Why Smart Realtors Focus on Wealth, Not Just Commissions | John Gafford

26m

Press play and read along

Runtime: 26m

Transcript

Speaker 1 At Capella University, learning the right skills could make a difference. That's why our business programs teach you relevant skills you can take from the course room to the workplace.

Speaker 1 A different future is closer than you think with Capella University.

Speaker 2 Learn more at capella.edu.

Speaker 3 Understand that what got you here today is probably not what's going to be there tomorrow because the real estate industry overall, the markets fluctuate so much between interest rates and housing prices and demand and all of those things that go into this crazy thing that we do,

Speaker 3 that you can't become a one-trick pony. And it's like surfing, dude.
You've got to keep your eyes on the horizon for that next wave.

Speaker 3 And if people ask what my secret of success in real estate is, it's that I've always been able to catch the next wave.

Speaker 4 What is up, Science of Flipping Family? I am super fired up because I have a very close friend of mine and he is the man in Las Vegas.

Speaker 4 Not only is he a real estate investor and a master real estate investor, he owns a brokerage, hard money title. He is vertically integrated.
If anyone should be on this podcast, it's about damn time.

Speaker 4 We got John Gafford here.

Speaker 3 What's up, man? Dude, it is about time. I think we spend more time next to each other on the chart, on the podcast charts.
That's right. We actually do in the same room.
That's right.

Speaker 3 Isn't that crazy? We do.

Speaker 4 And we've become incredibly close over the last year. And that is the best part of these podcasts.
I'm sure you could probably say, is like the relationships I get built because of podcasting.

Speaker 4 Oh, totally.

Speaker 3 Unreal. Totally.
Unreal. No, completely.
I think that, you know, when people ask me why I do my podcast, it's the first answer is 100% always to grow my network.

Speaker 3 It's just, there's no better reason.

Speaker 3 And when you sit with somebody like this for any amount of time and you talk about their favorite subject, which is themselves, it's kind of hard for them not to have some sort of an affinity for you by the time they walk out the doors.

Speaker 3 No doubt. Absolutely.

Speaker 4 And it opens up so many doors, right? People, so I told you previously, like. People are asking me all the time now because of the level of success, should I do it? And my answer is hell yeah.

Speaker 3 Well, dude, we take, I mean, the room you're sitting in right now, right? This is how serious I am about it. We're sitting in my podcast studio, which is actually in my office.
Yep.

Speaker 3 And all of my agents can use this whenever they want. Like this is, they just book it and they come in and we don't charge them.

Speaker 3 And I'm trying to encourage as many of them to do this as we can because it's such a great medium to, even if you're not trying to get like national guests like you and I tend to have, but even if you're just in business, is let's say you're a realtor, right?

Speaker 3 And in your sphere, you've got all of these folks that have like small businesses or you're a lawyer or you're a cpa whatever having them on and showing them that you're trying to promote their business and help them that's right well now they become very indebted to you and that law of reciprocity becomes real and they want to not just use you with for their next property but you're also very much so top of mind for anybody in their sphere that might want to do so absolutely and then they start thinking about oh john gafford has this that like and then their friend their colleague says something you're top of mind because of this yeah oh for sure and it brands you.

Speaker 4 It creates credibility. It creates influence.
It creates authority.

Speaker 4 I mean, I literally, if you are out there listening to this and you want to aspire to get a podcast, you and I are going to say, go do it.

Speaker 3 Go do it. Yeah.
But I mean, I would say the one thing that, the number one thing I tell people about podcasting is you've got to be prepared to be very real about yourself. It's funny.

Speaker 3 I just, right before you and I are doing this, I just recorded my solo podcast for the week. And when I was done, I turned off.
I'm like, should I have said that?

Speaker 3 Because literally, I told a story where I woke up this morning. I woke up this morning at 5 a.m.
in like a fucking panic, right? Like you wake up and you're just like, huh, like that.

Speaker 3 And this, in this unbelievable sense of dread that my public persona had become unlikable was just, I don't know, I don't know where it came from. I opened my eyes with that thought.

Speaker 3 And then I was like, oh my God. And I was kind of freaked out.
But again, so I started thinking like. like, okay, Ryan Holiday obstacles away.
How am I going to use that for fuel, not for fire?

Speaker 3 And I'm like, I got to go read it, how to win friends and influence people again. And today, literally on my solopod, it was like my top five books you need to be reading right now for success in

Speaker 3 this 2025. Yeah.

Speaker 4 Well, dude, I want to go into that, but let's get to real estate real quick because you are the man. I mean, you have created something basically because you wanted to.

Speaker 4 You never sit out in life knowing your backstory, right?

Speaker 4 And you have an incredible podcast, by the way, making sure everyone goes and checks out John Escaping the Drift.

Speaker 4 You need to go check out that podcast. Check him out on Instagram.
He's an unbelievable human. Everyone's going to start to follow you and love you.

Speaker 3 But let's let's talk about. I hope so, because I woke up this morning thinking I was unlikable.

Speaker 3 That is not correct. That is not correct.
Go ahead.

Speaker 4 So you're a brokerage here. You have the second highest

Speaker 4 business volume right here in Vegas. Yes.
And that's in the entire city of Las Vegas.

Speaker 3 Yeah. So we do, we have about 585 agents that work for us.

Speaker 3 We do just at 4,000 transactions a year, over $2 billion in volume. We have the highest average sales price, which when you do as many deals as we do, that's incredibly difficult to maintain that.

Speaker 3 It's because we really lean and focus on into the luxury side of things. We are a completely vertically integrated company.
We own mortgage. We own title.
We own escrow. We own everything.

Speaker 3 Anything that touches the transaction, we own.

Speaker 4 Well, so let's talk about that part, right? There's people who are aspiring real estate investors here, aspiring agents. Maybe they're licensed.
They've never done anything.

Speaker 4 There's a lot of ways to monetize real estate, right? And this is why you become vertically integrated.

Speaker 3 Well, you know, and I'm a walking case study in some of that, which which is it's better to go deep than go wide and like

Speaker 3 we got our ass kicked like maybe two years ago because we vertically integrated our business and we were like oh this is great look how much money and there's way more money in the auxiliaries than there is in the actual brokerage business so look at how great we're doing we should go out and vertically integrate these other businesses across the country got it so we went from being very very good to being very deep here to being very wide.

Speaker 3 We went out and set up all these joint venture partnerships with other brokerages across the country. I mean, you're talking about Carolinas, Texas, Florida, I mean, El Paso.
I mean, just

Speaker 3 really far from here. Yeah.
Right. Really, really far from where we were.
And we brought in some folks that we, that were talented people, but that

Speaker 3 you literally went from, you got to understand.

Speaker 3 It's almost like moving, right? When you look, when you talk about moving, if you move your, if you move from one house to the house next door or the house across the country, it's the same.

Speaker 3 And business is completely the opposite. Because if you have a bit, if you want to open another business, open one down the street that you can drive and share product and help each other out.

Speaker 3 When you open another business across the country, it's its own world. That's its own thing.
And it's very difficult in the brick and mortar space to try to support that.

Speaker 3 Trying to go too wide like that, we really got our ass kicked. And we ended up selling off all of those JVs, splitting off just because it became a logistical nightmare for us to manage them.

Speaker 3 And we realized, we're like, wait a second, if we put as much effort as we're putting into these nationwide JVs into our own local market with this stuff, we'll crush and it's way easier to run.

Speaker 3 So we pivoted two years ago into that. We have several JVs here in Las Vegas with other real estate companies, brokerages that we run their mortgage and their title for.

Speaker 3 And that's been very successful because it's very easy for us to facilitate that.

Speaker 4 Yeah, you're here. And you're saying something that I try to help preach.
So I'm a victim of this, right? Any of us visionaries, victim, like we are shiny objects, squirrel.

Speaker 4 Oh, we can go take on the world.

Speaker 5 let's go to all these states that's us that's you that's me so i have to work that is something i when you think about businesses that are selling through the roof like aloe or skins sure you think about a great product a cool brand and brilliant marketing but an often overlooked secret is actually the businesses behind the business making selling and for shoppers buying simple for millions of businesses that business is Shopify.

Speaker 5 Nobody does selling better than Shopify. With Shop Pay, that boosts conversions up to 50%,

Speaker 5 meaning way less carts are going abandoned and way more sales happening.

Speaker 5 So, if you're into growing your business, your commerce platform better be ready to sell whatever your customers are scrolling or strolling on the web, in your store, in their feed, and everywhere in between.

Speaker 5 Businesses that sell more, sell on Shopify. Upgrade your business and get the same checkout Skins uses.
Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash Westwood One, all lowercase.

Speaker 5 Go to shopify.com/slash Westwood1 to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com/slash Westwood One.

Speaker 6 This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians.

Speaker 6 These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home, and more.

Speaker 6 Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it. So your dollar goes a long way.
Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance.

Speaker 6 Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary.
Not available in all states or situations.

Speaker 7 October brings it all. Halloween parties, game day tailgates, crisp fall air.
At Total Wine and Moore, you'll find just what you need for them all.

Speaker 7 You'll find thousands of wines, spirits, and beers at the lowest prices. Mixing up something spooky? Total Wine and Moore is your cocktail central for all your Halloween concoctions.

Speaker 7 You'll always find what you love and love what you find. Only at Total Wine and Moore.
Curbside pickup and delivery available in most areas. See totalwine.com for details.

Speaker 7 Spirits not sold in Virginia and North Carolina. Drink responsibly, B21.

Speaker 4 They literally have to work on all the time.

Speaker 3 Yeah, it's almost like when you're going to send a nasty email and then you delete it. Like,

Speaker 3 Kent from Boardroom said, you know, when you leave here, don't go back and throw up all of all of your people, which is what I used to do.

Speaker 3 I would come back from an event, from something and say, okay, and I would literally just be bouncing off ideas, but my staff, because they're great staff that works for me, would think, okay, this is what he wants.

Speaker 3 So they would put it in motion. And all of a sudden, I'm like, oh, okay, I guess we're doing this because now this was an idea.
Now, now we're doing it. And everybody seems jazzed about it.

Speaker 3 When in reality, they were just trying to please me. And then we would spin something up that just didn't work.
And not all of our verticals have been really successful. You know,

Speaker 3 probably one of the biggest things for me in business is

Speaker 3 mistake. The biggest mistakes that I've made is I didn't bother to ask anybody if they wanted the product before I made it.

Speaker 3 I just made the product. Okay.
And then

Speaker 3 found in some cases didn't have an audience. That's right.
I love when people, you go in their offices and they have like accolades everywhere of all the stuff they've won. You don't really notice it.

Speaker 3 But if you look around my office, most of the stuff that's in there is miserable disasters.

Speaker 3 Like there's a bottle of vitamins on my my desk you didn't even notice it's a hundred thousand dollar bottle of vitamins because it want because at one point my sister's like we should start a multi-level marketing company based on nutritional supplements yeah so we went out and spent a hundred thousand dollars on a warehouse full of nutritional supplements before we asked anybody if they want any and guess what they didn't they didn't sell any we just lost it so and even then you would think i would learn my lesson but you just get so excited i think as entrepreneurs We get so in love with our own ideas that we just want to see them come to fruition.

Speaker 3 And we don't really think think beyond, does anybody really want this?

Speaker 4 So what advice would you give the aspiring agent or investor, right? You are both. What I love about what the, you know, yourself, myself, like we, we are diversified.
I call it being dynamic.

Speaker 4 You don't just do this one thing. And in my space, wholesaling is the thing that everyone leans into because you don't need money and credit, but you should be doing it all.

Speaker 4 You are on the other side of that. You not only are an investor.
We just talked about. you know, the wholesaling space for you and the listings and hard money.

Speaker 4 You create the entire vertical integration on almost all of it. But what are you going to give the either the agent or investor listening that's like, how do they remain focused?

Speaker 4 Where do they need to put their focus?

Speaker 3 Well, I think the biggest mistake I think a lot of people make, especially when they find early success, is they say, I found the thing. This is my thing.
I'm doing, this is my thing.

Speaker 3 I'm going to do this thing. If you look at when I first got in the real estate business and moved to Las Vegas was in 2007, right in the, right into the teeth of the crash.

Speaker 3 And this was ground central for the crash in Las Vegas. And when I first got here, I started doing short sales because nobody knew how to do them.
I found a guy. He was trying to do seminar sales.

Speaker 3 He was terrible at it. I was good at seminar sales.
So I said, hey, man, I went to your seminar on short sales. It sucked.
But I tell you what, if you come spend a day with me,

Speaker 3 I'm not buying two grand for your, I'm not giving you two grand for your system.

Speaker 3 But if you come to Vegas and personally teach me everything you know about short sales for half the day, I'll teach you everything I know about seminar sales for the other half.

Speaker 3 And he showed up and I learned short sales and did that. And then that evolved into REO, which was being a listing agent for the banks.

Speaker 3 I was lender processing services number one agent in the country in 2009, but I constantly knew like, this is too good and it's not going to last. Yeah.
It's not going to last.

Speaker 3 And the guys that I knew that were huge REO agents in town, like a lot of them, that was 2009. It's 2025.
They've never done anything else. When that business went away, they just went away with it.

Speaker 3 Like they're just, and you would see them at like 2014, 15, like, it's coming back, man. It's coming, dude.
It's not coming back.

Speaker 3 So the long lesson in that story is understand that

Speaker 3 what got you here today is probably not what's going to be there tomorrow because the real estate industry overall, the markets fluctuate so much between interest rates and housing prices and demand and all of those things that go into.

Speaker 3 this crazy thing that we do yeah that you can't become a one-trick pony and it's like surfing dude you've got to keep your eyes on the horizon for that next wave.

Speaker 3 And if you, people ask what my secret of success in real estate is, it's that I've always been able to catch the next wave.

Speaker 3 Like I said, when I first got here, I built a team and then I, which I still have and, you know, started doing short sales. And then that became REO.
And then REO, I saw that fizzling down.

Speaker 3 I saw the market coming. And then when the market turned, I got in with the hedge funds and I became a buyer for the funds and bought.
hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of houses with them.

Speaker 3 And then I saw that starting to slow down. So I leaned back into luxury and, you know, got back into the high price point.

Speaker 3 And just whatever happens, I try to put my attention where the market's going.

Speaker 4 So I was just asked on a friend Austin's podcast, what do I see being the next trend? What do I see around the corner? So I'm going to take that same question, give it to you.

Speaker 4 What do you see being the next trend?

Speaker 3 So what I see, I see 5.5 is the magic number.

Speaker 3 You can take it to the bank. 5.5 is the magic number.
I would agree.

Speaker 3 And what I mean by that is, for those of you who don't know what I mean by that, is when the interest rates hit 5.5, which hopefully will happen by the end of this year, that is going to be the number that all of the pent-up demand.

Speaker 3 So you understand the buyer demand that's out there is

Speaker 3 in two buckets. You have people that have been waiting to buy a house that haven't been able to buy a house, they can't buy a house because there's no inventory or rates are too high.

Speaker 3 And then you have all the people that are living in a house in a 3% mortgage that would love to be in a different house. That's right.
But they just can't.

Speaker 3 And when that rate hits 5.5%, that second bucket is going to spill over. It's going to loosen up the inventory and things are going to start moving fast.

Speaker 3 Do I, you know, today, I think we had interest rates were higher than they've been since July, I think was the number that came up today.

Speaker 3 I'm not really worried about it. But again, you have to understand, I'm in Las Vegas.

Speaker 3 I hate to put generalizations on the real estate market as far as what's going and what's next.

Speaker 3 I think what you're going to start to see or what we are seeing is a trend, if I had to say, within people that work in the industry is

Speaker 3 realtors are getting smarter about the investment game.

Speaker 4 They're getting smarter. By the way, about time.

Speaker 3 Yeah, about time.

Speaker 3 About time. They're getting smarter.
And I think you have guys like you, like Pace Morby that have come out and just done so much in education.

Speaker 3 And people are like, wait a second, why am I being driven by commissions? Instead of, you know, what we try to tell our agents here are the commissions are not the rocket ship.

Speaker 3 The commissions are the fuel for the rocket ship. Like you should be using that money to then invest in real estate where the real wealth is made.
And I think you're seeing a huge catch up.

Speaker 3 I mean, you've got our buddy Brandon now that just joined a bigger company is running an investment thing for them. Brent Tanner, we talked about earlier, does that for Keller Williams.

Speaker 3 And I think you're seeing a lot of the big brokerages really lean into

Speaker 3 programs for investing for their agents. I mean, we talked about earlier today.

Speaker 3 You know, when people hear like, this guy's got all this stuff, why is he wanting to be a wholesaler? I don't want to be a wholesaler.

Speaker 3 But what I want to do is we're going to start wholesaling property here for one purpose only.

Speaker 3 Our dispo is going to be 100% to the agents that work at our company as opportunities for them to either flip or borrow those properties for long-term wealth.

Speaker 3 That's the only reason we're setting that channel up.

Speaker 4 But it's the, so amen to what you're preaching because it's about time realtors really catch up to what the real wealth and income comes from.

Speaker 3 Oh, sure.

Speaker 4 I will make more money on a burr, mind you, not a flip, a burr than the realtor maid representing me on the buy.

Speaker 3 Oh, for sure.

Speaker 4 And then I have the asset and I'm keeping the asset for the wealth side. And so I just, I'm excited that you and the Brandons and Brett, myself, like I'm leaning in.

Speaker 4 I'm going to get my realtor license. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Well, because I just believe well you're getting a real estate license just this thing is a realtor real estate license yes but okay so here's the only dilemma and i'm going to tell you this is this is this is the dilemma right so

Speaker 3 if you have a license wholesale becomes a little tricky sure and i'm just going to be honest because especially if you become a realtor because you're taking an oath to the code of ethics or whatever they say that you're always going to do what's in the best interest of the client.

Speaker 3 So it's very difficult to go into somebody's house and you're sitting there.

Speaker 3 And as a, if if you're a realtor, you got to kind of present all the options. You got to, you got to say it out there.
And how we do it, right? Like, for example, I'll tell you a story.

Speaker 3 I went to this, this house. This is years ago, but it rings true today.
I got a call.

Speaker 3 Hey, we want to sell our house. Okay, cool.
I'll go look at it. So we go over and look at it.
And it was these sisters that had inherited a house because her mom died.

Speaker 3 And they're looking at it and they're like, we just want $140,000. And I'm like,

Speaker 3 house is worth like $220,000 as it sits. Yeah.
And they're like, we just want $140,000. And I was like, okay.

Speaker 3 If we put a little bit of money into it, it'd be worth 300.

Speaker 3 And they're like, we just want 140. And I was like, okay, why don't we partner? I'll bring the money in.
I'll do all the work. I'll do everything.

Speaker 3 And then 140 will be your baseline. And I'll pull my money back out that I put in investment and we'll whack everything else up 50-50.

Speaker 3 We just want 140.

Speaker 3 Why? Well, because we have two brothers that are scumbags. And if we don't just close this quick with their their 140, they're going to try to move in here and lay claim to it.
Okay, fine.

Speaker 3 So that contract on that contract that I wrote in that house is me. And I said, well, is it okay with you if I just give you 140? And they're like, yeah, great, fine.
So I wrote in the contract.

Speaker 3 Like it was like four paragraphs. And it was like.

Speaker 3 Seller was notified that the house was worth way more than like $220,000.

Speaker 3 Seller was given the option to joint venture partner with me where I would put all the money in and we would flip it for a profit. Seller declined.
I mean, I just, I laid out everything that happened.

Speaker 3 So there was no way they could ever come back yeah and say this because if you're in the business of selling houses and that is that is your business not necessarily the whole society but if you're a real estate agent in the business of buying selling homes the worst thing that could ever happen to you is a google review that says this dude stole grandma's house

Speaker 3 ever ever yeah like that would just that that would demolish you so you've got to be very careful when you have that license of always doing what's in the best interest and for you know i never would have believed it right i will you know before when when things were very separated when realtors were over here and investors and wholesalers were over here and there was a hard line between the two, and I'm over in this camp, I would always say, like, you're an idiot if you sell your house.

Speaker 3 And I used to, I used to go on and do videos and said, if the contract says and or a signee and you sign it, you're an idiot.

Speaker 3 You're just a, you're guaranteed you're losing money if they guaranteed you're losing money if you do that.

Speaker 3 And I never would have believed it until I personally went on appointments where people were like, no,

Speaker 3 I don't want to deal with any of this. I just want to do this.

Speaker 2 At Capella University, learning online doesn't mean learning alone.

Speaker 1 You'll get support from people who care about your success, like your enrollment specialist who gets to know you and the goals you'd like to achieve.

Speaker 1 You'll also get a designated academic coach who's with you throughout your entire program. Plus, career coaches are available to help you navigate your professional goals.

Speaker 1 A different future is closer than you think with Capella University.

Speaker 2 Learn more at capella.edu.

Speaker 3 Like, it's not in your best interest to do this. And yet here we are.

Speaker 4 I mean, that's what we threaten.

Speaker 4 And it's funny because all these realtors saying we were stealing your business and we're, we should be getting licensed, blah, blah, blah, all this argument, right?

Speaker 4 And we service typically different clients. And that's what realtors really kind of don't understand.
They're learning it.

Speaker 3 They're learning. They're learning.

Speaker 4 Right. That is the type of client we service.
Like, mom died. I'm heartbroke.
I want nothing to do with this. This is emotional terrorism for me because I think about my mom.

Speaker 4 Give me my buck 40 and get me the fuck out of the scenario. Right.
That's what, that's my kind of seller.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Right. And so I think I'm very excited that you and so many others are kind of pouring into this.
It is actually why I'm getting licensed is because I have a platform for coaching.

Speaker 4 And like, why am I not coaching realtors on how to be better investors and do it the right way?

Speaker 3 Do it legal. Yeah.

Speaker 4 But why wouldn't I have that audience to go help them actually just make more money, do more good, create more wealth for themselves and service more clientele?

Speaker 3 Because most sellers don't want the, or most agents don't want the dumpster dumpster fire rehab property to list right they're going to say hey can you fix this up can and the seller's going to say i don't have any money to do that agents don't love that well i think too there's a shift there's a shift in real estate agents uh as it is with the nar settlement yeah now the buyer broker stuff and and like you've got to actually

Speaker 3 you've got to you got to have some some source to you to get those those contracts signed there's got to be some substance to you sure you can't just show up and be like oh there's seller pays me a cost i'm free to you so what do you care i'm going to represent my aunt.

Speaker 3 Now all of a sudden your aunt's like, wait a second. What are you actually going to do for this money? Because I got to sign a contract that says I have to pay you.

Speaker 3 If they don't, okay, that's a little different.

Speaker 3 So we're seeing, you're seeing the bottom people wash out. You're already kind of seeing that.

Speaker 3 But also, I think as, as the thin, I would like to say as the herd thins a little bit, you're going to see more people come in that are more about the business of real estate and not about the transactional side of the real estate.

Speaker 4 And that's, again, that also is where people should head, right? Go create a business. I think when you're just starting, go make a couple paychecks, right?

Speaker 4 Whether you're an agent, you're a wholesaler,

Speaker 4 yeah. And people ask me, and I think you would agree.

Speaker 4 I would tell you, getting your license can only help you, not necessarily hurt you. You have to play by the rules.

Speaker 4 But listen, at the end of the day, if you're doing shady shit, you shouldn't be doing that.

Speaker 3 Yeah, it's going to come back to bite you anyway. Don't do that.

Speaker 4 Play by the rules because that's what good people do.

Speaker 4 So you think the trajectory of this year is five? I would tend to agree.

Speaker 4 And I do believe it'll open up inventory, which is great because now people say, okay, I can justify leaving my 3% loan.

Speaker 4 It's close enough. It's probably not going to get lower.
I would make the argument it gets lower in year three with Trump is my gut feeling.

Speaker 4 I don't study this shit. I'm not an economist, but I just feel like Trump's biggest win would be to lower the Fed rate to zero in year three.
Well,

Speaker 3 I think a lot of it. as far as what the Fed does is going to depend on inflation, which a lot of that is also going to depend on tariffs.

Speaker 3 I think it's really going to come down to, is that a big stick that Trump is waving or is it really going to happen?

Speaker 3 I think you've already seen Mexico start to make some moves because they don't want it on them.

Speaker 3 I think Justin Trudeau stepped down the other day 100% because of that threat. I think that was that was absolutely it.

Speaker 3 And by the way, can we, how fucking wild was Trump's press conference the other day? Unreal. We're going to have Gulf of America, Greenland, we're buying you, and Canada come on tariff.

Speaker 3 What is happening? It's like, I'm watching this and what people don't understand,

Speaker 3 all these, because I know some people that are centrists to leftists that are all up in arms on how crazy this was. And I go, this is a masterclass on negotiating.

Speaker 3 You just start asking for everything.

Speaker 3 And if you get a small submit, I mean, how much easier is it going to be now to get some of his agenda passed instead of buying Greenland? That's right. Yeah.
How much easier is this now?

Speaker 3 This is going to be small.

Speaker 4 Well, guys, I'll put Greenland on hold if you get this thing.

Speaker 3 Yeah, exactly. Like, I'll let Greenland go.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 Right. No.

Speaker 3 I mean, master negotiating. It's master.

Speaker 3 He's just negotiating. That's all he's doing.
And people are like, it's so funny to watch.

Speaker 4 All right. So what is your next move? What do you see for John Gafford? You and I, you know, personally, I kind of know, but you've done a lot in the real estate space.

Speaker 4 You've built a lot in the real estate space. Where do you want to see? And I'm going to use four years because I'm going to say, well, Trump's there, and I don't think he'll go for round two.

Speaker 4 And then you might. But what do you see your business real estate trajectory for the next four years?

Speaker 3 Somebody asked me the other day, they said,

Speaker 3 where do you want to get to? Where's the ultimate goal? And I thought about this a lot, right like where if i had to describe my life

Speaker 3 the the goal where's the goal where's the end goal where i want to be and i know i finally know where it is oh i like it it's this you ready yeah so i was watching a clip of robert hershavek talking about mark cubin and shark tank when they first got there and he goes when i first when mark first came to shark tank he showed up wearing a t-shirt and jeans and it was like mark what the dude you look like

Speaker 3 you look like a slouch what are you doing like what are you doing and he goes very quickly, I realized the reason Mark dresses like that is because he can't. He doesn't give a shit.

Speaker 3 And if you walk into a room and 20 guys have suits on and one guy has a t-shirt, fear the dude in the t-shirt. That's it.
Because he doesn't care.

Speaker 3 But here's the thing he said. And it was a blip in that clip.
Not so much. No, I don't mean I want to wear t-shirts every day.
That's not what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 The blip in the clip that I loved was he goes.

Speaker 3 Everybody is either buying or selling and everybody is always selling to Mark. Mark is never selling.
So he can do whatever he wants. And I thought to myself, I had been selling in one way or another,

Speaker 3 every day of my life since I was probably 10 years old. Yeah.
I don't want to fucking sell another thing. I want to get to the point where all I do is buy.
That's it. I love that.
I'm the buyer.

Speaker 3 Come to me. I'm not.
You don't like me? I don't give a shit. I'm not here to impress anybody.
That's right. Don't like anything I'm doing.
I don't really care. I don't need you anymore.

Speaker 3 I'm going to play t-shirts. I'm in my fortress of solitude.

Speaker 3 i could care less i'm here to buy and if dance for me monkey because i'm done dancing oh i love that that's where i'm trying to get i love that that's what i'm trying to get that's what's i'm trying to get

Speaker 4 bro this was long overdue uh top rank podcast escaping the drift uh about to drop a book i mean guys if you need anything in vegas he's not going to give you his phone number he'll give me the phone number but uh this guy is so connected in vegas he's an absolute man i tell a funny story though i told you so So the reason Colby's even here today, let me tell his listeners about this.

Speaker 3 So two other of our friends were here last week, and my Rolodex in Vegas runs pretty deep. It does, but doesn't run like all-encompassing deep.

Speaker 3 But like these guys, everything they wanted to do, like everything that came out of their mouth, I'd hook up. So it's like, oh, let's go.
I heard Delilah's good. No problem.

Speaker 3 Got us an ATOP at Delilah, which is really hard to get right in front of the stage, no problem. Then it's like, oh, we want to see a show.
We went to absinthe.

Speaker 3 And then I'm like, what are we going to do after that? I'm like, I don't know. And I'm thinking to myself, Bruno Mars is playing at MGM.
I'm like, do you guys like Bruno Mars? They're like, yes.

Speaker 3 I'm like, I got a hookup at his private club. There's like a, it's like 140 people there.
I took him there and Bruno performs for 100 people in front of him. And Justin's watching all this play out.

Speaker 3 I booked a flight that night. Real time.
He's like, hey, bro, can we make that happen again? Like,

Speaker 3 what can we do? What can we do when we're not coming out? Let's go. That's right.
Yeah. So that's it.
And we have, and we have a good night. We have a great night plan.

Speaker 3 Tonight's going to be a good night.

Speaker 4 Dude, I'm excited, bro. Tonight's gonna be a good night.
But again, everyone, make sure to go follow the John Gafford. He's an incredible businessman, entrepreneur.
He was on

Speaker 4 Donald Trump's show, The Apprentice. Not even, I didn't even mention that yet.
Yeah. Right.
So he actually does know Senor Presidente.

Speaker 3 Oh, Presidente.

Speaker 4 And, dude, you're an incredible human. Again, everyone needs to go listen to his podcast.
Go follow you and just be a general good human. Reach out to the guy.
Thank you for showing up, bro.

Speaker 3 Of course, man. Anytime.

Speaker 4 Yeah, dude. All right, y'all.
If that was good and you liked it and you think someone needs to hear from John or myself, share this with two of your friends. I'd greatly appreciate it.

Speaker 4 See you on the next episode.

Speaker 2 At Capella University, learning online doesn't mean learning alone.

Speaker 1 You'll get support from people who care about your success, like your enrollment specialist who gets to know you and the goals you'd like to achieve.

Speaker 1 You'll also get a designated academic coach who's with you throughout your entire program. Plus, career coaches are available to help you navigate your professional goals.

Speaker 1 A different future is closer than you think with Capella University.

Speaker 2 Learn more at capella.edu.