The Ultimate Guide to Building Resilience: What They Don't Teach You | Erik Rock DSH #645

10 years ago, I tried one speech at the Blagio.

I got one opportunity.

I'll never do that again.

I wasn't born to do this.

That's a story I told myself.

And the people that are good at it, they must be born to do this.

Thought I failed.

My mouth was so dry.

And thank God I was so prepared that I could literally read, hi, my name is Eric Rock.

Point is, it took one person to come in my life to breathe a little self-belief in me and really to you know to get me to a place where I was want to make an investment in myself.

And that's when I went and shattered it.

All right, guys, we got Eric Rock here coming off a 72-hour fast right now.

Yes, 72 hours.

Is that a common thing you do?

Around travel, yeah.

Feel it up.

And I do intermittent fasting almost every day.

Yeah.

So I have one meal a day, three protein shakes a day, and I'll break fast usually around noon.

And you're big on just lifting.

I saw you lifting at what?

Like 5 a.m.

Seven days a week.

Crazy.

I've been doing that since I've been a kid.

I had a few bad years where I got into drugs right out of high school i had two bad surgeries then they prescribed me oxies that was back in the day when that was popular to do yep and it just wrecked my life almost killed me um didn't even recognize myself in the mirror but the gym before that period of time was there for me it sort of saved me even as a child as a 13 year old the gym was there for me and it became the thing i went to when i needed to get healed and so i do it every day like i don't think i could live without it but yeah gym every day and i've just recently last few years stumbled onto fasting which I think is one of the greatest secrets in life that most people don't tap into.

Right.

And there's a lot of subconscious programming.

Growing up, we were taught fasting was actually bad, right?

Totally.

Oh, my three meals a day.

I mean, the whole food pyramid, everything about food that throughout my entire life, I think was wrong from my perspective of what I feel working in my body now.

Yeah.

And you go back and you see all these lies almost you were told growing up, like drink milk every day.

Now they're finding out milk causes.

It just kills me, bro.

Yeah.

Inflammation, yeah.

Yeah.

There's a lot of unlearning.

You can feel it, though.

If you're really sensitive and you be really honest with yourself, you can eat a meal and see how you feel afterwards.

And most food instantly slows me down, makes me tired.

You know what I mean?

Just kind of pulls me back.

It's like almost like gravity.

Yeah.

And the right food, the right meal, and the right food timing, it actually creates energy in me.

Nice.

70% of the American diet is processed foods now.

Did you know that?

That's terrible.

No, I assume that, though.

That's bad for me.

It's chemicals, man.

It's killing people.

Yeah.

And as entrepreneurs, a lot of us neglect health at first.

Of course.

We're just so focused on the business.

Yeah, so I won't work with anyone.

A lot of the work I'm doing now, I sort of built a brand around helping other people.

My mission really challenge people to pull them in the light.

But it's really hard for me to work with someone if they just want to make money because so often when I always talk about getting your house in order.

And when you look under the hood of most people, they have toxic lives.

They're not that healthy.

And I don't even care about making money.

Let's get this right first because this is way more valuable.

There are certain things money can't buy.

And if you can get that right, it really makes you unfuckable with.

And all these other areas that people put a lot of priority.

But health, it's underrated, man.

If you could be the fit CEO, the fittest CEO, it's something I preach, man.

There was, I think, a book called The Corporate Athlete that I read like 10 years ago.

And it just stuck with me that if I was going to be a leader, if I was ever going to be president of the United States, I was going to be a jacked president of the United States.

I love that.

Yeah, it is a turnoff when your potential partner isn't in good shape or they treat people poorly.

Oh, that's another big thing.

Yeah.

Respect and politeness goes a long way.

Being a class act through and through, we're all going to die and you can't take it with you.

At the very end of this thing, man, like, what is it really about?

It's a profound question that you should ask daily.

Yeah.

On social media, you see people saying a lot of entrepreneurs are narcissists.

Have you experienced that in the past?

Yeah, I think, you know,

there's evolutions of humans.

You go through it.

You know, I've reflected so much on my own past and corrected mistakes as I've grown and gotten better.

But the people that I seem to be attracted to the most, that I will put a lot of stock and value into, these are some of the most giving people in the world.

So from my perspective, I know it's out there.

I just don't seem to break bread with many of these types of people.

But I look at old versions of myself.

I'm like, oh man, that was tacky.

Why were you doing that?

Like I can critique my own self and say there were some tendencies that even I had that, you know, as I've gotten closer to God, more as a wholesome human that really believes in my mission, you know, it's really easy to sort of shed some of the materialistic things that don't matter in life.

And I I think early on, we talked about this.

Those may be prevalent when you're chasing money.

That kind of may be the thing that shows first.

But I think as your life starts to get to a place where you start questioning things in the right light, you really shed some of those things.

So I'm attracted to people that are givers, and I don't see a lot of that, but I guaranteed it's out there.

Yeah, that makes sense, though.

Your mentor is Ed Milet, who's one of the biggest givers in the world.

100%.

And you're close with Fleischmann.

Yep, Dan.

And then you know Don Ahern here locally.

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Who's been, you know, he's not in the public light so much, but he's been like a godsend in my life to really see how he treats people.

You know, thousands of employees, you know, massive net worth.

And this is one of the kindest humans in the world.

100%.

He's just such a great human.

Yeah.

He could have charged me because I had an event at the Ahern.

He could have charged me 25K for it, but he didn't charge me.

Wow, that's cool.

Because he saw the mission of what I was doing.

Incredible.

Yeah.

So people like that, they're hard to find, but I think you can attract them with the right energy.

Yeah.

And I've always found like some of these older cats, like so, you know, some of my greatest mentors in my life, they started out as customers of mine.

You know, we were in retail furniture for over a decade, building, you know, brick and mortar businesses.

And

so much of what I learned is I was just in the fire, really not knowing what I was doing,

came from tapping into my natural customer base.

We have some of the most amazing customers in the world.

And I learned so many amazing things throughout the years from these incredible customers.

And every single one of them, there was these incredible lessons that you could pull from if you just asked the right questions, listen.

And some of the biggest sales I've ever had had nothing to do with furniture.

It was because they wanted me to win.

And they could see some of these older guys, especially, they see small pieces of

them and you when they were younger and they want to feed that.

All old guys, when they get to a point, all successful wealthy old guys i'm just going to classify it as something like this if you can can connect with them they'll give you everything they got

and most young people look right past them they don't understand who they who might be shaking their hand or who may be walking in their business i was always a guy that was curious about people and i just ask wow And I can't tell you how many secret millionaires or billionaires are around all these communities where our businesses were that I would stumble onto and I'd, you know, pull all this insane value only because I asked the right questions.

So many salespeople are so transactional that they miss the mark and they judge a book by its cover.

And I learned as a young cat in retail, do not do that.

Absolutely.

I know people that go to Rolex in sweatpants or shorts and no one will even approach them.

Well, and the richest guys, they don't wear watches.

Yeah, they just don't.

There's money in silence.

A lot of billionaires don't even have an Instagram.

Yeah, it's true.

Yeah, there's levels to the game.

I think it's a good tool these days, though, to have.

Yeah, it's a different generation now.

I mean,

there's forces of nature that exist now that didn't exist in the 80s and 90s and if you don't play the game it's going to be really hard to break through because it's just the way it is i mean it's how it's how technology and society evolves but a lot of those you know i say the algorithm of life i always talk about the algorithm of life it's been around way before social media ever started um i think since freedom began there's been this algorithm and if you can learn how to penetrate it it gives you all this unfair advantage in life and for a lot of years most of society actually where freedom existed that algorithm was penetrated by very few.

With social media, what it did is it actually leveled the playing field.

It gave a lot of average guys access to an unfair advantage.

And still, it's a limited group of people that will ever really break through it.

But the range is much greater.

And so you should be pursuing it.

And primarily, again, I'll put...

put mission to it because children are addicted to it.

So

they need a bunch of Sean Kelly's to show up, Eric Rocks to show up, Ed Milet to show up to try to kind of, I think, just combat evil, bring a solid a voice to the marketplace where there's porn and there's all these sort of things that are gripping young mindsets that may not be healthy for society there's got to be good voices that show up there too so again like it's so easy to say well why would I do it I don't want to participate but number one I think you you should and and that you may have to but number two I think that if it's when good men do nothing that evil triumphs and and this is just the technology we're gonna have to figure out how to fight back with right and that that's a perfect segue to the next topic which is being vulnerable right?

So it took me five years to launch a podcast because I was so worried about getting judged.

Yeah.

And now it's the best decision I've ever made.

And I'm sure you dealt with that too, right?

Yeah, man.

So I talk a lot about being vulnerable.

If you're not authentic, especially now as the algorithm, as I keep mentioning, has tightened, I don't think you can really break through.

You're not going to resonate with real humans.

Humanity won't bite if you're not authentic.

And no one wants to show off, a look-at-me person.

You know, if that's all you you do.

There's no real value there.

But being vulnerable is really being relatable.

And those are the things that give you trust in the marketplace.

And people will buy from people they trust.

So the biggest bridge to trust is vulnerability.

I agree.

And I think before you could put it on a show and flex cars and whatever, and it worked maybe five, 10 years ago.

Sure.

But now people have matured.

Algorithm is different.

And you're right.

People are different.

You know,

is the algorithm changes?

Again, it's just this energy field in society.

As that changes, humans change too they adapt quickly so you're big on energy 100 yeah that's cool energy is everything yeah because i know you're religious also so you kind of tie in yeah you know i grew up uh catholic and i i think you know i'm pretty conservative dude just from you know all honesty out here and um a lot of the catholic church i thought there was a lot of hypocrisy in it and just organized religion in general And I don't know, right or wrong, it doesn't matter.

I just sort of pulled away from it as a young guy.

And I think as I'm, now I'm 40, so as I'm sort of like really really thinking about death a lot more and really analyzing what's this life about, what's the meaning of life, I lost some incredible people that I was very close with that really, it changed my perspective on everything.

And I actually started obsessing about death a lot.

But

mission and the work I'm doing now has brought me closer to God than anything I've ever done.

And I do feel like I'm finally full circle with it.

I'm at peace with it.

It's not so much about being organized.

It's more about just giving myself up to a high power.

Wow.

I love that.

Because growing up we're taught through movies through close people dying not to fear death yeah and i think it should be more accepted yeah i think it's part of the process well here's the truth you will not appreciate anything if there's not death we'll take it for granted there you won't appreciate light if there's not dark you i don't think even good can exist without evil i think they're having it's actually a perfect system but the cool part is is is just having faith knowing that maybe something's better that we have no clue about i mean i hope i see my grandma again when i lost her it just crushed me broke my soul when i lost my grandma i hope i see her again and i have faith that i will i have faith that she's with me i feel her all the time when she when she passed away i started seeing hummingbirds everywhere wow even in february in cordlaine where where my home's at um i'd see i saw a hummingbird right after she passed away right at the window And throughout these last, I don't know, handful of years, I'll see hummingbirds in the wildest places.

I just assume it's my grandma.

Somehow there's this something you can't tap into.

And what about this thought?

Like mother nature is, I think, where I'm headed with this topic.

But like, what if God is everywhere?

What if God is mother nature?

Like, mother nature is God.

Like, God is innocence to me.

It's everything that's good in the world is God.

It's just sort of how I've sort of centered my heart with the topic of religion at large.

But yeah, I'm, I give it all up.

I love that.

Nature is so healing, just being out in nature.

It's something entrepreneurs struggle with.

I didn't leave my house for five years.

Really?

When I was on my journey, yeah.

Wow.

Well, I left the house, but not to like go into nature and embrace myself with it.

You know,

I didn't ground.

I didn't do anything.

Like, didn't go on walks.

Amazing.

You've interviewed so many incredible guests.

So much volume of content consumed.

You're like a walking encyclopedia.

At this point, yeah.

I pick up something from each guest, and that's what separates successful people, right?

They actually implement what they learn.

And I saw you talking about this on a podcast because you could read a book, but what percent of people actually take action?

Yeah, I'm convinced too.

Like information doesn't do that much for people because there's so many books out there.

Google's right there.

Now you got ChatGPT.

You have all this access to information, but why aren't people winning?

Like what is it that's really going to make you win?

If I'm in a room with people and I'm really trying to influence them, I'm convinced that information is really not what's going to get them.

But if I can get you to really consider death, to really think about your time here and to get you to a place of self-belief where you're ready to go break something, like just go break something and really put a strong why behind it.

I think that's a better resource to try to get someone to move closer to something that's good for them or their dreams or what they say they want than the information is.

And a lot of that, again, it's energy.

And I'll give one example in my own life.

Ed Milet was a prime example of someone.

Just being near him and making an investment in him.

He didn't really tell me anything I didn't know.

I don't think, I don't remember what he told me when we coached together.

It was more of like who our buddies are, our mutual friends were.

But what I got out of it was sort of the energy off of him and the investment.

So my skin in the game, paired with his energy, it created almost like an unrealistic cannibal in me that was like, all right, fuck it, I'm going to go break something.

Wow.

And I did.

And

for me, I went after right after my greatest fear.

I just nailed it.

I was so afraid of the camera.

All these cameras, I would have never been able to talk in front of this years ago.

The spotlight, any kind of stage, the arena.

Like I, 10 years ago, I tried one speech at the Blagio.

I got one opportunity, and I'll never forget walking off that stage thinking, I'll never do that again.

I wasn't born to do this.

That's a story I told myself.

And the people that are good at it, they must be born to do this because I thought I failed.

My mouth was so dry.

And thank God I was so prepared that I could literally read, hi, my name is Eric Rock.

And that's how I got through it.

I just read what I wrote.

I was overprepared.

But I guess my point is, is it took one person to come in my life to breathe a little self-belief in me and really to, you know, to get me to a place where I was wanting to make an investment in myself.

And that's when I went and shattered it.

Wow.

And again, like, that's the kind of work people should be doing.

Absolutely.

And getting near the person that inspires you, making an investment in it, that alone will get you what you want out of life.

People don't do that, though, but they'll spend money on garbage.

They'll read all day.

Nothing's really happening.

You know what I mean?

But you start going and investing on yourself now you're like fuck did I just spend a quarter million dollars on coaching and I'm not gonna get anything out of this no I'm gonna go break something big I'm gonna be so different next year that no one's gonna fucking recognize me

put your back against the wall and now you're speaking in front of thousands of people every week and I don't stop now you don't stop and I noticed every speech is different you don't have preparation you just feel out the crowd right i'm you know i'm never crazy you say this i don't even know how you know that but i've never said the same speech twice ever always is from my heart.

I always have these unique things that I'll pull from the audience, these reflections that are fucking powerful.

I was in Mexico a few weeks ago speaking down in Tulum, and I'm on stage, and they're playing a, they called it my batter's box song.

The gal that runs the event, awesome chick.

She said, what do you want your song to be?

I was like, I don't know.

I've come out to like a hundred different songs, but no one's ever asked what my theme song is.

I guess I need to have one.

I really started thinking about it.

I was in the gym that morning and randomly on the radio, in the gym at the hotel, was um

it was a ti dead and gone and i'm listening to lyrics and it was kind of the right moment i'm like dead and gone i'm like man there are so many old versions of me that i've just murdered i've destroyed i've killed thousands of old eric rocks like and they're never coming back i was like play that song it just was like kind of divine in that moment so they're playing my song i'm on stage and i'm looking at this audience and the music cuts And like, I could feel my heart because I'm always still, I'm still super nervous.

Oh, it just beats out of me.

But I addressed the elephant in the room.

That's my life hack.

I just addressed the vulnerability and I could feel like these eyeballs twitching at me.

All these people, every row, all the way back, I could feel them just because they could feel my seriousness,

my intensity, and I could feel them like nervous for me almost.

Like just like you could feel the energy and a pen drop.

This is a true story.

The pen drops in the back of the room.

And it was almost like a shockwave of energy came and hit my heart.

And this girl, I just, I'll never forget, slowly goes down to pick that pen up.

And I'm just staring at her.

And instead of addressing whatever I was going to talk about, I was going to bring up the song that I was going to tell that story to break the ice.

I addressed this pen dropping.

And it just came out of my mouth.

I said, what an unfair advantage I have over all of you.

And it was just this, and they're all just staring at me.

And I realized, like, the people that have the courage to step in the light on a regular basis with no...

like no emotional attachment to outcome.

You just do it for the rest of your life.

It's your mission.

And I think it's got to be that way.

You think, and all this flash of people people went through my head, the Warren Buffetts, the Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, just all these iconic people.

And what I realized, every one of these people lived their life in the light.

Even Warren Buffett, you think about it, this guy's been on some kind of stage for 70 years straight, week in and week out.

You don't think of him like that.

You just, oh, he's a great investor, you know, genius investor that broke all records.

We didn't realize, no, he was building a personal brand the whole time.

He was absolute genius.

Yeah, he's on TV all the time.

He'd never end it.

A never ending media machine.

You just don't realize it.

And before before social media, he was everywhere.

And so it's these guys that aren't afraid to be in front of the camera, expose their soul, which to barbarians is what I call them.

Anytime I'm on stage, I always think, these are all the barbarians.

And if I don't say what they like, they're going to stone me to death.

Because that's how it actually feels to a speaker who's up there, who's nervous.

And that's why they say public speaking is a greater fear than death.

I think it goes back to the caveman days, that that's a vulnerable position.

And if you have the courage to do it, you have the courage to risk being stoned to death.

Because in those days, those barbaric times, like you better be a leader that, that said the right thing.

Because if you don't get the crowd to move, like, and I think that ancestral fear is still built into our DNA, that's why so many people are scared of the light.

And so it's those people that have the courage to pursue it.

And I think you got to put a powerful mission to it.

We can't do it for vanity metrics.

But if you put a right mission to it and you just bleed, and it's actually one of my rules.

Like, if I'm going to go out here, I just close my eyes and I take a deep breath.

I'm just going to fucking bleed.

And if they don't like it, they don't like it.

I don't get in my head too much anymore.

I just have simple rules that turn me into a savage in the moment when I'm most afraid.

And what comes out comes out.

And if I prepare, it fucks me up.

I can't do it.

I have to dig so deep in my soul because I'm so scared.

I'm so insecure that it's my way of overpowering it.

And again, like, no one really taught me that.

It was like Ed that like gave me the self-belief and the investment that put me out there.

And now while I'm doing it, I'm learning, now I'm learning.

I'm learning how to become more seasoned, where to pause.

You know, I know what hits and what doesn't.

And I can pull things out of my back pocket.

I love pulling people on the stage, but all this stuff, to my main point, if you could build a brand around this, no matter what you sell, what you do, if you can be out in the light, it creates a massive unfair advantage.

And if you just look at Hollywood in general, all celebrities, you know, I'm driving here, looking at all these billboards.

There's the carrot top.

You know what I mean?

Like all these people have massive unfair advantages.

They get to skip the line everywhere they go.

So there's so much that comes with that.

But like the impact, it should be the thing you settle on.

Yeah.

Like you get to have a life that has unique meaning and you can hopefully keep a girl from committing suicide.

Or there's so many different places that we touch when you do kind of God's work here on this planet.

I love that.

Yeah.

Because money can open doors, but a personal brand is like the ultimate leverage, right?

Oh, yeah, right.

And that's the game.

Ownership and leverage is the whole key to life, to getting level by level.

It's just a game of ownership and leverage.

Yeah.

And this is a gateway to all that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Do you prep for your podcast guests or is it all just off the dome?

I should.

I should prep.

Sometimes I do.

A lot of times I feel like I'm flying so fast that it's like, who we got today?

But no, you know, half of them I think I'll actually put preparation in.

The rest is just off the heart.

Okay.

Brad B doesn't do any prep too.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Interesting.

Yeah, everyone's got their own style.

I had a guest on last week that does 40 hours of prep on each guest.

Yeah,

I was on his podcast one time.

A guy knew everything about me.

He was amazing.

Oh, it could have been him then.

Where does he live?

What's his name?

Interesting guy.

Very tactical.

I think it's the same guy.

Super tactical.

Taking on on the name.

Randall Kaplan.

Randall.

Randall Kaplan.

Yes.

That's him.

Randall Kaplan.

That's him.

So he did 40 hours of prep on you.

Yeah, he's smart as hell.

He probably knew your whole story.

Yeah, he's just

like strategic, like a laser strategic guy.

He just interviewed Dana White last week.

He said he made him cry.

Amazing.

Yeah.

Would you do that much prep?

He lives in my neighborhood up in Court d'Alane.

Oh, smart.

He's got a house up there, yeah.

Yeah, I want to touch on your real estate success, actually, because you were telling me about that neighborhood, how you got in early in it, 10X, right?

Yeah, Court d'Alene, man, you know, I got there in 2011, 2012, and that's a little town in North Idaho.

It kind of reminds me of Lake Tahoe, like in the 80s when I got there before Silicon Valley had really erupted.

And the first thing I noticed about Court d'Alane, it was just, and again, I was young, dumb, and didn't know anything, but it was an instinct that turned out to be correct.

This market is so beautiful.

I mean, this is such a beautiful resort town.

Lakes everywhere.

This is a lakefront community.

Town is gorgeous.

Some of the most beautiful summers I've ever seen.

Kind of reminded me of Lake Tahoe because I grew up in Reno.

So I'd go to Lake Tahoe all the time as a kid.

And I remember thinking, why is this place so cheap?

The property values were just dirt cheap.

You could get a beautiful lake.

And I only knew that they were cheap because I didn't know how I didn't have any real estate in my portfolio at that time, but I only knew they were cheap because I knew what Lakefront and Lake Tahoe went for, which was like, you know, 25 million for a cheap property, Lakefront and Lake Tahoe, even back then, 20 million.

And you'd see a beautiful home on Lake Courtland, a million bucks or less, even.

I mean, it depends on how nice the home.

But why was it so cheap?

And my gut instinct was: Seattle's right there.

I mean, sooner or later, what happened in Lake Tahoe will happen over here.

And it just became just a little bit of an instinct that I was going to, in my mind, I was going to put everything I had into that market.

That was going to be my market because I could have picked other markets.

I'm not from that area.

I could have sank my teeth anywhere.

It was genius because every dollar placed in Court d'Alene Lane turned out to be, look, I look very smart now, although I would just say I'm lucky and I probably have the right instinct.

But yeah, every dollar, 10x, 100x,

20x, I mean, just depends on what year I invested.

That is crazy.

And you didn't even have real estate experience prior to this?

No clue what real estate.

Again, like, but I had enough, you know, when you have an engine in your life, I always say every person needs an engine.

What is the thing you're trading your time for money for?

And really, you know, at some point, we're all doing that.

Still, to this day, my time, I consider where it goes and what the return is on that time.

And then I consider where's my money working.

But at that time, all I had was my engine.

I'm just trading my time, but it happened to be in our furniture business and our jewelry business, which came a few years later.

So that's where I spent all my time.

So what customers the engine was driving, I would tap into their mindsets.

never talking about furniture ever like always like asking interesting questions because I was curious about people yeah and I would just pull just all kinds of gold nuggets about real estate out because every one of the guys that I admired who had the most beautiful homes, we did a lot of celebrities' homes.

Our furniture is in some of the wealthiest people's homes in America.

Worked really hard to build a brand that connected me right to the most unique clientele in the world.

Brilliant.

And we're already in these resort towns.

So it was a, you had to focus on it, on how to do it, because it started out as a junk store, really, if you want to know the truth.

And you really had to target your marketing.

So as I curated sort of the skills of my engine, it would attract attract these people.

And it was clear all of them were in real estate.

And just that instinct to be, you know, to place a dollar somewhere before it blows up is that's the whole game.

I asked a billionaire one time that was in my store.

I said, hey,

his name is Kenny.

I say, Kenny, what is the secret to success?

And he says, buy low, sell high.

I mean, so simple, right?

That came from a very, very wealthy man.

Buy low, sell high, but that is the key is trying to get somewhere early.

Yeah.

Before everyone else gets there.

And what's interesting, fast forward, you know, know, 13, 14 years, now the Kardashians are building up there.

Courtalane is a household name.

During COVID, it was on the cover of the Wall Street Journal.

It was the number one resort town in the world.

Wow.

Like Courtlane, Idaho.

Who would have thought?

Yeah, who would have thought?

And celebrities, like you wouldn't believe up there.

I mean, I mean, once the Kardashians get there, you know it's like full-blown, right?

Obviously, that's a kind of a metric to decide.

So you can imagine what happened with people that were vested up there.

Well, vested.

Next level.

When you're talking to these billionaires, do you ever ask if they have any regrets of course yeah it's a fun question to ask yeah and a lot of them is family right yeah well for me no i'm saying like these billionaires regrets not spending time with this is a great point yeah so if i would pinpoint this the number one thing especially for for for very wealthy people that came that had money as their kids were coming up they yeah they really regret how they raised their kids

oftentimes they gave their kids way too much.

They didn't create the hardship that many times they had to go through.

They created a lot of cushions.

And the byproduct oftentimes that is spoiled kids who've done a lot of harm in the family.

They've been very toxic in the family.

They've stolen in many cases that I'm very familiar with.

They've done a lot of harmful things.

It's really hard when you're wealthy to raise a child properly.

And I think a lot of it's how do you create resilience in a child so that they know how to make their own money.

I heard someone say this.

I'm trying to think who it was.

It might have been like Andy Elliott, someone like that, one of those types of guys.

Yeah, and said, I'm not leaving my kids any money.

There's no such thing as generational wealth with me.

Fuck that.

And it was interesting this point.

You know, you want to leave the kids the skills to know how to go get their own bag.

You don't want to leave them the bag.

And I think that's a really profound thought if you really consider it.

Like, why would you leave a kid money?

It's not going to hurt it.

It's not going to help them at all.

Wow.

Like, it,

listen,

I'm so familiar with this myself because nothing's been handed to me.

If I didn't earn it, I don't fucking want it.

Give it to charity.

I don't want a dime from anybody because there's no attachment I have to it of real value, of real purpose.

There's no love attached to it.

There's no blood.

There's no skin in the game.

That's where it means something.

And that's the kind of kid you want to raise.

100%.

Very hard to do that in today's society.

But if you're mindful of it and you build a real bond with your child, I would also say a lot of these guys didn't have real bonds.

When a dad looks at his son there's an honest question that should be had do we have a real bond or not and a real bond is something that can't be manipulated can't be faked this is unique real love where you just enjoy being around each other a lot of kids don't enjoy being around their dad wow they can't stand him it's painful

it hurts to be around your family yeah and then there's some these unique situations where the bond is beautiful it's a really strong bond i think that really if you ask that question as a parent you make make different decisions but a lot of the best bonds come out of really understanding that it's the hard road that one day they will respect you most for.

They will create the most need and not just handing them everything they want.

That creates a monster.

Right.

It's an important topic, man.

My first five years of my relationship, I worked seven days a week and most women would not deal with that.

You know, I got a real one and shout out to Arielle.

But that's a lot of sacrifice a lot of entrepreneurs make those first few years when you're grinding.

Yeah, and that's the thing.

You're so in love with your craft.

You're so dedicated to building the dream.

You know what I mean?

You put so much effort.

A lot of of time that effort is for the family right this is a good question so i'm not a guy that likes balance you hear a lot of people talking about like the balance of life and again that's most of america they need balance

and you know if you think about success there is no balance like because it may be 90 of your effort time is here and 10 is here but i'll be honest with you you could if you're mindful of this it can be done right you can give 90 of your stuff to your career and give 10 of yourself to your family which most people say oh that's terrible you're a bad dad all the things, right?

But what you're doing is building this incredible foundation.

Say your goal is generational well.

Well, that's how you're going to do it, okay?

You can't skip this part.

It takes time to build anything.

It takes a lot of effort, a lot of sacrifice.

But

the thing you should be looking at is the time you do spend with people, with your family, with children, with anyone you care about.

Is it quality time or are you looking at your phone the whole time?

Because I'd rather have a dad who spends 10% of his time with me, but he's an actual hero out in the marketplace doing what he tells me to do, practicing what he preaches, living a disciplined life, being physically fit, going to the gym, whatever the things are that

would create a rare human.

You actually live how you speak.

You're authentic.

You're loving.

You're caring.

You're kind.

You treat people nice.

Being all the things you would want in a dream son, you're actually those.

But on top of that, you're out there actually working.

I'd rather the 10% of time with me that's building the bond.

and the 90% of me watching you go build the empire.

I'd rather that than a guy that's around 50% of the time that's a lazy fuck, that's always on his phone, that's arguing with the woman.

You know, who knows?

So it's more the quality of the time than it is how much time.

Because if you're balanced-minded, more likely than not, you're not succeeding that much in life.

I promise you.

That's great advice, man.

So you talk politics often?

For sure.

You're not scared to be vulnerable about that?

No, man.

It's being authentic, I think, means you just go there.

And, you know, I try to do it in a way where I have empathy and respect for everyone, though.

Okay.

That's my style.

Certain influencers won't even touch it.

Certain brands won't touch it.

Yeah.

You know, Ed told me, just stick with children, bro.

You know, he thinks I could follow in his footsteps.

Give me good advice.

I lean right, man.

I'm pretty conservative.

I'm not afraid to say it, but I do it with my whole thing

is love and respect.

And I think that with politics, we should all be healthy to debate each other, not hate each other.

And at the end of the day, that's how I grew up.

When I was a kid, debate was important.

I remember

I was forced to be in a debate class in high school, and I was very good, very talented with words, very articulate.

And the teacher had very fond, she was very fond of me, but I hated her.

Well, I didn't realize she loved me.

I thought she tortured me.

Tough love.

Oh, you have no idea, man.

And she wrote me a letter at graduation.

I'll never forget it.

I think my mom still has it.

One of the most, it made me cry, like thinking about what she wrote about me.

Even back then, because I thought she hated me.

All these years, I thought she hated me.

But I had her class like two years straight in a row, I think.

And I didn't want to do debate.

Some reason I had to do debate.

And then that second year, I wasn't going to do it.

And the lady implored my family to put me in her class.

Wow.

And but every time I'm in there, she beat me up.

So there was one time she put the whole class against me in a debate.

Dang.

It was me against 30 fucking people.

And she put me on the side of the argument that I didn't want.

I hated arguing the side.

It was political.

They put me on the liberal side of the argument.

And so I had to be able to articulate the liberal point of view.

and try to win a case like a legitimate, I mean, this is good.

This is what school should be.

Like, I have a whole idea of what school should be, which ain't what it is.

But this was really profound for me.

And I'll, look, I'm still talking about it.

I'm 40 years old right now, but it was cool how I felt like I won that debate being a liberal.

Even back then, as a young kid, I was very conservative.

I grew up in a conservative family and I enjoyed politics.

Like I just did.

You know, news was always on.

I was always digesting it.

The one thing I think I'll just slide this in here right now that I'll say at 40.

and building a personal brand, it's actually pulled me emotionally away from all the things that used to like be harmful for me with politics.

Like I don't yell at the TV anymore.

I'm not mad.

COVID was like one of those like eye-openers for me.

And now I feel like I'm actually in the marketplace helping people, making a difference, caring about people.

No matter where you're from, what you believe, who you are, I'll help you.

I'll love on you.

I'll care about you.

I'll respect you.

We'll help each other win.

We'll get you to your dreams.

That's the work I'm doing now.

I've chosen to do that, really falling in line with my mentor, Ed's.

I'm trying to follow his path, really.

I think I can do it.

Watch me one day.

Like, that's a bold statement, right?

So as I'm I'm doing all that, I have to really be upfront with, with, with, you know, what kind of person I want to be.

It's brought me away from politics as far as like the emotional connection to it.

I'm just more like, what's better for humans?

What's better for the masses?

What's better for society?

And I do believe.

that a lot of policy that's out there today is destructive in the most insane ways for freedom to exist in the future.

And so I could really talk about from my perspective in a non-emotional way, the fundamentals about how to make society tick better.

And I'll look at all kinds of unique places around the world that I've been.

I've traveled everywhere.

I have friends that have come from every walk of life, every country in the world, Africa, Middle East.

I've seen what it looks like for people that even Bedros, who grew, who, you know, I know his story really well, you know, came from a communist, you know, perspective.

When you put yourself in someone else's shoes and understand perspectives from around the world, it really helps you

understand people.

And a lot of the indoctrination that's happening here,

it's been happening all over the world in different countries already.

These other countries are ahead of us and China's ahead of it.

Like there's so many, but you listen to the immigrant story and what you realize is, is the policy now is assaulting really what freedom is.

And it's in the name of prosperity, growth, you know, what's the word that they, progressivism.

Yeah.

But it really is tyranny.

And again, so I would build my case around that, non-emotional, not I hate you because you're liberal.

I could care less.

I'd just like, hey, what's more logical here for you to prosper more?

Pretty simple how I look at politics.

That's cool.

Do you still believe we have freedom of speech right now?

There's a lot of forces at work here, man.

And I think big business

controls a lot of the narratives.

You know, it's funny.

I thought politicians were the bad guys

until I started getting around ultra-wealthy people, like at the highest levels.

And I realized it's the lobbyist and it's the money behind the lobbyists that really set policy.

And Trump, the reason I thought Trump was an interesting candidate, and again, I remember reading his books when I was like a kid, a little kid, Art of the Deal, Art of the Comeback.

Interesting.

I remember sitting on the fucking toilet reading that book at 14 years old.

Wow.

And so, again, Trump was very popular throughout all those years with all the rappers, all the, you know, now he's this, you know, oh, he's racist, all this.

It's just see how the media works, the machine.

But what was great about Trump is, is the left or right during that process hated him.

And that's why I liked him because both parties hate him.

The right and the left hated him equally.

And what he did is he disturbed what they call the deep state, but it's these people that have been around 100 years in politics that he screws up sort of the order of business because he's able to call things out that the average politician can't.

Why?

Well, they're not fucking billionaires, number one.

None of these people are wealthy.

These are all like bottom feeders.

They come right out of college, right?

They go work for a judge.

They become some pissant lawyer.

They've never signed a paycheck on the front ever.

They only cash them.

And then they work their way into politics.

None of these are real entrepreneurs deep down.

If you just look at the history of politicians.

And so you get a guy like Trump, and he comes out, and I think it was Dave Chappelle that made this a big point.

And you got to think about how profound this is.

He said it, and I caught on right away.

He says, well, Trump came out and says, well, if you don't like the laws, the tax laws, they're going after him after all this tax money that he didn't pay.

Well,

I know the racket that's being run because I played played it and I gave, wrote you people checks the whole time.

And it was sort of that bold honesty.

And it's just like, I'm playing the rules that you people set of like just that clear understanding of like that he, and it was like, oh, how could he possibly say that?

You know, he's disrupting the order of doing business.

Particularly, he could be harming his own kind, his himself.

But it really was a stand for like the true middle class, the ones that are getting robbed along the way.

It's always the middle class.

You look at inflation right now.

Who's it really hurting?

It just crushed the middle class.

It's, I mean, you remember before COVID, how cheap shit was?

Well, it wasn't cheap.

Things skyrocketed and humans have amnesia.

We just, we forget things quick.

Things are just, they come and go.

It is so expensive now.

Everything is so expensive.

It's all by design.

Where do you think that, it's like real money.

Where did it go?

It went right to the 1%.

I mean, they just play to everyone, even like Rolex, like every company in the world that has power, has brand power, has leverage, figured out how to really take advantage of the BlackRocks, all the, I mean, this is becoming a renter nation, and this is exactly the order of it, how it's supposed to go when you consider every country that's gone socialist.

This is the trajectory.

You look at like even the days when socialism took place in other countries where they'd have to bring barrels of money to go buy things.

It's just crazy how

we've gotten here.

And now we're looking at this next election.

And it's like, well, we'll see how good they can cheat this year I mean I truly believe that like it's a big one it's huge and there's no way historically just by the metrics the numbers that you can have an economy like this even though it's still ripping a lot of fake money out there man they pump so much money into the economy during covid and i don't think we realize how long it takes for that all to sort of flush out into real pain real bankruptcies and i think there was so much there was so much equity from so many years of low interest rates that people were able to hold on they got so much equity in their homes that was kind of a golden period of time.

Yeah, 3% interest.

Oh, for years and years, you had this record ability to create wealth.

And that's hanging on by a bare minimum right now.

Yeah, they're trying to bleed everyone out, right?

I'm telling you, they're going to try to get through this election.

But when you think about all the chapter, like in 2008, I was around in Nevada, especially.

That was the worst state in the country.

But when you really get deep into politics and you really consider the state of affairs, like the trajectory, my main point on all this is it's not good.

And the media will manipulate and lie along the way.

but at the end of the day it's these corporations that always seem to be winning no matter what and i think that's the real power string pullers behind the scenes big pharma all big business um you look at how information is controlled and these aren't companies of the united states anymore these are globalist wow and you think about the facebooks or where information moves and flows the we got to play by their rules how the algorithm works which is something that i think is a lifelong force that they actually control now the narrative of yeah they found out uh i think it was tiktok or youtube they got a button if they they want to push video

one button yeah and they make a video go viral interesting and they choose the video yeah it's not real yeah it's everything's manipulated getting to some of these bigger points because i said so much there that we could have fine-tuned any part of that but at the end of the day everything's manipulated and once you realize that it's a game being played your job is to not be an emotionally connected because it'll wreck you right you got to figure out how to play the game yeah you got to go create your own economy and you can you can win this isn't like doom and gloom that i want to project it's just being aware of truth, what the reality is, how I'm going to fight back in a healthy way, and how I'm going to create my own economy along the way.

And again, part of it, part of being in the know is important because I don't know if it's important if it's better to be ignorant, sort of blissfully like going through life, not realizing how much pain and problems are out there in the market that are being created every day.

Or if you should sort of blissfully be in the know, not let it affect you emotionally, and then try to win along the way, creating your own economy.

And I think part of influence is being truthful about what's really happening

and then building a game plan around it.

You know, getting your house in order is something I constantly preach.

And that's why.

So when shit hits the fan, you put yourself, kind of like Cody Sanchez talks about, it's sort of my line, being unfuckable with.

It means that if the market goes to shit, I have so much insulation.

I built so many layers.

I have so much passivity from all the year, the good years, that even in a bunch of bad years, I'll weather the storm, no problem.

Like that has been a gold mine for a long time, but it's because I've been aware of it i've seen how the game's played by the best in in america and i'm now tapping into it myself all these resources are always around us to tap into but if you are just procrastinating wishing hoping talking shit all the time never really doing anything that's most of america all they do is talk no one's really out there doing anything facts Amazing advice, man, for real.

I think people need to be more aware of that.

And instead of denying it, at least be open to the idea that it's a possibility.

Because people think it's conspiracy.

That's the problem.

You know, I started talking about media, the power of the media and everything being manipulated.

The biggest problem is children.

And that's why, part of why I'm doing this is I put children as sort of my mission.

You know, I actually have a mission that's like a visual representation.

It's a picture.

I wanted my mission statement for my personal brand, really now for everything I do.

Could it be a picture?

When I was doing the work, I hired this mission expert who's a good friend of mine.

And I thought,

how cool to have a mission that's actually a picture, a visual representation.

I'll show you, I'll show you in a minute.

But so I'm thinking, like, how do I want to?

I'm stewing on it.

And I'm like, man, like, what is it going to be?

And it just finally clicked to me.

I was like, I want it to be the scary dragon that represents all of our fears in this world.

Everything we have to step to.

It takes all the courage in the world.

Like, what does a real hero look like?

What does courage look like?

So I created this image in my head and we got it on paper.

And it's this nasty looking dragon.

He's scary.

That's cool.

And it's just this knight and he's pulling out a sword.

He's going to to face that fear.

And that mission really challenges people, anyone I'm around, I challenge you to step into the light, find your truth, find your voice, find your courage, and slay this dragon.

Like step up to the plate, like slay the dragon you're most afraid of and go pursue your God-given potential.

So that's the mission, right?

And it's supported with this vision.

The vision is really where I connect children to it.

I'm convinced that more people that are doing this type of mission work, where they step up to their greatest fears, they become the greatest leader they can, they awaken the leader within when more people do that in america our chances of saving children is better so we are now as as a mission and spreading this word we are helping fight against the evil that's destroying innocence around the world because the first place you go if you want to destroy freedom is you indoctrinate innocence and what they're they're confusing if you're a boy or you a girl what the

like biology don't lie this is crazy the the manipulation that's happening in young children's minds and that's one of the reasons that i decided to step in the light and build build a voice outside of my businesses, which I hid behind for years.

I had to put a powerful wide on this or I won't do it.

I'd be too scared.

And that is what I sank my teeth into is that mission is what's forced me in the light.

I built a podcast called Man on a Mission.

I've done coaching groups to sort of like pull as many people I can in to go step up to the plate.

We challenge people, get in the light, use your voice, don't be afraid, don't let social media scare you off.

And I think so many people got silenced and blacklisted

during COVID for saying anything that they didn't like about COVID that we got so gun shy.

Even me, I got gun shy.

They shut down my ads account during COVID for all my businesses.

We advertised a ton online.

We were retail, you know.

It was such a crippler.

And I was speaking out a lot back then.

That's really how I got most of that early following.

I was so bold and calling them out.

And I delete a lot of that because I felt like, fuck, if I don't play the game right, I'm going to get shut down hard.

I was hard.

I was super brutally honest and probably too harsh at the time.

But now I've sort of sent out the message.

But this is the work i'm challenging people to do and i'm convinced that this is how we fight against those manipulating forces and it can be done it just takes more people to really actually wake up not be woke but wake up yep and the last thought i'll put to this is if you really consider what they've done over the last 50 years the they's of the world who are the they's that's a good question but they've really gone after pop culture they've gone after media all media is just it's a beacon for for manipulation and for their lies all this fake news it's a real thing and worst of all they've gone after education.

Like education is destroyed in this country.

They teach you how to be a victim.

They teach you how to be a loser.

They teach you how to blame other people.

And they give you participation trophies, which is the worst thing you can do for a mindset of a child.

Winning does not work that way.

Real life does not work that way.

So now you've seen all, and I have a lot of friends that are building schools right now, a lot of friends that have a lot of money.

and they put their money where their mouth is and they don't like the education system.

So they're going to go build their own schools.

And I'm watching some of these incredible projects come alive all across America.

And

I can count countless that I've came in contact with personally that are mine.

They're teaching entrepreneurship.

They're teaching young kids how to win.

Amazing.

How to be real winners in life.

Imagine that.

Right now, right?

Imagine if we had that growing up.

Oh, come on.

Yeah, but it wasn't as bad when we were kids.

Well, how are you?

I'm 27.

Yeah, you're young bucks.

So even that 13-year gap between me and you, a lot changed in 13 years.

Yeah.

I mean, and it got worse and worse quickly.

Now it's compounding really bad.

So, you know, years one through five may not have been that bad, but it was a slow progression.

And then, you know, it's like COVID.

I felt like they went for broke.

They had their opportunity.

The whole world was shut down.

Trump

was in office.

And what they did is they said, this is our chance to just go for it.

And in the process of them destroying him, you realized what a beautiful, big, massive fraud this whole thing actually was.

The dragon exposed himself.

It was beneath the surface the whole time.

He was like a martyr almost.

100%.

Like he exposed the truth of how big the deep state was.

You know, who would have thought the DEA,

or excuse me, the FBI and the CIA could be weaponized against a sitting president of the United States?

That's exactly what happened.

You look at all these fake dossiers and all this.

Again, like so much corruption happened in government right in front of our eyes as you watch him go after just a businessman who's got a loud voice.

But his policies were great.

He's just great for the best scenario to clean up freedom.

I saw a stat the other day.

It's a little

border stat.

342

Chinese nationals across the border.

And I think it was like

2019 it was.

I'm just trying to think what year it was.

And then compared to this year, it was like 30,000 something.

Holy.

Those are Chinese nationals that are coming through on the U.S.

border.

I mean, so you just look at the trajectory there and just plaguing this planet with chaos.

Or America with just chaos.

They're doing it all on purpose.

And this is a powerful, odd force out there.

And one last thought attached to this.

If you look at the mentors of Hillary Clinton, of Barack Obama, which I think who's probably running this country,

but if you look at the people that they looked up as icons, these were some of the most communistic mindsets ever.

There's a book that's called Rules for Radicals.

It was written by, I'll have to look it up.

I'm trying to leave his name.

I'm blanking out on it right now.

But that was the personal mentor during Hillary Clinton when she was in college.

And that was Barack Obama's hero, the guy that wrote that book.

What the hell?

Was it Soros?

No, not George Soros.

This was written in the, that book was written in the 1950s.

This is how old the guy was.

And it was a communist book?

Oh, the whole thing was about how to just,

the book Rules for Radicals, was how to destroy freedom in America,

written in the 1950s.

Yeah.

Holy crap.

I'll type it in.

Oh, they seem to be following it.

Well, this is what's interesting.

If you read the the book, Rules for Radicals,

it's an exact playbook of what's transpired

over the last 40 years.

I'm trying to find the author right now.

I don't know why.

We'll link it below.

We'll find it.

Saw Linsky.

There it is.

I didn't knew that too.

So Saul Linsky wrote the book, but that was, and Hillary Clinton talks about what a great person Solinsky was.

If you just go read the book, it's right there.

And then watch her own clips.

My point is this.

If you look at the ideology and the indoctrination that happened in these people when they were in college, this was her as a, you know, a lawyer, a law student growing up.

And she had this idol, Saul Linsky, who was a professor back then, wrote this book early on in his career called Rules for Radicals.

These are the people that guys like Barack Obama will

credit as being profound change makers in the way they saw the world.

And then go read the literature of the guy that that guy just said, you can go look up the clips yourself and actually read what these iconic people in their lives actually wrote.

It's sickening.

I I mean, he talked about how to create communism in America.

Crazy, Eric, it's been really insightful, man.

Anything you want to close off with a comment?

I just am proud of you, bro.

Keep doing what you're doing.

It's been really cool to watch you rise.

I think that,

man, you got like the best podcast in the world now, bro.

This is like

right there, man.

Yeah.

Thanks so much.

It means a lot.

And I can't wait to see your journey, too.

I'm grateful for you, man.

Yeah.

Thanks so much.

Thanks for watching, guys.

As always, see you next time.

Yeah, see you.

Thank you.