From Broke to $120M: The Real Estate Wealth Blueprint Behind the Numbers

0:01Welcome to the Be Wealthy Podcast, where we bring entrepreneurs the strategies and tactics to grow your business and unlock new opportunities. Once you've achieved success, we'll teach you how to think about your money. Because wealth is about more than just cash flow. It's about freedom. Now, our host, Brett Tanner. Welcome back to the B wealthy podcast with Brett Tanner where we dive into the strategies, mindsets, and realworld tactics that unlock financial freedom and true abundance. Today I'm excited to interview Dustin Runyon who went from down and out to building massive developments. He's got an incredible real estate team with over a 100red agents and he is absolutely crushing it. What you're going to love about Dustin is he brings absolute fire and energy to every conversation. uh you are going to leave this podcasting wanting wanting to run out and run through walls. We explore his journey from really just broke to all the levels to massive success. The specific lessons he took from financial floors, how he thinks

1:04about debt, and there's just so much good here on his journey. Uh and he really has done the deep deep work to have the lessons that we can all learn from. I am so excited to jump in with Dustin Runyon. Let's get going and dig in with the BP podcast. Dustin, I want to bring you on Dustin Runyon. I don't want to take any more time. You've got a one of the biggest real estate teams in the country. 1200 acres under development. You're a coach. I mean, you're do you are doing it at the highest level and I'm just excited to have you here, man. Dustin, welcome to the podcast.
Thanks for having me, Brett. I've had a lot of respect for you for a long time. Uh we we we started out in this Phoenix Phoenix world, Phoenix, Arizona. And so you've been uh you've been a guy I've admired and respected for over a decade and a half plus. So honored to be on here, dude. Thanks, man.
Well, man, thanks so much for coming. Um it is so cool when you've met, you know, you and I were just talking before we started. We probably met 15ish years ago. And it's so cool for me to see you then, right? We were just kind of we're

2:08going back and putting the pieces together where we meet and who was at dinner. Uh and then I see you now. Um, what's cool is I saw that raw energy back then. Um, and your ability to inspire, to raise up others, um, and think really, really big is so rare. And your story and your journey is something, uh, everyone needs to hear and they can learn a lot from it. So, I'm grateful you're here. Uh, so I always go, Dustin, on a podcast, you're at the top of the mountain now, going to other mountains. Um, I always like to go back to the beginning, man. Uh, I believe our story with money is shaped in the home. At about 10 years old, you're at the family dinner table, money's talked about. And you know, I always I always ask a few questions of folks. So, when you're at that, go back to you're 10 years old, you're at the family dinner table, money comes up. It's not that you have money, but was money scarce or abundant in the family in the Runan household?
It it was scarce and it was something. It's I I love that you asked that question, right? because uh it was actually the it was the source of all conflict in my home. So it was the

3:13number one reason why I wanted to become successful was because I saw what it curated inside of my home as far as my parents. It was it was the topic if there was an argument it was nine out of 10 it had to do with finances or money. Um and it was it was something that we it was always lack always lack. And so um so yeah it was there was never enough of it. It was always a source of pain and suffering. And so I remember growing up I was like I want to I don't want to be in this position. So it was not something I wanted to model.
You it's I as I do these podcasts what's so interesting is you know so we had no we we didn't have money when I was little and my dad was figuring out his business getting it going. Um hugely abundant thinker though he believed there was all the money in the world. We just hadn't figured out how we the tanners were going to get it yet. Um uh so it's interesting how it shapes but so much of that shapes our perspective and how we think about money later on right we get in our our 20s our 30s our 40s and I believe that people have to rewind that money story and change it right you

4:17got to change it so give us your journey from your 10 years old money's scarce
to this guy that's got 52 agents one of the top agents in the country you're doing development you're doing all those things kind of give us the the journey and the turning points there.
Yeah. Um so I unconsciously, you know, and this is like coincidence or God or the universe or whatever somebody believes in, but growing up my very first friend that I had growing up, his father invented the paraselling boat. And so um he was they were very wealthy and so and he was my best friend. I met him in elementary school. And then my next friend that I had his I lived across the street from him. His he was my second best friend. his dad was the largest home builder in town, so they were wealthy. And then my my third best friend when I got into high school, he uh and I played baseball with his parents owned the um they were the concrete plant here in town. We only have one of them or had one of them at the time. And they did all of the grading and excavation for the they were one of the largest companies in town,

5:19like 150 200 employees, so they were well off. So I got to actually see what what it was and I wanted it and I played the victim to it a lot with my parents growing up just you know unconscious of it and just like why don't we have this
and why can't I have this and I just remember wanting it really really bad and then I I moved to Tempee I got into real estate at 21 I was a short sale negotiator I didn't really know what that was in in '08 and my my I still had didn't have a whole lot of money and I was kind of not making the greatest decisions And uh my buddy moves out of this really fancy apartment complex um cuz he had to move back and he's like you can move in for half the price. So I moved in. My good buddy there, his parents was really wealthy. So I was just like surrounded by wealth or what I thought was wealth at the time. There's obviously a difference between rich and wealthy. Um
but I got to see it which I wasn't able to see it in my home and so I wanted it. Um, and uh, yeah, I was I was not very

6:22good with money in my 20s at any level. I started making probably a 100 plus grand at like 24 and then it was, you know, 120, 140, 200, 250 and kind of moving up. But the problem was is I hadn't fixed the internal me. So, I hadn't I hadn't worked on the personal development side of me. Uh, cuz my dad left at 16 and I didn't talk to him till I was 30. um and kind of an abusive uh home life. And um it was it was they did their best, right? It was like they they did their best. I'm I'm really grateful for my dad because he taught me what hard work is. Um and he was he was on me about, you know, never halfass anything. I mean, if I went and picked up the dog poop, he'd find the one poop I didn't pick up, which sucks back then, but now I look at it and it's it's who I am today, right? You know. Um
so, um so yeah. So, um, I I made a lot of poor financial decisions in my 20s because, uh, I was trying to be validated. And so, I bought materialistic things. I was purchasing things to try to like impress people or

7:26and and and or at dinners, I was picking up tabs for all my friends. Also, I hadn't moved into that peer group of like people that had made it yet. So, I'm still taking care of all my friends because I'm making the most amount of money. Um, and
were you doing that? Do you think because of you're around all these people with money now, right? Like you know perceived like you said perceived wealth
could be real could be but like whether or not but but it's it's money that you don't currently have. Did that impact your decisions? You're like man I I got to get the car so I look more like them. Was that kind of what was driving it?
Yes. Yes. And I look back I'm like why didn't everybody tell me that buying the $400 bottle of wine was stupid?
Like where like where where look cool.
Cool. Yeah.
But even today, if you go on there and we're going to get deep in this podcast on money and ritual that I love yours. If you if I go out there today and tell people the raw hard facts of like save money, buy your car for cash even if it's a piece of crap. Um stay within your means and later you can have it

8:31all. You'll have everything. But it it today we live in the world where Yeah. I want Yeah, I hear you Brad. I hear you Dustin. I want everything now, right? I want to jump to the end of the game. I don't want to do the journey and the selfwork and the pain and the hard. I just want to jump to the end because my friend online is crushing it. Um, but they don't realize that guy's nowhere, going nowhere, never going to be anywhere, but it's hard to figure out, right? So, how did you figure out on that journey?
So, right.
How did you figure out, you know, as you're there and you're Well, I want to go back. We'll get there in a minute. So, go there. So, you start making these changes. you're you're doing you're trying to be them. Okay. Take us through you go from there.
Yeah. I I you know what I and each leader inside an organization goes through this. The step one is you want external validation. You want everyone to tell you you're awesome and you're great and you're awesome and you're great. Then you realize that does that's not the that's not the path and it's actually self validation. Like you've actually got to become in alignment with you got to figure out what your mission is for your life, your values and the principles that you want to live by. And once you live by those, you you earn

9:34this thing called self- validation. And so so much of money is like psychology and therapy is what I've learned, at least with myself. Um, and so there was a period of time in my 20s where I I I didn't file taxes for years. And so because I'd get to the end of the year and I I didn't have any money. And so was it that you were you not filing because you know the money or was it
I don't even know how to start like I I don't have financial records and it's where are is the are the things
Andy but if I okay so all of it you're just saying
what's the mindset then just like I'll kick the can and
dude it wasn't there wasn't a mind mindset it was I'd never had money before and so now I have money remember this it's like um I was in a situation where earlier I I was disciplined by my situation and now all of a sudden I'm not disciplined by my situation. Like I couldn't buy things cuz I couldn't. See, I've learned there's a difference between being able to afford something and being able to buy something.
Okay? And so now I'm able to buy these

10:37things. Massive difference. And so now I'm able to buy these things and I'm buying them and buying them and I'm really just like I go back to that. I was like, "What was I thinking?" And the truth was I wasn't. I was just on this euphoric high. Well, I want to go back to this point you made a minute ago, which I think people miss.
You're playing for an external. I want them to look at me and say, "Boy, you're cool. Wow, that's cool." As opposed to what do I really what what do I really want? I I I the analogy I use, Dustin, I think you'll you'll relate to it, is there's three levels to attainment or thinking about it. Level one is I want that car, right? I want the BMW.
Level two is, oh, I got the BMW. Level three is I actually know what I want and I don't give a about the BMW. Uh I want to drive a 99 Silverado because it makes me happy. By the way, I have a 99 Silverado at my cabin right now filming this. Um and I I mean I've got I've got great cars these days. Um yeah,

11:37
I've earned it. I can afford it. Um it's a rounding error in anything I do. But my favorite vehicle is a vehicle that have a street value of sub $3,000. It's the only one I drive at my cab. My my kids go I drive it into the club and it's hilarious because people look down on it's so funny their perspective. Oh, things must be tough for Brett and I'm like it it's just different. I don't need I have those things. They're all in my driveway or in the garage. I want to drive the truck because it makes me happy. And so I just I want to drive with the listeners because you made such a great point. Quit playing for someone else's opinion that you may never see again. It's your life. You only get one shot at this. So live your life. I just want to anchor the point you make. It's so freaking important in today's world that people are chasing something else that's not what they actually want.
It's so true, uh, Brett, because what I learned too, the only people you impress with that kind of are other losers. Winners. Winners. Like I have a buddy on my team. He just went and bought a Tesla

12:38and a freaking Rolex and he's 18 years old. The only person he's going to impress with that is another loser.
Mhm. Winners aren't impressed by that. When I first met my billionaire partner, he's and this is where I've learned a lot of my money lessons from is I I met him and we became partners and at that time I lived in a 900 foot condo and I had zero debt. And he looks at me, he's like, "You're one of us."
He was impressed that I didn't have anything. How cool is that moment though when you give someone at the top of the mountain to go Dustin I actually if you had the BMW if you had the new Tesla and the Rolex I'd have probably gone
it's not a f I don't know if we're aligned man you're on a different journey that's cool that's a cool
cool moment
it was it really was yeah um and so I got about a mill I owed about so I get I I go and I hire a tax attorney hire an accountant because I at some point this dark cloud starts to hover over me right whatever you avoid void. If you don't stay disciplined, life will discipline life will discipline you if you don't discipline yourself. And so, um, got

13:42with a tax attorney, got with an accountant, went back through all the years, all the years, ended up owning like a million bucks at like 28 years old, you know?
28. You got to How many years was it of unfile of non-filed returns?
Four years.
So, you get to a million dollars. The weight
how heavy is the weight on you at that moment,
Brett? It's all I thought about all the time. I didn't sleep at night. Like, it's all I thought about all the time, 24/7. It was never not on my mind. It was just this dark cloud over me. Um, it was awful. And it was like all It's It's so funny cuz like all of that euphoric feeling, it's like it was like I used this money as a drug and now boom, it hit and now I'm on the crash.
And it was like so all that good feeling, now I'm feeling all the pain of it. And so,
how old are you right now? How old are you with a million in tax debt not paid? How old?
I'm I'm about 28 years old.
Okay.
So, it was 11 years ago.
Okay.
Yeah. And so um I then start I then start my real estate team and start um I

14:45was co oddly enough it was like I don't know if I should have been coaching people in real estate but I was I was coaching people in real estate and I had started my real estate team and um with one mission it was like serve as many people as I possibly can make a a people first business and pay this sucker off. And it took about I want to say it took about 16 months. I moved into a condo. It was 900 ft. Um I paid off all my debt. I paid off every single thing. Every dollar I made extra went to that because the penalties and interest kill you. So those of you that have IRS debt, and if you're a realtor right now, I think 80 something% of realtors have IRS debt of some sort. That's by the day. The interest is by the day. So if there's one thing you're going to pay off first, it's that.
Well, because and to your point, it never goes away. I mean, it is the debt that chase it. It you're you're paying it. You might negotiate
some penalties and injury. might get a little of that away, but it to your point, it's snowballing in and expanding.
Yep.

15:46
So, you you said you paid that in 16 months.
16 months. I did, Brett. I didn't have a car. So, I Ubered to work and had my girl, my girlfriend at the time, or fiance at the time, drop me off at work every single day when I started this team. And I would work from seven days a week. I didn't go on vacation for over three years except one time with an investor. and he paid for it. Um, but I worked from 7 to 7 almost every day. I was laying on the floor with a headset, setting appointments for people on my team, modeling the behavior I wanted to see. And I just hammered. Our first year we did like we did 104 deals our first year and I never ever sold a buyer. I never worked with a buyer or a seller. Um, and then by like and I I was coach coaching was a majority of my income at that time. Um, did a few flips here and there, but yeah. So head down seven days a week, 7 to 7. You're not going out and like you said, no vacations. Zero.
There's not screwing around. Your buddy's playing three days a week of golf.

16:47
Nope.
You're just in it. It Yeah. Cuz it was like, I got to get this out. I got to get rid of this. And it What's crazy, Brett, is when you focus, there's no amount of m There's nothing I can buy that feels better than watching my account go up. And so I realized when I stopped buying this stuff, I realized how fast it actually goes up. Like you can
do what you think your expenses were. What do you think your expenses were for that like on a monthly basis during that 60 month? I'm curious.
We bought $150,000 condo. Um I want to say it was right under $1,000 for the mortgage on that. So that was the debt we had. Actually, my wife had bought it.
This is how bad it got. My wife bought it 900 thou uh $150,000 was like $900 a month. She paid for my cell phone at the time too. My my monthly personal expenses were maybe like two grand a month. Right around there. I I just I I love to, you know, the younger folks that listen our younger listeners, I love to think like just imagine whatever

17:50your lifestyle is from living way up here to go to this condo and drop your expenses to sub 2,000 bucks. Now, we can adjust that today and call it 3,000 today for the same dollars, you know, for inflation. But how many people are willing to take that ride backwards, get to there to then go to chap to the next season, right? Just it's so I love when I hear, dude, I was in it. I would because today you hear the four, you know, it's the old was the four-h hour work week, but you need more work life balance and you're not getting enough balance and and I'm like I I don't know that that's the way I I sure haven't built my career on this massive balance, right? I'm all in on this. I'm all in on that. I'm all in with the family on a trip, but then I'm all in on the next project. And I just I love hearing the early stories of the sacrifice because one of the things I talk to my audience about all the time is life has costs. You get to choose when you pay them. Some people pay them later in life, right? They didn't. In other words, I spent 30 years making all the wrong decisions, you know, and they show up in

18:54my mastermind at 55 years old and they're like, "Well, I what do I do?" I'm like, "Well, you got to start paying the cost. Life has cost. You choose when you pay them."
Uh, you know, I chose to pay the cost
very early on. I paid at 20 years old. I didn't party. I bet you from age 20 to 30 um I had a hundred drinks in a decade. Like zero draw. I never no no no drug nothing. Never supposed to nothing. I didn't go on vacation. I worked. Now my friends like dude you you go out you go out and you have fun. You party. I'm like yeah cuz I got my money right
now. I can right. It's all good today. But there's there was a journey. So all right. So you're doing this for 16 months. You're doing nothing. You drive the debt to zero. Now what happens?
Oh, now I the having that debt, Brett, was the it was the teacher I needed. I what I really needed is I needed Brett Tanner in my 20s. But I uh but I it was the lesson I needed. I'm the kind of guy, man, I had to learn in my 20s. Some

19:57people learn by reading books or by, you know, podcasts, by all those different things. I need to learn by getting a baseball bat beat over my head, right? And this debt was that. But what it did is it curated a lot of disciplines in me financially. Like I am dialed when it comes to my accounting now. Like I know where every penny goes now. I know where every because I had to in in in that that arena at that time with my accountant, a tax attorney. And so I get out of it and I have all these crazy good habits now. And I also realize how you wake up and you're like, okay, self- validation number one. Am I behaving in a way that I'm happy with? And if I'm happy with that, I tend to not worry about anybody else. Like the people that care about what people have to say or think or do or whatever aren't in alignment with their mission, their vision, and their values of their own life. I only care about what people have to say when I'm not aligned. And so, um, I come out of the money and dude, I think I had I don't know. I don't know the exact timing. Maybe maybe 24 months later or 18 24 months later, I had a

21:02million bucks in cash sitting in my bank. And I remember telling my coach, I'm like, I got a million bucks in the bank. He's like, in your savings account? I'm like, in my savings account? Because now I had built up these this machine that could pay this off. So now I'm left with a company that doesn't nets a lot of money. Cuz even in my real estate team now, what that taught me is I don't spend dumb. Like if you struggle with your P&L on your real estate team, that's a self-development issue. You're in scarcity, not abundance. So like I cut everything out of my personal life. I also on my team, I am really, really, really lean. I can live lean in my personal life. I can live lean in my business. So you you kept it so when you came out of it, you kept your expenses roughly the same, but now you have none of the debt you're paying off. You've just got amazing free cash flow, and you're just saying, "I'm going to plow this into savings, and I'm never going to have money be a stressor point in my life again." You got a million in cash in your your late 20s, early 30s.
Yeah. My early 30s,

22:05
you're you're you're indestructible, right? I mean, as long as you keep that there and you don't spend and you keep your expenses low, you could put that in treasury bills and live forever.
Yep. And luckily, at that time, we had just started our development company here. And um I had met a guy named Mark Lindsay, who's now one of my best friends and my mentor, and he was the one that started to teach me about money.
When did you hire the coach in that journey though, by the way, when the in the paying off the debt? Was it before or after the coach?
Oh, I I've had a coach the I've had a coach the entire time. I've never not
even before. Oh, so you've had a coach Minute Zero. I love it. Okay.
Minute Zero. Yeah. Like that was a business expense. So my personal expenses were like two grand, but a business expense. I had always had a coach. Always.
I love it.
Y
I love it. Okay. So now you're going So give us the What happens next?
Yes. Now I'm rocking rolling. And I meet this guy, Mark Lindsay, and he becomes one of our main investors because I was raising capital for our developments. Um and uh I was studying money at this time, too, because I'm like, "All right, private equity. We're bringing in capital, you know, I I've got all these

23:08attorneys. We're really building this thing up cuz once you have other people's money, you've got to be really really disciplined, right? Like crazy crazy discipline. So, um, we are SEC attorneys and we have we have all of all of our documents that we're putting together. And I meet this guy and he ends up investing, you know, $4.38 million with us within the first like three weeks. We just connected. Um, and he has made his his business money off of uh selling annuities. So, um, he's one of the largest FBOs in uh, uh, or FMOS, excuse me, in the country. And he starts to like kind of teach me about about this whole gig. And what I realized for me personally, everyone has their own money beliefs and and and whatnot, but I realized I'm like, "Okay, he taught me about the floor." And he's like, "What's your floor?" Like his floor is 10 million in cash. That's a zero to him. Everything else
in his checking account or in his savings account,
10 million's that's like we got zero.
His zero. That's his zero. And he has no debt. Everything paid off. And he has a net worth of a billion. And then

24:11everything else he can put into investments, right? Whether that's uh mutual funds, annuities, whether that's a a development or that's a flip or he owns gun companies, he owns um he owns a bunch of stuff, yacht company, whatever. But I saw the floor. I'm like, "Okay, so I got to create a floor." And for me, my floor, and this is just my my rules that I'd set up for myself, was what makes my nervous system, because you know this, Brett, guys that are actually wealthy, they have a different like they have a different freedom to themselves, a different they have zero financial stress because they've eliminated the financial stress through the through the floor as you're using it here. They don't wake up and go, "Oh, I I really got to push today." They're pushing because they want they don't have to, right? the financial
um survival has long and it can it's indestructible, right? They've done it in a way that it's indestructible.
You're you're you're spot on. And they really genuinely can start to live in abundance and set boundaries not out of bitterness or not out of just like out

25:13of nah, I'm good, thanks. You know, like they just have this ease to them, right? And so I'm like I want that ease. Like I you know, I'm hanging out at the country clubs. I know these guys these guys are my investors. I can tell the one that's stressed out and the one that's not. I can tell the one that's actually free and the one that's not. And so I have a rule of 24 months of uh 24 months inside of inside of a savings account. 24 months of lifestyle and personal. So lifestyle and personal meaning if it were to stop today for the next 24 months I could go on the vacation I want to go on. I can spend the money I want to spend on. I can fly on the flights I wanted to spend. I could do whatever I want to do. And that's in cash. So,
so you can live your your exact life today. I'll be clear. No changes. Whatever you're doing today on a personal lifestyle basis, you've got so we call that in our our our world call it your burn rate. Like not budgeting. I think budgeting's stupid. Um but what I just believe that you're spending whatever you're spending and we can always lower expenses, but whatever you're spending on a monthly basis, you're saying you have 24 months and

26:16that's the floor.
That's my floor. I I I could not uh you know we tell people get to six months as fast as you can and but where where I go on that is let's say you get to 24 months and you're watching this and you go my head hits the pillow and I I've got some angst then we maybe go to 30 months right try that now it can't be an indefinite you can't save forever because at some point we got to put money into investments I had a I had a lady come to one of my I was teaching a workshop and she had very little monthly bills and she'd saved about a million dollars in cash and was going to she's like I know if I'll ever be ready to invest. And I go, "Well, we got to change your thermostat, right? We got to pick a number."
And if you want to save to 2 million when you invest, I'm good with whatever number you want to pick, but there's got to be a a measurement stick, right? Like your 24-month floor. Um, and so I love it. So, you established this floor and now you've got money rules around making decisions.
Correct. And and and then for my business, it was 12 months. And there are other people do three to six months

27:18and have different rules, which is awesome. And I was a I usually pretty have a high high risk tolerance. But what I realized is I do have a high risk tolerance with things. I don't need my nervous system to be any more rattled than it is. Like I have I'm pushing hard enough. Like you know what I mean, Brett? Like I'm pushing hard enough in my business and hard enough with these developments and my team and expand all these things that I want to do. I don't need anything additional when I go home,
you know. So, it's like
I I always say like, you know, I stay align two things. I stay aligned with my money and my wife. And if I can stay aligned with my wife and my money, stay connected with her at home and have alignment with her and I prioritize that and my money, my personal money, I'm I'm literally, like you said, indestructible. Like and I don't that's not in a bitter sense just in a like dude I can actually live in full abundance.
It you know what's crazy hearing you say so my mentor uh coach uh has been for years has been Gary Keller right and

28:21
when you get into his world um I watched his discipline. So he doesn't you know he he'll throw this out there but as I got you know we're we're today we're we're friends right we're close friends. He he did not make any investments until he had his entire um personal expenses covered by the returns. I think they were text we'll use the word treasury bill for today. I think they were like some bond in Texas that was credit or protected. But
imagine if you wanted like I'm not going to invest $1 until my entire living expenses are covered by treasury bills. like he was just sitting there just no I'm sh and his reason was I never wanted to make an investment or do anything I'd ever go backwards in my life and having that money I think in for him it was probably I bet the number was 10 or 20 million sitting in treasury bills now I'm going to go and I just think about that is you did it your your the billionaire you're working with did it like the every success story what I've talked to they made it to where like I'm not going backwards I've been poor I've

29:24done those things I've made bad decisions I'm from this is my line in the sand that I'm never going backwards from this moment. I think that's a critical moment for people listening to think about what's my burn rate. What's my floor? So, everyone should look at this and go establish that floor in your life like right now.
All right, this is so good. I'm just anchoring in points because you're you're just blowing out so much great stuff that uh I got to pause you every now and then.
I'm take I'm taking as I'm getting as many notes. I'm taking as many notes for me as I appreciate it. Uh keep doing it. Um but yeah, so that became the floor. 24 months personal, 12 months with business and then anything over that I could start investing in or I could start moving in and I can start doing, you know, doing things in. Luckily for this period of time though, Brett, that I I had to pay off this money and I didn't really have a whole lot of money. I saw so many people make so many dumb investments and dumb like just stupid things in business. you know, they were going to trick flip this to crypto that to to freaking, you know, this get rich. And so I was blessed during that time. I

30:27got to I almost got clarity and I did I did get clarity. I got clarity and I go I I see what I don't want to go after. Like I surrendered to the macro. I'm going to be patient. I'm going to focus on my active income. I'm going to store this away. I'll I'll take, you know, my calculated risks on certain things, but I want to make sure I continue to rise. like actively come as high as I possibly can over and over and live insanely below my means.
Like
I drive I I drive a Toyota Tundra, you know? I'm not saying I'm not trying to brag about this stuff like I don't I do nice things. I have a I'm at the country club, but like we rented a house for 12 months. I I want to be able to write the entire rental thing off at the the whole thing. I want to be able to write the check, utilities, rental, the whole thing, one check, and I want to not feel it.
So, that's that's the difference for me between being able to buy something and afford it. I know if I can afford it if I don't feel it,

31:31like, can I go buy the thing and not feel it? And uh that's really like my my gauge for myself today. Well, because I realize there are early money rules though when you put those money rules like I want to not feel I love that like I got to write the check. I've got to have this floor. Give What are some of the other money rules you put in place? Because these are so good and people need to hear this. What are the other rules?
Yeah. So, um on my floor, so I have 24 months in in my account. Once I go over that amount, okay, um I can do I what I call an 8020 rule. So, like with 20% that's over that amount, I go do whatever the hell I want with it. Now, I do have to start adjusting my floor because now once once I decide, okay, we're going to go buy this second house in Flagstaff. Okay, so in order to buy the second house in Flagstaff, that adds call it an additional 5,000 a month or whatever it is. Well, now what's 5,000 a month? I need to have an additional $120,000 inside of that

32:34savings account because now that's the new 24 months. So that's the new rule. So before I go buy that thing, I have to have the 120 in here.
And you're doing it first. Let's make the point here. Not go buy the house and flag stuff first, which I have to guarantee I know where you're buying it. Um it you got to get the money in there first. That's the See, what everyone does is that they do the reverse.
I'll get it and then I'm going to save to it, right? I'll save to there when I get there. I'm going to bet it in the future. Instead of you pay the price in advance for the things that you want, you got to pay first. Paying first being new floor, that new floor goes higher. I love this is you and I before we were rapping before we started today. I said, I want you to be this raw with money.
Um, and you're like, this is the conversation I get to have my friends, but now it's the conversation. It's the reason I created my mastermind be wealthy is there wasn't a group openly talking about money like this. weird rooms in the back room at dinner and I and that's the first thing is like you got to you walk into my room, you strip financially naked and everyone talks about money the whole time. Not in

33:36a weird like bougie way, dude. What are you buying? What are you investing in? What's working? What's your floor? What's your burn rate? Right. It it's that conversation and it's just so important. I love that you're I so love that you're doing this and that's why I was so excited to get on here today because you're right. These are the conversations that I have with and with like my friends at dinner. And so it's um and then I learned like there is no trick to getting rich. Like you can't like I'm not going to cost segregate my way to wealth. I'm not going to flip trick, you know, I I mean all there is ways to do all of those things and those things there are people who are sophisticated enough to do specific things, but I'm not going to like no offense to the people that do these things, but like I'm not going to trickery my way to wealth. Like I never met anyone that like tricked their way to it. Like there was some disciplines. They had a set of rules. They had a set of values. They worked insanely hard. They was insanely consistent over a long period of time. They had a plan and they they just followed it and it was So, I'm

34:41just not a big trick guy. I You had a post that you posted the other day like a couple a month or two ago and you you had the the be wealthy myths.
Yeah.
And you had like the top 10 myths and you wrote that out. That was one of my favorite money posts of all time because those are the 10 things everybody chases.
Totally. It's the new shiny thing that sounds cool, right? An NFT. I'm going to pad split. They're going to come up with some new way. And you're like
to It's It's all packaged though to a degree. It's around the get-rich quick, right? It's it's not the like I could show anyone how to get beyond their wildest dreams wealthy.
But it's going to take a minute, right? And there's going to be a lot of selfwork. There's a plan. There's check-in. There's all these things, but it starts with them. But it's going to take time, right? There's going to be some delayed gratification and everyone you know if you're going to be the standout one is going to think you're weird and they're going to think you're weird for a really long time and you got to get comfortable with that. Like that

35:42just my life today people think it's the weirdest thing ever and I'm like I'm not playing your game
and so not you Dustin just the world I'm not playing the world's game I'm playing Brett Tanner's game
and I I always do like my I don't do fantasy football I draft my own fantasy team which is myself. I draft the same team every year. It's the only one I've got. Brett Tanner. Uh, and I play this. It's what I It's my team that I got to play with, right? And and every year we suited and every year we're going to win some games.
Yeah.
Any other money habits that you got? So, we got the 24 months. We're going to we're going to add to the reserves first before we make decisions. What are the other money ritual money rituals that you put in place?
Yeah. Um, so that's the big one like before I make a big purchase is like do I have that additional 24 months? And I love that you you mentioned that I do do it before and that wasn't something consciously like here's the rule before we buy it buy it. Um but uh the then the other thing is I know I've done it wrong so much Brett that I know how I'm going to feel after I do it.

36:43
Okay.
So I'm very conscious of that. Like okay I really want this new set of golf clubs. It's like in is a couple grand that much of an issue? Will I ever feel it? No. But do I really faking need it? No. Oh, I've got I just got these ones 6 months ago and I'm not they're not going to make me golf any better. And so it's like do I really need another Rolex? It's like I got a couple. It's like so those types of things of like the things that make me happy today when it comes to money at least for me are um experiences. And then also like what makes me happy today too is spending money on like my my friends and experiences and bringing people with me. And so, um, you know, like you're at your cabin right now. Like I love going and spending time in my cabin, inviting my friends up for the weekend. And I mean, I'm 39 now. So, um, and I still have some wealth goals and I still have some things that I've set up and my big investments are all in my developments cuz, uh, oh, I do have a money roll. I only invest in what I know.
I love this.
I I have a buddy that um he I I I reached out to him and he owns like

37:45about 10 dealerships in my area. He's one of my best friends. I reached out to him to invest in one of our developments and I pitch him and he goes, "You know what, Dustin?" I love it. I think it's a great deal. And he had his finance going on. He goes, "But you know what? I went home the other day." He's like, "I'm just going to buy another dealership." And I'm like, "Okay." And he's like, "It's just what I know, man. I don't know real estate, right?" He's like, "I just know I know." And it was like this moment where it clicked. It's like, "Oh, that's weird. Everything I've invested in that I didn't really know, I've lost money on. you know, and so, um,
and I always have to be long-term. So, if it's ever a quick money thing, a quick flip thing, I mean, I I'll do a flip here and there, but I don't do much of those anymore. Our developments are long-term. I have to know it. I stick to real estate. Um, I believe like really the only passive incomes really truly are like index funds, mutual funds, like treasury bonds, stuff like that. Like I don't believe owning a 100 rentals is passive income.

38:47It's very active.
I could tell you this. I got tound my goal was to get to a thousand single family rentals. That was one of my original goals. And I got to about 120 at the peak. And that would have been three years ago. And among other investments and I realized to your point they're anything but they're they're passiveish, right? Scale of 1 to 10. One 10 being it's totally passive. You don't talk about it. Mutual fund you put the money into it. One being it's not passive at all. Like I think rentals are like a five, right? They're passive for a minute, but then they got a problem. But they don't scale well. I mean, it we had property managers, I got people on my team. Um, but for me, right, what made it more passive is I I took all those investments and rolled it up to triple net commercial. So, I spent the last two years buying two Starbucks, a Denny's, an AT&T building, uh, in different markets, things that are fully absolute triple net. The tenant pays all the cost, there's management. I don't even hear think about it. I read a statement, go, "Yeah, cool. That it's it's going." To your point, I love though, invest in what you know. If you

39:51know real estate, if you're a dentist watching this, your first investment, it might be buying the equipment your business needs and putting it in your business,
right? People look externally like, "I'm going to put in the stock market." I'm like, why are you putting in the stock market? You're paying eight grand a month on a lease on that machine. Quit leasing the damn machine, own it, and then grow your business. The best investment is in in your business along then go find other dentists that need that same machine and go finance it for them
because you know dentistry and the machine.
I'm so glad you brought that up, Brett. Why Why is it important to invest back into your business before you invest back into your lifestyle?
Because that's how you're going to grow. Your business needs fuel and it's going to need cash to go grow it. and cash putting it back into the business is the fuel that will grow your business which would allow you to grow your lifestyle if you wanted to but your business is the fuel for everything else. your active income and you've nailed this you but I filled a podcast earlier and um it was all about active income which is so important right the first goal should

40:53drive my active income to move second goal will be how do I replace my my active income if I want to replace it and you do that through investing in yourself investing in things you know development and as that in development creates more and more cash you're going to park it into the next thing that's investing back into your business and back into what you're doing Yeah. And so many people want to remove active income too quick off of like investing in two freaking rentals. They go and buy two or three rentals and they have 5% down on them and they're like, "All right, I'm good now." It's like you've got to keep at least for me like I've always been focused on keep that active income is like my net like and it's like I haven't had a better return on anything than my business. And so like that's why I was willing to put money back into my business, put it in obviously into my developments and then put it I put it into mutual funds too and index funds and things like that. Um but um but yeah, people want to escape the active income thing way too quick. At least from my from my experience and what I've
well and the way they should approach it

41:56is they should be if they wanted to slow down in their active income. It should be because their passive income exceeded it at such a level that they go I don't want to do these five things I was doing anymore. They don't give me energy. They don't bring me joy. I want to do this other thing that maybe doesn't pay as well, but my my p and it's a choice. My passive in income's so high now that I can just do what I want. I do want to ask you about because I think you have a rule here. What's your rule on debt? you know, when you were making these rules.
Oh, yeah.
Because I'm sure you've got some and I definitely have some. What are your What are your rules around debt? And it could be debt on a car, debt on an asset, debt in general.
So, I'm I'm typically no debt. So, I'm not going to say that I'm not it. No, here's the thing about debt that I I learned is like every dollar that was coming in I was already spent. And so, and I learned this heavily on the tax thing, right? And then um and you start paying attention to things like and I I'm going to say it and I want I want to hear opinion on this too. I sit down with my my Mark my my mentor now and my

42:59partner. He he goes you know have you ever looked at an amortization schedule on a home and I'm like and I'm like no. He's like you know on if if you look at today on what is it I think uh a half a million dollar home I want to think if I'm saying this right. on a half a million dollar home in 10 years you would have paid $311,000 in interest right so like is sometimes people are like should I buy or should I rent I'm like how long are you going to live in the house you know so these are like important things so um I'm I'm not I'm a no debt guy right now like I have one one debt I have one I I do own and it's on a commercial property in the heart of my town on the corner lot uh I paid 1.1 million for it And I I 50% of it is is is I have a loan on. Um with that being said, go back to my rule. I think the loan is like five or six grand a month. Okay. Inside of my business account of the 12 months, do I have an additional I

44:02believe it what was that? 60 $72,000.
It's 12 months.
That make sense?
Yeah. 12 months of it. So, I have to increase that 12 months and then I can put the down pay and an additional down payment on that and then can I buy it? There's my there there's my back to my rules of the principles of the original. So,
I love it. So, so what's funny about amortization schedules where you went what people do is they don't realize you pay almost nothing down in the first five or seven years, right? And then what do people do on year seven?
Either or refinance it or refinance it and start the AM schedule again back over here. Um, but they don't. You said, do people actually know how amortization schedules work? No, they don't. Um, I own a tremendous amount of debt of others, right? I seller finance. I lend to others. I have my banking license. And what's f people do not understand how debt works. My rules around debt is I only allow a certain percentage of my net worth. So, okay, today my total debt is less than 10% of my net worth
and I'm willing to go up to 30. Um, it's

45:05just as as I had cash in businesses that started super achieving. I took that excess cash and just drove down debt. It was a great place I could go get any debt that I had was higher than and and I would tell you of the debt I have that the the 10% of my net worth or less the blended interest rate on all of it sub 4%.
So, if I had 2021 hit, you'll this story is interesting. Uh 2021 hit mortgage rates, 30-year mortgage rates for investment properties hit an all-time low. Okay, coming out of COVID, my a bank in Arizona came out with a a 30-year fixed mortgage. You had to pay some points to get this at 3 and 12%. 30-year fixed. I took any mortgage that I had, I refinanced all of them at that point to three and a half% 30-year fixed debt. So a bulk of that 10% is just I'm like it's hard for me to justify paying it off when treasury bills pay four, right? So it's illogical. I'll just shove a treasury bill and take the four and not pay the tax uh um on that to do it. So it's just fascinating though when

46:09you think so I have rules around debt. I won't uh other rules of mine cars never uh any car I buy it's it's wire transfer, right? So if you're watching this and you can't send the wire or write a check for the car, it's because you're buying too much car. go drive a piece of grass until you can do that. Um, when you're buying a house, if you're paying PMI, and I, this is maybe too aggressive, but it's a tax on poor people, right? Property mortgage insurance is a tax because you don't have the 20% down, right? That's why they it's a tax. It doesn't go away.
So, my real estate thing is minimum 30% down. Minimum.
Like, that's a And usually I'm more like the 50 just because I want to your point, I want I want low risk. I optimize for the lowest risk, not the highest return.
Yes.
And I think that people look at me and they'll go, "Oh, Brett, you're so risky." And I go, "Risky in what?
I'll start a business tomorrow." Because I understand the game,
right? But I'm going to do it in a way that I write a check until it's profitable. I understand the reserves. Um, when they look and they get behind the curtain, they go, "Holy cow, you're the least risky person I know." I go,

47:10"Oh, no. I take no risk." I mean, when I lend money to someone, yes, I'm taking a risk, but it's almost guaranteed. I'm betting on an asset I know in my market, better than anyone, probably better than the person flipping the house, and I'm lending them money that if they don't pay, I'll take it back and make great money. Every foreclosure I've had, I take it back. I've made money. And so, I just love that you and I are on the same page of you got to get real. Debt is a problem, right? It creates more risk and you need to understand it's a tool, but it can also harm you, right? it can really more people get harmed by being overleveraged than anything else and you can do it without tremendous debt. And so I just I love that you're you're saying that
and people don't realize Brett and and you know this. They don't realize how much they've normalized this inside of their nervous system. Like they've normalized this like owing people money like their whole life and they don't realize once you pay all of that off, you have a freedom that most people will never experience. like this sense of like ah like it's just it's just a

48:14feeling that that so few people have
when you remove the money stress in your life. Um to your point, I don't think you'll realize how free you can be.
Yeah.
Until you do it.
I always say I always say I'm I I suck at being broke. I'm a better person when I live by these principles. I'm a better husband. I'm a better friend. I'm a better leader. I can lead out of love instead of fear. I can lead out of abundance instead of scarcity. It I've set myself up in a position to where I can actually be the best version of myself. It and and you I mean you can do that prior to having the money, but um yeah, I I love what you said, but it's hard but it's hard, right? It's hard to it's hard to be your best self when in the back of your mind you're at the meeting going, "Oh my gosh, the IRS thing is
right." So, I'll give you an example. Um I I I coach people right like you do and I one point I was coaching four of the top 10 real estate agents in the country. I've coached some of the top lenders in the country, business people. And uh I had this client and he was going to make a big investment. Okay? It

49:19was beyond his means at the time. And so I was said, "Hey, I I don't think you should do it." Actually, not because it's not a great investment. You just don't have the capital today.
And I said, "You're going to put too much pressure on your money." And so he did it and got forward about six months. The things that I thought would happen happened. And now Dustin, what's crazy, he was starting to make terrible decisions because there was pressure on his money. It's like, well, I'm going to sell this now. I'm going to fire that. I'm going to I go, whoa, dude. Do you see? Now, first of all, I'm going to show you how we get out of all this. But do you see what happened? You were on the path to be ridiculously wealthy and have total freedom. You invested beyond your mean. It was an investment. So this wasn't like a car or crap, but his mindset, the freedom, he he lost all of his freedom. And so instantly he went to scarcity, started making terrible decision, and he was going to go down the road and unraveling everything he created. And I think it's so important that like when you don't have the reserves, the structure, money rules, you haven't done the deep selfwork, selfwork, you can make bad decisions. And that's where you get it's putting

50:22pressure on your money that causes a problem. So instead of saying, "I want to do that deal." Better better response would have been, "Okay, I can't do this deal today, but I'm going to get go back to my business, crank my active income up, get the money set aside, so when this opportunity comes next time, it's not going to put stress and pressure in my life." Radically different way to experience it, and you land at the destination uh much better. There are the folks, sure, that have went to the blackjack table every day, gambled in business, bet everything, and they've become ridiculous. There there are some, I would argue they're few and far between where luck was more of a part of it. You know, when I look at my life, I want to remove luck from the equation, right? I've been very blessed. I've been very lucky. Uh I just can't control luck. I don't get to pick when it comes. So, I want to make sure that I win in all of the cases, all the things that I'm doing where luck doesn't have to be one of the things that I have to have.
And you know, it's so so funny, Brett, is those are the stories that get the most play. The stories where someone went all in, tripled down on this,

51:23quadrupled down on this, sold this. It's like, you know, if you ask my buddy who's who's very well off, he'd say, "Man, it's so much luck and timing." He's like, "What's crazy is anybody could be probably worth 50 to 100 million, but the guys where you hear the stories of billions of dollars and billions of dollars because of this luck and a crypto thing here and a they started this business and sold it for a billion dollars." It's like so much of it is timing and luck. I don't I'm the same way. I don't want to bank on luck at any level. At any level. If luck shows up, great. That's awesome. But my I don't want my plan even with our developments. when we look at our development plans, I don't want there to ever have to be luck involved in anything that we're doing, right? I don't get any debt on any of our our our our land deals. So, when we buy a property, we raise 100% of the equity and we purchase it. So, the worst thing that happens is we wait 10 years.
So, so it's so good and so rare today to hear that.
Yeah. And all because all my friends that are in developments that I used to

52:24their their shit's in receiverhip right now. So, it's like they they're getting 50% debt because they're going to make an additional 12% on the deal. I'm like, I'll make less on the deal, but my investors are going to be happier with me. I'm going to create a good relationship with them. And I have this thing. I don't justify deals. So, if it's not a home run, I'm out. And that's on anything that I look at because I want to know that I have a third base, a second base, and a first base. Right? People take base hits and treat them like they're grand slams. And that that's and that's why dude one more base and you struck out. And so those are some of the principles that we have.
It's so good. I want to move to today and I want you to tell me what's what's a day in the life for Dustin look like. So you're I know you're high energy. Give me a feel for what's the work look like? What's the day?
How much time are you putting in each day? Because you know there's again we're back to the work life balance and don't work too hard. Dustin, why do you work so why do you work so hard, man?

53:26Are you okay? Um, talk to that a little bit.
Yeah, I work a lot. So, and and I and I I love it. So, uh I work I probably work six days a week. Um not probably I work six days a week every every week. Um every now and again I'll take the two days with my wife. Um but at least one day full day with my wife, but uh Mondays I'm in the office every single day. My morning routine is I I wake up. Um I go get on the bike. I go in the shower. I get ready. I kiss my wife on the on the on the uh forehead and I get to work. So I come into the office. I'm here about 7 every single day. Um when it comes to my team, I hammer out my emails and kind of plan for the day for about an hour. I have a team meeting in the morning. every morning, Monday through Friday, I run that team meeting and then I coach one-on-one with my top 20% and that's really all I do with my real estate team and then push the vision. I'm out creating opportunities for my real estate team. Um, and then I'm spending the rest of the day inside

54:27of our development company and then coaching top entrepreneurs. So, um, for instance, I mean, I got my calendar here today. Uh, Whoops. Um, yeah. So, it's team meeting. I have a coaching client, coaching client, coaching client. Um, I have another client or another Cody who's on my team. Uh, meet with him and then I'm usually development from like 1:00 on till about 7 every day. So, I'm usually like 7 to 6, 7 to 7 every day, Monday through Saturday. Definitely Monday through Friday. Um, and I'm in it, but I love it. I
And I Well, you could feel the passion. So, my question would be when you get I'm sure you get the question, Dustin.
Yeah.
You made it. You got money in the bank. You got 24 months. You got the cabin. got the things. Why are you still working the 60 hours? Why? What? What? What do you say to them?
Great question. And I this I hope people hear this. I don't do this to get this is who I am. I am this I I become. And so you see this with guys where and you I know you cuz you're if you're at the country club too. You see this with guys

55:29where they do it to get they sell the company, they get the 50 million and they did it to get it and now that they have it, they lose themselves again. And so they start drinking every single day. They start eating like crazy. They get a giant beer gut. Their relationship at home goes away. They, you know, they're they they're married for 30 years and all of a sudden they're getting a divorce. And it's like it's who I am. This isn't what I do. Like I am disciplined. I am hungry. I am driven in all things. Whether we're playing golf, man, I'm trying to take your head off. I love you
and I respect you, but I'm trying to win. You know, I'm I want to win. Um, and so too many people do it to get um, and that's why you see so many people slow down. Now they're slow down a little bit once you get some money, right? But there's you see some people once they get it, they just stop and and those are the people that did it to get. And I'm I'm doing this to become it is uh that is so good. Don't do it to get, do it to um to become, you know. So my mission statement for my life, we've

56:30borrowed it for the companies, but when I started out working, I I looked at different people like what are the activities that give me joy that I want to do forever? Like what could I do forever? Um, and I had this business coach that was coaching in his 70s and he's been become this crazy successful entrepreneur and he was probably coaching 40 hours a week, but he loved it. Like it was like so he did that forever. I was like, I could coach for I love coaching, right? I um I love investing capital. I love deals. I love managing c money. So that was kind of the framework of like okay I could do those things forever and I could do them really really well. Um I come back to like I wanted the freedom of the work I did like what do I get to do? I wanted freedom of how I do it where I did it and who I got to do it with. That's what drove my life. I want really the freedom of choice right? So like our whole anthem at at be wealthy is we want to help people get free just and and freedom like everyone that's listening to this their definition of freedom can be different than mine. That's okay. Just define what freedom is for you. And what you said is, dude, I'm loving what I'm doing. Like, for me, what I do

57:32doesn't feel like work,
right? And there's a context of what you're doing that you and I are doing this, and we could call this work. Um, this isn't work for me.
I love, right, my place in life today. I think um I I don't think I get the most joy from lighting up entrepreneurs and lighting up people that want to improve their lives. And I love being at the front of the room helping people change their behavior and their decisions to make radically different outcomes in their lives. And so that to me doesn't feel like work. I'm not checking the clock going, "Ooh." So I I lived at my cabin the entire summer um from the day my kids got out of school to the day they went back. My kids are we're and they're at the you know, they're doing all the things and and we're playing golf and we're But when they're out doing something else, sometimes I I just want to go work. So, I actually work more at the cabin, but I also have more play because I'm doing it in the way that I want instead of being bound by rules that society tells me I need to play by. And so, it's just I think for you and I, I get it's funny. I I probably work 60 plus hours a week to

58:35this day and I I I've never looked at it and went, "Oh, I need to knock off today." I mean, when I want to go somewhere, I go I just spent a week in Bise with my at my house in Bise with my son, uh, my youngest just spear fishing lobster. You know, we speared lobster.
Hell yeah.
Like like I mean if I say that like my son speared 45 lobsters in the I mean it like who I mean it's just that's our thing, right? We went to the jungle and explored here and we hiking on this and I my my play thing where do I invest my money? I invested in experiences with people I love.
Yeah.
I get the highest return on that. The second highest return I get is is little things that improve my life. Not big things like this is a dumb one. I think you might even know the guy. He started a business called Can Monkey. Uh they wheel the trash cans out to the street, right? And then they they use like kind of like an Uber type app. Neighborhood kids come and do it and it's like I don't know, it's let's call it $50 a month or whatever it is. My issue is when we forget to do that or I forget or whatever the trash, you know, now it's overpiled for $50 a month. I got to tell

59:38you how much joy it brings me that every time that I throw a trash in there, it's empty. It's just I I it's an investment that I made that improved my life, right? And I have all of the like the leverage things to me are are the things that improve my life the most. So I my best investments experience with people I love and things that improve my life just on a granular level. We are identical. So the biggest thing that I found in wealthy people and observing them like yourself cuz I pay attention right like I know I know a freaking shirt you were wearing the first time I met you. So, it's like I I I'm very conscious and I really watch these things, but wealthy people buy convenience and time. And so, they don't buy things. And if they do buy things, it's a small small percentage. So, I think in percentages like cuz my buddy goes and buys a $900,000 car. He goes, "You got to realize that's like less than that's like 1% of what like what I have." And so whereas most people go and buy a $50,000 car and it's 50% of what they make that year like and so I think

1:00:42in percentages a lot. Um but anyways um cuz that was another principle I forgot to share was thinking in percentages before you purchase certain things. But they buy convenience and time. And so like yeah I've got a house cleaner. I've got another cleaner at the other place. I've got someone who comes and picks up the car. I don't do anything errand wise. I don't do the errands. We order all the food in the house. Like I don't it there's just everything's on auto whatever. Like I don't do I don't pick up the dog poop. We got someone who picks up the dog poop. Like people take pride in things that have zero or no ROI.
It's like if you were to go
that it is so they they take pride in things that have zero. It is so good. Right. What people it's that's is such a great statement.
Yeah. Like people like oh I got this thing I'm going to do this weekend. I got this project. I'm like, cool. Well, if you just paid someone to do that project, you go hang out with your kids. Or if you actually went to the office and did the thing for four hours that you keep avoiding, you could pay someone to do that. So then you have more freedom and you can maybe take your kid

1:01:44to Bise and go spear fishing.
Like you don't they don't get it.
They use these things as a way to avoid.
I I have this joke that I say go someone has to do the thing, right? So what are what are real estate or business people like? What's the conversation like today? It sounds like this. I'm going to hire someone to generate the lead. Then I'm going to hire someone to convert it. I'm going to hire someone to show it. And then I'm going to hire someone to write the contract. And then I'm going to hire someone to close it. And then it's going to close. I'm like, well, what are you doing? Cuz when you have all those things, it'll make no money. Spoiler alert. And right, it's like, but like the thing, right, in our in most businesses is is this isn't a coiled up cobra in the conga. It's a phone and you pick it up and the thing it's it's do the thing is the work, right? The actual we cut out all the Someone that's my I someone's got to do the thing. I I I the guy will remain nameless, but he he flew me in to help consult on his business. And we go to the board and and Dustin he draws out here's where I'm going and here's what

1:02:45I'll be doing. this person does this and then some person does this and then then we go over here and then we do this and it it was the most complicated business plan. And so he presented for an hour and I said, "Dude, I think this is going to be a quick meeting. I can help you." I took his whole whiteboard and I just ripped it apart. I threw it in the trash. I said, "What if we just cut out steps one through 33 and you did the thing?" Like, "What if you did it?" And he's like,
"Yes." Boom. Oh my. Yeah. You get leverage by being so good at the thing,
right? Back in the day, the way I got to be the number, you know, nine agent in the country, three in my firm wasn't by all the crap you hear online. It was literally I was doing this three hours a day,
headset in. And as I became success, I just I would get people in there. I'm like, I don't really know how to coach and train you. So, just sit right here. And then I didn't, you know, back then I didn't think about script. I'm saying this, just say it the same thing I'm saying to them. And I would in real time like on the next dude you didn't say it like to say it like this and I was just

1:03:47and then I got three people doing that and then I had four people doing it. Well then my job became making sure that they were doing the thing like you said while I was out creating more opportunity. But make no mistake at any moment I could jump back in and get on the phone and I know how to do the the actual thing. So in everyone's business you got to do the thing. Got it. This is like Yeah. This is so it's so spot-on. It's like, you know, the Gary Keller's book, The One Thing, like I I I think of this. I asked myself this. What's the one thing that if I did it, I wouldn't have to do anything else I don't want to do. And it's usually the thing like in development, it was funny because under my team, it was it was making calls, right? Leen, lead genen, lead genen. And then once I grew to the leader, it was recruit, recruit, recruit, recruit, recruit, recruit. But there isn't a problem inside
didn't change. I was still picking up the phone.
Now I'm not not selling buyers. Now I'm selling people,
right? I'm recruiting people.
Everything that I have in my life that people want is came from picking this

1:04:50thing up. Everything. Cuz then it was recruiting. Okay, there isn't a problem my real estate business has that recruiting won't solve. Recruit, recruit, recruit. Now I hire a recruiter and I say, "Here, do what I do." She recruits. Then I open the development company and we thought we were a development company. No, we're a fundraising company. Guess what you do with a fundraising company? You pick up the phone and Yep.
We're back to the thing.
Back to the thing. And so what do I do today? I raise capital. I'm back to the thing. It's the exact same. And if I raise capital, it if I have the right deal and I raise capital, it makes everything else easier or I don't even have to do it. So, um, it's so funny. You're so true or you're so right on that. Um, another thing that you said that I really liked, uh, which is like you want to get to a point to where you're doing things that you love to do and you like to do and it doesn't feel like work. Here's what I believe success is for me and I felt this and I know you felt this. You get paid for being yourself.

1:05:52Like I just get paid to be me. Like you get to a point you save enough money away. You put enough money away. This I do this for 10 hours a day, you know? I'd coach for 10 hours a day. I love meeting with investors and putting the deal. I'm a deal. I love putting deals together, man. It's so fun. Uh similar to you, I'm sure. So, um that's when I think you've hit like the real success is just like I just am myself,
but you're myself. Let's be clear because you're world class at doing the thing. You've learned to love
Yes.
doing the thing. So, you know, I I share this once before. Uh my early mentor in in real estate, the sales business was Russell Shaw, right? And as you know,
uh, that guy altered my entire career. I would give him so much credit for my career early on. I, so the story was I I saw him speak my first year as a licensed agent. I'm rookie of the year, doing those things. I see him and it was Bill Ryan. They were on a panel and I saw Russell speak. He was the number one agent, you know, was just dominant. And I was like, I got to sit down with him.

1:06:55I mean, I'm 20, let me think. I'm 25 years old, just had a good year in real estate. I don't really know anything about real estate. I'm just I'm a hustler, right? And
I I was like, I got to sit down with him. So, I mailed him
a check for $500 uh in a letter that said, "The only difference between who we are five years from now are the books we read and the people we meet. I believe you would be one of those people who could change my life. Uh and here's I couldn't pay for an hour of your time, so here's $500 to charity of your choice. Send it wherever you want. Send it FedEx overnight. Signature required." Gave him my phone number. Next day, phone rings. Brett Tanner, Russell Shaw. Uh, I don't have a lot of time. I'm gonna give you one hour. Maybe at Houston's tomorrow at 11 o'clock. Don't be late. You got it. I show up and we sit down and his first thing he says, "I got good news for you. People that sit down with me, they make more money." I don't know why that is. You have a notepad, open it. And he just drilled me like, "Write this down." Dude, I was like, "Whoa, right." I mean, it was the wildest thing. I mean, here's my let me

1:07:58see your pre-listing packet. He goes I was like, "Well, Russ, can before we get started, can I talk to you a little bit? I don't know that I'm that passionate about real estate. You know, I'm having success, but" And he goes, "Yeah, it's cuz you're shitty at it. You're not world class." He goes, "You know what? Finding your passion," he goes, "It's total Become world class at something and you'll find you love it."
Yeah.
I look at every area of my life, like when I was not good at golf, no passion. Today I'm I'm I'm whining my handicap. You know, my handicap's going down. You know, I'm a single digit
and I'm more passionate than I was when I was less good. Right. Yeah.
So, you know, when I'm here, you do that. Like, you're so passionate about because you're great at it.
And so, people that are watching this, you got to you got to go through the process of doing the thing, work on your skills, read the books, get around people like Dustin, get in the right room to get good at it. And then you're gonna find like, dude, I got passion for the things that I didn't want to do before. And I just think that's an important,
you know, like if I would have followed

1:09:00my passion. I don't know. Like I none of my things that I was really passionate about at 20 years old, I think would have led anywhere, you know, like I was passionate about screwing around. I was I was passion about a lot of things that were goofy. Going to the lake, right? I was extremely passionate about going to the lake. That wasn't going to lead me anywhere. So I think it's just getting clear on, you know, on what really creates passion. I hope people realize if you're from Phoenix, Arizona, all the legends that you just mentioned, the Bill Ryan, uh Russell Shaw, Houston's over in Scottsdale, like this is like that brings back all the memories of like those I was at Bill Ryan's office doing short sale negotiating at like 22. So, uh and and Russell Shaw, amazing. And it's so good. Um um I remember a story that that that uh Russell Shaw told too, which I thought was really good, which is he had smoked cigarettes for like 20 years. And um and he said uh he goes, "I quit I quit smoking cigarettes." Was it hard? Oh, it was the easiest thing I've ever done. I'm like, "Really?" He's like,

1:10:02"Yeah, I just quit that day. Never touch a cigarette ever again." He goes, "What was hard was making the decision?" Once I made the decision, once I made the decision, done. Just took me 22 years to make the decision. So, when it comes to wealth and things like that, it's like once I made the decision, when I sat down with the tax attorney and I sat down with the accountant and I sat down, once I made the decision, this is who I'm going to be. This is what I'm going to do, guys. It's not overtly complicated. It's act and I don't want to say it's easy, but it just takes some like it takes some emotional regulation is really what it is. It takes a little bit of personal development and some rules and principles to follow. And make sure you're getting those rules and principles from people like a Brett, someone who is already there. I can't tell you how many times I got the wrong principles. I got the wrong disciplines and I got the wrong advice from the wrong people that I thought were wealthy that weren't. Those were the people letting me buy hundred or thousand dinners. Those are the people telling me how great my new car is when it wasn't. Like these are the people that were pumping me up about me making poor choices. And so, um, that's why it's

1:11:05important like don't only get in rooms, but get in rooms with guys like a Brett. And if you can't do it, you do what you did with Russell Shaw. This is what's funny is I would tell you there hasn't been a person where I've asked for their time and offered money. I called a bunch of developers in Phoenix, called, offered them thousands of dollars for their time. Most people didn't even take the money and they'd still work with me.
Well, that was the first thing he did. He goes, "Let's take care of this right now." He hands me the check back. Greta Houston. I say, "Absolutely not, sir." and I will never take it. He goes, "Cool. I'm going to frame it and put it on my wall." I said, "Wonderful. I don't care what you do." I'm not here for that. I really He's like, "What are you here for?" I go, "I just want to sit across from the best and see what it's like." Like, see, can I do it? Do I have And
I mean, he put me in the master. Like, this guy just did everything. It was It was so cool. So, as as we're wrapping up here, I want to go to some I want to do I want to do some rapid fire here with you.
Yeah.
Talk to the audience. What are What are some of the best books that impacted your life? the best books. So, I'm really into psychology and like really into like why we do what we do. One of the best books

1:12:08is on identity. Identity is the strongest force in the human psychology. It's the need to stay aligned with what we believe we are. Um, and so like my beliefs about wealth were off.
Like they were completely wrong because I learned them from people who weren't. Um, and so psychocybernetics is a really good book. Um,
it's a great
on that I Yep. um some books on uh you know psychology of money. I really like that book. That's a great book.
Morgan Hel. Uh and did you read a second one? Same as ever.
I did not. No.
Oh, you got it'll it'll you will. So they always ask um Jeff Bezos, you know, what's going to be different in 5 years? And he goes, I get that question everywhere I go. He goes, it's actually not the best question. The best question is what'll be the same in five years.
Ah, that's good. And so what are the life principles that'll be the same? And one of the ideas in there um that that impacted my life just dramatically was there's a right size to everything. So there's a right size to the amount of time you spend with your wife. There's a

1:13:12right size to that relationship. People say, "Oh no, more is better." Not true. I love my wife. I actually could spend every waking hour with my wife. My wife not could not spend every waking hour with me because I'm a lot. I just I'm a lot. There's a right size to the relationship, the time, the relationship, my kids, right? Um, now let's go to your business. Single family rentals. Why did I not like having 120? Because that's not the right size. The right size is what you can actually with property managers oversee yourself without leverage. Because as you add leverage, it gets really hard on the returns unless you scale up to thousands or whatever. Um, so there's a right size. There's a right size to your team size if you want to stay in Lake Habsu or whatever. You know, there's a right. You can't have 5,000 agents in Lake Habsu. That's just not a thing, right? It's just not.
So, there's a right there's an optimal size, right?
And so, I think about all the time if I anytime I'm having friction in some area, I'm like, am I just not like focused on the right size of that

1:14:14particular thing at this moment? There's just But anyway, that book same as ever. Does anyone what other what other books?
I love that the the number one book that like changed my life life was uh honestly because I saw him on TV all the time and like I was in a really dark place and when I was 25 uh was awakened the giant within by Anthony Robbins.
So good
which t which taught you values like it taught you values it taught you human needs. It taught you uh you know he's dig on NLP. So that was a really really good book. Um, I read every year, Bryant, Brett, I mean, I read 48 Laws of Power every year, Brett.
It's
this uh this the rule number one when it came to
rule number one, never outshine the master.
That is like that I have raised more money off of that rule. Like the person in the theater, that's that's it's not the it's not the lead. It's the guy with the spotlight. And so that uh that book I read I read a lot of Rob Robert Green to be honest more anymore unless someone like you and gives me a book or Mark

1:15:17gives me a book I tend to reread those books a lot
you know what I'm into right now I'll tell you I read a lot of biographies now
autobiographies I'm deep into that journey like um I think the stuff by Isacson so he did one on Elon Musk one on Steve Jobs there's a great book I think it's called hardwired on Bill Gate like I go back and I want to know what those guys were doing,
right? What were like I read I'll say one of the great it's a it's a not an easy read. I mean it's just it's long it's not complicated. Snowball, Warren Buffett. If you read about I've studied I I bought every book on Buffett and Munger like there's like 20 25 total read them all because I want to understand the greatest investor of our time and you know what's crazy Dustin is you get into reading you're like this guy was looking at investing in a stock you know what he would do if he was to make a sign he would fly to the company hey can I meet with you guys meet your management see you got he just wanted to like dig in like he was going the part of the story like oh he never left Omaha that's total early on that guy

1:16:20was getting on planes, going to places, figuring things out. Um, so like, you know, then I I'll be talking to someone that I'm coaching and I'll say, "Hey, well, when was the last you got a problem on your property that's in, you know, wherever? When was the last time you flew out there?" Like, I'm not going to go out there. I have a property in Nandra. Like, so Warren Buffett, one of the wealthiest people ever, was willing to get up, plane, and go wherever. You're not there. And you've got all these things in your way of success. So just when I read those biographies, I look like, man, the guys that are in girls that are super achieving in this world are playing a totally different game
and they're not making excuses for getting on planes or paying a price.
So true. We sat down with one of some of the largest developers in the country and I asked, "How do you find the locations?" Like, "What day did you pull?" Because it seems like something's missing. And the thing that was missing, what they do before they go into a new city, a new area, they fly and they live there for 3 weeks. They go to the bars, they go to the restaurants, they meet with the city council, they live in the

1:17:23city for three. I go, that's what we're missing. Like that was the that's it,
isn't it? But this are doing but they're doing they're doing the thing. The thing for them was how can I make a massive investment
in another city or town or county? What would give me more knowledge than anything else? What's the one thing I got to go live there and be a part of it?
Yeah.
So, get me I want I want to switch to habits. What are some of Give us, you know, for the for people that are watching this or listening to it, what are some of the habits that have that have had the greatest impact on your life?
Uh, greatest impact on my h health has been I only eat once a day and I eat it at night. So, that's one habit that's just been good for me because I'm not I'm not very disciplined. It was something my weight would go up and down. So I've kept it off for 5 years. And so that that's a that's one habit that I have um in my life. Um I try to keep I'm very very very simplistic. So like like I have a habit of less is more. Um so if I get something or I have something, my habit is if I can't pay

1:18:27other people to take care of it so I don't ever have to worry about it, I don't do it or I don't purchase it. I don't add more chaos to my life that is unneeded. Um, I always want the chaos. If I add any chaos to my life, it better have a good ROI. Um, so I'm always thinking in ROIs. Um, coming to the office every day is a big habit. You're going to see this in my habits of like they're very simple. Like I come to the office every single day and I work in the office every single day. Um, I prioritize fun. So that's a big thing. Once a week I go have fun. So whether that's golfing, whether it's hanging out with the buddies, whether it's like we go do stuff. Um, I'm out of town, I try to leave. We do one night quick little jolts to Flagstaff or Scottsdale or to to Vegas, fly there and back real quick with my wife. Um, so I prioritize fun. That's a big habit. I date my wife twice a week. When you said there's too much time together, I work a lot so I prioritize two nights a week. Um, I have other rules inside that relationship, but um um other habits um I mean I have like business habits where I meet with

1:19:30administration a certain amount of times. I check accounts a certain amount of times. I wake up and check my bank account every morning. I didn't do that when I wasn't disciplined.
By the way, when people tell they have money problems, I tell them, uh, you know, the first thing I tell them to do, just log into every bank account you have every day.
Yeah.
And you don't need to spend a lot of time. Just look at yesterday's charges
and then just just just look at that. And then you can ask yourself, well, is that are those decisions leading me to the life that I wanted? Yes or no? Just that awareness, right? That awareness going, you know what? I'm going to skip the Starbucks or whatever. Like there was a moment in my life where I was driving, you know, on the remote line at Starbucks to get a coffee and you know I was on the phone, I'm doing stuff, but I started looking and going what am I what is what is this habit serving? I can make great coffee at home and I get the time back and it's not annoying and so like for me it's all about I'm going to optimize time and remove blocks and it's going to be the most efficient.
Like I don't go to stores to shop for things. Why? Because they if you if anyone's been in a store you go they're like, "Oh, do you have this in a size 11?" No, we don't have 11. I just wasted. So now what I do if I want to

1:20:33buy like a new pair of shoes, and this is crazy. I just buy 12. I order them in, try what I want, and then send back in. It's all free return. So I just get what I wanted delivered to my home. It's the most efficient thing ever. Uh, right. Like I actually don't go into stores. Like it's my wife loves to go in stores now. If we're going to go and she wants to do it, I'm it's our my time together, I'll do whatever she wants to do. Me personally, if I never win another store again, I have no desire. like I don't need to do that because I don't find that to be efficient and I don't find great joy in that. So like little but when you hear people's habits like you have rules like you said rules around your relationship, your money, your business, your staff, your leaders. Every successful person I know has built mental models around every aspect of their life that mattered. Even if they're unconscious of it, they have it. And so that's where I've like tried to strip away from you know asking questions from guys like you and people. But um you know optimizing time and removing roadblocks is that is you said it better you said it better than than I

1:21:35did. That is my number one goal with everything that I do. Like I pay a car to drive me to Vegas. I don't want to drive and I I can work in the back and I have you know it's like um I'm with my wife and we get to talk or whatever. So like um whatever makes something easier for me or more convenient because I'm doing inside of my business inconvenience doesn't pay in your personal life, it does in business. So I will be inconvenienced in my business as long as it has an ROI. So I can be convened in my life.
That that is it is so good because the inconvenience in your business likely is the opportunity.
Yes. The inconvenience in your personal life is a thing that's dragging you you backwards
and
so good.
You know, when I when I it's funny like I I I coach people and I'm curious your perspective on this. Uh people think I'm this like business strategist and they say all these really nice things. Uh you know what's funny? What I do with a person when I first start coaching them is I just fix their personal life and then their business Dustin goes like

1:22:37this. It thrives. It goes like I I coach uh someone you know she'll remain nameless here. Um, and she gives me all this credit for this massive success she had. And I said, "You do realize all I did is I helped you hire a nanny and I helped fix your personal life a little bit. Um, by the way, not the nanny to be with her kids, the nanny to go in and do the things that was giving her guilt. Like have the meal ready to go so you pop it in the oven, have the house all clean and put away, have the lawn there's no honor in doing laundry. They just there there's none. Like you said, people just like I do the laundry. Why? Not that they're super who that's not a thing to be proud of. So she crushed it. I said the truth is I fixed your personal and gave you some leverage and gave you some removed some guilt and then your business skyrocket. I didn't really you know I was a sounding board. But so I go into people I I find that if you fix their their personal lives and their business life they they're going to track. And if their personal life in shambles I don't care how many hours they put in at the office. You might get some some victories and you can still win with ours, but ultimately your

1:23:40business life will have the same chaos. And so it starts you fix you fix home fix your personal life and then your business can thrive. And do you do you feel like as a coach aren't you fixing their personal life? It
there's no such thing as a business problem. There's just personal problems that affect business period in the story. And so that's it. And I will tell you this little trick and that I love that you you announced that publicly that you you work on the personal life. Here's the thing. Until people realize that this coaching world, there's a lot of coaches out there. It's funny because what people want to buy is how-tos, but as howto's worked, you'd already have the result. Because on this podcast, if you're listening, there's things you already know you need to be doing that you're just avoiding. So, you know how to do them, but you're not doing them. I always say people try to chase and buy how-tos when they really need to surrender to the fix you. You need to fix use discipline. You need to fix use money. You need to fix use

1:24:43relationship at home. You need to fix use, you know, leverage. And then and then the other thing that that that you do um that you did there which is awesome is from someone like you and and you have this power because you're there and um you're admired and you're a leader and you're looked upon. But sometimes some people just need permission.
Mhm.
Like they need permission to know it's okay to hire the nanny, right? Because 99% of the other people are judging them. And here's an important thing to hear. 99% of the people are going to judge you. But guess what? You want to be part of the 1% or the 01%. So you have to realize you're going to have different beliefs than 99.9% of the people out there. Different set of beliefs. And this is when I realized this was like Mark again, my mentor. He has beliefs that like the average person, it's like shocking. Like I'll give you one and he would be okay with this. He doesn't believe family first. Like that's not his belief. He goes that's what a bunch of rich people say that don't actually do it. If you look at their behavior, it's mission first

1:25:46because they know the mission serves the whole.
And so he's mission first. He goes, then I'm second, then my family's third. He's like, cuz if I don't prioritize the mission, like I have to come and I have to be the best version of myself. And so this is shocking to people when they hear these things. But guess what? He's in the 0.00001%. you know, so anyways, you got to be willing to be in that.
The critics would say, "Oh, I can't believe you didn't say family first." But to your point, the people that are sometimes saying the thing aren't the ones actually doing it. Like I I had a uh a friend/acquaintance who, you know, came to me for help and and wanted to help fix her marriage and I gave her some tools to I think to do that. And it's interesting now 5 weeks later she's going to teach a marriage class on the on I saw it all over social media and I went this is where I strug right 5 weeks ago you were on the edge of going to divorce. Now maybe you fixed it all in four weeks. I just don't think you have. Um or there's the person who

1:26:49was they had flipped one house and successful and now they're going to coach on it. It's just
it it's interesting. It's you and I are truth tellers in a fake world. And that's what I tell people like like I I'm I'm a truth. I'm going to tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. And I'm only going to sell someone themselves, right? I I believe in other people so much and I want so much for them that I'm not willing to let them get away with an excuse. That's what people say in coaching, man. You're a tough coach. I'm not a tough coach. I just ask what you want out of your life. We establish goals. We come with a way to measure it. And I just hold you to it. Any day you want to lower the goal, we can change the pressure. It's up to you, right? You're picking the goals. I'm just uh I'm there to spot blind spots and hold you to it. Um so I want to go to last thing I want to ask you. You're you're talking to Dustin at 21 years old or you can go back to any any of that version where you were making those wrong decisions. You know, you're on the wrong What do you say? You're like you get 60 seconds max to talk to 20 21-y old Dustin. So that if I'm 21

1:27:54years old, and this is what I tell every 21-year-old to do is what you did. I'm going to say number one, save your effing money. Save your money. Do not buy dumb Do not try to buy things to impress people. Period. End of story. And get that active income up as much as you possibly can and work harder than anyone. The only way you're going to get respect from real winners, Dustin, is by outworking them. Period. Number two, stay away from women. Stay away from girls. Quit chasing girls. There's no reason to chase girls. It ain't it ain't going to end. It ain't that is not what's going to fulfill you in life is chasing that. That's a drug. I would say like even like wait till you're 30 to meet somebody because then you'll know who you are and what you value, right? And then third thing, stay away from drugs and alcohol.
I love it.
You can your active income up. Active income up. You don't spend your money and you save it. You stay away from girls and you get, you know, you don't you stay away from drugs and alcohol. you are going to crush basically what you did in your 20s.
You know, I uh I'll tell you that to to

1:28:56anchor in your point, there was a moment as I was in college and I went to this party. This was like a transform transformational moment in my life and I was at a party uh I joined a fraternity my first year and I I go to this party. There's a guy that's 27 years old in the room and I go, "Dude, what are you doing here?" You know, because I'm 19. Oh, dude, I'm I'm about to get my degree next year. I said, "It was a doctor or was it multiple?" Like was is what? He's like, "I'm about to get my bachelor." I go, "How long you've been doing this, bud?" And I in that moment I went, "I wonder if people get trapped and just wake up eight years in the future on the road that leads nowhere."
Then I looked at my friends at that point. I'm like, "What were they doing?" You know, they're doing the same thing you said, chasing girls, going and I went, "I don't really want those things, man. I want to crush it. So I went to my friends. This is literally at 20 or 19 years old said, "Guys, you're just not going to see me as much. I'm just going on a different journey. I'm going to put

1:29:59in the I believe I can be a difference. I believe in me. I'm going to start hustling." And
where do you think that came from?
You know, I from me, I'll tell you. So I was not a competitive person. Uh I was that person my whole high school. I wasn't ranked in the top. I graduated in a town where seven public high school, poorest county, state of Colorado. Uh 17 people in my high school graduating class. I was not in the top five of 17. I was not competitive. I set the bench in basketball. Um I refused to try. It was all they were, you know, when my family started to have a little bit of money, the town judged you, treated you like crap. Um so I had this weird my method of success. parents were abundant thinkers, but because we had a little more. We didn't even have like nothing like the money you and I are talking about. We just had more than the other people, so they would judge it. And so I had this I didn't want to compete and achieve to be judged more. So then I go to college and first of all, I'm not

1:31:02smart. You like the education I had, I didn't apply myself anything. So, I get to college and I'm I'm not really good at academics and I'd never really applied myself cuz I didn't want to be then I I show up at college and these people have nice cars that these people were way more successful than we were. So, that I could achieve and it wasn't going to be a thing and I had this I snapped and I was like, you know what? I don't care from now on. I'm going to compete. I'm going to try to rip people like if we're going I don't want if I'm playing golf against someone, I'm going to crush them. Not to I don't want them to screw up. I want to beat them on their very best day and I'm not gonna be weird about it, but I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna win and I'm gonna do everything I can to win. So, I just snapped and that was the moment and I was like, never again. I'll never play for less. I'll always play for more. Um, and so that was the moment I just changed my whole behavior. And I realized though, so I could take the path that these other people, but there was no positive things that were going to come. They were going to be the 28-year-old guy in the party. And so I realized you so like to be the best I was going to have to take big different decisions. And so I they were like, "Dude, you think you're too cool and all that stuff." And I made a comment. I

1:32:04said, "I think 10 years from now, let's check in and see where our lives shake out."
And it's so good.
And 10 years later, we checked in and they were still going to the bars and chasing the girl.
They go, "Dude, how's it going for you?" I'm like,
"I'm in the top of my profession, right? One of the top real est." Um, so that just beca and then and I told him I said in 20 years you guys won't even fathom what occurred. And I remember early on my wife cuz we were like 8 years in that journey and she's like how come all of our friends live so much better than we do. And I go, "Oh, because they're going nowhere. Um, they're buying crap, right? They're I mean they're just buying cars. They've got cars and crap and way nicer houses than us. I had a I had a shitty house, two shitty cars, but I was buying dust with all my money. I was buying real estate.
I don't own any crap. I owned lots and lots of real estate. So then they they go, "Brett, when did when did it happen? When did you go, you know, here?" I go, "Oh, it happened 20 years ago." Dude,

1:33:08like I I did it 20 years. So you could start your journey today. You're just 20 years out.
It's so true. And and I love what you said. Why do you think it's important to understand to to think in decades? Like why do you think that's important? You need a longer horizon because it takes out the short term. It eliminates the the easy. It forces you to be more strategic. Um I don't know a single successful person that they think in decades, not days. Right? Decades give you it number one, it gives you time. You have more time than you think. Uh you can also set the goal stratospherically higher because I've got time now. If I set a one-month goal, I I mean I can make it big, but I can't make it insane. I could set a goal for 10 years that just baffles people's, you know, minds and I could achieve it. So for me, my answer would be that I got I have to think longer term. It forces me to be more strategic, forces me to operate on a different level than everyone else. It eliminates because everyone else is thinking in days and so I've just changed uh that perspective.

1:34:11What's your what's your answer to it?
No, it's just really good. Again, everyone I get around, they think macro, not micro. Um, mine is it it literally allows you to go bigger. And the bigger you go, the less competition you have. And so, it just it eliminates the competition. One, two, I think, um, for me, I've surrendered. Like, I know I'm going to get there. Like, I'm I It's like a resolve. Like, I know it's there. I just got to just do if I do this every day for 10 years, it's game over. like, you know, it's like I do sometimes think a little bit of like, you know, that that saying of like what got you there won't get you there. I sometimes think that what got you there will get you there. And I know you have to change some things, but Yeah.
No, I what got you there will get you there provided they're doing what you're doing, right?
Yes. Yes.
Not not 10 years of doing whatever. 10 years of doing what you're doing and that that speech you gave a 21-year-old self, no doubt every time it delivers. Absolutely. It delivers. Yeah. And like you're and I beliefs on this and it's

1:35:13and I've gotten these just through osmosis, right? This is obviously something you've studied and you're very articulate with it and you're able to communicate it at a very high level and you're an incredible educator and you obviously have the the decades and decades of receipts. Uh right, which is the thing that you want to look for if you're going to take somebody's advice, uh for those who are listening is receipts. Um, but it's it's uh there's so many similarities and people that are one thing that I look at too, Brett, and you can feel it in you and with your family and your kids is I also want to take advice from somebody who is emotionally fit. So, not someone who's just rich, but they're emotionally fit and their relationships inside of their business or inside of their life are powerful. So, give you an example. There's so many people I've met that are wealthy and alone. And what I mean by that is because they they have no friendships. Um they got their like the narcissistic approach which works in business. Um but that you have a great relationship with your kids and a great relationship with your family and you have great friends and you have great

1:36:14people and you have a great community. That's really important when you're taking advice from people. Um and so much respect to you and everything that you've done, dude. I've I've watched you for literally decades, man. And you're a you're a savage, bro. And you what's so crazy
is most people only have about a decade in them
and it's the killers like the savages like yourself, man. You just haven't slowed down or haven't stopped. It's badass. I love it.
Oh, thanks, man. I'm two and a half uh decades in and I will tell you, I really feel like it's I'm in the I'm in the second inning, third inning. I got I I've definitely got uh I got a little there's a little more uh tread left on this tire for the next uh for the next round. Before we wrap, man, where if people want to connect more with you, which they need to they need to number one follow you everywhere. They need to hear your message
because it's real and it's raw and it's it's what they need to hear. Where do where do people connect with you and get more more Dustin?
Yeah, just follow me on on Facebook or Instagram. Shoot me a message. Uh,

1:37:16anything I can do to help, I'm always here to help and to contribute. Uh, that's one thing like Brett, we started this and before he hit record, Brett's like, I just do this to bring value and to contribute. And that's what I found with like real winners is like there's just a spirit of contribution that they want to contribute. They want to make the lives of other people better. And so, that's all I'm looking to do, too. So, just follow me uh or dustin.com. Shoot me a message on there.
Brother, this has been incredible. Well, we've got over an hour and a half here and I could have gone five more hours peppering. It was so It's so incredible to see
real people, right? Real people that have the receipts, as you said, of success. Thanks for all you're doing, man. Keep crushing it. Love your mission. Thank you, brother. Thanks for being here. Thank you, Brett.