233 Make It Big, Lose It All, and Earn Back Even More with Josh Altman

"I knew if I could do it before, I could do it again." - Josh Altman If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and more at http://lewishowes.com/233 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 233 with Josh Altman from Million Dollar Listing.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

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

• 0:33Lewis Howes?

  Thank you so much for joining me today. My name is Lewis Howes, and it's always fun to connect with other football players or people that played collegiate football. And Josh Altman is a former college football player at Syracuse University, turned real estate mogul and one of the top realtors in the country. He's the star of Million Dollar Listing in Los Angeles. He's sold homes of tens of millions of dollars, worked with some of the biggest celebrities, and has a new book out called It's Your Move: My Million Dollar Method for Taking Risks with Confidence in Succeeding at Work. My Million Dollar Method for Taking Risks with Confidence in Succeeding at Work and Life.

• 1:15Lewis Howes?

  Now, I enjoyed this one a lot because sometimes people on TV can be portrayed as having certain personality types. And we may agree with them or may not agree with them, but something I really like about Josh is he's very real. He is himself, and he has a lot of confidence, right? He's got a lot of confidence, and he knows how to get results financially. And there's a lot of things you can learn from having this type of confidence and knowing what risks to take so that you don't lose it all, which Josh has done. And so you can make sure that you continue to grow and increase your sales as an entrepreneur, make the right risks, and grow your business. So if you're looking to take your business and life to the next level, then you're going to learn some great strategies about how to do that in today's episode.

• 2:00Lewis Howes?

  But today's episode, again, is all about taking the right risks so you can build your business in a powerful way. So let's go ahead and dive into this episode with the one and only Josh Altman.

• 2:13Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone back to the School of Greatness Podcast. Very excited about our guest today. His name is Josh Altman. He's got a new book called It's Your Move and I'm very excited about this. Good to see you, my man. Thanks for coming on. Very excited.

• 2:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:25Lewis Howes?

  We met like a month ago, not even, at the Colin Parker sock photo shoot, which isn't out yet, but we all, we both have our own sock, custom sock.

• 2:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, talk about random meeting.

• 2:35Lewis Howes?

  Random, right? But I was like, oh yeah, of course. I've seen the show. I don't watch too much TV, but I've seen, you know, a couple of episodes on a flight or something. And I was like, yeah, of course. I'd love to have you on.

• 2:43Speaker 01

  That's where most people see it.

• 2:44Lewis Howes?

  On the airplanes, right? And it's Million Dollar Listing is a show you've been on for five years, correct?

• 2:49Speaker 01

  Yep. And it's been on television for eight seasons.

• 2:52Lewis Howes?

  Amazing. But you got in three years after, I guess, her.

• 2:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, they needed, they needed some new blood.

• 2:57Lewis Howes?

  Some fresh, young, good looking, former football player. You played, you were kicker at Syracuse, right?

• 3:03Speaker 01

  I was, I was. I got two of the biggest diamond rings, an Orange Bowl championship and a Fiesta Bowl championship. And I never got it on the field.

• 3:11Lewis Howes?

  You never got on the field?

• 3:12Speaker 01

  Nope, but I warmed that bench with the best one.

• 3:15Lewis Howes?

  So you were there for four years playing football?

• 3:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, I actually only played for the first two years and then I wanted to enjoy college a little more.

• 3:22Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 3:23Speaker 01

  But Donovan McNabb was my quarterback. That was super cool.

• 3:26Lewis Howes?

  What years were this?

• 3:27Speaker 01

  Uh, 90, uh, I'm sorry, 2000, 97 to 2001. So it was 97 and 99 is when I played. I had at least 10 big time NFLers on that team.

• 3:40Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 3:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:41Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 3:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:41Lewis Howes?

  That's insane, man. You never got on the field, though.

• 3:44Speaker 01

  Well, during practice.

• 3:45Lewis Howes?

  During practice. But no stress, though, because kickers have the biggest stress.

• 3:49Speaker 01

  I mean, I would have liked to kick. I'm not gonna lie.

• 3:51Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 3:52Speaker 01

  But the guy who was ahead of me, his name was Nate Trout.

• 3:55Lewis Howes?

  An All-American or something or?

• 3:56Speaker 01

  All-American, breaking every record, every reported. So we were up. And you know, with Donovan McNabb, we were winning games like 60 to nothing. So I'm like, coach.

• 4:05Lewis Howes?

  Put me an extra point at least.

• 4:07Speaker 01

  Let me get one extra point. No.

• 4:09Lewis Howes?

  He wanted him to break more records.

• 4:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:11Lewis Howes?

  That's tough, man. Not even preseason game?

• 4:13Speaker 01

  Tough, and it makes for good stories.

• 4:15Lewis Howes?

  There you go. At least you got to play.

• 4:17Speaker 01

  Yes, preseason and halftime.

• 4:19Lewis Howes?

  That's cool. I mean, the thing is. College football is intense, man. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of intense. I mean, you still had to train like everyone else did, even though you didn't get to play. You were still doing three days.

• 4:29Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 4:30Lewis Howes?

  Still working your butt off.

• 4:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:31Lewis Howes?

  And how much would you say your success now with all the stuff you've done has translated from what you learned in sports?

• 4:38Speaker 01

  Oh, big time.

• 4:39Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 4:40Speaker 01

  Big time.

• 4:40Lewis Howes?

  Do you feel like you have an advantage over all the other players in the real estate game because you're a competitive edge?

• 4:45Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 4:45Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 4:46Speaker 01

  And I think it's super important. And I always talk about when I have kids, you can forget about video games.

• 4:50Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 4:51Speaker 01

  They're playing real games.

• 4:52Lewis Howes?

  Real games.

• 4:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because, you know, you learn, you know, everything from teamwork to, you know, having ice water in your veins when you're, when you're in a difficult situation. And I mean, you know, especially as a kicker with the pressure.

• 5:03Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my goodness.

• 5:04Speaker 01

  It's just like the same thing as sitting at a table, dealing with the $25 million house and, you know, lots of money being traded and you gotta keep your cool.

• 5:11Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 5:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:12Lewis Howes?

  Man, I'm excited about this because we have something in common. We've both been on a Bravo show. I was on a show for four episodes.

• 5:20Speaker 01

  What was it?

• 5:20Lewis Howes?

  Called Misadvised.

• 5:21Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 5:22Lewis Howes?

  It lasted one season. It was a few years ago. It was probably a mistake, but it was a great learning experience. And it was like a dating show that three women were the experts on.

• 5:30Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 5:31Lewis Howes?

  And they were relationship coaches, but they couldn't take their own relationship advice and they didn't have any boyfriends.

• 5:38Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 5:38Lewis Howes?

  Or they weren't married. So it was called Misadvised. And one of my friends was like the leads who was on there and she asked me to come on one night as a, as like a guest at one of the events that they were hosting. And then the producer was like, we need you to have you ask this other girl out and blah, blah, blah. And I got roped in some lame thing. But I know what it's like being on Bravo. And I know that a lot of it is, let's say manipulated in some ways. So let's talk about first, the reason you got into getting on the show. I want to backpedal a little bit after that, but why did you decide to go on the show in the first place?

• 6:16Speaker 01

  Good question. So. I was, I was doing pretty well in my real estate career.

• 6:21Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 6:21Speaker 01

  I had sold a few celebrity homes at that time, so I was in the newspaper quite a bit. And they had three people on the show. One of them was bowing out or left or fired. I don't know. Nobody ever knows. But they were looking for somebody new.

• 6:36Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 6:37Speaker 01

  I got a call to come in and, you know, obviously, first thing I'm thinking is probably what you were thinking. Nah, I don't think so.

• 6:43Lewis Howes?

  Exactly.

• 6:44Speaker 01

  You know what I mean? I worked my way up in this business. I'm not about to go on TV and be-

• 6:47Lewis Howes?

  My brand messed up.

• 6:48Speaker 01

  Yeah. So I went in almost as a joke and seven interviews later.

• 6:54Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 6:54Speaker 01

  They offered me the gig and I still said, I gotta think about it.

• 6:58Lewis Howes?

  Exactly. I said that for a month. I was like, I don't know if I'm ready for this.

• 7:01Speaker 01

  I asked everybody and funny is my parents said, don't do it, of course.

• 7:04Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 7:05Speaker 01

  My brother, who's my business partner, Matt, he said, Josh, you know what's the most important thing about being in real estate? I said, what? He said that people know who you are. What better way for people to know who you are than be on a show that plays in 70 countries around the world? And who cares what they make you look like? Because at least you're known as, you know, the jerk Realtor or the nice Realtor or, you know, whatever Realtor.

• 7:32Lewis Howes?

  Who gets results.

• 7:33Speaker 01

  And you're known as a Realtor.

• 7:34Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 7:34Speaker 01

  Who cares if they like you or not? And today, it's even funny. I'll know when the show is playing in a place like Australia or Canada. Cause I'll wake up and I'll have 10 emails from Australia saying, I want to buy a house.

• 7:47Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 7:48Speaker 01

  Aren't you the Realtor of Los Angeles?

• 7:50Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 7:51Speaker 01

  They don't know. Yeah.

• 7:52Lewis Howes?

  And it's such, how many Realtors are here?

• 7:54Speaker 01

  Well, as far as I'm concerned, one.

• 7:57Lewis Howes?

  But I mean, how many are like registered?

• 7:59Speaker 01

  Thousands.

• 7:59Lewis Howes?

  Thousands.

• 8:00Speaker 01

  Thousands.

• 8:01Lewis Howes?

  And some of these top Realtors spend hundreds of thousands for billboards, for the bus stops, for everything to get to the signs in front of everyone with their photo.

• 8:11Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 8:11Lewis Howes?

  And they spend so much money and you get, you get paid to have a billboard on TV essentially.

• 8:16Speaker 01

  True, but I also, in return, I gave away my entire private, private life.

• 8:22Lewis Howes?

  That's true.

• 8:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, and privacy.

• 8:24Lewis Howes?

  You give up that. You gave up, and it's a lot of work and a lot of time. I know how much time and energy it is to the shooting. I mean, I was actually driving up Laurel Canyon one day. This must've been eight months ago. And I remember seeing the film crew up on, by a house and I saw you walking down the stairs. I was like, they must be filming right now.

• 8:40Speaker 01

  Funny.

• 8:40Lewis Howes?

  And I saw you just walking out there and I was like. You know, in some ways, it's seems like a great life, but in other ways, man, when you're filming, it's like you don't have a life.

• 8:49Speaker 01

  It's extremely difficult. Your typical reality show is about three months. We filmed for 10 months straight. Uh, yeah, for, for 12 weeks, that's it.

• 8:58Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my goodness.

• 8:58Speaker 01

  10 months straight for 12 weeks on air. And, uh, the good news is it is my job. So I gotta do it anyways. I have a partner, my brother, who actually can hold down the fort when I'm filming because it's extremely exhausting. You gotta be 110% all times.

• 9:14Lewis Howes?

  You're constantly texting, calling people back, making, yeah.

• 9:16Speaker 01

  You don't want to slip either when there are 10 cameras on you.

• 9:18Lewis Howes?

  No.

• 9:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:20Lewis Howes?

  No, not at all.

• 9:21Speaker 01

  So between that, uh, and, and the book and speaking engagements around the world, uh, it's, it's busy.

• 9:27Lewis Howes?

  Man, that's crazy.

• 9:28Speaker 01

  It's busy.

• 9:28Lewis Howes?

  How many people, how many deals would you say

• 9:32Lewis Howes?

  you were closing before the show to where you're closing now? Are they just coming in left and right? Or is it still kind of up and down depending on the market or what, what's it like?

• 9:42Speaker 01

  Uh, okay. Before the show was such a long time ago at this point for me.

• 9:46Lewis Howes?

  I can remember.

• 9:47Speaker 01

  It was, you know, it was five years ago in my career. So naturally anybody who's gonna grow.

• 9:53Lewis Howes?

  50 years in dog life, right?

• 9:55Speaker 01

  So, eh, look, I can't tell you exactly where I would be if I wasn't on the show, but I can tell you that it's definitely catapulted our career a lot faster than, than, than it would have been possible.

• 10:05Lewis Howes?

  You wouldn't be where you're at now, let's say that.

• 10:07Speaker 01

  Absolutely. And, uh, uh, you know, we're blessed to be on it. We love it. We take the good with the bad and trust me, it's not all good.

• 10:14Lewis Howes?

  I mean, yeah, when I first met you, I was like, you're not that much of an asshole. You know, but they portray you in the two episodes that I saw, it's like, but I know because they did the same for me when I was on the show. I was like, I didn't act like that, but they made me redo shots and they make you redo scenes and like say stuff that you don't want to say. You're like, what?

• 10:32Speaker 01

  Well, we don't, we don't redo anything. They just kind of roll, but when you're rolling for 10 months, they're gonna have a lot of footage.

• 10:39Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 10:39Speaker 01

  Uh, so, you know, I get that a lot because I'm, I'm definitely the alpha male on the show. Uh, I'm, I'm super, uh,

• 10:48Lewis Howes?

  Aggressive.

• 10:48Speaker 01

  Aggressive. Uh, I'm very passionate about real estate. And so that can come off, all of those can come off as being kind of, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you know what? I, I talk about in the book all the time. I call it calculated confidence, uh, which is an important part about being successful in any business. Um, and, uh, you know, It is how it is, but eventually after a couple of years on the show, people got to know me. They see me enough that they know, look, most importantly, I'm the number one guy on the show that you're going to want to represent your money.

• 11:21Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 11:21Speaker 01

  You may like me or not, but trust me.

• 11:23Lewis Howes?

  I'm gonna get you the right deal.

• 11:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:25Lewis Howes?

  The best deal.

• 11:25Speaker 01

  You want me to go battle with you.

• 11:27Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, because you're gonna hustle.

• 11:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:28Lewis Howes?

  And you've got the relationships and that's a lot of the success that you have.

• 11:32Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 11:33Lewis Howes?

  Now, I'm interested, confidence, it's something that, you know, if you could bottle up confidence and sell it, you can make so much money off that.

• 11:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:41Lewis Howes?

  How do you teach someone to be more confident? And how do you continue to be more confident without being, you know, because you need to be able to connect with people as well, and sometimes that can push people away.

• 11:51Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 11:51Lewis Howes?

  If you're too egotistical, so how do you continue to increase your confidence, but also have humility and grace in certain deals and conversations? And then how do you teach other people how to do it?

• 12:02Speaker 01

  Got it, so that's a great question. First of all, which I talk about a lot in the book, is how I got to where I am as far as my confidence goes. You know, I moved out to LA with zero money.

• 12:13Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, from New York.

• 12:14Speaker 01

  From New York, I couldn't rub two dimes together.

• 12:16Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 12:17Speaker 01

  I was, my brother and I lived in a fraternity house because that was all we could afford. I slept on the couch, he slept in the bed. Wait, we weren't even part of the fraternity.

• 12:25Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 12:26Speaker 01

  We worked a deal with a buddy of ours, we gave him like a couple hundred bucks a month, and that's where we crashed.

• 12:31Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 12:31Speaker 01

  So, it wasn't always super confident Josh, I can tell you that. But from a lot of the experiences and failing as well, which I did big time when the economy collapsed and coming back up and getting to where I am today, it's kind of you learn from your mistakes and you become more confident. I always say in order to be a successful salesperson, you gotta know your product. Okay, that's the single most important thing, you gotta know it like the back of your hand.

• 12:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 12:58Speaker 01

  Otherwise, you can't truly sell it and you gotta believe in it as well.

• 13:01Lewis Howes?

  Because you don't believe in it if you don't know it.

• 13:02Speaker 01

  Right, exactly, so.

• 13:05Speaker 01

  I am very, very good and I can look anybody in this business in the world in the eyes and say, I am an expert at Los Angeles real estate.

• 13:13Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 13:13Speaker 01

  I study it. I know more than 99.999% of the people out there. Okay, I flipped houses, I financed houses, I sell houses, buy them, all that stuff. So I'm very confident because I'm very good at what I do because I'm an expert and I work very hard.

• 13:28Lewis Howes?

  And you do the work to become the expert.

• 13:30Speaker 01

  It's not just falling on the lap. It's I'm the first one in the office every day. I'm the last one in the office every day. It's a passion of mine, real estate. So I don't consider it work, but I literally study it. They call me the Rain Man of Real Estate.

• 13:43Lewis Howes?

  There you go.

• 13:43Speaker 01

  That's what they do. It's like, how much is a house on the 900 block in the flats of Beverly Hills?

• 13:49Lewis Howes?

  And you can be within like a hundred thousand dollar range.

• 13:51Speaker 01

  Easily, all day long.

• 13:52Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 13:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:52Lewis Howes?

  Because you just know what all the other houses are selling for already. Now, what is, do you feel like you're an expert at the whole LA area? Or is it more like five neighborhoods, the Malibu's, the Santa Monica, Beverly Hills?

• 14:04Speaker 01

  Good question. I probably, the Platinum Triangle, which is Beverly Hills, Bel Air and Homely Hills.

• 14:09Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 14:10Speaker 01

  As well as the Sunset Strip is kind of my bread and butter.

• 14:14Lewis Howes?

  It's your bread and butter. Got you.

• 14:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, because I live up there.

• 14:16Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 14:16Speaker 01

  You know, I'm walking my dogs up and down those streets and I love it up there.

• 14:20Lewis Howes?

  Right. Got you. Okay. So if someone asks you, you know, Hermosa Beach, you probably wouldn't be as

• 14:24Speaker 01

  No.

• 14:24Lewis Howes?

  well versed there. You'd be like, someone else.

• 14:26Speaker 01

  You know what I would do? I'd put them in touch with, because I have a team of 12 agents, my agent who does specialize there.

• 14:31Lewis Howes?

  Who does it there. There you go.

• 14:32Speaker 01

  Yeah. And we both would do the deal.

• 14:34Lewis Howes?

  There you go. I like it. Now, what do you think is like, for someone who wants to be more confident? Let's say they're struggling with their self-worth or their, their career, they want to get a raise. What are some simple steps to being more confident? And I know you talk about in the book, but what do you think are just some simple things every day to increase that for yourself?

• 14:52Speaker 01

  Well, I think number one, the most important is what I like to call surround yourself with, with your dream team. I call it Josh Alvin's dream team.

• 15:01Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 15:02Speaker 01

  And it consists of a, of a good amount of support from people that I trust, value their opinion and who I surround myself with. I always say that you are the average of five people that you surround yourselves with, right? You ever hear that before?

• 15:14Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 15:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, I totally did.

• 15:15Lewis Howes?

  Teach him wrong to that.

• 15:16Speaker 01

  I totally didn't make that up.

• 15:17Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 15:19Speaker 01

  Just made that up right now. So I think it's super important to do that. So in real estate, for example, I have the best mortgage broker who's available 24/7 for me. And we've worked our way up in the business together. I have, you know, everybody from the best title guy and escrow guy and all that. So I surround myself with this team of people who I can trust and they can guide me in the right directions of whatever I do. So that's one way, obviously, in any business is just surround yourself with people who support you. More importantly, though, is get a mentor. Okay, I am big on that. I now am a mentor to many people. I even have a mentor program coming out soon, which I'm super excited about.

• 16:04Speaker 01

  Look, whatever business you're doing, unless you're inventing something that's never existed before, you're not typically reinventing the wheel. Someone's already done a great job at it. Exactly. So, you know, no matter how good of a Realtor, how many billions I sell, there's always been somebody before me who's been very good at it. Get a mentor, learn from them. You know, when I started in real estate, I walked into the company that I worked for and I went up to the biggest, baddest real estate agent in that company. And I said, "My name's Josh Altman and I work for you." And he said, "What do you mean? I don't need anybody, I'm not hiring." I said, "Listen," I said, "I'm newer in the business. I think that you're amazing at what you do. I want to learn.

• 16:47Speaker 01

  I don't care if I need to get you coffee, your dry cleaning, whatever. If you have an open house that's been on the market for over a year and nobody wants to sit it, call me, I'll be your guy." And that's what I did. And I started sitting open houses that no one would even want to go to anymore. They've been on the market so long. Eventually, I ended up, you know, working my way up for, you know, better open houses. My first, like, eight out of 10 deals were from people who walked through those. And then I had my own deals going, so then I was successful. And what year was this? This was 2008. When you were out in LA, right? Yeah, I came out in 2002 or 2003. Okay, gotcha. Yeah. But that's how I worked my way up. Attach yourself to a mentor, learn from them. And, and look, there's going to be good times and bad times in any business.

• 17:32Speaker 01

  And you're going to make mistakes in business. And what I talk about in the book is being able to bounce back from those mistakes and redirect your route and finish strong.

• 17:42Lewis Howes?

  It sounds like to me you could be pretty successful in anything you do. Cause you're so driven, you, you know, you want to achieve. Why real estate?

• 17:49Speaker 01

  Oh, I love it. I was playing Monopoly before anybody else was. Trading houses and.

• 17:56Lewis Howes?

  What is it about it that you love?

• 17:57Speaker 01

  So, real estate, let's say as opposed to, I don't know, stock market, right? I can drive and go see my piece of real estate right now and I can touch it and feel it. I like that. I like to do that when I'm investing in things as well. I, I invest in the stock market too, but not like real estate.

• 18:11Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 18:13Speaker 01

  I've always loved mansions. I, before I was a realtor, I used to drive around and look at houses in my neighborhood that I grew up in in Newton, Massachusetts. I'd be like, wow, that house is amazing.

• 18:24Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 18:24Speaker 01

  And, yeah, I, I was just always fascinated by some of these houses and, and that's, you know, the start of it. My start in real estate though, in general, was flipping houses.

• 18:34Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 18:34Speaker 01

  That's how I got there. I took.

• 18:36Lewis Howes?

  Buy them, fix them up, flip them.

• 18:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, but it was by mistake. So my brother and I, I was in the mailroom. Okay. I finally got a job, which was good.

• 18:42Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 18:42Speaker 01

  Uh, when I was in that fraternity house and.

• 18:44Lewis Howes?

  This is back in New Jersey, right?

• 18:46Speaker 01

  No, no, no, back here.

• 18:46Lewis Howes?

  Here, here, got you, got you.

• 18:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, here. Right when I came out here, I got a job in the mailroom. Uh, I worked in that mailroom for about a year and a half. I saved as much money as possible, which was about $5,000.

• 18:57Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 18:58Speaker 01

  And, uh, so I had five, five grand to my name.

• 19:00Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 19:00Speaker 01

  And my brother took $5,000 to his and that's when you could get a hundred percent financing.

• 19:05Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 19:06Speaker 01

  Okay. And that time was.

• 19:07Lewis Howes?

  I remember that.

• 19:08Speaker 01

  A wild time, which got us into trouble eventually. However, we went out and we decided because people we had spoken to that, you know, were mentors to us. Were very successful, not just in real estate. They were always successful in their job, but they made money in real estate.

• 19:23Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 19:24Speaker 01

  And that was the common denominator was, you know, I'm in the music business, but I also make money in real estate. I'm in the whatever business, but I make money in real estate.

• 19:32Lewis Howes?

  But I put my money into real estate.

• 19:33Speaker 01

  Right.

• 19:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 19:34Speaker 01

  So I looked at Matt, I said, why don't we take our 10 grand and go buy a place?

• 19:37Lewis Howes?

  Zero percent down, whatever. Yeah, yeah.

• 19:39Speaker 01

  Zero percent down. We bought a $400,000 condo.

• 19:42Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 19:42Speaker 01

  In LA. With 10 grand. And nothing, nothing in the bank.

• 19:46Lewis Howes?

  Here in LA.

• 19:46Speaker 01

  Here in LA.

• 19:47Lewis Howes?

  And.

• 19:47Speaker 01

  West LA.

• 19:48Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 19:49Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 19:50Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man.

• 19:50Speaker 01

  Right on Bentley. And anyways.

• 19:53Lewis Howes?

  What happened with that?

• 19:54Speaker 01

  So we bought it for 400. Every week we got a paycheck. We ended up changing a fixture, painting a wall, knocking down a wall.

• 20:02Lewis Howes?

  You had a tenant in there?

• 20:03Speaker 01

  No, no, it was us. We lived there.

• 20:05Lewis Howes?

  Oh, you lived there?

• 20:05Speaker 01

  We lived there. We bought it for us and we lived there.

• 20:07Lewis Howes?

  When you got a paycheck from your job?

• 20:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, from our job, we would, we would fix it up. We literally were living paycheck to paycheck. And it was like three and a half, four months later. I look at my brother, we're sitting on the couch and I go, Matt, this place looks awesome.

• 20:22Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 20:22Speaker 01

  Why don't we put it on the market? And, you know, we were kind of joking. We were throwing back some beers. We were like, all right, why not? Let's try it.

• 20:29Lewis Howes?

  And you're not a realtor? You don't have your license yet?

• 20:30Speaker 01

  No, I'm delivering mail.

• 20:32Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 20:32Speaker 01

  Okay, I'm delivering mail and broke. So we put it on the market for $600,000. About, I want to say, four weeks later, we sold the place for like 590,000.

• 20:44Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 20:45Speaker 01

  So we made $180,000.

• 20:47Lewis Howes?

  You're like, we're the richest people in the world. That, that was the most money you'd ever seen in your life.

• 20:52Speaker 01

  Oh, my God. That's so funny you said that. That literally is my next line.

• 20:55Lewis Howes?

  I know that feeling, man.

• 20:55Speaker 01

  You're like, I'm retired. I'm done.

• 20:58Lewis Howes?

  I'm the richest man in the world. I know that feeling, man.

• 21:01Speaker 01

  So we took that money and, you know, we, I did a couple of things with it. First thing I did was.

• 21:06Lewis Howes?

  Did you quit?

• 21:07Speaker 01

  I, I, I went to the Jeep dealership because I didn't even own a car. I was so poor.

• 21:10Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man.

• 21:11Speaker 01

  And I bought a Jeep Cherokee, okay? And the second thing was I jumped in that Jeep Cherokee, drove to my mailroom job and I quit. Okay? And so Matt and I, we took that money. We started rolling into the next one and then the next one. And that's how we originally got into it.

• 21:25Lewis Howes?

  You just got into it by kind of accident?

• 21:26Speaker 01

  That was it.

• 21:27Lewis Howes?

  And you're like, wow, we could actually make some real good money. This is fun. This is interesting.

• 21:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:31Lewis Howes?

  We're good at it. What's the biggest flop? The biggest investment you were like, this is going to be a home run. I'm going to put all my money on, all my chips in this one. And then it just tanked and it almost broke you.

• 21:43Speaker 01

  Oh, it, it broke me and it, uh.

• 21:45Lewis Howes?

  It made you cry for mommy.

• 21:46Speaker 01

  It made me cry and, uh, yeah, I don't need to think about this one too hard because this is a very obvious one. Uh, an obvious, uh. Point in my life that I will never forget, which turned out to be one of the best experiences ever. Because it happened a little early on. We had ended up flipping about, I don't know, let's just say a dozen houses, right? And at that point, by the 12th one, I was in the mortgage business because I didn't want to pay off any more people. Every time I buy or sell a house. So you're getting double commission or whatever essentially. So now I'm a mortgage broker and a house flipper. Yes. And we were doing well. I was a, you know, I was a millionaire by 26. Yeah. Okay. I see this house in the Hollywood Hills, right by Laurel Canyon. This is the coolest house I've ever seen in my life.

• 22:29Speaker 01

  Okay. It looks like it's a castle. It's a Spanish castle. Coolest thing I've ever seen, two master bedrooms. My brother and I are still living together. I'm like, this is the greatest party house in the world. So we ended up buying it for two and a quarter million dollars. Okay. Now I was making a lot of money as a mortgage broker and you know, that was never going to stop, right? So. Back in 2000. 2005, six. Making so much money as mortgage brokers back then, so much. And then it's just boom. The parking lot at the mortgage company was an exotic car dealership. Wow. Okay. That's what it was. And all of us showed up with no money and within a few months, we were all driving. Crushing. The fanciest cars you've ever seen. We got the house.

• 23:14Speaker 01

  The economy stopped. All I remember is this, because it was all a blur. Month by month, my bank account was going down a huge amount because my monthly nut was like 30 grand at this point. And with zero money coming in, very quickly it was going down. We ended up selling that house one year later. And I lost $600,000 on that house. And yeah, I was a millionaire by 26. I was broke by 26 and a half. Everything I had worked, all those dozen houses up to that point. Took all that money, rolling all of it. To one house and then. Gone, all of it. So what was that? It was like it never, my last six years of my life never happened.

• 23:57Speaker 01

  Wow. So what, how did you bounce, how'd you bounce out of that? Man, that was tough. It was, it was a very difficult time. I was down and out for sure. For how long? I was depressed. I mean. Probably a year. Wow. Yeah, yeah, so trying to find what the next step was gonna be. Uh, I knew that if I did it before, I could do it again, but you know, it was just getting over that, that, that hurdle. And eventually I said, listen, I, I flipped houses, I financed houses, now I wanna sell houses. I love real estate. So what better time to get into real estate than the worst time ever? There you go. That's the best time to get in the stock market too, right? There you go, there you go. So I learned when the market was down. Uh huh. I learned a lot because there wasn't a lot going on.

• 24:42Speaker 01

  I didn't sell my first house for six months in the business. I didn't sell anything. And worked my way up to there and, and now we're, you know, we, we built a company. We sell about a million dollars of real estate a day, which is great. Amazing. We have our team where, uh, you know, we're all over the place and, and let me tell you, it, it was a crazy learning experience. It was a very difficult time, but I'm glad it happened, uh, because of what I learned from it. Yeah. And I'll never overextend myself like that ever again. Really? Ever. Wow. Ever. Yeah. So what was the biggest lesson you learned about yourself during that time?

• 25:17Speaker 01

  You know, it, it was just being so naive, like this was never gonna end. Yeah. And I was like, uh, everybody needs mortgages, this will never end. Right. It stopped so quick. So fast, right? I remember the exact day because it was only about eight months after I had just gotten 11,000 square foot lease in Koreatown in an office. And you know, I'm guaranteeing that lease and, uh, it could have been, the whole thing was a disaster. I put change on the doors of my, of my company. Oh my gosh. I couldn't make my house payments anymore. I saw each one of my three, you know, fancy cars being, you know, taken away. Oh. It was, it was a nightmare. I mean, it's funny now to laugh, to look back to say. But you're so depressed then probably. It was, it was the worst. Wow. It was the worst. Yeah.

• 26:02Speaker 01

  Try going from a, a two and a half million dollar house to Apartment. Literally a $1,500 a month apartment. Oh my gosh. Going back after you worked your way up from that and then going back to that. What's that do for your confidence? Uh, it, it crushes you. It crushes you. I, I always like to say, to make light of the situation, there was a Seinfeld episode where Jerry and Elaine are walking down the, uh, the tarmac to get onto a plane and the stewardess says, hey folks, we have one seat left in first class. Do one of you want it? And Jerry looks at Elaine and, and, and he's like, I'll take it. And Elaine goes, why? Wait, wait, wait, wait, I'll take it. And Jerry goes, Elaine, have you ever been in first class before? And she goes, no, Jerry. That's why I'm so excited. He looks at the stewardess and he says, I'll take it.

• 26:46Speaker 01

  And she's like, why? And he says, because you've never been there, so you don't know what you're missing.

• 26:50Lewis Howes?

  Hmm, that's true.

• 26:52Speaker 01

  So it's tough because I knew what I was missing because I had gotten to that point. And now it was all taken away from me. I had to figure out a way to get back there. And, and, and do it the right way this time.

• 27:03Lewis Howes?

  It kind of reminds me of sports in a way because, you know, I had an injury. I had to retire from playing arena football. And it's like, a lot of athletes go through this depression mode where they're gods, right? You're playing in front of 80,000 people and the Orange Bowl or Sugar Bowl, wherever you play it, or 100,000, whatever it is. And you get that every week. You get this rush and then it's taken away from you after you graduate or you don't make it to the NFL. It's gone and then people are just stuck.

• 27:27Speaker 01

  It's difficult. It's difficult. You know, it's interesting actually that you say that. A lot of the people that was in the mortgage business never bounced back.

• 27:35Lewis Howes?

  And what are they doing now?

• 27:36Speaker 01

  Struggling still, looking for that next get rich quick thing.

• 27:39Lewis Howes?

  Or working crappy jobs that they hate or something.

• 27:42Speaker 01

  Yeah. And that, it's, that time screwed them up so much because they could never go back to working a normal job.

• 27:48Lewis Howes?

  And it was kind of like just they got lucky for a second. Like everyone was making tons of money.

• 27:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:53Lewis Howes?

  But it's not that easy. You can't just like get easy money without doing the work.

• 27:57Speaker 01

  You gotta work.

• 27:58Lewis Howes?

  You gotta work.

• 27:59Speaker 01

  You got to work.

• 28:00Lewis Howes?

  I love this. Um, what do you feel like is the, the one home that you've always wanted to sell that you've never sold?

• 28:09Lewis Howes?

  Is there a home in LA that you're like, it's like your golden like ticket that you've always wanted to get?

• 28:15Speaker 01

  Ah, let's see.

• 28:16Lewis Howes?

  There's one that's escaped you many times.

• 28:17Speaker 01

  Well, there was, uh, there was the manor, which was the Spelling mansion.

• 28:22Lewis Howes?

  The manor, okay.

• 28:23Speaker 01

  The manor, M A N O R.

• 28:24Lewis Howes?

  Where is that?

• 28:25Speaker 01

  Uh, that was, uh, Tori Spelling's parents' house, uh, Aaron Spelling, the famous producer. And that's in Homely Hills and they were listing it for about 125 million dollars. It ended up selling. My company sold it.

• 28:37Lewis Howes?

  Say 120, how many?

• 28:38Speaker 01

  125 million.

• 28:39Lewis Howes?

  It ended up selling for that much?

• 28:40Speaker 01

  No, no, it ended up selling for 85 million to Petra Ecclestone, who's, you know, Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One's daughter. And uh

• 28:49Lewis Howes?

  You didn't get the deal.

• 28:50Speaker 01

  I didn't get the deal, no. But that was a beautiful home and one day hopefully I can sell that. It was like 40,000 square feet. It was something ridiculous. But there are a couple of those monsters out there right now. Off market that are asking, you know, that hundred million dollar price tag that uh I may just have a couple of offers on and trying to put it together. But it's very difficult. It's difficult for overseas people to buy it too. Because you gotta get your money in the country. It's not that easy to get a hundred million dollars transferred into a country that you're not a citizen of.

• 29:19Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 29:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:21Lewis Howes?

  What's the biggest, the most expensive home you've ever sold?

• 29:24Speaker 01

  So I just sold a 23 million dollar house, Reba McIntyre's house two weeks ago.

• 29:28Lewis Howes?

  Nice.

• 29:29Speaker 01

  Um, and that was an off market deal. Randomly, I went to go see it. And I was passing uh the guy who ended up buying it. I was like passing him on the road and I was like, I'm gonna go see this house. You wanna come see it with me? He came. And he bought it and closed seven, seven days later.

• 29:44Lewis Howes?

  Just like that.

• 29:44Speaker 01

  All cash, 23 million. That's it.

• 29:47Lewis Howes?

  Congrats.

• 29:48Speaker 01

  There it is.

• 29:48Lewis Howes?

  It's gotta feel good. What's a commission like after? Cause isn't it different commission the higher it is? It's like a lower commission?

• 29:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's different. Your average commission is 5%. So two and a half to each side, the representing the seller and the buyer. Uh, when you start going over 10 million, sometimes you typically see 4% total, so two to each side.

• 30:05Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, still.

• 30:06Speaker 01

  That's what that was.

• 30:06Lewis Howes?

  Two's not that bad on a 20 million dollar deal.

• 30:08Speaker 01

  Hey, you know, you gotta, you know, my brother, my brother are partners and we gotta pay the government.

• 30:12Lewis Howes?

  Oh, of course. I get it, man. You know, book advances, like it's all gone. It's gone.

• 30:16Speaker 01

  Oh, that was gone before.

• 30:19Lewis Howes?

  Um, and did I hear you have a deal on like on the beach somewhere or like a big development deal? Or you're working on or no?

• 30:26Speaker 01

  Uh, oh yeah, last year I was involved in a uh, a deal that was a hundred million dollar piece of sand, actually.

• 30:32Lewis Howes?

  Selling.

• 30:32Speaker 01

  It was an incredible piece of sand in Marina Del Rey that we were selling. Uh, it's still available.

• 30:38Lewis Howes?

  You're still?

• 30:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 30:40Lewis Howes?

  Still selling it?

• 30:40Speaker 01

  And I left company, I left that company, so I'm no longer involved in that deal, unfortunately.

• 30:44Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha.

• 30:45Speaker 01

  But it was, it was a decision that we, we made together as a company to move on to another one. And uh, we joined Douglas Elliman, which is one of the most famous brokerages uh, on the planet. They sold like 18 billion last year in New York City alone. Um, and uh, yeah, we're, we're the, you know, we're, we're the face of them out here. So we're excited about it. Yeah.

• 31:04Lewis Howes?

  But tell me about closing the deal. How have you learned, you know, you've got so much information inside of you for people listening or people watching. What are the secrets to closing a great deal where it's a win-win? Because I come from a place, obviously you want to win, you want to get the most. But it's also, you don't want to make someone else feel like they just lost.

• 31:22Speaker 01

  Right.

• 31:22Lewis Howes?

  So how do you do that where it's a win-win, but it's like you really won as well?

• 31:27Speaker 01

  Well, you're right. So some of the best deals ever done in any business in history have been where everybody wins.

• 31:32Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Uh. Otherwise it's like.

• 31:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, you know, well, listen.

• 31:35Lewis Howes?

  It's nice to make a big check, but then if everyone else feels like crap.

• 31:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's, and it's not about the check, by the way, it's about, look, I like, when I sit down at, at a conference table and I'm negotiating, I prepare like I'm running out of that tunnel in front of 80,000 people to kick a football. Or I'm going to war. Okay?

• 31:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 31:51Speaker 01

  Uh, so I, I get in that mind state that, that, and, and, and really, you know, yeah, I put on the right suit. I do, I even do things that we used to do in football, like put on a sock a different way or whatever. I gotta be in the zone.

• 32:03Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 32:03Speaker 01

  Okay. So I go to battle with it. Uh, however, uh, you know, if, if there, there are certain ways where you don't want to hammer on people too much. I mean, you always want to reinforce that they're getting a good deal, which I always tell people, uh, by the way, you're getting a great deal. So excited for you. And you know, when it comes to negotiating, uh, which I've studied, I've studied it a lot. And I've been through a lot of negotiations. It's really important to, you know, your approach to it, but also to the, a few key things. One is you never want to talk too much. Uh, I, I like to sit back and listen. I think that's super important. And one of the keys to, to being a master negotiator is to sit back, shut up and listen.

• 32:43Lewis Howes?

  Cause no one likes to be sold. They like to buy.

• 32:45Speaker 01

  Well.

• 32:46Lewis Howes?

  Right?

• 32:47Speaker 01

  The more you talk, the more information you give out. Okay?

• 32:50Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 32:50Speaker 01

  So if you're just talking, you're gonna start saying stuff that you might not have said before.

• 32:55Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 32:55Speaker 01

  So you gotta listen. Uh, and the, the second and most important other thing is that you never go into any negotiation needing to, uh, close that deal. Okay. You go in there ready to walk away at any moment. And that's also very important.

• 33:11Lewis Howes?

  That's powerful. Cause then you're not making stupid mistakes.

• 33:13Speaker 01

  Exactly. Listen, I can smell a buyer who is in love with the property. All the way to the bank, okay? They're emotional about it. If I know that you want that property, if I know that you or your significant other's is

• 33:28Lewis Howes?

  The dream home.

• 33:28Speaker 01

  Dream home.

• 33:31Speaker 01

  Watch out because as opposed to you just coming in and be like, yeah, I like it, but you know what? There's always another house that's gonna come up.

• 33:37Lewis Howes?

  And there's a couple of things that are wrong.

• 33:38Speaker 01

  I'd like to put a deal together. If not, not a big deal. I appreciate your help. Although if so, great, I appreciate it. You know what I mean? Going with that attitude because the second you start showing your desperation.

• 33:49Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I'm gonna jump all over. Game over.

• 33:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:50Lewis Howes?

  You'd be a shark.

• 33:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. And so a lot of, a lot of real estate's bluffing. A lot of it is bluffing and you gotta be able to read people. And, and you know, I've become pretty good at that over the years of reading people.

• 34:02Lewis Howes?

  I like that. Do you play poker as well?

• 34:04Speaker 01

  I don't, I don't.

• 34:05Lewis Howes?

  Because you'll lose it all day. You're good at reading people in real estate, but you don't wanna lose all your money so long.

• 34:10Speaker 01

  Well, now you're going towards the whole Vegas and gambling thing and you know, it's probably better off that I don't.

• 34:14Lewis Howes?

  That's funny. Uh, I'm curious now, relationships and drive.

• 34:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:19Lewis Howes?

  Because I have a lot of, you know, the most successful people in the world that come on here in various fields. And I like to dive into relationships because in my opinion, relationships are the key to success in life. You know, without being able to communicate with people and develop relationships, it's hard to close deals. Right? You've gotta be in a relationship with every human you come into interaction with.

• 34:39Speaker 01

  Right.

• 34:40Lewis Howes?

  To close the right deal. Now about being so driven, you know, you've got your TV show, you've got zero time as it is. You're going after the biggest, you know, homes here in LA. You're trying to blow it up with your company. What's it like having a balanced relationship, intimate relationship life and chasing a big dream? Do you feel like you can have both? And um, how do you navigate that?

• 35:02Speaker 01

  That, uh, let me tell you, I get that question all the time.

• 35:04Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 35:05Speaker 01

  Uh, because people wanna know about my relationship because it happens to be on the show.

• 35:08Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 35:09Speaker 01

  In fact, so for everybody out there, I met my fiancee on the show. The first season and she actually was the assistant of one of the other stars of the show. Made for some good TV for sure. Is he still on the show? He is not, she is. And, and you know, everybody who watches the show knows that last year I canceled our wedding on the show unfortunately, just because we have cameras all around us. So it was, you know, everybody's kind of involved in our relationship and we've gotten used to it now at this point. My brother is my business partner and my fiance works with us. Yes. So it's one of the most like intertwined businesses you've ever seen. And it's a reality show. And it's a reality show. It's very important to find balance in life. I've struggled at

• 35:52Speaker 01

  this many, many times myself. There's no question about it. I'm very open about it. I'm a workaholic. I like to call myself a real estate aholic. All I do is work and, and I wake up in the morning, I'm super excited. I can't wait to get to work and close deals. A lot of my clients are overseas. I'm on the phone till, you know, sometimes one in the morning. I mean, whatever it is. My fiance is also a real estate agent. She works with us and there's been dinners where we're both on the phones where we don't even talk to each other. You can't do that and have a healthy relationship. No. You gotta shut it off at some point. And this is something where, you know, it's, it's definitely something that we work on together. It's very difficult to shut off the phone. I'm sorry. There's, I'm in a situation where I'm 36 years old. Yeah.

• 36:34Speaker 01

  I'm at the top of my game and knowing just because I've lost it all before, I've learned that you hit. You work even harder. You hit while it's hot and you work hard. So it's difficult to put it down, but you gotta find that balance. And I talk about that a little bit in the book. And it's, it's an ongoing work. That's what it is. It's ongoing work, but I couldn't do what I do without her. She's my support, not only, you know, not only mentally, you know, and, and I bounce ideas off of her all the time. Yeah. Because she's in this business, so she understands how I think. Sure. But we, we, we help each other because we're both on the show. And, and you see a lot of that play out this year on the show. Really? Which starts actually Wednesday. Wednesday.

• 37:18Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah. September 2nd and. How many episodes is it? So it's 12 episodes. And the other thing which is really cool, which I think you'd like, is in the book, we talk about this mentality that we live by, which is, we call it the ready, fire, aim mentality. Yeah, I saw this in here. Okay. Ready, fire, aim as opposed to ready, aim, fire. And what that is, is being able to identify an opportunity when it's in front of you. Being able to capitalize on that opportunity and take it to the next level. But also, if you fail, be able to bounce back like we did in our dark times when we lost everything. And kind of get back on the road and keep punching at it and then eventually becoming successful with it.

• 38:01Speaker 01

  And see it all the way through. I think that's important. I've lived by that for a very long time. I have lots of people that I've dealt with, clients who can tell me stories about an opportunity in front of them where, you know, they waited, they hesitated, and that's when calculated confidence comes into play because you're confident enough to make that decision at that moment and run with it as opposed to waiting and possibly losing out on it.

• 38:26Lewis Howes?

  Sure. So she's your fiance still?

• 38:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, fiance, five years now.

• 38:30Lewis Howes?

  Fiance, cool. And she's cool with the whole reality show, you know, with everything's happening, she's okay with it? Or I guess there's still challenges, you know?

• 38:39Speaker 01

  Well, listen, there's still challenges. She's okay with it because we've both been on it. So it's a lot better than if one of us was on it. And yeah, you know, she comes with me on a lot of my speaking engagements. You know, everybody actually, you know, wants to see her.

• 38:54Lewis Howes?

  They want to see her probably than you.

• 38:56Speaker 01

  Hey, we'd like you to come speak to a thousand Realtors. So, oh, by the way, can you bring Heather too? Like, we'll get you a ticket too for her. They love her. They love taking pictures of it. Plus, you know, we balance each other, our personalities, big time.

• 39:10Lewis Howes?

  That's great. What would you say is your biggest fear right now?

• 39:14Speaker 01

  My biggest fear is, I would say that my biggest fear is my next step in my business. We've grown our business to a point where it's huge and it's amazing. But my fear is getting too big where I lose some of the things that got me to where I am today and where I don't have time to be a Realtor anymore.

• 39:38Lewis Howes?

  What are those things?

• 39:39Speaker 01

  Well, listen, I love showing houses. I love being on the ground, you know, level of dealing with people face to face. I mean, I've had people in my car from You know, first time buyers to Kim Kardashian to billionaires to heads of states. And you know,

• 39:55Lewis Howes?

  You're driving around showing

• 39:56Speaker 01

  I'm driving around talking to these people and hearing about their experiences. And you know, I always like to learn from them. These are people that are so interesting. And especially we talking to a billionaire. It's like, do you know how much money that is? Like, tell me, like, what's it like? How did you get there? You know? So I learned from those, those experiences.

• 40:14Lewis Howes?

  It's like you get to have your own podcast when you're driving people around.

• 40:17Speaker 01

  That's it.

• 40:17Lewis Howes?

  You're interviewing these successful people.

• 40:18Speaker 01

  I mean, maybe I should put that in my car.

• 40:20Lewis Howes?

  You should record it and then have that be, you know, Josh Altman's road to success, driving. I like that.

• 40:27Speaker 01

  Done. There it is. Hey, by the way, I'm going to show you 10 million dollar houses today and I'm going to be recording it.

• 40:32Lewis Howes?

  Exactly.

• 40:33Speaker 01

  So I don't want to lose that. I don't want to get to a point where I can't do that anymore.

• 40:38Lewis Howes?

  You're too big and you're too, you don't have the time to do that anymore, right?

• 40:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, the book was something that, you know, it was a passion project. It's taken me about

• 40:44Lewis Howes?

  It took a while to do.

• 40:45Speaker 01

  Three years.

• 40:46Lewis Howes?

  It's a lot of time, man.

• 40:47Speaker 01

  A lot of time. And I did that, not so much to sell. I did that because it was something I wanted to put on paper to, to, you know, allow people to kind of look into how I got to where I am today and learn from some of the experiences that I failed on.

• 41:01Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Man, know what you want. Trust your gut. Succeed at anything. When was there a time that you didn't trust your gut? And you made a big mistake from it?

• 41:11Speaker 01

  Oh, man, let's see. I'm trying to think of the best one because there's been many. You know, there's been many from, from, you know, getting involved in certain businesses to,

• 41:22Speaker 01

  you know, not pulling the trigger on a house when I had access to it, to buy it. You know, you always go through those feelings and it's a war that you're fighting in your gut, but you gotta go with the first

• 41:32Lewis Howes?

  Instinct, right?

• 41:32Speaker 01

  First instinct, yeah.

• 41:34Lewis Howes?

  What would you say is your main vision for yourself? You know, you see yourself, we're back here five years from now. Doing this podcast again. What do you want to have achieved in the next five years?

• 41:44Speaker 01

  So for me,

• 41:46Lewis Howes?

  What's the impact as well?

• 41:47Speaker 01

  So I love making people money. Okay. I've made many, many, many people multimillionaires.

• 41:54Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 41:54Speaker 01

  By guiding them in the right direction as far as what real estate to buy. And it's at the point now where I have access to more money than you could ever dream of. By just making one phone call to one wealthy guy saying, "You gotta buy this, trust me." And he'll write that check without even seeing it, knowing that my word is gold.

• 42:13Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 42:13Speaker 01

  Because I've worked my way up to that point. My next step, as well as, you know, obviously selling houses, is I've started partnering with a lot of my clients.

• 42:23Lewis Howes?

  On?

• 42:23Speaker 01

  So, on some of these properties and developing. I feel that I love doing it because it's fun and, you know, when you can partner up with someone who you become friends with while making them money. It's, it's, you look, it's almost like a game. It's a game of chess with different houses and, you know, obviously there's, it's not an automatic. If the market switches, you can lose money. But, you know, I've spread myself around enough where if it, if it does switch a little bit, the market, that I'll be okay. But I love the fact of getting in development. I think it's fun. I have a house that I'm finishing flipping right now that I've been working on for a year and I'm putting it on the market in three weeks.

• 43:04Lewis Howes?

  I love it.

• 43:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:05Lewis Howes?

  What's the thing you're most proud of that most people don't know about you?

• 43:09Speaker 01

  Oh, well, I'm just, uh, let's see, most proud of, um, you know what? I'm just a really good son to my parents.

• 43:18Lewis Howes?

  Where do they live?

• 43:19Speaker 01

  They live in Colorado and we have a very tight family and, you know, nothing, I love nothing more than just hanging out with my family.

• 43:28Lewis Howes?

  Oh, that's cool.

• 43:29Speaker 01

  You know, they don't care about any of this stuff.

• 43:31Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 43:31Speaker 01

  You know, I'm still the little brother and I'm still the baby to my mom.

• 43:35Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, me too.

• 43:35Speaker 01

  And, you know, I'm just proud of how we've stayed tight together and haven't let anything get between us, no matter what it is. And, and, you know, my dad is one of my mentors. My mom is the most amazing woman in the world and, and, you know, we just, I'm blessed with that and I'm so happy for it. Yeah.

• 43:55Lewis Howes?

  Couple of questions left, but I want to make sure everyone goes and gets this book. It's called It's Your Move by Josh Altman, My Million Dollar Method for Taking Risk with Confidence in Succeeding at Work and Life. Forward by Damon John. Make sure to check this out. It'll be in stores September.

• 44:10Speaker 01

  29th.

• 44:11Lewis Howes?

  29th.

• 44:12Speaker 01

  And you can get it at www.thejoshaltman.com.

• 44:16Lewis Howes?

  Thejoshaltman.com. Make sure to follow him on Instagram and you're on Twitter and everywhere else as well, right?

• 44:21Speaker 01

  The Josh Altman.

• 44:22Lewis Howes?

  But also check out the show, Million Dollar Listing. It's on Bravo at what day, what time?

• 44:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's Bravo, Wednesday is 10 p.m.

• 44:30Lewis Howes?

  Wednesday is 10 p.m. You can check out all the great deals you're doing and all that stuff. But this will be in Barnes and Noble and everywhere else as well, September 29th. So make sure to go pick up a copy and support him. It's coming out right, essentially right now when this episode comes out, it's coming out.

• 44:44Speaker 01

  I even got, I got a shark to write the forward.

• 44:46Lewis Howes?

  You did. Damon John, it's great. It's great. Couple final questions. And this was great. I want to have you come back on at some point, maybe next year, and we'll talk more about negotiating.

• 45:01Lewis Howes?

  One of the questions I like to ask people at the end is the three truths question.

• 45:05Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 45:05Lewis Howes?

  And this is if it's your last day and the book has been deleted, all your properties are gone, everything's gone. Your show has been removed from TV forever. No one gets to watch it anymore.

• 45:16Speaker 01

  Oh, God.

• 45:16Lewis Howes?

  And you got to leave, you got to leave, you have a piece of paper with three truths about life of everything you've learned.

• 45:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:22Lewis Howes?

  About the world, about life, and you got to give that as your legacy for people to see. One piece of paper, three truths. What would those three truths be for you?

• 45:30Speaker 01

  Money isn't everything.

• 45:32Lewis Howes?

  Wow, interesting.

• 45:34Speaker 01

  Money isn't everything. That would be one. Number two is be true to yourself. And number three would be be 24/7.

• 45:47Lewis Howes?

  I like that. I like that. That's good. Next question is, what are you most grateful for in your life?

• 45:57Speaker 01

  My family.

• 45:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 45:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, easy.

• 45:59Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 45:59Speaker 01

  Easy. Yeah.

• 46:00Lewis Howes?

  Before I ask the final question, I want to acknowledge you for a moment, Josh.

• 46:03Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 46:04Lewis Howes?

  And I acknowledge everyone.

• 46:05Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 46:06Lewis Howes?

  At the end of my show, but I get to acknowledge you for your realness. Because you could come across for a lot of people as probably a douchebag on the show and this egotistical driven driven guy who only thinks about money.

• 46:17Speaker 01

  Right.

• 46:18Lewis Howes?

  But you know, I've got to connect with you twice now and I love your authenticity, man. I love how real you are, at least around me and you know, seeing you behind the scenes.

• 46:26Speaker 01

  Cool.

• 46:26Lewis Howes?

  You're real. You say it how it is and you work your ass off.

• 46:30Speaker 01

  That is true.

• 46:31Lewis Howes?

  And I acknowledge you and appreciate for your hard work because I know you're doing it. Not just for money, you're doing it to fulfill something in your in yourself as well. It's fun for you. It's a lot of, it's your passion.

• 46:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 46:44Lewis Howes?

  And I think everyone should be following their passion and doing it with the extent of the energy that you do it. Because if we all follow what we love and we make money around it, we're going to be happier. So I want to acknowledge you for the gifts that you bring to the world and for your real energy. And I love that you don't really care what people think about you.

• 47:01Speaker 01

  That that that took a few years to learn that.

• 47:04Lewis Howes?

  And that's not easy.

• 47:04Speaker 01

  That's not easy.

• 47:05Lewis Howes?

  That's not easy, but you know, you keep sticking to who you are and even if it makes you look bad sometimes, and I appreciate your realness.

• 47:12Speaker 01

  Cool. Thank you very much, man. I appreciate it. Very nice.

• 47:14Lewis Howes?

  Um, final question. It's what's your definition of greatness?

• 47:19Speaker 01

  Ah, definition of greatness. For me, it's because uh, earning everything you have is is is definition of greatness. You know what I mean? It's like, it's so much sweeter for me because nobody gave it for me, gave it to me, you know, and you know, when I came out here, I had nothing and I worked my way up. Even when I lost everything, I worked my way back up. I did it myself. I don't owe anybody anything.

• 47:43Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 47:44Speaker 01

  Um, and so that for me is definition of greatness. If I succeed or if I fail, it's no one's fault but my own.

• 47:52Lewis Howes?

  Josh Holman, thanks for coming on, bro. Appreciate you, man.

• 47:54Speaker 01

  Absolutely. Thanks, brother.

• 47:58Lewis Howes?

  There you have it guys, I hope you enjoyed this and got some great strategies out of this. Make sure to check out Josh's new book as well, that's out today, everywhere, online and in stores. And share this with your friends. If you have a friend who wants to generate more income, but they've been struggling, they've been struggling to build their business, maybe they lack the confidence, maybe they lack the risk-taking, and they want to grow and they want to build it, then make sure to send them to lewishouse.com/233 to listen to this entire episode with Josh Altman from Million Dollar Listing. So, thank you guys for showing up, for playing big in life, and you know what time it is. It's time to out there and do something great.