The Secrets to Becoming a Top Performer in Business I Shawn Meaike Part 2 DSH #564

Say you said something like you want to you want to watch a date line or something else go watch that I I'm not here to get you I'm here to I've earned the respect of people and then they get to come on and say what's in their mind My job's not to debate the facts They give their information out and y'all take it and digest it and figure it out Which is genius.

I love that every host needs to listen to that advice man because there's some hosts that really talk over their guests and it's like why are you even interviewing them?

Correct.

It was great but it was

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All right.

Sean Mike, part two.

Welcome back, man.

Thanks for having me, dude.

Absolutely.

You were just at the game, right?

I was just at the Super Bowl, yes, sir.

Was it one of the better ones you've seen?

I've been to a lot of them.

You know, and it's funny, not being a Chiefs fan.

Well, first of all, I'm not a fan.

This is what I've learned in life too.

Like, I like watching sporting events, but watching people get that excited about a team and the way they go about it, it's very interesting to me.

The psychology behind it is interesting to me.

But I bet a lot in the Chiefs, like, probably way too much, but it was okay.

They covered.

And actually, Sam Fran was giving me a couple point and a half.

So it was a great game.

Great.

It's very competitive.

I like defense too.

The first half when people are freaking out, I'm like, dude, that's a good, that was a good game.

That was a good half.

So it's good football, but I ain't betting against Mahomes or Andy Reed and I guess Travis Kelsey.

Interesting.

So you look at sports objectively.

You don't got like a team or a player?

You know,

to be honest with you, I think that's, that's really uncomfortable to me.

Like, I played baseball and football and basketball growing up.

I went to college, played baseball.

Um,

and I just think, like,

I've never been that excited about something I'm not involved in.

You know what I mean?

Like, and I think that, like I said to my son, you can't wear another man's name in the back of your, uh, in a jersey once you become over age 18.

Doesn't mean you still won't or not or whatever, but like, cheer for you and cheer for yourself.

So, I love the game, but no, I'm not.

But football is amazing, dude.

Because you realize that people, I was talking to a guy the other day, and he's like, dude, people love a team over the players.

And he's in the NFL.

And I was like, for real?

He's like, yeah, dude, they're just so rabid about the individual teams.

So yeah, man, I can take them or leave him.

I follow the Broncos.

I grew up watching John Elway.

He's a good player.

I like individual players and things they can do.

But the team itself, dude,

I'd gamble on two Hermit Crabs races.

I'm a gambling freak.

So I like gambling.

You could learn a lot from athletes, man.

I saw you just had Shannon Sharp on your show.

What were some things you took away from that interview?

Man, a lot.

First of all, he's super sharp,

which I love, and he's got a huge personality.

Probably one of the bigger things, he actually said it before we got on, and he was talking about perspective.

And he was talking about growing up.

He was talking about being in, I think it was in, he just gotten drafted, and they had a tragedy in their family.

And his grandma was like, don't tell him till after practice.

And just how hard core he was about his mission.

If you learn, like, he played Division II football.

And if you, like, football is not like baseball, even basketball.

I mean, a lot of those, you play Division I football, but I don't know the stats on it.

Go through the NFL.

It's probably not a lot of guys, you know.

But I'm like, when did you know you'd be in the NFL?

The entire time.

I was just laser focused.

I didn't know that they called him Pee Wee when he was young, which is amazing.

I think he was ever small.

And I think also just that he's taken

that mindset, that championship mindset that he has.

And

he has no fear.

Yeah.

You know, and he's approached approaches his post-football career like he did that.

I mean, he's got the number one show in the world right now.

And that was all in the matter of a year, under a year.

And I asked him, I said, how did you get like, like, why you?

Like, why did Cat Williams pick you?

Because I'm most interested in me.

And why'd he come on and tell you all that?

And he said, well, I offer a safe space.

You know, I get on and tend not to talk over people.

And I roll.

And then people might come at me.

What did he say?

He said something like,

you want to watch a date line or something else?

Go watch that.

i'm not here to get you i'm here to i've earned the respect of people and then they get to come on and say what's on their mind my job's not to debate the facts they give their information out and y'all take it and digest it and figure it out which is genius i love that every host needs to listen to that advice man because there's some hosts that really talk over their gas and it's like why are you even interviewing them correct it was great dude it was learned a lot man it was it was a good time to be around him yeah i think when he left skip that was such a pivotal moment and you see the trajectory of because skip's going downhill he's going uphill and you're like wow he was really running that show yeah and dude i mean he didn't you know when you look at because that's what i asked about stephen a and he's like dude he wants me to get big like he wants a big person he wants somebody to be next him and he doesn't want to try to control him and you know because that's i asked him that about former athletes that was always weird to me like how do former athletes listen to people that never played because i don't understand that but i'm also like i'm not on these big shows i didn't play in the nfl but if if you if you like did you play sports growing up yeah basketball basketball well that would make sense right play baseball no okay so if you were giving somebody advice on baseball, I'd be like, I'm just like, bro, slowly roll.

You don't know what you're doing.

And I'm okay with that.

Like, let's be honest.

Like, I was asking before the thing, do I look better with this?

He's like, no, put a sweatshirt on.

You look better.

Like, dude, I ain't got, like, it is what it is.

Right.

But he said, when Stephen A's talking, he talks through a different lens than me.

He's like, I'm looking at the X and those.

He gives you a bunch of coverages and all kinds of stuff.

And, and he's like, but he's not looking at it from that perspective.

And he said, plus, Stephen,

he wants me to grow.

He wants me to scale.

Now, he didn't say nothing bad about Skip, but it's also like, you've heard Skip rant and yell.

Yeah.

And it's like, dude, like, who are you, bro?

Like, really?

I just, but, but, you know, so it's been great for him.

Yeah.

I mean, it's,

the, what he's doing, what he's continuing to do is just massive.

I just saw him the other day.

And he's just a good guy.

He's a good dude to be around.

I agree, man.

It's a respect thing, right?

Because Skip didn't play professional sports at a high level, right?

But Shannon did.

So people will gravitate towards that.

Yeah, dude.

And I mean, listen, I don't put on those shows, but Skip's annoying.

You know what I mean?

And then, like, you do need that that guy to, like, I just think like how smart it was for Shannon to pick Ocho to do what they're doing.

Nightcap.

Brilliant.

Like, that was brilliant.

Like, he's, he's, he's got a great personality.

You never know what he's going to say.

He had his success, but kind of what he was saying doesn't like take himself that unbelievably seriously.

It just works out really well.

So I think he's, um, he's on to big things.

And dude, he's razor sharp and he's focused on it just like he was at the NFL.

So everything he does will continue to expand.

I won't be shocked at whatever.

numbers y'all pull up.

I'd be like, that doesn't surprise me at all.

So,

yeah.

And they, and they're doing a great job in first take, too.

And he's actually made me like Stephen A.

Yeah.

Weirdly enough.

Like, because I, I mean, and I don't dislike him.

I don't get that excited about it.

But I'm like, when he said that about the lens, I was like, dude, that makes sense.

You know what I mean?

Like, I don't tend to get that upset when people are talking.

This guy announces I don't like when he does this.

And some people like Tony Romo.

He was doing the game last.

I'm like, dude, I like Tony Rommel.

I kind of like the way he talks.

I like the way he analyzes the game.

He's smart.

I like his inflections and his voice, all that.

But yeah, I think he's on.

Yeah, it definitely was a big, big deal for him.

And I don't think he knew that Stephen A thing was happening.

And he went from there to, I guess, it's one of those opportunities.

You never know what's around the corner.

I've actually grown to like Stephen Nay, too.

I think mainly because his own show, I think when you're on your own show, you're really yourself.

Like you see with Tucker, he's amazing now.

I feel like Fox News was holding him back.

Dude, he's a monster.

I mean, he just did Putin.

Dude, he's a monster.

Yeah, did you see that one?

Yeah, I watched it.

It was nuts.

And you almost like, dude, you were thinking about this the entire time he just came out.

And like, who else can do that?

Who else is doing that in the world right now?

No one.

No one.

Who has the courage to do it, has the ability to make those connections and actually can stand there?

And when he was talking to me, like, dude, he's such a strong, intelligent, tactful person.

You just watch Putin.

You're like, you can just see the mutual respect for there's not, this isn't going to be a game to be.

So, yeah, no, I agree with you, dude.

It's been awesome.

Times are changing because you rarely see the opponent's point of view.

And now we're getting that perspective with podcasting, with new media.

It's really interesting, actually.

It's an it's what it's that's what it's supposed to be.

Yeah, but that's also like, how old are you?

26.

I'm 51.

I was raised that way.

It was okay to have an opinion.

They didn't vilify us for having an opinion.

We had debate classes.

We were encouraged to talk about those things in class.

Really?

And absolutely.

It was like, what party are you?

And you were usually what your mom or dad were.

I'm this.

What about you?

Y'all debated out.

Really?

Yeah, absolutely.

Next week, you come out of political science classes, civics classes, and high school, let alone college.

We did that.

We didn't hate each other.

You had an opinion.

I had an opinion.

It was totally fine to not agree.

I had to listen to you.

You had to listen to me.

You had to say things that might really piss me off.

We also had really thick skin.

And we're taught not to have a panic attack and scream and yell when you don't like what somebody's saying.

But where does that get us?

So, I mean, for me, I always say that with people, I was on a pod not too long ago, and he's in his mid-20s too.

And I'm like, but, you know, I was talking about sports.

And he's like, I didn't know that.

I'm like, yeah, that was, that's how we were raised.

So it is really cool to see.

Yeah.

So having thick skin like that, is there anything someone could say that will get to you?

Really?

There's things they could do, but not say.

There's nothing you can say about me because I don't give a what anybody says about me.

Really?

No.

Even if it's someone you respect?

They don't respect me if they're talking about me.

So why should I respect them?

So I respect you.

Let's say I respect you.

I do respect you.

We don't really draw that well.

I respect you.

You turn around and start popping off of the mouth of being.

I'm like, okay, well, why am I worried?

He doesn't respect me.

What am I worried about?

And then why would I let you get me?

And every time you get successful, people run their mouths about everything.

I mean, literally everything.

So for me, it's kind of like there isn't anything you could say.

And if you're going to do something, it has to be something pretty, pretty significant.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, running my mouth.

That was one of my worst habits.

And you learn it in public education, right?

How to gossip and talk about people.

And it took me a while to get out of it.

But it's

such a bad habit, honestly.

Dude, I run a lot of companies.

And one of the things I used to ask when they came in and applied.

And I'd say on a scale of one to 10.

And don't lie to me because time will end up telling.

How much do you like drama, gossip, and bullshit?

Seriously.

But don't lie.

You can't say a one because everybody's going to say a one.

If I had people, I'd be like, no, I participate in it because I don't tolerate it.

And it just eats you alive.

And that's it.

It's the Lord of the Flies.

Remember that book?

Yeah.

They made us read that in school.

They made me read it too.

I mean, that's thinking about how long that's been a thing, right?

And I was with a group yesterday.

I'm like, dude, read the Lord of the Flies.

It's a quick read.

And they hit me back and I'm like, this is what y'all are doing.

You're Piggy, you're Jack, you're Ralph.

Like, knock it off.

Like, this is what we do to each other, though.

Because we start working together as a team.

It's like in this business, you'll work with people and eventually you're like, dude, what is his problem?

You know, you could use skip and shannon.

Like, why don't you want Shannon to be great?

What are you worried about?

Like, what's the concern for you?

But it's that ego.

Yeah.

And again, if you got to feed your ego, and I always tell people, you know, if you're going to say it, come and say it to my face.

You're direct, heads on.

Yeah, I'd rather just fight you in the parking lot.

I mean, because I'm just trying to be funny or be a tough guy or be weird.

But, like, dude, like, that's the other thing.

I remember I was probably 14

and my father drank a lot.

He's sober now.

So I drove drove him a lot.

Okay.

And back then, you drive at 14, cop pulls you over.

They didn't like, it wasn't, it was just a different time.

And I remember I'm driving.

I remember this exit 28 asking on Route 395 in Connecticut.

And I go around a corner, and this guy's coming on the highway.

And like, it's debatable who cuts whom off.

So I get in, I pass him, and I start flipping him off.

My father said, pull over.

And I was like, okay.

He's like, no, pull the car.

And the guy's, I mean, he's beeping.

He's flipping me off.

And he's got a beer between his legs, cooler in the car.

He said, now get out and you man i have to flip him off and i'm you know 81 pounds 14 years old growing 225 pound man got out yeah and i got out i'm not gonna tell you i was excited to fight a guy you know what i mean and i think he was realizing my father just sat there but it was lessons like that in life and there i went through a lot of don't get me wrong but it was like

Dude, you have every single thing you say, you're accountable for.

But then I'm also accountable for, do I have to react to everything you say?

And I don't have to react to it.

It took me some while.

And I'm also 51 years old.

It took some time.

At your age, I wanted to fight everybody the entire time.

Plus, I was still drinking and getting high and everything else at your age.

So, you know, I'm sober.

You learn.

People bait you into saying shit.

Yeah.

You know, and I've really respected myself.

You talk about games.

Like, I'll go to games and you watch.

I was at a Niners Chargers game last year.

And this fight breaks out between like 10 dudes.

They couldn't hurt each other if they were fighting for an hour.

It was hard to watch.

But I'm like, as long as they don't bump into me, my buddy's like, what are you going to do?

I'm like, I ain't going to do nothing unless they're bumping us.

And they're bumping us.

I don't want anybody else to get hurt.

I'm also not going to beat them up then.

They're drunk.

They can barely walk.

I'm sober.

They're 160 pounds.

Like, what, you know?

And I think there's a lot of, I had took me a long time to learn there is a lot of pride and respect in value and being able to go like, I don't care.

Right.

Just turn the other cheek, call it what you want, smile, keep it moving.

A lot of energy to take people on.

Then they know they have you.

So I always teach people in sales.

running the business.

Emotion is the biggest thing a client will use against you.

But if I don't have any emotion, I don't get freaked out about what you ask me or what you say or what you're pushing on, then you trust me more because I control my emotions.

I make more money, do better for my family.

So why don't I learn how to just relax?

Interesting.

Yeah, because in your 20s, you would have joined that fight, right?

100%.

Anybody said a damn word about me, but also there weren't people saying a lot about me because I wasn't doing a lot.

That's the other thing I realized.

Like, dude, people are saying stuff about you,

no matter what you're doing.

Run a business, successful team, because you're doing something.

And I think as I started coaching, too, I was coaching baseball, basketball, football, you know, travel travel teams traveled all over New England, all over the country.

And I was like, I'm giving these kids advice that I ain't taking.

I'm like, okay, we're in the basketball court.

There's thousands of people hanging off the rafters.

We're good.

There's really good teams.

That dude's going to North Carolina, Kentucky.

Boom.

We're a lot of baseball players who are trying to stay in shape, but we're good.

And I'm like, I'm telling them not to react.

And then what I started doing was becoming more of an

because I want everybody mad at me.

So you're the Draymond Green of the team.

Yeah, dude.

Absolutely.

And I would lose.

I mean, it was obnoxious like they were yelling at my kids and i'd just find somebody or the other coach i'd be like half the game what we should do is you and i should fight in the parking lot wow whoever wins then that you're like well but no more talk in here we'll just go in a parking lot you and i will fight it out

you know and the good news about most people is they're all this anyway yeah you know especially basketball yeah it is so it's just um but i learned to take my own advice i was good at giving advice i wasn't taking wow So what age were you when you were finally able to control those emotions, you said?

I got sober at

28.

I had no control of them when I was drinking.

I think it's hard to control your emotions, your anger, whatever issues you have, they're exacerbated with those things.

Like, if you're pretty chill and you got a pretty good personality and you're pretty even-keeled, and you get high, but like, dude, I didn't like, I like smoking weed, I smoked weed a lot, but I like more.

I like smoking crack more, and I like damn.

Oh, yeah, I love smoking crack.

Oh, God bless America, but I, but I mean, it was best 15, 20 minutes of your life, followed by the worst 30.

Yeah, yeah, I smoked it by accident to start.

Okay.

Yeah.

A buddy of mine was like, you want to get high was late.

We're at the gas station we worked at, went in the back, took, we used to take these cans, dent them in the middle, put a little carburetor in them to smoke out of that, like our own little makeshift bowl.

And that's what I thought I was hitting.

And I was like, dude, what is that taste?

And he's like, oh, you'll love it.

And I'm like, dude, what kind of bud is that?

And he's like, it's not.

It's crack.

And I was like, I'm already in.

So I did.

And then, dude, every day.

And I was like, God, I don't know why people start feeding for the stuff and get addicted.

Wow.

Yeah.

Mushroom.

I love to party.

But I've been sober now.

So I think once I got that and I got through the sobriety thing, and then also realized that as a man, like,

I don't know, I was raised that that's everything's about, you know, physical and, you know, who you are.

And it's how you were, how you were valued as a man.

And you realize, like, dude, that's actually kind of bullshit.

Like, anybody can fight anybody at any given time.

I've met a lot of people I don't think are great, but they're good at fighting.

Right.

You know, so it took me a while, though, dude.

And then when I had kids,

then every decision I made was different because now it's not about my consequence.

It's about my biggest consequences.

I can be away from them.

Whether I get arrested, go to jail or do something bad enough where I just can't be around them.

And now it's like, yeah, now the decisions

are all very different when you start factoring that in.

And it could be a business for people that are younger.

It could be anything that they value in life.

It can be taken from you real fast.

Because common sense, it's funny.

People are always so common sense.

You can drive through the state of New York.

And you can have a gun and you can live in Connecticut and forget you have it.

The gun laws are pretty motherfreaking freaking severe and they can send you to jail for a long time.

Just for having a gun?

I'm having a gun.

Wow.

I mean for literally having a gun.

And I got arrested at the airport in Connecticut for, I had a gun in a bag just like that one I carried in here with me today.

And like I wasn't trying to sneak it on a plane.

I put it through the x-ray machine.

And in some states, they give you, hey, go put it in the car.

And then some states are like, you're under arrest.

Damn.

And Connecticut's one of those states where you're under arrest.

But I was like, I under, like, I don't agree.

Like, dude, I wouldn't try to do nothing.

I would think I could, I have a permit.

Yeah.

Legal, legally, you know, the guy's like, is it loaded?

I'm like, of course it's loaded.

Who carries unloaded guns?

You know what I mean?

Of course the thing's loaded.

So I think for me, it really got me to start to understand that you never know.

Like, people do small things that we think common sensely make no sense.

And it's like, he's in jail.

Yeah.

So I guess I just,

you know, laws are laws and people end up in jail for a little.

That's why I always respect people and don't think that there's a, you know, I love when somebody judges somebody else.

And it's like, dude,

you did three nights ago could end Judy.

It just didn't.

Yeah.

And you should respect that.

There's something on everyone, right?

We all have done stuff.

Dude, I don't care who you are.

You always tell people, be careful, the people that if you think, if they tell you they've

sociopathic people think they've done nothing wrong and they live this life, dude, all of us got yeah, we're all fed up.

Absolutely.

Do you have all your employees take personality tests?

Yeah, man.

I have a lot.

It's funny you ask that because

we've done all kinds of assessments before they start.

Just kind of figure out who they are.

I do it with the sales team too.

And they're not employees.

They're independent contractors.

But I want them to know.

Like, you need to know these things about you.

Then we do a lot of assessment.

We do disk assessments, see who matches up with whom, because a lot of times you get people that are like, okay, these two won't do well together.

But he'll do really well in general.

We just can't put this one in charge of this one.

And here's why.

You know, he's a high, he's a high D, he's a high C, all that kind of stuff.

So I'm a big believer in all that because for me, it taught me a lot about myself.

You start looking at these like, nope, that's true.

That's true.

I had a group one time.

They were arguing about how they think they wanted me to change all this stuff stuff as a company early on in its infancy, which we've gone on to do, you know, $800 million we did last year in our top 15 people.

And they had everything figured out.

So I'm like, I'm going to give you a personality test, an IQ test.

So I had about 15 of them.

I was like, okay, does anybody want to guess who's the dumbest?

And I took it too.

I'm like, I took it too.

And they're looking around like, seriously, I'm like, dude, I have all the results right here.

I'm going to, we're going to share them all with each other.

Damn.

Absolutely.

And they were just looking around like, and it was funny because

the funny thing about the ones that scored the lowest, one of them was like, and this is how it was, he was dumb and unaccountable.

And he was like, well, it was the test.

And it was like, no, it's God didn't.

It's kind of like, how tall are you?

6'5.

6'5.

And I'm 6' on a good day.

That'd be like me going, I'm taller than you.

You're like, no, no, no, you're not.

God made me.

I'm 6'5 ⁇ .

Like, whatever you believe in science, God, you're 6'5 and I'm 6'.

And then the other guy who did much better was like, yeah, dude, I don't like tests.

I don't give a.

Like, but he did really well.

And I was like, do you see how he does well and you don't?

And you have the exact same IQ, actually.

But like, how unaccountable you are and how he's, and people like him because you don't have to be the smartest guy if people don't want to work with you.

Right.

And then I found some of that was like, who's the smartest?

I'm like, nope.

And they're like, this guy actually is.

Like, oh, I didn't know that.

I'm like, he's not near as much.

And we went through all, we just went through all, not to belittle anybody, to be honest.

Like, let's know what we're all dealing with.

Because if we don't know our own inadequacies, how do we get ahead?

That is so cool.

But how much importance do you actually place on the IQ?

I place importance on you understanding your IQ.

I don't care if you have the highest IQ because there are people that do this that are, you know, there's that, I don't think that I'm going to walk in every room and have the highest IQ.

I'm not dumb and I don't apologize for being smart.

I just don't.

There's a lot of things I suck at a lot.

And I know those things.

And there's things I find every day.

I'm like, oh, I suck at that too.

Like, I didn't even realize.

And then being transparent and vulnerable.

What I place priority on or importance on is vulnerability and transparency.

Don't try to be something you're not because people know it anyway.

Some of the highest income performers I know and some of the people that have the highest net worth are not the smartest people I know.

They know who they are.

They're great at delegating.

You know, I was on a plane the other day, you know, my pilots, right?

And I've always said, who needs science and math?

And I'm like, dude, why can't we land?

He's like, wind shear.

And he starts showing me this formula on a piece, like they're scratching on a piece of paper.

And I'm like,

what happens if it goes here instead of here?

And he's like, plane crash.

Wow.

And I'm like, God, when they say you don't need math and science, some people, and you just laugh.

Like, I don't need math and science because I have people around me that know math and science.

I don't love it.

I love math more than I love science, but I'm not going to engage in it.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about science.

But I think that, but also like some of the pilots I know have terrible social skills and they don't know it.

And it's like, dude, stop talking that way.

You look dumb.

Like you're super smart, but then just be who you are over here.

So I place it on, I like people that have the ability to communicate.

I like communicative people.

I like people that are humble.

I like people that are good to be around.

That's probably my biggest thing.

Do I like these people?

Like, do I want to be around them?

Because as long as we're all going to have strengths and weaknesses.

And also, I'm in charge of most of the stuff I do, but I have no problem deferring to other people.

Hey, do you think this makes sense?

Hey, should we do it this way?

Should we do it?

What do you think?

Do you think we should do it this way?

I don't know.

And that screws people up when you go, hey, what do you think?

That messes people up, especially somebody who's only been there for a period and they don't know yet.

And you're like, I see something.

And I'm like, hey, what do you think?

Because they're scared.

Yeah.

And I'm like, don't worry about these people.

Daniel Smart.

What do you think?

Yeah.

I didn't ask you how long you've been here.

I run the company.

I know how long you've been here.

What do you think about what we're talking about?

Right.

Teaches this group a lesson, him or her a lesson, involves more people.

It's life-changing.

I like that.

Did you see how Bezos runs his meetings?

No, I have not.

So it goes for, say, they're at a roundtable.

It'll go from the lowest tier employees, starts first, and then works its way all the way up to Jeff.

You know, what's funny is

life insurance company I run, about the first year and a half, I'm like, God, these meetings are so unproductive.

And I was talking to a buddy of mine, and he said, how valued do you think that they feel in those staff meetings?

Like, what do you think?

And I knew I was in trouble when I said I didn't know.

And he said, go into the next meeting.

He said, ask everybody to write on a piece of paper the three things they like the most about the way you run the meetings and the three things they like the least.

And be like, be open.

Like they need to be able to share.

And they don't have to put their name on it.

I was like, then what do I do with it?

He goes, then don't do it in front of them, but take, and every one of them for the things they liked the least about him was how much I spoke and how uninvolved they were.

Wow.

Yeah.

So I transitioned and we were doing at the time

25 million a year and we just did 800 million this past year.

Yeah.

And I went from like, okay, and I just transitioned.

She can't stop overnight.

Can't be like, hey, you run it.

But six months later, I would come in the meeting once a month to listen.

I went in the other three.

Like, I, dude, they know what I know already.

I came in monthly to get an update from them and give them anything quick.

They didn't know because I got it from somebody.

And they just grew like this.

I just hold them down.

I'd come in and talk at them for an hour.

Wow.

And then that's how we kind of learn.

Because when you start launching a company, you don't know what you don't know.

Like I was a CEO, CFO, CTO, COO, and you're like, you don't have the money early on.

You really don't know where to invest or what to do.

Do you partner?

Do you get acquired?

Do you take on money?

How do you do this?

How do you build the infrastructure?

So I learned the art of delegation, man.

Yeah.

And, but I love that basically, I had not heard that.

Super cool.

A lot of meetings, man, are useless.

So what's your advice to those?

looking to run successful, effective meetings?

I mean, getting good people around you.

And also,

I'm always nervous when people won't provide their input too.

It's either I didn't, now early on, I didn't provide a good environment.

They were nervous too.

I used to say,

this is how idiotic I was.

I used to say the new idea department is closed.

No new ideas.

Well, if you're running for your life and like the boat's sinking and you the only one knows how to fix it, then that's probably not bad advice.

Like we can't, we don't have time.

But in the day-to-day life, dude,

I know that my successful meetings are led by other people.

Doesn't mean I'm not leading them as well, but it's successful meetings are where

everybody's input's value, but also in a place where if you are not productive, your input's not held equally.

So like, you know, the problem with a lot of companies is this guy's input's held as, but, but he ain't doing nothing.

He's down here.

So I'm always like, hey, I'm okay with your input, Sean, but Tom and Mike's and Chris's, we like your input.

And we're open, dude.

What I'd love for you to do is have their productivity.

So we can, actually, I think you're really good ideas, except you're half as productive as them.

So it might mean you work 75% less than them because you seem to have better ideas than they do.

But why aren't you as productive as they are?

So like, let's let your voice be equal to your productivity.

And I love meetings like that.

I want it to be fair.

It doesn't matter how long you've been with the company.

I hate seniority.

Really?

Hate it.

How come?

Hate it.

The companies I've worked, first of all, I hated it when I worked at United Parcel Service when I was 19 years old because I was like, why can't I have that route?

I deliver more packages per hour than anybody, according to you, my boss.

Like, you guys run the numbers.

If the analytics say that, why can't I get a better route?

I'm more productive.

Right.

Seniority.

That's okay.

So I learned at an early age.

I'm like, I don't like this making any sense.

I took state jobs.

Why can't I be promoted?

Seniority.

So I hated it then.

In business, what makes me nervous about this, like in my industry, and a lot of them, I've built a waste management company, exited that, real estate company, life insurance company.

And one of the reasons we've scaled so fast, is a lot of the companies I watched got suffocated at the top, right?

Because you had X amount of people been there so long.

They believe they were entitled to everything under the sun.

Their opinions, their only ones matter, and they didn't grow with the times.

They never changed.

You know, you got to be innovative if you're like, if you're going to sit in a constant state of mediocrity or you're just going to refuse to grow.

For me, I really, really, as I'm looking at how we scale it and I'm looking at seniority,

Dude, I got some really good new people that have some really good ideas.

And I need them to know if you do as much as him, he's been here 10 years.

I do love him.

If you do as much as he does your first year,

in my mind, you're equal as far as your

contribution to the company.

Wow.

So all the previous years don't matter for you.

I love you and I'm here for you.

We're trying to scale a company.

I'm not going to hurt you.

People ask me how long you've been here.

It's 10 years.

I appreciate you being here early on when it sucked.

Totally get all that.

But a lot of times the new guy is not accepted and not pushed because a lot of the meetings I went to, they bring the same 12 people up.

It's like, dude, they've been here 25 years.

Of course they have bigger businesses.

They've been here 25 years.

But you have people over here.

And what happens is these people, they quit.

They're like, I can never make it into the old, the good old boys club.

I can't get myself in there.

I want to feel good.

And also, what we should have been teaching those 25 people that have been here forever is you can't have a big business and a big ego.

So when the like, dude, we're going to have other people that need attention.

That's why when you see companies, they kind of blow up.

They go to awards ceremony, three new people get awards.

You look at these three, you're like, dude, what happened?

It's like, bro, you've been getting the credit for nine years, bro.

Grow up.

Go home.

Get a friend.

Get a dog.

Tell your wife to love you.

Tell your husband you love him.

Why do I got to be your validation for everything in life?

And a lot of people, their company recognition award system is all the validation they got.

And that's scary.

And that's why a lot of companies just, they starve because they run out of, you know, I had a guy tell me a long time ago, so what happened to this company?

This company was life insurance space imploded three decades ago.

He said, we ran out of credit.

So what do you mean?

I said, money?

He goes, no, credit.

All the guys that were at the top wanted the credit for everything.

There was no credit to give out.

So the first person that's taken no credit is you when you run it.

So I tell people all the time, we're great because y'all are great.

I want no credit.

Do I then go to my job?

Yes, I do.

But when I, I don't take any credit.

Like you're like, you guys are awesome.

You have to do 100 million.

Look at him.

Did you know him?

Hey, he's been here six months.

She's been here a year.

They're awesome.

I have great freaking people.

Now I have 100% of the credit still to give away.

I'm going to try to teach people in seniority that.

And by the way, you've already been winning for eight, nine, 10 years with the company.

Let's just be happy and let these guys win.

And by the way, if they win and we light it more of a fire, you'll win even more.

Why do we have to continue to bring you in and hang banners up and tell everybody how great you are?

Yep.

You know, and I think that's a struggle where a lot of these independent sales organizations, whether it's solar, pest control, they're everywhere.

Insurance, real estate is.

You can't crack your way in.

Can you imagine how debilitating it'd be if I said, hey, join my company and there was a level system?

But no matter how long you worked, you can never do better than that guy.

He's here 10 years before you.

So his hierarchy is always bigger than yours, no matter what.

Well, you're competitive.

Competitive people want to be number one.

Yep.

But you can never be number one, Sean, because Tom started 10 years before you.

Guess what you're going to do?

You're going to go start your own company or work in another company where you can be number one or number two or number three.

You want a shot.

Yeah.

So I like fair.

I like unbiased.

I'm not a, I never, I never, I didn't like the, I was at the state.

They did the same.

I didn't like it at all, man.

I like that because some, some people get comfortable, right?

They have three years of success and then they're not as motivated.

Let's take, let's take coach basketball, right?

I coached basketball for years.

If you're a freshman and you're equal or even a little bit less talented than my senior, you're going to play.

He's going to sit.

But he played for three years.

I'm like, I got you for four more years and you're of the same ability pretty much as him four years in.

I do love you.

Well, he's going to have, he's going to have a better idea.

It's basketball in high school, dude.

We ain't playing in front of 100,000 people.

Like, what?

He's got better experience.

Hell, look at the upside I got with you.

And I want the kids to know that.

Hey, guess what?

Maybe if he worked harder, he'd have been that much better than you, then he would have played.

That's actually why I quit basketball.

I was better than kids older than me, but they had family connections.

There's politics involved.

There you go.

And how many times has that happen?

Probably a lot, honestly.

Way too much.

I never did.

I always tell people when I coached, I was like, let me be clear.

My kid will, and my kid was good, but I'm like, I'll sit his.

I don't give a.

Wow.

And I told him, if you have a problem, every year I learned this, my son was probably seven.

He played football for this guy, and I loved it.

He brought everybody together.

And he was like, here's the deal.

I played in college here.

Mother coach over here.

Mother coach, we don't think we're the greatest coach in the history of the world, but we know this game.

If any of you would like to volunteer to coach, I'll talk to you afterwards.

If you played past high school and you have some experience with kids, we'll talk.

But you speak now forever, hold your peace.

Once we're done with that, you ain't never going to talk about what I'm doing ever again.

And if you do in the stands, cause a problem for this team becoming cancer, you and your son are not welcome anymore.

Wow.

And he made him sign something.

He's like, here, sign this.

If you don't sign it, you can't play.

I was like, dude, I like that.

So every year I did that, baseball, basketball, every single year.

And then what happens is people are like, kind of like, you know, like the gossip?

They're like, dude, I ain't going to gossip.

I was coach of basketball one time.

I went to stands because I could hear the guy that was like, we talked three years ago, right?

This is during a game.

Like, we got timeout.

We talked three years ago, right?

Yeah.

Are you good or not?

Are you going to shut up or not?

This was a parent of the player on your team?

Yeah.

Are you going to shut up or not?

Because you're screaming about what they should be doing you don't even know what you're talking about dude like look at you you couldn't run up down the court twice not having a fucking heart attack so why are you screaming at the kids and then all of a sudden the other parents are like yeah yeah go hey wait a minute don't do that you didn't say that when he was saying it so everybody's gonna grow up i'm gonna coach y'all want to coach next year you can coach next year i'm go for it but right now we're all gonna like enjoy the game we're gonna have fun i smile I say it's mean things that have we're gonna have fun right they're all friends you're friends and next time he's being tell him he's being

peer pressure.

Is a very powerful pressure, and that was it.

I don't do that very often.

And it wasn't, you know, but I didn't do that when I was a parent either, watching my kids play.

I, it's people always like, you know, I think the coach should do this.

I'm like, it's easy sitting here.

Why are you so passionate about coaching?

Because you did 800 million last year.

You know, you value your time a lot and you spend a lot of it coaching.

You know, I um,

because growing up, that's what allowed me to get better.

You know, I was

blessed enough to be good, and I had a lot of coaches that were very financially successful.

And I used them like they used me.

And I learned that at a very young age in life.

Maybe that's nice or not.

It's very manipulative.

I was like, okay, you're very successful in real estate.

I never had a house.

You all have a couple of cars.

Your wife doesn't work.

Y'all have nice shit.

I want to know what you know.

So I'd befriend him.

And I'm like, I want to know what your dad knows.

And I had no pretend, but I was like, he's like, why?

My dad's an idiot.

I'm like, no, he's not.

Your dad, first of all, you got dad at home and he's making a lot of money.

But those guys did a lot for me.

We weren't weren't best friends afterwards.

They bought me cleats and bags and paid for my trip.

And I was cool with all that.

And I knew it would come to an end.

I wasn't like, oh my God, he's my best friend.

He's mentoring me forever.

So if I hadn't had athletics growing up and then in business, I had good coaches too.

Now I got myself around them.

And I think it's my job to pay it forward.

And when I see people, you know, like when I saw what you were doing and the time you put into it, and how bold you are and you're smart, I was like,

and then you're appreciative.

I like appreciative people.

The first thing you said to me, thanks for getting on before.

I've got a lot better.

I'm like, me too.

Like, I like that, dude.

That's like, those are people I want to be around.

Real people that are just transparent, vulnerable, honest, and they're trying to do something different than everybody else.

So coaching's a massive passion of mine.

Yeah, the energy is contagious, right?

I love it, dude.

Yeah, that's super cool, man.

So 800 last year.

You going for the B this year?

Yeah, we're going to do a billion.

Easy.

Wow.

Actually, when we launched a company 10 years ago, I said we'd do a billion within 10.

So we failed and didn't.

But it's funny when we said we'd do a billion, like,

nobody does 200 million.

How are y'all going to do a billion?

I had all these reasons why.

But I believed it, man.

Now we missed it, but it's not bad to shoot for a billion your first 10 and hit 800 million.

But it's the lives that it changes for everybody else, too.

Because every time a client gets a policy, their life changes.

Every time an agent sells a policy, their life changes.

Every time a policy is sold in that agency, the manager's life changes.

Yeah, it's like a spider web.

It's cool, dude.

You've probably helped hundreds of thousands of people.

We have millions of policyholders.

Wow.

Millions.

That's incredible.

Middle American people who didn't have any or didn't have enough life insurance.

And they, and

I've been through so much and seen so many claims and so much going on in the business, but it's been life-changing, dude.

But definitely a billion.

I wanted to do that.

That was a goal.

Not a lot of people can say they run a company that does a billion dollars in sales annually.

Right.

Especially in the insurance space.

How many companies ever hit that point?

Not many, dude.

Did Patrick Bett David hit it?

Not that I'm aware of.

You have to ask him, but I do not think so.

I know he sold his, but it was for, what, $400 million?

He sold it for a lot.

Yeah.

yeah

and i saw you uh post my neckt or you partnered with that now yeah that's been great dude he um that's another person he knows a lot you know about that space and uh and i was telling andrew my buddy when it works for me i was like we got to go down there because i want to see what i can do to help him and what like and i want to understand that's also why business works too everybody wants everything it's like well what do you provide okay will you jump on and support my app manect yes Absolutely.

Will you talk about some of the stuff that you're doing that's allowed you to build this audience, that's allowed to do what you're doing on YouTube?

Will you spend an hour with me talking about that and I'll join the app.

Like, that's there's nothing wrong with that.

Bartering.

Yes.

But everybody wants this.

Like, how do I get it?

I don't know.

What are you giving up?

What do you got?

Like, bring me something, dude.

I'm in.

What do you bring to the table?

And I'll talk to you.

So I'm part of it.

It's been great.

I was just on the way over here today.

Guy asked me about launching

an insurance business.

He's like, I'm thinking about doing, here's four different ways I would do it.

I'm like, I wouldn't do this.

I wouldn't do this, but I would do it this way.

You know, and it's it.

So it's been cool to connect with people that have questions and want to do a video call or do an in-person meeting.

And then I do a lot of that coaching individually.

I started doing a lot of that down at my place and at the house.

I'm like, this have them into the house and coach them up for a day and teach them how to actually speak,

how to deliver their message, not in two hours.

Tell me who you

are and what you do in 90 seconds.

And then why should I work with you in 90 seconds?

You know, so we're walking through that profitability business, building it.

You know, what does the EBITDA look like?

What's your net?

I've done it a bunch.

I've done it in three different sectors, built them, exited them.

Some have been much better than others, and they've been in excess of hundreds of millions of dollars.

So

it's been a great run.

But yeah, Manek's been good.

You'll find me on there, and I answer questions for people in all kinds of industries.

So it's been good.

Nice.

We'll link that below.

He talks about, you know, choosing enemies wisely.

That was his last book.

Yeah.

You got thousands of competitors.

How much focus are you putting on competition?

You know, it's funny.

He and I are competitors.

Yeah.

You know, absolutely.

And I always, my buddy's like, you think you're in that book?

And I was like, I'm going to read it.

You know, we were just laughing.

We competed for years, man.

But competition isn't personal to me.

Like, I like that.

Um, I focus on what my competitors are doing good,

and then I try to replicate that.

And then I focus probably more of my energy on what they do poorly and ensure we never do it.

So, probably my best business lessons, honestly, in life have been people I worked with that did a lot of things wrong.

And I'm like, dude, I'm just never going to do that.

That's the thing about parenting or, or the way you grew up.

I think if you grow up in a, like for me, you know, we grew up in an like, we didn't have any money, right?

But I watched a lot of good and bad.

And I really focused on like, okay, that guy does that as a parent.

I would never do that.

You know, like, that's how you break these, these, these abuse cycles, right?

You're like, come on, let's learn behavior.

I'm like, so you tell me when you get your ass kicked, like a lot of us did, that you want to kick a kid's,

you didn't like it when it happened to you.

Or if you watch your mom grow through, you're telling me you really go like, because when I was a social worker for 14 years, when I worked in abusing a lot of children, they'd be like, well, that's my dad then.

I'm like, dude, that's the dumbest statement I've ever heard in my life.

You watch your dad kick your mom's

and you love your mom?

Yeah.

Okay.

So you love your mom.

You watch, I can see you being mad at yourself because I went through it as a kid.

I wanted to defend my mom when I was three or four or five and I couldn't.

Yeah, that's young.

Yeah, I wanted to, but I couldn't.

Right.

You want to so badly start to feel bad about yourself.

There's things you want to do to stand up for her.

I'm like, but you went and took, like, a woman can stab me, shoot me, beat me over the head.

I ain't hitting her.

I'll run.

I ain't afraid.

I'm running.

So if they hit you first, you won't hit back.

Hell no, never.

I'm a grown man.

I could harm somebody.

Absolutely not.

You hit me as many times as you want.

I ain't going to stand there and let you keep hitting me.

I'll cover up and get the hell out of there.

I may never come, but I am not hitting you back.

Uh-uh.

Well, she hit him first.

She.

The operative term is she.

The pronoun is she.

But if I die, it's different.

Hell yeah.

I'll punch him straight the fuck him out.

Absolutely.

That'd be a good day.

That'd be a good Monday, bro.

Yeah, there's some trauma, man.

My dad got physically abused his whole life, man.

He never laid a hand on me.

But he broke the cycle.

He broke it.

That's the thing, dude.

There's a lot of power in breaking the cycle.

Because somebody in your family, whether it's financial, abusive, because I think that's the deal, man.

When you see people, it's like, dude,

what were you feeling?

And what are you doing?

And why would you replicate that?

So a lot of the stuff I learned that's good, I want to replicate it.

And the stuff that I, that hurt, I don't ever want to do that.

That's why I got sober.

I'm like, I know what it was like to be a kid raised by people that are up, drugs and alcohol.

Why would I want to do that?

Yeah, it's a bunch of people like, well, remember you did this?

Dude, I was doing stupid shit since I was 13 when I started getting high.

I've been arrested eight times for drinking and beating the shit out of guys.

Like, I get it.

Dude, I didn't decide.

I got sober because I didn't want my kids to go through what I went through.

Right.

That's all.

Powerful.

Yeah, I don't want them to go through it.

Why would I want to?

That's what kept me when you can't sleep at night or you want to smoke some rock.

Like, it was a better.

Thank God that excitement of being a parent was better than that.

Yeah.

That draw of smoking crack.

Don't smoke crack, guys.

Don't smoke crack.

The best 25 minutes of your life, followed by the worst 30, 35 minutes of life.

Don't do it.

Sean, it's been a pleasure, man.

Where can people find you and find out what you're up to?

Like I said, Minact, you'll put that link below my Instagram.

I got my own podcast, Close and Conquer, which I need to get you on if you would indulge me on one day.

It'd be great.

And, you know, but everything through Instagram, hit me up there.

I'll find you.

We've got a lot of coaching down in Florida.

If you like Southern Florida, come on down.

I'm in Boca Raton.

And I appreciate you letting me get on, man.

I mean it.

You're going to do some amazing things, dude.

Thanks, man.

I need a lot coming from you.

I mean it.

You really are.

You got a really good presence, and I like being around you.

You're super sharp, and I love what you're doing here.

And I love how vulnerable and transparent you are, dude.

So, absolutely.

Thanks so much, man.

Appreciate you, brother.

Thank you.

Thanks for watching, guys.

As always, see you tomorrow.