We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network - TIP 072 : Creating a $10 Million Dollar Company by Age 24 - w/ Nathan Latka (Business Podcast)

Episode Date: February 7, 2016

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN: How Nathan plans to go from being a multi-millionaire to become a billionaire in 8 years. Which single powerful sentence billionaire Warren Buffett uses when he is n...egotiating acquisitions. Why some people become millionaires and others become billionaires. Which job all billionaires had when they were 13 years old. Why investing is about people, and not about the asset. BOOKS AND RESOURCES Join the exclusive TIP Mastermind Community to engage in meaningful stock investing discussions with Stig, Clay, and the other community members. Nathan’s Podcast: The Top Entrepreneurs in Money, Marketing, Business and Life. Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence – Read reviews of this book. Red McCombs’s book, Big Red – Read reviews of this book. Alice Schroeder’s book, The Snowball – Read reviews of this book. Carol J. Loomis’s book, Tap Dancing to Work – Read reviews of this book. Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich – Read reviews of this book. David Carey’s book, King of Capital – Read reviews of this book. Robert Kiyosaki’s book, Rich Dad Poor Dad – Read reviews of this book. NEW TO THE SHOW? Check out our We Study Billionaires Starter Packs. Browse through all our episodes (complete with transcripts) here. Try our tool for picking stock winners and managing our portfolios: TIP Finance Tool. Enjoy exclusive perks from our favorite Apps and Services. Stay up-to-date on financial markets and investing strategies through our daily newsletter, We Study Markets. Learn how to better start, manage, and grow your business with the best business podcasts.  SPONSORS Support our free podcast by supporting our sponsors: SimpleMining Hardblock AnchorWatch Human Rights Foundation Unchained Vanta Shopify Onramp   HELP US OUT! Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts! It takes less than 30 seconds and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you all! Thank you – we really appreciate it! Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm

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Starting point is 00:00:00 We study billionaires, and this is episode 72 of The Investors Podcast. Broadcasting from Bel Air, Maryland. This is The Investors Podcast. They'll read the books and summarize the lessons. They'll test the waters and tell you when it's cold. They'll give you actionable investing strategies. Your host, Preston Pish, and Stig Broderson. Hey, how's everybody doing out there?
Starting point is 00:00:30 This is Preston Pish, and I'm your host for The Investors Podcast. And as usual, I'm accompanied by my co-host Stig Broderson out in Denmark. And I really think people are going to really enjoy this episode because we got a really special guest on the show who has really just done such amazing things at such a young age. And I know that we typically talk about billionaires, people that have written books. But every so often you've got to bring on a guest that's able to just accomplish so much at such a young age. And that guest that we have today is his name is Nathan Lackup. And Nathan is the founder and chief executive officer for a company called hayo.com. But Nathan comes with a wealth of information.
Starting point is 00:01:08 And I think you guys are going to really enjoy this interview. So Nathan, great to have you on the show. We're really excited to be talking about some of the things that you're going to be presenting to our audience today. Preston Stig, I am excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me, guys. All right. So Nathan, the main purpose of our show is the study billionaires and really kind of highlight the best investors in the world. And although this is really useful for people that have retained earnings to invest, we also
Starting point is 00:01:34 enjoy bringing on inspirational guests that can help generate ideas for creating those assets, assets that people can initiate to create additional cash flow so that they actually have savings to invest. So you've got to kind of start with what you're going to be presenting today. And we couldn't have found a better guest really do that because by the age of 24, you had created a company that was worth over $10 million through your unique ability to create online assets. So tell us your story. Tell our audience, your inspirational story, like how you did this at such a young age.
Starting point is 00:02:07 Because you were in college until you were 22 years old, correct? Yep, that's where I started. And I would just tell your audience, let's call a spade of spade. I'm not a billionaire yet, but at my current personal growth rate, I will be a billionaire by 34. So mark my words. It's recorded. you can check this in four, five, six years from now. That's the date.
Starting point is 00:02:27 So what it was, Preston, was back when I was 19 studying architecture at Virginia Tech, much like your other guess that you had on Pat Flynn. What episode was that when Pat came on? Log number 20. Okay, there you go. Yeah. So much like Pat, I was studying architecture. And Preston, nobody was hiring architects after the financial crash.
Starting point is 00:02:47 So I said, what am I going to do? And I love when my back is against the wall. love it. I love feeling cornered because that's when I can really win big. And when I realized my back was against the wall, I went home that night into my dorm room. It's a little 12 foot by 15 foot, white cinder block, you know, with my bed above my desk. And I was sitting there wearing these red Christmas boxers that my ex-girlfriend had bought me. And let me tell you, that was the only thing I got out of that relationship. But anyways, I was wearing these boxers. And I just started calling people, executives that had a Facebook page and I started selling fan pages. And long story short,
Starting point is 00:03:23 over the past four and a half to five years, I dropped out of college, grew that to a $30,000 per month run rate within six months of starting. Once I hit 30 grand in monthly recurring revenue, I dropped out of school, grew it to 40 grand a month in recurring revenue, raised $550,000 of capital from some of the world's top angel investors like David Cohen from Techstars. And then after that, we kept growing it for three years, grew it to almost $90,000. a month in revenue and then raised $2 million from a Forbes billionaire who was the founder and actually created the medical application Adderall, which many people may or may not know. So we grew it.
Starting point is 00:03:59 You know, we grew the team of 25 people. The tool did millions and millions and millions of dollars in sales. The valuation, as you mentioned, did exceed 10 million fairly fast when we did that series A round of funding. And it has been a wild, wild ride. So, Nathan, I mean, when I'm listening to this, most people, I think when you think and you just look at it and you take a step back at this, most people don't. have that knowledge to even step into the room to start talking series A round of funding.
Starting point is 00:04:25 Like, how would I negotiate that? How would I know that? It's such a young, I mean, what age were you at this point? 22 years old? 23. About 23, yeah. So where did you learn this stuff? How'd you know that? That's what's great. And this is, I think, an important lesson. Even if you do know it, you should act like you don't have a clue because what I did is I sent out monthly updates and to like people I respected and eventually pressed and people started replying. And people started going, can we invest in your Series A? And I wrote back and I said, what the heck is a Series A? So I knew a little bit about what it was, but here's something else I knew.
Starting point is 00:05:01 The more mindshare that I consumed of these people that wanted to put money behind me, the more in they were. So being ignorant and making them become my teacher, even if I already knew everything or thought I knew everything, you have them hook, line, and sinker. I'm dying right now. Yeah. That is just like you took something, just totally flipped it on its head. Because most people, to be honest with you at that age, they're letting their ego kind of get in the way of things. And then they'd be like, oh, yeah, I know what a series A is. And you did, but you just kind of rolled with it. You went in the exact opposite direction that most people would go. And you're exactly right. I'm assuming you've read the book influence. Have you ever read that? So you've read the book influence. So you understand this idea of buy in. And once people get their first step in the door, Their likelihood of taking the second step is that much further. I love that story.
Starting point is 00:05:53 That's amazing. There is nothing from a wisdom and a soul perspective. There is nothing that an older person, and I don't mean really old, I mean, you know, an older person, even me seeing someone who's 15, I'm going to be really, really excited about investing in a 15-year-old I see or a 50-year-old is going to be excited about a 26-year-old they see if they can see their younger self in that person. And so really, if you can study people that. that you're trying to attract into your life,
Starting point is 00:06:20 and then be a bit chameleon-like, right, in terms of body gesture, in terms of when you talk to them, use their same tonality and speed. If you know they write with, you know, a black Unibal ballpoint pen, make sure for that meeting you bring the same pen so that they go, oh my gosh, we're using the same pen.
Starting point is 00:06:36 It's like the little things help them see themselves in you, and then you just become like an arm or a leg to them. It's a natural extension. Wow, that's a fantastic story, Nathan. And as you know, here on the podcast, we read a ton of books of how to succeed. And it kind of feels like you just wrapped it up in like three or four minutes. Well, you can't take the same steps. But what you want to do is you want to study the heck out of them so you know exactly how they did it.
Starting point is 00:07:01 And when you feel inside based off the time you are in your life, that you can test a part of their success story and do it differently, have the ego. And it does take good ego to make those changes. and do it because you'll never do the exact same thing and have the exact same story and have the exact same success. So, Nathan, who are some of the billionaires or people that were highly influential for you to just start moving in this direction at such a young age and start creating these assets that you created? Yeah, there's a bunch.
Starting point is 00:07:32 So one of them, it's a guy named Red McCombs. I actually, I have his book and we'll put it in the show notes, but it's about Red McCombs. He was the founder and creator of Cumulus Radio. So one of the reasons I'm studying him is because I have a podcast, like, you guys do that is doing really, really well. It's called the top entrepreneurs podcast. And the first question I always ask on the show is how much money did you make last month? And it's usually the CEOs of big businesses. So, you know, one guest did 900 million last year. And he's, he's disrupting the car industry or things like that. And so the reason I like doing that is because it cuts through kind of all
Starting point is 00:08:05 the fakeness and cloudiness online and gets right to the data. And it makes people feel very uncomfortable, which is very entertaining. Sometimes we fight about it. But the reason I study read is because what he did with clear channel and cumulus radio is exactly what's happening in the podcast space right now. It's exactly the same thing. So when he started buying up radio stations in San Antonio, K-W-E-P, WI-O-A, first clear channel station, Keep K-E-E-E-P channel in Tulsa. These are like individual podcasts that he even figured out ways to aggregate and aggregate and aggregate and build synergies. And now it's a multi-billion-dollar company, obviously renamed IHeart Media. So what I try and do is I try and study like, okay, today I'm interested in podcasting. Who's someone's bio that I can study
Starting point is 00:08:51 or what's a company that was like podcasting 30 years ago and who is the richest, most successful person in that space? Go study them. Yeah. I just love the technique that you're talking about is who is the absolute best at whatever it is that you want to learn and you want to know and then study that person until you could, you know, finish their next sentence. and that's something that Stig and I have really tried to do in our community as well. And it's just so refreshing to see somebody else with so much success under their belt at such a young age. And this is the same kind of approach that you're taking as just like, hey, what's this niche? Podcasting specifically or media in general.
Starting point is 00:09:28 And who's that guy who's really kind of killed it? And let me just study the heck out of him. And I know you're a big Warren Buffett fan too, so don't act like you. I am. Don't act like you know who he is. I love actually, I will tell you something about Warren. So obviously you have snowball, you have tap dancing to work, all these great books. I've read them all. I forget which book it was in, but I remember, you know, he always says, you notice this
Starting point is 00:09:50 when it gets on CNBC or whatever and says that he just did a big deal. He'll always say, because you need to make the other person feel good even after the deal. He'll always say it was a deal that I just barely liked. It was barely a fair price, right? Because if the other person's watching, if the other person's watching, like the big car dealership chain, I forget the name that he just acquired or bought into, that other person needs to go, yeah, baby, I got a great deal. Right.
Starting point is 00:10:12 And if Warren said, if Warren went on CNBC, I said, I just got a great deal. The other person's going to feel like crap. So Warren says, I got a barely, I got a price. I barely liked. So that's one part. The other part is, and you guys, I don't know if you know this or not,
Starting point is 00:10:23 I use three words, actually five words. Warren used this when he did things like the Heinz deal, when he's negotiating literally sense off the per share stock price of these companies he's acquiring. If someone gave him an offer, he'll simply write back and say, before I make a decision, is this your best offer? And usually people will write back and just shave sense off the stuff. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:10:46 So I just recently, this was about five months ago, it's January now about five months ago, we got an acquisition offer for Heyo. And I wrote back, you know, I got to the point where we basically had four or five people companies interested in buying the company. I said on Friday, it was like a Monday. I said on Friday, I'm making a decision which L-O-I,
Starting point is 00:11:05 which stands for letter of intent, I'm going to sign. So I emailed all the four companies that were interested and said, send me your best LOI before Friday. And so they started sending me them throughout the week. The first email I wrote back to every one of them was before I make a decision on Friday, is this your best offer? And guys, you're not going to believe this. The guy that got the winning bid, okay, I sent that same email back to him three times. And every time he doubled his offer because in his mind, he was going, oh my gosh, she must have a better offer from one of these other guys. I need to, like,
Starting point is 00:11:39 increase it. All I did was right back for three days straight, is this your best offer before I make a decision? And we quadrupled the price that he initially started with. So we sold Hayo, by the way. We just sold. Oh, did you? So it's sold. Yeah. It literally just happened. And I recorded the wholesale process, the negotiation, how it ties in with Warren Buffett on my podcast in a little three-part series on the top entrepreneurs. So your audience can search the top entrepreneurs in iTunes if they want to listen to that. I actually recorded the process. So we are going to have a link to this in the show notes. I guarantee everyone in our audience is going to want to listen to this, including myself. So Nathan, I love that story. Oh my gosh, that is absolutely brilliant. I love it.
Starting point is 00:12:22 Thank you. Thank you for those kind words. I will tell you, studying biographies of successful people is one of the best uses of anybody's time. And then where most people fall off, the difference between millionaires and people that become billionaires, I think, is because millionaires will just read the books. One of the things that I do is I have all kinds of psychological things I do in the books where I'll within. Actually, I'll tell you guys, can I take an example? Is this okay?
Starting point is 00:12:43 This has to be passive income. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In Reed McComb's bio, okay, on page 46, one of the things he talks about was he was trying to use radio and buy radio ad space to grow the amount of foot traffic going into his dealership in San Antonio, Texas. And so what he did is he got the top three radio stations in a room and said, I am prepared, listen to my wording very carefully. I am prepared to give you my entire radio advertising budget for the next month for whoever sends me the best price.
Starting point is 00:13:15 So in their mind, they're sitting in this luxurious cardiolship going, his budget must be huge. Well, based off what I just said, it could have been a dollar. Yeah. Right. So what he did was he implied something. And then because of that implication, he got back amazing deals and discounts from every radio station, pick the cheapest one, and then spent his money there. That's what a millionaire would do. They would read that and go, wow, that sounds great. What I'm doing with that is I'm doing that
Starting point is 00:13:38 with the podcast. So I'm in Blacksburg. I reached out to the top three radio stations. I said, I'm willing to spend next month. I don't have an advertising budget, but I'll make one. I'm going to spend next month's entire advertising budget for the podcast on one radio station. I'm literally just like, you know, we'll post it maybe a... Well, your point is this. Nathan, your point is this. And I love this point. Most people read it and it just goes in one ear and out the other and they're like, that's a cool story. You're taking it and you're copying and pasting it into your life and into application. And I think that if there's a moral of the story here for people listening to the show, it's this.
Starting point is 00:14:14 Don't just read it to read it. Read it to put it into application. When you're doing this stuff, these people are giving you the cliff notes and basically the answers to the test. That's perfect, Nathan. And thank you so much for indirectly promoting our podcast on our own podcast. that we need to start a billionaires. You know what, I try. I try, man. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:14:35 Nathan, I'm sure everybody's sitting out there and they're thinking, I want to start. I want to create my very first asset. And, you know, they might be thinking about one that is online or perhaps it's not. But what do you recommend that you do? And how can they figure out what's the right thing is for them to pursue? So finding the right assets for any individual is a lot like the first steps of cooking macaroni and cheese. Right.
Starting point is 00:14:57 The first thing is you boil the water. you put on the mac and cheese and then it gets soft. What you need to do then is strain the water, take all those little macaroni things. Those macaroni things are like your opportunity. Chuck the whole thing at the wall and like four of them are going to stick. Right. But there's probably 300 you just chucked at the wall.
Starting point is 00:15:13 The trick is you have to understand you're going to lose money on throwing the macaroni. But before that stick are going to turn into great waterfalls for you the rest of your life. That is like a faucet of cash flow that you just can't turn off. Most people, what most people struggle with Stig is they can't in their mind set up the bowl of macaroni. In other words, what I did when I first started is I said, okay, I am willing to spend, I'm going to make this
Starting point is 00:15:38 up $10,000 on 10 different assets. I'm going to throw a grand at and see which ones return cash flow. By the way, I only care about cash flow. In real estate, I don't care about appreciation. I am a cash flow guy, but it doesn't make cash for me. I'm out. And so you have to set up a rational test and say, I won't spend more than 10 grand, but I'm willing to test it. I'm willing to lose my money, and then that's how you uncover some of these truths. Yeah, I like that. And it also, I think a lot of people, when they're trying to create their very first asset, they'll pick one thing, okay, they'll invest, in some cases, they'll invest their life savings towards it, okay, which is exactly opposite of what you just said. And then
Starting point is 00:16:17 whenever it might not make it or it does really poorly, they just give up and say, oh, I'm just going to keep working this job that I've had. And then it's just done. They stop right there. And I think that the important thing that Nathan's talking about here, too, is we had another gentleman on the show. He got a deal with Mark Cuban. In his deal, he worked with Mark Cuban, and that's what he said, you have to have these hacks. You have to be just really cheap and just if you can't do something with a little bit of capital. In most cases, it's not really maybe something that you should go after and pursue because the upside versus the downside is so lopsided. And you're just setting yourself up for failure.
Starting point is 00:16:53 And so I think that really kind of twofold with what you're saying here. It shouldn't take a lot of money to create your first asset. That is the first thing. And then the second thing is it might not be the first thing that you try. You might have to try 10 different things until you get something to stick. But when you do get that one thing to stick, then you're going down that path. And it's amazing how you get like this compounding asset accumulation thing going after you create the first one that works. And I think that's what people have to have a realization for is you got to get that one thing to work.
Starting point is 00:17:21 And then after that, they just kind of start, you know, accumulating and building at that point. Let's take a quick break and hear from today's sponsors. All right. I want you guys to imagine spending three days in Oslo at the height of the summer. You've got long days of daylight, incredible food, floating saunas on the Oslo Fjord. And every conversation you have is with people who are actually shaping the future. That's what the Oslo Freedom Forum is. From June 1st through the 3rd, 2026, the Oslo Freedom Forum is entering its 18. year bringing together activists, technologists, journalists, investors, and builders from all over
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Starting point is 00:21:25 Go to Shopify.com slash WSB. That's Shopify.com slash WSB. All right. Back to the show. It is the world's biggest lie when people believe. that they don't have enough cash to get started finding an asset because you can look at very simple things. You only have $100 and you want to follow the advice that we're talking about. You would go in and you would start looking for assets that generate cash flow in your daily
Starting point is 00:21:57 life that you can buy for less than, you know, $10, $20. An example of one of those that I did very early on. I'm talking out as like 17, 16. I noticed that in every coffee shop, they have these little things you put $0.25 in and it spits out chocolate covered coffee beans or something like that. And I said, wow, all I got to do is really fill that up maybe once a month. And then I just get a bunch of quarters. I wonder what it would cost to buy one of those and do it. So I just bought a few of those, like 10 bucks each, 10 bucks. But they were returning, bought 12 bucks per month. Like, oh, cool. Okay, that's basically two bucks a month for a little unit per thing. And then maybe you go into pinball machines. And then you go
Starting point is 00:22:33 into vending machines. Then you go into real estate. And then you go into software businesses, but you have to start. Hey, Nathan, I've heard on another interview. And I know this wasn't a question that we were going to ask, but I think it gets to the point of you don't necessarily have to have capital to create your first asset. And I want you to describe your story of how you started your company, Hey, yo, because you really, it was a phone call, wasn't it? Yeah, it was. Many people, they go, oh my gosh, Nathan's on the show right now talking about a software company, but I can't do a software company. I don't know how to code. I don't know where to start. Well, guys said, it doesn't matter. I was architecture. So what I did is I went home and I called folks and basically, here's that once I sold them and that usually, you know, I would have to make 10 calls to make one sale. That was my ratio back then. I'm much, much better now, by the way. But I would call and say, hey, I need you to go here to my PayPal account and send me 700 bucks for the custom fan page. And this is critical. Listen to these words carefully. I need six months to deliver you the quality of product I want to deliver. If I can't give you that quality, I'm going to refund you out of respect. Is that okay? Now, who the heck's going to say no to
Starting point is 00:23:38 that. Of course, they're going to say yes. They're like, wow, this guy's refreshing. He cares about quality, right? I mean, in my mind, what I'm going is, if I don't sell at least a hundred of these at 700 bucks a pop for 70 grand, it's not worth me spending the time to learn how to code. So I basically have five months to sell. And if I hit my target, then I have, you know, a week to learn and another three weeks to actually code and execute all these things for people. So what happened was I hit the 70 grand. I sold 100 of these at 700 bucks a pop. My PayPal account was super full.
Starting point is 00:24:10 I then watched YouTube videos from this little man, this little man was teaching FBML on YouTube. That's Facebook markup language. So I taught myself for free Facebook markup language, and then I started implementing these things. And then quickly learned the key to passive income is to stop charging 700 bucks for a project and instead build software that allowed the end customer to use it themselves.
Starting point is 00:24:37 That way, I can just be a middleman and collect 30 bucks a month for each person that wanted to use my drag and drop software. And that was really my first big multimillion dollar passive income machine. For me, the thing that's amazing here is going back to the example, everyone thinks they've got to have money up front. You completely flip that on its head. You're like, no, I'm just going to sell something that I don't even have a product for that I haven't even created that I don't even know how to create at this point in time.
Starting point is 00:25:04 And let me sell whatever that product is or whatever that might seem like in my head. And you're selling that to people and you're building the structure of the deal is you build in the time element. And you'd give the money back if it didn't work out. You're at a loss of nothing. The only thing you're borrowing is the people's capital for six months at a free interest rate, which is nice. And then you build it. You make it happen. You just get it done.
Starting point is 00:25:27 after you've proven the product out by selling it, then it didn't even exist. And I think that that model is just amazing to hear somebody talk about it. And it's a win-win in the long run. You delivered the product that you said you were going to do. You executed it. But I think that it just really tells people and it shows people in a good, solid example, that you don't have to have $50,000 sitting in your bank account to start a company to do this stuff.
Starting point is 00:25:51 And I love it. I absolutely love it. You know, Nathan, I think this story is really inspiring. And I got to tell you one thing when Preston called me up and said, hey, Stake, we should do a podcast. The first thing I thought was, I have no clue how to do that. How can we ever do that? And to be honest, I'm not really sure Preston knew that, but we figured it out, right? So my next question, see, you would be before starting a podcast, had you no clue about how to work with a mixer or how to work with the mic? Well, first off, you guys look great doing the podcast. You've got the branding everywhere.
Starting point is 00:26:20 You've got the video. You've got the pre-show, the post-show. You're ranked high. You're doing fantastic. I'm about to tell you something that most people are just, their mouths are going to drop. I have no idea how to use a mixer. Zero idea. None. I don't do anything on the podcast except I spend two days each month in studio and I record 15 episodes each day for 30 episodes over two studio days. I then take those files which are saved via e-cam on Skype and I simply upload them to Google Drive.
Starting point is 00:26:52 And then I have a team that I pay an effective rate of about $32 per day to produce the 15 minute episode, to publish it in Lipson, to do the graphics, to do the marketing, to do the show notes, to do everything. It just happens because I know my time is more valuable than my money. I love it. And I just want to say there for people out there. So I actually spoke with Nathan, like, I don't know, four or five months ago, something like that. And I actually used to edit our podcast myself. And after speaking to Nathan, I was like, sick, what are you doing? So we actually hired someone to do it.
Starting point is 00:27:24 So at least they had a positive spillover. I hope it comes to this. The last thing I want to discuss right now is our efficiency of running our podcast compared to Nathan's efficiency of running his. Because let me tell you, folks, he is making us look silly. All right. I will tell you how long have you been doing it? Well, you're episode 72 and we do once a week. So a year and a half, year and a half. I mean, I will tell you, I think, look, I'm hugely competitive.
Starting point is 00:27:53 I don't get into something unless I know I'm willing to hustle over the long term to make sure I can get to number one. And that was the same with the podcast. So we are going up very, very fast. Do you guys are think that are ranked like 26 in business right now? We're a little bit below that. But, you know, part of what I know is going to win or help us win is make sure that we've got a system in place that is not dependent on me doing things. because the people that will create the most valuable content and have the podcast with the most listeners are the ones that will do it the longest and the ones that do it consistently at a very high level of quality. So I'm trying to figure out what can I pay per day to make sure I hit those habits and how much time of my time per month will I need to invest to hit those limits. Yeah. You're just much more strategic than us. I'll say, Nathan.
Starting point is 00:28:37 You know, Stig and I are just like, hey, we'll talk about this today. I know people that are listening to this are just going to be floored at how thoughtful you are about success and how to really kind of go about it in a strategic manner. So with that said, as we're listening to this podcast and people out there are trying to think of ideas for creating their first assets. I know that you're a resource heavy person and that you've read a lot and you've thought about it a lot of different things because like us, none of our ideas are really original. we're taking ideas from other people and you're doing similar things based on what you're saying. So knowing that, what are some of the most essential resources and references that you have in order for people to create their very first assets? I like the question, but I don't like the question. Preston, here's why a lot of people think there's a silver bullet to this kind of stuff. And it is so much more art than science.
Starting point is 00:29:32 All you can do is study what other people have done and then try and analyze patterns between your own life. So like the way I think about assets is actually this. And maybe this will be valuable to put the show notes. I am now meeting one very, very wealthy, successful person per day, right? Actually 15 or 30 over two days with the podcast. I also meet people in my daily life. If I meet somebody and I sense they're talented but unhappy, I'll figure out what asset I can use my cash to put behind them,
Starting point is 00:30:03 that they will be happy building. Does that make sense? That makes total sense. But I guess, Nathan, for me, you're in a position where you're purchasing assets. And that really kind of goes into what we normally talk about on our show where we're talking about what can you do with your retained cash flow in order to invest it at a great rate and a great return. That's what you're doing when you're doing that. But for a lot of people, they're not sitting on, you know, let's just call it a million dollars to put behind a person that they know is just a total
Starting point is 00:30:31 workhorse and somebody who has talent for creating things. Put yourself in your shoes when you were really kind of coming out of college. And what were some of those assets and those people that you really kind of latched onto that gave you that knowledge on how to build and how to really kind of up your game from the very beginning to being that intermediate player in the space? Well, let me just say, I like attaining assets for free using my influence and persuasion, right? So, like, that's actually one of the big reason I did the podcast. Every episode is now a bartering tool that I can use to influence other people and get hard assets that I want. Every person in their life influences some other people or persons. And it's actually very easy
Starting point is 00:31:16 to get assets just using leverage that you inherently have. You just have to find what that is. Again, you know, my store, I mean, literally when I put myself back when I was 19, I made 70 grand. Okay, boom. Then we got to 30 grand per month. Okay. Then I was using a lot of that money to hire employees and paying myself. Then we raised 550. Then we raised $5.50. Then we were, we raised, you know, two million. My first big deal was I just, there was a lady named Aaron in Blacksburg, Virginia, which is where I was at Virginia Tech, who was a realtor. And I said, Aaron, I mean, I'm like, I hear real estate's a good thing to invest in.
Starting point is 00:31:49 If you ever see a deal, email it to me. I mean, that was like my first time thinking really about like hard assets. And she just wrote me back and said, yeah, there's this, there's a three bedroom. It's a duplex three bedroom two bath on each side. You know, sale price is 215. thousand dollars in blacksburg virginia and she said i think it's a great deal i think rents could be about 2400 bucks per month you know a mortgage payment if you only put 5% or 20% down is going to be about 1500 bucks it's going to cash flow a grand per month she emailed me that on a friday night at
Starting point is 00:32:20 about 430 at about 435 i go back and i said do the deal i did no research i hadn't even seen the house it comes down to errand that's what i mean it comes down to people you see if i did all the studying myself, reading the motivational quotes, studying the books and all that, I can only scale that so big. I would much prefer to find people that are just intelligent people that I can work with and do that. And so a lot of my early cash flow, maybe this is really what you're getting at Preston, a lot of my early cash flow, like you're thinking, I couldn't do that real estate deal if I couldn't put 20% down. A lot of my early cash flow came from me selling fan pages, like just grit and hustle to sell fan pages. So I had a pot of money to play with. Well, wow, Nathan, that was another fantastic
Starting point is 00:33:03 really fantastic story. And present now we just simply floored here. That was why people might heard a post like, we were like, tell us more. Tell us more. We want to do duplexes in Virginia now. I mean, it sounds really good. One of the things that we definitely are into, that's Warren Buffett. I know that you're into Warren Buffett as well, Nathan. And even though that you have been successful with the software company and people might be thinking, well, Warren Buffett and software doesn't go hand in hand, still you attribute your success to what you have learned from Buffett. So how has it influenced your career and your business decisions? Yeah, well, I will tell you, you guys say you studied billionaires.
Starting point is 00:33:40 There's actually, I'm actually about to put a blog post out, or maybe I'll do an episode on it. Almost 90% of people who are billionaires aren't today, January 2016 or somewhere in 2016 are worth a billion dollars. Almost all of them were doing the exact same thing when they were 13 years old. Can you guys guess what it is? The living newspapers. That is exactly right. Really?
Starting point is 00:34:03 Every single one of them. Warren Buffett, Red McCombs, Mark Cuban, almost every billionaire when they were either 12 or 13, they were doing a newspaper route. And then I question myself, I go, I go, why, why, why? If so many billionaires were doing that exact same thing at 12 or 13, that's instructional for parents listening right now. Like, what is the modern day delivering newspaper route for your kids?
Starting point is 00:34:30 So you can set them up to be billionaires so they take you, on nice vacations when you're older, right? Well, what it comes down to is really discipline, right? Getting up at 3 a.m. every morning to delivering paper routes. That is something that takes a lot of discipline. So it's a mindset. It's a mindset. It's being able to get up every morning, excited about what you're doing and execute it.
Starting point is 00:34:49 Now, the second part of it in the newspaper route industry is if you out hustle the people doing, you know, delivering newspapers two streets down from you, you can acquire their route. Right? So the same things that, the same. mindset principles that Warren Buffett is using to get the Heinz deal, it's the exact same principles he was using to acquire the newspaper route next to him when he was 12 years old. It's just he's done it so much now. He has it perfected. So you have to build these habits into your daily life. Wow. Did you deliver newspapers when you're 13, Nathan? I'm just curious. I did not. I will tell you what I did. What I did was I refereed soccer games. When I was very, very young, I would make
Starting point is 00:35:28 30 bucks a game and each game would be about 45 minutes. And then if you refereed 40, you games, you would get a $200 bonus. So I was making a lot of money doing that. I reinvested that money when I was young. I'm talking, I mean, I was literally, I was actually probably younger than what you're allowed to be working. I took that money and started basically buying like hemp. You know, do you ever see those bracelets you can make with hemp? You like do a little knot and do it. So I would make those and then I would sell them on the school bus. And I've actually kept like I had a little plastic like box with like liners in it where I had everything sorted and I had little custom order forms. I still have it over here. Maybe I'll take a picture and put on Instagram and you guys can put it in the blog post.
Starting point is 00:36:09 But I then used the refereeing money to do that. And before the refereeing money, what I was doing was I was convincing my mom to buy a hundred piece bags of candy from Costco for about $5.99. And I would take that bag of candy and sell each piece for a dollar on the school bus because everyone always had a dollar if their parents gave them cash to buy lunch. And so parents hated me. I mean, oh my gosh, did they hate me? But I made so much much, money selling 100-piece bags of candy on the bus. The main thing I'm disappointed about is that I actually be used to live in newspapers when I was 13.
Starting point is 00:36:38 And I have a really hard time figuring myself to be a billionaire when I'm 34 like Nathan. I'm 31, so I still got three years to go. And I'm not saying it's impossible, but... You're going to make it, dude. You're going to make it. I have no doubt. Let's take a quick break and hear from today's sponsors. No, it's not your imagination.
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Starting point is 00:40:02 risks, charges, and expenses. This and other information can be found in the income funds prospectus at fundrise.com slash income. This is a paid advertisement. All right. Back to the show. You can't think the trip to becoming a billion. People think I'm crazy when I say this, but I mean, I plan to be a billionaire by 34.
Starting point is 00:40:21 I plan to run for president and win and win big in 2036. I want to run the world's largest hedge fund, which means I would need about $100 billion under management. I want to do that by the time I turn like 50 or 60. I want to build the world's largest reed, which I've started doing because I'm acquiring storage unit facilities. I mean, I have goals that are individual goals that people spend their whole lives going after.
Starting point is 00:40:41 The trick is I'm already planning right now how I'm going to hit all those things. And I can literally an Excel sheet, if I keep doing what I'm doing, daily habits show you how I become a billionaire by 34. So now here's the thing. I think for certain people that would be listening to the show, they would hear that and they'd say, that's totally crazy. That's totally nuts. But I'll tell you, I'm listening to that and I don't think that that's nuts at all. I think that it is going to happen. And I think that the mindset is probably one of the most important things we can discuss
Starting point is 00:41:12 right now because there's a book called Think and Grow Rich. We did a review on it. I forget what episode it is, but we wrote an executive summary for people to listen to. I guarantee. I guarantee you. I don't even know if Nathan's read this, but I guarantee you Nathan's read this book. And he's not in his up yes. Okay. So this is what that book is all about. And it's the mindset. It's not the idea. You didn't hear him say in one ounce of what he just said, I think by the time I'm 34 that I could potentially have a billion dollar net worth. You didn't hear him say that at all. What you heard him say is when I'm 34 years old, I'm going to be a billionaire. Okay. And whether it's true or not, it doesn't matter. But in his mind, in his head right now, that is happening, folks. And that mindset of it is going to happen, and I'm going to figure out every way possible in order to make it happen, is the mindset that separates people who become billionaires or have a high net worth or whatever it is that you want to accomplish. It doesn't have to be even net worth. It could be, I'm going to be the best soccer player in the world, or I'm going to be the best javelin throw. Whatever it is that you desire.
Starting point is 00:42:16 It can be yours. But it has to start with your mindset and fully know, without one doubt, one iota of a doubt that it's going to happen. When you start there, you are going to automatically start figuring out the milestones that have to happen between time now and that date that you put in the sand that it's going to occur. And I guarantee you, if we sat down with Nathan with a video camera and said, Nathan, show us the map and the path of how that's going to happen, he could roll it out and show us exactly where he's going to be at each point in time in order to achieve each one of those milestones with the end date of 34 years, him being a billionaire.
Starting point is 00:42:53 He has that. I promise you. I have no doubt in my mind. Because when you think like that and you know something's going to happen, you figure out and you find the solution in order to get there. And that's extremely important. Amazing, Nathan. I absolutely love that you shared that because most people that think that stuff and have
Starting point is 00:43:10 the confidence behind it, don't share it. And I think it was great to hear you say that. So people can hear that mindset and understand what it is you're going after. I just love it. I absolutely love it. All right. So Nathan, talk to our audience about opportunity cost. Specifically, talk to them about opportunity cost of their time and working efficiently and effectively. Yeah, so opportunity cost is a very, very real thing. I'll give you an example. I just sold hayo. So now I don't have a salary. I don't need a salary, but I don't have one. And one of the things that was going to happen after I sold was I was going to take a position
Starting point is 00:43:49 making a lot, a lot of money on a salary for a very successful company that everyone listening right now knows very well. And my fighter-flight mind that likes security, by the way, every human likes security, says, take that job. But here's what I know. my biggest successes in life come when I first create space in my body, and second, that space can be filled with something amazing. The trick is, for humans, it's like cutting your body wide open with a big gash.
Starting point is 00:44:27 People can't operate in that amount of uncertainty for a week or two weeks or whatever it takes for you to find the big thing to fill that gap with. So what I did is I said, I'm not taking an offer. I said, I have so much confidence in what I'm doing. This offer is not going to help me get to where I want to be in four, five, six, eight years. So I'm going to say no, I'm going to gash myself. I'm going to be comfortable in a space of not knowing what's going to happen. And just trust the fact that my mind is going to bring me things that are much higher value than that job would have done.
Starting point is 00:45:00 And it's happening. But you have to create that space first. You can't hedge and try and plan everything before you create that space. because your mind will bring you a success. Yeah, I definitely think you're right about that, Nathan. And I think that I wouldn't call it a mistake because that sounds so judgmental. But what a lot of people are doing is that they're giving away their best hours to someone else. Because when is it then their most protective?
Starting point is 00:45:23 Well, it might be in the morning or it might be after lunch. It's definitely not 7 p.m. whenever they're exhausted coming back from work. So that's another reason why they don't start off and making this venture that you're talking about. Nathan, like the drain for energy. You need to have that energy in your control before you can start creating your own business. Yes. And here's a good. Let me give you a great example because this has happened with several folks that I, you know,
Starting point is 00:45:49 I don't do consulting or coaching because I don't want the money and I don't want that responsibility on my mind. But sometimes if I really like somebody, I do it, there was someone who was working a corporate job. And I said, listen, like, I understand you have kids. I understand you're married. I understand you have real expenses. you're not using your mind to its full potential,
Starting point is 00:46:07 but you're never going to unless you cut your safety net and burn the boats. So I said, I need you tomorrow morning when you go to the office, sit down with your boss and tell them you have to quit because you know you're capable of so much more and you don't see a path to doing this at this company. You know what happened? You know what they say about dealmaking?
Starting point is 00:46:24 When you walk away, you've got to be able to walk away. And usually what happens, when the person you're negotiating with actually feels like you're going to walk away, they give you a much better deal. You know what as boss said? We'll double the salary. It took one 15-minute conversation, and it was all just his mind being okay with operating in a space where he had no job so that he could really tell his boss, I am quitting, I am leaving, and here's why. I mean, that's what I mean when I say.
Starting point is 00:46:49 It really is a mindset more than anything else. So did he stay? No, he left. He still left. Oh, I love it. Perfect. Yeah, he still left. And now he can tell, like, as he's looking at new things to do, he can say, listen, like, I was making 400 grand.
Starting point is 00:47:03 in salary at this other place. Like I was doing 200. I was going to leave. Now I was making 400. I mean, unbelievable position. That is now leverage for him. Anything he does,
Starting point is 00:47:13 he can say that. And that little piece of leverage gives him so much credibility across anything else he wants to do. It's very powerful. Nathan, I have the next question. And I really want to talk about real estate
Starting point is 00:47:22 because I know that you are starting to invest in real estate. And having your own business, I know you're also into stock investing. And there are so many different asset classes out there. how do you figure out where to put your money? I put my money where somebody I know really well and that I trust and respect tells me to put my money.
Starting point is 00:47:40 And I don't mean a financial planner, by the way. I mean, somebody in that asset class that for whatever reason can't take advantage of a deal that they see and they bring it to me. So realtors, right? Maybe they, for whatever reason, that month, they see a great deal on the MLS and they can't take advantage of it. You want to be the first person on top of their mind
Starting point is 00:47:57 that they're going to bring that deal to, right? Or if someone is, I just started getting into buying raw land, right? And there's all kinds of sites that sell raw land. And so I just did a deal. It's a small deal. But I bought a piece of raw land for $1,600. I just sold it, okay, for $6,500 bucks. But it wasn't cash. What I did was I did it on a note. So that person's going to pay that off by paying me $200 a month for, I forget the term, but a lot of months. And so basically, I put in $1,600. Now I have a little cash flow stream of $200 a month for the next foreseeable amount of future. Now I'm thinking, how can I do more of these deals, larger acreage, more people, who can I connect with that will bring me a deal. So you just have to find people that interest you and then just go hard of those spaces. Yeah. And another thing, Nathan, is that I think we touched on this in the interview too, but here on the podcast, we're really big on reading and we know that you are too. The difference is perhaps the very special reading technique that you have.
Starting point is 00:48:52 Could you tell us about that technique and how the audience can apply the same thing? Sure. Yep. So I found a book, a children's book at the library that I knew I had. no interest in the content. I picked it up and I said, I'm only practicing this to figure out how fast I can read and still retain content. So, I mean, there's some very simple things that I did. By the way, you can't do this on a book you're interested in because then you won't actually practice the habits that you need to read fast because you want to like study everything. So it's very simple. I got this book. I ignore every three words on the left and side of the page, left and right side of the page. I only read the middle and let my peripheral vision just kind of
Starting point is 00:49:24 suck up everything else. I set a little using my finger. I made it move at a constant level on every line. And if my mind said, wait, slow down, I wouldn't let it because I didn't need to slow down because I didn't care about what the children's book actually said. I just needed it to practice, basically, absorbing information subliminally. Now, once I got that down to an art and I was cranking, 600, 700, 700 words per minute. The average human does 300, maybe 247, something like that. What I started doing is people go, Nathan, you read this fast. You don't actually retain information. I say baloney. Not only do I retain it, I put it into practice in my real life. The way that I do that. It's very simple. Anything that I think is a quote that's going to just like really get me
Starting point is 00:50:02 fired up in the morning, I'll just underline it. Any name that's mentioned in the book, I circle. And any piece of literature like other books referenced in the book, I will double underline. And then after I read each book, I'll go back through, right? And I'll look at all those things. And I will list in notes people mentioned in this book, other books to read from this book. And one of the reasons, here's a secret I've never actually shared. One of the reasons I can retain so much information is it's all connected by one string. So if I read a name in this book by Red McCombes that I really liked, I'll go read their bio. And to the thought line in my brain is Red McComb's book.
Starting point is 00:50:43 Oh, Red McComb mentioned the head, you know, the best governor in Texas. Now I read his book. So it's always a chain. And that's what allows me to retain information so fast. Amazing. I don't read books like that. Now, whenever I do read, mostly use audibles, listen to the books, but sometimes whenever I am reading a hard copy, I do something similar where I'm highlighting and taking notes in the book. And then what I do is I tab the pages on the notes so that I will go back and reread the book. If I can reread something in, you know, a half hour to an hour and I can hit all the highlights in the most important sections that I had in the book. But I'm not speed reading it like you are. I don't know if that would work for me or not. But that's a very interesting discussion and really interesting. that you started off with the children's book in order to discover the talent. That's pretty neat.
Starting point is 00:51:28 Yeah. Yeah. And what makes it easier, too, is I know the general buckets of things I'm thinking about. So I mentioned earlier, president, real estate, reits, hedge fund, right? So anytime I'm reading and any one of those buckets are mentioned, I have a little symbol for each of those buckets, which allows me to very quickly, after I read it, go back through and just jot down all of those notes for those buckets, which helps me get closer to those goals. So I got a question that's a little off the cuff here. So you're talking hedge fund versus owning a publicly traded business. So are you studying Dahlio? Because he's probably the best living example of a hedge fund. Why are you going down the hedge fund desire versus just owning a corporation and growing it into a multi-billion dollar enterprise? I'm kind of curious why you
Starting point is 00:52:15 choose that route because a lot of people want to shy away from, or my opinion is I want to shy away from the hedge fund thing because I think you're kind of handicapped by the timing in which people give you capital. So I'm kind of surprised by that. I plan to do both of those things. One of the things that when I say hedge fund is you have to think, okay, like I read King of Capital, right? I'm sure you guys probably read that book. So I study all these hedge fund guys. I love Dalia's All-Weather fund. I love unconventional success, which is how Yale's Dave Swenson, how he manages Yale's endowment and the asset class portfolios that he goes after. So that's how I do my asset class of just my cash and where it's going in terms of the stock market.
Starting point is 00:52:53 The reason I bring all that up is because you have to then say, okay, you want to have the world's largest hedge fund. How do you start? How do you get your foot into that space to create momentum? And it's actually very, very simple. It's this, a lot of companies that are smaller, where the CEO has a very large ego and really just wants to take a company public so he or she can say I took a company public,
Starting point is 00:53:15 you can go search and look for companies that have market caps at say less than $10 million. In those businesses that are that small, the simple expenses you incur annually for the reporting to be public are through the roof. If you simply buy that company, take it private, and eliminate all the overhead for the reporting,
Starting point is 00:53:37 it's cash flow positive. So I can basically start acquiring publicly traded companies, lots of them using this model and run it like a private equity firm, basically, but I'm not killing jobs. I'm just killing the CFO or the, the person doing all the public trade of reporting. That's really interesting.
Starting point is 00:53:53 Are you saying that because they have to go public, they're having to report things that really aren't necessarily something you'd have to report at a private level. And that's why it looks like it's not really making that much money. Is that the essence of it? Exactly. The administrative costs of being public range, I would say it depends anywhere between $750 and $1.3 million per year,
Starting point is 00:54:14 just in reporting fees and fees to the stock exchanges, I mean, all that stuff. So you can literally suck out almost on a good deal, $1.3 million in annual cash flow from these businesses that look like they're not doing anything publicly. But you can suck that cash flow out of them by just taking them private. And that's your 10% right there on the bottom line. That's really interesting. Okay. Can I ask you, Nathan, so when you are acquiring, because you know there are all these regulations in terms of how much you own and then you have to make a tender off and all that,
Starting point is 00:54:42 how do it process whenever you want to acquire, say, as such a small company, also to make sure, because I guess it's a very liquid too. So how do we make sure that you will get the company at the whatever current market price? How to ensure that the price doesn't spike? I don't even know that I had to think about this. This is the value of having such confidence telling people that you're going to do something because then they ask you great questions like Stig did and you know exactly what to research to make sure you can do it right. That's the value of just going and shouting your goals, your big goals to the world all the time.
Starting point is 00:55:12 Stig, I have no idea what you just said, but it's recorded. And now I'm going to go ask somebody really smart how to do that. and I'm going to figure out a way to do it. I love you said that, because before the interview, Preston said to me, you know, we need to speak to him that Nathan guy about Facebook because we have a Facebook and we have no clue how to use it. I was like, yeah, exactly. We are just on Facebook because we think we have to be on Facebook.
Starting point is 00:55:32 We have no clue how to use it. I can tell you something about tender offers. Who knows? That's the point, though, is he tell the world and the world will help you get that goal. We'll be more than happy to help you on that one there, Nathan. So, hey, maybe we will record it. Maybe we will record it in an episode. The first deal I do, maybe that's what we'll do. We'll do it. It'll be very cool.
Starting point is 00:55:50 Absolutely. We're always game. The last question we got, wrapping it back around to retained earnings, and you've made enough money that you're going to invest it now. We're real curious because we know you read a lot of books. Warren Buffett, I think I heard that you had read all of Warren Buffett's shareholders' letters, which Stig and I absolutely love and recommend for everybody out there. But which book, and we'll even give you two, have really kind of impact your investing approach and your investing philosophy or maybe was something that you said, wow, I haven't done any of this stuff and it's really kind of warped my way of thinking that have really had a profound impact on you. Yeah. It's kind of like the personality test. I don't take them. I don't commit myself to one or two books because then you
Starting point is 00:56:31 self-align. Your personality and your ego becomes attached to those books. I'm going to tell you two books and then I'm egotistically attracted to those things, which means I might miss opportunities. You know what I mean? So, I mean, what I'll tell you is one of the first books ever I read on this was rich dad, poor dad, right? Which many people probably have heard of. Thinking go rich is important. You know, what I'd rather do actually is tell people the pattern of how I'm reading. And they can fill that pattern with whatever interests them. Here's what I like about this. And this is my takeaway from what you just said. The thing that Stig and I are really trying to push on our audience and let them know the importance
Starting point is 00:57:05 is just reading in general. And we're talking about like these people, that have accomplished at ridiculous levels. The common threat amongst all of them is they're just total learning machines and they read like a fiend. And so Stig and I, we do about a book every two weeks. That's about our bandwidth as far as reading. You're doing two books a week. And so you're reading at a pace that's double the speed that Stig and I are doing or even
Starting point is 00:57:30 more than that. And that's the key takeaway that I really think comes out of this question for our audiences or listening to you is this guy is a reading fiend. And if you think that he's just sitting around making these deals and he has the magic touch, you're kidding. I mean, he does have a magic touch. I will say that. But he is reading like a fiend and just he's just absorbing so much knowledge from doing that. And I think that that's really the key takeaway here for a lot of people is you've got to come up with something that you're just continuing to grow and to continue to educate yourself.
Starting point is 00:58:05 And you've got to start with people that are at the top of their game for whatever it is, you're looking to research or study or become great at. So Nathan, what an interview. I love this. This was so much fun. And I really want to give you the opportunity to give people a handoff to some of the places where they can learn more about you, your podcast, whatnot. So please take this opportunity to tell people in our audience where they can learn more about
Starting point is 00:58:27 you. Yeah, well, guys, I'd love to connect with any of you guys, especially if you have questions like Stig did about taking these small market companies private. And maybe people that do this, I'll actually show them the financials and the interweiseries. working is in a very private way. But I'd love, you know, guys connect with me. The quickest way to do that is if you just text Nathan, my name to the number 33444, that'll give me your email. What I'll do is anyone who does that, I will actually send them the deal documents on the first ever asset purchase I did when I was 22. And that way they can see the first deal. They'll see the email chains of how I
Starting point is 00:59:02 negotiated it. And I think that would be valuable. So again, that's just text the word Nathan, N-A-T-H-A-N to 33-44-4. And guys, do that now. If you're jogging right now, you're probably working up a sweat and you're going, I'm going to do this after I shower when I get home. Just go on the side of the trail right now. Do it. If you're driving, just pull over and do that now.
Starting point is 00:59:19 Otherwise, you're going to forget Nathan to 33-44-4-4. So, Nathan, I've got a quick question to ask you. Have you ever gone out to the Berkshire shareholders meeting? I haven't, but I think I need to. So we are taking our community, the investors' podcast, to the Berkshire meeting this year. It's at the end of April, the start of May. I know you've got a very busy schedule and it's crazy.
Starting point is 00:59:42 I'm in. You're in? I love it. I love it. So Nathan is going to come to the Berkshire meeting with us. We'll get your credentials to get into the meeting. You don't have to worry about that. Stig and I will work that piece of it.
Starting point is 00:59:54 But we have over 200 people signed up from our community flying out to Omaha, going to the meeting this year. And it's just going to be a blast. It's the whole weekend. We're just going to have a great time. We're actually doing a pub crawl on Saturday night out in Omaha in the market district there that they have. We're going to be going to hit, I don't know, five to seven different bars and just really have a great time with our community. So if people want to still sign up, there's a link on our website to sign up.
Starting point is 01:00:22 I don't know if you want to start bringing some of your community into it, but we'll give you all the information after we're done recording, Nathan. And I know there's going to be lots of people in our community that they're going to want to talk to you when we're out there. So this is going to be just a blast. I don't know what's even on my calendar then, but I will move it all. I will be there. When you sense great opportunities with good people, you just have to jump. So I'm in. Perfect.
Starting point is 01:00:44 I love it. All right. So that's all we have for you guys this week. What an episode. This was really fun. Nathan Laca, thank you so much for coming on our show. You guys, we put out a lot of information. If you go to our show notes, you can see all the links for all the stuff we talked about.
Starting point is 01:01:00 We talked about a couple different books and stuff like that. If you want to go and sign up on our email list, we send out free executive summaries for every single book that we read. So if you sign up on our email link there, we don't send out any advertisements or spam. So just sign up on that and we'll send you guys our free executive summaries for all the books that we read. So that's all we have for you guys this week. And we will see you guys next week.
Starting point is 01:01:22 Thanks for listening to The Investors Podcast. To listen to more shows or access to the tools discussed on the show, be sure to visit www.theinvestorspodcast.com. Submit your questions or request a guest appearance to the investors podcast by going to www.w.com. If your question is answered during the show, you will receive a free autographed copy of the Warren Buffett Accounting Book. This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. This material is copyrighted by the TIP Network and must have written approval before a commercial application.

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