Ever faced a challenge that seemed insurmountable, only to emerge stronger on the other side?
Shane's story is a testament to that very journey. From the streets of South Auckland to the boardrooms of success, this episode peels back the layers of an entrepreneur who learned the ropes in his family's lunch bar and turned life's hard knocks into a playbook for resilience and growth.
Join us as Shane recounts his remarkable transformation, how a violent incident became a catalyst for personal development, and his relentless pursuit of making a positive impact on his community.
What does it take to rebuild from scratch, to turn a moment of despair into a bustling hub of cultural and culinary delights? Shane and I take a stroll down memory lane, revisiting the birth of his food business, an enterprise that not only survived but thrived amidst the chaos, reflecting the vibrant fusion of Chinese-New Zealander identity with a dash of hip-hop.
We examine the intricate dance of mastering sales, the strategic art of conversation, and how early investments in real estate paved the way for future success. It's a raw look at the emotional highs and lows of entrepreneurship and the importance of staying true to one's roots.
As we close this chapter, Shane shares his blueprint for navigating life's sharp turns, from wealth management to the joys of parenting, while keeping an eye on the societal changes we're all a part of.
His forward-looking vision includes expanding his business footprint and indulging in the thrill of car racing, while never losing sight of the power of community and continuous self-improvement. This conversation isn't just about the glitz of success; it's a rallying cry for anyone looking to rewire their culture for the better, one powerful story at a time. So plug in those earphones and tune in to an episode that promises to leave you inspired to chart your own course toward impactful change.
Ever faced a challenge that seemed insurmountable, only to emerge stronger on the other side?
Shane's story is a testament to that very journey. From the streets of South Auckland to the boardrooms of success, this episode peels back the layers of an entrepreneur who learned the ropes in his family's lunch bar and turned life's hard knocks into a playbook for resilience and growth.
Join us as Shane recounts his remarkable transformation, how a violent incident became a catalyst for personal development, and his relentless pursuit of making a positive impact on his community.
What does it take to rebuild from scratch, to turn a moment of despair into a bustling hub of cultural and culinary delights? Shane and I take a stroll down memory lane, revisiting the birth of his food business, an enterprise that not only survived but thrived amidst the chaos, reflecting the vibrant fusion of Chinese-New Zealander identity with a dash of hip-hop.
We examine the intricate dance of mastering sales, the strategic art of conversation, and how early investments in real estate paved the way for future success. It's a raw look at the emotional highs and lows of entrepreneurship and the importance of staying true to one's roots.
As we close this chapter, Shane shares his blueprint for navigating life's sharp turns, from wealth management to the joys of parenting, while keeping an eye on the societal changes we're all a part of.
His forward-looking vision includes expanding his business footprint and indulging in the thrill of car racing, while never losing sight of the power of community and continuous self-improvement. This conversation isn't just about the glitz of success; it's a rallying cry for anyone looking to rewire their culture for the better, one powerful story at a time. So plug in those earphones and tune in to an episode that promises to leave you inspired to chart your own course toward impactful change.
Welcome to the Technician Podcast. My name is Travis Cochran and I am the Technician. With the help of my guest, we will provide tools, tips and tactics for you to rewire mind, body and soul to cultivate a life you love Enjoy.
Speaker 2:Ladies and gentlemen, please, of the Technician Podcast.
Speaker 1:This is probably one of my coolest ones, yet. I've been doing this for a few years now, and my man, shane, has flown in from New Zealand. How are you, bro? How are you feeling?
Speaker 2:Fantastic. Thank you very much for having me on.
Speaker 1:How was the trip over?
Speaker 2:Fun Quick, only a couple of hours. I've been here quite often, actually in the last few years. I love this place. I am going to move here.
Speaker 1:Can you feel it when you get off the plane?
Speaker 2:it just feels different yeah, I, I, I know um, for because I'm very close to my family. Right, my mom's end goal, her dream, is to retire in australia well, that's always in the back of my mind. Anywhere in particular like sunny coast, gold coast she, she likes sydney, but I think she may see the the bling bling and the lights for now but eventually I'm sure she'd prefer the Gold Coast.
Speaker 1:And I feel like this is the perfect segue for people to learn about you, where you've come from and who you are as a person and what you've created. But let's take it way back, man. Where did you grow up?
Speaker 2:Well, my mum and dad. They came to New Zealand before me. Let's take it way back, man. Where'd you grow up? I well, my mom and dad. They came to New Zealand, um, before me, um, it's been the eighties. They came with a few hundred bucks and they came to pick strawberries no English, and uh, after a couple of years, they brought me over and we lived in South Auckland, which is a great place. After a couple of years, they brought me over and we lived in South Auckland, which is a great place. I love South Auckland. Then we moved to Mount Wellington, which is still rather south. My parents, they opened a lunch bar which was probably, as a family, our first experience in entrepreneurship and business and whatnot. I talk about it. I've only recently kind of noticed and realized this. Actually, we've been doing this a long time.
Speaker 1:Our family, Because when you think about it, then you're going back what 20 plus years, right 30.
Speaker 2:Yes, actually.
Speaker 1:So you were essentially, do you feel and we were talking about this in the car where it's like your destiny, or you were born into becoming an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2:essentially, I think it was inevitable. I really liked the fact that I got a taste of it with mum and dad. I got a taste of it with their friends, who became wildly successful. I got a taste of what life became like without it, cause my dad had at one point lost it all, lost it all, and um, I liked the fact that it gave me perspective and, um, I'm very lucky, very lucky.
Speaker 1:I like that and it sounds like at a young age you went through seeing what the chaos is of business, right, like the ups and downs and everything like we spoke before, and do you feel like that almost set you up at a really young age to understand how it all works within business that way? Yeah, saw the realities of it, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I saw what it was like for mom and dad to leave home so early every morning. Do the same thing over and over again, because it's not glorious right, I'm running a lunch bar.
Speaker 2:It's almost like a half trade cafe. Uh, they were in and out of it every morning. They'd scoop me up, pick me up, put me in the car. It's like 3 or 4 am in the morning. I'd be sleeping in the car, they'd be prepping the lunch part and whatnot and getting it ready, and by the time I wake up, half of the trade is probably already done, because they close around lunchtime, right after lunch. Great experience, though A lot of fun as well.
Speaker 1:Do you feel like and they talk a lot about this with kids and like at a young age, what we experienced then defines us as we grow up, right? Did you find that you didn't get to experience much like presence with your parents growing up, like cause they were so busy with everything?
Speaker 2:I'm sure they certainly tried. I've got some great memories with mom and dad. I know they tried, yeah, yeah, with mum and dad. I know they tried 100% and even though we didn't go on extravagant holidays and whatnot, they made typical experiences fun, week-to-week, day-to-day experiences. We used to go to the Otara flea markets. Otara is a rough area of South Auckland, auckland in general, but my memories of Otara is beautiful. The markets were up, lots of food, lots of people. It was a great vibe. My memories of Otara was fantastic and so, from one perspective, I think of a lot of Aucklanders that think of you know, being on Otara being like dangerous and what not, and like it being the hood. All I can remember was just great vibes, great music, great food and running around by myself lap at being the hood. All I can remember was just great vibes, great music great food and I remember myself.
Speaker 1:You know, oh, it's cool because I can see now, like if we, you come forward for a sec, how you might be in chaos within business, right, whether you're having hard weeks, hard days, whatever it's like someone else might be put in that same position and be like, what the fuck is this? Whereas you're like, yeah, this, I thrive in this sort of thing. Do you feel like that started at a really young age? You could have a different lens on different experiences compared to most people? I think so.
Speaker 2:I've always liked to be in the hustle and bustle things. I've always been quite chaotic. I don't think I've ever had a strong plan as such. It's always just been throwing myself in the midst of the deep end of the pool, really, and I've always swam. I've always swam.
Speaker 1:Do you think that really started to evolve when you started getting into school age and going through like high school and things like that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, man, I, I, I was a great student, um, I excelled academically, um, from primary school to intermediate, to high school, to college, um, so I graduated high school. Oh, you're good, bro, you're good. I graduated high school um a year earlier, and I spent the last year of high school really just fucking around doing nothing. That's when I got involved in, like, I guess, all that naught, like all the gangs and the drugs and all that dark stuff.
Speaker 1:I spent a couple years, you know, I guess, tampering with um, yeah, um when you go back to those memories, I feel like there's there's some rough memories there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was naughty, but I was a high-achieving academic. I was very naughty, so I started to get involved with gangs and, I guess, drugs and crime being around the wrong people towards the end of high school and I've had a lot of physical altercations, trauma, basically a lot of wounds and damage, which I think is self-inflicted really, but they shaped me tremendously.
Speaker 1:Do you feel that you're almost grateful for some of the things that you experienced then to create maybe some of the resilience you have now?
Speaker 2:I'm going to be careful what I say because I am responsible for hurting a lot of people and I am not proud of that. But I am also grateful for how much I benefited.
Speaker 1:I benefited from that at a personal growth level I feel like it's a pretty common thing with a lot of people that continue on to. You know, if we talk about success, I've always said that success is subjective, right, but I guess in the general view of it it's like, financially, people doing well, you know, that business is going well, all those things I feel like a lot. I'll put myself in there too. I would say I'm successful, that we'd go through phases of really fucking hard times to get us ready for what we're about to do as we get older and I agree, dude, I did some shit I'm not proud of, but I think, having gone through that, I now know what not to do and what makes a good person, what makes a you know a good man, do you feel like, because you've gone through those things, you've been, you've definitely learned from a lot of that, and now you've changed through those things. You've definitely learned from a lot of that and now you've changed all those things you would have done as a younger man.
Speaker 2:More than changed. I'm so against it and since such a young age I've developed such a healthy relationship with pain, like I. Well, it's to the point now where I welcome it. Right, I'm chasing it, but before then I've just exposed myself to so much pain, which would have hurt my mother and my father a lot and the people around me, but it benefited me so much right.
Speaker 1:Would you be open to speaking into some of that pain?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:Is there one story or feeling that comes up? A lot for you to drive you.
Speaker 2:The number one most painful experience I've ever gone through is towards the end of high school fist fights and whatnot. Boys being boys, I got involved in a big physical altercation and a real gangster shot up. I'm in my late teens.
Speaker 1:These guys are like 40 plus like og gangsters with guns and things like that.
Speaker 2:Well, guns, yes, shit, okay and um, without going too much detail into actually the violence, I I lost my eyesight fully for a few months. I exposed myself to pitch black kind of blindness, darkness for six months and it is single handedly the most painful experience I've ever been through. I'll give you an example.
Speaker 2:I couldn't go to the toilet Well, I couldn't like, so my mom would help me, like every time I needed to pee, or like take a shit, fuck man, you know, um, because you couldn't see what you were doing. I just couldn't see, because it was like almost like hopelessness. You're just crying, non-stop crying, if you take. I was thinking how could this be worse Other than losing my ability to listen? That was it, man. It could not get worse.
Speaker 1:You couldn't experience life the way that you'd experienced it. For what 17 years Was it around? 17, 18?, 18, yeah.
Speaker 2:Because I didn't know I was going to get it back. So it is hopelessness, of course.
Speaker 1:Am I blind for the rest of my life? Now, yeah, I just cried.
Speaker 2:How the fuck did you make it through that? I don't know. I just cried, just cried, cried, cried.
Speaker 1:Every day I'll just be crying and um, and you can't even get up and like you, just you're just lying there, essentially right, of course, man, like, and back in those days I'm assuming you weren't listening to like podcasts and stuff because they didn't exist, right, how?
Speaker 2:how would you open that podcast? Yeah, yeah, how would you? Even even if they did exist, how could I find, how could I, how could I get it on?
Speaker 1:unless someone's helping you the whole time, all day.
Speaker 2:But you I'm assuming everyone was busy making money and going to work and you're left at home to basically fend for yourself and then um, but it was a great blessing, um, in the long run, for sure, but it was very painful and I always talk about it like it's a gift from God, because I used to be quite physical and now I'm not, because I'm still blind in my right eye, I'm still, like, partial blind in my left eye. It's a big weakness of mine.
Speaker 1:So I'm very careful with being physical. We talk about the polarities of life and when someone, someone, has a weakness, the strengths that come from it. What were some of the strengths that you grew from that, that time that you felt weak?
Speaker 2:well, god took away my ability to throw hands and be physical, but he gifted me the opportunity to grow and learn, to speak and to think and um, and still be dangerous, which is important, but dangerous on a different level and I think, a better way to be dangerous I agree, bro.
Speaker 1:I think, um, what I'm picturing is like it's fucking wild, because I feel like I went through a very similar experience at 26. Yeah, my fiancee at the left time at the time left me and I destroyed my knee, yeah, so I actually had to move home to my parents home for three or four months during surgery, laying there, my mum had to like empty my piss bottle because I couldn't move from the surgery.
Speaker 1:Right, I know what's like yeah yeah, so I was laying in bed and it's almost like being forced to have to sit with yourself and feel the emotions go through it. It cry, feel despair, feel like why the fuck me? You know all those things. It brought out something powerful in you.
Speaker 2:And you started learning.
Speaker 1:Like did you start reading books and stuff? Or how did you start to grow that wisdom and that knowledge that you talk about, that intelligence?
Speaker 2:I have to thank my parents for it. I'm very thankful. So the moment I could see even just a little bit blurry vision, even the moment the doctor said maybe we could help you, maybe we could save the left eye a little bit there's new technology coming out my parents made me go to school the moment I can kind of figure my way around. Just made me walk to fucking school. Holy shit, you know, walking half blind to school for like 40 minutes. I can like kind of figure my way around Like just let me walk to fucking school, holy shit, you know, you know, you know, walking half blind to school for like 40 minutes. You just, you just Is this in South Auckland as well? This was in East Auckland.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, so I went to Packer and college, yep, and and so I'd been not at school for like a long time. Back at school, everyone, a long time back at school. Everyone's like oh, we know about the story. You got beaten up and whatnot. What happened, and being fully blind, just getting to school was a challenge, sitting at the front of the class, which made no difference. I couldn't see anyways, and I'd be like this trying to read my book, um, so yeah, I'm very thankful for how my parents made me wipe my own ass after I took a big shit.
Speaker 1:Damn man Cause you're right, like they could have gone and like coddled you and be like, oh, poor baby, you know how can we help, how can we save you? You know, stop you from your own growth. Essentially, what started to transpire after all that? How did you start to get into who? The person you are now got worse yeah, right, um I I.
Speaker 2:I guess I shot the fame in that kind of world because that was a big story.
Speaker 1:Like you know, shane had been beaten up by like og gangsters and all the things, and it's pretty scary as a kid man like you're a kid, right. So, yeah, all the kids are going to fucking talk about that. Yeah um.
Speaker 2:So basically, uh, what? What led to it was, you know, someone whipped out a pistol and I was the only one out of the group of boys that ran into it by myself. When the gun got whipped out, I just went all in um, I thought everyone had followed me. I was If I had known no one followed me I would have ran the other way instantly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I shot the fame a little bit and then it got worse and worse. And because I had already finished high school and had university entrance, I mean, no one really cared. The school didn't care. I was supposed to be a good student and it got worse. So, yeah, so I I formulated my own little gang and my leadership skills were certainly not used correctly. Um and quote unquote yeah, we, we hustled, we, we, um, we made drugs and we sold it did that almost in a way.
Speaker 1:So michael mojo said a quote the other day that really hit me it's like there's a fine line between entrepreneurs becoming drug dealers and convicts. Because it's almost like that hustle culture and that mindset you need to make money, get ahead. A lot of people end up doing what they need to do right to get by. Did you start learning the mindset that you had to build when you were doing that stuff? It taught you about, like proper hard work? Essentially no, and not glorifying it in any way.
Speaker 2:Obviously I'm going to stop this right here and just publicly say there is no excuses. Cool, I didn't need to do what I had to do, my life was just fine, just fine. I, like, didn't need to do what I had to do, my life was just fine, just fine, no excuses. It is the wrong thing to do. It hurts communities tremendously. It is absolutely selfish. 100%. There is nothing. There is no, just it's a very ugly thing to do. I did it for personal gain and I'm going to spend the rest of my days making up for it.
Speaker 2:And it's not even about trauma and forgiving yourself. Fuck that shit. I ain't going to forgive myself, I'm going to make an impact. Do you use it to?
Speaker 1:drive you to be better. Yep, which is huge, bro, because a lot of people don't talk about it that way, so that shows me exactly where you're at as a man, which is awesome. So thank you. I guess, going through that phase and coming out the other side, how?
Speaker 2:long did that sort of last for. So me and some of those boys who are my boys still today, and we've all cleaned ourselves up. Yep, we did it for a short couple of years. Early 20s Early 20s, we lived very lavishly, fast-paced. Don't do this. Crime is never a good idea, ever. There is no justification. It doesn't matter how hard your life is, there's always a better choice. Well, because we live in I live in New Zealand, this is Australia. How bad is poverty? Come on, man. We're all privileged. That's a good point. We are all privileged on all ends of the spectrum. It's just just not good enough. Um, so, yeah, so I guess, wrapping all up, um, you know drive, um, it's not something I'm proud of yeah, and I love the way you spoke about in the car too, it's.
Speaker 1:I could tell that it wasn't like because I see a lot of people getting on socials now, bro, who have been in that space, and this is where the question came from, because I see a lot of them talk about yeah, I learned this doing this, this and this, but you've just straight up gone. Nah, fuck that, fuck that, like it was not what I needed to do. Selfish selfish.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's absolutely selfish. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love that, fueled by insecurity, fueled by there's nothing positive comes from this. Right, you're just a young guy from the hood, right, you watch all these music videos, right, cars, girls, all these things and you're like it's. I guess, to some degree, hip-hop culture, which which I love and I identify with, has glorified to some degree.
Speaker 1:Not anymore. It has changed. He'd say yeah, yeah, because I don't know about you, but one of my favourite rappers is J Cole. Yeah, very from-the-heart lyricist, talks about the shit that his culture goes through and his race, what they have to deal with. So, knowing, as you said, and I and you know from the from the little that I know, because I can't speak from a lived experience, from what you had in auckland, but I'm assuming that's something that's quite rampant over there, especially south auckland still today, yeah, today and it most people it's like and, as you said, bro, even touching on this, it's like it is essentially like laziness, right?
Speaker 1:It's like, rather than taking the path of picking a hard like, say, working at a job which you would have done, I'm assuming, after that, worked your ass off to get to where you are now, it's like taking the quick and easy way 100%.
Speaker 2:It goes quite deep though. Yeah, it's a social class kind of thing where, because we are coming from South Auckland or or from any parts of the world that's slightly more, I guess, impoverished, um, your lack of financial means, so you. So you gravitate towards quick ways of getting it, but once you start to climb the ladder and actually understand, money isn't well, money isn't even real, right, it's not even a, it's not even a, it's not even a thing, it's not even a priority. Really. Yeah, education and um, these things are much, much more important, right, um, but anyways, it's because where we, we know, what we know come from, where we come from. Our parents didn't know any better. Um, and when you're young, you try to find the fastest way to get there of course I.
Speaker 1:I thought I saw you something, do something the other day with some young kids. I can't remember what it was called, but I think there was a video of you like showing quite a bit of emotion and seeing these kids wanting to do better and be better. Whereabouts was that?
Speaker 2:that was an ultra um. So kia roha campus is a college as such high school. I got to meet them. We were doing the Lantern Festival and I'd always be. I used their car park, their field, to park my car and I was always the first person there and the last person to leave. On the first day I parked my car there, a young guy came and he gave me a hand and it's quite far from where the event is held and there was like heavy ice bags of ice and his teacher, brady, said hey, potter, go help him. And he came and he walked with me and he helped me. So, anyways, I got to know him and he said my teacher, my teacher is my hero, I love my school. This is a young guy.
Speaker 2:I never said this when I was his age and I was like tell me more. You have to tell me more. Yeah, why, what the hell? So you tell me. You told me about his life and where he's at and his family, big family, which is very normal in South Auckland, and that he, you know, lives very far and he catches the bus just to go to this high school. And he was telling me that the purpose of the parking in the field was to fundraise for the Kapa Haka group to go compete in South Island for the Nationals. I was like fuck, I must help, and so I'd make sure I parked. It was pretty far. There were other options of parking that I found later.
Speaker 1:On.
Speaker 2:I'd make sure I parked every day and I was the last person to leave. And on the last night I was coming back, wrapping up the last night of lantern festival, I was with my mom and they had waited for me and they rounded up like 40 50 kids and there were spotlights and they did the kapa haka for me.
Speaker 2:Oh shit and it was quite emotional. I was like, oh shit, I have to come back and do something. So straight away next week I got the boys together, shot a video, go give a little page and whatnot and awesome experience. I have to thank them. They gave me so much energy. They gave me purpose as well.
Speaker 1:I feel, knowing what I just said to you before about even where we're sitting right now, for anyone listening, nambour on the Sunshine Coast, here you would think Sunshine Coast is like a place of just beautiful homes, beach, everyone's good, everyone's happy, you know. But man, we're sitting in one of the biggest places for child homelessness. You told me before I didn't know that, right, it's fucking wild. Like, because you see this area right, it seems all right like, it seems like everything's pretty sweet, busy shops, like people getting around cafes, and yet literally around the corner from here, like fucking 60 meters away, there's kids sitting under a tree, homeless. Wow, it makes no sense, like you said before, how countries like New Zealand, australia, places like the Sunshine Coast, how do we even have that happening still? But I love that you as a person now have the ability to make impact as well. How does that feel, as a person, to be able to help change community and culture within your area?
Speaker 2:I'm very lucky. That's all I have to say. I'm very lucky to have the opportunity to become who I am, to be relatable, to go back and have these kids listen. I think that's the big challenge A lot of these kids. All I can say is I'm very lucky and very fortunate. I will try the best I can can. I may not be able to save all of them, but if I can save one out of a group of 50, I'll take it.
Speaker 1:I think you've already done it, bro. Honestly, I think you've impacted. You've impacted me, and I've been watching you for a couple of months, you know so, and I already feel different, having spoken to you today. So I know that I know when I meet someone special and that they're destined to do big things. So I just want to say thank you first of all. Thank you, but knowing that you are going to impact, especially with this podcast and your story, can you take us back to your 20s? After you've been through all that shit, you come out the other side, university's done. What is it that really got you started? And I guess, can you give some insights for anyone that's in their 20s right now, wanting to create business, wanting to get into that. What sort of mindset did you have to adopt to really start growing in your 20s?
Speaker 2:so I had to humble myself and understand that, because I huge criminal convention convictions, a great list of convictions that it was going to take 10 times the amount of work to be the same as the average person. That's the one thing my mom said to me You're going to have to work 10 times as much just to be the same Because you set yourself back, sort of thing, or I couldn't get a job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, 10 times as hard, just to be normal. If you want to excel I'm not sure, shane, it's what that how many times are you going to have to work more than the average person? So I stepped at that and on Home D I started to hustle already. So what I would do is my uncle owns a big computer, I guess brand computer software, computer hardware brand across New Zealand. He's actually very successful. I'm very lucky to have him around me when I was young as well, so I would before dropshipping was a thing. He's actually very, very successful.
Speaker 1:I'm very lucky to have him around me when I was young as well, so I would before. Dropshipping was a thing before this e-commerce thing.
Speaker 2:It's the young e-com bros. Now, hey, I would buy cheap, at cheap wholesale rates, software, ram and whatnot and I'd relist them on Trade Me, which is like our kind of resell website, right, and I'd move stock. I might only profit 20 30 bucks per item, but you know there's a lot of items going on. That's not pretty quick as a pretty quick. And then I was installing ram. I found ram as a product that was actually really cheap to buy wholesale, very easy to install you, you just plug it in, literally literally plug it in right. Um takes god like a minute or two if you're fast, yeah, you just unscrew the, plug it in um, and it had the highest margin at a product level. And then I could also increase the margin if I add an installation for people and I, because I was on home d, I couldn't go anywhere, so I made sure people would come to my house and upgrade ram and it did help people's computers. It's really easy, right?
Speaker 1:ram would definitely make you faster right, I just updated my mac to the new one with more ram, and it's a fucking experience.
Speaker 2:It's different it is and, and, man, I moved ram and so I was on omd moving computers in and out of my house, um, and that's where it started. But after that I went and got a job house, and that's where it started. But after that I went and got a job.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, During that time of being the Ram man, what was it that? Did you start to see further down the track what you could turn this bit or not, that business, but business in general into?
Speaker 2:No, I was really young man. I didn't know much about investing.
Speaker 1:I was just saving my cash.
Speaker 2:I set myself my first goal, which is to earn a hundred thousand dollars a year, um, asap, with a job, very simple, and I, well, well, it was hard to get a job to begin with, um, so I first had to get a job and then obviously climb my way up and um, so I found a little tech company that was making no money and I joined as a technical guy solutions, kind of architect stuff, tech stuff because I had graduated from uni with information systems, so Infosys as a major.
Speaker 1:But that business didn't make any money.
Speaker 2:So very quickly I was like, give me the telephone book, fuck it. Give me the telephone book, let me just dial the sales, let me just dial. I was hungry and I grew that small company quite quickly and the biggest sale we had that really revolutionized that business and rose me up the ranks was I landed MBN in Australia as a client. Holy shit, it was a name, a number and email address and it was cold completely cold.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you didn't have an insight into like this is going to be the next big thing.
Speaker 2:You were just like fuck, I'll call this person Fully cold and very quickly I flew over to Australia and that's how I stayed in Australia for a bit, you know but, that's where I always tell people I got most of my gains in Australia.
Speaker 1:Wow, how did you build your sales muscle? Was it just doing it over and over and again?
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, there was a bit of YouTube back then and I'd watch self-help videos on YouTube and I just practice on the phone, off the phone in the car, in the shower. I can give you my pitch 100%. It is Sell me. So the introduction I thought was the most important part, right? Because nobody really wanted to talk to you. Yep, and it's just. Hey, it's Shane, I'm calling from Pro Flow. How are you today? You just wait, silence.
Speaker 2:Hi Shane and I knew very quickly that that weight was the most critical part of that introduction call, because you want to take power of the conversation, okay, and you lead it. If you can get five or six yeses, soft yeses or agreements as such, then you can ask a question.
Speaker 1:Hey, would you like meat hot, ooh, okay. So it's like that unconscious, like yes, yep, tell me more. Okay, and then how long would the sales call normally last?
Speaker 2:for I'd try to meet either online or offline. Sap, but not long. You want to keep it short. Why does someone want to talk to a stranger for more than a couple minutes? It doesn't matter. Yeah, just get to the point.
Speaker 1:Get to the point, would you sell them on the benefit of what you guys do straight away?
Speaker 2:no, you should see me watch. Before that I was at ppt at my uncle's selling computers. You know how there's like ram and cpus and numbers. Yeah, I just tell people, it's fast, that's good, that's great, you'll like it it's so true.
Speaker 1:Why do people have to get so technical with everything? Hey, yeah, this is what you need. It'll solve your problems.
Speaker 2:Yeah it's fast it's really fast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, take that anyone listening right now. I think this is such a key point. Is that why the fuck does everyone over over complate everything? Life can be pretty simple, right.
Speaker 2:When you're selling someone things, it has to be relative to them. So it might be a fast computer, they don't care about the numbers of the computer If they can save 30 minutes a day based on efficiency on that computer. That's 30 minutes with the kids on a boat or whatever. That's what you're selling, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what you're selling Time is probably the most precious commodity in the world, right? And if you're saving people time and this is something I learned the other day, especially with mentoring and what I do it's like if I can help someone become someone in a short amount of time, they're going to pay me over the next guy who takes two or three times the amount of time.
Speaker 2:Results driven Results driven bro.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you go on through there becoming. You go from Rams man to the salesman. What started to transpire after that, when you really started to help grow that company?
Speaker 2:It was quite an interesting experience. So I did get my $100, thousand a year pretty quickly, like first year, maybe two shit and then, um, I became an executive in the business and um, so we grew really quickly. Um, there were ups and downs and stuff and whatnot, but eventually we got bought out okay, um, which is fantastic. Right, um, you get paid, right um. And whilst I was making that high salary, my salary did still keep increasing past 100. When you're in your early 20s and you're making like from a job, if you're on a thousand, yeah, it's pretty sweet. Yeah, and this is 10 years ago. It's not like 200,000 or 300,000 today 10 years ago.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of money back then.
Speaker 1:Would that then be like half a milli sort of thing back then?
Speaker 2:I don't know what it's relative to, but it's quite a bit Living good, living good.
Speaker 1:Well, you were doing any investments or anything back then as well, yep.
Speaker 2:So I bought my first rental property at 21. I bought my first rental property at 21. Shit, but this was before the job and everything. I was still at uni, so I was working two jobs and I was studying full time as well.
Speaker 1:Damn man.
Speaker 2:Minimum wage jobs, by the way, yep. And then I started to grow my, I guess, property portfolio which has come and gone, yeah, which has come and gone, so yeah. So I started investing really early which is come and gone, which is coming on, so yeah. So I started investing really early, which is great Less about. I want to just quickly throw this out there. Yeah, buy your investment property early. Don't worry about the gains about the property, but just the experience to do it, cause it's pretty difficult when you're young, I bet. And then you get to, like, meet lawyers and the bank and other stakeholders, like I don't know, I beat the lender, the agents you get deal with insurance. It's just hurdle after hurdle after hurdle. That is the biggest, I guess, takeaway from buying an investment property when you're young. You need to get it done. It's not going to make you rich as they, they all say on TikTok.
Speaker 1:it's like if you want to build your own, no, I don't like that.
Speaker 1:They aren't real Damn. Okay. And it makes sense because something I heard not too long ago was I think it was Jim Rohn. I don't know if you've heard of him before, but he was saying become a millionaire not for the money but for the person you must become Like. That hit me like a ton of bricks it's. He wasn't focused on the, the outcome of you know the numerical numbers. It was like how hard do I have to work? Who do I have to meet? What sort of network has to has to start happening? And I'm assuming that's the sort of things you started building. As you become the salesman, you're learning more, going through the test of time. When did it really start to click where you were like, okay, let's take this to the next level, um dude, I'm gonna give it to you real right.
Speaker 2:I'm constantly looking for the next level every bloody week. Yeah, there is no moment for me. So, like the moment I had 100k base salary, what is it going to take me to do? 150, 200, 250, 300, um, so? So I've never really had a break or turning point. I've always just thought man, I'm really lucky to be given the second chance at life after coming out of jail and making these big mistakes and hurting all these people around me. Shit man, run, run as fast as you can, boy damn.
Speaker 1:It really is like that they talk about simplicity and gratitude and anything else is a bonus right. It really is like that they talk about simplicity and gratitude and anything else is a bonus right. So what?
Speaker 2:drives you to keep showing up. Now I have a deeper, I have a bigger play and I want to make an impact, I guess leave a mark on this world. Business is great. I love it, it's fun, but it all is part of my own personal development journey. It's really easy to look at my life and say, oh man, he loves money, he loves toys and he's probably very superficial. But if you really get to know me, I actually don't give a fuck.
Speaker 1:I'll back that. Bro, I've known you for fucking four hours. We've been talking in the car and obviously just getting to know each other and I can see that. I can feel that I know when people are talking shit and for anyone listening, the conversations we've had this morning have just been almost esoteric. It's been on a whole deeper level. But where does that even come from? Like, were you always like this as a kid and everything you know coming through now to then? Or do you think that moment that you had of like the near-death experience and like the, the loss of everything, that made you go internally and start to really think on a deeper level?
Speaker 2:it's a journey man. I don't think anyone has that one experience as such. Yeah, it's a series of small catalysts along the way, yeah, and you find yourself more and more and more and more throughout every I guess, heck up. And I'm still so. I realize this now. I'm self-aware, so now I'm looking around, thinking where are the next hiccups? Give me more problems. Give me more problems.
Speaker 2:I need to grow faster. I need to grow more. This is not enough. I need to grow more. Give me more problems. Give me more problems. I need to grow faster. I need to grow more. This is not enough. I need to grow more. Give me more problems. Give me more problems. So I'm always looking for friction. I'm looking always for challenges, always looking for pain.
Speaker 1:I'm looking for it now because I feel like I'm not growing fast enough and if you're not growing, you're dying right you're not living yeah, yeah, it's like any any living organism in the world if it literally like trees, plants, whatever if they're not growing. And yeah, yeah, it's like any living organism in the world If it literally like trees plants, whatever if they're not growing and evolving, they're going the opposite way.
Speaker 1:So I guess when you started to really get into for anyone listening now Shane's going to be quite humble about it, but something dumplings. It's a dumpling empire in New Zealand. When that started, bro, was that when the big challenges really started for you as well within business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I started it and I was coming out of a relationship. When I say I was going broke, I mean I only had $40,000, $50,000 worth of cash. I did have rental properties, but obviously they're highly leveraged and there's mortgages and whatnot.
Speaker 1:So I was like feeling really tight and your expenses would have been quite high and stuff. I didn't work for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, I just fucked around for it. Just enjoying the money. Enjoying the money. I had a big payout, I traveled everywhere and and I I blew like close to a million bucks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I blew close to a million bucks. Yeah, right. What was the best experience during that time?
Speaker 2:Not worth it. I don't want to talk about it, it's not worth it. Don't do it, don't do it, it's not worth it. So I blew all my money down to my last little bit of sense. Relationship was on the rocks, just had a new young child and yeah, it was that I. I guess it had to work. It had to fucking work. There were I'd be screwed, right, you know how many things could I sell, you know? So I opened that little store in the heart of the city the city used to be very vibrant with my mum. Was this in Auckland, in Auckland CBD? And shit, it just really took off. I mean, the first day, I think, I was outside with plates and whatnot, trying to get people to come in, but within a few days my queues were maybe 50 meters long. Oh shit, I think I was the busiest store, maybe in the southern hemisphere for a bit. Bro, how did that?
Speaker 1:feel out of new zealand. Yeah well, what made you different?
Speaker 2:the x factor. Um, without being arrogant, maybe maybe me, maybe my mom, yeah, maybe the people, yeah, I was handmade. Um, it was all over the news and like it lost. That queue wasn't a week long or a few days long. It lasted for years, holy shit, yeah. So it wasn't 50 meters for years it would die down to maybe 15 meters. We had a 10, 15-meter queue for years. For two years, a year and a half two years, damn man.
Speaker 1:Did you have to maintain that or was it just naturally happening? Because I love your marketing, the way you guys marketing, like the way you guys look, the way you present it. Everything's really clean, right and it stands out like I think did. I see in some of these shops there's like um, like rap, graffiti and stuff like that in there. Yeah, there's graffiti posters and stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, there's a hip-hop, hip-hop kind of vibe, so I put our branding around what it means to identify as a chinese individual in New Zealand. For some reason, I see this phenomenon across the world as well. Chinese people, asians, hip hop, it's just.
Speaker 1:I don't know why, interesting, maybe, potentially, my Asian background in the Filipino. Maybe that's why I love it so much too, and basketball, bro it's. I love it so much too, and basketball, bro, it's just what it is Right.
Speaker 2:Um, so I've developed this brand around myself. Really just what I liked, yeah, and the shops were good, they were busy and we traded really well. At one point, I think at our peak, from one store that was 30 square meters it's smaller than this room.
Speaker 1:Fuck.
Speaker 2:Uh, smaller than this room. Fuck, we were churning doing 400, 450 customers by lunch, like at the end of lunch times, like individual dockets, all handmade.
Speaker 1:All handmade dumplings.
Speaker 2:We had roles where there was one person, I remember in the store back then that had one job and it was just give the food to someone by shouting you don't walk to anyone, it's too small. You just call the number and give them the food and they'll just be shouting numbers for like four hours and it was still difficult because there's so much food. Were you ever that person doing that?
Speaker 1:as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did it, yeah, yeah um, and every day was like war. There's seven or eight of us, and if we're all like standing like this, just absolutely what everyone's swearing everybody everybody Hot as fuck in there, hot as fuck. My mom was swearing at this person. This person was swearing at my mom. Everyone's swearing at everybody. Are you swearing in Mandarin or English? Everything, everything. And then it was a real show for people as well.
Speaker 1:No one had ever seen anything like it.
Speaker 2:And we're just throwing dumplings out. And people loved it as well. So, yeah, and that's where it all began. But then covid came for I'd love to.
Speaker 1:So I'd love to touch on some of the things, because I know there's a lot of business owners that listen to this podcast as well. Entrepreneurs, all the things. What are some mindset things you had to bring in as a leader to make sure that those people in that shop made sure the shop, just like, stayed with the quality that it did? Were this, did you feel like you had to keep the team on track, or were they all very self-led people?
Speaker 2:it's something I'm still working on today. Yeah, you, it's so easy to say, hire a good manager. Well, I haven't seen anyone else figure that one out by hiring a good manager. Yeah, it doesn't work. You have to be there. Um, yeah, so you do you go around to all the stores? Well, I have have different family members. I do have good managers, but my managers today aren't just managers. They've been with me for six years. Yeah, we celebrate overseas trips together. We're like. We are like family at this point. Right, it's just different. You cannot hire your way and pay someone to fix problems yeah, one thing I hear a lot is well Gary.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one thing I hear a lot is well. Gary V's main thing is like hire slow, fire fast. Is that something that you would take on?
Speaker 2:No, I hire fast and I fire fast.
Speaker 1:Is it a bit of turnover being in, like fast food, it is the industry. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because it's pretty common through it all. What is some traits in a person that you see that you're like you're someone who I could help or someone that I could take on in this business, because I know we talked a bit about before. When you see intelligence in someone, you're like, yeah, I could work with this.
Speaker 2:So my business is now filled with protein people. What does that mean? What was it? Protein people? Okay, so I have this analogy right Two types of people in this world. Some people like cookies, some people like protein powder. You give the cookie guy protein powder, man, he's not going to be comfortable, he'll. He might tell you he's comfortable. He's like yeah, man, I want to improve, I want protein powder, I want to work on myself, but deep down, it's not what he wants. You'll leave very quickly. But there are guys out there that want protein powder, they want to improve, and those are all the ones that I've employed.
Speaker 1:If you go to my store today, everybody is jacked yeah, right, because it's a literal, physical representation of how they think about themselves, right.
Speaker 2:I tell my boys if you want to pay rise, you want opportunity, get more jacked, get more jacked. If you want to pay rise, you want opportunity, get more jack, get more jack. If you cannot even figure that out your own health and fitness, which is so easy, to be honest, if you cannot figure that out, don't come to me for more complex issues or problems to solve. Just figure yourself out first. It's definitely good for you. I get no benefit from that. I'll help you, I'll teach you, I'll guide you. I'll teach you, I'll guide you, but you must figure that out for yourself first, otherwise don't expect other things. You're way too. You're not there yet.
Speaker 1:I like that because I watch. I love Andy Elliott stuff. Do you watch a lot of Andy Elliott stuff? I don't know who he is, so Andy's on socials, on Instagram, blowing up right now because he's like the car sales guy. But he's a very high-end sales guy who will call someone out in the crowd and be like stand up, take your shirt off. And if the dude's got like a belly or love handles, he'd be like why the fuck do you look like that? And he'll just call him straight out and he's doing it with love because he knows that person can do better. Right, 100%. And I think we've become too soft on that shit.
Speaker 1:Like I said to you in the car, I let myself get fat as fuck last year and I was down on myself. I was like I need to change my identity, I need to shift this and within like geez, like four months or so, I've lost 10 plus kilos and the healthiest and strongest I've been in a long, long time. Do I feel better? Hell yeah. Am I more successful in my business? Yes, I am right. So there's only positives that come from it. So I'm assuming fitness and health and you know, being jacked has been something you've had in your life your whole time. Do you think you'd ever get over it?
Speaker 2:Well, I don't prioritize being like big. This is the smallest I've ever been.
Speaker 1:I don't prioritize anymore.
Speaker 2:Strong is strong. So I look at it differently. If I'd have known you were getting fat or fat back then, if I'd known you, I would just be like yo, you're fat, sort your shit out, yeah, so this is what I have bro, fat like what the what's going on?
Speaker 1:so my best mate, sammy raul thava, shout out, sammy, I was at a one of the retreats, like men's retreats, and he's like trav, fuck your fat. And I. But I took it as like, damn, you're right. Yeah, I wasn't like what do you mean? It was I took because one of the brothers was like calling me forward Be better and because I know from being bigger there was health issues as well. Yeah for sure, I had fucking indigestion every day Walking would have been.
Speaker 2:you just struggled to walk and breathe.
Speaker 1:Literally, bro. Yeah, I know it's like bending over to dump too much shoes up. It'll be like, and yet when you're in it you don't notice it until someone that cares about you goes. Hey, you've let yourself go.
Speaker 2:These are real friends, people that prioritize your well-being over the friendship, because the friendship, the relationship, would benefit that person Yep Right Probably more than benefit you. I mean it'd benefit both parties, right. The friendship benefits both parties, but your well-being only benefits you and he put that as a priority over the friendship. So he put you before him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that my fiance did it for me as well. She did it in a kinder way, but, yeah, I love that my fiancee did it for me as well. She did it in a kinder way, but, um, she would definitely mention. It's like hey, babe, like probably need to sort your shit out. Things are getting a bit wild here. So, and I'm grateful for that stuff, man, because in the past, um, because I was so insecure as a younger guy, anyone that would you know I would take it as criticism. It's like, no, they're just trying to make you be better. Yeah, you know. So I love that and that's even from that. I'm assuming that that then is a ripple effect through, probably the customers that you get. You probably get a lot of people that, like, are fitness orientated, still coming to have enjoy some fucking dumplings right after the gym or whatever, and that's the culture you've built.
Speaker 2:I. I have a fantastic team. Um, the boys that have stayed on with me. I have staff that this is hospital. People don't stay right. Yeah, um, I've got boys that have stayed me for six years. I give an example. So there's joe that's on my team. He's gonna have his own business soon with me. I'm not even sure what joe's job is anymore, so so he comes as he pleases, leaves as he pleases. He does everything. He can do everything, whether it's making a dumpling, driving the delivery truck, frying the dumpling, serving customers, whatever needs to be done, right. Whatever errand, fixing this, fixing that. He just can do everything. And I can see why he loves his job so much, because it's like owning your own business. You just come in now, what? Just you, just freestyle, right, yeah, you leave when it's done. He's always having a great time making money, making money, making good money, right, and then there's growth potential for him as well.
Speaker 1:It's the closest thing to be an entrepreneur, really for young too it's pretty young yeah yeah, well, and I think, even just being around you for this day this morning, I think you've got this really infectious energy that makes you want to be better. Have you always had that?
Speaker 2:I don't actually now that you've called it out, probably not. It's only come in the last few years when I love myself more.
Speaker 1:Cool. Why did that shift happen?
Speaker 2:I think, just coming of age, for example, there was a part of my life I was tattooing myself everywhere, right, and I talk about it this whole time. My tattoos are all of insecurities and pain, insecurities and pain. So I guess, when you're young and you don't love yourself, you try to look tough and find all these different ways to protect yourself with armor, and so there's tattoos and piercings and everything's visual on the outside. You'll throw hands and it'll be physical. But then when you start to really come of age and truly love yourself and find yourself, everything becomes like internal right and and I started to have a stronger and deeper dialogue with myself over the last. Well, I've been chipping at it for so long, right, but eventually it got to the point where I am.
Speaker 2:I know I'm the fucking man now I love myself yeah, yeah, yeah, and I love other people, I want to help, I want to give and so yeah, so yeah it was a bit of a turning point, I guess.
Speaker 1:I love that Is it. Is there any tattoo on you right now that has a big significance to you that stands out straight away? I love the monkey one. I want to hear the story.
Speaker 2:My favorite tattoos, though, are quite simple.
Speaker 2:Well, I like Rosa, which is like the middle name of my daughter. Her name is Amelia Rosa Liu, beautiful. I have X and O. It just means kisses and hugs. Everyone needs a bit of love. Yeah, of course, but the Monkey King, I think, is something I've always felt very strong towards. It's a long story, but basically he's like an anti-hero. He's chaos, but chaos with love. Anarchy, but for the good of everybody in the world. And so basically the story is he turns heaven upside down because he felt like the gods were unfair to the people, and he literally destroys heaven.
Speaker 1:Oh like.
Speaker 2:Kratos, god of war, so he's chaotic, but with a big heart and greater good, and so I really I like that story for the people.
Speaker 1:I love that because growing up I thought a good man was a nice guy. And how wrong was I. Because when you think about it, when you look into movies, I love movies, right. They talk about this analogy where, you know, when they talk about women, love the bad boys, the bad guys, right yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's not necessarily that. What they love is that there's this man that's willing to do whatever it takes. They feel protected, they feel like this man would go to war for them so that they feel safe to do their own thing. A lot of the time sometimes it's toxic, you know, they get into the wrong um partnerships because it's he's big and scary looking and all the other things, but they don't know behind the scenes.
Speaker 1:But what happens in movies is that and men especially too, we love the idea of gangsters. So Chris Dell and I I remember, dude, literally was it end of last year or something we started watching Sopranos. Holy shit, I've never fallen in love with men so much. There was and they were doing some bad shit right classed, as you know, some bad, evil shit. But there was something about the way that tony soprano led his family and the way he showed up as a man that I had so much respect for. Yeah, like there was this moment where another one of the gangsters on an opposing mafia talked shit about his daughter and he fucking rattled this dude and I respect the hell out of that.
Speaker 1:So, yes, people might think, oh, what do you mean? Tony Soprano was a murderer and all these other things, but you're missing the qualities that I saw. I saw this man that loved his family, would do anything for them, do the things. But there was parts of as well, where it's like well, like we said before, what makes up a good, a good man? What is evil, what is good? You know who gets to dictate that as well. I guess the law, with a lot of things.
Speaker 2:It's all perspective. Yeah, right, but you nailed it. I think when you say nice and whatnot, yeah, there's a big difference between nice guys and good guys. Nice guys, they're sneaky bro. Yeah, man, how do you think backstabbing what do you think backstabbing looks like that's a smile. How do you think someone can hurt you? It's being nice.
Speaker 1:They don't be real either. They don't be real either. They don't talk that deep as shit. They don't tell you how you they actually feel and they go and whinge about you behind your back. You know it's like, and that shit usually comes full circle. You hear about it, right? So I mean even talking about that being the person you are and the wealth you've created and the success you've created. For anyone else listening and I'm sure everyone's going on their own journey and they're experiencing, you know, the loss of good friends because they start to see insecurities and they're like oh fuck, fuck, shane, look at how much money he's making. Now I'm gonna start talking to him. Whatever it might be, how do you now keep the circle that you keep so well? Do you have to sort of I'm assuming new people try to come into your life and be like hey bro, what's up? Like do you? Do you find yourself very reserved, or are you able to bring in new people into your life?
Speaker 2:I think I give lots of people chances and I bring lots of new people in my life. You gave me a chance straight away. You feel good, energy, right, um, and and in particular, I give time and energy to younger people, strangers, and you have to make peace with human nature. What I mean by that is from your past people, friends close to you. They'll come and go, man. They're going to be the ones that critique and have the most to say, both positive and negative. It's not even personal, it's actually just human nature. Don't read into it. I still deal with it today. Um, the social media thing that I'm going to be doing a few months for life. I think I've grown pretty well and putting myself, I've released like 40 50 videos in a month. It's been wild, bro. It's sick, um, and I suck. I think that's what people like, though. They like the fact that I suck and they see me try, but anyway, he's trying so hard.
Speaker 1:It's cool. I think you're killing it, bro, because, to be honest, it's authentic.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:It's not some curated bullshit, it's just let's set up a camera and watch Shane talk to this dude and eating food. It's fucking cool. I actually prefer that content over someone taking the time to edit it and do all this other bullshit. It's like I know when you post a video, it's going to be something authentic. I actually really liked when you set up a live when you're in one of the stores. That was cool Because my partner would know this.
Speaker 1:My mate just showed me this new show on YouTube called Rami the Great I think it is, and he buys and sells Nikes. So all he does is set up his camera in the storefront and he's like, yeah, what do you got for me today? Oh, yeah, some Yeezys, all this other stuff, and he'll offer how much we're going to buy them for. And then there's this back and forward Dude. I'll sit there and watch that for hours. I don't know what it is. Chris, you sat down and watched the two with me. Don't lie it. You sat down and watched the two with me. Don't lie, it's interesting, right? So? And I think what it is.
Speaker 2:It's real, yeah, more negotiation, right Negotiation, bro Deals yeah.
Speaker 1:Like seeing them. How much are these guys going to get for these shoes? I've seen these Jordans before. Fuck 150. You know, and you start to see that and I think that's what really drew me to you, especially in the video I saw of that, the dude with the beanie on and stuff right. He just met you somewhere and was like what do you do? How much do you make? Which you talked about, a deal, bro, that you made, what was one of the biggest deals you made? It was like 140K or something like that. Fastest, not the biggest, Fastest, okay, Fastest deals.
Speaker 2:Was that in real estate or something commercial site, and I had like a part to play in it and we're negotiating the cost of my time, basically my energy.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we're on the site. I was like open the plans, it's all right now, Okay. Okay, we're in the rubble. I'll do it right now and then just back and forth 20 minutes. I'm like this is how much I want. He's like okay. I'm like sweet, Leave it to me.
Speaker 1:Damn.
Speaker 2:How did that feel?
Speaker 1:No, nothing, nothing.
Speaker 2:I need to work now I need to like deliver now, right, and then that opened more doors and like yeah, can you then say what your biggest deal is.
Speaker 2:I've done like flips here and there. You know I'll share with someone. There might be New Zealanders watching this, right? Yeah, in New Zealand there are a type of house that's made from plaster, but New Zealand is moist, so plaster houses have now been banned for lending. They can never sell. Well, not many people in the world can buy real estate without borrowing, but some can. In particular, if you get together with a group of four or five guys and you just cash buy I got 100, you got 100, you got 100, 500, we take it, yep, and you just buy that most. A lot of time it is leaky, but that plaster house over here it passes fine because it's dry, yep, yep. And then, uh, you rip that plaster off and you put weatherboard, which is wood, and you relist that now it's open to the entire market to sell, right, so anyone can buy it. Right, and let's say you have now opened the doors for more buyers, tremendously right. And then, with a rising property market, let's say property prices are going up, yeah, Get the idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, seven figures sure Damn man from like 100K buy-in. I mean you have to split it in this tax and whatnot. But I'm just giving an example, right there's so many deals out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, did you learn that stuff just by doing it, or did you have someone like a mentor showing you how to do that? No, you just you see opportunity, right, take it, yeah, fuck. You speak about it as if it's like common knowledge, hey, and it it's like people will be hearing I I get it because I'm like fuck yeah, but people listening will be like what do you mean? See opportunities and take it like? What do you think separates people that think like that to the ones that don't?
Speaker 2:um, I think you have to be not as attached to to money, money to to to take these deals, take these opportunities Cause, cause they are big risks, right, um, they are big risks. Um, it's not for everybody, so let's just go back to them saying I don't think everybody should do it, yeah, um, but if you are in the position mentally to take these risks like the next car, the next watch is not going to make you happy, you know, but these deals are so exciting. You go to auction whether you're investing in property or doing whatever you know and you go there and it's like game time and you're there at the auction and like you have a budget, for example, I love these kind of scenarios. You have a budget and you have a number that you, I love these kind of scenarios. You have a budget and you have a number that you don't want to go above.
Speaker 2:You want anyone in the room to know. It's like playing Pokemon. Do you want to come in soft, really early? Do you want to come in late? Do you want to come in like you're made of money? What do you do? This is giving secrets away. I have a thing where, if I put my hand up, I don't put my hand down. Okay, if I'm going to put my hand up, it's not coming down.
Speaker 2:There's no bluffs, it's like I'm going for this thing Well, in an auction, once it reaches a price, and I feel like my hand should go up. You're not going to beat me, Gotcha? Yeah, this is my house.
Speaker 1:Oof, I felt that when you said that too, yeah, damn, I feel like with that energy in the room, you almost make them not want to go against you almost.
Speaker 2:There's little quirks. I'm a cheeky bugger, right, so I'll come in acting like I can't speak English, or whatever.
Speaker 1:I'm like some random off-shore.
Speaker 2:Do you dress a certain way like change up the style? Yeah, I'll come in a little bit fob. There's a couple of scenarios where I'll just be sitting there, my legs crossed, my phone out I wouldn't even look, but I'd make that loud like a loud version. I'm keeping myself, yeah. And I started with my phone out like I'm don't even care, and then, boom, my handle got up. It's not coming down. Where'd he come from? Yeah, and they're like fuck that fucking asian guy yeah, that's me dude.
Speaker 1:I actually just on that, bro. What was that like? What is it like being in new zealand, chinese? Do you cop much projection around that?
Speaker 2:have I been called a fucking asian before? Is that what you're trying?
Speaker 1:to ask essentially yeah, yeah, 100, yeah, love it. Yeah, you just like take it on the chin now.
Speaker 2:It's much better. I sell it now, though, like it's when you're young and people look closet. Race is everywhere, right, of course, when you're young you experience it and you feel a little bit down about it, but then, if you're smart, you take it and you sell it. It's actually quite a strength. I know, I'm colored, I know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, bro, I copped it and I'm not even really. I used to get picked on because I had big lips. He was like what do you mean? I look back at that and I looked way more Asian when I was a kid, like super Filipino. I've obviously grown into my features now, but yeah, man, man, I used to get picked on heaps for it and I just didn't know how to stand up for myself. But it definitely unconsciously built resilience within me. It was like I knew people were going to talk shit about me at some point. So, and especially being in this game um, is that still recording? Now someone's trying to call cool um being in this game, podcasting, showing up on socials. I'm copping projections galore, bro. You know like, have you started to? Now that you're out there more? Are you getting comments from people being like who's this fucking guy? Look at this.
Speaker 2:I think it's almost armor today. Yeah right, it's pretty hard to hate me because I am of color. Look, look at me like you, it's pretty I don't. I don't even look like privilege I don't look it.
Speaker 1:It's like the underdog story. Yeah, physically I don't.
Speaker 2:I don't even look like it, I don't sound like it. Um, it's pretty hard to throw shade at me. Yeah, it takes some effort.
Speaker 1:People do, but it takes some effort, yeah yeah, I have to agree with that because I I haven't copped too much on my journey and when it does come in the beginning it was like. It was like, oh, but I'm just trying to help everyone and that's okay. You can be trying to do the best you can, but someone's going to see it as a shit thing you'll take. You'll take the piss with your coaching. How can you? You know, how can you charge people that much? It's, and I feel like you said it's like that. It is what it is, it's going to come right, so you get used to it eventually.
Speaker 1:Dude, I'd love to um step into with something I call topics with the tech. Okay, now, this is like your story is incredible, but I know there's a wealth of knowledge sitting under that hat, so I really want to make sure the listener gets as much as they can from you value-wise. And there's just a few topics, bro, and then quickfire questions. One thing would be building a resilient business. What are some things you could share with people on how they would do that?
Speaker 2:If you give it 100% effort, it will not fail. That's a secret. If you truly try hard, enough, enough, it is impossible to fail fuck, it's so simple, right?
Speaker 1:it truly is like I know this podcast, I'm gonna keep going, no matter how long I need to, until it blows up, and I'm gonna keep going again. It's like there's a, there's a stat that says most people don't make it past episode three, and then whoever makes it past that doesn't get past episode 21. I'm at episode 98, I believe, with you. Well done, thank you, well done, right. So is there anything statistics wise like that with business you're in like? Is there like a?
Speaker 2:most people don't make it past five years and all that sort of shit there must be some statistic where, like you know, most businesses fail within 12 months, 24 months. Well, there may be right. Yeah, it's never the business idea, it's never the products it's. It's. It's 100% that it's just because the guy gave up. Right, that is 100% the reason businesses fail because the guy gave up. He just didn't try hard enough.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry no, it's true. Hard enough. Yeah, that's all there is. How do you build? How do you have so much resilience yourself to keep going?
Speaker 2:man, I, I, um, I wish I could give an answer that I guess I just really, really want it because, no, but my version of saying I wanted is so different, I think to so many other people out there, because I think a lot of people talk about it. I really want it, I really want it. Yeah, when you really want something, it's not words, it's action. What does really want to?
Speaker 1:look like for you action, do it show up. Show up early gym, get the shit done. Show up, lead from the front. Hands on, hands on. Seven days a week, seven days a week, you do work. Seven days a week, yeah I don't know.
Speaker 2:No, I don't work a single day of the week. Yeah, you're living, bro, I'm just living yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1:Wealth management principles have you got anything around that?
Speaker 2:Yes, wealth is multi-generational, depending on where you're coming from. Okay, depending on what class man this is so controversial Depending on what class of people you come from. Wealth is more than just money. Wealth is also education, family morals. No matter how much money you make in one generation, it could go instantly when it's passed on to your kids. That alone should tell you something, okay, so when you know wealth is multi-generational and you factor in actually how much dollar value, how much is that in terms of importance? How important is it? Probably not so much. It's more time and more education. That's more important in terms of wealth management and wealth generation.
Speaker 2:And the whole house thing highly leveraging yourself buy a whole bunch of rent shitty rentals. If it's on YouTube, it's not real, it's not real. And the whole house thing, highly leveraging yourself buy a whole bunch of shitty rentals. If it's on YouTube, it's not real. Yeah right, it's not real. You ask any broker I always talk about this you ask any broker that sells mortgages and you're like how many houses do you own? And they're like one. I'm like why, why do you sell mortgages to everyone? Tell people to max out their mortgages and buy a whole bunch of shitty rentals then and they're like, oh you know, it's business. It's business, though. They just want the sale right, yeah, fuck, okay.
Speaker 1:So now that you're expanding, that you're going through that do you have just one home now that you live in Auckland there, like you've just set up this beautiful home I think I saw it in your pictures potentially like two-story place?
Speaker 2:Look with property for me where I am, because it's going to be different for everyone. Right, I use it as a form of insurance. It's like these are quite complex questions. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So one of the things that when you start to want to buy things and so you should, if you're very tired, you should want to buy things like flashy cars and things like that um, when you borrow money right, and you have that rich dad, poor dad, you don't have to explain to people where the money came from, like if tax idea was calling out, and you're like, oh man, how, what? Where'd that 500,000 come from? You're like, oh, here's the loan, the conversation ends.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, so so. So, uh, property for me is just a leveraging tool for me to. I guess if I had cash, I'd put into property. I have a business that highly cash flows and I refinance, so that's the good debt he talks about. Yeah, and I'd use the cash from the refinance to either expand or buy dumb things.
Speaker 1:What's the best dumb thing you've bought so far?
Speaker 2:The best dumb thing. I'm a big Ferrari guy.
Speaker 1:You've got that at the moment. Yeah yeah, I have a Ferrari now Because how personal it is to me thing.
Speaker 2:I'm a big ferrari guy is that what you've got that at the moment? Yeah, yeah, I have ferrari now because how personal it is to me. I remember growing up as a kid like the f355, f430, some of these ferraris as kids I played with them as toys and it's so personal for me. So for me, buying the first that on par with buying the first kind of big family home, these two but that. But the family home isn't done, is it no?
Speaker 1:yeah, it's like a place for you to be safe and your kid yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:So you know it's first time I bought like a really expensive exotic car. Fuck, I just man, okay, I think I cried. I was like holy shit, wow, it took a while. Holy shit, yeah, how old were you when you bought it? My first like high-end car, exotic?
Speaker 1:probably at 24, yep shit, they're still pretty young. Yeah, I couldn't afford it, but yeah, yeah, but I still bought it. Bro, I know I'm gonna cry when I get mine, but I never wanted a car until I fucking sat in one. I sat in a mclaren couple of years back and I didn't think I'd fit. I fit in there pretty nicely and I sat in it and I was like damn, it was the feeling I couldn't care less about. I bought an expensive car. It was just how it made me feel, yes, and to see everyone else's faces light up and be like oh my God, how cool is that.
Speaker 1:It's on the podcast jason mckinnis, who's incredible with like bitcoin and crypto. You know he's done really well at a very young age, yeah, and when I sat in that and then I had another one with a mate for his 40th, went in that, and now I had michael mojo the other day. He's got one and I'm seeing them and I see your car, which is a ferrari. I have 812 yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:So I see these things and I used to think, oh, I don't need that shit. Now I'm like, no, I need that shit. Like I just know the feeling that comes with it and it's going to be so special.
Speaker 2:It's all about the experiences. So for me I very rarely drive any of my cars, right, like you know for me it's like it takes some planning because it's like a boat man, you know. And then I and I thought, sunny, I'm gonna take my daughter out, we're gonna go here, and it's like it's an experience, right, and they're actually a lot more affordable than affordable, than the most people think yeah right, yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:And has it given you benefits by having it as well?
Speaker 2:yes, I've been able to meet lots of interesting people. Um, especially especially ferrari I'm gonna talk about specifically. Ferrari is different, I think, to some of the other brands. There's a lot more prestige and, um, yeah, uh, especially ferrari it's. It's less about the car, more about the culture behind it, the people around it. Um, you don't see a lot of friar guys that car meets whatever when it's a sunny day, they're either with their family or they're on the boat.
Speaker 1:So that tells you a bit about them. Yeah, okay, that's cool. I like that. Um, what about some innovation in business? What are some things that you do to stay ahead of the curve?
Speaker 2:I like to talk to young people. See what, what's happening. It sounds cringy because it's like I'm spinning from Kanye's mouth, but they're the ones with all the ideas and they're the ones that are going to say yes to everything. It doesn't mean I listen to everything they say, but I surround myself with young people and these ideas bounce around and we work together. So that's a lot of fun. Or I surround myself with, uh, older people and I give them the ideas, the innovative ideas these young guys give me. And these older guys around 60, 50, 60, like oh, that's a great idea I try not to be around too many people my age.
Speaker 2:Yep, why is that? I like the negativity and I look for it sometimes. I we talk about friction, right, I look for friction. That's one of the gauges I use in terms of the moves that I make. When there's a lot of friction, I realize it's most likely a good move, but you can't be around it all the time, right?
Speaker 1:yeah, it is draining yeah, I feel that, um, what's like the the impact of culture on entrepreneurship, like being where you are and how much your business influences the culture in your area. Do you feel like you're able to have a bigger impact than just being the business? Like something? Dumpling obviously produces great food and everything, but do you feel like you've had an impact on the greater area where you are?
Speaker 2:I have, but it's just beginning. Something dumpling is just the foundation of what I want to do in my life. I don't think my career has started yet.
Speaker 1:Fuck, it's wild. You say that, bro, because I see that, as I said to you today, it's like as soon as I reached out to you, you just started existing. It was like where the hell did this guy come from? And then, all of a sudden, fucking video after video. I see you hanging out with like Salmo and Sefa and all these boys and it's like, damn, who is this guy? So I agree, it's like something has just been like initiated in the universe and you're about to take off. What's the ultimate goal of that? You know, becoming a bit of a personality within your community.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to be at a leadership position at a national I'm not going to limit myself maybe even international level. Beautiful, not money related, not financial related, just a leadership position. Money related, not financial related, just a leadership position. Um, and I want to, um, have an impact on the social working class.
Speaker 1:I'm actually very liberal yeah, I can see the emotion it brings up in your body too. What's a couple of things you really want to change?
Speaker 2:um, I want to. I'm going to keep it really simple. I want to tell young guys and girls in the working class, irrelevant of colour, you are not dumb, but you are uneducated. But that's something we can change. You can get an education, but you are not dumb. Don't let anyone tell you you're dumb. You're not dumb. That's number one. Number two is I believe in equal opportunity for everybody. I am not a believer of equal results as such, but I believe everyone should have equal opportunity. The political system in the world is very complex and very wild, and I I do feel like a lot of people want to protect what they already have, but I am a working class man. I will never betray that and you're ready for change.
Speaker 1:I think the people are too, which is really cool. Man like I see that happening here, just up north, in a place called mckay, north queensland. Um, one of the young lads who's well known by a lot of the boys I know there has just put his hand up for parliament. Wow, he's a barber. He owns a barber shop. Fantastic, he's gone. Fuck this. I'm ready to really challenge it. Right, and because the community loves him, he's probably going to get voted in. You know what I mean. And we're having our elections tomorrow here. Wow, literally happening tomorrow. What's his name? I can't remember, bro, I'll show you after this. Shout out to you, though.
Speaker 2:I just want to say well done, Keep going.
Speaker 1:I'm going to look for you and I'm gonna take inspiration from your work. Yes, can you take?
Speaker 2:note of that baby I'm gonna look for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's awesome dude, bro, just like one of the boys tatted up all the things and, um, he's just like fuck this. I want to like really make that change, and I think a lot of people have talked about it before. It's like, oh, it's so hard to get in because it's like old money and all the old politics. It's like, bro, we're about to take over. I see that. I see the shift in the community. I see the shift in the culture old money old, yeah, yeah, um I understand.
Speaker 2:The biggest thing I think old, fair, new is our new ability to think.
Speaker 1:There's been a few generations of us that can speak, but now there's a lot of young guys that are thinking and that's very scary we talked a bit about thinking before and what it actually means, and for anyone listening, it's like there's so many people now that can absorb information but then just regurgitate it. The same way, they don't take the information in, be discerning with it and create their own beliefs and thoughts of it, process it 100, bro. It's what mojo said the other day. It's like you got these people just reading like fucking resilience project and then just going.
Speaker 1:And you know I I share stuff from books sometimes, but I put my own spin on it too. Yeah, it's like I'm reading the mountain, is you at the moment, which is about self-sabotage and everything. I fucking love it, but I'm I'm indicating how that's impacted my life and how I'm going to change it, moving forward so people can make that relevant for their own life, which is what you've done really well today, bro, with your story. Your you think you've shared it's, you've made it really like capable, if that makes sense. People are hearing it going fuck, yeah, maybe this is possible for me to do it.
Speaker 2:Look what shane's created it's I was talking about saying it before with like me being on social more right. Like I think people like it because I suck and oh shit, he sucks, but he's trying. Like I think I could try too. I'm like you can, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, shot. I think that's the beauty of it, though, is that you're willing to try anything. I can tell you're willing to just do it. You're willing to fly to fucking Australia to jump on a podcast you have no idea about. It's been awesome.
Speaker 2:I've learned now the breathwork thing. Oh bro.
Speaker 1:Way to take you deeper on that, but it's, this is the thing you and you and for anyone listening I was talking to shane in the car about, like holotropic breath work at going deeper. Most people I tell it about they're a bit tentative. They're like oh, what the hell? Shane was like, fuck yeah, let's go. When can, when can we do it? So that was really cool. Um, perfect, bro. Now I've got your quick fire questions, I'm just going to smash these out for you for again, usually people can use this 10, 15 minutes to just get bulk value from it. What's a common financial myth you wish people knew the truth about?
Speaker 2:Common financial myth. I think it goes back to that. A home is the people, not the house that you live in. Don't buy houses to build a home. Buy houses with purpose.
Speaker 1:That's all there is to it Beautiful. Can you share a personal story of a mindset shift that helped you overcome a major challenge, have a better relationship with pain? It's good for you, fuck. Yeah, I agree something that's just been recently brought to my attention success is in the suffering, because we're going to suffer most times in business. Right, it's fun, I agree. What's one piece of advice you'd give someone looking to make their first real estate investment?
Speaker 1:don't live in it rent it out and work your ass off to get the money to do it. In your experience, what's a key factor that makes or breaks a new business?
Speaker 2:it's going to have to just be you. There is no such thing as there is no such thing as X factor in business other than the operator. You are the X factor. If you suck, you suck, it's not going to work out.
Speaker 1:Everyone else around you is going to suck. Yeah Cool. What's one innovative business idea that you're thinking about that's going to change the market in the next few years.
Speaker 2:I understand that attention is a currency that hasn't been fully capitalized on yet. So I am now building, I guess to some degree, a tech company that creates a culture of A creating, b holding attention and awareness a creating, be holding attention and awareness. Money, money, money itself, be it digital currency or physical currency, is always just going to be a place out of a time right, a place sort of of real assets, real value right. I don't care so much about the term money in any currency, digital or physical, but something you could trade currency for is awareness in the future.
Speaker 1:What's your thoughts about AI at the moment, with?
Speaker 2:business. I don't know how to use it myself personally, but I can see that it's going to replace a lot of jobs, but there's going to be a market for things that are non-AI.
Speaker 1:I actually see that too. I think a lot of people are like, oh, I'm scared the robot's taken over. It's like, nah, a lot of nostalgic stuff's coming back. A lot of old school in-person experiences are actually starting to fire up again. So I think exactly that it's probably going to go the opposite way with a lot of businesses. Do you think with your business it's going to go more like in-person experience stuff?
Speaker 2:people always ask me to machine and to machine process, machine process my production line and potentially, if I get large enough, that is an option, but I will keep it as personal as possible. My father, my biological father, is an oil painter, and something he's always stuck with me is he's always said the most picture perfect paintings are actually scary and eerie. Beautiful paintings are full of flaws.
Speaker 1:Oh damn man, I love that. Do you remember how long ago you said that Were you real young, very young, and that's never left you. That's just implanted in my brain now too. Fuck. That's probably why there's so much beauty in the pain, because we grow right beautiful things are full of flaws, yeah, and when something is picture perfect.
Speaker 2:If you saw a picture perfect person standing there right now, it'd be pretty fucking scary. To be honest, do you know what I mean? The way he stands is perfect, right, he just looks like a vampire. It'd just be creepy yeah, damn.
Speaker 1:And it's like in this, in the social media aspect, that now why? Probably why you said, like you're calling yourself, like saying you suck showing up, but the imperfection is what makes it so awesome. I think so, like it's. And dude, I'm the same. I'm trying new shit all the time and a a lot of the time my videos are fuck ups and a lot of the time my podcast. I don't edit anything, I just press record and then see how it goes. I know when I started I'd like forget to press record or something like that, and it's just like oh well, put it out. And then there's a term that I keyed for myself last year was I love failing and what it is for me. Fail is fast. Action ignites learning. F-a-i-l. That's a great term, man, I love it. It's the only way I've gotten to where I am today.
Speaker 2:Great term.
Speaker 1:I love failing because I'm learning every time.
Speaker 2:Do you still feel negative when you fail?
Speaker 1:Fuck man, If I'm not failing, I'm not moving forward.
Speaker 2:that's when you start to feel mentally ill right when I'm not making mistakes.
Speaker 1:Now I start to feel mentally ill you know, I'm oh like the other day. I realized I have too many clients who would think that that's an issue. Um, it's an issue for me because I now don't have time. I'm I'm trading my time for, you know, like I could have group programs and things like this, but I don't have time to create that, so I'm stuck in my own business. I've created a block as much as I'm helping people right now. So, in that failure, though, and the overwhelm that's come from that, I've expanded. The idea came to me what I need to do next, so it was perfect. How do you keep your mind sharp with everything that's happening in your life?
Speaker 2:I like to. I tell everybody that I'm hardcore. Most people don't quite comprehend what hardcore means. I'm all go every day the moment I wake up. I can train twice a day. I can work in the stores, I can do my deals. I'm in the car, driving on the phone nonstop. I'm with my kid. I wake up. I can train twice a day. I can work in the stores, I can do my deals. I'm in the car, driving or on the phone nonstop. I'm with my kid, I pick up, I drop off, I do everything. I think the fact that I keep this momentum going that is how I stay sharp I'm constantly doing. When I do take breaks, it's harder for me to get going again. So once I build momentum, I just keep going.
Speaker 1:I don't ever feel tired, damn, even with like two or three hours sleep. Yeah, what's your comment? How much sleep would you get normally?
Speaker 2:Oh, good night rest bro, five Damn, I'm about the same. I have a question for you. Yeah, do you feel like you have more energy today compared to when you were, let's say, 21?
Speaker 1:Fucking no, you do right. Yeah, bro, we talked about this the other day where it's like when you're living your love, so you're in love, which is I think I said this to you before where it's like when people try to find their passion or purpose and then it gets hard, they go fuck this. Maybe this isn't my purpose. It's like no, you find things that you love. I love helping people, I love podcasting, so whatever comes with that is fine. Like I don't have a whole day today technically to be doing a whole day podcast, but I wanted to spend the day with you guys and show you around and have a good time, so I just fucking do it tomorrow. I make up for that time. And but people can't seem to fathom that. They're like what do you? What do you mean by that? Like, well, we, I think we get so programmed by schooling, obviously. Where it's like show up to a nine to five yeah, you know, nine till three. O'clock bell goes. Go home, watch some cartoons, do some homework, go to bed.
Speaker 2:But I'm going to challenge you on this. I think it's actually good for a lot of people. Nine to fives People can do really well and be really happy with nine to five today. Agreed, yes.
Speaker 1:Today, yeah, yeah, because it's like I used to. When I first started this, I was talking shit about the system, right, it's like, fuck the system, fuck the matrix. It's like we are the matrix and without the system I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing Exactly Right. So I've got so much love for it. Now my partner's a teacher, and what you said before I got fucking emotional, bro, because when that kid said his teacher's his hero.
Speaker 1:I know so many kids. I know how many people like kids look up to her. Yeah, I see how much passion she has for what she does, bro, and you have these people that talk shit about teachers. And it's like it's not their fault. They're doing the best they can with the system that's been provided for them. And I know she cares so much about what she does and yet she's she's hindered by all these red flags and in what she actually does. So she's doing the best she can and she's changing lives like kids literally give her presents and shit all the time, like she's a music teacher. Music changes lives, muse, vibrations, like frequency it all fucking changes you on a dna level. That's why she does sound healing like. Sound healing is one of the most beautiful things we've ever seen, and that's why I support her in it. Yeah, it sucks, man, because you're right, there's so much beauty in everything that we are in that so many people complain about, but we don't look for it.
Speaker 2:Dude, like when you, let's say, you have a partner, you have three kids and you both have nine to five jobs, whether it's in the commercial sector or public or education, whatever it may be you get to, you get paid enough to be able to afford your own home and go on holiday a few times a year. Get this like, actually be truly present with your kids, cause I, I try, but I'm not always present. Yeah, dude, it's a pretty good life. Fuck, yeah, I'm. I'm probably the more retarded one, we're probably the more retarded one, right?
Speaker 1:I have to agree, man yeah, like, and this is the thing, though, man, like I keep trying to tell myself I'd be happy with you. Know, 300 000 a year, that's more than enough to live a good life right but I know that's not what's for me.
Speaker 1:I know I'm going to be someone who actually needs millions of dollars to make the impact that I'm here for in this world. Correct To build a foundation, correct To build a hub, like I was talking before, with all these things. So by me saying, oh, I'd be happy with a few hundred thousand, I'm actually not showing up and doing what I need to for the purpose that I'm actually not showing up and doing what I need to for the purpose that I'm here for and that hurts sometimes, bro, because it's a lot of fucking work.
Speaker 2:Bro, you might only ever pay yourself $300,000 a year, right, but have you noticed that quite common millions of dollars cash flow through people with good hearts Because they let their money flow to good areas? Yeah, um, they make good impacts in society. So you know what? You might only take home 400,000 a year, yeah, which is which is a lot for a lot of people, but you might actually be in the position to control millions of dollars worth of cash flow and really make an impact.
Speaker 1:That's helping the community. Yeah, yeah, that's a good point, correct? Yeah, damn man, where were you before that? Appreciate that.
Speaker 1:That was cool, like I think I know whatever conversations we're having while you're here yeah with things I was supposed to have, because the last month's probably been the hardest time in my business. Um, and I know it's seasonal, I know it won't last. It's a global recession, man. Yeah, yeah, bro, we're in it, right, and yet there's still multiple people hitting me up for for what I do, which is beautiful, and I take it as it comes, man, like there's going to be weeks where I'm thinking, fuck, how do I pay my tax bill that's due next week, which I have like a $2,000 tax bill due at the start of every month at the moment, because of the money I earned that I didn't know there was like bass and all this other shit. But I just take it as it comes, right.
Speaker 2:Be careful of what you spend. Yes, if you borrow, you don't have to pay tax. Be careful of what you spend.
Speaker 1:these are the things I'm learning, bro. Um, I've got a beautiful accountant who's been my mate for years and he's really saved me a lot of times. Um, but it's just new levels, right, new levels of learning, new devils to face, um, and I'm just doing the best I can, meeting people that I need to meet. Um, dude, I'd love to know, because I'm assuming I can't see the time We've been going for like an hour and a half, cool, what are some things for you, my man, that you'd love to leave for the listener, something that might be happening for you lately, or something moving forward? Impart some wisdom or some advice, whatever you feel necessary.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure what the demographic for the podcast Picture 20 to 35-year olds wanting to self-improve, find their purpose in life, become healthier.
Speaker 2:Once upon a time, I think I was just like the viewer, but it was in an age where there was nothing online as such. It was very, very lonely. Today, you might not know me, which is cool, but you get to see me, you get to hear me. Right, we didn't have that when we were growing up. So with this abundance of resource I can't emphasize more you can be anyone you want to be, and it goes back to that mantra when I said, like chances are, you are not dumb, you are just uneducated. I'm so uneducated today. Keep educating yourself and keep thinking. There's an absolute. I know for a fact that if you're wanting to self-improve, you're from a class where you know you've had to work. Your parents have had to work. There is an absolute subset of people that don't have to work, literally, um, and the most crazy and scariest thing you can have on them is your ability to speak and to think. So keep thinking, keep speaking thank you, bro.
Speaker 1:So, with what you said before, with your dreams and aspirations, what does 2024 look like for you? What's some things that you want to achieve?
Speaker 2:Open a few more stores, a minimum one, one coming to Australia, not Australia yet I like to wrap up and finish before I move on to the next thing. Cool, so I'll finish New Zealand. I really want to finish it and get it done.
Speaker 1:Is there a number of stores. That is like finishing for you Two more.
Speaker 2:One south-south, one west-west, and I'm done. It isn't. What's stopping me right now is I'm very picky with location.
Speaker 1:I was going to say, yeah, location sounds like a big thing, like foot traffic and everything.
Speaker 2:It's the only thing you can't change in a business. Yeah, at least in a brick and mortar business. Yep, you can change everything else, but the location. You cannot move so easily. So I'm very picky. Other than that, I want to spend as much time with my daughter and I'm very looking forward to furthering my own personal selfish passions in, I guess, car racing. So, I want to start that and just do more racing. I like it.
Speaker 1:Amazing If there's anyone listening, because there's a few podcasters that listen to my podcast and vice versa. Are you open to now that you've done? Well, this is probably your first one, right this?
Speaker 2:year yeah.
Speaker 1:Are you wanting to get on a heap more podcasts and just share who you're about and what you're about?
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, if it's more, especially if it's more targeted towards, let's say, wealth or money, like more subject driven. Bear in mind, it is only just my opinion, I'm not always right, but yeah, a hundred percent. I want to do more podcasts and talk and, yeah, I really enjoy it. I hope that I can be in positions where, when we have a podcast, I can not just talk about myself, but give back as well. You know, like maybe should maybe give some back yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1:and if anyone wants to get smoked by you on Warzone, what's your gamer tag?
Speaker 2:The great nurse, oh so that's where it comes from for your socials. Yeah, yeah, yeah, my social name is my Warzone name. Yeah, sick, is it PlayStation for you? I play Control on PC. Gotcha, pc, yeah, but I play Control.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my gamer tag is LeBronGames66. Go on, brother. This has been an incredible conversation. Thank you so much. I can't appreciate your presence and time and effort more and I just know that this podcast is going to go very, very far. So thank you, thank you for being you, thank you for our amazing producers behind the scenes. Thank you, guys, and thank you for the listener.
Speaker 1:Look to help out with this and be a part of the movement. Make sure you share tag myself and shane, and you know, really, if you're going to put a stake in the ground and say that you want to change the world with us. That's what it takes sharing it on your socials, tagging us, getting it out there. If you learn something, please even just reach out and let me know, because that way I know if I'm on the right direction with my guests and what we're talking about. Then we can make an impact on the world as a collective, because that's how it works, shane and I can't do it by ourselves. We need you guys as a community and as a culture, and that's what rewire is all about. It's helping rewire mind, body and soul of our culture, doing what we can to change it forever. So thank you, brother, Thank you man.