Next Level Pros - #140: How To 10x Your Outcome // Recapping Our Grant Cardone Interview // Next Level Pros Podcast

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

Welcome to a new episode of Next Level Pros! In this episode, Chris and the team discuss Grant Cardone's journey from losing his $10 million net worth to building a billion-dollar empire. They dive into the key lessons from Grant's experience, including the power of the 10x rule, the importance of personal accountability, and the role of massive action and goal-setting in achieving success.Highlights:"The 10x rule is basically a concept about we set goals and targets, and we find places of comfort that are too small. They don't have, you know, insurance for the average American today, like if you have three months of savings, you think you're good, you're not good.""I realized I was like that I fucked up, and that personal accountability, right? This is not on anybody else. This is on me." "When I wrote this, this book was not really written for other people. I was literally trying to figure out what, what am I going to do to get a bigger audience? How am I going to scale to other industries, right?" "Clarity creates action. When you're unclear, you don't know what to do if I want to get in shape, but I don't know how to get in shape. I'm probably just gonna sit on the couch."Timestamps:00:00 - Introduction 01:09 - Grant Cardone's mindset during the financial crisis04:52 - Grant Cardone's approach to the 10x rule07:12 - Overcoming excuses and taking action09:02 - The role of mistakes and learning in the journey to success12:15 - The importance of massive action and goal-setting16:53 - The power of clarity and planning20:21 - The value of mentorship and community24:19 - The impact of vision and emotional connection29:14 - The Role of Competition and Pushing Limits 31:57 - The Importance of Persistence and Resilience Want me to teach you how to grow your business? Text me! 509-374-7554Want access to more of my content? Click the link below for all of our latest updates and events!https://linktr.ee/nextlevelprosWant to be a guest on our show? Apply here!https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1YlkVBSluEKMTg4gehyUOHYvBratcxHV5rt3kiWTXNC4/viewform?edit_requested=trueWatch my latest PodcastApple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/next-level-pros/id1687030281Spotify- https://open.spotify.com/show/1e0cL2vI1JAtQrojSOA7D2?si=95980cd4e55a437aYouTube- https://www.youtube.com/@NextLevelPros

Have you ever considered that losing everything may be the greatest opportunity that you have? In today's episode, we're going to go back into the archives and pull out one of my original interviews with Grant Cardone, where Grant shares with us how going from a $10 million net worth to almost losing everything was the foundation of building his billion dollar empire. He'll dive in and share with us how thinking bigger is the only thing that allowed him to pull himself up by his bootstraps and regain it all. And one of the craziest things that when he wrote the 10x rule, one of the best sellers in the self development industry was written for himself as a personal manifesto to be

able to take himself to the next level. After we hear from Grant, we're going to come back and remark and share a few of our thoughts. Let's dive in So take me back to like middle of the crash right so you're worth a couple million bucks, right? You're 50 50 years old or just just after 50 like like what's going through your mind? Like what what decision did you make at that point that catapulted you to this amazing success? Yeah, well what was going through my mind was,

and this may sound ridiculous to people, but I'm like, I am fucked and I fucked up. And for those of you who don't understand that concept, it's like I had worked for 26 years and saw my entire net worth over a weekend when Alina collapsed go from, dude, I was good and then all of a sudden I wasn't good. This is why I wrote the 10X rule. The 10X rule is basically a concept about we set goals and targets

and we find places of comfort that are too small. They don't have insurance for the average American today. If you have three months of savings, you think you're good. You're not good. You don't need three months of savings. You need assets that save you for 30 years. Right. Cash flow. Unfortunately, the financial planning in this country and the financial illiteracy and the indoctrination and the popularity of these financial gurus telling you guys to pay your debt off and to basically have three months of savings is ridiculous. Because millions of people, tens of millions

of people lost their homes in 2008 and have never recovered from it. And so, the first thing that changed was I realized that I had fucked up. And that admission happened. So you took the personal accountability. Right? Personal accountability. You're like, this is not on anybody else, this is on me. This ain't a team deal, bro. I watched the Celtics get their ass whipped last night.

And then one of the players was like, yeah, we just didn't play as a team. Bro, first thing you gotta say is, you f**ked up. You gotta say, I messed up. And then, by the way, if you mess up, the team's gonna mess up. In my case, I didn't have a team, right? It was me and a couple of people. That's not a team, that's a group, a small, tiny group of basically three musketeers.

Three musketeers didn't do anything great ever. And you need an army, man. So first thing I did was, oh, I screwed up here when I thought I was good. Second thing is I got to realize what did I do wrong? I have to figure out what is the thing I did wrong. I identified that. And what I did wrong was I went too small. So when I wrote the 10X rule, when I wrote that book you showed

or talked about, I'm like, oh, I get it. I needed 10 industries. I had one company that paid me. I had one industry that paid me, two companies that basically could go out and get it, and then I dumped it into the real estate. The two businesses were both slaughtered. I mean slaughtered, bro. One day they were doing great, the next day they literally could not pay bills. I was not part of the mortgage crisis. I had nothing to do with the mortgage crisis. I did not buy a bunch of houses. The 200 units that I had actually in the shopping center actually cash flowed me through the collapse. Wow. So when I wrote this, this book was not really written for other people. I was literally trying to figure out what am I going to do to get a bigger audience? How am I going to scale to other industries?

So back then we talked to one industry every day, which was automotive, and today automotive was literally 100% of all my revenue today Automotive is less than 1% of my revenue. It's amazing Yeah I think I think in your your book be obsessed or be average you actually Refer to the 10x rule that it was kind of like your personal manifesto That basically is a rule book that you're writing for yourself that you wanted to live by

Yeah, and so I think that's that's so awesome and I think it's important for just listeners and whatnot to understand that like nobody's got to figure it out even if we write it and And think we have it figured out like we really all have to go and do the work And and so you wrote the book and then you started basically live in the book Yeah, exactly do the work and and so you wrote the book and then you started basically living the book. Yeah exactly. Awesome so in the comments I would love you to share a few things that you learned just from watching that clip with Grant. So guys like what were your guys main takeaways from this? I love how Grant talks about taking accountability for what he did, what he could have done in his position,

I mean, he's worth nearly $10 million at this point. There's probably a lot of reasons why he didn't have to blame himself. Something Darryl and Chris, that you guys talk about a lot is as you get better at what you do, your excuses also get better. Hey guys, it's Chris. Hey, a lot of you leave comments asking for help Do me a real quick favor shoot me a text at five zero nine three seven four seven five five four

That's five zero nine three seven four seven five five four shoot me a text I'll answer and help you with whatever you need. Don't worry. I got you back. Let's go back to the show, baby 100% I think you know as I became like top tier in door knocking industry, right, like I would be out there knocking doors and top performer, like I was number three out of 3,000 reps, right, but my excuses just got better during that time, right, like so I would have three sales on the day, it would be six o'clock, I knew I needed

to be knocking till 10 p.m. and like little thoughts would creep in like hey you know go home enjoy a nice little meal with the wife you're out here by yourself you have nobody you got to take home or nobody's gonna expect you to do more than three like you've already hit your quota for the day right like you can always you're gonna you can always do a little bit more tomorrow or by selling more today, you're actually going to take sales from tomorrow. Like literally, like all these little lies that start creaming in. It's crazy. I can recognize those lies. Yes. So I guess my question is, right, there's, there's people in our audience who are trying to be successful, who are starting out, who are, you know, have been successful.

I think it's, I think the reason that this is a really good story about Grant is, at least for myself, is I've been motivated by his book, 10X, which he talks about using that to basically define his future. Yeah, so I think, you know, we were actually talking this off camera. You know, change really starts with,

you gotta feel some sort of motivation to change, right? Like, you're either inspired by a book, or maybe the pain is so great that you wanna change. I think in Grant's instance, right, he lost everything that's like, dude, I gotta change, right? Otherwise, it's just gonna continue to be painful. So it's either like, I feel some external motivation from a friend, a speaker, an author,

or it's so bad that I have to make some changes. I think it kind of starts there with a feeling. But then the second thing, which Grant talks about, is like the truth, right? Like identifying the lies that we're telling in our lives, the things that we've allowed ourselves to believe up until this point. And so Grant, clearly, you know, this interview took place, you know, 15 years after the fact of this actual thing. So it's easy for him to look back and be like, Yeah, man, I effed up, I screwed this up.

But I mean, was that what he was telling himself in the moment? I think he had to eventually get there, but sometimes in those moments, it's really hard to admit, man, I suck. I've effed up, this is my fault, and take like full ownership and responsibility. But I think too, like when you're trying to find success

and we're trying to figure things out, like you just gotta, you don't know what you don't know. For sure. And so it's like, it's not about like, I gotta avoid, I gotta take accountability, I gotta avoid, you know, making mistakes. It's more of like make mistakes, acknowledge the mistake, and then figure out how to like adjust from there

so that you don't make it again, or you learn from it so it accelerates your- Yeah, I don't make it again, or you learn from it so it accelerates your progress. Yeah, I don't think I'm saying don't make mistakes. You gotta learn, but it's just owning the truth. When I win, it was a win. When it was a loss, it was a loss. Because a lot of times, whenever we have a loss, we try to justify why we lost,

or believe certain things that allow us to continue to take less action. And so it's like when you start from a baseline of like, I suck at this, I want to improve it, it's much easier to go. But then also, to your point, is be completely okay with failure. In order to know the roadmap of where you want to go, a lot of us focus on the destination. We all want to know where we want to end up and we want to focus on the destination. We all want to know where we want to end up and we want to be rich and famous or whatever it might

be, but you can't put in the directions on your phone without also putting in exactly where you're at. I think to your guys's point, that's the whole point of being so rawfully truthful with yourself to be like, you know what, I'm gonna help myself and this is exactly where I'm at and this is how I'm standing right now And if you're not doing that you can't know where you're gonna go or how you're gonna get there So I think there's two there's two issues that I see with with this topic and I think the first one is People want something but they don't know what the first step is. Right?

The other side of it is you don't know if you're really meant to have that vision, right? If you come up with a big vision, sometimes it's scary to say, that's who I want to become because you're so far from it that it doesn't make sense. If I look at my younger years, that's what I struggled with, where it was like, okay, I have this big vision, but it is so unrealistic to who I am today that it's hard to want to believe in it. So I think one thing to definitely be learned

from Grant Cardone and even from my own personal experience in this situation is like, when you're willing to lose it all, or you actually go to zero, you quickly realize none of the possessions matter, none of the actual physical things because those come and go. So it's really about experience. So then when you're talking about I don't know what action to take, you're not scared to take action because you don't care whether you win or you lose. And so like that's, I think the key to anybody that wants to change their life is just understanding

that action is the key and take it the best way you know how. Go and learn from mentors, study YouTube channels, go to a podcast, whatever, take some action. If it works, it works. Do some more of that. If it doesn't, stop doing that. And don't be so worried about the physical possessions that come and go. So I think the hard part, right, is whenever you listen to these success stories, you always see people with the success. And it's really hard to have perspective of actually what it looked like when they went through the hard hard stuff and so that's like like you're saying like you just have to take action you have to move and

You have to be willing to lose over and over and over again knowing that you will win I think one of the biggest things to take from Grant Obviously is just from his book the 10x. The whole premise of that book is that, in the moment, take massive action, right? Like, if you think to hit this goal, you need to do these things, do 10 times that amount of thing, and you'll for sure get that result.

So if you think that you need to knock 10 doors to get one sale, knock 100 doors, and you'll guarantee yourself that sale. And I think that's probably like the biggest lesson that Grant Cardone has given to the world is like the rule of massive action. Again this book was actually written as a manifesto for himself, right? Like he was designing like man what do I need to do to get myself out of this terrible situation in which my net worth almost went to zero and I want to go to get myself out of this terrible situation in which my net worth almost went to zero and I want to go and you know obviously he's always been a big thinker and

everything like that he just realized I got to have massive action and then on top of that having these massive goals backed by massive action it actually motivates right like nobody nobody gets stoked about like hey let's let's have McDonald's for lunch. No, dude, let's figure out how we can have steak for lunch every single day, right? People get, and then when you identify a destination, this is a key thing, right? So say you have a goal,

and that goal is you want to have a million dollars in your bank account. Okay? What if you change that goal and you're like a hundred million dollars and you wanted to do in the same time frame. Say it was like two years and you had this two-year goal to put a million bucks in your bank account or five-year goal to put a million dollars in your bank account. The action required to put a hundred million dollars in your bank account is drastically different than the action to get a million dollars in your bank account. So you can figure out real low ways to get that million bucks over the next five years.

But there are zero low ways to get a hundred million dollars in a bank account in five years. And so now what you start thinking about is the different vehicles that are going to require, right? Like to go and get a million bucks, I can think of a lot of different ways. It's like, well, I can get a job that pays me $300,000 a year. I can live off of $100,000 a year, and the extra $200,000 a year goes to savings, and then I have a million dollars account. So now I'm thinking real low.

I'm thinking employment. I'm thinking like sales. I'm thinking something else, where that solution for a hundred million dollars doesn't fit the model, right? Like there's nothing in this world that I can just go and sell or be employed by to be able to get a hundred million dollars in my bank account. So now I've got to start thinking about like what would provide a hundred million dollars worth of net value at the end of the day. And so now I'm starting thinking about building rocket ships, settling Mars, doing all these different things.

And so goals and a plan to get to those goals, I think that's also very important here. You can't just have this massive goal of like, 100 million and I'm just gonna work hard. You're gonna be like, you gotta start thinking about the different avenues avenues the different like am I am I taking a jet or am I taking a bicycle? Right? And so it just I think was it Myron that talks about like if you want to go and run a mile. Oh yeah. Right. So

one of my favorite metaphors in regarding to this is when you pick a distance that you have to go So say we all selected a mile distance and that was the goal of what you wanted to go and achieve You have a lot of different ways that you can go a mile you would consider walking a mile You would consider running a mile getting on a bike and potentially even consider a car just kind of depending how close it is now you change that distance to on a bike and potentially even consider a car just kind of depending on how close it is. Now you change that distance to 10,000 miles or a thousand miles. There's no way in heck you are considering walking, running. You might consider a bike. That would be crazy. That's going to take you, you know, a long time to be able to do on a bike. At a a minimum your vehicle that you're selecting is a car and

You're most likely looking at a plane right like you're going to Japan here in a little bit Yep, right would you ever consider swimming to Japan? Absolutely not can't swim either And and the reason is because the goal is completely different right like if we were in an Olympic sized pool And we like the other side even though you can't swim very well, you would consider swimming to that distance. And so like this is the power of the 10X rule and what Grant teaches and is a very sound principle like think huge, identify vehicles that can get you there and all of a sudden you're going to be able to back it up with massive clear action. And I think that goes down to the theory

that we talk about clarity. You wanna share what clarity does for us? Hey guys, it's Chris. If you're finding value in what you're hearing, go ahead and like and subscribe. That way people just like you can find this content for free here on YouTube. Now let's dive back in the show.

Yeah, we don't believe that there are lazy people out there We believe that there are unclear people out there clarity creates action when you're unclear You don't know what to do if I want to get in shape, but I don't know how to get in shape I'm probably just gonna sit on the couch. So what's what's the best way to create clarity? Dude, you got to go in and you've got to actually map things out. You gotta sit down. Something that we teach in our NLS system is the five-year plan. A lot of people, they overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what

they can do in five. And so what we've built out is this amazing system to teach you guys how to go and back things up from five years out into one year. Because if you wanted to get $100 million in one year, that might seem kind of egregious, but we could probably do it in five years. So really doing the work, mapping it out, having a clear road plan,

and I think with all those things, it's important to have a mentor that actually can show you the way that has run the path themselves. That's why the NLS system works, because we've done it. But on top of that, the reason why I've been able to develop the NLS system is because of so many other mentors that took my hand and helped me along the way, it's like willingness to going back to even

Grant, right, like willingness to admit you're wrong, that you need to make a change. Those things allow us to look and ask for help versus like ego Chris at age 27, I wasn't willing to ask for help. Like I thought I knew everything and therefore I continued to struggle until I you know asked for the for the the life raft out there. Yeah I think too like know, our audience is mostly business owners, entrepreneurs, but I'm hoping there's people there that are like trying to figure out how do I get from this employee situation

to like the next level. And I was thinking about this morning, I don't know why, but it kind of goes along with what we're talking about. I think if you're in a situation where it's like, I don't even know how to be a business owner, an entrepreneur, none of that stuff, I would say figure out how to make someone else a ton of money.

If you can make someone tens of millions of dollars, you will make a lot of money. You'll learn how to create value. You'll either get paid for creating that value or you'll learn how to do it and you can go do it yourself. And don't fool yourself or lie to yourself. Just because you're a part of the process doesn't mean you're making the extra money

or that you're not bringing the extra value. You have to actually bring value that would have never existed in whatever capacity you can. Yep. And I think the other just caution there is like, yeah, just because you were a part of it, doesn't mean you can go out and do it on your own. I made that mistake as well early on.

I'm like, do all this, man. I can go and own a business. There's a lot to it. And again, the reason why we promote, be a part of a community, be among other business owners that are doing it, so that you can bounce ideas, share the wins, share the losses.

Those things are just so, so, so important. I think something interesting too, and I've thought a lot about this, is how I grew up versus how I think today. And I have to contribute. We've had a lot of challenges, a lot of successes, a lot of failures, a lot of wins. And I've always thought like what's changed,

what's different, and the way we grew up was like be a man of your word. And what I found interesting is like that's very contradicting if you've got a big vision. Because if you have a big vision, you have no way to like back up what you say you're gonna do, right? And so I think instead of focusing on being a man of your word, be a man of your vision.

In other words, what you say always ties you to your vision. And your vision is big and it excites you. Right? A lot of times we create these visions of I'm gonna be a billionaire and I'm gonna be whatever. And there's no emotion to it. There's no excitement to it. There's no excitement to it. It's just numbers that maybe impress someone else,

or that you think people will look at you differently. But what really would get you excited every day and make your vision tied to emotions that you can't shake? Love it. I love it. Is there times in your guys' life that you remember of taking massive action?

100%. Like there's been so many. One, right now with what we're building with Next Level, like because we've gotten so clear in the last few months of exactly what our mission is, what our direction is, like the levels of action that I'm taking right now in the business, freaking dialed in. Obviously, SolGen, right?

Like, because we were so clear, just going back to the concept of like, clarity triggers action, and because you're just so excited, like you know exactly that if I do this, I get this result, if I do do this I get this result if I do this I get this result and you're going after big crazy hairy audacious goals Yeah, I'd say I'd say for me. It's like once you because I feel like I've taken massive action in my lows

When things are just going horrible to get out right with cells there's there's highs and there's lows And I've also taken massive action when in on the highs and continue to like find the next level. I think what's important is to realize like, where am I lying to myself? And how do I shake it? And how do I take action that I know will continue making me move forward?

One of my favorite examples of massive action, it was actually both of our lives. So when I went through bankruptcy, we had immediately launched another company called K2K Alarm. And so it was at the moment just under Darrell's name because I was going through all these collections and trying to get it all out.

But during that time, it was one of the most sweet times of my life in which it was just getting back to the grind. I remember going every single day up to Quincy Washington. It was in the middle of December. I was in the process of filing bankruptcy, started the process in November, finally filed in January. But during those two, three months, we were out knocking doors in a foot, two feet of snow, selling alarm systems, trying to pay the bills and like those are like some of the sweetest like most like core memories I look back and just think of like that is when like I knew there was something greater and I

just have to push through and do whatever it takes to get there. Yeah I can remember the doors, I can remember the people, I know exactly the times you're talking about. And it was like, I can remember thinking like, I'd have the thought come in like, why am I doing this? And I'd immediately take that thought, throw it away, like, I know why I'm doing this. I've got to push through, I've got to figure out, like I got to get myself through this

and this is just part of the process. And it sucks, you have to repeat that, sometimes multiple times, where you're like, dang, what I thought it was going to work isn't working. And I got to push through this. But it always takes you a step further, whether sometimes you realize it or not.

When you guys were on the doors, what was the feeling going through that again? I mean, you guys were building up something special. You guys had a great vision Chris you just came out of like this crazy bankruptcy situation But I want to know when you're on these doors you kind of have to start over essentially What are you feeling and experiencing on every door? You know it was humbling But it also set the table for kind of the rest of my life is that like When you scale a business,

you stop doing a lot of like the ground level work, right? But the mentality that this helped create was like, I never wanna put myself above or being willing to do the work. And so even with what we're building right now with Next Level, right? being willing to do the work. And so even with what we're building right now with Next Level, right, like I am committed, like yes, I wanna have this huge sales team again, right?

Like we built a 300-man sales team and I wanna get Next Level back up to that point and have coaches and everything else. But in the meantime, as I'm building it, like I've gotta be willing to get back on the proverbial doors and sit down and do sales calls and coaching calls and everything else with community members.

And so, even right now, I'm going through that. I'm back. Even, even right now I mentally have just in the last month been been going back to Quincy I love it Going back to quincy Dude we should uh Go to quincy. No, we should put a map in our office with directions to quincy Which you don't understand about Quincy, it's a freaking two and a half hour drive each way.

So you have a lot of time to think every day. But yeah, I think that's just like a key principle if people can just like get over their ego because dude, I got a lot of freaking egos still to this day and And I got a lot of reasons Why I shouldn't go back to Quincy right like already done it Got two nine-figure exits under the belt. Got plenty of money in the bank

account. Got assets on assets on assets. I've got relationships with guys like Grant Cardone. I've got all all the things that that what most people would say matter but like and then I just got to check my ego and say yo none of that crap matters what matters that you're always willing always willing to go back to Quincy no matter what no matter where you're at in life and figure it out figure out like how to scale because like when you grow a business you have to go through that process if you're have to go through that process. If you're unwilling to go through that process, your business will never grow.

Darrell, when you were and Chris getting back together and starting K2K up in Quincy, you probably had every reason to brush Chris off and be like, you know what, I watched what happened. I don't want to be a part of that anymore. I'm going to do my own thing. I'm going to build my own thing. I'm going to be a part of something else. What was it about Chris in that situation that made you want to work with that again? There's two things that I can think of top of the head

that have always excited me about working with Chris. One is he's a man of his vision. He loves creating vision. He loves talking about vision, vision, vision. And I do, too. I think what I like about it is Chris's vision. It's like I know he's going to push the the limits which keeps me uncomfortable and keeps me pushing the limits So that's what I love about that

to He's always hungry like he's always hungry no matter what situation we're in it's like what more can I get and the competitive nature and me Thrives in that because I'm like oh he, he wants more. I want more than him. And it's like, I mean, there's some of the dumbest arguments we've had is just, just, just competitiveness. Let's like argue about this or let's, let's, let's fight about that. Just to like be competitive.

But it's like that hunger that he has in life is like something that I've fed off of and it's pushed me and I think then that pushes him and then, and then we're just keep pushing each other I think that's where I Don't know if I Identified it, but I connected with it early on and that's I think what's allowed us to continue working together That's why I still work with them. It's like I told the Chris. I'm like dude. I can go do other stuff, but like I Love I love pushing each other. I love feeling uncomfortable around you.

Like I love putting myself in a situation where I don't know what's gonna happen, but I'm like finding new levels of experience and opportunities. Hey guys, it's Chris. Hey, a lot of you leave comments asking for help. Do me a real quick favor. Shoot me a text at 509-374-7554 that's 509-374-7554

shoot me a text I'll answer and help you with whatever you need don't worry I got you back let's go back to the show baby. I think that's awesome to hear because I think you know just as a normal person probably your knee-jerk reaction is to brush people off based off of their failures, especially big failures. But what I really have enjoyed viewing your guys' relationship and hearing specifically that is you didn't let that failure define your guys' relationship, who Chris is as a person or yourself as a person instead it I mean, I'll tell you I'll tell you frankly like I remember making a decision

I remember working with Chris when he was a sales rep. I'm like He is so demanding Right why because he like he has a he has a big vision and you can't be like you can't settle For for mediocre if you got a big vision. you can't settle for mediocre if you got a big vision. I didn't really understand at the time. At the time I'm like, dude, he's so demanding, but he's pushing harder and harder than anyone else.

I'm like, all right, I either have to be willing to work with that and accept that is 100% what I'm going to work with or completely repel it and go find people that are easy to work with that you know are I can I can control that are you know satisfied with with you know easy or normal or standard and I knew with working with Chris I'd never get that. Let's go. So I remember like making the decision of like alright I'm all in I want more people like Chris around me than less which means I'm willing to

accept hard challenging complicated people who can cut deeper, who can punch harder than anyone else. Let's go. Guys, we appreciate you watching a couple takeaways from the episode. Realize that your biggest failures could lead to your largest success if you can buy into an incredible vision, take massive action, and always be willing to go back to Quincy. Until next time.