How to Build a Million-Dollar Portfolio Starting From Nothing | Graham Stephan

Graham Stephan was relentless about one thing before he had anything else: not spending money he did not have to spend. He calculated the gas cost of visiting a friend and decided it was not worth it. Most people would call that extreme. He calls it the foundation. The habits he built early, consistency, focus, and ruthless saving, did not feel heroic in the moment. They felt boring. But boring done every single day is what compounded into real estate commissions, YouTube income, and an investment portfolio split evenly between property, index funds, and cash. What he did not do was wait until he felt ready. He held off on starting his YouTube channel for years because he did not have a Lamborghini like the other guys. When he finally started, none of that mattered. The deeper conversation here is about what money actually means once you have enough of it. Graham is not chasing a bigger number. He wants to buy back his time, to read a book on a Tuesday if he feels like it. That shift from accumulation to freedom is where this episode gets genuinely interesting. Graham on YouTube Graham’s website Graham on Instagram In this episode you will: Discover the three specific habits Graham used to go from nothing to his first million and why saving was the most underrated one Learn how he structures his investments today across real estate, index funds, and cash, and the simple daily routine he uses to stay consistent Understand why waiting until you feel credible is the trap that keeps most people from ever starting Rethink what you believe about renting versus buying a home and when each choice actually makes financial sense Shift how you think about the end goal of building wealth, from hitting a number to designing a life that gives you your time back For more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1925 For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960 Follow The Daily Motivation for essential highlights from The School of Greatness More SOG episodes we think you’ll love: Lewis Howes Solo [From $0-1M in 2026] Glennda Baker Dave Ramsey Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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

• 0:05Lewis Howes?

  What would you say are the three habits that you started to develop early on? When you didn't have a lot of money into becoming a millionaire? Could you think back on three specific habits that supported you from going from fifty to a hundred thousand dollars a year? To breaking into the first million?

• 0:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, I would say definitely consistency. I was relentless in just keeping the same habits over and over and over again. I would then say it was the focus of just, I had one goal in mind of just like, I'm gonna do this one thing and do it really, really, really well. That's all I wanted to do. And I would also say saving money. I mean, I lived really, really, really frugally.

• 0:47Lewis Howes?

  You're obsessed about that.

• 0:49Speaker 01

  Probably.

• 0:49Lewis Howes?

  Too frugal.

• 0:50Speaker 01

  I was too frugal.

• 0:51Lewis Howes?

  You were like every penny.

• 0:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:54Lewis Howes?

  I can't go out and have an extra sushi, I can't help you there.

• 0:56Speaker 01

  Oh, not even, like, I wouldn't even do the sushi. It was probably unhealthy. I mean, looking back, like, I can't have regrets about it. But, I mean, it got to a point where I remember, I was talking about this yesterday. I was calculating the cost of gas to go and visit a friend. And I determined, it's how bad it is though, like, the cost of gas was not worth the time I would be able to spend with his friend. And like, I did the analysis on that and thinking, well, if I'm only gonna see for two hours and it's gonna cost me X amount of like, that's stupid, like, I should not be looking at it like that. But that's how I was in the beginning.

• 1:33Lewis Howes?

  Where did that come from? Is that like a childhood learned behavior? Did you model that from somewhere? Were you just, like, why did you feel like you needed to be so obsessive about every penny? And decisions of like driving to see a friend? Is it worth the money? Like, when?

• 1:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, a lot of it, I thought of like, how much I would be making or the cost of like my time. And then extrapolating from there, like, what my time is worth doing certain activities. There was also another point, I must have been like fifteen years old, maybe sixteen at age, like, just got my driver's license. And I remembered. Like how far twenty dollars could get you. And I was like, okay, if I have twenty dollars and that's like, that's my budget and that's what I'm spending. I could put ten dollars in the gas tank. I could spend five dollars on a Subway footlong sandwich. And that's like two meals and two dollars and fifty cents per meal. And then I have another five dollars left over for like miscellaneous. Like I remember breaking it down to that degree.

• 2:30Speaker 01

  And then just from there, you know, taking that to, well, here's what a dollar could buy. And just like appreciating that. But then also going through, there was a time briefly, I think, I think the job was like six weeks. I worked at this gold precious metals bullion investment firm. I did data entry because I thought I wanted to like be an investment banker. I'm like, this is a great way to get experience. Wasn't. But I think I was, I think I must have been paid like seven dollars and seventy-five cents an hour. Like it was maybe eight bucks like max. And this was back in early two thousand eight.

• 3:04Speaker 01

  And I remember thinking, okay, like if I'm making like eight dollars an hour. Is a Subway sandwich worth forty minutes of that? No. And then how could I stretch that further? So I just thought everything in terms of like going back to making like eight bucks an hour.

• 3:20Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Did your parents teach you lessons about money early on? Did you have money mentors?

• 3:25Speaker 01

  No.

• 3:26Lewis Howes?

  What were the things, what were the beliefs you had early on around money? Like what did you think? When you thought of money, when money came in? Did you think I need to save it? Do you think money was good? Money was bad? You know, what were your beliefs about it?

• 3:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, I never thought money was bad. I had always been obsessed with, I guess, like saving and collecting. Like even as a kid, I think it was my grandpa showed me like his coin collection. And I thought it was so cool. And he's, and he showed me a picture of like a nineteen oh nine SVDB penny. It's like, these pennies are out there still. They're like X amount that are probably still in circulation. And like every like, and I was like maybe six years old and I'd just be checking pennies. It's like every penny would be like, is this a nineteen oh nine SVDB? Like I never found one. But I've just been obsessed with, I think, just saving, collecting. Like I, even if I got like birthday money or Christmas money, like I would save it. I wouldn't spend it. And I liked just to see that accumulate in like an envelope in my room.

• 4:22Lewis Howes?

  Or piggy bank or something, yeah.

• 4:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, it'd be like a hundred bucks or something like that. Like the whole year's worth of like saving and collecting. I just naturally, I think, gravitated towards that.

• 4:31Lewis Howes?

  What was the, I mean, did anyone teach you about money though? Did you ever like?

• 4:36Speaker 01

  Uh, no, not really. My mom had a book and I think it was like the millionaire mindset.

• 4:43Lewis Howes?

  Secrets of the millionaire mind?

• 4:45Speaker 01

  Maybe. Um, I don't, I, something about the millionaire mindset, or maybe it was the millionaire next door.

• 4:51Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 4:51Speaker 01

  And I must've been like ten, eleven, twelve years old and for so, like, I just saw the book that's a millionaire on the side of it. I'm like, I'm gonna read this book. And I, I was not a reader at all. Like, I was not reading books. But for some reason, I just read that book and I enjoyed it. And it's just like, all these things made sense. Like, oh, the average millionaire drives a Ford F-150 and, you know, it's more common to drive a Toyota Corolla than it is a Ferrari. And most millionaires don't make a million dollars a year. They're making an average income and they save for thirty years. And so all of those things, like, I just had an interest in that.

• 5:22Lewis Howes?

  What was the year you made your first million?

• 5:25Speaker 01

  Dollars or we're talking about net worth?

• 5:27Lewis Howes?

  In sales, like, that, that came in, what was the year that happened? Do you remember the year?

• 5:32Speaker 01

  Uh, yeah, that would've been twenty nineteen. And that was a combination of, uh, real estate sales and then YouTube adding on top of that.

• 5:41Lewis Howes?

  Right. And the year before, where was it at? Like, was it half as much? Was it close to that? Was it?

• 5:47Speaker 01

  Uh, the year before, I think I made two hundred and fifty thousand dollars from YouTube. And then I think five hundred grand from real estate.

• 5:57Lewis Howes?

  About seven hundred fifty grand the year before?

• 6:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, it'll be about that.

• 6:01Lewis Howes?

  What do you think was the difference between what you did or how you thought from twenty eighteen to twenty nineteen?

• 6:09Speaker 01

  I would say, uh, I had never, for me, it was really YouTube. Uh, but that really started twenty seventeen for me, because I never thought that I'd make money on YouTube at all. Like, I started making videos just because it's like, it seemed like the fun thing to do. And even, I remember making a dollar a day on YouTube through ad revenue and just thinking, wow, this is like a free sushi dinner that I could, because I was gonna do YouTube anyway. So it's like, the fact that it's making thirty dollars a month, it's like, that's sushi, once a we, uh, once a month for free. And I remember it being like a hundred dollars a month, being like, wow, that's my cellphone bill. And then three hundred dollars a month. That's my car insurance and gas. Like, this is so cool. And it just, I guess seeing that I could make money without having to be actively involved, even though I became very involved.

• 6:55Speaker 01

  But with real estate, I was in sales. And so the bulk of my income at that time was really like, I gotta be there, I gotta show houses. If I don't sell a house, I don't get paid. I could work an entire year and earn nothing. And a lot of my commission is dependent on my ability to get listings, meet clients, be there for those clients. And I would drop anything for them at any time. If there's a client who wanted to see a house Friday at 10:00 PM, I would cancel any, I'd be there because that's what I had to do. But seeing on YouTube that I could work around my own schedule, post videos. And like every video, I was like, wow, if this, if every video I make just makes an average of a dollar a day, I get a thousand videos and it's a thousand dollars a day and I could, I could be anywhere in the world.

• 7:39Speaker 01

  And so something like that was very freeing to me that I knew that I could scale it away that I couldn't do as a real estate agent. Even the best agents I've seen, like we're talking about like the top few in the country are making two to six million dollars a year. And they have like huge teams and they've been in the business for 20 years. And I started seeing people on YouTube be like, they're doing this in, you know, a few months and scaling to that point. The reach that I was able to get on YouTube and the benefits that I saw of just like being able to network and meet other people. I can meet a thousand people by making one video in the time it would take me like years in real estate to like meet a thousand people one on one. And that really changed my mind in terms of just seeing what was possible.

• 8:21Lewis Howes?

  So 2018, if I remember what you said, about a half a million came in from real estate, is that right?

• 8:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. And then of course, on top of that, though, you have like broker splits and like miscellaneous things.

• 8:32Lewis Howes?

  Sure, in terms of like sales coming in, you got expenses and everything, obviously. But that's like, how many homes is that for a half a million dollars in commissions?

• 8:39Speaker 01

  Wasn't much.

• 8:40Lewis Howes?

  Well, in LA, I guess, yeah.

• 8:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:42Lewis Howes?

  Is that five, 10 homes? What is that?

• 8:44Speaker 01

  Probably about that. I would say in a year, I would have maybe 20 and I'm like years, this is like five years, like six years. I don't know how many years ago this was.

• 8:55Speaker 01

  I would say on average, I probably had about 25 transactions a year. A lot of those would be high end leases and of those sales.

• 9:02Lewis Howes?

  Rentals.

• 9:03Speaker 01

  Yeah. And then sales would be, I don't know, five to. Ten, but some usually it would be like I'd have a whole bunch of one and a half to three million dollar homes and then I'd have like one a year that was like five million or like eight million and that would boost the bar a lot. Or sometimes I'd get really good lease commissions. There would be some properties for lease that would make more commission than the sales just because let's say it's thirty thousand dollars a month and I'm representing both sides and we get like an eight percent commission on top of that for a two-year lease.

• 9:38Lewis Howes?

  That's pretty big. Monthly, you get a commission monthly?

• 9:41Speaker 01

  No, I get one check. Sometimes they'll say, well, you know, we'll pay you for the first year and then we'll pay, which is fine, but a lot of them would just pay upfront.

• 9:50Lewis Howes?

  That's amazing. What would you say the top three physical investments that you've made that have paid the best dividends over the last five to 10 years?

• 9:59Speaker 01

  Good computer, a faster. I was like on this little mini MacBook for a while that would like pause for minutes and I didn't want to spend money. I finally got like a new MacBook at the time and like it helped my video processing like a ton like that has probably been one of the best investments. Probably good camera for YouTube videos. Besides that, though, I'd say real estate has been, has been a fantastic one. That's always been like the core of everything I do is like that's the foundation is like good real estate rental properties and that's like the foundation, I guess, to fall back on if that makes sense.

• 10:31Lewis Howes?

  How much real estate do you have now?

• 10:33Speaker 01

  It is, I'm just trying to, I think it's six properties total. One is my primary in Vegas.

• 10:41Lewis Howes?

  But then six, five rental properties?

• 10:43Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 10:44Lewis Howes?

  And then the rest is mostly index funds at the moment or?

• 10:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, index funds and cash. I pretty much almost got a thirty, thirty, thirty split between real estate, cash, index funds.

• 10:55Lewis Howes?

  Really? When did you feel like you were able to break through mentally and emotionally of you see these bigger homes, you see individuals who have made it essentially in a certain way financially, when did you start to realize, hey, maybe I could break through this financial level as well and get to a certain level? Was that when you were eighteen getting started or was it more in your mid twenties?

• 11:15Speaker 01

  I'd say immediate, like just, yeah, immediately, just like seeing and being around these people. I just felt like I could do that too.

• 11:21Lewis Howes?

  At eighteen, nineteen?

• 11:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:23Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 11:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, even though I didn't achieve that immediately, it's just, I guess it was a feeling like I felt like. I I dress the part too, like I see how they dress and I go to H and M and like try to replicate their style for like fifty bucks.

• 11:38Speaker 01

  And so just doing that, a big change for me too came when I sold my first house. And I do what I tell everyone not to do, spent pretty much all of it on a car. And I think my commission, like after everything, fifty grand, something like that, like after I split.

• 11:53Lewis Howes?

  Fifty grand?

• 11:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, like after all splits and everything.

• 11:56Lewis Howes?

  Your first house?

• 11:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, first house.

• 11:58Lewis Howes?

  That's huge.

• 11:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, three point six million dollars.

• 12:01Lewis Howes?

  How old were you?

• 12:02Speaker 01

  Uh, I had just turned nineteen or I was just turning nineteen at the time.

• 12:04Lewis Howes?

  That's a massive commission.

• 12:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was. Um, and that buyer I met doing an open house, I had done an open house every single Sunday for nine months and then just a buyer happened to walk in, we had a great conversation, he was a doctor. And straight up just gave me a chance, like that was one of those things where he was like, I remember when I was eighteen and someone gave me a chance and I wanted to do the same for you.

• 12:25Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 12:25Speaker 01

  Uh, I want you to help us find a house. And I did, like I, I was so much to him, um, but I spent all that money buying a Lotus Elise. And, uh, you know, the car I think was like thirty grand plus like taxes and stuff like that, and then you also have to pay tax on the commission. So, um, I was left over like nothing afterwards. But that car, I started taking it every weekend to these car meets, like early in the morning, like early Sunday, wake up at like six AM. Go to a car meet and I meet like car friends there, like people driving like Ferraris on Lambos and here I got in for the cost of a new Honda Accord. And so like being around those people, like getting into those groups and I loved it, it was just like fun, like I'd take the car and

• 13:09Speaker 01

  go to car meets and then right afterwards I'd go in to an open house, I parked the car out in front and like people commenting, like I just, it helped.

• 13:17Lewis Howes?

  So what sounds like you said, what you tell people not to do was actually a great investment.

• 13:22Speaker 01

  In hindsight, yeah.

• 13:23Lewis Howes?

  Right, it was a bad investment, but it was a great investment.

• 13:25Speaker 01

  Could have gone the other way too, I think had I been reckless with it or maybe not used it, like if I was like, oh, I'm gonna go pick up chicks in the car now, like not worked. But I just used it as like a, a passion and a networking tool at the same time.

• 13:39Lewis Howes?

  What's the best invisible asset that you've invested in for yourself?

• 13:44Speaker 01

  Oh, man.

• 13:45Lewis Howes?

  That continues to pay dividends today.

• 13:48Speaker 01

  What do you mean invisible asset?

• 13:50Lewis Howes?

  Like, not a, not a physical thing, but more of a, a skill set, a learning, something you've developed, a relationship that you've invested in, something invisible that is not a tangible.

• 14:02Speaker 01

  Oh, I would say just like, I would say just great people and mentors around me. If, like Jason Oppenheim, I say this all the time, has been like one of the best parts of like just learning,

• 14:17Speaker 01

  I guess, not how to be more assertive, but like being able to convey what you want and being able to,

• 14:27Speaker 01

  basically give a, give a direction in a way that people will understand. And seeing him operate on such a high level, just watching him, like I just go into the office and just listen to him speak and see how he negotiates, like those sort of connections. And just being able to learn from those people has been invaluable.

• 14:45Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, that's beautiful.

• 14:49Lewis Howes?

  What's your plan with this year with the recession potentially going to happen? You're talking a lot about this on your channel. What's your plan to do with the cash? What do you, what do you plan to do with it over the next six to 12 months? If everything crashes, if real estate crashes, if the stock market crashes, what will you do?

• 15:10Speaker 01

  Well, buying in, dollar cost averaging into index funds every day. So every day the markets open, I just, it's a habit of mine to wake up every morning and to buy the same dollar amount every single day.

• 15:19Lewis Howes?

  How much is that every month, every day?

• 15:21Speaker 01

  Uh, five grand.

• 15:22Lewis Howes?

  Five grand a day, just right in there.

• 15:23Speaker 01

  Always index funds. It's just like my morning routine is just like index funds. Anything above that, obviously taxes, like take that into consideration, goes into the cash pile. And in a perfect world, I want a really good commercial property that's triple net, ideally in Las Vegas. But I believe we have a ways to go in that because right now I have that money parked in treasuries and it's earning about 4.4% maybe four and a half, 4.3.

• 15:53Lewis Howes?

  Not bad.

• 15:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I just keep rolling it over.

• 15:56Lewis Howes?

  That's not bad.

• 15:56Speaker 01

  So if I'm making 4.4% but I'm looking at commercial properties making four and a half to five, I don't see the risk premium there yet. So I think if I could find something at seven, seven and a half percent, to me that gives enough of a buffer where like if the market continues going down, I've locked that in. But I've yet to see those deals come up yet. So I'm looking, I look every day and I think it'll get to a point where I could start making offers. But some of the properties that come up, they're great, but I don't want to be like their first week on the market. Here's an offer for 30% less. It's like, I'm not gonna shoot myself in the foot. It's offensive to them. But if it's been listed for six months, four months, whatever, then I'd consider making an offer.

• 16:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I know you get asked this question a lot, but if someone had between 20,000 in cash or 100,000 in cash, and I know you're not a financial advisor, what would you be suggesting as options for them to do to invest it as opposed to holding on to it in the bank? And they wanted to invest it somewhere, what would you suggest? Between 20 and 100,000 dollars of extra cash laying around, but they want to invest in somewhere and make an interest?

• 17:04Speaker 01

  The biggest thing that's made a difference for me is house hacking. One of the best things that I've done is like buy the duplex. I moved in one side, I rented out the other. I think a lot of, not every area has a duplex that you could go and buy, but I found that if you could reduce your housing, because housing makes up 25 to 35% of your income. It's just a third of it is gone just for a place to live. But if you could find a way to reduce that by using that down payment, leveraging that for, you know, a duplex or a triplex or anything where you could rent out the other units, ideally it'll cover your overhead. But even if it covers half, it could be able to save an extra 20% of your income. By building up equity in a property that you could rent out, I think that's tremendous.

• 17:49Speaker 01

  But you also have to be okay with being a landlord, putting in the time to like managing a property.

• 17:56Lewis Howes?

  Fixing stuff, everything.

• 17:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, and you also have to be careful about what you buy, that it's a good deal. It's like, just because it's a duplex doesn't mean it's worth buying. So if you're willing to put in the work, I think that could probably yield the highest results.

• 18:07Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. What's your thoughts about owning a home in general? I know there's different real estate experts that talk about, you know, only rent where you live and own the thing that you rent out, so it brings you in positive income. What's your thoughts? You own your home, you live there. Do you think people should buy a home? Or should they rent and use their down payment as an investment to bring in cash somewhere else?

• 18:29Speaker 01

  I think it really depends on the area. Places like Los Angeles generally are cheaper to rent. The difference becomes if you plan to live in the house for like 15, 20 years and you know it's a place that you're going to be raising a family, or for the peace of mind of being able to like not worry about rent increases. But like Los Angeles is an area.

• 18:50Lewis Howes?

  It's kind of a bubble, yeah.

• 18:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, where renting is so much cheaper. The majority of the city is rent control. Your rent's going up usually three to 5% a year, the very most. It's cheaper. You'll save more money.

• 19:04Lewis Howes?

  I mean, it's more expensive to rent here than it is anywhere in the country, really.

• 19:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, true, true. A lot of other places.

• 19:10Lewis Howes?

  It's cheaper to rent versus owning here, because it's so expensive to own.

• 19:13Speaker 01

  I would say generally, if you plan to live in the house for seven to 10 years, it's usually cheaper to own. But you have to factor in also, you know, your closing costs, commissions, maintenance.

• 19:24Lewis Howes?

  Now, in LA, there was a whole like mansion tax coming out. Did you see this in April?

• 19:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, I saw that.

• 19:29Lewis Howes?

  In April, 5% if you sell a home.

• 19:32Speaker 01

  I don't think that passed, did it?

• 19:33Lewis Howes?

  I'm pretty sure in April, if your house is over 5 million.

• 19:37Speaker 01

  I don't think that passed.

• 19:38Lewis Howes?

  I think it did.

• 19:39Speaker 01

  It passed? I have not kept up.

• 19:41Lewis Howes?

  You're in Vegas now. I think it did, so it's like, if you had a $5 million home, 5% on the mansion tax on top of the...

• 19:49Speaker 01

  I think it's stupid.

• 19:50Lewis Howes?

  It's crazy, right?

• 19:51Speaker 01

  My issue with California is that their solution to everything is tax. Let's not fix everything that's broken here. We just need more money. But they make so much money to begin with. Where does it go?

• 20:01Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, who knows?

• 20:01Speaker 01

  Where does it go? So their thing is just, let's tax the rich people. Let's drive everyone out of state, but then let's tax the people who stayed even more. It makes no sense to me. I think California is such an amazing state with so much to offer.

• 20:17Lewis Howes?

  Why did you move? You grew up here.

• 20:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:20Lewis Howes?

  You grew up in Cali and LA. Why go to Vegas when the weather is perfect here 90% of the time? You've got the ocean, you've got the mountains, you've got industries here. Why move away?

• 20:33Speaker 01

  I think the quality of life deteriorated to a point where it was better somewhere else. And I never thought I would leave. But what really kept me here was doing real estate. And like up until 2020, I was going to the office every single day to the Oppenheimer Group. And I would do real estate on the set. Like I was like 85% YouTube at that point. But if a client came around, like I was, and they were looking for a $4 million house. Like I'm going to help them find a house. Anyone else, I had a cool little referral business within the office of like, I'll give that to so and so, and I'll give that to this. And it worked really well and I'd be involved in the phone like throughout the process. But they would do a lot of the stuff and it worked really well. But when COVID happened and I was just like home making videos, I realized how much I loved

• 21:16Speaker 01

  just like being able to make videos and like do that. I just had so much fun doing that. Then I realized you don't have to be in Los Angeles to do that. Checked out Vegas, realized how nice it is in some of these areas of like Henderson and Summerlin. Really liked it. I'm inside anyway. You're talking about like go to the beach and the mountains.

• 21:34Lewis Howes?

  You don't do that.

• 21:35Speaker 01

  How many people in LA really go to the beach? No one goes to the beach. Like sure, you go to the mountains every now and then. I'm inside anyway. So like.

• 21:43Lewis Howes?

  Might as well save on property tax, might as well save on all these things.

• 21:45Speaker 01

  Like the quality of life there were like, it was so much better. The house was way less expensive.

• 21:52Lewis Howes?

  Way bigger.

• 21:53Speaker 01

  Twice the square footage. I was able to have a larger office. My office in Vegas was like four times the size of my office in LA. Was able to also have a podcast studio in my house. At the time, Jack was living with me. He had a bedroom there. So like, I would say half the house was an office. And that was like an entirely separate part of everything. Like, you know, walk in, you have the kitchen, everything. And then this left side was office. It was like Jack's room. He was editing, he was doing the podcast, like it was perfect setup. But then also it's like there are no potholes in the road, there's no traffic. Everyone is really friendly. It's a really great community. I know all the neighbors and like in Los Angeles, you might know the people on either side of you and that's it.

• 22:39Speaker 01

  It was so like closed off. Vegas was like a very friendly and nice.

• 22:42Lewis Howes?

  Perfect for you, yeah.

• 22:44Speaker 01

  So immediately I knew like this is the right choice.

• 22:47Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 22:47Speaker 01

  And I, I would say every now and then I do miss the weather. The weather here is obviously better.

• 22:55Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 22:55Speaker 01

  But I don't mind the heat.

• 22:58Lewis Howes?

  You're inside all the time anyways.

• 22:59Speaker 01

  I would say the biggest difference though, I like the people here. I feel like here you get a wide range of people, perspectives, ideas.

• 23:09Speaker 01

  It's like this, this melting pot of different cultures that you don't get as much in Vegas. And I miss this sort of like free spirit entrepreneur. There, there's something different here than you get in Vegas. And sometimes I feel in Vegas, you get in your own little world and just like, just doing one thing. And then I come back here and like, get to meet and see other people who are doing like much bigger things. And it's inspirational to me to see.

• 23:31Lewis Howes?

  Maybe you're moving back out in the next year or two, huh?

• 23:33Speaker 01

  No.

• 23:34Lewis Howes?

  Just come out more.

• 23:35Speaker 01

  But I could come back for work.

• 23:36Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 23:37Speaker 01

  And I could, you know, come back here for a few days and then jet right back home.

• 23:41Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 23:41Speaker 01

  I'm happy with that.

• 23:42Lewis Howes?

  That's good, man. I'm curious about what is the psychology that happens for you when money comes in your bank account? When you get a check, which I don't know if you get checks anymore, but when money enters the bank account? And you get paid on the 20th or 21st on YouTube money every month or whatever it is, sponsors come in. When it enters and you see it come through, is there an emotional connection you have to that dollar amount?

• 24:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:07Lewis Howes?

  Or is it neutral? Is it, is it, is it exciting? Is it fun? Is it scary? What is the feelings that you have?

• 24:14Speaker 01

  So immediately, cause it's really hard to separate what I have in my bank account versus what I'll have left over after tax. So whatever money is in there, I just mentally will do and I. You know, do quarterly taxes, but like everything that comes in, I just multiply that by point six. And I just assume forty percent is going to be gone for taxes, accounting, miscellaneous fees, just random stuff, just average point six percent. And then I take what's left over of that and then I multiply that by four percent. And that to me is how much that money will last for the rest of my life. And so I do that with everything. So for every hundred dollars I get, I have sixty cents left.

• 24:56Speaker 01

  Oh, sorry, sixty cents. For every hundred dollars I have, sixty dollars left, point four. I think that works out to be like two dollars eighty cents or whatever it works out to be. That's my passive income. And like that's, I'll never go below that. And so that's what I invest everything. I mean, my, my actual personal expenses and cost of living is very low. Like everything I do is either for the business discretionary, personals, like almost nothing. So it's just like everything gets invested for the most part that's left over from that and.

• 25:28Lewis Howes?

  And how does it, how does it feel though, when you're analyzing this, you see the dollar amount come in, you multiply, you do all these things? Does it excite you? Do you feel abundant? Do you feel like, okay, everything's on the right track? Do you feel scarce ever?

• 25:41Speaker 01

  I'm sure, I'm sure I definitely, everyone tells me I've got like a scarcity mindset because I'm so much like when I get something, I don't want to lose it. But I've also been very conservative in terms of like building wealth, saving money, in terms of like investment returns, like everything. I'm like, if I just can average four percent, like I'm fine, or even three, usually three percent. But no, for me, I just think, like I've always increased my lifestyle based on really the three percent rule. Of like, I could spend three percent of what I have invested every single year, regardless of how much it makes, three percent. What can I buy with that? And then even of that, I'm like, okay, well, I still want to save half. So it's like really the one and a half percent rule.

• 26:26Speaker 01

  But it gives me something to look forward to that I know it's sustainable, like whatever I want to do, as long as I stick with that. I can get new experiences, I can work my way up to something else in a way that I don't have to worry about it running out and. Just feel safer that way.

• 26:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 26:42Speaker 01

  Because I, at least what I've seen from real estate, so many people just like blow all of their money. I remember this one person who was well-known and was making five to 10 million dollars a year. And they were having difficulty qualifying for a house, making five to a million dollars a year, because they spent it all. Now, their view, I'm sure, was, I'm just gonna keep making money. Like, it's not an issue.

• 27:07Lewis Howes?

  You never know, yeah.

• 27:08Speaker 01

  And they've gone on to have a successful career, make a lot of money. But for me, I can never be at a point where like I'm spending that much. I'm like, that's the threshold, like you have to, because you never want to go down. I think it's really hard to scale back, it's very easy to scale up. So I've always made sure to like be very careful of, once you get used to something, like, it's hard to go down and it's very easy to go up and you don't want to set the bar too high, like just in case. So I've always been like really cautious about like what I do and just knowing that, you know, lifestyle inflation is a thing and how could I curb that in such a way that is sustainable? But it still gives me something to look forward to.

• 27:47Lewis Howes?

  How often do you make emotional purchases?

• 27:50Speaker 01

  Almost never.

• 27:53Speaker 01

  I don't think there's any purchase that I make that's emotional.

• 27:55Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 27:56Speaker 01

  No, I mean, the only thing that I bought without money in mind was my aquarium. That was the only thing that I did not, yeah, I didn't look at the price tag. I don't care about how much it costs and I'm not getting any return on my money. That was the only thing, but I built that into like what I have invested. I'm like, okay, if I have X amount invested, that'll pay for the aquarium. And X amount invested in addition to that will pay for all the maintenance, all that stuff. So I just like factored it in that and worked towards that being a goal.

• 28:25Lewis Howes?

  What were the three biggest lessons that doing real estate sales taught you about life and business in general?

• 28:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, I would say not giving up, because with, with sales, it's like you, you have to stay on it and, and learning how to differentiate between, like read people, I guess is a big one, because I got fooled so often, like as a young agent, you don't realize how many fakes there are out there. Like people who will just waste your time and pretend to be buyers. I had this dude and I was so naive and looking back, I was an idiot. He walked into the open house and told me that he was in the market for like 25 to 50 million dollar homes.

• 29:06Speaker 01

  The guy wasn't like, you know, representing himself in such a way where he could afford these houses. And nor would a guy of that caliber realistically trust an 18 year old kid who's like brand new to show.

• 29:16Lewis Howes?

  Show him 20, yeah.

• 29:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, show me 50, like chances are they have business managers, they don't even show up to the houses first. They have assistants do it first and then they have people vet it and then they show up and they're very discreet. This guy was very flashy about like, oh yeah, I did this and my company does that, like talking about, I had no idea. Um, so I'm sitting there showing him houses and every agent is looking at me like, is this guy pre-qualified? Blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, oh yeah, he's good. Idiot. And I remember one agent, uh, I, I would consider her like, like a, not a mentor, but she really took me under her wing. And she had a listing and she's like, bring him to my listing and I'll feel him out for you. And she was there anyway.

• 29:59Speaker 01

  And so he came there and she started asking him questions about like his proof of funds. He literally goes into his car in his trunk and pulls out papers and hands it to her. And she's like, this is proof of funds. It was like a word document the guy just printed out saying like X amount, company, blank, this, this. And afterwards she's like, this guy is fake. He's not real. He's not a real buyer. Um, and then.

• 30:19Lewis Howes?

  But you'd already spent 20 listings, showing him 20 listings.

• 30:22Speaker 01

  I was an idiot. Yeah. But then you also ruin your name in the process of like any time you bring a buyer by, these agents remember that. They know, oh, this is Graham. He's the kid who brought by this like really bad buyer. He wasted my time. I spent an hour setting up this house and like their time is valuable. My time, I got nothing to lose. Um, and this guy meanwhile was just, I think he was just dreaming and he was using it as inspiration. And he would spend like two hours at the house just like laying back.

• 30:46Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh.

• 30:46Speaker 01

  It was an idiot.

• 30:47Lewis Howes?

  Oh man. Okay. So learning, learning to read people, uh, never giving up, being consistent.

• 30:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:54Lewis Howes?

  But you can't, but you can't never give up unless you know how to read the right person, right? Know what their really intentions are. What's another big lesson you think you learned from real estate?

• 31:01Speaker 01

  I loved it. I don't know. There was something about it where I just felt I could do this 24/7 and it never felt like work. It's just like what I enjoyed doing. Like I got so excited every day to wake up. Um, like you know, the feeling sometimes where you had just like a really good day and you can't go to sleep. Um, or like, I don't know.

• 31:18Lewis Howes?

  So excited, yeah.

• 31:19Speaker 01

  Yeah. Or like maybe like a Christmas morning where you can't wait to wake up, like you know, you're going to Disneyland or something like that. That's how I felt going into work. I just enjoy it like I would wake up early and like be excited every day to be able to go and do real estate and like learn and be around these houses because for me it was so foreign to like walk into a five million dollar house, get to be around people who could afford that and like everyone I saw was like, what can I learn from this person? I just found it really inspiring.

• 31:43Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, that's cool.

• 31:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, it really opened up my mind in terms of like what's possible. And so I really believe that like having access to Los Angeles just gave me that worldview of like it's insane the possibilities that are out there.

• 31:58Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 31:58Speaker 01

  And just believing that hey, if these guys could do it, why can't I? And you would see that they're nothing special. It's just they've got good at a skill and you don't need to be like the superhuman person.

• 32:10Lewis Howes?

  I'm curious about your thoughts on money and relationships.

• 32:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:16Lewis Howes?

  How has lived, how has been living an extreme frugal financial lifestyle, supported or hurt you in intimate relationship with your girlfriend?

• 32:27Speaker 01

  I don't think it's ever hurt.

• 32:28Lewis Howes?

  It's never hurt?

• 32:28Speaker 01

  I don't think it's ever hurt. Even like just dating in general, I think there are cheaper ways to do everything. And people that know me in general, like they kind of would know what they're getting into.

• 32:41Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. They're not expecting you to do something.

• 32:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, it shouldn't be a surprise, but like I would say a lot of the things that you would do like in a relationship, they're either free or they're very inexpensive. Like I think it's more important to spend quality time with the other person versus like, hey, we're gonna go to like this fancy restaurant. I think there's a time and a place for that for sure. But I think at least for the first, like the dating period, it doesn't have to be expensive at all. And with Macy, it's been, it's been really nice because she's, I don't want to say she's as frugal as I. She's okay with spending money on certain things if she feels like the value's there versus I'm always like the cost, like, oh, but the value might not be there for this. We could get 80% of it, you know? I want to say with her, I've definitely loosened up because I could afford it. But a lot of the things still, it's like,

• 33:26Speaker 01

  she enjoys contributing. I appreciate that. I think some of our trips, it's like, you know, she's got credit card points. She's like, I opened up these credit cards, I got the signup. I was like, it's a free trip. You know, uh, so a lot of things like this, they don't have to cost money. But I will say I have loosened up.

• 33:44Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 33:44Speaker 01

  With Macy's, uh, just in the sense that I don't fret over like a sixty dollar dinner anymore like. Five years ago, I was in that fifty dollar dinner, sixty, and be like, well, we could do that for cheaper over here. Uh, I'm gonna eat a little bit at home and I'm gonna go there, get one.

• 33:59Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 34:00Speaker 01

  Bad. Really bad.

• 34:02Lewis Howes?

  Do you wish you would have changed that? If you could go back, would you have done it differently? Have more balance?

• 34:06Speaker 01

  I, I probably not. I mean, I'm sure there are things going back where I'm like, yeah, I should have done that. It was stupid. Like, one time, I know I'm gonna get hate for this, but there was a car meet and I had budgeted, and again, like, it's different if you're making like twenty grand a year. I was probably making a hundred. And I had budgeted that day only for gas. I didn't have enough for the food. And they're all driving through Malibu and they're going to like this, this fancy place for lunch. I got a Subway instead. And, uh, you know, I sat down at the table and I asked to serve really nicely because it was like a row of like twenty people. Like, can I eat my Subway here?

• 34:44Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my.

• 34:45Speaker 01

  And they were totally cool with it. And I figured the tip that I'd leave them is way less than what I would have spent on this meal that I didn't need. I wanted a Subway. I didn't want to spend fifty dollars on anything. So I just left the tip instead.

• 34:59Lewis Howes?

  There you go.

• 34:59Speaker 01

  And I ate my Subway. They were totally fine with it. I forget what, it was a restaurant in Malibu. There was, but there were twenty people at the table. I don't know how big the bill would be. But, um, you know, anyway, like, that's the stuff that I, you know, in hindsight, it was cringy to do.

• 35:16Speaker 01

  Oh, the other thing I would do all the time is, uh,

• 35:22Speaker 01

  if I were out with friends and there's extra food, they weren't taking it home, I would be the one to be like.

• 35:26Lewis Howes?

  You would take it home?

• 35:27Speaker 01

  Everything.

• 35:28Lewis Howes?

  Box it up.

• 35:28Speaker 01

  Everything. But I would get a whole meal out of that.

• 35:31Lewis Howes?

  That's great, yeah.

• 35:32Speaker 01

  A whole meal.

• 35:33Lewis Howes?

  I need to take more stuff home. That's what I need to do.

• 35:35Speaker 01

  Oh yeah, nothing would ever go to waste. Even would we go out with the Oppenheimer group, it was usually the six of us.

• 35:41Lewis Howes?

  Oh, they got lots of good food then.

• 35:42Speaker 01

  And Jason was the type, order everything.

• 35:45Lewis Howes?

  And then you'd say, you got a meal for a week.

• 35:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, but cause he likes to be like, I'm gonna have a few bites of this, a few bites of that, a few bites of this. And then there'd be like half a meal there. And he would, he would just say, oh, I'm gonna get, I'm gonna take it all home. And that, like I'd put it in the fridge and I'd live off that for days. So that's, that's a lot. Like when I made one of my how much I spend in a week videos, I think my like grocery bill is like a hundred and something dollars a month. For food.

• 36:11Lewis Howes?

  I don't know how you live off that.

• 36:11Speaker 01

  But now a lot of that was subsidized by like eating really good food, but taking it all home. And then divvying it up throughout, like it's like a meal prep, but like it's food that would have gone to waste.

• 36:22Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah. I'm curious, what do you think of the, the biggest money myths that keep a lot of people broke?

• 36:30Speaker 01

  Oh, um, money myths that keep people broke. I don't know. I always feel like, um, that, that you could die tomorrow. Is a common thing that I would hear a lot of people say. If like, I'd rather just live now than. My perspective is that you can always live tomorrow too. Like your chances of living tomorrow, not on this, much higher than passing away.

• 36:56Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 36:56Speaker 01

  So I think plan for tomorrow is a probably better approach statistically. I feel like you can live just as easily like in your thirties and early forties as you can in your twenties. I'm sure the experiences in your twenties are different. Looking back, I still feel like mentally, I feel like twenty-three to twenty-five. I don't think I've grown up since then. Mentally, I still feel the same age, uh, except I need more sleep now. But I feel like now, like I've, I've, I've done so much saving throughout my twenties that now I can finally like loosen up. To a certain extent.

• 37:31Lewis Howes?

  Buy an extra piece of sushi, one piece.

• 37:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, I still, I still look at prices. Like we went out to sushi the other day, I saw a twenty-eight dollar roll and a fifteen dollar roll. I'm like, fifteen, I get two of those, which is one of those.

• 37:43Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 37:43Speaker 01

  I'd rather the two, so I got the two. So.

• 37:46Lewis Howes?

  If you had to go back.

• 37:50Lewis Howes?

  And just imagine your 18 year old self. How old are you now?

• 37:53Speaker 01

  Thirty two.

• 37:53Lewis Howes?

  Thirty two. So imagine 14 years ago. And imagine that you, in a hypothetical world, you had to become a millionaire in half the time. So you had to hit your first million in revenue and sales coming in, in half the time from 18 to that time. Right? As opposed to when you were, I don't know how old you were.

• 38:14Speaker 01

  I was 26.

• 38:15Lewis Howes?

  26. So you had to do it at 22, 23, right? Let's just say hypothetical scenario, you had to. What would you have done differently in order to get there? Would it even be possible?

• 38:26Speaker 01

  It would have, it would have been YouTube. For me, yeah, because every day after real estate, I wouldn't watch TV, watch YouTube. Like that was my version of TV. This is like 2008 and.

• 38:39Lewis Howes?

  Early YouTube.

• 38:40Speaker 01

  Very early YouTube, but that was like, I was, would come home and just watch YouTube videos. Like that was what I enjoyed doing and I noticed back then that there was no business or entrepreneurial content on there. And what really solidified it for me was Rob Dom, he's a car channel. Posted a video about how he was able to buy a Lamborghini Diablo, a 2001. And he made a video in his garage, like way before like the Tai Lopez stuff, like way before. But he made a really inspirational video about how, what he did for a living to afford a Lamborghini Diablo. And was so honest about it. And there was a guy before him. His name was Robert Hilmner or Himmler. I don't know his name. I can't remember his last name, how it's pronounced.

• 39:23Speaker 01

  He drove a green Lamborghini and was selling a program or a course or something about like how to get rich or something like that. There was some speculation that it was like family money or something like that, but he, I believe, owned like a car customization shop or something like that. So Rob Dom made this video, basically saying, I'm gonna just tell you what I know for free. I have nothing to sell you and this is my story. And he posted, I was so inspired by that. That for me is like, I want to do that. And what really hit it off for me was that I sent him a message on Instagram, like I, and he maybe only had a few thousand subscribers at the time. Or sorry, not Instagram, Facebook. Sent him a message and I'm like, hey, I love your content and I could pull it up here if you want to see it.

• 40:05Speaker 01

  But my original message back then was like, there's a huge market on YouTube for this type of content. If you double down on this, it could be huge.

• 40:12Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 40:13Speaker 01

  Yeah. I bet I could pull it up now.

• 40:16Lewis Howes?

  So this was a video he put on YouTube.

• 40:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:19Lewis Howes?

  But you matched him on Facebook. He was just doing a couple of videos. He wasn't doing it consistently.

• 40:23Speaker 01

  Correct. Hey, Rob. Message from a fan and fellow car enthusiast. I've been watching your videos from before you had 10,000 subscribers and love your videos. I'm so happy how far you've come. You'll be hitting 100,000 subscribers shortly. You've definitely been a great inspiration. I have two questions for you if you have the time. And then I asked like, what camera mics you use?

• 40:40Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 40:41Speaker 01

  And then, uh, what did you find gave your biggest break? Was it uploading content regularly? Was it car videos? Was it inspirational? And then I said, uh, just to comment, I believe you could have a great career in motivational speaking in business. There's a big market for young people who don't relate to Tony Robbins and who have never heard of Napoleon Hill before. Just food for thought. This would be a big opportunity.

• 41:03Speaker 01

  And then he responded back. He gave his answers and said, I want to be a motivational speaker without actually being a motivational speaker. Ha ha. And then I said, you know, I think you could take these very, very far in that direction, but that was more than 10 years ago. But I wanted to do that, but I didn't have the courage to do it.

• 41:18Lewis Howes?

  Why didn't you have the courage?

• 41:19Speaker 01

  I didn't have a Lambo. I know how stupid it sounds, but I felt like who would listen to me? And what did I have? I was like, Rob had a business and a Lamborghini.

• 41:27Lewis Howes?

  He was credible.

• 41:28Speaker 01

  Yeah. What did I have? Um, you know,

• 41:34Speaker 01

  looking back, it's stupid because I could have like, I felt I needed either a million dollars, a Lamborghini, like something, a show of success, because back then that's what you had to do on YouTube. It was like Lamborghinis just got clicks. And, you know, me starting my career in real estate with, you know, 150 grand in savings or like, it was still a lot. Like, looking back, I could have said like, how to make a hundred grand by like 20 something. Um, I didn't have the courage. I felt like I would embarrass myself and I, but had I started back then, I would have been so early. And it was just a feeling like I, I wanted to do that, but I just didn't, I put it off for years.

• 42:10Lewis Howes?

  So this is something, I'm really excited you're talking about this because I think a lot of people don't have the courage to do the thing they really want to do. Cause they don't feel credible or ready to do it. So what would you say to people who are like, well, I don't have the money. I don't have the credibility yet. I'm just getting started in this thing and I want to start talking about it or creating content or doing whatever, writing a book about it. But who's going to listen to me? What would you say to those people?

• 42:32Speaker 01

  I think you just got to do it. It got to a point for me where I guess the intuition of like, I want to be doing this. Why am I not? Started getting to a point where I just felt if I don't do it now, I'm never going to do it. And then I thought to myself, when I look back in the future and regret not doing this. And then I thought, yes. And so I just, I secretly made a YouTube channel and filmed a video during an open house. And I'd like, just with my iPhone, one taped it. And well, I did multiple takes trying to get ready for it. Because people would walk in the house. I'd like, fuck my camera. But I just posted one video and I was like, I'm just going to post it up, see what happens.

• 43:11Speaker 01

  And I had no idea what I was doing, but I learned like as I was doing it. You know, I had the window right here. So I had like, realized if I shoot against the window, like I look too like, you know, dark. And if I go here, lighting's better. Like minor things. Then I looked on YouTube, like how to edit a YouTube video on YouTube. Learned iMovie through there, like how to edit a good thumbnail. Like I just see what's working and like Daryl Eves was a big one for me, like learning about like SEO and stuff like that, like how to rank. Like well, back then was just to rank on the first page for different key search results. So like I wanted to rank first page for passive income. How to be a millionaire, real estate.

• 43:53Speaker 01

  My, the first one I ranked was 2008, it's so niche. 2008 Lotus Exige S240. And there were like 20 videos on there with like 20,000 plus views. And I was like, I want to be on the first page. So I made my video Lotus Exige S240 review, you know, 2000, like something like that. And I slowly watched it just climb and I shared it online and like that didn't help. But like over time, it just kept doing better.

• 44:18Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 44:18Speaker 01

  So I just, you just got to start.

• 44:21Lewis Howes?

  Do you feel like you? Have a scarcity mindset or an abundance mindset?

• 44:27Speaker 01

  I don't know, probably a degree of both, I would say. I don't like, I don't like loss, so really like risk averse when it comes to stuff like that. Like I'm okay losing a certain percentage because it's like, okay, if you have a hundred dollars, if you lose a penny, it's not that big of a deal. So it's like, things like that in terms of a percentage, don't faze me. But just in general, I'm really against loss. Like whatever I get, I'm very conservative with it because I want to make it last. So in terms of that, I would say a scarcity mindset. There is some abundance though, in terms of like bigger opportunities and pursuing, I would say passions.

• 45:07Speaker 01

  Not afraid to do that anymore, but yeah, financially, I'm just very conservative.

• 45:13Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 45:16Lewis Howes?

  What do you, what's the investment you've made that had the biggest loss? Financial investment?

• 45:23Lewis Howes?

  Like in an asset class?

• 45:25Speaker 01

  Oh, an asset class.

• 45:26Lewis Howes?

  Like stocks or crypto or real estate, did you ever lose a bunch of money that you're like, man, I put a hundred grand and I lost it all?

• 45:32Speaker 01

  Are we talking dollar amount or percentage?

• 45:34Lewis Howes?

  Dollar amount, yeah.

• 45:37Speaker 01

  Very stupid when I bought Robinhood stock. That was probably the worst loss I've done.

• 45:42Lewis Howes?

  Individual stock?

• 45:43Speaker 01

  That was an individual stock I picked.

• 45:46Lewis Howes?

  What'd you put in it roughly?

• 45:48Speaker 01

  Two hundred grand.

• 45:49Lewis Howes?

  Two hundred grand. How much did you lose?

• 45:50Speaker 01

  Uh, it was down like sixty, seventy percent by the time I sold.

• 45:55Lewis Howes?

  So a hundred and fifty grand or something you lost?

• 45:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, that was, that was, that was stupid.

• 46:02Speaker 01

  It still was in the ratios of like, what is, what was acceptable to me in terms of like a percentage? But it was stupid. I mean, it was just like, that was a gamble.

• 46:14Lewis Howes?

  Was that an emotional?

• 46:15Speaker 01

  A loss. It was when their stock dropped, like they saw a substantial drop. And I'm like, people are still posting their screenshots on Wall Street Bets. Robinhood has a lot of cash. They're not going anywhere. There's so many places to pivot.

• 46:30Speaker 01

  Take a risk on this. And I think I put a hundred grand in that. And then it dropped even more. I'm like, I'm gonna double down on this because

• 46:38Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man.

• 46:39Speaker 01

  Stupid. That was stupid. But again, like in the big picture, we're talking about, you know, if the portfolio size is, let's say, eight million bucks, like we're talking about like, you know, 200 grand total of that. So in a percentage, it's like, not that bad. But when you think of the dollar, I don't think of the dollar amount, like I really separate.

• 47:00Lewis Howes?

  It's the worst.

• 47:02Speaker 01

  That was just, that was a stupid one. Now, I do have others that make up for it.

• 47:06Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure, sure.

• 47:07Speaker 01

  On the other side, I think Enphase at one point was up like 400 and something percent. The original Tesla I bought was up 2,000 percent. So like I had winners on that.

• 47:16Lewis Howes?

  That's big.

• 47:18Speaker 01

  And I sold almost all my Tesla too, back in March.

• 47:21Lewis Howes?

  At the high.

• 47:22Speaker 01

  Which was luck, because I sold it to buy a Tesla Roadster. And then I just kept selling it afterwards, because I was like, well, now I sold this, I may as well just reinvest it in the S and P. And I'm like, I'm still getting in equal exposure in the S and P, just putting it there and it's safer.

• 47:41Speaker 01

  That was just luck. But I also had the opposite of that. I sold my original half. My original half, I think I sold in 2020.

• 47:52Speaker 01

  When it had increased threefold really quickly. Looking back, I mean, that's still way cheaper than it is today. Like, oh, well, you win some, you lose some. So that's why it's like individual stocks, such a tiny part of my portfolio, but looking back, it's stupid. I would have been better off just putting all of it.

• 48:11Lewis Howes?

  It is fun.

• 48:11Speaker 01

  But, I mean, you get it out of your system.

• 48:14Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, of course. And a lot has happened the last couple of years with crypto, NFTs, and now AI coming in. A lot of around AI. What's your thoughts on crypto, NFTs, AI, in terms of building wealth for the future? When it seems like there's been a lot of scams and all these different things and get rich quick schemes and people losing a lot of money. How can people use these tools or should they even consider them to build wealth in the future?

• 48:45Speaker 01

  I never understood NFTs. That was the one thing that I really tried to like get into it. I wanted to buy a CryptoPunk, but I just didn't. I thought it was kind of neat to have like, oh, the kind of the original, but CryptoKitties was like the original one. I never really understood. I never got into NFTs. Crypto, I've had an on and off relationship with because I bought Bitcoin originally 2017.

• 49:12Lewis Howes?

  For how much?

• 49:12Speaker 01

  16, 5, 17, and I like day traded. Because for me, it's like, everyone is talking about Bitcoin and at the time it went from basically a thousand dollars from when I started making YouTube videos to 17. And so that whole rise, people are coming, make a video about Bitcoin. I didn't get it. I'm like, I don't understand it. And I thought when I made that video, like, I'm going to buy a Bitcoin and see if I understand firsthand what it's about. And maybe like me buying into it, I could just feel firsthand what everyone else is feeling. And that helps. Like you, sometimes when I'm talking about something, it's hard to talk about something like objectively without having been in it.

• 49:56Speaker 01

  And then once you're in it, you could kind of see like, like you put on the goggles and you see like, wow, this is what everyone else sees and experiences. Like this is why they feel this way. So I bought a Bitcoin, but I was like, I had so much fun trading it because it was like 24/7. It's like you could be there at like, and I was just having so much fun at like 2 o'clock in the morning, like.

• 50:19Lewis Howes?

  Checking and going up and down.

• 50:20Speaker 01

  But I was making like these little 20, $30 like profits. Like it went up and I'd just sell and then I'd place a limit and then like buy and like do this. But I just like traded and then from there, I just spread it amongst a whole bunch of like, you know, crap coins just for fun. But I don't just really focus just on Bitcoin really.

• 50:43Speaker 01

  So.

• 50:44Lewis Howes?

  Where do you feel like AI is going to be coming now for building wealth? Do you think anything is there around?

• 50:49Speaker 01

  I think it's probably too early. I worry AI is going to become like the next typey sort of thing. And I could see it going in that direction. I don't know how that'll come about, but I could totally see like a year or two from now, like AI becoming the next like. Crypto boom, NFT.

• 51:06Lewis Howes?

  Web 3.0 and all these things, yeah.

• 51:08Speaker 01

  Something like that. I think like with crypto, I could see there being a huge future in that in terms of like the blockchain and like its use cases. I think, I'm surprised they haven't created a digital dollar yet. Like I think that's coming. I think it's going to get to the point where everyone like you get a social security number, you get a wallet.

• 51:25Lewis Howes?

  I know.

• 51:25Speaker 01

  And they know exactly how much goes into that wallet, how much goes out, where it goes. Like imagine every dollar has like a, has a tracking device in it. And they could see like, wait a second, you received this dollar, you got paid from this person, but you paid it out to here. Why wasn't there a tax? Why didn't you claim this? Like I think it's all going to get to that point in the future. There's going to be no privacy. Now they can't get away with like, without physical money at all, um, for probably quite some time. Uh, it's always going to be legal tender. Like imagine trying to like scrounge up dollars from it. Like you're not going to do it.

• 51:57Lewis Howes?

  There's some restaurants that don't take physical currency, you know, in LA at least. There's like, it's getting that way where it's only through the app and they just don't.

• 52:04Speaker 01

  I think it's just gonna, they're gonna make it so convenient. Um, and they're gonna build so many walls around using cash that people are gonna go, oh, I'm gonna pay attention to it. So I think cryptocurrency is going to provide an option for them to do a digital dollar, to track everything. Um, and they'll know if like, they'll, they'll try to curb anything and just track it.

• 52:24Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 52:25Speaker 01

  So I could see it going in that direction. So I think it's a ton of opportunity. I also think, um, someone else had mentioned this, it makes sense to me, like verifying luxury goods. Like if you want to buy, let's say Ferrari, you have something on the blockchain that says like, you are the owner, this is built by Ferrari, here's all the details. Buy Louis Vuitton bag and like the replicas are getting so good. You want to verify it's that, here's a little, you know, uh, NFT thing that comes with it. You can scan it and like, you are the owner, like this, it belongs to this.

• 52:55Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 52:55Speaker 01

  So I could see that.

• 52:56Lewis Howes?

  That's interesting.

• 52:57Speaker 01

  So that's where I think it's going, but I think we're just. You know, in that initial boom phase and it's going to develop and I think the potential is huge. And that's why I don't know if like Bitcoin Ethereum is going to be something that stands out like an Amazon of the dot com bubble. Or if it's going to be like a GeoCities where it's like, nobody uses that.

• 53:15Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 53:16Speaker 01

  So I don't think we know quite yet, but I do think it's a ton of potential in that. AI, I don't know. I'm not smart enough to understand it.

• 53:23Lewis Howes?

  I don't know anything about it either.

• 53:24Speaker 01

  So, yeah. I think it's really cool. What I was saying in my video yesterday, I think it's going to get to a point where AI is going to be able to create any video you want. Like imagine you searching and getting a tutorial for anything you need and it's created in AI. Like, like here's an example.

• 53:42Lewis Howes?

  Like a character.

• 53:43Speaker 01

  Yeah. Like here's an example, but, but it's going to be so lifelike that you're not going to know this isn't a person making a video. Like imagine you're changing a car in a 2006 Toyota Prius. You type in YouTube, how to change tire, 2006 Toyota Prius. You're going to get like videos of people who have made that, but it's not going to be, maybe not going to be a 2006, it's going to be a 2005. It's not going to be the same color. There's going to be like an intro, fluff, all that sort of stuff. But imagine if you type that in, AI could create that video based on the blueprints of that car. How to change a tire and it shows your exact car, a 2006 Toyota Prius. How to change the tire. Here's what you do. Here's where the tool is. Here's this. Here's what you do. And if you have a question, how do I get the lug nut on when it's too tight? And it creates a video, how to get the lug nut off that's too tight.

• 54:28Speaker 01

  But that's, why can't it do that in the future? I think it can.

• 54:32Lewis Howes?

  What's, I've got a couple of fun questions for you. What's your money goals? If you could predict, it's 2030, seven years away.

• 54:40Speaker 01

  Seven years, yeah.

• 54:42Lewis Howes?

  Where will you, where would you like to be in seven years with your money goals? With your investments, cash, assets. You know, obviously there's so much that could happen in the next seven years. So many new developments that probably will happen that you're not even aware of. But if you could have a goal in mind in seven years, where would you like to be financially?

• 55:03Speaker 01

  I mean, I feel like I'm already there. But like, it would be cool to be able to make a million a year in passive income. I think would be really cool, just, just from investments. I think would be a neat goal to have.

• 55:18Speaker 01

  I think it's doable.

• 55:20Lewis Howes?

  What do you need to make a million dollars a year in passive? What is, how does the calculations work for you?

• 55:24Speaker 01

  Probably about 25 million invested in relatively safe investments.

• 55:28Lewis Howes?

  Real estate, index funds.

• 55:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, probably net. So like net of all mortgage payments, just like purely profit a million a year.

• 55:38Lewis Howes?

  So you think you need 25 million in assets?

• 55:41Speaker 01

  Maybe less if it's, if it's real estate.

• 55:45Speaker 01

  You could probably do that with like 15 to 20, depending on the property you buy and if it's triple net and how much work you're doing on that. So I think it's, it's doable. Depends on the investment and just depends on what's the opportunity at the time. But I like having a split between like index funds and real estate because I feel like, they're different enough where I'm not too concentrated.

• 56:03Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure. That's cool.

• 56:04Speaker 01

  But that, that would be just a goal if I'm to say anything.

• 56:07Lewis Howes?

  A million a year.

• 56:08Speaker 01

  Probably that, passive income.

• 56:09Lewis Howes?

  It's pretty inspiring. You have a lot of sushi with that.

• 56:11Speaker 01

  You could, yeah.

• 56:13Lewis Howes?

  Would you start spending more with that million in cash? Would you look at it as like, now I can spend on whatever? Or what would you think about then?

• 56:21Speaker 01

  I have no idea. I'd probably get a bigger aquarium.

• 56:23Lewis Howes?

  Bigger aquarium, yeah.

• 56:24Speaker 01

  Realistically though, I would say traveling first class, which you could do with credit card points, but like being able to do that more frequently. Like I do want to travel. I think that's a goal of mine to do one day. I really want to do van life at some point.

• 56:37Lewis Howes?

  Van life?

• 56:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, I really want to.

• 56:39Lewis Howes?

  Get a nice van and go around the country?

• 56:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think take the podcast on the road.

• 56:43Lewis Howes?

  That'd be fun.

• 56:43Speaker 01

  Do van life, I think would be so fun. I'd like, visit all 50 states, I think would be really cool. Spend six months doing that.

• 56:49Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 56:49Speaker 01

  Travel, I think would be a lot of fun. Bigger aquarium. But for the most part, like I'm, I think at this point, I just want to buy back my time and just be able to enjoy the things. Like the other day, it sounds stupid, but like it was a weekday and I just wanted to read a book. Like I never wanted to read a book. Like I don't, I'm not a reader necessarily for books. Like I'll read anything online. Like if it's on Reddit, I'll read the whole thing. But I just felt like reading a book. But I was like, well, but I got so much work I need to do and like I'd, I'd feel better getting caught up and like ahead than I would reading the book. I really wanted to read the book. So I think. I'll probably lean more in the direction of like taking more time. Like even doing a trip like this, like a year ago, I wouldn't have done it because I'm like, I'm so focused on, I just need to make videos and anything that distracts me from that.

• 57:34Speaker 01

  I don't think it was my happiest doing that because I like, I just felt so stressed. Like, you know, there's um, just, just random things that I was not fully like in the moment for because my mind was constantly thinking like YouTube videos. What, what would be a good title for tomorrow's video? Like, be like people around having conversations and I'd be there. Um, I'd be present, but like, there's like that 20% of my brain that's thinking like YouTube in the back. It's always there. I don't think it's gonna go away, but I would like to scale back from that a little bit. Just be more in the moment.

• 58:08Lewis Howes?

  We'll have to get you out here once every couple of months then, for a couple of days.

• 58:10Speaker 01

  I think so.

• 58:11Lewis Howes?

  That's good, man.

• 58:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:12Lewis Howes?

  Um, Graham, Stephen's show on YouTube, you've got some amazing content over there. I love it. Um, you've got the podcast as well, which is really exciting. How can we, Ice Coffee Hour is called the podcast. You guys can see it both on YouTube. How can we be of best service for you? You've got over four point something million subscribers now. What can we do to serve you?

• 58:37Speaker 01

  I don't want anything. I would just say, uh, if you, if you wanna subscribe, that would be cool. Um, subscribe to your channel. I don't know. I'd just say, just, I'd subscribe to your channel. Like at this point, I'm, I'm fine. I would rather just, you know, guys, subscribe here. On this channel would be, would be really nice.

• 58:55Lewis Howes?

  Subscribe to both of our channels, yes. Um, this is a, uh, one of the questions I ask everyone at the end is called the three truths question. So imagine another hypothetical scenario. It's your last day on earth. You live as long as you wanna live. Uh, and you accomplish everything. Your money goals, life goals, they all happen. But for whatever reason, you've gotta take all of your content with you. So no one has access to your information, your content, YouTube, whatever else you create, it goes to some other place when you die in the future.

• 59:26Speaker 01

  So it just gets deleted?

• 59:27Lewis Howes?

  It gets, well, maybe it's just, we don't have access to it. It's somewhere else. Hypothetically.

• 59:31Speaker 01

  So it's private.

• 59:31Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it's private. It's unlimited. Uh, but for whatever, whatever reason, you have the opportunity to share three final truths with the world. Three things that you know to be true, that you would share as lessons to the world. And that's all we would have of your content left. What would be, again, off the top of your head? Those three truths for you.

• 59:55Speaker 01

  I don't know. I don't know if there's like any absolute truths out there.

• 59:59Lewis Howes?

  Or just lessons that you would want to share. Three?

• 1:00:01Speaker 01

  Um, I would say, gosh, like probably self-belief, like believing you can do something is very important. I think, um, people are drawn to confidence. And so if you could learn how to be your best self and, uh, accept that, I think that would go a long way. And I think, um, the less concerned you are with what other people think, usually the, the, the better they think about you because you're not afraid to be yourself. I think everyone is scared to be themselves. And so when they see someone else, just like, you know, not caring, other people look up to that in a way that so many people can't do. So I would say like those things universally for me have been true.

• 1:00:46Lewis Howes?

  That's cool, man. Um, final question for you before I ask it. I want to acknowledge you, Graham, for your commitment and dedication. It's been incredible what you've created over the last, you know, five years on YouTube. Every week you show up and give something inspiring, informational and entertaining. And I know it takes you days of research and days of work and you're doing a lot of it on your own. And you've helped a lot of people, educate them, learn, and learn about a scary subject for a lot of people, which is money in a fun way. So I really acknowledge you for how you keep showing up.

• 1:01:18Speaker 01

  Thanks.

• 1:01:19Lewis Howes?

  And I know it's a lot of work and I know it's, uh, you know, you probably have to figure out how to make it happen in the future at scale. But what you've created in the last four or five years has been really inspiring.

• 1:01:29Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:01:29Lewis Howes?

  So I acknowledge you for your efforts, your intelligence and your creativity. It's really cool.

• 1:01:33Speaker 01

  Thanks.

• 1:01:34Lewis Howes?

  Final question, what's your definition of greatness?

• 1:01:39Speaker 01

  Oh, man, I would just say honestly to help others. I think if you make an impact on someone else's life and it's a positive impact and you could... They have a good feeling towards that. I think there's nothing better than that.

• 1:01:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:50Speaker 01

  Anytime I meet somebody who's like, "Yeah, I bought my first house because of you and my credit score is great and I turned my finances around. Now I have like 10K in the bank and I'm broke." Like, just the impact, because I know like how that would feel for me. Like, for me, like, meeting Rob, Dom, for me, would be one of those moments where I'm like, "Dude, you have no idea how much you've helped me." Just like, your video on how to buy a Lamborghini was like, set me off. Like, and I'll remember that for the rest of my life. And so, just like, having that for other people, I think, is so insane. Like, it's hard to put into words, but it's so neat. And then you feel like you've got a friend.

• 1:02:27Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:28Speaker 01

  And so, everyone I meet who's like, if they watch my videos, I know they're like into personal finance, investing, building wealth. Uh, chances are, they're an entrepreneur. And so, like, we're instant friends because of that, like, no matter what their background is. Um, it's just, it's neat and I've never had that before.

• 1:02:44Lewis Howes?

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

• 1:03:28Lewis Howes?

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