KGCI: Real Estate on Air - How to become the Go-To for Investors and Agents

Episode Date: September 10, 2025

SummaryThis episode provides a powerful blueprint for real estate agents and investors who want to establish themselves as the undeniable authority in their market. The discussion reveals that your reputation is your most valuable asset, and that a consistent, data-driven approach to serving your clients is the key to building a loyal network of referrals. You’ll learn the core strategies for mastering your local market, speaking the language of investors, and positioning yourself as the trusted expert they turn to for every deal.Key TakeawaysLearn the Language of Investors: Understand that to be a go-to professional for investors, you must speak their language. The episode highlights the importance of mastering key terms like ROI, cap rates, cash-on-cash return, and 1031 exchange, which builds credibility and shows that you understand their unique goals and motivations.Master Your Local Market: Discover that a true expert knows their market like the back of their hand. The discussion emphasizes the need to go beyond basic neighborhood stats and master hyper-local knowledge of zoning regulations, job growth trends, and future developments, which allows you to bring your clients hidden opportunities.Do the Math for Them: Learn how to differentiate yourself by bringing a level of service that saves investors time and money. The episode provides a blueprint for proactively doing the financial analysis on potential deals—including estimating rehab costs and running cash flow projections—so that your clients can focus on their next deal.Build a Powerful Network: Understand that a strong network is your greatest asset. The discussion highlights the value of connecting with and building relationships with other professionals, such as accountants, contractors, and lenders, and how this network can become a powerful extension of your own services.Topics:Real estate authorityGo-to agentInvestor agentReal estate expertReal estate networkingCall-to-ActionReady to become the go-to expert in your market? Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform and get started on your blueprint for success today!

Hey everyone, welcome to this week's episode of the Top Producing Zone podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Michael Jin. And I'm your other host, Shane Carvalho. We got a great topic for you today related to mindset. Today we're going to dig into the topic of failure. Why people struggle to deal with failure and why we think you should actually embrace failure to be super successful in your business. You know, that's a great topic.

And it's actually kind of funny that it took. one of our listeners to actually bring that topic to our attention because obviously it's something that we've both dealt with failures in both, you know, our own lives. I think most people do. And this is interesting too because I've actually, you know, experienced, you know, failure and recovery just in the last, you know, 15 years or so. So it's still pretty fresh in my mind. How about you? Yeah, absolutely. I think, well, it's kind of kind of interesting because I think when I was first starting off in my career, I hated failure. And I think a lot of that had to deal with how I was raised and how I grew up, right?

I think being, you know, I'm going to go stereotype a little bit, but being the Asian kid, you know, like in a very traditional Chinese family, you know, growing up where your five career choices is, you know, lawyer, engineer, business person, doctor, I don't know, a rocket scientist. I'm probably made up that fifth one. But anything having to deal with math and science, you know, it's interesting because I feel like there was always this expectation that I had to have the right answer. And that you always, there was there was always a right way, quote unquote, to do something. And so, you know, growing up, I think for me is I never really had an opportunity to learn how to fail. And then, I mean, we talked about it on previous episodes, but like then going through personal failure, going

through professional failure, like the first couple of times I had to deal with it in my career and in my life, I realized I didn't know how to. And it struck me really hard. And so, I mean, we'll dive more into it today. But, you know, my, it goes without saying, you know, my perspective on failure has certainly changed from, you know, where I was when I first started my career. That's interesting that, you know, you didn't know how to handle that because it was kind of something that was not allowed. You know, my perspective, you know, obviously growing up, my parents had high hopes for, you know, me as well.

So clearly there was some of that to a certain extent. I think for me, I think the hardest coping part of failure is regret. Like, I should have done this. I should have done that. Yeah. So I think that, you know, I'm glad that I've learned how to deal with failure since. But I think that that whole piece of it really held me back, especially early on. And it like, it almost puts you on pause on your life.

Because you can't like I couldn't get past. I should have. Like, you know, it's like you're not moving forward. You're stuck. Did you feel like you were stuck? No, I absolutely felt like I was stuck. And I think like the way I saw failure was, I saw it. I think I saw things very black and white. And I saw things as being very binary, right?

like if I'm approaching like if I'm trying to do something it's either success or it's failure and that was my that was my mindset the whole time and it's like if I fail then that means I can't succeed and and like I think that the important the important nuance of that how I thought about it before was not only is it if I fail I can't succeed it was more along the lines of if I fail then I can't succeed and I can't ever succeed at this. So let me go do something else. Right. And then to your point, my mind goes spiraling down into the,

you know, could have, should have, would have. You know, and it's just you dig yourself a hole that's very hard to climb out of. Oh, totally. And then I find myself also targeting just wanting to do things I'm really good at. Like I didn't want to get involved in things that I wasn't the best at. Like I want to be the best. If I can't be the best,

I'm not interested. that kind of falls into that category. But you know, something you just totally made me think of when you're talking about like success or failure, no middle ground? I had an assistant years ago that told me something so profound that I'm thankful to her for this.

And I still, it comes up all the time. It's like she just, you know, we work closely together. We're together every day in the office. And back when we all actually were in offices every day. Yeah.

But he told me one day, She's like, you know, Shane, you're always like stressing yourself out about right and wrong stuff. She's like, okay, let's talk about right and wrong. It's not just right or wrong. Some things just are. Dude, that was so profound. It was like all of a sudden it wasn't win or lose. Like there's some middle ground there.

Some things just are. So it's like, okay, can you take failure and kind of, you know, bring it into that zone? where you can pull something to maybe make it something in the middle, like all of a sudden it's like good experience. You know, maybe it just, it is something besides failure. I don't know,

just. No, I mean, that, I think that is like, when we talk about in this episode of embracing failure, I would say that's probably one of the top points that we can talk about, which is shifting our perspective on what failure is,

right? Failure is not the end of the road, right? It's not like, this is it, that's it, I'm done. I can't do this ever again. It's to your point, okay, I didn't succeed this time. What can I learn from it, right? And I think that's a powerful like mindset shift. It's not, it's not, okay, I failed.

Crap, like I should have done this and this and this and this. It's, I failed. Okay, I didn't succeed this time. But, you know, what can I learn from this to do better next time? And I think there's so much value than that versus, to your point earlier of, I'm just going to go do the things I know I'm good at. Right. Because you're not really learning anything from that. You already know how to do it.

That's why you're successful at it. Yeah. No, you're right. I mean, to be more worldly or for lack of a better term or more well-rounded or to, you know, maybe to be able to connect with more people like venturing off into other things and, you know, learning being better. I think it's probably a good thing. And I think it also keeps you from having a one-track mind. I mean, he definitely sharpens your skills, right, in other areas. So, yeah, no, I agree.

But it's funny because I literally remember that about myself. You know, to this day, there's still a little bit of that. You know, if I can't be competitive or good at it, then I want to be extreme to get really good at it. I just don't want to do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think part of us, like, I don't, I don't, know if I'll ever be that hardcore, but it's, it's interesting. Like, when you talk about competitive nature, like I, my mind naturally always goes to Kobe, you know, and it's just, you know,

he worked at it. He was the best, but like, even he failed. I still remember when, you know, the Lakers got blown out by the Celtics back in like the early two on 2010s, right? But he just used that as more motivation. Like, how can he get better? And then he came back the very next year and they, well, it was two years later. They beat the Celtics. and seven games. So just that that mindset of constantly growing, taking, you know, what you didn't do well that, that first time, analyzing it, making, coming up with a better plan, executing against it, and then reaping the fruits of it. Well, I think the other part I want to dig into when it comes to failure and how we react to failure is you kind of highlighted it earlier is we tend to,

I think internalize it, right? And we, I mean, I certainly like had this happen to me. I allowed this failure to in my head and in my heart to like to define like who I was as a person and what my worth was. And that's also a very dangerous trap to fall into when you do experience failure. Yeah, I've been the same way to the point where I, I was having imposter syndrome. Like I wear that. That becomes very personal. That is, I could totally relate very much.

So that's heavy, dude. How do you, how do you feel like you address that when you do feel like you're, you're battling with like imposter syndrome? Well, it's interesting because, you know, I'm so used to being the guy who kind of carries everybody else, keeps everybody up. Like, I was never really the guy in that situation. but after some of the things I've gone through and a lot of it, you know, is health-related

and just things, a lot of things were out of my control and then just some bad things that happened. And all of a sudden, you know, I was the one that was down. And I was thankful for the people in my circle that reminded me of who I was and, you know, the skills I possessed and, you know, what I had done before, what I could do again.

So I think that I mean, I think the last time I hit failure, I think it was the first time that I really did not have picked myself up. So it was, yeah, it was hard. As people like, you know, like you, you know, were not just, you know, colleagues were obviously good friends and more. So it's like, yeah, this last time was really hard. But I think that I think that what's helped a lot previously in another circumstances that were not. so hard are, you know, kind of the tips and tricks that you learn just from, you know, reading and just following other storylines and other people and what they've done.

I mean, like, look, you follow some of, you know what Kobe did, you know, and, you know, like, I'm a big fan of Ed Milet and, like, his new book now, like, the power of one more. It's like, you know, it's like you always, if you stay well read and stay kind of in the loop on, you know, different people, not necessarily in your industry, but just how people have coped with situations people before you. I think that, you know, a lot of times you can find common ground with other people's challenges that I've been there before. And I think that helps.

I just think that this last time, the whole just being so down and the whole imposter syndrome and it just when it's like your health, your business finances, when it's like just like just like all of it, like it, there's been a couple times in my life. And one of them was, you know, the time when I was going through the divorce and that's when the real estate market crashed and everything else. I mean, dude, I needed to be picked up. And this last time, too, like, I needed to be picked up. So I think that not everybody's going to have those people around them. I mean, hopefully you have at least somebody.

But, I mean, I think that that, unfortunately, you know, the dark side of this is suicide. How many people do we know in our lives? that have committed suicide. I mean, I have a client that's an escrow right now. Last night or brother-in-law committed suicide. I mean, you know, what is the alternative to managing failure? You know, most of us can find a way, you know. And when you think about people dying over this,

then it really, like, puts into perspective how not a big deal it is, right? When you look at it on those terms, because feeling like an imposter and everything else, you're feeling like you're dead and you failed and you're done and your toast. But put that in perspective, you know, if you can't come back from that, like look at, you know, I mean, I wasn't trying to go so deep on you, but it just still strikes the nerve because it's still fresh for me what I went through. You know what I mean?

Like it's, it's heavy, man. No, it really is. And I think you hit on like a couple of important points that I can, I can certainly. relate to us as well. I think one of the big things is, you know, I think, I think it is important. Like if you don't have a solid like support network of like whether it's business partners, where it's mentors or its friends or family, you should really look to like to develop that out because a lot of times when we get into the weeds and you can't work yourself out, to your point, it really is a lot of the people around you that help lift you out of that.

Like for me, when I was going through the divorce, it was some of my best friends that were constantly there for me. And even just us going to hang out helped a lot. We didn't even need to talk too much, but just having somebody else next to me helped a lot. Yeah. You know, I think I consider you like, I mean, we're brothers and we're great friends.

I mean, I consider you a mentor just from the perspective of seeing how much you've overcome over this last like year and a half, two years with your business, with your health. And, you know, like, because you and I have gotten so close, it's, it's a great example to me. It's a great, it's a great reminder to me also of, you know, of being able to overcome, like, some really, really hard things. So that, that's been inspiring to me. And I think, you know, from a from a personal perspective one one of the things i've come to learn is you know it's also really important to celebrate like small wins along the way if you can right i'm horrible at yeah no i not to talk over you but no i'm just as soon as you said it i was like yeah i'm

terrible at that like it's it's that extreme thing again you're either fucking crushing it or you suck yeah like the small winds or so important. And that's why my coach got me practicing gratitude, you know, a couple of years ago. Because it's like gratitude is a great, that, I mean, that is celebrating wins. I'm thankful for this. I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful like every night. Like, you know, at least three, three to five things every night. That's the way for like for me. Everybody has their way. So yeah. And, and it's super important because it's one of the things I learned is, you know, and this was in the in the, in the, in the mindset of how I communicate to people or how people communicate with each other

when it comes to like being in a relationship, I guess business or personal. But you know, there's that statistic out there where it's like it takes it takes seven positive things like seven positive words or statements to overcome one negative. And so you think about the power behind that. It's like forget about even interactions with other people. let's just say, you know, I'm dealing with myself. I think the same principle applies. If I'm telling myself even in my head, hey, you know, I should have done this.

I could have done that or like, you know, I could have been better at that. That's one negative statement, maybe three negative statements in my example. You know, with that ratio, it takes 21 positive statements for myself to potentially overcome the hole that I dug for myself. So again, it's just like celebrating those, to your point, you know, doing gratitude practices every morning. right it's positive statements reinforcing you know just the small victories that you have um is is super important and i think a lot of us like you me a lot of us don't realize how powerful it is well yeah positive affirmations in the morning and i mean i've been getting myself back in the habit because for a while with everything i went through like that wasn't even that was kind of out

the window but those positive because you're talking about you know trying to offset the negative So those positive affirmations that goes towards your seven to one count, you know, so those are super important. I mean, I'm an engineer, so I had to turn it into a math equation. I mean, it's not that simple. Right. But that's why. I mean, it's obviously not that simple, right? But I think there is psychologically, there is something important to like to that statement from the perspective of, you know, it does take a lot of more positive affirmations to over.

come and outweigh the negative that we hear every day. And I think like we don't do a very good job of because we're so like competitive, because we want instant gratification. And by we, I'm saying like us more as a society these days. Right. It's hard to stop and pause and really affirm ourselves, each other, and have those positive interactions to help offset all the negative that we get in our life on any given day.

Right. No, I totally agree. I guess now I'm always going to be thinking about this when I have a negative thought in my head. I'm like, you said seven, seventh to overcome it. You know, I guess I've probably heard something similar before, but it's actually striking me right now just because, you know, there were those gloomy days where you don't want to leave the house or talk to anybody or you're kicking rocks. I mean, those are the days that you're full of those kind of thoughts. So I'm thinking, need a freaking calculator to recover from all that. I mean, seriously.

I mean, I know it's not funny, but I'm just like, I'm just thinking about that. I'm like, well, crap, no wonder, you know. Because, I mean, here's the other thing. Like, I'm not one to, like, medicate, but drugs and alcohol, you know, there you go. Even in our industry, you know, like our industry is brutal for that. I mean, we're in a very high stress industry. And, you know, it's sad, but addiction is rampant. I mean, there's, you know, I mean, for some of us, like, you know, you and I, we love to get in our workouts and, you know, play our sports and, you know, do what we do.

I mean, on the weekend, golf, you know, it's like, you know, it's great that we have ways to channel that. But, you know, if people aren't committing suicide, I mean, there's people that are, you know, the middle road, I guess, somewhere is, you know, looking to, you know, drugs or alcohol to. kind of numb, you know, numb that pain. Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's a very, it's a very serious, like, it's, it's very serious and it's very, it's very hard not to go, because some of those things are, like, especially with alcohol, it's, it's, it's easy to do, you know, like, I remember when I was going through my divorce, like, especially early on, it was very easy to, to, to, uh, sit behind a computer. I'll be, I mean, I'd be gaming with my friends, but it's so easy to just grab a drink. And once you grab one drink, it becomes two drinks and three drinks and four drinks.

But again, it goes back to like, I mean, thankfully I had the support of my parents, my family, you know, constantly checking in on me, even though at the time I found it a little annoying, you know, but it helped. It got me out of the house, right? I started running more with my brother. Like, we would take runs around the neighborhood, focusing myself on doing like Orange theory. And just slowly, but surely, like, you start getting those positive. positive reinforcements in your life and you develop the better habits versus, you know, kind of the easier ways to numb the pain. Right, right. Well, and then, but then that leads to even more miserable or more, you know, depression. Like for me, it's been, it's been some weight gain.

You know, I've had a couple of bouts of weight gain, you know, with, you know, depression or high levels of stress. And then, then you're really miserable, right? Then it's like, you know, you're not exercising, you're not on point with your diet. And for some of us that aren't blessed with great metabolisms, I won't name anybody that has a great metabolism. You could probably put anything down these days. But like, you know, it's it's like you go down any of those paths and then it just gets even worse. And then you feel like, like for me, especially after the surgery and stuff I went through when I couldn't do anything and I naturally put on weight, I mean, when you have zero activity and, you know, gosh, I felt so far from like normal. And then then it's like forget about like, you know,

imposter syndrome and everything else. How about like I don't want to look at myself in the mirror. Like I hate myself. You know, it's like, you know, just like, especially for someone like, you know, like for me, you know, being an athlete playing sports all my life and, you know, trying to stay in really good shape. I mean, I've always been on the bigger. side since I played football and everything. I've always, you know, lift a lot of weights. I'm not Mr. Scroni or anything by any means, but it's like, yeah, you just, when you get deep into places like that where it just, you know, feels like it's hard to come back, you know, like forget about just imposter syndrome or any failures in business or anywhere else. But then when you have that physical

failure to overcome as well, it just seems out of reach. Like, it's hard to see. It's hard to the light. That's kind of what we were touching on earlier in the conversation. We started, you know, just to what extreme, you know? Let's shift the conversation a little bit and let's talk a little bit about like ways that, you know, we can kind of overcome some of these challenges when it comes to, you know, facing failure. We've talked about a lot of the ways we can kind of get stuck with failure. So let's talk about some of the ways that we know might be able to overcome. And I think we've touched on one already, which is, you know, having a very very, strong like support group of mentors of friends of family we've talked about a second one which is kind

of slowly practicing gratitude but what are some other ways um that you know we can kind of shift that perspective of and and not see failure for the abject like 100% like downer that a lot of people see it as but see it in a more in a positive light as a way for us to better grow as both people personally and professionally. Well, I mean, this is going back to we had touched earlier on or I had, well, we both have touched on this, but I was talking about like, you know, other people that have gone through experiences and how things have gone for them. So, I mean, I think a big eye opener for me and I forget what was that got me in on this,

but they're like, well, look at so-and-so who's been bankrupt for times and now as a multi-billionaire or whatever. It's like, you know, just there's a reason. resource to like when you feel like because you got to understand especially after all these years of humanity and everything like come on people have been in your situation or worse a lot of people many times like when we're going through these tough times we feel like we're the only one that's totally like screwed things up right like we make that mistake of comparing ourselves to other people you know we always assume especially now with social media we always assume everybody's

doing so great. Life is so good. They're so rich. They're so happily in their relationships. You know, so it's like, you know, now more than ever, you know, it just, if you do do the whole comparison thing, it can be really, you know, just makes you more miserable. But if you do start to read and, you know, look into either people you follow that have been, you know, that are super successful now, I mean, you know, look at like, you know, I refer to Ed Miletal, It's someone I definitely admire. And I mean, look at his story. And I mean, they didn't even have water in their place.

Like they used to have to go to a public place, public shower to shower. I mean, they had no electricity. I mean, like, yeah, I won't go into all that. But it's just like if you hear, you know, his story and to the extent. And then like, you know, when we were at, I was at the shareholders conference last month, you know, when he came and spoke and was talking about the car and the money he got to get his first car, you know, in the business. And like, it, it's just, you know, like when you see people like that that are massively successful and what they've been through, you know, that I guess for me, it's like, you know, for those that are feeling hopeless

or that, you know, are failing hard, you know, if you can't find a way to pick yourself up, you know, go, you know, go read up on some of these people. that have been through hard times and struggles and have made it. And just at least, I guess from a mindset perspective, that'll give you hope. Like if you can't find your own hope, then go get inspired by someone else that's eaten shit or failed or just been through a lot. And it's not always just like career failure, health failure, divorce, whatever. I mean, some people get handed some shit.

Like, you know, my whole family died in a DUI accident or, you know, my brother got murdered last night. Like, I mean, dude, like a lot of this other stuff can really put things in perspective. You know what I mean? So, I mean, I'll pass it back to you for one of yours. But I mean, that's like for me, like having these people to reflect on has been. been helpful? No, I mean, I think I think reflecting hearing people's stories, seeing that it's possible, I think is a powerful, is a powerful like reminder to anyone. And I think like, and you and I have talked about this on other episodes. If you look at a lot of these people's stories, it's, I mean,

you do see a lot of common themes, right? And I think one theme potentially across a lot of these stories is, you know, they start taking one step at a time, making, making progress, really embracing, not letting the end goal, like, really overwhelm them, but kind of knowing what the process and the plan is and kind of embracing that plan and just taking one step at a time. Like, I think back to my own journey with, like, fitness. It's funny you say, you think my metabolism is great. My metabolism is actually horrible. And it probably gets worse as I age. But I do think about, you know, my, even just my fitness journey over the last three, four years doing Orange Theory.

I remember when I first started, like forget about losing like 20 pounds, 30 pounds or putting on muscle or what, you know, ultimately where I am today. I remember getting on a treadmill and I was running at six. I was trying to run at six miles an hour on the treadmill. And I was huffing and puffing after like 30 seconds. I was like, there's no way I can do this. But then you get one workout under your belt, right? Then you get two workouts under your belt. And you get three, four, five, so on and so forth.

Now, like three years later, it's like, well, crap, I'm running 12 miles an hour on the treadmill at my max. Six miles to me is like a walk in the park now. Show off. Well, I mean, it's, I think the message is, you know, like, to your point, like, you see a lot of people that, you see a lot of people on social media. Everything they seem to do is now successful. It's, you know, they're where maybe, you know, we want to be at. But a lot of times you don't see like the steps they had to take to get there.

Well, a lot of times we've decided that. And I think that's we've mentioned that before on other things, but I want to reiterate that message is because where you are, where somebody else is today is not where you're at, but that doesn't mean you can't get there. You just have to take one step at a time. Yeah, and I was teasing you. I mean, you know, I'm just teasing you with the whole, because of the whole treadmill thing and the whole arm's serious thing. But no, but on a serious note, I mean, you made a good point because I mean, when I had my massive weight loss, you know, about, you know, 16, 17 years ago, I lost, you know, pretty much almost 100 pounds. You know, for me, I remember, like, boxing was introduced to me to go train in the boxing gym. And I remember, like, the trainer, professional trainer, he used to. work us out hard. I mean, I thought boxing would be like what you see in the movies with Rocky and stuff. Go hit some bags and look all cool and everything. Oh man. The intense training

like for like hitting the bags and all that, that's just a piece of it. The conditioning is unreal. So I remember that he would use the boxing round timer. And so we would have to jump rope for three and a half minute rounds and get the 30 second break in between or 45 seconds or whatever. I remember when I started, I couldn't even jump rope for 20 seconds. You know, about a year in, I could do nine, ten rounds. And so it's very similar to what you're saying with the treadmill. But in like lifting, going through the workouts and everything else, it was so overwhelming at first. I'm like, how the hell I'm ever going to do this?

But it's interesting. Once you start building momentum and you start getting results. then it's like that just fires you up you know like in that and I think that I'm glad that you brought up this example because this is the same thing with overcoming failure in your business or anything else is just making progress and then we always talk about and I know I bring up the whole reading thing a lot but remember this extreme thing we're talking about at the beginning like it's all or nothing or failure. Well, that's when these other books came in, like, you know, the compound effect, pound

the stone, chop wood, carry water. All those books helped me pace myself, like a little bit each day. Those books essentially get your mindset to enjoy the journey, embrace the journey, and understand that it doesn't have to happen tomorrow. But if you think about it, not to come full circle already, because I'm sure there's a lot more to discuss, but you could see how, like remember I was telling you earlier how I couldn't see the light at one point. There's been a couple times in life where it's like you're in so deep. If you're taking these little steps, you're going to get to a point in your journey where you can see the light. And it's because you're not trying to see the light today at the beginning of your journey. It's because you are. embarking on your journey, having confidence in faith in yourself that you are going to get there. You can't see the finish line, but if you're determined, if you're committed, you're going to get there. And that's that's in a whole other subject. Like discipline, self-discipline and drive

and work ethic. I'll tell you that's one thing I've never lacked in my entire life. The work ethic and the discipline, I'm on another level. That's one thing that I will give myself credit for. I'm insane. I'm extreme. I'm insane in that department. But even with that work ethic and that drive, the distance being deep in failure in different areas,

it made it really hard. And so anyway, I wanted to, not trying to run away with the conversation, but I wanted to share that because that kind of closes the gap for me. That's what really helped me over. come the okay I suck it's over it's horrible dead not going to happen never going to make it whatever you know till like when you're on top of the world you know it's like the the whole middle ground didn't exist to me I only knew how to be up here I didn't know how to be down here just like you said

at the beginning you never learned how to cope with this because your family said you are never allowed to drop below this so when you were down here like okay well you know mom and dad well I guess there's no manual for this, right? How do I deal with it? Yeah. And it's definitely not written in Chinese. No, no, definitely not. No, I might have to write one in Chinese.

I'm just saying, like, I totally can relate to that, though. I can totally relate to that. And, you know, my parents being immigrants as well, I mean, you know, they kicked their ass. You know, we just, you know, they drove it into us. Hey, you're in this country. There's opportunity. Go to school, study, work hard. you know, and just all of it.

And I'm so thankful for, I mean, as much as there's some of this stuff that you're like, gosh, I wish Mom and Dad would have done this or would have done that. I think at the end of the day, you and now, I both can say about our parents that they did do enough of all the other things in such a good way that look how we came out, right? Like there's certain things that were like hardcore and probably weren't, you know, the best. But then everything else more than makes up for it. I'm thankful for strict parents. Kept me out of trouble until I really knew or was old enough to, you know, what I was up to.

I think it helped me make me the leader that I am because I was never a follower. In high school, I was never a follower. I was a leader. I didn't get enticed into drugs or, you know, crime or just all the stuff that people got into. Not that everybody got into it. But you know what I mean? It's like that was such a like, uh-uh. Like not even a choice.

But for other people, I didn't have that guidance when they were young, like stealing or like stabbing somebody, like, that was just like eating breakfast. Like there was not like a, there was no boundary there. You know what I mean? So I know I'm getting way off topic, but anyway. You're getting very gangster on me. But keep in mind, I went to a very Asian school in Cupertino. So a lot of this is. like foreign, foreign to me growing up. But, no, I mean, I definitely. Oh, sorry.

I was just going to say I decided to go to public high school against my parents, which is, went to a public high school in a kind of a tough area, which is a better area now. But, you know, it was a bad choice on my part. But I did, that life experience is valuable now. I mean, honestly, because I was private school until that point. But go ahead. No, I mean, I think just a couple of things.

Like one thing, your point about, you know, like being very, thankful for family and our parents and, you know, certain things are great, certain things are not. But like, it got us to where we are today. And I totally agree with that. I think I'm super thankful for that. And I think my perspective, and this is probably a different topic, but real quickly, my perspective even on like my relationship with my parents has changed, you know, like growing up, it's one of those things that's like, oh, you know, my parents always kind of know, right? They're set in stone. For some reason, I always had that mindset. But now it's even like to what we talked about, even with embracing, like, failure and being on this journey,

it's like everybody is going on this journey right now, right? Like, we're still going on this journey. Our parents are still on this journey, so they're still growing. They're still learning. And so that's also been kind of a very cool mindset shift for me because now it's like, okay, I don't see you very, again, black and white, right? I don't see them as being in black and white terms anymore. It's more that like, hey, you know, I see how they've grown.

since I was younger to where they are now. And it's actually allowed us to have different types of conversations that we've never been able to have before. So that's, that was a super cool realization for me. And then the other thing I wanted to mention was when you're talking about the different books, you know, you brought up the compound effect. And those two words like kind of a light bulb went on in my head. We've talked about, you know, spiraling one way into the negative or reinforcing the positive. And it is one of those things where it's like, yeah, you can compound effect in either direction.

You can compound the negative or you can compound the positive. And it's just a matter of which way you decide to go. Well, and like the math you were doing earlier, when you're compounding negative, it's not even goes beyond compounding because now it takes so much to come back from that. So it goes. But no, I totally agree.

And I mean, it's interesting too, because, you know, we talked about looking at people and everything else for inspiration, but I'm telling you, a lot of those reads hit me at the right time, you know? Like, just seriously, like those books, like, you know, some were recommended, some I came across, and that was a tool that I guess I never, I mean, I grew up reading for fun. I read a ton of fiction when I was a kid. I was a fast reader. I used to blow through authors I liked.

I didn't even realize that some did. day, that love for reading would actually be such a, well, not that reading fiction as a kid was not a benefit that obviously gave you vocabulary and reading skills and everything else. But I'm just saying later in life, that love for reading has actually helped me a lot in ways I never thought. I just never thought about it. Yeah. Now, that's really cool. So, I mean, I think we'll wrap it up here. anything else you want to add before we kind of today? So it's interesting because I guess especially coming back from what I've been through

the last couple years like, you know, like obviously with the health issues and being down for the health issues for about a year and a half, like, you know, there's a lot of time when you're thinking about, you know, mortality and your ability to just function, you know, on the daily basis and everything else. And I mean, I already have had a positive outlook on life and always kind of, you know, especially I'm in good health and working out and doing what I do. Like, I'm always pretty enthusiastic or pretty fired up. And it's funny because lately, like, you know, people around me, like yesterday, you know, someone was telling me like, oh yeah, like, I know you're going to tell me I

need to be positive and everything else. And, you know, it's like, it's funny because I really, with people that are in my circles, they already feel like, okay, you know, Shane's going to be giving me a hard time about this because he's going to want me to be super positive. And the thing is, is that, like, I drink my own Kool-Aid. Like, I really believe in the manifestation of what we're thinking. Like I said, I've needed to be picked up a couple times because I've fallen off my own wagon. But after what I've been through, it's like you're talking about compound effect. Like that positivity is like more than compounded because, you know, like from where I came, you know, just this last journey, I'm fired up. And it's like if you can go to the depths of all that and come back, I mean, obviously, you know, a lot of people don't know, but, you know, beating cancer is a huge win.

How many friends and people close to me and clients and people I know have passed away from different kinds of cancer? I mean, that's usually one of those bad words out there, you know? I mean, it's always the F cancer everywhere, right? So it's like, you know, coming back and beating that, it's just like, yeah, of course I'm going to be extra fired up. And yeah, if you have an issue, yeah, I'm going to see the positive side of how to get after it, get through it, conquer it. You know, you're talking at the beginning we were talking about, you know, people getting caught up and, you know, failures to end. I suck. It's my judgment and everything else. Hell no. It's experience. It's a stepping stone. It's building. It's building you. It's building your foundation. Okay, well, I did it this way.

This didn't work. Oh, shoot. This happened to me. I guess I never saw that coming. Okay. Well, in the future, I have to keep them, you know, in mind. I mean, dude, and even like some of the, like, bad business partnership and things that have happened, like, it's like, do I really need to learn more lessons this late in life and clearly you do like I mean I take that and I go back to I get I go back to like we talk about exercise a lot but I go back to exercise like to me it's it's another experience it's another rep so to speak right where you know you're building that muscle and you have something to rely on when you do face adversity and failure and to your point like yeah you've had to overcome so much So now it's like, you know, your perspective is so different, you know, and even for those that, I mean, hopefully you don't have to face a battle with cancer, but like with other things in life as you go through those things, like as you overcome one, in my head, I'm imagining like, you know, you have a tool in your toolkit now or you have a tool on your tool belt now that you can then rely on the next time you experience something and you continue to grow and build, build that muscle.

to help you be more successful. Well, you know what's interesting is that something like cancer can be obviously really frightening, but clearly I'd built some of the muscles already even before that because when the doctor's like, oh yeah, you know, unfortunately this is cancer and you have to deal with it, you know, do surgery. And it was interesting because it was like, okay, doc, here, hold my beer. Let me add that to my do list. Yeah.

I mean, like 20 years ago, I would have been like freaking out. I would have been like, holy shit, I'm going to die. Like, so it's like even though still learning and, you know, still building the experience and everything, there was already enough muscle built. Those are already enough tools in the toolkit that was like, okay, you've been through some shit, you've been through some challenges. Life hasn't been easy. You know, you've had to find your way through a lot of challenges.

It's like, okay, this is one more thing and you're going to get it done. Yeah. I never had a doubt. I never had a doubt. I mean, I know a lot of it's in God's hands, but I didn't have a doubt that I was going to get through it. One way or another, I was going to get through it and getting caught up in the fear, you know, or the what ifs was not even in my vocabulary at that point. But honestly, I can't take full credit for that because part of it was I was so overwhelmed with everything else going on. I got hit with a few different challenges all at once.

And I'm thankful for that because I've had too much free time and too much free thought. maybe it would have hit me harder, you know? Right. So, I mean, I'm not trying to like make it insignificant. It was significant. But it's interesting because the impact of what it should be based on what people's normal reactions are was not there. And no disrespect to people that take it hard.

It is a big freaking deal. And I'm not going to ever downplay that. But I'm just saying the way I dealt with it, I think it was a little easier just from building those muscles over the last, you know, years, 10, 15 years, whatever it is. Yeah, absolutely. That was, I mean, I think that was kind of a mic drop moment. So I think we're going to end on that one. Well, thank you, Mr. Jen. No, I mean, I, you know, like, I mean, I've, I've been able to be, like, walk kind of in this partnership and in this journey with you over the last three years. And, you know, seeing some of the things that you've had to overcome has been truly, like, inspired.

and pretty amazing. So, I mean, I'm thankful that I've been able to kind of be a part of this journey and see you come out of it on the other side. And I think that's been awesome. So I think we'll end today's episode with that. Thank you, everyone, for listening to this podcast. Hopefully you found, you know, just encouragement from this. Wherever you are on your journey, just know that, you know, take one step at a time. And hopefully our stories, you know, you've found, you know, you've been.

found some inspiration through the stories that we shared today. So thank you so much for listening today's episode. And we'll catch you next time on the Top Producing Zone podcast.