Digital Social Hour - Getting Three DUI's, Working 18 Hours Per day + Being Homeless | Albert Preciado DSH #268

Episode Date: February 6, 2024

Albert Preciado comes on the show to talk about his rough upbringing, why he pays so much for mentorship and how he makes tens of millions per year. APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://forms.gle/qXvENTeurx7Xn8Ci9 BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] SPONSORS: Opus Pro: https://www.opus.pro/?via=DSH Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

But I'm hung over the wrong way. Like I'm broke, college student hung over. And this other dude is like my age, but he's hung over with a hot chick driving a Nest Class Benz and a Rolex. And I'm like, what's going on here? And I told my mom, hey, you know what? College doesn't work.

Like I'm not going to college anymore. Wherever you guys are watching this show i would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe it helps a lot with the algorithm it helps us get bigger and better guests and it helps us grow the team truly means a lot thank you guys for supporting and here's the episode welcome back to the show guys got a very special guest albert preciado today how's it going man very good very good excited you got a crazy story. I can't wait to get into this. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah, I've done some research, but I'd like to hear from you, man, how you got started in business.

Well, when I was 19, I used to go to college, right? And I just decided to drop out of college because that's what I believed. That's what a lot of the Latinos out there, Hispanics, you're taught by your parents. You've got to go to college, get a degree. And that's the only way you're going to become successful. Because you're going to get a job, 60 grand, 70 grand salary. So long story short, I would be hungover in IHOP in the mornings. And I would be with my buddies, right?

And I would be like, then I would see another guy hungover that would get there with a hot chick. And I was thinking like, we're both hungover, but I'm hungover the wrong way. Like I'm broke, college student hungover. And this other dude is like my age, but he's hungover with a hot chick driving a Nest Class Benz and a Rolex. And I'm like, what's going on here? Like, I'm going to college.

This guy's not going to college. So then I figured out, well, he's a real estate agent. He's a loan officer. And I started seeing a bunch of these people that all they needed's a real estate agent. He's a loan officer. And I started seeing a bunch of these people that all they needed was a real estate license and they could make hundreds of thousands of dollars. And I told my mom, hey, you know what? College doesn't work. I'm not going to college anymore. I'm going to get a real estate license. So I got into real estate license. And 21 years later, now I'm 40. I turned 40 a few months ago, but I've been doing real estate

and mortgage for 21 years. So that's how I started. And first I started as self-employed years later, now I'm 40. I turned 40 like a few months ago, but I've been doing real estate and mortgage for 21 years. So that's how I started. And I became, first I started as self-employed as a salesperson. Then 11 years ago, I started the first company of my own. Amazing. So you went through that 08 crash? Oh yeah. Yeah. I was homeless for two months. Oh man. What was that like? Cause you probably were heavily into real estate. Was all your money in real estate at that time? Yeah. A hundred percent. So you lost all of it. I lost everything. So I had two homes and the two houses were foreclosed. I had an S550 when it barely came

out. Cause I was big on entourage. And I saw the S550 when it went from S500 to S550, I was the first one to get it in my broker shop, in my mortgage broker shop. And I was making a lot of money young and you know, I made a lot of mistakes. I got into a lot of drinking, a lot of girls, a lot of parties, and that didn't help. 2008 came and I just lost everything because mortgage stopped, like it froze. So I made my money selling mortgages. And when 2007 started and then 2008, there was just no mortgages. It's almost like you went from closing 10 mortgages a month to just none, none. And if you close one, it was like every six months or every five months. So it was painful and everybody got out of the business. I mean, not everybody, but most people. And I just decided, well, I'm going to stick with it.

And I'm going to work hard and I'm going to get through this. And that's when I just told my girl at the time, hey, can you forgive me? Because I was going out with a lot of women and things like that. And when I lost everything, you know, when you lose, you never know what you have until you lose it. So when I was without anything, I said, well, there's only one thing I want to save, and that's my girlfriend, who's now my wife. Wow. So I reached out to her, and I told her literally, I'm sorry for cheating on you. I'm sorry for not taking you serious.

I'm sorry for being a bad guy, like just, you know, party animal. But do you forgive me? Do you want to stick around i have nothing i lost everything so i have i have the ford explorer i'm just gonna park the car and sleep in it because i'm too embarrassed to go back to my parents house right and tell him hey you know what you were right i should have gotten a college degree i should have never gotten into real estate and now i failed i'm going back so said, I'm not doing that. I'm going to fight through this. Shout out to today's sponsor, NordVPN, my personal favorite VPN.

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It's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee. Check it out, guys. And we slept in the Ford Explorer for two months. What? Yeah. All I had was an iPhone. I had a laptop and I had a, I didn't even have a gym membership, but I would sneak into gyms to shower, work out, and then take my laptop and my iPhone to Starbucks and work on my loans and my mortgages. That's crazy. So how does the mortgage game work? Say you get someone a mortgage, are you making a fee on each person you bring to the bank? Yeah, like give or take so people understand it easier. You get you make like 10, 15, $20,000 commissions on each mortgage. Wow, you could make more. So it's a percentage of the loan amount. So let's just say two and a half percent. But back then you could make four or 6% on the loan amount. So like if you get a mortgage for 500,000,

then you charge two and a half percent and that's your commission. It's good money. And then brokers pay you like a split. So the broker shop keeps 20%, 30%, 40%. And then you keep your 60, your 70, your 80, depending on your split based on your production. So you could make very, very good money. Is it still like that these days or changed? It's the same, but each company has different compensation plans. Wow. So are you still doing that now or have you pivoted from that business model? No, I still have that company. So now 11 years ago, I started the mortgage guy.

So I had a mentor. I've always invested in mentors. So one of my mentors, Patrick Bedevid, he said, a good friend of mine too, he said, the mortgage guy just doesn't sound quite right because that's only you. Who's the mortgage guy? Albert. But what if we do the mortgage guys? That's plural, meaning more people with high egos are going to want to be part of it, including women. So we changed it to the mortgage guys, and then that just elevated the company.

So the company is already 11 years in business and active and doing well. And even though right now real estate and mortgage slowed down because of the interest rates and all that, because of our social media influence, we've been able to still get a lot of business versus other companies that are struggling because they rely on like door knocking on face to face when it's so easy to capture so many leads through online yeah you mentioned mentorships earlier how much have you invested in those oh like five million bucks at least five million yeah yeah like by grand cardone i probably paid him like half a million, just him. Holy crap. A year ago, I invested like hundreds of thousands, maybe a quarter million into John Maxwell. I've heard of him.

So I flew in private to mentor me and to be part of my driven event. Wow. So I'm always investing in one-on-one mentorship because that's the highest form of learning. And my first mentor, Grant Cardone, like 10 years ago, I was at his first 10X conference in Cancun when he had it in Cancun with 35, 40 people. And because of him, I started Driven, which was now we're going on. So Driven's one year less than the 10X conference.

So I literally copied his 10X conference and did the driven event. And then I copied his business bootcamp and did the driven business bootcamp, which is a business one. He must not like that. I don't know. I think he's cool with it. So out of the 5 million,

would you say there was an ROI on that? Oh, definitely, definitely. Like last year, I did 30 million in revenue with my four companies that's incredible combined so it definitely has worked out but i'm always big on reinvesting back in your business getting better because the best investment you'll ever make is in you and in your business so i've been doing that and uh just learning so so much about business because business is, it's very dark. It's scary. You get lawsuits, betrayals, all kinds of problems. So I've been, I'm very happy because I've learned so much.

And I like also teaching people that are starting their business because I feel like I have the blueprint because I've been through it. Right. There's a very dark side of business that doesn't really get any spotlight because people are kind of ashamed.

They're scared to talk about it. The lawsuits is definitely something that can eat at you, especially the first one you ever get. Oh man, I still have nightmares about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it could really shape you. But I saw one clip,

you said you were working 18 hours a day. Yeah. Do you still do that? Yeah, yeah. I sleep six hours and I'm working from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep. So I'm probably not the perfect role model as a father because I have three girls.

Right. And they're all named after Ferraris. So Italia, Berlin, and Cali, the newest one. And although I do love them and I provide for them a beautiful life, like they have their Bel Air house, mansions. We have security because I've been robbed three times gunpoint now. Damn had to get security yeah and and they and so it's it's it's the dark part of uh having some success and and being known on online because uh like there's bad people out there right and you get other sorts of problems so it it has definitely been a life changer and yeah so those robberies were

targeted. They knew who you were. Yeah, yeah, definitely. They knew where I was. I think it was like an inside job because they knew I was in New York in a wedding. And they broke in at four in the morning New York time, which was one in it was one in.m. in New York. So they knew that it was a perfect time because I was in New York, 4 a.m. I'm probably going to be asleep. And then they did it again outside of my office in one of the best areas in LA, which is like Hollywood Hills, Beverly Hills area. They followed me because I drive a yellow SF90.

So they were just following me, and I was just a year past. So I think I got comfortable, and I wasn't paying attention, and they distracted me. Some guy passed in the bike. I got out, and he was distracting me so that the robbers could go in. So the robbers knew exactly which elevator I was going to go in through because we have two elevators, the east side, the west side. They knew I was going to go in through one of them, and they were there. They came in at the perfect time. I had a gun here, a gun here.

Wow. They took my paddock gold watch, 5980. Jeez. And that was that. And then the third one came when I was at the office. Somebody tried to break into my new house. Wow. And that was recent.

So I said, you know what? I can't live like this because I can't think in business. My wife is our operator. She's our CEO for all four companies. I'm the CEO for all four. So we're always in the office and we need to be extremely focused. So I just had to hire a bunch of security, full armed and everything. So safety first.

Dude, nowhere in LA is safe these days. It's crazy. I got my car broken into out there too. And then I moved because of it, honestly. And then I went back six months later. Yeah. You got robbed again? My friend's car got broken into right after we left it.

Yeah, yeah. On Melrose. Yeah. Like nowhere is safe there. Yeah. It's terrible. And the thing is that it's very important for me because I built my business.

I started my business, and my business is what made me a millionaire. But then I became an influencer to grow my businesses more. So because I did that, now I started marketing kind of like the way Tai Lopez, Ron Cardone did it. And I have to show and I have to show more because that's what keeps my business growing. So it's kind of part of the game that I have to play and that's, it is what it is. Yeah. I wanted to ask you about that because you're very open with your material objects. You have a lot of nice cars, watches. Do you just buy that for show or do you actually like those things?

Both. Yeah, yeah. Like watches, I wasn't really into them. But once I got a nice watch and once I got a nicer watch, and then when you don't wear the nicer watch, it's kind of like, man, I just don't feel complete. You got the RM on. Yeah. So, like, I just can't, like, not wear a watch.

So, you need an RM now. Yeah. And you need to match it, like, with what you're wearing. Yeah. So, like, once you – it's just weird. It's kind of like when you fly private, like, you never want to not fly private again. Right. And it's how it works. And then the cars i actually do love him because i used to be a painter with my dad so when i was six i used to paint homes with him in bel air beverly

hills that's where i saw the ferrari and that's where i fell in love with it because i asked my dad how come we don't have the ferrari how come you don't how come you don't drive a ferrari and drive a mini like a big white van he's's a painter, so he drives a van. And we're poor, so he's not going to afford a Ferrari. And I questioned him. I said, well, how come you don't have a mansion here? Like, not a mansion, but as a boy, a little boy. How come you don't have a big house in that car?

I didn't even know it was a Ferrari. And he's like, because it's not for us. So when he told me that, I'm like, what do you mean it's not for us? And that's what I think started my drive to succeed. Like I'm going to make it happen. I'm going to be the first one in the family to ever drive a Ferrari, to ever be a millionaire. And I just was that motivated kid and hungry. Yeah.

I think people, without even realizing, just have a lot of limiting beliefs. Yeah. And they don't think they could get to a certain point. But are you interested in coming on the digital social hour podcast as a guest? We'll click the application link below in the description of this video. We are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to you about business and life. Click the application link below. And here's the episode, guys. When you have that mindset shift, it's powerful. Yeah. Yeah. So it sounds like you had that at an early age, right? Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Did you have your parents support when you wanted to go down this route of

entrepreneurship? Yeah, a hundred percent. They, they just, they were very scared, uh, because they, they thought I was going to fail because sales are scary. Real estate is not, uh, it's not always a for sure thing, ups and downs and. And business is just not for everybody. And they just always have that. I think us Latinos, we grow with that fear. Like everything's like scary. Like we can't do this. We can't do that.

We're not meant to win. We're not meant to be successful. We're not business people. So that's why, especially being first generation here, me, I was born here. My parents immigrated from Mexico. So they were, they just were more scared than the usual, than the first generation of Mexican American. So I think that kind of helped me because it pushed me because I wanted to make them proud. I wanted to be somebody that was going to become somebody. Yeah. I know my fiance is latina and i've met all her family and i could see that

mindset well good taste latina yes yeah i see that mindset you're talking about yeah yeah yeah it's different yeah yeah it's not as aspirational yeah yeah it's more like they're very family oriented yeah 100 and they're comfortable comfortable just with a middle class lifestyle. Yeah, but one thing that really helped me a lot and kind of changed my outcome, I think, is that from a very early age, I invested in mentorships. So when I was 19, before I got into real estate, right before, I used to be a teacher assistant. So that was my first and only w2 job that i had

and and the teacher was just always like grinding on me that why are you reading rich dad poor dad why are you reading those stupid books she said those books are stupid they're garbage you should go to college get a degree like me so that you could be a teacher like me or or be somebody like me right and then that day I said, well, you know what? I don't agree with her. So I decided not to show up again for work. And that's when I also got into real estate. So I told my mom, see, this is not working. And I started reading a lot and that led me to Grant Cardone. So then I looked for him and I said, what do I have to pay you to get close to you? Because I read your book and I was reading one book a week.

Damn. And I came across his Sell to Survive book and I found him and I bought his best ticket, went to his event, hired him as a mentor. And then that just changed my whole mindset. And then I learned from him. Then I hired Patrick Bedevid for four sessions, gave me a really good price eight years ago. Now he charges a lot more. So I got four one-hour sessions with Patrick, but David one-on-one that included dinner, lunch, and pretty

much hanging out and being his buddy. So I learned a lot from the Patrick, but David that was in his early years. What's something specific you learned from Patrick, but David that you still implement? Business, just operations, systems, processes, because most people focus on marketing and sales. Especially now, people want to build their personal brand. But once you build that and you have the sales and you have the marketing in place and you're getting a lot of extra business, you need operations, systems, and processes to scale it.

So Patrick Bedeva told me one time, hey, what are your systems? Do you have your systems? And I said, what are systems? told me one time, hey, what are your systems? Do you have your systems? And I said, what are systems? And then he said, well, your operations. You have an operations manual for your company. And I said, well, what is that? So he told me, read this book, Principles by Ray Dalio. I read it. He said, take 30 days and then take your top level executive team and go over there and create your operationals manual for your business. Because without that, you're not going to scale. And then he also told me, if you want to grow your business, you got to hire new people, new talent. So green people, because experienced

people, experienced salespeople, they have old habits. They don't want to change. When you hire new people, especially right now in real estate or mortgage, you want green people because they don't know that it was an easy market in 2021 and 2022. So they start now and this is their normal. So when you hire them and train them, then when the market opens up, then you build a monster company. So I just learned so much on the operation side from Patrick and I learned a lot of sales and marketing from Grant. And then I went ahead and hired more mentors, like John Maxwell, for example. But I've hired everybody from Tim Grover to Ty Lopez, Bobby Castro,

like just all of them that you could imagine. Right, for different stages of your growth. Yes, yes. Yeah, that's important because I think people outgrow outgrow like every year there's new and new problems yeah and you need a new person to fix up yeah yeah so who's your mentor right now well right now i don't have a mentor that i'm sticking to uh what i'm doing is right now i'm studying a lot. John Maxwell was my latest one. Right. But now I'm studying how to exit.

So, for example, a mentor probably from far is like Dan Gilbert. So, like Dan Gilbert is the founder and CEO of Rocket Mortgage because I want to be the next Rocket Mortgage. Right. We have the mortgage guys. And I'm also studying like Keller Williams, EXP, things that they're doing because I want to be better than them. Yeah. And I always think big like that. And it's always better to think big, massive, because even if you come a little short, right, you're still going to hit a big, you're going to have a big win. Absolutely. So like that's what I'm studying right now. Like, what's the multiple if you sell the company? How

much do we have to make every month, every year? Like, what do we do? So I'll tell you who, like one of my mentors right now, now that you kind of refreshed my memory, I'm very close with Neil Patel. A lot of people don't know Neil Patel. Neil Patel is like a neighbor of mine. He's not a neighbor neighbor, but he lives like 10 minutes away. So I spend time with Neil Patel. I talk with him a lot. He's going to be at my driven event Friday and Saturday.

So we build this friendship. Right. But a lot of people don't really know Neil Patel. Like Neil Patel is a big deal. Neil Patel is probably more successful than a couple of those people that i mentioned combined wow people just don't know that but but that guy's that guy's that guy's huge yeah he came on the show he's very humble he's very humble but but i'll tell you he he has more than than a couple of those people combined you

serious i'm serious that's crazy and i want. And obviously, I'm not talking about his personal stuff, but you guys should follow Neil Patel and learn a lot from him because he's a genius. That's awesome. You'd have no idea talking to him that he was worth that much. Oh, yeah, 100%. Yeah.

So how big is your real estate portfolio right now? Did you bounce back? I don't have a real estate portfolio. I had to sell all my real estate portfolio. So I had 18 properties. And what happened is when I started the mortgage guys, the mortgage guy became the mortgage guys. We started Ambiance Realty, the Driven event.

And so those three companies were the first three. And what happened is that in 2018, I was running out of funds. I maxed out all my credit cards and I I was just spending overly for the driven events. So I maxed out my wife's credit cards. My dad, you know, lent me a little bit of money. I just got as much money as I could, and I just spent it all. Like I was just spent.

I paid Grant 40 grand to put a 40-second ad at his 10X conference. Wow. To just put my name, my phone number, and my face. Was it worth it? Oh, yeah, definitely. Definitely. So a lot of people didn't realize, like, man, this guy's reckless. Driving Ferraris, Rolls Royces, buying watches, doing a bunch of crazy things.

But I was doing it to get attention because I wanted to appear bigger than I was. So I wanted to appear, I want to fight Goliath when you're small, you have to appear bigger. So my way of appearing bigger was spending more, having the Ferrari, even though I could barely afford it. I was like faking it till I made it, but I was fighting, I was doing the work.

I wasn't doing it for just show. I was doing it because I needed to do that to grow my business because I couldn't recruit enough people. I couldn't speak on stage. Nobody knew who I was. And it's not about how good you are, how much experience you have. It's about who knows you. Because people pay who they know, not who's the best. So then I started spending all my money and then we got into problems. And then I remember I sold one property every quarter just to get $100,000, $200,000. And I sold all of them combined. I got out like $2 million from selling all my portfolio.

And then those $2 million saved my business and my life. Wow. Because I battled heart attacks. I got sued. You got a heart attack? Well, I didn't get a heart attack, but I battled heart attacks. I felt like I was getting heart attacks like every week. Damn.

Because I had so much pressure. Yeah. Like I would turn purple when I was eating. I couldn't even swallow my food. Holy crap. Because I had a baby on the way. I'm f***ing broke. And I'm selling all my properties.

Yeah. Then I'm out of money again. So I remember 2018, I was like rock bottom. Not a lot of people know this, but I even went with Brad 2017 to Sushiya, a restaurant with him and his previous videographer, one of the first ones that he was using. And I remember that I was there, but I could barely eat. I didn't even know if I was going to be able to pay the bill. Brad didn't know this because we were driving a Rolls Royce Ghost that I had, but I'm barely paying everything. I don't even think I have 40 bucks to pay the bill.

He doesn't know that. But at the same time, I can't even eat well because I'm so stressed out. And the card went through, and for some reason, God always helps me for some reason. I don't know. It's like he's watching me. And then that happened. But in 2008, like a few months after that, And God always helps me for some reason. I don't know. It's like he's watching me. And then that happened.

But in 2008, a few months after that, I'm just out of money. Everything's maxed out. And I have one property left. And we're in the Fountain Blue in Miami. And I'm with my wife. And I tell her, hey, we're drinking in the Fountain Blue bar. And drinks there are like $40 each. And I'm acting like acting like a baller and i'm like i'm acting like a genius i'm like hey we're selling this property i have a i have a great like it's going to be a great deal

it's i'm a i'm a genius it's going to work out like i have this genius idea she knows i'm not a genius she knows i'm like it's the last house house that we have. And she knows I have to sell it because we have no money. And we needed that to pay the bills, to pay our employees, to keep the business going. So it was like, and I have a daughter, right? And she's one. And like, what am I doing? I'm taking a huge risk. But I believed in myself.

And that's what I tell people. Like sometimes, you know Sometimes you're like one inch away from scoring that home run, from making that touchdown, but you quit when you're that close. And business is very, very hard. And not everybody can win in business at a big level. So then I told my wife, we got to sell this property. Like it's, it's a great deal. And she's like, she starts crying. She knows it's not a great deal. And she starts crying. Like, and, and then I tell her like, like, I'm like, Hey babe, I just need you to believe in me one last shot. Like give me one last shot. And I promise you. And, and,

and that day she gave me that one last shot. And then everything from there started looking bright. Business finally starts working. Business finally starts growing. My brand finally starts growing too. So everything from there started growing. And then 2020 comes. The mortgage slows down again and another challenge.

So then what I did there, it wasn't that bad. But what I did is I led by example. So I said, hey, guys, production is down. I'm going to step down as a CEO and I'm going to originate. I'm going to come back and I'm going to start originating. And I'm going to show you guys how it's possible to get deals. So I started originating and that just motivates everybody. And then everybody starts originating more. Then rates come down and then we just have another like we blow up again and and then it's just been like that but the thing is that most people they exaggerate on their one year goal they're like in one year i'm gonna make a million in one year i'm gonna make 10 million

but they don't realize like how much they've grown in the past five years, in the past 10 years. 10 years ago, I made $106,000. 10 years ago. And if I compare that to today, you see a big difference, $100,000 to $30,000,000. However, most people are so focused on their next year. But you got to think about what are you going to create in the next five years, in the next 10 years from now. And that's a lot of things that now i talk to like neil patel and other friends uh that are

high net worth and and they they explain to me how they open their business i have another friend that's worth hundreds of millions and he has a big house with uh like he has like uh how many cars like 80 something cars or something he Jeez. His house is 40,000 square feet in the hills in Hollywood. That's awesome. And his business took 40 something years to get to that point. Dang. So now his business is worth 300 million more or less, but it took him 43 years. Right.

So people don't realize we've been in business 11 years for the mortgage guys, nine years for Ambience Realty, eight years for Driven Enterprises. And then our newest one is an escrow company that's been active in business for almost two years. But it's just, you know, it's a journey and it takes time and it's very, very important to invest in mentors because they give you the blueprint, but you got to go execute.

For sure. Yeah, it sounds like the compound effect is what you're talking about, right? Just getting better every day and it takes years to really see the results, but people think very short term, like a year is not long enough. Yeah. Yeah. I really, really resonate with that. But going back to the 18 hours a day thing. Yeah. How do you spend time with your, with your wife and kids? Well, my wife works with me. So wife uh is always at the office she has her office i have my office and we built a happy fate a happy place so we i feel like we built a life that we don't need a

vacation from so whenever we want to jam like we'll just hop on the private jet take the girls go to puerto rico straight and then straight back because before we used to fly to florida then get another flight down now it now we buy time because i learned very early that rich people buy time poor people waste time so i i don't value money so you might have other people other entrepreneurs that are successful and they say money is important and all this stuff i I don't value money. Like I really think money is trash. I heard Grant Cardone say that, but money is trash if you don't use it. If you use it and you invest it in other businesses,

then it's going to work for you. But if you keep money in the bank, it's trash, it's losing value. It's going down in value. So what I believe is king, you know how some people say cash is king? Cash flow is king. So I have, I built, I've invested in different businesses that I get cash flow.

So I get monthly cash flow, weekly cash flow, daily cash flow, hourly cash flow, minute cash flow, even seconds cash flow. Because for example, I have a business with Bradley that's called Driven Academy. So that's a subscription, $67 a month renewals. So people like I get, I get people signing up for that, like every other seconds, I don't know. So that's a form of cashflow that's coming in. And so like I've invested in my cash into building other, other sectors that give me those strips. I want those strips.

So when mortgage and real estate come down, then I still have other businesses that give me those drips. I want those drips. So when mortgage and real estate come down, then I still have other businesses that are doing even better. So it always, like you said, it compounds and I build that vertical integration where the businesses help each other. So that's what I believe is key. You gotta build cash flows.

Some people do it with real estate, apartments, you get cash flow. So I think that's more important than cash. I think cash is trash. I think cash flow is king. I love that. Yeah, people don't realize having money in the bank, they're losing money every day. 100%, yeah. But dude, five years and you're at 30 million from nearly broke five years ago.

Crazy. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's unreal. Yeah. And for your wife to have believed in you is really cool to see. Yeah. I do a lot of scary things. Like I, I, I, uh, I'm a big risk taker, but another guy that I invested money in is Jesse Itzler. Yeah. So I was at his house. We're having a conversation and he told me like, cause I asked him Jesse, like, so what do you do when, when, when you get to that next level like do you still keep taking stupid risks

like dangerous risks because there's risks that you can score a home run but you could also go out of business and die right so like at what point do you stop putting everything on the line jesse and i said how do you do it jesse and jesse said well when you get to a certain level now you take bulletproof risks and i was like bulletproof risk oh that makes a lot of sense so what's a bulletproof risk well it's a bulletproof risk like it's a risk that is a win-win there's like one percent chance you'll fail and 99 chance you'll win so there's not really a risk you're but you're now you're taking bulletproof risks and i'm like oh that makes a lot of sense so that's what you take now jesse yeah we only take bulletproof

risks i'm like oh it makes a lot of sense. So that's what you take now, Jesse. Yeah, we only take bulletproof risks. So I'm like, oh, it makes a lot of sense. Because in the beginning, you kind of have to risk it all to grow the first stage. But then once you get resources and you have access to a lot of money and people and relationships, then you don't have to put everything on the line. You could make bulletproof risks. And that's why it's very important to never, ever burn your bridges. Because when you burn your bridges, especially the wrong ones, it could end your career. So it's very important. Keep those relationships.

Value them. Because one of the biggest downfalls for people in business is that their ego gets too big. Their ego gets too big. Then they build envy. And then that just destroys them. I love that. How have you been able to keep your ego in check despite your success? I don't feel successful yet.

I just feel like I have to always, whenever I reach a goal, I immediately create another one that's bigger. I always keep pushing myself more and more and more and more, and it keeps me focused. And I have a very addictive personality. So like me, like if you, if I don't know, I don't know if you like to have fun or you have any bad habits or you get crazy once in a while. But like me, like if I drink, like I'm going to go ham and I'm going to, I'm going to drink all night. You know, like I'm going to go hard.

I'm not going to have three drinks. I'm going to have, I'll have 15 drinks right or more uh if i'm gonna work i'm gonna work hard 18 hours non-stop i'm gonna be focused if i'm gonna go to the gym i'm gonna work out hard yeah if i'm gonna have sex i'm gonna go hard like everything for me is like like that just hard so i don't know so when when I work a lot, it keeps me away from the bad things because it just distracts me positively. Yeah. No, I love that. I call those positive distractions.

Yeah, because growing up, you probably were more on the negative distractions. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 100%. The circle changed because I had a circle of people that were negative and people that were small thinkers. And now when you're in a circle with people like people that drive Bugattis and people that are billionaires, it's just a whole different circle. And it keeps you like, hey, man, you know what? I still have a long ways to go. Yeah. So what was that conversation with your old friends when you were telling them

you're going to leave them? What was that like? I just decided. I just didn't even tell them. I just left. You didn't tell them him i just yeah i just left yeah i i just i wanted to move to a different circle to a different area different circle be around different people because these people just wanted to like they wanted to go to strip clubs they wanted to do they wanted to like just be like day drinking they wanted to just do things like that and and it just didn't work. They wanted to do fraud.

They wanted, it was just not the people you want to be around with, but you don't know until you have a better circle. Because usually what happens is bad people can, they can level up with the big timers. So like, for example, for me in business, as we grow and we get better people, the bad people, the people that didn't belong in our circle, in our company, they fall off because they just can't handle the growth. They can't handle being around so much positivity, so much growth, so much success. So they end up falling off. And then the funny part is that all of them end up in the same dumpster with all the rest

of the dumpster. And then they didn't even like each other, but now they're. And then they didn't even like each other, but now they're friends, but they didn't even like each other, but now they're friends because they have one thing in common. They don't like you. Like they're jealous of you. They become jealous of you.

That leads to envy. Right. That leads to them being haters. And then later on, they're fanatics because later on they're like, I used to know Albert. I used to fly private with Albert. I used to be his friends. I used to go out drinking with albert not anymore buddy yeah

have any of them reached out to you uh maybe trolls on maybe they they create fake accounts on instagram and they send me messages but but i mean i i move on so what one of my one of my policies is one of my one of my principles is when people leave my life or my company, like I unfollow them. Wow. Like I don't have any need to talk to them. I don't have any need to spend time with them. Because why? I need to focus on people that are all in with me in the company, people that are all in with me in life.

Because the free time that I do have have i want to spend it with people that i love care about i want to be with my daughters i have three i want to be with my dad my mom and i'm so highly productive that money is is you can't get it back and now when now that i turn 40 i'm like damn you know what i used to be like i'm young and i'm and i'm successful like i'm i'm grant cardone's like half his age and all that now i'm like now i'm like now i'm now i'm 40 yeah so and i realize how fast time goes like my little daughter italia she was uh born now she's gonna turn seven so i'm like wow so that's why like why would i talk to somebody that left the company follow them or or they're not even part of my life. Like, for what? I'd rather give my time to my people that are in my life.

Yeah. No, that's good advice. I didn't even think of it that way. But yeah, when you follow your old coworkers, there's really no point keeping up. For what? Yeah. For what? And then what happens is, like, when people leave you, they usually have some sort of,

like, they don't like you. Right. Then they start talking about you. And, like, why even entertain? Why even get into their drama? They start posting things on social media, like, indirectly talking about you or things like that. And then they're all a bunch of, like,

people that are just not happy with their life, and they hang out with the other unhappy people. Like, just, I wish them the best. I'm just like, I wish you the best. Enjoy life. But I'm moving on. Yeah, I'm out. What age were you when you met your wife?

I was 20, I was 24 and she was 21. Oh, wow. So she went through your- She met me 2007 when I was parting my life away. Wow. Because 2007, everything was collapsing in mortgage and real estate. So I said, you know what?

I'm just going to party it up and spend my last, well, whatever I have left. And I just partied up until the third month when they repossessed my car because I didn't pay it. And then they foreclosed my home where I lived. And then they foreclosed the other one first. And I just partied it up. Like I still, like I was always good in sales because I read a lot of sales book.

I read the pickup artist games, like Neil Strauss and the other guy with the long hair. And so I had, yeah. And I had a lot of good pickup lines and I was just good in sales. So even if I was broke, I could still close girls. Like I could still, with 40 bucks, I would figure out a way to close them. And to kind of like trick them in a way where I'm rich, I'm successful, I'm a f***ing badass.

And I was always good at like persuasion. Like just that, communication. So I was, and it was not the most ethical thing to do but like i made a lot of mistakes when i was younger i did a lot of uh you know bad things i got three duis uh when i was 21 when i was 21 i got when i was 21 i got my first dui then when i was 24 i got uh 23 24 i got a second dui and the third du third DUI. And then I got a lawyer and he made the third a wet reckless. And since it's called a wet reckless, you avoid having a third DUI. So a third DUI is a felony.

Wow. So then after that, one day I was like late at night in the hotel and I was just doing all day and I was drinking and and I came out and and I just I could I didn't sleep all night so I said I'm gonna drive home it's already seven so I was driving and I hit a car and and then the cop gets there that would have been my fourth DUI I would have been in jail for 10 20 years I don't know for sure because that was already a lot I didn't even have a license because I had a suspended license so because it's seven in the morning, and I figured, I have the shades on, and it doesn't look like anything horrible happened,

because I just fell asleep and swiped the bumper, and it was a Nissan Murano, and the guy came out, and he's like, well, what happened? And then the cop gets there. The cop says like, well, it's not a big deal. The guy looks pretty cool. I guess the **** was going to woke me up from all the drinking.

And he's like, you guys handle it. He left. And I'm like, wow, I don't have a license. My fourth DUI, I'm ****ed out. Like I'm drunk, but I don't feel it. And then the guy is like, I said, well, you know what? I'll fix it. I'll just, I'll just, I'll pay.

I'll give you cash for it. Go get an estimate. No, I hit him. Oh, and he said he'll pay for it? No, I told him I'll pay for the damage. Okay. Yeah. I said, let's not use insurance.

Go through insurance. I didn't even have insurance. Yeah. And because I was broke, but I was spending my money like in a dumb way. Right. So I tell the guy, i'll just pay for it just get an estimate and i'll pay for it and he's like well let me think about it let me go get an estimate and then if not we'll use our insurance so i gave him an insurance that i had there that was expired

and i just told him yeah here's my insurance information whatever call me and i was just kind of praying like oh hopefully he just but at least i got away from the from the another dui or whatever but long story short he tells me it's seven grand. That's all I had. I had seven grand that I had saved in my – because that's when I was trying to get better in life. And I was saving a little bit of money here and there. I had to give my seven grand, and I was back with nothing again.

And then that's when I said, I'm never doing again. And then I stopped. And then I focused on just getting better year by year. That's awesome. You must've hit him hard going seven grand in damages. What was it? A bumper? Seven grand. No, it was seven grand. Yeah. So, so that's all I had. And I actually had to close like a few deals to kind of like get the seven grand, but I gave him the seven grand in a week and that was it. Wow. Albert, it's been a great episode man it's been fun learning your story and it's great seeing how successful you are now

anything you want to close off with well if if you guys uh want to learn entrepreneurship and and you want to go to um an event that just kind of focuses on business it's it's more it's more, you get the mindset and you get the motivation, but it's also a lot of the business, like the sales, the marketing, how to build your personal brand, the operation systems processes, and those things that are really going to drive your business to grow. Based on my experience, I feel like all the mentors that I've had, I learned a little bit from all of them. So they get all of that combined in me. And then I also bring a lot of guest speakers. So I would love to have you there, by the way.

If you're available, it's going to be in, I don't know when this is going to come out, but it's going to be November 4th and 5th. Drivenevent.com is where they could find it. Awesome. I'll put a link. I'll be there. I'll see you guys there. Thanks so much for coming on, man.

Thank you so much. Yeah. Thanks for watching, guys. See you next time.