The Code To Winning - FROM IRAQ VETERAN TO TOP DALLAS REALTOR USING ONLY YOUTUBE || LEVI LASCSAK || EPISODE 078

Episode Date: March 4, 2026

In this episode, I sit down with Levi Lascsak, Dallas real estate powerhouse, Iraq War veteran, and one of the most recognized voices in YouTube driven real estate marketing today.   Levi has helped generate over $250 million in sales, closing more than 524 homes in just five years, while building a YouTube strategy that has transformed how realtors attract clients. Voted Top Producer by D Magazine and ranked Top 100 in Dallas by Real Producers, Levi has proven that consistent content and strategic positioning can outperform traditional marketing in today’s market.   But this conversation goes far deeper than numbers. Levi shares how his experience serving in Iraq shaped his discipline, leadership, and resilience and how those traits carried into entrepreneurship. We talk about what it really takes to stand out in competitive markets like Dallas, why most agents fail on YouTube, and how to build a predictable inbound lead machine through long form content. He also breaks down: • How YouTube became his primary driver of business • The mindset shift from chasing deals to attracting them • Turning content into passive prospecting • Overcoming skepticism and industry pushback • Building authority and trust at scale   As the author of Passive Prospecting and recognized as a HousingWire 2025 Top 10 Coach, Levi has made it his mission to help realtors crush YouTube and create long term sustainable growth without cold calling or door knocking.   If you’re a realtor, entrepreneur, content creator, or business owner looking to dominate your niche using YouTube, this episode is a masterclass in strategy, execution, and discipline.   Timestamps  00:00 Quick Money vs. Steady 04:46 Medicare Insurance ️ 08:42 Perfect Exit Timing 12:08 Attention to Detail 15:41 Financial Terminology 18:15 Niche Content Focus 23:07 Future Business Trends 25:48 Software Race Impact 28:32 Entrepreneurial Focus 31:07 Service Industry Value ️ 34:08 Journey to Wealth 36:30 Authentic Influence 39:02 Motivation vs. Action 42:13 Business Growth Path 46:08 Definition of Winning

I wouldn't say anything saturated because if you say something saturated, you're immediately setting yourself up for failure, in my opinion. You know, and also you're going in with the scarcity mindset. It's very hard to overcome a scarcity mindset. Plus, you know, I mean, that's the whole point of faith. It's like you believe, you got to believe that what I'm about to do is going to work and I'm going to stop at nothing to make it work. You either need to be first or you need to be the best. I started in 2020. There really wasn't real estate YouTubers. on the channel. There was actually two. Now some people might even look at that and say,

oh, well, these two people already have the market locked up. I looked at the gaps. Now, the funny thing is, is those two channels are still around. One of them has only gone from 13 to 15,000 subscribers. The other one went from 5,000 to I think they're at 9,000 now. We're over 55,000 subscribers. So because of that initial effort, not only did I catch them, I blew way past them and now I dominate the market. The Code 2 winning insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. We are in Sin City, Las Vegas. We are still at the Wealth Con Conference, the last and final one.

If you are curious in building your business, building your brand, I actually have an expert who is very experienced in this field. Matter of fact, he has built his company, real estate company, through YouTube as well. but the curious and most important thing without ads and cold calling. So we're going to dive into it a bit more. We're going to actually break the fundamentals and the most important thing of how doing things organically as well. So without further ado, the man, the myth of very legend himself,

Levi Lassick, like classic. How you're doing, sir? Yeah, very good, yeah. Thank you. Awesome stuff. Yeah, I wanted to touch base and just talk a bit more. I'm curious because you just blew my mind. Obviously, we were watching out at the back.

back here and I was like to Ryan, I'm like, okay, look, we need to get him because this is something very unique. People love building brands, but the fact that you build your company through YouTube, I want to just dive in a bit more and just figure out like these fundamentals and how sustainable and how good it has been for you as well. Can we just go and talk about that? Of course. Awesome stuff. How did you start off? In YouTube? Yes. Yeah, well, I mean, I, uh, 2020 happened. And if anybody remembers 2020 very very interesting time but I used to work with teachers on retirement planning at schools so I went to schools and met with them one-on-one and set them up on retirement accounts to help supplement

their pensions very lucrative I had a teacher's schedule but five times a teacher's income so I worked about eight months of the year I traveled the world the rest of the time and was living my best life and then you know 20-20 happened travel shut down school shut down and I found myself like, how do I start over without starting over? Because that's what I felt like. I was like, okay, how do I start over without starting over? Is that even possible? Clearly, I was starting over. So I was like, okay, well, I wasn't, I've always been interested in real estate investing in real estate, but there was not really a lot of options during 2020 either. You're not going to get a job. I didn't want a job, but also there was 30 million layoffs

in the country at that point. So nobody was hiring anyways. And, and, you're not going to get a job. I didn't, And then like what business do you start in the middle of a global shutdown? I guess I could have sold toilet paper, but it was very hard to come by. So I didn't want to be a toilet paper salesman. And then I've just got really good friends that have been in the real estate agent business for a while. So they were trying to talk me into it. They know me. They know my character.

They know my sales skills. And so they were encouraged me saying, hey, you would be a great real estate agent. And I was like, I don't want to be a real estate agent. You know, I always felt like they had ulterior motives. You know, like, oh, nice to meet you. I love your suit. By the way, here's my card. You know, if you're ever going to buy and sell, I'm your person.

But, and clearly they're not that way, but that's just the way I felt. So after doing a lot of investment over 2020, trying my hand at a lot of different things that didn't work, I burned through a lot of cash. And then I said, all right, well, maybe I'm going to have to be a real estate agent. So I really moved into it reluctantly. But I also thought, well, what am I going to do? There's no meetups going on right now. The six-foot rule was kind of still in place.

You're not going to go door-knocking at that time. I didn't want a cold call. I didn't want to spend money on postcards. I was almost out of money at that point. So I was like, oh, I guess I'm going to have to do this social media thing. But I had never really done social media. I was anti-social media because I grew up without it, you know, so it wasn't really a part of my life. And I had built my businesses one-on-one, you know, person-to-person,

in belly-to-belly cells. So I thought, well, I guess I'm going to go down this route, but I want to choose one platform, and which platform would that be? I didn't know. So I kind of really did some research on the different platforms. And then I discovered, like YouTube, which was my last choice, I discovered it's really a search engine,

not a social media platform. So whenever I figured out, oh, it's actually a search engine, well, maybe I can create content that people are searching for, and that would make more sense to me. Plus, I didn't know how to be a good agent, so I didn't want to make videos about, you know, how to sell your home fast, or the seven fastest way to sell your home,

you know, because I've never done it. So, but I've lived in Dallas for 20 plus years. You know, I'm a resident. I'm a homeowner. I know what it's like to live in different neighborhoods, to have friends that live in different neighborhoods. So I didn't do that, and I thought, okay, well, if it's a search engine,

maybe people are searching neighborhoods and suburbs, and then I can just educate them on the areas, and maybe they'll give me a call. So that was kind of the thought process behind it. And sure enough, I started to research and I started to find that suburbs of Dallas actually had really high search volume, like tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands

of searches each month on YouTube. So that was a light bulb. I was just like, wow, that's crazy. Some of these suburbs, people are searching hundreds, thousands of time each month. And so I was like, all right, well, I'm going to make a video about that area. You know, what's it like to live, work, eat, sleep, play, all that good stuff.

And then all of a sudden, within 30 days, the phone rang from the videos. And somebody was like, hey, I want to move to Dallas. You know, can you help me out? And I was like, sure. And they had no idea I'd never sold a home before. They thought I was this real estate expert who had been in the business for 10 or 15 years because I knew the areas so well. I never preached.

Actually, I would just say, hey, my name is Levi. you know and if you're thinking about making a move to Dallas let me know I didn't say I'm a real estate agent I didn't say I'm your your number one real estate agent I'm the top real estate agent or anything like that I just I was just like I'm Levi and I can help you out if you're thinking of moving to Dallas and that's what happened I got the first phone call within 90 days I got the first deal under contract within 120 days close the first two deals and then by the end of the first year I'd sold 64 homes and made over a million in commissions as an agent, brand new, with zero marketing.

I mean, YouTube is marketing, but no paid ads, did not use a single paid ad on YouTube. I did no cold calls, I did no networking events, I did no open houses, did no postcards, and closed 64 homes, which was about 33 and a half million in sales volume. That is ridiculous. But the problem I wanted to talk about,

which people are facing, is that that YouTube is so saturated and competitive, but there's still people that are growing and progressing every single day. What advice would you give for those people that are posting but they get like one or two views from mom and dad or they're not seeing the progress with their YouTube organic way without paid ads?

So I wouldn't say anything saturated. So I would always caution people to be mindful of the words they choose. Because if you say something saturated, you're immediately setting your self up for failure in my opinion. You know, and also you're going in with the scarcity mindset. You know, it's very hard to overcome a scarcity mindset. Plus, you know, I mean, that's the whole point of faith. It's like you believe, you got to believe that what I'm about to do is going to

work and I'm going to stop at nothing to make it work. So, so that's first and foremost. Second of all, it, there's, as far as when it comes to saturation, you either need to be first or you need to be the best. So even if something is saturated, well that means you look at the saturation and say where are the gaps like okay there's other real estate YouTubers right now now when I started it in 2020 there really wasn't real estate YouTubers on the channel there was actually two and one of them had 7,000 subs and the other one had 5,000 subscribers now some people might even look at that and say oh well these two people already have the market locked up Well, what I said was I looked at the gaps.

Okay, what are they doing? How am I different? How can I be different? How many times are they posting per week? And I realized both of them were only posting one video a week. So my number one plan was to post three times a week. Because I thought, well, if I'm ever even going to have the opportunity to catch them, it's not going to be by posting one video a week.

You see, if they've already posted 100 videos and they're doing one a week and I post one video a week, guess what? I'll never catch them. Never. If I do two videos a week, I could catch them and pass them, but it's going to take a little bit longer. But if I do something like three videos a week, I'm tripling my opportunity to not only catch them, but also pass them up. So something like that, I said, okay, I did that. And the funny thing was is that whenever I hit 13,000, or they hit 13,000. thousand subscribers I had 13,000 subscribers. So I caught them at 13,000

subscribers. And this is all organically as well right? Yeah, all organic. Now the funny thing is is those two channels are still around. One of them has only gone from 13 to 15,000 subscribers. The other one went from 5,000 to I think they're at 9,000 now. We're over 55,000 subscribers. So because of that initial effort, not only did I catch them, I blew way past them and now I dominate the market to where most people might say again oh there there's two channels that's it they've captured the market but the reality is is there's there's hundreds and hundreds of transactions every month in Dallas two

channels are not going to capture those transactions five channels are not 10 channels 20 channels you know no channel is going to capture all the transactions in a market so again it's not saturated now now there's 50 60 70 channels in Dallas and we're part of that problem because we coach people how to do it. So guess what I have to do now? I have to be the best. At first, I was the first. Now I have to be the best because there is more people in the market. I'm not even saying it's saturated. I'm saying that there's just more people in the market. And that's going to happen with anything you do over time. And like they say, marketers ruin everything. Well, as soon as people start to figure that out, they start jumping in.

And so now I have to be the best. And now I'm producing two videos a week. So I went from three for the first two years down to one and then back up to two. And the reason I'm at two right now is because everybody's still posting one video a week. And also the market's shifted, the real estate market shifted. So I would look at it from that angle. If you see something you think it's saturated, it's probably not. Look for the gaps and how could you do things differently.

I have a very simple formula for success, which is who's at the top? How did they get there? How can I model it? How can I adjust it to fit my personality? And then how can I beat them? So again, I just looked at two channels. That was it in Dallas at that time. And I said, okay, what are they doing?

Oh, they're only publishing once a week. What are they talking about? Well, they're not talking about these topics or these areas or these suburbs. Okay. And then what do I like about them that I could actually implement and then what do I not like that I could change and then how do I make it fit my personality I'm not going to copy them or I'm not going to try to do the exact same thing they're doing I need to adjust it to fit my personality so it feels more natural and then how do I beat them I love that

no just to add on that I know her Mosey said something like in order just to be top 1% podcast does you have to have just 21 episodes and now the moral of the story to that is that people usually start something. They get excited. Let's start a YouTube channel. But sometimes there is lack of inconsistency because the blueprint for success and you know it better than most people, especially with YouTube, it is right there. It just involves a lot of commitment and just you have to just outwork the next person because the more you do so, you're showing a level of consistency. Why do you think people are struggling with that? Like what's, why do you think they're so discouraged by not seeing imminent success from your experience when you've coached a lot of

people. I mean, we're in a world now of instant access, you know, to whatever you want. You know, you open up Instagram and you, you know, you can just sit there and scroll for an hour. And then you're like, oh, where'd the hour go? Well, you sit there and scroll 30 seconds at a time up to, you know, for an hour or two. So, you know, a lot of times now, they're saying, I think the average is almost two to three hours a day people are spending on short form platforms. That's just, they're just consuming nonsense. They want instant gratification that's, you know, and I don't want to blanket everybody with that, but ultimately anything just takes commitment, and there's a saying almost about every part of success, which is time on task over time.

That's the formula. Time on task over time. And, you know, people are going to quit. You can almost win just by not quitting. You can almost probably beat out 80 to 90% of the competition just by not quitting, because 80% to 90% of people are going to quit. same thing with gyms you know her diets uh you know routines um i mean so but what are the things you stay consistent on and then they just become part of your life so video is a part of my life now you know if i don't make a video in a week i'm kind of like oh i didn't make a video this week

i need to make a video you know where most people are like oh my god i've got to make a video oh Oh, this is, you know, this is, you know, but I don't know, do you brush your teeth twice a day? Yeah, I don't know. Twice. No, no, it's facts. But that's part of your routine now. Like, if you don't brush your, have you ever missed a morning or an evening of brushing your teeth? You feel kind of grimy and like, well, yeah, oh, yeah.

And you don't feel like, oh, my God, I don't feel myself. You know, so to me, that's, that's when you do something enough and it becomes a part of you, then that's what it is. But right now, it's, we make it look easy. And again, people look at surface level success, and they don't look at, you know, all the backstory and the work that went into it. You know, people look at my compound effect of five years,

and they think I'm going to get the same results with three videos. And it's not, that's not the case, you know. So you have to commit to something, but also number two, I always say, are you even interested? You know, because when I started video, number one thing I knew I wasn't interested in editing. And the funny thing is, is I've never edited a video, ever. And I think a lot of people think when you get on YouTube that you have to be some editor as well.

Like, oh, that's noble to edit your own videos? No, it's not. It's a waste of time, in my opinion, unless your art is editing. You know, I know one real estate agent out of thousands, one that edits his own videos, because that is part of his art. So he makes a video, and then it takes them two days usually to edit that video, sometimes three.

And that's at eight hours a day. So that's the amount of time he spends on it. So you got to look at that. I wasn't interested in editing. So if I would have tried to edit, I probably would have quit after my first or second video. So that's the other aspect. Like what are the things you need to eliminate

around what you want to do so that you don't quit? You know, if you want a wholesale real estate and you don't like cold calling, and you're sitting there just like, man, I hate cold calling, I hate cold calling. And, you know, that's usually where people quit. Now, if you can get hire somebody else to do it for you, get AI or whatever the case may be, and you're like, I just want to get people on the phone, and then I want to negotiate the deal. Or you do like what Ryan does, where he generates inbound, where people, you know, he's willing to spend the money up front so that people call him and say, hey, yeah, I want to sell my house.

okay, cool, they get right into negotiations. So you got to look at that too. I mean, I think people try to do too much in the beginning. You've got to understand like what components of what I'm about to do, do I want to do, or am I interested in learning to do? And what am I not interested in doing? What would I hate doing? What would actually probably force me to quit doing this if I force my, you know,

so you got to look at things like that as well. And for me, getting into video, I knew from day one, I was like, well, I'm not interested in editing. I don't like it. I've tried to do a couple of times, and I'm just like, nope, not me. And so I immediately hired that out. So I didn't have a marketing budget in the beginning, but I did have an editing budget. Okay.

Now that makes perfect sense. I'm glad you mentioned that. And I think looking at when I first started off, if I tell you some of the craziest strategies that I've done to start building my channel about like three years ago, I actually went, I had like a QR code and I printed out like my logo and like my portrait. And what I do, like DoDash and ask people, don't tip me, just scan the QR code and subscribe. Before I started the thing with my first episode. And it just went. Like I think I got the first two, three thousand.

But the problem is I'm like, no one's watching the video. I'll post a video and it's like, why do I have like 1,500? But I only have like 10 people who are just doing it out of the kindness of their hearts. I'm like, this is not really working. I'm not going to become successful because people are subbing for the wrong reasons, which is almost like paid ads. And I think over time, then you start realizing when you're doing so much and not focusing on what you're good at, because I have one editor of my five, that's also locally, and how he does certain reels, I was like, listen, I want you to watch Stephen Bartlett's direct of his CEO. I love those, like, effects and stuff, and we'd be zooming, and it showed me I was cutting all these things up, and he has that passion, like, for editing reels a certain way.

at the point I'm like, listen, dude, I don't care what it is. Like, how much you want, we're going to do it this way as well. I think over time, people are in that cash flow quadrant with Robert Kusaki. They're in the employee, small business owner. People, it's easy to get stuck there. But the hardest one is a small business because you want to do everything all at once, but there's only 24 hours, so you're not delegating your time in the right places. What are some of a way that people can try and escape a bit of that rat race

where they can delegate and upscale better, especially in real estate and also through YouTube. Well, typically if you have money, so to delegate it too. I mean, you know, as I shared my story earlier, whenever I was moving into it, I had blown through practically all my money. So what little I had left,

like I had to use that to delegate the editing. I knew that was the one thing that if I tried to do that, I would probably quit. it. So I still did. I had to do everything else in the beginning. So every, I mean, everything I did in the beginning other than just editing. But I had to learn those skills and it was actually interesting to me. So it just depends on where you're at in your, in your business. I love what Ryan said earlier, you know, like he can delegate any part of business. He can't delegate,

you know, his faith, his marriage, or his health, you know. So again, that's, that's an interesting topic and also when I started this business and as soon as I started to get money in, one of the first things I did was started to invest in people and started to hire out for certain things immediately. That was one of the first things. So even like making a million that first year, I only paid myself $10,000 a month as my salary to, you know, to pay my bills and what I needed to do, you know, even left me a little bit of extra money over. And And I was like, the rest of it, you know, how can I use this in the business, but also started investing in some coaching and mentorship as well, which also helped me

start to speed up the process. So, you know, as far as that goes, you've got to look at sometimes if you don't have the revenue or the funds to invest in other people or systems or processes, then, yeah, you're probably going to be working on something. But if there's something that forces you into doing something that is going to make you quit, You know, you need to find a way at all cost to outsource that somehow, some way. And if you don't have the funds, you know, this is where partnerships come in. This is where, you know, co-founders.

This is where equity opportunities might, you know, because, again, if you don't have the the money to do at that point, you might say, you might find an editor. Be like, hey, you know, I'm starting this whole thing up. Can't pay you, but, you know, share your vision, your goals, your dreams, the business plan, say, look, I've done all this research. I've got the whole content plan laid out. I know exactly what I do. I just need you to edit,

and I want to cut you in on the business because I can't pay you. But, you know, if you get somebody to buy into your vision, you know, that's how companies are founded. That's how co-founders come around. But I would caution you this on partnerships is ideally, it's not good usually to partner with somebody that you haven't known at least four to five years.

You know, I think it's very important. if you get into any type of equity opportunity with someone that you, you know them, you know their character, you know their family, you know their work ethic, you understand those things. Because once you sign legal paperwork, you're in with that person. So where it goes from there. And then if you start to learn other things, oh, they're a cheater, they're a gambler, they're a drinker, you know, things maybe you don't agree with or align with you. And all that stuff starts to come out later, you know, it's a big problem. So you have to be mindful. If you don't have money in the beginning and you're looking for strategic partnerships,

you know, maybe you start with friends and family first, people that you know have known or, you know, something along those lines. I wouldn't say go online or I meet you at a conference and like, oh, I like you. Okay, yeah, let's partner up on a deal. You know, that, I mean, it has worked, but, you know, not ideal. And that's just my work. of caution of course. The risk involved in that is absolutely scary so I couldn't agree more. I mean and one of the things that like I said separated you which got us excited to try and approach you for the interview as well. Obviously you built a real estate company or real estate firm. I know you're a co-founder of Progressive prospect as well but you built a company

through YouTube organically without paid that's number one and also without cold calling. What would you say is one of the most important strategies that you implemented to accumulate millions of dollars in revenue? Well it was focusing on the search topics, the search terms. You know, that's the cool thing about YouTube is you can use a tool. We use a tool called channel studio. AI.

Like you can just pop in keywords in there and see the search results. So if I looked at a suburb, you know, Frisco, Texas versus Plano, Texas, and Frisco, Texas gets 50,000 searches a month, and Plano gets 20,000 searches per month, that's still good for both of them, but I'm going to make videos about Frisco, Texas, first, because it has 30,000 more searches per month. So, you know, look at your topics. And once people start searching that, YouTube has the most powerful algorithm out there. It's only going to serve videos to people that it believes will watch those videos. So as soon as I get one person to watch Dallas real estate videos that's going to trigger number one the next time

they log in YouTube's going to feed them more of those videos if they stay if they watch the video and then YouTube's going to know that person and know other people similar to that person and then if anybody else has searched Dallas real estate videos in the past they're going to be like oh let's serve up this person really like this video that Levi made so let's serve that to some more people and so the algorithm just takes effect from there. It takes over. And that's what we when building off of it, like we wanted to find people that were specifically looking for that information. Now there's, there's two different ways you can do search and you can do browse slash suggested. And, you know, browse slash suggested just has more of a broader pill, which means I may make videos about the

suburbs, which is a little bit more niched, probably a lot more search volume and, and, you know, that's probably where I'm going to generate more phone calls. If I want views, I might make something on Dallas, Texas. You see, Frisco, Texas has a population of like $250,000. Dallas, Texas has a population of $4 million. So if I make a video around Dallas, Texas, immediately it's got a more broader appeal. But then also you're probably going to get some more casual audience as well.

So maybe it gets more views. Maybe it generates more subscribers, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's more phone calls. And for me, the most important thing was phone calls, period. So I'm measuring success by phone calls because I'm trying to monetize off platform. I want people to call us. Our typical real estate commission is $15,000 to $20,000. So you know, you monetize that.

That adds up a lot. That's so powerful. So I use multiple different tools. I have a guy for SEO that does that. I also just have on my desktop, myself personally, I have like Vid IQ, which gives me like a certain score of like what my thumbnails may be, what my title may be and all this different stuff. And with certain packages, you know, you can generate them for like a certain title as well. So, I mean, those are tools that are relatively good. What would you say in that situation, how big of a role does thumbnails and titles really play towards like getting their trust?

and the right people to look at your videos? Yeah, probably the most important. Even thumbnails? Yeah. Okay. Well, I mean, we're visual creatures. And so a thumbnail, if you don't get the click, you're not going to get the view. So if they don't, if they're not interested in the thumbnail, they're not going to read the title.

And if they don't read the title, they're probably not going to click on the video. So it's thumbnail to title, and then that's got to create some sort of curiosity. I think the thumbnail has three words or less, sometimes no words. If you can tell a story with a picture, very powerful. That's the B-style. Yeah. And then they look at the title and they go, okay, that's actually something I'm interested in.

And then the content has to be good to keep them watching because that's the other metrics. So YouTube's going to serve up your videos. If nobody clicks on it or you get a lower than average click-through rate, then they're not going to serve it to more people. They're like, well, we're taking up real estate. Like when you open up YouTube, you got to think of that as, as, that's a lot of That's real estate.

And YouTube is choosing which thumbnails to put on there that you are most likely to watch. So if they put your video up there a hundred times and nobody clicks on it or one person clicks on it, they're going to be like, that's not a good use of real estate. You know, so we're not, why would we promote this video anymore? And what happens when you open up YouTube? You're sitting there, all you see is thumbnails. What happens when you open up Netflix? Thumbails.

What are billboards? They're thumbnails. What are magazine covers? They're thumbnails, right? Picture, bold text, curiosity, jaw drop, you know, shock value. All right, you're sitting in the grocery checkout. What do you see?

Tabloids. You know, those are thumbnails. So you think about postcards? Thumbails. You know, so when you think about all of that and you look at it now in a different perspective, you know, all of advertising is really thumbnails. So that thumbnail on a YouTube video in terms of real estate

is the same as a postcard, it's the same as a billboard, it's the same as an ad in a magazine, and what are you thinking about when agents put those together or a company puts it together for you, what are they thinking about? Placement, wording, colors, branding, like what's the goal we're trying to accomplish? You know, we were making fun of it.

it we were driving oh we were driving here the other day from the airport you know being in Vegas and like every every billboard is a injury injury yeah one of them one of the lawyers is the is the muscle right and he's like he's in a suit but his sleeve is ripped off of his suit you know and he's like flex and he's like and I don't even remember his name but I remember the muscle so you think about that driving by in that split second I mean we could probably Google Las Vegas lawyer the muscle and we could find that guy you know and that that's what he's doing something that is like because your eyes process an image in seven-tenths of a second and if

YouTube leaves your thumbnail if your if your thumbnail stays on somebody's screen longer than one second YouTube counts that as an impression like they say oh we've given the viewer long enough to decide whether or not they want to click on this video and so if they serve your your thumbnail to 100 people and less than 2%, which means two out of 10 click on it, they're not going to serve it to anybody else. So you want to live really like four, five, six percent plus click through rate.

So that still means only six out of 100 people are clicking on your video. Is that a good score? 6%. Yeah, it's not bad. So, I mean, the click through or personally for me, so now in terms of, because of people's lack of attention span for longer-form content, short-form, TikTok,

everything is now becoming, you kind of stress on the importance of that. So you end up seeing people doing shorts that are killing it, and then their long-form content's not so good. What advice would you give? Because I've noticed as well in my episodes, I'll get such a high retention rate with an FBI special agent telling stories. People just love that kind of stuff. And then you end up getting also like a heartbreaking story of somebody that end up

like preventing suicide, another high retention rate. But then somebody talks about a success story of making millions, millions, how can you help get a consistent amount of retention rate throughout the course of long-form videos? Well, who says we have short attention spans this day and age? Well, that's what, I mean, that's what media is saying,

everyone's saying, right? Yeah, experts, potentially. So is that scarcity or abundance mindset? It's a scarcity mindset, sure. So when we say, oh, the market's saturated, what position are we putting ourselves in? From backwards in negative aspects. I watch more YouTube than I do watch like Yulu and stuff.

So when people are sitting on their couch or laying in bed, because where are TVs in the house? They're either in the living room or the bedroom, right? And what are in the, what pieces of furniture are in those spaces? Comfortable pieces of furniture. So if 60, 70% of our viewership is coming from TV, that means people are sitting on their couch or laying in bed, you know, watching our videos on their TV. Do you think they're, you think they got maybe some popcorn, you know, do you think they got the spouse next to them?

Of course, you're comfortable. Yeah, they're episodes. They're learning. They're researching. Yeah, there's short attention spans when, you know, you know why I go on it on Instagram. I go on there probably the last 20 minutes of my day whenever I'm brain dead. I don't want to think about anything. I want to maybe laugh, maybe, you know, see what's new. I don't know. I don't even, I'm not even looking for anything. I'm just there to kill the last 20 minutes of my day. I'm just kind of like, man, I've made so many decisions today. I've talked so much. I've done, you know, everything, played with the kids, you know, had dinner, talked to the spouse, and it's like, okay, that's what I go on Instagram for. But people don't

go on there to research, but when people sit down on YouTube, they're getting on their couch, laying in bed, and they're like, all right, let's watch something. You know whenever Netflix, releases a series that almost 70% of people will binge watch it within the first weekend. And what is that? Each episode is an hour. Let's say there's 10 episodes. That's like eight hours, you know, 10 hours of content. They're consuming. Why? Because their attention span is there. They're interested. So when people are researching, they're in research mode. You know, when you're in research mode, your attention span is higher. You're looking for answers. You're looking for information. You know, you're looking to learn. So when you provide value, then people's

attention spans are there. And you're only going to find that on YouTube because guess what? You don't have that option on Instagram and TikTok and Facebook. You know, I mean, like watching a three minute reel on Instagram feels like a long time. You're like, oh my God, when is this? But if I'm on YouTube, I have grace. I'm kind of like, oh, this video is 20 minutes. Okay, cool. Let me dig in, you know, and watch this 20-minute video. I might even put it on 1.25 speed, you know, and speed it up a little bit. But it's a different mindset. And I call that platform psychology.

So, you know, whenever, and that's why sharing your YouTube channel, whether you give out a card or a QR code, like, that's not somebody that's looking for your content. So they subscribed you out of pity or support. and then and then but they never watch a video so like I never shared my channel in the beginning because you know I wanted people who were interested who were looking who were ready to learn to find it on their own and guess what that's the best form of marketing when people are searching for information and then they see your stuff and then they click on it and then they watch it you see who's making all the decisions is your ideal client

your ideal customer. And then whenever they call us, it's game over. They've already made a decision they want to work with us if they call us. So that's it. So it's like, okay, that's it. When they call us, they're just, they're like, Levi, you're our guy. They don't say, hey, I'm thinking about you and five other agents, you know, which that happens all the time when you have traditional marketing out there. And they're like, hey, I'm going to sell my house. You're the third agent to come over here today that we're interviewing, you know. And how long are you, are Are your videos? They're typically not shorter than 15 minutes, but I've made videos that are hour and a half.

Okay. All right. So you are in like the long form contact, medium form contact space. Yeah. And then, I mean, you are Iraq veteran as well. Yes. And so from your service and what you've experienced in the past, how do you feel like that influenced you in business today from serving in the military?

Probably just discipline. You know, I mean, you know, like I mentioned in my talk, we, you know, in Iraq, you don't get days off. You don't get time to feel sorry. I mean, you can feel sorry for yourself, but, you know, otherwise it's like, nope, you're about to have to do something. You can't wake up one day and say, you know what, I don't feel like going to work today. Because you got like 30 other people in your crew that they have to go to work. You know, they got to go on the mission. And you can't say, yeah, I'm going to sit this.

one out guys yeah I'm just not feeling it you know I don't know those those bad guys are kind of scary I'm let me nope you got up every single day and and went and you go out so you know it's just you know that's what they do in boot camp boot camp is you know that's why they scream and yell at you and you know freak you out and do all that for 30 days the first 30 days you know, because they're, first of all, they're trying to weed out people, first and foremost, people that just, like, can't handle that. But second of all, they're, you know, when you're in a combat situation, you know, that's what it's like. When things happen, you start yelling at each, ah, get out of your go, go do that, you know, it's chaos.

But you've got to be able to perform in there. And, you know, Hobby said it, right? you don't you don't rise to the level of your dreams or something you fall to your level of training you know same thing I always say you don't you don't rise to the level of your expectations you fall to the level of your training or your systems you know that's why we train and we always said train as you fight so when we trained we always tried to make it as realistic as possible so that whenever something hits the fan you can react but overall it was it was more like a yeah definitely help me with you know a no-quit mentality because it

wasn't an option and and then also discipline because you know you need to be good at what you do you need to know your stuff you know you need to be able to be out there and understand protocols and what what to do whenever things happen especially under a tremendous amount of pressure so you know there's yeah there's a lot of factors that go into it, all kinds of things. So it's just, it's an environment. But that's also you're around, you know, the teammate next to you as well, that they've got to be up to speed as well.

So you're also in this environment to where if you see somebody sliding, you're like, hey, let's not do that because that could actually get us killed, you know? That is so crazy. Which kind of is a follow-up question, I mean, I've interviewed Navy Steel veterans. I've interviewed many in combat, Air Force Veterans, and yourself as well. I'm actually interested. I haven't even asked this question, like specifically, but for you personally, specifically being in Iraq,

knowing how things were, like, politically, both globally and in the United States, how was the actual experience being in combat and being in a foreign land like Iraq? How was it? Yeah, how was that experience? Is it like the same as it portrayed in the movies? scary we can all have a view we watch the movies but like actually well it's a it's it's it's actually a lot of uh well there's a constant state of anxiety almost you're just you're just kind of on edge a lot now you can control that and it happened internally with me i mean i was in a you know i

i was a sergeant so i was in a leadership position i was running uh gun trucks a gun truck crew and you know i can't be around there going oh my god oh my god oh my god oh did you hear that oh you know because you're constantly hearing gunshots in the distance you're you're you're hearing explosions you know just all kinds of stuff all the time and so you know you can't you can't sit there and be like oh oh did you hear that oh my you know so you have to maintain a level of composure especially as in a in a position of leadership but even you know the the lowest rank those people had to be cool too because you don't want to be doing that and then your your buddy's like dude chill out or hey i don't want to go

out with this guy you know he freaks out over every little thing you know so it what it's like is just like you've got to you've got to hold a lot in and you have to function at a high level every day but a lot of times it's a lot of boredom as well a lot of downtime where you know you're when you're down you're down it's like what are you going to go do a lot of the guys played video games you know I was there in 2005 it's funny to think that was 20 years ago crazy and and I remember hearing about hey do you hear this Facebook thing you know you know my space was like still cool was still cool at that time I had a my space I remember that so and then and then you go out and you know we weren't we weren't in constant combat like every day

it was you know for me personally there was it was there was about five major incidents I was involved in. So that means, you know, once every other month, we got into, you know, a hairy situation. So the rest of the time we're going out, you're going out on patrol, going on mission, and you're just, you know, your head's on a swivel, you're prepared, you're ready, you're, there's anxiety because anything could happen. You know, we're in a city. That's the other thing is like, you're in a city. So, you know, a lot of times, too, people, someone could just pop out of a window, take a random shot, and then disappear, you know, and, you know, And then it's like, what are you doing that situation?

You got to contend with civilians, with kids in the streets. You know, there's just so much going on. So you're just, you're on edge all the time. And then, you know what my biggest fear was? What was it? When I was in the porta potty, I was worried a bomb would come in and blow me up. While excreating. I was like, just, I don't want to get blown out of here with my pants.

down because you would be we had yeah so think about this too we had porta potty's you know and it would be 130 degrees in iraq so imagine a plastic box sitting in 130 degree heat I would literally almost like stripped to my underwear to go in there just because it was like a sauna you'd sit in there as soon as you stepped in you're just pouring sweat you know and then you're sitting there and then you'll hear explosions off in the distance and you're like oh that one sounded cool close and I would just think man please don't hit me right now you know all right let me get out of here but it's like silly stuff like that you know but and then the rest of the time you're on camp you know we would have random mortar rounds coming to camp I was probably you know here to

maybe those tables over there one day when you know three or four mortar rounds came in and so you might just be sitting there everything's cool and all of a sudden And a mortar round is basically a little, you know, like a little tiny missile that they drop in a tube. You know, so they might set up, you know, 500 yards outside of your base camp behind a bush. Like, nobody's going to see that. And they drop a little mortar round in a tube, and it shoots out, and it just goes, you know. And so you don't hear it go off, right? There's no detection system or anything like that, and they just shoot it.

And then you're just, you know, and then they're just trying to hit random stuff inside your base camp. So, you know, it's a, it's just a lot of, it's just a lot of anxiety. That's what it is. I mean, you're just, you're on edge all the time. You're just kind of like, okay. But at some point, too, you've got to let that go. You know, there's days sometimes where you just, you don't think about it at all. And then there's days that you hear stuff close by,

and something happens, and it just puts you on point. So it's just, it's a lot of ups and downs. And one of the things I do like, including you and many others that I've interviewed, especially with you being in combat, many people that have served usually come back with severe levels of anxiety, depression, mainly because of the exposure and stuff that they have seen as well. And looks like the trajectory for you has just been nothing but positive, but mainly because of the work and ethic that you've put into trying to build a brand business and success for yourself. what are ways of people that are out there that may be watching that may have served and they're just like in the state of like I don't know I want to do any like what words of advice would you give somebody out there watching and experiencing that I'd probably get some help you know I mean talk to somebody you know when I came back I I mean I wasn't fine you know there was I definitely struggled with some things but also when I came back like I got a job as fast as possible I think for me I I just I wanted to get to work I think if I I knew if I sat around for a period of time, I think that's where you get inside your own head and, you know, things can kind of get out of control. So for me, it was just like I got a job almost like within a week. And also I had connections and I knew people and stuff like too. So actually

I pretty much had something waiting for me whenever I came back. So I immediate was like, hey, when can I start like right now? So I just, I went to work and then I had a sales job and and I, you know, I've always tried to be the best at what I do, so I started to learn that sales position and how could I be the best and followed my model of success. And that was it. That was it for me. So for others, I don't know, I can't speak to it. Some people just, you know, they can't shake stuff. It's unfortunate. I mean, clearly, you know, suicide is a thing, alcoholism, drug use, those types of things. But I was just, I was fortunate.

I didn't get, I don't know, I'm not really, I'm not prone to addiction maybe, you know. I mean, maybe that helps out too. I mean, I've definitely had my fair share of drinks, but I've never, you know, I don't know. You know, if I drank like two days in a row, I don't know, I guess I had enough self-awareness at that time, too, to be like, whoa, okay.

but also, you know, if I worked, I don't know, I just had this rule too with myself, was like I never drank on a work night or anything like that. You know, when I went to work, I always wanted to be, maybe that came from the military. Like when we were in Iraq, you couldn't do any of that, you know. You know, so, you know, you go a whole year without that, and I come back and, yeah, just came back and like one of the first things I did was, you know, drink beer. You know, like, you give me a beer. I haven't had it for a year, you know, but I was still in my 20s.

And, you know, and I would go out on the weekend and drink. But then, you know, if I was going, I wouldn't drink on Sundays. So I don't know. I've always had some sort of, I guess, limits within my own self. And so it was, you know, I actually, you know, smoke cigarettes before I went into the military in high school, you know, just because I was part of the cool crowd. And when I went into the military, you couldn't have cigarettes. And I just thought, well, this is probably a good time to stop, you know. because I went through boot camp and everything without it.

So that's one thing like whenever I came back. And I didn't pick it up. Clearly there's a lot of guys that smoke in the military. And I just, you know, once I went through boot camp and then got into with the regular team and everything, I mean, clearly, you know, you could have cigarettes and all that stuff. But I just said, well, I just went the last couple of months without it. So, you know, I'm just going to say no. And I'd never, ever had a cigarette ever again since then.

So I think it just depends on purpose. personality, you know, some people have addictive personality, so that's a problem because if they come in and have a drink. But then also, like you see people, sometimes those are the most successful people in business, right? Because once they cut out the alcohol or the drugs or something, they all of a sudden, you know, they get addicted to business and they go pretty hard one way. So I don't know. For me, you know, I can't say it was, it works for everybody, but it was just for me to get a job as fast as possible. Some may want to come back. If I could go back, I would have definitely done things differently. Like in my downtime in the military, I would have been studying, you know,

to start a business. I would have came back like with the whole business plan in place. I would have saved as much money as possible. You know, I just wasn't thinking that way in my early 20s, you know. So, yeah, I mean, if I could do one thing differently, that would have been it. I would have used that downtime. And I wasn't even into video games. Like when all the guys were playing video games, I wouldn't, I didn't play video games. You know, people would send us, this was clearly before Netflix and all that, but people would send us like DVDs. You know, so typically I'd watch some movies and stuff and, and, you know, I think I was like, wow, what a waste of time. You know, but that was, I remember somebody, I think like 24, this show called 24 was real popular then and someone.

would send me like the whole series of DVDs you know people would send us gifts you know people like to support the troops i remember 24 oh my god that's all this like 2006 or seven yeah so i think it was yeah i was there in 2005 and so like a you know and then you get into seasons and you know we only had an hour or two sometimes three of downtime if we weren't out on mission or on and that was every day and then i had to sleep you know and so it was like one to three hours of downtime and that's what I'd probably end up I'd start watching a series or something from DVDs that people sent us you know and I wasn't thinking hey let me prep and get ready for you know start a business whenever I come home and save my money and so but you know it is what it is now and whenever

I came home though I was like well I got to get a job you know just give me a job get me working get me out of my head because I wasn't thinking about that stuff whenever I was working I was thinking about sales and the customer and getting better at sales. And so that's what I've poured myself into. Oh, no, thank you for sharing all of that. That's just very inspiring. When you spoke about the addictive personality, I call it the soul to Paul effect.

Obviously in the Bible, we know how he was the one persecuted in the saints. It was one of the worst people, you know, the road to Damascus, his conversion phase. And some of those addictive personalities can have good traits. But I think for the most part when they've done the studies, of addiction and what people usually face, it usually is a void to try and cover up for the pain that they may be feeling or something that's missing within their life as well. And it's a big concern right now as well within like Utah and so forth. There's a lot of like pornography addiction

as well, all these different stuff, whether it's be alcohol, gambling and stuff usually is a void. But yeah, I'm glad you shared that. I wanted to go back to YouTube now. I get excited about this topic so much because it's one of those stuff where there's not just one way to achieve success. There's multiple, multiple ways. You know, right now we've seen a lot of the people that are streaming that are making a killing in that because they have a target audience and they just seem to crack down their niche and maximize so much as possible. I want to talk about what programs and stuff that you do in terms of that. Because where do you see YouTube in the next 10 years before we start?

thought of what you do. Well, I think it's the most dominant platform now and it probably will be the most dominant platform in 10 years. So I would go all in on some YouTube. And with AI, because I know I think two, two, three months ago, they said that people cannot be doing, cannot getting, cannot get paid while trying to use somebody, other people videos. Well, they backtrack some of that and clarified some things.

I mean, they're not going to, they have to allow AI content. Now, they said something about monetization. There's channels out there that clip, you know, like David Goggins and Jocko and, and, you know, all these people, and they'll just take a bunch of their speeches and then make, like, an hour video. So it's like a one hour motivational clip, you know, David Guggins yelling at you and Jocko yelling at you. And, you know, then Tony Robbins coming. You know, so they said something around that, but those channels, they definitely make a lot. lot of money. So they said something more around that. They're they're not going to get rid of

AI content. You know, I think we talked about this with with Ryan in the private mastermind before the event and the phases. And it's like, yeah, we're kind of going through the AI phase right now, but now it's getting to the point already where, you know, we send each other stuff, you know, like Alex over here and Travis and we're always sharing. And, you know, half the time now I'm going, was that real? Did you just sent? Was that? And then sometimes I watch something. I'm like, oh my God, I can't believe it. And then, you know, they'll have to tell me, well, that was AI. I'm like, oh, well, why you send me that? You know, and, and so now we're, and then we're going to move back into the, I think, the people phase. You know, so right now we're going through the AI phase. And

that's going to shift us back into the people phase. And we're authenticity, realness, connection, is going to be probably more important than ever. So those that are building up their platform now, like in 10 years, whenever I think that is, it's probably going to be at its peak, I would imagine, because AI is going to be absolutely crazy in 10 years. And, you know, you're going to have your AI people, then you're having your people that are like,

I still want connection, I still want, you know, I still want that human element. So it just depends on what you're going to be. you're doing, you know. I mean, it really depends on what you're doing. You think about it. I mean, uh, YouTube's not going to ban Disney, you know, or cartoons. I mean, that's, that's AI, you know, when you think about it. I mean, all that stuff. That is AI. Uh, so I would, I would, uh, I would go all in on it. Now, having your own avatar, that will be the interesting part. Because then you can make videos clearly with yourself. And then people are going to be wondering,

well is that Levi or is that AI Levi? And then you have the choice, do you disclose, hey, hey, I'm AI Levi. Or half your videos AI and half your videos are you. Yeah. You know, so, but I would think that's probably even better to have two different channels. If you're going to have an AI version of yourself,

that's a different channel. And you have a real version of yourself, that's a channel. But, you know, for me, I might create other AI-related channels, but I think, you know, the Me channel, I'm going to stick with me, time on it. No, I love that. And, you know, and before we get into what some of the programs you do, my entire thing of just networking has opened my mind in ways that I never ever imagined. I've been, you know, involved in connecting some of the biggest YouTubers that gets, you know,

some of the biggest gets. But the more I network, the more I see, oh my gosh, I only saw this perspective when I started when, you know, not just that in terms of like, we know AdSense and all that kind of stuff, but also sponsorships and, like, you know, lives and superchats, how to control that, the timing of it, and also investors, and then on charging for all these different things. You never ever thought about it, and you're like, what the heck, this room for growth of potential, which perfectly segues to what you do? Do you teach YouTubers, is it primarily just those in real estate or is it broad to those

that are just in YouTube regardless? We're focused a lot on real estate right now. I can teach anybody concepts, the principles, the fundamentals of it. We were just in here speaking with the physician, you know, and I could tell him exactly how to build his channel, and he's probably going to work with us on some coaching. So we do a lot of our broad content, focus on that. I don't feel like we've captured that market completely.

But, yeah, eventually we'll move and expand into just small business owners in general. And I like that you just, you know, you focus on building, obviously, a company through YouTube. So your thing is not even necessarily even like the AdSense or YouTube revenue. It's actually getting real customers that are paying for a real service, which is the most, it's very unique because everyone's so focused on trying to get the YouTube revenue. It's like, yeah, there's only so much you can do with so much because, you know, but I completely agree. Like it's, because that blew my mind. I'm like, wow, that's, that is very fascinating because people care about the watch out. with watch hours, what gets you like the revenue.

But that's just very fascinating. So, you know, I'm grateful you kind of broke down the fundamentals. You broke it down as well, especially, and I'm hoping people, I'm hoping there's a link or something that I can try and drop there because that thing you gave then breaking it down was just, it was very good because you also captured my attention the entire time, mainly because it's also a field that I'm in. So like trying to monetize because people, I feel like right now

the generation cares more about clout than actual real money and turning content into capital or turning content into revenue. And I think it's very important that people do that because that's the entire purpose, not just getting the next viral moment. Would you agree with that? Yeah. Okay, awesome stuff.

Besides, as we conclude, they usually ask our view as the last question because it's the coat-winning insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. Winning is so different for all the guests I usually ask this question too. But for Levi, what does winning mean? for you? Well winning means for me is you have strong faith, a strong family, and all your bills are paid. Well, Mike drop right there. But also a good team. You know, I mean, if you have a company,

I think your team is a direct reflection of yourself as well. And, and also, you know, the culture that that goes into that. And, you know, how you know, How many people can you help and pay it forward and serve all of that? So it's not a, I'm not a car guy. You know, we've seen, you see the, the, I love Lamborghinis. Actually, I had a Lamborghini poster on my wall in the 80s as a kid. You know, I just, I just can, I can't see myself right there, you know. So it's like that it is a level of success.

And I'm not knocking anybody that has one or buys one. I think they're super cool. But it's, again, it's maybe when you're bored and you have so much of it, you start to buy the toys. But I've never really been a toy person either. So, yeah, I probably have a few things, but I like more experiences, you know, traveling and, you know, traveling with friends, all of that. So to me, that's more important to have strong faith, strong family, a great team.

as far as inside the company helping others do that have the bills paid and then experiencing the life and I've learned a lot traveling the world 25 countries and to see other cultures other perspectives you know taste other food I mean real food not what you you know you buy at Walmart that says it's you know Mexican or yeah or Brazilian or whatever it's like no let's let's go there and actually do that. So just seeing the different ways people live, you know, again, all that. And then I got to see the most extreme of that in Iraq, you know, and Iraq was deemed the most beautiful city in the 70s. And, you know, now it's just blown to nothing almost everywhere,

you know. And you could, you could see some of the beauty still there, but otherwise it's, you know, it's a very war-torn country for a long time. And that, that, that, that, that, you can see, that provides perspective on what you do, but also even just going to a cool country. You know, you go to Mexico or Brazil or. Hopefully you've been to South Africa, that's where I'm from. Oh, yeah.

So we've got one of our team members is from Zimbabwe. That's close enough, yeah, no, it's literally the border. Well, I used to tell everybody she's from South Africa and she's like, I'm not from South Africa, I'm from Zimbabwe. I'm like, well, that's in South Africa. She's like, no, it's in Southern Africa. Not South, and I was like, okay, all right, all right.

So now I just say, you know, Gwyneth is from Zimbabwe. So she's super cool. But, yeah, I haven't been to Africa. That it's on the list. And, you know, but other places just seeing it, again, I like experiences. So that's what's important to me. That's the final piece of it, not necessarily the toys or the cars or things like that. So that's what winning would look like for me.

Lovely. If you're curious again learning about building a company or even upscaling, learning a bit more about YouTube, the strategies, and please follow the link below to get the information for Levi-Alasic as well. Without further to do, thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, the coat-winning insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. Thank you, Levi. Thank you.