He Lost $50M and Didn’t Quit: The Mindset That Rebuilt Everything | Ep. 315 with Rod Khleif Founder of Lifetime Cashflow Academy

0:04Daniel Robbins:So Rod, it's really great to have you on. I've always wanted to know what it's like to really be out there with Tony Robbins, like on tour, doing things, not just experiencing it one time. And I was mentioning to you earlier, so I just came out with a book and I was at the bookstore and I asked the people there, do you have this book? And they're like, yes, we have this book by Tony Robbins because Tony Robbins and I have the same last name. So funny enough, good thing, people think my book was also written by Tony Robbins. So I'm going to play on that. I think that's cool.

0:40Rod Khleif:I would. I would. He's a billionaire. So yeah, there you go.

0:44Daniel Robbins:Be like the person you want to be. So I love to understand. And you have an incredible story, like losing 50 million, rebuilding, one of the largest podcasts on commercial real estate, sold out events. Take me back to your time with Tony Robbins.

1:01Rod Khleif:Sure. Well, actually, it's funny. I was working on myself and I'm a work in progress. We all are. And so I went to one of his events and I was just blown away, candidly. It was in Fort Lauderdale, I went with my brother. And it was an epiphany for me around giving back as well, because I saw that he fed families for the holidays. And we can talk about that if you like. But I'll just briefly say in the last 26 years now, I fed 150 ,000 children for the holidays, at-risk kids. So he had a huge impact on my philanthropy. But before then, I was totally focused on Rod. So that was a big impact. And what I found, a lot of people think it's a cult or some other crap like that.

1:43Rod Khleif:But he's the best in the world at emotional mastery. He's the best in the world at relationship mastery. He's best in the world at business mastery. And he teaches all of these things. And so I was just blown away. And I signed up for his whole thing. And I was actually with him in Hawaii when 9-11 happened. And that was extraordinary to see his ability to take 3 ,500 people and have them focused on the positives of what was happening. By the time we woke up, both towers had fallen. And it was extraordinary to see his his brilliance at work at that at that event. And that's when I really saw it.

2:15Rod Khleif:But, you know, I kept going to his events every year for literally 11 years in a row. And and because I was working on a different part of me every year, you know, and I had this picture where I literally have hundreds of lanyards from his events and other events around my arms, hanging from my arms around my neck. Because, you know, I'm always doing that. You know, I feel like if you're not growing, you're dying. If I had just went to a boot camp two weeks ago in Playa de Carmen, I've got two coaches right now. So I believe in that continual education. But, you know, I'm on my 11th year of doing the same event that he teaches called Date with Destiny.

2:50Rod Khleif:His head of security is like, dude, why don't you just join the team and you can just come and work with us? And you see behind the stage and all that stuff. And so I did that for eight years until I had a bad car accident. I couldn't do it anymore because you got to stand for a long time. But, you know, I got to see what he does and I got to see how extraordinary his pitch is. You know, he does a sales pitch, obviously, to sell his courses and he makes millions of, I mean, tens of millions of dollars in like 45 minutes. And so that really helped me, you know, build what I do in the multifamily space because, again, he's the best in the world.

3:22Rod Khleif:He uses neuro-linguistic programming. He'll stand on one side of the stage and say, you know, this is our common sense corner. And he anchors that in. He's just brilliant at how he does that. And yeah, I've been to his resort in Fiji twice. He's a magnificent human being. He's a human being, though. He's not perfect, but again, he's had a huge impact on every area of my life. I mean, my health. I'm 66 years old. I work out every day. My relationships. Extraordinary business class that he does called Business Mastery. I got to meet Steve Wynn, Tony Hsieh, the owner of Zappos. Unfortunately, he's no longer with us.

4:03Rod Khleif:I got to meet John Paul DeGioia. I mean, these billionaire people that he brings in. And so it was a real treat to be in his presence and be around these luminaries.

4:12Daniel Robbins:What is something? I can imagine that must be really exciting. And I'm glad you clarified the fact that, because I always wondered, if somebody is going every year? Are they just never learning to change? But what you're saying is you go every year because there's a different thing that you're focusing on. So then you're really changing that one thing versus trying to change everything, which is nearly impossible.

4:36Rod Khleif:When you were always evolving. Yeah. We're always evolving, right? Always.

4:40Daniel Robbins:We're not evolving. We're dying. When you think back to spending that time with him, when you, when you look at like the sales, the connection ability, building rapport? Was there something that stuck with you since then, that even today that you use?

4:54Rod Khleif:Well, one thing that I learned partly from him and partly from a story coach is to connect with your audience, you need to be completely vulnerable. So I do a bootcamp every month and a half. And the first five minutes, you're going to hear about the worst moment in my life. And so that authenticity, that vulnerability connects you with your audience and helps you and mitigates, you know, the salesy component and all that. You know, I think the word and this is not ego. This is just fact. I've the word that's used to describe me most often is authentic because I share all the dirty laundry. I mean, to a fault, honestly, everything that's happened to me and people respect that.

5:34Rod Khleif:You know, I'm not taking pictures in front of my Lambo, which I've had, or my Rolls-Royce, which I've had, or my Bentley, which I have. You know, I'm not doing that stupid stuff. I'm I'm I'm you know, I'm real. And so I think people, and Tony's good at that as well. He talks about coming from nothing and the trials he's gone through and the pain he's gone through. And I think that helps connect him.

5:55Daniel Robbins:Well, I've heard that you lost$50 million.

6:01Rod Khleif:Conservatively, yeah.

6:02Daniel Robbins:Conservatively, maybe more. So I don't know if that was your lowest point, but I'd love to hear about that moment in your life because I think people go into business with the fear to lose, right? And obviously people like yourself who have lost and then regain or rebuilt. And if that also was not the lowest, I'd like to understand what was the lowest on top of that.

6:24Rod Khleif:Well, the lowest was probably my first divorce, telling my kids we were getting a divorce and hearing my daughter scream no and just that pain of that. That was probably the lowest point. But$50 million sucked. I'm just going to say that, okay? It wasn't fun. I call it seminars, and that's actually from Tony. I think Tony does the same thing. He calls this failure seminars because if you don't get back up or you don't get the lesson, then it's truly a failure. Otherwise, it's a seminar. And I will tell you, so it was an expensive freaking seminar. Don't get me wrong. Okay, 50 million. But I've built 29 businesses so far in my career, several worth tens of millions of dollars.

7:02Rod Khleif:Two right now are. But most were spectacular flaming seminars. Okay. We fail our way to success. I want to tell you, if you're listening and you're one of these analytical people that fears failure, don't fear failure. Fear two things, being in the same place you are right now, unless you absolutely love where you are right now a year or two from now. Or fear regret. You know, there was this nurse in Australia, Dan, a hospice nurse. And so she took care of patients. She took care of patients that were about to die. And she asked him a question. And the question was, do you have any regrets? And she even wrote a book about it.

7:39Rod Khleif:It's like a national bestseller, something like The Five Regrets of Dying. You know what the number one regret was? Not living the life I could have lived, living someone else's life, not doing what I know I'm capable of. Fear that. Don't fear failure. Again, we fail our way to success. It's only a failure. But I will say this. There are incredible opportunities right now, incredible opportunities, 10 ,000 people a day turning 65. They've got businesses they want to sell. There's a ton of opportunity in real estate because a lot of deals have gone south because of the interest rates. With crisis comes opportunity.

8:10Rod Khleif:So you need to select something as a side hustle. Pick what you're going to do to take advantage of what's coming, but don't let it be your identity. It's your vehicle. You know, if losing 50 million would have been my identity, I'd be one of those guys that jumps off buildings like in the Great Crash or, you know, that crypto guy that shot himself in his Lambo a few months back. You know, they made it their identity. Don't let it be your identity. You know, because if your vehicle fails, you're not a failure. If it's your identity, then, you know, obviously you'll consider yourself a failure.

8:40Rod Khleif:So just as an aside.

8:41Daniel Robbins:I like that. And I'm with you because I've lost as well. and I learned at that moment when really was for me it was 2020 I said you know what I'm going to give myself a personal mission and I'm going to fit everything into that personal mission so it could never really be a failure because if a business fails alongside that was just the business I have a personal mission and shockingly everything that I've done since then just oddly fits into that versus before it was like chasing money chasing success chasing titles for you, I know mindset is massive. And many would say that mindset is way more important than anything else when it comes to success.

9:24Rod Khleif:Myself included. Myself included. Yeah. I think it's 80 to 90 % of your success in anything. Only 10 to 20 % is the real estate stuff I talk about in my boot camps. But I spend time on mindset as well, because that really is 80 to 90 % of it. You've got to actually do it. There's a reason my students now own upwards of 300 ,000 multifamily units under my tutelage, tons of senior housing, tons of self-storage, mobile home parks, industrial flex space. Every commercial asset class you can think of, they own a ton of it. And those 300 ,000 units, we believe that's what it is. We're counting and we're in the 270 plus range, but we know we're missing a bunch.

10:00Rod Khleif:I mean, that's more than all the other people that do what I do combined. So it's something I'm very proud of. But the reason I believe that they're so successful is because I spend so much time on mindset. You come to my bootcamp, the first thing we do is goal setting on steroids. Because how do you get anything if you don't know what it is, right? You got to know what it is you want and more importantly, why you want it. So that's the first thing we do. And by the way, if you're listening and you're not interested in real estate, go to my link tree, rodslinks.com. And at the bottom is my goal setting workshop.

10:29Rod Khleif:You know, here's the thing, Dan, people spend more time planning a fricking birthday party than they do designing their lives. And if you go to Rod's Links, you know, doing your goals is designing your life. You go to Rod's Links at the bottom of this workshop. It's about an hour. There's a guide you can download. I'm not gonna try to sell you anything. You know, do it. Have your spouse do it. Have your kids, if they're over 10 years old, do it. Design their lives. You'll leave so motivated, you'll be coming out of your skin. So again, that's it. My link tree, rodslinks.com. But that's, you know, that's the first thing I did when I lost everything, Dan, was I reassociated with my goals.

11:03Rod Khleif:So, because you've got to have goals because you've got to create a burning desire or a hunger. And that's how you push through fear. That's how you push through limiting beliefs or that's how you get uncomfortable, right? The comfort zone is a nice, warm place and nothing grows there, right? So, but it starts with goals.

11:21Daniel Robbins:Wow. Thinking back to 2008, I remember for myself, I lost the ability to buy a home. I was fired and I literally lived in a tool shed. I converted a tool shed with a bed and I lived in there for year. And I was like, this is horrible. I never want to go back. It wasn't 50 million, but I think a lot of people were in that place. Now on the flip side, I remember 2010, I started seeing so many opportunities, but I didn't have any cash, nor did I have the know-how to even buy real estate. I wish I did. So what do you suggest?

11:55Rod Khleif:We're there again. We're there again. I mean, we are there in the commercial multifamily space, okay? The proverbial - What can I play here?

12:03Daniel Robbins:What can I do?

12:04Rod Khleif:You got to get up to speed. Okay, bottom line is get up to speed. Whether you learn from me or somebody else, I've got a virtual boot camp coming up literally in three weeks. I don't know when this is going to air, but then I do another one in 45 days, and I don't sell anything there. It's two days of training with nothing being sold. The bonuses are worth thousands of dollars because you get my evaluation software, my document library. But regardless of whether you learn from me or not, get up to speed fast because the deals are coming. I mean, there's a trillion dollars in debt that's going to be due by the end of this year.

12:34Rod Khleif:A lot of it's already due. My SEC attorney that does syndications, which is how you buy these big apartment complexes through a syndication. He got six new apartment complex foreclosure clients in one day three weeks ago, he was telling me. OK, there's a lot of stuff hitting the fan right now. So, you know, I've got I just interviewed a guy on my show, my podcast that just bought an asset at 40 cents on the dollar. And that's what's out there. It's and it's hitting. It's going to keep hitting. And so, you know, if there was ever a time to get into this business, it's right now. You know, Warren Buffett's famous quote, you know, because people are fearful right now.

13:09Rod Khleif:It's like, you know, be fearful when others are greedy. It's been a lot of greed these last few years. I'll give you an example of that in a second. But the other side of that quote is be greedy when others are fearful. And there's a lot of fear right now. So, you know, be a contrarian investor. I've got an asset. We call them assets, an apartment complex in San Antonio, 200 units. It's on a lake. It's beautiful. There's one right next door that's on the same lake. It's 300 units, 300 and a handful. And it sold for 43 million, I think in either 21 or 22. Okay. 43 million. Bank owns it now. It's down to 28.

13:43Rod Khleif:I'm not even interested unless it gets to 24, 43 to 24. Okay. That's what's out there right now. But the interest rates don't make it viable for me to to get that property until it comes down some more or the rates come down. And let me preface this by saying cashflow is everything. I don't care what it's sold for. I'm just using that as an example. Cashflow is everything. So focus on cashflow if you're going to invest in real estate

14:11Daniel Robbins:and businesses as well anyway.

14:14Rod Khleif:Yeah.

14:14Daniel Robbins:We had somebody who's an executive at Raymond James on the show a few days ago. And she said that they are looking at around$80 trillion in wealth transfer in the next 15 to 20 years. It's the largest ever, most of it going to millennial Gen Z, which is fascinating. Like you said, from businesses to 401ks, IRAs to homes, all this property from baby boomers that are obviously passing away. What is a syndicate And how does one even get into commercial real estate?

14:48Rod Khleif:By the way, that's the reason I'm getting into senior housing as well. OK, there's 10 ,000 people a day turning 65. I think about 9 ,000 are turning 75. This baby boomer generation is insane. It's impacted everything since pampers, diapers to suburbia to now it's going to be, you know, senior housing. So I bought my first assisted living facility a few months ago, and I'm gearing up to buy a bunch of them. If you see an apartment building or an office building or a strip center or a big senior housing facility or any commercial real estate, chances are it was purchased in a syndication, meaning somebody pulled a bunch of investors together to buy it.

15:25Rod Khleif:It's not one rich person, okay? It's somebody, an operator, which is what my students are. They pool investors together. They've raised hundreds of millions of dollars. So have I. And I know it sounds intimidating as hell. come to my boot camp and you'll and I will demystify it for you because it's not it's you know it's it's you hire an SEC attorney like the guy was just talking about he does all the paperwork and you just dot the i's and cross the t's and and and you know I I raised 12 million dollars for my last deal and you might say well that's you Rod well I my students have raised hundreds of millions of dollars okay for to buy these deals but that's that's a syndication it's a pooling of money you've got a handful of people that that that put the deal together sometimes sometimes it's one or two and they raise money from other people.

16:08Rod Khleif:And then they go out and they buy these big assets. And again, any big commercial building you see, that's how it was taken down. Now, some of these syndications get all the money from big private equity funds or family offices of wealthy people. But the rank and file, the people I teach do it, $50 ,000 to$100 ,000 at a time from private investors to take down these beautiful assets. So that's a syndication.