takes time and it's incremental. It's not an overnight thing. It's not a quick rise. There might be some spikes here and there, but it's typically over time, it's.

Okay to take a spike, but anytime I get a spike, I'm always a little suspicious of it. Really, it makes me even more careful. I draw back and I go, well, that's really cool. Is it okay?

A bad investment is still better than a smart spend. So wealthy people don't spend money, they invest money. Number two, they also know that money, money is not required. I think a lot of us, if we grew up poor, we believe it takes money to make money. Our parents told us that maybe a grandparent or the neighbor or somebody said that to us because that was their. How they justified not having their breakthrough and getting trapped. They're like, oh, the reason I didn't get out. And we know everybody's got an excuse in their lifetime, everybody uses them at some point in their lifetime to trap themselves. This idea that it takes money to make money is not true. It's a myth. It's. It's the number one reason why I did the show, the Discovery show, to debunk that on tv, that I didn't need any money at all. They offered me 100 bucks. I'm like, just keep it, dude. No, we got to give it to you. It's part of the show. And I'm like, I don't need the 100. They're like, no, but you got to take the hundred. It's part of the show. So the third thing I would say about wealthy people is there, I mean, different people have different ways they invest, but they tend to be more focused on the long term appreciation of an asset rather than give me money this second. And I think they're not stuck in this get rich quick thing.

It's a delayed gratification.

Yeah, they're more like, yeah, I'd rather have wealth tomorrow than rich today. And they do have a distinction between the rich and the wealthy. You know, the super wealthy are looking to create wealth beyond their own means and needs. Like, they're not thinking about their kids, their boat, their plane. I know people think that, but that's not actually true. They're actually thinking about, how do I create wealth for a lot of people. Amazon's got A million employees. Now, most of them only earn minimum wage, but there's some people at the upper level of Amazon that are making fortunes.

Yeah. And I'm curious. You wanted to debunk this myth of that it takes money to make money, which is something I heard a lot growing up. And a lot of people think, well, unless I. I can't make it because I can't invest it until I have it. So what were the lessons you learned, you know, starting from essentially zero, having no money, no context, no relationships, no opportunities. In a town that you went to for this show, what did you realize were the keys to actually making money, even if you didn't have any?

Well, as you see the show, you see that I actually never make any money, right? So the two girls, they actually follow three of us. And the two girls went out and got a job in the first week. And I'm not saying that's right or wrong or my way is better or worse, but they are strategies, okay? They're different strategies. I was not there to get a job or to earn money. I was there looking for one thing. Opportunity. I never spent time looking for money, ever. The entire 90 days. Okay? I'm not looking for money. I was actually looking for contracts through the contacts. I wasn't looking for money because I knew the evaluation of the company. In the last segment, an evaluator will come in and determine what my company's worth. My new company, right, that I created. And at that point, I just need to validate to him, dude, my company's worth this. Based on that, the entire 90 days, I never touched the first hundred they gave me. And this was to prove to people, dude, you do not need money. Like, it's just. It's not true. You need money. You do need contacts.

You need people. You need relationships.

You need people. You need people. You need the right people, though. The right people that are already in play, okay? Just because the guy's got money. I remember a billionaire friend of mine, you know, he could buy a jet. And I said, hey, Bob, should I buy a jet? He said, you should. I shouldn't, meaning Grant should, because. And he's way wealthier than I am. He could have bought 40 of them. He's like, I don't have a place to go. In mine, you have a. You could use yours every day. So you gotta find somebody that's in place. Somebody that not just has money, but somebody that wants to do more with their money.

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First 10 days I don't spend any money. I don't spend money on shelter, not on food and not on water. Nothing. Then what I do is I end up accumulating assets and it's unfortunate that the viewer doesn't see this within five days. I have two vehicles. One was given to me by Discovery and the other one was a $40,000 Jeep that I basically used from Ryan, this guy I met and told him, I'm going to sell your Jeep. I'm going to drive it around town and put 10 miles a day on it and I'm going to sell it. Well, that's a $43,000 asset. My truck was worth four grand. I still had my hundred dollars. I lived in a $46,000 RV that I was trying to sell. So yeah, and what's the other thing I did and I picked up $10,000 to do in a 15% partnership in the equity of the upside of this guy's company. So literally in 10 days I was accumulating contacts that could get me equity. And the important part of that story is, man, go get you some equity. You know, Jay Z talks about this. You're getting, you know, so many of you young brothers are getting an advance while I'm picking up the equity. Equity.

Oh yeah, they're trying to get the get rich quick. Let me give you the money now where the publisher is getting the long term residual income for decades off of your Kevin Hart.

Look at what Kevin Hart did with this with his show, right? He owns that show. He owns the ticket sales. He was willing to promote it, not just be a comedian. Where Richard Pryor showed up and got his check, told his jokes. Kevin Hart says, yeah, I'm going to show up, I'm going to tell my jokes, but I'm going to own, I'm going to own the entire platform, the equity.

So how do you get someone to give you $10,000 when you have nothing to give them a return? Or what is it that you're selling them a greater promise in return?

So what I did was I pitched this guy. I said, look, he's a business owner. He wants traffic in his company. Every. Every business owner wants traffic. Every entrepreneur wants traffic to their website. And I said, look, I'm going to drive traffic to your store. He owned a mattress store. Big margins. And I said, I'm going to make sure you have the biggest weekend that you've ever been here. And I said, if you give me $6,000, I'll take the six grand to the store. In fact, you don't give me the money. Just call it in and approve it. I didn't want to touch his money. I never asked anybody for any money. And I said, I'm going to go run a promotion for you. I'm going to put together the banners, the logos. I'm going to stand out in the street. I'm going to drive the traffic to your place. What do you want, Grant Lewis? What do you want, Louis? I did that more than once, by the way. What do you want, Louis?

You did.

Because my name was Louis, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I said, dude, I don't want anything. He tried to give me money to do this. I don't want your money. I just want the opportunity. I want to prove myself. Because what I really wanted from him was I wanted him to front the bill at the print shop so that he could put me in play. Well, I went and ran the whole promotion that weekend. I said, if you. If you send them, if you just authorize the spend, I'll conduct the promo, I'll run it and do it. We did $91,000 worth of mattress sales. We did 15,000 that weekend, and then another 65,000 over the. The next three weeks. And he's like, dude, you're a star now. He's like, hey, what do you want for what you did for me this weekend? That was the best weekend we've ever had. And I'm like, I don't want anything except to be your partner.

So you wanted equity.

I want to be your partner, dude. And I said, I want 15% of the upside of your company. I said, what's fair? He's like, 15%? Everything above what I'm doing now. I'll give you 15%. He's the one that made the offer. I said, that's awesome. And then that's when I said, hey, can you give me an advance of 10,000 on the 15%? People think that I asked for 10 grand. I actually didn't get 10,000. I got an advance on a partnership, which is even better.

That's fascinating. So you never really. You never asked for money. You said, give me equity with everything.

Give me equity. And then once I got the equity agreement on the upside, Most people are willing to give you this because it's.

More than they've already made. They're already making a certain amount. They never crossed past that probably in years. So they're like, okay, if you can help me 10 exit, I'll give you a 15%.

I don't want a piece of what you're already doing. That's not fair. That's an unfair deal. I mean, you know, people are like, I need to ask for more. Yeah, but you don't want to ask and be look stupid. Like, you can't ask somebody to give you something of a company they already have. Also, it's interesting because they did again, they didn't show this. And I look forward to kind of breaking this thing down. We're going to actually, I'm going to create a whole platform where I go in and break the show up and show people what they didn't see. When I left Vegas to fly to Pueblo, the production company said, hey, what's your first move? First move, I'm going to the bank to drop off the hundred. Second thing, I'm going to the gym to meet people. Third thing is, I'm going to find a business for sale, and I'm going to see if the guy that owns the company can give me a place to sleep. Those three things happened exactly the way I predicted before I got to Pueblo, before I even knew I was going to Pueblo. I mean, it happened just every one of them. And then discovery came to me at four days and said, bro, you got to slow down. I said, what do you mean? We don't have a TV show if you keep winning, right?

If you. If you make it happen in two weeks, what are we going to do?

I'm like, okay, come out here and watch me throw up. Okay, come on, come out here and watch. I'm sick. I was sick from altitude sickness. I'm like, what? You guys got to cover how hard this is for me? I'm terrified. I'm cold. My back hurts. I don't have a good place to sleep. I'm pissing in a bottle. And then they cut all that out of the show. So, so the point of that story is quit going for some dead Benjamin's and start getting you some equity. Okay, $100 bills are dead. They're from the past. Equity is the future. You're better off with the future if you believe in yourself than you are with the dead Benjamin.

What are some, some things people should be looking for in terms of the right people or the right products or companies to say, okay, and how to position and package themselves to make a partnership equity deal? What should they be looking for and how can they position and package the way you did?

Yeah. So like In Pueblo, there's 112,000 people that live there. The average household income there is $24,000 a year. Household income, like it's one of the most beat up, economically beat up cities in America. They were at 8% unemployment when the country was at 3. When Covid hit, it went to 22.

Wow.

Like, just ridiculous, right? So now when I'm in a problem environment like that, you have to do the math. So I'm like, okay, there's 100, 112,000 people there. I can't meet them all, and I don't want to meet them all. I only have 90 days. So then I said, okay, who's got the money in this town? The businesses have the money in the town. This is the unfair advantage I have in this show is that I did not go there to start a new business. I went there to find a business that was already banking. A lot of people think, did you.

Have that intention before 100?

I said, I, there's no way I'm going to start a new business. There's 34 million businesses in America. America does not need a new business.

And it's so hard to launch and create momentum, especially if you don't even with your audience, it's hard to launch.

It is so ridiculous. It is so stupid what people are doing today. I'm going to start. Start a new beauty salon. I'm going to start a new masseuse place. I'm going to start a new cosmetologist house. I'm going to start a new. You got a new idea, nobody needs it. Like if you were an alien looking down at the United States of America and saying, okay, what is there too much of restaurants, bars and businesses? There's too many of them. And then, and then somebody, some kid pops up, Paul pops up and says, I'm going to start a new business. And the guy from outside the planet's looking down there saying, well, that's stupid. Why don't you just go? Two thirds of all the businesses in America break even or lose money.

So what I'm hearing you say, Grant, is a lot of people have the dream of wanting to start and launch a business. But what I'm hearing you say is it's probably a lot smarter to go find a failing business or a business that's breaking even, jump in, add value, and see if you can 10x that, dude.

That's. That's how you get on planes. That's how you, you know, you go to the hospital, you need emergency care. You don't build a hospital, you just go to the hospital. You want food, you go to whole foods. You want gas, you go to the gas station. It's no different in business. It's called a going concern for a reason. Find a going concern that's got a brand go in. That's what I did. I just went in and added value. Once I added value, actually, we end up splitting off another business out of that. So out of that relationship, your first question was, hey, who are you looking for? I'm looking for contacts that can actually become contracts. I'm looking for specific relationships. They have to have money, they have to have credibility, they have to have credit lines. That's the only people I was looking for. In Pueblo, out of 112,000 people, are there 50 of them? I need to meet 50 people that have money, credit, and credibility.

How did you feel because I saw in the first episode that you got rejected a few times. How did you feel from someone who has getting yeses a lot and building their business so fast to go into a place where people just say, nah, I don't believe in you, or you don't seem credible or how did you take it security wise, internally?

Well, what, what again, pieces you don't hear is, I was in this meeting and this guy starts flexing on me and he literally like, I had to sit there and listen to his. Well, I did 30. I raised $30 million and I bought all this and I put this together and I'm the king and la la la. And I'm sitting there thinking to myself, dude, I'd like to just drop. I'd like. You want to see a flex right now? You know, the same day I had written a check for like $45 million and I'm having to bite my tongue like, he doesn't know I could be his investor. By the way, there was a great lesson in that. Like, I was nobody, shaved head, old truck, no Name, no social media following. And this guy treated me just like that, like I'm a nobody.

And you never know who you're talking to or who they're friends with or who their family is that could support you potentially totally.

Like the same day this guy's flexing on me about how he raised 30 million and he's the king of Pueblo and blah blah, blah. I mean, like what I had in my checking account that day is Grant Cardone. I just wanted to pop it out on him. Shut up. Dog treat everybody like you. You never know who you're dealing with, you know, and just because they're, they're having a bad day, you, one, you don't know who you're dealing with. And you. And number two, more importantly, you don't know who they're going to become.

Yeah, they may not have money yet, but in 10 years they might have a brand or audience or something that could support you.

Every accredited investor was a non accredited investor at one time. Every whale was a minnow.

I mean, you've been doing sales for what, four decades now? Yeah. You've been selling from cars to real estate to everything in between. You know, 11 bestselling books. You've been, you've been a selling machine. How did it feel to go in without being able to use any of that and go back to kind of the basics of like, okay, I'm a brand new car salesman just trying to figure out how to do this thing. How did you have the confidence or the courage to go in blind and try to build these relationships?

Because I had the commitment, you know, I was committed to the, I was committed to the, the outcome. I always say, man, commitment comes with, with time and money.

The thing that you do extremely well is you're a master enroller, Grant. And I believe that we're either enrolling people in our vision or we're unenrolling them in our vision every moment, every day with our content, our posts, our interactions. And we could be unenrolling people in our brand from one conversation or one thing that we, we do to piss someone off. Where did you learn the skill of enrollment, of getting people to buy into you and your vision?

I think what I do is, and I talk about this in seller be sold. I've been a sales guy for a long time and I, I just learned early on and I was terrible at sales. 17 years old. 18, 19. Part time, part time sales guy. I was, I was awful when I finally realized that sales was the only job I could get. At 25 years old, I'm just like, dude, I just got to tell people the truth because I can't do all these tricks, the nlp. And look, if it works for you, good, whatever. But the mirroring, the matching, they ask a question, you ask a question. The hot potato. I've heard all these strategies and I'm like, dude, I just can't do it. I'm just going to be me. Hey, guys, I'm moving from la. I'm out of work. I'm looking for opportunity. I'm trying to move my family here. My name's Louis Curtis. 2008 beat me up. I got to get my family out of la. Real estate's impossible. I can't buy it there. It's priced out of the market. And I'm here in Pueblo because I think there's opportunity here. And that's all I'm looking for. No handouts, no help. I don't. I got an old truck with me. I got no money. I left my kids with. You got to have your story. So people enroll, but you also have to be talking to the right audience. I only spent time with people that were able, capable, qualified. I spent no time. I was in a meeting once in Pueblo. I walked into the meeting, assessed the situation, and bounced. I said, guys, I'm done. I'm out of here. Boom. And I walked out. And my partner at that time, you'll see it later in later shows, he's like, what just happened? I'm like, there's nothing here, bro.

There's no money here.

There's no. There's no opportunity here. And I'm on a clock. I couldn't tell him. I'm on the clock. I couldn't tell. I couldn't tell anybody. So I had these little secrets going on. So, you know, how do you enroll people? It's like, you got to get enrolled. You know, my, my, my personal integrity and ethics is why I can sell so hard. And because I believe in my product, I believe in my investment vehicle. I believe in my company. I don't trick people, screw people. Like, 35 years I've been in business. There's not one person in 35 years that says I owe them money.

It's so funny because. And I wrote about this in my book, like, for women, we have shame if we don't have enough money, but we also have shame if we have, quote, unquote, too much.

Really?

Yes.

Why?

Because it's like, you know, oh, I have more than them, and let me hide it. Because people are going to think I'm showing off or they have imposter syndrome. Right. Am I worthy of having this much money? I've experienced that myself at different times. Right. Like you've worked hard for it, but you think that you don't deserve it for some reason. And I think that we just have. I think society was sort of designed so that we wouldn't talk about money.

Why?

Because I think it's designed so that we have a few people at the top and a lot of people at the bottom. And so now, you know, then of course, the middle class emerged, and we've gone through different things as a middle class, as a collective. Right. But I think it's. I think that's part of the reason why it's like, don't tell, you know, employers saying, don't tell your co workers how much you're making because I'm paying you more than I'm paying this one. And I don't want y' all to know. Right. So it's like, it comes from those places, but it's reinforced everywhere, you know?

Right. Everyone's reinforcing it.

Exactly.

And I think not just corporations or.

Yes. And because there's so much mystery, it's like, I don't. I don't know how much you make. Right. You. You don't know. Maybe, you know, how much I make, because I talk about all the time, but. But I don't. You know what I mean? So, like, we. We don't know, and we're scared to make assumptions, and we're sort of guessing, and we're like, well, if I put mine out there, I might be embarrassed because I discovered that, like, I'm actually either making too much related to my peers or too little. And I think it goes back to belonging. We just want to belong to a community, to a group. You know what I mean? And so because of that, it's like, we don't want to do anything that's going to make us not belong. It's such an inherent human need to belong. And so I think that we don't talk about money because we think it's going to affect our ability to belong, whether it means we're too broke or we have too much, you know, or somewhere in the middle.

So what conversations should we be having around money? How consistently should we be having them and with whom?

Yes. Okay. So in terms of the conversations I'm having, I'm telling people, like, if I get a speaking gig, here's how much they paid me, right? And I asked some more and they gave it to me. So make sure you do that too, right? Like, or I negotiated for higher pay or I negotiated for profit sharing or I asked for more vacation days, right? Like, we need to share our money earning strategies with each other, especially with, you know, women and people of color. Right? Like putting more money, like, that's what allyship is, in my opinion, is putting money in the, in the pockets of the groups who need them. Right. And who, you know, we have this huge wealth chasm in this country. So, like, how can we start to change that? And so that's why I share how much I got paid for a book deal. Like, all these things you're not supposed to share. I'm like, I'm gonna tell y', all, this is how much I got. This is how I got it, you know, And I think it's important. So I think sharing money making strategies is very important. I also think one of the things that has been so valuable to me with some of my, my peers especially, I will say my white guy peers in particular have showed me, like, they have taught me things about like, you know, investing strategies or, you know, like, oh, here's a strategy that I'm doing with my money, or I'm investing in real estate, or I'm doing these different things. Like, what are people doing with money? Once you have some. Right. Like once you have a little bit more than you need to live off of, what do you do with the excess and sharing those things. Right. Sharing that information because it's usually hidden. And it's like there's a small group of people that know and you don't know until you have peers who have done it. And then you find out. Right. In those quiet conversations that aren't on, you know, on Facebook. Right.

Should people be talking with their friends, their family members, their spouses about money?

Yes.

What if someone's really uncomfortable, says, you know what, I don't want to talk about the money I make and what we should be doing. What conversation can you have to try to break the wall down?

Well, I think you could say, here's why I want to talk about money, and here's why, like, we have to be. I think if we're willing to be transparent, people will be transparent with us. That's what I found in the conversations that I've had, and that's how I've learned a lot about money, is by having conversations. You know, like the friend that I was spending time with last night, she's an investor And a financial advisor. And so I was asking her, like, okay, well, what are you investing in and how are you thinking about it? And what is an investment thesis? Like, I don't even know what that means. Right. Like, you know, we were having conversations and she was teaching me all of this stuff because I was willing to tell her, like, okay, here's how much money I want to invest, but I don't know where to. Where best to put it, you know, that kind of thing. So I think you just got to be willing to put yourself out there first. And I find that people want to talk about it. So when I bring it up and I start sharing, they immediately start sharing because it's like they were like, waiting for an opportunity to talk about this.

Yes.

Is what I find. So I think we just got to start doing it and create more transparency around it. And then, yeah, that creates. It creates opportunity for all. And that's the other piece of it is like, I recognize that, you know, even someone who would be considered a direct competitor, maybe they sell the same thing I sell. I don't, I don't believe in competition in that way. I think there's more than enough money to go around. I think there's more than enough opportunity to go around. And I choose to, like, be friendly with and, and support my, my competitors, quote, unquote, and vice versa. And that just means that we all get better at what we're doing. We all can serve our clients better. Right. We all can make more money. But I don't want to be a person who's closed. So I'm just going to. I just got to be me. And it is what it is. Right. Like, there's going to be some occupational hazards when you're being transparent.

Absolutely.

And you just got to navigate that as best you can. But I just choose to be who I want to be in the world instead of who I feel like I need to protect myself, you know?

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$100,000 for sure.

Why is making 100,000 harder than making a million in a year?

Because it's like I think we're just figuring it out. I also think we're charging too little for our work at that point.

Is this when you're working as a career or when you had your own business or freelancing?

I never made a hundred grand prior to starting my business. You know, I went from college to like, I had a job in between college and law school, and then I went to law school and then I started my own practice.

So you didn't work at a law firm after law school, so you started pretty much right away being an entrepreneur right which is really hard to do.

Yes. My last salary before I became an entrepreneur was $41,000 a year and, like, really good health insurance.

Yeah.

And I was thrilled.

That was in between law school or in between school and law school?

Yes. No, in between. This was after law school because this was my clerkship.

Okay, Gotcha.

Yeah. So, you know, you kind of sign on for a year. You. Your paycheck is not that big, but, like. And you're a lawyer, right?

You're running the ropes, you're getting reps, you're.

Exactly. And then. And that's kind of why I decided to start my business at that time, because I'm like, I already don't have a lot. Right. Like, I already know how to live off of this money.

Yeah.

Yeah. So I'm like, if I can live off of this now, let me keep my expenses this way or lower them even more. Like, I sold my car, and we owned a house, and we rented it out, moved into a smaller place.

How many kids you have at this time?

I had none. Yeah.

Okay.

Oh, well, actually, that's not true. I had my. My stepdaughter, but she didn't live with us full time.

Okay.

And so that's what I did at that stage is, like, I cut down my expenses as much as I could so that I could build this business.

How old were you then?

I was 27. Say, 2009 or. Yeah, 2009 to 2010.

Okay, cool.

This was that year. And then I clerked for the judge, and I started my. My practice, and I was like, you know, I made, like, there were months where I made 500 bucks and months that I made $2,000. And that's why, like, linking together, you know, I was doing. My friend bought a salon. She was a style. A hairstylist. She wanted to buy her first salon. I did the transaction. She was purchasing an existing business, and I charged her 500 bucks for that. I don't think I've actually ever told anybody because I. Because I was ashamed. I was ashamed that I didn't know what to charge for that and that I undervalued my services so much that I, like, literally have never told anybody charge 500 bucks for that. And she's still a good friend of mine, and she.

That's not her fault.

No, it's not her fault. She made bank with that salon, and she's since now sold it.

But you also got experience doing that, you know, doing that transaction, that deal, which you'd probably never done at that level. Yes, Seems like. So you gained confidence from that.

Yeah.

So there was a win there for you as well.

There was a win.

And.

But when I saw how many hours.

Of labor involved, you put, like, weeks probably, right?

Yes. I'm negotiating with the other side. Dealing with, like, a difficult lawyer.

$500 is a steal.

I mean, for the whole thing.

Can I hire you for that?

I should have. I should have charged $5,000 minimum, you know, but it was like. But I learned from that. Oh, I value. I couldn't. I can figure it out. And I have a skill in that I'm trained and knowing how to figure it out.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

That was kind of working on the job experience. Like, you weren't totally probably experienced for that yet, it sounds like. But you learned. Okay, I didn't need to do these 10 hours of calls that I did here. I could have done this in an email or whatever. I don't know how this works, but whatever that was, you. You learned your process to simplify it, to maximize it, so.

Exactly. And back to that hundred grand question. I think that's why it's like we're figuring it out. Usually we don't know exactly what we sell in those early stages of the business. So we're selling everything. Whatever people come to us with, we're like, yeah, we could do that. We just create a custom offer for them.

Whatever money we can bring in, we'll do it.

We will take it. And so you're very busy. I call this stage busy be. Because you're very busy at this stage. But you're. Nothing's refined, nothing's efficient. Everything is just sort of like your massive labor towards whatever you can make happen. And so that first hundred grand, I think you are hustling for that. But in order to get to a million, or at least to do it in a way that feels sustainable, you need systems, you need process, you need team. Right. And so now you're starting to build a sustainable business. You're not just, you know, by brute force making money.

And you need to clarify your offering and your. Your audience and your niche and what your specialty is.

You're not exactly.

I'm not just a lawyer that can do anything you want me to do, but here's what I really specialize in.

Exactly.

Here are my three packages at these different levels. And.

Yes.

And you go all in on marketing that.

Yes. And there's money that you're saying no to.

Absolutely.

You learn that lesson that not all money is good.

Money isn't that crazy.

Yes.

It's. So I say this a lot to people. I go, it's weird that I'll turn down massive checks all the time.

Yeah.

But I'm just like, that's not what.

I want to do.

And it doesn't serve my mission.

Yes.

If it's not serving the mission and I don't need the money, then I shouldn't do something just to bring in more money.

Exactly. For me, for me it's a distraction.

At different stages of my life. A different season now to said yes to everything. You know, when I'm broke. You say yes to all these things.

Yes.

But then when you're like, okay, I'm here for a mission and to serve at the highest level of my skills and abilities that brings me the most joy and brings others the most joy and benefits the most number of people, then you start saying no to money, which is crazy.

Yes.

It sounds crazy, doesn't it?

It's delightful. I love it. I feel like to me, it lets me know that I'm not, it's like I'm not made money my master. Right. Like, it's very important, but it is a tool.

That's.

You know what I mean? And I'm not beholden to it and I won't trade anything for it. There is plenty of things that I will not do and I don't care how much you pay me, you know, So I think that it's good to remember that. And so when you're turning down opportunities, it's, it's just an example of like, okay, I'm, I'm, I'm doing things right.

Well, I think you got to understand that just because you turn down money over here doesn't mean it's not going to keep coming to you. Like, just because you turn down something that's not right for you doesn't mean abundance of something that is right.

Yeah.

Will keep coming to you.

There's so much opportunity. There's always more that came from.

Absolutely, you know, Absolutely.

That's powerful. Okay, so the first hundred thousand, how long did it take you? How many years until you made 100,000 in one year?

So my first year in business and it was like I started September 1, 2010. And so from that year till like September 2011, I made like 60 grand that first year.

Right.

But I think the first full 12 month calendar year was like year two. So it wasn't, it didn't take too long.

And then how long until you made seven figures in one year?

Yeah, that took me Seven years after that.

Yeah.

From starting business from, from, from September 2010, I think it was. Maybe it was six. It was like 2016, 2017.

Yeah.

I think 2017 was my first seven figure year. And I had gotten close, but not, you know, like, almost there, but not quite and twice. And you know what? It was interesting. What happened is, like, I had my business, my revenue was doubling. In the beginning, it was like I made 100 grand, then I made two or 250. And then, you know, then I made 500. Then I was like, I plateaued.

It's like, okay, 560 and 620.

I know. It started making me mad. Like from 500 to 700,000, I think I was there for like three years. And there was all kinds of stuff going on in my life. One, there was a lawsuit that one of my business partners. So, like, this is one of the things where you're too trusting too quickly caused some issues. So that was a huge distraction for me at that time. I had two babies back to back.

Wow.

So, you know, I was busy with them. And then there were just a lot of lessons I needed to learn. Like, I had all these people working for me, but I didn't have good boundaries, and I didn't. I just kind of let them do whatever they wanted and didn't have, you know, like, I was learning how to become a boss. I was learning how to become a leader and a manager.

So much more challenging than just doing your skill. Like, let me just be good at the law thing, which is what people wanted me for.

Yes.

Now they want my business for that and me. But I've got to train the team and to deliver.

Right? Exactly.

It's a different skill.

It's totally different. And it's. It can be challenging. And I think that's why a lot of times we're like, well, I'm just going to go back to doing it myself. And it's like, you can, but it's going to keep you small.

Yeah.

You have to say yes to those challenges and learn that new skill.

Right.

And I think leadership skills are so valuable for everybody. So I had to learn that. And it took me a couple of years to, like, figure out how to have stronger boundaries, figure out how to stop letting people waste my time, figure out how to charge for what. What my services are worth. Right. All of those things, those were lessons that I was learning in that time.

Who was wasting your time? Like clients or everybody?

Employees or clients were wasting my time. Team were wasting my time. Even family members right. Like I my desk was like right in the front door. So like it's like the door is here, my desk is right here. My husband would like be coming in and out. He's a stay at home dad at the time, taking care of the kids and he just ran a tight ship with our household. It was amazing. Like I had so much support in that way. But he would like every time he came through the door wanted to talk to me.

I gotta focus.

Yes, exactly. Was like I didn't know how to create boundaries around my work time and I did eventually learn it. I started getting up at 4am because I was like I'd get up at 6 and these kids would, it's like they could tell like they had a radar the moment I woke up. So then I would get up at 6 like I would be like okay, I'm going to beat them. I'm going to get up at 5:30. Nope, still get up with me. 5? Nope. 4:30? Nope. 4:00am and they stayed in their beds.

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