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Podcast Episode Summary: The Ed Mylett Show - How to Thrive in a Recession w/ Mauricio Umansky
Overview In this episode of The Ed Mylett Show, Ed Mylett interviews Mauricio Umansky, a successful luxury real estate broker and founder of The Agency. The conversation focuses on how to sharpen deal-making skills, thrive during economic downturns, and find success in both business and personal life. Mauricio shares insights from his new book, *The Dealmaker*, offering valuable lessons through storytelling.
Key Topics Discussed
Background of Mauricio Umansky
- Founder of The Agency, a billion-dollar real estate brokerage.
- Known for appearances on *The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills* and *Buying Beverly Hills*.
- Grew from humble beginnings to becoming a trusted expert in luxury real estate.
Balance in Life
- The 8-Hour Rule: Time should be divided into three parts—8 hours for work, 8 hours for family and leisure, and 8 hours for sleep.
- Importance of balance for sustainability and longevity.
- Sacrifices made for success, particularly in terms of friendships.
Thriving in a Recession
- Mindset Shift: A recession can be an opportunity rather than a setback.
- Contrarian Thinking: When the market is down, it’s a good time to invest and grow.
- Emphasizes that many successful businesses were born during economic downturns.
Charisma and Connection
- Reading the Room: Understanding and connecting with clients emotionally is crucial for closing deals.
- Importance of making clients feel valued, regardless of their background or status.
The Power of Preparation
- Preparation leads to confidence.
- Successful salespeople do their homework on clients to create a personal connection.
The Importance of Self-Analysis
- Recognizing one’s strengths and weaknesses is vital to success.
- Hiring individuals who complement your skill set is essential for business growth.
Celebrity Status
- Discusses the pros and cons of being in the public eye.
- Acknowledges the sacrifices made in privacy and personal life due to fame.
Building Relationships
- Sustaining relationships is essential for long-term success.
- Encourages staying in touch with clients and friends, planting seeds for future opportunities.
Personal Development
- Fear as a Motivator: Many successful individuals leverage fear to drive performance and growth.
- Self-awareness and continuous improvement are key traits of successful people.
Key Takeaways
- Act with Intent: Be proactive and seize opportunities when they arise.
- Embrace Change: Be open to change, particularly in challenging economic climates.
- Create Emotional Connections: Building relationships and understanding clients' needs lead to successful deals.
- Balance is Key: Strive for a balanced life to sustain personal and professional well-being.
- Be Authentic: Encourage individuals to be themselves and find their unique path to success.
Closing Thoughts Mauricio Umansky emphasizes that achieving success is not just about financial gains but also about building a meaningful life. His personal journey illustrates that challenges can lead to growth and that maintaining genuine relationships is paramount in any field. The conversation between Ed Mylett and Mauricio Umansky serves as a master class on thriving in business and life amidst adversity.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:04This is the Ed Milet Show. All right, welcome back to the show, everybody. I'm excited because a really good friend of mine is here today, and he's the sexiest man in the world and the most charismatic man that I've ever met in my life. He's also, though, probably the number one real estate brand on the planet right now. And so you would probably know him from his company, The Agency. You may also know him from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. He and his wife, Kyle Richards, are sort of the OGs of that show right now. He's also got a new show out on Netflix right now. What's the name of that show?
0:37Called Buying Beverly Hills. Buying Beverly Hills. And so if you have ever watched that show, you recognize that beautiful voice of my friend, Mauricio Yamansky. Welcome, Mo. Ed, how are you? It's so good to be here with you. We've been talking about this for a long, long time. I think the timing's better now because the book's out, right? Way better now. And that's sort of the intro. He has a new book out called The Dealmaker, How to Succeed in Business and Life Through Dedication, Determination, and Disruption. He's highly qualified to write this book. so let's talk a little bit about all the stuff in there okay because it's like a very detailed book brother there's a lot of details there's a lot of stories you know one of the things i wanted to do is i wanted to kind of teach what i've learned but through storytelling right because i feel like a lot of the books that you read it's like it's very um you know like do this do that like i didn't want to tell people what to do i wanted them to think about my stories what i did and then how how does that relate to that person and then how can they learn, right?
1:33I mean, I've learned so much from you, Ed, that it's like, you know. Well, I've learned a lot from you too and one of the things, here's why I like that you finally wrote a book, because I've been telling them to do this for a while, is like, write the book, man, write the book. It's because a lot of people that write books, and I don't mean this disrespect to anybody, they haven't actually done what they say they do in their books. Like, you actually have produced evidence and success through the stuff that's actually in the book. And some of it's like, you're right, there's all stories in it, couple I can't wait to talk about today.
1:58But like, there's even like some basic principles But even for me, I've read every dang book on personal development or business probably on the planet. But even in the very beginning of the book, I think it's your grandfather told you about your grandfather or your dad, where you're like, hey, there's eight, there's 24 hours in a day. There's like eight hours. I'll let you say it, but there's eight, eight, and eight. What are the eights? 24 hours in a day. Yep. Eight hours for work, eight hours for family, free time, whatever that means, and eight hours for sleeping. Yeah. But you do that really well.
2:28Well, and I've learned it young from my grandfather, right? It's all about balance, you know? And I talk about it in my book. You know, one of the things that, you know, you take from one, like you got to sleep, right? Like the body just needs to sleep, right? And maybe it's seven or eight or nine or whatever, but the body needs to sleep, right? You can't take that away from yourself in order to have sustainability, long life, longevity, and to be able to be, you know, on it, right? Right. But, and then you got to, you know, fortunately or unfortunately for some of us, unfortunately, we have to work, right?
2:59I mean, like, that's just part of our lives, right? So then it's those eight hours of play that you got to figure out how to balance the most, right? And if you're borrowing from those hours to work, you know, then something's got to give in those eight hours for play, right? And then you got to decide what's the most important thing for you, right? Is it your family? Is it playtime? Is it friends? Right? Because you can't do it all if those hours become shorter, right? One of the things that I've talked to some of my best friends and one of the sacrifices I've had in my life in growing the business and having to work because I didn't have money, any money at one point in my life, was that I sacrificed friends.
3:40I had the family. I did not sacrifice family. I did not sacrifice my wife, my kids, my girls. I did not sacrifice that. I sacrificed friends. You look back in time and it's like I feel bad about it. but you know I wouldn't change it it was the right decision right even though I feel bad about it I don't think most people realize that probably something does give by the way same for me the exact same thing I just said this today to somebody earlier in the day like that's probably the thing the last decade I've maintained friendships but they haven't gone as deep as they probably otherwise could have I've actually though watched you in different seasons too like I feel like right now maybe you're on the work part a little heavier than even before when I knew you is there some validity.
4:23You got the two TV shows, you got the book coming out, your company's exploded the last decade. You've built this explosive brand and company. You're pretty heavy on the work part right now. I am very heavy on the work part right now. Why? Do you have to consciously choose that or is it like the season of your life? Like, I'm going to get it when it's good because I'm at a certain age? It's the season of my life, right? The business right now is in that moment of explosion, right? And you've got to, I always say, when it rains, catch as much water as you can because there's going to be a drought, right?
4:53And so right now, the business is just, it's an opportunity where there's an opportunity to explode. The brand recognition is, you know, crazy. Kyle is doing, you know, she's at her peak in her career. You know, so that's allowed us also to give, you know, the family more, right? Like, because of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and because of Alex Baskin and all of those people, like, we have a show, you know, called Buying Beverly Hills, right? Like if we didn't have the real housewives of Beverly Hills, I mean, I probably wouldn't have buying Beverly Hills. You know, I don't know. Maybe yes, maybe not.
5:25Right. But it's all of those things that lead to circumstance. And when that door opens, and you talk about this all the time, right? Like when that door opens, do you walk into that door and take advantage of that door? Or do you stay looking, you know, at the room and try to figure out, you know, if you should go walk in that room? I think a lot of people don't walk in the room because they think they have to know everything before they walk in there. Don't you? I think that's one of the biggest mistakes people make is that procrastination. What's inside that room? What does it look like? By the time you figure it out, it's closed.
5:55Man, that's really true. The window or the door closes if you flinch, right? Like you've got to be able to step into the unknown a little bit. I said this about you when I intro'd you. I wasn't being funny. You are the most charismatic friend that I have. And you and I have a lot of really well-known, very influential friends, famous friends. But of all of them, if you said the word to me, charisma, persuasion, whatever that thing is, I'm serious, Mo. You are the most charismatic friend. We've both got a lot of them. I love you for that, man. And coming from you, that means the world. Thank you.
6:25It's really true, though. And I wonder, in the book, you don't use the word charisma, but you kind of break it down by influence. I think a lot of this you kind of have, right? But you talk about in the book, you're like, everyone's a VIP, right? Listen, there's these things that I don't care if we're at a social function or we've been at a golf tournament together, we're down in Mexico together, We've been at a business meeting, one of your business events. You have this amazing ability. I don't know if it's that the person in front of you is like the most important person in the world at that time.
6:55But what is this charisma thing you do so well? It's innate. You know, I think and I think, you know, and I talk about it in my book. I think that the fact that I was born with a terminal blood disease that I survived, the fact that I was the oldest, like the circumstances that make us as people. Right. You get things that are good and bad, right? And then we have the power of the mind to change that or to accept it and make ourselves better, right? But because I was born with all those things and because I was the first child and the first grandchild, I had a lot of love. And one of the things that my parents did really well is they made me feel so good and so confident and just about everything I did that I was born with an innate confidence in myself.
7:40Interesting. And then it was taking that confidence. And when you have confidence, you have charisma. I mean, not always. Yeah, you're right. But if you have confidence, you have charisma. Yeah. Right? Are you ever intimidated when you're in a room? I mean, just so you guys know, this guy sold the first$100 million house ever. Michael Jackson's house. Michael Jordan's house. If you know somebody probably pretty famous, Moe's probably had something to do with a real estate deal. Do you ever? Because I think a lot of people are like, I've got to walk into this board meeting. I'm intimidated. I've got a sales call with this client.
8:11I'm intimidated. Even your agents that work for you, I'm sure there's, have you ever had that? Or is it that confidence that, is it, I know who I am, I'm loved, I believe in myself? No, it's, I've definitely been intimidated, and I've been intimidated walking into meetings, and I've had fear making a call when I have to deliver bad news, and everything that everybody feels I've had, and I, you know, I'm not resilient to that. There's no innateness in that. But, you know, you've taught me a lot about that, and it's all about the power of the mind, right? You can change that. And so I can tell you that my morning routine, when I'm getting ready to do something, whatever it is that I'm going to do, like today, I'm going to be on your show.
8:49That's such an exciting and amazing thing for me. I could not be more excited. So I woke up this morning. I had a lot to do this morning. I woke up a little extra this morning. I skipped my workout, and I did my meditation because I didn't have enough time. But I'm like, okay, what am I going to do? What am I going to accomplish today with you? on the show, right? And so you can work through your mind, right, to make sure that when you're in a situation, you deliver, right? And so, I mean, I had a story one time when I was showing a property, the Amir of Qatar, right? And the Amir of Qatar arrived, and I had no idea.
9:28I really didn't know who was arriving. I mean, I kind of knew it was a big deal, but, Ed, eight police motorcycles, you know six police cars seven su black suvs like and boom you know like the emir of qatar is there looking at the house right and i was like okay and the security that's uh the security service would not let me near him right and these guys these guys were all you know six six giants yeah like i mean there wasn't one small guy right so i'm sitting there in the room and i'm i'm trying to show the emir the house, but the guys wouldn't let me be near him. So I felt like I was talking through walls, right?
10:10Like jumping up and down, trying to get - It's hard to make a connection that way. To the connection, right? So finally, after two rooms and I'm showing the house, I say to the emir, I go, sir, I go, are you enjoying the house? Would you like me to show you the house? I mean, or not? He goes, yeah, so far I like it a lot. I go, okay, would you mind asking your secret service, you know, to, to give me some space so that I can actually like show you and sell you the house. And he loved that. Right. He did. He did. And so it's that confidence that allows you to break that barrier. Interesting. Right.
10:42Interesting. Do you, I am picturing you doing that. And like, just so you know, he's perfectly suited to do this. You guys just absolutely perfectly suited. Is there a, I'm going to go into all kinds of stuff in the book. There's this, cause I want to talk about a couple of stories too, but is there something that you do better than anyone at terms of like that process of closing and persuading. When you're showing a home, for example, are you trying to project them? You say something in the book about creating an emotional moment. This is like brilliant, by the way. Are you conscious of that?
11:14Like is that, because you put it in the book, right? Yeah. What do you mean when you say that? Yeah, I'm definitely conscious of that. And I think, you know, in terms of like, what do I do better than most? You know, I don't know if I do anything better than everyone. I think, you know, So I think people are geniuses and there's amazing people that do extraordinary things. But one of the things that I do best is what I call reading the room. You have it in the book. Yeah. Right. Explain that. And, you know, what that means is really just understanding your audience. Right. And when you're understanding your audience and you can understand their emotions and you can look at them and you can actually read, you know, what's going through their brain.
11:48Then that gives you the opportunity to create an emotional moment. Right. And so when you create an emotional moment, that's when you can make a sale. That's when you can get somebody. But again, that doesn't happen by accident. It has to happen by, you have to make it happen. So one of the things that I do before I show a property or I'm going to have a meeting is I go on somebody's LinkedIn. I go on their bio. I understand who my audience is. Are they philanthropists? Are they male chauvinists? What is this human being that's in front of me? Right. Like, do they have kids? Do they have dogs?
12:22Do they have horses? Do they like golf? Like what's going on with these people before I have that meeting? Now I've got background. Right. Now I'm in the room. I am not automatically showing off that I have background on them. I'm not giving them the fact to them to know that I have background on them. I'm just, you know, now talking to you. Right. I'm showing you the house. I'm talking to you. I'm getting to know you. Right. But the leading questions that I'm asking you are so prepared because I already know a little bit about you. If I know you like horses, I'm not asking you if you like giraffes.
12:55My questions start becoming around equestrian to get you to open up about something I already know you love. Now I break the barrier. I start eventually breaking down that barrier and creating a moment between you and I. And that's what I call those emotional moments. It could be physical, which is just setting up the senses, the house, the smell, the beautiful flowers, whatever the physicality is, those senses. Or it could be the emotional moment and get to somebody in that way. And that's when it can become really powerful. Oh, that's so good. I'm sitting there thinking, man, it's really, really good in every single industry because we said about confidence earlier.
13:40Confidence comes from preparation. And so maybe if someone's listening, they go, I don't have that natural confidence that I wasn't raised like Mo was raised. That preparation really can give you confidence for whatever the meeting is you're about to go into. I want to unpack that. The other thing, too, is that most people don't do the preparation, so they don't have that. And then they reverse. I just thought about something because I've watched people do this, even that have sold me things. They've done the preparation, and then they feel this need to let me know they've done it, and then it loses the connection.
14:06100%. I've done my background on you, sir. And I'm like, they think that impresses you, but then it robs us of the emotional moment because you can't ask these questions because now I think you're kind of reading off cue cards almost. Really good. Yeah. You do not need to let your client or the person you're trying to... It is one of the beautiful things that I wrote. I'm in real estate. Right. And so I talk about houses and real estate stories and residential and some of the most expensive real estate in the world, right? But that's given me the opportunity to meet some of the most influential people in the world.
14:38but it's not only about it's not about real estate it's about life and it's about professions and it's about and you know it doesn't matter if you're in the service industry you know i say that all the time i mean you know for somebody like you and i how easy would it be for a hotel to just you know find out what your favorite tequila is right or if you like tequila or if you like vodka like that'd be pretty easy yeah it's not that hard to figure that out today right right Even if they send a questionnaire, right? Even if they're not using extra stuff. But how much better would your experience be if you arrived at a hotel and they handed you your favorite drink, right?
15:14They handed you, you know, they had the right smell, you know, whatever it is in your room that you were paying a fortune for at that hotel. Or even, you know, not a fortune, you know, a moderate hotel. It's not that hard to give you a little bit of an extra experience, but nobody does it. It doesn't exist. And it really wouldn't be very difficult. See, now you're getting in the minds and the strategies of the elite of the elite at what they do. Because you're a billion percent right. You just made me flash to the three or four experiences recently I've had where they did do that. And I'm going back there.
15:51I'm patronizing that business again. I'm going to be a repeat customer. And I've told people about it. So I've shared the business. I've done their marketing for them when you do these little things. This is the nuanced stuff. The other thing, though, is you've got to have some guts.
16:09I knew this story about when you worked for the Hiltons, which is in Kyle's family and your family. But you tell this amazing story in the book. I think there's a lot of people sitting there right now, brother, that are like, I have this dream. I want to pursue it. But I'm afraid to leave where I am. There's a lot of risk. There's fear. I also don't want to let down someone who's been pretty good to me or whatever. They have all these things they do. And so I knew the nature of your story of how the agency got started. But most people don't. And it really, it's a lesson on what to do and what not to do.
16:45A lesson to do on your side and maybe when you're leading somebody, what not to do. And I told you before we got asked, I'm kind of surprised you put this in the book because this is a book of stuff. Man, this book is legit. And so take them through your, we're going to start in real estate, even though there was business before this. Tell them who you worked for, why it matters who it was, and then what ended up happening that finally helped you give birth to this dream that now everybody knows you from. Yeah. Well, you know, one of the important things that I always talk about and kind of where the original concept of my book comes from is that when doors close, you have the ability to create another open one, right?
17:22And so it's like, boom, something closes on you. I got fired from a job. Boom, I got into real estate. Instead of going into a hole and not coming out, it's like I used that getting fired from one industry, from the fashion and going into real estate. So cut to I'm in real estate now. I got my real estate license. I'm working for, I get a job working for my brother-in-law, for Rick Hilton at Hilton and Highland, one of the best firms in the world. And I still think, you know, from a luxury perspective, it's, you know, it was one of the best firms in the world. It's broken up recently. And so unfortunately, it's just not there.
18:05But I can tell you that during the history, hard to beat that. Okay. Okay. And, you know, they gave me an opportunity. They opened a door. They gave me an opportunity to work. I nailed it. I kicked some ass. I, you know, ultimately became their number one salesperson. I ultimately became, I was responsible at one point for 20 % of their business. They had 100 agents. They did a billion dollars that year. And I, you know, personally did, you know, 200 million, you know, 193 of it, right? Like 19.3 % of their business. And I went to Rick, you're right, who was my brother-in-law. And I basically, and, you know, again, I want to make sure that everybody's super clear.
18:49this is a story of just life and it's not, I am not ragging on him. They gave me amazing opportunities and they gave me stuff to do. It's just, and the reason I chose to tell the story is just because it's just real and it's true. And if it didn't happen like this, I just wouldn't have opened the agency. I wouldn't be where I am today. And in a way I'm thankful it happened like this. So this is not a negative thing. I'm not dissing. Okay. I want to be super clear. Like it's just the way life works that allows you to make certain decisions that I probably wouldn't have made had it not gone down this way, right?
19:22So I'm 20 % of their business, and I say to Rick, I say, Rick, I really want to help you grow, right? And at that time, Paris was the hottest star on the planet. Paris Hilton. Paris Hilton. Right. Hottest star on the planet, right? Who's your niece? Who's my niece? And so I said to Rick, I said, Rick, you got to take advantage right now of your name. I go, let's dump the Highland name. Jeff Highland will still be your partner. I'm not saying, don't dump Jeff. He's your partner. Dump the Highland name. Make it Hilton Real Estate. Let me help you grow it, and let's go franchise Hilton Real Estate all around the world.
19:59Let me help you grow it, which is, in essence, the playbook for the agency. I know. And I go, let's go do that. He goes, well, I don't really want to do that. We're a boutique firm. We're a luxury firm. I never want to be bigger than that, which, by the way, kudos. Amazing for him. Love that. And that's why I think it's one of the best, was one of the best brands because they stuck to who they were. Sure. Okay. So amazing brand. They stick to who they are. He go, I said, okay, I get that, but I really want to help you grow. And I want to like, I want, you know, like you're in New York, you're not working that hard.
20:33Like, let me be your partner. Right. And let me be your boots on the ground. I'm 20 % of your business. And so he said, yes, no problem. I'll let you do that. but I don't want you to get into our books and I don't want you to get into that whole world. So rather than making you an equity partner, I'm just going to give you a percentage of gross sales. Yeah, gross. Right? And so he offers me a percentage of gross sales and I accept and probably less than I would have wanted to, but I accept it because I just wanted, at that point, the recognition, right? Like it was more about like, I'm busting my ass.
21:09I really just want the recognition I'm 20 % of your company, and you're not that present. It's the reality, right? So he says, fine. No problem. I say, fine. No problem. I accept the deal. Put a little term sheet together. We do a deal term sheet. We go forward. Families, we don't go into heavy legal, just a term sheet, right? Boom, we go forward. Well, the next year, 18 months later, the next year, recession. 2008, crash, recession. In the meantime, I had the best year of my life. I kept growing because I took advantage of the recession, and I took advantage of double downing and being a contrarian.
21:52I kept growing. I had an extraordinary year. And I get a phone call from Rick, and he says, hey, you know, it's a recession. We're not making any money. We actually lost money. It's really unfair if I'm paying you money. and I'm not earning any money, right? And great time for me. I said to him, well, Rick, no problem. I totally get it. I go, take what you owe me and make me a partner in the ups and the downs. Give me an equity partner. I'm in. When we lose, we lose together. When we win, we win together. That's what I want, right? And so the answer was no, right? Right. And, you know, rather than fighting it and rather than going after, you know, him, you know, because the family is more important than business.
22:39OK. And my my wife's family, her sister, her nieces mean everything to her. And I did not want to get in the way of that. So I just let it be. I lost, you know, one of the lessons that we learn when we're really young in life is that life's not always fair. right you go into your parents you you know you were right your parents didn't see the whole thing and they just tell you dude you're in trouble go to your room and you know what life's not fair right you're in your room right right so you got sent to your room so i got sent to my room life's not fair i accept it it's not fair but i'm not gonna fight it i'm not gonna fight for fair i'm gonna just accept it right but what did that do is that got me thinking right and i was an entrepreneur and I wanted to do my own thing and I wanted to put this business plan that I put in front of Rick and I wanted to do it myself.
23:31And thus, you know, the beginning and the birth of the agency. Right. And that's in essence what, you know, the agency is. You all hearing this, I want to keep going, but so a couple of things, one, he got sent to his room and what he did is he looked out the window and said, Hey, maybe I could go build my own mansion, my own business. That's lesson. Number one, lesson number two for me is, you know, that when you do have a rainmaker in your organization, when you do have somebody really making it go for you, make sure you take care of them, even in the good and the bad times, because ultimately if you don't, they can leave you.
Read the full transcript
24:01The third thing that's most important for all of you is the agency, which is to me the biggest real estate brand on the planet right now, the fastest growing agency in the world, was born in a recession. And so a lot of you that are out there going, this is the worst time to start a business or it's a difficult time. Everyone always says, well, so many great businesses were built during a recession. I'm sitting in front of a man who's built an iconic brand, hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of real estate sold that started during a recession, correct? That is 100 % correct. Yeah. That's pretty powerful.
24:31Anything on that you would add to the story or want to bring full circle? Yeah. No, I think you've nailed it. And again, the idea of building a business, and it's not only about building a business, it's about building yourself. So for example, if you're in real estate and you are a salesperson, you're running your own business. You don't need to own a brokerage firm to build and create your own amazing business, right? And there's an opportunity to go get more listings and an opportunity to go get all this. All of that can happen during a recession, right? Because when everything is amazing, people don't want to change.
25:08Everything's amazing. When things are bad, you're open to change. You're right. Why can't I sell this? Why can't I buy this? Why can't I, you know, I'm open to change. I'm willing to try new stuff. So the time to build is actually, that's not necessarily the time you're going to make money. Right? You're not going to necessarily make money in the recession. You're going to build and gain market share in a recession. Wow. When you come out of the recession is when you're going to bring in all the money. Wow. That's one of my favorite things ever said on the show right there. No one has ever said that to me before.
25:42And that's a billion, trillion percent exactly what happens. You're gaining market share and then you collect the checks when the recession ends. Man, that's really good. You are what you describe in the book. You used the word earlier. By the way, all of this is in the book, you guys. Okay? So you use the word and this thinking that you just said is contrarian thinking. Okay? It's contrary to culture. It's contrary to popular opinion. To start the agency was a contrarian move. You actually have that as part of the work in the book called be contrarian. Yep. Does that mean don't always participate in group think like everybody does it and be constantly innovating?
26:18Because you also talk about that in the book too. I think that's exactly what that means. You know, it's think on you. It's think. You know, don't follow. I remember, you know, another thing that my grandfather and my father always used to say to me. They used to say, when everybody's buying, you sell. When everybody's selling, you buy. Interesting. Right? That's what a contrarian is. I do that, by the way. I just put a post out about this, Mo, the other day. I'm like, when everyone is thinking one way, I try to always think the other. When they're all going one direction, no one makes money in the pack.
26:47Nobody gains market share in the pack. Nobody gains a great life in the pack. I mean, it's like what we're dealing with right now, the First Republic Bank, right? Is it the time to buy? Right. It's down 85%. It's a good bank. I'm not going to be careful, but I'm going to get a pretty good bank. I'm debating the same thing myself. I'm like, I kind of get what's happening, but man. That's contrarian thinking, right? Like, you're not following everybody. By the way, I'm not telling anybody here to go buy. Me neither. 100%. Not at all. I should amend that good bank thing. It's a bank. I'll just leave it at that.
27:19It's a bank. I don't know if it's a good bank or not. Right. I've got to be really, really careful about that. Do you think, by the way, I'm loving our conversation. It's really cool for me to have this part of my friend that I see like revealed to me in detail, like the science behind the art, because, you know, I've always admired the things that you do and how you go about doing them. But now I understand the processes to which you do them. I want to go all the way back for a minute. Cause it's one of my favorite stories in the book. Cause you just said it. I think a lot of people that get into sales don't realize you, you are self-employed, but you have to operate like you own your own business.
27:52You have to think like an entrepreneur. A lot of people do this. They have a full-time job. They work like 12, 14 hours a day. All of a sudden they get to be an independent contractor of a job and they think they're on vacation. They work, they work two, three hours a day. I'm like, no, when you do that, you actually have five jobs. You have 11 jobs. It's going to require more work, sheer momentum to get it off the ground. And you kind of caught that entrepreneurial bug, you call it in the book, young with this thing with your dad, right? This story. And I think this is illustrative of thinking like an entrepreneur.
28:21And it's one of my favorite stories in the entire book, because it explains you to me and it explains a lot of your success to me. Tell us that. Another recession, my father came up to me and he said, Mauricio, it's time to either work or go to school, but I'm not going to pay for you to be a dumbass anymore and just pretend you're going to school. I literally said to my dad, give me a couple of days and I'll get back to you and let you know what I want to do. He was supportive of me going to school if I was going to go to school. I just wasn't supportive of me going to school if I was going to go to the bars.
28:53Right, right. And I got back and I said, Dad, I'm going to come work for you. And he just taught me so many things, man. He taught me the value of the penny, right, which is in my book. And you guys will love that. It's a great story. It really just makes everything so real. And it just teaches, you know, it helps you teach your kids how to save. It helps you teach yourself how to save and how to understand that value. Because, you know, I always tell everybody there's 100 pennies in the dollar. Right? The day you can figure out how to give me 102, I'm in. I'm your partner. Yeah, he says that in the book.
29:27Right? So we go through that whole process, and he teaches me how to fight for cents, literally. I'd come back, and I'd be like, Dad, I sold 100 ,000 yards for 97 cents. And he'd be like, yeah, go back and give me 99 cents. I'm like, really? Yep. Yeah, you start adding that up and adding that up, and it adds up to a lot of money. Right? But then eventually, it's like you're in sales. You're creating your own momentum. You're creating your own things. You get that entrepreneur bug. And I ended up meeting somebody that we sold fabric to that was struggling. And I loved their brand. It was 90265.
30:00It was a clothing line. The guy was awesome. His name's Braun Roilands. He started the company. Really brilliant guy. He was actually a makeup artist. He used to do all the makeup artists for Justine Bateman and Woody Harrelson. And he had all these amazing people that were his people. But they didn't have credit. It was a startup, et cetera, et cetera. And I'm sitting there in front of these guys. and I'm thinking to myself, well, these are the fabrics I sell. Like I've got all of this shit, you know, sitting in my warehouse. Thinking like that. Right? So now you start thinking as an entrepreneur and you start taking your salesman job into this next piece, which is like how do I build a business, right?
30:38And so from there we built a business, right? And we built something else, you know. And there was an exit out of it too, right? Yeah, yeah, there was an exit and we sold it. It was not a profitable exit for me. It was more of an exit that got me out and I paid all my debt and I paid all my people and I walked away with it. But yeah, but it was a great learning lesson.
31:02Let's talk about your public you for a minute. What has that been like for you to go from a guy who's, you know, a guy working every single day to now there's this unprecedented notoriety in your life, right? Like Kyle's the most well-known housewife, I think, is probably to say. I would say by far. By far, and the most well-known franchise. And then obviously that's transcended over and doesn't hurt you in building your brand either. But I wonder what impact that's made on you, your family, your life, the good and the bad of it. What comes with that? There's both. There's tremendous sacrifices that are made.
31:43Like what? And there's obviously the good, right? the sacrifices are you know I mean is it nice to be able to go in and call and get a reservation you know a restaurant that most people can't you know get a reservation yeah it's great you know but now you walk in and you know there's also a thousand cameras on you right and you're the public eye and people are you know talking about you and making stuff up about you and all kinds of different you know things you know it's like I mean having you know to me having that was definitely a sacrifice I made. The privacy of life, just being private, being, you know, I don't know how else to say it.
32:24It's like literally just being private. Yeah, I know what you mean. It's amazing, right? And so many people want to be publicly known, and they want the notoriety, and they want the celebrity status, and all of those things, but people don't realize what a huge sacrifice comes with that. and it's not necessarily bad. It also brings money. Right, the benefits of building a brand, all those other things. The benefits, I have made it very clear and if it wasn't for the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, if it wasn't for television, I think we would have still grown. I think we'd still have an amazing business because before I ever got on television, I was already the number one agent in California but there was no way I would have built the business I had as fast as I have without television.
33:12And you talk about that. So building a network and building a brand, maybe you're not going to be on the Real Housewives or whatever, but I think business has become not just about who you know anymore, but about who knows you. And that's why social media does matter and why building a brand for any entrepreneur out there, I believe there's value to. Do you agree with that? 100 % and you nailed it you don't need television to build the brand I mean like let's be clear it certainly helps it gets it out there but not everybody you know there's not you know 10 million shows or 100 million shows right there's only so many seats out there as you said and but you can I've seen amazing brands built you know by you know with other methodologies yeah by building social media by building referral bases but you talk about that and having a network, like, because you also say in the book, and I just think this is brilliant stuff.
34:05This is just stuff people don't do in friendships. Like one thing I try to do even with you or other friends of mine, just time to time. I just go, Hey man, I'm thinking about you. I love you. You okay. You need anything. Right. And there's a principle of this in the book for business too. I want you to stay on this point, which is to stay in touch because this is, you're not, most people in sales or in their career think that they're building for like just this year. They don't think that they're building a company. So you're planting seeds often right now that you won't even harvest to get a client or referral three, four, five years from now.
34:34So talk about that. A hundred percent. And it's so important. Like, you know, I have approximately 2 ,000 salespeople that work for me right now. And I get to see the way they act all the time, right? You see the guy that makes the$5 million sale, they make$100 grand, and, you know, they're off to Cabo. Yes. Boom, right? Dang it, yes. Bye. Yes. Like, where are you going? I'm off to Cabo. I'm like, dude, you finally made some money. Keep the momentum going. Get it going on. And then it's like, I'll use me as a real concrete situation. I sell the Playboy Mansion,$100 million deal, right? Multi-million dollar commission.
35:17I'm in the next day in the office. Yes. And like five people come up to me, five of my salesmen come up to me. They're like, congratulations, but what are you doing here? And I'm just thinking to myself, well, where else would I be? They're like, well, why aren't you on vacation? I'm like, because this deal ended. What's next? I can't re-bring this deal back, right? Like, it's gone. So what am I tomorrow? What am I three months from now? What am I seven months from now, right? And as soon as that ends, it ends. Yes. Right? And that's what people don't understand. So when you're planting those seeds, when you're staying in touch, you're staying in touch for the future.
35:54Yes. For the next thing. Yes. Right. Why is it that people don't get this? Like this is unbelievable. It's the big separator. Now we're going into it, guys. This is a big old separator. Here's what I think happens. You actually say it in the book. That's why like I told you, you said, did you get my book? I said, dude, I read it this weekend. I read your entire book in two days and I know you. So I know a lot of the stories in the book. Right. But it's this good. So I'm like, yes, damn it. Scream this. And one of the things you say is like, don't believe your press clippings. Like don't believe the hype about you.
36:23Here's what happens to most people. They get a little bit of success and then they start believing the crap about them. Like, Oh, I can do this whenever I want. Or this is, I actually, this is probably cause I don't think you do it the way I do it, but I play a little scared. Like I, I don't, you're so confident. I don't think you have, but like it's similar. And if I play a little scared, like when I get a good deal or something good's happened, I've had an exit or, you know, this show's doing really well. I'm like, okay, I got to do something to keep it going or do it better. I don't go, yay, I'm the greatest podcast host in the world.
36:55It'll just grow on its own now. But that's what a lot of, you must see your salespeople all the time. They believe the hype or even recognition. I was at your event. I was the speaker at your event. The best thing you do in your culture is how much you love on your people and have a good time and you recognize them. I do that really well in my companies too. It's a double-edged sword sometimes though. Because one, you're saying you're amazing, you're great. And a lot of people like, yeah, I sure am. I'm going to celebrate. And they live off last year's production or award for the next two years.
37:22Then they wake up, they're like, wow, I can't get a deal done. I lost my mojo because they believe the hype. Yep. The seeds you plant today are for tomorrow, not for today. Right. And it's, uh, you're so right. And, um, you know, one of the things that I just keep thinking about is, you know, you and I are, are, are so similar, um, in different ways. Yeah. Right. Similar and different. Um, but you know, when you and I, You invited me to play the member guest at the Madison, and you and I are just these competitive son of a gun. We didn't win, by the way. We didn't win. That damn ball, that last punch just hit the pin.
37:56Damn, God dang it. I'm still pissed. Anyway. But golf is a game of life. We always talk about it, right? But you and I are in there, and we're like, when I'm hitting a bad shot, you're making me feel like it's okay to hit the bad shot. And when you're not super on, I'm making you feel like, and I'm pumping you up because I know how good you're going to hit that next shot and you're pumping me up because you know how that could. And it's that whole thing, right? That's what we have to do with our people. Yes, exactly. And that is the life that we have to create. Are you good at that? Like making people feel good about themselves, making them feel that you believe in them, you pour belief into them?
38:30I think I'm pretty good at that. I think that that's one of those things that we can always be better and can always continue to work on because it goes back to time and it goes back to the balance of time. Like, I could be great at it, but if I don't have time and I don't put the effort, I suck. Yeah. You know, the other thing you're good at doing is, by the way, guys, we're covering a lot of stuff on a short window here. I'm loving this conversation. But the other thing you do is you have surrounded yourself with people who are good at the stuff you aren't good at doing. One of the most important things to do.
38:58Yeah. So talk about that a little bit because I don't think a lot of entrepreneurs do it. They're like, I'm going to do everything. They micromanage every single little thing or they deplete their energy doing stuff they're not really that good at and don't have a proclivity for. And then they don't have the energy and juice to go do the things that really move the needle in their business. You are really good at moving the needle in your business because you don't deplete your energy most of the time doing stuff you're not good at or don't enjoy. I think one of the most important traits that a person can have, a business person, a person in anything, is being able to really self-analyze your strengths and weaknesses.
39:43And not trick yourself that you have strengths where you have weaknesses. Because most people, they trick themselves. I mean, I think that's one of the biggest mistakes I see in people is that they trick themselves. They think they're good. They pretend they're good at something or they think they're good at something that they kind of suck at. Yes. Okay? And being able to be self-analytical and understand your weaknesses is probably the most important thing because then you can hire your weaknesses. Yes. Right? And I hire to my weaknesses, and I also hire what I think is amazing brains that don't necessarily think like me.
40:19I don't need another human being next to me that thinks exactly the way I think so that we could be all day long. Hey, bud, aren't we great? We're the best. Yeah. Yeah. Let's do it. Red. Yeah. Red. Red. You know, like, right. I need somebody like, no, I want blue. Like, that's not red. You know, like, and why? Right. Now, now I need the brain. Why do you want blue? Okay. Now I might be the boss. I might end up picking red, but I want to hear every damn reason you want blue. okay and and then and and then it's up to me whether i pick it or not yeah right but i want to hear it this is two things we have in common if i was to say there's a trait that you and i really really share in common that we do well by the way we both have things we don't do very well what we do like that you know golf sometimes but um but actually what we both do well is we ended up in our lives becoming self-aware enough to know the things we were good at and we've spent most of our business lives and personal lives playing to those strengths and not, that's why we're relatively young men that have had some real success because I haven't wasted a bunch of time trying to get really good at things I'm just not good at doing.
41:28And the other thing that we have in common, you're really good at that, Mo. The other thing we have in common is that I don't have to be right all the time. If someone is smarter than me in a meeting or a decision, and I will defer. My ego can get too big, I'm sure, but it's not too big. Doing it right is better than it being my idea in business all the time. And I think you're really, really good at that too. And by the way, not being right all the time is potentially even more important in your relationships. How do you mean? Boyfriend, wife, girlfriend. You know, you don't, you know, I see so many friends of mine and they fight with their wives, they fight with their husbands, they fight with their boyfriend, girlfriend, and they're really fighting just because they need to be right.
42:09right? If you can learn that you just don't always have to be right, you know, it could go a long way in your relationship. I do that with Christiana. A lot of the times I'll say, Hey, listen, I don't need to win this, right? This is not about me winning and you losing or me right. And you wrong. Sometimes it's just like, we can even agree to disagree or I'll just take your idea and we'll go with it a lot of the time because life's pretty damn short. At the end of your life, You're like, man, I won 11 of 12 fights with my wife. Yeah. There's no, the scoreboard doesn't matter in this stuff at all.
42:40Yet we do it. By the way, we do it even in negotiations and deals too. Yeah. I'm sure you've had that even in escrows where they're going the wrong way. You're like, no, I'm right. Yeah. Well, it doesn't matter if you're right. What matters is the deal gets closed, right? Yeah. And you got to be able to defer when you do it. Yeah. You've had a glimpse into the most successful financially, successfully, financially successful people in the world and famous people in the world. Let us in a little bit. Tell us whether or not those people are any happier than, like, say, your mom and dad when you were growing up or people that you and I both know that don't have financial means or success.
43:14Do you see any correlation? Are they happier, less happy, more stress, less stress? That is a great question. And, you know, there's no straight up answer to that. You know, everybody's different. I can tell you that successful people have an easier time. They have the means to be happy. That doesn't make them happy. Your mindset, your life, your way of being, the way you look at life, that makes you happy. But having the money and having success and having a beautiful house and ability to jump your plane, all of that stuff, it makes it probably a little easier to set your mindset up, right? You also probably have the ability, if you have money, to have coaches that can coach you in mindset.
44:05They have the ability to hire people to help you, right? Where if you don't have that, it doesn't make you unhappy, but you just have less means to, you have to work harder yourself. By the same token, you have less distractions. so there are a lot of people that can you know that you know love to go you know and by the way what does that money mean right like to somebody with you know a$350 ,000 job right like that could be that that's money right sure they don't need to have $10 million okay they can live great on that have a simple life have a nice you know and be super happy surf every morning yep right you and I have friends that are doing just that and they're super duper happy.
44:55Right. So, so to me, the, the, the, you know, you suffering is hard. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Having a job, you, you, you could be happy at any stage, but, but, and you could be unhappy at any stage. I have seen some really miserable billionaires, really miserable billionaires that have absolutely everything and have absolutely nothing going on in their life. okay and I have seen some valet parkers that are thrilled to be alive you're right yeah it's interesting that I just today when we're recording this um I just had this show come out with this study that was done at Harvard it's an 85 year long study dude and they studied 2 ,000 young men a thousand of them were Harvard uh sophomores from probably pretty privileged backgrounds Wealth, abundance, most of them.
45:47And then another thousand of boys from broken, underprivileged families in Boston. Poverty. They studied them their entire life. Like everything about them. Not just like surveys, like in-home meetings, brain scans, MRIs, talk with their kids. And there is a correlation to exactly what you just said, which is that there's no correlation between massive wealth and happiness. But there is a correlation if you can't have your needs met. If you can't meet your needs and pay your bills and eat decently and have a nice place to live and take care of your family in need and emergencies, that suffering does cause a lack of happiness.
46:22But the massive abundance doesn't necessarily do it. So what you've seen in your laboratory of your life is really true.
46:32How about this? Any through lines on financially successful people? Because I've met, it's really hard for me. I'll meet somebody that's like, man, what does that guy have in common with that lady who's also wealthy? And I've had a hard time like taking away like what do they have in common? I think what I've seen is there's a level of confidence in their chosen craft that might separate them. But has there been a difference that you've observed in financially abundant people, a through line with them in personality traits or behaviors they have that help them generate that wealth as opposed to those that don't?
47:07100%. And let's throw away the lucky sperm club. Let's throw away the inheritance money. And let's just talk about the wealthy people that are self-made. To me, there's a couple of characteristic traits that are there that make them, that are core traits. Competitive. Needing to win. That, to me, is a super great trait that is a common trait amongst people.
47:39there's one trait that I've seen a lot of wealthy, successful people that I happen to think is a bad trait. Okay. Okay. Greed. Yeah. Okay. And let's just start with those two, right? Okay. There's a lot of greedy, wealthy people out there, and they're greedy because they need a lot of money, and they just want money, and they want money, and they want money, and they keep bringing it in, right? But their decisions that they make in life are made from greed, and therefore, you know, people that work for greedy people are generally not as happy as people that work for competitive people. Really true.
48:15Man, very true. Right? Yeah. It could be a huge company. They could be kicking some ass. They could be making all the money in the world, but all their employees have a terrible culture. They have a terrible, you know, they f***ing hate it, right? Like they're making money, but they're not happy people. Right? Or you can work at a company where the culture is, you know, amazing and the head guys, so to me those are two traits. And the other trait that seems to be a common trait, and you said it, and you said it and I have it, is fear. You do have it too. I definitely have it. I meant to go back to that.
48:53That fear is a very common trait. The fear of having a house over your head, the fear of being able to provide for your family and your kids, the fear of putting food on the table the next day, the fear, all of that, right? And particularly if you've had it and lost it. Yes. You've had the bankruptcy, you've had the whole thing, and then you rebuild again. And when you're an entrepreneur, you put everything at risk because that's what an entrepreneur does, right? And so there's ups and there's downs and there's that. But that's the commonality that just continues to bring you back, right? And then hopefully keeping it.
49:27Okay, that surprises me about you because I'm a very fear-driven person. I've leveraged fear all of my life. I mean, I think the way I got wealthy was I didn't I don't even know that I wanted to be wealthy. I think I was afraid of being poor. Yeah. And then even at this stage, I still leverage fear on myself pretty regularly. But I think you can almost see that on me. I'm a pretty intense wound up dude. A lot of the time, whereas you it seems like it's bubble gums and rainbows most of the time when I'm around because you're so positive. Even this story you tell in the book where you come home and Kyle says, how was your day?
50:00And you're like, it was the greatest day of my life. And so there's this mindset of yours. So how do you nuance that duality of staying super positive? Because this is really profound stuff that you're saying right here that only really, Mo, like, I think, I think the thing I admire about you is there's a level of genius with so much humility that you're unaware of your genius. Like, I actually am not totally sure you know every reason why you've been successful because you have so much humility for a dude with such genius. So how do you know how you nuance like living in some fear, leveraging it, but at the same time, you're a really positive, optimistic person?
50:40A hundred percent. I'm extremely optimistic, super positive guy. but I can also tell you I had kids very young when I married Kyle and I met Kyle I already had a 5 year old daughter and I was 25 years old I had Alexia at 26 I had Farah so I had 3 kids before I was 30 and I can tell you that I definitely have kind of that old world lifestyle where, you know, I'm a man and I need to provide for my family and I need to, you know, I am the provider, even though I wanted to make sure, you know, Kyle that made every decision in her life, right. I never wanted to hold her back. If she made money, if she did stuff like that was just extra, right.
51:31Like that was great. Right. You know, but I never wanted to have that be her pressure. I needed to be the provider. And so, you know, because I was so young with kids, I I definitely, you know, and again, I was, you know, I was borrowing money from my grandfather, from Kyle's mom, from my father, you know, in order to keep a roof over my head. Right. And in order to keep a roof over my kids heads and and to give them, you know, a perceived good life so that I can, you know, you know, make them feel confident and all of that stuff. and so because of that, I developed a fear of losing, which also, despite all the risks I've taken, despite all the things I've done, I can tell you that I've been so conservative on so many investments that I probably have left a lot of money on the table.
52:17Me too. Okay? Me too. Because I haven't been willing to take that risk. So I have that fear. Me too. I'm just a positive son of a gun. Me too. No, by the way, me too. By the way, I think sometimes guys like us are the ones that remain wealthy, though, when they get there. And I have that risk aversion, too. It's so interesting how similar we are on this stuff. Now, you said a good life. We'll know that much more time. One of my favorite conversations ever is today. Because I get to see this side of you that I know, but it's being revealed. And then the rest of the world figures out, oh, that's how this dude did this.
52:48That's how I could do it. And success leaves clues. And Mo wrote a lot of the clues in this book of how to become successful. But you said the good life. So let's just be real. You've built a company that's really big and really successful. You have had notoriety and fame. You have an unbelievable relationship with your daughters. You do have good friendships. But at this stage of your life, he loves to go to Aspen. He loves Aspen, right? He loves to golf. Mo likes nice stuff, trust me, too, okay? What is a good life to you now? Like if you went back and you could go, Mauricio, the 21-year-old, this is what will make you a good life.
53:28Would it be the one that this turned out to be? Would it be different? And at this stage, what is that to you? So I can tell you that when I go back and I look at it, I've had a good life. It's been a great life. It's had its challenges. It's had its ups and its downs. I've had money. I've lost money. I've had nothing. I wouldn't trade any of it, like any of those experiences, you know, working in a kibbutz for a year. I mean, I wouldn't trade that for anything. and I think about it all the time going to today grinding and working and it goes back to balance I just got back from Aspen I was there for four days I didn't look at an email that's for a phone call I raced it I had fun I was with my friends we had a great time I did not do any work I legitimately did not do any work but when I look at my day to day today my favorite thing to do is to grow the agency and to grow the brand and to grow this baby that i've created and and i don't mean that in a bad way it's actually my favorite thing to do it's actually a game right like i love golf yes can i play golf five days a week no okay um 365 days a year no i can't i'm not i cannot do that can i play golf 40 days a year absolutely Absolutely.
54:49Can I ski 40 days a year? Absolutely. Can I do all that 365 days a year? No chance in hell. I'd go bananas. And so to me, a part of that good life is having something to do, like building something, creating something. That's exciting. Those challenges, the challenges that I'm faced with every day, that's fun. I have fun with those challenges. You know, I was on a phone call this morning with, you know, some of my global partners and they were, you know, giving me shit about, you know, stuff that the company, you know, has scaled back on because of this recession and stuff that, you know, I'm scaling back and I'm actually, you know, reducing expenses.
55:28Being smart. And I was getting shit, right? I'm being smart. And they were talking to me about this thing, right? And I'm thinking to myself, you know, like, all right, like, this is great. Like, yes, they're upset, and yes, they want more, but it gives me, it challenges me not to spend more money, but to make a more efficient company. I need to make the engine more efficient. I need to make it run on four cylinders and still be able to, you know, rev at 7 ,000, redline at 7 ,000 RPM. Like, that's the engine I need to build right now, right? I don't have the luxury of having a 12-cylinder car, you know.
55:59Right, right. So it's exciting. That's fun times. That's fun shit for me. Yeah, it is. I can see it on your face. I think like having a life of, I tried that for a little while. Most people don't know that about me. Many, many years ago, I had enough exits and different stuff happen. I'm like, I'm going to start playing a lot of golf, like a lot of golf. And I was miserable because I love golf, but I was miserable. It's not something that would sustain me every single day. I think one of the reasons I love golf is it's a break from the mental stuff I do. Otherwise, that means something to me. It's the camaraderie.
56:30It's the friendships. It's the competition, to your point earlier. It's an outlet from the other things. But the thing that brings me the most joy is my faith, my family, and doing meaningful work. Feeling like what I'm doing has a purpose to it. And I'm making a dent in my universe or the universe to some extent. Well, I just want to say that conversely to the compliments that you've paid me today and having me on your show and getting to know me like this, I can tell you that, again, I've been your friend for a long, long time. and when you came to the agency and the forum and you delivered your closing speech to all of us, that I saw a side of you that was extraordinary to me.
57:11Thank you. And it made me feel a lot closer to you as well. Thank you, brother. And I can tell you that you touched all of us. Every single person in my company still talks about it all the time. Thanks, man. And I just love you for that. I love you. I'm so glad to be here. I'm so glad that you invited me and I'm so glad we had that experience. All right, last question, by the way, before I tell everybody again about The Dealmaker, go get Mauricio's book. Listen, it's going to tell you how to build a better business, a better life, how to be able to sell better. There's just stuff in here that you're only going to learn from someone who's actually done these things.
57:40That's the whole deal. It's not theory. It's actually stories and practical stuff that he's applied in his life. So last thing, tough question. I've asked you a lot of hard stuff today. You just crushed this. So if you were to meet somebody, well, maybe they do this at the agency. Someone will come up to you that's new and says, look, I got a dream. I want to build my dream. and I don't come from a family that's done this before, just like you hadn't, I certainly haven't. And they just said, I just like, I don't know where to begin. Like I, I, I've got my real estate license or I've got my insurance license or I've got this idea for a business or, you know, but I don't know really what to do to generate momentum.
58:15This is the hardest thing for someone who's climbed really high because you got to go all the way back to that first step. So when I even get asked it, sometimes I'm like, all right, let me put myself back there again, mentally. What would you say to somebody? They come up to you at a Starbucks like, Mauricio Yamansky, oh my gosh, I have this dream. Can I get your advice for a minute? I want to start to build my dream life. What would be the steps you'd tell them to begin with? Well, you've said it's one of the hardest questions you get. Yeah. Right? And I can tell you, you know, in order to really help somebody, you know, you can't answer that question in a minute or in three minutes.
58:51Sure. Right? And so what I always tell my real estate agents that you know come to me and the people that work for me is i go okay i want you to go back you know what do you do what you know what do you do to be successful what do you do in your life what you know how do you wake up what do you wake up in the morning what do you do i go through the whole like i gotta get to know the person yeah right um and then eventually you can you know start breaking it down and starting to give you know some real advice yeah right yeah um but if somebody just comes out of the blue and it's like hey like how do i you You know, how do I be you, right?
59:19Like, first of all, I always tell them, don't be me, be you. It's a great advice. Okay, like, you cannot be anybody else. Go find yourself and be you, right? But the first thing I say to them is, find your passion. What are you passionate about? Are you getting into a business that you're passionate about? And if you're not, and it just happens to be the business that you're getting into, then find the passion in the business. Yes, that's right. Because you can find it. Yes, find the thing in your business. Like, I didn't love certain parts of the financial business, but I found the parts I did love, and man, I went nuts on those.
59:53You can't love everything. Like, not everybody's going to love everything, right? It's just f***ing impossible, right? People think that, like, I love everything about my—you don't love everything about real estate, right? No, no. But find the passion that drives you there, and then you need to wake up, and then you need to have—and it's you. You need to have the mindset. You need to set yourself up for success. you need to be successful as a human being before you can be successful in life, in business. Wow, really, really good. I can't believe how good today was. So good. I'm just going to tell you, this is going to get shared all over the planet.
1:00:28Like when I look back in at the producers and they're like nodding and smiling, that's always my validation because they hear everything and every single show. Bro, you're just extraordinary and I love you. I'm very, very proud of you. And I'm also grateful you took the time to write this book because I know how hard it is to write a book, and then I know how nerve-wracking it is to put it out too. Like, oh my gosh. And I can just tell you, man, this book's going to go ballistic, not only because you're so well-known, but because the caliber of the book. Because you don't want just the people that you know to buy the book that know you, but to tell other people to get it.
1:00:59And that's why I wanted you on the show today, hey guys, go get this book, go get The Dealmaker by Mauricio Yamansky, and please share this episode with as many people as you possibly can that want to know anything more about becoming successful, We just had a master class conversation with a guy that's in the midst of doing it. This isn't a career in review. This isn't a guy in the midst of still doing these things every single day. I love you, Mo. Thanks for being here. I love you, Ed. Thank you. Okay, guys. God bless you. Share the show. Max out your life. This is The Ed Milad Show.
From the publisher
Are you ready to SHARPEN YOUR DEALMAKING SKILLS?This week, you’re going to learn what it takes to achieve more success in closing your deals from a man who is easily the most high-profile and SUCCESSFUL BROKER in the luxury real estate market today.My good friend MAURICIO UMANSKY is the founder of THE AGENCY, a billion-dollar real estate brokerage, and stars in THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF BEVERLY HILLS and BUYING BEVERLY HILLS. His new book, THE DEALMAKER, is a master class in doing business and how you can find success at work and at home.Mauricio has remained GROUNDED through it all, rising from humble beginnings to become the TRUSTED real estate expert for the richest and most famous celebrities in the world. His stories are fascinating accounts of what it takes to NAVIGATE those challenging and cutthroat waters.In this interview, Mauricio shares his insights on:👉🏽 BALANCE, dividing your time between WORK, FAMILY, and SLEEP👉🏽 His number 1 secret to CLOSING the DEAL👉🏽 How to take advantage of a recession👉🏽 What it takes to be a successful ENTREPRENEUR👉🏽 The good and bad parts of achieving CELEBRITY status👉🏽 The essential need for SELF-ANALYSIS and playing to your strengths👉🏽 Whether being RICH and SUCCESSFUL is really worth itMAURICIO UMANSKY brings a grounded, NO BS dose of COMMON SENSE to this week’s episode. Not only is he the REAL DEAL in his real estate ventures, but MAURICIO is also the real deal in all parts of his life, too.
