Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Own It! Ben Reinberg On Creating A Life You Can Be Proud Of

Episode Date: March 14, 2023

Ben Reinberg (@therealbenreinberg) is an entrepreneur, real estate mogul and podcaster. He started building his commercial real estate empire at 24 years old with nothing but shoe leather and a lot of hustle. Today he owns over $500 million dollars in assets across the country and shares his wealth building, commercial real estate investing, self-improvement and leadership insights and knowledge with his audience around the world. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about what "Owning it" means to him, how he built his business from the ground up, the lessons he wished he knew when he was starting out, what he has learned from his podcast, the important of fitness, his morning routine and much more! Visit Ben Reinberg's website here: https://benreinberg.com/ For more information about CVV and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Blin. And here we go. Welcome back, my friends, to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm CBV, Chris Van Fleet. Thank you so much for being with us on this one. Own it. That is what we are talking about today.

What do you own in your life? Because it is so important to own your successes, own your failures, own your strong. own your triumphs. And that's what my guest today, Ben Reinhberg, is all about. He's a super successful entrepreneur who built his business from zero to over $500 million in assets. And he's just such a great guy. We share a lot of the same interests, one of them being fitness, and just also the idea of getting after it every single day. So he has a podcast. It's called I Own It, and you're going to see me as a guest on his show in a few weeks, so keep an eye out for that. In fact, go keep an eye out for it by subscribing to Ben's podcast.

I own it wherever you're listening to this right now. And I would hope and assume that you're subscribed here to inside. But if you're not, go check right now to see if you're subscribed and smash that follow button. People still saying that smash that follow button, smash that subscribe button so that you don't miss out on any episodes that we have coming up. Talking about smashing buttons, go hit that follow button. button. Smash that follow button on social media. Ben is at the real Ben Reimberg. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. And hey, Stephen W. Blank, I see you. I see this review that you left on Apple podcast. It says top notch. Absolutely love your podcast. Listen to your show has become part of my routine.

And look, I love routines. But we'll get into that in the episode here. You're professional and you're very knowledgeable on the wrestling business. I can tell that you're respected in the business by the way that your guest talk and joke with you. Keep up the great work. Thank you. Well, no. Steven, thank you. I appreciate you leaving this review,

and I'll keep reading one out on Apple Podcasts from on every single episode. So if you could leave one on there, that'd be awesome. We'll shout you out on the show. For free, of course. I've mentioned this before, but I think it bears repeating

that I'm not asking you to pay me money on PayPal. I don't have any sort of subscription service or anything like that. So just leave a review. It takes like 34 seconds and it's free and we'll shout you out here for free. All right. Let's get into this. Please enjoy this conversation with Ben Reimberg. Ben, yes, such a pleasure to have you on. Thanks for joining me. Thanks, Chris. What a pleasure. I really appreciate being here. I don't know why we should be doing this in person. I don't know why we're not doing this in person. You're like 20 minutes away from me. Yeah, we should. It's nice out too. We got blue guy. So I don't know what we should be doing it outside. Well, that that can be the next one,

all right? You got it. I love the name of your podcast, by the way, before we get into anything else. I own it. And I understand that there's like a double meaning here, but what does owning it mean to you? Well, I've been in commercial real estate for under 30 years as a principal, which means to your audience, I am an owner, like a landlord, not a broker. And I've owned commercial real estate, pretty good, over half of my life. And when we were creating the show, we said, what really creates success in our industry and business? And it was really looking at your inner self and being responsible for everything in your life and your actions. And it was something that I had to learn at a young age. And as I aged, I'm now 53 years old. I spent the last

five years working on myself. And I realized for a long time, I didn't own it. I wasn't responsible. I couldn't keep my word at times. And I looked at myself and I didn't like the version of myself. So I transform myself. And the meaning behind the show is owning it, owning it, owning every aspect of your life. Now, through our life, Chris, we don't own everything. We're not responsible.

We don't have the knowledge. And as you get older and you develop, you really start realizing what it means to own it. And so when I bring guests on my show, like yourself, It's people that own it. It's people that are responsible for their lives. They make their decisions. They own their decisions and they own their behavior. And it's such a key aspect in your personal and business life that I found.

I said, well, we want to create content and knowledge to help people so they can own it too. So it's not about commercial real estate, my podcast. It's about really it's bringing on celebrities. It's bringing on icons in commercial real estate. It's bringing on ultra, ultra high net worth of people that are in my circles. And we bring them on and we talk about success to significance. And it's about them owning their entire world. And so these people come on and I'm just so grateful because I learned tremendously

for my guests and I take great notes and they provide me a lot of knowledge. And it really has taught me a lot having a podcast. So the people you meet can share a tremendous mom. knowledge with you. And when I seek the truth and when when I meet people, I see how they contribute to my life. And so what I want to do is I'm on a mission to help people and give back in my industry. And so the I Own It Podcast is just the genesis of where I'm going for the rest of my career. Would you recommend that other entrepreneurs, other business owners also start a podcast because I always say, Ben, the best thing about podcasting is anybody can do it. And at the same time,

the worst thing about podcasting is anybody can do it and there's no barrier of entry really. It depends what your objective is. My objective was to serve people and give back when I created the podcast and build my personal brand and also provide awareness for what I do in commercial real estate as well as it benefits all my employees throughout the United States. I figured that when I do a podcast, it was for, it was originally knowingly to serve, but I had a dual benefit for the employees of my company to provide exposure. to our alliance world, my company alliance consolidated. And so if you're going to do a podcast,

I would have a couple thoughts. One is, what is the purpose, the mission? Does it resonate with you? Are you passionate about it? Because you know you do this frequently and probably more than I do. I'll go through a week and I'll have five interviews. And it takes away time from my business or other things that I could be doing. So you have to be, you have to have to have a love for it. And you have to have it in your heart that you want to do it. So you're not stopping and starting. So any entrepreneur could start a podcast. I recommend it if you have a purpose, you know, a niche. Like there's, I go on a ton of real estate and commercial real estate podcast. I go on mindset and all these different things. And I'm there to provide value. And, and, and,

and knowledge that I have that I can share with the public. So if you're going to start a podcast, I have a purpose. And if you have an expertise, I always say this, is that you have an obligation to share it with the world. And so if you have something that you can share with the world, or you can give back, or it's for a business purpose, and you want to have a niche, I think it's a wonderful thing.

We get a tremendous amount of business and amount of notoriety for my podcast. and that benefits my employees and my leadership team tremendously. So it has a certain meaning for me and a dual purpose, but I always recommend, Chris, that if you do start a podcast, have a reason and a love for it because then you'll stick with it. And that's what I would suggest people to look at. I want to go back to what you were saying about five years ago you did some inner work.

Where did that journey begin? Because, Ben, a lot of people will go, I'm 28 or I'm 33 or whatever. I am who I am and that's just how it's going to be. And the interesting thing about is that's not the truth. Yeah. As you get older, you evolve and you learn and you gain more knowledge. You interact with different people. But by the way, as you're going through your life process, people are dumping things into your

brain and your thoughts. And that's what ends up happening. And you have a couple paths in life you want to go. You could stay the same or you can continue to grow. And I always felt for years I want to grow. I want to become the best version of Ben Reimberg that I can't. Why? Well, it impacts my family, impacts my personal life, impacts my interaction with you, impacts my employees.

When I show up as the best version of myself, I create a lot of value for others, and it fulfills me. It's something that I love to do. And so I took a step back and I realized that I just, could become a better version of myself. I could become a better listener. I could love people more. I'm in a ruthless cutthroat business and commercial real estate. And it jade you. When I started this when I was 23 years old, you know, people are beating on you. You know, we're in a no business. No, no, no, no, no. Yes, you got the deal. Or you get a loan or, or hey, Chris, you want to invest in our fund. No. You go through a lot of nose and a lot of failure being in commercial real.

state you have to have thick skin. Well, as you go through this for a period of time, it jades you. It creates things in your mind that aren't really reality. So you start taking a step back and you start breaking things down and taking care of your limited beliefs. And you start looking at yourself and say, who is Ben Reimberg? And I started looking at myself. And five years ago, I looked at myself in the mirror. And I didn't like what I was looking at. I said, I don't really like I need to learn how to love myself so I could love other people. And that's what started. I've hired great mentors.

I'm not even going to tell you that I've spent on incredible mentors. I have some of the best top minds in the world that I work with. And so I've learned to work on myself every day, Chris. I meditate every day. I do a sun salutation. I do a morning and night. Before I came on the show, I meditated because I want to make sure I was in the best state to make sure I can be on point and provide the best knowledge and content I can for you.

And that's how I carry my life. I work on a high integrity level. And personal development and being able to control my mind and emotions are critical to how I show up in life because I want to show up as the best version. And that's what personal development. That was the journey I went on five years ago. And I'm extremely grateful for all the people that have helped me because now I'm in an incredible place in my life. And by doing personal development and becoming the best version of yourself is it attracts money, it attracts opportunities, it brings new relationships into your life, it allows you to provide a lot of value, you learn and you grow faster. And all these things have culminated into just a fulfilling life for me that has really

showed me. If people always ask them, like, what happened if you knew about this? 20 years ago and really did it. I would even be an incredible version of myself. So just happy and grateful for where I'm at and I owe my gratitude to a lot of people that believed in me and helped support me. What do you think something that someone could do tomorrow, starting tomorrow to become a better version of themselves? I think the first thing is you write down your insecurities. You look at yourself and you say, where am I insecure? Where am I struggling? Do I have trouble showing up in a room and my having challenges networking. Am I having challenges listening? When I was younger, I had to learn how to listen. But I would listen, but I really wouldn't

understand because I wasn't seeking the truth and what someone was telling me. So what I would suggest to a young person that is just getting started, write down your insecurities, and look at yourself and become a good listener. And find a mentor that has whatever industry you're or whatever you want to accomplish in life, whatever your mission is. And you look at yourself and you say, well, who do I know that's high in the learning curve that can help me get there? That's already had tremendous of my success. And by talking to those folks, they'll help you figure out where your deficiencies is,

how to get better. Because we've all been there. When you're a successful businessman or woman or an entrepreneur, a lot of us go through these experiences. We go through ups and downs. We go through challenges. it's a good way to start to pick someone's brain. And that's what I always encourage is hire a mentor that's been there, done that, shorten that learning curve.

When I was younger, Chris, I didn't know that. Like, you know, it was all these green ledger paper and stamps and envelopes and checks. And it wasn't the internet. So there wasn't the knowledge and the content that you have now. What's beautiful about being a young person and I look at my kids and I'm jealous is they can go on and go on Google and Instagram and all these different, technology platforms and social media platforms and really gain knowledge on items and topics that I didn't have an opportunity when I was a kid. And so using the internet and Instagram and following people and see what they do, you can hire or go to a mastermind and put yourself

in a room to really learn how to empower yourself to become a better version. So I always encourage if I'm a young man or woman out there and you're listening to this show or you're watching it. Just look at yourself. Write down where you struggle. Write down what you want to achieve. And on the internet alone, you can go and ask people as well. And the internet alone, you will figure out who you need to connect with. And once you connect with that person, hold on to them and learn and listen and be open-minded, not judgmental, and have the opinion saying, I'm here to learn and grow. And when you can open that filter and that mind, you will grow. would be my suggestion. That's what I would have told my younger self when I was younger is work on

yourself. I just didn't know. Yeah. Something that we really connect on Ben is fitness. Like, look, you're very successful with your business. You're also a family man. You've got kids, but you still find time for fitness and for health. And there's a lot of people that will just use that as an excuse. I don't have the time for it. How do you make the time for it? Well, I'll tell you my morning routine. Okay. You'll think I'm crazy. I love this. though. I live by this stuff. I do too. I'm a huge health nut and I love to work out.

And so I wake up at about 4.45 in the morning, every morning and I meditate for 36 minutes. And then I do a... Why is it 36? Why is that the number? That's just what I was ingrained in my head through

one of my mentors. I don't, I'm just surrendering. I don't question him. I just... Okay. All right? I'm not the expert. I'm just listening. Right? So, then I do a 36-minute sun salutation that he walked me through. Then I get ready and I drive and I train with a trainer five days a week. And I get in there and I warm up and I'm 53 years old. So I got to warm up.

I always encourage people to do like eight to ten minutes of just walking on treadmill or do the gauntlet, the stairs and get your body warm. I stretch. I'm very into stretching now as I've aged to keep me loose because I don't want to get injured. And I've worked out with some of the best trainers in the world. I found a great trainer here in California that I really have a good vibe with because that's important. You got to really connect with your trainer. And we go at it and he trains me like I'm in my 20s and we go at it. And there's nothing better. I mean, when you can wake up and challenge yourself and really go

through a grinding workout, you're ready for the day. So that's my routine. And so I realized, that where I struggle is if I don't get to work out and do my routine in the morning. Like it agitates me a little bit because I'm like, I'm not living in that world that I'm normally used to. So I enjoy it. And then that's part of my routine. So we do different party parts. We challenge each other.

When I get to fly back to Chicago, see my headquarters there. I have one of the best workout facilities in the world in the north suburbs called BPC. and I work out with my boy, Josh Ellis, and I was working out with him for years before I moved to California. And I just bring it. Every day, I just bring it. I change my mindset. I focus. And it's a routine for me. And that's the way I do it because I figured in my business, to grow this business to where I've been and the success I've had, I needed to work on my health and fitness. I needed to understand what it takes to get through a day. When you're in commercial, of real estate, you do a tremendous amount of traveling in your career, and it wears on you.

And if you're not in good health or good shape, you're just, you're doing a detriment to yourself. So I do that for working out, and then I eat healthy. I'm big into intermittent fasting. I've been doing that while. I do change it up a little bit. One of the doctors, good friends with said, you change it up a little bit, so I change it up a little bit. But generally speaking, I intermittent fast. I eat a tremendous amount of fish and chicken. I'm a Chicago kid, so I do love my steak once in a while. And I'm a huge foodie. And I collect wine too.

And so once in a while I have a class of wine. I love wine. I love learning about it. But I don't really drink alcohol anymore. I mean, when you're out to dinner with me, Chris, you'll see I don't really drink and I drink sparkling water. And I do that because, again, it goes back to how do I show up in life? How do I become the best version of myself?

how do I connect with people on a deeper level? And I realize if I'm drinking or I'm not my authentic self, I'm not doing myself justice, and I'm really not helping the other person that I'm interacting with. Well, you should come by for a cold plunge. Anytime, you're welcome. I've heard, I've heard it's like a dopamine hit.

It's unreal. You feel like a bite a bear afterwards. I heard it's like, it's like, I'm not that I would know, but I've seen the stats, That's like snort and cocaine because you get huge dopamine rush when you do the cold plunger or you take a cold shower. Well, there's something about getting into the cold plunge where your body goes, uh-uh, no thank you. And getting over that is a big mental win and then there's everything else after that.

So yes, you're welcome to come by any time for that. Very nice. What do you think is a skill that you wish you would develop more of when you were starting out in your career? When I was younger, what I realized, especially today, I look back working on my communication skills and listening. I've been writing a newsletter for almost 20 years. Now it's called a blog. And it was a labor of love for a long time.

And when I was younger, communicating better would have been a lot, something that someone would have taught me how to read body language, how to interact with people. that would have helped me tremendously in my career over time in small increments. I'm now an outstanding communicator, but I realized that when I was younger, that would have been a huge win to really learn and double down on communication skills. But I love this idea, though, that you're continuing to learn all the time with everything that we've been talking about since this episode started.

And I think, unfortunately, there's a lot of people that will just get to a certain point in their life, and they go, well, that's it. it. Maybe I'll pick up a few things that I read on Instagram or see on YouTube, but I'm not going to take a course on anything. Well, it's a great point you make. And I really appreciate you bringing up. If you stop growing, you will start dying. And you see people, I could easily retire, okay, but I'm never going to retire. I love what I do. I love giving back. I love serving between the personal brand and everything I'm working on. And I just realized that life evolved. And if you don't involve with it, you fall behind.

And again, it goes back to how do I become the best version of Ben Reimberg and benefit and impact people. I can't impact people if I'm going to stay still. And I don't enjoy staying still. I enjoy, I am, I love learning. I love reading. I love interacting with people. I love listening and hearing their ideas.

And look at, because here's something you can share with your audience. Yeah. When you listen, okay, and I've seen this in my office. I see this in meetings. and it's consistent. And it's just, you become more aware. It's that, it's that RAZ system that comes out of you. And what ends up happening is I become more aware.

And I'm like, I didn't really look at it that way. Or I didn't really understand it that way. Oh my God, that's a great way to look at that. We'll get, that's all growing. That's all learning. That's opening up your eyes and being more aware. And you have to do these things and you have to continue to grow. And I just felt that with just being a good,

role model to my kids and my employees and to be a good public figure, I felt that I have to continue to work on myself and grow. And I enjoy it. It's a challenge to me. I love good challenges. And I love the fact that I'm learning and improving as a person. And what that does is that allows me, it just oozes out of me onto other people. And I feel very grateful for doing all this. So I encourage anyone, keep growing. Keep opening your mind. Keep learning. seeking the truth and what people are telling you. And you will see success come your way real shortly if you do that. What are you reading right now? I'm always looking for good recommendations. It's actually a great question. I like Ed Milet. I'm reading The Power of One More.

He was just on my show. I saw that. I saw that. And Ed, I guess, is one of my neighbors. I haven't met him yet. I'm sure I will. And I was just influenced. I really like what he said. I like his message. I said, I'm going to read his book. So I ended up buying his book and I started reading it and it's a fantastic book. Great. I mean, I could see he must have put a ton of time into it. I'm really grateful he wrote it. It's very interesting. I have a couple other books I'm reading one of the guys on my show, Deepak Ori, who is the founder and CEO of Lagua Hotels. That was the hotel for Hangover 2. I stayed there in Bangkok a few years ago and he was on my show and connected. I'm reading his new book. So there's just

So I have a stack of books that guy get through the next five years. You wouldn't me both. Yeah, it's just, you know, people come on your show like this and they send you a book. Friends of mine say, hey, I want you to read this book. So I keep getting a stack of books. I like that. I mean, obviously, Napoleon Hills, thing and grow rich is a wonderful book. All of us have read it.

The other thing I do recommend if you're in sales, and especially I raise a lot of equity in commercial real estate. and my staff does and pitch anything from Orrin Claff who lives under San Jose. He's brilliant. And he raises equity just like we do. And he creates that mindset and that frame. And so when I raise equity for commercial real estate, I call it a Birkenbag. And I have a theory behind the Birkenbag. One of my investors, this lady from New York, I walked in her closet,

and she had like 25 Birkenbags. Burkingbags are like 50, 60 grand. a pop. Yeah. They're expensive. And they're unique in their custom. And so we translated a unique investment as like an alliance investment, like my company. And so we created the Birkenbag theory. So when I was reading Orrin's book, I was thinking about, oh my God, he mirrors exactly how we do business. So that's a wonderful book. There's so many great books out there. It's like endless, but it's really about what you want and what your mission in life and what educates you and float your boat. You know, I'll read a health and fitness book that whether someone I admire or,

you know, or watch or I watch videos, you know, I'll watch like one of your friends, Dwayne the Rock Johnson. I'll watch some of his training stuff and how he does it. And you just keep learning. And you learn from people and you're like, okay, that's an interesting way to do it or, or, you know what, that I never thought of it that way. So you just have to keep learning and growing and books and, you know, the internet and social media, you really can grab this knowledge and really enhance your life if you do it right. The United States Soccer Federation present the U.S. Soccer Podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Clevenberg.

And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Time's ticking. I think you can feel the intensity. All the guys are wanting to really take their claimant, and they want to be on that World Cup roster. There's no doubt about it. Hosting the World Cup on the home soil. comes with its pressures, but we're just really excited just as the people are.

The U.S. Soccer podcast, presented by Henco, follow and listen on your favorite platform. When did you decide that developing your personal brand was important? And it's fascinating me because you just got on Instagram like a year ago. Yeah, I think I almost have 100,000 followers on Instagram. That's amazing. Yeah, we're getting, Ben Reimers, we're making strides, baby. We're making strides. Shout it out now so everyone can go follow you. It's at the real Ben Reimberg is my Instagram handle. But if you go to Ben Ryneberg.com, which is my personal website, you can see all the different social media platform.

We're on all the platforms, TikTok. How I got on TikTok, I'll tell you a quick story. My daughter, so in Chicago we had this gorgeous wine cellar, and I collect wine. And we're staying outside and she said, Dad, we got to do a TikTok video. I didn't even know what TikTok was. I know there was like this Charlie whatever that she would follow, whatever her name. Oh, Charlie DeMello.

Yeah, right. So she would talk about her. And that's what was, like a dancing platform, I guess. And so I did a video with her and it went pretty well. And then next to, you know, a few years later, I'm on TikTok for different purposes. But I'm on all the platforms and I have entire staff that works on it for me. And we developed great content. And what happened was when I was in Chicago,

I was thinking about it and I said, you know, all these people are creating personal brands. It's helping the company and they're promoting themselves and they're providing great content. Why don't I do that? So I was talking to one of my mentors and he said, here's how you're going to get started. Do a podcast. I go, a podcast. What do you mean? I'm going to launch a podcast.

So we launch a podcast. It launched May 31st of 2022. It's doing really well. And to do that, we said, we're going to launch my personal brand. And how I grew up as a kid was you never show off. You never tell people what you have. You're like the millionaire next door. You just keep your mouth shut.

Your actions speak louder than words. Now all of a sudden, we get into social media and everyone is exposing themselves. Right. So my staff approached me and said, Ben, you need to do a, you need your personal brain. You got on social media. You've got on LinkedIn for years. You have a lot of followers on LinkedIn because Jeff Winer's from Chicago. and he's got a wonderful platform.

And I looked at it and I'm like, I don't know, Chris, do I want to expose myself? Do I want to tell people I am? And they said, no, you're not seeing the point. You have a lot of knowledge and value that you can offer the world. That's why you're doing it. You're not doing it to expose yourself. And so I had to change my mindset, my view. And I looked at it, I'm like, I have the wrong frame.

I got to reframe how I look at. So all of a sudden I get excited about it. And we got into it. And we have staff that works on it. And then we started enhancing our company, social media campaign. And I'm having a ball. I love it. I think it's fun.

I think it's great. And my kids look at it and like, man, dad, you have more followers lost. You're pretty cool. So all of a sudden. That makes you feel like you should have started earlier, right? Yeah. Like the cool factor just kind of jumped with them, I guess. But, you know, the cool meter, whatever you want to say.

But to me, it has a purpose. it's to really serve and benefit people in my social media. And it's not to show that, you know, I have luxury cars. It's not to show that I live in a nice house. It's not to show my success. That's not who I'm about. I'm about how do I help people? Because that's what makes me feel good and serve people and give back.

And part of that, Chris, with the personal brand is I'm going to start teaching commercial real estate around the United States. It was one of the things I wanted to do was give back. And, you know, when I was younger, no one taught me the business. The baby boomers that had to me weren't really well-versed in taking a kid by the side and say, let me mentor you. That wasn't really out there. And you couldn't find a mentor at the time as well.

It was very challenging unless you went to some of the icons. And they're willing to take you on. In Chicago, we have huge icons in commercial real estate between the Pritzker's, the crown, Sam Zell, you name it. Some of the biggest and wonderful people in the world are from Chicago and commercial real estate. but you couldn't really approach them. So I was self-taught. I taught myself by doing deals and interacting and networking.

And so I realized that, well, what if I could take a young man or woman and shorten their learning curve in their life to build wealth? Because commercial real estate is all about building wealth. And there's a lot of benefits to it. So I said, being from Chicago, I took an example. I said, what if I could take just a young man or woman from the south side of Chicago where they just, they don't have any hope. They can't see through all the homicides and all the crime and violence that goes on in the

south side of Chicago. And maybe that one kid who approaches me, I teach him the business A to Z, and he impacts his family, maybe his parents, maybe his grandparents, maybe he has kids or she has kids. And they create their own legacy by building wall through commercial rule. state. I said, well, if I could change one lives, one life, can I change 30? Can I change a thousand? What if I could change thousands and how beneficial that would be? So I took a step back and I said, well, it starts with this, starts with the podcast, starts with the personal brand. And so that's what I'm on. That's my mission. My mission is to help people and serve people and give back.

And guess what? By doing all this, my company and my employees benefit for me being out there exposing what we're doing because I am a thought leader in our business. And by doing that, it's just everyone wins. And I feel grateful that I have the ability to put myself in that position. I'm able to employ more people to work on our personal brand. And I've just, you know, between meeting you and people that come on the Ben Reimberg, I own it show and your show and all these wonderful people I get to interact with. And I go on a lot of podcasts every week. I'm usually on one or two and I'm sharing knowledge and content. I feel good. I enjoy it. And it really allows me to connect with people. And it goes back to what I said, learn and grow. I'm constantly learning and

growing from this experience. So it's just been an incredible thing, the personal brand. What do you think is the biggest discovery or like realization after like diving headfirst into this world of social media. I realize that how you make it in social media is being your authentic self. Yeah. Being vulnerable. And I think a lot of people have, you know, a lot of people build this house of cards. Like, you know, I got to show someone the McLaren or I got to show someone that I do this

or where I have this stream of women hanging around me. I think people pull up this house of cards. and I don't know if that's the best value to provide. So I found that the way for me to way to go about social media is I'm going to provide value. And if you like me, great. If you don't, that's okay too. You might not like what I'm shooting out there or my staff is, but I'm going to do it consistently.

We're going to provide value and knowledge and see if it helps you. And if I could touch one person or impact one person through social media, then I'm doing my job. That's how I look at it. But I look at it that it's, you know, it's a lot of, it's a lot of content out there. And it's a lot of moving parts. And if you're going to follow someone, follow someone that's authentic. Follow someone that cares, maybe has some empathy, willing to share and get back.

And I see a lot of these people. I see a lot of the people on your show. That's what they do and how they live their lives. And that's their social media. And those are the people I like to follow. So I think you've got different sides of the coin when it comes to social media. that's how I approach it. Yeah, I agree with you.

And I think it's a tool, right? You can use that tool for whatever it is that you want to use it for. It's how are you going to use it? You're being pulled in a lot of different directions. How do you decide in your day and your week and your month where your focus is going to go? I have a schedule that you wouldn't want to have. But again, it starts with I have my morning routine. I get up the crack of dawn.

no one's going to outwork me. You know, I am just, I have this work ethic. I have this Chicago style work ethic where I just roll up my sleeves and I go at it. So I have a lot of people that support me. I have wonderful, talented people in my company. And everyone has access to my schedule. So what I do is I keep it organized. I spend part of the day doing personal brand stuff in my podcast and part of the day running our company.

but my leadership team does a great job running the company. I just kind of oversee things. And I just keep going. I love what I do. I'm not passionate about it. I love it. You got to love it. You know, passion's one thing, but love is a different thing.

And I love what I do. I love waking up and going at it. And being in California makes it a lot easier. You know, it's easier to get around. There's no snow and ice like it is in Chicago. There's no gray skies. with blue skies and sun, it makes it even more easy to get stuff done for me. People use that excuse, like, I got to be outside and not want to work.

I go the other way. I change my frame and say, you know what, I am grateful because I haven't had blue skies my whole life and sun, and I'm going to take advantage of it, and I'm going to kick button and connect with people and network and grow. And so I just organize my time. I'm incredible at organizing it. And it's a lot different. Like back in the day in business, we all had conference rooms in our office.

And so we used to always have meetings. You'd go and meet people. It was a face-to-face business. And that's why I went back and said how communication is so important because we do face-to-face meetings back then. But now with Zoom and we use Microsoft teams at my company alliance, it's so much easier with Outlook. And so I wake up and I see my schedule.

And if I need to create space for myself to think or I want to. want to meditate or create. I'll talk to my assistant or someone in the company and say, hey, can we move this meeting around or we couldn't do this? Because it's very important for everyone out there, create space. Don't have like, because for a while, I'll have like 10 or 12 Zoom calls in a row. It's exhausting. Yeah. I'm doing my podcast and everything else and the personal brand. And I travel a lot too for work too, as well as for my podcast and everything else. So You just have to be mindful of your schedule and know what you want. So I advise everyone is be organized, have incredible, talented people around you that

support you and care about you and you care about them. And that's how I may all do it. One thing that I'm very proud of is what I call resource rich. We have some of the best resources in commercial real estate and in business that are around us, that support us. And I created that platform a long time ago. And so allows me to balance my schedule. But I try to be mindful of that.

I try not to overload it. And it's all about being organized and taking care of yourself and having a strong inner game. And you'll be able to do what I do. So I'm originally from Toronto, but I lived in the Midwest for like five years. I lived in Cleveland. Now that we both live out here in California, what's the biggest thing you miss about the Midwest? I miss the food. I love to eat.

I'm a huge foodie. In Chicago, we had some of the best restaurant tours. I cannot find a good deli out here in California. There's so many, if you're a restaurant tour and you're listening, come to Orange County. There are so many opportunities for you to open the business and thrive. And I'm more than happy to help you because I think that would be wonderful. I miss the food. The people are wonderful out here in Orange County.

money where I live. They really are just very sweet and open and communicative and I'm really enjoying that. I just, you know, Chicago is always going to be my home. My folks live there. My brothers live there. My family's there. I still have, that's where our corporate headquarters are, so I get to go back. So I have the best of both worlds. I get to commute back there once a while, once a quarter and see everyone, say hi and eat some of my favorite foods. But I miss the food. I miss the people. but I do not miss the weather. I don't miss the potholes. I've never seen better roads in my life than the ones I get to drive on every day.

And I enjoy it. I got a bunch of electric cars now, and I get to drive my Tesla, which I love, and the weather's great. And so I'm very grateful to be out here. And the weather's perfect. Every day, it seems to be the same. You know, you don't have to look at the weather, except for in the winter. It's been a little bit raining. cold, but I, it's to me, I wouldn't change a thing. You know, Chicago has been, was incredible to me.

It was part of my life. It's where I grew up. I was born and raised. And it's part of my DNA, so to speak. And so I don't miss much about it. I just really miss the food. I agree with everything you said. And I want to add on one more thing. I miss like the element of sports. Like when you live in the Midwest, it's not a question of if you're watching the game on Sunday. It's a question of where are you watching the game? That's right. And out here, it's like, oh, what game? What are you talking about? I don't know. Maybe. I don't know. Well, I got it to, and it's interesting you brought that up because I missed it too. And, you know, I'm a huge, I was a Chicago Bowl season ticket owner and a Chicago Cubs as well for years. And I love sports. Being in Chicago, sports is so prevalent. I love the black

because I love hockey. I used to play sports all the time when I was kid. I was a sports junkie. I'd sit in the backyard and I'd shoot hoops for hours until it would get dark. And even when dark, I'd still be playing. And when I came out here, I said, well, I have no teams to gravitate to. I'm not a Dodgers fan. I don't like the Lakers. Clippers are okay. I looked at it and I said, well, so I'm not a Padres fan.

And I love baseball and I love basketball and hockey. And I said, well, who can I get into? And then I have two sons at USC. and I became a season ticket holder at the USC Trojan football. And obviously with Lincoln Riley and Cable Williams and all these wonderful athletes they brought in, it's just been nothing but a love affair for me. So I go to all the games and I really enjoy it.

And so USC football and basketball has been a real passion of mine in the last few years since the kids. Fight on, right? Yeah, fight on. And I'm excited. I'm really excited for this football season to come around. and I love football. I love sports, but you're absolutely right.

You miss a little bit of that when you move from the Midwest, but you can find different avenues. And I don't watch a lot of TV anyways anymore. So I don't sit. It's really not part of my life like it used to be. Such a pleasure to have you on, Ben. And I end every conversation talking about gratitude. You've already hit on it so many times here.

But it's the question I ask everyone at the end of a conversation because it's such an important part of my life. I wake up every day. I say out loud three things I'm grateful for. I do it before going to bed as well. So Ben, what are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now?

Well, first of all, I'm grateful for my family. I'm grateful, especially for the people that have supported me in my life to get to this point. And there's thousands of them. People have touched me in all different ways to get me to this point in my career to be able to build this confidence and success and this empire that I've been able to create.

So I'm really grateful for all those people. I'm grateful for my health. I've just, every day I'm grateful for so many different things. I'm grateful for being on your show for what you contribute to me and everyone else. I'm grateful for just everyone that comes on my podcast and contributes to everyone, and especially myself. So there's so many things I can go on and on. And it's, you know, I think as you get older, you realize how important it is what gratitude really

means. And it took a while for me to understand that. You take things for granted. You have success and you put yourself on a pedestal and you have a big ego and all these things. And you realize, like, that's not what life's about. It's about, you know, being grateful and giving back and helping people. And so those are just a handful of things I'm grateful for.

Well, grateful for this conversation. And so glad we could connect. Thank you so much. You're welcome. And it's great seeing you and keep doing what you're doing. I just love what you're doing and just keep rocking. And there's just, what a great career you're going to have when you look back. And so you should be very proud of yourself. It's really, really incredible what you do. And I'm so grateful you have me on your show and look forward to connecting very soon again with you. It's very kind. Thank you so much, my friend. Absolutely. Have a wonderful day. There we go.

Hope you enjoyed this chat with Ben Ryberg. Big thank you to him for joining us. And thank you for being with us on this one and for being with us on every single episode. You're the reason why this show works. So I appreciate you. Go check out Ben's podcast called I Own It and keep an eye out for my episode on there in the next few weeks. It's a great conversation. If you enjoyed this, please share it with a friend.

Take a screenshot and tag us on social media as well. Ben is at The Real Ben Reinberg. I'm at Chris Van Vleet, and this quote is attributed to many different people, so we won't attribute it to anyone here. I will just leave you with this quote as we wrap this up. Success is never owned. It is rented, and the rent is due every day. So good.

Be great. Be grateful. If you're following me on social media, you know that our next guest is the one and only Undertaker. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. Some Undertaker insight. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're

talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the Spitfire of Sports Smack. Take advantage of it, get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What should be? Follow and listen on your favorite platform.

You've been warned.