High Stakes and Comebacks: A Wall Street Saga with Ross Mandell

High Stakes and Comebacks: A Wall Street Saga with Ross Mandell

Released Tuesday, 24th September 2024
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High Stakes and Comebacks: A Wall Street Saga with Ross Mandell

High Stakes and Comebacks: A Wall Street Saga with Ross Mandell

High Stakes and Comebacks: A Wall Street Saga with Ross Mandell

High Stakes and Comebacks: A Wall Street Saga with Ross Mandell

Tuesday, 24th September 2024
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expedia.com/OneKeyCards. And basically, I had a bong

0:31

next to my bed. And I was

0:33

hitting the bong every morning. Wake and bake. That's

0:36

wake and bake. And the rest of the day was just,

0:38

I don't know what happened really. I had

0:40

a lot of girlfriends and a lot

0:42

of sex and I did a lot of drugs and

0:44

it was freezing cold and I said, this is terrible.

0:51

And now, Escaping the Drift, the show designed to get

0:53

you from where you are to where you want to

0:55

be. I'm John Gafford and I

0:57

have a knack for getting extraordinary achievers to drop

0:59

their secrets to help you on a path

1:01

to greatness. So stop drifting along,

1:04

escape the drift, and it's time

1:06

to start right now. Back again, back

1:08

again for another episode of the

1:11

podcast like the opening says, man, get you from where

1:13

you are to where you want to be. And today,

1:17

in the studio, ladies and gentlemen, I

1:19

got somebody that's got a pretty

1:21

wild story, man. This guy dubbed

1:24

the bad boy of Wall Street at one

1:26

point. And no, it's not that wolfy dude.

1:28

It's another guy, a better

1:31

guy that built phenomenal companies,

1:34

took them public on

1:36

the London Stock Exchange, had

1:38

a little bit of a problem with the

1:40

government, but his back bigger than ever, star

1:43

of his own reality show, Facing Life. And

1:47

when you talk about facing life, this is a

1:49

dude that's got some life lessons we're going to

1:51

learn today. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the program.

1:53

This is Ross Mandel. Ross.

1:56

What's shaking, Big John? How are you, buddy? What's

1:58

going on? got to say

2:01

before I came here today, I'm staying

2:04

at the Wynn Hotel in obviously

2:06

Las Vegas. And Donnie,

2:10

who booked me here today, made the

2:12

introduction. He said, why don't you watch

2:14

an episode of

2:17

John's podcast? And

2:19

I was tired, been very busy. I've been filming. I

2:21

did three days filming yesterday and one day. And

2:25

I lay on the bed. I

2:27

put you on and I got jazzed up.

2:30

I got energized. I said, I got energized, bro. I

2:32

said, this guy's got real energy. I loved it. Well,

2:34

thank you so much, man. I appreciate that. And now

2:36

that I'm here, you know, I was listening to you.

2:46

You're interviewing this guy. Just do it.

2:49

I'm six, five, I'm two 80. I played tight

2:51

end for Notre Dame. Oh, John's are. Yeah. John's

2:54

are a son. I mean,

2:56

you know, you must have been there. Now you're just as big. I'm

3:00

not as heavy. I'm as tall. You're much

3:02

leaner. I mean, you probably look like you're in shape.

3:04

Yeah, I try. I do what I get. Like I

3:06

told you when you came in, like I'm not winning

3:08

the battle anymore, but I don't feel like I'm losing

3:11

any ground. I like that. I'd like

3:13

to get all we could do is, you know, hold up position.

3:15

That's it. You just dig in and hold

3:17

the foxhole. That's what we're doing. Father time

3:20

is undefeated still. I'm still going to.

3:22

I mean, I'm still going to make a run out. I

3:24

live my life by the motto of Ricky Bobby from Talladega

3:26

Nights. And he says with the advancements in modern science and

3:28

technology, I don't see any reason I can't live to be

3:30

137, 107 years old. So

3:33

that's what I'm banking on as we go. He

3:35

looks at, ladies and gentlemen, if you haven't seen

3:37

this man in person, you owe it to yourself.

3:39

I'm a ravishing Adonis. That's how it works. It's

3:41

like a Ford supermodel. I'm not. I'm

3:44

not just saying that you speak my mind. See that it's

3:46

getting, we're going to start hugging and then people are

3:49

going to have to watch this sunlight. It's going to

3:51

get weird. It's going to get weird. Yes. We're

3:53

bromancing right now. We're going to be awesome for sure. Let's

3:55

get to you, dude. So obviously, man,

3:57

you don't, you don't just wake up one day and become a

4:00

the bad boy of wall

4:02

streets. But true. So I want to talk

4:04

about this man, because obviously you don't reach

4:07

those heights of early success without

4:10

some sort of catalyst to move you forward. And

4:12

I'm always a real big, I have

4:15

a huge interest in the kind of the

4:17

nature versus nurture idea, right? So do

4:20

you think that the way you were

4:22

raised, your upbringing, your experience as a

4:24

smaller human led to your desire

4:26

to build something great? Or do you think it was

4:28

just a natively born within you? You

4:30

know, it's a good question. I question that myself

4:32

a lot. I will credit my mom

4:35

who just recently passed away. She passed away in

4:37

July. And we had

4:39

a pretty rocky relationship

4:41

over the course of

4:43

our lives. And one

4:45

thing she did, I give her credit. She used

4:47

to say to me, you could be anything. You

4:51

could be anything in this world.

4:54

And you could be the president. Like

4:57

who would want to be the president? Obviously. But

5:00

you know, I had that in my upbringing. I

5:02

never really thought about it until recently. My

5:06

wife, Stephanie, was brought

5:08

up in the Bronx. She was the youngest of four

5:10

kids. She was the

5:12

princess of the family. Stunning,

5:14

gorgeous her whole life. She was born beautiful.

5:16

And she's always been prettiest and nicest or

5:18

whatever. Everywhere she's gone. But

5:21

her father was like, you better get married. You're

5:24

going to work in a deli. Don't

5:26

go to college. Really. He was a real Bronx

5:30

Italian, like off the boat type of guy. Girls

5:32

got married young and they took

5:35

care of the house and they had babies. And

5:37

that was that. Don't waste your time trying

5:39

to be something. And you

5:41

know, she ended up,

5:44

you know, I went to prison for nine

5:46

years and four months. I was in

5:48

federal custody. And the day I left for

5:51

prison, I left her and

5:53

my two daughters, 14 and 11. And

5:57

when I got out, they're both in their 20s. the

6:00

women and my wife

6:02

had to face life. And

6:08

she ended up building a tremendous little

6:10

business. She became

6:12

the Florida sea turtle lady, floristieturtles.com.

6:14

Okay, little plug for the wife. I

6:17

like that. Correct. She's in about 65

6:19

stores. She's got a big online

6:21

shop and she does this

6:23

eco warrior kind of thing where they clean

6:25

the beaches and they make sure the turtles

6:28

are okay. And

6:30

it's really like a marvelous, wonderful

6:32

thing. And they say that necessity

6:34

is the mother of invention.

6:39

That's the truth. You

6:41

know, we're faced with

6:44

sort of life or death, you

6:46

know, eat or go hungry, find

6:48

a way to eat. And

6:51

I was a good kid, very competitive, but

6:54

not super competitive. I was an athlete, but

6:56

I wasn't, you know, a six foot four,

6:59

Don is from North Florida, like my friend

7:01

Johnny over here. And

7:05

my father dropped dead suddenly at six, when I was

7:07

16 years old. Oh man. I

7:09

went from being number six academically,

7:12

my high school class, to

7:14

barely graduating. He only let

7:16

me graduate because they knew my father died. I basically stopped going

7:19

to school, started doing a lot

7:21

of drugs, smoking weed, taking

7:23

a lot of pills. Quaaludays

7:26

is the wolf of Wall Street.

7:29

I'd say glamorized a little bit. It was

7:31

every bit the truth and

7:34

drinking and just drugging and

7:36

using women and abusing

7:39

cars and abusing myself. And

7:43

I just was very angry for some

7:45

reason. Well, your father died. I think

7:47

that's pretty, a 16 year old kid that

7:50

probably idolized his father at that point. My best

7:52

friend, he was a good man to this day.

7:54

He's probably the most honest man that

7:57

I ever knew in my life. Yeah, I think being mad

7:59

at the world probably an appropriate God.

8:02

I like to say my story, I was

8:04

a God-fearing kid. And when my

8:06

father was taken away like that and my family was just

8:08

fucked, I just said, you know what,

8:11

fuck God, there's no God. I get to

8:13

be a God. And that's the

8:15

big argument I get from people that

8:17

I have friends who we get into these discussions and I

8:20

was in prison, well, you know, I was

8:22

framed, I didn't do anything wrong, I'm in jail, how could

8:24

there be a God? I had

8:26

a baby and she's autistic and

8:28

has to live in a home. She never did a

8:30

thing wrong in her life. Why is she, why is

8:32

my wife, why are we punished? So, you know, there's

8:34

all kinds of questions. So God

8:37

died when my father died. And

8:39

17 years later when I got

8:41

sober in rehab, I found

8:43

God again through the program, the 12 step programs.

8:45

Well, let's talk about this. So when

8:49

did you get into the Wall Street game?

8:51

Okay. So I go to college. So

8:53

you were still drinking, drugging, partying like crazy. I don't

8:56

remember college. I don't remember a day. How did you,

8:58

so- To get honest. They let you graduate. You somehow

9:00

got into college. I got into college and just so

9:02

you know, the way I graduated high school, I had

9:04

to take a summer school. I wasn't allowed to graduate

9:06

with my class. So

9:09

I couldn't go to graduation. I

9:11

had to take a course and read a couple of

9:13

books and write a big paper about

9:16

World War II and the use of the atomic bomb

9:18

on Hiroshima and I could suck, like an expert in

9:20

that field. It's something I really remember

9:22

from the last year in high

9:24

school. But I'm drinking. I'm drunk. I

9:27

don't know what's funny about that is

9:29

technically, technically speaking, I've

9:32

never said this on this show, but I'm gonna

9:34

say it now. Technically speaking, I did not have

9:37

enough credits to graduate from high school. I love

9:39

getting honest. Yeah, yeah. No, because my senior year

9:41

of high school, I played on our golf team

9:43

and the coach of our

9:45

golf team was also the guidance counselor. So

9:49

my senior year of high school, my schedule, if you had,

9:51

if you took team sports, if you played a team sport

9:53

with high school, you could go practice. So

9:56

I took my schedule. My senior year

9:58

was teams in which team sports had no. credits,

10:00

right? My senior schedule was

10:02

team sports, team sports, team

10:04

sports, team sports, AP

10:06

English, lunch, AP

10:09

calculus, team sports. That was my

10:12

schedule. Right? So I would just go play golf all

10:14

day and then come take two classes, go to lunch,

10:16

go play golf again, and then practice with a team.

10:18

And I was just doing that constantly. And at the

10:20

end of the year, my counselor

10:22

calls me down and he says, Hey, you don't have enough

10:25

credits to graduate. I was like,

10:27

well, dude, that's your

10:29

fault. You let me, you, you saw me

10:31

do this. You let me do this. You

10:33

helped me do this, whatever. And I don't

10:35

know what he did, but

10:37

I got to graduate with 23 and a half credits

10:41

from my school gaming the system

10:43

all these years later. I'm

10:45

happy to statute of limitations is probably fast, but,

10:47

uh, you're safe. We're getting, we're getting honest to

10:50

you and I love it. Well, I'm keeping it.

10:52

I'd keep it real cause my father also

10:54

did not graduate from high school. Wow. Later

10:56

became a judge. I mean, went

10:59

to law school, did everything else. And well he went,

11:01

yeah. Cause back then you could just, you know, he

11:03

never took the GED, but he just, with the credits,

11:05

he just, he went right into college, right? They didn't

11:07

require him to have a high school degree. And it

11:09

was funny as years later when he was judge, um,

11:14

like his 50th class reunion or some shit,

11:16

our small hometown, he wanted to go. So

11:18

he's like, would you guys give me an

11:21

honorary degree? And they're like, sure. Take the

11:23

G. They said, they said, take

11:25

the GED. Yes.

11:27

They want to take a GED to get high school. You

11:29

didn't do it. It's good to be

11:31

the judge, right? Yeah. It was so fun. I

11:33

was like, I have two college degrees and I'm

11:36

like, what's going on? Anyway, enough

11:38

about that. That's very funny. Yeah, it is

11:40

funny. Sorry. I'm entertaining myself right

11:42

now and I should be being entertained by you Ross.

11:44

I'm sorry. Let's go. No, no, I love it. This

11:46

is fantastic. Get back to you. So, you know, I

11:48

go to, I go to, uh, uh, SUNY at Albany

11:50

because I had a full scholarship because my academics from

11:53

grades nine, 10 and 11 was spectacular. I was

11:55

like number six in the class of the six

11:57

24 and my senior year was just

11:59

based. Basically, I got a pass because

12:02

I wrote that paper. Yeah. So

12:04

my transcripts, I had already applied to like a bunch

12:06

of schools early application and I was

12:08

accepted, went to University of Albany. And basically

12:10

I had a bong next to my bed

12:13

and I was hitting the bong every morning. Wake

12:15

and bake. That's wake and bake. And the rest

12:17

of the day was just, I don't know what

12:19

happened really. I had a lot of girlfriends and

12:22

had a lot of sex and I did a lot

12:24

of drugs and it was freezing cold. And I said,

12:26

this is terrible. What year is this? This is 1975.

12:30

September 75, that semester. All

12:32

right. And myself and

12:34

a bunch of kids, like sort of a

12:37

Long Island high school kids that wish to hang out

12:39

on Long Island, go to the city and all that.

12:42

We all decided to transfer to University

12:44

of Maryland, College Park. Okay. Which

12:46

I later believe I'm not an endowed, gave them half a

12:49

million dollars. And that's a

12:51

legacy I left there before

12:53

I went to prison, 2004. Okay.

12:56

You know. So it became a tarpon. So

12:58

I become a tarp, lefty dries out was

13:00

the coach. And you know,

13:03

we had some really famous athletes there

13:05

and Randy White, the big tip from

13:07

the Texas. Big 10, those Cowboys. Big

13:09

10 now. Yeah. Yeah. But

13:11

that was, it was, it was pretty cool. And the

13:14

drugging and drinking continued. And

13:16

I was like a cool kid. I like

13:18

a Camaro. I had

13:20

a wrestler's body. I used to wrestle in a

13:22

high school and I played football and all that.

13:25

And I was lean. And

13:28

I just didn't, I had this like, I

13:30

didn't give a fuck attitude. And something about

13:32

that makes you attractive to young people. When

13:35

you're older, you're a bum. You

13:37

know, but when you're a kid and you're not

13:39

bad looking and you have this attitude, you're

13:42

doing drugs, you're drinking, you become popular somehow.

13:45

I don't know. And I ran

13:47

with like a group of guys that

13:50

were basically not really interested in

13:52

school, who were interested in

13:54

throwing parties in the college. And I, and I heard

13:56

you share about that with the kid

13:58

from Notre Dame. Oh yeah. And I was also one

14:00

of those kids that, you know, we used to throw parties at

14:03

the hot clubs. That's the way to do it. It's freaking $20

14:05

to get in. Then we would sell them

14:07

quaaludes when not the way to, not the way to do it.

14:09

That part's not the way to do it. The very enterprise. But,

14:12

you know, don't do that, kids. People say to me,

14:14

so, you know, I

14:18

was basically drinking and drugging all the

14:20

time and it's expensive. It's

14:23

really an expensive hobby. And

14:25

the old you get in the fancy, you know, you talk about

14:27

bottle surfs and clubs, and I was one of those guys sitting

14:29

with him, $10,000 on the

14:31

floor at Marrakesh in the Hamptons. You know, this is

14:33

what we're talking to in 1980. And

14:37

one of those guys, best table VIP.

14:39

So I'm I'm using and

14:42

every dime I'm earning hustling, I'm

14:44

spending. And I hooked up

14:46

with a group of men, went to

14:48

graduate college. We all just went to sell something. That's

14:50

what guys like us do. It

14:54

doesn't. Didn't pass me

14:56

that you're selling real estate. Because guys like us sell

14:58

stuff. You sell. That's what we do. And

15:01

I was pretty good at selling because I love people. I

15:03

get it. You know, I can

15:06

hang pretty much with any crowd. And

15:10

but I need money. And so one day one of

15:12

my friends calls and says, listen, I want you to buy this stock.

15:15

I get a tip from my broker. Even

15:18

though we was talking about what some stock

15:20

for three and it went to eight. He

15:22

sold it and made money. We said, fuck

15:24

this. I'm going to Wall Street. Yeah. That's the best

15:27

job in the world. Right. And so, you know, we're

15:29

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15:31

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16:50

I don't think it's like that anymore.

16:53

But what do I know? Old as

16:55

fuck now, so

17:07

I look at it. We

17:11

would go to the studio 54, there'd be 10,000 people on

17:13

54th Street and they let a hundred people playing

17:16

the game with the velvet ropes. Sure. And

17:19

you'll finally, we'd get in and we'd say, you know, how

17:21

did you get in? How come you have, you pulled up

17:23

in a Lamborghini or a

17:26

Rolls Royce and you have this hot chick and you had the

17:28

best table. Like, if you don't mind me asking, why are you,

17:30

how do you get this? It wasn't a movie

17:32

star. It wasn't a face. I recognize. I

17:34

work on wall street. I'm a trader. I'm a

17:36

broker. Uh, you know, I do arbitrage.

17:38

I do leverage buyouts. So you went to wait,

17:41

you went to the EF Hutton training program. I

17:43

did. I did. So if you had to take,

17:45

cause cause that was probably back then, that was

17:47

almost a gold standard. It was. They went Merrill

17:49

Lynch. Yeah. My good friend over here

17:51

went to Merrill Lynch training. Yeah. But, but you look

17:53

at, you look at training programs, you know, for sales

17:55

and that was probably a gold standard. I mean, I

17:57

think spectacular. I think even today there's a. couple that

17:59

I would say, you know, I advise people to do

18:01

this. It was the advice I got years ago when

18:03

I got out of the bar and restaurant business and

18:06

got into sales. My buddy said, look, dude, at this point,

18:09

the easiest, fastest way to get a PhD in sales is

18:11

to go sell Kirby vacuum cleaners door to door, or

18:15

go or go sell Highline cars.

18:19

Either one of those things. Well yeah. Now I, now

18:21

I'd probably also say solar would probably be a good

18:23

thing to write. Cause some of those solar companies have

18:25

amazing training programs, but yeah, it was, it

18:27

was a great way. But back then that EF Hutton, you

18:30

know, gold standard training program. What was

18:32

the, if you had to pick one

18:35

thing that was a best thing that you learned out

18:37

of that training program, what would it have been? So

18:40

they're trying to teach you a certain way to sell. You

18:43

want to sound educated. You're talking about securities.

18:45

You calling people cold on the phone. You're

18:48

asking for, you know, orders of a hundred, $250,000 and you have

18:50

$1,500 DNA. And

18:54

so, you know, I learned

18:56

humility. I

18:59

learned humility. There were guys next to

19:01

me that looked like you six four

19:03

gorgeous. Doesn't matter on the phone, baby.

19:06

You know, many of you, many of you guys

19:08

sounded great. You sounded slick. So I'll

19:10

never forget. I started out in this training program, 130

19:13

people and we all had a big board

19:15

room and they put us on the phone. And when

19:17

you got a guy on the phone, a lead

19:20

pitch, you had to raise your hand. And you, everyone, everyone

19:22

is at a desk, a numbered desk. I was number eight.

19:25

And I go like this and the guy at the front

19:27

of the day, it's with senior brokers like 20 of them.

19:29

They'd see, I raised my hand. They

19:31

would go to the brain and they would listen in. So

19:34

the first time I made a co-core and the guy

19:36

answered, my hands were shaking so bad I hung

19:38

up. And

19:41

I'm looking around and all these people are raising their hands and they're

19:43

pitching and all this. And, uh, and

19:46

so then I dialed, I dialed, and then I got a guy answered

19:48

the phone and, uh, I hung

19:50

up the second time. My hands are shaking. But

19:53

meanwhile, everyone around me seems to be like on the

19:55

phone and everybody's attacking and feeling good. I'm like, I

19:58

mean, get your shit together, bro. Jumped at

20:00

myself talk. I mean come on just do it right.

20:03

I was scared of shit and a lot of people

20:05

say worse man That's good. What and

20:07

I was I confess it's the truth and it's something

20:09

everybody should know Nobody just has

20:11

the balls to get on the phone and be a star

20:13

and all these different things You got to go through it.

20:15

It's a callous God, I go

20:17

through it bro. You play golf. I'm never

20:20

played. I wanted to play golf one year

20:22

I'm with the golf school and

20:24

I go out there and I'm playing golf playing 1836 You

20:27

know 54 my hands are sore. I

20:29

got blisters and cowards is right. There's

20:32

no way around it Yeah,

20:34

I mean he'd buy golf clubs But I this

20:36

is if you want to play you play football

20:38

you're gonna have those aches and pains and the

20:40

saunas and all that Good stuff So

20:43

okay, so I go to this program and

20:45

I'm doing my thing and I

20:47

understand there's no one way To

20:49

be great at sales It's very

20:52

stylistic But there are certain certain basic

20:54

tenets and techniques that everybody should know

20:57

You could buy books and you can listen to

20:59

tapes and video and you know The wolf of

21:01

Wall Street, Jordy Belfer teaches a straight line method,

21:04

which is called the Lehman method Yeah, but the

21:06

only way to be greater anything is repetition repetition

21:09

repetition repetition I see morons

21:13

They just that have no business picking

21:15

up a phone making a half

21:17

a million seven hundred fifty thousand a year Just

21:20

because they don't quit stick

21:22

to it ofness. It's a great quality. You

21:25

don't get down You eat

21:27

rejection and you just keep going

21:30

the only way to lose is to

21:32

quit well what we teach our people

21:34

here that is for me the ultimate

21:36

cure for that for that ailment of

21:39

Terrified of the know right as

21:41

we value the know in everything we do and every

21:43

business that I have that involves Outbound

21:46

reach, you know outbound calling No,

21:49

it's converted warmly to this whatever it is anything

21:51

that balls outbound. We value the know which I

21:53

say, okay, look You're closing

21:55

probability on these is about three to five percent.

21:57

Whatever it is, which means that three percent three

21:59

people out of 100 you're gonna say yes. So

22:02

when they say yes you make five

22:04

grand. So now you take

22:06

you know three percent so

22:08

now you say 15 grand is what you're gonna

22:10

make per 100 calls. So everybody tells

22:13

you to go fuck yourself you're

22:15

really making about 150 bucks. Kind of makes

22:17

it go down a little smoother when

22:19

you're looking at that way. You

22:21

see I found you put blinders on and

22:23

you don't calculate you don't analyze you don't

22:25

think. No. You just do. So I'll tell

22:27

you this story but we have Hutton. Yeah.

22:30

And finally I raised my hand they get

22:32

a guy in the phone and I make

22:34

my pitch and at

22:36

the end of this a week they rate every

22:38

one of the sales people. Out of 133 people

22:40

I was like 80.

22:43

I was like you know

22:45

barely in the top 70 percent or whatever it

22:47

was. That would make people

22:49

better than me and

22:51

that was very humbling and

22:54

I thought I didn't think I was very

22:56

good but you know what that

22:58

doesn't matter. All that matters is

23:00

that you keep going. And

23:02

so what happened was at

23:04

the end of the first year we got our three sevens

23:07

and then we went on business for real. It

23:11

was February of 1984. I started

23:14

by the end of the year I was

23:16

number one in opening accounts by

23:18

a mile by the way. By a mile. And what

23:20

do you attribute that to? And then

23:22

I was second in gross production.

23:24

I was generated commissions. The only one that

23:27

was ahead of me was

23:29

Marge Shot's son, Steven

23:31

Shot, who had a 500 million dollar

23:33

trust fund and was just trading his own money to

23:35

make commissions. Yeah right. He had one account himself and

23:37

his mom you know I mean. So

23:39

I and so I was shocked by this because

23:42

if you just heard heard me in a

23:44

room of a hundred people selling you would

23:48

think I'm okay but you know

23:50

you walk by nothing. That's what made you great.

23:53

Just psychology. Just stick to it

23:55

of this and learning

23:57

to manage.

24:00

Fear everybody's afraid.

24:02

I never understood that when

24:04

I was a kid and you know the

24:06

first day of school We I don't know if you had a school bus

24:08

where you grew up you to go in a corner and wait for a

24:10

school bus I went I'd be like daddy.

24:12

I'm scared I'm so

24:15

scared and like when I had to

24:17

go away to sleep away camp I was like 10

24:19

years old or eight years old and I was leaving

24:21

parents drop you off And then you don't see it

24:23

for two months and I said

24:25

daddy. I'm so scared My

24:27

father would say son you're not scared

24:30

You just have anxiety you nervous and he

24:32

taught me the word of anxiety of anxiety

24:36

Just don't worry. Everybody feels anxious

24:39

and that was like a volume to a young

24:41

boy Because I I

24:44

would go through life looking at you and say

24:46

look at this guy. So toys handsome. He's got

24:48

a great rap He's not scared. Oh But

24:51

I'm scared and once I learned they

24:53

figured that everybody's scared So

24:56

not just picking up the phone not just me the

24:58

guy that's answering the phone is scared. He's

25:00

got fear He's got anxiety and

25:02

so all of it just went away It

25:04

went away when I realized that I was sort of normal that

25:07

way and you just got

25:09

to keep going You have

25:11

to you have to learn every technique there is but

25:13

then adopt it and create your own style And

25:16

I quickly learned that I can't

25:18

sound as slick as

25:21

some of these sort of Harvard educated Ivy

25:23

League educated guys a guy like you father

25:25

was a big attorney. You well spoken, you

25:27

know, you're very Well

25:30

manicured we're gonna start dating you keep He's

25:37

got no hair out of place I'm

25:39

gonna have to understand my wife's I'm gonna explain

25:42

this episode to my wife You

25:44

know, your wife is that good-looking I should

25:46

explain it So what

25:48

I'm saying really is that I

25:50

adopted my own style and people

25:52

are just people We're

25:55

all the same. We all

25:57

feel the same kind of things, you

25:59

know A lot of people go through life

26:02

and they say, oh, look at that guy, look

26:04

at that, this guy's a garbage man, this guy's

26:06

a lawyer, this guy's a judge, this guy's a

26:08

waiter. But we're all

26:10

the same. If you stop looking for

26:12

the differences and you focus on the

26:15

realities, the blessings, the common threads we

26:17

all have, it allows

26:19

you to move through the world in a much

26:22

cleaner and more effective way. Well,

26:25

the best thing I think I've ever heard about

26:27

sales, I was watching, there's a show in HBO,

26:29

which is almost unwatchable, it's called industry. The reason

26:31

it's unwatchable, especially if you've got kids, because it's

26:34

essentially really great trading floor

26:36

dialogue than drugs, than

26:38

sex, then really great trading floor dialogue, than drugs

26:40

and sex. And it just repeats

26:42

every episode. It's just like, yeah, it's just like, can't

26:45

watch it with kids walking around. But

26:47

there were times, it's there's a trading floor

26:49

in London at a company and the guy's

26:51

explaining to the first year people

26:54

on the teams, he says, listen, he's

26:56

after him, similar job is, our job is

26:58

to talk people into making

27:00

a decision that we know is right for

27:02

them much faster than they want

27:04

to make that decision. I like it. And

27:07

I thought, man, that is such a good way to

27:09

explain really what sales is on an

27:11

intimate level. What's about identifying a need?

27:13

Yeah. You like to make money? Sure.

27:17

You sure? I wouldn't be here if it didn't. Okay, or if

27:19

I could show you a way that you can make some money,

27:22

you'd be interested in chatting with me. You've talked about how

27:24

attractive I am. I think you're gonna turn me out Ross.

27:26

I think this could be a problem. So you understand it's

27:28

like, it's about

27:30

understanding we're all the same and

27:32

we all have certain needs. And, you know,

27:35

when you go to Wall Street, they teach you to tap into fear

27:37

and greed. I have an opportunity for

27:39

you. Okay, so you

27:41

can't take advantage of this opportunity. Don't worry, I'm

27:44

sure there'll be another opportunity or down

27:46

the road. I just hate to see you miss out

27:48

on. FOMO. You know, the old,

27:50

the takeaway sale. I mean, there's just so

27:52

many methods and effective techniques that are taught

27:54

by geniuses, experts. I

27:57

mean, they have analyzed this fricking field and

27:59

you can, there's so many. much information available,

28:01

but again until you do

28:03

it over and

28:05

over and over again, you

28:08

don't have an edge. You know, I used to

28:10

make $300 a day for 20 years. I used

28:13

to pitch a minimum of 10

28:15

people every day. I'm qualifying, I

28:17

walk around through life and I qualify everybody.

28:19

I want to know everything about

28:21

everybody. I don't do it, I don't do it consciously anymore.

28:24

It's just, you know, when I went to prison and

28:27

I was in a few places, I know

28:29

everybody, I knew what their worth was, I know

28:31

what, you know, what they were doing, I understand

28:33

where they are in life, I understand details about

28:35

their lives, so forth and so on. And,

28:38

you know, I have an advantage in the fact that I

28:40

genuinely like people. It's not an act. Yeah, you can't, I

28:42

don't think you can be great in a sales job if

28:44

you hate, if you don't hate people. I don't think you

28:47

can. Well, I have, I have some examples

28:49

of guys that make millions and

28:51

really hate people. Really? Yeah, but I think

28:53

it's because they have low self-esteem and they

28:55

hate themselves. I haven't really analyzed it that

28:57

carefully, but I know that they really

29:00

think that they're very superior and they don't like

29:02

anybody and they don't care for people,

29:04

but they're great sales guys because they're practiced at

29:06

it. They're practiced at it,

29:08

but the best thing I could tell you with

29:10

sales is most salesmen are nervous, so you talk

29:12

at, you talk at the person and

29:15

the idea in sales is to talk with

29:17

somebody. Yeah. Doing something together. Yeah. Nobody wants

29:19

to buy anything, but everybody wants to own

29:22

something. It's like we always say, if you're

29:24

talking more than the person you're talking to,

29:26

you're doing it wrong. Well,

29:28

you know, I don't think there are any

29:30

absolutes. There are stylistic differences, you know? So

29:34

let's, so let's get back to EF Hutton. So, so you,

29:36

when do you leave EF Hutton and start your own deal?

29:38

Well, I go to EF Hutton and I leave in 1986

29:40

to go to Oppenheimer Company.

29:42

What was the offer that your boss put on the table

29:44

at that kind of production to EF Hutton? What was the

29:46

offer your boss put on the table as you're walking out

29:48

the door? Well, I had, I'll give

29:50

you an example. Right in 1987, I was lured

29:54

away from a place called DH Blair. This

29:56

is where I started making millions of dollars. I

29:59

went there in my... I had a few

30:01

thousand dollars and I ended

30:03

up having 30 million dollars on my account on

30:06

my 29th birthday. And

30:08

I left and they, you know, I was routinely off at 300,

30:10

350,000 upfront, which in those days is, you know. It's

30:15

good money. Pretty decent money upfront. Yeah. Very

30:18

little, just changing my desk and

30:20

you know. Well, I can just,

30:22

I can just imagine the powers that be

30:24

at these companies when you're walking out the

30:26

door, just doing, throwing just ridiculous shit at

30:28

you, they do, they do.

30:31

And they threaten to, it's, I was threatened

30:33

quite often for leaving. First

30:35

they try the carrot, then they go with the stick.

30:37

Yeah. That's a big play because these

30:39

men are lesser than you and

30:41

they don't know really to how to

30:43

sort of outsell you and

30:45

their propositions are not working. So then they go

30:48

with the stick. That's something that, you

30:51

know, small people are very good at doing. And

30:53

so a lot of the problems that I had on

30:56

my record were from me

30:58

saying, listen, I'm out of here, bro. I

31:01

wish you good luck. And then they would just write

31:03

me up on there. I'm like, well, you five it's

31:05

called within the industry. It's like, it's

31:07

like industry talk. I would get you five in a negative

31:10

way. I left. But

31:12

if I stayed, I was getting a 300, half a million to

31:15

put on an office, you know, partnership, but because

31:17

I decided to leave, they would write me up

31:20

like I'm a bad guy and all these different

31:22

things. Trying to damage that future deal. Yeah. That's

31:24

gross. And that happens a lot

31:27

in this business. It's just really, it's

31:29

cutthroat. That's gross. And then everybody tries

31:31

to steal everybody's clients. You

31:33

know, it's a very different kind of game than let's

31:35

say real estate. Not dude,

31:37

no, it is not. I mean,

31:39

we're a completely vertically integrated company here, right? So

31:42

we own our own mortgage company. We own our own title and

31:44

escrow company. We own everything. If there's a

31:46

nickel spin around real estate, we own part

31:48

of that company. I love it. That's just

31:51

doing that. And we have

31:53

had because, you know, like, look, if

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in your life at capella.edu. When

32:43

you're a real estate company and you all

32:45

of a sudden start opening a title company,

32:47

and you're competing with the big,

32:49

giant national powers that be that have always had

32:51

full reign of being able to walk in. I

32:53

mean, just so you know, this real estate company

32:55

that you're in, this is the number two highest

32:57

grossing company for real estate in

32:59

Nevada. Love it, and Nevada's

33:01

one of the best markets. Yeah, yeah, we'll do

33:04

$2 billion plus in sales this year. We'll do

33:06

4,000 plus transactions. We've

33:09

got just under 600 agents who work here,

33:11

which is great for the number. The number

33:13

one company has like 1,800 agents,

33:16

and the number three company has like 1,100 agents. So

33:19

we- We have 600, you said? We have just

33:21

under 600. So we're doing extremely well

33:23

what we do. So, you know,

33:25

we're big, we're 6% of the market is

33:27

this company. And when you shut

33:29

the door- In the bottom market. Yeah, and when

33:31

you shut the door on

33:34

the big national title companies, because you

33:36

opened your own, they don't like

33:38

that shit. They do not like that shit. And over

33:41

the years, we've had them come in and

33:43

poach some of our

33:46

bigger salespeople from the company. And

33:48

yeah, with the walking papers if

33:50

they were gonna try to come

33:52

in and steal our business. And

33:54

none of them have been successful doing it. We've

33:58

been able to kind of, you know. I'll

34:00

flank that in our own way through good

34:02

quality relationships. And we continue to have to

34:04

do that. So that's about it, we always

34:06

have to fight. That's not singular

34:09

to that, any one industry. If

34:11

you're making money and there's a bigger company

34:14

that's making more, you're gonna have a problem.

34:17

You know, there's a common thread that runs

34:19

through all business, I get that. And

34:22

then there are the differences, but

34:24

the common threads remain the common threads. So

34:27

I was speaking on a different level, but

34:29

when I went on my own and

34:31

I built my own broker dealer, that's

34:34

when things are really interesting. Yeah, so it's not like that.

34:36

Yeah, so in 1990, the end of 94, beginning of 1995,

34:42

I bought a broker dealer, it

34:46

was the NASD broker dealer, today the term is FINRA, from

34:49

a guy named Jerry Roth, who was a partner

34:51

at Spear Leech Kellogg, that

34:54

tried owning his own place. And

34:56

he just wasn't cut out for that kind of

34:59

thing. He was a very

35:01

successful trader, he had a huge house,

35:03

18 horses, stables, the whole thing, Bedford,

35:05

New York. So I paid him $2

35:07

million, and I signed

35:10

an amazing real estate deal. Best real

35:12

estate deal anyone knows. In

35:14

the middle of Manhattan, on

35:17

Madison Avenue, 52nd

35:19

Street, in the corner of Madison

35:22

Avenue, 52nd Street, and

35:24

I paid $23 a square foot, the

35:28

$250,000 build out, 12,000 square feet. And

35:32

eventually when I sold the firm, Blackstone

35:37

took my office space, paying

35:39

about 175 a square foot. Oh

35:42

man. I was paid $23 a square foot. That

35:44

is a good deal. It's a great story, but I

35:46

had to make the deal within two hours, take it

35:49

or leave it. Bank of America was being acquired by

35:53

Nations Bank, and they kept

35:56

their name back up America, but the deal was they had a

35:58

divest of like 10 million square feet of. Real

36:00

estate all around the country and I do it one day So

36:03

that fire sale my lawyer said you can go take a look It's

36:05

gonna be the deal of your life, but you have to make a

36:07

decision in two hours I said what I

36:09

don't like I don't like being rushed to hurried, but it

36:11

was legit and So I

36:13

made the deal and I got a build out and it

36:15

was amazing with an amazing run But

36:18

um, you know when you when you go on your own When

36:22

you work for somebody you don't really understand

36:24

the totality of the game once you

36:26

open up your own place The

36:29

people say ah fuck him. I could do this

36:31

I could do this on my own you never

36:33

really understand what it's like because if you're the

36:35

captain of ship You don't always

36:37

show to the staff the underlings.

36:39

Oh what it is you go. You got to

36:41

be the duck man You

36:44

gotta move and smooth and cool cool on

36:46

top of the surface of water But paddle

36:48

like a mother trucker below to keep up

36:50

you're an actor. Yeah, and that's part of

36:52

the game and basically a problem-solver and I

36:56

put together a group of young men

36:58

gave them a piece of the firm and For

37:02

you know what? I have like 150 guys working for me doing

37:05

tons of business I sold out

37:07

in about 18 or 19 months and

37:09

I made close to 40 million dollars Yeah, it's

37:12

good clip. It's just boom Bing

37:14

Bang Boom and then I found my wife there. I

37:17

Sort of just took it easy for a while. I just was trading the

37:19

market. It was the end of the 90s and It

37:22

was the beginning of the dot-com boom and

37:24

everything I bought just went wild

37:28

Every every company I put some money

37:30

in just went crazy yeah, and

37:32

I was getting in getting out getting in getting out and And

37:36

then the dot-com crash came To

37:39

March of 2000 to give you an idea Amazon

37:41

went from $300 the Amazon

37:44

we know today to three in

37:46

like three weeks The market

37:48

was the end of the world part one and

37:51

run fourth

37:53

biggest Company in the United States biggest

37:56

energy trading company in the world fraud

37:58

zero world calm world Bernie

38:01

Ebbers fraud. Yeah, that's the biggest company

38:03

in the world. The phone company forgot

38:05

to zero Fraud I got

38:07

but I got burned because of world calm Business

38:10

I was doing yeah, one of the guys that was a partner in a

38:12

business that I was in that we were about to launch Was

38:15

a VP at WorldCom and lost Everything

38:19

and like one day I supposed everything lost

38:21

it all over. He has entire Because

38:23

because world comes talk Scorching and

38:25

he just so he moved his entire 401k every

38:28

into it everything everything was a roll calm and

38:30

dude He lost everything in a day and he

38:32

went in a very dark place in it killed

38:35

that business I was stuck that I already

38:37

invested with with him. It's a loosen technologies.

38:39

L. U. A Bell

38:41

darling an a plus rated company

38:43

went from 82 to 0

38:47

to whatever it was, you know, it was crazy Yeah,

38:50

and I'm sitting at the beach at what

38:52

had nice beach house on Long Island and

38:55

I'm looking at these idiots They're preying on

38:57

CNBC with their thoughts about what's

38:59

happening. I said, what are these people

39:01

stupid? This is a

39:03

fucking this is a bear market. This

39:05

is a real correction and I've

39:07

made in 1987

39:10

I sat in front of the screen and

39:12

I watched I had about a hundred ten million on my money

39:14

line I watched you go down to

39:16

about 20 million. I Watched

39:18

my own 30 million dollars Go

39:21

down to two million dollars the

39:23

crash of 87. Oh in

39:25

in in less than a year I

39:27

went from having 30 million to

39:29

two million that some people say we

39:32

start to mean it's pretty good, but Work

39:37

like that when you're living on 30, it's

39:39

a what's yeah, and I was like I you

39:41

couldn't believe because there hadn't been a crash since

39:44

1929 Yeah, we

39:46

were just flying. I mean it was so easy to make

39:48

money. I go in two three days a week I make

39:50

a hundred grand, you know, I buy

39:52

new Mercedes I go next week two three two

39:54

three days a week make another hundred grand. It

39:56

was sick and I

39:59

learned a lot and I And again, the

40:01

market stock market like golf, the game, it's

40:03

humbling. There's a humility

40:06

that even the best have. But

40:09

once you sort of understand the game, it's

40:12

much easier to play the game and to succeed. So

40:14

in 2000, when the markets cracked, I was sitting with

40:17

a load of cash and

40:20

a new baby and a beautiful

40:22

wife, apartment in Manhattan, we're at

40:24

the beach, sort of

40:26

semi-retired. And I said, you

40:28

know what I called up my lawyer said, listen, I'm gonna start a

40:30

company. I sketched out on a pad what I wanted it to look

40:32

like. It's not going

40:34

to be like my last stockbroker's firm. This

40:37

is going to be an international firm. I want

40:39

to take it public on a foreign stock exchange,

40:41

preferably in London. My lawyers like,

40:43

what, what, what, what is this coming from? Says,

40:46

this is going to cost a lot of money. I said, what do

40:48

you think? Now, we like

40:50

it's going to at least four and a half million, five

40:52

million just to get started. So I want to

40:54

raise nine. I always raise double what I think I need. So

40:58

I raised nine million bucks quickly, put together nine million

41:00

really, and started to approach

41:02

people that I've worked with over the years,

41:05

named the company Sky Capital because my older daughter

41:07

was Sky. She was three months old at the

41:09

time. And so I

41:11

was, I was, I wrote a proposition out and

41:14

created a document around the proposition was

41:17

that this correction was going

41:19

to lead to a prolonged bear market. And

41:21

the financial services industry was going to be

41:23

particularly hard hit because

41:26

there's less trading, less transactions, less

41:28

customers, lawsuits, just

41:30

everything is it, you know, you

41:32

lose your income, you lose your portfolio value.

41:35

It's terrible for people in the industry. I

41:37

said, I'll be able to buy assets for

41:39

five, 10 cents on the dollar. And

41:42

I bought out nine firms and

41:44

put this together, went to England to

41:46

try to go public. So wait. So

41:49

everything you bought, obviously vulture for you, vulture

41:51

funded it, but everything you bought was they

41:54

were all trading firms.

41:56

They were stockbrokers firms, trading

41:58

firms, market making firms. with

42:00

black box technology, all

42:02

these different things. They were all in tatters. A

42:04

lot of guys said, listen, just take my guys, because

42:07

if I don't, they're on the contract, they

42:09

can sue me to death. So I just

42:11

took a lot of stripped assets. I

42:13

paid off some debts. I did the right

42:16

thing. Yeah. And I built Sky Capital, and

42:18

then I went over to England, and

42:20

I had a meeting with the top law firm in

42:22

the city of London, because one of the most famous

42:24

lords in England was a personal client of mine for

42:27

many years. I'm very

42:29

well together. And he

42:31

set up this meeting, and I go up to the top of Tower 42. I

42:34

did a part of the story

42:36

in the wealth formula, which

42:38

is a new curriculum that I'm launching literally in three

42:41

weeks, Bradley and Lightspeed.

42:43

Yeah, Brad's a friend. And

42:45

it's going to be, I

42:47

believe, the most groundbreaking, unbelievable

42:50

business. We'll get to that. But I just want

42:53

to say, so I tell this story on the

42:55

camera beginning of this wealth

42:58

formula. The guys at Tower 42, I told

43:00

them what I want to do. And they told me, young man, you

43:02

should just get in the taxi and go right back to the airport

43:04

and go home. It's impossible.

43:08

I said, what do you mean impossible? I

43:11

said, is it impossible, or has it

43:13

never been done? Is it

43:15

improbable, or is it impossible? And they looked at

43:17

each other like, it's impossible. I

43:19

said, listen. They said the

43:21

four-minute mile was impossible. Until

43:24

somebody did it. And then what, 57 more people did

43:26

it the first year after? Crazy numbers.

43:28

Now everybody does it. I'm the only

43:30

one that can't run a mile on four-minute. Depends

43:34

on who's chasing me. I'll say that quickly. When

43:37

the feds came after me, I was pretty quick. So

43:42

the bottom line is a

43:45

lot of stuff is up here to the mind. If

43:47

you believe you can, or you believe you

43:49

can't, you're probably right. Henry

43:51

Ford. And if

43:54

you believe you can, impossible is really

43:57

I'm possible. Break

43:59

it down. I'm possible

44:03

so it would have never been done and I

44:07

Asked these guys a bunch of questions to say well if

44:09

you if somebody was gonna try even try this here's what

44:11

you would need a Member of Parliament a

44:13

parliamentary appointee probably a member of your American

44:16

Congress this that the other Within

44:18

two hours I put together the whole

44:20

package a United States

44:22

senator former United States

44:24

congressman Member of

44:26

Parliament and then a parliamentary appointee all

44:29

on board Had the

44:31

money Now it was just running

44:33

around in with finding an underwriter. That was quite a

44:35

challenge I admit, but I got it

44:37

done. I got it done fairly quickly and we had a Mementous

44:42

stock offering which you call an IPO. Yeah, and

44:45

the reason it was momentous People

44:47

probably don't remember but you might You're

44:50

still a little young we had this dot-com

44:52

crash in March of 2000 Just

44:55

when things were starting to heal their

44:57

market was starting to move into a

45:00

positive direction. We had 9-11 9-11

45:04

they whacked out the World Trade Center

45:06

and The

45:08

markets closed for a week In

45:11

two world wars we didn't have that But

45:13

the stock market the exchange was almost destroyed. They

45:15

only had one pipe left they

45:18

knew what they were doing when Zarebs

45:22

and and was destroyed really,

45:25

you know our whole camera sure came

45:27

very close and There

45:32

were no IPOs for almost two years

45:34

in England zero and In

45:37

June of o2. I took my company public sky

45:39

capital was priced at pound 85.

45:41

It opened up at two pounds 25

45:45

and stayed there for months and And

45:47

Brits put me on national television and

45:50

they used me to say look see

45:53

American guy comes here does this everybody 40% in

45:55

day one. Everything's okay and everything's okay It's

45:57

so safe to come back into the markets

45:59

literally put me on national television for nine

46:01

minutes. And they put this whole

46:04

thing behind me, like my stock went, the chart went

46:06

like this, because it was one day. Got

46:09

all of the hockey stick charts. And I went to jail, right?

46:12

And to make a long story

46:14

short, I really had to run, and

46:16

I bought a firm two days

46:18

later that had done half a billion dollars

46:20

in revenue the

46:22

year before, wildly profitable,

46:26

a hundred million dollar deal. And

46:28

I was off to the races. And I

46:30

started raising money and I

46:32

built a fund. And I took that fund public in 04. So

46:35

life was pretty good. So when

46:38

did the fed show up? In

46:40

November of 06, I'm having a board

46:42

meeting. I'm running two

46:44

public companies. I had offended

46:46

everybody by doing that, especially

46:50

some cats in Washington and lower Manhattan, which

46:52

I didn't understand. I thought I was doing a good

46:54

thing. I created a

46:56

way for US companies to

46:58

go public for a fraction of the cost,

47:01

a fraction of the regulatory hassle, and

47:04

for triple the liquidity. I

47:07

created that footprint. And after

47:09

I did it the second time, Goldman Sachs came

47:11

at me, asked me how I did it. I

47:13

spoke there very graciously at Goldman Sachs. And

47:16

200 companies followed my

47:18

footprint, including KKR, Blackstone,

47:20

all the big boys.

47:24

And they just tweaked what I did a little bit here

47:26

and there, but you go public over there, and

47:29

you have only biannual reporting. So you know what,

47:32

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48:22

the stock market? Yeah, of course. You have a portfolio?

48:25

I do. Okay, do you own any foreign stocks by any

48:27

chance? I do not. Okay, now most people would say the

48:29

same thing as you, even if you did

48:31

own them, you'd say you own them in America because

48:33

there were different ways to get their paper, to

48:36

trade their paper from the United States.

48:39

But what you don't know is, so

48:41

you buy American stocks that trade in America

48:44

because it's quarterly reporting, is at level

48:46

of transparency, every three months they

48:48

have to sit down with their accounts and report everything

48:51

that's gone in the company. The whole rest

48:53

of the world doesn't do that. What

48:56

a shock. You know nobody knows that.

48:58

If you listen to this amazing podcast,

49:00

Escaping the Drift, with handsome

49:02

big John over here, I promise you're gonna

49:04

learn something right now. There you go. They

49:07

only have what you call buy annual reporting.

49:10

The whole rest of the world, you report twice

49:12

a year, and after six months,

49:14

you just do a review. It's

49:16

not even audited financials. You

49:18

only get audited financials once a year at the

49:20

end of the year. It

49:23

saves the company's zillions of dollars

49:25

in accounting fees. The

49:27

PCOAB, I hope they don't come after

49:29

me, the PCOAB is a professional accounting

49:31

board in America. They

49:33

became like the Vatican. They

49:36

have powers like the Pope in business here

49:38

in America because you

49:40

need them to sign off on your financials,

49:43

on their comments, on the audits, et

49:45

cetera, and they see how much money

49:47

you're making and they

49:49

say, you're a little old accountant all of a

49:52

sudden. He's like a wolf in sheep's clothing. All

49:54

of a sudden he's like, I want some

49:56

of that and you need my signature.

49:59

So they... break balls, just business, they have

50:01

the leverage, right? So they're

50:03

gonna squeeze you as much as they

50:05

can, squeeze the companies as much as they can. They

50:07

don't have that kind of power when they only have

50:09

one audit a year, the rest of the world. So

50:13

companies that don't, are not, you know, it

50:16

prompted to have to perform every three months

50:18

and put up real, you know, these crazy

50:20

growth numbers. With stocks gonna lose billions of

50:22

dollars in value. It's crazy, it's

50:25

crazy. You have a, it's like running a marathon,

50:27

but you know, every quarter mile,

50:29

half mile, you have someone regulating you. Yeah. Very

50:32

hard to execute a real

50:34

strategy. A long-term strategy. Right, when you're

50:36

working every three months at a

50:38

time. And that's what, that's polluted the American, capital

50:42

markets. Well, that's why it's so hard for these

50:44

guys to take a step back to do the

50:46

right thing long-term, because you can't take long-term. You're

50:49

gonna get smashed. Right, your money, if you're taking

50:51

a company public and you're part of a growth

50:53

company like that, I mean, you know, this is

50:55

your future right here. And every 90 days you're

50:57

being evaluated, which is quite unfair in my opinion.

50:59

It's a lot. Right, especially, and so who gets

51:02

up getting screwed with the public? You

51:04

know, so I create a wonderful way.

51:06

You go public over there, you'll have

51:08

your, you get all your stuff sorted out. You're

51:12

already regulated in public, you

51:14

have audited financials. All you gotta do,

51:17

you bring it back to the United States, you can

51:19

trade in a number of ways, or you go right

51:22

to NASDAQ. You know, all you gotta

51:24

do now is become reporting every quarter. You've

51:26

just eliminated tons of fees. You already have

51:28

a shareholder base. I mean,

51:30

I created something brilliant. And I

51:32

thought that it was amazing. I learned later

51:35

on that according to

51:37

certain people in

51:40

government and private sector. That was the air

51:42

quotes for those of you listening and out-lots

51:44

and certain people. Lower Manhattan lost about $100

51:47

billion in fees because

51:50

of the footprint I created. I don't like

51:53

that. Well, you know, it's like when you're

51:55

in prison, they say, don't fuck with my money. Yeah, that's

51:57

what a guy will say to you. Don't fuck with my

51:59

money. In them in the real

52:01

business world. They don't say that they just sick to do

52:03

J on you So

52:06

November 6 or so November 5th I'm having

52:08

a board meeting up at

52:10

Sky Capital with a parliamentary appointee former

52:12

congressman for me United States senator and

52:15

40 SWAT 8th FBI agents come in at

52:17

jackets Like in SWAT

52:20

style guns raised everybody freeze nobody

52:22

move Well up

52:24

what the fuck what's going on a guy guy?

52:28

Kurt Kurt Dangler throws me up against

52:30

the wall and Tells

52:32

me to shut the fuck up and he

52:35

says that I better give him all the guns Tell him where all

52:37

the guns and drugs are and he'll go easy on me I'm

52:40

like what why would

52:43

I have guns and drugs? Consintra

52:45

investment back. I'm running two public

52:47

companies you stupid fuck. I Mean,

52:50

of course, we didn't get along too well for the next five years But

52:53

you know he's coming at me like what

52:56

Now he had some it's somewhat fed him information Understand

52:59

they were fed information. It was

53:01

a bad raid. It was a bad

53:04

they they had called all

53:06

the New York press Were

53:08

down in the lobby of 110 Wall

53:10

Street. He got perp walked out when no not that

53:12

I don't know. I didn't get arrested for three years

53:15

after that. That was just that was just a search

53:17

and seizure range No, they just

53:19

had executed search warrant Because that

53:21

how you execute a search warrant today guns

53:23

drawn 40 agents locking down a floor calling

53:25

a whole New York media downstairs I'm

53:28

sure they thought there were guns and drugs Someone

53:31

had fed him some information and that was they were to

53:33

take me away in handcuffs Guess

53:35

what? So nothing a

53:37

couple hours later. They're like it's got 300 boxes.

53:40

They said nobody's getting arrested Nobody's in trouble and

53:42

we went back to trading. You know, I'm in

53:44

the front page of every newspaper in 130 countries

53:47

Literally, and what does that do to your client? Well,

53:49

you tell me if you want to do trades the

53:52

next day You want to do trades with Sky Capital?

53:54

No, so they they admit They

53:56

admit the Southern District of New

53:58

York today admits that they acted his judge,

54:00

jury and executioner. They should

54:02

go to jail for what they did to me.

54:04

Now, remember, I had hundreds of shareholders on public

54:06

companies. The next day, the stock

54:09

exchange calls the department of justice. It

54:11

says, what the hell? Are

54:13

you guys going to shut them down? We

54:15

need to know. These are public companies. We

54:18

have an obligation to the public. They

54:20

refuse to comment. But when they

54:22

came to Sky Capital, they said, nobody's getting

54:25

arrested. Nobody's in trouble. But

54:27

the fact that didn't bother to comment to them.

54:29

They refuse to comment. The stock exchange froze our

54:31

stocks at that moment. And

54:33

so literally hundreds, if

54:35

not thousands of people got

54:37

hit and still nobody sued me because

54:40

what did I do? I'm running a clean

54:42

business. I'm being ordered by

54:45

the SEC, by the NASD, FINRA, by

54:47

the London Stock Exchange, by the FSA,

54:49

those authorities in London. I

54:52

was being regulated by everybody. And

54:54

I had clean reports every

54:56

year, you know, little teeny little

54:58

things. My trader didn't punch

55:00

a time clock, you know, stupid stuff. So when did

55:02

they actually charge you? So this is in 06 November

55:05

of 06. Now

55:07

behind the scenes, they had arrested one or

55:09

two of my guys. We're doing scheming with

55:11

customers, stealing some

55:14

money, selling cocaine to

55:17

an FBI agent. And

55:20

July 2nd of 09, so

55:24

you're talking about three years. Yeah. Government

55:27

calls. So in the meantime, 18

55:30

months became very difficult for me

55:32

to run this business, the brokerage business. Very difficult.

55:35

The markets were a wreck. And

55:37

March 31st of 08, I

55:39

sold the companies. But

55:42

before they bought the companies, the institutions and some very wealthy people

55:44

went to the DOJ and said, look, we're about to

55:46

buy this company for tens of millions of dollars.

55:48

If you're going to indict it, we need to

55:50

know. We need to know. And

55:53

these were big guys out of the UK. I

55:55

mean, big names, royalty, etc. And

56:02

the DOJ said, we have three questions for Ross Mandel.

56:06

If you can answer these three questions satisfactorily,

56:08

he's free to go and you're free to

56:10

do what you want. Buy the company, there'll be no

56:12

problems. March 31st of 08,

56:14

now you're a real estate guy. You remember 08,

56:16

09, what's coming. Remember what's

56:18

coming, 08, 09, right? Yep,

56:21

mortgage implosion. So when I

56:23

entered the letter of intent to sell in

56:26

October of 07, Dow Jones hit 14,000 plus. It

56:31

was an all time high. The day I signed the papers, it

56:33

was an all time high. Nobody knew, but that's what happened. By

56:36

the time we closed five months later, March 31st, there

56:38

was a lot of due diligence, public company, always shareholders,

56:40

the government, everything else. The

56:42

Dow was down to 10,000 and

56:44

dipping every day. And

56:47

I was like, my wife kept saying, you're so smart,

56:50

you're so smart. I got all this money and again,

56:52

10s of millions of dollars. I had

56:54

done very well, whatever. And she

56:56

goes, you're so smart, you're so smart. Every day I'm

56:58

sitting home on the couch watching CNBC and

57:01

I'm watching the market go down to the 300 points, to

57:03

the 400 points, to the 300 points. She's

57:05

going, oh my God, you sold to the

57:07

top. And I'm thinking, uh oh. Because

57:10

by now I've got a lot of experience in the market, a lot

57:12

of experience in life, a very bad

57:14

feeling. I sold March

57:16

31st of 08 and then the mortgage

57:18

crisis and the mortgage back security, they're too

57:20

big to fail and everybody's failing, AIG. We

57:23

need 120 billion by Monday, we're going out of

57:25

business. We lost A plus rated by all the

57:27

rating agencies. Companies A plus

57:30

rated. And

57:32

if it doesn't get $120 billion in four

57:34

days, it goes to zero. And

57:37

they indict me. My companies

57:40

didn't, never too, I had, my

57:42

companies were well funded, they didn't need money, anything else. The

57:44

guys that bought the company for me put

57:47

10 million good capital in it. And

57:51

with a yield within a year, they

57:53

were broke and they

57:56

were closing it down. Ugh, that's how

57:58

bad things were. July

58:02

2nd of 2009, they get a call from my attorney who had

58:05

originally told me it's over. He answered those

58:07

three questions satisfactorily. You're done. No fuss, no

58:09

must, I provided evidence. The government said, Mr.

58:12

Mandel is free to go. 18

58:14

months later, I'm being indicted on two

58:16

counts. Securities

58:18

fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud. The

58:21

same month the SEC had a press

58:23

conference and talked about how many

58:25

people they indicted more people up till now

58:27

than they've ever done in their lives. It's

58:29

really the SEC because they wanted the investing

58:31

public to know that they're

58:34

on top of it even though everything's going to shit. 0809,

58:37

too big to fail because all the banks failed. And

58:39

here's a great thing that I can explain to everybody. On

58:42

a Friday, Citibank received

58:44

a $50 billion cash injection

58:47

from the government. $50

58:49

billion on Friday. On Monday

58:51

morning, all the rating agencies put a rating on

58:53

it. You know what the net worth of Citibank

58:56

was? $20 billion. On

58:59

Friday, they got $50 billion

59:02

cash. They're covering with money. Monday night,

59:04

they were rated A plus with a

59:06

$20 billion net worth. So

59:08

they were short $30 billion. Covering those

59:10

costs. And they came after me. So just

59:12

so you understand the corruption in government. Well, dude, I

59:15

got one. I'm going to ask you an off the

59:17

cuff question because I'm just curious. So the fact that

59:19

you did have to go to jail for this stuff,

59:22

how, what is

59:24

your feeling about Nancy Pelosi being the best doctorate

59:27

or the history of the world? Well, I'm going

59:29

to say this to you. I had a number

59:31

of congressmen and senators as clients over the years

59:33

and they would literally call up, call me

59:36

up and call my brokers up and say, just get out of it.

59:38

I've just got out of a session in the Senate. Get

59:40

out. Bye. And

59:42

he's we need to do. I need to sell everything I can and buy this.

59:45

And they were always right. Yep. And

59:47

so the firm would say,

59:50

Senator Presley just called and then

59:52

everybody buy, you know, buy

59:54

Pfizer and that would run next. You know, Pfizer

59:57

gets some contract or some announcement come out and

59:59

they're making another. $25 billion and everybody

1:00:01

would make money. But here's the

1:00:03

thing, they're allowed to trade on inside information. They've

1:00:06

allowed themselves that, and you

1:00:08

know when they approve it every year, you know,

1:00:11

there were efforts to curb it. Yeah, yeah. And

1:00:13

they have these meetings in the Senate and the

1:00:15

Congress at midnight on a Friday. And

1:00:19

then they show up at Friday and they put

1:00:21

in their little chits and they turn

1:00:23

it down. There's still a lot to trade. I

1:00:25

think you're gonna see some change there soon.

1:00:28

I think there's enough noise in

1:00:30

the marketplace. There's enough noise. You

1:00:32

have to get the peanut gallery shaking and said, no,

1:00:34

it's like not a chance they're gonna do that. Why

1:00:36

would they get this benefit? Why

1:00:38

would they give it up? I

1:00:41

just, I think, look at AOC was

1:00:44

a waitress when she got, and

1:00:46

now she's worth what, $23 million? She

1:00:49

actually gives a yes. I mean, you know, she's very clever.

1:00:51

She's very attractive. So

1:00:53

gross. So gross. It's really

1:00:56

unfortunate, you know, with transparency

1:00:58

today, connectivity, the internet,

1:01:00

everybody knows everything. And

1:01:02

so to me, you gotta start getting honest

1:01:05

if you're in government. So you

1:01:07

still, even though you did nine and a half years, you

1:01:09

still maintain your innocence over any of these

1:01:11

charges. Okay, I learned that you can't use

1:01:14

the word innocence in the term. Okay,

1:01:16

I don't know. In terms of what? I'm

1:01:18

not guilty of the charges that were brought against me. And I can

1:01:20

tell you, I can tell you on my children, I'm not guilty on

1:01:23

the charges that were brought against me. I

1:01:25

don't think anybody would say, Roy Spindel's innocent.

1:01:28

I'm not that type of guy. I'm guilty of so

1:01:30

much in my life. But not that. But no, no,

1:01:32

I never stole from anybody ever in my life. I

1:01:34

never shopped with that. I've cheated anybody.

1:01:36

It's just not who I am. Okay. But

1:01:39

I've done plenty of things wrong. So after the nine and a

1:01:41

half years in prison, now I do wanna spend some time talking

1:01:43

about the new program that you have coming

1:01:45

out. Oh, it's incredible, I gotta say. So let's, let's,

1:01:48

You're in the business world, or if you wanna

1:01:50

be in the business world, I have provided means

1:01:52

to do that for a kid

1:01:54

that comes from the burial, from uneducated

1:01:57

and to the, to even guys like you.

1:01:59

If you... If you bought this course, it

1:02:01

would be a business bible for you. You

1:02:04

will be stunned at how

1:02:06

comprehensive. That's so far the

1:02:08

feedback. It's incredibly,

1:02:10

it's a 108 page written

1:02:12

text with 300 hyperlinks to

1:02:15

source material, online text, downloadable

1:02:18

PDFs and worksheets, and

1:02:20

then 13 extremely entertaining

1:02:23

modules narrated

1:02:25

by myself personally, edited by the best

1:02:27

in the world. Wood winning, award winning,

1:02:29

editors, producers, and the whole thing. And

1:02:32

now Brad is making it interactive so it's

1:02:34

like a training video. We

1:02:36

teach you how to go from all my life, people come

1:02:38

to me, this man, you're so successful, you're in the

1:02:40

stock market, blah, blah, blah. Will you mentor me? Will you

1:02:43

mentor me? Yeah, well, you'll mentor me, that's

1:02:45

a big one. You get that, I'm sure. But you

1:02:47

know, I have an idea. How do

1:02:49

I turn it into a business? Well, my wife's got this

1:02:51

product and my sister-in-law is doing this thing, it's amazing. How

1:02:53

do we turn this into a business? Can

1:02:55

you please help me? We do it

1:02:58

in a step-by-step comprehensive way but

1:03:01

it's really like a business bible. Everybody

1:03:05

needs it. So you're covering startup,

1:03:07

you're covering scale, you're covering marketing,

1:03:10

you're covering everything. Documentation,

1:03:12

vision board, vision plan, business plan, how

1:03:14

to raise money, pitch deck. You know,

1:03:16

this is for guys like yourself. What

1:03:20

sort of legal entity have you wrapped

1:03:22

your business around? LLC, Master Limited Partnerships,

1:03:24

C Corp, S Corp. What

1:03:27

is your jurisdiction? Did you incorporate in

1:03:29

Delaware? As Elon Musk recently found out,

1:03:31

is fuck all terrible? And

1:03:33

you know... Nevada is actually great. Nevada is a

1:03:35

wonderful place. Nevada? The

1:03:38

great state of Nevada. Yeah, great. Whether I

1:03:40

was in New York or Florida, the great state of Nevada. See,

1:03:42

I'm going to help you out with something else. I'm going to

1:03:44

just get you to something because when I first moved here from

1:03:46

Florida, I did the same thing. It's

1:03:48

Nevada, not Nevada. If you say Nevada,

1:03:51

people look at you like you're crazy.

1:03:53

Nevada. It's Nevada. I love

1:03:55

that. Which is funny because, you know,

1:03:57

when I'm from Florida, depending on which section of Nevada. Florida

1:04:00

you're in, it's pronounced a very

1:04:02

different way to be. You had scary South

1:04:04

Baja rednecks like I grew up with or,

1:04:07

uh, you know, you've got, you

1:04:09

know, people from all over the world that live in

1:04:11

Miami. So there's different presentations, but here it is Nevada.

1:04:13

Cause literally I was on the apprentice, um,

1:04:15

saying we were going to buy tickets to Las Vegas,

1:04:17

Nevada and, uh, Nevada.

1:04:20

And I got slathered for

1:04:22

it when I moved out here. Yeah. Nevada. Yeah.

1:04:25

You know what? Nevada is Nevada. I

1:04:27

love that. Nevada. So there you go. But you know, we

1:04:29

talk and people ask me, why don't we explain it? Because

1:04:32

you know, the, uh, we

1:04:35

explain in, in plain speak, I'm a

1:04:37

plain speaking type of guy and

1:04:39

we explain everything and break it down. And

1:04:41

you know, what we did was we went

1:04:43

out and bought every single online course that

1:04:45

that's available on social media and

1:04:48

the internet. And there's not even, if

1:04:50

you put them all together, it

1:04:52

doesn't make half of what we were offering right

1:04:54

now. You could, there's a presale of $300. And

1:04:57

it's really a $5,200 value. That's

1:05:00

not me. That's what the market would price it at. But

1:05:03

it's something that I want to do. So I'm 67

1:05:05

years old. I've been there and done that.

1:05:08

I've been a taker my whole life and I'm good

1:05:10

at it. And I just want

1:05:12

to give back a little bit and I want to

1:05:14

be an educator and I want to leave a legacy

1:05:16

for my children. I've got two daughters

1:05:19

and daddy went to prison when

1:05:21

they were 11 and 14, two young

1:05:23

girls growing up in Boca Raton,

1:05:26

Florida, like to show me city,

1:05:29

you know, and I was very public. I was

1:05:31

in the newspapers. I was on television, all that

1:05:33

shit. And everybody knew me. I was a

1:05:35

big, they seize all your assets. I mean, when you went

1:05:37

to prison, they seized, they didn't seize

1:05:39

anything. Cause they didn't have the grounds. I

1:05:41

didn't know this, but in

1:05:44

order to get bail, my lawyer said, look, I'm going

1:05:46

to put a $5 million cash, no

1:05:48

bond. And they say, he says,

1:05:51

what $40 million or so sitting in a

1:05:54

bank of America. He said, you'll have to

1:05:56

segregate that money. You can't touch it. Otherwise

1:05:59

they'd. They don't make it if

1:06:02

they can seize your money. They don't tell

1:06:04

you segregated. Yeah, they fucking but he Sucked

1:06:07

a sucking me in a very

1:06:09

bad guy Jeffrey Hoffman lawyer, New York

1:06:11

City bad, dude and Stephen

1:06:14

Altman bad dude, he's a bad guys

1:06:16

and They had their own

1:06:19

troubles with the government and they

1:06:21

basically sacrificed me took

1:06:23

a bullet point off the table and they got Altman

1:06:26

got to disbarred for 18 months Bad

1:06:29

guys guilty as fucking sin country

1:06:33

conflicts of interest I Had

1:06:35

just had I got screwed by lawyers.

1:06:37

What a shock I could be the first guy,

1:06:39

right? That

1:06:42

ever happens in this country, I don't think

1:06:44

so, but I want to give back. I

1:06:46

want to educate I want to create a

1:06:48

legacy sofa So my daughters come

1:06:50

to prison for the first visit like

1:06:53

daddy daddy kids are making fun of us daddy

1:06:55

people are asking me Where's my father? You knock

1:06:57

on a shop for dancing events and all these

1:06:59

different things you have children Yeah, two of them

1:07:01

boys girls one of each, right? So

1:07:03

you understand being a dad and the kids are bullies

1:07:05

and there's all kinds of nonsense social media and all

1:07:08

that So we had to teach

1:07:10

my kids how to respond to

1:07:12

other kids and other grown-ups I'm

1:07:15

teaching them from the prison visiting room and

1:07:19

Over the years they went to high school and they went to

1:07:21

college There's no daddy mommy had

1:07:23

to move him in mommy had to move out mommy had

1:07:25

a shop here mommy to show up there and They

1:07:28

became very adept and very clever at

1:07:30

avoiding. Where's your dad? Was

1:07:33

your dad do how come your dad's not here? And

1:07:35

so I was anytime the name dad came

1:07:38

up he changed the subject

1:07:40

very cleverly or just smart

1:07:42

very successful young woman today and I

1:07:46

Want that my daughters to be proud of me

1:07:48

and when somebody says that your dad? Yeah, that's

1:07:50

my dad You know,

1:07:52

I wasn't allowed to the unfriended me

1:07:54

in social media Thanks,

1:07:56

wife and my kids and

1:07:59

I'm not allowed to mention I'm allowed to comment on

1:08:01

their stuff, but now all of a sudden now I've

1:08:03

been out for about seven months and we're doing some

1:08:05

really good things. I'm really giving

1:08:07

back. I'm an educator. I'm helping a lot of

1:08:09

different things and they, uh, the

1:08:12

kids now take pictures with me. Well,

1:08:14

I think it's a big deal. Like

1:08:17

I think the lesson, the lesson there

1:08:19

is it doesn't matter how

1:08:22

old you are. You know, you

1:08:25

can always change the story. You

1:08:27

can always flip the script. You can always

1:08:29

write another chapter, you know, you

1:08:32

don't have to sit, you

1:08:34

know, your biggest failure doesn't have to become

1:08:36

your legacy. Correct. I want that. I want

1:08:38

my prison years to be an asterisk when

1:08:40

they tell my story. You

1:08:43

know, when I was away, I took

1:08:45

the time to do something I

1:08:47

had been putting off my whole life, which

1:08:49

is to read scripture. We

1:08:51

study it new to the old

1:08:53

Testament, the new Testament. I read the Quran

1:08:55

page by page with real

1:08:58

Muslim guys and I

1:09:00

read Hindi. What, what, what,

1:09:02

what prison you were on? I was at

1:09:04

the federal FCI Miami, which

1:09:06

was considered low security, but it

1:09:08

was really it wasn't a country

1:09:10

club. Oh, no, no, that doesn't

1:09:12

sound like that. Doesn't really exist anymore. Just

1:09:14

so you know, okay. I don't know. It

1:09:17

was revealed, uh, you know, uh,

1:09:19

years ago in a famous book. And so

1:09:21

defense quickly did away with that. It's fucking hell, bro.

1:09:24

It's prison as hell. I lived in a room smaller than

1:09:27

this with three grown men, a three

1:09:29

level bunk bed for two, two and a half years. It's

1:09:32

pretty tough. Prison sucks. No

1:09:35

prison sucks. Cause it's punishment. That's what they

1:09:37

tell. It's supposed to be. And

1:09:39

it's brutal. But I also went to a couple of camps. I was

1:09:41

in, I was locked in a detention center

1:09:43

in a room smaller than this 19 months

1:09:47

at the federal detention center in Miami, horrible

1:09:50

places. Nobody should know about

1:09:52

them. It's just horrible. But I got a chance

1:09:54

to read the classics. I

1:09:56

read Shakespeare and I listened to

1:09:59

Mozart. And I read

1:10:01

Chaucer and I read every

1:10:03

biography on jobs and Einstein always meaningful

1:10:05

people and I

1:10:08

developed a lot of things and one of the things in

1:10:10

that in I read Kabbalah 24 books

1:10:12

of the Zohar I learned the

1:10:14

Kabbalah and Zohar teaches you something

1:10:16

it says You can

1:10:18

change your past It's

1:10:21

an incredible thing. Mm-hmm. You can change it's

1:10:24

not just about changing your future By

1:10:27

doing certain things in your life. You can actually go back and

1:10:29

change your past That's it's another

1:10:31

conversation that yeah, no, it's on and on but

1:10:33

it's just an amazing thing And if I use

1:10:35

all the lessons I've learned and all the pain

1:10:38

that I've been through and help others and I

1:10:40

can help others I can literally change my past.

1:10:42

Yeah. Well if they if they want to find

1:10:44

you going forward, how do they find you Ross

1:10:47

Ross mandel? Com to SS 2

1:10:49

L's to SS 2 L's on

1:10:51

Instagram. I'm on LinkedIn. I'm on

1:10:53

tick-tock. I'm everywhere So fine Ross.

1:10:55

Yeah Ross Mandel, I'm in Boca

1:10:57

Raton, Florida. I love that. Well, thanks for coming in

1:10:59

brother You always welcome back whenever you want big John.

1:11:01

I gotta say if you guys

1:11:04

don't know here comes again

1:11:06

This guy is good-looking Smart

1:11:08

he's got the see now when I was a

1:11:11

young salesman, I would have been intimidated by you.

1:11:14

You're so good No, I mean,

1:11:16

it's frightening your energy is just amazing. That's and

1:11:18

thank you so much for having me today I

1:11:20

appreciate it. Let's let's wrap this up today And

1:11:22

I think today is you know I saw something

1:11:24

the other day man that I thought was so

1:11:27

apropos for the conversation that we had today with

1:11:29

Ross Which is I was watching a clip from

1:11:31

Alex or Mosey and he was talking about in

1:11:34

life when you see adversity He

1:11:37

looks at it away and he says man This

1:11:39

is a story that I will eventually tell and

1:11:41

I want the adversity to be as big

1:11:44

as possible because the bigger the adversity The

1:11:46

bigger the dragon the bigger the hero and

1:11:48

I want to be as big of a hero as I can So

1:11:51

go out face your dragons be

1:11:53

a hero. I'll see you next week What's

1:11:59

up everybody Thanks for joining us for another episode of

1:12:01

Escaping the Drift. Hope you got a bunch out of

1:12:03

it, or at least as much as I did out

1:12:06

of it. Anyway, if you wanna learn more

1:12:08

about the show, you can always go over to escapingthedrift.com.

1:12:11

You can join our mailing list, but do me

1:12:13

a favor if you wouldn't mind, throw up that

1:12:15

five-star review, give us a share, do something, man.

1:12:17

We're here for you. Hopefully you'll be

1:12:19

here for us. But anyway, in the meantime, we will

1:12:21

see you at the next episode. One

1:12:25

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1:12:28

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From The Podcast

Escaping the Drift with John Gafford

Escaping the Drift with John Gafford (formerly the Power Move)Do you want to level up? Are you feeling stuck in a never-ending drift, like you are aimlessly floating through life without a clear sense of direction? Do you yearn for a breakthrough that can propel you from mediocrity to remarkable success? If you're ready to escape the current and start swimming against the tide, join host John Gafford on the thought-provoking podcast, "Escaping the Drift."In each episode, John engages in intimate conversations with top performers across various fields who have successfully transcended the shackles of mediocrity. These extraordinary individuals share their secrets, stories, and strategies that enabled them to rise above the mundane and achieve exceptional levels of success."Escaping the Drift" is a treasure trove of insights for those who feel like they're merely drifting through life, searching for purpose and a higher calling. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a creative soul in pursuit of breakthroughs, an athlete striving for peak performance, or anyone who wants to tap into their untapped potential, this podcast offers a roadmap to transform your life.Through compelling and thought-provoking interviews, John Gafford unveils the mindset shifts, daily habits, and actionable techniques that have propelled these top performers to new heights. Learn how they harnessed their passions, overcame obstacles, and capitalized on opportunities to achieve extraordinary success.Each episode of "Escaping the Drift" is an immersive experience that leaves no stone unturned. Dive into the captivating stories of remarkable individuals who have mastered the art of swimming against the current. Discover how they turned adversity into advantage, setbacks into stepping stones, and dreams into reality.John Gafford's authentic and empathetic interviewing style creates a safe space for guests to share their triumphs and tribulations. By exploring their unique journeys, listeners gain invaluable lessons, practical strategies, and the inspiration needed to break free from the drift and embrace a life of purpose and fulfillment.If you're ready to break free from the monotony of mediocrity and unleash your true potential, "Escaping the Drift" is the podcast for you. Join John Gafford and his exceptional guests as they unravel the secrets of success and empower you to swim against the currents of life. It's time to leave behind the drift and embark on a transformative journey towards excellence.Learn More at www.EscapingtheDrift.com

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