Going to Jail, Running a Secret Society and Connecting with Royal Families I Gordon Bufton DSH #397

What do you think the fix for the homeless problem is?

Is it providing some sort of rehab for all of them for free or something?

The great part is this problem has already been solved by Portugal.

So they created this research.

Whatever you guys determine, we will put into effect.

And all the money that we are spending to incriminate these people, we are going to invest in programming.

Wherever you guys are watching this show, I would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe.

It helps a lot with the the algorithm it helps us get bigger and better guests and it helps us grow the team truly means a lot thank you guys for supporting and here's the episode welcome back guys got a very special guest today pretty excited for this one gordon buffton how's it going man honored to be here super grateful uh for you reaching out god was that about a month ago on instagram and it's been incredible to witness the people that you've had on the show and incredible to become friends with with some of the people in your mastermind it's you know i was just out here with Nick Swan, and it's just like incredible the people that he introduced.

And one of the things that I always say is you're one connection away, your one book, your one mastermind, your one podcast away from changing everything about your life.

Yeah, and you're on an interesting mission right now.

You've been homeless the past 30 days, right?

No cash.

29 days.

29 days.

No cash, no credit cards.

I got to hear how this started and how you ended up in Vegas.

Yeah, so I was at Chipotle in Sedona, where I'd spent the last four months, and I was talking to these guys who had basically like pilot outfits on and we started chatting and I come to find out they're private pilots.

So I was going to an art show that night.

I take them to the art show.

We go out.

We have an amazing night.

They go, I want to take you to lunch before we leave.

So we met up for lunch.

We had a lunch and they go, yeah, we're flying to Montana.

We have a dead leg.

We're picking up some clients.

We're going to Texas and then we're coming back to Arizona.

I go, my wheels start spinning.

We guys take me on the dead leg.

They go, they looked at me, Sean, they go, if you're crazy enough to go with us, we're crazy enough to take us.

You just have to figure out your way back.

So since we live in such this content world, which you do a brilliant job on the content front, I go, how can I use this story to just get views?

And so as I'm filming content on the plane and, you know, doing some stuff with my book, I go, what if I do no cash, no credit cards, and just on the goodwill of people?

And it was actually the exact same day that the conflict was happening in the Middle East.

So I go, how can I, I don't need to post on social media or, you know, another post of what's going on.

Like, let me actually be with the people.

And it has been the most incredible 29 days thus far where I

hung out in Montana.

Like I go to a bar, I tell this to people and people started handing me $20 bills.

Wow.

I'm like, put your favorite quote.

So they would write their favorite quote on this $20 bill and hand it to me.

And And so then I like went to dinner and I'm sitting at the bar, literally next to a lady.

And like my steak arrives with the french fries.

They're like, ooh, can we have some french fries?

So I give them some fries.

Next thing they're paying for my meal because they go, oh, we ate half your meal.

I come to find out her husband was Secretary of Defense.

Wow.

Not currently, but like a previous one.

I'm like, what are the chances I'm sitting in this bar in Whitefish, Montana

with this lady?

And so then I went from there.

I took a night train to Portland where I worked with homeless people for seven days in Portland.

Wow.

I've traveled around the world, spoken all around the world, third world countries, and I have never seen anything as tragic, Sean.

Really?

There are about 500 to 1,000 people smoking fentanyl homeless in Portland.

And I was there for two days.

And one of my early mentors always said, Gordon, just follow the money.

Follow the money.

So I was following the money.

I go, this doesn't make sense.

All these commercial buildings are empty.

Completely empty.

Like 10% occupancy, targets moving out, office max.

I couldn't figure it out.

And then I go, oh, it's a real estate play where because of

everyone moved home.

So then they brought the homeless people in,

which drove out even more people.

So now Wall Street's basically buying up all these buildings for five and 10 cents on the dollar.

And guys who, you know, like small multi-millionaire guys that had these big buildings, they can't afford it.

Right.

Because 90% of their tenants are gone.

And this is something that, you know,

which we saw with the Silicon Valley Bank and some of these other bank collapses.

But the next six months, what my guys are saying is it's going to be a bloodbath because all these banks have all these commercial loans on their books and people haven't been paying for last year.

And they don't want to take these loans back because then they have to go become commercial real estate guys.

And, you know, I watched it with with my dad in the real estate market in 2006, 2007, 2008, where we got caught with our pants down on a couple of multi-million dollar properties.

Yeah.

And, you know, and so like, this isn't my first pattern, but you didn't really live through that.

I was too young.

I was like fourth grade and during that 08 crash.

And millennials and Gen Zs have never seen money at 8% interest rate.

Yeah.

I was on with one of my friends and he goes, when I bought my first apartment in New York, it was $140,000.

I had an 18% mortgage

interest rate.

That's high.

And he goes, that was normal.

When was this?

That was in 1980.

Wow.

So it has gotten that high before.

I didn't know that.

Yeah.

And one of the things that my mentors always follow patterns.

And this is, it's wild, the world that we're going into, especially in the U.S.,

where there's $33 trillion in debt with another $100 trillion already spent for Social Security, Medicare, and all this stuff.

The U.S.

can't even afford to service that that debt with the Federal Reserve.

And so when I, the average age in government right now is 65 years old, Sean.

Wow.

So they're making decisions for the next 10 years of their life.

They're not making decisions for us.

They're not making decisions for our future kids.

They don't really care about this financial predicament.

They just go, how do I continue to make money for the next 10 years?

And this is what I find so fascinating is our generation, we're not going to pay off that $33 trillion in debt.

So we're going to keep passing it down, you're saying?

No, we're going to do a hard hard reset.

How would that work?

That's what some of the things that we're working on behind the scenes.

The game, the money game, the current money game, which has gone on for over 2,000 years, is going to have to drastically change.

And this is where we look at blockchain technology of Bitcoin, which every transaction is hired on the ledger.

I recently had a wire last week that was sent to my account.

Correct information.

We double-checked everything, and the Federal Reserve have blocked that.

That money has has been missing in the ethers for the last five days.

Actually,

six days now.

That seems so crazy.

Was it like a big amount of money?

It was a very large sum for one day VIP day, and it was deducted from her account on Tuesday.

And we're now Monday, and it hasn't been returned back to her account, or it hasn't hit my account.

That's scary.

I called my bank every single day.

They go, it should hit today.

It should hit today.

It should hit today.

And then Friday, they go, the Fed's blocked it.

It's being sent back to her account.

Wow.

Okay, this is 2023.

How can money not move on a Saturday and a Sunday?

Yeah.

If this transaction was done in Bitcoin or Ethereum, it's going to be tracked on the ledger within 30 minutes.

Yeah.

It's going to be in your account quicker.

And they're charging fees on all this stuff.

Yeah.

Well, they charge fees on ledger too, but not as much.

It's very small, right?

And like, this is where Ethereum went to proof of stake.

It removed 99% of their fees and the energy they were using.

Yeah.

So it's just wild.

If you spend $50 $50 on a debit card or credit card, within 12 transactions, that $50 has been zero and the banks have that $50.

Yeah.

I see a lot of wealthy people moving out of the US dollar, investing in gold, crypto.

Where are you sort of putting your money?

I love USDT right now.

I am a big fan of cryptocurrency.

I believe.

The real estate market in the next six months is going to crash.

But the main thing that we're investing in, which is an unregulated commodity, is art.

Art.

Yeah, I'd love to talk about that.

I don't know much about the art space.

I've heard people use it for money laundering, but is there an actual space where there's good investments to be made?

Incredible.

So I've traveled the world the last three years discovering young emerging artists from guys in Amsterdam to guys in Mexico City to Peru to the U.S.

to

in Spain and collected what I believe are the best artists in the world.

Almost all of them are under 35.

And, you know, you can get amazing pieces of art that, you know, like one of our, our muralists will paint something this big on a wall for $20,000.

And you put that on a canvas, it is just like mind-blowing the shading.

One of the guys who

I went and met an artist yesterday at the Louis Vuitton store, a guy who I work with in Scottsdale, his name is Salvador.

He has the most incredible shading and he, he paints on Louis Vuitton.

So Louis Vuitton pays him and he shows up 40 hours a week to paint on Louis Vuitton bags and he has this peacock that just blows your mind

and these this heart piece that he has on

a Louis Vuitton bag that and and the piece about art that really blows my mind is a lot of the times so 70% of all the art in the world is kept in warehouses

Why is it that why is it so high, you think?

Because it's used as a

storage of wealth and people don't want it on the wall getting broken, getting stolen.

And usually they're in no trade zones.

So it's tax-free.

Interesting.

So tax-free on art.

I could see why people put money into that then.

And this is why I love NFTs, is it proves the authentication.

And now we're living over 50% of our lives in the metaverse.

Anytime you're on your phone, that's you're in the metaverse.

Right?

Anytime you're on Facebook, it's not what you think with VR of, oh, my whole life is going to be in the metaverse, but with VR and the way that we're going.

So, why would you not have art in that way?

Right.

My thing with art is, how do we get as many kids creating art and seeing art?

Yeah.

This is an art piece, right?

Everyone who comes on your podcast, you should give them an NFT with the photo of us and this.

And then we can post it on social media.

We can post it anywhere of, you know, when I meet Gary Vee, it's like, hey, look, here's all the NFTs that I have.

And then you find

commonality.

And one of the things that we've been really hard is changing the name from NFT to connection agreements.

Ultimately, an NFT is just a smart contract in a community.

Yeah, I think people tried to make money off it.

There was a huge hype wave, but the underlying technology is pretty valuable, and I think it's here to stay for sure.

And this is where I've gotten so much value from you in your community of just meeting incredible people that you've had on the show.

And so for us to have, instead of a WhatsApp group, we have an NFT.

It's basically the same thing.

Yeah.

Speaking of groups, you've run a secret society.

I got to hear more about this because I've studied secret societies and they fascinate me.

Is yours more like a mastermind or how does it operate?

It depends.

If you don't know the handshake, you don't know the handshake.

So I remember watching Fight Club as a 16-year-old boy and was fascinated by the movie.

And so in the last three years,

actually the last four years, I've traveled all around the world hosting gatherings in a lot of times major cities.

So we have big footprints in Amsterdam, London, Paris, Portugal, New York, Miami, LA, Vegas now.

And so we host a lot of private dinners.

And we curate incredible geniuses.

And I throw them in the room.

And I usually ask everyone three questions.

And so,

you know, the questions are, what's your name?

Where's home?

Your favorite sex toy?

And then what is your genius?

And the fourth question is, what do you need help with?

And that fourth question is really incredible.

And what we do is we take like a sticky note and say, you need help with epigenetics testing.

I go, I got a guy.

Let me introduce you to Trevor.

I write it on the sticky note.

I hand it to you.

So we don't have to have an entire hour-long discussion of how we can all help you, right?

Efficient.

And that's just like watching some of these dinners of people connecting and doing, you know, billion-dollar deals because of a dinner.

And our focus with

our community is how do we solve youth mental well-being?

Yeah.

That, I believe, is the biggest problem on the planet.

I don't really care about green energy and all this stuff because if we don't solve the human problem, we will eradicate ourselves.

And if humans were gone from the planet, the planet would be fine in.

three hours.

Yeah.

So what is this problem?

Like, do you think it's caused by technology?

100%.

And if you look at the rates for kids, it is 10x because of social media.

And I'm so grateful.

So I was born in 88.

We at least, you know, I could go to school, come back.

We had AOL Instant Messenger and MSM and some of the early social medias, but I could get away from it.

Yeah.

So many kids now, they're bullied 24-7.

And there's huge celebrities that have killed themselves because they get bullied.

Wow.

And one of the things that blows my mind as we go into this political election is

a lot of people are critiquing one of the candidates.

And the minute that you critique that candidate, it makes you just as bad as that candidate for doing whatever he's doing.

It's you're not any better by critiquing somebody, right?

Like, and the minute that I critique somebody, it's not saying something bad about the person I'm critiquing.

It's saying something bad about me.

Interesting.

But I think there is good feedback.

But yeah, when people get emotions involved, then it's not productive.

And that's my thing, especially with this challenge is how can can I sit and be present with people?

Right.

This morning, when I went and got water, I gave the homeless person water and I sat and treated them like a human for three minutes.

It didn't take much out of my day, but I was able to give them water.

Almost every single homeless person is dehydrated and they need food.

And of course they need a place to stay.

And so now that I like worked with all these homeless people in Portland and, you know, then I went to Miami and then I went to Vegas and I spent a week in Atlanta being homeless.

And it's so fascinating to get kicked out of places where I normally stay.

What do you mean?

So I, because a lot of this time I haven't had a home, I just will like go to a four or five star hotel and kind of like find an empty room or an empty couch or an empty corner and like and fall asleep.

Oh, got it.

Until security wakes me up at say like three or five in the morning and then they'll kick me out.

Yeah.

And so I'm like, oh, I usually stay here, but I'm, they go, do you have a room?

I I go, yes.

What's your room number?

I go, I don't know, 411.

And they go, we don't have a 411 here.

That's funny.

Right.

And, and I, and it's so fascinating to see how different I've been treated when I have lots of money and, and when I don't.

Now, why do you resonate so much with these homeless people?

Because people in your shoes, they see them, they walk right past them for the most part, but you are stopping and helping them out.

Yeah.

So when I was 20 years old, I was homeless, not for an extended period of time, but my addiction had gotten so bad that I was homeless.

And in a two-week span, I was almost murdered.

I spent multiple nights homeless on the beach in Naples, Florida.

And I spent my 20th birthday in jail.

Wow.

And so I made the best decision of my life on April 22nd, 2010, when I decided to get sober.

And so every decision and every experience I've had in my life in the last 14 years has been because of this decision.

And

I've done, I've spoken all around the world about substance abuse, addiction,

and

what is just, I've been, for the last five years, I've been very quiet on social media and podcasts.

And I, I've traveled the world studying different cultures.

I spent 2020 in Europe traveling when everyone was stuck at home.

I spent 2021 in South America working with shamans and native people down there.

And I would, I consider myself a modern day explorer.

Wow.

I'm always looking for new realms of consciousness.

I'm always looking for new ways to have compassion and empathy.

And this journey has really expedited that.

And one of the things for me is I remember reading a book at a young age.

It was this old book written in like 1916.

This red cover, I can't think, I'll find it for the show notes.

And it said, if you want to live a successful life, live an interesting life.

I like that because traveling is something people don't even think about, but it can really expand your consciousness, give you new perspectives, expand your business.

You learn a lot about people, a lot about culture.

Traveling's been instrumental towards my growth, honestly.

It was one of the best things my parents ever did is

my grandparents would always vacation in Portugal.

So I started going to Portugal as a baby.

And I remember, you know, we would go to Costa Rica for my mom's 40th, or we went to Portugal and Paris with my sisters.

And just to see those different cultures, different way of life, different way of being.

And now, you know,

I've been speaking around the world for in the Middle East and in Asia since for over a decade now.

And it's amazing that you have this narrative of what the Middle East is like.

And then you go there.

They are the most hospitable people you have ever met.

They won't let you get off the elevator before them.

Wow.

They have so many manners.

They're the best hosts in the world.

Like my friend Hussein, he's just an incredible human.

And him and his wife, they now have a kid.

And he goes, anytime you want to come, come over.

We're here for you.

My friend, my brother, Adib, I mean,

he's an incredible, incredible, incredible guy in Dubai.

And it's just incredible how I went there and I spoke in four different countries and I've remained friends with a lot of these people over the last decade.

And like,

it's just like you have these preconceived notions.

And what.

What we have to do as humans is get outside of our comfort zone.

Absolutely.

Too many people stay locked in their own city, their own state, their own country.

But I definitely recommend.

Most importantly, their own mind.

Their own mind.

Yeah.

You mentioned Portugal earlier.

You're doing a cruise out of there this year, right?

Yeah.

So one of my partners, he called me, we met in Ibiza last year, and we wanted to do a couple of deals.

And he calls me two months ago.

He goes, hey, Gordon, yep.

I'm negotiating a contract with the Ritz-Carlton Cruise.

It's not even on the water.

440 people, 220 suites.

Do you think we could fill it?

Yeah.

What are the dates?

November 3rd through the November 13th.

Okay.

So we're going to go from Lisbon to Miami.

Yep.

All right.

You're going to fill it?

Yep.

And then we've been working to fill that.

And then he called me last night.

He goes, I also got it from November 1st to November 3rd.

So we're working on something with a foundation.

It has not been released, a brain research foundation to fill that with a very famous celebrity and do basically two days down to the Azaz, all focusing on mental well-being.

And that's going to be the content of the cruise as well, 10 days of how do I get the smartest people, the most successful people on the planet and create a community and container where we can solve some of these problems.

That's cool.

You mentioned mental well-being a lot now.

What's been your journey?

Have you found that happy place for you?

How long did it take?

No, no, and more, no.

So when I was 20 years old, I had a couple of experiences where I got locked in a psych ward.

Damn.

And the second time, after spending two weeks the first time, I realized how the floor operated and I ended up escaping from the psych ward.

I had two helicopters, six police dogs looking for me.

They couldn't find me.

The news story ran, naked man escapes the psych ward.

In fairness, I had a white pair of Tommy Hilfiger boxers on.

But so when they did find me, they had the entire house was surrounded by SWAT team and I'm standing at the kitchen, the cabinets, and I just watch these two massive police officers walk in the door.

And I go, do I run out the back or do I let them arrest me?

So they arrest me, put me in handcuffs, walk me out.

I remember looking at my dad.

There's 40 officers.

There's flashing lights.

And the next thing I remember is getting in the cop car.

The next thing I remember from that is when I woke up in a hospital bed strapped to the bed.

Whoa.

So I blacked out.

I don't remember the car ride.

Supposedly I puked.

And my dad actually had to convince the police officers not to go in with the house surrounded and guns drawn.

Damn, that is crazy, man.

My dad was in a psych ward.

What was it like in there?

Because he had a terrible experience.

Dude, I love psych wards.

They're like one of my favorite places on the planet, partially because everyone, like the question I ask is, who's crazier?

The patients or the clients?

Sorry, that's the same person.

The staff?

The staff or the patients?

The staff are crazy in there?

Oh, yeah, because they're looking at us.

And so they have the preconceived notion that we're all crazy.

Yeah.

So now they're looking to validate their assumption that we're crazy.

Yeah.

I mean, I've heard weird stuff.

I mean, they put you on medication in there and try to dumb you down, right?

Well, they don't because I tell them to F off.

Oh, so you could deny it?

Yeah.

Okay.

That doesn't go over very well.

So the second time they had me on a 90-day stay, the judge hit and goes, you are legally insane.

Wow.

So I've had a judge call me legally insane before, and I had a psychiatrist say I would never live a day not on prescription medication.

Jeez.

I haven't taken medication.

I went to an amazing rehab facility called Alternative to Med Center in San Francisco in 2009, and they did a 21-day detox off the medication.

Then we did a 21-day or a 21-day sauna program, and he has the best technology in the world.

I helped him move to Sedona.

And actually, I've spent the last four months living at Lyle's place in Sedona, working with one of their therapists at their center, but they have the best technology in the world for getting people off of antipsychotic medication.

Because when these doctors prescribe you medication, they don't say, hey, this is how difficult it's going to be to get off of, say, Xanax or Rispitol or any of these medications.

They're just like the doctors go, you have a problem, take this.

This is a band-aid versus going to the root cause.

A lot of my work all around the world is, how do we go to the root cause?

Right.

It's me working with homeless people going, every, I worked with over 100 homeless people.

Not one of them, Sean, goes, I want to be a fentanyl addict.

Not one of them said, I want to be an addict.

These are all somebody's kids.

these are all somebody's siblings, and

like they all want to get off, but they don't have hope, right?

Like, I'm so grateful I got sober when I was 20.

A lot, like, I was talking to a homeless person today, and I was like, Hey, do you want me to fill up your water bottle?

And you know what he said, Sean?

He goes, No, there's a little bit of alcohol left in there.

Dang, and I drink so much that if I don't drink that little bit of alcohol, I might die.

Sitting outside the wind with has billions of dollars of people sitting in that casino.

Billions of dollars.

And this guy is outside

going, I can't have you pour water in here because I need to savor this last sip of vodka.

So, what do you think the fix for the homeless problem is?

Is it providing some sort of rehab for all of them for free or something?

Are you interested in coming on the digital social hour podcast as a guest?

We'll click the application link below in the description of this video.

We are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to you about business and life.

Click the application link below and here's the episode, guys.

The great part is this problem has already been solved by Portugal.

In 2000 in Portugal, they had a 1% of their population was using.

So they created this research,

a task force.

And when they did the task force, they made an amazing play.

They said, whatever you guys determine, we will put into effect.

Okay, so they did the tax,

they did this research group.

And then at the end of it, they said, we need to decriminalize all drugs.

And all the money that we are spending to incriminate these people, we are going to invest in programs to get them sober.

So let's say somebody gets sober and they want to learn car mechanics.

The Portuguese government would fund 75% of their salary and the car mechanic would only have to 25%.

And so when you give these people meaning,

like, that's one of the things in life is so many of these kids now, they don't have meaning.

Yeah.

And so, when you give an addict meaning, whether it's you're working in a kitchen or you're working with kids, they have meaning.

And so, the biggest advocate against the program five years later go, I was wrong.

This was the best decision we could have ever made in Portugal.

And now their numbers are like 10% of what it was.

Wow.

Yeah, we got to study that model and try to implement it then.

Well, and that's part of the reason why there's so many homeless people in Oregon.

They've decriminalized all drugs.

So, these people are like openly smoking fentanyl and meth at 10 in the morning.

I'm like, hey, guys, there's kid right there.

They're like, oh, sorry, I didn't even see it.

Wow.

So you could just take any drug there on the street.

Yeah, yeah.

Like people have, everyone there has tinfoil.

Like you, I'll take you there.

We'll walk around the street and you will see every single person has tinfoil in their hand and a straw.

Dang.

And they basically put a lighter under the tinfoil and they smoke.

They, they, it.

creates smoke and they ingest the smoke.

There must be a balance because I know in Amsterdam, it's decriminalized too, but they seem fine over there.

So there must be something else at play there.

Well, and that goes back to follow the money.

It's a real estate play.

You know, I could easily with $5 million solve this because I buy one of the commercial buildings, turn it into residential, give them couches, give them podcast studios, give them kitchens, and give them a safe place to use drugs.

Like they don't want to use drugs.

But, you know, I helped somebody get off fentanyl recently, and you have to do a very intense suboxin program, and a lot of people can't do it.

Like getting off of opiates, it's one of the most difficult things.

Getting off benzo is one of the most difficult things.

Getting off alcohol, those three things can kill you.

I almost died getting off a Xanax, man.

Yeah.

Yeah, I had a seizure.

That's crazy.

And like you said, they don't tell you how hard it is to get off it.

Once you're on it, you can't really stop or else you'll have a seizure.

You had no idea.

Yeah, I had no idea.

And this is why, like, going to a program like Alternative to Med Center, like, they focus on the orthomolecular structure.

You eat completely organic food.

You sit in a sauna.

You have vitamins and supplements and nutrients.

It just, it's amazing.

And they're the only program in the country.

Yeah.

How do you meet Jesse Isler?

So that's a funny story.

So I did an Iron Man in 2016 and I remember getting done and I like picked up Living with Seal and I read Living with Steel.

And part of Jesse's story is he would just cold call people.

He got a record deal.

He just cold called somebody.

So I go, let me cold call Jesse.

And that was basically 10 years ago.

I cold called Jesse.

And as a result, I, you know, I just did a 55-mile race with him in Atlanta two weeks ago.

I spoke on a stage to a thousand people.

You know, we've, we've gone on adventures.

I've been in his masterminds.

I've gone to his events.

I've hung out with his kids, been to his house, just because I picked up the phone.

Wow.

And this is one of the things that one of my early mentors, he goes,

you just got to pick up the phone, create value for people.

And that's something that like I've watched you do time and time and time again, Sean.

It's like, okay, how can I make an intro?

How can I do this?

How can I make your day?

It doesn't take a lot.

It doesn't.

All it takes is a group chat these days.

And it's phenomenal, right?

Like I've connected, like I was speaking at Jesse's event and next thing I'm there with Doug, who's the world's leading expert on sprouts, who I met through your thing.

And I'm sitting in this, in this event with him, and now we're doing a push-up challenge.

So we're doing a hundred push.

Like I want to be able to do 100 push-ups by the end of the year.

So yesterday, Doug texted me.

He's like, okay, so what's the requirements for this 100 push-up challenge?

I just go, just do as many push-ups as you can.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You've met some great people.

You've even collaborated with billionaires, royal families since you were 26.

How are you able to connect with such affluent people?

Just reach out.

You know, you're literally cold calling them?

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I'll throw him under the bus because he publicizes his email, but Mark Cuban.

Yeah.

Right.

Like, he publicizes his email.

So what do I do?

I email him, but I don't just email him once.

I email him like, you know, sometimes I email him five times to get a response.

Right.

But I have responses that go back to like 2015.

You know, we were doing a big big NFT project last year.

I ran into him at the four seasons and I'm like, hey, Mark, it's so good to see you.

Like I walked up, like that was one of the few times that I get nervous.

I walked up, I shook his hand.

He was on the elevator.

In hindsight, I was like, I should have got on the elevator.

I should have got in the car with him, drove to the private airport and like, you know, elevator pitched at him.

Yeah.

Right.

But I didn't take that initiative.

And so like.

I don't know.

My friend watched me this morning.

I called 12 people.

One of the guys I called this morning is James, James, one of our strategic partners.

He runs one of the large five crypto trading desks on the planet.

I call this guy every single day.

And every single time he answers and he goes, God, Gordon, you're such a pain in my leave me alone.

I go, hey, I need this.

He's like, okay, you sure you got guys to pull off this deal?

Yes.

Okay.

I'll talk to you later.

But I call him every single day.

And, but I'm just like creating value, right?

Like we send him clients, they trade, we have a strategic partnership.

What I love about James is he had a medical thing a couple years ago and it like completely reframed his entire existence.

Wow.

And so when somebody experiences something like that, it, you know, as a lot of my friends go, health is wealth.

And this is where you at 26 are doing such a good job of investing in genetics testing, investing in these things.

You know, we went and had this incredible $500 dinner last night, and I woke up this morning, go, I feel like I just drank and got ran over by a bus.

I haven't drank in 14 years, and I work out, my joints were stiff, and I'm like, what was in this food?

Seed oils, all kinds of stuff, right?

Like, the oysters were incredible, but the steak, eh, and like, we had clean, like, asparagus and a salad, and like potato, like we didn't have anything that was fried, there wasn't anything yet.

It could have been a salt in the steak or something

that just, you know, completely made, like, changed everything.

Yeah, been there before for sure.

You never know with restaurants these days.

It's hit or miss.

I try not to eat out, actually, unless it's like a dinner I'm organizing, like you said.

But that advice I love.

Whenever I go to a new city, always have a dinner, invite six to eight people, mastermind dinner right now.

Magic happens, right?

Like, and one of the things that I found that's really important is no alcohol.

Because the minute there is alcohol there, the conversation is fractionalized.

Yeah.

And when you're able to have one conversation, that's magic.

And usually, you know,

the sweet spot's under 20.

Under 22 is definitely the max.

But, you know, like we had a house in Miami last year and we would just host lunch twice a week.

And my dad came in and was a private chef.

And it was incredible of just creating community.

And this is one of the things where I've gone really hard the last couple of years is experiences.

People crave experiences, right?

Like this is an experience that we've had because you hit me up on Instagram that no one will ever be able to take from us.

Right.

Or, you know, we go on a trip or we go do this and look, we could all drive whatever nice car.

And,

okay,

it feels cool for like a couple of minutes.

But for me, it goes, how do I have incredible experiences with the coolest people in the world?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And food's one of those where you can eat great places, have chefs, do a bunch of stuff.

And growing up, I never got to eat out.

So for me, getting food with people is very special.

Yeah, I'm curious, what has inspired you down this path and like what was the moment sean where you go this is what i want to do and here's how i want to have the impact yeah that's a great question so my first five six years of entrepreneurship which i think people can relate to this it was all about money what year from what age to what age so i was in college so i was 18 to about 24.

Okay.

All about stacking money.

That was the number one priority.

I put it before health, family, friendships.

Like I sacrificed everything for money, right?

And as a result, you were able to stack a lot.

Yeah, but that came with sacrifice.

Right.

So I gave up my health, didn't go to the gym for five years, barely left the house.

And I just sat there and asked myself, was this worth it?

And, you know, everything happens for a reason.

So I try not to dwell on the past.

But now my mission is to inspire, to educate, you know, this platform, having people like you on, hundreds of other people that share their stories.

I think it's going to change the world.

What do you mean?

You don't think?

It already has.

Yeah.

And this is, I just worked with a bunch of students at Georgia Tech.

And And you know what I told every single one of them, Sean?

Start a podcast.

Every single one of them.

My biggest mistake in my professional career is when I released my first book at 25, Eluding Reality, a memoir about drugs, psych words, and recovery.

I didn't start a podcast then.

And I had a YouTube channel and I was putting out three videos.

Like if you go on Gordon Buffton YouTube channel, like you'll see my early stuff.

It's awful.

Like I set up an iPhone.

I would like do a button-down shirt.

I would would do like three segments.

I would just like switch shirts and I would film it all at the same thing.

And, you know, like, I don't even know if one of them has a thousand views.

Like, these have like 10 views, 20 views, but I left them there.

And if I would have been consistent putting three videos out a week for the last 10 years, I would have millions of subscribers.

Easily.

Yeah.

It's all about consistency.

And podcasting opens so many doors, man.

And so what I told these kids is, look, I will create a studio in a house.

You guys can use it for free.

We will handle everything on the back end.

You get the guess.

Because if you have 50 powerful conversations in the next year, that will build your network.

And then you'll also have, you know, the saying, it's not what you know, it's who you know.

Yeah.

You know what the next level to that quote is?

What?

It's who knows you.

Ooh, I like that.

Millions of people are going to see me for the first time.

There's going to be a lot of people that have seen me for the second, third, fourth, fifth time because of this.

I don't know them,

but they know who I am.

They know part of my story.

They might be inspired by the sobriety.

They might hit me up and want to get clean.

They might want to go to alternative to med center and get off Xanax.

We don't know the impact that our words and our stories can have.

And the trickle-down effect is insane, too, because if you inspire 100 people to start a podcast, they inspire another 100 people inevitably.

This is how we change the world.

And this is why when you ask, like, how do we change the monetary system look if you put your thousand dollars in the bank these guys can legally loan that out 10 times yeah 10 times 10 times so they take your thousand dollars and they loan out ten thousand dollars at a twenty percent interest rate

so they're printing

kind of until no no no

they are for now

you saw a citibank just got bailed out by the fed a couple days ago yeah it's scary i mean some of these big banks are getting bailed out.

Why?

I don't know.

Because their game is almost up.

Because our generation, millennials and Gen Zs, we can see through the lies.

We can see through the deceptions.

Look, a lot of our generation hasn't bought houses.

Why?

Because I watched my parents get kicked out of a multi-million dollar mansion.

I'm 35 years old.

I have never owned a house.

I've lived in multi-million dollar houses.

You just rent?

I don't even like,

it's not even a conception.

Like, I'm I'm able to go to the Middle East for two weeks, close the door on my condo, and I don't care if the AC breaks and there's a waterfall in my condo, which has happened.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think Grant Cardone said we're becoming a renter's nation because the average rent is $1,700, average mortgage is $4,000.

It doesn't make sense.

Yeah.

And, and, you know, people have this narrative.

Okay, so my, my sister just bought a house in Sedona.

for, let's just call it, for round numbers, $500,000.

Okay.

At a 7% interest rate.

Do you know how much money she's going to pay on that house?

30 years.

It's got to be six figures, right?

$900,000 is how much that $500,000 house is going to cost.

Holy crap.

So she didn't just buy a half million dollar house.

She bought a million dollar house.

That's insane.

Yeah, when they were 2%, it made sense, but at 8%, 9%, it's just, it's.

But here's the thing.

You need to live somewhere.

You need to have a home.

Well, you don't need.

I obviously haven't had a home, but one of the things that I crave is a home, a couple homes, right?

And

so they now bought a million dollar house.

But if they, let's say their mortgage is, okay, so you usually want to factor in Florida when we're doing real estate deals, 1%, principal interest, taxes, and insurance.

So they need a budget, say, $5,000 a month for this house.

Okay.

If they pay an extra $500 a month on top of that, they would probably save $250,000 over the course of the loan and only pay $750.

Wow.

So you're basically advising people to pay more.

Yeah.

And it might be an extra $50,000.

50.

It might be $100.

Like one of the things

on my podcast, I had this incredible entrepreneur, Tolin, and she talked about the benefit of compounding interest.

And when she was starting her career, she would make trades of $200,

and the cost to make a trade was $10.

So literally 5%

was going to, say, E-Trade or one of those trades back then.

Okay.

And because of compounding interest, she is now worth tens of millions of dollars because she would reinvest dividends.

She has her 14-year-old daughters are trading.

Dang.

They have their own Robinhood.

And then they're like, oh, I got a $2 dividend from this company.

And then they reinvest it.

And, you know, one of my, one of my dearest friends, Mark Rubin, he, with his girls, he set up Robinhood accounts.

And if they just put $600 every single month into their account, by the time they're 62 years old, they will retire with $1.6 million.

And that's the SP 500.

Right.

Yeah, because 7% a year compounded.

But do you think that's going to stay for 50 years?

Is the real question?

You can afford to spend $600 to see if it's going to work or not.

I personally do not have anything invested in the stock market because I don't believe in the stock market because they have fiduciary interest to increase shareholder wealth.

They don't care about their customers.

They don't care about their clients.

They don't care about the environment and they don't care about their employees.

And so, because of that, all they want to do is make more money for their shareholders.

Isn't it true?

Like, five companies own like 80% of the stock market, something crazy like that.

Yep, yeah.

So, why would you have BlackRock, which is owned by CEOs Larry Fink, you have Vanguard, and then there's one other company I'm drawing a blind-is it Blackstone?

No, so Blackstone has $1 trillion in assets under management.

BlackRock has $11 trillion.

Damn, and so,

yeah,

Larry Fink is the best in the world at corporate tax.

Yeah, I mean, and restructuring corporate debt.

And who knows how much of the real estate market they own?

Probably something, something absurd.

Well, and this goes back to the play in Portland.

I go, this doesn't make sense.

This doesn't make sense why you have such a beautiful city and nobody is using it.

And then they're going to buy all this real estate.

They're going to get the homeless people out.

And then in the next five years, they're going to regentrify it.

The Ritz-Carlton just opened up a brand new property in Portland.

Yeah.

Why would they do that?

So after after traveling the world, you've probably been over 100 countries by now.

What is the world?

Only about 40.

Still a good amount.

What is the world you envision?

Which cultures do you want to pull from and sort of form the perfect society?

The world I envision is one where people are able to be their authentic self.

It's one where they're not controlled by religions or governments.

It's one where we can come together as human beings and celebrate each other.

You might be the world's best artist, or you might be the world's best video game player.

And, you know, our company is called Genius Creators because we're all a genius at something.

Sean is a genius at connecting people and having interviews.

He's a genius, right?

Like one of my geniuses is being able to connect with people.

And when we're in our genius, we think everyone can do it.

Yet they can't.

Not anyone can just email Mark Cuban.

Right?

I nurtured that.

I try it.

I just emailed Tim Cook.

Why?

Because I know what his email is.

Because I Googled it.

Like all I had to do was Google it.

And so I have a tracking system.

I use Superhuman.

So I see he's opening my emails.

He's never responded.

I've sent five emails to him.

So then I go, okay, how's another way I can get access to him?

Well, he works out with a personal trainer at 5 a.m.

every morning.

Okay, well, let me hit up the personal trainer.

But that's like this world that we envision where, you know, we go back to like, we're we're not controlled by money we go back to barter okay like look i have this water bottle with one of our artists did some crazy art in it hey let me give this to you sean so then you could have it on your show versus the win water bottle right like easy stuff like that you might see okay that's valued at a hundred dollars well you know our artist i gave a thousand dollars right right or you might go oh this is now going to get 10 million views every single month of this water bottle i love bartering dude it's so underrated I try to barter.

I try to provide win-wins.

Yeah, I love bartering.

And this is,

I find like so fascinating.

It's so easy to do, right?

Like, you know, Ryan Trant, he basically started with a paperclip.

Like, part of this thing was inspired by him.

He went to Europe with no money, a videographer, and he had to get back to the U.S.

And I'm just watching this content of, you know, he's sketching in parks, of doing portraits.

Like, I made a lot of money on this trip by just some of the art that we did of like quotes and giving to people, or, you know, like I found,

you know, like I would find stuff walking on the road.

Like, I mean, if we, if I empty my pockets right now, I found all this stuff during other than this, during this walk, right?

It's a little coin that says, today, well-lived makes yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope,

right?

24 hours a day.

This is something I got because I love it in Greece.

I spent a lot of time there.

This is a heart that my friend gave me that runs a multi-billion dollar private equity company.

And he goes, this is the heart of brickle.

Wow.

Because I was able to compliment him on his clothes after I'd gotten kicked out of the four season where I spent thousands of dollars.

And the irony of this, Sean, his company owns four four seasons in South Carolina.

Dang.

That's insane.

And he gives me this, and I give him a nickel.

And the next day, he Venmos me $111.11 because he goes, you made my day by giving me that nickel.

Wow.

I remember what it was like to be broke and homeless.

Here's a little something.

Our friend Nick, I go, hey, I'm doing this challenge.

He goes, if you need points, let me know.

Next day, close a VIP client.

The wire hasn't come through.

I go, hey, Nick, can you fly me to Vegas?

He goes, let's go buy the ticket right now.

And now we basically just film seven episodes of a podcast in two days.

Insane.

Because of you.

Yeah.

That's the power of networking and bartering, like you just said.

Right.

And, you know, I showed up here and I like literally like couldn't, the first night I like slept in kind of his lobby because we,

I, we had an issue with the security, right?

And it's just, it's amazing what happens when you help somebody.

Right.

I remember one of my early mentors, we were on a long training run, a man by the name of Cameron Harold.

He goes, Gordon, I had just got done at Iron Man and I was really trying to figure out what I next want to become world world-class at.

And he goes, Gordon, why don't you just become world-class at a friend as being a friend?

And I thought about it.

And he goes, Gordon, why do you do what you do?

I go to help people.

Cameron goes, why do you think I do what I do?

I go to help people.

He goes, if you don't ask me for help, I can't help you.

Therefore, you're depriving me of that feeling good response I get when I help you.

Ask me for help.

Love that, man.

Dude, it's been a super inspiring episode.

Anything you want to close off with or promote?

I would love for you guys to apply for Genius Creators, geniuscreators.org.

So go on there, fill out the applications.

Somebody on our team will reach out to you.

We have different levels, whether it's just a dinner or some of our high-end experiences and communities.

Love for you to check out my book, The Connection Effect, available anywhere books are.

Or if you just send me a note, we can get you a copy.

That is basically all the wisdom of how I'm able to connect with people all around the world in in there.

And the best way to reach me is hit me up on Instagram.

It's GordonBufton8.

So just shoot me a DM.

We get thousands of DMs.

I will respond.

That I'm in.

The team runs the front side, but I'm in the DMs.

So you can easily find all my stuff.

But just reach out.

If we don't respond for the first time, just keep reaching out.

Same thing I've done with these people, right?

But as you're thinking through, go, how can I create value?

How can I create value?

So super grateful for this opportunity, Sean.

Super grateful for the community.

Remember, you're only one introduction, one relationship, one mastermind, one podcast from changing everything about your life.

Absolutely.

You crush it, man.

Thanks for coming on.

Thanks for watching, guys, and I'll see you tomorrow.