The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex - From Law Enforcement to Entrepreneurship ft. Dennis Dennis Benigno from Street Cop Training

Episode Date: August 21, 2024

In Episode 126 of The Level Up Podcast, Paul Alex is joined by special guest Dennis Benigno, a 14-year law enforcement veteran and 10-year entrepreneur, to discuss their transition from policing to business ownership. This episode dives deep into the challenges and opportunities they faced, providing insights for anyone looking to make a similar career shift.Dennis Benigno shares his journey from being a successful cop in New Jersey to teaching others and eventually diving into entrepreneurship. Despite facing obstacles, including being told he couldn't teach anymore, Dennis persisted and grew his influence online with over a million followers. He and Paul Alex discuss the importance of hard work, resilience, and the entrepreneurial mindset needed to succeed.They also cover practical advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, emphasizing the value of research and learning from others' experiences to avoid common pitfalls. Dennis highlights the benefits of controlling your destiny, contrasting the security of a steady paycheck with the freedom and potential of entrepreneurship.Key Takeaways:Career Transition: Moving from law enforcement to entrepreneurship can be challenging but rewarding.Hard Work Pays Off: Success requires dedication and the ability to adapt to new roles.Check Out Street Cop Training:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/streetcoptraining/?hl=enLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/streetcoptraining?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.streetcoptraining.com%2FFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/StreetCopTrainingYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkBqU2NSZ7gt0dBe7iFCBnwSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/37KohfA8hAUnbj3DW2sO63“Your Network is your NETWORTH!”Make sure to add me on all SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS:Instagram: https://jo.my/paulalex2024Facebook: https://jo.my/fbpaulalex2024Youtube: https://jo.my/ytpaulalex2024Linkedin: https://jo.my/inpaulalex2024Looking for a secondary source of income or want to become an entrepreneur?Check out one of my companies below to see if we can help you:www.ATMTogether.comwww.Merchantautomation.comFREE Copy of my book “Blue to Digital Gold - The New American Dream”www.officialPaulAlex.com

Welcome to the Level Up Podcast. I'm your host, Paul Alex. I went from being a cop to an eight-figure entrepreneur that helps average people like you and me make money every single day. I created this podcast to help you get motivated and to crush your goals. Let's win together.

Remember, I have your six. Get ready to level up right now. Hey, what's up, guys? This is the Level Up Podcast with Paul Alex, and I have a special guest for this episode, guys. Guys, you? This is the Love All Podcast with Paul Alex, and I have a special guest for this episode, guys. Guys, you guys know who I roll with. You know I'm former law enforcement, former detective. I'm into back in the blue all day, every day, guys. So I want to welcome my boy, Dennis, from Street Cop Training here. He's a 14-year in law enforcement veteran,

guys, 10 years in entrepreneurship. entrepreneurship and guys this guy is a straight killer he was has been able to get over a million followers all over social media it's going crazy hey i'm sort of fanboying right here guys but anyways let me intro dennis hi everybody my name is dennis and paul and i have experienced a recent bromance. Yeah, it's been amazing. It's been amazing, guys. But Dennis, for the first time on the Love All Podcast, guys, Dennis, tell them a little bit about your background, bro. Yeah, so I'm a New Jersey guy. People get that confidence mixed up with conceit.

It's not true. People are like, ah, you have a big head. I'm like, I'm just a confident dude. It's just a very New Jersey thing that I have. Yeah, man, I'm just a regular dude from New Jersey. Wanted to be a cop my whole life. Became a cop. Got pretty good at police work and then, you know, started teaching other people how to do police work and all the stuff that I figured out that I thought would benefit others. And so dude, you know, just a student of entrepreneurship. I think in all reality, I'm probably a purebred born entrepreneur. I've had nobody to talk to us in my podcast as well. I had nobody to put their arm around me and point me in the direction,

which I do with this energy, but I've always been a very hard worker and I've been able to forecast a lot of trends my entire life. And that's what I still do now. No, absolutely, man. So what got you into entrepreneurship, bro? Like, I mean, I know for me, it was more like, you know, law enforcement was changing. My parents, they got into like, you know,

some great like medical issues. And I was just like, dude, I need to make residual income. I need to work smarter. I'm getting older. My back's all messed up. But what was it for you, bro? I just didn't want to be poor anymore.

I was just sick of that shit. Guys, this is the realest podcast right now episode that you guys will ever listen. Two cops, two former cops that got into entrepreneurship because we didn't want to be poor anymore. So. If being poor sucks. I live my whole life that way. It's so much better to be less. People are like, well, how much money do you have?

I'm like, well, I'm just less poor. Yeah. I'm not wealthy, but I'm less poor. Yeah. And I'll just give you a little context and try to keep it as brief as possible. Everything that's ever happened in my life that was the worst thing that happened to me ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me.

So essentially, I started teaching cops the things that I knew, and it started catching fire, but it also rubbed people the wrong way. So my agency told me that I wasn't allowed to teach anymore. I just started doing this for like a year. It was on fire,

and they were like, you're not doing it anymore. So I came home and I, at the time, she was my girlfriend, my wife, my later wife, was like, yeah, I'm like, hey, I can't do these classes anymore. And you know, I opened a barbershop at the same time. I just started getting that entrepreneurial bug and I just went nuts.

I didn't know anything that I was doing. Glad I did it all, but there's probably better ways to do it. So if people are out here trying to figure out how to be an entrepreneur, my suggestion is I would put 100 hours of research in first, then jump. There's a big saying like jump and grow your wings on the way down. But my suggestion is do a little homework before you get into anything because you can save yourself so much more pain and money and tough lessons being learned because other people have done it before you have and they can tell you what to look out for and how to say just you're just trading money for that time you're going to lose in the long run but when i came home she was

like you know what are you going to do now i said well i have two options i can either lay here on the floor stare at the ceiling and feel bad for myself or uh this kid i went to high school with was in he's in real estate looks like he's doing really good yeah and i went to high school with, he's in real estate. Looks like he's doing really good. And I have to say that with a lot of cringe because there's nothing that frustrates me more, maybe gives me a cringe factor, when somebody tells me they're getting a real estate license. I'm just like, oh. Dude, down in Miami, when you hear real estate and it's usually followed by a hot OnlyFans chick like that's the trend now, right? And mind you guys, I'm married, so I ain't looking.

But that's just the normal here in Miami, okay? Typically, if you look at any real estate that's decent looking, they're going to go ahead and it's going to be followed with the link to the OnlyFans, which is crazy to me. Yeah, it's nuts, dude. But hey, respect, man. I always like – anybody who's trying to hustle brought a hate it's nuts, dude. But hey, respect, man. I always like, I always, anybody who's trying to hustle, bro, I don't hate on that shit one bit. You know what I'm saying?

So I'm with it, bro. I don't hate on that. Like, if that's the hustle you're getting, you're not going to get me. I ain't paying for no OnlyFans, bro. I bought it once for my friend because he had this crush on his girl. And actually, she was a cop in Florida and went to OnlyFans and he loved this girl.

So I bought it for him for his birthday for like $10. Oh man, you're such a good friend, bro. Yeah, I'm a good friend, bro. I love that. I'm sure his wife didn't appreciate it, but it is what it is. That dude was working with one of my really now good friends, Rob Dekansky, who is the number one realtor in New Jersey, and he's got crazy, crazy accolades.

And when I met those dudes, Rob wasn't even 30 yet, and his brother Dave wasn't even, he was two years younger than Rob, Rob wasn't even 30 yet. And his brother Dave wasn't even – he was two years younger than Rob, and I was about 30 – probably 31, 32 at that time. And, dude, I remember, like, seeing the things that they had. And they were from my town where I grew up, lower middle class. This dude pulls up in a $300,000 Porsche. His brother pulls up in a Bentley GT.

They're five and seven years younger than me or three and five years younger than me. And then I start like really like listening what's going on here. I'm like, is this shit legal? Like how much you guys making that? And I start hearing all this stuff. And I just start seeing things differently and hearing things differently. And I'll tell you some of these conversations and I'll try to make them quick. But what I did recognize was they're no different than me.

Yeah. Like, if these guys are getting it like that, I know I can get it like that too. And I think that's a real important realization for people to have to understand about themselves. You really got to be realistic with who you are. It doesn't mean you can't work to a max potential, but everybody's max potential is different. I know I am under the theory that if you are a hard worker, you can be completely stupid and still make 300 grand a year. But you got to work hard. And it's simple. There's simple formulas to it. So those guys and the conversations that we were having were like, I'll never forget sitting in the office, like working on a Sunday. And Dave came in and Dave, like, loved me because I was a cop.

And he was like, you're going to bring the police car here? And I'm like, yeah, dude. This guy's driving a Bentley GT. He wants to go ride in the police car. We just got charges at that time too, right? And so he's sitting there. He's like, yeah, I'm going to do $73,000 this month. And I'm like, I'm sorry.

What did you say? I mean, this year, right? He's like,'s like nah this month it was even more than that bro did you pull the whole wolf of wall street like hey if you show me that check i'll fucking quit right now well dude it started getting my wheels turning and then i was like well what do you do for benefits and he's like bro i think it might be more than 73 he might have been like 140 i was making that month something like that it was crazy month. It's August in real estate. It's all closings, right? Everybody's getting in before the school season starts in Jersey.

And around what time was this? Like what year? 2014. Oh, okay. Yeah. So I just, and I'm like, you know, what do I, like, what do you do for benefits? He's like, bro, he's like, you know, I got to go to the dentist. I just pay cash. He's like, you're worried about your benefits. He's like, bro. He's like, I got to go to the dentist.

I'll just pay cash. He's like, you're worried about your benefits. He's like, the thing that scares me the most is the same check you get every week. He's like, the things that you were happy about, the things that I fear the most. And I'm like, dude, that shit started sinking in with me. And I'm like, well, what do you got to do? He's like, bro, if I need, if I break my arm, what do I got to pay? 10 grand?

Because then I get to choose what doctor I go to. There's a kid five years younger than me telling me this. I mean, that's true, you know? So what I was seeing, and by the way, they were great people. They were generous.

They came from the same thing and they actually recognized, they would tell me all the time, like, yeah, like me and Rob, we always talk about you like you're a killer, bro.

We haven't seen one of you guys come along in a while. And I, after a little bit, I just recognized that I probably shouldn't be working for anybody. But let me just warn everybody about that again.

Working for somebody is not a bad thing. It's not. I know people that run laundromats that make $60,000 a year. And I know people that work for people that make a half a million dollars a year. So which one do you has to be taken in context because you might be a great number four or number 12 at a big agency and bring your stuff. Like, dude, I have great videographers. And I'm like, why don't you guys just freelance? Like, I don't understand the business side of it. Yeah. Right. That's a great place to be for everybody. That's how I and I'm not saying that because I'm

great and you're not. I am not great. I just know where my skill sets are and I'm constantly learning how to work within those skill sets. Yeah. No, that's awesome information, man. And I always told people this. Entrepreneurship is actually one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life, bro. And I used to work for the city of Oakland. I used to see consistent robberies. Like the worst of the worst shit. I used to work consistent robberies, like the worst of the worst shit.

I used to work 80 to a hundred hour work weeks, bro. And people always like, bro, there's no fucking way you made $250,000 a year. I remember the first social media posts I did on Instagram and dude, it went super viral. We had like a million views and majority of the comments was just haters saying fucking cops are poor. Fuck shit and then you would get other cops that would chime in and be like dude i only make eighty thousand dollars where do you work fucking liar you scammer i'm like bro you can look up how much i was getting paid back in 2018 in california bro like it's all public record and but see here's the thing i sacrificed my time my fucking body dude my relationships like everything to work 80 to 100 work weeks.

Yeah. You know? I got to say, your body held together pretty nice. When I walked in here, I was like, this guy's all right. It's just the camera, bro. It's just the camera. Yeah. No, dude.

But like, to go back to what you were saying, how did that make you feel? Like somebody five years younger than you fucking just getting a dude making that money fucking driving up in that porsche driving up in the fucking uh in the bentley and you're over there just fucking working your ass off you're probably getting yelled at you're they're probably talking shit to you on a daily basis because you're the police at that time right yeah dude i mean if you when you broke down the numbers i was going to work to be a cop for 31 an hour after everything it's like 46 taxes out of our shit. Oh, my God. Because I was in New Jersey.

So you're like, yo, I'll make it 30. These guys are doing $80,000 a month, $90,000 a month. Sick me. I actually thought it was illegal. I'm like, what am I involved in, right? Because they had a CRM. They were scraping things. They had a website, a lead funnel.

And I'm like, dude, I ask them all the time, like, is this legal? Yeah. And they turned it up on me. The one thing that I have to say is if there's anything anybody's doing with their businesses is when they bring people on and you find people that are really, really going to be some of these great people in your organization, spend time training them, spend money training them. But you also got to recognize if they're the right people. So they kind of just threw me at the wolves. I had no idea what I was doing. They were pumping leads to me. It was a good way to learn quickly, but dude, I was a realtor who knew nothing about real estate. So there really should be some time to, you know, essentially learn the business because you're dealing with people's livelihoods.

Of course. You have no fucking clue what you're doing or what you're talking about. Or tell one of my friends, like, you don't need a radon fucking test. But you know what, man? Like, just based on your personality, and by the way, guys,

this is the first time we're actually, like, meeting in person today. How long ago did we meet? Dude, like, last week. It was last week. I jumped on your pod and then you were like, Pauly it i'm coming to miami i was just like what i was like all right fuck it how long after did i fucking book those tickets dude like literally like within 24 hours 24 hours like within an hour well yeah yeah actually yeah you're right it was within an

hour dude i don't fuck around it's just bro like with me my bandwidth like on a day it's fucking crazy bro like everything i deal with it's fucking crazy, bro. Like everything I deal with, three companies, fucking 100 employees, C executives, like over here, like, oh, like with the fires and shit. And then you tell me, like, I think I just didn't have time to process this shit. And you're here now, dude. Yeah. So it's crazy to me, right? But I'm glad you came because I already learned so much from you, dude. This guy has over 10 years of experience, like i said in the beginning guys so like when you guys are listening to this podcast this episode specifically because we're

gonna we're gonna make this shit go viral dude you guys need to listen to this shit like three or four times because right now he's dropping gold so one thing i was gonna tell you man is i'm pretty sure that your two friends that got you into the real estate game they probably saw the potential inside of you dude because i feel like that's what I'm saying. Like when you feel it, when you feel the energy and you feel somebody is going to put in good work, like, bro, like I've done that a couple of times and I've been right. Like right now, one of my guys that is half of equity partner for one of my companies, Merchant Autom companies merchant automation dude he started off from like entry level worked a way way up to coo of my first company and i was just like this guy's a

fucking killer like he works 18 to 20 hours a day and he loves this shit right and he was prior law enforcement he was a sergeant oh no shit yeah he was a sergeant oh and he was actually one down here oh no callie same department dude yeah same department and when i launched the first company i he was one of the only ones that i told and i was just like hey dude i'm about to fucking leave put my two weeks he's like yeah fuck it leave dude he's just like you know go grow your business and i fucking sold everything and i moved out of the bay area man i went to san diego now talk about locations right because you're talking about scottsdale and miami and all that dude san diego is nice it's legit yeah it's pretty nice to go you got some beach people are calm there you have a ton of entrepreneurs it's it's the perfect you could say environment to grow business for sure lived

out right yeah yeah i'm sorry libs out there i just like every time i go to california i'm like there's just something about it i don't like yeah but i would I would say this. In San Diego, it's very similar to Orange County, bro. Okay. As conservative as possible in California. You're going to get San Diego in Orange County. It's only like two hours away from each other. So I highly recommend it. But to go to it, man, wouldn't you agree, man?

They probably saw something inside of you. They were like, you're a go-getter, dude. This guy, he could learn off experience. What are your thoughts? I think I have two thoughts, and this is going to help people a lot. One of the best skills that you can recognize, first one, is who you are. That's number one. I think the best way to measure who you are to start is what your work ethic is. So if you are a bum or don't like working, which is fine. Like you want to go play guitar on the beach, do mushrooms. Hey, God bless.

Right. But you got to recognize that like that behavior doesn't translate well to this field. I think as you grow and escalate, you know, who you become as far as in the entrepreneurship world, business owners, recognizing who people are is a massively important skill. And so when you say to me, do you recognize it in people? Yes, it's rare. But one of my jobs that I have to continue to learn to do is to recognize who people are. So when I'm piecing together people from my team, I have to see, are they a cheetah? Are they a zebra?

Are they a giraffe? Yeah. Because you can't make a giraffe a zebra. I've tried it. So you've got to recognize what everybody is when you see them. So if they knew some of that already, like, and again, they know, like, you could sniff the fake ones out. And I'm even saying, like, I'm not even that successful yet.

But yes, I guess I am in some sense. This humble shit that comes out, you know. But, you know, like there's no reason to try to impose upon those who know what it is because we can recognize it. I think it alludes back to what you said. It doesn't take long to listen to somebody and really know if they know what they're talking about. Of course. That's it. I mean, that's my thoughts on it.

So I think that everybody needs to focus on what is my max potential. And even getting to that next level and then seeing if that's where you're at as your max potential, you might say, oh, I can go more than this. I can go bigger than this. And I always tell people, like, everybody's just so quick to try to figure out where they're supposed to be for the rest of their lives. Like, I had two kids over at my house the other day. They're, like, 13. And they're, like, oh, like, you know, I want to be this when I grow up. I want to be that when I grow up.

And I'm, like, who cares? What are you thinking about that now for? You're 13. That's badass. Yeah, just the truth. Like, who cares? I'm glad that you, like, that could change 20 times. Yeah. My advice for people is to stop being so hard on yourselves and just remember this saying,

your next step doesn't have to be your final step. It just has to be a next, a better step than the step before. As long as you're not going backwards, sometimes you got to go backwards. But knowing that that's part of going forwards. So there's a saying like one step back, two steps forward. Sometimes you kind of take a little bit of a haircut, step back, because you believe in your conviction that the next big thing is going to require you to step back. So, dude, I was killing it in real estate.

I was murdering. I mean, I was like an award-winning realtor almost immediately. I had a team. We had like 300 realtors in our office. They're coming to my office. How do you do this? How does this happen? And I'm like, you guys aren't entrepreneurs.

You got to understand, this isn't a real estate game. The best winners in here are the business people. Yeah. This has nothing to do with selling real estate. And so I actually walked away from real estate because I believed in street cop training so much. I remember telling my wife at the time, like, I'm going to leave real estate. That was from Gary Vaynerchuk's advice. D, D, before you get into this, because I know you're about to drop some fire, dude.

Yeah. D, D, before you get into this, because I know you're about to drop some fire, dude. Two to three tips for anyone that's listening or watching right now that are in real estate and they fucking just suck, but they're trying to get better. What would you recommend? I think a lot of people are under the impression that real estate is the pathway to having a lot of money because I see people who have money. A lot of people who are wealthy and opulent and known on social media, Grant Cardone, all these guys are real estate moguls. Ryan Serhan, all these.

I never met Grant, but I met Ryan Serhan. I spent a little bit of time with him. How is he in person? I didn't spend enough time to give a good response to that. Yeah. So I don't know him well enough.

I can't really, you know, polite, I guess. I don't really know him that well, so I couldn't give an honest assessment of how I believe he is a human being. But it was a small interaction. I didn't spend, like, the night with him. That's weird, right? Oh, no, I'd like to, you know?

So I think people need to stop getting romantic with what they think they should be doing and start thinking about the things that actually make money. Some of the best businesses out there that I've seen even recently are some of the things that people think they're too good to do. Like, dude, I know I got a kid who edits my podcast part-time. He's just the editor for the podcast. He can't leave his pet sitting business because he's destroying it. He's crushing it.

It's like a G-Bar a day doing pet sitting and dog walking and stuff. It's crazy. That's not bad. Getting paid $1,000. That's a lot of money for most people, dude. Dude, for a day, that's good. He's killing it. And so guys are like, like I said, this is somebody who left my company.

I'm like, well, why don't you think about getting into something like that? They're like, I need a career. So you go take a job at $40,000, $50,000, $60,000 a year as a secretary because you get some benefits and a 401k, which is a joke. Yeah. And listen, for some people, that's very appropriate. If we're speaking to entrepreneurs, this is just helping you think differently versus it's like the police pension. You're going to stay and do 25 for the pension. Or you could learn how to make

money and buy a rental property every year. And by the time you retire, if you understand depreciation and appreciation of assets, you'll be, I don't know, 10 times what your pension would have been worth. Yeah. This is big thinking and it's not meant for everybody, but let's dumb it down a little bit. We talked about this in my podcast. Barbecue cleaning. $240 a grill. The guy comes to my house. He's doing eight to 10 a day. Right? You can do five a day. Do the math on that. No overhead expense. Pickup truck. I like the garbage can cleaning thing right now. I love that, bro. To me, that's like my garbage cans stink. Dude, Simple Businesses, you know, that content creator cody sanchez dude you know how much she makes off her newsletter right now because check this out and here's the funnel here's

some game for you guys and this is straight strictly from one of the masterminds i'm in i'm not gonna say who but one of the masterminds i'm in so the info we got will you tell me at dinner who the mastermind is yeah i appreciate it no, you already know, dude. I've been talking about it. But no, guys. So Cody Sanchez right now, she does a free newsletter where she goes and she explains the top simple businesses that average folks like myself can go ahead and actually do as a side hustle. Brilliant idea, right? Does she do them all?

No. She does laundromats, all that jazz, but then she's an investor. Okay. So overall she turned into a massive content creator in the past few years. And on this newsletter, dude, she kills it at annually $20 million off of going ahead and running ads between the information that she runs off this newsletter. Guys, think about that. It's crazy. If you're going ahead and you're going to provide all this free info okay you could create a newsletter provide the expertise what you're good at provide that value for free give it away do youtube videos do content do podcast and you're going to attract

people that want to read your shit then you give it six months you give it a year and you start running ads you create a course you create a program and, you give it a year, and you start running ads, you create a course, you create a program, and boom, you're an instant millionaire, okay? That's the secret sauce right there, guys. That is much more harder than he made it sound, just so we're fucking clear. Because if it was that easy, everybody would just do that.

Facts, facts. Again, I like to bring people back into their lanes, and I try to talk to people who are the majority of newer entrepreneurs and some senior or more experienced ones get some value out of it. Yeah. I think that a good idea if you're starting out is to just do a little Googling. Top 10 businesses, but even more important, top 10 worst businesses to go into.

I can tell you right now constantly in my head, this is probably worth its weight in diamonds. I always hear this same thing over and over again because I've been taking education in so much 5,000, 10,000 hours education over the past 10 years. Maybe 5,000, I don't know. I don't calculate, I just take it in. I was eating lunch today. It's like my little fruit bowl.

Yeah. I wanted to feel healthy. Plus there was some smoke show sitting there eating it. So let me sit next to her and feel like I'm something. And I was watching content while I was eating. And I could see she was looking at me like, this guy's fucking watching like entrepreneurship content. I can't get enough of it.

I do it while I'm working out. But, you know, I think even better is to recognize what businesses are bad ones to go into. And I got to tell you, in my head, I'm going to explain this. Restaurants and gyms are always the two things that most entrepreneurs bring up, that they would stay away from. I'm not saying they don't succeed. You've got to understand something.

Why they're so bad is the overhead cost intensiveness of them. Nothing will kill your business faster than overhead expenses. So when you have food that will spoil, that you can't keep on the shelves, stuff with short shelf life. Like I know somebody that just opened a gym and I'm like, they're fucked. And I'm like trying to help

this person. They don't want to listen because they like, it's their thing. And I'm like, you're fucking. I can tell you right now they're toast. It's six months their thing. And I'm like, you're fucking, I can tell you right now, they're toast. Yeah. It's six months and out. And the worst thing is they're going to ruin their, they're either going to take money from their parents

or their friends or their whole life savings or a loan on the house, burn it to death. Because one, I know that this person's not an entrepreneur. And number two, and like, and number two, they've done no research. This is just like a, oh, I'm going to rent this space and make it look this way. Like a passion project, basically. You know, they've done no research. This is just like a, oh, I'm going to rent this space and make it look this way. Like a passion project, basically.

You know, they envision it. They're like, this will be cool. You know, me and one of my really good friends, we actually talk about setting up a coffee shop. But here's the funny part about this. We say we're going to run a coffee shop knowing we're going to lose money. Because here's the thing. We don't know the first thing on how to run a coffee shop or a restaurant type of business, right? But the fact that we were like,

hey, let's open up a coffee shop so we could just work there and actually run our real businesses. And we know we're going to lose money off the coffee shop. It's not saying that coffee shops out there are going to lose money, but it's just saying you have to do your research. Just like what Dee's saying. You have to do your research. You have to do your due diligence before you do

anything in life, guys. I'm just telling you these things from my pain points. Like I, I did everything wrong and the internet is a great place. And I really think everybody should like, and don't ignore it. If the top 10 worst businesses to get to, like, I can tell you right now, dude, and you got to do more than just the first place you found. You've really got to spend some time in there, going to multiple websites. They'll tell you which ones are the worst ones and which ones are the best ones. And some of this pet sitting stuff. Like, when I look at it, I'm like, people love their pets more than they love their kids.

No facts. So, I saw where I live in New Jersey, where I used to live in New Jersey. There's a pet boutique right attached to the mall. I walked past it, and I was like, oh, how strange. Right? Like, the guy who's running the place is exactly who you think he is. Really? Think about what I'm talking about.

Yeah. You can just see behind this. Like, that's exactly who that is. It's been there for a while because people are insane. And he knows this market there. It's a lot of wealthy people. I like things with pets. I mean, Shark Tank is a great place to learn, too, because they're telling you what they're seeing about these businesses.

I don't know everything about businesses. Sometimes I'm wrong. But I know when I'm right and when I'm not. And I just know when I'm right. Like health food. I I health food I think health food is you would be in like when people are like oh I'm gonna make a like a restaurant or like a fast food place for like healthy eating I'm like yeah why don't you just open a McDonald's because there's a lot more fat people you can count you can count on the fact that people are

gonna eat Cinnabon McDonald's Burger King how often do you see McDonald's close can you even think of one that you've ever seen close? I can't think of one, dude. Franchisees are different than entrepreneurs. It's clear as day. You can be a hard worker and open a franchisee. Believe it or not, dude, there's a lot of paper-thin margins in franchises. I have a friend of mine who him and three of his friends own like 15 Taco Bells. There's no money in it.

Oh, wow. Yeah, I don't. There's enough money to survive on it, but, like, dude, it's like 10% margins. Do you think it's more of an investment to preserve your wealth? Because like that's the concept I have with real estate, man. Like essentially, let's say you have like a couple of boobing businesses that cash flow tremendously. $100,000, a million dollars a month. And now in order to either save on taxes or to go ahead and invest your money into something, people like to go ahead and buy multifamily, right? But I'm like with beginner entrepreneurs, since we're at that subject with beginner entrepreneurs, dude, I'm always like as a beginner entrepreneur, there's other methods to create more cash flow than investing into like a duplex, right?

I get it. Duplex is safe. It's what people see, dude. Yeah. It's what they see. They don't understand because that's the hot shit yeah that's the hot shit so people see that andy frisell on his podcast one time said and this is fantastic because it's great advice if there's anything i learned from

him it's this he said i watch guys start making 400 000 a year and start buying two family houses three family houses he goes and the crazy shit is if they would have just taken that money and reinvested it into their companies and grown that, they would have been making 25, 30 times. So when people say like, well, what are you doing with your money? I sold my multifamily homes. I got rid of them. I don't want nothing to do with them. People are like, that's crazy.

And I'm like, well, the market was high. I don't even want to be called by it. I can't focus on it at all. I'm not saying it's a lot to run it, but don't think it's passive income. There are several reasons. But the bottom line is, like, I'm also getting 100x return on my money, right? Or 100% return on my money. So not 100x, like 100% return on my money.

So I'm putting a quarter million into my company. I'm getting a quarter million back that year. So I'm getting $500,000 back. You're not getting that ROI in a house. No. It doesn't work like that. And just so you're aware, people lose their asses in real estate too. They do.

Just so we're clear. Everybody who owns, I don't know about down here in Miami, but like. Oh, dude, they can't sell the condos anymore down here. It's not even selling the condos. I'm even talking about like commercial retail space or not commercial retail space, a commercial office space. Yeah. They're going to start demolishing everything and building living spaces. And hopefully that'll work.

I watched a guy live in a nice town. There was a lot, a tear down across the street from my house. Nobody would touch it. Not all the big builders in town. Nobody was touching it.

It was too much. And so I caught one of the guys. His name was, the company was Fox and Fox. I had him a touch in New Jersey. And I said, Steve, why don't you touch this house right across the from mine he goes it's too high then i can touch it with so some dude buys it right then he buys it for now i got the biggest builder in town who

knows what he's doing who can build this house probably for you know 85 a square foot at that time he won't touch it and he can make the money on it but this other guy shows up and does it and dude i watched this guy and he's like i'll never forget he came because he knew i was in real estate and he said what do you think he's a chinese dude and he goes what do you think i can get for this and i went this section of this area 7.99 he's like that's not true and i'm like you want to look at your comps because i look at your shit all the time you want want to look at your comps? I'm like, $799. He's like, no. I'm like, bro, he ended up for $1.1 million. He was in there.

He couldn't pay the contractors. Every day he was in there doing tile work, trying to finish the job himself. He had to do whatever. Bro was crazy. He'd come in a van, like a conversion van, and he'd be there shoveling it. That house sat there unoccupied forever.

Wow. Because, and I said to him, I go, did you know what you were doing when you bought this house? He got a lord into, I'm going to be a house flipper. I'm going to be a, like, I'm going to build a house. Because this guy made $150,000 and I could really use $150,000. What he didn't realize was it was a huge mistake. And I could see the pain in his face, dude. Of course.

He had fucked up big time. And so please, if anybody's new at this, find things that are not capital-intensive investments. Do your homework. Understand it. I like businesses where the variable of your efforts is the ROI of your money. I love that, dude. Yeah. You can work as much as you want. That's why I like the garbage can thing, dude.

You could do that from literally—you could almost run that 24 hours a day if you think about it. Yeah. You can work as much as you want. You can, that's why I like the garbage can thing, dude. You could do that from literally, you could almost run that 24 hours a day if you think about it. Yeah, you could. You certainly could. 24 hours a day, you could have trucks out washing garbage cans at $50 for two, $25 a piece. Dude, I feel like you can even get big enough

to the point where you can actually make that business commercial as well. Dude, that thing could be, I look at that thing and it just tickles me. And especially if they're reading How to Make a Couple Billion by of billion by the guy who started waste management. I forgot his name. No, dude, I had a mentee last year who actually, he was, he started a trash pickup business, dude. And I never knew, I always see the trucks, especially when I was in California, like, you know, pick up your junk, you know, businesses. And I use them now here in Miami, especially because you know, pick up your junk, you know, businesses. And I use them

now here in Miami, especially because like, I get a lot of deliveries to my house and you know, I need the cardboard boxes picked up or whatever. And dude, those guys, they make a killing because you could get so many jobs. The thing is you have to either get the referrals or you have to advertise yourself. Yeah. So I mean, You know why people don't pick those businesses? Why? Because they're hard work. Of course. Everybody thinks it's easy.

Blue collar, man. Come on. Bro, it's hard work. And folks, I can't emphasize this enough. Even me, I get down and dirty and break my fucking back and move things. I'm still getting physical at times when it needs to happen. Yeah. Bro, I had to fucking drive a bunch of shit like in a fucking box like people was like who's gonna do it i'm like i guess it's me right i'm missing a fucking birthday party driving a

fucking truck for 23 hours straight yeah right falling asleep the wheel like how is this guy doing it because it had to get there i had nobody couldn't find anybody that's got to get done people don't want to do that shit and that's perfectly fine. But I can't emphasize to you what it takes, the grind, the hustle, and the sacrifice. And if you like fucking off, stay away from this. Like I can't emphasize it enough, dude. It is just, it is not as easy as everybody makes it look who is successful. Talk to those who got their asses kicked. And mind you guys, D is talking about entrepreneurship here. So like if you're lazy, if you're not proactive, stay away.

Okay. Because this is not for you. I'm going to jump in here and also say this. I think if you're emotionally unintelligent, you should really think about this because, and this is another reason why this gym thing is going to not work out for that person. The taxing events that are going to happen that will make you want to. Cody Sanchez has a great saying, and I love it. She said, my dad used to say, if we're not holding our hands, our face in our hands, every so often saying, what the fuck are we going to do now?

Are we really in business? Facts, dude. Facts. Because you will run for the hills the very first time the piper shows up because he's an ugly son of a bitch. Yeah. And he takes emotional tax. He takes financial tax.

He takes tax on your relationships tax he takes tax on your relationships it takes tax on your health yeah andy for selling it might let have an episode that you can watch on youtube i think everybody should watch it and it's crazy these guys are billionaires and they were talking and ed says andy says that he goes ed would you do it again would you be an entrepreneur again if you could and i said no and he says i wouldn't either that's how fucked up it is yeah when it's great it's fucking bro like remarkable when it's bad you're like literally like like i'm on lexapro right now yeah and i'm most one of the most emotionally intelligent people you'll ever meet in your life but the cost of getting big and growing and taking on an industry of law enforcement training

that is one of the most hot topic issues right now and what it caused. I knew it was coming at some point. I just didn't know it was going to come like this. Yeah. Because they've

villainized the police so much that they now use me as a pawn to villainize them more, which is just an absolute joke. Dude, it's worse than you think it is. And everybody's got to pay those dues. Oh, dude, trust me.

I have a sense. Coming from the department that I used to work for, even though I backed the blue all day, every day, politics is fucked up right now. But that's a good topic. Let's jump into it, bro. So what is your take right now about law enforcement in 2024? And I know it's a super generalized question, but what would you say?

I have a good take on it. Yeah. What's your take, man? Let me see what you say. I think I'm going to start with this. I think I know what you mean by that. I think you'd be surprised at how many places it's still good to be a cop at. And how you know which ones are good agencies and which ones are bad agencies, just to start, if it's a major metropolitan agency, stay the fuck away. You don't need to go work for a county sheriff or a state police or this or that. You just need to find a place that's good. And they're everywhere.

Even in your more liberal states, they have some really fantastic agencies that are still out there running and gunning and have a full support from their community, the politicians, and their command staff. And then you have the latter. But one great place to start is like, stay away from the NYPD. Stay away from the Metropolitan Police,

I'm sorry, MPD, Metropolitan Police Department. Stay away from Philly. Stay away from Baltimore. Stay away from Philly. Stay away from Baltimore. Stay away from, you know, L.A. Stay away from Minneapolis. Stay away from Chicago for sure. Detroit, Cleveland, like these places, to start, if you're looking to be a cop or go into law enforcement, you know all I have to do to at least have a fighting chance of enjoying my life is to start by not shopping at a metropolitan agency. What they do is though, because you can get on so quickly when you're hot to trot, people are like, I'll go there

to start. And you'll get stuck there and you'll be miserable and you'll be treated like shit and you might end your career there. So patience important when you're looking for for law enforcement in 2024 but there are a lot of fantastic things still being done that the media does not broadcast and it is a profession that is so profoundly selfless that in today's environment people are still showing up believing they can help and so what i say is as long as you're showing up we're showing up, believing they can help. And so what I say is, as long as you're showing up, we're showing up. Because when I know that I have the resources you need to stay alive, save lives, and be constitutionally compliant, making sure you're upholding the law, and also learn how to develop it, who you are as a human being, how dare I not bring that and share that with everybody? I love that, dude. I love that. You got it. Damn, dude. That was, that was, that was badass.

I'm pretty badass. Yeah, that was badass. But all right. So to go back to that, man, like, let's talk about, and let's, let's really reach out to the newbies right now. Like the, the, the folks that are really looking to be cops in 2024, dude, go deeper why would you tell them to stay away from those specific departments or those specific cities what are they going to face reality let's say let's say you have someone who is 21 right now in chicago and they're like dude i want to protect my hometown i want to protect my city you don't get to you don't get to choose you don't get to protect it they don't let you right they have the get to choose. You don't get to protect it. They don't let you. They have a lot of foot pursuits in Chicago.

They have a lot of foot pursuits, dude. So it doesn't matter what you want to do. Sometimes you can only work with what you've got, and sometimes you have nothing. And you're going to find yourself very frustrated very quickly, which in turn is going to make you sick. And it's not my fault that I'm exposing these things. It's just the truth. I'm not trying to piss people off. Tell me it's not true.

Go find the Chicago. You know the Chicago's down like one-third of their cops. Do you know how nuts that is? We're not talking about there's 10 guys and now there's seven. We're talking like, I don't know, there's 20,000 and now there's fucking 12,000, right? So there's 12,000 cops to protect how many people are in Chicago? I don't even know, dude. I can't give the right. I don't want to mislead and mis-say something.

No, for sure. But the fact of the matter is they're down like 30% in cops, maybe even more. Dude, that's insane. It is insane. So when you go there, you are given no resources. And to do a job like this, when mistakes happen, they can be significant ones, you have to work for an agency that understands what a mistake is, not one that's ready to sever your head up,

put it on a silver platter and serve it to the crying public. And you've got to understand something. It's a disaster of an industry. It is. And sprinkled in are some fantastic leaders, chiefs, sheriffs, captains, sergeants, lieutenants, sprinkled in all over the place, chiefs, sheriffs, captains, sergeants, lieutenants. Sprinkled in all over the place are some real fantastic people. But, you know, it's not hard to figure out where there's no leadership.

Like the one who left Atlanta, that woman. And I think she went, I don't know where she went. I just talked to somebody from her agency who was working for her. They're like, it's a disaster. Right. She comes in. She's literally talking about how she hates the cops and she's the fucking chief here now. That's insane. Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly right, dude literally talking about how she hates the cops and she's the fucking chief here now. That's insane.

Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly right, dude. That's how insane it is. How do you work for somebody who's a cop who doesn't like cops? Yeah. What do you think they're going to do to you? Morale's down.

I mean, the cops are not going to want to actually do police work. Morale's always been down and now it's really down. But if you're patient enough to do some homework and find a place that's great you guys can really have a fulfilling career because there's still a lot of cops out there that love what they do and they got the support they need to go out and do it that's awesome man hey guys like you know i haven't i haven't been in law enforcement for the past four years but i can tell you something i still back the blue and they're good people dude yeah they're like they're the I've ever known in my life.

Dude. I don't know if you can think of a better group of people. And if there are some people who are what maybe on the surface may seem like not good, I think it's just a lack of training. And we're addressing and fixing that. Facts. So let's jump into that, man, because I remember the last two years in law enforcement, I was inside as an investigator working special victims unit. And I remember these rookie cops, man. It almost felt like rookies were trained rookies. They were failed. And I was just like, what is going on here?

And that is the future of law enforcement. I feel like as right now, especially in California, because you've got all the veteran cops saying, you know what? Fuck this. Yeah. We're not going to be working and getting crucified to do our job. Poor Neil, because you got all the veteran cops saying, you know what? Fuck this. Yeah, yeah. We're not going to be working and getting crucified to do our job. This is why if you ever visit San Francisco, San Francisco used to be a great city. It's my hometown.

I was born there, dude, in the Mission District. Now you go there, it's shit everywhere. It's literally shit city. They allow the homeless to shit in public and not get in trouble. They allow people to actually do property crimes and to raid stores. You got these mobs. Every single store in downtown San Francisco, dude, is not there anymore. Yeah, they're closing. They just closed the Denny's.

I saw it yesterday. The only Denny's in San Francisco they closed. How sad is that? Not even Denny's, bro. Well, who wins there? The suburbs. The suburbs win because you're getting all the money now moving out to the suburbs. This happened in New York City in the late 60s, early 70s.

Everything was moved out of New York because of rampant, you know, uncontrolled crime. The sad thing is the people who suffer the most are those who can't leave and are stuck there. And politicians don't give a rat's ass about you, just so we're clear. Let's think about this for a second. How are we not just methodically fixing hunger issues? Facts. How do you have $80 million on how to research how dolphins have sex and crazy stuff like that, right? But you have families tonight that won't know what to do for their next meal.

And we're just as guilty as all of them. Yeah. We're just as guilty as all of them. I try to really live my life in a giving fashion, but we're just as guilty as everybody else. But that's the, that's, there's a bigger thing to why all this stuff happens and it has nothing to do with you or I. We're almost all like a little, we're kind of like when you're playing a role like that,

you're like puppets in the master plan of what people actually want to happen. Yeah. You know, you just don't know what it is. And it sounds like very conspiracy ish, but no, it's true.

No, it's facts, man. I mean, you're driving down real estate prices in New York, right? People are, people are running for the hills to the suburbs.

You've got, dude, there's still 7% interest rates. There's still a frenzy in New York and, sorry, New Jersey and Connecticut. You can't get your hands on a house. Dude. Can't get your hands on a house. You know, I moved to Miami here eight months ago, bro. You bought something here? I bought something here.

Yeah. So the first house that i actually put money down i put about 50 down bro damn check this out let's put a hundred thousand down bro i'm just doing i know i know but no let me let me tell you this guys after i was about two weeks away from moving all my stuff down here. The seller backs out. The seller backs out and says, hey, we're going to back out. My real estate agent goes and says, hey, they want to back out. You could take them to court because they are breaking the contract.

I'm like, hell yeah, we're about to take them to court. Fuck that shit. It's the principal. She goes, but here's the thing. You put quite a bit of money down. So that money is going to get tied up in court. Fuck that shit. It's the principal. She goes, but here's the thing. You put quite a bit of money down. So that money is going to get tied up in court and they're going to draw it out for probably two to three years. Do you want to do that? So they knew that. They knew the loophole. They knew that I was going to fucking be like, fuck that shit and not fight it, dude. And that's

the fucked up part about it because they probably took an all-cash deal instead and i understand that that's what's happening here in this environment right now dude think about it it's very telling when you got major corporations like blackstone what is it black rock yeah black rock state tree black rock dude they're buying all these condo buildings well that's how most of europe is you can only rent. You can't buy. So that's where they're – like I have friends from Europe. That's where it's going. Well, Asia, Europe. So they're like, dude, that's what they're doing here. You'll never own property again here at some point.

It'll be unattainable. They won't need to ever sell it. It's like that one saying, dude, you will own nothing and be happy. But like people need to stop getting romantic with the idea they need to own a house to be wealthy. That's true. But how can we fault anybody when for your entire life

nobody's ever taught you how to think correctly? I've said this before and I'll say it again. Like the minute I hear that my kids are being taught anything about economics by a teacher making $60,000 a year,

I'm going to have a fit, a year, I'm going to have a fit, right? And I'm going to tell them, don't you dare listen to a word that person says. What does a teacher who makes $60,000 a year know about business? Shit. What does your parents know? Like we had a girl works for me. She's like, well, my parents make double mortgage payments. And I'm like, great. That's stupid, but great. She's like, well, how's it stupid? I'm like, okay. So in some sense, it's not completely stupid, but there are better things to do. I get that they're trying to get debt free. Fantastic. But like, what's their interest rate? Is it three and a half? Can you get a 7% return on that money

instead of that? Like, you know, we're not thinking about things like this. And I still don't know enough. But, yeah, man, like, don't feel bad about yourself. You are the variable on how successful you want to be. And it comes down to how much time are you willing to invest. I remember hearing this thing, like, it'll take you five years to get rich. And I'm like, I'm good. I'll take five right now. Yeah.

Right? What does that mean at 10 then? Yeah. But you have to be obsessed. You do. You can't just say it. And I watch a lot of people just say it. And dude, you know, like most people have no business running, operating, and owning a business.

They just don't. That's why you see like these people who like their grandfather starts the ice cream parlor and it's this great place. And then like, you know, the grandson takes it over when he dies and the thing's closed in three months see i i actually see it quite a quite a bit man you know biological dad he he came from construction separated from my mom when i was two i didn't really have a relationship with him you know from afar you know we would say be cordial and then finally at the age of 21 he was talking shit about my mom i was just like hey go fuck off and that's the last time dude i didn't hear till the day after he died where my stepbrothers my stepsisters go ahead and they're like hey dude your dad died and i was like why didn't you fuckers like hit me up like when he was in hospice he's like oh we couldn't find you fuck you i was a cop of course you could fucking find me right how did you find me after the fact that he died?

But anyways, to go back to where you were saying, my dad, he started in construction, teamed up with my uncles. They opened an actual very famous taqueria, Mexican restaurant in San Francisco. Mind you, right? The dude had fucking 12 kids, bro. Goddamn. Yeah, I know.

He was a player for life. But he had 12 kids. Your father hated condoms. Dude. And he married every single woman. Emilio, he's all over here laughing. Yeah, yeah. I know.

Your father. Make sure you put this in. You gotta put it in. But dude, I'm just saying. Like, it's facts. No, it's facts. And, you know, that's why my wife right now, she's like, man, you probably got it from your biological dad.

You were Mr. Bitches when you were 20. That's how we talk. That's my wife is my best friend, dude. So, so we can talk to each other like that. And that's the way relationships should be. Right. But to go back to it, man, he gave the business. Obviously I wasn't in the will.

I don't give a fuck. I was the most successful kid he had out of everybody because everybody else was fucking lazy. Right? Flojo. Dude, flojos. Right? Lazy. So they got part of the taquerias.

Every single one of them, dude. Except me, which I don't care. But guess what? Fucking they started going one by one. Started losing each restaurant, bro. So what you just said, dude, you have to be obsessed with business. You have to have some common sense.

You have to be good at it, but then be obsessed with it. That's why I say like, business is so simple and people overcomplicate it. They overcomplicate it because they see things that they think they're going to be. You need to know who you are.

And there's no shame in power washing two houses a day for fucking $350, $400 a piece. Because that's a lot of money. And that's a $1099 pay. You're a country. You're not paying taxes up front. When you understand that shit, that's a lot of money. And guess what? You can do it

seven days a week if you want. You can never stop. I mean, do think about it. If you're making $800 a day seven days a week, it's $5,600. You talk about making $300,000 a year. Give yourself a day back. How about even this? Instead of taking the job at $100,000, you do this for 10 years at $300,000. Pay yourself $100,000.

Take $200,000, put it in the bank for the next 10 years. You'll have $2 million in the bank. You could retire in 10 years. But people aren't willing to put it in. They'll put 40 years in miserable, but you can work 10 hard and be retired because then you could take your $2 million in the bank that's probably already been compounding. So you probably have $2.73 million in the bank. Then you could just live off the interest of conservatively 6.5%, 7%. Let's call it 7%. You could get $3 million in the bank in 10 years, which sounds nuts, but it's much more easier than you think it is because you guys are all complicating things.

And you're lazy. That's really what it comes down to, just the laziness factor. You could make $210,000 a year for the rest of your life and never have to work, like ever again in your life. Dude, that's so fire. See, guys, this is why it's called the Level Up Podcast, because we're bringing on guests like D here. D is talking to everybody who doesn't want to work for 40 fucking years. You want to work hard for 10 years and then live off of the interest of the money that you save, guys. You can do that.

Fuck yeah. And you can do that instead of buying rental properties. I love that. You know what I mean? Like, I'm so tired of these gurus online talking about like the only way you're able to build generational wealth is through real estate. Dude, there's so many ways to skin a cat. You know? There are smart ways. And I think that people should really spend time understanding, man, if you could do anything before you open a business, find somebody who's good in business.

Find three people who you know are successful and just pick their brains. Dude, I love that. But with that, let's jump into this, okay? Because, dude, you need to tell it all on this one. So for anyone who is considering going into law enforcement, they're like, dude, after listening to this pod, I love those guys. They're former cops. I want to be like them. What would you tell them what they need to do? What would be the top three steps you would tell an aspiring police candidate right now? And they're going to go start so many apps to their favorite departments. What would you tell them to do?

Well, I think that if you really are dead set on being a cop, go scratch that itch itch let me start by saying this just because you become a cop doesn't mean you have to finish being a cop so they'll say 20 years you gotta understand something if you like stuff like this you're not going to hang out with people who are big thinkers which is fine they're just not big thinkers so when you get into circles like that i remember hearing dude i'll tell you a few funny stories and i'll answer the rest of that question when When I got on my third agency, it was 2006. And then we just had the bubble crash. People, when I got there were like, Hey, make sure you contribute as much as you possibly can. 37% into your 401k. But it's not like, like, look at me. I'm ready. I'm going to leave in two years. I got 1.1 million and they're showing me their accounts. And I'm like, like, this is

carrying me forever. This is my pension. I'm going to make $150,000 a year for the rest of my life. And then the market crashed. Those guys didn't get to leave. Oh, my God. So this shit's got cut in half, dude. So these guys had to wait until that shit rebounded because it ruined their whole – they were not in control of their plans. And I never forget another story.

Like, my friend was getting divorced. And he'd been on the job a while, probably 15 years at that point. And he's like, yeah i bought her out of the house then we split whatever in the bank and he's like and this guy had like 15 years on the job and he's like so i gave her 10 grand and i kept 10 grand i'm like you're 15 years in a job you're 20 grand in a bank i was like these motherfuckers are broke yeah like this broke ass shit bro yeah so and i hate to say that sounds so rude but for real that's like some broke ass shit so i was like okay so just understand that you're not gonna be wealthy becoming a cop i know that you're like making 40 now and you're like i'm gonna make 120 you will never there's no police job in this world that you and you want to talk about wealth i have friends that own jets that's

wealthy yeah you you're carrying a fucking 16-person jet. You got some big-time scratch. Of course. So when you think you're making $150,000 because your dad made $72,000 as a fucking plumber, I promise you, it's nothing. Yeah. It's going to be a tough existence. No question about it. Probably easier than making fucking $42,000.

But understand that you can't be wealthy being a cop, which is fine. Because there's nothing more subjective in this world than what happiness is true money does not equate happiness it just does not it's impossible your inner peace and your happiness and what you want to do you have to prove it to anybody just understand you're not going to be rich so you're not equating happy you're being wealthy to being happy accept that i think if you were going to pick an agency you should slow the fuck down calm down everybody's hiring the balls in your court literally everybody like bro i just gave some advice this this couple days ago just like just don't even wait anymore just get your applications out there my suggestion is if it's feasible to do so

do some homework on the agency before you go there how do you do it it's kind of hard you may want to try to figure out a way to try to talk to about five people at that agency you know and like five very different people and get a feel for it if you've got one guy that's pissed off before a fucking thrilled and also talk shit about that one guy, like, oh, you're a pizza asshole. Like, he'll probably tell you not to come work here. That's probably a good sign. One thing you definitely want to look for, I tell people this all the time. If you find an agency that's proactive and not in the sense that they want you to go out and write tickets, that's not proactive.

An agency that rewards its police officers for go out and write tickets. That's not proactive. An agency that rewards its police officers for going out and interrupting crime. They want guys out there stopping cars, being visible. This is a fantastic sign of a great administration. And I don't even want to go through the details of why. You just have to trust the guy's been in the game for over 23 years. These are the best agencies to work for they want you to

go out they want you locking people up who are bad not just gonna find anybody and you're getting rewarded for your hard work to go out and they want workers that's where you want to be and we're talking about arresting violent criminals we're talking about the worst of the worst piece of shit out there guys not somebody you know over there we're trying about the worst of the worst piece of shit out there guys not somebody you know over there we're trying to arrest somebody just for smoking weed or no no no no no no no violent criminals that are actually harming other people think about this dude you're a cop a dude's case in house is to do burglaries yeah you're sharp enough to grab onto it you have the motivation you stop the car you find out you're interrupted four burglars are about to occur it takes skill to do that it does if you're agents and the craziest thing is there's

some agencies that don't want you doing that which is complete bullshit it's wild yeah it's wild it's wild to understand if the american public actually knew how these police agencies are run they're doing a disservice to everybody that pays taxes they're doing the disservice to all their community members you can remember something dude dude the. One of the biggest problems with public, anything in public service or public positions is no matter what kind of job you do, you're still getting paid. We're in business. If you sucked, you'd be punished significantly. Yeah. Like, dude, the restaurant at my hotel, I'm staying down here for this couple days I'm hanging out with you, I haven't seen anybody at that restaurant yet.

That's got to hurt, man. You know they're hurting. That's, that's, so when you're not good at running this place, you're paying dues. But if you're not good at running a fucking police department, it doesn't matter. The money's endless. Taxpayer money. And people don't know the difference they don't know and the reality is like you should all be thankful that there's people like me and i don't ask you to like kiss the

ring or anything like that but me and other people who have taken initiative to not wait for things to get better because we're fixing things so we make better things to make things better i'm convinced and it sounds wild that i'm to fix the whole fucking thing or a good portion of it, dude. And that's great. So with that, let's go ahead and actually talk about your actual consulting program. I would like to call it your consulting empire, bro, because that's realistically what it is. Like, number one, this this guy, D Dennis, OK, this guy has more experience than anyone i've ever talked to guys and i've worked with guys that have been in law enforcement for 30 until they basically died and

just based on what i've seen online dude based on all the followers dude cops love you yeah i don't think i have experience i think i'm just unique in the sense that I was a cop, but I'm also a significant problem solver. Yes. So I wouldn't say it's experience because I don't know how to do a lot of things. But I also recognize that I can fix some things and it'll fix a lot of things. And I also recognize when something's not working. Correct. So it's amazing. People say like, you know, would you ever be the chief of police somewhere?

I'm like, well, that'd be doing disservice because I can help a lot of chiefs. Or it just goes to prove to you the system that I wasn't a supervisor, but I came out and grew essentially the largest police training company in six years. Because my suggestions of the things that I could fix wasn't something that somebody else suggested and egos couldn't handle it. Yeah. Funny shit, though. I always like watching these people that I knew that were supervisors that played in the fake land of, like, I'm getting ahead because I'm a good test taker. Right.

That means I must equal that I'm a good cop or I'm good at business. And I watch these people come out and, like, try to go into business and just get murdered because it's a fake world. This is the real world. You were only good at test taking. The real world does not record. It's like I'm a straight A student. Guess what?

You don't get to ask your boss at the end of the week, will this be on the test? You know what I'm saying? My hand to God, Paul, I have never asked what my kids grow up. I don't even know how they have report cards. I don't even know. I don't give a fuck. I tell my kids all the time, none of this matters.

I mean, I'm telling eight-year-olds, none of this matters. You don't got to go to college. It's a joke. I'm telling other people's kids, I'm like, don't waste your time going to college. Fucking waste. The college industry lost like $7 billion last year. Yep. And the specific education stuff that we're doing gained like $8 billion last year.

Oh, dude, it's a huge industry. It's just a huge shift. It's not that it's this land grab because you shouldn't be teaching people if you don't know. Correct. There's another police training company, and I'm not trying to sound like a dick, and I saw they posted case law stuff. And I was just like, I know everybody's imitating me, and that's fine, and I'm honored, and I want to help you guys, but stay the fuck in your lane because you're going to get caught. Yeah. Because I know for just knowing what I know about case law and what you put up, dude, don't do it.

I feel like calling the guy and be like, don't do that. All right, D, so what got you into street cop training bro so street cop training which started as nj carillon addiction started with i'm going to try to make this as understandable as possible i started really becoming good at being a cop and a lot of people would ask me like how do you know this stuff how do you see this stuff i'm like i should write some of this stuff down like intuition well i really didn't have any training dude I was just picking up on trial and error. And then once I started learning case law in 2008 is when I really, that's when I meshed those two together with procedure and your street skills and just became a wizard. So I was seeing a lot of people that I was field training becoming significantly better than anybody else that was being field trained.

I think almost everybody I field trained went to a narcotics division. Badass. Yeah, no shit, dude, for real. Or specialized units almost right away, like within two years. I mean, if you got me as your field training officer, like you hit the lottery. You did, bro. Because I'm an easygoing guy, too. I'm not like going to be a dick to you.

Of course. I have my theories on it. Dude, the best way to ever train anyone is to go ahead and actually pour into them. Mutual respect, dude. But also mutual respect. 100%. I tell the other guys who field train, don't talk to him like an asshole in front of people. He's a cop. He graduated the academy.

It's over. And people are like, I don't believe that. They still got to earn. Listen, bro. We're in public. They don't know any better. Yet a guy looks young. The guy's fucking leather is pristine. His uniform, he got no hash marks. But still, he's still a fucking cop showing the respect he deserves out there or she deserves out there. No. It's too much to your part.

Like, when you become my field training officer, I'm your partner. That's it. I know you need a little help. I'll help you out. I'll give you some guidance on things. We got to go through the whole thing. But you're going to learn how to do things right and what things mean. And then it started being like I started to realize how much nobody knew what they were doing

it's horrible to say because not even their fault that they don't know what they're doing because nobody told them what to do it's not like they were told this is the way you're supposed to do it they're not doing it that way it's one big guessing game and it's unfair and it's so dangerous to not train people appropriately in a profession that could take your life at any second i always tell people this class i'm like isn't it just a little fucking more disturbing when a kid loses his life like two weeks on the job because the bad guy doesn't give a fuck that you're a rookie wants to kill a cop And you've been given nothing. What a wasted period of time of going to an academy to get nothing. And I have all the opportunity that could have saved your life, but you got literally nothing to go and take and use in your profession.

It's fucking terrible, dude. And so I'm not trying to criticize these police academies. This is almost like a plea. And I know that you may not know how to fix this. That's why we're here. But it's a plea to recognize. Put your ego to the side and say, my ego is not as important as other people's lives. Because you're so romantic with the way that things have been done that you think it's got to be done this way.

It all needs to be rethought. I'm even one of those people who's like, I don't think you need military bearing at all. And I'm the fucking street cop guy. I think it's complete. I think it's absolutely absurd, to be honest with you, that there's drill instruction in police academies. That makes a lot of people,

it takes a lot of bravery to say something like that because that frustrates a lot of people. You know what? I'm going to back you up, bro. I got your six. No, I 110% agree with you. The reason why? I still remember being in police academy.

Like it was just freaking last week. It's crazy. I can't even imagine. It's been almost 10 years now. But I still remember being in police academy. The lieutenant at that time walks into the class and goes, you know who makes the best police officers? Are people that actually had customer service jobs. People that can actually communicate and have soft skills.

Who here is a salesman? I just did six years in corporate America for this company called Ecolab. Got promoted multiple times. There's Ecolab stuff in my garage. I claim I grill with it. Yeah, exactly right. And raised my hand. He's like, you, what'd you do?

I was in sales my entire life. Guys, I can almost guarantee you, this kid right here, Espinoza, right? You're probably going to be an all-star. You're probably being a specialized unit within a couple of years. Dude, within like, literally like a year and a half, I got voluntold to go into investigations.

Yeah. And just because verbal judo. You go ahead and you know how to articulate yourself. You know how to actually calm the situation. You know how to talk to people into handcuffs. You know? And a lot of people don't know how to do that. You want to hear this is the most secret ingredient of being a fucking great cop.

Yeah. Say it all, dude, because we're literally going to have hundreds, thousands of cops watching this episode. This is the secret ingredient, dude, that nobody tells you. And it's a two-part ingredient, because I don't know which one counts for which. I'm going to start with the one I think it is. Empathy.

That is the secret ingredient, and then followed by empathy, I think you've got to toss in a little compassion. And so, if you can see yourself in their shoes, you will know how to talk to them. Dude. So. It's cold. Yeah.

So think about it. If you can see yourself in their shoes. Well, no, that makes total sense. Yeah. Because I remember. I make a lot of sense. D, I remember when I was working with these juveniles, okay? And guys, in Oakland, okay, the people that are robbing you,

more than likely they're anywhere between the age of 8 to 15. I'm not joking. It's actually pretty sad, okay? But I understand them. And what do I mean by that? I understand them because when you actually talk to these kids, you sit them down, you probably, you're a good person, you have a good soul and you buy them, let's say like

a burger or something, dude. And you just sit with them. You're just like, hey, dude, what's going on? Like, why are you doing this? You're only 10. And then they explain to you saying that they don't have their parents at home. They barely got a mattress and the grandma's seeing them. But the grandma's like 80 years old, 90 years old.

Grandma can't even walk out of her bedroom. What do you think is going to happen? What do you think is going to happen when there's no home training, there's no one mentoring the kid, the parents are not there? I mean, at the end of the day, I really felt for the kids. How about this one? How dare you judge somebody else when you don't want to be judged ever for the things that you've done?

Or how dare you judge somebody for circumstances that they were not asked if they wanted, but they were given? A hundred percent. Who are you to judge somebody? And learning how to have compassion and empathy is got to be the most sought-after skill of a law enforcement officer. And they're rare, dude. I have a saying. I put it up. I have all these great things that go viral. But because it comes from, you know, this place and I think about this stuff.

That's all I do, I think. Do you listen to music while you drive? Of course. I don't. Really? I'm in my head constantly. It doesn't stop, dude. If you came in here, it would be nuts.

You'd be like, yo, turn it off. Turn it off. This fucking shit's wild. I actually have to try to corral my shit. Actually, my therapist said to me, she goes, you know, you have ADHD like I've never seen. She goes, but you also have it under control. She's like, you don't ever. I said I would never take medication for it.

She goes, don't ever. I go, it's like my superpower. She's like, you have it corralled. She's like, it's my it's like my superpower she's like you have it corralled she's like it's amazing to watch she's like you are fucking she's like i enjoy when you come here because it's enjoyable my adhd is like it's wild and it's my superpower my number two child acts like a bitch sometimes that's the only thing that scares me he's like you gotta get his emotions under control he's me wants to know about everything he's mini me yeah but he don't he cries too much dude I'm trying to

you know he's a tough kid but like he gets his feelings hurt like he wasn't allowed to play tackle football so I said to his mother I go why can't you play tackle football she goes you know

I can't play tackle football and I said brain injury I don't know why and she's like because this motherfucker cries every single time something doesn't go his way

so I know I can't have this kid on the field and he started crying again and she's like when he learns how to control, and I agree with her. Dude, he played flag football, didn't like something,

had me crying like a bitch. I'm like, get your fucking ass off the field. Right? Like, we don't tolerate that as, maybe it's right, maybe it's wrong, but my children are, and I don't want it to be the ADD going off on tears. That's all right.

I don't want to to be the ADD going off on tears. That's all right. I don't want to give my kids the impression that crying over stupid shit is allowed. But I also don't want them to know that crying over things that you should cry over is completely welcomed. Of course. So, like, my kids get hurt and they cry. I'm like, yeah, you'll get over it soon. If I know you're not hurt bad, you're not. My daughter is four and a half, going to since we find october she's like dad i hurt my leg and i'm like badass man you'll figure it out we don't we don't pick our kids like you don't care now if you need stitches daddy's gonna hold

you and comfort you i'm gonna set you up real nice you're gonna get showered with everything i'm gonna come for you but like you got scrapes on your knees. It's going to – and I always tell them, like, they'll be crying. I'm like, it's only going to hurt for, like, 30 more seconds, and you'll be fine. I walk away from them. Do it all the time, bro. You do not get compassion from your father if it's temporary pain. Figure it out.

You're building them up, man. You're building them up. Figure it out, bro. You're building them up to be leaders. I put an 8-year-old and a 6-year-old on something called – and my neighbor because she didn't want to go on it. We have a kid down the street from us. She's a doll. I love her. She's like my sixth child because the other kid, Phil, I love too.

And I'm a bro with all the kids. You know what I mean? I'm basically the head of the fucking sandlot there. I'm Benny. I'm Benny the Jet Rodriguez in my fucking neighborhood. Dude, I roll around with the kids like you wouldn't believe. I love that. Imagine being like having a bro as a dad and like everybody's like, yo, is your dad around?

Can you come hang out with us? I'm a fucking killer on Fortnite too. Like I got mad street cred on that shit. So I put them on Daredevil Dive at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. And my kids were like, because they've been conditioned so much to be fearless, I make them do these things. I'm like, you guys are going on that, right? And they're like, I don't know.

I'm like, stop being a pussy. I tell six-year-olds, don't be a fucking pussy. I tell, like, I'm literally telling them, stop being a fucking pussy and get that shit on, daddy. I'm paying for it now. Just go on it. Stop being a bitch. Now, she was like, I don't want to do it. I'm like, stop.

I'm like, now you got an eight and a six-year-old or an eight and seven-year-old going on this thing. And you're 12. You're 12. Her name's Arianna. I'm like, you're 12 there. You're 12. You're going to let this foot.

And she's like, I'll go. I'm like, I'll pay him for you. You got to worry about it, right? And, dude, I think they didn't realize how much they bid off when they went off this thing. Yeah. It's 120 feet up in here. It's 12 stories. Dude, that's fucking

high and you get strapped in like this i actually have and i'll play this video for the for the uh maybe i'll give it to you guys can play it but i'll i'm gonna play for the sound of this video of i actually know exactly where it is of of what they now dude i saw them getting cranked up and i'm like oh they're probably feeling it now, bro. Like that's up there, dude. You saw about 120 feet up. That's 12 stories in this little like, in this three of them strapped, this is like taco looking thing, right?

And like they're by themselves up there, bro. And they got to like pull the, they actually had to pull the thing to release it once they get up. Oh, dude. So dude, I have a picture of their faces. I'll show you, cause you can't see it on the podcast,

but later I'll show it to you. But let me see if I can play this video of what they did. The picture of what they look like. I think I have this picture right here. Look at this. Look at this face. Look at these faces. They look like they're happy.

They're fucking terrified. They look like they saw a ghost, man. They look like they think they're going to die. And so that's the fear. And this is the video. I don't know if you can hear it. How was it? So long. How was mu going boy oh shit so so she says amazing they say so fun and uh their mother actually when they found that when i sent that video them on it she's like don't

do that shit again without calling me. She never gets involved. I guess that one got her and I'm like we're still not going to call you just so you know. No that's awesome man. Where were we before?

Back to compassion and empathy right? Yeah. What was the question before that? Do you remember or are you all fucking ADHD'd up too? No man. I mean I do i do have that but it's the best dude it's it's the way if you're a child and you're medicating or you're a

parent and you're medicating kid because they have adhd um i have two words for you fuck you because you've literally taken your child's gift and tried to conform them into a system of schooling that is a complete fucking failure i just used that video going viral on reels the guys like the biggest mistake i made my life is let my kids go to public school dude i i should get criticized online because we made this my content team they did this post for me and my wife and we always talk about this man we're like okay so we're gonna plan for like three four kids right and you're trying to follow your father's footsteps. You don't want to use condoms either, huh?

I got to, bro. I got to, you know? But this guy. But no, no. All seriousness, dude. Try to kick off. We said. Throw your pull-out game to the side, huh?

Dude, dude. We said, look, we're, they're like, fuck public school. No disrespect to anyone there. But I'm just saying, I work my ass off for my future kids to have the best of the best. And I want them to have the best education, dude. So like you said, dude, about the fucking teachers. Yeah. Fuck that shit. No one's going to be teaching my kids.

Hey, you can be called a cat. Hey, what's your him, her them that fuck that shit dude no i'm a big big believer in actually teaching my kids the right way of thinking i think that anybody can be anything they want as long as they don't have to impose it or force it on other people so i saw a video last night it's's really funny. I don't want to miss. I don't want to take this, but she said, this woman said, I'll call you a lamp and stick a light bulb over your ass if you want me to. But it doesn't mean I have to believe that you're a lamp.

Yeah. I literally don't give a fuck what anybody wants to do with their life. I just don't care. Somebody said to me last night, oh, you think she's gonna become the president? I said, does it even matter? All you got to do is worry about what you got going on and figure it out. Don't get caught up in that too much.

I understand the value of public school in some sense, but I also understand at some point their father's going to have to intervene and take over. Absolutely. it dude that's it i think i mean public schools were invented to create factory workers it's clear it's the history's clear it's proven and that's what it's made for they didn't have enough people to work in the factories bro when i found that out like if you guys look at the history of public schools and what it was meant for it was meant for to create factory workers bank loans school loans they're all connected guys and it just blows my mind you

know why henry ford was invented the 40-hour work week let's go let's hear it do you know why let's hear it bro do you know why dude i, I've literally listened. And I'm going to share this podcast with you. I've listened to it several times. And they explain, they break it down to the T of exactly why. He needed people to buy his cars. Yeah. So he couldn't have people in a factory seven days a week because they weren't buying cars and traveling anywhere. So he gave people weekends off to buy the cars and go travel.

That's why they have Michelin star rated. Michelin was built, but they didn't, they didn't people to use the tires on the cars. I think Henry Ford started making the tires. And so he needed people to travel. So they come up with the Michelin rated restaurants. People would travel to these places and eat and use the cars and the tires. Isn't that crazy?

It's real shit. That's where Michelin star comes from. It's a tire company. It's the same thing with the Guinness Book of World Records. People would go and have a Guinness and read this book. That's what it comes from. Wow. Yeah, Guinness would put these, I think the story is Guinness would put these books in

bars to get people to come to bars and read them and have a Guinness. Oh, wow. Yep. Marketing 101, bro. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, dude, listen. I mean, I respect it 100%. Yeah.

But I also will say that I've never cheated or done something kind of slimy to get ahead in business. As a matter of fact, I know for a fact, you may find people that don't like me, but you'll never find somebody who talks shit about me in the sense that, like, he was a scumbag. He was a bad dude. I don't play that game, and I will eat a shit sandwich. Even in my times of feeling broke or having significant brokenness, I'm still very giving and very thoughtful. Yeah. No, and I can see that, dude. Like I said, you flew down here.

We freaking talked. Dude, you're freaking awesome. Oh, thanks, man. You're awesome. You're an awesome guy. I like you too. Yeah. Yeah.

I would ride in the Crown Vic with you, bro. Oh, you would have a good time. Yeah. We have a great time. You would have a good time. But let's get back to it, man. So like street cop training who's in this is where we were man yes who's in who's in men for brother we didn't finish this like so essentially i wrote this program taught it to people i worked with they gave me suggestions rewrote it taught it to the next group of new guys

that came out they loved it then gave a free class. It was dog poop. They loved it. And then it sort of taken off. And that's like really where the entrepreneurial journey came. I remember I didn't even know how to charge people money. I asked for 50 bucks cash per person for a two-day course because I didn't know how to process like purchase. I knew nothing. I was asking people in my training division, how do you guys pay for stuff?

Because I didn't know how. And then like, you know, I had to figure out. It was a very simple process is you need an EIN, which I don't think I even had yet. No, I don't think I did. And then you had to take purchase orders, give out invoices, your W-9 and a 1099. Or not W, W, what is it? W-9. W-9.

And the story starts there, dude. And, you know, just expanded. And this was, was you said six years ago as a hobby i was doing street cop training in 2012 i didn't think it had the potential to be as big as it was so it started as a side hustle i don't even think it was more of a hobby i wasn't even hustling dude you weren't you weren't even thinking about like oh i can make money off of this not till i made that's i had five grand in cash in my hand. Interesting. For two days of work.

And I almost like fell to the floor. I was like, holy crap. So that was like the moment for you? Break that down, bro. That moment was, why the fuck would I ever go back to working like a road job? Probably for 500 bucks a day. Yeah. I made 10 times that in two days.

So we're essentially five times that in a day. Yeah. And I thought to myself, I'll just do more of these. Next one I put on a board, three people signed up for it. I went from 92 to three in my next one. So I had classes like 11 people, 14 people. Yeah. So for the listeners that aren't cops or they're not in law enforcement, like what type of, like break it down to like a fifth grader, bro.

Like, all right, you were setting up these classes, this in-person classes for existing cops to train them on advanced skills or to train them to become better cops. How essentially did the business model work? Both. I was fixing everything that they needed to know. And a classical proactive patrol

becoming a street smart cop. And I tell people all the time, like, this really should be called the field training area I should have had. But you can't call it that because you got to understand your end user. I don't need field training. So it wasn't a good marketable name for it.

So you had to try to figure out who your audience was. And it's a really class that's universal for everybody. Trying people to understand that is another issue. But then, you know, you have to recognize that you're not good at everything. So you got to find people that are good at everything. Found a guy who learned how to do traps, like electronic hidden compartments, high level interdiction. Then we found a guy who knew motor vehicle law in the state of New Jersey better than anybody.

And then we found more case law guys and more interdiction guys and more street crimes guys and gun guys. And then went on to females, which I was opposed at first. I didn't want to drive a wedge in between the two, but I understand why it had to happen. I'm glad that I went that route. It was good. It actually created more bond, to be honest with you. And listen, we ran a wedge in between the two, but I understand why it had to happen. I'm glad that I went that route. It was good. It actually created more bond, to be honest with you. And listen, we ran a few people through the fucking thing and just like, yeah, it's not going to work. And like, I don't understand.

We spent like three weeks building my program. Like I spent like 50 hours on this thing. And I'm like, yeah, it's not going to work. I can't have it. I can't have you here. I had a guy one time who was like screaming in people's faces. Like it was a – one thing about when you engage and you're giving a presentation, you don't want to be a 10 the entire time. Yeah.

Tonality, man. Well, tonality and being a master of your craft when you're speaking to a group for even eight or ten hours a day is being able to take them on an emotional ride. Yeah. And controlling their emotions. So I'm really good. I can take you from laughing your ass off to crying. I did it at my conference in Orlando. I mean, even people can.

The problem when you do that is everybody who's hurting comes up to you. So I have like a line of like 50 people who are crying. And these are like men and like tough women. And my cousin's coming up. She's hugging me. Because I talk about my journey. Yeah, dude. People are just like bawling their eyes out.

And I'm like, I want to go to lunch. But you know what though man like it feels good bro it feels good like i i once in a while you know like the last time this happened i went to go see my parents last month and as i was exiting the plane this lady just literally turns around looks at me you're like you're that guy on instagram and i'm like you're like you're paul i was like yes she's like this is awesome sophie sophie sophie by the way one thing i have to like commend you for your story you got balls yeah and i was like thank you so like i'm a big believer dude i and this is how i train like a lot of my mentees right now, they're building their own programs based on their expertise. But I emphasize it as your million-dollar story. When you said balls, I think that balls is one of the biggest ingredients in entrepreneurship.

Facts. But you have to be – you have to trust yourself and know who – if you know who you are, you know what your skill set is. I always tell people, like, I trust me. As long as I got my like, I trust me. As long as I got my brains, I'm good. When I lost my brains for five months, six, seven months in a deep depression and anxiety this past year, that's when it was scary because I could not – I couldn't move. And so I was actually worried that I might have lost it forever. And then when it resolved, I was like, oh, thank God, I'm back.

Holy shit, dude. I met my team. We had dinner the other night, and they're like, bro, it's so good to have you back. And I'm like, yeah, no, no, I know. You know, I know. I was scared, too. Believe me. You're not the only ones who was fucking shitting a brick. I was scared.

What am I going to do? How am I going to figure this out? You know? Well, bro, there is that saying, you know, you're the brains of the operation. I'm just saying. There's a joke in our fucking company. It's always, this is why you run the company. Exactly.

That's what they always say to me. I'm like, they're like, this is why you run the company. Exactly. That's what they always say to me. I'm like, this is why you run the company. Yeah. And we do it with such nice candor. You know, I'm still learning so much, Paul. Like, I don't have things licked. I am, if there's 100 bosses in business, I'm probably at a level 11 where, you know, maybe people listen to this, maybe at a one or a two. Yeah.

But I have so much more to learn. I really do. And I have so much more to learn. I really do. And I'm really trying to focus on what my strengths and weaknesses are. And the one thing that I'm working on the most right now is the right leverage. Leverage is one thing. Another thing is the right leverage.

So that's really understanding people and who they are and how they are. You can't take somebody who's really good at this and think they're a star. And they are a star at what they do and that makes something they're not facts doesn't work that way no 100 bro i've had people hand back keys to like basically like keys to the office they're like i don't want to do this anymore and i'm like okay cool but that was complete i always say like why do i such high turnover for employees because i hire like shit i hire the wrong people

because i didn't know what i was doing and i'll you know now you figure out a better process for it but yeah dude like that's i just come back around the full circle to entrepreneurship i think that's the hardest thing behind running your own business man and i know we were on the topic about talking about giving people advice i've got good advice people on this bro like they they say something like hey you know hire slow, hire slow, promote fast. And I've always had that same mindset, dude. Like, I want people to go ahead. Fire fast, too.

And go ahead. Get rid of people quick, dude. No, yeah. Just got the last guy to get rid of two weeks. And that's the thing with me, bro. Like, I can tell you guys right now, like, I have such a big heart that, like, I give everybody an opportunity, dude. And, like, sometimes, like, bro, like, I've like i've even had like okay out of the 100 employees like that i've personally hired myself probably have 30 that don't belong here right now bro yes it breaks my heart to actually

say that because i believe there's no such thing as a bad employee only bad leaders but here's the thing that's not true dude like that's some truth, dude. Like that's some truth to it. There's, there's some truth to it. But then also when you're growing, you're still learning. Like you just said, you don't know everything. And I love the fact that you're so transparent like that because I see the exact same thing. I'm still growing, dude. Like, you know, like we shared goals and shit and you were like, Hey dude, like what's your next goal? And I'm like, dude, I'm trying to hit nine figures, you know? And I want to do that within five years, but if I can do that fucking within a year, fuck yeah, I'll do'll do that you know and right now i got one of my mentors andy elliott dude the dude's killing it he's making 163 mil a year bro but here's the thing dude and you got

to come with me to one of these events i'm gonna bro scott still arizona one of your favorite places oh yeah bro when is it i think it's like sometime in october i'm in yeah but dude check this out pay for it? No, no, no, no. Okay. I'm part of his brotherhood. You need to bring somebody? Yeah. I can bring somebody.

You can tell him on this. Be like, yo, let me bring this dude. He might sign up for your shit. Tell him that. Hey, bro. If I tell him I was just like, hey, I got a good candidate for you guys. Dude, you'll love it. You're going to be like, Paul, these are my people.

They're awesome. I'm going to say this real quick. If you fuck me over and don't get me excited like this, I may not be your friend anymore. But I'll still take the dick pics you sent me. I got you, bro. I got you. I appreciate it. But no, dude.

So check this out. You got Emilio cracking up, bro. Emilio, you know I'm just funny? I've never seen this guy smile so much. And if you guys don't know who Emilio is, he is part of our team right here doing the audio doing this kick-ass edits if you guys are watching this right now but amelia nine of the rockberry guys i know i'm aging myself all right so back to it dude so no so andy elliott the reason why this man is killing it nine figures a year bro right which is the dream it's because his team but if you look at it,

all his teams, as soon as you walk in, dude, they're like mini hymns. They're like, what's up, Paul? How's it going, bro? Like, come on. Like, the energy is just there.

And then the event I went to last month with Patrick Bedeva, dude, which was fucking awesome. Yeah, it's cool. It's down here? No, it was in Scottsdale. Because he was foreloaded down. Bro, I know, but he went to Scottsdale

for Andy Elliott's event. That's badass. Dude, it was fucking badass. He's a good dude, man. I like him. Oh, dude, in Scottsdale. Because he lives in Fort Lauderdale. Bro, I know. But he went to Scottsdale for Andy Elliott's event. That's badass. Dude, it was fucking badass. He's a good dude, man. I like him. Oh, dude. Just how he is. He's a family guy.

I was sitting next to his two sons. And bro, check this out. The guy, he's doing like this major presentation in front of like 500 people. And then in the middle of the presentation, in the corner of his eye, he goes to his son. Billy, sit up. You know better than that. All right, guys. So back to business. But I was just like, what a G, dude. Yeah, Billy, sit up. You know better than that. All right, guys, so back to business.

But I was just like, what a G, dude. Yeah, he's a G. Like, I was just like, dude, if I had my little sons like that, little suits, I was like, fuck yeah. Like, that's how you're a dad. Let me just say this real quick because I know you don't have kids yet.

My friend Phil, Phil Castro, what up, buddy, runs camp. Something interesting happened. I saw that he just had his first kid, and he wrote on the kid's ones, he says, future CEO, which I think is cute. But you have to understand something interesting happened. I saw that he just had his first kid and he wrote on the kids ones, he says future CEO, which I think is cute. But you have to understand something, dude, I got four kids who have four different personalities. And so they're like, I know that the likelihood of one of these kids being a CEO is or being an entrepreneur may not be existent at all. I will give them everything they need. But don't impose your vision on your kids of what they're supposed to be.

I'll be honest with you. I don't care if my kid wants to be a fucking dog groomer. Yeah. I'm just raising good human beings. Yeah. And I watch that. Do you know how I watch that? When I hear other parents say, you know, my daughter was getting picked on and your son Sal stands up for her.

That's badass. And that's all I need to hear, bro. That's how I know I have good fucking kids. Yeah. And I watch my kids who are compassionate or good with other kids. They have moments, but like, let's just focus on raising these

kids to be great people. And when they have questions, give them the best direction we possibly can. Dude, great people do great things. I'm a believer in that. But sometimes great things means shoveling your neighbor's driveway because you're a decent human being. Dude, I mean, I'm not a poor person. When it snows, I live in a nice neighborhood, but we all have these crazy driveways.

You could fit like 10 cars in each driveway. I'm not trying to sound fancy. No, no, no. This leads up to the story. I have a quad with a plow on it. Now, you don't know about snow, but when you get snow, driveways got to get done. My neighbors can afford to get their driveways plowed. Right.

But I do my whole neighborhood. I probably do 15 of the 20 houses in my neighborhood. And I always tell my neighbors, the first time I did it, like, they started sending up like 200-ounce bottles of liquor. And I'm like, first of all, I don't drink like that. But I always tell them, I don't do this because I'm, actually, when I first started, I'm like, you know, I don't want to pay for this. I got somebody.

I'm like, guy, I'm your neighbor down the street. Right? Like, I know big lots. So I'm like, no, I'm just going to. Now they know. It brings me such pleasure to be good to them. It has nothing to do with other than the fact that they know they got a neighbor down the street that they can rely upon. I can't tell you what that does for me, dude.

Like, I love when it snows. I even have one neighbor that they're a little anti-cop, which is surprising. I don't think they're anti-cop. I think they're a little on the fence with me. Yeah. And I'll tell you why afterwards. Dude, do you think, like, that feeling you're getting, the fulfillment, like, is this why you started street cops training?

Like, why you even went even deeper to help other cops? I think that I found myself in my early 30s and I'm addicted to being a great person. Like, I love it. Sometimes people are like, you didn't have to do that. I'm like, what you don't know is it does a little bit more for me than it does for you. It's kind of selfish for me to be this giving. Yeah. Like, it gives me such a fucking rise, dude.

I also can't receive gifts for shit. Dude, same. Yeah, yeah. I want nothing to do with it. Bro. But I'm coming to fucking, I'm not paying for any of the Elliot's event. I'm fucking, we're already paid, dude. Just come. Yeah, I'm coming. Yeah. Like, nobody, you better not fucking replace me, dude. I'm coming. Nah, yeah. I want nothing to do with it. But I'm coming to fucking, I'm not paying for any of the Elliot's event. I'm telling you right now. We're already paid, dude. Just come.

Yeah, I'm coming. Yeah. Like nobody, you better not fucking replace me, dude. I'm coming. Nah, dude. I love that, dude. I love,

that's probably where the fear comes from of ever not having money is the fact that I want people to help people like I am able to help them now. Yeah. That's my biggest fear. Me, I could live in a fucking one-bedroom apartment. There's no EOS. I used to be like, do your house or something else. And I'm able to help them now. Yeah. That's my biggest fear. Me, I could live in a fucking one-bedroom apartment. There's no EOS.

I'd be like, do your house or something else. And I'm like, point to one thing that I got for myself. And they're like, I'm like, look around. Tell me what I got for me. Yeah. Just tell me what I got for me. Yeah. And they're like, oh, the gym in the basement.

I'm like, okay, I'll give you some of that. But do you realize that my kids work out with me? Do you realize that they watch their father instead of drinking fucking beer in front of the TV and ignoring them? They sit. My kids work out. My kids, my five, my four and a half year old daughter

can do a clean pull-up. Hanging clean pull-up. Badass. You know a girl that you know that can do that. Yeah. She's a four and a half year old, but they have good genetics from their mother. My two other kids,

they can do, my oldest can't do one. But the two middle ones, they can do clean pull-ups. Clean. Yeah. Six packs right across the board. Not two other kids, they can do, my oldest can't do one, but the two middle ones, they can do clean pull-ups. Clean. Yeah. Six-packs right across the board. Not because of me, dude.

Because of their mother's good genetics. But, dude, like, we woke up last week, hitting the 6.05 in the morning. She comes out. My daughter's a doll. And I sat with her for a minute,

put on SpongeBob, head to the basement, and she's like, I want to come work. She comes right down. Five minutes later, she's down in the basement. I'm here to work out. And she's like, I want to come work. She goes right down. Five minutes later, she's down in the basement. I'm here to work out. She's working out, bro.

Hitting cables, you know. Now I'm teaching the older ones how to actually have form. Yeah. Because, you know, when they're little, they're goofing off with them, dude. Like they're grabbing the cables and like just like, you know, like they're just doing crazy shit, which I like. But now I'm teaching them how to have form. Trying to teach them the right way to do it. That's awesome, dude.

Yeah, it's good shit. You're leading by example, bro. What other better way to lead by for yourself and for everybody else? Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. I have the same thought process with every single person I work with, even my own friends, dude. Like, when I go and gather around, remember, like, I know you don't like to smoke cigars, dude, but I'm going to force you to come with me anyways.

No, you're not. I can't stand the smell. You're like, I'm not going, bro. I can't do it. The smell kills me, dude. No, it's all good. But regardless, I'd rather have you smoke weed. And I don't even smoke weed, but I'd rather have you. Is it legal in Florida yet? I don't know. Melio?

It's legal in Jersey. You can just go buy weed. I'm pretty sure, dude. But no, regardless, man, wherever I'm at with my friends or whoever I surround myself with, with isn't many people, to be honest with you, dude. Because I like my quiet time and all that. I like spending time with my wife and my family and my mom and all that. Plus, you're smart. Yeah.

And when you're smart, it's lonely. Because dumb people don't like smart people. Very true. Very true. You don't have anything in common with them. They can't think. But, brother, like when I hang around with my people, okay, we talk about the future. We talk about what our goals is, what our visions are.

Like what do we want in the next 90 days? The craziest thing is that all of it's possible. It is possible. That's the craziest shit. It's very possible. If you're willing. If you're willing. If all of it's possible. It is possible. That's the craziest shit. It's very possible. If you're willing. If you're willing. If you want it bad enough.

If I wrote an autobiography, it'd be called Willing. That's it. I said this for a long time. It's not the first time I said this, but that's what I would write. I would call it Willing. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to, like, dude, I'm just willing to do whatever it takes. Things that you're not willing to do, I'm willing to do it. Your next book?

I haven't written one yet, but my first book would be Willing. I'm not jumping on the book. People have been begging me to do whatever it takes. Things that you're not willing to do, I'm willing to do it. Your next book? I haven't written one yet, but my first book would be willing. I'm not jumping on the book. People have been begging me to do a book. I'm not jumping on the book game yet because I don't want to deliver a half-assed book. When it comes to me, I'll do one. You know, I've told my story so much online, dude, that people, because this is,

hey, do you have a book out yet? I was like, fuck it, I'm just gonna do it. Dude, when I was in San Diego, what was it, like a year and a half ago? I just said, fuck it. I'm just going to do it. Dude, when I was in San Diego, what was it, like a year and a half ago? I just said, fuck it. I'm going to do it. And I did it, dude. It was the best thing ever. And the reason why is because everybody that reads that book, dude, like I don't even think I'm a great storyteller yet.

I will get there. But people are like, dude, this book's changed my life. It's awesome. And that's a great feeling, like dude this book's changed my life it's awesome and that's that's a great feeling dude because it's just my life that's it and i'm able to articulate it because of law enforcement dude i used to hate reading i used to hate writing but once i you know seven years of fucking just writing and i'm pretty sure your your skills are fucking phenomenal dude because you had way more time than i did almost all the time yeah but that's yeah it doesn't bro i know guys who are two years on the job

that are 20 times the cops that guys are 25 years on the job. That's true, that's true. I mean, I have guys walking in who are 23 years on the job asking me what Suboxones were. I'm like, literally, bro, I thought you were funny.

Real quick, funny cop story. This guy, he's still alive, I think. Shockingly. I had a fucking pop. And I probably had like 500 Suboxone strip packs like you know I gotta lay I worked the night

you know I worked the afternoon so it's a big job day shift's gonna come in I gotta brag a little bit so I'm just laying I laid them out right across the fucking like the report room

just like I laid it out so this guy walks in he goes hey hey Denton what are those and I said they're Suboxone strips

and I don't wanna say his name and he goes oh yeah he goes what are those used for? I go, well, they're designed to get people to wean off of heroin addiction, but they're just abused. I mean, they're just sold.

This person I call, they're not supposed to have. And he goes, no kidding. You know, it's crazy. Yesterday I brought a guy to the county, about 20 of those in his possession. I didn't even know they were drugs. Briggs and puts them in his property.

So the county took me through him out. They never did us wrong. Never charged the guy. Just didn't even know what they were. 20-something years on the job. Well, there you go. I mean, some people are performers. Other people are slugs.

I remember that guy had a job when I was new. It was a domestic. Guy comes out. He's got a silver. He was calling over there. He's like, yeah, he's got a gun. And I'm like, oh, my God, I'm a week on the job by myself out of field training. And it was day shift.

And I'm like, this guy's going to get fucking shot. And and like he's like yeah he's pointing a gun at me like crazy shit he's walking around and you can hear him like refusing he wasn't pointing a gun at him he's like refusing his orders with this fucking revolver and then like he's like all right everything's cool here nobody else needs to come and i'm like holy shit okay come in later wait this is great i come in later and he's got this gun in a cigar box i'll never forget it's a silver like 357 silver and i'm like would you charge the guy with he's like nah nothing we just took the gun for safekeeping you know you're like what are you kidding me what do you mean like the guy i heard you on the radio he's refusing your orders he's

like i got him at gunpoint and like they just took the gun for sake. He didn't want to do the paperwork. Crazy, right? Guys, and this is full transparency here from DNI, okay? There are people that do not need to be the police, okay? So I'm with some of you guys. He was a good dude. Let me just say, he was a good guy. Yeah, but that's the thing.

Maybe he didn't know how to do the job. Do your job right. And that's what irks me, dude. Like, even in entrepreneurship, it's just like, if you're going to do it, go all in. Okay? Do the work and then get your stripes. Can I give everybody some advice? This is how easy it is to be good at business.

Just don't suck and give a shit and you'll win. I mean it's just so frigging easy. It's so crazy how many people just don't care. And, like, you just can't. Like, you know how many times I've called somebody and, like, there's a contract. I'm like, yeah, I need to do this at my house. I just never hear from them again. How about my pool company?

My pool company fucked my pool up. It's an expensive pool. I didn't know what I was doing. And so I said to the guy, you know what's crazy? I've got to sit here and complain to you fucks nonstop. Do you know what that's costing you? what it's gonna cost you and instead of just hiring some foreman to come out to check in once a week to see how things are you're just ignoring my fucking complaints you do it my neighbor you do it for my friend three ten crazy shit i know other guys get to pull at

the same time my friend justin fucking eight pounds away he's getting from this company he's like are you having problems with them, these fucking guys are assholes. And I said, I know so many people that you're now going to, when people say to me, who should I use? I'm going to say don't use them. Of course. You think that it's short term. I can promise you, Paul, at this point, I've at least told 15 to 20 people do not use them. Yeah.

How much money did that translate to you losing, let's call 5,000 bucks a pool you made. There's not a lot of money in pools. There's money in other things in pools, but not the actual installation pools. So you lost 100 grand because you don't want to pay somebody 50 to come out into the field and just be a fucking... You lost 100 grand in revenue. I'm not the type of guy that's going to go on and give you

a bad Google review. I don't do that to people. I only give good ones. I never go to a restaurant and put like a one star. I think it's bullshit. I think think it's fair that's actually the opposite dude that's the opposite that i see all the time typically people don't want to give positive reviews unless you ask for them but they're quick to give negative reviews i don't think it's fair to give anybody a negative review especially in restaurants when it has to do with the food. Correct. Or the service or the one bad time.

And if you're a business owner and you get bad reviews, please reply to them and explain. Yeah, just reply to them on the Google because you can't get it removed by Google. So just reply to them. That gives people reassurance that you're there and you give a fuck and explain your side of the story. That's another nugget for folks. Always reply. Don't ignore them. Transparency is always good. But, dude but you get enough fucking three star reviews your business is over yeah you're toast dude no 100 that's bad and and especially with the online space right now dude that's huge i mean dude reviews i'm here first thing i google

when i get here food near me yeah you think i'm going anywhere it's a 3.9 star here in this area no especially when you have another 4.5 stars pretty much four and a half and up is here exactly but you can know where you are when you're fucking looking to this stuff too because a four and a half in like i don't know dude a place that sucks for food yeah but if you get like a four and a half plus in jersey where the food is there's just no comparison dude no offense i'm not trying to sound like... We have a lot of shitty stuff. You're fine, bro.

But you can't... Like, nobody can fuck with the Jersey food. Yeah. You just can't. I don't care about fucking... Bro, I've been to Miami before. You can't fuck with the Jersey food. Yeah.

Like, we go to a steakhouse tonight, I'll tell you. Yeah. I'm like, I'm down, right? But, like, I'll tell you. Because I'll bring you to get a steak that'll fucking blow your brains out. Okay.

Like, steak where you're just like, I didn't know steak could taste like this. I'm gonna hold that to you. I could fucking just... You want to go home, don you yeah we got dinner reservations bro we do we're gonna fucking so so so to wrap this up brother okay to wrap this up where can people find you oh yeah and then also i had a good time any last words of motivation bro for for the people listening to this whether they want to be a cop, whether they want to go ahead and entrepreneurship.

I got it. Before you can find me, let me just forget this. I'll tell you where you can find me. The variable of how your life turns out is completely in your control outside of terminal illness. And I would even argue that you have some control over that as well. I don't have experience with it. And if you have terminal illness, I didn't mean that to be offensive. Just think about what I'm saying there. You are the variable of how you want your life to turn out. And every time you know that you should be doing something other than this and vice versa, just recognize when five years or 10 or 15 or 20

at the end of your life that you're going to have to say to yourself, I wish I would have had more discipline or, and I don't mean discipline in the sense that you need to eat whey protein for breakfast. I'm talking about discipline in the sense that you can say to a toxic girlfriend or boyfriend, this is never gonna work. That's a big discipline. Just that one alone. This is never going to work. Think about the divorce rate at 58% right now and how it wouldn't be that way

if you had the enough discipline to tell somebody, I don't think you're the person I'm going to marry, but people are afraid to say that. But if you have enough discipline to say that, you will have a successful marriage and one that you could never imagine in your life. But people don't have the discipline because they're scared. You should follow your fears like a compass. Fear should be your North Star. It tells you exactly where you're supposed to go so if you're scared of that place go there i have tons of fears but i never let fear dictate my decisions i just don't i don't dude like 10 years ago you've been like would you jump out of a plane again like no now of course i'm scared of shit but i just keep fucking did like dude if i'm the more scared i am the more i'm gonna do it yeah and that's where the gold is people can't control that they can't handle they can't

and it's maybe it's not your fault maybe you have that anxiety but you can be whoever you'd like to be and i think there's nothing better than becoming the best version of you whatever that looks like and stop drinking soda that is probably a good fucking start. I think I should just drink water a lot. But you can find me at streetcop.com, the Street Cop Podcast, Spotify, anything Street Cop training you put in, Instagram, Facebook.

If you're a cop, we have a private Facebook group for police officers on Facebook. We have free training. Street Cop University, we're launching some crazy products, so stay tuned. If you just follow our Instagram, we'll keep you up on things. Always on that platform, putting good stuff out. Love it, love it. I appreciate you being here, man.

This was a phenomenal interview. I'm pretty sure there's going to be a part two, possibly, guys, a part three. Just saying. Listen, that'll be if you bring me to this fucking Andy Elliott event. Oh, it's going to happen, bro. I'll be back here next month. I've seen some of the things walking around here. Yeah, yeah. It's going to happen, bro. I'll be back here like next month. I've seen some of the things walking around here. Yeah, yeah.

It's going to happen. I don't want to leave. Guys, this is Paul Alex from the Level Up Podcast. We will catch you guys soon. Take care. Peace. Remember, I always have your six. Make sure to share this episode with your family, friends, and anyone you care about.

The world's already hard enough and we need to take care of each other. Make sure to share this episode on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and share it with the world. Do me a big favor and tag me, Paul Alex. Also, keep the five-star reviews on iTunes coming. This episode is going to help change the way the world thinks and will help everyone level up in their life. And lastly, if you want to continue to level up, learn more about business and life, then make sure to get a copy of my book, From Blue to Digital Gold, The New American Dream, on Amazon or at officialpaulalex.com.