Ryan Serhant Reveals The MINDSET Behind His Billion Dollar Empire

In this episode of the School of Greatness, I sat down with real estate mogul and Netflix star Ryan Serhant to explore the intersection of success, happiness, and purpose. From his humble beginnings as a hand model to building a revolutionary real estate empire and starring in the #1 show on Netflix, Ryan opens up about his relentless drive for excellence and his recent revelations about what truly matters in life. He shares raw insights about turning 40 and realizing he'd spent two decades chasing importance instead of happiness. This conversation dives deep into the mindset of billion-dollar success while examining the personal cost of endless ambition. Whether you're an entrepreneur, sales professional, or someone seeking to understand the delicate balance between achievement and fulfillment, this episode will challenge your perspective on what it means to live a truly successful life. Learn how to build an empire like Ryan's: Sellit.comCheck out Ryan's Netflix Series "Owning Manhattan" on Netflix! IN THIS EPISODE YOU WILL LEARN:How to differentiate between chasing importance versus pursuing genuine happinessThe strategic approach to scaling businesses 100X instead of settling for incremental growthWhy making luck "easy to find" through consistent hard work is the key to breakthrough successThe crucial difference between inherited wealth versus earned wealth mindsetsHow to build a company culture that encourages honest feedback and constructive disagreementThe power of focusing on what your customer needs rather than what you think they wantFor more information go to https://www.lewishowes.com/1689For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:Mark Matson – http://greatness.lnk.to/1675SCGlennda Baker – http://greatness.lnk.to/1651SCNoah Kagan – http://greatness.lnk.to/1572SC Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  I like subconsciously told myself, one day I'm gonna figure out what my thing is. And once I do, everybody better watch the out because I am going to go so hard. I don't know what it's gonna be. Once I figure out what I want and what I'm great at, I will never, ever, ever let it go.

• 0:16Speaker 01

  Joining us right now is real estate broker Ryan Serhant. Owning Manhattan star Ryan Serhant. Are you ready to meet Ryan? The legendary Ryan Serhant.

• 0:24Lewis Howes?

  What about people who want to invest in real estate in 2025?

• 0:28Speaker 00

  I think that what we'll see in 2025 is.

• 0:31Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 0:32Speaker 00

  And I realized in that moment that I'd spent the last 20 years waking up every day to feel important instead of waking up every day to feel happy. People are no longer afraid of being failures. They're afraid of being embarrassed.

• 0:44Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 0:44Speaker 00

  So they won't try because they care about failing. They then don't try because they don't want other people to know it didn't work out.

• 0:50Lewis Howes?

  What other habits do billionaires have that have helped you level up your life and your business? Just by being around them.

• 0:57Speaker 00

  They.

• 0:59Lewis Howes?

  Ryan Serhant is here on the School of Greatness, very excited about being with you because you have continued the way. I think I started finding you back in 2008, kind of when I started. I think you're on Million Dollar Listing back in 2010, 11, 12. When was that? When did you first start?

• 1:15Speaker 00

  I auditioned in 2010. The show came out in 2012.

• 1:17Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, so we kind of came up in the online marketing space, doing different things around the same time. And I watched your journey and for me, it's really inspiring to see how consistently you've been in showing up for yourself and risking new ideas, trying new things and failing and trying new things and succeeding. And I don't think people understand the level of commitment you have to your vision and your mission.

• 1:43Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:44Lewis Howes?

  We're not best friends or anything, but I see it from afar. I see the actions you take. I see the way you connect with your team. I see how you do content and how you keep innovating and trying stuff. And trying stuff that doesn't always work. Like I see you trying stuff. I'm like, man, he's taking a risk there. I like that. And didn't really do that well, but he tried it, you know, it's like, but I'm like, not many people are willing to try stuff that doesn't work.

• 2:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:06Lewis Howes?

  And be okay with it.

• 2:07Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:07Lewis Howes?

  And you're just like, all right, that piece of content got a thousand views as opposed to a million, but we tried something new. We risked it to see.

• 2:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:14Lewis Howes?

  And the way you keep showing up is really inspiring and how you've, you know, and I don't think people see behind the scenes enough. You show behind the scenes, but I don't think they really see behind the scenes enough. Not that they need to see it. But how you think constantly of we need to think bigger, we need to try different, we need to hire different, all these different things. For me, it's really inspiring because you keep getting big wins every, you know, two to three years, you come out with a book, sometimes it does really well or not. TV show, boom, it crushes. You tried the software, you tried the app, you tried these things. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. The fact that you keep showing up consistently.

• 2:52Speaker 00

  I think you can have a lot of income streams. You can do a lot of different things. But it's very difficult to have multi-level passions. You know, like you can have a career, a couple of jobs, a couple of hobbies, but everyone always has like their passion, you know, maybe your passion is really your kids. Maybe it's really your spouse, you know, maybe it's really that sport, you know, and I think you gotta figure out what are your multi-level businesses that align with like that singular passion? And so that was a realization for me before I started all the companies. Because I felt like you did, I felt like, okay, I'm doing this, I'm doing this, I'm speaking here, I'm selling real estate, then I'm on this TV show, and then I'm doing, and then I'm over here and what am I doing?

• 3:35Speaker 00

  And I was passionate about the work until I took a setback and realized, okay, wait, am I really passionate about the work? Am I passionate about the results? And if I'm passionate about sales as an unlock for, for human potential in the twenties and thirties and the future, to control your own income, to control your own life, then I gotta be also passionate about retention and I have to be passionate about finding my tree branches. So if I'm the oak tree and I get to have all these rings, then I need to have tree branches, which are people, who if they were physically fucking attached to me, it would be fine.

• 4:17Speaker 00

  Like so great that they could be a part of my tree. And I, I had done the opposite. I was trying to find people that were like so different from me, people who could take me to here and take me to there because that's what everyone had always told me. Right? Like, don't hire your, your identical twin, go hire someone who's gonna take you to the next level. And then it was like mixing, you know, it's like apples and oranges. It's like, you're both fruit. But I don't know if I'm in the mood for an orange right now. I don't really want to peel and like the stringy. Like I want an apple, right? It's like, it just doesn't work. So it was finding the passion for me and then being really, really, really focused on, on retention. And creating those branches that allow the oak tree to grow. Otherwise, I'm just losing my mind.

• 5:02Lewis Howes?

  And when you mean retention, you mean of like the people on your team? And you're saying if you were, because I remember hearing that also was like, you want to find out someone who doesn't necessarily like, isn't similar to you, but someone who thinks differently than you. Like if you're a creative, you need an analytical person to like, help you run things or whatever. Right?

• 5:17Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:18Lewis Howes?

  Are you saying more, you need someone like an identical twin to you? As opposed to if you're an apple tree, you need someone that's an apple on your branch, not an orange on your branch.

• 5:27Speaker 00

  Sure. So the way, I guess if I want to, I like alliteration. So like that passion as a core. Okay. So your passion is podcasting versus courses, let's say. So that passion for me is, is sales. It just is what it is. Like, I wish it was coding. I wish it was chemistry. Like it could have been anything else, but it is sales. So my passion is sales. And then how do I build a company using the other Ps? Right? You got to start with purpose. So what the, what's your purpose? And then it's people, product, profit. And that is the math. And like, that is the unlock. And I was going from, okay, I'm passionate about everything. Let's just make money.

• 6:11Speaker 00

  Let's just work and I want to go build this and then I need the right people to help me build it. And so then I was, I had no core passion. I didn't really know exactly what we were building, but I knew I had to go find people for it. And then that can last like a year and then it just breaks you or people start splintering. You start getting the people who are quitting or leaving you. And you've got to find that real kind of like cultural. Kind of a statement, I guess, if you will, where everyone understands, ah, we're all here for the same purpose. And because we're all here from the same purpose, we're all the right people aligned on that right purpose. And then all the right people together, we can build whatever product we want. Because we can now go into, for me, right, real estate brokerage, sales training, enterprise, right?

• 6:56Speaker 00

  We can do media, we can do TV shows, we can do whatever we want.

• 7:01Speaker 00

  And then that all leads down to profits, right? So we can keep the businesses going.

• 7:05Lewis Howes?

  But how do you know what product you love the most? Because you want to have a passion for sales.

• 7:09Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 7:10Lewis Howes?

  But how do you know which product within real estate? Why real estate? And which product? Now you have software, you have books, you have courses, you have like, speaking about real estate, you have everything. How do you know which product to choose?

• 7:22Lewis Howes?

  When you're starting, but also now when you're scaling?

• 7:25Speaker 00

  I think you have to make mistakes and give yourself a lot of room to make those mistakes. I think people are no longer afraid of being failures. They're afraid of being embarrassed.

• 7:36Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 7:37Speaker 00

  So they won't try because they care about failing. They then don't try because they don't want other people to know it didn't work out. And so, as a good example, we started Serhant in 2020. Okay, the depths of COVID in New York City.

• 7:51Lewis Howes?

  Bought the building.

• 7:52Speaker 00

  Everybody said, don't do it.

• 7:54Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 7:54Speaker 00

  Right? So I said, I'm going to go start my own real estate firm, but I have an idea. I have an idea of how things are going to be bought and sold in the future. I'm not going to be able to do it by myself, it's going to take me a second. I'm going to start a sales training platform called SellIt.com. And then we're going to have Studios, which does real estate media, because it's just what we do and it's what we know. And there's going to be an undercurrent of tech enablement, okay? Underneath everything. And I think it's going to be one thing. And so, what I started with was an app called Spaces. That was basically studios in your pocket, so that I could go to 10,000 real estate agents around the world and say, you get to go make your own property tours now, really easy, it'll edit itself, it'll queue itself, it'll capture itself.

• 8:38Speaker 00

  One click, you're done. You don't have to spend the $1,500 that it's going to cost you to do a mini, all that stuff.

• 8:46Speaker 00

  I was the only one who used it.

• 8:47Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 8:48Speaker 00

  I spent all this money and I listened, because it was me saying, I know what you need.

• 8:55Speaker 00

  So that didn't work.

• 8:56Lewis Howes?

  Why didn't people need it?

• 8:58Speaker 00

  Because they didn't want it. So instead of me saying, hey, I know what you need, what I should have said is, What do you want? What do you want? Yeah. Right? But it's tricky because if I ask most people what they want, they don't know what they want until you show it to them. So then I made a virtual world because then I was like, you know what? Screw it. People will make property tours however they want. How do I scale virtual culture? You know, if we have a company of a thousand people, a hundred thousand people, and we don't have brick and mortar offices, it's not like they're in warehouses. All of our people either work at home or they're in their cars, right? They're in other people's properties. How do I scale culture that? How do I align us back to the passion and the purpose? Like, how do I, how do I do that? Through webinars? Like, what do I do? You know what? I'm going to build a virtual world. It's going to be called Serhant Universe.

• 9:43Speaker 00

  And we're all just going to operate in there. Everyone's got multiple screens now. The majority of our salespeople, you know, coming out of high school, they're all on screens all day long. They got Fortnite on pause at home while they're at school. Like, everyone's there. They all have avatars. And I got really excited about the idea of, because I'd never seen a salesperson in a wheelchair. I'd never seen a salesperson who was a military amputee, right? And so we do a lot with vets. And I was like, that could be amazing. Because now you don't have, it doesn't matter what you look like, how you walk, if you can walk, you can now be in sales just like anybody else, anyone who's able bodied. And we're going to do it in this virtual world. And I'm the only one who uses it. Unbelievable. And I spent all this money. I was like, God, guys, come on. It's this whole thing.

• 10:26Speaker 00

  And everyone's like, dude, the last thing I want to do is, is look at another screen. And that's really what it came down to. So I made both of those mistakes. Wow. How much time did that take? It was a year apiece. How much money? A lot. You know, Spaces was a couple hundred grand. Universe was way more. And it's shut down now? No, it's still there, just no one uses it. Because there's no utility. And so when you asked me initially, before I started rambling, like what, how do you determine what product to build? The answer for me is, is I don't, right? It's, it's what, what product does the customer need? And they don't know. And they don't know.

• 11:09Speaker 00

  And so the answers from all of our customers basically brought us to, to the, I guess you call it a software that we just put out called, called simple, um, that I started beta testing in January. But I'd taken the people that helped me build spaces and the people who'd helped me build universe. And I was like, guys, I have another idea. And they're like, oh dude, if you're going to pay us, whatever. Yeah, we'll deal with it. This whole company is just Ryan, just make up. And so I was like, no, no, no. Let's, let's, let's, let's figure out how do, how do we make a screenless company? How do we be screenless? How do we, how do we be buttonless? Like, the answer is always to add more screens or add more buttons. I'd seen all these other companies and they were like, oh, AI now, and we're gonna, here's

• 11:53Speaker 00

  a chatbot and this, that, and then it's just annoying and no one wants to do it. And the response from all of our customers was, uh, we don't want to do more things. We actually want to do less things. We don't want to download more apps and games and programs. Exactly. And then I had this light bulb moment of, ah, so maybe it isn't about having an underlying element of tech enablement. Maybe it's about empowerment using machine learning and everything else we have at our, our fingertips now. And so we created simple, which replaces work. It does work for salespeople. It's, it's a niche, right? It's, it's in the sales world. So for real estate agents in the United States for now, um, uh, it does the work for them. It's like Instacart, but for work.

• 12:36Speaker 00

  So all the administrative work gets to go away and it replaces boring work. That's nice. Everybody uses it. That's exciting. Like everybody, like the, the, the usage rate, it's like 97%. So instead of just Ryan, then it's 97%. We're like, oh. Okay, so now we'll go hard into simple. And people, you know, purpose, people, product now, right?

• 13:01Lewis Howes?

  Now you've figured out the product that works.

• 13:03Speaker 00

  Yeah. You have to stumble, you have to make mistakes, you have to have good people around you, who are also willing to tell you no. Like, it's part of our interview process, too. I get, I'm very, very focused on trying to find people who aren't mean, but who are not afraid to say no. Because you surround yourself with yes people because you pay their bills, and you will go bankrupt. Because they will yes you to their next job. And you gotta surround yourself with people that are so passionate that they are willing to make you angry and make you upset. And I definitely have those people now.

• 13:38Lewis Howes?

  Wow, really?

• 13:38Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's, it's, you know, it's not as much, it's not as comfortable as it used to be, but the business is so much better for it. Because I'm not always right. In fact, most of the times I'm, I'm wrong, but I, I really want to understand how we get to the why. And so I've been able to scale now by surrounding myself with leaders who are 100% comfortable with saying no to themselves, to other people, to me. And we just count the no's till we get to the yes. And it makes for a massive business.

• 14:12Lewis Howes?

  Wow. One thing I want to ask you about, I want to talk about kind of the billion dollar mindset that you have and how you've built that and developed it, how people can build a million or billion dollar mindset for themselves. I want to talk about real estate a little bit, investing in real estate today. You had a prediction at the beginning of 2024, five bold predictions of this year. I'm not sure if you remember this. I'm going to share some of the quotes that you had from this.

• 14:35Speaker 00

  I'm making a lot of predictions.

• 14:35Lewis Howes?

  I know. I'm going to share some of the stuff you said from this, it was an article in February called Five Bold Predictions For The Real Estate Game In 2024. I'm curious if any of those things have come true. And also your predictions for 2025. But first, before I dive into that stuff, I want to ask you, how is your heart?

• 14:53Speaker 00

  So I went to the cardiologist yesterday. I know that's not your question, but it's funny you asked me that because I did go to the cardiologist yesterday. I mean, it's all connected. Got an EKG, did it. I turned 40 this summer. It was just like, just want to make sure I'm good. And the guy was like, you're, you're good. I'm like, you sure? Are you sure?

• 15:12Speaker 00

  Why, why did you ask that? Why, why did you ask, are you sure? I do a, I do that annual Ezra scan. So the annual body MRI. I've known too many people now in their early 40s who are like, my back hurts. And then they have cancer and die. And I have too much going on to die. So I will do a preventative medicine plan instead of a reactive medicine plan. Smart. Right? The same reason like, you know, I work out and I eat well. It's not for me today. Actually, it is the opposite for me today. The last thing I want to do is wake up at 4:30 and go work out. That is awful. I do it so that Ryan at 70 can look back and say, dude, thanks, man. Because if you hadn't, imagine where I would be today.

• 15:54Speaker 00

  Right? So I'm always thinking about future me because that's, I've worked for that person. But so I got an annual Ezra scan and it came back with like, hey, plaque in arteries. You know, because I'm 40 now. And so I went to the doctor and they came back and there was like, the calcium score was 53 of 400. So on the low side, but not zero. So then I go to a cardiologist and they're like, yeah, you're fine. It's fine. You're fine. I'm like, do I need an ultrasound? Do you have to open my chest? I have a lot of responsibilities right now. My heart's got to be okay. And they're like, you're, You're fine. You're gonna be okay. Wow. But how do you feel emotionally? Emotionally?

• 16:38Speaker 00

  I think I don't take nearly enough time to do self checks. I spend all of my time thinking about everybody else, between our clients, our customers, our producers, our agents, our employees. That like, by the end of the day, I'm so mentally exhausted worrying about everybody else who, who I feel responsible for. That I'm like, as long as I'm eating, breathing, and I can scroll on TikTok before bed, like, I'm good, man. Yeah, I hear you. I'm good. I do, although I will tell you, man, I think, Something did happen to me this summer. Like every age I've ever turned, nothing changes. But then when I turned forty. It's a different unlock.

• 17:23Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's a, it's like, it's not that I felt old. Um, it's that I thought, okay, the next time I do this, I'm eighty. So remind me again, Ryan, why I wake up every day? Like, what am I doing all this for? Why am I flying to this place and that place? And why am I, why am I so anxious about answering emails and cleaning things out? Why am I like, what should, what is wrong with me? Hmm. Um, and I realized in that moment in July, that I'd spent the last twenty years waking up every day to feel important, instead of waking up every day to feel happy. Hmm. And I attached importance to happiness. The more important I am, whether I'm being, you know,

• 18:08Speaker 00

  we had, we were nominated for two Emmys for a reality TV show. I was able to build, you know, a billion dollar business just by selling real estate. A career that used to be a third career for most people. Right? I'd expanded, I'd built from the ground up. And the importance of it all, um, I thought, made me happy. And then I was sitting there and saying to myself, but wait, what really makes me happy? Is it my daughter? Is it my wife? Is it family time? Is it like, is it the work? What is it? Is it the work? I, I mean, all of them make me happy, right? Various ways. Um, I, I like, my superpower is my capacity. You know, you say consistency.

• 18:53Speaker 00

  I really think about capacity. And I, I do get very, very excited about the building and about the work. Like, I do like work. I wouldn't be at the office all the time. I wouldn't be working all the time if I didn't really like it. Yeah. Like, I wouldn't have to. Like, I'm fine. Yeah. I do get passionate about, about the work and about building and about creating more tomorrow than I did today. I don't know why. It's totally a disease. Like, I have friends who like, check out at five o'clock. They have, they drink beer, you know? They go to baseball games. Like, they have a, they have like. They coach their kids. Yeah. Yeah, they hang out. I'm like, I want that. I don't hate it at all. I like, I literally stare at people who do that. Um, and who have those lives. And I'm like.

• 19:37Speaker 00

  I want, how do I have that?

• 19:38Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 19:39Speaker 00

  I don't have that. I don't, it's not, it's not in my, my DNA. Like I, I wish it was.

• 19:45Lewis Howes?

  On a scale.

• 19:45Speaker 00

  You know, like you see a dog, you know?

• 19:47Lewis Howes?

  It's just happy.

• 19:48Speaker 00

  Dude.

• 19:49Lewis Howes?

  Just playing.

• 19:49Speaker 00

  And the dog is like, everything in my life is everything I've ever known and I'm good.

• 19:56Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 19:57Speaker 00

  The dog just doesn't know. And I'm like, I'm not comparing people to dogs, but it's like, man, why do I need to do the things that I do?

• 20:06Lewis Howes?

  On a scale of one to 10?

• 20:08Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 20:08Lewis Howes?

  How important do you feel right now?

• 20:11Lewis Howes?

  10 being like, I'm extremely important in my life.

• 20:15Speaker 00

  I reset the level of importance with every like growth hurdle.

• 20:19Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 20:19Speaker 00

  So in 2019, before we started our company, in the world of real estate salespeople, I was a 10. And where do you go from there? You don't like rebuild a chart. That's stupid. So I took myself down to a one and said, now I'm going to go be a CEO. Because I did it. I did the real estate brokerage thing. I sold the most expensive properties. I did them in all the markets.

• 20:41Lewis Howes?

  You're on TV.

• 20:42Speaker 00

  You know, so I'm going to go do it again. I'm going to leave Million Dollar List in New York, this reality TV show that gave me a career.

• 20:49Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 20:49Speaker 00

  Um, I have education. I'm going to go try to build my own company. And if it works, great. If it doesn't work, I guess I go back to doing what I was doing anyway. What's the worst that can happen? Unless you die or uh, go to jail. Like those are the two worst things that can happen. Anything else, you're just not taking the right swing.

• 21:07Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 21:08Speaker 00

  So.

• 21:08Lewis Howes?

  That was five years ago.

• 21:09Speaker 00

  Yeah, with 2019, I made that decision. So then in 2020, September 2020, we went off on our own. And we started our own thing with a couple of us in like a rented townhouse and in the city with SWAT outside and windows boarded up and masks and no vaccine, you know, the whole, the whole nine yards. We're like, as long as we just go hard every day and we take it one day at a time. Um, uh, it's all going to work.

• 21:32Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 21:32Speaker 00

  If I think too much about. All the things, it'll never work because I'll have analysis paralysis and I'll let perfect become the enemy of good. I just need to be as good as impossible. So I can get to great, you know, and I can go from good to great.

• 21:49Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Wow. So how do you feel then on the scale of importance right now?

• 21:54Speaker 00

  Mm hmm. So then in 2020, I was a one.

• 21:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 21:57Speaker 00

  I guess I'm like, I'm feeling.

• 22:00Lewis Howes?

  I mean, you had the number one show on Netflix.

• 22:02Speaker 00

  Yeah, it was number one. I feel like number, I feel like a four right now.

• 22:06Lewis Howes?

  A four out of 10 in importance.

• 22:08Speaker 00

  Of importance for, for what I'm trying to do as a CEO.

• 22:11Lewis Howes?

  What would a 10 look like for you of importance?

• 22:14Speaker 00

  I think if I've able to build, if I've been able to build from scratch, the new definition of real estate brokerage, okay, on a global scale, which is really what we're doing, plus really use simple to redefine sales workflow automations for all salespeople, not just real estate agents. Then I'll come back and do this podcast and say 10. It's gonna take me a minute though.

• 22:40Lewis Howes?

  Wow. What do you think? What do you think on a scale of one to 10 of importance you are for your daughter?

• 22:48Speaker 00

  Solid eight. Yeah, I think Bluey's nine. I think Toy Story right now is a phase. I think that's a hard 10. The bunny, her mom.

• 22:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 22:58Speaker 00

  My wife is definitely up there with a 10. Yeah, yeah. My, my mother-in-law lives with us. My sister-in-law lives with us. Her husband lives with us. We have one big Greek household and then there's me.

• 23:08Lewis Howes?

  That's amazing.

• 23:09Speaker 00

  Yeah, I come home, I'm like, how's everyone doing?

• 23:11Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 23:12Speaker 00

  Everyone doing good?

• 23:13Lewis Howes?

  That's fun, man.

• 23:14Speaker 00

  I'm there though. I'm like the guy, you know, I'm the dad.

• 23:16Lewis Howes?

  That's good, man. And so you talked about, you know, your whole life you were trying to be important. Do you feel happy?

• 23:25Speaker 00

  I feel happier today than I definitely did for a good period of time.

• 23:31Lewis Howes?

  Scale of one to happiness, where are you? 10 is like the ultimate level of joy every day.

• 23:37Speaker 00

  I think very rarely do I feel a 10 and I almost do it on purpose. Because if I say 10 all the time, it's like, you know, we rate meetings. People rate meetings at nines or tens.

• 23:47Lewis Howes?

  That was not a perfect meeting.

• 23:48Speaker 00

  You don't understand what a meeting like, that's insane. This was a seven, right? We always have to grow somehow, but I also don't want to be like some stubborn asshole. I don't know, on a scale of happiness today, I think I'm like a solid six and a half.

• 24:03Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 24:04Speaker 00

  Yeah, there's good things, there's bad things, but that's every decision you make. Like every day you wake up, there's going to be good and bad.

• 24:10Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 24:10Speaker 00

  You know, as long as you're moving forward.

• 24:12Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 24:12Speaker 00

  Every pivot you're gonna have is gonna have positive and negative. And something I also realized was I used to think things that were in my way were obstacles. And then I realized that, no, wait. What stands in the way becomes the way. And it's no longer an obstacle, right? It's just a big question mark. I just have to figure out how to answer that question. And then there's this amazing path ahead of me that used to be in the way. And now it just is the way. And that's been helpful, like Netflix, right? Like Netflix for me, when I was on Bravo was, and then Selling Sunset came out and you know.

• 24:53Lewis Howes?

  How did that make you feel when all these big real estate shows were on Netflix? And you weren't on there yet?

• 24:58Speaker 00

  Plus and minus, like it was still streaming, I don't know. But there's a new generation of people who watch TV now. And so, and their numbers are wild. Like Netflix is the largest global distribution network on planet earth. Forget media, like Netflix can put one thing out and 270 million people are alerted. Like you can't, you know, there's, it just doesn't, it's wild to think about. And so, you know, I was doing Bravo and there's all these new things happening and real estate shows everywhere. And ours was, ours was great. I'm like, oh, there's this thing that's kind of like in the way from, from me being successful, what I'm doing right now. So I can either hunker down and just tell myself what we're doing is the best.

• 25:43Speaker 00

  I'm going to stay doing this thing or. Maybe what stands in the way becomes the way. You know what? Start own company. Million Dollar Listing's been awesome, but it doesn't make sense for me now that I have my own company. So let's sunset. I only did that in 2021 and it went off air in 2022. We did all our spinoff shows, all that. Now I'm gonna go pitch streamers with a new idea. Really? Yep. And- Was it challenging at first? Uh, it was challenging because the market's so saturated, even for me. Like, it's just saturated, man. There's so much stuff and- And you also have to make the determination. Like, you could have a great YouTube show and more people could watch it. I know. You, you don't have to do- You have to wait six months or a year for it to come out?

• 26:26Speaker 00

  Exactly. So we created a, uh, I created a format called House of Serhant. So you've seen our clubhouse in Soho. So we have clubhouses everywhere instead of offices. They're fun. They're content houses. Um, there's no desks. Okay?

• 26:40Speaker 00

  So we called it House of Serhant and it was about kind of the building of a company in New York. Um, and then we started pitching it. It took it to HBO, Peacock, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix, um, something else. I can't remember. And went through and it was, it was, it was, I mean, it was interesting. It obviously worked. Um, and so we went with Netflix. Um, because they're, they're, they're just great partners and have the biggest network, you know? And so, you know, we ended up going with them and then we changed the title to Owning Manhattan because apparently in like Sri Lanka, no one knows what a Serhant is. And so like it's about the thumbnail, you know, even for them. It's the thumbnail and the title. And so Owning Manhattan, people would understand. Uh, and then it took two years, man. That was 2022. Really? 2022. Of filming or producing?

• 27:22Speaker 00

  2022. It was one full year of, of producing, pre-production, casting, pitching, all that stuff. Before you started filming? Oh yeah, man. One year and then a whole year of filming, 2023. So much work. It's so much work. If for, and it- It may not work. 90% chance that no one watches it. It may not work. Especially on streaming. Oh my gosh. Because when I did, I did a show that people didn't watch called Sell It Like Serhant. Okay?

• 27:49Speaker 00

  People watched it, just not as many as like Million Dollar Listing. So Sell It Like Serhant was a passion project of mine. But even though it wasn't like a ratings juggernaut, it spawned the book, it spawned the education business, it spawned a speaking tour. All these things that still exist today and are huge parts of our business, but it was cable. And so no matter what, for like- 12 weeks. So like Serhant is in your TV guide. It's there. There are commercials for three months, no matter what. And then reruns and everything. Streaming, you get 48 hours for the algorithm to decide, do viewers agree with this content? Or are we going to drop it? And they will drop it fast because the minute you click on something that everybody else has said meant to, you might

• 28:34Speaker 00

  then go to Hulu. You might look at your phone. So how do you keep people from looking at their phone? Right? You have to give them hooks and cliffhangers. It's no longer arcs and storylines. It's hooks and cliffhangers, hooks and cliffhangers. It's bite sized content in long form media. And so, so yeah, so there was a year of filming with Netflix and then the show came out in June. And work, thank God.

• 28:58Lewis Howes?

  So it's been, you know, it's been a few months since it came out. What was the response like for you? What did you see? Whether it be online, you know, in the streets, in your business, what having a massive Netflix hit?

• 29:13Speaker 00

  Oh, I mean, my life changed like overnight.

• 29:16Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 29:17Speaker 00

  Yes. Yeah, like I, before Netflix, I used to tell people like, you know, I had my life, then Million Dollar Listing happened. Like that was always in all these talks and podcasts, I'd say, yeah, and then Million Dollar Listing happened. And then things changed, right? I, I was able to, you know, not just that people recognize me, but they would know me as the real estate guy. And that was helpful for business. I sell real estate, you know, I don't sell toasters. And so it would also help me open doors. You know, we always say like, opportunity knocks on both sides. And so you gotta go knock, and then the door would open. And now I say, until Netflix happened. Like, it's just, it is been wild. Like, I've never seen, between like follower and subscriber

• 30:01Speaker 00

  growth, it was like 1.3 million, like that month, and just organic.

• 30:07Lewis Howes?

  1.3 million new subscribers?

• 30:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 30:09Lewis Howes?

  On what, like Instagram or YouTube or? Everywhere.

• 30:11Speaker 00

  Yeah, Instagram, TikTok, everywhere.

• 30:14Lewis Howes?

  Just all grew.

• 30:15Speaker 00

  Just all, yeah, just because the whole world was just told about a new world, you know? And so it's translated into every language. It's insane. There are people outside my office right now. I mean, they're also, they're all day long, all night. It's insane.

• 30:27Lewis Howes?

  Just wanted to get a glimpse of what's happening or?

• 30:29Speaker 00

  Yeah, they come to the building, they wait for me, they take photos with me, they wait outside my house. They, they're everywhere. So far, I mean, knock on wood, but so far everyone's been super nice.

• 30:37Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 30:38Speaker 00

  And just very, very like, very excited. It's been wild for business, wild for recruitment.

• 30:43Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 30:43Speaker 00

  Yeah, man, we, it's, it's.

• 30:46Lewis Howes?

  It's changed your life.

• 30:46Speaker 00

  Yeah, completely.

• 30:47Lewis Howes?

  But you already had a massive business. You already had a big social media following. You've got, you know, 15 year track record of success. You've been on TV for years.

• 30:55Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 30:56Lewis Howes?

  But this changed it even more in the last few months.

• 30:59Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 30:59Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 31:00Speaker 00

  Yeah. I can't even.

• 31:02Lewis Howes?

  So it was worth the two years of waiting and filming and pre-production? Like, was it worth that wait, I guess?

• 31:07Speaker 00

  Yeah, you are only as good as your last deal.

• 31:09Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 31:10Speaker 00

  That's what I tell salespeople. You're only as good as your 1099 and you're only as good as your last deal. I don't care what you're working on right now. You're only as good as the last deal you did. So if I did a TV show, that's amazing. It was great. What did, what did you, what did you do with it? How, how did you make it work for you? Because you're only as good as that show that used to be on the air.

• 31:28Lewis Howes?

  Five, seven years ago.

• 31:29Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. So, you know, you have to be constantly moving and constantly iterating. And it's also exhausting. But for me, it's also fun to like, think about new things. And on the new show, you know, I'm a, I'm an executive producer. I, I have a significant amount of control compared to Million Dollar Listing where I was just talent.

• 31:48Lewis Howes?

  Even on season one, you were an executive producer?

• 31:50Speaker 00

  I was a producer on season one, but they can't do the show without me. It's about me.

• 31:53Lewis Howes?

  Right, right, right. So you're creative.

• 31:54Speaker 00

  Season two, we just started filming season two. We got picked up for season two. We just started and it's, uh,

• 31:59Lewis Howes?

  Congrats.

• 31:59Speaker 00

  So far.

• 32:00Lewis Howes?

  I saw you announce that, yeah.

• 32:01Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's, it's, and so I'm an executive producer now and every day I show up, I'm like, hey, EP Energy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So this is what we're gonna do, okay? But we get to have, like Netflix allows us to have fun, like cable TV. You turn on ESPN, you know what you're gonna get. You don't know if it's gonna be SportsCenter or something else. You know what it's gonna look like, and they'll be talking about sports.

• 32:24Speaker 00

  Netflix, you turn it on and you actually are looking for something you haven't seen before. Maybe you have like an itch because you like true crime. Or documentaries. Exactly. But you, you're not gonna watch something you've seen before. That's actually one of the problems. It's like, eh, I kinda saw that movie already. They need new content. Different people. So, so how do you scratch that itch of newness? So Netflix is super open to, like, if anyone's watched Owning Manhattan, it is not a normal reality TV show. It is like a docu-series taking place in a workplace with real estate as kind of the skeleton with a narrator, like I narrate the show as a real estate show with a voiceover. So cool. And there's, you know, a lot of the reviews when they came out were like,

• 33:09Speaker 00

  this is awesome, because I didn't, I didn't know that I wanted to watch this. And so you asked me about feedback, like, I, you know, we did Millionaire Listing for 10 years, two Emmy nominations, I did four spinoff shows. Crazy, man. Right? I've never been in, I'd never been in Vogue, I'd never been in Time Magazine. Like, the, the, the, the level of, of, of, I think, you know, awareness that Netflix brought to our business, it is a content to community to commerce engine. And then it just fuels everything else. And for our agents, they're excited about it. It's actually been more beneficial for our company outside of Manhattan. Really? Because in Manhattan, it's like a given. You already, everyone knows you guys. And no one cares. Yeah, yeah.

• 33:52Speaker 00

  North Carolina, South Carolina, so that they can have a piece of what we're working on is really, really, really exciting. The owner's there, the buyer's there, the seller's there. And we have, we have a waitlist for agents to join our company in every single state, right? And in 45 countries at this point. So it's just bandwidth. It's just like bandwidth. Wow, man. And quality, because it would kill us. We would die. But hopefully it was simple. We'll be able to do it much. Simpler.

• 34:19Lewis Howes?

  It's pretty amazing because as I just hear you talk about your experiences and everything you've done, you said 10, 10 seasons with Million Dollar Listing, is that what you said? Four spinoff shows. I know when you first came to New York, you were, you know, trying to become an actor.

• 34:32Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 34:33Lewis Howes?

  I can't remember, was it hand model or?

• 34:34Speaker 00

  I was hand model.

• 34:35Lewis Howes?

  Hand model acting.

• 34:36Speaker 00

  Yes, yes.

• 34:36Lewis Howes?

  Hand model. And it's almost like the last 15 plus years, like all the things that didn't work out or did work out, they've all come together in this culmination with Netflix where you're, I mean, they need you so much to be an executive producer because of the knowledge you have from 10, 14 shows you've done already.

• 34:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 34:54Lewis Howes?

  Like in reality TV with social media, blending it together. You can't find a TV executive that has the wisdom that you have.

• 35:02Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 35:03Lewis Howes?

  In terms of like how to do this.

• 35:04Speaker 00

  You're right.

• 35:05Lewis Howes?

  As a creative, telling the hooks, understanding short form, long form. It's pretty fascinating that they, that they got you and it's amazing that it worked out. I'm so happy for you, man. You deserve it. So I'm glad they picked it up for season two.

• 35:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 35:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. You're great. Um, I want to ask you a little bit about real estate, but this has been fascinating. Uh, before I dive into the real estate stuff, I'm sure you've already, um, analyzed yourself. I'm guessing you've already analyzed yourself psychologically from your childhood about the need for importance.

• 35:40Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 35:41Lewis Howes?

  I'm assuming you have, or you've reflected back, or you and your wife have maybe been like, okay, what makes you so driven? Why are you so driven to like excel and achieve constantly and needing more and more and more? Was there a feeling or an energy when you were younger where you just didn't feel important? That you didn't feel seen or you didn't feel accepted? Because that's something I felt most of my childhood, but was there like a defining moments for you where you felt like, I'm not important, I want to be important?

• 36:08Speaker 00

  So I come from a big family. Alright, so there's, we had three sisters, um, two brothers, and I think.

• 36:16Lewis Howes?

  You the youngest?

• 36:17Speaker 00

  The second youngest. I think I spent a long time trying to figure out what my thing was. And I think most people do. I don't know, what should I do? You know, there's optionality now. It's not the way it used to be. We're so thankful that it's not 1950 anymore, but at the same time, 1950 was simpler. Like you had your options. You know what you're gonna do. You know what you're gonna do, you know, for the most part.

• 36:40Speaker 00

  Today, there's just mass optionality and it's scary. You know, it's like going to a restaurant with a 50-page menu. Like I came for steak, but now I don't know. I don't know, what should I do? Should I do that? Oh, you have a Mediterranean menu. What do I do? Oh, should I travel? I don't know. And so I tried every single sport, you know? I took every class. I was as well-rounded as you could imagine. Because I just didn't know and I wasn't great at anything. Like there wasn't one thing I was like great at, even acting. I think I was good. It was good. Yeah, good hands, you know? I had good hands. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was good, but it wasn't great. And I think that I like subconsciously told myself, one day I'm gonna figure out what my thing is.

• 37:24Speaker 00

  And once I do, everybody better watch the [__] out. Because I am going to go so hard. I don't know what it's gonna be. I might be a garbage man. I might, I might be an artist. I might be a poet. I don't know. I don't know. But once I figure it out, I spent my whole life trying to figure out what I want. Once I figure out what I want and what I'm great at, I will never, ever, ever let it go. So to the consistency and to the capacity, the minute I, as an accident, got my real estate license because I needed to pay my rent. I didn't want a bartender, wait tables, do any of that. I got my license, Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy. The whole real estate world files out. 2008, right?

• 38:06Speaker 00

  2008. I didn't have a job. I mean, I didn't have any money. So I was like, I guess this is just hard. And so, once it clicked and I just started doing it, it's like I'm, I'm gonna do this every day. It's just volume for me. I'm not gonna take this personally. I tried acting. Acting is personal. You get rejected to your face because of your face. So I am going to just go hard all day, every day. I'm not gonna be the most connected. I'm not gonna be the best looking. But something no one can take away from me is how hard I would work. I'm gonna wake up earlier and go to bed later. And I don't care what anyone else says, modern day gurus, about how the grind is dead, doesn't matter. That's great when you have money. When you're rich, you can talk all day long about work-life balance.

• 38:49Speaker 00

  When you are trying to figure out how you're gonna pay rent and pay your groceries. Your work-life balance, you have to just grind and you've got to take it one day at a time and know you're working harder today than you did yesterday. And that hard work, what ends up happening is you work so hard, you make luck easy to find.

• 39:07Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 39:08Speaker 00

  Right. And so then lucky things start to happen. You get that first big deal that pays your rent for a year. And I remember depositing that check for like 24 grand.

• 39:17Lewis Howes?

  Crazy feeling, right?

• 39:18Speaker 00

  Yeah, at the Chase Bank in Tribeca. And then I was like, great, what's the next one? You know, and then you do that next big one.

• 39:24Lewis Howes?

  How do I get two years ahead, four years ahead?

• 39:26Speaker 00

  Yeah. And then you go to the open casting call for Million Dollar Listing New York. And, and, and then that happens. I'm like, all right, I'm going to keep working even harder because the harder I work, I make luck even easier to find me. And then you just start building and building and building. And it's that, that never letting go thing. Like, you know, I said, Sell It Like Serhant is a TV show we did for Bravo in 2016, 17. The, that was my, I want to say 30th, it might've been more, pitch to Bravo.

• 39:58Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 39:59Speaker 00

  And I think they agreed to it because they were sick of me. I think they were like, guys, if we don't at least give Ryan one thing, he's going to pitch us on the next Real Estate Doctor, the next Apprentice But For Real Estate Show. And I had all of them. I pitched all of them. They didn't accept any of them, rightly so. I will just never give up and I will come to you until you buy or you die.

• 40:26Speaker 00

  Across the board.

• 40:27Lewis Howes?

  Buy or die.

• 40:27Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's it.

• 40:28Lewis Howes?

  I like that.

• 40:28Speaker 00

  There's no choice.

• 40:30Lewis Howes?

  You had this article out earlier this year called, "The Five Bold Predictions For The Real Estate Game In 2024." I'm not even sure if you remember this, but you said, I'm going to quote you, "2024 is shaping up to be a real estate game changer. A high stakes presidential election looms, interest rates are finally falling, home prices continue to rise, there's trillions in cash on the sidelines, and pent up demand for property purchases is explosive. We stand at the intersection of opportunity and challenge, a position that demands careful consideration for those navigating the path of buying or selling property this year. As we face these pressures, the question remains, what happens next?" And I'm curious.

• 41:11Lewis Howes?

  What what has happened so far as we get close to finishing out 2024? Were the predictions that you had the beginning of the year coming true? And we have no clue what's going to happen at the end of this year. But what do you think is going to happen in real estate in 2025?

• 41:29Speaker 00

  Hmm. I'd say the one prediction that I made that has not come true is I thought we would see more home absorption this year than we saw in 2023. I was pretty convinced, like most of the market.

• 41:40Lewis Howes?

  More people buying up homes?

• 41:41Speaker 00

  Correct.

• 41:42Lewis Howes?

  Like investors?

• 41:42Speaker 00

  2023, so just the United States, not globally. 2023 was saw the fewest home sales in 30 years, right? Just about 4 million.

• 41:53Lewis Howes?

  Is that because interest rates were so high?

• 41:55Speaker 00

  Interest rates were too high.

• 41:55Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 41:56Speaker 00

  Right? So 90% of people who have mortgages in the United States have them under 5%. So when rates went to 8%, no one was refinancing.

• 42:05Lewis Howes?

  No.

• 42:05Speaker 00

  No one would sell. I can't afford to sell. Buyers all said, what am I supposed to do? Okay, my monthly costs now just shot through the roof. It was so abrupt and so sudden, for for good reason, I think, that the housing market just basically came to a standstill. And across the country, you had no inventory. We're short. I mean, what pundits will say is we're short about 4 million homes. I think we're actually short something like 6 million homes. And so, so what do you do? Right? And so I assumed that coming into 2024, what goes down must go up, what goes up must go down. So we can't have a worse year. Turns out, looks like 2024 is going to see even fewer home sales than last year because

• 42:50Speaker 00

  it took the Fed nine months to start adjusting rates instead of three to six months, right? A lot of people were calling for Fed cuts in Q1, and then it was Q2, then it came in September. But the market had already baked in the cuts. So mortgage rates haven't truly, truly seen any like major effect. But they are at like 20 month lows right now, which is nice when you say it that way. But they're still at 10 year highs. It is, it is just a mindset shift. You know, we need mortgage rates to get down healthily into the fives, which will enable people to buy down points into the fours. If you can get a loan with a four handle in front of it,

• 43:33Speaker 00

  then the market will start being far more liquid and will move. Cause you gotta give incentive to people who are in these damn homes to move. And you've got to give incentive to developers at these rates to create more housing inventory. Like it's just, it's just too expensive to build. And so all of that has kind of created this stagnation effect in 2024, where I think last year we had 4.1 million homes sold in the United States. This year will probably be sub four. Wow. Which means that in 2025. Yeah, yeah. It could get less, sure. But I think there are so many economic indicators right now that are pointing towards even lower rates.

• 44:12Speaker 00

  Right. Greater economic stability, totally non-dependent on who wins the election. If you look the, the last nine of the 11 presidential elections we've had, the housing market has actually increased. Absorption has increased and pricing has increased nine of the last 11 times, which is like 1982. The only two times it hasn't, 2008, Lehman Brothers and 2020, right? Covid. So it's been like these, these huge, huge, huge moments. Yeah. I think that what we'll see in 2025 is you're going to see rapid absorption of current stock. You're going to see greater listing inventory than we've seen in the last three years.

• 44:56Speaker 00

  You're going to see even more Gen Z purchasers purchasing with baby boomer dollars. Really? Of all the Gen Z, Gen Z right now in the United States is outpacing millennials in home buying.

• 45:08Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 45:08Speaker 00

  But seventy, because seventy-five percent of the deals that Gen Z is doing are financed by their parents. Because the greatest money-making generation we've ever seen are still the baby boomers. And they're also the greatest saving generation, because they came out of parents from the depression. Like, my dad, his dad had polio.

• 45:29Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 45:30Speaker 00

  No one knows what polio is anymore, right? You have to Google it, and it's in black and white.

• 45:35Lewis Howes?

  Right, right, right.

• 45:36Speaker 00

  So like, that, he, that guy, you know, my, like, my dad would save, like, he would, he would do nothing for five dollars.

• 45:46Lewis Howes?

  Every penny.

• 45:46Speaker 00

  You know? It is insane to me. He paid me a penny a stick, growing up, to pick up sticks. And I understand why, and I'm sure I will have those tendencies with my own daughter. You know, I'm like, hey, save up Wi-Fi bandwidth.

• 45:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 45:59Speaker 00

  What if the Wi-Fi goes down? And she's gonna be like, Dad, it's in my brain now. There's no Wi-Fi anymore, it's just Hi-Fi. Damn it, kids these days! That's gonna be me.

• 46:09Lewis Howes?

  Wow, so, so, parents are giving their kids money to buy homes?

• 46:12Speaker 00

  So much money.

• 46:13Lewis Howes?

  Why would they give them money to buy homes? Are they putting their names on it, or just saying, hey, this is your money?

• 46:17Speaker 00

  Because the alternative is you pay your kid's rent, or your kid lives with you. So, you know what? I'm making an investment. You go pay the caring costs, is what most parents are doing. You cover the common charges, the HOA fees, the real estate taxes. It's gonna be my apartment, I'm gonna own it, and we'll see what happens. And there is, that's happening everywhere.

• 46:40Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 46:41Speaker 00

  Everywhere.

• 46:41Lewis Howes?

  But the parents are still owning it?

• 46:43Speaker 00

  Correct.

• 46:43Lewis Howes?

  They're not just saying, hey, just here's a million dollars, or half a million dollars, go buy a home, and it's yours?

• 46:47Speaker 00

  No, because it's gift transfer, it's gift tax.

• 46:50Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 46:50Speaker 00

  So, you gotta go, so the parent, you can go buy a house, you know, and... Your kid can use it. That's really what it is.

• 46:56Lewis Howes?

  Wow, yeah, that's fascinating, man. How's this impacted you guys in terms of selling homes?

• 47:03Speaker 00

  Market, dude, I'm dressed like a baby boomer right now. I've got a brown jacket on. I've got like a tan shirt. I've got closed toe shoes. I'm all about those baby boomers. Like, let's go find little Sally.

• 47:14Lewis Howes?

  How's this impacted you guys in 2024? It seems like you guys are crushing it, though, even though less homes are being sold or less, you know, buildings are being sold.

• 47:21Speaker 00

  We're crushing it in part because we are, uh, we're expanding so quickly.

• 47:26Lewis Howes?

  In other states.

• 47:27Speaker 00

  Yeah, the two ways companies can grow. Okay, you grow through growth, right? Uh, or you grow through cost cutting. So in 2022 and 23, especially in tech, you saw a lot of companies improving their numbers because they were just cutting the bottom line. And they were firing everybody, reducing costs everywhere. Hey, no offices, no problem, no overhead. And then their numbers look great, right? You're just trying to improve margins. Or you expand fast. Like, we, I crossed. My entire 2023 revenue I crossed in like June 5th or something this year. Because we're also just growing so quickly and all the work we did last year pays out this year. You know, and in sales, you know, it's not like e-commerce where, you know, I'm two quarters ahead.

• 48:13Speaker 00

  Yeah, but we're also, the work we put in right now, we're not going to see results from those salespeople doing deals and all that stuff happening until next year. So we're always like a year ahead. So what we're experiencing right now in our numbers and our sales is to the benefit of all the work that we actually did when we were hunkering down at this time last year. And this time last year was brutal. We were like, are there, what are we gonna do? Like, rates are high. The market is really, really tough. People are being let go left and right. We have to go to war. We gotta put our brave heart face paint on, right? And they cannot take our freedom. It's just like we are going out to battle. And we've got to operate with a startup mindset, no matter how big we are, every single day. And that's gotta be a part of our purpose to the beginning of our convo.

• 48:58Lewis Howes?

  What about people who want to invest in real estate? If they're thinking of investing in anything in 2025? Should they put their money in real estate? Is it too expensive to buy right now or in 2025? Should they be saving their cash? Should they be investing more in themselves? Should they be investing in stocks? Where do you think people should invest in in terms of real estate?

• 49:18Speaker 00

  I'm super biased. I think real estate is one of the safer investments you can make. As long as it's not short term, you know? I don't like giving people short term real estate advice unless it's fix and flip. There's tons of fix and flips you can do. There's a lot in Florida, you know? Unfortunately, it is what it is. Like anytime there is natural disasters, you see investors come down. And what they're really doing is are they taking advantage of a bad situation? A hundred percent. Are they providing immediate liquidity for maybe a lot of people who didn't have home insurance? A hundred percent. So you can look at it from both sides of the coin, right?

• 49:55Lewis Howes?

  You don't do any fix and flip yourself as an investor, right?

• 49:58Speaker 00

  Not in it's because we're mostly in our like, you know, we're in luxury markets and.

• 50:02Lewis Howes?

  Do you do any investing in real estate yourself?

• 50:04Speaker 00

  But we have, we have real estate investments. I invest in companies mostly. So real estate adjacent companies, tech companies, consumer product companies. It's more fun for me.

• 50:13Lewis Howes?

  You don't own a lot of real estate that you're managing because you don't want to manage real estate.

• 50:17Speaker 00

  Yeah, not really. You know what? Because it's all I do all day long. Like it's literally all I do. I feel like if I was doing something else, like most of my clients do, owning real estate ends up becoming fun.

• 50:28Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 50:29Speaker 00

  For me, I, I buy and sell real estate for clients all day, every day. It's kind of the last thing I want to do.

• 50:35Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 50:36Speaker 00

  Is let's go do more real estate.

• 50:37Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 50:38Speaker 00

  Personally. Yeah. That's where I get excited in education and media and the TV shows and, and people and different types of companies. Like I'm an investor in Blank Street Coffee. Why? Because it's a coffee company and that's awesome. And they have cool tech and they can open up stores faster than Starbucks. And it's like, that's crazy. You know, like we do weird things that way. That enable my brain to start. I feel like there's a part of my brain that gets to work at that. You know, when I, when I think about companies like that, like, oh, we're here, we're here, we're here. It's like the kid in the back of the room, you know, gets to raise his hand. He's like, oh, I know that one. It's important to light all the fires.

• 51:13Lewis Howes?

  Do you work with a lot of successful real estate investors who are like buying up either just single family homes or apartment buildings or commercial real estate?

• 51:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 51:22Lewis Howes?

  What do they? Talking about, what are they telling you about how they're, what they're looking for to invest in? That you're selling them.

• 51:29Speaker 00

  I mean, for the last two years, it's just been about blood in the water, right? It's using interest rate pressure on existing portfolios to, to help bail people out and get market rate discounts. So, you know, you can get, you know, buy things at 20, 30, 40, 50% off because somebody's got a, you know, has a 3% note that is ballooning to 7.5% by November 1st. And that's where you see a lot of resets. We do a lot of office to residential conversion right now, especially in a lot of our urban markets. Yeah.

• 51:58Lewis Howes?

  It's like a whole building, office building converting to apartments.

• 52:01Speaker 00

  Yeah, being sold. Something that used to have a markup of, let's say, $700 million sells today for 100 million bucks. Because the basis on residential is, is short-term, right? Especially if you're going to create condos out of it, you know, it's one time. And then the condo developer has to pay income tax. That's how, that's how the government looks at it. So, there's a lot of unique opportunities out there, but there's always opportunities. Everything's a potential opportunity. It just depends on where you want to be, what your capital requirements are, what your debt structure is going to be like. You know, there's, there's, there's a lot of people buying up real estate at what I think are terrible multiples right now with awful cap rates, but they have a much, much, much longer term view and they want to own market share.

• 52:45Speaker 00

  And so that's interesting to me, you know, to go out and you can actually overbid against institutional players who are trying to underbid because they have certain hurdles they have to hit. And you can now just go grab that market share and you get to say you have a thousand units in 2030. And at the rate at which rents are increasing, at the rate at which even inflation at 3% is increasing, by, by 2030, you'll be good as long as you can protect cash flows. And that's where people get hurt.

• 53:12Lewis Howes?

  Speaking of 2030, there's supposed to be this whole 2030 agenda where people will own nothing and be happy. I don't know if you've seen.

• 53:19Speaker 00

  Oh my God, I have a billionaire right now. That's so funny.

• 53:22Lewis Howes?

  You know, have you seen this, the 2030 agenda where it's like you'll own nothing, you'll be happy?

• 53:26Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everyone wants to be like Elon Musk. That's all. So, but I do have a billionaire right now who's like, I want to own. Less things like, great. How can I help you?

• 53:36Lewis Howes?

  Let me sell that for you.

• 53:37Speaker 00

  Yeah, just all my, so my house is in, uh, where are they? Montana, Texas, New York, uh, and Florida. I just want to sell everything. Like, should you consult your wife before? Are you currently drinking? Are you currently under the influence of anything? You know, uh, no, we just decided to sell. So we put everything on the market.

• 53:53Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 53:54Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's like $270 million worth of personal property and just houses and pied-à-tiers and things. Like, yeah, I don't care anymore. Let's just sell it all. Okay, great. And we will. And we'll, we'll sell it. I think.

• 54:04Lewis Howes?

  Why do you think that is for that billionaire?

• 54:05Speaker 00

  I think it's a phase.

• 54:06Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 54:07Speaker 00

  I think it's a phase.

• 54:08Lewis Howes?

  How old, how, what's the age range of this person?

• 54:10Speaker 00

  He's sixties.

• 54:13Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 54:13Speaker 00

  He's sixties.

• 54:14Lewis Howes?

  But it's also a lot of stress to manage all those things.

• 54:17Speaker 00

  Yeah, he can afford it.

• 54:18Lewis Howes?

  Like, why have all these properties if you're not in them ever?

• 54:21Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 54:22Lewis Howes?

  You know, if you use them.

• 54:22Speaker 00

  You stay in cool hotels.

• 54:24Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 54:24Speaker 00

  But here's what's gonna happen. Everyone's gonna go through that phase. And in a couple of years, everyone's gonna say, meh, I want to just keep my clothes in one spot. You know, so at the same time, I have that guy selling off just under $300 million worth of personal property because he wants to own no things. I then have another billionaire, um, who is, I don't know where he's based. I think Puerto Rico, via Florida. Who's now saying, I no longer want to have a hotel room in LA and in New York City. So, um, just give me the two best properties, all in plus closing costs. I don't want to spend more than $18 million. So just go figure that out for me. And so we're doing that right now, like two day, actually.

• 55:02Lewis Howes?

  Wow. What, um?

• 55:08Speaker 00

  This podcast has covered a lot, by the way.

• 55:09Lewis Howes?

  It's great. Yeah, yeah. What about the, um, I mean, how many, you work with a lot of billionaires because you have a massive luxury real estate industry that you're in.

• 55:19Lewis Howes?

  What would you say are the common themes of the billionaires you work with on how they think differently than normal people without a billion dollars?

• 55:27Speaker 00

  Say there's two types of billionaires. There's earned wealth and then there's inherited and there's inherited wealth.

• 55:32Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 55:32Speaker 00

  Okay. Inherited wealth is far more afraid of it than the earned.

• 55:39Lewis Howes?

  Losing it or afraid of having it?

• 55:41Speaker 00

  Both. Every trust fund kid I've worked with, anyone who's stepped into a significant amount of money, they know inherently that it's not theirs and that they didn't earn it. And there's like, uh, there's a fear of the money. It's wild. You would think that, that someone who's broke, poor, like myself in 2008, like can't afford groceries. I was also scared of money, but I knew if I had it, I would not be scared. I would use it and I would figure it out and it's going to be a tool. You know, there's, no one's crying tears for billionaires, but there is that inherited wealth kind of dilemma, which is then, you know, that's the Malcolm McDowell bell curve. The person who earns it takes the family up.

• 56:24Speaker 00

  The person who inherits it takes the family down every time. The earned billionaires and billionaire class, okay? Their number one asset isn't their money, it's their time. Down to, you know, we negotiate nine-figure deals just by text or by Signal. A lot of them use Signal.

• 56:44Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 56:45Speaker 00

  Yeah, that app Signal.

• 56:46Lewis Howes?

  Just texting?

• 56:47Speaker 00

  Just texting. They don't have time.

• 56:48Lewis Howes?

  You want this? Here's a photo.

• 56:50Speaker 00

  They can also be screenshotted. So like, you gotta be careful. It's all in writing. Uh, it's all there, right? But they don't have time. They'll get on a phone to do a gut check, but for the most part, this is the price. It's just a fact.

• 57:03Lewis Howes?

  Cause they'll probably spend their time researching who they trust the most.

• 57:06Speaker 00

  Correct.

• 57:06Lewis Howes?

  Who's going to get the best deal for them.

• 57:08Speaker 00

  And they're the best analysts.

• 57:08Lewis Howes?

  And once they make the decision, okay, you're my guy. I trust you. Find me three options. I'll choose the final one.

• 57:14Speaker 00

  Exactly. They also do other things like, and I've talked about this before, but the majority of the billionaires I know, when we go to dinner, let's say, you don't go to bad restaurants, you only go to good ones. And what's the point of looking at a menu at a, at a good or great restaurant? Tell the waiter, if you have any allergies, tell us to bring your best. Surprise me.

• 57:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 57:33Speaker 00

  It's, it's a far better use of my time for the hour, hour and a half we have here at dinner, for you and I to talk than for me to sit here and say, what's the halibut like? It tastes like fucking halibut, man. Like, what's the question? What is that? It's a waste of their energy. So like now, I've been in the situation where I'll pick up the menu and looking at it, and I'll just see them looking at me and I'm like.

• 57:55Lewis Howes?

  Okay, yeah, whatever he's having. Yeah, yeah.

• 57:57Speaker 00

  Hey, exactly. Did you bring me? Bring me whatever. Is the duck alive? No, it's not alive. Okay, great. Perfect. Where are we eating right now?

• 58:06Lewis Howes?

  How do they, so they think about their time?

• 58:08Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 58:10Lewis Howes?

  What other habits do billionaires have that have helped you level up your life and your business? Just by being around them?

• 58:18Speaker 00

  They think about things at 100x. Like, it's not 10x anymore. It's not 2x, it's not 3x. It's 100x. How is everybody your partner? What's that collaboration? You know, what can I build to scale 100 times? And that's had a huge influence, one, how I manage my time, right? But also, that's had a huge influence on me building a business, right? Was, okay, how do I, how do I build a business that I can scale to 100? Right? Whatever that means. Why go small? Why take a small swing? Why not just take a big swing? My life was fine as a real estate agent. I'm gonna start my own company. I'll start four. And then I did all these TV shows. Let's do a bigger one. And let's get to a valuation as an enterprise.

• 59:03Speaker 00

  We really swing for that $10 billion multiple. Why not? Why not? And I don't know how I'm gonna do it right now, but I'm getting there. And we will figure it out, because I will be as consistent as possible until you buy or die. Like, it's just, you won't let go. And that's, that is like, they, they are relentless, you know? In their, in their, in their capacity and their consistency. And they're risk-taking. They're far bigger risk-takers than, than I am, that's for sure.

• 59:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 59:33Speaker 00

  Like, it's scary to risk money.

• 59:36Lewis Howes?

  It's a lot, man, yeah.

• 59:37Speaker 00

  But it's, you know, life is a gamble. So what's money?

• 59:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. You talk about, I got a couple of final questions for you before I get you out of here. But you've talked about You said you work for your future self, your 70 year old self. You're working for him.

• 59:51Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 59:52Lewis Howes?

  When you mentioned that, that's something I think about a lot is my future self. What would my future self want the decisions I'm making today to be for him?

• 59:58Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 59:58Lewis Howes?

  Um, you know, what am I doing that's going to make him proud? Just kind of like you said, it's something I think about a lot of. Um, what is the advice your 70 year old self needs to give you right now in your life? That will really make him happy, something that you're not doing yet. Cause you're doing the hard work. You're getting up at 4am, you're grinding, you're in great shape. You got a six pack, you're eating the right things. You're building the business, you're taking risks. You know, you're there for your family. But what is your 70 year old self really need to tell you that you need to listen to today?

• 1:00:29Speaker 00

  I think it's a couple of things. It was the, the thing I woke up with on my 40th birthday, which was.

• 1:00:36Speaker 00

  You're no longer waking up to be important anymore. You're now waking up to be happy. And what does that mean? Maybe it means to be important, maybe it doesn't. But you have to ask yourself that question every day. Uh, two, I think my 70 year old self, um, is telling me to, uh, remember, right? You're never going to remember your tasks. You will only remember your adventures. And as much time as I spend on email and in meetings and in commuting. Like I'm never going to sit there when I'm 70 and remember that email. Like it just, no matter how much importance there is today, it will mean nothing to me in 30 years. Um, but I will remember the adventures, right? And I will remember the stories.

• 1:01:19Speaker 00

  And I think the third thing he would say is there is nothing, um, without being present. Like there is just that opportunity to be present, especially, you know, as Xena, my daughter's like five and. You know, I spent all my time at work and how do you balance that? You know, you have family, you have obligations, you have responsibility. Where do you find the synergy? Where do you make a difference and where can you be as present as, as possible? And just look other humans in the eye and make sure, and I kind of like this. Make sure that I don't spend my entire life just being a human doing, but being a human being.

• 1:02:03Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. Yeah, that's beautiful, man.

• 1:02:07Lewis Howes?

  How can we support you right now? You've got so much going on, your business, the Netflix show, you've got books, you've got a course, all these different things, but how can we support you? What can people do to be of service for you?

• 1:02:19Speaker 00

  Oh, you know, just be my friend. See me on the street, say hi. We do a lot. If you're looking to buy, rent, sell, or develop real estate, you can find us at surhant.com. If you want some fun entertainment, you can go watch the first season of Owning Manhattan, which is now on on Netflix. You can follow us on any of our socials, Ryan Serhant or Serhant. If you're in real estate or in sales or a part of an enterprise sales team, you can go to sellit.com. I think it's the best next gen sales training for salespeople and sales teams. And other than that, man, just live a life worth living.

• 1:02:53Lewis Howes?

  That's good, man, yeah. Two final questions.

• 1:02:58Lewis Howes?

  I think I asked you this before, but I'm curious. You gave advice from your seven year old self to your current self just now. But if you could go to hypothetically, the last day, you get to live as long as you want, but then it's the last day on earth.

• 1:03:10Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:03:11Lewis Howes?

  However, old that is for you.

• 1:03:13Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:03:14Lewis Howes?

  And you've accomplished all your dreams. You've accomplished everything. You take the risks, the shots, it all works out. You see your family grow, everything you want to do, it happens. But on the final day, you have to take everything you've ever created with you. So all the content, this interview, your TV shows, the books, the programs, like it's all gone. It goes with you or it's gone.

• 1:03:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:03:35Lewis Howes?

  And no one has access to the content you've created in your existence here. And you've made a lot of content, right? But in the last day, you get to leave behind three lessons. And this is all we would have to remember Ryan by. What would be those three lessons? I call it three truths. What would be that for you?

• 1:03:53Speaker 00

  Well, number one is take care of the work. The work takes care of you. Number two is you are the people you keep. Like spend a lot of your time with other people. Make sure you're with the people you want to be like.

• 1:04:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:05Speaker 00

  Right? And then number three would just have to be

• 1:04:12Speaker 00

  like living a life that's actually fucking fun, right? Just be fun.

• 1:04:18Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:19Speaker 00

  Otherwise, it's just not worth it.

• 1:04:21Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, that's beautiful, man. I want to acknowledge you, Ryan. I've got one final question, but I want to acknowledge you for the journey you've been on. It's again, it's been fun to watch your journey from the sidelines and we're connected.

• 1:04:31Speaker 00

  Only just beginning.

• 1:04:32Lewis Howes?

  I know, it's only just beginning, but it's been fun to see. You reflect on it also with all the big successes you've had, the failures, the struggles, the opportunities, everything. It's fun to see you reflect on it right now. And I'm excited to see, you know, next five to 10 years where you're going to be at and the impact you're making. And I think what you do is you show up with a lot of joy, a lot of passion, and you want to serve people. Obviously, you want to make sales and you're constantly selling it, but you want to serve people as well. And not a lot of people can bring that passion and joy to what they do every single day. And I know you're not perfect, but you bring a lot of energy. And I think the world needs positive energy in whatever industry people are in. And it's something that could get tiring for people, like selling real estate

• 1:05:16Lewis Howes?

  could be boring after a while. You bring a level of excitement and joy and passion that most people aren't willing to do. So I acknowledge you for that. And I acknowledge you for being reflective. You know, it's not easy to reflect on these things, but I think it's important for people to see the, the human side of you beyond just the success side of you. And I, I hope that you know that you are important, whether you sell a billion dollars of real estate or not, because you have a beautiful family, you've got a daughter that cares about you, and you're making a difference in their lives. So I hope you know, whether you're successful beyond where you're at now or not, you are important. And I hope you feel loved and happy in the journey, no matter what the results are, because you deserve it.

• 1:05:58Speaker 00

  I don't know what just happened, but thank you.

• 1:06:00Lewis Howes?

  You're welcome, man.

• 1:06:02Speaker 00

  Thanks.

• 1:06:03Lewis Howes?

  My final question is, what's your definition of greatness?

• 1:06:06Speaker 00

  My definition of greatness is not self-reflective. I, I would ask, you know, everybody else, you know, like, I only think I'm great if everybody else kind of affirms the greatness. Right? So I think it would have to be attached to the, the public affirmation, you know, because I don't think anyone's great in a bubble or a vacuum. I think great is a definition that's attached to a lot of other really good things and okay things and bad things and terrible things. And so I look at greatness through the eyes of every single person I've ever interacted with or come in touch with or ever fault or subscribe to me.

• 1:06:52Speaker 00

  And that's a weird answer, but I'm gonna leave it at that. There you go. My man Frank, appreciate you, brother. Thanks.

• 1:06:58Lewis Howes?

  I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad-free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I want to remind you, if no one has told you lately, that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And

• 1:07:42Lewis Howes?

  now it's time to go out there and do something great.