Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - The Michael Little Story - From Foster Care to Real Estate Mogul | The Determined Society

Episode Date: January 27, 2025

In this episode of The Determined Society Podcast, host Shawn French sits down with Michael Little, the resilient founder of Iron Valley Real Estate. Michael shares his powerful journey from a tumultuous upbringing through personal loss, military service, and the creation of a thriving real estate empire. Learn how Michael's tenacity and determination helped him overcome incredible odds and led him to success. Tune in for an inspiring story of perseverance, leadership, and life-changing moments. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

My father was a cracket, a heroin addict, a drug dealer, who went to prison. My first year in the Navy, I tried to get kicked out. My dad's ex-wife, who became my adopted mother, she actually ended up going to the penitentiary as well. I thought at that time, like, who's going to take care of my sisters? Because I spent my childhood taking care of them. That messed with me for a little while. You know, my first chief ever in the Navy pulled me in an office and he said, what are you

going to do to go back to Ohio? He said, you know, work at McDonald's and sell crack. Why don't you just stay here and set the example for your family? It's not your job to save everybody. That was the pivotal moment. It was the moment that man turned you into a man. Dude, look at that. The moment that happened changed my life, like right there in that moment.

That's interesting. That's leadership, man. French, what up? Everything I'm doing up until it's done. I meet for the entirety. I put it in overtime. I'll be working. Just know I'm a go for mine because I earned it.

They watch and I know it's time. I confirmed it. A whole society, Determined. What's up, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Determined Society. I am your host, Sean French. And before I introduce today's guest, I want to invite you to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Spotify and Apple, leave a review. Send us some notes on Spotify for creators and let us know what you want to hear or what you loved about this show.

I'm here live, right, in Norfolk, Virginia, doing an event with my boy Michael Little called Determine Your Destiny. We're super excited about it. So my guest tonight is Michael Little. He's a principal owner of Iron Valley Real Estate. He's a bestselling author, broker from the bottom, and you're going to absolutely dig this guy's story. He's an absolute champion. He's a warrior, and you're going to be so impressed with what he's overcome in his early life

to become the badass entrepreneur and human being, father and husband and friend he is today. So without further ado, Michael Little, welcome the show. Sean, how are you, man? Thanks for having me. I appreciate you put me on your platform. This is pretty cool. Bro, I appreciate you putting me on your platform. We're here in Virginia Beach.

Norfolk here to do this amazing event that you've put together. And, you know, we only met a short time ago. Yeah. And, uh, in a road. So I'm grateful as well. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Thanks for coming.

Hell yeah, dude. Um, we've had one nice meal so far. Where at the commune? Okay. So it was called the commune had some, had some late breakfast. I think they called brunch. Yep. You know, had some.

A little brunch action. A little brunch. Virginia Beach is good for that, man. Yeah, man. And we're going to go get some good dinner afterwards. And, um, but no, man, myself, my team. We're super grateful and super happy to be here. Man, man, listen, the one thing that I really want to share with the audience is kind of, you know, just not kind of, but your story, right? Your

brand is broker from the bottom. You've built this amazing brokerage, right? But there's a reason why you've been able to do it, and it's not what a lot of people think, right? You didn't grow up with a ton of money in your pocket to start throwing capital as shit, right? Oh, definitely not. So why don't you walk the audience, you know, through a short journey of who you are. Okay. Well, you know, my brand today really is tenacity, the ability to be tenacious, which I define it as the sustained superior resilience, you know, the ability to just continue to overcome.

The broker from the bottom thing actually came from my friend Tim, who you've worked closely with, setting all this stuff up. Love that guy. Yeah, he came. So, well, first of all, he and I met in the Navy. He's from Detroit. I'm from Dayton, Ohio. So we kind of connected on the Ohio State, Michigan, Midwest, you know, from really gritty places.

But from that point to now, I had gotten out of the Navy, and he came to visit me when we did our grand opening at this office. I told him I was getting my broker's license because at the time I was just an agent, well, just a top producing agent and what have you. I decided to get my broker's license, and he gave me that nickname, broker from the bottom. And I was like, that's really good. I should trademark that. Yeah. And we trademarked it. And I remember the first postcard I made for like speaking and training engagements.

And I wasn't even doing any of that yet. But we went ahead and trademarked it. And then a couple years goes by, you know, and I end up becoming the principal broker and going from one office to seven franchises and 14 agents to 350 real estate professionals in less than five years. Wild. Last year we did 911 million in sales. Helped over 2,600 families. Yeah. Come on, man.

But to your point, what you're really asking is how am I? kind of started. So December 18th, 1987, this one, I was born. I was born right outside of Boston, Massachusetts, and I was born to two drug addicts, you know, I was born addicted to crack cocaine. I spent the first six weeks of my life in NICU. Holy. And then my mother's father and brother at that time, or at least the story I was told coming up was that, you know, they both told my dad to leave and kind of never come back situation. So after that, you know, I grew up not knowing my dad, really. By age three, my mother had remarried, and that man would abuse her and me and my only

full-blooded sibling to a point that at the age of three would become, you know, property of the state. So I spent from three years old to nine years old as property of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in not a different foster homes. And at like nine, my mother had finally got me back. And at that point, she told me she was going to take me to meet my dad. And I was just confused. Like, I thought that the guy that was beating us was my dad for nine years in my life.

So she took me on this road trip from Boston to Ohio. We did like a pit stop in Pennsylvania. So my fourth grade year was like three different schools fresh out of foster care. And when we got to Dayton, Ohio, I woke up one day and all my stuff was in a grocery bag and she had signed custody over to my dad. At that point, I would find out that my father was remarried, had kids with another woman that were my half-sisters, which even for me was cool. Like, that kind of was like, okay, I have a family, right? You know, but then I would find out that my father was... You know, a crackhead, a heroin addict, a drug dealer.

He went to prison, and I got left with his ex-wife, Kim, who would ultimately adopt me. But once my dad went to prison, the summer I was 12 years old, I was to go visit my mother in Boston and come back. Well, my mother didn't send me back. Oh, my Lord, man. So my dad's ex-wife, who became my guardian and adopted mother, she drove from Ohio. to Massachusetts, beat my biological mother in court while my father was incarcerated and took me home. She fought for you, man. My father's testimony for that hearing came from the penitentiary.

And I wouldn't know that until last summer, actually, and we'll get there. So at that point, my dad's in prison. I'm living with his ex-wife. I'm like 13 at this point. She remarries, a gentleman named Charlie, who actually taught me how to drive. taught me how to play guitar, like, you know, convinced who I would consider my mom to, let me spread my wings a little bit. You know, I'm the man on the house.

I need to prepare to leave. And that would turn into, I'm going to join the Navy. All I wanted to do was be a Navy SEAL. That's it. Like, I just want to join a Navy to be a Navy SEAL. You know, they're the most badass people in the world. Sure. It's just kind of like, I'm not going to live this life.

I know that that will take me somewhere else. So I end up joining the Navy when I'm 17. So she's my guardian. She had to sign me away. Right, right, right. I graduated high school early, but it was one of those things where it was like either I fall into what you would argue it's the family business at this point or go do something else.

Right. And there was a pivotal moment where I just knew I had to go to something else or I was going to get in trouble. So I left for the Navy. But what I didn't know was that at the time you had to be a surface rate sailor to go spec up. and that point in high school where I was like, man, I'm going to get in trouble or I got to go. My recruiter had to switch my contract to something else. So I went from a surface sailor, a guest heard my mechanic to be specific to an undesignated airman, which is the aviation side.

Once I did that, unbeknownst to me, you have to wait two years, then you have to qualify to go spec ops, right? So by the time I did any of that, I already had kids on the way. I was married, you know. But my first year in the Navy, I actually, I tried to get kicked out. And people would be like, why, you did all that, you know, you left, right? Why did you try to get kicked out? So my dad's ex-wife, who became my adopted mother, who's the mother of my half-sisters, she actually ended up going to the penitentiary as well.

Oh, Lord. So I thought at that time, like, who's going to take care of my sisters? Because I spent my childhood, you know, a lot of my time was spent, taking care of it, whether it was homework or cooking, cleaning or helping them or just like, your dad's not here. I am the man of the house kind of thing, you know. So in my head, I'm like, who's going to take care of him? Like, somebody's got to go home.

And that messed with me for a little while. You know, my first chief ever in the Navy pulled me in an office and showed me this news article about my family back home. It's like, wow, that's pretty heavy. Jeez. But all I could think about was my sisters. But my, his name was Jeff Cook. He looked me dead in my face.

He said, what are you going to do? If you go back to Ohio. So what do you mean? They say, you know, work at McDonald's and sell crack? Yeah. Like, why don't you just stay here and set the example for your family? It's not your job to save everybody. And I do change my life, like right there in that moment.

That's interesting. That's leadership, man. Real leadership. Yes, for sure. You know, so I would, at that point, their aunt, we call her Aunt Jody, which is actually Kim's sister. Kim is the person that adopted me. My dad went to prison and my mom left me.

she took my sister's in for I think it was like three years or something like that and so when I found out that they were going to stay with her and I had got that advice from him I was like you know what they're right um and kind of right after that I had found out that I was going to be a dad and then I ended up getting married and um then I just went on like this 10 year stretch of just tearing it up like I was I was at a point where I was trying to get kicked out and then it was like no I got to be the best of the best right uh and from that point to that I made chief in the Navy by my like 11 year mark or right at 11 years to most people that means nothing because they don't serve but it takes on average 18 years to do that. That's amazing man. And I did it with no school, no real father, no real structured family, you know, just a lot of good mentors in the Navy and tenacity, bro, like pure grit work ethic. Like I can't lose. I got kids now. And the crazy part is is like built this.

All-American family and I was doing real estate on the side of the Navy and I was killing a Navy and, uh, you know, I end up going through a divorce. You know, my ex-wife wants to get a divorce, uh, after, you know, I mean, a long time. Um, so the divorce wasn't the prettiest. It was pretty tough. Uh, turned into actually her attempting to get me separated from the Navy. So I had to fight her and the Navy I fought the Navy for nine months Long story short, I won And when I won, I decided it was time to go home

Because I felt like things weren't Really handled the way they should have been handled You know, you give somebody 14 years of your life At such an elite level to just have it come crashing down Based on a phone call It's pretty ridiculous to me I would agree But I stood strong, I stood tall

I beat everything that was thrown in my face. I left for my honorable discharge. I left for my benefits. I left for my dignity and my character most important, right? Yeah. Um, but when I decided to walk away, I knew, without a shot of a doubt, I was going to do real estate for the time. And I knew that it was going to give me the time I needed to be around my kids and be there for my kids and do things that a lot of people take for granted, like just dropping your kids off at a bus stop or the schoolhouse. Like, not many people know what it's like to not see your kids face for nine months because you're Right?

Yeah, that's a big deal. Well, I've done that multiple times. I've traveled the world multiple times. You know, all from 17 to 30 was all the Navy. I served all four different aircraft carriers. I traveled the world several times. That's all I did. So my kids missed out on a lot of dad, you know.

And then I had to go through all that stuff. And when I decided to leave, I was like, I signed up for college, like all veterans do, because it gets paid for, or whatever. But I started a team with a good friend of my, Eric Edwards, Eric Edwards and that ultimately turned into this brokerage. So in 2019, we both happened to get out of the Navy around the same time. We started a team.

First eight months, we did $30 million. It was like, okay, we need to open our own company. We need to open our own company. Well, because we started to learn that all of the disciplines and the structure and the schedule and the ability to time block and meet deadlines and like all these things, how a division or a department is constructed, how a second class, first class, or chief's mess is constructed,

governing bodies, like these are all actually how companies are ran. Exactly. So each branch of the military is just a Fortune 500 company ran by the government. It's amazing. So you just take all those skills

and transfer it over to business, and for me, the specialty was always the leadership piece. Yeah. I would get good at a job, but I was great at getting other people good at a job, if that makes sense.

Like, I'll do the job enough to figure it out. But then I'm going to train my replacement. Leadership, man. And it's been that same thing in real estate. So I walked away from the Navy after almost 14 years. I went through a divorce at almost 14 years. Pretty much started my life over from scratch. And at this point, I'm happily remarried.

We've been together three years, married for two. She owns a restaurant out at the ocean front called Greenos Takaria. If you like Cali Mex food here in Virginia Beach on Norfolk Avenue, yep. Wait a second. That's what I've been out there 20 years, bro. Is that where I'm staying? Over there? Close to Oceanfront, yeah.

So she's, her restaurant's probably like seven minutes from where you're staying at. Come on, dude. Which hotel did you end up staying at? Are you at the, the, the, cat? I don't know. Some stockers out. By the time they hear it. Marial Ocean Front.

Okay, okay. Yeah. So you're basically at where we're going to have the luncheon, the VIP luncheon. Oh, okay, cool. You're like right next to there. Very nice. So my wife's restaurant, maybe six minutes from there, right down the strip. Yeah.

So it's a little. It's all gringoes. Gringos. Okay. Gringo's takeria, man. if you want to take the crew there for lunch or something. Yeah. You will not be disappointed.

Can they do dinner? Yeah. Okay. Absolutely. Lunch and dinner. So they're open from 11 to 9. Come on, man. They're only closed on Sunday Monday.

So. Well, I have a, I have, my buddy calls it that's, that's doing all my nutrition. He calls it my refeed meal. Tonight's the refeed meal. Well, you guys might have to hit Gringos, man. Might, man. No, I mean, I mean, you won't, you won't be disappointed, I'll say that. Yeah.

And then, you know, from then to now, we opened our first real estate office. in 2020. Mm-hmm. You're sitting in it. This- awesome, man. This podcast room is actually where the closings

for Noble Title used to be. No way. I swear, that is so cool, dude. So this little cut-through, you walk through right here, that used to be walled off, and this was Sweet 280.

This used to be Noble title. That was a lobby, a processing room, and a closing room. But it grew so quick that moved it over to its own space across the street from Mount Trashmore. But,

so we opened this office the first year. Eric and I did like 20, million apiece, which when your average sales price back then it was like 260 or something like that. You know, we're slinging 70, 80 houses a piece. You're moving some properties. And also recruiting and training and, you know, building the brand. So first year we signed 72 agents. The second year we hit 150. Right in the middle of the third year. Yeah. I hired a coach. One of my good friends became a coach. That's when we linked up with Jeff Glover, Glover,

you, their CEO's, my personal coach. And at that point, we just started implementing things like a training program and certain things I didn't know yet because I was in the Navy, like leading a business is very different than leading in the military, right? So I had to learn certain things about recruiting and retention in a business sense versus a military sense. And even training in the military, it's kind of like you do that, you go if you don't. Tell, tell, tell. Right. Right. Right. In this civilian side of things, it's truly instructional and educational and there's more empathy and compassion involved than just point fingers and go.

Which is why I chose to hire the Michael Burtz and go through the Vernet Rodriguez's classes and seek out somebody like an E.T. When I had an opportunity, which kind of brings us to meeting you. But year two, I went off, became managing broker, opened to office over in Chesapeake. After that, I had to come back.

Eric and I actually had to remove an original partner, which a lot of people don't know about because like we don't publicize the hard times, you know? Of course not. So we went through that and then once we got through that and I became the principal broker and CEO, Eric and I decided to bring in some other partners and that turned out to be probably the smartest decision

in the history of the firm. That's all. You know, we saw people that were reping the brand that were performing at a high level and said, you know what, this is what the shares are worth. This is what it takes to do the job. Here's the books. Are y'all willing?

And here we are a few years later, you know, we got seven franchises, 350 people. You know what, man, and allow me to interject. To everyone watching and listening, everything's incredible. Like I literally knew some of the story just because we're friends. But sitting here with you in this room and listening the last 12 and a half, 15 minutes of the whole story, a lot of it. I'm sure it's not the whole story. It's like bullet points. Yeah, it's bullet points, right?

We're bullet point and stuff, right? Hyper-linking it. But to me, it comes down to one moment. Mr. Cook. When it comes to what your family eats and drinks, you know your choices matter. You're the expert because you know what fits your life. And getting it right starts with good information.

That's why America's beverage companies are sharing more information about our ingredients at good to know facts.org. No spin. No judgments, just the facts straight from the experts for more than 140 beverage ingredients. Visit good to know facts.org. You know, I would have to agree, man. That one moment in the audience, if you've forgotten that moment, he was trying to get kicked out of the Navy.

And Mr. Cook says, there's Master Chief, right? Chief, Chief Cook sits him down. So what are you going to do when you go back home to Ohio? You're going to work at McDonald's and slaying drugs? Yep. Like, what are you going to do? Be the example for your family. And dude, like, that was the pivotal moment.

I'm sure, you know, people can look at things and, like, no, it was this moment in the business. It was this revenue target. It was this partnership. It was separating from the other partner. No. No. It was the moment that man turned you into a man. He flipped a switch.

He flipped your switch, dog. But also, I had a full circle moment with him. When I made Chief in a Navy, who do you think put to Congress? combination cover on my head. Yeah, man. I got goose. Dude, look at that. Yeah, the moment that happened,

I didn't need to do anything else there. Does that make sense? It does. Like, don't get me wrong. I wanted, dude, listen, I was Joe Navy, bro. Like, I wanted to make senior chief. I was going to make Master Chief by the time I was 35. Like, I was just great at my job.

But the moment that he had an opportunity to do that, I felt like my obligation in the Navy was, like, you couldn't get to a better spot than that. Like, this is the guy. that literally saved my life, saved my career. He's, you know, taking part in the definitive moment. Yeah.

And after that, you know, not to say I didn't want it still, but like I felt like I met what was necessary. I don't know. I don't really know how to explain that. No, I understand it because I've come to that spot in a lot of different areas, right? It's like, you know, and that's what led me here.

That's what led me here to do my show and to create the brand and to, you know, scale it so quickly, which it feels like it's been 100 fucking years. But it's been four, right? Yeah. But like in the last year and a half, it's been exponential what we've done. And I all attribute it to the time in during COVID, when everything was shut down and I realize I'm like,

I have to get in better shape. I have to figure something out about me. Like there's this void inside. to me where I don't carry a whole lot of confidence. Maybe it was because, you know, I grew up, you know, when I was young and I didn't have a father until I was nine. I don't know what the story. I don't know what the real answer is, but I know the story I was telling myself.

So for me, I had to really dive in because no matter what I did, I was always unhappy and I wanted more, right? So it wasn't like, like now, I'm super competitive with myself. Like I want to do more. Like I, you know, last year, 1.3 million lessons. This year, I want to blow 3 million out of the water. Right. I'm competitive within myself.

I was happy with the 1.3. Organic downland. No, I'm not paying 10 grand in marketing like all these other freaking cats out there. Like I'm doing this. We bootstrap this shit, right? Took me years to get an amazing production team that could come around with me

and that I can be friends with and actually afford, right? But it came in this one moment when I was going through my journey in 2020. and he's like, I am not happy. I was in medical sales, I was making probably a quarter million dollars. I'm like, this feels empty. Yeah.

Yes, am I helping doctors? Am I helping patients by the tech? Absolutely. But for me, it was just like, I don't have anything to do here anymore. There's something bigger. And so when you talk about that, I understand it completely because I felt it. Yeah. And now you're in your wheelhouse and now I'm in my wheelhouse.

It's like, this is my personal. purpose the whole time. Absolutely. Like, it's wild. So that was kind of going to, once I hired a coach, that was also another pivotal moment for me. Yeah. That particular day, I got to see, Em, My Let Speak, live first time.

Wow. And I'm a huge Ed fan. I listen to his podcast. I love his book. Obviously, resonate with his story coming up with his father. And I just love the concept of the power one more, because I believed in it before, you know I ever even saw that. Like it's always been a go to failure, doing extra,

anything that you're doing, right? And he put it into work. Like Uncle Ed says, blissily dissatisfied. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. Right? And then my boy, Andy, got hired as a coach to Glover you that day. And I hired a coach that day.

Shortly after hiring that coach, my father died of a heroin overdose. Also, right after I got out of the Navy, so did my biological mother. Oh, God. So in the course of ramping up this company to what should be a billion dollar company this year and year five, congrats, man. Both of my parents are deceased from heroin overdoses during the course of that time. And we opened February 19th, 2020, the world shut down March 15th. So not only have we had to make it through removing an original partner, not only did we have to make it through the pandemic.

I also had to fight through finalizing my divorce. I had to fight through both my parents dying. And the crazy part is it all came full circle. I went to Jeff's Live on Real Summit last year in Phoenix, and I had never met my grandfather in my life, my dad's dad. Well, after my father passed, he and I kind of connected on social media. Interesting. And I was in Phoenix for that summit, and my grandpa lives in Tucson.

This is going to get real wild here in a second. Okay. I'm here for it. So my grandfather's 85 at the time. I'm 36. Go meet him for the first time ever. You ready for this? He served in the United States Navy.

Okay. He was a real estate broker. Check me out, dude. I already have... Listen, listen. Dude, I'm already Harris standing on... He was a real estate educator. Okay.

He owned a title company. Literally everything I've done in my life and I never even knew. He ran the Central Arizona Realty Educators for 30 years. he wrote the curriculum that Arizona, like, licensees are licensed under kind of thing, you know. And just to hear that he owned a title company and he was a real estate educator. He served in a Navy and this whole time I'm thinking my family name is like I'm building something from nothing, right? But all of that tragedy turned into a moment where I got to meet him and learn that all of this is actually what I'm born to do. It's in your bloodstream.

It's like, you know, and literally skip the generation, right? And then obviously you just met my son sitting out there. And my son is sitting here watching, you know, grand opening after grand opening, hundreds and hundreds of agents and employees. And then there are thousands of connections and clients. And like even when we pull up to this event on Saturday, man, like, you know, my personal coach is there, you're there. We got an NBA performance coach in the house.

We got the number one gym in the city. Yeah. We got veteran advocates. We got financial specialists. We got all of these people are really just like a culmination of all the connections that I've made over the years and the reputation that I've built. And now, you know, my son and my wife get to witness that. You know what I mean? Dude, it's funny because, you know, all goes back to Chief Cook.

Be the example. Set the example for your family. And so it's funny. What I'm going to say, I'm going to warn you guys, this is going to sound very boastful. And I don't, those of you that listen to my show, know that I'm not that guy. But when your kids get a chance to see what you're doing, like my kids, when they get the opportunity,

like they'll see my phone sometimes, see it light up. And my son can read. He's 11, right? Same age as your son. Yeah. Right? They're smart, man. Dude, so smart.

And they see things that I'm doing and they turn on the TV. And it's a smart TV. And they see my YouTube. Like, oh, my God, there's my dad. I'm like, guys, it's your, just link to my Gmail. Like it's not, it's not that freaking cool. But I don't say that to them because it's like I want them to see it as cool because, you know, one day I see this as the legacy of the French family. I see the determined society. I see my kids running this company

when I'm not doing it anymore. And my kids are dynamic. I think my youngest daughter, Mia, is going to be the host in probably 20 years. And she's going to be. kill it. She's incredible. So one day, right, because my kids aren't here, right? I'm in, you know, Norfolk, Virginia. They're not here with me. They're not going to see. They didn't, they weren't able to be at my TED talk. Right. Right. That was pretty cool. They can look it up though. They can look it up. That's cool. Yep, they can look it up. They'll find out, right? They don't know what it is yet. But when my son's 16 and he knows what a TED talk is, he's like, my dad did that. Absolutely. But we're sitting there one day. It was kind of like the moment you had.

had when we were in Traverse Michigan and my phone lit up and it was BT. Yeah, GT. I was like, man, I'm meeting this guy. I call him. I call this guy. Sitting there, I'm having a conversation with him. My phone lights up and it says Rob Grunkowski.

Yeah, that's crazy. And I saw you just shot. Was that with his brother? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's awesome. He's incredible individual, dude. Cool. I'm gonna be doing a lot of stuff with the Gronks.

That's a spoiler. That's awesome, man. A lot of stuff. Amazing. You know, I credit my production team. my my partners who know Gordy very, very well. It was a natural connection. But one day, you know, Mike and Mike calls me and he goes,

what are you doing Sunday? It's like, I don't know. He's like, I need you leave like an hour and a half open. I got to probably have a guess for you. Yeah. It was Gordy. And dude, it was this moment that, and I haven't told him this now, but I'm going to say it right now.

early on when we were building over the last year right before we met you my intention was to connect with gorty because he seemed like a guy that that we could do some cool things with yeah and and there was all these plans that me and my partner pat sickens were talking about right and you've met and now every single one of those things are starting to happen that's awesome it's it's wild to me and And, you know, and my son looks at me at that moment. He goes, seriously? I'm like, what? He goes, I see that.

I'm like, oh, he goes, answer it. I'm like, well, duh, dude. But it's funny because, like, that kind of stuff, man, is like, that's the power of connection. Absolutely. Right. And when you bowl down to it, you know, I'm doing an event with Rob in April in Pennsylvania. but we're going to do some other things in between. Yeah.

Right? But when the kids get to see that, it gives them the belief that they can do whatever they want to do. So my son, he wants to go play baseball at LSU because that's where daddy played. Honestly, I don't want him going there. I don't want him being in a bad way. I want him going somewhere different, right? But I want him to achieve whatever he wants to achieve.

So I keep my mouth shut. I was like, well, we got a lot of work to do, man. You're 11, once you're 13, we'll hammer down. He was like, but everybody else is working so hard now, dad I go, and they'll burn out. Yeah. They'll burn out. Absolutely. Trust me, I know how to do this.

Right? So, like, your point, man, setting the example for your children is the most rewarding, to me is the most rewarding part about this. Dude, when I, you know, Daniel is going to be here, too. I cannot wait to hug that dude. So you know, Daniel, he was my publisher. I met him through Michael Burt's school. horse that I took, and both coach Burr and Daniel had a huge part in this last year. From publishing the book to it being a number one bestseller to give me opportunities on

stage that actually turned into paid speaking engagements for me. Just incredible, you know, and they're all going to be here. And my son gets to be in the room and not just listen to those people perform, but also see his dad, you know, nightcap. the event and also haven't been the one to put it all together. Yeah. But furthermore, like my winningest moment, you know, my family got copies of my book first, right?

Like, but my son sent me a picture one morning. I said, hey, son, you read my book yet? He was like, read it. I'm rewriting it already. And he sent me a picture where he was literally taking notes to rewrite my book. Wow. And that was just, that's, that's powerful. Yeah, like a little kid, bro, like, like, like a baby, like, because there's never

been a moment like that in my family. Right. You know what I'm saying? Like, like, like, that doesn't even exist. Right. So that was incredible for me. But also now to a point where it's like they've seen all these companies open. They watched me start a speaking, coaching, a writing business from scratch and be successful.

they watched me crushed the Navy for years and they watched me do it all through a lot of adversity. Which is where the tenacity piece comes from because it's like around somebody like me there's just no room for excuses, bro.

Like what are we even talking about? I get so tired of hearing people complain but I also sometimes forget I've been through a lot of things that a lot of people don't go through. And you know at 37 I tell everybody I live three lines lives, man. Like I grew up in foster homes and trap houses. Then I served in a military. And now I got this business journey I've been on. So it's like three different segments. But it's really and it's still going. You know, I'm not going to, I'm not going to speak on things from the last week, but you got an update for me. You know, I've been dealing with some pretty heavy stuff, even going into this. And at the end of the day, you know, we show up, we grow up, we don't complain, right? Like I got, like I got things to do. I got you and Coach Burke coming into

to train my people. I got a speech that I have to deliver. I have things I got to coordinate on the back end to make all that happen. So it's just like the best thing I can do even in the hardest time, let's continue to set that example, right? So it's so funny, man, like I want to rewind real quick. And I agree, man. Like you've, I don't want to not acknowledge what you've gone through in the last week or two. It's, it's heavy. Most people that would break. Most people that would get to lay off the gas. But it just shows how connecting you your purpose, right?

And that's the thing. You know, even in my business, there's been so many times from like, oh my God, how am I going to continue under this? Like, do I have to shut the show down? And of course, it's okay to think that. Yeah. But like, what's the response?

And the response is usually like, nah, man, we're going to keep going. I got a solution. Yeah, I got an idea. Well, there's a way, right? Absolutely. So you bring in your troops, you bring in your connections.

like how do we further this? Here's the mission. I think this is a global impact situation. Absolutely. Right? But my three kids got the first three copies of my book signed, just like yours. Yep. And so when you said that, that resonated with me because I didn't want to go further in the conversation without also saying, dude, that was the most amazing thing ever.

My daughter was like, my youngest. When that come out, like 21, 22, so maybe three or four? Yeah. You'd read it. If she couldn't find hers, that said Mia? It's the coolest feeling in a world. It is, man. But you know what?

There's been a lot of chapters added since then. So we're going to have to write another one, right? No doubt. We have a plan. I'm going to write one soon on how the, you know, the whole journey of the determined society, right? And the thing that I love about the word determined and even to now, right is is your word they can kind of mean the same thing right it's the ability to move in spite of what your emotions are telling you right and i think that's one of i know that's one of

the things that impacts a lot of people's journeys right and even tomorrow when i and thank you i'm so grateful to come here and train your people we should have we should have a peck town i'm excited but my conversation tomorrow is going to be about the intangibles. Nothing flashy, but everybody in that room is not executing those things as a realtor. Absolutely. They're not, right? And what I've learned, dude, what I've learned is when we look at results,

sales, show growth, if it stalls or goes backwards, it's not because we lack talent. It's because we're lacking executing the process. Because we're so worried about, well, one plus 20, it's going to give me this answer, like, meaning if I do this and this, I'm going to get this. That's not how it works. Everything in between, right, the journey, the process, the failure, the backsliding, the, you know, two steps forward, three steps back, whatever it is, that's the person you're becoming.

And those are the moments you have to embrace and start to operate out of joy. right and being excited and enthusiastic about what you're doing because now it becomes contagious now people hear the passion now if they thought you were or me if thought we were jackasses before like kind of hard to go against this guy now got to tune in right got to buy house like I got to do it and then all of a sudden you build this reputation where what you put out is feeding the souls of other people yeah absolutely I think that's been the beauty of the growth of the company is for me, it was never really about selling houses. Like, I always wanted to impact people.

But I knew real estate somehow was the segue to that. Sure. And it turns out I was right, you know? Because I've shown so many other people how to fish, and now you have so many other people eating based on skill and not on a crutch of like, oh, here's a lead. You know, we teach people how to generate business and cultivate business naturally.

And through relationships and consistency and delivering results, as you said, you know, everybody wants a paycheck, but they're not really doing anything for it. When I was with René Brariguez up in Minnesota for that speaker's training, he said something called a breathing bonus. Like people just want a breathing bonus, literally. Like they have no skill set.

They're doing nothing, but they expect to be paid. They deserve it. Yeah, and that's crazy. Like, no, you deserve it when you earn it. And you actually don't get to dictate when you've earned it. Yeah. It's whoever is ahead of you in that field or helping you come up. that knows what it takes to earn it,

that will probably let you know when you've hit the marker. You know what I'm saying? Instead of somebody owes me, no, nobody owes you anything. Nothing. And that's where I was in Nashville, went to Coach Burts Activate Conference. Rory Vaden was there. Renee Rodriguez was there.

Rory's dope, dude. Yeah. So he said something that was like, you have to be able to boil your brand down to one word. And that night in the hotel, and Tim was out, I'm racking my brain. I'm like, dude, how do you take my childhood? My military experience, you know, my personal life with ex-wife, children, how things went, where I am now.

Like, how do you boil all that down in one word, right? Yeah. And I just couldn't think of it. And then I was like, well, you know what? I'm going to take these 10 traits that I know about myself, throw them into chat, GBT, and see what it says, which I never use. Like, you know, even writing my book, I'm like super against. Like, I think that an author should be an author. Sure.

You know, but I just couldn't. I'm like, I know these 10 things about myself. What's that equal in one word? And it spit out tenacity. And I was like, hold on. And then I went and dug through and I was like, well, that's their noun, that's their verb version, this, that, and the third. I was like, but what's my version of that word?

And I dug back into my Navy days, you know, when you're our early promote sailor or a sailor that's getting promoted at a fast pace. Yeah. There's like a standard blurb that people use. It's called sustained superior performance. Okay. And that's why I put the play on tenacity. sustained superior resilience.

I love that, dude. So that became my definition of it. And then now I have a whole tenacity blueprint, top ten pillars of tenacity. I got a tenacity assessment coming out soon. We'll talk about all that at the event. But that's like in addition to my already number one bestselling book. But the next thing is I'm going to write a book.

I intend to title it Be Tenacious. And it's going to be from that cold day on December 18th to 1987 to present day. Oh, man, dude. I love it, bro. Oh. I don't know how long it's going to take, but I just want to make sure it's right,

and I want it to go where it should. I love your brand story, right? Because I remember I was sitting there with a friend of mine, and she was like, I want to help you build a personal brand. And I'm like, what's that? Yeah.

What's that? Because I was recruited into a direct sales organization, Meluluka, right? where you buy products and it talks, you know, they're toxin free. And if you sign people up, you get,

you get credit for it. It wasn't a multi-level, but it was a direct-to-consumer store. Groceries, laundry, all that kind of, whatever it is. Right.

And like, but you have to have like a Facebook page where people are going to really, you know, come to you and you're going to build this personal brand. They're going to come to trust you and then you start dripping things in.

Like, oh, you take a picture and you got a product, placement, which is not how I do things. Obviously, that's not how I do this. But it was the start, right? Right. And she had me do an exercise. She goes, what's your brand?

I'm like, I don't know. Like, I'm a dad, dude. I'm a former athlete. I don't know shit about shit. You know, I'm in sales and I, you know, try to set a good example for my family and provide for them. Yeah. I'm a hard worker.

She's like, no, that's not what I'm talking about. Yeah. So she said to me, I, I want you to take a picture of yourself in the gym wherever, whatever picture you want. Yeah. Put it on your story on Instagram. And like I had like 800 followers up at the time. Right. In the question box, right, what's the first word that comes to your mind when you look at me?

I'm like, oh God. So you took your brand from the marketplace? I did. I told the audience. My friend said, douchebag, you know, you suck. But they're joking. Yeah. I was like, guys, come on, dude.

Help me here. And a lot of people came back like coach, leader, determination, determination, determined, determined, determined. Because that's the time where I kind of started going public with my, you know, fitness and started to get in better shape. Yeah. Then I got fat again. Now I'm in better shape again. You know, you know, life. Life, yeah.

So I said to her, I'm like, wow, everybody seems to think I'm determined. And she goes, huh? There is. She was, it's interesting. So what does that mean? I'm like, I don't know. Like, you tell me, like, you do the work for me. Yeah.

Hey, I did your assignment. Tell me what it is. I said, but at the end of the day, I said, you know, Nicole, what I really want, my dream is to wake up in a society where everybody is determined to go chase their dreams no matter what their emotions tell them. And she goes, so you want to wake up in a determined society? I said, yeah, she goes, that's it. Make a Facebook page called Determined Society.

I go, I don't like that. It's fire. I said, it's missing something. And she says, no, it's not. Determine society. I go, no, the Determine Society. Yeah, like the Ohio State University. Congratulations, by it.

I mean, dude, it's going to be a nasty run, but we'll see. We'll see. I'm not, I'm not, you know, anything can happen. Anything you can happen, right? We'll get there too. We'll talk about that. But, you know, I am, she'll start a Facebook group. But first go and, you know, pull the, you know, tell the audience, hey, like, something big's coming.

I'm going to drop a link when it drops. And I'm like, it's my first video that I've ever done. flipped it around, completely cringe, hated every bit of it. It was after running, I'm like, flush and I'm like, I got bugs on my face and shit, and I'm like, leaning up against the garage, like an idiot with a blue Columbia fishing shirt on. I just remember all this, right?

Because that was a start of it. And I started the Facebook page. Within 30 minutes of me posting the link, after I hyped it up for two weeks, I had 100 people in there. Crazy. And I started doing lives. I started doing like little motivational, like,

slogans or like stories. one day I'm driving down the road and I'm like I started like tasting colors bro I'm like this is not a Facebook it is but it's a podcast a lot more yeah it's bigger than this and then here we are

yeah so kind of similar for me in growing the brokerage and learning the new role of leading in business versus in the military obviously I seeked out coaching and I'm quite coachable I'm really good at taking instruction and then doing it right And so most people probably wouldn't have implemented everything that I have in this first year and a half creeping on two years of coaching.

But the main piece was implementing a training program here at the company. But here's where it gets crazy. When me and Andy initially created the training program, which we white labeled Jeff's, Jeff Glover's sales rocket program. And we integrated military experience, our marketplace, our experience. and we flipped it on Iron Valley branding. So we created peak performance elite sales training powered by Glover U. I love it.

But here's where it gets like Michael Burt had me going bananas because I was getting coached by two people at the same time. Yeah, it's hard. So I'm doing the real estate and I'm doing the speaking of writing, but Burt teaches you on concepts, right? So they're teaching me structure and to stand up the training with the stuff that I know and I'm already good at but how to package that training.

And then over here, Bert's like, conceptually, this is how you make everything intentionally congruent, right? So listen to this. I own and operate a multitude of Iron Valley real estate franchises. The name of the training is peak performance. You gotta go to the valley to peak, right? I love it, dude. But I'm the broker from the bottom.

And I take people to the top. See where this is going? And then when you take the peak of a mountain, the tip of it is the pinnacle, right? So now if you go to broker from the bottom, You will find that my packages are Apex Peak Pinnacle. Peak Performance Training is held in the Apex Room at the Summit Point location in Chesape. You see it's all just wrapped together. It's crazy.

It's wild. And then you got the pictures of the mountains and reach your peak and climb higher and all these slogans that branched from it. But so the real estate brand, my personal brand, my coaching brand, my writing and speaking brand, they're all the same. Yeah. Power brand. bro. But it's all because I've paid the money and I took the time to go seek those individuals who know what I did not yet know, right? And then it was like, well, everything I did was working. So I'm just going to keep implementing and keep doing. And then we got to the point where it was like,

well, I have a coaching business. I have an idea. I know I can speak because I trained in the military for years and I was always doing boards and I speak in front of agents all the time. And I know I have a story. How do I put them all together? I go to Burtz for a week, do the package of purpose. I meet Daniel. I start writing a book. And then my boy Tim is like, hey, uh, Eric Thomas just hit me back. I said, what? Jeff Lover just hired him to be a keynote speaker. So we did a quick work. I did my first broker for the bottom of it, hired ET for a webinar. And I turned that into a private watch party and also a book launch and like a whole thing. And then we negotiated a meet and greet face to face through Burns, who you know.

Yeah. So that's when I meet you. I come to Traverse City to go to the Glover U event. I go to the lobby for my meet and greet. E.T.'s calling you. I'm like, okay, so him and this guy are here for the same thing that me and this guy are here for, there's got to be some type of connection. And then we all got to sit there and just chop it up with E.T.

For like an hour and a half or something crazy. And now we're here together. Yeah. That's the powerful thing. That's a powerful thing because, like, there's a new crop coming up. right you have the goats like E.T's the goat man in my and my humble opinion like for for for me if I'm going to listen to somebody on end it's going to be Eric Thomas right for me yeah it's super high up there for me yeah and and you know you go to these places because everybody goes to these

events wanting to meet them yeah I was there to meet him right but also you know there was other plans. Like, I met you and Tim, and it's almost like, that's how it works. If people would really realize that these events, yes, you go there, you get nurtured with information. If you can meet them and shake their hand and have lunch, then cool. But it's actually opportunity brokering. But it's, yes, it is, man. And a lot of times that people don't understand you're not going to become friends with that person. Like the big one, right? I was blessed that I am. I am friends with him. But, you know, I met you and Tim and now we're off doing our first determine your destiny. There's going to be more. I mean, I hope, can we, we're going to do more. Like,

we'll structure it differently next time. Yeah. But like that, but dude, something was born out of that. 100%. And even just, you know, Michael Burt coming here to keynote my event. Like, you know, This is a guy that he coaches a lot of people. He does a lot of events. And, you know, just to be someone who performed well under his tutelage for him to come in and speak alongside you and myself with a couple other killers that I also met through all these events. Like I met Jeney through Daniel's Stickershock Speaking Academy. Even that.

Shout out to Daniel, man. Like he was the first one to give me a stage. He made me a keynote of his speaking academy like the first time he ever heard me speak. He's a good dude, man. because he was like, oh, that's a story. We can work with that, you know. And I've been at several events for him at this point. And everything just kind of comes back full circle. Travis Wallace, who you guys are from the same neck of the woods. He's already been on your show. I met him speaking at Activate Conference, which even that, like, it's funny how people will put you in a

position when they know you have what it takes. Kind of like the sensei testing the pupil, right? Yeah, of course. I was at Daniels. the first thing that he invited me to, and I kept asking, what am I speaking? What am I speaking? What am I speaking? And I had titled my talk, 20 to the top, because I only had 20 minutes, and it took me 20 years to get here,

and I was just effort to kill it. He hits me up the morning off. He's like, hey, you're going on at this time. You got 35 minutes. And I'm like, what the fuck? I need 15 more minutes now. But as a professional would,

I just adjusted, killed it, you know. And then at Coach Burtz in Tennessee, I wasn't slated to talk. He texted me the night before. It was like, be ready. And I was like, okay, all right. But he calls me up to speak.

And just in a short, 10, 15 minutes, Travis had the opportunity to see me speak. Somebody else saw me speak that gave me a $15,000 paid speaking gig. Wow. Travis just wanted to connect. And I'm sitting here like, bro, you train Kyle Lowry, bro? Like what? Like basketball is my favorite sport.

This is dope, you know? So all of those things have been curated. in a room storytelling. Yeah. So. Connection. That's it. It's crazy.

Like it's not because like, you know, coming here like, you know, could I have Michael Bird on my show virtually? Probably. Yeah, but in person. So I get to do in person. Absolutely. Right? I got to do, I got to have you on my show in person.

Daniel and several other people. Like I haven't had Daniel on my show personally. I mean, in person, I've had him virtually. But he called me the other day. This is funny as hell. And he says to me, he's like, dude, you are not even the same dude. I was like, I think that's a thank you.

He goes, it's a compliment, brother. He goes, did you know we've known each other for almost four years? I was like, that's not true. We've known each other for like a year, a year and a half. And he goes, dude, I was on your show two years ago. Literally two years ago. He goes, come on, brother. Time flies.

I'm like, dang. It's like it, but, but it wasn't like a knock on like, hey, I've only known you this long. It was like, it hasn't felt like that, right? and he's one person that we always come full circle, me and that guy. And when I saw you guys connected, like I remember right on the post, I'm like, are we serious right now? Or like, I'm like, wait a second, you guys are connected to? Like, wait, you're coming to the event? Yep, he's speaking at it.

I know. Because, you know, I'm very big on like scratch my back out scratch. Yeah, man. He gave me quite literally my first opportunity to speak outside of real estate, right? I've been on panels and, but the real estate wasn't where I wanted to go with, and I wanted to go my life route, you know, the story that's really going to impact people. And he gave me the first opportunity to do that, so I only saw fit, like, when I put on an event, hey, man, come on.

Yeah, of course. And the same thing for Bert. Like, I didn't expect to get that time at that conference. Like, dude, René Rodriguez, Rory Vaden, and Daniel Gomez had just spoke. Yeah. And I didn't even know, really at the time, until I published a book with, Daniel and been to several events. Like he's been on stage with John Maxwell and Les Brown and like goats. Yeah. And I'm like, okay, what am I doing right now? Yeah. I'm sitting here 15, 20, 25 years

younger than all these cats. But my life experience and my story and the things that I've built, none of which have been on my own. You know, we had this conversation earlier where it was like, I really want to highlight all the people that have been believers and taking everything we have to the next level because a lot of people look at me as like the face of things. but I'm one person like all the people hold me down and from the team leads

to the brokers to the you know Matt was just here with you like he runs that company I'm the VP but he runs that company you know and we have several other partners and they all bring business through the door and it's just so much more than just like you're not a real boss too you making other bosses

you know what I'm saying like leaders true leaders lead leader they make other leaders 100% that. So, but I always like to give back to those people that gave me a chance. So that's why Daniel's coming. That's why Bert's coming. That's why, I mean, even Jeney, you know, I invited her to come because one, she's a Navy veteran, two, she's a veteran advocate. But three, she heard me speak. And I don't know, that day, man, I tore it down. Everybody in there was just like, I've never seen anything like that. And I was like, I guess I'm like, this is what I'm

supposed to be doing, you know? Yeah, for sure, man. So from that moment on, She's been in touch and we've been at different events together. I also met Mark Murray, who's the owner of A1 VA ratings out of Texas. I met him through Coach Byrd's class. Wow. Dude, this guy made me $1.2 million in five minutes. No joke.

He's the top VA disability specialist in the country. Interesting. He took my laptop, redid my, because you know you got to put in for your disability, what have you. And he just whispered in my ear, welcome to the 90% club. And I was like, yeah, whatever. Like, I've been fighting for this for like five years, bro. Four months later, my rating doubled. My monthly income tripled from the VA from his one submission.

Unreal. Incredible. And since then, he's helped like 30 of my friends, man. Wow. And he came out to the event, no charge pro bono, like Norfolk. Veteran population. He brought a team of like eight people. He's going to be one of the main vendor boosts at the event,

just teaching people how to get their disability rating. So we got military fit women coming to town. Janae brought them through. Yeah. I mean, it's the power connection. I connected within the other day. Just like you said, the power connection, just, if you just show up and deliver and treat people right,

it'll just keep coming. Yeah, dude. Even through the hard times. Matter of fact, especially through the hard times. That's what's the most important, man. Anybody can be kind and collaborate when everything's going great. And the roses smell fantastic. Yep.

But it's really when it smells like shit. that's when you need to come through and show your best foot, you know, put your best foot forward. So no doubt. Shoot, man. We've been going for an hour, man. Well, we can't give them everything because,

you know, we got other episodes, we've got an event to do. Yeah, I got another show with you too, don't I? Yeah, we're going to do to Iron Valley, we'll say Hampton Roads one. Maybe. That'll be with me and one of the managing brokers

and we'll just talk about kind of the original Iron Valley here in Virginia Beach that set it all off, which, and I know you're going to Pennsylvania soon, Iron Valley is actually based out of Pennsylvania. The original is out of Pennsylvania. A lot of people in this area, like, oh, you guys start in Iron Valley? No, just here.

Iron Valley corporates actually in PA. Wow. There's an office in Hershey. They have corporate office in Hershey. They have everywhere from Lancaster up to Carlisle. I mean, they got like 35 offices just Pennsylvania. That's what I'm going to be in Carlisle. So, yeah, Iron Valley's huge up there.

You're going to see them everywhere. Well, it makes sense. Steel City, you know, an iron curtain. And that was kind of like when we brought it here, people are like, there's no valleys here. There's no steel. How are you going to? It's like, well, that's just it. It's that I call it a blue collar work ethic with a white collar mentality. It's like a perfect fusion. You know? Love it, dude. I love it. And here we are. Well, dude, thank you, man. Thank you for coming on.

Telling the audience about your story. And, you know, it's been awesome. I'm super jacked up. Tomorrow's going to be great. You know, we got sales training. Got some more shows to do. Charity workout. Charity workout, yeah, and then we light it up. And then the conference on Saturday. On Saturday. The butterflies are churning, dude.

I'm ready, man. I like butterflies. Like, they, they're good. They move me. If you don't have any, maybe... Maybe you're doing the wrong thing. 100%. Listen, guys, you heard it.

The one thing that I want you to get out of today from my friend Michael Little is, you know, no matter what you've gone, what you've gone through in the past, no matter what you're going through right now, if you live your life out of tenacity and choose to move forward and work hard and set the example and break the cycle it needs to stop with you he chose to stop the cycle with everything that going on with his family him not having a family incarcerations drug use overdoses

he decided to stop it with him now his children are benefiting from it and now he's built an empire and is going to continue to build that. So whatever you're going through, be tenacious. And until then, stay determined.