Financial Freedom Fast
Building a $180,000,000 Net Worth w/ David Osborn
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Download my FREE E-Book on Scaling Through Partnerships NOW
CLICK HERE
Apply for mentorship with Matt and the FAST FI Coaching Community:
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Follow Matt online:
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David, at this point, right now, what is your current net worth?
Speaker 2:I was getting close to 200, but now I'm probably back 180.
Speaker 1:Oh, 180,000?. No, we're at around $180 million. When you have this huge net worth and the amount of capital and the way that you have with money, like what do you view money adds.
Speaker 3:Welcome to the financial freedom fast podcast, the show that teaches you how to buy back your time and live life on your terms. Learn how to confidently leave your nine to five from guests who've done it themselves. Whether you want to lay on a beach, travel the world or focus on your passions, this show will give you the tools to do what you want when you want. Now here's your host, Matt Emobile.
Speaker 1:What is up by financial freedom? Fast Bam. I am so pumped, so hyped, so super duper excited for you guys to get in here and to hear my man, david Osborn because, man, we ripped it up on this podcast Talk so much about mindset, dude. I know you heard it in the intro, probably, but, man, this guy, he's worth $180 million. Like, how can you build that? What are the mindsets you have to have? What are the things you have to do? Guys, the crazy thing is 15 years old. He was a grocery store bagger, and then he worked up building businesses, building out his brokerage, doing different things that you can do, step by step, to create the life of your dreams. Maybe you don't need $180 million in net worth, but, guys, you can go out there and create the life of your dreams, and we talk a lot about the mindset that you need to be able to do that.
Speaker 1:Guys, get into that podcast, go listen. Before you do that, though, I want you to go and I want you to take a look. If you're interested in a mentorship with me, the community that I'm creating, I want you to click on the link in the show notes and just click to create, so you can find out how to create your future and how to be able to buy assets. If you're buying real estate or some type of asset and you want to learn how to partner, go in there. Click on my mentorship, apply, let's have an interview, see if you're a good foot and let's dive into it. But without further ado, guys, let's jump into the pod. David Osborn welcome to the Financial Freedom Fast podcast. Man, I'm so excited to get this going. Dude, I've been waiting a long time to get this podcast rocking. Man, I cannot wait to deliver the value today.
Speaker 2:but what is going on with you, brother, matthew, it's so good to be with you, good to see you, love the enthusiasm and what's going on with me is just a desired serve and help your listeners in any way that I possibly can.
Speaker 1:Love it, man. That's exactly what we're going to do. So, if you guys don't know, david Osborn and I recently got acquainted with David when I was out at an event in Tahoe. I knew a little bit about it. I didn't really met you, looked into you too much, but once we met in Tahoe, man, I just felt this aura around you. Man, you're so grounded, so calm. You're here, you're present, you are transparent with everyone on how they can build their own futures and, like you said, you're out here to serve. You're not trying to just create something so you and your family could live an amazing lifestyle and that's all you care about, even though you do care about that. But anyway, guys, if you don't know David, he's a mega millionaire entrepreneur, real estate investor, speaker, author, world traveler, wealth building coach Think you found it Over 50 companies. You're a father, you are a husband. You're a killer. You just got back from a European trip. Man, I am so excited to dive in with all those things that I just mentioned. What do you most identify as right now?
Speaker 2:What a great question. In the world we live in today, Popsicle, no. So it's interesting. What we just said is like why. You know, what matters to me in helping people is that it's all right there. It's all available for all your listeners. The whole, all the bits and pieces for you to build a Magnus life are there. You just have to go find them and assemble them and put them together. It's like a jigsaw puzzle and for me, because life's blessed me, I've been so lucky and fortunate to be able to figure out and put those pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together. So being on your podcast is a way of giving back in that method, Because I didn't have the mat meet for me when I was born.
Speaker 2:My dad was a soldier, green beret, a train killer. My mom was a housewife, incredible woman who got into real estate later, but originally for most of my life she just looked after us. And what's great is I've seen so much because I lived in Germany and I lived in England. I was raised on military bases until I was 14.
Speaker 2:And then I come back to America and I get to see what's going on in America and really it's just been like putting together the pieces so what we can do today, maybe, is share just a bunch of information in a conversation and people will pick up the pieces for their own particular life, based on where they are, and then put them. It's just like when you, if you ever done a puzzle and you find that piece, it just clicks into place. But we're all in different places and different park moments in building our own puzzles, so you don't know which moment is appropriate for which person. But that's what we're going to do today we're going to hash out a conversation and hopefully we get some clicks out there for people in their journey on their life to build their magnets.
Speaker 1:That's why I'm excited particularly about talking with you today, and that's where I've yes, I love the reference of the puzzle in it, because life really is just one one big puzzle. But you can zoom in and make each little thing that you're doing into its own puzzle, right? So if we've got like a real estate deal we're trying to put together or a business that we're trying to put together, there's different pieces of these puzzles and if you know what the pieces are and you can be some of those pieces or find the right pieces, you can get those put together. And then there's almost like the flashback of this bigger puzzle of life where you can talk about mindset, you could talk about tactics, you could talk about all that spirituality that can come into building this puzzle and one of the crazy things.
Speaker 1:So you said that you came over here at 14 years old and I'm pretty sure in your story you started right around 15 years old. You just dove in as like a grocery bagger at a grocery store and now you are. You went from grocery bagger, obviously building up businesses, doing things in high school, like the lawn care business that you had set up, and then to this point where you are this center I think it's called the center millionaire at this point in your career. So obviously a ton of mindset changes that have gone on throughout that path. Let's just talk a little bit about that beginning of your story. And where did the mindset change for you? Where you were like this isn't going to be the way that I do life, this is not going to be how I create a future for myself, and then switched into I'm going to go create these businesses and do this for myself. When did that happen and what was that shit like?
Speaker 2:Mindset is such a beautiful saying and it's like everybody. You hear a lot of people criticize mindset and they'll say I'm just tell me what to do, not all that airy fairy, fluffy stuff. But the truth is, if you don't get the fluffy stuff right, you won't get the rest of it right. So the air, the mindset, it's like when the milk, the person wins the lottery. I was just reading another book about how many people either lose all their money or it just becomes an incredible burden for them because they happen after winning the lottery. That is because they have built the mindset. And mindset is something like building a wall you lay it brick by brick.
Speaker 2:So I've been through a million changes in my career maybe not a million, but lots and lots. And it begins with the one thing I had, for some reason I don't know where that came from, maybe growing up on a farm is that I was a hard worker when I wanted to. And what I mean by that is I was a terrible student at school, because I didn't really I didn't see the value in it, because I went to 10 schools in 14 years, so I was being pulled and pushed, pulled and pushed. I didn't have a connection with school. But when I got my first job as a bagger, I tried to be the fastest bagger in the grocery store. In my own head this was just a competition between me and all these people. They didn't know I was having it. I was just like seeing how a person would roll up with a giant basket. I was like fast. But I put all this stuff into bags, neatly and well organized, in a mythical race in the head. So that served me well because I was mailing it in at school. But I never mailed it into work and I'm lucky that was the choice.
Speaker 2:So that was one of my mindsets was I'm going to work hard to make my money so I can have my freedom. So I think early on I wanted to finance freedom. And as soon as I started getting that paycheck even from groceries and I work construction, which is hard work but pays better. And then I started my lawnmowering company and I began to see that my pathway to being recognized was not going to be being the best athlete on the sports team, because I wasn't.
Speaker 2:I was a pretty mediocre athlete. I wasn't terrible, but I wasn't great. I was always like the middle of the path. I wasn't going to get there by being an amazing student, because I could get good grades when I applied myself. But I didn't apply myself. So it wasn't going to be through mathematics, you know, inventing the next iPhone. But I found when I worked hard I got a paycheck and that created a sort of space for me to exist and breathe. Early on began to attach a mindset of muddy being my pathway to what I wanted. So that's like one of my early mindsets, that is, it went on. Later on I came to value education. It took me getting out of college and it into business to truly begin to value education.
Speaker 1:And I think it's important that you saw that money is my pathway to create the life that I want to have in this life Because, honestly, even today, in today's day and age, a lot of people want a life.
Speaker 1:There is a way that you could go out and make, figure out a way to make $2,000 a month, whatever it is passively, and you could live that type of lifestyle.
Speaker 1:But if you want a lifestyle that is better than that, you've got to figure out a way to create that. And now money isn't something that we need to be greedy and we need to say, oh, I need this, but we have to realize and come to the realization and sit in the actual fact that money is a tool that can help us to create the life that we want for ourselves, and it can also help us to create that type of lifestyle that other people are looking for themselves as well, so you can move into that. So now, just continuing on with your story, you had that hard work, that hard ethic that's moving you work ethic that's moving you into being able to do things, build businesses up. And now I know you started to work with Keller Williams and ended up going and buying a franchise out with your mom, I think, is like the Dallas area. I think those were the first.
Speaker 2:So long story really short. And, by the way, remember I had a work ethic at work, not really at school. So it's interesting. People always make it sound like you're either born. This is what I think people should realize. No one is born with maybe Elon Musk. Some people are born with this crazy set of gifts that their life's like a golden pathway or a golden road. Mine wasn't, so I had to put all the pieces together.
Speaker 2:Going back to her personality, so I didn't have any respect for schools. I mailed all that in. I liked my page yet so there was something about working and getting a brought out the best. So I go all the way through this college thing. I graduated with a 2.2, barely made it out. I had a job all the way through, loved working. Again is the same. I always had money but I was hardly ever going to class. And then. But I managed to graduate from UT in five and a half years. And then I go get my first job. My first job is outside sales and computers and I do really good there as well because I work hard and I'm knocking on doors and walking into skyscrapers and going all the way through every building in there trying to sell computer equipment.
Speaker 2:But back then it was like mainframes were just shifting towards like more network computers. So I was on the network computer side. But my experience of work was bad. My boss wanted me to have sex with her. She was older than me and she was married. So she was like that was my weird experience, like I had that harassment, I guess in reverse, right Back also in those days.
Speaker 2:Keep in mind, I know it. Today people are like money, not necessarily good, bad. There's a lot of framing around money. That's changed. I'm 56. So I grew up in the 80s. In the 80s it was risky business at all streets, so people didn't view money as a problem. Everyone was like of course you want to be rich. And today I realized there's a lot of consciousness around what's too much money and what should we have and all these other things. But from my point of view you can do great things with money for other people, for yourself. Of course there's the selfish part. But when I donated a quarter of million to build Wells in Africa, I'm pretty sure that those 2000 people who got fresh water were grateful that I was able to do that. And I'm not trying to compare or put myself on a pedestal.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying money creates a lot of possibility to do good things as well, and I just want to jump in If that quarter million dollars right, if we said, let's know, it's not right for you to have all this money, David, that quarter million dollars should be divided between the person who makes $10,000 a year and the person who makes $30,000 a year and the person who makes $50,000 a year. Split it up and give it to them. Guess what. None of those people would have had the means to be able to donate a quarter million dollars to go and have that project done and recreate that. So you need these people with this magnitude of money to be able to go out and make real change, because they've made change in themselves and these are the most responsible people. You want the responsible people who are seeing that they want to make change in the world to have this type of wealth.
Speaker 2:So sorry to cut you off, David that's a conversation I didn't have to have. I guess that was my point. Today you have to have that conversation. It's probably a good. When I was a kid it was like of course you want to be rich. There was no question. Now there's a lot of questions around it, but I agree with you because your choice is rather a big government with the money or private individuals with the money.
Speaker 2:And if you look at good or bad, if you look at what Bill Gates has done with his fortune, he's making a massive difference in the world, more so than the public side does, because government naturally just starts. They can't help it, they just start suppressing people. If you don't agree with that and just go sure, I'd try to go get your driver's license For me. I got my passport renewed and it was just such a beating of a process and I'm like that's the government. It's a good thing. We need our passports, we need government, we need roads, but they naturally, by nature, do things badly because nobody really cares and it becomes like getting a passport is like stepping back into the 70s in the terms of the process. You should just be able to set an appointment online, show up at that time, get your picture taken. And while I said you got to go a week in line two hours wearing a mask in a crowded room Like no one else at Texas was still wearing masks but this is a federal of facilities that were wearing a mask. You're in an incredibly crowded room. The Roman Next to me is yeah, last time I was here my mom got COVID. It was really bad and we were here for her passport, even though we're all married. Masks, it's just. They're just. That's the government. They don't do it. Private people that care will do a lot better in giving back to the community. That's a whole other issue. So my job isn't good. My boss is harassing me and so I ended up quitting that job after one year, selling all my possessions and hitchhiking around the world.
Speaker 2:I come back two years later living. I lived on 20 bucks a day for two years. I come back two years later and my mom is in real estate now and she's done pretty well and she's brought, bought a territory in North Texas and she has shingles from stress. It's not going very well. So she's stressed out and I've just been living the dream. I've taken her out of the world. So I'm like Mom, you should sell that stuff. It's crazy that you would buy this and have shingles at your age, which I think at this age she was probably my age, she was about 56. But she says why didn't you come partner with me? So I came in partnered with her and three years later I had shingles from stress. So basically I took it over and I went and ran it and it was stressful, it was a lot of freaking work, but we were able to turn it around and stabilize it and, yeah, build a great amount of success, become the number one franchise, lunar in Keller Williams.
Speaker 2:That journey was a painful but beautiful journey and really proud of doing it with my mom. I joined her in let's see 94. I bought her out in 99. And she's still alive today. She's 88 and a half and lives up Colorado and Austin, goes back and forth, and my dad died about 12 years ago. Yeah, and that was a whole other gift because once I started buying franchises, so the journey was first lawn mowing company, then I became a real estate agent for three years and hold my stable skills Now.
Speaker 2:Keep in mind, when I was younger I was a shy kid, I was more intro, I test as an ambivert. But when I was a kid I think moving schools so much made me like step all the time because I was never sure who was my new buddy going to be. So I held back. But then you get into sales and you learn you have to push forward and that I learned that in selling computer sales in that first job. But then I really honed it more in residential real estate. You just have to engage. You want to make money? Take my work ethic and you put it into that situation. If you want to make money you've got to walk up to strangers and find out if they want to buy a house and there's a million bits and pieces. You can learn about sales of million books, a million courses, and I took a whole bunch of them. So I took Dale Carnegie sales course Calorin's, opposite of Bunch of Courses, tony Robbins, and that was all the learnedest, generated enough energy to go talk to people.
Speaker 2:My daughter always teases me because she's. Every time I'm in line at the airport I start talking to somebody and she said you'll talk to anybody and I will. But I didn't used to be that guy. I used to be the shy person when I was 14, 15, 16, that held back trying to figure out where I fit in the hierarchy. Now I'm like, hey, how are you? Where are you from? I look at people as like chocolates in that mixed chocolate box. You never know what's inside is strawberries, coconuts, yeah Well, just try to pop them open and see what's going on. Now, sometimes I regret that. Sometimes I'm like, oh my God, I'm sad and started this conversation, but other times I feel like it's freaking a little bit of light in the world and just makes time go faster if you're stuck in a boring line.
Speaker 2:That's one of the things I got from sales. That was another mindset shift of be you need to engage with, and I teach my kids to. When someone brings you a drink or brings you food, you look them in the eye, you say Thank you, you talk to them because that's a human being working right there. You're acknowledging them as a fellow human being and showing gratitude for their service. And if you look down and you're shy and you don't respond, you think I'm just shy and I don't respond. But the truth is you're disrespecting that human being that is serving you. Right, and that's their job to do it. So they're choosing to do that job but they're serving you water or whatever like foods item. Yeah, so you. That's another mindset shift. So I noticed my kids tend to get a little nervous and we're trying to teach them the mindset of engaging. Not because yeah, because it's a contribution to the other people.
Speaker 2:I go to Dallas. And how do I save that business? Well, business that my mom has shingles from is selling franchises. So my job is to go sell franchises and that again requires engagement with people, trying to find people talented enough to buy a franchise and create their own wealth through that franchise opportunity. And when I first got up there, I wasn't very good at selling the franchises. I was good at getting people excited about the opportunity, but I couldn't get them to cross that threshold.
Speaker 2:To write the check, it cost about 150 grand back then, so it was a significant investment. So what I started to do was buy them myself. And the way I would buy them because I didn't have that money either I had 35 grand in my savings account in one house at Austin and this was like $1.7. So what I would do is I would say, okay, I'm going to bring five of you on board, I'm going to sell you guys, I'm going to give you 5% each and I'm going to sell you 5% originally for $2,000 a share. Later we raise it to $5,000, $6,000, $7,000. So originally $2,000,. I'd end up selling 25% for 50 grand. So I'd get 50 grand cash. They'd each write a check for 10. And then I would usually use all kinds of things like loans or no payment credit cards to my computers and just do everything I could to get the couple together the 150 grand. And then I'd launch a franchise. And I did that about four or five times over three or four years before I got better and good enough at being valid enough because it's all about validity, actually self-sufficiency. And then, almost as a byproduct, I became the number one franchise in ribs.
Speaker 2:And all of that was just a continuous, perpetual mindset Okay, what do I got to do? But the engine of work ethic was there. So I had the engine, but I didn't have the right direction. So it was like a pushing a piece of spaghetti around on a plate. But then over time I got more and more focused and I kept throwing myself in the training, every bit of training. You could imagine listening back then to cassette tapes. Today it would be podcasts, just interviewing wealthy people. Remember when I met that was successful and they just adding that and layering it into my own puzzle on how to build. Well, and then suddenly I became the largest franchise owner at Keller Rims and accessible. But then I kept going and had new re-advances.
Speaker 1:There's tons of shifts that you've gone on after that, like buying other businesses, creating other businesses for yourself. But one thing two actually areas that I want to hit on. One thing is like life is so beautiful If we just bring ourselves all into this moment the person that's across from you, the person that's there with you, the person that you're talking to when you're on Zoom or whatever you're doing, filming a podcast. Like life is so beautiful to have these conversations and actually sit in the art and the dance of life and to be able to take it all in at once. It's so exciting to be able to have these conversations.
Speaker 1:And when people go along their daily life, their daily habits, their daily routines, and they don't associate themselves with the outside lives at life and they don't engage with the rest of life around them, it's easy to get locked into these patterns of just doing what you do every single day and that can keep your life moving at a stagnant pace. But when you actually engage in life and you're present there with it, it'll give you the opportunity. You'll see more business opportunities coming to you. You'll actually be able to notice and engage with life. When it comes to just the point that I wanted to hit on that you were saying there.
Speaker 1:Now you mentioned that you traveled for two years. You went and traveled for two years and we're spending like $20 a day. What did traveling do for you? Did that unlock some things? I know I traveled for around six months and it just it blew my mind for needing relationships in my life, being able to create the type of life that I wanted for myself, and going and doing what I wanted. What realizations did you have while you were out there traveling?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think some of that was. There was two really good things that happened to be led to the travel. One is having been military and moved so much so I was used to moving. And then, secondly, my best friend in college who was one year behind me. His family had a tradition of going around the world for a year when they graduated in college and he asked me to go and I'd said no because I wanted to build my career. But then I had that bad career experience where this girl's kind of wanting me to do the thing and I was like screw this man, this job is not good, it's not healthy, this is a bad environment. So I went back to my buddy about six months into that job experience and said, hey, I'm going to come with you, we're going to do this. And I just went, moved back home with my parents.
Speaker 2:I started saving every dollar I could and I built I can't remember was it 10,000 bucks. Now I was supposed to go for one year Around. The world ticket was three grand and I had 7,000 left. So that's why I said my budget was 20 bucks today. The reason I'd extended to two years is because I met a girl. Of course, moved with her at all of her. And yeah, I did some side hustles to try to make it a month. But what it taught me was, first off, you don't need money to be. That was probably the biggest thing. I'm living on no money, I'm dirt for now.
Speaker 2:Keep in mind, using common language, I had the privilege of having parents know it always be Right. My dad actually told me when I left. He said if you have a problem, you call me, I'll get you home, was it? That was his offer. Take it home, you let me know. And back then you got to remember we had no cell phones. The internet cafes were just showing up. So if you want to communicate with your parents, you had to go call them from a phone cost a lot of money or mail them a postcard. So I wasn't talking to anybody. I was eating connection. I probably had my email address, but I didn't use it very much. I didn't have a computer that you didn't count any of your connection devices. Can you even imagine that? So I would call my mom and say, hey, I'm in Peektown and I'm going to hitchhike up to Nairobi and I will contact you in six weeks, unless I find some other way of contacting you. What a beautiful life.
Speaker 1:Honestly, that must have been like that's, that you fully disconnected out there and you just went and did your thing. It is so hard nowadays to disconnect even for like, even for two days.
Speaker 2:it's hard to get out man and the phone is such a pain in the butt and I'm so addicted to it and my daughter's. I'm trying to get my daughter off it while being a hypocrite, because I'm it, because there's so much information. I love information and it's all right there in your phone. So if you don't have it and somebody says something like you know who was the king of England in the world war two? No, but looking up, I could find out. I could know everything in two seconds. So yeah, it definitely there's something wrong with phones and something wrong with that relationship is something humans have to evolve through. This. Not sure how to do it, but right now it's well.
Speaker 2:I bet we all spend four or five hours a day. That back then that wasn't an option. I had my journal. I kept a journal all the way around and I would read books, I would meet people and that's all there was to do Figure out what our next adventure is. We didn't even have a clear. Me and my buddy didn't even clear halfway. We would talk to people and find out the next place to go, find out random places to see things. So I learned that there are a lot of cool people out there. People are generally friendly and they want to help you, that you don't need money to have a great time. I probably one of the best times I've ever had in my life. I basically had seven grand. I know that's not no money.
Speaker 1:And that would maybe get you by if you went out. Most people, if they went and traveled for a month at a time, they're probably spending seven grand today, but like when I went out to Paris and did my thing out there, like I was spending like right around three, four grand a month. And this is another thing. Like people say I love that you said people are genuinely out there for your best good and they want to interact with you and they want to help you. They want to do things with you and they're nice and friendly generally. Right, a lot of people say, oh, don't go to Paris, like they hate Americans there. And no, you go there and you're friendly with them, you try to speak their language, you try to take in the culture and be there with them and not just be an American coming in and saying, hey, give me a croissant. You go there and you be a genuinely good person and you create that for yourself.
Speaker 1:So, david, we've got the work ethic that was built up in the beginning. I know working on Uncle Ted's farm and they go into the grocery store and doing that whole thing, and so you have the work ethic that was built on building businesses. Then we learned to engage with people and create talk with people and really hone in on our sales skills. So now you've gotten to the point where you've got, you're the top selling brokerage, top brokerage owner in Keller Williams, and you're very wealthy. Things have gone very well for you. What's the next big learning gap, that next puzzle piece that you put into life that was able to build you to where you're at now?
Speaker 2:There's so many. But the one thing I want all your listeners to know because you said at the beginning they might have one house or five houses or trying to get their first house is wealth accumulation of ours. So you have to have assets. So I had that first rental property I bought in 97, where I house hacked it and I had roommates. Then I turned it into a full on rental property and I started adding a few rentals here and there. Then I moved to Dallas. I started buying my first franchise and that was like almost forced on me because I couldn't sell the franchise. But when I bought them I ended up with six franchises and their assets too, and as they did better, they all started paying. That makes us subway franchises or six McDonald's, whatever. So now I've received the paychecks.
Speaker 2:In that journey I learned it's not about me Like at first it was all about me. It's all with. I do it, then it becomes we do it, then it becomes they do it, I do it, we do it. But at first I thought it was all about me. I'm just working myself all the time and doing everything I can and trying to be like five places at the same time. I was chronically bad at time management, so I'd be like an hour late for every appointment. I was just trying to do too much and I had a mini identity crisis and I just broke it, because you can't do it all yourself. Really, it's all about other people Running my six franchises.
Speaker 2:I learned that I'm only as good as the managers that I have running my four franchises. But before I thought, oh, I can hire a mediocre manager and I'll just out work all the way around them, and there is something to that. If someone doesn't blow up for you, you can build around them. But what really changes your life when you hire somebody and you don't even go to the office and suddenly the profits are going up 20% a year. And the same could be true just in a relationship where you have a good real estate agent who goes out and spends you money, so you could talk to realtors and say have an investor, and they can send you a bunch of crap.
Speaker 2:Or there could be that one that calls you and says, hey, david, I found you a deal. What do you need to know to make your decision? And those are the ones you want. I've had a bunch of good relationships and a bunch of success where I've been real comfortable with them, just like you said, just ordering the croissant in France, like I treat them as a human that I care about, I'm interested in. And then they bring me deals because they know I'll act fast and never screw around. I'd say no quickly also if I'm not interested. So the same way with the managers. Right, that was the most. So then I'm building that and I'm learning. The only way you scale is to leverage, and leverage is a three kinds. What is money leverage, which we all know. You have a million dollars. You could go to calls and homes, everyone, knows your number.
Speaker 2:The second leverage is people leverage, where you have great people working for you that will do things for you, so that creates leverage. Most people might start with an assistant. You could start with free leverage. It's just like realtor, plumber or good handyman pair of stuff for you. That's all leverage. And then the third one is knowledge leverage. That's the most important one, which goes all the way back to mindset, which is the more and more you understand things, the more you press that advantage.
Speaker 2:So then I'm building these franchises and I'm making a bunch of money and I begin to feel like I want to be. I don't want my entire life to be defined by this one franchise group that I want to build other. Well. So the easy one was real estate, and then I decided to start a Spanish language school teaching Spanish to immigrants who were building houses here. And the reason I did it is because I found a young man that was getting 60 grand a year running a business that was making 600,000 a year, and he told me. I went through the whole process with him and I got it all figured out in my head and I knew we could do it, and then we launched it at his 06.
Speaker 2:Now in 06, my franchises are very profitable, so I'm making all this money and then like 4 million a year almost, and then so I launched this, risking million bucks for a little bit more. And then boom, the economy crashes. 07, 08, everything. Now my revenue goes down from that 3.5 million, as prior what I've made in 06. And then it drops all the way down to 1.8 million. It's just like dropping off. And while no one should feel sorry for me, I knew that my overhead was 700,000 a month at that point through all my franchises. So in my head I'm thinking oh my gosh, I managed to save 3 million bucks. I make it 3.5. But everything's crashing. And at 700,000 a month, if I've got 3 million bucks, that's only 6 months if I make no revenue.
Speaker 2:So this is the first crash of 2006, 2008. Whole housing market's crashing. My Spanish language school goes to zero because it was all people that were in the trade we were trying to teach English to, so we made a little bit of money. We were just breaking even. I got a million into the thing. I ended up losing a million, three on that. I have to send 300 grand more to close it down and then it's all like hands on deck. We're just holding on, trying to fix things and make some changes and try to treat people well, but everybody's profits are going down and real estate sales.
Speaker 2:But then around 2009, 2010, it stabilized. It's like the blood has been bled. It's not good but it's not bad. And I started looking around. I didn't actually ever lose 3 million. I was worried I was going to lose. I didn't use it, I just had way less. It's right it's down like 60%, but we're still making money, so it's not a bad place to be. So I started dabbling back in the market in 2009. I go in bigger in 2010 and 2011. Just start buying. This is a pretty nice. And I spent every dollar I had and I leveraged up everything I could. And then the market. I thought the market would be down for a long time because it was such a bad situation, but then the government started putting money in and at that moment my franchise is recovered. And then all the new stuff I bought came up and suddenly I was a wealthy man. That's what changed me at that moment. That changed my economics. But all of that was built on just that mindset of constantly learning, constantly evolving and just constantly taking risks.
Speaker 1:And going through these failures too. Like you could have saw that million dollar loss and been like dude. I am so done with this. I don't want to take any more of these losses. I'm just going to collect what my business makes. I'm going to try and stay safe, and let's just go and do a turtle shell and stay safe for the rest of my life. But you didn't. You continued to take risks and you continued to try and build after that point. David, at this point right now, what is your current net worth?
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably. It's hard to say because I haven't evaluated it since the downturn I was getting close to 200, but now I'm probably back to 180 years.
Speaker 1:Oh, 180,000? No, Right, around $180 million. So now that we've gone through a good part of your story, this is where I really want to dig in. I know we've got probably around 15 more minutes here, but I want to know what is your current outlook on money, when you have this huge net worth and the amount of capital and leeway that you have with money? What do you view money as? Is it something that is hard to get? What do you use it for? Is it a thing to you? Because I've heard it's not a thing to these people who have tons of wealth? It's not a thing, because energy is like.
Speaker 2:money to me is just energy. It's just a store to energy. It's a way to move things forward. It's a way to get things done. It's a tool, more than anything else. It's not. I don't have any fear around it. I don't have any sense of scarcity around it. I actually don't pursue it anymore. It's not my driver anymore. There was a time when I was younger when I thought I wanted to be a billionaire. But I don't. I'm comfortable with whatever it does. I have enough for this lifetime. I have enough to take care of my family. I need to help people out. The money to me is like the blood in society. It's like the blood and it just needs to be respected and looked after.
Speaker 2:You can also look at money as employees. It's the old view. I used to have Every dollar you have. You want to put it for you. When I was coming up, every dollar I had, I looked at it as okay, where can I put this to work? Where it makes me? More comes part of flywheel the money in the system.
Speaker 2:Like you said, you could start off and you could build up to 2000 a month, pass it. Then you could take that and keep reinvesting it If you've got still some work, energy behind it. You can build that up to almost any number you choose. I think with the right knowledge, the right effort, the failures are more important than the successes, because they cause you to reexamine. Yeah so money is just, it's just earned, it's just like a currency. It's a reflection of who you are to some degree.
Speaker 2:If you choose to be a businessman, your business success will be directly related to who you become as a human. Now, that's not to say if you're poor, you're less than because you're not. There's beautiful people out there like mugs meditating in the woods that are probably way higher spiritual evolution. But if you choose to go into business, your business success will be a direct reflection of what you've learned, what mindsets you put in place and who you are. So it's like a feedback you did a great thing you just went to. You've got this sense that I also had, which is just not being too attached, not being too attached to safety or security. Yeah, so money is just energy ultimately. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And being man. It's like this idea of being able to create this type of energy that you can also push out into other people, this stored energy thing. I love how you said stored energy there and how this is what we have created at the time that we have put in, created our initial dollars, and then we use those initial dollars maybe to put it into something more passive. So each that's exactly how I look at the money that I bring in now as well is like I look at George Washington on the $1 bill and I'm like all right, george, or Benjamin Franklin on the $100 bill. I'm like all right, benjamin, I need you to go out and I need you to go do work, but I'm going to go throw you into this single family house and then you go do work with that property man. So I love how you've dug in and like, spiritually, where has your life led to at this point? Because I know you've had some big spiritual realizations.
Speaker 2:Yeah, where are you at? Historically, when I was younger I was a pretty spiritual guy so I was hit traveling around and I smoked a lot of weed in high school and so I had that hey man, peace, love, it's all good an attitude. It worked in with the work ethic and everything else. And then I obviously traveled the world and when I traveled the world I went ashram, tried to find the meaning of life, to see if I could find somebody that was like a guru that would just tell me, oh, this is it. And I never really found that, but I had a really good time looking. But then I also got the work ethic.
Speaker 2:So I got all of that and I built a bunch of financial success and I think a few years ago I just went through a transformation where I began to realize that I knew I could be a billionaire, I could keep doing what I was doing and I was getting tremendous station from that. People really look up to you when you're successful in business. There was a lot going on there but it felt like it was all outside in, not inside out, and I felt like I got away from who I was a little bit when I was younger I was really inside out like love, like can I do a serve? Oh, like Keen were inside. So in the last three or so years I've been really doing a lot of that inside out work again and I've used therapy and some medicines and different things and I don't want to get too much into that. But Now.
Speaker 1:We don't need to give them any ideas.
Speaker 2:But I think it's also timing, like I'm 56 years old, so like I was very ambitious through my 30s 40s, I don't know if I could have built wealth without that ambition. Now I'm not sure you need wealth. There's definitely an argument that can be made that you can just roll through life with high spiritual awareness and have an amazing life. But if you want freedom like real financial freedom, which I wanted, I have to put your head down at some point and grind it out. That's what I choose to do. But today I'm more into opening it up of how can I serve and really who am I and kind of I'm really going through a mindset shift. Mindset shift again is enough, like I have enough.
Speaker 2:I think some of my wealth building came a little bit from scarcity. I need to have more. So I feel safe and I'm trying to really get in touch with that piece as well. It's a beautiful journey. I really enjoy it. I feel more connected to people that I feel more present. I don't know how useful it is to your listeners because, honestly, if this is about freedom and financial success, I make a different space. I just don't really care Right.
Speaker 1:Now and one thing that I have said on this podcast before is like being able to hit financial freedom just from a basic passive income standpoint. So my monthly expenses I wanted to give to $5,000. I got to $7,000. I was like, all right, good, I'm here, I quit my job, I'm done with that I'm doing.
Speaker 1:So much time being financially free put me in the place where I needed to look myself in the mirror every single day and say what do I actually want to do today? What do I want from my life? What do I want from me? Who am I? Who actually is the core of Matt Ammable and that dove me back like down a rabbit hole Ram Dass, all these different spiritual gurus, sad guru, like all these guys that just got me closer and closer into who I actually am and the essence of me. And I think financial freedom is an amazing tool to allow somebody the capability and the opportunity to be able to dive into these different sectors.
Speaker 1:Because when you're worried about money so much and you got to go work the job, you got to go do the thing, it's a lot easier to get caught up in the day to day monotony and get pulled into life rather than living life from the essence of you and just seeing life happening around you. So that's kind of what I wanted to hit on there. What is driving you? Now you mentioned that money is no longer driving you what is the driver in your life? Yeah, so I'm trying to?
Speaker 2:what? Did that guy write that book how to Unfuck Yourself or something? I'm really trying to get in touch with me, like I think you're right. We have such a beautiful opportunity in America to be free and you can take that to any level you want. And there are guys that make a bunch of money, that are still making a bunch of money just in it, and they're just in it from the outside in, which is fine. But I saw it as a trap because I'd set a goal of 100 million and I'd hit it and I was still doing the same activities and I was like I had to look in the mirror one day and say, david, you're, because you said this was your number, but you're acting the same way you were acting before you and that's been a lot of years.
Speaker 2:Some of these mindset changes you have to make in life, they take years. That's what I say is like building a wall with bricks. You got to lay like you might see it when you're laying the first break. You got to get to the 100th break to really get it starting a little bit. And so I'm just deconstructing of what as we try to be better, be present for people, be a better husband, just be a real human, but try to live really in the moment. So that's what turns me on right now, and that sounds weird maybe to your listeners, but when you're driving to the future, all the time which was I was doing I was outcome driven, goal driven, I was master goal setter and would say here's my goal, here's the steps I have to do, and I was doing it and I was killing it. But at some point you're like the ultimate end is that Like. The ultimate end of this moving forward and climbing this ladder? Is you disappear? Maybe you go to heaven, maybe there isn't a heaven? All these different questions, and I just thought for the last part of my life, maybe I'd like to spend more time trying to figure out what's right now, what's here right now, what's true for me right now and that's like a thing, man, it's Michael Singer on Tetsoul.
Speaker 2:Like you said, ram Dass, saad Gura so many resources, just like in business, so many resources show up. So now I'm meditating more, working on my health more, I'm doing cold plunge, I'm doing sauna, like I'm doing a lot more physical things and I was always pretty good at working out. But again, working out was like art, wasn't like as then in South Nile getting into more of the nuances, heated cold water. It was like kryptonite growing up because in my boarding school in England they used horses to go swimming at 50 degree water. So for a lot of my life I hated water.
Speaker 2:I got into the cold plunge twice this morning, once four minutes, then a second time for two and a half minutes, and when I went into the sauna I came out of the sauna finished cold, and it's just because the resources I'm getting now, just like the resources used to say, prospect, talent, prospect for agents, prospect for deals, like prospecting is really one of the keys to success in business like, possibly the most important key is whatever your thing is, get out and do it and find more and more of those opportunities so you can pick the best ones. And so I think the same thing now with health is like now it's all coming to me around. Health and I'm seeing it's looking after this body gives me greater clarity. Meditation, I think, is probably the most important one to being present. Yeah, that's where I'm on now, like I'm on this really big journey of what is present for me, right?
Speaker 1:now and it's weird having the conversations like this and then sitting back into the actual presence of this moment and just seeing myself presently having this conversation. It's amazing. I know you were doing. Are you still doing your yoga?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love the yoga because I was in England for a month. I dropped the yoga like I lost the habit, and I'm back three days now from a 30 day trip. So I did more yoga than I've ever done in the first months of the year in five months in my life. So I probably did 60 yoga workouts in five months. Then I took a month and I tried to keep it going but I lost the thread because we're moving through England and moving and I just wasn't disciplined enough to stay with it. And I just got back three days ago and I've thought about it every single day. I haven't gone once, but I booked my first class for Wednesday, whatever, I think that's tomorrow.
Speaker 2:But I could yeah, it is Good, good man, give back, give back, give that. Life is all about that. It's like picking up, picking up, pick up what you need and then you have. Prospecting is a great one, when you're younger at least and then you break it up and then you drop the habit. But that's what it's all about. And around health too, I'm obsessed with it. You guys can like hit me like a fish, take that honey. His buddy is my next appointment. He just came to the door and it's locked. So he's standing on the sun Speaking of speaking things. Yeah so, meditation, yoga, cold plunge, the sauna, all these things. I think of what I'm interested in Now, so that when I'm sitting with you right now, in this moment, I could be as pressing as possible, right?
Speaker 1:Being here.
Speaker 2:I'm kind of a compulsive behavioral, which is we all pick it up your phone, compulsive behavior. You want to out the compulsive behavior and come in. That's what I'm working.
Speaker 1:And be here now and we'll jump into our final two questions that we've got here so you could get to the man at the door. The one thing that I did want to say when you were talking about depth there, that all this is going to end. Most of us are afraid of dying. We haven't even stepped into the fact that we're going to die. It's okay. It's the only thing that's guaranteed in life. Most of us are afraid of dying, but we're not scared to not live. We should be scared to not live life rather than being afraid of dying.
Speaker 2:That's the truth. That's the truth. There's nothing to fear about living because you're going to die anyway. So there's nothing to fear. It's going to happen. So we have to reset that mindset and then just not go. Don't waste your precious life, which I do all the time, by the way, this isn't me lecturing you. You say you should waste your life because I do it all the time too, when I'm playing stupid game on my phone instead of being present. And it's okay, I'm not trying to be perfect. There's so much to offer in life. It's so beautiful and it's like, yeah, and we spawned.
Speaker 1:That's it. That's it. I'm going to just dive into the final question that I always ask, and this is what is one question that you wish I would have asked, or a topic that you wish I would have covered, and how would you have answered that question or how would you have expanded on that topic?
Speaker 2:I think what I feel right now is true is that we are all I always hate to say this because it sounds weak, the old me doesn't like it but we're all built around a coral loop. Something happened in our childhood, some level, and it doesn't really matter how you show up in life. That wound that you're compensating for is manifesting. The exterior expression of your life, and that's what I'm really looking at too is like what's that core wound for me? And then what's hard about it is not like it's not a beautiful little bubble on it. Oh, go, work hard or go prospect, and in your cold plunge it's actually really a more tender spot.
Speaker 2:Something happened to all of us. We made decisions around what happened and I think the more we can get in relationship with that kind of part of that inner child at some point, the more happy it or present. So that's a piece that I don't think we touched on a lot. I definitely don't want to go there now because I'm not ready for it, but it's a well-grain curse land trying to deal with. Try to get through as well. So every fight I have with my wife isn't me and my wife fighting, it's her core wound fighting with Mike from Chai.
Speaker 1:That was a fascinating man. I love that. We'll have to dig into that in the future. But, David, really appreciate having you on today. Really appreciate the time that I've been able to get from you. Where can my listeners and watchers find you best online if they want to find out more about?
Speaker 2:you GoBundance is a good place to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I've tried not to be online too much anymore, part of this new shift. I think I have DavidOsbornecom. I wrote a book. Wealth Can't Wait. They can read. I wrote that right in the heyday of making money at the agency.
Speaker 1:Go check it out, guys. Gobundance DavidOsbornecom. Wealth Can't Wait the books. Go check them out. David really appreciate you. And from the Financial Freedom Fast Podcast, I'm your host, matt Amobile. Today we add on DavidOsborne and we are signing off.
Speaker 3:Thanks for listening to the Financial.
Speaker 1:Freedom.
Speaker 3:Fast Podcast, the show that teaches you to buy back your time and live life on your terms. Be sure to subscribe to this podcast wherever you're listening, and follow us online at Matt Amobile. It's Matt AMA B I L E. Be sure to tune in Monday, wednesday and Friday for our weekly podcast drops. Thanks for listening. Let's retire together.