The School of Greatness - 7 Grant Cardone: How to Gain Attention and Turn Haters Into Admirers

Episode Date: February 21, 2013

Welcome to episode 007 of The School of Greatness. Grant Cardone is the James Bond of business growth and sales. He's a New York Times Best Selling Author and unbelievably motivational individual. The last time I interviewed Grant he blew me away with his passion, positive mindset, and persistent pursuit of greatness. Since then, I […]

School of Greatness Episode 7 share with you stories from the most inspiring business minds, world-class athletes, and influential celebrities on the planet to find out what makes great people great. So please leave us a review on iTunes and join us on the web at schoolofgreatness.com to be notified of each episode when it comes out. Now let's get after it. me and I'm so pumped to be doing this podcast. I'm just getting so much energy each time I do a new episode. It's like making me feel more and more alive. Something about doing this show. I don't know what it is. If it's the guests I'm bringing on or if it's your feedback, your excitement that's

driving me to do more of this. I'm excited. I'm going to keep doing pumping out one of these a week. Maybe I'll even do two if I get the time, but the goal is to keep doing one a week and bring you some great guests. So if you know some cool people that you'd like me to have come on and share their story and teach you how to become great and do awesome stuff in your life, your business, your sports, whatever it is you're doing, feel free to just shoot me an email. Or actually, best place to be is on Twitter, at Lewis Howes, or on Facebook, facebook.com forward

slash Lewis House. Now, before I talk about this guest, who is an amazing guest, I mean, I had him on a couple of years ago for a video that I did and he blew me away. His passion, his energy, he's like a force of nature to be reckoned with. He's got so much drive and passion. It's contagious. You're going to experience this when you listen to this interview. It's so contagious. It makes you want to jump out of an airplane right now and just get things done.

Let me talk about Grant Cardone. Now, Grant is, again, an awesome dude. One guy that I really want to connect with more in the future because we've only chatted a few times, but every time we talk, I get expired. I get pumped. I'm like, it's time to take over the world. This is a guy that's been there and done it before. He's a very accomplished New York Times bestselling author. Some of his books include The 10X Rule, Sell or Be Sold, The Closer's Survival Guide, and If You're Not First, You're Last. He does a lot about sales strategies, how to dominate your market, how to grow your

business, how to be successful, and the difference between the success and failure, the secrets to success and selling. He worked a lot in the automotive industry, teaching people how to sell more cars. And these are high-ticket items in how to become a great car salesman and have an amazing auto business, right? He's been featured on the show

How'd You Get So Rich with Joan Rivers, where they discussed his success. He's all over the media. He writes for Entrepreneur. He's all over the media. He writes for Entrepreneur. He's all over online right now. If you Google his name, Grant Cardone, you basically will find him everywhere. And it's very interesting.

If I look back to the episode five, where I did with Graham Holmberg, you'll see there's some similarities, much differences. I mean, Graham's in his 20s, and Grant's in his, I think, in his mid to late 40s. He's in business and Graham's an athlete. But they both had a dark path that they went down where they made a lot of mistakes and were having some challenges early in their life. And then Grant, just like Graham, made a decision to shift their life and seek greatness.

And this is a type of story that should really scream at you and think, you know what? If a guy like this, like Grant Cardone, or if a guy like Graham Holmberg can go from having a lot of challenges, maybe being down the wrong path, and if they can switch it all around and have the type of world-leading success that they both do, then I can do it as well. So with that, you're going to hear some amazing insights in today's interview. I'm excited for you to hear it. With that, let's get to the interview with my man, Grant Cardone.

What is up, everyone? Thanks so much again for coming on today at the School of Greatness. I'm with my good friend, Grant Cardone, who I had on a video interview. I think it was almost two years ago. And you really blew my mind when we talked then. We were kind of chatting, I think, via email or Twitter originally. I heard about you through a mutual friend of ours uh from atlas media crew i don't know if you remember you're still working with those guys i think sure you had a tv show that you're working on and i don't even know what happened with it but i saw an episode or two of them that they gave me a dvd they're like you're

just like this guy you're like the younger version. He's better looking than you. Grant's better looking than you, but you're younger than him. And you're like the younger Grant Cardone. And I was like, I got to check this guy out and see if he's for real. I watched this TV show and I was blown away at how awesome you were on camera, but your chops, how smart you were, how you were able to flip people's business around very quickly who were in a daze. So that's kind of how we got connected originally. And we've been email and Twitter friends ever since. And I thought it'd be great to have you back on because I see you everywhere. You're right for, I think, Forbes.

I know you're an entrepreneur. In every site I go to, I see your name. I see videos of you. So I thought, let's bring you back on. I think you've written like three more New York Times bestsellers since we talked. Something crazy. I see you in airport, bookstores, all over the place. So it's good to have you back and hanging out, my man. Yeah, Lewis, thanks a lot, man. I really appreciate who you are and what you do and enjoyed being on the show last time. So I was looking forward to doing this again with you. Awesome. So let's give a brief background of kind of where you got started and where you're at

now in about 60 to 90 seconds or less, if you can. Yeah. Look, I started out as a lower middle class kid. You know, my mom, I was raised by a mother, and my dad died when I was 10 years old of a sudden heart attack. He had been having heart problems for years. He died when he was 52 years old, very young man. And, you know, it was a big loss in my life.

And then I lost an older brother when I was 20. So in between the ages of 10 and 20 years old, there was a lot of turmoil in my life. Right. And it was also there was also I was also greatly influenced by my mother's turmoil. She was experiencing tremendous amounts of fear, scarcity, fear of the future, so much of what the middle class is experiencing today. And I remember being 16 years old and telling my mother, I said, I will never, ever grow up like this.

And she was confused by that because she's like, what are you talking about? You get three meals a day, you got clothes on your back, and you got a car to go to school in. What are you complaining about? I'm like, because every meal comes with fear. You know, my mom would give me breakfast and tell me eat it all. She'd give me lunch, eat it all. Give me dinner, eat it all. Every time give me lunch, eat it all. Give me dinner, eat it all.

Every time I left the bathroom, turn off the lights. See, there was this scarcity. There was this concern about not having enough. And then my dad had died. So I'm like, oh, my God, life is short. Then my older brother dies. And I'm like, oh, my man, everything's risky. Jeez.

So combine all that with being a teenager, you know, and then drugs are around. And, you know, I start smoking marijuana like some other kids. And the next thing you know, it progressed. And so by the time I was 25, man, I was just a mess. I was broke, didn't have any money, had a drug problem, had tremendous amounts of grief in my life from my losses. Like so many people, I'm not saying feel sorry for me. But at 25, I decided, hey, I have to clean my life up. And I got it. If I keep going like this, I will never ever have anything. And I made a commitment when I was 25. Um, I know a lot of

guys have this story, you know, that write books, but this little really happened to me. It's like, I went back to that thing I wanted when I was 16. Like I wanted to do something impactful. I wanted to help other people. And I really committed at that time at 25 years old. I had a college education. I had the ambition. I was intelligent, but I never made the decision. Hey, man, this is the most important thing in my life. Success became success, became this mantra of mine that I have to have this. The last 25 years has been basically me trying to become successful.

Wow. Now, I actually forgot this story, so I'm glad you reminded me about it all. I remember you being an athlete. I think it was baseball. Is that right? And you grew up in the South. I think it was Louisiana, but I'm, is that right? That's right. Okay. Now I remember, I forget the story actually. So I apologize, but it's interesting because I was going to ask you a question and ask you, have you always been as confident as you are now? And it sounds like growing up, you weren't very confident because you had this scarcity mindset or there was a scarcity mindset around you and it's fear mindset. So when did it change from scarcity, fear, death to the confident Grant Cardone that you are now?

Well, you know, I was doing an event for Google and I was asked a similar question. They're like, man, where do you get all your confidence? And I'm like, you know, that's interesting. You know, do you really know that I'm confident? Well, how do you put the perception out that you are, I guess, right? Yeah, there you go. That's much better because the truth is nobody knows what's going on inside of me. And it's actually unfair to an audience to measure whoever you see as confident when the truth is

you don't know that you're actually you know you're actually you don't know that you like right now if you look at me right now i say how many years do i have and you're like two well yeah but you only see one up right right so you're making the other one up you're assuming i have a second year which by the way i do right and um point is, you know, it's how do I project confidence? How do I actually start feeling confident in my life so that people also have confidence in me? I mean, that's the only value in confidence. Right. You know, I tweeted something today.

I said, look, I never, ever thought money would make me happy. I didn't want money to make me happy, dude. I wanted money for security. And the reason I want money or the reason I want confidence is because if I don't act confident, people won't give me money. And my confidence comes like it does for an athlete. It comes from drilling and practicing and role-playing and drilling and practicing and role-playing. In sales, particularly sales, because that's what I'm most proficient in, that's something that most people don't do. They don't take the time to drill. There's a video on YouTube right now.

It's called Give My Papa the Money. Grant Cardone, if you Google that, you'll see my daughter, three years old, saying, Give Papa the Money, Give Papa the Money, Give Papa the Money. It's a drill, dude. It's just a simple drill, and it builds confidence. I like it. I like it. So I remember reading this somewhere, and I can't remember if this was a book.

You have this in your book, one of of your books or you just post this online you talk about and maybe we talked about this in our previous interview but you talked about attention criticism hate and admiration now is that a process that everyone needs to go through in order to realize they've made it or what is that process that you talk about yeah what I'm talking about there is and you and i were talking about this before the you know a similar topic i wish i wish we actually had that on video i should have recorded it yeah that's great because i mean maybe you could tell that story some other time but look you know if i don't get your attention this is the number one problem people have in life attention i. I have to get attention.

Hey, I don't care how you get it, man, but you have to get people's attention. If you don't get their attention, it doesn't matter what your product is. It doesn't matter what your idea is. It doesn't matter what your value is. It doesn't matter because you don't have their attention. There was a guy sitting across from me at this desk the other day. And he's like, do you got like ADD or ADHD? Or I'm like, what are you talking about, man?

And he's like, well, I can't keep your attention. You're doing this and you're doing that. I'm trying to, I'm like, bro, just because you can't get my attention. Don't label me with a disease.

Right. You don't have my attention, bro. That's your problem. Exactly. And he's like't have my attention, bro. That's your problem, not my problem. That's right. Exactly. And he's like, well, man, I can't keep your attention. I said, that's your problem.

Right. I have my attention on 17 other things. And until you sit in that chair, bro, and say something impactful enough that grabs my attention, I'll close all the other mental files. Because if you're ever in front of anybody that's capable of moving your career along guarantee you they have 17 files open right if the guy doesn't have 16 17 files open at all times he can't help you in your career right so what i'm telling people is this one you have to get attention the moment you get attention you're going to get criticism somebody is not going to like you standing on a street

corner saying, hey, hey, hey. Somebody is going to have a problem with that. When people criticize you, the normal response is, oh, I got to change my behavior. I have to adapt. Never, never, ever adapt to your environment. Ever. I don't adapt. I'm not an animal. I'm a human spirit, man. I have the potential to change environments, not adapt to it. Right. So when I get attention, whatever, hey, hey, hey.

And somebody's like, hey, man, you're too loud. The thing to do is not to back off. thing to do is not to back off. Whatever gets you criticism, you should use that same thing to get the criticizer to either become an admirer or a promoter. See, haters promote. Haters, look, you got to have haters. You need haters bad, man. People don't value their haters enough. bad, man. People don't value their haters enough. Google's got them. Apple's got them. Coca-Cola's got them. AT&T had them. Facebook has them, right?

Everybody that gets big has haters. Where I grew up in Louisiana, Lewis, it was like my mom even said, stay under the radar. Get big enough, but not too big.

You get too big, they're going to knock you down. If you fly under the radar, nobody will notice you. But this is not a good thing to do because it keeps you small. It actually keeps you trying to stay small the whole time rather than blow up, explode. Get your haters and whatever got you haters, stay with it. Keep doing it because sooner or later, you'll have admirers. You'll have people admire what you do and how you scream on the street corner and your tenacity. And they'll start admiring you with contracts and endorsements and books and et cetera.

Right. Interesting. OK. Let's talk about this now. Let me just say this one other thing. Okay. The truth is people that hate, they're not even in the, they're not even in present time. They're hating something that happened yesterday. Haters don't produce anything. Haters produce nothing. They're incapable of producing anything.

That's why they hate. Right. Because you remind them of what they should be doing and aren't, or what they could be doing and aren't or what they could be doing and quit doing that's true that's very true you gotta embrace the haters i love it um yeah multiply the haters multiply the haters what um so tell me this about so this podcast is all about greatness and discovering greatness so how how would you define greatness? And what's one step that the listeners can take today to kind of unleash their inner greatness?

Well, that's a great question, man. You know, the way I measure greatness, look, it's going to be different for everybody, right? Right. One guy says it's a million dollars and the guy with a million dollars says it's 10 million right and the guy with 100 million says no dude greatness has got nothing to do with money he's got 100 million but he's like he's got the yacht he's got everything but he's like greatness has got nothing to do with that right now so so everybody's definition is going to be different but for me greatness greatness would be the difference between where I am right here and my potential.

This would be the gap. This would be where greatness lies for me. So if I had gone from here to here, but my potential was up to here, for me, it's the gap. I'm always looking to fill the gap up between my reality and my potential. Now, doesn't the gap always increase once you close the gap? Doesn't it go up higher? Sure does. So you've never really reached greatness then, is that?

No, but maybe it's not about reaching it. Maybe it's about filling that gap up. I don't know. Maybe you do reach it. Maybe Jesus reached it. Right. I don't know. Maybe somebody's reached it.

I don't really care because I haven't reached mine. And the only thing I really care about is, you know, that piece for me. I mean. The pursuit of reaching the potential and continuing to hit it and then improving it and going from there. Yeah. And I think that's why you see so many athletes come back out of retirement. Or you see these wealthy, extremely wealthy entertainers just can't give up the stage. I think they're trying to find that place, that greatness that you talk about. So what do you think is one step that people can take to kind of hit that greatness or bridge that gap?

Just don't compromise. You know, I mean, I had somebody tell me, I was doing an interview yesterday with James Barber, who's a Broadway singer and he's got a radio show and he, and he's talking about artists and he's telling me, he's like,

you know, this artist tells me they don't want to be rich and famous. They just want to practice their craft. And I'm like, well, I are freaking liar. Okay freaking liar okay like like what actor doesn't want to be you know known everywhere I mean come on don't lie the reason they act right please I'm like what do you mean you want to be an actor or you want to be a superstar right

are you telling me don't lie to yourself look there's thousands of people that'll lie to you don't line up for your own you know come on so i would just tell people this don't compromise you know quit fighting greatness hey can somebody grab me one of those great cards tony grab me one of those great cards um look to fight greatness is actually part of the problem. I think it's in our DNA to be great. And it's like, don't fight it, man. You're meant to be great. Don't compromise and don't lie to yourself. Well, I think it goes back to what your mom said. She wanted you to be under the radar so you didn't get hurt, right?

So I think the parents are usually teaching us kids, like, do well, but don't excel too much that you get too much attention so that you could get hurt or that you could lose it all. Or what does it say here? You're a greatness. Don't fight it. That's why you're fighting it, man. That's great. See, it's like my car. I bought this new car.

I'm like, can you guys take the breakout? They're like, excuse me. I've heard a lot of requests, but not that one. I'm like like just take it out of the car i don't need it bro you know because what people are doing is they're stepping on their greatness i did this as a as a kid man i that's what the drugs were about that's what the alcohol was about that's what all the bad choices were about it was about me trying to hold this potential down right and basically sabotage who I am and just be great

and make the extra call and make the contact and reach up for people and your friends and associates. Go reach up to the people that are the hardest to get in front of, not the easiest to get in front of. Right. Right. That's great. Now, you're most known for, in my mind, for being an amazing salesperson and selling and the idea around selling. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's mostly what you're known for and you write about and you talk about in your books and you talk about it in speeches. So, how does one become a great salesperson without being salesy?

one become a great salesperson without being salesy well you know you know what i mean you know what i mean by saying totally i i think i think you have to like really investigate that second part of the question um like why is our culture got a problem with salesy you know like why is that a problem anyway right you know i guess i mean what i mean sales i mean like cheesy or overselling or not being authentic or not caring about the person but really caring about the sale type of yeah yeah well i think i think there's a bunch of garbage out there written on sales like like neurolinguistic programming i hate that stuff because they're like okay i need to listen to what way you talk or think or feel and then i'm going to basically customize my presentation for a visual person or a kinesthetic i just don't do that dude look

i got great products and i was doing a presentation to a guy today this is how the whole presentation started my intention is to close you by the time this call is over. The product is going to cost you 30 grand. I'm telling you up front what it costs. If you have any questions, just ask me. My intention is to close you. The product costs 30 grand. I'm telling you price before I even show you the product. Wow. Okay. Now let me show it to you. If you have any questions, just ask me. This is your approach or? That's my approach. Wow. Okay. Now let me show it to you. If you have any questions, just ask me. This is your approach or? That's my approach. Wow. There's no trickery in it. There's no tricks. There's no manipulation. Is that salesy? I'm telling you what my intention is. I took the time to get on the phone with you. My intention is to have this product in your hands by the time

this call ends. Number two, it costs 30 grand. I want to tell you the price up front. The reason I want to is because only you can make a decision to do it or not do it. And while I'm showing you the product, I want you to be thinking what it costs. Because the only way you can make a decision is based on what it costs. See, but if you study most sales people, most sales books, people that I, you know, think the world of most of them say, present your product kind of had that you want to close. Don't, don't make it obvious. And then at the end of your 45 minute presentation, once you've built value, determine needs, then tell them the price. I mean,

I flipped the whole thing that would never work on me. Wow. I want to know how much up front. That's interesting because I'll be honest and say that I do do the other approach that you talked about where I actually say, hey, I'm going to have something to offer for you at the end. In the beginning, I say, here's what I'm going to be covering today. I will have a product that I'll be offering at the end,

but let's get into some of the free information first, because I'm kind of teaching them and giving them a free training and then selling them an advanced training if they want that at the end. That's a different thing that you're offering because you're offering a free workshop. Okay. In this particular case, you're offering something that's a value.

Right. Free training. And then you're stacking an offer on top of this free thing that you did. So it's a little different. Gotcha. This is when I have a client that has shown interest.

I have an appointment. It's one person, not 100 or 200, right? Uh-huh. So a little different presentation because you're basically giving people a reason to do something. They know that that offer's going to be there for you probably. So you're saying more of like a one-on-one call

where you're trying to close someone to buy a product. You take that approach. You say, hey, at the end of this call, I want the product in your hands. It's cost you $30,000. But I tell you what I'd love to do. I'd love to do one of your webinars and test this out and flip it. We should test it. We should test it.

We should test it. I bet you our closing ratio goes up. I'm down to test it, man. I'm down to test that for sure. If you can do more than 25%, I'd be impressed. I do 25%? I can do 25% to strange people out on the street. Let's test it later then for sure.

But I'll just tell you, i had my staff in here watching i'm training some new guys right and i said look this is what i'm gonna do in the call i'm gonna lay out my intention i'm gonna give them my pricing and i'm gonna ask them why they want this right and watch how it goes okay and it was just like the guy's like i said have you seen enough to make a decision yet after i presented a portion of my, have you seen enough to make a decision yet? After I presented a portion of my product, have you seen enough to make a decision? And he's like, not yet. I said, well, thank you very much. Let me continue presenting my product. Okay. Show me more grant. And so I get to go on.

I like that. It's just a very straightforward, not salesy. It interrupts many of the old kind of ways, manipulative ways of selling. So I feel really good about it. And I am known for selling and bringing a new way to handle people. I like that. Would you say that the number one thing you need to be a great salesman is confidence in yourself? I'd say the number one thing you need to be a great person is confidence in yourself. Right. I hear you there.

But you can't really sell if you don't have confidence as well, correct? Yeah. You want to be a great athlete. You want to be whatever. If you don't have confidence in yourself, you're not going to be great. I don't care what your skills are. Right. So how does one – we have all these doubts, fears, demons, worries, concerns.

How does one – or how do you manage overcoming those coming into your mindset every day? If someone says no or one day you're just everyone's saying no to you, how do you overcome that and keep confidence in yourself, your product, your service, and what you're offering? Clean hands. First thing is clean hands, man. I don't do anything that I don't feel good about. And if I do, because I'm human, I clean it up.

And the cleaner my hands are in business, relationships, with my wife, with my employees, and I'm talking about my personal understanding of what clean hands are. For everybody, it's different i'm not this isn't some moral you know this isn't some religious or moral like dissertation the cleaner my hands are in business the more business i can do right because if i'm doing something that that i don't feel good about forget whether it's right or wrong okay like like I went down a one-way street to get to work today. See, for me, that's not a big moral dilemma for me.

Right. Look. You went the wrong way on a one-way street, is what you're saying. The street was blocked because of vehicles and stuff. It wasn't actually a one-way, but I skirted through the little signs to get to my office. Right, right. To me, that's not a big deal.

I'm going to do it on the way home. All right. No, I am. You know, I'm talking about the other stuff that you don't feel good about. Right. For somebody else, Lewis, that might be like, oh, no, dude, that's terrible. You can't do that. Then I wouldn't do it if I were you.

But I think it's an individual thing. The cleaner my hands are, the more forceful I can be in a deal. Sure. Because I have clean hands because I'm not thinking about the past. I mean, if there's anything I've done in my life that I'm really proud of is I've cleaned up all the stuff I've done in the past that I didn't feel good about so that I can go full blasts like this, like all the way, because I'm not worrying about, yes, I don't have any attention on those things that are left undone, the things I don't feel good about, the people I kind of didn't tell the truth to. I clean it all up so you can go, like that windshield in your car is, what, that big? It's huge, right? It's this big. The rearview mirror is that big.

I don't want any attention on the past. None. I want complete confidence to move forward. And I think even though you might see criminal people, people that are criminal like or cheat or steal, you see them do well for a little while. They don't do well for long periods of time. Right. It's true. We want them to, but they don't. Yeah.

Even if you're not in a sales role in your career, I already know your answer is going to be here, but why is selling so vital to our survival, even if you're not in that specific sales role? You know, because that book right there, Sell or Be Sold, was written for artists. It was written for artists that don't think they're salespeople. It was written for the executive that thinks he's chairman of the board now. You look at Warren Buffett. Warren Buffett is one of the greatest salespeople that has ever walked the planet. He's not considered to be a salesperson. He's considered to be an investor.

Right. But Warren Buffett, every time time if you notice Warren's interviews, he's got that old grandfatherly, I'm a long-term investor. In every interview, you will see the products of one of the companies in the background. Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs will always be known as the entrepreneur that created unbelievable technology. Truth is, Steve Jobs was an unbelievable salesperson.

He convinced people to buy products they can't even afford. $600 phones. If I ask a thousand people how much this phone costs, everybody will say $400, $300. This phone costs $3,200. Wow. Steve Jobs has got everybody convinced this is a $400 phone. But the truth is you pay $120 to $150 a month plus a $500 and you change phones every 18 months. Right.

That guy was brilliant. guy was brilliant so i would just tell you look if you have a problem with the idea of selling you you're going to be a slave on this planet the only people that are free are the people that know how to sell promote market build value if you can't build value in yourself determine your own value the marketplace is going to determine what you're worth. And the marketplace never pays what you're worth. Right. So I would just tell everybody, man, no matter what you're getting your degree in, you're a chiropractor, you're a neurosurgeon, you're going to Beverly Hills to do surgical, facial surgical, dermatology stuff, you've got to learn how

to sell. Otherwise, your degree won't matter well i like it um so you're talking a lot about and before you're talking about you've talked about dominating being more important than winning uh so what are the fundamentals to dominating a space? Well, it goes back to what we were talking about before the interview. Like, you know, you said, hey, Graham, what's the one biggest mistake you've made in your career? And I mean, how long did it take me to say? A couple of seconds. Not even.

What did I tell you what it was? You said revest back in your branding and yourself and dominating the space and being everywhere. I should have spent every penny. You should invest every penny, your last money, rather than buying a loaf of bread, invest it back into your brand. Wow. Borrow money if you have to. Invest every penny in you.

My mother told me this when I was, I don't know, 18 years old. She's like, the best investment you'll ever make is in you. You're a guaranteed deal. That stock I'm going to buy, the piece of real estate I'm going to buy, it is not a sure deal. OK, the average American reads one book a year. They read one book. OK, why? Why don't they read? Because people don't invest in themselves.

OK, why? Why don't they read me? Because people don't invest in themselves. And so I would just tell you the biggest mistake I've made in my career is I didn't invest in getting my brand known so that it was everywhere. Right. If you look at really successful brands, they're everywhere. Coca-Cola is everywhere. Google's everywhere. Apple's everywhere. I'm starting to be everywhere. Right. Louis, Louis, you're everywhere. Everywhere I go, I'm starting to see you. The more I go places, the better off I'll be. A guy took a picture in Germany in a clock shop,

and this book is in this old antique clock shop in between clocks. That is a good sign. Right.. I would spend the last penny. I'd get your wife, your husband, get the whole family, get the kids with your business cards, letting everybody in your community know who you are, what your product is, what your company is. You're committed to the community. You're an animal. You're completely dedicated. You're not going away

and and you see that goes back to attention criticism haters admiration right i like that what about if there's a space that's already being dominated should people just leave that space alone or what should they do you should make a list of the places where this company is deficient. Make a list of the places where this company cannot compete now because of their size. You see this happening in business, in tech, particularly technology businesses, where a company gets really big and now it moves extremely slow. It doesn't move with the agility and the nimbleness that it did that made it great. And so what I'm going to do, like when Lehman collapsed, yeah, so I made a list of what my competition could not do. I didn't focus on what they were doing. I made a list of what they could not do or would not do. And then those are the places where I went to all in and really invested.

Right, right. Nice. So what, uh, what was the biggest lesson for you in the last year then in 2012, what was your biggest lesson learned? Uh, look, you, you know, people don't cost money. They don't cost money. You got, you got, you got to invest in having good people around you. And making mistakes.

Me and you were talking about that before the interview as well. It's like make mistakes. I don't like managing people. I hate managing people. The best people I have are the ones I don't have to manage. I don't have to check on. The best businesses that I'm partners in, I don't have to do any of the work. Right.

So what I'm doing today, I'm looking for – I'll go through lots of people. We just – we put ads out. I just moved from L.A. to Miami. I think you know that. Yep. We put ads out here. That was a great thing I did, by the way. Moving from L.A., dude, one of the best decisions I've made in my career.

Why is that? There's something – there's some bad voodoo in L.A., dude, one of the best decisions I've made in my career. Why is that? There's some bad voodoo in L.A. It was holding my business down, man. Unexplainable. Wow. It's like the lid has been taken off my business in Miami. Wow. Unbelievable.

And on top of that, I'm saving a lot of money in income taxes that I can now reinvest in my company. I have four times more employees here than I had there. Wow. Which means I'm buying time. Yeah. Because now I'm duplicating myself four times. True. It's difficulty managing those people.

It's difficulty managing those people. Like I got to take the time to get everybody on the same page or I need to find people that are already like hooked into my message and believe in my message. We did an ad here, a four-day ad for jobs. We had 1,300 responses to positions. So I think what I've learned is, look, man, go big. Go big and go fast. And if I had one of the two, I'd go fast before I went big. Really?

Yeah. Okay. I like it. So if you were a professor at the University of Greatness, which you're basically doing right now, what would you call your class? What would I call the university of greatness? I call it balling ain't cheap. I love it.

You know, I was doing this gig for entrepreneur magazine and they're like, why did you want to be an entrepreneur? One of those questions like you just asked. Because I wanted a big watch, dude. Oh, man. I love it. That's awesome. Where can people find you online, Grant?

What's happening for you recently? Where can people find you? You can find me at grantcardone.com. You can find me on Twitter at Grant Cardone. Look, if you have to look very hard to find me, you ain't looking. It should take them about five seconds. Type your name in. You'll find them everywhere.

But in Grant Cardone, you can spell it any way you want. I'm going to pop up somewhere. Like if you want sales, you want follow-up, you want prospecting, you want anything to do with it. You want an online university. I mean, that's one of the things we're working big on. We're moving into the Latin American marketplaces. I'm working with Fortune 500 companies, customizing sales training programs for them. I'm working with companies like Univision, Google, Morgan Stanley, Mom and Pop Shops, Kawasaki, Chrysler Motor Company, customizing specific customer experience, sales process-driven universities and programs

so people can be more successful in getting their products and services now. Nice. Very cool. Well, make sure to check you out at grantcardone.com and any final words on greatness or anything you want to say. All I can say is this right here. Don't fight it, baby. You are greatness. Don't fight it. I love it. Thanks, my man. Don't fight it baby you are greatness don't fight it i love it thanks my man okay thanks a lot lewis

well a big shout out and thank you to Professor Grant Cardone for teaching you all some great information at the School of Greatness. We really appreciate you, Grant, and we'll definitely have to have you come back on sometime in the future. Now, if that interview didn't get you pumped up, then I don't know what to tell you. You got to go get your pulse checked or something because that was awesome. That's it for today's episode of the School of Greatness. But before we go, I want to say a big thanks to all the five-star reviews we're getting out there.

I saw Kara Singleton. I saw Todd Bowen, Daniel Kuhlman, Dry the Dreamer, Austin Henry, Double O Nelly, Loveos, Online Marketing Girl, and Web Pixie. I appreciate all the reviews over on iTunes. And if you enjoyed this interview, please leave us a five-star review. I also saw that Web Pixie mentioned the sound quality of some of the previous interviews. But don't worry. I'm getting all new equipment. I've got my podcast producer who's going to be hooking it up and making it sound much better for future episodes. So the quality improvement will get better and I appreciate

all your feedback. Again, please leave us a review over on iTunes and check out grantcardone.com and schoolofgreatness.com for more information about the show. I'm going to leave you guys with a motivational tune from Tristam and Bracken called flight. So I hope you enjoy the music. Hope you have an amazing day and I'll check you guys next time on the school of greatness. ស្រូវនប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ Bye. Outro Music so ស្រូវនប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ Bye.