Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - Manny Khoshbin: Curiosity Will Bring Prosperity - 109

Episode Date: July 29, 2019

In this episode of Inside Look, Manny Khoshbin lets us in on his roller coaster of a life.  Manny went back and forth from being broke to having money, more than just a couple of times before he finally found his footing in real estate. We also get to hear about Manny turning his passion for cars into unique investments!   “Success leaves clues.” “The best entrepreneurs I know, have been curious.” “Most of you are going into debt to keep up with your neighbors.” - Bedros Keuilian   Here’s what you’ll discover: 07:33 - How modeling the success of others can give you a head start in life 18:32 - Curiosity will keep you striving for more 23:27 - Why Manny refused to file bankruptcy  30:31 - Another recession is on the way 32:07 - The art of car collecting 39:30 - Without purpose, your life is empty 40:57 - Working out is just as much for your mind as it is for your body   “I was curious to make money.” “I was always looking around to see who was doing good.” “If you file bankruptcy, you’re dead.” - Manny Khoshbin   Follow us on Instagram: @bedroskeuilian / @mannykhoshbin   Buy Man Up and get Bedros’s High Performance Leadership Course for FREE: https://manup.com/   Make sure to review us on iTunes: http://bit.ly/theempireshow   Youtube: https://youtu.be/4e375l9Ht-8

Other 25,000, 3,500 was left by the time the guy pretty much stole your money. How did you process through that? What was your mindset? Did you go out and look for a job? Or did you say, fuck it, I'm starting over again. Oh, well, first of all, I was left with nothing. Hey, friends, welcome to the Empire Show. My name is Bedros Kulian, and this is an inside look.

And today I've got a very special guest. His name is Mr. Manny Koshpin, and he is a real estate entrepreneur. He is a collector of a very unique type of art. And like me, he is the American Dream and the Immigrant Edge. Mandy, welcome to the show. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you for being here.

So, first of all, let's address the immigrant edge and the American dream. I mean, you've accomplished a lot of success here in the United States. And you're not from here, though. No. Where did you immigrate from? So I came from Iran at age 14. I was a skinny little boy, you know, that escaped, you know, that regime going to the war and all that stuff. And my dad and my mom and three siblings, you know, they decided

to leave Iran two weeks before my 14th birthday, because at age 14, you know, they basically make you go to the army and you can't really live the country. And so my dad having seven brothers, three of them being crippled going to the war, he decided two weeks before my 14 birthday that he's going to just, you know, bolt and leave everything. So it was a sudden journey that my dad decided to take and it's been a long journey you know I'm 48 now so it's been you know a lot of challenges throughout the year how was that move I'm curious because when people see for me it's not a big deal because that was part of our escape we escaped communism yeah but people love to hear like

wait you escaped a country that had a regime or had communism or had dictatorship and so I'm curious when you guys made the escape did you go right to the United States or did you go to a neighboring country and then? Yeah, we went to Turkey and my dad was able to get a visa. So we were there, I think two weeks or three weeks. Yeah. And then he obtained a visa and we came straight to Orange County from LAX.

And he was educated in the U.S. in the 70s. He worked for oil company as a senior cost accountant. So he was sent to America to be trained and educated for the oil company. So he spoke English. You know, rest of us, none of us spoke a word of English. So it was very difficult to come here and not be able to communicate. Right. So it was very difficult early on because we only had $2,000, you know, cash when we arrived to USA.

My dad was promised a job by his friend that owned a gas station. And two nights at their house, we were forced to leave. The husband and wife got in a fight. I guess, yeah, he hadn't communicated to his wife. Hey, there's six people moving in. I'm bringing six family members in. Yeah, so we were forced to move out to a motel. And then after a couple of weeks, my dad, you know, figured, hey, we're going to run out of money, staying at the motel.

So, Collie's buddy, but he's body back goes, it's not right. You know, you hung me dry here, you know, a six-month-old baby. You know, my sister was six-month-old. Right. And so he says, hey, why don't you come? You know, I have a couple of cars on my lot I'm selling. So we end up buying a 1972 dots on a station, right? And that became our home for a couple of weeks.

until my dad was able to get a job after a few weeks, raised enough money for security deposit for a one-metroom apartment. And so that first two months, I would say, is very traumatic for me. Now, as a 14-year-old, I'm guessing you had friends, you had a routine, like you were at school, right? And so now all of a sudden you're in a new country where you're the stranger, you don't speak English, you don't understand the culture, you don't know how to assimilate, was it a big shock?

for you because you're six-month-old sister it's no big deal for her yeah of course it was a big shock plus you know I was basically carrying all the guilt because everyone's suffering because of me right right if you're the reason they left exactly yeah so I think that really was like built my personality I had to grow to be a man you know in rather quickly and then try to you know reach that financial independence to get my parents you know from that financial suffering sure so that became my motivation I think my drive you know early on and you know I had to do what I had to do I couldn't speak

English but I was trying to help out my dad you know make money so my first job was dumpster diving you know okay we've got a lot in common yeah all right so you know every time I took the trash out I saw people left stuff outside the dumpster and I couldn't understand why hey there's a toaster you know a dining set a chair I'm like hey this stuff is still good you know it's not broken so I would haul them back to my patio apartment and then after you know few months we had a whole bunch of stuff stacked up in the patio and across from our apartment there was Orange Coast College which had swap meets on the weekends

and my me and my mom used to walk over there and buy use the stuff you know for the apartment so we decide hey you know why don't we get a couple of spaces and sell the stuff we've been piling up in the patio you know so that was my first job you know selling you stuff at the swap meet I mean that is straight up entrepreneurship one-on-one you know it's like your desperation you know cost you nothing yeah and And now you're going to make something out of it. Exactly. It costs you time.

But I mean, you had all the time in the world when we're kids. Exactly. And also it taught me to negotiate, you know. I price everything a little bit higher and then people always bargain, you know, at the swap meet. For two years I did that and then I was having three hours of ESL classes in high school. You can tell he didn't do much. I don't know if this is true, but I've heard that if you come to a country before the age of nine, you lose your accent, if you come after the age of nine, you have an accent. My brother's 14 years older than me.

He's got a very heavy army accent. Oh, thank you. That makes me feel that. Oh, yeah, you're fine. You're fine. Trust me. So at 16, I was legally able to work, and I applied for a job at Kmart, and I was click 407. I was a clerk to clean the bathrooms, a stockroom, mop the floors, collect all the shopping cars in the parking lot. And I did that for about a year. I got promoted to a sporting goods assistant a sporting goods manager but all along my dream my vision was you know to become a multi-millioner you know and now were you communicating this to your mom and dad like hey guys I'm gonna become a multi-millionaire I'm gonna show you that you know we can do this like

re-community or would they knew from my efforts you know that I was a striving to like better myself financially I mean they could tell and I was like always like a sponge always looking for better opportunity if I saw one guy selling used cars and making money, I would start getting the auto trader, look for used cars, you know. So I did on so many different trades from being a mechanic, going to people's home to change their oil on their car, brake pads, anything. Every time I ran into somebody that was making more money than me, I copied them.

Yeah, you model success. One of the biggest key factors you're going to hear over and over again from all of our guests on The Empire Show is that success leaves clues. And if you can model success, you can time collapse and get faster results in a shorter amount of time with least amount of stress, anxiety, and overwhelm. And so that's exactly you saw someone, hey, this guy's got selling used cars. He's maybe improving it a little bit and selling it, flipping it. I think I can figure that out. Exactly.

Modeled success. I love that. Now, at what point can I imagine your dad being U.S. educated? Yes. And he worked for the oil and gas industry, you said? Yes, oil company. Oil company. So, I mean, he had a job. He had a career. Correct. Yeah. He might have been pushing you towards that direction. How do you even, I'm guessing, I don't know, was he?

Yeah. Well, most mentally, some parents, they want you to become a doctor. A lawyer. Lawyer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I know that. To make them happy, I did do two weeks of college. Okay. And then I dropped out. You know. Yeah, I wore a suit with a brief, I got a brand new briefcase. Oh, shit. Pantzels, pans, calculators, everything. I sat there and everyone was farting around. I'm like, what is this? I thought everyone was here to get educated, make lots of money. So I realized, okay, the whole schooling system

that I had in my mind is really not what it is, you know? And I went back to the basics, you know, which is being an entrepreneur. And I got into, I've done a lot of other things in between. I had my own business when I was 18, right out of Kmart. I was always getting the Sunday paper looking for help wanted section business opportunities,

even when I was in Kmart. And I found this company that's selling multi-level marketing door-to-door sales, WWI. So I called them. He said earn 500. At the time, I was earning $3.15 an hour, a little over $100 a week. So I'm like, wow, that's five times more than I'm making. So I quit Kmart.

I went and worked for that company. And within four to five months, I was one of their top salespeople, selling nuts. And you had no sales experience previous to that other than the swap meet. Swap meat, yes. Yeah. And so I did that. And then one night, me and my dad are shopping at Price Club. Back then was at Costco, it was Price Club.

And I did a quick mat on the nuts and cashews and trail mix. And I'm like, wait, they're selling these for $3 a pound. This company is selling it to me for double. So I told my dad, so I want to, I already have my customers. I have all my roots that they sell. Why don't I just buy the nuts from Price Club and back in and sell myself? So I opened the yellow pages, look for polyester bags, where I can buy sealant.

So I found a place in San Ana. I went there the next day with my dad. I bought some polyester bags and went to a price club. But a pallet of nuts. And so that was my first business. I was 18. I was still in last year of high school. And that turned out to be a great experience for me.

I was making $4,000 a month. I used to go to pay phones, put those tariff sheets, earn $500 a week. I did the same ad I signed newspaper. I put it on the phones. So now you're recruiting people. I'm modeling again, yeah. So I did that.

I had four employees. Six months. I had like $25,000 saved. What stopped that business was that the customer, one day I sold nuts to at a restaurant while I was waiting for my hamburger, turned out to be a health inspector. Orange County Health Department. So the next morning, 7 a.m., he's on my door. He goes, hey, I went back to my office.

I didn't find you on file. I'm like, what file? He's like, you have to have a hell permit. I'm not a criminal. I'm not a criminal. I'm like, for what? Because every time you repackaged food for resale, you've got to have a permit, your establishment has to be inspected, blah, blah, blah, blah. He gave me a big binder.

So I went home, me and my dad went through it. I'm like, forget this office renting out. There's no way it's going to meet these criteria. So I was forced to close it down. And so with the money I had saved, my dad's friend said, hey, why don't you guys buy a gas station? I can get you an SBA loan, 90% financing. and you have enough money, I'm like, okay.

So I was 19 at that time. And funny thing is, five years prior to that, my dad was supposed to work and pump gas at a gas station. Now I'm going to own a gas station. In five years, I was like, whoa. So did you end up buying the gas station? Well, long story short, we went open escrow on a gas station, mobile gas station off of Crunchron 4 or 5, 90-day escrow.

But the person that was doing my loan happened to be Persian guy, too. Turned out to be a con artist. Oh, shit. Yeah. So I lost all my money. He told me to go to Palacewood this bank, open a passport savings, put my 25,000 in there. And then from there, he was sending invoices. I had to go draw and give him for processing this, that.

So the only money didn't go to waste was $3,500. I paid to Mobile Corporation. I had to go to Rancho Cucumanga, and two weeks get educated, had to measure the tanks, run the snack shop, all the policy procedures they had. So I got my plaque. But you never opened up a gas station. No, no. No.

I lost all my money. and the Saladin and Extend Escrow, so it was back to a square one. So that was my first defeat. I got, like, you know. You've always been curious. And the best entrepreneurs I know have been curious. Elon Musk.

Yeah. You know, Toyota's making an electric car. Chevy's making electric cars. But he believes that the electric car could be done better. He's curious. Or he's curious about how we can bore a tunnel underneath California

to get to San Francisco without traffic. Or why does NASA use old rocket ships when we can have a glass cockpit these days and curiosity for me is what helped me build my franchise because I kept wondering why are we doing boot camps outdoors how does the rest of the country do it when they have rain and snow and all this stuff and it's not all California yeah right so curiosity made me say can I bring it indoors and now scale it and curiosity took you from all right this guy selling nuts for twice the amount that

I'm seeing here at price club or Costco now I think I could just buy a pallet worth of nuts and put them in some plastic bags and again more curiosity let me flip through find the bags do you have this curiosity like for me it's factory installed I'm always curious about how things work sure is curiosity factory installed for you or did someone teach you to be curious and ask questions and seek out knowledge to be honest with you I think a little bit of both you know ever since I was a little kid my dad always told me I was always trying to like even radio if I see a piece of toys open a toy just to see how it's put together

I had new screws. If I open this screw, what is it going to do? So I was always curious. You know, like my grandpa, when I was a little kid, he had a little dilly, and he used to save the tomato boxes for me because every weekend I used to go there and take off the, you know, the tomato boxes and try to, you know, cut it and build a plane or do something with it. But, you know, when I came to America, I think that kind of got amplified because of desperation. I wanted to make money now. I was even more curious.

I was curious to make money, not just to see how to open a toy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So here we are now. You experienced your first defeat. You raised $25,000. You shut down your nut business because your trail mix business, because the health department says, hey, you're not licensed or certified to do this. Yeah.

Other 25,000, 3,500 was left by the time the guy pretty much stole your money. So your first experience as defeat as an entrepreneur. Yeah. How did you process through that? What was your mindset? Did you go out and look for a job or did you say, fuck it, I'm starting over again? Oh, well, first of all, I was left with nothing. That 30, I didn't have $3,500.

Oh, yeah. Okay. The $3,500, I paid to mobile. Oh, that's right, it went to mobile. Yes. You had $0. I had $0. Yeah.

So I called one of the customers I used to sell nuts to, you know, I sold nuts to a lot of dealerships, tire shops, you know, all the mechanics standing around waiting for customers. They left, you know, eating pistachios, cashews. Right. And then of course the secretaries in all the auto centers, they love jujubis, trail mix, all the candies I used to sell. So long story short, I call- I love that he could just rattle them off.

You can just rattle off the juju-bees and candies and gummy bears. So I called Ruben Padilla, worked at Winston Tires, and he used to buy a whole bunch of cash from me, like 10 bags every time I went. He was one of my best customers. And he liked me, you know, we always chatted about life every time I stop by to sell him nuts. So I called Ruben, I said, Ruben, I got scammed, I'm back to zero, this, I was. was really depressed down because we have become friends, you know, over time. He goes, why don't you come over here? I love your personality, your energy, you're just your, you know,

you're putting 200% at everything you do. And why don't you come and work with me here as an assistant manager? So he hired me on the spot. I drove to Montebello for a year, worked at one cent tires where Ruben. Yeah. So then save some money again. And then again, I knew that's a stepping stone. I don't want to be working at a tire shop. He owned that business, right? No, he was a manager. He was a manager. Yeah, Winston Tire, Sam Winston owned, I think, 171 tire stores. Gotcha.

And then he passed away, and then I think Tire America or some other big tire company bought it. But long story short, after that, I was always looking around to see who's doing good. I saw this guy driving a Porsche cabriolet and I said, hey, what do you do? Because I want a mortgage company. I'm like, really? Like what? What are you doing? So I became friends with him, and he loved my personality.

He goes, why don't you come and process loans for me? You seem like very sharp, and I like how you dress, and you're very high energy. I'm like, all right. So I worked for his company for four months, and I was processing loans faster than anybody. I put in 200%. And the auction company that used to work with this guy as a primary lender for the auction company, they loved me coming to the auction sites because I was processing everybody's loan quicker, pre-qualing him. So, long story, short, after six months, I quit.

I found a broker to open my own mortgage company because I wanted to make the big money. And the auction company- Which again, modeling success. Yeah, so the auction company dropped that company and took my mortgage company as a primary lender because they loved how I was processing. So 90, that was 93 to 93, I made $290,000. And that was like, wow, that was like, I feel like Al Pacino. I'm a baller now. Yeah.

So smoking cigars. I got a Mercedes wearing Valentino suits. So, and then rates went up. Economy improved, so the auction company didn't really do much activity because developers didn't need to say. But now, I got to ask you a question, though, previous to getting into that mortgage world, you had no experience in it.

No, no. You were in a tire shop, and previous to that, you were selling nuts, right? And previous to that, you tried to open over a gas station. How did you learn the mortgage business so quickly? Because then I see the pattern. Yes. And then you're going to go into, obviously, entrepreneurship and real estate.

Again, curiosity. So, you know, you may get a job as a loan processor in a loan company. You may just put yourself in a box and just do what you're supposed to do. That wasn't me. You know, I was looking at the boss. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And then how he was quoting rates to borrowers and how he was getting, you know, borrowers and business and advertising in which publications to get business. Yeah. So while I was doing loan processing, I was actually absorbing how he's running his business. Yeah. So, curious. You were on the job mentorship. Yes.

You were being mentored. Exactly. And anyone can. If you want to be like someone, so if I want to go into, let's say, real estate entrepreneurship, I might come work for you and help you make money. Yep. But in the process of making you money, I'm also time collapsing and learning what to do right, what not to do wrong. Exactly.

Right. Yeah. So for those of you, by the way, who always send me DMs or send Craig Ballantyne DMs and go, hey, I don't have money. Otherwise, I'd get coaching or mentorship or whatever. Guess what? Go find a career in a sales organization, whether it's mortgage or nuts or franchise sales or whatever, and watch the badasses around you, whether it's the CEO or the top sales guy.

And look how quickly you'll grow and become an entrepreneur. You will get paid to get mentored. Exactly. Yeah, which is brilliant. I love that. So now we're going to fast forward a bit into your life. But at what point do you get into commercial real estate? How do you go there?

Commercial real estate, interesting. So 94, when Greenspan took the rates up, you know, we had switched from auction company to a lot of refinances because rates had gone down in the recession in the mid-90s. But then rates went up, 50 basis point in April, I think, 1994. And we had like 90 files in refinances. and we were floating the rates because we wanted to lock them on a shorter term. What does floating the rates mean? Floating means, so you take a loan app, I quote you six percent interest rate,

but I don't lock it. I can float it and then wait until I'm ready to lock it to get loan docs. So instead of a 30-day lock, I do a 12-day lock or a 10-day lock, now I get bigger rebate, bigger commission. So I got greedy in other words. Got it. So rates went up and then essentially all those 80-90 loans, you know, went dead. Yeah. And then I had a partner, which was a broker. at the time for my mortgage company and we decided well like we got to close down we got

all this overhead and no money coming in so at the time at 150,000 are saved in 94 and then we said what are we going to do I was again looking at another opportunity I saw 99 cent only opening up everywhere and I'm like hey why don't we do 79 cents plus you know 20 cents cheaper right it's a teaser product you know people come in for 79 cents but it's plus you know you sell other dollar items yeah so we opened the 8,000 of square store in Santa Ana in 94 and it did great and we opened the second one in Garden Grove and then year two we were making 30,000 a month each it was like again another another Al Pacino moment right all right then our suits more valentineas suits more

then I went about a ninety five thousand dollar Mercedes you know in 94 500 SEL back then was like a big dog car you know I bought a house I bought a LS 400 Lexus I had three cars in my collection in 94 and I was 23 years old and that foot for less came and opened right next to me to my first store and Right on their grand opening weekend our sales went 50% down and that was like whoa It's you know maybe it's just the grand opening weekend next weekend same thing So eventually after two years a year and half or so my partner says hey not only we're not taking out 30,000 a month But now we've got to put money back in the business we're losing money

So he says you know you buy me out or I'm walking out so I wrote them a check for $15,000. I bought them out. I called my parents. I said, I got a job for you. I laid off four employees, and my parents came. I reduced the expenses to be able to survive. But by then, in that 18 months, I had already sold my cars, my house,

and I was $185,000 in debt on my crate. Wow. So you're liquidating at this point because food for less comes in parks right next to you and starts sucking out all your money. Everything. Well, you know, in like supermarket business or discount retail business, You know, your margins are very small. So let's say up to 100,000 a month, you break even, pays your rent, employees, all the other, you know, expenses.

And then from 100 to 150 is all your profit, basically, you know. So when volume drops significantly, I mean, it really takes you into the rent. Did you own the building that the 79-cent store was in? No. Were you leasing it? I was leasing it. So at this point, you still don't have a piece of real estate. None.

Nothing. I was negative net worth, probably by 300 grand. And how old were you at the time? This is 90, by now it's like 97. 97. 97, so I was 26 years old. Okay. And everybody told me to file bankruptcy.

You know, you're just fighting, you know, losing battle. I said, no, in this country, you know, credit is everything. If you file bankruptcy, you're dead, you know. And I learned that early on because I had a mortgage company. I see everybody's credit report. If, you know, they had blemish on their credit, I couldn't get their loan approved. So I had that experience with, you know, getting loans and financing. But the easier thing to do, which is what most people do,

give up. Give up and file bankruptcy. Yep. And they go clean slate, I get to start over. Yep, yeah. Most people, even my parents told me to file bankruptcy. Good for you. But I was working seven days a week, opening the store seven in the morning, closing at nine, and then by the time I count all the money in the cash register, drop him in my safe. It was 10 p.m. I went to 24-hour fitness, still work out after all those. Yeah.

Run on 3rd, I'm going to sell it. I'm going to sell it. I'm going to sell it. So my whole mental mindset was, I'm going to get out of here, I'm going to sell it, and the only way to get out is to sell the supermarket. Right. And so by the way, I had converted to supermarket after two years of being a discount store, we added produce and butcher shop. So long story short, I said I'm losing money anyway. Why don't I lose a little bit more money?

So I borrowed money from private friends, a couple of private parties, and I ran full-page ads in La Opinien, which is a Mexican newspaper in Santa Ana. And I got the sales up 50, 60%, and then it looked great, even though it was barely making money, but people care about volume, you know, being busy. So I sold it to two Korean brothers for 185,000. Good for you.

That was 1998. And all of a sudden, you're right side up again. Not really. I owe $185,000 my credit cards. I owed to Rockview Farms, Pepsi, Coca-Cola. My accounts payable was like 30-40 grand. But long story short, with the inventory, they paid me and the $185,000, I was able to cash out $188,000 or so from escrow. But I still owe $185,000 my credit card.

I'm like, if I pay my credit cards, I'm still nothing. I'm seeing a theme here. You constantly end up at zero again. You constantly end up at zero. So, like, this is the second time now that you're defeated. So why not quit now? Why not just go get a job? Go be a doctor.

Go be a lawyer. Why do you keep going? Because once you give up, you give up. finished. It's like the race is finished. I'm not going to finish the race. That's it. Until it's on my terms.

That's it. I give up when it's on my terms. So I took that money. I saw all my friends around me. They were at the time making money day trading in stocks. Yeah. O.L. E-trade, brocade, CMGI. I don't know if you traded back then.

So they were all trading. We were having cigars, coffee, you know, when we could. And they were all bragging about how much hundreds of thousand dollars money. So I got my money. I'm like, I'm going to open an e-trade account. I put the money in there. 1998 and by September 1999 it turned to 700 grand yeah holy I was still paying that 22% of my credit cards by September I said okay this is you know I don't want to

get greedy I got my ass handed to me for two three years hey so I'm taking the money out I left 80 grand in there I said if I can make this into a 700 grand again great you know great but I'm gonna take this money so then I called my landlord mr. Dave Williams that I was paying rent for the supermarket he had always told me hey when you sell this come see me you know why don't you invest in real estate you put all this energy seven days a week and you remind me of myself when when I came here in the 1950s I started with a lemonade stand and now he owned like seven hundred million dollars worth of real estate in Orange

County and he liked me he was a much older gentleman so I called them and that was October 1999 as mr. Williams I'm ready so he sent his broker to my office and he showed me three shopping sets I ended up buying one, and then with whatever I had left, I bought two other REO homes. And that's how I jumped started my commercial real estate. Gotcha. Yeah. I got lucky a couple of times along the way to.

Sure. Made a million here, two million there, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I was in the game. You know, I didn't give up. Yeah, yeah. When you're on the field, you do get lucky. There's always that lucky goal that gets kicked in.

Yeah. When you're on the bleachers watching, luck's not going to find you. No, you won't. Yeah. You did a great job there. Thank you. This gentleman mentored you in real estate. Yes.

Right? Goes back to, again, the value of mentorship, coaching, success leaves clues learning from other people who have already been there and done that. And he said, hey, look, this is the broker you want to talk to. I'm guessing he showed you three really good quality properties. Yeah, he said these are properties he would buy. Perfect.

So now you're buying with confidence. Yeah. Right? That's the value of coaching and mentorship is huge. So at that point, you decide, OK, this is it. This is my path, the real estate, commercial, and you go all in? I tried other businesses along the way.

but I always found my, you know, my backbone being real estate. Gotcha. Because real estate's like dirt, put some dirt in your pocket, come back 100 years, still there. Yep. You know, but other businesses, trends change. Look at Amazon, changing the entire landscape of retail. And now we work changing the entire landscape of office, how you rent office. So some trends change, but, you know, real estate really doesn't change that, you know, God's not making any more of it.

Dirt is dirt. There's only so much. So if you buy it the right location and you buy it the right time, 99%. at the time, you know, a successful real estate deal is timing. How do I know when the timing is right to buy real estate? Because you say a lot of it is timing. Yes, when it's on sale. So when I say on sale, well, recession, you know, right through the recession, you

don't want to buy in the recession, it's like, you know, catching a falling knife. Because if you bought it in 2008, by 2010, 11, it bottomed out, and then we went through the recovery. So you always want to buy through the recovery. That's on the way up. And you see signs of it, you know, when rates are being cut, cut, cut, cut, try to stimulate the economy. And then unemployment's high, but then it plateaus and then it starts coming down.

That's when you want to start buying. So you want to buy on the way up, and then it's scale up. You know, you want to be aggressive. That's when you throw your, you know, your guts out and you just go all in, you know. And then when it starts getting too greedy, you know, people are emotional when it comes to investing. So they're often not, you know, they get greedy, they don't want to sell, they keep thinking it's going to go higher. And then when it's going down, they don't want to lose money. They hang on until they can't, you know, and they lose everything.

So to that point, let me ask you a question then. Looking at greed for a moment. Was your wealth created by buying, holding, and selling, or buying, renting, and cash flow? 90% I would say buying and flipping at the right time. Gotcha. So you make your money on the buy. You know, I buy something that was worth a dollar for 50 cents. Yeah.

And then it always comes back to a dollar and even higher because of inflation, everything goes up throughout, you know, 30, 40 year time period. So if you look at those blips that are 90s, year 2000, the dot-com bus, 2008 great recession, and then we have another one coming. Do we? Okay. Tell me about that. Yeah, of course. It's sickly cool, you know. It's like your heartbeat, you know. So you just have to be patient. A lot of people don't have their patience. They want to jump in, make money, and they get caught in that recession down draft. and it's tough to, you know, weather the storm if you're leveraged. Sure. Yeah. So why are you more attracted to commercial real estate than, let's say, housing or apartments,

like multi-unit? Well, commercial gives you flexibility to be involved as an entrepreneur. So, for example, you know, you buy office building like yours. Yeah. Look what you've done to it, you know, inside, remod it, you mold it, you get your own, you know, a style touch into it, put into it. And a residential, if you buy something and attract housing, there's not much you can do to it. You can change the exterior, you can paint it pink.

Right, right, but there's not much you can do. There's not much you can do. And it's very limited because it's kind of like you're buying a small little boat on the sea, and it rises with the level of the sea. But if you built something going vertical in the middle of sea, you can go as high as you want, right? So it's kind of that terminology. Now you live in Newport Beach, beautiful home. Thank you.

You know, and let's talk about your unique art collection that you have that has really been funded by being a really, estate entrepreneur. Yes. Right? Yes. And we saw the hints of it, you know, the gas station, the used car, then you make some money you buy the Mercedes and then the Lexus.

But today you've got a very unique stable of cars, some of them one off. How do you even decide that I'm going to buy this many cars and they're going to be unique art forms and I'm going to do all? How do you get into that? Well, I mean, I had a love for cars, obviously from my early 90s when I bought the five at SL and but I always told myself I want to buy cars when I can use the cash from my cash flow and buy them not spend from my capital or principal right yeah so once I start you know I got my dream home I got married I got two kids and now

I have excess cash and it's not time to buy real estate you know for the past two years it's been talking out so I said okay why don't I have all this you know why don't I buy what I enjoy my passion so I've been a strategic with buying cars got super rare cars you know I mean super rare is an understanding statement. We're talking some are very uniquely made just for you, one-off made for you. That doesn't get any more super rare than that. Yeah, it's kind of like a project. It's kind of like, you know, building your commercial real estate building from ground up. Because you get to choose the fabric, the paint, you know,

the different design of the seats. Did you ever think it would be at this point where you're doing this and you're hanging out with the CEO of McLaren? Did you ever, like, that's where I'm going to be? No. No. No. That I never. imagine my wallet streams that I'm going to be, you know, meeting with director of Hermes in Paris, designing a one-off Bugatti. So it's been, it's a blessing. But I'm using that as kind of an investment and passion also because I'm a strategic with what I buy. I mean, I don't go out and buy a Ferrari GTO for $38 million because very likely that's going

to tank when the economy turns around. Sure. Sure. But I'm buying things that I know I can, you know, profit from if I need the money. So even then, even now, even though you have a passion and a love for cars, you have enough discipline to say, I'm not going to buy the Ferrari GTO because when the economy tanks, not if, when, that car is going to be on wholesale. Exactly. Whereas these unique one-offs are likely going to get bought up if you want to sell them. Sure. To moguls that own whatever, half of China or whatever. Yeah, you know, I like to think of the cars I'm investing in as like Rolex on your rest, you know. If you need money, you go to pawn shop and you can catch in on it because the Rolex very you know rare

Rolex I want to call it you know but yeah I've said no to many manufacturers they offer me cars but I didn't think they were gonna be as unique or I could make him unique but manufacturers that are you know open-minded for me to come in with another designer to design it and change their design which Pagani was one Bugatti was another one that we're doing one off with those you I think they're going to fetch a good premium, even in a down market. Right. Because it's the only one in the world.

Exactly. And there's always that guy or gal who can get that. Exactly. So you dropped a really good nugget. I want our audience to pick up. So I'm going to have you come back to this for a moment. You said, the economy is good right now. And so my cash flow that's coming in, I'm not buying buildings, but I've got the cash flow.

So I'm buying these one-off exotic cars or hypercars that I can flip later if I want. But more than that, you said, I'm not buying stuff with my principal. In other words, you're not putting yourself into debt like most Americans are. Yeah, or selling my buildings to buy cars. Or selling your buildings, right? Exactly. What you're doing is you're taking the surplus of cash that you have that came from the value of the buildings. Yes.

And saying it's too expensive to buy buildings now. The economy is thriving. Investing it into rare cars. Investing into rare cars. And guys, don't let this fall on deaf ears because most of you are right now living in debt and going into debt just so you can keep up with the neighbors, whether you're renting a Lamborghini or you're living out of a place that you can't even afford and you're outspending what you're making.

And what's going to happen is when the economy crashes, they're not going to have the cash to invest in real estate and take advantage of that time. Exactly. Yeah. What is your best piece of advice for someone in their late 20s, 30s, who wants to get into real estate? What should they do right now if they've got $10,000 or $20,000

but they want to get into real estate in the future? What do they do? I would say it's a long journey. Don't look at it as like a buy one property and you're done. Get your license, real estate license, get involved with the real estate community, investors, lenders, go to open houses, network with other brokers, watch the market, study the market,

and get qualified. Make sure you're ready to pull the trigger when the time comes. And the time does come, you can really locate, you know, find those diamond in the rough, you know, if you want to call it. And by then you have your networks. If you run out of cash, you can always do profit sharing with other investors. Because by then you're a professional agent, you can, you know, you build your network, your credibility.

And as long as you provide value and you know what you're doing, you know, there's always investors that want to co-invest with you, even if you don't have money. Exactly. which really happened even when you were younger. So right now you've got money, you've got buildings, you've got credibility in the real estate world, and so they wanna co-invest with you. But when you were working for the mortgage company,

you didn't have necessarily the money, but you had the hustle and the enthusiasm. Yes. And that is the constant reoccurring theme of this show is you have the hustle and enthusiasm, and then that car auction place goes, hey, we're gonna drop them, we're gonna work with you because you're processing loans a lot quicker, right?

Because I was producing much faster. So even then, people were willing to work with you because you've got the hustle, you've got the work ethic, you've got the enthusiasm. And today, of course, you've got the street credibility and the money to back that out. It all comes down to execution. You're executing and you're persistent and you prove yourself, you know, everybody wants to work with you because you're producing. Sure. So let me ask you another question. This is going back to your art collection of cars. Is there going to be any signature series? Oh, yeah. I have a three-sitter McLaren.

I just came from the factory at McLaren in Woking. I designed, you know, expected out. And then they have a car that they haven't announced yet that they show me as a secret project. So it's going to be topless. Very cool, very cool. I can't tell much of it, but they're going to make 399 of them.

So I'm going to see if I can do a one-off on that car. But the three-seater is going to be pretty cool. They're going to make my own orange paint and name it after me. So it's a big chrome orange paint. It's a three-seater where the driver sits in the center. I saw that video. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's going to be the coolest car because it's just a unique experience sitting in the middle of the road as you drive 250 miles and out. You know, I just learned the other day why cars have headlights on either side. Because back in the day,

when we had horses and carriages, the horse was in the middle. So they hung the lamps on either side of the horse. Really? Yeah. I didn't know that. So when Henry Ford started making cars, you know, he just went with, okay, well, the lights go on the sides. Even though the there's no more horses. You could put a light bar if you want now, right? Yeah, yeah. But now it's become a thing where it's... Interesting. I thought that was pretty... I'll learn something new. There you go. If I can teach the car guy something, right? There you go. So, so, Mani, I'm curious, what question should I have asked you to extract your entrepreneurial knowledge for our audience that I haven't asked yet? Is there a question that I left out? What's your purpose? What is your purpose?

Yeah, you know, I've learned, yeah, I've learned, you know, first it was the money, you know, to, become financially independent, but now that I got my big home and I got my cars, my passion, a bunch of buildings, now I'm realized, okay, I feel a little empty, you know, what's next? You know, you're always like an addict, you know, you're always chasing. Sure. Right. So now I've, that's why I started my mentorship class. So I'm trying to pass on my knowledge to all the young kids and even adults that want

to get into real estate. Yeah. Because I think real estate's really the, you know, basis of all wealth and it's not going to be obsolete. It's not going to go anywhere if you learn the real estate investment game You can become well-teen you know anybody can become a multi-millioner if you give it 20 years You know not one year two years but 20 years you can be worth 20 30 million bucks I can almost guarantee it if you comment yourself and be disciplined One of my favorite quotes is that people overestimate what they can achieve in one year and they underestimate what they can achieve in a decade

Right very true and it's that time under tension is what you're saying. And to that point, by the way, I see that you work out, you're jacked every now and again. Yeah. So even during the hardest times, man, when you were opening the business, closing the business, counting the money,

putting it in 10 o'clock, you'd go to the gym and work out. 100%. How valuable, how important is fitness in your life? Oh, I don't think I would have been here without my fitness. Really? Why is that? Yeah. Well, it built my mindset, not to give up. You know, to me working out is not just to build your muscles. is more for my mental game and focus.

And even now, I don't need to work out really, but it's a habit I've been accustomed to for past 28 years, 30 years. And I love it. You know, I work out, I come out, I still feel mentally I'm sharp and I'm focused. And I do a lot of my brainstorming, you know, when I'm sitting in sauna after working out.

Yeah. I plan my day. I always have a list of things to do, my laundry list, but I always modify it in sauna. Good for you. You know? So working out is being great. You know, I think through the hard times, it kept me going, and through the good times,

which is now, keeps me happy. You know, yeah, you know, focus, happy, and, you know, it's a great thing. And nobody knows that better than you. Right. You own 800 gyms? Yeah, 800 locations. Yeah, we're very, very lucky. Congrats.

Thank you. How do our audience find you? Where's the best way to find you? So my website is mannycauspin.com, my name. Yep. And I'm revamping my mentorship classes online. It's a subscription model. I'm building the curriculum right now.

And so just manioshby.com. Easy enough. Well, Mandy, thank you so much for coming on the show. My pleasure. My pleasure. I appreciate you. And folks, thank you so much for watching and listening to this episode of The Empire Show and Inside Look. As always, make sure to give us a five-star review, to take a screenshot, share it on social media.

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