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in the beginning I was just I wouldn't
take no for an answer I think it was
very stubborn and I just viewed
everything like that like whatever I'm
spending 10 I could be getting every
year forever if I could earn enough then
I'll never have to worry about like
working a job I didn't like or having to
report to a boss I could have ten
dollars a year for the rest of my life
if I just invest this money in real
estate
Graham Steph and welcome to the show
thank you thank you for having me this
is uh quite the setup you have here yeah
I'm excited to have you so tell us what
can people do to make money in a
recession I've always been a proponent
of doubling down on whatever you're
doing work twice as hard save twice as
much really take advantage of any
opportunity that you have because I got
my career started 2008 like I got into
real estate right as it had like peaked
and had discresting and was starting to
go back down and I remember everyone
telling me Oh you're too late for that
the Market's going down now is a
terrible time you should go to college
um I just saw that as such a cool
opportunity because like I had no
reference point for what was good or
what was bad so anything for me was like
a success how old were you in 2008 18.
whoa you got into real estate 18. yeah
how did you have a capital
I had a few thousand dollars that I had
saved up working part-time throughout
high school and so I used some of that
money to do my real estate license and
the cost of that I mean the bar is set
so low because you I took my classes
online
they sent like some textbooks I took a
state test uh it was maybe a few hundred
dollars to register with the state of
California like to get your fingerprints
and whatnot I'm very low startup Capital
but then the difficulty becomes making
money uh so actually getting licensed
and jumping in pretty much anyone could
do it if you have a grand okay so the
big winners are the people that in 2008
they were like no no there's still a
deeper bottom coming correct what were
they looking at because one of so my
base assumption that we will see if I'm
right yeah this interview because you
know a lot more about this than I do but
my base assumption from an investing
standpoint is that if you want to make
money in a recession you want to be the
average person the average person is
going to want to look at things as being
on discount you buy things dollar cost
average way this is a great time because
things are down so if I'm looking at the
real estate industry what I want to
understand is
The Savvy investor what signals are they
looking for because I'm I'm a big
believer that the average person again
the average person doesn't know enough
to try to time the market but the story
I hear you telling about what happened
in 2008 was the guys that one understood
how to time the market that they
actually understood the difference I'm
even in hindsight thinking 2008 was the
moment so how in real time did they know
2008's not the moment despite all the
blood all I remember people living in
tents in Parks it was crazy man I'd
never seen anything like it in my life
so in that moment I would have wished
given all the sort of typical wisdom
that you hear I would have wished I
could have bought in at that time I had
not yet made my money so what were Savvy
people queuing off of to know to wait at
least from my own experience is that we
saw a lot of foreign buyers come in
around
2010 and I remember they would have
buses of people going through and there
would be like 30 people in a bus going
through these properties that were
millions of dollars to Beverly Hills and
they would look through and they they
have a notepad just like this and they'd
write down what they like what they
don't like and they would make offers on
every single house that they saw maybe
not yeah and but but they were coming in
bosses like they were flying in overseas
and just buying anything that they could
and I think there's a shift around that
time where people began to see wait a
second all these investors are buying a
property you 2010 was the year where you
started to see all those ads on TV there
was there was a surfer guy who who was
in his 40s who ran this huge uh
operation of running ads of Like We Buy
Ugly Houses and he was buying thousands
thousands of homes and I think there was
a sentiment that just changed where did
he win or did he get obliterated I
believe I I don't know I I mean I'm
guessing he made quite a lot of money I
mean he probably 10xed his money
um because he was buying properties and
then fixing them up I don't know if he
flipped them if he rented them but his
timing on that was fantastic and sorry
that was in 2008 or 2010 that was 2010.
okay so he was smart enough to wait so
the guys that if somebody had bought in
2008 and held until whatever magic day
now that we know with historical
hindsight whether that was 2020 2021
whatever
would they have won or lost they would
have won okay long term it doesn't
really make it like if you had bought a
property at the peak in 2006 in a lot of
areas I'm sure there's some areas that
are down but I would say the majority at
least from what I could see here in Los
Angeles you would be up substantially I
mean you would be probably double maybe
double and a half triple uh what that
purchase price was so over a long enough
period most areas will do well uh the
tricky part is in the short term
everyone checks their home on Zillow
like every month to see like oh I made
money this month or I you know I lost a
little bit darn uh in the long term as
long as you can make the payments the
trouble was that a lot of people in 2006
were buying properties that couldn't
make the payments and that's where
that's where the issue began now even if
you bought a property at let's just say
the you know the top of the market which
would have really been like January
2022. as long as they can make the
payments it doesn't really make a huge
difference because even if property
values go down and interest rates go up
your monthly payment would be about the
same still okay so I'm trying to get to
print principles that people can apply
to the moment now so as you look at this
moment now your initial advice was
double down on whatever you're doing but
let's assume that somebody's coming into
this and they they're not doing anything
they're they're just now of age where
they can actually start deploying
capital
what are the principles so it seems to
me like things are going down the stock
market's down this feels like a time
where you want dry powder you'd want to
be able to start buying I have a
principle Notch to try to time the
market out of ignorance to myself there
might be people more savvy than me but
when you look at the numbers that never
seems to pan out it's like less than
five percent of people can beat that I
agree even for two years so it's like
just seems like a sort of crazy thing
but if there are principles that we can
apply to say okay
the beginning of a recession is never
I'm just making it up to give you an
example of a principle the beginning of
a recession is never the time you want
to do it you want to do it 18 months
after the reset that I don't know what
it is but yeah I don't believe in any of
that unlike you generally you cannot
time the market it's going to be pretty
much impossible that's why I think the
things that you can control are uh the
effort that you put into your job
staying employed keeping an income as
far as real estate's concerned the
things you do have control do you shop
around your mortgage interest rate do
you make offers on houses are you
aggressive with your offers do you
understand the market and can you find a
home that you feel is undervalued or a
home that needs some work because any
one of those things you have direct
control over a lot of these things in
hindsight yes it's easy to say that you
know the Market's lower in 2010 as it
was in 2008 and in nice it's very easy
to say well now all these investors are
buying in and probably they're right uh
but I think for the average person for
what they can control those few things
will set them up way better than most
okay so do you have time Timeless
principles that you think apply In This
Moment like let me ask blatantly is this
a better opportunity than most to make
money given that I mean I know that
they're saying that this isn't
technically yet a recession I would
disagree but
um is this a better time than most or it
literally doesn't matter way better than
last year but a lot of it's in hindsight
I mean anything could change so quickly
so I think forecasting anything is is
very difficult for me personally I see
and this is again just what I'm doing I
probably see an opportunity in
commercial real estate prices are
already down about 15 from their High I
think if cap rates are right now four
and a half five percent so property is
yielding let's just say five percent but
you could get a treasury right now for
the next two years at 4.6 percent
the risk premium is not there for
commercial so I feel like prices should
have to come down I could be totally
wrong here but I think prices and
Commercial have to come down to reflect
the yield that would entice investors to
buy into it and I think a lot of sellers
haven't caught up yet I think real
estate generally lags quite a long time
because you have sellers who've locked
in interest rates who don't need to sell
so what you see turning over are the
properties that have to sell were the
ones that really want to sell and move
and so that only reflects a small part
of the market so it takes time to catch
up so for me personally I think probably
in the next year there's probably
opportunity in commercial but it's so
location dependent too it's like every
location is going to be different La
went down more than you know parts of
the Midwest terms of uh sales so it's
every location is so different it's like
saying you know the whole stock market's
going to go down when maybe this stock
goes up and this one goes down and this
one stays the same how much do you use
the bond market like can we abstract
that I get how you're using in real
estate but can we abstract that and
apply it against all asset classes or do
you not think about the bond market like
that I think I think some of it I think
when it comes to the stock market I have
no idea so I'm just buying index funds
and I've just continued buying the exact
same amount for the last few years
because that's not your area of
expertise I just think when it comes to
timing the market it's pretty much
impossible and I know myself enough to
know that I can't do that
um so I do look at bond yields to the
extent of well if I'm getting
4.4 percent of my money right now
what's the risk premium that you'd have
to make in the stock market to bridge
that Gap to take the risk
um
I see for myself probably just taking a
diversified approach I mean I have like
30 cash right now but a lot of that's to
buy commercial and that's something I
want to wait on until I find the right
opportunity but until then I just low
ball properties and to see what sticks
I'm going to make an aggressive
statement tell me if you agree or
disagree day trading is financial
suicide correct yeah so it's interesting
when I I really want there to be like
this really sexy answer and that I'm
just not smart enough and if I could
just figure this out then I'd really
blow it up
um but I get the feeling that the right
answer for stock market investing in
fact now I'm going to abstract it the
right answer for investing is as follows
and gram stuff and it's going to slap me
around if I get this wrong
you want to have a diversified portfolio
you want to blindly invest in a set of
index funds that are very well known and
highly respected and when I say blindly
I I mean as blindly as possible the S P
500 would be a good example you're going
to put whatever amount you're going to
put into the stock market is going to be
wildly disproportionately into index
funds like that you're going to dollar
cost average in because who knows and
you can't time the market
and you're going to only invest the
amount of money that you can leave in
for 20 years that's pretty good like a
basic thing yeah
um you might take some portion of your
portfolio or the money that you're going
to invest because God in my early 20s I
wouldn't even know what you meant by
portfolio uh the amount of money that
you're going to invest and do something
that's higher risk if you want you can
day trade it but just if you're day
trading it understand that that is
literally going to the roulette wheel
and throwing it down you did a really
fun experiment where you literally had a
monkey yeah that did well yeah which is
awesome in fact walk people through so
the reason that I've come to that sort
of basic breakdown we can get into the
so every time you talk real estate
people listening need to understand you
have expertise in real estate that's
really important because that becomes
the other part yes that ties back to
your initial thing that if you're an
expert in something double down on it
this is why I pour so much money into my
business this is what I know how to do
so for somebody else investing the kind
of money that I'm investing into a
business would be suicidal but for me
given how long I've been doing it while
it's still very high risk and I'm not
foolish enough to think that it's not
it's a far more controlled risk for me
in an area of expertise but anyway I've
talked to a lot of people about just
sort of what what is that average saying
that the average person should do it's
about being in the market for a long
time dollar cost averaging and holding
doing the thing that's really kind of
impossible sounds easy but isn't Buy Low
sell High we can get into why people
can't do that psychologically it it is
almost impossible for the average person
to actually do that which is why very
few people make money but walk me
through the reality of why you could
beat
I forget you listed all the different
people that you beat with the monkey
picking the stocks oh yeah but why did
that work what's your hypothesis well
initially going into it there was a
study that smaller stocks performed
slightly better because they have more
growth potential and so at that time
everything was going up and I saw my
risk investing in because this was
really just I took the S P 500
and then I correlated a random number
generator to correspond to each ranking
out of 500 stocks on that list I knew
just right off the bat S P 500 companies
are probably going to do well picking 10
of them gives me a big enough sample
size where I know I'm not going to lose
all my money I mean it's possible but
like highly unlikely and then I think it
was smaller stocks generated on average
and I could be wrong here I'm just off
the top of my head I think it was like
11 and a half percent
while larger stocks returned an average
of like eight percent eight and a half
something like that so I thought chances
are over one year this should end up
doing better but even my worst case I
looked at the the downside risk first
and like realistically downside I I
could lose 40 30 but the upside is
whatever I did it for the video I didn't
really care so this could have gone down
to zero and be like hey guys well here's
a video on it now I lost all my money
that was my thought process going
through it but it performed quite well
better than I ever expected it made 44
in the first year uh which I think is a
is a testament that like anyone could
make money in 2020 and 2021 it didn't
matter what you were investing in and I
think it gave a lot of people false
confidence that they could both time the
market and also that they were good
investors when a monkey made 44 and that
was picked out of a you know glass
container
okay so you tried again it fails do you
think that it failed just because of the
market conditions change yeah it
actually didn't do as bad as I thought
um I think the monkey portfolio was down
at the time I did the video the monkey
portfolio was down 20 percent
the S P 500 was down 17 so it didn't
quite lag as like it did better than I'm
sure a lot of personal portfolios out
there of individual stock picks uh
didn't do bad I mean because the money
was either going to be invested for a
YouTube video or the S P or like a total
stock market index fund so being down 20
and being able to like use this as an
experiment I think it's a win
okay so I took from that some principles
about why people have such a hard time
buying low and selling High I'm really
curious to see what you think about this
so to me this is purely a game of
psychology you've got the reason people
the reason the average person I want to
be very clear I'm not talking about your
Warren buffetts and people like that who
just have an insane amount of discipline
their principles which is again the kind
of thing I'm always trying to get back
to is how do we abstract this into a
principle
but the principle that I abstract out of
the monkey example is that the monkey is
obviously picking unemotionally they're
not trying to look cool whatever they
don't even know what they're doing
they're just reaching into a thing now
you've
pre-defined what they're going to choose
from so it's not as wide of a gamut
where they could randomly pick you know
penny stocks that are going to end up
being you know terrible lead companies
so we we ran them in a bit but they're
not picking emotionally they aren't
making the classic mistake that people
make which is when you hear something on
Twitter or you read something in an
article whatever it feels almost like
Insider information it feels like I'm
alone in my room I'm coming across this
piece of information it feels like
somebody's sort of whispering in my ear
I feel now smart clever for paying
attention I feel like I know something
somebody else doesn't I don't recognize
that by the time that information makes
it into a tweet or an article it's
already priced into the stock so I go
and grab it then the other thing that
I'm not accounting for is just how long
a year two years three years five years
20 years really is and the reason that I
can't anticipate how long that is is
because I don't know what it's like to
be judged by the anonymous people on the
internet my family Etc so I go from this
moment of feeling like I'm cool which
got me to buy the sinks I think I know
something other people don't know that
makes me feel special to the internet is
telling me I'm a [ __ ] idiot and that
that's okay if I only have to survive
that for a month or two months maybe so
six months I can like swallow it if
things start moving again
but dude to look like a dumbass for two
years
most people just can't do it they didn't
invest in a thesis yeah so how do you
advise people to combat that human
proclivity uh I always think it helps to
look at the historical data I mean
anytime I make a video I I
I'll sometimes put in my thoughts at the
end but I make the entire subject of the
video about the historical data and I
work really hard to make sure that
anything I say is verified or has some
sort of significance to it that's what
makes me feel better personally is just
hey if the Market's down 20 here's the
last 10 times it's bound you know been
down 20 and here's how it looks 15 years
later and here's the the studies on this
and that I think it was in the first
year of investing you have a 70 chance
of being profitable that goes up to 80
something 85 in the second year at 90 in
the third year by the time you get to 20
years so far in the past over like a
hundred and something years it's been
100 positive
sure there could always be that one time
where it's like yep that was the time I
invested it wasn't after 20 it's always
possible but when you look at dollar
cost averaging over over that 20 years
um you have such a wide margin of
getting dividends of buying lower if it
keeps dropping that should even out so I
just look at the data and that to me
makes me feel safer just seeing what
it's done in the past and recognizing
that what we're going through today is
unique but it's nothing that people in
the past didn't also think was unique
where do you go to find the data
I look through the most boring studies
uh anything that I could find on that
there have been multiple Harvard studies
and I read through like the full-on
90 to 100 page like
dissertations on investing I find the
randomest sources through Google all
just find their sources that they've
listed and then find the original like
sometimes I'll see something on CNBC
and they'll include a chart on there and
it said you know source of this study
and then I'll search for that study and
I'll read the whole thing to see where
they pulled that one chart from and see
like the background how they came to
that like I go really into this just
because I find it interesting and
usually you could find some other hidden
gems in there as well how much do you
let that so if we both agree that the
the most widely usable
process for approaching this is hands
off it's long term how much are you
using that information to actually
inform how you're investing versus
um I guess just an almost research
analytical Fascination a lot of the
analytical Fascination is purely just so
I can make a video talking about it
um for people who haven't seen other
videos I find it interesting honestly
none of it's needed I mean at the end of
the day I think a total World stock
market index fund is probably the ideal
approach for a lot of people so um is
that what you have yeah okay so Nick so
I have the s p i have a world market
index or some overlap there and
international stocks all right let's
start breaking these down for people
what is the S P 500 top 500 largest
publicly traded stocks in the US and so
that encompasses everything from Tesla
Apple Amazon is there a group of humans
looking at that deciding who to leave on
yeah so they have a Review Committee and
there are requirements that must be met
in order to be within the s p and what
happens is that as other companies come
up they'll eventually replace those uh
that don't meet that minimum requirement
or maybe let's say stock number 499 is
not performing as well as this other
stock over here so swap it out and I
think that Review Committee meets
gosh like I don't know if I think it's
every quarter
that fund then is being managed at that
point they're actually selling some of
my shares because I've bought into this
whole thing they sell some and they buy
some other they'll rebalance correct
okay very interesting yeah that way
that's why it was such a big deal and
Tesla was being added because the big
talk was that oh they're going to have
to sell and like buy such a huge
quantity of Tesla stock to allocate it
because it was at the very top so I
don't know the exact numbers on that but
I remember that being such a big talking
point of like how how many people are
going to buy Tesla stock now that it's
included interesting so all right that's
the S P 500 talk to me about the more
Global stuff and and how do I get access
to that is this like are you what do you
recommend people do Vanguard Robin Hood
something else you could use any big
brokerage
um as far you could go you know a step
further total stock market index it
includes like small cap studs smaller
companies
um be a little bit more volatile but you
include way more companies and
um I also believe International stocks
is a place for them I think a lot of
people get worried that uh that
International has underperformed the US
for quite some time but there are also
times I think during the the 70s and 90s
that International stocks outperformed
the US and I just see that as a bit of a
counterbalance where you know hey the US
is not doing as well perhaps
International stocks might the truth is
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description alright my friend back to
today's episode give us a rough
breakdown of where your portfolio is
assume people don't know you because I
know you've covered this yeah uh just
right off the bat it's probably 30
something percent real estate 30
something percent
stocks and all the stocks are not 85 of
stocks are probably index funds for the
most part 15 larger companies or larger
individual positions within that that I
have uh 30-ish percent cash 10 would be
other and that might be alternative
Investments
um the crypto allocation I have I think
it's about three percent and that's a
split 50 50 Bitcoin ethereum
um I'm sure there's some other little I
mean that's about is that schmuck
insurance or do you actually think
there's something there
I think perhaps there's something there
I'd rather take a small risk and be in
it than no risk and not
um I've basically any anything I invest
in crypto I just mentally write it off
as zero I just assume it's nothing and
if something comes from that great but
I'm not banking on it I think it's
incredibly interesting and I like the
premise of it but
I have to see it as uh something to have
that's a part of like the risky you know
I think five percent you know risky play
something you know it kind of gets it
out of your system for me that would be
Bitcoin ethereum now in terms of time
allocation how much of your time are you
spending in real estate versus the
stocks and all that stocks is automated
uh that I just buy a little bit every
single day and that's been my thing
literally automated or no automated I do
it okay it's part of my routine it's so
weird but I like being able to like buy
every day so it's the first thing I do
when I wake up is I open my app and I
just place the order it's the exact same
dollar side what you're gonna buy that
day is it just equally distributed or
probably distributed oh yeah I buy the
exact same thing it's just the the s p
International for the most part it's a
total stock market just every day maybe
you could do that men or automatically
is there a reason that you do that
manually
no it's just that I I don't know I just
I have a routine where it's every
morning it says like as I'm waking up
I'm still in bed it's like I'm on the
market bye
it's just I've gotten a habit I've been
doing that now for two and a half years
almost three years three years
interesting and do you uh ever find
because I've heard you say that you'll
check the market see if there's
something that you're gonna make a video
about and if not you go back to bed
and I thought that seems like a recipe
for getting stressed and getting
immediately out of bed every day I'm
always out of bed every day yeah okay uh
I'll never really go back to bed but
every morning I will check what's going
on the market but part of that is like I
feel like that's my job in a sense of
like talking about what's going on on
the market so it's up to me to pick the
topics that I think are going to do well
um you have any sort of emotional
reaction when you see it
no upside down doesn't matter oh no no
it doesn't matter generally when the
Market's down there are more interesting
topics I found
um someone said this or someone did that
and for me I just enjoy talking about
them I'm just like
it's like imagine if you were really
interested in lots of coffee and like
the coffee Mart like having a buddy you
could talk to every single day guess
what just happened with coffee today
this and that it's just I enjoy it um
what are the big levers that you pay
attention to like obviously the FED
raising rates all that stuff matters or
does it it certainly seems to from my
Layman's position yeah it does I think
it has a huge impact on the market I
think an inflation
I I pay attention closely but I also
know that it's not exactly rooted in
what a lot of people are experiencing I
mean by that the inflation numbers that
they have uh they hand select certain
things like owner's equivalent of rents
is a great example where it's you're not
getting the full rent increase because
you're getting what an owner would rent
out their home for uh instead of what
rents actually are if someone were to
leave their building and go rent
something new so that skews a little bit
uh you also account for
additional features that were no longer
available like let's say your iPhone uh
20 years ago that would have been they
would attract the cost of like what's a
phone and what's in you know having a
computer and having a you know a camera
and how those have all gone up in price
but those have become now somewhat
obsolete with your phone so they so they
group those together to come up with an
inflation number based on your phone
um same with food it's can does the
price stay the same but you get less
quantity shrinkflation how does that
play it so there are ways that they can
subtly manipulate the inflation numbers
to a certain degree I believe in certain
categories they can be higher or lower
depending on like what you're spending
money on uh but in that sense it's it's
interesting once you start diving into
exactly how they calculate the inflation
rate and they have a whole they have I
don't know a hundred things that they
calculate from like you know the cost of
bidding your haircuts to you know the
cost of used cars new cars I mean it's
it's wild what what could be tracked and
how much does that does that influence
you from a Content creation standpoint
or does that influence how you actually
approach your investing no as far as
investing now purely content creation I
mean everything that I do day to day is
just it's my life it's what I think
about 24 7 is just like what would make
a good video that's all I think about
it's interesting so that's I separate
that from investing it's just like I
could not do anything and just buy into
the market every day keep an eye out for
a good real estate deal that makes sense
compare that with what with what I could
get with treasury so it's like I look at
my options to think what are the best
options right now where can I find the
most opportunity that's all I would do
if I was not doing YouTube do you make
more off of the investing or off of the
YouTube YouTube by far but investing is
passive it's like a lot of people say
well no you make all your money with
YouTube but it's true but I'm not
spending you know 12 hours a day seven
days a week working my investing
um YouTube is like a job but investing
is is still substantial for me and how
did you make your earliest money I'm
guessing that was all pre-youtube that
was all YouTube I hit my first million
before making a YouTube video and part
part of my reasoning for making the
YouTube video is that I could say like I
was a millionaire and use that in the
title and so like that was part of it
was like my first video how I became a
millionaire in real estate by 26 and
that was my first video
um the first million was a combination
of working as a real estate agent
increasing my income reinvesting all of
that into buying real estate in 2011
early 2012 I bought three properties
it's just off of commissions you were
making as a correct
um
three properties those went up in value
and then I saved save save save save
save save and then I bought another
property I think it was 2015 uh in West
Los Angeles I didn't get the job by the
way so for people that don't know you
worked for the oppenheim group
that's the guys behind Sunset happens to
be the guys that sold me the house that
we're in right now yeah how what was it
about
you because I spoke to Jason about you
oh that's cool and yeah asked him what
he thought about you uh and he said you
were very sharp but I'm curious what it
is that you think made you so good
getting to A Million by 26 is freakish
sort of no matter what the industry and
to get the attention of a high performer
like that I'm curious what you think
what was your skill set other than being
bright we'll take that off the table
that's clear
um well in the beginning I was just I
wouldn't take no for an answer I think
it was very stubborn because when I was
getting my real estate license I wanted
to go and meet other agents so every
single Sunday for months I'd go to open
houses and I'd schedule out just the
open houses worth more than 5 million
bucks because I knew that like I wanted
to sell those houses one day and I go to
open houses and just meet other agents
and just say like hey get my license and
I must have looked so young yeah I
didn't know I didn't know how to dress
either because I would wear this like
over like uh oversized like button-down
shirt and like I would tuck it into my
pants it was horrible thank God I don't
have any pictures back then but I would
go to these agents and just ask like hey
I'm getting my license what do you
recommend like what can I learn what how
do you get your clients and almost
everybody was saying that was a bad time
to get in the real estate industry uh
things are really slight you should go
to college almost everyone said that uh
there were one agent was really nice her
name was Ginger glass and she's also a
top agent here in La she was one of the
few people who actually gave me some
advice is like that's a great business
here's how I made you know here's how I
met a lot of clients here's what you
could do she was fantastic one of the
few people I remember that do you
remember Ginger's Secrets no
damn it what's that no I'm just so
curious I know like what are the what
are the classics that Ginger handed over
I don't remember I just remember her
answers being like very kind uh and her
taking the time I think it was maybe
five minutes it was a busy open house in
Bel Air but I remember her taking the
time and just you know talking to me I
don't remember exactly what the
specifics were I was going I was so
nervous like I wasn't that to walk at
the strangers at all so I was like
forcing myself to go up and talk to
people
um but the one I do remember uh I went
up to an open house in Bel Air I walked
in it was so slow that day like no one
had was coming in I think that the home
was priced at like four and a half
million around there and I talked to
this agent for like two hours and just
like he got also in the business when he
was 18 he was foreign he said he moved
to America could barely speak the
language was working as a server got his
real estate license and ended up doing
incredibly well and I think he started
like 2002 something like that or early
2000s and he offered me out opportunity
after after two hours of talking he said
hey if you want to come help me out uh
come down to my office the next day like
I showed up and I brought chocolate
covered strawberries as a gift show up
there and I just was just there for the
day just watching him like no
expectation of making money nothing I
just I wanted to learn
and from there it evolved into a
relationship where
I would work with him for free I would
do anything you wanted for free and I
just wanted to learn and any business
that I brought in we would split 50 50.
what do you think about people that
suggest to young people that they should
be willing to work for free worked for
me I think it's it's one of the best
things that you could do even Jack over
here worked for free uh that was that
was his end he sent an email and His
email is just like I just want to help I
just want to learn I don't want anything
in return I just want to do this and it
worked I mean I don't see it as being a
bad thing and for me what it was not
about the money in the beginning I mean
it that was certainly why not I enjoyed
it I don't know it was about the freedom
of being able to be my own boss and feel
like I'm doing something for myself
you're way too smart for that Graham I
don't buy that I think that was part of
it may I offer a potential read please
yeah I have a gut instinct you're smart
enough to know if I stop thinking about
money for now I'll learn money monetizes
once unless you invest well but
knowledge will monetize forever and
that's exactly why I want to throw the
table over every time I hear somebody
say that oh you should never let
somebody like take advantage of you like
that don't work for free it's like brah
if I'm gonna be able able to get the
information the contacts from somebody
that's already doing it well all day
I'll work for free I'd work for free now
for whoever like if they've got
something that I need to know I'm in
yeah and so it's just it's insane to me
that there's become this cultural
pushback you're not getting taken
advantage of unless you're doing it
poorly
so all right anyway so we go to this guy
we're working for free he's gonna Now
teach us something did he end up
teaching you something that you
everything I would say everything in the
beginning really for the first
two years three years I would do
anything you wanted
um he wants me to go to an open house
early
turn on all the lights get it ready
print out all the listing paper like
anything but I learned that's how I
learned I learned how to do everything
from like putting up open house signs to
how to show a client I would just be
sitting there he'd be showing around a
client and I would just be turning on
the lights listening to how he would
present the property how many hours a
week are you working at this point
every day probably 12 hours a day but I
loved it I mean I didn't I just wanted
to do that if you loved it because you
like real estate because you like people
or the freedom potential I was obsessed
with it I just I think I had this
personality trait where I latch on to
like one thing and I just get obsessed
with it and I do nothing but that and
for me at that time was real estate I
just how do you make the most out of
obsession how do you translate that into
something usable do you think about like
all right you have to know I want to
sell a 10 million dollar house in the
next three years and there now I have a
goal and I'm going to obsess over things
that actually can lead me to that or do
you just more this seems exciting I'm
going to pursue it I don't know what's
going how have you managed to
to make use of your obsession I did just
intuition I don't know it just it felt
to me like the right choice and I just
did it
interesting I just tweeted about
intuition today really I get ragey over
intuition do you think that you're born
with Intuition or do you think that you
had somehow trained your intuition
generally I've always had a feeling of
what I should be doing and I've just
left it maybe
I I don't know I I couldn't tell you
um
like in high school I was drawn to the
drums or middle school actually I was
drawn to the drums and uh I played in
the middle school jazz band and they had
like this little rinky drum set and I
just practiced on that and that led to
like me meeting so many friends in high
school because I you had to play the
drums you could play in like you know
High School bands and whatnot
that just felt like the right choice at
the time
um aquariums were a big thing for me too
and and uh High School I worked
part-time at a marine aquarium also I
just love that was another thing I just
got obsessed with it I just loved
aquariums for some reason and that was
another thing I would work for free in
the beginning I didn't care about making
money I just wanted to be around fish
and coral like I found that so much fun
um are you really just to follow your
bliss kind of guy or at least in the
early years I think in the early years
now I probably get two in my head about
things you know if I have an intuition I
should be doing this it's it's hard now
I overthink things whereas I think in
the past I was more just like free about
it like that
uh
I don't know I I probably just the
experience of just having more reference
points of like hey these things worked
out in the past like before like if
something didn't work out I'd have it
wouldn't make a difference I would just
you know I was young and just do
anything is it that you have something
to lose now Perhaps Perhaps that that's
it or there's more on the line there's
more risk
um YouTube has probably changed that a
lot because now there's so many people
watching yeah so anything I do I feel
the pressure of just like being watched
where if it's just me
you know you could pivot you could do
whatever it's it's just me but I I think
there's definitely that added layer of
just like well what if I do is wrong or
what if it doesn't work and just that
pressure now
probably more FTX thing
add I mean it's it's a terrible
situation that's something that I never
saw coming I never expected it and that
and that was a real wake-up call for me
of just like you know I hate to say I
trusted them and so going through that
uh feeling like
you know I put my name on something and
going through that whole experience and
seeing the impact that's had and then
learning a lot about this like real time
on Twitter has been
both a horrible experience
but also eye-opening of just like this
is this you know I I put myself in the
line of fire on this and so that's
something I'll make sure never happens
or I'll do my best so when you think
about doing your best and obviously I
have a vested interest in learning from
you because when you're selecting
advertisers there's a certain level of
like uh how even just how you can
conduct a level of due diligence is
difficult so
how will you avoid something like that
again
I think right off the bat it's
I won't talk about anything that's not
FDIC or sipc insured I think for me
mentally I thought I was in the clear
because I wasn't talking about like a
crypto coin I wasn't talking about any
specific investment I'm like The
Brokerage itself and I've been a huge
proponent of you know five percent you
know less than five percent of your net
worth if you want you could risk it and
that's what I'm doing
um
I think putting that amount of trust in
a company like that who doesn't have the
proper Protections in place was a was a
mistake what is up my friend Tom bilyu
here and I have a big question to ask
you how would you rate your level of
personal discipline on a scale of one to
ten if your answer is anything less than
a ten I've got something cool for you
and let me tell you right now discipline
by its very nature means compelling
yourself to do difficult things that are
stressful boring which is what kills
most people or possibly scary or even
painful now here is the thing achieving
huge goals and stretching to reach your
potential requires you to do those
challenging stressful things and to
stick with them even when it gets boring
and it will get boring building your
levels of personal discipline is not
easy but let me tell you it pays off in
fact I will tell you you're never going
to achieve anything meaningful unless
you develop discipline all right I've
just released a class from Impact Theory
university called how to build Ironclad
discipline that teaches you the process
of building yourself up in this area so
that you can push yourself to do the
hard things the greatness is going to
require of you right click the link on
the screen register for this class right
now and let's get to work I will see you
inside this Workshop from Impact Theory
University until then my friends be
legendary peace out
and so going back to the idea of people
watching and so it adds like a layer of
I don't know just add something
different to choices how has the
reaction been and how do you think about
navigating that as you move forward is
it has it been mild and you don't really
have to think about it or has there been
a lot of pushback and it's something
that you're navigating through with your
community because like so we did
nfts doing nfts I'm a huge believer and
so when we launched my whole thing was
hey don't treat this like an investment
vehicle uh this is something we're going
to build for the long term I don't know
if it's going to go up in price or not
and so when we launched and it didn't
rock it to the moon everybody like blew
up and it was it was the first time
where I realized oh there's a difference
between an audience and a community and
so now I was like oh wow this is
um this is a whole thing like I need to
put all my time and energy into managing
the community and figuring out how uh
you know we process through this and get
everybody to understand where we're
going where we're like all that and so
um that was really big what we ended up
doing is different because it's a
product so I because my background is
product it was easy I just gave people
refunds if they wanted a refund but how
do you think about managing the
community or has it not been that kind
of issue it's been uh an effort to sift
through and find the constructive
criticism because there are people who
are going to hate I think no matter what
you do and you know they could they
could find anything they want to if they
look hard enough and I believe that you
know there are some very valid points
that I do need to take into
consideration and it so it's for me it's
sifting through and finding the ones
that I feel are coming from a good place
that I could Implement for myself
so has there been anything from that
that you're like okay that's the the
good stuff obviously the the vitriolic
responses we can set aside but is there
what's like the Keen insight as all of
us try to navigate this especially me
because I'm not trying to get out of the
web through world I'm going deeper I'm
going deeper into crypto it's more
interesting I believe in it more than
ever but it's like I in a million years
never would have guessed just the level
of scams that awaited yeah
um
so we've got the making sure that
something is pre-verified that makes a
lot of sense are there other things that
the community's thrown out yeah I mean I
never understood just how much
you know anytime I talk about something
how much my face and my likeness and
just me as a person and my reputation is
tied to that
um you know for instance I've talked all
the time about Ally Bank and I've been
using it for years now
um I never made the connection so much
of like
how much my name is now associated with
that or any product I talk about
discover is another one it's like I've
never been sponsored by them but I just
I like their credit card that much but I
worry that if even I talk about
something like I highly doubt anything's
gonna discover but I'm just saying like
you never know like I I've been proven
wrong and it makes me very weary about
uh talking about anything where I have
my whole reputation tied to that I think
is a risk that I never fully considered
to that point or to that extent
yeah I hear that it is uh it is a
fascinating thing the big advantage to a
company that's using uh you know a
personality like you or me is that hey
it's like they get to hear the words
coming out of my mouth and that
obviously means something but at the
same time I'm not going to tell you I'm
using it unless I'm actually using it so
it's this really fascinating thing I'm
watching Jordan Peterson navigate this
in real time where he does not do any of
his own ad reads it's so there's a level
of distance between him and the product
potentially interesting but I think that
in this day and age you're far better
off saying to the audience hey I'm going
to carry some of the weight of like
figuring out who these people are doing
my best yeah but in the end there's only
going to be able to there's only so much
that you're going to be able to do ahead
of time it's interesting I run into
um because I haven't done a lot of
crypto stuff despite my presence in the
space for me it's more on the health
side so I'm like God always as a guy
that owned a nutrition company and that
lives by certain things and is
constantly talking about what I actually
eat I feel like an obligation to only
bring on advertisers I won't say that I
use because we definitely have a lot of
advertisers I don't use but that are
things that I think somebody else could
benefit from
but yeah it's a it's a tricky landscape
I agree how much interaction do you have
with your community like so I have a
Discord so it's like hyper interactive
yeah it's a lot I I that was another
thing I became obsessive of up until a
million subscribers I answered 99 of the
comments I mean almost every single
comment
uh just like I you know buy stocks every
morning I would not get out of bed until
I answered every single comment Jesus
and then I wouldn't go to bed until
every comment was answered like up until
the point where I last stopped and just
like throughout the day I did that for a
million subscribers because I didn't
know any other creator that would do
that and I felt like that's something
that I could do for the audience because
I know how much for me I love YouTube
and so if I commented on like someone's
video that I was watching before even
making videos if that person responded
to me like that made my day and so I
thought if I could give that back to
another person
why why am I not doing that especially
if they take the time to subscribe or
watch my video I'm like so appreciative
of that so like if they comment I'm
gonna do my best to comment back now it
got to a point where I spent like four
hours a day on comments and it became it
started to hinder my ability to do
anything else so like I cut down
dramatically but even now I still spend
an hour after every video post
responding in the comments
it's really cool I think that's a big
way to make people feel connect