Real estate investors Dean Rogers and Stratton Brown share how they've built businesses that generate significant revenue while maintaining freedom. Dean explains how he earned nearly $500,000 during a 32-day vacation in Hawaii by systematizing his wholesale business, while Stratton discusses pivoting from a struggling virtual assistant company to focus on AI implementation and streamlined operations.
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1:55:06Josh Stech, founder of LendingHome and Sundae, shares how he built a billion-dollar real estate lending company in just five years, scaling to 14% market share. He discusses the venture capital playbook, hiring at scale, maintaining culture with 500+ employees, and his transition to solving the property sourcing problem for investors through Sundae's marketplace model.
1:47:49Tommy Mello, founder of A1 Garage Door Service, shares his journey from massive debt to building a billion-dollar company. He discusses critical business lessons including the importance of systems, hiring for attitude over experience, and how he scaled from a local garage door business to a nationwide operation that sold for $570 million.
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”“Your business doesn't need to look like someone else's business. It needs to serve you and whatever you wanna accomplish.”
”“If you are not implementing AI into your business, you're gonna be homeless in the next six years. Like, it's just kinda the way it is.”
”“I was one text message away from saving myself hundreds of thousands of dollars and years wasted.”
”“In all reality, I could have hired on an assistant instead of giving up 50% equity.”
20778 words
Stratton Brown: So now I'm out a bunch of money. I gotta really look at this P and L. Because, like, this this isn't adding up. I didn't check it enough because they created fake PayPal accounts to send themselves money. Lots of bonus payroll.
Well, I had to write a check into this company a couple times. The time came, I was like, hey, so and so, mister partner, like, I'm writing in checks. Are you gonna write in checks? I was like, no. I'm not doing that.
I was like, bro, these people need to, like, actually eat. Like, I'm not gonna miss payroll. And then he didn't wanna do it. I was like, hey, I need someone who's, quote, unquote, an integrator. In all reality, I could have hired on an assistant instead of giving up 50% equity.
Dean Rogers: I talk about this all the time. Lost a 187,000. Got into another deal in San Diego, and it was a a guy running a Ponzi scheme. And he he caught me just wanting to do that next deal, didn't do any due diligence on it. All the money I had made, I I now basically lost.
I just still was holding on to that NFL player ego of, like, I made it already. So for me to ask for help looked weak. I was supposed to have already made it and been rich and wealthy, and it was I made it harder on myself by not asking for help.
Steve Trang: Welcome, and thank you for joining us for today's episode of disruptors where millionaires are made. Today, we've got Stratton Brown and Dean Rogers, and they flew in from California. Dean's gonna be talking about how he made nearly half 1,000,000 while on vacation, which is pretty remarkable. And Stratos will be talking about how he's gone all in the AI so he'll never have to hire another human again. Now, guys, I am on a mission to create a 100 millionaires.
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Stratton: You gotta put on the hoodie. It has the objection proof AI instead of disruptive.
Steve: There's no way I'm wearing a hoodie. Right now It's
Stratton: cold in here.
Steve: I will be sweating like crazy. So Strand's already introduced himself. Alright. So it's been a couple of years since, you guys were here. You came on December 22.
We were talking about at that point, you had started, working with some students, do some joint venture deals, and you're on not that much later talking about Call Magicians. Been a couple years, though. So let's talk about, like, what's changed because the real estate environment has changed. A lot has changed in nearly three years. So what changed in the last, few years for you guys?
Stratton: Oh, man. A lot has changed. We ended up winding down Call Magicians because I think AI is gonna 100% decimate that industry.
Steve: Yeah. Well, but that was I mean, not to get too personal here, but, like, that's not the reason why we wanted Call Magicians. We're gonna talk about, like, what's wrong with Call Magicians if it was still up and running. It was
Stratton: still, like, a thing. Right? Because, like, I'd say having a good partnership is key in business. Steve, you've been through it. Dean has a great partner.
I think my partnership with Dean is great. That partnership was really tough. And then let's say, I was willing to make some sacrifices that the other partner wasn't. Mhmm. And then that was a serious point of contention.
Yeah. And then the writing was on the wall. Like, okay. Do we wanna keep going? We had a operator still 6 figures from us.
That sucked. And so it all kinda, like, came to a head. I was like, do I really want to step back into this company? Mhmm. Because it was pretty big.
Like, I didn't have to do anything in the day to day anymore. Yeah. Do I want to step back in and grow it again and, like, get all these people in place? Because that operator took a lot off my plate, then I'd have to step in and do that. Like, do I wanna do that?
No. Not really.
Steve: So let's unpack that a bit. So, because you came on because we had launched disruptive certified cold callers. Right? I mean, this is back when we had Ian was training the VAs. Oh, yeah.
He was, like, he was doing, groups of 10 or 20 or whatever. He was training them. He was certifying them. Right? So he's he'd coach them and then make sure they were actually good and absorbing.
So you guys are sourcing the talent. He was coaching them up.
Stratton: Then we'd push them out.
Steve: Certify them.
Stratton: Still train them twice a week. Well, we train them twice a day, then we'd still have Ian train them once a week.
Steve: Right. So and I think we were charging basically a dollar, a dollar 25 more for, like, Call Magicians VA versus Disruptor certified. Call Magicians VA or something along those lines. Right?
Stratton: It was, like, two. Two. Two to it had to be 2 to three because I think we were, like, 10 an hour to 12 an hour. If I could go back, I'd never talk about per hour. I just price it out.
Steve: Yeah.
Stratton: Because you don't want someone to grind you out on an hourly cost. I just want someone to grind me out on results.
Steve: Right.
Stratton: Right? So That's another thing we could've done.
Steve: So you had that. And then not much later, things kinda started, falling off. So there was, you had there's a partnership, sound like theft.
Stratton: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Steve: And then but there's also, like, a shifting market as well.
Stratton: And a shifting market.
Steve: Yeah. So which do you which of those three you wanna unpack first?
Stratton: Oh, man. There's so many great lessons in this. Alright. So, like, in a shifting market, we had customers that we had on receivables, and we gave them a lot of leeway. Yeah.
And then I had tens of thousands, 50,000 plus go into receivables. My payroll alone was $80,000 a month.
Steve: So payroll, that is all the VAs that's
Stratton: In that company, like, alone. Like, this is just That's a lot. That's a lot. Like, that's just staff cost was $80,000 a month. Yeah.
And we let a bunch of money go into receivables, and we weren't on we didn't have insane margins because, right, I'd need to pay Steve. I'd need to pay our team. And because we were at scale. Like, it was a bigger organization. How
Steve: many VAs did you have?
Stratton: 130 was our max.
Steve: 130. Yeah. 130
Stratton: was our max. So it wasn't, like, huge, but it was a big organization.
Dean: Lot of people to manage.
Steve: Yeah. So so you had a 130 costing 80 k a month between everything as far as the payroll.
Stratton: Yeah. It got higher than that. 80 k was like the
Steve: And then you were granting, like, hey, Dean. You're having a slow month. Alright. Like, we'll give you two weeks.
Stratton: Yeah. Like, hey. They're like, hey. I don't have the money. I was like, okay.
Like, whatever. Like, we got you, bro. Like, don't worry. And then because we'd have a customer success manager having a relationship with them. Like, no.
We really one of our core values is Care three sixty. We care about our clients. Mhmm. But then people just fucking disappeared.
Steve: Mhmm.
Stratton: And it happened a lot because that as the market shifted, it shifted fast for some people. Mhmm. So we had a bunch more going to receivables.
Steve: And then But more people going to receivables.
Stratton: More people going to receivables. And then I'm like, okay. Well, I gotta really look at this p and l. Because, like, this this isn't adding up. And then I really dive into our P and L and our operator
Steve: Okay. So finances aren't good. Yeah.
Stratton: So I'm like So
Steve: now we have to inspect.
Stratton: So now I have to inspect. So I'm like, okay. What's going on here? And I start diving. And I'd really I'd monitored payroll, but then what I hadn't known, our operator, two years before that, had convinced
Steve: us
Stratton: to hire this person to run, like, the QuickBooks side of things. So, yeah, he's really good because, like, we had between managing time sheets and everything else, like, he was our Excel guy. And then we'd have him run our payroll, and I would check it monthly by, okay. Does everything add up? I didn't check it enough because they created fake PayPal accounts to send themselves money.
Got it. And so that's how they started stealing money from payroll again, bonus payroll? Lots of bonus payroll.
Dean: Got
Stratton: it. Right? And so that went into that and was like, oh, shit. Okay. So now I'm out a bunch of money.
We as I essentially she was really good at her job when Afforded. I found out she was stealing from me. K. Where was she at? The Philippines.
Like, we poached her off. She was managing, like, 3,000 people at Alorica. And we started it during COVID, and Alorica let go of a bunch of people during COVID. So we got really, really good talent at that point in time, and then we got some really, really good jewelry salesman, from cruise ships who are are, like, in house trainers too. So, like, they were really used to selling high ticket.
So that's what allowed us to actually scale is because we had quality talent Right. On top of the marketing because we'd actually be able to retain the people. Where was I going with this?
Steve: Billing. Bonus payroll.
Stratton: The bonus payroll and everything else. So then Glenn is gone. I was like, okay. Well, I had to write a check into this company a couple times because the payroll is so high, stuff didn't add up, and we didn't prepare for the receivables, stupid Stratton. And then the time came.
I was like, hey. So and so, mister partner, like, I'm writing in checks. Are you gonna write in checks? Like, no. I'm not doing that.
I was like, well, bro, these people need to, like, actually eat. Like, I'm not gonna miss payroll. And then he didn't wanna do it.
Steve: Oh, moment. Of Character revealing moment.
Stratton: It's a character revealing moment. And for a situation like that, that showed me a lot about partnerships and dynamics because if you're like I've been doing business with Dean since 2020, and we really didn't have, like, a formal partnership. We'd just been essentially dating for five years. With that partner, I was like, hey. I need someone who's, quote, unquote, an integrator.
In all reality, I could have hired on an assistant to put that person in place instead of giving up 50% equity. All of them, like because your company's culture is so important. If that person isn't aligned with you 100%, it's gonna go all bad. Right? So I know with Dean and Louis, like, they're one on one on culture.
They're 100% together. They hold the same standard. If you have a partner who's showing up to a meeting five minutes late, you're fucked. Like, you cannot hold any type of standard. And so, like, that already been happening earlier.
And so, like, okay. Yeah. Blah blah blah. But that was the big character revealing moment. But then at that time, when I as that was happening, we had another company who was starting to do really well for us with the ERC company.
Yeah. And I was telling you about that.
Steve: So you're looking at this moment situation here. So revenue is down. You're losing money. Yeah. And then you find out someone's stealing.
Yeah. And then you still gotta pay people. And now you've got you kinda like at a crossroads. But I want to, a, really step back in operations.
Stratton: I really step back. And another thing was, alright, I want this company to be at least a $20,000,000 a year company. Like, that that's where I was at. And I did the math, and the number of employees that I would have to deal with if that company was a $20,000,000 company made absolutely no sense to me. That it was just no good.
Why does it? If I'm gonna have a thousand plus employees, I better be a fucking Fortune 500 company, bro. Yeah. Like that, it was it would just be so many people Mhmm. In order to it'd be 2,000 to 3,000 employees with everything.
So okay. And, like, that was, like, my overarching goal. Alright. I wanna get to at least 20,000,000. I wanna get to at least 20,000,000.
And I look at it. I'm like, I know what that looks like. I know the amount of work that's gonna go into that. And I really was like, I know the HR problems. I just had people stealing from me.
Right? And I just had all that going. I was like, that doesn't sound fun to me. And then I was like, AI is at that point, AI is kinda coming. I see that writing on the wall a little bit.
It started to, like, bubble up. I was like, okay. I'm tired of running I'm tired of, like, losing money on it. I don't wanna handle that anymore. We've already made sure everybody's whole.
We got everybody jobs, and we just ended up slowly winding it down. You had everyone placed?
Steve: Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. So then I know you wanna talk about ERC, but, like, for you, like, this whole time, like, you're just seeing Stratton separate, but, like, they smooth sailing for you? More or less.
Pretty easy?
Dean: I used to think you're on an upward trajectory.
Steve: Yeah. So, I mean, for you, like, I know, you're already doing pretty you're you're kicking off. You had, students sending deals. You're doing deals. Again, shifting market, you guys are in California.
Right? So, like, I know for us, June '22 will always be forever etched in my mind. Because that terrible. That was, like, when things got, like, they changed people
Dean: really fast. Got hot with their pants down.
Steve: Yeah. So, like, for Phoenix, it was brutal. California, imagine it was just as brutal. Because I know San Diego was brutal. Was that same for you?
Because you were doing deals in Fresno.
Dean: Central California. Yeah.
Steve: Central California. Yeah. San Diego. Yeah. So, like, how was your business like?
Dean: So we so to kinda bring you up to speed up until that point. So in 2019, we pivoted our business to focus on wholesaling. Up until that point, we were pretty much only flipping houses. And so 2019 pivoted to wholesaling first, only flip the deals that made sense, and then start buying rentals. So from from 2019 is when we started building an actual, like, rental portfolio, building wealth, started being a lot more intentional about the deals we were doing.
And so and at that time was when I finally started to, like, do business the right way. Not that I wasn't before, but I just had done a couple deals that really knocked me backwards. Right? And I talk about this all the time and open about it, and I think it's helpful for for people to hear it and know that that can be a reality. You know, beginning of my second year in the business, I rushed into flips in Phoenix, Arizona.
Mhmm. And all I did all the rookie mistakes, wrong contractor, wrong comps on the wrong side of the street, bought it at the wrong price, held it way too long, everything, and, you know, lost over a $100,000. And then, once I got out of that hole, got into another deal in San Diego, and it was a a guy running a Ponzi scheme. And he he caught me just wanting to do that next deal, didn't do any due diligence on it, lost 187,000. So all the money I'd made up and been living off of essentially, you know, been making money through that first four and a half years, almost five years, all the money I had made, I now basically lost.
Right? I, you know, had little money, made some, lost it all plus some, and then started get got myself out of that hole, made money, lost all of that. So I'm pretty much as, you know, ground zero, in my four and a half, almost five years into the business. And so started pivoted to wholesaling, careful about the flips, and then I started getting coaching. Because up until that point, like, I didn't wanna raise my hand and ask for help.
Right? I just still was holding on to that NFL player ego of, like, I made it already. So for me to ask for help looked weak. I was supposed to have already made it and been rich and wealthy, but the reality was I walked away from all the money. So now I'm starting from scratch, And it was hard.
And it was I made it harder on myself by not asking for help. Right? We're in circles with people that have done it, do it really well, and we only get better because we're around those people.
Steve: Right. Right? So let's talk about what you did to get yourself out of the mindset of, you know, I don't need help. Because, I mean, I know I definitely struggle with that. Right?
Yeah. We all do. I remember what like, when I first worked at Intel, they had instructors that come and there's this program. Right? Some were like, hey.
We're doing this little workshop. It's the seven habits of highly effective people. You should come check it out. Right? I'm like, I already made it.
I already I have a good paying job. I'm doing well here. Like, maybe maybe the other engineers need it. I don't need it. Right?
Like, I was definitely not
Stratton: I could yeah.
Steve: Coachable at that moment. And also, but I had that I had that idea. Like, I just graduated. Like, I already paid my I already did my education. I am I don't need education ever again.
I'm good. So took a lot of humility, a lot of crushing lessons for me to get out of that. What what changed for you to
Dean: For for me, it was coming to the realization. It's almost embarrassing it took me this long to figure it out being a sports guy. Right? Everyone at this table is a is a sports guy.
Stratton: Professional athlete. Wait. Professional athlete.
Steve: Professional athlete, basically.
Stratton: Professional athlete. Here is a professional athlete.
Steve: Yes. Yes.
Dean: Just to be clear. So we've been around coaches our entire life. Yeah. Right? We've been coached by people.
We know what a good coach looks like, what a bad coach looks like, and we know that we always got better when we were around a good coach and somebody that knew how to coach the right way. And so for some reason, it wasn't obvious to me. And then the other part was just having to humble myself again. Right? I'd just been eating humble pie for a couple years, and it was like, alright.
I've I've had coaches. It seems so obvious, but I'm at I'm at a point where I just know I don't wanna be here anymore. I've gotta get to that next level. I know I'm capable of it. I believe in myself.
I just haven't got there. I'm like, I'm doing the right things, but I've done just a couple things that have held me back. I wanna just do it right going forward. So, started going, you know, hiring mentors, going to coaching, training sessions or boot camps and all these different things one after another and continue to do it as much as I can now. And, so But
Steve: if you didn't have those lessons?
Dean: If I didn't have those lessons, it probably wouldn't have made me as resourceful or as gritty. But at the same token, I say that because most people that you have sitting at this table have gone through trials and tribulations and had to overcome failures and all those kind of things. But you can still learn from other people's failures and still have your own struggles and challenges, but learn from other people's failures so you can get to where you wanna go faster.
Stratton: Yeah.
Dean: Right? I'm I'm convinced that if I did not take the four and a half, almost five years of making my own mistakes on my own and it hired a coach and mentor from the beginning because I know exactly who I would have hired, and I remember having the opportunity to invest in myself because I didn't. I I wasted the time trying to figure it out on my own. I know that I could have condensed that time Oh, definitely. A lot faster.
I would have been more focused. I would have been able to help navigate those challenges. Right? I tell when I tell a story, I tell people I was one text message away from, what do you think about this deal? Well, did you ask this?
Did you ask this? That those numbers don't look right? That's all I was I was just missing that one text message from saving myself hundreds of thousands of dollars and years wasted.
Steve: There's, there's a Keyon. I don't know if you guys know him. He's he's been a family mastermind, and I'm in a different mastermind with him, different marketing mastermind. There's this kid. We're in a Discord.
Right? And this is where I got, like, one one of my favorite phrases. He's, like, 18 years old, and he's like, I need to figure it out right now. I was like, you don't need. It.
Like, you got time. Like, go make a mess. Go figure the like, you'll go go screw up. You'll you'll figure it out. His answer is like, I don't have time.
Right? And I was like, I tried to help him. I get this DM from Kean. I was like, the hammer of humility is coming for this kid. One of my favorite phrases.
Hammer of humility.
Stratton: I would say you don't have time, though, and I tweeted about this. I talked about you don't have time, and if you take as much time. If you just go and you start listening and you go to another podcast and you go for more coaching and you don't take more action, the person who takes more action will outpace you all day every day. Yeah. And then you will learn more from those mistakes and reiterating on those mistakes.
So it's a
Steve: very, very Gotta do both. You gotta do both. Yeah. I think, I don't know if this is valid, but, like, I'm alright. One guy I mentor, he's like, what's the what's the balance like?
One hour. You're not allowed to do more than one hour a day. Right? The rest of the day, you gotta be doing
Stratton: something. So
Dean: Yeah. Gonna be taking action. Got it. So But to answer your question, so that that's kinda what led up to when we last met. Mhmm.
Right? And I was probably a couple years, maybe one and a half, two years deep of actually doing personal development, getting the right coaching and training, and business going on upward trajectory. And it was coming out of a season of you know, I started my first meetup in February 2020.
Stratton: Mhmm.
Dean: And that was with the intent of wanting to creating environment of collaboration and meeting new people. Right? That that first leading up to starting my first meetup, I was like the wizard of Oz. I was just doing deals from San Diego in Central California where I grew up and didn't meet anybody, just new people by the sound of their voice. Right?
And so that first meetup was great. And when the whole world shut down in 2020, I got to social media. California. Got to social media, and I started connecting with people and finding ways to help people with their deals. So you just talked about the JV deals.
Right? We talked about that on the last episode. You know, we did 7 figures in twelve months just from this JV program, and it was it was on fire. And it was it really helped us through that time when the market kinda slowed down and people were uncertain what was going on. It poured rocket fuel on our business, and then there was just enough people that were that I was doing deals with and helping do their first deal, their tenth deal.
Strat and I made a bunch of money together, and enough people just started saying, hey. Can you mentor me? Can you coach me? That was never part of the plan. I just would say, no.
Just bring a deal, and I'll work with you on the deal. More and more people ask, and I said, right. What's the worst gonna happen? Now Strat was a big influencer during this time. Him and I would chat on the phone all the time.
Or, again, we were kinda, like, loosely business partners doing a lot of deals together. And he's like, dude, you're all you've already proven it. You've already helped a lot of people do their first deal or second deal, whatever number of deals, and you're you're good at it. So you should do it. You should mentor other people.
So I started coaching in 2022. And over the past couple years, been doing that
Stratton: Mhmm.
Dean: And have done it all just from, like, word-of-mouth, very organic, no paid marketing. And the community has grown and grown and grown. And then myself, Stratton, Jason Pritchard, we all realized we had meetups that we were doing, that we all were passionate about community and and building that in Central California very much like a lot of the the the pioneers in Phoenix, Arizona had did. And so we got together. We started doing meetups together.
And, you know, not only has our business grown on the real estate investing side, we were in the in the same time building community and, you know, helping a lot of people get started and grow their businesses.
Steve: When did the Yo Chance podcast launch?
Dean: It started in 2023.
Steve: '23.
Stratton: So after. Like, 2022, I remember I was snowboarding in Salt Lake, and we had this meeting. Dean's like, hey, bro. We gotta we all gotta do this together. Let's hop on a Zoom call.
Because, like, I had a meet up, Jason had a meet up, and Dean had a meet up. And me and Jason at that point, we flew out Pacer and Jamil to come do it when they were doing, like, Pacer and Jamil do America. That was, like, our first big combined meet up. Yeah.
Steve: That's a big one. It's, like, 600 people.
Stratton: That one was, like, four hundred four hundred. Not quite so.
Dean: The the next one we did with him, when I got involved with him, we did six.
Steve: Got it. That's the one I remember.
Stratton: And that one was really big. And then, like, I mean, because Central California isn't huge, bro. And so we we would just cannibalize each other. If you threw the same one in the same month, we're not in LA where there's millions of people. There's a million people in Fresno County.
I don't know how many, like, Tulare and Kings and Kern. And so it was Dean's idea, like, hey. Let's all just do this together. We can just set it up to where we have a different type of meetup every day every month. It'll all be easier on us.
We'll all be able to collaborate. And that's how it kinda got started. And then we I don't even know why we decided to do a podcast, honestly.
Dean: Everybody was doing podcast.
Steve: Good reason. Everybody's doing it.
Dean: Doing a podcast. Like, Steve's doing crushing it.
Stratton: Steve's doing a podcast, bro. We can do a podcast.
Dean: We could do a podcast.
Steve: If Steve should do
Stratton: it, we
Dean: could definitely do a podcast.
Steve: Sure. So then, because going back to you, I know, like, while you're doing the competition thing, you're also doing the ERC thing.
Stratton: Yeah. We still had two other companies. Three.
Steve: We still other companies at that time. We
Stratton: still had our own education company. We still had our ERC company, and we still had our wholesale company. And then we still have a word buying storage.
Steve: Right. Yeah. Because we're talking about storage. You're trying to buy a town, if I remember correctly, last time.
Stratton: Yeah. I didn't feel comfortable buying the town because he mailed me his ledgers. I was like, I can't trust this, bro. Like, it was it was paper ledgers. It was just pay and he mailed it to me, and I remember sitting upstairs at my desk and looking at it and saying, we're not doing this.
We're not doing and I didn't wanna have to drive out to the middle of Nevada. I'd have to live in that small town, and then I have to get contractors out in that small town to rehab what I need.
Steve: You call it like Strattonville or something.
Dean: Got Daddy Town.
Stratton: Stratton Town. Daddy Town.
Dean: Daddy Town.
Steve: I mean, I think that'd be pretty cool. So Okay. Anyway, the
Dean: Mark Cuban just bought a town. One of his buddies from his basketball connection
Steve: Probably nicer Town. Was trying to was looking at.
Dean: Paid $1,900,000 for this town in Texas.
Steve: Yeah. So then you did it so you were doing the ERC thing. So where did that go?
Stratton: We got that. We just essentially I took all the skills that I'd learned through Call Magicians, and I'm just like, okay. Sweet. I can just bankroll this, and I'll point it to that. And we raised some money for that.
And we got that 1 to 7 figures in, like, eight or nine months. That one did really well for us. And then the income has just been slowly coming in because they decided to shut down the payments. It is what it is. Yeah.
The government ran out of money. Everybody knows it.
Dean: The government, here's your free money. Oh, wait a second. Wait. Wait.
Stratton: Wait. Wait. Wait.
Dean: We're gonna we're gonna give it to you slowly.
Steve: Well, they paid out all the people that did it earlier.
Stratton: Yeah. Yeah.
Steve: So then, I guess, where I'm trying to go with this is, like, there were a lot of challenges that you experienced. Oh, yeah. What are the other challenges after Call Magicians?
Stratton: Them I'd say it came to a point to where that was another company. Like, okay. Well, we still wanna bankroll this. We wanna throw money at it. But when they shut it down initially, I remember it was, like, in October.
And I got I knew all the biggest people who are doing this. You had Josh on. Mhmm. And, we were, like, talking to each other, and they're, like, oh, it's only gonna be a couple months. And then, like, March came.
I was like, bro, we've been doing this, and I've been, like, throwing money at this. I don't think these fuckers are fucking turning this thing back on for a minute. I'm gonna shut this off. My friend's like, bro, you better shut this off. Because he was doing it with me.
Steve: Mhmm.
Stratton: And so we shut that off. And then we just kept wholesaling. I mean, but it was like, okay. The I was talking to Dean about this the other day. Because I in my twenties, I started 11 different companies.
And we were talking about, like, going through the identity crisis.
Steve: More than one a year.
Dean: Oh, yeah.
Stratton: Getting after it. Getting after
Steve: it is one way to look at it. After it.
Dean: So much revenue right there.
Steve: You make me look focused.
Stratton: I know. I know. I've gotten a lot more focused. Thank god. But it was just the biggest thing with all of them was, like, an identity problem of, like, shutting one down to our analysis.
Like, bro, if it's not making money and it's not aligned with the goal, just shut it down and take it out back. Shoot it. Move on. And then we can go find something that is going to actually align with what you wanna accomplish in life. It's a business that serves you, and it, like, matches your overall financial goals.
Because one thing, especially for the younger people I I just turned 30. But in my twenties Okay. I'm I'm getting old as shit. I'm getting old. What
Steve: a jerk.
Dean: Yes, ma'am. I Alex looks older than us now too.
Steve: He does look older.
Dean: Yeah.
Stratton: Anyway I'm losing my edges, though. You too. In in my twenties, I would chase an opportunity that I thought would be slightly greater or the same. Instead of go balls to the wall on something. Like, the Call Magicians thing overall is, like, to make $20,000,000.
Okay. I can be okay with that. But you don't wanna chase something that's gonna be gonna make you the same amount of money. Right. Because I'm not Elon Musk.
I'm not. Like, I don't have the bandwidth, and I don't have the bankroll to get a c suite in place to run that company to where it makes enough money to where I'm happy with it. Yeah. And it's not gonna take up my mind space.
Steve: It is nice to be able to just hire someone the way he hires. It's like, oh, you're the best.
Stratton: You're the best in the world? Awesome.
Dean: I paid a lot of money. Come over here.
Stratton: Like, let's go do this to where
Steve: Alright.
Stratton: I mean and I named
Steve: all those We gotta go to, like, Facebook and, like, take a PI test. Yeah. Alright. Tell me about your track record. His is already proven.
Stratton: Right. His is already proven. Yeah. So now it's like, okay. Just focus.
We have our Deal Champs community. We wholesale. We still have our storage stuff. Mhmm. But those are the main things that are just focused.
And then the community stuff, it's not I wouldn't say it's as big of a distraction. Because when you look at Call Magicians versus Wholesaling, yeah, it's semi the same. But, like, I was running, like, an organization on that side. Wholesaling is not quite the same as that.
Steve: So let's just real quick for fun, let's go through all the kinda like, they got back.
Stratton: We still do storage. We took Call Magicians out back. I had a social media company.
Steve: You had a social media?
Dean: Yeah. I was a customer.
Stratton: I had a deal with a customer. Okay. We we got that one to, like, $10,000 a month, and then I took it out back and shot it. Yeah. We had a mastermind company.
We had another education company. What else? I had a home inspection business. Yeah. That I had a home inspection business when I first got started.
What's another one? I've taken a lot of them out back. Yeah. We had a staffing company at a point in time. We took that out back and shot it.
Eventually, we just ERC thing we knew was only gonna be a certain amount of time, but we did still have to wind it down. It's like we've had to shoot so many of these.
Steve: Well, I've
Stratton: been asked
Steve: question I have for this is because, like, I know you you've been involved with Mark Evans. Right? And he's, like, he's someone that you, worked with time. Right? And his thing is about going big.
Yeah. Is he the one that got you to stop looking, like, viewing these companies that are similar? Like, it was not gonna go big?
Stratton: He was the one who's like, alright, bro. If we're gonna do this dinky little fucking coal magicians company, let's go to the moon. Mhmm. So I was like, I was going I would say exposed myself in that company because I was hiring for growth. Like, I was like, I don't care.
I can bankroll this and take my and take my profits, and I'll throw it back into this company because I'm going for a land grab is what I wanted. It's what I'm doing. So I was like, yeah. Let's go big for it. And then it regardless, I would not wanna be running that company right now even if it nothing changed.
It just wouldn't want the HR issues of having that many employees is no fun.
Steve: I remember when you were you came on, we're talking about, like, yeah. There's nothing exciting about running a virtual agency. No. You got you gotta manage these people over here. You gotta manage these people over there.
Right? The people that are on your payroll and people that pay you for those people.
Stratton: Yeah. And, I mean, we are hiring in 13 different countries. We're, like, just managing different cultures. Like, we're it was just a lot to where now it's like, okay. We have our real estate stuff that we wanna get really big.
With the storage facilities, if I buy one a year and we already have the systems in place and I buy one a year until I'm 60, we'll do just fine in retirement.
Steve: So you're talking about focus, and we're more focused now. Right? But before the show, you're like, Steve, we need to get a PTD back.
Stratton: Oh, I love PTD. PTD was the highlight of my week. Part of the disruption was, like, the highlight of my week coming up. Why should we bring
Steve: it back? Because people are watching this. Maybe they're, like, they don't see, like, the screwed up version of us. Like, see, like, professional versions of us. Why should they why should we bring PTD back?
Stratton: I thought anybody who's talked to me about, like, hey, bro. I saw you on PTD. That is the type of avatar I would wanna be in front of and who I would want to care about my opinions. Got it. To where, like, Tim Ferris, if you think about him as an influencer Mhmm.
Steve: Is like,
Stratton: bro, I want the people who listen to the All In podcast and the people listen to Ted to care about my opinions because they have more power, more influence, and everything else. Yeah. With p with PTD, bro, I had legit operators coming up to me and all sorts of businesses being like, bro, I heard you on PTD. That was hilarious. Okay.
Steve: So you're saying the people that watched it the people that actually watched it.
Stratton: The people that actually watched it and were engaged are people I'd wanna talk to.
Steve: Got it.
Stratton: So it was like a wanna build my
Steve: network with. I like Hormozi changed his, marketing, changed his content.
Stratton: And then changed it back. Oh, did he change it back? We because Hormozi went his first I remember when his content first started coming out. I think he's the Messiah. I'm a big Hormozi fan.
And it came out, and I was like, bro, this is gold. Like, everything he's talking about is gold. And then he talks about he shifted, and all the people who are, let's say, higher level operators stopped listening to him Right. Because there's, like, how to make a million dollars if you're broke. And, like, stuff like that.
And it moved away from the semi exclusive
Dean: audience.
Stratton: Target audience to just the lower audience who wants to start a business.
Steve: Right. Zero one. And so
Stratton: he kinda he runs a venture fund and a PE fund, so he killed off his avatar. His avatar wasn't listening to him anymore. Right. And so the people who listen to me on PTD, they would hear my thoughts, and I go, I like the way that guy thinks. Like, I think I could invest with him.
Or I like the way that guy thinks. Maybe he could do some consulting. Something like that Yeah. To me is what makes sense, and I'd love talking shit with you guys. It was like a highlight of
Steve: my week. It was fun
Stratton: to go on and help.
Dean: In the locker room.
Steve: It was.
Dean: It kinda felt
Stratton: like it
Dean: was podcast today. Yeah.
Steve: What's that?
Dean: Kinda felt like prepodcast today.
Steve: Yeah. If we
Dean: were to film that, I think it would be a different one.
Steve: In what way?
Dean: It's just a different it's a different audience.
Steve: It's a it's a different audience.
Stratton: Different audience, different vibe, talking shit.
Steve: Because, yeah, I think, so he changed it back. We're just saying, Hormoz has changed it back. So you're saying, like, the we changed it back to you. You're saying, like, this is who the audience would be. These are people we want to listen to us.
Stratton: Yeah. If you wanna gain a customer in any type of company, you'd want a customer who can pay more.
Steve: Got it. Makes sense. Is that are you as passionate about he is as he is about PTD?
Dean: I like it. Yeah. He he gets fired up. His personality on p d TD is pretty funny.
Steve: I mean, I I think I can't tie this directly, but I think, you know, n word for Trump to end every episode probably harmed my YouTube reach. I can't I can't say for sure, but every time I try to run an ad on my channel, I can't. Every time I try to run an ad on my channel, it says this is content is political. It's like, this isn't political at all. Yeah.
So I can't say that harmed my YouTube.
Dean: Are you pretty sure?
Steve: I can't say for sure
Stratton: that it didn't. We're all about free speech over here. We're all about free speech over here.
Steve: Well, I remember we were talking about, like, Tate. Right? Andrew Tate and this and that. Right? Like, free Tate and all this stuff.
Anyway, episodes are gonna get canceled too. So
Dean: Great, guys.
Steve: Great. Yeah. Good job, Shryon. Alright. But then also, I think, looking at, the things that have changed as well, I know that, I got the bump into you, SCG.
It was last month.
Dean: We did.
Steve: Right? So because I wanna talk about community and, like, not only are you a big believer in, like, creating community, but also you also, like, believe finding community because you got 100%. You guys in Central California. You come out here, and you don't just come out here. You're like, it's a group text.
Like, guys, we're coming to town. Like, everyone needs to, like, circle up and, like, let's collaborate. So, like, I think, just, I think that is a big indicator. And then also, like, we're connected with, with Trevor, with Carrot. Yep.
And and, actually, it was funny. Like, we're doing business together right now, but I wasn't, like, trying to, like, sell you anything. So I don't
Stratton: know if
Steve: you know this story, but, like
Dean: Probably doesn't.
Steve: So, like, we're all have our slots to talk, right, at the last,
Dean: Garrett Summit.
Steve: Garrett Summit. Right? And I'm just doing this thing where I'm just basically doing Closer Olympics where I'm just, like, judging that kind of people. Right? I've got two different people.
I was like, alright. Let's judge these these calls, and I did. And the whole time I was doing it, Dean was watching. I was like, this is cool. Like, Dean's watching and Dean's commenting.
Like, there are other people that are commenting too, but Dean's the only name I recognize. It's like, on the way home, I'm a just I just call him. It's like, hey. Like, I just wanna say thank you. That's all it was.
Just gonna be like, I just wanna say thank you. It was like you're there and you're supporting me. It wasn't like there's not an agenda. It's like, you can just being Mhmm. Wanna highlight it.
And then that led to us doing business. Mhmm. So you wanna talk about that? My name is Lance McCann.
Speaker 3: I have recently switched in sessions with Ian Ross. Those conversations with Ian has made me $50,000 in the past two deals that I've had. I was able to renegotiate, go back and renegotiate the original purchase price on one deal, and I'd say $40,000. And I got another $10,000 off my other deals. Calling in, giving them a chance, do what we're getting.
Speaker 4: If you like what you just heard and would like similar types of success, text close to 33777, and we'll see if you qualify to join objection proof selling. We're taking good sales reps, and we're making them objection proof.
Dean: Yeah. So he he was, so we were doing Carrot Summit. Right? So I just got done speaking, and Trevor said, alright. We're gonna go back to, to the stage with, with Steve.
So I was like, oh, Steve's on. I'm gonna I'm gonna watch what Steve's doing. So, I go on and watch Steve, and and he's he's basically coaching other people on their performance and how their calls went. And so, what I really liked about it and what resonated with me is your style of sales, your style of communication is very similar to the style that I naturally like to use when I'm negotiating, when I'm having a conversation with a seller, almost from start to finish. And so, because of that, right, there's lots of sales trainers out there, lots of training you can get for your team in addition to you just doing in house training.
Right? So I thought to myself, well, what what better than to have somebody who's fully all in on training and doing it at a high level, to help train you and your team than somebody who is doing it the way you want them to. Right? And so so he called me. Right?
And I, I told him that's funny you called me because I was gonna actually reach out to you. And so that led to me saying, yeah. We need to do Steve's training. And, and it made perfect sense. Right?
It was a no brainer for us.
Steve: Yeah. So I appreciate you for that.
Stratton: Real quick. Does the world know that you took my last dollar for your training?
Steve: They know that from the last podcast we recorded. You wanna share that story again? Because I wouldn't have taken it. Steve Trang
Stratton: at a point Steve Trang.
Steve: Steve Trang.
Stratton: Steve Trang at a point in time took every last dollar of my tax return for me to learn from him Clear. On sales.
Steve: He went into debt.
Stratton: It was the best thing I ever did, and it goes into, like, actually paying for a coach. But because, like, we
Dean: different.
Stratton: Oh, it changed my life. Yeah. Like, my entire network, I can Trang changed his life. Connect Yeah. Steve Trang.
Steve Trang. Kung fu master Steve, as I like to call him, changed my life.
Steve: Yeah. Yeah. And, again, like, if I had known that was gonna be your last dollar, I wanna
Stratton: take it.
Steve: But, like You
Stratton: would've never known.
Steve: Yeah. But, yeah, I was like, yeah, I can't I could pay you some today. I could pay you some in a couple weeks. Like, okay. That's weird.
But alright. Fine. I'll I'll settle for that. And later on, I was like, yeah. Like, I just had to wait for my tax return to come back.
Stratton: It's like a day for your because, like,
Steve: man, had I known, I wouldn't have said yes. I said it's like a personal policy. Right? Like, I don't want it to be anyone's, like, last hope. Right?
Like Exactly. Like, you gotta have faith in yourself. Like, if you're, like, last gasp, like, so generally, as as a rule that we have. So we're talking about how you did half a mil on vacation. Mhmm.
Stratton: So
Steve: I just went on vacation. I didn't do half a mil.
Stratton: Mhmm. Right?
Steve: I was gone for, like, five days. We didn't have half a mil revenue. So what talk to me about your scenario. What what is going on in your business that you're getting paid while you're on vacation?
Dean: Yeah. So we we talked about leading up to 2022, right, and how things kinda materialized to me being on the right track and doing business the right way and hiring coaches and mentors. And, what I learned through the '20 early twenty twenties, right, is learning better how to run an actual business, how to be a business owner as opposed to just being highly skilled, thinking you can do the best at everything, and that you need to be wearing every hat. Right? So I already had a small team at that time, but I started to add more team members over the next couple years.
And what that ultimately allowed me to do is to run a business. And the better that we did and the better I became a leader and learned how to support the team and, put things in place really allowed us to, you know, be able to step out of the business. Now I'm not a believer in stepping completely out of the business, and I'm not in the position to completely just say see you later for a year or for years. But as part of the whole plan from the get go, I've wanted freedom. Right?
As part of wanting to become a NFL superstar, make a bunch of money, it's because I've always wanted freedom, and I've always wanted to be, you know, the highest best version of myself. And, getting into real estate was that next version of that. Right? It was the the what was gonna be the next vehicle for that. So, that's always been part of the plan, and I've always lived a very, you know, comfortable life, a good lifestyle in San Diego, driving a golf cart, living on the beach, been living a very blessed life.
But we haven't, like, really stretched and really challenged that. And my wife, she's like, hey. We need to, you know, go on some more vacations. And as we started to, like, unpack that a little bit, she didn't want just a a simple vacation. She's like, let's go on vacation for a month.
Right? And so our first test run of this was in 2024 during the summer, and we went to Europe for a month. K? And during that time, I'm freaking out a little bit before we go thinking, oh, what's the time zone there? Am I gonna have Internet connection?
Am I gonna be able to run my business? And what I ended up learning was things kept working. Yeah. And the business kept running. And I was still wearing the last hat in the business.
I was still wearing dispo. K? So I was as we're wholesaling deals, I was still disputing the deal. So I was still actively participating in the business daily, but with small windows of time. K?
And in Europe time, it was from, like, 08:00 to midnight. Okay? That was kinda prime time during the day here in, in California. So I proved during that time that I could do that. And during that time, we had made just under half $1,000,000.
This is while in Europe for thirty days. Okay? Now we did that on repeat again the following summer. So we just did that. We had four kids on that trip to Europe, and we found out my wife was pregnant with our fifth while on the trip.
And
Steve: Congratulations. Thank
Dean: you. So we just had that new baby in January, k, of this year. And we told ourselves, we're gonna go on another thirty day vacation. K? But we're not gonna go to Europe.
We're gonna take it easy. Europe and four different countries, England, Switzerland, Italy, and France, and multiple locations in each country was exhausting with four kids. And so we're like, we're gonna go somewhere chill. So we went to Kauai this summer. We went for thirty two days, and I would wake up in the morning to the sound of the birds chirping in the window at 06:15.
I'd do my daily huddle for an hour from 06:30 to 07:30 local time, and I would check out the rest of the day. I had hired my last guy for dispo, the last position for dispo before the vacation, and I would literally hang out all day. And we did half $1,000,000, and net was around $300,000 while on vacation while doing almost nothing. And, and that was back to back months of doing right around half $1,000,000 in June and July of this summer, leading up to the trip and during the trip. And to me, that was, like, the epitome of, dude, I've I've made it.
Like, this is what I've wanted to have my whole life, and I'm here. Like, I've wanted to have freedom. I wanted to be able to travel. I wanted to be able to give experiences to my family while also making a lot of money. And I'm doing that
Steve: Yeah. Now. Let's talk about, I think I heard this the Mark Evans or somewhere else, but it's like, if you had fifteen minutes to talk to your team, what's the information you wanna Right? But for you, it's an hour daily huddle. So what do you need to know?
Like because, you know, I think a lot of people are listening. You know, they're still maybe in grind season or, like, they're they were in one or two hats still. For you, you know, to be on vacation in that hour, what do you need to know in that hour to know, like, everything is on
Dean: For for us during our daily huddle, we focus on our our KPI scorecard. So we're looking at all the leading and lagging indicators, you know, number of leads. We're looking at the number of qualified leads, the number of contracts. I I mean, there's a whole list of different things that we have on there. Right?
So that's something that we would look at each day and see if we're on track or if we're off track, what we need to adjust. And then we go through all of our escrows every single day just as an update. And that just gives us the opportunity as a team to problem solve.
Steve: Mhmm.
Dean: Because what I found before I was doing daily huddles, I would have an acquisitions meeting on Monday, a team meeting on Tuesday, training on Wednesday, and then, another follow-up escrow on Thursday with just our transaction coordinator. And it didn't allow the team to meet frequently enough to really flush out any of the ongoing problem solving that needed to be done or any new things or to be very agile and iterative in how we adjust our process and how we adapt to things or to give feedback on our marketing, all those kind of things. So Yeah. That daily huddle is really to just share information back and forth with structure so that we're all on the same page, helps reiterate our culture and why we know our purpose and to to keep that feedback loop.
Steve: You said an hour?
Dean: It's it's really thirty minutes. I'm a I'm a I'm a long winded talker, and I like to make points, and I like to really go deep on certain topics. So it'll bleed into forty five minutes pretty often. And then at times, if we have, you know, other things that we wanna get into, it might go as long as an hour. Sure.
Steve: Alright. So then in thirty minutes, what's the agenda?
Dean: KPI scorecard and our escrows. That's it. And any other updates or things people wanna talk about?
Steve: That doesn't sound like awfully, what's the one I'm looking for? Different than what someone's doing today. So, really, just becoming more efficient and effective in that time. Is that accurate? Is that fair?
Dean: Yeah. No.
Steve: So how did you get to the debt level? Because, again, it's funny. Right? You look at business, you look at, like, common sense. Right?
It's just one it's like, someone will say something's like, obviously. Right. But you never did that until they said it. 100%. So, like, what are some of the things that, like, someone is listening that you've picked up that allowed you to be able to fit your, basically, the whole workday into thirty to forty five minutes?
Dean: Yeah. So to answer that exact question, the only reason I have the awareness to do those common sense things is a little bit that I picked up from the corporate days. 94 chargers? Not the not the San Diego Chargers. Corporate days.
But even from sports as well Yeah. For sure. I I said no, but the reality is is a lot of just having structure and discipline comes from sports fundamentally. But the reality is is once you start going into these different communities and investing in yourself into this mentor and this coach, you start picking up the habits that they have and the structure that they have and the processes that they have, and you start to be able to formulate your own that works for you and your business the way you want it and build your own version of that. And so we just talked about meeting at another mastermind outside of Deal Champs that I invested in with my partner on, and we've been spending our time and effort and energy in, amongst other masterminds that we're a part of.
While I was on vacation in Hawaii, right, making the money that we did, going on hikes all day, going to waterfalls, you know, in the ocean, at the beach all day every day, eating acai bowls, doing all that stuff, invested in another mastermind, right, to learn about something very specific that my partner and I wanna invest in. Yeah. And so at this point, it's it's about speed of information and access to a mentor that can help you so you can get where you wanna go faster. Because trying to do it on your own just doesn't make sense anymore. You don't need to do it the hard way.
There's people that are willing and able to help you, and they're gonna help you get there faster, probably do even better and get better results and just minimize the mistakes you make.
Steve: Yeah. And it's probably one of the reasons why you guys have the the Dual Champs community.
Dean: 100%. Yeah.
Steve: Yeah. But then what does someone get, like, if if they're in the Dual Champs community, like, he access all this information? Like, what does someone get in joining it?
Stratton: They get access to all of it, Steve. What type of question is that? Well, it's it's common sense, Steve.
Steve: This is I'm sorry. I apologize.
Dean: Ask a question like that. It's so common.
Steve: I apologize. Alright. So, like, if what do I because last time, he just gave his number. I could just call Stratton at any time.
Dean: Yeah. No one called him though.
Stratton: Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey.
Steve: Hey. Hey.
Stratton: Hey. Hey. We're selling something. And if they called my phone number, I made money. So why not give away your phone number on the biggest podcast?
This is
Dean: this is the biggest one. Yeah.
Stratton: This is the The biggest. The biggest.
Steve: You gotta do the hand gesture. For those of you guys that are listening Yeah. There's a gesture. Right? Huge.
Dean: But but to answer your question, what what are people getting? Right? Yeah. Obviously, you're gonna get training and information on how to do it. Right?
How to do it is very important. And there's so much information on how to do it out there. So it's it can be very confusing for someone that's trying to learn it on YouTube University because there's conflicting strategies
Stratton: and That's the basics.
Dean: Ways to do it. So how can I be very focused? The same reason why while I was on vacation two months ago, I invested because I wanted to have a very streamlined, focused way to do it and not learn how to do that 10 different ways on YouTube. So the how to is very important. It's very focused and get get you dialed in.
Right? So that's that's step one. The next step is the mentorship and having someone to lean on to help you through the problems you're gonna face. Because daily, weekly, monthly, you're gonna come up against something that you're not sure what to do. And the same reason why I should have invested in Mentor when I got started and being able to be one text message away from answering my simple problem or my difficult complex problem is what holds a lot of people back.
Stratton: I'll just give an example. So the other day, shout out Geo Biggers. What's going on, Geo? Geo, another former athlete. He played football at UNC?
UNC. I he finished last year?
Steve: Mhmm. He
Stratton: finished last year. And so he throws into the community chat, hey. The seller's saying x. What should I do? Dean throws an opinion.
I throw a pen.
Steve: By the way,
Dean: while I was on a staycation in San Diego, went to a resort with friends on a Thursday. We're there on a Thursday or Friday. It's Thursday morning. Gio puts in there, and I say, well, did you ask the seller, or did you say this to the seller? Right?
And it was something simple as, the sell the seller had basically said, hey. I want $10,000 more.
Stratton: Mhmm.
Steve: And I
Dean: said, well, why didn't why don't you say, okay. I'm looking at a few other properties, and I'm looking to make a decision today. If you can stick to the same offer I made yesterday that you agreed to, then I can move forward. Otherwise, I may move forward with these other opportunities. He said just that.
Done. He said, cool. Let's do a deal. Yeah. And stuck to the price they had agreed to the night before.
Stratton: And that was a text message. So, like, he sent that message. We all respond. He gets a message back in five minutes, and he gets the contract signed. If your buyer What
Dean: did he say to the group?
Stratton: He's like, this is exactly why I joined this group. Mhmm. Because I know now I have a community I can lean on, and my questions can be answered. Because, like, if you are just, like, let's say, out on your own in the darkness, and you're trying to solve that, and you say the wrong thing, well, now instead of waiting like, shout out our boy Austin Rutherford. Austin took eighteen months to get a deal.
We were just doing a pod with Nick. Nick said he'd it was, like, nine months Nick Perry.
Dean: Eleven months.
Stratton: Eleven months, a 146 in person appointments. 104. 104 to get a deal. Nick? Nick.
Steve: Nick. Nick
Stratton: got his face kicked in. I didn't know he was that bad. Eleven months to get his personality that bad. He's going in there spitting on people's faces, though. Like, that's so many moments.
Yeah. Or you can send off a text message, and your problem is solved instantly.
Steve: Mhmm. And you
Stratton: need a contract signed, and now you can go make $20. Yeah. Like, just two completely different things. And that's why you want to be in a community or you have someone in your life who can actually help you with those things.
Steve: Well, I think one of the key here is, like, not only are you guys in the business, not only are you guys investing yourselves, but you guys are also, like, connected. Like, there's really not a question I could ask you guys that I couldn't even get an answer for. That you guys either don't you guys have the answer or you guys can get the answer. Yeah. Right?
I mean, we don't talk about this a lot, but, like, you know, you and I will call each other and just, like, hey. I'm thinking about this. Yeah.
Stratton: What are
Steve: your thoughts on this? Right? You're talking to me about, some venture capital stuff. Right? I'm talking to you like, hey.
I'm raising some capital. This is what I'm thinking about doing. What are your thoughts on this? And you asked me the questions that get me to the reflect, like, hey. Am I thinking about the right thing?
Right? So it's not like so when I call you, it's not even necessarily to, like, answer my question. It could also be at times where, like, well, are you thinking about this? What would you do if you did this? But getting me to consider things that weren't even in my, perspective, things that weren't even considering.
But when you ask me these questions, like, oh, yeah. Now that I'm thinking about this, what I'm asking about here doesn't even really make sense.
Dean: Yeah. Strat's a really good person to talk to. Him and I will just have long drawn out conversations Mhmm. Just thinking through things and talking about ideas, and has helped me many times make decisions or think through things and, you know, being able to lean on a mentor like that. And then the last step to to Deal Jamf's community is the community part.
Right? Being able to have a community of other people, not just you and the mentor, but other people going through similar experiences that you can collaborate with, do deals with, that you can, help inspire and motivate each other, right, lift each other up?
Stratton: But so, like, everyone in the community has our phone numbers, and they can text me anything they want personally if they need help with. But I always say throw it in the community chat because someone probably just doesn't want to ask, but they need help with the same thing. I'll answer it here, and I'll answer in the community chat. Yeah. But that's what the community is there for.
It's no different from, like, your daily huddle. It is group teaching. Like, someone went through this problem on a sales call. Our daily huddle. Dean's coaching them up on that sales call.
So now all three of our sales reps learned because we're all there present solving your one problem. K. So now if you're in that community, someone asks a question, oh, wow. I didn't even know about that. Awesome.
So now there's it's gonna come up. I promise you it's gonna come up this one situation. Someone's gonna remember what happened to Gio. They're gonna say that, and they learned just from being inside of the community. Or they can call up someone in a different area like, hey.
I'm struggling with this deal. Or we have a 18 year old who's crushing it, Isaiah. Like, hey. How do I door knock? And all he does is door knock preforeclosures.
And he can help you out there. Like, we have so many different aspects you can learn from in that community, and then people are now doing deals with each other, which I think is awesome. Because now you got a bunch of people creating their own financial freedom inside the community and learning from each other.
Steve: One thing that we always talked about on on part of the disruption was, like, what advice you give. And my advice is always pretty consistent, which was find your tribe. Yeah. Always, like, find your tribe. Right?
Like, so for here, you know, looking from, like, 2018 until maybe, like, 2021. Right? I mean, it was me, Pace, Jamil, Brian Daniels, Rafael Cortez, Carlos Reyes, if he wasn't too busy. Right? And then, who else is there?
But we had, like, a lot of people Jesse. Yeah. Jesse, Annie, Evo. Right? Like, we had this and Brian Atlas.
Like, we had this tight knit tribe. And, I've talked about every once in a while, but not a lot was, like, not only were we comparing notes in our wholesaling business, we're also comparing notes as we were growing our other businesses. Yep. Right? So, like, Brent is doing, you know, he's he's blowing up on Instagram.
Right? While he's doing that, and PACE is obviously blowing up on Instagram. But I don't do the podcasting thing, but, like, we were all there to support each other when pace launched sub two. Right? So our memory is twenty four hour YouTube Yes.
Craziness. Right? So, like, this tribe is, is what helped all of us grow. Like, I love what you guys are doing because you gotta find your community. You gotta find your tribe because there's nothing scarier than trying to do this alone.
Like, you've ate a lot of crap sandwiches. Yours were worse than mine.
Dean: It wasn't even a lot of crap sandwiches. I was doing a lot of deals, doing good deals. It was just big crap sandwiches. Just a couple of them.
Steve: Gigantic ones.
Dean: They were nasty. Yeah. And it was unnecessary.
Steve: And I went through. Right? Like, what I figured out was if I had just had a different mentor earlier on, I wanna struggle through o seven, o eight, o nine as a realtor. Right? I could have gotten into bigger, opportunities earlier if
Stratton: I had the
Steve: right mentor. Opportunities. Yeah.
Stratton: It could have been insane opportunities.
Steve: Yeah. I'd be retired by now. Right? But I was trying to figure these out on my own because I was too good to be coached.
Stratton: Mhmm. Yeah.
Steve: So I I say all the time, you gotta find your tribe. So the other thing, you're talking about an intentional business. Is there anything else you wanna add as far as, like, building an intentional business?
Stratton: Your business doesn't need to look like someone else's business. It needs to serve you and whatever you wanna accomplish.
Steve: What does that mean?
Stratton: I was let's say there's some dude who has a sales team of 15 people. He has nine dispo reps, and he's running and gunning, and he's going for the moon, and that's awesome. But it's okay if you just wanna you know, like, I have three employees. I work two hours a day. I make $50,000 a month, and then we buy a rental every other month.
Yeah. It's what serves you. Mhmm. But you created something that's given you true freedom, and you don't have to report to the man anymore. You don't have to go work at Intel anymore.
Right? And now you feel safe. You can do whatever you want, whenever you want. You could spend more time with your kids. Me and Dean are both big on spending time with our families.
Like, I walk my son to school every day. I miss his field trip today. I feel terrible. But, like, that is what it's all about is letting the business give you what you want actually out of life. And that's a lot of mentorship too, and we've talked about this.
Of, like, Stratton. Okay. You say, like, all these things. Like, let's really dial it down. What are we going for?
Yeah. When you can get clear on that, then you can have that business serve you in an even better way.
Steve: Well, I know. There's been multiple times you might have experienced this, or maybe you know the schedule better. Well, I'll call you, and I get a text back. Like, I'm with, Zeno. Yeah.
I was Zeno. Like, I can't talk to you right now, which is, like, respecting, like, boundaries. You set the boundaries and, like, cannot talk right now because I'm with my kid. So anything you wanna add to that as far as intentional business?
Dean: Yeah. I mean, stress that perfectly. You gotta figure out what works for you because you could set up your business to be in the office, grinding your face off, you know, out of the house before anybody's up, back while everybody's asleep. I've I've never wanted that. You know, some people say I'm crazy for working at home.
Like, if I were to go work in an office right now, there's parts of me that would love that. But the part I would be sad about is not seeing my kids throughout the day being able to be at home. Like, that's that's what I want. I wanna be around my kids.
Stratton: And he's a great dad. I'm a cut him off. This dude, we will have calls, and he's holding one kid, playing catch with another kid, and then we're talking deals. We're, like, talking business.
Steve: Yeah.
Stratton: Like, when he closed one of his biggest deals that month, whatever it is, during the summer, He's changing diapers. We're in the middle of a meeting. The little little girl just can't keep hold it together, and he just figures it out. But, like, that's what business is about. Right?
Yeah. Because you get all those memories with your family. And he's way better than me at it because I'm like, alright. I have to be very strict with time with Zeno. Because, like, during the day, like, hey, Buck.
Come give me a hug. But, like, I'm really not trying to talk, bro. I'm trying to, like, get something done. Yeah. Where he will just carry all five kids on his back, close some deals, and keep it pushing.
I just can't.
Steve: I'm more like you. I gotta be in the office. I can't I can't, I can't switch. I can switch at work. Right?
I can switch, like, hey. We're talking about finances. We're talking about a problem employee. We're talking about moving a deal. We're talking about, hey.
You need to put out this fire. I can do all those things.
Stratton: Yeah.
Steve: But I can't go from work family mode to working mode to family.
Dean: I'll give you an example. Great. So, literally, today, we just closed on a a deal that we're keeping as a rental. Mhmm. K?
Now this deal accidentally came to me. K? It was like an old business listing that had an old Google voice number that forwards to my cell phone. It was very fast. And so this deal came through, is it last it was last week?
Stratton: It was, like, last week.
Dean: I think it was last week on Wednesday. K? Last week on Wednesday or no. It was two Wednesdays ago. So two Wednesdays ago, I get this call on my phone, and I'm sitting at the table.
And I'm I'm eating some yogurt, and I'm feeding my daughter some yogurt, my eight month old daughter, no kid number five. And I see this call come in. Just something told me I needed to answer it. It's like, okay. So I answer the phone.
Hey, miss Dean. Hey. This is Tim. And, anyways, we get to this conversation. I find out, oh, it's a seller.
Okay. And I'm thinking to myself, should I pass this to my team? And someone told me I should just stay on the phone and talk to this guy. It turns into a forty two minute conversation. K?
Now during this, I'm in it's in the middle of the day. I'm feeding my daughter, and I make the decision. Alright. We're just gonna make this work. So I'm at the table, and I'm just having a conversation with the guy going through the script and everything while, you know, feeding my daughter and everything.
And, and the kids are off in the living room playing around and stuff. And I ended up talking about integration. I ended up transitioning halfway through the call to go to my office because one of our Deal Champs community calls was starting, our q and a call on Wednesdays. And so I ended up starting our q and a call while I was still on the phone. And my my wife had just come back home, and she took over the kids.
And so I'm continuing this call with the community listening to it live, and they got to see firsthand me closing a deal. And so it's this forty two minute call, great conversation, rapport is a 10 out of 10, And I set up everything for the close, and, basically, I call them back and, you know, close it in fifteen minutes. And, it was just a perfect example of how can you integrate this business into your life and make it work. I've mostly integrated it by setting it up so I don't have to be on the phone. Yeah.
Right? Talking about intentional business. I used to be every wearing every hat, and I used to be getting calls in the middle of dinner, late at night, anytime during the day, and that just wasn't working anymore. Right? My wife was frustrated.
Like, hey. You're taking all these calls in the evening, and then you gotta, like, work through the deal. And, like, what about family time? And we need to start some boundaries. And it was like, okay.
I need to have structure. I need to hire people. Like, I need to make this work for me and my family and my life. And so that's what I mean by being intentional about it.
Steve: Got it. And then somewhere along the way, you decided you didn't wanna hire humans anymore.
Stratton: I'd we talk a lot about AI. I think Steve's AI is the best. We're we are a customer. We've implemented them a lot. I showed Dean what I made.
Very proud.
Dean: He's very impressed.
Stratton: Very proud.
Dean: I we just Very proud. Again, talking about us just talking about stuff and Stravaing a good guy to talk to. We were talking. He's like, you know what? Just can you jump on Zoom right now?
Let me show you what I got. And so he just showed me what he has built on, built out in AI right now and, and using your lead manager. And I was like, wow. This is really impressive.
Stratton: It it's here. Like, it's the AI stuff is here because right now we have all of our AI texting going, and that is essentially automated from text message out. We're working on getting the data piped in correctly just because we don't have APIs that way, so we have to build it all the way until, like, a lead is qualified all with AI. So that's super nifty. And then now all of our inbound leads, if we don't have a rep available Mhmm.
Our AI will call it immediately. Oh. And so, like, that is going to come, and it's not just gonna stop with calling, right, on just lead management. Nick thinks in the next twenty four months, it'll handle a full sales cycle. Oh, wrong.
You think it's gonna be shorter?
Dean: You're he's gonna say shorter. I just know.
Stratton: You think
Dean: I can see it in space?
Stratton: Four months, six months?
Steve: If Sam Altman did everything that he promised the GPT five launch, we could do it this year. So, really, it comes down to what GPT five is the promise of GPT five and then the reality GPT five?
Stratton: It's not it's not like that, bro.
Steve: It's not the same.
Stratton: It's not.
Steve: Right? But if you could do everything you promised, we could do it right now.
Stratton: Alright. And I think right now, if you are in we this will be we're down here, and we're probably doing six pods.
Dean: Mhmm.
Stratton: We're doing six pods. If you are not implementing AI into your business, you're gonna be homeless in the next six years. Like, it's just kinda the way it is. Like, you'll go broke. It is so
Steve: under that too.
Stratton: It it is so good. I was at a conference the other day, and I called Steve. I was like, Steve, we got six to ten years to really make some money. Because after that, AI is gonna be making a lot of things a lot easy for a lot of people with a lot of money. Yeah.
So if you gotta implement it now so, like, the biggest thing, we have always been virtual with everything we do wholesale wise, but now we can have leads automatically qualified. I know Nick was talking about and we're looking into this. He's cut his HR team down from four actual people down to one person. We don't have as big an operations next, so we could probably just run it all day. Right?
So we have that, all of our comping, AI. And now with our lead management, AI, inbound, outbound, the next thing would be, like, dispo. Mhmm. So now that we wanna talk about time freedom. That's a lot of time freedom because now I'm not managing people.
Yeah. Right? You'll have instead of having to have 10 employees, you could really have three. And that is a lot easier to manage than 10. And so that's what I'm so excited about that we're implementing day over day over day is just how can we implement AI right now to honestly make my life better?
That's I wanna make our life better.
Steve: But the one thing I don't think, one thing I think is hardest is to replace us the dispo side. Right? Because I think that is relationships. If we're trying to maximize if if time's more important, then you don't have to maximize the revenue.
Dean: Maximize. I I do agree with that aspect.
Steve: Yeah. If you're trying to maximize the revenue, I think you can't get rid of human. But if you're trying to be, like, without humans because you could you
Dean: could scale. Still, obviously, automate the whole highest and best I don't have first touchpoint. Time.
Stratton: First touchpoint would need to be relationship wise. Right? And you manage, excuse me, those relationships. After that, if the trust is there, the trust is there.
Dean: I I'll have to agree with Steve. I mean, I think this goes for anything. If you're looking even on the sales side, what's gonna get you the best deal? You said maximize. Yeah.
We're putting it in that context. If you wanna maximize the best deal on the front end, you wanna maximize the best deal on the back end when you're disbowing it for real estate investing. There's just that human interaction that's gonna get to another level. Now, obviously, AI is talking about being trained to be able to be very empathetic and be thoughtful and
Steve: We've got that part taken care of.
Dean: All of those different things.
Steve: It's the so I think we're maximizing revenue. I think we're still gonna need to on Dispose side, I think. Because we had, like, Jamil. Right? Like, Jamil was Yeah.
Stratton: My point. Jamil's biggest bottleneck was relationships.
Steve: Yeah. Like, he was, if there was anything and that was his bottleneck because, like, he couldn't offload me to someone else at Kigley. No. He couldn't. Right?
Like, if I got a deal
Stratton: I want Jamil. I don't want I
Steve: want Jamil. I
Stratton: don't want you. I don't want to talk to you.
Steve: Right? And, like, he tried multiple times, like, hey. Meet this guy. Meet Alex. Meet Kevin.
This and that. It's hard. When I had a deal, Jamil. What are you saying? He's like, talk to this guy.
He's like, I know you said talk to this guy. Jamil, what can you do? Right.
Stratton: Then you can save, like, relationships. But I look at it as a machine, and now okay. Like, the outputs, I may not be making as much on a deal. But now I really have inputs and outputs that I could just throw money into, and I I don't care. Yeah.
I know I'm making 20%, and there's no friction. And I can just upload everything we need, and it runs. And I don't really care about absolutely maximizing it.
Steve: Well, Well, this is kinda like virtual versus face to face. Right? Like Yeah. You're gonna make more face to face, but how many can you do virtually? Mhmm.
And with AI, we can really get virtual. So we did a webinar earlier today, and the the question was, like, someone asked, like, you know, what what is the future then if we can do this without people at all? It's like
Stratton: Terrifying.
Steve: I think, like, New Western is could just buy every house. Right? Like, someone liked them. Mhmm. Because they got the marketing budget.
They got the data. They got the resources. Everything. They know everything about everybody. Just flip on a switch and just buy everything virtually.
Yeah. So you wouldn't be able you wouldn't need humans to maximize every deal because you go
Stratton: If you can A
Steve: lot of deals. Volume,
Stratton: and it's easy, and I don't really have to worry about it. And then we have someone sitting at a computer checking it, like, for our AI automations with your stuff. Yeah. I have someone looking at Manus every day. Like, make sure it doesn't mess up the script for some for one reason or another.
Steve: Yeah. Let's talk about it. Like, I wanna hear so how you're using our tool exactly, and then I wanna hear, like, how you're using. If you're a real estate investor with a sales team and you're stuck babysitting reps instead of growing your business, this is for you. Right now, your reps are burning through your expensive leads like their practice dummies.
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Stratton: So a company came to me for consulting last year, and then they ended up going it was a different thing than it. I'm just, like, breaking out the partnership, and they were a PPL company that provided leads to PPL companies. And they had 8,000 leads. And they just take the 8,000 leads. Michael?
Possibly. Yeah. I don't wanna say his name probably. Okay. But that is something that we're gonna implement.
Yeah. Right. So okay. All those 8,000 leads with AI. Mhmm.
I don't wanna hire on someone to do that. Just put it on. Mhmm. What's the better run? Yeah.
That's a really easy one. We can set that up with Manas. Right now, with ReSimply, we had to come around up with a little bit of a workaround, and I think I'm gonna have a call both times because we still have South African sales reps. And then so now we have to Steve helped me build on Zapier. We have to what is it?
It's designated by a tag. Mhmm. That's what it has to set it up. And so now we have Manus go in, and it'll sort by whatever new leads come in. And we have three different Manus automations.
And so for, like, the we have our new leads, our no contact leads, and our seven days of hell. And so we have three different automations for those. And so Manus will go through and remove and add a tag every three minutes. And when you add that tag, the AI will make a call. Mhmm.
And so now, just every three minutes across all of those, it's just making calls all day for us. And we don't have to do anything. And we just have to have someone monitor it, and that's the one kink I'm working out because maybe it stops because it messes up a time zone or something.
Steve: Mhmm.
Stratton: Because we have it stop at 5PM PST because that's eight Eastern Standard Mhmm. Nationwide.
Steve: Yeah.
Stratton: So that's how we're implementing your AI right now. And then we have another AI texting software that's a full fledged texting bot, shout out, data syndicate, and closer control. Data syndicate is our data provider for that one. We get counties all across Florida, some in Tennessee, and then in Texas. And we get tons of probate, live tenants, pre foreclosure, all the typical niche stuff.
We have a VA that uploads it all because I couldn't get managed to tag it all correctly because there's so many different files. But don't worry. It'll come. Like, it'll be Yeah. Finished pretty soon.
And then the AI will text it, email it. If they text back, the AI will set a full fledged conversation, set an appointment on our sales rep's calendar. And then as soon as they move it, the AI will move it in closer control. And then from there, it types it over to re Simply and our AI still calls it to get it on the phone.
Steve: So, yeah, you're definitely all on AI. Where are you, like, studying, learning, picking up all this stuff?
Stratton: Nick, honestly, has really good content today. What podcast he's listening to? I just listen to podcasts and I just go play with stuff. Like, if I see something on, like, TikTok Mhmm. TikTok is like a the devil's drug, honestly, but, like, I follow a lot of AI pages.
Yeah. And I'll go and I'll mess with stuff. Or I'll I'll call you. I went to the all in summit just to, like, kinda see what's going on in, like, the business world and AI and everything else. But I'd say podcasts, talking to friends, and then it sounds so stupid, but, like, there's some really, really niche TikTok pages that I follow.
Or, like, hey. Here's what I'm building. This is really cool. Yeah. And I'll look at
Steve: those. Yeah. Makes sense. I mean, like, for me, it's mostly just like Twitter.
Stratton: I'm not that I'm not on TikTok. I'm not on AI Twitter. I need to be I'm more on, like Yeah. Twitter.
Steve: Yeah. I should probably be on those too. But, yeah, like, I'm on, there's a few different people. But, like, I'm just getting the latest. Like, here is what is happening today.
Like, here is the announcement today. Right? And you see, like, the goofy stuff, like, Saturday. Mhmm. As Optimus is learning Kung Fu.
Right?
Stratton: Zeno loves that, though, because Zeno wants to
Dean: Yeah. Yeah. Is that their bot? Like, their Yeah. Their robot?
Stratton: Because it's like Tesla Optimus and then figure are the two, like, big I don't know
Dean: if that's a good thing.
Steve: Well, I'm gonna get a bunch of Optimus bots, so that's all I know.
Stratton: Right? Are you
Steve: gonna teach it my kung fu?
Stratton: I believe it. Kung fu master, Steve.
Steve: It's gonna be the best kung fu.
Dean: We were just talking about the guardrails, though. It might not let you teach it kung fu.
Stratton: The the guardrails are crazy. So listen to this. So it means, you know, in Kalani, we watch the show called Alone. Have you ever heard of it? Mhmm.
It's on Discovery Channel Okay. Where they essentially drop 10 people off in a remote place with 10 items, and they're like, hey. Whoever survives the longest gets $500.
Steve: Enough of it. But all these
Stratton: all these people have to do stuff, and so Zeno's been getting, like, outdoorsy.
Steve: Mhmm.
Stratton: And we have an orange tree in our backyard. That fucker's eating our oranges. You know, there's a squirrel coming back here eating oranges. We gotta set a squirrel trap. And I asked Chad to be t to, like, hey.
How do I make a squirrel trap? And it would it said, I can't do that against, like, community guidelines or
Steve: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Stratton: But that's that's terrifying.
Steve: The community guidelines component?
Stratton: I mean, I just wanted to set a squirrel trap.
Steve: Well, I don't know. It's like a
Stratton: But YouTube let me YouTube fed me tons of videos.
Steve: There's limits. Right? Like, to, like, printing, like, three three guns. Right? Like Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Something. I don't know what they are. Yeah.
Something.
Stratton: But we're talking about, like, imagine what has no gold guardrails that, like, Sam Altman uses.
Steve: Oh, yeah. He's gonna be the one who's gonna try to rule all of us. So then where do you see this your business then, like, six, twelve months from now with everything you're implementing? Yeah. Like, do you see, like, a a large quantity of volume business?
Where do you see this going?
Stratton: Volume, if we can.
Dean: Yeah. I see I see volume as an option. I think, I was going through it with Strat, and that's what led us to our conversation and him jumping on Zoom and show me what he had. I was I was evaluating my business and the number of leads we had and, you know, basically, the leads that needed to be followed up with.
Stratton: The leaky pot like, the leaky bucket for some businesses will be eliminated.
Dean: And to me, I was just wow. There's a real huge opportunity here to just seal up all these little cracks and get everything even more dialed in with AI. Yeah. And by doing that, it'll just help our results. Right?
Steve: So here's where I struggle and go back to focus. Right? It's like, I should focus on everything on building out this AI company, doing that alone. But? Pardon me.
That's like give me, like, someone's like if I if I have someone's like alright. They'll give me a piece of their company. I don't have to do any operations, and I just AI everything in their business. Right? See how big we can scale that business.
Part of me that wants to do that.
Dean: I think there's an opportunity there.
Stratton: But we're both very susceptible to being distracted about things.
Steve: I know. That's what I say. I gotta focus, but it's But Sirens are calling.
Stratton: That one's just decent siren. It could be explored depending on revenue.
Dean: That's legitimate.
Stratton: Yeah. Depending on revenue. But I think you're you're in such a big land grab moment to where if you fuck up at all, some kid out in Silicon Valley is just gonna eat your lunch, and then, essentially, all of this work was for nothing. I know.
Steve: So, I didn't even ask this earlier. Someone wants to find out more about the community. How do they find out about it?
Dean: You can just go to dealchamps.com. Yeah. So you go to dealchamps.com. There's more information on there. You can apply, see if it's the right fit for you.
Yeah. And then we jump on a we personally jump on a phone call with you, see if it's the right fit.
Steve: Is everyone like a former athlete? No. You have to call you have to be a wall player? You You could get San Diego Chargers.
Dean: Athletes attract athletes, though.
Steve: San Diego Chargers, Seattle Seahawks, kind of.
Stratton: Kind of. Thanks thanks for throwing in the kind of. I don't you know how I feel about claiming that. Well, so there's have we told you the story about a guy who goes around claiming he was Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Steve: Yeah. So you're basically Seattle Seahawks. Yeah.
Stratton: So I'm basically camp chancellor.
Steve: Yeah. Pretty much.
Stratton: Pretty much.
Steve: I like Richard Sherman more. I'm basically an issue basketball player, basically. Right.
Stratton: You got the jump shot. Yeah. You got the Cavs.
Steve: Alright. Was I was on something like that. Back when I used to play ASU, right, I would say that. And they're like, play ASU. I mean, like, I was on campus.
I was playing basketball at ASU. Actually You did play there.
Stratton: I did
Steve: play there. Right? I did play in the arena. Right? So, technically, I played at the Suns Arena, but that was for a charity event.
Actually, where I played with Carlos, right, when they had that That's right.
Dean: You're as a player.
Stratton: I wanted to have a basketball tournament down here, and Dean didn't want to. I wanted to hoop with all the real estate people.
Steve: That's a great idea. I have
Dean: a rule.
Steve: This is a great idea.
Stratton: I thought it was a great idea.
Steve: Give me another four months. What doctor says, give me another six months.
Dean: I have a rule. I don't wanna play with people that I know. Because when you play with people you know let's just say we get a a mastermind together. Mhmm. All these super highly competitive people, most of them are not athletes at a high level.
Most of them.
Steve: Most. The three of us. Excuse me, the three of us on the table.
Dean: Most of them are played high school sports. Mhmm. Right? And Yeah. Probably good at them too.
Like, people that are good at sports do well in business. But when you get around people like that that are highly competitive Mhmm. And then they know you played sports at the highest level
Steve: Mhmm.
Dean: They wanna show you what they got. Yeah. They they wanna show you that they're better. They wanna come and undercut you when you're playing basketball. They wanna hack a shack you and and try to chop your arm off when you're going up for a layup.
That's how you get hurt.
Stratton: Dean has no sauce.
Dean: So I wanna play with the gym rats who know how to play, who aren't out there trying to prove a point, aren't trying to hurt people.
Steve: Carlos is still upset that I don't let him finish. He's still rude.
Stratton: That's that's honestly rude.
Dean: That's pretty rude.
Stratton: That's pretty rude.
Steve: You think so?
Stratton: Be a man, Steve.
Steve: I was. Foul
Stratton: though. I mean, but, like, you technically only have five fouls.
Dean: Yeah. You'd be ejected, like, in the first quarter. Yeah.
Stratton: But what do you do? Out of
Dean: the game.
Steve: But I would get, like, my money's worth. Right.
Stratton: I mean, if you have a vendetta against the man, Jesus.
Steve: No. You just don't give a man one. You just don't give a man one. I don't know what basketball you guys are.
Stratton: I mean but it's Carlos' job to finish that layup. Because, like, if you try and foul me on a layup, I'm gonna finish.
Steve: I think you're younger. So how old are you?
Dean: 37.
Steve: 37. See, I grew up with, like, Bulls and Celtics. Right? Like, you didn't finish layups. So if you came in the key, he better came in with authority.
I do. So yeah. I was saying that's what he got upset with me for. I grew up with eighties basketball, nineties basketball. Era where they just punished you.
Yeah. Didn't grow up with the LeBron James, James Harden. Right? Like, you breathe on him, you get free throws. Yeah.
That grew up in that era. So, anyway, I wanna, so wrapping up here, thinking about, like, the last thoughts, like, you want to leave all the listeners with, because I I love the message here. Right? Finding a tribe, building community. I'll go with you first.
What are some last thoughts you wanna leave all the listeners with?
Dean: I think the important thing that I like to talk about with people is just figuring out what you want. Right? Mhmm. And if you want freedom, you wanna create a business that sets you up to live the life you wanna live, that's the way that we've run our businesses. That's the way we've set things up.
Right? So, so, obviously, if you're if we've both you've said it, find your tribe. Mhmm. I think it's essential. And whether it's a Deal Champs community or another tribe, like, go find your tribe because there's no reason to try to do it on your own.
I try to do it that way. I've met a lot of other people too. It's just so painful. It's so painful. It's so lonely, and it's just unnecessary.
And a lot of people think, like because I had the sports mentality of, like, I can do it myself. I'm I'm, you know, self sufficient, all those kind of things. Like, I can do it myself, roll up my sleeves and do the hard work. Right? And the you can just learn from somebody and do it so much faster.
Yeah. And, and you think, oh, I don't wanna invest in myself. I'm okay. I don't need it. Right?
What'd you say? You're, like, you're too good for it or something like that?
Steve: I I've I've paid my dues.
Stratton: Yeah. I've done it. It's like, I'm Yeah. I'm fine.
Dean: Yeah. I'm fine. I got it. What are they really gonna teach me? But the reality is is that you investing in yourself is gonna be substantially more of a return than if you just try to do it on your on your own.
Right? The cheesy Warren Buffett quote is the best investment you can make is in yourself. Mhmm. So it took me too long to figure that out, and I was also that stubborn person. It was like, like, I can just chat with anybody and get this information.
Stratton: Mhmm.
Dean: It's on YouTube. Alright. So, so, yeah, the biggest lesson I learned was just to invest in myself earlier on. So that's my that's my call to action for everybody to do that.
Steve: Yeah. I mean, it took me four years before I got my first coach. And even then, like, there's still a lot to grow, but four years wasted loss. Gone. Gone.
Dean: This this year alone, I've invested in myself. My partner and I invested in ourselves and our team five times. Right? And and spent a lot of money to do that. But what do we get in return?
I mean, substantially more than that.
Steve: Absolutely. So
Stratton: I would say you wanna find your tribe, and you wanna be in a tribe of winners. Right? Because I'd say the biggest thing that's helped me over the last couple years is me, Dean, and Jason. I've spent more time with you guys than I think I can my friends. Right?
But then it's elevated the way I've done business because they've all been so high level. I've been in a group that has pushed me to do more. And, like, if you are not doing a certain amount, you just have to raise your level, and that's what being a part of the right community does for you. Right? And it same thing happened when I came out here, and we did that one mastermind with, like, all of the biggest people in real estate on the West Coast at that time.
Yeah. That just shot me up to another level another another level of thinking.
Steve: Strand was the only one that was investing, with what what I was doing. Right? But, like, Strand was in this room. Like, if you guys listen to this. Right?
Like, so Pace Morby, Rebelle d MG, Esparel, Ivo Dragunov, Brent Daniels, Ryan Pineda, Casey Ryan, and Matt Larson. And Carlos. And Carlos. Carlos LaSalle. Yeah.
Stratton: Yeah. It was an insane NFL. Jared Vidalas was there too.
Steve: Oh, yeah. And Jared was in there.
Stratton: Yeah. Alex signs. Like, the like, the amount and Cortez. Yeah. Like, the amount that I got exposed to at that point in time, they're like, hey.
Get up. What's your share? I was like, bro, you guys wanna wanna have tackle stuff. Just like that.
Steve: Right. But that was that was a mastermind that I was charging 2,000 a month to be in. And a lot of people were were, like, wanting to pay in it. But I think you would say that was a pretty good room to be in.
Stratton: Oh, bro. That was one of the best rooms I'd been in. And at that point in time and I slept on this so much. The biggest point of emphasis in that room was you need to build your brand more. And this is back 2019, late twenty nineteen.
Steve: This is 2020. Because this is actually in the middle of COVID.
Stratton: Was it? Yeah. No. It was earlier than that. It was earlier than that.
Because I went to dinner with Larson. I wouldn't have been able to go to dinner with Larson if it was during COVID.
Steve: Wanna go back. This was actually, you're right. This was right before COVID. Because we did There's, like another one right after COVID.
Stratton: It was, like, fall twenty nineteen.
Steve: It was 2019. It was 2019.
Dean: Right?
Steve: It was 2019. Because I remember that was, that the the funny thing about that event was that it was a football's distance from, like, my very first office. It was, like, I remember being, like, how far I've came from being, like, this Mhmm. Idiot realtor. Hosting this event with these crazy people that's in the room.
Stratton: And so if you whatever you can do as a young entrepreneur, you wanna get yourselves in rooms like that and in the right communities of people who think the same way you do, who are ambitious because you'll get driven to think that you're crazy because you want more for your life and you're not. You're just around the wrong people. I wanna make fuck tons of money, and that's completely okay. And I want a better life for my family, and that's completely okay. I'm around people who want the same thing out of their lives Mhmm.
And who are doing more than me, who can help guide me to get there to make my life look like the way their life looks like right now.
Steve: Last thing I'll leave because I I mean, I I support everything you guys are doing. Everything we talk about finding and trying to this and that. The last thing I'll say is, like, being in the right room, it opens your mind and gives yourself permission to have the success. Because you're what you're talking about here is, like, don't feel bad because your friends don't want it. Right?
Like Yeah. It you realize, like, I not only not only can I deserve do I deserve this, but, like, the people in that room really aren't that much smarter than me? Yeah. I have full permission. Like, it this is what gives you the permission to have success.
Crazy how that works. Mhmm. But yeah. Love Love it. I love what you guys are doing.
So
Stratton: Last thing. If you don't implement AI, you'll be homeless.
Steve: Yeah. It's a lot better message than what you're ending with other shows with before. So thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Steve O.
Stratton: Thanks for
Steve: having me. Thank you. Thanks for watching.
Stratton: See you
Steve: guys next week.
Stratton: Out to Steve train. Jump on the Steve train. Disrupt us.
