Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Strategic Resilience Leads to Growth with John Durante - a Think Billions Experience Guest

Episode Date: December 13, 2022

In today’s episode, The Radcast is on the road at “The Castle” in Palm Desert California, the home of Billion Dollar Brand builder Howard Panes as part of the Think Billions Experience series.Ryan welcomes John Durante, the CEO of Durante Equipment. Ryan talks with John about his business journey and what made him have the grit, resilience, and determination to rise above the many obstacles of business and prevail during the difficult times for a prosperous life.You'll learn everything you need to know about being successful from this episode. It's packed full of valuable information that will help you achieve your goals and reach new heights. Don't miss out on this opportunity! Listen and learn.Key points from this episode:John shares how passionate he was in working for their family business since he was a kid up until he ran it at the young age of 20 and what he did when the business was bought out  (01:20)John decided to change his career to real estate, then to having a law firm, then to having his own equipment rental business (03:30)John shares how his journey relates with the song from Three Doors Down and how he handled his challenges and how his grit, hustle, and luck finally worked out (08:53)Being a great leader to your team can earn people’s loyalty (15:14)You can do whatever you put your mind to (16:03)This episode is packed with great advice and we know you will get a ton of value from the Think Billions Experience Guest lineup. The Think Billions Experience was developed by Howard Panes who assembled a group of the most notable multi-million and billion-dollar brand builders in the business, making the Think Billions Experience one of the highest net worth events of 2022. Learn more about future events at https://events.thinkbillions.com/ or follow Howard on Instagram https://instagram.com/howardpanesTo keep up with John, follow him on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-durante-9438a84/ or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/durequip or website https://www.duranteequip.com/Learn more by visiting our website at www.theradcast.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/RadicalHomeofTheRadcastIf you enjoyed this episode of The Radcast, Like, Share, and leave us a review!  If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. 

The hardest part of ending is starting again. You're listening to the Radcast. If it's radical, we cover it. Here's your host, Ryan Alford. Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast. We're still here at the Think Billions event in beautiful Palm Desert.

I'm here with my good friend John Durante. Durante Equipment CEO. What's up, brother? What's up? Nothing. Happy to be out here. Hey, man. In this beautiful home with our beautiful hosts.

I know. Beautiful day. It could be a lot worse, right? It could be a lot worse. We're blessed, man. A lot of quality people, a lot of great spirit, a lot of great energy. I've been really impressed with just, I don't know. It's like been waiting for that down moment. It hasn't come it's not come it's not come uh it'll come

tonight when it ends yeah i know when i like hit the bell hit the pillow but uh it's been great getting to know you better i'm excited to tell a little bit it's been good with this think billions have been event having people on and talk about their entrepreneurial journey um the goods the bads the the indifferent. Hey, it's the Radcast. We don't keep it all positive all the time. We want to give everybody the meat. I got it all.

You got it all. Let's talk about it, though, man. I know we could talk for an hour about your background, but let's at least give everybody a condensed version of kind of your business journey. Sure. So my dad was an entrepreneur, had his own equipment rental company growing up. And as a kid, all I ever wanted to be was him. I wanted to fill his shoes. I want to do exactly what he did. And that was my dream in life. And, um, so in high school, there was a period, uh, when I was a senior, I actually got up at four 30 in the morning every day and went to work. And, um, the school, I kind of went to them and said, guys, look, I'm not a

student. Um, I have no desire to be a student. I am a great businessman. I don of went to them and said, guys, look, I'm not a student. I have no desire to be a student. I am a great businessman. I don't want to be here. What can we do about it? And they wrote a program that they basically made me take two classes a day, middle of the day. So I was able to work all morning, go to school, two classes,

go back to work, and I got credit for it. Went to college, went to a school far enough away that I could move out of the house close enough that I can go to work every day. Went to work every day for my dad, started at the bottom. I don't know if it was my choice, but it was definitely required by my dad. So it was something we did. I worked in every department, did every job. And by the time I was 20 years old, I took over my dad's business and ran it for about six years. I'd say I increased revenue about 40%, but I quadrupled profits. Hey, that sounds good.

It was a great thing. Sign me up for that. Right, any day, any day. So then, you know, a new company was forming about two years earlier that became the largest rental company in America. And they had offered to buy us out. And we sold it.

It was bad for me because the money I made from the deal, I would have made within a few years. It was great for my mom and dad. So it really was, for a family, it was a great opportunity for them to retire at 54 years old. But then it put me without my dream of fulfilling my dad's shoes you know so literally couldn't go along with that deal it's like a it's a kind of sweetheart carryover yeah yeah yeah so um i worked for them for about six months realized it's very tough to work for somebody when you're an entrepreneur and where you uh you know you're trying to do the right thing every day and you're just fighting a corporate culture that doesn't allow it to happen.

Literally, when I stopped working for them, the first week I literally paced my apartment hours a day. I'd walk to the wall and back to the other wall because I never knew not working. I worked seven days a week my whole life. That's all I knew. Was out for 10 years of the industry. In that 10 years, I started buying property. I bought, started with small condominium apartments and started getting some small apartment buildings. area is this and this is all uh westchester new york okay so white plains yonkers my maranac you know good place to be buying property it was great i was living i was living in new rochelle in a basement apartment with no kitchen for seven years and i was paying 300 a month in rent and i'm buying condos that had pools and gyms and my tenants were paying me $2,500 a month.

And I'm living for $300, you know, and I did that for about five years before I finally started buying my own place and moving out and stuff. During that time, I also went to law school, got a law degree, got admitted in New York and Connecticut. I had a lawyer. You're a smart motherfucker, aren't you? But the funny thing is, Ryan, I was a bad student. We could spend an hour on my stories just from high school. I love this, man. I was the smartest kid in class, but I was a terrible A, B student.

Same here. I just never went to class. I got 10 points docked from the top because I'd miss as many days as you could to still go. You know, because I hated fucking sitting there. Well, I went to my 30-year high school reunion a couple of weeks ago. And they had a few teachers there, which was cool to see. And one of them was my science teacher. And science was a double period class.

You had the science class, then the second period you had the lab. And so he says, John, I still talk about you to this day. I said, really? I go, why? He goes, you're the only kid I've ever had that would come to first period and so he says John he goes I still talk about you to this day I said really I go why he goes you're the only kid I've ever had that would come to first period and cut the second period or cut the first period and come to the second period I said really you've never had everything he goes no he goes who's stupid enough to come to one of them and not the other that's so funny oh man

thanks so from that uh got the law. I had no intention of practicing. And the reason I went to law school, I had a bad attorney on a deal in my 20s. She missed something in a contract, and I almost lost what I had made. And it took me to a point that I said, you know what? I'm at a point in my life now, my real estate's doing well. I may get some money on it. I'm going to go to school and see what they know. Graduated with honors.

So clearly, I could have been a student my whole life just didn't care to be um as i'm coming out of law school i had no desire to practice it was 08 and everything crashed so my real estate all my commercial stuff i'm charging people half the rent just to stay there all of my residential stuff i'm evicting people you know two three four people a month where it used to be one every two, three months. So I'm struggling to pay my bills, struggle to pay my mortgage. Um, and I realized I have this law degree. I might as well use it. So I opened up a firm, had it for two years. I did well with it. A hundred clients in the first year, it was profitable, but it wasn't enough money to make up for the losses on the real estate. So as a side hustle, I opened up

the equipment rental business that I hadn't been in in 10 years, um, just to try to make some income, took out a half a million dollar hard money loan, uh, based off on the real estate that I had owned. And, um, within took on two partners and within 10 years grew it to 10 stores and sold it to a private equity. And within a month of opening it, I shut down the firm because I realized this is where my future was. Wow. That's crazy, man. A lot of layers there. A lot of layers.

A lot to unpack. Yep. I mean, Jesus. Give me a little bit of the time frame there. When did that sale take place? So the sale took place in 2019. Okay. A couple of years ago.

And then I opened up again in 2020 down in Florida. Doing the same thing. Same thing. Okay. Just moved. Just moved. Went from New York to Florida. I was dragged there by my wife by the years I say.

What is it with New Yorkers going to Florida? Is it just because it's warm and it's on the East Coast? It's warm and it's on the East Coast. It's a known thing that that's where you go. if you're from if you're from the area we are of new york you go to the east coast of florida if you're from the west coast of new york you go to the west coast of florida so it is a thing i do go to florida's the thing i didn't know it's like that geographically driven yep oh man that's great, I mean, what's a lot of learning lessons there going through 08 was hard for everybody that was in business then. Um, what'd you learn about yourself?

So the one thing I learned about myself was, I'll tell you this, there was a great song, um, called duck and run. And I'm trying to remember who the heck it was. I, um, I'm going to look it up while we talk. Yeah. So Duck and Run, and the lyrics really had a lot to me. And I don't know if you use music every now and then. Oh, yeah. I've used music several times to get through different points in my life.

Oh, I'm a music junkie. I grew up, my dad to this day is still in a band. The Alphards are very musical. Oh, really? My dad plays like seven instruments. I could play piano, guitar. Yeah, so music is in my soul. So what do you play? I play guitar and took six years of piano.

Nice. I'm six months in on piano lessons right now. Yeah. How's it going? It's going great. Yeah? Yeah, it's going amazing. See, I'm better at guitar now than I was piano.

I never really took guitar lessons, but my dad taught me. Sure. And piano, I wouldn't mind getting back but my dad taught me sure um and piano I wouldn't mind getting back into like I can get on there and bang a little bit but like I need to I would need to get lessons again oh yeah to really get it back well I have a funny story about that which goes to the business and the mindset of an entrepreneur and we can I'll tell you so in 08 09 10 this was a song a duck and run by three doors down oh I remember I didn't know three doorsors Down, of course.

And, you know, the part of it was, it was saying, you know, this world can turn me down, but I won't turn away. Oh, no, I won't turn around. And then part of it says, it says, I won't duck and run because I'm not built that way. And I listened to that song over and over and over again

because I'm not built that way. When everything is gone, there's nothing there to fear. This world cannot bring me down. No, because I'm not built that way when everything is gone there's nothing there to fear this world cannot bring me down no because I'm already here and I always I played the song and I just kept saying I'm here I'm at rock bottom I mean I was eating oreo cookies for dinner I lived in a penthouse of a penthouse trump apartment couldn't afford to pay my mortgage anymore and I'm eating oreo cookies for dinner because I couldn't afford to like go to restaurants I would um if I had a $70 dinner with Ryan I was sick to my stomach that I spent $70 out on dinner that's how bad it got and the funny thing is you know you look at so many entrepreneurs when we were younger and even now you look at

entrepreneurs that are on the verge of losing everything everything you watch their big business clubs you watch and then 10 years later they're're bigger, better, stronger. And as a kid, I was always like, how is that possible? How? That can't be. And I was brought there. Like, I was literally brought there. And it brings out the best in you. Like, it brings out the hustle and the fight and the.

We're way more resilient than we give our credit for. And some of us embrace that. And some of us, it just, you know, I think. I don't want to say the winners and the losers i'm no judge of who that is but i think you know like the distinguishment of those that have the grit grit's one of my favorite words you know it's like i love grit in employees and in people like you got to have a little bit of grit to kind of get over it and if you do there's usually a pot of gold on the side you know i mean it's like

one way or another a pot of gold of knowledge pot of gold of physical money or you know everything but just if you can get through it you know and in the moment it feels so bad you know i've been there it's like and it sucks it does it sucks i don't wish about anybody yep but damn it feels good when you get on the other side of it oh yeah yep and you know and i do feel that there is a lot of luck involved sometimes you know because i got lucky that there was a stranger in my building that i'd become friends with that him and his wife loaned me half a million dollars on a signature you know it was hard money it was a high it was a high interest but it was there and if i didn't have that it wouldn't give me the money to start the rental

business which then grew to a bigger business um you know, my business in Florida, I opened January 14, 2020. So weeks before the pandemic, weeks before the shutdown. And I mean, I got a year in and I said to my wife, I said, I don't know how we're not going to lose everything. Like, you know, I had invested everything. I borrowed a lot of money. And it was a really hard time to open up a business and a really hard time. My ups and downs for the last three years are more than I've ever had in my life. The depression of what the hell am I doing, trying to pull out of it, and then the highs when you get the wins.

But there were three times now that I was at the brink of breaking and something came through that bought me another nine months. And I'm on the brink of breaking it. I'm running out of money. I'm running out of money to keep the business going and keep it afloat. And then something happened that was like, holy crap, I've been trying for nine months to get this to happen. And at the last minute, it happened three times.

So you sit there and say, who's looking out for you? You know, because it didn't happen the other nine months. It happened at that point when I really was desperate and I really needed it. So I do think luck I really needed it. So I do think luck plays part of it. You're putting yourself there. But if I didn't get that, if that didn't happen, three months later, it would have been a way different story. I'd be telling a way different podcast right now.

I have a saying, John. It's the harder you work, the luckier you get. True. Very true. Very true. It finds you get. True. Very true. Very true. You know, it finds you eventually. Yep, 100%. It's not, and I can tell by getting to know you, it's not accidental. It's, you know, the grit, the resolve, and the smarts to kind of get on the other side of it.

Need some damn Oreos, you know. Like, sometimes we got to eat Oreos. And, you know, the most humbling thing was, and again, I had a beautiful apartment, even though it was, it was deep into Westchester, New York, which is basically it's on the mainland USA. You have the Bronx, which is part of New York city. Bronx is on the mainland. Everything else is on the islands.

And then you have Westchester, which is right after the Bronx. So I had a beautiful view of Manhattan from my apartment. I had the bridges. I had this amazing apartment. Couldn't pay my mortgage and it's good. I still have the apartment today. I was able to keep it. I got out of, you know, I got my credit, have it rented now. I got my credit score back up, but I had to rent my guest bedroom to a stranger. And I'm in my thirties, my mid thirties, having to rent my guest bedroom to a stranger on Craigslist for two grand a month just to pay my bills.

And that was probably the most humbling part of my life is coming home to my home that I don't want somebody in. And she was a pleasure. She was a professional. I think she worked like IBM or something, you know, kept to herself, was quiet. So it was a good experience, but it was humbling to be forced to have that in your home and do it. I mean, sometimes those experiences are what makes it. It just teaches you to be that much more thankful. We take a lot for granted.

We all do. But where are you wanting to go with the business now? So this is now. The growth plan is I would love to do 10 stores is my first step of my game plan. You know, and I look at it and say, you know, I opened up a we're doing great. We're doing, you know, just under 10 million in revenue in three years, which is amazing. During covid, during covid. And it's profitable. It's you know, it's it's finally cash flow positive. That took three years.

But I look at it and say, if I could do the one during COVID, why can't I do nine more just like it? Put the systems in place. Put the right people in place. Find the money, which is what I'm hustling for right now. Yeah, that's my plan is to really replicate it. Then I have no plan past 10 as of today. Because I don't want to say I'm going to have 100, I'm going to have 300. 10 is a great goal for today. And then as I start to get five, six, hopefully then I'm so, okay,

10, that's good. Let's figure out the 20 plan. Let's figure out the 30 plan. I love it. Did you get any nuggets this weekend? I did. I got a lot of nuggets. You know, my, one of my biggest things was, um, I've really been working on my culture and it's getting hard because I've always been a really good boss and a really good leader. And I was generous with the employees, with pay, with benefits, with time off. And that bought me loyalty. It earned me loyalty.

I'm not going to say it bought me loyalty. It earned me loyalty. And loyalty has disappeared. So it's become now the goodness leads only to be taken advantage of. And I refuse to not be good. I refuse to not be a good leader and a good boss. So I either need to find the people that appreciate that and want that and want to be there,

or I got to, that's really the only option. Rethink the model. That's the only option. And I don't want to change myself because the world has changed, you know? No, no, you don't want to do that. So my piano story, Ryan. Yes, I want to know.

So I'm six months into piano lessons, and my teacher comes to me, and she wants to have a recital at somebody's house, like a nice older adult party, cocktails, and recital. She goes, will you play? And I said, I will do this one time for you. And it happened to be this weekend, so I had to cancel because we decided to come here.

And so I said, I will do this once for you she says yeah but why not every year because i'm not learning piano to play for other people i said she was what are you learning for us i want to play for myself she said well don't you want other people to hear you i said i could care less you know and she was well you're afraid it's not sit down in front of anybody and play today i'll play cross buns if i got it you know but i no, that's not why I'm doing it. So she goes, okay, what song do you want to play? I said, I don't know. I said, maybe Angry Young Man by Billy Joel. I don't know if you know Angry Young Man. Billy Joel is wailing on that piano

in the beginning of the song. Yeah, banging. And so she goes, I don't know if I know it. So I get on my phone, I play it for her. And she sits there and goes, John, she says, you're six months into piano. That's Billy Joel. she's like you cannot play that song i said why not teach me and she's like john that's billy joel like you know yeah and

so finally she convinced me that i can't play that song okay and so this is a friday afternoon so um she leaves saturday morning i get up early i download the music i download some videos and it took me about a half an hour, but I got the notes. Not fast, but I was able to play the sequence of notes that played it. And I had my 8-year-old, Daniela, I had her record it for me, and I sent it to the teacher. And she texted me back. She says, okay, maybe we'll try this.

And I got it. I got it. I got it. Now, if he's hitting, you watch him play. If he's at 100%, I'm at about 87%. But it's still pretty damn good, Ryan. You hear it? And as fast as I think I get, I keep recording myself,

and I play it, I'm like, crap, I'm not there yet. Do you have rhythm? No. Do you hear? I don't. I don't at all. To me, Ryan, it's funny. This drives her crazy, too.

I don't have musical talent. To me, it's a video game. So I'm watching the notes as they come up, as you would any other game, and I need to hit that key at the right moment, at the right hardness, or the right speed, you know, to make it work. Hey, you know, if something tells me you put your mind to anything, you'll get it done. Try to.

Try to. John, where can everybody keep up with you the business dorante yeah all that stuff so right now um the only place is really facebook and linkedin okay i don't have instagram i don't have snapchat i don't have tiktok i don't have anything i'm learning from this weekend that i really should be looking at that stuff you know i'm not a self promoter i told you before we started I'm very much an introvert. But you're good on the mic, man. I think you need a podcast.

Thank you. Yeah, but the problem is, it's just so not my... Not you. It's not me. And it's not even my comfort zone. It's just not something that I look to do. Yeah. I enjoy doing it. I love the conversation we're having.

It's great to be able to tell my story. It's nice. As an entrepreneur, many of us, unless you are self-promoting yourself, you don't get the chance to tell your you are self-promoting yourself you don't get the chance to tell your story that often yeah and you don't get to talk about it and you know a lot of us don't celebrate our successes that's the thing yeah you have to you have to break down that wall to do it you know yep john it's been a pleasure man same here right thank you so much hey guys you know where to find us the radcast.com look us up you'll see today's episode and all the

highlight clips i'm at ryan episode and all the highlight clips. I'm at Ryan Offer on all the social media platforms. I'm blowing up on TikTok, so go follow me over there. We'll see you next time on the Radcast.