7 Companies, 400 Employees, and a $250M Exit Before 30 Years Old | Austin Zaback | EP 57

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Speaker 2 So the companies that I have today all benefit each other, right? And they are all very

Speaker 2 pretty vertically integrated, I would argue. So I initially set out to just build a lot of companies.

Speaker 2 That's what I thought, right? That entrepreneurs did. I'm like, oh, Tony Robbins owns 125 companies, has 8,000 employees.
I need to do that too, right?

Speaker 2 What I didn't understand is that Tony Robbins did that after he got really good at one thing, right? This is like the whole idea of like, you, you, if you chase two rabbits, you catch neither.

Speaker 2 It's like, yeah, that's true. Eventually you can hire somebody to catch the other rabbit for you, though, right? And you just have to catch one.
Right.

Speaker 2 And so, you know, I think making the mistake of like, I owned an ATM company, I owned a marketing company. I owned a golf cart limousine company.
I owned an exotic car rental agency.

Speaker 2 I did a bunch of stuff. That was a mistake.

Speaker 1 What is up, Entrepreneur DNA? Welcome back to another incredible episode. And I'm super excited.
A good friend of mine here in the Phoenix market.

Speaker 1 We know each other because of real estate, but this man is an entrepreneur through and through.

Speaker 1 Seven companies, thousands of real estate transactions each and every year, 400 employees, and it's all before 30 years old. Austin Zayback, what's up, bro?

Speaker 2 Dude, appreciate you having me, Justin. You're the man.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Super excited about this because I think there's something to be said about

Speaker 1 what a lot of people would be calling like the younger generation, right? And I don't even know what generation are you, millennials?

Speaker 2 I think I'm a millennial. A millennial, yeah.

Speaker 1 Millennial. I think.

Speaker 1 So I'm technically like the last year of millennial okay so me too shocker so but I think a lot of people give the the people under 30 this tag of being lazy yep like they just take everything for granted they're entitled whatever right you are literally the epitome of the opposite of that let's talk about it what you know what gave you that drive where does that come from I think it comes from not having what I wanted to have growing up and wanting to make sure that my kids and my future family would never have to deal with what I dealt with.

Speaker 2 Like, I think ultimately for me, it was just a chip on my shoulder, right? Like, I grew up in a garage. I grew up in my grandpa and grandma's garage in Gilbert, Arizona.
The garage is still there.

Speaker 2 We can go FaceTime Live right now, you know. If people don't believe me, I've got pictures of it.
And, you know, I wanted to have a normal family. I didn't have a normal family.

Speaker 2 My grandparents were amazing, but I ultimately wanted to live with my mom and my dad. They didn't want me.
And so, you know, I think, and my grandpa and grandma, they worked very hard.

Speaker 2 They didn't have a lot of money, but they were business owners that worked really hard their whole life and i grew up around that you know and they um and and you know i think as i just got older i i was like i can't be average i just there's just no way i can be average you know i don't want you know like i remember i tried to live with my dad one time okay for a short period of time my dad has a lot of money um but you would never know he's like warren buffett met dave ramsey like you know had a baby right yeah and i remember he told me big big big house i lived with him for one night and that that one night yep that one night um

Speaker 2 he it was like 95 degrees in the house, the middle of August, Queen Creek, Arizona, big, huge house, RV garage, the whole thing, right?

Speaker 2 And I remember walking into his room at like midnight. I'm like, dad, like, we got to turn on the air conditioner.
Like, I'm sweating my, you know, what off, you know?

Speaker 2 And he's like, nope, go jump in the pool and go back to bed. He's like, that's what I do.
He's like, we're not running the air conditioner, right? Wow.

Speaker 2 And so, you know, just the most frugal human being you've ever met in your life. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And so I think it's just a combination of stuff that led to me saying, nope, you know, I'm going to become wealthy.

Speaker 1 yeah and that's that uh you know it's funny i have a similar story of why i'm so driven is because my first mentors were my parents they were alcoholics yeah my dad my mom my stepdad my mom was manic depressive bipolar so that mentorship i just recently made a post about it is a very real mentorship that i don't think people realize and it comes from a place of like you they are teaching you what you don't want

Speaker 1 And there's as much value, if not more, of what you don't want than what you want. If not more.
And so I can totally appreciate your story there, right? Is

Speaker 1 not being felt, seen, heard,

Speaker 1 unwanted, loved. Totally.
Even though as a parent, you're always going to love your kid, but it doesn't take the priority.

Speaker 2 And so it didn't feel that way. Right.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 So I feel as if most people find drive out of the pain. Would you basically say that's your story?

Speaker 2 A million percent.

Speaker 1 The pain was so good, I had to be driven.

Speaker 2 I don't think very many people get their drive from the out of voice. I mean, even today, right? Like if two people stand right next to each other and one person says, Austin, you're killing the game.

Speaker 2 You know, you're 29. Oh my gosh, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? That doesn't motivate me nearly.
I mean, like, that's like 1% motivation compared to the guy standing right next to that guy.

Speaker 2 It says, Austin, you're a piece of crap. And you're not going to, you're at the peak or whatever it is, or you're, you're going to fail, or you can't do it.
That dude,

Speaker 2 that's all the motivation I need right there is that second guy telling me I can't do it. That's right.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And

Speaker 1 funny enough,

Speaker 1 I think it's funny. You have 400 people under this roof.
Yep. Okay.

Speaker 1 Do you lead with motivation of the carrot or the stick?

Speaker 2 You know,

Speaker 2 I think both. It just depends on the time and the season and the place, you know?

Speaker 2 But I think, you know, like there's so much to leadership and the different companies that we run. And it's so interesting because everybody.
You have to lead everybody different, right?

Speaker 2 And like, you know, some people just aren't motivated by what you and me are motivated by. And some people don't have the big goals and aspirations that we have.
You know, I have agents on my team.

Speaker 2 It took me a long time to realize in the retail world that I live in, which is one of the companies that I own, I always thought that every agent wanted to, you know, be the next Ryan Serhant or Josh Altman, right?

Speaker 2 And it took me like a decade to stop forcing that down everybody's throat. Yeah.
Because it dawned on me one day. I'm like, there's a lot of agents that just want to make 50 grand a year.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And they're perfectly okay with that.
That's right.

Speaker 2 And I can't change their mind. That's right.
And so instead, and in order for me to achieve my goals, then it dawned on me, I just need more agents.

Speaker 2 And if I can't get the guy that is making 50K a year to want to make 100, then I just need two guys that want to make 50, right? And so, you know,

Speaker 2 yeah, I think the answer to your question is both from time to time.

Speaker 1 I'll tell you,

Speaker 1 for those people who

Speaker 1 don't aggressively want more,

Speaker 1 it's harder for me to lead.

Speaker 1 Because it's kind of not in alignment with how I am. Sure.
Do you feel the same when, or do you, are you indifferent? Say, you know what? It's totally fine. I don't care if you want 50, you're 50,

Speaker 1 or do you want to continue to pour in and lead that person?

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah, it's really hard for me because I thought for the longest time, and again, it goes back to what I was just saying, I thought everybody on earth was just like me. Yeah.
Right.

Speaker 2 That was my flaw as a leader. You know, I just assumed anytime I walked into a room with my employees or my staff or whoever it might be, that everybody had the same goals that I had.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 2 And it really didn't serve me or them well because, but yeah, it goes back to like me forcing them to be somebody that they don't want to be. And so it is difficult for me, right?

Speaker 2 Because I don't think how they think. And so I have to try to put myself in their shoes and try to,

Speaker 2 you know, do that. But I think now where I'm at is I'm.
I'm leading the leaders and the leaders are leading the people.

Speaker 2 So like I'm not directly engaging with everybody in all my different companies on a day-to-day basis. There's just no possible way I could do that anymore.

Speaker 2 I'm interacting with the leadership team and then they're interacting with the people.

Speaker 1 That's right. Yeah.

Speaker 1 What are your seven companies? What industries? What verticals?

Speaker 2 So a wholesale real estate company. We're either number one, number two wholesaler in the nation.
Depends on how Keegly Corporate's doing right now. I'm not sure.
Love Jamil. Love Hunter.
Love Josiah.

Speaker 2 So we're top wholesale company in the nation, and then we own the number one retail real estate team in the state of Arizona. Soon to be the nation.
We just opened up Florida, Texas, and California.

Speaker 2 We're the first to ever do it. Okay, we're not building our downline.
We do have a downline, but when I say say real estate team, I mean they're on our team. Yeah.
Not just in our downline, right?

Speaker 2 Yeah. So like we have a team.
So we're the number one in Arizona. That's a big company.
We own a mortgage company, title company, a media company, obviously.

Speaker 2 And then I own two flipping companies and then an education company, actually. So

Speaker 1 yeah, I love it. And we're in your studio.
So

Speaker 1 this episode, everybody, is being shot in Austin's studio as I'm here in Seattle, Arizona.

Speaker 1 Okay, so you just talked about how you have all these different companies. They're all essentially in the real estate vertical.
They are.

Speaker 2 Every one of them, which I made that mistake a long time ago. You probably saw me make that mistake because we knew each other, right? I did the golf carts.
I did the APM. I did the ATM.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did all that crap.
And I think that was a mistake looking back.

Speaker 2 You know, I think that I could have been further along in the real estate world had I not kept going off course and building all these other companies that had nothing to do with real estate.

Speaker 2 That's right.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
So, I mean, they're somewhat vertically integrated to some extent,

Speaker 1 but also separate, separate,

Speaker 1 which I think is the challenge with people these days is they don't actually know what they want. And obviously, you are under 30 years old.
You're 29 years old,

Speaker 1 turning 30 this year.

Speaker 1 And you own seven companies. You have an executive team.
You have 400 people under your leadership and guidance as a whole.

Speaker 1 But I think it's because you were able to find clarity in the direction you wanted to go.

Speaker 1 I think a lot of people, especially in the younger years, there's no clarity right now.

Speaker 1 Talk to us about like how you kind of woke up or found like, okay, if I can find some

Speaker 1 clarity, and the word I really want to use is,

Speaker 1 well, clarity is probably the best word for right now, but like,

Speaker 1 and how that has changed your trajectory within business.

Speaker 2 Well, I think if you don't know where you want to go, how are you going to get there, right? Yeah. So, you know, it's like if

Speaker 2 you're just getting your car and you want and you're like, just started driving, but you had no destination, then where are you going to end up? Right. Like, who knows?

Speaker 2 I mean, maybe right back where you started. I don't know, you know?

Speaker 2 So I think, you know, you have to know where you want to go. And I think where you want to go can change, though, too.
That's the other part of it. Is I think when I got into entrepreneurship, okay,

Speaker 2 I'm just going to say it because I know there's a lot of people probably watching, Justin, that are going to be like I was back then, but I just wanted to make a lot of money.

Speaker 2 I wasn't this guy initially, day one, when I was 18 years old. I'm 29 now, been a full-time entrepreneur for 11, going on 12 years.

Speaker 2 But at the end of the day, I just wanted to make a lot of money. I didn't, at that time, I wasn't thinking about going on mission trips.
I wasn't thinking about charity.

Speaker 2 I wasn't thinking about, you know, any of that, dude. I was thinking about a Lamborghini.

Speaker 1 But you still want to make a lot of money.

Speaker 2 A million percent. But now I've gone on three mission trips.
I'm a, you know, I do a lot for the church. I do a lot for philanthropy.

Speaker 2 Our companies, you know, are very generous in a lot of things that we do. And now it isn't the money that drives me anymore.
The money used to actually physically drive me. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Where now what drives me, I think, is the achievement,

Speaker 2 helping people.

Speaker 2 Like, dude, there's nothing, and you know this better than anybody, when I walk out onto my floor, which I don't even think you've been out there yet, I'll show you in a little while, and I see a 20-year-old making 70 grand a month that used to work a Safeway or whatever the case might be.

Speaker 2 Like, dude, that gets me fired up, bro.

Speaker 2 Way more than walking out and seeing a Lamborghini in the parking lot that's mine.

Speaker 2 I want to see a Lamborghini in the parking lot that is somebody that works underneath my umbrella that I helped achieve that. Nothing gets me fired up like that.
So I think that's my drive now.

Speaker 2 And that's my goal now. So I got clear on that as time went along, right? But in the beginning, I was very clear on one thing.
I wanted to make a lot of money.

Speaker 2 And I never wanted to tell my kids one day, no.

Speaker 2 I never wanted it to be Christmas morning and my kids to want something and me to say, hey, you know, your daddy didn't work hard enough on his goals and dreams 20 years ago.

Speaker 2 So therefore, you can't have that toy. I never wanted those words to come out of my mouth.

Speaker 1 Yeah. You know, you will want to have to say I'm in that season right now where saying no is actually really difficult.
Million words that is really difficult, but you have to. Yeah, of course.

Speaker 1 But listen, you know,

Speaker 1 people will criticize me or others about talking about money or being money hungry, and you said it the right way.

Speaker 1 The reasons for wanting to make a lot of money can change. They can.

Speaker 1 Initially, just like you, it was more just like, I wanted the nice things, whether it's a car or whatever, right?

Speaker 1 But you get to a place where you're like, no, I still want to make a lot of money. I'm still willing to work really hard to go make a lot of money because I want to be able to finance a church.

Speaker 1 I want to be able to finance a mission. I want to be able to do something where the tool of money changes why I'm making it.
True. Right.

Speaker 1 But that takes maturity. And like I was joking before we went live, you are lightning years beyond where I was at at 29, right? I was making a lot of money, so I'd go to Old Town and spend it.
Right.

Speaker 1 Or go to Vegas and spend it. That's why I wanted to make a lot of money.
And there's a tool for that, right? I would tell you, everyone has seasons.

Speaker 1 We have a mutual friend going through a season we were just talking about, right? I mean, there's seasons to all this.

Speaker 1 um, but again, getting the clarity that we were talking about is really impactful.

Speaker 2 I agree, and it will change too, Justin. And you know that, right? Because I, I didn't, like, at the time, if you'd have asked me when I was 18, like, will it ever change?

Speaker 2 I'd have been like, nah, dude, I just want to make, you know, I just want to be a billionaire, right? But it just does change.

Speaker 2 It's like, you don't even have to try for your like thing to change or what motivates you to change. It just will change

Speaker 2 over time. So it's like, I tell young people in particular, hey, if money's your goal, there's nothing wrong with that.
That's right. Right.
You're 20 years old, 25 years old.

Speaker 2 There's nothing wrong with putting a Lamborghini poster on your wall and wanting a nice car to be what drives you because it will change once you get that car and you drive down the road and you have a bad day in that car.

Speaker 2 You never thought you would, and you will, right? I remember there were a lot of days where I was unhappy driving my Lamborghini down the road. Yep.
You know?

Speaker 1 Well, yeah, and that kind of stuff isn't fulfilling, right? I mean, there's always something, there's always something more. I want to dive into you have seven businesses, but

Speaker 1 why?

Speaker 1 Why did you decide to go this big? I mean, you can make a lot of money with one company. Yeah.
Right. And extreme focus, that was one of the words I wanted to use.

Speaker 1 Extreme focus can create extreme results. Sure.

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Speaker 2 So the companies that I have today all benefit each other, right? And they are all very

Speaker 2 pretty vertically integrated, I would argue. So I initially set out to just build a lot of companies.

Speaker 2 That's what I thought, right, that entrepreneurs did. I'm like, oh, Tony Robbins owns 125 companies, has 8,000 employees.
I need to do that too, right?

Speaker 2 What I didn't understand is that Tony Robbins did that after he got really good at one thing, right? This is like the whole idea of like,

Speaker 2 if you chase two rabbits, you catch neither. It's like, yeah, that's true.
Eventually, you can hire somebody to catch the other rabbit for you, though, right? And you just have to catch one.

Speaker 2 And so, you know, I think making the mistake of like, I owned an ATM company, I owned a marketing company. I owned a golf cart limousine company.
I own an exotic car rental agency.

Speaker 2 I did a bunch of stuff. That was a mistake, right?

Speaker 2 Now, fast forward to where I'm at today, the seven companies. So wholesale and retail do deals with each other all the time, right? I was an agent that was a huge wholesaler.

Speaker 2 And so I was like, it kind of just happened. It was like, oh, I'm going to build, I want to be the number one wholesaler, but why not build a huge real estate team as well?

Speaker 2 Because I understand both worlds at a really high level, right? And we pass deals back and forth all the time. Our agent goes on a listing appointment.

Speaker 1 Bring a cash offer with you, right?

Speaker 2 A wholesaler is talking to a seller on the phone, direct to seller. And, you know, sellers talking about how they want to sell.
Cash offer doesn't work. Great.
Refer that to our agent.

Speaker 2 Why not meet all of that under one umbrella? That's why one of our companies is called One Roof, right? Because it was the idea of, hey, we're going to do multiple different things under one roof.

Speaker 2 We're here to solve a problem, right?

Speaker 1 right?

Speaker 2 And then, you know, when you look at like the media company, it was like, okay, we talked about it on your podcast a little while ago.

Speaker 2 My brand is the reason that any of this even exists to begin with. I wouldn't be here without my brand, period.
I wouldn't know my partners that I have in my different companies without my brand.

Speaker 2 I wouldn't have any of my people without my brand. Like nothing would have happened without the brand, right? That's right.

Speaker 2 And so by the very nature of me pouring time, money, and energy into my brand.

Speaker 2 You know, other people were like, hey, Austin, you have all these really cool podcast sets.

Speaker 2 You've got a quarter of a million dollars worth of equipment in between this studio that studio training room you know can we use it and I'm like well I can't film all the time that's right so what is my full-time team doing when I'm not filming of course they have a lot of editing and stuff to do but I'm like yeah come use our stuff so that kind of turned into Zaybac media of like hey you know we can service other people now we service you know quite a few people right the education can't uh the education company you know we teach wholesaling right that was a passion project I actually told myself I would never educate because I had a really bad taste in my mouth for many, many, many years when it came to the world of education.

Speaker 2 But it just happened by happenstance. You know, I'm like, okay, I legitimately own a massive wholesale company.
Like we do a lot of deals nationwide.

Speaker 2 And so a lot of people are always asking me to teach them. I may as well teach them, right? That again, vertically integrated.

Speaker 2 Mortgage and title, same thing, you know, on the retail side of real estate,

Speaker 2 you know, you, the money's not in the deals necessarily when you're a team leader, right?

Speaker 2 When you run a big team and you're working with people like Zillow and you're working with all these different vendor partners and stuff,

Speaker 2 the profit margins aren't great unless you have the ancillary. So, if you don't have your own mortgage company, you don't have your own title company, you have these different things.

Speaker 2 Insurance is a big one. We own an insurance company as well.

Speaker 2 Then, you know, you're not going to be very profitable. Therefore, you're not going to be able to really grow or scale, right? So, that was kind of a necessity by building that company.

Speaker 2 And then, the flipping company that I own,

Speaker 2 same thing, right? It was like, well, we're huge wholesalers and occasionally we have a deal where it's just kind of like, we can't not buy it. Like, I have to buy it.

Speaker 2 Like, I look at it, it comes across my desk, and I'm like, dude, I'd be an idiot to wholesale that thing. Yeah.
You know, like, I have to buy it.

Speaker 2 And so, you know, we have to have the flipping company.

Speaker 1 Do you consider that two companies, wholesaling and flipping? Totally. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Two, yeah, because it's different people.

Speaker 2 The processes are different.

Speaker 2 Everything about it is complete, the way that I run it at least.

Speaker 2 I mean, maybe for somebody else, it could be one and the same if they're a one-man guy, you know, they're out there doing it themselves.

Speaker 2 But the way that I run it, you know, my wholesale team knows nothing about my flipping team. My flipping team knows nothing about the wholesale.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You know, so I think it's really respectable to go do business where you have bolt-on businesses. Respectable is not the word, really smart, right?

Speaker 1 And I think we all can agree that sometimes the main thing isn't always the most profitable thing. But if you have the bolt-ons that can support the main thing, it becomes this big,

Speaker 1 great thing. Yeah.
And I, you know, I applaud you for being able to kind of vertically integrate.

Speaker 1 I do remember the season you were in when you had like seven different businesses going seven different ways. I'm like, I don't get it, but it's your journey.

Speaker 2 I didn't get it either.

Speaker 1 I'm cool with it.

Speaker 1 Yeah. You know, and that was a fun time.
I remember being on that podcast as well. That was cool.

Speaker 2 It was.

Speaker 1 So talk to me about what you see. Obviously, most besides the media company, I think we're all within the real estate space.
What do you see? You had me on your episode.

Speaker 1 You asked me this question, but what do do you see? Let me ask you back.

Speaker 1 The next two to four years look like in the real estate space.

Speaker 2 Well, you know, I think they look very, very good. I think I agree basically with everything that you said a little while ago.

Speaker 2 You know, I think that I would be very surprised if there was any big market crash or anything like that. You see all the YouTube clickbait, right?

Speaker 2 You know, and I love Graham Stephan and guys like that, but, you know, the market is crashing, right? It's always the market is crashing. I don't think the market is going to crash, okay?

Speaker 2 Again, just my opinion. Could crash tomorrow.
Totally. Nobody knows.
Nobody has a crystal ball. I personally highly doubt that it will anytime in the near future.

Speaker 2 People have way too much equity in their homes. The market they're in right now is completely different than the market.
People always compare like today to 08. And it's like totally different, right?

Speaker 2 Like, I mean, you live through that.

Speaker 1 It's not even close.

Speaker 2 So, you know, I think that, sure, eventually, yeah, the, you know, history will eventually repeat itself.

Speaker 2 It'll be cyclical. Eventually, I'm sure we're going to have a market correction, right? Do I think it'll be tomorrow? No.

Speaker 2 You know, I think as long as we have the, you know, depending on when this airs, Trump might already be in office, right?

Speaker 2 Whether you voted for him or you didn't vote for him, I think he'll be good for the world of real estate because he's a real estate guy. That's right.
So you don't have to like the guy.

Speaker 2 If you're a real estate guy, I think he'll be good for you because I think he's going to make sure that the market does well.

Speaker 1 What I said on your podcast, what I didn't actually mention, the refined thought I have, why I think in year three, he'll actually bring the Fed rate down to zero is because what happens to real estate when loans are cheap?

Speaker 2 People buy a lot of real estate and real estate prices go way up.

Speaker 1 Of course. What does he own a lot of?

Speaker 2 Real estate.

Speaker 1 So I believe by year three, the smartest thing he'll ever do maybe in business

Speaker 1 is lower it to zero. Totally.
Make loans cheap again. Prices go up and he'll put an extra two to five billion dollars to his net worth minimum.
Easy. By that one little thing.

Speaker 2 Than anybody that owns real estate.

Speaker 1 Right. And I'm just like, so it's almost almost inevitable

Speaker 1 that at some point in this four-year journey that he's going to be on, he will make the interest rates drop. Now, a lot of people were thinking like, oh, man, now we're going to get back.

Speaker 1 It's not going to be in the first year. No, you and I can agree on that.
I mean, there's just too much he has to unwind.

Speaker 2 I don't even think interest rates, I think they'll bet, they might come down to half a point, maybe total in the whole year of 25.

Speaker 1 Yeah, maybe. Maybe.
I think we live in the space we're in right now. Like wherever we are right now, like the DSCR, I just got approved at seven and a half.

Speaker 2 That's where we're going to live for a while.

Speaker 1 I think we're going to live there for the rental stuff.

Speaker 1 If you had to start all over, and I know you're really young, so

Speaker 1 take it for a grain of salt because I think you're going to go through a lot of iterations of what you want to grow and develop and focus on, right? I agree.

Speaker 1 And respectfully, 30 to 40, it's a lot of years. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And you'll get there.

Speaker 1 And I can't wait. I can't wait to be a friend of yours on this journey because you've built something so great already.

Speaker 1 And I can't wait to see the iterations of what you do and don't do and as business owners right i have multiple business too it's not always puppy dogs and roses right you don't walk around shitting gold and saying oh seven companies print money is the easiest thing in the world right

Speaker 1 um

Speaker 1 but what do you think the next iteration looks like for you is it just grow more of what you have is it maybe shed a little do you think there's an iteration of where you're going in the next decade a couple of the companies we own i think are sellable okay and i think we intend to sell within the next three years nice

Speaker 2 So I think we're really proud of them. Have an exit.
I want to have an exit. I will have an exit.
Are you able to talk about which ones those are the space is one of the companies, my retail team.

Speaker 2 You know, it's never been done, but what we're doing has never been done. Right.
So we essentially right now effectively have something that has never been done.

Speaker 2 We're a real estate team, not a downline, a team, operated in four different states across the United States, and we're the fastest growing team in the nation, right?

Speaker 2 And we have some of the biggest channel accounts. Our processes are bar none.
I mean, it's unparalleled to any team out there, period. End of conversation.

Speaker 2 It's just a very well-oiled machine, and nobody's ever done that before.

Speaker 1 People build brokerages all the time. Yeah.

Speaker 2 It's a different story, right? I'm talking about a team. A lot of people, Jason Mitchell, right? A lot of people become a team and then they eventually become a brokerage.
They don't stay a team.

Speaker 2 We fully intend on staying a team.

Speaker 1 So your brokerage is who? Who do you handle? LPT. LPT, we talked about it.
LPT Realty.

Speaker 2 So I think that we can sell that company, and I think we can sell it for a quarter of a billion dollars, if not more. So we're working on that.

Speaker 2 You know, we have a three-year game plan of exactly how to get there.

Speaker 1 Who do you sell to? Like a

Speaker 2 Zillow. You sell to somebody like that, private equity or Zillow.

Speaker 2 Somebody in that ballpark of things. Yeah.
Interesting. Yeah.
So, and we've talked a lot about it. We sat down with some really big people, and I think that that's totally doable.

Speaker 2 You know, so that's the goal with that company.

Speaker 2 You know, with wholesaling, it's just, I think you're like, we can, we can probably get my partners and me think that we can probably do 20 million a year wholesaling.

Speaker 1 No kidding. And that's it.

Speaker 2 After that, you can't go any bigger.

Speaker 1 So there's, and I don't know if you know of him, but what used to be secretly by far the largest wholesaler. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Tragedy, tragic story, if you know who I'm talking about. But I actually don't think I know him.
I'm blanking on the company's name,

Speaker 1 but he wasn't, didn't want to be known. Really? Unfortunately, he did it.
in a bad way, took on too much debt and ended his life. So

Speaker 2 that's sad, right? He's really overcome

Speaker 2 But I don't know

Speaker 1 anyone coming close to 20 million in the wholesale space.

Speaker 1 I don't think Keegly even does that as a franchise.

Speaker 2 Not Keegly Corporate. I mean,

Speaker 2 you can't look at the franchises, though, because that's not one wholesale company. That's true.
That's 170 wholesale companies.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 2 So you can't, that doesn't,

Speaker 2 when I compare, when I say like we're number one or number two or whatever, I would only be comparing to Keegly Corporate,

Speaker 2 not the Keegly franchises. That's right.
Right. And again, I love all the owners of Keegly.

Speaker 1 I've known them literally forever. And I think we're hopefully, I think, the world, and I know I am.
I'm more on this collaborative effort than competition. Sure.
So, oh, we collaborate all the time.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I don't care. I would rather make $10 with Austin and you take five and I'll take five than go make $10.

Speaker 2 Keegly every day. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. So

Speaker 1 you have potential to sell a real estate team. That's why I'm like, because it's never been done.

Speaker 1 I've never even thought you could do it.

Speaker 1 Why would Zillow buy it?

Speaker 1 Or a private equity? Why?

Speaker 2 Zillow, Zillow,

Speaker 2 why Zillow would buy it is because

Speaker 2 they're trying to gain total control anyways, right?

Speaker 2 Like when you really look and you start getting under the hood of what Zillow is actually doing right now and what they've been doing for a really long time, like take Arizona, for example.

Speaker 2 You know, Arizona used to be

Speaker 2 you could have flex, okay, which is like you get leads from Zillow and you don't pay them for the leads.

Speaker 2 You pay them off the top of the commission when you close the deal Okay, or you could do premier agent Which is I pay for leads in a zip code You give me leads and I make what I make and and that's that right and then it became just a flex only market Arizona did right which is which is off the top which is just off the top It's the only option you can't pay for leads It's just off the top and then they closed the the program and they're like okay We have a hundred teams or whatever they had at the time on flex in the whole market, right?

Speaker 2 And they've been cutting it. And I think we're down to about 15 teams in the entire state of Arizona on Zillow, okay?

Speaker 2 We're the number one team on Zillow in the state of Arizona. And we're going to continue to do that.
And so like, that's one, but like now they have ZHL, okay, which is Zillow home loan.

Speaker 2 So all this is getting tracked, right? So like if my team, if we stop sending our,

Speaker 2 if, if Zillow sends us a lead, okay,

Speaker 2 and we don't give ZHL the at-bat to get the loan on that lead, then we, if we do that enough times, we would eventually lose Zillow. Yeah.
Okay. So Zillow's becoming really, for lack of better terms,

Speaker 2 a monopoly. I mean, they want to own every aspect of

Speaker 2 the transaction, right? And so what better than to eventually own the number one team in America that already is getting, they're already the number one team on Zillow for everything.

Speaker 2 We're already paying them 35% on any of the leads that come from them.

Speaker 2 We've proven the model at scale more than anybody in the world. They're the perfect candidate, in my opinion.

Speaker 2 And they have the money to do it.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Interesting.
I like that. I like that.
So sell one or two. Yep.
What next? Again, that's shedding.

Speaker 1 So you're going for an exit. So you're shedding.

Speaker 1 Do you think there's you have the want or desire? And by the way, you may not know the answer, but you're so young. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And I've done similar things, right? Where I've built big.

Speaker 1 And then I've shedded and considered building big. And, you know, we have a tech company, I believe will be a very big, big, big, big company with an exit.

Speaker 1 What do you think will happen? Do you think when you shed, you'll want more? Or do you think you?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, there's two things. I either want to get big into like what you're doing, which would be multifamily real estate and go big, dive deep into that world, right?

Speaker 2 And the reason I haven't yet is because I'm kind of an all-in or all-out kind of guy. Yeah.
And so once I do that, like it's got, I got to do it big. I just have to, you know.

Speaker 2 So I don't want to do it until I have the bandwidth because bandwidth is really the thing that you got to be careful with, right?

Speaker 1 Totally.

Speaker 2 Like my bandwidth is minimal.

Speaker 2 My calendar is jam-packed all the time. So I'm trying to like kind of figure out where I have the time to kind of like allocate to different things.

Speaker 2 But I could see myself eventually doing what you're doing, what Grant Cardone's doing, what Zach Haptenstahl, the guy that I was telling you about a little while ago, is doing.

Speaker 2 And really going and raising some really serious capital and buying some really big deals and like blowing that out of the water, right?

Speaker 2 And doing it better than anybody. And so I think I could could do that.
I also really want to get into home services.

Speaker 2 So I've become good friends with a lot of big home service guys in DeValley and abroad. And Cameron's a good buddy of mine now.
He just sold Green Mango. Okay.

Speaker 2 Pest control for nine figures. And,

Speaker 2 you know, and so, and he's a really good friend now. And Tommy Mellow and all these different people that, and Cody obviously just started Floor Daddy, right? We both know Cody.

Speaker 2 So, you know, home services would be the easiest thing for me to break into because i already have the the database of people that would that would use the service like we sell we sell 1100 houses a year just in arizona this year we'll sell 2 000 or 3 000 homes just in arizona is there a reason you're going to do that right now bandwidth yeah That's all bandwidth.

Speaker 1 Because then I would start to vibe like, bro, you got it.

Speaker 2 Bandwidth. You know, I would do it tomorrow if I had more bandwidth.

Speaker 1 Well, if you had the right executive,

Speaker 1 would that be worth you going and finding an A-level executive, paying them a $150,000 grand a year with bumps and incentives to go start that right now? Probably. Yeah.
Probably. I think, I think

Speaker 1 you still have to be involved, though. Oh, no.
It's still your company.

Speaker 1 Let's bring it to another question I want to ask. You have business partners.
Yeah, I do. How many?

Speaker 2 Total?

Speaker 2 I have different partners than every company that I own.

Speaker 1 So every company you have a partner on?

Speaker 2 Yep. Okay.
Every company.

Speaker 1 Is it a 50-50 type world? Yeah, a lot of, some of them are. Yeah.
Uh-huh.

Speaker 1 Well, all of them or some of them?

Speaker 2 There's a handful that I own less than 50, and there's some I own more than 50.

Speaker 1 Okay. Yeah.
That's fair. So

Speaker 1 why partners? Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 Well, let's answer that. Why partners?

Speaker 2 You have to have them. I mean, you can't.
You can't, in my opinion, do anything at scale without people at the yin and the yang. I mean, I'm only good at what I'm good at, right?

Speaker 2 I mean, you have two options.

Speaker 2 You can either hire really good executives, to your point, and maybe you can try to give them a dangle a carrot and say, say hey i'll give you a couple percent uh equity or hey if we have an acquisition you know we'll give you some shares and if we ever sell you know we'll make sure you're taken care of but at some point i think a lot of executives um it can be difficult to find well first of all if you're a startup entrepreneur you can't afford to pay a quarter of a million to have an executive so partners are free So a lot of times when you're first starting out as an entrepreneur, you can't afford to have an executive.

Speaker 1 You have to bring in a partner because you don't have to pay your partner. That's right.

Speaker 2 They just get paid on equity, right? When you get paid, they get paid. And so I think initially that's why I brought in a lot of partners.

Speaker 2 But then as I continue to scale, it kind of just dawned on me that like I like doing business. Like I like, I like doing life with people first.
Sure. All my partners are Christian.

Speaker 1 All my partners love God.

Speaker 2 All my partners are amazing, just spectacular human beings, every one of them. Like they're just truly phenomenal human beings.
There's zero stress, no anxiety. I don't like wake up in the morning.

Speaker 2 I'm like, what does my partner think of me today? You know, it's like, no, like the the Bible's the foundation. I know exactly what they're thinking that day without even knowing what's on their mind.

Speaker 2 Right. And so, we all are very good friends and we're doing life together.
You know, I think that's very important. And I don't need to own 100% of anything.
I mean, Elon Musk owns what, 16% of Tesla.

Speaker 2 Jeff Bezos, I think, owns 12 or 13% of Amazon or somewhere in that ballpark. And I think that, you know, at the end of the day, bring in people that are good at what you're not good at.

Speaker 2 You know, I'm not an integrator. I'm not a good ops guy.
I'm really not even a good CEO.

Speaker 2 I'm good at being maybe the president of the company, which is what I am now for a lot of the companies that I own. I'm the president.
I'm not the CEO of my wholesale company anymore. My partner is.

Speaker 2 I still own the majority of that company, but I'm not the CEO.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 I don't think I would be a good CEO for that company. I'm good at this.

Speaker 1 That's it. I mean, there's definitely roles.
And I think I saw around here like traction and

Speaker 1 rocket fuel in those books. Can talk further into that.
Great books, by the way.

Speaker 1 Would you tell someone starting out to go go get a partner?

Speaker 2 I think it just depends on like what they're doing, you know, and

Speaker 2 what the goals and stuff are. I think if you're, if the goal is to do it really big, then yeah, I would get it, I would find a good partner.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 Because you're, this is something you're going to be building for a really long time if you plan to do it really big. And the odds are not very high that you're going to do it all by yourself.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 So, you know, I think I would go get a partner. Now, I wouldn't rush getting a partner.
I've done that before. I just, in 2024, I actually bought one of my partners out of one of my companies.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 And it was very painful. Very, very, very painful.

Speaker 2 Devin, actually, who's in the room, knows that because we talked about it, you know, just a little bit. But, you know, that was a painful thing.
And

Speaker 2 he's an amazing human being, but it just wasn't, it wasn't the right fit anymore, you know? And that was a tough conversation that I had to have. And then I had to write a check, right?

Speaker 2 To buy him out, you know.

Speaker 2 You know, you got to get in business with the right people. I've made that mistake and you don't want to make that mistake.

Speaker 2 So if you're sitting there and you're you're like, I need a partner, that's cool.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 2 But take your time. Take your freaking time.
That's right. And the last thing I'll say is don't partner with the same person that you are.

Speaker 2 Like if you're a visionary, you don't need a visionary partner. Yeah.
You need an integrator. That's right.
Like go read rocket fuel, read traction, like, you know, whatever. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So I have a slightly different point of view on that only because

Speaker 1 what you just said. Yeah.
So I just went through a partnership exit that was terrible. Awesome.

Speaker 1 And I think when people are starting out, they tend to lean towards less partner because I don't want to do this alone. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's a lot more on the level of insecurity and unsure and it feels better to do with and more safe and like

Speaker 1 probably more energy to. I just think it's the wrong reason to do it.
I agree.

Speaker 1 Now, if you're working full-time and like your time's limited or there's a strategic, like maybe someone's the finance partner and that's what they're bringing because you don't, there's reasons.

Speaker 1 I just don't love when people are starting things that they go out and partner with their boy because,

Speaker 1 you know, let's just do it together. It's more fun.
I definitely would be there. Yeah.
Strategically, right? You and I doing a strategic partner on something would make a whole lot of sense, right?

Speaker 1 But it's because there's value on both sides of the equation.

Speaker 2 And that's what I mean by going and getting a partner. Like, you need to strategically find a partner that's going to bring real value to the table.

Speaker 1 Like, I would say if you were going to do a service company, I wouldn't tell you to go get a partner. And the reason why is you are financially financially at a place where hiring that CEO

Speaker 1 would be a better financial move. So you do have the control.

Speaker 1 Now, I'm not saying over time, maybe there isn't that play, or maybe you would partner with someone who already has it going and you can use your brand, your influence, your authority to build a bigger business on something that's maybe struggling.

Speaker 1 And so you almost do a M ⁇ A type move with someone who's not doing as well and then your brand can escalate. That would be smart for you.
It would, yeah. And I thought about that.

Speaker 1 That actually is something I'd tell you to look into more.

Speaker 2 I've been looking into it. Yeah.
Yeah. I got to pick the industry.
I've got to pick. I know I want to do home service.

Speaker 2 One of my buddies just sold a plumbing company for nine figures.

Speaker 2 You know, you got pest control. He's a good dear buddy of mine, nine figures.
Tommy Mello, I think, just sold part of his company for $400,050 million.

Speaker 2 Should be worth a billion soon. It's pretty wild, A1 Garage.

Speaker 2 So yeah, you know, it's like pool cleaning. I owned a pool cleaning company when I was younger.
So I understand understand that game really well.

Speaker 2 The guy that just sold the pest control company, Cameron, Green Mango, he sold a pool company, but he said, he told me he's like, don't do pools.

Speaker 2 So, and there's a lot, we won't get into why, but so I don't know that I'll do that.

Speaker 2 I might actually do pest. We'll see.
We got to play it by year. I might do termite.
I might do pest. I might go into that, that arena.
Yeah. So we'll play it by year.

Speaker 1 I think, you know, I think what I would say sitting here and watching you now for a decade, I remember when we met in your journey.

Speaker 1 And I would tell you, if you guys aren't aren't following Austin, first and foremost, you got to follow this man. Make sure he has a podcast.

Speaker 1 He has so much cool stuff that he can just deliver with true value.

Speaker 1 So I appreciate who you've become, but I'm really looking forward to this episode and doing this at least every year or so and just being able to look back, dude, because you are incredible of what you've built as an entrepreneur already.

Speaker 1 I appreciate you. And you've had iterations of it.
And I want to kind of see this journey.

Speaker 1 Because if I have to play a gut guess right now, I think you're going to get a place with your wife, who's an incredible human, that you're going to actually probably shed more and you grow. Probably.

Speaker 1 And I say that in a great way.

Speaker 2 I can see that.

Speaker 1 Because I actually think with your skill set, if you actually harnessed your skill set into more of a one or two vertical type thing, I think the sky's the limit. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Plus, I'm not telling you not to.

Speaker 2 I got guys like you in my corner, you know?

Speaker 2 So, yeah, I mean, I'm going to be calling you to get advice and all the other people that have more wisdom than me at the end of the day, that have been on earth longer than me.

Speaker 1 Fucked up more.

Speaker 2 There you go. But that's what it takes, though.
Brother, of course. You know what I mean? Like, you got more wit.
You've been on earth longer than I have. That's it.

Speaker 2 You know, you've been through more than I have.

Speaker 1 More shit sandwiches than you. You know what I mean? There you go.
There's no doubt.

Speaker 2 You know, so yeah.

Speaker 1 Dude, I appreciate you. It's going to be a fun ride, dude.
And I'm going to be in your corner the whole way, dude. And thank you again for coming on.
And thank you for coming.

Speaker 1 And it's going to be a fun journey. Again, everyone, make sure you go follow Austin Zayback on all his social medias, his YouTube channel, everything he has.
He is just a true giver.

Speaker 1 And I appreciate you being on, bro. I appreciate you, bro.

Speaker 2 Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 If you are watching this and this meant something to you, please share this with two people. If you're listening to it, share it with two people.

Speaker 1 Make sure you give a five-star review and keep sharing the love. Have a great 2025.