BILFPOD - Built for Impact: David Gabbai’s Playbook for Purposeful Leadership

Episode Date: June 24, 2025

On this episode of BILFPOD we sit down with business builder and leadership powerhouse—David Gabbai, Executive Vice President at Colliers .David brings relentless energy, unmatched grit, and a people-first mindset to everything he does. His take? “Never ever ever quit.” Because with resilience, creative thinking, and purpose-driven leadership—anything is possible.With over $1 Billion in closed transaction value, David’s journey is filled with major achievements—from building multiple multimillion-dollar businesses to creating workplace cultures where women thrive and teams feel valued. His ability to lead with heart and hustle has made him a force in both business and community impact.In this episode:    •    The no-quit mindset every entrepreneur needs    •    How appreciation builds loyalty, culture, and purpose    •    The ripple effect of supporting and empowering women    •    Staying grounded, giving back, and thinking beyond the boxIf you’re building something bigger than yourself, this one’s a masterclass in leading with legacy.Like it. Share it. Tag someone who’s building something bold.#BILFPod #DavidGabbai #EntrepreneurMindset #LeadershipGoals #PurposeDriven #NeverQuit #CultureBuilders #EmpowerWomen #GratitudeInBusiness #PurposeDrivenLeader #MindfulGrowth #EmpowermentCulture #ThinkOutsideTheBox

To the entrepreneur that's out there that wants to succeed, never, ever, ever, ever, ever quit. Meaning when you're knocked you down, pick you up, pick yourself up by your bootstraps and go, go, go. Think outside the box. When you're able to think outside the box of whatever it is your business plan is and you're able to think outside of that box, great things happen. Ideas start to pour in and you get so excited and so motivated and so like your mind. explodes and you just want to go, go, go, go, go, go, it one feeds on the other and it becomes a vicious circle and you'll never be disappointed. You'll fail and you'll get up and do it again and you'll learn from those mistakes, but you'll never, ever, ever be disappointed.

All right, guys, well, welcome back to the Biltpod where authenticity, Trump, authority. And for those of you tuning in for the first time, I'm Mara Dorn and this is Bilt, and I bet you're wondering what Bilt stands for. And for those of you that already know, well, that's great. For those you that don't, it means boss, I like to follow. So for today's, let's just kind of dive in there. But for today's guest, I am so excited to introduce this gentleman that I have had the privilege of getting to know a little bit. I mean, he is so interesting. And I'm going to let you really kind of talk about yourself because I feel like when I do it, I never do as well as somebody else would. But we have David Goodbye. He has so many amazing accolades,

which I found out you are a Canadian. And I also found out that you won a championship as a hockey player. How interesting is that? That's amazing. He is the, I want to get the exact title. You are the executive vice president at Collier. I know he said it's just a title, but that's pretty impressive, I think. So without further, adieu, I'd like to introduce you all to my new friend, David Goodbye. Well, thank you, Mara. It's an honor and privilege to be here. So I'm not very good about talking about myself. It's just not something that I'm used to doing. But my journey started as a young Jewish kid from Toronto and grew up with immigrant parents. And from Israel. And they

they work very hard, and I watched them work hard throughout their careers. My mother was a school teacher and a school principal. My dad owned an excavation business in Canada and was a developer for entry-level home lots here in central Florida. And we moved here in 1978 when I was a kid, and I was 10 years old, and I very much ran into a culture shock. Growing up in Toronto, it was a neighborhood of Jews and Italians, tight-knit, live together. You know, a famous comedian says,

same corporation, different divisions. And really, really tight-knit of neighborhoods. And even until today, my best friends, even though I left when I was under 10 years old, my best friends today I still am in touch with from Toronto. I actually went to school with one of them here in Florida. So moved here, total culture shock. Deep South back in the 70s, it wasn't Orlando, what it is today.

Disney was just on the horizon and I came in here and I didn't know what to do and it's intimidating. And so I had to kind of learn my way across the globe and in this little enclave of Orlando. And I was really into hockey being a Canadian, which is, you know, in Canada, that's all there is to do. So played a lot of street hockey with a lot of kids that I got to know in the neighborhood. And from there they opened their first rink here in Orlando. and as a young kid of about 13 years old, I was playing with guys who played in college and played pro. Yeah. Because there was nowhere else to play.

So I had to learn very quickly how to play hockey very, very well, and they were influential in teaching me the game. Summers I'd spend in Toronto going to hockey camps and hockey schools. And before you know it, it's between my junior and senior high school year. and I decided to stay back in Toronto to play hockey. I moved in with my grandparents and played hockey and really, really enjoyed it. I enjoyed playing very much and still to this day into my late 50s. I play three times a week. Do your kids play?

My kids don't. My kids were soccer players primarily and they're both very athletic. But didn't want to get into the hockey thing. it's just too dangerous, and so they say. But I enjoy it. The camaraderie that I learned from a team sport like hockey bleeds into my life at work, because it's really, really, the teammates you make,

you rely on each other, and it's something that's super conducive to my business and how it works in my business. My business is that of a commercial real estate broker, broker. Pretty impressive. You work with over 17,000 employees, which I read, that's amazing. But I think the most, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you, but the most, I think, interesting fact that I read about you is that People Magazine rated your company one of the top places for women to work. Yeah, diversity for us is a very important thing in terms of our company. And we hire the

of the best. You know, religion doesn't matter. Color of your skin doesn't matter. We want the best of the best. And we have some of the most talented young women and older women in our industry that are where the Collier's logo and bleed Collier's blue and they're incredible. And I've had the opportunity to work alongside these women who are just incredible. really incredible. I find that women who have devoted themselves to an industry that's been so

male-dominated for so very long and persevered through it all with all the machismo that you have in our business, if they're able to get through all of that and still be successful, they're tough as nails, and they know what they're doing. That's incredible. I mean, you know, as a woman that works in a predominantly male industry. I have a few questions for you. So for me, you know, it's unfortunate because I feel like, and correct me if I'm wrong, women that do well happen to do extraordinarily well. It's just hard. It is a lot. We are at a disadvantage for many reasons. But my question for you is, why do you think that there's not, that it is male-dominated? Is there something that, like, for us, it's the hours, it's the working hours. It's the stigma of, you know,

how am I going to balance the family, being a wife. So what is it for your industry? Well, I'm on the retail side of the commercial real estate industry. And if you look at the origins of that, that date back into the 1940s and 50s, the whole Hossie and Harriet kind of culture of the woman stays home to raise the family and the men go out to work. And she cooks and cleans and she greets her husband when he comes home and make sure his shoes are clean and his laundry is done and all that.

And it rose out of that. And it became an egotistical kind of endeavor for men to be in this very high-powered positions in the retail side of the industry. And it just progressed from there. As women became more and more independent and started coming into the industry, there was a lot of blocking. You know, you're just a secretary. You know, you need to know where you're. places. And they quickly, the smart ones, quickly understood, no, we're not going to take that, and we're not going to put up with that. And yes, there are barriers of entry. And yes, there are barriers

while you're there. If you want to raise a family and you need to take that time off to raise a family, you have to have a support system that allows you to do that. And Colliers is very good about providing that for their female employees and making sure that everybody that does balance their home life and their work life doesn't lose any positioning in the company and is able to move forward. And part of that is building teams. So if you have a team like I have

that's comprised of men and women, if one of my female partners needs time off for whatever the reason is, we're there to cover for her. I love that. And that's the, and vice versa. If I need to take some time, off for whatever reason, I can delegate and have my team members cover for me.

I love that. So the team approach is much more impressive, synergistic, if you will, than just the individual effort. The individuals that are in comprise of the team are all self-driven, all self-motivated, all entrepreneurial. I mean, they keep a pad on their nightstand at night, writing notes about what it is they need to do in the next next thing, next day. And creativity. I find women to be much more creative than most men are. Yeah, that's so interesting. But going back, like just kind of switching gears for a second, going back, how did you, first of all, what did you go to school for?

And then how did you even embark on this industry? And then obviously, you had to start somewhere because now, I mean, you have such a mighty title. So what did that look like for you? Where did you start? How did you get there? Were there trials and tribulations? Did you fall on your face?

I mean, what happened? Interesting question, because, you know, after a failed hockey career, my mom said, okay, you're going to go to school and you're going to be a doctor, like every Jewish mom, right? Yeah, of course. Or a lawyer. Well, the doctor came first, and when I failed biology in my first semester, I called my my mom said, this isn't for me, I'm not going to be able to be a doctor.

So, you know, of course, she wants those bananas and says, okay, then you're going to be a lawyer. And I said, Mom, I'm a slow reader. I'm not going to be a lawyer either. What are you going to do? I said, I found a school up in Tallahassee. I was at USF at the time because it was the only school that let me in. I had very poor grades. And long story short, snuck in somehow, which is a story for a different time.

but got my AA degree and transferred to Florida State because they had a real estate program there and an entrepreneurial program there. So I was really interested in both. Again, not a very good student and found out that I was actually pretty good in terms of aptitude in the business thing. I took a microeconomics course

and had the curve for the class. I was like, wow, so I'm really in tune with this. This is something I want to do. Being that, my dad was somewhat involved in the real estate game. It was something that I wanted to follow in his footsteps and make him proud. And I went through this real estate program, which at the time was in its infantile stages. Today, it's ranked number four in the country. And I really got an education of a lifetime working with professors that not only are just professors in the book form, but also were entrepreneurs

in outside of the professorship, and we're able to bring all that into and teach us what was great. And graduated 35 years ago and been in the real estate industry ever since. And I learned very quickly that the psychology of life really is what will influence people to allow you to excel. Bingo, you said it. I think you should really talk about that because I don't think people, I think one of the biggest downfalls of people is that they don't understand, they have very little social education about how people work. And once you understand the psychology of people, in sales especially, would you agree that it makes things so much easier because then you can work with a different array of people?

Absolutely, 100%. Both my kids went through school. I said, I will pay for your schooling, but you must take five classes. Yeah. Personal finance, because that affects everybody in how we live. I love this. Understanding money. Parents, listen to this. Accounting, 101, debits and credits. Once you get the concept of, it's very easy, but you really need to know how money works. I love this. Because I was in real estate, Real Estate 101, and they tend to inherit some real estate that I have accumulated over my life, my adult life, and my career.

Also, psychology. And the reason for that is just what you touched on. when you're in sales, you have to be able to morph into what the person it is that you're dealing with. Absolutely. And you have to be able to speak to them. You have to be able to be engaged with them in conversation. And really understand what their hot buttons are. And on the client side, what do they like to do?

What are they into? And you find common grounds with them. I spend a lot of time in the car with clients, and we have a lot of windshield time spent together. And if you don't have some commonality and you're able to converse with them about what interests them and what interests you, then you're going to be behind that windshield very, very bored and losing an account very, very quickly. It's true. It's very much developer-driven. And to know those developers on a one-on-one basis, to know what their personalities are,

to know what their hot buttons are, and what's really important for them, allows you to negotiate the best deal possible for your client. And I do believe that psychology allows you to really not manipulate, because I don't like to use that word, but to manipulate the conversation or the negotiation in a format that allows you to negotiate a deal that really is the deal that your client wants, and it becomes a win-win situation with the developer. You have to be energetic in this industry and in this business. you have to be go, go, go all the time, which is what I love about it. Someone once asked me to describe myself as a meal.

And I thought about it for a minute. I said, well, I'm an ADD sandwich with a side of type A, a side of OCD, and a big, tall Red Bull. And that kind of motivates me. I'm all over the place all the time. I'm not one that likes to sit still. Yeah. And, you know, like my assistant, really, she's my partner. Lindsay will say, you know, squirrel, because I'm not paying attention to her.

It's like a dog with a squirrel just ran by. And tries to kind of navigate me within the confines of the conversation because I get lost all the time. But it's what drives me. It's what really is important to me. I've always been, not only you've got to win, but you've got to be the best that you're game. And that is a motivating fact. And that energy comes from my personality, my type A.

And it's not something that can be taught. And a lot of people don't have it. Can you be learned? I don't even know that. I don't think it can be. I don't even. I think you're born like this. I do.

I think that, because that's why they call it a natural born leader for a reason. I think you can, but characteristics are characteristics. I do not think, and I've had this debate many times, I don't think that you can teach somebody, like we say the, Like, you just can't teach that um factor. You either have it or you don't. You can maybe mold and become a good leader, but either you have the it factor or you just don't have it.

I don't think you can mold into it. I don't think so. I had it inside of me. I'm like, I'm talking about the person that was never, yes, of course, you know, I think a lot of times as leaders, we also get comfortable with being uncomfortable. That's like a big thing that I say all the time. But it's inside of you. It comes, something brings it out.

but then you go into your natural talent of being a leader and being that person that doesn't accept anything but them but being the best and that's the same thing for me like being mediocre is just not in my vocabulary yeah i don't want to do it if i'm 100% with you on that there's there's there's no room for mediocrity right there they're there you know second best sucks that was going to happen to you in business too once you stop loving the business and once you stop performing at a high level will you also do that because that's how i feel Once I, this year has been a big blow for me. I went from being number one in my career and whatever they did some realignments to now I'm the number four.

Four, okay? So nobody knows number four. So it's been a real challenge. The fire is inside of me because I want to be number one. But I feel the same way. Like once it's not fun anymore. Once I lost the motivation to be number one, then I'm out. I don't want to stay.

I'm with you there too. This year I believe I will be, this is going to be six of the last seven years where I finished and what they call Everest Club, which is the top 10% of brokers within Colliers, which is big company. And that's you and your team? That's just me. Just you? Because you're also nominated.

Aren't you, like, aren't you one of the most influential people in Orlando? I was nominated for that. I don't know how, but I was nominated. You are humble. That's pretty impressive. I was nominated for that. In November, I was awarded it. And it was very, very humbling.

and I was up there with guys and girls in this industry that are just incredible. And to be among people like that is just, you know, it's very rewarding, but at the same time, it's just, you know, why me? And what did I do? And gives you time to reflect upon your career and what you've done and how you got there. You have to fall a bazillion time before you really can't succeed. The 10,000-hour rule is real. And I can't tell you.

And every time I do fall, and listen, I've been fired from accounts before, and I've been disappointed in my performance, or I missed the deal, or how could I miss that sight? It was right there under my nose. And I sulked for a day. I go take it out on the elliptical at the gym or the weights at the gym, and I come back the next day fired up because I've now talked myself into, this is not going to happen again.

There is not a chance on God's Green Earth and happen again. And that's not really what makes it stronger. It's the lessons of life and the downfalls that, that really make us stronger because what do you do with it? If you're smart, you take it as a lesson, you apply it, and you come back stronger, more fired up, more locked in, and I think every time I've come back more innovative because I know I want to win and I want to make it better.

So every time I've fallen, I've come back tenfold, literally. So I think what you're saying is 100% true, and so many people don't understand that. You know, it's not an overnight success. You're right. Most people are not just overnight. All of a sudden, you know, you've made it. I don't think I've made it.

I'm still trying to make it, you know. But I think that a lot of people do not understand that you have to fall over and over and over until you really have that come back. I remember being that kid and coming into a world where I did not know what the heck was going on. I thought I did and then I was like a deer in the headlights. And a lot of these kids today, unlike, you know, we didn't have computers when I went through school. But a lot of these kids today got their face in their phone or they're facing their computer and they rely quite heavily on social media and their friends via social media.

We didn't have that. You went outside and played until the lights came on and you came back in. I love mentoring the kids and explaining to them the hard work, the dedication that it takes when you leave school and how to come from becoming a student to getting a job. I tell them there's several stages. You're a student, get an internship. Internships lead to jobs. Excelling at your job leads to a career.

And then when you're in career, you better be number one and be at the very top. And those are the stages of life of your career. And then one day you will age out. I mean, I know it's coming, right? You're going to age out. It's going to happen. Technology is not my strength. But what have I done that really?

helps. I've associated myself with like-minded people who are younger than I am, who have that knowledge of how to use social media, influential. What do they say, hire your weaknesses? Yeah, I know what my weaknesses are, and I have zero problem telling you that. Same thing. And the people around me, you know, Lindsay is the most organized person I know. Lindsay is your female counterpart, right? That is your partner. She is my partner, but she's the admin side of my business. There's five on my team that I work with. Hector is not to be mentioned here because he does what you guys are doing here. That's what he does. He has a degree at full sale in film and his marketing of our team is enormous. So I oversee those

five on the daily. I'm involved in leadership within the company. I do, I've mentored over a hundred kids over my career in the mentorship program through FSU. And my daughter, who just entered the industry, who graduated at FSU, same as I did, as the number four school in the country when I was, it didn't even exist, they were just close to folding the program. And she's been in the car with me. She's seen how I interact with people and how I talk to people and my personality and how I do that morphing and all that.

and she's learned very well. So is that your why? Is your family your why, or you have something else that's your why that gets you, keeps you going? My family, I worked very hard to make sure that my family will have what I didn't growing up. And I grew up, I'm not going to say dirt poor, but in a relatively poor immigrant family, who had to work their tails off just to make ends meet. And a pet peeve of mine is air conditioning, and I'll tell you why. I remember as a kid, we just moved here to Florida.

My parents couldn't afford to barely keep the lights on in the house. So we would sleep a night without the air conditioning or on because it was expensive to run. And it was hot as hell, and I'm sitting there sweating with the fan going. And to me, that became a pet peeve of mine, that I will never, ever, ever be without air conditioning in my home or wherever it is that I go. and when my mom moved to Israel after my father passed away 30-some odd years ago, 40 years ago almost that she

I went to go visit her and again it's very expensive to run air condition I pulled out $500 and said I don't care what mom we're turning the AC on you're not turning it off I can't take any more clothes off so you can bundle up all you want we're keeping the air conditioner going and to me that's a motivating factor because I wake up every morning in my mind with one foot in the grave or one foot in the poverty hole. I think that's what that differentiates you from other, that's the same, sorry, but that's the same

thing that, same thing for me. My dad also died over 30 years ago, over 36 years ago, and the one pet peeve I have growing up was ordering food. I remember like being at a restaurant and we could never order or we. I could never order an appetizer. And whatever, dinner I had, I had to eat it. Well, that, like, I didn't always like it. So now I have, like, a really bad, I order, like, I'll let my kids order whatever they want. Because if they don't like it, you know, they can have something else. But it's the same thing. When we go to a restaurant or when I Uber eats, I'm Uber eating the whole menu because of that one pet peeve. But I think when you have loss and you experience loss at such a pivotal moment in your life, do you think that the loss,

I don't know if you want to talk about this or not, but the loss of a parent, do you think that that kind of drives you and kind of moves you in a different way than other people? Absolutely. Absolutely. When my dad passed away, I was 24 years old. I had a younger brother, still do, who's 20 years old at the time. And I was thrown to the wards. Everything was helter-skelter.

There was not good record-keeping, and I had to figure out everything. Wow. and make sure that my mom, you know, lived through it because at least I was business savvy. She wasn't. And my brother was off at school, and I had just graduated. And I remember saying that my worst fear in life, you know, a lot of people, what's your worst fear in life? Dying young or dying? My worst fear in life was disappointing my parents.

So family is a great motivator for me. and it forced me to grow up overnight. I was thrown to the sharks. You better learn how to swim. I lost my dad when I was six, which is very different because I think when you're older, it's a lot worse. I don't know any different.

And when you're older and really experiencing that, that's a completely different, you know, than what I went through. But I can tell you that the loss of a parent really is a driving factor in most people's lives. And you can tell that in your, in what you're doing now and why it's so important to be the best. Because you have something to prove.

My work family is very much in line with my real family. And when we started our venture, we created a, basically a internal mission statement that states we always have each other's back. We always put each other's first. We always cover for each other. We always love each other. but we always do so with the understanding that our clients get 110% effort all of the time. I love that.

And being able to teach what I've learned and surrounding myself with people who are smarter than I am on my team, who are just as driven, which is that that's important. They have to be as driven as you are because your dreams are the same. Yeah, I love that. So for culture, what I'm hearing you say is that you put the we before the me, right? You surround yourself with like-minded individuals that are basically, you guys are all pulling on the rope at the same time. And you also are an open door. So that, I mean, which is really, that's incredible because so many times when you're building an

organization and you're at the top, so many people are intimidated and they don't feel like they can come to you, but it seems that you have this open door policy. So my question for you, you already have the mentorship going. What is your take on servitude in giving back to the community? Because I think if for those that are given, there's a quote, to who much is given, Much is expected and, wait, I forget, something like that, but too much is given, much is expected, and it had, like, something in that sort. But anyways, the whole premise is, like, if you're given a lot, you're supposed, like Sadaka, you're supposed to give back.

So what is your take on giving back to the community? Back in during COVID, they were doing some work near our house, and prior to that, and we started walking the dogs around the neighborhood, and we got to know elderly people who live next to us in a rent-controlled building for the elderly. And walking around and got to know these guys and became friends with them. And that was wonderful. We really enjoyed that. And there was one gentleman there.

I'm not going to use his name, but we're still very, very close to him today. My wife actually took him to get his cataracts done today. Was out of sorts one day. And I said, what's going on? And he said, nothing, this and that. Nothing's going on. It's no big deal. I said something's going on.

And tell me, so he was behind in his rent. And I'm like, how much is your rent? $800, okay. Don't worry about it. We'll go. You shouldn't be worried about that. Let's go pay your rent. So we paid his rent for him, and they'll pay you back.

I said, it's fine. I don't care. It's okay. I mean, it doesn't change my lifestyle anymore, right? And then a few months later, he comes knocking at my door. with an eviction notice. And mind you, this is controlled by the city of Winter Park. So I'm looking at the eviction notice,

and it's not an eviction notice, it's an actual eviction, and he asked me, what does this mean? I said, you've got to be out of your house in five days. This is, there's no playing around here. What happened? And he was embarrassed to tell me. What happened is during COVID, his neighbor's grandson came to go live with her for a little bit

and there was this big fear of the elderly getting COVID so he decided he's going to make a couple of bucks by providing a service to the elderly and going to publics to go get their groceries for them so that they don't have to be exposed to the virus so he being the kind person he is a former monk being the kind person and the spiritual person that he was, thought that's great and gave the guy his ATM card with the code.

And the guy went to go get him food and this and that. And I'll hold on to the card. Within a week, he cleaned him out of everything that he owned. And he was embarrassed to say it. And I said, what happened? He explained to me what happened. And I immediately went into action. I went to sleep and looked at my wife.

He said, he's going to be on the streets. We can't let this happen. And I called the attorney that was representing the city at the time. And I said, okay, listen, wipe this off the slate, let him stay. I'll write you the check. Okay? You give him dignity. That's all he wanted.

It was his dignity back because he felt he had lost it and he was hoodwinked. And that started me saying, okay, I'm going to do this every year. and my partner, Alexi, is very much philanthropic herself. And she grew up as a single mom. And Lindsay, my other sisters, grew up as a single mom. And I saw how they struggled, putting food on the table, raising two kids, working at the same time, pulling into the gas station on fumes and not having, now I'm here, having people push her to the pump,

and then she didn't have enough money to put in the tank. making enough money not to be able to receive government assistance but not enough money to make it the end means. So we started, we are starting a charity, we haven't completed it yet, and adopt a single mom where we will find a candidate that we will help them with their bills or live out their dreams with a proviso that they have to take a course on personal finance because many of them don't understand how business and money works. A lot of it has to do with education. And that was, that was, it's not her fault, but she just never understood it.

They have to take the course, which we'll provide for them, graduate the course. They have to show that they've excelled and will help them pay their bills, we'll give that, we'll raise money in tranches, will help them with their bills, and we'll help build their life again and open retirement accounts so that they understand that they can contribute so that when they are of that of retirement, they have something to fall back on, not just what the government gives you. And this is something that we're going to pursue 110% and we're super excited about. Who are you? You're like the godsend over here. I don't look at it that way. Is there anything you don't do? No, I know you don't. Listen, I look at it

that I have been truly, truly blessed enough. And I think that's part of culture too, the culture that, you know, my culture, my background is very similar to yours and that's kind of how you're I'm also starting a nonprofit because I had an experience. I always give back constantly, whether it's helping people's rent or whatever. But this past Christmas, on Christmas Eve, I went with another friend of mine and we delivered presents to four different families, not just a little bit of presents, like a lot of presents. And after I did, I took my daughter and I'm like, you know what, we give all the time. But you know, we give without any obligation. We give because we want to. But why not like really have an intentional and purposeful

that we can give to real people, not that they're not real people, but have like a real plan, a real purpose. And then we started thinking about like sponsoring a birthday party because I feel like it's such a big component on who you are as a person, but it also shows who you are as a leader, as a businessman, right, and the legacy you're trying to leave behind. Absolutely. So there's a saying that goes, to save one life is to save all of humanity. and I live by that creed. It's important to me. One other thing that I do that's really super important to me.

I've been in business for 35 years now, and I've been with companies that treat their admin very poorly. Oh, when they miss you, I don't like that. And that really hurts me because we all wake up in the morning and put our pants on one leg at a time. And if you're all, if you're trying your hardest, and no matter what curveballs life have given you, You're trying your hardest.

And yeah, so you don't make the kind of money I made. But what I do to raise the level of energy in our office or really the camaraderie effect is every quarter, I give out a bottle of wine to everybody who's admin. So it's no big deal. It's a bottle of wine. But it's a bottle of wine that they probably would never buy themselves. But when it comes to the end of the fourth quarter,

which is the holidays, I load them up, gift cards for movie theaters, gift cards to all of my clients to eat, chocolates and cookies and pens that, like fancy pens, and I write them a handwritten note that says, you are appreciated, we care about you. Hope you are listening to this. You know, you add to this company and you add to this office. much with your personality. It's personalized because everybody has their own different personality. And all the gift cards are in there and the big bottle with tons of wine and cookies and all that stuff is in a big burlapse sack tied with the card to it. And I absolutely love

it because the smiles on their faces, they feel appreciated because to me they are. And so many other people don't treat their admin that way. They're so selfish and so blinded in their own success that they don't give back. So it costs me a little bit of money to do it, but I don't miss it. It's not, it's not. And to them who work paycheck to paycheck to paycheck, to have somebody care about them or to have that bottle of wine that they can then celebrate Christmas together or that bottle of champagne and celebrate New Year's and feel like everybody else, it's just really lifting, it lifts my spirits to see it when they see that smile in their face and they give me a big hug and say thank you. They're my family and they build me up and they enable me to be

to be good at what I do and dare me to be great. And that's what motivates me. It's absolutely one, I couldn't agree with you more. It takes a village, you know, I feel the same exact way, like the gift of servitude and giving back and just taking that time to show people that you care goes a long way. Someone once asked me, you know, I deal with a lot of people, and there's a lot of disappointment with people in the business that I'm in, and somebody asked me, why have I been doing this for 15 years? You know, you've experienced so many setbacks, so much disappointment. People have backstabbed you, backstabbed you, and things have happened. Why do you continue to do it? And I said because the amount of people and the amount of good that has come from the business

outweighs any bad experience that I've ever had. Because like you, my mission is to positively impact every single person that I meet, but not forget or never, ever not be humbled about how I got here. And it's important that people know that I didn't get to the top by myself. I'm not even at the top. You know, it took a whole lot of people, a lot of patience, a lot of belief. and it is important to treat people that are around you with pride, with dignity, with gifts of love, because my love language too, people ask me, what do you want all the time? I can buy my own stuff.

I want to be able to give, like to be able to give, which I wasn't able to do as a child, my family couldn't afford it, but to be able to do that and change somebody's life on something so small, just leisurely, I think is worth a thousand, like just a thousandfold of that warmth feeling. like you can't get that back anywhere else. You can't. And think of the lessons you're leaving behind and your legacy to your children and your own family, right? No one lives forever.

Father Time's going to catch up with me one day. I won't be able to play hockey game, which is my, oh my God, that's my, you know, next to disappointing my parents, that's one of my biggest fears too. But to be able to leave a legacy for your family, for your kids to follow. And then to see it actually.

And to see it in action, but they say you die twice. Once when you physically die and once when people stop talking about you. And you don't ever want to be that person that they don't talk about. Right? You want to leave this earth and one of the, our fraternity saying was the world was better because you dwelt upon it. And that really pushed me to succeed to

because I want to make a difference to other people. It's one thing to make a difference for yourself. And when you reach your goal, you're going to make a difference for yourself. When you reach your goal, you always want to set a bigger goal and a bigger goal and a bigger goal to get there. And then when I finally reached all my financial goals and I looked at it and I looked back and I said, is that all there is? Is that all there is? The money, the great motivator, right, that everybody wants to run and run.

I've done that. I'm okay. I'm okay there. You know, I can live my life out very comfortably. So what's next? It's to make it better for other people. And that's kind of where that switch turned in my mind. mind and said, do for others. Do for others. You've already done for yourself. It's so true. I mean,

as we wrap up, we've talked about so many different aspects that, you know, I really wanted to focus in business and how you run your business, but I think the most important thing we spoke about is servitude and why it's so important and how servitude really does shape your business. I think indirectly, we don't realize it and you do this from your heart. And when things, you know, going back to the original conversation of being genuine and people feeling that you are, are genuine and not full of shit. It goes a long way. And I can definitely tell that's why you're so successful and just talking to you.

We have so many parallels. I mean, I think we can sit and literally talk forever because so many things that you have said is exactly the way that I live my life, that I want my kids to live their life. And that's what life is all about. So I want you to break it down and give one piece of advice, one piece of advice to an entrepreneur out there. It can be anything you want. Boy.

To the entrepreneur that's out there that wants to succeed is I'm going to give you a piece of advice in two in two different phases. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever quit. Meaning when you're knocked you down, pick you up, pick yourself up by your bootstraps and go, go, go. And think outside the box. When you're able to think outside the box of

whatever it is your business plan is and you're able to think outside of that box, great things happen. Ideas start to pour in and you get so excited and so motivated and so like your mind explodes and you just want to go, go, go, go, go, go. One feeds on the other and it becomes a vicious circle and you'll never be disappointed. You'll fail and you'll get up and do it again and you'll learn from those mistakes, but you'll never, ever, ever be disappointed. I love that.

Great advice. I can definitely say without a doubt that you are a true bill. Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure. It's been my honor and thank you for the opportunity to sit and meet with you and talk to you and be part of your broadcast. Yeah. I know we're definitely going to keep in touch. So one last question for you. I know we said we were going to wrap it up.

But if somebody wanted to get in touch with you or find you, where would they find you? Well, I have absolutely no problem giving out my personal or my business email address, which is David, D-A-V-I-G-A-B-B-A-I-A-I-A-I-A-I-A-I-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-C-O-L-L-L-I-E-R-S dot com. Once we get to know each other, I always hand out my phone number for people to be able to use and not abuse, but my mentors all have my personal contact information that way. Do you do any social media? Anything with that? I do, but I have no idea how it works. So that's what Hector is around. So I don't know what my social media is. We'll add it later. I'll text Hector and say, hey, how do we do this?

We got you. No problem. So ladies and gentlemen, as you can tell, we have a true BILF sitting with us today. I think it goes without saying that you really are more than a BILF. You're like a BILF on like steroids. You really are. It's been a pleasure having this conversation with you, spending some. time with you. I can't wait to continue our relationship and just see where it goes. You really are a true inspiration, not only to me, but I'm sure to everyone that you have touched and those that you're going to touch their lives sooner or later as well. Thank you so, so much.