In todays episode of #RitterOnRealEstate we sit down with Damion Lupo. Best-Selling Author of a dozen books on personal finance, investment and retirement strategies, Damion is on a mission to free 1 million people from financial bondage.
He hosts the Financial Underdogs podcast, ripping conventional wisdom apart for the Main Street investor looking for truth about money and investing. Not only has he started 50+ companies, he even founded his own martial art, Yokido®. Damion developed the ultimate investor retirement tool called the eQRP®. His strategy gives individuals total control of their retirement money to invest in real assets like real estate, gold, and crypto.
Key Points From This Episode:
- The importance of trying new things and failing.
- Defining your mission (mission over money)
- Freeing 1 million people from financial bondage.
- Living life with purpose and developing true passion
- Eliminating negative elements from your everyday life.
- Mindset over systems.
- Taking control and building self responsibility.
- Overcoming a victim mindset.
- How to decide where to allocate your money.
- Self managing your retirement.
- Only compare yourself to your potential.
- Detoxifying your life.
- Slowing down and understanding the greatness of stillness.
Books mentioned:
- Mastery By George Leonard
Transcript:
[00:00] DL:
When you take money out of the equation that gives you your time. That’s the whole point of owning the money game is that you get your time to figure out your purpose and then live your purpose.
[00:00:08] KR: Intro
Welcome to Ritter on Real Estate, the show about how to passively invest like a pro. On each episode, I interview real estate experts who give their top investing advice, strategies, and tools that break down the insights into practical steps to avoid the pitfalls and make better investments. I want to help you passively invest like a pro. This is Ritter on Real Estate, and I’m your host, Kent Ritter.
Hello fellow investors Welcome to another episode of Ritter on real estate where we teach you how to passively invest like a pro. Today, my guest is Damion Lupo and Damion is the bestselling author of a dozen books on personal finance, investment and retirement strategies. He’s on and he is on a mission to free 1 million people from financial bondage and I that’s exciting. I’m excited to dig in and out I want to know a little bit what bestselling financial bondage is, and hopefully I’m not involved in any of that. He also hosts the financial underdogs podcast, which is ripping conventional wisdom apart for the mainstream investor looking for truth about money and investing and he started over 50 companies and even founded his own martial art called YoKido. Damion’s developed the ultimate investor retirement tool called the EQRP and his strategy gives individuals total control their retirement money to invest in real assets like real estate, gold and crypto. Awesome Damion. Great to have you here today and excited to dig into all this. I mean, there’s Yoked so many things to cover here. 50 companies? That’s, that’s pretty impressive. I think. I think I think that’s the top I’ve heard.
[00:01:44] DL:
Right, first off, thanks for having me and, you know, the people that are that have more companies than that. Either they, you know, they counted each one of their baseball cards as a company or their name is Richard Branson. I mean, it’s, you think about launching companies running companies. It takes it takes time and it takes energy and it’s not something you just you know, you don’t launch a company every week or every month, you have to be willing to kill companies when they don’t work and that’s, that’s one of the reasons that I can see I’ve done 50 companies, because some of them came and went and sometimes that happens in a matter of, you know, three or six months and it’s, you have to be willing to do that some people hold on for years, and they should have killed that baby. But
[00:02:25] KR:
Yeah, Well I think that’s a that’s a great tip and great lesson learned and, yeah, I mean, excited to have you here. So yoked give us a little bit of background on yourself, you know, help folks understand who you are, and how you’ve got to be here today.
[00:02:39] DL:
Well, before the show, we were talking about how the first time when we met was back in Nashville, and it was at a live event and yoked that’s if you want to know who I am, I’m the guy that just gets on planes, and I, I hustle and I build and I learn and I make mistakes. I’ve been doing this forever. I mean, it’s yoked always funny, the overnight success stories that have two or three decades of bruises, and then pack them up. That’s the foundation and I’m no different it was it was really just going out there and, and, and trying things and then realizing that they don’t work the first or second time and third time, fifth 10th time and so, I did that stuff. I went to college and did that thing and got thrown out of school because I started a bookstore that put the bookstore on campus out of business. This is like before Amazon put all the bookstores out of business, I just I wasn’t smart enough to be Jeff Bezos and I, I didn’t see it. I mean, I was just too young and inexperienced and but that was part of the process of doing things that were edgy and actually got invited to leave school. They said, we don’t like the fact that the Pete the people, they sell paper and pencils cannot stay in business. I’m like, Yeah, but they’re ripping everybody off. So that was that was kind of fun to be able to say Well, hey, you know what, that’s cool.
Did my thing paid for school in a week and then I left? And we then from there, I just I started going out there and try things and I think that that’s one of the missing elements for we people, passive investors and entrepreneurs.
They don’t go and try things. They just study things. They just think about it. They just look online and look at everybody else’s Blinky shiny objects, and you gotta go out there get muddy and muddy and bloody, and I just got muddy, muddy or and bloodier than most people, which is why I have 50 plus companies why I made 20 million, build a $20 million portfolio last eight plus five started over, we made the fortune and it was just it was being willing to look like an idiot.
And be willing to face myself in the mirror and go you were an idiot. You were I call myself a complete douche in the 2000s because it was just a money driven adventure. So, if you want to know part of the experience, it was more is more and better.
Now more. It’s just more and it’s and back then it was never enough. A million was 1 million, 2 million was multi million and then you know, just like the problem I see with a lot of people is they don’t have a mission and that’s where I really there’s a big difference with what I do and what my company does and, and the culture around a mission versus the culture around more money like I would look at if you If you listen to Grant Cardone, I love a lot of what he does. But what I hear a lot of most of the time is money, money, money, if it’s in your pocket, it’s meant to be in my pocket and I was like, yeah, that’s that doesn’t really resonate man like, well, you know, what’s the service? Like? What are you doing to make lives better? And I think that that’s the question we have to really start with.
[00:05:17] KR:
Yeah, no, I think that’s a great point, I think you’ve got I mean, a lot to unpack even there. Right; The well idea of just well getting started, I love that idea. I mean, we talked about I talked about on this show kind of improving through iteration, right, you’re just you got to get started, you got to keep moving and that’s how you get better. Right, versus like you said, study and study and read and watch other. So, I think great lessons learned there, I think great lessons learned around having the mission to drive yourself forward. So, your mission now is coming on to, you know, through all these companies, and through the last 2030 years, your mission now is to free a million people from financial bondage. So, what does that mean?
[00:06:04] DL:
That here’s the deal, like, right now, money is modern day slavery and so, what, and I say that, because its keeping people enslaved in shackles, it’s, it’s really scary to think about how we work for money. That’s our focus, it’s, and then we and then doesn’t matter how much we make, we need to make more like that is modern day America, it’s Western civilization and it keeps people trapped because they’re buying things, they can’t afford on debt that they really shouldn’t be taken out to impress people that don’t care about them with things that are appreciating, like, it’s a crazy cycle, and then all of a sudden, you die. So, I mean, this this is, I mean, it’s like being in solitary confinement, in a weird way, and then you eventually just died there, and nobody really cares. You just, you know, like, I think we have to start really looking at a kind of everything. It’s not just about making more money in passive income. It’s, it’s about, it’s about becoming free of going out there and focusing all your time and effort for money and then asking, what are you doing here? Is it just to get more money to go buy more shiny objects? Or is there is there some purpose, I had a conversation with a doctor, psychologist, years ago, at night psychologist who is a chiropractor, but he was like a coach for fur-suits kind of psychologist and, and I said, you know, I’ve got this philosophy. I mean, Aristotle, we think the same. I was basically borrowing Aristotle, and I said, the purpose of life is happiness, because that’s what Aristotle said and Dr. Freda said, that is not the purpose of life. I was like, really? You’re telling me Aristotle was wrong? He’s like, yeah, I go, dang, man, you got some balls. He goes, purpose of life is purpose. What is your purpose, it’s not just to be happy, because there’s gonna be plenty of times where it’s gonna be a struggle? I’m like, Man, I’ve had a lot of those. I still have the I was today; you know that there’s always a goal and so, we’re not meant to just be in this hedonistic state of joy and bliss, and orgasm, and whatever it is. We’re meant to be going through something on purpose for a purpose and I went through all that all the blame, and that the Ferraris and Lamborghinis and the houses and the women and everything else, that wasn’t necessarily the purpose, that was a learning opportunity and it was fun. But it created a shallow version of a human being and that’s one of the things that people have to start with, what the hell am I doing? Why am I doing it? That’s probably the biggest thing that we need to start with.
[00:08:15] KR:
Gotcha. So, this, this goes much deeper than I originally thought, honestly and I like that because it’s this idea of living life with purpose and developing a mission. Right, and understanding that mission and understanding that when you so when you say free from So, financial bondage really, at the root level, it’s freeing yourself from this mindset of this need to accumulate like accumulate more and accumulate things and prove yourself to others through the like the keeping up with the Joneses, Joneses mentality, right; And, and so it really starts with mindset.
[00:08:55] DL:
It is a mindset, it’s a mindset of gratitude, where you actually grateful for what you’ve got, and when you want more, nothing wrong with more. The question is why though, like, you want a bigger house to prove it to somebody, you want a bigger house, because you all the crap that you’re buying doesn’t fit. You want a bigger house, because you actually want to have a studio where you build something, you create something where your purpose is on fire, you want to have a space for your kids, where you’re actually able to connect with them, versus them leaving going somewhere else. Like what being very purposeful about your environment, the people that are around you, I have a thing that I do. It’s called the peak life. It’s PEEC. It’s the it’s the people, the environment, the experiences and the contribution and most people just think about the security piece, which isn’t even on the peak life. There’s like, I need money, and I’m safe. What in the world, trust me, there’s no amount of money, they’ll make you safe? None. I’ve had people come to me and they have millions of dollars, and they’re afraid they’re afraid they’re gonna lose it because they don’t know how to build anything and they’re not focusing on contribution. They’re just focusing on if I have money, I’m going to be safe and safe? i look at them and I go, you’re never going to be done. It’ll always be afraid and so, you have to start looking at again. Back to this this whole this bigger picture. Why are you doing this? What is the purpose? Are you are you just bored? Like and being if you’re just bored is more money to actually fix it? Or do you need something that it creates fulfillment and contribution is such a big part of that and having the right people in your life getting rid of the naysayers and the being scarcity minded people. Sometimes that’s getting rid of family. It’s brutal, but there’s a purge in the people. That P stands for purge as well as the people, you got to purge the crap, you got to purge the people that are meant to be in your life or shouldn’t be in your life and people like Well, does that mean I get rid of my dog or my wife? Or like, what do I do? Like sometimes you got to get rid of things that are and people are really close, but they’re not serving you like would you keep a dog if they kept biting your neighbor’s kids? Now you’ve heard that thing. Same thing with people that are closed, they can screw up our entire lives because of osmosis, we take on their energy, their belief systems, their integrity, their what view on abundance, and scarcity and wealth and, and everything. So, I just think most people are zombies. They’re not being conscious. They’re not. They’re not they’re not sitting still long enough to actually say, what is true right now? They’re just going through motions.
[00:11:03] KR:
Yeah, I mean, you’re, you’re So, hitting a chord for me for sure. So, my word for the year is, is intentionality, just be being intentional in everything that I do and, and I totally understand what you’re saying, because it’s so easy to get caught up in this just go So, go, you know, have to be doing more have to be grinding have to be achieving, you have to be hitting goal but so, doesn’t really matter. Because you got to be on to the next goal, right; And the whole time you’re accumulating things and accumulating things and that’s supposed to add value or, or happiness, right; And at the end of the day, none of that really does. Right; So, so it’s about, yeah, changing this mindset, changing this mindset and then having the tools. As you change your mindset, I think to then deliver on it sounds like that, that peak system is something that helps you kind of define the steps to take to do this right;
[00:12:04] DL:
Well, and your part of part of the vision that that’s part of every it’s integrated to every so part of a peak life, there’s got to be a vision. I mean, that’s your what pulls us it’s our NorthStar this vision for something bigger in the future than the past and doesn’t mean more, it just means bigger, it means more profound, it means more important and, and I you know we got it, you got to start with this vision and NorthStar let the let the tools sometimes find their way into your life. I think a lot of times people go well; I have the right system and I studied with a guy named Van Tharp, who is the traders coach, he lives in North Carolina and he’s well; like the best in the world at what he does and when we used to train together, he would he would talk about the success of a trader, and this is a trader and investor, a business owner, but especially investors, he said, most people go focus on the system. They say, okay, this and we’re talking to tools, you go to go to an event, you get some tools, you’re like, I’m set, I’m gonna go make a billion dollars, that’s actually about 5% of the success. So, if you look at the, your whole, the whole likelihood that you’re gonna be successful, there’s 5%, that has to do with the system, or the business or the investment. The next about 10% is So, the position sizing, how much are you risking on whatever you’re doing? And the other 85% is your psychology and what the problem is people like psychology that’s Whoo, that’s, that’s just like, I don’t have time for that I need tell me how to make money. Do I invest in Dogecoin? Or Bitcoin? Like, you’re just trying to figure that out? That’s not the right question. The question is what’s going on in your head? what’s So, your belief system, what’s because that’s going to drive those decisions, it’s going to drive which tools you pick, it’s going to drive the people you engage with the people that you decide are going to be clients or customers or tenants or vendors. So, we So, tend to miss the entire point, but it’s more fun, because all the systems are like Oh, if I just do this, I’ll make an extra 1000 bucks for $10,000 and it doesn’t make any difference because it’s the lottery. You’re just gonna get it and give it away. Yeah, you get the mind right do the psychology is the thing that matters and people skip it.
[00:14:00] KR:
Yeah, man, I think that makes a ton of sense. Because if you’re you know, at the end of the day if you’ve got it goes back to why are you doing it at all? So, you have these tools you have these systems you’re doing it but so, why and then how do you know when you have enough and when do you stop? Right; And when do you know when so to pivot and so when do you know when you know when this thing starts to start? It’s going to take taking over this thing like you’re spending too much time over here and you’re losing track your family or vice versa, you know, I think no I think it all starts with mindset and that’s a really good way to approach it. How do you so you so in freeing a million people from so financial bondage, you know how sounds like it starts with mindset. He talked about peak life and some of these things but so but how are you helping people, you know, create this mindset if that’s what it is or what is the program, you’re taking them through and tell so us how we get free.
[00:14:56] DL:
So, program, the way that you get free is program, you take control and you take responsibility. It really comes down to self-responsibility and the so the tool and so we’re gonna get into tools because the tool is filtered by people that are responsible, which is their psychology and their spirituality. People that are victims have really terrible spirits. It’s just, you know, it’s self-responsibility sad, but if you’re over there telling me that the self-responsibility world is, is, is against you and it’s Joe Biden or it’s Donald Trump’s fault, or you’re blaming somebody, you’re basically an idiot, because you can’t control any of that and so, if this shift is when you say, my life my responsibility like Larry wing, it says, it’s your life is your own damn fault. Stop, shut up, stop whining, get a life like that. I love his book titles like brilliant and, and so what we do is we say, okay, where’s most people’s money? It’s in retirement accounts and what are they doing, they’re abdicating responsibility, and they’re playing victim and handing it over to somebody that doesn’t really care whether they win or lose, as long as the fees keep flowing to that advisor, or that firm. So, the EQRP that we created is a tool where you can actually own and control your retirement money, which is what most people are going to rely on for their future and the idea of retirement, I generally hate the idea because most people think I’m done. If you’re done, universe is done with you, it means you’re taking up resources and space, it means you’re probably going to die. Most guys in America die within three years of retiring, you got to have that purpose, that contribution, peace. So, the problem is you can have contribution, but if you don’t have any resources, you’re going to starve to death. It’s like saying, I don’t really care about oxygen. Let me let me ask you that question. When you’re three feet under the under the water, that’s the only thing that matters. It’s like not having any money, take it all away and it’s the only thing matters because you’re really hungry, and you’re really cold and so, the idea is that we say there’s an option if you know about it, called self-directing, and choosing and directing traffic on your money. The EQRP is so, this tool that allows people whether they’re by themselves, whether they have a company with 50 people or whatever, it allows them to take control, invest in things like real estate, gold, crypto, Bitcoin notes, whatever they want. They’re not stuck in the Wall Street roller coaster, because really what that is, is jail when we talk about breaking people out. I mean, Wall Street is jail, if you try to get money out of places like Edward Jones, or TD Ameritrade and this is personal experience. I’m amazed at how brutal they are telling you that this is stupid, you shouldn’t do that risky real estate stuff. They tell you that we’ll get around to when we can. Sometimes that’s 3,4,5,6,8 weeks to get your money. Like it’s just amazing. That system feels like it’s their money, and you’re too stupid to have your money. So, it’s so it’s a bit of a war. Like it’s a war it’s called freedom versus tyranny.
[00:17:27] KR:
Man, I get it, I get it. It’s, uh, you know it, but it’s the but it’s what we’re all taught, right; Its conventional wisdom is you, you put it into your 401k and you let it sit there and you build and you save, and you save and you build, right and you, you, you retire, and then you enjoy life when you’re 70 and hopefully you run out of money before you die. Right; or hopefully you don’t run out of money before.
[00:17:54] DL:
yeah, I mean, there’s always that concern. But before my dad died, one of the things that he was really concerned about was that he was going to become a burden to his kids and he got sick with cancer and I, our mindset can keep us alive or it can kill us, we can literally choose to die and die. But had this happen when his wife, he and his wife died without seeing the other one die. So just imagine that, you know, somebody’s going to die, and you lay down next to them and you die in our minds and so, my dad didn’t want to be a burden. So, he, I think he pretty much accelerated his death, because he didn’t, because he was running out of money and that’s where most people are. They’re, they’re afraid they’re going to run out of money and you don’t have to do that. But you have to do the work and work. It’s like a fragging four letter word anymore. It’s like work. I don’t want to work. I want to give it to me.
[00:18:38] KR:
You want it done for you? that’s done for you
[00:18:41] DL:
Yeah, yeah, that’s never gonna be freedom. That’s, that’s, you know, if you want that plan, go talk to Bernie and AOC they get they got a plan for you, but you’re never gonna be free.
[00:18:49] KR:
So, the idea is, is just like anything else, you’ve got to have accountability for yourself, you got to take ownership of your future and you do that. You’re saying one of the best ways to do that, because where is most people’s money in their retirement accounts is taking control of your retirement account, right;
[00:19:05] DL:
Yeah and stop listening to The Wall Street Journal. Kiplinger, CNBC, Jim Kramer, all these people, these institutions, your financial advisors, and most So, financial advisors are honestly criminals, because they’re not really putting people’s interests ahead of their own there and why do I say that? Do I think that they’re all bad? No, there are great people out there. But what the problem is, they have a sales pitch and I love salespeople. I love being sold because I’m a salesperson. I love that. But I would have a problem with is when somebody calls themselves an advisor and then they say dumb crap, like, ooh, I don’t know, let’s So, not put any more than 5% in that risky thing called real estate. Let’s keep it in mutual funds. I’m like, you’re aligned, you’re not in alignment, all you’re thinking about is having passive income advisor so they can go golf. That’s not really in the best interest and that’s, there’s a lot of games that are played so I just have a hard time with the system. You’ve got to stop listening. You say conventional wisdom. It’s kind of it’s like conventional delusion. It’s not even like there’s either Wisdom, what is the wisdom around giving all your money away to somebody and saying, okay, please feed me to death and when I wake up, I’ll actually make 2 or 3% of my money compounded. You’ll make more than that and I’m not I’m not free, but you are free because you all my all the fees if I paying you, that’s a system that’s built for the system, not for the people.
[00:20:18] KR:
Right. Right. Yeah. I mean, I think it makes total sense. I think it’s something that that, you know, just through okay, like you said, through marketing and sales, it’s what’s become what’s normal, right; It’s what’s pushed through okay our companies, right; invest in your 401k. Hey, we’ll even match it. Right; Well, we’ll give you some extra money. But so okay he, if EQRP is okay one of the vehicles to do this. Right. So, you decide you’re going to do it, you’ve got the vehicle. But now you’ve got to decide hat like where do you put your money? How do you allocate your money? So how does somebody go through and make that decision?
[00:20:57] DL:
So, this is where it’s funny, because people will say, what’s the downside? Because you’re like, I love my products, because I said, I went out there and built this thing based on what I saw was missing in the market and they go, well, what are the cons? I was like, okay, well, let me tell you the cons are if you’re reckless, or you’re freak in scared of your shadow, this is a bad idea. Because you’ll never do anything because you’re in charge. Like you can do whatever just about anything you want and the problem is you can do anything you want. So, if you think oh, it’s a good idea to go buy a Ferrari with my 401k. It is the Ferrari of 401 K’s but don’t go buy a Ferrari with your 401k, you could do that you could literally go write a check and disqualify your plan.
So, it’s mini cons are, it’s not meant for somebody that’s a victim, they’re going to do something that they’re going to blame, they’re going to blame me, they’re going to blame their dog, they’re going to blame the Congress or the IRS, or whatever that like they’re not going to own it. So, this is not this is definitely not for everybody. This is for people that are savvy and so, want to be sophisticated. You don’t have to be sophisticated, you got it, you got to be willing to do the work and it’s funny because it actually filters out a lot of people, when I say you got to be willing to be doing the work and I heard a great i think i think this was I forget who said it, but it maybe is Bert Dolman. He said years ago, he said, look, if you’re going to go out there and you’re gonna learn how to be an investor, you got to look at it like college, you’re going to spend at least $100,000, probably like 200 on the experience, which means losses and training and everything else and it’s going to take four or five years and people are like,
what, man,
I want to be financially free in five minutes. If it’s not five minutes, and I’m out and that’s the problem. People are impatient, lazy and greedy.
[00:22:25] KR:
Yeah, you just have such a positive outlook I appreciate.
[00:22:29] DL:
It is. I think they’re good. I love people. I don’t like zombies and I see a lot of sheeple zombies that are running around and I don’t have any time or energy or respect for them. When I see people that are that are complaining they’re like, look, get away from me because you’re not going to put your cancer all over me and you’re like toxic who’s it’s like Ghostbusters, you got zapped with something. You’ll get rid of them. I don’t want that anywhere near me and they ought to be embarrassed. If you’re bitching about your life and you’re not doing something about it. You I’d be embarrassed. Well, I don’t know what to do. Doesn’t matter. Go do something, learn from it get better grow stronger. That’s how you learn by going and doing. You don’t get stronger by looking at the gym. You go pick something up,
you do something.
I’m a fifth-degree black belt in martial arts. I didn’t I get that because I read a book or went to a seminar. I spent 20 years 20,000 hours studying, doing it bleeding, breaking, scrapping and scraping. Like that is how it’s done. People don’t know how to hustle anymore. It’s one of the things I like about Grant Cardone, man, that dude, hustles he’s 60 years old, he’s out hustling and so, you know, if you want to describe me, it’s, I just I know how to work my ass off and hustle and also build things at the same time. So, I’m like killing myself,
[00:23:35] KR:
No, that’s awesome. Man., I think you’ve, you know, yeah, you hit the nail on the head, right; There’s just you’ve got to have a level of accountability and, and if you’re not, but if you’re not willing to take responsibility for your own, like financial future, then like, what’s more important than that? I’ve taken a hit. If you’re going to take responsibility for something right, take Man., responsibility of your financial future, put it in your hands, spend the time to educate yourself so you can make good decisions and, and use Man., a vehicle that allows you to invest in more than just Man., stocks. Right;
[00:24:14] DL:
It I always like to get back to what Forrest Gump said, because he’s saying what you said and I mean, Forrest Gump smart guy and he who’s sitting on that, but
[00:24:21] KR:
He’s a billionaire. I’ll take it.
[00:24:23] DL:
Yeah. Well, I mean, honestly, I think in reality would have been he, he, there’s a scene where he’s sitting on his bench and somebody said, well, what do you do? And he’s always talking about shrimping or something and then he mentioned, yeah, I bought this little fruit company and, you know, then I just, it was just, it was just one less thing to think about and it was because he went out there took action, he bought apple. I mean, that movie was in the mid-90s. So, in reality, if you got out there and bought a pile at Apple in the early 90s, or whatever, I mean, you probably are totally set for life and that’s just taking action and it doesn’t mean you’re going to be right. It just means you need to be growing the whole time and so, the point of all that was that when you take money out of the equation that gives you your time. That’s the whole point of that owning the money game is that you get your time to figure out your purpose and then live your purpose.
[00:25:10] KR:
Yeah, and that’s the opposite of how most people think, right; That’s kind of where we’re going around saying is most people it’s accumulate Money, money, money, really, the mindset needs to be, you need to, you want to accumulate time, or you want to free your time you want to give yourself I mean, that’s our most limited resource, right; It’s the only thing that we can’t get more of his time and by creating, you know, whether it’s streams of income, or you know, businesses and things that allow you to have that financial freedom, that then ultimately give you that time, right, give you that time to do what you want to do and pursue what you want. But you’ve got to have a clear vision, right; Otherwise, what’s it all for?
[00:25:52] DL:
More! That’s what most people that’s their What’s it for is more. Yeah, and it’s never enough and there’s always somebody like you can always compare yourself to somebody, the only person that you should compare yourself and I say, should I say that very intentionally, because that’s, that’s your focus this year, very intentionally. It’s who you should, you should only be comparing yourself to your potential. Because at the end of your life, the worst-case scenario hell on earth is sitting in your last your bed, wherever the last breath and looking out and seeing the man that you could have been, right; That’s how on earth, and that’s why you only need to you worst-case only must focus on your potential. You’re not comparing yourself to Oprah or Michael Dell, or Ilan or anybody else, because that’s not you and that’s stupid, right; Frankly, it’s just a dumb, dumb move. So, what’s your potential? If you’re not living up to that you’ll never be fulfilled? You might make a bunch of money, but you’ll So, know you’ll have success for moments and then you’ll say Now what? Now what is your purpose should always be what? Huh?
[00:26:51] KR:
Yeah, no, right on. So how do people start to, you know, so they’re hearing you today? They’re like, Man, this makes a ton of sense. I’ve, I’ve been focusing on the wrong things, right; How do people how do you start? Like, where does somebody that’s saying that? Where do they start? How do they start to change their mindset?
[00:27:11] DL:
I think the first thing you have to do is look in the mirror and the mirror is So, your life. It’s you know, did you are you proud of your life? Is it? Is it what you would if you if you blank, slated, I this is thing I did when I’ve moved a lot? And so, when I moved into a new place years ago, in Austin, I walked into this place, and I was about to marry myself and all my crap for my legacy, you know, years of accumulating, and I said, wait a second, what do I actually want in here? Like if I was to start from scratch, because I am it’s big, open space, what I want here, and you know what happened, me and my U haul truck went to Goodwill and gave away almost everything I had, because it was just being dragged along. Like the people in our lives, like Unfortunately, many spouses, man, this is gonna be like the show that promotes divorce. But the truth is, if you can stop and say blank slate time, like let’s wait say, if I started with nothing, no people, no stuff, no house and whatever. What would I intentionally bring into my life? And that’s, and that’s the first thing. We tend to just go with whatever is because of momentum, it’s a bias towards the past. Our future tends to be a replication. It’s like Groundhog Day. So, we’re like a bunch of sheep zombies doing Groundhog Day on a merry go round. This is terrible. It’s not a good idea. But that’s what most people are doing. So, you start by purging by blank slating and then while your blank slate, then you say, okay, I’ve actually got people in my life that need to not be in my life and he’s not started. So, what do you what do you do to start an open space? How do you open space? You get rid of the crap that shouldn’t be there?
[00:28:36] KR:
Yeah, you stop worrying about accumulation.
[00:28:39] DL:
Right, yeah and toxic and toxic people. I mean, it’s truly people. It’s funny, you know, what’s more dangerous, a bunch of junk because my dad was a classic, classic. He was like a world class hoarder. I mean, they kind of they would create a new show about because he was so good at it. Yeah and I go, okay, so that’s one thing. But truly, what’s more important, what’s more empowering or devastating is the people that are around you and people are so afraid of saying, no, thank you and they just continue to have relationships, and you’re going to end up having a relationship at the least common denominator level. So, whoever’s got more energy, who’s got more focused, more vision, that’s not the person that it’s like, we don’t rise to the challenge, we default to the level of our training or our stupid friends and you got to be willing to say no more and that’s how you own your life. You get rid of the crap. That’s, that’s toxifying it.
[00:29:27] KR:
Yeah. Now and that, that brings a lot of tough decisions, right. I think those are a lot of the decisions that that people don’t want to make. Right and so, you just, you just continue moving forward, just continue pushing forward. Because that’s a hard thing to do to say, Man, you know, this person really isn’t good for me. I have to cut them out.
[00:29:46] DL:
I was the one that got cut out. I noticed like, like, it’s I don’t feel good and so, I you know, when I do, it’s very intentional. It’s very thoughtful. It’s not it’s not sometimes what’s interesting though, is when you cut somebody out, you’re opening space for them to and it may be a space for a lesson it may be for the right type of person that will inspire, empower, bring them up, because we have to look around it and ask ourselves, are these all healthy? These relationships, business, personal love relationships and the reality is, there’s definitely stuff in our life that probably should be there and so just being honest about that you’re giving a gift to the other person to so I’ve been I’ve been eviscerated, I got eviscerated by my best friend 10-year relationship, and then just like literally favor and now. I mean, it’s brutal and I still to this day, don’t know how or why that happened and I think it was my give at best guess is he was in a phase where he’s ready to move in and focus completely on his new wife and he didn’t want to have any distraction and 10-year I accepted it without any real certainty or confirmation. Yeah, sometimes you just have to let go of knowing you just say, okay, I’m going to trust, it’s not the knowing it’s the trusting, it’ll, it’ll say free in all sorts of ways when you can move into that space, it’s a different level of, of freedom.
[00:30:59] KR:
Yeah, absolutely. You know, something that, that you just, you made me think of, I mean, you’re talking about relationships, but I think the same thing goes with jobs to have, like, you know, um, you know, we’re not, so when I was a corporate executive, you know, we had to fire people, and it’s not a comfortable thing to do, right; It’s not something that you ever want to do, a lot of people avoid it for, for a long time. I mean, it’s the same thing, like you have a you have a person at work that, you know, is cancerous, right or toxic and, but you avoid making that hard decision, because it’s uncomfortable, right. But, you know, I had somebody tell me, one time, kind of similar to what you said, it really, it really opened me up to just feeling good about doing it is that, you know, being at that company, I mean, it’s not good for you, but it’s also not good for them. So, as you said, you know, it creates space.
So, when you’re able to, you’re able to do that, I mean, if you’re, if they’re in a position where you’re thinking about firing them, they’re obviously not performing, they’re obviously not living up to their best potential, the job probably isn’t the right fit for them. So, by letting them go, you’re freeing them up to find an opportunity that is the right fit for them and so, you know, I just, I felt a parallel there, that was something that allowed me to kind of free up my mind to be okay to, to go ahead and do it and fire the person, it’s really the best thing for them.
[00:32:24] DL:
It is and this this goes to when so, people are doing real estate, they’re So, involved in stuff, it’s So, an appropriate conversation to have with yourself, or a mastermind or a mentor, which is I think one of the best things anybody can do. You’re like, what do I do first thing, go get a great mastermind or mentor or something, somebody that that you’re paying to reflect back to you, I, you know, there when you’re in partnerships, or you have, you have certain investors, there are people that you should not have in your life, like I had a partner 20 years ago and what I should have got is a dog, because all I really wanted was companionship, and I ended up giving away half my company that he stole 5 million bucks.
So, you know that that’s the kind of dumb crap we do. When we’re not emotionally there. We don’t have self-respect for ourselves, the psychology piece, we talked about the beginning, if you don’t have that straight, you’re gonna go you’re gonna go to getting a golden retriever, you’re gonna end up getting a toxic, toxic criminal as a partner. So, like, it’s it. This is the kind of stuff that people don’t think about. They’re like, I need a partner, like, right, need a partner, you need a partner, you need a friend, go get a therapist,
[00:33:30] KR:
Or a dog!
[00:33:31] DL:
Or a dog, but I mean, at least the therapist doesn’t crap on your floor. So, I mean, you know, maybe there’s, I guess there’s benefits the both of them, but they’re both ways better than a bad partner.
[00:33:40] KR:
Right. Right. Yeah. I mean, I mean, partnerships are something that, I think in real estate, especially can ways be entered into, just too quickly, you know, I see a lot of people me and partner right away and it’s something that should really be looked at, like a marriage, right; It should be taken with the same level of, say, just the same level of like rigor and review before you, you decided to make that leap on your theory
[00:34:07] DL:
That there’s dating involved like, you’re 100%
[00:34:10] KR:
Yeah, you got a date?
[00:34:11] DL:
Yeah, I’ve seen the same thing and people like, oh, yeah, we met at this conference and now we’re partners and I’m like, y’all getting married after one weekend, like that generally is a bad idea. Like how did you know anything about anything? Yeah, well, we had a good time I’m like you Tony Robbins event? Of course, you feel good. What’s wrong with you? Like that’s a bad idea?
[00:34:29] KR:
Absolutely, man. Well, this is this is a great conversation, but not exactly where I thought we would go I thought we might dig into like some technical things about an EQRP but, but I love where we went. Because mindset is so important to everything in your life, and it isn’t talked about enough and it isn’t focused on enough. I think, like sometimes I feel like I’m in a bubble. I spend a lot of time focused on mindset. The people that are close to me spend a lot of time focused on mindset, but sometimes I feel like I’m in this bubble. Because when you go out to the rest of the world, it’s like, it’s like, going out and speaking Latin today to people like nobody has any idea what you’re talking about, you know, so Of course, I’m glad that we continue to kind of bring this up and this idea and, and, and just the thought of freeing yourself from Of course, that. Not even freeing yourself from the materialism but more about this idea of living with purpose and understanding your purpose and having that Why! And of course, making sure that that what you’re doing your job or whatever it is, aligns with that right and that’s ultimately how you’re going to be happy.
[00:35:37] DL:
Yeah and along those lines, one of the one of the great things that Steve Jobs said years ago, before he passed away, he made a comment that if you think it was a graduation, I gave a commencement speech or something. He said, if you find yourself too many days in a row, doing something that makes you unhappy or miserable, it’s time to figure out how to make sure that stopping and he was talking about himself and so, you get we get feedback from the universe, from the from God from whatever you believe in, there is feedback and it starts off with a nudge and a wink, and then a little bit of a shuffle, then a push, and then eventually a freight train drives over you if you’re not paying attention, because the universe you it works in profound ways and it’s like people, they show you who they are and if you don’t pay attention and do something about it, they will show you who they are when they land on your head, with their foot and that’s I mean, that’s what happened with so, this old partner I had 20 years ago, he showed me who he was, he was a criminal, criminal intent and so, I just ignored it because I needed a dog and so, I had him and so, then eventually, guess what universe said, Alright, you’re not paying attention. $5 million, is the price tag for you being a dum dum, not Dum actually getting it. We’re trying to give you a warning that happens with our lives, with the people with the jobs with the investments, we do get warnings and if we’re open to being honest, a lot of things can change early, but most of us are ignoring reality.
[00:36:59] KR:
Yeah, I mean, I think most of us are moving too fast to pay attention, right; So how do you slow down to Dum recognize those Dum warning signs or those signs from Dum the universe.
[00:37:11] DL:
It’s an intentional act of stillness. When I wrote reinvented life after my meltdown, after I lost $20 million, and had to start over, I went from 20 to negative five in 12 months, great, great experience afterwards, not during suck during. But when I wrote that book, the last chapter is stillness and there’s an intentional act of stillness, it doesn’t just happen. Like, accidentally, there’s too much noise, too many things flashing at us, you know, you have to wait and watch and all this other stuff like that. But what Dum you can do is and what I do is, is take it, whether it’s a minute, or 15 minutes or an hour, sitting still, whether it’s meditation, or prayer, whatever it is for you and I haven’t like doing it in nature. Because I think nature is the most honest place in our lives. You go out there and you see a raccoon doing something, even when they busted stealing something, it’s honest and they don’t have an agenda. They don’t have a frontal lobe. Like they’re just doing their thing. They’re just very instinctual and so that’s it. That’s a great place to connect and ground in a very different way, and probably take you to different space spiritually. But if we don’t have stillness, I don’t think we really have life.
[00:38:17] KR:
And that I think, I think that’s, that’s where we put a bow on it right there. That’s a great place to end. But before I let you go, I do want to take you through our keys to success round, I have four questions I want to ask you. First one is, what is one question that that every investor should be asking their deal sponsor if they if they only get one question.
[00:38:39] DL:
I want to see all your experience the last 10 years and I want us in that that gives you relevance. Have they been doing what they’re doing for three years? Have they been tied to somebody else’s deal? What have they lost? The scariest thing is somebody that’s never lost anything, they’ve been doing real estate for 20 years sounds like you’d have your lion or you have done anything, because stuff happens and the reason I like it. Now, I would say it’s more like 15 years, because you want people, I prefer to have people that have been through cycles doesn’t mean you can’t invest or work with people that are have been working for the last few years. You just you want some depth to the team. So, I like to have all Ray people around that are part of teams that have been through cycles that have a little bit of experience. That’s just sharing.
[00:39:21] KR:
Sure. Now there’s a lot of value there. What are you most proud of in your career?
[00:39:26] DL:
That I just don’t quit? It’s my inner Winston Churchill. Okay, just, you know, never So, never quit until it’s time to quit and it’s and that’s So, the there’s this really interesting fine line about persevering and wishing left or right. Because sometimes we’re just sitting there beating ourselves into a concrete wall, and we’re never going to go through it and sometimes it’s just one more headbutt that’s going to hurt but it’s going to crack it and how do you know, sometimes that’s just experience, it’s intuition. It’s emotional intelligence and so, it’s, it’s really, when you like watching 50 companies doing all the things I’ve done. I have the ability to see stuff really, really fast. Because I’ve got all these experiences. It’s just natural intuition. If you haven’t done anything, you don’t have any intuition. I mean, your intuition is just based on your childhood, probably that’s not going to help you in deals. So, it’s really about developing that and that’s So, key.
[00:40:17] KR:
Yeah. Now, very cool man. I mean I think you’re, you’re the poster child of perseverance and what books should everybody be reading.
[00:40:25] DL:
There’s a, there’s a book, so I always get thrown off, which is a Principles of Mastery because mastery takes principles and principles is, is a, is what you really need if you’re going to have mastery, and what is mastery and I’m talking about George Leonard’s book not Robert Greene’s and this is the idea here he is a Aki DOCA martial artists like me. He now, way beyond me. He’s a different realm of an everything. He, he talks about mastery in a way where you, you learn how to plateau and embrace it. It may be in the seals they talk about a different way it’s embracing the suck, just like, just, go on go on and it’s a struggle, nothing’s changing and then two years later, there’s a pop and that, that the purpose, the point of mastery is it allows you to break through and go deep with that a focus on mastery that that principle is driving that focus, you’re going to end up bouncing off a lot of things having a very shallow life chasing a lot of shiny objects like a drunk squirrel.
[00:41:20] KR:
I love the imagery. Alright so mastery. That’s what we, that’s the book. Now, who’s it buys again. George Leonard, George Leonard Right on. Lastly, man.
[00:40:25] DL:
Let me, let me give you my affiliate link at Amazon so I get my truck there just…
[00:41:36] KR:
Don’t worry, we’ll put it in the shoutouts and then lastly, what is your number one key to success.
[00:41:46] DL:
I don’t do affiliate links. Now I mean actually, here’s, here’s that sort of funny sort of lead into that, but I’d say notice it almost everything. What I see a lot of people do, doing right now is living for crumbs they’re working for crops. They’re doing too many things they’re not focusing on anything and they’re trying to get a few bucks here and a few, few bucks there and they’re basically struggling, and they will be their whole lives. Where do you make a breakthrough, it doesn’t really matter? It just matters that you focus on something, and how do you focus you learn how to say no and you’re comfortable with it. I was just talking to a girl that I work with and she was struggling because she doesn’t know how to say no so, she has too many clients and she’s dying, maybe just take it on she’s taking on too much and we do that we go oh it’s a shiny object, it’s Dogecoin, it’s, it’s multifamily it’s mini storage. It’s the stock market day trading, it’s like, holy crap, like what do you actually do. Oh, and then I have MLM, and I’m going to I’m going to sell Cutco to, like, and oh and I have affiliate links click here and I make total dollars. Go. Who are you, you’re like, you like go ravaged beast is to focus? So, ultimately, it’s focus? learning the success secret is saying no. Those changes everything. When my stuff went vertical It was after it was right after I said I’m only doing one thing and then I did that thing for about two years. So, it wasn’t like the next day. Oh my gosh. No, was it that he was saying no and then committing, and then doing the action, and then persevering through the plateau? And that changes everything when you pop back, you’re like whoa, this is all of a sudden can easy. It takes time, it takes focus which means say no.
[00:43:14] KR:
Yeah, I think it’s fantastic advice and so, as we wrap things up Damion you’ve shared just a wealth of knowledge, man, if people want to learn more, or they want to get ahold of you, how can they reach you.
[00:43:27] DL:
I think the best, the best way to reach me is Find me on LinkedIn, and if you are known about. Shaking. Shaking, shaking the shackles. If you want to learn how to break the shackles if you’re interested in the EQRP, and you want to understand how to control that stuff. I get a copy of the, of the report I did by texting EQRP to 72,000 and if you want, I’ll send you about to, I wrote the QRP book. So, I actually know what I’m talking about. After multi years of studying the IRS code and it that, which I don’t recommend to anybody, it’s a bad idea, whose brain cells, ignore your hair. So, if you want that just simple text EQRP to 72000 and if you’re like me, find me on LinkedIn.
[00:44:04] KR:
Awesome. Thank you, Damion so much for being here today and bringing so much value to our listeners and I hope you have a great rest of the week.
[00:44:01] DL:
Thanks Kent, appreciate it.
[00:44:12] KR:
Thanks for listening to another great episode of Ritter on Real Estate. Hit the subscribe button to make sure you don’t miss out on the content that will make you a better investor. Also visit kentritter.com for articles, videos and tools curated just for passive investors from next time. This is Kent Ritter with Ritter on Real Estate and go out and invest like a pro.