161 How to Lead a Team and Scale Your Business with Than Merrill

"The moment you think you know it all is the moment your business starts to decline." - Than Merrill If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and more at www.lewishowes.com/161 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.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 161 with Fan Merrill.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:33Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone to this very special episode with my dear friend, Mr. Fan Merrill, who is not only a stud on the football field, but also a stud in the boardroom. And a quick note about Fan, he is one of the foremost real estate investors and educators in the country. A nationally recognized expert in real estate investing, real estate education and entrepreneurship, and a sought-after speaker who shared the stage with speakers like former lady Laura Bush, Tony Robbins, Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, Robert Kiyosaki, and the list goes on. Fan is one of the coolest dudes you'll ever meet. And I met him a number of years ago through social media, really, where he was, he was helping me and my business partner at the time,

• 1:17Lewis Howes?

  grow our business and we were helping him with some LinkedIn and social media stuff to help him grow his business. Now Fan is a former NFL football player turned mega-successful entrepreneur, business owner, and has an incredible story, journey, but also he's just so cool and down-to-earth and in my mind egotist. He is very competitive, but he's so warm and open. He's all about team. He's all about we. He's not about me, which is really cool to see and how successful he is while living that type of lifestyle and that type of philosophy. We talk a lot about the keys of success from what he's done to translate his playing day success,

• 2:00Lewis Howes?

  coming from Yale and then going to the NFL and then translating those key disciplines into being a first-time entrepreneur, business owner and building. Into the mega business that he has today. It's incredible what he's doing everywhere I travel. I hear his commercials on the radio and he's just blowing up in business and I feel like he's one of the guys who's doing it the right way. And he's really serving a lot of people along the way. So without further ado, guys, I want to dive into this because we've got a lot of great content. This is one of my favorite ones just because we got to hang out in his, at his house in San Diego and kind of do this in one of his rooms in his house.

• 2:38Lewis Howes?

  I hope you guys enjoy this relaxed feel of the conversation, but really I like to dive in deep every time. So I know you guys are going to get a lot of good go the nuggets. Out of this one with the one, the only Fan Merrill.

• 2:56Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness podcast. Very excited today. Got my man Fan Merrill in his house in San Diego. On the podcast. What's up, brother?

• 3:06Speaker 01

  Uh, doing great. We're sitting here in the, uh, the spare bedroom, talking into two microphones. Uh, awesome though. I'm really excited to be with you today and, uh, share, share some insights.

• 3:17Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, man. Uh, we met, what did we meet like five years ago, maybe?

• 3:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, we met through a friend of ours, mutual friend of ours, and you've spoken at a couple of our events over the years and done a great job presenting and teaching. So yeah, that's how we kicked it off. Then you joined our flag football team and we really formed a deep relationship at that point. So.

• 3:37Lewis Howes?

  And we played ping pong and we're still like even right now. We need to play a, a rubber match soon.

• 3:42Speaker 01

  If you ask Lewis who won, it's, it's Lewis, but if you ask me who won, well, I'll, I'll probably say it myself. So we, we're not sure.

• 3:48Lewis Howes?

  You've got a, like a serious setup ping pong table with, what's it called? Like the robo pong or something?

• 3:54Speaker 01

  Oh man, wait. So it's a robotic arm that shoots ping pong balls at you. And so I figured if I got a table and at the time I wasn't very good. So I said, I figured, well, if I want to get good and I don't have anybody to play with, I gotta get this robotic arm that just fires balls at me. So.

• 4:09Lewis Howes?

  It goes so fast. I have a video of you somewhere of like just rapid fire hitting it back. So.

• 4:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:15Lewis Howes?

  A lot of good times. And the reason I wanted to bring you on there is because you've built this. Incredible business and I don't know how much you're actually allowed to talk about, but you've got how many employees do you have right now?

• 4:25Speaker 01

  Uh, close to 300 across a couple of different businesses.

• 4:29Lewis Howes?

  Wow. And you do mostly real estate, investing, education.

• 4:32Speaker 01

  Yeah. So we, we do kind of, we have a real estate development company, which has been my core business for the past 11 years. And we also have a real estate brokerage. So we have, uh, we do the traditional side as well with real estate agents and

• 4:47Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 4:47Speaker 01

  So we both do the investment side. Uh, we also have a lending company. So we do a lot of lending across the country. And then, um, we have fortunebuilders.com, which is our real estate educational company where we teach people what we've done in our development company over the past 11 years.

• 5:04Lewis Howes?

  Right. And because there's so many people that want to get into real estate as a another form of income and uh, building a side business or make it full time for themselves all around the country. Right?

• 5:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. You know, a lot of our clientele is every, everyone from a casual investor who wants to pick up a couple of passive income rental properties. To people that want to build an office and do, you know, 50, 60, 70 deals a year. So you have a wide variety of different people that want to utilize real estate, either part-time or full-time to increase their income. And they'll just create a better lifestyle for themselves.

• 5:37Lewis Howes?

  And, uh, you know, it's been fascinating, you know, five years ago, when we first connected, you were already crushing it. And you've been doing business for about 10 years now, I believe. But before that you were playing in the NFL, right? And you went to Yale and then you got drafted. Did you get drafted or?

• 5:52Speaker 01

  I did. I was, I snuck in in the last round.

• 5:54Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 5:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:55Lewis Howes?

  You went seventh round?

• 5:56Speaker 01

  Seventh round. Yeah.

• 5:58Lewis Howes?

  You weren't Mr.

• 5:58Speaker 01

  They must have, they must have, they must have been recruiting somebody else and somehow they found me, but, uh,

• 6:03Lewis Howes?

  And you went to the Bears for two years, correct?

• 6:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was with, uh, I got drafted by the Buccaneers and then I played with the Bears and, uh, I loved it. Loved every minute of it. Didn't, didn't last long, uh, in, in the NFL, but, uh, I really enjoyed my experience there.

• 6:17Lewis Howes?

  If, uh, and why didn't you last long? Was it injury based?

• 6:20Speaker 01

  I did get injured, but then when I came back, I got cut after I was injured. So the reality is, uh, you know,

• 6:26Lewis Howes?

  They're machines.

• 6:26Speaker 01

  It's a short career, but, uh, learned a lot of valuable lessons from it for sure.

• 6:31Lewis Howes?

  Do you, uh, looking back, do you wish you could stay in there longer? Do you wish you would have had like a 10 year run if you could have stayed healthy?

• 6:38Speaker 01

  I would absolutely say, you know, I would have loved to have five, six, seven years. That was, that was my goal starting out, but didn't work out that way. But I think it, it definitely prepared me for what I do now. I think there's a lot of lessons that you take away from athletics that you can apply to business. And so it's something that I will always miss and always appreciate and realize that a lot of the lessons I've learned over the year. I'm very thankful for that opportunity.

• 7:08Lewis Howes?

  What would you say is some of the biggest lessons that translated directly from sports in general, but maybe the NFL into what you're doing now? That you would say if you did not have those principles or that foundation or those lessons really understood, that you probably want to be as successful as you are now.

• 7:26Speaker 01

  You know, the one thing about the NFL is the discipline. I really didn't understand discipline until I got to that level. And I realized if you want to stick around in that business, every day you have to wake up and you have to study. You have to focus on your body. You have to focus on the way you eat. You have to. And so it really instilled in me a great discipline. I look at, you know, the military, for example, and a lot of very successful business owners, you know, come from a military background or they come from some sort of background where you've learned to be disciplined at that level. And so, you know, I approach my life the same way every day now is, hey, in the NFL, you're not there the next day.

• 8:08Speaker 01

  If you're not on time, if you're not doing what you say, if you're not following orders. And so.

• 8:14Lewis Howes?

  You're cut.

• 8:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, you are. And so although it is a very ruthless life's business and it doesn't last long. It teaches you a lot of very valuable lessons because in business, you know, there's always competitors. Things are always changing. You're always adapting and you're having to deal with loss, you know, as an athlete, you deal with losses. You deal with getting beat. You deal, have to learn to deal with that and come back the next day or come back the next play. And, uh, and really adapt. And so I think it's very applicable to what we do.

• 8:45Lewis Howes?

  What do you think, uh, what's another lesson that maybe a lot of entrepreneurs don't have? Entrepreneurs that fail, they don't have these certain attributes that you've learned. What's another lesson besides being committed and consistent every day, waking up and doing the work was number one. A lot of people just want to start making money or building a business on the side, let alone getting to the level you have with 300 employees. What's something else that they miss out on that you really learned?

• 9:08Speaker 01

  I think one of the most important things I learned very early on was to build a, a systems dependent business and

• 9:15Lewis Howes?

  What do you mean by that?

• 9:16Speaker 01

  You know, when I started with my real estate investing business, every time I did something new within that business, I would document it and then I would say, okay, I don't want to do that activity again. How can I replace myself? And so a lot of entrepreneurs start out and their business is them. If you take them out of the business, there's no income that's produced, right? Most small businesses out there have a few employees and, and the main person driving the business is literally working in it day in and day out. And so

• 9:44Lewis Howes?

  And they have it all in their head.

• 9:45Speaker 01

  They have it all in their head, that the intellectual capital is on their head. So it's a very difficult business to sell because if you, uh, if you are your business, what are they buying? You know, what, what you need to develop and, and, and what I always share with other entrepreneurs and everything that you do, think about, how can I do this one to 10 times myself? And then create a process to plug somebody else in that, that wants an opportunity. So it might be an employee, it might be a, you, you develop a technology that helps you do that process more efficiently. So it's all about how you use your time. And so from, you know, the very first time I did a direct mail campaign, I was licking and sticking envelopes, trying to generate leads and I realized, okay, I don't need to do that again. I know how long it takes, how much it costs.

• 10:30Speaker 01

  I'm going to plug somebody else in to replace myself and then I'm going to, I'm going to work on another marketing and lead gen campaign. I'm going to figure that out. If it's, you know, making a, uh, if you're calling clients, you know, we did a lot of for sale by owner prospecting very early on. And I realized, wait a second, I, it's just a process. You've got to ask these questions, you've got to gather this information. So I created a script and we hired someone to do acquisitions and I replaced myself.

• 10:53Lewis Howes?

  So you were doing it first to learn it, that process, then you created this, the process, wrote it down or recorded it on a video and then said, okay, now you train someone else to do it.

• 11:02Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 11:03Lewis Howes?

  Where did you learn that from?

• 11:04Speaker 01

  You know, there's a, a great book called The E-Myth, which I'm sure a lot of you have probably, uh, heard of or read over the years. And it kind of talks about the philosophy and I've read a lot of, Another, you know, a lot of books on selling companies, you know, how do you actually sell a company? So I said, if that's, you know, the end goal, let's say 30 years from now, or 10 years from now, selling a company, what, what does it actually take to sell a company? Who bought, what do they buy? Well, they buy, they don't, they buy systems, processes, and then they buy a management team.

• 11:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 11:33Speaker 01

  So I said, that's what you have to do is you have to first, you are your management team. You have to build systems, processes, and then once you're to that level where you're producing enough income, then you start hiring and you start hiring management staff to, to replace yourself in different areas. And so every business that we've had, we've taken that same approach and it's worked very well. And so you basically go from being a technician, working in the business to a manager, to a true entrepreneur, running the business. And so it's kind of like, I call it the three levels. You graduate up the, up the chart as you go.

• 12:09Lewis Howes?

  What do you think are some of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make right now, uh, who are trying to scale?

• 12:14Speaker 01

  Biggest, I think the biggest mistake, um, is thinking that somebody can't do it as well as you. And it's interesting because initially, when you hire somebody, you're right. But eventually, especially if they're more focused in their activities, as an entrepreneur, you might be doing accounting one day, you might be, uh, doing sales the next day. You might be designing something from a marketing standpoint, the next and-

• 12:38Lewis Howes?

  Cleaning the bathroom.

• 12:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're doing, you're literally doing everything. And so if you bring somebody in to just work on one aspect, let's say it's marketing. Eventually, after a few months, if you hire the right person, they're going to do it better than you. And a lot of people have a fear of either A, someone doing it better. You know, there's a lot of people in my company that do things that are a lot better than I do. And it's just a matter of assembling the right people on, on the bus at the right time.

• 13:05Lewis Howes?

  And the thing is, you know, Maybe if you were going head to head and you were only focusing on that one thing like sales, then maybe you could be better than that person. But if you want to really scale it, right, you need to put people in place who are just as good, if not better, or almost as good as you would do it, you know, at your top game. Cause you could probably be the best at everything you decided you wanted to do in your business.

• 13:27Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 13:27Lewis Howes?

  If you put the time and the energy to focus just on that every day.

• 13:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:31Lewis Howes?

  But you don't want to do that.

• 13:32Speaker 01

  You're, you're right. I, I, I feel like I have in my business, a really good understanding of every department. I know there's a lot of people in every department that, that work in my office that, that know things at a higher level than I do. In fact, are more skilled in that department. But I have a good understanding of just how all the pieces come together. And then really just the person driving the business has to have the vision for where they want it to go. And then you find the people to come in who, who can really buy into that vision and then do a lot of the, the day to day work.

• 14:06Lewis Howes?

  Right. What's your personal vision and what's the end game for this business?

• 14:12Speaker 01

  Yeah. You know, um, number one is right now I have, I'm having fun working with our team and our clients and our, our, I love what I do. I work with some of my closest friends that I grew up with. Um, so the, the end game is just to continue to grow our business, to deliver value to our clients and, and, uh, you know, make it, uh, make it more enjoyable for them, make the experience better. So I don't have like a two-year plan or a three-year plan.

• 14:38Lewis Howes?

  Are you trying to sell it or?

• 14:39Speaker 01

  No, not, not right now.

• 14:40Lewis Howes?

  You want to have a, you want to be, have the systems in place and be able to scale it so that you could sell it if you want to.

• 14:45Speaker 01

  I, I, you know, one of my goals is I have a young son and I want to coach him when he, you know, if he chooses to play football.

• 14:51Lewis Howes?

  It looks like he will though. He had a firm grip, man. He caught my hand and he was like gripping that day.

• 14:56Speaker 01

  Yeah. He's a great kid. And so one of my goals is to scale back on the number of hours. But I, I love what I do. I love, you know, the people I work with, but, uh, you know, I, I've always wanted to coach football actually, but on, on my own terms. And, and my own terms means I, I'm not having to fly, you know, from college to college to college or high. School to to to another job, you know, coaching is a rough life for a lot of people, but I think it's a great way to give back to people and and kids and it was a big part of my life. So ultimately down the road, I'll transition into that a little bit more, but we'll still have the business for sure.

• 15:31Lewis Howes?

  And you mostly work from home, is that right?

• 15:33Speaker 01

  I do. My office is right down the street.

• 15:35Lewis Howes?

  Two blocks away.

• 15:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, a couple of blocks away.

• 15:38Lewis Howes?

  How does um, how do you structure that and set it up a good, I guess, environment for your employees to feel comfortable that you're at home, working from home? Obviously, I know how hard you work and you're probably the hardest worker there because you're constantly executing.

• 15:55Lewis Howes?

  But how does someone, if they want to work from home and they have 300 employees and the employees never see the boss, let's say, or the CEO or the leader, how do you structure an environment so that they feel empowered, inspired, and not like you're just off at home, you know, riding on their, you know, their efforts and just taking money and or whatever, you know, whatever thing?

• 16:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, the it's a great question. Number one is, I'm definitely present every day at the office. So I have multiple meetings a day where I'll go to the office. So a lot of times, you know, I might go to the office twice a day to have a meeting. I found it's a good balance to work from home and be at the office because when you work at the office, sometimes people become dependent on you making decisions and you want your team members who work in your office to be empowered and to think like business owners, to think like, I call it an intrapreneur, you know, they're entrepreneurs within a business and they may be starting a new division of the business, a new income stream, but in order to do that, they have to be very skilled at making decisions. And the

• 16:59Speaker 01

  only way to really learn to be a good decision maker is to make those decisions. So a lot of times when the entrepreneur is too present, everyone within the office is dependent on their skills as a decision maker. And it's not that I say I have a better skills, I've just made more decisions over. The number of years, so it can be very easy where someone becomes dependent. So being at home has actually empowered our employees to make decisions, has empowered them. At the same time, I'm definitely present. People see my face. You can't be absent, right? There has to be a balance between the two, but it works well for me because at home I can focus and I'm not getting, you know, people knocking on my door like when I used to work in, because I did work in the office for years.

• 17:44Lewis Howes?

  And they're just coming, asking questions all the time.

• 17:46Speaker 01

  Yeah. And, uh, and that was holding them back and holding us back. And so I realized if they, they want to get better, they want to be empowered, they want to make better decisions and it's forced them to do that. And now they're much better at what they do and, and they create more opportunity for themselves too.

• 18:03Lewis Howes?

  Sometimes I hear people, they say, who have like a small business, maybe a few employees, they feel like they're making so many decisions throughout the day that they have zero energy at night. Yeah. Cause they, I don't know if it's decision fatigue or whatever, where they're constantly making decisions. And at the end of the night in their personal life, they're like, I have no clue. You just make a decision with their, like their spouse or whatever, right? Like, I don't know what I want to eat, just make a decision.

• 18:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:25Lewis Howes?

  How do you manage all the decisions you make? And how, what, how would you recommend an entrepreneur managing that?

• 18:31Speaker 01

  You know, that's a-

• 18:32Lewis Howes?

  So they have energy.

• 18:33Speaker 01

  It's a really good insightful question. I, I absolutely for years had decision fatigue and it wasn't until I started empowering our team members to make decisions without me. And even when I knew sometimes, as long as it wasn't a major decision that was going to cost the company, you know, tens of thousands of dollars. If it was a decision that might cost a couple thousand or even a couple hundred dollars, I would let them make the decision, even if I knew it was wrong. Cause-

• 19:00Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 19:01Speaker 01

  The only time they would learn is when they've made a mistake and they've owned the mistake because it was their decision. And so it's definitely a, a growing process. And I, you find that with a lot of entrepreneurs, they're afraid to let smart team members make decisions. If you hire right, they're, they're going to learn the business. They're going to be, uh, they're going to want to make decisions. They're going to want to grow. So that you I don't think there's any way to solve decision fatigue that I know. Maybe there's some mental hypnosis tricks or meditation, but for me it was empowering our managers underneath within our organization. As soon as we did that, wow, what a difference in the day to day lifestyle.

• 19:45Lewis Howes?

  And speaking of hiring the right people, I hear it all the time for people saying there are no good people out there to hire. Or, you know, I hire someone and invest all this time and energy and training them and then they leave in six months and it doesn't work out. And I repeat that cycle. How have you first, what's your turnover rate like? Do people stay for a long periods of times in your company? And then how do you find key people? How do you, how do you know when they're the right person or not? And how do you keep them inspired to stay along for a long time in your company?

• 20:17Speaker 01

  Yeah. First, first thing I'd recommend is a great source, uh, resources. There's a great book called Top Grading. It's written by Brad Smart. It's literally, you think your textbooks in college are thick, this one's thick. I mean,

• 20:32Lewis Howes?

  I probably won't read it. I'll have someone else read it for me.

• 20:35Speaker 01

  But it's a, it's a great book because it talks about how to find A level talent, A hires. And it, it talks about a hiring process. And so for example, when you interview at our company, we have a, a four hour hiring process that you go through. Whereas before we, we developed this process, when we were just starting out, it might be half an hour and we'd be chit chatting in a coffee shop.

• 20:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 20:59Speaker 01

  And that was how I was making decisions.

• 21:01Lewis Howes?

  Feeling.

• 21:01Speaker 01

  Yeah. And I was going off a feeling and my gut was wrong. The majority, no, I wouldn't say the majority of the time, a lot of the time. And so it was costly. You would have someone turnover and you'd have to replace them or, uh, but it, once we put this process into place, it really. It upgraded the talent of individual who was working at our office and, and.

• 21:21Lewis Howes?

  What's the process? Can you share?

• 21:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, you know, the, the top grading process is, is really an extensive application and then it's divided into two, two hour interviews. So you sit down and you look at their work history and then you look at their competencies, which is divided into different categories. There's like 13 different competencies. We look for everything from ethics and integrity to communication skills, to organization skills, to manager managerial skills. And so we ask very detailed questions in a very set order. And then we give them real business problems that we've had, almost like if you've ever interviewed for a consultant job, at a consultant, you know.

• 22:03Lewis Howes?

  High level stuff.

• 22:04Speaker 01

  High level stuff. They're going to give you real business problems that you've encountered, just to see how you think. And so that's how we conduct our interview process and it's very, it's been very good because we get people to really respect the opportunity that they're given. And when they come in and they respect, you know, it's, it's if, this is a bad analogy because interviewing at our company has nothing to do with, you know, the military. But when you're, you know, a Navy SEAL, why do they are, why are they, that, why do they buy into the process so much? And I'm not a Navy SEAL, so I shouldn't be speaking on their behalf, but, uh, you know, they go through hell week together. I mean rigorous training where they earn a position and they now are a brotherhood, right?

• 22:49Speaker 01

  And, uh, if you can implement a good interview process, people really respect you as a company, as an owner of the business more.

• 22:58Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 22:59Speaker 01

  And so they come in with a totally different mindset.

• 23:02Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha. That's interesting. How important is it to focus on your body and your health in order to run a successful business? I know there's a lot of out of shape and overweight people that have businesses, but it seems like they're miserable or they're missing the point of living a good life. So how important is health for you and your employees? And what do you do to maintain, you know, an elite athlete type of lifestyle while running a business?

• 23:30Speaker 01

  I think it's vitally important that, uh, you as the business owner. Embrace a healthy lifestyle. I think first of all, if you, you know, your diet and nutrition, I mean, energy levels differ greatly. If you're not eating well, you'll probably be two thirds as productive as you could be just by changing your diet. And the, as far as working out, you know, I work out six days a week. So I go, um, and I, I prefer CrossFit because they're very short 30 minute workouts most of the time. So most of the time when I work out four days a week, I'm doing that. Two days I'll, I'll do just a run because it's all I could get in that day. Down to the beach?

• 24:11Speaker 01

  Uh, yeah. If I'm local, right down to the beach, uh, or if I'm traveling or wherever, then I'll, I'll try to get in some sort of a physical activity because it's, it's very important. It's also important, I think, as a leader of your company, if you embrace that lifestyle, your, your, uh, team members and employees will do the same thing and they'll follow suit. And they'll be more productive. Absolutely. And it's, it's a cult, you know, you create a culture and the culture, really the, the founder and the, the CEO, CFO, you know, the heads of whoever created the organization, whoever the founders are, create the culture. And so that's something we've tried to do, you know, once a quarter, we get together, um, our company and we do what we call an inspire event. So everybody in the company gets together, if people work virtually, um, we'll have somebody

• 24:55Speaker 01

  come in and just share for, you know, 90 minutes to, to three hours, depending on the topic. And the, you know, the last on, in January, we had somebody come in and talk about, uh, nutrition and different types of, uh, so the whole company's on a water, a salad, a no sugar, a no bread challenge. I can't say the whole company, but the majority of. People sign up for. Yeah. And so things like that, um. Are you doing that right now? Yeah. So I'm on the, I'm on the no bread. I'm on the no bread. No sugar is next week. No sugar is next week. No gluten or bread or is it just no? It's just no bread. It's, it's. One thing at a time. It's a simple challenge, right? Actually a really good idea by one of the team members who works with us. He started off with, you know, a water challenge because everyone can

• 25:39Speaker 01

  have success drinking a certain amount of water each day. And then you go, you kind of progress up to the salad. Challenge and but I think it all starts with whoever's running the company. I think that's important. And so in our, one of the local gyms, there's probably forty, fifty individuals at our company that all go to the same gym.

• 25:59Lewis Howes?

  CrossFit gym?

• 26:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. So it's, uh, yeah.

• 26:03Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 26:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's, uh,

• 26:04Lewis Howes?

  How many are local? How many employees local?

• 26:06Speaker 01

  Uh, probably about a hundred and twenty.

• 26:09Lewis Howes?

  Wow, man, you guys have grown a lot. I think a couple of years ago, you only had like thirty or forty.

• 26:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was just a couple of us in the office stacked up on top of each other.

• 26:17Lewis Howes?

  Did you guys take another floor now or something?

• 26:19Speaker 01

  We have a couple of buildings all right around here. Yeah.

• 26:21Lewis Howes?

  Couple of buildings. So it's not just the one down the street?

• 26:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, where we live is right near the beach. So there's not a lot of office space. So we, we picked up a couple of office buildings and that are right across the street from each other. So.

• 26:32Lewis Howes?

  What are some of the other rituals besides working out? Like, what's your morning look like? Both physically, you know, going through the motions, but also the mental preparation you have for each day?

• 26:44Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, one, one thing, uh, now that I'm married and have a young son, my, I definitely had to transition some of my hours to morning time before they woke up. Because I do work from the house. So I, one of the things that I, that I like to do right off the bat is, is every morning I get to, I walk down to my office and for about five minutes, I just organize my day and I prioritize my day. And I think a lot of people don't do this. And it's so small, but sometimes the most productive things are simple. And so I look at, you know, the fifteen activities that I have to do for that day and I put them in order and I say, okay, what's the hardest one? That I've been putting off, I'm going to get that one done first. And then I just prioritize my time and I time it. So I put down, okay, I'm going to spend fifteen minutes on this.

• 27:29Speaker 01

  I'm going to spend an hour on this and I'm not going to spend more time because a lot of times we end up spending three hours when we were supposed to write. Maybe we're designing a presentation that we're going to give to whoever.

• 27:40Lewis Howes?

  And we spend forever on it.

• 27:41Speaker 01

  Yeah. So you, you spend four hours.

• 27:43Lewis Howes?

  You give yourself a limit.

• 27:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, I give myself a limit.

• 27:46Lewis Howes?

  And you, you put a time measurement against each one of these priorities first?

• 27:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:50Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 27:51Speaker 01

  So I always say done is better than perfect.

• 27:53Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 27:54Speaker 01

  Because you can.

• 27:55Lewis Howes?

  Good and done is better than perfect and never done.

• 27:57Speaker 01

  Yeah. Cause that's, and that's the way I've always been. Cause there's always going to be things that interrupt your day, you know, as a business owner. And so I always, you know, make sure there's a little bit of time allocated for that. And then just put a limit on how long I'm going to work on that. And so I actually plan out the, however, long I'm spending working that day into those blocks. And it's very, been very effective for me because it keeps me on track. And, you know, it also keeps a mind that can sometimes get really excited about, you know, I get very excited about new ideas and new things. It's helped me say no to a lot of opportunities that they would really would have been more distraction than actually a good opportunity for the company.

• 28:37Lewis Howes?

  Do you feel like you say no a lot?

• 28:39Speaker 01

  A lot more. Uh, when I started out, I said yes.

• 28:42Lewis Howes?

  To everything.

• 28:42Speaker 01

  And now it's transitioned to no to almost everything.

• 28:45Lewis Howes?

  I'm pretty lucky I'm here, man. You said yes to me.

• 28:47Speaker 01

  I said yes to you. You know, I, I knew you were going to come here and, and I knew I had to refresh your memory about how many actual ping pong games you won. So.

• 28:56Lewis Howes?

  As long as we're even, that's better.

• 28:57Speaker 01

  That's right. We are even. We, you got that mean forehand. I couldn't figure it out.

• 29:02Lewis Howes?

  The spin, man.

• 29:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, I couldn't figure it out.

• 29:05Lewis Howes?

  I'm sure you whooped me right now. I haven't played in a while. I'm always curious about the way people think. Top performers, great athletes, and how they visualize the results they want to create. You know, for me, before every game, I would go on the field and actually like visualize myself catching the ball and, and seeing the ball come through the air, running through the plays, thinking about, you know, what happens if there's an interception and going through every possibility. Do you visualize anything like in business right now like that? Do you think about, you know, here's the result I want to create? Is there a process to achieving those goals?

• 29:39Speaker 01

  I think there definitely is. I think visualization is, is very important for the growth of your company. I, I can't say I, I'm the master of this. This is not, you know, I, I still study this, uh, to this day. Um, I was big on visualization when I was an athlete. Um, I visualize opportunities and then I, I try to somehow study, is that a good opportunity or not? So I'll look, I look at a lot of other businesses. I'm always studying other businesses, not just in our, not just direct competitors of what we do. But I'm, I'm looking at other companies. How do they market? How do they lead gen? And, and then what it does, that, that curiosity.

• 30:19Speaker 01

  Really helps me visualize something new for our business. So I'll, I'll see a way a company does something, you know, maybe I'm, I'm studying Zappos or Google and I'll have an opportunity where it helps me develop a vision. So I'm curious, I'm always asking questions. How does that company run? How does that company lead gen? How do they pay their customer service? How do they pay their salespeople? What is their commission bracket? So I'm, I'm very curious. And then I, once I have a, a basic understanding of something that works, I say, okay, well, how could I apply this to my business? And then I really start to visualize, okay, we need this person. And when we generate this much revenue, we can hire someone to manage that department.

• 31:00Speaker 01

  And so a lot of my original ideas come from other companies, right? And just like people listen to your podcast to get ideas for their business, it's very different, right? It helps them visualize what they should be doing, how they should be running their company. You know, I might say something about how we hire and they take that idea and run with it, right?

• 31:17Lewis Howes?

  Exactly.

• 31:18Speaker 01

  Same thing.

• 31:19Lewis Howes?

  What would you say is your greatest asset that is better than everyone else? In, in most businesses, like your greatest asset that no one else has that you have?

• 31:30Speaker 01

  Myself or, or, or the company? I, I would say competitiveness, you know, one of the things.

• 31:36Lewis Howes?

  That's true.

• 31:36Speaker 01

  I, I'm extremely competitive person. So I'm always pushing everyone within our company to be better.

• 31:43Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 31:44Speaker 01

  And I, one of my favorite saying is, you know, don't tell me how we can't do something, or don't tell me how we don't have time for something.

• 31:51Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 31:51Speaker 01

  Tell me how we can do it. How can we get this done this week and be more strategic? So I, I really think, you know, if I had to say my competitiveness and my, my passion, I guess, would be, you know, I'm very passionate. I'm, I get very excited about ideas and I like to see them work. And that's something that I think inspires other people within the company.

• 32:10Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. You talked about, um, you want to be a football coach someday. And because it inspired you to become the man you are, because of the coaches you had, as well as, you know, how important coaches were for me. Do you feel like it's important for every entrepreneur to have their own entrepreneur or business type of coach, or even just moral compass coach, uh, throughout their entire journey? Or is that irrelevant in business?

• 32:34Speaker 01

  Absolutely relevant. I think.

• 32:37Speaker 01

  I think all throughout your career, you need coaches and it's like, I call it having a board of advisors. You know, there's people that have advised us over the years and, and some of those people have started, you know, from day one. Some people have changed over the years, but I think if you look at any big company, the CEO, the top management CFO, COO, CTO, they, they generally will have a board of advisors. They have five or six or seven trusted individuals with different expertise. You know, accounting expertise, business management expertise, leadership, uh, marketing. And so I think you have to find those contacts, trusted advisors who have done something great in their careers.

• 33:21Speaker 01

  A lot of times they might be later on in their career and their way of giving back is through sharing. And so I've always believed strongly, you know, when I started in real estate, I didn't know anything about the real estate development business. So I found coaches and mentors. Uh, when we started building an educational company, when we started lending money, I've said, who's, who's great in this area that I could talk to, network with, and really it's, you know, it's kind of the mastermind effect.

• 33:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 33:46Speaker 01

  But there, it's an even closer group. And so, you know, we, a couple of weeks ago, we were working with a consultant. We'll, we'll always, I, I, I said, never, the moment you think you know it all is the moment your business starts to decline. Right? The moment you think you're, you know, your, your stuff doesn't stink anymore, right? That's when things, uh, start to decline. So I'm always open minded, right? Listening to other consultants, cause a lot, even a consult, the reason I love consultants and I believe in consultants is a lot of times, even the, the answers they give you, you might've already known, but you might not have been focusing on them. Or just sitting down and having somebody else look at it helps you be more aware of what you're doing and not doing in a business.

• 34:29Speaker 01

  And then that outside perspective, it can't be replaced. I mean, it's so valuable.

• 34:33Lewis Howes?

  That's a big asset for a leader or a CEO like yourself to just be open to saying, hey, I want to learn from everyone. It doesn't matter if you run a $10,000 a month business, like teach me something that you do that I could apply. Apply to my however many millions you have, you know, in your business.

• 34:50Speaker 01

  Absolutely. I could sit here and pick your brain and you would tell me a hundred things I didn't know about how to run our business and, and we could probably go vice versa.

• 34:58Lewis Howes?

  Sure, but just being open minded and receptive as opposed to saying, oh, I didn't know all this stuff.

• 35:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:03Lewis Howes?

  That's a huge asset alone.

• 35:04Speaker 01

  It's, it's.

• 35:05Lewis Howes?

  You gotta drop your ego.

• 35:06Speaker 01

  You do, you do. And that's not always easy to do, you know.

• 35:09Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 35:09Speaker 01

  Cause you'll, uh, it's like you might walk into a conference and you've been to a similar conference before. And the person saying something you know, and all of a sudden you start tuning them out. Well, 10 minutes later, they're saying something you don't know and, and you've tuned them out and you're thinking about something else. You're checking your email and you missed, you know, valuable insights. So I think you can learn from people within your company. I think, you know, they've all, worked at other companies or had other careers or experiences. So just keep asking questions and keep being curious.

• 35:38Lewis Howes?

  That's cool. Two questions here are two responses I'm looking for you. One is who is the most influential, coach in your sports career from five to 27 or whatever? And what was the biggest lesson you learned from them? And then who has been the most influential coach? Since then in your business career and what's the biggest lesson you learned from that person?

• 35:58Speaker 01

  You know, that's, those are great questions. I, I would say, even though I only had a short time to play with him, Tony Dungy was, one heck of a leader. And so even though I was only there a short time, from the moment I met him, he was such an, he really inspired me because every coach until that time was, I wouldn't say, a typical coach, but football coaches have a certain type of personality, right? And he, he was soft spoken.

• 36:30Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 36:30Speaker 01

  Um, you know, a very religious man and he could control the entire room being, you know, the entire team being soft spoken. And, uh, and not cursing, you know, like a lot of the.

• 36:43Lewis Howes?

  Like everyone else does.

• 36:43Speaker 01

  Yeah. And he was, and he let his, he was a great man because he let his position coaches, coach at a high level. And so he was a great manager. Like if he was working in a Fortune 500 company, he'd be a tremendous CEO. Because people really. He didn't, uh, you know, there's a lot of coaches that, you know, they try to get involved in everyone else. He let his coaches go there. And if you look at, man, there's so many head coaches who worked underneath him over the years and just a tremendous leader, very detail orientated. And that's one thing that I, I definitely learned from him. So yeah,

• 37:20Lewis Howes?

  I think. And then in the business side of things?

• 37:22Speaker 01

  You know, interestingly enough, I'd have to give my number one entrepreneur would be, you know, my mother actually, believe it or not, would, uh, she, she ran a dancing school.

• 37:31Lewis Howes?

  She coaches you?

• 37:33Speaker 01

  Uh, she, well, she, she does. Sometimes I want coaching and sometimes I don't want of course.

• 37:39Speaker 01

  But I, I learned a lot from her over the years. Just, I think a lot of the discipline that she had, she ran a dancing school. So tap ballet, jazz, you know, things like this. And she had customers and she dealt with parents and kids. And, and so I learned a lot from her over the years, just about every day, what it takes to, to wake up and work hard, you know, what is work, working hard look like? And what does staying focused look like? And so she still gives me advice over the years, although it gets hard to take sometimes. But, uh, and then, and my second coach I would add now is, is now my wife. My wife gives me a lot of perspective on what I'm doing wrong. Cause she can, she

• 38:22Speaker 01

  can hear, you know, when I'm on the phone or if I'm, you know, being, uh, you know, in situations overly competitive or too abrupt or.

• 38:31Lewis Howes?

  Too focused on the numbers.

• 38:32Speaker 01

  Yeah. Or two, exactly. Not hearing what people are trying to tell me. And so she gives me really good perspective. So those are probably the, the two most current, and I always bounce ideas off her constantly, you know, where she gives me really good feedback.

• 38:47Lewis Howes?

  I like that.

• 38:48Speaker 01

  Hopefully she's listening to this podcast.

• 38:50Lewis Howes?

  She's a, she's a force. She's a former, you know, was she Olympic hopeful or she make the.

• 38:55Speaker 01

  She, uh, she played on professional beach volleyball for, for like eight years and played college basketball. So she's, uh, and now she has a beach volleyball club that she coaches kids in different parts of the country.

• 39:08Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. I want to ask a few more questions to wrap it up here. Uh, this is a question I started asking people about the three truths they know. So if you, you know, if today was your last day, or it was the last day of your life in 50, 80 years. And you were able to leave three truths behind to your son, your family, the world about life. What would those three truths about life be?

• 39:31Speaker 01

  I think it's a great question. I think if I were to pass on words of advice to my son and anybody, you know, listening to this podcast, I'd say number one is live with passion. And I think, I think it's interesting because people always say, you know, I'd say my second truth is do what you love. But I'd put my first truth above that, live with passion. Cause in life, you don't always have the blessing of doing exactly what you love. But if you live with passion and you find excitement in what you do, it changes your entire perspective. You might be working at a job right now and there's probably ways

• 40:11Speaker 01

  that you could find to build more passion into what you do. And I think that's, that's the number, that's the number one thing I like to see in our company. I like to see people that are inspired about whatever it is that they're doing that day. They just read something, they just put something in emotion. And seeing ideas work is something that gets me excited. And so I would tell my son, you know, live with passion. Second thing I would say is do what you love or do as close to what you love as you can. It doesn't have to be, you know, exact, exactly, you know, I, for example, I would probably love coaching football more than I would love what I do right now. But I, it's pretty darn close, you know, I

• 40:50Lewis Howes?

  It's still a lot of fun.

• 40:51Speaker 01

  It's still a lot of fun. I work with, with people that, you know, I enjoy real estate. I enjoy real estate development. I enjoy coaching and helping other entrepreneurs build real estate businesses. And so I would say it's, it's, it's a second to probably my truest love of all. But I love it beyond the, the benefit of a doubt, right? So, you know, that do something that you love or close to, something you can get enjoyment out of, whether that's work at a company, whether that's start your own business. It's just gotta be in a field that, that inspires you.

• 41:25Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 41:25Speaker 01

  And then I think the third thing is challenge yourself. If I were to say to my son, Or anybody for that matter, you know, when you get it, find ways to constantly challenge yourself. So I'm always coming up with things that challenge me on a weekly basis. All right, I'm gonna run X number of miles this week, or I'm gonna, I'm gonna read, you know, every day this week. And so I'm trying to constantly coming up with challenges that create discipline, you know, I realize a lot of, you know, a lot of times myself and everybody included, we procrastinate or we lack discipline. So I constantly harp on that. And I would, life's too short to not try to be good at what you do. Yeah. So challenge yourself constantly.

• 42:10Lewis Howes?

  I like that. And if there were three books that you could leave behind, what would those three books be that you, you know, leave behind your, your family and your friends?

• 42:19Speaker 01

  That is a good question.

• 42:22Lewis Howes?

  That is a good. Maybe a couple, you know.

• 42:24Speaker 01

  Can we throw in a couple of magazines in there?

• 42:27Lewis Howes?

  You know, I didn't prep that before.

• 42:30Speaker 01

  Couple of books, well, I would, E-Myth is a great book. I think that's a, if you're, if you're starting a business, it's, it probably is going to have nothing to do with your specific field, but it has everything to do with building a company and building a systems dependent company. And that was really where the first idea popped into my head. Now that, you know, the book I can't say was enough to, to help propel a career, but it inspires an idea.

• 42:55Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 42:55Speaker 01

  Uh, The Art of Happiness is a great book. I would recommend to everybody to read and great book that I read years ago with my wife and just something that I've, that I've always loved. And then, man, a third book, Louis, you got, you got Sports Illustrated.

• 43:12Speaker 01

  No, there's a lot, there's a lot of good, Tony Robbins has a great book, Awaken the Giant Within.

• 43:18Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it's great.

• 43:18Speaker 01

  I've read that book twice. Oh, I, one of my fundamental books would be Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Most people have probably read it that are listening to this.

• 43:27Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 43:27Speaker 01

  I've read that book a couple of times over my career. I've read a lot of books.

• 43:31Lewis Howes?

  Have you read the, uh, The Alchemist?

• 43:33Speaker 01

  Uh, I don't believe I've read.

• 43:34Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man, it's a game changer.

• 43:35Speaker 01

  Is it? I'll have to, I'll have to look at it.

• 43:37Lewis Howes?

  Quick read. Very cool. Um, okay, a couple of questions left. What are you most grateful for recently?

• 43:44Speaker 01

  Whew, what am I most grateful for? My son by far. It puts perspective on life and it really gives you something to, to think about beyond just you and your wife and your friends and family and it's, you know, it now becomes about building a legacy and, uh, you know, making sure that it's, it's just fun to watch somebody model, you know, kind of what you do and you realize everything you say, both good and bad, he's, he's going to take from it. So, uh, definitely, you know, my son Tice is somebody who, who is, uh, you know, a great blessing in our lives.

• 44:21Lewis Howes?

  What's something about you that most people don't know that would shock them?

• 44:27Speaker 01

  Well, one thing, I have a hyperbaric chamber sitting right here in this room.

• 44:31Lewis Howes?

  I didn't even see that.

• 44:32Speaker 01

  Some people, I don't know if that's going to shock many people, but I believe strongly in, in health and wellness. And it's funny because, uh, years ago we got this hyperbaric chamber and, and, uh, and most people don't know that you can actually sit in this thing and it makes you feel really good. You gotta be disciplined to do it. Sometimes I have a couple.

• 44:49Lewis Howes?

  Thirty minutes, right?

• 44:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, an hour at least. Yeah, yeah.

• 44:52Lewis Howes?

  Does it work?

• 44:53Speaker 01

  Uh, it, it definitely works. We can put you right in there if you want. We could do the whole podcast lying in the hyperbaric chamber.

• 44:59Lewis Howes?

  Maybe I'll take a photo in there and put it up on the show notes.

• 45:02Speaker 01

  I don't know if that's as interesting as what you're looking for, but since we're sitting in here next to the hyperbaric chamber.

• 45:08Lewis Howes?

  It's all good. Um, cool. Well, before I ask the final question, I want to direct people where they can go to learn more about you. Where should they, um, check out? Fortunebuilders.com? Or is there, I'll have everything linked up.

• 45:20Speaker 01

  Yeah. Fortunebuilders.com is our main website. And, uh, if people are specifically looking for, for, uh, you know, educational coaching when it comes to real estate investing, FortunebuildersMastery.com is another website where you can find out even more information about our coaching. So, yeah, those are our two sites.

• 45:39Lewis Howes?

  And are you still on Twitter?

• 45:41Speaker 01

  I don't do much on Twitter anymore. I'm still on Facebook. Yeah. So I've, I've embraced Facebook. I'm, I'm still there. So you can find me.

• 45:48Lewis Howes?

  You have a fan page there?

• 45:49Speaker 01

  Uh, thanmerrill.com. I got a personal page there and then, uh, uh, yeah. So they can check me out.

• 45:54Lewis Howes?

  We'll have that plus all the books and the things linked up on the show notes. Before I ask the final question, I want to acknowledge you, Dan, for so much that I've learned over the years. And I really acknowledge you for your willingness to serve others. Because you've been of service to me in such a big way over the last five years without even knowing it probably. When you've had a bigger company, you've been so giving and

• 46:18Speaker 01

  Appreciate that.

• 46:19Lewis Howes?

  Open to, you know, coaching and mentoring and just being friends with everyone that I see you interact with. You're constantly being in service to them. And I think it's really cool to see someone who is a CEO, who's a leader, who's focusing outward and being in service to make other, to rise others upward. And so I want to acknowledge you for constantly living a great life and showing others that they can live a great life as well.

• 46:44Speaker 01

  Well, I appreciate that. I really do. And, you know, I had the same thing for you. I've learned a ton from you over the years and I'm always, always interested in connecting with other folks. If you're listening to the podcast, you know, and you see me at a conference, definitely come introduce yourself to me. And maybe we get a ping pong game in there too, you know?

• 47:02Lewis Howes?

  Exactly. Or beach volleyball game.

• 47:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Final question is what's your definition of greatness?

• 47:09Speaker 01

  Oh, man, that's a, that's a good question. I, I'd say consistency in your actions and that match your beliefs. I think you have to have an internal, you know, moral and ethical compass that drives you. And I think your actions have to match that. And so I, I'd like, I really like working and being around people that are consistent, that do what they say, that follow through. And it requires a certain level of discipline. It requires a certain level of, you know, it's not easy. You have to challenge yourself to always be consistent in your actions. So I, I'd say that, you know, if you look at a lot of great leaders, that's, that probably would be a good definition that they, they live by.

• 47:53Speaker 01

  And so I, I think that'd be something good to, to leave with everyone out there.

• 47:57Lewis Howes?

  Dan Merrill, thanks for coming on, bro.

• 47:59Speaker 01

  Thank you. It's awesome to sit here and talking to two microphones in my spare bedroom. I, no, it's, it's great, Louis. You do a great job. And folks, I know if you're, you're listening, definitely tune into Louis's podcast. He puts a lot of time, energy and heart into this for sure.

• 48:19Lewis Howes?

  There you have it guys. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please go back to the show notes at lewishouse.com/161. Leave a comment about the biggest thing you learned from this episode. Well, I also have a question on that page right there. We want you to answer. So make sure to go to that page, lewishouse.com/161, and answer the question for the comment section in the blog. Also, make sure to check out Thanh. We'll have all of his links there. We can connect with him on social media and also his websites and check out his business and kind of just see behind the scenes how he's doing it. Even if you're not really into real estate or real estate investing right now, you're going to want to follow this guy

• 49:01Lewis Howes?

  because he is just a master at marketing. He's a master at building a business. He's a master at building a team and creating an incredible culture with that team. And there's not too many people I've seen do it at a level that he does it with the intensity and the warmth and the care and the discipline that he does it with. So I hope you guys enjoyed this. Again, make sure to check out lewishouse.com/161. Check out all of Thanh Merrill's information and get connected with him. Also, make sure to subscribe to our free newsletter if you want to be on Team Greatness and you want to get all the best information from behind the scenes. Make sure to subscribe to the free newsletter over at lewishouse.com. You

• 49:43Lewis Howes?

  can opt in anywhere you see an opt-in form for that newsletter and we're going to be sending you goodies every single week after you deal. So I hope you guys enjoyed this one. Again, big thank you to Thanh Merrill for coming on. Love that guy and I'm a big fan of his. Hope you got a lot out of it. You guys know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.